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THE LATER PLATONISTS

And Other Miscellaneous Writings of


Alexander Wilder

Miscellaneous Writings of Alexander Wilder


Volume I

Kitchen Press 2009

CONTENTS

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

Neo-Platonism

The Later Platonists ..................................... 1


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

Religion and Philosophy

Zoroaster, The Father of Philosophy ................... 115


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

Spirituality and Occultism


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

Medicine

The Aesculapian Art of Healing ......................... 394


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

Psychology

Manifold Man .................................................. 480


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

History

How Isis Unveiled Was Written ............................. 553


The New Order of Ages ......................................... 566
The Children of Cain ............................................ 574
The Two Galileos ............................................... 581
The American Socrates ................................... 588

Appendix

Four Letters from Blavatsky to Wilder ............... 598


Alexander Wilder - H.W. Percival .................... 619
Wilder Biography - Cyclo. Am. Biography ............ 626
Wilder Biography - Un. Brotherhood ................... 629
Dr. Alexander Wilder - De Zirkoff ....................... 631
Wilder Letter to Abraham Lincoln ......................... 634

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

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

INTRODUCTION

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

Alexander Wilder was born on May 14, 1823 in Oneida County, New York, and his
family’s paternal side was English, the earliest Wilder being a member of the Massachusetts
Bay colony in 1638. He was the sixth son of Abel and Asenath (Smith) Wilder, and his father's
occupation was as a farmer - something Wilder thought he could be content with in different
circumstances.
Wilder is best known now as a Neo-Platonist, editor and commentator, his most popular
independent work being New Platonism and Alchemy, 2 but he was a prodigious writer, editor
and translator, having material in dozens of publications spanning 50-60 years, and being
editor or associate editor of half-a-dozen publications. Wilder could "write to order" in a wide
field of topics. This is apparently what Katherine Tingley employed him for in her Universal
Brotherhood magazine, including his long serial on Egyptian Dynasties. Although an early
Vice-President of the T.S. he was never a strong member of any Theosophical organization,
and relatively few of his writings appear in Theosophical publications. His original inspiration
in the field was Swedenborg, and he didn't meet Blavatsky until in his fifties. He was more
dedicated as a newspaper man and

--- ii

then to his Medical efforts than philosophy until middle and later life, and involvement in the
19th century battle between "alternative" medicine ("Eclecticism," homeopathy, herbalism,
mesmerism, etc.) with the allopathic system now conventional by law - being on the losing side
of the battle and largely a herbalist and naturalist. His largest work was his 946 pp. History of
Medicine, published in 1901 and described as "A brief outline of Medical History and Sects of
Physicians, from the earliest historic period; with an extended account of the New Schools of
the Healing Art in the Nineteenth Century, and Especially a History of American Eclectic
Practice of medicine, never before published." 3
Among Theosophists he's known as a friend of H. P. Blavatsky and a regular visitor at
her "Lamasery" residence in New York. He traveled several times each week from Newark,
N.J. to deliver lectures at a N.Y. medical college. Olcott writes: "One of our frequent and
most appreciated visitors was Prof. Alexander Wilder, a quaint personality, the type of the very
large class of self-educated American yeomanry; men of the forceful quality of the Puritan
Fathers; men of brain and thought, intensely independent, very versatile, very honest, very
plucky and patriotic. ....He is not a college-bred or city-bred man, I fancy, but if one wants
sound ideas upon the migration of races and symbols, the esoteric meaning of Greek
philosophy, the value of Hebrew or Greek texts, or the merits and demerits of various schools
of medicine, he can give them as well as the most finished graduate. A tall, lank man of the
Lincoln type, with a noble, dome-like head, thin jaws, grey hair, and language filled with
quaint Saxon-Americanisms. He used to come and talk by the hour with H.P.B., often lying
recumbent on the sofa, with - as she used to say - ‘one long leg resting on the chandelier, the
other on the mantel-piece.' And she, as stout as he was thin, as voluble as he was sententious
and epigrammatic, smoking innumerable cigarettes and brilliantly sustaining her share of the
conversation. She got him to write out many of his ideas to use in Isis, and they will be found
there quoted. The hours would slip by without notice until he sometimes found himself too late
for the last train to Newark, and would have to stop in town all night. I think that, of all our
visitors, he cared about the least

--- iii

of all for H. P. B.’s psychical phenomena: he believed in their scientific possibility and
did not doubt her possession of them, but philosophy was his idol, and the wonders of
mediumship and adeptship interested him only in the abstract.... [HPB's] salon was never dull
save, of course, to those who had no knowledge of Eastern literature and understood nothing of
Eastern philosophy, and to them time might have dragged heavily when H. P. B. and Wilder, or
Dr. Weisse, or some other savant were discussing these deeper depths and loftier heights of
thought by hours together. " 4
Wilder aided Blavatsky greatly with her first book, Isis Unveiled, English being almost a
new language for her, and Wilder wrote most of the "Before the Veil" introduction to Isis.
HPB wrote: "I learned to write it [English] through Isis, that's sure and Prof. A. Wilder who
came weekly to help Olcott arranging chapters and writing Index can testify to it." 5 She
referred elsewhere to Wilder as "our oldest colleague" and as .... "one of our most distinguished
Theosophists, a fervent Platonist and a Hebraist, who knows his Greek and Latin like his
mother tongue." 6
Blavatsky had Bouton of New York publish Isis Unveiled through Wilder’s agency,
who’d cooperated with Bouton on previous projects. Olcott writes, "When the work was
ready, we submitted it to Professor Alexander Wilder, the well known scholar and Platonist of
New York, who after reading the matter, recommended it to Mr. Bouton for publication. Next
to Colonel Olcott, it is Professor Wilder who did the most for me. It is he who made the
excellent Index, who corrected the Greek, Latin and Hebrew words, suggested quotations and
wrote the greater part of the Introduction ‘Before the Veil.’ If this was not acknowledged in the
work, the fault is not mine, but because it was Dr. Wilder's express wish that his name should
not appear except in footnotes. I have never made a secret of it, and every one of my numerous
acquaintances in New York knew it. .... of the whole Introductory chapter 'Before the Veil,' I
can claim as my own only certain passages in the Glossary appended to it, the Platonic portion
of it... [the rest] having been written by Professor A. Wilder. .... He insisted upon a kind of
Glossary, explaining the Greek and Sanskrit names and words with which the work abounds,
being appended to

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

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography writes of Wilder's early life:


"Alexander Wilder attended the common schools until his fifteenth year, when he began
teaching school and educating himself in the higher branches of mathematics and the classics,
to

--- v

which he added the study of French and Hebrew and political science. The circumstances of
the deaths of several of his father's family demolished his confidence in current medical
methods, and he accordingly began studies in medicine, in order to render himself as far as
possible independent of physicians. Meantime, he worked at farming and type-setting, reading
medicine with local physicians, and in 1850 was awarded a diploma by the Syracuse Medical
College." 11
Books were scarce and prized in literate families in the early 1800's, a book being
handed-down from older siblings, and studied until known. Wilder's sometimes unusual
grammatical style has been attributed to a particular Grammar he studied when a child.
In his early 20's Wilder was a member of a group of a Calvinist "Perfectionist" sect under
the leadership of John H. Noyes, who had a community at Putney, New York and later Oneida,
N.Y. Wilder proved of too independent mind and soon became disgruntled. In a letter to a
community leader Noyes said he noticed Wilder was prominent in the Oneida group and that he
"had no confidence in" Wilder and that he made "an unfavorable impression." 12 Wilder later
had a critical Affidavit published of his experiences and opinion of the group. 12 Noyes
believed in "the theory of 'Bible Communism,' the selecting and training of a personnel, the
slow advance on a small scale through communism of property and communism of house holds
to communism of love" and also an "inward freedom from sin" and "determination to embody
this inward freedom from sin in outward social forms." His original community at Putney,
N.Y. lasted from 1838 to 1847 and then "exploded," presumably from the outside community
and inner dissension. A new Community was attempted at Oneida, N.Y., in which Wilder was
a member or closely associated. The idealism included ultimately "free love," which is the
major reason why Wilder departed. Wilder was to appearances celibate during his public
years of life. He mentions the necessity of continence, for instance, in his papers on
magnetism, and his outer life indicates it.
After leaving the Oneida Community Wilder began studying medicine in earnest. Due to
some disastrous occurrences with family members and local medical practitioners, in 1848 he
established a

--- vi

County Botanic Medical Society. His method was mostly herbal, apparently and he is
referred to as a "Beach Eclectic." 14 He continued his studies and in 1850 was awarded a
diploma by the Syracuse Medical College. He became a general practitioner, and for two
years lectured on anatomy and chemistry at the college.
In 1852 he was employed as assistant editor of the Syracuse "Star," and in 1853 of the
Syracuse "Journal"; and when, next year, the department of public instruction was created by
the legislature, he was appointed clerk in the State Department of Public Institutions at Albany.
His sense of justice attracted him to the Abolitionist movement and into politics. 15
In 1855 he became editor of The New York Teacher, organ of the New York State
Teacher's Association. He retired from this post and became associate editor of the American
Journal of Education and College Review, a monthly, and served only 9 months. In 1857 in
Springfield, Ill., he prepared the charter of the Illinois Normal University, a Teacher’s college.
In 1857 Wilder apparently wrote a pamphlet in a series of pamphlets issued by the
American Institute of Homeopathy. He moved to New York city in this year and became a
member of the editorial staff of the Evening Post, which he held for thirteen years, 1858-71.
He became an expert in political and financial matters. In 1873 he was shortly on the staff of
Harper’s Monthly.
In October, 1864 Wilder wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln which is in the Library of
Congress Lincoln papers. He was known as a newspaper man on the New York Evening Post.
He warned of the state of affairs in New York City, and about possible outbreak of riot and
disorder if he was re-elected. He also warned (presciently) that some said he should not be
allowed to assume office again no matter what measures necessary. He closed his letter saying
that he was sure Lincoln would introduce a "New Era in our Country and humanity." 16
In 1871 Wilder was elected as a New York City Councilman on an “anti-Tweed” ticket
by a large majority even though he did not campaign. The term convinced him against any
further political
--- vii

involvement, and he moved to Roseville, a suburb of Newark, N.J., and resided there the rest of
his life.
While he ceased direct political involvement, he continued his efforts in Medicine.
During 1873-77 despite repeated refusals he was pressed upon to serve a professorship of
physiology and psychology at the Eclectic Medical College of New York. He was also, with
Robert S. Newton, co-editor of their journal The Medical Eclectic, which is described as
"Devoted to Reformed Medicine, General Science and Literature." In an article on psychology
of the sexes later published in The Word, he said at this time he had done more for the college
education of women than anyone else in the country. He left the Eclectic Medical College after
several contract agreements were not fulfilled. He was later professor of psychology in the U.
S. Medical College (1878-83) until it closed its doors due to law suits. He didn't find the
atmosphere and politics of the Medical Colleges to his liking, and claimed that even common
honesty was lacking in internal college intrigues. Dr. Wilder also became, in 1876, Secretary
of the National Eclectic Medical Association, and held this office by annual re-election until
1895 when he declined to be a candidate, meantime editing and publishing nineteen volumes of
its Transactions, besides contributing extensively to its literature. He says initially it was
falling to pieces and only his efforts as Secretary saved it.17
In the short bio of his 1880 monograph Brethren of the Rosie Cross, Wilder is also listed
as Honorary Member of the Eclectic Medical Societies of Illinois, Michigan, Connecticut and
Pennsylvania, Honorary Fellow of the Anthropological Society of Liverpool, Eng., etc. 18, 19 At
this time he was also vice-president of the Theosophical Society. 20 In 1882 he gave lectures at
the School of Philosophy at Concord, Mass.21 Among his seemingly tireless activities
continuing into his 70's, in 1893 he delivered two lectures at the World Congress of
Psychical Science, “Psychical Phenomena in Brazil," and "Psychic Facts and Theories
Underlying the Religions of Greece and Rome," 22 In 1894 he gave a lecture at the World's
Medical Congress of Eclectic Physicians and Surgeons.

--- viii

Wilder developed a friendship with the hermeticist General Ethan Allen Hitchcock who
published anonymously. In 1869 Wilder published one of his many monographs and
pamphlets, Alchemy, or the Hermetic Philosophy which was based on Hitchcock's book
Alchemy, and the Alchemists. He met Hitchcock through a mutual friend and bookseller, who
arranged the meeting as he knew Wilder was a fan of Hitchcock's books. At the beginning of
the Civil War, Hitchcock believed his days of studying were over, sold his library, and Wilder
lamented how his valuable library was scattered helter-skelter to those who mostly didn't
appreciate it.
Thomas Taylor's Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, A Dissertation by Thomas Taylor,23
with Wilder's Introduction, Notes and Glossary, reprinted by Wizards Bookshelf in 1987, is
among the the best-known of Taylor's works. Blavatsky frequently referred to it in some of
her writings. In 1874 Bouton published Ancient Symbol Worship, by Hodder Westrop and C.
Staniland Wake,24 but at least half of the small book was Wilder's from his Introduction,
Appendix and Notes.
In 1876 Col. Olcott contacted Bouton about publishing Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled.
Bouton recommended to Olcott that he contact Wilder in editing Blavatsky's mammoth
manuscript. Wilder thought highly of the book and encouraged publication. He subsequently
met Madame Blavatsky. He was in his 50's at the time, and it seems to this writer that if he had
met Blavatsky and her Theosophy at an earlier age, he may have become a proclaimed
Theosophist and disciple. Never an overt disciple, he became Blavatsky and Olcott’s close
friend. He maintained a good deal of independence from the Theosophical Societies, which is
also why over the years Wilder has received scant attention in Theosophical literature,
compared to the large influence he had in the wider Theosophical Movement of the time.
Other than Tingley’s Universal Brotherhood’s serial of Egypt and Egyptian Dynasties, none of
the many Theosophical Societies have ever published a Wilder book or Collection. Wizards
Bookshelf published his pamphlet "New Platonism and Alchemy" in 1975, and in 1994
unaffiliated Theosophical History, published Dr. Jean-Louis Siemons scholarly

--- ix

pamphlet Ammonius Saccas and his "Eclectic Philosophy" as Presented by Alexander Wilder.25
1877 found Bouton publishing Serpent and Siva Worship and Mythology, by Clark and
Wake, edited by Wilder.26 With many publications in between, 1883 found him providing an
Introduction and Notes to Max Mueller's India: What Can It Teach Us?.27 In February of
1882 he gave a public lecture for the “First Anti-Vaccination League of America,” in objection
to the passing of legislation to make vaccination mandatory.28 In 1884 Wilder published a
16 page pamphlet "Plea for the Liberal Education of Women," probably as an outcome of his
experience in the medical colleges.29
In 1883 Wilder took part in the organization of the American Akademe, a philosophic
society, holding meetings at Jacksonville, Ill. He was an associate editor of its Journal for four
years.30 Some of his papers include "The Soul," "Philosophy of the Zoroasters," "Life Eternal,"
"Creation and Evolution," and many others. Wilder also made a translation from the Greek of
the Dissertation of Iamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians 31 reprinted in 1911 by Rider
and The Metaphysical Co., but which was originally printed in No. 2 of The Platonist in the
1881, along with his paper Platonic Technology, a Glossary of Distinctive Terms, and which
later issued a pamphlet of Wilder's Paul and Plato. In the 19th and early 20 centuries,
exceptional articles published in magazines were often issued as short pamphlets, and many of
Wilder’s articles were published as such. Different versions of Wilder's articles are also often
found in different publications years apart, the later version usually being revised by him with
more material added. An acquaintance recently researched Wilder's articles in only Harold
Percival's The Word magazine from the turn of the century. There was over 700 pages of
Wilder material in sixteen volumes. Whipple's Metaphysical Magazine also contained hundred
of pages of Wilder articles. He had scores of short pieces in Gould's Miscellaneous Notes and
Queries. Including the several journals he edited and publications noted above, some of the
probably dozens of journals published in by Wilder include The Theosophist, Am.
Antiquarian and Oriental

--- x
Journal, The Arena, Mind, The Ideal Review, The Phrenological Journal, The Homiletic
Review, The New York Teacher, Journal of the American Akademe, Lucifer, The New York
Medical Eclectic, The College Review, Universal Brotherhood, The Platonist, Bibliotheca
Platonica, The Pacific Theosophist, The Religio-Philosophic Journal, The Metaphysical
Magazine, Misc. Notes and Queries, The Word.
Wilder’s prolific writing on the many subjects within his understanding shows his insight
and abilities beyond the ordinary. His abilities as a writer seem similar to Blavatsky’s only not
so much so. Blavatsky was said to be able to “read the astral light” and quoted accurately from
books that she had no copy of, and wrote her huge Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine with
only a few books in her personal library and seldom leaving her apartment.32 Wilder didn’t
have abilities like this, but on one occasion he quoted verbatim from a letter he had never read.
Blavatsky writes, "Then I have a letter from him [K.H.], written a year before I knew you and
in Professor A. Wilder's (Phrenological Journal) article written seven or eight months later I
found about 20 lines verbatim from K. H.'s letter...." 33
The present volume is a miscellaneous collection of Wilder’s writings, much made
accessible in Google’s huge on-line library of book and magazine scans, and previously only
available in a few scattered libraries in the world. Researchers owe a debt to Google for this
new source of material. Thanks also to Richard Robb and Ted Davy for help in obtaining
material and to Robb for a bibliography of some of Wilder’s magazine articles. Thanks to Gary
Harmon for invaluable internet assistance. At this late date I am afraid that any orderly and
relatively complete collection of Wilder material is impossible. He is a relatively arcane
author, and much of the material, especially letters, probably no longer exists, or is
inaccessible. It is hoped in the future to be able to add a Volume 2 to this collection.

- Mark R. Jaqua

--- xi

Notes

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

2. 1869, Wizards Bookshelf, San Diego, 1975

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15. ibid.

16. The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 1, General Correspondence
1833-1916, Alexander Wilder to Abraham Lincoln, Thursday, October 20, 1864, loc.gov.

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

18. The Theosophist, February, 1880

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

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

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

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

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

24. Ancient Symbol Worship, Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity, by
Hodder Westropp, C. Staniland Wake, with
--- xiii

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--- xiv

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

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

33. The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, compiled by A. T. Barker, Theosophical


University Press, 404 pp., 1925, 1973, p. 60.

------------------------
NEO-PLATONISM

THE LATER PLATONISTS

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

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

--- 2.

of reading and interpreting the old myths and literature. Aristobulus, in the reign of
Philometor, began to harmonize Plato with Moses. Philo at a later period interpreted the
Hebrew Scriptures as allegoric. The Wisdom of the Far east also added its share to the new
combinations. Christianity had been taught by Clement and others under the designation of the
Gnosis, or superior knowledge, and in such ways many teachers incorporated in one form or
another, the newer tenets with the older doctrine.
In the midst of these confusing movements, the endeavor was made to cull a system of
philosophy which should include what was true and beneficial in them all. It succeeded for a
time and its teachers were distinguished for their probity, learning, and other superior
endowments. In the first years of the third century Ammonius Sakkas began to teach in
Alexandria. He had been instructed in the catachetical school in earlier life, but he chose
instead the broader field of philosophy. His rare learning, spiritual endowments and mental
exaltation won for him the name of Theodidaktos, or God-taught, but he followed the modest
example of Pythagoras, and only assumed the designation Philalethes, or friend of Truth. His
followers were sometimes distinguished as Analogetists; probably because they interpreted the
Sacred writings, legends, narratives, myths and mystic dramas, by the principle of analogy or
correspondence, making events that were described in the external world to relate solely or
chiefly to operations and experiences of the soul. They were also termed Eclectics, because
many of their doctrines had been taken from different philosophic systems. It was the aim of
Ammonius to overlook the incongruous elements, regarding them as artificial accretions, and to
retain every thing in all faiths and speculations that was really useful. But he committed
nothing to writing. He is known to us only through his disciples, in whose utterances we may
trace somewhat of his opinions and methods. He appears to have followed the ancient
example, inculcating moral truths to his auditors, while he imparted his more recondite
doctrines to persons who had been duly initiated and disciplined. What he taught we know
partly from a few treatises of his friends that have escaped destruction, but more, perhaps,
from the

--- 3.

assertions of his adversaries.


This method of dividing all doctrines into public and secret, was formerly universal. An
oath was required in the Mysteries from novices and catechumens, not to divulge what they had
learned. Pythagoras classified his teachings as exoteric and esoteric. The Essenes are
described as making similar distinctions, dividing their adherents into neophytes, the Brothers
and the Perfect. It is recorded of Jesus that he "spoke the word" in parables or allegory to the
multitude. "But without a parable," the evangelist declares, "spoke he not unto them; and
when they were alone he expounded every thing to his disciples." (Math. iv, 33, 34)
Among the followers of Ammonius were Plotinus, the Origens, and Longinus. They
were obligated to secrecy, but one of the members, Erennius, dissolved the agreement, and
Origen the philosopher disclosed the whole in a pamphlet which was afterward lost.
Plotinus became the expositor of the new philosophy. He was a native of Syout or
Lykopolis in Upper Egypt, and like others, came to Alexandria for instruction. He was,
however, unsatisfied and discouraged till he became a pupil of Ammonius. He continued
eleven years, and afterward resolved to learn the Wisdom of the East at its fountain. With this
purpose he accompanied the expedition of Gordian, but the death of the Emperor and the
overthrow of the Roman army defeated his expectation. Nevertheless, he appears to have been
familiar with the tenets of the Sankhya philosophy and the Yoga of Patanjali; and he lived the
life of an ascetic.
Though the Neo-Platonists are always associated with Alexandria, and generally taught
in that city, they also were sometimes obliged or persuaded to go to Rome, Athens or some
other place. The disturbances that often occurred in the Egyptian metropolis, made it unsafe to
teach or to perform any public function. Plotinus opened a school at Rome, and in later years
attempted to establish a city after the model set forth in the Platonic Dialogues. In fact
Augustin considered him as Plato reincarnated. His writings are principally an explanation of
the works of the great philosopher, somewhat qualified by the prevalent Oriental notions. He
did not

--- 4.

countenance the decaying polytheism of the time, but recognized the One, the Absolutely
Good, as Supreme. Along with this he sets forth the threefold hypothesis which was later
fashioned into the Doctrine of the Trinity. The concepts of Divinity, Creation, Immortality,
Moral Duty, are expositions like those of the Dialogues. The description of Evil is the same as
is found in the Theoetetos. He considered the highest beatitude to be an entheast condition or
henosis, an ecstasy of the soul, in which it is in a state of bliss that may not be described,
viewing God as he is, and losing consciousness, of all else in the view. This is described as a
state which is to be attained by contemplation, apart from external thinking. Plotinus is said to
have been often in this state of exaltation.
Of Origen, the philosopher, little is known. Longinus was his pupil for a season, but
afterward became a disciple of Ammonius himself. It is hardly right, however, to class him
with the others. Unlike them, he devoted himself to the philosophy of Plato without the
qualifying accretions from other sources. He was accounted the most erudite scholar of the
period, and his diversified knowledge won for him the title of "the Living Library." He opened
a school of philosophy at Athens, at which Porphyry was a pupil. He afterward became a
counselor of Zenobia, the Queen of the Palmyrenes, and upon her overthrow and capture at
Emesa, was put to death on the charge of instigating her hostility to the Romans.
Origen, the son of Leonidas, was both a pupil of Ammonius and a student of the works of
Humenius and Plato. But he remained constant to his ancestral faith. He became catechist at
Alexandria, and devoted himself to an exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures. He treated them as
substantially allegoric, having a literal sense, a moral meaning and a spiritual sense higher than
either. He opposed both the Gnostics and the philosophers, yet endeavored to buttress the
Christian edifice with material obtained from their doctrines. Giving less regard to the
mysticism and ecstasy so prized by Plotinus, he taught a perfect rest of the soul transcending all
evil and trouble. In this condition the individual becomes like God and blessed; and it is
attained through contemplation, solitude of spirit and the knowledge which is the true wisdom.
"The soul is trained to behold itself as in a

--- 5.

mirror," he declared; "it shows the divine spirit, if it should be worthy of such communion,
and thus finds the traces of a secret path to participation in the divine nature."
Such doctrine, however, was unacceptable at Alexandria and Origen retired to Palestine,
where he opened a school at Cesarea. He traveled much, lecturing in all the countries of
western Asia with general approval. After two centuries, however, his doctrines were placed
under the ban of the Church.
Porphyry was a native of Tyre. For a time he was under the tutelage of Origen at
Alexandria but afterward became a pupil of Longinus at Athens, by whom his name Malech
was changed to the familiar Greek name by which he is familiarly known.* Plotinus having
become a resident at Rome, Porphyry repaired to the capital to be his disciple. He remained
there five years, leaving for Sicily in the year 268. He was a scholar of rare attainments and
was distinguished by his aptitude in philological criticism. He was more a man of the time that
Plotinus has been, and he labored to create a literature for the new Platonism. The object to be
reached by the philosophic life, he declared to be the saving of the soul. Unlike other teachers
he taught that it was in the desires and passions of the soul that evil had its origin. He protested
warmly against the sensuality which characterized the popular worship. It was more impious,
he affirmed, to accept the ordinary conception of divine beings that to despise the images.
Nevertheless, he adopted the method of Clement, Athenagoras and Origen, and interpreted
them and the legends respecting them allegorically. He sought to promulgate a philosophy of
life and to eradicate such notions as he considered erroneous. In short, he gave a form to the
doctrines of the later Platonism, more in keeping with the genius of the time, and his influence
so pervaded them that they were considered as of his special production, and those who
adopted them were known as Porphyrians. He collected the writings of Plotinus and published
them in more orderly form. His

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

--- 6.

own works were numerous, and were read everywhere. But when the persecutions began after
the change in the religion of the Empire, the possession of the writings of Porphyry was made a
capital offense, unless they should be delivered to the magistrates to be destroyed. A few only
have escaped.
Iamblichus, or Iambech, was a Syrian, thoroughly conversant with the Mithraic and
Oriental doctrines as well as with the Egyptian mythology. He also became a teacher, and was
surrounded by a crowd of students and admirers, many of whom believe him to possess
superhuman powers. His lecture-room was thronged by pupils from Greece and Syria, and the
Emperor Julian esteemed him as one of the greatest of sages. He blended the instructions those
who had preceded him with the theurgic speculations and observances of the Egyptian
priesthood. His work upon the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians gives a
very thorough view of the whole Theurgic Doctrine.
Sopator followed Iamblichus as the teacher of philosophy at Alexandria, and was
honored by the title of "Successor of Plato." He enjoyed the friendship of the Emperor
Constatine, as whose request he performed the rites of consecration of the new Rome. When,
however, the Emperor had killed his son, he applied to the philosopher, after the archaic notion,
to be purified from blood-guiltiness; Sopator replied that he knew of no rite which could
absolve from such an act. The Emperor who had been a "soldier of Mithras," forsook that
religion, and put the philosopher to death. The school was then closed for a time by imperial
order.
From this time the existence of the school was more or less precarious. Except during the
brief reign of Emperor Julian, it enjoy no favor at the Imperial Court; and under the Emperor
Theodosius it was interdicted outright. The great library at Alexandria was destroyed by the
bishop Theophilus. At his death his nephew Cyril obtained the episcopal office by the
purchased favor of a woman of the court, followed by a pitched battle in the streets of
Alexandria. Hypatia was now the lecturer at the Musaeum. She taught a purer Platonic
doctrine than her predecessors, and filled ably and worthily the chair of Ammonius and
Plotinus. The dominant party was

--- 7.

enraged at her popularity, and, with the countenance of the prelate, she was attacked by a mob
in the street, dragged to a church and there murdered under circumstances of peculiar atrocity.
Nevertheless, a few more lights appeared in the philosophic constellation. A branch of
the school was planted at Athens by Syrianus, where Proklus became its chief luminary.
Olympiodorus remained at Alexandria, where he endeavored to substitute the Aristotelian
doctrines in place of the Platonic. His treatise on Alchemy is in manuscript in Paris. Proklus
was for a long time a student under him but presently removed to Athens and attached himself
to Syrianus. He is described by Harnack as the great Schoolman of Neo-Platonism. He made
the bold attempt to assimilate the old rites of worship with the later philosophies, and thus to
put a new face upon religion. He concentrated the history of philosophy into the aphorism:
"What Orpeus delivered in arcane allegories Pythagoras learned when he was initiated into the
Mysteries; and Plato next received the knowledge of them from the orphic and Pythagorean
writings." This statement harmonizes with the declaration of Herodotus: "The Perfective Rites
called Orphic and Bacchic are in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean." They doubtless were; but
Bacchus was an Oriental divinity and his worship and whatever philosophic notions pertained
to them were derived originally from the Far East.
Other teachers of merit and ability taught at Alexandria. Owing to disturbed conditions,
however, the School appears to have been removed, at intervals, to other cities, but these were
only temporary changes. The conflicts which rent Egyptian Christianity, like the child
possessed by a demon, afforded somewhat of a breathing-spell to the men of learning.
Nevertheless such immunity was precarious. Hierokles restored Platonic teaching to much of
its original character. His zeal and enthusiasm drew upon him the attention of persecutors, and
he was sent to Constantinople to be punished. He was cruelly tortured, but bore it with
fortitude. He was then scourged and banished, but was able soon afterward to return to
Alexandria, and teach openly as before. He is the writer who has made Scholastikos, the
schoolman, immortal in the character of prince of blunderers, and

--- 8.

his Facetiae are still admired. He was a true Neo-platonist, weighing Plato and Aristotle
critically, but at the same time esteeming Ammonius Sakkas as their equal. "Paganism* never
wears so fair a dress," says Samuel Sharpe, "as in the writings of Hierocles; his Commentary
on the Golden Verses. Pythagoras is full of the loftiest and purest morality, and not less
agreeable are the fragments that remain of his writings upon our duties, and his beautiful
chapter on the pleasures of married life." The Emperor Justinian finally closed the schools of
Athens and Alexandria. At that time Isodor and Sallust were teachers in the latter city, and
Damaskius with Zenodotus at Athens. The philosophers, apprehensive of cruel treatment,
withdrew into the Persian dominions, where they received a cordial hospitality. But they were
disappointed in the character of religious thought, and Khosru negotiated for their return and
future exemption from persecution. It was now the twilight of the Dark Ages in Europe.
For a time in earlier periods, it had appeared as though the doctrines of the philosophers
and Eastern sages would dominate liberal thought, and become the permanent belief. The
Mithraic cult had been introduced into the Empire about seventy years before the present era,
and largely superseded other worship. On the one hand it gave a knowledge of the Persian
religion, and on the other it incorporated itself with the Stoic and other philosophy. Emperors
from Antoninus and Alexander Severus accepted the new discipline, and many of them down
to Diocletian had been initiated into the secret rites. Porphyry and others of the later
philosophers had also conformed their teachings to the Mithraic standards. Clement, Justin
Martyr, Athenagoras and others now recognized as Christian Fathers, were designated as
Gnostics, because of their devotion to the superior learning. Indeed they combined it so
intimately with their
------------
* This term paganism, now almost obsolete, was derived from pagus, a rural place.
When Christianity was enacted to be the religion of the Roman world, it was first promulgated
in the cities. The pagani or country people were still attached to the old worship. The
designation thus became distinctive.
------------
--- 9.

theology that it has never been completely eliminated. Doctrines most significant, customs and
observances peculiar to the rival faiths were incorporated into the machinery of the Church.
The birthday of Mithras, the twenty-fifth of December, was set apart also for Christmas; and
the divinity himself was declared to be identical with the Christian Son of God, - "the Ray of
His Glory and express image of his substance." (Epistle to the Hebrews 1.3; Augustin:
Discourse on the Gospel of John I, VII.) The political revolutions of the empire, the ambition
of prelates, however, rendered this harmony impossible. The worship and Perfective Rites
were proscribed thenceforth and in the later ages as magic and witchcraft; and the teaching of
philosophy was prohibited.
Mr. Robert Brown, Jun., though sincerely admiring Plato, yet very emphatically rejects
the Eclectic Neo-Platonism, declaring it "something entirely different from the philosophical
idea of Plato and the Hellenes." After enumerating the several teachers, from Ammonius to
Simplikius, he names Thomas Taylor "the last but possibly not the least of the school." He
does not seem to be willing to give the smallest consideration to their methods in the
interpreting of the arcane and ancient learning. It is possible that they did carry the practice of
allegorizing to an extreme. Clement, Origen, and even the Apostle Paul, did the same thing.
The rejecting of them and their methods, however, is as extreme in the other direction. We
may not in candor discard them so utterly because their extraordinary spirituality of thought
seems so absolutely opposed to the materialistic canons of modern ages.
After a century of persecution and proscription, the Neo-Platonists disappeared from
public view. Nobel men they were, and worthy of respectful mention. They had grappled with
the mightiest problems of being with admirable acuteness and sagacity. They were the leaders
of thought, and they hallowed the philosophy of their time by making it religious. Neo-
Platonism voiced and represented the purest and noblest aspirations of the time in which it
flourished, and neither morally nor intellectually was it a failure.

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

--- 10.

to remark something about its aims and doctrines. The various teachers of Neoplatonism
developed it after their own genius, and very naturally in forms somewhat different. Holme's
comparison aptly illustrates this: "Iron is essentially the same everywhere and always; but the
sulphate of iron is never the same as the carbonate of iron. Truth is invariable; but the
Smithate of truth must always differ from the Brownate of truth." The teachings of Porphyry,
Iamblichus and Proklus differed materially in character. In fact, Platonism, from the first, was
not a system, but more characteristically, a method. It consisted of radiations from a central
point; every follower carrying it into detail after his own habititude and genius. It was
essentially a spiritual liberty, the outcome of a life, and not a matter of metes and bounds, or a
creed of formulated doctrine.
Ammonius Sakkas aimed to reconcile all sects and peoples under this common principle,
to induce them to lay aside their contentions and quarrels and unite as a single family, the
children of a common parent. Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, has given an impartial
account of the purposes which he cherished. "Ammonius, conceiving that not only the
philosophers of Greece, but also all those of the different barbarous nations, were perfectly in
unison with each other in regard to every essential point, made it his business so to temper and
expound the tenets of all these sects, as to make it appear that they had all of them originated
from one and the same source, and all tended to one and the same end."
The religious rites and beliefs were also set forth as pertaining to a common principle,
and only at fault as having been adulterated with foreign and incongruous elements. He taught,
says Mosheim, that "the religion of the multitude went hand in hand with Philosophy, and with
her had shared the fate of being by degrees corrupted and obscured by human conceits,
superstition and lies; that it ought therefore to be brought back to its original purity by purging
it of this dross and expounding it upon philosophical principles; and that the whole purpose
which Christ had in view was to reinstate and restore to its primitive integrity the Wisdom of
the ancients - to reduce within bounds the universally-prevailing dominion of superstition - and
in part to correct and in part to exterminate the various errors that had found

--- 11.

their way into the different popular religions."


It is certain that there was in every country having claims to enlightenment an esoteric
doctrine, denominated Wisdom or knowledge,* and those devoted to its prosecution were styled
sages or "the wise." Pythagoras and Plato after him chose the more modest designation of
philosophers, or lovers of wisdom, and their studies were accordingly termed "philosophy," as
denoting the pursuit of the superior knowledge, rather than the actual knowledge itself,
Pythagoras named it "gnosis," implying by this designation the profounder learning. The
Hebrew Rabbis in like manner denominated the higher literature rechab or mercabah, as being
the vehicle of truth, and the scribes or teacher were graphically denominated "sons of Rechab"
or Rechabites.** Theology, religious worship, vaticination, music, astronomy, the healing art,
morals and statecraft were included under the one head.
Thus Ammonius found a work ready for him. His deep intuition, his extensive
learning, his familiarity with the profound

-----------
* The writings extant in ancient times often personified Wisdom as the emanation,
manifestation and associate of the one Supreme Being. We thus have Buddha in India, Nebo in
Assyria, Thoth in Egypt, Hermes in Greece, - also the female divinities Neitha, Metis, Athena,
and the Gnostic potency Achamoth or Sophia. Hence they deduced the personality of her son
Chrestos, or the oracular. The first verses of the Johannean Gospel, as it followed after Philo,
give this summary: "In the Beginning or First Principle was the Logos or Word, and the Word
was adnate to God, and God was the Logos." The Samaritan Pentateuch denominated the book
of Genesis Achamanth or wisdom, and two old treatises by Alexandrian Jews, the Wisdom of
Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus, are named with reference to the same truth. The book of
Mashali, the Discourses or proverbs of Solomon, is of the same character and personifies
Wisdom as the emanation and ancillary of the Divinity.
** The prophets Elijah and Elisha were styled "the rechab or charioteer of Israel."
-----------

philosophers of his time and with the Christian Gnostic teachers, Pantaenus, Clement and
Athenagoras, aided him to fit himself for the undertaking. He drew around him scholars and
public men, who had little taste for wasting time in elaborate sophistries or superstitious
observances. A writer in the Edinburg Encyclopaedia gives the following summary of his
purpose and teachings:
"He adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt concerning the Universe and the
Deity considered as constituting one great Whole; concerning the eternity of the world, the
nature of souls, the empire of Providence, and the government of the world by demons. He
also established a system of moral discipline which allowed the people in general to live
according to the laws of their country and the dictates of nature; but required the Wise to exalt
their minds by contemplation and to mortify the body, so that they might be capable of
enjoying the presence and assistance of the demons, [frohars, or spiritual essence], and
ascending after death to the presence of the Supreme Parent. In order to reconcile the popular
religions, and particularly the Christian, with this new system, he made the whole history of the
heathen gods an allegory, maintaining that they were only celestial ministers, entitled to an
inferior kind of worship; and he acknowledge that Jesus Christ was an excellent man and the
friend of God, but alleged that it was not his design entirely to abolish the worship of demons,
and that his only intention was to purify the ancient religion."
A peculiarity in his methods, was the dividing of his disciples after the manner of the
Pythagorean School and ancient Mysteries into neophytes, initiates and masters. He obligated
them by oath not to divulge the more recondite doctrines except to those who had been
thoroughly instructed and disciplined. The significance of this injunction can easily be
apprehended when we call to mind that the great production of Plato, the Republic, is often
misrepresented by superficial expositions and others wilfully ignorant, as describing an ideal
state of society analogous to the sensual paradise ascribed to the Koran. That the work should
be interpreted esoterically is apparent to every appreciative reader.
Even the Hebrew Scriptures are interpreted as having an

--- 13.

allegoric meaning. The story of Abraham, his sons and their respective mothers, is affirmed by
Paul to be of this nature.* Josephus declares that Moses spoke certain things wisely but
enigmatically, and others under cover of "a decent allegory," calling this method "philosophic."
Maimonides distinctly cautions us against making known the actual meaning:
"Whoever shall find out the true sense of the book of Genesis ought to take care not to
divulge it. This is a maxim which all our learned men repeat to us - and above all, respecting
the work of the six days. If a person shall discover the true meaning of it by himself or by the
aid of another, - then he ought to be silent; or, if he speaks of it, he ought to speak of it but
obscurely, and in an enigmatic manner, as I do myself, leaving the rest to be guessed by those
who can understand me."
Modern writers have commented, often erroneously, upon the peculiar sentiments and
methods of the Neo-Platonists. The immense difference in the nature and quality of ancient
and modern learning has, to a great degree, unfitted students of later times for understanding
the principles of the old theosophy. Even the enthusiasm - which it considered as religious
fervor and akin to divine inspiration, has not much in common with the entheasm of the old
philosophers.
The system of the Alexandrian School was comprised in three primary tenets: its theory
of the Godhead, its doctrine of the Soul, and its spiritualism. Plotinus declared Divinity to be
essentially ONE; that the universe is not God or part of God; nevertheless, it has its existence
from the Divine Mind, derives from him its life, and is incapable of being separated from him.
"The end and purpose of the Egyptian Rites and Mysteries," Plutarch declares to be "the
knowing of the One God, who is the Lord of all things, and to be discerned only by the soul.
Their theosophy had two meanings: the one, sacred and symbolic; and the other, popular and
literal. The figures of animals
which abounded in their temples, and which they were supposed to

-----------
* Epistle to the Galatians, iv 22-24.
-----------
--- 14.

worship, were only so many hieroglyphics to represent the divine qualities."


This doctrine of a single Supreme Essence is common to every faith. All other beings
have proceeded from this by emanation. Modern scientists are substituting for this hypothesis
their theories of evolution. Perhaps a profounder sage will show these conceptions now
apparently so contradictory, to be but phases of the one underlying fact - Divinity is
fundamental Being, and creation is existent solely as proceeding from Being, and sustained by
it.
The ancient theosophies contained the tenet that the Theoi, the gods or disposers of
events, the angels, daemons, and other spiritual essences emanated from the Supreme Being.
For the Divine All proceeded the Divine Wisdom; from Wisdom proceeded the Creator or
Demiurgos; and from the Creator issued the subordinate spiritual beings, the earth and its
inhabitants being the last. The first of these is immanent in the second, the second in the third
and so on through the entire series.
The veneration for these subordinate beings constituted the idiolatry charged upon the
ancients - an imputation not deserved by the philosophers, who recognized but one Supreme
Being, and professed to understand the hyponoia or under-meaning in regard to angels,
daemons, heroes and symbolic representations. An old philosopher justly remarked: "The
gods exist, but they are not what the many suppose them to be. He is not an atheist who denies
the existence of the gods whom the multitude worship; but he is one who fastens on these gods
the notions of the multitude." Aristotle is more explicit: "The divine essence pervades the
whole world of nature; what are styled the gods are only the first principles. The myths and
stories were devised in order to make the religious systems intelligible and attractive to the
people, who otherwise would not give them any regard or veneration."
Thus the stories of Zeus or Jupiter, the Siege of Troy, the Wanderings of Odysseus, the
Adventures of Herakles and Theseus were mystic tales having their appropriate under-meaning.
Indeed, the various older worships indicate the existence of a theosophy anterior to them.
--- 15.

"The key that is to open one must open all; otherwise it cannot be the right key."
The Alexandrian philosophers accepted these doctrines substantially, the principal
difference being in modes of expression. They were not inspired by a purpose to oppose
Christianity or to resuscitate Paganism as Lloyd, Mosheim, Kingsley and others so positively
insist, but sought instead to extract from them all their most valuable treasures, and not resting
content with that, to make new explorations. They taught like the old sages, that all beings and
things proceeded from the source of existence in discrete degrees of emanation. "There are
four orders," Iamblichus taught, "gods, daemons, heroes or half-gods, and souls."
In this philosophy there is no avatar. The human soul is itself the offspring or emanation
of the Divinity. He is immanent within, and the whole philosophic discipline is for the purpose
of bringing into activity and perfecting its divine faculties. It contemplated the highest spiritual
development both in perceptive and subjective qualities. Plotinus taught that as the soul came
out from God there is immanent within it an impulse to return, which attracts it inward toward
its origin and centre, the Eternal Good. The individual who does not understand how the soul
contains within itself the most excellent will seek by laborious effort to realize it from without.
On the other hand, the one who is truly wise cognizes it within himself, develops the ideal by
withdrawal into himself, concentrating his attention, and so floating upward toward the Divine
Fountain, the stream of which flows within him. The Infinite is not known through the
reasoning faculty, which makes distinctions and defines, but by the superior Intellect (nous) -
by entering upon a state in which the individual, so to speak, is no more his own mere finite
selfhood; in which state divine essence is shared by him. This state Plotinus denominates
ECSTASY - the liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness, and so becoming at one
with the Infinite.
The exalted condition which Plotinus describes is, however, not permanent, but only
enjoyed at intervals; and its attainment is promoted to a certain extent by physical means, as by
abstinence which tends to clarify and exalt the mental perceptivity. The moral

--- 16.

agencies which prepare the individual for this superior condition and habitude are given as love
of excellence for the poet, devotion to knowledge for the philosopher, love and prayer for the
devout.
The outflowing from Divinity is received by the human spirit in unreserved abundance,*
accomplishing for the soul a union with the Divine, and enabling it, while in the body, to be a
partaker of the life which is not of the body.
Closely allied to this is the doctrine of mental and moral exaltation as set forth in the New
Testament. The metanoia which is there inculcated is no mere penance, repentance or
contrition for wrong, but an energizing of the spiritual and intellectible principle of our being,
which excludes the rule of lower motive, so that we live and are inspired from above. It is a
higher perceiving and transcends the dianoia or common understanding, which is influenced by
sensation and mental processes. It is accordingly an infilling, a pleroma and inspiring of the
whole life from the divine constituents of our being.
The true preparation for this higher condition, is by prayer. This is not mere verbal
supplication for personal favor. For, says Plato: "Prayer is the ardent turning of the soul
toward God, not to ask for any particular good, but for good itself, the universal supreme good.
We often mistake what is pernicious and dangerous for what is useful and desirable." He
further remarks, "Therefore remain silent in the presence of the divine ones, till they remove
the clouds from thy eyes and enable thee to see by the light which issues from themselves, not
what merely appears good but what is really good."
Plotinus also taught that every one has the faculty of intuition or intellection. This is in
accord with the declaration of Plato that the idea of the Good sheds on objects the light of truth
and gives to the soul the power of knowing. The higher soul is, even when linked to the body,
a dweller in the eternal world, and has a nature kindred to Divinity. It is enabled therefore to
perceive and apprehend actual and absolute fact more perfectly than through the medium of the
reasoning faculties and external senses.

------------
* John iii, 34. "God giveth not his spirit by measure."
------------
--- 17.

"Everything in the world of Nature is not held fast by Fate," Iamblichus declares. "On
the contrary there is another principle of the Soul superior to all that is born or begotten,
through which we are enabled to attain union with superior natures, rise above the established
order of the universe, and participate in the life eternal and the energies of the heavenly ones.
Through this principle we are able to set ourselves free. For when the better qualities in us are
active, and the soul is led again to the natures superior to itself, then it becomes separated from
everything that held it fast to the world-life, stands aloof from inferior natures, exchanges this
for the other life, abandons entirely the former order of things, and gives itself to the other."
We begin with instinct; the end is omniscience. It is a direct beholding; what Schelling
denominates a realization of the subjective and objective in the individual which blends him
with that identity of subjective and objective called Divinity; so that, transported out of
himself, so to speak, he thinks divine thoughts, views things from their highest point of view,
and, to use an expression of Emerson's, "becomes recipient of the soul of the world." Plato
describes the matter more forcibly. "The light and spirit of the Deity are as wings to the soul,
raising it into communion with himself, and above the earth with which the mind is prone to
bemire itself." (Phaedros) "To be like God is to be holy, just and wise.... This is the end for
which man was born, and should be his aim in the pursuit of the superior knowledge."
(Theatetos)
The power of seeing beyond the common physical sense, as in vaticination or "second
sight" appears to have been possessed by many of these men. Apollonius describes this faculty
in these words:
"I can see the Present and the Future in a clear mirror. The sage need not wait for the
vapors of the earth and the corrupt condition of the air to enable him to foresee plagues and
fevers; he ought to know them later than God, but earlier than the multitude. The divine
natures see the future; common men, the present; sages, that which is about to take place. My
peculiar abstemious mode of living produces such an acuteness of the senses, or else it brings
into activity some other faculty, so that the greatest and most remarkable
--- 18.

things are performed."


This peculiar gift or faculty is doubtless to be explained not as being created anew, but as
brought out of a dormant or latent condition. The miraculous effects of abstemiousness in
producing extraordinary spiritual acuteness have often been noticed. Gorging, indulgence in
drink that disorders, or the using of gross and unwholesome food may close up the interior
faculties. It will be borne in mind that many of the distinguished teachers and sages were more
or less ascetic. Nevertheless, all that abstinence can do is to remove obstacles to the free
activity of the mind; it can produce no faculty or quality that does not already exist.
There is what may be termed spiritual photography. The soul is the camera in which
facts and events, future, past and present, are alike fixed, and the superior perceptivity makes
the understanding conscious of them. Sometimes they appear as if suggested, sometimes as
recollection. Beyond this everyday world of limits, all is as one day or state - the past and the
future comprised in the present. This is doubtless, the "great day," the "last day," the "day of
the Lord" mentioned by writers in the New Testament, - the eternal day without beginning or
ending, in which as to his interior spirit every one now is, and into which every one passes by
death or ecstasy. The soul is then freed from the constraint of the body, and its nobler part
being in communion with the superior powers, it becomes a partaker of the wisdom and
foreknowledge of those in that sphere of being.
The disciples of Plotinus described him as possessing miraculous powers of perception.
They affirmed that he could read their secret thoughts. Porphyry had been contemplating
suicide, and he perceived it without having received any outward intimation. A robbery was
committed in his house at Rome, and he calling the domestics together, pointed out the guilty
one. He did not oppose the established religious worship, but when one of his friends asked
him to attend the public services, he answered: "It is for the gods to come to me."
Plotinus, Iamblichus, and before them, Apollonius are said to have possessed the powers
of prediction and healing. The former art

--- 19.

appears to have been cultivated by the Essenes and others in the East. "I am not a prophet nor
the son of a prophet," said Amos, who seems to have been "irregular;" "but the Lord called
me." Apollonius, as his biographer declares, healed the sick, and others, like the pneumatists of
Asia Minor, performed remarkable cures. It is more than probable that they employed the
agency known as animal magnetism. It was usual to exercise it by placing the hand on or near
the diseased part, (stroking it and uttering a chant.)* It is now fashionable to declaim about
these practices as charlatanism; but they appear to have existed in all ages and among different
people. Plotinus scouted the notion that disease were daemons, and could be expelled by
words; but he indicated temperance and an orderly mode of life as the philosophic way to
remove them.
Iamblichus went further than other teachers, and added to the Platonic philosophy, certain
Egyptian learning which he designated theurgy. He taught that the individual might be brought
into personal association with spiritual beings, and into the possession of their knowledge, and
even possess the power as a divinity to control inferior natures. He was perfectly familiar with
the phenomena of the mesmeric trance and clairvoyance, and described them with great
exactness, as they are now known to us. "The knowing of the gods is innate," he affirmed;
"and it pertains to the very substance of our being. It is superior to judgment and choice, and
has precedence over reasoning and demonstration. From the beginning it was at one with its
source, and subsisted together with the inherent impulses of the soul to the Supremely Good.
This union is a uniform embracing at all forms of contact, spontaneous and undistinguishable,
as of one thing knowing another, which joins us with the Godhead."
The different orders of spiritual beings he described as intermediary between God and
man. Their foreknowledge extends over every thing and fills every thing that is capable of
receiving it. They also give intimations during our waking hours, and impart to the soul the
power of a wider perception of things, the gift of healing, and

-----------
* II Kings, v, 11.
-----------
--- 20.

the faculty of discerning arts and new truths. There are different degrees of inspiration:
sometimes it is possessed in a higher, sometimes in an intermediate, and sometimes in only a
lower degree.
The discipline required by the theurgist are prayer, diligence in the offices of arcane
worship, an abstemiousness amounting in some instances to austere asceticism, and added to
these, contemplation. Iamblichus discourses upon these matters with all the earnestness of an
enthusiastic preacher. "Prayer is by no means an insignificant part of the entire upward path of
souls," Proklus insists. Iamblichus explains further: "Prayers constitute the general end to
religious worship," he declares, "and join the Sacred Art in an indissoluble connection with the
divine beings. Unceasing perseverance in them invigorates the higher intellect, makes the
reception-chamber of the soul far more spacious for the divinities, opens the arcana of the
divine world to human beings, accustoms us to the flashing irradiations of the Supernal Light,
and perfects gradually the qualities within us for fitness for the favors of the gods, till it exalts
us to the highest excellence."
Thus we perceive that the theurgy which was described and extolled by this philosopher,
was no art of sorcery, fortune-telling or charlatanry, but a mode of developing the higher
faculties and sentiments.
Indeed, if we change the terms and expressions which he employs to such as are current
with us, we would find no difficulty in finding for him a place among the higher thinkers of our
own time. Bulwer-Lytton, who appears to have been a thorough student of Neo-Platonism and
kindred topics, depicts after a similar manner their operation and influence:
"At last from this dimness, upon some eyes the light broke; but think not that to those
over whom the Origin of Evil had a sway, that dawning was vouchsafed. It could be given
then, as now, only to the purest ecstasies of imagination and intellect undistracted by the cares
of a vulgar life, the appetites of the common clay. Far from descending to the assistance of a
fiend, theirs was but the August ambition to approach nearer to the Fount of Good; the more
they emancipated themselves from this Limbo of the planets, the more

--- 21.
they were penetrated by the splendor and beneficence of God. And if they sought, and at last
discovered, how to the eye of the spirit all the subtler modifications of being and matter might
be made apparent; if they discovered how, for the wings of the spirit, all space might be
annihilated; and while the body stood heavy and solid here, the freed IDEA might wander
from star to star: if such discoveries became in truth their own, the sublimest luxury of their
knowledge was but this - to wonder, to venerate, and adore!"
We may with this finality very fittingly bring this delineation to a close. But we cannot
dismiss the subject without a brief tribute to the noble but unfortunate Hypatia. She bade fair
to stand among the most gifted of the Alexandrian school. She had alike for pupils men of
every faith, Egyptian, Greek, Christian and Jew; and what little we know of her not only shows
her blameless character, but the purity of the doctrines which she taught. In her the Akademeia
was almost reincarnated. A few years more added to her career might have rolled back that
ocean in which Philosophy and Human Fraternity were engulfed.
Proklus is represented as the most learned and systematic of all the Neo-Platonists. He
brought the entire theosophy and theurgy of his predecessors into a complete system. Like the
Rabbis and Gnostics he cherished a profound veneration for the Abraxas, the "Word" or
"Venerable Name," and he believed with Iamblichus in the attaining of a divine or magic power
which, overcoming the mundane life, rendered the individual an organ of the Divinity speaking
a wisdom that he did not comprehend, and becoming the agent of a superior will. He even
taught that there were symbola or tokens, that would enable a person to pass from one order of
spiritual beings to another, higher and higher, till he arrived at the absolute Divine. Faith, he
inculcated, would make one the possessor of this talisman.
His theological views were similar to those of the others. "There are many inferior
divinities," he reiterated from Aristotle, "but one Mover. All that is said concerning the human
shape and attributes of these divinities is mere fiction, which has been invented to instruct the
common people and secure their obedience to the laws. The First Principle, however, is
neither Fire nor Earth, nor

--- 22.

Water, nor any thing that is the object of sense. A spiritual Substance is the Cause of the
Universe, and the source of all order and excellence, all the activity and all the forms in it that
are so much admired. All must be led up to this Primal Substance which governs in
subordination to the Absolute First. This is the general doctrine of the Ancient Wise Ones
which has happily escaped the wreck of truth amid the rocks of popular error and poetic
myths."
He also explained the state after death, the metempsychosis or progress of the Soul:
"After death the soul continues in the aerial body till it becomes entirely purified from all angry
and voluptuous passions; then it puts off the aerial body by a second dying, as it did the earthly
one. Wherefore the ancients say that there is a celestial body always joined with the soul,
which is immortal, luminant and starlike."
Combining religious ardor with acute reasoning powers, he joins the whole mass of
traditional learning into a system, supplying the defects and smoothing the contradictions by
means of distinctions and speculations. Zeller has appropriately described his work: "It was
reserved for Proklus," says he, "to bring the Neo-Platonic philosophy to its formal conclusion
by the rigorous consistency of his dialectic, and keeping in view all the modifications which it
had undergone in the course of two centuries, to give it that form in which it was transferred to
Christianity and Mohammedanism in the Middle Ages."
Whatever the demerits of the Neo-Platonic school, there must be general approval by all
the right-thinking of the great under-lying ideas of Human Brotherhood and perfectibility.
Their proper aim was the establishment of the dominion of peace on earth instead of that
sovereignty of the sword which in former ages, and in later centuries, arrayed millions of
human beings in mortal warfare against each other, and depopulated whole regions and
countries in the name of religion.
As might be expected of persons holding so refined a system of doctrines, their characters
corresponded with it admirably. Plotinus was honored everywhere for his probity, Apollonius
for his almost preternatural purity of manners, Ammonius for his amiableness,

--- 23.

Iamblichus for his piety, Hypatia for her transcendent virtue and wisdom, and Proklus for his
serene temper. The testimony of M. Matter, in his treatise on Gnosticism, is just so far as it
relates to these men:
"The morality which the Gnosis prescribed for man answered perfectly to his condition.
To supply the body with what it needs, and to restrict it in everything superfluous, - to nourish
the spirit with whatever can enlighten it, strengthen it, and render it like God, of whom it is an
emanation: this is that morality. It is that of Platonism, and it is that of Christianity."
Such is the philosophy, such the religion, which is to the materialists and their allies a
stumbling block and folly; to others a divine illumination.
The treasury which the Neo-Platonists filled has enriched the world through all the later
ages. The remarkable men who rose up as lights to their fellows were almoners of that bounty.
Philosophers and theosophers of every grade were beneficiaries of the wise men of the
Alexandrian School. Hardly had the intolerance of the dominant party put an end to the public
lectures when there arose other teachers and writers to take possession of its doctrines to
incorporate them with the dogmas of the Church. It appeared anew, not merely as magic, and
alchemy, but as the living fire of experience, a quiet mysticism, a profounder faith,
transcending historic believes by a truer spiritual life. Hardly a formula of beliefs exists in the
religious world which has not been enriched from this source, and literature has derived from it
the choicest of its embellishments.
Such is the record which these Sages made.

(Metaphysical Magazine, April-May 1907, earlier version in


Bibliotheca Platonica, May-June, 1890.)

---------------
--- 24.

HYPATIA: A TRAGEDY OF LENT

"This was done during Lent, " says the historian Sokrates.
"There is as a woman in Alexandreia named Hypatia, a daughter of Theon the
philosopher, so learned that she surpassed all the savants of the time. She therefore succeeded
to the Chair of Philosophy in that branch of the Platonic School which follows Plotinos, and
gave public lectures on all the doctrines of that school. Students resorted to her from all parts,
for her deep learning made her both serious and fearless in speech, while she bore herself
composedly, even before the magistrates, and mixed among men in public without misgiving.
Her exceeding modesty was extolled and praised by all. So, then, wrath and envy were kindled
against this woman."
Little record has been preserved of Hypatia beyond the mention by her contemporaries of
her learning, her personal beauty and her tragic fate. That little, however, possesses a peculiar
significance, setting forth as it does, the history of the period, and the great changes which the
world was then undergoing.
Since the time of Augustus Caesar, Alexandreia had ranked as one of the Imperial cities
of the Roman world. It excelled other capitals in the magnificence of its buildings, and in its
wealth, created and sustained by an extensive commerce. Its former rulers had been liberal and
even lavish in every expenditure that might add to its greatness. The advantages of the place
had been noted by the Macedonian Conqueror, when on his way to the oasis of Amun, and
afterward, acting under the direction of a dream, he fixed upon it for the site of a new city to
perpetuate his own name. He personally planned the circuit of the walls and the directions of
the principal streets, and selected sites for temples to the gods of Egypt and Greece. The
architect Deinokrates was then commissioned to superintend the work, he had already
distinguished himself as the builder of the temple of the Great Goddess of Ephesus, whom
"all

--- 25.

Asia and the world worshiped," and had actually offered to carve Mount Athos into a statue of
his royal master, holding a city in its right hand. Under Ptolemy, the royal scholar, the new
Capital had been completed by him, and became the chief city of a new Egypt, the seat of
commerce between India and the West, and the intellectual metropolis of the occidental world.
Its celebrity, however, was due, not so much to its grand buildings or even to its
magnificent lighthouse, the Pharos, justly considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the Earth,
as to its famous School of Learning, and to its library of seven hundred thousand scrolls, the
destruction of which is still deplored by lovers of knowledge. The temples of Memphis, Sais
and Heliopolis had been so many universities, depositories of religious, philosophic and
scientific literature, and distinguished foreigners like Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxos and
Pythagoras had been admitted to them; but now they were cast into the shade by the new
metropolis with its cosmopolitan liberality. The Alexandreian School included among its
teachers and lecturers, not only Egyptian priests and learned Greeks, but sages and
philosophers from other countries.
The wall of exclusiveness that had before separated individuals of different race and
nation, was in a great measure, broken down. Religious worship heretofore circumscribed in
isolated forms to distinctive peoples, tribes and family groups, became correspondingly
catholic and its rites accessible to all. The mystery-god of Egypt, bearing the ineffable name of
Osiris or Hyasir, was now Serapis, in whom the personality and attributes of the other divinities
of the pantheons were merged. *
"There is but one sole God for them all," the Emperor Hadrian wrote to his friend
Servianus: "him do the Christians, him do the

------------
* The great image of King Nebuchadnezzar, which is described
in the book of Daniel, was evidently a simulacrum of this divinity; and the Rev. C. W. King
further declares in so many words that "there can be no doubt that the head supplied the first
idea of the conventional portraits of the Saviour." - Gnostics and their Remains.
------------
---26.

Jews, him do all the Gentiles also worship."


Philosophy likewise appeared in new phases. Missionaries from Buddhistic India,*
Jaina** sages, Magian and Chaldean teachers and Hebrew Rabbis came to Alexandreia and
discoursed acceptably with philosophers from Asia, Greece and Italy. From these sources there
came into existence an Eclectic philosophy, in which were combined the metaphysic of the
West and the recondite speculation of the East. The various religious beliefs took other shapes
accordingly, and expounders of the Gnosis, or profounder esoteric knowledge abounded alike
with native Egyptians, Jews and Christians.
In the earlier years of the third century of the present era there arose a School of
philosophic speculation which brought together in closer harmony the principal dogmas which
were then current. Its founder, Ammonios Sakkas, was, according to his own profession, a
lover and seeker for the truth. He was in no way a critic hunting for flaws in the teaching of
others, but one who believed that the genuine knowledge might exist in a diffused form, partly
here and partly there, among the various systems. He sought accordingly to bring the parts
together by joining in harmonious union the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras with the Ethics
of Zeno and the reasonings of Aristotle, and perfecting it with what is sometimes termed the
Wisdom of the East. His disciples were obligated to secrecy, but the restriction was afterward
set aside. Plotinos and Porphyry extended the sphere of his teachings, giving them more
completely the character of a religion.

-------------
* "The Grecian King besides, by whom the Egyptian Kings, Ptolemaios and Antigonos
(Gangakenos or Gonatos) and Magas have been induced to allow both here and in foreign
countries everywhere, that the people may follow the doctrine of the religion of Devananpiga,
wheresoever it reacheth." - Edict of Asoka, King of India.
** This term is derived from the Sanskrit jna to know; and signifies well-knowing,
profoundly intelligent. The designation of the new doctrine of that period, the Gnosis, was
from this origin.
-------------
--- 27.

Iamblichos went further, adding the arcane doctrine and the mystic worship of Egypt and
Assyria.*
The Alexandreian School of Philosophy, thus established, included within its purview the
esoteric dogmas of all the Sacred Rites in the several countries.
A new Route came into existence on the banks of the Bosphoros, and a new religion was
proclaimed for the Roman world. The changes, however, were far from radical. The earlier
Byzantine Emperors were too sagacious politicians to permit revolutionary innovations.
Religion and civil administration were interwoven in the same web and the subversion of either
would be fatal to the other. Constantine himself was a "soldier'' or initiated worshiper of
Mithras as well as a servant of Christ.**
His successors encouraged an extensive intermingling which should render Christianity
more catholic and thus more acceptable to all classes of the population. Meanwhile there arose
other diversities of religious belief, violent disputes in regard to ecclesiastical rank and verbal
orthodoxy, often culminating in bloody conflicts. The older worship was finally prohibited
under capital penalties.
Persecution became general. Nowhere, perhaps, was it more cruel and vindictive than at
Alexandreia. The modern city of Paris horrified the world with its populace overawing the
Government, destroying public buildings, desecrating cemeteries and religious shrines, and
murdering without mercy or scruple. Similar scenes became common in the capital of the
Ptolemies. The dissenters from the later orthodoxy, followers of Clement and Origen were
driven from the city; the Catechetic School which they had maintained was closed, the occult
worship of the Cave of Mithras was forcibly suspended, the temple of Serapis sacked, the
statues broken to

------------
* Reply of Abammon to Porphyry.
** Sopater, who succeeded lamblichos as head of the School at Alexandreia, had been
employed by Constantine to perform the rites of consecration for the new capital; but the
Emperor afterward quarreled with him, and sentenced him to death.
------------
--- 28.

pieces, the Great Library, the glory of Alexandreia, scattered and destroyed.
With these violent procedures there came also a wonderful transformation. The temples
were consecrated anew as churches, and the rites of the former worship were adopted, together
with the symbols and legends, under other forms, as Christian, Catholic and orthodox. Even
mummies were carried from Egypt as relics of martyrs.
Learning, however, was still in the hands of the adherents of the old religion. They
continued their labors faithfully, giving as little offense as they were able. Theon, Pappos and
Diophantos taught mathematical science at the Serapeion; and some of their writings are yet
remaining to attest the extent of their studies and observations.
Hypatia, the daughter of Theon, was worthy of her name* and parentage. Her father had
made her from early years his pupil and companion, and she profited richly from his teaching.
She wrote several mathematical works of great merit, which have perished with the other
literature of that period. She was also diligent in the study of law, and became an effective and
successful pleader in the courts, for which she was admirably qualified by her learning and
fascinating eloquence. She was not content, however, with these acquirements, but devoted
herself likewise, with ardent enthusiasm, to the study of philosophy. She was her own
preceptor, and set apart to these pursuits the entire daytime and a great part of the night.
Though by no means ascetic in her notions, she adhered persistently to the celibate life, in order
that there might be no hindrance to her purposes. It was an ancient fashion of philosophers to
travel for a season for the sake of acquaintance with the greater world, and to

-------------
* The name Hypatia [a6argita] signifies highest, most exalted, best. In this instance it
would not be difficult to suppose that it had been conferred posthumously, or at best as a title of
distinction. This, in fact, was an Egyptian custom, as in the case of the native kings, and now
of the Roman pontiffs.
-------------
--- 29.

become more thorough and practical in mental attainments. Hypatia accordingly followed this
example. On coming to Athens, she remained there and attended the lectures of the ablest
instructors. Thus she now gained a reputation for scholarship which extended as far as the
Greek language was spoken.
Upon her return to Alexandreia, the magistrates invited her to become a lecturer on
philosophy. The teachers who had preceded her had made the school celebrated throughout
the world, but their glory was exceeded by the discourses of the daughter of Theon. She was
ambitious to reinstate the Platonic doctrines in their ancient form, in preference to the
Aristotelian dogma and the looser methods which had become common. She was the first to
introduce a rigorous procedure into philosophic teaching. She made the exact sciences the
basis of her instructions, and applied their demonstration to the principles of speculative
knowledge. Thus she became the recognized head of the Platonic School.
Among her disciples were many persons of distinction. Of this number was Synesios, of
Cyrene, to whom we are indebted for the principal memorials of her that we now possess. He
was of Spartan descent, a little younger than his teacher, and deeply imbued with her
sentiments. He remained more than a year at Alexandreia, attending her lectures on
philosophy, mathematics and the art of oratory. He afterward visited Athens, but formed a low
estimate of what was to be learned there. "I shall no longer be abashed at the erudition of those
who have been there," he writes. "It is not because they seem to know much more than the rest
of us mortals about Plato and Aristotle, but because they have seen the places, the Akademeia,
and the Lykeion, and the Stoa where Zeno used to lecture, they behave themselves among us
like demigods among donkeys."
He could find nothing worthy of notice in Athens, except the names of her famous
localities. "It is Egypt in our day," he declares, "that cultivates the seeds of wisdom gathered
by Hypatia. Athens was once the very hearth and home of learning; but now it is the
emporium of the trade in honey!"
Mr. Kingsley has set forth in his usual impressive style, the teaching and character of this
incomparable woman.* He depicts her

--- 30.

cruel fate in vivid colors. He represents her as being some twenty-five years of age; she must
have been some years older at the period which he has indicated.
Synesios, her friend, had now been for some years the bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica.
This dignity, however, he had accepted only after much persuasion. He was of amiable
disposition, versatile, and of changeable moods. He had consented to profess the Christian
religion, and the prelate, Theophilus, persuaded him to wed a Christian wife, perhaps to divert
him from his devoted regard for his former teacher. He refused, however, to discard his
philosophic beliefs. He had been living in retirement at his country home, when he was chosen
by acclamation, by the church in Ptolemais, to the episcopal office. He was barely persuaded
to accept upon his own terms. He pleaded his fondness for diversion and amusement, and
refused inflexibly to put away his wife or play the part of a hypocrite in the matter. He
explained his position in a letter to his brother.
"It is difficult, I may say that it is impossible, that a truth which has been scientifically
demonstrated and once accepted by the understanding, should ever be eradicated from the
mind. Much of what is held by the mass of men is utterly repugnant to philosophy. It is
absolutely impossible for me to believe either that the soul is created subsequently to the body,
or that this material universe will ever perish. As for that doctrine of the Resurrection which
they bruit about, it is to me a sacred mystery, but I am far enough from sharing the popular
view..... As to preaching doctrines which I do not hold, I call God and man to witness that this I
will not do. Truth is of the essence of God, before whom I desire to stand blameless, and the
one thing that I can not undertake is to dissimulate."
Singular and incredible as it may appear, this disavowal of doctrines generally regarded
as essential and distinctive, was not considered an obstacle that might not be surmounted. The
patriarch of Alexandreia had been extreme and unrelenting in his violent procedures against the
ancient religion. He was, however, politic in

-------------
* HYPATIA, or New Foes with an Old Face
-------------
--- 31.

his action, and knew well the character of the man whose case he had in hand. Synesios had as
a layman, exhibited his ability in diplomatic service, his efficiency in the transacting of public
business, and his utter unselfishness in matters relating to personal advantage. Such a man in a
province like Cyrenaica, was invaluable.
It would be more difficult, therefore, for a person who had been reared and schooled in
the ways of modern times to apprehend intelligently the motives of Synesios himself. He
certainly found it almost impossible to overcome his reluctance. Seven months of preparation
were allotted to him previous to engaging in the new duties. He prayed often for death and
even thought seriously of leaving the country. He was permitted to retain his family circle, and
to hold his philosophic beliefs, but only required to give a formal acquiescence to what he
considered mythologic fables. Under these conditions he consented to receive baptism and
consecration to the episcopal office. Yet in an address to his new associates he expressed the
hope that by the mercy of God he might find the priesthood a help rather than a hindrance to
philosophy.
He did not, however, break off correspondence with Hypatia. He had been in the habit of
sending to her his scientific works for her judgment, and he continued in great emergencies to
write to her for sympathy and counsel. His brief term of office was full of anxiety and trouble.
He administered his duties with energy and rare fidelity, not shrinking from an encounter with
the Roman prefect of the province. But misfortune came and he found himself ill able to meet
it. A pestilence ravaged Libya, and his family were among the victims. He himself succumbed
to sickness. In his last letter to her whom he calls his "sister, mother, teacher and benefactor,"
he describes his sad condition of mind and body.
"My bodily infirmity comes of the sickness of my soul. The memory of my dear children
overpowers me. Synesios ought never to have survived his good days. Like a torrent long
dammed up, calamity has burst upon me and the savor of life is gone. If you care for me it is
well; if not, this, too, I can understand."
It is supposed by historians, that his death took place not long afterward. He was spared,
then, from a terrible grief, which he

--- 32.

might have considered the most appalling of all. For it was not many months after that his
venerated teacher herself fell a victim, under the most revolting circumstances, to the mob in
Alexandreia.
We are told that Hypatia taught the Platonic Philosophy in a purer form than any of her
later predecessors. Her eloquence made its abstruse features attractive, and her method of
scientific demonstration rendered these clearer to the common understanding. Like Plotinos,
she insisted strenuously upon the absolute Oneness of the Divine Essence. From this radiates
the Creative Principle, the Divine Mind as a second energy, yet it is one with the First. In this
Mind are the forms, ideals or models of all things that exist in the world of sense.* From it, in
due order, proceeded a lesser divinity, the Spirit of Nature, or Soul of the World, from which
all things are developed. In abstract terms these may be represented as Goodness, Wisdom and
Energy. In regard to human beings it was taught that they are held fast by an environment of
material quality, from which it is the province of the philosophic discipline to extricate them.
This is substantially the same doctrine as is propounded in the Vedanta and the Upanishads.
Plotinos tells us of a superior form of knowing, illumination through intuition. It is
possible for us, he declared, to become free from the bondage and limitations of time and sense,
and to receive from the Divine Mind direct communication of the truth. This state of mental
exaltation was denominated ecstasy, a withdrawing of the soul from the distractions of external
objects to the contemplation of the Divine Presence which is immanent within - the fleeing of
the spirit, the lone one, to the Alone. In the present lifetime, Plotinos taught that this may take
place at occasional periods only, and for brief spaces of time; but in the life of the world that is
beyond

------------
* Reply of Abammon to Porphyry, VIII, ii.
"For the Father perfected all things and delivered them to the Second Mind, which the
whole race of men denominate the First.” - Chaldean Oracles
------------
--- 33.

time and sense, it can be permanent.*


Synesios makes a declaration of the same tenor. "The power to do good," he writes to
Aurelian, "is all that human beings possess in common with God; and imitation is
identification, and unites the follower to him whom he follows."
Much of this philosophy, however, had been already accepted, though perhaps in grosser
form, as Christian experience. The legends of that period, abound with descriptions of ecstatic
vision and intimate communion with Deity. The philosophers taught that the Divinity was
threefold in substance, the Triad, or Third, proceeding from the Duad or Divine Mind, and
ruled by the ineffable One. Clement, of the Gnostic school, deduced from a letter of Plato that
the great philosopher held that there are three persons, or personations in the Godhead, and
now in a cruder shape, it became an article of faith. To this the Egyptian Christians added the
veneration of the Holy Mother, and various symbols and observances which belonged to the
worship that had been suppressed.
This was the state of affairs when Cyril became patriarch of Alexandreia. Hypatia was at
the height of her fame and influence. Not only the adherents of the old religion, but Jews and
even Christians were among her disciples. The most wealthy and influential of the inhabitants
thronged her lecture-room. They came
day after day to hear her explain the literature of Greece and Asia, the theorems of
mathematicians and geometers and the doctrines of sages and philosophers. The prefect of
Egypt, himself a professed Christian, resorted to her for counsel and instruction.
Cyril was endowed with a full measure of the ambition which characterized the prelates
of that time. He was not a man to scruple at measures that he might rely upon to accomplish
his ends. Like

------------
* I sent my soul through the Invisible
Some letter of that After-Life to spell:
And by and by my soul returned to me,
And answered: "I myself am Heaven and Hell"
- Omar Khayam
-------------
--- 34.

Oriental monarchs, he was ready with pretexts and instruments for the removal of all who
might stand in his way. He was not willing to divide power, whether ecclesiastic or secular. A
course of persecution was begun at once. The Novatians or Puritans, a dissenting sect of
anabaptists, were expelled from the city, their churches closed and their property confiscated.
The prefect strove in vain to check the summary procedure; the mob at the command of the
prelate was beyond his authority. The Jews were next to suffer. "Cyril headed the mob in their
attacks upon the Jewish synagogues; they broke them open and plundered them, and in one
day drove every Jew out of the city." The efforts of the prefect in their behalf only served to
turn the current of fanatic fury upon him. Five hundred monks hastened from their retreats to
fight for the patriarch. Meeting the prefect in the street in his open chariot, they taunted him
with being an idolater and a Greek, and one of them hurled a stone, which wounded him in the
head. They were speedily dispersed by his guards, and the offending monk was put to death
with tortures. Cyril at once declared the man a martyr and a saint, but the ridicule which
followed upon this proceeding, soon induced him to recall his action.
We have read the story of Haman at the court of the king of Persia. He was advanced
above all princes and received homage, except from Mordecai the Jew. Recounting to his wife
the distinction to which he had been promoted, he said: "Yet all this availeth me nothing, so
long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." The patriarch of Alexandreia appears
to have cherished similar sentiments. He was a prince in the Church, with power exceeding
that of any official south of the Mediterranean. He had but to give the signal and an army of
monks would hurry to his call, ready to do or die. But all this did not avail, while the long train
of chariots continued to assemble daily before the door of Hypatia's lecture-room. Like
Haman, he resolved to put an end to his mortification. He had not been able to close the
Academy, but he could make an end of her who was its chief attraction, and the principal
obstacle to his ambition.
"The thing was done during Lent," says Sokrates. At this period the city of Alexandreia
was crowded by multitudes from other places, desirous to participate in the religious services.
Cyril had

--- 35.

been zealous to substitute Christian observances for similar customs of the old worship, and
this was one of them. Alexandreia was for the time at his mercy. He was thoroughly skilled in
the art of exciting the passions, and he was surrounded by men who knew well his bent and
how to do what he wished without a suggestion from him to involve him directly in the
responsibility.
He needed only to indicate the School and its teacher as the great obstacle to the triumph
of the Church. They were then ready to carry into effect what he purposed.
Mr. Kingsley has described the occurrence in dramatic style. "I heard Peter (the reader)
say: 'She that hindereth will hinder till she be taken out of the way.' And when he went into
the passage, I heard him say to another: 'That thou doest, do quickly.'"
It was on the morning of the fifteenth of March, 415, - the fatal Ides, the anniversary of
the murder of the greatest of the Caesars. Hypatia set out as usual in her chariot to drive to the
lecture-room. She had not gone far when the mob stopped the way. On every side were men
howling with all the ferocity of hungry wolves. She was forced out of the vehicle and dragged
along the ground to the nearest church. This was the ancient Caesar's temple, which had been
dedicated anew to the worship of the Christian Trinity. Here she had been denounced by Cyril
and her doom determined by his servitors. Her dress was now torn in shreds by their ruffianly
violence. She stood by the high altar, beneath the statue of Christ.
"She shook herself free from her tormentors," says Kingsley, "and, springing back, rose
for one moment to her full height, naked, snow-white against the dusky mass around - shame
and indignation in those wide, clear eyes, but not a stain of fear. With one hand she clasped her
golden locks around her; the other long, white arm was stretched upward toward the great still
Christ, appealing - and who dare say in vain? - from man to God. Her lips were open to speak;
but the words that should have come from them reached God's ear
alone; for in an instant Peter struck her down, the dark mass closed over her again, . . . and
then wail on wail, long, wild, ear-piercing, rang along the vaulted roofs, and thrilled like the
trumpet of avenging angels through Philammon's ears."

--- 36.

While yet breathing, the assailants in a mad fury tore her body like tigers, limb from limb
and after that, bringing oyster-shells from the market, they scraped the flesh from the bones.
Then gathering up the bleeding remains they ran with them through the streets to the place of
burning, and having consumed them, threw the ashes into the sea.
"The thing was done during Lent."

(Universal Brotherhood, April, 1898)

-------------------------
--- 37.

PHILOSOPHY AFTER THE DEATH OF HYPATIA

Historians seem to have regarded the murder of Hypatia as the death-blow to Philosophy
at Alexandreia. Professor Draper characterizes it as a warning to all who would cultivate
profane knowledge. "Henceforth," he adds, "there was to be no freedom for human thought.
Every one must think as the ecclesiastical authority bade him."
Certainly the Patriarchs at the Egyptian metropolis had spared no endeavor, however
arbitrary, to engraft their notions upon the Roman world, and to bring about uniformity of
religious belief. The doctrine of the Trinity had been officially promulgated by the Council at
Nikaia. The orthodox Homoousians had been engaged for a century in a mortal struggle for
supremacy with the heretic Homooisians. Men murdered one another upon the religious issue
of homoian and tauto. The nitre-fields abounded with monks as numerous as frogs, and ready
at summons to seize their weapons and do any violence to promote the cause of the Prince of
Peace. Theodosios the Emperor had proclaimed Christianity as the religion of the Court and
Empire, and made Sunday the sacred day of the newer faith. Egypt surpassed all other
countries in religious fanaticism, and Gregory of Nazianzen praised it as the most Christian of
all, and teaching the doctrine of the Trinity in its truest form. The former worship was forcibly
suppressed. The patriarch Theophilus closed the Cave of Mithras, desecrated the temple of
Serapis and destroyed its magnificent library of seven hundred thousand scrolls.
The Egyptian learning was denounced and interdicted, but such Egyptian customs and
notions as had been deeply infixed in the regard of the illiterate commonalty, were transferred
with the necessary modifications into the creed and liturgy of the church. The attempt was
made to substitute burial as a Christian usage for the

--- 38.

ancient practice of mummying the bodies of the dead. The goddess Isis, the "Great Mother" of
the former faiths, became Mariam Theotokos, Mary the Mother of God, and her worship
established beside that of the Trinity. The distinction of clergy and laity which was before
unknown, was now introduced. Such Egyptian customs were also adopted by the priests as the
shaving of the head, the celebration of Twelfth Night, the burning of candles around the altars
and robing in white surplices. Relics of saints were exhumed with which to work miracles.
The break with "paganism" was thus made less marked.
Another dogma was hatched from the slime of the Nile. Setting aside the spiritual
conception of the Supreme Being, it was taught that God was anthropomorphic, a person in
shape like a man. The patriarch adopted the new doctrine, and seems to have enforced its
general acceptance by the aid of an army of soldiers and monks, who drove the other party
from the country.
The Catechetic School, which had been established and sustained by Clement, Origen
and others of superior scholastic attainment was in the way of the new form of religious
progress. The ignorance and fanaticism that reigned in Upper Egypt and Mount Nitria,
repudiated utterly the learning of the teachers at Alexandreia. The patriarch took sides with the
larger party, which was sure to be better fitted to his purposes, the Catechetic school was
closed, and the Arian church-buildings were seized by the partisans of the patriarch.
Cyril succeeded to Theophilus and maintained the same policy. He had no sooner seated
himself in the archi-episcopal chair than he set himself at the suppressing of rival religious
beliefs. The Novatians were first assailed, and after that the Jews were driven from
Alexandreia. The learning of the city was now in the hands of the adherents of the former
worship, and Hypatia was teaching in the School of Philosophy. The next step to be taken was
to put her out of the way, and her murder was the one infamous act which placed a lasting
stigma upon the reputation of the unscrupulous ecclesiastic. His whole career was
characterized by kindred enormities.
In the French Revolution of 1793, one faction had been no

--- 39.

sooner exterminated than another as formidable appeared in the ranks of the victorious party.
The course of affairs in Egypt at this period was in strict analogy. The Arians who were
suppressed at Alexandreia, found protection in the camp of the army, and flourished for many
years. They dedicated a church at Babylon to their murdered bishop, now St. George of
England, and the country abounded with pictures on the walls of the churches representing him
as slaying the Dragon of Athanasian error. Ahout this time Eutyches, of Constantinople, a
partisan of Cyril, was excommunicated by a Council for teaching that Jesus Christ had only one
nature, that of the Logos incarnate, and therefore his body was not like that of other men. The
Egyptian church took up the controversy and was condemned by the Council of Chalkedon.
This separated Egypt from the Catholic Church, and brought the religious war into geographic
lines.
While these things were going on, the Nubians overran Upper Egypt. It had been
confidently affirmed that under the forceful measures that had been employed, the old worship
had been effectually suppressed. Now, however, it sprang up anew. Large numbers of monks,
and others who had professed Christianity, now took part at the rites of lsis and Serapis. This
was all within seventy years after the decree of Theodosius, and less than forty years after the
death of Hypatia. There were troublous times over the whole Roman world. The change of
religion had by no means strengthened the Empire, either politically or morally. It had been
followed instead, by incessant rivalries of the clergy, and innumerable religious broils, all of
which tended to weaken the imperial authority. The ill-governed provinces revolted, and the
various peoples and tribes from Northern Europe swarmed over the Southern countries, and
even into Africa. After Vandals, Goths and Allemans, came the Huns, most terrible of all.
Attila carried devastation close to the walls of Constantinople and then into the heart of Italy.
There he died in the year 453.
The School of Philosophy at Alexandreia had still continued its work. Like the flexible
reed, it had bent as the storm passed over it, and then risen from the earth erect as ever. The
extinguishing of one luminary had not utterly darkened its sky, but only served to reveal the

--- 40.

presence of other stars that had not been observed before. Severe as was the shock from the
murder of the daughter of Theon, there were others to occupy the place acceptably in the
lecture-room.
Syrianus was the principal teacher. He was learned and profound; and his lectures were
frequented from all regions of Western Asia. He was an indefatigable writer, and produced
extensive expositions and commentaries upon the doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras. His
works, however, have been left untranslated. He wrote a commentary on the Metaphysics of
Aristotle, of which there is a Latin version, and controverts the objections of that philosopher.
He was a zealous Platonist, and at the same time he regarded the writings of Plotinus and
Porphyry with a veneration similar to that which he entertained for Plato himself.
Among the students who attended his lectures were Moses, of Chorene, and two others
from Armenia. Isaac, the patriarch of that country and Mesrobes, a statesman of great learning,
had planned the forming of an Armenian alphabet after the plan of the Greek. Heretofore,
writing had been done sometimes with Greek letters, sometimes with Persian, and sometimes
with Aramaic or Chaldean. Under such conditions a high degree of enlightenment was not
easy to maintain. The Alexandreian text of the Bible was regarded by them as the authentic
version. The translation in their possession had been made from the Hebrew or Aramaic, and
was written in Aramaic letters. They resolved to have a new Armenian version from the text
which they regarded as the genuine original. Moses and his companions were accordingly sent
by them to Alexandreia, as being the first school of learning in the Roman world.
The young men, of course, were Christians, and likewise admirers of the Patriarch. They
were too sagacious, however, not to be aware that the knowledge of the Greek language in its
purity was not to be had from Cyril and his ill-taught associates. They accordingly joined the
Platonic School and became pupils of Syrianus. Under his tuition they made remarkable
proficiency in the several departments of Greek literature. Not only were they able to make the
desired new translation of the Bible, but they extended their labors to the writings of different
classic authors. As a result of this, Armenia became a seat

--- 41.

of learning. It held this distinction until the next conquest. The history of Armenia which was
written by Moses of Chorene is a monument of learning and accuracy.
Shortly after this, Syrianus left Alexandreia. The Platonic School at Athens, at which
Hypatia and Synesios had been students, was now enjoying a fair degree of prosperity. Its
conductors extended an invitation to Syrianus to remove to that city and become its leader.
Alexandreia was fast losing its reputation as a literary metropolis. The invitation was accepted,
and from this time the later Platonism made its home in the city of the former Akademeia.
In the meanwhile a vigorous attempt was made to establish a Peripatetic School of
Philosophy at Alexandreia. Olympiodoros, a native of Upper Egypt, was the founder. He
possessed excellent literary ability and composed several works; among them commentaries
upon the writings of Aristotle, a treatise upon the Sacred Art of Alchemy, a history, and several
other works that are now lost. His endeavors to establish a new Lyceum, however, were not
very successful. It was true that after the closing of the Catechetic School, there had been a
turning of attention to the doctrines of Aristotle; and these have since been in high favor it the
Roman Church. But there had been set up partisan lines at Alexandreia between adherents of
the old worship and the new, and Alexandreian Christians were hardly willing to sit at the feet
of a teacher, however excellent, who did not subscribe to the formulas of doctrine promulgated
by the Council of Nikaia.
Very little of the literature of that period has been preserved to the present time. One
cause, doubtless, was the bigotry and intolerance of Emperors and prelates, who required all
books to be destroyed which they did not approve. Another was the increasing indifference to
classic learning and literary attainment. This certainly was the fact in Egypt. The arts in which
that country had formerly excelled were now passing utterly out of knowledge.
The skill in preparing of papyrus was almost wholly lost. There were eight different
kinds of this article. The hieratic was the best, and was used for the sacred books at the
Temples, and for the scrolls in the Great Library. Two more kinds, equal to it in value, were
devised

--- 42.

in the reign of the Emperor Octavianus; and there were two cheaper kinds sold in Rome. The
Saitic papyrus was of inferior quality and was sold by weight. There were now other kinds
made at Alexandreia after what were considered improved methods, which, nevertheless, like
the cheap paper of our modern time, soon fell to pieces. Every book written upon it has
perished. No book which was written between the third and eleventh centuries of the present
era has remained, except those which were written upon vellum or parchment. Hence we know
little more of the philosophers of Egypt. A literature which cannot be preserved becomes
speedily a dead literature, and a people without a literature is barbarous.
There was, however, one distinguished pupil in the School of Olympiodoros who was
destined to outshine those who had gone before him. Proklos, the son of an Asian of the city of
Xanthos, in Lykia, came to Alexandreia to pursue his studies. He omitted no opportunity to
perfect himself in liberal knowledge. Besides attending at the lectures of Olympiodoros, he
also received instruction in mathematics from Hero, rhetoric from Leonas, general knowledge
from Orion, a native Egyptian of sacerdotal lineage, and in the Latin language at the Roman
College. He was also in familiar relations with the principal men of learning at Alexandreia.
He appears to have been unfavorably impressed by what he witnessed of the social and
religious influences prevalent in the city. He removed to Athens, and became the pupil of
Syrianus and Asklepigenia, the daughter of Plutarch. So broad and profound was his learning
that Syrianus named him as his own successor in the School of Philosophy.
At the age of twenty-eight he produced his masterpiece, the Commentary on the Timaios
of Plato. Only five books of this work remain; the others are lost. He also wrote a
Commentary on the First Alkibiades, a treatise on the Platonic Theology, Theologic Institutes, a
Grammatic Chrestomathy, and Eighteen Arguments against the Christians; also Hymns to the
Sun, to the Muses, two to Aphrodite, one to Hekate and Janus, and one to Athena.
Proklos was thoroughly proficient in the Oriental Theosophy. He considered the Orphic
Hymns and the Chaldaean Oracles as divine revelations. He had the deepest confidence in his
own sacred calling

--- 43.

and office. He regarded himself as the last link in the Hermaic chain, the latest of the men set
apart by Hermes, through whom, by perpetual revelation, was preserved the occult knowledge
signified in the Mysteries.
He could not conceive of the Creation of the Universe by arbitrary fiat, and excepted to
Christianity because it was unphilosophic in respect to this subject. He believed the utterance
of the Chaldean Oracles in the matter: That prior to all things is the One, the Monad,
immovable in ever-being. By projecting his own essence, he manifests himself as Two - the
Duad - the Active and Passive, the Positive and Negative, the essence of Mind and the principle
of Matter. By the conjoining of these two the cosmos or universe emanates with all things that
pertain to it.
Proklos, however, did not teach that evil was of or from matter, but consisted in an
arresting or constraining of energy in its legitimate action.
He inculcated the harmony of all truth, and endeavored accordingly to show that there
was a direct and vital connection between every teacher, however much they might seem to
differ. There was really an agreement, he affirmed, between the Dialectic of Plato and the
Reasonings of Aristotle, between the Chaldaean Oracles and the Western Philosophy. The
following summary, made by the writer from his treatise entitled The Later Platonists, presents
a fair delineation of his views.
"He [Proklos] elaborated the entire Theosophy and Theurgy of his predecessors into a
complete system. Like the Rabbis and Gnostics, he cherished a profound reverence for the
Abraxas, the 'Word' or 'Venerable Name,' and he believed with lamblichos in the attaining of a
divine or magic power, which, overcoming the mundane life, rendered the individual an organ
of the Divinity, speaking a wisdom that he did not comprehend, and becoming the utterance of
a Superior Will. He even taught that there were symbols or tokens that would enable a person
to pass from one order of spiritual beings to another, higher and higher, till he arrived at the
absolute Divine. Faith, he inculcated, would make one the possessor of this talisman.
"His Theology was like that of the others. 'There are many

--- 44.

inferior divinities' he reiterated from Aristotle, but only one Mover. All that is said concerning
the human shape and attributes of these divinities is mere fiction, invented to instruct the
common people and secure their obedience to wholesome laws. The First Principle, however,
is neither Fire nor Earth, nor Water, nor anything that is the object of sense. A spiritual
substance [Mind] is the Cause of the Universe and the source of all order and excellence, all the
activity and all the forms that are so much admired in it. All must be led up to this Primal
Substance which governs in subordination to the FIRST.
"This is the general doctrine of the Ancients, which has happily escaped the wreck of
Truth amid the rocks of popular error and poetic fables."
"The state after death, the metempsychosis or superior life is thus explained by him:
'After death the soul continues in the aerial till it is entirely purified from all angry and
voluptuous passions; them it doth put off by a second dying of the aerial body, as it did of the
earthly one. Wherefore, the ancients say that there is a celestial body always joined with the
soul, which is immortal, luminous, and star-like.'"
Perhaps no philosopher of the ancient period was more broad, more catholic and liberal
in his views, and yet so comprehensive. Proklos comprises in a single concept, the "good law"
of Zoroaster, the dharma of India, the oracular wisdom of the Chaldean sages, the gnosis and
intuition of Western mystics. We are forcibly reminded of the confession of the audience on
the day of Pentecost, that everyone however remote and alien in personal affiliations, heard
alike the utterance of the apostle in his own language.

(Universal Brotherhood, Aug., 1898)

-----------------------
--- 45.

THE TEACHINGS OF PLATO

"' Eagle! why soarest thou above that tomb?


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

"Out of Plato" says Ralph Waldo Emerson, "come all things that are still written and
debated among men of thought." All else seems ephemeral, perishing with the day. The
science and mechanic arts of the present time, which are prosecuted with so much assiduity, are
superficial and short-lived. When Doctor James Simpson succeeded his distinguished uncle at
the University of Edinburgh, he directed the librarian to remove the textbooks which were more
than ten years old, as obsolete. The skilled inventions and processes in mechanism have hardly
a longer duration. Those which were exhibited at the first World's Fair in 1851 are now
generally gone out of use, and those displayed at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in
1876 are fast giving place to newer ones that serve the purposes better. All the science which
is comprised within the purview of the senses, is in like manner, unstable and subject to
transmutation. What appears today to be fundamental fact is very certain to be found,
tomorrow, to be dependent upon something beyond. It is like the rustic's hypothesis that the
earth stands upon a rock, and that upon another rock, and so on; there being rocks all the way
down. But Philosophy, penetrating to the profounder truth and including the Over-Knowledge
in its field, never grows old, never becomes out of date, but abides through the ages in
perennial

--- 46.

freshness.
The style and even the tenor of the Dialogues have been criticized, either from
misapprehension of their purport or from a desire to disparage Plato himself. There is a vanity
for being regarded as original, or as first to open the way into a new field of thought and
investigation, which is sometimes as deep-seated as a cancer and about as difficult to eradicate.
From this, however, Plato was entirely free. His personality is everywhere veiled by his
philosophy.
At the time when Plato flourished, the Grecian world had undergone great revolutions.
The former times had passed away. Herakles and Theseus, the heroes of the Myths, were said
to have vanquished the man-slaying monsters of the worship of Hippa and Poseidon, or in other
words supplanting the Pelasgian period by the Hellenic and Ionian. The arcane rites of
Demeter had been softened and made to represent a drama of soul-history. The Tragedians had
also modified and popularized the worship of Dionysos at the Theatre-Temple of Athens.
Philosophy, first appearing in Ionia had come forth into bolder view, and planted itself upon the
firm foundation of psychologic truth. Plato succeeded to all, to the Synthetists of the
Mysteries, the Dramatists of the Stage, to Sokrates and those who had been philosophers before
him.
Great as he was, he was the outcome of the best thought of his time. In a certain sense
there has been no new religion. Every world-faith has come from older ones as the result of
new inspiration, and Philosophy has its source in religious veneration. Plato himself
recognized the archaic Wisdom-Religion as "the most unalloyed form of worship, to the
Philosophy of which, in primitive ages, Zoroaster made many additions drawn from the
Mysteries of the Chaldeans." When the Persian influence extended into Asia Minor, there
sprung up philosophers in Ionia and Greece. The further progress of the religion of Mazda was
arrested at Salamis, but the evangel of the Pure Thought, Pure Word, and Pure Deed was
destined to permeate the Western World during the succeeding ages. Plato gave voice to it, and
we find the marrow of the Oriental Wisdom in his dialectic. He seems to have joined the occult
lore of the East, the conceptions of

--- 47.

other teachers, and the under-meaning of the arcane rites, the physical and metaphysical
learning of India and Asia, and wrought the whole into forms adapted to European
comprehension.
His leading discourses, those which are most certainly genuine, are characterized by the
inductive method. He displays a multitude of particulars for the purpose of inferring a general
truth. He does not endeavor so much to implant his own conviction as to enable the hearer and
reader to attain one intelligently, for themselves. He is in quest of principles, and leading the
argument to that goal. Some of the Dialogues are described as after the manner of the Bacchic
dithyrambic, spoken or chanted at the Theatre; others are transcripts of Philosophic
conversations. Plato was not so much teaching as showing others how to learn.
His aim was to set forth the nature of man and the end of his being. The great questions
of who, whence and whither, comprise what he endeavored to illustrate. Instead of dogmatic
affirmation, the arbitrary ipse dixit of Pythagoras and his oath of secrecy, we have a friend, one
like ourselves, familiarly and patiently leading us on to investigation as though we were doing
it of our own accord. Arrogance and pedantic assumption were out of place in the Akademe.
The whole Platonic teaching is based upon the concept of Absolute Goodness. Plato was
vividly conscious of the immense profundity of the subject. "To discover the Creator and
Father of this universe, as well as his operation, is indeed difficult; and when discovered it is
impossible to reveal him." In him Truth, Justice and the Beautiful are eternally one. Hence the
idea of the Good is the highest branch of study.
There is a criterion by which to know the truth, and Plato sought it out. The perceptions
of sense fail utterly to furnish it. The law of right for example, is not the law of the strongest,
but what is always expedient for the strongest. The criterion is therefore no less than the
conceptions innate in every human soul. These relate to that which is true, because it is ever-
abiding. What is true is always right - right and therefore supreme; eternal and therefore
always good. In its inmost essence it is Being itself; in its form by which we are able

--- 48.

to contemplate it, it is justice and virtue in the concepts of essence, power and energy.
These concepts are in every human soul and determine all forms of our thought. We
encounter them in our most common experiences and recognize them as universal principles,
infinite and absolute. However latent and dormant they may seem, they are ready to be
aroused, and they enable us to distinguish spontaneously the wrong from the right. They are
memories, we are assured, that belong to our inmost being, and to the eternal world. They
accompanied the soul into this region of time, of ever-becoming and of sense. The soul,
therefore, or rather its inmost spirit or intellect,* is of and from eternity. It is not so much an
inhabitant of the world of nature as a sojourner from the eternal region. Its trend and ulterior
destination are accordingly toward the beginning from which it originally set out.
The Vision of Eros in the tenth book of the Republic suggests the archaic conception
generally entertained that human beings dying from the earth are presently born into new forms
of existence, till the three Weird Sisters shall have finished their task and the circle of
Necessity is completed. The events of each succeeding term of life take a direction from what
has occurred before. Much may be imputed to heredity, but not all. This is implied in the
question of the disciples to Jesus: "Which sinned, this person or his parents, that he should be
born blind." We all are conscious of some occurrence or experience that seems to pertain to a
former term of life. It appears to us as if we had witnessed scenes before, which must be
some recollection, except it be a remembrance inherited from ancestors, or some spiritual
essence has transferred it as from a camera obscura into our consciousness. We may account it
certain, at any rate, that we are inhabitants of eternity, and of that eternity Time is as a colonial
possession and distinct allotment.
Every thing pertaining to this world of time and sense, is

-------------
* Plato taught that the amative or passional soul was not immortal.
-------------
--- 49.

constantly changing, and whatever it discloses to us is illusive. The laws and reasons of things
must be found out elsewhere. We must search in the world which is beyond appearances,
beyond sensation and its illusions. There are in all minds certain qualities or principles which
underlie our faculty of knowing. These principles are older than experience, for they govern it;
and while they combine more or less with our observations, they are superior and universal,
and they are apprehended by us as infinite and absolute. They are our memories of the life of
the eternal world, and it is the province of the philosophic discipline to call them into activity
as the ideals of goodness and truth and beauty, and thus awaken the soul to the cognizing of
God.
This doctrine of ideas or idealities lies at the foundation of the Platonic teachings. It
assumes first of all, the presence and operation of the Supreme Intelligence, an essence which
transcends and contains the principles of goodness, truth, and order. Every form or ideal, every
relation and every principle of right must be ever present to the Divine Thought. Creation in all
its details is necessarily the image and manifestation of these ideas. "That which imparts truth
to knowable things," says Plato, "that which gives to the knower the power of knowing the
truth, is the Idea of the Good, and you are to conceive of this as the Source of knowledge and
truth."
A cognition of the phenomena of the universe may not be considered as a real knowing.
We must perceive that which is stable and unchanging, - that which really is. It is not enough
to be able to regard what is beautiful and contemplate right conduct. The philosopher, the lover
of wisdom, looks beyond these to the Actual Beauty, - to righteousness itself. This is the
episteme of Plato, the superior, transcendent knowing. This knowledge is actual participating
in the eternal principles themselves - the possessing of them as elements of our own being.
Upon this, Plato bases the doctrine of our immortality. These principles, the ideals of
truth, beauty and goodness are eternal, and those who possess them are ever-living. The
learning of them is simply the bringing of them into conscious remembrance.*
In regard to Evil, Plato did not consider it as inherent in human nature. "Nobody is
willingly evil," he declares; "but when any one

--- 50.

does evil it is only as the imagined means to some good end. But in the nature of things, there
must always be a something contrary to good. It cannot have its seat with the gods, being
utterly opposed to them, and so of necessity hovers round this finite mortal nature, and this
region of time and ever-changing. Wherefore," he declares, "we ought to fly hence." He does
not mean that we ought to hasten to die, for he taught that nobody could escape from evil or
eliminate it from himself by dying. This flight is effected by resembling God as much as is
possible; "and this resemblance consists in becoming just and holy through wisdom." There is
no divine anger or favor to be propitiated; nothing else than a becoming like the One,
absolutely good.
When Eutyphron explained that whatever is pleasing to the gods is holy, and that that
which is hateful to them is impious, Sokrates appealed to the statements of the Poets, that
there were

---------------
* Professor Cocker has given a classification of the Platonic Scheme of Ideas, of which
this is an abridgment.
I. The Idea of Absolute Truth. This is developed in the human intelligence in its relation
with the phenomenal world, as 1, the Idea of Substance; 2, the Idea of Cause; 3, the Idea of
Identity; 4, the Idea of Unity; 5, the Idea of the Infinite.
II. The Idea of Absolute Beauty or Excellence. This is developed in the human
intelligence in its relation to the organic world, as 1, the Idea of Proportion or Symmetry; 2,
the Idea of Determinate Form; 3, the Idea of Rhythm; 4, the Idea of Fitness or Adaptation; 5,
the Idea of Perfection.
III. The Idea of Absolute Good - the first cause or reason of all existence, the sun of the
invisible world that pours upon all things the revealing light of truth. This idea is developed in
the human intelligence in its relation to the world of moral order, as 1, the Idea of Wisdom or
prudence; 2, the Idea of Courage or Fortitude; 3, the Idea of Self-Control or Temperance; 4,
the Idea of Justice. Under the head of justice is included equity, veracity, faithfulness,
usefulness, benevolence and holiness.
---------------
-- 51.

angry differences between the gods, so that the things and persons that were acceptable to some
of them were hateful to the others. Everything holy and sacred must also be just. Thus he
suggested a criterion to determine the matter, to which every god in the Pantheon must be
subject. They were subordinate beings, and as is elsewhere taught, are younger than the
Demiurgus.
No survey of the teachings of the Akademe, though only intended to be partial, will be
satisfactory which omits a mention of the Platonic Love. Yet it is essential to regard the
subject philosophically. For various reasons our philosopher speaks much in metaphor, and
they who construe his language in literal senses will often err. His Banquet is a symposium of
thought, and in no proper sense a drinking bout. He is always moral, and when in his discourse
he begins familiarly with things as they existed around him, it was with a direct purpose to lead
up to what they are when absolutely right. Love, therefore, which is recognized as a
complacency and attraction between human beings, he declares to be unprolific of higher
intellect. It is his aim to exalt it to an aspiration for the higher and better. The mania or
inspiration of Love is the greatest of Heaven's blessings, he declares, and it is given for the sake
of producing the greatest blessedness. "What is Love?" asked Sokrates of the God-honored
Mantineke. "He is a great daemon," she replies, "and, like all daemons, is intermediate
between Divinity and mortal. He interprets between gods and men, conveying to the gods the
prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods. He is the
mediator who spans the chasm that divides them; in him all is bound together and through him
the arts of the prophet and priest, their sacrifices and initiations and charms, and all prophecy
and incantation find their way. For God mingles not with men, but through Love all the
intercourse and speech of God with men, whether awake or asleep, is carried on. The wisdom
which understands this is spiritual; all other wisdom, such as that of arts or handicrafts, is
mean and vulgar. Now these spiritual essences or intermediaries are many and diverse, and one
of them is Love."
It is manifest then, that Plato emulates no mere physical attraction, no passionless
friendship, but an ardent, amorous quest of

--- 52.

the Soul for the Good and the True. It surpasses the former as the sky exceeds the earth. Plato
describes it in glowing terms: "We, having been initiated and admitted to the beatific vision,
journeyed with the chorus of heaven; beholding ravishing beauties ineffable and possessing
transcendent knowledge; for we were freed from the contamination of that earth to which we
are bound here, as an oyster to his shell."
In short, goodness was the foundation of his ethics, and a divine intuition the core of all
his doctrines.
When, however, we seek after detail and formula for a religious or philosophic system,
Plato fails us. Herein each must minister to himself. The Akademe comprised method rather
than system; how to know the truth, what fields to explore, what tortuous paths and pitfalls to
shun. Every one is left free in heart and mind to deduce his own conclusions. It is the Truth,
and not Plato or any other teacher, that makes us free. And we are free only in so far as we
perceive the Supernal Beauty and apprehend the Good.

(Theosophy, July, 1897)

---------------------
--- 53.

THE PARABLE OF ATLANTIS


- KRITIAS - TIMAIOS

The name of Kritias, which Plato prefixed to the last of the Dialogues, was by no means
popular in Athens. Belonging to one of the most honored families, his career had not been
worthy, or of benefit to his country. For a time Kritias had been one of the followers of
Socrates, but upon being remonstrated with for his gross misconduct, he turned from his
teacher, and even became a bitter enemy. Taking part in some of the revolutions after the death
of Pericles, Kritias was banished from Athens. He returned, however, some years afterward, at
the time that Lysander entered the city, and was appointed a member of the Council of Thirty,
which had been created to frame a new constitution for the city. His ascendancy was
characterized by the capital execution of several thousand individuals. He issued an edict
forbidding lectures and discourse upon philosophy and liberal learning. At the end of four
months the Athenians regained the control of public affairs and Kritias was slain in a partisan
conflict.
Despite the apparent incongruity of representing him as sustaining friendly relations with
Socrates, whom he actually had endeavored to involve in serious difficulty and peril, it was
evidently in the mind of Plato to leave a remembrance of him which would be more favorable,
showing characteristics of real merit, and perhaps to relieve his name from somewhat of the
obloquy resting upon it. He was an uncle of the philosopher and had endeavored to introduce
his nephew into the public service and otherwise promote his welfare. Possibly one of the
reasons for his hostility to Socrates had been for his influence in attracting the young man from
politics to philosophy; and it may be that Plato himself, though he had refused to enter

--- 54.

public life under the conditions then prevailing, nevertheless cherished gratitude for the efforts
in his behalf; and perhaps there were also considerations of family affection, which, indeed, in
those days were regarded as of transcendent importance.
Socrates had been represented in The Republic as having described the commonwealth as
it should be constituted, how its citizens should be reared and instructed, and what is required
for the public defense and for the permanency and welfare of the entire community. Kritias,
who has been a silent listener, is now mentioned by him as being thoroughly informed in these
matters, and begins to tell of an Athens of many thousand years before, that had been
established on such principles, and had maintained them successfully and alone, in a war
between the peoples of Greece and Atlantis. He gives way, however, to the philosopher
Timaios, whose extended account of the origin of the universe, the human race and other
inhabitants, has already been noticed. He then follows in his turn with a record which had been
preserved in the family of Solon, and declared to be in every respect true. When Solon had
completed the remodeling of the government of Athens and observed the effect of his changes,
he made a journey to Egypt. The former restrictions upon foreigners had been relaxed, and at
the order of the king, Amosis II, who lived at Sais, he was admitted to the instructions which
were given at the temple of the goddess Neith.* Endeavoring to draw them out in relation to
matters of antiquity he affected to boast of the progenitors of the Hellenic peoples. "Ah, Solon,
Solon," responded the oldest priest of the group, "you Greeks are nothing but boys, and there is
not a Greek of any age really mature. You have no traditions, no learning that is of any great
antiquity." Then the old man went on to tell of many great deluges, many devastations by
catastrophe and volcanic action, remarkable changes in the configuration of the sky and other
wonderful events.
Then, he adds, there was an Athens, which had been founded

-----------
* The names, "Sais" and "Neith," are words of two syllables, the vowels not being
diphthonged, are to be pronounced separately.
-----------
--- 55.

nine thousand years before and a thousand years before Sais itself. It was a model city, and its
customs had been such as the Saites themselves had been eager to copy. The goddess herself,
Neith-Athena, the tutelary alike of each of the cities, had established them. There were the
sacred class devoted to religion and learning; the craftsmen of different kinds, who meddled
with none outside their guild; the shepherds, huntsmen and tillers of the soil. There were also
the soldiers who followed no other calling. Likewise, in regard to the superior knowledge, the
law took cognizance of it from the beginning, not only in respect to all the universe, but even to
divination and the medical art with regard to hygiene, and hence from these divine subjects to
human affairs generally and the branches of learning connected with them. The goddess of
wisdom selected the site of Athens because she foresaw that its wholesome climate would
favor the growth of a superior race of men, wise like herself. Then under these auspices, and
what is better, under a good government,* there sprang up a people surpassing all others in
every thing meritorious, as became those who were the offspring and under the tutelage of the
gods.
Nine thousand years before, says the Egyptian priest, there existed a state of war over the
known world. Beyond the Pillars of Heracles the ocean was at that time open and navigable for
galleys, and there existed fronting the continent an island larger than Libya and Asia Minor
together. There were likewise other islands which were in alliance with it, and they were
subject to a powerful confederation of kings, who also held the western regions of Europe

------------
* Konfucius was journeying with his disciples through a distant region. Meeting a
woman by a well, he questioned her of her husband, her father and other kindred. They had all
been killed by a tiger, she replied. "Why," demanded the sage, "why do you not remove from a
region that is infested by such a ferocious beast." "Because," replied she, "we have a good
government." Turning to his disciples, the sage remarked: "See, a bad government is more
feared than a ravenous tiger."
------------
--- 56.

and Africa under their dominion.


At that period Athens was foremost among the commonwealths of Greece. It was
distinguished for the superiority of its population in moral stamina, in the arts, and in war. At
first that city was leader of the Greek peoples, but finally they all stood aloof, leaving Athens to
maintain alone the conflict with the kings of Atlantis. The invaders were routed, and
independence was thus preserved for the free states, and won for all others within the pillars of
Heracles.
Afterward there came a succession of violent earthquakes and floods. In a single day and
night the people of Athens were buried beneath the earth, and the island of Atlantis was
engulfed in the waters. Hence only mud remains where that region once existed, and the ocean
where it existed formerly is neither navigable nor even accessible.
According to the ancient legends the whole earth was originally apportioned among the
gods. There was no contest among them in order that one might seize the domain of the other.
But each one occupied the portion allotted, peopled it, and attended to the welfare of those
under his charge. The gods did not coerce their subjects arbitrarily, but, like skillful pilots, led
them by persuasions. The domain of each was assigned according to his peculiar character. As
Hephaestos and Athena, having the same father and disposition, were also alike in the love of
wisdom and liberal art, Athens was assigned jointly to them as being adapted naturally to
superior excellence and intelligence. Here they planted the antochthones, natives of the soil,
making the men good and orderly. Owing to the devastations of the floods the records of these
times were lost. The survivors could not read, and hence only names were preserved. These
included women as well as men, because both sexes engaged alike in the pursuits of war. In
accordance with that usage they dedicated a statue of the goddess armed as a soldier, in
recognition of the fact that all living beings associating together, female, as well as male, have
the natural ability common to each race to follow every meritorious pursuit.
The dominion of Athens, as the priest declared, then extended over all the territory of
Attika. The region was much larger than in

--- 57.

later periods, for floods had not then washed away the earth, and the soil was very productive.
The population was composed of craftsmen in the various callings, and of those who labored at
agriculture. There was also the noble caste of warriors, twenty thousand in number, who had
been set apart originally by the divine founders of the Commonwealth. Its members lived apart
from the others, on the higher ground around the temples. They held their possessions in
common, eating at a common table, and sustaining no familiar relations with the other citizens
in the lower districts, except as was necessary to procure food and other matters of necessity.
From this caste were taken the guardians of the commonwealth, the defenders of the country,
the rulers and magistrates. Such being their quality, and their administration of affairs, both in
their own community and in the rest of Greece being just, they were distinguished over Europe
and Asia, both for personal beauty and moral excellence. Kritias insists accordingly that the
Athens of that far-off time was like the commonwealth which had been described in the
philosophical dialogue.
When at the beginning the whole earth was apportioned among the gods to assure their
worship and sacrifices, the Atlantic island was in the allotment of Poseidon.* Among the
natives of Atlantis was Evenor, whose daughter, Kleito, won the regard of the

-----------
* Mr. Robert Brown, Jr., of Barton-on-Humber, England, has given in his little treatise,
"Poseidon," a very full account of the parts of the globe anciently regarded as subject to this
divinity and not to Zeus. He was regarded as overlord in the countries of the Mediterranean
and Archipelago, except in Egypt and parts of Greece. The voyages of Ulysses or Odysseus
were supposed to have taken place in the region allotted to him. Hence the defiance of
Polyphomos, the Kyklops, to the authority of Zeus. The voyages of Aeneas were in that
region, and it is noteworthy that the principal personages and monsters which were fabled to
have been slain by Theseus and Herakles were connected with him, indicating by allegory a
change in religion as well as in civil government.
-----------
--- 58.

divine overlord. Poseidon accordingly constructed a residence for her on the island,
surrounding it with high belts of land alternating with other zones of sea. For at that time ships
and navigation were not known. She became the mother of ten sons, in five pairs, on whom
Poseidon bestowed dominion. The oldest was placed over his mother's home and the region
about it, which was the largest and most desirable in the island. He was also made king over
the whole territory. The other brothers also received rich allotments and were appointed to
sovereignty in subordination to the eldest. He also gave them names, which Kritias explains as
having been translated into Greek. The designation of the oldest brother, Atlas, may evoke
some question. Not only is it the name of a range of mountains in Africa, but the term Atlan is
also used for titles of places in America.
These princes and their descendants, we are told, dwelt for many generations as rulers in
the "Sea of Islands," and extended their dominion to the Continent, including in it all Libya as
far as Egypt and Europe clear to Italy. The family of Atlas surpassed all the others. The oldest
son succeeded the father, and they all possessed wealth beyond the power of computing. Much
of this was procured from foreign countries, but their principal riches was obtained in the island
itself. Atlantis abounded in rich ores. One of these, orichalkon, or mountain copper, was next
in value to gold itself. Kritias declares that only the name was known; nevertheless one may
ask whether platinum was meant. There was also wood produced in abundance suitable for
building and other purposes; and also grass and other plants for the food of animals, both wild
and tame. There was even a profusion of food for elephants, of which there were great
numbers. Nature, with the aid of human ingenuity thus supplied in plenty whatever would
excite the palate, please the sick or gratify the fancy.
The enterprise and industry of the population are glowingly described. Atlantis
abounded in temples, magnificent houses, and in ports and docks for commerce. The belts of
water with which Poseidon had surrounded the metropolis were bridged over, thus giving
access to the royal residence. A canal was likewise constructed, three hundred feet wide and a
hundred feet deep, extending from the ocean to the outermost zone of water. Tunnels

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were also made through the belts of land so that the zone of water became a harbor for vessels.
A high wall of stone was erected at the outermost belt of land which surrounded the metropolis,
and other walls of similar structure were built at the interior circuits. The outer wall was
covered with a coating of copper; the next wall was coated with silver, and the innermost wall
with orichalkon, which shone with a ruddy glow.
The stone with which these walls were built had been quarried on the central island, and
there were three kinds, white, red and black. Many of the buildings were in plain style, but in
others the three kinds of stone were ingeniously combined so as to produce an agreeable effect.
At the beginning a magnificent building was erected as a dwelling for the divinity and for
the ancestors. Each monarch as he came to power added to its embellishments, endeavoring to
excel those who had preceded him, till it became wonderful for size and the beauty of the
works.
Kritias proceeds now to describe the wealth and luxury of the people of Atlantis. Inside
the citadel was the temple dedicated to Kleito and Poseidon. It was surrounded by an enclosure
of gold. There were brought to it every year contributions from the ten principalities, and
sacrifices were presented to each of the divinities. There was also a temple to Poseidon
himself, over six hundred feet long and three hundred wide, built and adorned with Oriental
splendor. The body of the edifice was coated with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. Inside
of the building, the roof was of ivory; and it was adorned everywhere with gold, silver and
orichalkon. All the other parts of the wall and floor were lined with orichalkon. There were
numerous statues of gold. The god himself was represented standing upon a car attached to
which were six winged horses, his head touching the roof, as he stood. A hundred Nereids
riding on dolphins were by him, indicating that he was the tutelary of the ocean as well as of
the seismic territories. Other statutes likewise, some the gift of private individuals and others
presented from the subordinate princedoms were placed there, part of them inside and part
outside the building. In short, the whole was of a style and magnificence

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corresponding with the government and the splendor which attended the public worship.
The principal island abounded with springs, both cold and hot, which the inhabitants
employed for their private fountains. They built their houses around them, placing tanks in
them, some for cold water to use in summer and others for hot water in winter. The baths for
the royal family were apart from the others, and those for the women separate from those of the
men. There were also baths for the horses and cattle, all of which were kept scrupulously
clean.
The stream of water which flowed from this region, was conducted to the Grove of
Poseidon, a sacred domain, where were trees of every kind, growing to prodigious size and
height. The water was carried thence by aqueducts to the circles outside.
On the island were many temples dedicated to different divinities, and likewise public
gardens and places of exercise, some for men and some for horses. There was a race-course in
the largest island, over a furlong wide and extending the whole way around the circumference
for contests of speed between the horses.
There were barracks for the troops; part in the belt of land next the citadel, and part
inside, near the royal quarters. The docks were filled with triremes and naval stores.
Such were the conditions about the royal residence. Crossing the three harbors, one came
to a wall which went completely around, beginning from the sea and fifty furlongs from the
outermost harbor near the metropolis. This enclosed both the entrance of the canal and the
entrance to the ocean. This area was covered with buildings densely crowded together. The
canal and harbor were always full of vessels, and thus there was an incessant din kept up day
and night.
The rest of the country differed in many particulars. The whole region had a high
elevation above the level of the sea. There was an extensive plain immediately surrounding the
city, which was encircled by a range of mountains sloping toward the sea. The country was of
oblong shape extending over three thousand stadia (or about forty miles) and about two
thousand directly across. It lay toward the south, and so was sheltered from the north. The
mountains were numerous and beautiful, and there were many villages, rivers, lakes,

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and meadows, which supplied food in abundance, and likewise wood suitable for all kinds of
work.
A deep canal extended around the plain, ten thousand furlongs in length. It received the
water from the mountains, and winding round the plain, discharged it into the ocean. Other
canals were also constructed for transportation of wood and commercial products and likewise
for irrigation in summer.
The public defense was provided by a militia system carefully arranged. The plain on the
island was divided into sixty thousand lots of the dimension of a stadium (or 660 feet) each
way. Then it was ordered that of the men fit for service each individual commander should
have an allotment, a hundred stadia in extent. In the mountainous districts and the rest of the
country was also a large population, and to every man was assigned a lot by the commander.
Each of these commanders was required to furnish the sixth part of a war-car, two horses, a
two-horse car without a seat, a car-driver with a fighting man, also two armed soldiers, two
archers, two stingers, besides light-armed men, stone-shooters and javelin-hurlers, with four
sailors so as to man twelve hundred vessels. The other nine sovereignties had arrangements
that were somewhat different.
The institutions of government continued as they had been arranged from the beginning.
Each of the ten kings ruled individually in his own district and commonwealth. All was
conducted according to the ordinances of Poseidon.
The first kings had also recorded their ordinances on a tablet of orichalkon which was
deposited in the temple of that divinity. Every fifth or sixth year they assembled there in
council, in which each took an equal part for the general welfare. They made investigation into
the procedures of each in his own dominion, and judged them accordingly. In order to assure
the faithful submission of each they sacrificed a bull beside the inscribed regulations. Then
was an oath written there denouncing execrations on the disobedient. Making each a libation
of the blood of the animal, they renewed the oath to do justice, to punish offenders rigidly,
never to transgress the laws, and never to rule or obey any ruler except according to the laws.
Then having partaken of supper together, they dressed themselves in robes

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of dark blue color, and proceeded to scrutinize each other's procedures of administration. Their
decisions in each case were inscribed on a golden tablet, which was deposited in the temple
together with their robes of office.
The ten kings were obligated not to make war on one another, but to give their aid in case
of any movement to exterminate any royal family. The supreme dominion over the whole was
thus assigned to the Atlantic family, but a king was not permitted to put any of them to death
without approval of half the others.
For many generations, so long as the inherited nature of the god their ancestor remained
to aid them, they continued obedient to the laws and held in affectionate regard their kindred
divine parentage. For they were possessed of a genuine high-mindedness and noble principles,
and also combined mildness with discretion in incidental matters and in their relations with one
another. They held everything in low esteem except it was meritorious; thought lightly of
riches, and were not intoxicated by luxury. Being thus circumspect in conduct, they were quick
to perceive that all these benefits are increased by friendship combined with virtue; but that
when too eagerly sought after and overvalued, they became corrupt and worthless.
To such consideration as this, and to the divine nature which continued inherent in them,
was due their great prosperity. But eventually the divine quality which was hereditary in them
was effaced by much and frequent intermingling in nuptial union with the mortal element; and
so the moral character common to other men became ascendant. They became unable to cope
with events, and began also to behave unbecomingly. To those who could discern, they
appeared to have parted with their most excellent qualities, and to have become ignoble and
base. Yet though they were greedy and oppressive, they seemed to those who were unable to
appreciate true blessedness, to be in the highest degree happy and fortunate.
It was then that Zeus, the supreme God who rules by laws, and is able to descry these
things, perceived a noble race involved in wretched conditions. He resolved to call it to
account, in order that its members might again be made watchful and return to the sense of

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what is right. Accordingly he assembled all the gods in council in their most holy habitation.
This being at the centre of the universe, commands a view of everything belonging to the
region of change below. Having collected them together he proceeded to announce his
purpose.
Here the story of Kritias abruptly concludes and a sentence is left unfinished. There is a
tradition that Plato's death took place while engaged in writing; and as the trilogy is
unfinished, it would appear as though this was the point at which his work was interrupted.
Perhaps, however, he was in the habit of writing his composition as he had matter and
opportunity, and was awaiting the moment at which to resume.
Modern critics are generally agreed in declaring the story a myth. Yet it was anciently
believed by many to be substantially the record of actual fact. The present condition of the
Atlantic ocean at a distance beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, seems to indicate that the tale of the
submergence of large islands at that region is not without plausibility. Other ancient writers
have accepted the belief of a populous country, somewhere in that direction; and Mr. J. D.
Baldwin in his treatise on "Prehistoric Nations," cites from Pere de Bourbourg, to show the
existence of a dominion in Central America greatly resembling that of Atlantis. There may be
as much unwisdom in the ignotum pro absurdo as in ignotum pro magnifica.
Parables are not altogether fictitious narratives. Occult symbolism often employs
peculiar names, historic occurrences, and analogous matters for its purposes, and even
intermingles its problems with them. It is not at all necessary in ascribing a figurative character
to the story of Atlantis, to doubt the genuineness of the legend respecting it. That may be left
wisely to future exploration.
In this dialogue, the former Athens is indicated as a model government where the best of
the citizens, the aristoi, managed all the public affairs. Kritias accordingly declares it to be
such a commonwealth as had been depicted in The Republic. He intermingles allusions
incident to its history, such as the leading of the other cities of Greece, and sometimes as
fighting alone, as was the case in the long conflict with Persia.

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Atlantis is described as a confederation of kingdoms, such as Greece may have been in


the early periods. It has Poseidon for its overlord, as did most of the Grecian states, and the
monarchies which deteriorated to corrupt and unendurable despotisms. The overthrow of these
is represented in legends by the exploits of Theseus and Herakles; and the story of Atlantis
seems to have been brought to an analogous period of such a character.
In the rival nations, Athens and Atlantis, are likewise symbolic representations of man in
his moral and spiritual conditions. In the Athenian commonwealth he is faultless, his tastes and
talent are kept employed and his several relations personal and social, are observed after the
most exemplary manner. For the ideal state has its correspondent likeness in the ideal man;
and the influence of that man and the ideal extend over the whole earth.
Atlantis in like manner represents man in the other phase of character. We have the
spectacle of ten kings, sons of Poseidon, ten being the number denoting completeness. As
Poseidon ruled his domain by arbitrary law, so the dominion is strictly arranged. All that is
needed is provided and arranged. Every want is met, every desire anticipated. So long as the
hereditary divine quality and its influence are dominant all goes on well. But as with man
when developing into adult life, there comes admixture from without. There are lapses from
primitive integrity. As flatterers and time servers do not take notice of this in a monarch, so the
individual is apt not to be conscious of serious dereliction in himself. Only those capable of
discerning the spirit, the divinely illuminated, perceive the fall and its accompaniments.
There are both an Athens of unblemished fame and an enfeebled, demoralized Atlantis in
every human being. "So," says Paul, "with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh the law of sin."
To this point, the speaker draws our attention. What is beyond is left for conjecture. The
catastrophe of Atlantis has been told, but only as a physical occurrence. It is also added that
Zeus himself, the supreme Arbiter, is about to take in hand the correcting of the unrighteous
conditions and restoration to primeval order.

--- 65.

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

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

-------------------
--- 66.

THE TEACHINGS OF PLOTINOS

Augustin, the celebrated bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa, described Plotinos as "Plato
risen from the dead." The singular probity of his character, his profound knowledge, his
intuitive perception which often seemed like omniscience, his ecstatic vision of Divinity, joined
with extraordinary sagacity in worldly matters, seemed to warrant such a declaration. The little
that is known of his personal history has been given by his more distinguished disciple,
Porphyry, who considered him divinely inspired.
The Platonic philosophy had been preserved by the Older Akademe approximating
somewhat toward the Pythagorean principles and then returning to the doctrines of the great
philosopher. There were also other schools, more or less amplifying his teachings in the way
down to the close of the Macedonian period. The establishment or the famous Museum and
Library at Alexandreia was the occasion for a new departure. The representatives of every
school of thought were invited thither, Wise Men of the Far East, together with the Sages of the
regions then known as the West. There had occurred a great upheaval in philosophic and
religious thought, which added importance to the undertaking. Asoka, a Piyadarsi of India,
having abandoned Jainism for Buddhism, had engaged in the most extensive work of
propaganda ever known, and sent eighty thousand missionaries, Southward, Eastward,
Northward, and even to the Greek-speaking countries. The Jews had their Temple in Egypt,
erected by their legitimate High Priest, and not inferior to the sanctuary at Jerusalem, or its
rival on Mount Gerizim. There were also Therapeutae, and sects of philosophy not necessary
to enumerate. All were welcomed by the Ptolemies to the Lecture Rooms at their capital, and
their books were eagerly procured for the Great Library. There was also a purpose to
surpass the similar

--- 67.

enterprise then in active operation at Pergamos.


Under these auspices there was developed a disposition to reconcile the conflicting
sentiments, and harmonize as far as might be, the several schools of belief. As the Platonic
philosophy was most complete of all and included the higher speculation, metaphysical and
ethical idealism, it was best suited for the foundation of an eclectic effort. Contiguity with the
East and the general adoption of the occult Mithraic Rites over the Roman world operated
powerfully to mitigate the hostilities incident to the various national and tribal religions. There
arose at one time and another men of ability to prepare the way for a harmony of philosophic
systems. Phila, Appolonios of Tyana, Alexander the Aphrodisian and others may be named in
the number.
Ammonios Sakkas of Alexandreia, however is generally accredited as the first teacher of
what is distinctly recognized as Neo-Platonism. Like other great leaders, little is recorded of
him personally. An Indian orator once addressed a missionary: "The Great Spirit speaks: we
hear his voice in the winds, in the rustling of the trees, and the purling of the streams of water;
but he does not write!'' The great teachers seem to have been equally silent with pen and
stylus. Konfusi, Gautama, Zoroaster, Sokrates, Jesus are known only through their professed
disciples. It was more common to publish recondite doctrines under another name as Hermes
Trismegistos, to which we may add the Sokrates of Plato's Dialogues, Zarathustra of the
Vendidad, Dionysios the Areopagite, Christian Rosenkreutz, and others with which we are
more familiar. The entire dogmas of Pythagoras were inculcated with the prefix of "Ipse dixit";
and Plato it was affirmed, taught a doctrine orally which his disciples promulgated in like
manner, but which was not preserved in writing.
Ammonios Sakkas taught at Alexandreia in the earlier years of the Third Century of the
present era. It was his belief that true doctrines were contained in every faith and philosophic
system, and he proposed to winnow them out for an Eclectic Scheme. The name selected for
himself and followers was that of Philaletheans, or lovers of the truth. A Zoroastrian tendency
may be perceived; the Eranian doctrines were designated as truth; all divergent systems, as
"the

--- 68.

Lie," He had a select body of disciples whom he obligated to secrecy, considering that the
"Wisdom of the Ancients" was too holy to be confided to profane persons. This obligation,
however, was set aside by Hercunius after his death.
Plotinos, however, became the representative and chief apostle of the new Eclectic
Philosophy. He was a native of Lykopolis or Siut in Upper Egypt, and was born in the year
205. He became a student at Alexandreia in 233, but was about to leave in disappointment
when he was introduced by a friend to Ammonios Sakkas. He at once in a transport devoted
himself to the new philosophy, remaining with the school eleven years. At this time the
amiable youth Gordian (Marcus Antoninus Pius Gordianus) had become Emperor, and now set
out on an expedition into the Parthian dominions. Plotinos accompanied the army with the
purpose "to study the philosophy of the Parthians and the Wisdom particularly cultivated by the
Indian Sages." His expectation, however, was not realized, the Emperor being assassinated by
a rival.
He now came to Rome, where he engaged zealously in his esoteric studies. It was his
aim to restore the philosophy of Plato in its essential character, and in short to live the life of
the disembodied while yet in the body, as is set forth in the Phaedo. He had many disciples,
many of them senators, physicians, and others of philosophic tastes. Among them was
Porphyrios, a native of Tyre, who at his request afterward edited and revised his work. Though
he lived a celibate and carefully abstained from public affairs, he was often made a trustee and
guardian of orphan children, particularly fatherless girls, and their estates, and also an arbiter of
disputes, and he always discharged these trusts with absolute fidelity. The Roman Emperor
Gallienus, who greatly admired him, bestowed upon him a deserted city in Campania, to which
was given the name of Platonopolis, and he made an endeavor to establish there a Platonic
Politeia, but without success. The courtiers hindered his efforts.
In many respects he resembled the Yogis of India. He was ascetic in his habits,
abstaining from animal food, and he is described as "ashamed that his soul was in a body." He
would not let his picture be painted, or tell the name of his parents or the race to which he

--- 69.

belonged, or even discourse about his native country. Though often dyspeptic and subject to
colic, he refused medical treatment, as unfit for a man of adult years. He never bathed, but
made daily use of massage. A pestilence raged at Rome with such violence that five thousand
persons are said to have perished in a single day. Plotinos was one of the victims. His servants
had died from the epidemic, leaving none to care for him, and he suffered terribly. His voice
was lost, his eyes blinded, and offensive ulcers covered him to his hands and even his feet. He
lingered in this condition till the year 270. In this condition he was carried to Campania, where
friends ministered to him. Here he was visited by Eustochius from Putechi. "I have expected
you," said the dying man. "I am now endeavoring that my divine part may return to that divine
essence that pervades the universe." He was sixty-four years old at the time of his death.
The veneration which the disciples of Plotinos entertained for him was almost a worship.
He was reputed to possess superhuman powers. Those who became familiar with him, like
those associating with Sokrates, passed thenceforward a better life. A lady named Khion with
her daughters living in his house, lost a valuable necklace, and Plotinos, looking among the
servants, picked out the thief. Polemo, a young man of his acquaintance, was told that he
would have a loose life, and die early. Porphyry himself construed too literally the notion of
hating the body, and was contemplating suicide. Plotinos perceived this, and pronouncing it
the effect of disease, sent him to Sicily, where he recovered, but never saw his preceptor again.
An Egyptian priest at Rome employed a theurgic test in order to discover the guardian
demon of Plotinos. It was done in the temple of Isis, but one of the higher order appeared.
"Thou hast a God for a guardian," he declared. On another occasion, one Olympius attempted
to bring upon him by magic art the baneful influence of the stars, but the malignant defluxion
was reflected upon himself. "Pius endeavor was several times repeated, but always with a
similar result. The soul of Plotinos repelled every evil assault. It was always tending to
Divinity'' says Porphyry.
The oracle was consulted. and described him as blessed of the Muses and possessing
endless bliss. "By the assistance of this

--- 70.

