THE
                           THEOSOPHICAL PATH

                          ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY

                      EDITED BY KATHERINE TINGLEY


                               Volume I

                          July-December, 1911


               PUBLISHED BY THE NEW CENTURY CORPORATION

                   POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.




                            [Illustration]

                     THE ARYAN THEOSOPHICAL PRESS
                        Point Loma, California




INDEX TO THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

VOLUME I

JULY-DECEMBER, 1911


  A

  America, Ancient (_ill._)               An Archaeologist           323

  American Nation, an Unknown (_ill._)        H. S. Turner           347

  American Woman in Poetry, The               Grace Knoche            56

  Archaeologists, Recent Admissions by             Student           107

  _Aroma of Athens, The_ (_ill._)          Dramatic Critic            39

  _Aroma of Athens_, Notes on _The_ (_ill._) Kenneth Morris           42

  Art, The Scope of                           R. W. Machell           20

  Astral Body, The              H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.          24

  Astronomy, Ancient (No. 1)      F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E.          64

  Astronomical Notes                              C. J. Ryan         287

  Australian Marsupials (_ill._)                Nature Lover         296


  B

  Birth of Day, The (_verse_)                       A. F. W.          27

  "Black Age," The                                Ariomardes         196

  Blavatsky, H. P., and the Theosophical Society
                               (_with portrait_) W. Q. Judge          28

  Blavatsky's Teachings, Recent Confirmation of H. P.
                                 H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         172

  Blavatsky a Plagiarist? Was H. P.
                                 H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         271

  Bluebells of Wernoleu, The: A Welsh Legend (_verse_)
                                              Kenneth Morris         404

  Book Reviews: _Life of Leonardo da Vinci_ (Osvald Sirén)
                                                     Carolus         233
    _Il est ressuscité_ (Charles Morice)       H. A. Fussell         307
    _Commentary upon the Maya-Tsental Pérez Codex_
                                    (W. E. Gates) C. J. Ryan         378
    A New Magazine                                                   383
    _The Strange Little Girl_                                        385
    _Les derniers Barbares: Chine, Tibet, Mongolie_
                           (d'Ollone) (_ill._) H. A. Fussell         452
    _The Plough and the Cross_ (W. P. O'Ryan)       F. J. D.         456

  Bridges of Paris, The (_ill._)                       G. K.          96

  British Association, The Soul at the         Henry Travers         406

  Bronze, Incorrodible                         Henry Travers         148

  Brynhyfryd Garden, Old (_verse_)            Kenneth Morris          97

  Buckingham Palace, London (_ill._)                                 275


  C

  Calendars, Ancient                           Henry Travers         205

  Cathedrals in Ancient Crete                      a Student         262

  Christianity, The Rebirth of   H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)          11

  Christmas                                   Kenneth Morris         387

  Confines of Science, The                      Investigator         349

  Conflict of the Ages, The (_verse_)                  S. F.         435

  Copán, and its Position in American History (_ill._)
                                                 W. E. Gates         419

  Counterfeits vs. Reality, Tempting       Lydia Ross, M. D.         126

  Crucifixion, The Parable of the         Cranstone Woodhead         328

  Current Topics                                    Observer         447

  Cycle, The New                             H. P. Blavatsky         165

  Cyrene, Classical                               Ariomardes         280


  D

  Dipylon and the outer Ceramicus, The (_ill._)
                         F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)         189

  Drama, Open-Air (_ill._)
           Per Fernholm, M. E. (Roy. Inst. Tech., Stockholm)         415

  Dutch House Court by Pieter de Hooch, A (_ill._)                   338


  E

  Education Wasted? Is           H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         102

  Egyptian Art, 26th Dynasty (_ill._)                  C. J.         200

  Egyptology, and the Theosophical Records, The New (_ill._)
                                                  C. J. Ryan          15

  Ekoi: Children of Nature, The  H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         344

  Energy, Intra-Atomic          H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.         417

  English Lady's Letter, An (_ill._)             F. D. Udall         442

  Eros: Painting by Julius Kronberg (_ill._)   R. W. Machell         125

  Eucalypts? Who Made the (_ill._)              Nature Lover         295

  Evolution in the Light of Theosophy
                                 H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         311


  F

  Fairylands, The Two                         Kenneth Morris         115

  Folk-music, The Origin and Nature of        Kenneth Morris         174

  Forest Waste, Saving                               Student          34


  G

  Geniuses, The Incarnation of                    H. Travers         339

  Genius for Music, Cultivating            E. A. Neresheimer         182

  Glaciation, Past and Present (_ill._)             T. Henry         209

  God and the Child (_verse_)                                        211


  H

  Hawthorne's Psychology                               C. T.          51

  Heredity and Biology           H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         145

  Hoa-Haka-Nana-Ia (_ill._)                     P. A. Malpas         299

  House of Lords, London, The (_ill._)                    R.         201

  Humanity and Theosophical Education  Elizabeth C. Spalding         375


  I

  Illusion and Reality                     Lydia Ross, M. D.         362

  Irish Scenes (_ill._)
               F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I.         400


  K

  Karma, Reincarnation, and Immortality
                                 H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         243

  Killarney, Ireland (_ill._)
               F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I.         282


  L

  Lands now Submerged, The                      D. Churchill         305

  Lapland (_ill._)                                     P. F.         180

  Light Corpuscular? Is                             T. Henry         332

  Light, Physical and Metaphysical           H. Coryn, M. D.         122

  Linnaeus and the Divining Rod                        P. F.         154

  Lomaland Cañons (_ill._)                     W. J. Renshaw         155

  Lorelei, The (_ill._)                     Student Traveler         225

  Louisiana Sugar Plantation, A Visit to a   Barbara McClung         223


  M

  Magic Boat, A                                        D. F.         399

  Magic Place, A: A Forest Idyll for Young Folks (_ill._)
                                           M. Ginevra Munson         443

  "Magnetons," Force and Matter                   H. Travers         267

  Man and Nature                                  R. Machell         410

  Man, The Real                 H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.         229

  Modern Civilization, A Japanese Writer's Views on
                                        E. S. (Tokyo, Japan)         418

  Music and Life                             William A. Dunn          22

  Music Notes                                     C. J. Ryan         202

  Music of the Spheres, The     H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.         258

  Mysteries of Eleusis, The (_ill._)                H. T. E.         207


  N

  Names in Art, Great (_ill._)                   Art Student         111

  Natural History Museum, London (_ill._)                            270

  Nirvâna Mean Annihilation? Does                      T. H.         261


  P

  Path, The: Some Words by William Q. Judge                           32

  Path, The                         Gertrude van Pelt, M. D.          68

  Peace on Earth: Good Will towards Men           R. Machell         391

  Photography and the Invisible                 P. A. Malpas         142

  Platonic Succession, The Golden Chain of
                         F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)         276

  Poetry and Criticism                        Kenneth Morris         247

  Point Loma Notes                                  C. J. R.         354

  Power                                    Lydia Ross, M. D.         212

  Powers, Misused                              R. W. Machell          98

  Psychism, a Study in Hidden Connexions
                                 H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)         393

  Pythagoras, Life and Teachings of
                         F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)     52, 130

  Pythagorean Solids, The         F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E.         194


  R

  Reincarnation? What are the Bases of an Intelligent
          Belief in      F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)         317

  Rotation, The Mysteries of                         Student         316


  S

  Salamander, The Western four-toed (_ill._)   Percy Leonard         227

  San Diego (_ill._)                          Kenneth Morris          70

  Scandinavian Mythology, Glimpses of    Per Fernholm, M. E.         184

  Scientific Brevities                              Busy Bee         427

  Scientific Oddments                               Busy Bee         149

  Sokrates (_ill._)      F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)         215

  Spade of the Archaeologist, The                 Ariomardes         303

  St. Paul's Cathedral, London (_ill._)              Carolus         293

  Sun-Life and Earth-Life    Per Fernholm, M. E. (Stockholm)         300


  T

  Theosophy and Modern Scientific Discoveries     C. J. Ryan          87

  Theosophical Torch, The                       Grace Knoche         190

  Theseus, The Temple of, Athens (_ill._)                 R.         106

  Tower of London, The (_ill._)                      Carolus         352

  Turkish Woman, The                            Grace Knoche         439


  U

  Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, The
                                               J. H. Fussell          77


  V

  Venice (_ill._)                               Grace Knoche         366

  Victory of the Divine in Man, The         Rev. S. J. Neill         320

  Vivisector, The Plight of the
                                H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.         341

  Vrbas Defile, The, Bosnia (_ill._)                F. J. B.         286


  W

  Warwick Castle (_ill._)                         C. J. Ryan         409

  Will as a Chemical Product, The               Investigator         413

  Womanhood, The World of                       Grace Knoche         264

  Woman's International Theosophical League
                                      A Member of the League         357

  Women who have Influenced the World       Rev. S. J. Neill         436


ILLUSTRATIONS


  A

  Alaskan Views                                                      209

  Albert Memorial, London: Five Panels of Decorative Frieze          111

  Amsterdam, Views                                              143, 306

  Archaic Colossal Statues of Kiang-K'eu                         454-455

  _Aroma of Athens_, Groups in _The_        254, 255, 266, 267, 311, 322

  _Aroma of Athens_, Scenes from _The_
                          35-38, 47-50, 87, 243, 246, 247, 316, 317, 324

  Athens, Greece, Ruins of Dipylon Gate                              188

  Athens, Greece, Stoa, Gymnasium of Hadrian                         108

  Athens, Greece, Temple of Theseus                                  107

  Australian Scenes                                                  298


  B

  Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna                                          29

  Bosnia, Seraejevo, Capital of                                  434-435

  Buckingham Palace, London                                          275


  C

  Copán (six illustrations)                                      418-423

  Coronado, San Diego, California, The Surf at                       434

  Cuba, Avenue of Royal Palms; Country Scene                     222-223


  D

  De Lesseps, Monument of, Port Said                                 110

  D'Ollone, Commandant                                               454

  _Dutch House Court_ by P. de Hooch, _A_                            338


  E

  Eleusis, Part of the Ruins of                                      208

  _Eros_: Painting by Julius Kronberg                                125


  F

  Farmhouse on the Norfolk Broads, England, A                        274

  Florida, Palm Beach                                                223

  Forest, In the                                                     443


  G

  Giants' Causeway, Antrim, Ireland                                  403

  Grant Hotel, San Diego, California                                  72


  H

  Hoa-Haka-Nana-Ia                                                   299

  Horus, Symbolic Statue of                                           18

  House of Lords, London, The                                        201

  Houses of Parliament, Dublin, The Old                              402

  Houses of Parliament, London, The                                  353


  I

  Irish Farmer, An                                               402-403

  Irish Peasant Woman, An                                        402-403


  K

  Karnak, Egypt, Hall of Columns                                      17

  Killarney, Ireland, Views of                                  282, 283

  Klamath Reclamation Project, Oregon-California                     435

  Kronberg Julius: Family Group                                      125


  L

  Lapland, Sweden, Views of                                          180

  Leaders of the Theosophical Movement, The                           30

  Lolo Men, and Warrior                                          454-455

  Lomaland Cañons                                               154, 173

  Lorelei, The Rock of                                               226


  M

  Mammoth Cave, La Jolla, San Diego, California, The             434-435

  Miao-Tseu Dancing                                                  455


  N

  Natural History Museum, London                                     270

  Neshoron, Statue of                                                200


  O

  Oil Creek Falls, Canada                                            307


  P

  Paris: Pont au Change and the Palais de Justice                     96

  Paris and the Seine                                                 97

  Pérez Codex, Maya-Tzental                                     379, 380

  Pevensey Castle, Ruins of                                          442

  Portraits: Heads of Departments at the International Headquarters,
                   and Contributors to THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH         4-9

  Point Loma, Looking Eastward                                       172

  Point Loma, A Eucalyptus Grove                                     295

  Point Loma Hills at Eventide                                       339


  R

  Râja Yoga College, Point Loma, S. E. View of                       387

  Rocking-Stone Pinnacle, Tasmania                                   287

  Rothenburg, Germany, Views of                                   390-391


  S

  Salamander, Western four-toed                                      227

  San Diego, California, View of                                      71

  San Juan Teotihuacán, Panoramic View of                            327

  Sarpi, Fra Paolo                                                   366

  Seminole Indians                                              346, 347

  Sokrates and Seneca (Berlin Museum)                                222

  St. Paul's Cathedral, London                                       294

  Sweden, Trollhättan Canal                                          142

  Sweden, Visingsborg Castle, Visingsö                               142

  Switzerland, Views of                                              271


  T

  Temple in the Greek Theater, Point Loma, California                165

  Tombs, Ancient Athenian                                            189

  Tower of London, The                                               352

  Trafalgar Square, London                                           353


  V

  Venice, Views of                               367, 370, 371, 374, 375

  Vikings, The Noble                                             414-415

  Vrbas Defile, Bosnia, The                                          286


  W

  Warwick Castle, from the Avon                                      408

  Warwick Castle, Inner Court and Tower                              409


  Y

  Yucatan, "Governor's House," Uxmal                                 327

  Yucatan, "The Castle," Chichén Itzá                                326




[Illustration: Theosophical Path's first issue cover page.]




THE PATH


The illustration on the cover of this Magazine is a reproduction of the
mystical and symbolical painting by Mr. R. Machell, the English artist,
now a Student at the International Theosophical Headquarters, Point
Loma, California. The original is in Katherine Tingley's collection
at the International Theosophical Headquarters. The symbolism of this
painting is described by the artist as follows:

THE PATH is the way by which the human soul must pass in its evolution
to full spiritual self-consciousness. The supreme condition is
suggested in this work by the great figure whose head in the upper
triangle is lost in the glory of the Sun above, and whose feet are
in the lower triangle in the waters of Space, symbolizing Spirit and
Matter. His wings fill the middle region representing the motion or
pulsation of cosmic life, while within the octagon are displayed the
various planes of consciousness through which humanity must rise to
attain to perfect Manhood.

At the top is a winged Isis, the Mother or Oversoul, whose wings veil
the face of the Supreme from those below. There is a circle dimly seen
of celestial figures who hail with joy the triumph of a new initiate,
one who has reached to the heart of the Supreme. From that point he
looks back with compassion upon all who still are wandering below and
turns to go down again to their help as a Savior of Men. Below him
is the red wing of the guardians who strike down those who have not
the "password," symbolized by the white flame floating over the head
of the purified aspirant. Two children, representing purity, pass
up unchallenged. In the center of the picture is a warrior who has
slain the dragon of illusion, the dragon of the lower self, and is
now prepared to cross the gulf by using the body of the dragon as his
bridge (for we rise on steps made of conquered weaknesses, the slain
dragon of the lower nature).

On one side two women climb, one helped by the other whose robe is
white and whose flame burns bright as she helps her weaker sister. Near
them a man climbs from the darkness; he has money bags hung at his belt
but no flame above his head and already the spear of a guardian of the
fire is poised above him ready to strike the unworthy in his hour of
triumph. Not far off is a bard whose flame is veiled by a red cloud
(passion) and who lies prone, struck down by a guardian's spear; but
as he lies dying, a ray from the heart of the Supreme reaches him as a
promise of future triumph in a later life.

On the other side is a student of magic, following the light from a
crown (ambition) held aloft by a floating figure who has led him to the
edge of the precipice over which for him there is no bridge; he holds
his book of ritual and thinks the light of the dazzling crown comes
from the Supreme, but the chasm awaits its victim. By his side his
faithful follower falls unnoticed by him, but a ray from the heart of
the Supreme falls upon her also, the reward of selfless devotion, even
in a bad cause.

Lower still in the underworld, a child stands beneath the wings of
the foster mother (material Nature) and receives the equipment of the
Knight, symbols of the powers of the Soul, the sword of power, the
spear of will, the helmet of knowledge and the coat of mail, the links
of which are made of past experiences.

It is said in an ancient book: "The Path is one for all, the ways that
lead thereto must vary with the pilgrim."

[Illustration: THE PATH]

The Theosophical Path

  An International Magazine
  Unsectarian and nonpolitical

  Monthly      Illustrated

  [Illustration]

  Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the promulgation
  of Theosophy, the study of ancient & modern
  Ethics, Philosophy, Science and Art, and to the uplifting
  and purification of Home and National Life

  Edited by Katherine Tingley
  International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California, U.S.A.




_The Secret Doctrine is the common property of the countless millions
of men born under various climates, in times with which History refuses
to deal, and to which esoteric teachings assign dates incompatible
with the theories of Geology and Anthropology. The birth and evolution
of the Sacred Science of the Past are lost in the very night of
Time.... It is only by bringing before the reader an abundance of
proofs all tending to show that in every age, under every condition of
civilization and knowledge, the educated classes of every nation made
themselves the more or less faithful echoes of one identical system and
its fundamental traditions--that he can be made to see that so many
streams of the same water must have had a common source from which they
started. What was this source?... There must be truth and fact in that
which every people of antiquity accepted and made the foundation of its
religions and its faith._--H. P. BLAVATSKY, in _The Secret Doctrine_,
II, 794




THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

  VOL. I      JULY, 1911      NO. 1

THE REBIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY:
by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)


Among ideas which Theosophists have been proclaiming for many years,
and which are now finding expression through other channels, though in
piecemeal and modified form, are those connected with the Christ story
and Christianity. _Current Literature_, in reviewing "The Christ Myth,"
by Professor Dr. Arthur Drews of Karlsruhe, says:

 In essence the argument of the book is that all the main ideas of
 Christianity existed in the world prior to the birth of Christ, and
 that the hero of the New Testament is an imaginative conception rather
 than an actual personality. The opening chapters illuminate the
 history of the Messianic idea. This idea, Professor Drews contends, is
 rooted in Persia and Greece, as well as in the Jewish consciousness.
 The Persians dreamed of a divine "friend" or "mediator" who should
 deliver them in the eternal struggle between light and darkness,
 between Ormuzd and Ahriman. The Greeks conceived a mediatory "Word" or
 _Logos_ which should come to the aid of human weakness and identify
 man with God. Even more strongly, among the Jews, persisted the
 thought that "a Son of God" must intercede with Jehovah in behalf of
 his people.

Such utterances as the above are growing common, both from without the
churches and from within. People are beginning to realize that they
have not made the most of their religious traditions; that there is
more in them than they have so far gotten out of them. They suspect
that the Gospel narratives contain valuable truths that have been
missed. The Christ is not merely a personality, but also a symbol, as
is shown by the above writer; a symbol of the Divine in Man, recognized
by the world ages before the Christian era.

The importance of the Christian Gospel today consists in its power to
help us to realize that we are Divine in essence, and to aid us on
the Path or Way which leads to a realization of that Divinity. Is it
possible that now, for the first time, after all these centuries, the
real import of that Gospel is about to be grasped? that the age-long
worship of a wrong ideal--that of the personal God and his rewards and
punishments, his propitiations and forgivenesses--is about to depart
and make room for a more virile and ennobling, as well as more rational
and holier faith?

Is it possible that a Resurrection is in progress, a Resurrection of
Christ from the tomb in which we have buried him?[1]

[1] The reader of course will not think any allusion is here made to a
possible physical appearance of Christ. Such preposterous suggestions
are made in some quarters, but it is needless to say Theosophy has
nothing to do with them.--H. T. E.

What we understand by a Resurrection of Christ is the Resurrection of
the ancient but buried truth that Man is essentially Divine--to replace
the idea that he is essentially evil. This latter idea emphasizes
the lower side of man's nature and actually weakens his faith in the
Divine Power. Having thus lost his faith, he assumes an attitude of
expectation and deprecation, praying to an imaginary deity instead of
invoking by action the real Divinity within.

Ancient symbology, to which the above writer refers as being
substantially identical with that of the Christian Gospel, speaks of
the "Father" and the "Son." By the word "Father" was understood the
Supreme; the "Son" was the Word, the Divine life in Man, which turned
him from an animal being to what he is. Through the Son we approach
the Father; that is, man must invoke the power of his own Higher
Self. Another ancient teaching, taught in fables as well as sacred
allegories, is that only by _acting_ can man invoke the Divine aid. The
Divine gift to Man is the Will, and he himself is the only one who can
exert it. The fable tells that a carter invoked Hercules to lift his
cart out of a rut, and Hercules told him to put his own shoulder to the
wheel. For Hercules means strength, and strength is invoked by exerting
it. In the same way we have to assert our Divinity by acting in a
Divine way; and it seems that the Gospels give us ample instructions.

It may be that this was after all the real message, and that those who
gave it have been waiting all this time for man to get up off his knees
and _be somebody_.

There are many religious gospels in the world, but they are all
modifications of one great eternal gospel. That one gospel, clothed
in many garbs, legendary, allegoric, theological, is the Drama of
the Soul in its pilgrimage through life, its struggles with great
adversaries, and its final victory. Christianity contains the same
ancient wisdom; it has been covered over with accretions of theology
and ecclesiasticism; it is now being disentombed. The process is a
long and eventful one; for people cling fondly to old habits, and many
still hope that they will be able to admit everything and yet set
early medieval theology on the summit as the crowning revelation. The
success with which they can do this depends upon what they can make of
Christianity, for the less cannot contain the greater.

The personal Christ and the doctrine of the Atonement (in its familiar
theological form) together constitute the rock on which there is most
likelihood of a split. But this doctrine (that is, in its present
form) will have to go, for it is inconsistent with the views of life
that are now gaining ground. For one thing, it is not sufficiently
international; it is too much like a gospel of salvation peculiar to
Western civilization. Eastern religions are already amply provided with
similar machinery in their own systems, and are not likely to give up
their own for ours.

Again, the theological doctrine of Atonement includes the remission of
sins, in the sense that the sinner is relieved from the consequences
of his sins by a special act of intercession and vicarious suffering.
It is useless for Christians to deny that such is the teaching, for it
is expressly stated thus by eminent authorities whom we might quote;
besides it is this very fact of remission that lends force to the
appeal made to our weak desires and hopes; it is held up as a great
advantage possessed by Christianity. This teaching is repugnant to our
innate sense of justice, to our manliness, and to our best conceptions
of Divine Wisdom. It is felt to be more in harmony with Law that man
should work out the full consequences of all his acts, both good and
bad, reaping the consequent joy and grief. The remission of sins does
not mean an excusing from the penalty, but a purification of the man so
that he will not commit any more sins. Man is justified, sanctified,
and saved, by the Divine grace acting within and changing his
heart--not by a propitiatory sacrifice and a mere formal act of belief.

And so the real doctrine of Atonement will have to take the place of
the other. The making _one_, or reconciliation, between the human soul
and its Divine counterpart--that is the real Atonement. By it, man
repudiates his false "self," and recognizes his real Self; deposes the
animal nature from the throne of his heart and establishes the kingdom
of righteousness therein. But in the world just now there is a mighty
battle between powers that tend to enslave man and keep him down, and
powers that tend to liberate him. The former will try to perpetuate
theological dogmatism and man's fear of himself. The latter will ever
strive to give him back his self-respect and faith in his own Divinity.

Christians love to speak of the greatness of their religion, but
little do they realize how great it is. The Bible is printed in
hundreds of millions, and enthusiastic evangelists place a copy in
every hotel room; but it is a more precious treasure than they wot
of. Enshrined within the verses of that strange literary compost,
preserved in the misunderstood symbols of that religion, are records
of the _Wisdom-Religion_, the world's eternal gospel of Truth. Its
teachings can indeed "make us free," for they show us how to evoke the
power of the "Word." Unless we can use our Will--the Spiritual Will,
not the feeble, selfish, personal will--we cannot be saved; else would
the Creator have his heaven furnished with rescued dummies. When Man
was gifted with Divine prerogatives of Will and Intelligence, he was
thereby made a responsible self-acting being; he must redeem himself
by his own (God-given) volition, not lay aside his initiative in weak
reliance on some other will.

And the Spiritual Will is of the Heart; and of the Heart also is
Wisdom; yet man in his unredeemed state obeys the leading of the
desires and the false images they breed in the imagination. Therefore
he will remain enslaved to these desires and will fail to understand
the meaning of life unless he cultivates the impersonal Divine life
within him. The teaching of the Gospel is directed to showing us how
to enter this Way. To the ignorant the Master speaks in parables; but
"to you it is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom." A
priceless privilege, but how repudiated! If we would but carry out the
injunctions of Jesus the Christ, instead of making his personality into
a God--which surely he himself would never have wished--we should be
worthier disciples and the greater gainers.




THE NEW EGYPTOLOGY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL
RECORDS: by Charles J. Ryan


The interesting problem of the origin of Egyptian culture is still
unsolved by archaeologists, though many new facts have been recently
discovered which seem to be leading to something definite. Nestor
L'Hôte said sixty years ago:

 The further one penetrates into antiquity towards the origins of
 Egyptian art, the more perfect are the products of that art, as though
 the genius of the people, inversely to that of others, was formed
 suddenly.... Egyptian art we only know in its decadence.

M. Jean Capart, the eminent Belgian Egyptologist, Keeper of the
Egyptian Antiquities at the Royal Museum, Brussels, supports that
opinion, saying, in his recent work on _Primitive Art in Egypt_, that
M. L'Hôte's conclusion was and remains legitimate.

Since L'Hôte's time fine works of art and astonishing beauty have been
found in tombs of the _Third_ Dynasty of Egyptian Pharaohs, about whom
nothing--or next to nothing--was known until lately; even the Fourth
Dynasty, the so-called Pyramid Builders, being historically very
obscure, no agreement as to their date having been come to yet. It is
fairly decided that they lived more than four or five thousands years
B. C. Maspero, speaking of some paintings of the extremely ancient
Third Dynasty, says:

 The Egyptians were animal painters of the highest power, and they
 never gave better proof of it than in this picture. No modern painter
 could have seized with more spirit and humor the heavy gait of the
 goose, the curves of its neck, the pretentious carriage of its head,
 and the markings of its plumage.

The human figure was also represented with great artistic skill at the
same early period. Even then the characteristic full-faced eye in the
profile face was a firmly established _convention_. We do not know the
reasons for this, but it cannot have been accidental.

According to Dr. Petrie, the great Egyptian explorer, the commencement
of the Egyptian civilization that we call classical, the Egypt of
the Pharaohs with its hieroglyphs, its established style of art, its
complicated religion and philosophy, dates back to not less than B.
C. 5000. This would be the time of the First Dynasty. Think what that
means! A stretch of splendid civilization before the beginning of the
Christian era about five times as long as the period that has elapsed
since the time of King Alfred to this day, a period which has included
almost or quite all that we look upon as worthy of consideration in
_our_ history! And yet back of Dr. Petrie's First Dynastic age we now
find ourselves face to face with a prehistoric Egyptian civilization or
civilizations of absolutely unknown age, possibly of a hundred thousand
years duration. The one that immediately preceded the Dynastic or
Pharaonic is supposed to be of Libyan origin.

The possibility at least of a civilization of a hundred thousand years'
duration should offer little difficulty even to the most critical,
now that we have found a well-formed skull and skeleton near London
differing very little from the modern type of Englishman, and estimated
to be at least 170,000 years old. Long ago H. P. Blavatsky said in _The
Secret Doctrine_ and elsewhere that some form of Egyptian civilization
had existed for an immensely longer period than the archaeologists
imagine, and Katherine Tingley has reasserted this most emphatically,
saying that Egyptian civilization will be proved to be even older than
the (historic) Indian.

Archaeologists have always felt a great and peculiar difficulty in
comprehending the sudden appearance of the high culture of the first
Dynastic periods. It is impossible to believe that Egypt's greatness
arose full-fledged, without long preparation, and yet where are the
evidences of development? M. Jean Capart, the Belgian authority
referred to above, has devoted great attention to this problem, and his
conclusions are of interest to the student of Theosophy. He considers
it exceedingly probable that gradual invasions or colonizations of
a highly cultured race broke into the simpler Egyptian civilization
from the South or South-east. These people, coming from the "Land
of the Gods," Punt, which is commonly supposed to be Somaliland,
he thinks came originally from some Asiatic country, bringing with
them their arts and sciences and religion. As they blended with the
Libyan inhabitants of Egypt, who possessed their own distinctive
civilization, they established their already formed culture, and the
combination produced what we call the Dynastic or classic Egyptian
civilization. This would explain the origin of the classic Egyptian
forms on reasonable grounds, and furthermore would make it clear why
the Egyptians had so many things in common with the Hindûs in matters
of religion, such as the respect paid to the Cow as a symbol of Divine
Power.

[Illustration: HALL OF COLUMNS, KARNAK, EGYPT]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. SYMBOLIC STATUE OF
HORUS, SON OF OSIRIS AND ISIS IN THE ACT OF PURIFYING A KING MUSÉE
NATIONAL DU LOUVRE, PARIS]

H. P. Blavatsky, in _Isis Unveiled_, quotes the following from the
ancient Hindû historian, Kullûka-Bhatta:

 Under the reign of Viśvâ-mitra, first king of the Dynasty of
 Soma-Vanga, in consequence of a battle which lasted five days,
 Manu-Vina, heir of the ancient kings, being abandoned by the Brâhmans,
 emigrated with all his companions, passing through Ârya, and the
 countries of Barria, till he came to the shores of Masra. (Vol. I, p.
 627)

She adds:

 Ârya is Eran (Persia); Barria is Arabia, and Masra was the name of
 Cairo, which to this day is called _Masr_, Musr, and Misro. (_Ibid._)

Mitsraîm was the Hebrew name for the land of Cham, Egypt.

Dr. E. A. W. Budge, the learned Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian
antiquities in the British Museum, says he believes that a series of
carvings on the walls of the Temple of Edfû,

 represent the invaders in prehistoric times, who made their way into
 Egypt, from a country in the East, by way of the Red Sea.... In later
 times the indigenous priesthoods merged the legendary history of the
 deified king of the "Blacksmiths" is that of Horus, the god of heaven
 in the earliest times, and in that of Râ which belonged to a later
 period.

The mythical story of Horus conquering Nubia and Egypt, with which Dr.
Budge thinks the true story of incursion was blended, contains the
significant assertions that the warriors of Horus, the "Blacksmiths,"
were armed with weapons of metal, and chains, and were expert builders.

According to the Theosophical records the _Great_ Pyramid was built
long before the fifth millennium B. C. There are many mysteries
connected with that most stupendous work of man which have not yet been
suspected by the Egyptologists, not the least of which is the problem
of its date and its builder; but, so far as they go, the stories of
Horus' invasion and M. Capart's luminous suggestions as to the origin
of the Dynastic Egyptian civilization, are not inconsistent with the
account of Kullûka-Bhatta; and in the light of the new discoveries of
one or more prehistoric civilizations in the Nile Valley, it looks
as if the teachings of Theosophy were being vindicated in a way that
was not dreamed of by archaeologists in the days when H. P. Blavatsky
opened a small window into the mysterious past of glorious Egypt.




THE SCOPE OF ART: by R. W. Machell


A writer in a London weekly (_Black and White_) makes one or two points
in reference to art that are worthy of notice. He says that it is
nonsense to talk of art elevating the people, because it is itself the
index of their condition. This is just one of those simple fallacies
that contain a sufficient amount of the truth to make them misleading.
Art is not an index of the condition of the people, but only of a very
small part of the people; it would be more true to say that the popular
appreciation of art is such an index; but it is not true to say or to
imply that the condition of the people governs its range or scope. We
are constantly met by the experience of art that is unappreciated by
the people in whose midst it appears.

It is necessary to understand the complex nature of man and the vast
range of human evolution to be able to see how one man may appear
in a nation and display a degree of progress far in advance of his
fellows, who also are all in varying stages of their long evolution.
The progressed soul incarnates perhaps in a body just like those of the
rest of the race, because it cannot get a better; and so it is not at
once recognized as an older soul, and for want of right education the
man himself may be unable to account for the difference between himself
and his fellows of which he is conscious; and so, being unaware of
his own inherent divinity and of his relation to his fellows, he may
not recognize his responsibility to them as a natural leader, fitted
by greater experience to show a light on the path of human progress,
and required by Karma or by his kinship to his fellows, to use his
experience, or his talents, or his genius, for their guidance rather
than for his own glory.

Then passing to the subject of the recent sale of the famous Rembrandt
to an American he very wisely points out that this is a private matter,
and not in any way a national or an artistic point of interest. As
said, the picture (not an English painting) was not in any sense a
national possession, nor was it of any importance in the art-life of
the nation that it should be added to the already large collection of
the master's works now owned by the National Gallery. What the writer
maintains is vital to a nation, is to encourage and to appreciate the
art of its own day and of its own artists.

Now here we meet the deplorable parochialism that does duty for
patriotism, and which is so utterly out of place in connexion with
art; for art is not national but universal, and, further, it is not
modern or ancient, but again universal; so that an attempt to limit the
sympathies of art-lovers to the products of their own age or of their
own nation is bound to fail, and can only be tolerated as an antidote
to an excessive worship of what is old or of what is foreign, these
being matters of perhaps no consequence at all.

It is of course well that people should do the duty that lies nearest
to hand first, and so if it be a duty to encourage, to endow, or to
patronize art, that duty should begin at home. But this again is a very
narrow way of looking at the matter. It is not at all essential that
art should be national; on the contrary, art is universal and cannot
be bound by any such limits. No barriers stand in the way of one who
would admire a foreign painting; one may speak no language but one's
own and yet find as much beauty, joy, and inspiration in foreign works
of art as in those produced by men of one's own nationality. A visitor
to a collection of works of art has to be told by a catalog, or he
would not know, what country produced any particular work; so it is
with music, and largely with architecture; indeed that which is of Art
is universal: the national characteristics are limitations imposed by
circumstances upon the free expression of the soul.

The soul of man is not eternally bound within the limits of one
nation, but must, in the course of constant reincarnations upon earth,
experience the limitations of many varying nationalities. It is bound
to the great human family; and it may be, for a certain period,
identified with a special group. Nations are evanescent, though family
groups may survive, and though an artist may be intimately bound by
many ties with the destinies of some one group or family or race, in
its reincarnations and in its varying national appearances, yet the
artistic part of his nature is just that higher part that rises beyond
such limits and appeals to all humanity, and it is the higher part of
human nature that responds to the appeal of art and disregards all
other limitations, such as questions of time or place or nationality,
rising to what is more broadly human or more divine in the nature of
man. For "Brotherhood is a fact in nature," and the soul responds
unconsciously to the call of the Soul in all nature and in all humanity
in such degree as it is able to throw off for a time the temporary
bonds of local conditions. So it is a matter rather of satisfaction to
see works of art circulating around the world and awaking the deeper
sympathies that tend to unite humanity.




MUSIC AND LIFE: by William A. Dunn


There is not a problem which perplexes human life that may not be
loosened and solved by the aid of music. Based as it is upon the
vibratory movements of Nature, and subject to rigid mathematical law
and geometrical ratio, music represents an incorruptible and direct
medium between the higher and lower natures of man. Its dynamical and
spiritual power proceeds from the _blend_ of its related vibrating
numbers; which blend is that living force (_within_ outward harmony)
that electrifies the heart and mind and lifts the whole nature
to the plane of soul. It is that living field of energy in which
all numbers, all forces, all substances, are lost in the unity of
least-common-multiple of all possible vibrations. It is the Veil of
Isis.