Divine Light,'' says Porphyry, he had frequently raised himself by his conceptions to the First
God who is beyond, and by employing for this purpose the Paths narrated by Plato in The
Banquet, there appeared to him the Supreme Divinity who has neither form nor ideal, but is
established above mind and everything spiritual - to whom also, I, Porphyry, say that I was
approached and was united when I was sixty-eight years of age..... The gods frequently directed
him into the right path by benignantly extending to him abundant rays of divine light: so that
he may be said to have composed his works from the contemplation and intuition of Divinity."
Plotinos did not readily compose books. Not till Porphyry became his disciple did he
begin, and he gave his compositions to Porphyry to revise. He prepared some fifty-four
treatises which were comprehended in the six Enneads of nine parts each. We may surmise his
estimate of his redactor by his praise of a poem, The Sacred Marriage, composed by the latter.
"You have thus yourself at the same time a poet, a philosopher, and an hierophant."
It was the purpose of Plotinos to combine and systematize the various religious and
philosophic theories, by exalting them to the higher concept. He taught the fact of three
hypostases or foundation principles - the Absolute Good, Mind and Soul. "For," says Taylor,
"according to Plato, the Good is superessential; Intellect is an impartible, immovable essence,
and Soul is a self-motive essence, and subsists as a medium between Intellect and the nature
which is distributed about bodies."
The Divine Being is accordingly designated by Plotinos, "The Good," "The One," "The
First," "The First Cause." In essence he is absolutely one and unchangeable; but plurality and
changeableness pertain to his workings. He is the Light shining into the darkness or chaos.
The first sphere of his activity is Mind or Intellect, in which he differentiates himself into
consciousness and its objects. In this Mind are the Ideas or idealities, which are at once the
archetypes and moving forces of the universe. From it all things proceed.
Thus, the Divine Spirit is the self-active, creating principle, and from spirit all matter is
derived. The world and the universe are the product of spirit: as also Paul declared: "All
things are out from God.''

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The most immediate product of Spirit, as Plotinos taught, is Soul, which in its turn shapes
matter into corporeal conditions. Receiving from the Spirit the world of ideas and the image or
archetype, it forms and fashions the world of Sense.
All existence, therefore, is an emanation and projection from the Divine One - not in
time, however, but in Eternity. There is also, he inculcated, a returning impulse attracting all
again to the centre and source. Hence he made less account of external knowledges, but
regarded the real truth as to be apprehended by an immediate divine illumination. He held
revelation to be a perception the individual attains, by coming in touch with the Deity. This is
Ecstasy - an absence and separation of the spirit or superior intellect from the sensation and
consciousness of the body and from the external memory, being rapt in contemplation of the
Absolute Good.
Sokrates himself was frequently in this enthusiastic condition. Alkibiades describes him
in the Banquet as one day during the Athenian expedition to Potides, standing by himself in
contemplation, from early dawn till mid-day and on through the night till next morning, when
he performed an invocation to the Sun and went away. Xenokrates was also thus absent from
the body. Paul describes a similar rapture when he was himself in the third heaven or paradise
hearing things unspeakable. In the initiations at the ancient mysteries, particularly at Eleusinia,
it was attempted to produce or develop an analogous condition.
Sokrates in the Phaedo describes the philosophic soul as retiring within itself, pushing
aside the body as far as possible, having no communication with it, and so aiming at the
discovery of that which is. Plotinos also teaches that the wise one cognizes the ideal of the
Divine Good within him by withdrawing into the Sanctuary of his own soul. Others seek to
realize it, as in the Theurgic Rites, by laborious effort of an external character. The true aim is
to concentrate and simplify. Instead of going out into the manifold, the true way is to forsake it
for the One, and so to float upward toward the Divine fountain of being which flows in each of
us.
He declares we cannot attain to this knowing of the Infinite by the exercising of the
reasoning faculty. It is the province of that

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faculty to distinguish and define; and the infinite may not be thus brought within limitations.
Only by a faculty superior to the understanding can we apprehend the Infinite; and this may be
done by entering into a state in which the individual is no longer his finite self, and in which
the Divine Essence is communicated to him. This is Ecstasy - the liberating of the mind from
the finite consciousness. Like can only apprehend like; thus ceasing to be finite we become
one with the Infinite. In the reducing of the Soul to this simple condition, its divine essence,
this union or identity is realized.
The mind is thus illumined with divine light. The person cannot tell whence it comes or
whither it goes.* It is he, rather, who approaches to it or withdraws. One must not pursue it,
but abide waiting for it patiently, as if looking for the sun to rise above the ocean. The soul,
blind to all beside, gazes intently on the ideal vision of the Beautiful, and is glorified as it
contemplates it.
This condition, Plotinos says, is not one that endures permanently. Our common human
nature is not sufficient for it. It may be enjoyed now and then. All that tends to purify the
mind will assist in the attainment, and facilitate the approach and recurring of these felicitous
experiences.
There are different paths to the Sublime Height. Every one may take the one that is best
suited to him. There is the love of beauty and excellence which inspires the poet; the devotion
to the Supreme One and the pursuit of the Superior Knowledge which impel the philosopher;
the piety and love which characterize the ardent soul. These are so many paths conducting to
the heights above the actual and the particular; and then we stand in the immediate presence of
the Infinite, who shines out as from the deeps of the soul.
It will be perceived that Plotinos extends human consciousness from the physical and
psychic, of which we all know, to a supra-consciousness or apperception in which the higher
intellect or spirit is

-----------
* Jesus says to Nicodemus: "The pneuma or spirit moves whither it will, and thou canst
not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth: So is every one that is born of the Spirit."
------------
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brought into communion with its like, and to the realization of being one with Divinity itself.
This is the acme of Neo-Platonism. The Mysticism of later centuries which Dionysius, Eckart,
Boehmen, and Malinos inculcated, and which Sa'adi and others diffused in the Moslem body,
took from this an inspiration. The Apostle Paul himself recognized the doctrine. He describes
the entirety of man as "spirit and soul and body," and "delights in the law of God after the inner
man." He also treats of the "psychic man" that does not receive the things of the spirit, and
''one that is spirited, who knoweth the All, but is not himself known by any."
lamblichos of Coelosyria mingled with these doctrines a Theurgic Initiation after the
manner of the Egyptian priests and Theosophers and was followed by Proklos and others. But
in its simplicity as taught by Plotinos and Porphyry, there were no such secret observances, but
only a general conforming to the customs instituted for the general public. It was enough for
the philosopher to contemplate excellence and by a pure and true life realize it in himself. Such
are they of whom the world is not worthy.

(Theosophy, Sept., 1897)

----------------
---76.

PORPHYRY AND HIS TEACHINGS

The distinction is due to Porphyry of having been the most able and consistent champion
and exponent of the Alexandreian School. He was a native of Tyre, of Semitic extraction, and
was born in the year 233, in the reign of the Emperor Alexander Severus. He was placed at an
early age under the tutelage of Origen, the celebrated Christian philosopher, who had himself
been a pupil of Ammonios Sakkas. Afterward he became a student of Longinus at Athens, who
had opened a school of rhetoric, literature and philosophy. Longinus had also been a disciple
of Ammonios, and was distinguished as the Scholar of the Age. He was often called a "Living
Library," and the "Walking School of Philosophy." He afterward became the counselor of
Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, an honor that finally cost him his life. Longinus foresaw the
promise of his pupil, and according to a custom of the time, changed his Semitic name of
Melech (king) to Porphyrios, or wearer of the purple.
In his thirtieth year, Porphyry bade farewell to his teachers in Greece and became a
student in the school of Plotinos at Rome. Here he remained six years. Plotinos greatly
esteemed him and often employed him to instruct the younger pupils, and to answer the
questions of objectors. On one of the occasions, when the anniversary of Plato's Birthday was
celebrated (the seventh of May), Porphyry recited a poem entitled The Sacred Marriage. Many
of the sentiments in it were mystic and occult, which led one of the company to declare him
crazed. Plotinos, however, was of another mind, and exclaimed in delight: "You have truly
shown yourself to be at once a Poet, a Philosopher, and a Hierophant."
That Porphyry was an enthusiast and liable to go to extremes was to be expected. He
acquired an abhorrence of the body, with its appetites and conditions, and finally began to
entertain an intention

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to commit suicide. This, he says, "Plotinos wonderfully perceived, and as I was walking alone,
he stood before me and said: 'Your present design, Porphyrios, is by no means the dictate of a
sound mind, but rather of a Soul raging with the furor of melancholia.'"
Accordingly, at his direction, Porphyry left Rome and became a resident at Lilybaeum in
Sicily. There he presently recovered a normal state of mind and health. He never again saw
his venerated instructor. Plotinos, however, kept up a correspondence with him, sending him
manuscripts to correct and put in good form, and encouraging him to engage in authorship on
his own account.
After the death of Plotinos, he returned to Rome and became himself a teacher. “With a
temperament more active and practical than that of Plotinos, with more various ability and far
more facility in adaptation, with an erudition equal to his fidelity, blameless in his life,
preeminent in the loftiness and purity of his ethics, he was well fitted to do all that could be
done toward drawing for the doctrines he had espoused that reputation and that wider influence
to which Plotinos was so indifferent.'' [R. A. Vaughan.] It was his aim to exalt worship to its
higher ideal, casting off superstitious notions and giving a spiritual sense and conception to the
Pantheon, the rites and the mythologic legends. What is vulgarly denominated idolatry,
paganism and polytheism, had little countenance in his works, except as thus expounded. He
emulated Plotinos, who on being asked why he did not go to the temple and take part in the
worship of the gods, replied: "It is for the gods to come to me."
When he lived, the new Christian religion was gaining a foothold, particularly among the
Greek-speaking peoples, and its teachers appear to have been intolerant even to the extreme of
bigotry. The departure from established customs was so flagrant as to awaken in the Imperial
Court vivid apprehensions of treasonable purposes. Similar apprehensions had led the Roman
Senate to suppress the Bacchic Nocturnal Rites; and energetic measures had also been
employed in the case of the flagitious enormities in the secret worship of the Venus of Kotytto.
The nightly meetings of the Christians were represented to be of a similar character. This led
to vigorous efforts for their suppression. Porphyry, though broad in his

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liberality, was strenuous in his opposition to their doctrines, and wrote fifteen treatises against
them. These were afterward destroyed in the proscription by Theodosios, without any attempt
to answer them.
He was equally suspicious of the Theurgic doctrines and magic rites. The sacrifice of
men and animals, for sacrifice and divination, was resolutely discountenanced as attracting evil
demons. "A right opinion of the gods and of things themselves," he declared, "is the most
acceptable sacrifice."
"Very properly," said he, "will the philosopher who is also the priest of the God that is
above all, abstain from all animal food, in consequence of earnestly endeavoring to approach
through himself alone to the alone God, without being disturbed by anything about him."
This was the very core of the Neo-Platonic doctrine. "This," says Plotinos, "this is the
life of the Gods, and of divine and blessed human beings - a liberation from earthly concerns, a
life unaccompanied by human delights, and a flight of the alone to the Alone."
"He who is truly a philosopher," adds Porphyry, "is an observer and skilled in many
things; he understands the works of nature, is sagacious, temperate and modest, and is in every
respect the savior and preserver of himself."
"Neither vocal language nor is internal speech adapted to the Most High God, when it is
defiled by any passion of the soul; but we should venerate him in silence with a pure soul, and
with pure conceptions about him."
"It is only requisite to depart from evil, and to know what is most honorable in the whole
of things, and then everything in the universe is good, friendly and in alliance with us."
"Nature, being herself a spiritual essence, initiates those through the superior Mind
(noos) who venerate her." Although himself believing in divination and communion with
spiritual essences, Porphyry distrusted the endeavor to blend philosophic contemplation with
magic arts, or orgiastic observances. This is manifest in his Letter to Anebo the Egyptian
prophet in which he demands full explanations respecting the arts of evoking the gods and
demons,

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divining by the stars and other agencies, the Egyptian belief respecting the Supreme Being, and
what was the true path to Blessedness.
Although we read of no formal schism, there appear to have been two distinct parties -
that of the Theurgists represented by Iamblichos, Proklos and their followers, and the disciples
of Porphyry, Hypatia, and other teachers, who inculcated that there is an intuitive perception
cognate in the soul, and that there may be a union and communion with Divinity by ecstasy and
suspension of corporeal consciousness.
"By his conceptions,'' says Porphyry, had Plotinos, assisted by the divine light raised
himself to the First God beyond, and by employing for this purpose the paths narrated by Plato
in The Banquet, there appeared to him the Supreme Divinity who has neither any form nor
idea, but is established above Mind and every Spiritual Essence: to whom also, I, Porphyry,
say that I once approached, and was united when I was sixty-eight years of age. For the end
and scope with Plotinos consisted in approximating and being united to the God who is above
all. Four times he obtained this end while I was with him (in Rome) and this by an ineffable
energy and not in capacity."
Porphyry lived till the reign of Diocletian, dying in his seventieth year. He had given the
later Platonism a well-defined form, which was retained for centuries. Even after the change of
the State religion, the whole energy of the Imperial Government was required to crush it. Even
when Justinian arbitrarily closed the school at Athens, and the teachers had escaped to the
Persian king for safety, there were still adherents in secret to their philosophy. Afterward, too,
they came forth in Oriental Sufism and Western Mysticism, and retained their influence till the
present time.
Among the works of Porphyry which have escaped destruction, are his treatise on
"Abstinence from Animal Food," nearly entire, the "Cave of the Nymphs," "Auxiliaries to the
Study of Intelligible (Spiritual) Natures," "The Five Voices," "Life of Plotinos," "Letter to
Anebo," "Letter to his Wife Marcella," "The River Styx," "Homeric Questions," "Commentaries
on the Harmonies of Ptolemy." His other

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books were destroyed by order of Theodosios.


The "Cave of the Nymphs'' is described in the Odyssey as situate in the island of Ithaca.
The term is figurative and the story allegoric. The ancients dealt much in allegory; and the
Apostle Paul does not hesitate to declare the story of the patriarch Abraham and his two sons
allegory, and that the exodus of the Israelites through the sea and into the Arabian desert was a
narrative made up of types or figures of speech. Caves symbolized the universe, and appear to
have been the sanctuaries of archaic time. It is said that Zoroaster consecrated one to Mithras
as the Creator; and that Kronos concealed his children in a cave; and Plato describes this
world as a cave and prison. Demeter and her daughter Persephone, each were worshiped in
caves. Grottos once used for worship abound in Norway. Mark Twain asserts that the "sacred
places'' in Palestine were located by the Catholics, and are all of them caves. The initiation
rites were performed in caves, or apartments representing subterranean apartments, with "a dim
religious light." Zeus and Bacchus were nursed in such places. The Mithraic worship which
was adopted from the Persians, and carried all through the Roman world, had its initiations in
Sacred Caverns. To the caves were two entrances, one for mortals at the north and one for
divine beings at the south. The former was for souls coming from the celestial world to be born
as human beings, and the other for their departure from this world heavenward. An olive-tree
standing above, expressed the whole enigma. It typified the divine wisdom, and so implied that
this world was no product of chance, but the creation of wisdom and divine purpose. The
Nymphs were also agents in the same category. Greek scholars will readily comprehend this.
The nymphs presided over trees and streams of water, which also are symbols of birth into this
world. Numphe signifies a bride, or marriageable girl; numpheion a marriage-chamber;
numpheuma an espousal. Water was styled numphe as significant of generation. In short the
Cave of the Nymphs, with the olive-tree, typified the world with souls descending from the
celestial region to be born into it, in an order established by Divine Wisdom itself.
Thus we may see that the ancient Rites, and Notions, now

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stigmatized as idolatrous, were but eidola or visible representations of arcane and spiritual
concepts. As they were once observed with pure reverence, it becomes us to regard them with
respect. What is accounted holy can not be altogether impure.
The treatise on Animal Food covers a very broad field which space forbids the traversing.
The point in view is of course, that a philosopher, a person in quest of a higher life and higher
wisdom, should live simply, circumspectly, and religiously forbear to deprive his fellow-
animals of life for his food. Even for sacrifice he regards the immolating of men or animals
repugnant to the nature of Gods, and attractive only to lower races of spiritual beings.
He, however, leaves those engaged in laborious callings entirely out. His discourse, he
declares, "is not directed to those who are occupied in sordid mechanical arts, nor to those
engaged in athletic exercises; neither to soldiers, nor sailors, nor rhetoricians, nor to those who
lead an active life, but I write to the man who considers what he is, whence he came, and
whither he ought to tend."
"The end with us is to obtain the contemplation of Real Being [the essence that really is];
the attainment of it procuring, as much as is possible for us, a union of the person
contemplating with the object of contemplation. The re-ascent of the soul is not to anything
else than to True Being itself. Mind [noos] is truly-existing being; so that the end is, to live a
life of mind."
Hence purification and felicity (endaimonia) are not attained by a multitude of
discussions and disciplines, nor do they consist in literary attainments but on the other hand we
should divest ourselves of everything of a mortal nature which we assumed by coming from the
eternal region into the mundane condition, and likewise of a tenacious affection for it, and
should excite and call forth our recollection of that blessed and eternal essence from which we
issued forth.
"Animal food does not contribute to temperance and frugality, or to the piety which
especially gives completion to the contemplative life, but is rather hostile to it." Abstinence
neither diminishes our life nor occasions living unhappily. The Pythagoreans made lenity
toward beasts to be an exercise of philanthropy and commiseration. The

--- 82.

Egyptian priests generally employed a slender diet, generally abstaining from all animals, some
even refusing to eat eggs, and "they lived free from disease." So, Hesiod described the men of
the Golden Age.
The essay on Intelligible or Spiritual Natures is in the form of aphorisms, and gives the
cream of the Later Platonism. We can select only a few of the sentiments. Every body is in
place; but things essentially incorporeal are not present with bodies by personality and
essence. They, however, impart a certain power to bodies through verging towards them. The
soul is an entity between indivisible essence, and the essence about bodies. The mind or spirit
is indivisible, or whole. The soul is bound to the body through the corporeal passions and is
liberated by becoming impassive. Nature bound the body to the soul; but the soul binds itself
to the body. Hence there are two forms of death: one that of the separating of soul and body,
and that of the philosopher, the liberating of the soul from the body. This is the death which
Sokrates describes in the Phaedo.
The knowing faculties are sense, imagination, and mind or spirit. Sense is of the body,
imagination of the soul, but mind is self-conscious and apperceptive. Soul is an essence
without magnitude, immaterial, incorruptible, possessing its existence in life, and having life
from itself.
The properties of matter are thus set forth: It is incorporeal; it is without life, it is
formless, infinite, variable and powerless; it is always becoming and in existence; it deceives;
it resembles a flying mockery eluding all pursuit, and vanishing into non-entity. It appears to
be full, yet contains nothing.
"Of that Being that is beyond Mind many things are asserted through intellection; but it
is better surveyed by a cessation of intellectual activity than with it. The similar is known by
the similar; because all knowledge is an assimilation to the object of knowledge."
"The bodily substance is no impediment whatever to that which is essentially incorporeal,
to prevent it from being where and in such a way as it wishes to be." An incorporeal nature, a
soul, if contained in a body is not enclosed in it like a wild beast in a cage; nor is it

--- 83.

contained in it as a liquid in a receptacle. Its conjunction with body is effected by means of an


ineffable extension from the eternal region. It is not liberated by the death of the body, but it
liberates itself by turning itself from a tenacious affection to the body.
God is present everywhere because he is nowhere; and this is also true of Spirit and
Soul. Each of these is everywhere because each is nowhere. As all beings and non-beings are
from and in God, hence he is neither beings nor non-beings, nor does he subsist in them. For if
he was only everywhere he could be all things and in all; but since he is likewise nowhere, all
things are produced through him, and are contained in him because he is everywhere. They
are, however, different from him, because he is nowhere. Thus, likewise, mind or spirit being
everywhere and nowhere, is the cause of souls, and of the natures posterior to souls; yet mind
is not soul, nor the natures posterior to soul, nor does it subsist in them; because it is not only
everywhere, but also nowhere with respect to the natures posterior to it. Soul, also, is neither
body nor in body, but it is the cause of body because being everywhere, it is also nowhere with
respect to body. In its egress from the body if it still possesses a spirit and temper turbid from
earthly exhalations, it attracts to itself a shadow and becomes heavy. It then necessarily lives
on the earth. When, however, it earnestly endeavors to depart from nature, it becomes a dry
splendor, without a shadow, and without a cloud or mist.
Virtues are of two kinds, political and contemplative. The former are called political or
social, as looking to an in-noxious and beneficial association with others. They consist of
prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. These adorn the mortal man, and are the
precursors of purification. "But the virtues of him who proceeds to the contemplative life,
consist in a departure from terrestrial concerns. Hence, also, they are denominated
purifications, being surveyed in the refraining from corporeal activities, and avoiding
sympathies with the body. For these are the virtues of the soul elevating itself to true being."
He who has the greater virtues has also the less, but the contrary is not true.
When it is asserted that incorporeal being is one, and then

--- 84.

added that it is likewise all, it is signified that it is not some one of the things which are
cognized by the senses.
The scope of the political virtues is to give measure to the passions in their practical
operations according to nature. He who acts or energizes according to the practical virtues is a
worthy man; he who lives according to the purifying virtues is an angelic man, or good demon;
he who follows the virtues of the mind or spirit alone is a god; he who follows the exemplary
virtues is father of gods." In this life we may obtain the purifying virtues which free us from
body and conjoin us to the heavens. But we are addicted to the pleasures and pains of sensible
things, in conjunction with a promptitude to them, from which disposition it is requisite to be
purified. "This will be effected by admitting necessary pleasures and the sensations of them,
merely as remedies or as a liberation from pain, in order that the higher nature may not be
impeded in its operations." In short, the doctrines of Porphyry, like those of the older
philosophers, teach that we are originally of heaven, but temporarily become inhabitants of the
earth; and that the end of the true philosophic life, is to put off the earthly proclivities, that we
may return to our primal condition.

(Universal Brotherhood, Nov., 1897)

---------------------
--- 85.

IAMBLICHOS AND THEURGY: THE REPLY TO PORPHYRY


In the Lexicon of Suidas we find the following brief sketch of the subject of this paper:
"Iamblichos* the philosopher, a native of Chalkis in Syria, disciple of Porphyry who was
himself the pupil of Plotinos, flourished about the time of Constantine the Emperor (basileus)
and was the author of many philosophic treatises." He belonged to a noble family, and
received the most liberal education that could be obtained. He pursued the study of
mathematics and philosophy under Anatolios, probably the bishop of that name who had
himself delivered philosophic lectures at Alexandreia as a follower of Aristotle.
After this Iamblichos became a disciple of Porphyry, and succeeded to his place in the
School. He is described as scholarly, but not original in his views. His manner of life was
exemplary, and he was frugal in his habits. He lacked the eloquence of Plotinos, yet excelled
him in popularity. Students thronged from Greece and Syria to hear him in such numbers that
it was hardly possible for one man to attend to them all. They sat with him at the table,
followed him

-------------
* There are several persons of this name mentioned by ancient writers. One was a king
of Arabia to whom Cicero referred. A second was a philosopher who was educated at Babylon
and flourished under the reign of the Antonines. The original term is Malech or Moloch,
signifying king. It was applied by all the various Semitic peoples as a title of honor to their
chief divinity. The subject of this article employed simply the Greek form to his name, but
Longinus translated the designation of his own famous pupil, Porphyrios, wearer of the purple.
-------------
--- 86.

wherever he went, and listened to him with profound veneration. It is said that he probably
resided in his native city. This may have been the case, as the affairs of the Roman world were
then greatly disturbed. The philosophers, however, were not circumscribed to one region, and
there were schools where they lectured in Athens, Pergamos and other places, as well as at
Alexandreia. Plotinos spent his last years at Rome and contemplated the founding of a
Platonic commune in Italy; and Porphyry was with him there, with other pupils and associates,
afterward marrying and living in Sicily. Alypios the friend and colleague of Iamblichos
remained at Alexandreia.
Many of the works of Iamblichos are now lost. He wrote Expositions of the doctrines of
Plato and Aristotle, a treatise on the Soul, and another to demonstrate the virtues and potencies
existing in the statues and symbols of the gods. Another work treated of the Chaldean
Theology. The loss of this is much to be regretted. The religion of the Chaldaeans was largely
astronomic as well as mystical, and its creed could be read in the heavens. Late researches
indicate that the Egyptian, with all its antiquity, was derived from it in the remote periods. The
science denominated Mathematics, including geometry and astronomy, was a part of the
system, and all problems of genesis and evolution were wrought out by it. The philosophy of
Pythagoras was modeled from it, and the Rabbinic learning was Chaldaean in its origin. It has
been repeatedly suggested that the Mosaic book of Genesis was a compilation from the same
literature, and capable of being interpreted accordingly.
lamblichos also wrote a Life of Pythagoras which was translated into English by the late
Thomas Taylor, and published in London in 1818. Part of a treatise on the Pythagoric Life is
also yet
extant. It contains an account of the Pythagorean Sect, explanations of the Pythagorean
doctrines, the Profounder Mathematics, the Arithmetical Science of Nikomachos, and
Theological Discourses respecting Numbers, besides other divisions which have not been
preserved.
The most celebrated work ascribed to him, however, is the Logos, a Discourse upon the
Mysteries. It is prefaced by a "Letter of

--- 87.

Porphyry to Anebo, the Egyptian Priest," and is itself described as "the Reply of Abammon, the
Teacher, to the Letter of Porphyry to Anebo,, and Solutions of Questions therein contained."
This work was also translated by Mr. Taylor and published in 1821. The translation was
thorough and faithful, but unfortunately, it is difficult for a novice to understand. He would
need to know the Greek text itself. There is a profusion of unusual terms, and the book
abounds with allusions to occurrences, and spectacles in the Initiatory Rites which are nowhere
explained, leaving the whole meaning more or less vague and uncertain. It has been said in
explanation of this that Mr. Taylor desired the sense to be obscure, so that it would be difficult
for all general readers to understand it, as truth is only for those who are worthy and capable.*
The genuiness of the authorship has been strenuously disputed by Meiners, and defended
with apparent conclusiveness by Tennemann. It is certainly somewhat different in style from
the other works, and as is well-known, it was a common practice at that period, not only for
copyists to add or omit words and sentences in manuscripts, but for authors themselves to give
the name of some more distinguished person as the actual writer. But there is said to he a
scholium or annotation in several manuscripts in which Proklos declares that this treatise on the
Mysteries was written by Iamblichos, and that he had merely disguised himself under the name
of Abammon.
Iamblichos was greatly esteemed by his contemporaries, and those who lived in the
ensuing centuries. Eunapios, his biographer, styled him Thaumasios, or the Admirable.
Proklos

------------
* The writer himself prepared a translation several years ago which was published in The
Platonist. It is now undergoing revision with a view to make the author's meaning more
intelligible to the novitiate reader, and notes are added to explain the frequent references to
scenes and phenomena witnessed in the Autopsias and arcane ceremonies; which, however
plain to the expert and initiated, are almost hopelessly difficult for others to understand.
------------
--- 88.

habitually designated him the God-like, and others actually credited him with powers superior
to common men. Julian the Emperor considered him as in no way second to Plato, and
reverenced him as one of the greatest among mankind.
Iamblichos made a new departure in the teaching of philosophy. He exhibits a
comparative indifference to the contemplative discipline, and has introduced procedures which
pertained to Magic Rites and the Egyptian Theurgy.* It was natural therefore that Porphyry,
his friend and former teacher, who taught the other doctrine, should desire to know the nature
and extent of this apparent deviation from the accepted philosophic procedures. Uncertain
whether his questions would otherwise reach the Master, perhaps then absent from Egypt, he
addressed them to Anebo, his disciple, who held the office of prophet or interpreter in the
sacerdotal order. He did not assume to blame or even criticize, but asked as a friend what these
Theosophers and theurgic priests believed and were teaching in respect to the several orders of
superior and intelligent beings, oracles and divination, the efficacy of sacrifices, and
evocations, the reason for employing foreign terms at the Mystic Rites, the Egyptian belief in
respect to the First Cause, concluding with enquiries and a discussion in regard to guardian
demons, the casting of nativities, and finally asks whether there may not be after all a path to
eudaimonia, or the true felicity other than by sacrifices and the technique of Theurgy.
The reply of Abammon is explicit and admirable, as affording a key to the whole system.
To us, perhaps, who have grown up in another age and received a training in other modes of
thinking, his statements and descriptions may appear visionary and even absurd. We may,
however, bear in mind that they did not appear so to those for whom he wrote; and should
respect the convictions which others

------------
* "Theurgy. ....The art of securing divine or supernatural intervention in human affairs;
especially the magical science practiced by those Neo-Platonists who employed invocations,
sacrifices, diagrams, talismans, etc." ..... Standard Dictionary
------------
--- 89.

reverently and conscientiously entertain.


In the work under notice, the author plainly endeavored to show that a common idea
pervaded the several ancient religions. He did this so successfully that Samuel Sharpe did not
hesitate to declare that by the explanation given of them the outward and visible symbols
employed in the Arcane Worship became emblems of divine truth; that the Egyptian religion
becomes a part of Platonism, and the gods are so many agents or intermediate beings only
worshiped as servants of the Divine Creator. With this conception in mind, this work may be
read with fair apprehending of the meaning of the author.
He proposes to base the classification of Spiritual Essences upon the doctrines of the
Assyrians, but modifies it by the views better understood by the Greeks. For example, he
enumerates the four genera of gods, demons, heroes or demigods, and souls, and explains some
of their distinctions. Before concluding he introduces three other orders from the Assyrian
category, making seven in all, occupying distinct grades in the scale of being.
In defining their peculiarities, he begins with "the Good - both the good that is superior to
Essence and that which is with Essence," the Monad and Duad of the philosophers; in other
words the Essential Good and that Absolute Good that is prior to it. The gods are supreme, the
causes of things, and are circumscribed by no specific distinction. The archangels are not
carefully described. This may be because they belong to the Assyrian and not to the Egyptian
category. They are there enumerated as seven, like the Amshaspands in the Zoroastrian system.
They are very similar to the higher gods, but are subordinate to them, and indeed seem to
denote qualities rather than personalities. After them come the angels. These are likewise of
the East, and doubtless the same as the Yazadas of the Avesta, of whom Mithras was chief.
The Seven Kabeiri or archangels preside over the planets; the Yesdis or angels rule over the
universe in a subordinate way. The demons or guardians carry into effect the purposes of the
gods with the world and those that are inferior to them. The heroes or demigods are
intermediate between the more exalted orders of spiritual beings and psychic natures, and are
the means of communication between them. 90.
Neo-Platonism

--- 90

They impart to the latter the benign influences of those superior to them and aid to deliver from
the bondage of the lower propensities. Another race that Abammon names is that of the
archons or rulers. These are described as of two species: the cosmocrators or rulers of the
planets, and those that rule over the material world. Souls are at the lower step of this seven-
graded scale, and make the communication complete from the Absolute One to the inhabitants
of the world. The result of this communication is to sustain the lower psychic nature and exalt
it to union with Divinity.
This union is not effected by the superior knowledge alone, nor by the action of the
higher intellect, although these are necessary auxiliaries. Nothing which pertains to us as
human beings is thus efficacious. There must be a more potent energy. This is explained
subsequently.
In regard to oracles and the faculty of divining, Abammon quotes the Chaldaean sages, as
teaching that the soul has a double life, one in common with the body, and the other separate
from every thing corporeal. When we are awake we use the things pertaining to the body,
except we detach ourselves altogether from it by pure principles in thought and understanding.
In sleep, however, we are in a manner free. The soul is cognizant beforehand of coming
events, by the reasons that precede them. Any one who overlooks primary causes, and
attributes the faculty of divining to secondary assistance, or to causes of a psychic or physical
character, or to some correspondence of these things to one another, will go entirely wrong.
Dreams, however, which may be regarded as God-sent occur generally when sleep is
about leaving us and we are just beginning to awake. Sometimes we have in them a brief
discourse indicating things about to take place; or it may be that during the period between
waking and complete repose, voices are heard. Sometimes, also, a spirit, imperceptible and
unbodied, encompasses the recumbent individual in a circle, so as not to be present to the
person's sight, coming into the consciousness by joint-sensation and keeping in line with the
thought. Sometimes the sight of the eyes is held fast by a light beaming forth bright and soft,
and remains so, when they had been wide open before. The other senses, however,

--- 91.

are watchful and conscious of the presence of superior beings.


These, therefore, are totally unlike the dreams which occur in ordinary conditions. On
the other hand the peculiar sleeplessness, the holding of the sight, the catalepsy resembling
lethargy, the condition between sleep and waking, and the recent awaking or entire
wakefulness, are all divine and suitable for the receiving of the gods as guests. Indeed, they are
conditions sent from the gods, and precede divine manifestations.
There are many forms of entheastic exaltation. Sometimes we share the innermost power
of Divinity; sometimes only the intermediate, sometimes the first alone. Either the soul enjoys
them by itself, or it may have them in concert with the body, or the whole of the individual, all
parts alike, receive the divine inflowings. The human understanding, when it is controlled by
demons, is not affected; it is not from them, but from the gods that inspiration comes. This he
declares to be by no means an ecstasy, or withdrawing from one's own selfhood. It is an
exaltation to the superior condition; for ecstasy and mental alienation he affirms indicate an
overturning to the worse.
Here Abammon seems to diverge from the doctrine of Plotinos and Porphyry. Indeed, he
is often Aristotelian rather than Platonic in his philosophy, and he exalts Theurgy above
philosophic contemplation. He explains himself accordingly.
The Soul, before she yielded herself to the body, was a hearer of the divine harmony.
Accordingly, after she came into the body and heard such of the Choric Songs* as retain the
divine traces of harmony, she gave them a hearty welcome and by means of them called back to
her memory the divine harmony itself. Thus she is attracted and becomes closely united to it,
and in this way receives as much of it as is possible. The Theurgic Rites, sacred melodies and
contemplation develop the entheastic condition, and enable the soul

--------------
* The chants of the Chorus, at the Mystic Rites. The choir danced or moved in rhythmic
step around the altar facing outward with hands joined, and chanted the Sacred Odes.
--------------
--- 92.

to perceive truth as it exists in the Eternal world, the world of real being.
Divinity, it is insisted, is not brought down into the signs and symbols which are
employed in the art of divination. It is not possible for essence to be developed from any thing
which does not contain it already. The susceptible condition is only sensible of what is going
on and is now in existence, but foreknowledge reaches even things which have not yet begun to
exist.
Abammon explains the doctrine of "Karma" as readily as Sakyamuni himself. This
shows what King Priyadarsi declared, that the Buddhistic teachings had been promulgated in
Egypt, Syria and Greece. "The beings that are superior to us know the whole life of the soul
and all its former lives; and if they bring a retribution by reason of the supplication of some
who pray to them, they do not inflict it beyond what is right. On the other hand, they aim at the
sins impressed on the soul in former lives; which fact human beings not being conscious of,
deem it not just to be obliged to encounter the vicissitudes which they suffer."
His explanation of the utility of sacrifices is ingenious, but will hardly be appreciated by
many at the present time. Some of the gods, he explains, belong to the sphere of the material
world, and others are superior to it. If, then, a person shall desire to worship according to
theurgic rites those divinities that belong to the realm of material things, he must employ a
mode of worship which is of that sphere. It is not because of these divinities themselves that
animals are slaughtered, and their dead bodies presented as sacrifices. These divinities are in
their constitution wholly separate from any thing material. But the offerings are made because
of the matter over which they are rulers. Nevertheless, though they are in essence wholly apart
from matter, they are likewise present with it; and though they take hold of it by a supra-
material power they exist with it.
But to the divinities who are above the realm of matter, the offering of any material
substance in Holy Rites, is utterly repugnant.
In regard to the efficacy of prayer, Abammon is by no means equivocal or indefinite. He
declares that it joins the Sacred Art in an

--- 93.

indissoluble union with the divine beings. It leads the worshiper to direct contact and a
genuine knowing of the divine nature. A bond of harmonious fellowship is created, and as a
result there come gifts from the gods to us before a word is uttered, and our efforts are
perfected before they are distinctly cognized. In the most perfect form of prayer the arcane
union with the gods is reached, every certainty is assured, enabling our souls to repose
perfectly therein. It attracts our habits of thought upward, and imparts to us power from the
gods. In short it makes those who make use of it the intimate companions of the divine beings.
It is easy to perceive, therefore, says Abammon, that these two, prayer and the other rites
and offerings, are established by means of each other, and give to each other the sacred
initiating power of the Holy Rite.
He denies the possibility of obtaining perfect foreknowledge by means of an emotional
condition. This is a blending of the higher nature with corporeal and material quality, which
results in dense ignorance. Hence it is not proper to accept an artificial method in divining, nor
to hold any one making use of it in any great esteem. The Theurgos commands the powers of
the universe, not as one using the faculties of a human soul, but as a person preexistent in the
order of the divine beings, and one with them.
The explanation of the use of foreign terms, not intelligible to the hearer, is noteworthy.
"The gods have made known to us that the entire language of sacred nations, such as the
Egyptians and Assyrians, is most suitable for religious matters; and we must believe that it
behooves us to carry on our conferences with the gods in language natural to them." Names are
closely allied to the things which they signify, and when translated they lose much of their
power.* The foreign names have great significance, greater conciseness, and less uncertainty
of meaning.

-----------
* We may perhaps, see in this the ulterior reason why Brahmans choose the obsolete
Sanskrit, Jews the Hebrew and Roman Catholics, the Latin in their religious services, saying
nothing
-----------
--- 94.

The First Cause, the God Unknowable, is indicated in graphic language, "Before the
things that really are and universal principles is one Divine Essence, prior even to the First God
and King abiding immovable in his own absolute Oneness. For nothing thinkable is
commingled with him, nor anything whatever; but he is established the antecedent of the God
self-fathered, self-produced, sole Father, the Truly Good. For he is the Being greatest and first,
the Origin of all things, and the foundation of the primal ideal forms which are produced by the
Higher Intellect. From this One, the Absolute God radiated forth; hence he is the self-fathered
and self-sufficient. For this is the First Cause and God of Gods, the Unity from out of the One,
prior to Essence and the First Cause of Essence. For from him are both the quality of essence
and essence itself - for which reason he is called the Chief Intelligence. These are therefore the
oldest principles of all things."
This is perhaps as plain and explicit as this subject can be made. The close resemblance
to the Brahman of the Indian system, from whom proceeds Brahma the Creator, is apparent at a
glance. Abammon cites also the Tablet of Hermes, which placed Emeph or Imopht at the head
of the celestial divinities, and named a First Intelligence as before him and to be worshiped in
silence. The Chaldaeans and also the Magians taught a similar doctrine.
It being established that the Supreme Mind and the Logos or Reason subsist by
themselves, it is manifest that all things existing, are from them - beginning with the One and
proceeding to the many. There is a Trine: a pure Intelligence above and superior to the
universe, an indivisible One in the universe, and another, the

--------------
of the "unknown tongues," the use of which in religious services was so much deprecated by
the Apostle Paul. We observe the same notion or superstition in the attachment witnessed for
the word Jehovah, a term falsely literated in place of the Assyrian divinity Yava or Raman.
Even the Polychrome Bible transmits this idle whim by lettering the word as J H V H, which
nobody can pronounce intelligently.
--------------
--- 95.

universal Life, that is divided and apportioned to all the spheres. Matter is also introduced into
the circle, being evolved from the spiritual substance; and so, "materiality having been riven
from essentiality on its lower side, and being full of vitality, the spheres and all living things
are created and organized therefrom."
Abammon has taken a view of Fate which though in many respects acceptable seems also
to relate to the ruling of the nativity. It is not true, he insists, that every thing is bound with the
indissoluble bonds of Necessity. The lowest natures only, which are combined with the
changeable order of the universe, and with the body, are thus subjected. Man, however, has, so
to speak, two souls: one that participates of the First Intelligence and the power of the Creator,
and one from the astral worlds. The latter follows the motions of those worlds, but the former
is above them, and therefore is not held by fate or allotment.
There is another principle of the soul superior to all being and becoming to all, nature and
nativity, through which we can be united to the gods, rise above the established order of the
world, and participate in the life eternal and in the energy of the gods above the heavens.
Through this principle we are able to set ourselves free. For when the better qualities in us are
active, and the Soul is led back again to the natures superior to itself, then it becomes entirely
separated from every thing that held it fast to the conditions of nativity, stands aloof from
inferior natures, exchanges this life for the other, abandons entirely the former order of things,
and gives itself to another."
In regard to nativities, Abammon admits that the divine oracular art can teach us what is
true in respect to the stars, but declares that we do not stand in any need of the enumeration
prescribed by the Canons of astrology or those of the art of divining. That the astronomic
predictions are verified by results, observations prove. But they do not relate to any
recognition of the guardian demon. It is true, he remarks, that there is the lord of the house, as
mathematicians or astrologists declare, and the demon bestowed by him. But the demon is not
assigned to us from one part of the celestial world or from any planet. There is a personal
allotment in us

--- 96.

individually from all the universe, the life and corporeal substances in it, through which the
soul descends into the genesis or objective existence. The demon is placed in the paradigm or
ideal form, and the soul takes him for a leader. He immediately takes charge, filling the soul
with the qualities of physical life, and when it has descended into the corporeal world, he acts
as the guardian genius.
When, however, we come, by the sacred initiation, to know God truly as the guardian and
leader, the demon retires or surrenders his authority, or becomes in some way subordinate to
God as his Overlord.
Evil demons have nowhere an allotment as ruling principles, nor are they opposed to the
good like one party against another, as though of equal importance.
The "Last Word" includes a brief summary of the whole discourse. Abammon insists
that there is no path to felicity and permanent blessedness apart from the worship of the Gods
as here set forth. Divine inspiration alone imparts to us truly the divine life. Man, the
Theotos,* endowed with perception, was thus united with Divinity in the beforetime by the
epoptic vision of the Gods; but he entered into another kind of soul or disposition which was
conformed to the human idea of form, and through it became in bondage to Necessity and Fate.
There can be no release and freedom from these except by the Knowledge of the Gods. For the
idea or fundamental principle of blessedness is to apperceive Goodness; as the idea of evil
exists with the forgetting of the Good and with being deceived in respect to evil. Let it be
understood, then, that this knowledge of Good is the first and supreme path to felicity,
affording to souls a mental abundance from the Divine One. This bestowing of felicity by the
sacerdotal and theurgic ministration, is called by some the Gate to the Creator of the Universe,
and by others the Place or Abode of the One Supremely Good. It first effects the unifying of
the soul; then the restoring of the understanding to the participation and

------------
* The Beholder or Candidate looking upon the spectacles exhibited at the Initiatory Rites.
-------------
--- 97.

vision of the God, and its release from every thing of a contrary nature; and after these, union
to the Gods, the bestowers of all benefits.
When this has been accomplished, then it leads the Soul to the Universal Creator, gives it
into his keeping and separates it from every thing material, uniting it with the one Eternal
Reason. In short, it becomes completely established in the Godhead, endowed with its energy,
wisdom, and Creative power. This is what is meant by the Egyptian priests when they, in the
Book of the Dead, represent the Lord as becoming identified with Osiris; and, with such
modifications as the changing forms of the various faiths have made, it may fairly be said to be
the accepted creed of the religious world.

(Universal Brotherhood, May, 1898)

---------------------
--- 98.

INTRODUCTION AND GLOSSARY TO ELEUSINIAN AND BACCHIC MYSTERIES

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

INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION

In offering to the public a new edition of Mr. Thomas Taylor's admirable treatise upon
the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, it is proper to insert a few words of explanation. These
observations once represented the spiritual life of Greece, and were considered for two
thousand years and more the appointed means for the regeneration through an interior union
with the Divine Essence. However absurd, or even offensive they may seem to us, we should
therefore hesitate long before we venture to lay desecrating hands on what others have
esteemed holy. We can learn a valuable lesson in this regard from the Grecian and Roman
writers, who had learned to treat the popular religious rites with mirth, but always considered
the Eleusinian Mysteries with the deepest reverence.
It is ignorance which leads to profanation. Men ridicule what they do not properly
understand. Alcibiades was drunk when he ventured to touch what his countrymen deemed
sacred. The undercurrent of this world is set toward one goal; and inside of human credulity -
call it human weakness, if you please - is a power almost infinite, a holy faith capable of
apprehending the supremest truths of all Existence. The veriest dreams of life, pertaining as
they

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do to "the minor mystery of death," have in them more than external fact can reach or explain;
and Myth, however much she is proved to be a child of Earth, is also received among men as
the child of Heaven. The Cinder-Wench of the ashes will become the Cinderella of the Palace,
and be wedded to the King's Son.
The instant that we attempt to analyze, the sensible, palpable facts upon which so many
try to build disappear beneath the surface, like a foundation laid upon quicksand. "In the
deepest reflections," says a distinguished writer, "all that we call external is only the material
basis upon which our dreams are built; and the sleep that surrounds life swallows up life, - all
but a dim wreck of matter, floating this way and that, and forever vanishing from sight.
Complete the analysis, and we lose even the shadow of the external Present, and only the Past
and the Future are left us as our sure inheritance. This is the first initiation, - the veiling
[muesis] of the eyes to the external. But as epoptae, by the synthesis of this Past and Future in
a living nature, we obtain a higher, an ideal Present, comprehending within itself all that can be
real for us within us or without. This is the second initiation in which is unveiled to us the
Present as a new birth from our own life. Thus the great problem of Idealism is symbolically
solved in the Eleusinia."*
These were the most celebrated of all the sacred orgies, and were called, by way of
eminence, The Mysteries. Although exhibiting apparently the features of an Eastern origin,
they were evidently copied from the rites of Isis in Egypt, an idea of which, more or less
correct, may be found in The Metamorphoses of Apuleius and The Epicurean by Thomas
Moore. Every act, rite, and person engaged in them was symbolical; and the individual
revealing them was put to death without mercy. So also was any uninitiated person who
happened to be present. Persons of all ages and both sexes were initiated; and neglect in this
respect, as in the case of Socrates, was
regarded as impious and atheistical. It was required of all candidates that they should be first
admitted at the Mikra or Lesser Mysteries of

------------
* Atlantic Monthly, vol. iv, September, 1859
------------
--- 100.

Agrae, by a process of fasting called purification, after which they were styled mystae, or
initiates. A year later, they might enter the higher degree. In this they learned the apporheta,
or secret meaning of the rites, and were thenceforth denominated ephori, or epoptae. To some
of the interior mysteries, however, only a very select number obtained admission. From these
were taken all the ministers of holy rites. The Hierophant who presided was bound to celibacy,
and required to devote his entire life to his sacred office. He had three assistants, - the torch-
bearer, the kerux or crier, and the minister at the altar. There were also a basileus or king, who
was an archon of Athens, four curators, elected by suffrage, and ten to offer sacrifices.
The sacred Orgies were celebrated on every fifth year; and began on the 15th of the
month Boedromian or September. The first day was styled the agurmos or assembly, because
the worshipers then convened. The second was the day of purification, called also alade
mystai, from the proclamation: "To the sea, initiated ones!" The third day was the day of
sacrifice; for which purpose were offered a mullet and barley from a field in Eleusis. The
officiating persons were forbidden to taste of either; the offering was for Aehtheia (the
sorrowing one, Demeter) alone. On the fourth day was a solemn procession. The kalathos or
sacred basket was borne, followed by women, cistae or chests in which were sesamum, carded
wool, salt, pomegranates, poppies, - also thyrsi, a serpent, boughs of ivy, cakes, etc. The fifth
day was denominated the day of torches. In the evening were torchlight processions and much
tumult.
The sixth was a great occasion. The statue of Iacchus, the son of Zeus and Demeter, was
brought from Athens, by the Iacchogoroi, all crowned with myrtle. In the way was heard only
an uproar of singing and the beating of brazen kettles, as the votaries danced and ran along.
The image was borne "through the sacred Gate, along the sacred way, halting by the sacred fig-
tree (all sacred, mark you, from Eleusinian associations), where the procession rests, and then
moves on to the bridge over the Cephissus, where again it rests, and where the expression of
the wildest grief gives place to the trifling farce, - even as Demeter, in the midst of her grief,
smiled at the levity of Iambe in the palace of Celeus. Through the 'mystical entrance' we

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enter Eleusis. On the seventh day games are celebrated; and to the victor is given a measure of
barley, - as it were a gift direct from the hand of the goddess. The eighth is sacred to
Aesculapius, the divine Physician, who heals all diseases; and in the evening is performed the
initiatory ritual.
"Let us enter the mystic temple and be initiated, - though it must be supposed that, a year
ago, we were initiated into the Lesser Mysteries at Agrae. We must have been mystae (veiled),
before we can become epoptae (seers); in plain English, we must have shut our eyes to all else
before we can behold the mysteries. Crowned with myrtle, we enter with the other initiates
into the vestibule of the temple, - blind as yet, but the Hierophant within will soon open our
eyes.
"But first, - for here we must do nothing rashly, - first we must wash in this holy water;
for it is with pure hands and pure heart that we are bidden to enter the most sacred enclosure
[:LFJ4i@l F0i@l, mustikos sekos]. Then, led into the presence of the Hierophant,* he reads to
us, from a book of stone [BgJDT:", petroma], things which we must not divulge on the pain of
death. Let it suffice that they fit the place and the occasion; and though you might laugh at
them, if they were spoken outside, still you seem very far from that mood now, as you hear the
words of the old man (for old he always was), and look upon the revealed symbols. And very
far, indeed, are you from ridicule, when Demeter seals, by her own peculiar utterance and
signals, by vivid coruscations of light, and cloud piled upon cloud, all that we have seen and
heard from her sacred priest; and then, finally, the light of a serene wonder fills the temple,
and we see the pure

--------------
* In the Oriental countries the designation 9;5 Peter (an interpreter), appears to have
been the title of this personage; and the petroma consisted, notably enough, of two tablets of
stone. There is in these facts some reminder of the peculiar circumstances of the Mosaic Law
which was so preserved; and also of the claim of the Pope to be the successor of Peter, the
hierophant or interpreter of the Christian religion.
--------------
--- 102.

fields of Elysium, and hear the chorus of the Blessed; - then, not merely by external seeming
or philosophic interpretation, but in real fact, does the Hierophant become the Creator
[*0:4@LD(@H, demiourgos] and revealer of all things; the Sun is but his torch-bearer, the
Moon his attendant at the altar, and Hermes his mystic herald* [i0DL,, kerux]. But the final
word has been uttered 'Conz Om pax.' The rite is consummated, and we are epoptae forever!"*
Those who are curious to know the myth on which the "mystical drama" of the
Eleusinia is founded will find it in any Classical Dictionary, as well as in these pages. It is only
pertinent here to give some idea of the meaning. That it was regarded as profound is evident
from the peculiar rites, and the obligations imposed on every initiated person. It was a
reproach not to observe them. Socrates was accused of atheism, or disrespect to the gods, for
having never been initiated.** Any person accidentally guilty of homicide, or of any crime, or
convicted of witchcraft, was excluded. The secret doctrines, it is supposed, were the same as
are expressed in the celebrated Hymn of Cleanthes. The philosopher Isocrates thus bears
testimony: "She [Demeter] gave us two gifts that are the most excellent; fruits, that we may
not live like beasts; and that initiation - those who have part in which have sweeter hope, both
as regards the close of life and for all eternity." In like manner, Pindar also declares: "Happy
is he who has beheld them, and descends into the Under-world: he knows the end, he knows
the origin of life."

--------------
* Porphyry
** Ancient Symbol-Worship, page 12, note. "Socrates was not initiated, yet after drinking
the hemlock, he addressed Crito: 'We owe a cock to Aesculapius.' This was the peculiar
offering made by initiates (now called kerknophori) on the eve of the last day, and he thus
symbolically asserted that he was about to receive the great apocalypse."
See also "progress of Religious Ideas," by Lydia Maria Child, vol. ii, p. 308; and
"Discourses on the Worship of Priapus," by Richard Payne Knight.
--------------
--- 103.

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

-------------
* Euripides: Rhaesus. "Orpheus showed forth the rites of the hidden Mysteries."
Plato: Protogoras. "The art of a sophist or sage is ancient, but the men who proposed it
in ancient times, fearing the odium attached to it, sought to conceal it, and veiled it over, some
under the garb of poetry, as Homer, Hesiod, and Simonides: and others under that of the
Mysteries and prophetic manias, such as Orpheus, Musaeus, and their followers."
Herodotus takes a different view - ii, 49. "Melampus, the son of Amytheon," he says,
"introduced into Greece the name of Dionysus (Bacchus), the ceremonial of his worship, and
the procession of the phallus. He did not, however, so completely apprehend the whole
doctrine as to be able to communicate it entirely: but various sages, since his time, have
carried out his teaching to greater perfection. Still it is certain that Melampus introduced the
phallus, and that the Greeks learnt from him the ceremonies which they now practice. I
therefore maintain that Melampus, who was a sage, and had acquired
-------------
--- 104.

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

-------------
the art of divination, having become acquainted with the worship of Dionysus through
knowledge derived from Egypt, introduced it into Greece, with a few slight changes, at the
same time that he brought in various other practices. For I can by no means allow that it is by
mere coincidence that the Bacchic ceremonies in Greece are so nearly the same as the
Egyptians."
* Hera, generally regarded as the Greek title of Juno, is not the definite name of any
goddess, but was used by ancient writers as a designation only. It signifies domina or lady, and
appears to be of Sanscrit origin. It is applied to Ceres or Demeter, and other divinities.
** The mirror was a part of the symbolism of the Thesmophoria, and was used in the
search for Atmu, the Hidden One, evidently the same as Tammut, Adonis, and Atys. See
Exodus xxxviii, 8; I Samuel ii, 22, and Ezekiel viii, 14. But despite the assertion of Herodotus
and others that the Bacchic Mysteries were in reality Egyptian, there exists strong probability
that they came originally from India, and were Sivaic or Buddhistical. Core-
-------------
--- 105.

The hypothesis of Mr. Taylor is the same as was maintained by the philosopher
Porphyry, that the Mysteries constitute an illustration of the Platonic philosophy. At first sight,
this may be hard to believe; but we must know that no pageant could hold place so long,
without an under-meaning. Indeed, Herodotus asserts that "the rites called Orphic and Bacchic
are in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean."* The influence of the doctrines of Pythagoras upon
the Platonic system is generally acknowledge. It is only important in that case to understand
the great philosopher correctly; and we have a key to the doctrines and symbolism of the
Mysteries.
The first initiations of the Eleusinia were called Teletae or terminations, as denoting that
the imperfect and rudimentary period of generated life was ended and purged off; and the
candidate was denominated a mysta, a veiled or liberated person. The Greater Mysteries
completed the work; the candidate was more fully instructed and disciplined, becoming an
epopta or seer. He was now regarded as having received the arcane principles of life. This was
also the end sought by philosophy. The soul was believed to be of composite nature, linked on
the one side to the eternal world, emanating from God, and so partaking of Divinity. On the
other hand, it was also allied to the phenomenal or external world, and so liable to be subjected
to passion, lust, and the bondage of evils. This

------------
Persephoneia was but the goddess Parasu-pani or Bhavani, the patroness of the Thugs, called
also Goree; and Zagreus is from Chakra, a country extending from ocean to ocean. If this is a
Turanian or Tartar story, we can easily recognize the "Horus" as the crescent worn by lama-
priests; and translating god-names as merely sacerdotal designations, assume the whole legend
to be based on a tale of Lama Succession and transmigration. The Titans would then be the
Daityas of India, who were opposed to the faith of the northern tribes; and the title Dionysus
but signify the god or chief-priest of Nysa, or Mount Meru. The whole story of Orpeus, the
instituter or rather reformer of the Bacchic rites, has a Hindu ring all through.
* Herodotus: ii, 81
------------
--- 106.

condition is denominated generation; and is supposed to be a kind of death to the higher form
of life. Evil is inherent in this condition; and the soul dwells in the body as in a prison or
grave. In this state, and previous to the discipline of education and the mystical initiation, the
rational or intellectual element, which Paul denominates the spiritual, is asleep. The earth-life
is a dream rather than a reality. Yet it has longings for a higher and nobler form of life and its
affinities are on high. "All men yearn after God," says Homer. The object of Plato is to present
to us the fact that there are in the soul certain ideas or principles, innate and connatural, which
are not derived from without, but are anterior to all experience, and are developed and brought
to view, but not produced by experience. These ideas are the most vital of all truths, and the
purpose of instruction and discipline is to make the individual conscious of them and willing to
be led and inspired by them. The soul is purified or separated from evils by knowledge, truth,
expiations, sufferings, and prayers. Our life is a discipline and preparation for another state of
being; and resemblance to God is the highest motive of action.*
Proclus does not hesitate to identify the theological doctrines with the mystical dogmas
of the Orphic system. He says: "What Orpheus delivered in hidden allegories, Pythagoras
learned when he was initiated into the Orphic Mysteries; and Plato next received a perfect
knowledge of them from the Orphean and Pythagorean writings."
Mr. Taylor's peculiar style has been the subject of repeated

------------
* Many of the early Christian writers were deeply imbued with the Eclectic or Platonic
doctrines. The very forms of speech were almost identical. One of the four Gospels, bearing
the title "according to John," was the evident product of a Platonist, and hardly seems in a
considerable degree Jewish or historical. The epistles ascribed to Paul evince a great
familiarity with the Eclectic philosophy and the peculiar symbolism of the Mysteries, as well as
with the Mithraic notions that had penetrated and permeated the religious ideas of the western
countries.
------------
--- 107.

criticism; and his translations are not accepted by classical scholars. Yet they have met with
favor at the hands of men capable of profound and recondite thinking; and it must be conceded
that he was endowed with a superior qualification, - that of an intuitive perception of the
interior meaning of the subjects which he considered. Others may have known more Greek,
but he knew more Plato. He devoted his time and means for the elucidation and disseminating
of the doctrines of the divine philosopher; and has rendered into English not only his writings,
but also the works of other authors, who affected the teachings of the great master, that have
escaped destruction at the hand of Moslem and Christian bigots. For this labor we can not be
too grateful.
The present treatise has all the peculiarities of style which characterize the translations.
The principal difficulties of these we have endeavored to obviate - a labor which will, we trust,
be not unacceptable to readers. The book has been for some time out of print; and no later
writer has endeavored to replace it. There are many who still cherish a regard, almost
amounting to veneration, for the author; and we hope that this reproduction of his admirable
explanation of the nature and object of the Mysteries will prove to them a welcome
undertaking. There is an increasing interest in philosophical, mystical, and other antique
literature, which will, we believe, render our labor of some value to a class of readers whose
sympathy, good-will, and fellowship we would gladly possess and cherish. If we have added to
their enjoyment, we shall be doubly gratified.

New York, May 14, 1875

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

GLOSSARY

Aporrheta, Greek "B@DÕ0J" - The instructions given by the hierophant or interpreter


in the Eleusinian Mysteries, not to be

--- 108.

disclosed on pain of death. There was said to be a synopsis of them in the petroma or two
stone tablets, which, it is said, were bound together in the form of a book.
Apostatise - To fall or descend, as the spiritual part of the soul is said to descend from its
divine home to the world of nature.
Cathartic - Purifying. The term was used by the Platonists and others in connection with
the ceremonies of purification before initiation, also to the corresponding performance of rites
and duties which renewed the moral life. The cathartic virtues were the duties and mode of
living, which conduced to that end. The phrase is used but once or twice in this edition.
Cause - The agent by which things are generated or produced.
Circulation - The peculiar spiral motion or progress by which the spiritual nature or
"intellect" descended from the divine region of the universe into the world of sense.
Cogitative - Relating to the understanding: dianoetic.
Conjecture, or Opinion - A mental conception that can be changed by argument.
Core - A name of Ceres or Demeter, applied by the Orphic and later writers to her
daughter Persephone or Proserpina. She was supposed to typify the spiritual nature which was
abducted by Hades or Pluto into the underworld, the figure signifying the apostasy or descent
of the soul from the higher life to the material body.
Corically - After the manner of Proserpina, i.e., as if descending into death from the
supernal world.
Daemon - A designation of a certain class of divinities. Different authors employ the
term differently. Hesiod regards them as the souls of the men who lived in the Golden Age,
now acting as guardian or tutelary spirits. Socrates, in the Cratylus, says "That daemon is a
term denoting wisdom, and that every good man is daemonian, both while living and when
dead, and is rightly called a daemon." His own attendant spirit that checked him whenever he
endeavored to do what he might not, was styled his Daemon. Iamblichus places Daemons in
the second order of spiritual existences. - Cleanthes, in his celebrated Hymn, styles Zeus
*"4:@<

--- 109.

(daimon).
Demiurgus - The creator. It was the title of the chief-magistrate in several Grecian
States, and in this work is applied to Zeus or Jupiter, or the Ruler of the Universe. The latter
Platonists, and more especially the Gnostics, who regarded matter as constituting or containing
the principle of Evil, sometimes applied this term to the Evil Potency, who, some of them
affirmed, was the Hebrew god.
Distributed - Reduced from a whole to parts and scattered. The spiritual nature or
intellect in its higher estate was regarded as a whole, but in descending to worldly conditions
became divided into parts or perhaps characteristics.
Divisible - Made into parts or attributes, as the mind, intellect, or spiritual, first a whole,
became thus distinguished in its descent. This division was regarded as a fall into a lower
plane of life.
Energise, Greek ,<,D(,T - To operate or work, especially to undergo discipline of the
heart and character.
Energy - Operation, activity.
Eternal - Existing through all past time, and still continuing.
Faith - The correct conception of a thing as it seems, - fidelity.
Freedom - The ruling power of one's life; a power over what pertains to one's self in life.
Friendship - Union of sentiment; a communion in doing well.
Fury - The peculiar mania, ardor, or enthusiasm which inspired and actuated prophets,
poets, interpreters of oracles, and others; also a title of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone
as the chastisers of the wicked, - also of the Eumenides.
Generation, Greek (,<,F4l - Generated existence, the mode of life peculiar to this
world, but which is equivalent to death, so far as the pure intellect or spiritual nature is
concerned; the process by which the soul is separated from the higher form of existence, and
brought into the conditions of life upon the earth. It was regarded as a punishment, and
according to Mr. Taylor, was prefigured by the abduction of Proserpine. The soul is supposed
to have pre-existed with God as a pure intellect like him, but not actually identical - at one but
not absolutely the same.
Good - That which is desired on its own account.

--- 110.

Hades - A name of Plato; the Underworld, the state or region of departed souls, as
understood by classic writers; the physical nature, the corporeal existence, the condition of the
soul while in the bodily life.
Herald, Greek i0DLH - The crier at the Mysteries.
Hierophant - The interpreter who explained the purport of the mystic doctrines and
dramas to the candidates.
Holiness, Greek ÒF4@J0l - Attention to the honor due to God.
Idea - A principle in all minds underlying our cognitions of the sensible world.
Impudent - Without foresight; deprived of sagacity.
Infernal regions - Hades, the Underworld.
Instruction - A power to cure the soul.
Intellect, Greek <@Ll - Also rendered pure reason, and by Professor Cocker, intuitive
reason, and the rational soul; the spiritual nature. "The organ of self-evident, necessary, and
universal truth. In an immediate, direct, and intuitive manner, it takes hold on truth with
absolute certainty. The reason, through the medium of ideas, holds communion with the world
of real Being. These ideas are the light which reveals the world of unseen realities, as the sun
reveals the world of sensible forms. 'The Idea of the good is the Sun of the Intelligible world;
it shed on objects the light of truth, and gives to the soul that knows the power of knowing.'
Under this light the eye of reason apprehends the eternal world of being as truly, yet more
truly, than the eye of sense apprehends the world of phenomena. This power the rational soul
possesses by virtue of its having a nature kindred, or even homogeneous with the Divinity. It
was 'generated by the Divine Father,' and like him, it is in a certain sense 'eternal.' Not that we
are to understand Plato as teaching that the rational soul had an independent and underived
existence; it was created or 'generated' in eternity, and even now, in its incorporate state, is not
amenable to the condition of time and space, but, in a peculiar sense, dwells in eternity: and
therefore is capable of beholding eternal realities, and coming into communion with absolute
beauty, and goodness, and truth - that is, with god, the Absolute Being." -

--- 111.

Christianity and Greek Philosophy, x, pp. 349, 350.


Intellective - Intuitive; perceivable by spiritual insight.
Intelligible - Relating to the higher reason.
Interpreter - The hierophant or sacerdotal teacher who, on the last day of the Eleusinia,
explained the petroma or stone book to the candidates, and unfolded the final meaning of the
representations and symbols. In the Phoenicians language he was called 9;5 peter. Hence the
petroma, consisting of two tablets of stone, was a pun on the designation, to imply the wisdom
to be unfolded. It has been suggested by the Rev. Mr. Hyslop, that the Pope derived his claim,
as the successor of Peter, from his succession to the rank and function of the Hierophant of the
Mysteries, and not from the celebrated Apostle, who probably was never in Rome.
Just - Productive of justice.
Justice - The harmony or perfect proportional action of all the powers of the soul, and
comprising equity, veracity, fidelity, usefulness, benevolence, and purity of mind, or holiness.
Judgment - A peremptory decision covering a disputed matter; also *4"<@4" dianoia, or
understanding.
Knowledge - A comprehension by the mind of fact not to be over-thrown or modified by
argument.
Legislative - Regulating.
Lesser Mysteries - The J,8,J"4, teletai, or ceremonies of purification, which were
celebrated at Agrae, prior to full initiation at Eleusis. Those initiated on this occasion were
styled :LFJ"4 mystae, from :LT, muo, to veil; and their initiation was called :L0F4l, muesis,
or veiling, as expressive of being veiled from the former life.
Magic - Persian mag, Sanscrit maha, great. Relating to the order of the Magi of Persia
and Assyria.
Material daemons - Spirits of a nature so gross as to be able to assume visible bodies like
individuals still living on the Earth.
Matter - The elements of the world, and especially of the human body, in which the idea
of evil is contained and the soul incarcerated. Greek b80, Hule or Hyle.
Muesis, Greek :L0F4l, from :LT, to veil. - The last act in

--- 112.

the Lesser Mysteries, or J,8,J"4, teletai, denoting the separating of the initiate from the
former exoteric life.
Mysteries - Sacred dramas performed at stated periods. The most celebrated were those
of Isis, Sabazius, Cybele, and Eleusis.
Mystic - Relating to the Mysteries: a person initiated in the Lesser Mysteries - Greek
:LFJ"4
Occult - Arcane; hidden; pertaining to the mystical sense.
Orgies, Greek @D(4"4 - The peculiar rites of the Bacchic Mysteries.
Opinion - A hypothesis or conjecture.
Partial - Divided, in parts, and not a whole.
Philologist - One pursuing literature.
Philosopher - One skilled in philosophy; one disciplined in a right life.
Philosophise - To investigate final causes; to undergo discipline of the life.
Philosophy - The aspiration of the soul after wisdom and truth. "Plato asserted
philosophy to be the science of unconditioned being, and asserted that this was known to the
soul by its intuitive reason (intellect or spiritual instinct) which is the organ of all philosophic
insight. The reason perceives substance; the understanding, only phenomena. Being (J@ @<),
which is the reality in all actuality, is in the ideas or thoughts of God; and nothing exists (or
appears outwardly), except by the force of this indwelling idea. The WORD is the true
expression of the nature of every object: for each has its divine natural name, besides its
accidental human appellation. Philosophy is the recollection of what the soul has seen of
things and their names." (J. Freeman Clarke)
Plotinus - A philosopher who lived in the third century, and reviewed the doctrines of
Plato.
Prudent - Having foresight.
Purgation, purification - The introduction into the Teletae or Lesser Mysteries; a
separation of the external principles from the soul.
Punishment - The curing of the soul of its errors.

--- 113.

Prophet, Greek :"<J4l - One possessing the prophetic mania, or inspiration.


Priest Greek :"<J4l, - A prophet or inspired person, Ê,D,Ll - a sacerdotal person.
Revolt - A rolling away, the career of the soul in its descent from the pristine divine
condition.
Science - The knowledge of universal, necessary, unchangeable, and eternal ideas.
Shows - The peculiar dramatic representations of the Mysteries.
Telete Greek J,8,J0 - The finishing or consummation; the Lesser Mysteries.
Theologist - A teacher of the literature relating to the gods.
Theoretical - Perceptive.
Torch bearer - A priest who bore a torch at the Mysteries.
Titans - The beings who made war against Kronos or Saturn. E. Pococke identifies them
with the Daityas of India, who resisted the Brahmans. In the Orphic legend, they are described
as slaying the child Bacchus-Zagreus.
Titanic - Relating to the nature of Titans.
Transmigration - The passage of the soul from one condition of being to another. This
has not any necessary reference to any rehabilitation in a corporeal nature, or body of flesh and
blood. See I Corinthians, XV.
Virtue - A good mental condition; a stable disposition.
Virtues - Agencies, rites, influences. Cathartic Virtues - Purifying rites or influences.
Wisdom - The knowledge of things as they exist; "the approach to god as the substance
of goodness in truth."
World - The cosmos, the universe, as distinguished from the earth and human existence
upon it.

--------------------
--- 115.

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

ZOROASTER, THE FATHER OF PHILOSOPHY

Seven cities are named as claiming to have been the birthplace of Homer. His great
poem is the classic above other literary productions, but the personality of the man, as well as
the period and place in which he lived, is veiled in uncertainty.
A similar curious indefiniteness exists in regard to the great Oriental sage and teacher of
a pure faith, Zoroaster. There have been credited to him not only the sacred compositions
known as the Venidad and Yasna, the remains of which sadly interpolated, are preserved by the
Parsis of India, but a large number of Logia or oracular utterances which have been transmitted
to us by writers upon ancient Grecian philosophy and mythology.
Mr. Marion Crawford has presented him to us in the character of a young Persian Prince,
a pupil of the prophet Daniel, who had been made governor of Media by Nebuchadnezzar. He
is described as learned in all the wisdom of the prophet himself, and the learning of the wise
men of Assyria. Dareios Hystaspis having become the "Great King," Zoroaster is compelled by
him to forego the warmest wishes of his heart, and becomes an ascetic. Having retired to a
Cave, he performs the various rites of religion, and passes into trances. His body appears as
dead, but the spirit is set free, and goes to and fro returning to its place again. Thus he attains
the intuitive comprehension of knowledge, to the understanding of natural laws not perceptible
by the corporeal senses alone, and to the merging of

--- 116.

the soul and higher intelligence in the one universal and divine essence.
The late Dean Prideaux propounded somewhat of a similar statement many years ago.
He did not scruple, however, to represent this Apostle of the Pure Law as a religious impostor
and made much account of the theory of Two Principles, as evidence of his perversion of the
true doctrine.
The conjecture that Zoroaster flourished in the reign of Dareios Hystaspis, is chiefly
based upon two ancient memorials. The Eranian monarch Vistaspa is several times named in
the Yasna and other writings, and many identify him with the Persian King. Ammianus the
historian declares that Hystaspis, the father of Dareios, a most learned prince, penetrating into
Upper India, came upon a retreat of the Brachmans, by whom he was instructed in physical and
astronomic science, and in pure religious rites. These he transferred into the creed of the Magi.
Some countenance for this conjecture appears from a reading of the famous trilingual
inscription at Behistun. This place is situated just within the border of Media on the
thoroughfare from Babylon to Ekbatana. The rock is seventeen hundred feet high, and belongs
to the Zagros* range of mountains. This was Aethiopia. Assyria was

--------------
* Occult symbolism, says Mr. Brown in Poseidon, has frequently availed itself of two
words of similar sound or of one word of manifold meaning. We notice many examples of this
in the old classics and in the Hebrew text of the Bible. This name Zagros is strikingly like
Zagreus, the Bacchus or Dionysus of the Mysteries, and his worship was carried from this part
of Asia. In an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, we find the name "Shamas Diannisi," or Shamas
(the sun-god) judge of mankind. Osiris, the Egyptian Bacchus, had also the title, apparently a
translation, Ro-t-Amenti, the judge of the West. The Kretan Rhadamanthus, doubtless here got
his name.
The Zagros mountains were inhabited by the Nimri and Kossaeans, which reminds us of
the text: "And Cush begat Nimrod." For the ancient Susiana is now called Khusistan, and was
the former
-------------
--- 117.
engraved about three hundred feet from the foot, and was in three languages, the Skythic or
Median, the Persian and the Assyrian. Sir Henry C. Rawlinson first deciphered it, and found it
to be a record of Dareios. The monarch proclaims his pure royal origin, and then describes the
conquest of Persia by Gaumata the Magian, the suicide of Kambyses, and the recovering of the
throne by himself. He distinctly intimates that he was first to promulgate the Mazdean religion
in the Persian Empire. The Kings before him, he declares, did not so honor Ahur'-Mazda. "I
rebuilt the temples," he affirms; "I restored the Gathas or hymns of praise, and the worship."
Doctor Oppert, who read the Medic inscription, asserted that it contains the statement that
Dareios caused the Avesta and the Zendic Commentary to be published through the Persian
dominion.
On the tomb of this king he is styled the teacher of the Magians. In his reign the temple
at Jerusalem was built and dedicated to the worship of the "God of heaven," thus indicating the
Mazdean influence. Dareios extended his dominion over Asia Minor and into Europe, and
from this period the era of philosophy took its beginning in Ionia and Greece.
Porphyry the philosopher also entertained the belief that Zoroaster flourished about this
period, and Apuleius mentions the report that Pythagoras had for teachers the Persian Magi,
and especially Zoroaster, the adept in every divine mystery. So far, therefore, the guess of
Crawford and Dean Prideaux appears plausible. It should be remembered, however, that other
writers give the Eranian teacher a far greater antiquity. Aristotle assigns him a period more
than six thousand years before the present era. Hermippos of Alexandreia, who had read his
writings, gives him a similar period. Berossos reduces it to two thousand years, Plutarch

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

to seventeen hundred, Ktesias to twelve hundred.


These dates, however, have little significance. A little examination of ancient literature
will be sufficient to show that Zoroaster or Zarathustra was not so much the name of a man as
the title of an office. It may be that the first who bore it, had it as his own, but like the name
Caesar, it became the official designation of all who succeeded him. Very properly, therefore,
the Parsi sacred books while recognizing a Zarathustra* in every district or province of the
Eranian dominion, place above them as noblest of all, the Zarathustrema, or chief Zoroaster, or
as the Parsis now style him in Persian form, Dastur of dasturs. We may bear in mind
accordingly that there have been many Zoroasters, and infer safely that the Avesta was a
collection of their productions, ascribed as to one for the sake of enhancing their authority.
That fact as well as the occurrence that the present volume is simply a transcript of sixteen
centuries ago, taken from men's memories and made sacred by decree of a Sassanian king,
indicates the need of intuitive intelligence, to discern the really valuable matter. Zoroaster
Spitaman himself belongs to a period older than "Ancient History." The Yasna describes him
as famous in the primitive Aryan Homestead - "Airyana-Vaejo of the good creation." Once
Indians and Eranians dwelt together as a single people. But polarity is characteristic of all
thinking. Indeed, the positive necessarily requires the negative, or it cannot itself exist. Thus
the Aryans became a people apart from the Skyths and Aethiopic races, and again the
agricultural and gregarious Eranians divided from the nomadic worshipers of Indra.**

-------------
* It is not quite easy to translate this term. The name Zoroaster, with which we are
familiar, seems really to be Semitic, from zoro, the seed or son, and Istar, or Astarte, the
Assyrian Venus. Some write it Zaratas, from nazar, to set apart. Gen. Forlong translates
Zarathustra as "golden-handed," which has a high symbolic import. Intelligent Parsis consider
it to mean elder, superior, chief.
**The name of this divinity curiously illustrates the sinuosities of etymology. It is from
the Aryan root-word id, to glow or shine,
-------------
--- 119.

The resemblances of language and the similarities and dissimilarities exhibited in the
respective religious rites and traditions are monuments of this schism of archaic time.* How
long this division had existed before the rise of the Great Teacher, we have no data for guessing
intelligently.
It may be here remarked that the world-religions are not really originated by individual
leaders. Buddhism was prior to Gautama, Islam to Muhamed, and we have the declaration of
Augustin of Hippo that Christianity existed thousands of years before the present era. There
were those, however, who gave form and coherence to the beliefs, before vague and
indeterminate, and made a literature by which to extend and perpetuate them. This was done
by Zoroaster. Hence the whole religion of the Avesta revolves round his personality.
Where he flourished, or whether the several places named were his abodes at one time or
another, or were the homes of other Zoroasters, is by no means clear. One tradition makes him
a resident of Bakhdi or Balkh, where is now Bamyan with its thousands of artificial caves. The
Yasna seems to place him at Ragha or Rai in Media, not far from the modern city of Tehran.
We must be content, however, to know him as the accredited Apostle of the Eranian peoples.
Emanuel Kant affirms positively that there was not the slightest trace of a philosophic
idea in the Avesta from beginning to end. Professor William D. Whitney adds that if we were
to study the records of primeval thought and culture, to learn religion or philosophy, we should
find little in the Avesta to meet our purpose.

------------
which in Sanskrit becomes inda, from which conies indra, the burning or shining one. The
same radical becomes in another dialect aith, from which comes aether, the supernal
atmosphere, and the compounded taame Aithiopia. It is therefore no matter of wonder that all
Southern Asia, from the Punjab to Arabia has borne that designation.
* Ernest de Bunsen suggests that this schism is signified by the legend of Cain and Abel.
The agriculturist roots out the shepherd.
------------
--- 120.

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


schoohnen give it. I believe, instead, with Aristotle, that God is the ground of all existence, and
therefore that theology, the wisdom and learning which relate to God and existence, constitute
philosophy in the truest sense of the term. All that really is religion, pertains to life, and as
Swedenborg aptly declares, the life of religion is the doing of good. Measured by such
standards, the sayings of the prophet of Eran are permeated through and through with
philosophy.
Zoroaster appears to have been a priest and to have delivered his discourses at the temple
in the presence of the sacred Fire. At least the translations by Dr. Haug so describe the matter.
He styles himself a reciter of the mantras, a duta or apostle, and a maretan or listener and
expounder of revelation. The Gathas or hymns are said to contain all that we possess of what
was revealed to him. He learned them, we are told, from the seven Amshaspands or
archangels. His personal condition is described to us as a state of ecstasy, with the mind
exalted, the bodily senses closed, and the mental ears open. This would be a fair representation
of the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg himself.
I have always been strongly attracted to the Zoroastrian doctrine. It sets aside the
cumbrous and often objectionable forms with which the ceremonial religions are overloaded,
puts away entirely the sensualism characteristic of the left-hand Sakteyan and Astartean
worships, and sets forth prominently the simple veneration for the Good, and a life of
fraternalism, good neighborhood and usefulness. "Every Mazdean was required to follow a
useful calling. The most meritorious was the subduing and tilling of the soil. The man must
marry, but only a single wife; and by preference she must be of kindred blood. It was regarded
as impious to foul a stream of water. It was a cardinal doctrine of the Zoroastrian religion that
individual worthiness is not the gain and advantage of the person possessing it, but an addition
to the whole power and volume of goodness in the universe.
With Zoroaster prayer was a hearty renouncing of evil and a coming into harmony with
the Divine Mind. It was in no sense a

--- 121.

histrionic affair, but a recognition of goodness and Supreme Power. The Ahuna-Vairya, the
prayer of prayers, delineates the most perfect completeness of the philosophic life. The latest
translation which I have seen exemplifies this.
"As is the will of the Eternal Existence, so energy through the harmony of the Perfect
Mind is the producer of the manifestations of the Universe, and is to Ahur' Mazda the power
which gives sustenance to the revolving systems."
With this manthra is coupled the Ashem-Vohu:
"Purity is the best good; a blessing it is - a blessing to him who practices purity for the
sake of the Highest Purity."
But for the defeat of the Persians at Salamis it is probable that the Zoroastrian religion
would have superseded the other worships of Europe. After the conquest of Pontos and the
Pirates the secret worship of Mithras was extended over the Roman world. A conspicuous
symbolic representation was common, the slaying of the Bull. When the vernal equinox was at
the period of the sign Taurus, the earth was joyous and became prolific. The picture
represented the period of the sun in Libra, the sign of Mithras. Then the Bull was slain, the
blighting scorpion and the reversed torch denoted winter approaching to desolate the earth.
With the ensuing spring the bull revives, and the whole is enacted anew. It is a significant fact
that many religious legends and ceremonies are allied to this symbolic figure. It was, however,
a degradation of the Zoroastrian system.
It is a favorite notion of many that Zoroaster taught "dualism" - that there is an eternal
God and an eternal Devil contending for the supreme control of the Universe. I do not question
that the Anhra-mainyas or Evil Mind mentioned in the Avesta was the original from which
many of the Devils of the various Creeds were shaped. The Seth or Typhon of Egypt, the Baal
Zebul of Palestine, the Diabolos and Satan of Christendom, the Sheitan of the Yazidis and the
Eblis of the Muslim world are of this character. Yet we shall find as a general fact that these
personages were once worshiped as gods till conquest and change of creed dethroned them.
This is forcibly illustrated by the devas, that are deities in India and devils with the Parsis.
Whether, however, the Eranian "liar from the beginning and

--- 122.

the father of lying," was ever regarded as a Being of Light and Truth may be questioned. Yet
there was a god Aramannu in Aethiopic Susiana before the conquest by the Persians.
Zoroaster, nevertheless, taught pure monotheism. "I beheld thee to be the universal cause
of life in the Creation," he says in the Yasna. The concept of a separate Evil Genius equal in
power to Ahur' Mazda is foreign to his theology. But the human mind cannot contemplate a
positive thought without a contrast. The existence of a north pole presupposes a south pole.
Hence in the Yasna, in Dr. Haug's version we find mention of "the more beneficent of my
two spirits," which is paralleled by the sentence in the book of Isaiah: "I make peace and
create evil." Significantly, however, the Gathas, which are the most unequivocally
Zoroastrian, never mention Auhra-mainyas as being in constant hostility to Ahur' Mazda. Nor
does Dareios in the inscriptions name Auhra-mainyas at all. The druksh or "lie" is the odious
object denounced. But evil as a negative principle is not essentially wicked. In this sense it is
necessary, as shade to light, as night to day - always opposing yet always succumbing. Even
the body, when by decay or disease it becomes useless and an enthraller of the soul, is
separated from it by the beneficent destroyer. "In his wisdom," says the Yasna, "he produced
the Good and the Negative Mind. . . . Thou art he, O Mazda, in whom the last cause of these is
hidden."
In his great speech before the altar, Zoroaster cries: "Let every one, both man and
woman, this day choose his faith. In the beginning there were two - the Good and the Base in
thought, word and deed. Choose one of these two: be good, not base. You cannot belong to
both. You must choose the originator of the worst actions, or the true holy spirit. Some may
choose the worst allotment; others adore the Most High by means of faithful action."
The religion of Zoroaster was essentially a Wisdom-Religion. It made everything
subjective and spiritual. In the early Gathas he made no mention of personified archangels or
Amshaspands, but names them as moral endowments. "He gives us by his most holy
spirit," says he, "the good mind from which spring good thoughts, words and deeds -
also fullness, long life, prosperity and

--- 123.

understanding." In like manner the evil spirits or devas were chiefly regarded as moral
qualities or conditions, though mentioned as individuated existences. Their origin was in the
errant thoughts of men. "These bad men," the Yasna declares, "produce the devas by their
pernicious thoughts." The upright, on the other hand destroy them by good actions.
In the Zoroastrian purview, there is a spiritual and invisible world which preceded, and
remains about this material world as its origin, prototype and upholder. Innumerable myriads
of spiritual essences are distributed through the universe. These are the Frohars, or fravashis,
the ideal forms of all living things in heaven and earth. Through the Frohars, says the hymn,
the Divine Being upholds the sky, supports the earth, and keeps pure and vivific the waters of
preexistent life. They are the energies in all things, and each of them, led by Mithras, is
associated in its time and order with a human body. Every being, therefore, which is created or
will be created, has its Frohar, which contains the cause and reason of its existence. They are
stationed everywhere to keep the universe in order and protect it against evil. Thus they are
allied to everything in nature; they are ancestral spirits and guardian angels, attracting human
beings to the right and seeking to avert from them every deadly peril. They are the immortal
souls, living before our birth and surviving after death.
Truly, in the words of the hymn, the light of Ahur Mazda is hidden under all that shines.
Every world-religion seems to have been a recipient. Grecian philosophy obtained here an
inspiration. Thales inculcated the doctrine of a Supreme Intelligence which produced all
things; Herakleitos described the Everlasting Fire as an incorporeal soul from which all
emanate and to which all return. Plato tells Alkibiades of the magic or wisdom taught by
Zoroaster, the apostle of Oromasdes, which charges all to be just in conduct, and true in word
and deed.
Here is presented a religion that is personal and subjective, rather than formal and
histrionic. No wonder that a faith so noble has maintained its existence through all the
centuries, passing the barriers of race and creed, to permeate the later beliefs. Though so
ancient that we only guess its antiquity, we find it comes up afresh in modern

--- 124.

creeds. It is found everywhere, retaining the essential flavor of its primitive origin. It has nobly
fulfilled its mission. "I march over the countries," says the Gatha, "triumphing over the hateful
and striking down the cruel."
It has survived the torch of Alexander and the cimiter of the Moslem. Millions upon
millions have been massacred for adhering to it, yet it survives as the wisdom which is justified
by her children. The Dialectic of Plato has been the textbook of scholars in the Western World,
and the dialogues of Zoroaster with Ahnr' Mazda constitute the sacred literature of wise men of
the far East.
"The few philosophic ideas which may be discovered in his sayings," says Dr. Haug,
"show that he was a great and deep thinker, who stood above his contemporaries, and even
above the most enlightened men of many subsequent centuries."

(Universal Brotherhood, Sept., 1898)

------------------
--- 125.
THE WISDOM RELIGION OF ZOROASTER

"The primeval religion of Iran," says Sir William Jones, "if we rely on the authorities
adduced by Mohsan Fani* was that which Newton calls the oldest (and it may justly be called
the noblest) of all religions: - 'a firm belief that one Supreme God made the world by his power
and continually governed it by his providence; a pious fear, love and adoration of him; a due
reverence for parents and aged persons; a fraternal affection for the whole human species, and
a compassionate tenderness even for the brute creation.'"
The believers in a Golden Age preceding the ruder and unhappier periods of human
history readily trace in this a confirmation of their cherished sentiment. Those who
contemplate religions as substantially the same in their essential principles, can subscribe
heartily to the statement. Even they who ignore and repudiate the past as solely bestial and
barbarous, and place everything in the future as a goal of effort and expectation, will not
hesitate to accept the proposition as an ultimate attainment.
Yet that which is to be must be to a large degree something that has been, and a
rehabilitation of the old. It must have existed in idea, or it would not be evolved in manifested
existence. Religions may have their Apostles, but Apostles are not the first creators of
religions. For religion has its inception not from the logical reason, but in the human heart, in
the passionate desire for the better and more true, for that which is superior to the present
selfhood. It comes into

-------------
* Mohsan who is here cited was a native of Kashmir, and a Sufi. He insisted that there
was an Eranian monarchy the oldest in the world, and that the religion of Hushan, which is here
described, was its prevailing faith.
-------------
--- 126.

existence as an infant child, and grows gradually, taking form and shape according to the
genius of those by whom it is adopted and cherished.
When the first Zarathustra was born, Mazdaism was already divergent not only from
Turanian Shamanism but likewise from the Aryan Deva-worship of archaic India. The
pioneers of Eran were tillers of the soil and dwellers in ceiled houses and walled villages, while
the followers of Indra and Saurva were still nomadic shepherds and fed their flocks wherever
pasture was afforded, little regardful even of any respect for the enclosed and cultivated fields
of their brethren. Yet at that period the two had not become distinct communities. "Hard by
the believers in Ahura live the worshipers of the devas," says Zoroaster.
Much curious speculation has been bestowed in regard to the identity of the Great Sage
and Prophet of archaic Eran. Some modern writers have even suggested that he was simply a
mythic or ideal personage described in ancient hyperbole as a Son or Avatar of Divinity,
because of representing the religious system of which he was the recognized expositor. Plato
more rationally styles him "the Oro-Mazdean,'' who promulgated the learning of the Magi, by
which was meant the worship of the Gods, and being true and truthful in words and deeds
through the whole of one's life. "By means of the splendor and glory of the Frohars or guardian
spirits," says the Fravardin-Yasht, "that man obtained revelations who spoke good words, who
was the Source of Wisdom, who was born before Gotama had such intercourse with God."
We find him accordingly set forth in the Gathas, the most ancient literature of his people,
as an historic person of the lineage of Spitama, with a father, remoter ancestors, kinsmen, a
wife, and sons and daughters.* The Yasna, or Book of Worship, declares the

-----------
* The father of the first Zoroaster was named Pourushaspa, his great grandfather,
Haekatashaspa, his wife Hvovi, his daughters, Freni, Thriti, Pourushist. The daughters were
married according to archaic Aryan custom to near kindrid.
-----------
--- 127.

following: "Then answered me Homa the righteous: 'Pourushaspa has prepared me as the
fourth man in the corporeal world; this blessing was bestowed upon him that thou wast born to
him - thou, the righteous Zarathustra, of the house of Pourushaspa, who opposest the devas,
who art devoted to the Ahura religion and famous in Airyana-Vaejo, the Aryan Fatherland.'"
He seems to have begun his career as an humble student and reciter of the chants and
prayers in the presence of the Sacred Fire, but to have been developed in maturer years into an
apostle and speaker of oracles which should impart the true wisdom to all who heard. He gave
a rational form to the religious thought of his countrymen, elaborated it into a philosophy, and
began for it the preparation of a literature by which it should be perpetuated.
Nevertheless we May not accept for him much that has been published under the name or
title by which he is commonly known. Whether he actually wrote much we do not know.
Generally, the disciples, and not the Masters, are the ones most prolific in literary productions.
Besides, there have been many Zoroasters, or spiritual superiors, who succeeded to the rank
and honors of Zarathustra Spitaman. All these who made contributions to the Sacred Oracles,
appear to have received acceptance like that awarded to the Mazdean Apostle. Nor does the
distinction seem to have been confined to the Eranian country, nor even to the collections of
the Avesta. When conquest extended the Persian authority to other regions, it was followed by
religious propagandism. In this way the Zoroastrian faith burst through the limitations of a
single people and country, and for a period of centuries appeared likely to become the principal
religion of the world. It was supreme in the Parthian dominion clear to Kabul* or further, and
it extended over the Roman Empire as far as Germany and Scotland. As conquest removed the
lines of partition between peoples, religion and philosophy met fewer obstacles. The "pure
thought" and doctrine may have been greatly

-------------
* The Afghan language appears to have been derived from that of the Avesta. Perhaps
the book was written there.
-------------
--- 128.

changed by the commingling with the notions of the newer receivers, as we observe in the
Mithra-worship and the various forms of Gnosticism. We also find men in different countries
of the East who, for their apperception and superior intelligence bore the same honorary
designation as the Sage of the Avesta, which has created some uncertainty in later times in
distinguishing the individual who was actually first to bear the title.
The Mazdean faith has left a vivid impress upon the doctrine and literature of other
religions. The Hebrew Sacred Writings of later periods treat of the "God of Heaven," and the
"God of Truth,"* and contain other references significant of acquaintance with the Persian
theosophy.
The New Testament is by no means free from this influence; the Gnosis or superior
wisdom is repeatedly mentioned; also guardian angels, and various spiritual essences. The
reference in the Apocalypse to the tree of life, the second death, the white pebble inscribed with
an occult name, the procession in white robes, and the enthronement, are taken from the
Mithraic worship.
The pioneers of the later Platonic School distinctly named Mithras as the central divinity.
He had to a great degree displaced Apollo and Bacchus in the West, and ranked with Serapis in
Egypt. Porphyry treats of the worship of the Cave, the constructing of a Cave by Zoroaster
with figures of the planets and constellations overhead, and declares that Mithras was born in a
petra or grotto-shrine.** He

-------------
* The name Mithras signifies truth. Falsehood was regarded as obnoxious to this
divinity, and as punished with leprosy. (Kings II, v. 27.)
** That ingenious writer "Mark Twain" calls attention to the fact that all the sacred
places connected with the Holy Family in Palestine are grottoes. "It is exceedingly strange,"
says he, "that these tremendous events all happened in grottoes," and he does not hesitate to
pronounce "this grotto-stuff as important."
We may look further, however. The ancient mystic rites were
--------------
--- 129.

describes the Mithras-worship as being in touch with the Esoteric philosophy, and his famous
Letter to Anebo, the Egyptian prophet, appears to have been called forth by the apprehension of
an endeavor to qualify or supersede it by a theurgy which was chiefly deduced from the occult
Rites of Serapis and the Assyrian theology.
In connection with their expositions of the Later Platonism, the various philosophic
writers, as for example Synesios, Proklos, and Damaskios, quoted selections from the Oriental
literature. These have come to us under the general name of "Chaldean Oracles," but later
redactors have styled them “TV T@< -fD@"FJD@< 8`(4"” - the Memorable Sayings of the
Zoroaster.* They exhibit a remarkable similarity to the Neo-Platonic teachings, and we have
the assurance of a distinguished Parsee gentlemen famous alike for his profound attainments
and his extensive liberality,** that they are genuine. He

--------------
celebrated in petras, or grotto-shrines, and the temples of Mithras bore that designation. The
Semitic term PTR or peter signifies to lay open, to interpret, and hence an interpreter, a
hierophant. It was probably applied to the officiating priests at the initiations, in the
"barbarous" or "sacred" language used on such occasions. There was such an official at the
Cave or Shrine of Mithras at Rome, till the worship was interdicted. In the Eleusinian Rites,
the hierophant read to the candidates from the Petroma or two tablets of stone. The servants of
the Pharaoh in the book of Genesis were sad at having dreamed when there was no peter to
give a petrun or explanation. Petra in Idumea probably was named from the profusion of its
petrea or shrines, and the country was famed for "wisdom." (Jeremiah xlix, 7). Apollo the god
of oracles was called Patereus, and his priests paterae. Places having oracles or prophets were
sometimes so named, as Pethor the abode of Balaam, Patara, Patras, etc.
* An edition published at Paris in 1563 had the title of "The Magical Oracles of the Magi
descended from the Zoroaster." By magical is only meant gnostic or wise.
** Sir Dhunjibhoy Jamsetjee Medhora, of the Presidency of Bombay who has written
ably on Zoroastrianism.
--------------
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declares that there is no reason to doubt that the Persian doctrine was based upon that of the
Chaldeans and was in close affinity with it, and he adds that the Chaldean doctrine and
philosophy may be taken as a true exposition of the Persian.
We may remark that much of the religious symbolism employed by the Persians
was identical with that of the Assyrians, and the explanations given by M. Lajard in his work,
La Culte de Mithra, plainly accepts rites and divinities from the Chaldean worship.
Many of the Maxims attributed to the Eranian Zarathustra, as well as the Memorable
Sayings of the Chaldean Zoroaster are replete with suggestions in regard to the true life of
fraternity and neighborly charity, as well as information upon recondite and philosophic
subjects. They are inspired by a profound veneration as well as intuition. Every family was
part of a Brotherhood, and the districts were constituted of these fraternities.
The Zoroastrian designation of the Supreme Being was Ahura and Mazda, the Lord, the
All-Wise, Mazdaism or the Mazdayasna is therefore the Wisdom-Religion. The Divinity is
also honored as the Divine Fire or inmost energy of life - in his body resembling light; in his
essence, truth.
Mithras was the God of Truth. The Zoroastrian religion was an apotheosis of Truth. Evil
was hateful as being the lie. Trade was discouraged as tending to make men untruthful. "The
wretch who belies Mithras," who falsifies his word, neglecting to pay his debts, it is said, "is
destructive to the whole country. Never break a promise - neither that which was contracted
with a fellow-religionist, nor with an unbeliever."
As Ahur' Mazda is first of the seven Amshaspands, or archangels, so Mithras is chief of
the Yazatas or subordinate angels. "I created him," says Ahur' Mazda, "to be of the same rank
and honor as myself." Mithras precedes the Sun in the morning, he protects the Earth with
unsleeping vigilance, he drives away lying and wicked spirits, and rewards those who follow
the truth.
Those who speak lies, who fail to keep their word, who love evil better than good, he
leaves to their own courses; and so they are certain to perish. His dominion is geographically
described in the

--- 131.

Mihir-Yasht as extending from Eastern India and the Seven Rivers to Western India, and from
the Steppes of the North to the Indian Ocean.
Although much is said about ''dualism" and the corporeal resurrection, it is apparent that
it is principally "read into'' the Zoroastrian writings rather than properly deduced from them.
Opportunity for this is afforded by the fact that the vocabulary of the different languages was
very limited, and single words were necessarily used to do duty for a multitude of ideas. We
notice this fact, by comparing them, that no two translators of passages in the Avesta give the
same sense or even general tenor. We are often obliged to form a judgment from what is
apparent.
This text from Dr. Haug's translation seems explicit: "Ahura Mazda by his holy spirit,
through good thought, good word and good deed, gives health and immortality to the world."
Two ideas are distinct: that all real good is of and from Divinity; 2, that intrinsic goodness on
the part of the individual, makes him recipient of its benefits.
It seems plain, also, that in the mind of Zoroaster, as of other great thinkers, life is
sempersistent. The Yasna and Hadokht-Yasht, both "older Scriptures," declare this plainly.
They recite the particulars of the journey of the soul, the real self, from the forsaken body to the
future home. It waits three days by the body, as if not ready to depart forever. The righteous
soul, then setting out, presently meets a divine maiden, its higher law and interior selfhood,
who gives the joyful assurance: "Thou art like me even as I appear to thee. I was beloved,
beautiful, desirable and exalted; and thou, by the good thought, good speech, and good action,
hast made me more beloved, more beautiful, more desirable, and exalted still higher." So the
righteous soul having taken these three steps, now takes the fourth, which brings it to the
Everlasting Lights.
Here is no talk about the resuscitating of anything that had really died. There is
recognized a continuing to live, and for the worthy one, this life is eternal, or what is the same
thing, divine.
For the others, there is the counterpart, a meeting with an impure maiden figure, a falling
under the sway of the Evil Mind with

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the probations which this entails. Nevertheless we may not consider this Evil Mind as
sempiternal, or all-powerful; else there would be two Intelligences in conflict for dominion
over the universe, and so the shifting scenes of human life could be only an absurd, pitiful
farce. In the nature of things, evil must exist as the correlative of good; but it is never an
essence or a principle. It is always self-destroying and never permanent in any form. In most
old copies of the Hadokht-Yasht, we notice that no fourth step is mentioned, in the case of the
wicked soul; though far from righteousness, it is not consigned to perpetual hell.
The primitive Mazdean doctrine was philosophic on these subjects as well as moral, "All
good has sprung from Ahur' Mazda's holy spirit," the Yasna declares and he who in his wisdom
created both the Good and the Negative Mind, rewards those who are obedient. In him the last
cause of both minds lies hidden."
Further we are told of the real origin of devas or devils, that those who do not perform
good works actually themselves "produce the devas by means of their pernicious thoughts."
In the end, however, the Savior is to make the whole world immortal. Then the Truth
will smite and destroy the lie, and Anhra Manyas, the Evil Mind, will part with his rule.
By this we are not to understand any coming crisis of the external world, but a
palingenesis or restitution and regeneration in each person individually. It was a true saying in
the Gospel: "This is the crisis or judging: that the Light comes into the world, and men love
the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil."
Both the Memorable Sayings, and the recorded utterances of the Avesta which are still
preserved, abound with philosophic and theurgic utterances. Many of them are very recondite,
others excel in sublimity. The following selections are examples.
"The Paternal Monad (or Divine Fire) is: It is extended and generates the Twin. For the
Dual sitteth close beside the One, and flashes forth mental promptings which are both for the
direction of all things and the arranging of every thing that is not in order."
"The Paternal Mind commanded that all things should be divided into Threes, all of them
to be directed by Intelligence."

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"In all the cosmic universe the Triad shines, which the Monad rules."
"Understand that all things are subservient to the Three Beginnings. The first of these is
the Sacred Course; then in the midst is the region of Air; the third, the other, is that which
cherishes the Earth with fire - the fountain of fountains and Source of all fountains, the womb
containing all; from hence at once proceeds the genesis of matter in its many shapes."
"The Father takes himself away from sight; not shutting his own Fire in his own spiritual
power. For from the Paternal Beginning nothing that is imperfect gyrates forth. For the Father
made all things complete and delivered them to the Second Intelligence which the race of men
call the First."
"He holds fast in the Mind the matters of mind, but sensibility he supplies to the worlds.
He holds fast in the Mind the things of mind, but supplies soul to the worlds,"
"The Soul being a radiant fire by the power of the Father, not only remains immortal and
is absolute ruler of the life, but also holds in possession the many perfections of the bosoms of
the world; for it becomes a copy of the Mind, but that which is born is somewhat corporeal."
"Let the immortal depth of the soul lead and all the views expand on high. Do not incline
to the dark-gleaming world. Beneath is always spread out a faithless deep and Hades dark all
around, perturbed, delighting in senseless phantasms, abounding with precipices, craggy,
always whirling round a miserable deep, perpetually wedded to an ignoble, idle, spiritless
body."
"Extend the fiery mind to work of piety and you will preserve ever changing body."
"The mortal approaching the Fire will be illuminated from God.”
"Let alone the hastening of the Moon in her monthly course, and the goings forward of
stars; the moon is always moved on by the work of necessity, and the progress of the stars was
not produced for thy sake. Neither the bold flight of birds through the ether, nor the dissection
of the entrails of sacrificed animals is a source to learn the truth; they are all playthings,
supports for gainful deceptions; fly them

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all, if thou art going to open the sacred paradise of piety, where virtue, wisdom, and justice are
assembled.''
Despite all these mentions of the Father and the Paternal Monad, no reference is made in
the Avesta to God as a father. Nevertheless he exhibits all the qualities of a parent and
protector; he gives happiness, rewards goodness, creates beneficent light and darkness, and
loves all his creation.
Many of the Avestan utterances are sublime.
"My light is hidden under all that shines," says Ahur' Mazda.
"My name is: He who may be questioned; the Gatherer of the People; the Most Pure;
He who takes account of the actions of men. My name is Ahura, the Living One; my name is
Mazda, the All-Wise. I am the All-Beholding, the Desirer of good for my creatures, the
Protector, the Creator of all."
The Yasna abounds with expressive sayings, somewhat of the character of proverbs.
"He first created, by means of his own fire, the multitude of celestial bodies, and through
his Intelligence, the good creatures governed by the inborn good mind."
"When my eyes behold thee, the Essence of truth, the Creator of life who manifests his
life in his works, then I know thee to be the Primeval Spirit, thee the All-Wise, so high in mind
as to create the world, and the Father of the Good Mind."
"I praise the Mazdayasnian religion, and the righteous brotherhood which it establishes
and defends."
In the Zoroastrian religion a man might not live for himself or even die for himself.
Individual virtue is not the gain of only the soul that practices it, but an actual addition to the
whole power of good in the universe. The good of one is the good of all; the sin of one is a
fountain of evil to all. The aim of the Mazdean discipline is to keep pure the thought, speech,
action, memory, reason and understanding. Zoroaster asks of Ahur' Mazda, what prayer excels
everything else? "That prayer," is the reply, "when a man renounces all evil thoughts, words
and works."
Fasting and ascetic practices are disapproved as a culpable weakening of "the powers
entrusted to a person for the service of

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Ahur' Mazda." The sins of the Zoroastrian category include everything that burdens the
conscience, seeing evil and not warning him who is doing it, lying, doubting the good,
withholding alms, afflicting a good man, denying that there is a God, - also pride, coveting of
goods, the coveting of the wife of another, speaking ill of the dead, anger, envy, discontent with
the arrangements of God, sloth, scorn, false witness.
The soul of man is a ray from the Great Soul, by the Father of Light.
It is matter of regret that so much of the Zoroastrian literature has been lost. It is more to
be regretted that it has not been better translated. Yet books do not create a faith, but are only
aids. Men are infinitely more precious than books. The essence of the Wisdom-Religion was
not lost when the Nasks perished. "The Zoroastrian ideal of Brotherhood is founded on a
recognition of the Divine Unity, and does not represent an association of men united by a
common belief or common interests." There is no distinction of class or race. In the
Zoroastrian writings the Frohars or protecting geniuses of all good men and women are
invoked and praised, as well as those of Zoroastrians. Any one whose aspirations are spiritual
and his life beneficent, is accepted, though not professedly of the Mazdean fellowship.
So much of the literature has an esoteric meaning that superficial students lose sight of,
that the genuine Wisdom-Religion is not discerned. There are eyes needed that can see and
apperceive. Then the symbols which materialists blunder over will be unveiled in their true
meaning and there will be witnessed a revival of a religion devoid of elaborate ceremony, but
replete with justice, serene peacefulness and goodwill to men.

(Universal Brotherhood, Oct., 1898)

-------------------
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PHILOSOPHY IN CHINA

Every custom of the great nation beyond the Pacific Ocean is consecrated by antiquity,
and every mode of its activity seems to have been shaped by some long-forgotten experience.
We are wholly unable to note the period when it did not exist. The Chinese made paper and
printed books many centuries ago. They were using the magnetic needle to direct them in their
journeys when the inhabitants of Great Britain and Northern Europe had neither floors nor
chimneys in their dwellings. They early invented gun-powder, but only employ it for peaceful
purposes, such as the manufacture of toys and play-things. Their wares and fabrics were sold
in Western Asia and ancient Egypt, and cubes of their making have been found in deep
excavations in Ireland. From them were adopted many of our common luxuries and domestic
conveniences. The affectation that we possess a civilization so very far superior to theirs has a
strong flavor of conceit and sciolism. They appear odd to us chiefly because their ways and
customs have continued without change from archaic times. Their manners and even their
fashions of dress seem to have had their origin in periods beyond our computing.
While the Western speculative philosopher contents himself with the determining of
abstract points of reasoning, the Chinese thinker direct his attention to those of practical
application. He is as ready as the other to grasp ideas, but he hurries to put them to some use.
Everything in Chinese literature and institutions runs into details, how this and that should be
done. Everything is elaborated. It is so in the language, the books, the religion, the
government, the methods of instruction, the etiquette. The point in all their ethics is conduct.
The Chinese civilization is orderly, educated and industrious. It is without priests and lawyers.
The people are more free than those of

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the West. They love peace and are punctilious in all their observances. Their standard of
excellence is appropriately set forth by Confucius: "The man who in the prospect of gain
thinks only of justice, who, in the presence of danger is ready to yield up his life, and who does
not forget an old agreement however far back it may extend, is a complete man."
The Chinese venerate their patriarchs, carrying their devotion beyond death. The
communion with spirits is a general belief. Every individual is believed to have his guardian
and director, a spiritual essence, and is diligent in rendering worship.
The Analects of Confucius are regarded as comprising the sum of all wisdom and moral
duty. The Great Master, after many years in the service of his prince, became an exile from the
court and traveled about the country, attended by his disciples. Whatever he observed he made
the theme for a maxim. One day as he was going along at the foot of the Tai mountains, he saw
a woman weeping bitterly and sent a disciple to ask the cause. Her son had been killed by a
tiger. On further questioning he learned that her husband and her husband's father had lost
their lives in the same way. Then he asked her why she did not leave a country which was so
infested. The woman answered, "Because we have a good government." The sage turned to
his disciples and uttered this sentence: "Remember that an oppressive government is fiercer
and more dreaded than a tiger."
At another time he observed a fowler sorting his birds into different cages, and remarked
that none of them were old. The fowler explained that the old birds, when they saw a net or
snare, flew away and did not come back. The young ones that kept in company with them also
escaped, but those that separated into a flock by themselves and rashly approached the snare
were taken. "If," he added, "perchance I catch an old bird, it is because he follows the young
ones." The sage thus addressed his disciples: "It is also thus with mankind. Presumption,
hardihood, want of forethought and inattention are the chief reasons why young persons are led
astray. Elated with their small attainments, they have barely made a beginning in learning
before they think they know all, and when they have done a few things well they fancy
themselves at the very height. 138. Religion &
Philosophy

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They do not hesitate, but rashly undertake measures without consulting the older and
experienced, and following confidently their own notions, fall in the first snare that is laid for
them. If an old man is so unwise as to be charmed by the sprightliness of a youth, and thinks
and acts with him, he goes astray with him and falls into the same snare. Remember the snare
of the fowler."
A prince interrogated him about the policy of putting unprincipled persons to death for
the sake of those who are better disposed. "Why kill men at all?" Confucius demanded. "If
you govern uprightly, no one will think to do wrong."
Another prince asked him whether he was a sage. Like Pythagoras and Socrates, he
replied that this was a distinction above his attaining, he only learned without satiety, and
taught without becoming weary of it. "Master," said the prince, "you are truly a sage."
To a young person preparing for an active career, he said: "Hold fidelity and sincerity as
the principles of life, and endeavor continually to do what is right."
A disciple asked him: "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for one's
life? What you do not wish to be done to yourself, do not to others."
Again he said; "Those who are born possessing knowledge are the highest class of human
beings. Those who learn and so get possession of knowledge are the next. Those who are dull
and stupid and yet encompass the learning are another class next to these. As to those who are
dull and stupid, and yet do not learn they are the lowest of the people."
"What Heaven has conferred is called The Nature; and accordance with this nature is
called The Path of Duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction."
After the death of Confucius, the rulers and people of China, became conscious of his
superior excellence. They revered him for his wisdom and honored him as a divinity. They
placed his statue in the temples that he might receive homage from the worshipers as truly just,
far-reaching in intelligence, and as a God among men.
In the coming century there arose another in China, worthy to
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be esteemed as the successor of the Great Master. Mencius was the son of a widowed mother
who had taken extraordinary pains to develop in him the love of mercy and goodness. He
became afterward a disciple of the grandson of Confucius, and a teacher of a School of
Philosophy and Economics. His views were in accord with the spirit of patriarchal
imperialism, and at the same time broad, liberal and democratic. Government, he held, was
from heaven, but the rulers derived their authority from the assent of the people. He regarded
the population of the empire as a family of which the Emperor was father and protector. As
such the sovereign represented Divinity itself, and, therefore, he should be animated by a spirit
of benevolence. His aim should be to make the people prosperous; and having done this, to
educate them. He might in no case be indifferent to their happiness, delighting in war of
indulging in luxuries which they could not share. Taxes should be light and every
encouragement given to agriculture and commerce. Thus would the ruler become the minister
and representative of heaven, and the people happy and orderly.
In those days, the scholar and the sage were esteemed the equals of kings. Mencius, like
the prophet Elisha, did not hesitate to blame and rebuke the kings for their misgoverning. He
even contemplated their supplanting and the appointment of others to take their place. It was
for the people to find out for themselves, he declared, whom Heaven had made fit to govern. If
the sovereign is unworthy, he should be disposed, and a better man placed upon the throne.
This was duty which, first of all, devolved on the royal family. They should disown an
unworthy monarch and appoint another. If they neglected to do this, then any Minister of State,
acting under the obligation to consult the public good might undertake the matter. When,
however, both the royal family and the ministers were remiss in this duty then Heaven itself
would interpose to raise up a leader for the people. This should be an individual whose life and
example had already attracted attention, and pointed him out as the man for the occasion. It
should not be necessary to raise any standard of revolt, but only one of justice. He should be
able by that to attain the highest dignity.

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At this period China was distracted by misrule and conflict between the rulers of the
different States. Teachers arose to promulgate disturbing doctrines which aggravated the
general disorder. One taught the absolute equality of mankind, the leveling of ranks and the
abrogation of learning and statesmanship. Another presented a doctrine of love that should
make no account of family relationship or other obligation. Mencius, now forty years old, set
himself to reclaim his country and people. He boldly assailed the doctrines of the other
teachers, and went from one court to another in the hope to find a prince worthy and competent
to administer the affairs of the Empire. He remained long periods with each sovereign,
admitted to the greatest intimacy and receiving honorable attention. In this way he spent
twenty years, failing to realize his hopes. He then returned to private life, and we know him
henceforth only as a teacher of Philosophy, Ethics and Political Economy.
Human nature he declared to be intrinsically good. "The tendency of man's nature to
goodness," said he, "is like the tendency of water to flow downward. By striking water you
may make it leap to your forehead, and by damming and leaving it, you may make it go up a
hill. But such movements are not according to the nature of water; it is the force applied
which causes them. When men do what is not good their nature has been dealt with in this
way.
"All have compassionate hearts which cannot bear to see the suffering of others. If they
see a child fall into a well, they will, without exception, experience a feeling of alarm and
distress. We perceive that commiseration, shame and dislike, diffidence and reverence, and the
disposition to approve and disapprove are essential principles of human nature. The feeling of
commiseration is the principle of benevolence; that of shame and dislike is the principle of
justice; that of diffidence and reverence is the principle of propriety of life, and that of
approving and disapproving is the principle of knowledge. We are certainly furnished with all
these. They are not instilled into us from without, but we have them as we have organs to the
body."
Mencius further insisted that the nature is good because it is constituted for doing that
which is good.
He says again: "I love life and I also love justice; but if I

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cannot keep both, I will let life go and hold fast to justice. Although I love life there is that
which I love more than life, and though I dislike death there is that which I dislike more than
death; and therefore there are occasions where I will not avoid danger."
Another utterance is worthy to be preserved as an aphorism. "The disease of men is
this," say he, "that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others, and that
what they require from others is great, while the burden which they take upon themselves is
light."
He thus describes the superior man: "That when he is in a high and prosperous situation
it adds nothing to his excellence, and when he is in low and distressed circumstances, it impairs
it in no respect."
"When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a man," he says further, "it
first exercises his mind with suffering, and his muscles and bones with toil. It exposes his body
to hunger, subjects him to extreme poverty and confounds his undertakings. In all these ways it
stimulates his mind, strengthens his nature and supplies his defects."
The Chinese literature abounds in aphorisms and proverbs. These powerfully illustrate
the practical character of the people. A few of them will serve to indicate the general tendency.
"It is safer to believe that a man possesses good qualities than to assert that he does not."
"Wisdom, virtue, benevolence and rectitude, without politeness, are imperfect."
"He who can suppress a moment's anger will prevent lasting sorrow."
"Never engage in what you fear to be known. It is only the naked who fear the light."
"In the enacting of laws rigor is indispensable, but in the executing of them there should
be mercy."
"As it is impossible to please men in all things, our only care should be to satisfy our own
consciences."
"A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years' mere
study of books."

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"If a man's desires and wishes are laudable, Heaven will certainly further them."
But China had teachers of philosophy before Confucius. Li, better known as Lao-tse,
was more widely known. It is said that he had traveled in the West before he began his career
as a teacher, but of this we have no particulars. An eminent writer believes that his doctrines
were extant before he lived. This would be in strict analogy with facts elsewhere; the
principles enunciated by the Buddha, the Sermon on the Mount, and later systems, had been
propounded before the individuals appeared who gave them the form in which they exist. They
did not come into existence in full maturity like Athena from the brain of Zeus. "Long pent up
in the vales and water-sheds of the Oxus," says Forlong, "a mighty and spiritual faith had
developed itself, which many centuries before had silently permeated all the highlands of
India." The time came for its more open manifestation; and almost simultaneously Lao-tse, the
Buddha Gautama, and the Seven Sages of Greece, began to declare the advancing thought.
Such periods occur almost regularly, and with them mankind take on new life and higher
connection.
The doctrine as unfolded and given form by the Chinese philosopher, was named TAO,
the Way, in which term is comprised, not only the Path which leads to truth, but the source and
principle of Truth itself. It signifies the spirit of the universe, the supreme Energy and ultimate
Essence. The concept, however, is better expressed in the famous utterance of Lao-tse himself:
"They who know, do not speak, and they who speak, do not know." It is the ideal which we
may perceive but cannot hope to comprehend. "I do not know its name," says Lao-tse, "and for
want of a better. I call it Tao, the Way." Its exercise and discipline consist in becoming at one
with the law which is in and yet above all, and in moving spontaneously with it.*
Dr. Carus considers the name Tao as having a close analogy to logos or "word" in the
Gospel, and "wind" or "breath" in the fourth

--------------
* This is the equivalent of the Vedanta maxim: "There is no law or dharma superior to
that which is," the absolute real.
--------------
--- 143.

hymn of the Rig-Veda. But Lao-tse presents the Tao under two aspects; that which was in the
beginning and that which is individualized in human beings; primitive instincts lying in the
soul ready to be employed, and it is the province of experience to set them in action.
Lao-tse wrote but little. One little book of two chapters, the Tao-teh-King - A Treatise on
the True Way - is all that we have from his hand. But Chuang-tse, a disciple living in a later
century, has more fully explained his views, yet they are hardly intelligible except to those who
are intelligent to comprehend their meaning.
All philosophy begins with contemplating the Source and Origin of all being. Lao-tse
taught that all things of the universe were from the first elementary matter; and that prior to
this was only an immense silence in the illimitable space, an immeasurable void in endless
silence. There was only Tao, the Infinite. It projected the One, the One produced the Second,
and the Two produced the Third; and then the Tree created all things. "Conceived of as having
no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth," says Lao-tse; "conceived of as having a
name, it is the Mother of all things. Under these two aspects it is really the same, but, as
development takes place it receives the different names." Unconditioned, it is Being, that
which really is; but in manifestation it is Existence, an issuing forth to form. The philosopher
offers us the explanation: "All things repose in the passive or feminine principle, and embrace
the positive or masculine principle, and a fecundating spirit maintains the harmony."
"All are produced by the Tao and are sustained by its outflowing operation," he says
again. "They receive their forms according to the nature of each, and are brought to
completeness according to the circumstances of their condition. All, therefor, honor the Tao
and glorify its outflowing operation. It brings them into existence, yet makes no claim to any
owning of them; it carries them through their processes of development, but does not vaunt its
ability in doing this; it brings them to maturity, yet exercises no dominion over them. This is
called The Working in Secret."
In the operation everything takes place from a force or principle within itself which acts
spontaneously and without any impulse from

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private motive. Neither is there any compulsion from without. It is for us to do in like manner.
What we do should be done for its own sake, free from selfish motive and external direction.
This philosophy is summed up in the cardinal virtues of benevolence and sincerity.
Everything, even to unkindness and injury, is recompensed with kindness. "To those who are
good to me, I am good," says Lao-tse; "and to those who are not good to me, I am likewise
good; and in this way all may be led to be good. To those who are sincere with me I am
sincere and to those who are not sincere I am also sincere; and so all are made sincere."
He demands the surrender of personal and selfish ambition. Man should act according to
nature. "There is no greater sin than yielding to desire," says he; "no greater misery than
discontent, no greater calamity than acquisitiveness."
Again he says; "To know the unknowable, that is elevating. Not to know the knowable,
that is sickness."
The appeal is made to the instinct of goodness which is innate in every one, and not to
rules of conduct. Benevolence and justice when considered as virtues exercised from external
prompting are everywhere set forth as of little account. For example, it is not necessary to
prescribe by legislation that a woman should love her child, and it must not be thought
necessary to direct by moral precepts that a man shall act justly and generously toward others.
To the just man such precepts are unnecessary because it is natural for him to be just and
benevolent. The sun embodies light and shines without effort, because this is the law of its
existence. "Heaven and Earth do nothing, and yet there is nothing which they do not bring to
pass." So the true man does everything by the necessity of his being, just as the seasons are
brought about in their order by a law inherent in the constitution of the world.
The functions of the body are performed by a law innate in them, and would be disturbed
and disordered if we were conscious of them and should attempt to regulate them. The
harmony of life is destroyed in like manner by too much meddling. A government which is too
strict and specific in its legislation actually induces crime. An over-strained pressure and
enforcement of external rules of constraint

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and restriction destroy self-reliance and suppress the natural developing of a true and virtuous
life, either by producing a moral atrophy or by arousing a reactionary feeling to evade them.
Men should be taught to depend on their innate goodness, and not upon an artificial and
factitious code framed by ethical rule and compass. "We should be careful," says Chuang-tse,
"not to interfere with the natural goodness of the heart. Man's heart may be forced down or
stirred up. In each case the issue is fatal. But if you try to cut and polish it, then it will glow
like fire or freeze like ice. In the twinkling of an eye it will pass beyond the limits of the Four
Seas. No bolt can bar, no bond can bind the human heart."
"It is a sad substitute," says James Martineau, "when, in later years, the native insight is
replaced by the sharper foresight, and we compute with wisdom the way which we should take
in love." The Chinese sage remarks in the same vein: "A man's own truth is what he himself
has received from heaven, operating spontaneously and without changeableness. Hence the
wise take their law from heaven and prize their own Truth, without submitting to the
restrictions of custom. Others do the reverse of this. They are not able to take their law from
heaven, and are influenced by other men; they do not know how to prize the inherent Truth of
their own nature, but are subject to the dominion of ordinary things, and change according to
the customs around them."
The learning now commonly known as science, which overlays the natural faculties of
the mind, and would bury them underneath academic scholarship, was regarded with little
esteem. Activity in those arts was thought harmful, as tending, in the elaborating of the various
processes, to obscure the higher intuitions and impulses. Our philosopher, instead of
overloading the mind with accumulated facts and precedents from the outside world, sought
rather to cultivate that superior faculty of the soul which is able to perceive. "Choose that
which is within you," says Chuang-tse, "and shut off that which is without; for much
knowledge is a curse. Then I will place you upon that abode of Great Light which is the source
of positive power, and lead you through the gate of Profound Mystery which is the source of
the negative power. These powers are the controllers of heaven and

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earth, and each contains the other."


The passive condition, or inactivity which is insisted upon so strenuously, is by no means
to be regarded as a state of inertness or indifference; it is simply receptive and reciprocal, the
placing of one's self in the proper attitude of mind and quietly awaiting the event. "It is the
way of Heaven," says Lao-tse, "not to strive and yet it overcomes; not to speak, and yet it is
skillful in obtaining a reply; it does not call, and yet men come to it of themselves." There is
no condition of doing nothing, but a seeking to make ourselves right, and simply allowing out
actions naturally, and without strain or striving, set forth the principles by which we are
governed. The Way is found by quiet submission and not by overwrought exertion; by
perceiving and conforming to the right and True and not by acting from self-prompted impulse.
The exalting of the soul to the divine standard, joining it to the Infinite Eternal is the ideal. A
writer eloquently describes this ideal as the doing of everything by a necessity of being; not
obeying the Law as something extraneous, but as being oneself the law, the very embodiment
of law. "The Taoist has relinquished the mortal condition in choice and will, and taken up his
abode with the Eternal - become transformed into it - He is no longer the sport of Time, or
liable to Time's casualties, since he knows that he holds a life that Time cannot touch, and that
his being is one with that of the universe."
(Metaphysical Magazine, October, 1901)

----------------------
--- 147.

JAINISM: ITS HISTORY AND DOCTRINES

We are considering what may almost be classed as a forgotten religion. Yet scattered
over India is a sect numerous enough to be noticed, possessing wealth, literature and an
elaborate system of doctrine worthy of examination and comparison with those of other
peoples. India is famous for philosophy older than the schools which made the Greeks
celebrated; and likewise for an antiquity which, despite the prodigious exaggerations,
nevertheless antedates all historic remembrance. In that far-off period this people attained a
skill in art and architecture of which the remains, like the artificial caves of Ellora and Salsette,
the magnificent temples and the sculptured images, as well as other relics, are abundant
evidence. Compared to them, all that we now find there is modern, and in a condition of
degradation.
In the Padma Purana, a sacred book of the Brahmans, there is a statement which is
significant from its reference to the Jaina doctrines as existing in a definite form in the times
when Indra was the Supreme Divinity of the Aryan tribes in India. This indicates that the sect
was in existence and a full vigor in that remote period, and that its pretensions to early antiquity
are sustained.
The Jainas are found in all parts of India, though not often in considerable numbers. In
their social system they have the four castes, like the Brahmans, and their writings attribute the
institution to their original founder in remotely ancient times. Colonel Tod, the author of
Rajasthan, speaks highly of their enterprise and character. Their numbers and power are little
known to Europeans, he declares,

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and it is taken for granted that they are few and dispersed. In order to prove the extent of their
religious and political influence, it will be sufficient to remark that the pontiff of the Karta-
gatch, the true branch of the sect, has eleven thousand Yatis,* or clerical disciples, scattered
over India; that a single community, the Ossi or Oswal in Marwar, numbers one hundred
thousand families, and that more than half the mercantile wealth of India passes through the
hands of Jaina laymen.
The Jainas are by no means behind others in pretending to a vast age. Their books teach
that there have been two great divisions of time, each of these of interminable length,
established in the universe. Both have subdivisions duly arranged, and the present races of
human beings are living in the second of these. There are four ages in this division, analogous
to those described by Hesiod in Works and Days. The first age was truly a golden period. In it
there were no kings; and all were long-lived, peaceful and happy. Celestial trees grew
spontaneously and they subsist on the fruit. The second age exhibited a sensible declination
from this happy condition. The people had deteriorated in character, and were less fortunate
socially and physically. In the third age the inhabitants were still more straitened, and less
favored than ever in respect to health, longevity and happiness.
During these periods there had flourished fourteen Manus or divine lawgivers. The last
of these was king of Ayodhya and the father of Vrishabanatha or Rishaba. With him the former
period closed, and the fourth age, the Kali Yuga, began. It was now a woeful time for the
inhabitants of India. The celestial trees lived no more to yield sustenance; famine prevailed
with accompanying pestilence, and there was fraternal strife and general disorder. In this
emergency, Rishaba became the ruler. In ancient times all government took its beginning from
spiritual authority, and so the monarch of Ayodhya was revered and obeyed as the incarnation
and representative of divinity. He proceeded to a general arranging of

------------
* The Yatis are always celibates. This is considered a necessary qualification.
------------
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employments. He allotted the several vocations by which all should procure the means of
living - the military calling, literature, agriculture, commerce and the care of the cattle. He also
reformed the errors of the people, established the Jaina religion and a system of regulations for
their government. He is also accredited with the instituting of the four castes, basing them
upon the natural conditions of employment, but without the arbitrary restrictions which under
the later period came into force.
Having set all in order, Rishaba resigned the regal authority to his son Bharata, and
appointed his disciples Ajita in his own place to guide and instruct the people. He then retired
from the world, becoming an Arahat or sacred person. His image after his death was placed in
the temples, and it was declared that he had attained the exalted condition of Mukti, or Moksha,
divine blessedness, to be no more incarnated. He thus has the rank of godhood and bears the
title of "Jineswara," the divine lord of the Jainas.
Rishaba is recognized as the first Tirthankara or pontiff in the present age of the world.
His son Bharata succeeded him, becoming Chakravarta, or Overlord of India, and afterward
transferred his authority to his brother Gomata Iswara Swami, whose statue is conspicuous in
many of the Jaina hill-sanctuaries.
The pontiffs who came after Rishaba are duly described in the Jaina literature. They
were also of the royal race of Ikshwaka, and, like him, were commemorated for extraordinary
sanctity. Each was regarded as a divine personage incarnated, and his death was represented as
a deification. Every one of the twenty-four had has a totem or characteristic symbol; Rishaba,
for example, having the bull, Ajita the elephant, Padmabraha the lotus, Saoarsum the swastika
or cross, Nimi the blue water-lily, Parswanatha the cobra or hooded snake, and Vardhamana or
Mahavira the lion.
There are two classes of Jaina temples. One of them consists of roofed buildings; the
other of plots or circles of ground, generally at the summit of hills and surrounded by a wall or
by stones set on end, like the Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England, and enclosures of
similar character found by Mr. Palgrave in the interior of Arabia.*

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The roofed temples are, many of them, models of architectural skill. They contain the
images of twenty-four deified pontiffs. These are alike in form, in a sitting position and naked,
nudity being considered an important characteristic of the ancient Jaina sage. Mahavira and his
followers were distinguished by this peculiarity, and were called the Digambaras, or sky-robed
ones, and Naganthas, or the "freed from bonds," which freedom nudity was supposed to typify.
The fashion is no longer followed, except by Yatis at meal-time,** the laity having always
worn the dress of their country.
The sacred enclosures are generally upon the top of a hill, and contain but a single figure.
This is the statue of Gomata Iswara Swami, the son of Rishaba, who established the Jaina
religion and dominion over all India. The image is always of colossal dimensions; the one at
Bellakul, in Mysore, being about eighteen times the size of the human body, and the one at
Kurkul measuring no less than thirty-eight feet in height, and ten feet in breadth and thickness.
The statues known as Vetal and Wittoba are supposed to belong to some sect of the Jaina
religion. The primitive form was a rough unhewn stone of triangular or pyramid shape
resembling the central stone of the Druidic temples. Afterward, however, it became customary
to color it red with a topping of white; and later still it was only the likeness of the body
without limbs, and in other cases there were arms to the bust. Dr. Stevenson describes one of
these figures as that of a "fierce and gigantic man, perfect in all his parts." This appears,
however, to be an image of Gomata Raja.
Godfrey Higgins represents the Wittoba in the Anacalypsis as

--------------
* These sacred precincts were common in former times in all parts of the eastern world.
En Dor, the fountain and circle mentioned in I Samuel xxviii, as visited by King Saul, was
evidently a shrine of such a character.
** Kalanos, who was with Alexander the Great, being asked by a Greek to instruct him,
insisted that he should first take off his clothes. The Greek writer Megarthenes, treats of the
Yatis, calling them Gymnosophists, or nude wise men.
-------------
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a human figure with the hands and feet pierced as with nails, and another writer mentions also
the semblance of a wound in the side.
Next to the last in the line of Jaina pontiffs was Parswanatha. It is conjectured by many
writers that he was the actual founder of the sect. He appears to have lived in the eighth
century before the present era. He was of royal descent and had the hooded snake for his
totem. An image of the Jaina Deva at Mujiri near Kalyani in the Karnatic country, is evidently
a representation of him after his apotheosis. It is a nude human figure in sitting posture with
the legs crossed, and a many-headed cobra behind it, shading it with extended hoods. Colonel
W. Franklin gives an account of a temple of this deified pontiff at Samet-Sikhar, and describes
the statue as having "the head fashioned like a turban, with seven expanded heads of
serpents,"* Coluber naga, or hooded snake - the invariable symbol of Parswanatha. There are
other Jaina temples on the same hills, of smaller dimensions. "On the south side," Col.
Franklin adds, "is a very handsome flat-roofed temple containing several figures of this deity,
which exhibit the never-failing attributes of Parswanatha, viz: the ruler and guardian of
mankind."
Pilgrimage to shrines has always been a characteristic of different religions, and it has
been insisted that those to the temple of Jagganatha in Orissa were of Jaina origin. It is
significant, however, that the outline of the modern figure of the divinity is the same as the
trisul or trident of Buddhistic sculptures. Nevertheless, a writer in the Journal of the Asiatic
society remarks that "Jaganatha is an appellation given by the modern Jainas to their
Tirthankara Parswanatha in particular." The fact that the shrine is now in possession of rival
worshipers is by no means sufficient evidence of

-------------
* The serpent with seven heads appears to have been a symbol in other countries. The
discovery of records in the region of the valley of the Euphrates has brought to attention "the
seven-headed serpent of Akhad," which seems to be identical with the Great Red Dragon of the
Apocalypse, with seven heads and a halo of ten horns or rays of light.
-------------
--- 152.

its origin with them. It has been a common practice of the Brahmanists to seize the sacred sites
of other religious faiths, to appropriate the rites and take the images for their own divinities.
The Jainas, when they were predominant in India, were diligent in the selecting and
consecrating of sites for religious purposes, also in the excavating of shrines in the rocks and in
the erecting of temples. Being non-resistants, they have been very generally robbed of these by
their unscrupulous rivals.
Vardhamana, called also Mahavira, is perhaps the most distinguished, as being the last
and best known of the pontiffs. Professor Rhy-Davids describes him as promulgating the Jaina
system of belief, but not as its originator. "He merely carried on with slight changes a system
which existed before his time, and which probably owes it most distinguished features to a
teacher named Parswa, who ranks in the succession of Jainas as the predecessor of Mahavira."
He was the last who bore the title of Tirthankara, the present pontiffs being regarded as of
lesser importance.
He was distinguished for superior sanctity and was styled by eminence, Sramana, the
Holy One. The Jaina literature is exuberant with his praises. Even his pre-natal life is
wonderfully described. That he might not be born in an indigent family, he was transferred
from the body of one mother to that of another, and is accordingly reckoned as the son of
Siddartha, a monarch of the race of Ikshwaka. When he had grown to maturity he married and
became the parent of a daughter; but afterward, when thirty years old, he renounced his rank
and worldly pursuits and became an arahat, or solitary. His spiritual and intellectual faculties
are represented as greater than those of other men. He was said to be omniscient and all-
seeing, and endowed with super-human powers and virtues.
The Jainas were assiduous cultivators of learning, and the "Jaina Cycle" in Southern
India was the Augustean age of Tamil literature. They established schools and institutions of
higher learning, and appear to have been proficient in mathematics and physical science. Their
skill in the arts was extraordinary. They erected temples which were monuments of
architectural superiority, honey-combed the rocks with artificial caves, and carved the stones

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into images representing their gurus, saints and pontiffs, whom they revered as gods.
The reputation of Mahavira spread consternation among the Brahmans of Northern India.
The whole region was filled with his doctrine and the world seemed to be going out after him.
The most eminent teachers in Magadha were sent to examine and refute his opinions, but they
became converts and instructors in the Jaina schools.
The pontiffs were accustomed to distribute their followers into classes and place these
under chosen disciples. Mahavira had nine such classes, with eleven teachers. Of the eleven,
only two survived him. Indrabhuti and Sudharma Swami. From the latter all the Jaina pontiffs
and other teachers of subsequent periods are supposed to have derived their authority. But
Indrabhuti, though distinguished as "the holy Mahavira's eldest pupil" and possessed of mighty
qualities, with "the four kinds of knowledge and a treasury of meditation," is without
successors in the Jaina sect. This is accounted for by the fact of a schism which is supposed to
have taken place after the death of Mahavira.
Indrabhuti, called also Gautama Swami, is considered by the Jainas as the founder of the
Buddhist religion. The Bhagavati, a Jainist work of the thirteenth century, gives the account of
his relations with Mahavira as chela and guru, or disciple and preceptor. After describing the
exalted character of the latter, it describes graphically the first interview of his distinguished
pupil.
"Thereupon, that holy Gautama, in whom faith, doubt and curiosity arose and grew and
increased, rose up. Having arisen, he went to the place where the sacred Sramana Mahavira
was. After going there he honored him by three circumambulations. After performing these,
he praised him and bowed low before him. After so doing, not too close nor too distant, with
his face toward him, humbly waiting on him with folded hands, he spoke."
There seems, however, to be some discrepancy, this disciple of Mahavira being of the
Brahman caste, and the Gautama of the Buddhists belonging to the warrior and governing
class. But at that period the distinction of caste had not become so absolutely defined

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as it now exists. It had originated in a simple, natural division of labor associated with heredity
of occupation; and it was not unusual in earlier times for individuals in one caste to pass into
another. The simple distribution of duties had no concern with creeds or forms of religious
belief.
Buddhistic traditions incidentally confirm the fact of the relations between Mahavira and
his celebrated pupil. The Mahawansa, a standard authority, declares that the Buddha has
"seen" twenty-four predecessors, although other writers enumerate but four. They are regarded
by the Jainas as being Mahavira and the twenty-three who preceded him, who are thus claimed
by the Buddhists for their own sages. It is significant that the Lalita-vistara represents the
Buddha in infancy as wearing in his hair the totems or symbols of four of the Jainist pontiffs,
including the lion of Mahavira.
The division appears to have taken place between the two chief disciples, Gautama and
Sadharma, and to have been perpetuated by their successors. Hence, though there are many
sects among the Jainas, there is not a single guru or pontiff deriving his succession from the
former. It is not remarkable, however, that the doctrines of Gautama became predominant and
more widely disseminated than those of his preceptor. History abounds with analogous
instances in which the disciple outshone the master and cast him into the shade.
The Buddha, however, was not the only personage whom the Jaina writers claim as
having been originally of their number. The principal deities now comprised in the pantheon of
India are also thus included. They are, however, by no means regarded as of equal rank with
the deified sages, but only as devatas, or subordinate divinities, and their images are not placed
in the temples. They are described as belonging to the inferior heaven or condition,
denominated Swarga, and Indra, the original divinity of the Aryans, is named as their chief.
Brahma and Siva, who were divinities of a later period, with Rama, Ganesa, Hanuman and
others, are thus classed as devatas. But Vishnu holds a superior rank. He is described in Jaina
writings as having been several times incarnated as a raja, becoming afterward an arahat with
the title and distinction of Jina, or victorious,

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and as having attained to beatitude with the gods in the superior heaven or condition - Moksha.
This explains a practice of Jaina laymen of participating at times in Brahman rites. Veneration
is a cardinal principle of the sect, and though they consider the Brahman divinities as inferior to
their own deified sages, they nevertheless recognize them as entitled to honor. At the same
time they reject the Hindu Scriptures, the Vedas and Puranas, as being simply the work of a
vyasa or compiler.
It would not be proper to set down the Jainas as agnostics, but their belief in the Supreme
Being is after a form peculiar to their mode of thinking. They adhere strenuously to the
maxim: "A man of sense should believe only what he sees with his own eyes, and should not
accept what he hears from others." God, as a personal creator outside of the universe, has no
place in the Jaina philosophy. It denies the hypothesis of such a creator as illogical and
irrelevant in the general scheme. But it lays down as a cardinal doctrine that there is a Subtle
Essence underlying all substances, conscious as well as unconscious. This Essence is the
eternal cause of all changes and modifications in the universe and is termed "God." Our
experience does not show that everything which we know has its existence from a cause, but
only brings to notice the event or change which it undergoes. There is a permanent principle in
nature as well as one that is changeable; and hence, while the changes are the effects of
previous causes, the existences which are permanent, so far as we know, are not effects at all.
The Supreme Essence, therefore, transcends our knowing. He or it, however, is personified and
represented in the Tirthankaras and others who have become Jinas, or conquerors of
themselves, and these are accordingly revered as divinities.
There are four degrees of individual perfection in the Jaina system, namely: 1, Sayoga,
in which divinity is contemplated as from a distance; 2, Samipa, or nearness to Divinity; 3,
Sarupa, the being like God; 4, Sayoga, union with God.
The hypothesis that there was a physical creation at any period of time, is not even
considered. The universe is supposed to be, from the inherent necessity of things, coeval with
the Divine Substance. A

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chief pontiff at Bellikul gives this explanation: "The foundation of ages is countless, of the
origin of karma or passion is inconceivable, for the origin of the soul is too ancient to be
known. We are, therefore, to believe that humankind is ignorant of the true knowledge of the
origin of things, and that it is known only to the Supreme One whose state is without beginning
or end."
The metaphysical views, in regard to matter and the universe, accord with the teachings
of the Sankhya philosophy; but many extravagant notions are entertained. The Jainas teach
that every living thing, from the highest divinity to the most insignificant insect, existed from
eternity, and undergoes changes from higher to lower rank, or from lower to higher dignity,
according to its actions, till it become perfected and attains to the divine beatitude.
The soul or jiva is described as a spiritual essence united to a subtle material
body, or rather to a two-fold body, the superior being the qualities of mind and an invariable
nature, and the other consisting of the passions and affections.* Thus embodied, it becomes,
according to its character, united in its several incarnations, with the gross structure of flesh
and blood in human or animal form, or with a purer substance as a divine or spiritual being.
There is also another essence or principle pertaining to it denominated Aharika. This is
explained as a minute, intangible essence or principle issuing from the head. It may reach forth
from the head of the meditative person to hold communication with others and bring back the
knowledge thus obtained. However far the distance which it may traverse, its connection with
the head is not severed.**
The soul is never completely separated from matter till, by becoming disengaged from
good and evil in the persons of a beatified saint, it is finally released from corporeal
conditions. During the

-------------
* The same doctrine is taught by Plato in the Timaios. He places the former, the thumos,
in the upper part of the body, and the other, the epuhumia, beneath.
** See Plutarch: Discourse Respecting the Demon of Sokrates, 22.
-------------
--- 157.

several incarnations it is rewarded for benefits conferred and punished for injuries inflicted in
its present or preceding state, by the individual or individuals thus benefitted or aggrieved.
The Vedantas indicate the path of knowledge as the way to the highest blessedness.
Jainism supplements this by good works and religious observances. The Jaina code enjoins the
Yatis or adepts from taking life, lying, taking anything that is not freely given, sexual
intercourse and interest in worldly things, particularly the owning of property. The cardinal
virtues are five, namely: Mercy to all animated beings, the giving of alms, veneration of the
sages while living and honoring them when dead, confession of faults and religious fasting.
Everyone is require at least once every year to go to the confessional.
The ritual of worship is very simple. The Yatis seem to regard themselves as superior to
the necessity of formal worship and dispense with it at pleasure; and the laity are only required
to visit a temple daily in which are some of the images of the deified pontiffs, to walk around it
three times uttering a mantra or salutation and presenting an offering of fruit, flowers or
incense. It is not lawful to offer a bloody sacrifice. It is a maxim of their religion: "To abstain
from slaughter is the highest perfection: to kill any living creature is sin." They abstain from
eating at night lest they should unwittingly deprive some animal or insect of life, and before
drinking they are careful to strain the water through a cloth. For the four months of the year
when insects are most numerous the potter's wheel and oil-mill are stopped; and the Yatis,
when they go abroad, especially after a shower, carry a broom to sweep them from the path.
One of them, a person of rank and distinction, having been shown through a microscope the
numerous minute creatures in his food, begged the instrument to be given him an then
immediately broke it to pieces.
The historic account of the Jainas as given by their own writers, even when shorn of
exaggeration, nevertheless indicates for them great antiquity. They appear to have lived side
by side with the Brahmans during the prehistoric period, and many of the kings of India were
of their number. They became known to the Greeks at the period of the invasion of India by
Alexander. At that time Nanda was king of Magadha. He was assassinated by his vizier, and
succeeded

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by his son. While Alexander was in the Punjab, another son, Chandragupta or Sandrakottos,
the offspring of a Sudra mother, repaired to his camp and sought to enlist him in his behalf. He
gave offense by his audacity of manner, and Alexander was about to order him to be put to
death, when he took the alarm and fled. A revolution a few years afterward placed him on the
throne of Magadha, and he soon afterward become the Overlord of India, expelling the Greeks
and extending his authority to Kashmir and the Dekhan. He was of the Jaina religion, which
then flourished all over India. This religion was professed by his son and successor and for a
time by his more famous grandson, Asokavardhana Priyadarsin, now better known by the
abbreviated name of Asoka. This prince was characterized by extraordinary enthusiasm. He
was zealous to introduce Jainism into Kashmir and promote its exercise in different parts of his
dominion. Like Dareios of Persia, he caused his edicts and purposes to be engraved upon the
rocks, and at a later period upon pillars. In these he prohibited the killing of animals,
deprecated the reviling of the religious beliefs of others, and described what he was doing for
the welfare of his people. He appointed ministers of morality to observe and report upon such
matters as required their attention. He also established hospitals over India for the sick, both
men and cattle, brought healing herbs and planted them, cultivated fruit-trees and caused wells
to be dug and trees planted on the highways for the benefit of men and cattle. He also took care
to provide instruction for all. "My whole endeavor," said he, " is to be blameless toward all, to
make them happy in this world and to enable them hereafter to attain heavenly bliss." -
(Swarga)
Notwithstanding his great zeal for religion and benevolence, it was Asoka that displaced
Jainism from its high elevation. In the twenty-seventh year of his reign, about two and a half
centuries before the present era, he announced his change of religious belief. He had styled
himself, "The friend of the gods" in the introduction to his edicts. It was now proclaimed that,
"hereafter the Prince Pryadaarsa, having raised the Chhatta, will assume the title of Asoka the
Dhanma Raja, or just king."
Asoka now made Buddhism the religion of his government.

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From this time he engaged in its dissemination, employing over sixty thousand missionaries,
and even sending them to other countries. This is, perhaps, the first example in historic times
of a religion established in such a manner, and the only one promulgated by teaching without
resort to violence or compulsion. For a thousand years it was the prominent faith of India,
during which period recusants were not harassed with persecution or legal disabilities. A
revolution then took place which resulted in its complete disappearance from the peninsula.
Meanwhile Jainism, though supplanted by its powerful rival, was by no means smothered
out of existence. It continued to be the religion of princes and peoples, and to exercise a
powerful influence. It was even able in later centuries to obtain immunities from the Moslem
conquerors. The peaceful character of its adherents, their sincere devotion and their superior
talent for commercial transactions won favor from all. They are by no means insignificant in
numbers or otherwise deficient in energy. But they are skillful in the arts of peace, promoters
of learning and exemplary as a people.
Whether, however, they will ever regain their former importance is problematic. Beliefs
once cherished, but afterward left behind in the progress of thought, are never taken up anew.
A ceremonial religion contains within itself the elements of its own dissolution. With every
new advance the reason for old customs is left behind; the new occasion creates new duty.
Even India will be inspired with the coming inflow of energy and awaken to active life. What
of value remains of her former thought and knowledge will not perish. Her philosophies still
live and the world is profiting by them, and no doubt there are treasures of wisdom and
experience which still retain their value. The Jaina sages have made rich contributions to these,
and much that they have taught and confirmed by example is even now appearing under new
forms and new names in modern philosophy and doctrine.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1902)

---------------------
--- 160.

GENESIS OF THE KORAN

"God fulfills himself in many ways,


Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
- Tennyson

Every few centuries a new movement of an extraordinary character occurs to agitate the
world. There was in former periods an irruption or general emigration of populations to disturb
the settled order, or there was the appearing of a new leader of thought to break the monotony
of established belief or indifference. So regularly have such epochs arrived as almost to
warrant the classifying of human history by cycles that were indicated by remarkable events or
peculiar conditions. Herodotus has preserved the tradition of the Phoenix, the sacred Bennu of
Egypt, that came to Heliopolis every five hundredth year, bringing the body of its predecessor
for the funeral obsequies. At such times the former period came to an end, and the "new
heavens and new earth" began their course.
By no means would it be any great stretch of imagination to view all past history, so far
as it is now known, as divided into such periods, and to point out the events and famous
individuals that distinguished them. Thus Cyrus, Caesar and Charlemagne made eras in the
political world, as did Gregory the Great, Hildebrand and Martin Luther in the world of
religious activity. So, likewise, the invasions of the more civilized regions of Asia and Europe
by hordes from the North, took place with a wonderful regularity, and effected great changes in
populations, government and social institutions. The recurring of epidemic visitations, whether
of disease or doctrine, seems to have a like regularity.

--- 161.

Every country of which we have historic record, has exhibited periodic transitions. India,
which was once Aethiopic and Turanian, had, after the Aryan conquests, a Vedic age, and then
in course the Former Bhamanic, the Buddhistic and the Later Brahmanic periods. The political
history has been in very exact correspondence with these. Persia was Zoroastrian, then
Parthian and afterward Magian. Egyptian history is described by dynasties that are classified in
groups as belonging to distinct empires. Greece was Pelasgian in the archaic times, then
Hellenic but afterward becoming Christianized. But we will not carry this enumeration further.
They serve to show that nations as they become degenerate in virtue and energy, have
uniformly passed under the control of ambitious leaders, or became the subjects of foreign
conquerors. So the history of the world has been made with kaleidoscopic phases.
Religions have participated in similar changes. Worships have grown up, undergone
modifications or been superseded by new forms of rite and doctrine; and these in their turn
underwent like decay and transformation. The beliefs and activities of one generation hardly
suit the genius of its successors. Truly do our little systems have their day and then pass into
decadence.
The sixth century of the present era was big with such events. The Roman world had
become Gothic and Greek and the rule over Syria and Egypt, was disputed by the monarchs of
Persia. Mithras-worship, with occult rites, was extending over Europe and imperiling the
existence of the rival faith. Manichean Gnosticism was also honeycombing the ecclesiastic
body from Armenia and Bulgaria to Southern Gaul. The Nestorians had established
universities and were maintaining an extensive propaganda in Africa and through all Asia, and
numbered more adherents than both the Greek and Roman communions. An older worship
than these, the Sabian, which was astral as well as ceremonial, including the "host of heaven"
as its divinities, was still prevalent in Arabia and the East. It had, however, passed its
climacteric. There was, accordingly a general process of disintegration in activity, and the
world was ripening for a new evolution.
In all quarters, says Renan, there was the presentiment of a

--- 162.

great religious renovation; in all quarters people were saying that the time for Arabia had
come. The peninsula, almost a world in itself, was inhabited by numerous tribes, clans and
families, that were in a great degree independent of one another, and were actually sometimes
at open war. The cities were distinct commonwealths, made up of confederated sects having
like parentage and the same religious sanctuary. The whole region was now nearing the
important crisis in its history. The ancient worship was outworn, and many who observed its
rites were overborne by a sense of their utter uselessness. Hence other faiths became
acceptable. The adherents of Magism had fled to Arabia after the conquest of the Persian
dominion of Alexander. Christians were also numerous, finding shelter from the persecutions
of the Roman and Byzantine emperors. Jews, likewise, came for new homes after the final
destruction of their own national existence, and under their influence many tribes actually
embraced Judaism. Indeed, the Arabians, though formerly reputed to be of the posterity of Ad
and Thamud, and though probably of the same ethnic origin with the Abyssinians and other
African peoples, now regarded themselves as lineal descendants of Abraham, the Semitic
ancestral personage. They may have been influenced by their Jewish countrymen, or perhaps
by their astro-theological beliefs, rather than by trustworthy tradition.*
Pilgrimage to sacred places was a general feature in ancient religions, and in this way the
Valley of Mina in the Hedjaz had long been a famous place of resort. Here the caravans
employed in the trade with India halted for refreshment and traffic. In it was the well Zemzem,
which abounded with an inexhaustible supply of water. All holy places had a temple-precinct
and sacred fountain, and so the

--------------
* In the Hebrew prophetic writing the region of Hedjaz, Yemen and Hadramaut is
uniformly called "Cush" or Ethiopia. The Semitic name, Abraham, appears to be made from
the two words "AB and RAM," thus signifying "The Father on High." This, in astral theology,
is a designation of the planet Saturn, or Kronos, and of the divinity bearing those names.
--------------
--- 163.

sanctuary was established here, the Kaba, so called as being peculiarly significant of the Great
Mother of many names, who "all Asia and the world worshiped." In it was the shrine of Ho-
Bal, the Baal of the East, and there were also the images and emblematic figures of the
divinities, simulacra of the astral spirits and guardians of the days of the year, and also the
Black Stone, which, like the other meteoric stones of Tyre, Cyprus, Emesa and Ephesus, was
venerated as the particular symbol of the Great Goddess.
The possession of the keys of the Kaba assured the ascendancy in civil and religious
administration. Through the diversion of trade into other channels the importance of the region
had declined. Kosai, the chief ruler of the Koraish, was able to acquire the authority of the
keys for his own people, and followed up this advantage by founding the city of Mekka anew
with governmental and religious institutions. He also united the neighboring tribes into one
federation, with a central council and defined relations between them all. Hashim and others
completed the work thus begun, and Mekka was once more a metropolis. The Kaba was rebuilt
and was again a place of resort for pilgrims. The people recognized Alla Taala, the Most High
God, as supreme over all, whom Abraham, their ancestor, had also adored and revered the
spirits of the stars as saints to intercede with him.
Such was the condition of affairs when Mohamad* was born. Losing his parents, he
became the ward of the sheik, or patriarch, of his tribe, first of his grandfather and afterward of
his uncle. Like Moses, David and others of moderate wealth, he was for several

-------------
* This is the spelling of the name in use among English-speaking Moslems in India. the
name in Persian and Arabic is without consonants - M'H'M'D, leaving every one to be guided
by usage and his own judgment in regard to the vowels. All Oriental languages are equally
indefinite in regard to vowel-sounds, leading to great confusion in the spelling of proper names.
The names in the Bible would be equally puzzling because of the masoretic innovation, but that
the Greek text has anticipated this difficulty.
-------------
--- 164.

years employed as a keeper of flocks. He thus formed the simple habits which he retained
through life. He was of a sensitive nature, nervously afraid and susceptible of bodily pain,
sobbing and screaming in his anguish. He suffered from tortuous convulsions, terrible to
endure or even to behold. He was often low-spirited and wished for death. From being so
much alone he early became addicted to serious meditation.
At the age of twelve he accompanied his uncle, who was leading a caravan into Syria. A
Bozra the two were guests at the Nestorian Convent. Bahira, one of the monks, took a warm
interest in the youth. He found the young Kotham precociously intelligent, and eager for
knowledge, especially upon matters connected with religion. These expeditions to Syria were
repeated in subsequent years, and thus he became indoctrinated in the tenets of he Nestorians,
acquiring the same hatred of image-worship which was a peculiarity of their religion. "His
subsequent career shows," Professor Draper remarks, "how completely their religious thoughts
had taken possession of him, and repeated acts manifest his affectionate regard for them. His
own life was devoted to the expansion and extension of their theological doctrine; and, that
once effectually established, his successors energetically adopted and diffused their
Aristotelian opinions."
In this way, sober, thoughtful and industrious, he grew up to manhood. He was gentle,
sensible, free from hate, sincere and kind of heart. When his hand was taken in salutation he
responded cordially to the pressure, and was never first to withdraw it from the grasp. He
never struck others in anger nor scolded any one for a fault. He was very fond of little children,
playing with their toys and telling them fairy tales and amusing stories. In matters of daily life
he was inexpert and unpractical, but he excelled in imagination, delicacy and refinement of
feeling. He is described as being more modest than a girl behind her curtain. He waited on
himself, mended his own clothes, visited the sick, and if he chanced to meet a funeral party, he
turned and followed the bier. Those who met him revered him; those who knew him loved
him. Yet he was timorous and distrustful of himself, and nothing short of intense conviction
could have induced him to declare himself an Apostle of God.

--- 165.

He lived long in obscurity before he began his work. For years he went with the caravans
to Syria, employed in various ways, and discharging every trust with scrupulous fidelity. He
was twenty-five years old when he was engaged by Khadija, a rich widow, to take charge of
her merchandise and sell it in Damascus. Upon his return, though many years his senior, she
proposed marriage, and the union was a happy one. His devotion to her never abated. Years
after her death a favorite wife reproached him for this continued attachment, affirming that she
was herself superior to her. This he vehemently denied. "No woman was ever her superior,"
he declared. "I was poor and she enriched me; I was accused of falsehood and deception, but
she always believed me. I suffered, but the more I suffered the more she loved me." Whatever
judgment may be formed of his later career, he amply deserved during these years, the epithet
by which he was known, "Amin," the Faithful.
There was at this period a goodly number of thoughtful men at Mekka and other places in
the neighborhood, who had lost all regard for the established worship and yet questioned the
integrity of the other faiths then prevalent in Arabia. They were generally careful to avoid
open rupture with their countrymen, and sometimes assumed the title of "Abrahamitic
Sabians," as though seeking to perfect the religion of their countrymen by finding and restoring
that of their Great Ancestor. To this they gave the name of "Islam," obtaining for
themselves as its followers, and perhaps for own worthiness the designation of Musalmans or
Moslems.* They were distinguished by

-------------
* The Arabic term, S'L'M, salam, which belongs also to all the Semitic dialects, is
defined in the lexicons as signifying peace, reconcilement, also devotion, welfare in the
general. It is used for friendly salutation all the way from Bengal to Morocco. The
designation, Islam, is formed from it by adding the prefix I, which gives it a technical meaning:
and in like manner, Moslem and Musalman, have the prefix M or Mu, to indicate the believer.
In the Talmud, the term moslem, is used as the equivalent of Sadok, a righteous man. -
Proverbs xxiv:16. The Hebrew name of Soloman, S'L'M'A, Salamba,
-------------
--- 166.

their countrymen by the less honorable title of Hanifs* as being apostates or hypocritic
conformists to the national worship.
There is an account of a private conference between four of them, Waraka, Othman,
Obeida and Zaid. It was at the annual festival which was in progress at the Kaba. "Truly," said
they, "these our country are walking in the path of error and falsehood. Shall we also walk in
procession around a stone that can not see or hear, help or hurt? Let us seek a better path; and
if it shall be necessary, in order to find the truth, let us quit our country and search elsewhere."
So each went by himself. Waraka consulted with the Jews; Othman journeyed as far as
Constantinople and was there baptized. Obeida pursued a more uncertain career, long
wavering between one faith and another of the many then professed in Arabia. But Zaid stood
apart from all, declaring his belief in Islam alone, and earnestly endeavoring to conform to
what he considered to have been the religion of Abraham. He went daily to the Kaba to pray
for enlightenment, and courageously affirmed his belief in one God, that "there is no God but
Allah." He attacked the worship of images and many divinities, and denounced the practice of
burying female infants alive. Whatever he perceived to be right he sought faithfully to do.
Persecution finally compelled him to leave the city, and he journeyed through Syria to
Mesopotamia, everywhere pursuing his quest for the true religion.
Mohamad openly declared himself the pupil of Zaid. Following his example, he repaired
often to Mount Hira, a desolate peak near Mekka, and abode there for considerable periods, in
one of its caves, engaged in silent prayer and meditation. He continued to do this for several
years. Though of a fervid imagination, he does not appear to

----------------
is likewise a derivative from that term, and likewise its feminine, Salambo, a designation of the
great goodness.
* From H'N'P, haniph, profane, ungodly; also a hypocrite, an apostate. This term
appears in the Hebrew text of the book of Job, chapters vii:13; xiii:16; xiv:18; also Isaiah
ix:17; and Jeremiah, xxiii:15.
---------------
--- 167.

have contemplated any taking of the lead in a general social and religious upheaval. He was
undergoing a training and experience which served to prepare him for the very undertaking
which he did not dream of or even comprehend.
Mohamad was now forty years old. The annual fast of the month of Ramadhan was
celebrated at Mekka, and he had gone to Mount Hira to spend the time in devotional
meditation. This was the turning-point of his career. He had an interview with the angel
Gabriel, he tells us, and received from him the divine message commissioning him as the
Apostle of Allah, the one only God.
Whether he had become entheat from intense mental concentration, or saw and heard
what he describes while in a trance or dream or some seizure, to which he was subject, we do
not attempt to determine. This much, however, must be admitted in candor, even by those who
are not willing to acknowledge the reality of anything supernatural, that he himself believed
that he was directed from heaven. It is an account like those of which we read in the writings
of the Hebrew prophets, and we forbear to speak further.
Imagination was displayed in its wildest stages of phantasy in the endeavors to vilify the
Arabian apostle and his doctrine. Christendom, which was then characterized by gross
ignorance of everything beyond its borders, abounded with extravagant statements and
descriptions. He was represented as a pagan deity that was worshiped with human sacrifices
and rites of the grossest lewdness. It was affirmed that the Moslems at Cadiz paid homage to
the golden image of the god Mahom, and that the emperor Charlemagne feared to destroy it lest
he would thereby set free an army of evil demons belonging to it, to go abroad over the earth.
Even the highest authorities of the Roman church declared that the god Maphomet, Baphomet
or Bafum was worshiped in the East; and the terms Bafumry, Mahomry and Mummery became
designations of unholy and unclean rites.* Many and remarkable were the descriptions that

---------------
* The Arabian Moslems were also declared to be worshipers of the goddess of the Moon,
who was styled Trivagante or Termagant.
---------------
--- 168.

were current. Dante mentions Mohamad as a heretic who had sowed discord in the Church. It
was also told that he had sought to be elected Pope, and on failing had invented a new religion
in revenge. Even Martin Luther joined in the fierce calumnies and reviled him in language
such as sensitive persons regard as profane swearing. The Huguenot writer, Genebrard,
denominated Mohamad "an ignorant beast," and denounced the Koran for not having been
written in Latin, Greek or Hebrew. Indeed, not till within the Nineteenth Century, did it
become a familiar practice with any to speak of the great Arabian candidly and impartially.
Those who had known Mohamad most familiarly were the first to acknowledge his
claims. Coming from his retreat in great consternation, he told his faithful wife what had
befallen him. He feared that he was to become a mountebank (cohen), or one obsessed. She
answered joyfully: "Not so. He in whose hands is the life of Khadija, he is my witness that
thou art to be the prophet of this people." Then she hastened to her cousin Waraka, the Hanif,
now old and blind, who "knew the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians." When she had told
him what she heard, he lifted up his sightless eyes, and exclaimed: "Holy, Holy! This is the
Law which came to Moses." And meeting Mohamad afterward in the street, he saluted him as
the apostle of Allah, and predicted persecution, exile and conflict.
Zaid had wandered to Mesopotamia, stopping wherever he might consult those who, like
himself, were studying in the hope to recover the lost wisdom of the ancient sage. A Christian
monk, whose friendship he had gained, now told him of the new apostle that had appeared at
Mekka, proclaiming the religion of Abraham. Overjoyed, he set out for home, but was met on
his way by robbers and murdered.
Mohamad is described as reluctant, and even afraid, to venture upon his new vocation.
Timid and hesitating in disposition, he quailed

--------------
They were also classed as Paynims or pagans, and denominated infidels and miscreants, or
misbelievers.
--------------
--- 169.

at an enterprise which was sure to cost friends, reputation and what man holds dear. The
Hanifs with whom he had been associated had
been compelled to undergo social proscription, and even persecution till they left their homes.
And, then, what if the visit of the angel should be but a hallucination, a distempered vision with
no reality behind it, or even a scene got up for his destruction by malignant demons?
Finally he resolved to obey the supernatural voice. He laid aside the names Kotham and
Halibi, which he had hitherto borne, and took the one by which he is universally known.* Like
the prophet Elijah, he had desired death feeling it better for him to die than to live; yet when
the men of his clan offered bribes and made threats to swerve him, he stubbornly replied:
"Though they array against me the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left, yet while
God commands me I will not renounced my purpose." Nor had he any overweening illusion in
regard to his own superior worthiness. "Will you not enter Paradise by your own merits?"
Ayesha asked him. He answered, reiterating it three times: "Never shall I enter Paradise unless
God shall cover me with his mercy."
It does not appear to have been his ambition to introduce a new system of belief into the
world. "His first and ruling idea was simply religious reform," says Professor Draper, "to
overthrow Arabian idolatry and put an end to the wild enthusiasm of Christianity." That the
movement should extend into other regions from India to the Atlantic, till it included a third of
the population of the earth within its scope, and continue as is now the case to extend and make
its proselytes better and worthier - all this he had never contemplated. He had long entertained
the sad conviction of the Hanifs, that his people had gone astray from the religion of Abraham,
and he now

--------------
* It was the custom of the kings of Egypt, upon their accession to the throne, to assume a
new name as a declaration of their divine rank. Mohamad evidently selected his for its peculiar
meaning, the One desired, the Favorite (of Heaven). See I Samuel, ix:20; Haggas, ii:7.
--------------
--- 170.

regarded himself as appointed by God, to call them back to the ancient ways. His utterances
were denominated the Koran,* as signifying such calling. Islam has no priesthood to shape its
dogmas or control the conscience of its adherents. Its principles are broad and liberal. Reviled
as he has been for centuries, Mohamad always spoke in respectful words of those who had been
teachers before him. He never uttered the name of Jesus except with a benediction. He also
recognized the merits of sincere believers of other religions. "Verily," says he, "the believers,
and those who are Jews, those who are Christians and Sabians, whoever believeth in God and
doeth that which is right, they shall have their reward with their Lord: there shall come no fear
upon them, neither shall they be grieved."
To constitute a nation it is necessary that people shall have a record, a history, a
literature. Every religion that has made a permanent impression upon the world has been the
religion of a Book. Arabia and the countries adjacent, in the time of Mohamad, abounded with
sacred scriptures, such as the Hebrew and Rabbinic writings, the Avesta, the Book of Seth, the
Book of Enoch, and the numerous gospels of the Gnostic and other Christian sects. They were
congruous to some extent with the description which the Brahmans have given of a puran: "a
literary work treating of five subjects; namely: primary creation, or the creation of matter in
general; secondary creation, or the production of the subordinate beings, both spiritual and
material; a chronological account of their great periods of time; the genealogic rise of
families, particularly those that have reigned in the country; and lastly, a history of the lives of
particular families."
To these conditions the Koran certainly does not conform. It is unique, having neither
beginning, middle nor end. The suras are not even properly arranged. Its transitions from one
mood and topic

---------------
* This term is derived from the word K'RA, to call, to cry out, to read as from writing.
The name Koran, may, therefore, signify the writings that were called together or collected
after the death of Mohamad, or that were to be considered to be sacred.
---------------
--- 171.

to another are sudden and rapid; it suffers fearfully by translation; its elegance of diction is
utterly lost; and yet as we read, we find much to admire.
The late Emanuel Deutsch considered Islam as being "neither more nor less than Judaism
adapted to Arabia plus the apostleship of Jesus and Mohamad." He referred for corroboration,
to Maimonides, the exponent of the later Judaism, who fearlessly spoke of Christ and
Mohamad as heralds of the Messianic times. This is a judgment, however, which seems to
require qualifying, for there are distinct traces of Zoroastrism in the Koran, that must have
come from the Avesta. But the Jews, especially after their final overthrow in Palestine, had
migrated in large numbers to Arabia, to Hedjaz, Yemen and Hadramaut; and having laid aside
the conception of nationality and abandoned the cumbrous Levitical worship as not required by
their law,* they became identified with the native population, intermarrying, and by familiar
intercourse greatly influencing the religious opinions of their new fellow-countrymen. It is not
remarkable, therefor, that in the declaration of Mohamad that he was introducing no new
doctrine, but only restoring the religion** of Abraham, it should be considered as a clue to the
understanding of Islam. Indeed, in his exposition, Deutsch sustains this view, by comparing
the descriptions in the Midrash with peculiar details in the account of the Night-Journey to the
celestial regions. Judaism, he declares, having supplanted Hebraism and Israelitism,
"subsequently stood at the cradle both of Christianity and Mohamedanism." He further
remarks that "when the Talmud was completed (finally gathered in, not composed) the Koran
was begun. Post hoc, propter hoc." There are many statements and utterances in the latter
work,

-------------
* Jeremiah vii:22. "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day
that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices."
** The term rendered "religion" is milla, which is the same in meaning with the logos, or
Word in the Gospel according to John, and the dharma of the Buddhistic writers.
-------------
--- 172.

similar to those in the Jewish writings, and he describes its contents graphically as "often
putting the old wine in new bottles."
Yet, with all the faults in the arranging of its parts, despite the fact that it was written in
suras at different times and at various exigencies, the Koran is uniform in its utterance, its
elegance of language, its persistent purpose. Its supreme thought appears constantly in the
emphatic words: "Allahu akbar," God is great. Every chapter is prefixed with the reverent
expression: "Bismilla," in the name of God. Everywhere it insists that God is the guide of
human destiny, and that he is ever merciful and compassionate. But while teaching Islam as
submission to the will of God, it is by no means fatalism that is meant, but a vigorous striving
after righteousness, each individual working out his own salvation.
"The laws of practical ethics in the Koran rest largely upon the principle of justice," says
Mary Mills Patrick; "but charity, philanthropy, generosity, gratitude and sincerity are also
recommended. Strict honesty is demanded in business dealings with just balances, and upright
intentions. Lies of all kinds are condemned, the taking of bribes is strictly forbidden, and
faithfulness to trusts is commanded. This is especially the case in regard to orphans."
Such was the book - the revelation if we choose to esteem it as such - by the influence of
which the Arabians became a nation. Moved by the impulse thus imparted they passed once
more beyond their ancient boundaries into Syria and the East, making themselves masters of
the Empire of Cyrus and Alexander, of Egypt and the realm of Hannibal. Nor was theirs solely
a career of conquest and spoliation. Nowhere were they like Attila, merely a "scourge of God,"
or devouring locusts spreading blight and desolation where they went. "After the first wave of
invasion swept by, two blades of grass were found growing where one had grown before; they
fertilized while they destroyed; and from one end of the then known world to the other, they
sowed the seeds of literature, of commerce and of civilization. And as these disappeared in the
lapse of years in one part of the Mussulman world, they reappeared in another." - [Draper]
Thus for five centuries the Arabians held up the torch of learning while Europe was
emerged in the barbarism of the Middle

--- 173.

Ages. They translated the writings of the Greek sages, made themselves masters of geometry
and metaphysics, developed the sciences of agriculture and astronomy, created those of algebra
and chemistry. They adorned their cities with colleges and libraries, and supplied Europe with
philosophers from Cordova, and physicians from Salerno.* Nor was the energy of their
propaganda abated. The Turk has taken the scepter from the Arabian, but Islam is still
extending into new regions, and introducing there a better state of things. It is propagated by
preaching alone, and with marked success, in different parts of Africa.
It is true that there are what we must consider radical faults and blemishes. We can find
them in profusion by looking for them. Yet it is far better to have our eyes open to discern
what is good and useful, and to see things as they are. In this view of the matter we must place
the great Arabian in the roll of the benefactors of the human race. Without a standing army,
body-guard, regal palace and the trappings of power, with the ground for a throne, he ruled his
equals as by divine authority alone. He made his religion the aim of his life and instilled that
idea into the minds of his followers. The Koran was to him the voice speaking in his inmost
consciousness to enable him to direct his actions. It was "his sign, his miracle, his mission."
We are to judge it by its own contents. What the Thora is to Judaism, the Gospel to Christians,
the Koran is to Islam. By it let us form our judgment.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Dec., 1901)

--------------
* This credit, however, does not belong altogether to the Moslems. The Jews were their
principal teachers in literature and scientific learning; and the Nestorians, the most learned of
the Christian bodies, were first to promote the founding of schools and universities. The
Omayad Khalifs availed themselves of the services of both.
----------------------------
--- 174.

INTRODUCTION AND APPENDIX TO ANCIENT SYMBOL WORSHIP

(The following is Wilder’s Introduction and Appendix to the book Phallism in Ancient
Worships: Ancient Symbol Worship - Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of
Antiquity, by Hodder M. Westropp and C. Staniland Wake, with an Introduction, Additional
Notes, and an Appendix by Alexander Wilder, M.D., New York, J.W. Bouton, 1874.)

INTRODUCTION

Baal..... None older is than I. When Man came forth,


The final effort, wrung from monstrous forms,
And Earth's out-wearied forces could no more,
I warmed the ignorant bantling on my breast,
We rose together, and my kingdom spread
From these cold hills to hamlets in the palms,
That grew to Memphis and to Babylon;
While I on towers, and hanging terraces,
In shaft and obelisk, beheld my sign
Creative, shape of first imperious law.
- "Masque of the Gods," by Bavard Taylor

The classic scholar whose studies have hardly exceeded the limits prescribed in the
curriculum of the universities, and the biblical student whose explorations of the Hebrew
Scriptures have not led him

--- 175.

beyond the field of exegesis and theological pursuit, and ill-prepared to hear of a larger world
than Greece, Rome, and Palestine, or of an archaic time which almost remands the annals of
those countries into the domain of modern history. Olympian Zeus with his college of
associate deities, afterward Latinized in Jupiter and his divine subordinates, and the Lord alone
with his ten thousands of sacred ones, comprise their idea of the supernal world and its
divinities. Beyond, they recognize a vague and misty chaos of mythologies, which, not
accurately understanding, they superciliously affect to despise. Whoever would be really
intelligent, must boldly explore that chaos, voyaging through the "outer world" away from Troy
and Greece, as far as Ulysses went, and from biblical scenes to the very heart of the ancient
empires. There is no occasion for terror, like that displayed by the mariners who sailed with
Columbus into the unknown ocean. Wherever man is to be found, like instincts, passions,
hopes, and ambitions will attest a common kindred. Each person's life is in some manner
repeated in that of his fellows, and every human soul is a mirror in which other souls, as well as
future and former events, reflect their image.
It is more than probably that the diversified customs, institutions, and religions of the
several nations of the world are less dissimilar in their origin than is often imagined. The
differences uprose in the progress of time, the shifting scenes of climate, condition, and event.
But the original ideas of existence, and the laws which pertain to all created things, are pretty
much the same among the various tribes of mankind. The religions, philosophical systems and
symbolisms, are outgrowths, - the aspirations of thinking and reverential men to solve and
express in suitable form the facts which underlie and constitute all things.
We should therefore approach the subject of human faith and worship with candor,
modesty, and respect. Men's beliefs are entitled to so much. The unwitting individual may be
astonished at beholding men, the masters of the science and thought of their time, adoring gods
that are represented as drunken and adulterous, and admitting extravagant stories and
scandalous narrations among their religious verities. In this simplicity he may conceive that
he has a right to

--- 176.

contemn, and even to scoff at, such prodigious infatuation. But the infatuation and absurdity
are only apparent. There is a fuller, profounder meaning, which sanctifies the emblems and
legends which ignorant and superficial men denounce. M. Renan speaks justly as well as
eloquently: "It is sacrilege, in a religious light, this making sport of symbols consecrated by
Time, wherein, too, man had deposited his first views of the divine world." *
Religions were never cunningly devised by priests, or ambitious leaders, for the purpose
of enabling them to hold the human mind in abject bondage. Nor did they come into existence,
full-grown, like Athene, the Jove-born; nor were they constructed from the lessons of sages or
even of prophets. They were born, like men, not mature but infantile; the body and life as a
single entity, without a definite evolving of the interior, symbolized idea, yet containing all
potentially; so that time and growth were required to enable the intelligent mind to distinguish
rightly between the form and the substance which it envelops and shadows forth. When this
substance, like the human soul, has fully developed, the external forms and symbols become of
little value, and are cast off and rejected like chaff from the wheat. Yet for the sake of their use
they are to be valued and respected. The well-thinking medical student never indulges in ribald
hilarity at or in the presence of the corpse which he dissects, from reverence for the human soul
that was once its tenant. But religious symbols lose their sacredness when they are employed
to supplant the idea which alone had rendered them valuable.
Let there be no contempt, then, for the Children of the Mist, who love to gaze backward
into the past to ascertain what man has been, and to look within to learn what he is and ought to
be. They are not prophets without inspiration, or apostles that have no mission. Behind the
veil is the Shekinah; only the anointed have authority to lift aside the curtain.
Modern science somewhat audaciously has endeavored to set aside the time-honored
traditions of a Golden Age. We do not

-----------
* Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse, Frothingham's translation.
-----------
--- 177.

undertake to controvert the new doctrine, so necessary to establish the recently-traced


relationships between men and monkeys. The same social law which allows every man to
choose his own company, can be extended perhaps to the selection of his kindred.
But, so far as we are able to perceive, there have been cycles of human development,
analogous to the geological periods, that have been accomplished upon the earth. Men,
nations, and civilizations, like the seasons, have passed over the great theatre of existence. We
have often only the traces of them in a few remains of language, manufacture, and religion.
Much is lost save to conjecture. Judging from our later observations of human progress, there
must have been a long term of discipline that schooled them; yet, perhaps, it was the divine
intuition and instinct implanted in them that enabled them to achieve so much. It is not
possible, however, to extend researches back far enough to ascertain. We are not equal to the
task of describing the fossils of a perished world. We are compelled to read the archaic history
through the forms and mysteries* of religion, and the peculiarities of language, rather than in
the pages of the annalist. The amber of mythology has served to preserve to us the most of
what is to be learned on these topics.

-----------
* By mysteries the educated reader will not understand merely doctrines of symbols, or
even secrets as such, but a system of discipline and instruction in esoteric learning which was
deemed too sacred and recondite for those who had not complied with the essential conditions.
Every ancient country had its sacerdotal order, the members of which had been initiated into
the mysteries; and even Jesus defended his practice of discoursing in parables or allegories,
because that only to his disciples was it given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of
God, whereas to the multitude it was not given. The priests of Egypt, the Magians of the
ancient countries beyond the river Euphrates, the priests of Phoenicia and the other countries of
Western Asia, were all members of sacerdotal colleges that might not divulge the esoteric
knowledge to the uninitiated. Even the Brahmins of India are said to have also their mysteries
at the
-----------
--- 178.

The primitive religion of mankind is perhaps only to be ascertained when we know


accurately their original habitats. But this, like the gilded butterfly, eludes our search. India,
Persia, Babylonia, Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, were but colonies. The Vendidad indicates a
country north of the river Oxus; and Sir William Jones, adopting the story of the learned Sufi,
Mohsan Fani, declared his belief that a powerful monarchy once existed there long before the
Assyrian empire; the history of which was engrafted upon that of the Hindoos, who colonized
the country between the river Indus and the Bay of Bengal. In conformity with the views of
this writer, Sir William accordingly describes the primeval religion of Iran and the Aryan
peoples as consisting of "a firm belief that One Supreme God made the world by his power and
continually governed it by his providence: - a pious fear, love, and adoration of him; - a due
reverence for parents and aged persons; a paternal affection for the whole human species, and
a compassionate tenderness even for the brute creation.”

----------------
present time; and the late Godfrey Higgins relates that a Mr. Ellis was enabled, by aid of the
masonic tokens, to enter the penetralia of a temple in the presidency of Madras. That there is
some such "freemasonry" existing in many of the countries which we denominate uncivilized
and pagan, is probable. The early Christians and heretical sects had also their signs of
recognition, and were distinguished like the initiates of the older worships, according to their
grade, as neophytes (I Timothy iii, 6) spiritual, and perfect. The mysteries most familiar to
classical readers are the Eleusinia, which appear to have descended from the prehistoric
periods. Pococke declares them to have been of Tartar origin, which is certainly plausible, and
to have combined Brahminical and Buddhistical ideas. Those admitted only to the Lesser
Mysteries were denominated Mystae, or veiled; those initiated into the Greater Mysteries were
epoptai, or seers. Socrates was not initiated, yet after drinking the hemlock he addresses Crito:
"We owe a cock to Aesculapius." This was the peculiar offering made by initiates on the eve
of the last day, and he thus sublimely asserted that he was about the receive the great
apocalypse.
----------------
--- 179.

But, however much of truth there may be in this description, it evidently relates only to
the blonde races. We see plainly enough the engrafting of "history," or rather legends, in many
other countries, as well as among the Brahmins of India. The Hebrew records, tracing their
patriarchs to Egypt and Assyria, are probably no exception. The Garden of Eden appears to
have been well known to the king of Tyre (Ezekiel xxviii, 13-16), who is styled "the anointed
cherub;" the Assyrian is also described (xxx, 3-18) as a cedar in Lebanon, "fair by the
multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied
him;" and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is also assured that he shall "be brought down with the trees
of Eden into the neither parts of the earth." From that region Abraham is reputed to have
emigrated, and its traditions are probably therefore consecrated as religious legends.
If we had time and space to follow this subject, we might be able to show that the period
when the Hebrew patriarch is supposed to have removed from the region of the upper
Euphrates, revolutions were occurring there which changed the structure of society. "Your
fathers," said Joshua to the assembled Israelites, "your fathers dwelt on the other side of the
flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served
other gods."* The Persian legend of "Airyana-vaeja, of the good creation which Anra-mainyas
(Ahriman) full of death filled with evils,"** and the Hebrew story of the garden of Eden***
which was by the headwaters of the Oxus, Tigris, and Euphrates, where dwelt the man and
woman till the successful invasion of the Serpent, indicate the Great Religious War of which
traditions exist in the principal countries of ancient time. It occurred between the nations of the
East and the nations of the West, the Iranians and Turanians, the Solar and Lunar nations, the
Lingacitas and the Yonijas, those who venerated images and religious

-------------
* Joshua xxiv, 2.
** Vendidad, 1, 5-12.
*** Genesis ii, and iii.
-------------
--- 180.

symbols, and those who discarded them. Vast bodies of men were compelled to abandon their
homes, many of them skilled in the arts of civilization and war. Tribes and dynasties emigrated
to escape slavery and destruction; and other climates received and cherished those who had
been deemed unworthy to live. These events are superimposed upon the history of every
people. Whether the migration mentioned by Juno of the gens inimica, the Trojans, from Troy
to Italy, bearing its political genius and conquered divinities, depicts any actual occurrence, we
do not undertake to say; but convulsions did take place, by which peoples once living as one
nation, the Hindoos and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Germans and Slaves, were divided from
each other and removed to other regions. The Ethiopian of Hamitic races underwent a like
overturning and dispersion, probably from their contests with the blonde invaders of the North.
Thus, the second chapter of Genesis describes the river Pison, as compassing the land of
Ethiopia or Cush, which was evidently situated upon the Erythraean or Arabian Sea. The
people of this region appear to have occupied or colonized India, Babylonia, Arabia, Syria,
Egypt, and other countries of the West. They were the builder-race par excellence; and carried
civilization, architecture, mathematical science, their arts and political institutions wherever
they went. Their artisans, doubtless, erected the temples and pyramids of Egypt, India, and
Babylon; excavated the mountain of Ellora, the islands of Salsette and Elephanta, the artificial
caves of Bamian, the rocks of Petra and the hypogea of Egypt; built the houses of Ad in
Arabia, the Cyclopean structures of India, Arabia, and the more western countries; constructed
ships for the navigation of the seas and oceans, and devised the art of sculpture. Mathematics
and astronomy, alphabetical as well as hieroglyphical writing, and many other sciences,
perhaps those which have been discovered in later times, were possessed and cultivated by
these "blameless Aethiopians,* most ancient of men."

-------------
* The term Aethiopian cannot be regarded, when applied to any ancient people, as
indicating negro or negroid origin. Like other
-------------
--- 181.

The Hebrew Scriptures, which have been regarded as especially the oracles of religious
truth, develop the fact, as has been already suggested, of a close resemblance of the earlier
Israelites with the surrounding nations. Their great progenitor, Abraham, is described as
emigrating from the region of Chaldea, at the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the
character of a dissenter from the religion of that country. [Joshua xxiv, 2, 3] Yet he and his
immediate descendants appear to have at least employed the same religious symbols and forms
of worship as the people of Canaan and Phoenicia, who are recorded to have already occupied
Palestine. [Genesis xii, 6; xiii, 7] He erected altars wherever he made a residence; and
"planted a grove" or pillar in Beer-sheba, as a religious emblem. [Genesis xxi, 33- ] He is also
represented as conducting his son to the land of Moriah, to immolate him as a sacrifice to the
Deity, as was sometimes done by the Phoenicians; and as was afterwards authorized in the
Mosaic law. [Leviticus xxvii, 28, 29] One of the suffets, or judges, Jephthah the Gileadite, in
like manner sacrificed his own daughter at Mizpeh; [Judges xi, 30, 31, and 34-40] and the place
where Abraham built his altar was afterwards selected as the site for the temple of Solomon. [2
Chronicles iii, I] Jacob is twice mentioned as setting up a pillar, calling the place Beth-el,
[Genesis xxxviii, 18-22; xxxv, 1-15] and as making libations. On the occasion also of forming
a treaty of amity with his father-in-law,

---------------
names, it had a religious meaning, and was applied to Zeus or Jupiter, and also to Prometheus.
The best-defined opinion connects it with the serpent-worship, which prevailed, along with that
of the lingam, among the Cushite and kindred peoples. It is noticeable that ethnology has given
the Chinese and Mongolian tribes a world apart. There seems to be a wall between them and
the populations of other climates. The Chinese nevertheless manifested themselves
occasionally upon the surface of Asiatic history; and the Tartars have often appeared as
invaders and conquerors, designated in the metaphors and allegories of the old languages, as
floods of waters, destroying the world.
---------------
--- 182.

Laban, the Syrian, he erected a pillar and directed his brethren to pile up a cairn, or heap of
stones; to which were applied the names Galeed, or circle, and Mizpeh, or pillar. Monoliths,
or "great stones," appear to have been as common in Palestine as in other countries, and the
cairns and circles (gilgals) were equally so, as well as the mounds or "high places." The
suffets,* or "judges," and the kings, maintained them till Hezekiah. Samuel the prophet
worshiped at a high place at Ramah, and Solomon at the "great stone," or high place in
Gibeon.** There were also priests,*** and we suspect kadeshim, stationed at them. At
Mispeh, probably at the pillar, was a seat of government of the Israelites; and Joshua set up a
pillar under the oak of Shechem, by the sanctuary. Jephthah the judge made his residence at
the former place, and his daughter, the Iphigenia of the Book of Judges, was immolated there.
Samuel was also inaugurated there as suffet of Israel. There were other "great stones"
mentioned, as Abel, Bethshemesh or Heliopolis; Ezel, where David met with Jonathan; and
Ebenezer, erected by Samuel on the occasion of a victory over the Philistines.
But Hezekiah appears to have changed the entire Hebrew religious polity. He removed
the Hermaic or Dionysiac Statues, and the conical omphalic emblems of Venus-Ashtoreth;
overthrew the mounds and altars, and broke in pieces the serpent of brass made by Moses, to
which the people had burned incense "unto those days." Josiah afterwards also promulgated
the law of Moses, and was equally iconoclastic. He removed the paraphernalia of the worship
of the sun, destroyed the image of Semel, or Hermes, expelled the

-------------
* The suffet was a magistrate under the Phoenician system, as is observed at Carthage.
The patriarchal government was that of sheiks, as among the nomadic Arabs, while the
Israelites of Goshen and the desert are described as being organized like the Arabs of the
towns.
** I Kings iii, 4. See also ch. xv, 14; xxii, 43; 2 Kings xii, 2; xiv, 4; xv 4.
*** 2 Kings xxiii, 9.
-------------
--- 183.

kadeshim, or consecrated men and women, from the cloisters of the Temple, and destroyed the
statues and emblems of Venus and Adonis.*
We have suggested that Abraham was represented in the character of a dissenter from the
worship prevailing at "Ur of the Khasdim." As remarked on a subsequent page by Mr. Wake,
"That some great religious movement, ascribed by tradition to Abraham, did take place among
the Semites at an early date, is undoubted." It may have been the "Great Religious War." The
religion of the patriarchs appears to have had some affinity with that of the Persians, insomuch
that some writers intimate an identity of origin. This was certainly the case at a later period.
Other peoples were also driven to emigration. Many Scythian nations abandoned their former
seats. The Phoenicians left their country on the Erythrean Sea, and emigrated to the shores of
the Mediterranean. The Pali, or shepherds on the Indus, removed to the west. A part of the
population of Asiatic Ethiopia, or Beluchistan, it is supposed, also emigrated. The Hyksos,**
during the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Monarchy, appeared in Egypt. Josephus, abandoning his
own history of Jewish Antiquities, construes the account by Manetho, in regard to them, as
relating to the ancient Hebrews, remarking: "Our ancestors had the dominion over their
country." *** If we might interpret the story of Abraham and other patriarchs as we would the
traditions of other nations, we would assign to it a religious or exoteric meaning rather than a
secular and
-----------
* 2 Kings xxiii, 4-20
** Manetho translates this term, from the "sacred Language," kingly shepherds; kyk
signifying king, and sos a shepherd. He seems to hesitate, however, for he also remarks that
"some say that they were Arabians," and that "in the sacred books they were also styled
captives." Skos signifies Arabian, and sus a horse. Are we not allowed to suppose them to be
shepherds as rearing and using horses? They appear to have introduced the horse into Egypt,
which makes this idea seem plausible.
*** Against Apion, I, 25
-----------
--- 184.

historical one, and fix a later period for the beginning of the authentic annals. The early
association of the Shemitic with the Ethiopian nations, however, appears to be abundantly
corroborated by profane as well as sacred history.
Similarity of customs indicate that the "chosen people," if they had a separate political
existence, were in other respects substantially like the earlier nations. We may expect to find
these resemblances close enough to show even a family likeness. Of course, every intelligent
reader is aware that the Hamitic and Shemitic populations of Asia, Africa, and Europe,
belonged to what is denominated the Caucasian or Indo-Germanic race.
The earliest deity of the Ethiopian or Hamitic nations, whose worship was most general,
was the one known in the bible by the designation of Baal. He bore, of course, a multiplicity of
titles, which were often personified as distinct (9%-! aleim, or divinities; besides having in
Syria a separate name for every season of the year. In the Sanscrit language he was styled
Maha Deva, or Supreme God; and after the Aryan conquest, was added to the Brahmin
Trimourti under the title Siva. Other names are easily traced in the Hamitic languages; as Bala
in Bel, the tutelar deity of Babylon; Deva Nahusha, or Dionysus, of Arabia and Trace; Iswara,
or Oseiris, of Egypt. In western mythology he became more generally known through the
Phoenicians. In Tyre he was Mel-karth, the lord of the city; in Syria he was Adonis and
Moloch; but all through Europe he is best known by the hero-name Hercules. His twelve
labors typify the sun passing through the signs of the zodiac; his conquests in the west show
whither the Phoenician navigators directed their course; while the maypoles, Bal-fires, and
other remnants of old worships, exist as his memorials. The story of his achievements is a fair
outline of the history of Phoenician adventure.
"The wonderful and universal power of light and heat," says that most modest and
amiable writer, Mrs. Lydia Maria Child,* "has

--------------
* Progress of Religious Ideas through Successive Ages, Vol. I, pp. 15, 16, 17.
--------------
--- 185.

caused the Sun to be worshiped as a visible emblem of deity in the infancy of nearly all nations.
Water is recognized as another obvious symbol of divine influence. Hence the sacred rivers,
fountains, and wells abounding in Hindostan. The Air is likewise to them a consecrated
emblem. Invisible, pervading all space, and necessary to the life of all creatures, it naturally
suggests the spirit of God. Nearly all languages describe the soul by some phrase similar in
signification to 'the breath of life.' Brahm is sometimes called Atman, or the Breathing Soul.
"Other emblems deemed sacred by the Hindoos, and worshiped in their temples, have
brought upon them the charge of gross indecency. But if it be true at the present time, it
probably was not so at the beginning. When the world was in its infancy, people spoke and
acted with more of the simplicity and directness of little children than they do at present. In the
individual child, and in the childhood of society, whatever is incomprehensible produces
religious awe. As the reflective Faculties develop, man is solemnly impressed with the
wonders of creation, in the midst of which his soul wakes up, as it were, from a dream. And
what so miraculous as the advent of this conscious soul into the marvelous mechanism of a
human body? If Light with its grand revealings, and Heat making the earth fruitful with
beauty, excited wonder and worship in the first inhabitants of our world, is it strange that they
likewise regarded with reverence the great mystery of human Birth? Were they impure thus to
regard it? Or, are we impure that we do not so regard it? We have traveled far, and unclean
have been the paths, since those old anchorites first spoke of god and the soul in the solemn
depths of their first sanctuaries. Let us not smile at their mode of tracing the Infinite and
Incomprehensive Cause throughout all the mysteries of Nature, lest by so doing we cast the
shadow of our own grossness on their patriarchal simplicity.
"From the time immemorial, an emblem has been worshiped in Hindostan as the type of
creation,* or the origin of life. It is the

-----------
* The first verse of the Book of Genesis declares creation to
-----------
--- 186.

most common symbol of Siva [Baal or Maha Deva], and is universally connected with his
worship. To understand the original intention of this custom, we should remember that Siva
was not merely the reproducer of human forms; he represented the Fructifying Principle, the
Generating Power that pervades the universe, producing sun, moon, stars, men, animals, and
plants. The symbol to which we have alluded is always in his temples. It is usually placed in
the inmost recess, or sanctuary, sculptured in granite, marble, or ivory, often crowned with
flowers, and surmounted by a golden star. Lamps are kept burning before it, and on festival
occasions it is illuminated by a lamp with seven branches, supposed to represent the planets.*
Small images of this emblem, carved in ivory, gold, or crystal, are often worn as ornaments
about the neck. The pious use them in their prayers, and often have them buried with them.
Devotees of Siva have it written on their foreheads in the form of a perpendicular mark. The
maternal emblem is likewise a religious type; and worshipers of Vishnu represent it on their
forehead by a horizontal mark, with three short perpendicular lines."
These symbols are found in the temple-excavations of the islands of Salsette and
Elephanta, of unknown antiquity; in the grotto-temples of Ellora, at the "Seven Pagodas" on
the Coromandel coast, in the old temple at Tanjore, and elsewhere, where Siva worship is in the
ascendant. Although these symbols, the lingam and yoni, have been adopted by the Brahmins,
there is little harmony between the Lingayats and Vishnavites. "In the sacrifice of Wisdom,"
says Daksha, "no Brahmin is wanted to officiate." The Rig-Veda denounces the "lascivious
wretches" who adore the sexual emblems, in such language as this: "Let not the lascivious
wretches approach our sacred rites.* "The irresistible [Indra] overcame the lascivious

-------------
have been a series of Toledoth, or generations. It is properly translated: "God (the Aleim)
engendered (B'RA) the heavens and the earth."
* The seven-branched candlestick of the Mosaic tabernacle has here its prototype.
-------------
--- 187.

wretches."
In her chapter on Egypt, Mrs. Child again remarks: "Because plants cannot germinate
without water, vases full of it were carried at the head of processions in honor of Oseiris, and
his votaries refrained from destroying or polluting any spring. This reverence for the
production of Life, introduced into his worship the sexual emblems so common in Hindostan.
A colossal image of this kind was presented to his temple in Alexandria, by King Ptolemy
Philadelphus. Crowned with gold and surmounted by a golden star, it was carried in a splendid
chariot in the midst of religious processions. A serpent, the emblem of Immortality, always
accompanies the image of Oseiris."
"Reverence for the mystery of organized life led to the recognition of a masculine and
feminine principle in all things spiritual or material. Every elemental force was divided into
two, the parents of other forces. The active wind was masculine, the passive mist, or inert
atmosphere, was feminine. Rocks were masculine, the productive earth was feminine. The
presiding deity of every district [nome] was represented as a Triad or Trinity. At Thebes it was
Amun, the creative Wisdom; Neith, the spiritual Mother; and a third, supposed to represent
the Universe. At Philae it was Oseiris, the generating Cause; Isis, the receptive Mold, and
Horus, the Result. The sexual emblems everywhere conspicuous in the sculptures of their
temples would seem impure in description, but no clean and thoughtful mind could so regard
them while witnessing the obvious simplicity and solemnity with which the subject is treated."
"All the idolaters of that day," says Colonel Tod,* seem to have held the grosser tenets of
Hinduism.... When Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and 'built them high places and
images and groves [mounds, hermaic pillars, and omphalic statues] on every high hill and
under every green tree,' the object was Bal; and the pillar (the lingam, matzebah or phallus)
was his symbol.** It was on his altar

-------------
* Rig-Veda vii, 21; 5; and x, 99:3. The term used is Sisma-devas, or phallus-gods.
** Rajasthan, vol. I, 76-79
-------------
--- 188.

that they burned incense, and 'sacrificed unto the Calf on the fifteenth day of the eighth month,'
the sacred Amavus of the Hindus. The Calf of Israel is the Bull (nanda) of Balcesar or Iswara,
the Apis of the Egyptian Oseiris.... Mahadeva, or Iswara, is the tutelary divinity of the Rajpoots
in Mewar, and from the early annals of the dynasty appears to have been, with his consort Isa,
the sole object of Gehlote adoration. Iswara is adored under the epithet of Eklinga, and is
either worshiped in his monolithic symbol, or as Iswara Chaomukhi, the quadriform divinity
represented by a bust with four faces."
These spectacles, however, were regarded as sacred, and few regarded them as
possessing moral turpitude. "This worship was so general as to have spread itself over a large
part of the habitable globe; for it flourished for many ages in Egypt and Syria, Persia, Asia
Minor, Greece, and Italy; it was and still is in vigor in India and many parts of Africa, and was
even found in America on its discovery by the Spaniards."**
Being regarded as the most sacred objects of worship, and consecrated by religion, the
cultus was associated with every idea and sentiment which was regarded as ennobling to man.
The reflecting men of all the older ages, down to Plato, Plotinus, Iamblichus, and the followers
of the Gnosis, all paid like respect to the great arcanum of life and of Man. We need not look
superciliously upon their veneration; for however different out modes of thought, however
exaggerated above theirs our fastidiousness, we cannot escape the same problems which they
thus labored to solve, nor the necessity to realize the veiling and the apocalypse which the
symbols

-------------
* I Kings xiv, 22. The introduction of kadeshim, or persons consecrated and set apart,
like nautch-girls, or almas, is first mentioned in this connection.
** Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs. Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction,
with some Account of the Judicial "Congress," as practiced in France during the Seventeenth
Century. By John Davenport, Small quarto, with eight full-page illustrations. London, 1869
-------------
--- 189.

and the mysteries foreshadowed.

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

APPENDIX

To many persons, doubtless, the foregoing statements of Messrs. Wake and Westropp
appear to be grossly exaggerated if not absolutely preposterous. It seems to them almost
incredible that such ideas and customs should obtain ascendancy among any people, and
especially in the character of religious mysteries. Even classical readers participate in this
skepticism. They are unwilling to believe that, except in places notoriously immoral, like
Pompeii or Lampsacus, the use of sexual representations in common life would be
countenanced. Nevertheless, a careful review of the evidence will assure us of their mistake.
We must not always expect shameless manners to attend immorality. Prudery and pruriency
are frequently companions, equally impure and cowardly; and in all scientific investigation
they should be disregarded rather than conciliated.
The careful student of the Old Testament is amazed at the antagonism apparent between
the examples of the Hebrew patriarchs and the teachings of the prophets, in regard to the
erection of monolithic pillars and other structures, for votive memorials and other religious
purposes. It is likewise hard to distinguish a difference between the customs of the early
Israelites and those of the nations around them. The similarity is observable in their religious
as well as their political institutions. Their rulers were at first patriarchs or sheiks, as among
the Arabs; then they had princes of tribes, like the lords of the Philistines, and after that
suffetes, or judges, like the Carthaginians; concluding finally with kings, "like all the nations."
They had the same language and alphabet as the Phoenicians from the days of Moses. As,
despite the tenth chapter of Genesis, the ethnographers persist in classing the latter in the
Semitic group, there is little reason given for not including both peoples under one ethnic

--- 190.

head.
The Phoenicians and Pelasgians or Ionians of Asia Minor were the most adventurous
nations of the time. They colonized Greece, Italy, Spain, and Africa, and the former extended
their enterprises to the countries on the Atlantic Ocean. Their gods Baal or Hercules, and
Astarte or Venus, were worshiped wherever they went. So uniform were the religious emblems
and customs, that a description of the usages of one people very nearly describes them all. The
Palasgians of Ionia had different deity-names, like Dionysus or Bacchus, Hermes, Aphrodite;
but they had like customs, and the Cabeirian Mysteries, which fixed the institutions of religion,
were common to both.
The hermaic statue, consisting of a human head placed upon an inverted obelisk, with a
phallus, was the recognized simulacrum of Baal in the Bible. Associated with it was the Venus
or Aphrodite, a female draped figure terminating below in the same square form. This was
generally of wood, the palm being preferred. The name Aspasia is often inscribed upon these
female images. The Hermaic and Aprhroditic statue were sometimes included in one, like the
Hindoo Siva and Bhavani, giving rise to the androgynous representations.
The mode of constructing the Hermaic statues was derived by the Greeks from the
Pelasgians of Asia Minor. Herodotus says: "Whoever has been initiated into the Mysteries of
the Cabeiri will understand what I mean. The Samothracians received these Mysteries from the
Pelasgi, who, before they went to live in Attica, were dwellers in Samothrace, and imparted
their religious ceremonies to the inhabitants. The Athenians, then, who were the first of all the
Greeks to make their statues of Mercury in this way, learnt the practice from the Pelasgians;
and by this people a religious account of the matter is given, which is explained in the
Samothracian Mysteries."*

------------
* Rawlinson's Herodotus, book ii, 51. "The phallus formed an essential part of the
symbol, probably because the divinity represented by it was in the earliest times, before the
worship of
------------
--- 191.

The Cabeiri, we presume, represented the divinities of the planets; Esmun or the
Phoenician Esculapius being the eighth. The serpent was his symbol. Kadmiel or Cadmus was
the same as Taut or Thoth, the god of the steles or pillar-emblems, and was the reputed founder
of the city of Thebes. It was to the worship of these divinities that reference was made by the
author of The Wisdom of Solomon: "They slew their children in sacrifices, or used secret
Mysteries, or celebrated frantic komuses of strange rites." *
But the institution of the Orphic rites and the Eleusinian Mysteries is ascribed by
Herodotus to Egyptian influences. "The rites called Orphic and Bacchic are in reality Egyptian
and Pythagorean; and no one initiated in these Mysteries can be buried in a woollen shroud, a
religious reason being assigned for the observance."**
Melampus introduced into Greece the name of Dionysus or Bacchus, the ceremonial of
his worship, and the procession of the phallus. "I can by no means admit," says Herodotus,
"that it is by mere coincidence that the Bacchic ceremonies in Greece are so nearly the same as
the Egyptian - they would have been more Greek in their character and less recent in their
origin. Much less can I admit that the Egyptians borrowed these customs, or any other, from
the Greeks. My belief is that Melampus got his knowledge of them from Cadmus the Tyrian,
and the followers whom he brought from Phoenicia into the country which is now called
Boeotia." "The Egyptians were also the first to introduce solemn assemblies, processions, and
litanies to the gods; of all which the Greeks were taught the use by them."*** In the
Dionysiac festival of Egypt, instead of phalli they used images a cubit high, pulled by strings,
which the women carried round to the villages. A piper headed the company,

-------------
Dionysus was imported from the East, the personification of the reproductive powers of
nature." - Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Hermai.
* Wisdom, xiv, 23.
** Book ii, 81.
*** Book II, 49, 58.
-------------
--- 192.

and the women followed, singing hymns in honor of the god. As in the Cabeirian Mysteries of
Phoenicia and Samothrace, a "religious reason" accounted for the peculiarities of the image.
The identity of Bacchus with the Moloch or Hercules of the Phoenicians, and with the
Dionysus of Arabia and the Mysteries, is apparent.
Both the Greeks and Romans, however, for a long time had no images. Numa, who is
said to have been a Pythagorean, allowed only the "eternal fire" of Vesta as a symbol of the
deity. The earlier temples were temenoi, or consecrated areas, marked out by erect pillars of
stone. In them were altars, "great stones," or conical statues. Mounds, or artificial eminences,
were also common, as representative of the "holy hill," or mount of assembly where the Deity
dwelt. These were denominated, by both Greeks and Phoenicians, bemas, or "high places." *
The stele or pillar came early to be used as the emblem of the god; and, in like manner, a
conical stone, signifying the omphalos, navel, or rounded abdomen, became the symbol of the
great Mother-Goddess. The service of Hercules, with Omphale, queen or goddess of Lydia, he
receiving from her the distaff and she taking his club and lion-skin, expresses the association of
the two in the Mysteries. At the temple of Amun, in Libya, the emblem of the god is described
as an umbriculum of immense size, which was borne in a boat or ark, requiring eighty men for
the purpose.** The boat is a feminine symbol. At the temple of Delphi, the omphalos, or
navel-stone, is described as obtuse in form, and having nothing obscene in appearance. It was
of white marble, and was kept in the sanctuary, carefully wrapped in a white cloth.*** The
nabhi, or naval of Vishnu, the Brahmin god, explained in like manner as expressive of the
female organs, is similarly represented. M. Creuzer found among the ruins of Carthage a
large conical stone, which we immediately

-------------
* Ezekiel xx, 29.
** Quintus Curtius
*** Strabo, book ix, 420.
--------------
--- 193.

recognized as the representation of Astarte. Lajard also mentions many smaller cones in
Greece, some of them bearing the name of Aphrodite. "In all Cyprian coins," he remarks, "may
be seen, in the place where we would anticipate to find a statue of the goddess, the form of a
conical stone. The same is found placed between two cypresses under the portico of the temple
of Astarte, in a temple of Aelia Capitolina; but in this instance the cone is crowned. In another
medal, struck by the elder Philip, Venus is represented between two genii, each of whom stands
upon a cone or pillar with a rounded top. There is reason to believe that at Paphos images of
the conical stone* were made and sold as largely as were effigies of Diana of the Ephesians."
**
The ancient Arabians, in like manner, venerated certain conical stones as symbols of the
goddess Al Uza, or Alitta. The famous Caaba, or black stone of Mecca, now revered by the
Moslems, was of this character. The crescent, also the emblem of the goddess, is the
Mohammedan monogram, contrasting with the cross, or masculine emblem of the Christians,
and almost implies that the Mussulmans are votaries of the female divinity. The Scandinavians
also represented the goddess Disa or Isa by a conical stone, surmounted by a head, analogous to
the busts of Astarte.
The erect pillar was common over all the East. It stood at the intersection of roads as a
sign of consecration, on the boundaries of estates, in and before temples, over graves, and
wherever the deities were venerated. At Athens was a "pillar of the Amazon" or androgynous
Venus; and Apollonius mentions a litho hieros or sacred

------------
* "The statue of the goddess bears no resemblance to the human form. It is round
throughout, broad at one end, and gradually tapering to a narrow span at the other, like a goal.
The reason is stated by Philostratus to be symbolical." - Tacitus, book ii, ch. 3.
** Acts xix, 24, 25. Venus and Diana, instead of representing the opposing ideas of
virginity and sexual love, were deities of like mold, and personified the great maternal
principle.
[also] Recherches sur la Culte de Venus, page 36.
------------
--- 194.

stone in the temple of Arez in Pontus, where the Amazons worshiped. Like columns were
common in Thesaly, Ionia, and Mauritania; and, indeed, in all countries washed by the sea.
The round Towers of Ireland, the great stones found in the principal point of cities in England,
the stones of memorial in all parts of the British Isles, including "Jacob's pillar" transported
from Scotland by Edward I, and now preserved in the seat of the Coronation Chair in
Westminister Abbey, pertain to the same cultus. The Maypoles, common alike to Britons and
Hindus, are of one pattern. The Buddhists of Ceylon, the Sivaists and Lingayats of Hindustan,
and the Zoroastrians of Persia, have these emblems like their fellow-religionists of the West.
Nor was ancient America any exception to these customs. A plain cylindrical stone was
to be found by every Mexican temple. At Copan are monoliths, some of them in a rough state
and others sculptured. At Honduras is an "idol of round stone" with two faces, representing the
Lord of Life, which the Indians adore, offering blood procured from the prepuce. In Panuco
was found in the temples a phallus, and on bas-reliefs in public places were depicted the sacred
membra conjuncta in coitu. There were also similar symbols in Tlascala. On one of the phallic
pillars at Copan were also the emblems relative to uterine existence, parturition, etc. Juan de
Batanzos, in his History of the Incas, an unpublished manuscript in the Library of the Escurial,
says that "in the centre of the great square or court of the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, was a
column or pillar of stone, of the shape of a loaf of sugar, pointed at the top and covered with
gold-leaf."*
It is probably that the mound-builders of North America were votaries of the same
worship. Professor Troost has procured several images in Smith county, Tennessee, one of
which was endowed disproportionately, like a Pan or Hermes, or the idol at Lampsacus. The
phallus had been broken off, while in the ground, by a plough. Dr. Ramsay, of Knoxville, also
describes two phallic simulacra in his possession, twelve and fifteen inches in length. The
shorter one was

------------
* Squier's Serpent Symbol, p. 50.
------------
--- 195.

of amphibolic rock, and so very hard that steel could make no impression upon it. The Abbe de
Bourbourg, who made careful explorations in Mexico and Central America, confirms the
statements in regard to the phallic symbolism, and apparently supposes that it was introduced
from America into Europe.
The Cross was also found among the ruins of the American temples. In Mexico it was
the Egyptian symbol, the crux ansata, and was denominated "the tree of life." Its frequency
over the Eastern continent, pertaining alike to the worship of Osiris, Baal-Adonis, Mithra, and
Mahadeva, is well known. The Buddhists of Tibet employ it in worship, and place it, like the
hermaic pillars, at the corners of the street. It was sculptured beside the lingam or phallus, in
the cave of Elephanta. The Hindoo cross resembles the "hammer of Thor." In the tombs of
Etruria were found crosses composed of four phalli. Similar to this was the cross of Malta, till
it was changed to its present shape.
The use of votive amulets in that phallic form was also common. They were found in the
tombs and houses. Similar articles are now manufactured in India. The Hindoo women carry
the lingam in procession between two serpents; and it will be remembered that in the sacred
ark or coffer which held the egg and phallus in the mystic processions of the Greeks, was also a
serpent. In Greece and Western Asia the favorite wood for the "stocks" and phallic pillars,
according to St. Clement of Alexandria, was the fig. The leaves of this tree, it will be
remembered, were used in the garden of Eden; and the fruit has had a peculiar symbolical
meaning for thousands of years.
That the ancient patriarchs, like the patriarchs and chiefs of other nations, erected pillars
and altars, and worshiped in mountains and high places, is matter of record. The pillars at
Bethel and Mizpeh, set up by Jacob, were revered by his descendants. Mizpeh was a holy
place, during the days of the Judges; Jephthah made it his seat of government, and after him
Samuel was inaugurated there. The Israelites met there to put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, as
enjoined by the prophet; who, after that, made a yearly circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh,
and had his residence at Ramah, were was a "high

--- 196.

place."
The dances, or komuses, were also celebrated, as in the festivals of Bacchus.* King
David himself, in his joy at the bringing of the ark to Jerusalem, "danced before the Lord," and
being rebuked by his wife, Michal, for his wanton deportment, declared that was in the
presence of Jehovah, adding that he would "play" and be yet "more vile." Whether phalli were
carried by the Hebrew women at their dances and festivals, as among the Greeks and Asiatics,
is not stated, but it is not improbable. The prophets denounce the festivals and solemn
assemblies as attended with idolatrous and obscene rites.
The worship of the Phoenician deities continued among the Israelites throughout the
whole period of the rule of the Judges.** The Philistines also had the same divinities. When
the body of King Saul fell into their hands, they dedicated his armor as a trophy in the temple
of Astarte; and according to one author, placed his head in the temple of Dagon the Fish-god,
and according to another, his body on the wall of the temple of San.*** After the
establishment of the monarchy, the idolatrous rites took a more objectionable form. King
Solomon is recorded to have built mounds or high places for Chemosh, the god of generation,
and for Hercules or Moloch, the god of fire, and to have worshiped Venus-Astarte. These
shrines remained throughout the Hebrew monarchy, till Josiah profaned them, broke down the
pillars, and took away the omphalic symbols, filling their places with the bones of men. So
general had been the prevalence of idolatry, and especially of the Tyrian worship, that these
"high places" existed all over the country, with the phallic statues and omphalic emblems, "on
every high hill, and under every green tree."**** That they became places of prostitution, if
they were not

------------
* Judges xxi, 19-23.
** Judges ii, 10-19; iii, 6, 7; v, 8; vi, 10, 25, 30; viii, 33; x, 6.
*** I Samuel xxxi, 9, 10, and I Chronicles x, 9, 10.
**** I Kings xiv, 23. See also xv, 14; xxii, 43; 2 Kings xii, 3; xiv, 4; xv, 4 and 35;
xvi, 4; xvii, 9, 10.
------------
--- 197.

such at the first, seems to be the concurrent testimony of the prophets and profane writers.
Whether the sacrifice of virginity was made at these places, as at the temples of Mylitta,
and other divinities, is not expressly affirmed; but the presence of the kadeshim is
suspicious.*
-------------
* See I Kings xiv, 23, 24; xv, 12 and xxii, 46; 2 Kings xxxiii, 7; Hosea iv, 10-19 and v.
4. The Kings Asa and Jehoshaphat drove these persons from the country. They appear to have
been of foreign blood; the book of Deuteronomy prescribing that they should not be Israelites.
"There shall be no kadeshah of the daughters of Israel, nor a kadesh of the sons of Israel," -
xxiii, 17. It is evident, however, that the Israelites imputed no merit, but rather opprobrium, to
the virgin state. When Jephthah announced to his daughter that he had made an irrevocable
vow to offer her in sacrifice, she only pleaded for a respite of two months to "go up and down
upon the mountains, and bewail her virginity." This is apparently in accord with the statement
of Mindes-Pinto, that the young Indian maid believe it impossible for a virgin to enter Paradise.
The readiness of the Israelites to adopt the rites of Venus and Baal-Peor (Exodus xxxii, 6, 25,
and Numbers xxv,) would seem to be thus explained. The worship of the goddess Diana or
Venus-Anaitis in Armenia was attended by the defloration of nubile women. The Babylonian
colonists of Samaria brought with them the worship of the Succoth-Benoth, or the Venuses of
the tents; and it is certain that almas or consecrated women, as in Egypt, and nautch-girls or
women of the temple, were a peculiarity of Phoenician, as they are of Hindoo sanctuaries.
Justin relates that Dido or Elissa transported twenty-four of these females to Carthage. The
name Elissa or Alitta being a title of the goddess, shows that her expedition is but an allegory
to explain the introduction of her worship into the countries of the West. The island of Melita
was named from this divinity. Ovid describes her festival:
"On the Ides is the genial feast of Anna perenna,
Not far, traveler Tiber, from thy banks.
The people come, and scattered everywhere among the green
-------------
--- 198.

The Hebrew prophets are outspoken in associating Baal-worship with lewdness. Hosea,
using the customary parallelism of expression, identifies the priapic cultus with that of Peor.
"They went to Baa-Peor, and consecrated themselves to Bosheth."* Jeremiah also is
unmistakable. "According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, Oh Judah! and according
to the number of the streets of Jerusalem [as in Tyre and Athens] have ye set up altars to
Bosheth, even altars to burn incense to Baal."** These were the "iniquities of their
forefathers."
The worship of the Queen of Heaven, Mylitta or the Syrian goddess, "The children
gathering wood, the fathers kindling the fire, and women kneading the dough to make cakes,"
is instanced several times by Jeremiah; and was an old custom, observed alike by kings,
nobles, and the common people.*** The cake was made of flour and honey, and was shaped
like a lozenge or phallus. The cunim or

---------------
stalks,
Imbibe, and each reclines with his female consort.
Part remain in the open air, a few set up tents;
Some out of branches have made a leafy hut." - Fasti, iv.
The Indian Anna-purna, and the Babylonian Daughter of the Tent, are easily recognized.
In Virgil's Aeneid, Anna is made the sister of Elissa.
* Hosea ix, 10. The "high place" of Baal where Balak and Balaam met to invoke curses
upon Israel (Numbers xxii, 41). The term [[Hebrew]], bosheth, here used as the synonym for
Baal, signifies the phallus. It is also translated shame - Jeremiah iii, 24, and Micah I, II - but
doubtless means Baal-worship in both instances. The two words were compounded
interchangeably in proper names. Jerub-baal or Gideon was also styled Jerub-besheth; Ish-
Bosheth, the son of Saul, and Mephi-Bosheth, the son of Jonathan, were transcribe by the
synonyms Esh-Baal and Merib-Baal in the first Book of Chronicles.
** Jeremiah xi, 13.
*** Jeremiah vii, 17-31 and xliv, 8, 15-23.
--------------
--- 199.

bouns were offered to Astarte and Aphrodite wherever they were worshiped, at the opening of
spring.
The sacrifice of children, common among the Phoenicians and their colonies, was also a
practice of the Jews. Sometimes it was only a passing through the fire, as at the Bal-tines of
Scotland and Ireland; at others, it was "the shedding of innocent blood."* The sacrifices were
made to the fire-god Moloch, or Baal-Hercules. In Isaiah, however, we find mention made of
"slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks."** This must have been an
offering to Astarte. These were the cunni diaboli, or emblems of maternity, closely related to
the omphalic stones. The one at Delphi emitted a gas which the priestess inhaled before
delivering her oracles. They are abundant in India at the present day, and were formerly in
England before the introduction of Christianity. Miss Ellwood, in her Journey to the East,
mentions one which she saw: "There is a sacred perforated stone at Malabar, through which
penitents squeezed themselves in order to obtain a remission of their sins."***
The custom of burning the thigh in sacrifices, which was universal, is of the same
character. The golden thigh of Pythagoras was doubtless the thing last revealed to the initiate.
It was meros in which the foetal Bacchus was preserved; and, like the phallus shown to the
epopt at Eleusis, prefigured the great mystery of life.
It is noticeable that all these sensual peculiarities pertained to the worship of the female
divinities. The priests of Hercules, as of the lingam in India, were monks. The Hellenic Jew
explains it like the more orthodox prophets, that "the devising of images was the beginning of
lewdness, and the invention of them the corruption of life."****
Nevertheless we also are not prepared to accept unqualifiedly

------------
* Kings xvi, 3; xxi, 6, 16 and xxiv, 4; 2 Chronicles xxviii, 3; Jeremiah ii, 34, 35 and
xix, 4; Psalm cvi, 34-39.
** Isiaah lvli, 5.
*** Our British Ancestors, p. 160.
**** Wisdom of Solomon, xiv, 12.
-----------
--- 200.

the sentiment that "Human nature is the same in all climes, and the workings of this same
human nature are almost identical in their different stages of growth." If Mr. Westropp means
from this that we should infer that the employment of the sexual symbolism in worship is
characteristic of all mankind at a peculiar stage of development, we dissent. Besides, there are
tribes that we must acknowledge as human beings, having no customs entitled to be regarded as
a cultus. Races of men are materially diverse in structure, type, and psychical character, and
probably had their origins in climates and periods of time widely apart from each other.
"Human nature is manifestly very unlike, as exhibited respectively by the European
populations, the Chinese, the African negroes, and the Australians."
Our evidence as to the antiquity of this peculiar symbolism is necessarily very
incomplete. There have been endeavors to solve the question by an ingenious calculation. The
Maypole Festival, common to all ancient countries east and west, and well known to have a
phallic origin, should be dated from the vernal equinox, when that was the period of the
entering of the sun into the zodiacal sign Taurus. Counting seventy-two years for the
precession of the sun a single degree, the precise period of that occurrence was about four
thousand years before the Christian era.* The Maypole celebration, if we adopt the popular
chronology, must have therefore taken its inception from some event connected with the
occurrences recorded as happening in the Garden of Eden.**

------------
* The Round Towers of Ireland, pp. 233, 234; also Maurice's Indian Antiquities.
** Nevertheless, there may be reason, instead, to assign a date sometime in the pre-
Adamite period. In the Moniteur of January, 1865, it is stated that in the province of Venetia,
in Italy, excavations in a bone-cave brought to light, beneath ten feet of stalagmite, bones of
animals, mostly post-tertiary, of the usual description found in such places, flint implements,
with a needle of bone have an eye and point, and a plate of an argillaceous compound, on
which was scratched a rude drawing of a phallus.
------------
--- 201.

The principal Aryan nations too have displayed a determined hostility to the entire
phallic symbolism. In the Rig-Veda, the sisna-devas or priests of the lingam are debarred from
access to the sacred rites,* and consigned to destruction at the hands of Indra. The invaders of
India could find no milder language for the lascivious religionists whom they encountered than
demons, devil-worshipers, and persons who observe no sacred rites. The Brahmin system was
adopted afterward, unwillingly, as a compromise.
The ancient Persians exhibited a like detestation of the icon-worshipers. "They had no
images of the gods, no temples, nor altars, and considered the use of them a sign of folly."**
The Achaemenian kings were worshipers of Ormazd, and displayed a similar antagonism to
that of their Vedic brethren to the current idolatrous practices of their time. Eventually the
magian system of Media and Babylonia was engrafted upon the popular worship of Persia,
although the kings and nobler classes adhered to the Zoroastrian doctrines.
These doctrines appear to be so closely allied to those imputed to Moses, that it is not
difficult to imagine that they had once been identical. The exiles who returned from beyond
the Euphrates are described very differently from those who were transported by
Nebuchadnezzar.*** They no more filled their land with idolatry and

--------------
* A similar prohibition appears also in the last stages of the Hebrew monarchy. When
Josiah abolished the worship at the "high places," he refused to admit the priests that had
officiated at them, to the service of the Temple. The prophet Ezekiel also promulgated the
following ordinance against them: "They shall not come near unto me to do the office of a
priest unto me, nor come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place; but they shall
bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed." xliv, 6-14.
** Herodotus, I, 131
*** The colonization of the Jews in Palestine under Cyrus and his successors appears
very like a new occupation, rather than a return. It is evident that there were more of them
beyond the Euphrates than ever made their homes in Judea. Their leading class
--------------
--- 202.

phallic emblems, but simply placed the sacred fire in the temple at Jerusalem and watched
against its extinction. The precept of the law of Moses forbidding the fabricating and adoration
of pesels or graven images, was rigidly kept. Synagogues for religious instruction took the
place of high places, pillars, and enclosures of a circular form. Whatever may have been the
characteristics of their ancestors before the captivity, they were true afterward to the lessons
learned in exile. In the reign of Antiochus they resisted the introduction of the mysteries of
Dionysus, and underwent tortures and crucifixion rather than taste the flesh of swine and
participate in the foreign worship.
The transition from the old Roman and ethnic religions to Christianity could not possibly
be effected so completely as to change entirely the real sentiments of the people. We must not
be surprised, therefore, when we are told that the ancient worship, after it had been excluded
from its former temples and from the metropolitan towns, was maintained for a long time by
the inhabitants of humbler localities. Indeed, from this very fact it obtained its subsequent
designation. From being kept up in the villages (or pagi), its votaries were denominated
pagans, pagani, or villagers.
The prevalence of Mithraic or magian ideas and practices led

------------
bore the title of Pharisees, perhaps from their Persian affiliations. They, according to Spinoza,
made the selection of the books which are now accepted as the Sacred Scriptures, adopting
only those which had been composed in the Hebrew language. The text of this was revised and
pruned, and occasionally changed. It seems to have been their purpose to keep the knowledge
of it in the limits of their own order. Nevertheless, it betrays the indications of an Ionian
influence, and also of a Hindoo antecedent. The patriarchal names are very similar to those of
the Brahmin divinities: Brahma and his consort Sara-Iswati, his son Ikshwaka, and great-
grandson Yadu. The ruins of the temple of Peace, or Tukht Solumi, have been found in
Cashmere, and many names of the Bible and Western Asia, like Yudia, Dawid, Arabi, Cush,
Yavan, are also indigenous to the region of the Indus.
------------
--- 203.

also to the confounding of the proscribed worship with the practice of witchcraft and sorcery;
and to this fact we are indebted for the numerous legends and accounts of secret colleges of
magicians, as well as of assemblies of witches in remote places, decorated with the symbols of
the old religion, of kings or devils having the goat-form of the ancient Pan or Bacchus with the
priapic appendages, of distinguished persons in attendance in the habit of satyrs, of sham
sacraments like those of the Persian god Mithras, and especially of the orgies of enthusiastic
furors, together with general debauchery. There is little reason to doubt that these "witches'
sabbaths" were formerly celebrated, and that they were, in some modified form a continuation
of the outlawed worship of the Roman Empire.*
Whether the alarm experienced in this country two centuries ago, of an invasion of Satan
and his associated powers, was a delusion,** or had some relation to the possible introduction
of the old Asiatic and Roman religion into America, is a question admitting of ingenious
discussion. In Europe, however, its maintenance, after many centuries had elapsed of
proscription and persecution, finally became impossible. The ignorance of the common people
rendered them ill-adapted to continue a worship so full of recondite mystery, and the orgies or
"sabbaths" fell into neglect. But in certain practices and superstitions not yet outgrown, the old
phallism and pagan ideas still crop out. Good and ill fortune are supposed to result from the
wholesome or obnoxious influence of the moon. Goethe has commemorated the potency of the
pentacle as a protector against evil

-----------
* The heretical sects, as they sprung up, were denounced in the same manner. Even to
this day, Vanderie, or Vaudois worship, is the French designation for witchcraft; and the name
of Bulgarians [Bulgress], who were once Albigenses or Paulicians, is now applied to men
practicing unnatural vice.
** The apprehension of this invasion was entertained in all the British North American
Colonies, and the severest penal laws were enacted in consequence. The executions in
Massachusetts, in 1692,
-----------
--- 204.

spirits. The mystic horse-shoe, a uterine symbol, is still employed.* New York and the other
provinces, the laws were enforced till the Revolution. Indeed, in South Carolina witchcraft was
a capital offence in the code till the reorganization of the State government after the recent civil
war; and less than a century ago offenders were executed.
In popular customs, and even in religious institutions, these things are as plainly to be
perceived today as when Adonis and Astarte were the gods of the former world. The sanctities,
the powers, the symbols, and even the utensils of the ancient Faith, have been assumed, if not
usurped or legitimately inherited, by its successors. The two holies of the Gnostics and Neo-
Platonists, Sophia and Eirene, wisdom and peace, were adopted as saints into the calendar of
Constantinople. Dionysus, the god of the Mysteries, reappears as St. Denys in France, St.
Liberius, St. Eleutherius, and St. Bacchus; there is also a St. Mithra; and even Satan, prince of
shadows, is revered as St. Satur and St. Swithin. Their relics are in keeping. The Holy Virgin
Astraea or Astarte, whose return was announced by Virgil in the days of Augustus, as
introducing a new Golden Age, now under her old designation of Blessed Virgin and Queen of
Heaven, receives homage as "the one whose sole divinity the whole orb of the earth venerates."
The Mother and Child, the latter adorned with the nimbus or aureole of the ancient sun-gods,
are now the object of veneration as much as were Ceres and Bacchus, or Isis and Horus in the
Mysteries. Nuns abound alike in Christian

--------------
operated to overthrow the prevailing sentiment in that region; but in New York and the other
provinces, the laws were enforced till the Revolution. Indeed, in South Carolina witchcraft was
a capital offence in the Code till the reorganization of the State government after the recent
civil war; and less than a century ago offenders were executed.
* In a church in Paris is said to be a relic of special virtue, the pudenda muliebria Sanctae
Virginis. See Inman's Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. I, p. 144.
--------------
--- 205.

and in Buddhist countries, as they did formerly in Isis-worshiping Egypt; and if their
maidenhood is not sacrificed at the shrine of Baa-Peor, or any of his cognate divinities, yet it is
done in a figure: they are all "brides of the Saviour." Galli sing in the churches, and
consecrated women are as numerous as of old. The priestly vestments are like those formerly
used in the worship of Saturn and Cybele; the Phrygian cap, the pallium, the stole, and the alb.
The whole pantheon has been exhausted from the Indus, Euphrates, and the Nile, to supply
symbolic adornment for the apostles' successors. Hercules holds the distaff of Omphale. The
Lily has superseded the Lotus, and celibacy is exalted above the first recorded mandate of God
to mankind.
In ancient times the Carians and other votaries used to wound themselves and offer their
blood to Bacchus in commemoration of his dismemberment by the titans. The former
worshipers in Yucatan and Central America had an analogous custom. The prophets of Baal in
Syria and Phoenicia also inflicted wounds on themselves.* The Jews were prohibited from this
by their law,** but at the period of mourning for the dead one, Adonis, slain by the boar, they
flogged themselves and wept. This animal which was sacred to Mars or Ares, the god of
destruction, became their abomination. The Egyptians had a like custom. At the assemblies of
Isis, composed of many thousands of pilgrims, those who participated in the solemnities
scourged themselves in memory of the slaughtered Oseiris.*** Sailors were whipped around
the altar of Apollo at Delos, and children at the temple of Diana in Sparta. In Rome, at the
Lupercalia, about the 14th of February, young men used to lay aside their garments, and taking
whips, run through the streets, flogging everybody whom they met.****

-------------
* I Kings xviii, 28
** Levitius six, 28 and xxi, 5
*** Herodotus, ii, 61
**** There seems to be a voluptuous sense excited in this way. Women, especially those
who were married, eagerly placed themselves in the way of these flagellators, partly on account
of the
-------------
--- 206.

Even now, during Holy Week in Rome, many devotees lash themselves till the blood gushes in
streams; and the same practice exists in other places. The Flagellants of the Middle Ages
appear to have been actuated by a similar enthusiasm.
The pretension to universal supremacy by leading Bishops of the earlier centuries is
familiar to all who are conversant with church history. The Grand Lama of the Buddhists, and
the Zeus or Archiereus of old Hellas, furnished antetypes which were speedily imitated at the
focal points of the Empire. The Bishop of Rome, however, was the most successful. In his
person the Pontifex Maximus exists as in the days of the Republic and the Caesars. Asia and
Italy alike minister to his elevation. He has "the power of the keys," the key of Janus of archaic
Rome, and the key of Cybele, the Virgin-Mother of Asia. The former was patulicius and
clusius, the opener and shutter; and with the authority of Cybele he was empowered also, as
the vesica piscis indicates, to superintend the gateway of physical existence. But let there be no
sneer at this. In the Catacombs of Rome, where the early Christians used to congregate, are
numerous pictures and carvings indicating close resemblances to the pagan usages. Enough
exists to show that the pontiff does not take all by assumption. The utensils and other furniture
of the Mysteries appear to have been there; and one drawing shows a woman standing before
an altar offering bunns to the Serpent-divinity. It is true, doubtless, that there is not a fast or
festival, procession or sacrament, social custom or religious symbol, that did not come "bodily"
from the previous paganism. But the Pope

-------------
exquisite delight received from the infliction, and partly because of the idea that it promoted
the aptitude to conceive. The late Henry Buckle, author of the History of Civilization, printed
privately a series of curious tracts on this subject, illustrating how a practice beginning in
religious zeal can be made a source of sensuous delight. - Rare Tracts on Flagellation.
Reprinted from the original editions collected by the late Henry Thomas Buckle, 7 vols., post
8vo, London. Printed by G. Peacock, 1777.
-------------
--- 207.

did not import them on his own account; they had already been transferred into the
ecclesiastical structure, and he only accepted and perhaps took advantage of the fact. Many of
those who protest because of these "corruptions," are prone to imitate them, more or less,
displaying an engrafting from the same stock.
Much dispute has been had in regard to the presence of St. Peter at Rome. The statue of
the apostle, it has been asserted with great plausibility, was originally the bust of Jupiter of the
Capitol. We presume that the "apostle of the circumcision," as Paul, his great rival, styles him,
was never at the Imperial City, nor had a successor there, not even in the Ghetto. The "Chair of
Peter,"* therefore, is sacred rather than apostolical. Its sanctity proceeded, however, from the
esoteric religion of the former times of Rome. The hierophant of the Mysteries probably
occupied it on the day of initiations, when exhibiting to the candidates the petroma.**

------------
* There appear to have been two chairs of the titular apostle. In the year 1662 the
workmen engaged in cleaning one of them for exhibition to the people, on the 18th of January,
"the Twelve Labors of Hercules unluckily appeared engraved on it." (Bower's History of the
Popes, vol. ii, p. 7.) This chair was removed and another substituted. In 1795 the French under
Bonaparte occupied Rome, and again the chair was investigated. This time there was found the
Mohammedan Confession of Faith, in Arabic letters: "There is no deity but Allah, and
Mohammed is his Apostle." Zodiacs, or Labors of Hercules, evidently of an astrological
character, have been found in the churches of York and Lyons, and a wine-cask at the shrine of
St. Denys. On the hypothesis of having been heirlooms from the pagan religion, these facts are
duly accounted for, except the French discovery. It may have been that Islam and the Papacy
once contemplated an alliance, or some crusader brought the chair from the East.
** If this supposition is correct, the ecclesiastical legends of Peter's sojourn at Rome are
easily comprehended. The petroma, or stone tablet, contained or constituted the last revelation
made by the
------------
--- 208.

The end crowned the work. "In the Church of St. Peter's at Rome," Godfrey Higgins
asserts,* "is kept in secret a large stone emblem of the creative power, of a very peculiar shape,
on which are the words, -,Ll ETJ0D, Zeus Soter (or Jove the Saviour; only persons who have
great interest can get a sight of it."
Thus the cycle seems to return upon itself. Archaic Rome seems to live again in the
Rome Mediaeval, old Egypt and Babylonia to be resuscitated in our modern Europe. Yet this
is not altogether true. Let us take heed how we hear.
Those capable of understanding, will recognize in this symbolism the revelation of the
first creation and the renaissance, as refined in sentiment or as gross in sense as is the mind of
the person witnessing the vision. Whether he has learned supernal mysteries is to be
ascertained; certainly he is revealed to himself, humbled if not humble.

--------------
hierophant to the candidate for initiation. What it was might never be divulged on pain of
death. All the work of the Creator was now unfolded, and the profane might not know the
solemn secret. As the Mysteries came to Rome from the East, it is easy to perceive that the
hierophant or revelator would have an oriental title. Peter, from the Phoenician word [script],
peter, is applied in the Book of Genesis (xl, 8) to an expounder of dreams, and was probably
the designation of the interpreter of the petroma. The Roman bishop succeeding to his chair,
would be, it is apparent, pontiff over the whole world.
* Celtic Druids, pp. 195-196.

------------------------
--- 209.

THE RESURRECTION
Its Genuine Character Considered

Mr. Gladstone, the British statesman, it is said, has declared his wish to live for two
important reasons. One of these is to convince his countrymen of the substantial identity
between the theory of Homer and that of the Hebrew Scriptures. Having been for many years a
diligent student of both, he would seem to be admirably qualified in essential particulars for
intelligent judgment of their resemblances. They alike acknowledge the Supreme Being, with a
choir of subordinate auxiliary divinities and spiritual essences of lower degrees, among whom
he is arbiter and executive - hardly omnipotent, as we understand the term - a divine life
manifest in human form and characteristics, and commonly seen working for good, yet shaded
by passion and various qualities that are hardly in keeping with our conception of the good and
perfect. There is destiny likewise in various shades; individual, however, rather than
universal, a karma and moral impulsion; an ordained law of right and the allotting of a career
and events which is virtually an immutable decree. Mr. Gladstone does not hesitate to glorify
the Olympian religion as one of the topmost achievements of the human mind, wonderful in
character and influence, holding its place with the most thoughtful and energetic portions of the
human family, yielding its supremacy with reluctance, and even now exerting a wonderful
energy in our modern thought. It exalted the human element, made divinity attainable, upheld
the standard of moral obligation and tended to produce a lofty self-respect and those habits of
mind and action which have resulted in a philosophy, art and literature that continue to the
present day

--- 210.

unrivaled and unsurpassed. The creed of the Homeric age brought both the sense and the dread
of the divine justice to bear in restraint of vice and passion. There was a voice of conscience
and all abiding sentiment of reverence and fear which inspired all heroic activity.
This unity and similarity which appear in the theology of the poet and the utterances of
the Hebrew prophets are, doubtless, a common inheritance from an older religious faith. It may
be, too, that each of them imparted some influence and energy to the other. There is always a
tendency on the one hand for all worships and philosophies to interblend, and on the other to
differentiate. They are like the little boughs and twigs of trees which grow from the older
stocks and branches and develop an infinite variety of forms and genius, while deriving their
energy and subsistence from the same source.
The later times are not essentially different from the former times. We do not so much
receive new inspiration and originate new thought as give new form and condition to that
which existed long ago. This may be regarded as true alike of art, science and doctrine. It is
very easy to trace the resemblance, and sometimes the actual transmission. In these ways
certainly we are indebted alike to Greek and barbarian, to wise and unwise. Thought, dogma,
festival, rite and custom, as now existing among us, are, almost without exception, boons and
loot from older and rival religious faiths. Their first and legitimate interpretation, therefore,
will preserve the analogies and conditions which belong to their earlier histories. We ought to
be more careful in this respect than to concern ourselves overmuch with later interpretations
that happen for the time to be pertinaciously insisted upon.
Always the first enquiry of human beings will be to know the problem of their existence.
Upon the Temple at Delphi were inscribed the two wise sentences: "Er," (Thou art) and "Know
Thyself." In their solution all intelligence is comprised. We recognize in them all that is of
value in religion or philosophy. The rites of worship everywhere are manifestations of the
endeavour to realize the sublime mystery. They all of them are conformed to one or another
holy legend of a descent from spiritual to natural conditions, an allotted term of
--- 211.

experience, and an ulterior exaltation to the diviner life. This was true of the multitude of
faiths in the ancient and archaic periods, and we may suppose, was the significant feature in the
later doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus.
In his monograph upon this latter topic Mr. Wake has exhibited great fairness of temper,
and a superior critical acumen. In collating his evidence from the writers of the New
Testament, his selection of the epistles of Paul in preference to other documents, appears to be
amply warranted. They were evidently written in the first century of our era, whereas, as the
best scholars from Eichhorn to the present time are aware, the Gospels are of later date, the
compilations of editors, and not original papers. They were not prepared according to any
canon of criticism now in fashion, but are more or less a collection of distinct legends,
somewhat after the form of the Dhammapada. If we would ascertain their true meaning we
must rely upon other methods than our modern rules of interpretation, or even theologian
exegesis.
The Rev. Dr. Hooykaas, in his admirable chapter on the Resurrection of Jesus,* places
the affair upon a different basis. He boldly declares:
"Amidst all the doubts that hang around this subject, of one thing at least we may be sure:
that it forms a chapter of the inner life of the disciples, not of the outward life of the Master. In
other words, the resurrection of Jesus is not an external fact of history, hut simply a form of
belief assumed by the faith of his friends and earliest disciples."
He adds:
"Originally the resurrection and ascension were one."
This, in fact, is signified by the Greek word ANASTASIS, which is used by the writers in
the New Testament when this subject is mentioned. The prefix ana means above, on high; and
the whole word accordingly denotes an exaltation, an ascent or elevation to a superior rank. In
this sense it is evidently used by the great Apostle.

-----------
* Narratives of the New Testament, II, I.
-----------
--- 212.

Doctor Hooykaas has also given us the following ingenious and plausible explanation of
the current notion upon this subject:
"It was only later, that the conception sprung up of his having paused upon earth, whether
for a single day, or for several weeks, on his journey from the abyss to the height. We may,
therefore, safely assert that if the friends of Jesus had thought as we do of the lot of those that
die, they would never so much as have dreamed of their Master's resurrection or ascension. For
to the Christian belief of today it would be, so to speak, a matter of course that Jesus, like all
good and noble souls - and indeed above all others - would go straight to a better world, 'to
heaven,' 'to God,' at the instant of his death; but in the conception of the Jews, including the
Apostles, this was impossible. Heaven [in their conception] was the abode of the Lord and his
angels only; and if an Enoch or an Elijah had been caught up there alive, to dwell there for a
time, it was certain that all who died, without exception, must go down as shades into the
realms of the dead in the bowels of the earth - and thence, of course, they could not issue
except by 'rising again.' And this is why we are never told that Jesus rose 'from death,' far less
'from the grave,' but always 'from the dead' - that is, from the place where the shades of the
departed abide; from the realms of the dead. The dead, when thus waked into life again, must
have a body, whether it were a new one or whether the old one left the grave for him. Now the
Apostles could not accept or endure the thought that their Master was left in the abyss a
powerless and lifeless shadow - they were convinced that he must be living in heaven in glory;
and, moreover, they believed themselves to have evidence of his continued existence.* The
only possible conclusion, therefore, was that he had risen from the realm

----------
* The Greek verb ophthe, used to express the seeing of Jesus after death, denotes mental,
rather than bodily vision. So also, in the passage, Luke xxiv, 39: "A spirit hath not flesh and
hands as you see me having." The verb see, theoreite, denotes contemplation rather than direct
physical perception. The idea is: "as I seem to you to have."
----------
--- 213.

of shades....
"All this is simple enough. Is it not equally clear that where there is no belief in this
realm of shades a 'resurrection' has no meaning? And if we have all ceased to believe in any
such shadow-land, we are forced to admit that the narratives do not concern a fact in the life of
Jesus, but a conception on the part of his friends. The contradictions in the narratives
themselves, though so great as to lay insuperable obstacles in the way of a literal interpretation,
no longer surprise us when we know that we are dealing with a product of the religious
imagination, gradually amplified and embellished by tradition."
This reasoning of the distinguished pastor of Rotterdam appears conclusive, and it
indicates that we must seek in other directions for the truer understanding of the matter. As the
vapor of a sensuous materialism is dissipated by a sublimer spirituality we may hope to be able
to regard it with somewhat of intelligence.
It may be well to take a historic survey of the field. In the second century of our era there
were numerous groups and little societies, chiefly among the Greek-speaking peoples, the
members of which commemorated the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. There does not appear
to have been any unusual feature or circumstance connected with this. The religion of Mithras,
a form of Zoroastrianism, was then diffused all over the Roman world. It had very similar rites
and doctrines, and furnished a model for its more successful rival. The worship of Serapis, of
which the death and resurrection of a divine being made a prominent characteristic, had also
been planted in Alexandria and disseminated elsewhere. Indeed, as it was recorded that the
earlier Israelites living among the various peoples took part in their religious observances
(Judges, iii. 5, 6), so the earlier Christians with a like catholicity participated in the service of
Mithras and Serapis.
Said the Emperor Hadrian:
"There is but one God for them all, him do the Christians, him do the Jews, him do all the
Gentiles worship."
Esoterically all the divine personages of the different peoples were the same. The Father
of all was indeed, in every age and every
--- 214.

clime, adored. The Passion of Adonis, his resuscitation and ascension on the third day had
been annually celebrated in Syriac Asia Minor and Greece for many centuries. Even Assyria
and Egypt paid homage to the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, and her Divine Son. It
would be necessary to go far beyond the East and West, aye, even beyond remote Antiquity
itself, to be able to transport ourselves away from these various dogmas.
But about this period, and for a long time afterward, literature was extensively forged and
interpolated by religious men in order to change old doctrines into new revelations, and to
engraft magic and ascetic notions into sacred books. Where abuse and reasoning did not effect
the desired end of producing conviction, the murder of dissentients and philosophers and the
burning of their writings were the final resort. Violence at length accomplished for a time the
work for which argument had proved inadequate. The picture is a sad one, but true to human
experience even in our own day.
Let us take up the New Testament again and read it as it means. Too long has the sense
of important utterances been perverted till few see anything in them but somebody's
interpretation. Very many are weary of the polarized text of an arbitrary translation. On the
rendering of single words sects have been made and individuals discarded one another's
friendship. Surely, if the genuine meanings be unearthed and revealed, there will be enough of
the doctrine of charity, justice between man and man, the true and the right, itself to constitute
a resurrection of life in which all honest, earnest souls will participate.
We may contemplate the Pauline evangel of Jesus and the Resurrection with clearer eyes.
In the coming from the dead, we make no quest for reanimated flesh and blood, knowing that
they cannot inherit a spiritual or heavenly condition. That which is by its nature and quality
corruptible and transient is not an heir of the incorruptible and unchangeable. The anastasis
which the Apostle so zealously and pertinaciously proclaimed was infinitely more than the
rebuilding of a physical framework after the manner set forth by religious materialists. It was
in no sense the reviving of a corpse, but the exalting of human nature itself to celestial
conditions. Thus we

--- 215.

read the story of Jesus, the ideal man and son of man, begotten and born to all the
circumstances and trials of humanity without any exception, yet raised up by the Divine
principle within him from the region of change and materiality to the heavenly estate. In this
way he descended into "the lower parts of the earth," the world of the dead into which we are
all born, and ascended again, which is the resurrection, thus filling or accomplishing every
experience.
Under the symbolic example of a man undergoing the trials of life and human passion,
yet overcoming them, put to death and on the third day coming forth from the tomb and passing
into heaven, we have the representation of our own spiritual career. We too descend from
above into the genesis and mortal condition, encounter the numerous tests and proofs of our
character and fidelity, and at length, being made perfect through sufferings and experience,
attain the supernal life. Whoever and whatever Jesus was or signified we shall be like him. He
is the ideal, into the likeness of which we all must become assimilated.
Divested of its adscititious matter this is what the Gospel of the Apostle really signifies.
The earthly house in which we are tabernacling will be dissolved. The bodily shape, the soma
or sema, is the type, expression and simulacrum, but in no sense the personality. When the life
passes from it, we all instinctively regard and treat it as a thing, human only in appearance.
That which constitutes self-hood is not there. The real person is not the flesh and blood, but
that essence in which identity consists, and which, however much the physical frame may be
marred and maimed, continues still intact. Paul was declaring this when he contrasted the
"natural," or rather the psychic body and the spiritual body. He sets forth our moral condition
accordingly. When we are present in the body, by which he means, at home in it and not living
as temporary sojourners, we are absenting ourselves from the Lord. But to withdraw ourselves
and our affections from it is to become present with him, spiritually minded, and in community
with those that are above. When we were in the earthly conditions we had been "buried with
him by a baptism into death"; and as he rose above their conditions we, too, may rise, walking
in the new life. Our old man is thus crucified with him, and

--- 216.

sin's body brought to nought, that it may enslave us no more.


In the Epistle to the Ephesians the same terms are used. The believers are there
described as having been dead in trespasses and sins - that is, they had walked according to the
Genius of this world, all living the life of the flesh and corporeal nature. When in this
condition God had caused them to rise into the true life - to rise up and sit in heavenly regions.
The whole was unequivocally a moral experience.
When Thomas Paine affirmed that the Bible maintained the dogma of a resuscitation of
the body, Bishop Watson, in his celebrated Reply, carefully refrained from pleading that
Omnipotence was able to do all this, but demanded the proof, and denied that any such notion
was taught.
The true doctrine relates exclusively to spiritual conditions. The personality or real man
rises from that portion of earth which it had vivified - rises with the spiritual body which he
always had, and rises in full possession of all his senses and faculties, into a world of spiritual
essences, of which his spiritual senses and organs take cognizance in the same manner as the
material organs here perceive natural things. Man lives after the analogy of the chrysalis. Born
into the world as a larva, he lays aside that form of existence and enters into a pupa-condition,
from which he emerges into the superior, celestial mode of life.
This intermediate condition is described in the Avesta as a period of three days. The soul,
it was represented, continued for that space of time beside the body and then forsook it to go to
the eternal home. This accounts for the term of three days which was set forth in the case of
Jesus, and the peculiar stress laid upon the fact that Lazarus had been four days dead. The
words imputed to Jesus are likewise explained: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
rear it again." The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit to the Eternal One from
whom it came. Thus we are invested with the "building of God," the house described by Paul
as "eternal in the heavens."
Perhaps those who have eyes that see without perceiving, and ears that hear without
comprehending, receive these utterances in

--- 217.
their external purport and do not pass beyond the purview and region of the transitory and
material. They, however, who regard the truth with open eyes and the superior mental altitude,
have the faculty of discernment which reaches within the veil and is cognizant of the actual and
divine.
To the philosophic mind the conception here propounded is not vague or shadowy. Spirit
or mind is the real substance; flesh and blood are temporary and phenomenal. Even the
scientists assure us that force is behind all physical manifestations. This includes ourselves and
all about us. But force and law may always be regarded as not only alive, but more real than
the things which are thereby set into action. The mind, which is of the same category, is more
substantial than the body. However dream-like this may seem, it is no irrational vagary. "We
are such stuff as dreams are made of," and very appositely; for we are constituted what we are
by and from that Being who is essentially or super-essentially spirit. Certainly no profounder
reality exists than that.
The Gospels abound with texts declaring or illustrating this doctrine. When the
Sadducees questioned Jesus about the resurrection, he responded by quoting a text from the
books which they acknowledged, that God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He
cannot be a God of the dead, but of the living; so therefore the patriarchs had risen from the
dead. Martha declares that her brother will rise up in the resurrection in the last day. The life
on earth is computed by days, the last of which is the day beyond the limitation of time, the day
of the Lord, the unending day of eternity. To us in this life it seems future, but really it is
always present. Hence the declaration is true:
"Whoever heareth my word and believeth in him who sendeth me hath life eternal, and
cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life."
Death, such as is here, is no conqueror of true souls. The bridge of judgment, described
in the Avesta and Al Kuran, is not for them to cross; they are already beyond it. Nor is this
judgment any theatric spectacle or grand assize, but a process in every ones bosom. Says
Jesus:

--- 218.

"This is the judgment, the light has come into the world, and men have loved the
darkness in preference, because their works were evil. For even one doing ill hates the light
and comes not to it, so that his works may not be exposed; but whoever does right comes to the
light in order that his works may be made manifest."
The resurrection, therefore, is the beacon of hope to all the world. Now that we accept it,
not as phenomenal but as the culmination of personal experience, we find our feet set in a sure
place. Says Fichte:
"It is not when I am divorced from the connection of the earthly world that I first gain
admission into that which is above the earth. I am in it and live in it already, far more truly
than in the earthly. Even now it is my only standing-point; and the eternal life, which I have
long since taken possession of, is the only reason why I am willing still to prolong the earthly.
That which they call heaven lies not beyond the grave. It is already here, diffused around our
nature, and its light arises in every pure heart.
"So I live and so I am; and so I am unchangeable, firm and complete for all eternity. For
this being is not one which I have received from without; it is my own only-true being and
essence."
(Lucifer, Nov., 1892)

-----------------
--- 219.

THE PROBLEM AND PROVIDENCE OF EVIL

"The Power that always wills the bad and always works the good." - Goethe

Defoe, in his famous work, describes Robinson Crusoe as instructing his man Friday
upon the leading doctrines of the Christian religion. As he endeavors to explain the problem of
evil as the work of Satan, his pupil asks, eagerly: "Why God no kill the Devil?" Doubtless,
Defoe, when writing this question, was evading personal responsibility while thrusting before
the world a problem which threatened to sap the very foundations of the accepted theology. If
there be such a Power in the universe able to thwart the divine beneficence and to lead human
beings to ruin in wanton malignity, it must be, as has been taught in former centuries, actual
Divinity and the rival of Deity itself. We cannot in such case attribute omnipotence to God;
but if the converse be true, that he only suffers such ruin of souls when able to prevent it, we
can hardly suppose him wise and benevolent. This question has agitated thinking minds ever
since the dawn of history. Nevertheless, we are conscious that only Divinity, supreme in
essence and beyond essence, sustains the universe and regulates its movements. It alone
operates in harmony, adapting all means to their proper ends. It is therefore one and absolute.
Hence evil, on the other hand, can be only a disturbing element, never permanent and
substantial in its operations, but always destructive. Even when in any of its phases it seems to
be persistent, it eventually fails and comes to an end in any endeavor which it may seem to
prompt and inspire. From the nature of things, therefore, we may not consider it to be any
counterpart of the Supreme Right, nor the

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purpose of any creative operation. We must accordingly ignore without hesitation any concept
in relation to it as being actually an essence or individuality absolutely hostile to Divinity, or as
leading and abetting hosts of malignant demons to mar the order of the universe and lead
human beings from the Right.
In former periods, however, all objects were personified and supposed to be endowed
with soul. The physical forces were regarded as personalities, and whatever was grievous and
harmful was considered as essentially evil. In this way, accordingly, every tribe and people
that had attained no superior culture had abundance of evil beings ready on opportunity to lead
individuals astray or to inflict harm upon them. There were also in these modes of thinking
divinities representing all forms of mental endowment, whose aims and influences were good.
Beyond these was likewise the mystery of Death. That existence did not end with this event
was a cherished belief. The soul was conceived as still alive and hovering around the family
abode. If it was cared for, propitiated with food and sacrifices, it was a good angel to the
kindred; but if this should be neglected it suffered accordingly and was likely to render
unfriendly offices, if not to become inimical outright.
The personification of evil as a distinct hostile power in the world seems, however, to
have had its inception at a period comparatively recent. There was no such personifying of
wrong as an individual potency in the writings of the earlier people of whom we have
knowledge. There was no Devil that was depicted as always such from the beginning. The
earlier demons that were represented as malignant were not described as ranging over the
whole world, but only over specific regions. The conception of a diabolic personality appears
to have been formed from that of a tutelary god that had been dethroned by conquest or social
revolution. Thus Set or Typhon of Egypt and the Western Semitic populations of Asia had
been honored as a god through a long succession of dynasties, but changes occurred at a later
period, which have not been fully explained, by which he became in the newer form of worship
the Satan Adversary, always hostile to the Good.

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In the religious system of ancient Persia known as Magian and Zoroastrian this
conception appeared in a more concrete form. Even there, however, it exhibits evidences of
having changed almost radically in its long career. The Avesta, the sacred scriptures of that
faith, what little of it is still extant, contains texts implying as much. The people of archaic
Eran had broken away from their kindred Aryan neighbors and adopted a new mode of living,
as well as another form of religious belief. Renouncing the nomadic life, they became tillers of
the soil and dwellers in permanent homes, which were very generally grouped together into
villages. It was a veritable illustration of the story of Cain and Abel, the agriculturist rooting
out the herdsman. The enmity which arose involved also their religious notions. The devas are
still regarded as gods in India and as evil spirits by the Parsis,* Indra; the Dyu-piter, or "father
in heaven," of the Veda, is an unfriendly power in the Avesta. But in the earlier Zoroastrian
teachings the Supreme Being is represented as One, as it seems to be also declared in the book
of Isaiah: "I am the Lord, and there is none else; I form the Light and create Darkness; I
make peace and create evil." But the later Mazdean philosophy appears to have reasoned from
premises more easily comprehended by the common thinking. It was recognized that in the
world of nature there is law, and also that in the same realm there is conflict. While, therefore,
profounder thinkers contemplated all things as dependent upon the One, Zeroana the Infinite,
all operations and events were attributed to the Two, who in their separate capacities
nevertheless wrought out as though in concert the Divine purpose. But these eventually were
considered as perpetually at war, Ahura-Mazda, the eternally Good, and Anra-manyas, the Evil
Mind, always seeking to mar everything created and every form of life as it came into
existence. Few individuals care to investigate this subject more

------------
* The gypsies have been described as worshiping the Devil. The fact is overlooked,
however, that they were an outcast Indian people and that the term Deva is a Sanskrit
designation signifying Deity.
------------
--- 222.

critically. Thus from this source came the belief in pure evil, original sin, and also in an arch-
enemy of God and man. The Evil Genius was represented as always in conflict, always on the
alert for mischief. From him was the thorn to the rose, the shadow to the light, the sorrow that
attends on every joy. "He sowed the seeds of evil in
animal life," remarks Mrs. Robins-Pennell, "and transmitted the germs of moral and physical
disease to the universal man."
In this description we observe no critical distinction between moral evil and physical.
The same potency that introduced cold in the primitive Aryana is the one that promotes what is
evil "in the thought and word and deed."
The concept of Satan as the Evil potency appears to have been evolved at a period
comparatively modern. In the dramatic sketch which is given in the book of Job he seems to
have a place in the assemblage of "Sons of God." There certainly is no show of enmity or
alienation. It is apparently his office to go up and down the earth to find out how its order was
maintained. He is interrogated accordingly by the Lord in respect to the fidelity of Job, and
suggests that it is solely in return for the protection that has been afforded.
The tests are then given: first, by permitting the destruction of wealth and family; then
by the inflicting of loathsome disease, and finally by the aggravating imputations of his three
friends that his calamities are the penalty of his own wrong-doing. The sufferer insists
positively upon his uprightness and faultless integrity, exempting himself from the charge as he
would have done before the assessors of the dead. Nevertheless, he considers that his
calamities are from God. "The hand of the Lord has wrought this," he declares to his
inquisitorial friends. When likewise his wife, grieving at his condition, apparently so utterly
hopeless, pleads to him to invoke God and die, he replies submissively: "Are we to receive
good at the hand of God, and are we not to receive the evil also?"
This dramatic representation in the introduction to the story of Job has been the moral of
analogous literary productions in later centuries. Satan, now displaced from his office of
Censor in the heavenly sphere and become Prince of Darkness, is now the seducer

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and destroyer of souls. Christopher Marlowe delineates the compact of Doctor Faustus with
Mephistopheles (hater of the light), which was carried into effect by his terrible fate. Goethe
followed with his inimitable work. He also introduces Mephistopheles, "the spirit which
evermore denies" and that claims evil as his own element. Faust, the scholar, is delivered over
to the Tempter to be subjected in every form of allurement and moral peril. He is plunged into
the mire of sensuality and selfish caprice, as well as human ambition. But amid it all the divine
element in the soul is not destroyed. He retains his consciousness of the right, and after all his
waywardness exhibits the desire to continue in the doing of benefits to his fellow-beings. This
brings to its close his compact with the Evil One, but the same moment it delivers him from the
penalty of the bond. Thus the Dark Spirit outwitted himself.
Milton, however, had already given in his great poem, Paradise Lost, the setting to the
story of Satan and the "Fall of Man," which has been very generally accepted in Protestant
Christendom. He has represented the great apostate, taking for his model in this delineation
Prince Rupert, the commander of the Cavaliers in the Civil War in England, in whom the
temper and character of the aristocracy were vividly displayed. This hero of Milton, though
fallen from his high estate, retains many of the characteristics of the distinguished prince which
win admiration. He had rebelled when the Son of God was placed over the angelic ranks and
had drawn a third of them from their allegiance. Though having become the arch-fiend, he is
nothing less than "archangel ruined." Having now taken evil as his good and choosing to rule
in hell rather than to serve in heaven, he now delights himself in leading human beings astray.
As if to give a finality to all this class of vagaries, Mr. Philip James Bailey presents us
with his epic poem, Festus. In the previous dramas the faithful Job, the weary scholar and the
guileless parents of mankind had been chosen for attack. Now, the youth Festus is delivered to
Lucifer to be subjected to his arts. But, as before, evil is not triumphant. As Job was restored
to more than former prosperity, and Faust was borne by angels and redeemed souls to the
highest bliss, so Festus, after having tasted the delights of mind and sense,

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is numbered with the heavenly multitude, the whole human race delivered, and even Lucifer
himself restored, a penitent, to his former rank.

"It suits not the eternal laws of good


That evil be immortal."

Sin, in its proper meaning, denotes a missing of the aim, a failure to reach the right end, a
being in fault rather than any profound turpitude or wickedness. When, however, it is
voluntary; when it is a deliberate violation of the Right, then it becomes flagrant wrong-doing,
injury and crime. The whole nature is thus contaminated, and becomes vicious and corrupt. As
all human beings have erred more or less and are subject to the infirmities incident to an
imperfect nature, they are subject to suffering in consequence;* hence they are under the
necessity of directing their careers by the wisdom which they acquire by their experience.
The ancient philosophers held that the soul is of twofold quality. The higher faculty, the
mind or spirit, was an essence akin to Divinity itself, but the sensuous and passional
constituents perish with the body.
The earlier Christian authors exhibit considerable variations in their concepts of evil and
its personal representative. These were, however, superior in tone to those set forth in the
Avesta. The moral view was more distinctly presented, and the evils incident to the realm of
nature, like cold and heat, pain and physical injury, were less considered. They evidently
regarded the Roman dominion as in a certain sense identical with the kingdom of evil.
Nevertheless, the writings accredited to Clement of Rome do not appear to have

-----------
* The story of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis mentions the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. If this be regarded as a historic account of the earth before there had been
transgression, it will also imply that evil was itself recognized as exiating prior to the
introducing of human beings upon the scene.
-----------
--- 225.

recognized any predominating evil personage. Tertullian, however, who was more conversant
with Asiatic opinion, speaks distinctly of Satan, the Devil, and Justin Martyr also described
him as leader of the powers of darkness, the cause of transgression and physical disaster, the
ally of heretics and the inspirer of the former worship. With the illiterate multitude these
notions were cherished in their worst aspect. The concept drifted through the Middle Ages to
the present time. We find it cropping out in common religious discourse and in current
speech.*
In the earlier centuries of the present era the Gnostic sects and theories overlapped and
were largely intermingled with those which are now distinguished as Christian. The New
Testament contains many features and expressions which indicate their influence. Their
leading doctrines, so far as we know of them, appear to have been developed from the older
systems extant in the East and incorporated into the newer theological structures. One of these
is remarkable for its explanation of Judaism and the traditions of the Hebrew Scriptures. It
replaces the Dark Spirit of the Persians by Ilda-Baoth (Son of Darkness), and represents him as
identical with the Jehovah of the Jewish people. He was described as having created the world
out of chaotic matter and placing the first human beings in the Garden of Eden, forbidding
them to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. But the Genius of Wisdom, taking the form of the
serpent, persuaded to the violating of this restriction, and mankind thereby became capable of
comprehending heavenly mysteries. This has been followed by a continued conflict between
the powers of light and darkness. For man, in his prior psychic nature, notwithstanding his
ability to receive illumination, is nevertheless still "of the earth earthy," and requires to be
generated anew into the divine life. This concept appears to have originated in the belief that
matter is itself the source of evil. The corporeal nature, "the flesh, with its affections and
lusts," it was

-----------
* The writer wrote an article in 1854 for a newspaper, insisting that there was no such
personality as the Devil. An answer was made to it in which was the expression: "I fear he has
denied his Savior."
-----------
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inculcated, must therefore be subjugated and destroyed. As whatever was natural was regarded
as impure, the concept of evil became interwoven with every form of sensuous delight.
Whether the individual was a philosopher, a Gnostic or other style of Christian, the same notion
seems to have been entertained.
Many strained and strange beliefs have sprung from this conception. The most
pronounced among these is the notion that it is inherent as well as incident in mankind to be
evil and to do wickedly. So long as human beings exist in the world it is asserted that they will
be controlled by natural impulses and motives of action, and that, because of this, they will be
selfish, sensual and persistent in evil-doing. Such is the belief substantially of the leading
denominations in Christendom, and likewise of various religionists that are not so classified as
Christian. Its unfortunate influence has been to develop a feeling of despair reacting in
recklessness, laxity of morals, and also cruelty and disregard of justice between man and man.
The beastly sentiment that might, meaning physical superiority, makes and is the all of right,
finds its sanction and support in the reasoning that this is natural to all creatures. It is certainly
the moral code of wild animals. Accordingly, we do not accuse the tiger of moral delinquency
because it preys upon helpless creatures, and by such logic the person with tigrish nature may
as well seek to be justified for acting according to its impulses.
There has been a disposition among many thinkers to consider the state of nature and the
conditions of natural existence as far from light, purity and goodness; and to regard the
besetments of selfishness and wrong-doing as belonging to the body. "I find a law in my
members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity," says the Apostle
Paul; "for with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."
Jesus also is recorded as saying that "evil thoughts and all kinds of wicked impulses and
actions come from within, from out of the heart of man, and make him impure."
Under the influence of notions of this kind, monastic life has been a religions
characteristic in the different faiths, ancient and modern, Christian and non-Christian. Various
macerations of the

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body were added. Among these were fasting, abstinence from the bath, and studied neglect of
physical comfort. It was the aim and dream to crush out the bodily sensibility in order that the
soul might be emancipated and enabled to reach the higher beatitude.
The philosophers, however, while they deprecated the mingling of the soul with the
corporeal nature, also acknowledged intelligently the rightful place of the bodily organism and
conditions. When Porphyry was contemplating suicide in order to escape from the evils and
calamities incident to life, Plotinos, his preceptor, remonstrated, declaring that this was not the
suggestion of a sane intelligence, but that it proceeded from some morbid affection of body.
Indeed, we have no sufficient reason for supposing that dying will totally separate the
soul from the entanglements incident in our corporeal existence. The passions and desires may
still inhere, and the unhoused selfhood, thus turned adrift, finds itself more helpless than the
beggar in the street. The true separation of the soul from the body Plotinos has explained
accordingly as being a purification from anger, evil desire, and other causes of disturbance.
This may take place while yet remaining with the body. The individual is still in the world,
while at the same time beyond and above. Hence the words of Jesus are pertinent - "I pray not
that thou shouldst take them from the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from evil."
"But it is not possible that evil shall be extirpated," says Sokrates to Theodoros, "for it is
always necessary that there should be something opposed to goodness. Nor may they be
established as attributes in the gods, but from necessity they encompass the mortal nature and
the lower region. We ought, therefore, to endeavor to flee hence to the gods most speedily;
and this fleeing is an assimilating to God in the greatest degree possible, and the assimilating is
to be intelligently just and holy."
The philosopher further explains that upon character, upon faithful devotion to the right,
the true excellence of each individual is based. The knowing (gnosis) of this is wisdom and
true virtue, but the not-knowing is manifest ignorance and baseness. "Hence," he remarks,
"there are the constituents of both in the interior being of every one in existence; one that is
divine and most blessed, and one

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which is without God and most wretched. They who do not discern that such is the case, by
their stupidity and lack of spirituality, become unconsciously through unrighteous actions like
the one and unlike the other."
It was more than incidental obstacles to good that were implied. The philosophers
contemplated also a moral delinquency. They styled it "ignorance," but it was a condition
voluntary and willful. "It is darkness," Porphyry declared, "and will fill men with all manner of
evils." The ignorant person is the reverse of spiritual and noetic. He may be quick of intellect,
eloquent, skillful in argument and in whatever pertains to common science. But he is without
love for the beautiful and good, preferring what is base and unjust. It is the worst ignorance,
Plato declares, because it pertains to the mass of the soul, the mortal part which feels pain and
pleasure, and is opposed to everything higher, to the superior knowledge, well-established
condition and reason.
We are thus enabled to behold evil with its concomitants, in its proper place and
character. It is the obverse side of the great world-picture, the opposing pole on the sphere of
objective existence, the shadow, and in reality the bond-servant of the Right. In the realm of
Nature it manifests itself as the difficult thing, the obstacle that is set for us to overcome, and in
this way has its use as a discipline and exercise by which to develop our powers. In the
superior region of mind and morals it includes those qualities incident to our imperfect nature
and field of activity which operate to retard the higher purpose and hold us back in the domain
of crude infantile selfishness.
Nevertheless, that which may seem to our limited powers of vision to be absolutely bad is
undoubtedly good and right when regarded upon the general plane which includes all things
within its purview. When, like a servant putting off his livery to assume the rank and authority
of the master, the lower nature is set in the foreground as the superior principle of action, it
becomes itself an adverse condition to be fought against and brought into subordination. It is
certain to defeat itself in the end, to fail through imbecility. All that it can actually accomplish
is a design which is beyond and superior to itself, which has been directed silently and occultly
by a Power that is

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overruling it for a nobler purpose. Its proper office, it will be perceived accordingly, is to
afford exercise to the soul for the purpose of bringing its faults to plain sight, of evolving its
capacities and eliminating its deficiencies, thus making a perfection attainable of which we
might not otherwise be capable. "It is a part of the mystery of evil," remarks Dr. Abbot, "that it
evokes the good; that when it is driven from the door good comes up the path and enters in its
place. In spite of a thousand apparent triumphs, evil is the servant of good, and prepares the
way for its approach." What, accordingly, is accounted evil exists solely for the sake of the
actual good which awaits beyond.
The alliance of the soul to the conditions of natural existence is necessarily attended by a
certain privation of good and by exposure to the casualties and calamities of life. It is born into
the world to be disciplined and perfected through experience. Hence from babyhood to the
completest maturity the individual is required to "forget the things that are behind and reach
forward to the things that are before." That which was good in the earlier period of life
becomes evil when the time arrives to abandon it. The infant may be innocently selfish, for he
can know nothing beyond; but the older person is called to a broadening charity. Dominating
selfishness at that period of life is an arrest of development, monstrous, and in itself pernicious
to the whole moral nature.
It was actually believed by the sages that prior to its introduction into the world the soul
was in a state of superior perception, and that the first lapse began by a certain passiveness, a
susceptibility which rendered it subject to the attraction toward an objective mode of existence.
When afterward the whole spiritual nature is submerged, and overwhelmed and eclipsed, and
even sensualized, it is, nevertheless, divine in its inmost quality. It never purposely chooses
evil for its portion, but yearns amid all its wanderings for the truer life. Every lapse, pain or
trial which it undergoes operates to the same infinite end. The light is sure eventually to
overcome the darkness. There is none so bad but that he may become holy and divine through
goodness. The chain of

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love, ending in the Infinite, is incessantly combining all below and all above.