No motion can take place without causing sound. This must be equally
true of atomic and planetary movements, and all that lies between. All
sounds that appear to the senses as different must obviously vibrate in
some universal medium which permits movement and unifies their seeming
diversity. It is the actual presence of such a medium in man which
enables him to perceive that which music is the expression of. Notes
and chords are merely alphabetical symbols. These are classified and
combined to express ideas as truly as words are combined to convey the
thought that lies beyond them.

It has been said that "The Universe is built by number." This is
obvious truth when all natural forces and elements are conceived of as
modes of vibration (as they actually are) blending and interblending
in the universal etheric medium, according to the immutable law of
harmonious ratios. Why should the etheric world be thought of as an
abstraction or a far-off possibility? It is in reality a nearer thing
in life than its comparatively trifling contents. All our thoughts and
feelings move in it as their medium, and the process of self-conquest
is nothing more than to live in this our universal home, and harmonize
dissociated thoughts and feelings into musical symphonies.

This is not rhapsody, but sober common sense, as true for the
field-laborer as for the philosopher. As we all live in and breathe
the same physical atmosphere, so do we all think and feel in the same
mental ether. This fact explains why "Brotherhood is a fact in nature."
To accept this principle of Brotherhood as the point from which life is
viewed is equivalent to mounting to the hill-top of life from which the
surrounding scenery can be seen. Down in the valley a single wall can
shut out the whole prospect.

A text-book on chemistry may be consulted with profit as illustrating
this fact. A few general principles or laws classify millions of
separate facts into harmonious knowledge. The science of chemistry is
also the science of true music. Schopenhauer speaks of music

 as immediate and direct an objectivation or copy of the _Will_ of the
 world as the world itself is, as the ideas are of which the universe
 of things is the phenomenon. Music is not the copy of the ideas, but
 a representation of the cosmical Will co-ordinate with the ideas
 themselves.

The literal truth of this statement is known by all who have had
contact with that which creates, and breathes life into, a musical
masterpiece. The audible notes and phrases are merely classified
symbols which express something beyond them, just as the parts of a
dynamo are adjusted as medium for the expression of the universal
electrical power.

Music, in itself, is the universal life of Nature as she is in
vibration. Every movement, from that of planet down to minute atom,
emits tone. It is absurd to imagine that our octave of audible
receptivity limits the universal fact. It can only do so _for us_. The
refining and extension of receptive range of hearing must undoubtedly
reveal the music which ever surrounds our self-imposed deafness. All
discoveries and advances in knowledge are simply this: the unfolding of
organs of receptivity in which some universal fact may reflect itself.
All knowledge and power exist eternally. Man is the only variant
(because of his power of choice) and he cripples himself in imagining
that the revelation of limited organs of receptivity are equivalent to
the universal fact.

Let us picture a great music hall in which an orchestra is performing.
No matter what sounds proceed from the many instruments, their
united tones vibrate through every particle of air in the building
simultaneously. Sound waves may be many, but, every atom of air
is participant in all these at one and the same instant. The atom
therefore is the synthetic point of universal unity.

Man is an atom in that grand temple of music--the solar system. Through
him passes every movement or sound propagated by planet or sun--and all
the lesser movements to which they give rise. We actually participate
in the total vibration of solar life, but are blind to this because the
brain consciousness is attached to a few external sound waves and sets
up a conscious focus amid these. A musician will tell us how easily the
mind may select a single orchestral instrument and follow its melody
to the exclusion of the adjacent parts. How truly this illustrates
our separate personal lives! It is impossible to lose anything by
detachment from the personal grooves to which so much importance is
attached. We can only fall into That which gives the utmost blessing.
That silence and solitariness which usually follow the storm of true
effort, is the womb of fuller life. The old life has passed, the new
not yet born, and we are apt to despond. But courage and patience will
surely lead to living joy, for the new life dawns when the inner self
is ready to receive it. Right thought, right feeling, and unending
patience, will without doubt make all things clear, and from the heart
will arise the total music of life, vibrating in tune with all that is.




THE ASTRAL BODY: by H. A. W. Coryn, M.D., M.R.C.S.


It is safe to say that science will never accept the astral body--by
that name: at any rate not until philosophy accepts the prototypal
_Ideas_ of Plato.

Yet the evidence, if not for them, then for something discharging the
same function and therefore after all for them--is irresistible.

One thinks first of the growth of living animal tissues in glass jars,
demonstrated at the Rockefeller Institute. Removed from the body to
which they belong and placed in nutritive fluids which they can absorb,
they attain a size that would constitute them fatal diseases if they
were _in situ_ at home. They would in fact be malignant growths of
highly organized types.

Why _don't_ they grow to that size? Because "the nervous system"
restrains them within the limit of usefulness. How does "the nervous
system" know that limit? Has it a picture in its "mind," a plan
according to which it works, according to which it variously restricts
or encourages?

When some of the molluscs are cut in two each half grows the part it
has lost, the head an after-part, the after-part a head. Two animals
result, each exactly like the original. As the severed cells are called
upon to perform and do perform new and unexpected work, what and where
is the architectural plan by which they do it?

The cells of a leaf have finished their growth. Now comes their _work_,
the fixing of carbon from the air, transpiration, and so on. But cut
off, say, a begonia leaf and place it on damp soil properly protected.
It proceeds at once upon a wholly new program, sending down roots,
sending up stalk, fresh leaves, and finally flower. It is obviously
working according to a plan. When a germ cell or seed does that the
problem can be _concealed_ by talking about its chemical constitution
and so forth. We are told that the seed behaves as it does because
it is constituted by nature to do so, molecularly arranged for just
that function. But the cells of the leaf were _not_ arranged for that
but for quite other functions. How come they to be able to stop their
proper line of work and follow this one, generating not only leaves
like themselves but all other parts of the plant including seeds?

We are of course pressing the problem of heredity, the persistence of
racial and family type. But heredity is only a word that expresses the
observed facts without a gleam of explanation.

The consciousness of the mollusc, as an individual, and that of
the leaf on a lower plane, can be only sensational. _They_ do not
intelligently arrange and design what they are doing. But to ascribe
it to molecular mechanism only, is no better than to say God did it.
Either is such a form of mere words as unwise parents throw at a too
questioning child to stop, without satisfying, its mind. No idea
corresponds. The gap in conception remains exactly what it was.

When a chimney is blown down, the builder notes the gap and builds
another. His mind contains a picture of what ought to be there.

An architect does not deliver the whole plan of his building to each of
the workmen. Each follows his ordinary work, being merely told where
to begin and when to stop. When all of them have done their part the
building is complete.

Why may we not suppose that the cutting-in-two of a mollusc constitutes
some such appeal to some intelligence somewhere in nature as the
missing chimney constitutes to the builder? The force flowing
in the cells of the injured animal is thereupon directed to the
work unexpectedly required. Science now speaks freely of _human_
"subconsciousness," meaning sub-_mental_ consciousness in man. And it
knows that that sub-mental consciousness can, when properly called upon
(and also habitually on its own account), do reparative work upon the
body whose method is not comprehensible to the man himself. It is,
within its limits, intelligent; it knows what it has to do and what it
is wanted to do; and it commands the necessary forces--which are beyond
the _man's_ reach, owner of them as he may be or think he is.

This subconsciousness is embodied with the man, but is not the
man and is not an ego. May it not be regarded as a part of
nature-consciousness, focused in an organic body and with the
intelligence necessary to do its work?

And it does not follow that the lower down the scale of mental
intelligence is an organism, the lower down a parallel scale is _this_
intelligence. What we call, when in our own bodies, the subconscious,
may be just as fully present and just as intelligently at work, in the
bodies of plants and animals.

If we say that the plan of repair and the plans of hereditary type are
in the conscious intelligence of this diffused nature-mind, we are at
any rate reasonably proceeding from the known and not glossing the
unknown with mere words. The astral body of any plant or animal is its
plan of structure in this nature-mind. It is subjective substance,
just as is a picture in our own mind. And it contains the vital energy
necessary for the guidance of the protoplasmic matter that will clothe
it, an energy that guides but is not one of the physical forces. As an
analogy from higher up the planes of being, conscience _guides_ mental
thoughts and desires but is not among their number nor of their nature.
It is the _divine-astral_ form or plan, of what the thinking man should
be. On both planes the form and the guiding energy setting from it
become the negative and positive aspects of one thing.




THE BIRTH OF DAY
by A. F. W. (Manchester, N. H.)


  From the darkness, O Eternal One,
  From the pale light of diamond stars,
  From the quietude of dreamless night,
  Into the grayness and the formless mist,
  Comes the first whisper, the first murmur
  Of Life awakening.
  Merges then the dim outline and the shadow,
  Floating nothings, pregnant with the promise
  Of the coming birth of Morning.
  Gradually, slowly, silently,
  The shapes resolve themselves
  And grow less misty and more huge;
  The grayness becomes less gray;
  And, as it so becomes, the horizon
  Erstwhile faint and indistinct,
  Slowly as a line appears, not sharp,
  But blended with both earth and sky.
  A sleepy twitter from the birds, the first call
  Of mate to mate; the faint, soft rustle
  Of the leaves, the vapor rising from the earth--
  All betoken the oncoming.
  The ghostly outlines of the forms
  Are clearer now; and the vivid streamers
  Of the eastern sky change to the white light
  Of the advancing Morn.
  Now approach the fuller tones of nature:
  Insistent the notes of the tiny feathered ones,
  And from the nests and branches come
  The piping calls to morning quest.
  Now the silver white takes on the faint
  Tinging of the purple glow.
  The purple to a blue transforms itself;
  The gnomes of dawn are hard at work
  Transmuting the base metal into finer gold.
  As distant fire, urging on the horses of wild Fear
  Mounts higher and more high,
  So Apollo urges on his horses, and the golden gleam
  Of his chariot heralds itself
  To follow after.
  The horizon blazes with the power of Light--
  More red and fiery grows the hue;
  A point appears, a rim, an arc
  Of coppery luster; then
  Glowing with the radiance of the parent Life
  The Sun!--And Day is born.




H. P. BLAVATSKY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY


In 1887 William Q. Judge wrote of the Theosophical Society and H. P.
Blavatsky as follows:

 The Society has had, like all sentient beings, its periods of growth,
 and now we believe _it has become an entity_ capable of feeling and
 having intelligence. Its body is composed of molecules, each one of
 which is a member of the Society; its mental power is derived from
 many quarters, and it has a sensibility that is felt and shared by
 each one of us. For these reasons we think it is a wise thing for a
 person to join this body, and a wiser yet to work heart and soul for
 it.

 And we would have no one misunderstand how we look upon H. P.
 Blavatsky. She is the greatest woman in this world in our opinion,
 and greater than any man moving among men. Disputes and slanders
 about what she has said and done move us not, for we know by personal
 experience her real virtues and powers. Since 1875 she has stood as
 the champion and helper of every Theosophist; each member of the
 Society has to thank her for the store of knowledge and spiritual help
 that has lifted so many of us from doubt to certainty of where and
 how Truth might be found; lovers of truth and seekers after spiritual
 knowledge will know her worth only when she has passed from earth;
 had she had more help and less captious criticism from those who
 called themselves co-laborers, our Society would today be better and
 more able to inform its separate units while it resisted its foes.
 During all these years, upon her devoted head has concentrated the
 weighty Karma accumulated in every direction by the unthinking body of
 Theosophists; and whether they will believe it or not, the Society had
 died long ago, were it not for her.

The following are extracts from an article also by William Q. Judge,
written after H. P. Blavatsky's death:

 THAT which men call death is but a change of location for the Ego--the
 immortal self--a mere transformation, a forsaking for a time of the
 mortal frame, a short period of rest before one reassumes another
 human frame in the world of mortals. The Lord of this body is
 nameless; dwelling in numerous tenements of clay, it appears to come
 and go; but neither death nor time can claim it, for it is deathless,
 unchangeable, and pure, beyond Time itself, and not to be measured. So
 our old friend and fellow-worker has merely passed for a short time
 out of sight, but has not given up the work begun so many ages
 ago--the uplifting of humanity, the destruction of the shackles that
 enslave the human mind....

 That she always knew what would be done by the world in the way of
 slander and abuse I also know, for in 1875 she told me that she was
 then embarking on a work that would draw upon her unmerited slander,
 implacable malice, uninterrupted misunderstanding, constant work, and
 no worldly reward. Yet in the face of this her lion heart carried her
 on. Nor was she unaware of the future of the Society. In 1876 she told
 me in detail the course of the Society's growth for future years, of
 its infancy, of its struggles, of its rise into the "luminous zone" of
 the public mind; and these prophecies are being all fulfilled.

 Her aim was to elevate the race. Her method was to deal with the
 mind of the century as she found it, by trying to lead it on step by
 step; to seek out and educate a few who, appreciating the majesty
 of the Secret Science and devoted to "the great orphan Humanity,"
 could carry on her work with zeal and wisdom; to found a Society
 whose efforts--however small itself might be--would inject into the
 thought of the day the ideas, the doctrines, the nomenclature of the
 Wisdom-Religion, so that when the next century shall have seen its
 seventy-fifth year the new messenger coming again into the world
 would find the Society still at work, the ideas sown broadcast, the
 nomenclature ready to give expression and body to the immutable
 Truth, and thus to make easy the task which for her since 1875 was so
 difficult and so encompassed with obstacles.

[Illustration: HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY FOUNDRESS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY]

[Illustration: THE LEADERS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT H. P. BLAVATSKY
KATHERINE TINGLEY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE]




THE PATH--SOME WORDS OF WILLIAM Q. JUDGE


In 1886, William Q. Judge, the pupil and colleague and afterwards the
successor of H. P. Blavatsky, founded and edited _The Path_, the first
American Theosophical magazine. After his death, this magazine was
continued by his successor, Katherine Tingley, and was by her finally
merged into and combined with a weekly magazine, published under
the title of the _Century Path_. This has again given place to THE
THEOSOPHICAL PATH, thus distinctly calling attention to the teachings
it promulgates and sets forth, while preserving the name "The Path" of
the first American Theosophical Magazine.

THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH in its first issue pays honor to both these
great-hearted Teachers, H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge. All
humanity owes them a debt of gratitude for pointing out once more the
path of true progress and happiness. Through their self-sacrifice, even
of their lives, "the pathway is once more seen to that realm where the
Gods abide."

In the first issue of _The Path_, William Q. Judge wrote:

 The solution of the problem, "What and Where is the Path to
 Happiness?" has been discovered by those of old time. They thought it
 was in the pursuit of Râja Yoga, which is the highest science and the
 highest religion--a union of both....

 The study of what is now called "practical occultism" has some
 interest for us, and will receive the attention it may merit, but it
 is not _the_ object of this journal....

 True occultism is clearly set forth in the _Bhagavad Gîtâ_, where
 sufficient stress is laid upon practical occultism, but after all,
 Krishna says, the kingly science and the kingly mystery is devotion to
 and study of the light which comes from within. The very first step in
 true mysticism and true occultism is to try to apprehend the meaning
 of Universal Brotherhood, without which the very highest progress in
 the practice of magic turns to ashes in the mouth.

 We appeal, therefore, to all who wish to raise themselves and
 their fellow creatures--man and beast--out of the thoughtless jog
 trot of selfish everyday life. It is not thought that Utopia can
 be established in a day; but through the spreading of the idea of
 Universal Brotherhood, the truth in all things may be discovered.
 Certainly, if we all say that it is useless, that such high-strung
 sentimental notions cannot obtain currency, nothing will ever be done.
 A beginning must be made, and it has been by the Theosophical Society.
 Although philanthropic institutions and schemes are constantly being
 brought forward by good and noble men and women, vice, selfishness,
 brutality, and the resulting misery, seem to grow no less. Prisons,
 asylums for the outcast and the magdalen, can be filled much faster
 than it is possible to erect them. All this points unerringly to the
 existence of a vital error somewhere. It shows that merely healing
 the outside by hanging a murderer or providing asylums and prisons
 will never reduce the number of criminals nor the hordes of children
 born and growing up in hotbeds of vice. What is wanted is true
 knowledge of the spiritual condition of man, his aim and destiny. This
 is offered in Theosophical literature, and those who must begin the
 reform are those who are so fortunate as to be placed in the world
 where they can see and think out the problems all are endeavoring
 to solve, even if they know that the great day may not come until
 after their death. Such a study leads us to accept the utterance of
 Prajâpati to his sons: "Be restrained, be liberal, be merciful"; it is
 the death to selfishness.

In an article "A Year on the Path," Mr. Judge wrote, at the close of
the first year of the magazine:

 The question is always naturally asked, "What is the Path?" or
 "What is the Philosophy?" which is the same thing, for of course
 the following of any path whatever will depend upon the particular
 philosophy or doctrines believed in. The path we had in view is held
 by us to be the same one which in all ages has been sought by Heathen,
 Jew, and Christian alike. By some called the path to Heaven, by others
 the path to Jesus, the path to Nirvâna, and by Theosophists the path
 to Truth. Jesus has defined it as a narrow, difficult and straight
 path. By the ancient Brâhmans it has been called, "the small old path
 leading far away on which those sages walk who reach salvation";
 and Buddha taught it was a noble four-fold path by which alone the
 miseries of existence can be truly surmounted....

 The immortal spark has manifested itself in many different classes
 of men, giving rise to all the varied religions, many of which have
 forever disappeared from view. Not any one of them could have been
 the whole Truth, but each must have presented one of the facets of
 the great gem, and thus through the whole surely run ideas shared by
 all. These common ideas point to truth. They grow out of man's inner
 nature and are not the result of revealed books. But some one people
 or another must have paid more attention to the deep things of life
 than another. The "Christian" nations have dazzled themselves with the
 baneful glitter of material progress. They are not the peoples who
 will furnish the nearest clues to the Path. A few short years and they
 will have abandoned the systems now held so dear, because their mad
 rush to the perfection of their civilization will give them control
 over now undreamed of forces. Then will come the moment when they must
 choose which of two kinds of fruit they will take. In the meantime it
 is well to try and show a relation between their present system and
 the old, or at least to pick out what grains of truth are in the mass.

 ... A new age is not far away. The huge unwieldy flower of the 19th
 century civilization has almost fully bloomed, and preparation must
 be made for the wonderful new flower which is to rise from the old.
 We have not pinned our faith on Vedas nor Christian scriptures, nor
 desired any others to do so. All our devotion to Aryan literature and
 philosophy arises from a belief that the millions of minds who have
 trodden weary steps before ours, left a path which may be followed
 with profit, yet with discrimination. _For we implicitly believe that
 in this curve of the cycle, the final authority is the man himself._

 In former times the disclosed Vedas, and later, the teachings of
 the great Buddha, were the right authority, in whose authoritative
 teachings and enjoined practices were found the necessary steps to
 raise man to an upright position. But the grand clock of the Universe
 points to another hour, and now Man must seize the key in his hands
 and himself--as a whole--open the gate. Hitherto he has depended upon
 the great souls whose hands have stayed impending doom. Let us then
 together enter upon another year, fearing nothing, assured of strength
 in the Union of Brotherhood. For how can we fear death, or life, or
 any horror or evil, at any place or time, when we well know that even
 death itself is a part of the dream which we are weaving before our
 eyes.

 Our belief may be summed up in the motto of the Theosophical Society,
 "There is no Religion higher than Truth," and our practice consists
 in a disregard of any authority in matters of religion and philosophy
 except such propositions as from their innate quality we feel to be
 true.




SAVING FOREST WASTE: Note by a Student


In the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture just issued, it
is pointed out that conservation of the timber supply involves the
co-operation of the public, the lumbermen, and the wood-consuming
industries, as well as of the National Government. Forest conservation
is not possible at the low prices of former days, and in general prices
must advance before much can be done. Then the public must be prepared
to accept new woods; the farmer must give up using cedar, white-oak,
and chestnut posts; railroads must cease using white-oak ties;
builders must accept other lengths and widths. Meantime the Government
co-operating with Wisconsin University, has established a thoroughly
equipped wood-testing laboratory at Madison, where many problems are
being investigated, from the standpoints of forest conservation and
commercial requirements.

In the valuable magazine _American Conservation_, for May 1911, it
is stated that Argentina has a hundred million acres of wooded land,
mostly quebracho and yerba tree, both in increasing demand. In Brazil
there is about a thousand million acres of wooded land. There ruthless
destruction cannot go on, as most concessions now require proper
conservation of the rubber and other trees. Bolivia has quebracho,
rubber, coca, cinchona, and other trees useful in the arts. The
timber tracts of Colombia are practically unexploited. The slopes of
Ecuador are richly wooded. The forests of Peru occupy about three
hundred million acres, and its government has taken steps to ensure
conservation, and contemplates experiment stations.

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. SCENES FROM "THE AROMA OF ATHENS" CENTRAL FIGURE IN
FRONT PHIDIAS, BEHIND HIM PERICLES]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. CENTRAL FIGURE PERICLES, ON THE LEFT PHIDIAS, ON THE
RIGHT DIOCHARES]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. ATHENIAN SOLDIERS]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. SOCRATES AND HIS DISCIPLES]




"AROMA OF ATHENS" STRIKES NEW NOTE IN THE DRAMA. Katherine Tingley to
Open Greek Theater to the Public: Unrivaled Natural Scenery: Marvelous
Acoustics. Notes by a Dramatic Critic


A new-old note in drama has been struck here on the Pacific Coast,
which, we feel quite safe in prophesying, will be recorded in many
histories. The English-speaking world has been fretting after some new
inspiration. We are tired of imitating the Elizabethans; for the time
being, that spring would seem to have run dry. What belongs to our
own day peculiarly tends to be mere boisterous horseplay or flippant
shallowness; vulgar both, and not in any way to be called art. What
we have that is good, the work of a few writers, is not so startling
in quantity or quality, nor so profoundly original, as to cause us
to hope for a new great art period in our own or our children's day.
And yet there has been the demand. The public has turned to strange
well-springs and found the waters bitter, cloying, soon to run dry; the
critics have filled their press columns, both here and in England, with
clamorings, prognostications, hasty or timorous judgments, a sense of a
great need and expectations. Decidedly the time is ripe for a new birth
in the drama.


MEETS NEEDS OF THE TIME

Now the question arises, what needs must this new birth and order
meet? Great art meets the needs of its time, sternly turning away from
its mere wants; for that reason it is often rejected for awhile by a
public clamorous after lower levels of things. Such a clamor we find
in our own day after sensationalism--give us action, more action, say
the managers; but is this a real need? The world is agog with action
as it is; such a riot of action as one might imagine the Gadarene
swine indulged in on their seaward last tumultuous journey. The motif
is threadbare; we have torn it to tatters and it is time to turn to
new modes. Personalism, too, is rampant and bears fruit in an ugly and
jangled civilization. What is needed, then, is an art that shall be
calm, dignified, beautiful, impersonal; a pointer to and promise of
better ways of living.

One turns back to the great art of the Greeks with a sense of relief
after all our modern, breathless, tom-tom beating. There we find
beauty, calm movement, dignity, national, and not merely personal
motifs; above all, an insistence on the higher and eternal verities. We
need the Aroma of Athens on our modern stage; because it is precisely
that that we need in our modern life.


PLAY DELIGHTED AUDIENCE

A few weeks ago Katherine Tingley presented a new play, _The Aroma
of Athens_, at her Isis theater in San Diego, which struck all who
saw it with profound surprise and delight. There was first the ideal
poetic beauty of the setting, a thing unrealizable unless seen. The
foremost of the London managers--men like Tree--have made a specialty
of beautiful setting, astonishing the theatrical world with the
splendor of their work in this line--and with its good taste. They have
had enormous resources to draw upon, and have spared no expense in
time, money, or thought. It may safely be said that none of them has
produced anything more beautiful than this _Aroma of Athens_; it may
safely be said that none of them has produced anything so beautiful.
One rubbed one's eyes in astonishment, wondering how such things
could be, and concluded that Madame Tingley at Point Loma had greater
resources to draw upon than are to be found in London, Paris, Berlin,
or New York. It is a wonderful thing, prophetic of the time when the
culture-metropolis of the world will be right here among us on the
Pacific Coast. Madame Tingley long ago said that San Diego would be the
Athens of America, and today this is far nearer than we dream. If one
would learn what those greater resources of hers are, one must examine
her teachings, one must look into that marvelous scheme of education of
hers, the Râja Yoga system, which enabled, for example, those little
children on the stage to be as graceful, as un-self-conscious as any
figures on a Grecian vase. Have you seen children, young children,
on the stage, do well, wonderfully well; and then, when the applause
rolled in, do better still, remaining sublimely unconscious of the
applause? We applauded these children and looked to see, as a matter
of course, the aroma of Athens vanish in a series of smirks. But no;
clapped we never so loudly, it made no difference to them. They played
their Greek games; they were merry and classical; they were Grecian,
unstilted, poetic, faery. One's mind went back to Keats' ode:

  "What little town by river or sea-shore,
  Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
  Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?"

And the answer was: Athens, Periclean Athens in all her superb flawless
beauty and splendor; yes, those were real Athenians; of whom we have
read in Keats and Swinburne; that we have seen sculptured in the Elgin
marbles. Here they were, in the flesh and blood; here was the heyday
of historic beauty, shedding its supreme aroma on us; with these tones
Plato and Aeschylus would have spoken; in this manner Phidias and
Pericles would have moved. It was a revelation, a marvelous artistic
realization--indeed, it is a shame to use such cant hackneyed phrases
for a thing so beautiful, so august--and yet so completely natural and
unstrained.


GREATER THINGS PROMISED

So much for its performance in a modern theater, but greater things are
promised. If all this is true of a play which was first thought of ten
days before it was presented--and that is the fact--what is not to be
hoped from the new presentation of it on April 17, a presentation of
which, we are told, the former ones were but little more than sketches,
and which is to be given in a real Greek open-air theater?

The Greek theater at Point Loma, the first in America, was built by
Madame Tingley in 1901. It has the true Greek setting, looking out over
the sea. A wild cañon runs down from it seaward, full of miniature
hills and precipices, among which, now visible and now unseen, winds
the path by which the players enter or leave the stage. There will be
torchlight processions under the moon new-risen, moving along that
path and over the broad stageplace; Greek chanting will be heard; real
Greek music, and music with that ineffable something in it lacking
in all, or nearly all, modern music, which suggests the hidden life
of nature, the weird majesty of Delphi, of Nemesis, of the pipes of
universal Pan; the very aroma of Sophoclean drama, plus an echo of that
older and even more entrancing Greece,

  "Of deities or mortals, or of both,
   In Tempe or the dales of Arcady,"

When--

  "Liquid Peneus was flowing
       And all dark Tempe lay
   In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing
       The light of the dying day,
   Speeded by Pan's sweet pipings."


KINGDOM OF PAN UNCONFINED

One has long suspected that, with luck, one might well come upon a faun
in the wild places of that cañon, at least in April, when the rains are
newly over and the hillside a riot of bloom and delight. For indeed the
kingdom of Pan is not confined; he has provinces here in California,
and you may come upon the dales of Arcady in any of the four quarters
of the world.

Were Pan or some legate of his to be piping far down the cañon, you
would not fail to catch every note of it from every part of the
auditorium in the theater; what is whispered on the stage is clearly
heard on the topmost tier of seats. The place is a Wonder of the
West if only for its marvelous acoustic properties. It has never
been opened to the public before for a performance. And it should be
remembered that Madame Tingley leaves nothing to chance; she stands out
grandly independent in her art; leaves no detail to be excused by the
generosity of the audience; permits nothing whatever of which you could
say: "This is excellent--for amateurs; this is splendid--considering
what a short time it has taken to get up." It may be quite safely
affirmed that this presentation on April 17 will have a prominent
place in all future histories of the drama.--San Diego _Union_, Friday
morning, April 7, 1911.




SOME NOTES ON "THE AROMA OF ATHENS" As given in the Greek Theater,
Point Loma, on Saturday Morning, April 22, 1911; With the Prolog to the
Play: by Kenneth Morris


There never was a play so difficult to appraise or criticise justly and
intelligently as this one. One had read many press notices from expert
dramatic critics, all of them enthusiastic; but when one came to see
the performance, it struck one that the best of them were inadequate,
wholly beside the point. And yet one sees the excuse for saying just
as much as language can be stretched to express. If one did not put on
the enthusiasm without stint or measure, one would convey a suggestion
that the presentation was unworthy of enthusiasm; the truth being that
enthusiasm is somehow unworthy of the presentation.

Since seeing it, one has been searching mind and memory for some means
of accounting for its extraordinary effect. We have seen it put down
to the beauty of the spectacle, harmony of colors, perfect natural
setting, and so forth. It is true that one failed to find any jarring
note in the acting; that the cañon, running down to the Pacific, seen
through the pillars of the Greek temple there, is a piece of landscape
thrilling in its beauty, for the like of which you must go to lands
where nature is at her most beautiful, and where there are the relics
of mighty builders of old, that give a focal point to the natural
beauty, and an inspiration to all artists. It is true also that there
was a perfect art in the color scheme of the dresses--an absolute
justness, balance and harmony of colors in themselves exquisite; that
one could imagine no improvement in the grouping; that the enunciation,
movements, and gesticulations, were in all cases just, clear, simple,
natural, and graceful. But I am convinced that one might see and hear
all that, and come away conscious that there was more to be said. None
of these things, either considered separately or _en masse_, are enough
to account for the enthralling effect of the play.

Generally speaking, again, it is true that "the play's the thing." In
this case I think it is not true. There is, in the ordinary sense,
hardly any action or _dramatic_ thrill. We underline dramatic, because
thrill of some deeper and hitherto unexperienced kind there was; action
too, there was--the action of a people on the World's stage; in that
sense it was all one deep thrill, and the action of real life. But the
dialog was mainly philosophic discussion, deep thought, art criticism
from the Greek standpoint--just, sound, basic, noble; but not fiery or
dramatic, as we commonly understand the terms; and there was none of
that brilliant play of wit which in some modern plays compensates for
the lack of a plot.

Here indeed, you may say that plot there was none. The Athenians are
holding their Flower Festival, to which the Satrap Pharnabazus is
welcomed as a guest. He is desirous to learn the secret of Athenian
brilliance, and one by one his hosts give utterance, in response,
to the principles of Athenian art, philosophy, etc. While they are
speaking, the herald of Sparta is announced; here there is, indeed, a
central incident of most stirring dramatic effect in the declaration
of the Peloponnesian War. Socrates prophesies the downfall of Greece,
and the rise of a new Athens in the west of the world in after-ages;
after which follows an effect which, for mystic beauty and thrill does
certainly stand out, so that you do know exactly why you are moved
by it--a procession of scarlet-draped women with torches, that comes
winding up the cañon, through the temple, and across the arena through
clouds and volumes of colored mist, a wonderful bit of Katherine
Tingley's art work, an incident impressive to the last degree, which
were it done just so on any stage in the world, and by any actors,
would create a sensation. But indeed, it is safe to say that such an
effect has never been produced before, on any stage in the world.

But be it noted that the enthralment of _The Aroma of Athens_ began
long before this; and that even this was rather a visual glory than a
dramatic _coup_ according to the received canons.

Of spectacular value, too, was the archaic dancing of the children;
and let it be said that there was something about these children which
is never to be seen on the stages of the world, nor with any other
children than those of the Râja Yoga College at Point Loma. And yet,
when one has said that they were perfectly classic, and at the same
time perfectly merry and natural--one realizes that one has still
barely begun to account for what happened.

One little woman who professed to have some knowledge of art, yet was
quite unfamiliar with the period which the play presented, almost
tearfully deplored the fact that the actors did not seem to pay any
attention to the audience during the production. The fact that they did
_not_ do so was one of the charms of the whole presentation. They were
not playing a part but giving a most realistic presentation of life,
and were, as they should have been, as if there were no audience. To
those who saw the motif of the play, it would have been a blur if the
players had shown any consciousness of the audience, or had in any way
"played to the gallery" or for personal attention.

Item by item, one might mention everything that was seen or heard, and
one would remain certain that however perfect and beautiful each might
be in itself, and even however perfect might be the harmony of them as
an ensemble, they yet were not enough to explain the total value: and
that even if you were able to explain the total value artistically,
from the standpoint of art as we understand the term, there would yet
be a kind of value, an invoking of one's inner nature without words,
which for lack of a better term one must call a _spiritual_ value--not
only moral, or mental--which would remain unexplained. In short, that
there was here shown an element, a kind of value, which is wholly
unfamiliar to the critics of the present day.

When we speak of the drama as an educational element, we conceive of
its possible effects along artistic lines, or as setting forth moral
principles, or high intellectual ideas. This play did all that, it is
true; but it did all that, plus _x_; and what that _x_ represents is
not known in our present civilization--or at least, so one suspects.
It produced a silence of the senses and of all personal voices within,
an uplift and a reverent feeling: yes, a sense that one had been given
a revelation of what the great mystics of the world have meant by the
word _spiritual_. Deeper places in one's being were touched, than any
that respond to the work of the greatest actors of the present or of
recent times.

So that any enthusiasm, any praise, seems something like an insult.
To speak of the Genius of the one that produced the play--Katherine
Tingley--that too seems a kind of insult. We have not attached to the
term genius, a breadth of meaning great enough to include the qualities
necessary for the production of a result so unlike anything that has
gone before.

We have seen it compared with the work of the premier actors of the
age, and that to the advantage of the Point Loma production. The remark
is not good criticism. The difference is not one of degree, but one of
kind. No actor manager, probably, would have handled this play; none
could produce, with any play of the greatest dramatists, results that
so baffle description, so affect one's conceptions in those parts
of one's being that lie behind and deeper than formal mentality or
imagination, or artistic appreciation. Perhaps Katherine Tingley could
explain how it is done. I think no one else could.

It is delightful to hear that Mrs. Tingley is making plans for larger
facilities for seating the people, as even with its present great
size, the Greek Theater at Point Loma cannot meet the demands. It is
whispered also that she has several more Greek and other plays in
preparation, which in course of time will be presented in the Greek
Theater, and possibly at her Isis Theater in San Diego as well.