Yet spake yon purple mountain,


Yet said yon ancient wood,
That night or day, that love or crime
Led all souls to the good.

(The Word, October, 1906)

-------------------
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LOVE, A MOVING FROM HUMAN TO DIVINE

A Chinese writer affirms that human beings have a nature at birth which has been given
them by Heaven. It may hardly be permitted for casuistry to question this, even though
immaturity appear everywhere with its innumerable manifestations. What has emanated from
Divinity is always good, and only in its perversion or arrest of development is there evil and
harm. It is for ourselves to learn what is and what we are, and to make our own advances
forward in the directions which our nature and aptitude facilitated by opportunity may indicate.
Emanuel Swendenborg has introduced one of his most philosophic works with the maxim
that the love is the life. Yet although the term is so generally used, hardly anybody knows what
love really is. In the common belief it is regarded as an emotion, not actually substantial, but
rather an influence diffused from others, which affects the sensibilities, and so prompts to some
form of manifestation. The Standard Dictionary explains it as a strong complex emotion or
feeling, inspired by something, as a person or quality; causing one to appreciate, delight in,
and crave the presence or possession of the object, and to please, or promote the welfare of that
object. This may, perhaps, be considered as a fair and tolerably full description. Nevertheless
we may remark that the complexity is not a quality of love itself, but rather a condition of the
innumerable forms and manifestations of it which appear among the various experiences and
vicissitudes of everyday life.
The initial perception of love is desire - a wishing for something. We may observe this in
its simplest form in an infant. How common it is to admire the movements expressive of
eager

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regard which the babe exhibits for the mother, or for some other person in whom it takes
pleasure. Yet this apparent "stressing of the affections" can hardly be supposed to extend
beyond the child's own individuality. A young infant has no conception of the matter beyond a
notion that every object around it exists exclusively for its enjoyment, and that every one
around is obligated to do it service. But that there is any possible duty or obligation for it to
render any office of affection to others, an infant never entertains an idea. Innocent as we may
esteem it to be, symbolic of artless simplicity as it is considered, and is often described, it is,
nevertheless, a purely selfish being. What is more, this is what it ought to be. For the babe
knows only the simplest physical wants and the instinct to gratify them. Nor can it grow out of
this rudimentary condition of life, or even continue to exist at all, except these wants are
gratified. Its supreme duty, therefore, is to feed and grow, as it is the duty of those who have it
in charge, to minister to these wants. As for love, for that principle of life which subsists
within the purview, it is as deeply buried and enveloped as a flower in the bud during winter.
There it must remain inchoate and apparently even non-existent till, at a later period, changes
come almost amounting to revolution and bring it to manifestation.
As infancy merges into boyhood or girlhood the tokens of such change begin to be
perceived. Nevertheless much of the selfishness, which is characteristic of the undeveloped
condition, still continues. It now loses, however, that something that had before made it
endurable and charming, and indeed, it is generally more or less repulsive on that very account.
Young boys and girls often appear to be destitute of the sentiment of gratitude, and even to be
wantonly cruel. Careful and judicious training may do much to check such manifestations, and
also to develop good manners, generous behavior toward others, and perhaps, kinder thought
and impulse. But this is likely to be superficial. The good children that were described in
Sunday-school talks, have never been numerous, and seldom long-lived. Selfish considerations
appear generally to predominate, till higher sentiment shall have reached to the basis of the
character and leveled it all the way throughout.

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It is true that habit engenders attachments, as those of parents and children, of brothers
and sisters, and of playmates and associates. Yet these attachments are mingled in their nature.
There may be somewhat of sympathy and kind-heartedness appearing among meaner
incentives, showing that what may have been set down as depraved nature has within it a
higher quality. The child begins to learn that in the doing of a service to a parent, a brother or
sister, or some one else, that he or she has learned to like, there is a real delight. There may not
be any other than a selfish motive at the bottom; there may be only the disposition with which
the boy or girl emerged from the period of infancy. But even then, it is something of the best
that the individual possesses. Though the stream rise no higher than the fountain, yet it may be
that the fountain is itself rising higher.
Besides, with all of us who have lived far beyond the period and peculiar emotions of
childhood, there will be pretty sure to be found, upon critical examination of ourselves, that in
those very actions which are supposedly good and generous, there is also a smirch of self-
seeking, a something like eagerness for praise or hope of personal advantage. In fact, we have
occasion, as Tennyson has set forth in his inimitable poem, to pray not only that our faults may
be forgiven, but our virtues too.
Xenophon in his Memoirs of Sokrates, has represented the philosopher as suggesting the
existence of two goddesses of Love - two Venuses or Aphrodites. The one is a heavenly being
that inspires only the higher motives and superior individuals; the other, a divinity or principle
that actuates every one. In analogy to this illustration our characters are composite, and both
these kinds of love are commingled in us. Children whose manners and habits are still
immature and not fully formed, display this condition most strikingly. It is at this period in
their career that they should be most scrupulously cared for, and it often seems to be the period
when they are most neglected. Yet it is the time when the foundation is most firmly planted for
future health, stamina and character. The lad that is described in the Play as trudging
unwillingly to school is the material of which the coming man is formed.

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The love, if so we are to call it, which appears at this period of life, has more the
character of an instinct than of a principle. It demands an equivalent return for all that it
bestows, or it is likely to change to indifference, and even to actual hatred. A horse may love a
man, and a dog his master, but if they are neglected they will become estranged. In like
manner, also, parents may lose the regard of their children, and brothers and sisters may
become as aliens to one another. There are often glowing attachments formed in adolescent
life between schoolmates and familiar associates, but few of these comparatively are continued
into mature years. They may be blighted by neglect and selfishness, or outgrown as character
is more fully developed, or what is more probably, supplanted by other and stronger passions.
Like the seed which was described in the parable as cast upon stony ground "not having much
depth of earth they become unfruitful." And doubtless it is best to have it so. Yet when this
change from apparent affection to actual indifference takes place in family circles it appears
often in a baleful light.
With the passing from adolescence into adult life the individual blossoms into a new
mode of being. What may be described as the consciousness of sex and attraction to others is
now developed; and with it there come likewise an increasing sensibility to emotion and the
perception of what is due to others. It is at this period that individuals are susceptible to
religious influences, as these are occultly allied to the attractions of sex and the impulses of
personal ambition. All this, perhaps, may be set down as being so because our humankind is an
outcome and copy of Divinity itself. For we read in the fifth chapter of the book of Genesis
that the following statement of origins tersely given: "In the day that God created man in the
likeness of God created he him; male and female created he them and called their name 'Adam'
in the day that they were created."
The more forceful motive and principle in human character, which arouses the whole
being into activity, which gives directness to effort and brings inchoate sentiment into full
bloom, is love. Under its impulse, the individual, however reserved, self-contained, and even
indifferent he or she may have been, now becomes conscious that the condition is incomplete.
There come attraction sometimes toward

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younger persons along with a disposition to aid and protect them; but more commonly in our
modern society it will be toward individuals of different sex, and with it there comes a
willingness, and even a passionateness to serve and oblige. Often this appears as self-
abnegation, and indeed, it may develop into that celestial quality, which is manifest by the
seeking, not of personal welfare and advantage, but of what will enure to the happiness and
well-being of its object. Unfortunately however, the crude selfishness which belongs to the
immature and undeveloped period of life clings to us more or less, even during the extremest
devotedness. Indeed, in innumerable cases, the predominant principle seems to be entirely thus
personal. This is the fact with savages, as it is also with all who imagine that all things are for
themselves. "There are two principles in us," Plato declares. "The one is a desire of pleasure,
the other an acquired sentiment which aims at that which is most excellent. Sometimes the two
are in harmony, and sometimes they are at war, and one or the other gets the upper hand. What
is generally called 'the mighty force of love' is irrational desire which has overcome the
tendency toward the Right, and so is led toward the pleasures of beauty impelled by kindred
attractions toward physical and corporeal excellence." [Phaedros] Then, he remarks, jealousy
becomes manifest lest the beloved object should excel the lover in personal qualities, or be
admired and sought by others. In such attachments as these there is no genuine good, but only
an appetite requiring to be sated, as in the love of a wolf for a lamb.
Nevertheless, there is much declaiming that is really unwarranted, in regard to the low
nature of the attraction between the sexes. For this is the culminating of a law and principle
that is as universal as existence itself. The quality known as polarity is present in all existing
things. When the electric phenomena are manifest, they exhibit the twofold relation which we
perceive fixed in the magnet. The affinities of chemistry are simply manifestations of this
polarity, and intelligent observation discloses the same thing in the innumerable forms of plant-
life. We find it also in animals, in their friendships and alliances, and recognize it as instinct.
The same principle inspires friendship between man and man, and induces

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affection between the sexes, often stronger than the love of property, love of family, or even of
love of life itself. It is frequently common, because of the instinctive features incident in such
attachments, to think and speak of them as gross, sensual, and even as vile and degrading; and
indeed, considered only on the external side, they may be regarded in that light. For this
human being, our own self, who has been described as "little lower than angels" or little less
than Divinity, is capable of a debasement that would put any animal to shame. Indeed, it is true
of the best of us, that however high we may raise our heads toward the sky, our feet still rest
upon the earth.
Nevertheless, it is this attraction of sex, however high or however low it may be in
quality or manifestation, that constitutes the foundation of all our social systems. The relations
of the connubial pair establish the home, and from them proceeds the parental affection which
in human beings as in many of the animal races, leads to the guarding of the household. The
gregarious instinct pushes these relations further, and creates the neighborhood, the commune
and country. In these developments of the social relation the human race excels all the animal
kingdom. It not only makes for itself institutions, but brings into existence the arts and
innumerable forms of science. Intelligent to build fires and construct language in its various
intricacies, it exercises imagination to the widest extent of inventive power. The faculty
beginning with the simplest devising of implements and utensils for the common uses of life,
carries its planning into the larger fields of activity, the commune and country. In these
developments of the social relation the human race excels all the animal kingdom. It not only
makes for itself institutions, but brings into existence the arts and innumerable forms of
science. Intelligent to build fires and construct language in its various intricacies, it exercises
imagination to the widest extent of inventive power, where it may meet the demands of
convenience, taste, and even of inquisitive curiosity. All these achievements, so often the
subject of boast, owe their inception, their value and usefulness to the peculiar attraction
between man and woman. Thus not only does the entire social body owe its existence to that
attraction, but we are indebted to it for the arts and culture which we extol as civilization - a
term

--- 237.

which by its original etymology denotes the mode of living together.


It is an apostolic maxim that "he that loveth his wife loveth himself." By virtue of that
relation, he is more genuinely a human being, a component part of the community, as he cannot
be otherwise, a "living stone" in the social fabric. He is thus made more capable of carrying
into action the highest principle of life, charity, the loving of the neighbor as one's own self.
But we are not to suppose that this is the whole of the matter. Our life is a training-
school to higher ends. We go by steps from lower to higher, and are not able afterward to go
back and take up with what had pleased us before but has now been outgrown. It is well,
however, that in every stage of experience and development, we should live and act according
to its conditions. We contemplate an ideal excellence in them all which makes the attaining of
objects desirable, even though the conceptions are materialistic and commonplace. We
imagine such excellence in children, in friends, in those who we admire and for whom we
entertain affection. Nevertheless, there are blemishes and deficiencies in all, and while we may
supplement and correct one another to a great degree, we cherish the concept of an essence, a
principle beyond all these objects, perfect in its excellence. Real love is absolutely the love and
desire of this excellence. It is a seeing with the mental faculty of sight, the seeing, not of an
image of an object to contemplate and love, but actual perception of the reality itself, the
highest fruition of which we are capable, and a transforming of ourselves into that reality.

(Metaphysical Magazine, February, 1907)

---------------------
--- 238.

THE METAPHYSICS OF MATTER

If I were asked to define the meaning of the abstract term "matter," my reply would be
that it denoted a principle at the very foundation of things, of which the existence objectively is
implied and conjectured, while the real truth in relation to it is not known. It is true that at first
thought it seems to signify everything that is tangible, that comes within the purview of our
senses; and the great multitude, being in the habit of regarding things in that way, on the
surface only, would consider it far-fetched reasoning, or stupid and absurd outright to question
the accurateness and sufficiency of this explanation. Byron has spoken for such:

"When Bishop Berkeley said 'there was no Matter,'


And proved it - 'twas no matter what he said."

He and others like him find it convenient to dismiss such problems with a jest or a sneer.
But we may not be abashed by levity and light-mindedness and deterred from profounder
inquiry. In the fable of the cock in the barnyard we are told that he chose a kernel of corn in
preference to a precious gem, and we may leave individuals of that character to their tastes.
Our attention is directed beyond affairs of sense. These are in seeming only, and actually
deceptive, and we are seeking the truths that transcend them and lead to the portals of Wisdom
itself.
Only relative subjects can be debated and explained. Those which are positive, which
denote absolute facts, must be accepted without question. Life itself is of this character. We
may think at first glance that we know all about it; but when we attempt to tell what it

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is, we are certain to find ourselves utterly at fault. The dictionaries and books of science do not
help us out. We know that it is in some occult way identified with our very being, but how or
even why is beyond our ken. It is well enough for us to speculate upon the subject, and to
endeavor to ascertain what we can, but there is no occasion for chagrin that the solution evades
us.
We may with similar feeling engage in the inquiry respecting Matter. What we know of
it is known as we know of other things, by the manifestations that come within the purview of
our cognizance. It is in such manifestations and seeming demonstrations that that knowledge
consists which is so commonly distinguished by specialists as "science." It begins with an
hypothesis, the assuming that there is some primordial fact or substance; this, however, having
never been shown by demonstration or experiment. From this starting-point are deduced the
various innumerable theories and conclusions. It is a necessary mode of procedure. Without
the absolute foundation-principle thus accepted as true, all our appliances and facilities for
investigation would be vitally lacking. Whether it were the study of planets and far-off worlds,
or the making of discoveries in the depths of the earth, or the descrying of the genera and
peculiarities of micro-organisms, we could in such case be only groping our way from No-
whence to No-whither.
Such an outcome, such a conclusion for our investigations, would signify only that all
existence is purposeless. The mere surmise that the world of Nature about us is only a series of
changes, of evolutions and revolutions that are without aim or object, would utterly dismay us.
We instinctively repel it as unworthy to be entertained. We look intuitively for an origin, a
Source or principle, by which and by means of which all is set in motion and kept in operation.
As our quest extends beyond the limitations which we recognize as Time and Space, we
apperceive that origin to be in Eternity. The constant changes which we observe as pertaining
to things of sense, actually relate to the world which is beyond sense, to the principle or force
which set them in motion and maintains their activity. This would not be the case, however,
except that that which is moved and undergoes changes is essentially connected and at one

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with the cause, with the force or principle that effected it. Hence, as at present time all things
which are objects of sense are denominated "matter," and as their operations are explained as
being induced by the "laws of nature," we are again at the starting-point of our inquiry, the
cause and source of these changes and manifestations. We are led to comprehend the creation
itself as a work that is always going on, beginning in eternity; but the something, the objective
material upon which it operates, yet remains to be accounted for and in some way explained.
So far as we venture to speculate upon Divinity, we apperceive it as One and yet likewise
as the All. But when we contemplate it as Being, in activity, we apprehend the presence of a
Second and then of a Third. This Second Principle, whatever it is, proceeding from the One to
the manifold, operates in some occult way to divide or segregate the objective element from the
essential, somewhat as bodies are distinguished from each other by opposite polarity. That
which thus bestows life is itself Living Force, the agent of the Superior Cause. The object
which is operated upon and made the vehicle of life may seem to us to be relatively inert and
lifeless. Yet it must be actually in a condition which is receptive and of an essential quality
that is the counterpart of the divinity which infills it and imparts life to it. Thus we are brought
logically to the conclusion that this objective substance is itself an emanation, that it is
eternally proceeding from Divinity, that it is cooperative with it and sustained by it. Hence, to
our finite conception, Matter is next in order to God, and we cannot think of the one without
the other. Some notion of this is traceable in the legend of the Genesis, that woman was
originally formed from the side of the man.
The ancient philosophers and the modern school of science differ in regard to their
notions of what Matter intrinsically is. The old sages considered it as has been here set forth, to
be the passive or receptive principle through which the active or generative principle manifests
itself in the reaction. It was described accordingly as being "of that species which is corporeal,
devoid of any form, species, figure and quality, but apt to receive all forms, and thus the nurse,
mother and origin of all other beings." This, indeed, is what the terms

--- 241.

"matter" and "nature" signify in their original etymology. Matter is the materia or mother-
principle, and Nature means the parent who gives birth. Plato has accordingly described
Matter in the Timaeos as a "formless universal receiver, which, in the most obscure way
receives the immanent principle of the Intellectible." And again, speaking of it in relation to
ideas or ideals and likewise to objects of sense, he says: "It is the Mother"; implying relation
to Idea as the father, and to objects of sense as the offspring.
We may deduce from this that the goddess of the ancient mythologies, the "Great
Mother," with innumerable names, as Venus, Demeter, Kybele, Astarte, Isis, Anahita, or
Mylitta, was simply Matter or nature personified and endowed with divinity.
In short, we may accept the explanation of William Archer Butler, that matter is rather a
logical than a material entity. He declares: "It is the condition or supposition necessary for the
production of a world of phenomena. It is thus the transition-element between the real and the
apparent, the eternal and the contingent; and lying thus on the border of both territories, we
must not be surprised that it can hardly be characterized by any definite attribute." In other
words, this Hyle or Matter, or Mother, is an unchangeable principle, neither God, nor ideality,
nor soul of man; and it exists as a medium of the Divine Intelligence which manifest itself in
the creation and organization of the world.
Modern writers seem to be coming to conclusions of similar character. Thus John Stuart
Mill defines matter as, a permanent possibility of sensation. This clearly sets it forth as the
agency by which moral and spiritual operations become physically "knowable" and are
introduced into the region of sense. The Platonic Theorem is thus fully sustained, that mind
has being in itself before becoming involved in relations with the world of nature, that the soul
is older than the body and is therefore superior to it. Matter may be explained accordingly as
intermediary, as the potentiality or inherent possibility of coming into natural conditions, the
agency by which ideal models of the eternal region, the world of Mind, are brought into
manifestation in physical form. This is further verified by the declaration of the Apostle, that
the things which may be seen, or perceived by the

--- 242.

corporeal sense, are temporal and belong to the region of Time, while the things which are not
thus seen are eternal and of the world that is beyond time. The affirmation of the writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews is confirmed: "The things that are seen did not come into existence out
of the things that appear" - that are phenomenal only.
It may seem hard at first hearing to accept or even to understand the proposition that that
something which we perceive by the senses, which may be weighed and measured, is not a
discrete permanent entity. We are naturally impatient of being reasoned with when the
evidence seems palpable. It is always difficult to believe that anything that seems genuine may
not be really so. Yet we are deceived by our senses in our every-day life. The relations of the
earth to the sun and other planets are widely different from what they seem. The food that we
eat, and the water that we drink are constituted of elements distinct in form and character,
which no plastic art of our can put together.
Faraday himself became convinced that certain of the notions which we have been taught
in relation to the properties of matter were actually overturned by the manipulations of
chemistry. The common form of the doctrine that two bodies, two kinds of matter cannot
occupy the same space, he found to be actually contrary to obvious facts. It is by no means
certain that any of the elements have conditions that cannot be overpassed. Whether the
quantity of material elements in the earth, or in the universe itself, is precisely determined as by
measurement, is a proposition which we may doubt; the weight and dimensions certainly are
not. Faraday has demonstrated this by showing that if oxygen be compounded with potassium
atom for atom, and again both oxygen and hydrogen in a twofold number of atoms, the material
will become less and less in bulk, till it is less than a third of its original volume. A space
which would contain twenty-eight hundred atoms, including in this quantity seven hundred of
potassium, is thus filed by four hundred and thirty of potassium alone.
According to the hypothesis of Boscovich, the Italian naturalist, matter in its ultimate
form is made up of atoms, each of which is simply an indivisible point endowed with potential
force. It has no

--- 243.
parts or dimensions. Faraday supplemented this theory by asking what was known of an atom
at all apart from force. These views exhibit matter as being devoid of all positive character,
and indeed of every physical quality which has usually been attributed to it. When thus
reduced to the condition of geometric points, that have neither extent no dimension, it
disappears altogether from the region of space and subsists entirely in the realm of force. It is
dynamic only; it is endowed with power, possibility, capability; but of itself it can originate
nothing. It is simply objective, negative, and thus only receptive of the positive, energizing
force. By the interblending with this, the potential with the active, it becomes the material or
maternal principle that gives existence to things. In this way we perceive that the adage is true,
that Nature is the mother of us all. Her laws are over us, but they are not of her making. They
are derived from that Source which is interior and superior.
The later investigations in electricity are of the nature of demonstration. Professor
Thomson of Cambridge University in England, declares that the masses of flying matter which
constitute the cathode rays in an excited Crookes tube are much smaller than the "atoms" which
chemists and physicists assume as existing. Heretofore it has been supposed that matter could
not be divided more finely than into minute corpuscles or molecules, and that these were
chemically, or rather hypothetically, divisible into atoms. This was regarded as the end of all
dividing. But Professor Thomson now shows that "chips" can be taken off from the atoms, and
this being the case, it must be possible to construct these chips anew into atoms of another
character. Under the common theory the minutest particle imaginable of iron has its own
specific nature and is absolutely and completely distinct from that of any other substance, as for
example, lead. But the professor has evidence, he says, that these smaller corpuscles, these
chips from the atoms, have actually similar properties, although they were taken from different
substances. Thus a corpuscle of oxygen does not differ intrinsically from a corpuscle of
hydrogen. It may be concluded from this, that this process of taking "chips" from atoms may
be resolving of matter itself into its primitive physical element. These chips are so detached
from the atoms by

--- 244.

electrification. If, therefore, they are actually similar or the same in nature and character as
Professor Thomson conjectures, it is but another step to form those which have been procured
from one element into a new body belonging in another category.
Lockyer seems almost to have accomplished this very achievement. He placed copper
under the voltaic current and rendered it volatile, and then made it appear by means of the
spectroscope as it if had been changed into calcium. Nickel was metamorphosed into cobalt,
and calcium into strontium. The concept of changing other metals into gold has been
entertained through all the historic centuries. Indeed, there are men of skill in India, who seem
to have brought this matter to a certainty. They add to a small quantity of gold a larger mass of
other metal, and then transform it all apparently into gold, losing not a grain in weight.
It may be presumed, then, that transmutation is going on all the time. The affinities of
chemical atoms and their variableness indicate the chemical elements themselves to be
compounds of simpler material, and if this be so there can be but few primal forms of matter -
enough merely for the fixing of force and enabling its evolution into the realm of Nature.
Indeed, it is far from being an unreasonable assumption to suppose that matter is moving
incessantly in a circle, coming all the while into existence from spiritual essence, and again
returning thither.
Both the ancients and the moderns have recognized an "ether" which accounted for
phenomena which they were otherwise unable to explain. It seems to have been considered as
a superior form of matter, a quintessence, or perhaps of the nature of force. It may, perhaps, be
intimately identified with the transition-element which has been mentioned, but its existence is
only an hypothesis.
If we can conceive of spirit or mind itself as positive energy, and conceive that it can in
some occult way become objective and reactive, we may form a concept of the source and
originating of Matter. A solitary particle would be a nucleus sufficient for the objectifying of
force and expansion into the illimitable dimensions of the universe. As the bodies of plants and
animals are constituted of air made solid by the organic forces, so matter itself is the product of

--- 245.

the solidified forces. "In Nature," says Schelling, "the essence strives first after actualization,
or exhibition of itself in the particular." emanation is accordingly prior to and causative of
evolution. Emanuel Swedenborg has given an explanation superior in its lucidity. "Every one
who thinks from clear reason sees," says he, "that all things are created out of a substance
which is substance in itself, for that is being itself out of which every thing that is can have
existence;* and since God alone is Substance in itself, and therefore Being itself, it is evident
that from this Source alone is the existence of things." However that natural forces, the laws of
nature, may be installed in the full control of the universe, the Divine Will precedes, as the
Source and origin. It has not been set in motion like a clock, to run itself down. God has
created, or to speak more correctly, is all the while creating the world, not out of nothing, nor
even from dead chaotic matter, but out of his own substance.

(Metaphysical Magazine, July, 1900)

-------------
* Swedenborg is always careful to make the proper distinction between being and
existence - esse and existere. By being or essence is denoted the subjective individuality, that
which constitutes the individuality what it is. Existence is manifested being, as distinguished
from the subjective. "Whatever is, is right," says Pope, meaning by the sentence the Absolute.
The Sanskrit formula expresses the same sentiment: "There is no dharma or law of living
superior to the Satya or that which is. God is, being an essence; but his existence is known
only by being manifested in his works."

----------------------
--- 246.

THE ANTECEDENT LIFE

It is my deep-seated conviction that our ability to form an idea is itself proof that that
idea is in some manner true. I do not know how I came by this notion, but it seems to me
intuitional. The powers of the mind are so limited that we can form no conception of whatever
is of itself impossible. We do not ourselves originate what we make or think, but only copy
and reproduce in physical form prior realities - ideas which came with the spirit from its home
in the eternal world.
There is a point at which what is usually called science must stop and give place to a
higher faculty of knowing. The endeavor to set metes and bounds to the universe is certain to
fail; and the operations of the cosmos, moral as well as physical, we may not hope to
comprehend within our limited scope of vision. There will come hurricanes to blow down our
ephemeral superstructures, and even earthquakes to overturn the foundations themselves. All
that we learn by corporeal sense and include by the measuring-line of our understanding
belongs to this category of the unstable and perishing.
The attempt to build a scientific tower of Babel, to reach to the sky and be a symbol of
the true, will always result in confusion of speech among such builders and their dispersion
apart from one another. When they pass the boundaries of their horizon they find themselves
embraced in a chaos and void of great darkness, which they declare to be unknowable. In due
time the hail comes and sweeps away their structures.
Knowledge is in no proper sense a collection of gleanings - over all, transcending all, and
including all. It pertains to the faculty of intellection rather than to that of understanding; it is
not a boon from the world of time and limit, but is the infinite and eternal. It

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requires no cerebration for its process, but may employ the corporeal organism for its mirror
and medium.
Science, as commonly defined, is concerned with things which are apparent to the senses;
intellective knowledge is the perception and possessing of that which really is. What we truly
know, therefore, is what we have remembered from the Foreworld, wherein our true being has
not been prisoned in the region of sense. It consists of motives, principles, things immutable.
Such are charity or love, which seeketh others' benefit; justice, which is the right line of action;
beauty, which means fitness for the supreme utility; virtue, which denotes the manly instinct of
right; temperance, which restrains every act into due moderation. These are the things of the
eternal region, which true souls remember in the sublunary sphere of the senses; and, thus
remembering, they put away the eager desire for temporary expedients and advantages for that
which is permanent and enduring.
"Where your treasure is," says Jesus, "there will your heart be." Our knowledge is our
treasure. What we know we possess. It can never be wrested from us, or forgotten. It is of us,
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Knowing all things that are truly good - love without
selfishness, justice without perversion, beauty which is beyond superficialness, virtue which is
no mere outside negation or artificial merit, temperance which is the equilibrium of the soul -
we include them all, and have our home and country in that world where they are indigenous
and perennial. They are the constituents of our being. Flesh and blood will never inhabit that
world, nor will anything that is the outcome of flesh and blood long endure. But these
essentials of life will never change or perish; and those endowed with them will be as enduring
as they. However they may be circumscribed by space, temporal conditions and limitations,
they live in eternity. Death will not extinguish their being. They live where death had never a
place, and they will continue after the scorpion shall have given himself the fatal sting.
The heavenly abode of spirits and divine beings is by no means geographically distant
and distinct from the regions occupied by those existing in the external world. Indeed it is
more than probable that the dead, as they are designated in common speech -

--- 248.

those who are disbodied - often cling even abnormally to the earth and its ways; and that they
who have labored zealously for an aim or enterprise continue their endeavors. The demise of
the body can hardly be regarded intelligently as changing any element of the nature, character,
or even acquired quality, but only the form of existence. We have read with admiration the
exquisite utterance of the little verse that "that which went was not love." We may add to it
that that which dies is not man. The body is by no means the personality, but is purely
adventitious. When it has accomplished its purpose, or has become unfit, it is discarded like an
implement that is broken or a garment worn out.
It is not necessary to die in order to become superior to the conditions of material
existence. The same causes which brought us to the corporeal life are very likely to continue.
The condition must, therefore, be exceeded, or else, like the weed which is cut off by the hoe
but not uprooted, we will appear in some other way.
We may hardly regard it as good form to speak of immortality and eternity as conditions
to be entered upon after death. Life beyond the grave, when considered under that aspect, is a
mirage of the fancy. The eternal life has nothing in any way to do with the grave. We may
obtain a better conception of it when we contemplate eternity as boundless and unconditional,
yet comprising all that is finite and conditional. It signifies nothing which relates to time and
duration, but only to that which pertains to itself. As the heavens are beyond the earth and yet
include it, so Divinity is above and beyond and yet contains within its grasp all the spirits of
men.
The eternal life is therefore spiritual and divine. It pertains to the psychic nature, to the
soul, which is from the Divinity, and which, while in a manner objective and apart, is
participant, nevertheless, of the divine nature and quality. Emanuel Swedenborg has set this
forth admirably. Acknowledging that God is love, he describes love as the life of man. Thus
we are in the eternal world, everyone of us; and believing this, we have the eternal life in full
possession. Whether, as denizens of this earth, we live or die, it is all the same: we shall be in
the embrace of Deity as we have always been.
Life is not shut up wholly in the things of time and sense. The

--- 249.

spirit of man never dwelt in the body in its entirety, but is of the world beyond. Only a part of
the soul is ever developed in the physical existence - in some more, in others less. Its real
habitation is, as the Apostle has described, "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." It
extends into the body, as though with antennae, and so we are able to think, live, and attempt to
act. We are likewise able to perceive real truth by that intellect which is above the
understanding; to divine, and to receive, even into the external consciousness, perception from
the Foreworld. The philosopher Jacobi wisely declared that "in moral feeling there is a
presentiment of eternity."
The vail which seems to be interposed between the temporal existence and the life which
we are living in the eternal world is more apparent than actual; clouds that hide the sun from
our view are not placed in the sky for that purpose, but arise from the earth beneath. If we did
not ourselves drink the Lethean draught - if we did not project from ourselves the sensuous
obscuring into the sky above our heads - we might even now behold the Real, which is both the
ideal and eternal.
I am very confident that what is generally described as intuition, insight, inspiration, is
this sub-conscious and super-conscious intelligence. It has been explained by the most gifted
of philosophers as a remembering, a reproducing, and bringing anew into consciousness of
what we knew in the Fore-world. It is from the very core of our being, and belongs to that
sphere of life to which we have become to a great degree forgetful, if not even alien. Yet there
can be no activity without it, any more than there can be action without the direction of the
will.
As the soul and superior intellect are antecedent to sensation, the intuitive thought is not
perceived by the consciousness. Having little to do with cerebration, it does not wear away the
brain-matter. It pertains to a life that is lived beyond the physical sense. It is a state of
illumination rather than a receiving of messages from supernal powers. Indeed, we may regard
ourselves as safe in affirming that there really are no new revelations. The same Word that
ordained light to exist never ceases so to ordain. The world may vary in form and aspect, but
that Spirit which upholds it is always the same.

--- 250.

Whoever will ascend in his interior thought beyond the changing scenes will know and will
mirror in himself the unchanging.
Better than any achievement of wonderful powers is that wholesome condition of the
mind and affections which produces as its own outcome those sentiments and emotions of
justice and reverence, those deep principles of unselfish regard for the well-being of others,
which evince the person himself in every part of his being as pure, good, and true.
In the simple worship of the older Persians, homage was rendered by each to the pure law
of living, to the good spirits that inspired and protected him, and to his own soul. The aim of
life and the essential substance of that ancient faith were the integrity of the soul, its wholeness
and oneness with Divinity. That old doctrine, that the true man venerates his own soul, is to me
very attractive. A fragment of the Hadokht Nask, a book of the old Persian Sacred Writings
now lost, represents the Divine Being, Ahur-Mazda, as relating to the prophet and priest
Zoroaster the story of the journeys of the soul after the separation from the corporeal structure.
For three days it remains at the head of the body as though expecting to resume the former
functions. All the while it is chanting praises and enjoying the most exquisite delight. It then
sets out for the celestial home, regaled all the way by fragrant breezes. Arriving at the Bridge
of Judgment, there appears a figure like a beautiful maiden, invested about with supernal light,
elegant in form, comely and vigorous as a youth of fifteen, with wings, pure as the purest
things on earth -

"Then the soul of the righteous spoke to her:


'What maiden art thou, most beautiful guardian?'"

Then answers the form:


"I am the very life, O youth, which thou has lived - thy pure thought, thy holy speech, thy
worthy action, thy merit embodied in thyself. Every one loves thee for thy greatness, thy
goodness, thy excellence, thy resistance and triumph over evil. Thou art truly like me, who am
thy pure thought, holy speech, and worthy acts. I was

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beloved already, and thou hast made me more beloved; I was beautiful before, and thou has
made me more beautiful still. Thou makest the pleasant more pleasant, the fair yet fairer, the
desirable yet more desirable; and me, the one sitting on high, thou seatest still higher by they
pure thought, thy holy speech, and righteous action."

Here we have a representation of that superior principle of our being and its station
beyond our mundane nature in the world. We have likewise a suggestion of the untold benefits
attained by the soul from its incarnation and upright conduct in the earth-life. Our personality
is still in the eternal region, our individuality here. We may seem in this world to be rich and
overflowing with abundance, whereas in our diviner nature we may have become as needy as
Lazarus at the gate. A man with treasures and jewels of which he knows not the value is as
poor as he would be without them. The one who believes, who knows his tenure of citizenship
in the celestial region has the life, is of the eternal world which the other does not see or know.
Thus death is not the ultimate outcome, the great reality of existence. The human soul is
infinitely more than a vagrant in the earth, an orphan wandering from Nowhence to Nowhither.
It is like the bird entering at one window, flying about for a time, and passing out at another. It
comes from the eternal home and will return to it, enriched with manifold experiences and
more worthy of the Divine Lord.
Thus existing in communication with both worlds, the conception is by no means
visionary that the person may transmit knowledge from the one to the other, and be the
intermediary for imparting vivific energy from the superior source which shall be efficacious
for the restoring of the sick to health. We may not unreasonably doubt as historic verity that
such a man as Jesus lived upon the earth, but we cannot intelligently dispute that maladies were
healed and other wonders wrought, as described in the Gospels, "by the finger of God." Like
the electric force by which so much is accomplished, yet of which so little is really known, the
power which is commonly described as miraculous is capable of achieving wonders

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that will hardly be credited.


Many are like the bat and the owl, able only to see clearly in the twilight but blinded by
the sun at noonday. The eternal world, however, is not shut away from us by inaccessible
doors or hidden by impenetrable darkness. The pure in heart can see there; and the love of
goodness, enthusiasm for the right, unselfish motive and conduct exceed the limitations of
time.
Our own consciousness often reiterates the testimony of pre-existent life. We have a
psychal memory which reminds us that what we are we have been somewhere for ages. There
are remembrances of this, which awaken now and then with all the vividness of reality. When
we enter into communication with a superior mind, we perceive ourselves in a manner passing
over our usual limits and in some degree passing into the All. We apprehend in a manner what
we may become, and have a deeper sense of what we really are. In all this there is the
prophecy of what we shall be, interblended with our actual other-world subsistence. The
fruition comes when we perceive the moral quality to be the real vital energy. Love, which
redeems from selfishness and bestiality and exalts to ideal excellence, is the basis of life and
creation, and includes all that is, was, and will be. Further we may not know.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1895)

----------------
--- 253.

THE FIRE OF THE ALTAR

The second book of the Maccabees begins with the copy of a letter from the Jews to
Jerusalem to those who had become resident in Egypt. In this letter is given an account of the
fire employed upon the altar at the temple, generally supposed to be miraculous. The account
reads as follows:
"When our fathers were led into Persia, the priests that were then devout took the fire of
the altar privily, and hid it in a hollow place of a pit without water, where they kept it sure, so
that the place was unknown to all men. Now after many years, when it pleased God, Neemias,
being sent from the king of Persia, did send of the posterity of the priests that hid it, to the fire.
But when they told us they found no fire, but thick water, then commanded he them to draw it
up, and to bring it; and when the sacrifices were laid up, Neemias commanded the priests to
sprinkle the wood and the things laid thereupon with the water. When this was done, and the
time came that the sun shone, which afore was hid in the cloud, there was a great fire
kindled.....
"So when this matter was known it was told the king of Persia that in the place where the
priests that were led away had hid the fire, there appeared water and that Neemias had purified
the sacrifices therewith, then the King, enclosing the place, made it holy after he had tried the
matter. And the King took many gifts, and bestowed thereof on those whom he would gratify.
And Neemias called this thing NAPHTHAR (which is as much to say: 'a cleasing'); but many
men call it Nephi."
This account has suggested that the fire which is described as coming down from the sky
and consuming sacrifices, was no less

--- 254.

than the oil which is supplied from fountains in different regions of the globe. These were well
known in ancient Assyria, and when armies marched under their kings and generals, a priest
carried a censer before them. This being supplied with petroleum would produce the spectacle
of a cloud of smoke by day and a column of fire by night. As petroleum and asphalt were
articles of commerce, and the Hebrew leader is represented as having been instructed in the
wisdom of the Egyptians, this will be sufficient explanation, with due allowance for pious
exaggerating. As sacred fire was a characteristic feature in all temples and worship, petroleum
would be in demand, and would itself likewise make abundance of incense necessary.
A writer in one of the reviews elaborates this topic, intimating that the two sons of Aaron
who perished (Leviticus X) when offering perfume with "strange fire," had probably anointed
themselves with it, and so with the inflammable vapor exuding from their bodies, exposed
themselves to destruction from the "fire from the Lord."
The same writer not only intimates the use of petroleum in other instances but distinctly
indicates it in the memorable contest between Elijah the prophet and the four hundred prophets
of Baal and Astarte (Kings I, xviii). The account as we have it, has the ear-marks of elaboration
and abridgement. As it reads, with other facts out of sight, it resembles a tale made up to
illustrate a subject rather than an actual occurrence. The prophet must have been a man of
more than common importance to induce the King to enter into a controversy of this sort, or
even to spare his life at all, especially as the prophet had already been under the ban a long
time. The story looks indeed like a veiled account of rites of Adonis the beloved of Astarte.
The prophets of Baal prepare their sacrifice, and then invoke the divinity all day, leap or go in
procession and perform the circle-dance around the altar, and gash their bodies as in
commemoration of the Slain Divinity (Jeremiah xvi, 6). Then follows the effort of Elijah.
Despite the way that the writer in the book of Kings has told or disguised the story, something
looking like explanation seems to be suggested in the last chapter of the book of Isaiah.
Mention there is made of such worshipers as "they that sanctify or set themselves apart and
purify themselves in gardens with one (Ahad) in the midst, eating swine's

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flesh." The swine was representative of the animal that mortally mutilated Adonis, or the Baal,
and the procession and cutting was the usual celebration of the occurrence. One day being
supposed to denote a search for the slaughtered divinity, the second, for the Lamentations, then
came the resuscitation. The chief, the One, after offering the sacrifice, invoked the Divine One
as alive, and if then a shower broke the long drouth it was regarded as most propitious.
The address of the prophet indicates some relationship to these rites. He pours out water
as was the custom. He was the one "alone" and at his invocation "the fire of the Lord"
consumed all, even to the water which had been poured out, and a heavy rain followed. This in
oriental symbolism meant that the slain Adonis had come up from the world of the dead,
ascended into the sky and greeted the mourning Astarte.
The writer before referred to explains that Elijah used naphtha, which would have
effected all that is described. Perhaps; but it is far more probable that the account is of
allegoric character, and adopts the material afforded by the observances common at the time,
for another purpose. The whole story of Elijah bears such a stamp of probable import, and
ancient story abounds with legends constructed in a very similar manner. I would require
almost super-human ken to distinguish history from legend, and assign to each its proper place.
I have read of the ancient Assyrians fixing the site of cities on spots indicated as sacred to
the gods, by the ready blazing fire from the earth, and of worshipers at the petroleum springs.
But the facts are hard to get over. We have no evidence that any where since historic times has
petroleum been used to aid in the burning of sacrifices; and the Parsis, the true believers in the
Sacred Fire as the Symbol of Life Itself, use wood carefully prepared to maintain the constant
flame. However, if the hypothesis of naphtha as the source of the Eternal Fire of temples, has
been seriously propounded, it may be answered that it is hardly plausible.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1907)

----------------
--- 256.

SPIRITUALITY AND OCCULTISM

ENTHEASM

The concept of actual communication with Divinity underlies all philosophic thinking. It
is the basis of religious faith. It has been in all ages the goal toward which the steps of every
believer in the life eternal have been directed. The world has always had its mystics, fondly
cherishing that ideal, sometimes even confident that they had attained it. We may perhaps
deem them visionary and mistaken, but we cannot impugn the grandness of their desire and
purpose. It is meritorious to do good, to be good, and to entertain good-will toward others;
and certainly the highest meed belongs to whomsoever aspires to achieve the Supreme
Excellence.
Such an attainment requires conditions the most imperative. It is as essential to know as
to believe. Indeed, faith is of little advantage where it is not the outcome of actual truth, and
fixed in it so that it shall possess all the stability of certain knowing. It requires all the moral
energy of a strong nature to believe. The weak and vacillating character has doubt for its
index; and in important undertakings where all the strength is needed to achieve the desired
result, it is often necessary to thrust such individuals aside. The vision of the Right is darkened
in the atmosphere where they dwell, and any transcendent knowledge is rendered
imperceptible. They not only shut out the light from themselves, but dim the day into which
others desire to peer. In this way, whether wittingly or purposely, they do to others the greatest
mischief of which they are capable.
The highest attainment is knowledge. There is really nothing which any one can afford
not to know. It is a coming short of the human ideal to be ignorant in any particular. To love
knowledge is to desire perfection; to despise it is equivalent to being content with a bestial life.
In all times the wise have won respect, as being the abler

--- 257.

and better among humankind; and even when they had been passed by and unhonored while
living, they have been praised, revered and obeyed in subsequent time. They are the luminaries
that have from age to age preserved light to the world, and thereby rendered it capable of
renovation.
It has always been the aim of every right-thinking person to extend the circuit of mental
vision, and to exalt as well as to intensify his perception. The field of the sciences has been
explored and mastered with profit as well as pleasure. This is an achievement worthy of human
endeavor. The mind is thereby expanded in its scope and faculty, and the power to accomplish
results is vastly enhanced. The inventor of a mechanical implement, whether it be a stone
hatchet or a telephone, the discoverer of a new star or mineral, is a benefactor. He has given us
more room for our thinking, and, with it, the opportunity.
Our earlier childhood's lesson of Origins instructed us that Man was formed from the
spore-dust or protoplasmic material of the ground - the Adam from the adama - and chemistry
ratified this declaration. We have since been taught that our corporeal substance was
compacted from the same material as the stars, and animated by forces akin and identical with
those which operate all-potent in the farthest-off world. But what matters it, if the postulate of
the scientists is true, that we took our physical beginning from molecules not unlike to those of
the jelly-fish and fungus? We are not bound to such conditions, but have a universe to occupy.
The Delphic maxim, (<f24 F,"ØJ@<, know thyself, is our commission of conquest. To know
the ego is to know the All; and that which is known is possessed.
Charters and franchises are limited. The right of man to liberty, which we are told by
high authority that no one can divest himself of, the ignorant cannot enjoy or exercise. They
only are free whom knowing of the truth makes so. The very word "liberty" seems to imply a
boon from the book.*

----------
* Latin, liber, free; also a book. A liberal education denotes general instruction in
literature and science.
----------
--- 258.

The liberal are the learned, the intelligent; and these alone are the really free. Codes and
constitutions, whatever their provisions, can establish no more; so necessary is it to eat of the
tree of knowledge. But we may begin with our own interior selves. The germ is in us; it may
not be transplanted from without. Not books and literature, but living, observing, thinking, and
doing constitute the principal education of the individual who becomes really wise or learned.
I do not suppose that such excellence in wisdom and learning can be imparted from teachers, or
that it is actually partible, and to be divided and doled out in lessons. It is a divine matter, the
kingdom that cometh not with observation. Our real education is the drawing forth from our
interior being into external cognizance the principles existing there dormant, that they may
henceforth constitute the leading principles of character as well as of life. We cannot create
that which is not inborn; we may only evolve and enrich the natural endowment.
Pause right here, whoever cares for aught rather than for the highest. To such these ideas
are only visionary, and they have neither time nor ears for them. Where illusion is the breath of
one's life, to know is to die. As for Wisdom -

"To some she is the goddess great;


To some the milch cow of the field -
Their care is but to calculate
What butter she will yield."
- Schiller

The attempt has been made to set aside the whole department of the Superior Knowledge
as being only imaginary, or at least as not attainable by scientific methods, and therefore out of
the purview of common thought and investigation. Some of the representatives of what has
been characterized as Modern Science, and other their imitators, actually endeavor to repudiate
whatever is not catalogued as "exact." Unable to cast a measuring-line over the Infinite, they
are very diligent in the effort to eliminate God out of their methods. The personality, or
perhaps more correctly, the suprapersonality of Deity

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as implying a supreme, intelligent principle in and over the universe, is vigilantly overlooked,
and even sometimes denied. In such case, whatever we do, or think, or wish, would be without
any conception of a higher Being or potency in the mind. An actual communion with him is
nowhere recognized or even conceded in this modern scientific organon.
A medical journal in the city of Philadelphia, many years ago, contained an editorial
article upon this subject, which set forth the view taken by many of this class of reasoners.
"Numa, Zoroaster, Mohammed, Swedenborg, claimed communion with higher spirits," the
writer remarks; "they were what the Greeks called ENTHEAST - 'immersed in God' - a
striking word which Byron introduced into our tongue." W. B. Carpenter described the
condition as an automatic action of the Brain. The inspired ideas, he says, arise in the mind
suddenly, spontaneously, but very vividly, at some time when thinking of some other topic.
Francis Galton defines genius to be "the automatic activity of the mind as distinguished from
the effort of the will - the ideas coming by inspiration." This action, the editor declared to be
largely favored by a condition approaching mental disorder - at least, by one remote from the
ordinary working-day habits of thought.
This is about the altitude which the many have reached in their understanding of man
when inspired, or in the state regarded as communion with Deity. It is doubtful whether from
their point of view they can see the matter more clearly. By this logic God the creator would
seem to be but a figment of the imagination, or at most, the cause of disorder in the minds of
men. We can not wisely seek for truth at such oracles. We must go up higher.
It is by no means a reasonable proposition that because inspired ideas which come into
the mind as if spontaneously seem to be remote from ordinary habits of thinking, they therefore
indicate a condition approaching mental disorder. In every-day life many faculties are
atrophied because of not having been duly exercised. On the other hand, any habitual
employment becomes more or less automatic, and even, if it is proper so to express it,
involuntary. What we habitually do, and often the thing which we purpose to do, fixes itself
upon us insomuch that we perform it almost unconsciously. We

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awake from sleep at an hour assigned; we become suddenly conscious of a fact or idea from
specific association; and we do things that we are not aware of or even think about. The
individual who has the habit of speaking the truth may do so automatically. Honest and upright
dealing may be practiced in the same way. Goodness becomes a part of the being and is fixed
in the very ganglia and fibres of the brain and body. Faith, likewise, grounds itself in the
constitution, and love in the corpuscles of the flowing blood. All this is normal. It is legitimate
to carry the conclusions further, and to consider where entheasm, even though supposedly
automatic, is not a wholesome condition of the human mind, and the true means of gaining
actual knowledge.
By no means do I regard the faculty of receiving impressions through the bodily senses
and elaborating them into thought as the only means by which we acquire intelligence. This
would be equivalent to a closing of our eyes to exclude light and the vision of fact. We are
something more than the outcome and product of nature. We possess an organism and faculty
beyond her highest sphere. We know something which no brute ever learned, that there is a
right and wrong in thought and action, and that supreme devotion to selfishness is moral death.
We exist each for the other, and our thorough consecration to benevolence and usefulness is the
highest ideal and attainment of humanity. Nor is this aim for temporary ends alone, or even for
great public or simply human advantage; but because it relates to the life beyond, in which
reality supersedes illusion, and love is the sole and perpetual law. The brute has no conception
of this, and may not be taught it; but man, who is truly man, possesses the faculty to apprehend
it, and the capacity to attain the excellence which this divine knowledge exhibits to his view.
The operation of this faculty has oftentimes compelled its recognition. The reasoning
powers will fail to deduce a principle or a solution to an inquiry, and in utter weariness and
inability, will drop the matter out of considerations. The inner mind is more tenacious, and
never faints or is weary. It derives its energies from a never-failing source, and with them an
acumen superior to the circumscribed purview of every-day life. When the exterior faculties
are at rest or

--- 261.

quiescent, as in sleep or revery, or in visions of the night, then it becomes perceived, and its
answers are given sometimes as oracular utterances, and sometimes as the solution of a
question or some obscure theme. The physical organism seems to have little to do with the
matter, and even to be generally uninfluenced, till the idea or response has come forth and
diffused like an electric flash all through the consciousness. There is then little occasion for
conjecture or hypothesis about cerebration; for the higher spirit, the noetic man, is the
embeinged god within us, an incoming principle rather than a development from our own
nature, and shows to us truth, leading and impelling toward the true life.
How, then, is the next inquiry, how may we know God, or define him? A king of Sicily
once asked the poet Simonides to give him such a definition. He craved a day to consider;
then two, four, and eight. The king became impatient, and asked him why he asked so much
time. He answered that the more he thought upon the question the more difficult he had found
the solution. The finite human understanding is not equal to the endeavor to comprehend the
Infinite.
In a world of wilful or unreasoning disbelief God is regarded as a thing. Even now it is
common in several schools of opinion to affirm that he is not a person.* I do not care to
dispute about the precise import of terms, but this seems to me equivalent to declaring him to
be in no sense whatever a thinking, intelligent being, but only an illusion of the fancy, or, in
stronger words, a nonentity, and simply a vagary or whimsy of the imagination. It is doubtless
a notion evolved by the rebound from that unreasoning faith which required an irrational thing
to be worshiped as God. Between these two extremes there is the golden wedge of truth, and it
is the vocation of the true student to find it. But let a diffident modesty go hand in hand with
faith. A person once talked confidently to a Spartan concerning the
-----------
* Locke explains person to denote "a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and
reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing in different times and
places."
-----------
--- 262.

felicity of the future life. "Why," demanded the latter, "why do you not hasten to die in order
to enjoy it?" It was a pert question, and pertinent, conveying a taunt that might profitably be
accepted as a wholesome reproof.
We may not, often we cannot, speak profoundly to those who are irreverent, or who
disbelieve. The impure ear will tarnish the purest speech. One may profane the truth by
speaking it. In uttering to another something which is real to ourselves, it may become veiled
in a mantle of illusion which transforms it in his comprehension into some idea essentially
different. Indeed, it is well to believe in God, but ill to speak much about him.
We need not reject utterly the methods which they employ who stubbornly, and perhaps
obtrusively, demand the reasons upon which our faith is based. We hope to be truly spiritual
only by being wholly reasonable. The true man supersedes no methods because he transcends
them. His concepts are characterized by the superior illumination which they possess. They
may not be a product of the schools, being rather the outcome of the supraconscious
remembering; yet his wisdom is often capable of deriving additional lustre by a setting in their
framework. The plurality of faculties in the human mind exists for a purpose. They are to be
trained and employed, but none of them may be eradicated.
Simple individuals long ago inferred that fire and air, or spirit, in some arcane manner,
constituted the entity of man. They had noticed that the dying departed with the breath, and
that the warmth peculiar to the living body also then disappeared. This led to the adoration of
the flame as the symbol, and also to the contemplating of the breath or spirit as the source of
life. Analogy pointed out the fact that as living beings derived existence from parents, man
was descended from the First Father.
We are all of us conscious that the individual, as we see him with our eyes and perceive
with our other bodily senses, is not the actual personality. If he should fall dead in our
presence, there would still be a body to look upon as distinctly as before. But the something
has gone forth which had imparted sensibility to the nerves and impulse to the muscles. That
something was the real individual. It

--- 263.

accompanied the body, but has departed, leaving it behind. The "HE" or "SHE" has thus given
place to "IT." We witness phenomena, and may now ask to learn the noumena. Here exterior,
positive, "exact" science fails us. Its probe can detect no real personality, nor its microscope
disclose any source or entity of being. The higher faculties must afford the solution of this
problem on which everything depends.
The witty but somewhat irreverent Robert G. Ingersoll prefixed one of his lectures with a
travesty of Pope's immortal verse: "An honest God is the noblest work of man." Many have
been astonished, and even shocked, at the audacious utterance. Nevertheless, it has a purport
which we will do well to contemplate. If we are actual spiritual entities transcending the
constituents of the corporeal frame, we exist from a vital principle extending from the Divine
Source. A genuine, earnest faith is essential to our mental integrity. Do we regard him as
having "made man in his own image" and "after his likeness?" Are we sure that our ideal of
him is not some extraneous personification, the product of our own character and disposition -
created in our image! Have we caught a view of our own reflection in the mirror of infinity and
set that up as God?
Certainly we have no medium for the divine ray except in our own mental organism. It is
refracted or even hideously distorted; this must be because that medium is clouded and
pervaded with evil thoughts, motives, and propensities. The image which will be formed in
such a case may be the individual's highest ideal of God, but it will appear to enlightened eyes
more like an adversary of the good. Fear alone could induce us to offer it worship. To speak
the truth unqualifiedly, we all hate those reflected images that are so often obtruded as the
highest concept of the Divine Being. Many of us would say as much if we had the courage.
Let us bear in mind, then, that what we consider to be God is the index to what we
conceive of his qualities and character. Yet because his actual Being is beyond our power to
comprehend him, we need not hesitate to contemplate him. The ability to form an idea implies
that it is possible to realize it. The idea is itself the actual entity, the prophecy of its
accomplishment in the world of phenomena.

--- 264.

Such conceptions as the being of God, spiritual existence, eternity, the interior union of God
with man, the eventual triumph of the Right, could never be found in the mind as dreams, if
they had not somehow been infixed from the region of Causes where real Being has its abode.
We must, however, go up higher, where external knowing reaches into the domain of Faith.
The ether which contains the light is more tenuous and spirit-like than the air that
transmits sound, but it is none the less real because of the greater difficulty to explore the secret
of its existence. All that we suppose to be known concerning it is chiefly assumed, a matter of
faith rather than the "exact knowledge" of the scientist. The next lessons pertain to the higher
mathematics - how, from what we know of ourselves to find out God. We must see, if at all,
with a faculty of sight which we do not possess in common with animals: beyond that which
appears clear to that which really IS.
Our searching awakens in us the perception of the Divine One. Our wants indicate to us
his character. We need wisdom that transcends our highest learning, or providence that
includes all things in its purview, a power supreme above out faculty to adapt means to ends, a
love ineffably pure to inspire all things for the completest good of all. Knowing that whatever
we see about us is transitory, we are cognizant that we must have other than mortal vision to
behold the Permanent. It is enough that we acknowledge him as the fact of which we are the
image, and that we devote our attention accordingly to the clarifying of the medium which
receives his effluence. Let the scope and purpose of life be dedicated to becoming what we
contemplate as the inherent character of the Divinity whom we idealize and revere. In due time
we shall be no longer an imitation or "counterfeit presentment," but shall become the very
image and similitude of what we admire. We shall embody in our own disposition and
character the very ideal which the witty agnostic so humorously depicted. A true soul is in the
image and likeness of its God, and thus reflects God in the similitude. This is the meaning of
the problem.
It has been the universal belief in all periods of history that human beings may receive
superior illumination, and that a higher and more interior faculty was thereby developed. There
were seers,

--- 265.

sages and prophets to instruct and bring sublime knowledge to their fellows. Among the
individuals notably regarded as entheast were Sokrates, also style theomantis, or God-inspired,
Ammonios Sakkas the God-taught, and we may add Baruch Spinosa the God-intoxicated.
Plato, Gautama-Siddarta, Apollonios of Tyana and Iamblichos were also names DIVINE. It
was taught by the philosophers that the life which is lived on the earth is the real death, and that
dying from the earth is a passing from this condition of death to that of genuine living.
Sokrates insisted at the last hour that the cup of poison would not terminate his real life. The
phenomena of the every-day world were regarded as the delusive cheat of the corporeal senses;
and they contemplated the existence beyond of a region aetherial and not aerial, with no
limitations of time and space, in which all is real and permanent. Thitherward they aspired in
the hope and confidence that they might unite somewhat of the potencies of that world with the
scenes of this temporal life. Was it a bootless aspiration, a beating of the air, a vagary of
irrational frenzy?
It need not embarrass our inquiry that peculiar disorders of the body are sometimes
attended by extraordinary spiritual phenomena, nor that great and unusual commotions of the
mind may occasion them. It is no more out of the way than the fact that shocks and excitement
often restore paralyzed limbs and functions. As for fasting and prolonged intense mental
action, these are methods in every earnest endeavor to develop a more acute perception. They
are legitimate aids to enable the mind to get beyond impediments to clear thinking and intuition
into a higher spiritual domain. There is no moribidness or abnormity in this, but a closer
approaching to the source of real knowledge. Even Science owes more to such methods than
professed scientists are often aware of or willing to admit.
The entheastic condition indicates a life that is lived beyond and above the physical
senses. It is a state of illumination rather than a receiving of messages from superior sources.
Indeed it is safe to affirm that there are no new revelations. The same word that ordained light
to exist never ceases so to ordain; the same spirit or mighty mind that moved and operated
upon the waters of the genesis is potent and active today. The world may vary in form and
aspect,

--- 266.

but that which gives it life is always the same. Whoever will ascend above the changing scenes
will know and mirror in himself the unchanging. This is what is meant by being involved and
included in the divine aura and light.

"They
Who extasie divine enjoy, agnize
The universal impulse, but so act
As though they ordered all things of themselves,
And heaven were but the register of Earth."
The old Mystics used to teach that the individual must be passive, and not active. This
passiveness by no means signified a physical or moral inertia, but simply receptiveness. Just as
a mirror receives and infixes an image, so every divine irradiation and inflowing should be
retained and embeinged. The light is not given or received for the sake of having the borrowed
splendor to shine with, but that it may be assimilated and incorporated into the life, as an
element of the very selfhood. The WORD is not mere speech, but the mind taking that form.
The true speaking of an individual is itself the individual. Every revelation of God is God
himself coming to man. Every such one setting forth God in his life and act is the word of God
become flesh.
Thus entheasm is the participating of the divine nature, spirit and power. It is the end for
which mankind exist on the earth, the culmination of the Divine Purpose.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Feb., 1901)

--------------------
--- 267.

THE ROSICRUCIAN BROTHERHOOD

Jung-Stilling* gives an account of a visit which he received from a young man of


distinction, who accosted him as one of the Superiors in a secret Fraternity. This he disavowed
in emphatic terms, at which the visitor demanded:
"How is it, then, that you know of the great and venerable Association in the East, which
you have so circumstantially described in your work, the Nostalgia, even point out minutely
their places of

-----------
* Johann Heinrich Jung, better known by his assumed name of "Stilling," was a native of
Florenburg, in the duchy of Nassau, German, and a man of very remarkable character. His
autobiography is worthy to be regarded as a classic in that kind of literature. He was of a
sensitive temperament, with an unquenchable desire for learning and a superior faculty of
intuition. Goethe, who was his fellow-student at Heidelberg, speaks of him in warm praise. He
was subject of spiritual experiences, many of which he has recorded - some of them the result
of extraneous impression, as he afterward perceived, but others of a profounder and genuine
character. He was often conscious of events occurring at great distances. Though he was only
a peasant by birth and grew up in the humbler conditions of life, he became a scholar and
passed through a career of wonderful experiences. He was for several years a professor in the
universities of Heidelberg and Marburg, and after that Counselor of Justice to the Grand Duke
of Baden. His death took place April 1, 1817, in his seventy-seventh year. He wrote many
works in German, three of which have been translated into English.
-----------
--- 268.

rendezvous in Egypt, on Mount Sinai, in the Monastery of Kanobin, and under the Temple at
Jerusalem?"
About the same time our author received a letter from a prince asking the same question:
when it was that he knew anything of the Association in the East; acknowledging that the fact
was as he had described it. Stilling gives an explanation in his autobiography, showing that he
wrote the book while under a peculiar influence similar to that of John Bunyan when engaged
upon his famous allegory, "The Pilgrim's Progress."* In another of his works, however,
Stilling has been more explicit. We find there the mention of "a book written by Christian
Rosenkreutz," in which was an account of the visit of that personage to the Holy Land, his
discovery of the secret society of wise and learned men from whom he received the knowledge
of the Hermetic philosophy, and the founding by him, after his return to Europe, of the Order of
the Golden Cross.
The existence of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, its aims and mode of operation, have been
subjects of much question and curious speculation. The first information respecting it appears
to have been given in the earlier years of the seventeenth century. This was a period when a
calamitous condition existed everywhere among the people of Europe and thoughtful minds
were widely awake to the necessity of amelioration. Vivid expectations had begun to be
entertained of some great change, religious and social, which should be more complete and
radical than any that had ever before occurred. It was anticipated by far-seeing minds and
prognosticated by those of more visionary tendencies. Even Paracelsus had predicted an

----------
* "His spirit was as if elevated into ethereal regions; a feeling of serenity and peace
pervaded him, and he enjoyed a felicity which words cannot express. When he began to work,
ideas glistened past his soul and animated him so much that he could scarcely write with the
rapidity which the flow of ideas required. The whole work took quite another form and the
composition quite another tendency to that which he had proposed at the commencement." -
Stilling's "Years of Tuition."
----------
--- 269.

approaching revolution, declaring the comet which appeared in the year 1572 to be its sign and
harbinger.
When in the earlier years of the seventeenth century, three anonymous pamphlets were
published which related to the subject then engrossing general attention, and purported to be
official documents of a secret fraternity, Germany and other countries were ablaze with eager
curiosity. The first of these publications bore the imposing title of "The Universal
Reformation." It was a dialogue composed after the style of Plutarch's "Banquet of Wise Men,"
and set forth the woeful condition of the time, with several proposed remedies. Bound up with
it was a little treatise entitled "Fama Fraternitatis; or, An Account of the Brothers of the Most
Worthy Order of the Rosy Cross." This was addressed to learned men everywhere, and to the
rulers of Europe. It contained the legend of the mysterious "C.R.C." (Christian Rosen Creutz),
with a sketch of the Fraternity and a solicitation to take part in its work. A "Confession of the
Rosicrucian Brotherhood" also appeared, explaining the belief and purposes cherished by the
members. Another publication was "The Chymical Marriage," which was described on the
title-page as having been written by Christian Rosenkreutz himself in the year 1459. This work
is generally regarded by critics as the oldest of the Rosicrucian documents, and upon it the
whole problem of the history of the Order appears to depend.
All Germany was aroused to a high pitch of excitement. The Brotherhood was
denounced as heretical, even atheistic. Some went so far as to demand its suppression by the
arm of the Civil Power, as the Knights of the Temple had been suppressed in France.
Theosophers and mystics were numerous at that time, and they welcomed the publications as
messages from heaven. They wrote numerous pamphlets in defence, and publicly addressed
letters to the Brothers asking to be admitted to their number. Many of these are still in
existence in the library of the University of Gottingen. Among the applicants was Michael
Maier, physician to the emperor Rudolph II. He shared his master's enthusiasm for alchemy
and other transcendent learning. His endeavors to obtain personal knowledge of the Fraternity,
it is said, were not successful; nevertheless he

--- 270.

vindicated its character and objects in numerous pamphlets. He visited England in his zeal, and
became intimate with distinguished persons of like tastes and aspirations.
Descartes, the celebrated French philosopher, while sojourning in Swabia in 1619, also
endeavored to find assemblages of the mystic Brotherhood. He was not able, however, to
obtain any satisfactory information. The very existence of the Order was concealed by the
profoundest secrecy. The fact that an individual professed to be a member was a certain proof
that he was not. All who wrote about it were careful to disavow any personal connection.
Neither attack nor blandishment elicited a response. Men finally became weary of the subject,
and some even avowed their utter disbelief in the existence of such an Order. Leibnitz, who
has been himself reputed as an alchemist and member of a Rosicrucian society in Nuremburg,
declared that everything that had been said about the Fraternity was the invention of some
clever person. There is possibly an equivocal meaning to this utterance, but it has been widely
accepted as a testimony that the whole story of the Rosicrucians was simply a romance. The
credit of its fabrication was assigned by general consent to a Lutheran clergyman, Johann
Valentin Andrea, who was for many years chaplain to the Grand Duke of Wurtemberg. We
may not, however, concur in the verdict thus rendered. The simple statement of Jung-Stilling
appears conclusive. We can reasonably accept what has been written and believed as an
admonition to seek the truth in other directions. There was such a Brotherhood, having ends
that were honorable and praiseworthy. Our enthusiasm for better knowing is therefore
meritorious. We may bear in mind that the spirit that denies is not a Lucifer bringing the dawn,
but a Mephistophelian genius that loves not the light.
The treatise of the late Hargrave Jennings upon "The Rosicrucians: their Rites and
Mysteries" is admirably calculated to give the impression that the Fraternity was closely allied
and perhaps actually affiliated to the other secret societies. The characteristic emblem, the
Rose upon the Cross, which prefigures at once its name and aim, had likewise been a badge of
the Knights of the Temple. Its occult meaning is well known to the intelligent. Indeed, the
rose has

--- 271.

been esteemed as sacred and arcane by the people of many countries. It represents every
sanctity in life and religion and therefore signifies the obligations to silence and secrecy. The
Templars probably adopted the symbol from their congeners in the East. We may not,
however, regard such similarities as positive evidence of original identity. Many religions exist
with close analogies of rite and doctrine, yet having no actual affiliation. The same thing may
be true of secret fraternities. We find no valid evidence that the Rosicrucians were in any sense
the lineal descendants of the Templars, or indeed of any other association. They may have
succeeded to some of the aims, but in essentials they must be regarded as peculiar and distinct.
It is easy to trace a familiar resemblance of their utterances to those of Paracelsus.
Indeed, if we consider the story of Rosenkreutz to be purely an allegory, we may reasonably
conceive of him as the precursor of the movement. He is actually depicted in the earliest
Rosicrucian works as one of the "painful, worthy men who broke with all force through
darkness and barbarism, and left us who succeeded to follow him." It is also added that,
although he was not a member of the Brotherhood, he had read its "Book M,"* and had been
exalted thereby in his conceptions. He did not succeed, however, in bringing others over to his
views. "He was so hindered in his course," says the Fama, "that he was never able peaceably
to confer with others of the knowledge and understanding that he had of Nature." If we
examine his works and those of the Rosicrucian writers we shall find like sentiments and forms
of expression - an aspiration for what is highest and best, enthusiasm for true knowledge, and
unselfish regard for the welfare of human beings. It is not difficult to carry the parallel further.
The cardinal virtues of faith, hope, and charity, in their full import, are alike Rosicrucian and
Paracelsian.
Mr. Arthur Edward Waite, in his work upon the "Real History of the Rosicrucians," has
discarded the claim to originality and great antiquity as being little else than mere assumption.
He does not,

--------------
* Said to mean the "Macrocosm and Microcosm."
--------------
--- 272.

however, reject entirely the genuineness of the occult wisdom but confesses that he is inclined
to think that the darkness which covered the recondite ----* connected with the Rosicrucians
covered a real and ---- a recoverable knowledge. He only insists that that ----- is not of our
making, nor of our age; and that as circumstances have radically changed, that knowledge is
not now worth preserving.
It has also been suggested, and with a remarkable s---- plausibility, that the actual
founder of the Rosicrucians ---- was no other than the celebrated Francis Bacon. This
hypothesis is supported by the analogies in his career, and those found in his writings, with the
authentic records of the Brotherhood. The legend represents Christian Rosenkreutz as
journeying to the East while yet a youth of fifteen years. "By his sound physic," we are told,
"he obtained much favor with the people and in the meantime he became acquainted with the
Wisdom of Damcar in Arabia, and beheld what great wonders are wrought and how Nature was
discovered to them." Making his way to them the next year, "the Wise men received him not as
a stranger but as one whom they had long expected and showed him other secrets, to his great
wonderment."
While there, Rosenkreutz is declared to have translated the "Book M" into Latin, and
afterward he brought his translation away with him. He spent several years in the southern
countries of Europe. Soon, however, contrary to what he had hoped and expected, he found
that the men of learning feared the loss of fame and wealth if they laid aside the old methods
for his. He accordingly returned to Germany, and there proceeded to elaborate what he had
learned into a more complete system. He was now desirous to prosecute the work of universal
reformation, which from the beginning he had contemplated. Accordingly, with this purpose,
he took into his confidence three other persons of assured fidelity, who should commit to
writing his direction and instructions.
"The Fraternity of the Rosie Cross began after this manner,"

-------------
[* The last word in several lines of text are missing in the original. - Ed.]
-------------
--- 273.

the official statement informs us, "namely: First, by four persons only, and by them was made
the Magical Language and Writing, with a large Dictionary, which we yet daily use to God's
praise and glory, and do find great wisdom therein." The work, however, was too heavy for
them, and the number was increased to eight, "by whom was collected a Book or Volume of all
that which man can desire, wish, or hope for." They then separated themselves into several
countries in order that their Axiomata might in secret be more profoundly examined by the
learned, and that they might themselves be able to inform one another of whatever they might
observe or perceive.
In this account it is very easy to trace analogies and even close resemblances to the
history of Bacon. He also was a man of mystery, little known except to those who were
intimate with him. He wrote much in ambiguous terms after the Rosicrucian manner,
employing similar phrases and modes of expression, and in particular made extensive use of
feigned names, initials, and passwords in his private letters. He began his career like
Rosekreutz, in extreme youth, and early conceived a plan of general reformation. It was at that
time a dark period in Europe. Religious conflict and persecution were raging everywhere,
accompanied by cruelty almost beyond a parallel and by frightful misery of the common
people. It was nowhere safe for any one to utter his convictions freely. The prison, the rack,
and the fagot were employed to silence dissent. The only safe mode of procedure was by
means of a secret society and the use of language that would admit a double interpretation.
This, it is intimated, was the course pursued by Bacon. He had been carefully trained by
a Puritan mother, herself proficient in Greek and Roman literature. Hence at an early age he
became acquainted with every school of ancient philosophy. His manners were characterized
in youth by a gravity beyond his years, and in mature age by a look as though he pitied men. In
1752, when hardly twelve years old, he with his brother entered Trinity College at Cambridge,
but left it three years afterward without taking the degree, and greatly dissatisfied with the
quality of the instruction. He remained at home the next year, when, it is supposed, he entered
upon the study of the Arabian writers - Razes, Avenzoar, Averroes, Avicenna, and other

--- 274.

Arabic physicians* and Hermetic writers.


During this early period he formed the project of a better method of study, which he
afterward elaborated and carried into successful operation. "With him," says a biographer, "the
gift of seeing in prophetic vision what might be and ought to be was united with the practical
talent of devising means and handling minute details. He could at once imagine like a poet and
execute like a clerk of the works." At the age of sixteen he accompanied the English Embassy
to France, where he spent three years in literary composition and in familiar correspondence
with the learned men of Southern Europe. His father dying, he was obliged to return to
England and engage in active professional life. By no means, however, did he lose sight of his
cherished purpose. It was his aim, so far as he was able, to occupy and extend the field of
learning, and to devote the results of the work to the benefit of all, not sparing himself or
regarding private advantage or profit. "I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate
civil ends," he declared; "for I have taken all knowledge to be my province. This - whether it
be curiosity or vainglory, or if one may take it favorably, philanthropia** - is so fixed in my
mind that it cannot be moved." When he wrote this he was actively employed; yet at the same
time he was silently collecting material and endeavoring, as is recorded of Rosenkreutz, to find
helpers in his contemplated undertaking. He considered the purpose rather than himself. Said
he:
"I often advisedly and deliberately throw aside the dignity of my name and wit (if such
thing be) in my endeavor to advance human interests; and being one that should properly,
perhaps, be an architect in philosophy and in the science, I turn common laborer, hodman,
anything that is wanted - taking upon myself the burden and execution of many things which
must needs be done, and which

----------
* Hakham, a wise man, a physician. The Arabian philosophers of the Middle Ages were
generally physicians.
** Love of humankind; charity, or unselfish regard for the good of others.
----------
--- 275.

others, through an inborn pride, shrink from and decline."


Arcane and philosophic learning, as well as general science, was included within his
appointed sphere. "I have been induced to think," say Doctor Rawley, his secretary, "that if
there were a beam of knowledge derived from God in these modern times, it was upon him."
Bacon early became familiar with the writings of the Grecian sages, and he believed that the
myths and fables of the ancient poets involved the secrets and mysteries of religion,
government, and philosophy. In imitation of their method, many of his own works were
allegoric, and he rose far above the utilitarianism of the time. He possessed the enthusiasm of
humanity to a rare degree. He prized what was excellent in every man, learning eagerly from
all and regarding no knowledge as too mean or familiar for inquiry.
His views and sentiments upon scientific and esoteric subjects may be found here and
there in the various plays of Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and Shakespeare. He studied diligently the
works of Paracelsus, and often quoted them. He concurred in the doctrine of that distinguished
writer that the principle of life resides in a subtile fluid, or spirit, which permeates every part of
the physical organism. He also made experiments himself of a psychologic character,
"touching emission of immateriate virtues from the minds and spirits of men, either by
affections, or by imaginations, or by other impressions." He was eager to know the "things hid
and barred from common sense." It was a problem of his, in regard to the force of imagination,
whether constantly and strongly believing that a certain thing shall be will help to the effecting
of the thing itself. His decision was that effects do actually result in this way, but that the help
in such case is for one man to work by means of another in whom he may create belief, and not
by himself.
Whether Bacon established a secret society is a curious question. There has been an
abundance of such fraternities from the earliest periods of recorded history. The priesthoods in
the various worships may be included in the category of secret orders. It was a practice to form
such organizations, both in order to assure greater facility of action and likewise to escape
opprobrium and personal peril. The ends which Bacon had in view were to purify religion and
promote

--- 276.

reformation of manners, to advance learning, and to alleviate the misery which was almost
universal. The Rosicrucian Fraternity, as already remarked, was devoted to like purposes.
Besides, the existence of the Order, so far as known, dates from this period. Many of the works
of Bacon, particularly the ones which he denominated "Fragments," appear to have been
written according to its methods. Those also which relate apparently to scientific or historic
matters are actually allegoric, and convey another meaning to those who are able to perceive it.
Indeed, as will be observed by careful comparison, the legend of Christian Rosenkreutz
corresponds in its essential features with the personal history of Francis Bacon. So complete is
this resemblance that several writers have recorded their conviction that Bacon wrote some of
the documents ascribed to Rosenkreutz, and even that he was probably the founder and
certainly the mainstay of the Rosicrucian Society. The fact, however, that the formal
announcement of the existence of the Brotherhood was first made in Germany would seem to
be in conflict with this assumption. To this it may be replied that the works of Bacon had been
translated and published in different countries of Europe. His brother Anthony, who appears to
have been in close accord with him, spent much time on the Continent, and had ample
opportunity to communicate with individuals who might be sympathy. At the same time, the
secrecy required would prevent this from being generally known.
Robert Fludd was the first open supporter of the Rosicrucian Fraternity in England. He is
described as a man of immense erudition, voluminous writer, and a passionate admirer of the
Wisdom of the Ancients. He was a physician of distinction and familiar with the writings of
Paracelsus and other alchemists of the Middle Ages. Like Bacon, he was zealous in his
demand for reformation in the methods of teaching, and he used to declare it impossible for any
one to attain the supreme summit of knowledge unless he were profoundly versed in the occult
meaning of the utterances of the ancient philosophers. The "Temple of the Holy Spirit," which
the Rosicrucians desired to make known, was explained by him to be no earthly or temporal
abode, but the scriptural House of Wisdom. Unlike others

--- 277.

of the Fraternity, he neither wrote anonymously nor made use of synonyms. As if in


anticipation of questioning whether he was himself a Rosicrucian, he declared that he, least of
any, had deserved such a grace of God; if it had pleased God to have so ordained it, that was
enough.
Another notable personage in the Hermetic circle was Thomas Vaughan, better know
perhaps by his pen-name of Eugenius Phalalethes.* His twin brother, Henry Vaughan, shared
in his peculiar sentiments. Thomas Vaughan was for a time a clergy man, but relinquished his
profession for more congenial pursuits. He published several recondite works. He avowed
unequivocally his belief in the actual existence of the mysterious Order, and in the account of
its origin in Arabia, but declared that he had no personal relation with it, and desired none.
Nevertheless, he is regarded as a primate and distinguished luminary of the mystic
Brotherhood; his disavowal being overlooked, or, more probably, considered as a blind for the
uninitiated.

-----------
* This designation of Philalethes, or Lover of the Truth, was adopted by the celebrated
Ammonios Sakkas, of Alexandria, the founder of the Eclectic or Neo-Platonic School of
Philosophy. He entertained the project of a reconciling of the various conflicting sects by the
selection of whatever was true in each of them and combining it into one harmonious system.
He at first constituted his pupils into a secret society, obligating them not to divulge his
doctrines to any uninitiated person. His more famous disciples were Herennios, the two
Origens, Longinus, and the more distinguished Plotinos, afterward the exemplar and principal
exponent of the new school. Porphyry, Iamblichos, and the gifted Hypatia also became
distinguished teachers. Upon the murder of the latter by a Christian mob, the school was
established anew at Athens, where under Proklos, "The second Plato," philosophy attained a
complete renascence. Plutarch was also a teacher. Finally it was closed by the Emperior
Justinian, but the influence of the Platonic doctrines upon the thinkers of the world continues to
the present time.
-----------
--- 278.

Many curious anecdotes are related of him. It is said that he once carried to a goldsmith
a quantity of gold, and that, upon being told by the man that it was an artificial product and had
never come from the mines, he hurried away leaving it behind. It was considered the product
of transmutation, which the Rosicrucians were supposed to understand and sometimes perform.
Others, however, explained the story as a parable. Vaughan made extensive journeys, and
accounts are given of his visits to assemblages of the Order in various parts of Europe, and a
voyage to America - making use everywhere of a new name to conceal his identity.
Others have written with more or less appearance of plausibility respecting the
Rosicrucians, their extraordinary knowledge and mysterious rites and usages. John Heydon,
who lived in the reign of Charles II, was the author of several works of this character. He was
of an ascetic temper,* fond of abstruse learning, and possessed a liberal and generous
disposition. He was famous for his attainments in occult and other arts, predicting many events
and exhibiting skill in various ways. He made journeys into Spain, Italy, Egypt, Arabia,
Turkey, Persia; and his biographer informs us in addition that "truly he hath been in many
strange places, among the Rosie Crucians, and at their castles, holy houses, temples,
sepulchres, and sacrifices." He was careful to deny that he belonged to the Order; yet he made
use of the peculiar forms of language, gave names of members, described a place of
assembling, and addressed one of his books to the High Priest, or Grand Master.
Other writers of note were Elias Ashmole, Edmund Dickenson, Abbe de Villars (Comte
de Gabalis), Eliphas Levi, Kenneth Mackenzie, and the late Lord Bulwer-Lytton. The
wonderful romance "Zanoni," written by the author last named, is rich with suggestion. The
Brothers are represented as allied to the ancient sages of the

-----------
* He declined many proposals of advantageous marriage, several times making
implacable enemies. Among these was the widow of the celebrated Nicolas Culpeper, the
author of several popular works on Herbal Medicine.
-----------
--- 279.

East, to the later alchemists, and other learned occultists; as possessing powers usually
considered superhuman; as knowing the art of transmutation, the philosopher's stone, and
elixir of life; as exercising a wondrous skill in medicine, making use of simples* only, and as
exercising their skill and knowledge unselfishly, and for charity alone.
Despite the assumption, however, that the Rosicrucian Fraternity is surrounded by an
impermeable secrecy, insomuch that its very existence is disputed, there have been numerous
organizations bearing the name. Such a society existed in Germany in the seventeenth century,
and its rules were actually published. Nuremberg was regarded as a centre of the Rosicrucians,
and Leibnitz, the philosopher, who was also deeply interested in the writings of the alchemists,
was a member of the Secret Brotherhood, holding the office of secretary. The society had
many branches, extending into other countries. Godfrey Higgens mentioned the Order in his
great work, the "Anacalypsis," and identified the members with the Manichean Buddhists. A
Rosicrucian Society was established in England about the year 1860, the members of which are
taken exclusively from the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Robert Wentworth Little was "Supreme
Magus;" Lord Bulwer-Lytton was elected "Grand Patron;" and the two arch-mystics,
Hargrave Jennings and Kenneth Mackenzie, were among the members. The affair appears at
first view to be something distinct from the genuine Brotherhood. Associations of a similar
type have been formed elsewhere in Europe and America. We have no call to give judgment in
relation to them; bearing in mind the remark of Thomas Vaughan, that Rosicrucian has
become a generic term embracing every form of mystic pretension. Nevertheless, we may
staunchly adhere to the persuasion that in the beginning this was not so.

-----------
* According to Sprengel, a true Rosicrucian had only to gaze fixedly upon a person, and,
however dangerous the disease, he was instantaneously healed. The Brothers claimed to cure
all diseases without the aid of drugs - by means of imagination and faith.
-----------
--- 280.

The footprints of the Brotherhood are seen on every hand, Literature has borrowed freely
from its philanthropy. We have no occasion to regard with distrust its apparent association
with the older alchemy and its affiliation to other fraternities. While the latest annual growth
upon a tree produces the foliage and fruit of the year, it derives its life and nutritious sap,
nevertheless, from the roots, the stock, and branches which had flourished aforetime. The
Brothers of the Rosy Cross, by like analogy, inherit the culture and wisdom of those who
preceded them in the former ages, and in their turn confer the benefits upon their own
contemporaries. It is their office to transform the prophecies of the past into the experience of
the present.
It certainly behooves us of the modern time to disabuse ourselves of misapprehensions in
regard to the wise men of former periods. "Who knows," Sir Thomas Browne pertinently asks,
"whether better men have not been forgot, than stand recorded in the Book of time, who
nevertheless may be registered in the Book of God?" Every age, we may rest assured, has
produced such worthies, and they have been to their fellows like the ten righteous men whose
presence would have averted destruction from the Cities of the Plain.
History had hardly emerged legend when, in archaic Eran, a teacher arose who inculcated
as the basis of his doctrine that, from the Creator himself to the very humblest human being,
goodness is the cardinal principle of all life. The name of this personage is barely known,
except as first of the Zoroasters, but he is always described as possessing a rare spirituality and
as living in an intimate communication with divine natures. His doctrine was called magic, but
this name was given in its true sense of the greater knowledge. Plato declared it to be the most
uncorrupt form of worship. As a religion it was personal rather than public, a right living
rather than a formulated system of rites. The sacred fire was its symbol; for fire typifies the
arcane principle of life, and inducts mankind into all the possibilities of art and scientific
achievement. It began with this cognizance of an eternal world preceding and permeating this
visible universe as its origin, prototype, and sustaining energy; and with that cognizance,
therefore, was the acknowledgment of innumerable

--- 281.

myriads of spiritual essences distributed over all. This great world of realities was accordingly
described as an ocean of living intelligence, a "milky sea" of very life, in which mortals are
generated, upheld, and enabled to receive purification from evil.
From this source proceeded the philosophy of Ionia and ancient Greece. Plato gathered
up what had been taught and gave it new form for the use of scholars in succeeding centuries.
Secret rites were also instituted in honor of Mithras, which were adopted all over the Roman
empire, and afterward gave pattern and symbols to the numerous fraternities of the Middle
Ages. The Moslem world participated. Early after the death of the Founder there was a new
outbreak of Persian mysticism in the form of Sufi theosophy, which has continued to the
present time. Along with it came alchemy, likewise an outcome of the Magian learning. It
speedily obtained ascendency and was taught in all the universities from Bokhara to Cordova.
It was designated by curious titles, such as the Science of the Key, by which the mysteries of
creation and other knowledge were opened, and the Science of "M."
This science is delineated as threefold in character. The physical aspect is the department
most regarded by common scientists, whose study is circumscribed to matter and its
phenomena. In this department modern chemistry and kindred branches of knowledge have
their origin and field. The psychic aspect includes those peculiar manifestation frequently
termed abnormal, as transcending common scientific definition. In this category belong
instinct, presentiment, and "second sight" in its various forms. Paracelsus places the medical
art in the same group. He says:
"It deals with the processes of life, and these must be understood before they can be
guided. All art, all wisdom, all power, act from one centre toward the periphery of the circle,
and whatever is inclosed within the circle may be regarded as medicine. A powerful will may
cure where doubt will end in failure. The character of the physician may act more powerfully
upon the patient than all the drugs employed. A physician without religion and firmness will
be a failure. Alchemy - the employing of strong will, benevolence, charity, patience, etc. - is,
therefore, the principal corner-stone in the practice

--- 282.

of medicine.... The vital force is not inclosed in man, but radiates around him like a luminous
sphere, and it may be made to act at a distance. In these semi-material rays the imagination (or
will) of man may produce healthy or morbid effects. It may poison the essence of life, or it
may purify it after it has been made impure, and so restore the health."
The highest aspect of alchemy relates to the superior nature of man. Within its purview
are the arcana which have eluded the comprehension of sciolists and materialistic reasoners -
such as the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, the tinctura physicorum, transmutation, and
the three invisible substances denominated in the alchemic jargon as sulphur, mercury, and salt.
All these regarded intelligently have their interpretation like other tropes and allegoric figures
of speech. They do not relate to physical but to spiritual matters, and are to be understood
accordingly. We are instructed thus by the precept of Sallust, the Platonic philosopher, that
that which in a literal sense is manifestly absurd and impossible is to be understood in some
other sense.
Alchemic writers have discussed fluently upon the riches which they had at command,
and upon their making of gold; yet they vigorously denounced those who regarded the art as a
means to acquire temporal wealth. "All these have had the gold-sickness," says Van Suchten;
"and it hath darkened their senses so that they could not understand the terms which the Wise
Men use." The treasure of the alchemist is only to be stored in heaven, and beyond their
appreciating. "Our gold is not to be bought for money, though you should offer a crown or a
kingdom for it," says George Starkey; "for it is the gift of God." While, therefore, it may be
true, as is insisted, that the modern science of chemistry derived its inception from the
lucubrations of professed alchemists, nevertheless it will be plain to intelligent readers that
alchemy pertains to a higher region of thought. Paracelsus has told us that "to grasp the
invisible elements, to attract them by their material correspondences, to control, purify, and
transform them by the living power of the spirit - this is true alchemy."
When we come to the cognizance of this fact - that the whole work and aim of alchemy
and the Hermetic philosophy relate to man

--- 283.

and his regeneration into spiritual life - we have obtained the clue to the labyrinth. They realize
the ideal of the Platonic discourses, and the full purpose of true religion. Says Alipili:
"The highest wisdom consists in this - for man to know himself; because in him God has
placed his eternal word by which all things were made and upheld, that it should be his light
and life, and by which he is capable of knowing all things both in Time and Eternity.... Let the
high inquirers and searchers into the deep mysteries of Nature learn first to know what they
have in themselves, before they seek in foreign matters without them; and let them, by the
divine power within them, first heal themselves and transmute their own natures; then they
may go on prosperously and seek with success the mysteries and wonders of God in all natural
things."
Arephius* describes the alchemic operation as "not a work of the hands, but a change of
the natures." The "brass or latten," the unregenerate soul, "is to be made to ascend by the
degrees of fire, but of its own accord, freely, and without violence. But when it ascends on
high it is born into the air, or spirit, and is changed into spirit, and becomes life with life." We
may, therefore, have done with mysterious surmising and understand these matters rationally,
By the philosopher's stone we may perceive that man is signified, the microcosm, or lesser
world; by transmutation of baser metals into gold is denoted the new birth from the earthly and
psychic life into the spiritual and divine life of the higher intellect; by the "invisible elements"
of sulphur and salt are figured the sensuous and passional principles of our nature; and by
mercury or fire, the conscience or spiritual perception which we possess jointly with God and
by which the "great work" is effected. In short, the whole is contained in these expressive
words of Paracelsus: "Terrestrial powers are moving in us; but if we are born anew in the
spirit, then will we move in celestial powers."
The Rosicrucians, in the writings attributed to them, make use

------------
* This writer lived about the year 1130, and is named among the first who wrote of "the
philosopher's stone."
------------
--- 284.

of like conventional forms of expression, and profess similar aims with a like culmination.
They treat of the macrocosm and microcosm, the magnum opus or great secret, transmutation
of metals, and the Supreme Medicine of the World. Enumerated with them, likewise, were
some, like Robert Fludd, who were also classed as disciples of Paracelsus. While, however, the
alchemists were mystics who accepted passably the current religious faith of the country where
they abode - Moslem, Jewish, or philosophic, as well as Gnostic, or Christian - the
Rosicrucians bore at their mast-head the flag of a pure Christianity alone; but there was also
the rudder of a broad fraternal charity - love to God and man.
The impenetrable secrecy which surrounds them need be no cause of offence. They are
not eager to make disciples and build up a school or party. On the other hand, they are careful
to avoid any display that may indicate them as peculiar, or as possessing any extraordinary
powers or knowledge beyond those of others. They live in the world as spectators, silent and
unobtrusive in respect to themselves and their private convictions, but ready to do for others
such friendly offices as they may. "We wrap ourselves in mystery," says one, "in order to
avoid the censure and violent importunity of those who regard us as no philosophers, but
wanting in common prudence, except we employ our knowledge to some worldly use and
profit."
Though the Brothers of the Rosy Cross may seem to have disappeared from the realm of
human activity, we may yet remain firmly assured that they are pursuing their labors quietly
and unremittingly. On every hand their work, their philosophy, their inspirations are leavening
the thought and ennobling the actions of mankind, bringing science and conscience at one, and
realizing all that saints and sages from immemorial time have contemplated. Their philosophy
pervades our best literature; their devotion and philanthropy are manifest in every rational
effort for the improvement of human conditions. They are to be recognized, not by grips and
signs and passwords, but by their fruits. Thus they transcend the limitations which the common
life imposes, and have their home in the

--- 285.

vaster world of celestial being.

(Metaphysical Magazine, June, 1896)

---------------------
--- 286.

THE ENIGMA OF ALCHEMY

All this is but a fable;


But who first made and recited it,
Hath in this fable shadowed a Truth.
- Heriot de Borderie

It was a warm afternoon in the latter weeks of summer in 1860. I had come in from my
rounds and began the preparing of an article for the journal with which I was connected. At
that moment an elderly man of dignified appearance entered and asked for me. He gave his
name simply as Hitchcock. Some days before I had procured a book from a little shop in Canal
Street, entitled "Alchemy and the Alchemists," of which he was the author. I had already read
another work by him, bearing the title "Swedenborg, a Hermetic Philosopher.'' As both books
were anonymous, I had never guessed the author, but had been attracted by their subjects. He
was an officer of high rank in the Army, but this I did not know, nor that he was the grandson
of the famous Ethan Allen.*

----------
* Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock was a native of Vergennes, in Vermont. His
father was the late Judge Hitchcock, who married the daughter of Colonel Ethan Allen, better
known for the taking of the Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 "In the name of the Great Jehovah and
the Continental Congress." General Hitchcock was a student at the West Point Military
Academy, and for a time was one of the instructors. He served with distinction in the Florida
and Mexican wars, and afterward resigned his commission. During the
----------
--- 287.

We quickly became acquainted, and we carried on correspondence for years. Each of us


was fond of study and speculation upon recondite subjects, and so were enabled to hold
communication upon the matters which engaged our attention.
General Hitchcock had made a handsome collection of works upon abstruse topics. At
the outbreak of war between the States in 1861, he again entered the service of the
Government, and placed many of his books on sale with a bookseller in New York. But I have
been told that the more valuable treatises had been reserved, and are now in a library in St.
Louis.

I. Aim of the Alchemists

It has been supposed by most writers that Alchemy was a science of the transmutation of
metals. The name itself being an ancient name of Egypt, and the study, such as it was, being
prosecuted in that country, this is plausible. That many in subsequent periods devoted
themselves to experimentation for that purpose is well known, and modern chemistry took its
rise from such endeavors. Yet it is evident to those who regard matters more profoundly, that
there was a deeper purpose entertained by the true Alchemists. Our author takes the view
diametrically opposite to the popular opinion. He believed that their character and the object of
their study had been almost entirely misunderstood. They were men who were intent upon
spiritual truth, and contemplating a life superior to the acquiring of wealth or personal
advantage. He arrived at the conviction by careful reading, and perhaps intuitively, that the
subject of Alchemy was man himself, and that the object of the Art was his perfection, his
moral betterment. Under the figure of the transmutation of metals, the salvation of man, his
transformation from evil to good was thus

--------------
Civil War he was again on duty in the office of the Secretary of War, and at its termination
made his residence in Florence, Ga., where he died in 1871.
--------------
--- 288.

symbolized.
It is not to be denied, however, that many accepted the description and were deluded by
the literal rendering of the alchemic works, or by their own passionate desire for riches.
Individuals of this character were described by the Alchemists as having "gold fever which
darkened their senses."
Nevertheless the art of transmutation appears to have been a familiar topic at a very early
period. Even now scientists believe it to be possibly attainable. It is conceived that the various
metals and minerals are but so many forms of a primal matter, and it is easy to deduce the
corollary from this that by reduction back to the original condition and then inducing a new
development under new circumstances, the proposed change may be achieved. Some of the
recent results obtained from chemical manipulation seem to render the conception plausible.
We may not wonder, therefore, that the savants of the Egyptian temples were thought to
possess knowledge of the hidden art.
The Emperor Diocletian, reigning in the last period of the third century, had carried on a
war in Upper Egypt for nine years to suppress a revolt against the Roman dominion. It was
easy to persuade the ignorant Emperor that the insurgents were enriched by extraordinary
methods. He accordingly ordered a careful search to be made over the whole country for
writings upon Alchemy, which art the Egyptians studied together with magic and astrology.
Regarding these works as the sources of the wealth which had enabled the prolonged resistance
to the Romans, he ordered them to be burned.
Half a century later the philosopher Olympiodorus wrote a work upon the "Sacred Art of
Alchemy," which is said to be in the Library of Paris, imprinted.
All through the Middle Ages, however, the writings of the Alchemists abound with
cautions against this very misunderstanding. The jargon which was often employed, and the
symbolic language in which their thought was enshrined, had for its object to hide the subject
from the uninitiated crowd, and to screen the writers from persecution. They lived, for the
most part, in an age when an open

--- 289.

expression of their opinions would have brought them into conflict with the superstition of the
time and thus exposed them to the horrid cruelties of the torture-chamber or to death at the
stake. The tens of thousands that were burned alive for witchcraft are sufficient evidence of the
besotted ignorance and merciless temper that prevailed over Europe. Indeed, many did so
suffer and perish, not having been sufficiently guarded in their language.
General Hitchcock candidly acknowledges that there was no doubt of the existence of an
abundance of impostors, who played upon the credulity and cupidity of the public; but he
sturdily insists that "the genuine Alchemists were religious men who passed their time in
legitimate pursuits, earning an honest subsistence, and in religious contemplation, studying
how to realize in themselves the union of the divine and human nature, expressed in man by an
enlightened submission to God's will; and they thought out and published, after a manner of
their own, a method of entering upon this state, as the only rest of the soul."
But it would seem that the materialistic conception would be sufficiently explained away
by one of the later writers, who writes as follows:
"Many who are strangers to this Art believe that if they should enjoy it, they would do
such and such things. So even we did formerly believe. But being grown more wary by the
hazard we have run, we have chosen the more secret method. For whosoever hath escaped
imminent peril of his life, he will become more wise for the time to come." *

II. Hermes Trismegistus and Geber

The earlier history of Alchemy in the western countries of the Old World is involved in
some obscurity. In the earlier centuries of the

-----------
* Introitus Apertus, Occulusum Regis Palatium, by Eugenius Philalethes. Thomas
Vaughan, who wrote under this pen-name, was
-----------
--- 290.

present era there appeared many works on philosophy, magic, astrology and transmutation,
which were generally ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus. This is a character first mentioned by
Manetho, who represented him as a son of the Agathodaemons, who restored learning and the
arts to Egypt. The works which are ascribed to him, Mr. Samuel Sharpe thinks, were written in
the reign of the Emperor Commadus. It had been the practice of Egyptian writers, as
Abamman explains to the philosopher Porphyry, to credit their works to the divine personage,
Tat, or Hermes; and afterward, the compilers of religious and philosophic books of former
periods adopted the practice of inscribing them as "according to" or by the name of some
distinguished author or other noted individual as approving or actually composing. Older
ecclesiastical literature also abounds with documents which are thus fictitiously addressed.
Indeed, the "Emerald Tablet," which was supposed to contain the formula for making gold, was
imputed to Hermes, and the designation of "Hermetic Philosophy" was thence adopted.*

---------------
the twin brother of Henry Vaughan the Platonist. For several years he officiated as a
clergyman, but, becoming a student of Alchemy, he was deposed. He was the author of several
books describing and defending the Rosicrucians. He died in 1665, aged 44. It is said that he
perished of suffocation while conducting an experiment.
* The following is a translation of the Tablet:
1. I speak not things untrue, but that which is true and certain.
2. That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is similar to that
which is below, to accomplish the wonders of The One.
3. As all things were produced by the means of the One Being (the Demiurgus or
Fashioner), so all things were produced from this One by adoption.
4. Its father is the Sun; its mother is the Moon.
5. It is the cause of completeness throughout all the Earth.
6. Its power is perfect if it is changed into earth.
---------------
--- 291.

Geber* is the reputed founder of the Arabian Science.


A German writer represents him as "an almost mythical person of the earliest period of
Islam, renamed as an alchemist.* Like Homer, his birthplace and nation as well as his
personality are in dispute. He appears to have been a native of Tarsus in Asia Minor, and to
have lived in the second century after the Era of the Flight. He has sometimes been
conjectured to be of Jewish parentage, and is also described as a Sabaean, and likewise as a
Sufi or Mohammedan mystic. Certainly the writings imputed to him are susceptible of an
esoteric as well as of a literal interpretation. Whether he had communication with the
alchemists of China or India we have no knowledge; but at that period this was possible, as
there was commercial intercourse with those countries.
He is said to have given form to the science. Alchemy or the Egyptian wisdom was
designated by the Arabian scholars the "Science of the Key," as opening all mysteries, whether
divine, natural or medical. It was also supposed to be comprehended in the "Book of M," the
misam or balance, by which all things are determined, both

---------------
7. Separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the gross, acting prudently and with
judgment.
8. Ascend with the greatest sagacity from the earth to the sky; then descend again to the
earth, and unite the power of things below and the things above.
9. This thing hath more fortitude than fortitude itself, because it will overcome every
subtile thing and penetrate every solid thing.
10. By it the world was formed.
11. Hence proceed wonderful things, which were in this way established.
12. For this reason I am called Hermes Trismegistus (the superlatively great), because I
possess those parts of the Philosophy of the whole earth.
What I had to say about the operations of the Sun is perfected.

* Also written as Giafar and Jaffar.


--------------
--- 292.

of the microcosm and macrocosm. In short, it was regarded as the crown of all learning. This
study was accordingly denominated figuratively: "The search for the Philosopher's stone," or
for the "Elixir of life."
It was a peculiarity of the writings of Geber, as of other mystic compositions, that they
were capable of a twofold interpretation. They might be understood literally or figuratively,
according to the mental perception of the reader.* He described the metals as consisting of
similar primal constituents, and that the less noble might, by proper means, be developed into
the higher. This view is still entertained in its more distinguishing physical form, by many
eminent scientists, and later disclosures by experiment seem to indicate that such
transformation is not far from actual accomplishment by manipulation. Nevertheless, it was
more probably a figurative utterance, for Geber taught a Moral as well as physical
transformation. Those who followed after him combined philosophy with their scientific
discourses, and displayed a like passion for esoteric interpretation.
Ibu Sina, or Avicenna, wrote several works on Alchemy, as well as medicine, and
interblended the Platonic doctrines with what he uttered upon the subject. Other writers of
distinction who flourished in later periods exhibited the same peculiarity. Ahpili declared
positively that the transmutation was of a spiritual character.
"The highest Wisdom consists in this," said he: "It is for man to know himself, because
in him God has placed his Eternal Word by which all things are made and upheld, so that it
may be his light and life. By it he becomes capable of knowing all things, both in time and
eternity. Therefore, let the high inquirers into the deep mysteries of Nature learn first to know
what they have in themselves, before they seek in foreign matters without them; and by the
divine power within them let them first heal themselves and transmute their own souls, then
they may go on prosperously and seek with good success the mysteries and wonders of God in
all natural things."

------------
* This obscurity is said to have suggested the forming of the term "gibberish" from his
name, to denote unmeaning language.
------------
--- 293.
IIIl. Alchemy in the Middle Ages

The establishment of a Moslem dominion in Spain was instrumental in the preservation


of learning in that country and its gradual dissemination in other countries. Alchemy attracted
the attention of the most earnest and devoted investigators. Artephius in the twelfth century,
Albert Groot, Roger Bacon, Isaac HoIlandus, Basil Valentine and others left their records for
those living after them. The religious authorities began to regard the subject with jealousy and
apprehension. The obscure and enigmatic language characteristic of alchemic literature was
now necessary.
Nevertheless, the peculiar expressions often appear plain even to simplicity. Artephius in
his treatise "The Secret Book" sets forth the operation or experience which is technically
denominated "The Great Work," explaining it as being not a work of the hands but a change of
the nature, and "a thing of no great labor to him who understands it."
We are led accordingly to seek for the key that will enable such understanding. Salust,
the Platonic philosopher, gives it in his instructions in regard to the extravagant and incredible
relations which are found in mythologic and even in philosophic writings. That which in a
literal sense is manifestly absurd and impossible is to be understood, he declares, in some other
way. In this manner Proklus interpreted the legends of the ancient gods, Clement and Origen
expounded the variations of the Hebrew Scriptures, and others have explained the folk-lore of
different countries. General Hitchcock insisted strenuously that the writings of the Alchemists
are of a similar character. "They are all symbolical," he declared, "and under the words 'gold,'
'silver,' 'salt,' 'lead,' 'sulphur,' 'mercury,' 'antimony,' 'arsenic,' 'orpiment,' 'sol,' 'luna,' 'wine,' 'acid,'
'alkali,' and a thousand other words and expressions, indefinitely varied, may be found the
opinions of the several writers upon the questions of God, Nature and Man, all brought into or
developed from one central point, which is: Man in the image of God."
This statement may be verified by many declarations of the alchemic writers themselves.
Nevertheless they are not alone in the use of language too extravagant for literal verification.
Plato in the

--- 295.

tenth book of "The Republic" mentions the river of Ameleta, or forgetfulness, whose water no
vessel contained. Then there are the lines of Elias Ashmole:

"I asked Philosophy how I should


Have of her the thing I would.
She answered me: When I was able
To make the Water malleable,
Or else the way if I could finde
To measure out a yard of Winde;
'Then shalt thou have thine own desire
When thou canst weigh an ounce of Fire;
Unless thou canst do these three,
Content thyself thou get'st not me.'"

We may not suppose, however, that the alchemic writers made no reference to chemical
manipulations. The peculiar imagery which they employed would often be destitute of
meaning, except as it implied a familiarity with such procedures. We must believe, therefore,
that they were skilled in physical science as well as in the philosophy which they were seeking
to veil by the enigmas which they deduced from the scientific terminology then in use. The
perfection which they attained in the use of their mystic language is at the same time forcibly
illustrated by the grave mistakes which are made by those who would interpret it from the
materialistic point of view.
M. Figuier was one of this class of expositors. In his endeavor to explain the "Great
Work" of the Alchemists he cites their declaration that the chief difficulty in the preparing of
the philosopher's stone consisted in the obtaining of the "mercury of the philosophers." He
understood this to be an agent for the transmuting of metals, and remarks that according to the
testimony of the Alchemists themselves it can be obtained only by the grace of God, or by the
friendship of an adept to whom it has been disclosed. He mentions names by which it has been
designated, such as "animated mercury," "double mercury," "mercury twice-born," "the green
lion," "the serpent," "the sharp water," "vinegar," "virgin's milk," and others. He declares,

--- 296.

however, that none of the Alchemists have ever discovered this mysterious solvent.
It is plain that M. Figuier received his information from genuine sources, but that he has
misconceived the proper interpretation. He viewed the subject upon the physical side, ignoring
as fanciful and visionary the profounder fact, that the sphere of reality is metaphysical and
invisible to the eyes. The apostle Paul explains this peculiar condition. "The psychic man,"
skillful only in sensuous knowledge, he declares, "doth not receive the things of the spirit, for
to him they are foolishness, and he is unable to perceive them because they are to be spiritually
discerned."
We must obtain the right explanations from the Alchemic writers themselves.
Isaac Hollandus, who lived in the fifteenth century, was the author of a treatise entitled:
"A Work of Saturn." When it was the practice to designate the metals by the names of the
planets, Mercury denoted quicksilver, and Saturn was lead. Hollandus remarks accordingly
that "the stone called the philosopher's stone comes out of Saturn." He says further: "And
though a man be poor, yet may he very well attain unto it (the art of transmutation), and may be
employed in making the philosopher's stone. All that we have need of is concealed in Saturn;
for in it is a perfect Mercury; in it are all the colors of the world."
Writing in the same enigmatic style, he says again: "Saturn is our philosopher's stone,
and our latten, out of which our mercury and our stone is extracted with small labor and
expense, and in a short time. Therefore I admonish you, my child, and all who know its name,
that you conceal it from the people, by reason of the evil that might arise; and you shall call
the stone our Latten, and call the vinegar water, in which our stone is to be washed. This is the
stone and the 'water' whereof the philosophers have written so many volumes. This stone is the
true aurum potabile, the true quintessence which we seek; and we seek no other thing in the
world but this stone. Wherefore the philosophers say that whoever knows our stone, and can
prepare it, needs no more; wherefore they sought this thing and no other."

--- 297.
It is evident to an understanding mind that we have before us the Riddle of the Sphinx in
another form, and hence that we are safe in propounding the same solution as before. The
theme is Man, and how he may become, from what he is, that which he should be.
Geber has treated of it in terms which signify this to be the correct interpretation: "The
Artist should be intent on the true end only," he declares, "because our Art is reserved in the
Divine Will of God, and is given or withheld from whom he will, who is glorious, sublime, and
full of justice and goodness."
To the student he gave this advice: "Dispose yourself by exercise with great skill and
labor, and a continued deep meditation; for by these you may find it, but not otherwise."

IV. "The Great Work"

Artephius in his treatise, "The Secret Book," sets forth the mystic experience,
denominating it "The Great Work." He explains it as not being a work of the hands, but a
change of the nature, and a "thing of no great labor to him who understands it."
In the case of this writer we have an example of the method of interpretation to be
employed when the literal sense is manifestly absurd and not to he credited. He lived in the
twelfth century and described himself as a thousand years old. The "arcane year" only denoted
a month, and Roger Bacon affirmed that the "philosophic month was a period of forty days."
This would indicate the age of the author as somewhat exceeding seventy years. Artephius also
uses a terminology of his own, treating of a wonderful fluid which he calls antimonial vinegar,
dissolving water, preternatural fire, and other names of similar character. "It is the only apt and
natural medium," he affirms, "by which we ought to resolve the bodies of Sol and Luna by a
wonderful and solemn dissolution with a preservation of the species, and without any
destruction, unless it be to a new and more noble and better form of generation, to wit: into the
perfect philosopher's stone."

--- 298.

The following passage illustrates what was meant by the salt, sulphur and mercury,
which have been the subject of many attempts to explain. "Those bodies which are thus
dissolved by our 'water,'" says Artephius, "are called argent vive,* which is not without its
sulphur, nor the sulphur without Sol or Luna; because gold and silver are the particular means
or medium through which nature passes in the perfecting and completing thereof. And this
argent vive is called our esteemed and valuable 'salt' being animated and pregnant; and it is
likewise called our 'fire' because it is nothing but fire - yet not fire but sulphur, and not sulphur
only, but quicksilver drawn from Sol and Luna, or silver and gold altered from vileness to
nobility."
Basil Valentine has been commemorated for his exposition of Antimony and its uses. He
is said to have named it regulus, from the facility with which it acted on the royal metal gold.
Nevertheless his treatise, "The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony," shows that he entertained
opinions similar to those of other Alchemists. He made use of a similar vocabulary and taught
the same dogma respecting purification. Treating of antimony as others did of lead, he
declared that it contained its own vinegar in itself. "You are to know," says he, "that in
Antimony there is a spirit which affects whatsoever is in it or can proceed from it, in an
invisible way and manner; nor otherwise than as in the magnet is absconded a certain invisible
power."
This comparison of the magnet is singularly felicitous. The magnet, man, has a principle
by which the Great Magnet, Deity, is sought; and no rest will be known till the two are joined.
"Therefore," says Valentine, "in the preparation of Antimony consists the Key of Alchemy by
which it is dissolved, divided and separated, as in calcination, reverberation, sublimation, etc.;
also in extracting its essence, and in vivifying its mercury."
As a preparation for the "Great Work," or as he calls it, "the study of Antimony,"
Valentine prescribed prayer and contemplation. The individual who is familiar with
mystic discourse readily

-----------
* Living silver: German, Quacksalber, from which comes the term quack, in the medical
nomenclature.
-----------
--- 299.

understands the meaning of his language. Other Alchemists, from Geber through later
centuries, have given directions in terms of similar tenor. They continually insist upon the
religious and philosophic character of their pursuit, rather than of any objects of a scientific
nature. "The Holy Trinity created the philosopher's stone," Valentine emphatically declares.
"God the Son, or glorified man, is, even as our glorified and fixed Sol, a philosopher's stone."

V. A Hermetic Society in the Middle Ages

General Hitchcock has observed evidences in Alchemical volumes of a Secret Society, in


which possibly the language was conventionally determined. He conjectured that some of the
Masonic fraternity had found out the secret language of the Alchemists, a convenient mode of
communication, among the initiated, of doctrines of which they had taken an oath not to speak
or make known except to a Brother. He refers likewise to books written in a mysterious
language by members of the Rosicrucian Society, but he does not admit that the Alchemists
and Rosicrucians were identical. This opinion may be qualifiedly correct, but there certainly
are coincidences between the two. "Most of the real adepts have written nothing at all," he
remarks; "while those who have published anything have limited themselves to very small
tracts, not so much with the object of making known a doctrine as to indicate to the initiated
their claim to brotherhood, and these works have almost invariably been anonymous. From the
nature of the case, the members, to call them such, of this Society, are scattered, both as to time
and space, there being a few in every age, but not many in any age; and from the same
necessity they do not and cannot form an organized body, for this would be to put limitations
upon that which in its nature is absolutely free. Yet they truly exist and know each other by
signs more infallible than can be made effectual by any organized society whatever. The
members of this society have, in former times, communicated with each other by a secret
language, which has had

--- 300.
many forms and will have many more, but which can never utterly perish."
Rossetti, the Professor of Italian Literature at King's College, London, entertained the
opinion that a Secret Society had existed in Italy since as far back as the year 1000. He
supposed it to embrace members belonging to every part of Europe and to be composed of the
most learned and scientific men, whose intelligence was in advance of the world. They were
aware of the errors of the Roman Church, and in order to avoid its persecutions adopted a
conventional language. The exoteric import of this language appeared friendly to those who
were in power, but the esoteric meaning was directly in opposition to the claims put forth by
the church, and was distinctly understood to be so by the initiated. Rossetti explained the
writings of Dante, Petrarch and other authors, in conformity with this theory. He intimated
likewise that Emanuel Swedenborg was a member of this society.*

VI. Occult Science and Paracelsus

Paracelcus seems to have imparted a new impulse to the study of Occult Science. He
appears, indeed, to have been a man in many respects greater than his age, and to have
transcended the intellectual capacity of those who have endeavored to pass judgment upon him.
He had been a pupil of the Abbot Trittheim, and he supplemented the earlier instruction by
extensive acquisitions of his own. He explained Alchemy, Astrology and Magic, as occupying
the

-----------
* Raymond Lully mentions a secret society In Italy, the chief officer of which bore the
title of Rex Physicorum. Semler also gives account of "an association of physicians and
alchemists, who united their knowledge and labors to attain the discovery of the Philosophick
Stone." This could hardly have been a group of genuine Alchemists. Another writer affirms
positively that the Society was formed in 1410 and merged in the Rosicrucian order in 1007.
-----------
--- 301.

same field and embracing the superior truths, but he never hesitated to cast aside whatever he
regarded as additions or perversions.
He defined Magic by its earlier meaning as "the Superior Wisdom and the Knowledge of
Supernatural Powers." He did not, however, consider miracles and supernatural powers as
being beyond the province of Nature, but rather, as the terms strictly signify, belonging to its
higher departments. Christ and the Prophets and Apostles had magic powers, he declared.
Hence they were able to perform many miracles, but these he affirmed were all natural.
"Indeed," said he, "if we ourselves only knew the power of the human heart, nothing would be
impossible to us."
Cornelius Agrippa, his former fellow-student, made similar declarations. "There is a
secret power concealed in all things," said he, "and this is the 'miraculous power' of Magic." He
further instructs his auditor that "if the student of magic is desirous to acquire supernatural
powers, he must possess faith and love and hope."
Trittheim himself defined Magic as consisting in the ability to perceive the essential
principle of things in the light of nature, and also to produce material things from the unseen.
He was careful to explain all processes as taking place in absolute accordance with law, adding
significantly that the law will be learned when the individual learns to know himself.
The fundamental doctrine of Alchemy as taught by Paracelsus represents nature as a
living organism in which all things are in harmony with each other. "It is the macrocosm, the
greater universe," he declares. "Everything is the product of the universal creative effort; the
macrocosm and man, the microcosm or lesser world, are one."
He described all things in existence as being composed of three substances, or underlying
principles, which were called in the alchemic dialect, Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. These are not
visible to the bodily eye, but are held together by the inherent force of life. "The invisible fire
is in the Sulphur, the soluble element is in the Salt, and the volatile element is in the Mercury.
There are hundreds of different kinds of these elements in the universe and in the human body,
and the greatest arcana are contained in them."

--- 302.

"In order to explain the qualities of these three substances," he tells the reader, that "it
would be necessary to explain the qualities of the prima materia, the original principle of
matter itself. As, however, the prima materia was the 'Fiat' (let it become), who would dare
attempt to explain it?" *
Alchemy is described by Paracelsus as having a threefold aspect and character,
corresponding to the body or physical nature, the soul, or astral personality, and the spirit or
divine principle in Man. As a physical science, it includes the Art by which various substances
are decomposed and combined together, and likewise changed in their essential quality and
exalted to another form. The next aspect embraces the knowledge of the invisible elements and
their nature - the psychic and astral constituents of man. The third and highest aspect is the
true Alchemy, the exercise of the magic energy of the spiritual will. This is the arcanum of the
Philosopher's Stone, and the Elixir of Immortality.
In the knowledge of these three consists the whole science relating to the "Art of
Healing," in all of its phases, and Geber speaks of it as "a medicine rejoicing and preserving the
body in youth."

VII. Making of Gold Never the Scheme of Alchemy

"At the close of the sixteenth century," says Mr. Waite,** "we find the disciples of
Paracelsus seeking after the principles of their master, and by the light of experimental
research: 1. The Secret of the Transmutation of Metals, and the Magnum Opus, and applying
to

-----------
* "Is not man," demands M. Rennet, "the seat and exemplar of the union, as well as of the
difference between the finite and Infinite between man and God? Does not his body, as
material, form part of the universe, while his thought, the consciousness, his mind, which are
not material, can be but a reflection of the thought or spirit of God?"
** History of the Rosicrucians, chap. 1, p. 31
-----------
--- 303.

chemistry the usages of Kabbalism and ancient astrology. 2. The Universal Medicine, which
included the Catholicon, or Elixir of Life, and the Panacea; the first ensuring to its possessor
the prolongation or perpetuity of existence, and the second restoring strength and health to
debilitated or diseased organisms. 3. The Philosopher's Stone, the great and universal
synthesis, which conferred upon the adept a sublimer knowledge than that of transmutation or
of the Great Elixir, but on which both of these were dependent."
It is apparent to the candid investigator that the notion which has been so widely
disseminated that Alchemy consisted primarily and chiefly in the quest for the art of
transmutation of metals and the acquisition of material wealth by its means, is derived from a
very superficial examination of the subject. It was a notion which genuine alchemists rejected
with scorn. "I disdain," says Thomas Vaughan, "I loathe, I detest this idolizing of gold and
silver, by the price whereof the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated.... Our gold is
not bought for money though one should offer a crown or a kingdom for it: it is the gift of
God."
Van Sechten, remarking upon the same subject, says: "If thou dost object that not only
common persons, but also great nobles have labored a long time in Alchemy with great
expense, including among them many very learned men, yet not any of them have learned
anything, I answer: 'That this noble Art requires a sound man. All these have been sick. They
have had the gold-sickness, which hath darkened their senses so that they could not understand
the terms which the Wise Men use in the description of their art; seeking with hot desire that
only which they shall never find. But what there is to be found, that they do not seek;
therefore they seek in vain. Who is to be blamed, the art or the artist, that they understand
nothing? Alchemy is a pure and uncorrupted virgin; she casts off the sensual man who holds
all truth to be of the sensations only, and will have an intellectual one; of whom I see but few."
Other writers plead with the student to seek the path of Wisdom in the right manner.
Espagnet counsels to make use of the works of very few authors, and to select only those of
best note and experienced truth.* He adds this significant suggestion in regard to

--- 304.

the Magic Language: "Let him suspect things that are easily understood, especially in mystical
names and secret operations; for Truth lies hid in obscurity, nor do the philosophers ever write
more deceptively than when plainly, nor ever more truly than when obscurely."
Alchemy is thus shown accordingly to have always been a pursuit of thoughtful, earnest
men, and in no wise an eager quest of that meteor of the marsh - temporal wealth; but who
sought with warm desire the treasure of the mind of which the possessor cannot be despoiled.
Whatever regard the seeker might have for physical science, this was by no means the principal
aim. Nor was the acquiring of such knowledge essential as a preliminary condition. The
necessary preparation was of a moral quality. Espagnet instructs the student accordingly: "A
studious tyro of a quick wit, constant mind, inflamed with the love of Philosophy, of a pure
heart, perfect in morals, mightily devoted to God - even though ignorant of 'Practical
Chemistry' - may with confidence enter the Highway of Nature, and peruse the books of the
best philosophers."
VIII. The Elixer

It may be well to give attention to the signification of the peculiar terms which are
employed. The word "elixir" is used to denote the philosopher's stone, the agent which
transmutes the base into the nobler metals, and an essence or tincture which is capable of
prolonging life indefinitely. To speak more plainly, the elixir is the universal medicine, and the
universal solvent - the alkahest, allegeist, or all-pervading spirit.

------------
* The writers who were thus recommended were Hermes Trismegietus, Bernard Trevisan
and Raymond Lully. The latter lived in the reign of Edward I of England, and is said to have
been employed by him in transmutation. The writers on Alchemy have been estimated as about
one thousand.
------------
--- 305.

Many have erred by understanding these terms in a physical and literal sense. Lord
Bulwer Lytton founded the plot of his weird romances, "Zanoni" and "A Strange Story," upon
the reputed possibility of prolonging life by these supposed medical agents. He explains his
meaning, however, in language not difficult to understand, that the art consists in finding out
why parts of the body ossify, and the blood stagnates, and so applying preventives to the effects
of time. "This is not magic," Mejnour declares to Glyndon, "it is the art of medicine rightly
understood." *
We all have read of the question which Oriental story has credited to the disciple of the
Alchemist. The master has shown him in a crucible the Universal Solvent, to obtain which a
lifetime had been spent.
The pupil asks: "O Sage, be not deceived; how can that which is to dissolve all things be
itself contained in a ladle?" The "water which no vessel contains" was of the same nature.
Those who are partially instructed are thought many times to be discerning above the wise.

------------
* Bulwer has described Mejnour and Zanoni as two prehistoric Chaldeans, the solo
survivors of an archaic brotherhood, who have continued to live till the last years of the
eighteenth century. Such a notion of an occasional extraordinary duration of life has been
entertained by individuals in all periods. Hargrave Jennings cites from the Memories
Historiques, printed in 1687, the account of a Signor Gualdi, who sojourned at Venice in 1681.
It was said that the wonderful stranger attracted attention by his unlimited knowledge, the
beautiful paintings which he possessed, and his apparent wealth, although he followed no
business; also that he had no correspondence, desired no credit, and made use of no notes or
bills of exchange.
He had a picture at himself which a nobleman in Venice recognized as having been
painted by Titian, who had been dead one hundred and thirty years. Upon this discovery the
owner hastily left Venice for Vienna.
------------
--- 306.
Elias Ashmole treats of this matter and gives to the neophyte a caution in obscure
language, defending this practice with argument like that of the Apostle Paul, who wrote that
he fed his disciples with "milk" because stronger food could not be borne.
"Unless the 'medicine' be qualified as it ought," he declared, "it is death to taste the least
atom of it, because its nature is so highly vigorous and strong above that of man. For if its best
parts are able to strike so fiercely and thoroughly into the body of a base and corrupt metal as
to tinge and convert it to so high a degree as perfect gold, how less able is the body of man to
resist such a force when its greatest strength is far inferior to the weakest metal. I do believe
that many philosophers, having a desire to enjoy perfect health, have destroyed themselves in
attempting to take the 'medicine' inwardly ere they knew the true use thereof, or how to qualify
it to be received by the nature of man without destruction."
Similar to this is the declaration of Mejnour to Glyndon in "Zanoni": "To the
unprepared, the elixir is thus the deadliest poison."
Enigmatic and obscure as such language may sound to the common ear, it is plain enough
to the instructed. It signifies that a regimen, discipline, or course of conduct, should be
tempered to the subjective condition of the individual. Though it be perfectly wholesome in
itself, yet if it is not duly adapted and qualified, it will be likely to prove a serious, and perhaps
a mortal harm. A certain moral fitness is necessary before any important truth may be
imparted. "He who pours water into a muddy well," says Iamblichus, "does but disturb the
mud."

IX. The Problem of Alchemy

After all that may be supposed, the problem of Alchemy is but a form of the famous
riddle of the Sphinx, and the solution is the same: "That which hath been is that which shall be;
and that which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is Man." The real mystery,
most familiar, and at the same time least known to every individual, into which he must be
initiated or else perish as an atheist

--- 307.

without God and without hope, is the One Self. Before him is the Alchemist's Elixir of life, to
quaff which before the discovering of the philosopher's stone is to drink the beverage of death;
while it confers on the instructed one who is adept and epopt, the true immortality. He will
know the truth, that which really is - the a-lethes, the unveiled wisdom.
Doctor Kopp, the author of the "History of Chemistry," treated of Alchemy at
considerable length and added this significant sentence, which every Platonist and Pythagorist
would instantly perceive to indicate the way to the full knowledge of the problem: "If by 'the
world' is understood the microcosm, which man represents, the writings of the Alchemists will
be easy of interpretation."
Hindu sacred legend relates that Krishna once commanded his foster-mother to look into
his mouth. She beheld there the whole universe. The story is figurative and it illustrates the
concept that in man, the microcosm or lesser world, is mirrored and comprised all the invisible
things pertaining to the entire creation. The alchemists denominated the philosopher's stone
mikrokosmos, and Weidenfeld explains the matter further in these words: "The most high God
hath made us partakers of all the blessings contained in the greater world, for which reason man
is called 'microcosm'; for it has been revealed to us by divine inspiration, that the virtues and
potencies of all things, animal, vegetable and mineral, are in man."
The Alchemic writer, Eugenius Philalethes, also gives this brief synopsis: "Our stone is
the representative of the great world, (or macrocosm), and it hath the virtues of that great fabric
comprised or collected in this little system. In it there is a virtue magnetical, attractive of its
like in the whole world. It is the celestial virtue expounded universally in the whole creation,
but epitomized in this small map of abridgement."

X. The "Great Work" A Moral Transformation

Accordingly, as has been insisted, the Great Work which the Alchemists delineate, is not
to be understood as a mere physical

--- 308.

transmutation, but a metanoia, a subjective operation in the moral nature of the individual. "It
is not a manipulation, a work of the hands," Artephius declares, "but a change of the natures.
The separation of the pure from the impure is not done with hands, but Nature herself does it,
and brings it to perfection by a circular operation." The work begins with the individual, and
ends with the individual, thus completing the circle. It is strictly as Shakespere has described:

"An art
Which does mend nature - change it rather; but
The art itself is nature." *

In one of the Dialogues of Plato there is a discussion whether virtue or moral excellence
can be taught. It may be affirmed in reply, that we may inculcate it in practice. We can write
about it and talk about it, but we may not expect to transmit it in this way to another. "In order
to make gold we must have gold," the Alchemists tell us. "The work of the Artist is only to
help," says Thomas Vaughan; "he can do no more." There must be that something in the
individual soul which is of intrinsic worth, and to bring this into activity is all that may be
accomplished. In the depths of the soul there is a something that can not be imparted, or even
expressed in words. This something is the germinal principle of divinity, and from it the divine
is to be developed and perfected. The work is supernatural, an operation of the higher nature
by which it transforms the lower elements into its

-----------
* An essence supposes existence, while existence supposes essence. "One is not without
the other," says Swedenborg, "whence it might be said that God is the essence of nature, while
nature is the existence (the outstanding) of God, and yet inseparable in Unity. And here, if it
should be asked what is the nature of God, the answer might be: That it be nature itself; for
nature is not the nature (the ekgonos, or outbirth) of anything but of God, whose essence,
nevertheless, is invisible while his existence is altogether and absolutely undeniable.
-----------
--- 309.

own substance. The mystic "philosophic mercury" by which this is effected and by which the
dross of the nature is dissolved and purified, is the conscience, the knowledge of the true and
the right, which man possesses jointly with God.
This work is accomplished according to nature, with a careful avoiding of violence to the
sensibility. It is necessary to refrain scrupulously from all violence, from all external
influences and appliances, from appeals to personal ends, and from acting upon the passions of
fear, hope or prudence; but instead, it is incumbent to assuage these in order that the
conscience may act freely according to its own nature.
As a necessary preparation for the great work, Basil Valentine directs to prayer and
contemplation, and Geber gives this counsel: "Dispose yourself by exercise to the study with
great industry and labor, and continual deep meditation; for by these you may find it, and not
otherwise." Plato himself explains that "after long contemplation of the subject and living with
it, a light is kindled on a sudden as from a leaping fire, and being engendered in the soul, feeds
itself upon itself."
Another writer adds: "And this work is done without any laying on of hands, and very
quickly, when the matters are prepared and made fit for it. This work is therefore called a
divine work."
That many have been deceived by taking the obscure language in a physical rather than a
metaphoric sense, and that there have been pretenders and charlatans professing to be
alchemists, must be acknowledged. Nevertheless, it is true that the genuine alchemic
philosophers were not engaged in a quest for scientific wonders or for worldly riches. They
were seeking for truth in its highest sense, apart from form and ceremony, and as it is to be
found innate in the mind.
This was the Sublime Secret, the Great Work, the Philosopher's Stone and Elixir of
Immortality, and it can be found in no other thing in the universe, except that which is "made in
the image and after the likeness of God."
In these explanations, the dependence has been upon the utterances of the Alchemic
writers themselves, as the sole evidence.

--- 310.

We would cherish for these prophetic souls a warm fraternal sympathy. We may recognize in
them fellow-philosophers, brothers in spirit, students of the true knowledge and participants in
the true life. "The wise shall understand."

(The Word, Vol. 6, Jan., February, 1908)

---------------------
--- 311.

THE SOUL

It was a beautiful conception of the Wise Men of ancient Persia, that every one should
render homage to his own soul. All that is divine in the universe is so to us only because of this
divinity within our own being. We may perceive and know, solely because of what we are. It
is the worship of the pure and excellent - a reverence full of awe and wonder for all that is real,
and beyond the vicissitudes of change - the aspiring to fellowship and a common nature with
the True and Good.
It has been the enigma of the ages: What is Man; whence and whither? The problem of
personality, however, is many-sided, and may not be thoroughly solved from any single point
of view. It hardly comes within the scope of our faculties to interpret. Whatever knowledge is
attained is of necessity essentially subjective, and not a science to be generally imparted. It has
been attempted often enough, but without success. The story of Tantalus finds its counterpart
in every such endeavour. He had been admitted to the symposia of the Gods, we are told; and
what he learned there he repeated to mortals. In consequence of this profanation he became
incapable of any further participation in the divine knowledge. Though continuously
surrounded by abundance, every endeavour made by him to enjoy it was defeated by its
recoiling from his touch. The eager seeker after the higher wisdom, entertaining the ambition
to publish it for the sake of distinction among men, has been very certain to find to his chagrin
that the sprite had escaped him at the moment when he had supposed it in his grasp. What we
really know of the soul and its conditions is of and for ourselves, and not for bruiting abroad.
The concept will not admit of being rendered sufficiently objective to be told by one to another.
Hence, while those who possess the assurance of actual knowledge of the truth are at perfect
rest upon

--- 312.

the subject; they find it hard, if not impossible outright, to convince others who have not their
perception. The Mystics used to say that what was a revelation to one was not necessarily on
that account a revelation to another. It is the beneficial result of this paradox, that the truth is
thereby rescued from the danger of profanation. Wisdom is really for the wise alone.
It is a favorite hypothesis of many reasoners that every power or substance is knowable
to us so far only as we know its phenomena. This is not, however, sound logic or rational
conjecture. The illusions of the senses are innumerable and have no element of genuine reality.
The brute animal is as capable of comprehending them as we are. It is the human endowment,
however, to perceive that which is profounder than what the senses reveal. The cradle and the
grave are not the boundaries of man's existence. There is that in humanity which perceives facts
that transcend any manifestation. The conviction of Right pertains to that which is beyond time
or other limit. It may not be measured or defined. It is absolute and eternal. Its place is with
the imperishable. The human soul in which it dwells is its permanent abode. It is a principle
and not a beautiful shadow. It knows no change, and therefore is not a product of sensuous
reasoning. The faculty that apprehends it is coeval with it, and a denizen of the same world.
The Mysteries of the Ancient Religions about which so much has been written and
conjectured, were representations of the one Drama of which the soul was the chief actor.
Those who took part in them understood their final disclosures according to the paramount
temper in themselves. Plato believed them to illustrate supernal truths: Alkibiades, that they
were only themes suitable for drunken jesting. So, too, in the Egyptian symbolism, Ptah or
Kneph fabricating Man at his potter's wheel was seen to be employed as a God, or contrariwise,
according to the humor of the individual contemplating the work. In the various readings of the
book of Genesis, while some versions represent the Creation as the outcome of deific energy,
others read it as the production of a salacious goat. It is so accordingly in the exploring of the
mysteries of our own moral conditions. We view human nature as vile and diabolical, or as
noble

--- 313.

and divine, according as we are ourselves groveling or exalted in aspiration. So, in the
different schools of theology, man is regarded as totally depraved, or as little lower than the
angels; he is exhorted to elevate his nature even to communion with Divinity, or to crucify,
vilify and famish it, according as the subject happens to be regarded. It is not necessary,
however, to propound any hypothesis of spiritual regeneration, except to declare that its scope
ought to comprehend man fully and intelligently as he is, and his development, rather than
transmutation, into what he is, from his interior nature, designed to become. The deific
paternal energy which formed him human must complete its work in evolving him divine.

Had our eyes no sunny sheen,


How could sunshine e'er be seen?
Dwelt no power divine within us,
How would God's divineness win us?
[Goethe]

We should disabuse ourselves of the notion that the soul is a kind of spiritual essence
which is in some peculiar way distinct from the individuality - a something that can suffer,
apart from us, so to express it, especially in expiation or as a consequence, if we do or enjoy as
we ought not; as though it was somewhat of the nature of an estate which belonged to us, that
we ought to care for and not involve, because such improvidence and prodigality would work
inconvenience to ourselves and heirs. In like manner should we divest ourselves of the conceit
that the soul and all psychic action and phenomena are chiefly the products of the brain, the
outcome of peculiar arrangements of its vesicular and molecular structure, aided and modified,
perhaps, by other bodily conditions. It is reasonable that we acknowledge the vast importance
of a suitable development of that organism and its normal activity. These do not, however,
constitute the whole of the psychic nature. The protest of Taliesin, the ancient Cumbro-British
bard and sage, against the sensuous reasoners of his time, applies with equal force and
propriety to those of later periods:

--- 314.

I marvel that in their books,


They do not know with certainty,
What are the properties of soul;
What form its organs have;
What region is its dwelling-place;
What breath inflowing its powers sustains.