THE PROLOG

  You are in Athens now, and you shall see
  The splendor of that age of long renown
  When Perikles was prince in Pallas' town
  Amidst a people mighty-souled and free
  Whose eminence and bright supremacy
  Made Zeus grow jealous, and wan Clotho frown,
  So that the nations rose to bring her down,
  To bring high Athens down, till she should be
  A name, a memory only; yet a name
  That burns--a beacon on the heights of time,
  Lighting the ages' darkness, making sublime
  The fame of Hellas with its smokeless flame.
  And you shall see and hear now, all those men
  That shone round Perikles: Thucydides,
  Ariston, Crito, Phidias, Sokrates,
  And many high-souled women, famous then,
  Teachers and seers and sages whose far ken
  Pierced deep the hidden realms of being.
                                              These
  Are gathered midst the Academian bowers
  To keep their Anthesterian Feast of Flowers
  Held every year in Athens. To their feast
  Comes one sent by that Great King in the East
  Whose sire was countered in the perilous hours
  Of Salamis and Marathon. But now
  To seal a pact with Athens, with high vow
  Linking the Athenian and the Persian powers
  Against the martial Spartan--Xerxes' son,
  Enthroned Artaxerxes, sendeth one
  Whom you shall see here in great pomp attend,
  An honored guest, well-welcomed--Athens' friend,
  The Persian Pharnabazus. In his hands
  Is given the sway of those Bithynian meads
  Where roam innumerable herds of steeds
  Much sought by war-kings in a thousand lands.
  Mighty with Median strength he comes--with gold
  Of Ind and Araby, and those nations old
  Which the strong Persian tamed, bedecked; and gems
  That erst adorned great princes' diadems
  Of fallen dynasties--pearls of Oman, dyes
  Wrought in Turanian vats to out-do the blooms
  Of Yemen spicy-breezed, and webs from looms
  The deft Cashmirian or Cathayan plies--
  A strong and courteous lord.
                                  Right well he knows
  By what stern virtues Persia broke her foes,
  Bringing the jeweled throne of Croesus down,
  And Phrygia's wealth, and Egypt's twofold crown;
  What Magian training molds the Persian youth
  To scorn of luxury, worship of truth,
  Honor and gratitude; but in Athene's town
  Findeth a bloom of soul and wit, in sooth,
  He knows no secret for; and must inquire
  By what strange kindling of what inward fire
  Athenian, by what quest of deathless dream,
  Athens is made so wondrously to gleam
  Above the rest of the world.
                                  Him answering there,
  The Athenian citizens, the violet-crowned,
  Speak one by one deep wisdom, and propound
  Those balanced views that made their land so fair.
  But even while they speak, lo, in the air
  Gathers a cloud, a menace--trumpets sound--
  The Spartan herald comes.
                                  Stern words are these
  He utters; sternly answereth Perikles--
  There shall be war: Athens stoops not to a peace
  Ignoble, though the untamed Lakonian bands
  Be loosed against her, and a hundred lands
  Enleague with Lakedaimon; yea, though all Greece
  Compass her splendor round with threatened doom--
  War shall it be.
                                  Therewith a gathering gloom
  Enfolds their vision, and their chief of seers
  Makes known the menace of the darkening years--
  Greece shall fall; ruined fanes shall mark her tomb,
  The tomb of all her glory waned from the land;
  Her broken, marble-pillared fanes shall stand,
  And move the unborn to marvelings and to tears
  For so much beauty waned in such decay.
  Yet see, his vision brightens! Wane away
  You barren ages! Speed, you desolate years!
  Give place, sad night-time, to the dawn of day!
  Hellas shall fall indeed; Athens shall wane,
  Yet shall be born again! Greece born again,
  Athens reborn in unknown lands, shall rise!
  High on a hill beside the western seas,
  That hath more wealth than Hybla for the bees,
  That hath more blueness than the Aegean skies,
  Athens shall rise again, most fair, most wise,
  To shine upon the world!
                                  --Thus Sokrates
  Foretelling our own glorious Lomaland;
  And what shall go forth from this western strand
  In these last days, to herald peace, and blend
  Nation with nation, hostile land with land,
  Firm friends forever.
                                  So the play hath end.

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo.
and Engraving Dept. TABLEAUX FROM THE ILIAD AS GIVEN DURING THE
PRESENTATION OF "THE AROMA OF ATHENS," APRIL 17, 1911 PARTING OF HECTOR
AND ANDROMACHE.]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo.
and Engraving Dept. ANDROMACHE FAINTING ON THE WALLS OF TROY]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. THE FUNERAL PYRE OF HECTOR]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo.
and Engraving Dept. PUPILS OF THE RÂJA YOGA COLLEGE, POINT LOMA, IN
ATHENIAN FLOWER FESTIVAL]




HAWTHORNE'S PSYCHOLOGY: contributed by C. T.


Hawthorne's _Blithedale Romance_ is a study of the psychology
underlying the human relations that arise from the subtle inner
feelings within the deepest and most diaphanous regions of the human
heart.

With an incomparable delicacy and precision of touch, revealing the
hidden framework of the underlying design, he clothes with apt speech
these specter glimpses into the realm of human motive.

Pity 'tis that his glimpses into these depths should be clouded by the
temperamental gloom of his own nature--always seeking justification of
its own pessimism, always weaving despondent tragedies that the light
of Theosophy would have transformed into inner victories in the midst
of outward defeat. Yet he seems only to have penetrated to certain
depths of gloom and doubt, and then to hesitate to take that one step
deeper where forever dwells the light that dispels all shadows.

Like a modern Virgil he leads us to the brink of the deepest chasms,
and then abandons us to our own intuitions. Possibly he saw farther
into the depths than he could record in human speech--and so wrote on
from romance to romance in search of the expression that forever eluded
his pen.




LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF PYTHAGORAS: by F. S. Darrow, PH. D., A. M.


I. LIFE

 Pythagoras, the pure philosopher deeply versed in the profounder
 phenomena of nature, the noble inheritor of the ancient lore, whose
 great aim was to free the soul from the fetters of sense and force it
 to realize its powers, must live eternally in human memory.--_H. P.
 Blavatsky_

This world-famous Greek teacher of "the Heart Doctrine" was born about
580 B. C. on the island of Samos and died about 500 B. C. Before his
birth it was prophesied to his father that a son was about to be
born to him who would be a great benefactor of mankind. Some even
went so far as to declare that Pythagoras was a human incarnation of
Hyperborean Apollo.

It is related that when a mere youth he left his native city to begin
a series of travels to the wise men of all countries, from the Hindûs
and Arabs in the East, to the Druids of Gaul in the West. We are told
that he spent twelve years in Babylon, conversing freely with the
Magi, by whom he was instructed in all their Mysteries and taught
the most perfect form of worship. He spent twenty-two years in Egypt
as an intimate of the most learned hierophants, under whose tutelage
he mastered the three styles of Egyptian writing, the common, the
hieroglyphic, and the sacerdotal. He brought with him a personal letter
of introduction to Amasis, the reigning Pharaoh, who forthwith wrote to
the hierophants and requested them to initiate Pythagoras into their
mysteries. Pythagoras first went to the priests of Heliopolis, but
they, true to the inveterate Egyptian suspicion of foreigners, although
hesitating to disobey Amasis openly, tacitly refused to initiate
Pythagoras and advised him to go to the sacred school at Memphis,
ostensibly because it was of greater antiquity than that of Heliopolis.
At Memphis also he met with the same finesse, and was next sent to the
school at Thebes, where finally under the most severe tests--tests
which nearly cost him his life--he was fully initiated into the
Egyptian Mysteries and thereafter had free access to the treasures of
the hierophants.

After leaving Egypt Pythagoras returned to Greece by way of Crete,
where he descended the Idaean cave in company with Epimenides, the
great Cretan prophet and seer, who in return for the removal of the
plague at Athens in 596 B. C. accepted from the grateful people only
a branch of the sacred olive of Athena, and refused the large sums of
money which were offered, because he declared that spiritual gifts can
not be bought and sold. From Epimenides and Themistoklea, the Delphic
Pythia, Pythagoras received further instruction. In the course of his
travels he became an initiate not only in the mysteries of India,
Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, and Gaul, but also in those of Tyre and Syria.

Pythagoras studied the various branches of knowledge, especially
mathematics, astronomy, music, gymnastics, and medicine, and
contributed very greatly to the development of these sciences among
the Greeks, for he was a man both of singular capabilities and of
great acquirements. His personal appearance was noteworthy. He was
very handsome and dignified; regularly dressed in white, and wore
a long, flowing beard. He never gave way to grief, joy, or anger,
but was accustomed to sing hymns of Homer, Hesiod, and Thales, to
preserve the serenity of his mind, and he was very eminent for his
power of attracting friends. The religious element was predominant
in his character, and his entire life was ruled by humanitarian and
philanthropic motives. He was opposed to animal sacrifice, and on one
occasion purchased a large draught of fish, which had just been caught
in a net, and set them free as an object-lesson in kindness.

Pythagoras was a practical occultist, and is said to have understood
the "language" of animals so as to be able to converse with them and
tame even the most ferocious. It is said of him that upon one occasion
he was seen and heard publicly speaking at far distant places both in
Italy and in Sicily, on the same day, a physical impossibility. It is
also stated that he healed the sick, had the power of driving away evil
spirits, foresaw the future, recognized character at a glance, and had
direct communication with the gods.

Finally at the age of nearly fifty, Pythagoras went to southern
Italy or Magna Graecia, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish a
society in his native city, and in 529 B. C. founded the Pythagorean
Brotherhood and the School of the Mysteries at Crotona. He gained
extensive influence immediately and attracted great numbers of all
classes, including many of the nobles and the wealthy, so that the
society grew with wonderful strides and soon similar schools were
established at many other cities of Magna Graecia: at Sybaris,
Metapontum, Tarentum, and elsewhere. Each of these consisted of three
hundred members accepted under inviolable pledges of secrecy and bound
to Pythagoras and to each other by the most sacred of obligations.

The statement as to the death of Pythagoras, which occurred when he
was about eighty, vary. One account says that he was banished from
Crotona and fled to Metapontum where he died after a self-imposed
fast of forty days. Another says that he was murdered by his enemies
when the temple of the school at Crotona was burned to the ground,
either by the nefarious Kylon who because of his unworthiness had been
refused admittance to the Brotherhood and his wicked associate Ninon,
or by the frenzied townspeople. At the same time similar persecutions
in the other cities where the branch schools had been established
resulted in the (supposed) murder of all but a few of the younger
and stronger members, who succeeded in escaping to Egypt. Thereafter
individual Pythagoreans, unorganized in Schools, which were everywhere
successfully suppressed, continued to keep the light burning for
centuries. The doubtful point is, whether the temple and the various
assembly halls of the Pythagoreans were burned at the end of the
Leader's life, or about a hundred years after his banishment and death
by starvation. Telauges, his "son," is said to have succeeded his
father as the Head of the shattered society, but little is known of
him. It is significant that the Pythagorean Brotherhood and School of
the Mysteries at Crotona flourished during the last twenty-five years
of the sixth century B.C., the accepted date of its overthrow being
about 500 B. C.


II. THE SCHOOL

It was a Pythagorean maxim that "everything ought not to be told to
everybody." Therefore membership in the society was secret, silent, and
guarded by the most solemn forms of obligatory pledges and initiations.
Members were classified as Akousmatikoi or Listeners, Probationary
Members, who did not live at the School, and Mathematikoi or Students,
Accepted Members, who lived with their families at the central School
of the Mysteries or at one of its branches. Probably the Mathematikoi
were further divided into two classes: the Pythagoristae or exoteric
members, and the Pythagoreans or esoteric members.

Practically any candidate of an upright and honest life was admitted at
request as a Listener, but only the fit and the worthy were accepted as
Students. Listeners, wishing to become Students, were forced to pass
through a period of probation lasting from two to five years, during
which their powers of maintaining silence were especially tested as
well as their general temper, disposition, and mental capacity. A good
working knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, (the
four branches of Pythagorean mathematics), was required preliminary to
admission to the School. Only the most approved members were admitted
to the Esoteric Section. Women were admitted (an innovation from the
Greek standpoint). Among these Theano was the most distinguished. She
had general supervision of the women.

The members were devotedly attached to their Leader and to one another.
They were enabled to recognize other members even when unacquainted
by means of their secret symbols, and it is recorded: "If Pythagoras
ever heard that any one used symbols similar to his, he at once made
him a companion and a friend." Unquestioning loyalty was given to the
counsels of Pythagoras by his disciples, for whom the _ipse dixit_
of the master settled all controversy, and the rank and admission
of candidates depended solely upon the intuitive discernment of
Pythagoras, who made all appointments.

The Students wore a special dress and had vows. They were trained
to endure fatigue, sleep little, dress very simply, never to return
reproaches for reproaches, and to bear contradiction and ridicule with
serenity. The School of the Mysteries was a school of life, not a
monastery. Pythagoras did not aim to have his disciples withdraw from
active life, but taught them how to maintain a calm bearing and an
elevated character under all circumstances. The intention was to train
them to exhibit in their personal and social capacities a reflection of
the order and harmony of the universe. The membership was international.

As it was a Pythagorean maxim that "friends should possess all things
in common," new members upon entering the School handed over their
personal possessions to the proper official who turned them into the
common treasury. A student was at liberty to depart from the School
at pleasure and at his departure he was given double his original
contribution, but over his former seat was erected a tomb, funeral
rites were performed, and he was ever afterwards referred to by the
loyal members as deceased.

Purity of life was required and temperance of all kinds was strictly
enjoined. All members ate at a common refectory in groups of ten, as
at the Spartan _syssitia_. The diet was subject to a most careful
regulation and consisted largely of bread, honey, and water. Animal
foods and wine were forbidden. It is stated also that beans were
tabooed because of their indigestibility and tendency to produce
agitated dreams.

Much importance was attached to music, and to the physical exercise
of the disciples. Each day began with a meditation upon how it could
be best spent and ended with a careful retrospect. The students arose
before the sun, and after breakfast studied for several hours, with
an interval of leisure, which was usually spent in solitary walks and
silent contemplation. The hour before dinner was devoted to athletic
exercises. In the course of the day there were mutual exhortations
not to sunder the God in each and all but to preserve the union with
the Deity and with one another. The students were accustomed to visit
Pythagoras at night, and went to sleep with music.

In a subsequent article some of the main tenets of the Pythagorean
Brotherhood will be outlined.




THE AMERICAN WOMAN IN POETRY: by Grace Knoche


Current literature, from the freshly printed book to the literary
columns of the daily press, affords certain unique opportunities
for reviewing woman's work in the light of past achievement and
future promise. Take, for instance, the single factor of woman in
poetry--where past centuries number their woman poets by the twos and
threes, as the last generation has done by little more than the threes
and fours, the present finds them springing up thicker than clover in a
fallow field and in many cases with a sweetness and fragrance in their
songs as of clover blossoms themselves.

To the thinking mind this has a certain significance as relating to the
inner unseen tides of that spiritual awakening now so seeming near for
all mankind. For what holds poesy at its heart holds music there, and
harmony and rhythm and something of that divine potency that lies in
number; and with Theosophy at our doors we do not need Plato to tell us
that

 rhythm and harmony find their way into the secret places of the soul,
 on which they mightily fasten, bearing grace in their movements and
 making the soul graceful in him who is rightly educated.

The following are a handful of poems by women--most of them,
significantly enough, by wholly or comparatively unknown
writers--from among the last month's journals and papers, by no
means a representative list, but just a few that found their way in
the natural course to the study desk. Some compel attention because
of the wholesomeness of sentiment and a certain honest openness in
their delivery, others because of their musical lilt and flow, still
others because of both. There are a few that may live, some that of a
certainty will not and that yet have a value now. But that may be said
of a hastily gathered handful of anything in its era.

They are typical of a surprisingly large class, while none of those
whose poems are herewith quoted, with the exception of Edith M. Thomas,
have so far written very much.

The first, by Angela Morgan in the _Cosmopolitan_, is a real
Theosophical challenge, a veritable battle-cry, with something of the
trenchant force and fire that flashes and thunders from out the lines
of the old _Beowulf_:

  Reined by an unseen tyrant's hand,
  Spurred by an unseen tyrant's will,
  Aquiver at the fierce command
  That goads you up the danger hill,
  You cry: "O Fate, O Life, be kind!
  Grant but an hour of respite--give
  One moment to my suffering mind;
  I cannot keep the pace and live."
  But Fate drives on and will not heed
  The lips that beg, the feet that bleed.
  Drives, while you faint upon the road,
  Drives, with a menace for a goad;
  With fiery reins of circumstance
  Urging his terrible advance
  The while you cry in your despair,
  "The pain is more than I can bear."

  Fear not the goad, fear not the pace,
  Plead not to fall from out the race--
  It is your own Self driving you,
  Your Self that you have never known,
  Seeing your little self alone,
  Your Self, high-seated charioteer,
  Master of cowardice and fear,
  Your Self that sees the shining length
  Of all the fearful road ahead;
  Knows that the terrors that you dread
  Are pigmies to your splendid strength;
  Strength you have never even guessed,
  Strength that has never needed rest.
  Your Self that holds the mastering rein,
  Seeing beyond the sweat and pain
  And anguish of your driven soul
  The patient beauty of the goal.

  Fighting upon the terror field
  Where man and Fate come breast to breast,
  Pressed by a thousand foes to yield,
  Tortured and wounded without rest,
  You cried, "Be merciful, O Life!
  The strongest spirit soon must break
  Before this all-unequal strife,
  This endless fight for failure's sake."
  But Fate, unheeding, lifted high
  His sword and thrust you through to die.
  And then there came one strong and great,
  Who towered high o'er Chance and Fate,
  Who bound your wound and eased your pain
  And bade you rise and fight again.
  And from some source you did not guess
  Gushed a great tide of happiness--
  A courage mightier than the sun--
  You rose and fought, and fighting, won.

  It was your own Self saving you,
  Your Self no man has ever known,
  Looking on flesh and blood alone;
  The Self that lives as close to God
  As roots that feed beneath the sod.
  That one who stands behind the screen,
  Looks through the window of your eyes--
  A being out of Paradise.
  The Self no human eye hath seen,
  The living one who never tires,
  Fed by the deep eternal fires.
  Your flaming star, with two-edged sword,
  Made in the likeness of the Lord.
  Angel and guardian at the gate,
  Master of Death and King of Fate.

Perhaps more musical and exquisite in its technic is the following (by
Edith M. Thomas in the _Century_), yet one looks in vain for the note
of positive assurance that sings and rings out of the poem just quoted.
Now one expects in poetry something more than rhymed philosophy, of
course, and sheer beauty of rhythm has more than once endowed paucity
of thought with an almost immortality. But the content is important,
none the less. In the preceding poem one feels a mighty conviction
forcing its way through every limitation to the goal of expression. The
work of the older and better known poetess is more clearly poetic--to
those who know the path and know the way its Sphinx-like questionings
evoke their own answer in the deeps of consciousness. To the many,
however, the first poem must reveal more.

THE UNKNOWING

  I know not where I am:
    Beneath my feet a whirling sphere,
  And overhead (and yet below)
    A crystal rampart cutting sheer--
  The traveling sun its oriflam.
        What do I know?
  I know not what I do:
    I wrought at that, I wrought at this,
  The shuttle still perforce I throw;
    But if aright or if amiss
  The web reveals not, held to view.
        What do I know?

  I know not what I think:
    My thoughts?--As in a shaft of light
  The dust-motes wander to and fro,
    And shimmer in their flight;
  Then, either way, in darkness sink.
        What do I know?

  I know not who am I:
    If now I enter on the Scheme,
  Or revenant from long ago;
    If but some World-Soul's moment-dream,
  Or, timeless, in Itself I lie.
        What do I know?

Here is a sweet touch from the Kansas City _Star_. The very name of the
writer of it is so in keeping with tender dutifulness and so suggestive
of clean-swept hearths and ministries to tiny, clinging hands, that
one wonders if it be not a pseudonym. A miniature "psalm of daily duty"
is it:

  At morn I yearned a song to sing
    That would inspire and teach
  In words so true all men would hear
    In them their own soul's speech.

  But Duty stopped my pen and showed
    The day's dull round of care--
  The service to another's need--
    A burden I should share.

  At night the Day sung to the past
    Her record clear and strong,
  And richer, sweeter than I dreamed
    I heard complete my song.

  --_Emily Householder_

And from the same paper another ringing note on the sacredness of the
day's duty--but this is no psalm, rather a trumpet call, gorgeous,
full, and technically so splendid that it suggests the ancients:

TODAY

  Voice, with what emulous fire thou singest free hearts of old fashion,
    English scorners of Spain sweeping the blue sea-way,
  Sing me the daring of life for life, the magnanimous passion
    Of man for man in the mean populous streets of Today.

  Hand, with what color and power thou couldst show, in the ring
                                                             hot-sanded,
    Brown Bestiarius holding the lean, tawn tiger at bay,
  Paint me the wrestle of Toil with the wild-beast Want, bare-handed;
    Shadow me forth a soul steadily facing Today.--_Helen Gray Cone_

Will you have music? Then read these, so different in content, so
unlike in the touch, for one is threaded through with compassion and
tenderness while the other is just a little note of joy in life, which
might rise out of self as well as unself in certain not yet conscious
natures.

CANDLEMAS

  O hearken, all ye little weeds
        That lie beneath the snow,
  (So low, dear hearts, in poverty so low!)
    The sun hath risen for royal deeds,
    A valiant wind the vanguard leads;
    Now quicken ye, lest unborn seeds
        Before ye rise and blow.

  O furry living things, adream
        On winter's drowsy breast,
  (How rest ye there, how softly, safely rest!)
    Arise and follow where a gleam
    Of wizard gold unbinds the stream,
    And all the woodland windings seem
        With sweet expectance blest.

  My birds, come back! the hollow sky
        Is weary for your note.
  (Sweet-throat, come back! O liquid, mellow throat!)
    Ere May's soft minions hereward fly,
    Shame on ye, laggards, to deny
    The brooding breast, the sun-bright eye,
        The tawny, shining coat!--_Alice Brown_

THE WAVES OF BREFFNY

  The grand road from the mountain goes shining to the sea,
  And there is traffic on it and many a horse and cart;
  But the little roads of Cloonagh are dearer far to me
  And the little roads of Cloonagh go rambling through my heart.
  A great storm from the ocean goes shouting o'er the hill,
  And there is glory in it, and terror on the wind;
  But the haunted air of twilight is very strange and still,
  And the little winds of twilight are dearer to my mind.

  The great waves of the Atlantic sweep storming on their way,
  Shining green and silver with the hidden herring shoal;
  But the little waves of Breffny have drenched my heart in spray,
  And the little waves of Breffny go sweeping through my soul.

  --_Eva Gore-Booth_

The two following poems attack the same theme, a fruitful and varied
one to lovers of Lomaland where the winter rains are the year's
beneficence. But note the full rich lines of the work of the unknown
writer, albeit the sonnet is of course the more difficult poetic form.

THE FOUNTAINS OF THE RAIN

  The merchant clouds that cruise the sultry sky,
  As soon as they have spent their freight of rain,
  Plot how the cooling thrift they may regain:
  All night along the river-marsh they lie,
  And at their ghostly looms swift shuttles ply,
  To weave them nets wherewith the streams to drain;
  And often in the sea they cast a seine,
  And draw it, dripping, past some headland high.
  Many a slender naiad, with a sigh,
  Is in their arms uptaken from the plain;
  The trembling myrmidons of dew remain
  No longer than the flash of morning's eye,
  Then back unto their misty fountains fly:
  This is the source and journey of the rain.

  --_Edith Matilda Thomas_

RAIN

  The patient rain at early summer dawn;
  The long, lone autumn drip; the damp, sweet hush
  Of springtime, when the glinting drops seem gone
  Into the first notes of the hidden thrush;
          The solemn, dreary beat
          Of winter rain and sleet;
  The mad, glad, passionate calling of the showers
          To the unblossomed hours;
  The driving, restless midnight sweep of rain;
  The fitful sobbing, and the smile again,

  Of spring's childhood; the fierce unpitying pour
  Of low-hung leaden clouds; the evermore
  Prophetic beauty of the sunset storm,
  Transfigured into color and to form
  Across the sky. O wondrous changing rain!
  Changeful and full of temper as man's life;
  Impetuous, fierce, unpitying, kind again,
  Prophetic, beauteous, soothing, full of strife:
  Through all thy changing passions hear not we
  Th' eternal note of the Unchanging Sea?

  --_Laura Spencer Portor_

Nothing is worse than bad poetry, unless it be bad art of every kind,
of which the world today is having a surfeit. That we find a greater
abundance of wretched verse, however, than of wretched painting and
sculpture, and that there are still those who think that the poet's
equipment need consist of little more than an unbalanced emotionalism,
we may attribute perhaps to the fact that the pen and ink are readier
to hand with the majority than palette and brush or calipers and
modeling tool. Conceit and ignorance, working together, have made "to
write poetry" almost a reproach.

The remedy would seem to be to diffuse a few simple truths, such
as that true poetry has nothing to do with emotionalism, nor
sentimentality, nor bad spelling, nor with metres that "interfere,"
like a clumsy horse's feet; and that where one in ten thousand who care
for poetry may try to write it and succeed, the rest will fail and will
neglect their proper duties besides. It is so in art, in literature
generally, in music, in all things--the safe path is to drop the gleam
and fire and fragrance of the soul-touch into one's life _in the shape
of a more courageous performance of the daily task, whatever it may
be_, and be content with that, which is the greatest thing in the
world, anyway. If the Muse should decide to pick us out, willy nilly,
she has ways of letting us know. Poesy has its technic, as has all art,
and sentimental ignorance can never hope to pose as inspiration among
those who know.

The real point to be emphasized is that this is part of a certain
outreaching on idealistic lines of which the wholly remarkable work
of the young women of the present generation in music, composition,
painting, and sculpture, constitutes other parts. And this outreaching
towards an art expression along various lines is so general, and is
so differentiated in essence from the results of ordinary scholastic
work or the general movement for the higher education of woman, that it
cannot justly be ignored.

Few young women will, in the ordinary course, win a separate fame along
the solitary path of pure art. Most of them, and most of those who come
within the radius of the influence of their aspirations and their art
work, will become wives, home-makers, mothers. Many more will become
teachers, or are that now, wielding potent influence. It is these who
will strike the keynote for the quality of atmosphere that is to shape,
as it will surround, the generations yet unborn; and, because of that,
the feeling and aspiration that many of the poems seen in our current
journals disclose, is important and significant at this transitional
time.




ANCIENT ASTRONOMY: by Fred J. Dick, M. Inst. C. E.


In perhaps no department of thought has appreciation of the
achievements of antiquity been more inadequate than in that of
astronomy. This is all the more remarkable when we remember that many
facts have been published and are accessible, amply sufficient to
convince any unbiased student as to the hoary antiquity of the science;
and also as to the fact that in the remotest times it was a science
whose exactitude surpassed that of modernity because based upon immense
periods of observation and a profound knowledge of the harmonious laws
underlying celestial motions; in comparison with which knowledge our
generalizations and mathematical triumphs pale into insignificance.

Such statements are hardly likely to meet ready acceptance from those
who have not yet realized the immense antiquity of the human race,
the cyclic rises and falls of nations and races coeval with vanished
continents, and the fact that there were times when humanity had divine
instructors in the arts and sciences. Yet without some recognition of
these basic ideas it is hardly possible to comprehend even faintly the
significance of some statements made in the _Sûrya-Siddhânta_--one
of the oldest treatises on astronomy extant. There are many
others--perhaps thousands--but they are not accessible at the present
time, probably because they would be still less understood.

Another thing hardly likely to be appreciated in some quarters is the
fact that on account of the intimate connexion between the facts of
astronomy and cyclic laws affecting human destiny, this science for
long ages was one of the sacred sciences, and its deeper mysteries were
carefully guarded--as they are still, for that matter.

This last consideration throws an interesting light on the performance
of Hipparchos (whom our text-books dub "the father of astronomy"),
for he was not only silent as to the sources of his facts, but his
data have been shown to be inconsistent with his methods, and are only
explainable when calculated out on the principles enunciated in the
_Sûrya-Siddhânta_. In short, he has been thus shown to have had access
to Eastern sources of information, while at the same time some things
were withheld.

This is but an instance of a policy which had been pursued for a very
considerable period anterior to the time of Hipparchos. Just so much
was given as would afford a stimulus for investigation; for humanity
entered upon novel and strenuous conditions some five thousand years
ago, and has had to win for itself a new path in science, as in other
departments of activity.

Key-notes are sounded, and instruction given, at cyclic periods;
yet man must win his own path to knowledge, and guarded sources of
information could not help him, until he prove himself morally as well
as intellectually fitted to advance.

This brings us naturally to a survey of modern achievement in
astronomy, and the conclusion is almost irresistible that it has
reached a point where further light must come, if only the enthusiastic
followers of this kingly science would raise their eyes from the
mechanical skeleton they have built so laboriously, and realize that
the universe is living and conscious--in the interstellar spaces, as
well as in the little fiery-looking balls that float therein. We should
remember that it is part of human destiny to enter into the wider
consciousness which alone holds the master-clues.

The above conclusion is supported by the statement of Simon Newcomb
that the unsolved problems of astronomy seem to increase with every
year, instead of diminishing.

It is a curious reflection, in these days of "exact" science, that real
exactitude can only be obtained, as in pure mathematics, by proceeding
from universals to particulars, never from particulars to universals.
Yet the latter method has perforce to be adopted when no other way
is in sight. That it fails, is shown by the simple fact that few of
the "elements" or "constants" in modern astronomy are exactly known.
No tables have yet been constructed, based upon purely mathematical
formulae, which represent the actual motions, say of the superior
planets. Those in the _Nautical Almanac_ are simply derived from such
hypothetical formulae, with corrections found necessary by experience
extended over what is an almost ludicrously insufficient term of years.
We should like to see the astronomical formula in use which would show
that the obliquity of the ecliptic, 23,000 years ago, was slightly more
than 27°. No longer ago than August 1905 an eclipse of the sun began
twenty seconds before the predicted time.

Fortunately our astronomers do not live in ancient China, or they might
have been beheaded for this want of accuracy!

On the other hand, the achievements in the domain of theory during
the last two centuries or less have been so remarkable that it is
to be hoped the methods and facts given in the _Sûrya-Siddhânta_ may
yet receive some attention from competent mathematicians, once they
perceive their importance. The apparent discrepancies with modern
facts, it may be pretty safely asserted, will be found to yield
valuable results upon careful analysis.

Investigators will find that, contrary to the assumptions of some
critics of Eastern chronology, a "year" does not mean a day, nor a
month--although it is sometimes called "a day of the gods" in Eastern
writings.

One of the first things to arrest attention in the _Sûrya-Siddhânta_ is
that in a "great age" of 4320 thousand years there are exactly forty
revolutions of the Earth's apsides, one revolution of which occupies
108 thousand years. (Young's _General Astronomy_, § 199.) The line of
apsides is the major axis of the Earth's orbit. Here we glimpse a basic
connexion between the great cycles of time and the apsidal revolutions.

Let us quote a few aphorisms from Book I of this ancient work.

 27. By their [the planets'] movement the revolution is accounted
 complete at the end of the asterism Revatî.

 29. In an age the revolutions of the Sun ... are 4,320,000.

 30. Of the Moon 57,753,336.

 31. ... of Jupiter 364,220.

 32. ... of Saturn 146,568.

 33. Of the Moon's apsis 488,203. Of its node, in the contrary
 direction 232,238.

 34. Of asterisms 1,582,237,828.

 36. ... From rising to rising of the Sun are reckoned terrestrial
 civil days.

 37. Of these there are in an age 1,577,917,828. Of lunar days
 1,603,000,080.

From these figures we find the mean value of the sidereal year during
a cycle of 4320 thousand years to be 0.002403 of a day longer than
at present, which of course means that there are slow changes in the
length of the orbital major axis.

There is a point worthy of attention regarding the asterism Revatî,
to which these revolutions are referred, and which is thus seen to
mark the origin of the Hindû movable zodiac. The precise star has
either disappeared, or has not, so far, been publicly indicated. But
the place of the origin was carefully calculated in 1883, and found
to have a longitude of about 20.5 degrees. Again, from the numerous
facts connected with the important epoch of 3102 B. C., which marked
the beginning of the current cycle of 432,000 years (See _Traité de_
_l'Astronomie Indienne et Orientale_, by M. Bailly, M. Acad. Franç.,
1787), its place was about five degrees westward of the other. This
shows it to have a positive movement of 4´´ per year, giving one
complete revolution in 324,000 years.

This proper motion, if that of an actual star, is of the same order
of magnitude as that of many stars. It would perhaps be interesting
to glance at the relation between stellar movements and the greater
cycles dealt with in ancient astronomy, for all analogy would indicate
revolution in orbits to be a general law; and moreover, probabilities
would indicate that our system is not too remote from the center of the
stellar system. Assuming the average cross speed to be twenty miles per
second, stars at 7 light-years distance would make one revolution while
the Earth's apsides made four. Those at 70 light-years, one in a "great
age." Those at the estimated distance of the farthest visible stars,
5000 light-years, would perform a revolution in just one manvantara of
308 million years.

Doubtless all such revolutions are superposed on other lesser
revolutions down to those known, as in cases of double stars, etc. And
it may be suggested that there are not improbably a number of axes
of revolution, or rather principal planes of revolution, having some
harmonious mutual inclination.

In order properly to relate the above mean value of the sidereal year
to its present value, we should have to know our place in this cycle
of 4320 thousand years; and the same observation applies to the other
figures. We may return to this point at another time, as the necessary
data are given in the same work. The effect of stellar proper motions,
already referred to, would have to be considered.

The figures for the Moon make the mean value of the sidereal month
1.103 seconds longer than its present estimated value.

Those for Jupiter make its mean sidereal period about a quarter of
a day shorter than the present one of 4332.58 days; while those for
Saturn come out 6.55 days more than the present period of 10,759.22
days.

The methods of calculation and tables connected with the
_Sûrya-Siddhânta_ were rigorously applied by M. Bailly to an observed
interval extending from the epoch in 3102 B. C. to a certain moment
on May 21, 1282 of our era, at Benares--a period of 4383 years and 94
days; and the mean place of the Moon thus found was less than a minute
of arc different from that calculated for the same interval by the
modern tables of Cassini. An astronomy which could achieve a result
like this by methods and tables at least five thousand years old,
points to the enormous duration of some prior high civilization.

The precessional movement of 54´´, peculiar to the _Sûrya-Siddhânta_,
being referred to "Revatî" with its 4´´ direct motion, gives 50´´, like
ours.

It is as well perhaps to recall what Iamblichus states:

 The Assyrians have not only preserved the memorials of seven and
 twenty myriads [270,000] of years as Hipparchos says they have, but
 likewise of the whole apocatastases [planetary sidereal periods]
 and periods of the seven rulers of the world. (Proklos on Plato's
 _Timaios_, Bk. 1.)

H. P. Blavatsky, commenting on this, says it is

 about 850,000 years since the submersion of the last large island
 (part of the Continent), the Ruta of the Fourth Race, or the
 Atlantean; while Daitya, a small island inhabited by a mixed race,
 was destroyed about 270,000 years ago, during the glacial period or
 thereabouts. But the Seven Rulers, or the seven great Dynasties of
 the _divine_ kings belong to the traditions of every great people of
 antiquity. (_The Secret Doctrine_, I, 651.)

She also informs us that

 The chronology and computations of the Brâhman Initiates[2] are based
 upon the Zodiacal records of India, and the works of ... Asuramaya.
 The Atlantean zodiacal records cannot err, as they were compiled under
 the guidance of those who first taught astronomy, among other things,
 to mankind. (_The Secret Doctrine_, II, 49.)

[2] But these are not the modern Brâhmans, as is clearly explained in
H. P. Blavatsky's own writings.--F. J. D.




THE PATH: by Gertrude Van Pelt, M. D.

  Thou wilt shew me the path of life.--_Psalms_, xvi. 11


Nothing so stirs the heart with gratitude as the thought of the Great
Souls who have opened the Path, who keep it open, and who guide the
steps of the hungry searching multitude to its entrance. They have
carved the way through the rock of matter. They have waded through the
mires of delusion. They have cleared away the confusing and entangling
underbrush of doubt. They have hewn down the mighty obstructions. With
dauntless courage each one has destroyed the dragon which guarded the
treasure from himself, thus inspiring all who follow. They have erected
signposts all along the journey, and with their hearts' blood have
written thereon the messages which every pilgrim may read, and so avoid
one step amiss. Not only this, but having achieved the goal, they have
retraced their steps again and again, to direct the uncertain feet of
the children of earth, to combat ignorance, vice, and injustice; to
encourage, uplift, and teach. Though unseen in many times and places,
it is they who keep the lights burning.

Terrible as are the difficulties, the discouragements, the disasters,
which the human children encounter, it is the Great Souls who prevent
them from being impossible; who ward off the clouds of despair lest
they settle over the globe like a pall of darkness paralysing all
effort. Without these Elder Brothers all would be lost in the labyrinth
of matter, never finding the thread which could lead them out. But to
be without them is inconceivable, unthinkable; for all must sometime
find the Path and tread it. No means have been omitted to make it
plain. All nature exists but to point the way. All experiences, all
events, difficulties, disappointments, all good, as well as so-called
bad fortune: all tend to the same issue. It has been described in every
language of heart or head, that all, even the beasts of the fields, in
some vague way, may hear and gradually understand.

One of those who has gone before and returned to show the path to
others, said: "I am the Way." Another, with a different sidelight on
the same truth, said: "Each man is to himself absolutely the way." For
each one in traveling it, does so by passing through the mazes of his
own personality, first as one blindfolded, then as one slowly awakening
to its meaning, and finally as one consciously subduing and transmuting
it. And when he has reached the goal, he _becomes_ the way. His whole
being is an expression, an exposition of the way--the mystic Path,
which lies within and yet without; which is so far, and yet so near.
_Light on the Path_ expresses it as follows:

 Seek out the way.... Seek it not by any one road. To each temperament
 there is one road which seems the most desirable. But the way is not
 found by devotion alone, by religious contemplation alone, by ardent
 progress, by self-sacrificing labor, by studious observation of life.
 None alone can take the disciple more than one step onward. All steps
 are necessary to make up the ladder. The vices of men become steps in
 the ladder, one by one, _as they are surmounted_. The virtues of men
 are steps indeed, necessary--not by any means to be dispensed with.
 Yet, though they create a fair atmosphere, and a happy future, they
 are useless if they stand alone. The whole nature of man must be used
 wisely by the one who desires to enter the way.




SAN DIEGO: by Kenneth Morris


That San Diego has the greatest of futures before it, who shall deny?
Katherine Tingley, Leader of The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical
Society, foresaw its destiny, saw its possibilities, fifteen years
ago, and began forthwith to lay the foundations of peculiar greatness
for it. There are thousands of cities in the United States, doubtless
in Canada too, centers in all the new worlds established from Europe,
that have before them a huge metropolitanism, and are to grow populous
beyond the Old World capitals. Why not? The wind of increase bloweth
where it listeth, and we can only safely prophesy change and reversion,
change and reversion. Where the deserts are now, dwelt of old the
builders of sky-scrapers; aeroplanes soared over lands the oceans
cover; and Dreadnoughts floated and made war, perhaps, where now are
Alps and Andes. Here is a land in its beginnings; many millennia lie
before it in which to grow. We need the grand vision when we look
out on the ages to be; only so can we sow the right seeds for their
harvesting. We cannot tell what nations or cities are destined for
high material greatness; probably there is room for every one to hope.
But for San Diego a peculiar and more excellent fate is reserved,
whose falling she may hasten by her clear-sightedness, or retard by
her perversity; still, it lies before her. She is to be the City of
Righteousness, the metropolis of the world's culture, the Mecca of
distant generations of poets, artists, philosophers, and musicians.
It is not mainly her own citizens who make this claim. They, with all
their high ambitions, with all their golden dreams, are hardly alive to
the great possibilities of the town.

In an age pre-eminently of material progress, it is natural to lay most
stress on the material advantages of site, climate, etc. So there is
no end to the writing on the Bay--the one bay between San Francisco
and somewhere far away in Mexico--with all it offers for commerce and
for strategy; or on the unwearying efforts of the sun; on the glorious
hinterland, so rich and beautiful; or the new railway that is to open
it up, and link San Diego with the east; on partial awakenings at
Washington to the great strategic importance of this town, and the
certainty that these partial awakenings must become whole-hearted
and thorough some time, and bear fruit a thousandfold. Time, time,
time--there is time for all these things. Innumerable palaces will be
seen, surrounding this blue jewel of a bay; looking down on it from
amidst exquisite parks and gardens on the heights; there will be
drives as famed as any in Switzerland or Italy. Nature herself has
provided for this; and the tide of empire is rolling westward.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. VIEW OF SAN DIEGO
WITH A GLIMPSE OF THE BAY CORONADO IN THE DISTANCE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE U. S. GRANT
HOTEL, FROM THE PLAZA, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA]

Time and again San Diego has been named with two cities of the Old
World; and there is something instructive in either comparison. She
is "the Naples of California," and again, "the Athens of the Pacific
Coast." Cuyamaca has been likened to Vesuvius, and our bay to the
Bay of Naples. Indeed, no doubt there is a physical resemblance. The
conditions that made Naples are largely historic; but then they are
largely climatic, and matters of situation, also. As for history, the
history of San Diego lies before her. All historic conditions--Camorra,
lazzaroni, plague, pestilence, national inefficiency, vice, and famine,
or the blessings which are the reverse of all these--are the fruitage
of one cannot say what tiny seeds sown, one cannot say when or how
often. You take a child, and give it no training or bad training in
its first years: it was the offspring of highly cultured parents,
perhaps; but what disasters may not lie before it? On the other hand,
you take a child, who has had no advantages, and give it a Râja Yoga
training such as Katherine Tingley is giving to so many at Point Loma
and elsewhere--such, in truth, as only Katherine Tingley knows how to
give--and you need set no particular limits to the hopes you hold for
that child's future. There is a great parallelism with this in the
early years of a city or community.

Up and down the world there are a thousand cities, as was said,
with huge material destinies lying before them, which by their very
situation they will not be able to escape. But in how many cases
have they not been without far foresight in their youth, to guard
them against the perils of that most perilous time? "They sow their
wild oats," we say; a phrase that is meant to cover a multitude of
iniquities. One can no more cheat the Law with such an excusive
expression, than one can write an I O U for one's debts, and
comfortably thank God that one need think no more of _them_. He who has
sown his wild oats may have gained a certain wisdom and experience out
of the sufferings resultant from them; but he will never be the man he
might have been. He will have lowered the whole of his possibilities,
and can pay thereafter only so much per cent of his debt to the world
and humanity.

Climate and situation might have prepared for San Diego only such a
fate as that of Naples; and there are other elements of possible
danger as well, which it would require no ordinary wisdom and foresight
to guard against. Indeed, have there not been revelations here and
there in our cities, which should make us judge charitably the home of
the Camorra? But now there are many thousands up and down the world
who believe in San Diego; who cannot think she will fail or fall into
gross error; who already look on her as a Mecca for their hopes; who
know that she will shed light around the world. Reference is made,
of course, to the great membership of the Universal Brotherhood and
Theosophical Society, which has its ramifications among all the peoples
of the globe. For them, San Diego rose above the horizon when Katherine
Tingley declared her intention, some fifteen years ago, to found the
City of Learning, the World's Theosophical Headquarters, on the heights
of Point Loma, within the city limits of San Diego. They had reason
even then to know that what Katherine Tingley says she will do, is
done; and they have had a million times more reason for that certainty
given them since.

When this famous humanitarian came to San Diego, grass was growing in
some of the streets there, where there should have been boulevards
bustling with life. The old first "boom" had long since spent itself,
helped to its grave by ready inimical hands; and there seemed no
special reason for its resurrection. It was then that she made her
promises. This little city of the quiet streets should come to be, not
the Naples, but the Athens of the west. It should have population;
it should have riches and commerce and splendor; it should flourish
abundantly when its enemies had long since faded out and been
forgotten; and all this was the very least and most insignificant part
of its destiny. There should be a new and timelong age of Perikles
here; new Phidian studios; new Groves of Akademe. Time--we must not be
niggardly with that, perhaps; these things should not be in a day; but
assuredly _they should be_.

It will be asked, on what grounds Katherine Tingley based these
promises of hers. The answer is: on her own intentions with regard to
the place; and on her knowledge of the laws that govern the growth of
civic and national life. Is there no knowing the future? The farmer
sows his seed under the impression that there is. He has cultivated
the soil; plowed and fertilized it; now he can put the seed in with
a certain confidence. Only it is not everybody that understands the
preparing for these greater national or civic harvests.

It is safe to say that from that time the second great San Diego boom
dates. The Theosophical Center was started on Point Loma, and from the
first has been attracting life to the city across the bay. This is not
the place to give statistics as to the number of thousands of dollars
that have been spent in San Diego each year; nor as to the amount of
labor that has been employed. From the start it was enough to give the
city that new impetus of life which was needed--a fact proven by the
rise in the population from 17,000 to 50,000 in ten years.

Then came the founding of the Râja Yoga system of education, with its
first and chiefest exemplification in the College on Point Loma. Do
all our citizens realize what this has meant for the city? On merely
material lines, for example? Not only from the eastern States, but from
Europe and Asia as well, hundreds have made the pilgrimage to San Diego
to investigate the Râja Yoga College and system on the Point. They
have gone away and filled their own lands with the rumor of the fame
of this wonderful new thing that has its Headquarters--at _San Diego_.
The press of England, of Japan, of Germany, of Holland, of Sweden, have
been made abundantly aware of the fame of this Theosophical Center--at
_San Diego_. A Greek play is given in the open-air theater on Point
Loma, _San Diego_--and we read critiques of it in the morning papers
of Bavaria. We pick up a Tokyo magazine of current date, and find in
it a picture of a group of children who are receiving their education
at Point Loma, _San Diego_. Katherine Tingley landed in Liverpool in
the summer of 1907; and the next morning's London papers teemed with
accounts of her--pages of accounts of her--and of her colossal and
beneficent undertaking at Point Loma, _San Diego_. And so on, and so
on, and so on. With the best facilities in the world and a genius for
advertising, and with the expenditure of millions, San Diego could
hardly have advertised herself in the way that Mrs. Tingley, through
her Theosophical work, has caused her to be advertised; and it has cost
San Diego nothing.

But all this has been merely, or mainly, for the material advantage
of the city. A man (or a place) may acquire a false fame, that he
cannot or will not live up to; and he will be paid with contempt later,
more oppressive than the obscurity he had at first. Mrs. Tingley
has done more than this. She has laid down the lines, and labored
without ceasing, for the real advance and benefit of the city. Is it
nothing that San Diego should have in its core a Center such as this
Theosophical one at Point Loma--a center where the higher life is
being lived, where money is not the motive, where the greatest effort
of the age is being made to uplift humanity? The greatest effort? Yes;
because the one that knows best what must be done to attain success,
and on what foundations in the nature of man this success must be based.

Consider her fame throughout the world; her fame as an orator, that
will crowd the biggest halls in any city in Europe, and bring hundreds
to the doors who cannot gain admission. There _may_ be some other
living Americans of whom as much can be said; but there are not many.
How many visitors are attracted to San Diego yearly by Katherine
Tingley's famous work at Point Loma, and because this world-renowned
orator will certainly be speaking at the Isis Theater twice or three
times, or perhaps more often, in each season? And what will be the
result of these many speeches of hers, that so many thousands have
heard?

The result may not be so visible yet that "he who runs may read";
neither is the result of the great fertilizing you gave your
field--until the grain has sprouted, and the brown earth is covered
with greenness. But the result is that seeds of coming greatness, in a
real sense--seeds of a higher, cleaner, saner life--have been sown in
the life and thought of the city. In time you shall see the harvest.
It will be a clean city, such as Calvin, for example, strove to make
of his Geneva; a city without stain or blemish, without saloon or
redlight. Beyond that, it will be a city perhaps of many theaters, in
which the highest, the most classical and beautiful of the world's
dramas will be shown--and in which there will never be anything shown
approaching the commonplace, the vulgar, the stupid. It will be a City
Beautiful, a place of marvelous architecture, exquisite gardening. It
will be a city whose press will be clean, elevating, unsensational,
instructive; a press that will not lie nor slander nor _touch personal
themes_; that will give the news, and not rake hell and the gutters,
fact and fancy, for all kinds of nauseousness and nonsense; a press
that will be a model to the press of the world. From all the world the
best people will be sending their children to be educated here.

There is no limit to the high possibilities of San Diego--the high
possibilities that Katherine Tingley has helped to make possible. How
long, O San Diego, before these things shall be? It is for you to
answer; it is for you to answer.




The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society

Established for the Benefit of the People of the Earth and all Creatures


OBJECTS

This Brotherhood is part of a great and universal movement which has
been active in all ages.

This Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. Its
principal purpose is to teach Brotherhood, demonstrate that it is a
fact in Nature, and make it a living power in the life of humanity.

Its subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and modern religions,
science, philosophy and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the
divine powers in man.

[Illustration]


H. P. BLAVATSKY, FOUNDRESS AND TEACHER

The present Theosophical Movement was inaugurated by Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky in New York in 1875. The original name was "The Theosophical
Society." Associated with her were William Q. Judge and others.
Madame Blavatsky for a time preferred not to hold any outer official
position except that of Corresponding Secretary. But later, in 1888,
she dissolved a Center in France and cancelled its by-laws, which
action was afterwards formally ratified by the Executive Council of the
Society. Referring to this she wrote in her English magazine as follows:

 This settles the question of the actual right of the Corresponding
 Secretary--one of the founders--to interfere in such exceptional cases
 when the welfare and reputation of the Theosophical Society are at
 stake. In no other, except such a case, would the undersigned have
 consented or taken upon herself the right of interfering.

Later she assumed the Presidency of the British Section of the
Theosophical Society. Further, in response to the statement published
by a then prominent member in India that Madame Blavatsky is "loyal to
the Theosophical Society and to Adyar," Madame Blavatsky wrote:

 It is pure nonsense to say that "H. P. B. ... is loyal to the
 Theosophical Society and to Adyar"(!?). _H. P. B. is loyal to death to
 the Theosophical cause and those Great Teachers whose philosophy can
 alone bind the whole of Humanity into one Brotherhood_.... The degree
 of her sympathies with the Theosophical Society and Adyar depends upon
 the degree of the loyalty of that Society to the CAUSE. Let it break
 away from the original lines and show disloyalty in its policy to the
 cause and the original program of the Society, and H. P. B., calling
 the T. S. disloyal, will shake it off like dust from her feet.

All true students know that Madame Blavatsky held the highest
authority, the only real authority which comes of wisdom and power, the
authority of Teacher and Leader, the real head, heart, and inspiration
of the whole Theosophical Movement. It was through her that the
teachings of Theosophy were given to the world, and without her the
Theosophical Movement could not have been.


BRANCH SOCIETIES IN EUROPE AND INDIA

In 1878 Madame Blavatsky left the United States, first visiting
Great Britain and then India, in both of which countries she founded
branch societies. The parent body in New York became later the Aryan
Theosophical Society and HAS ALWAYS HAD ITS HEADQUARTERS IN AMERICA;
and of this, William Q. Judge was President until his death in 1896.

To one who accepts the teachings of Theosophy it is plain to see that
although Theosophy is of no nationality or country but for all, yet
it has a peculiar relationship with America. Not only was the United
States the birthplace of the Theosophical Society, and the home of the
Parent Body up to the present time, but H. P. Blavatsky, the Foundress
of the Society, although a Russian by birth, became an American
citizen; William Q. Judge, of Irish parentage and birth, also became
an American citizen; and Katherine Tingley is American born. America
therefore not only has played a unique part in the history of the
present Theosophical Movement, but it is plain to see that its destiny
is closely interwoven with that of Theosophy; and by America is meant
not only the United States or even the North American continent, but
also the South American continent, and, as repeatedly declared by
Madame Blavatsky, it is in this great Western Hemisphere as a whole,
North and South, that the next great Race of humanity is to be born.


ENEMIES OF PROGRESS

While the main object of the Society from the first was to establish a
nucleus of Universal Brotherhood, there were some, we regret to state,
who joined the Society from far different motives. Many were wholly
sincere in their interest and efforts to benefit the human race, but as
in other societies, so in this, there were a few who entered its ranks
seeking an opportunity to gratify their ambition and love of power.
Still others, in their carping egotism thought that they knew more
than their Teacher, H. P. Blavatsky, and were jealous of that Teacher,
and later of the one whom she left as her successor and Teacher in her
place.

Thus it was that there were attacks from the very first against the
teachings of Theosophy, but more than all against the one who brought
again these teachings to the world--Madame H. P. Blavatsky--and on
handing the guidance of the Theosophical Movement on to her successors
they too have been subject to similar attacks from the forces of evil,
whose very existence is threatened by the spread of the teachings of
Theosophy, which are the teachings of truth.

Madame Blavatsky's mission was in part to tear down the materialism
of the age on one hand, and dogmatic domination on the other, and
this made for her many bitter enemies. It was not long before enmity
and unbrotherliness met her on every side, and these culminated in
a plan to overthrow the influence of Theosophy and discredit her
before the world. It was in India, in 1884, that this plan unfolded.
Two ingrates, (French people, man and wife) who had been befriended
by Madame Blavatsky when they were starving and ragged, and who
later attempted to blackmail some of the members of the Society,
and confessed themselves to be bribe-takers, liars, and forgers,
associated themselves with the Christian College of Madras, India, and
sought to destroy Madame Blavatsky and her work. It was afterwards
discovered--admitted by the missionaries themselves, and published
in the Madras _Mail_--that these missionaries had agreed to pay a
large sum of money to the above-referred-to people for letters of
Madame Blavatsky. These letters, as was afterwards proven, were gross
forgeries.

At the same time the Psychical Research Society sent out as its agent a
young man who had just left college, to investigate and make a report.
This young man, wholly inexperienced, had all his traveling expenses
paid on his long trip of sight-seeing, and no doubt felt that he must
make some report to warrant the large outlay for his expenses, and
in order to earn his salary. The whole source of this young man's
information, on which he based his report, was the testimony of the two
people above referred to, who later confessed their fraud. Furthermore,
the young man published as his own a drawing made by William Q. Judge
of something that the young man had no possibility of seeing, as it
did not exist in that state when the young man arrived in India.
Nevertheless, the Psychical Research Society accepted the young man's
unsupported testimony, without asking for any answer from Madame
Blavatsky, nor did they ask her friends, but made their report solely
on the testimony of two perjured ingrates, and of a young man, who
appropriated the work of another as his own.


MADAME BLAVATSKY FOUNDS THE ESOTERIC SCHOOL

HER LIFE-LONG TRUST IN WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

In 1888, H. P. Blavatsky, then in London, on the suggestion and at the
request of her Colleague, William Q. Judge, founded the Esoteric School
of Theosophy, a body for students, of which H. P. Blavatsky wrote
that it was "the heart of the Theosophical Movement," and of which
she appointed William Q. Judge as her sole representative in America.
Further, writing officially to the Convention of the American Societies
held in Chicago, 1888, she wrote as follows:

 To William Q. Judge, General Secretary of the American Section of the
 Theosophical Society:

 My dearest Brother and Co-Founder of the Theosophical Society:

 In addressing to you this letter, which I request you to read to the
 Convention summoned for April 22nd, I must first present my hearty
 congratulations and most cordial good wishes to the Society and
 yourself--the heart and soul of that body in America. We were several
 to call it to life in 1875. Since then you have remained alone to
 preserve that life through good and evil report. It is to you chiefly,
 if not entirely, that the Theosophical Society owes its existence in
 1888. Let me thank you for it, for the first, and perhaps for the
 last time publicly, and from the bottom of my heart, which beats only
 for the cause you represent so well and serve so faithfully. I ask
 you also to remember that on this important occasion, my voice is but
 the feeble echo of other more sacred voices, and the transmitter of
 the approval of Those whose presence is alive in more than one true
 Theosophical heart, and lives, as I know, pre-eminently in yours.

This regard that Madame Blavatsky had for her Colleague William Q.
Judge continued undiminished until her death in 1891, when he became
her successor.


THE TRUE AND THE COUNTERFEIT

In giving even such a brief sketch as the present necessarily is of the
objects and history of the Theosophical Society, it is nevertheless
due to all honest and fair-minded people that an explanation should be
given why there are small bodies of people here and there which are
labeled Theosophical but which are in no way endorsed or recognized by
the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society. These small bodies
have sprung up from year to year in different parts of the world, and
though in the aggregate their efforts and influence have been weak,
they have nevertheless been more or less successful in misleading
honest minds from the truth. It becomes a duty therefore to call
attention to these matters and to give warning lest others be misled.
In other words a distinction must be drawn between the true and the
counterfeit.

Madame Blavatsky, in 1889, writing in her Theosophical magazine
published in London, said that the purpose of the magazine was not
only to promulgate Theosophy, but also and as a consequence of such
promulgation, "to bring to light the hidden things of darkness." She
further says:

 As to the "weak-minded Theosophists"--if any--they can take care
 of themselves in the way they please. IF THE "FALSE PROPHETS OF
 THEOSOPHY" ARE TO BE LEFT UNTOUCHED, THE TRUE PROPHETS WILL BE VERY
 SOON--AS THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN--CONFUSED WITH THE FALSE. IT IS HIGH
 TIME TO WINNOW OUR CORN AND CAST AWAY THE CHAFF. The Theosophical
 Society is becoming enormous in its numbers, and if the _false_
 prophets, the pretenders, or even the weak-minded dupes, are left
 alone, then the Society threatens to become very soon a fanatical body
 split into three hundred sects--like Protestantism--each hating the
 other, and all bent on destroying the truth by monstrous exaggerations
 and idiotic schemes and shams. We do not believe in allowing the
 presence of _sham_ elements in Theosophy, because of the fear,
 forsooth, that if even "a false element in the faith" is _ridiculed_,
 the latter is "apt to shake the confidence" in the whole.

 ... What _true_ Christians shall see their co-religionists making
 fools of themselves, or disgracing their faith, and still abstain
 from rebuking them publicly as privately, for fear lest this _false_
 element should throw out of Christianity the rest of the believers.

 THE WISE MAN COURTS TRUTH; THE FOOL, FLATTERY.

 However it may be, let rather our ranks be made thinner, than the
 Theosophical Society go on being made a spectacle to the world through
 the exaggerations of some fanatics, and the attempt of various
 _charlatans_ to profit by a ready-made program. These, by disfiguring
 and adapting Occultism to their own filthy and immoral ends, bring
 disgrace upon the whole movement.--_Lucifer_, Vol. iv, pp. 2 & 3.


THE DUTY OF A THEOSOPHIST

In regard to the above it should be remembered that Madame Blavatsky
wrote this in 1889 and had in view certain people who were advocating
immoral teachings and practices in the sacred name of Theosophy,
and it shows clearly what she would have done and what would be a
Theosophical duty should ever a similar occasion arise. Thanks to the
safe-guarding of the Theosophical Movement by the Constitution of
the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, such cannot ever
arise in the Society itself, but just as there is no legal means of
preventing anyone from calling himself a Christian however much his
life may depart from the teachings and ideals of the Teacher whose name
he so dishonors, so there is no means of preventing unworthy people
from using the sacred name of Theosophy and giving out teachings or
advocating practices which are absolutely contrary to the teachings of
Theosophy as given first by our Teacher, H. P. Blavatsky, and later by
her successors, William Q. Judge and Katherine Tingley.

It is a matter of great regret that we have to refer to these things,
but although unpleasant it is nevertheless a duty. It is for the
above-named reasons and to forestall misconception on the part of the
public that we make mention here of those enemies to true Theosophy
who sprang up not only outside but within the ranks of the Society. H.
P. Blavatsky had her enemies and those who sought to discredit her not
only before the public but before her own students; and so too William
Q. Judge had his, and Katherine Tingley has hers also. In fact, was
there ever a Teacher who came to do good and help humanity who was not
maligned and persecuted?


WILLIAM Q. JUDGE ELECTED PRESIDENT FOR LIFE

In 1893 there openly began what had been going on beneath the surface
for some time, a bitter attack ostensibly against William Q. Judge, but
in reality also against H. P. Blavatsky. This bitter attack threatened
to disrupt the whole Society and to thwart the main purpose of its
existence, which was to further the cause of Universal Brotherhood.
Finally the American members decided to take action, and at the annual
convention of the Society held in Boston in 1895, by a vote of 191
delegates to 10, re-asserted the principles of Theosophy as laid down
by H. P. Blavatsky, and elected William Q. Judge president for life.
Similar action was almost immediately taken by members in Europe,
Australia, and other countries, in each case William Q. Judge being
elected president for life. In this action the great majority of the
active members throughout the world concurred, and thus the Society
was relieved of those who had joined it for other purposes than the
furtherance of Universal Brotherhood, the carrying out of the Society's
other objects, and the spiritual freedom and upliftment of Humanity.
A few of these in order to curry favor with the public and attract a
following, continued among themselves to use the name of Theosophy,
but it should be understood that they _are not connected with the
Theosophical Movement_.


KATHERINE TINGLEY SUCCEEDS WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

One year later, in March 1896, William Q. Judge died, leaving as his
successor Katherine Tingley, who for several years had been associated
with him in the work of the Society. This Teacher not only began
immediately to put into actual practice the ideals of Theosophy as had
been the hope and aim of both H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, and
for which they had laid the foundations, thus honoring and illustrating
the work of her illustrious predecessors, but she also struck a new
keynote, introducing new and broader plans for uplifting humanity.
For each of the Teachers, while continuing the work and building upon
the foundations of his predecessor, adds a new link, and has his own
distinctive work to do, and teachings to give, belonging to his own
time and position.

No sooner had Katherine Tingley begun her work as successor, than
further attacks, some most insidious, from the same source as those
made against H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, as well as from
other sources, were inaugurated against her. Most prominent among
those thus attacking Katherine Tingley were some referred to by Madame
Blavatsky in the article above-quoted (pp. 79-80), who by their own
actions had removed themselves from the ranks of the Society. There
were also a few others who still remained in the Society who had not
joined hands with the disintegrators at the time the latter were
repudiated in 1895. These now thought it to their personal advantage
to oppose the Leader and sought to gain control of the Society and
use it for political purposes. These ambitious agitators, seeking to
exploit the Society for their own ends, used every means to overthrow
Katherine Tingley, realizing that she was the greatest obstacle to
the accomplishment of their desires, for if she could be removed they
expected to gain control. They worked day and night, stooping almost to
any means to carry out their projects. Yet it seemed that by these very
acts, i. e., the more they attacked, the more were honest and earnest
members attracted to the ranks of the Society under Katherine Tingley's
leadership.


KATHERINE TINGLEY GIVES SOCIETY NEW CONSTITUTION

SOCIETY MERGES INTO BROADER FIELD OF WORK

To eliminate these menacing features and to safeguard the work of
the Theosophical Movement for all time, Katherine Tingley presented
to a number of the oldest members gathered at her home in New York
on the night of January 13th, 1898, a new Constitution which she had
formulated for the more permanent and broader work of the Theosophical
Movement, opening up a wider field of endeavor than had heretofore been
possible to students of Theosophy. One month later, at the Convention
of the Society, held in Chicago, February 18th, 1898, this Constitution
was accepted by an almost unanimous vote, and the Theosophical Society
merged itself into the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society.
In this new step forward, she had the heartiest co-operation and
support of the vast majority of the members throughout the world. Only
a few were unable to accept the wider opportunity now afforded them and
removed themselves from the ranks, seeking other fields in which to
exploit their ambitious plans. The members were truly greatly relieved
that the Constitution of the Society made it virtually impossible for
agitators to remain members. The Society in order to fulfil its great
mission must necessarily be unsectarian and non-political, and any
attempts to use it for political purposes would be subversive of its
high aims and have always been discouraged by our Leaders. As the years
went on, it appeared that there were still a few not yet prepared to
co-operate fully in the broader interests of the Society, and these
finally dropped out.


THEOSOPHY IN PRACTICE

It is of interest here to quote our Teacher's own words regarding this
time. In an article published in the _Metropolitan Magazine_, New York,
October, 1909, she says:

 Later, I found myself the successor of William Q. Judge, and I began
 my heart work, the inspiration of which is partly due to him.

 In all my writings and associations with the members of the
 Theosophical Society, I emphasized the necessity of putting Theosophy
 into daily practice, and in such a way that it would continuously
 demonstrate that it was the redeeming power of man. More familiarity
 with the organization and its workers brought home to me the fact that
 there was a certain number of students who had in the early days begun
 the wrong way to study Theosophy, and that it was becoming in their
 lives a death-like sleep. I noticed that those who followed this line
 of action were always alarmed at my humanitarian tendencies. WHENEVER
 I REMINDED THEM THAT THEY WERE BUILDING A COLOSSAL EGOTISM INSTEAD
 OF A POWER TO DO GOOD, THEY SUBTLY OPPOSED ME. AS I INSISTED ON THE
 PRACTICAL LIFE OF THEOSOPHY, THEY OPPOSED STILL MORE. They later
 exerted personal influence which affected certain members throughout
 the world. It was this condition which then menaced the Theosophical
 Movement, and which forced me to the point of taking such action as
 would fully protect the pure teachings of Theosophy and make possible
 a broader path for unselfish students to follow. Thus the faithful
 members of the Theosophical Movement would be able to exemplify the
 charge which Helena Petrovna Blavatsky gave to her pupils, as follows:

 "Real Theosophy is altruism, and we cannot repeat it too often. It is
 brotherly love, mutual help, unswerving devotion to truth. If once men
 do but realize that in these alone can true happiness be found, and
 never in wealth, possession or any selfish gratification, then the
 dark cloud will roll away, and a new humanity will be born upon the
 earth. Then the Golden Age will be there indeed."

Here we find William Q. Judge accentuating the same spirit, the
practical Theosophical life:

 "The power to know does not come from book-study alone, nor from mere
 philosophy, but mostly from the actual practice of altruism in deed,
 word, and thought; for that practice purifies the covers of the soul
 and permits the divine light to shine down into the brain-mind."


THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

On February 18, 1898, at the Convention of the Theosophical Society
in America, held at Chicago, Ill., the Society resolved, through its
delegates from all parts of the world, to enter a larger arena, to
widen its scope and to further protect the teachings of Theosophy. Amid
most intense enthusiasm the Theosophical Society was expanded into the
Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, and I found myself
recognized as its leader and official head. The Theosophical Society
in Europe also resolved to merge itself into the Universal Brotherhood
and Theosophical Society, and the example was quickly followed by
Theosophical Societies in other parts of the world. The expansion of
the original Theosophical Society, which Madame Blavatsky founded and
which William Q. Judge so ably sustained, now called the Universal
Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, gave birth to a new life, and the
membership trebled the first year, and ever since that time a rapid
increase has followed.


KATHERINE TINGLEY'S PRACTICAL HUMANITARIAN WORK

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT GIVES ASSISTANCE

In 1898 Katherine Tingley established the International Brotherhood
League, the department of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical
Society for practical humanitarian work, and under its auspices
rendered aid to thousands of soldiers at Montauk after the close of the
Spanish-American War. Later she took a relief expedition into Cuba,
the United States Government affording her free transportation for
physicians, nurses, and supplies. Thus began her work in Cuba, which
has resulted in the establishment of Râja Yoga Colleges at Santiago de
Cuba, Santa Clara, and Pinar del Rio, and now in preparation at San
Juan on the site of the famous battlefield which Katherine Tingley has
recently purchased.

In these Colleges, besides the world-famous Râja Yoga College at Point
Loma, a great educational work is being carried on in which are being
taught the highest ideals of patriotism and national life in addition
to the development of character and the upbuilding of pure-minded and
self-reliant manhood and womanhood to the end that each pupil may be
prepared to take an honorable self-reliant position in the world's
work. Other school sites acquired by Mrs. Katherine Tingley are in the
New Forest, England, and also on the Island of Visingsö, Sweden.


INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS AT POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA

In 1900 the Headquarters of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical
Society were moved from New York to Point Loma, California, which
is now the International Center of the Theosophical Movement. This
Organization is unsectarian and non-political; none of its officers or
workers receives any salary or financial recompense.

In her article in _The Metropolitan Magazine_ above referred to,
Katherine Tingley further says:

 The knowledge that Point Loma was to be the World-center of the
 Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, which has for its
 supreme object the elevation of the race, created great enthusiasm
 among its members throughout the world. The further fact that the
 government of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society rests
 entirely with the leader and official head, who holds her office for
 life and who has the privilege of appointing her successor, gave
 me the power to carry out some of the plans I had long cherished.
 Among these was the erecting of the great Homestead Building. This I
 carefully designed that it might not stand apart from the beautiful
 nature about it, but in a sense harmonize with the sky, the distant
 mountains, the broad blue Pacific, and the glorious light of the sun.

 So it has been from the first, so that the practical work of Theosophy
 began at Point Loma under the most favorable circumstances. No one
 dominated by selfish aims and ambitions was invited to take part in
 this pioneer work. Although there were scores of workers from various
 parts of the world uniting their efforts with mine for the upbuilding
 of this world-center, yet there was no disharmony. Each took the duty
 allotted him and worked trustingly and cheerfully. Many of the world's
 ways these workers gladly left behind them. They seemed reborn with an
 enthusiasm that knew no defeat. The work was done for the love of it,
 and this is the secret of a large part of the success that has come to
 the Theosophical Movement.

 Not long after the establishment of the International Theosophical
 Headquarters at Point Loma, it was plain to see that the Society was
 advancing along all lines by leaps and bounds. Letters of inquiry were
 pouring in from different countries, which led to my establishing
 the Theosophical Propaganda Bureau. This is one of the greatest
 factors we have in disseminating our teachings. The International
 Brotherhood League then opened its offices and has ever been active
 in its special humanitarian work, being the directing power which has
 sustained the several Râja Yoga schools and academies, now in Pinar
 del Rio, Santa Clara, and Santiago de Cuba, from the beginning. The
 Aryan Theosophical Press has yearly enlarged its facilities in answer
 to the demands made upon it through the publication of Theosophical
 literature, which includes THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH and several other
 publications. There is the Isis Conservatory of Music and Drama, the
 Department of Arts and Crafts, the Industrial Department, including
 Forestry, Agriculture, Roadbuilding, Photo-engraving, Chemical
 laboratory, Landscape-gardening, and many other crafts.


DO NOT FAIL TO PROFIT BY THE FOLLOWING

CONSTANTLY THE QUESTION IS ASKED, WHAT IS THEOSOPHY, WHAT DOES IT
REALLY TEACH? EACH YEAR THE LIFE AND WORK OF H. P. BLAVATSKY AND
THE HIGH IDEALS AND PURE MORALITY OF HER TEACHINGS ARE MORE CLEARLY
VINDICATED. EACH YEAR THE POSITION TAKEN BY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE AND
KATHERINE TINGLEY IN REGARD TO THEIR PREDECESSOR, H. P. BLAVATSKY, IS
BETTER UNDERSTOOD, AND THEIR OWN LIVES AND WORK ARE SEEN TO BE ACTUATED
BY THE SAME HIGH IDEALS FOR THE UPLIFTING OF THE HUMAN RACE. EACH YEAR
MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE COMING TO REALIZE THAT NOT ALL THAT GOES
UNDER THE NAME OF THEOSOPHY IS RIGHTLY SO CALLED, BUT THAT THERE IS A
COUNTERFEIT THEOSOPHY AS WELL AS THE TRUE, AND THAT THERE IS NEED OF
DISCRIMINATION, LEST MANY BE MISLED.