In no sense is the soul a possession, as apart and distinct from the individual. It is instead
the selfhood, including all that is comprised by the Ego. It feels with the sensory nerves, sees
with the eyes, hears with the ears, smells and tastes with the olfactory and gustatory nerves, is
conscious of weight and resistance, heat and cold, the auras of others, the perception of sex,
through the medium of the organs which the body possesses. The logical sequence does not
follow, however, that because it thus sees, feels and is otherwise perceptive, these organs of
sensibility constitute the soul or any part of it. If the bodily structure shall be deprived of its
life, they may remain for a little period of time as complete in their mechanism as before, but
they will have ceased to act as agents of sense. This fact is of itself enough to show that the
actor is an essence distinct from the organism. We know from simple observation that when
the organ of a special sense is injured, there is no corresponding impairment of any psychic or
mental faculty. Those actions which we term intellectual do not spring from mere matter alone,
as a distinguished physiological teacher has ably proved, nor are they functions of mere
material combinations. Though the mind seems to grow with the physical structure, and to
decline with it, exhibiting the full perfection of its powers at the period of bodily maturity, it
may be demonstrated that all this arises from the increase, perfection and diminution of the
instrument through which it is working. An accomplished artisan cannot display his power
through an imperfect tool; and it is no proof, when the tool is broken or becomes useless
through impairment, that the artisan has ceased to exist. Whatever analogy may be maintained
between the development of psychic faculties and the growth of the body, it does not by any
means follow from such correspondence that the soul did not exist prior to the bodily life, or

--- 315.

that it ceases to exist upon the extinction of that life. Those who affect to doubt, deny or be
unable to know the existence of an immortal principle in man, have won for themselves great
names as men of science, but their affirmation in respect to the human soul comes infinitely
short of the apprehending of a great fact. In the issue which they have made between
Philosophy and Nihilism, we have the choice offered to us to look upward to God as our
Father, or to wander from nowhence to nowhither, from primordial Chaos to the eternal Abyss,
losing ourselves among molecules of material substance with nothing whatever to appease any
longing of the spirit. It has been found necessary, however, to train and distort the mind before
any individual has been capable of this melancholy notion, and even then it is entertained with
distrust and hesitation. The assertion of the survival of the soul after the dissolution of the
body is so universal that the late Professor Draper has eloquently declared it to be one of the
organic dogmas of our race.
We may confidently rest in the assurance that man must outlive the organic separation of
the molecules and corpuscles of his physical structure, as the germ survives the dying particles
of the seed to which it has been united. Being himself the very soul in its entirety, he is
something more than the mere consensus of the faculties which we observed and enumerated as
functions of living bodies in certain conditions of the organism. He is not restrained from
knowing, by their dissolution. "We have reason to believe," says Doctor Reid, "that when we
put off these bodies and all the organs belonging to them, our perceptive powers shall rather be
improved than destroyed or impaired. We have reason to believe that the Supreme Being
perceives everything in a much more perfect manner than we do, without bodily organs. We
have reason to believe that there are other created beings endowed with powers of perception
more perfect and more extensive than ours, without any such organs as we find necessary." Sir
William Hamilton adds: "However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all rational doubt, that
in certain abnormal states of the nervous organism, perceptions are possible through other than
the ordinary channels of the senses."
It would be fallacious reasoning to ascribe such perceptions to

--- 316.

the abnormal condition of the organism, as though it had created them. I may as well attribute
to my window, or to the broken crevice in my apartment, the production of the stars and
landscape which I am thus enabled to behold. Besides, there are normal conditions which are
distinguished by the manifestation of remarkable faculties. Some individuals perceive odors
where others cannot; a Kashmirian girl, it is said, will detect three hundred shades of color,
where the Lyonnaise notices only a single one. It can be by no means an unwarranted analogy
that one may have the developed faculty of spiritual perception which another has not. What is
often termed the inspiration of genius seems to afford good evidence in this matter. "When all
goes well with me," says Mozart, "when I am in a carriage, or walking, or when I cannot sleep
at night, the thoughts come streaming in upon me most fluently. Whence or how I cannot tell.
What comes I hum to myself as it proceeds..... Then follow the counterpoint and the clang of
the different instruments, and if I am not disturbed my soul is fixed, and the thing grows
greater, and broader, and clearer, and I have it all in my head, even when the piece is a long
one, and I see it like a beautiful picture, not hearing the different parts in succession, as they
must be played, but all at once. That is the delight! The composing and the making are like a
beautiful and vivid dream; but this hearing of it is the best of all."
In the sleep produced by anaesthetics the unconsciousness is only external, and probably
never complete. The patient in the moment of recovery is often vividly sensible of having been
aroused from a condition of superior existence. The every-day life seems like a half-death;
external objects are more or less repulsive; sounds grate harshly on the ear; everything is felt
as if at a distance. Conscious of having had a glimpse of a more real phase of being, the
endeavour is made to recall it, but invariably fails in a lost mood of introspection.
The mind, or interior personality may also become so rapt from the corporeal organs as to
be able to contemplate them as distinct from itself. When by any accident the nervous
circulation is interrupted in any of them, the individual regards the benumbed part as external
and separate. The disease of a limb is often followed by

--- 317.

its paralysis, or permanent debility. Organs and muscles seem to forget their functions from
inactivity, and the will is rendered unable to move or control them. The brain may be in like
manner detached from its gubernator, or the will may be enfeebled or paralyzed by the
disturbing influence of others, and the functions will in such cases assume the conditions of
abnormal cerebration. Hence we may enumerate mental idleness, self-indulgence, anxiety,
disappointment and disease as promoters of derangement. Any individual, almost, can be
rendered insane, and indeed is often seriously and permanently disordered in body, by the
interfering of others with the legitimate exercise of his will and free agency.
Much of the weakness of early infancy is due less to the lack of physical strength than to
the fact that the will has not yet acquired control over the muscles of the body. Indeed, it is
probable that the earlier periods of human existence are more or less employed in learning the
functions of the motor nerves and the managing of the structures governed by their means.
Children, doubtless, would be able to walk and run about at a much earlier age if they only
knew how. Strength practically consists not only of tenseness of muscle, but likewise of ability
to direct and restrain the motions. This is acquired by long and patiently impressing the
energies of the mind upon the several parts of the organism till they become prompt to respond
and obey, as though one will and purpose pervaded the brain, nerves, and muscles.
Curious examples can be cited of organs which retain in themselves the impression and
an apparent memory of the mandate of the will, even after the mind had withdrawn its
attention. If we fix the hour for awakening from sleep, we generally do so on the minute.
Soldiers retreating from the battle-field have run considerable distances after their heads had
been carried away by cannon-balls. Individuals inhaling anesthetic vapors will imagine, and
even do, what is uppermost in their minds before insensibility had been produced. Men who
act from habit or conviction often do or decide according to their wont and principles, without
a conscious, certainly without a vivid, thought of the matter.
It is also asserted that individuals when drowning, or in mortal

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extremity, often recall all their past life-time to memory in a brief instant. Experiences and
incidents possessing some analogy to what has taken place will reproduce the former events to
present consciousness, often with all the vividness of recent occurring. Dreams have
repeatedly brought up in the mind what had long been hidden. What we have learned is never
forgotten, but only stored away. Every love which we have cherished, every thought, passion,
emotion, is stamped upon the tablet of our being; and the impression is never removed. What
we know, what we have done or undergone, will always be a part of us, and will never totally
leave the domain of consciousness. We are like veteran soldiers scarred over with the wounds
received in conflict. Our selfhood is indelibly marked by every imprint that has ever been
made.
We may now inquire farther in regard to the visions of Mozart in which all the parts of a
musical performance were presented simultaneously to his consciousness, as all the scenes in a
picture are given to our sight at the same moment. It is not to be doubted that the gifted
composer was inspired. All of us are visited by guests and communications that are not
essentially elements of our being. We are warned of dangers which we have had no intimation
about; we are prompted to action which we had not contemplated; we utter sentiments which
we never had entertained; we solve and decide urgent questions with a sagacity that is not our
own. We may rest assured that there is no solitude in which the soul is apart from its fellows.
It was suggested to Immanuel. Kant, "that the human soul, even in this life, is connected by an
indissoluble communion with all the immaterial natures of the spirit-world, acting upon these
and receiving impressions from them." Goethe declares without hesitation or any obscure
utterance: "Every grand thought which bears fruit and has a sequel, is inherent in no man, but
has a spiritual origin. The higher a man stands, the more is he standing under the influence of
the daemons. Everything flows into us, so far as we are not in ourselves. In poetry there is
decidedly something daemoniac, and particularly so in the unconscious, in which Intellect and
Reason both fall short, and which therefore acts beyond all conception."
The world of Nature is influenced and sustained in a similar
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manner. The planets and their Titan kindred, the stars in the far-off space, subsist and move
under the inspiration of the same cosmic forces. They are closely bound together by these; the
magnetic attraction, the chemical affinity, the electric disturbance, are common to them all.
The perpetuity of the universe is due to the constant inflowing of energy, which is not inherent
in its own structure. Its multiplicity of forms must be regarded as the innumerable
manifestations of force. In a rigid analysis it will be perceived that force itself is the mode of
will and thought coordinating together, and is always the outcome of the pure Intellect. The
universal domain of Being is an ocean of mind, which includes within it all living intelligences.
We are in it, a part of it, and pervaded by it all through our mind. Time and space have no
place there, nor matter any dominion, for it transcends them all. Our mental and psychic being
is participant and receptive of this universal intelligence, as our corporeal organism is a
partaker of the universal world of material nature. The mind of each individual is like a mirror
in which is reflected the thought of those to whom it is allied, and it shares in the wisdom of the
supernal sphere of Intelligence. It is not separated from other minds by the intervening of
space, or even by the impediment of bodily structure, but only by its own conditions. We are
all of us surrounded by innumerable entities, bodied and unbodied, that transfuse thoughts,
impulses and appetences into us. They are drawn to us by our peculiar temper of mind, and in
a manner so interior as to be imperceptible, except as they bring into objective display
whatever operation they may have induced.
In the sacred literature of the ancients, these beings were recognized after the manner of
individuals, and certain synthetists endeavored to classify them. Hence, besides the One Alone
Good and Real, they enumerated orders and genera of divinities, angels, demons and psychic
entities; as Paracelsus gave us gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders. It was regarded as
possible for the souls of men yet alive on earth to attain to the divine communion, and after a
manner to separate themselves from the bodies to which they were attached, and to become
cognizant of their divine origin in the eternal Intelligence. The enraptured conception of
Mozart resembled

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the entheastic vision of a seer. It may not be regarded as abnormal, but rather as an operation
coming within the sphere of our nature.
The answer, therefore, is made to the great question of the Ages: "Whence, where, and
whither?" - ETERNITY. It is our history, that we came forth as from a ForeworId, and return
thither as to an everlasting Future. This is, nevertheless, an illusion of the senses incident to
the daily whirl of change; for we, each and all, as spiritual beings, are even now in the Eternal
Region. It is only the flesh and blood that has no inheritance there. We do not imagine, when a
cloud intervenes between us and the sun, that we have been thereby removed away from the
presence of the day. In like analogy, the darkening of our souls by the conditions of external
nature is not the separating of them from the realms of the Eternal World.
Many and curious have been the conjectures in regard to the organ or organism of the
body which constitutes the point of union between the psychic and material substance. It has
been supposed to be the blood. Clearer views of the matter have indicated the nervous
structure and its occult energy. Descartes suggested the pineal gland or great central ganglion
beneath the brain; and Emanuel Swedenborg, with other physiologists of his time, declared for
the brain itself. Van Helmont found by critical experiment upon his own body, that upon an
induced paralysis of the brain, consciousness and perception were still enthroned in the
epigastrium, and he came to the conclusion accordingly that the principal seat of the soul in the
corporeal organism was there. "The sun-tissue in the region of the stomach," he declares, "is
the chief seat and essential organ of the soul. The genuine seat of feeling is there, as that of
memory is in the head. The faculty of reflection, the comparison of the past and the future, the
enquiry into facts and circumstances - these are the functions of the head; but the rays are sent
forth by the soul from the centre, the epigastric region of the body."
The powers and operations of the soul are not circumscribed, however, by the bodily
organism. We possess a sensibility analogous to that of feeling, which extends to an indefinite
distance. We are able when the eyes are closed to perceive the presence and moving of objects,
and especially of individuals, at a little space away. Every

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one is aware of the peculiar sensitiveness to the contiguity of bodies, when groping in the dark.
It is apparent from such facts and phenomena that the soul, instead of having its abode inside of
the physical structure, is of the nature of a nebulous aura, which not only permeates it but
likewise surrounds it in every direction. It is as if the body existed inside of an ovoid of
tenuous mist, which held it alive and made it organic. This tenuous substance is living thought,
like the body of an angel or a God, and is capable of exercising powers and functions of which
we hardly imagine the existence.
The soul is itself essentially organic, and its cilia and antenna render it conscious of
individuals and objects exterior to itself. A person who is approaching us will be thought of
and spoken about; and he will often be perceived while at a considerable distance. Miss
Fancher, of Brooklyn, when in her room blind and paralyzed, would tell who was at the door of
the house and the routes which individuals were taking in the streets. We are able to perceive
almost unerringly the moods of an individual, the temper of mind, the general tone and
purpose, and the fitness or unfitness to be a companion or intimate. This spiritual attraction
and occult antipathy constitute a moral law for the soul. Trouble and misfortune are in store for
us when we smother or disregard these safeguards implanted in our nature against possible
harm.
Lord Bacon has remarked the existence of a secret bond and communication between
individuals which would be manifested in a preternatural consciousness of facts and
occurrences in connection with each other. "I would have it thoroughly enquired," says he,
"whether there be any secret passages of sympathy between persons of near blood, as parents,
children, brothers, sisters, nurse-children, husbands, wives, etc. There be many reports in
history that upon the death of persons of such nearness, men have had an inward feeling of it. I
myself remember that being in Paris, and my father in London, I had a dream two or three days
before his death, which I told to divers English gentlemen, that his house in the country was
plastered over with black mortar. Next to those that are near in blood, there may be the like
passages and instincts of nature between great friends and great enemies. Some trial, also,
would be made whether

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pact or agreement do anything; as, if two friends should agree that such a day in every week
they, being in far distant places, should pray one for another, or should put on a ring or tablet
one for another's sake, whether, if one of them should break their vow or promise, the other
should have any feeling of it in absence."
It is not difficult to adduce numerous examples of the character here described; nor,
perhaps, to indicate the laws which govern them. There is an energy in human souls which
impels the imagination and other faculties into certain currents, as if by magic force, as the
smoke of a candle just extinguished will attract the flame from another, and convey it to its
own half-glowing wick. The transportation of the voice upon a ray of light to a given point
would seem to illustrate this matter. In like analogy, individuals have the faculty of sending the
mind forth into the spiritual and even into the natural world, leaving the body for the
meanwhile cataleptic, or seemingly dead. Emanuel Swedenborg had such periods of apparent
dying, in which his interior self was as though absent from the body and in the company of
spiritual beings. Something like an umbilical band, however, remained to prevent a permanent
dissevering of the union. It is very probable, nevertheless, that many instances of dying have
occurred in this way, when there was no mortal distemper; the interior soul going away from
the body as if on an excursion, and forgetting or unable to return.
The apostle Paul mentions a man, doubtless himself, who was rapt into the third heaven
or paradise, and declares that he could not tell whether he was in or out of the body. The
trances of the Rev. William Tennant and the Rev. Philip Doddridge may belong to the same
category. The Kretan prophet Epimenides had periods of ecstatic communication with
personages of the other world; as had also Hermotimos of Klazomenae, of whom Plutarch has
endeavored to give a full account. ''It is reported," says he, "that the soul of Hermodoros would
leave his body for several nights and days, travel over many countries and return, after having
witnessed various things and discoursed with individuals at a great distance; till at last his
body, by the treachery of his wife, was delivered to his enemies, and they burned the house
while the inhabitant was abroad. It is certain, however, that this last expression is not correct.
The soul never went

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out of the body, but only loosened the tie that bound it to the daemon and permitted it to
wander; so that this, seeing and hearing the various external occurrences, brought in the news."
This allusion to the daemon or superior intellect allied to the soul, directs our attention to
the important distinction which exists between the supernal and inferior elements of our
interior being. The differentiation between the sensitive soul and rational soul, the soul and
higher intellect, the soul and spirit, has been recognized by the great teachers in every age of
history. It is a faulty form of expression which gives the designation of soul to the diviner
intellect alone, as though there was nothing beside. It savors strongly of that mode of sensuous
reasoning which treats of the corporeal organism as essentially the individuality. The apostle
Paul in his first Letter to the Thessalonians has indicated man as an entirety (*8`680D@<) "the
spirit, and the soul and the body." If we would delineate the separate properties of the three,
perhaps the enumeration and distinction made by Irenus is ample for the purpose: "There are
three things of which the entire man consists, namely: flesh, soul and spirit; the one, the spirit,
giving form; the other, the flesh, receiving form. The soul is intermediate between the two;
sometimes it follows the spirit and is elevated by it, and sometimes it follows the flesh and so
falls into earthly concupiscences.'' Origen, likewise, adds his exposition: "If the soul renounce
the flesh and join with the spirit, it will itself become spiritual; but if it cast itself down to the
desires of the flesh, it will itself degenerate into the body."
This appears to be in perfect harmony with the teaching of Paul. He classes moral
character as of the flesh and the spirit; declaring that the desire of each is contrary to the other
and hinders from doing what is most eligible. "With the mind" (<`@l), he says again, "I myself
am servant to the law of God, but with the flesh to the law of sin." This forcibly illustrates the
summary of Platonic psychology as made by the late Professor Cocker: "Thus the soul (RLPZ)
as a composite nature is on the one side linked to the eternal world, its essence being generated
of that ineffable element which constitutes the real, the immutable, and the permanent. It is a
beam of the eternal Sun, a spark of the Divinity, an emanation from God.

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On the other side it is linked to the phenomenal or sensible world, its emotive part being
formed of that which is relative and phenomenal. The soul of man stands midway between the
eternal and the contingent, the real and the phenomenal; and as such, it is the moderator
between and the interpreter of both."
If we endeavour to distinguish between the two, we should regard the soul as denoting
primarily the whole selfhood. Thus we find the expression, to lose the soul, made by two
Evangelists, and rendered by a third into losing one's self. But as distinguished from the higher
intellect, the soul is the emotive or passional principle, and sustains that close relation to the
body which is known as life. The mind or spirit is the energy which perceives and knows that
which is, which transcends the limitations of time and space, and dwells in eternity.
Plutarch has elaborated this differentiation with great clearness. "Every soul has some
portion of the higher intellect," he declares; "an individual without it would not be man. As
much of each soul as is commingled with flesh and appetite is changed, and through pain or
pleasure becomes irrational. Every soul does not do this in the same way. Some plunge
themselves entirely into the body, and so their whole nature in this life is corrupted by appetite
and passion. Others are mingled as to a certain part, but the purer part still remains beyond the
body. It is not drawn down into it, but floats above and touches the extremest part of the man's
head. It is like a cord to hold up and direct the subsiding part of the soul, so long as it proves
obedient and is not overcome by the appetites of the flesh. The part that plunges into the body
is called the Soul; but the uncorrupted part is called the Mind (<`@l), and the vulgar think that
it is within them, as likewise they imagine the image reflected from a mirror to be in that. The
more intelligent, however, they who know it to be from without, call it a daemon."
The poet Mainandros makes a similar declaration: "The mind is our daemon." Its nature
is kindred, not to say homogeneous with the Divinity. Anaxagoras declared Divinity itself to
be a Supreme Intelligence, of which Gods and men were partakers. Aristotle taught that the
mind was constituted from the aether, the primal Fire or spirit-

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stuff of the universe. Kapila, the architect of the Sankhya philosophy, had anticipated this
hypothesis. The spirit, he declared, originated in the One, and was endowed with individuality
by virtue of its union with material substance. It became from that moment invested with a
subtle body, the linga sharira. He regarded this spirit alone as imperishable: all the other
psychic constituents being more or less evanescent. This belief was also entertained by certain
occidental writers. Bulwer-Lytton has illustrated this latter notion in his curious work, The
Strange Story. A man is depicted as having been divested of the higher principle; and being
endowed only with the psychic nature and physical life, he perishes totally with the dissolution
of the body. We occasionally meet with individuals apparently in a similar condition, who are
"as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed." Of such a type are those who
recognize only the material side of human nature; and they often seem to have a moral and
mental perception corresponding with their gross quality. We may in such a case repeat the
question of Koalat: "Who knows: the spirit of man that goeth upward on high, or the spirit of
the beast that goeth downward to the earth?"
The moral nature, however, which renders us conscious of right and wrong, is no mere
emanation of the corporeal organism, nor has it any bestial antecedent. A stream may rise no
higher than its fountain. The mind has its perception of justice innate, as an inheritance from
the world of Absolute Justice. Being of an essence kindred, and even homogeneous with the
Deity, it has its home in that world, and is capable of beholding eternal realities. Its affinities
are all there, and it yearns, even amid the seductions of sense and material ambitions, for that
nobler form of life.
In the common every-day existence, the soul is like one standing with his back to the
light, who contemplates the shadows of objects, and supposes them to be real. The conceptions
of the actual truth are, nevertheless, not entirely extinguished. The higher nature may be
asleep, but there are dreams. Thoughts pass through the mind like memories, and sudden
impressions come on us like reminders that we have been at some former period in the same
places and conditions as at the present time. A feeling of loneliness

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often lingers about us, as though we were exiles from a distant, almost-forgotten home.
The explanation has been attempted that these are hereditary impressions. We are ready
to concede much to this influence. Not only are we the lineal descendants of our ancestors, but
the connection is still maintained with them, as by an unbroken umbilical cord. The legend of
the World-Tree Ygdrasil embodied great truths. That was an ingenious suggestion of Lord
Bulwer-Lytton that the spirit of the ancestor lived again in his descendant. "As the body of the
child," says Alger, "is the derivative of a germ elaborated in the body of the parent, so the soul
of the child is a derivative of a developing impulse of power imparted from the soul of the
parent." We embody our ancestors by a law of atavism, and are in the same occult way
influenced from their impulses, and replenished from their life. Does some such new
embodiment or atavic inheritance create in us these imaginings of a previous existence, those
rememberings, as they seem, of persons, things and events, belonging to a former term of life?
Then, indeed, would it be true that we are of and united to all the Past, even to the Infinite. The
Hindi legend is thus really true, that from the navel of Vishnu - the World-Soul - proceeded the
great maternal lotus-lily, Brahma, and all the universe.
The Buddhist sages also teach us that every one is under the perpetual influence of a
former life, or succession of lives, which control his fortunes and actions for good or ill. These
notions give renewed force to the question of the disciples to Jesus: "Did this man sin or his
parents, that he should be born blind?" There is something more than poetic imagery in the
declaration that John the Baptist was the Elijah of Israel; and that the angels or fravashis of
children are always looking upon the face of God. The sentiment of Schelling finds its
confirmation somewhere in everyone's consciousness: "There is in every one a feeling that
what he is he has been from all eternity."
The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, sets forth a similar dogma and discipline to
that of the philosophic teachers. There is an order of development from lower to higher.
"When I was a little child I spoke as a little child, I thought as a little child, I reasoned as a little

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child; when I became a man I left alone the things of childishness." He by no means finds
fault with the characteristics of immature life in their proper place. It is only when they are
continued beyond their legitimate sphere that they receive disapproval.
What we denominate selfishness seems to be considered by many as not unworthy or
discreditable; it is the highest eminence of worldly wisdom. It is indeed the sagacity of a babe.
The imperative necessities of existence compel the infant, as they do the brute animal, to seek
what is needful and desirable for physical comfort. A babe could accomplish nothing
beneficial by any endeavour at self-abnegation. Hence, the apostle explains a little further
along: "The spiritual is not first, but the psychic (or sensuous); then the spiritual. So it is
written: The first man (žL2DTB@l, Adam) was in a living soul; the last, in a life-giving spirit."
This is the order of regeneration. It is eminently fitting that the psychic should precede the
spiritual evolution, but not that it should supersede it, any more than that in human society
barbarism should maintain its sway over enlightened civilization.
As man advances toward maturity, selfishness - "the childish thing," which is of right
supreme only in the condition of babyhood - should be left in the background, and give place to
a generous regard for the well-being of others, "charity that seeketh not her own." Thus "that
which is spiritual" follows upon the former state. Moral character, spirituality, the regenerate
life, the true anastasis, is developed in this maturing.
The soul thus attains the power of knowing. It apprehends the eternal world of truth as
perfectly as the physical senses do the mundane region of phenomena and change. It is to this
intuitive condition that the words of Elihu, in the Book of Job, clearly refer: "Yet surely, a
spirit is in Man, and the inspiration of the Almighty maketh intelligent." The apostle is equally
direct and explicit in this matter. "God made revelation to us through the spirit; for the spirit
searcheth everything, even the deeps of the Divinity." Those, however, who come short of the
superior evolution, who remain persistently in the infantile or adolescent condition, are still
selfish and sensuous in their conceptions, and incapable of apprehending and

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appreciating the higher intelligence. "The psychic man does not receive spiritual knowledge;
he is besotted, and cannot know, because it is apprehended through the spiritual faculty." It is
plain that Paul considered that individual to be in the psychic category, whose notions and
principles of action are circumscribed by the ethics of sensuous reasoners. Spiritual things and
everything pertaining to the higher intellect are absurd to such; he is totally averse and unable
to apprehend them from this point of view. "Every man's words who speaks from that life,"
says Emerson, "must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thought on their part"
There are those, nevertheless, who transcend these pernicious limitations. "In the
contemplation of blessed spectacles," says Iamblichos, "the soul reciprocates another life, is
active with another energy, goes forward as not being of the order of men on earth; or,
perhaps, speaking more correctly, it abandons its own life and partakes of the most blessed
energy of the Gods." The Apostle reiterates the same sentiment: "Ye are not in the flesh but in
the spirit, if the divine spirit dwelleth in you." So Emerson says: "The simplest person, who in
his integrity worships God, becomes God." Such are sustained by "angel's food" and possess a
life which is nourished by assimilating the spiritual substances of the invisible kingdom. They
have powers and energies, as well as spiritual and moral excellences, infinitely superior to
those of common men. They do not live in the world of Time, like others, but in the everlasting
day, "the day of the Lord," the day without night or cessation. They are the spiritual in whom
is developed the divine nature, who are born from above, the intelligent who intuitively know
the truth and are free, who are in law and therefore above law, who are a law to themselves and
therefore "cannot sin."
Thus the Human Soul is like the golden chain of Homer, one end on the earth and the
other resting upon Olympus; or, more expressively, it is the ladder which the young Aramean
patriarch saw in his dream, set up on the earth with its head touching the heavens, and the
angels of God going up and coming down by it.

(Lucifer, August, 1892)

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INTUITION AND DIVINATION

"I go into the telegraph office sometimes," said Professor Morse to a brother artist, "and
there watch the operators at their work. Then the wonder all comes back; it seems to be above
me. I can hardly realize that it is my work; it seems as if another had done it through me."
This sublime acknowledgment contains a suggestion concerning which we would make
further inquiry. Professor Morse is by no means the only person who has observed in himself
the consciousness of being only an instrument of an intelligence superior to himself. The
history of the world's great thinkers is largely made up of such examples. We are much more
than tenants of a world where all that is known has been learned by individuals through their
corporeal senses and their reasonings therefrom. "Everything flows into us," says Goethe, "so
far as we are not it ourselves." The inventor does not originate, but only comes upon
something which had its being in the world of causes. "Perhaps it will yet be proved," says
Kant, "that the human soul, even in this life, is, by an indissoluble communion, connected with
all the immaterial natures of the spirit-world, acting upon these and receiving impressions from
them." Indeed, there have been, there are and will be, introductions into this world's history
and activities from the realms beyond; and there is certain to be developed, in may cases, a
sensibility to occult influences which will enable the key to be used by which to obtain an
understanding of the matter.
We may not heed the imputations of deception and credulity which have often been cast
upon this whole subject. If there are counterfeits, we may be very certain that there is a
genuine original. There is no wrong which is other than a perversion of the right. The critic as
well as the sceptic is generally inferior to the person or

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subject that he employs himself upon, and his candor may often be questioned. The fact is apt
to be overlooked that the very capacity to imagine the existence of extraordinary powers is
itself evidence that they may exist. Even the gibe of "superstition" is met by the fact that that
term properly and legitimately denotes the faculty and perception of what is superior. The bat
may seem to have very good reason for repudiating the sunlight as beyond the knowing, and
may accordingly circumscribe his belief and inquires to his own night and twilight; but true
souls, while discarding hallucinations and a morbid hankering after marvels, and employing
caution in their exploration of all subjects that fall within the scope of the understanding, will
always be ready to know what is beyond.
The interior world has not been hidden from us by impenetrable darkness; the Supreme
Being has not left himself without witness. Because we are not able with our cups to measure
the liquid contents of the ocean, or to take its dimensions, it does not follow that the ocean is
altogether beyond our knowing. We view it from its shores; we sail upon its bosom, and are
refreshed by the showers which its emanations supply; we know that bay and inlets are its
members, and that the countless rivers flow into its embrace. So, too, in an analogous way, we
know God. The finite does not comprehend the Infinite; but by our own existence, by the
operations of the universe around us, by the ever-watchful Providence that cares for us even
when seemingly unmindful of our welfare, by the impartial and unerring justice which is
everywhere within and above us, we perceive His working; and also by that higher intuition
which caries the mind from the external into close and intimate communication with the
interior of things. The ideal truth, transcending all invention, is the goal of every right
endeavor. To possess it is to be free, in the genuine sense of the term. All other liberty is
superficial and factitious.
There are periods in the life of every individual in which some prompting or suggestion
is anxiously desired, upon which to rely for the forming of a right conclusion or for the
adopting of a course of action which shall be truly wise. We are conscious of a disposition in
us all, when in perplexity, to seek admonition and guidance from a

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source superior to ourselves. Indeed, the spiritual history of mankind has been characterized by
incessant endeavor to break through the cordon of uncertainty. Men in every age have left
considerations of personal ambition and advantage in the background, and aspired to gain a
higher wisdom and communication with the intelligence that controls the phenomena and
vicissitudes of every-day life. If we approve of the course of the young and inexpert when they
seek advice from those who are older or more competent, we may also appreciate the motive of
the person who desires aid and direction from sources beyond the sublunary region of
existence.
As man grows older he will take on new relations with the universe. There has always
been an eagerness with individuals to supplement the faculties with which they were endowed.
They are not content, like the Carib Indian, simply to note what is within common observation,
and not to seek to know anything further. Even the ladder of Jacob, however high it might rise
in the air, would have no significance for them except that its top were to reach to heaven, so
that the angels may come down and go up upon it.
We all have such a quality. In the uncultured, perhaps, it may be little else than an
instinct. That, however, does not signify. We may exceed our present limitations. New
faculties have been developed in human beings since the people of the earth became know
historically. For example, it is beyond the power of the inhabitants in many savage countries to
count more than five or ten, and we have good reason to believe that with the ancients such
enumerations as forty, a hundred, or a thousand did not imply any definite number. Among
ourselves, however, we have developed the counting faculty to a wonderful perfection, and
even learned to assist our computations with logarithms. Doubtless, also, the germs of other
faculties exist, the presence of which is hardly surmised. At some period such are certain to be
developed and brought into activity. There is with us a peculiar instinct, a proclivity for
fortune-telling, the outcrop or rudiment of a faculty the evolving of which will be as the
creating of a sixth sense. It is an element of our nature, and therefore contains the promise of
vast possibilities.
Lyell and other geologists have taught that there have not been

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the catastrophes and sudden changes in the physical condition and configuration of the earth
which had been supposed, but a steady progress from century to century and age to age. So far
as we can apprehend the matter, this is plausible. We may likewise presume that the human
soul undergoes no abrupt or arbitrary transformations, but moves steadily onward in its career
toward the Infinite. Being endowed with volition, passion, and activity, it may approximate the
diviner natures and receive from them a certain vivifying of its powers.
Man, as to his spiritual quality, is the emanation of Divinity, and as a soul and personality
his destiny is that of evolution. The operation of evolution is to bring into the character and
active life the principles and faculties which have been implanted. The human soul, as it
become developed into higher conditions, exercises the powers and qualities which it derived
from the divine source, and from this enlarging of its faculties becomes more and more
recipient of illumination. We may not regard this as in any way out of the due order, or an
establishing of confidential relations with Deity, but as the bringing to light of divinity within
us.
A vast amount of study and conjecture has been given to the declaration of Socrates that
he was attended by a daemon, or spiritual monitor. In his "Vindication" he explains the matter
himself: "I am moved by a certain divine and spiritual influence. It began with me from
childhood, and is a kind of voice which, when present, always dissuades me from something
that I am about to do; but it never impels me." This is plain enough to person who has the
senses exercised to discern. It may not be so easy, however, for us to perceive the reason why
the monitor did not also incite to special actions. Apuleius has given the reason as being
personal to Socrates alone: that as he was a man almost perfect, and prompt to the performance
of all requisite duties, he never stood in need of any one to exhort him. Sometimes, however,
when danger happened to lurk in his undertakings, he might require to be forbidden, and the
admonition served to induce him to use due precaution and to desist from his attempt. It might
be that he would resume it more safely at a future time, or set about it in some other way.
He seems to have made little account, however, of words

--- 333.

uttered in a rapture of the senses. "I went to the poets," said he, "to the tragic, the dithyrambic,
and others, and found that they did not accomplish their work by intelligence, but simply by a
natural elevation of thought and under the influence of enthusiasm, like prophets and seers; for
these, too, utter many excellent things, but understand nothing which they say." A lesson not
widely unlike this may be found in the sacred records of the Hebrews. We read there of God
speaking to Job out of a whirlwind, to Daniel in an earthquake, and to Moses out of the fire.
But in the memorials of the prophet Elijah, it is related that on a certain occasion he repaired to
the mystic cave in Mount Horeb, and there witnessed the epoptic vision. "A great and strong
wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind; and
after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the
earthquake was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and then, after the fire, was a still small
voice." (Hebrew text) The supreme moment had then come, and the prophet, wrapping his
face in his mantle, went forth to receive the communication.
Very much of this character was the voice or signal to the illustrious Athenian.
Marvelous displays, however glorious, are but superficial and external. The word imparted is
not speech or desire, but a divine entity interior to both. Is it subjective or objective? Is it
uttered in the heart, or into the heart? From one point of view the sign and voice appear to
emanate from the individual; from another they are seen to be from above. The Delphic
inscription imputed to Solon: (<ä2Â F,"<J`< (to know one's own self) is therefore prolific of
meaning, involving all of wisdom to which we may attain.
We can easily perceive within the compass of our being a two-fold quality of thought and
impulsion. We are emotive, passional, knowing and choosing, as the animal races do, whatever
pertains to the world of sensible phenomena. In those respects by which we differ from
animals we are intellective, spiritual, and divine. The lower nature is indicated by its vivid
sense of pleasure and suffering; the higher by the intuition of right and wrong. It irks and
benumbs the better nature when it is dragged down from its throne and placed under the
dominion of the psychic and sensual. Plato has described

--- 334.

this condition as an abiding in a cave with the back toward the light which is shining in from
the entrance: the shadows, which are all that may be seen, are apprehended by the besotted
understanding as tangible things, and therefore as the sole realities. We may not unreasonably
suppose that the form of learning so fondly distinguished as scientific, belongs principally
within this category.
While, therefore, the philosopher regarded the passional and appetitive nature as
corruptible from being subject to incessant changeableness, he described the nobler,
supersensuous, and spiritual nature as immortal and incorruptible, having its place and actual
abode in the eternal world. "The more intelligent know, says Plutarch, "that the superior
intellect is outside and distinct from the corporeal nature, and they call it accordingly the divine
guardian." "For the mind (<@`l) is our daemon, or guardian," says Maenander; "the divine
principle placed with every human being to initiate him into the mysteries of life, and requiring
everything to be good."
We may, then, understand the intuitive faculty to be the power which the rational soul, or
spirit, possesses by virtue of its nature - kindred and in a manner homogeneous with the Deity.
Its ideas or concepts of goodness, truth, and beauty are to the interior world what the sun is to
the external universe. They reveal to the consciousness the facts of the eternal region. The
ideal of the good is the source of the light of truth, and it gives to the soul the power of
knowing. So far as it is obscured, so far the truth cannot be perceived. Only the pure in heart
behold the Divine. They have a life not amenable, like the common life on earth, to the
conditions of time and space; but, so to speak, they live in eternity, they witness the eternal
realities, and come into communion with the absolute Beauty, Truth, and Good - in other terms,
with Divinity itself.
We may readily comprehend from this that intellection, the faculty of intuition, is the
instinct peculiar to every individual matured into the unerring consciousness of right and
wrong, and into a conception equally vivid of the source and sequence of events. We may
attain to them by the proper discipline and cultivation of ourselves. Justice in our action,
wisdom in our thought, and charity in our purpose, are essential to this end. These will bring
us duly to

--- 335.

that superior perception and insight which appear to the possessor himself like a child's
simplicity, but to others as an attainment almost superhuman.
In the scope of this faculty is included all that really exists of prophetic endowment and
foreknowledge. We may, however, consider the perception of the future as chiefly incidental.
Upon the tablets of the Supernal Wisdom everything is mirrored and constantly present; or, in
plainer terms, there is no past or future in the eternal world, but a perpetual NOW. Whoever
knows the present well is also aware of what is to come. It is true that "coming events cast
their shadows before." The present is never stable, but transitory, and always a becoming; and
so it constantly includes the future. The individual brought into rapport with fact immediately
existing, having his mind developed and refined to the requisite acuteness, will perceive as by
feeling what is to follow.
This is aptly illustrated in the Hebrew record, in the interview of Hasael with the prophet
Elisha. The latter gazed steadily upon the royal messenger till his countenance fell, weeping as
he looked. "I know the evil which thou wilt do to my people," said he, and described the
cruelties. Hazael protested that this could not be, as he was a man of small account. "What is
thy servant, the dog, that he should do this great thing?" The prophet simply replies: "The
Lord has shown me that thou art to be the king of Syria."
---------

The human soul itself, in certain relations and conditions, is analogous in many respects
to an electric wire. It will thrill others with its fire, and again will receive from those with
whom it is en rapport the percept of what they are doing, thinking and wishing. It is an idle
folly for us to affect to be incredulous in this matter, and will only serve to keep us ignorant.
Our own earth and atmosphere are by no means the all of nature. However far from the surface
of the globe the atmosphere may extend, there is also a rarer, purer ether besides - cognized by
the mind though not demonstrated by scientific experiment; and in this ether all worlds and
systems are comprised. It is a medium common to them all. Light, magnetism, electricity, and

--- 336.

the entities denominated force and matter are its manifestations. By its agency the worlds and
their denizens influence and operate upon one another. Indeed, we have little occasion to doubt
the existence of means for telegraphic communication with other spheres of being, when we
shall have developed this requisite skill and faculties for that purpose.
Other agencies exist, however, within the province of mind itself. As there are
innumerable series of living beings of various type and quality between man and the monad, so
both logic and evidence make known to us numerous orders of intelligent essences intermediate
between mankind and Deity. Some have lived on the earth, and others perhaps have not. "It is
very probable, says Jung-Stilling, "that the inhabitants of the invisible world, and especially
good angels and spirits, read in the tablets of Providence, and are thus able to know at least
certain future events." These events, and other knowledge pertaining to the world, we have
abundant reason to acknowledge, are from time to time imparted to persons in a receptive
condition who are yet living on the earth. In clear-seeing or clear-hearing moments, in periods
of trance or during sleep,* or when in imminent peril, susceptible persons receive warnings,
become cognizant of facts, or are instructed by the instrumentality of beings** in that sphere of
existence.
In the case of Socrates the manifestation is described by Plutarch as a sensible perception
of a voice, or an apprehending of certain words, the declaration of a spirit by which the very
thing that it would declare was immediately and without audible voice

--------------
* Dr. Franklin informed Cabanis that the bearings and issue of political events, which had
puzzled him when awake, were not infrequently unfolded to him in his dreams. Cabanis
himself had often like experiences. My own grandfather solved in sleep arithmetical problems
that had baffled him before. - A.W.
** "A divine power moves you," say Socrates to Ion, "like that in the stone which
Euripides calls the magnet.... You are possessed by Homer."
--------------
--- 337.

represented to his mind. We may view it very properly as a form of spiritual photography. The
camera is in the control of the beings cognizant of the facts or events to be transmitted, and the
mind of the person is the sensitive plate to receive the impression.
Divination, however, as it is commonly regarded, is a secondary and betimes a
questionable matter. Men do not enter into the counsels of the Omniscient in order to learn
something which may be employed for selfish purposes. If the alchemist can transmute baser
metals into gold, he may not fill the coffers of others with the wealth, or even hoard it up for
himself. The celestial boon is not to be purchased with money, but with a commodity of its
own character. If any one should even attempt to sell it, he would speedily find that he did not
have it in his possession. It can be possessed only by freely giving it away.
We often read or hear of individuals in trance who have left the body and become
witnesses, and even participants, of occurrences in some other place. There are statements on
record by truthful and intelligent witnesses that persons in such a condition, or in some moment
of anxiety, or when actually dying, have made themselves visible. Emanuel Swedenborg has
written large volumes containing memoirs of his interviews with spiritual beings. Jung-Stilling
has given numerous examples in his treatise on the "Theorie der Geisterkunde." Since the
development of spiritualism, abundant instances have been presented that have never
intelligently questioned and may fairly be regarded as confirmatory evidence. The ancients
have also given their testimony, telling us of Hermotimos of Klazomene, who was wont to
leave his body for days, go about the earth, and return. The initiatory rites of the old worships
appear to have recognized, and indeed sometimes to have developed, a like occult
phenomenon.
We may with good reason accept for these ecstatic manifestations the explanation of the
philosopher: that the soul itself did not really leave the body, but only loosened the tie that
held the mind or daemon to it, and thus enabled the latter to be in more intimate and conscious
communication with the beings of its own world, apart from the region of physical sense.*
The prophetic faculty of the human soul is dormant while the

--- 338.

attention is absorbed by the scenes and distractions of the external world, as well as during the
period of immaturity and adolescence, but it may be aroused when the time and exigency arrive
for its manifestation. As our powers are limited, however capable of indefinite expansion, we
are in need of discipline and exercise. It is often more than possible to mistake hallucinations
and vagaries of the imagination for messages and promptings from the eternal world.
Apollonius of Tyana sets forth temperance as an important means for this attainment. "I
take very little food," says he; "and this abstinence maintains my senses unimpaired, so that I
can see the present and the future as in a clear mirror. Divine beings see the future, common
men the present, wise men that which is about to take place. The mode of living develops an
acuteness of the senses, or rather a distinct faculty capable of the most wonderful things. I am
perfectly sure, therefore, that the intentions of God are unfolded to pure and wise men."
Indeed, the darkness which seems to envelop the interior world from our view is actually
in ourselves. We are not precluded from learning anything which it is wholesome and possible
for us to know.
It may not be presumed that we will ever be able to measure ourselves, or what is above us.
Nevertheless an intelligent conception may be attained of the facts which underlie our being,
and we may hope to ascertain how to direct our actions aright. There is no power or faculty
possessed by one person which is withheld from

-----------
* --- "Dare I say:
No spirit ever brake the band
That stays him from the native land
Where first he walked when clasped in clay?

"No visual shade of some one lost,


But he, the spirit himself, may come
Where all the nerve of sense is dumb,
Spirit to Spirit, ghost to ghost."
- Tennyson
-----------
--- 339.

another. Whatever one person has attained or performed, another can do or attain. Every
person must make the path for his own feet. It is his right to employ his powers, and it is for
him to cast aside whatever restrictions others may desire to impose upon his thought. There
will be no progress in a true life except this freedom shall be exercised. The goal of every right
endeavor is the ideal truth, transcending all invention or conjecture - that truth the knowing of
which is the genuine freedom.
There are glints and intuitive perceptions of the eternal verity in every mind, which are
rightly acknowledged as primary revelations. The faculty to apprehend them is capable of
development till we become able to receive in our normal state the communication of the
superior wisdom, and to perceive, as by superhuman endowment, what is good and true, as well
as appropriate for the immediate occasion. Some define this as a more perfect instinct, others
as supernatural power. It may better be described as a direct inspiration and enlargement of the
faculties by closer communion with the Source of Existence. It is an interior conception, not to
be acquired from textbooks and external appliances, but only when the external sense are silent.
We may with profit heed the counsel of Socrates to Aristodemos: "Render thyself deserving of
some of these divine secrets which may not be penetrated by man, but are imparted to those
alone who consult, who adore, who obey the Deity."
In the end, we come to the golden knowledge of our own selfhood, no more an egotism,
but an atonement, a being at one with the Divine Source of Existence. Birth, however noble, is
the merit of ancestors; wealth the boon of fortune and industry. Their benefits are uncertain.
Old age will impair all physical endowments. But the possessions of the higher intellect are
permanent. Then may we emulate Odysseus in the Homeric poem. Attended by Divine
Wisdom (Pallas-Athene) he encountered terrific danger and rose superior to all adverse
circumstances. He entered the cavern of Kyklopes, but escaped from it; he saw the oxen of the
Sun, but abstained from them; he descended to the realm of the dead, but came back alive.
With the same Wisdom for his companion, he passed by Scylla and was not seized by her; he
was surrounded by

--- 340.

Charybdis, and was not retained by her; he drank the cup of Kirke and was not transformed;
he came to the Lotus-eaters, yet did not remain with them; he heard the Sirens, yet did not
approach them. He held fast his integrity.
Boastful assertion, half-truths, blissful emotions, and excitement of the imagination are
insufficient. Infidelity and blind veneration are to be alike discarded. Only the love of the
good is the way to the intuition of the true and right. Then, perhaps, we may not be quite
certain whether the interior monitor and guide is our own mind or spirit quickened into an
infinite acuteness of perception, or the Infinite Wisdom acting through, in, and upon us; nor
need we be eager to ascertain, for now the two are one.
Better than any achievement of marvelous powers and functions is that wholesome
condition of the mind and affections which produces, as its own outcome, those sentiments and
impulsions of justice and reverence, those deep principles of unselfish regard for the well-being
of others, which render the individual in every essential of his being pure, good, and true. We
have little occasion for the illumination of lamps, stars, meteors, or even of the moon herself,
when we have the Sun at meridian beaming forth his effulgence in every direction. No more do
we require the utterances of seers, expounders, or even of prophets, when we are truly at one
with the Divine Source of life and intelligence, and are so inspired with the sacred enthusiasm
that we, as of our own accord, do the will and think the thoughts of God.

(Metaphysical Magazine, May, 1895)

---------------------
--- 341.

SEERSHIP AND REVELATION

"The spirit spake to him of every thing."


- Philip James Bailey

Seership has been very generally supposed to be a faculty of second sight, a seeing that is
beyond the common physical sense through some extraordinary addition to its powers. Its
existence in actual manifestation has been accepted as a sublime fact, or decried as a senseless
superstition, according as individuals were receptive or distrustful of matters beyond the
ordinary ken. Witnesses have demonstrated it by incontrovertible evidence, and they who are
of the spirit that denies have as forcibly exhibited its absurdity. The time was when they who
believe were accounted sages and philosophers that loved and pursued the deeper knowledge;
while some consider those wise and philosophic whose chiefer boast is to ignore the possible
existence of such intelligence. We may not censure these for their doubts, however
unreasonable; they have their place and use in the economy of things.
We all are seers who see the things for which we have our eyes open. Xenophon has
preserved the account of a revolt of an Armenian king from his allegiance, and his subjugation
again by Cyrus. The royal family became prisoners, and a council was held to determine their
fate. Just then Tigranes, the son of the king, who had taken no part in the revolt, came home
from a journey. He was able to persuade the conqueror to relax in severity toward his father.
Cyrus then demanded what price the prince would give for the ransom of his wife. "Cyrus,"
cried Tigranes, "to save her from slavery I offer my own life as a sacrifice!"
The generous Persian monarch at once set them all free, only asking help against the
Chaldeans, a predatory people in that region.

--- 342.

Every one was enthusiastic in the praise of Cyrus, extolling his wisdom, his forbearance, his
mildness of temper, and his great personal beauty. Tigranes, among others, asked his wife:
"Do you not think Cyrus handsome?" "Indeed," she replied, "I did not see him." "At whom,
then, were you looking?" he asked. "At him who said that, to save me from slavery, he would
ransom me by the sacrifice of his own life."
Thus the greater eclipses the lesser glory. However brightly the stars shine in the
daytime, the light of the sun out-dazzles their radiance. The wife of Tigranes was rapt from
any contemplating of the Persian king and his noble qualities by the sublimer spectacle of her
husband ready to give his life for her ransom from a terrible doom. The occult faculty of
seership is analogous in its character. We need not consider it supernatural, except we
understand this term aright as denoting what is more highly natural, rather than an endowment
outside of the sphere of our humanity. The Divine alone is thus above and beyond; all else is
in the category with us.
The power of beholding that the seer possesses is an attainment or inherent capacity
uncommon in its scope or development rather than in its subjective character. We were
reminded of this by observing a locust that had just come to its second birth from its former
grasshopper-like mode of existence. There lay the former body as perfect and shapely as
before. It had contained inchoate the beautiful creature that we were contemplating all the time
that we had known only the coarse, dark-hued insect. Somewhat analogous to this is the
faculty of the seer, which exists more or less dormant and imperceptible, until developed in
some degree from its sepulchral envelope. It had been hidden within the physical faculty of
sight, away from our observation, till presently it extended itself into the foreground, leaving
the commoner sense behind.
Viewing seership as an attainment possible to be acquired by artificial means, there have
been many endeavors to gain its possession. In the Secret Rites of the ancient worships, it was
the prize of those who passed the trials successfully. In the beginning of the observances, the
candidates were styled "mystics," as being

--- 343.

veiled from the former conditions of life; and at the conclusion they became "epoptae," or
seers, as now beholding the end of our existence and the divinity of its origin. We read
likewise of others who followed a correspondent preliminary training, undergoing great
mortifications of the corporeal nature, privation of common enjoyments, abstinence and special
disciplines of great severity. When they are not carried to excess, such practices are often
conducive to health of body and clearness of thought. Despite the protests and examples of
eminent monks and ascetics, we may very properly enumerate with these preparatives the
concurrent energy of personal cleanliness. For the heart to be freed from an evil conscience
may be better, but in its own province we regard it as equally proper for the body to be
cleansed with pure water.
Other agencies have been common that many may regard as equivocal or exceptional.
Drugs were employed to set free the interior faculty and enable it to penetrate the region that is
beyond the common eye. The famous "witch-herbs" of the Middle Ages - aconite, belladona,
digitalis, veratrum, henbane, fungus, and juices of hemp and poppy - were favorite ingredients
in these magic preparations. The shaman of the Mongolian tribes also has mysterious
compounds; and the medicine man of the American forest finds aid in the fumes of tobacco, as
the mantic of the Old Rites did in kykeon, narcotic draughts, and in the divine homa and soma,
which were esteemed as the beverages of gods. The prophetic women at Delphi caught an
inspiration by means of a vapor coming up from the earth, and those at Brankhidae from
inhalations of gas from a stream of water. Benjamin Paul Blood, cognizant that "we are such
stuff as dreams are made on," sought the occult knowing by means of anesthetics. There were
likewise arts akin to or identical with mesmerism that priests in the temples were wont to
employ to procure knowledge that was otherwise unattainable. Some possessed the occult
power fortuitously or by natural gift; some gained it by abnormal excitation of faculties of the
mind, or from nervous disorder, and others by a clear vision incident to advancing years.
Our literature teems with examples of a sight interior and superior to the common visual
sense. Such manifestations are by no

--- 344.

means confined to the visionary and credulous, but are to be found among the cultured and
critical. Nor do they consist of cases remote from one another, but are about as frequent as
other occurrences. There is another peculiarity of equal note: Second sight comes
unexpectedly, with every reasonable evidence of having its origin from some source distinct
from the mind of the recipient. We may not, as lovers of the truth, relegate such things to
classic story and garrulous fantasy, but must direct our attention to learning their origin,
quality, and purpose.
The memorable relations of Emanuel Swedenborg are already firmly established beyond
the power of denial. It is known that he learned of things beyond common perception, which
must have been imparted to him by personal beings with whom he was en rapport. Some of
these - as, for example, his vision of the fire at Stockholm, which he, being then at Gothenburg,
described as it was burning, and likewise his report to Queen Ulrika of her private conversation
at Berlin with her brother - are too tangible and well authenticated for honest doubting.
An example of prediction that was amply verified is that of Colonel Meadows Taylor,
well known in Oriental literature. While holding a subordinate place in the British East Indian
service, he had won the friendly regard of a Brahman, reputed to possess extraordinary powers,
who prophesied that the colonel would soon be recalled to England, and that he would return to
India at a later period invested with a higher office. At that time there appeared nothing more
improbable; yet it occurred exactly as the Brahman had declared.
During the closely contested presidential campaign of 1880, there lived a physician in
New York of considerable notoriety as a seer and astrologist. A gentleman asked him one day
which candidate would be elected. "General Garfield," he answered, and then added that he
would be murdered while in office.
Impending and threatening dangers are often revealed by dreams, or by a subtile
impinging of the consciousness. In 1842, the wife of Samuel Adams, a New York printer,
dreamed that she saw her husband murdered and his body placed in a box as if for shipment.

--- 345.

A short time afterward Adams was killed at No. 335 Broadway, by John C. Colt, the
circumstances being exactly as predicted in his wife's dream.
The Egyptian prophet and theurigist, Abammon, denies that the faculty of foreknowledge
comes from any condition of the body or acquisition by art, but declares that the soul, when
liberated from subjection to the body in sleep, may receive such perception. In fact, the spirit
at once pervades and surrounds the body to an indefinite extent, being much more than
psychical in its essence and transcendent faculty. All spirits are, so to speak, in conjunction, as
an ocean that surrounds the world. Each one has individuality, and yet is in intelligent
communication with the others; and there is a common faculty of knowing that includes the
future and the past within present time. There is something in this matter that is in analogy
with transmissions by the electric wire.
Many years ago the writer was standing at the foot of a pine-tree that was in a somewhat
advanced stage of decay. Suddenly he heard - or, rather, felt vividly conscious of - a voice,
saying, "Step back!" He obeyed at once, moving backward about eight feet. The next moment
the broken top of the trunk fell exactly where he had stood, and with such force as to bury itself
partially in the earth.*
The late Professor Tholuck, of the University of Halle, gives an

-----------
* All that I can say of this is that I know this voice not to have been any figment of my
own thought. I did not imagine any possible danger. It was of the spiritual rather than the
merely psychical entity - in no sense a phantasm, or artful work of the imagination, or outcome
of the understanding. It was a being, or principle, closer to me than my own thought - a
something of me, not myself; it may be God, a tutelary spirit, my own noetic selfhood of and
beyond me. The ear did not cognize it, but the sensorium did. It was an utterance none the less
real because none of the senses recognized as corporeal had been the medium. Let no one be
alarmed: they are gods to and with whom the word of God comes into form, and who speak the
words of God. From fetish to archangel this is true. Hence I heard, obeyed
-----------
--- 346.

analogous account of Doctor De Wette, the father of the "higher criticism," who has been
described as the most unimaginative of men. Returning from a visit one evening, the doctor
glanced at the window of his study and saw the room lighted. He had locked the door at
leaving and placed the key in his pocket. Gazing in the profoundest astonishment, he beheld a
figure, the exact simulacrum of himself, come forward and look out. Curious now to see the
matter further, the doctor procured an apartment in the house opposite. He saw his double at
work apparently after his own manner, going occasionally to the shelves for a book to consult
and finally retiring for the night. De Wette hastened the next morning to unravel the matter.
Upon unlocking the door of his study, he found everything exactly as he had left it the day
before. Not yet certain of himself, he made his way to his sleeping-apartment. To his utter
amazement he found that the wall had fallen upon the bed crushing it to the floor. The
counterfeit De Wette had saved the life of the other. Professor Tholuck, relating the matter,
added: "I doubt this no more than I doubt the God in heaven!"
Goethe relates that as he was once riding along a foot-path in dreamy contemplation he
suddenly met his own figure, mounted on horseback, coming directly toward him clad in a grey
costume trimmed with gold. The apparition faded quickly, but eight years later Goethe found
himself accidentally at the same place, mounted and caparisoned as he had seen himself in the
vision. The future had effectually mirrored itself in the previous time.
In one of the favorite Hindu legends, it is declared that when Krishna danced with the
Gopias his form was visible with each of them at the same moment. Somewhat of such
ubiquity seems to pertain to ordinary human beings. We all behold as with our eyes the person
of whom we are thinking. Much of what we see in our dreams is in a similar way a projection
from our own consciousness. Nevertheless, we do not create all that we then see, nor
everything

-------------
without questioning, and saved my life from destruction that was immediately impending.
-------------
--- 347.

within our thought. There is some extraneous influence.


Many persons exercise occult power purposely, or involuntarily in some great strait, by
causing others to think of them, and even to see or hear them. When George Smith, the
Assyriologist, was expiring in Northern Syria, a friend in London heard Smith call his name.
Dr. James Marion Sims appeared to an intimate friend on the morning of his death and
announced its occurrence. Anna Maria Porter, the author, gives the account of an old
gentleman, living in her neighborhood at Esher, in Surrey, who used to visit her in the
evenings, read the newspaper, and drink a cup of tea. One evening she saw him come in, sit
down at the table, replying to no one, then rise and go away in silence. Fearing that she had
offended him, she sent a messenger to his house. Word came back that he had died an hour
before. Charlotte Bronte describes a call that the heroine of her story heard from a distance of
many miles, and the answer that was also perceived. She declared to a friend that such a thing
had actually occurred.
Dr. Trousseau, the celebrated French physician, could perceive intuitively the morbid
condition of his patients, define the causes, and foreshadow the result. An English nobleman
visiting him one day, he immediately depicted the symptoms and peculiarities of the ailment,
declaring the cause to be a lack of interest in affairs of every-day life. The Englishman
disregarded the physician's counsel and died.
Lord Bulwer-Lytton, in two of his romances, describes the leading personages as
encountering certain individuals and becoming impressed by the presentiment that their
respective careers were in an essential manner interblended. Such concepts may be often
phantasmal, but they are by no means always to be regarded in that light. The connection and
communication of human souls tend directly to produce such an intermingling and to suggest
the coming events to the clear-seeing.
When the body is in a state of profound repose, somnolent, or more especially when
cataleptic, the mind or spiritual essence is sometimes more decidedly active with objects of
thought, and may project itself toward other persons, not only exciting and directing their
thought but actually producing a corporeal figure. Again, those that

--- 348.

possess a developed faculty of second sight sometimes see the wraith or phenomenal form
beside the material body. We may not doubt that many visions of the Scottish and other seers,
or wizards, in which they professed to behold the simulacra of individuals, standing or
floating in the atmosphere near them, were actual facts. That the apparition was often a
presage of speedy death is not so very marvelous. Before the psychic consciousness of the
doomed individual has been awakened in the matter, the spiritual essence may be apperceptive.
The powers, forces, or invisible being that are en rapport with it may have impressed the
impending event upon the superconsciousness, and have produced an effect that the seer
perceived, although the individual himself might be totally unaware.
It is not necessary to multiply examples. The facts are firmly rooted in the convictions of
those who think deeply and seek reverently to know. All that we learn by corporeal sense and
include by the measuring-line of common reasoning is certain to belong to the category of the
unstable and perishing. The real knowledge is by no means a collection of gleanings from one
field and another, nor a compound more or less heterogeneous from various specifics, but an
energy above all, transcending all, and including all. It pertains to the faculty of intellection
rather than to the understanding; in other words, it is not a simple boon or acquisition from the
region of time and space, but an inheritance from the infinite and eternal. Science, commonly
so called, is concerned only with things apparent to the physical senses, and of these it attempts
to build a tower of confusion into the sky - up to what is recognized as the Unknowable. But
intellective knowledge is from the superior fountain, and is the perception and possession of
that which really is. It relies not on cerebration for its processes, but freely makes use of the
corporeal organ for a mirror and medium.
What we really know, therefore, is what we have remembered from the Foreworld,
wherein our true being has not been prisoned in the environments of sense; namely, principles,
causes, motives - the things immutable. Love, which seeks pre-eminently the welfare of others;
justice, which is truly the right line of action; beauty, which means fitness for the supreme
utility; virtue, which denotes the manly

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instinct of right; temperance, which restrains every act in due moderation - such are the tings
of the eternal region which true souls remember in the sublunary sphere of the senses: and,
thus remembering they put aside the aspirations for temporary expedients and advantages,
choosing rather what is permanent and enduring.
Revelation, then, rightly understood, is the unveiling by which the mind is enabled to
transcend the faculties of the external nature - the observing and reasoning powers - going from
starlight into the sunshine. They sadly mistake who suppose that the Divine Being has hidden
himself as behind thick curtains, and reveals his will or purpose by specific or arbitrary action.
It is not the sun that veils his face in clouds, or hides himself in the darkness of night. On the
contrary, the earth, turning away on her axis, conceals her lord from view, and the clouds that
she forms in her own atmosphere darken the day. We need but go above, as upon the summit
of a lofty mountain, and we shall behold the sun still shining and his lustre unchanged. So God
is ever imparting himself to his creatures, and according as we have eyes to see, so he is
revealed. With such knowledge of the Omnific Cause, we may apprehend what is of
providence and the divine activity in general.
The same holds true in regard to specific Canons and other reputed vehicles of divine
inspiration. We may accept them relatively, prizing them for what they contain of the good and
the true. What we are not able to apprehend is not a revelation, nor essentially sacred to us.
Whether it is not intrinsically true, or whether we are simply unable to receive it, is a matter
comparatively subordinate. We may not regard it as the province or prerogative of any man or
concourse of men, however august or venerable, to mark out for us what to accept as divine
revelation. A book that has been copied over and over again, with manifold liabilities to
mutilation and corruption of the text, till criticism (however high and thorough) is inadequate
to distinguish the spurious from the genuine, can hardly be esteemed as infallible. The
utterances of individuals, however inspiriting, cannot well be superior to the person by whom
they are spoken. We may, therefore, submit to no man's judgment, but let every one stand or
fall with his own master.

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Revelation is a state of enlightenment, not a receiving of special messages from Divinity.


It is true that there are many utterances that seem to controvert this sentiment. We may set
them down as coming from the deception of our senses. It is as if we discoursed of sunrise
and sunset, which are only apparent occurrences, the actual changes being those produced by
the earth itself. So, when a specific action is attributed to the Divine Being, it is nothing more
than what seems to us as such, and by no means anything occurring around us. We may
confidently presume that God is not far from any one of us; that he is even now immanent in
the very core of our being. It is our part in the matter to remove the veil from our own selves;
to "anoint our eyes with eye-salve," that he may be revealed to us.
Let us not, like owls and bats, repudiate the existence of the sunshine and only consent to
believe in midnight and twilight. We are endowed with a faculty that is capable of cultivation
and development till we are able to receive normally the communication of interior wisdom,
and to perceive as by superhuman power what is good and true as well as appropriate for the
immediate occasion. This faculty may be regarded by some as a superior instinct, and others
will suppose it to be supernatural. We need, however, both discipline and experience, in this as
in other faculties, for our powers are all limited. It is more than possible, likewise, to mistake
vagaries of the mind and even hallucinations for supernal monitions and promptings.
As we advance in years, we take on new relations with the universe. Doubtless there are
latent faculties and germs of faculties existing in us, the presence of which has been hardly
conceived. There is actually an instinct, a kind of fortune-telling proclivity, the outcrop or
rudiment of a function yet to be more perfectly evolved. "Where Nature is," Aristotle declares,
"There is also Divine Mind." Nature is not energy, but power - the capacity to evolve. It exists
because of divinity, and will so continue in operation until it has evolved that which is divine.
There are and will be intrusions into the history of this world from the realms beyond;
and there will be, even if there has not already been, a sensibility to occult forces developed
which will reveal

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many mysteries. Nevertheless, if we are so constituted as to be susceptible to states of spiritual


exaltation, there are normal conditions for entering them. The intuitive faculty is the highest of
our powers. Perfectly developed, it is the individual instinct matured into an unerring
consciousness of right and wrong and a vivid conception of the source and sequence of events.
We may possess these by proper discipline and cultivation. Justice in our acts and wisdom in
our lives are therefore of the greatest importance. These will in due time bring that higher
perception and insight which appear to their possessors like the simplicity of a child, but to the
uninitiated a miraculous attainment.
"All prophecy," says Maimonides, "makes itself known to the prophet that it is prophecy
indeed, by the strength and vigor of the perception, so that his mind is freed from all scruple
about it." Perhaps, however, we may not be quite certain whether the interior monitor is our
own spirit quickened into an infinite acuteness of perception, or the Divine Wisdom acting
through and upon us; nor need we be careful to ascertain, for the two are one. "Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God." They dwell in eternity, and live the life that is not
amenable to the conditions of time and space; they are capable of beholding Eternal Realities,
and abide in communication with Absolute Beauty, Goodness, and Truth; in other words, with
God himself.

(Metaphysical Magazine, May, 1897 [Similar shorter version in The Word, Vol
3, pp. 241-45])

---------------------
--- 352.

MYSTICISM AND ITS WITNESS

Classic story has preserved the little dialogue between Plato and Antisthenes, the Cynic,
in regard to the substantial character of ideal conceptions. "I can see a horse and I can see a
man," says the latter; "but humanity and horsehood I cannot see." "True," replied the
philosopher; "for you have the eye which sees a horse and a man, but the eye that can see
horsehood and manhood you have not."
This unveiling of the eyes, the enabling of the mind to apprehend the essential truth
behind the screen of the physical sense, the perceiving of the divine illumination, constitute
what is properly signified by Mysticism. Many have unwittingly supposed that a mystic is only
a dreamer, one whose thought is occupied with ideal affairs and subjects beyond common sense
and practical application. Superficial as this notion may be, it suggest nevertheless a deeper
fact than may have been apprehended. We all spend a large part of our lives in dreaming; and,
in fact, that which we admire in art and invention was first devised and fashioned in the
workshop of the imagination. If you burn a house, it no longer exists; yet you cannot thereby
destroy the plan by which it was built - the ideal house which had been constructed in the
thought of the architect and has left its reminiscence in the memory of visitors. It will remain
there, indestructible, always to be "seen with the mind's eye."
Thus, likewise, what we denominate morality is the sentiment and the idea of Right
which the Imagination and Higher Reason have framed into rules for conduct, and which they
endeavor to incorporate into the life. This idea is an entity molded out of the immortal
substance, of "such stuff as dreams are made on." Indeed, out of this substance proceeds
everything that we really know.
Mysticism, we may therefore insist, does not imply simply what

--- 353.

is vague and visionary, something beyond the range of every-day thought, or remarkable
chiefly for being obscurely expressed. It is more correctly the endeavor to comprehend the
principles behind all that we see and hear; to attain a spiritual union with the Essence which
projects all, pervades all, and is above all; and to express, by appropriate and impressive
figures of speech and representative action, interior facts of peculiar significance.
The designation of "Mystic" was accordingly applied formerly to individuals who had
performed a certain prescribed Initiatory Rite. Plato describes this rite as a technique which
had been adopted in archaic times for the purpose of concealment, fearing the odium which
might be occasioned. Some veiled the mystic technique under the garb of poetry and allegory;
others under the form of Mysteries, or Perfective Rites, and Oracles. There was a secret
religion among every ancient people that had any just pretension to culture and civilization.
There were also, very naturally, as many formulations of rite as there were different tribes or
groups. They were generally dramatic representations of trials and adventures encountered by
a hero or divine personage upon the earth. From them the ancient theatre derived its inception,
as does the modern theatre in its turn from the mystery-plays and passion-plays of the Middle
Ages.
In the same category may be included the various epic poems, like the "Iliad," the
"Odysseia," and "Aeneid," which have been preserved, as well as various religious and historic
works of an allegoric character. Their purpose was to inculcate religion rather than to afford
authentic representations of actual occurrences. In this manner, "Orpheus," a fictitious
personage of indefinite antiquity, was credited with the introduction of the Mysteries into
ancient Greece. The Orphic discipline was protracted and searching, and Herodotus declares
the rites to be Egyptian and Pythagorean. It required initiation to become a philosopher, or
accomplished as a teacher, professional man, or statesman.
Much has been written to show that these occult rites were of a superficial and even of a
frivolous character. It was acknowledged that the "Theama," or dramatic spectacle, was
admirably adapted to impress the beholders, the mystics and ephors; but it was insisted

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that little was imparted by way of instruction. Yet Clement of Alexandria distinctly affirms
that "all, whether Barbarians or Greeks, who have spoken of divine things have veiled the first
principles and delivered the truth in enigmas, and symbols, and allegories and metaphors, and
such like tropes." "Such," he adds, "are the Scriptures of the Barbarian philosophy." We may be
certain, therefore, that every initiated person saw what he had eyes to see, and little or nothing
else. Aristophanes might perceive themes for burlesque imitation; yet Plutarch was able to
write to his sorrowing wife, at the death of their child, that she had herself learned in the
Mysteries of Bacchus that the soul is deathless. Plato before him eloquently depicted the
Theama as a vision contemplated during a journey through heaven itself. "It was beauty
splendid to look upon," says he; "and we beheld the blissful view and spectacle in company
with gods." Pindar, who was a member of the Orphic fraternity, also treats of the mystic
spectacles as scenes belonging to the world beyond this earth. "Whoever has beheld them," he
declares, "knows the mystery and purpose of life; he knows its divine origin."
Whatever we of the present day may think of the Mystic Rites of the ancient world, they
were to those who lived at that time the most cherished and venerated of all the observances
which they regarded as sacred. The representations in the Drama consisted generally of
processions; wanderings in the darkness in search of the lost Kore, or slain divinity; mortal
conflicts and scenes of terror; then the finding of the body or its mystic emblem, the
resurrection and introduction into light. Those having intelligence to comprehend the occult
meaning perceived a delineation of their own baleful condition in the present life, which, being
duly and bravely overcome, should be followed by restoration and union with Divinity. Some
of the preliminary observances were quaint, and by no means difficult to understand. At the
festivals of Bacchus, Osiris, and Adonis, which were virtually the same, a hog was sacrificed;
and at the minor Eleusinian Initiation the animal was first washed. The story of the herd of
swine in the Synoptic Gospels, and the manner of their death, appear like a disguised account
of the matter. The victims, human or animal, were sometimes sacrificed by being driven over a
precipice.*

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Everything in these rites had its under-meaning. In the washing of the swine we may see
represented the condition of erring man, and that a superficial cleansing and reformation will
by no means change the moral quality - the animal after the washing being as ready as ever to
return to the wallow.
The crazed demoniac was not a character foreign to the Mystic Drama. It was a practice
in Oriental countries for individuals to resort to tombs and places of burial to receive oracular
messages from the dead.** The contest of Elijah with the prophets of the Syrian Baal, and the
shower of rain that followed, exhibit many features of the Mystic Rites in a form that only the
initiated well understand. There were processions, the dancing in a circle round the altar,
mournful invocations to the slaughtered divinity, and his symbolic resurrection or ascension on
high. These observances were propitiatory to the Lord of Nature, and copious showers attested
their efficacy.
While, however, the great multitude were instructed by appeals to the external sense and
understanding, by ceremonial initiations and lessons in parable and allegory, yet the genuine
Mystics aspired to direct Divine illumination, and relied upon meditation and intuition for the
acquiring of true knowledge. Socrates and Epaminondas were not formally initiated. The
words of the philosopher Aristodemos, as recorded by Xenophon, point out the right path to the
Higher Wisdom:
"Render thyself deserving of those Divine secrets which may not be penetrated by man,
but are imparted to those who consult, who adore, and who love the Deity. Then shalt thou
understand that there is a Being whose eye pierces all nature and whose ear is open to every
sound - extended to all places, extending through all time - and whose bounty and care can
know no other bounds than those fixed by his own creation."
Again, addressing Euthedemos, he says:
"If there is anything in man partaking of the Divine nature, it must surely be the soul that
governs and directs him; yet no one

-----------
* Lukianos: "De Dea Syria." See Isaiah lvii, 5.
** See Isaiah lxv, 4.
-----------
--- 356.

considers the soul as an object which he can behold with his eyes. Learn, therefore, not to
despise things which you cannot see. Judge of the greatness of the power by the effects which
are produced, and reverence the Deity."
In such expressive terms he bore witness to those sublime facts of being, from which all
mysticism and spirituality have their inception: that the soul is of and from the region not
included by Space and Time; that it contains within itself the principle which transcends the
bounds of this world of sense and appearances; and though surrounded by Time, it dwells in
Eternity.
A gifted writer has aptly described Eternity as neither short nor long, but simply an
environment. "It is the atmosphere in which the soul breathes free from the flesh, and has
nothing to do with duration." We may remark further that it is not entered by the dissolving of
ties with the body, but is apperceived as we lay aside and are exalted beyond the conditions
which the body represents. "The light and spirit of the Deity are as wings to the soul," says
Plato; "and they raise it above the earth to be at one with him."
We are told that Socrates stood a whole day in the Agora at Athens, rapt in
contemplation, seeing no one and hearing no one, till at night-fall he roused himself and went
silently home. Is it not evident that he had passed beyond the Present in thought and
attainment; that, like the beholder at the Mysteries, he had been a witness of the presence and
apocalypse of divinity; that he had united his thought with the great ocean of mind, and was in
very fact a citizen of the Fore-world above? Others might properly enough take part in the
formal initiations, carrying the torches and magic wands; but he was exalted beyond the
occasion for external rites and symbols, and had already entered in spirit within the curtained
adytum. Most appropriate and eloquent were the concluding words of his last discourse: "We
should put forth every endeavor to attain excellence and wisdom in this life, for the reward is
noble and the hope great."
In the School of Philosophy at Alexandria, Mysticism took a new form. Communication
had been opened with the remoter countries of the East, where esoteric teachers had
flourished for

--- 357.

centuries. Sages from India and Persia mingled their doctrines with those of the Western
philosophers, and the outcome was Gnosticism and the newer Platonism. There came a period
of revolution, and the enthusiasm was awakened in all ranks of society. From the time of the
Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Antonine, till Julian, the higher thought of the Roman world was
molded from philosophic speculations and mystic beliefs. The rites and mythologic legends
were freely explained in forms more acceptable to our modern ears. Proclus the great Platonist
declared in plain terms that "all that is related to us respecting the gods, their shapes and
attributes, is mere fiction invented to instruct the common people and secure their obedience to
wholesome laws. The First Principle," he affirms further, "is not anything that is the object of
sense. A Spiritual Substance is the Cause of the Universe, the Source of all order and
excellence, all activity, and every physical form." Plotinus, the most illustrious teacher of the
later Platonic school, went so far as to dispense with all ceremonies, and confined himself
simply to contemplation. "Why should I go abroad to worship gods?" he demanded. "It is for
the gods to come to me."
Gnosticism and other forms of the earlier Christianity were thoroughly leavened with
mystic conceptions. These were not creeds, but rather philosophic theorems. They were
founded upon spiritual operations and experiences, with little regard to historic personages or
to actual occurrences. They consisted of mysteries and secret doctrines known only by "the
chosen of the chosen." It is significant that the two principal religious edifices in the new
Rome were dedicated, not to canonized Saints, but to the Gnostic emanations, Sophia and
Eirene - holy Wisdom and holy Peace. A new Christendom was reared upon the foundations of
the former worship. Political revolutions had changed the religious aspect of the Roman world.
The endeavor was put forth by priests and magistrates to uproot philosophy, and the mystic
doctrines and observances, by merciless persecution. The occult rites of Mithras had extended
into Europe, superseding other worships, and now became the object of general proscription as
witchcraft and commerce with the powers of darkness. The Platonic school at Alexandria had
lost its prestige after

--- 358.

the murder of Hypatia. The one at Athens was closed by the emperor Justinian. The very
possession of a book of mystic character was accounted sorcery, and punished with death.
There had been philosophers in the Christian ranks who were also involved in the general
proscription. The term "heresy," which had only meant a distinct body of thinkers, became a
word of frightful import.
Mysticism, however, never depended upon external forms or creeds. It is solely a culture
of the affections and thought, and has its seat alike inside every school or worship. Instead,
therefore, of perishing in consequence of these harsh procedures, it was silently transplanted
and almost immediately made its appearance in a new form within the pale of Christian
orthodoxy. There was a curious analogy in this matter. The classic divinity, Bacchus (or
Dionysos), had been the prominent character in the former Mystic Rites, and now his Chistian
namesake, Dionysius the Areopagite, became the accredited apostle of Mysticism in the
Church. A book was widely circulated, under the name of the latter personage, bearing the title
of "Theologia Mystica," which set forth the esoteric doctrines of Plotinus, Porphyry, and
Proclus, as genuinely Christian. Even their technical terms "henosis" and "theosis" were
adopted in the full philosophic sense, and it was inculcated as vital evangelic truth that the
proper end of life is to be at one with God and participant of Divinity. The seed thus sown fell
upon much fertile soil, and yielded abundant harvests for many centuries.
The conquest of the Western Roman Empire by the Goths and other invaders had been
followed by a general darkening of the intellectual sky. The condition of the various subject
peoples was miserable. War, famine, and pestilential visitations frequently recurred, making
men's hearts fail them; and solace was eagerly sought in religious enthusiasm. The Church
took advantage of the general condition of affairs, from time to time, to establish and extend its
power, finally asserting its authority over princes as supreme above them all. Meanwhile, as
the centuries passed, universities were founded in the principal cities after the manner of the
Arabian schools of Spain and the East. Men of superior learning, generally belonging to the
religious orders, became the instructors. They did not hesitate

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to teach mystic speculative philosophy. Erigena, a native of Scotland, translated the works of
Dionysius into Latin for the use of teachers and students, and also composed works of his own
in forms which were adopted with few changes in later periods. He made, however, an
important innovation on the older doctrine. The theory of emanation - that all human and other
orders of physical existence had descended through a series of hierarchies or supernal races -
had been inculcated by the most distinguished sages. Erigena taught the doctrine of
"immanence" - that God is himself present in all things, yet essentially distinct from them.
Many of the superior clergy accepted these teachings, of which Amalrich, Bernard,
Bonaventura, Hugo, and Gerson were eminent examples. The convents became nurseries of
mysticism.
The common people also were awake to the general influence. The twelfth and thirteenth
centuries were distinguished by reaction against religious formalism, and by an urgent demand
for a more genuine piety. It was generally believed that Christendom was nearing its end, and
that a dispensation or ministry of the Holy Spirit would follow. Accordingly, many
congregations, composed entirely of men and women of the commonalty, associated to
promote the true spiritual life. They were unwilling to accept the dissolute clergy as teachers,
but demanded instruction from prophets inspired from God. From these congregations there
arose a religious body denominated the "Brethren of the Free Spirit." They extended widely
through Germany, Switzerland, and France. The Beghards and Waldenses, or "Saints of the
Valley," belonged to the same period, and are sometimes erroneously grouped with them.
Eckhart was their brightest luminary. He was a man of superior learning, and for a time
had been a professor in a college at Paris. He took up the work of Erigena and carried the
views of that distinguished writer to their logical results. He was also versed in the writings of
Aristotle and the later Platonists, and employed them in elucidating and his doctrines. Some of
his utterances were bold and daring to a degree that, to timorous minds, will appear as very
extravagant. He laid stress earnestly upon the individual consciousness that we are the sons
and daughters of God. "I am as

--- 360.

necessary to God as God is to me," he declared. "God has begotten me from Eternity, that I
may be father and beget him that begat me."
The ecclesiastic authority did not suffer these movements to go forward without vigorous
efforts to arrest them. It hurled forth its thunderbolts of anathema and outlawry, resorting to
the atrocious cruelty of burning the offenders alive, and instigating the powers of Europe to
hunt them down like wild beasts and to massacre entire populations. The books of Erigena
were proscribed and burned; Amalrich and other teachers were burned at the stake. Eckhart
also was called to account; but he died shortly afterward, and the sentence was inflicted on his
body. In order to escape such persecutions, many were diligent in expedients to seclude
themselves from notice, so far as they were able, and veiled their Mystic sentiments under
equivocal forms of expression. Secret societies of this character appear to have existed from an
early period. In this way, from generation to generation, the esoteric philosophy was taught as
alchemic and occult knowledge, and hidden in a jargon and under mystic symbols which those
only were permitted to learn who had taken obligations not to divulge it to the uninitiated. The
Hermetic Brothers, the Rosicrucians, and other fraternities are supposed to belong to the same
category.
In the fourteenth century, Asia and Europe in their turn were scourged, and the whole
districts were depopulated by the terrible pestilence universally known as the "Black Death."
After it followed the wildest demonstrations of fanatic enthusiasm. These were principally
pathologic, and due to the excitement and physical depression induced by the plague, rather
than to any extraordinary spiritual influence. Nevertheless, as is usual in periods of great
commotion, there were also peculiar manifestations, many of them of a mystic nature. The
young frequently saw visions and the old dreamed dreams. Clergy and laity alike, individuals
by themselves, and large multitudes were controlled by occult forces. In the number who
flourished during this period of peculiar spiritual illumination were Catharine of Siena, Francis
of Assisi, and other renowned among the worthies of the Roman Church.
There had also arisen in Germany, about this period, a society

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designated the "Friends of God." The members of the congregation appear to have been
generally disciples of Eckhart. Their reputed founder was Nikolaus of Bale, a layman of
prodigious zeal; but their most famous preacher was Dr. John Tauler, of Strasburg. There
were also with them "of honorable women not a few." Among these, the two Ebners, Christina
and Margarita, were brilliant examples. The "Friends" can hardly be regarded as a religious
sect, but rather as a school of prophets. They were genuine mystics, and, like the Sufis,
accepted every discipline, whether harsh or gentle, as providential and paternal from the Divine
Love. They believed that every human soul has a tendency and capacity for knowing God, and
that the "eternal life" is a life lived in and with the Everlasting, above the restlessness of Time.
Persecution at length dispersed the congregations, and Nikolaus suffered death at the
stake. Their influence, however, did not die. Their books had been circulated throughout
Germany, and were effective in preparing the minds of the people for new instruction. One of
these was entitled "The Nine Rocks (or Stages) in the Contemplative Life," and another "The
German Theology." A century later Staupitz, the vicar-general of the Augustinian Fraternity,
presented a copy of the latter work to Martin Luther, by whom an edition was published, thus
accepting its inspiration for the new movement.*
John Ruysbroek was the promulgator of Mysticism in the Netherlands. He was closely
affiliated with Eckhart and Tauler. He founded a Household at Grunthal, near Brussels, in
1453, the plan of which was afterward adopted by Gerard Groot for a system of Homes which
were established in the Netherlands and Germany. The

-----------
* Luther, however, broke early with Mysticism. While he was at the Wartburg castle, his
associate professor Bodenstein (Karlstaat) began to preach the doctrines of Tauler with great
acceptance. Hearing of this, Luther hurried back to Wittemberg to take the opposite extreme,
and did not scruple to invoke the civil power to aid his efforts.
-----------
--- 362.

members were known as the "Brothers of the Community Life." Thomas a Kempis and
Nikolaus of Cusa were of the number.
Mysticism, however, in its more genuine aspect, is hardly to be considered as prompting
to formal organization. The history of the Franciscan and Dominican brotherhoods and of
several Protestant bodies exhibits an almost unavoidable tendency to degeneration into
institutions with purposes substantially distinct from the views of the founders. Every true
person instinctively repels dictation, whether from society or prescribed regulations. The
tendency to conventionality is the death-chamber of higher thought. Repetition is baneful to
spirituality. Mysticism pertains essentially to the interior life and the fresh experiences of the
individual, without reference to formulated dogmas. It contents itself with spiritual freedom,
and is indifferent to external rites and standards. Accordingly, when the Protestant
Reformation might have been supposed to extend over the same field that was occupied by
Eckhart, Tauler, and Ruysbroek, it will be observed that the Mystics generally held aloof.
They opposed the authority of Scripture as asserted by Luther and others as they had opposed
that of the Roman Church. They revolted against neither, but aimed beyond, at the higher
truth.
The noted Paracelsus must also be included with them. He affiliated with neither
Catholic nor Reformer, but was the friend equally of Erasmus and Oekolampadius. He had
studied alchemy in its several aspects, and was deeply versed in the learning of the East. His
religious feeling was intense, and he based all his doctrines, philosophic, scientific, and
medical, upon the foundation of faith in the Higher Power. His appeals to that Authority are as
forceful and eloquent as his spirit was gentle and tender. Believers in metaphysical healing and
occult phenomena have abundant support in his writings. Although from that period to the
present time many have uttered opprobrious charges against him, yet his views have exerted a
mighty influence upon later thought. Jacob Boehme, the theosopher of Gorlitz, entertained
them; the Van Helmonts, Stahl, Hahnemann, and Rademacher, the philosophers of the medical
art, subscribed to them; Francis Bacon was a diligent student, and it has even been suggested
that the Rosicrucian Fraternity was founded

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upon them. Giordano Bruno may also be named in the Mystic category. He had received an
early inspiration from the writings of Nikolaus of Cusa, the great German thinker, and
supplemented them with the Pythagorean and later Platonic speculations. God, he taught, is the
immanent Cause, the Actual to which the possible is necessary. This "other" is matter. The
universe is accordingly a living cosmos, having for its end the perfect realization of graduated
forms of life.
The Quakers of England and their famous apostle, George Fox, seem, like Nikolaus of
Bale and the "Friends of God," again manifest. Much of the first enthusiasm has cooled, and
the influence of formal regulations seems to have smothered the interior life. Nevertheless, the
denomination continues, an eloquent witness of the former period.
It must be acknowledged, however, that Mysticism has often found a more congenial
home in the Roman than in Protestant communions. In the form of Quietism, it appeared there
as a later development. Miguel de Molinos, its principal exponent, was the intimate personal
friend (and some say the spiritual adviser) of Pope Innocent XI. For a time he was cordially
received by the chief dignitaries of the Church; but the Jesuits took the alarm and persecution
succeeded to patronizing. Molinos was compelled to recant his doctrines, and finally perished
in the dungeons of the Roman Inquisition. The biography of Madam Guyon and the history of
Archbishop Fenelon afford further examples of the vindictive hostility displayed, and the
devotion, exemplary patience, and earnestness of the sufferers.
The Mysticism of the Orient is older and in many respects profounder than is often found
in the West. It is as prevalent in China and Japan as elsewhere. The philosophic system known
as "Tau" is as recondite as the Yogi or any other in India, and it illustrates how assiduously and
extensively metaphysics and spiritual conceptions have been prosecuted. After Brahmanism
had taken firm root in Aryan India, there was developed a philosophic system so methodic as to
appear like a mechanism. The Bhagavad Gita is a very complete exhibition of its principal
form, and Emerson's poem, "Brahma," gives a comprehensive outline of its central thought.
The

--- 364.

G'nana-Yoga, or gnosis, is the highest attainment recognized; and it is substantially identical


with what Plato calls "the knowing of real Being" - that which really is.
Perhaps, however, Buddhism is in many respects a more perfect form of Mysticism. It is
searching in its application, human above other faiths, and practically a religion of charity and
fraternity. Its history of more than twenty centuries ago records a vigorous propagandism by
missionary effort alone, and the establishing of a general reign of peace. Even now, with its
shortcoming and corruptions, it is by no means unworthy of the favorable regard of those who
believe in a profounder knowledge and a universal brotherhood.
But we acknowledge a warmer partiality for Mazdaism, the religion of the first Zoroaster.
It seems plain to us that the early sages of Asia and Greece derived from it their first
inspiration. Its most emphatic utterance, the "Ashem," is a sublime confession of purity or
uprightness of purpose as the highest good, a blessing to those who live in it for the sake of the
highest righteousness. We are reminded of the Dervise at Damascus in the later crusade, with
his torch and vase of water. "I have come," says he, "with this torch to set fire to Paradise, and
with this water to extinguish the flames of Hell; so that henceforth men may seek to do right
for the sake of the Right, and not from hope of reward or fear of penalty." How apposite the
suggestion of the "Oracle," not to seek to attain the knowledge of the Divine with impetuous
force, as if overcoming an obstacle, nor as if it were a particular object, but to bring to the
pursuit a pure mind and inquiring eye! "Things divine," the sage declares, "are not attainable
by mortals who apprehend only things of the sense; the light-armed only arrive at the summit;"
a caution which, if we heed, we shall do well.
Many have apprehended the religion of Islam as too sensuous for any just concept of
interior life. Nevertheless, it had its origin in earnest conviction and mystic contemplation.
The Hanyfs had become weary of the idolatry around them, and sought earnestly for some
knowledge of what they imagined was the purer ancient faith. Mohammed became one of
their number, and was diligent in

--- 365.

meditation and prayer. It was a supreme moment of entheasm that he conceived himself as
commissioned to declare that the Godhead was only one, and that man's true wealth was the
good which he had done to his fellow-man. In his enthusiasm he seems to have hoped that
Christians and Jews would unite upon this platform and supplant the other worship. He learned
by woeful experience that this would not be. He was hardly able to maintain the purity of
Islam during his lifetime. It is the history of every faith alike that men of conviction establish
the cause while undergoing severe labor and hardship; and then the men who pursue self-
interest take control and pervert it to their own ends. Twelve years after the death of
Mohammed the destinies of Islam had passed into the hands of the men who had been his
adversaries. The result was the developing of a new form of religion, and a new focus of
civilization.
How often have we seen a noonday sun emerge from behind a dark cloud, and shine with
renewed, even augmented, brightness! In less than a hundred years after the era of the Flight, a
light had broken forth in the Muslim sky. The new luminary was a woman. The Jews honor
Moses as the author of their law; Christians revere the name of Jesus; the Buddhists venerate
Gautama, and the Parsis Zoroaster, as the Oracle of God. Sufism, avoiding all personages of
great distinction, has Rabia for its exemplar. In her we may find another Plotinus, with like
devotion and ecstatic rapture. She regarded herself as adjoined indissolubly and at one with the
Divinity. In her view, the true rapture was not an exquisite sensuous delight, but an
indifference to and even actual unconsciousness of things external. Even to think of delights to
be enjoyed in Paradise she regarded as a serious defection, and she did not hesitate to declare
the pilgrimage to Mecca to be utterly without merit or utility.
Persons in the state of ecstasy are often insensible to pain, even when burning at the stake
or stretched on the rack. "He is not truly sincere," says Rabia, "if, while contemplating his
Lord, he does not become unconscious of being chastened at all." Further, she adds: "I
attained this state when everything precious which I had found I lost again in God. Thou,
Hassan, hast found God by the understanding and through intermediate stages; I, immediately,
and

--- 366.

without these."
The Sufis taught the physical development of man from the lowest forms of existence.
Every one, according to the "Masnavi," had "seen hundreds of resurrections," passing from the
orders of inorganic things, through plants and animals, forgetting as he went, till by added spirit
he became sentient and endowed with freedom of will. Then the temptations of the world
affect him and he goes astray, till he receives light from illumination and instruction, and
"arises from the seventh hell," becoming the "savior of his own life." This upward progress is
described by Sa-di as seven or eight stages, beginning with worship and extending through
love, self-renunciation, contemplation, ecstasy, and divine illumination, till all minor
attainments are exceeded, and the consciousness of existing is swallowed up in God. It is the
passion of the moth for the flame by which it is consumed.
Henceforth, especially among the Persians, Islam had its Mystics. In 1499, Ismail I., a
prince of Sufi ancestry, became Shah, and till the second quarter of the eighteenth century his
descendants governed Persia. This seems almost specially providential for the countries of the
West. The Turks were in a great measure held back by them from overrunning Europe. This
not only afforded the opportunity to establish the Protestant Reformation, but prevented the
overthrow of the Roman Church by the Moslems. But for this, Rome might have become
another Constantinople.* In 1843, Persia was again roused from lethargy by the Babi uprising.
Said Ali Mohammed, a dervise of rare eloquence and enthusiasm, had become conversant with
the writings of the Sufis, Parsis, and Buddhists, till he was aflame with their inspiration. He
now boldly renounced the religion of Islam, and proclaimed a new doctrine of spiritual
enlightenment. The

-----------
* On the 18th of January, 1662, the "Chair of St. Peter" was exhibited at Rome, and "the
Twelve Labors of Hercules unluckily appeared engraved on it." Another chair appears to have
been substituted, for in 1795 the French found upon it the Arabian confession of faith - "No
God but Allah, and Mohammed his apostle."
-----------
--- 367.

Government set in operation a relentless persecution. The "Bab," as he was styled, was
publicly executed, and his followers ruthlessly massacred. Nevertheless, many thousands of
them yet remain. The attempt was made to implicate them in the assassination of the late Shah,
but without success.
Nor has Europe, during these later periods, been without conspicuous exemplars of the
Mystic life and learning. William Law was active in promulgating the Theosophy of Jacob
Boehme among English readers, and Henry More was equally zealous in unfolding the
recondite Platonic wisdom. In Germany were brilliant men like Fichte, Schelling, Herder,
Jacobi, and Hardenberg; and Mr. Emerson has named Emanuel Swedenborg as the
representative Mystic of modern times. We may hold him in high regard as a master among his
associates, a Plato among theologians, and a prophet Isaiah among scientists. He inculcated
charity, the love of one's neighbor, as the greatest goodness, declaring at the same time that
every good thought and act was inspired from above. In his teachings the spiritual world was
exhibited in close union to individuals in the present life; and man in his perfect moral and
better development was himself represented as heaven. Death was divested of its terrors;
intrinsic badness, selfishness, hate, etc., are all that one is to fear and to escape.
Constellations there are of other names, many of them stars of the first magnitude: men
like Coleridge, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Oken of Germany, Cousin, Victor Hugo, Russell
Wallace, and Philip James Bailey, whom it is a labor of love to quote and to praise. But,
happily for us Occidentals, the wise men are not all from the East. There have been seers and
sages in America likewise, inspired apostles and witnesses of the interior life. The Come-
Outers, plain of speech, and the Transcendentalists, profoundly cultured, were worthy to be
compared with the Beghards and "Friends of God." Our poets, Whittier, Longfellow, Cranch,
and Trowbridge, have sung in a celestial metre. The Ebners of Germany had their correlates in
Margaret Fuller and Lydia Maria Child. Eckhart and Tauler were admirably represented by
William Henry Channing and Theodore Parker. These all, and others their peers, give way,
however, to Emerson, sage and

--- 368.

prophet alike - the man who taught anew the spiritual philosophy, and made it accessible and
acceptable to his countrymen.
Thus, all through the ages, has Mysticism in innumerable forms had its place as the living
principle at the core of all profound thinking. Without any commission to establish a religious
polity or philosophic system, it has made its way to the vital region in every faith to make sure
of what was precious. It has never failed to recognize the spirit in man and the inspiration that
makes men intelligent. It has known the Christ, or Chrest, as did the great Apostle, not so
much as a man perishing on a cross as an inner spiritual presence with which the selfhood is
interblended.
The field is the world; not the objective sphere around us, but the vaster region of
eternity within. It calls no man master, and seems even to be repugnant to classification or
definition. Its office may be suggested by the signal-man at the track of the railway on a dark
night. We are not able to descry his figure, but we see his light as he whirls the lantern, and we
know it to be the guardian of our safety. Analogous to this, we frequently behold the signal-
light of Mysticism without discerning the person holding it up to view. There may be many
shades of color exhibited by the light, but for this there is good reason. The conditions and
circumstances under which it appears are the sole occasion of the diversity. The different
manifestations of Mysticism in the several countries and period are likewise incident to
analogous causes. One does not put on clothing in New York similar to what one would wear
in India or Alaska. Nor do the experiences of one age or individual fit the needs of another,
any more than would a form of speech or style of dress:

"The old order changeth, giving place to new;


And god fulfils himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."

The one point distinctive in Mysticism is the stress laid upon the exercise of the superior
perceptive or intuitional faculty. It is the philosophy of seers and prophets. While recognizing
the whole individuality, body and spirit, as of God, it apprehends only spirit (or

--- 369.

mind) as from God. With vision extended as by the Roentgen ray, it penetrates the dense wall
of flesh and perceives the real presence inside. Hence, although it may not bake our bread, or
in any way assure to us what the multitude esteem as prosperity, yet, by making us conscious of
the true value of living, it will accomplish what is better. The problem of life has been always,
everywhere, and in all religious faiths, substantially the same. It is ever new, like the dawning
of the day and the blossoms of the spring. The progress of the human race, so frequently
affirmed in glowing language, has never changed its terms or conditions. Its solutions has
always been a task for the individual to work out for himself; but it is accompanied by the
certainty that it is the one thing really worthy of knowing. All else is transitory, and will pass
with Time; but this is of the wisdom of Eternity. What we know we possess; for we have
acquired it by experience inspired from on high, which has made it part of our very being,
never to be wrested from us.
The Rabbis tell of a ministration of souls - human souls unbodied in flesh - that take part
in our experiences. They adjoin themselves to an individual, dwelling with him and in him,
that they may help, strengthen, and inspire in times of necessity. They may quit him, however,
when this has been accomplished. There are cases, moreover, where this aid and spiritual
presence remain through life. The true palingenesis, nevertheless, is more than such
mediumship. The pure soul, the genuine Mystic, is affiliated to God, participates in His
purposes, and thinks his thoughts with Him.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1897)

-----------------
--- 370.

LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS

There is said to be a vein of superstition in everybody's constitution. I do not set myself


against this declaration, or presume to pass judgment upon it. I have known avowed
disbelievers and agnostics who consulted professional clairvoyants, astrologists and
fortunetellers, and shaped their action by what they were told. Yet I would not scoff at them,
for they were acting out a principle of their being, and whether they were moving in error or
wisely, they were none the less genuine and sincere. After all, the intrinsic qualities of the
nature are to be estimated rather than the incidental manifestations. We do well to heed the
utterance of Steerforth in David Copperfield: "Think of me at my best."
Even superstition has its excellences. It is not, and never was wholly visionary or absurd.
Its origin is in the higher department of our being, where we reach out from matters of sense
and conjectural reasoning in quest of some higher truth which mere logic and sensuous
faculties are not capable of apprehending. When human beings were more simple and their
spiritual faculties were not overlaid by dense coverings of grosser thinking they felt more
certain of their relations to ethereal natures. It was no marvel then, that they conceived that
they held converse with others who moved and even existed outside of physical bodies, that
they became cognizant of facts and events known and planned in that world where thought is
action, and that they learned of periods, days and hours in which it would be fortunate or of evil
omen to undertake any enterprise. Their faith, childish and irrational as it now may be
regarded, was nevertheless of that mountain-moving character that brought them face to face
with the things that are, and enabled them to know.
In these days when classified conjecture is honored as

--- 371.

science, names are applied as being actual descriptions of things. If an opprobrious epithet is
given, it passes often as deciding the whole matter. The beam in the eye of the critic serves to
aid in the survey of the mote in the eye of the brother. To be scientific is accounted better than
to be clear-seeing, just and true.
In this way it has become a fashion to dispose of everything outside of accepted theory
by such sweeping terms as superstition. They seem to forget when they adopted this epithet
that they had degraded it from its pure meaning in order to make it serve an unworthy purpose.
It once had a place among angels, and meant no less than a standing above, an exaltation of the
soul above things of sense, a surviving when the external frame was dead. It was a prophetic
condition; the superstitious person could communicate with Divinity and perceive the future.
But gods were dethroned to supply religious systems with devils. In like manner noble
words were perverted from their proper meaning, to meet the behest of scorners. In this way
superstition that once meant the cognition of sublimer truth is now only known as over-
scrupulous exactness in religious matters, false religion, and belief in the direct agency of
supernatural beings, or in singular or extraordinary events, or in omens and prognostics. Under
these definitions every religion would be included, not even excepting the various forms of
Christianity.
Nevertheless, when any belief has been generally entertained among the several races of
human beings, and in all ages, there is very strong presumption that it is substantially true. The
mind is not capable of thinking a thing that does not exist. We may therefore, with reasonable
assurance, accept the notions and traditions, that have come to us from the past, as having in
them a living seed of truth, and are warranted in crediting what we hear of a like character,
which is from truthful witnesses. In so doing we may be sure of the approval of our own
conscience, and that we are moving forward in the company of the noblest and purest minds of
all ages, those who were -

"While in, above the world."

--- 372.

The current notions that certain days are propitious and others unfavorable, are doubtless
generally derived from tradition and superficial observation. Some of them originate with
ancient astrologic beliefs. That the stars were set in the firmament of the heavens for signs or
foretokens, the first chapter of the Genesis distinctly sets forth. The ancient temples were plots
of ground marked off with religious formalities primarily for observation of the sky, to
contemplate or consider, or in other words, to consult the stars. The vault of the heavens was
mapped out in constellations, twelve of which were in the Path of the Sun, which he took in his
yearly journey, and they were styled by the astrologists houses. They are mentioned as such in
the Assyrian Tablets: "He made the mansions of the Great Gods on high (twelve) in number."*
It was believed anciently that these divinities of the sky took part in conflicts between
nations and between individuals. "From the heavens they fought," the prophetess Deborah
sings; "the stars from their orbits fought against Sisera."
There were propitious and unpropitious seasons, as the months were reckoned, and as the
"lords of the houses" in their respective turns, were in authority. Hence Hesiod advises:
"Observe the opportune time."
The month of May, for example, has been regarded from unremembered antiquity as
being inauspicious for the contracting of marriage. This conceit has drifted down to the present
time, and it is still entertained by many. There are other notions of the same category, but the
change from Old to New Style in the computing of time, and the growing inclination to discard
such things are likely to sweep the sentiment entirely out of existence.
The old mythopoeic theogonist of ancient Greece has given a

-------------
* Lepsius says that the Great Gods of Egypt had not an astronomic origin, but were
probably distributed on an astronomic principle when the kingdom was consolidated. It was
necessary then to preserve the divinities of the several former dominions, which was done by
including them in this way in one system.
-------------
--- 373.

very complete record of the auspices of the several days in the month, which he describes as
having been fixed by the all-counseling Supreme Zeus himself. It may be well to remark
however, that in this arrangement the month is regarded as consisting of thirty days, and that in
the Grecian calendar it began about the third week as computed by us. Whether the eleven
days which have been eliminated from the reckoning in the transition to New Style are to be
considered, is for the curious individual to determine for himself. Whoever, therefore, is
disposed to accept this classification and arrangement of lucky and unlucky, must bide the
chances of their harmonizing with the present dates.
First of all the first, fourth and seventh days of the month were all esteemed as holy days.
The first had observances in commemoration of the new month, the fourth was sacred to
Hermes and Aphrodite, and was considered, when the omens were propitious, to be the most
suitable for the contracting of marriage.
The fifth was unqualifiedly unlucky, a day in which quarreling and misfortune were
likely to occur. The sixth was unfortunate for girls, both in respect to birth and marriage, but it
was auspicious for the birth of boys. In other respects, it was adverse - a day characterized by
raillery, falsehood, treacherous speaking, and clandestine wooing by fond discourse.
The seventh day of the month was esteemed as holy beyond other days. Upon the
seventh day of the month Thargelion it was said that Apollo was born.* This day was observed
accordingly at the oracle-temple of Delphi and other places sacred to this divinity by the
singing of hymns of praise, pious offerings, and fervent supplications.
The eighth and ninth days are suitable for the transacting of business and the performing
of necessary work. "The first ninth is

-----------
* According to the Symposiacs ascribed to Plutarch, Socrates was born on the sixth, and
Plato on the seventh of Thargelion. The priests of Apollo at Delos used to affirm that the
goddess Artemis or Diana was born on the sixth. Thargelion was the eleventh month of the
Attic year, and began at the middle of May.
-----------
--- 374.

entirely free from harm and evil omen," says Hesiod; "lucky indeed is this day for planting and
for being born, to man as well as to woman; it is never a day that is altogether unfortunate."
The tenth is a fortunate day for the birth of boys. The eleventh and twelfth are both propitious
to industry, but the twelfth is far more so than the eleventh. It is a suitable day for housewives
to begin important work in the household.
The thirteenth is a day to hold back from beginning to sow, though it is proper for the
setting of plants. "The fourteenth is a day sacred above all others." It is fortunate also for the
birth of girls. The sixteenth is described as "very unprofitable for plants, but auspicious for the
birth of men; yet on the other hand it is a day not propitious for a girl either to be born or
joined in wedlock." The seventeenth is a good day for the man in the country to thresh grain or
to cut timber for implements or furniture.
The nineteenth is quaintly described as "a better day toward evening." The twenty-fourth
is emphatically pictured as "in truth a very perfect day," and the caution is given to avoid
gnawing the heart with grief. It is best in its omens at early morning, but becomes worse as the
evening approaches.
The days which have here been indicated are those which are significant. The others are
harmless and without omen, or anything of moment. A day is sometimes a mother and
sometimes only a keeper. One person esteems some particular day as most auspicious, while
another is as positive in belief that some different day is better. Few, nevertheless, are able to
indicate the days that are really propitious. He is the lucky one who distinguishes the omens
and avoids the mistaking of them, who guides his conduct intelligently with reference to what
is boded and promised by the immortal ones.
Thus far Hesiod. As poet and as the counselor of the industrious and thrifty, he was truly
wise and thoughtful. Perhaps this is praise enough.
The distinguishing of days and periods as sacred and profane, as fortunate and of ill
omen, is older than any record of history.
The cycle of the week appears from early dates to have been

--- 375.

regarded as more directly influential in human affairs. Perhaps this has been the case because it
is a matter more familiar, and more directly within the province of the understanding. The
ancient belief assigned to each of the days a virtue of its own; to some of them good omens,
and to others auspices which were less fortunate. The number was fixed at seven and might
conform to the number of planetary worlds and divinities. A name has been given accordingly
to every day of the week to signify the divinity or patron genius of a planet, that was supposed
to have a marked influence upon the fortunes of individuals for that space of time. We thus
have Sun-day, Monen-day, Tuisko's day, Woden's day, Thor's day, Freyja-day, Sathor-day.
The Romans had also named the days in corresponding order: Dies Solis, Dies Lunae, Dies
Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Jovis, Dies Veneris, Dies Saturni.
This is no caprice taking its rise within any time comparatively recent. The ancient
Assyrians also divided their months into weeks of seven days each, and attached a magic
significance to particular periods. Nor is this accounted to be orginal with them but to have
been adopted from the Akkadians, a Skythic people whom they had supplanted in the
Euphratean country. The Assyrian month was lunar, extending from the first appearing of the
new moon to the period of its utter disappearing from the sky. The seventh day of the first
week was sacred to Merodakh, the god of Light, and to his consort, Zirat-banit*and it was
observed with a solemnity that was full of terror. It was denominated sulum, a term which
signifies dies nefastus, the unlucky day. Upon the Sabbath the king was strictly enjoined from
eating cooked food, changing his clothes, putting on

-----------
* Merodakh, was the Amar-Utuki of the Akkadians and Khitans of the Upper Euphrates.
He appears to have been recognized and worshipped by Cyrus as the Mithras of the Persian
worship. Zirat-banit was the Succoth-Benoth, or Suku the Mother of the Babylonian and
Akkadian pantheons. These divinities, as well as "the Sabbath or rest-day, passed to the
Semites from the Akkadians," as we are assured by Professors Sayce and Tiele.
-----------
--- 376.

new garments, and from performing any act of religious worship, driving in his chariot, holding
court, and from taking medicine for a bodily ailment.
There were similar conditions for every seventh day during the entire month. The
fourteenth was regarded as sacred to Nergal and the goddess Belat, the twenty-first to Shamas
and Sin, the Sun and Moon, and the twenty-eight to Hea or Nisrokh and Nergal. The strictest
sabbatarian of modern time was outdone by the rigid austerity of the Akkadian and Semitic
Sabbath.
The nineteenth day of the month, however, was a joyful exception. It was accounted a
"white day," a gala day, a day of good fortune, and the beautiful goddess Gula was its patron.
The beliefs respecting fortunate days and unlucky ones have been extended to later times,
and are recognized in the records and literature of different peoples. The days of Saturn and
the Moon were considered inauspicious beyond others. If we attached significance to this
persuasion we would be disposed to agree with it. We have frequently, if not generally found
both Monday and Saturday untoward in the way of taking any new step, beginning a work, or
transacting business with others. We have also observed a like experience with others. By no
means, however, do we suppose that there is any specific magic or occult influence in the
matter. It seems to be due to the fact that in the general arrangements of business incident to
the cessation of employments on Sunday, many persons are obliged to contract their sphere of
action upon the days immediately before and after in order to accord with this practice. Their
movements affect the plans of others, creating more or less of obstruction of effort. Their
influence thus extends to a remote distance. Perhaps there are sprites in the region almost
contiguous to our physical senses that have a hand in effecting all this; but for common
purposes the reason which has been suggested appears to be a sufficient explanation.
Nevertheless, the general belief must be accounted for by proofs of a more recondite
nature. The thinkers of far-off times had implicit reliance upon the decrees of fate, the
utterance of the purpose of Divinity.* The Superior Power, having determined upon something
gives oracular signs, by way of making it known to human beings.

--- 377.

The planets, which are dominant over the days of the week are significant in such matters, and
to be regarded. Saturn was always regarded by the astrologers of Babylon as of malignant
aspect. The planets, it was believed, had emanated from the sun, and Saturn being the oldest
had been sent forth farthest into the outer region of darkness. It bore the name of Khus or
Cush, the son or emanation of Ham, the sun. It was the Sun of the Underworld, in Erebus or
the remote West.**
This seems to explain the reason of the awe or terror with which the Assyrians regarded
the seventh day of the week, prohibiting every act not absolutely necessary, lest it should entail
evil upon them.
The Gnostics did much to perpetuate this impression. In their Theogony, the Demiurge
or Creator was the genius of the planet Saturn, and the Evil Potency that seeks to mislead and
injure mankind. Their influence was probably active in the religious change by which Sunday
was made the sacred day instead of Saturday.
Astrologists have generally described Saturn as the most potent and most malignant of all
the planets. Its influx is represented as imperceptibly undermining the vitality of the bodily
organism. A vast part of suffering is thus accounted as due to its malefic action. This does not,
however, even if actually true, show conclusively why the day of Saturn should be regarded as
productive of misfortune.
We may make the same appeal in the case of Monday. We are aware that the moon has
borne an evil reputation for malignant influence on plants, as well as on the atmosphere.
Various disorders of mind and body have their names from the baleful influence exerted upon
individuals; but they have never been imputed to the day of the

-----------
* The word fate from the Latin fatum means etymologically, that which is spoken.
** This concept was also entertained in Egypt. The region of the dead was denominated
Amenti, or the West, and Osiris, as the ruler, bore the title of Ra-t-Amenti (Radamanthos). He
was the son of Seb, the Siva or Kronos of Egypt, the lord of death.
-----------
--- 378.

moon. We must suppose that Monday is not specially unlucky, except as folly, misconduct or
accident happens to make it so.
Modern fancy has designated Friday as the inauspicious day of the week. So deep is this
impression that sailors are unwilling to begin a voyage on that day, but are confident when they
set out on Sunday. Others whom we would suppose were more intelligent are equally
credulous. In this case we have an example of a perverted tradition. Friday, in olden times,
was the day of good fortune above others. It was sacred to the benign goddess, the Mother in
every ancient faith; the one who gives delight and success. The Assyrian Kings always on the
evening of the day presented an offering to the divinities Merodakh and Istar, invoking them
with the significant open hand. It was a day propitious for every important undertaking.
When, however, the old worships were superseded, it seems to have been considered necessary
to break the charm. It was accordingly set apart for capital punishments and inquisitorial
tortures, till the odium and accumulated terrors led men to curse the day as fraught with direst
evil. Other devices were employed in like manner to eradicate confidence in other good
omens. The result, however, has been as might have been foreseen. There has been no
increase of faith, and the popular belief in omens and auspicious days has only been changed.
Fetishes, ceremonies, and lucky periods are as much a matter of belief as before, but the objects
have been modified. But amid it all, it may safely be borne in mind that good fortune is
attendant on Friday as on other days.
We may hope little from the days as they are marked in the calendar. We do not question
that there may be a difference in their serviceableness for specific purposes as there is in regard
to humidity and temperature. That is a fact, however, to aid us to shape our action wisely, and
by it we may not be overborne. There is a time suitable for everything in its order, and they
who are truly intelligent will apperceive it. We may not count one day secular or profane more
than another. All days are alike fortunate and alike sacred.
The fortune of a month is not influenced by an accidental first sight of the crescent moon,
nor are the events of a day affected by the casual pointing of a sharp object in a certain
direction. These are

--- 379.

notions derived from former usage. Yet we confidently believe that there are auxiliary
agencies in the universe about us superior to our common ken, that in one way and another
impart to us conceptions of what we should do. Yet whoever lingers unduly for opportunity to
manifest itself, and neglects to take the current that serves, is liable to lose the object aspired
for. On the other hand, the wise and the heroic will storm the very gates of apparent
misfortune, and, like Samson, carry them off. "The kingdom of the heavens suffereth
violence," said Jesus; "and the violent take it by force " As the purpose inspires to effort so the
day is made lucky. Justice in our action, wisdom in our thought, and charity in our motive are
essential to a true insight. The individual is his own star, his own fortune, his own destiny.

(Universal Brotherhood, July, 1898)

-------------------
--- 380.

THE KEY OF THE UNIVERSE

One summer afternoon, some twenty years or more ago, a neighbor in Roseville invited
me to his house, where a visitor was showing a radiometer. Professor Sir William Crookes had
devised the toy some little time before, and the scientists were propounding their theories of its
motion. The instrument consisted of a needle-support on which was fixed a vane with four
wings. It was placed in a vertical position, under an exhausted receiver, and suggested a
miniature water-wheel standing on end. When exposed to the light it revolved incessantly, but
stopped instantly whenever the light was excluded.
The peculiarity of propulsion by the influence of light suggested the analogy to the
revolutions of the earth and other planetary bodies. The radiations of actinic force from the sun
are centrifugal, as in the radiometer, and if there had been no restraining principle, would have
sent them all out into the infinite space, and perhaps into chaos outright. But the centripetal
force, as every pupil in science knows, holds them fast in orbits and compels them to make
their journey in circles in an orderly manner, thus subserving the ends of their existence. I have
never taken pains to elaborate this concept properly, or even to establish its correctness; but it
is enough to note that a single principle must be operative through the whole activity of
creation, while a twofold manifestation of it, in seeming conflict, is essential and constant in
the carrying onward of its works.
This principle is often explained as the "operation of law." But it related only to a stage
in the process of causation. It is the outcome of will and intelligence, and implies that a
persistent energy is its source. The Zoroastrian system as held by the Parsees, is based on this
postulate. It ascribes personality to these superior forces, giving them a religious as well as
philosophic form. It assigns the Cause of

--- 381.

all to a divine being, denominated Zeruan, the Infinite. Associate and yet subordinate are the
two forces or "minds," rivals to each other, and in conflict for superiority, one creating and
bringing to perfection, the other impeding and destructive. This conflict is manifested in the
operations of nature, and has no cessation so long as the world endures.
Nowadays, however, we continue, though it be somewhat in the character of sciolists, to
acknowledge after some perfunctory form, the Absolute Essence; and very many are prone to
think of the universe as being after the manner of a clock which has been wound up and set to
moving, and receives no further attention till it runs down. We do not profit by such
conjecturing. We would be no more successful in the endeavor to define the extent and
resources of the Infinite, than in an attempt to ascertain with a gallon measure the capacity of
the ocean. We can do no better than to hold them in profound veneration. Nevertheless, we are
by no means restrained from enquiring into the laws and modes of operation by which all
things occur with us and around us. There is an inherent curiosity in us which prompts to such
investigation, and we have a measure of ability to comprehend why and how the various
phenomena take place and become manifest. There is no limit in this, except such as is
imposed by the imperfectness of our development, which oftentimes occasions an obtuseness
of the understanding, or an incapacity to appreciate such knowledge. With such conviction, we
may venture to interrogate respecting some of the operations of the universe.
The achievements of the later centuries embolden us to such enquiry and speculation.
We can hardly view the universe as a vast lifeless machine operated by mechanic force, but
rather as an organism influenced by a vital principle. Essence is by means of existence and not
apart from it, is the declaration of that philosopher of modern times, Emanuel Swedenborg;
and the one is not possible without the other. We find the counterpart to this statement in the
world of nature, that everything subsists by virtue of polarity. In the magnet one pole is
essential to the existence of the other, and neither is without the other. An ingenious author*
attempts to elaborate these

--- 382.

conceptions, setting forth that electricity is the operative force that gives form and substance to
all visible things, and that matter is but the garment of the invisible electric forces. This
concept in its principal phases is evidently reasonable and worthy of favorable consideration.
Life and mind are behind all manifestations and the analogous statement is made in the New
Testament in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "By faith we cognize that existing things are set in
order by the permeating (rema) of Divinity, so that the things which are visible have not come
into existence from those which are apparent to sense."
Although we may not be quite ready to accept without qualification all that is suggested
by reputed scientists in relation to these subjects, it appears reasonable that the universe is the
product of electric forces, and that its various operations are carried on unceasingly through
their agency. The negative something called "matter"** cannot be intelligently comprehended
except from such a point of view. Boscovich, the eminent Italian savant affirmed that in the
last analysis, matter consisted of points of dynamic force. Faraday regarded this as capable of
being demonstrated. It is disputed, however, by other scientists of different habits of thinking,
one of whom affirms that the atom has the power to assume form and

------------
* George W. Calder: The Universe an Electric Organism.
** Emanuel Swedenborg describes matter as a sort of debris of spirit, resulting from the
privation of vital energy. "There are three atmospheres, both in the spiritual and natural
world," says he. "These are separate from each other according to degrees of altitude, and in
their progress toward lower things, they decrease in activity according to degrees of breadth.
And since atmospheres in their progress toward lower things decrease in activity it follows that
they constantly become dense and inert, and finally in outmost become so dense and inert as to
be no longer atmospheres but substances at rest, and in the natural world fixed like those on
earth that are called matters. Such is the origin of substances and matters." - Angelic Wisdom
Concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom, Page 305.
------------
--- 383.

to create form, and that matter and force can not be transformed into each other. This may be
correct, so far as present scientific knowledge extends, but further demonstration is to be
desired. We may, however, regard the question thus far as abstract.
The assumptions which have been made are not to be disputed because they are not duly
demonstrated. The human mind is capable of conceptions and intuitions that may not be
scientifically demonstrable, but nevertheless are true.
It may be presumptuous, but it does not seem wonderful that with the later discoveries
and demonstrations of electricity, it has been imagined that in this agent the Key of the
Universe has been found. As the outcome and manifestation of the One Mind and Energy it is
logically evident that unity extends through every department of the creation. One agency must
be present accordingly everywhere. What little is known of the nature of electricity, seems to
warrant the supposition that it is that agency. In the characteristics of positive and negative, the
duality which exists universally is strikingly displayed. It is inferable therefore that electricity
is in a peculiar sense, the creative and governing energy of Deity. That something which we
call life, but which we cannot describe except negatively exhibits various phenomena which we
recognize as electric. Observing these facts, and venturing to make the deductions which are
thus suggested we may not only regard the universe as an organism, but consider electricity as
its organizer and sustainer. The negative element, matter, is evidently the product of electric
force, and all the operations of the universe are carried on by virtue of electric propulsion,
qualified and held in place and order by magnetic attraction. So far as we know, there may be
solar systems coming into existence and others going out; or it may be, as seems more easy to
imagine and comprehend, that the universe is sempiternal with its Author.
The phenomena of heat and light which are so essential to our mundane existence, are
attributed to the sun. Nevertheless, in the sense by which we commonly understand things, this
is an illusion. Every ascension made by a balloon, or by the climbing of a mountain, leaves
warmth woefully behind; and the peaks capped with snow
in summer time afford irrefutable testimony to the most obtuse

--- 384.

understanding. It is unequivocally certain that the space occupied by our solar system through
which our earth and the other planets run their course is absolutely cold. In such case the sun
can by no means be regarded as a central mass of fire heating up space, fed perhaps from
comets and meteorolites, and so destined to burn out at some future period, leaving all the
tributary planets and their inhabitants hopelessly to perish from cold.
The phenomena of light is parallel with that of heat. It can hardly be set forth as an
emanation, and so far as we know all the space between the sun, planets and other bodies in the
celestial infinity, is dark as fabled Erebus.
We learn, however, that the emanations from the sun are of various intensity and quality.
When they become intermingled with irradiations from the earth, there are different phenomena
manifested, some known as heat, others as light, while others are not thus vividly apparent to
the sense. But the last are revealed by the photographic plate, and it may be that they are
impressing pictures upon the walls around us of what we are saying and doing, which some
future scientific discovery may bring into plain observation. This property of radiant energy
thus develops in our atmosphere of heat, light and chemical phenomena, and these are
produced here in the atmosphere of the earth from their joint operation. The actinic rays
coming in different degrees of intensity and directness, effect resultant variations in the
sensations, of warmth, light, and other phenomena.
It has been shown that light coming upon an object presses upon it with a definite degree
of weight. Another discovery, far more far-reaching and revolutionary postulates that there
exist in every atom of matter particles a thousand times smaller than matter. These are the ions
or electrons of recent scientific discovery. Each of them is electric, and it has been conjectured
that they are either electricity itself or its carrier. These electrons constitute the fourth form of
matter which Sir William Crookes has promulgated. By their agency every function of life is
performed, every operation in the realm of nature, every motion and revolution of the globes in
the sky. The

--- 385.

Marconi-graph is successful by their aid, and its inventor may truly be said to have harnessed
the lightning.
The discovery of radium for a season set the scientific world agog. It emits heat, light
and actinic force and yet undergoes no perceptible change or waste of substance; and it
exhibits an energy so powerful that Sir William Crookes estimated that a gram was enough to
lift the whole British Navy to the summit of the highest mountain in Scotland. Lord Kelvin
surmises that it will, when fully investigated and exploited, overturn the whole doctrine of
conservation of energy and correlation of forces. "Nevertheless, the foundation of God
standeth sure."
As every existing thing is permeated by electric energy, it may be remarked that
everything is luminous. The bat and the owl see in places that are dark to us, while the bright
sun of noonday makes objects invisible to them. Our own bodies, opaque as they are, emit rays
of light which animals can perceive in the night. Both light and sound are relative; the eyes
that can see and the ears which can hear are accountable for the recognition of both.
Pythagoras taught that the heavenly bodies moved in their spiral courses in accordance with the
notes of music; so that, if we had ears properly attuned we might be able to hear "when the
morning stars sang together." But what a storm of discordancies would then make life on earth
unendurable. Even the imperfections of our senses have their compensations.
This polarity is admirably exhibited in the vegetable kingdom. The seed is deposited in
the earth, and as it germinates, the plumule goes upward, and radicle downward. The law of
positive and negative rules. Every root and every branch of the tree is guided by the same law;
and in the coniferous trees, they come but with a mathematical regularity, at prescribed
distances apart and each in its proper direction.
If the various celestial worlds are floating in a region of intense cold, they are solids, and
by no means composed of molten elements. The sun, that mighty magnet that holds the planets
in their orbits while sending actinic emanations to them all, forcing them into motion, must be
itself necessarily what the philosopher Anaxagoras declared, a

--- 386.

stone. The earth is also of similar material. There are doubtless electric currents running
through it in various directions heating and chilling as they go. For example in the Comstock
mine in Nevada, in one section, over two thousand feet below the surface, it is warm and
increases in warmth the lower the descent, in another section some thirty-five hundred feet
below it is very cool. Such diversities are simply analogous to what is observed in the
atmosphere at different points.
The ancient philosophers evidently had a knowledge and cognizance of this agent. They
designated ether an igneous air, and wrote of it as a special form of atmosphere. In their
scientific fabric, a cube at the bottom denoted the water; a globe next was the symbol of the
earth; then was the crescent to indicate air and a lozenge to denote fire. The aether was
beyond, alone and yet permeating all these. They wrote of it sometimes as a superior form of
atmosphere impregnated with life, in which the gods and celestial powers had their abode; yet
which was so subtle and refined as to penetrate and permeate everything in existence. It has
also even been conceived to be the divine spirit, Deity itself, the omnipotent Zeus, the ever-
present Indra, the celestial blue.
Thus the modern steadily moves on to rectify the field of the ancient philosophers.
However loudly they may decry the men and wisdom of the past and boast of the grand
discoveries and condition of later times, it is often but a recurring of the former achievements,
the serpent with the tail in its mouth. The divine returns upon itself.
Francis Grierson remarks: "So far as we know, electricity is the soul of form. What we
call brain-waves have an analogy to electric waves. We are being ruled by the seemingly
impossible. The day is not far distant when the science of the mind will treat material science
as a plaything, and the spiritual power of intellect will kill Mammon like the stroke of an
electric bolt, and brute power succumb to soul-force."
"Science may yet stumble upon the soul," says Sir William Crookes. That would be
wonderful, for dissectors of the human body do not even find its lurking place. But let us hope
while "the lamp holds out to burn."

--- 387.

"Who nobly does must nobly think,


The soul that soars can never sink,
And man's a strange connecting link
Between frail dust and Deity."

(The Word, Vol. 3, pp. 197-202, July, 1906)

----------------------
--- 388.
WHY GHOSTS APPEAR?

Vision and visibility are matters not thoroughly understood. Nowhere is there uniformity
of power. There is color for instance; one person will correctly discriminate where another
will confound various hues. A Kashmirian girl, we are told, will perceive and arrange three
hundred distinct shades in a textile fabric, where the Lyonnaise can descry but a single tint.
The meridian of the day is our criterion of sunlight; but the owl prefers the more luminous
midnight. It is all a matter of comparison, as we are compelled to acknowledge. Pure light is
itself invisible; hence the ancient Chaos where only Night existed, was but the creation of
schoolmen. Really, it was not, and could not be; the All which included all, was always light.
The night-side of Nature is the daytime of the soul.
It is often the practice to treat all concepts as well as examples of preternatural
manifestation as delusion and hallucination. Philosophy, which was once considered as
relating to the things that are, is now regarded by certain scientific wise-acres, as an
orthodoxly-arranged conglomerate of what has been scientifically observed; and wisdom,
which was anciently revered as being the truth concerning real being, is now only set down as a
cunning wariness. It is the having of eyes to see on the dark side alone.
Herbert Spencer asserts that any world-wide belief, which has been persistently
entertained throughout past ages, may be assumed as having a foundation in truth. The one
persistent belief of archaic time, which has pervaded all the world religions, the faiths and
philosophies of every people, has been the existence of ghosts. All races of human kind speak
alike - Hindu - and German; Semite and Aethiopian; African and Australian; and Malay and
American. "The dead still live," said Ossian, "for we have seen their ghosts." The

--- 389.

disciples of Pythagoras were never willing to believe that there was an individual living who
had not beheld a demon. The faith in spirits and spirituality transcended all other knowledge.
How curiously it sounds to be told that hysteria and nervous disturbance are the cause of
apparitions; that there are innumerable varieties and gradations of living animals between man
and the nomad, but that the infinite beyond is an unpeopled void! Science may explore the
field of phenomena, but the world of actual living entity, is only the realm of superstition. Aye,
be it so. In super-stition we descry neither illusion nor delusion, but a standing upon the
immovable foundation of essential truth! It is the degradation of the human intellect which
gave the word any other meaning.
There is a faculty of the mind which enables the forming of images from ideas, rendering
them objective like memories invested with visible substance. William Blake, the artist, would
fix in his mind the features of a person who was sitting for a picture, and after that, when in a
proper mood and condition, would reproduce the form and lineaments so accurately as to be
able to make the simulacrum answer the purpose of further sittings. Probably the image left on
the retina of his eye, had become a negative, as in the camera of the photographer and so
enabled him to do this.
All visions are not created entirely by the projecting of ideas from the interior
consciousness. The world beyond our physical ken, is as full of living and intelligent beings as
the one we daily encounter. It is in a degree subjective to us, yet distinct. The same faculty
which enabled Blake to evolve anew the form and figure of his sister, will also make visible the
shape of such of these beings as may impress themselves upon the interior consciousness. In
order to do this there is usually some strong motive on the part of the other, as well as the
peculiar condition of the seer. One class of such incentives proceeds from kinship. The same
affections which characterize the living, are equally vivid in the world beyond; and so, very
often those whom we account dead are active around the living. So vivid was this concept with
the more primitive people, that every family invoked and made gifts to its patriarchal ancestor,
as a demon or divinity, to aid, protect and even counsel the members. The old serpent-worship,
phallism

--- 390.

or other symbologies, as well as tutelary divinities, had their origin in this idea. Voices
perceived interiorally, and even heard as from without, were not uncommon. Sometimes the
protecting spirit was in a manner visible - not to all, but to particular individuals. Friendship of
a close, personal character would also favor this seeing of demons.
Other motives, not always so worthy, would carry with them the power of rendering the
spectral appearance visible. No one crosses the boundary line of the earth-life, and is made
better or poorer by the change. If selfish, sordid, or avaricious, the same sentiments abide, and
tend to keep the person in the neighborhood of the object of his inordinate passion. The
disposition to invoke the aid of living individuals, will operate to induce him to seek avenues of
communication, some of which will be so imperceptible, as to make the obsessed suppose the
manifestation personal and subjective, while others will even result in actual apparitions. In
this case, a vapor or nerve spirit envelopes the other and renders it visible. This is not so very
marvelous; these personalities are about us just as much when we are not aware of it, as when
we are vividly conscious. The very air is alive with forces, that blend more or less with our
physical conditions. The presence of these who once lived here like ourselves is no more
remarkable. Every religion that was ever cherished by man, and even the religion of the future,
is an outcome of this fact.
The human faculty by which these things are perceived, is dormant in some and vivid in
others, but exists in every immortal being. "The soul is in a degree prophetic," says Socrates.
According to Novalis, the seer is for the moment of vision, magnetic. There are persons, it is
known, who can at times produce that quality in metal; and even change the properties of
water or drugs by contemplating them. Presentiment and sensitiveness are psychical, but will
not alone come up to seership and clairvoyance; the inner mind enables this.
An idea or image which is vivid in one person's mind, will be thought or witnessed as an
objective reality by another who is en rapport or close sympathy. "Apparitions of persons,
places, and even buildings, will be seen as actually before the eyes. Persons often at

--- 391.

a distance, will communicate to others or make them know or witness what they themselves are
about. Often this will be done by inducing dreams; because, when the external senses are
locked up the interior faculties may be more easily reached. Persons dying have the
remarkable power of making their voice audible to others, and even of becoming visible to
them. The phosphoric emanation of the nervous system, may be in some manner accountable
for this phenomenon. It is idle to declaim against all this as vagary and hallucination. Prof.
Graham Bell makes his voice audible at several hundred feet distance by the agency of a
sunbeam; and neither doppelganging, second sights, wraith visions nor other like displays, are
much more wonderful.
Few ghosts have been given a resting-place in the Bible. The compilers and redactors
permitted "angel's visits,'' but seem to have euhemerized the ancestral and other spirits into
sages and patriarchs or sheiks of tribes. A few, however, are left to preserve the memory of the
race. The Obeah woman at the spring of Dura evoked the prophet Samuel from the
underworld, so that Saul might obtain an augury. In this case the earnest desire of the King,
reaching towards the other as with a death-gripe, drew him into exterior perception, as friction
evolves caloric in wood. Elijah wrote a letter after going to heaven; Eliphaz, the friend of Job,
saw a spirit and heard its voice; though we, like Jeremiah, would call it a "vision from his own
heart." Jesus is reputed to have held an interview with Moses or Elias. One or two other
analogous occurrences are reported.
Apparitions or empousae were characteristic of the Eleusinian initiations. Some of the
manifestations appear to have been produced by theatrical machinery. Perhaps others were
made visible by the magic draught, which each neophyte was required to swallow. Ancient
priests and hierophants were skillful in such compounds and distillments. The Vedic Soma, the
Aryan Haoma, the Akkadian nectar, and the Bacchic wine, were all magical. I doubt there
being any alcoholic brewing about any of them. A brain saturated with the crude vapor of
alcohol, or the fumes of unwholesome and undigested food, or sensualized in any other way,
would come short of clear thought or vision. But such herbs as aconite, atropa, cannabis,

--- 392.

hellebore, mandragora and certain spicery were employed; and it is a curious fact that many of
the old magical drugs employed to promote clairvoyance and mystic dreaming, have in later
times appeared in the pharmacopaeias.
Many of the apparitions seem to have been due to a morbid anxiety, or some infatuation
about things or persons. The prevalent beliefs and even theologies which were cherished
during lifetime, are often avowed by their ghosts. Any dogma, however absurd, can be
supported by testimony thus procured, and overthrown in like manner. But, more frequently,
the ghost or spirit is magnetized by the seer or intermediary, and speaks or suspires what he
would like or expect. Anciently when the proper entombing of the dead was regarded as a vital
matter, spectres would beset the living in order to obtain the rites of sepulture and the
customary offerings of food and drink. Some, whose bodies had been mutilated or torn to
pieces, would beseech the restoration of the missing parts. When one religion supplanted
another, ghosts of the former faith appeared to encourage unconvinced persons to resist the
innovation. The witchcraft of the Middle Ages, which in its former character of wisdom-craft
had been honored, was thus the most formidable antagonist of the Church for centuries.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew took place in Paris in 1580, on the accession of the
nuptials of the first Bourbon king, then Duke of Navarre. Admiral Coligni, the chief of the
Protestants of France, and a statesman of rare ability, was then assassinated. He was afterwards
perceived by a seer, years before the French Revolution, engaged actively in preparing for that
event. Thus did "coming events cast their shadows before."
I have alluded to the preternatural sympathy often existing between persons of kindred
blood. Such feel and think alike simultaneously, and are affected by similar impulses and
disorders, even when at great distances apart. Sometimes wives and husbands have a like
common nature, and are prophets to each other. Charlotte Bronte declared that the audible call
and response of Rochester and Jane Eyre were recorded occurrences. When George Smith, the
Assyrialogist, was dying in Hieropolis, a friend in London

--- 393.

heard his own name called by him in distinct voice. The deceased father of the Duke of
Buckingham, the unscrupulous favorite of Charles I, visited a college friend repeatedly, and
constrained him to wait upon the Duke with a warning to change his course or be killed. The
Duke disregarded the appeal and was assassinated some months later. At the death of Dante,
thirteen cantos of the Divine Comedy could not be found. About eight months afterwards, the
poet appeared to his son Jacopo, and told him that he still lived. Leading the young man to his
former sleeping-chamber, he touched a partition and told him that the desired matter was there.
Next day the missing manuscripts were found as indicated, moldy with dampness. On the night
of the 1st of February, 1733, Augustus II, Saxon King of Poland, appeared to Field Marshal
Von Grumbkow, and announced that he had expired at that moment at Warsaw. Examples of
this sort can be cited indefinitely.
In short, ghosts appear for the purpose of procuring some fancied comfort or advantage
for themselves or others to whom they are in some way allied. There seems to be generally a
breath of earth, a soil or taint about them, in these cases. It requires peculiar conditions of body
and atmosphere as well as of mind, to enable one to see them. Fasting, seclusion,
contemplation, the use of some peculiar drug or beverage, are often important adjuncts. It is
not exceptional that persons of minor account are favored with the spectacle, while others more
concerned are excluded. Evocation or conjuring will sometimes rouse up the denizens of the
other world; but oftener, I suspect, the voice or apparition produced is counterfeit, even duping
the seer himself. It appears to me that very many of the utterances, materializations and other
ghostial displays are evolved from the persons witnessing them; and I must regard them as
outside the domain of a true spirituality. The kingdom of God, we may be sure, does not come
with observation, but is instead a presence. - Religio-Philosophical Journal

(The Theosophist, March, 1881)

----------------
--- 394.