"THEOSOPHIST IS WHO THEOSOPHY DOES"

From the earliest days of the present Theosophical Movement has it
been necessary to make this distinction, but there is one unfailing
test expressed in the words of H. P. Blavatsky: "Theosophist is who
Theosophy does." In the past many have been attracted to the ranks
of the Society through motives other than those which lead, not only
to the _study_ of Theosophy, the Wisdom-Religion, but to the making
of it a factor of purification of their daily lives; some seeking
admission from motives of ambition or other self-interest, some for
mere entertainment or for the acquirement of so-called "occult"
powers--thinking they could gain the knowledge without the practice
of Theosophy, the first step of which is altruism; and some from mere
curiosity, hoping to find in Theosophy a new fad. The presence of such
pseudo-Theosophists in the ranks has at times necessitated drastic
action, and on one or two occasions reorganization of the whole Society
in order that it might be held to its original high ideals and the
lines on which it was founded. And though the Universal Brotherhood and
Theosophical Society is not for saints, the demand is made upon all who
are in its ranks that there shall be a constant effort to live up to
its high ideals of purity and altruistic endeavor, that there shall be
practice and not mere theory, and that both by word and deed the lives
of the members shall be an example to all men and especially to the
young.

In certain cases as before referred to, those who have been removed
from the ranks of the Society have with their associates formed small
centers of their own, using the name Theosophy and to some extent the
writings of Madame Blavatsky. This has caused confusion in the minds of
some who look at things merely superficially, accepting the professions
of people without regard to their motives or lives; and hence it is
necessary from time to time to clear the air, as it were, and, sweeping
away the veneer of mere profession, show the facts as they really are.

Counterfeits exist in many departments of life and thought, and
especially in matters relating to religion and the deeper teachings of
life. Hence, in order that people who are honestly seeking the truth
may not be misled, we deem it important to state that the Universal
Brotherhood and Theosophical Society is not responsible for, nor is it
affiliated with, nor does it endorse, any other society which, while
calling itself Theosophical, is not connected with the International
Theosophical Headquarters at Point Loma, California. Having a knowledge
of Theosophy, the ancient Wisdom-Religion, we deem it as a sacred
trust and responsibility to maintain its pure teachings, free from the
vagaries, additions, or misrepresentations of ambitious self-styled
Theosophists and would-be teachers. The test of a Theosophist is not in
profession, but in action, and in a noble and virtuous life. The motto
of the Society is "There is no religion higher than Truth." This was
adopted by Madame Blavatsky, but it is to be deeply regretted that
there are no legal means to prevent the use of this motto in connexion
with counterfeit Theosophy, by people professing to be Theosophists,
but who would not be recognized as such by Madame Blavatsky.

It is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy
and of our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P.
Blavatsky, the Foundress, and even the Society's motto, to attract
attention to themselves and to gain public support. This they do in
private and public speech and in publications. Without being in any way
connected with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in
many cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading
the public, and honest inquirers are hence led away from the original
truths of Theosophy.

The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society welcomes to
membership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the
eradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste,
or color, which have so long impeded human progress; to all sincere
lovers of truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than
the mere pleasures and interests of a worldly life, and are prepared to
do all in their power to make Brotherhood a living energy in the life
of humanity, its various departments offer unlimited opportunities.

The whole work of the Organization is under the direction of the Leader
and Official Head, Katherine Tingley, as outlined in the Constitution.


OBJECTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD LEAGUE

1. To help men and women to realize the nobility of their calling and
their true position in life.

2. To educate children of all nations on the broadest lines of
Universal Brotherhood and to prepare destitute and homeless children to
become workers for humanity.

3. To ameliorate the condition of unfortunate women, and assist them to
a higher life.

4. To assist those who are or have been in prisons to establish
themselves in honorable positions in life.

5. To abolish capital punishment.

6. To bring about a better understanding between so-called savage
and civilized races, by promoting a closer and more sympathetic
relationship between them.

7. To relieve human suffering resulting from flood, famine, war, and
other calamities; and, generally, to extend aid, help, and comfort to
suffering humanity throughout the world.

  JOSEPH H. FUSSELL
  Secretary

 Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society.

 International Headquarters Point Loma, California.




  BOOK LIST
  OF WORKS ON
  THEOSOPHY, OCCULTISM, RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, AND ART

  PUBLISHED OR FOR SALE BY

  THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
  INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS
  POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

  _The office of the Theosophical Publishing Company is at Point Loma,
                                                            California_

  _It has_ NO OTHER OFFICE _and_ NO BRANCHES


FOREIGN AGENCIES

 _=THE UNITED KINGDOM=_--Theosophical Book Co., 18 Bartlett's
 Buildings, Holborn Circus, LONDON, E. C., England

 _=GERMANY=_--J. Th. Heller, Vestnertorgraben 13, NÜRNBERG

 _=SWEDEN=_--Universella Broderskapets Förlag, Barnhusgatan, 10,
 STOCKHOLM

 _=HOLLAND=_--Louis F. Schudel, Hollandia-Drukkerij, BAARN

 _=AUSTRALIA=_--Willans and Williams, 16 Carrington St., Wynyard Sq.,
 SYDNEY, N. S. W.

 _=CUBA=_--H. S. Turner, Apartado 127; or Heredia, Baja, 10, SANTIAGO
 DE CUBA

 _=MEXICO=_--Samuel L. Herrera, Calle de la Independencia, 55 altos,
 VERA CRUZ, V. C.


  ADDRESS BY KATHERINE TINGLEY at San Diego Opera House,
      March, 1902                                                  $ .15

  AN APPEAL TO PUBLIC CONSCIENCE: an Address delivered by
      Katherine Tingley at Isis Theater, San Diego, July 22, 1906.
      Published by the Woman's Theosophical Propaganda League,
      Point Loma                                                     .05

  ASTRAL INTOXICATION, and Other Papers (W. Q. Judge)                .03

  BHAGAVAD GÎTÂ (recension by W. Q. Judge). The pearl of the
      scriptures of the East. American edition; pocket size;
      morocco, gilt edges                                           1.00

  CONCENTRATION, CULTURE OF (W. Q. Judge)                            .15

  DEVACHAN; or the Heavenworld (H. Coryn)                            .05

  ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT; a broad Outline of Theosophical Doctrines.
      Written for the newspaper reading public. (W. Q. Judge)
      Sm. 8vo, cloth                                                 .50
      Paper                                                          .25

  EPITOME OF THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS, AN (W. Q. Judge); 40 pages      .15

  FREEMASONRY AND JESUITRY, The Pith and Marrow of the Closing and
      Coming Century and Related Position of, (Rameses)              .15
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  KATHERINE TINGLEY, Humanity's Friend; A VISIT TO KATHERINE TINGLEY
      (by John Hubert Greusel); A STUDY OF RÂJA YOGA AT POINT LOMA
      (Reprint from the San Francisco _Chronicle_, Jan. 6, 1907).
      The above three comprised in a pamphlet of 50 pages, published
      by the Woman's Theosophical Propaganda League, Point Loma      .15

  HYPNOTISM: _Hypnotism_, by W. Q. Judge (Reprint from _The Path_,
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      Hypnotism?_ by a Student (Reprint from _New Century Path_,
      Oct. 28, 1906); _Evils of Hypnotism_, by Lydia Ross, M. D.     .15

  INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT;
      by Joseph H. Fussell. 24 pages, royal 8vo.                     .15

  ISIS UNVEILED, by H. P. Blavatsky. 2 vols, royal 8vo, about 1500
      pages; cloth; with portrait of the author. _Point Loma Edition,
      with a preface._ Postpaid                                     4.00

  KEY TO THEOSOPHY, THE: by H. P. Blavatsky. _Point Loma Edition_,
      with _Glossary_ and exhaustive _Index_. Portraits of H. P.
      Blavatsky and William Q. Judge. 8vo., cloth, 400 pages.
      Postpaid                                                      2.25

  LIFE AT POINT LOMA, THE: Some Notes by Katherine Tingley.
      (Reprinted from the _Los Angeles Saturday Post_,
      December, 1902)                                                .15

  LIGHT ON THE PATH (M. C.), with Comments, and a short chapter on
      Karma. Authoritative rules for treading the path of a higher
      life. _Point Loma Edition_, pocket size edition of this classic,
      leather                                                        .75
      Embossed paper                                                 .25

  MYSTERIES OF THE HEART DOCTRINE, THE. Prepared by
     _Katherine Tingley_ and her pupils. Square 8vo, cloth          2.00
      Paper                                                         1.00
      A SERIES OF 8 PAMPHLETS, comprising the different Articles
      in above, paper, each                                          .25

  NIGHTMARE TALES (H. P. Blavatsky). _Illustrated by R. Machell._
      A collection of the weirdest tales ever written down. Cloth    .60
      Paper                                                          .35

  THE PLOUGH AND THE CROSS. A story of New Ireland; by William
      Patrick O'Ryan. 12mo, 378 pages. Illustrated. Cloth           1.00

  SECRET DOCTRINE, THE. The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and
      Philosophy, by H. P. Blavatsky. _Point Loma Edition_; with
      Index. Two vols., royal 8vo, about 1500 pages; cloth. Postage
      prepaid                                                      10.00
      Reprinted from the original edition of 1888, as issued by
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  SOME OF THE ERRORS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. Criticism by H. P.
      Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge                                      .15

  VOICE OF THE SILENCE, THE. (For the daily use of disciples.)
      Translated and annotated by H. P. Blavatsky.
      Pocket size, leather                                           .75

  YOGA APHORISMS (translated by W. Q. Judge), pocket size, leather   .75


  _=GREEK SYMPOSIA=_, as performed by students of the Isis League of
      Music and Drama, under direction of Katherine Tingley. (Fully
      protected by copyright.)
      1 THE WISDOM OF HYPATIA. 2 A PROMISE. Each                     .15


  _=NEW CENTURY SERIES.=_ THE PITH AND MARROW OF SOME SACRED WRITINGS.

      Ten Pamphlets; Scripts, each                                   .25
      Subscription (Series of 10 Pamphlets)                         1.50

 SCRIPT 1--_Contents_: The Relation of Universal Brotherhood to
 Christianity--No Man can Serve Two Masters--In this Place is a Greater
 Thing

 SCRIPT 2--_Contents_: A Vision of Judgment--The Great
 Victory--Co-Heirs with Christ--The "Woes" of the Prophets--Fragment:
 from Bhagavad Gîtâ--Jesus the Man

 SCRIPT 3--_Contents_: Lesson of Israel's History--Man's Divinity and
 Perfectibility--The Man Born Blind--The Everlasting Covenant--Burden
 of the Lord

 SCRIPT 4--_Contents_: Reincarnation in the Bible--The Money-Changers
 in the Temple--The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven--The Heart
 Doctrine--The Temple of God

 SCRIPT 5--_Contents_: Egypt and Prehistoric America--Theoretical and
 Practical Theosophy--Death, One of the Crowning Victories of Human
 Life--Reliance on the Law--Led by the Spirit of God

 SCRIPT 6--_Contents_: Education Through Illusion to Truth--Astronomy
 in the Light of Ancient Wisdom--Occultism and Magic--Resurrection

 SCRIPT 7--_Contents_: Theosophy and Islâm, a word concerning
 Sufism--Archaeology in the Light of Theosophy--Man, a Spiritual Builder

 SCRIPT 8--_Contents_: The Sun of Righteousness--Cant about the Classics

 SCRIPT 9--_Contents_: Traces of the Wisdom-Religion in Zoroastrianism,
 Mithraism, and their modern representative, Parseeism--The Druses of
 Mount Lebanon

 SCRIPT 10--_Contents_: The Religions of China

 SCRIPT 11--(Supplementary Number) _Contents_: Druidism--Druidism and
 its Connexion with Ireland


  _=OCCULTISM, STUDIES IN=_ (H. P. Blavatsky). Pocket size, 6 vols.
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[Illustration: THE PATH]

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  [Illustration]

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 _Man ought to be ever striving to help the divine evolution of_ IDEAS,
 _by becoming to the best of his ability a_ CO-WORKER WITH NATURE _in
 the cyclic task. The ever unknowable and incognizable_ KÂRANA _alone,
 the_ CAUSELESS _Cause of all causes, should have its shrine and
 altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart--invisible,
 intangible, unmentioned, save through "the still small voice" of our
 spiritual consciousness. Those who worship before it, should to do so
 in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls;[3] making
 their spirit the sole mediator between them and the_ UNIVERSAL SPIRIT,
 _their good actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the
 only visible and objective sacrificial victims to the_ PRESENCE.--H.
 P. BLAVATSKY, in _The Secret Doctrine_, vol. 1, page 280

[3] "_When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are ...
but enter into_ THINE INNER CHAMBER AND HAVING SHUT THY DOOR, PRAY TO
THY FATHER WHICH IS IN SECRET." (_Matt. vi._) _Our Father is_ WITHIN US
_"in Secret," our seventh principle, in the "inner chamber" of our Soul
perception. "The Kingdom of Heaven" and of God_ "IS WITHIN US" _says
Jesus, not_ OUTSIDE.

_Why are Christians so absolutely blind to the self-evident meaning of
the words of wisdom they delight in mechanically repeating?_




THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

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EDITED BY KATHERINE TINGLEY

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Copyright, 1911, by Katherine Tingley


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  VOL. I  NO. 2       CONTENTS       AUGUST 1911


  Scene from _The Aroma of Athens_                        _Frontispiece_

  Theosophy and Modern Scientific Discoveries   by Charles J. Ryan    87

  The Bridges of Paris (_illustrated_)                    by G. K.    96

  Old Brynhyfryd Garden (_verse_)                by Kenneth Morris    97

  Misused Powers                                  by R. W. Machell    98

  Is Education Wasted?              by H. T. Edge. B. A. (Cantab.)   102

  The Temple of Theseus, Athens (_illustrated_)              by R.   106

  Stoa, Gymnasium of Hadrian, Athens (_illustration_)       facing   107

  Recent Admissions by Archaeologists                 by a Student   107

  Monument of De Lesseps, Port Said (_illustration_)        facing   110

  Great Names in Art. Sculptures from the Albert Memorial
      (_illustrated_)                            by an Art Student   111

  The Two Fairylands: A Study in the Literature of
      Wonder                                     by Kenneth Morris   115

  Light Physical and Metaphysical  by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.   122

  _Eros_: Painting by Julius Kronberg
      (_illustrated_)                             by R. W. Machell   125

  Tempting Counterfeits vs. Reality           by Lydia Ross, M. D.   126

  Life and Teachings of Pythagoras
                            by F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)   130

  Photography and the Invisible                by Philip A. Malpas   142

  Visingsborg Castle, Visingsö, The Canal, Trollhättan, Sweden
      (_illustrations_)                                     facing   142

  High Sluice and the Palace of Industry, Amsterdam
      (_illustrations_)                                     facing   143

  Heredity and Biology              by H. T. Edge. B. A. (Cantab.)   145

  Incorrodible Bronze                                   by Travers   148

  Scientific Oddments                              by the Busy Bee   149

  Linnaeus and the Divining-Rod               contributed by P. F.   154

  Lomaland Cañons (_illustrated_)                 by W. J. Renshaw   155

  Notices                                                            158

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. SCENE FROM "THE AROMA OF ATHENS," A GREEK DRAMA GIVEN
AT POINT LOMA IN APRIL, 1911, BY KATHERINE TINGLEY AND STUDENTS AT THE
INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS CENTRAL FIGURES ARE: PHEIDIAS
SEATED, PERIKLES STANDING]


THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

  VOL. I      AUGUST, 1911     NO. 2

 I produced the golden key of Pre-existence only at a dead lift, when
 no other method could satisfy me touching the ways of God, that by
 this hypothesis I might keep my heart from sinking.--_Henry More_


THEOSOPHY AND MODERN SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES: by Charles J. Ryan


The attitude of the leaders of science and philosophy concerning the
significance and probable causes of natural phenomena has greatly
changed since 1888 when H. P. Blavatsky wrote her _magnum opus, The
Secret Doctrine_. The comfortable feeling that the fruit of the Tree
of Knowledge is ripe for our picking, or at least very nearly so, has
largely disappeared with the widening of our perceptions gained through
the surprising discoveries in physics, chemistry, psychology, etc., of
the intervening period. Happily for the world, the truly leading minds
of the present day in science and philosophy are escaping from the
crass materialism into which they seemed to be sinking not so long ago;
the "camp followers" are also catching up.

Paradoxically, and yet naturally, the more we have learned of Nature's
methods, the less dogmatic we have become. The present, although a time
of great fertility in the production of theories, is one of comparative
modesty in the putting forth of assertions that such a thing cannot
be, or that such another is against established laws and therefore not
to be investigated. We are seeing something similar in the affairs of
nations--new experiments in statecraft are being tried in apparently
unlikely places.

The wisdom of the ancients is being more justly estimated; the cheap
sneers against their scientific attainments are less often heard. The
newest Chemistry regards the much-derided Alchemy more sympathetically;
the latest Psychology finds that Mesmer was not the complete fraud
alleged by the materialism of the nineteenth century. A well-founded
suspicion is arising that our own civilization is not on the rightest
basis, and that it has neglected many of the sterling virtues of the
past in favor of luxury and ease. The claims of the older religions
of the world are more fully acknowledged as worthy of respect; the
Theosophical idea is dawning upon the people of Christendom that they
are not all foolishness.

In her presentation of the teachings of Theosophy, the ancient
Wisdom-Religion, H. P. Blavatsky had to devote a large amount of time
to a dissection of the dogmatic claims of the materialistic science
of the nineteenth century. It was only natural, of course, that the
leaders of scientific research, and a large number of the rank and
file, just emancipated from the fetters of dogmatic theology, should
have proclaimed their new theories of life in very positive terms,
and should have attributed greater finality to them than now seems
possible. In the latter quarter of the nineteenth century the reaction
towards the negation of the spiritual was going too far, so it became
part of H. P. Blavatsky's duty to show in what the materialistic
hypotheses were as deficient as the superstitious dogmas they were
trying to supplant, while admitting, of course, that as iconoclastic
weapons of destruction they served a necessary purpose. And who can
deny the far-reaching effect of her work. Almost every magazine
article or book on advanced lines offers palpable traces of the ideas
she had to bring to the attention of the Western world; not only
the principles, but often the very expressions originated in the
Theosophical literature, are becoming widely spread. The thinking world
is rapidly--more rapidly than the earlier students of Theosophy dared
to hope--reaching the place where some at least of the teachings of
Theosophy will be accepted among the unprejudiced everywhere, as the
only logical thing; when this is done we may reasonably expect further
clues to the understanding of natural law, from the source whence H. P.
Blavatsky drew her inspiration. At the present time it is the practical
demonstration of the basic principles of Theosophy in conduct, such
as is found in the lives of the Theosophical students under Katherine
Tingley, that is the greatest need of humanity. There is plenty of
theory; let us see it work out in the changed lives of the multitude.

It may prove interesting and not unprofitable to glance at a few of the
recent developments on scientific and philosophic lines which are now
moving in the Theosophical direction.

The enormous antiquity of man, which was until lately frowned upon
severely, is now a perfectly safe subject to teach: man's residence on
earth is no longer considered to be a matter of thousands of years but
of hundreds of thousands. The "Englishman's" skeleton of the Thames
valley of which we have lately heard so much is conservatively reckoned
to be 170,000 years old, and the "Gibraltar woman" is believed to have
flourished half a million years ago or more! Neither of these antique
personages represents the "missing link" in the least. The English
skull is well-developed and of modern type; the woman's is not quite so
good. Well, from 4004 B. C.--until lately the supposed date of man's
creation according to Western belief founded on false interpretation
of the Hebrew scriptures--to the five or six hundred thousand years
now accepted, is a big jump. It is bigger in proportion than that
from the half million to the eighteen millions of years that man has
been embodied, according to the Theosophical records, which yet has
to be made. We shall probably not have to wait long to see a further
extension of time demanded and granted.

It is noteworthy, and particularly interesting to students of
Theosophy, that an increasing number of biologists are inclining to
the belief that the human mind did not develop through an immensely
protracted series of years, but that it came almost to its present
perfection very quickly; that there was, in fact, _a sort of
incarnation of mind_ into the highest and most suitable animal form
available. The famous Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the "co-discoverer
of Darwinism," uses many convincing arguments in favor of the high
intelligence of "primitive" man. He says that

 Our intellectual and moral nature has not advanced in any perceptible
 degree.

A writer in _Records of the Past_, says:

 A further evidence of the high intelligence of primeval man is found
 in the manner in which he maintained himself against the swarms
 of monstrous and ferocious beasts by which he was surrounded. Not
 only did he hold his own against them, but even, so we are told,
 exterminated many of them. We must remember also that man achieved
 this astounding victory over these mighty animals by means of stone
 weapons, which were of the rudest possible character. His triumph
 therefore, was solely due to his wonderful intelligence.

The civilized inhabitants of modern India have not been able to
exterminate the devastating tigers and snakes, etc., whose toll of
human lives is still very heavy.

According to Theosophy, "primitive" man in Europe was as the successor
of a highly civilized man who lived ages before on the sunken continent
of Atlantis, passing through a cycle of degradation as a consequence
of his abuse of his opportunities in previous incarnations. Though
the cubic capacity of the skulls of the earliest primitive races,
so-called, is about the same as that of modern races, the possession
of a large brain does not imply that they had a high civilization.
This can be seen clearly in the case of the Eskimo, who have even more
capacious skulls than some highly civilized races. A low condition of
life amid a people who possess good brain development means either
the presence of undeveloped Egos of limited experience, or of those
who are suffering disabilities in consequence of past wrong-doing. In
either case they are necessarily using the physical vehicles provided
by heredity. H. P. Blavatsky says the evil Karma (the influence set in
motion by past actions) generated by the sins of the Atlanteans heavily
handicapped those Egos when they reappeared on the newly-forming
European and Asiatic (in part) continents, and prevented them for long
ages from rising out of the primitive conditions in which they found
themselves.

It is a fact that man's mind is an incarnation from something very
different from the material plane; it comes into humanity from its
own plane. The Theosophical teachings show how each of the complex
"principles" or constituents which compose the human personality, the
vehicle of the Immortal Ego, is derived from its own plane or source,
i. e., the physical body from the material, molecular world; the
body-center of passions and desires from the plane or world of Desire,
Kâma-Loka; and so forth. This is fully explained in the Theosophical
literature, especially, of course, in the writings of the Theosophical
Leaders. It is a most important clue, leading to many practical
consequences, owing to the better understanding it gives of the causes
of many of our human sufferings, of the rationale of the death-process,
of the spread of epidemics, both physical and mental, and so forth.
Theosophy does not fall into the materialistic error of imagining that
mind is the product of some jugglery of blind forces playing with the
molecules of inert matter--that the less can be the origin of the
greater. When our psychologists have learned how the mind comes from
its own plane, evolving in its own way, and incarnating in material
forms to help them on in _their_ evolution, they will find a new sphere
of research, and the text-books will have to be rewritten.

While the idea, now being dimly suspected by some anthropologists, that
man's mind is not the result of a _very long and slow_ development
from the beast, is correct according to the records of Theosophy, we
must remember that the incarnation of the "Manas" or Thinker, which
made incomplete man into the perfect septenary he is today, took place
long before the temporary decline of the "primitive" man after the
disappearance of Atlantis. One eminent scientist at least, Professor
F. Soddy, F. R. S., lecturer on physical chemistry and radio-activity
at Glasgow University, has lately suggested that in his opinion some
great civilization may have existed (long before the "primitive" Stone
Ages) which ruined itself and descended into barbarism by the abuse of
the power to disintegrate matter and so to release forces of terrible
potency whose existence the discovery of the properties of radium
has faintly revealed to us, but which we have, fortunately, not the
slightest idea how to unloose. Theosophy tells us that something of the
kind did happen; but the mind of man was even then long ages posterior
to the time when the "Sons of Mind" settled into the forms which only
then, properly, could be called mankind.

For many years the existence of hundreds of giant portrait-statues on
the wild volcanic Easter Island, two thousand miles from the coast of
South America, has been known, and their origin and meaning is still
one of the greatest of the world's enigmas. What was the mysterious
race that carved them? How is it that such works, which obviously
required the presence of a large and intelligent population, should
be found on such a small island, so far from the continental lands?
Archaeologists in general seem to avoid the problem; certainly no
adequate theory has been advanced by the recognized authorities to
meet the case. H. P. Blavatsky gave us the key to the mystery when she
briefly described parts of the pre-Atlantean continent of Lemuria:
Easter Island is an Atlantean vestige of that really primitive land
whose truly primeval inhabitants were of larger proportions than
ourselves. Well, lately we have seen three or four articles in
different American and other magazines discussing the problem and
trying to explain it upon the very lines of the Theosophical teachings,
no other being considered reasonable.

During the past ten years the trend toward the Theosophical
interpretations of some of the most pressing astronomical problems
has been very marked. The re-opening of questions hither considered
closed or else insoluble, has been an interesting feature of recent
times. For instance, the belief that gravitation alone explained the
movements of the stars has been seriously shaken lately, and, if we
may venture to prophesy, it looks as if physics will have to return to
the ancient and Theosophical acceptance of dual forces, attraction and
repulsion--perhaps magnetic--to explain the new problem of astronomy,
having found that gravitation is only a half-understood truth, as
Theosophy teaches. In his inaugural address, Professor Bergstrand,
newly appointed to the chair of astronomy at the university of Upsala,
Sweden, made a special point of the fact that some utterly unknown
force or forces besides gravitation must be operating to explain
some of the newest discoveries in stellar physics. He was alluding
particularly to the binding together of certain groups of stars in
connected drifts across the depths of space. Several of such drifting
collections of stars moving together across the vast depths of
kosmos at equal speed are now known. There would not be anything so
extraordinary in this, and nothing that might call for the postulate
of some unknown law, but for the fact that in some cases members of
the same star-group are found _at far distant parts of the heavens_
separated from each other by many other stars drifting in various
directions between them--our sun for one. What is the mysterious
binding tie, and how may it be reconciled with the known action of
gravitation? One of the fundamental principles in nature, according
to Theosophy, is the Duality of manifested forces: in _The Secret
Doctrine_ H. P. Blavatsky treats of this very fully, plainly declaring
that the _other half_ of gravitation will have to be reckoned with
before long by physical science in the West. In the East there is
practical knowledge of it, among a chosen few.

The newest speculations about the processes of solar and planetary
development from nebulae are bound to lead to the discovery of the
truth of the Theosophical teaching that there is an archetypal world, a
world of causes, lying concealed behind all manifested material forms.
Once this is admitted by scientists, once a sane metaphysical basis
for the universe is found logically necessary, there will be a great
change in the way of looking at phenomena, including the problem of
human life, and we know that what the most advanced thinkers proclaim
will be followed before long by the great mass; see, for instance, the
strong effect the Darwinian theory of Natural Selection, incomplete
and materialistic as it is, has already made in every department of
modern thought. Of course the acceptance of a merely metaphysical
foundation for the facts recorded by our ordinary senses does not mean
the acceptance of the reality of a _spiritual_ world; that is a far
deeper problem, and has to be approached through the experience of the
intuition, trained and untrained, but a long step will be made when
it is thoroughly realized that the material plane is not the plane of
ultimate causes.

According to one of the nebular hypotheses of today the collision of
two suns, (dark and "dead" or otherwise) crashing into each other
at tremendous speed, results in a vast nebula, in which, owing to
the enormous heat produced, the atoms would be reduced to the state
of "corpuscles," the root of matter on our plane, all alike, and
without any of the characteristics of the elements, even in the most
rudimentary form; there would be no metallic vapors, no gases, not
even helium or coronium, nothing but the primitive corpuscular basis
of matter. Then, as the nebula formed by the collision condensed
and perhaps cooled, it would begin to rebuild its substance into
the well-known elements, combinations would take place, and the
evolution of a new solar system would be started. But now arises the
important question: What causes the perfectly homogeneous or uniform
"corpuscular" substance, the mass of _sub-atoms_ of unknown nature, to
perform the astonishing feat of transforming itself into the marvelous
complexity we find even in the simplest star? The problem is similar to
that of the egg. In a new-laid egg the great mass of its constituent
materials is structureless, but in a short time of incubation the
eggshell is completely filled with a most complicated living organism.
Is it not clear that behind both nebula and egg there must be an
archetype or model form, invisible to ordinary eyesight, which is
being used as the pattern into which the simple materials are being
woven? and that there are Builders, who know the plan and work it out
in a conscious harmony that we call the correlation of "natural laws"?
"Blind forces," "necessity," "unconscious laws," are meaningless terms
which only disguise ignorance, or _stave off_ the anti-materialistic
and dreaded so-called "teleological" view that there must be "a
Divinity that shapes our ends."

Theosophy offers as a fact, demonstrable from the very presence within
of the higher, divine nature, that men in time will attain the stature
of Creative powers, Builders of future world-systems, just as the
Higher Beings who are the guides and directors of the present evolution
were once men and lower than men in past aeons. Evolution of men will
not stop with the perfecting of the mental and moral nature; once the
godlike nature of the Higher Self is admitted, it follows that there
can not be a limit assigned beyond which man may not go.

There may be some truth in the collision-theory of the origin of
certain nebulae; it seems to explain the sudden appearance of
"temporary stars," at least; but, by its very nature, it cannot
explain the origin of the universe of suns as a whole. Again, after
each collision the speed of the new body formed from the material of
the two colliding spheres would be less than their combined speed,
because much or all of their motion would be arrested and transformed
into the energy which would be needed to scatter their substance in
all directions. If two equal bodies, moving at equal speed, met in a
line joining their centers, the resulting nebula would have no motion
at all. It has been pointed out that if the collision theory alone is
relied upon to explain the structure of the universe it must fail,
because during the infinity of past time a condition of absolute
stagnation would have been attained, the universe would have "run
down," nothing being left but one gigantic dead and dark globe!

In this idea of "running down" there is a paradox, which is apparent
enough, and we need not trouble to follow it further. We have to
seek a reasonable hypothesis--a theory such as Theosophy presents
of a universe which can wind itself up again after it has finished
its cyclic career--a theory which does not overlook the fact that
the material cosmos is the manifestation of intelligent Mind. The
impressive system which was worked out in the Orient (and before that
elsewhere) ages ago, of the transformation of energies from visible
to invisible planes under Cyclic or Periodic Law, the universality
of alternations of manifestation and rest, clears up the primary
difficulties of the case. It is to H. P. Blavatsky, the great
Theosophist, that we are indebted for making this reasonable hypothesis
clear. Fortunately, the time-spirit of science in this century is
less atheistic than that of the nineteenth, and the broad principle
of Theosophy, that there are great spiritual Beings, the glorious
efflorescence of past ages of development, guiding and controlling the
formation and maintenance of the worlds, is becoming the subject of
serious consideration among some of the most advanced thinkers, for
the atheistic hypothesis that matter "runs itself" is almost at its
last gasp.

In another subject, the nature of Light, many new and interesting
speculations are being advanced as the result of the discoveries of
the extraordinary properties of radium and the _x_-rays. To students
of Theosophy these are significant, for H. P. Blavatsky, in _The
Secret Doctrine_, goes deeply into the question whether light is an
actual substance of some kind, or a mere undulation of an ethereal
medium. She points out some of the difficulties of both theories,
giving special attention to Sir W. Grove's celebrated lecture in 1842
wherein he considered he proved that light and heat must be affections
of matter itself, and not the effects of an imponderable fluid--a
finer state of matter--penetrating it. Sir Isaac Newton held to the
Pythagorean theory that light was made of almost infinitely minute
corpuscles, but the phenomenon of diffraction is supposed to have
upset this. H. P. Blavatsky does not reject the wave theory as part of
the explanation, but she contends that the ultimate causes of light,
heat, and electricity must be sought in a form of matter existing
in supersensuous states, states, though, "as fully objective to the
spiritual eye of man as a horse or a tree to the ordinary mortal";
and, above all, that these forces and others are "propelled and guided
by Intelligences." She devotes many chapters of the third part of the
first volume of _The Secret Doctrine_ to this subject, throwing an
entirely new light upon it in its deeper bearings, and showing the
enormous importance of a proper understanding of it if we are ever to
learn our true relationship with the external universe. She says:

 To know what light is, and whether it is an actual substance or a mere
 undulation of the "ethereal medium," Science has first to learn what
 are in reality Matter, Atom, Ether, Force. Now, the truth is, that _it
 knows nothing of any of these_, and admits it. (_The Secret Doctrine_,
 Vol. I p. 482)

Since she wrote _The Secret Doctrine_, though hardly twenty-three
years have elapsed, several discoveries in physics and chemistry have
been made which have greatly modified the scientific view as to the
nature of the atom, of the electric current, and of matter in general;
all these modifications are leading straight in the direction of her
teachings. It is even claimed that

 Matter can vanish without return.... Force and matter are two
 different forms of one and the same thing.... By the dissociation of
 matter, the stable form of energy termed matter is simply changed
 into those unstable forms known by the name of light, heat, etc.
 (_Evolution of Matter_, by Gustave Le Bon)

This leads to the startling suggestion that what is force on this
plane may be substantial on another, and we are now seeing, as a
result of the study of the _x_-rays, and the [alpha], [beta], [gamma]
rays of radium, all of which can pass through ordinary matter with
ease, a revival of the ancient and supposedly extinct theory held
by Newton, and others before him, that light is a body composed of
corpuscles--whatever they may be. Professor Bragg, of the Leeds
University (England), has been investigating the problem with great
care, with the result that he has come to the conclusion, as he
announced to the members of the Royal Institution, London, the other
day, that the "gamma" rays of radium and the _x_-rays are corpuscular,
and not merely pulsations in the ether. He thinks they are probably
electrons, corpuscles of negative electricity

 which have assumed a cloak of darkness in the form of sufficient
 positive electricity to neutralize them.

It seems also that as ultra-violet light, which exists in ordinary
sunlight, possesses many of the properties of the above rays, Professor
Bragg may not be far wrong in his further suggestion that it also may
be corpuscular in its nature. He asked, very pertinently, that if this
light be corpuscular, why may not all other forms of light be so? When
we recollect that the "corpuscles" themselves are a purely metaphysical
concept, it is plain that science is moving rapidly towards a very
different and far more reasonable and Theosophical idea of the universe
than the materialistic one. _Vivat!_




THE BRIDGES OF PARIS: by G. K.


The Bridges of Paris are of distinctive interest and their very
names suggest in part the fascinating panorama of French history and
legend--Tolbiac, Bercy, Austerlitz, Sully, Marie and Louis Philippe,
Notre Dame, Pont San Michel, Solferino, La Concorde, Alma, Iéna, Passy,
etc. The Seine flows for seven miles through the city and is at its
widest (nearly 1000 feet) at the extremity of the island called La
Cité. This island communicates with the right bank of the Seine by the
bridges of Notre Dame and Au Change. The latter, as is evident from
the familiar device sculptured above the piers (see illustration), was
built by the first Napoleon.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PARIS: THE PONT AU
CHANGE AND THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PARIS AND THE SEINE]

The Palais de Justice is located in La Cité and the Greek façade by
Duc is considered one of the finest examples of this style in modern
architecture.

 From the Boulevard du Palais on the east it is separated by a
 magnificent eighteenth-century railing in wrought iron and gilt. On
 this side lie the Salle des Pas Perdus and the Sainte-Chapelle. The
 fine square tower known as the Clock Tower stands at the corner formed
 by the Quai du Mord and the Boulevard du Palais; and on the north side
 lies the Conciergerie prison with the dungeon once occupied by Marie
 Antoinette.--_Gaston Meissas_




OLD BRYNHYFRYD GARDEN

by Kenneth Morris


  There's a quiet old enchantment of the heart that's calling, calling
    From when Myrddin wielded magic powers, and Gwydion wove his tales;
  And you'll hear it any April morn, when the apple-bloom is falling
      In old Brynhyfryd Garden, in White, Wild Wales.

  There's an Ousel in the Orchard there, and dear knows what he's
                                                                telling;
    But I think there's Welsh comes welling from his throat when no
                                                             one's nigh,
  And it's he that in Cilgwri in the olden days was dwelling,
      And he saw the Quest of Cilhwch, and the old worlds die.

  There's a lonely, lofty spirit that will fire your soul with craving
    For the kind and haughty glory of the old, Heroic Kings,
  Where the foxglove and sweet-william on the turf-topped walls are
                                                                  waving
      In old Brynhyfryd Garden, when the West Wind sings.

  There's a ruin filled with nettles, where I think Ceridwen lingers
    When she's out to gather herbage for the Wisdom Broth she brews:
  And maybe you'll close your eyes there, and you'll feel the touch of
                                                                fingers,
      Or the dropping down of healing with the cool June dews.

  Ancient Magic of the World, it's the fires of you are burning
    When the Wind is in the pine tops, and the moon is o'er the vales;
  It's a rumor of immortal hopes, Immortal Hearts returning
      That's in old Brynhyfryd Garden in the white West of Wales.

  International Theosophical Headquarters,
  Point Loma, California




MISUSED POWERS: by R. W. Machell


"Use with care those living messengers we call words." So said William
Q. Judge, a very wise man.

The misuse of words seems a trifling matter to those who habitually
misuse every function of mind and body; but the results of perversion
are disastrous to body, mind, and soul. The misuse of terms, when
not due to ignorance of their legitimate meaning, is in itself an
indication of a perverted mind diseased by habitual misuse of the
functions of both body and mind, which two are so intimately related as
to share inevitably the consequences of right or wrong living.

The words we use and the way we use them are not mere accidents but
are sure indications of our mental condition, and the mind and body
are so mutually responsive that it is hard to say which affects the
other and which is the affected one, for habits of body are induced
by habits of mind and the mind in turn is influenced by the bodily
condition resulting from those habits. With self-indulgence as the
unfortunate rule of life, and with the ignorance of our own nature
and of our relation to others, which is almost universal, it is not
surprising that wrong living should be the general rule, and that
misuse of the powers of mind and body should be so common; nor is it
at all strange that there should be so much unhappiness in the world,
nor need we marvel if people in these conditions should think that
their sufferings, mental and physical, are due to everything except
their own misconduct. And if men can not see that they are indeed the
makers of their own sufferings, how shall they be able to realize their
responsibility to others? With selfishness as the rule of life, and
with ignorance of our interdependence, and of our intimate union one
with another throughout the whole world, it is quite natural that we
should feel little responsibility to others for the effects we produce
in the world by the use or misuse of words: a responsibility that is
increased by the spread of education and by the increase in the number
of persons who read without thinking, and who take thoughts from
books as they take water from a tap, unquestioning as to its quality.
Pure water is now recognized as essential to health and is supplied
in all civilized communities, but pure language and pure thought are
left to chance; and while the supply of literature is as plentiful as
the supply of water, the quality of our literature is not subject to
the same scrutiny as is our water-supply, and the stream of thought
that flows through the channels of our publications is frequently
contaminated by unhealthy and unwholesome matters. Purity of thought
and purity of words are essential values, for words are embodied
thoughts, and from thoughts spring deeds, and the deeds of man are his
life.

The responsibility of writers and speakers has hardly yet been
recognized; though illustrations of the dangers of trifling with
essential values, or of misusing talents, or indeed of perverting
from its right use any function, are actually supplied by some of
our brilliant writers, who have recklessly and often ignorantly
become apostles of mere degeneracy and powerful instruments for the
demoralization of the people. Even those who see the evils scarcely
seem to appreciate either the causes or the consequences of the
corruption of literature and the confusion of language.

Some recent reviewers, however, have begun to question more closely the
character of the influence exercised upon the world by some writers,
whose works have excited general or special admiration, even calling
some of them defaulters, for that, holding great talents, they have
used the light they held to dazzle the eyes and to confuse the minds of
others, so as to make them blind to the path of right living, which is
virtue or morality.

One of these critics, Paul Elmer More, literary editor of the New York
_Evening Post_, in a study of the influence of Walter Pater, distinctly
suggests that the author confused the truth and in fact misrepresented
history, reading his own desires and inclinations into the teachings of
Plato in one case, and in another of doing the same for Christianity,
making them appear to exalt sensuous beauty above spiritual beauty
which is the soul of virtue; whereas Plato himself exclaims: "When
anyone prefers beauty to virtue, what is this but the real and utter
dishonor of the soul?" Mr. More suggests that Christianity is equally
misrepresented by this brilliant writer, but in his perversion of the
real meaning and purpose of true Christianity he is simply drifting
with the tide of so-called Christian civilization, which has been,
almost from its first appearance as a politically established religion,
a clear departure from those teachings concerning the Christos in man,
attributed to Jesus, the supposed founder of the system, and which in
their original purity are identical with Universal Theosophy of which
they are a part and upon which they are drawn.

Further, Mr. More suggests that the demoralizing effect of Pater
may have largely affected that brilliant apostle of decadence, Oscar
Wilde, whose tragic collapse in the hour of his literary success drew
attention to an evil whose ravages have ruined multitudes of lives and
wrecked every civilization that has become tainted with the poison of
perversion. For this man exalted perversion into a cult, his wit was
entirely based upon it, his ethics steeped in it, and his own life
wrecked by it. He himself shows that he was not unaware of the truth,
at times, for he wrote:

  Surely there was a time I might have trod
  The sunlit heights, and from life's dissonance
  Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God;
  Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod
  I did but touch the honey of romance--
  And must I lose a soul's inheritance?

And later, in that awful page of the tragedy of a fallen soul, _The
Ballad of Reading Gaol_, there is a sort of blind recognition of the
justice of Karma, which tolerates no perversion of Nature's order on
any plane, coupled with a noble and generous plea for the removal of
the unnecessary horrors of the prisons, in which we grind out the last
vestige of man's inherent love of virtue, and crush the last buds of
growth that the fallen soul may yet be able to put forth.

Here again was one, who exalted the beauty of the senses above the
beauty of the soul, and so soiled the whole nature and so perverted
the mind, which is the mirror of the man, that he produced a vortex of
vice, in which all who entered were bewildered and lost their guiding
star; in which many were utterly wrecked, and all defiled.

Professor Henderson in his critical interpretation of five authors,
points out so much of the evil that one can only regret that his grasp
of true psychology was not deep enough to enable him to make more clear
the distinction between the spiritual soul and the animal soul (not to
go further into the complex nature of the Soul), the great duality in
man that is the clue to all these mysteries. With this key one feels
that his study of Maeterlinck's philosophy would have become more
luminous, for surely this is a case, in which an author continually
confuses his audience, and perhaps also himself, by exalting the
sensuous joys of the animal soul, and the emotions of the imagination,
above the pure joy of true beauty, which is, as all poets, not only
Keats, have seen, the same as truth. Keats himself may have known the
difference, but his readers certainly must in most instances have
been misled and may have found in his lines a justification of their
own indulgence of morbid tastes, for however morbid may be a man's
condition he will still see beauty in pleasure of any kind, no matter
how vile may be its source. We may endorse the axiom in the first line

  Beauty is truth, truth beauty

but must protest against the fallacy in the next line

                              ... that is all
  Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

No! we need to know what we mean by beauty, and we need to know that
the word conceals pitfalls innumerable for him who has no knowledge
of the true nature of man, for one who thinks he is his body, and who
believes his passions are the voices of his soul and who mistakes the
intoxication of sensuality for spiritual illumination, lust for love,
and perversion for genius. We need the teaching so clearly given in
"The Two Paths" translated by H. P. Blavatsky from _The Book of the
Golden Precepts_. We need to know that there is a chasm deep as hell
between these two souls in man, and that when the higher nature is the
slave of the lower then the man is in hell indeed; for as said by H. P.
Blavatsky, there is no other hell than that of a man-bearing planet.
Those who have stood on the brink of this hell with even partially
opened eyes, know that the terrors of hell invented by churchmen are
but as a comic interlude to the reality of horrors that life on earth
holds for masses of humanity, and from which there is no escape except
by the path of right living, based upon right perception of our own
true nature, and discrimination between the higher and the lower nature
in man, which is so often veiled by the false teachings of perverted
minds. We need the truth to discriminate the spiritual beauty that is
pure joy from the sensual beauty that intoxicates, blinds, and destroys
the life--and we need the guiding power of pure altruism to make our
writings useful to others and a full recognition of the responsibility
of those who now so lightly use "those living messengers we call
words."




IS EDUCATION WASTED? by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)


No question is agitating us more than that of how to educate our young
people. We know there is something wrong about our achievements in
education, but we are often mistaken as to where the fault lies. The
commonest mistake is to confound principles with practice and to blame
the former where perhaps it is the latter which is at fault. We fail
to carry out certain plans, and we blame the plans and want to make a
clean sweep of them; when perhaps inefficiency in applying them is what
is really the matter. In fact, it is probably inefficiency, rather than
wrong principles, that is the matter with our educational doings, as
it is in the case of so many others of our doings. Before we condemn a
method, we should ask whether that method is being given a fair trial.
If we sweep away the system, without removing the general inefficiency,
then the same failure will attend our efforts to apply any new system
that may be devised. We shall have exchanged one evil for another.

There is more than one side to every question; but many of the
utterances on the educational difficulty give only one side. The result
is views that are extreme and ill-considered. Let us take a case.

Much of education is considered by some critics to be superfluous and
wasted, for the reason that it seems to bear no immediate and visible
fruit. Hence they wish to abolish it. Yet it is always possible that
it may bear fruit after all, but not of the kind they are able to see.
Take, for instance, the case of a girl of ordinary type, without any
definite characteristics whether good or bad. She is sent to school
and college. She is taught algebra and geometry, Latin and Greek,
music and painting, with many other subjects. She is reasonably clever
and absorbs all this with interest and ease. She leaves college--and
never again opens a book. The whole is quietly forgotten with as much
nonchalance as it was acquired. Is all the time and money and effort,
on the part of pupil and teachers, wasted?

Or let it be a boy, who has been taught similar subjects, but takes up
a calling in which they are not used. Is the instruction wasted? The
question arises in various forms, of which these two cases may be taken
as typical examples.

If it is true that the education thus given is really wasted, what
folly could be greater than that of continuing to impart it! Yet we
know that somehow the view taken is too extreme; that it is not in
accordance with the fitness of things that work involving so much
zeal, enthusiasm, and other good qualities should fall fruitless; that
people would not go on doing it if they did not have some intuition
that the labor is not really in vain.

In short, may it not be possible that this is one of those cases in
which a dilemma has arisen through the limitation of our knowledge
of human nature and the laws of life; a dilemma resolvable by the
wider knowledge shed by Theosophy? A knowledge of Reincarnation, the
dual nature of man, and other related matters, clears up many of the
enigmas of life, as for instance what becomes of all the abilities and
experience which a man has garnered during life, when he dies. May not
a similar knowledge shed light on the present problem also? If so, then
our beliefs would be reconciled with our intuitions, and practices
which logic has seemed to condemn might be vindicated in the light of
fuller knowledge.

For one thing, a conviction of the continuity of individual existence
beyond the grave, in other earth-lives, more or less similar to the
present life, affects the whole question profoundly. For we may at
once infer that knowledge accumulated now, but not immediately used,
may be used later on. And indeed this idea quite agrees with what many
analogies from Nature suggest. Youth is the time for study; maturer
age brings other duties. Let us compare a lifetime with a day. In the
morning a man studies many subjects; but after noon he shuts his books,
never thinks of them again, and spends the remainder of the day in
other occupations, followed by recreation and ending in sleep. Has his
labor been wasted? Nay, for he will resume it next morning. Can we not
apply this analogy to the case of the young person whose education has
had, or seemed to have, no immediate practical result?

We thus see how limited views as regards the duration of life may
influence the question. But there are other limitations in our views;
let us see how these in turn may affect the question.

We are accustomed to pay too much attention to a man's capacity as a
separate individual, and not enough to his capacity as a part of a
whole. No being in the universe is entirely separate from other beings
however much he may try to make himself so or imagine himself to be so.
This is especially applicable to Mind. How much of our mind is our own?
It has been argued that Mind is a kind of common atmosphere, in which
all partake, and that thoughts are interchanged freely, the notion that
they belong particularly to oneself being chiefly an illusion. The
more this is true, the more it must be true that in teaching one person
we are in reality teaching many persons, teaching mankind in general.
Does a teacher teach persons or minds? To him it often seems as if he
were developing Mind, and the distinction of personalities is apt to
disappear. Yet this attitude on his part may not be mere carelessness
and indifference to the interests of his pupils; it may be founded on
an intuitive perception of the fact that personality does not count
for so much and that his pupils also have a collective capacity, an
aggregate value, which counts for a great deal.

Another way in which we limit our outlook, and thus obtain a false
perspective, is in regarding too intently the immediate (and, as we
say, "practical") outcome of education. There is such a thing as a
general education, an education not directed to any immediate or
definite end, but having in view the general culture and refinement of
the pupils. It is true, of course, that this argument can be used, and
is used, to justify kinds of teaching which really are undesirable;
it is true that in aiming at a general education, we may overdo the
process; it is true that such overdoing puts a weapon into the hands of
our opponents and goes some way towards justifying their arguments. But
aside from these abuses, the principle itself remains true. There must
be a certain amount of general culture, culture of a kind that has no
immediate practical end in view.

Let us try to imagine the results of applying some of the wrongly
called "practical" methods to an extreme degree. This boy is to be a
shoemaker: teach him shoemaking and nothing else. This girl is to sew
or cook: teach her sewing and cooking, but nothing else. At that rate
society would become a world of machines, and general culture and love
of knowledge would disappear.

Finally, to name a fourth limitation in our outlook, there is the error
of mistaking the principle itself for its application, the system for
the way in which it is carried out, the institution for the use that
is made of it. Thus we often lay the blame in the wrong place. Before
we sweep away a system, let us find out whether it is the system that
is at fault or the application of it; otherwise we may find equally
faulty results proceeding from any new system which we may adopt. Is it
inefficiency which is at the root of the evil? If so, let us remedy the
inefficiency and then it will be time to see about changing the system.

The education question, like so many other questions, is in a state of
chaos. Something is the matter, but people do not know just what it is.
The suggested cures are many. Rash experiments are made. The remedies
threaten to be worse than the disease. One thing seems generally agreed
upon--that our education does not confer perfect efficiency. What
we really need is a general education that will give efficiency in
reading, writing, speaking, ciphering; in power of attention, memory,
concentration; in adaptability, readiness of resource; obedience,
order, self-command. No need to enumerate all the requirements;
everybody knows what they are and what is needed. Efficient people
are needed everywhere; but, above all, people with self-command and
free from weaknesses. If we could but turn out this kind of product,
much less in the way of technical schools would be needed; for such
pupils would be so apt and teachable that they could readily master
anything. The difficulties as to the nature of the curriculum, whether
it should include Greek and Latin, and, if so, how much; what history
should be taught, and how it should be taught; whether theoretical
grammar should be taught, or whether the pupil should acquire grammar
unconsciously from his reading--all these and many more problems would
settle themselves, or at least our point of view concerning them
would be altogether altered. As it is, most of these problems resolve
themselves into the one problem of how to produce good fruit from a
neglected tree. So long as the pupils have not been trained in the
control of their faculties, moral and mental, it is difficult to teach
them anything, no matter which method you adopt. And if they have been
properly trained in their early years, the question of what to teach
them sinks into comparative unimportance, because they will be able to
make use of all their opportunities.

The root of the whole difficulty, therefore, is this: that people have
no definite philosophy of life to serve as a foundation for efforts.
With religious beliefs all undermined and mixed up, and nothing to
take their place but various theories wrongly labeled "scientific," it
is no wonder if folk should find themselves incompetent to solve the
educational problem. We need to understand first what a man is and what
is his destiny; we need to think of the Soul as having existed before
it entered its present body, and as being destined to exist again
after it has left that body. We need to know the difference between
the higher and the lower nature in a person, and how the two are
interblended. Then we should not have rash schemes which ignore this
distinction and propose to let the lower nature run wild. We should
then know how to give the higher nature its freedom without letting the
lower nature run wild.

It all comes to this: that tools are not of use without men to handle
them; and that in our scheming we are trying to devise tools which will
turn unskilled workmen into skilled. The primary factor in education
is the man itself. The question begins at birth--even before birth.
When the time comes, as come it must, when people will find themselves
compelled by necessity to recognize the efficacy of Theosophy, then
many problems will be solved. Theosophy means a getting back to simple
yet profound truths--such simple truths as can be applied to any
circumstances. These alone can grapple successfully with the problems.




THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS, ATHENS: by R.


The Theseion, the so-called Temple of Theseus, in Athens, belongs
to the second period of classical Greek architecture, which may be
considered to have flourished between B. C. 470 and 338, the dates
of the Persian war and the Macedonian supremacy. It is one of the
most beautiful examples of the Doric order, and is more perfect than
any other building we have of ancient Greece. It probably owes its
excellent preservation to the fact that it was turned into a Christian
church during the Middle Ages. It is made of the famous white Pentelic
marble, which has changed, by lapse of time, to a lovely golden yellow
hue. It greatly resembles the Parthenon, but covers a little less than
half the area, and is not so exquisitely proportioned. The Theseion was
erected a few years before the Parthenon, probably about B. C. 460. It
is one hundred and four feet long by forty-five wide, and the columns
are nineteen feet high. Like most of the finest Grecian buildings it
does not depend upon mere size for impressiveness. From the remains of
sculpture still existing the following subjects have been ascertained:
The achievements of Theseus (whence the name); The Labors of Hercules;
and the battle of the Athenians, the Lapithae, and the Centaurs.
Fifty of the _metopes_ (the squares into which the frieze is divided)
were never adorned with sculpture, but were probably painted, for the
Doric Temples are now known to have been painted both externally and
internally. The groups in the pediments (the uppermost triangular
portions) are entirely lost.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. TEMPLE OF THESEUS,
ATHENS, GREECE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. STOA, GYMNASIUM OF
HADRIAN, ATHENS]




RECENT ADMISSIONS BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS: by a Student


A good summary of some of the changes wrought in our views of history
by recent archaeological research is afforded by an article on ancient
history in the new edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. The
article is written by Professor J. B. Bury, Regius Professor of Modern
History in Cambridge University, and is contributed to _The Sphere_,
the well-known London illustrated weekly.

 During the past thirty years our knowledge of the beginnings of
 Greek history has undergone a transformation, which is associated
 with the now familiar names of Mycenae and Cnossus. Nearly all that
 was written on early Greece by Grote and the other brave men before
 Agamemnon--who is Schliemann--may now be safely left unread. The
 striking discoveries of Schliemann, however, at Mycenae, Tiryns, and
 Troy, did not revolutionize our view of pre-Homeric Greece, though
 they suggested a new perspective. It is the startling facts revealed
 by the Cretan exploration of Mr. Arthur Evans that have opened the
 door into a new world full of surprises--an unsuspected civilization
 reaching back through a period measured not by centuries but by
 millennia. The prolegomena to Greek history now consist of an entirely
 new set of facts and a new set of problems. At the same time we have
 been learning a great deal more about the old civilizations in the
 near East contemporary with this Aegean civilization which has sprung
 upon our vision like a magic castle built in a night. Our knowledge of
 Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria has become not only more extensive but
 clearer and more precise; and the importance of the Hittites in Asia
 Minor and Syria, though their own documents are still a sealed book,
 is emerging from obscurity.

One of the first thoughts that occur in connexion with the above is
that we must still be careful about the statements of historians,
whenever they tend to minimize or restrict; for, as they have altered
their views before, so they may alter them again. We are bidden to
throw our Grote into the waste-basket; but many will say that the
claims made on behalf of that now despised scholarship were not lacking
in positiveness. The views founded on this older scholarship have been
made the basis for attacks on the views put forward and advocated by
Theosophists; but now we find the opinions of scholarship revised,
and altered more into conformity with some of the Theosophical views.
Naturally, therefore, Theosophists infer that another thirty years will
have witnessed yet further concessions on the part of scholarship;
and they look forward to seeing all the statements of H. P. Blavatsky
verified one by one as time goes on. They likewise conceded the
apparent necessity, due to certain traits of human nature which we all
have, of assuming a positive and dogmatic attitude with each new step
in discovery, regardless of the logic of the case which would bid one
apply to the future the lesson of the past, and put forward with due
modesty views that are liable to change.

Said H. P. Blavatsky, in the Introduction to _The Secret Doctrine_,
published in 1888:

 No one styling himself a "scholar," in whatever department of exact
 science, will be permitted to regard these teachings seriously. They
 will be derided and rejected _a priori_ in this century; but only in
 this one. For in the twentieth century of our era scholars will begin
 to recognize that the _Secret Doctrine_ has neither been invented nor
 exaggerated, but, on the contrary, simply outlined; and finally, that
 its teachings antedate the Vedas.

Other writers before H. P. Blavatsky, and from whom she quotes, had
shown that the accessible facts of history, tradition, and archaeology,
if interpreted in the light of a logic unbiased by preconceived
opinion, demonstrate the extreme antiquity of civilization. But such
writers have been regarded by the body of orthodox scholarship as
cranks and paradoxists. In _The Secret Doctrine_, H. P. Blavatsky
gathers together the evidence referred to by these writers, adds much
more collected by herself, and throws upon the whole the light of
Theosophy. By means of the clues thus afforded, a consistent pattern is
seen to pervade the apparently tangled skein, and the harmony between
the Theosophical truths and the facts thus adduced strikes home to
the unprejudiced mind with the force of conviction. To clinch the
matter, living Theosophists can now point in triumph, as above said,
to the admissions made by scholars since _The Secret Doctrine_ was
written--admissions which agree better with what H. P. Blavatsky said a
quarter of a century ago than with their own utterances at that time.

It is seldom, indeed, whatever be the reason, that Theosophists have
the pleasure of seeing H. P. Blavatsky's name and work mentioned in
this connexion; though, as her works are still being issued and are
readily available, it might seem strange that no mention should be
made of them in connexion with matters so intimately related to the
subjects of which they treat. The question as to whether scholars have
read these works or not is debatable; but in either case Theosophists
may find a source of gratification. For if scholars have read them,
that at least is a tribute of respect, even though the indebtedness
be unacknowledged. While if they have not read them, the inference is
that the teachings of Theosophy have been confirmed from an independent
source.

In assuming the duties of a pioneer, H. P. Blavatsky was doubtless
aware of the drawbacks incidental to such a rôle in the present age;
but she seems to have been so wrapped up in the enthusiasm of her
purpose as to have been somewhat reckless of the consequences to
herself. This however is quite consistent with the known character
of pioneers. But, though too much interested in their work to seek
renown or even recognition, they doubtless achieve this unsought
boon eventually; for the law of rebirth may bring them back to earth
in time to see their own monuments and to realize that now their
all-too-inconvenient personality has been removed by Time to a
distance, their harmless name may be safely honored. H. P. Blavatsky
was much derided; then ignored; her generosity was not appreciated;
she was accused of the most impossible motives. But now many of her
teachings are found to be true--not in archaeology alone, but in
comparative religion, science, and several other fields. Shall we then
expect amends? Ask the shades of Mesmer and Elliotson, the persecuted
advocates of a since rediscovered treatment; of Dr. B. W. Richardson,
who suffered for his ideas on "nervous ether," now being rehabilitated,
but without amends to the author; or the shades of many another
pioneer. We dare not expect too much of humanity in this age; few will
be those whose generosity will allow them to make such amends; and even
of these, fewer still will be those who will break the rule of silence
that seems to bind the tongues of the well-disposed.

There are always some, however, who are more interested in knowing
the truth than in vindicating any personal or orthodox point of view;
people whose vision, thus unblinded, sees further and clearer; and to
these it may occur that the teachings of _The Secret Doctrine_, thus
far vindicated, may be worthy of attention in view of the natural
inference that the rest of them will likewise be vindicated. The
Theosophical teachings, reintroduced to Western civilization by H. P.
Blavatsky, have been neglected by some and grotesquely travestied by
others; but they contain the science and scholarship of the future--if
that future but remain loyal to truth. Loyalty to truth can only
result in its establishment--in the vindication of Theosophy. And the
particular truths to be established in the present case--the antiquity
of civilization, the greatness of past humanity--are important in
no mere academic sense. Medieval theology, much of whose spirit was
inherited by scientific theorists, has belittled man and weakened his
confidence in himself. The recognition of man's past achievements gives
renewed hope for his future possibilities. Closely interwoven with the
Theosophical teachings about the antiquity of civilization are the
teachings about the Divine nature of Man. The Theosophical teachings
are a consistent whole. Hence these wider views in archaeology,
science, and religion, must tend to the widening of views concerning
the nature of man and the destruction of old superstitions about his
being born in sin or descended from the beasts.

While archaeology will naturally endeavor to go as slow as it can and
to keep its discoveries well in hand, so to say, digesting them and
incorporating them with the body of orthodox academic opinion, it is
nevertheless true that it will be obliged to give way and expand its
borders. For one thing, there are many explorers investigating in
different fields; and these, in their theories, do not exhibit such
uniformity and conformity as might be desired. One archaeologist will
make admissions which others are not willing to make, because these
particular admissions do not damage his own particular theory. Thus,
taking all together, many admissions are made; the errors tend to
cancel one another; the truth tends to add itself up. Another factor is
what may be called "newspaper archaeology." The Sunday editions and the
popular illustrated magazines familiarize the public with the latest
discoveries and most advanced theories; and they frequently go a little
too fast for the authorities. But what these popular accounts lack in
accuracy they make up in freedom from prejudice.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. MONUMENT OF DE
LESSEPS, PORT SAID]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. HIGH RELIEF FROM THE
ALBERT MEMORIAL, LONDON A GROUP OF ARCHITECTS]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PANEL FROM THE
ALBERT MEMORIAL]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ANOTHER PANEL FROM
THE ALBERT MEMORIAL]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PORTION OF
DECORATIVE FRIEZE FROM THE ALBERT MEMORIAL]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. CONTINUATION OF
DECORATIVE FRIEZE FROM THE ALBERT MEMORIAL]




GREAT NAMES IN ART. SCULPTURES FROM THE ALBERT MEMORIAL: by an Art
Student


The first illustration represents a group of architects of modern, or
comparatively modern times; the majority are British. This, and the
four other groups which follow, are from the high-relief or frieze on
the pedestal of the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London, and were
executed by J. B. Philip, about forty years ago.

Although the immense sum of $600,000 was lavished upon the monument to
Prince Albert, the estimable consort of Queen Victoria, the memorial
has never been regarded as a satisfactory work of art. The general
design has some original and interesting features, but the structure is
overloaded with gilding and mosaic, and the execution is mechanically
rather than aesthetically distinguished. The statue of the Prince
himself is inadequate, and the large groups of figures representing the
Four Quarters of the World, Industry, etc., though they may have passed
muster in the mid-Victorian period of the '60s and '70s, are not up to
the artistic standard of today. London has been singularly unfortunate
in the quality of its public monuments, and it is to be feared that the
new Memorial to Queen Victoria which has just been unveiled, will not
raise the average.

There are one hundred and nine figures on the pedestal, a large portion
of which are shown in our illustrations. They include painters, poets,
architects, sculptors, and some heroes and reformers. They are of far
greater interest from the historical associations they arouse than from
their artistic quality.

The seated figure in the center of the first illustration is the famous
Sir Christopher Wren, (1632-1723) the builder of St. Paul's Cathedral,
London, and pre-eminently the most distinguished British architect
who has flourished since the Gothic period. He was one of the most
original geniuses of the Renascence. Wren had an extraordinary field
for his talents opened to him by the immense destruction caused by the
Great Fire of London in 1666, and he was certainly the right man in the
right place. Not only did he rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral but fifty
other London churches. Up to date, St. Paul's is the largest and finest
Protestant Cathedral in the world. Though open to criticism in some of
its minor details and constructive arrangements, it is allowed to stand
foremost among buildings of its class in Europe, St. Peter's possibly
excepted.

Standing beside Wren is Inigo Jones, one of the first and most highly
accomplished English architects of the Renascence. His fame chiefly
rests upon his design for the palace of Whitehall, commanded by
James I. The Banqueting Hall was the only part actually carried into
execution. A window of this splendid building is still pointed out as
the fatal one from which Charles I stepped to the block.

Vanbrugh, standing behind Wren, was the latter's famous pupil. He built
Blenheim, the seat of the great Duke of Marlborough. To the right of
Inigo Jones is Mansart or Mansard, the French architect whose memory
is immortalized in the "Mansard roof," which he invented. Palladio
and Vignola, to the extreme right, were Italian Renascence architects
whose influence upon the classic revival was very great in England
and France; the Palladian style being particularly followed in the
former and that of Vignola in the latter country. A striking group of
buildings was erected by Palladio in Vicenza, Italy, in the sixteenth
century, which became the model on which a large proportion of the
Renascence work in England was based.

Of the modern English architects on the left, Sir Charles Barry is the
most notable. He was among the first to depart from the fashion so long
prevalent of introducing Greek and Roman forms into every building
of importance, and was one of the pioneers of the Gothic revival of
the nineteenth century, a century without a distinctive style of its
own. He designed the British Houses of Parliament, which, in spite of
some weaknesses, is a striking building with an eminently picturesque
sky-line.

The kneeling figure at the right of the second illustration is the
great art reformer Giotto, (1276-1336) the admirable Florentine who
liberated the art of painting from the stiff Byzantine traditions which
had been dominant for many centuries. He exercised a lasting influence
upon the arts in every part of Italy, and thereby, upon the whole
western world. Carved in low relief as a background are the Dome and
Campanile of Florence Cathedral, the latter being a masterpiece proving
that Giotto had supreme ability as a builder in addition to his skill
with the brush.

Seated beside Giotto is Arnolfo di Lapo, a successor of the celebrated
Niccolo Pisano, one of the few great sculptors of the Gothic period.
On Giotto's left is Brunelleschi (1377-1446), sculptor and architect.
To him we owe the completion of the great Dome of Florence Cathedral,
which is unequaled for beauty though not so high as several later
ones. He is also noted for his treatment of the "rusticated" work on
the Pitti Palace, Florence.

William of Wykeham, a great man in many walks of life, is famous
in architecture for the nave of Winchester Cathedral (of which he
was bishop), one of the finest examples of the Perpendicular style
existing. Bramante, the next figure, (1441-1514) was the first
architect of the present St. Peter's at Rome, a position afterwards
held by Peruzzi, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Bramante built many palaces
in Rome; his style was simple and dignified, and he adhered as far as
possible to the classical forms.

Sansovino (1479-1570) is best known for his picturesque Library of
St. Mark, Venice. San Gallo was another of the splendid galaxy of
Florentine architects of the Renascence. Vignola, at the extreme left,
was one of Michelangelo's successors in the building of St. Peter's;
but unfortunately he altered the design in such a way that the great
dome of Michelangelo cannot be seen from the front except at a great
distance. On Vignola's right stands Delorme, the favorite architect
of the French king Henri II; he is remembered chiefly as the first
designer of the Palace of the Tuileries.

The third picture contains, among others, the portraits of some famous
English, German and French architects of the later Middle Ages. Erwin
von Steinbach (died 1318) is famous for his magnificent west front of
Strasburg Cathedral, of which, unfortunately, one of the magnificent
openwork steeples was never finished. The Abbé Suger was the patriotic
adviser of the French kings Louis VI and VII, and was justly celebrated
for his efforts for the welfare of the poorer classes at a time when
their interests were generally disregarded (twelfth century).

Anthemius, to the right of the Abbé, was the great Grecian architect
and mathematician who designed for Justinian (A. D. 532) the daring and
original plans of St. Sophia at Constantinople. He is credited with
knowing the ancient secret of making "burning-glasses" (magnifying
glasses) which was not rediscovered for hundreds of years. He is also
said to have understood the making of gunpowder, and the application of
steam as a motive power.

The seated figure to the left in the fourth illustration is the great
painter, sculptor and architect, Michelangelo. At his right are
Torrigiano, his early rival, who is famous for the fine carvings on the
tomb of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey; Gian di Bologna (1524-1608), a
follower of Michelangelo, and Bandinelli, another rival whom he soon
outdistanced. Next to Peter Vischer, (died 1524), one of the early
bronze workers in Nürnberg, renowned for his tomb of St. Sebald in
that city, is the erratic, bloodthirsty, gallant, and most eminent of
all metal-workers, Benvenuto Cellini. His Diana of Fontainebleau, and
Perseus of Florence, are his finest large works, but he principally
devoted himself to smaller articles such as chased vases, etc. His
autobiography is one of the most delightfully naïve "human documents"
existing. In the background is a model of the Perseus.

The next seated figure is Jean Goujon, (1530-1572) one of the restorers
of French sculpture as an independent art; he is well known for his
decoration of the Louvre. Beside him is the martyr-artist Bernard
Palissy (1499?-1589), who after sixteen years of incessant and
unremunerated labor discovered a pure white enamel ground for pottery
which was suitable for the application of decorative art. He was
reduced to the extremity of poverty before he made his great discovery,
even having to burn his furniture to feed his furnaces. But as soon as
his animal sculpture in pottery became famous and prosperity began to
shine upon him, he became the victim of religious persecution. Charged
with being a Calvinistic preacher, it was only by the aid of powerful
friends who admired his genius that he escaped for some years, and
finally he was thrown into the Bastile, where he perished.

In our last illustration Michelangelo is at the extreme right. At
his left stands Donatello (1386-1468) the forerunner of the greatest
of the Florentines, and probably the next best known name in Italian
sculpture. His most famous works are in low relief, but several of his
full-sized statues, such as the St. George in Florence, are very fine.
Luca della Robbia, (seated,) and Ghiberti were almost contemporary
with Donatello, and, next to Michelangelo, these three are perhaps the
greatest glory of Florence in sculpture. Luca della Robbia invented the
process of enameling terra cotta; his groups of Singers at Florence are
his most famous work. Ghiberti is chiefly known by his wonderful bronze
gates to the Baptistery at Florence. Looking over Donatello's shoulder
is Andrea Verrocchio (1432-1488), painter and sculptor, a follower of
Donatello, and the teacher of the universal genius Leonardo da Vinci.