MEDICINE

THE AESCULAPIAN ART OF HEALING

"The knowledge which a people possesses of the art of healing is the measure of its
refinement and civilization," Thomas Carlyle declares. The history of the art is as old as the
history of the human race. To know this history is equivalent to knowing the origins of
civilization itself. But, so far as we know, the world has never been wholly civilized or wholly
savage, but every region has in its turn enjoyed a higher culture which has preceded and often
followed by a period of barbarism. The valleys of the Nile and Euphrates are vivid examples.
Such cycles of alternate savagery and civilization will probably continue until, perhaps, the
earth shall become unfit to sustain human populations.
Every country that has a literature in regard to the ancient period of its history possesses
some account of the art of healing. The nations most venerable for antiquity of which we have
any account - Egypt, India, and China - had each a caste of physicians belonging to the
sacerdotal orders. Indeed, the various peoples of whom less is known, like the Skyths,
abounded with an ancient lore which embraced the art of divining, the treatment of disease and
religious rites. What was called "magic" was no more no less than this.
The serpent being the symbol of arcane and superior wisdom, was the mystic sign of the
mediciner. In the story of the book of Genesis he showed that to eat of the tree of Knowledge
would make human beings to be as divine ones in their matured perception of good and evil.
Moses, we are told, placed the copper effigy of a serpent on a staff as a token of safety from
mortal peril. The two

--- 395.

serpents united on the magic staff of Apollo, Aesculapius and Hippokrates, all signified the
same thing. Hence to the staff as well as the serpent has been accorded a place as part of the
physician's armamentarium. A physician without his staff would have been regarded like his
fellow, the enchanter, without his wand. Indeed, some have regarded the cabalistic R with its
cross, that prefaces the medical prescription, not as an abbreviation of "recipe," or "take," but a
modern form of the figure of the serpent on the staff.
In the occult symbology the serpent represented the principle of life, the knowledge of
which rendered the individual a being preternaturally endowed, if not actually divine. In this
way the magus or magician (priest of Fire) was regarded as having power over the world of
nature as others did not.
The staff of the healer was likewise considered to have a mysterious energy. The
direction of the Hebrew prophet to his servant, when the Shunamite's son had succumbed to
sunstroke, was a meaning one: "Take my staff in thine hand and go thy way; if thou meet any
one, salute him not, and if any salute thee answer him not again; and lay my staff upon the face
of the child." It was the current belief that the staff was permeated with a healing virtue from
the hand of its owner, which could be imparted to the senseless child and arouse him from the
deathlike trance. Hence the caution to speak to no one on the way, whereby this occult virtue
might be dissipated.
Klearkhos has given the account of a mantis or diviner, who, in the presence of Aristotle
the philosopher and also physician, by the means of a wand produced a cataleptic condition in a
child, and afterward restored the patient to consciousness. Examples are numerous of the
universality of similar notions. The sceptre of the king was believed to possess magical virtue;
the baton or truncheon of the magistrate, the rod of the prophet, the flagellum, barsom or
thyrsus of the divinity, all belong in the same category.
In the temples of archaic Egypt were schools of learning where students were instructed
in all branches of knowledge. Even dentistry, the plugging of teeth with gold, and the inserting
of teeth, were also taught. Every temple had its staff of medical practitioners. One king of
remote antiquity, Ser or Tosorthros, was a builder and

--- 396.

physician, and was therefore named Imhepht or Emeph, the Aesculapius of Egypt.
Although the physicians of the privileged sacerdotal order were under strict regulations,
there was little impediment to the employing of other practitioners. Indeed, empirics and
pretenders were as common as in more modern times; clairvoyants and "mediums" practiced in
such characters; charms and amulets were employed, and pieces of papyrus have been found
with written sentences upon them which had been used for magic and healing purposes. The
belief has been current in all ages that hieroglyphics, runes, astronomic and even alphabetic
characters possessed an occult virtue and might be employed with benefit to cure bodily ills.
Without doubt the prophets of the temples themselves cherished faith in certain modes of
obtaining superior knowledge which, in later times, would hardly be acceptable. Like the rest
of our humankind they believed in there being actual communication with Divinity, and that
most salutary physical results might thereby be obtained. Sculptures over the walls of the
sacred edifices indicate familiarity with the practice and phenomena of Animal Magnetism,
particularly with the sacred hypnotisms. Says Prometheus:*

"There shalt Zeus


Heal thy distraction, and with gentle hand
Soothe thee to peace."

The hand, and especially the forefinger or index medicus are common in symbolic
representation** and imply that they were employed to impart the healing virtue. The
words of the Syrian general, Naaman, show the generality of the practice among physicians in
the order of prophets. "Behold," says he, "I said to

-----------
* Aesculapius: Prometheus Bound.
** The sister of the wife of the king of Bakhtana being ill beyond common skill, an
embassy was sent to Egypt for a "royal scribe intelligent in heart and skillful with his fingers."
-----------
--- 397.

myself: 'He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call upon the name of his God, and
extend his hand over the place, and heal the plague.'" Indeed, the term surgery or kheirourgike
signifies manipulation and appears to have been originally employed in that sense.
It is easy to prate about superstition, but the quality so termed is more deeply embedded
in human nature than we, perhaps, are willing to acknowledge. In fact, the word "superstition"
has been sadly perverted from its primitive meaning - superior consciousness, a consciousness
of superior things. Much of our dogma, much that is called "scientific" in medicine is an
outgrowth from the sources which are superciliously disdained. Names have been changed but
the things remain.
In archaic Greece, as in other countries, the art of healing was regarded as divine.
Agamede, "who knew each healing herb," was described as consorting with the immortal
Poseidon, once the Supreme god of Hellas and Libya. Then when the gods of Olympus
superseded the older ones, Apollo became the favorite divinity. He was not only god of music
and divination, but the physician of the gods. Then, also, we read of a race in Thessaly,
Kentaurs or kohentaurs, priests of the caves, skillful in healing. One of their number, most
cultivated of them all, was Kheiron,* the fabled instructor of Achilles and Aesculapius. From
him the practitioners of Thessaly were denominated Kheironidae, and perhaps his art was thus
named kheirougike or chirurgica.
Thessaly was anciently celebrated for curious arts. A district bore the name of Magnesia,
and the lodestone appears to have derived thence its name of magnet. That magic, magnetism
and medicine should all be peculiar there, is very significant and suggestive.
Aesculapius, or Asklepios, as he was named in Greece, was originally a foreign divinity;
but having been introduced into Greece he was naturalized there as the son of Apollo. His
principal temples

-----------
* This name, Kheiron, also written Chiron, is evidently formed from kheir, the hand,
intimating the use of the hand in the treatment.
-----------
--- 398.

were at Epidaurus in the Morea, in the island of Kos, and in the Asian city of Pergamis.
Epidaurus, however, was regarded as the primitive seat, and here was his hospital, theatre, and
the den in which the sacred serpents were reared. One of these animals was carried to every
new shrine of the divinity at its consecration.
The poets describe Aesculapius as the son of the god Apollo, by the maid Koronis, and as
one of the hero-gods who accompanied Jason on the Argonautic expedition which went to
Kolkhis in quest of the Golden Fleece. Homer mentions his sons as ministering to the sick and
wounded at the siege of Troy. Honors were paid to his daughters as divinities. Their names,
Hygeia the goddess of health, Aigle the brilliant, Panakaia the all-healing virtue, and Iaso, the
savior from besetting evils, were poetic inventions to indicate that Aesculapian art included in
its purview every means of preserving the body as well as of restoring it to soundness.
The symbols and images of Aesculapius after his introduction into Greece were
subjected, as far as practicable, to the modifications of Hellenic art. The squat figure which
was peculiar to him as one of the Kabeirian gods of Lower Egypt* and the composite figures or
cherubs of Assyria were changed to more symmetric human shapes. We find him accordingly
represented, somewhat like his counterparts, the Eastern Bacchus and the Kretan Zeus. Of
course the serpent and the dog were retained; the delineation would otherwise have been
incomplete. A dwarf figure, however, was kept in a hidden recess of the temple. On the coins
of Epidaurus he was exhibited as an infant nursed by the goat and guarded by the dog. At
Korinth and other places he had the figure of a child holding in one hand the rod or sceptre, and
in the other a fir-cone after the manner of the Assyrian

-----------
* Herodotus describes the statue of Ptah, the Egyptian demiurgos, as resembling a pigmy.
The Kabeiri were said to be his sons and to be like him in figure. Asklepios was reckoned like
them and the eighth of their number. The Persian conqueror Kambyses made great sport of the
ungainly figures, and then burned them. - Book, iii., 37.
-----------
--- 399.

worship. He was also depicted classically as a man of mature years, bald, with a flowing
beard, and partly covered by his robe, holding in his hand the knotted magic staff encircled by
the serpent. Sometimes the animal was coiled in the form of a bowl, as though to represent the
mystic cup of Hygeia the goddess of health. Not infrequently, however, he was portrayed in
the form of the serpent alone; and in every Asklepion a living serpent was maintained as his
simulacrum.
The Hieron or holy precinct at Epidauros was long the most celebrated of his shrines. It
contained a sanctuary, a park, a sacred grove and a theatre capable of holding twelve thousand
spectators.* Kos, however, was more honored at a subsequent period. Pergamos, the
mountain-city of Asia Minor, was also famous for its Asklepion as well as for its great library
and seat of learning. At the various temples the Asklepia or festivals of the god were
celebrated; and his priests, the Asklepiads, presided at the altars and rites.
As every sacerdotal body in ancient times was a secret order, having a free-masonry of its
own, the Aesculapian fraternity exercised a like exclusiveness. Fathers in the order instructed
their children and teachers their pupils, but only as members of an oath-bound brotherhood,
incurring the penalties of the out-caste for any violation. In course of time, however, there
came to be two classes of practitioners. One was the Asklepiads, who possessed the religious
and secret learning; the other, the "iatroi" or mediciners, who had not been formerly initiated,
but were able from their skill and deftness in treatment to practice the art with fair success.
These latter physicians were generally employed to care for the invalid poor and for those of
low rank in society.
With the adoption of Aesculapius as a Grecian divinity, his worship was engrafted upon
the initiatory rites of the Eleusinia. After the Greater Mysteries had been celebrated, the orgies
of the god of

-----------
* The Grecian Theatre was the outcome of the Mystic Rites. It was introduced with the
worship of Bacchus, and was actually a temple. The theatre of modern times had a similar
beginning in the famous Mystery plays of the Middle Ages.
-----------
--- 400.

Epidaurus followed on the eighth day. Swine were washed and sacrificed at the Minor Rites;*
the cock to Aesculapius. The dying words of Sokrates had their mystic purport: "Krito, we
owe the cock to Asklepios; discharge that debt for me."
The Asklepiads, following the archaic usage, professed to be lineal descendants of their
eponymous ancestral god. They even had genealogies to demonstrate this claim. Both
Hippokrates and the historian Ktesias, as late as the Persian wars against Greece, prided
themselves on this divine origin of the families to which they belonged. It would seem,
therefore, that Hippokrates, by committing his knowledge to writing, had disregarded his
obligations as a member of a secret order of priests; or else we must suppose that he wrote
only upon the subjects which others were free to learn. Doubtless this was the case. "The holy
word may be revealed to the initiated only," says Hippokrates; "the profane may not receive it
before initiation."
The temples were thronged with the sick as well as with common worshipers. Only the
initiated, however, might enter the sacred precinct, except by permission of the superintending
priest. This was granted on condition of undergoing a religious purification, or, in other words,
the preliminary initiations. Fasting, abstinence from wine, and bathing were strictly enjoined.
Mesmerism and massage were among the chief agents that were depended upon. Sleep-houses
were provided and great diligence employed to ascertain whether the patients, when in the
hypnotic or clairvoyant condition, had received any suggestion in regard to their
treatment. The remedial means generally consisted of medicinal roots and herbs, and a careful
regimen, together with the various religious invocations, ceremonies and other magic
observances.
It was not attempted, however, to cure persons who were thoroughly diseased.
Aesculapius was of the opinion, Plato informs us, that a man ought not to be cured who could
not live in the ordinary

-------------
* Epistle of Peter, II, ii, 22: "The sow that was washed is turned again to her wallowing
in the mire."
-------------
--- 401.

course, without prescribing a specific diet and regimen, as in that case he would be of no
service. Incurables were carefully excluded from the temples. When a sick person failed of
recovery, it was usual to lay the blame upon him instead of the treatment. The priest-physician
declared to him that his unbelief and sins were the cause of the failure, or else that it was some
ordinance of fate.
Philosophic speculation led to the development of new ideas in all the principal fields of
thought. So long as the teachers exhibited an external assimilation to the general sentiment of
the leaders of the community, they could enjoy the utmost liberty of belief in their schools and
in private discussions apart from the public. It is a significant fact that the philosophers were
generally physicians, or individuals skilled in medical lore.
Among these eminent men Hippokrates held a prominent rank. He was a member of the
medical caste, and his lineal descent has been reckoned from Aeseulapius himself. He was
instructed in the temple-school of Kos, then the most celebrated medical seminary in Greece;
and he afterward sojourned at Athens, where he became a student of Herodikos of Selymbria,
and attended the lectures of the most distinguished sophists. He also, as was the ancient
custom of philosophers, traveled over many different countries, remaining for long periods at
places where epidemics were raging, and observing their progress and characteristics. He is
said to have arrested a great plague at Athens. Finally he established himself in Thessaly, the
country so famous for medical and magical knowledge. He was a philosopher, and while
personally familiar with the sages of his time, he never hesitated to elaborate and propound his
own dogmas. He was likewise profoundly religious, but he did not have that veneration for
things that were esteemed as divine which hindered him from investigation into the nature and
conditions of physical occurrences. All causes he believed to be of divine agency, but their
operation was directed by constant laws and natural conditions. To explore these with a view
to remedy evils and benefit mankind was, therefore, not only lawful, but a work of the highest
merit.
His maxim was explicit: " Nature is the chief physician." He was careful, therefore, not
to interfere with what he regarded as

--- 402.

reparative efforts, but endeavored to promote them. He prescribed total abstinence from food
while a disorder was on the increase, and a spare diet on other occasions. He considered
excesses of all kinds as dangerous, and that the bodily functions should never transgress the
limits marked out by nature. Persons in health, he said, should abstain from all kinds of
medicine. He declared cathartics to be the medicine most difficult for individuals to bear. He
also disapproved of too strict a regimen, as being more hurtful to a person in health than a freer
mode of living.
He did not reject philosophy or its methods. He was more or less in harmony with
Pythagoras, and he religiously accepted the notion of supernal agency in all visible operations.
He considered it to be the proper task of the inquirer to find out the laws and conditions by
which the agency of the superior beings was determined and according to which it might be
foretold. He also accepted with implicit obedience the beliefs of his time in magical divination,
prophetic dreams and clairvoyance. Familiar as he was with the temple-sleep of the Asklepia,
it was to be expected that he should fully concur with these prevailing opinions, "Even when
the eyes are closed," says he, "the soul sees everything that goes forward in the body." Again,
he is explicit: "When the soul has been freed by sleep from the more material bondage of the
body, it retires within itself as into a haven, where it is safe against storms. It perceives and
understands whatever is going on around it, and represents this condition as if with various
colors, and explains clearly the condition of the body."
Both Hippokrates and Galen after him, with their disciples, taught the efficacy of charms,
amulets and spells. The statuettes and simulacra of the gods were considered to possess rare
virtue. Gems, especially with a mystic design or legend upon them, were believed to have
power over disordered conditions. Amulets of various styles were carried to avert evils. The
belief in these has not passed away; and it is by no means impossible or improbable that they
perform the service of fixing the attention and developing a confidence that is most salutary in
its effects. As a man thinketh, so is he.
It is by no means certain that any of the writings imputed to Hippokrates are genuine.
It was not the habit of his time for

--- 403.

physicians to write books. But there was a practice current for scribes and others both to
abridge and interpolate the books that had been written, and to ascribe their own compositions
to more famous individuals. The Middle Ages abound with such jugglery. The Hippokratic
oath is one of the examples.
Perhaps Athanaeos of Pamphylia was a good representative of th true Aesculapian art.
He began to teach about the beginning of the present era, and many of his procedures closely
resembled those described in the Gospels. He was both a critical scholar and a philosopher.
He rejected the notion of a plurality of elements, affirming them to be only qualities of the one
matter. He revived the theory of the existence of an immaterial principle called pneuma, or
spirit; and that the state of this principle in the individual was the source of health and disease.
A school of medicine, or perhaps we should say of human science, was founded by the name of
Pneumaticists, or Spiritualists, which based medical practice upon this foundation. "Jesus the
Christ," the late W. F. Evans declares, "seems to have adopted, or rather to have conformed His
practice to that theory, and without deviating from it."
Nevertheless, as all are not equal to such exaltation of perception and psychopathic
method, there were always conditions and provision for the weak in faith and those that were
outside. Athenus himself wrote medical treatises, setting forth the distinction to be made
between Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and enforcing the relations of diet to health. The
Eclectic School, which advocated simple and restorative medication, discountenancing the
practice of drugging, but depending chiefly on diet and regimen, was an outgrowth or offshoot
from the other.
It has often been affirmed with a sneer that the beneflcial effect of such treatment were
due to the activity of the imagination. We do not need to refute or disclaim the assertion. It is
the province of the imagination to form all our ideas and concepts, and to elaborate them into
their proper results. It takes the things of the Ideal and shows them to us as realities. Not only
does it rule the world, but it creates the world. The mind is the individual. It gives shape to
what it sees. What is produced, whether a house or a machine, state of health or

--- 404.

the prostration of disease, is the effigy; the manifestation, the copy of a model or prior form in
the mind. Imagination is no simple embodying of what is visionary, of vagary and
hallucination, but the giving of sensible image to the things that already are. Science, to be
worthy of being considered as knowledge, should take cognizance of these immaterial things,
and of the laws by which they are shaped into objective realities.
In so far as the primitive Aesculapian art included these conceptions, it was worthy of
veneration and admiration. It reached from the idea into the everyday life, adopted the means
to accomplish the ends, and achieved beneficent results. "Life is but thought," and "health the
vital principle of bliss."

(Metaphysical Magazine, Oct., 1899)

----------------------
--- 405.

MAGNETISM AS A HEALING ART - AND ITS HISTORY

I. ANIMAL MAGNETISM
II. ANIMAL MAGNETISM APPLIED
III. INSTRUCTIONS IN MAGNETIZING
The early records of the healing art have always attached an importance to the agency of the
hand, which later practitioners and writers have greatly overlooked. We find it in every part of the
old world, that is, really old from having an old history. Celsus the accomplished Roman author
treats of it in one of the departments of his great work Upon The Arts, written about the time of the
Christian era. In the treatise De Re Medica, upon the Medical vocation, he presents the following
classification as it existed in the time of Herophilus and Erasistratos, one an Asklepiad and the
other grandson of Aristotle, who founded the medical chairs in the world-famous schools of
Alexandria.
"During this time," says he, "physic was divided into three parts: the first cured by diet, the
second by medicines, and the third by manipulations. The first, they denominated diaiteke (or
regimen); the second, pharmakeutike (or the administration of remedies); and the third,
cheirourgike, (or operating by the hand). This last does not discard medicines and a proper
regimen, but yet the principal part is accomplished by the hand. And the effect of this is the most
evident of all the parts of medicine. This branch, though it be the most ancient, was more
cultivated by Hippokrates than by his predecessors. Afterward, being separated from the other
parts, it began to have its particular professors, and received considerable improvements in Egypt,
as well as elsewhere, particularly from

--- 406.

Philoxenas."
It will be perceived from this quotation that the chirurgic art, now known by the abbreviation
of surgery, was originally the art and technic of curing with the hand. Emanuel Swedenborg
explains it, that the touch signifies communication, transferring and receiving; because it is this
in reality. We put our interior energies into action by the hand and touch, and so communicate
them to another, or share them in common with him. The will does the work. In the accounts
given of Jesus, we find this very carefully set forth. When he had uttered his famous Sermon on
the Mount, and descended into the plain, I suppose of Jezreel or Esdralon, a leper comes to him
and says: "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." And Jesus put forth his hand and
touched him, saying: "I will; be thou clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Again,
coming to the house where Peter's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, he touched her hand and the
fever left her. When he was invited to the house of Jairus, an officer of the synagogue, the man
said: "My daughter is even now dying; but come and lay thy hand upon her and she will live."
Sure enough, when he arrived, the place was thronged with flute-boys and paid mourners, all
chanting the dirge. He instantly commanded silence, because the girl was not dead, but sleeping.
They answered with a scornful laugh of incredulity, upon which they were commanded to leave
the room. He then took her by the hand and said: "Talitha, kumi" - Girl, rise up.
In the legend of Naaman, the Syrian, it is related that that personage was angry because the
prophet Elisha would not come out to him. "I thought," said he, "he will surely come out and stand
and call on the name of the Lord his God, and pass his hand upon the leprous place."
There was a priestly ceremony of like character, the imposition of the hands. The priest
placed his hands upon the head of the victim. Joshua was said to be full of a spirit of wisdom,
because Moses had laid his hands upon him. Paul insists that he, too, imparted virtue by the laying
on of his hands. It was not a ceremony, a religious rite, but a bestowing of energy. One of the
disputed texts of the Gospel according to Mark declares: "These signs shall follow
--- 407.

them that believe: ....they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." This was no new
pledge or assurance. It was a thing older than history. In the reign of Rameses XII. of the 20th
dynasty of Egypt, an embassy came to him from his father-in-law, the king of Baktan. It was
desired that a scribe of the priestly order should visit this monarch's younger daughter, who was
unable to move. The Egyptian king at once convoked the priests and learned men, and demanded
them to produce "a man of intelligent heart and skillful with his fingers." The man was selected
and went home with the embassy, a seventeen months' journey. The princess recovered. The
hieroglyphic records of Egypt present several delineations of laying hands upon the sick.
Hippokrates had therefore abundance of precedent for his peculiar chirurgic method. Egypt,
Syria and Asia Minor had long employed it. He was emphatically what is now somewhat
ostentatiously denominated a magnetic healer. As he is also denominated the Father of Medicine,
it may be well to enquire who he was. He belonged to the caste or family of priests, at the temple
of Asklepios, or as he is more popularly called Aesculapius. He was born about the year 460
before our era, and became a student of the fire-philosophy of Herakleitos. After his father's death
he traveled extensively, finally making his home in Thessaly, where he lived to the age of eighty-
five, or as others say, ninety, one hundred, or one hundred and nine years.
It was in Thessaly that Hellenic development began. The country has the appearance of a
lake bottom, drained by the disruption of one of the mountains at the east. Mount Olympus, where
the Hellenian gods of the later regime abode, separated it from Macedonia. Other ranges of
mountains fenced it on other sides. The river Peneus flowed through it, and had numerous
branches which were generally accessible by galleys. The Phoenicians early navigated the region
and introduced many of their usages. It was early a republic of confederated states. One of these,
lying between Mount Ossa and the Aegean Sea, was called Magnesia, and the people Magnetes.
Homer says that the sons of Asklepios reigned there. We have here a tradition of the origin of the
Asklepiads, the

--- 408.

priest physicians of ancient Greece.


Asklepios, however, was not a Grecian god, except by adoption and naturalization. He was
of Semite or Ethiopian breed. The name is Hebrew or Phoenician, and means the lord of fire.
Hence we find him with a swarm of names - Adar-maloch, the fire king, Boal-Harman, the lord
of the altar fire, Esman, the vital heat. I am not quite clear whether he or Apollo was the genuine
divinity of the Philistines, Baal-Zebul the Overlord or Lord of all - later nicknamed Beelzebub,
prince of demons. The fire of which he was king was called the Eternal fire. The Supreme Being
was fabled as dwelling in it. "The Lord spake to you out of the midst of the fire," says the writer
of Deuteronomy. Properly speaking, this fire was a pure life-principle. When Moses saw the
sacred bush pervaded by it, the bush was not consumed. The founders of the worship of Fire
considered it as a principle to be cognized only in the innermost possibility of thought. It was not
our vulgar, gross fire; nor even the purest material fire; but an occult, mysterious, supernatural
fire; a real, sensible and only possible mind, containing all things and the soul of all things - the
absolute, immortal light. Of this, the visible fire is only a shadow or emblem. This was the
Supreme Being of the Persian and his fellow people.
The spire on the church, the dome on the temple, the round tower and the pyramid, only
represent the tapering flame pointing to the sky. The serpent, darting hither and thither, denoted
living flame, the highest life and highest wisdom, and so was the favorite symbol of religion. He
was Asklepios, the god of fire, of life and health. Every temple of Esculapius had its holy snake,
and everywhere the snake is the emblem of the knowledge and art of healing. Herakleitos, the
philosopher, had taught that this divine fire formed and gave life to all things; and so Hippokrates
became his disciple. The Asklepiads, the priest-physicians of Greece, were priests of the fire-god
and he belonged to their number. Wherever Asklepios had a sanctuary, a tradition or holy writing
was improvised to account for it. Outside of Greece he was identical with Hermes, the god of
learning, Kadmor the inventor of letters, and the healing gods. In Greece he was made the son of
Apollo, and assigned to several birthplaces. He was a

--- 409.

serpent hatched from a crow's egg, he was another Bacchus caught in embryo from the burning
body of his mother; he was a native of Epidaurus, Messenia and Thessalia. One set of biographers
tell us that he was a ward and pupil of Cheiron, the Kentaur; thus becoming first a great physician
and then the divine patron of medicine. There are those who imagine this to be a fragment of
history. It may be history, but not in that direction.
The tower, or taur as the Syrians called it, was the pillar or pyramid sacred to the Fire-god.
It was common to set apart mountain-summits for the sacred temples; and it was considered
sacrilegious to cut away the trees, except for the altars. These precincts were the earlier temples.
They were tors or tops; hence every rock was a tur, and the caves in the rocks were sacred.
Thessaly, surrounded on all sides by high mountains, had abundance of these towers, and we may
add a profusion of gods and priests.
I have said already that the Phoenicians frequented Thessaly. Their designation of a priest
is cohen, the same as that of the Jews. Kohn, kahn, coan are all the same word. So the priests of
Thessaly were kohen-taurs - priests of the hill-summits, kentaurs. In the hieroglyphic language
they were depicted as half men, half horses. This was a kind of phonetic horse standing for the
sound hippo, and the man for kentaur. Hippos was a designation of kybele or the Great Mother,
whose rites were celebrated in those regions; and the priests of Thessaly were called hippoi or
horses in the story of Hercules. Pindar tells us that the kentaurs were the progeny of the Hippoi
of Magnesia.
If I have been carefully followed, the story is pretty well guessed. In Magnesia was the
famous lodestone which moved as having life. Such stones were kept in the temples as the
emblems or images of the Great Mother, denoting that she was quick with living offspring. The
mares as ignorant or mystic writers chose to call them, the hippoi or priests of Magnesia, who
revered the lodestone as the great parent or womb of all living things, have given us one word, that
of magnetism, from the Magnetes or inhabitants of this province of Magnesia. We take a step
further. The centaurs were priests or descendants of these priests of Magnesia. Their most
celebrated

--- 410.

leader was named Cheiron: the very same who was said to have reared and instructed Asklepios.
Why was he called Cheiron? Every name has a meaning and a reason. Cheir signifies the
hand; and cheiron is but the human hand personified. If, then, cheiron is the personified hand, and
the kentaur is but a priest who worshiped the magnet as the Great Mother, does it require much
acumen or a very profound intellect to perceive that the art of Asklepios was healing by
magnetism, and that Cheiron, the chief of the Kentaurs, was but the personification of manipulation
- the cheirouric art which Celsus tells of?
Remember that the chief Greek gods come from Thessaly. Remember that Thessaly taught
confederated republicanism to Greece; what of science and skill was possessed was derived from
that region. Its population were the richest in all Greece. Indeed, the name Hellas, which became
the designation of the whole country, was taken from a province in Thessaly, ruled by Achilles.
Another name of the priests of the Great Mother was Daktyles. They had every art that was
known; they invented letters, exorcized away sickness, discovered and wrought the metals,
invented music; in short, were magicians and sorcerers. Legends said there were but five of them
- then ten, five male and five female. Again, the number was increased. But what of the name?
Daktylos means finger. The first idea is that fingers, ten fingers, are thus magical and all-powerful.
"This is the finger of the Gods," said the magicians to Pharaoh, when Moses beat them. Fingers
are the instruments of the hand to do everything. So a priesthood, a learned class, are the fingers
of the right hand and the left. How far they will reach. One legend says that the priests of Krete
each had ten sons, all called Dactyles.
It would be easy to show that every god of importance worshiped in the Grecian Pantheon
was a personified magnet; every priest a magnetizer, at least the old priests. It will be remembered
that Herakles is said to have destroyed the Kentaurs, and that the Asklepios succeeded them.
I will speak of one more class, the Telchines. We have the same story and number. There
were five of them, powerful enchanters, controllers of nature and the elements, and sons of

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Poseidon. They also wrought the metals. They forged for Kronos his sickle or rather his
boomerang, they made the necklace of Hermione, they brought up the infant Zeus. Their name is
from the word thelgo - to soothe, to charm, to effect with the hands, as by magic art.
That magnetism both of the lodestone and the human personality were both understood and
practiced in ancient times admits not the shadow of a doubt. The Messalians appear likewise to
have associated the two together very much as at the present day. What Reichenbach denominates
the Odylic force was also recognized. Rays were seen by some to issue from the fingers, from the
eyes and other parts of the body. There was also the rabdos, or magic staff, which would produce
sleep and arouse from sleep. The gods had each his sceptre; and we find mention of one exhibited
in the presence of Aristotle, which cast a boy into a deep sleep and enabled him to behold a vision.
Elihu, the prophet, despatched his servant Gehazi with his staff to lay it on the face of the
Shunamite's child and resuscitate him. It did not succeed; and the prophet next employed personal
contact with success.
In restoring animal magnetism to its place in therapeutics, we return to the old path.
Asklepios and his divine power are employed, the real art and science of Hippokrates, and the
sacred agency energized by faith, which we read so much about in the New Testament. It is no
dream of fancy that we are discoursing about. We recognize disease as the effect and
manifestation of debility and the exhaustion of vital energy; and so understanding it, we seek to
restore it by the imparting of an influx which shall in some degree supply the loss or impairment.
The fire which gave existence we would seek to employ to maintain it. How far we may
approximate that ideal is to be ascertained.
I. ANIMAL MAGNETISM

Animal magnetism is defined by Du Potet as that occult influence which organized bodies
exercise upon each other at a

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distance. I am not ready to accept this definition, because it is obscure, and I do not subscribe to
the proposition of distance. The explanation in Webster's Dictionary is perhaps as near to the
common understanding as any. "A supposed agent of a peculiar and mysterious nature, said to
have a powerful influence on the patient when acted upon by contact with, or by the will of the
operator." Mesmerism: "the art of inducing an extraordinary or abnormal state of the nervous
system, in which the actor claims to control the actions, and communicate directly with the mind
of the recipient."
"Supposed agents" are curious things. The attractive principle of the lodestone is one.
Electricity is one. Actinism is one. Chemical affinity is but a supposed agent. Then, too, we may
class in the same category that dynamic potency that impelled a certain young man to make a
journey of ten miles once each week to visit a young woman who had somehow obtained a hold
upon his imagination. These supposed things beat horsepower and steam.
In 1784 a commission was deputed by Louis XVI of France to examine the subject of animal
magnetism. Four physicians and five scientists were appointed. Not one of them was willing to
accept evidence against the opinion which he already entertained; and it was the legitimate result
of their so-called investigation that the alleged discovery of Mesmer was an imposture.
Indeed, Mesmer had had a somewhat similar experience already. He was a German, a
regularly educated physician, graduating at Vienna in 1766. He had propounded this doctrine of
occult forces in the thesis presented to his teachers at the University. It was his belief that, animal
magnetism would perfect the action of medicines, and enable the physician to judge with certainty
in regard to diseases and their cure; thus giving to the art of healing its final perfection. But the
prophet found none to honor him in his native country. A Jesuit priest, Father Hill, Professor of
Astronomy at Vienna, artfully misrepresented his ideas and succeeded in bringing the whole matter
into discredit. If the discovery had occurred in Italy a century and a half earlier, Mesmer would
doubtless have expiated the matter at the stake. As it is, he only reaped the harvest of opprobrium
which is the chief prize won by the inventor or discoverer

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of a beneficial idea.
What Mesmer taught was substantially as follows: That there exists a mutual influence
between the heavenly bodies, the earth and all living bodies. That there is a fluid (or ether) of
incomparable tenuity diffused everywhere capable of receiving, propagating and communicating
the impressions of motion, by which this influence is conveyed. That this reciprocal action
operates in accordance with certain laws, not before known. That there exists and are manifested
in the human body, properties analogous to those of the magnet, which pertain to the nerve
structure, and render the body susceptible to the influence of the heavenly bodies and of the
reciprocal action of the bodies which surround it. These peculiar properties, denominated animal
magnetism, act upon other bodies animate and inanimate, and even upon bodies at a remote
distance without the aid of an intermediate body. The mineral magnet is itself also susceptible;
and hence the utility of magnetism and artificial electricity in diseases is solely due to animal
magnetism. Hence he inferred that this magnetic principle is capable of curing diseases of the
nerves immediately, and other disorders mediately. He proposed accordingly a new "Theory of
Diseases," which would set forth the universal utility of the new agent.
The condemnation of Mesmer in his absence, and of his doctrines, followed as a matter of
course. M. Bailly, a scientist of some repute, and a dogmatist in his way, wrote the report, and
took great pains to circulate it broadcast over France. I abhor the religious bigotry which dictated
the burning alive of Giordano Bruno and Michael Servetus; but I have never found the bigotry of
unbelief any less intense or its liberality any broader. Behold Animal Magnetism judged and
condemned by the representatives of Science. Our own Franklin added his voice to the verdict.
Guillotin, whose name has achieved a more fearful celebrity than almost any other, was one who
helped down the new science to speedy death.
The French skeptics had no better success in crushing out animal magnetism than they have
achieved in their kindred endeavor to crush out God and eliminate him from the created universe.
One member of the French Academy, de Jussieu, had the courage to

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speak on the other side. He insisted that the peculiar action attributed to the universal fluid, or
ether, which the others had declared was not demonstrated, appertained also animal heat. It existed
in bodies, emanated from them, and is capable of passing from one body to another. It is
developed, increased or diminished in a body by moral as well as by physical causes. Accordingly,
de Jussieu spoke favorably of animal magnetism; pleading that longer time and experience would
make it better understood, and that every physician had the right to follow the methods which he
deemed advantageous in the treatment of disease.
Forty years passed away. The Bourbon sun waned and waxed again. The new generation
of medical men began to think of building a sepulchre for the man whom their fathers had desired
to kill. Morton of Boston is not the only man statue as one of the world's benefactors. [sic]
While the physicians of the Royal Academy were proving mesmerism a fallacy, the Marquis
of Puysegur and others were operating successfully with it, and learning more things than men had
before dreamed. In 1825 the Academy was formally required to appoint a new commission and
re-examine the matter. The reason pleaded for this was couched in these emphatic words:
"because in Science no decision whatever is absolute and irrevocable; because the moral
dispositions of the former commissioners were such as to cause a complete failure of the
experiments." Such men as Magendie, La Motte, Hasson and Leroux, were appointed this time,
and followed the matter up five years. M. Hasson wrote the report. We find in it the broad
declaration that magnetism was a world-old matter; that only susceptible persons were influenced
by it; and that it was not always necessary that they should be aware that they were being thus
operated upon. Certain of the effects seemed to depend on magnetism alone and are not
reproduced without it. Some were disturbed and others tranquilized. New faculties were
developed, such as clairvoyance, intuition and internal prevision; also physiological changes, like
insensibility, a considerable and sudden increase in strength, and also a paralysis. In conclusion,
the commissioners declared: "The Academy should encourage the
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researches in Magnetism, as a very curious branch of Psychology and Natural History."


Messieurs Double and Magendie did not sign this report. They had witnessed no
experiments. The members of the Academy acted like persons outside. Those who believed
before were more confirmed; and those who had disbelieved still refused to accept the evidence.
But animal magnetism was no longer shackled by their influence.
It is hardly necessary to trace further the history. I have shown it to be ancient, Esculapian,
Hippocratic and apostolic. It was practiced in every sanctuary, and constituted a prominent feature
in the recognized healing art. Only it was unlawful for any but a priest or initiated person to
attempt its use. Hence the following charge of sacrilege was made against Jesus for healing by the
touch: "He is a magian who has done all these things by a clandestine art; he has positively taken
from the Egyptian temples the names of the powerful angels, and has robbed them of their ancient
customs, their secret doctrines." Hippokrates himself, it will be borne in mind, was an initiated
priest, sworn to secrecy, as all priests always are. He taught that there were two distinct parts or
grades in the practice of medicine: the common one, which consisted in the use of vegetable
remedies; and the secret, which only particular individuals consecrated to religious offices might
learn and exercise. Clairvoyance, he described, as belonging to this secret art. The philosopher
Pythagoras, who was also an initiated priest, taught medicine as a secret, and employed magnetism
as its chief agency. In Judea and Egypt was a secret religious body, called the Essenes or
Therapeutae. Healers, who employed prayers, charms and manipulations in the treatment of
disease, and that, too, with success.
The phenomena incident in animal magnetism are nervous quietude, sleep, somnambulism,
clairvoyance, prevision. There are also the converse of those - a great nervous disturbance,
convulsions, chorea, epilepsy and catalepsy. It is palpable from these facts that the agency is
primarily associated with the nervous system. In the literature of the subject we are told that the
physiological agency is the nervous fluid. I have seen it stated that "the neuro-vital fluid is

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secreted by the brain, and of a galvanic nature, being manufactured from the electricity which we
breathe into the lungs at every inspiration." This statement is so clumsy that I ought hardly to have
quoted it.
It is the ganglionic system that secretes neuro-vital fluid; while the brain only employs and
directs it. The arteries carry blood, and nerves of this system constitute a great part of their
structure. The nerves themselves furnish the vital spirit that keeps the arteries in play and the
blood alive. It is about of a piece to talk of its galvanic nature and manufacture from electricity,
as of thought being secreted by the brain and the man being constituted of bones, muscles, nerves
and membranes to some 100, 130, 150 or more pounds avoirdupois weight.
In the consideration of the magnetizer and his patient, the moral or psychic agency is first
employed. There must be a certain confidence, kindly feeling and disposition, to assume the
peculiar relation. This enables their nerve auras to intermingle and combine without any repulsion
or disturbance. The peculiar sense of quiet is thus induced. The intellectual or cerebral agency
is next. The patient must let the psychic, emotive nature be transcendent, and the voluntary nature
inactive. The operator, on the other hand, must be assured of his peculiar energy, and resolute in
his purpose to influence the other with it. The results will be in a large degree proportionate to the
perfectness of these conditions. Often the matter must be repeated.
Where there exists moral or constitutional repugnance, the experiment should never be
suffered; nor should an individual of exceptional character be suffered to tamper with another.
We have enough of this in the so called falling in love of everyday life. A person who has been
magnetized is, too generally, not a moral agent like others. The will and intellect are weakened
or subordinated, till he feels, thinks and does as he is impelled. A person who has never been
magnetized finds it hard to believe or even to understand this; and the unfortunate individual is
in deadly perils.
As a therapeutic agent, animal magnetism primarily affects the ganglionic system. It is to
a degree, I cannot say how far, the

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supplying of a vital deficiency in one from a surplus, or at least a superior stock of energy, in
another. Many persons evolve more of the peculiar force than their own bodily wants require; and
they are the more proper ones, other conditions being equal, to impart to those in whom the supply
is deficient. Such disorders as paralysis, chorea, epilepsy and some forms of insanity, are
particularly amenable to magnetic treatment. Every disease of a nervous type yields readily;
others more slowly. It may be applied locally in neuralgia, rheumatism, tumefactions, ulcerations
and local injuries. In other cases the epigastric region should be the focus of operation.
Every disorder which magnetism can cure it can also aggravate, improperly applied; and I
apprehend, produce or transmit. The leprosy of Naaman the Syrian is said to have been inflicted
on Gehazi. Consumption is carried from kin to kin and friend to friend. The wife and the husband
are liable to share each other's disorders, - at least their physical and psychical conditions.
Children sharing the bed of adults take on an old look, and abnormal states of health; while adults
rob infants of the energy they require to grow with. We are all more or less invigorated or blighted
by those about us. Persons in repugnant society, if sensitive, are withered if not killed in this way.

II. ANIMAL MAGNETISM APPLIED

What is to be understood by animal magnetism, has been set forth in a previous article. It
is an agent, or perhaps function, by which living beings interchange their vital conditions, and
human beings in addition affect one another with their moral states, and purpose of mind. I do not
doubt that it was comprehended in the ancient magic of the Medes and Assyrians, the secret
healing art of the Esculapians and Hippokrates, the philosopher's stone of the Alchemists and the
Elixir Vitae; imputed to the Rosicrucians. Paracelsus named it, Van Helmont taught it, and
Emanuel Swedenborg, self-magnetized, developed it into the curious phenomena of clairvoyance.
When Mesmer propounded it, the world denounced it as charlatanism; but

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now, we have come to the next point of declaring it to be nothing new. We have all of us believed
it - some as the great power of God; others as the jugglery of Simon Magus.
Indeed, it was lost from human knowledge because it fell under the ban of the church. In the
earlier Christian centuries, there were individuals everywhere who treated diseases by the
imposition of their hands and magnetic manipulation. Tertullian, living in the second century,
advised that "any individuals who called themselves Christians and could not even expel demons
or heal the sick, should be put to death as impostors." Montanus, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Origen,
Martin, Theophilos, and the Fathers, insisted upon the same test, offered to abide by it, and as we
are told, actually practiced it successfully.
In due time, however, the Church succumbed to a similar sacerdotal rule as the various
paganisms had before. Then magic and learning were denounced as heathenish arts, and
denominated sorcery and witchcraft. Even to be proficient in the knowledge of grammar was
declared to be unchristian; and Pope Gregory the Great rivals Jack Cade in his utterances against
a liberal education. It was then that the laymen, the common people, were placed outside, and the
clergy alone became the Church. It was declared in Council that for persons who were not priests
to treat the sick by manipulation was mortal sin. It was declared unlawful and prohibited under
the sentence of anathema and outlawry for a layman to attempt the cure of a disorder by the laying
on of hands. Only monks and priests had the right. This was the Hippocratic oath of Christendom,
now so pretentiously imitated by the school of regular medicine.
Ever since that time, the church and sectaries of science have never hesitated to uproot by
massacre, by proscription, and every form of persecution, every endeavor of individuals to learn
and obey truth, outside of their authority. At this very time, therapeutic magnetism is the most
certain disturber of complacent respectability, whether religious or medical.
We shall now treat in a brief epitome of its application. I know of no individual who is not
more or less liable to the magnetic influence, however difficult or even impossible it may seem to
impress

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him. Nor do I believe there is any disorder or morbid condition in which it may not be
advantageously, if not successfully, employed. The prediction in the Gospel according to Mark
is a very true one: "These signs or miracles shall accompany those who believe; in my name they
shall cast out demons, they shall take up serpents; and if they swallow any deadly substance it may
be prevented from doing them harm; they shall place their hands on or over the sick and shall
render them convalescent." This declaration which is imputed to Jesus is now generally
repudiated, both as not genuine, and as actually not true. The cures accredited to Jesus are
explained away as supernatural, and supernaturalism then is denied.
Yet it is a curious and significant fact that no Christian writer during the first 140 years
makes any mention of the miracles described in the three synoptic Gospels. Of course, as the
Gospel according to John had not been then compiled, its relations are not at all referred to until
long after, nor does Paul ever cite anything spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles. But we leave
these matters to other casuists and attend to our own subject.
The world of medical science is a sea of doubts; but magnetism is a world of facts all united
in a grand harmony. It is the art and science of nature herself, inspired by the Divine Intelligence,
and made successful by energy. Magnetism is a force or energy pertaining to every organization,
and which emanates from everything. It can be applied everywhere. A sleeping infant can be
magnetized; so also can a sleeping adult. The muscles will contract, the patient will start
convulsively, the breathing will be labored, and there will be either a deeper sleep or a sudden
awakening. If the magnetic passes are made during intoxication or syncope, similar phenomena
will result. Animals are also susceptible. The dog, cat and ape, have been experimented upon, and
also the horse, with success.
When the manipulation is performed upon an individual that is healthy and wide awake, the
following results are observed: The pulse increases in force and frequency, or else diminishes in
the same degree. The pulsations are no longer regular; the heat varies, the eyes become bright and
glassy; the sensitiveness increases; and

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there is sometimes abundant perspiration and great loss of strength. Sometimes there is paralysis
and even catalepsy.
It is affirmed that some persons cannot be influenced by magnetic manipulation. The
individuals will themselves deny that they have been affected; still, I do not believe it. They talk
like a man who has drunk a glass of liquor and denies its effect. In fact, the individual has been
influenced. He will be sleepless or more profoundly drowsy; there will be increased sensitiveness.
The secretions of the body will be changed and often more abundant; sometimes eruptions of the
skin will appear. Syphilis, eczema and even measles and smallpox have exhibited themselves.
I do not like the practice, however, of magnetizing individuals to make a show of them.
There is something sacred about a human being. It is unworthy to place him outside of his own
self-control, and then to subject him to vulgar experiments. I am not patient of it, nor indeed very
tolerant.
Magnetism is a potency evolved by the ganglionic nervous structure. The aura is radiated
in every direction; but it may be concentrated upon any point to which the will may direct it.
When we earnestly desire to accomplish any purpose, we instinctively direct this potency upon it
and often rich success. The healing of disease by prayer, which does actually happen, is in
consonance with this principle. I do not say that there are not spiritual forces, relatively extraneous
to us, which do not concur. Really, I do not know any wish which we entertain, any thought which
we may think, any act which we may perform, which is not the result of various spiritual principles
or forces, not altogether a part of ourselves.
Magnetism is the agent of nature. It harmonizes with all the vital forces which pertain to us.
Accordingly it augments the curative action of nature, which is always tending to reestablish
equilibrium in the play of the different organs. It is that "more noble secret" hinted at by Bulwer-
Lytton, by which "Heat or Caloric, as we call it, being, as Herakleitos taught, the primordial
principle of life, can be made its perpetual renovator." It is supposed that an agent of exceedingly
subtle nature exists. I admit that such an agent has not been empirically demonstrated. No fault
need be found on this account.

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The modern physicist tells us that light is a sensation produced by waves of ether; yet he has never
demonstrated that there was such an ether. He takes it for granted; assumes it. We assume an
ether, aura or nervous fluid, on like sufficient ground; knowing that the human mind is abundantly
competent to perceive and recognize a fact, before experiment has demonstrated it.
This agent exists; it is a part of our own being, and we can perceive it, almost if not
altogether as related to physical sensibility. We feel the sense of another's approach, and whether
he is or is not agreeable, by virtue of his emanations and our perception of them. The seeress of
Prevorst subsisted on the strength of other individuals, absorbing it through the eyes and the ends
of the fingers. She declared that she drew her life wholly from the air and the nervous emanations
of others, by which they lost nothing. This may have been often true; but Dr. Kerner notes that
many persons complained of losing strength when they had been long near her; and that they felt
a contraction in the limbs, a tremor. Some also were sensible of weakness in the eyes and at the
stomach even to the point of fainting. What she called the nervengeist, or dweller in the nerves,
was the vital principle which joined the soul and body to the entire universe.
Everyone possesses as much nervous fluid as is necessary to his existence, but not always
enough to communicate to others. He has power to put it forth by his will. He ought to husband
his health and strength, to keep his mind tranquil, and have no other object in mind but to benefit
the patient. The magnetic current does not pass out in a stream, but by undulation, more or less,
as the individual is skillful in determining it.
Where the proper rapport or kindness of feeling does not exist between two persons,
magnetism should never be attempted. The contact of two psychical auras of individuals repugnant
to each other is of a blighting, and even murderous tendency. When we suffer by it, we should
carefully and even wilfully keep away from the obnoxious person; if we choose to be the inflicters
of injury, we should restrain our thoughts in the other individual's direction. Every nervous
disorder, from hysteria to acute mania, catalepsy and paralysis, may occur from neglect of these
precautions; and actual crime may be

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instigated. The digestive system will inevitably be impaired; a morbid secretion of bile is likely,
and a profusion of other glandular abnormalities.
We have said that magnetism will be beneficial in every morbid condition. It will soothe
pain even where the disorder is incurable. It will correct every secretion. The perspiration will
become normal, the secretions bland and wholesome; the breathing gentle; the circulation of the
blood free and normal. It will prevent paroxysms and often arrest them; it assuages fever and
inflammation; it promotes the healing of ulcers and softens indurated swellings. Dr. Alva Curtiss
declared that he had cured cancer of the breast by manipulation, and I believe him. Herodotus tells
us that a Grecian physician, Demokedes, a student of the School of Krotana, cured Queen Atossa
of Persia of a scirrhous of the breast; but unfortunately omits to tell us how. I can only say that
he had learned from his great master, Pythagoras, the secret of magnetic manipulation.
In scrofulous and lymphatic affections, enlargement of the glands, and the like, there must
be untiring persistence in magnetizing; months must be employed. Temperance is also necessary;
over-eating and prolonged fasting retard any cure. It is best to employ one hour in ten in such
cases.
In eruptive diseases, like measles and scarletina and smallpox, magnetizing ought to be
directed over the whole surface, but not to be continued longer than fifteen or twenty minutes at
a time. It will interfere with no medical treatment.
In inflammation of the brain, immense benefit can be derived. Magnetizing will tend to
prevent the conveying of fluids to one point. Make long passes clear to the feet, keeping to the
median line; place one hand on the forehead; use gentle friction on the lower forehead; and finish
by passes down the legs.
In paralysis, aphasia, rigidity of the limbs and convulsions, it is worth while to attempt a
cure. These are very hard cures; yet one will occasionally be cured. So much, too, may be said
for apoplexy and the different degrees of cerebral congestion.
In disorders of the digestive tube, such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, magnetic friction
will diminish the spasms and the

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griping pain, and prevent the further fatal development. The hand should be passed lightly over
the surface of the abdomen, frequently, and the patient attended to till he is better. Often in the
intervals of pain he will go to sleep.
I will not enumerate the names of remittent and intermittent fever. The intensity of the
malady is about all that the magnetizer need concern himself about, and the part which is chiefly
affected. The recuperative force is about exhausted; and the general disturbance of the system
does not give a good opportunity to distinguish the effects produced by magnetizing. Nevertheless,
the operator must not give up hope. If he can amend the action of one organ he will gradually
appease the general tumult. The vital force which is imparted will recruit that of the patient to
good purpose. He will expel greater quantities of vitiated material and emanations. Hence the
operator, every time he perceives a sense of fatigue, should recruit his strength without delay by
going out into the open air, lest he absorb the noxious outflow into his own body. The current, in
magnetizing such patients, should be carried the entire length of the body from the head to the feet.
Cholera in many respects exhibits a striking analogy to fever, and particularly to typhoid and
yellow fever. Dr. Foissac reports several cases of recovery by magnetism; the various remedies
prescribed by practitioners being also administered. In the first case a physician had all the pains
of cholera morbus. He was magnetized, and received relief from intense suffering, wherever the
hand touched. The second was a case of Asiatic cholera. The remedies were administered and
magnetism employed. The limbs were rubbed and he breathed upon the region of the heart. After
several hours all danger disappeared, and the doctor who was in charge declared the patient
convalescent. He was magnetized daily till the recovery was perfect. The third patient was a girl
of eleven. Leeches, ice and external excitants were employed. The pulse was scarcely perceptible;
the skin icy cold and a bluish tint; she vomited incessantly and suffered from insatiable thirst. Dr.
Foissac held her hands in his, and made light friction over the region of the heart and stomach. In
twelve hours the extremities began to grow warm; the

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vomiting ceased, and the circulation was re-established. In the evening a spasmodic cough
appeared, which yielded to a few passes; and she recovered her health almost immediately
afterward. In this disorder the magnetic action ought to be directed principally to the stomach and
intestines, and long continued.
In rheumatism the acute pain is quickly relieved. Sometimes, however, it is increased; but
in such cases is only transient and indicates that the complaint is changing its seat. This is a
favorable symptom. In hereditary cases, the symptoms reappear; but if you are fortunate enough
to influence them, they will yield more promptly to magnetism. The operator should apply a
general magnetization for five to ten minutes, and then direct the tips of the fingers to the affected
nerves or joint, and pass the hands slowly down, as though drawing something toward the
extremities. Afterward, general magnetizing should be resumed. This treatment is applicable to
rheumatism of the muscles and joints, whether acute or chronic. In chronic affections, the
endeavor should be to increase the vitality, and afterward to produce the magnetic crises. The
acute form of the disease must be reproduced. For a week or more, magnetize the patient, with no
endeavor to produce any effect, or notice of any that may appear. After this, direct the efforts
principally to the seat of disease, if sufficiently apparent, or to the region where you suppose it to
be. Heat and even pain must be developed without compunction, except the suffering is too acute,
which is not often. Afterward, endeavor merely to keep up the impetus already given; and
whenever the disturbance is transferred to an important organ, do what you can to impart vigor to
that organ, meanwhile continuing the previous efforts. In this way, white swellings and
enlargements of glands have disappeared, and paralysis of the limbs and even of the optic nerves
has been cured.
Here let me remark: magnetic energy and recuperative power of the patient are different
from electricity, galvanism and the like. They are principles associated with intelligence, and go
together to the same end.
Of course there are incurable complaints. Nevertheless, not all are such which we
apprehend to be. Sometimes the natural

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energy has become torpid and requires arousing. Remedies may have been employed which
fatigue the organism, till it is slow to respond to a new summons. In such case it is proper to direct
the effort to an augmenting of the vital energy. This will increase the recuperative power, and, in
the end, if the disorder is really curable, will facilitate operations. The patient will learn to desire
your coming and feel weary at any delay.
Du Potet instances the following complaints as diseases
which one ought not to attempt to cure:
1. Large tumors. Magnetism may perhaps in certain cases act upon them by reducing their
size; but he considers this as dangerous, and as aggravating the state of the patient by carrying into
the circulation a superabundance of irritable matter.
2. Stones in the bladder can neither be diminished nor expelled by magnetic action. It is the
same with foreign bodies which have been introduced into the organs. There is no hope for these,
by magnetism.
3. Spots on the cornea and cataract. There is more hope in paralysis of the optic nerves.
4. Limbs which have been shrunk from infancy, and have not kept pace in development with
the rest of the body.
5. Idiocy from birth.
6. All infirmities caused by malformation.
There are others, but the intelligent operators will have sufficient acumen to distinguish
them. Phthisis, at the beginning, may be favorably influenced; but after the second stage,
magnetism appears to do harm. There is not an organism to retain the imparted energy, and so it
destroys instead of building over. A little gentle manipulating may alleviate troublesome
symptoms, no more; I would hesitate even at this. The disease is infectious and contagious, and
personal contact often transmits it. The husband and wife disease each other; the infant contracts
it from the mother; near friends endanger each other.
The conditions of success in chronic diseases are imperative. The operator should be
persevering and self-denying; the patient quiet and passive. No account should be taken of time.
The operator
--- 426.

should not exhaust his physical energy by hard work or manual application. He ought to be
abstemious, indulging little in animal food or intoxicating drink. Excess of every character should
be avoided and continence maintained. He should carefully conserve the magnetic energy,
especially when he feels most certain of it. The more sensitive the patient, the less should he exert
his energy. The longest time spent at a sitting should not exceed thirty to sixty minutes. He should
rest at intervals. The patient must be kept from fits of anger, and his wishes should not be too
much thwarted. The operator should have full confidence in his own ability; fear will arrest the
flow of magnetic energy. No pain, groaning, excitement, or even suffering of the patient, should
move him. He should be careful not to talk much. He is certain to throw away his energy by this.
The magnetizer ought to be a physician or have a knowledge of medicine. He possesses and
creates greater confidence in himself; is more ready to direct his endeavors wisely and to
understand mysterious or alarming symptoms; and is more intelligent in every respect.

II. INSTRUCTIONS IN MAGNETIZING

It will be proper, before concluding this series of papers, to treat somewhat more definitely
upon the agent commonly denominated Animal Magnetism. Jacob Dixon gives us this theory:
"The nerve-organism of the human being, taken as a whole, is bipolar - the brain-system
representing one pole, and the ganglionic the other. These two systems are interlaced by
reciprocating nerve-cords and nerve-plexuses into one system. In our ordinary day-life the brain-
system is positive, and ganglionic negative. In our ordinary night-life the ganglionic system is
positive and the brain-system negative. The brain-system is the focal apparatus of sensation and
will; the ganglionic that of intuition, instinct and sympathy. Facts demonstrate that these
apparatus are the immediate concrete instruments of the soul, by which it has polar organic
relations with the material sphere; and thus on the natural plane is made to move

--- 427.

spiritual man, who - through the soul - has polar relations also with the spiritual sphere, as
manifested in the phenomena of clairvoyance and trance."
Although however, it would be very proper and interesting to extend this quotation and treat
on that department of clairvoyant and mental phenomena, I judge it will be more acceptable and
perhaps more directly useful to attend more directly to the physiological phenomena and agencies.
If you are interested in this branch of the subject, I have no doubt that you will find time and make
opportunity to explore farther - even into the ulterior manifestations, where the perception is
exalted beyond sphere and the everyday condition into higher and wider fields. Man is an infinite
being, if he did but know it. As an individual he is limited by the faculties and organs of the body;
but, on the other hand, he extends as far as the universe -

"Near allied
To angels on his better side."

In general, says Deleuze, magnetism acts in a more sensible and efficient manner upon
persons who have led a frugal life, and who have not been agitated by passions, than upon those
with whom the course of nature has been troubled, either by habits of luxury or by remedies.
Magnetism does no more than to employ, regulate, and direct the forces of nature. It acts better
with persons living in the country than others. Nervous persons exhibit the most singular
phenomena, but fewer cures. The object of the magnetizer is to develop the healing forces, to aid
the natural functions in doing their work, as well as to add to their energy. It is essential, therefore,
to act in aid of nature and not in opposition. We should not magnetize for curiosity's sake, or to
produce marvelous effects, or to convince the incredulous; but only to do something beneficial.
The magnetizer should never undertake any operation without full confidence in his own
powers. Faith is of vital importance. It is not so necessary to the patient; but the more truly
passive and trusting he is, the more efficacious will the endeavor be. Every lady is subject to
magnetic influence, whether acknowledging it or not.

--- 428.

It is the duty of the magnetizer to economize his energy. He should he careful in diet,
continent, and free from excesses. Everything which wastes the energy, hinders success in
manipulation. Nor should he have anything to do with an individual toward whom he feels an
interior repugnance. He should be certain of desiring to serve and benefit the individual whom he
proposes to magnetize.
There are a variety of processes to be employed. We may operate on the whole body, or
some particular part of it. We may employ the hand, the eye, or the will. Some magnetize a
substance, a drink, a stick, or article of clothing. The more common method is by passes, as they
are called. "I thought," says the Syrian general, "he will surely come out to me and call upon the
name of his God, and pass his hand to and fro over the diseased place and recover this leper."
Often it is well to place the hand to the spot or some nervous tract leading to it, or having a polar
relation to it. I never tried my hand at controlling individuals at a distance. The breath will also
have a magnetic influence.
It is not well to have many spectators to a magnetic seance. You are not juggling, or
employing conjurers' tricks. It is essential to fix your attention on what you are about, and ill-
tempered or frivolous individuals are likely to divert attention.
Deleuze prescribes the following method: Cause the patient to sit down in the easiest
position possible, and place yourself before him, on a seat a little elevated, so that his knees will
be between yours, and your feet beside him. Ask him to give you his entire attention, giving up
all apprehension and exercising hope and confidence. Having made ready for operations, take the
hands in yours, placing the inner side of your thumbs against the inside of his. Remain in this
attitude from two to five minutes. After this gently remove your hands and wave them so that the
interior side be turned upward and raise them to his head. Then place them on his shoulders,
leaving them there about a minute; then draw them to the extremity of the fingers, touching
lightly. Repeat this five or six times, always turning your hands upward and sweeping them off
a little before ascending again to the shoulder. Next place the hands on the head and hold them
there a moment; then bring them down before

--- 429.

the face at an inch or two distant, reaching the pit of the stomach. Confine your attention to this
region for some two minutes, passing the thumb along the pit of the stomach and the other fingers
down the sides. Then descend slowly down to the knees or farther; even to the ends of the feet
if convenient.
The same manipulations may be performed behind the shoulders, along the spine, to the hips
and along the thighs to the knees and feet. Always be very careful in magnetizing to draw the
hands downward. These are magnetic passes. Those made in a reverse direction tend to throw off
the influence. Hence we turn the palms outward when we carry the hands upward in magnetizing;
and inward if we wish to disperse the influence.
In this manner the odic fluid or fire will be generally distributed, and tends to accumulate
in the organs having need of it. There are other passes to be made at a greater distance from the
patient. They generally produce a calm, refreshing pleasurable sensation.
When the magnetizer is thus acting on the patient they are said to be en rapport, a French
expression meaning, in a peculiar relationship. The vital principle in the two is at one. When this
condition has been duly established, there is no further necessity of any touching of the body, when
endeavoring to magnetize.
Let the movements be easy and not too rapid. Avoid weariness all that is practicable. This
is the object of touching the thumbs. It is better to join all the fingers and palms of the hands. The
backs of the hands exhibit little or no odylic energy.
There are other methods, which in certain cases it is obviously better to employ, as where
women or persons in bed are to be the subjects. One hand may be placed on the stomach or other
important focal point of the body while the other is making passes. In case of local trouble the
passes should be made over the part affected and to a point beyond.
When the magnetic or odylic current is set in motion, it draws the blood and other fluids with
it. Pain will be transferred from one point to another, as well as from the body. An inexpert
operator may divert it to his own body.
The endeavor should be made to accumulate the fluid upon

--- 430.

the suffering part, and to draw off the pain toward the extremities. You accumulate the fluid by
holding the hands still at a point, and draw it off by the motion.
In the operation, the patient is in a receptive and the magnetizer in an active condition. This
induces a blending of the energy of the one with the potency or dynamic principle of the other:
thus producing a genesis or change of state.
The fingers are more efficient than the extended hand. Some patients assert that they
perceive luminous sparks pass from them. A piece of cloth may be laid upon an affected part; then
apply the mouth to it and breathe through it. This will introduce the magnetic energy into the
body. The palms of the hand placed on a patient's head, with fingers held up and separate, will
often relieve headache. Other troubles may be benefitted in analogous methods.
These processes, however, are of little account, except there is determination on the part of
the actor. They should be varied as circumstances indicate, or at the wish of the patient.
The effects will appear on some patients after two or three minutes; others are harder to
operate with. The various phenomena should be observed, and treatment directed or modified
accordingly.
The patient frequently perceives a heat escaping from the operator's fingers; and sometimes
perspiration is induced. The eyes close; a sensation of tranquil enjoyment comes over the body;
he becomes drowsy, and sleeps. He can be awakened by the magnetizer, by a command or by
reversing the passes.
A magnetic crisis occurs by the removing of the seat of the malady, change of the pulse,
excretions, abscesses, pains. One is likely to imagine he is doing injury, except he has learned
about these occurrences.
Passes made transversely across the eyes will awaken a patient.
The operator is liable to take on the morbid conditions of a patient. Even a contagious
disease may be contracted in this way.

(The Word, Vol. 17, pp. 21-27, 97-101, 297-306, Vol. 18, pp. 369-73)

------------------
--- 431.

THE GANGLIONIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

Dr. John O'Reilly remarks:


"It must be now obvious that a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the laws and
connections which govern and regulate the animal and organic nervous system is indispensably
required by every medical practitioner - such, in reality being the Alpha and Omega of medical
and surgical science. It is the foundation which a permanent superstructure, capable of
containing a universal knowledge of the nature of diseases, as well as a true explanation of the
modus operandi of therapeutic agents, can be created."
John W. Draper goes further and asserts that the advancement of metaphysical science is
through the study of physiology. This accomplished author declares:
"In his communications throughout the universe with us, God ever materializes.... I am
persuaded that the only possible route to truth in medical philosophy is through a study of the
nervous mechanism."
We may not accept this conclusion unqualifiedly; but we can by no means dispute the
importance of that knowledge to an intelligent understanding of the various problems with
which we deal. It is essential to judicial as well as speculative investigation, and it will
ultimately distinguish the scientific from the superficial physician. Whether we propose the
study of the corporeal structure as philosophers, or simply as physiologists, the proper
understanding of the nervous organism, its functions and relations, is essential. We cannot
afford to rest content with an imperfect or superficial apprehension, but must push our research
to the very core of the matter. It is incumbent upon us to learn all that is already known, and to
endeavour to find out whatever else we may be able. The

--- 432.

significance of this knowledge consists in the intermediate relation which this organism
sustains between the psychic nature and the bodily frame-work. The union which exists
through this median, constitutes the physical life. The moral and mental qualities are thereby
brought out and carried into outward manifestation and activity. Man is thus the synthesis of
the creation, including in himself the subjective principles of the universe together with the
objective factor which they permeate.
It is a common practice of teachers and writers accordingly to treat of him as twofold, a
body and a soul. Knowledge is, therefore, usually classified as physical or scientific, and
metaphysical, or beyond the province of phenomenal observation. All philosophy, moral and
mental science, and whatever relates to causes and principles, are relegated to the department
of metaphysics as being beyond the limits of sensuous knowing. They are the higher and more
important as pertaining to that which is actually real, and as therefore furnishing the
groundwork for the right understanding of things. The sentiment of Optimism, that all the
creation and events partake of good and are from it, is from the metaphysical source, evolved
from the interior depths of the mind. On the other hand, the views of life and action which
many love to honor as practical have their ulterior origin in selfishness and a gloomy notion
that all things are virtually controlled from the worst.
The psychic nature is correspondent to the corporeal, and constitutes the essential
selfhood and individuality. It is, however, twofold; one quality is intellectual and perceives,
the other is moral and feels. The latter pertains to the physical and emotional life, the former to
the spiritual. The two are constantly in operation close together, so to speak; at times,
however, they are not in harmony with each other. We feel and desire in one direction, when
sometimes we are convinced the other way. Pleasure and pain belong to the emotional nature,
happiness and unhappiness to the other.
This twofold aspect is in perfect analogy to the physical structure. Plato, following
Pythagoras, sets forth in the Timaios with great appositeness, that the immortal principle of
the soul was

--- 433.

originally with the Deity, and that the body was made for its vehicle; and likewise that there
was a mortal soul placed in the body, having the qualities of voluptuousness, fear of pain,
temerity and apprehension, anger hard to be appeased, and hope. These two psychic essences
were assigned to different regions; the rational soul to the head and the sensuous to the body.
There are accordingly two nervous structures, corresponding with the twofold quality. Modern
writers are approximating this same mode of classification. There is the cerebro-spinal axis,
consisting of the brain, the commissures and other fibres, the sensorium, spinal cord and
nerves; and the sympathetic or ganglionic system, consisting of the various ganglia of the
viscera and spinal region, with the prolongations, bands and fibres which unite them to each
other and to other parts and organs. The origin of the sympathetic system, as foetal dissections
abundantly prove, is the great solar or semilunar ganglion in the epigastric region. It is the part
first found in the embryonic period, and from it as a common centre the rest of the organism
proceeds, differentiating afterwards into the various tissues and structures. It is the very place
at which, according to the great philosopher, the impulsive or passionate nature comes in
contact with the sensuous or appetitive; and that it is the central point of the emotional nature
is apparent to everybody's consciousness. The instinct of the child and the observation of the
intelligent adult abundantly confirm this. The ramifications of these two nervous systems,
however, are more or less interblended; and this enables both to accomplish their distinctive
functions in concert; each as auxiliary to the other.
The name ganglionic is applied to this system because it consists distinctly of ganglia and
nerve-structures connecting them. Solly has proposed the longer but more expressive
designation of cyclo-ganglionic system, as corresponding in its mere anatomical arrangement
with the nervous system of the cyclo-gangliated or molluscous division of the animal kingdom.
It is also very frequently called the great sympathetic, from having been supposed to have the
function of equalizing the nervous energy, the temperature and other conditions of the body. It
has also been denominated the vegetative system, as controlling the processes of nutrition and
growth; the

--- 434.

visceral, intercostal and trisplanchnic, from its presence chiefly in the interior part of the body;
the organic as supplying the force which sustains the organism in vigor; and the vaso-motor as
maintaining the life of the blood-vessels, enabling them to contract and pulsate, to send forward
the blood, and so keep the body in wholesome condition. Draper considers that the name
"sympathetic," which is most common m in the textbooks, has been a source of injury to the
science of physiology, and that it would be well even now to replace it by such a term as
vincular, or moniliform, or some title of equivalent import. This would indicate the fact that
the ganglia of this system are connected like a necklace or chain of beads. Nevertheless, as the
designation of "ganglionic" approximates that meaning as well as indicates the peculiar
constitution of this nervous system, it is preferable.
The function of the ganglial nerve-cells and molecules consists in the elaborating,
retaining and supplying of "nervous force." The chief ganglion is denominated from its
peculiar form the semilunar; and the group which surrounds it is known as the solar plexus,
from the fact that this region of the body was anciently regarded as being under the special
guardianship of the solar divinity. It has been designated "the Sun of the abdominal
sympathetic system," and Solly describes it as a gangliform circle enveloping the coeliac axis.
From this circle branches pass off in all directions, like rays from a centre, and it appears to be
the vital centre of the entire body. Injuries at every extremity report here, and every emotion
and passion has its influence for ill or good directly at this spot.
It is not necessary here to give more than a cursory sketch and outline of the history of
the cerebro-spinal axis. If we consider it according to its process of evolution, we must begin
at the medulla as the first rudimentary structure. In point of time, the ganglionic system is
developed first, being in full operation in the unborn child, while the other can hardly be said to
begin a function till after birth. The rudiments of the spinal cord are found to exist,
nevertheless, at a very early period in foetal existence. The close relation of the medulla
oblongata to the sympathetic system is shown by the evidences of inter-communication, and
more particularly from the fact that it is the

--- 435.

seat of power for the entire body. It seems to be the germ from which the entire cerebro-spinal
system is developed, and is, in fact, the equator of the cerebro-spinal axis. At the superior
extremity, two fibrous branches extending towards the rear of the head form two of the lobes of
the cerebellum at their extremity. A second pair of fibres develop into the optic ganglia,
whence in their turn proceed two nervous filaments with the rudimentary eyes at their
extremities. The auditory and olfactory nerves issue from the ganglia at the medulla, each with
the rudimentary structure of the future organ attached to it. Another and later formation is the
frontal lobe of the brain. In due time, but not till some time after birth, the whole encephalon -
brain, commissures, sensory ganglia, cerebellum - becomes complete.
The spinal cord below and the nerves are also formed about simultaneously with the
other parts of the structure.
It may not be amiss to suggest that the primordial cell or ovule is itself a nervous mass,
and that the spermatic fluid appeals to unite with, if not to consist entirely of, material
elementarily similar with that composing the nerve substance. This would seem to indicate that
the germ of the body is nerve-matter, and that all the other parts, tissues, membranes, and
histological structure generally were outgrowths or evolutions from the nervous system, if not
that system extended further. There is nothing known in physiology that conflicts radically
with this hypothesis. If it is actually the case, the understanding of the nervous system and its
functions can be greatly facilitated.
The cerebral and spinal systems of nerves together perform the several functions of
feeling, thinking and willing, as these are commonly understood. These are the actions of the
central ganglion or "registering arc," which receives impressions of the brain which perceives
them, reflects upon them and wills; and of the corpora striata and motor nerves, which are the
agents to transmit the purposes of the will to the voluntary muscles to be carried into effect.
The brain is their influential organ.
Offshoots from the ganglionic system pass upward and join the cerebro-spinal at every
important point. Closer examination shows that they go in company with the blood-vessels
which supply the various structures of the brain, indicating that the brain exists and is

--- 436.

energized from the ganglial system. Each of the cerebral ganglia is arranged on an artery and
arteriole, like grapes on a stem. In an analogous manner, there is a double chain of these
sympathetic ganglia, over fifty in number, extending from the head along the sides of the spinal
column to the coccyx, which give off fibres to the various spinal nerves which proceed from
the vertebral cavity to the various parts of the body. They are named from their several
localities, the cervical, dorsal and lumbar ganglia.
In like manner, there proceed from the central region, distinct filaments, which under the
name of plexuses accompany all the branches given off by the abdominal artery. So we have
the carotid, the superficial and deep cardiac plexuses, the phrenic, gastric, hepatic, splenic,
supra-renal, renal, pudic, superior and inferior mesenteric, and others. These plexuses are
made up of nerve-cords from different sympathetic ganglia, and filaments from certain of the
spinal nerves. The nervecords proceed from these plexuses to their ultimate distribution;
showing that the plexuses serve to combine the various elements in order to form an extremely
complex nerve. As regards the ultimate distribution of the great sympathetic, it sends its
branches to all the spinal and cranial nerves, and they undoubtedly communicate the vital
stimulus to these nerves and accompany them to their extremities. The coats of all the arteries
are supplied in like manner, and also all the innumerable glandular structures. The viscera,
thoracic, abdominal and pelvic, all more or less abound with sympathetic nerves
One ingenious writer computes that the heart stands at the head of the list; as it receives
six cardiac nerves from the upper, middle and inferior cervical ganglia, and has four plexuses,
two cardiac and two coronary, devoted to its supply; also numerous ganglia, embedded in its
substance, over and above. These are centres of nervous force for its own use.
The supra-renal capsules come next, and after that the sexual system. Internal organs are
more copiously supplied than external ones; hence the female body has a much larger
proportion than that of the male. In consideration of this richer endowment, women, and
indeed the females of all races and species, have a superior vitality

--- 437.

and even greater longevity. The organs of special sense, the eye, internal ear, nasal membranes
and the palate seem to come next. After these are the stomach, the intestinal tract and the liver;
and last of all, the lungs.
The minute ramifications of the ganglionic nervous system constitute its chief bulk. The
tissue is found with every gland and blood-vessel, and indeed is distributed so generally and
abundantly as to extend to every part of the organism. It would be impossible to insert a pin's
point without wounding or destroying many of the little fibres. The ganglia themselves are
almost as widely distributed as the nervecords; so that the assertion of Dr. J. C. Davey is amply
warranted, that the nervous tissue of the ganglionic system constitutes a great part of the
volume and weight of the whole body.
The entire structure of the sympathetic system differs essentially from that of the cerebro-
spinal, indicating that there is a corresponding difference in function. The arrangement, the
great number and extraordinary diffusion of its ganglia, the immense number and great
complexity of its plexuses, are so many additional proofs, if these are needed.
The ganglionic system of nerves, with the solar or semilunar ganglion for its central
organ, performs the vital or organic functions. Secretion, nutrition, respiration, absorption and
calorification, being under its immediate influence and control throughout the whole body, it
must animate the brain as well as the stomach, the spinal cord as well as the liver or womb. In
point of fact, if either of these organs or viscera was removed from the influence of the
ganglionic nerves entering so largely into its very composition, its specific vitality would cease;
its contribution to the sum total of life would be withheld.
The creative force is directed, as we see, towards the development of the central organ or
organs predestined to give life and form to all others, which it creates, assigning their peculiar
force and direction, thus determining the essential parts of the future animal and its rank and
position in the infinite being. Lawrence expresses the matter in these terms:
"The first efforts of the vital properties, whatever they may be, are directed towards the
development of a central organ, the solar

--- 438.

ganglion, predestined to hold a precisely similar relation to the dull and unmoving organism, as
the vital fire to the animated statue of Prometheus."
Ackermann prosecuted the enquiry further, and insisted that the ganglionic nervous
system is the first formed before birth, and is therefore to be considered as the germ of
everything that is to be afterwards developed. Blumenbach adds his testimony:
"The nervous system of the chest and abdomen are fully formed while the brain appears
still a pulpy mass."
It is the foundation laid before the superstructure is built.
Mr. Quain sets forth the priority of the ganglionic to cerebro-spinal nervous system in
regard to evolution. He says:
"As to the sympathetic nerve, so far from being derived in any way from the brain or
spinal cord, it is produced independently of either, and exists, notwithstanding the absence of
both. It is found in acephalous infants, and therefore does not rise mediately or immediately
from the brain; neither can it be said to receive roots from the spinal cord, for it is known to
exist as early in the foetal state as the cord itself, and to be fully developed, even though the
latter is altogether wanting."

Psychic Functions of the Ganglionic System

It is a hypothesis generally accepted, that the brain is essentially the organ of the mind.
Thought and cerebration are regarded accordingly as associated processes. The Moral Nature,
however, as distinguished from the understanding, operates in connection with the ganglionic
structures. The common sense of mankind refers passion and emotion of every character to the
epigastrium, the seat of the semilunar ganglion. This, in fact, rather than the muscular structure
so designated, is the heart, or seat of the affections, sensibilities and moral qualities in general.
The passions, love, hate, joy, grief, faith, courage, fear, etc., have there their corporeal seat.
While the brain and spinal cord constitute the organism by

--- 439.

which man sustains relations towards the external world, the ganglionic system is the organ of
subjectivity. He feels with it, and from this instinctive feeling coordinating with the reflective
faculties, he forms his purposes. Dr. Kerner truly remarks:
"We will find that this external life is the dominion of the brain - the intellect which
belongs to the world; while the inner life dwells in the region of the heart, the sphere of
sensitive life, in the sympathetic and ganglionic system. You will further feel that by virtue of
this inner life, mankind is bound up in an internal connection with nature."
Dr. Richardson is equally positive:
"The organic nervous centres are the centres also of those mental acts which are not
conditional, but are instinctive, impulsive, or, as they are most commonly called, emotional."
It must follow, then, that all emotions will make themselves manifest through this part of
the physical structure. We observe this at every hand. Every new phase of life, every
occurrence or experience that we encounter, immediately indicates its effects upon the central
organs of the body and the glandular structures. Every function is influenced by emotional
disturbance. We lose our appetite for food, we are depressed and languid, or cheerful and
buoyant, at the gratification or disappointment of our hopes, or in some affectional excitement.
A careful consideration of the several forms of disease will disclose an analogy, and often a
close relation between each malady and some type of mental disorder. The passions, fear,
grief, anger, and even sudden joy, will involve the vital centres, paralyze the ganglionic nerves,
disturb and even interrupt the normal action of the glandular system, modify the various
functions of life or even suspend them. These influences prolonged would bring about
permanent disease, and indeed when sufficiently intense, will even result in death, and hence
the maxim of Pythagoras cannot be too carefully heeded: "Let there be nothing in excess."
The converse of this, at least after a certain manner, is also true. Emotional
manifestations result from peculiar conditions of the ganglial nervous system. At those periods
of life, when the nutritive functions are exceptionally active, such moral faculties as love and
faith also exhibit a predominating influence. We observe this in the

---440.

young, and likewise in individuals recovering from wasting disease. But during the process of
wasting, and when digestion is imperfect, the mental condition is morbid, and the sufferer is
liable to be gloomy, morose and pessimistic.
The functional impairment of these nerves is often produced from mental disturbance.
Indeed, there is a continual action and reaction between the mind and this nervous system so
that each is the cause of corresponding moods and conditions of the other. The man who is
suffering from nervous dyspepsia will experience a sense of great fear and the heart will be
greatly disturbed; and again great fear will disturb the heart's action and prevent any proper
digestion. For a time the fear resulting from the disorder will be simply terror; but after a
while it will fix itself on an object. There will be the religious-minded person's fear of
punishment after death, the lawyer's apprehension of making a professional mistake or losing
money, the physician's terror of sudden death, poison, or incurable disease. Fatty degeneration
of the heart and calcareous degeneration of the arteries are accompanied by great depression of
spirits, and even by agonies of anxiety and terror. In a similar way, great fear will sometimes
produce the sensation of stabbing at the heart. The rage of anger will also affect the motion of
the heart and arteries and change the blood from pure to poisonous. An individual will turn
deadly pale, lose more or less the control of his voluntary faculties, and in a very great
excitement will fall dead. An angry woman nursing a child will make it deathly sick, and
sometimes from the venom of her milk kill it outright.
In the exacerbations of fear, the sweat will transude through the pores, but will be more
of the consistency of serum than like the product of the sudorific glands. Envy and jealousy
arrest the action of digestion and assimilation, and if long continued will produce leanness.
The example of Cassius in the drama of Julius Caesar, is a forcible illustration; his "lean and
hungry look" and sleepless nights were justly to be dreaded.
Instinct is plainly a function of the ganglionic nervous system. The infant manifests it in
common with the lower animals; and in both alike it is not amenable to the reasoning
processes. It is not to be

--- 441.

cultivated, but it may be perverted.


The whole range of disorders called nervous will be found, upon careful estimation, to
begin with the disturbance of the ganglionic centres. It is but rarely, says Dr. Davey, who had
been for several years in charge of an insane asylum, that persons afflicted with diseases do not
exhibit signs more or less evident, of something amiss with the liver or stomach, or parts
accessory or subordinate thereto. This is true of epilepsy, hydrophobia, tetanus, delirium
tremens, hysteria, chorea, and paralysis in several of its forms. It is customary to refer the
external symptoms of these disordered conditions to the cerebro-spinal organism; but the
integrity of that organism depends upon the normal condition of the ganglionic system, and
therefore these diseases are to be accounted for accordingly.
Insane patients, and persons suffering from various other nervous disorders, invariably
exhibit disturbances in the functions of nutrition, secretion and absorption. Nor can they be
relieved or materially benefitted till these are corrected. The morbid action began with these
functions, and extended afterwards to the others. We can have little confidence in the utility of
the treatment of patients at insane asylums except it be conducted on this principle. Insanity is
a disease of debility.
These considerations appear to establish firmly the conclusion that the ganglial system is
concerned more or less directly with every form of functional action, normal and abnormal, in
the body. Its innervation enables the performing of the vital and organic functions, circulation,
sanguification, calorification, nutrition, sleep, and all others. They are links in a chain. If one
is impaired, the others participate in the ill results. They all depend upon the circulation, and
fail of healthy performance when it does not take place normally. If the innervation is
weakened, the blood fails to move in the vessels with its proper celerity. Thus there is passive
congestion; the blood-making processes are retarded, and then directly come failure of
nutrition, lack of animal heat, and likewise disagreeable dreaming, phantasms and
sleeplessness.
Dr. E. H. Brood declares it almost susceptible of demonstration

--- 442.

that all disturbances of the organic functions are due to this cause, and sets forth the subject in a
little monograph with great distinctness. He designates the condition gangliasthenia, or loss of
ganglionic nerve-power; rejecting the more common term neurasthenia, as somewhat
misleading and not sufficiently expressive. The ganglionic tract being regarded as entirely
distinct in its sphere from the cerebro-spinal division of the nervous system, there should be a
terminology in accordance with that fact. He lays down the following as an axiom and
principle in medicine:
"Whenever idiopathic passive congestion is present it is due to gangliasthenia, and the
intensity of the congestion is the measure of the degree of ganglionic exhaustion."
The consequent changes in the character of the blood are liable to result in some form of
specific disease, which may be determined by individual peculiarities, epidemic tendencies or
other morbific agencies. Disease is said to be protean in shape, but the signs of impaired
nervous energy are unvarying in character, and their meaning is invariably the same.
Common intelligence is sufficient to dissipate the impression that passive congestion is
the result of malaria. There is no adequate support to the conjecture of specific poison. It may
be considered only as an assumption, the truth of which has never been demonstrated by
scientific investigation. The source of trouble comes from within the body itself and not from
extraneous agency. The nerve-force from the ganglia, which permeates the blood and vivifies'
every corpuscle, is cut off or diminished, and as a direct consequence the blood is unable to
free itself from the dead and worn-out material which it has accumulated in the course of its
circulation. The poison is thus generated. and set in operation from disordered conditions
within the corporeal economy. In all forms of passive congestion the blood remains fluid after
death; thus showing that the vital energy had become dormant prior to dissolution.
Sometimes the corpuscles, when deprived of their normal supply of nerve-force, will
lodge at the points where the vessels intersect. Then becoming swollen by endosmose of
serum, they burst, and their fragmentary remains are carried again into the

--- 443.

circulation. This constitutes what is denominated specific poison. In another form of


congestion the corpuscles pass through the walls of the capillaries into the tissues; but
sometimes they are entangled and remain half inside and half outside of the wall of the vessel,
and exhibit a curious distortion of shape from their peculiar predicament. This appearance is
often attributed to the supposititious agency denominated malaria.
The kinds of passive congestion correspond with the manner in which the ganglia, or any
portion of them, are affected by depression. Every ganglion is regarded as constituting a focus
of nervous energy, and capable, accordingly, in its own peculiar sphere, of receiving,
transmitting, and reflecting impressions on which the healthy performance of function depends.
The ganglial system being the corporeal seat of the emotions, it is immediately affected by
every cause that excites them. The blush of shame is produced from a temporary depression of
the vaso-motor nerves of the arteries, which causes a transient congestion of the arterioles;
while the pallor of guilt or fear proceeds from a corresponding depression of the nerves of the
veins which influence the venules. Apathy, the absence of all emotion, is a prominent feature
in all acute congestive diseases, and denotes the profound depression under which the ganglial
structures are laboring.
So in one form of passive congestion the face is suffused and of a dusky red. It has the
appearance of a permanent blush, and is the result of congestion of the arterial blood vessels.
In the other forms, the countenance exhibits a permanent paleness, often mistakenly termed
anaemia, which is due to the congestion of the veins and venous capillaries, from depression of
the veno-motor nerves.
This distinction marks the division of congestive diseases into two types: one
characterized by deficient animal warmth, and the other by excess of heat - hypothermy and
hyperthermy. In the former type the congestion is in the venous, and in the other in the arterial
blood-vessels. The abnormal temperature affords a means of estimating its intensity. The
hypothermic type, which is due to congestion resulting from nervous depression of the venous
system,

--- 444.

exhibits in its greatest intensity a fall of eight degrees (F.) below the normal standard. The
hyperthermic, which originates from the congestion produced by arterial depression, will, in its
severest form, exhibit an increase of temperature to ten degrees above the standard of health.
In the veno-motor form the nervous apparatus of the veins is paralyzed, and the blood is
impelled by the nervous force till it emerges from the capillaries, when it is cut off from that
influence, and the veins accordingly engorged. In the other form, the vaso-motor nerves of the
arterial system are enfeebled, and the impulse of the heart is, or seems to be, the principal if not
the sole force to propel the blood through the arteries. The result is, that these vessels retain an
undue proportion of the blood, while the venous system is correspondingly deprived of its
normal supply.
Disorders from perverted functional activity are most likely to appear when there has
been some severe strain upon the nervous system. It may be from overwork, insufficient sleep,
or mental shock; or from an enfeebled nervous condition with no assignable cause. Chorea,
epilepsy, and the various forms of insanity, are from debility, and therefore to be traced to the
same source. Heredity comes in with its contributions. The weaknesses of parents, whether
moral or physical, are apt to manifest themselves anew in the children. As social
demoralization invariably and inevitably characterizes the generation next after a war, so
mental and nervous infirmity appear after an epidemic visitation or other calamity. Alcoholism
entails neurosis of the ganglial system. Indeed vice and immorality in every form are
detrimental to the body, and certain in some manner to impair its integrity. Says M. Reveille-
Parise:
"Whenever the equilibrium of our mental nature is long or very seriously disturbed, we
may rest assured that our animal functions will suffer. Many a disease is the rebound, so to
speak, of a strong moral emotion; the mischief may not be apparent at the time, but its germ
will be nevertheless inevitably laid."
In diseases of organs not liberally supplied with ganglial nerves there is less evidence
comparatively of physical suffering or mental disturbance. Persons injured in the lungs make
little complaint and

--- 445.

appear to suffer less than those hurt in the abdomen. But when the stomach, heart, liver, or
other of the glands or internal structures that have a copious supply of organic nerves are
disordered, there is always emotional disturbance. Cancer of the stomach, ulceration and
inflamation are emphatically characterized in this way. Every physician has witnessed the
emotional horrors that often attend dyspepsia. Insane persons are always more or less
enervated and usually have intestinal disease, often with no apparent cerebral lesions. They
become moody and low-spirited; indeed, everything with them seems to be out of plumb. In
fact, functional derangement and mental disturbance accompany each other with more or less
uncertainty as to which was first and which the resultant.
In this way doubtless, the whole department of pathologic science can be adequately set
forth. Every agency that tends to lower the spirits and moral power of the individual is certain
to impair his vital energy. We may enumerate these causes according to our habits of
accounting for things; as, for example, the varying conditions of the atmosphere, social
inharmonies, the circumstances of life as regarding food, clothing, labor and sleeping
arrangements; in short, everything that affects the corporeal existence from within or without.
The particular type which the disease assumes is determined by the peculiar temperament and
surrounding conditions of the individual.
The following comparison of the functions of the two great departments of our nervous
organism is suggested by Dr. R. M. Bucke, and is entitled to favorable consideration. The
cerebro-spinal system is an enormous and complex sensory-motor apparatus, with an immense
ganglion - the cerebrum - whose function is ideation, superimposed upon its sensory tract; and
another - the cerebellum - whose function is the coordination of motion, superimposed upon its
motor tract. The great sympathetic is also a sensory-motor system without any superimposed
ganglia, and its sensory and motor functions do not differ from the corresponding functions of
the cerebro-spinal system more than its cells and fibres differ from those of this latter system;
its efferent or motor function being expended upon unstriped muscle, and its afferent or sensory
function being that
--- 446.

peculiar kind of sensation which we call emotion. As there is no such thing as coordination of
emotion, as there is coordination of motion and sensation, so in the realm of the moral nature
there is no such thing as learning, though there is development.
It is out of undue deference to psychological tradition, Dr. Lindorme justly declares, that
the brain is exclusively dwelt upon as the organ of the mind. There is an abuse of this term in
its restriction to the sense of intellect, or more strictly, in reference to that of our understanding
and reasoning faculties - a restriction which is in obvious contradiction to the plainest facts of
every-day observation. It is literally true and logically incontrovertible that there is not one
organ in the body that is not an organ of the mind.
It follows as a corollary that genius, longevity, and every form of earthly excellence are
very closely allied to the functional integrity of the ganglionic system. Religion is always an
exercise of the affections, and as a general rule the superior genius is also of a high religious
character. Taking the phrenological method of estimating, however full the development of
brow and middle regions of the head, the three-storied brain carries off the palm. Intellect is
more than reasoning faculty or understanding; it is the power to look beyond. The highest
moral nature is nearest in accord with the truth of things. All our great artists are largely
endowed in this respect. We conceive of selfish men as narrow-minded, and of generous and
liberal souls as broad and full-developed. Savages are proverbially deficient in noble quality;
they are heartless and untrustworthy in social, family and other relations which involve fidelity
and unselfish affection. They are also short-lived in comparison with other races. Men,
however, who are distinguished for superior moral qualities excel others in the average length
of life. The Semitic races are more tenacious of their religious customs, and more generally
educated than the Aryans, and they are certainly longer-lived. In physical development, while
they are fully equal in brain-power, they are superior in bodily physique. Women, too, have a
richer endowment of organic nerves, and also of the moral qualities which are allied to these;
and they both excel the other sex in their longevity and power of endurance, and exercise an
influence correspondingly greater on manners and social culture.

--- 447.

The married live longer than the unmarried; not alone because the conjugal relationship
is more in accordance with nature and preventive of disorder, but because they who contract it
are individuals more perfectly endowed with moral sentiment and the corresponding nervous
organism, and accordingly have that instinct of long life and permanent domestic relations
which makes marriage desirable. These facts are born out by statistics, and are abundantly
verified by observation.
This knowledge of the interior life-ministering nervous structure may not be prudently
neglected. It is essential in regard to the Higher Remedial Art. Medical learning, in order to be
really scientific, must recognize as a fundamental truth, the influence of mental and moral
states over the physical functions. The missing link which is to be discovered as well as
recognized, is not only the skill to restore a mind diseased and "rase out the written troubles of
the brain," but to recruit, as well as to sustain, the vital forces.
The study and exploration of the grand system of ganglionic nerves, will enable us to
understand, as we may not otherwise, the connection of every organ with all the others and
their relation to the mind itself. To that system pertains the vis medicatrix naturae, the force
which is Nature's physician. It holds the middle place in our being between the within and the
without, standing at the last verge of mortal existence. It is the first thing created in our bodies,
the last which is palsied by death. It contains the form, or organizing principle, which abides
permanently, and controls the shaping of every part of the corporeal organism, and at the same
time it mirrors the whole universe.

(Lucifer, Sept., October, 1892)

-------------------------
--- 448.

THE EYE AND THE ANATOMY OF EMOTION

The accessory apparatus of the eye consists of the eyebrows, eyelids, meibomian glands,
the lachrymal mechanism and the muscles for the moving of the eyeball. The brows are two
arches of integument covered with hair; it is supposed that they protect the eyes from too great
intensity of light and divert away the drops of sweat. They also facilitate the expression of
emotions, indeed surpassing the eyes themselves in that respect. If we were carefully observant
we would perceive that the eyes are greatly overrated in regard to expressing the feeling. I do
not deny, however, that they do much in this way; we descry mirth, thoughtfulness, sadness,
anger and affection, by looking steadfastly in the eye of the person; and individuals not strong
of will often drop the eye as in shame when regarded by another. I do not believe so much as
many do that guilt may be detected from this occurrence. A modest or diffident person can
easily be made to look down or away when one more impudent or imperious stares upon them.
What is more, such an individual can be made to feel guilty, and almost to believe himself so,
when actually knowing himself to be innocent.
The evolutionists endeavor to think that the eyebrows are remnants of the cast off skin
that the pre-Adamite man wore in the period of nobody-knows-when. I supposed that the
garment mentioned in the book of Genesis will hardly be allowed by the commentator; though
human skin is the primitive meaning of the word used. The naked savage explained that he did
not suffer from heat and cold because he was all face: we can perceive that the modern notion
is that the primeval man had a skin, all eyebrow. No wonder that the esteemed individual that
is supposed to have most to do with mankind is supposed to adhere to the ancient costume.

--- 449

Perhaps for this reason he is popularly denominated the Old Hairy.


The actual reason, however, why the eyebrows are moved and posed by our emotions is
because they are largely operated by sympathetic nerves. That part of our nervous structure
represents and embodies the affectional emotional nature, and so the organs supplied by it
always are affected by emotion.
The eyelids consist of a pair of membranous valves, of which the upper one has most
freedom of motion. They are very important to us, affording protection to the eye by closing
entirely over it, more particularly during sleep, and to keep their surface moist and free from
dust, by their winking motion. The contact of air or of irritating particles, and light bring them
into action. They are supplied from the facial and fifth pair of nerves, and so have both general
sensation and motion akin to that of the rest of the face. The edges of the lids are supplied with
rows of curved hairs which help protect the eye by keeping off dust and tempering the light.
They are lubricated by an oil secreted from the meibomian glands. There are about thirty of the
openings of these glands in each upper eyelid and somewhat fewer in the other. The glands are
themselves embedded on the inner side of the cartilage of the lids; and their peculiar secretion
prevents the adhesion of the lids to the eyes, enables the globes to move readily within them
and checks the overflow of the moisture of the eyes.
The lachrymal apparatus consists of a gland in the upper and outer angle of each orbit,
which secretes a well-known bitter and saline water. Some eight or ten ducts convey this fluid
to the conjunctive, as the membrane is called which lines the orbit and covers the eyeball. The
motion of the eyelids spreads this fluid over the eyes. It may not be out of place to define the
utility of all this. The surface of the cornea requires, like the glass of a spectacle, to be kept
perfectly clean; besides, if it is not kept moist it loses much of its transparency which would
hinder sight. This provision prevents both these exigencies. The necessity exists however to
remove this moisture, as well as to provide it. This is usually done by evaporation; but in case
of moist atmosphere or a superabundant accumulation, there will an excess arise to be
otherwise disposed of. Two minute orifices accordingly exist at the edge of the eyelids,
known as the

---450.

puncta lachrymalia. They draw off any collection of water and convey it to a little receptacle
denominated the lachrymal sac and discharge it through the nasal duct into the cavity of the
nose. It is removed then by evaporation.
As glands are under the control of the sympathetic nervous system, an emotional stimulus
is likely to increase their activity. This rule holds good of the lachrymal glands. The secretion
will become excessive, so that not only will there be a greater accumulation of moisture in the
cavities of the nostrils, but the eyes themselves will overflow, and discharge the water in tears
down the cheeks. This occurs in the torturing pain of facial neuralgia, as well as from grief,
delight, and other emotions. In some individuals the discharging ducts are more or less
obstructed, causing the phenomenon known as "the weeping eye." Though the sympathetic
nerves are generally supposed to constitute the principle nervous supply to these glands, the
secretion seems often to be under the control of the will. Some persons hold back tears by
sheer force of purpose. The dying never weep. Others seem to be able to shed tears on
command. Some ladies having susceptible husbands to manage, who are apt to be persistent in
their own way, are said to find this power of weeping at will to be very convenient and even
effective. It requires a pretty firm man to stand such a broadside of woman-power. But, then,
how is it when he is disillusioned, and learns that the tears come by order, as a charge from a
cannon at some fortress? We forbear to speculate on that theme, though it pertains to psychical
phenomena.
The eyeball is moved by six muscles, four straight and two oblique. The straight muscles
arise at the optic foramen and are inserted into the sclerotic in the four positions at angles to
each other - above and below, right and left. Each muscle, on contracting, turns the eyeball
toward itself; when they all contract at once they fix it. The superior oblique muscle arises
also from the optic foramen, passes through a pulley beneath the internal angular process of the
frontal bone, its tendons being inserted into the sclera on its outer and posterior part near the
entrance of the optic nerve. The inferior oblique rises from the inner margin of the superior
maxillary bone, passes beneath the inferior straight muscle and is inserted in the

--- 451.

sclerotic near the entrance of the optic nerve. The superior oblique muscle rolls the globe
inward and forward; the inferior rolls it outward and backward. When both of them act, they
draw the globe forward and converge the axes of the eyes.
The nerves which supply these muscles and control their action will be again enumerated.
The optic are the second pair of cranial nerves. It has been shown that these with their
expansions constitute the apparatus of the eye itself. The third pair is denominated oculomotor.
It arises from the inner side of the crus cerebri, near the pons varolii, some of its fibers being
attached to the gray matter of the crus. It divides into two branches, one of which supplies the
muscle of the eyelid and the superior rectus, and the other the internal rectus, the inferior rectus
and the inferior oblique. Thence it controls the motion of the eye and eyelid. Branches of it
also pass to the lenticular ganglion and so to the iris itself. Thus acting with the optic nerve and
the corpora quadrigemina, the three constitute a complete nerve arc; and accordingly the
sensory impressions made on the retina occasion motions in the iris. The enlargement and
contraction of the pupil are thus occasioned. Division of these nerves will produce strabismus,
paralysis of the eyelid or ptosis, paralysis of the glove itself, and paralysis of the iris, so that the
most powerful light will not contract the pupil.
The fourth pair originate near the testis, pass around the crura cerebri, enter the orbit and
are distributed to the superior oblique muscles of the eyes. Division of this nerve will cause the
eye to turn upward and outward and double vision.
The fifth pair are known as the sensory nerves of the head. One branch of it, the
ophthalmic, is distributed to the various muscles, generally being included in the same sheath
with other nerves.
The sixth pair arises from the upper part of the pyramidal bodies of the medulla
oblongata, near the pons varolii and is distributed to the external straight muscles. When it is
irritated that muscle is convulsed and the eye turned outward; when it is divided or otherwise
injured, the muscle is paralyzed and the eye turned inward.
Thus the optic nerve has the third, fourth, sixth and a division

--- 452.

of the fifth pair for its servants and auxiliaries. Yet these are not enough, a more vital principle
than pertains to the cerebro-spinal nerves is required. The ganglionic must be certain to do its
share or all this structure would not subsist. There is accordingly at the side of the orbit near
the optic nerve the little reddish lenticular ganglion; filaments from which enter the iris of the
eye and ciliary ligament. Branches of the third pair are connected with this ganglion. The most
incredible circumstance connected with this would seem to be the minute size of this structure.
Despite much of the importance which masses of bulk appear to have, the little things somehow
appear to excel in force. I cannot conceive of the Supreme Being except as an impalpable
point, absolutely without dimension; but he is omnipotent and ubiquitous for all that. So, in no
unworthy analogy, the magnificent structure the eye, endowed with the most complex
organism, is set in operation and maintained by that minute and apparently insignificant
lenticular ganglion. This ganglion appears to be in close relation to the pineal gland - another
structure which has taxed the ingenuity of investigators to tell what it is or surmise its office. It
has been suggested that it is a central organ bearing a relation to those sympathetic systems of
the head that the semilunar ganglion does to the ganglion and other structures of the body. In
such case it would be the maintainer of the brain and supplier of the various structures of the
encephalon. But enough of this at present.
It has been suggested that the black pigment of the choroid coat of the eye, and not the
retina, was the receiving screen. When this pigment is not perfectly developed, as in albinos,
vision is imperfect and indistinct. The effect of different rays of light upon this pigment is to
produce the sensation of color. The yellow tint is the most intense; while the red and violet,
and which are polar to each other, are the least so. The posterior side of the retina is its sensory
surface. The rods of Jacob are the tactile agency that perceives the contact.
Rays from a luminous source cannot be perceived by the eye, if the temperature is below
1,000 degrees F. They cannot pass through a stratum of water or the humors of the eye. In the
same way, all photographic effects are the effects of high temperature.

--- 453.

Though the heat be intense at the point where the ray strikes, it passes away in being conducted
to other points. But except an individual is very familiar with the physical history of light, this
cannot be made intelligible, and we pass to another feature of the subject.
Numerous conjectures have been put forth to explain what light is. It has been declared
to be a material substance and an immaterial agent, to consist of waves of ether and to be very
ether itself, to be the product of electricity and actual electricity. This much is plain: that that
science which stands like antichrist in the very temple of God, which its votaries denominate
exact and modern, as distinguished from the more modest ancient philosophy, and yet which
revises its conclusions every morning after the reading of the newspaper, is not to be regarded
as of much account in determining the matter. We may as well summon what intelligence and
intuitive faculties we ourselves possess, and refuse to submit our judgment to the dictum of any
consensus of professed scientists. They have no faculties which we have not; except, perhaps
of domineering.
When we learn what motion and polarity are, we shall comprehend electricity, heat and
light. We shall understand that force or energy is their originator, and that by potency they are
embodied, individualized and brought to our scope. So far as we know, force comes hither
from the sun. I doubt not that much is transmitted to us from elsewhere, but that is foreign to
the present discussion. It is force from the sun that made the plant grow, and gave coal its
prodigious accumulation of heat, light and mechanical power. The fountain of force is the
source of light. The something which scientists call actinism is the solar energy. It is diffused
wherever the sun shines. It makes metals into magnets, trees grow, animals thrive; and all the
universe to abound with life in one or another form. It is manifest in one form as heat, in
another as light, in another as the actinic potency which produces chemical and photographic
effects. The chemical ray produces molecular changes, preparing substances for the action of
its successors, the calorific ray which is red. This develops polarity, attraction and repulsion,
red and blue. In its essence then, light is force; in its manifestation it is the something which,
acting on our organism, enables us to see. This it does,

--- 454.

because our eyes are organisms of the same character, embodied light. They cannot receive
any principle that is of a nature diverse from themselves. The fact that some things appear to
us as light, and others appear differently, is only an apparent evidence. There are differences in
eyes. The owl, perhaps, if he had reason and vocal speech, could discourse to you of the
glorious views of nature to be witnessed at midnight; and tell you that he had no need of a sun
to show them. That only seemed to blind the true sense of vision. He would be about as
rational as the French atheist who was asked concerning God, and replied that he saw no need
of such an hypothesis. If the owl and the atheist are not enough, we can interrogate the cat that
finds the night so inspiring for his music. It is because their type of organization has a different
way of apprehending things.
Equally curious is the sense of color. The variations in different individuals are
remarkable. Different colors absorb differently. Dr. Unger of Altoona could not perceive
green and blue. There are but three of four colors named in Homer's Iliad. He calls the hair of
Venus Aphrodite golden; of Poseidon blue. the color of blood was black. Spurgheim knew a
family, every individual of which had only the perception of black and white; and a boy at
Vienna who was obliged to give up the trade of a tailor because he could not distinguish colors.
A much arched eye brow at the center is the phrenological sign. Color-blindness is no
evidence of obtuse vision; many color-blind conductors on railroads distinguish the red, white
and green lights about as well as the others. I am inclined to think that color is a magnetic
property, and impresses the sense. Darkness serves to produce it, rather than light - at least, the
best pigments are found where light is excluded. I have witnessed the most beautiful ores just
detached from the vein of gunpowder.
In the ancient rituals, God the divine male, representing force and energy, was
represented as a unit, dwelling in pure light, and his worshipers wore white robes. The Great
Mother, who denoted nature, power, infinite variety, was depicted with gems of various hues,
and her priests wore robes or coats of many colors. This implies a great deal. It is shade that
makes light apparent to the view; if there was

--- 455.

no darkness there could be no visible luminosity. Betwixt us and the cat, in this respect, the
difference is in degree. I do not know whether cats are color-blind.
Clouds are white, but the clear sky is blue. Our artificial lights are but dark black matter
heated white. If there be no intermediacy, no material substance opposite in polarity, visible
light is not possible. Perhaps, owing to this fact, the writer of the Gnostic Gospel said: "No
one hath ever seen God at any time."
The mechanical operation of seeing appears to be substantially as follows: The luminous
ray enters the cornea, passes through the aqueous humor to the pupil, and on through the
crystalline lens and vitreous humor to the retina. It is a known fact in physics that when rays of
light pass through a convex lens or upon a combination of such lenses, an image of the object
will form at the proper focal distance. When they pass from a rarer to a denser medium, as
from air into water, they are bent or refracted from the perpendicular, and when they pass from
the denser to the rarer mediums they are refracted to the perpendicular. Flatter lenses have a
longer focus; a fact which accounts for several disorders of sight. Lenses that are of but short
focus, or with small diameter, are liable to give indistinct vision, the edges of the images being
fringed with the colors of the rainbow. This is called chromatic aberration; and it is corrected
by placing several lenses together of different refracting power, and suitable curvatures of
surface. This combination is called an achromatic lens.
The eye is such an instrument. The aqueous humor in front, bounded by the cornea and
crystalline lens, acts as a convex and converging lens. The crystalline itself adds powerfully to
this effect, and the two together throw the images directly upon the black pigment. As the
internal side of the eye is concave the images are inverted. The retina does not receive the rays
but transmits them to the pigmentary surface. In this way they are concentrated and affect the
rods in the membrane of Jacob, which are the extremities of the tubules of the optic nerve. The
nerve itself is insensible to light. There is a blind spot where the optic nerve enters the eye and
the refraction of the rays is effective by making the point of impression at

--- 456.

a little distance away.


Let us regard this matter in a little more everyday style. The form of the eye is the most
perfect in nature, the egg-shape. It affords the greatest resistance to external violence, and is
the most perfectly adapted to the necessary motions. In any other shape it would require to be
made longer and of heavier materials. Yet bone itself would be less protective. The blood
vessels would have weakened this hard fibrous envelope, and so were placed by themselves in
the choroid membrane, and the more delicate nerve structure, for which all the rest was
designed is still inside of the others. This receives the images of objects, registers them on its
ganglionic outer side, and transmits them to the optic thalamus and brain to be recognized as
perceptions. Thus we become conscious that we see.
The fluids and other structures inside the eyeball, by their refracting power, so bend the
rays of light, that they strike upon the part of the retina which is most sensitive. They also
distend the glove or eyeball and so keep it in perfect shape, which is very important. This
pressure also keeps the tissue of the retina properly expanded and ready for work. The iris
hangs down like a curtain to shut off the two great influx of rays, admitting only those that are
able to enter at the pupil. This little opening expands or contracts, according as the light is
bright or obscure. It does this by virtue of the nerve supply of the iris, which has been
represented as coming from the lenticular ganglion. The will accordingly has no control in the
matter; the ganglion, being an organ of the natural instinct regulates the whole matter. The iris
is lined like the choroid, of which it is a continuation, with dark pigment, which gives the eyes
their color, and at the same time prevent the rays from passing. Only just so much as is needed
for seeing purposes is allowed to come in.
The self-regulating optical powers of the eye are admirable. "We may turn our eyes from
the printed page to gaze at a distance, or withdraw them from space to gaze upon a minute
atom, and the eye adapts itself instantly to each of these uses. By means of a circle of delicate
fibers, so small that till lately their existence and uses were unknown - the ciliary muscle - the
convexity of the crystalline lens can be increased and its focal power varied; and then, without
conscious
--- 457.

effort, the eye may contemplate the glories of the firmament, or catch the first flitting
expression of an infant's love, or explore the mysteries of microscopic existences." (F.W.
Williams)
The eyes, like our other organs, are double. This fact enables us to estimate forms,
distances and other phenomena more accurately, and to correct each other. Thus we form our
ideas more perfectly; besides, the accidental loss of one, still leaves us in possession of the
other.
As may be expected the disorders of the eye are numerous. The elongation of the glove
backwards changes the focal point and produces near-sightedness. The flatness of the eyeball
creates the over-sight. A difference of curvature in two meridians of the curve, produces
astigmatism. The crystalline lens hardens with years, so as to prevent accommodation of the
eyes to the various rays of light. This is presbyopic or long-sightedness. Diphtheria and other
diseases often paralyze the nerves of the ciliary muscle, and produces a similar condition. Care
should be taken lest it be rendered permanent. Women sometimes suffer from total or partial
blindness during pregnancy. Children have occasionally an imperfect development of the
retina and choroid coat, commencing cataract, the cornea hazy from pervious ulceration, or
conical in form. When one eye is injured or inflamed, the other is liable to contract disorder
through sympathy. Everything that weakens or disorders the nervous system, particularly the
ganglionic, will be apt to weaken the eyes. Excessive sexual commerce will furnish a man with
amaurosis. Wine and its substitutes inflame the coatings. Syphilis, variola, scarlatina and
erysipelas make terrible mischief. It is as a judgment for sins.

(The Word, vol. 15, pp. 237-46)

------------------
--- 458.

SEEING

The sense and apparatus of vision constitute a subject which, though each of us knows
about, is not so easy to define, or even to understand. The dictionary informs us that vision is
the faculty of seeing; yet very coolly takes it out of the category of everyday functions, and
denominates it "a supernatural, prophetic or imaginary sight; an apparition; a phantom." A
visionary is accordingly described as one whose imagination is disturbed; one who forms
impracticable schemes; one who is confident of success in a project which others perceive to
be idle and fanciful." To be visionary is to be affected by phantoms; to be disposed to receive
impressions of the imagination, given to reverie, apt to receive and act upon fancies as if they
were real. I notice that the compiler of Webster's Dictionary fails to quote Shakespear straight
- making a vision of this vision - "Like the baseless fabric of this vision.... the great globe
itself... shall dissolve."
Equally curious are the definitions of seeing. It is to perceive by the eye; to perceive by
mental vision; to have intellectual apprehension. Sight is the perception of objects by the eye;
the faculty of vision. A seer is one who sees, whether an object apparent to the external sense
or to the interior apprehension. Enough of this, however, for the present; we may have it yet to
consider.
The essential organ of sight is the optic nerve. There is also, however, a very complex
auxiliary apparatus which demands careful study. We will, accordingly, endeavor to indicate
the more important parts of the structure. There are two methods of investigation; the
empirical and the philosophical. The former of these is most commonly employed. It
comprises the observations of the eye, its structure and functions as they exist, with little or no
reference to the

--- 459.

physiological history. The philosophical method considers the development of the eye, the
faculty of sight, and the relations to the world at large. It seems to have this excellence, that it
enables us to grasp more intelligently the entire subject which we are considering. Those who
regard creation as the product of design and omnific will, are naturally more disposed to adopt
this method of learning. So far as intelligence transcends science, as cognizing is greater than
mere phenomenal knowing, so far the philosophical method is preferable. We will employ it
accordingly.
Unity of purpose, a paramount idea which subordinates minor matters to it, characterizes
the physiological and embryonic history of the eye. It is the antenna so to speak, the extremity
of the optic nerve, by means of which the organism is enabled to acquire a perception of
objects. It is accordingly more proper for us to begin with the nerve itself.
The corpora quadrigemina or optic tubercles constitute the origin of the visual apparatus.
At a very early period in prenatal life, a little vesicle at the vertex of the dorsal cord is all there
is of this important structure. A little protrusion takes place, and the optic vesicle emerges, or
rather two of them, which soon take a round form and are connected with the parent vesicle by
a hollow pedicel. In this we have the rudimentary eye and optic nerves. The eyes approach the
cuticle investing the skull and become invaginated or sheathed over by it. The invaginated
portion of cuticle becomes a sac and separates from the general cuticle, forming the lens till its
opposite surfaces come into contact, and its cavity disappears. Kolliker declares that the
invaginated portion forms the retina and the layer of hexagonal pigment-cell in the choroid;
and the external portion the branching pigment cells of the choroid, and probably the vascular
part. The cup-shaped cavity behind the lens called the secondary optic vesicle, is soon filled
with the vitreous humor. The iris is developed about the second month as a septum projecting
from the anterior part of the choroid. The sclerotic coat and the cornea are formed from tissue
external to the eye. A vascular coating covers the lens during the embryonic period, but is
absorbed before birth. In the case of the young of many animals, it remains some time after
birth.

--- 460.

If close attention has been given to this description with due reflection, it will be
perceived that the optic apparatus while developing is able to detach other membranous
structure and transform it into a part of its own texture. In due time we shall perceive that it
has the power likewise to associate other nerves with it to protect it from accident and violence,
and aid in the performing of its functions.
In order, however, to be more definite in the terms employed and their meaning, we will
now pause to consider the eye as it is, in its mature form. It is globular in form, and about an
inch in diameter. The lateral diameter is about one-twentieth shorter than the antero-posterior.
It is in form like a shell with three coats, and contains the various transparent media and the
optic apparatus. The three coats are the sclerotic, choroid, and retina. The sclerotic or hard
coat is the tough white membrane which surrounds the eye. It is perforated in front, and the
transparent cornea inserted into the aperture somewhat like the glass of a watch. Many
anatomists consider it as part of the sclerotic coat. The choroid is a highly vascular coat lined
with black pigment. The retina is the innermost coat and is the optic nerve itself expanded and
spread out into a membrane.
The choroid and sclerotic coats are united around the edge of the cornea by the ciliary
ligament. The sclerotic is thicker behind than in front; in the whale, which has the pressure of
a deep seas to resist, it is an inch thick. In some animals there is cartilage in it, in others, bone.
It affords points of attachment to the various muscles required for moving the eyeball. It
contains sieve-like openings on the inner side which are for the tubules of the optic nerve.
The cornea has a greater curvature than the sclerotic coat. This fact renders the antero-
posterior diameter longer than the lateral, as has been noticed. The cornea appears to be
transparent; nevertheless, its organization is far from simple. It is composed of as many as five
distinct layers; the inner one consisting of more than sixty lamellae.
The choroid coat consists of a sheet of blood-vessels arranged in two layers, one of
arterial and the other of venous blood vessels, in such a manner as to permit for flow of blood
to the retina and from

--- 461.

it. The dark pigment is secreted from the choroid. At the margin the choroid merges in the
ciliary ligament. The iris also proceeds from it. Its tissue is the unstriped muscular and it is
supplied with arteries from the ciliary pigment; this gives the eye its color. The pupil is an
opening in the iris.
The retina arises from the tubules of the optic nerve. They are generally described as
having cast off that membranous covering as they pass through the sclerotic. More correctly,
however, we should say, the external investures are continued to and become the sclerotic coat,
while the internal structure of the nerve becomes the retina.
The vitreous humor is a jelly-like fluid, chiefly water, with about one and one-third
percent of salt and a trace of albumen. It fills up the principal part of the cavity of the eye. In
front of it is the crystalline lens which is enclosed in a capsule and set in a groove, known as
the canal of Petit. Fibers of the ciliary muscle are attached to the lens and move it. The lens is
a double convex, being flatter on the anterior surface, and changes in shape and density with
age. Its construction is extremely complex, being made up of layers of fiber. Its office is to
refract the rays of light. It contains about fifty-six percent of albumen known as globulin.
The aqueous humor fills up the space between the lens and the cornea; and is composed
of water containing about one percent of salt.
Thus the apparatus of the eye consists virtually of four united lenses: the cornea or horny
lens, the aqueous humor or watery lens, the crystalline or glassy lens, and the vitreous humor or
gelatinous lens. They fulfill the conditions optically required to produce achromatism so
perfectly as to set the optician's art at defiance.
The nervous mechanism of the eye demands further attention. The retina, which is the
expanded extremity of the optic nerve intervenes between the vitreous humor and the choroid
coat. It consists of several layers, the innermost of which is called the fibrous gray layer. It
arises as already remarked from the tubules of the optic nerve which have cast off the white
substance of Schwann. Where it exists alone, vision cannot be performed. Beneath or outside
of this fibrous layer is the gray vesicular layer, analogous to the gray matter

--- 462.

of the brain. They are both served with capillary vessels from the choroid coat. Outside of the
vesicular layer is the granular layer, constituted of granules and molecular substance which
probably form the vesicles of the layer inside of them. The vesicles or cells of the second layer
is the delicate sheet known as the membrane of Jacob. It is not formed, however, after the
manner of membrane, but is constituted of a set of rod-shaped bodies of conical form, standing
side by side. The thicker end of these rods stands outside, and the thinner inward. These rods
are the true extremities of the fibers of the optic nerve, and are regarded by Koliker as the true
perceivers of light. It may be, however, that the rods and cones convey the impressions to the
nerve-cells of the retina, which constitutes a ganglion, and that the fibers of the optic nerve
merely transmit these impressions to the sensorium. This would certainly be according to the
analogy of the spinal cord, and other structures. This much is certain, that the part of the retina
which is next the black pigment of the choroid coat, and is ganglionic in character, is the
sentient part of the retina.
The optic nerves from which the retina is derived are also known as the second pair; the
olfactory being the first. They enter the sclerotic coat at a little distance from the optical axis
and obliquely. This provision enables them to avoid what is called the "blind spot" in the field
of vision, and each to compensate for the defect of the other. The nerves from each eye
converge to their chiasm. This is a commissure consisting of three sets of tubules - an anterior
set which are commissures between the two retinae, a posterior set which are commisures
between the two optic thalami, and one interior set which are the proper tubules of the optic
nerve. These cross so that the tubules from the right eye go to the left side of the brain and
those from the left eye to the right side. The chiasm is therefor a complex structure; and the
posterior part of it exists in animals that have no optic nerve.
There are also several other nerves subsidiary to the nerves of vision. The third pair, the
motores osculorum, supply the superior, inferior and internal recti muscles, the inferior oblique
and the levator palpebrarum.

--- 463.

The fourth pair, the trochleares, supply the superior oblique muscles.
The fifth pair gives off supplies from the frontal branch, the lachrymal, ciliary, and the
infra-trochlear.
The sixth pair, the abducent, pass to the external recti muscles.
The functions of these nerves are very diversified; some are for the moving of the eye-
lashes, others for general sensibility of the surface, others to direct the moving of the eyeballs,
others for the iris, and others for the lachrymal apparatus.
The relations with the sympathetic system many not be overlooked. The lenticular
ganglion sends filaments to the iris and the ciliary ligament which joins the choroid and clerotic
coats. Some of them are in the same sheath with the fibers of the third pair; others are
associated with other fields.

(The Word, Vol. 15, pp. 170-74)

-----------------
--- 464.

HOW DISEASE IS DISSEMINATED

Disease, an eminent pathologist assures us, is not a morbific principle, but simply a
departure from healthy life. This quoted from memory, but the sentiment is correctly given.
In these days when individuals are running mad with the notion of contagious disease, it
may be well to revert once more to sober and sounder facts. The witty Robert Ingersoll once
remarked that if he had had part in the creation he would have made health as contagious as
disease. If he had been an observer rather than a receiver of others men's conceptions, more of
a philosopher rather than a critic, he would have been aware that health, like goodness of which
it is a part, is the positive principle everywhere, and disease is only its negative. As goodness
is mightier than what is bad, so health is the active factor in the universe which may be evoked
whenever and wherever its weaker rival appears. Pestilence walking at noonday disappears
when its judge and master comes on the scene.
It is a curious fact that a large number of our physical sufferings are little else than
creatures of the imagination. An anecdote which appear in medical journals a year or two ago
is a forcible illustration. A man in New Orleans asked a physician to tell him where in the
abdomen the premonitory symptoms of appendicitis are felt. The doctor quietly pointed to a
spot in the left side, a little above the point of the hip-bone.
The next day he was called to the St. Charles Hotel. He found the man there writhing
with pain his forehead beaded with sweat, and every appearance of intense suffering. Groaning
with agony the sufferer exclaimed:
"I have an attack of appendicitis. I feel as if somebody held a knife in me. I am a dead
man. I can never survive an operation."

--- 465.

The doctor asked where he felt the pain. He placed his hand on the left side at the spot
which had been pointed out to him the day before.
"It can not be appendicitis," the doctor remarked. "That is the wrong side."
"But," cried the man angrily, "you told me yesterday that the appendix is on the left side."
"I must have been absent-minded," said the doctor. He then administered a palliative and
assured the man of safety. Confidence was soon imparted, and the man was able to get up and
eat his dinner, thoroughly recovered. Yet his pain had been severe and a fatal result was liable.
While it would be the common course to denominate the cause of the man's trouble
"imaginary," there should be a reasonable explanation of the matter. When the attention is
intently fixed on any part of the body, the blood is very certain to accumulate there to a
disproportionate extent, and this excess is pretty sure to induce pain at the part, and sometimes
an actual morbid condition. John Hunter, who first raised surgery to the rank of a profession,
and himself a philosopher as well as an investigator, was very unfavorably prejudiced against
mesmerism. He was unwilling to meddle with it, but was persuaded to permit an experiment.
He resisted the peculiar influence attending the manipulations, by a wilful effort. He fixed his
thought upon one of his own feet, and succeeded in his purpose. The result, however, was a
sharp pain in the foot, somewhat analogous to what the man suffered with his fancied attack of
appendicitis. Every physician has such cases to deal with, and he is both wise and honorable
who does not humor them for his own advantage.
The imagination is a leading factor in the human economy. It begins close to the
understanding itself, leading and shaping it in its work. It is the former ideas which the will
and understanding bring into objective existence and cognizance. In short, it is the faculty
which establishes the human race above the whole animal kingdom; and we owe to it all that
we have become and all that we may ever hope to become in the field of advancement and
achievement. When the Serpent in Eden told the woman that by eating of the Tree of

--- 466.

Knowledge they would become intelligent and be as gods, the narrative adds that it was the
truth. From unproductive adolescence, the change was a merging into a new career of life with
its thousandfold activities. "And the Lord God said: 'Behold the Adam is as one of us,
knowing good and evil.'"
In this world, however, there are always two aspects to everything. Every religious faith
has had its left side as well as right, and when viewed solely from such a view, is likely to
appear undesirable, ugly and repulsive. Much of what is written describing the odious
character of heathenism, ancient and modern, relates to that feature. Human nature in all
peoples and all faiths possesses alike the double character of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - one
superlatively good and the other woefully bad. In the medical field of experience, the obverse
side of the picture seems to be oftenest presented. The physician appears as liable to
distempered imagination, as the patient whom he is treating. As if by thought-transference he
may impress his own conviction and make a person, otherwise in fair condition, feel himself
the victim of serious disorder. Many of the current epidemics are made such, to a great degree
at least, by the morbific impressions disseminated by medical men.
When the practitioner attempts to solve mysterious problems of imagination, he generally
has in mind only to ascertain the mischief occurring through a disordered fancy. He is very
sure to find it at work when he meets a new patient. In the days of Queen Anne, the English
ladies were often subject to "vapors," as they are now to hysteria and other disturbances. The
complaints do not change much; much of advancing medical knowledge consists in
substituting new terms for old ones, like the Genie that swapped lamps.
By no means, however, do we impute disordered fancies, and diseases which they create
to women alone. Such terms as spleen and hypochondria are expressive but hardly extensive
enough in their meaning. Many a man on reading a medical advertisement, will begin to think
that he is disordered in the ways that are mentioned. It is not necessary to give examples,
everybody knows of them. In fact the greatest harm from the sale of proprietary nostrums
consists little in the ingredients of which they are composed. These are as safe as

--- 467.

those which physicians prescribe. But the morbid fancies which they induce are pregnant with
mischief of every kind.
The morbid imaginings of patients often impel practitioners, whether they consider it
necessary or not to prescribe medicines that will make their action felt. Others, however, wiser
and perhaps having the patients in hand, will simply use palliatives or fictitious drugs with the
purpose to dislodge the notion which the patient is entertaining.
Every practitioner of any worth in his calling has his own methods, and while they may
succeed very well in his own hands, it will often happen that another physician employing the
same will meet with disappointment.
Indeed, in medicines as in mental treatment, there must be confidence on the part of the
physician in what he is doing, if he would impart it to his patient. The human body is no mere
receptacle to put drugs in, in order to produce a corresponding result. Many a worthy
practitioner has been dismissed in disgrace when doing his best because there was not this
sharing of confidence, a common imagination between him and his patient. The words of the
apostle hold good here as elsewhere: "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith."
The agency of the imagination to induce suffering is often illustrated by neuralgic
affections. When a sufferer from toothache, for example, is engaged with extraneous matters,
he often has little trouble with his tormentor. But when he becomes disengaged and especially
after going to bed, thought will turn back to the trouble and the twinges resume the former
energy. Diseases are often extended over a neighborhood by alarm and disordered imagination.
Fear is the most deadly of all things.
We have known practitioners, illiterate and not very saintly, yet full of enthusiasm, fond
of boasting of their successes where others had failed, and how their boasting was justified.
Full of confidence they imparted it to their patients, and whatever the virtue of their remedies,
the courage and faith which was communicated was salvation itself.
But medical men are by no means the only sinners to create alarm and diffuse epidemic
influence. There is a practice in common

--- 468.

life which is productive of disorder in the same way.


If a person really believes an individual with whom he is familiar, to be out of
health, he is likely by thinking it, to impress that notion on the other. After such a belief has
become thoroughly established the individual is ready to sicken, and even to die. It thus
becomes necessary sometimes for individuals to be delivered from their friends.
Parents of families watch carefully, as is their duty, over the appearance of their children.
When they perceive something out of the way they are prone to apprehend that there is trouble,
and even to work the apprehension into a belief of serious disorder. The youngster will
likewise acquire the same notion, and then what had been considered imaginary because a
source of perplexity.
As we have already declared it is a fact pertaining to the occult side of our nature, that a
thought or a conception which is active in one person's mind will not only affect the individual
himself, but it will disseminate its influence upon others around. We all have observed this.
We become ourselves infected with light, jovial spirits when we go into a mirthful party, and
again we are made sad and dispirited when we are with those who are in downcast mood.
Much that is called contagion is in accordance with this principle, an instilling of peculiar
moods and mental conditions.
The natives of the Hawaiian islands used to take advantage of this principle to revenge
themselves on those who offended them. They would threaten to "pray them to death." The
person thus imprecated would wither, lose his strength and die. We do as badly as that by
causing those about us to be overborne by the conception that they are becoming feeble and
that their dissolution is impending.

Another Source of Mischief


Another cause of mischief of this character is even more common. Sometimes from
wantonness, sometimes from motives more mercenary, favorite articles are taken away from
the owner. In a way not easy to explain to every one, the life of an individual becomes
involved, and we may even say interblended with objects of

--- 469.

habit or affection. The objects may be living persons, or perhaps animals or inanimate things.
Our newspapers and literature, as well as personal observation, bring to notice examples from
disappointments in love between the sexes, and it is not necessary to treat of them specifically.
Analogous instances are to be found in other departments. It is a frequent practice to take
favorite playthings away from children, without a thought of the exquisite suffering often
inflicted, and the sense of unjust treatment which often abides into maturer years. Because the
sufferer is only a child such matters are little considered and it is true that during the earlier
years of life the repairing processes are active, and most hurts bodily and mental are healed.
Owing to this, we have generally become accustomed to regard them as of little importance.
When, however, the career of the individual has passed its climacteric, such matters
become too serious to be passed over lightly. The habits are fixed and the power of
recuperation from shock is to a great degree diminished. The life is itself intimately involved.
Examples abound everywhere in which incurable injury has been inflicted, by disregard of
these matters. Individuals parting with cherished possessions or removed from their home and
from habitual scenes of life, or deprived of employment which had engaged attention till it
became a habit, are liable to become mentally enfeebled or to succumb to bodily debility. A
few examples illustrate these statements.
A physician with whom the writer was familiar, had followed a very active career.
Misfortune came upon him in later years, and finally he gave up active business. His
homestead was sold, and a residence procured elsewhere. The time of removal came, an April
day. He was placed in a carriage and taken to the new abode. He stepped to the ground, went
up the steps to the front door, and then fell dead.
An elderly couple in Western New York, had bargained with a relative for support, for
the rest of their days. The wife, who was the younger of the two, continued to manage the
garden, and to keep both a cat and poultry. Presently the husband died. The house in which
they lived became unsuitable for occupation, and was torn

--- 470.

down. A new one was built to which the surviving widow was removed. Then her garden was
overturned and sown with grass; the poultry went next, and then the cat was put out of the
way. The old woman had never enjoyed educational advantages, and now she was deprived of
every familiar employment. In this condition she lived till near ninety years of age, prattling
hour by hour, day by day, for years repeating the rubbish which had accumulated around her in
girlhood.
Another example, known to the writer, occurred in country life. He was a farmer, and
like most old-fashioned individuals of New England parentage, he had a good-sized family. He
was diligent, thrifty, and an excellent manager. His daughters all married worthy husbands,
men superior to the average rural population; and he was able to present each of his sons with
a farm which had been purchased from a neighbor. He then arranged for a few years of rest
and enjoyment, built a house into which he removed with all his belongings. Then came one of
those freaks of legislation to worry him. It was a Free School Law imposing a special tax in
school districts for support of the schools. He had reared a large family, and been as careful
and liberal as his neighbors in educational matters. This new tax he resented, as the height of
injustice. His mind gave way and for weeks and months he uttered disjointed sentences
relating to the wrong. In a few months the golden cord was loosed, and he passed away.
Old persons have been aptly compared to old trees. They do not bear transplanting. One
day, many years ago, the writer was conversing with a man, then sixty-five years of age. He
was still in health and with usual energy, with fair prospect of many years yet of active life.
His children had grown up and were in business for themselves. "There is no need for me to
work so," he protested; "I can sell my property, and the interest of the money will yield me a
larger income, than I am now getting." This was undoubtedly true, the writer replied, but, he
added; "You will not see another happy day." The farm was sold a few years afterward; he
had lived on it forty years. Removing to another State there were conditions which he had not
reckoned upon. He had no neighbors, no objects upon which to engage his thought. There was
lack of companionship; nobody

--- 471.

had time to spare to entertain him, or interest in what he had to say.