Niccolo Pisano, the third figure from the left is of earlier date than
those hitherto mentioned. He was architect, sculptor and painter;
under the inspiration of his genius sculpture was revived in Italy,
and every branch of art was influenced. Imitation of nature in place
of conventionalism was introduced. He is one of the few really great
sculptors of the Gothic period; he may be considered really to be the
forerunner of the Renascence. His most famous work, the marble pulpit
in the baptistery at Pisa, was finished in 1260.




THE TWO FAIRYLANDS--A Study in the Literature of Wonder: by Kenneth
Morris

I


One has been reading a fairy-tale of our own day, which has made a
great stir in literary and dramatic circles, and it has given rise to
certain ideas as to canons of criticism. Its name, and its author's, do
not matter; there will be more freedom if they remain unmentioned.

What a charm is here! Millions of colors that never were in the rainbow
nor the sea-shell; a subtle, exquisite loveliness--which yet, in the
after-taste--somehow repels. Always mystery; what we call inanimate
things waking to life (as they should do, indeed, in any right-minded
fairy-tale); a sense of mutable, inconsequent horizons, over which no
sun has ever risen or set. And, as there should be in fairy-tales,
a kind of esotericism glimmering through; a meaning concealed yet
obvious. Yet there is fairy gold and fairy gold. The best kind has the
aspect of a petal or a pebble; but with the dawn, lo, some diamond or
magical tiara. We are a little doubtful that this moon-wan opalescence
will not turn out to be only a good worthy piece of Birmingham-ware.
Withal, there are fine notes at the end, that touch deep centers in us;
for these one can but be duly and truly thankful.

There are certainly two methods of imagination; and we find them shown
forth excellently in fairy literature. By that we mean all mythology;
every tale wherein non-human or magical agents play their part. It
will include a good part of our poetry; Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley,
Coleridge, Poe, and Tennyson all dipped into it at times, or moved
habitually among its haunted valleys.

There are two roads running out from our actual world, and they run
through two separate Fairy-Lands. You shall go out by your front
door when the sun is shining, and come upon the one of them. It
leads through a wood of daffodils--Wordsworth's and Shakespeare's
daffodils--in whose company you will find yourself strangely exultant:
these are they that "take the winds with beauty"; hence their jocundity
and infectious mirth. Alive? Why, certainly; and wise also--only
perhaps you shall not yet be allowed to pry too curiously into their
counsels. All the flowers are alive in this fairyland; and they all
have their own secrets, which are sunbright and beneficent. Sunbright,
or sundark like the hyacinth--but still beneficent: poppy and
mandragora are not allowed to grow here.

As you ride on, you shall still feel the shining of the sun and the
vigor of the wind; or perhaps there will be sweet intimate grayness of
clouds, or perhaps the sweetness of rain. Rain or wind, you will feel
the touch of either on your face, and smell the earth-scent. There is
one valley there, where the sky is always clouded and windy; the sedge
is withered on the lake there, and no birds sing. But for that, you
might mistake it at first for a place in the other fairyland, because
of the haggard and woe-begone knight-at-arms you are to meet with,
"alone and palely loitering." Keats came to this valley, and heard his
whole story from him: it was this knight-at-arms who met _La Belle Dame
Sans Merci_.

Like everything else in this fairy-land, it is true; in this case the
beauty of its truth is awful. For you are not to suppose there are no
tragedies enacted here: there are as many as there are in the world.
There are a thousand wanderers in the valleys and on the mountains, who
would lure you away from the sunlight and the rain. Here, often and
often, it is written: "_Look not behind, or thou art lost_." Yet no
ruin can come upon you that is not definitely evitable: one holds one's
fate in one's own hands, and need fear nothing but himself.

In another hundred of fairyland, your road runs by over windy wolds of
rye and barley, and down past the island in the river where dwells the
Lady of Shalott. While she weaves her web, finding her whole delight
in the pictures, note that the sun or the moon is still shining;
afterwards, when she has turned and the curse has come upon her, the
low skies are raining ever so heavily. By the presence of the sun and
moon and wind and rain, by the earth-smell and the water-song, you
shall know that you are in the fairyland of the Right Hand, and that
everything about you is true. The story of the Lady of Shalott true?
Why, yes; a million and a million times. A tragedy again; fairyland is
full of tragedies. Yet she need not have left the web, need not have
seen the bloom on the water-lilies, need not ever have looked down to
Camelot.

And how nearly a tragedy is this scene too--of Titania, poor lady,
falling in love with the Ass! For, if you go far enough, you shall come
upon Oberon and his court; you shall find sweet Bully Bottom also,
strangely wandered from his own world, and with that queer, inevitable
headpiece clapped upon him. What else should he wear, in fairyland? As
was said, everything is so desperately true here; and sage and simple
are alike to come by their own. Should you stray here, no silk hat
has potent enough magic of the modern to protect your respectability:
a wandering wind will whisk it away, and you will appear in crown or
ass-head, according to your merits; or perchance in a dinted, war-worn
helmet, or wearing a garland of oak or laurel or bay. No one may wear
any colors but his own in fairyland.

There are innumerable provinces here, reigned over by innumerable
potentates; but you are to look for sun and moon and wind and rain in
all of them. Perseus and Theseus and Herakles; Roland and the good
knight Charlemain; Cuchullain and the Red Branch; the men of the
Emperor Arthur, and Oisin and Oscar and Finn--they are all here; here
are fought Moytura, Fontarabbia, Camlan. Ulysses flies the Island of
Calypso anew; and Odin comes anew into the Hall of the Dwarfs. There
is always a feast at Gwalas in Penfro; and the door that looks out
towards Aberhenfelen and Cornwall is flung wide by Heilyn again and
again--tragedy of tragedies; no one had opened that door until then,
from the time the sea and the sky and that old palace were made. But
hark! it is the scream of a real seagull that is blown down the hall.
Innumerable are the beauties and wonders and sorrows of this region;
and they are all true, true, true: you can hear the natural winds and
waves always, and taste the salt of natural wind-driven spray.

Yet in a sorrowless Italy here, Saturn still is reigning: and here

  The wind in the reeds and the rushes,
      The bees in the bells of thyme,
  The birds in the myrtle bushes,
      The cicale above in the lime,
  And the lizards below in the grass
  Are as silent as ever old Tmolus was,

listening to the sweet pipings of Pan: for the Golden Age has not faded
and you may come on Brugh-na-Boinne and the Hills of Arcady and the
Island of the Appletrees; you may come on all the haunts of Plenydd,
Alawn, Angus, Baldur, and Apollo.


II

So much, then, for the Fairyland of the Right-hand, as we may call it;
there is also a Left-hand fairyland, however; and its character and
denizens are altogether different.

You come to it by a road that never goes out of doors. I suspect that
you lock and bar your study door, and draw the curtains, and make
fearfully sure of your solitude. Then you sally forth by uncanny
gateways, and come where never hay was mown. There is light there,
especially at first; but the end is a dreadful darkness. The light
is of a kind, indeed, that never was on land or sea; but we may be
thankful for that. Our lands and seas are the wholesomer for the lack
of it.

At first it is not all so different, as to let us see at once we are
in no hallowed region. There is beauty, and color; but the beauty is
neither from the sun nor from the moon, and the color from no dawn
nor sunset, from no sky nor sea. Shifting mists may give place to a
dazzling Moorish palace, or to a peasant's cottage inhabited by the
dead. Mirth or sadness may lurk in such dwellings; but beware of any
intimacy with them: you cannot tell what fair seeming masks the ghoul.
There is no order nor established nature of things, nothing you can
depend on. The fig grows on the thistle; but any hunger is better than
to eat it; vines and figtrees are prolific of innumerable thorns.
Gorgeous blooms prophesy only of doom and impending horror. That is,
when you have journeyed some little while. At first, perhaps, they will
tell no tale but of sweetness and fragrance for the senses. Luxurious
poppies are on every roadside, haunted with night and dreams: but
beware of the whitest lily, the deepest rose; besides these the poppies
are but flower children innocent of guile.

Very early on the way to this fairyland, you shall come to Xanadu,
where Kublai Khan decreed his stately pleasure-dome. A beautiful place?
Yes, but mark; here Alph, the sacred river runs "through _caverns
measureless to man, down to a sunless sea_." There is much wonder
in that; but also darkness, and--incipient terror. Your true and
right-hand fairyland, "bards in fealty to Apollo hold." _It_ is all "in
the Face of the Sun and the Eye of Light."

For a lone reminder of better things, the forests of Xanadu do inclose
sunny spots of greenery; but the heart of the place! It is "as holy and
enchanted as e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman _wailing
for her demon lover_." Heavens! is that your mark of holiness? They
do not so reckon it in the right fairyland, where the tragedies are
effects flowing from causes. And the beauty of the place? "The shadow
of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves":--a scintillant
mirage, a sensuous unreal efflorescence of phantasmagoria; and midst it
all, "ancestral voices prophesying war."

_Christabel_, _Genevieve_, and _The Ancient Mariner_ all belong to
this fairyland; the first two near the hither frontier, and the last
much farther in. For one has to note how beauty wanes as the sun-known
horizons recede, and how its place is taken by a new kind of harmony,
a chiaroscuro of keen terror and gloom. This also holds one, as beauty
does; indeed, plays on the emotion with a more compelling, because
wilder and louder, touch. So we call the pictures and poems of the
left-hand fairyland also beautiful, also works of Art. Some day I
think we shall be wiser; our critics will use a deeper discrimination.
Beauty is not that which most stirs the emotion, but that which most
stirs it in a certain way. There is the evolutionary urge upward to be
considered; what works against that has no real right to the name of
beauty. You are to note here, that the further one travels in this dark
fairyland, the more Wonder transforms itself into horror. Wonder went
with us all through the bright realm, and grew from the mere wizardry
of flowers and mountains, into the atmosphere of majesty that surrounds
the soul and the judgments of Spiritual Law. The wizard-glow in the
woodlands waxes, and resolves itself into one of the elder gods. But
in the other case, the Daughter of Glamor that leads us is like the
_Gwrach y Rhibyn_ in the Celtic tales; subtly luring and exquisite at
first, she turns into a fearful terrifying hag, and he who accompanies
her does well if he escapes with his reason.

Glamor fills both regions; the one, a clean natural magic; the other,
not so decadent in the beginning, as to be wanting in some few waning
rays of the sun. In either case, it is partly the sense of a certain
depth in the things seen or heard; you know that the words of the
poem or story stand for something more than is actually spoken. Fairy
dwellings again; the grass-grown hillock that melts and reveals itself
a palace of the Immortals. In the poetry of the Right-hand Fairyland,
this is precisely what we find; beautiful is the seen, but infinitely
more beautiful and grander that which it symbolizes or indicates. In
that magical country, there is nothing not quickening with ancient
truth, and all the dramas enacted are leaves out of the diary of the
human soul. Hence the many tragedies, the many fallings of fate, dooms
that flow out of deeds done or undone. But in the other, we find none
of this. There, the esotericism is poorer than the outward form.
Fate is fate there, no longer Karma. At the best there may be some
moral taught; yet even then, it is doubtful if the lesson will be of
supreme value. It will not equal in weight the great superstructure
of art raised over it; as if one should sack the caves of the whole
sea, to find some not too-precious stone. It will be an after-thought,
a gem added, an excuse; not the seed and reason of the whole work.
More often, it will be some mere allegory of the passions, void of
truth in the deeper sense; or the deliberate esotericizing of a
Sandford-and-Mertonism. Yet these will be the very best the left-hand
fairyland has to offer; go a little further in, and you have simply
riot on the planes of delirium. Coleridge's _Genevieve_ and Keat's
_Belle Dame_ will point the difference. There is something of the same
color and mystery, even a parallelism in the subject-matter of the two
poems: but the first is mere sound and beauty, signifying nothing, and
the second a picture of the fate of one who has been lured away by
passion from the true paths of the Soul. They are surely wrong, who
ascribe to Coleridge the originality, and say that Keats followed him.
The truth is that the two are not comparable; Keat's voyagings were to
the right hand, Coleridge's, here, to the left.

And the last places in the witch-land? The House of Usher rears itself
gauntly beside its tarn there, and incontinently and dreadfully falls.
It is an "ultimate dim Thule," reached by a road haunted only of evil
angels. It is the home of decay, horror, and death; there is a godless
phosphorescence about it.

But, you say, did not Dante wander there, and Milton? No. Whither
they went, they went armed in the uprightness of spiritual strength.
They made their hells somber, terrible, _august_; not glamorous or
attractive. In Malebolge and Pandemonium alike, there is a certain
stability also, a procession of cause and effect; there are horrors,
but they are not inconsequential; they take their place in a definite
scheme of things. And here is a literary touchstone; both Milton and
Dante wielded that supreme quality of style which is called the _Grand
Manner_, so that the mere boom and march of their verses arouses the
feeling of heroism, of titan strength: a thing it was never given the
decadents and drug-fed to do. Dante had his safe guide and teacher
with him; as he walked through the wonders and terrors of hell, he
himself was the thing most aloof and wonderful. Unscathed he might
pass to his meeting with Beatrice, and walk with her in heaven as
majestically, as he had walked with Virgil through hell. Milton, too,
with all his limitations, remains a thing majestic for our vision;
poet or politician, he is still the armed and terrible warrior of
God. In his characteristic and later mood, he seeks never beauty, but
always righteousness; indeed, his chief fault is that he lost sight
of any unity in the two. _Comus_ and _Lycidas_ will show us from what
fairyland he had graduated, to take part in the stern earthly labors of
his prime.

But here is the mark of the later Coleridge, and of all true wanderers
in the fairyland of the left. When they see him, "All should cry
Beware, beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair." Yes--in one of
his moods. But what when the inspiration had passed; when the turbulent
dark glory that held them had waned from before his eyes; when the Dead
Sea Fruit of his fairyland had withered, and left him to be nourished
with filth and cinders? Then, too, wholesome men cry _Beware!_--but of
a victim of opium, a morphiomaniac, or one sodden with cocaine; a poor
wreck of a man, at sight of whom if you close your eyes, it will not be
in "holy dread," but in mere sorrow and pity.

Poor Coleridge! it was laudanum, and not honey-dew or the milk of
Paradise that inspired him. And perhaps we might trace all that part
of the literature of wonder which comes from the dark, left-hand
fairyland, to drugs; which would remove from the category of genius
many a name that figures there now.




LIGHT PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL: by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.


A metal is fixed and crystallized light, said H. P. Blavatsky--and was
laughed at. Light was not then, nor is it yet, substantive, but a mode
of motion--of the ether and of matter. The days when it was substantive
and corpuscular, the days of Newton, had gone by.

But there are several indications of their return--with additions, the
additions warranting H. P. Blavatsky's definition of a metal.

A crystal of metal consists of molecules, and they of the still smaller
atoms. Each atom, in its turn, is made of the still smaller electrons
or corpuscles. If these either _are_ light, or are made of even smaller
bodies which are, the definition is justified. This is the suggestion,
or contention, of Professor Bragg, developed at a recent lecture
delivered before the English Royal Institution.

Light is regarded as a spreading etheric pulsation, waves in ether. We
have it as the visible seven colors from red up to violet, and beyond
visibility as the ultra-violet. Still higher etheric pulses, according
to the usual theory, are the _x_-rays. Professor Bragg applies his new
corpuscular theory to the last alone, though he suggests that it also
includes the ultra-violet rays--in which case it must include all the
rest. He thinks the _x_-rays corpuscular because of a certain behavior;
but the ultra-violet rays have the same behavior--and no one doubts
_their_ continuity with the lower rays down to--and far below--the red.
What is the behavior on which the argument rests?

The term _x_-rays or kathode rays, as popularly used, covers three
kinds of emanation in the tube or from radium. The first and grossest
ingredient is ordinary matter, whirling atoms of the element helium.
The next and finer, the intermediate, is electrons, corpuscles. The
third and finest is _x_-rays proper, hitherto considered as merely
etheric pulses. Professor Bragg calls them _gamma_ rays, restricting
the other term, _x_-rays, for other rays of properties so nearly the
same that he includes them in the same argument.

When _gamma_ (or _x_-) rays fall on an atom of matter they cause it to
discharge one or more of its electrons or corpuscles, the intermediate
of the three emanations popularly included under the term _x_-rays. In
this connexion they are called _beta_ rays.

The professor points out that when _gamma_ (or _x_-) rays produce this
discharge from an atom

 the _beta_ rays to a large degree continue the line of motion of the
 _gamma_ rays, as if the latter pushed them out of the atoms; and,
 lastly, that the number of the _beta_ rays depends on the intensity of
 the _gamma_ rays.

The _gamma_ ray, entering an atom, pushes out a corpuscle, a _beta_
ray, and takes its place. It behaves, in fact, as if it were itself a
corpuscle, and the word ray is not well descriptive either of it or the
_beta_. Nor can it be a mere ether-pulse. The professor suggests that
it is a corpuscle, an electron, which has had the ordinary negative
charge of electricity proper to electrons neutralized by a positive.
Then he proceeds:

 Many insist that my neutral corpuscle is too material, and that
 something more ethereal is wanted, for it appears that ultra-violet
 light possesses many of the properties of _x_- and _gamma_ rays....
 They propose therefore a quasi-corpuscular theory of light, _gamma_
 and _x_- rays being included.... The light corpuscle which is proposed
 is a perfectly new postulate. It is to move with the velocity of light
 ... and to be capable of replacing and being replaced by an electron
 which possesses the same energy but moves at a slower rate, and, of
 course, it has to do all that the old light waves did. The whole
 situation is most remarkable and puzzling.

So at this rate matter consists of molecules, as before; which consist
of atoms, as before; which consist of electrons, as before--but may
also in part or altogether consist of still more ethereal corpuscles
_which are light_.

It is but a step to the suggestion that the electrons consist of light
corpuscles, standing to them as they stand to the positive or negative
atom of matter. Then metals will be crystallized light.

But whence the light corpuscles? How did they manage to get born in
space? An answer to this question means a step-over from science into
metaphysics. If and when we have reached the last line of matter we
must begin to consider _consciousness_.

Intellectual light, spiritual light--we think we are using only
metaphors in those phrases. Possibly we are not. Physical light may
be the last stage of higher lights. If physical light is divine
thought-energy appealing to our sense, it may have passed down through
higher stages at which it appeals only to mind and heart and spirit.

If we think of Cosmic Spirit as pulsing its will and thought into that
passive and uniform essence which will afterwards become active and
differentiated matter, condensing and precipitating it into centers for
evolutionary work, we must surmise that it is these intensely conscious
centers that will subsequently be suns. Science would say that this
condensation would already involve the liberation of heat, that the new
center must at once be hot. But that is only true of condensing matter
as we know it, matter which already contains latent energy. But the
kind of matter we are considering now is what _will become matter_,
has no possessions nor qualities till these are conferred on it by
divine ideation and will. A sun at its first stage would be luminous
only to a _spiritual_ cognition--that is, it would be charged with, and
radiating, divine ideation. At the _very_ first it would not be even
that; it would be but a _receiving_ center--for divine thought and will.

But at last would come its first heart-beat, so to speak. Some of the
aggregated substance would be pulsed out to the surface charged with
accumulated energy, dissipated as corpuscular light. And now it would
fall within the range of human vision. It is illuminating not only to
sense but to mind; for it contains mind; and not only to mind but to
spirit; for that also it contains.

Theosophy teaches that the sun's envelopes do _not_ contain the
terrestrial elements _in their terrestrial condition_. It is their
antetypes that are alone there, transient, in perpetual aggregation
on the inner side of the envelope (towards the solar nucleus), in
disintegration as light on the outer. And this light, charged with
divine ideation--septenary--has the power on earth of building elements
like to, but lower down than, those found in the sun's envelopes--and
of destroying them. The planets owe the elements they have to the
formative power in the solar light; rather say the keynotes of the
elements they have, according to which keynotes the elementary matter
aggregates. Besides that every molecule is crystallized and fixed
light, it contains as its soul some of that light in its highest or
first state. And so has every cell, every compound of cells, every
living thing. If we had another kind of spectroscope we could find
their antetypes too on the sun. Every cell and molecule contains latent
what in man has begun to manifest--that _self_-consciousness which is a
direct reflection of the absolute Self-consciousness of that point or
center which is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere because the
universe has a limit nowhere. That self, latent or manifest, has in man
and molecule its first or highest embodiment in a layer or envelope of
light in its first or highest condition. As we say, Âtman is enshrined
in Buddhi.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A FAMILY
GROUP: JULIUS KRONBERG, THE FAMOUS ARTIST MADAME SCHOLANDER, HIS
MOTHER-IN-LAW, A WELL-KNOWN SWEDISH THEOSOPHIST AND MR. KRONBERG'S
CHILDREN. STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. "EROS": PAINTING BY
JULIUS KRONBERG]




EROS: by R. W. Machell

[Suggested on first seeing the painting by Julius Kronberg, entitled
_Eros_]


I looked into the depths and saw amid the writhing forms that filled
the abyss, a running stream of fire that flowed among them, and seared
and shriveled some and twisted others into strange shapes, but still
itself preserved its own undying energy insatiate. A monster that
devoured its devotees, for at times I seemed to see it as a being
having a form defined though monstrous. It fascinated me, and, as I
looked longer and more intensely it took form more definite, with a
strange beauty, wild and weird, yet strangely potent to attract and
hold the gazer in the spell of admiration that bewildered all the mind,
and fired the sense with strange thrills and throbbings of unsatisfied
desires, vague but intense, painful yet so seductive that the mind,
bathed in oblivion of former joys, craved only the consuming kiss
of that fierce flame. The form was superhuman, but as yet I saw no
face nor knew to what to liken the strange shape, so wild and yet so
strangely human that it seemed a part of me when first I looked. But in
a little while I knew that I was but a part of it--scarce even that, a
shadow looking towards a light that must consume it. I fought against
the fascination that seemed as if it would absorb my soul and scorch my
mind and sweep my body into its seething vortex of undying fire; and as
I fought to hold myself against the influence, it seemed as if it, that
living fire, took form and features and became the image of a God with
wondrous eyes that glowed as do the embers of the fire when burning
clear with caverns of throbbing radiance and unresting palpitations,
flushing and gleaming, or sinking into momentary dulness like a sulky
face swept by a passing cloud of temper. But strange and fascinating
as it was, that beauty seemed to be unable to define itself; there
was a _want_ that left in the beholder a wild yearning, in itself so
keen as to appear the most intense delight mingled and tinged with
woe unutterable. And then I knew that this on which I gazed was a
reflection of some higher thing, an _image only_ on the waves of that
deep ocean in which the world and all things corporeal float formless
and uncreate until the creative fire of Eros pierces its depths, and
awakening all its energies into activity, mirrors itself upon the
seething vortex of illusion.

Each one who looks into the depths shall see this image; they who have
no heart to search the depths of beings shall feel the fire within
their veins and hail the presence of a God and feed the flame with
their own substance, giving their lives in acts of impious sacrifice to
the consuming fires of the lower world, responsive to the passions that
so insistingly demand the tribute of self-immolation on the altar of
desire.

And from his place beside the throne on high the God of Love looks
down and sees the distorted image of himself torturing, deceiving,
and destroying all who fall beneath the spell of his pervading magic,
while tears of pity for the woes of men fall silently; and he waits,
divinely patient, for the hour when man shall rise from his long dream
of passion, and turning his eyes up towards the Sphere of Light,
shall know that he too is divine. Then shall man recognize the God of
Love who stands beside the throne and call to him to show the path by
which he can regain his place and once more sit upon the throne of
his divinity and rule within the kingdom of the soul, the soul of all
humanity.




TEMPTING COUNTERFEITS VS. REALITY: by Lydia Ross, M. D.


Visitors at Point Loma who learn something of the high moral tone
of the Râja Yoga College here and of the way in which the young
people are protected from evil influences, are much impressed with
these educational conditions, as desirable as they are unique.
Compared with the average youth's environment, which modern life
keys to an ever-increasing pitch of excitement, self-indulgence, and
artificiality, the serene, disciplined, natural life of the Point Loma
young folk makes an atmosphere of quite another world. Even the keenest
critics admit this.

The judgment, however, becomes so colored by the prevailing customs and
ideas and the critical minds are so skeptical from previous failures
in fulfilment, that even friendly visitors are prepared to find a flaw
somewhere. So it is not surprising to hear them say: "Well, there is
something wonderful here and it is the right way to live; but how will
it be with these young people when they leave the school and go out to
meet the unknown temptations of ordinary life? How will they stand the
test?"

That question touches the point wherein the Râja Yoga method differs
from prevailing educational systems, in training the pupil, not for
examination day, but for _practical life_.

In analysing temptations of any kind they may be traced to a common
root: the promise of giving the tempted more power--the power to feel
more, to think more, to do more. This proffered power is the naturally
alluring counterfeit of that conscious inner sense which longs _to be_
more.

First take the physical appetites which so often develop a mastery of
the thoughtless or deliberately indulgent. The normal sense of taste
enlarges the feeling of pleasure, and agreeable food stimulates the
body's latent nutritive forces to an output of strength and action.
Usually the desire of the alcoholic and drug habitués is not primarily
for the _taste_ of the drink or the drug but for the coveted feeling
of attainment that they (apparently) give, the temporary, apparent
return of waning poise and power. Even when unable to stand steadily,
the inebriate is convinced of his own strength and importance by the
feeling of energy and largeness he has recklessly lashed into an
outgoing, aimless tide of exhausting sensation. The maudlin type finds
himself the central figure of a fictitious emotional sphere, while the
ambitious but incompetent man basks in the pleasing delusion of his own
wealth and dignity. The craving for stimulants and sedatives grows with
the indulgence which weakens the will, shatters the nerves, dulls the
mind, and debases the spirit. The wretched habitué feels a vital lack
of selfhood and clutches at even a passing furlough for his mutilated
and chaotic sense of identity.

The sense of smell is not only intensified by favorite odors, but
these recall and vivify other scenes and sensations. A fragrant flower
may suggest a realm of beauty and poetry and sweetness. Savory odors
appeal to the sense of taste and the appetite becomes the means of
still further arousing one through the memory and imagination. The
degenerate nature enjoys even offensive odors as the means of making
him more alive to the possibilities of his degenerate world. A dog's
markedly developed olfactory sense is not attracted by aesthetic odors
as he smells impartially at everything, and follows up--tempted, if you
will--those odors that make him more aware of his canine capacity for
sensation and action: that, in short, make him more of a dog.

The auditory sense is also the gateway to a larger range of feeling
and power. The savage responds to his own defiant war-cry, and the
small boy dilates with his noisy activities, as the refined expand
under nature's finished rhythm of sound and the tones of inspiring
music.

The eye also lights up old and new scenes of thought and feeling and
the characteristic sensations are reflexly stimulated whether one seeks
an exciting round of changing pictures or chooses more beautiful and
useful things, whether the higher or the lower nature is appealed to,
it is the larger sense of power to feel or to think or to know that is
the attraction of vision.

The sensual appetites are impelling because the creative quality
upon the physical plane counterfeits the unity of masculine and
feminine principles in the final perfection of human consciousness.
The attraction of the sexes depends upon an awakening not only to the
qualities of the opposite, but also to an exaltation of the lover's
sense of his or her own manhood or womanhood. Exercised merely for
gratification the lower appetites fill the indulger's world with
insistent desires, capable of leading to degrading depths. But when the
creative energy is consciously expended along the uplifting lines of
noble and altruistic endeavor it arouses in all the auto-creative sense
of power, which, reproductive in its own right, has the satisfying
sense of attainment. Unselfish love so far awakens the higher nature
to its own richness and strength and beauty that its royal impulse to
give would sacrifice the personal self in protecting and idealizing the
beloved.

The temptations of ambition spring from a love of power--the power of
knowledge, of courage, of beauty, of strength, of influence--those
things which arouse the possessor to an enlarged or intensified sense
of himself. That the ruling personal ambition too often sacrifices the
greatest elements of the nature to obtain the gratification of seeming
greatness does not discount the fact of the Real Self which sacrifices
its lesser desires to be great.

Back of all counterfeits must be the genuine coin to give the false
its spurious value. So beyond the many byways of sense and sensation
wherein humanity seeks to feel and to think and to do more there is
the sunlit highway of the natural soul-life wherein one grows more
conscious of his divine power and possibilities. Normal growth during
incarnation is not found in a repeated round of sensational climaxes,
but in a progressive journey with an ever-expanding horizon where the
soul dominates the nature forces within and without the body. The child
who learns to know the divine reality of his dual nature inevitably
comes to find that "pleasure within himself" that is satisfying in its
expansive sense of power and beauty and largeness.

That the child is incapable of realizing so profound a truth as that of
his divine origin is questioned by a world psychologized with centuries
of false teachings of natural depravity, etc. But in the teaching of
the dual nature in the Râja Yoga training that calls upon the higher
side to master and utilize the force of the lower impulses, the reality
of innate power becomes the satisfying keynote of daily life. In the
plastic period of child growth, he should be spared the usual external
distractions while acquiring the habit of looking within to "find
himself." Protection from the taint of artificial life is no more
enervating than the suitable care the gardener gives to seedlings while
they take firm root for future growth and resistance.

Temptation can only tempt where there is lack and longing. One who
has learned how to live in the fulness and richness of the reality
can easily estimate the worth of any imitation, familiar or unknown.
Theosophy does not haggle over theological minutiae. It broadly asserts
that the divine man incarnating becomes dual in nature. Râja Yoga
training confidently challenges the indwelling soul to come forth and
declare itself.




LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF PYTHAGORAS: by F. S. Darrow, A. M., Ph. D. (Harv.)


III. THE TEACHINGS

As Pythagoras met with the immemorial fate of the world's great
teachers, many fantastic distortions of his teachings were published;
some of them, in his name by his enemies, for the express purpose of
bringing his teachings into disrepute; and many things were imputed
to him which he certainly never said or did. Probably he did not
commit any of his teachings to writing, but it is certain that his
disciples memorized his sayings and treasured them as the oracles of
the Deity. He had two forms of teaching: one public or exoteric, and
one private or esoteric. It is noteworthy that wherever his teachings
prevailed, sobriety and temperance displaced licentiousness and luxury,
for the distinguished Pythagoreans were men of great uprightness,
conscientiousness, and self-control, capable of devoted and enduring
friendships.


(a) EXOTERIC TEACHINGS

The public teachings of Pythagoras consisted principally of practical
morals of the purest and most spiritual type and emphasized the virtues
of self-restraint, reverence, patriotism, sincerity, conscientiousness,
uprightness, truth, justice, and purity of heart. He insisted upon
the highest ideals of marriage and of parental duties, and always
exerted his influence to suppress wars and dissensions. He was the
first to apply the term philosopher or lover of wisdom to himself, as a
substitute for the earlier term sage, for he said: "The Deity only is
wise; men at their best are merely lovers of wisdom." He was also the
first to use the word _kosmos_ or "order," as applied to the universe.
He used to say:

 Drunkenness is synonymous with ruin.

 No one ought to exceed the proper quantity of meat and drink.

 Strength of mind depends upon sobriety, for this keeps the reason
 undiverted by passion.

In answer to the question, "When may I indulge in the pleasures of
passion?" he replied: "Whenever you wish to be weaker than your _Self_."

 Never say or do anything in anger.

 Virtue is harmony; health, the Universal Good.

He urged his disciples not to kill animals, because he declared that
they have a right to live, as well as men.

 It is the part of a fool to attend to every opinion of all men, above
 all to that of the mob.

 Do what you believe to be right, whatever people think of you. Despise
 alike their censure and their praise.

 Add not unto your grief by discontent.

 Do not speak few things in many words, but many things in a few words.

 Either be silent, or speak words better than silence.

 It is hard to take many paths in life at the same time.

 Youth should be accustomed to obedience, for it will thus find it easy
 to obey the authority of reason.

 Men should associate with one another in such a way as not to make
 their friends enemies, but to make their enemies friends.

 We ought to wage war only against the ignorance of the mind, the
 passions of the heart, the distempers of the body, sedition in cities,
 and ill-will in families.

 No man should deem anything _exclusively_ his own.

 Every man ought so to train himself as to be worthy of belief without
 an oath.

He used to call admonishing, "feeding storks."

 Philosophers are seekers after truth.

 The discourse of a philosopher is vain, if no passion of man is healed
 thereby.

 Choose the best life; use will make it pleasant.

 Man is at his best when he visits the temples of the gods.

 A man should never pray for anything for himself, because he is
 ignorant of what is really good for him.

 Do not the least thing unadvisedly.

  Advise before you act, and never let your eyes
  The sweet refreshings of soft slumber taste,
  Till you have thence severe reflections passed
  On th' actions of the day from first to last.
  Wherein have I transgressed? What done have I?
  What duty unperformed have I passed by?
  And if your actions ill on search you find,
  Let grief, if good, let joy, possess your mind.
  This do, this think, to this your heart incline,
  This way will lead you to the Life Divine.

         *       *       *       *       *

  This course, if you observe, you shall know then
  The constitution both of gods and men.
  And now from ill, Great Father, set us free,
  Or teach us all to know ourselves in Thee.

 The noblest gifts of heaven to man are to speak the truth and to do
 good. These two things resemble the works of the Deity.

 Place intuition as the best charioteer or guide for thy acts.

 Possess not treasures except those things which no one can take from
 you.

 Be sleepless in the things of the Spirit, for sleep in them is akin to
 death.

 Each of us is a soul, not a body, which is only a possession of the
 soul.

  The tyrant death securely shalt thou brave,
  And scorn the dark dominion of the grave.

 The greatest honor which can be paid to the Deity is to know and
 imitate Its perfection.

 The wise men say that one community embraces heaven and earth,
 and gods and men and friendship and order and temperance and
 righteousness; for which reason they call this whole a kosmos or
 orderly universe.

 Of all things learn to revere your _Self_.

 Likeness to the Deity should be the aim of all our endeavors. The
 nobler, the better the man, the more godlike he becomes, for the gods
 are the guardians and guides of men.

 There is a relationship between men and gods, because men partake of
 the Divine Principle.

 You have in yourself something similar to God; therefore use yourself
 as the Temple of God.

 Be bold, O man! Divine thou art.

 Truth is to be sought with a mind purified from the passions of the
 body. Having overcome evil things, thou shalt experience the union of
 the immortal God with the mortal man.


(b) THE ESOTERIC TEACHINGS


(1) Symbols

The esoteric teachings of Pythagoras, which he called "the Gnosis of
Things that Are," or "the Knowledge of the Reality," so far as they
can be gathered from the extant fragments, dealt with (1) Symbols,
(2) Number, that is, the inner meaning of arithmetic and geometry,
(3) Music, (4) Man, and (5) the Earth and the Universe. In his
esoteric teachings Pythagoras gave out the keys to the system of
practical ethics outlined in his exoteric sayings. Such of his public
utterances as were called Symbols were mere blinds, capable of several
interpretations with several distinct and highly important meanings
attached to them. H. P. Blavatsky, speaking of these, says:

 Every sentence of Pythagoras, like most of the ancient maxims, had
 (at least) a dual signification; and while it had an occult physical
 meaning expressed in its words, it embodied a moral precept.