The requirement that man should eat bread by the sweat of his face was in no sense a
curse, or token of divine displeasure. The key of a life worth living is usefulness - reciprocity;
what the apostle Paul denominated "charity." In the interchange of sympathy and good offices
all share and enjoy together, not only in what makes life valuable, but in life itself.
A true civilization regards every life as possessing value. Savages may put the old to
death and curtail the number of children to be reared, but then a state of savagery is a condition
of ever-present famine. Civilized men revere the old and cherish the young; and its
organization keeps the wolf months away. It makes the consumer valuable as well as the
producer. Without the one there would be no occasion for the other. Sasdi, the Sufi poet, was
once asked of what use his life was, as he had no employment.
"Of what use is the rose?" he demanded.
"The rose yields a delightful perfume," replied the other.
"And I am useful," said Saadi, "to smell it."
He was right. The beauties of the world would be to no purpose, but for living beings to
enjoy them.
To return to the original topic: We have shown the power of imagination to occasion
disease and death. There is such a thing as destroying individuals by mental operation. This
far from being a vagary. There may not be necessarily any ill intention, though such intention
may have the same influence. But an apprehending of calamity sometimes operates magically
upon individuals. If there should be a strong wish in that direction, it would be very sure to
have influence unless the individual had vital energy and force of will sufficient to cast off the
pernicious influence. When a person, one who is more or less dependent, is held back from a
cherished purpose because of some abnormal apprehension on the part of others; and so is held
back when he may properly do something or pursue some object that he wishes, - then such
morbid carefulness directly impairs vital energy. All conflict of mind wears and exhausts the
powers of the body. The conception of evil which exists in the mind of the one may be
instilled into the other, and produce disorder

--- 472.

and mischief. There is a killing with kindness as well as with malice. Sensible persons should
understand this and act accordingly. The proper course is that of encouragement. The
individual, so long as he is able, should be required to be active, and not allowed to succumb
passively to apprehended trouble.
When Dr. Elisha Kent Kane was suffering from disease which resisted medical care and
regimen, his father charged him, that if he must die to "die in harness." He went accordingly
with the Crinnell Expedition into the Polar Sea in search of Sir John Franklin. He thus
achieved a valuable service, and at the same time prolonged his own life.
Far, very far be it from our purpose to suggest any unnecessary harshness to weaklings.
Brusque manners do not indicate gentlemen, or moral superiority; and severe language, where
the occasion does not warrant it, is utterly reprehensible. Every one should be encouraged and
even urged, so far as this is reasonable, to fare for himself, and to have confidence, even to
wilfulness, in the better outcome of things and conditions. Pessimism is itself a disease, and
should be scouted as such.
If there is such a being as a devil in person he is the father and inspirer of the notion that
things are for the worse. The notion should be got out from the mind and kept out that hopeless
disease, senility, or decline is the uppermost fact in the universe.
We are not prepared, however, to go to the extreme of denying that disease exists at all,
for we all know better. Yet if we care to go into metaphysical niceties, as did Bishop Berkeley,
we may say that it is negative and has no real being: but that is as far as we care.
Nevertheless so much of disease and various forms of debility are due to nervous
disorder and mental conditions that it becomes us to be more attentive to that department of the
Healing Art. In daily life there are so many injured and even driven to actual death by
overmuch anxiety and carefulness, that there is much need also to acquire what we may call the
knack of wholesome neglect.
Take away from individuals the consciousness of being constantly watched for slips of
misconduct or bodily infirmity. We should keep carefully out of our thoughts the notion that
this person

--- 473.

or that is ill or liable to become so: Lest we inoculate him with the same impression, and so
create the very condition which we are seeking to avoid. We are not pleading for
indifference to the welfare of others, but for a wise conservatism. Nor would de decry any
reasonable means of cure. But of this we are sure, that man is mind and his safety consists in
living as essentially the outcome and projection of Superior Mind.
In all these things we should bear in mind the more excellent way.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Dec., 1906)

---------------
--- 474.

"TAKING COLD" AND KINDRED ILLS

A world of guessing and speculation is devoted to the matter of taking cold. Sudden
exposures and the like are generally supposed to be a principal cause. Yet the Russian peasant
and the American Indian will heat themselves in a sweating oven, and then rush out to roll in
the snow or plunge into the water which may be icy cold; and this both with impunity and
obvious benefit.
In fact we seldom if ever take cold except when weary or depressed in spirit or in
physical condition. I have in earlier years, often after rising in the morning, even in midwinter,
gone about indoors and out without a coat, and in every instance it was with impunity. Yet a
slight exposure of a similar kind at a later time of day or when tired would often be followed by
hoarseness, irritation of the membrane of the throat, suppressed perspiration and sometimes
even by a feverish condition for hours or days. I was always over-sensitive to changes of
temperature, and dislike cold bathing. I detest a cold shower-bath.

Philosophic writers have affirmed that our destiny has made us what we are, and also that
we make our destiny. We may make a parallel assertion that the lower temperature afflicts us
with colds but that we ourselves cause this to be the case. The real trouble is with the physical
condition. We insist that fatigue makes our bodies a nidus or passive receptacle for the
external morbific agent. If we are all right in bodily condition every noxious agent will pass us
by unscathed. Nobody ever contracted disease, or rather we should say, became diseased, till
he became passive and thus was susceptible of it. To talk about prophylactics and preventives
is preposterous; the individual is his own protector. If we could avoid fatigue, or could repose
and refresh ourselves when we perceive a sensation of being

--- 475.
weary we would seldom or never contract disease. We certainly would avoid taking cold.
Dr. Franklin has given us a very significant hint, which we do well to heed. He could
give himself a cold at any time, he says, by eating too hearty a meal. The imperfect digestion
with which so many are attended is the cause of the incessant over-secretion of mucous in the
membranes, the catarrhs and their concomitants, which go by this designation. Many persons
find themselves affected in this way even in the hottest weather of summer, and even more
often then, when over-feeding or improper feeding is the real source of mischief, and so they
have themselves created the morbid condition. The use of coffee is a frequent cause. I have
contracted cold or "hay fever" in the haying-field in summer, and when at work in a field of
growing beans. This may be an idiosyncrasy.
A closer study of this matter will show us that the condition of the nervous system is at
the foundation of our physical ills as well as of our well-being. This is little else, however,
than saying that the state of mind itself is at the core. An experience of my early manhood has
gone far to teach me this. A severe bronchial attack and "nervous prostration," as the current
fad of speaking calls it, seemed in a fair way to wear away the life itself. The season was cold
and other surroundings more or less auxiliary. But the real reason of the trouble was an
overpowering depression of spirits resulting from external influences which I did not then
understand or know how to escape or resist. Being constantly found fault with whether I was
right or wrong and overborne by the cruel despotic will of another had depressed me, till the
digestive and nervous functions were impaired. I think that much of the physical suffering
which young persons underwent in the "good old time" was a sequence of orthodox training, an
endeavoring to "break the will" rather than to develop it aright into normal activity. Much as I
admire the grit, the vertebral rigidity and force of Calvinistic people, I have no grateful
remembrances of the discipline and theology.
When we are cheerful we are safe from disease; when we are depressed and
downhearted we are in danger. Then, the epidemic or morbific influence in the atmosphere or
exhaling from the earth is

--- 476.

likely to find in us an "open door." There are comparatively few complaints that are not
introduced with that antecedent.
Nevertheless, I believe religiously in a wholesomeness of climate and surroundings. An
even temperature or well-kept apartment and cleanliness of person are blessing to be prized.
When they exist many of the external causes of disease are absent. I have little confidence in
the devices or the professions of modern sanitation. I have never been able to ascertain that
they checked the invasion of disease or effected any reduction of the average death-rate. In
some of the United States the annual mortality has steadily increased since the health officials
began operations. But while I smile at the fad which is given as the reason for prohibiting a
person from spitting in a car or cabin of a ferry-boat, I am heartily glad for the rule as
promotive of cleanliness and decency. For years the men's side of the ferry-boats has been as
filthy as a hog-sty, and we had to go to the other cabin for our own comfort at the risk of being
maligned for intruding. Hence I enjoy the cleaning of streets and alleys while I discredit the
"scientific" reasons which are urged.
The best sanitation consists in having a good aim in life, a hopeful disposition, a purpose
to make the best of affairs, and a predilection for being cheerful contented. We insist in short,
that the origin of colds with their sequences, is in the nervous system, and that the healthful
condition of the nervous system is more from mental and moral causes than from external
agencies.
I do not suppose that an epidemic can be "stamped out." It is from an influence
atmospheric and telluric; it has its season and then is followed by another. Many times the
particular epidemic influence returns like Asiatic cholera, almost at stated periods; and there is
a tendency in diseased conditions to manifest themselves in one form or another according to
the epidemic influence that is preponderant. But whatever advantage may be derived from
sanitation and hygiene, the moral condition is foremost in its efficacy to protect.
The visitations of influenza which have been experienced are in point. So far as we have
observed them, and suffered from the complaint, the attack has been preceded and
accompanied by a continual worry, mental depression, and despondency which impaired

--- 477.

the vital forces, debilitated the nervous system, and invited morbific activity. Low spirits and
hopelessness always impair vitality; we may say more bluntly, they kill.
Our modern ways of living in this day of "progress" and of "Christian civilization" are
such as to inflict such conditions upon a large part of the population. In Hawaii men die
because their enemies "pray them to death" and they have given up all hope accordingly. In
New York the many are dependent on the will of the few for the way to procure a livelihood,
and so are worn out with anxiety, and their life made bitter. For charity - the holding of others
dear, is not widely exercised.
Pneumonia is a frequent scourge of our climate. New York City of winters is as a hotbed
to force its development. So, too, are Boston, Buffalo and Chicago. A winter seldom passes in
which it does not rage as an epidemic visitation. The atmosphere, charged with moisture, is in
condition to affect all susceptible persons. The complaint responds readily to intelligent care
and treatment; nevertheless, from some cause a very large percentage of those who are
attacked by it die. Whoever knows much of city life, its uncertainties, its anxieties which wear
the spirits and powers of endurance, the hopelessness that so many suffer, must be aware that
depressed vital force is a chronic condition inviting the attack. The wonder is not that so many
have the complaint, but that there are so few.* Indeed, few ever suffer from grippe or
pneumonia, it is safe to affirm, who have not weeks and perhaps months before, suffered from
worry, melancholy and corroding anxiety. The tedious period of debility which remains after
the violence of the attack has abated, and the uncertainty which, with influenza, exists in
relation to actual recovery are strong, not to say irrefutable testimony that the cause of the
distemper is as much mental and moral as due to climate, weather, and exposure.
Soldiers, and especially prisoners of war, are subject to

------------
* Francis Galton affirms that cancer, which is now so rapidly on the increase, is chiefly
due to mental shock and depression of spirits.
------------
--- 478.

disease far beyond persons in the common walks of life. They in fact suffer less in active
service. The bullets of the enemy are far less dangerous than the monotony of camp-life.
Hence an army is always liable to epidemic disease. No sanitary device or expedient has yet
kept off typhoid, smallpox or dysentery. Perhaps we shall have to wait till the period that the
Hebrew prophets dreamed of, when nations shall not learn war any more, for these diseases to
cease to afflict human beings. Cleanliness can do much, sunshine is better by far, and exercises
have a healthful tendency, but the necessary crowding of men into close proximity, the
homesickness, the hopelessness and the recklessness that is engendered, are more than any
precautions that are not substantially moral.
The condition of the nervous system regulates the temperature of the body. When we are
hopeful, or actuated by strong motive, we are warm enough. The affections in full play keep us
in tone. This may be called the result of excitation, but it is a wretched way of explaining.
That scientific knowledge which consists in a vocabulary of names for phenomena, outside of
their causes is a sorry affair.
Plato in the Kharmides tells of incantation or music as a mode of cure. "Our King
Zamolxis who is a god," his Thracian declares, "says that as it is not proper to attempt to cure
the eyes without the head nor the head without the body, so neither is it proper to cure the body
without the soul; for when this is not in a good condition it is impossible for a part to be well.
For all things proceed from the soul, both the good and the bad, to the body and to the whole
man, and flow from thence from the head to the eyes. And he added, that the soul was cured by
certain incantations; and that these were beautiful utterances; and that such temperance or
self-control was generated in the soul, which, when generated and present, can impart health,
both to the head and to the rest of the body."
In short, the best preventive is, as has been already suggested, a cheerful mind, firm
conviction and purpose inspired by principle. Firm resolve alone often drives away disease. It
is one's salvation to refuse to be worried. The passive, negative condition, the drifting habit is
next to inoculating one's self with a virus, and should be got rid of as we would refuse infection
from any cause.

--- 479.

We do not by any means repudiate pure living, hygiene, cleanly habits, and all such
things. We are for them all, with an abundance of sunshine superadded, as excelling them all.
The words of Jesus may be parodied to express our sentiment: "You tithe the mint, and the rue
and every kind of herb, and omit the divine judgment and charity; these last things one ought
to do, not leaving the former ones neglected." It is well to observe the proper requirements of
good living, care for health with its conditions, which are negative virtues; but before them all
the inner life with its full force of will and intelligence should be brought to bear. Minor things
may be regarded but also neglected in straits; but the weightier matters, never. The true laws
of health do not consist simply in food and drink, but in the positive things of life. It is mind
that rules there as elsewhere.
Medical men have erred by ignoring the relations of moral fault and disease; the new
Healing Art will not merely embrace but consist of moral therapeutics.

(Metaphysical Magazine / New Cycle, Feb., 1900)

-------------------
--- 481.

PSYCHOLOGY

MANIFOLD MAN

"One newly dead, wafted on winds of space,


Felt clustering shapes he knew not and yet knew.
'Who are ye?' cried he, scanning face by face.
'Your self!' they laughed; 'We all have once been you!'"
- Arlo Bates, in Scribner's Magazine

It is said that the late Robert Louis Stevenson had a dream the curious incidents of which
enabled him to produce the strange story of Sr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this tale he has
described one of the characters as an amiable and truly worthy gentleman, and another as being
totally the reverse. It transpires that these two persons who are so represented are actually the
same individual. He is manifest at times as the man of superior worth, and on other occasions
as fit only to consort with the vile. A certain practice of drugging produces these
transformations. The evil result, finally predominates over normal condition and the
degradation becomes permanent.
A recent number of the London Lancet narrates a case of multiple personality, far more
extraordinary. The individual was a girl of twelve years old. She was apparently in good
health till she was attacked with influenza. The changes then became manifest. Some were
complete and others partial, some were sudden and others gradual. In some cases she was
totally blind, and in all of them she was partially ignorant of what she had been in other states.
In some of them her acquirements, such as drawing and writing and other normal faculties,
were present; in others, they seemed to be lost.

--- 482.

When she was in the blind condition she developed the faculty of drawing, aided by touch only.
This sense was then enormously increased in delicacy. Her character and behavior were widely
different in some of the peculiar states, from what they were in others. There were ten of these
phases, and they varied in length from a few minutes to ten weeks. They have lasted about
three years.
These descriptions, it appears to me, are little else than examples of human experience in
conditions more distinctly marked than is common in every-day life. Indeed we need only to
take note of our own motives and impulses, to perceive that there are periods in our temper
quite in analogy with those which have been described. The celebrated preacher of the
Eighteenth Century, Whitfield, once observed a wretched man making his way with difficulty,
disgrace in every motion and feature. "There," he exclaimed, "there goes George Whitfield,
but for the grace of God." A physiognomist is said to have described Sokrates as addicted to
low vices, drunken and sensual. The philosopher checked those who were about to protest.
Such had been his disposition, but he had been restrained by philosophy. So true it is that the
greatest virtue is developed above the darkest vice, as the beautiful water-lily grows from filthy
mud.
Holmes suggests that perhaps there are co-tenants in this house of which we had thought
we were the sole occupant. He brings to confirm this the dream or revery of a budding girl in
which several of her remoter ancestors seemed in turns to blend their being with hers. This
takes us a step further. The lessons of experience are slowly learned, but they bring the deeper
facts to view.
Many years have passed, but I remember it well. There had been worry and vexatious
disappointment in several matters to which I was attending. To intensify the trouble, a severe
influenza was developed, affording no opportunity for repose. It was in May, and the
Columbian Exposition was about to open at Chicago as a memorial celebration of the third
centenary of the discovery of the Western Continent. I must make ready for a week of service
in a World's Congress Auxiliary and could not pass my duties over to another. The matter was
successfully carried through, after which followed months of work and responsibility. When
December came I was

--- 483.

prostrated by my fifth visitation of pneumonia.


The exacerbations were severer than they had been of aforetime, and were accompanied
by hallucinations that were curious from their novelty. For several days there seem to be some
half dozen persons in the bed with me sharing my personality, suffering as I did, and making
the pain harder to endure because each of them was adding to it a spectral contribution of his
own. I had the impression very vividly that if they should be removed elsewhere, the distress
which I was suffering would then become easier to bear. This anticipation, however, was not
realized. After a few days they did seem to go, but there was no such amelioration. There was,
perhaps, an exchange of one form of sensation for another that was equally disagreeable, and
with it possibly some change of hallucination.
An individual unable to leave his bed has abundant opportunity to speculate upon what
he observes. The field is large; it may be larger than when he is in normal condition. Vagary
and new sensation are added to memory and imagination, and all of them are busy with their
contributions. Nor is it well to be contented with any flippant explanation, such as that it was
mere phantasm that had its origin from the fever. I must be permitted to doubt the power of a
fever to generate alone even a phantasm. It is by no means a producing cause. It may destroy,
but it cannot create. It can only display something that really exists. If we are so disposed, we
may call the manifestation abnormal and even morbid, but it is none the less real, and further
enquiry must be made.
The subjective nature of the manifestations requires to be examined. The fever brought
them to view; but whence did they come? In some way they were projected from the thought
and personality of the individual sufferer. They were not mere phantoms external to him, but
actual facts and qualities issuing forth from him into an apparition of objective reality. The
several sufferers that apparently participated in my pain and uneasiness were portions of myself
that were, as it were, individualized. The fever which was disturbing my body had caused them
to seem as separate personalities, each of which might possibly be contemplated by itself.
--- 484.

I did not think to count them, but thought of them as six or more. Accordingly I am not able to
tell, or even to suggest, what or whether any specific quality or characteristic any or each of
them may have personified. Though thus seemingly apart and distinct from me, they were all
in a manner myself; and with that conclusion I must be content. Each of them, I was
conscious, had an intimate relationship with the others.
This sense of complexity in a personality has been noticed by different writers, and
explanations have been offered, which widely vary. Oliver Wendell Holmes tells us
autocratically of an unconscious action of the brain and a distinct correspondence between
every process of thought or feeling and some corporeal phenomenon. Emmanuel Kant carries
the idea still further, and propounds that the soul is acted upon by the nonmaterial natures of
the spiritual world, and receives impressions from them. Professor Tyndall is also philosophic
in his deductions. "It was found," says he, "that the mind of man has the power of penetrating
far beyond the boundaries of his full senses; that the things which are seen in the material
world would depend for their action upon the things unseen; - in short, that besides the
phenomena which address the senses, there are laws, principles and processes which do not
address the senses at all, but which need be and can be spiritually discerned."
These assumptions do not quite solve the matter satisfactorily, but they afford valuable
help. I readily acknowledge the presence and influence of spiritual essences in my own
thinking, and also that these influences may extend to illumination and seeming intuition.
Every thing, Goethe declares, every thing flows into us, so far as we are not it ourselves.
Doctor Holmes has further suggested, and in this I am ready to agree with him, that other
spirits, those of ancestors in particular, and other persons who are in rapport with us, have a
place of abode in our personality, and so may qualify our action, even inspiring it sometimes. I
am not alone in my body, or with it, for everyone is with me whose nature, disposition or
proclivity I share. This universe is an ocean of mind, and my interior essence may permeate it
in every part as a drop of alcohol will diffuse itself over an immense body of water. For the
body does not contain the soul, but

--- 485.

is itself surrounded by it, as well as permeated and enlivened.


The apparent personifications were so completely in and of me that I was fully conscious
that each of them felt every pain that I suffered. Each one of us is a complex personality in
which an assemblage of living entities are grouped and allied together as parts of a single
whole. As my body is a one, that is composed of a plurality of members - muscles, bones,
membranes and nerve-structure all depending on one another in this totality, so my selfhood is
constituted in an analogous manner, of qualities, characteristics, impulses, passions, tastes and
other peculiarities.
We may follow the subject further, and explore into the recesses of our selfhood in order
to ascertain somewhat more definitely in relation to the qualities and characteristics that make
it up as an entirety. "The proper study of mankind is Man," and the proper way to pursue this
study is for each of us to endeavor to know himself. Metaphysical speculation is not a study of
what is outside of our nature, but rather of that which is superior to nature - the mind or spirit
by which it is animated.
I remember that even in earlier boyhood I was of a serious, thoughtful turn. I was thus
led to contemplate my personality as a two-fold entity composed of the body and the living
principle. Naturally I considered the body as the principal object, but early teaching assured
me that there was a soul that would continue after the body had perished. I was also told that
according as I was good or bad, this soul of mine would enjoy delight in heaven or suffer
excruciating torment in hell after its separation from the body. All this impressed me that the
soul was a something distinct from me and not that it was my actual self. That I had to learn
afterward.
Yet in this period of imperfect knowing there came forth many thoughts spontaneously,
that did not harmonize well with these cruder notions. I could sit and contemplate my limbs as
things that were distinct from my real self. When by some accident, a leg or an arm was
temporarily benumbed, I noticed that it was apparently dead, and that though I myself was alive
and in full possession of my faculties, no impulse of my will could move the paralyzed organ.
This showed that the selfhood was myself from which the body was essentially

--- 486.

distinct. This self was the being that thought, reasoned, willed, and impelled to action; and
however closely the corporeal structure was allied to it, yet it was nothing more than its
instrument. Speaking in more explicit terms: I am soul, and this body of mine is only my
shadow, my objective manifestation. It may therefore be declared without further evidence or
argument, that this soul, this ego, myself, has its being substantially distinct from the body, and
accordingly, that it is superior to the body, and older.
Following this exploration into the subjective nature, I perceive that in the soul there are
varieties of faculty and function that can be distinguished from one another. Thus I love,
desire, feel and enjoy, and also experience the reverse of these in one department of my being;
but think, observe and reason, in another. Designating these two departments after the fashion
of the time, we term the one, soul, and the other, the understanding or reasoning faculty. It may
be remarked, however, that these are so intimately close to the corporeal structure and
functions, that it is not altogether clear from what has been here set forth that both soul and
mind are not participant with it, rather than coordinate. By an instinctive consciousness I
associate the thinking faculties with my head, and the affectional, sensitive and appetitive
qualities, with the central ganglionic region of the body. If now, I push the investigation no
further, I may be ready to say that life and existence itself can be no more than an illusion of
the senses, and therefore, that death, ending it all, is the only thing genuine and real. Animals
seem to possess all the traits to which reference has been made, in a less or greater degree; and
from this analogy I can be little more than they.
Not so. My thought is not circumscribed by their limitations. This reasoning faculty
which I am able to perceive and contemplate in myself is really itself two-fold, and perhaps
manifold. It certainly is a receptacle of something else than the facts that have been observed,
lessons that have been learned, and the various deductions and conclusions. It is far more than
a storehouse or encyclopedia of former thoughts and observations that may be classified,
labeled and put away as in pigeon-holes. There is a faculty of apperception transcending all
this sort of thing. This is the faculty

--- 487.
that renders us conscious of our selfhood, of our moral and reflective nature, and of all that is in
us, of us, and about us. We are by no means hurrying too fast with the argument when we
summarize the description of this faculty with the apothegm attributed to Elihu in the book of
Job: "Certainly, there is a spirit in mankind, and the inspiration of the Almighty maketh them
intelligent." Superior to the soul and understanding, and yet both surrounding and permeating
them is this inspiration or influx, and it makes human beings intelligent because it is itself an
extension and projecting of the divine Intelligence. Our minds are made luminant by the
apperception which has been thus established. We have the earth at our feet, and God at our
head.
The Apostle Paul defines man as being an entirety, made up of "spirit and soul and
body." Plato had already described him as triune, consisting of body, soul and the mind or
superior intellect. In the Timaeus he assigns the mind, the noetic and absolutely immortal part
of the soul, to a seat in the summit of the head; while the mortal part is placed in the body - the
better portion above and the lower part below the diaphragm.
"With the mind (noos) I myself serve the law of God," Paul writes, using the philosophic
term.
The late Angus Dallas, of Toronto, made a diagram of the human head to illustrate its
threefold function. The lower part, embracing the base of the brain with what phrenologists
call the perceptive region, he termed the aesthetic, as denoting the department of sensuous
perception. The mass of brain above this, including the forehead, and sides, and parts behind,
requisite to complete the arch, he demonstrated the geometric. In common parlance this would
be considered the scientific region, the part of the cerebral organism employed in accumulating
varied knowledge, but often ignoring and excluding anything better and higher. The third or
epistemetic region is the topmost part of the head. Here phrenologists place the nobler and
diviner faculties, veneration, benevolence, hope, wonder, conscientiousness. The division is
certainly plausible and ingenious, and seems to be philosophic.
The concept of the "double," or "astral" body, has been

--- 488.

universally entertained. The Egyptian sages used to teach that there was a corporeal structure
and an aetherial body that was like and yet distinct from the soul. After the death of the body,
the soul was supposed to go directly to the gods, but the double remained on the earth and was
nourished from the aetherial principle that was in the offerings of food made to it by friends. It
was believed that food after this principle had been thus partaken, had no further nourishing
quality. The manes of the dead, that we read of in Roman literature, was a similar
personification, and its peculiar rites are described by Virgil in the fifth book of the Aeneid.
But the Egyptian diviners held that man was really a complex personality. There was the
khat or body; also the ba or soul, the khu or reasoning faculty, ka or eidolon, the khakit or
shade, the ren or name, the ab or heart, and the sahu or corporeal framework. Of this last,
divested of the entrails, the mummies were made. All these parts were supposed to sustain an
intimate vital relation to one another; and it was believed that there could be no perfect life
ultimately, except these were again joined. The eidolon or double, the ka being of divine
origin, survived the body, and hence was subject to innumerable vicissitudes. It needed the
funeral offerings to relive hunger and sufferings. If the sahu or mummy chanced to be
destroyed, this astral form would unite itself with some image or simulacrum of the deceased
person. In this way phallicism was integral in the Egyptian rites; and the serpent as
representing the soul and intelligence was borne aloft at festivals, and worn on the sacerdotal
tiara.
These notions undoubtedly came from older peoples. Bunsen conjectured that Egypt
derived her learning from the country of the Euphrates and Lamartine declared his full
conviction that that country received it from India. We may expect accordingly to find there
the whole dogma of component principles, in the human form. The Sankhya philosophy is
accordingly thus explicit. We are told of the body, the atma or soul, the buddhi or intelligent
principle, the consciousness, the understanding, the senses, the manas or passional nature, etc.
The whole theory is there. We conceive of these principles as separate entities and describe
them as such. Yet,

--- 489.

to borrow the words of Pope for the purpose:


"All are but parts of one stupendous whole."
In conclusion, I am certain that the troublesome bedfellows which have been described as
causing me so much annoyance were only so many constituents of my individual self, which
the excitement of fever had brought into consciousness as so many personalities. That they
were not mere phantoms created by hallucination is almost demonstrated by the fact that I
seemed to feel in myself that what I was suffering at the time they were suffering along with
me. I suppose that they were those principles of soul that are more commonly described as
qualities and sentiments. Perhaps they are capable of being brought into consciousness so as to
be recognized by the external sensibility, as living beings, because they are actually endowed
with life. "Every thought is a soul," the philosophic Mejnour declares to his pupil in Bulwer's
famous novel Zanoni. What we denominate qualities and principles are animate realities,
which may be apprehended as such; not, however, as things apart from us, but as constituent
elements of our being.

(Metaphysical Magazine, July, 1907)

----------------------
--- 490.

PSYCHOLOGY

I. MENTAL DISEASE
II. HUMAN CHARACTER
III. RELATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEXES

I. Mental Disease

The disorders of the nervous system may be structural or functional. Bennett considers
their pathological causes as being of four kinds: (1) congestive; (2) structural; (3) diastaltic;
(4) toxic. In all of these cases, there is a general debility behind, which, of course, denotes that
the ganglionic system is at fault. Dr. Bennett himself explicitly asserts that congestion in his
opinion is "the chief cause of functional nervous disorders originating in the great cerebro-
spinal center." As congestion is the result of impaired action of the arteries and arterial
capillaries, and that action is controlled by the organic or ganglionic nerves, it follows that the
ganglionic system is first at fault; and the cerebro-spinal disturbance follows as a consequence.
Dr. J. C. Davey remarks: "Apoplexy and epilepsy pass by insensible gradations into each
other; and the latter may be, I think, considered as an apoplexy, in which the excito-motory or
true spinal functions are more palpably affected. Hydrophobia, tetanus, delirium tremens,
hysteria, chorea, including some forms of paralysis, and particularly that common to the insane,
are doubtless more nearly allied than has been hitherto considered. That the external signs or
symptoms of the several disordered conditions are very properly referred to the cerebro-spinal
organism, is most true; but the integrity of this structure is, without doubt, dependent on the
normal condition

--- 491.

of the organic nervous system; and if so, it must follow that the various diseased conditions of
the same structure, call them by whatever names we may, are to a very great extent referable to
it; that is, the organic nervous system."
When an individual who has been magnetized is restored to the normal condition, he
often exhibits symptoms of nervous derangement, resembling chorea, tetanus, neuralgia,
showing that the ganglionic system is vitally concerned in the matter.
We are disposed, as has been already observed, to extend this hypothesis through the
great collection of nervous disorders from the mildest hypochondria to the maddest insanity. I
trust this will not be taken as a hobby. I am not aware of having any hobby in medicine except
a lifelong hatred and detestation of the drugs and treatment by which many of my own kindred
and friends have perished. I believe that they cannot be wisely used; and I mean to prevent
them from ever being used on me. I am willing to give my body to be burned, but not to be
mercurialized.
We will now present a brief summary of the principal nervous disorders. I hope to be
able to comment on them more definitely. Today, however, I will be content with short
explanations.
Hypochondriasis and hysteria appear to constitute the most common forms of nervous
affection. It is plain, as palpable almost as sunshine at noonday, that the first of these is an
abnormal condition of the ganglionic system. We hear much about the delusions of
hypochondriacs but they are too utterly real for jest or contempt. At the outset, the delicate
tissue of the entire nerve-structure is disordered; and there are painful sensations in different
parts of the body. The stomach is affected, and indigestion ensues in one form or another. The
painful sensations give rise to a general lowness of spirit; the energy of the solar ganglia is
impaired; and presently the brain and stomach alike are found to be unable to perform their
normal functions. A morbid sensibility is set up, followed by morbid fancies, and finally the
disorder will pass to the confirmed form of melancholia, or perhaps illusional insanity.
The term hysteria does duty for 1,001 derangements. It is an old acquaintance, appearing
as the beginning of Semitic and Grecian
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civilization. The worship of Bacchus which came into Greece somewhere between the time of
Homer and Solon was principally performed by women. Processions and songs in chorus
constituted a great part of its ritual. The abnormal excitement, the passionate cries and noises,
the night-watches and mourning, were admirably calculated to produce the hysterical
condition; and did produce it. In Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt and the countries of the Euphrates,
the like causes were in operation, and the same result. All the symptoms of hysteria have their
prototype in those vital actions by which grief, terror, disappointment, and other painful
emotions and affections are manifested under ordinary circumstances, and which become
hysteria as soon as they attain a certain degree of intensity.
Nevertheless, we have a host of other disorders, or at least a prodigious nosological
vocabulary of ailments, which flow from a like source, such as convulsive attacks, fainting fits,
pain, cough, difficulty of swallowing, vomiting, asthma, palpitation of the heart, tenesmus of
the bladder, loss of physical strength, catalepsy, coma, delirium, which are usually classed as
functional spasms, paralysis, anesthesia and hyperesthesia.
Hippokrates declared that lymphatic women and those of pale complexion were most
predisposed to hysteria; Galen, that the strong, fleshy and sanguine women were most liable.
Some imagine that intellectual women are predisposed; other that non-intellectual women are.
All these are in error; but I apprehend that Galen is nearest right. It is usual to denominate it a
female complaint; and so the designation implies. Even Plato argues that it is a disturbance of
the womb demanding to be impregnated. Somewhat true, perhaps; for childless women are
most frequently hysterical. But little girls who are much teased, or maltreated, or have
inherited unusual sensitiveness, are very prone to attack. Headache, pain in the epigastrium
and vomiting, also numbness on one side, are somewhat often experienced by children that are
much scolded. Whatever occasions painful emotions is liable to develop hysteria. The theory
which makes it eventually a uterine disorder is therefore not supported. It exists in old and
young; the Russians, Swedes, Swiss, Icelanders, Greenlanders and Eskimos have it. Women
in the towns

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are more liable than those in the country. Men, too, have it, occasionally at least. The peculiar
fits to which Mohammed was subject were of this character; and I suspect that we might
impute much of the demoniacal suffering to like influences.
The starting point of hysteria is at the epigastrium; it is often hard to distinguish from
other complaints and certainly hard to cure. Indeed, faith-treatment is about as certain as any.
Nevertheless, it is perhaps as well to obviate the painful emotions and relieve the symptoms:
also to arouse the moral energy of the patient.
Epilepsy, or the holy disease, was observed by Hippokrates as very common among the
worshipers of Bacchus. It has been familiar all through the ages, and generally chronic if not
incurable. "This kind goeth not out," says Jesus, "save by prayer and fasting." The attack
begins at the medulla oblongata. Irritation of the vaso-motor or ganglionic nerves at that point
contracts the arteries of the menninges, and so cuts off the supply of blood to the brain. This
occasions loss of consciousness and convulsion. It is a functional disorder, due to changes in
the nutrition of the brain, not easy to ascertain. It sometimes results in insanity, mania, and
idiocy. Yet Cromwell, the first Napoleon, and Julius Cesar, if not Mohammed, are examples to
the contrary. The causes are heredity, emotional disturbances, fatigue, sexual excess and
cachexia generally.
Catalepsy is a sudden seizure attended with loss of sensibility, muscular rigidity, and
even apparent death. Magnetism may produce such a condition. I am not certain that it is
always morbid. Animals hibernate, exhibiting the peculiar phenomena; and some human
tribes seem to become cataleptic at will. Hysterical individuals are most liable to it, we are
told. Despite the assurances of many physicians, I must be permitted to express the belief that
catalepsy is more common than is supposed, and that cataleptics are sometimes buried. Our
anesthetics and sedative drugs all tend to produce this affection.
Chorea belongs to the same category. It is an emotional disease. The name is derived
from chorus, or chois, and originally denoted the religious dance around the altar or coffer in
which the symbol of the god was deposited. Hence David danced round the ark

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of the Lord to his wife's great disgust, and the prophets of Baal leaped round the altar on Mount
Carmel. It betrays itself in the head, face, hands or feet, all or part; various parts of the body
rotate or are convulsed; and the muscles are but partially under control of the will. Children
are more liable to it than adults; girls than boys. Mental excitement appears to be a principal
cause and, in the majority of cases, the patient is pretty certain to recover - outgrowing it as the
phrase goes.
Individuals afflicted with nervous disorders or liable to them should be isolated from
each other. An hysterical person will make every susceptible individual hysterical in some
form, by contiguity and sympathy; epileptic seizures pass through a crowd of children; and
chorea infects those around. The tendencies of whole peoples or assemblies to pursue one bent
is of the same character. The crusades of the Middle Ages were the outcrop of an epidemic, as
certainly as the Black Death. Children as well as adults left their homes in multitudes and set
out for the Holy Land.
The Anabaptists of Germany, the Jacquens of France, the Jumpers and Ranters of
England, the Shakers of America, were more or less the outcome of gangliasthenic disorder.
But it will never do to come too close home. "Great wit to madness nearly is allied," says
Pope. Aristotle says so, too. To be mad or crazy, to be ecstatic, and to be a prophet, meant
pretty much the same thing.
Insanity means unsoundness. To define it intelligently and exactly is no easy matter. If
we are very critical in our definition, we will find the great majority insane; if we are free with
exceptions, about everybody is sane and responsible. Webster's dictionary classifies the
condition thus: Insanity is the generic term for all such diseases, meaning lunacy, madness,
derangement, alienation, aberration, mania, delirium, frenzy, monomania, dementia. Lunacy
has now an equal extent of meaning to insanity, though formerly used to denote periodical
insanity; madness has the same extent, though originally referring to the rage created by the
disease. Derangement, aberration, alienation, are popular terms for insanity; delirium, mania
and frenzy denote excited states of the disease. Dementia denotes the loss of mental power by
this means; monomania is insanity upon

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a single subject. These definitions seem to be quite enough; and, as has been already
remarked, they do not amount to what we need.
The German universities recognize Psychiatry, or the treatment of mental disorder, as a
legitimate branch of medical education. The matter is not left to experts and specialists, as it is
here; although skillful psychiatrists occupy a very high rank. In that country, mental disorders
are classed under four general heads: mania, melancholia, dementia and illusional insanity. An
International Congress of Alienists, however, met at Paris in 1867 and made a more thorough
classification. They gave seven forms: (1) simple insanity; (2) epileptic insanity; (3)
paralytic insanity; (4) senile dementia; (5) organic dementia; (6) idiocy; (7) cretinism. I am
not well pleased with this arrangement. Like all endeavors to put every disorder on its own
shelf, where it can be labeled, it fails to account for the various complications. People do not
always exhibit their insanity in the way the books say.
It is pretty certain that the great body of deranged persons are in debilitated physical
conditions. There is imperfect and deranged action of the digestive organisms. The vital
centers and organic nervous systems are impaired in function. So generally is this the case that
it is necessary to direct medical treatment to that part of the structure, if we want to cure the
patient.
Moral treatment is pre-eminently necessary in all cases of mental aberration. I am not
partial to restraint, except as it may be necessary to prevent violence. It is better, so far as we
are able, to place the individual upon his own responsibility. Let him have an abundance of
employment and keep his attention at it. The idle man's head is the devil's headquarters. All
causes that are likely to create emotional disturbance should be removed. He should be
induced to forego the exercise of such passions as envy, jealousy, rage, hatred, and inordinate
desire of every kind. "Everything in moderation," was the golden maxim of Pythagoras.
Aware that bodily disorder is a factor in the case, I would direct that the tone of the
whole organism be carefully improved, constipation, torpor of the liver, imperfect action of the
kidneys, and and particularly the inactivity of the glands of the skin, should be

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assiduously corrected. The warm bath, massage, magnetic treatment, a wholesome dietary,
good society, and especially the care and companionship of one individual of strong will, well-
balanced temper, kind disposition, gentle and firm, without seeming to exercise much
authority, are means which would remove the major part of the insanity that afflicts mankind.
Treat patients like human beings and make them conscious that they are such.

II. Human Character

Prof. Tyndall says: "It was found that the mind of man has the power of penetrating far
beyond the boundaries of his free senses; that the things which are seen in the material world
depend for their action upon things unseen; in short, that besides the phenomena which address
the senses, there are laws and principles and processes which do not address the senses at all,
but which need be and can be spiritually discerned."
In saying this, the learned empirical teacher necessarily set aside with one swoop the
whole dogmatism of agnostic metaphysics and placed himself for the moment beside the
philosophers who recognize man as a being subsisting beyond his body organism. The laws,
principles and processes which are infinitely beyond the province of the senses are those to
which the world of sense must be forever subordinate. Sir William Hamilton affirms the same
thing more positively than Tyndall: "The infinitely greater part of our spiritual nature, lies
always beyond the sphere of our own consciousness, hid in the obscure recesses of the mind."
Taking the same yogi view, Socrates, as he was holding his last discourse with his
friends, uses the following language: "When the soul endeavors to consider anything in
conjunction with the body it is led astray by it. It reasons, but then, when none of these things -
hearing, sight, pain or pleasure of any kind harass it - it retires as much as possible within itself,
taking leave of the body, and so far as is possible, having no communication with it, it aims at
the discovery of real truth - of that which is."

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The process here contemplated is one far away from that of committing to memory and
digesting it. Professor Carpenter has named it "unconscious cerebration." The name, however,
is a misnomer. Cerebration is the activity of the brain; and the activity of the brain is the
evolving of sensation. When, therefore, no sensation exists in any matter, there is no action of
the brain; consequently no consciousness. There is therefore no such thing as an unconscious
cerebration. We may as well talk about dry moisture or a fire without caloric.
There is a knowledge which pertains to the physical senses, and we call it empirical;
there is a knowledge which transcends the senses, and this is philosophical. One is apparent,
the other real; one is a mere collection of phenomena and things which are witnessed by the
senses, while the other belongs to the higher region of causes and motive.
Mr. W. H. Matlock has propounded what he considers a missing science, a department of
knowledge which has not been formulated and so brought within the scope of textbooks. As it
comes under the head of Psychology, though perhaps on the ethical side, I am justified in
considering it.
This so called "missing science" he gives the designation of "the science of human
character." It involves the whole mainspring of human action. It recognizes the fact that no
two men have the same history or character, and yet that many, even hundreds and thousands,
will often act in concurrence, as though moved by one single will. We witness such unanimity
in uprisings of the people, in mobs, and other demonstrations. The conduct of the whole is the
exact resultant of the motives of all the individuals combined, each supplying his part of the
force and swayed in his turn by the united force of the others. As logic is the science of the
laws of reasoning, so this is the science of the laws of action.
It is well, however, to begin by defining what character means. I would consider it as the
sum of an individual's qualities, that which marks him. It differs essentially therefore from
reputation. That means what the public think of a person; character, what he actually is. One
may possess a poor reputation and yet have an excellent

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character, or the reverse. Mr. Mattock seems to amplify a little: "We may say," he remarks,
"that we mean by it susceptibility to motive, or we may say that we mean by it the development
and the organization of impulse." The structure of society is the outcome of the structure of
human character. A man's life is the expression of his motive. Desire, will and action make up
everything. So, in its last analysis, civilization is the organization of motive.
Man without a motive is a mere lifeless mass. I remember well when a certain individual
was attempting to lay out for me a course of action. I replied: "What I need in all this is
motive." He said: "Heaven." At once I replied: "Heaven seems to me as a myth." It was too
intangible, in the way presented, to be more than a word. I knew neither what heaven meant, or
what he meant by it, and to be dogmatized over upon vital questions is like giving a stone to a
child hungry for bread.
The fact is that through motive only are actions influenced. Hence every individual has
his own incentive, his own reason for action. There is no fusion of motives when two or more
individuals act together. A million persons have a million wills. Yet every motive is the result
of antecedent facts, and in order to understand these we need a knowledge of biography. When
men have distinguished themselves in some extraordinary manner we seek for the ordinary
manifestations. We learn the substance of patriotism from the biography of the patriot; of
sanctity from the biographies of saints. In order to understand democracy, we must know the
lives of the men who lead the people. When a man preaches unselfishness, we look to ascertain
how he practices it; if he advocates equality, we want to know whether he does not really
desire inequality. We remember that Napoleon and Julius Cusar were democrats, and
Maximilian Robespierre the inflexible adversary of the death penalty. It is well to remember
the apt words of Bulwer Lytton, "Our thoughts are the divine part of us, our actions the
human."
I would not reject the diamond for its flaw. Nor would I, because a man's motives were
tarnished by personal considerations, reject all the good which he sought to do, as not being
really good. I expect our humanity to be mingled with all that we behold of divinity.

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In most reforms we find personal spite, and sense of individual wrong, envy or jealousy, a
disguised effort at self-aggrandizement. There is danger; therefore, that the success of the
reformer will be a new form of the old abuse. Political reform is too generally to get you out
and me in. Religious reform is a change of priesthoods. Yet out of all fluctuations the world
moves on. While we asperse reformers for their flaws of character, their energy often
accomplishes reform more radical than they had contemplated. The combined action of
different individuals with motives a world apart, often accomplishes a good which few or
perhaps none of them had contemplated.
Then, again, as our natures are complex, our motives are likely to be. I protest against
the cant and stale declaration that every individual is led and controlled solely by selfishness, in
the baser sense of the term. I lecture here, not as giving my labor, for this is justice to myself
and a wrong to others. I am influenced by the compensation which I hope to receive and which
I greatly need. I must pay my debts; he who neglects to do this is immoral and a thief. Yet
while I insist upon this consideration, I recognize the higher obligation to do my work
promptly, cheerfully and efficiently - and to the best of my ability. In this I am governed by a
higher motive, that of justice, moral obligation, and a desire to do what is right.
The great teacher whose doctrines constitute the belief of a third of the human race,
Buddha-Gautama-Siddarta, taught that "truth is to be spoken, self to be sacrificed, benevolence
to be exercised, not for the sake of the good thus done to others, but solely for the effect of this
conduct on the soul of the actor." It is a deeper principle than is imagined and not so destitute
of a rational basis as many would suppose. The highest idea to which the Judaic and Christian
religions have attained is to love one's neighbor as himself; that it is of no benefit for a man to
gain the whole world and lose himself. The foundation of all motive and moral action is duty
to self. I may wrong you, and then keeping away from your presence, avert a quick sense of
reproach; but I cannot escape myself and the injury which I have there inflicted. My integrity,
my wholesomeness, my health, is impaired by my wrongdoing. I cannot be entirely pure and
happy when doing wrong. Even my countenance will reveal that I am sunk

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beneath my proper level; that I am degraded. No amount of apparent advantage can make me
good for that. Hence, there is no reward for doing right; it is itself the reward. Nor need we
hound a man much for wrongdoing. His tainted nature is the greatest punishment that can be
inflicted.
Selfishness is laudable in the infant. It is all that he can do to eat, keep comfortable and
grow. If he omits these, he is certain to be fit for nothing. Even the adult who does not provide
duly for his own wants disqualifies himself for proper service to his fellow-man. The Yankee
is not so far aside from the mark in regarding shiftlessness as the sum of depravity. It is in this
very soil of selfishness, all black and full of foul sediment as it seems to be, that all higher
motive is planted and rooted, like the beautiful pond lily in the slime of the stagnant pond. All
moral ideas are the outcome of the instinct of self-preservation. They are implanted in man and
developed, as they are in no animal, because man is eternal and the animal is not. Without
immortality there is no morality. The obligations which I sustain to my neighbor are founded
upon our common life. If they terminated at the grave, all the incentives we could cherish
would be those of the brute, to conquer and devour. There being no higher motive than
selfishness in its grosser form, rapacity and cruelty would be laudable. Paul, the great Christian
Apostle, has taught better than all others - that charity, or love to the neighbor, transcended
everything else and was man's highest motive, most sacred obligation to himself.
No action is possible except it be prompted by some form of self-interest. If the
individual is circumscribed by his individuality, then his motive is selfishness in its completest,
basest form. If he includes others, if the welfare of many is embraced in his circle, the greater
breadth relieves it of that characteristic. If the whole world be included, then it is charity,
benevolence, good will to man, which is the one pole of human motive circling round to the
other.
The desire for progress, to advance, illustrate what has been propounded. We form the
concept with the imagination, which is itself inspired by desire. The reasoning faculty then
decides the means to accomplish, and the will sets the matter into operation. Yet how
differently each man acts. One man desires wealth, labors and

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saves, in order to obtain it. Another will steal, lie and defraud. Our delights are conditioned by
our imagination. What pleases one is odious to another. This is owing to psychic differences.
Curious as it may seem, corporeal needs are first in point of time. We must have food,
raiment and shelter. Where these are not supplied in a commonwealth, there is a volcano liable
to burst out at every man's feet. The average man will always work for food. If he wants a
house he will work to build one. So far motive is limited to inevitable appetite, which being
satisfied we must have higher intellectual development or there will be no more labor. To this
limit the word practical applies.
The imagination now comes in to widen the field of desires. Taste requires more
elaborate furniture and adornment; but that taste is incited by a desire to please or rival others.
It recognizes the presence, the influence of others; and affords more incentives for labor, as
well as the exercise of skill. The conjugal, parental, filial and neighborly relationships, develop
the sense of delight in giving pleasure to others and aiding in their enjoyment. We become
broader, more intellectual, nobler, as we are more kind, more generous, more well-wishing to
each other. The highest intellect is developed in company with the highest morality and
benevolence.
Whatever we may think of the religious and the visionary, both these classes are wider in
their scope of view and imagination. The world, since history, has known no moral, social or
intellectual advance, except where one or both took the lead. Wherever the medical profession
has neglected these motives, it has become crystallized, selfish, servile and base. A code of
ethics in which morality and the other principles of human advancement are overlooked, is a
barbarism.
By morality we mean that which is intrinsically right. It is action which is everlastingly
fit and worthy and useful. It is a hot enthusiasm for doing well. It is emotion, passion, desire,
all aglow to add their contribution to the welfare and happiness of human beings. It is living in
perfect conformity with conscience, that conscience being a lively conviction of what is just
and a thorough knowledge of the reality of things. Kant explains it as "acting in such a manner
that the ruling

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principle of your action might become an universal law." Herbert Spencer defines it as "the
mode of conduct, which, under the conditions arising from social union, must be pursued to
achieve the greatest welfare of each and all." In short, it is the highest evolution of the psychic
essence in man.

III. Relative Characteristics of the Sexes

An humorous writer in the Atlantic Monthly, in 1859, discusses the question: "Ought
women to learn the alphabet?" Sylvain Marechal, in the reign of the first Napoleon, proposed
the question in 1800, in a tract full of humor. He cited the Encyclopedia and Moliere for his
authorities and argued at length against female authors, Madame Guion, Sappho, and de
Maintenon. Finally we are brought to the Chinese proverb: "For men to cultivate virtue is
knowledge; for women, to renounce knowledge is virtue." By English law, "the wife is only
the servant of her husband," which is backed up by the old Hindu code of Manu: "A man, both
by day and night, must keep his wife much in subjection that she by no means be mistress of
her own actions."
Prior to 1789 the girls of Boston never were allowed to go to school. A large number of
the women of Massachusetts could not sign their own names. A certain deed of settlement
once executed to my own father, was signed by the aunt of Dr. Nathan Allen of Lowell, by her
mark. It was found in Boston that the summer attendance was but about half of winter. So, in
order that the schoolmaster should earn his money, a resolution was adopted to let the girls
attend. Behold, the first year that the United States ever had a President, the first school girl of
Yankee land made her advent. The alphabet was turned loose like a roaring lion among the
girls, seeking whom it might devour. It was a good while later before they had a chance in the
High schools.
Yet we are not to suppose that these obstacles were created for any special selfish
purpose. Laws grow as well as nations. They can hardly be said to be made. There has been
no serious fear in

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regard to feminine delicacy, destroying the domesticity of women, nor of confounding the
distinction between the sexes. To utter such reasoning seriously is absurd. I know that
Channing, Fenelon, Lessing, and Niebuhr so talked; and that Theophilus Parsons and Froissart
laid it down gravely as maxim. Voltaire of old and many of our modern rational writers have
taken like views. Paul with the Korinthean women is fully supplemented by others of the
present day. The actual reason which has lain at the bottom, has been a contempt for the
inferiority of women as intellectual beings. They were not to be taught, because they were not
worth the teaching. From Aristotle to Dr. Edward H. Clarke, this has been the foundation fact.
Now, Plato thought differently; so did old Pythagoras; so did Louis Agassiz, the
scientist, and Cornelius Agrippa, the alchemist; and so wrote Mrs. H. Mather Crocker, the
granddaughter of Cotton Mather, and Abigail Adams, the daughter of old Parson Smith. Three
centuries ago a French lady wished to establish a girls' school in France; for which she was
hooted in the streets, and her father called in four learned doctors in the law to decide whether
she was not possessed by devils. To think of instructing women might be a work of the devil.
To be as beautiful as an angel and as silly as a goose, was the old-time standard of excellence.
Later still, in this country of ours, there have been other utterances. Jean Paul Richter
says: "A woman is a human being, and neither the maternal nor the conjugal relations can
supersede the human responsibility, but must become its means and instrument." The son of
Abigail Adams also said: "The correct principle is, that women are not only justified, but
exhibit the most exalted virtue, when they do depart from the domestic circle, and enter on the
concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their God."
Buffon says: "Les races se feminiscent" - the people of the world are becoming more
womanlike. Does this mean that our civilization is improving us and making us better, as it
makes us more like women? Or the converse, that we deteriorate as we become more cultured?
It is considered that a greater vitality is the evidence of improved conditions. Women have
always as a sex had the greater vital, and I almost believe, physical power. In the prolonging

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of average human life in civilized countries, from seventeen to thirty-six years or thereabouts,
and the increasing of comforts, the approximation of female conditions would seem to be
indicated.
I believe that what is logically right is right in practice - that every principle of natural
right ought to be carried out in governmental and social conditions. What any human being is
able to do well, it is his or her right to do, against the whole world.
Much argument has been expended on the fact that men and women are not alike. It does
add largely to the attractiveness of this world of ours, and I guess of every other world, that
they are not. Herbert Spencer has made a curious declaration, that women, especially during
the child bearing age, exhale a smaller proportional amount of carbonic acid than men, and so
evolve less energy. Hence they fall short in the intellectual and emotional faculties, the power
of abstract reasoning and that most abstract of the emotions, the love of justice.
We will not, however, follow the great sociological apostle further. Our business is with
another department of the subject - the relative characteristics of the sexes. We want principles
to think by. No common consent of any body of individuals, however fortified by power,
custom or authority, can always override.
In physical nature, men have large brains and comparatively a less amount of ganglionic
nerve-structure to support it. This does not, however, seem to have been the fact in ancient
Egypt. The great use of brain, by itself considered, is to make a noise with. Human history is
the noise that mankind have made. The male sex has principally made it. Perhaps that is one
reason that we know so little about the other sex. Yet history is a very sorry achievement. It is
a record of wars and crimes, not of peace and virtue. The nation that never had a history to
write is essentially the happiest and most fortunate.
Women are more emotional and less practical, is the flippant remark uttered on every
hand. I do not like this word practical. I doubt a man's honesty who uses it much. The hard
logic of practical facts has always enslaved men, robbed labor, and made a hell of life. One
great reason why modern religion has romanced so much about

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heaven, as old religions never did, is because men had made such a hell, a home of devils, a
den of everything foul and obscene, of this world. Perhaps this is one reason why so many
women build all their hopes on a future life.
As for the emotional nature, we find it at the substructure of all character. Except it is
laid broad and deep we cannot hope for much that may be built upon it. There can be but an
indifferent quality of intellect, where there exists not strong affection, passion, earnestness.
The perception of what is right demands a love for the right; perseverance in any cause of
action demands first that it is the right and the best. There can really be such thing as a
superior mind, where regard for truth, for right, for the best in policy and action, do not
minister to its incentives. If then, women are really more emotional than men, they have the
stronger basis for an evolution of the higher, diviner intellect. Either it is destined, accordingly,
in the higher development that the human race is to attain, the female sex is to be foremost in
its culture and social structure, or the males are to become a something higher and diviner,
because of a genuine alliance and cooperation with the other in the great work of the world.
In such discussions, we may disregard the foibles and follies of the present period of
transition. We are flowing, not crystallizing. It is certain that the church is full of women. All
religions are. Men make the forms of religion and women accept them. The physician, too,
makes his harvest on women's weaknesses. If he is not very scrupulous, he even seeks to
increase their number and extent in order to promote his own thrift. We know from this, why
the intruding of women into the medical circles, has been deprecated. Women cannot make
surgeons, says one; they cannot be depended upon in extreme cases of obstetric trouble, says
another; we all know better. I know what "bluffing" means, and how sensitive persons are
cowed by it. But it proves nothing. Having been myself largely instrumental in the opening of
the American medical schools to women, - more so than any man now alive in this country - I
have watched this matter, its failures and successes, with deep interest.* I have no romantic
faith in women. Their shortcomings, their petty jealousies, their little envy, their readiness to
malign and beat down one another, their

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great incapacity to forgive, their want of self-reliance, I have observed and believe. I know not
whether they are to be remedied. Certainly not very soon. I do not expect any change of
nature. I look for a fuller knowledge of the purposes for which that nature has been so
produced; and suspect that the very faults we complain of are distorted and misplaced virtues
which we have never understood. At any rate, I am not disposed to straight-jacket them,
because I do not know by what they have been so constituted. Let them take the field, qualify
for it, fill it as they best are able, and abide the results.
For the more active sex that have carried on the labor and conflicts of the world, we
accord the usual male characteristics. The masculine head is higher and broader; the muscles
firmer; in physical strength the males surpass the other for immediate energetic effect, but are
inferior in dynamic persistent force. In psychic endowments, they are more aggressive,
revolutionary, penetrating. All innovators are men. The epic poems, the constitution of states,
the devices for instruction, forethought, are rather male than female. Social order, protective
law, everything that tends to the idea of sacred, is female. Liberty, however, is more than
dissatisfaction with that which is: it is a principle.

(The Word, Vol. 18, pp. 132-37, 147-53, 218-22)

-----------
[* This article, never before published was written by Dr. Wilder nearly forty years ago.
[[circa 1875]] But Dr. Wilder did not write for the day only. - (The Word Editor)]
---------------
--- 507.

THE CHAMBERS OF IMAGERY

Early in the year 1893, a correspondent of the Chicago Daily News made the following
statement:
"When I write of any particular person whom I have ever met in the past, be he a
prominent public personage or the most humble of private individuals, I see his or her features
and his or her mental form as plainly as I see any one whom I may happen to meet in my home,
or in a public place, or in the street. Thus when I read of the death of General Benjamin F.
Butler, his personal image was presented to my mental vision as clearly as if he were himself
presented to my material vision."
The same writer declared further that the figures which he was in the habit of seeing in
this way were "creations more perfect and potent than the material forms with which he daily
and hourly came in contact."
This peculiar faculty, the "seeing with the mind's eye," is possessed by all. We picture to
ourselves the object about which we are thinking. It appears before us in aspect and figure. If
we have actually seen it at any time, it will now appear in a form which we recollect; but in
case that we have not seen it we create for it a figure or aspect of our own imagining. Very
generally of course, if we learn accurately respecting the individual or object, we are obliged to
change our conceptions.
The scenes and figures which are seen in dreams are chiefly of the same nature and
character as these figments of imagination which are contemplated when we are awake. The
corporeal senses are silent, and the psychic being is to a great degree free to project its vision
and receive impressions by itself. Dreams in which the entrancement is more complete, have
been regarded upon this

--- 508.

account as being prophetic. Others, however belong without question to the corporeal
department of our nature.
We all know that objects which have imprinted their forms vividly upon the apparatus of
sight, as for example the sun or the flame of a lamp, leave the impression distinctly, and when
the eyes are closed the image is still to be seen. There are likewise conditions of the human
constitution, which are sometimes regarded as abnormal, in which such images abide for an
indefinite period, and even seem to be before the eyes continually.
The faculty for receiving impressions and reproducing them as objective scenes and
images, is explained by scientists as a function of the optic structures of the encephalon.
Whatever object has impressed itself there is likewise infixed in our deeper substance, and even
though it be seemingly overlapped and even obliterated it is capable of becoming again
manifest. The memory itself appears to be of this nature. As we advance in years the
recollections of occurrences of former years seem to be incessantly reproducing themselves,
even when nothing apparently has occurred to arouse them. They often relate to trivial matters,
and are sometimes of a disagreeable character. Happily, however, our delightful experiences
are likewise lived over again in the remembering. Indeed, it may reasonably be doubted
whether we ever really forget anything. It is a property of our nature that whatever is
implanted in our consciousness is always likely to come forth vividly to our attention; and it is
notable also that the physical sense may exhibit a similar power of manifesting impressions.
Doctor Gorini relates in La Francea Medicale that having fallen asleep one night while
he was reading a book, he presently awoke and looked upon the wall opposite his bed where
the light was shining from the lamp. It appeared to him to be covered with printed characters
of large size which formed words regularly disposed and separated by lines like those in the
book which he had been reading. He not only saw the text, but also the annotations which were
in smaller characters. This appearance lasted some twenty seconds, and was reproduced every
time that he opened his eyes.
William Blake, the poet and artist, would sometimes place his

--- 509.
sitters, and contemplate them in various attitudes, after which he would dismiss them. At a
later time when the impulse for working was active, he would go to his easel, bring the figures
and postures afresh into conscious vision, and paint the pictures.
In fact, when we seem to ourselves to be taking notice with our eyes, we are actually
contemplating impressions which external objects have made upon the visual organism after
the mind has taken cognizance of them and passed them over to the consciousness in the form
of perceptions. But what is still more wonderful is the fact that the mind itself, apart from such
external impression, will develop the concept of an image in the sensorium, and it will appear
to the individual as an object before the eyes. Or the influence may be exerted upon the sense
of hearing and cause us to hear or have the sensation of hearing sounds and voices. The
faculties of imagination and memory induce such manifestations, and a susceptible nervous
system will give their operations full scope.
Such phenomena occur with persons laboring under some form of mental disturbance,
and are numerous likewise with individuals who are rightly accounted as normal. Many
apparitions of which we hear, are undoubtedly to be thus explained, and many voices or
utterances which are reckoned to be from the invisible world, belong to the same category.
By no means, however, may this explanation be set down as complete in relation to
unusual or extraordinary phenomena. There are images manifested to the sense of vision, and
voices to the hearing, which the candid and truly intelligent will not dismiss with a sneer, or
account as only unreal phantasm. They belong to another department of being, and it may be
added, beyond the realm of common occurrings.
We are not only influenced by our sympathies with others, but there is often what seems
like an actual commingling of thoughts and emotions. When in company with others, or in
rapport with an individual, we sometimes find ourselves inspired as though spontaneously with
like sentiments, even thinking the same thoughts, and in rarer cases, beholding as it would
seem, the very objects which were vivid in the mind of the other. Sometimes, also, even
our

--- 510.

judgment and faculties of thinking are thus taken captive. Orators and religious revivalists
exercise the power to induce this condition, but any extrinsic agency of suitable quality may be
sufficient for the purpose.
Many years ago there was printed a story in Harper's Magazine, in which the supposed
narrator, a lady, was represented as having been compelled by a shower to seek shelter in the
unfinished abode of a recluse. He tells her of important events of his earlier life, his plans and
woeful disappointments. As she listens, her visual sense become entranced, and she behold as
though it was an actual scene and landscape before her the house and its surroundings which he
had contemplated for his promised bride.
Many of us can tell of analogous occurrences. I have myself received vivid impressions
of what was going on in the mind of another individual many miles away, which had come as
by the telegraph. Nor was it an intentional transmitting of thought. It must be that the ethereal
atmosphere of our planet has telephonic qualities of which we have only a faint conception.
At another time, in the spring of 1845, I was engaged one morning at felling a dead pine
in a wood near Orange, Massachusetts. The limbs and the topmost part of the trunk had
decayed and fallen off, leaving only the stem of the tree, standing like the mast of a ship.
Being inexpert in woodcraft I felled the tree against another that was standing near. It was
necessary to do all the work over again. As I was thus engaged, an impression like a command
forcibly spoken seemed to come into my ears and dart with electric suddenness to the seat of
consciousness at the pit of the stomach: "Stand back!" Instantly without looking or waiting, I
stepped backward some six or seven feet. The very moment the broken top of the tree, about
six feet long and several inches in diameter, fell to the ground, right along my steps, with a
crushing force that almost buried it in the earth. If I had taken but one step less, it would have
beaten me down.
This was neither a case of presentiment nor excited recollection. There was no alarm or
apprehension of possible danger, and there had been no thought of such a thing. Even
afterward the

--- 511.

fact that my life had been preserved in a wonderful manner, created no excitement or
perturbation of mind. It seemed as a matter of course, and I went on with work as though
nothing had occurred out of the common course of things. Indeed, I do not think a matter of
such a nature a theme for blazoning abroad everywhere.
An instance of analogous character is given by Jung-Stilling in his treatise on
Pneumatology. Professor Boehm of Marburg was visiting one afternoon, when he perceived an
impulse to go home. Being in pleasant company he resisted it till finally it became stronger
and more urgent. He went home, but on going to his room found nothing to demand attention.
A new impulse, however, prompted him to move his bed to another spot. He reasoned against
this, but got no rest till he obeyed. He then went back to the house where he had been a guest,
took supper with the company, returned home at ten o'clock, and went to bed. At midnight he
was awakened by the falling of a heavy beam with a part of the ceiling of the room exactly over
the place where the bed had stood.
The late Professor Toluck relates a similar account of his colleague Professor De Wette,
who saw from the street a spectral image of himself in his apartments, and remained out of the
house all night. Upon going in, the next morning, he found that the ceiling over his bed had
fallen, crushing it to the floor.
Professor George Bush also has told of a young kinsman of his, who was at work for a
maker of cabinet furniture. One day while he was engaged at a model he obeyed a sudden
impulse to go to the other end of the room. He was reproaching himself for so foolish an
action, and was about to go back, when the ceiling above the model fell upon it, crushing it to
pieces.
Such occurrences it is common with some to denominate coincidences. It would be as
well to apply the term to the fate of a culprit in the hands of the officers of the law. Others
ascribe these peculiar impulses and presentiments to vagary or phantasm resulting from
disorders of digestion, or disturbed nervous conditions, pleading that they often take place with
individuals when there is no such danger of injury.
But the hypothesis that such impulses come by chance, the

--- 512.

mind instinctively rejects. We know, or have it to learn if we do not, that with all our
conjectures and endeavors to explain differently, a strict necessity exists at the foundation of
things; that Must govern the universe. We may resist, and even seem to succeed in evading its
requirements, but they are not eluded and we eventually obey, though it may be as in the case
of the prophet Jonah when commanded to go to Nineveh. But the requirements, however
imperative, are not blind or arbitrary, for wisdom and our highest welfare are blended with the
behests. It is a law inscribed in our own being, a potency generated in our own souls.
The various spectacles which are presented in dreams are not always to be accounted for
by easy modes of solution. Although perhaps relating more frequently to matters of common
everyday experience, they sometimes go beyond that sphere. In June, 1895, the writer paid a
visit to Dr. Hiram K. Jones, then living in Jacksonville, Illinois. One morning while the doctor
was absent at professional calls, I took a seat on the front porch of the house, and was reading.
Presently I became drowsy and fell asleep. It was but a brief moment, and I awoke. The first
object noticed was at the rear of the Female Institute, some rods away, in Fayette street. I
beheld two sunflowers in full bloom, each with a full dark-colored core. As I was
contemplating them and admiring their beauty they vanished. There had been no sunflowers
there, but all was an illusion of sight. I had not been reading or thinking of anything that might
suggest such an apparition.
A similar experience of more impressive character, took place with me in 1872. It was in
March, and I was suffering from an attack of illness. I was resting upon the bed at night, alone
and gazing upon the wall in revery. Presently the room seemed to change in appearance, and
became a veritable "chamber of imagery." On the walls there appeared symbolic figures like
those peculiar to the ancient Egyptian structures. They seemed to be expressive, with none of
the monotony which makes so many modern decorations insipid and tiresome. One picture in
particular attracted my attention. It was upon the middle of the wall near the top of the room,
almost triangular in form, and appearing somewhat like the head of an

--- 513.

elephant, but without trunk, ear or tusk; perhaps a symbol of wisdom.


Then there came into view a company of about twenty persons, all of them individuals of
rank. They wore robes of a peculiar fashion; and the women of whom there were several, were
distinguished by a head-dress which masked or veiled the face. There was a spirited discourse
in which each who chose freely took part, and after spending some time in this manner, they
took their leave. With them all during this interview and at the separating an ease and grace of
manner characterized every remark and gesture, far transcending the artificial politeness which
is so often encountered at the present time. One guest happening to linger, and being invited to
remain, bowed respectfully and made a courteous but inaudible reply to the compliment. At
this moment the images portrayed upon the wall began to grow faint, the drapery and other
adornment faded from view, and everything in the room now came into sight as before this
spectacle had appeared.
Although I was familiar with such publications as Moore's Epicurean, Mrs. Lydia Maria
Child's Progress of Religious Ideas, Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, and others of
similar character, there had never been so far as I can recollect, any impression of such a
spectacle made upon my imagination, that might be reproduced in this manner. An interview
like that of Joseph and his brethren might perhaps have been depicted in some way, but I am
not able, from any of my reading, to state whether the whole spectacle was merely a dream-
play or a reproducing of some occurrence of the far-off antiquity. The "stuff that dreams are
made on" is as abundant as the material that contributes our facts, as well as the
phantasmagoria of the imagination.
Within our being are stored all the impressions that have been made upon our
consciousness. Every thought, every emotion, every passion and affection is stamped
indelibly. What we have learned is never forgotten, but only laid away, and may be brought
into conscious remembrance at a future moment. Persons drowning or undergoing capital
punishment are said to recall all the past in an instant of time. This seem hardly credible; yet
experiences and occurrences that possess some analogy to what has before taken

--- 514.

place, or been learned, will bring to recollection the former events, often with much of the
freshness and vividness of being recent. In short, what we learn, what we do or undergo, will
always remain a part of our being, and never totally leave the domain of consciousness. From
the first event in our career till the last thing that happens, our selfhood is marked by every
impression that has been made. Like veteran soldiers, we are scarred over by wounds received
in conflicts.
Dreams frequently bring to notice what had long been out of conscious thought. We
often thus visit again the scenes in which we have participated or read about, till sometimes the
ideal transcends the everyday routine. What, however, is more noteworthy, individuals in a
state of ecstasy or clairvoyant perception, have, in numerous instances, witnessed events or
learned of matters which were not known before, or had not yet taken place.
The father of the writer, at the beginning of the War of 1812 was taken with intermittent
fever, which was accompanied with delirium and mental hallucination. He was then living in
Northern Vermont, but was contemplating removal to Western New York. While confined to
his bed by the illness he had several dreams in which he seemed to himself to be traversing the
villages of Utica, Whitesborough, and other places in that region, where he had never been.
After his recovery, he carried into effect the purpose of removing; and on passing through
those localities which he had thus visited in his mental vision, he perceived to his surprise that
they appeared familiar, as he had seen them before.
Incredible as it may seem to superficial things, numerous instances of this kind are
related by individuals whose words may not be disputed. It is recorded by biographers that
after the death of Dante, the last thirteen Cantos of Divina Comedia could not be found.
Anxious search was made, but without success. The two sons of the great poet were
importuned to finish the work. Finally, one night, Jacopo Alighieri, the elder, who had been
more zealous in the matter, dreamed that he saw his father and was told by him that the poem
had been completed, and where the missing cantos were to be found. This information proved
to be strictly correct. The lost manuscript was found in the wall of the house, beneath a
window, mildewed, but with

--- 515.

the writing still visible.


It may be asked whether the young man did not, and indeed where we all do not retain, as
by an umbilical connection, a continuity with the spiritual entity of our parents and other
ancestors, so that their recollections and mental qualities extend to their progeny as being part
and constituent of the interior nature. Or is it a peculiar form of the faculty of presentiment,
which here and there displays itself though on purpose to awaken enquiry? Decide the matter
as we may, the belief in presentiment is well nigh universal and may confidently be affirmed to
constitute an article in the religion of all mankind. Most men shudder and discard from their
inmost souls the conception suggested by the vision of Lucretius "of the homeless universe
falling, falling forever, from nowhence to nowhither through the succeeding ages, by causeless
and unceasing gravitation, while the changes and efforts of all mortal things were but the
jostlings of the dust-atoms amid the everlasting storm." Instead of this gloomy, parentless
notion, we eagerly believe that Purpose underlies all the phenomena of existence, and likewise
that the Purpose is all-potent, and its operations directed by Intelligence and inspired by Infinite
Love.
Another step is to imagine that our faculties are at times somehow enable to know
somewhat of the future that impends over us. Men who deride and condemn those who cherish
such beliefs, achieve but a pitiful triumph. They do not thereby shake or overturn the faith
which indeed is founded upon a deeper conviction. They only bruise and wound the spirit as
the sacerdotal persecutors of old would have crushed the bones and muscles of the body, and
tortured the sensitive nerves by thumb-screws and other hideous devices. The derided
individuals will leave their torture-chamber as unconvinced as Galileo, and return to the former
belief confident in the assurance that whether it can or cannot be scientifically demonstrated,
the Superior Wisdom has somehow provided the agencies by which to mirror impending events
upon the consciousness of human beings.
Our old British forefathers and Alruna progenitresses often possessed the faculty
known as "second sight"; and we,

--- 516.

notwithstanding the ages and events that have intervened to separate us from them, can feel
somewhat of their life tingling along our own arteries. Many an individual, now as formerly,
has learned through the agency of a dream, or perhaps of a presentiment, concerning matters
which he wished to know. The case of the sonet of Dante is in no way exceptional. In other
instances not only have occurrences in the personal history of the individual been thus called
back to recollection, but events have been made vivid to the mind, which had actually taken
place at other periods, and even before the dreamer was born. It would seem conclusive,
therefore, that not only are the occurrences of our own life inscribed upon our interior
substance, but likewise that we inherit from our ancestors a like impression of their thoughts
and experiences. It is possible accordingly that our dreams may bring to our consciousness the
acts of those who have lived here before us, as well as those in which we have ourselves taken
part.
Many of our apparent reminiscences seem to have their origin in this way. It is very
likely that they suggested the doctrines of preexistence and metempsychosis. Every thoughtful
person must admit that there is something plausible in the concept of a former experience.
There are often thoughts springing up in the mind which seem to be recollections, and we have
sudden impressions that we have been in the same places and similar circumstances at one or
more periods, as at the present time. A feeling of loneliness often lingers about us, as though
we were exiled from a distant and almost-forgotten home.
We are too prone to venture upon the solving of such facts by physiological or
pathological explanations. But these fall short of accounting for them to satisfaction. Indeed, it
is a species of credulity to be always expecting ample demonstration in any such matter. Plato
was far more reasonable when he affirmed that the human soul is itself intuitive. He set forth
that such perceptions had their origin in a faculty of mind distinct from the one by which we
form opinions and judgment in relation to sensible objects. This faculty of intuition or real
knowing, he taught, was "generated by the Divine Father," and also that during our corporeal
life it is not amenable to the conditions of time and space, but in a peculiar manner "dwells in
eternity."

--- 517.

Thus it is superior to the other powers of conjecture, believing and reasoning. Its
possession and development accord satisfactorily for the possibility of perceptions in another
mode and form than those which are usually considered as the normal functions of the mind
through the agency of the brain. Such perceptions may come in dreams, or they may be
impressed upon us as presentiments, or even in ways that are more tangible.
The Judean Kabbalists declared it possible for a human will to affect others and induce
them to obey its behests. Passavant also asserts that individuals at a distance from the subject
can compel thoughts and dreams. Doubtless, many occurrences which are often considered as
supernatural, may be explained in this way. Nevertheless, if we really desire to know the
causes at the beginning, we should look further.
Distinguished authors have propounded the theory that there is a subtle fluid in the brain
and nervous structures, which is the source of vitality and sensation, and is likewise the
medium between the visible and invisible worlds. It is with the soul itself and surrounds the
body with a psychic aura or atmosphere. This often enable the individual to perceive the
presence of surrounding objects, even in the dark, before coming into actual contact with them.
It is also assumed, and even admitted by scientists, that there is everywhere present
through space the imponderable agent denominated ether, somewhat analogous in character
and perhaps identical with what we call electricity. This ether is supposed by many astute
thinkers to be the medium or connecting link between the realm of nature and the spiritual
world, and to convey the emanations and influences of individuals from one point to another.
These hypotheses seem to account for the coincidences which everyone has sometimes
observed, that two persons have the same thoughts at the same time, and that one person will
often be moved to think of another as the latter is approaching from a distance. We may also
believe confidently that there are living beings present in our atmosphere, who are conscious of
our thoughts, motives and conditions, and often exercise a species of protection and
guardianship over us. We have no need to stop here in our

--- 518.

speculations. This invisible realm about us is no chaotic region destitute of inhabitant, and a
waste of desolation. We may think of it and confidently believe it to be peopled with "men and
women and gods," alike to essence but diverse in powers. The human mind is no mere product
or flowering of the corporeal nature, begotten with it and dying with it, but is a living
intelligence with functions and energies of its own. Time itself is a projection of the eternal,
and this intuitional, thinking entity belongs to that realm of being. There are living essence of
various discrete degrees constantly in rapport with the minds of those who are living in the
confines of time and space. From this intimate association and contact they apprehend the
thought and governing purpose, and are able to further these, or to arrest them, or to divert
them into other channels. This may be done so imperceptibly as to impel the individual to
imagine it to be all of his own accord. Indeed, consciousness may be altogether, and certainly
is often the result of disturbance of the mental element, an actual abnormity. We may see
visions, perceive voices, and have impressions which are from the world beyond, and seem to
be supernatural.
Whether the Supreme Being speaks in a manner that our senses and faculties would
perceive, or whether he inspires directly, are questions not to be lightly asked or answered. So
far as we can well comprehend the matter, communications from the superior world are by
intermediaries. Of this much we may be sure: that we are dwelling in a region of mind in
which we constantly interchange moral and mental conditions, and even thought and life itself
with a myriad of beings analogous to us in their nature and inspired betimes by the kindest and
best of purposes in regard to us; but often, however, it would also seem, some of them by
worse ones. We may not live apart from them, nor they from us. In them, as in ourselves, the
Infinite One is ever present, never apart from that which is of him and from him.
Indeed, I am closely in sympathy with the affirmation of Angelus Silesius - that we are
necessary to God, as God is to us. Certainly all who live endowed with faculties of mind and
heart, whether bodied, disbodied or unbodied, are necessary to one

--- 519.

another. God is good, the philosophers declared: God is love, say the writers of the New
Testament. Love, even though infinite, requires an object to permeate, encompass and bless;
else it would not have being. We subsist in God before our entrance into this world, and the
highest essence of our being still abides in him.

(Metaphysical Magazine, Nov., 1906)

-------------------
--- 520.

THE IMAGINATION

Our village postmaster was a man of very positive opinions, and in those days, what was
called a Free-Thinker. I had been sent to his shop one forenoon, where he employed several
workmen, and found him engaged in warm discourse with a neighbor. These words caught my
attention: "The Christian imagines a God, carves an image to represent the idea, and worships
that."
It was not hard to comprehend the full meaning of this assertion, and the assumption
upon which it was based. It is the habit with many reasoners to rank that which is imagined as
being essentially unreal. These fabrics of the mind, they do not hesitate to declare, are dreams
and vagaries, things which have no substantial existence. Individuals of this class often claim
for themselves the distinction of being practical, and set such matters contemptuously aside as
not enabling the accumulating of wealth, or affording enjoyment. With them these things
seem to constitute all that is worthy of regard. This sloth of mind is morally enervating, and is
liable to degenerate into lack of probity and an impervious insensibility to right dealing.
There is also a second group of individuals who occupy virtually a similar plane of
thought though apparently transcending it. Their notion is that only what can be demonstrated
by logical or mathematical process may be accepted as truth. They often weary us by their
discourse. They are generally talkative, drawing their utterances to an inordinate length, like
the "wounded snake" of the poem. I have listened to them till I suffered from fatigue. I have
read their argument, and tired utterly of their pictured universe so full of shapes, but destitute of
souls.
It often seems curious that individuals professing scientific

--- 521.

attainment, will pertinaciously maintain that the atmosphere and world about us are densely
populated with living spores and animalcules that propagate disease and putrefaction; and, in
the same breath, will contend the idea that spiritual essences are occupying the same region.
Yet this is as plausible, if not as palpable as their own hypothesis. They insist that we shall
accept the evidence of their microscopes, but are not willing to receive the testimony of
philosophic perception. They talk fluently about Nature and Force, but zealously overlook the
profounder view that thought and idea are real energies, and God the actual Intelligence within
and beyond all, ubiquitous and supreme. Thus do human beings, the only race on earth that is
able to form and entertain the concept of spiritual being and its essential immortality, often task
that mental faculty to demonstrate that we can never know the truth of these matters. Yet a
world of phenomena with no acknowledged noumena; of effects that have no recognized
causes; of changes with nothing permanent to which they relate; of natural events without any
efficient origin, thus ignoring the fountain of all evolution and the possible object or utility of
that which occurs - such a world would constitute a very Babel of chaos; a dreary void; an
omnipotent death; a hell in which faith, hope, love and everything divine or desirable, are
consigned to utter darkness.
The "way of holiness," the redemption of human nature, the exaltation of human
character to its ideal, must be found in the direction away from this. We will realize our own
salvation in this very province of actual reality, which it is the office of the Imagination to open
to our view and occupation. We shall find here no mere groupings of vagary or uncertainty,
but the foundation-facts of our own being.
Ideality has been explained as vision of the mind.* This definition is an affirming of the
fact that the mind has vision - that it

-----------
* Plutarch: Sentiments of the Philosopher, xii - "Phantasia or imagination is denominated
from Näl - phos, which denotes light; for as light discloses itself and other things which it
illuminates, so this
-----------
--- 522.
can see. Being able to see, it can likewise give shape to what it sees. It creates. It can see only
that which has being. It can by no possibility perceive or conceive of a nonentity. If the human
soul imagines an immortal life, if it conceives of a Supreme Being who is essentially life,
intelligence and goodness, then God and immortality are everlasting facts. Imagination has
perceived them and given form to the conception. No matter, though what is real to one person
seems unreal and even dogmatic to another; this is true alike of a toothache or a voice from the
interior world.
Such imagination we find in Shakespeare, such vision and such power; and we have, as
the result, that rare collection of dramas that will outlast the centuries. His figures of men and
women, the scenery of the stage, the various everyday objects which accompany his
representations are but temporary matters, not specially to be named or thought of; but the
ideas which each drama expresses, and which it shadows forth and represents, are themselves
the actual realities which have made Shakespear's name immortal. It is of small account
whether he himself appeared on the stage, or whether it was his vocation to till the ground, or
to buy and sell in the market. His faculty to discern the inner heart of things, to learn its secret
and to utter it in just the words that most forcibly express it, was the transcendent power. We
are conscious while we are contemplating it that it was no chance development from a human
brain; that it was no accidental concurrence of functions, but a mighty spiritual energy - a vital
force, one and indivisible, which constituted Shakespear himself, and which evolved that
insight and creative power which have been and continue to be the wonder of the world.
Imagination is the faculty to create something which we can contemplate; to develop a
perceptible object in the mind; to recall a state of mind which has been experienced; to take
such material as our experience or direct apprehension furnishes and construct it into

-------------
imagination discloses itself and that which is its cause, .....for to the imagination there is always
some real imaginable thing presented which is its efficient cause."
-------------
--- 523.

new forms and images. It is the ability and disposition to form ideals for mental creations. The
architect who plans a house does this very thing. He produces a design. In due time the house
is built. Which is the veritable reality - the form of that house which had its being in his mind,
or the pile of stone, brick or wood which was copied from it? We can quickly perceive the
proper reply. The house is the shape which was copied from the form or ideal of the architect.
It may be destroyed by fire or storms, so as to exist no more; but the design which the architect
had created in his imagination, and which has also become depicted in the minds of individuals
who have seen the structure itself, does not thus perish. It remains permanent. Any other
notion is sophistic and absurd. If that which is made, which is an imitation, can be more real
that the thought which gave it its origin, then the things which are created may be nobler and
superior to their creator.
Ideas, then, are the original models and patterns from which everything is fashioned.
They constitute the eternal laws by means of which everything is formed. Science, which is
properly so called, the knowledge of things that are as well as of those which appear, is the
cognition of these laws.
Phrenologists have endeavored to assign a region of the brain to the province of the
imagination. There is an organ or department of ideality on each side of the forehead, they tell
us, which embraces and exercises the sentiment of the perfect and beautiful, the noetic
inspiration. It embodies, as they assert, a disposition to embellish facts, to become dissatisfied
with plain reality, to dwell in the realm of fancy. Indeed, in the popular and general conception
the imagination is regarded as embodying real things - whatever is visionary. Thus we are
relegated to the world of ghost and goblin, the region of vagary and hallucination, and in short
to everything that is considered frivolous, deceptive and illusory.
Without a reasonable doubt, many of the sights, voices and other phenomena, both of our
dreams and fancy, are derived from our mental and bodily conditions. If an individual did not
believe in such things he would not often be likely to see or hear them. We have no record
before the discovery of America of the appearing or

--- 524.

manifestation of any ghost or double of an American native. So, also, the likeness of strange
birds and animals would hardly appear in dreams if the races had never been discovered. The
Devil of the Middle Ages would never have been seen, with his peculiar decorations of horns,
hoofs and tail, if the artists of ancient Greece and Assyria had not so depicted their cherub-
sphinxes and the god Bacchus. Emanuel Swedenborg explained to Queen Ulrika that he was
not able to hold discourse with deceased individuals, except he had already known them
personally or from their acts and writings, so that he could form an adequate idea of them.
According to this rule, many seers, ecstatics and inspired teachers would come under the
denomination of prophets speaking a vision of their own heart.
Individuals affected by nervous disorders are more liable than others to behold these
peculiar spectacles. The initiators at the ancient Mysteries administered beverages to the
candidates on purpose to create an abnormal condition of the bodily senses. Mohammed, the
Arabian apostle, was a sufferer from hysteria. We may not suppose, however, that the disorder
created the visions. A person of acute or preternatural sensitiveness will perceive many things
which others do not. Doctor Samuel Warren has described, in Blackwood's Magazine, an
epileptic patient who told everything precisely which was taking place in another room at the
very time that it was occurring, just as though he was present there, seeing and hearing it all.
Did his epilepsy create these occurrences, or did it enlarge the field of his consciousness so that
he was able to perceive them? Through my window or a break in the wall of my apartment I
may be able to behold the sky, the sun and stars. Does the window or other opening create
these objects, or simply leave no obstruction to my sense of vision? In like manner may not a
disorder affecting the nervous system, like hysteria or epilepsy, an agency like animal
magnetism, or some other operation equally mysterious, remove the impediments to the action
of the senses, or exalt the perception and so enable us to see what is within us or beyond, and to
hear things of which the auditory apparatus is not usually cognizant?
The sensorial organism is undoubtedly adapted to this purpose. We learn from the
observations of physiologists that our

--- 525.

special senses of seeing, hearing and smelling are by no means functions of the eyes, ears and
nostrils simply, but pertain to the group of nervous ganglia within the head from which those
organs grow as roots and branches from a common point. These little ganglia or masses of
nerve-substance receive the impressions from without and register them. Sometimes the
presiding genius of the brain will make use of such impressions in the forming of thoughts or
the beginning of voluntary action, and at other times its seems that these little ganglia operated
without any perceptible direction of that kind. These things commonly take place on the
instant. The seeing apparatus projects the sensation to an image and we seem to ourselves to be
contemplating it at a greater or less distance in front of us. This, however, is an illusion; we
are only beholding the reflection of our own optic organism inside of our heads. We hear,
likewise, on an analogous principle.
We do not, however, complete the matter with a single manifestation which is thus
produced. The impressions which are made upon these registering ganglia, like those on the
sensitive plate of the photograph, are fixed there to remain permanent. They become vivid
again in dreams, and are contemplated like actual occurrences. A similar manifestation may
also take place in our waking hours. Sir Isaac Newton beheld the spectrum or visible image of
the sun at midnight, and William Blake, the artist, made pictures of individuals who had sat for
him on previous occasions, having, by an effort of his mind and will, placed their figures in the
very seat and posture that he required. I have been told that an artist in the city of New York
had the same power.
The imagination may also, through this peculiar forming energy, change these objective
manifestations and vary the spectacles to an indefinite series. Nor do these transformations
constitute everything of this character that may be observed. Ideas and thoughts framed in the
mind are also inscribed upon these same sensorial ganglia, and are often produced objectively
as part of the dreams and visions. Everybody is familiar with the phrase: "Seeing with the
mind's eye." A dream or vision is this mode of beholding - a scene pictured as though it was
outside of us.

--- 526.

It may be, likewise, that events, views and ideas belonging in the life and experience of
ancestors are conveyed into our sensibility in some occult manner, and so influence our
thinking and imagination. Heredity plays some queer pranks with every one of us. We look
upon scenes and even recall the remembrance of events which we have an impression of having
beheld at some former time, while yet we are aware that we have not. Is this an ancestor
impressing upon us the sense of his experiences, or is it our own memory from some other term
or form of existence?
The universe about us is populous in some arcane way, no doubt, with living beings that
are not circumscribed like ourselves with corporeal matter. It may not be reasonably supposed
that there are infinite numbers of races in range from man down to the monads while the region
beyond him is a void. Even the masters of Unknowing acknowledge this. Herbert Spencer,
pausing at the threshold of the Temple of Life, confesses the presence of an Infinite Something,
the source of energy and its outcomes. Baruch Spinosa tells us of lower and higher faculties of
mind through which we perceive truth in various orders. He treats of knowledge of the first
degree which consists of notions from single things apprehended through the senses, without
relation to the higher intellect; of knowledge of the second degree, which embraces adequate
ideas of the properties of things; and of knowledge of the third degree, which proceeds from
the adequate idea of the formal essence of certain attributes of God to an adequate conception
of the essence of things. This is entheasm.
With these two sublime possessions - faith in the Infinite One, and that knowing which
proceeds from a certain adequate knowledge of His attributes to a proper conception of the
essence of things - we are at liberty, also, to believe that there are living intelligences in the
ethereal atmosphere. It is neither impossible nor improbable that they impress themselves and
their thoughts upon our consciousness. We may thus experience emotions and sensations, and
may think, see and hear from their agency, when it seems to us all the while as being of our
own motion. If, too, there is an all-pervading living essence in an about us which is
substantially one and the same, our relations to

--- 527.

it are analogous to those of branches from a common stem; and it will impart to us betimes
more or less of a simultaneous consciousness, so that we may perceive persons and events,
perhaps, at a great distance away, whether the distance be in space or in the time of actual
occurring. Persons afar off can thus be audible or visible to us; and we may read as in a book
of things now taking place or that occurred long ago,

"Coming events cast their shadows before."

It is the province of the Imagination to gather up such matters, to shape them and thus
adapt them for intelligent comprehension and consequent use. Another function is to preserve
our experiences. Nothing that we have done, witnessed or endured will ever cease to be.
Every Macbeth will see the ghost of his murdered Banquo; every Marcus Brutus the shade of
the slaughtered Caesar. The wrongs that we have suffered are present with us. With even
greater vividness the better, happier, nobler acts and occurrences abide permanently in our
consciousness. All these things are elements of our constitution, and we can no more escape
them than we can become separate and distinct from our own selfhood.
To speak of these matters as unreal and unsubstantial would be to talk idly. They are far
removed, it is true, from all the temporary and shadowy appearances that so many denominate
practical everyday life. Let no one boast, however, of such practicality. It is shared in common
with the mouse and beaver and subserves as high uses with them as with the human being.
Our aspiration to an ideal excellence of conduct, our efforts to acquire more thorough
knowledge, our eagerness to achieve any kind of eminent distinction, each in its way, is an
endeavor to attain an exaltation which is nobler and permanent. Any moral force which impels
in this way is as real, and must be so acknowledged, as the blow that makes us recoil or fells us
to the ground. What we call morality is that idea about Right which the imagination has
framed into a rule of action for us to embody in our lives as our very nature. It is an entity
formed of the immortal substance - "the stuff that

--- 528.

dreams are made on." Of this morality all our real knowing is born. In order to know anything
it is first necessary to love it, to desire it and to be in sympathy with it. The truth which nature
and the universe contain is but a sealed book to him who loves it not. His knowledge, or rather
his conception of knowledge, whatever pretension it may have to being scientific, is mean,
superficial, small and serving only for the uses of the day. The man who does not love the
eternal truth will never know it; and, as knowing is possessing, he will remain poor, ignorant,
blind and naked.
The fact that the idea of truth, of order, of right doing exists in every person's mind is
evidence that he is immortal, a partaker of the infinite and eternal. It is the office of the
imagination to shape that idea, to make it perceptible to the mind, and to introduce it into the
heart, the daily action and all the life.
Sir Humphrey Davy once breathed the nitrous oxide for experiment, and became
insensible of the objects around him. When he had recovered from the trance he exclaimed,
with emphasis: "There is nothing real but thought!" He had, indeed, come close to the eternal
foundations of things. For it is upon thought, the living rock, that we build our permanent
superstructure. We thus abide in the substantial, everlasting truth that there is God within and
above all, an ever-present perpetual Life, and, of course, an eternity for human beings - not in
dens or palaces of selfishness and its consequent misery, but in the very bosom of the Infinite
One.
Thus Imagination is among the most important of our psychic endowments. It "bodies
forth the form of things unknown," constructing thoughts into principles and originating the
achievements of intellect. It enable the accomplishing of all that is great and useful in the
world, and allies man to the holier Self beyond.

(Metaphysical Magazine, June 1901)

-------------------------
--- 529.

INVERSE OR INNER VISION

Attention has already been directed to the occurring of inverse as well as direct vision.
Draper says: "Inverse vision depends primarily on the condition that former impressions which
are enclosed in the optic thalami or registering ganglia at the base of the brain, assume such a
degree of relative intensity that they can arrest the attention of the mind. The moment that an
equality is established between the intensity of these vestiges and sensations
contemporaneously received from the outer world, or that the latter are wholly extinguished, or
in sleep, inverse vision occurs, presenting itself as the conditions may vary, under different
forms, apparitions, visions, dreams."
Dr. Hilbert is more concise and definite, telling the matter still more plainly: "There are
ground for suspicion," says he, "that when ideas of vision are vivified to the height of
sensation, a corresponding affection of the optic nerve accompanies the illusion." In other
words, when the idea of a person or object is very vivid in the mind, it is possible and often
actually occurs, that we see the very individual or thing that we are thinking about. Everyone
of us has had such experiences.
Sir David Brewster explains the matter further. "In examining these mental
impressions," says he, "I have found that they follow the motion of the eyeball exactly like the
spectral impressions of luminous objects, and that they resemble them in their apparent
immobility when the eye is displaced by an external force. If this result," he continued, "which
I state with much diffidence, from having only my own experience in its favor, shall be found
generally true by others, it will follow, that the objects of mental contemplation may be seen as
distinctly as external objects, and will occupy the same local position

--- 530.

in the axis of vision, as if they had been formed by the agency of light."
This is not so very fanciful. This much is certain, that the figure, whether considered as
real or phantastic, has impressed itself on the sensorium; and no matter how this was done it is
there ready to be reproduced. If a dream can do it, thought can; and when thought has done it,
the act, the objective form, can be recognized by the bodily sense. Do not marvel; this is true
of hearing as well as of seeing.
Children of a vivid imagination are fond of playing at this form of vision. They close the
eyes firmly, pressing the eyelids somewhat closely against them, and presently behold the most
lively and diversified spectacles. Whatever has impressed them deeply is most likely to be
produced as an actual view. It does not require to have been seen; it is enough that it has been
thought out, and the idea given form by the mind. These views are more or less fantastic,
moving like curtains or the pictures in a panorama, but they are none the less real. I have
played at this sport myself, and can say that it far surpasses dreaming. The varied experiences
of later life have either weakened this faculty or led more or less to its disuse; indeed, I
presume that such is the case with most of us. The more extensive the range of one's ideas, the
greater diversity can be obtained in these apparitions.
We see what we believe to exist, more readily than what is regarded as purely a phantasy.
Martin Luther saw the Devil, in about the same shape that he in those days was generally
supposed to have. Our New England forefathers, in the seventeenth century occasionally had a
peep at a Black Man with a book taking the names of those who were willing to make war on
the Christian religion. We do not see him in that shape now-a-days. We have changed all that.
Our satan is both male and female. As a masculine demon he is poverty and destitution
embodied; as a female, he is Mrs. Grundy.
The case of Nikolai, the Prussian bookseller, has done duty for all the disbelievers of the
present century, till indeed it is about threadbare. In the year 1790 he had omitted his
customary bleeding and suffering from various melancholy occurrences. The next

--- 531.

February after a violent dispute with a person, he saw an apparition. The physician ascribed it
to violent mental excitement. It appeared again and again; others finally coming with it.
Presently the figures were those of individuals whom he knew, but who generally lived at a
distance, and some were dead. They did not come at will, however, but appeared when he least
thought of them. Nikolai could distinguish them from persons actually present. After four
weeks they began to speak sometimes to him and sometimes to each other. They would utter
abrupt phrases, or cumulated discourses. On the 20th on April 1791 the physician applied
leeches to him at 11 a.m. The room was crowded with the figures; but at half past four they
began to fade out, and at seven were perfectly white. An hour later the room was entirely
cleared.
Draper pronounces that "in such a case there can be no doubt that the disease affected the
corpora quadrigemina and the optic thalamus as well as the retina." Let it not be understood
from this that the disease created the spectres.
However, we will take our lessons from an old mystic of 300 years ago, who stands
properly at the head of all visionaries. We have read Draper and Hilbert, looked at the visions
of the Prussian bookseller, and taken the word of the great Swede. Now for the father of all
these abnormal creatures - Mr. William Shakespeare of Stratford in England.
In his drama, "The Tempest," he puts us all down as being not much else than "thin air."

"These own actors,


As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

--- 532.

As dreams are made of, and our little life


Is rounded with a sleep."

By this logic, sleeping and dreaming are about as real as we ourselves are. Wm.
Shakespeare had learned from Aristotle that mind and the thing thought are one. We are made
of dream-stuff and of course are at one with our dreams and visions.
Accordingly, when Richard III sleeps the night before the battle of Bosworth, in 1688,
the ghosts are made to rise up, of Prince Edward of Lancaster, Henry VI, George of Clarence,
Rivers, Gray, Vaughan, Hastings, Edward V and his brother, Queen Anne and Buckingham.
They all dwell in the conscious mind of Richard who had compassed their deaths; and he sees
and hears their execration. The king awaking cries:

"I did but dream.


O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me.
The lights burn blue."

Henry, too, awakes, with the same vision:

"The sweetest sleep and fairest-boding dreams


Not even entered in a drowsy head
Have I since your departure had, my lords,
Methought their souls, whose bodies Richard murder'd
Came to my tent."

Again, Marcus Brutus is sitting in his tent near Sardis, at night, when the Ghost of Julius
Caesar enters. His boy-musician is asleep.

"Ho! who comes there?


I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition,
It comes upon me. Art thou anything?

--- 533.

Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil


That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare?"

The ghost announced himself in reply to the Karma, or his evil spirit. But neither the boy
nor the men at the entrance saw him come or go. Brutus alone witnessed it.
The appearance of Banquo's ghost is equally pertinent. The guilty Macbeth has bid the
nobles of Scotland to a feast; when going to take his seat, he sees Banquo in his seat. Lenox
points to it as a place reserved; but the king sees the unwelcome visitor and addresses him.
The queen cries to him:

"This is the very painting of your fear:


Why do you make such faces? If when all's done,
You look but on a stool."

The king asserts that he saw him.

"The times have been


That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now, they rise again
And push us from our stools."

Addressing his guests he adds:

"You can behold such sights,


And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks
When mine are balanced with fear."

Ross demands:

"What sights, my lad?"

He has seen nothing. Only the king beheld the terrible apparition, and not then till he had
learned of the murder.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has not hesitated to give us an

--- 534.
hypothesis. "Perhaps," says he, "we have co-tenants in this house we live in. No less than
eight distinct personalities are said to have co-existed in a single female mentioned by an
ancient physician of unimpeachable authority. In this light we may perhaps see the meaning of
a sentence from a work which will be repeatedly referred to in this narrative, viz, 'This body in
which we journey across the isthmus between the two oceans is not a private carriage but an
omnibus.'"
I do not know how far Dr. Holmes would be followed. He has said enough to show what
he is willing to suggest. Inside of every human being's consciousness is each individual with
whom he has been in any way concerned. In certain events and conditions, the idea of that
individual will be impressed upon the mind and so carried into the physical sensibility as to
become an apparition. Brutus sees the dead Caesar, Richard his murdered victims, and
Macbeth the form of his assassinated cousin. No one else sees, because they have not had any
part in the matter. Lady Macbeth could see the blood of Duncan on her hands, but it was all in
her eyes. Nobody else could see it, because except in the interior consciousness and projected
from it, the blood was not there.
"Perhaps," says the philosopher Immanuel Kant, "it will yet be proved that the human
soul, even in this life, is, by indissoluble communion connected with all the immaterial natures
of the spirit-world, acting upon these and receiving impressions from them."
Such natures by impressing the sensorium and consciousness could, of course, by this
process of inverse vision, be represented as before the eyes. The person himself will be the
witness, but, usually, no one else. Brutus and Macbeth saw their ghosts, but nobody else did,
so, too, the prophet Daniel tells a similar story:
"I, Daniel, alone saw the vision; for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a
great quaking fell upon them."
The ghost of Hamlet, however, came within the cognizance of several. Horatio asserted
it was but a phantasy, when Bernardo and Marcellus declared they saw it; but when he, too,
had seen the vision he hastened to bring his young master thither. He, too, sees the ghost and
speaks with it. At the end he swears the others to silence

--- 535.

and remarks:

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,


Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

This carries us, however, into another field and we leave it for the present. I have no
disposition to doubt where millions of mankind believe. I demand, however, reason for
believing.
I have a brief word to say of these ghostly exhibitions. Very generally the spectral
displays are of the same fashion as the seers are accustomed to. Even the ghost of old Hamlet
appeared as he was in life. The Roman saw his spectres in the Roman dress; and so it usually
is. Nobody seems ever to have seen the ghost of an American Indian till after the discovery of
the western continent. Now, we have an abundance of them; and in some regions they
monopolize the market. I sometimes imagine it is because they are not obliged to use the white
man's grammar. Illiterate seers hear the language of the unlettered and untaught; scholars hear
the learned. But they use the dialect of the seer. Swedenborg's interlocutors all Swedenborgise
says Emerson. "King George II, and Isaac Newton, all speak alike." There is a law of
existence, I apprehend, which occasions this.

(The Word, Vol. 15, pp. 346-51)

-------------------
--- 536.

PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

"I marvel that in their books


They know not, with certainty,
What the properties of the Soul;
Of what form are its members,
What region is its abode,
What breath, inflowing, sustains it."
- Taliesin: Elements of Knowledge

We read in classic story of a famous story of a famous sculptor who carved the statue of a
beautiful woman so perfectly that he became enamored of it, and by the energy of his love
procured it to be endowed with life, the faculty of speech, and all human qualities. In this tale
we may find more than the lively conceit of a myth-maker, and we shall do well, accordingly,
to give it our thoughtful consideration, and to seek for its profounder meaning. It is plainly the
suggestion of inherent ability in the human being to effect what is earnestly desired and willed,
even to the bringing of energy and the imparting of life and soul to what is relatively inert and
moribund. We may find in it some explanation of the problem of our own existence. To
comprehend this intelligently we must also grasp and understand what may be learned of the
essential characteristics of mind and soul, and the relations of these to all things else. This kind
of knowledge is appropriately ranked under the head of Psychology. It includes within its
purview all that pertains to the soul, its faculties and functions, and to its connections and
relations with the body and corporeal conditions.
There are different interpretations, however, given this term by authors and lecturers, that
are more or less variant and confusing. In

--- 537.

some scientific circles it is chiefly employed to embrace the several types of insanity which are
characterized by nervous derangement and mental aberration, overlooking entirely the higher
spiritual nature. Sir William Hamilton explains it more critically, and denoting "the science
conversant about the phenomena of the mind, or conscious subject, or self, or ego." Heyse,
however, gives a more explicit definition. He distinguishes between the soul as the living
principle, and the spirit as the rational or spiritual quality. He accordingly regards the terms
psychic, psychal, and psychical as describing the relations of the human soul to sense, appetite,
and the outer visible world, in contradistinction to those superior faculties which have to do
with the super-sensible region.
We are frequently compelled, nevertheless, to accept everyday usage at the expense of
critical accuracy of expression. The word mind, as employed by the older philosophic writers,
denotes the spiritual element, whereas many consider it to mean the soul, and it is more
commonly regarded as signifying the understanding or reasoning faculty. We may, however,
avoid misconception to some degree by contemplating the nature of the soul itself. As
contrasted with the body, it may very properly be described as a spiritual substance or
corporeity. In this sense the Apostle Paul actually denominates it a spiritual body, as
distinguished from the psychic (I. Cor. xv, 44). More definitely, however, it is the
individuality, including, and yet in a manner distinct from, the superior, diviner element of our
being. "In other words," as the eminent Professor George Bush declares, "The Soul is that
principle in man that constitutes his personality; and this is but another form of saying that the
soul is the man himself, as a living, thinking, feeling, active being." This may be further shown
very forcibly by comparing the passages in the three synoptic Gospels, in which the phrase,
"lose his own soul," is interchanged with the expression, "lose himself."
The philosophic thinker will recognize the fact of the different qualities and
characteristics of the psychic nature. In the higher department it is intellective, and knows; in
the lower plane it is moral and sensitive, and feels. The latter is more closely incorporated with
the physical life; the former pertains to the noetic and spiritual. They

--- 538.

are by no means always concurrent in impulsion. We may feel and desire in one direction at
the same time that our convictions move us in another. "So, then," says Paul, when noting this
internal conflict, "with the mind [or noetic faculty], I myself serve the law of God, but with the
flesh the law of sin." The Apostle, it will be perceived, is careful in his use of terms. He
represents our nature as consisting of "spirit and soul and body," and the Epistle to the Hebrews
speaks of "the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." This distinction is often neglected in
common speech, but we find no room left here for such indefiniteness. The spirit, or
intellective principle, is plainly represented as the nobler element of our being. "The natural
man" is an expression indicating unequivocally the person in whom the psychal quality is
predominant. "He receiveth not the things of the spirit," says Paul, "and cannot know them;
but he that is spiritual exploreth everything." The one may be learned, but the other only is
wise.
The philosophers, it is proper to remark, while they made like distinctions, employed
other terms. They regarded the spirit as simply the "breath of life," having no important quality
of superior character. In their descriptions it appears to have been similar to the nervengeist of
the "Seeress of Prevorst," the principle imparting life and energy to the corporeal system. The
soul was represented as being the entire personality, having the body for a temporal investiture;
the sensuous part being intimately allied to the mortal nature, even perishing with it,* and the
mind or intellect to the immortal.
The concept appears in the books of Genesis and Job. "The Lord God formed man - dust
of the ground," the one record declares; "and he breatheth into his nostrils the breath [nasama]
of life, and
-----------
* "The junior divinities, receiving the immortal principle of the soul, next fashioned the
mortal body, making it entirely to be a vehicle thereto, and forming within it a separate mortal
kind of soul, possessed of certain dire and necessary passions.... They lodged man's mortal
portion separately from the divine, in a different receptacle of the body" [the thorax and trunk].
- Plato: Timaos, xliv
-----------
--- 539.

man is a living soul." Elihu is somewhat more explicit. "There is a spirit in man [or human-
kind], and the inspiration [nasamat] of the Almighty maketh them intelligent." (Job xxxii, 8)
Thus the understanding or intelligence is set forth as an outcome, projection, or descent from
the superior intellect, the pure or intuitive reason, by an inflowing of the Eternal Mind.
At this point we digress in order to note the office and relations of the psychic to the
corporeal nature:

Psychologic Physiology

"For of the soul the body form doth take;


For soul is form, and doth the body make."
- Spencer

It is almost superfluous to remark that the whole mental and psychic portion of our being
is by general consent recognized as pertaining to the nervous system. We must, however,
repudiate the opinion that emotion, thought, and intellection are merely products of that part of
our constitution. The higher intellect has not grown out of the physical nature, like a
mushroom out of sordid earth. It made the external nature and is not made by it. Possessing
the faculty of intellection, signified by thought, speech, and act, the spirit of man "goeth
upward," while that of the beast "goeth downward to the earth." This faculty is the patent of
nobility from the eternal world. Because that such is his nature, man has a brain and outlying
nervous structure, superadded to the vital and organic system, and fashioned by the creative
energy of the mind, surpassing all that any animal has. The form of the body follows and is
shaped by the directing power of the soul. Hence, as bramble-bushes do not bear grapes nor
are produced from the seeds of grapes, so the human soul is never found in association with a
body other than human.
The nervous system, corresponding to the psychic nature, is therefore twofold. There is
the cerebro-spinal axis, consisting of the brain with its commissures, the sensorium beneath, the
cerebellum to

--- 540.

supplement and perfect the action of the brain, the spinal cord and nerves - all radiating and
proceeding from that centre of force, the medulla oblongata; likewise the ganglial or
sympathetic system, including the various ganglia of the viscera and outlying regions, with the
prolongations and nerve-cords which unite them to one another and to the other parts of the
organism. The origin of the sympathetic nervous system is in the solar or semilunar ganglion at
the epigastric region of the body. From this point all its branches and kindred structures
proceed, and to it every emotion refers itself as to a common centre. The instinct of the child
and the observation of the intelligent adult abundantly confirm this. We all know the sickening
feeling of fear, the exhilarating effect of joy, the morbific and restorative influences of the
various emotions, according as the will is itself enfeebled or aroused into energetic activity.
A ganglion is a collection of minute nervous vesicles and molecules, and its principal
office is to elaborate and disseminate nerve-force. They sympathetic system is termed
ganglionic, because it consists chiefly of nerve-structures of that character. The structure of the
ganglia of that system is essentially different from that of the ganglia of the cerebro-spinal axis,
thus significantly indicating a corresponding diversity of functions.
The medulla oblongata, at the summit of the spinal cord, is formed at a very early period
of antenatal existence. It is the germ from which the entire cerebro-spinal nervous system is
developed, and has been defined as the equator of the cerebro-spinal axis and the seat of energy
of all the organs within the skull. From the little bulb at the upper extremity of the spinal cord
are produced the striate bodies, the optic thalami, the corpora quadrigemina and other ganglial
bodies of the sensorium, the cerebellum, and finally (the highest and noblest of all) the
cerebrum itself. It has been aptly suggested that these various organs are the roots of the
Human Tree, and that the spinal cord with the innumerable nerves issuing from it are the
branches.
With such a comparison, it will be pertinent to contemplate the ganglionic system as
auxiliary, affording the physical energy for its support. The countless ganglia of which that
system is composed are

--- 541.

so many centres and sources of nervous and vital force. The great central ganglion at the pit of
the stomach has its name of semilunar from its peculiar shape. It is sometimes denominated
solar because that region of the body was anciently believed to be under the special control and
vivifying influences of the sun.
These ganglia abound through the entire interior of the body, and are named from their
respective situations - cephalic, thoracic, and abdominal. There is also a double chain of them,
more than fifty in number, extending all the way beside the spinal column, which are likewise
designated by their localization - cervical, dorsal, lumbar. They give off fibres to the spinal
nerves as these issue from the vertebral cavity, and thus constitute an important part of the
nerve-trunks from their origin to their extremities.
There are also plexuses, or networks made up of nerve-cords from ganglia of the
sympathetic system and filaments from certain of the spinal nerves. In this way the whole are
combined in one complex nerve.
It is not in our power to define the extent or amount of the aggregate mass of the
ganglionic nervous system, but one writer declares that it constitutes a great part of the volume
and weight of the whole body. This will seem plausible enough when we bear in mind that it
extends over the internal organs, where the spinal nerves have but a limited distribution; that it
lines the blood-vessels with its fibres, permeates every gland, and has fibrils in the same trunk
with every nerve of the other systems. The innumerable glandular structures are thus supplied
as well as the thoracic and abdominal viscera. The internal organs are more abundantly
furnished that external ones; hence the female body, by virtue of its peculiar conformation, has
a much larger quantity; and accordingly, from this richer endowment, women and the females
of the animal races are generally longer-lived and more able to endure. If this nervous
connection should be broken off from any of these organs or viscera, the effect would be like
an actual removal. Its specific vitality would cease, and its contribution is the sum total of the
bodily life would be withheld.
Descartes taught that the soul and corporeal nature

--- 542.

interpenetrated in every part of the body, "really one, and in a sense indivisible." He insisted,
however, that one point, midway in the head, may be called in a special sense the seat of the
mind. In the conarion, or pineal gland, thought and the vital forces meet and communicate. A
later writer, adopting this hypothesis, designated this gland as the central ganglion, "worthy of
being styled the president of the organic system." This is certainly plausible; for the pineal
gland is connected by "peduncles," or bands of white fibre, to the optic thalami, and injuries of
it will produce ophthalmic disturbances, and these in turn will extend to other organs of the
cranium and over the body, producing death if carried to a sufficient extent.
In short, the cerebral and spinal systems acting together perform the several functions of
sense, thought, and decision. Impressions are conveyed to the brain, reflected upon, passed
over to the cerebellum in order to complete the work (sometimes denominated "unconscious
cerebration"), and returned to the consciousness for final decision and action. The philosophers
have but expressed the universal experience and conviction, when they declare the head to be
the temple and abode of the rational soul or intellective principles, "our most divine and sacred
portion."
The ganglionic system is directly employed with the vital and organic functions:
respiration, nutrition, secretion, absorption, calorification. These being under its immediate
influence and control, it must operate equally at the brain as at the stomach, at the spinal cord
as at the liver. The entire system operates consentaneously, and in direct harmony with the
mental and psychic impulses upon the thought and emotional impressions.
It is evident, therefore, that the germinal principle of the body is nerve-substance, and
that all the parts, tissues, membranes, and histologic structures are outgrowths or evolutions
from the ganglial system, if not simply that system extended and differentiated. Ackerman
insisted upon the hypothesis declaring the ganglionic nervous system to be the part first formed
and the germ of everything that is afterward to be developed. It is fully formed, Blumenbach
affirmed, while the brain appears still a pulpy mass. "The first effect of the vital properties,
whatever they may be," says Lawrence, "are

--- 543.

directed toward he development of a Central Organ, the solar ganglion predestined to hold a
relation to the dull and unmoving organism precisely as that of the vital fire to the animated
statue of Prometheus."
It is the foundation which is laid before the superstructure is built. While the brain and
spinal marrow constitute this organism by which man sustains relations with the external
world, the ganglionic system is the organ of subjectivity. He feels with it, and from this
instinctive feeling in joint action with the reflective faculties he forms his purposes. "We will
find," as Dr. Kerner remarks, "that this external life is the dominion of the brain - the intellect
which belongs to the world; while the inner life dwells in the region of the heart, within the
sphere of sensitive life, in the sympathetic and ganglionic system. You will further feel that, by
virtue of this inner life, mankind is bound up in an internal connection with nature." Dr.
Richardson is equally positive. "The organic nervous centres," he declares, "are the centres
also of those mental acts which are not conditioned, but are instinctive, impulsive, or, as they
are most commonly termed, emotion."
Hence, instinct is essentially a portion of the ganglionic system. The infant manifests it
in common with the various tribes of animals; it is alike in both, and is not amenable to the
reasoning faculty. The emotions are exhibited through this part of the physical structure.
Every new phase of life, every occurrence or experience which we encounter, immediately
reflects its influence upon the central organism of the body and upon the glandular system.
Emotional disturbance affects every vital function. We lose our appetite for food, we are
depressed and languid, or cheerful and buoyant, at the gratification or disappointment of our
hopes, or at some affectional excitement. These influences, if prolonged and carried to an
undue extent, will bring about permanent disorder. Such manifestations as the impairment of
nervous force, weakness and vacillation of will, lack of decision, depressing emotions, and
irregular action of the muscles are directly resultant. They are by no means to be referred
primarily to lesions or morbid conditions of the brain or spinal system, but belong to the
organic centre itself. The whole range of disorders

--- 544.

characterized as nervous have their beginning there. Persons afflicted with such complaints
generally exhibit more or less of something amiss with the liver or stomach, or the parts
accessory or subordinate to these organs. This is true of epilepsy, hydrophobia, tetanus,
delirium tremens, hysteria, chorea, and paralysis in its several forms. Insanity is not an
exception; it is chiefly a functional disorder, and really a disease of debility.
Dr Kreysig carries this hypothesis to the entire category of bodily disorders. He declares
in so many words that "the elements of general and internal disease, or the morbid
predispositions which form the most important objects of treatment, may all be reduced to
vitiated states of the blood and lymph, or to derangements of the nervous system." The
symptoms manifest in the various complaints confirm this statement. Fever exhibits results
analogous to those produced by blows at the pit of the stomach. Cholera exhibits like
evidences of impairment. Violent exertion which exhausts the vital force at the physiological
centre, the solar nerve-tissue, the shock of surgical operations, the passions, fear, grief, anger,
even sudden joy, will attack the citadel of life, paralyze the sympathetic system, suspend the
various functions, even produce death when sufficiently intense.
Microscopic observation, in its present stage of completeness, has not afforded
conclusive evidence to the contrary. Changes sufficient to produce the most acute diseases,
and even to subvert life itself, may take place in the nervous system without being
demonstrable to the senses. It is evident that a power or influence is operative which
transcends the province of common scientific explorations. We are thus brought again to our
starting-point -
The Higher Psychology

It is apparent that the psychic entity, which has the closer relations to the natural world
and to the corporeal structure, is more directly accountable for the accidents and disorders of
our every-day life, whether physical, moral, or social. That it pertains to the

--- 545.

ganglionic rather than to the cerebral system as its informing principle is undoubted. Through
it we love and hate, hope and fear, trust and doubt, become disordered in body, are restored to
health, and are preserved without scathe although the pestilence walk at noonday. This is a
knowledge pertaining to the higher medical art, and of inestimable value.
By no means need we suppose that the methods now in vogue, consisting as they do of
temporary expedients, unphilosophic opinion, inability to investigate causes, and an
unscientific medication which often conflicts with the native healing forces of the body, can
always predominate. There must be an aim to recruit as well as sustain the vital forces. The
dreams of sages and prophets were not altogether visionary. It is true that virtue can pass from
one person to another to heal the sick and cheer the despondent. We may not even scorn or
disregard as irrational or fanciful the belief that these things may be done by energy derived
from a superior source. More things are possible than some incredulous individuals are willing
to acknowledge.
That mental shock and despondency, even imagination, can produce disease and cause
death is a familiar fact. Cancer and consumption are thus occasioned. Certainly it is
reasonable that there is an equal and even a superior vivifying energy of mind, spirit, and will,
to overcome morbific influence and restore to soundness. Macbeth's demand was by no means
without warrant:

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased;


Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;
Rase out the written troubles of the brain;
And with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?"

"Of all truths we know," says Dugald Stewart, "the existence of mind is the most certain."
We feel conscious that that something of us that thinks and wills and reasons is permanent and
enduring. While the body is in a state of constant change, and every particle of

--- 546.

it is wasted and replaced within a certain period, the being that we recognize as self, as our own
actual personality, remains essentially the same. There is an eternal life, a life of the eternal
world, which was before our birth upon this earth, which still is, and will be after our existence
here shall cease; and of that life and that eternity we are essentially a part. Plato has explained
this as one who knows. "With respect to the highest and most leading part of our soul," says
he, "the Deity assigned this to each individual as a demon, or superior intelligence. It resides at
the summit of the body, and raises us from the earth to our cognate place in heaven."
In conclusion, Psychology as a science includes in its purview the higher elements of
human physiology, the more genuine methods of the healing art, and whatever relates to the
interior mental and moral nature of man. Well understood, it realizes an expertness in all these
departments of knowledge. It transcends empirical science by a nobler philosophy. It takes
account of all which we need to know about man and his necessities, his relations to his fellows
and to the world beyond. It is exalted in its scope without being visionary; intuitive, without
being irrational or illogical. It has in its province all that is to be desired, believed, or known.
Sublime as the highest vision can render it, it pertains to the thought and every-day life of the
feeblest and humblest. It is the wisdom of means as well as ends. It overlooks nothing. It is
the real art of accomplishing. Sage and scientist have no monopoly of it that can exclude
others less favored of circumstance or fortune. It is the knowing of the right and true in the
right way and with the right purpose.

(Metaphysical Magazine, March, 1896)

---------------------------
--- 547.

WORLD-MENDING

"The time is out of joint: - O cursed spite


That ever I was born to set it right."
- Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4

It has been, from time immemorial, the ambition of individuals with more or less of
generous impulse and disinterested motive, to repair the defects and right the wrongs which
seem to predominate in human society. From heroes like Curtius, statesmen like Confucius,
and sages like Buddha, down to the seedy politician of the ward, and Mrs. Jellyby with her
immense correspondence, the civilized world has been in all ages overrun with benefactors.
One time a nation has been delivered from actual or impending calamity; at another, the peace
of a family, neighborhood, or social circle, has been invaded and even completely upset by
some individual or group of individuals, resolutely determined to set things right, which quieter
or more stolid persons had not supposed to be going wrong.
Doubtless, we ourselves have, at some period of our lives, had an attack of this peculiar
enthusiasm. As we are bred or constituted, every one looks in his own direction for a remedy.
The average American expects it in the exaltation of his political party to power, or in the
election of his favorite candidate to office; as though human nature was not essentially alike in
men, however they might be factitiously arranged, classified and ticketed by order. The
country is "ruined" periodically, at every general election, according to somebody's view of the
matter; the people, nevertheless, the majority of them, really appear to enjoy the unfortunate
condition. We are led to conjecture that they possess blunted sensibilities, or else that the
calamity which they experience is not as serious as had been
--- 548.

depicted. The election of the candidates whom we oppose does not blight industry, prostrate
our liberties, or inflict upon us the horrors of war. Steadily, but not in the way that partisans
expect it, the country moves forward to accomplish its career. A mightier force than the
passions and caprices of the hour is at work in public affairs. Voting will hardly make or
unmake commonwealths; a moral power exists behind them all, and the several parties seldom
do more than play in puppet-show.
Others endeavor to solve the problem by religious methods. The Bible has been
ransacked from end to end to find rules, lessons and examples for our direction.
"Righteousness exalteth a nation," we are everywhere assured; "happy is the people whose
God is the Lord." These are convictions which we should treat with respect. Besides, we
should regard the right of private judgment as equally sacred. Indeed, it would seem that the
Moslem is more earnest and even sincere in his faith than the average Christian. The latter has
stated recurrences of religious periods, such as Sabbath-worship, set times of fast and festival
and revivals of religion. The Turk and the Arab on the other hand, though duly observant of
hours of prayer and other rites, nevertheless repose everything in the keeping of the Almighty.
Whether they go to battle, pursue the daily calling, dally at home or engage in some lawless
enterprise, it is all the same: Allah hu akhbar - God is great! The stage, the world, all, belongs
to the infinite wisdom and not to finite sagacity; and all must move as it is propelled. Hence at
the present time, Islam seems to have in it more faith, and hence more of moral force than its
Christian rival. It is accordingly making more headway. Siberia and Africa appear to be
becoming Mohammedanized, while Christianity makes little perceptible inroad upon Buddhism
or Brahmanism, or is able to counteract the disintegrating influence within its own bosom.
A third class comprising individuals of Sadducean proclivities, little regarding any
opinion higher than the world of sense, would propose culture and civilization as the surest
remedy for human troubles. In their view, religions do not differ essentially, and political
affairs in all countries tend to become substantially alike in the principles of administration.
Men change, but the facts at the bottom

--- 549.

are the same. I am vividly away to these considerations. I have myself been somewhat of a
world-mender after my own ideal; yet it appears plain that institutions, free or otherwise, will
hardly go far toward an improving of the condition of mankind. Nor do opinions go much
further. The several religious bodies are as eager for ruling as the veriest tyrant, only they
often lack the organization by which to make them dangerous to freedom of thought and action.
The leader of a sect is generally a despot in temper and if he is not, he is followed by someone
that is. We find as much intolerance with those who profess liberal sentiments, as in the more
arbitrary sects. Reformers, whether political or religious, are often malignant as fiends toward
those who do not subscribe to their notions without reservation and at the sacrifice of
individual conviction. The imperial palace and the democratic platform, the Vatican and the
conventicle, exhibit alike the satanic love of ruling. All religions, all modes of government, all
institutions, however divergent tin their inception are very sure to meet eventually in a similar
channel. The Unitarian and Trinitarian, the Jew and Pagan, the Reformer and Conservative, the
Moslem and Christian have a like disposition to tyrannize over their fellows.
What plea can be made in the behalf of culture? For civilization has moved with steady
progress from older to newer realms, from China and from India, Babylon and Egypt over Asia
Minor, Northern Africa, Greece and Italy to the other regions of Europe and to the American
continent. It gives costly houses, gaudy clothing and the servile homage of multitudes to the
rich and powerful. But always the diamond betrays its speck. Close at the palace-gate, before
the church-door, within the temple itself where the glories of this civilization are displayed, the
poverty-stricken Lazarus comes with his sores. In metropolitan New York with its palatial
abodes, its churches, its schools and libraries, a vast number of the population lives in
miserable abodes. Other places are little better. English cities are worse. Europe, Catholic and
Protestant alike, has a damnable record. The miseries as well as the pleasures and enjoyment
of human beings seem to have been vastly enhanced. The men who build gorgeous temples do
not go to them to worship, and the laborer that constructs the palace does it for another. The
very culture than

--- 550.

makes men skillful is often attended with conditions that render their talents virtually
misfortunes to them. Millionaires, like mountains, may crush down millions. The state of
society is faulty from dome to foundation. What was true in ancient times in respect to
oppression and profligacy continues still true, except, perhaps, somewhat in form. A
civilization which subsists by the degradation and destruction of human beings is, at best, only
a qualified good.
What have the world-menders done? Mohammed, failing to make the mountain come to
him, went over to the mountain. Christianity, not succeeding in the endeavor to eradicate the
Pagan worship, adopted its rites, its divinities and its philosophies, naming them anew. The
man who fails to lift the sheep from mire, too often turns his attention to plucking out the wool.
Many who find the time out of joint are apt to substitute personal advantage in place of effort to
set it right. Large bodies are hard to move, and enthusiastic endeavor is liable to become weary
and disheartened.
The beginning of a remedy for these conditions is to be sought in more careful attention
to little things. Our individual strength may not be much, but it will do all that it can by
performing what comes in its way. No man ever did a great thing well who was not attentive
and accomplished in regard to the details. In the parable it was the one who was diligent and
faithful in a few things that became ruler over many things. The little things which are so often
depreciated constitute the elements of the greater ones. Thus Paracelsus said that the body of a
man was composed of the same material as the planets, and was therefore allied to them. Half-
taught men derided his assertion, but the spectroscope verified it. The physical man and the
noblest luminary are from the same origin.
What if the magniloquent beginning of this paper appears at first seeming to have an
insignificant ending? What, though the mountains in the fable produced only a mouse, or as
the witty John Phillips Phoenix parodied it - "a ridiculous muss?" That mouse had a history by
no means contemptible. The lion found himself in toils from which with all his prodigious
strength he was unable to extricate himself, but the mouse gnawed them asunder one by one
and set him free.

--- 551.
The story has likewise another moral. The prospect of good fortune turned the little
animal's head. He rushed on to his own destruction by demanding the lion's daughter in
marriage. By a careless step the regal bride crushed her plebeian consort to a jelly.
Here, then, is our lesson. History teems with illustrations. We fail by attempting what is
beyond us, but are likely to succeed by resolutely doing what we can. Pope wrote with a
sagacity almost divine:

"Honor and fame from no condition rise;


Act well your part - there all the honor lies."

Too much stress can hardly be laid upon the performing of the little things. Neglect here
is often fatal. Every enterprise, for example, however magnificent, will be inevitably ruined
that does not have a ledger faithfully kept. Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, enforces the
sentiment which we are maintaining: "This word is not hidden nor far off; it is not necessary
for thee to ascend into the sky nor to journey beyond the sea to bring it; but it is very nigh to
thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart."
Let the world-mender let go his endeavor to do his wonders outside of his own field of
action. He can do great things in it by doing the small things well. Earthquakes may not be at
his command, yet as a simple miner he may overturn mountains from their roots. His name
may not live in history where the deeds of Alexander occupy but few pages and those of
Napoleon are dwindling to smaller dimensions; but he will live perennially in what he does;
and the future, by virtue of what he has achieved will be evolved with a hundred-fold greater
splendor from that cause than by any emblazoning of his name. All great things are
accomplished, not by individuals simply, but by hearty concert of action, every one doing his
part. It is not necessary to seek from others the order of command; every one may hear for
himself. Happy for him, happier for the world if he will do that which is heard!

(Metaphysical Magazine, Feb., 1902)

------------------
--- 553.

HISTORY

HOW "ISIS UNVEILED" WAS WRITTEN *

One morning in the autumn of 1876, I saw in the New York "Tribune" the mention of a
work in process of publication styled "Art-Magic," which would treat of recondite subjects.
Having from earlier years been interested in such matters, I wrote to the address there given
and received a reply from Mrs. Hardinge-Britton. Besides answering my inquiry, she told me
of the forming of a Theosophical Society, then taking place. But I did not pursue this clue. I
had become disgusted with individual pretensions to superior powers, and unusual names have
for me no attraction. Some weeks later, however, learning that the book had been printed, I
called upon Mrs. Britton and received a copy. She stated that the author did not give his name,
and that he would not require the payment which I was to make, paying a compliment to my
intellectual qualifications as something unusual in this field. The book was very interesting to
me,

------------
* The authorship at "Isis Unveiled" has sometimes been questioned. Some persons have
claimed it for themselves. The one individual best able to bear witness, from all who had
personal knowledge of the authorship is Alexander Wilder, physician and scholar, the most
able of the Platonists. Today, at 85 years, he has the buoyancy of youth, the mental virility of
manhood, and all with his Platonic "enthusiasm." - H.W.P. [[Harold W. Percival, editor of The
Word.]
------------
--- 554.

and contained many valuable nuggets in relation to arcane matters. Unfortunately, there was
no index, and the omission of an index takes away half the usefulness of a book to a student.
There was no allusion in the book to the Theosophical Society, and I had no curiosity to know
about the organization.
At that time I had been editing several publications for Mr. J. W. Bouton, a bookseller in
New York, and was lecturing and contributing papers for one or two periodicals. Other
engagements and associations had been laid aside. I had barely heard of Madame Blavatsky,
but in no connection with anything relating to Theosophy, or other subject that I knew anything
about. She had been described as having introduced herself to an acquaintance as a "rushing
Russian," and her manner had attracted attention. Nothing more was elicited at that time.
On a pleasant afternoon, in early autumn, some months later, I was atone in the house.
The bell was rung, and I answered at the door. Colonel Henry S. Olcott was there with an
errand to myself. I did not recognize him, as I had never had any occasion to make his
acquaintance, but he having had some governmental business with one of my employers
several years before, had known me ever since. He had never suspected, however, that I took
any interest whatever in unusual subjects; so completely successful had I been in keeping
myself unknown even to those who from daily association imagined that they knew me very
thoroughly. A long service in journalism, familiar relations with public men, and active
participation in political matters, seemed to have shut out from notice an ardent passion for
mystic speculation, and the transcendental philosophy. I think that Colonel Olcott had himself
been taken somewhat by surprise.
He had been referred to me by Mr. Bouton. Madam Blavatsky had compiled a work
upon occult and philosophic subjects, and Mr. Bouton had been asked in relation to
undertaking its publication. Why it had been referred to me I could never well understand. Mr.
Bouton had taken passage for England a few days before, and I had visited him several times,
even going over from Newark to bid him farewell the morning that he left. Yet he had not said
a word to me about the manuscript. Did he really expect me to read it, or was he merely

--- 555.
endeavoring to shirk having anything to do with it without actually refusing outright? I am
now inclined to the opinion that he referred Colonel Olcott to me to evade saying "No." At the
time, however, I supposed that, although the mode of proceeding was not that of a man of
business, Mr. Bouton really meant that I should examine the work, and I agreed to undertake
the task.
It was truly a ponderous document and displayed research in a very extended field,
requiring diligence, familiarity with the various topics, as well as a purpose to be fair to the
writer. Regarding myself as morally obligated to act for the advantage of Mr. Bouton, I
showed no favor beyond what I believed justice to demand. I regarded it a duty to be severe.
In my report to him, I stated that the manuscript was the product of great research, and that so
far as related to current thinking, there was a revolution in it, but I added that I deemed it too
long for remunerative publishing.
Mr. Bouton, however, presently agreed to publish the work. I never learned the terms,
but subsequent occurrences led me to presume that they were not carefully considered. He
procured the copyright in his own name, which enabled him to control the price, and he refused
every proposition afterward to transfer the ownership to the author, or to cheapen the cost. He
placed the manuscript again in my hands, with instructions to shorten it as much as it would
bear. This was a discretionary power that was far from agreeable. It can hardly be fair that a
person acting solely in behalf of the publisher should have such authority over the work of an
author. Nevertheless, I undertook the task. While abridging the work, I endeavored in every
instance to preserve the thought of the author in plain language, removing only such terms and
matter as might be regarded as superfluous, and not necessary to the main purpose. In this
way, enough was taken out to fill a volume of respectable dimensions. In doing all this, I
consulted only what I supposed to be Mr. Bouton's advantage, and believed that he so regarded
it, as I had only his instructions. But it proved to be only a "labor of love."
Colonel Olcott was very desirous that I should become acquainted with Madam
Blavatsky. He appeared to hold her in high regard closely approaching to veneration, and
to consider the

--- 556.

opportunity to know her a rare favor for any one. I was hardly able to share his enthusiasm.
Having a natural diffidence about making new acquaintances, and acting as a critic upon her
manuscript, I hesitated for a long time. Finally, however, these considerations were passed
over and I accompanied him to their establishment in Forty-seventh Street.
It was a "flat," that unhomelike fashion of abode that now extends over populous cities,
superseding the household and family relationship wherever it prevails. The building where
they lived had been "transmogrified" for such purposes, and they occupied a suite of
apartments on an upper floor. The household in this case comprised several individuals, with
separate employments. They generally met at meal-time, together with such guests from
elsewhere as might happen to be making a visit.
The dining room was furnished in simple style with no affectation of anything unusual or
extraordinary. Perhaps, I ought to add that later in the year following, this condition was quite
considerably modified. The autumn of 1879 was characterized, as I have never since observed
it, by the richness of color in the foliage. Numerous parties visited the woods around to gather
the tinted leaves for ornamental purposes. One of the inmates of the flat, a foreigner who was
in rapport with the Theosophical fraternity, had in this way procured a large quantity and set
herself to use them to decorate the dining room. She made several emblematic figures, the
double triangle being the principal one of these. Then she followed with an Oriental landscape
extending the length of the apartment. There were to be seen the figures of an elephant, a
monkey and other creatures, and a man standing as if contemplating the scene. This
decoration remained through the winter till the household had broken up. I then brought it
away to Newark and set it up in a hall. Here it remained several years. It was there when Mr.
G. R. S. Mead visited me. I sent it afterward to Miss Caroline Hancock at Sacramento, and she
in turn presented it to the Theosophical Society at San Francisco. Doubtless it has long since
met the fate of worn out furniture. But it had notoriety in its earlier days, from the admiration
of visitors for its ingenuity and oddness of conception, and

--- 557.

descriptions of it were published in several newspapers.


The study in which Madam Blavatsky lived and worked was arranged after a quaint and
very primitive manner. It was a large front room, and being on the side next the street, was
well lighted. In the midst of this was her "den," a spot fenced off on three sides by temporary
partitions, writing desk and shelves for books. She had it as convenient as it was unique. She
had but to reach out an arm to get a book, paper or other article that she might desire, that was
within the enclosure. The place could not accord with a vivid sense of beauty, except after the
ancient Greek conception that beauty is fitness for its purpose, everything certainly being
convenient and handy. In this place Madam Blavatsky reigned supreme, gave her orders,
issued her judgments, conducted her correspondence, received her visitors and produced the
manuscript of her book.
She did not resemble in manner or figure what I had been led to expect. She was tall, but
not strapping; her countenance bore the marks and exhibited the characteristics of one who had
seen much, thought much, traveled much, and experienced much. Her figure reminded me of
the description which Hippokrates has given to the Scyths, the race from which she probably
descended. Her dress I do not feel competent to describe, and in fact never noticed so as to be
able to remember. I am a man and seldom observant of a woman's attire. My attention is given
to the individual, and unless the clothing should be strikingly different from the current style, I
would be unable to speak of it intelligently or intelligibly. All that I have to say is that she was
completely dressed. Her appearance was certainly impressive, but in no respect was she
coarse, awkward, or ill-bred. On the other hand she exhibited culture, familiarity with the
manners of the most courtly society and genuine courtesy itself. She expressed her opinions
with boldness and decision, but not obtrusively. It was easy to perceive that she had not been
kept within the circumscribed limitations of a common female education; she knew a vast
variety of topics and could discourse freely upon them.
In several particulars, I presume that I never fairly or fully understood her. Perhaps this
may have extended further than I am willing to admit. I have heard tell of her profession of
superhuman

--- 558.

powers and of extraordinary occurrences that would be termed miraculous. I, too, believe, like
Hamlet, that there are more things in heaven and earth than our wise men of this age are willing
to believe. But Madam Blavatsky never made any such claim to me. We always discoursed of
topics which were familiar to both, as individuals on a common plane. Colonel Olcott often
spoke to me as one who enjoyed a grand opportunity, but she herself made no affectation of
superiority. Nor did I ever see or know of any such thing occurring with anyone else.
She professed, however, to have communicated with personages whom she called "the
Brothers," and intimated that this, at times, was by the agency, or some means analogous to
what is termed "telepathy." It is not necessary to show or insist that this mode of
communication has been known and even carried on from antiquity. The Khabar is well known
in the Orient. I have supposed that an important condition for ability to hold such intercourse
was abstinence from artificial stimulation such as comes from the use of flesh as food,
alcoholic drink and other narcotic substances. I do not attach any specific immorality to these
things, but I have conjectured that such abstemiousness was essential in order to give the
mental powers full play, and to the noetic faculty free course without impediment or
contamination from lower influence. But Madam Blavatsky displayed no such asceticism. Her
table was well furnished, but without profusion, and after a manner not differing from that of
other housekeepers. Besides, she indulged freely in the smoking of cigarettes, which she made
as she had occasion. I never saw any evidence that these things disturbed, or in any way
interfered with her mental acuteness or activity.
At my first visit, her reception was courteous and even friendly. She seemed to become
acquainted at once. She spoke of the abridgements which I had made of her manuscript,
extolling what I had done far beyond what it deserved. "What had been taken out was
'flapdoodle,'" she declared. My judgment, certainly, had not been so severe as that. I had not
looked for defects, or found them, but only to ascertain how the manuscript might be "boiled
down," without affecting the general purpose. In other cases, it has been my rule to

--- 559.

scrutinize unprinted manuscript in quest of faults, but to look when it has been printed, to find
out its meaning and merits. In this instance, however, I had aimed only to shorten without
marring the work. It should be stated, however, as a fact in the publication of this work, that
Madam Blavatsky continued to add matter, after Mr. Bouton began the undertaking, and I think
that much of the second volume was then written. I have no recollection of much of it except
in proof sheets at a later period.
It was no easy matter to give the publication a fitting title. I do not remember that my
services were asked in this matter, and certainly they would not have been worth the asking. It
is a department in which I am particularly weak. Nor do I think the name unexceptionable
which was adopted.
Mr. Bouton is entitled to that distinction. He was a skillful caterer in the book-selling
world to which he belonged, but he had business ability rather than a sense of fitness. He once
published the treatise of R. Payne Knight on Ancient Art and added pictures relating solely to
Hindu mythology, entirely foreign to the subject. This work of Madam Blavatsky is largely
based upon the hypothesis of a prehistoric period of the Aryan people in India, and in such a
period the veil or the unveiling of Isis can hardly be said to constitute any part. On the
contrary, it is a dramatic representation peculiar to the religion and wisdom of Egypt and
perhaps is allied to the Syrian Hyksos enormities. Certainly the problems of Egyptian lore are
to be considered with other pens than those with which "Isis Unveiled" was written.
After the work had been printed and placed on sale, there was discussion in regard to the
actual authorship. Many were unwilling to acknowledge that Madam Blavatsky could be
sufficiently well informed or intellectually capable of such a production. True that women like
Frances Burney had composed romances of high merit. Miss Farley had conducted
successfully the "Lowell Offering." Mary Somerville had written on Physical Science, and
Harriet Martineau on Political Economy.
A clergyman in New York, a member of the Russian Greek Church, I have been told,
affirmed that I was the actual author. That

--- 560.

report, however, can hardly have gone far. It would be refuted after the manner that the late
Henry Ward Beecher put a stop to a similar one. He tells us that when Uncle Tom's Cabin was
published there were many who insisted that he, and not Mrs. Stowe was the author. "Then,"
says Mr. Beecher, "I wrote Norwood," which entirely disposed of the matter. So, too, nobody
familiar with my style of writing would ever impute to me the authorship of Isis Unveiled.
I would hesitate, likewise, to be considered in any noteworthy sense as an editor of the
work. It is true that after Mr. Bouton had agreed to become the publisher, I was asked to read
the proofsheets and make sure that the Hebrew words and terms belonging to other languages
were correctly given by the printer, but I added nothing, and do not remember that I ventured to
control anything that was contributed to the work. Without her knowledge and approval, such
action would have been reprehensible.
While she was engaged in the work, she had many books relating to the various topics,
evidently for consultation. There were Jacolliot's work on India, Bunsen's Egypt, Ennemoser's
History of Magic and others. I had myself written papers upon a variety of subjects for the
Phrenological Journal and other periodicals, and she had procured many of them. We often
discussed the topics, and their various characteristics, for she was a superior conversationalist
and at home on every matter about which we discoursed. She spoke the English language with
the fluency of one perfectly familiar with it, and who thought in it. It was the same to me as
though talking with any man of my acquaintance. She was ready to take the idea as it was
expressed, and uttered her own thoughts clearly, concisely and often forcibly. Some of the
words which she employed had characteristics which indicated their source. Any thing which
she did not approve or hold in respect she promptly disposed of as "flapdoodle." I have never
heard or encountered the term else where. Not even the acts or projects of Colonel Olcott
escaped such scathing, and in fact he not infrequently came under her scorching criticism. He
writhed under it, but, except for making some brief expression at the time, he did not appear to
cherish resentment.
In regard to the genuineness of her authorship, a story was

--- 561.

once told me, which has been imagined by some to have a direct relation to the matter. I
suppose this to be the occasion of several letters addressed to me upon the subject. My
informant was the late Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson of Boston. Mrs. Thompson was a woman of
wealth, abounding with benevolent purposes, but eager for novelties that were more or less
visionary, shifting from one pursuit to another, and accessible to flattery. For example, she
gave the money which enabled a medical college to hold several lecture terms, and then let the
enterprise die out; she paid for building a chapel for the sessions of the Summer School of
Philosophy at Concord, and then tired of the enterprise; she aided Dr. Newbrough with money
to print his new bible Oahspe, and employed the artist, Mr. Frank Carpenter, to paint the
picture of president Lincoln and his cabinet, which she presented to Congress. The wealth
which her husband had bequeathed to her became a bait for all manner of parasites to seek her,
and flattery artfully bestowed was often hike the magical words: "Open, sesame," sure to find
the way to her purse. But she quickly dropped one for another.
For a little time she was attracted to Madam Blavatsky. This was somewhat to be
wondered at, for it is hard to conceive that Madam Blavatsky flattered anybody. She did not
hesitate to tell Henry Ward Beecher when he was at the height of his popularity, that he was not
an honest public teacher.
It might be questioned whether Mrs. Thompson herself was quite sincere. I remember
meeting her one day at dinner at the flat. A statement which I made was imputed by Colonel
Olcott to the "Astral light."
Some days later, I saw Mrs. Thompson at her own premises, and she asked me my
opinion in a manner that impressed me that she was hardly straightforward in her relations with
the Theosophical household.
A year or so afterward, they had left New York for India. Mrs. Thompson bad become
an inmate of the family of Dr. Newbrough on West 34th Street. He was endeavoring to push
the "new Bible" into circulation. I called there one day by invitation, and learning that she had
rooms in the house, paid her my respects. In our conversation,

--- 562.

Madam Blavatsky was mentioned, and Mrs. Thompson spoke of her in these terms:
"If Madam Blavatsky should come in at that door I should kiss her affectionately. At the
same time I believe her to be a perfect humbug."
She then related the following story: Baron de Palm, a German gentleman, who spent
some time in this country, had died in Roosevelt Hospital. He had devoted much attention to
arcane subjects, and had written upon them. He was intimate with the party on 47th Street, and
made them recipients of his property, but with the assurance that his body should be cremated.
There was a woman in the household who seems to have become unfriendly and ready to talk
at random. She told Mrs. Thompson that after the death of the Baron she was with Madam
Blavatsky while examining the contents of his trunks. One of these, the woman said, was full
of manuscripts. Madam Blavatsky looked at a few of the pages, and then hastily closed the
trunk, making an effort to divert attention in another direction.
Mrs. Thompson apparently believed that this manuscript was the material of the work Isis
Unveiled. Certainly she endeavored to give me that impression. But I am not apt at taking
hints, and do not like others to suppose that I imply what I do not explicitly say. The giving of
hints is hardly an honorable practice; it is an evasion, and often simply the affectation of
knowing something beyond which is directly communicated. I never made use of this story,
and repeated it only to Dr. R. B. Westbrook, of Philadelphia, and to Colonel Olcott when I next
met him in New York.
Several individuals have written letters, as though I knew something that would discredit
the sincerity of Madam Blavatsky and the genuineness of the originality of Isis Unveiled. My
reply was that she had always dealt justly with me, and I had no disposition to speak unkindly
of her. I mean always to avoid being sycophantic or credulous, but I will not recompense fair
treatment by evil or unfriendly speaking.
It will readily be perceived that there was really no evidence sufficient to warrant the
imputing of the authorship of Isis Unveiled to

--- 563.

Baron de Palm. I do not know whether, being of foreign birth, he could write fluently in the
English language. It is not known that the manuscript in the trunk was written for publication,
or was in any proper book form. Indeed, I have never been informed whether he contemplated
such a work, or even that he had sufficient capacity. All this would require to be taken for
granted, before it would be permissible to presume any imposture in the authorship.
The manuscript which I handled I am very sure was in the handwriting of Madam
Blavatsky herself. Anybody who was familiar with her, would, upon reading the first volume
of Isis Unveiled, not have any difficulty in recognizing her as the author. Nor was the
manuscript, voluminous as it was, sufficiently extensive to include a large trunk full of written
paper. Besides, a full third, or even more, of what was published, was written by Madam
Blavatsky after Mr. Bouton had set about putting the work in type. She was by no means
expert in preparing her material. She patched and changed, making a very large bill for
"alterations." Indeed, she never actually finished the work, the publisher declared to me, till he
told her that she must stop.
It had been desired of me that I should read the proofsheets. It was not my province to
dictate or even suggest what should be included in the work, and I do not remember taking
exception but once. She had described certain medical treatment, with apparent approval, in
which mercury was a factor. To this drug I entertain a lifelong antipathy. I have seen
individuals "railroaded" out of life by its use as medicine, and others crippled hopelessly. My
protestations may have induced her to qualify her eulogy.
She always treated me with courtesy. When her work was most urgent, or she had been
wearied with visitors, she commanded the woman at the door to turn off all callers. That
prohibition was repeatedly spoken to me, but as she heard my voice, she would call out to
admit me. This occurred when the call was not a matter of business. She was ready in
conversation, and was at home on any topic, however abstruse. Few persons in any walk of life
are as well supplied with material for discourse. Even Colonel Olcott, who was by no means
inferior or commonplace, was not her equal except in his

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own profession.
Believing that the main body of the work would not be sufficiently attractive to
purchasers, I urged her to include in it accounts of the marvelous things which she had
observed in India. But this she invariably declined to do, saying that it was not permitted by
"the Brothers." That was a tribunal that I could not question; my wisdom in the matter was
that of the market-place. But she was always ready to hear what I had to say, whether in
relation to her work, or to philosophic questions, or to subjects of everyday life. When the
printer had placed everything in type, I was employed to prepare the index. Others must judge
whether this was done with fidelity. As the author paid for this, and the publisher refrained
from advancing a cent for all that I had done in the matter, though careful to make sure of all
the proceeds from the sales, it is but just to render the acknowledgment where it is due.
The work was finally completed, and Isis Unveiled was duly issued. The household
began at once to make arrangements for leaving New York. Madam Blavatsky visited the
Bureau of Naturalization and there became a citizen of the United States. This astonished me,
partly because I knew her to be contemplating to leave the country permanently, and partly
because she had freely criticized our ways of doing and our politics. She explained that the
American nation had the best government. There were probably matters of law involved that I
did not know about. Colonel Olcott was a skillful lawyer, and had been employed by the
administration at Washington to ferret out alleged violations of law, he knew what would be
necessary abroad for a safeguard. As the party after their arrival in India became objects of
suspicion as possible spies of the Russian Government, it is not unlikely that the precaution
was wise.
Madam Blavatsky wrote to me several times after their arrival at Bombay. She told of
many matters of interest to a student in comparative religions, such as I am, and her
letters were entertaining as well as instructive. But as time passed, new duties took the place
of old recollections. Such events occurred as the break with Dayananda, the leader of the Arya
Samaj, an alliance unnatural for Americans of Protestant antecedents, who do not like

--- 565.

any one to exercise dominion over their religious beliefs. The Theosophist, however, came
regularly to me and was preserved from its first number. This enabled me to keep track of the
party, and their doings - till the closing of their present earthly career.

(The Word, vol. 7, pp. 77-87)

---------------------
--- 566.

THE NEW ORDER OF AGES

All human progress is in circles, and never directly in straight lines. Such is the course of
events, the order of the seasons, the career of the stars in the sky. After all advancing there is
an apparent going backward all growth has its periods of retardation, all ascent its descendings
likewise. We find this abundantly confirmed by example in the brief space of human activity
of which we have been able to obtain historic records. Where it has been imagined otherwise,
we can find it only apparently so. Where there is evolution and manifestation, there has always
been a prolific seed to set the development in motion. The fragrant Nymphaea, the creamy
pond-lily, or the sacred lotus, may have sordid mud for its birthplace and maintenance, but it
began with a rudimentary plant. The like is always engendered from its like.
We may be content, therefore, to contemplate ourselves as having a human ancestry all
the way to remote ages. We are perfectly safe in relegating the simian races to their own, with
the assurance of the Creed - "as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world
without end." The origin of human beings may be counted as from the source to which their
nobler aspirations tend. The oak and the pine grow toward the sky, because the effort is
instinctive in the seed. We have good reason to presume as much in regard to ourselves. In
regard, however, to conjectures about dates and periods we do not care to speculate. The point
in the past is yet to be found at which a memorial of human beginnings may be set. Indeed, it
is a matter entirely beyond our power of thinking. We do well to rest content with deducing
what we may from the facts at our hand, and from the intuitions with which we are endowed.
There is innate in us all a desire and aptitude to learn what is

--- 567.

beyond the scope of our present knowing. Our animal wants come first, and are peremptory,
but the gratifying of them does not set us free from unrest. We are conscious that we are
something else than brute animals, and it is manifest in the passion to know, and possess. The
infant child will cry for the moon, explore the flame of the candle with his fingers, and pull the
doll to pieces in order to find out the mystery of its construction. He even becomes curious
about existence. I have heard a child that had attained to vocal speech discourse extensively
and as from actual memory, of his residence and employments in the years before he was born.
When, likewise, the phenomenon of dying is beheld, children become inquisitive about it, eager
to know what has actually occurred, whether it is all or there is still living and being in some
mode and form not plain to them. They are not willing to admit that the person is no more.
In this eager passion for more perfect knowing, and in these curious conjectures, are
manifested the instinct of that life which is beyond time, and scintillations of the grander truth.
The mind seems to exhibit the reflection of some concept, some memory of the Aforetime, and
to have caught with it as by refraction from the other direction, an impression of the life
continuing. From views like these the poet Wordsworth was prompted to write his memorable
verse: "Heaven hangs about us in our infancy."
There has been in every people having as such a worship and literature, the memory or
conception of a primitive period of felicity. "The races of men were wont to live as gods," says
Hesiod. "Their life was devoid of care, labor and trouble; no wretched old age hung imminent
over them, but with hands and feet always vigorous as in youth they enjoyed themselves
without any illness, and when at last they died it was as though they had been overcome by
sleep. They are now benignant demons hovering about the earth, and guardian spirits over
human beings."
In the Aryan records of India are similar traditions of the Hiranya or Golden Age of
righteousness, in which was no labor or sorrow, no priests or sacrifices, and but one God and
one Veda. The Yasna, or Book of Worship of the Parsis, also describes the happy reign of
Yima, in which there was neither cold nor heat, neither decay

--- 568.

nor wasting disease, nor malice inspired by the devas;* father and son walked forth each like
the other in the freshness of fifteen years. "Men enjoyed the greatest bliss in the Garden which
Yima made."
Akin to this legend is that of the Garden or Park of Eden depicted in the Book of the
Genesis in Hebrew story, copied apparently from that of the Grove or Park of the Gods in
Babylonia. We may perceive a striking resemblance in the outcome. The serpent came; Yima
beginning to desire the wrong, the celestial light withdrew. Long ages of evil followed, ages of
silver and copper and iron, full of trial and calamity. Yet the Divine One has by no means
wholly abandoned the children of the Earth. Here and there along the succession of ages, the
"kingly majesty," or radiance unites itself with heroic men and gifted sages, till the circuit shall
be completed. "That which hath been is that which shall be," and not absolutely new. The
Golden Age, the Treta Yug, that preceded all, comes again as the cycle returns upon itself.
"Now comes again the Virgin Astraea, the Divine Justice," sings the poet Vergil; "the reign of
Saturn returns, and there is now sent down a new-born child from on high." The "kingly
splendor," the light of the ages, now attaches itself to the new prophet Sosianto, the greatest of
the sages and to all who are with him, in order to accomplish the restoration of all things. "The
world will now continue in a state of righteousness; the powers of evil will disappear and all
its seed pass away." (Zamyad Yasht)
A very similar culmination is set forth by early Christian teachers. It is related that
the Apostle Paul was brought before the court of the Areopagos at Athens, by several Stoic and
Epikurean philosophers, to explain certain of his doctrines which they accounted

-------------
* Deva, which in Sanskrit signifies a divine being, here means a devil. The ancient
schism between the two great Aryan peoples is indicated in these conflicting definitions of
characteristic words. Thus Yima, who is described in the Avesta as the ruler set by Ahurmazda
over living men in the Garden of Bliss, is changed in India into Yama, the first man and
sovereign in the region of the dead. There are many other of these counterparts.
-------------
--- 569.

strange and alien, He protested that he was simply describing a Divinity whom they were
worshiping without due intelligence of his character. He is the Creator and Disposer of all
things, the apostle declared; and does not dwell in temples or depend upon offerings from his
worshipers. Nor, is he far from any one of us, for in him we live and move and are, as several
of the poets have affirmed: "We likewise are children of God." The former want of
intelligence, however, is not regarded, but now a superior way of life and truth* is announced
to all mankind everywhere: inasmuch as he has set a day or period in which the habitable earth
will be ruled with justice and the Right hold sway thereafter.
This expectation has been a significant feature in subsequent history. It was not confined
to any single religion. Not only was it general in the Eastern world, but it was also current in
the new Continent of the West. The natives of Mexico greeted the coming of Cortes as the
promised return of the "Fair God," Quetzalcohuatl, which would be followed by the
establishment of a new reign of peace. The Mayas of Yucatan exhibited a similar confidence.
These illusions were speedily dispelled when the Spaniards began to manifest their insatiable
rapacity and merciless cruelty, but the belief is still cherished in many parts of that country that
Motzuma himself, who was in some unknown way, adopted in place of the other, as the
primitive hero of the people, is now living in a celestial abode, and will yet come and restore
the Golden Era. The Peruvians had also a tradition that Viracocha will come from the region of
the Dawn and set up his kingdom. Other cities and tribes have similar beliefs.
Christianity began with a like conception of a happier era for mankind. The epistles of
the Apostle Paul mention it as an event near at hand, and even in the Evangelic writings are
many sentences

-------------
* Greek, :,J"<@,4<, metanoein. This term is translated "to repent," in the authorized
version of the New Testament, but I have taken the liberty to render it as a noun, by the phrase
here given, considering it as meaning etymologically, to go forward to a higher moral altitude,
or plane of thought.
-------------
--- 570.

affirming the same thing. The prediction is recorded in them that "this gospel of the reign of
heaven shall be proclaimed in the whole world for a testimony to all the various nations, and
then the end will come." The Apostle supplements this by the emphatic statement that it had
been proclaimed in all the created world beneath the sky, and thus gives his sanction to the
general expectation. The unknown author of the Apocalypse seems to have been somewhat less
catholic than Paul and covertly denounces him. He sets forth the concept of a new Jerusalem,
which he describes as the holy city, complete in every respect, with the names of the tribes of
Israel inscribed on its foundations and of twelve apostles on its gates, descending out of the sky
from God, and illuminating the Gentile nations with its light.
The beatific vision failed of being realized but the expectation remained all through the
Middle Ages as an important element of Christian doctrine. At the beginning of the Tenth
Century this appeared in conspicuous form. This was a period of calamity almost unparalleled,
war unceasing, years of famine, frequent earthquakes, and pestilence rapidly supervening upon
pestilence, as though the human race was doomed.
The belief was general throughout Europe that the present order of the world was about
to be dissolved. The augurs of ancient Etruria had predicted that the time of national existence
for their country would be a thousand years and it had been verified. The duration of
Christendom it was supposed would be for a like period. The coming judgment was at once the
hope and the terror of that time. Under this conviction the Crusades and wars of extermination
against heretics and unconverted peoples, were undertaken in rapid succession. The Pontiff at
Rome claimed divine authority over the nations. The Emperor of Germany followed by
assuming to be Prince of the Holy Empire to whom all kings and rulers owed allegiance, and
the attempt was made by force of arms to plant peace perpetually in the world. Frederick
Barbarossa perished in a crusade, but his faithful people continued for hundreds of years firm
in their belief that he was only sleeping in the tomb, and would yet awake to realize the hope of
the nations.
In these days of repression and violence it did not seem

--- 571.

possible to divest men's minds of the persuasion that the expected reign of justice would be a
dominion of external state and magnificence, and to show them instead that it was to be a
brotherhood of charity, in which the pure thought, pure word and pure deed are prominent.
Yet several writers in the New Testament appear to have declared this very distinctly.
Paul affirms that the reign of God consists in justice, peace and joyfulness in a holy spirit. It is
also recorded that Jesus himself described it as not of this world to be supported by war and
violence, or to make its advent with external manifestation, "Lo, the reign of heaven is within
you" - such is the explicit statement. But men looked for the star, not in the sky over their
heads, but rather in the pools that were beneath.
Some juster conception, however, was possessed by clear-seeing Mystics who flourished
during the Middle Ages. There were gifted men, devoted to the profounder knowledge, who
sought to escape persecution by the use of a secret speech with a covert meaning intelligible
only to one another. Perhaps they were a fraternity like other sodalities. Some thought them
illuminated from above; others, that they were dabbling in forbidden arts. What was not easily
understood was accounted as magic. When the Renaissance came, the dense cloud began to
dissipate, and men began to apprehend more clearly. The early Reformers had some distincter
perception, but the obscurity was still too dense for open vision.
And thus the centuries passed.
It is said to be darkest just before daylight. This figure is employed to indicate the
woeful period that often precedes a happier one. The Sixteenth Century was characterized by
crime and calamity. From that time has been a steady bettering. It was as the slow coming of
morning. There were no changes to be considered marvelous, no miracles except as every
event about us, if we might but see more deeply, is a miracle. There was, however, a gradual
unfolding of higher principles of action, and a broadening dissemination of knowledge. For
those whose eyes were open there was much to be descried; and those who had ears to hear
caught the

--- 572.

sounds of the harbingers of the new day. Emanuel Swedenborg, the Swedish Illuminate,
looking into heaven like the Martyr Stephen, beheld it opening to reveal the winding up of the
former order of things, and the evolution of the new. We may interpret him as we are best able,
but the intrinsic verity of his revelation may not he denied.
The world of thought is enlarging itself as never before during the historic period. There
is no Holy Office or Star Chamber with its tortures to repress and punish dissenting beliefs.
There is greater freedom in regard to religious faith, and a wholesome increasing independence
of formal creeds and dominating teachers. Yet while perhaps drifting more widely apart in
speculative opinion, there is evidently an approximating to a closer unity of sentiment and a
higher standard of duty.
We are nearing the end of the period when conquest, slaughter and rapine are honored as
glorious war. There is a public opinion maturing among the "plain people" that all
controversies can be determined justly without such recourse. In this the self-interest of the
selfish and the conscience of the conscientious concur as one. The reign of God is the reign of
justice, and the reign of justice is the reign of peace.
Nevertheless, we may not expect any speedy developing of Eutopia, or an ideal
commonwealth of nations. There is an infinitude of preparation necessary, not merely in
teaching, but in doing. The mills of the gods grind slowly, and there are hundreds of millions
that people the earth that are not in condition to realize a very hopeful development. They
require other discipline than that described by the Zulu chief: "First a missionary, then a
consul, and then an army." The century that is about to open has in store for us, we trust, better
things than have marked the long array of ages in the historic past.
It is not enough that scientific learning is widely extended, and mechanic arts developed
to greater perfection. Civilization, properly understood, means something more vital and
essential. It embraces life as a whole, a knowing how to live. In it the strong uphold the weak,
the greatest serve the humblest, the wisest are those who dispense the most benefits. It implies
a moral development, aiming to realize a perfect society.

--- 573.

The century now about to close, despite its shortcomings, made a long advance in that
direction. In many respects it has also retrograded toward the former estate, both in ethics and
legislation; but the Twentieth Century taking up its work will doubtless set out anew toward
the ideal civilization.

(Universal Brotherhood, June, 1898)

-------------------
--- 574.

THE CHILDREN OF CAIN

A Generous but eccentric Scotch clergyman, when naming the subjects of prayer for one
Sunday morning, added: "And now, let us pray for the De'il; naebody prays for the puir De'il."
The character whom we are about to consider is in like predicament, hopelessly aliened
from every one's sympathy. Cain, the reputed first-born son* of Adam, lies under the reproach
of thousands of years as having introduced murder and rapine into the world, and led the way
in the general perverting of mankind. So deeply rooted is this notion that many would regard
the attempt to remove the imputation as almost a sacrilege. Even to venture to lighten the
burden of obloquy which rests upon his name would be accounted by them as preposterous.
Nevertheless this would be feeble as an excuse for neglect to take a rational, impartial and
intelligent view of the matter. There is, for candid and reasonable persons, a wider field to
occupy than the narrow domain of thinking which is hedged about on every side by prejudice,
or servile fear. There may be good reason for some other judgment.
In fact it is hardly possible to regard the account of Cain as a simple historic narrative
setting forth events literally as they occurred. This would raise questions for which there is no
adequate satisfactory explanation. The Supreme Being himself is described as having
characteristics not consistent with our more enlightened apprehension. He shows only
displeasure, and neither charity nor mercy. We are forcibly reminded of the bitter sarcasm
which Byron has put in the mouth of Faliero in response to the pleading of his wife:

------------
* The Assyrian term here signifies the first-born.
------------
--- 575.

"Angiolina. - Heaven bids us forgive our enemies.


"Doge. - Doth Heaven forgive her own? Is Satan saved
From wrath eternal?"

Nevertheless, we are by no means disposed to consider the story as merely an archaic


legend, or some fugitive piece of folk-lore, deserving of no further attention. These fables and
mythic narratives have a deeper meaning than the mere child or unlettered person may
apprehend. We will, therefore, examine the matter and endeavor to learn whether it does not
contain profounder knowledge. We have a precedent for so doing in the writings of the
Apostle Paul. He cites the account of the two sons of Abraham and their respective mothers,
and declares it an allegory. He also affirms that the exodus, adventures, and experiences of the
Israelites in the Arabian Desert were types or figures, and written for admonition. It is
certainly as rational and reasonable to interpret the story of the sons of Adam according to the
same principles. It is evidently a kind of parable, which symbolizes in a concrete form some
important period in history.
The mode of telling the story is one that seems to have been common in ancient times.
We may, therefore, consider it as a kind of parable setting forth in an enigmatic form a
particular period in development. Thus it may represent a condition, such as is described in the
Avesta, when the region indicated in the account was occupied by two classes of inhabitants,
the one pastoral and the other consisting of cultivators of the soil. There would inevitably be
collisions between them, and eventually, as has always been the result, the agriculturist
overcomes and destroys the shepherd. When this has been accomplished, the way is opened for
the introduction of the arts of civilized life. This is signified by the record that Cain built a
city.
With this explanation, there is no occasion for idle and curious questions, as in regard to
the wife of Cain or where the inhabitants of the new city were obtained. The legend is wholly
isolated from such problems. It relates to peoples and social conditions rather than to
individuals. The concept actually involved is nothing less than that of transition from nomadic
and isolated life to civic and neighborly

--- 576.

relations. Civilization signifies the condition of living in society, and hence implies provident
foresight, mutual dependence, refinement of manners and mental culture. Accordingly we read
of the posterity of Cain, that one was the father or eponymic patron of herdsmen, and another
of those who handle the harp and the organ, while another is described as "the instructor of
every artificer in brass and iron."
Thus in the account of Cain and his children, it is very plain that we have an archaic
tradition of a developing civilization. It presents analogies to the legend of Prometheus. The
famous Titan, we are told, being impelled by pity and affection, gave fire and enlightenment to
mankind, teaching to build houses, to employ the labor of cattle, to mine and smelt the metallic
ores, to make use of writing, to master the sciences, to treat diseases, and to exercise each
useful art. Like Cain, he likewise fell under the anger of Divinity. Zeus, who had then but
recently come to supreme power in the universe, regarded these acts as nothing less than
defiance of his authority. He caused the offender to be expelled from the inhabited earth to
distant Skythic land, there to be pinioned to a rock for ages, suffering incredible torments, and
subject to universal hatred and scorn. May we not guess that the story of Cain and his
punishment have been derived from parallel sources?

The Kenites

We find repeated mentions elsewhere in the Hebrew writings of a tribe or people whose
name and characteristics are strikingly suggestive of affiliation to the personages of the book of
Genesis. The Kenites, or Cainites, as the term correctly would read, are represented as
possessing many characteristics, like Jabal and Jubal, of the progeny of Cain; dwelling in tents,
and being endowed with superior learning and skill. Moses, the Hebrew lawgiver is recorded
as marrying the daughter of Reuel or Jethro, a Kenite priest, and living with him forty years
prior to the exodus from Egypt. It is further declared that Jethro visited the Israelitish
encampment in the Sinaitic peninsula, and celebrated sacrificial rites with him and with the
Elders

--- 577.

of Israel. This indicates that there were initiations and occult observances of a kindred nature
on that occasion. It is only stated, however, that Jethro gave counsel and that Moses "did all
that he said." But it is very evident that in this connection, and indeed in other parts of the
Bible, there is much to be "read between the lines."
The intimate association between the Kenites and Israelites appears to have continued for
several centuries. A son of Jethro is mentioned as being the guide of the tribes while
journeying in the desert, and as residing for a season with his clan at Jericho. They afterward
removed into the Southern district of the territory of Judah. They appear to have had a great
influence upon the Mosaic institutions. The Rechabites, or Scribes, who constituted a learned
class, belonged to them, and from their adoption of tent-life and abstinence from wine, the
Nazarites would seem to be in some way related to that people.
A memorandum in the first book of Chronicles seems to afford some light upon these
matters. The writer enumerates the various clans and families of Kirjath-Jearim, Bethlehem,
and "Scribes which dwelt at Jabez," and includes them in the summary: "These are the Kenites
that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." *
We will here remark by way of digression that during the earlier centuries of the present
era the genesis and character of Cain were themes of much curious speculation. A party in the
Christian world, now generally designated the Gnostics, held the Jewish Oracles in

------------
* This term "Rechab" is probably a title rather than the name of a person. It is translated
"chariot," and evidently denotes the merchaba or vehicle of wisdom. It is applied by Elisha to
Elijah, and by King Joash to Elisha: "the rechab of Israel and its guide or pharisi. In this
connection it may be not amiss to notice also the term pharisi. It would seem no strained
assumption that the Pharisees derived from it their appellation as guides or interpreters of the
law. They were students of occult rabbinical learning. The pun in the denunciation of Jesus
may be readily perceived: "Ye blind guides, who strain out the gnat but swallow the camel."
------------
--- 578.

low esteem, placing higher value on philosophic learning and Oriental wisdom. One group, the
"Cainites," boldly declared that Cain was a personage superior to other men, and that he was
illuminated by the superior knowledge. They found some pretext for their belief in the
declaration of Eve that he was "a man from the Lord," while Seth, who is represented as
superseding him, was begotten after the image and likeness of Adam only, and significantly
bore the name of the Satan or Typhon of Egypt.
It is certain, as has been already shown, that the compilers of the Hebrew Sacred
Writings conceded to Cain and his descendants all the profounder culture and proficiency in the
arts. Why they so generally represent the younger persons in a family as being superior in
moral and physical excellence, and supplanting the elder, may have been for the sake of
assigning honorable rank to their own people, one of the latest that had appeared among the
nations. They were compelled, however, to acknowledge, however reluctantly, that their
Idumaean adversaries excelled in wisdom, and that the Promethean gifts which had enabled
the world to attain its eminence of culture and enlightenment were derived from the
sources which they decried.

The Kayanian Kings

It is very probable, however, that the legend of Cain came from a different source, and
that it should, in many of its particulars, have a somewhat different interpretation. Doctor Oort
declares it quite conceivable that it is from a Persian origin. We may, in such case, seek our
clews in the farther East, for an elucidation of the problem which shall be plausible and
reasonable. The Persian records and traditions inform us that prior to the Achaemenian
dynasty, the Medes and Persians were governed by monarchs of a race which they denominate
Kayan,* or Sacred. It was during the period of their rule that the great Schism took place
between the Eranians and their Aryan congeners.
By reference to the Avesta and other accounts it appears that

--- 579.

the Aryans of the "prehistoric period" were pastoral and nomadic like the present inhabitants of
Turkestan. After a time, a part of their number, the Eranians, becoming cultivators of the soil
and dwellers in villages, formed separate communities. All evolutions in human society are
primarily religious in character. A new religious system was accordingly developed in Eran. It
appears to have attained a matured form in the reign of Vistaspa, one of the most illustrious
monarchs of the Kayanian dynasty. Zoroaster, the first who bore the designation, flourished at
this period, and with the approval of the king, succeeded in molding the new Mazdean religion
into a concrete body of forms and dogmas, with a well-defined form of initiation.
After a prolonged period of contention, the "Deva-worshiping" Aryans had made their
way to the Punjab, and the dominion of the Eranians had become extended over Persia and into
Media and beyond. The first chapters of the Hebrew Scriptures appear to relate to events of
this time and it appears plausible and probable that such was the fact. The story of the Garden
of Eden is almost undeniably a contribution from Eastern literature; and the killing of Abel
seems to represent the overthrow of the worship and worshippers of Bel by the Eranians. The
name of Cain would then be derived from the Kayan dynasty that had given shape to the
Persian nationality. It is not necessary in propounding this hypothesis, to make the other
details harmonize literally with historic events. We must note, however, in this connection,
that such names as Silent, Nimrod and Cush, which are found in the book of Genesis, have
their counterparts in this region, - in Khusistan the country of the Kossaians, the Nimri tribes of
Mount Zagros, and Shamas the sun-god. These verbal resemblances can not well be
considered as accidental.

------------
* The probability here intimated is greatly assured by this similarity of names. It is a
common practice which has been carried to an extreme, to add letters to Oriental words when
transferring them to a European language. In the case now before us, the term KIN has been
vocalized in the Bible as Cain; and KAYAN is the same word in which this practice has been
carried a little further.
------------
--- 580.

It is by no means wonderful or unusual, that history and personal reputation are often
marred by vilifying writers. Books of history and even of drama are often written with partisan
ends and calumny. Neither Macbeth nor Richard III. deserved the imputations that have been
cast upon them. With every event there is a shade which enables misrepresentation to seem the
true picture.
The Bahman-Yasht is a book of the later Parsism, and contains a compendium of the
trials and conflicts of the "true religion" from the time of Zoroaster to the end. It delineates the
sufferings endured from the Mussulmans, who sought to exterminate the Mazdean faith by
massacre, and finally drove thousands from their country.
The writer of this Apocalypse, following in the wake of other prophets, foretells
deliverance at the last. A prince of the Kayan race will arise, he declares, who having attained
the age of thirty years, the age of man's maturity, will take up arms against the oppressor of the
people of Ahurmazda. All India and China, he affirms, will rally to his standard as did the
Eranians when Gava raised the banner of the blacksmith's apron against the ferocious serpent-
king Zahak. Then the Mazda-yasnian religion - "the pure thought, pure word and pure deed" -
will be triumphant, and a reign of blessedness will be established.
Whichever theory we may accept, this legend of Cain affords us an interesting concept of
human evolution. Harsh as the necessity appears, the process of development has always been
characterized by conflict, which was often analogous to the slaying of a brother. We have the
picture before us of Conservatism like the easy-going shepherd with his flocks, idle but ready
to slaughter its lambs for sacrifice, and casting aspersions upon the laborious worker who offers
the fruits of his own industry, and pollutes no altar-hearth with blood. There is no need,
however, for fear that the ulterior result will be other than right. The Divine is divine in so far
as it is just.

(Universal Brotherhood, March, 1898)


-----------------------
--- 581.

THE TWO GALILEOS

Galileo Galilei had won the title of the "Archimedes of his Time." Having established
the first principles of Dynamic Science, he won the bitter enmity of the Aristoteleans of the
Sixteenth Century. He even lost the favor of the Medici rulers at Florence for condemning a
machine that one of the family had invented. He became distinguished at Padua by inventing
the proportional compasses still in use in drawing, and constructing the first thermometer. His
lectures in the Chair of Mathematics at the university, for eighteen years, drew large audiences,
and it was necessary to have a hall capable of holding 2,000 persons set apart for them.
The theory of the Solar System, having the sun for its center, had been taught in the
crypts of Egyptian temples and in the School at Krotona in Italy. It was afterward denounced
by a stoic philosopher at Athens, who insisted that a Pythagorean teacher who had promulgated
it ought to be arrested and punished, like Sokrates, for impiety. For centuries the knowledge
was held in abeyance till the monk Kopernik ventured to put it forth anew. Then it met with
denunciation. Luther himself spoke of it with derision. It was, however, again taken up by
Kepler, whose sacred fury had inspired him to "think God's thoughts after him." Bruno
followed, and expiated his boldness at the stake at Rome in the year 1600.
Galileo also adopted the theory, but for fear of being ridiculed, kept silence except in his
letters. But a Dutch optician, Lipper Shey, invented the telescope, and Galileo, taking
advantage of this new opportunity, constructed instruments for himself with excellent
magnifying power. With these he explored the sky, solving conjectures which had been
entertained, unfolding the secrets of the galaxy, and showing conclusively that the sun was the
great star of the solar cosmos, having the earth for one of its dependencies. He

--- 582.

was called to account in February, 1616, and officially admonished, by the authority of Paul V,
not henceforward to hold, touch or defend the doctrine.
A new Pope treated him with personal favor, but would not remove the prohibition. In
1632 his book appeared, the Dialogo dei duo Maximi Sistemi del Mondo. It was placed on the
Prohibited Index, and Galileo cited by the Inquisition to appear at Rome to answer for his
offending. On the 22nd of June, 1633, under the menace of torture, he delivered a recantation
of the doctrine. The judgment of the Holy Office was pronounced in these words:
"Invoking the holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ and that of His most glorious mother
Mary ever Virgin, by this our definite sentence, we say, pronounce, judge and declare that you,
the said Galileo, on account of the things proved against you by documentary evidence, and
which have been confessed by you as aforesaid, have rendered yourself to this Holy Office
vehemently suspected of Heresy - that is, of having believed and held a doctrine which is false
and contrary to the sacred and divine Scriptures: to wit, that the sun is the center of the world,
and that it does not move from East to West, and that the earth moves and is not the center of
the universe."
Galileo was in his seventieth year, the age of Sokrates when he drank the hemlock to
appease the rage of Athenian orthodoxy. Whether he had been put on the rack or otherwise
maltreated, we are not definitely informed. But Rome had not got through with the practice of
burning men alive, and many men would deny much in order to escape such a doom. So did
Galileo. He was sentenced to imprisonment at the pleasure of the Holy Office, and to recite the
seven penitential songs once a week for three years. Some months later he was permitted to go
home to Florence, on condition of spending his life in retirement.
He was born on the day that Michael Angelo died, and he died the year that Isaac Newton
was born. The decree of the Inquisition might silence him, but it was unavailing to arrest the
motion of the earth or depose the sun from its place in the sky.
Three centuries have passed since Galileo first uttered his belief. Another witness has
arisen, and again the attempt has been

--- 583.

put forth to silence him. The day of the stake and the torture-chamber has passed, and only the
anathema is left, as bootless in its force as the effort of Mrs. Partington with her broom to drive
back the ocean. St. George Mivart, the English scientist and scholar, has ventured upon the
liberty of speech and interpretation, which has been denied for so many centuries. Some years
ago he published an article in The Nineteenth Century, entitled "Happiness in Hell," in which
he set forth that there was nothing in the Catholic faith to prevent one from believing that Hell
is not a place of torment, but rather a place of "natural beatitude," in which souls are merely
separated forever from the final "beatific vision" of the Godhead. The Curia lost no time in
placing the article and several others upon the Index. Dr. Mivart submitted like a sincere
Catholic, but requested a specific condemnation which should indicate the utterances that were
disapproved. To this no reply was given. He accordingly withdrew his submission, and in two
articles, one in the Fortnightly Review of January, 1900, and another in the Nineteenth Century
for the same month, affirms his sentiments anew. "I still regard," he declares, "the
representations as to Hell which have been commonly promulgated in sermons and meditations
as so horrible and revolting that a Deity capable of instituting such a place of torture would be a
bad God, and therefore, in the words of the late Dr. W. G. Ward, a God 'we should be under the
indefensible obligation of disobeying, defying and abhorring.'"
He follows up the subject by criticizing the antagonistic attitude of the Roman Church to
the revelations of natural science. He considers this aversion to scientific truth to be a great
peril, and affirms that enormous changes have already taken place in religious belief among
Catholics. He enumerates among these changes the assertion in its most literal meaning that
"out of the church there is no salvation." Now, he adds, it is admitted by the most rigid Roman
theologians, that men who do not accept any form of Christianity, if only they are theists and
lead good lives, may have an assured hope for the future, similar to that of a virtuous Christian
believer.
In regard to the lawfulness of taking interest for money, twenty-eight Councils and
eleven Popes have condemned the practice, but

--- 584.

their decisions have been explained away so completely that no Pope, priest or ecclesiastical
body now hesitates to accept the best interest for any capital that may be at their disposal.
He also affirms that the Bible contains a multitude of statements which are scientifically
false. He knows "devout Catholics of both sexes, well-known and highly esteemed, weekly
communicants and leading lives devoted to charity and religion, who believe Joseph to have
been the real and natural father of Jesus." They do not think it necessary to alter a word of the
creeds or the devotions now in use, but merely to alter the sense of the words.
Little time was lost in calling the bold writer to account. One might imagine that his
assailants were watching for an opportunity, they sprang upon him so suddenly. Every
Romanist periodical had an article upbraiding him. The Tablet, the mouthpiece of the Cardinal
Archbishop Vaughan, declared that sameness of principle in the Catholic faith is essentially in
meaning and not merely in wording. It also taunts Dr. Mivart with saying nothing original, but
carefully refrains from any attempt to dispute his statement in regard to the Scriptures or the
beliefs of Catholics. Being itself an oracle, it seems to regard any attempt at such refutation
unnecessary. Indeed, it has been usual with the Roman clergy not to interrogate individuals
with regard to their beliefs, so long as they do not speak out loud. To believe as the church
believes is satisfactory, even when there is no intelligent conception in the matter.
The Guardian, an organ of the Church of England, admits the truth of Dr. Mivart's
statement. It declares that "there is no doubt much truth in his statement of the modifications of
belief which have become current among Roman Catholics as to the fate of those outside their
church, and among educated Christians generally as to the nature and scope of the inspiration
of the Scriptures."
The Cardinal, as was foreshadowed, hastened to impose his requirements upon the
recusant professor. He demanded of Dr. Mivart that he should sign a formula or profession of
faith which affirmed without qualification the various dogmas of Roman orthodoxy, and to
condemn and revoke his utterances in the two articles recently published and in other of his
writings contrary to the

--- 585.

teaching of the church according to the determination of the Apostolic See: In all such matters
submitting himself to the judgment of the said See, receiving all that it receives and
condemning all that it condemns.
Dr. Mivart shows in his reply that he is not terrified. He had professed the creed of Pius
IX, he explains, but he had no recollection of ever having made or having been asked to make
the profession required in respect to the books of the Old and New Testament with all their
parts. "In my judgment," says he, "an acceptance and profession of the above-cited portion of
the document sent me would be equivalent to an assertion that there are no errors or altogether
false statements, or fabulous narratives, in the Old and New Testaments, and that I should not
be free to hold and teach, without blame, that the world was not created in any six periods of
time; that the story of the Serpent and the Tree is altogether false; that the history of the
Tower of Babel is mere fiction, devoid of any particle of truth; that the story of Noah's Ark is
also quite erroneous, or again that of the Plagues of Egypt; that neither Joshua nor Hezekiah
interfered with the regularity of solar time; that Jonah did not live within any kind of marine
animal; that Lot's wife never turned into a pillar of salt; and that Balaam's ass never spoke. I
only put these forward as a few examples of statements which it seems to me any one who
holds that 'the books of the Old and the New Testaments, with all their parts, were written by
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and have God for their author,' ought not and could not
logically or rationally make.
"If, however, your Eminence can authoritatively tell me that divine inspiration or
authorship does not (clerical errors, faults of translation, etc., apart) guarantee the truth and
inerrancy of the statement so inspired, it will in one sense be a great relief to my mind, and
greatly facilitate the signing of the document; your Eminency's decision being publicly known
and also the conditions under which I sign it."
The Cardinal, however, refused any answer to this stipulation. He passed judgment
without delay, issuing his inhibition of the distinguished scientist, denying to him the
sacraments of the church

--- 586.

till he should recant the opinions he had sent forth.


Dr. Mivart, in reply, lamented that the Cardinal had said neither yes nor no. He then
states the issue unequivocally.
"It is now evident," says he, "that a vast and impassable abyss yawns between science
and Catholic dogma, and no man with ordinary knowledge can henceforth join the communion
of the Roman Catholic Church if he correctly understands what its principles and its teaching
really are, unless they are radically changed. For who could profess to believe the narrative
about the Tower of Babel, or that all species of animals came up to Adam to be named by him?
Moreover, among the writings esteemed 'canonical' by the Catholic Church are the Book of
Tobit and the Second Book of Maccabees, and also the story which relates how, when Daniel
was thrown a second time into the lion's den, an angel seized Habakkuk of Judea by the hair of
his head and carried him, with his bowl of pottage, to give it to Daniel for his dinner. To ask a
reasonable man to believe such puerile tales would be to insult him. Plainly the Councils of
Florence, Trent, and the Vatican have fallen successively into greater and greater errors, and
thus all rational trust in either Popes or Councils is at an end."
Nevertheless, Dr. Mivart, while refusing to sign the profession of faith, declares himself
attached to Catholicity, and regarding religious worship as the highest privilege of a rational
nature, continues to attend at the rites.
To an American reader the action of the Cardinal indicates clearly that modern science
and the church are in direct conflict, and cannot make terms till one party or the other gives
way. But English readers do not see such absolute incompatibility. They perceive only that
with Catholics the liberty of speech is limited, and that there is a possibility that only a question
of expediency is involved.
To Galileo the peril of his course was torture and the stake; to Mivart, exclusion from the
sacraments and a possible anathema. As a writer in the London Times remarks: "The threat of
excommunication, terrible in the tenth century, has a touch of the ridiculous in the twentieth;
and ridicule kills."
Formerly the recusant had no right to receive shelter, food, fire, or any rite of hospitality;
now he only suffers the withholding of a few

--- 587.

rites that he can do very well without.


"But," says the great apostle, "I show unto you a more excellent way."

(Universal Brotherhood, October, 1900)

----------------
--- 588.

THE AMERICAN SOKRATES

A writer in a recent number of a monthly periodical has endeavored to show


resemblances of Doctor Franklin to Sokrates. He has made out a very good case, and even the
most captious will admit that the matter is well worth considering. Nevertheless, a person who
should regard it from a superficial point of view may find the analogy not so easy to trace. The
mode of life of the two men was so unlike that the apparent resemblances may appear
farfetched and often very faint. For example, Sokrates eschewed a political life; but Franklin,
after he had accumulated what he considered a competency, was almost constantly called upon
to take part in public affairs and was among the foremost in effort to develop and shape the
Government of the American Republic. Sokrates adhered tenaciously to the established
worship of Athens and accounted the pursuits of physical science as an intruding into the
counsels of the gods; Franklin took delight in exploring into the secrets of the natural world,
and was a zealous advocate of religious freedom, whatever the sect or form. Sokrates made
himself disliked by his countrymen by his persistent practice of dialectic, which often revealed
to them their own opinions as absurd; Franklin was esteemed for his useful inventions and his
prolific resources of mind, which made his public service invaluable. He invented many
articles which added to the conveniences of housekeeping, never seeking a patent for them, and
supplemented them all by his Promethean achievement - the bringing of lightning from the sky,
so that it might be bound in harness and made to carry messages, propel machinery and do the
work of men. No wonder that the Athenian died by the penal sentence of a court, while the
American was honored at home and in other countries. It is probable, however, that many of
these diversities may be

--- 589.

explained by the difference of conditions and the periods at which the men lived. More than
twenty-two centuries intervened between the time when Sokrates walked in the streets of
Athens and Franklin set type in Philadelphia. The populations were diverse in customs, habits
of thought and mode of living. What might be wise, what would be approved by one people,
would not be tolerated by the other. We must look deeper and form our judgment from the
men themselves by a comparing of their profounder thought and their utterances.
The maxims of "Poor Richard" have been long accepted as part of our literature. Thomas
Paine esteemed them as superior to the "Proverbs of Solomon." They range favorably beside
the sayings of Epiktetos and Publius Syrus. True, they conform very closely to the Silver Rule
- to do according as one is done by. This method seems to be of most service to the worldly-
wise, although it is often opposed to that diviner charity which is the loving of the neighbor and
not a supreme seeking of own advantage. We will find in Franklin's autobiography, however,
the material which will fit us for juster judgment.
He tells at the outset of an uncle whom he resembled closely in person and modes of
thought. This uncle died some four years before the birth of the nephew. But for this period of
time intervening, it was remarked that there might have been a transmigration of soul from the
one to the other. An Oriental pundit, or a modern believer in reincarnation, however, would
make no such account of the interval thus occurring.
Franklin himself informs us that he had sought to acquire the Socratic mode of dialectic.
He procured a copy of the works of Xenophon and made it his study.
He makes this remark in support of the method: "As the chief ends of conversation are to
inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish that well-meaning and sensible men
would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive and assuming manner that seldom
fails to disgust, tends to create opposition and to defeat most of those purposes for which
speech was given to us. In fact, if you wish to instruct others, a positive, dogmatical
manner in

--- 590.

advancing your sentiments may occasion opposition and prevent a candid attention." *
This reminds us of a familiar practice of Sokrates. He generally began his discourses by
asking the judgment of others, on the pretext that he was himself totally ignorant of the subject.
After Franklin had become a man of business in Philadelphia as a printer and stationer, as
well as head of a family, he conceived the project of attaining a state of moral excellence. He
had been a deist till he perceived that those whom he had persuaded by his reasonings were
ready to wrong him without the least compunction. This convinced him that the doctrine,
however true, was not useful. He was not ready to accept "revelation" as especially imparted
from Divinity. He was of opinion that certain actions were not bad because they had been
forbidden, or good because they were commanded. But he surmised that the bad actions were
forbidden because of being bad for us, and good ones enjoined because they were intrinsically
beneficial. "This persuasion," he remarks, "with the kind
hand of Providence, or some guardian angel, or accidental favorable circumstances and
situations, preserved me."

------------
* Xenophon: Memorable Accounts, I. "Now it seemeth to me, that whoever applieth
himself to the study of wisdom in hopes of becoming one day capable of directing his fellow-
citizens, will not indulge, but rather take pains to subdue whatever he finds in his temper
turbulent and impetuous; knowing that enmity and danger are the attendants of force; while
the path of persuasion is all security and good will; for they who are compelled hate whomever
compels them, supposing that they have been injured; whereas we conciliate the affection of
those whom we gain by persuasion; while they consider it as a kindness to be applied to in
such a Manner. Those, therefore, who employ force are they who possess strength without
judgment; but the well-advised have recourse to other means. Besides, he who pretends to
carry his points by force hath need of many associates; but the man who can persuade, knows
that he is of himself sufficient for the purpose.
------------
--- 591.

He devoted Sundays to study, seldom attending any public worship. The Calvinistic
dogmas of Eternal Decrees, Election, Reprobation, etc., appeared to him unintelligible and
doubtful. But, he declares, "I never doubted the existence of a Deity; that He made the world
and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable worship of God was the doing
good to man; that our souls are immortal, and all crimes will be punished, and virtue rewarded,
either here or hereafter. These I esteemed the essentials of every religion, and being to be
found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, though with different
degrees of respect, as I found them more or less mixed with other articles, which, without any
tendency to inspire, promote or confirm morality, seemed principally to divide us and make us
unfriendly to one another."
Conscious that a mere speculative conviction that it is to our profit to be completely
virtuous is by no means sufficient to prevent us from slipping, but that, on the contrary, ill
habits must be broken and good ones acquired and established, he devised a catalogue of the
virtues the practice of which would be the measure of rectitude. This list included twelve
which he considered as necessary and desirable. He tabulated them, giving to each an
appropriate definition. They were arranged in the following order: 1. Temperance. 2. Silence.
3. Order. 4. Resolution. 5. Frugality. 6. Industry. 7. Sincerity. 8. Justice. 9. Moderation. 10.
Cheerfulness. 11. Tranquillity. 12. Chastity.
A Quaker friend informed him that he was generally regarded as proud, and sometimes as
even overbearing and rather insolent. This led him to add Humility to his list as thirteenth, and
he enforced it by the words: "Imitate Jesus and Sokrates."
He now arranged them in a little book, and set out by devoting a week in turn to each
virtue. Day by day he made a memorandum of how well or ill he had succeeded in the
endeavor, marking the failures. When he had made his way through the thirteen in as many
weeks he began anew and went on as before. He afterward changed this mode of proceeding.
He remarks that his greatest trouble was in regard to Order - that every part of his
business should have its allotted time. He had

--- 592.

not been in earlier life accustomed to method, and, as he had an exceedingly good memory, he
had not been sensible of his faultiness. He struggled for years to correct this, but found himself
incorrigible. "But on the whole," says he, "though I never arrived at the perfection I had been
so ambitious of attaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and happier
man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect
writing by imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach the wished-for excellence of
those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor and is tolerable while it continues fair and
legible."
In conformity with these views Franklin planned the compiling of a book to be entitled
"The Art of Virtue." It was designed to set forth and enforce his cardinal doctrine: That
vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are
hurtful, the nature of man alone considered." His endeavor was to convince young men that no
qualities are so likely to assure a poor man's fortune as probity and integrity. But Franklin's
time was so occupied by public business that the book was never published.
He also projected a great association upon the basis which comprises the essentials of
every known religion. It was to be begun and extended first among young and single men only.
Each candidate for membership was to be initiated after assenting to the creed and an exercise
of thirteen weeks in the virtues as prescribed. The existence of the society should be kept
secret, the members looking up youths suitable for initiation. They were also pledged to afford
to each other their advice, assistance and support in promoting one another's interest. But after
having proposed the scheme to two others, who accepted it, Franklin found himself too much
engaged to go further, till he became too old to undertake the matter.
"I am still of opinion," says he, "that it was a practicable scheme, and might have been
very useful by forming a great number of good citizens; and I was not discouraged by the
seeming magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always thought that one man of tolerable
abilities may work great changes and accomplish great affairs among mankind if he first forms
a good plan, and, cutting off

--- 593.

all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of
the same plan his sole study and business."
Becoming a candidate for re-election as Clerk to the General Assembly of the Province
of Pennsylvania, Franklin was warmly opposed by one of the principal members. Instead of
resenting this, he took occasion to ask of the man the loan of a rare book. This was granted,
and a warm and permanent friendship was the result. From this occurrence he deduced the
maxim: "He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom
you yourself have obliged."
Franklin adds: "It shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove than to
resent and continue inimical proceedings."
He remarks of the Rev. George Whitefield, whom he greatly admired: "If he had never
written anything, he would have left behind him a much more numerous and important sect."
Franklin composed and published numerous maxims upon a variety of subjects. We
present a few:
"After getting the first hundred pounds it is more easy to get the second."
"As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an
opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and
generously."
"The best public measures are seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the
occasion."
"When men are employed they are best contented."
Sokrates was best adapted to his time, as the American sage was to the early days of the
new Republic. Xenophon describes him as "the most sober and chaste of mankind," sustaining
all vicissitudes with equal complacency, persistent in self-control, and influencing those
familiar with him to the love of virtue. While he conformed to the religious usages of the
commonwealth of which he was a citizen, his conceptions were lofty and philosophic. The
soul, the intellectible part of us, he declared to have come from he knows not whence, and by it
man is as a god in the midst of creation. As it governs the body, does not the soul of the
universe govern it in like manner? And does
--- 594.

not the providence of God extend in like manner? So, likewise, he exhorted, to render oneself
"deserving of the communication of some of the divine secrets which may not be penetrated by
man, but are imparted to those alone who consult, who adore, who obey the Deity."
Being remonstrated with because of his plain habits and teaching without pay, he replied:
"Though I am not over-delicate in regard to food, though I sleep but little, and do not once taste
those infamous delights in which others indulge, there may no other cause be assigned than that
I have pleasures far more choice in their quality, which delight not only for the moment in
which they are enjoyed, but gladden with the hope of perpetual satisfaction."
"When we see a woman bartering her beauty for gold, we look upon her as base, but
when she consorts with a worthy young man she gains our approbation and esteem. It is the
same with philosophy; he who sets it forth for public sale, to be disposed of to the best bidder,
is a public prostitute.... My pleasure is in the company of my friends. When we are together we
employ ourselves in searching into those treasures of knowledge which the ancients have left
us; we draw from the same fountain, and, running over what these sages have left behind them,
wherever we find any thing excellent we remark it for our own use; and when we see mutual
love begin to flourish among us we think that we have profited not a little."
Chaerokrates, being on ill terms with his brother, Sokrates advised him to make overtures
of good will. "Are you afraid of making the first advances to your brother, lest it should lower
you in the opinion of those who hear it?" he demanded. "Surely it ought not to be less glorious
for a man ro anticipate his friends in courtesy and kind offices, than to get the start of his
enemies in injuries and annoyances."
"It behooves us not a little," he says to Antisthenes, "to consider of how much worth we
really are to our friends, and that we are diligent at the same time to raise our value with them
as much as we can, in order that they may not lay us aside like useless lumber."
To the young Kritobulos he gives counsel: "The shortest way to make yourself beloved
and honored is to be indeed the very man that you wish to appear. Set yourself diligently to
the attaining of

--- 595.

every virtue, and you will find on experience that no one of them but will flourish and gain
strength when properly exercised."
Notwithstanding what we might regard as idleness or shiftlessness, he was as positive as
Franklin in his exhortations to thrift and industry. He counseled Eutheros to seek out some
employment which would enable him to lay up something for old age.
"Keep clear of those persons who seem to be glad to find fault," says he, "and seek out
only such as are more candid. Which done, pursue with steadiness and alacrity whatever you
undertake, but beware how you undertake anything beyond your power. Thus will you find
relief for your indigence, without the hazard of incurring much blame. Certainty will take the
place of a precarious subsistence and leave you to the full enjoyment of all the peaceful
pleasures of old age."
He professed to know few that were wholly idle. The man who spent his time at dice or
in playing the buffoon to make others laugh may be said to do something, he admitted. But
such were no better than idlers, since they might employ themselves so much more usefully.
No one would quit a good occupation for one that was otherwise, and if he did so it would be
less excusable, for he could not plead being without employment.
Justice, together with every other virtue, he declared to be wisdom itself. "Whatsoever is
just and fair must be the result of sound wisdom," said he; "and as nothing can be fair and just
where virtue is wanting, therefore justice and the other virtues are wisdom."
Sokrates also discoursed much with Euthedemos on matters of duty and our relations to
the Deity. "The Supreme God holds Himself invisible," said he, "and it is only in His works
that we are capable of admiring Him. And if there is anything in man that partakes of the
divine nature it must surely be the soul which governs and directs him; yet no one considers
this as an object of his sight. Learn, therefore, not to despise those things which you cannot
see; judge of the greatness of the power by the effects that are produced, and reverence the
Deity."
The general tone of these sayings, it will be perceived, discloses a certain vraisemblance,
and seems to indicate that the

--- 596.

American in many respects followed the same course of thought and ways of reasoning as
the Athenian. Both were alike in their theological notions, and there is great similarity in
their practical methods. Their unlikenesses were incident to the different circumstances, but in
essential purpose and other characteristics they were identical. They sought, after the manner
best suited to their times, to serve their fellowmen to the best of their ability, and it is not for us
to measure their success. Indeed, it may not be estimated after the rule by which men
commonly judge.

(The Word, September, 1906)

--------------------
--- 598.

APPENDIX

FOUR LETTERS FROM BLAVATSKY TO WILDER

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

LETTERS FROM H. P. BLAVATSKY


To Alexander Wilder, M. D.

The understanding had been reached that Mr. Bouton should publish Madame
Blavatsky's manuscript of Isis Unveiled. It was placed in my hands by him with instruction to
abridge it all that I thought best. It was an undesirable task, but I did it with scrupulous regard
to the interest of the publisher, and to what I esteemed to be just to the author. I was introduced
to her about this time. She spoke of what I had done, with great courtesy, employing her
favorite term to characterize what I had thrown out. She was about to begin a revision of the
work, and asked me to indicate freely wherever I considered it at fault or not well expressed. It
is hardly necessary to say that this was a delicate matter. Authors are sensitive even to
morbidness, and prone to feel a criticism to be an exhibition of unfriendliness. Nevertheless, I
faced the issue, and pointed out frankly what I considered fault of style, and also the
importance of explaining her sources of information. She was frank to acknowledge her own
shortcomings, but pleaded that she was not permitted to divulge the matters which I urged. We
compared views, ethnic and

--- 599.

historic, often not agreeing. I took the pains to embody many of these points in a letter, to
which she made the following reply:

August.

Dr. A. Wilder,
My dear Sir: -
Your kind favor at hand only today, for my friend Mr. Marquette has proved an
inaccurate postman, having some sun-struck patients to attend.
There are many parts in my Book that I do not like either, but the trouble is I do not know
how to get rid of them without touching facts which are important, as arguments. You say that
when I prove something, I prove it too much. There again you are right, but in such a work -
(and the first one of some importance that I ever wrote, having limited myself to articles) in
such a work when facts crowd and elbow each other in my brains, really one does not know
sometimes where to stop. Your head is fresh, for your read it for the first time. Therefore you
see all the faults and shortcomings, while my overworked brains and memory are all in a sad
muddle, having read the manuscripts over and over again. I am really very, very thankful to
you for your suggestions. I wish you made more of them.
Do you think the Phenicians were an Ethiopian race? Why? They have certainly
mingled much with them, but I do not see well how it can be. The Phenicians were the ancient
Jews I think, whatever they have been before. Josephus admits as much, unless it is a hoax to
escape other accusations. The biblical mode of worship and the bloody sacrifices in which the
Patriarchs and other "chosen ones" delighted are of a Phenician origin, as they belonged in days
of old to the Bacchic and Adonis Phenician worship. The Adonis is certainly the Jewish
Adonai. All the Phenician deities can be found in Joshua as well as their temples. xxiii, 7.
Herodotus traces the circumcision to them. The little bulls of the Jews - the Osiris-Bacchus-
Adonis - is a Phenician custom. I think the Phenicians were the Canaanites. When settled in
Jerusalem they appear to have become friends. The Sidonian Baal-Adonis-Bal is closely
related to their

--- 600.
Sabean worship of the "Queen of Heaven." Herodotus shows that the Syrians - the Jews of
Palestine - lived earlier on the Red Sea and he calls them Phenicians. But what puzzles me is
to reconcile the type. The Jews appear to have never intermarried among other nations - at
least not to the extent to change their type. They have nothing Ethiopian about them. Will you
tell me your reasons and oblige?
You told me in a previous letter that the Ethiopians have anciently dwelt in India. In
Western India there is in a temple the statue of Chrishna and he is a splendid black Ethiopian
with woolly hair, black lips and flat nose. I trace every or nearly every ancient religion to India
because of the Sanscrit names of the gods of every other nation. If you trace them
etymologically you are sure to find the root of every god (of the Aryan family) in Sanscrit, and
many of the Semitic gods also, and that before the Aryans broke up towards the South and
North. Every Slavonian Deity can be traced back to India, and yet the word Bog, the Russian
word for God, a derivation from Gosped, gosped in Hospodar or gospodar, "the Lord" seems to
come right from the Babylonian Bel, Baal, or Bal. In Slavonian and Russian Bjeloybog means
literally White God, or the God of the Day, - Good. Deity, as Teherno-bog is Black God - the
Evil, Night-Deity. The Tyrian god was Belus - Babylonian Bel, and Bok means Light and
Boga the sun. I derive Bacchus from this - as a Sun god. I suppose we ought in the derivation
of the names of all these gods, take in consideration the aspiration. The Semitic S generally
softens to Ah in the Sanscrit. The Assyrian San becomes in Sanscrit Ahan; their Asuria is
Ahura. As is the son-god and Ar is a sun-god. Assur is a Syrian and Assyrian sun-god;
Assurya is one of the names of the Sun, and Surya in Sanscrit is the Sun (see M. Miller). It was
the rule of Bunsen to soften the S to u. Now As means life and Asu Spirit, and in India, even in
Thibet, the life principle, the great agent of Magic, the Astral light by which the Lamas and
Siamese priests produce their wonders is written Akasa, pronounced Ahaha. It is the life-
principle, for it is the direct magnetism, the electric current proceeding from the Sun, which is
certainly a great Magnet as the ancients said, and not as our modern scientists will have it.
I have studied some of the old Turanian words (beg pardon of

--- 601.

philology and Science) in Samarkand with an old scholar, and he told me that he traced
somehow the deities of every subsequent nation a great deal further back than the Aryan roots
before the split of the nations. Now Max Muller does not concede, it seems to me, anything
positive or exact as roots beyond the old Sanscrit, and dares not go further back. How do you
account for that? You say that the Chaldeans were a tribe of the Akkadians, come from
Armenia. This is Rawlinson's views. But did you trace the primitive Akkadians back? I have
been living for a long time at the very foot of Mount Ararat, in Erivan, where my husband was
governor for twenty-five years, and we have profound scholars among some Armenian Monks
in the Monastery of Etchmiadjene, the dwelling-place or See of the Armenian Patriarch (the
Gregorian). It is but a few verstes from Erivan. Abieh, the well-known geologist and
archeologist of the Russian government, used to say that he got his most precious information
from Nerses, the late Patriarch. In the garden of the very house we lived in was an enormous
column, a ruin from the palace of Tyridates, all covered with inscriptions, about which the
Russian government did not care much. I had them all explained by a monk of Nerses. I have
reasons to think the Akkadians came from India. The Bible mandrakes were never understood
in their Cabbalistic meaning. There is a Kabbala older than the Chaldean. Oannes has never
been traced to his origin; but, of course, I cannot, at least I must not, give to the world its
meaning. Your article on the Androgynes is splendid. I did not dare write it in my book. I
think the Amazons were Androgynes and belong to one of the primitive cycles. You do not
prove them historically, do you?
I will certainly admit your suggestion as to Job. I see you have more of Cabbalistic
intuition than I thought possible in one not initiated. As to the chapter of explanation about the
Hierophants, the Florsedim and others, please suggest where it ought to come in and what it
should cover. It seems to me that it will he difficult for me to explain what I am not allowed to,
or say anything about the exoteric part what intelligent people do not already know. I am a
Thibetian Buddhist, you know, and pledged myself to keep certain things secret. They have
the original Book of Yasher and some of the lost

--- 602.

manuscripts mentioned in the Bible, such as the Book of War, as you knew, perhaps, in the old
place. I will write to General Kauffman one of these days to Teschkeut, where he is General
Governor for the last ten years, and he can get me all the copies and translations from the old
manuscripts I want. Isn't it extraordinary that the government (Russian) does not care more
about them than it does? Whereto do you trace the lost tribes of Israel?
I suppose I gave you the headache by this time, so I close; I will forward you Saturday
the last chapters of the Second Part if I can, but this part is not finished yet and I want your
advice as to how to wind it up.
Truly and respectfully yours,
H. P. Blavatsky

Note - Perhaps there should be some reply made here to these inquiries, though it seems
hardly in keeping. It is true that Herodotus states that the Phoenicians came from the country
of the Red or Erythrean Sea, which washes Arabia.
Mr. J. D. Baldwin classifies them as "Cushites," in which race he includes the Arabians
and the dominant dark people of India, but not the African tribes. The Cushites of Asia are the
Ethiopians of classic times. Although the Phoenicians were styled Kaphts by the Egyptians,
and the Philostians are said to have migrated from Kaphta, it has been quite common to identify
the Phoenicians with the Canaanites of the Bible. Whether anciently the Jews were of the same
people, there must have been a close relation, and we find in the Bible that no exception was
taken to intermarriage till the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Probably the type was established
subsequent to that period. "Ephraim is a Canaanite," says the prophet; "deceitful balances are
in his hand, and he loveth to oppress."
I think that Godfrey Higgins and Moor in the "Pantheon" denominated the figure a
"Buddha" and negro, that Mme. Blavatsky describes as Krishna. True, Krishna had another
name, and this term signifies black. But when India is named, it is not definitely certain how
far it extended, or differed from the Asiatic Ethiopia. The Akkadians may have come from that
part of Asia; the term signifies

--- 603.

Highlands. But the Chaldeans, their supposed successors, are called Kasdim. In the Bible
Xenophon wrote of Chaldeans, natives of Armenia.
------------

The ensuing autumn and winter I delivered a course of lectures in a medical college in
New York. This brought me from Newark several times each week and gave me an
opportunity to call at the place on West Forty-seventh Street if there was occasion.
During the season previous Baron de Palm had died in Roosevelt Hospital. He was on
intimate terms with the family group in West Forty-seventh Street, and had received necessary
attentions from them during his illness. Whatever he possessed of value he bestowed upon
them, but with the pledge or condition that his body should be cremated. This was a novel, not
to say a shocking idea, to people generally. There was but one place for such a purpose in the
United States. Dr. Francis Le Moyne had constructed it at Washington, in Western
Pennsylvania. He was an old-time abolitionist, when this meant social proscription, and in
1844 was the candidate for the Liberty Party for Vice-President. He had advanced views on the
disposal of the dead and had built the crematory for himself and family. The arrangements
were made for the cremation of the body of the deceased Baron, as soon as winter had come to
permit its transportation from New York. Colonel Olcott had charge of the matter. Being a
"newspaper man" and rather fond of display, he induced a large party to go with him to see the
first cremation in America. This was the introduction of this practice into this country.
During his absence I called at the house on Forty-seventh Street, but my ringing was not
answered. I then wrote a note stating my errand. Madame Blavatsky answered at once as
follows:

My Dear Doctor:
Now, that's too bad, but I really think you must have rung the wrong bell. I did not go
out of the house for the last two months, and the servant is always in the kitchen until half-past
nine or ten. Why did you not pull all the bells one after the other? Well, you must come

--- 604.

Monday - as you have to come to town, and stop over till Tuesday. You can attend your
College and sleep here the same, can't you? And Olcott will be back to talk your law business
with you; but if you want something particular, or have some law affairs which are pressing,
why don't you go to Judge, to 71 Broadway, Olcott's and Judge's office. Judge will attend to
anything you want. He is a smart lawyer, and a faithful true friend to all of us. But of course
you know better yourself how to act in your own business. Olcott will be home by Friday night
I think. I could not go, though they expect me there today. To tell you the truth, I do not see
the fun of spending $40.00 or $50.00 for the pleasure of seeing a man burnt. I have seen
burnings of dead and living bodies in India sufficiently.
Bouton is an extraordinary man. He says to Olcott that it is for you to decide whether it
will be one or two volumes, etc., and you tell me he needs no estimate of yours! He told you
"how to go to work." Can't you tell us what he told you? It is no curiosity, but business. As I
am adding all kind of esoteric and other matter in Part II, I would like to know what I can write,
and on what subjects I am to shut my mouth. It is useless for me to labor if it is all to be cut
out. Will you please, dear doctor, tell me what I have to do? I am of your opinion about
Inman; but facts are facts. I do not go against Christianity, neither against Jesus of Nazareth.
I simply go for the skulls of theologians. Theology is neither Christianity nor religion. It is
human and blasphemous flapdoodle. I suppose any one understands it. But how can I make a
parallel between heathen or pagan worship and the Christian unless I give facts? It is facts and
scientific discovery which kills exoteric and fetish-worshiping Christianity, not what Inman or
I can say. But laying Inman aside, read "Supernatural Religion" which had in less than 18
months six editions in England. The book is written by a Bishop, one of the most learned
Theologians of the Church of England. Why he kills divine Revelation and dogmas and
Gospels and all that.
Believe me, Dr. Wilder, a little and cowardly abuse will kill a book; a courageous and
sincere criticism of this hypocritical, lying, dirty crew - Catholic Clergy - will help to sell the
book. I leave the Protestants and other Christian religions nearly out of question. I only

--- 605.

go for Catholics. A pope who calls himself the Viceregent of God on earth, and openly
sympathizes with the Turks against the unfortunate Bulgarian Christians, is a Cain - a fiend;
and if the French Liberal papers themselves publicly abuse him, Bouton must not fear that the
book will be prevented in its sale because I advise the old Antichrist, who has compared
himself for the last two years with all the Prophets of the Bible and with the "slain Lamb"
himself - if I advise him moreover, to compare himself, while he is at work, to Saul; the
Turkish Bashi-Bazook to David; and the Bulgarians to the Philistines. Let him, the old cruel
Devil promise the Bashi-Bazook (David) his daughter the Popish Church (Michal) in marriage
if he brings him 100 foreskins of the Bulgarians.
I have received letters from home. My aunt sends me a piece of poetry by the famous
Russian author and poet - J. Tourgeneff. It was printed in all the Russian papers, and the
Emperor has forbidden its publication from consideration (and politics I suppose) for old
Victoria. My aunt wants me to translate it and have it published here in the American
newspapers, and most earnestly she appeals for that I cannot write poetry. God knows the
trouble I have with my prose. But I have translated every line word for word (eleven quatrains
in all). Can you put them in verses so as to preserve the rhyme and rhythm, too? It is a
splendid and thrilling thing entitled "Crocket at Windsor," the idea being a vision of the Queen,
who looks upon a crocket game and sees the balls chased by the mallet, transformed into
rolling heads of women, girls and children tortured by the Turks. Goes home; sees her dress
all covered with gore, calls on the British rivers and waters for help to wash out the stain, and
hears a voice answered, "No, Majesty no, this innocent blood," - "You can never wash out -
nevermore," etc.
My dear Doctor, can you do me a favor to write me half a page or so of a "Profession of
faith," to insert in the first page or pages of Part II? Just to say briefly and eloquently that it is
not against Christ or the Christ-religion that I battle. Neither do I battle against any sincere,
true religion, but against theology and Pagan Catholicism. If you write me this I will know
how to make variations on this theme without becoming guilty of false notes in your eyes and
the sight of

--- 606.

Bouton. Please do; you can do it in three minutes. I see that none of your symbologists,
neither Payne Knight, King, Dunlap, Inman, nor Higgins, knew anything about the truths of
initiation. All is exoteric superficial guess work with them. 'Pon my word, without any
compliment, there's Taylor alone and yourself, who seem to grasp truth intuitionally. I have
read with the greatest pleasure your edition of the "Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries!" You
are right. Others know Greek better, but Taylor knew Plato thousand times better; and I have
found in your short fragments much matter which for the life of me I do not know where you
could have learned it. Your guesses are so many hits right on the true spot. Well, you ought to
go East and get initiated.
Please come on Monday. I will have a bed ready for you Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday,
and I will be expecting you to dinner all these days. If you cannot come until Monday, do tell
me what instructions Bouton gave you, and what are the precise orders for mutilations, will
you?
Esoterically yours in true Platonism,

H. P. Blavatsky

(The Word, vol. 7, June, 1908, pp. 148-55)

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

MADAME BLAVATSKY IN INDIA


LETTER FROM AGRA
To Alexander Wilder, M.D.

The little company of emigrants from New York became established at Bombay and
began the promulgation of their doctrines. At this period they were en rapport with the Swami
Dayananda, and

--- 607.

allied their movement with the Arya Samaj; a step which they were compelled later to retrace.
Whatever the merits of either, it could not be accordant with the nature of things, that two
enterprises, begun with individuals of different social and educational experiences should
affiliate and interflow harmoniously. Hence the two leaders failed to unite permanently, and
their associates drifted apart. The aim of the Swami was evidently to restore the proper
understanding of the Vedas, and it would be no marvel that he should regard himself as the
superior to all others and require deference accordingly. The Theosophical movement was
more catholic and assumed to permit a broad latitude in personal opinions, as well as freedom
from everything like the yoke of a religious autocrat. "Not that we have dominion over your
faith," wrote the Christian Apostle, "but are helpers of your joy."
It was in April, while this alliance was still in operation and the Theosophical party had
got at work, that Madame Blavatsky and her companions set out on a succession of visits to
various shrines and consecrated places, in western Hindustan. They journeyed first to the cave-
temple of Karli, and afterward, returning to Bombay, made a second tour northerly into the
country of the Rajpoots. Some particulars of these jaunts were given me, in private letters, of
which I regret to say only the first appears to have remained. I notice that she has given a more
elaborate account in Letters to a Russian periodical; perhaps restricting me to what I could
bear. It cannot be disputed that her descriptive powers were most excellent. She has
embellished the Russian letters to a degree quite beyond what she did to me. But for this there
were good reasons. She was writing in a more familiar language to a larger audience where her
effort would be appreciated.
The following was the first letter that I received directly from her after her arrival in India
from New York. I have taken the liberty to annotate it in several places, to enable it to be
better understood.

--- 608.

Visits to Sacred Places

Agra, April 28, 1879

My dear Doctor, my very dear friend:

How I do regret that you are not with us! How often I think of you, and wonder whether
the whole of your archeological and poetical soul would not jump out in fits of rapture were
you but to travel with us now, instead of squatting with your legs upon the ceiling, no doubt, in
your cold room of Orange street! Here we are traveling for this last month by rail, bullock-cart,
elephant, camel and bunder boat, stopping from one to three days in every town, village and
port; seeing subterranean India, not the upper one, and - part and parcel in the archaic ages of
Manu, Kapilas and Aryanism.
True, ever since the beginning of March we are being toasted, baked and roasted. The
sun is fierce, and the slightest breeze sends waves of red hot air, puffs like from a baking
furnace, full into your face and throat, and suffocates you at every step. But oh! for the
ineffable coolness and glory of the mornings and after sunset here. The moon of America, is at
best, when compared with that of India, like a smoky olive-oil lamp.
We get up at four and go to bed at nine. We travel more by night and in the morning and
afternoons. But I want to tell you something of our traveling. I will skip the landscape parts of
it, and stop only at the ruins of old cities and spots, deemed ancient already, during the
Macedonian invasion - if there ever was one - by the historians in Alexander's suite.
First of all, we went to Randallat (Dekkan Plateau) to the Karli caves, cut in the heart of
the living rock on the brow of the mountain, and, as the English archeologists generally
concede - the chief cave - the largest as well as the most complete hitherto discovered in India
"was excavated at a time when the style was in its greatest purity." The English want us to
believe that it was excavated not earlier than the era of Salivahana, about A.D. 75; and the
Brahmans tell us that it was the first temple dedicated to Devaki; the Virgin in India.1 It is
hewn upon the face of the precipice, about eight hundred feet above the plain on which are
scattered the most ancient Buddhist

--- 609.

temples (of the first period of Buddhism about the age of Asoka). This alone would prove that
the Karli temple is more ancient than 75 A.D.; for in their hatred toward the Buddhists, the
Brahmans would have never selected for their Temple a spot in such close proximity to those
of their enemies. "Never," says one of their Purans, "never build a holy shrine without first
ascertaining that for twenty kosses (two miles) around, there is no place belonging to the
Nosties (atheists)." 2
The first temple, after having passed a large entrance-portico, fifty-two feet wide with
sculptured figures and three colossal elephants barring the way, is dedicated to Siva, and must
be of later date. It is of oblong form and reminds strikingly of a Catholic cathedral. 3

-----------
1. The "authorities" are not altogether clear, and the matter is by no means beyond
controversy. One legend describes the Emperor of India, Vikramaditya, as having learned of
the infant Salivahana, born of a virgin, simultaneously with Jesus at Bethlehem, and as being
slain by him when on an expedition to destroy the young child, then in his fifth year.
Salivahana was immediately crowned at Oujein. This was the time of the beginning of the
present era; and Salivahana is said to have left the earth in the year 79. Major Wilford
explains that this name signifies "borne upon a tree."
The account generally accepted relates that when Kali was about to destroy the world,
Vishnu made an avatar or descent for its salvation. He became the son of Vasudeva and
Devaki. The King, Kansa, having commanded to destroy all male infants born at that time, he
was carried away and placed with a foster-mother in another country. Hence Devaki is revered
as Mother of the God. - A.W.
2. The government of Magadha or Northern India had fallen into the possession of the
Maurya monarchs, belonging to the Sudra caste. King Chandragupta was allied to seleukos,
and his successor Piyadarsi was the prince known to us as Asoka. Having embraced
Buddhism, this prince labored zealously to disseminate the doctrines, not only over India, but
to other countries, clean to Asia Minor and Egypt. The cave-temples, however, were
constructed by older
-----------
--- 610.

It is one hundred and twenty-six feet long and forty-six broad, with a circular apse. The
roof, dome-like, rests on forty-one gigantic pillars with rich and magnificent sculptured figures.
As you can see in Fergusson's Cave-Temples, the linga is a dome surmounted by a wooden
chattar or umbrella, under which used to sit the Maharaj-Hierophant, and judge his people. The
linga is evidently empty inside, and used to be illuminated from within during the initiation
mysteries (this is esoteric, not historical), and must have presented an imposing sight.
I know that it has a secret passage inside leading to immense subterranean chambers, but
no one as yet has been able to find out the outward entrance. Tradition says that the
Mussulmans, looking out for the pagoda-treasures, had once upon a time destroyed some
masonry around the linga in order to penetrate into it. But lo! there
began creeping out of it gigantic ants and snakes by the million, who

---------------
sovereigns, but the Brahmans often seized the sanctuaries of other worships and made them
their own. - A.W.
3. Fergusson agrees with this description. In his treatise on "Architecture" he remarks:
"The building resembles to a very great extent an early Christian Church in its arrangements,
consisting of a nave and side aisles terminating in an apse of side-dome round which the aisle is
carried; its arrangements and dimensions are very similar to those of the choir of Norwich
cathedral."
General Furlong, while accepting the theory of the later origin of the structure, considers
the temples at Karli as at the first Buddhistic, adding the significant fact that Buddhism itself
appropriated the shrines and symbology of earlier worships. In confirmation of this the Rev.
Dr. Stevenson, writing for the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," insists that the worship of
Siva was "an aboriginal superstition," which Brahmanism had adopted, but imperfectly
assimilated. The rock-temples appear to have belonged to this worship, but there is no account
or tradition of their construction, and Mr. J.D. Baldwin ascribes them to an earlier population.
- A.W.
---------------
--- 611.

attacked the invaders, and, having killed many of them, who died in fearful tortures, the
Mussulmans hurried to repair the damage done and retired.

A Shrine of the Sakti


Right above this temple are two stories more of temples to which one has to climb
acrobat-like, or be dragged upward. All the face of the ghaut 4 (mountain) is excavated, and the
neighboring temple is dedicated to Devaki. Passing on: after having passed a subterranean
tank full of water, and mounted four dilapidated steps to a balcony with interior rock benches
and four pillars, one enters into a large room full of echoes because surrounded by eleven small
cells, all sculptured.
In this first hall is the cut-out image of Devaki. The goddess sits with legs apart and very
indecently, according to profane persons who are unable to understand the symbol. A thin
stream of water from the rock threads down from between the legs of the lady, - representing
the female principle. 5 The water dropping down into a small crevice in the stone floor, is held
sacred. Pilgrims - I have watched them for hours, for we passed two days and slept in this
temple - came, and with folded hands having prostrated themselves before the Devaki, plunge
their fingers into this water, and then touch with it their forehead, eyes, mouth and breast. Tell
me what difference can we perceive between this and the R. Catholic worshiping their Virgin
and crossing themselves with holy water.

------------
4. A ghaut is a "bluff" near a body of water, rather than a mountain. - A.W.
5. This description indicates that, not Devaki, the mother of Krishna, but Uma, Maya or
Prakriti, the Sakti or consort of Siva, was the divinity here honored. It may be that the
Brahmans, appropriating an archaic sanctuary to their own religion, named the divinity anew,
but it was the Sakti plainly enough. It is stated by Mr. Keane that a similar figure, known as
the Sheelah-na-gig is found in the Tara cemetery, and other sacred places in Ireland.
------------
--- 612.
I cannot say that we felt very secure while sleeping on that balcony, without windows or
doors, with nothing between us and the tigers who roam there at night. Fortunately, we were
visited that night only by a wild cat which climbed the steep rock to have a look at us, or rather
at our chickens, perhaps.

Northward to Allahabad
Returning through Bombay, we went to Allalhabad, eight hundred and forty-five miles
from Bombay the ancient Pragayana of the Hindus, and held sacred by them, as it is built at the
confluence of the Ganges and Jumna rivers. One of Asoka's columns is yet in the centre of
Akbar's Fort. 6 But it was so hot - one hundred and forty-four degrees in the sum - that we ran
away to Benares, five hours distant from there.

Benares, The Holy City


There's much to see in ancient Kasika, the sacred. It is the Rome of Hindu pilgrims, as
you know. According to the latest statistics there are five thousand temples and shrines in it.
Conspicuous among all is the great Durga Temple, with its celebrated tanks. Amid temples and
palaces and private buildings, all the roofs and walls and cornices are strung round and covered
with sacred monkeys. Thousands of them infest the city. They grin at one from the roofs,
jump through one's legs, upset passers-by, throw dirt at one's face, carry away your hats and
umbrellas, and make one's life miserable. They are enough to make you strike your
grandmother. Olcott's spectacles were snatched from his nose and carried away into a precinct
which was too sacred for a European to get into. And so, good-bye eyeglasses.

--------------
6. Akbar was a Moghul monarch who came to the throne of Mahommedan India, about
three centuries ago. Disgusted with the cruelties and arbitrary requirements of the Koran, he
made himself familiar with other beliefs, finally adopting a mystic theism. His long reign was
peaceful and prosperous, and he is gratefully remembered.
-------------
--- 613.

Cawnpur and the Massacre


From thence to Cawnpur, the city of Nana Sahib, the place where seventy-eight English
people were murdered during the Mutiny, and thrown by him into a well. Now a magnificent
marble monument, a winged angel, presumably a female, stands over it; and no Hindu is
allowed inside!! The garden around is lovely, and the inscription on the tombs of the
slaughtered ones admirable. "Thou will not, O Lord," says one of them from Joel (I don't
remember verbatim) "allow the heathen to prevail over thy people," - or something to that
effect.7 The heathen are termed "criminal rebels" on every tomb!
Had the "heathen" got rid of their brutal invaders in 1857, I wonder how they would have
termed them. The sweet Christians, the followers of the "meek and lowly Jesus" made at that
time Hindus innocent of this particular Cawnpur murder, to wash the blood-soaked floors of the
barracks by licking the blood with their tongues, (historical). But people insolent enough to
prefer freedom to slavery will be always treated as rebels by their captors. O vile humanity,
and still viler civilization!
I will not stop to tell you of the beautiful avenues of centenarian trees full of monkeys
above and fakirs below, neither of the Ganges with its blue waters and crocodiles. But I remind
you of the ancient city mentioned in the Mahabarata near which took place all the fights
between the Solar race and the Lunar. 8 The ruins of that city are four miles from Cawnpur,
whole miles of fortresses and temples and palaces with virgin forests growing out of the rooms,
and monkeys again on the top of every stone. We went there on a she-elephant called "active
Peri" (Tchamchoala Pari). Can't say that the ride on its back gives you any foretaste of the joys
of heaven. There was no howda on it, and I for one, sitting on her tail, which she lovingly
twirled

-----------
7. Probably Joel, ii., 19: "I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen."
8. The Solar and Lunar races were Aryan alike. The Lunar peoples repudiated the Solar
divinities or relegated them to a subordinate rank.
-----------
--- 614.

around my legs, felt every moment a sensation something between sea-sickness and a fall
during a nightmare. Olcott was perched on her left ear; Scott, a fellow of ours, a new convert,
on the other; and Moolja Thecheray on her back. But the elephant was the securest vehicle and
guide in such a journey. With her trunk she broke all the boughs before us, drove away the
monkeys, and supported us when one of us was going to fall. We were half smashed, yet
arrived safely to the ruins and landed near the cave of a holy sannyasi, called Lucky Brema, an
astrologer, theurgist, thaumaturgist, etc., etc., another fakir just exhumed and resuscitated after
a few months' sojourn in his grave, where he hibernated for lack of anything better to do. I
suppose he prophesied all manner of evils to us for not believing in his idols, and so we
departed. But the ruins must be five thousand years old, and they are pretty well historical.

The Taj Mahal


At Agra we saw Taj Mahal, that "poem in marble," as this tomb is called; and really it is
the wonder of the age. The builder of it boasted that there was not one inch of either stone,
wood or metal in this construction, which is truly gigantic - all pure marble and carved into an
open fret-work like a piece of lace. It is enormous in size; sublime as an architectural
conception grand and appalling. In Agra, this dirtiest of all towns, with its half-ruined huts of
dried cow-dung, it looks like a magnificent pearl on a heap of manure.

Honors Bestowed by Maharajas


We visited in Rajpootana, Bhurtpur and Jeypur, two independent States. The Maharajas
sent us their carriages, runners, horsemen with banners, and elephants. I imagined myself the
Empress of Delhi. We went to Deeg, near Bhurtpur - something like the garden of
Semiramis,9 with six hundred and sixty-three fountains and jets, and the marble palace,
four halls, pavilions,

----------
9. Probably the hanging gardens of the Median queen of Nebuchadnezzar.
----------
--- 615.
temples, etc., the palace, covering an area of two square miles, and with the garden, four. It
was built by Suraj Mull Sing, three hundred and fifty years ago. But the old palace is two
hundred years old. It is the place where a Rani (queen), seeing the Mussulmans ready to enter
the fortress, assembled ten thousand women and children, and all her treasures, and burned
herself and the rest in the sight of the invading army.

Jeypur, the Paris of India - The Bhuts


From there we went to Jeypur, the "Paris of India" it is called. It is indeed a Paris, as to
the beauty and magnificent symmetry of its squares and streets, but it looks like a Paris of red
sugar candy. Every house and building is of a dark pink color with white marble cornices and
ornaments. All is built in the Eastern style of architecture. It was built by Jey Sing, the adept
and astrologer; and his observatory, occupying an enormous palace with immense court-yards
and towers, is full of machinery, the name and use of which is entirely forgotten.
People are afraid to approach the building. They say it is the abode of Bhuts, or spirits,
and that they descend every night from Bhutisvara (a temple of Siva, called the "Lord of the
Bhuts" or "spirits" or demons, as the Christians translate, overlooks the town from the top of a
mountain thirty-eight hundred feet high), and play at astronomers there.
A magnificent collection of over forty tigers is right on a square, a public thoroughfare in
the middle of the town. Their roaring is heard miles off.

Ambair and Archaic Ruins


We went on the Raja's elephants to Ambair, the ancient city and fortress taken by the
Rajpoots from the Minas, 500 years, B.C. The first view of Ambair brings the traveler into a
new world. Nothing can surpass its gloomy grandeur, solidity, the seeming impregnability of
the Fort circumscribing the town for twelve miles round and extending over seven hills. It is
deserted now for over twelve generations; centenarian trees grow in its streets and squares;
its

--- 616.

tanks and lees are full of alligators. But there is an indescribable charm about the beautiful,
forsaken town, alone, like a forgotten sentry in the midst of wilderness, high above the
picturesque valley below. Hills covered with thick brushwood, the abode of tigers, are
crowned with ramparts, and towers and castles all around the ruined city.
The ruined heap of Kuntalgart is considered to be three thousand years old. Higher still
is the shrine and temple of Bhutisvara (of "unknown age," as the English prudently say). Read
Bishop Heber's enthusiastic narrative of Ambair or Amberi.
The palace of Dilaram Bagh is another miracle in marble, preserved because kept
restored. Its innumerable halls, private apartments, terraces, towers, etc., are all built of
marble. Some rooms have ceilings and walls inlaid with mosaic work, and lots of looking-
glasses and vari-colored marbles. Some walls are completely carved lace-work-like again
through and through; and the beauty of the design is unparalleled. Long passages, three and
four hundred yards long, descend and ascend sloping without steps, and are marble also, though
entirely dark. The bath-halls, inlaid with colored marble, remind one of the best baths of old
Rome, but are vaster and higher. There are curious nooks and corners and secret passages and
old armor and old furniture, which can set crazy an antiquarian.
The Rajpoots
Remember, Todd 10 assures us that the Rajpoots trace their lineage backward without one
single break for over two thousand and eighty years; that they knew the use of fire-arms in the
third century, if I mistake not. 11 It is a grand people, Doctor; and their history is one of the
most sublime poems of humanity; nay, by its virtues and heroic deeds it is one of the few
redeeming ones in this world of dirt.

-----------
10. In his great work on Rajasthan.
11. This statement is confirmed by several ancient classic writers.
-----------
--- 617.

The Rajpoots 12 are the only Indian race whom the English have not yet disarmed: they dare
not. When you see a Rajpoot nobleman, he reminds you of the Italian, or rather the Provencal
medieval Barons or troubadours. With his long hair, whiskers and mustaches brushed upward,
his little white or colored toga, long white garments, and his array of pistols, guns, bow and
arrows, long pike, and two or three swords and daggers, and especially the shield of rhinoceros
skin on which their forefather, the Sun, shines adorned with all his rays, he does look
picturesque, though he does look at the same time as a perambulating store of arms of every
epoch and age.
No foreigner is allowed to live in Jeypur. The few that are settled there live out of town
but permission is obtained to pass whole days in examining the curiosities of the town. We
have several "Fellows" of the Theosophical Society among Rajpoots, and they do take
seriously to Theosophy. They make a religion of it. Your signature on the diplomas is now
scattered all over Rajpootana.
And now I guess you have enough of my letter. I must have wearied you to death. Do
write and address Bombay, 108 Girgam Back Road. I hope this letter will find you in good
health. Give my cordial salutations to Bouton and ask him whether he would publish a small
pamphlet or book "Voyage" or "Bird's Eye View of India," or something to this effect. I could
publish curious facts about some religious sects here.
Missionaries do nothing here. In order to obtain converts they are obliged to offer
premiums and salaries for the lifetime of one who would accept the "great truths of
Christianity." They are nuisances and off color here. My love to Mrs. Thompson if you see
her. Olcott's love to you,
Yours ever sincerely,

H. P. Blavatsky

We are going Northward to Lahore and Amritsir.

-------------
12. The term Rajpoot signifies man of royal descent. The
-------------
--- 618.
The next place of destination was Lahore. I received a letter
as interesting and unique as this. Mme. B. next became engaged in the publication of The
Theosophist and her letters took a different turn. They have not been preserved.

(The Word, vol. 7, pp. 203-13.)

-----------
other designations of this caste, are Kshathriya, Rajauya and Rajbausi, all denoting royal
association. After the Aryan invaders of India had begun to devote themselves to husbandry
and the arts of civilized life, the military class remained apart and became a distinct caste and
people. Like the princes of Assyria they are altogether kings and kingly.
-----------

[There is a facsimile included here of a previous letter of Blavatsky to Wilder. The Word
Editor Harold Percival writes: "We intended to reproduce in facsimile the first and last pages
of Madame Blavatsky's letter from Agra and printed in this number. The reproduction was
made impossible because the letter is written with violet ink on green paper and could,
therefore, not be photographed. This was not considered until too late. We therefore present a
facsimile of the letter published in the last number of 'The Word.'"]

-----------------
--- 619.

ALEXANDER WILDER
by Harold. W. Percival

The autobiographical notes of Alexander Wilder, which ended in the last issue of "The
Word," place before us many of the important events of his life. True to Dr. Wilder’s nature,
the notes are straightforward and bear the stamp of sincerity and honesty. They give the facts
as they were, without any attempt at exaggeration or embellishment. Throughout the notes
there is a quaint charm and beauty in the Doctor's natural sincerity and simple honesty. They
remind those who knew him, of many of the incidents of his life, of the charm of his simplicity
of nature and directness of expression. Dr. Wilder's life is an example of the ability of man to
live through difficulties, endure hardships and overcome obstacles. His life is another evidence
that however environment, circumstances and position, together with human influences may
tend to suppress or hold back the mind from its expression and development, the mind will
nevertheless not be suppressed but will according to its capacity find a way to extricate itself
from such conditions and grow into an atmosphere which will allow it more freedom for its
inherent inclinations, ambitions and aspirations. The present age has produced numerous
examples of men who would not be suppressed by circumstance and environment, who would
not be held back from their natural bent nor forced into channels which they themselves did not
select, but who, feeling an impulse to pursue paths different from those which were customary,
cut out new paths for themselves, engaged in new fields of endeavor, established records of
progress and won new victories in various fields of work and thought. Such men were those
who made civilization what it is, who changed the rating of time, shortened distances, brought
people closer together and established a nearer relationship between mankind. Each man

--- 620.

with inherent power pursues his own path and gives expression to what is within him. It is
because of the power of expression and the ability to express, that we have in the world today
the printing press, and the applied sciences.
Dr. Wilder had inherent power which caused him to grow out of his limited environment
into a wider and loftier atmosphere of thought. His inclinations were not along commercial
lines. He possessed neither the shrewdness of mind nor the instinct to show him how to get the
best of a bargain. The lack of these unfitted him for commercial pursuits. Had he possessed
them, Dr. Wilder, with his clearness of thought, power of expression, and with his range of
knowledge and acquaintance with the sciences, might have been one of the directing powers of
modern times. This is an intensely practical age, an age of success, which builds, reduces,
weaves, grinds everything into dollars. One to be successful in this age must fulfill the demand
of the age, that, in addition to ability and accomplishments, he must know what a dollar is
worth, must know how to work a dollar, and, must have a working knowledge of human nature
and of the applied science of human nature. That is to say, a man must be a worker of men and
a worker of money. If he has these talents he is chosen and inspired by the spirit of the age as
its representative or one of its captains, and he is beloved by those who are in love with or
possessed by the spirit of the age.
The Doctor did not have these talents. The successful priest or preacher is not the most
learned nor religious man, but the one who can attract the largest audience, stir them up, make
them fill the contribution boxes, donate large sums to and remember the church in their wills.
The successful physician is the one who can patch and fix-em-quick by a hurry cure, or lead
them along carefully and fearfully through a difficult and dangerous illness, with the drugs and
assistants and consultations made necessary by the dignity of the occasion and the nature and
desire of the patient. The doctor who says that little medicine is needed and who will only let
nature repair the damages done, is likely to lose his patient because the patient cannot see what
he is getting for his money. The successful traders, speculators, journalists, artists, authors,
are so many industrial

--- 621.

captains of finance who, by their strategy, marshal their knowledge and their wares into the
field and win in the battle for dollars.
Dr. Wilder either did not understand or would not play the game of dollars. He knew
what a dollar was worth - if he didn't have it. He knew how to work for a dollar, but did not
know how to make a dollar work. He did not know how to turn one dollar into two. He had an
intimate knowledge of human nature - he worked with men and for men - but he either could
not or would not work human nature for gain. Dr. Wilder did not possess the modern talents of
success. He was not possessed nor inspired by the spirit of the commercial age. So he lived
through it without being envied by those who worship success, though his place among men
found for him the admiration and esteem of men in public affairs, the regard of men of letters
and of science, and the love of those who knew him intimately. His wide learning and
readiness to put it to the service of others, his sincerity of purpose and honesty in thought and
action, together with his unflagging energy, interest in affairs and his lofty ideals, commanded
the honor and respect of all and endeared him to most men who knew him.
We have learned that Dr. Wilder was born eighty-six years ago, in Western New York,
that his father was a farmer, who had a large family, and that his opportunities were restricted.
Most people forget their first memory in life; some never consider it worth while to think of
first memories. Yet much may be learned from them. "My earliest recollection," says the
Doctor, "is that of being seated in a little arm chair before the fire, and sadly gazing into it." A
strange awakening to physical life. The birth of one's body into the world is not the birth of the
mind. The first years of the child are like a sleep to the mind. There must come an awakening,
when the mind first becomes aware of the outside or inside physical world, even though by so
awakening it may forget the other world from which it came and where it was conscious. Each
one may ask himself the question: "How far back do I remember?" His age in this world
begins from that time. Dr. Wilder was older than most people who die at his age. Fire was the
thing that waked him. And he was sad. Anyone may experience somewhat of how the Doctor
felt, by looking into a log fire after twilight

--- 622.

some November evening and he, too, will feel - though he may not see what the Doctor saw.
The Doctor had a good deal to do with fire in his life. He wrote many articles about it and
lived in it part of the time, as many people do. But unlike most people, the Doctor often knew
what it meant and did not scream when it burned. In fact, the world did not know when he was
burned because he did not scream, as most people do, though he was almost always better for
having passed through the fire.
In 1826, some time after the fire incident and about three years after little Alexander
Wilder was born, he relates, he was taken to the Sunday school in his village, Verona, where
the superintendent distributed books to the other children, but, as he could not read and was so
small, the superintendent gave him "a card on which were printed the alphabet and simple
lessons in spelling. I kept hold of that card tenaciously," writes the Doctor, and, "with some
help from brothers and sisters, learned the letters and how to sound them." He continues:
"Having no further use of the card, I then destroyed it." This must have been a marked
characteristic of the Doctor throughout his life. He repeatedly told me that a thing was good to
the degree that it was useful. If a thing was not useful, it was an encumbrance. This did not
mean that he would ruthlessly destroy a thing which he did not need, or that he had no regard
for that which another had. Money, food, books, ornaments, works of art, were useful and
good if they were of benefit to the body, or would aid in educating, developing and elevating
the mind, otherwise they were worthless, useless.
In 1828, when he was four and a half years old, young Alexander began his school life.
But "Alick was smart," so they said, and three years later, at seven, his teacher demanded that
another book be procured for him because he had learned "Willett's Geography" by heart. So
they gave him "Lindley Murray's English Grammar" as a substitute. He thrived well on it. The
style of that old grammar may be found here and there through the Doctor's writings.
Those who dwell in large cities and who are acquainted with the present school system,
can hardly appreciate what the "Deestrik Skool" was - and still is in some parts - in a little
village "up state." In
--- 623.

the city, the child walks a few blocks to an imposing, up-to-date structure, enters an elevator
and is taken to the particular class room of its grade, provided with all the latest approved
books and appliances. In the country after doing "housework" or "chores" the scholars often
walk miles to the district school, which is a little box-like affair of a house of one or two rooms.
One teacher holds school and the children sit through their "hours." Then they walk home
again over the dusty or snowy roads and go to "doin' chores" again, if they are boys, or the
regulation "housework" if they are girls. Young Alexander inherited the few school books
which each of his brothers and sisters had in turn inherited from the eldest. Perhaps it is
because of the abundance of books and opportunities for learning in large cities that children do
not appear to value them as they might if these were not so available. The old family school
books to which he became heir were taken at their full value by Alexander.
The early years of Alexander Wilder possessed little of interest. His father wished to
make a farmer of him. The boy yearned to know. Farming was not disagreeable to him, but his
father's insistence made it so and it became objectionable. The boy was willing to be lead, but
would not be driven. He desired to grow and to know. This shows another trait in his
character, known to all his friends or acquaintances. They might induce him to do a thing by
gentle persuasion, but an attempt at forcing him would be met with stubborn resistance. He
would not be dominated, nor would he himself domineer over others nor dictate their actions.
He became a teacher at fifteen. "The work of instruction was to my liking and I had rare
success in communicating what I knew," writes the Doctor, "but the governing was beyond
me," he adds. "Every parent passed judgment on methods, and the children behaved in school
according as they were managed at home. Every district was in factions, and it required more
tact than a boy in his teens possessed to steer a clear course amid the breakers." People in little
country towns have strong prejudices. This boy teacher was sensitive and conscientious and
would not resort to any of the artifices to curry party favor. He was unsuited to the work. He
liked to impart and could impart what he knew, "but the governing was beyond me,"

--- 624.

he declared. The maxim: Govern others or they will govern you was unheeded by the Doctor.
Before Alexander was quite fifteen, the minister of the village, the advisory committee,
and his own parents "converted" him. It seems that their church needed recruits, and something
had to be done to get them, so they decided on what in those days was called a "protracted
meeting." This meant not one, but a set of continuous "revival" meetings which often extended
over many weeks. These "revivals" were protracted until the press service recruiting officers
saved enough of the unsaved, or until the "spirit moved them" to stop, or until their fervor ran
out. This sounds a little odd today, but in those days most parents insisted on holding
themselves responsible for their children's souls, even though they were not too particular about
their bodies. And if the parents forgot their duty, the minister did not forget his, to remind
them of it. They had their way of doing things in those days, truly, but human nature has
changed little since then, though we may not hold so many of those protracted meetings nor be
quite so sure of saving a boy's soul. The boy had just gotten over some unpleasant occurrence
in school. "It had," the Doctor writes, "been wisely adjusted and studies resumed, when this
religious interruption occurred. It was most distasteful to me. I had formed a set of opinions
for myself and desired not to be bothered. But our parents believed that opportunities for
religious impression should not be neglected, or themselves made accountable for the future of
their children after death. Conversion, in their conception would both straighten out their own
mistakes, and be of everlasting benefit to us. So against my vehement protest, I was taken from
school and perforce made attend the meetings. It took days to overcome my stubbornness, but
the endeavor was successful. I became a Presbyterian of the New School." Poor boy, he had
been preparing for the study of medicine, but now that he had been "converted," and inasmuch
as he must have an "education," he should be educated for the ministry. The pleading of his
brother succeeded where other methods would have failed. Two years later his studies were
interrupted by the disagreement of his brothers, which resulted in his leaving the church. His
natural inclinations and tendencies had been

--- 625.

so checked and suppressed by his father - who rigorously tried to fit him into the farm and
attend to his spiritual growth - that at twenty he lacked the knowledge of how to direct and
manage things, that some boys have. He says: "I was with all my experience, at twenty-one,
more simple and artless than most lads at fifteen. I excelled all my equals in book learning, but
I was far behind them in savoir faire."
Too often has a strong character been blunted or turned from its natural growth by the
well-meaning but ignorant or stupid notion of parents that the future of the child depends on
what they select for it and not on any preference of the child's. Parents may choose the
vocation for some children. Some children have no preferences other than play. A position
may be selected for such as these. But the stronger the individuality of the mind, the more it
will insist on choosing its own work in the world. The attempt of the parent to thwart the
choice of work - when the child has a choice - may result in dwarfing but not in preventing
growth.
A strong individuality brings with it into life a forgotten knowledge of its work. As soon
as the individuality shows self in the child, its effort is to find and grow into or make its own
atmosphere. The parent who has the welfare of a child at heart should try to find out what the
work of its individuality is and then to help it into its work. If a child has no preference the
parents should guide it. But parents often make sad mistakes. Sometimes they make a doctor
out of a natural butcher, turn a potential auctioneer into a statesman, a drum-major into a
general, a politician into a philosopher, a romancer into a lawyer, a hawker into an orator, a
land agent into a preacher. This may tickle the vanity of the parent, but it bodes no good to the
public.

(The Word, Vol. 9, pp. 219-25)

[The article ends "To be concluded" but was not in following issues.]

-----------------
--- 626.

WILDER BIOGRAPHY
(The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. IX, James T White & Co.,
1899)

Wilder, Alexander, physician and author, was born at Verona, Oneida co., N.Y., May 14,
1823, sixth son of Abel and Asenath (Smith) Wilder. His father (1783-1869), a native of
Petersham, Mass., was a farmer, first at St. Albans, Vt., and later at Verona, N.Y.; his mother
was a daughter of William Smith, a farmer and millwright of Barre, Mass., and a soldier in the
revolution. The Wilder genealogy may be traced in England as far back as 1490, beginning
with Nicholas Wilder, supposedly of German origin, and still has seats at Purely Hall and
Sulham Manor, Berkshire. The original American representative was Thomas Wilder, who,
with his mother, Martha, and brother, Edward Wilder, came from Lancaster, in England, to
Massachusets Bay colony in 1638. He settled first at Charlestown, where he took the freeman's
oath in 1640; and in 1652 at Lancaster (formerly Nashua), where he was a farmer and
manufacturer of potash. From him the descent runs through his son, Nathaniel Wilder, a
founder of Leominster, who was killed by the Indians in 1704; through his son, Nathaniel, a
farmer of Sterling and an early settler of Petersham; through his son, Jerahmeel, also a farmer
of Petersham; through his son, Abel, a farmer and drover of Barre, Mass., and grandfather of
Dr. Wilder. Through his mother, he is descended from Robert Smith, of Londonderry, an Irish
Presbyterian, who settled in Massachusetts shortly before the revolution; and from William
Williams, of Yarmouth, England, who settled at Salem in 1638; and is collaterally related to
the Brecks, Fullers, Boardmans, and other noted Massachusetts families. Alexander Wilder
attended the common schools until his fifteenth year, when he began teaching school and
educating himself in the higher branches of mathematics

--- 627.

and the classics, to which he added the study of French and Hebrew and political science. The
circumstances of the deaths of several of his father's family demolished his confidence in
current medical methods, and he accordingly began studies in medicine, in order to render
himself as far as possible independent of physicians. Meantime, he worked at farming and
type-setting, reading medicine with local physicians, and in 1850 was awarded a diploma by
the Syracuse Medical College. He then became a general practitioner, and for two years
lectured on anatomy and chemistry in the college. In 1852 he was employed as assistant editor
of the Syracuse "Star," and in 1853 of the "Journal"; and when, next year, the department of
public instruction was created by the legislature, he was appointed clerk. In 1856 he became
editor, first of the New York "Teacher," afterward of the "College Review"; and sojourning in
Springfield, Ill., in the winter of 1857, displayed his activity in education by preparing the
charter, still in force, of the Illinois Normal University. He located in New York city in 1857,
and became, in 1858, a member of the editorial staff of the "Evening Post," with which he was
connected for thirteen years, establishing a reputation as an expert on political and financial
matters. In 1871 he was elected alderman on the "anti-Tweed" ticket by a majority exceeding
26,000. It was his last political experience; and, on account of failing health, he, in 1873,
removed to Roseville, then a suburb of Newark, N.J., where he has since continued to reside,
engaged in educational and literary pursuits. He was president of the Eclectic Medical Society
of New York (1870-71); professor of physiology in the Eclectic Medical College (1873-77),
and professor of psychology in the U.S. Medical College (1878-83), until it went out of
existence by a decision of the courts. Dr. Wilder became, in 1876, secretary of the National
Eclectic Medical Association, and held the office until 1895, by annual re-election, meantime
editing and publishing nineteen volumes of its "Transactions," besides contributing extensively
to its literature. Loving knowledge for its own sake, he has always been a diligent student and
an almost omnivorous reader. In 1882 he attended the School of Philosophy at Concord, Mass,
and a year later took part in the organization of the American Akademe, a philosophic
society,

--- 628.

holding meetings at Jacksonville, Ill. He edited its journal for four years, contributing
monographs, entitled: "The Soul," "Philosophy of the Zoroasters," "Life Eternal," "Creation
and Evolution," and others. He also made a translation from the Greek of the "Dissertation of
Iamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians," etc., which was printed in "The Platonist."
Among his pamphlets and books are: "Later Platonists," "Paul and Plato," "The Resurrection,"
"New Platonism and Alchemy," "Mind, Thought and Cerebration, "Plea for the Collegiate
Education of Women," "The Ganglionic Nervous System," "Vaccination, a Medical Fallacy,"
"Prophetic Intuition, or the Daemon of Socrates," "History of Medicine," and "Ancient
Symbolism and Serpent Worship."

------------------
--- 629.

"FACES OF FRIENDS"

ALEXANDER WILDER, M. D.

Dr. Alexander Wilder's name is very familiar to our readers through his interesting
articles. He come from Puritan ancestry, and though he had but little education except common
school, through his own efforts he acquired a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French,
and is one of the best Greek scholars and writers on Platonic and Neo-platonic philosophy in
the country. In 1854-5 he was a clerk in the State Department of Public Institutions at Albany,
then he became editor of the New York Teacher, also of the College Journal. He was on the
staff of the N. Y. Evening Post from 1858-71, and from 1878-84 was Professor of Physiology,
Psychologic Science and Magnetic Therapeutics in the U. S. Medical College.
In 1876, at the instance of the publisher, Col. Olcott placed in Dr. Wilder's hands the
manuscript, then without a name, of "Isis Unveiled." He read it critically and without
partiality, and counselled its publication as certain to make a commotion among curious and
thinking persons.
Dr. Wilder later met Madam Blavatsky. She was then living in New York City. Dr.
Wilder describes her as follows:
"She had what I considered a Kalmuk physique, a lively expression, always something to
say that was worth hearing, and, I think, was generous with money. She was, however, very
intense in arguing. Personally I found her entertaining. She appeared to have a wide fund of
knowledge on philosophic and religious subjects, acute powers of discerning, and original ways
of thinking. One could discourse of races, ethics, opinions, discoveries and individuals, ancient
and modern, and she seemed at home in them all. To me

--- 630.

she was always courteous and obliging. She did, unasked and unwitting to me, two favors of
great importance to me which relieved me of much embarrassment. That, if there was nothing
else, would make me careful not to injure her in reputation or otherwise.
"The second season that I knew her, a curious decoration was placed in the dining-room.
It consisted of the figures of several tropical animals, wrought ingeniously with the gayly-
colored leaves of trees gathered in autumn. I remember some of them - birds, a lion, I think, an
elephant, a man and the Sivaic triangle. Col. Olcott called my attention to the circumstance
that the creatures were placed all in procession, one after the other, and no two facing. We
used to have amusement at this. I do not know but it was the procession of the Book of
Genesis, all solemnly marching toward the Ark. But I will not venture that opinion. When the
'Lamasery,' as some of the profane called it, was broken up, these were all cast out in the
rubbish. I rescued the elephant and the triangle, and have them in Newark. The wind,
however, has disfigured them.
"Madame Blavatsky did me the honor of procuring from publishers of periodicals
everything I had ventured to write and to ask me to write out my views on a variety of topics. I
found some of these things in 'Isis.' I did not write them for that purpose, but of course they
were at her service."
Dr. Wilder is the author of several brochures, e.g., "Later Platonists," "The Soul," "Mind,
Thought, Cerebration," "Life Eternal," "Ganglionic Nervous System," etc., etc,

(Universal Brotherhood, Aug., 1898)

--------------------
--- 631.

DR. ALEXANDER WILDER


- Boris De Zirkoff

Wilder, Dr. Alexander. Distinguished physician, author and Platonic scholar, b. at


Verona, Oneida Co., N.Y., May 14, 1823; d. at Newark, N.J., September 8, 1908. Descendant
of a New England family which came from Lancaster, England, to Massachusetts Bay in 1638.
Sixth son of Abel and Asenath (Smith) Wilder, and the eighth child of a family of ten.
Educated at first in the common schools of New York state. Being precocious beyond years,
started teaching school at fifteen, studying by himself the higher branches of mathematics and
the classics, to which were added later French, Hebrew and political science. The
circumstances of the deaths of several of his father's family demolished his confidence in
current medical methods, and he began studies in medicine, in order to render himself as far as
possible independent of physicians. Meantime, he worked at farming and type-setting, reading
medicine with local physicians, and was awarded in 1850 a diploma by the Syracuse Medical
College. Became then a general practitioner, lecturing for about two years on anatomy and
chemistry in the college. After several assignments as Editor of various dailies, he settled in
New York City and became, 1858, a member of the editorial staff of the Evening Post with
which he remained connected for thirteen years. Despite his repeated refusals, Dr. Wilder was
made to accept in 1873 a professorship of physiology in the Eclectic Medical College of New
York, but left there in 1877 on account of internal dissensions and dishonest practices beyond
his control. From 1878-83, he taught psychology at the U.S. Medical College, until it went out
of existence by a decision of the courts. In 1876, he became secretary of the National Eclectic
Medical Association, and held the office until 1895,

--- 632.

meantime editing and publishing nineteen volumes of its Transactions, besides contributing
extensively to its literature. However, to quote Dr. Wilder's own words: ".... my observation of
medical colleges is not favorable to them as schools of morals or as promoters of financial
probity. The more there is professed, the less it seems to be believed.... physicians boasted
loudly then, as now, of being a learned body and invoked special legislation to protect them
from competitors...." He allowed himself to become for a while a subject in such
experimentations, and had abundant reasons, as he says himself, to regret this. He was
influenced to a very considerable extent by the study of Swedenborg, and later by the writings
of General Hitchcock on Alchemy and Hermetic Philosophy. He experienced a number of
radical changes in his religious views, identified himself for a time, together with his brothers,
with several religious movements of a revivalist kind, but finally grew out of them and into a
sphere of spiritual freedom, and became an outstanding - yet, unfortunately, not well
recognized - exponent of Platonism and the Hermetic Philosophy. A strong individuality
brings with it into life a forgotten knowledge of its real work, but it takes often many years to
bring it out into the open.
In 1882, Dr. Wilder attended the School of Philosophy at Concord, Mass., and a year
later took part in the organization of the American Akademe, a philosophic society holding
meetings at Jacksonville, Ill. He edited its journal for four years, contributing many
monographs on such subjects as: "The Soul," "Philosophy of the Zoroasters," "Life Eternal,"
"Creation and Evolution," and others. He also made a translation from the Greek of the
Dissertation of Iamblichus On the Mysteries of the Egyptians (orig. publ. in The Platonist;
issued in book form in 1911 by The Metaphysical Publ. Co., New York).
Dr. Wilder wrote a number of most scholarly and illuminating articles in The Evolution, a
Journal published in New York, on such subjects as: "Bacchus the Prophet-God" (June, 1877),
"Paul, the Founder of Christianity" (Sept., 1877), "Paul and Plato," and others. He contributed
philosophical essays to The Metaphysical Magazine of New York around 1894-95, and
wrote extensively on various

--- 633.

metaphysical and Platonic subjects for The Word, from 1904 on. One of the most valuable
pamphlets issued by him is entitled New Platonism and Alchemy: A Sketch of the Doctrines
and Principal Teachers of the Eclectic or Alexandrian School; also an Outline of the Interior
Doctrines of the Alchemists of the Middle Ages (Albany, N.Y., 1869). H.P.B. quoted many
passages from the various writings mentioned above, and expressed her delight over the
attitude of Dr. Wilder towards the subjects of which they treat.
In addition to various essays on medical subjects, such as Thought, Cerebration, the
Ganglionic Nervous System, Vaccination as a medical fallacy, and others, Dr. Wilder wrote a
History of Medicine (New Sharon, Maine: New England Eclectic Publ. Co., 1901. 946 pp.
Index), and contributed invaluable Notes and Comments to special editions of the works of
other scholars, such as: Ancient Symbol-Worship by Westropp and Wake (Boston, 1874);
Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology by R. Payne Knight (New York, 1876).
Dr. Wilder contributed a good deal of material to the section of Isis Unveiled entitled
"Before the Veil," the circumstances of which are fully explained in the Introductory chapter to
the edition of that work forming an integral part of the present Series. He was a staunch friend
of both H.P.B. and Col. H.S. Olcott, and had a very high regard for their work. Dr. Wilder was
a tall man, spare of person, with a massive head and piercing eyes; he spoke fluently, was an
omnivorous reader, and possessed a remarkable memory. His many-sided writings should
some day be compiled into a uniform edition and published for the benefit of present-day
scholars who are quite unaware of his intuitive insight into so many different regions of
thought.

(Bibliography, H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, Vol. I, compiled and edited by


Boris De Zirkoff, 15 volumes.)

------------------------
--- 634.

ALEXANDER WILDER LETTER TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN

[Someone with more experience at transcribing old faded letters could probably do a
better job on this. The Letter is found in the Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, and is
online. Wilder was probably known to Lincoln from his work on the Evening Post in New
York. - Ed.]

(Confidential)

No. 222 So. 34th St.


New York, Oct. 20, 1864

Hon. Abraham Lincoln, President

Sir,
I make bold to call your attention to a subject of vital importance at the present crisis -
that of the safety of one community. I am no alarmist, but I think that the occasion demands
your earnest and careful attention. It appears to be the purpose of the political adversaries of
your administration to attempt once more the inauguration of riot and civil war here among us.
We hear it talked by them on cars, in ferry boats, and when walking in the streets. It does not
sound like "bluffing," but as the enunciation of a decided purpose.
.....? instilled the riot of 1863 and he ...? it to have been an act of preconcerted treason on
the part of "democratic" leaders, I am ready to believe that the same men are ready to repeat
their infamous conduct. The German democratic newspapers boldly declare that if you are
elected, you might not to be permitted to take your seat, and that armed revolt ought to prevent
it. We have all the premonitions of

--- 635.

trouble which were apparent last year. If mischief is contemplated, it will extend further than
this city and vicinity. And Heaven knows that is ....? secessionists and lawless men here as
numerous as in a Southern city.
I am sanguine(?) of your election by almost a unanimous electoral vote. Our State will
give you a handsome majority on the home vote if the rebel party does not deluge the ballot
boxes with specious votes as in 1862. Even New Jersey will with good luck, cast you her vote.
But the very fact that this is the last chance for the secessionists, is likely to deepen their
malignity and fix their purpose.
The Military commandant should be placed on his guard, and made to understand that
"business is meant." We want a positive ....? on watch, Gen. S's(?) I fear, is too easy. If a mob
arises it should be treated Napoleonically. .....? ....? and peaceful generally are hardly the thing
unless a M'Clellan should head them ....?. The leaders of the inflammable element are ....?: it
is your duty, sir, to cause vigilance to be observed, and decisive measures taken for
maintenance of order.
Your Second term may be more harassing than this one. The men who applaud and vote
for you will denounce your policy of finance and reorganisation. The rebel element will be fed
by them. But you have no right to shirk. I shall vote for you, support you afterward if I can
honorably do so, and I trust that you will introduce a new Era in our Country and humanity.
....? .....? at Washington are - Gen. Hitchcock, Gen. Bebb, ....? .....?, the N.Y. Sectors,
C.T. Helh.. Fenton, ....? ....?, A. C. Wilder, etc.
I think I carry a cool head and fixed purpose. What I have written I have written because
I apprehend it true.

Very truly yours,

Alexander Wilder

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

INDEX

Aesculapius (Asklepios) - 397-400, 407-9


Alchemy - 282-3, 286-310; is symbolic 293-7, 303-4
Alexandria - 356-7
Alexandrian school - 13-16, 26-7
Ammonius Sakkas - 2-3, 10-12; and Alexandrian school 26-7; first Neo-Platonist 67-8
Appollonius - 17-18
Asceticism - 18, 20, 23
Asoka - 66; displaced Jainism 158-9
Athanaeos - 403
Atlantis - Plato's parable of 53-65
Avesta - 119-20, 127, 131, 132-34

Bacon, Francis - on preternatural bond between people 321-2


Blavatsky, H.P. - i-iv, viii, x, 554-65; letters to Wilder 598-618
Buddhism - 158-9; teachings in Middle East 92
Bulwer-Lytton 20-21

Cain - history behind Biblical legend 575-80


Catholic Church - persecutions by 360, 363, of Galileo 582, of Mivart 583
Chandragupta - 158
Character - 497-9
Child, Lydia Maria - 184ff
China - 136-7
Christianity - origins of Trinity doctrine 33, adopting of Egyptian customs 37-8
Chuang-tse - 142-5
Colds - 474-9
Confucius - 137-8
Cycles - of history 160-1, 177; 394, 566

Death - 251, 265


Details - attention to 550-1
Devil, Christian - in theology 219; 530
Dionysius the Areopagate - 358
Disease - 464-75; and imagination 464-8; and removal from familiar surroundings 468-71;
and usefulness 471-2; and mental attitude 472-3, 475-7; and music 478
Dreams - 90-1; problem solving in 336
Du Potet - 425

Eclectic School - against drugs 403


Ekhart - 359-60
Electricity - as principle of universe 383
Entheasm - 91-2, 256-66
Erigena - 359
Ethiopians - 180-1
Evil - problem of 219-30; personification of 220; in Zoroastrianism 221; Sokrates on 227-8
Eye - physiology 44-52, 456-7, 459; and color 454-6; and light 455

Flagellants - 205-6
Franklin, Benjamin - 588-93

Galileo - 581-83; church persecution of 582-6


Ganglionic Nervous System - 431-47, 539-44; seat of psychic nature 438-41, 447
Gathas - 126
Geber (Giafar, Jaffar) - founder of Arabian alchemy 291-2, 297
Ghosts - 388-93; Dante's 393
Gnosis - origin of word 26fn
Gnosticism - 225
God - human creation of 263
Golden Age - 567-72

Hermes - 290
Hierokles (Herakles) - 7-8
Hindu - symbolism 185-6
Hippokrates - 401-3, 407
Hitchcock, Gen. E.A. - friend of Wilder's and alchemical writer 286-7, 289
Hypatia - 6-7, 21, 28-33; her philosophy 32, murder by Christians 6-7, 34-8

Iamblichos - 6, 17, 19-20, 85-97; student of Porphyry; Wilder Translation 87fn; wrote Life of
Pythagoras 86
Ideas - most real 523
Imagination - 520-28; visual 5-709
Insanity - 441, 445, 494-6
Intuition - 249-50, 351; and divination 329-40; and temperance 338
Invention - 329
Invisible Beings - 517-18, 521, 526
Isis Unveiled - 553-65; edited by Wilder 555, 558-60, 563-4
Islam - 548; origin of word 165-6; center of learning 172-3

Jainism - 147-59; ancient 147, 157; temples 149-52; and Buddhism 153-4; and Hinduism
154-6; no God in 155; doctrines 155-57; non-violent 157
Jung-Stilling - mystic 267-8

Kingsley - 29-30; on Hypatia's murder 35-6


Know Thyself - Greek maxim 257
Koran - 170-3; word meaning 170fn
Kritias - 53

Lao-tse - 142-6
Lincoln, Abraham - Wilder letter to 634-5
Love - 231-37
Lucky Days - 37-79; and Astrology 372, 377; and days of month 373-6
Luther - 361

Magnesia - 409
Magnetism (Animal) - 396-7, 405-30; Jesus and 406; definition 411-12; Mesmer 412-13;
dangers of 416-22; 430; history 417-18; persecuted by church 418; effects of 419-20;
continence in operator 428; method 426-30
Matter - nature of 235-45; Plato on 241; theories of 382-3
Maypole Ceremony - 200
Mencius - 139-41
Mesmer - 412-13
Mithraism - 8-9, 128-9
Mivart, George - persecution by church 583-87
Mohammed - 163-70; pupil of Zaid 166, 168
Mosheim - 10-11, 15
Moslem - 125
Mozart - 316
Multiple Personality - 481-9, 533-4
Mysteries - 177-78fn, 391; Cabeirian 191-2; Greek 93-113, 353-5; origin of 104-5fn
Mysticism - 352-69; European history 356-63

Neo-Platonism - 9ff
Nervous Disorders - 491-6
Nestorians - 161, 163, 173

Olympiodorus - 7, 41
Origen - 4-5

Papyrus - types of 41-2


Paracelsus - 300-3, 362
Percival, H.W. - on Wilder 619-25
Petroleum - ancient altar fires 253-5
Phallicism - 174-208; in ancient worship 189-208; prohibition of 201-3
Plato - 295, 538, 546; platonic ideas 106, 352, 367; basic ideas of 45-52; on love 51; parable
of Atlantis 53-65
Plotinus - 3-4, 18, 66-73; student of Ammonios Sakkas 68
Porphyry (Porphyrios) - 5-6, 76-84; student of Plotinos 68, 70; his philosophy 79-84
Prevorst, Seeress of - 421
Proklos - 7, 21-2, 42-44
Psychology - 490-506, 536-39; science of the soul 536; and physiology 539-44, 544-46

Rabia - 365-6
Religious sects - 549
Resurrection - of Jesus 212-3
Rosicrucians - 267-85, 299-300; history 269-70, 279; and Bacon 272-6

Seership - 341-51; drugs and 343; in dreams 344-5; Prof Tholuck, experience 345-6; Goethe
346; hallucinations and 350
Serpent - symbol of healing art 394-5
Sexes - character of 504-6; sexual attraction 235-7
Shakespeare - 531-5, 545
Shey, Lipper - inventor of telescope 581
Sokrates - 356, 588-90, 593-5; inner guide of 332-3; being absent from body 71
Sopator - 6
Soul - 536-7; nature of 311-28; leaving body 322-3, 337
Staff, physician's - 395
Sufi - 365-6
Sun - and heat 383-4
Superstition - 370-1
Swedenborg - 344, 382
Synesios - disciple of Hypatia 29-31, 33
Syrianus - 7, 40-1

Tao - 142
Taylor, Thomas - 98, 106-7
Theosophical Society - 556, 564-5

Vaughan, Thomas - 289-91fn


Virginity - among Israelites 197
Vision - 458-63; inner - 529-35
Voices - inner 510-11

Wilder, Alexander - editing Isis Unveiled 555, 558-60, 563-4; warned of danger 345-6, 510-
11; visual experience 512-13; father's dream 514; biography - see Introduction and Appendix;
experiences when ill 482-5, 489; on drugs 491; women and medical schools 505

Yasna - 122, 126-7, 131, 134-5

Zirkoff - Wilder bio 631-33


Zoroaster (Zarathustra) - 115-135
Zoroastrianism - 115-35, 250-1, 380-1; teachings 123; main ancient religion 127-8; from
Chaldea 129-30; brotherhood in 135

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