It is no mere coincidence that many of the maxims were and still are
current among widely separated nations. The following are examples of
some Pythagorean Symbols together with their possible meanings as moral
precepts:

"Do not devour your heart": that is, do not consume your vitality in
futile grief.

"Do not devour your brain": that is, do not waste your time in idle
thoughts.

"When you are traveling abroad, turn not back, for the furies will go
with you": that is, do not dally or cry over spilt milk but hasten
to accomplish whatever you have begun; otherwise you will fail, and
remorse and sorrow will thereafter attend you.

"Do not indulge in immoderate laughter": that is, restrain the unstable
parts of your nature.

"Do not stir fire with a sword": that is, do not return angry words to
an angry man, for "hatred ceaseth not by hatred but by love--this is an
everlasting truth."

"Turn away from yourself every sharp edge": that is, control your
passions.

"Nourish nothing which has crooked talons or nails": that is, cultivate
only kindliness of disposition.

"Help a man to take up a burden but not to lay it down": that is, by
toils and sorrows men are strengthened.

"Do not step above the beam of the balance": that is, live a life of
perfect justice.

"Spit not upon the cuttings of your hair or the parings of your nails":
that is, even trifles are important.

"Destroy the print of the pot in the ashes": that is, correct all
mistakes.

"Put the shoe on the right foot first but put the left foot first into
the bath-tub": that is, act uprightly and honestly, washing away all
impurities.

"Look not in a mirror by lamplight": that is, do not be misled by the
phantasies of the senses, but be guided by the pure, bright light of
spiritual knowledge.

"Transplant mallows in your garden but eat them not": that is,
cultivate spirituality and destroy it not.

"Do not wear a ring": that is, philosophize truly, and separate your
soul from the bonds of the body.

"When the winds blow, give heed unto the sound": that is, when the
Deity speaks, attend closely.

"When you rise from bed, disorder the covering, and efface the
impression of the body": that is, when you have attained unto wisdom,
obliterate all traces of your former ignorance.

"Leaving the public ways, walk in unfrequented paths": that is, lead a
spiritual, not a worldly, life.

"Do not offer your right hand lightly": that is, do not make pledges
which you cannot or will not keep, and do not divulge the Mysteries to
those who are unfit and uninitiated.

"Do not receive a swallow into your house": that is, do not disclose
the Mysteries to one who is flighty and unstable.

"Speak not about Pythagorean concerns without light": that is, do not
assume to be a teacher until you have become a student.

"When treading the Path divide not": that is, truth is one but
falsehood is multifarious; choose that philosophy in which there is no
inconsistency or contradiction.

"Above all things learn to govern your tongue when you follow the
gods": that is, learn the power of silence.

"Disbelieve nothing admirable concerning the gods or the divine
teachings": that is, the Deity is perfect justice and perfect love;
"the Divine wisdom is the science of life, the art of living."

"Do not cut your nails while sacrificing": that is, in praying,
remember even those who are most distant.

"Sacrifice and worship unshod": that is, approach the Mysteries with a
reverent heart.

"Entering a temple, neither say nor do anything which pertains to
ordinary life": that is, preserve the Divine, pure and undefiled; the
divine science cannot be judged by the ordinary standards of human
opinion.

"Enter not into a temple negligently nor worship carelessly, not
even though you stand only at the doors": that is, seek the Divine
wholeheartedly without reference to personal advantage, no matter
however humble your position.

"Approach not gold in order to gain children": that is, beware of all
teachers who barter the things of the Spirit; "by their fruits ye shall
know them."

"Inscribe not the image of the Deity on a ring": that is, do not think
of the Supreme as either finite or personal.


(2) Number

The esoteric teachings of Pythagoras in regard to number dealt
principally with the significance of arithmetic and geometry, and
emphasized the importance of the application of number to weights and
measures. He was the first to explain the multiplication table to
the Greeks. The leading idea of his system was that of the Unity in
Multiplicity. Therefore the Pythagorean concept of harmony was based
upon the relationship of the One and the Many, the idea of the One in
Many and the Many in One--"as above, so below." By number Pythagoras
meant not merely figures, but regulated motion or vibration, rhythm,
law, and order; for he made number equivalent to intelligence. He said:

 Number is that which brings what is obscure within the range of our
 knowledge, rules all true order in the universe and allows of no
 errors.

He assumed, as first principles, the numbers and the symmetries
existing in them, which he called harmonies. He taught:

 Virtue is a proportion or harmony. Happiness consists in the
 perfection of the virtues of the soul, the perfect science of numbers.
 Nature is an imitation of number.

Pythagorean arithmetic was concerned especially with the first ten
digits, which were "hieroglyphic symbols, by means of which Pythagoras
explained his ideas about the nature of things." He taught that unity,
the monad or one, is no true numeral, for one multiplied any number
of times by itself always equals one; that is, unity unlike the true
numerals, has not an infinite series of varying powers, for its square,
cube, and other powers, are one and all equal to one, the first term of
the series. Another peculiarity, which proves unity not to be a true
numeral, is its indivisibility into whole numbers.

 The monad is God and the good, which is the origin of the one and is
 itself Intelligence. The monad is the beginning of everything. Unity
 is the principle of all things and from Unity went forth an infinite
 or indeterminate duality, the duad, which is subordinate to the monad
 as its cause.

Pythagoras taught that the duad, the first concept of addition, was the
first true figure and regarded the one as a symbol for the Primitive
Unity or the Deity, the Absolute, behind and above the indeterminate
or infinite duad, which symbolized chaos or spirit-matter. The triad
or the three, the monad plus the duad, symbolized the Divine, the
Heavenly, as opposed to the Earthly.

 The Pythagoreans say that the All and all things are defined by
 threes; for beginning, middle, and end constitute the number of all
 and also the number of the triad.

The tetrad or the four exists in two forms, its actual form the
quaternary or the four, the symbol of Earth as opposed to Heaven, and
its potential form, the tetraktys, which contains in germ the sum total
of the universe, manifested and unmanifested, the Pythagorean dekad or
ten, thus, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10. The tetraktys, therefore, was regarded
as a very sacred symbol. The pentad or number five, symbolized man. The
senary or number six, is, of course, composed of two threes, and was
regarded as an abbreviation for the alpha and omega of evolutionary
growth. The hebdomad or number seven, is the perfect number, par
excellence, symbolizing both heaven and earth. In the words of H. P.
Blavatsky

 The ogdoad or 8 symbolizes the eternal and spiral motion of the
 cycles, and is symbolized in its turn by the Caduceus (or herald's
 staff of Hermes). The nine is the triple ternary, reproducing itself
 incessantly under all shapes and figures in every multiplication.
 The ten or dekad brings all these digits back to unity and ends the
 Pythagorean table.

"It is," Pythagoras says, "the starting point of number."

Passing from the arithmetic to the geometry of Pythagoras, Plato's
statement that "God geometrizes" is undoubtedly Pythagorean in origin,
for it is said that Pythagoras perfected geometry among the Greeks,
and the two well-known theorems that the triangle inscribed in a
semi-circle is right-angled, and that the square of the hypothenuse
of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the
sides, are still associated with his name. Pythagoras taught:

 From the monad and the duad proceed numbers; from numbers signs; from
 signs lines, of which plane figures consist; from plane figures solid
 bodies. The Kosmos is endued with life and intellect and is of a
 spherical figure.

From one point of view, One corresponds to the dot or point, Two to the
line, Three to the plane, and Four to the concrete solid. The dekad
was represented geometrically in the form of a tetradic equilateral
triangle of ten dots, with one dot at the apex, and four along the base
line, thus [10-dot triangle]. This shows graphically how the tetraktys
as 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, contains potentially the dekad. This ten-dot
triangle filled out by lines becomes an equilateral triangle, with the
dot at the apex and at the center remaining as generating-points for
adjacent figures, and especially as the centers of circles, inscribed
in and circumscribed about the original triangle.

The principal plane geometrical figures known to have been explained
by Pythagoras are the circle in its three forms: one with the
center unmarked, the second with a dot at the center, and the third
with the diameter drawn: [plain circle] [circle with dot] [circle
with diameter]; the triangle: [triangle] the square: [square]; the
pentagram, or five-pointed star: [pentagram]; and the hexagram, the
six-pointed star or so-called Pythagorean Pentacle: [6-pointed star].

The circle was called by Pythagoras "the most beautiful of all plane
figures" and in its form with the center unmarked, corresponding to the
monad or the one in arithmetic, was placed in a category by itself. The
circle with a dot at its center corresponds to the duad, the triangle
to the triad, the square to the tetrad in its actual as opposed to
its potential form, which is that of the tetradic dotted triangle,
as previously explained, the potential equivalent of the decad. The
pentagram or five-pointed star corresponds to the pentad, and the
hexagram to the senary. The circle with its diameter indicated the
actual dekad or 10 (for we no longer write the one within the circle to
represent ten) as opposed to the potential equivalent of the dekad, the
tetraktys. In his solid geometry Pythagoras taught that "the sphere was
the most beautiful of all solid figures," and in its form corresponding
to the monad, it was classed by itself. Pythagoras explained that both
the earth and the kosmos were spherical in shape, and added that the
universe was made up of five basic solid figures, which were built up
from the triangle and the square: namely, the cube; the tetrahedron;
the octahedron, a figure with its eight sides formed by equal
equilateral triangles; the dodecahedron, a figure with twelve faces
formed by regular pentagons; and the icosahedron, a figure composed of
twenty equal and similar triangular pyramids whose vertices meet at the
center of a sphere, which is supposed to circumscribe it.


(3) Music

Turning to Pythagoras' teachings in regard to music, which he regarded
as a very important help in controlling the passions, it is said that
he was the first to teach the Greeks the tonic relations of the musical
scale, and invented for them the monochord, a one-stringed instrument,
used in measuring the musical intervals. Upon these relations he built
his celebrated doctrine of the Harmony or Music of the Spheres, that
is, that the heavenly bodies, composing our solar system, in the course
of their rotations emit the notes of the scale. H. P. Blavatsky and the
ancients explain this by saying that Pythagoras called

 a "tone" the distance of the Moon from the Earth; from the Moon to
 Mercury ½ a tone, thence to Venus the same; from Venus to the Sun 1½
 tones; from the Sun to Mars a tone; from thence to Jupiter ½ a tone;
 from Jupiter to Saturn a tone; and thence to the Zodiac a tone; thus
 making seven tones, the diapason harmony. All the melody of nature is
 in those seven tones and therefore is called "the Voice of Nature."

Pythagoras declared that the harmony of the spheres is not heard by the
ordinary human ear either because it has always been accustomed to it
from the beginning of life, or because the sound is too powerful for
the capabilities of the physical ear. In substantiation of this theory
it is interesting to note that modern science expresses the intervals
of music by proportions similar to those which mark the tonal distances
of the planets.


(4) Man

Self-contemplation was strongly insisted upon and played a most vital
part in the Pythagorean training. To his esoteric section Pythagoras
taught the immortality of the soul, its pre-existence, and its rebirth;
karma; and the septenary constitution of man, partially veiled, it is
true, under the form of a triple division of the soul into animal,
human, and divine parts.

 There is a doctrine whispered in secret that man is a prisoner, who
 has no right to open the door and run away. The gods are our guardians.

 The soul is a harmony and the body its prison.

 We choose our own destiny and are our own good or bad fortune.

 Rash words and acts are their own punishment.

 We are our own children.

Intentional perversions of the teachings of Pythagoras, mere travesties
of his ideas, are plainly evident in what has come down to us in regard
to his belief in metempsychosis. Thus we are told that his enemies
circulated the story that Pythagoras had declared that one of his
relatives had passed into a bean, a vicious joke based on the fact
that beans were excluded from the Pythagorean diet. Another similar
malicious fiction about Pythagoras is thus referred to by Xenophanes, a
contemporary philosopher.

  They say that once, as passing by he saw
  A dog severely beaten, he did pity him,
  And spoke as follows to the man who beat him:
  "Stop now, and beat him not; since in his body,
  Abides the soul of a dear friend of mine,
  Whose voice I recognized, as he was crying."

That Pythagoras, himself, did not believe in transmigration after
such fashion, is shown quite plainly by the following statements of
Hierocles, the Neo-Platonist in his commentary upon the _Golden Verses_
of Pythagoras:

 If through a shameful ignorance of the immortality of the human soul,
 a man should persuade himself that his soul dies with his body,
 he expects what can never happen; in like manner he who expects
 that after death he shall put on the body of a beast and become an
 irrational animal because of his vices, or a plant because of his
 dulness and stupidity--such a man, I say, acting quite contrary to
 those who transform the essence of man into one of the superior
 beings, is _infinitely deceived_ and _absolutely ignorant_ of the
 _essential form_ of the _soul_, which can never change; for being
 and continuing always man, it is only said to become God or beast by
 virtue or vice, though it cannot be either the one or the other.

The following quotations give us true representations of Pythagoras'
ideas on pre-existence and rebirth.

  Souls cannot die. They leave a former home,
  And in new bodies dwell and from them roam.
  Nothing can perish, all things change below,
  For spirits through all forms may come and go.

         *       *       *       *       *

  Thus through a thousand shapes, the soul shall go
  And thus fulfil its destiny below.
  Death has no power th' immortal soul to slay;
  That, when its present body turns to clay,
  Seeks a fresh home and with unminish'd might
  Inspires another frame with life and light.
  So I myself (well I the past recall)....

Pythagoras regarded rebirth as a gradual process of purification and
taught that the soul by reason of nobility of character gained by
struggles upon earth was destined to be exalted eventually into far
higher modes of life. "Imagination," he explained:

 is the remembrance of precedent spiritual, mental, and physical
 states, while fancy is the disorderly production of the material
 brain.

 Man is perfected first by conversing with gods, which he can do only
 when he abstains from evil and strives to resemble divine natures;
 secondly, by doing good to others, which is an imitation of the gods;
 thirdly, by leaving the mortal body.

 By our separation from the Deity, we lost the wings which raised us
 towards celestial beings and were thus precipitated into the region
 of death where all evils dwell. By putting away earthly passions and
 devoting ourselves to virtue, our wings will be renewed and we shall
 rise to that existence where we shall find the true good without any
 admixture of evil.

 The soul of man being between spirits who always contemplate the
 Divine Essence and those who are incapable of contemplating it, can
 raise itself to the one, or sink itself to the other.

 Every quality which a man acquires originates a good or bad spirit,
 which abides by him in this world and after death remains with him as
 a companion.

Pythagoras taught that man is a microcosm, a compendium of the
universe, with a triple nature, composed of (1) an immortal spirit,
the Spiritual Soul, intuitive perception, the _Nous_, a portion of
the Deity; (2) a human intelligence, the Human Soul, the rational
principle, the _Phren_; and (3) the sensitive irrational nature, the
Animal Soul, the seat of the passions and desires, the _Thymos_.
The Nous and the Thymos, he stated, are common to man and the lower
animals, but the Phren, which in its higher aspect is immortal, is
peculiar to man.

 The immortal mind of man is as much more excellent than his sensitive
 irrational nature as the sun is more excellent than the stars.

The physical body is but a temporary garment of the soul, into which
"the Nous enters from without." "The sense perceptions are deceptive."

 The principle of life is about the heart, but the principle of reason
 and intelligence in the head.

Pythagoras added that at death the ethereal part of man freed from
the chains of matter is conducted by Hermes Psychopompos, the Guide
of Souls, into the region of the dead, where it remains in a state
according to its merit until it is sent back to earth to inhabit
another body. The object of rebirth is gradually to purify the soul by
successive probations, until finally it shall be fitted to return to
the immortal source whence it emanated.


(5) The Earth and the Universe

It is well-known that the ideas expressed by Plato in his _Timaeus_,
the dialog which he named after his Pythagorean teacher, are derived
almost entirely from Pythagorean sources. Therefore it is probable that
Pythagoras taught about the earlier continents, which were destroyed
alternately by fire and water, and in particular about the legends of
Atlantis, including the account of an Atlantean invasion of Greece
about 10,000 years B. C. before the Greeks lived in the Greek lands--an
invasion which was repelled by the inhabitants of prehistoric Athens,
who were akin to the ancient Egyptians.

In regard to our solar system, Pythagoras knew not only that the earth
is spherical, but also taught that the sun, likewise spherical, not the
earth, is the center--a theory rediscovered more than 2000 years later
by Copernicus and Galileo. Pythagoras also explained the obliquity of
the ecliptic, the causes of eclipses, that the morning and evening star
are the same, that the moon shines by light reflected from the sun, and
that the Milky Way is composed of stars. He held that "the Universe has
neither height nor depth but is infinite in extent," that

 there is a void outside the Universe into which the Universe breathes
 forth and from which it breathes in,

and that

 the Universe is brought into being by the Deity and is perishable
 so far as its shape is concerned, for it is perceived by sense, is
 therefore material, but that (its Essence) will not be destroyed.

Pythagoras declared that all nature is animate, for

 Soul is extended through the nature of all things and is mingled with
 them

and he believed in one Deity, ruling and upholding all things.

 There is One Universal Soul diffused through all things--eternal,
 invisible, unchangeable; in essence like Truth, in substance
 resembling Light; not to be represented by any image; to be
 comprehended only by the _Nous_; not, as some conjecture, exterior to
 the Universe, but in itself entire, pervading the sphere which is the
 Universe.

From this One Universal Soul proceed Spiritual Intelligences, above,
below, and inclusive of man; the subtle ether out of which they are
formed becoming more and more gross, the further it is removed from the
divine Source. He classified these Hosts or Hierarchies of Spiritual
Intelligences into gods or major divinities, daemones or lesser divine
beings of good and bad natures, and thirdly heroes or disembodied human
souls, "immortal minds in luminous bodies," in position intermediate
between men and the daemones. He declared "the whole air is filled with
souls."

H. P. Blavatsky says:

 In the Pythagorean Theurgy these hierarchies of the Heavenly Host and
 the gods were expressed numerically.

The Pythagoreans believed that the forces of nature were spiritual
entities. They taught that there are ten spheres formed by the
Heavenly bodies, those of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the
fixed Stars, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, and the Counter-earth or
the Antichthon, about which little has come down to us but which
is presumably connected with "the riddle of the Eighth Sphere."
Furthermore the Pythagoreans taught that there were ten cardinal pairs
of opposites or ten antithetical principles, which constitute the
elements or Stoicheia of the Universe, namely, (1) the limited and the
unlimited; the finite and the infinite; (2) the One and the Many; (3)
light and darkness; (4) good and bad; (5) rest and motion; (6) the
masculine and the feminine; (7) the straight and the crooked; (8) the
odd and the even; (9) the square and the oblong; and (10) the right and
the left.




PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE INVISIBLE: by Philip A. Malpas


If a spectrum be thrown on a blackboard with a lantern, in a dark room,
one end will be violet and the other red, to the ordinary eye. If a
plain photographic sensitized plate is placed against the blackboard
so as to receive the spectrum on its central portion during a suitable
exposure and is then developed, fixed, and replaced in its original
position, the result shown is remarkable. At the red end the plate is
unaffected; the orange and yellow and green are scarcely recorded; the
blue and violet are well represented, but the part of the plate most
affected is that beyond the visible violet far into the "darkness" of
the blackboard.

Here is a sensitive surface or substance which can "see," as though
brilliantly lighted, a surface which to the ordinary eye is invisible,
but, on the other hand, has some difficulty in seeing the red and
yellow, which the eye can see quite plainly. Needless to remark that
this is why a true red or yellow light is "safe" for ordinary plates
and for dark-rooms. On the other hand it would be possible to have a
dark-room which would be to the plate a very light room indeed, being
filled with these invisible rays beyond the violet end of the spectrum.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. VISINGSBORG CASTLE,
VISINGSÖ, SWEDEN]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE CANAL,
TROLLHÄTTAN, SWEDEN]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. HIGH SLUICE AND
PALACE OF INDUSTRY, AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND (At Amsterdam a stone arch
bridge is called a sluice)]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PALACE OF INDUSTRY,
AMSTERDAM]

And yet there are some eyes which can plainly distinguish the fact that
a substance or surface is giving off these powerful rays, invisible
to less sensitive eyes. Perhaps this is one of the thousands of
little forerunner facts which testify to the increase of sensibility
prophesied by H. P. Blavatsky for this present century.

Now if a solution of one per cent of sulphate of quinine, one
centimeter thick, is used in a glass cell before a lens or plate it
may delay the exposure by perhaps six times the normal time, thus
showing that of our photographs taken under ordinary conditions on
ordinary plates we have been accustomed to accepting as true pictures
reproductions of the invisible, although much of that invisible
coincides with the visible, since these rays are emitted by so many
substances.

But a false standard has been established unconsciously in our minds.
Where blue skies should be, we are content to see a pure white in a
photograph. Where reds and yellows abound we expect altogether too dark
a representation, as with grass and green trees.

The quinine light-filter (aesculine, extracted from the horse-chestnut,
serves as well) absorbs or is largely opaque to these rays and such
a filter is much used now with specially sensitized plates to allow
the colors to be reproduced in monochrome in truer relation. A yellow
filter will also absorb some of the visible blue. The glass of the lens
too is responsible for the absorption of a proportion of these rays.
By an action not yet understood the dyeing of plates with certain dyes
renders the silver in them far more sensitive to the various colors in
the green, yellow, and red of the spectrum.

Is it not probable that silver has the power of sensing these rays
so keenly, while the human eye, for reasons best known to the human
mind, has had and lost that power, but may be now beginning to regain
it? Such a recovery is not made without strain and natures that can
begin to sense these invisible rays must either strengthen and purify
themselves to the utmost degree possible or suffer what dry leaves
suffer in the flames, a burning out of the particles that are not tuned
to withstand the red fire that burns them. Hence the theosophical
reason for purity and strength, first, last, and all the time, in
preparation for the burning fiery flames of added sensitiveness which
come and have come quite soon enough for us to prepare against rather
than seek.

Knowing what is now known of the efficacy of light in curing certain
affections, especially the violet and blue light, is it too early to
suggest that much of the power of quinine is due to the body being
saturated with this "colorless" dye and so cutting off light which the
constituents of the body are not strong enough to bear without their
balancing power being impaired, and so leaving the battlefield at the
mercy of inimical fever forces?

Tropical travelers are warned not so much to use quinine after attack,
but to saturate the body (with minute doses) commencing several days
before entering the dangerous zone.

In spite of endless fraud and humbug and "fake" photography, it has
long been suspected that the invisible can be photographed. As shown,
we have never been doing anything else in our photography except
photographing much of the invisible. Without saying that it has or has
not been done, we may well ask if it is really so difficult to imagine
that much of what inhabits the "seeming void" may be made visible to
the lunar surface of the plate?

Professor Wood's experiments on the lines of photography by invisible
rays are of absorbing interest. Not only has he made interesting
photographs of objects by means of the invisible violet rays, but also
by means of the invisible rays below the red end of the spectrum. And
he shows one very interesting result of photographing Chinese white
by these ultra-violet rays--as though the pigment were a pure black!
This illustrates the fact long known to photo-engravers' artists that
Chinese white is a bad white to use except in a mixed tint. The Chinese
white cuts off so much of this invisible chemically-active "white" as
to appear gray even to an ordinary plate's "lunar eye."

Another startling result is that by the ultra-violet light a man's
shadow may entirely disappear when he is photographed in sunlight. One
wonders if the strange Eastern "superstitions" as to shadows and men
without shadows do not have a real scientific basis. Perhaps R. L.
Stevenson's little child who rose so early that his "naughty little
shadow had stayed at home ... and was fast asleep in bed," could tell
us.




HEREDITY AND BIOLOGY: by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)


The word "heredity" is one that is much conjured with nowadays, so that
it is important to understand its meaning and import. In so far as its
meaning covers facts ascertained by reliable observation, and correct
inferences therefrom, we must be prepared to accord the word the
respect which in that case it deserves; but in so far as it may stand
for imperfect observations and the faulty theories inferred therefrom,
we must be equally prepared to apply scrutiny and reserve.

One thing we find is that the word is frequently used, even by
accredited authorities on biology, in a variable sense; in the course
of an argument the word has two or more distinct meanings, and the
arguer does not seem to be aware of the variation. This of course
indicates a nebulosity in the reasoning and leads to confusion and
wrong conclusions. For instance, in a particular case, where a lecturer
is reported, we find that he uses the word (1) in the sense of "the
fact that organic cells reproduce their kind," and (2) in the sense of
"some power or faculty in virtue of which they reproduce their kind."
These two senses are quite distinct, and would have been given separate
heads in a dictionary; to ignore the distinction in an argument both
arises from and creates confusion.

But let us at present consider the second meaning--that of some power
or property in virtue of which an organic cell can reproduce its kind.
Biology, within its present scope, must confine itself to admitting
the existence of this power and to tracing its workings. The source
of the power lies outside the field of ordinary biological research.
For, granted that physical matter is actuated by an agency, that agency
must be immaterial; or at least, if material, then material in another
sense than that in which physical matter is material. Now biologists
may claim that this phase of the subject does not concern them; and
that point we should be willing to concede in all cases where the
investigations were confined to their appropriate limits--that is, to
the limits appropriate to a confessedly limited science. But what we
often actually find is that theorists overstep these limits and assume
an attitude of positiveness and authority to which (by the logic of
their own admission) they are not entitled. We even find proposals to
base legislation upon biological theories; and there is the danger that
in small self-governed communities such experiments may actually be
carried into effect. When it comes to this therefore we are justified
in inquiring more jealously into the credentials of biology; for we
do not readily concede the right to be governed by people who have
confessed that certain vital phases of their subject do not concern
them.

Hence, however the case may stand as regards merely theoretical
science, when there is an attempt to apply theories to matters of
government and public policy, the restrictions become a matter of vital
importance. If we are to achieve successful results in applied biology,
then we must positively know something about these mysterious potencies
which lie behind matter and which many biologists say do not concern
them; for these forces actually exist and count, whether biologists
understand them or not; and though they may be ignored on paper, their
effects cannot be ignored.

That which lies behind matter is mind--something well known to our
experience but not definable in terms of space. The mental aspect of
heredity is far more important than the merely physical. The bearing of
this truth upon the question of race-improvement and the elimination
of degenerate types is important. In paying so much attention to the
physical side of the question we are ignoring the important factors and
exaggerating those of lesser importance.

In agriculture, attention to the soil is all very well and necessary;
but attention to the nature of the seed planted is generally considered
as counting for a good deal in determining the nature of the crop to be
reaped. Biological theorists are flooding us with schemes for improving
the soil in which the human plant grows; and very excellent some of
these schemes are. But what about the seeds of the human plant? Nay
more; we have not even exhausted the question of the soil; for besides
the physical soil, is there not the mental soil? In short, an abundance
of factors enter into the question, all of which are of vital import,
yet of which but a few fall under the attention of biological theorists.

Heredity includes the two factors of innate potentiality and
environment; but the former, since it escapes the observation of
physical science, is minimized in favor of the latter. There is an
attempt to make environment account for the whole set of phenomena; as
though the nature of the crop depended entirely upon the soil and not
at all upon the nature of the seed.

In the question of parental transmission the same considerations apply.
While it is true that the offspring derives many of its characteristics
from its parents, and others from its surroundings, we know that
parentage and environment cannot explain everything. There is another
factor; and this factor is what corresponds to the seed in our
illustration from agriculture. In fact it is the _innate character_
of the individual. For of a man's character, part is due to parentage
and environment and part is inherent in the individual himself. The
character is the resultant of these two components. The influence
of this inherent factor is seen in families, where, though all the
children have the same parents, the characters may be widely different.
We are aware that an attempt is made to explain this fact by saying
that the different children have combined the characteristics of the
parents in different proportions; but this is not an explanation of the
cause, but merely a restatement of the problem in another form.

Into the processes of generation and birth there enter many different
factors, each of which calls for study, if we would know the truth and
arrive at safe and practical conclusions. Even plants and animals have
what may be called _vital souls_ or _monads_, which, working behind
physical matter, cause it to grow and develop. In the case of man there
is still more, for such a process would produce merely an idiot. There
is the human Soul, and this has its own character and destiny--its
Karma--brought from its previous lives. This Karma is a potent
determining influence in heredity, and it operates much more powerfully
in some individuals than in others, this depending upon the stage of
development which the particular Soul has reached.

The principle of heredity, as defined by most biologists, is incomplete
and needs the Theosophical teachings to complete it. It is often
wrongly supposed to conflict with the Theosophical teachings, but so
far as it conforms to facts it cannot do this. Theosophists may find
themselves unable to accept all the speculations of biologists, but
they can never have any quarrel with the facts.

In biological and anthropological works, in quasi-scientific or
quasi-sociologic novels by immature and frequently morbid thinkers,
and to some extent even in stage plays, we see the speculations of
theorists brought forward as the basis for proposed social polities;
and bad indeed would be our case should such experimenters ever attain
the influence they covet. Frightful doctrines regarding marriage and
parentage, inhuman suggestions as to the treatment of malefactors and
weaklings, and other horrors, now growing familiar, will readily
suggest themselves to the reader. And as these signs spring from a
misuse of science, which science itself seems unable to prevent; while
no religious organization seems competent to deal with the problem; the
importance of teachings which really can tell us something about our
own nature is evident. But it is not of new dogmas that we speak; the
teachings referred to are of the nature of demonstrations. When anyone
is _shown_ something which he did not before perceive, and recognizes
it for a truth, and makes effectual use of it, then he is satisfied and
needs not inquire into its authenticity. The purpose of Theosophy is
to _demonstrate_ the laws of human nature and nature in general. Its
appeal is to the understanding.




INCORRODIBLE BRONZE: by Travers


It has frequently been maintained that ancient nations, some of whose
art-works remain to us, knew secrets in metallurgy which have been
lost and not yet recovered by us; and that in this way they were able
to make bronze tools as hard as steel, or harder, to make metals which
would not corrode, etc. Where one has a wish to prove that ancient
races did not possess such knowledge, there is a conflict between
theories and facts, resulting in attempts to find an explanation which
will solve the dilemma. But where one has no reason for desiring to
represent the ancients as not being so endowed, the facts present no
difficulty. On the one hand we have monuments of the hardest stone,
elaborately engraved with deep and accurate intaglio. On the other
hand we know that many ancient civilizations were of extremely long
duration, and that surviving offshoots of these great civilizations
show a remarkable skill in many arts and industries. There is an _a
priori_ probability that many processes were known which have not yet
been rediscovered; and the fact that these architectural and sculptural
remains exist merely increases that probability.

With regard to incorruptible bronze, the following, which is condensed
from the _Journal_ of the Royal Society of Arts (Britain), is
interesting.

Figures of the Buddha are found in the north of Siam in great numbers,
on the sites of ancient temples which have been crumbling for
centuries, leaving the figures standing amid the forest trees. The
interesting thing about these figures is the perfect condition of the
bronze after centuries of exposure to tropical suns and rains.

This bronze is called by the natives "samrit"--the perfect or
auspicious alloy--and its composition for a long time remained a
secret, until, according to the American Consul at Bangkok, a few years
ago the formula was discovered in an old Siamese manuscript belonging
to the late King of Siam. The following is a translation:

 Take twelve ticals (one tical is equal to one half-ounce avoirdupois)
 weight of pure tin, melt it at a slow fire, avoiding bringing it to
 red heat. Pour two ticals weight of quicksilver, stir until the latter
 has become thoroughly absorbed and amalgamated, then cast the mixture
 in a mold, forming it into a bar. Take one catty in weight (eighty
 ticals) of refined copper and melt it; then gradually incorporate with
 it the amalgam, keeping in the meantime the fused mass well stirred.
 When this has been done, throw into the crucible a sufficient quantity
 of ashes obtained from the stems of the bua-bok (lotus) creeper so as
 to cover the molten metal. Remove the dross with an iron ladle. The
 metal remaining is samrit bronze.

It is surely easy to understand that many such formulas might have been
known and never hit upon since. The possibilities in the way of making
alloys are endless, especially when it comes to using ingredients
or reagents other than metals. It would be strange indeed if an
industrious, highly intelligent, and very patient people, working for
ages, inspired by enthusiastic motives, should _not_ have discovered
many things which are unknown to us whose history is so recent and
whose records have been so largely concerned with less peaceful arts.




SCIENTIFIC ODDMENTS: by the Busy Bee


The largest flower in the world is said to be _Rafflesia_, a native
of Sumatra. It is composed of five round petals of a brickish color,
each measuring a foot across. These are covered with numerous irregular
yellowish white swellings. The petals surround a cup nearly a foot
wide, the margin of which bears the stamens. The cup is filled with a
fleshy disk, the upper surface of which is covered with projections
like miniature cows' horns. When empty, the cup will hold about twelve
pints. The flower weighs about fifteen pounds, the petals being
three-quarters of an inch thick.

       *       *       *       *       *

QUITE a field of discovery lies open in connexion with photography
by invisible light, for it can reveal objects whose existence was
not suspected, especially on the moon and other celestial bodies.
The photograph is taken through a quartz lens coated with silver,
which is impenetrable to visible light but not to ultra-violet rays.
White flowers come out black, and a glass porch looks as if made of
sheet-iron. A man standing in the sunlight was seen to have no shadow,
which shows that the ultra-violet rays do not come directly from the
sun but are present in diffused light.

       *       *       *       *       *

IT is often desirable, in delicate scientific measuring, to convey a
cool beam of light to a small scale which is to be read; and one clever
device for doing this is to send the light along a glass rod. It might
be thought that the light would escape through the sides of the rod
and that it would therefore be necessary to coat them with some opaque
substance; but this is not the case. Light does not pass through glass
when it strikes the glass very obliquely. If we look very obliquely at
a sheet of glass, we do not see the objects on the other side of it,
but we see the reflection of those on the same side as that from which
we look; the glass acts as if it were silvered. This is what is known
as "total reflection"; and in accordance therewith the beam cannot
escape through the sides of the rod. Thus the rod acts like a tube
along which the light, as though a fluid, runs; rather a suggestive
fact in connexion with currents and transmission generally.

       *       *       *       *       *

NOW that we know of radium emanation, we have a scientific explanation
of the difference between natural curative waters when drunk at the
spring and the same waters after being bottled and exported. Things
may be chemically identical, and yet different--a reflection that
should help to prevent us from becoming too dogmatic. This discovery
about mineral waters has led to the invention of what may be called
"artificial genuine waters"; they are mineral waters artificially
impregnated with radium emanation. These have been used curatively with
success. Following their use came that of radium baths, and then radium
air-baths and radium inhalers. Patients can be put into a room whose
air is impregnated with emanation, or they can inhale through a nozzle
connected with a bottle. One naturally wonders how many more influences
there may be in nature which have not yet been detected, and how many
hygienic beliefs are consequently based on imperfect knowledge. What
happens to the fresh air after it has been drawn into a building,
heated in an apparatus, and distributed? Chemically the same it may
be, but it differs a good deal in its effects from the air outside.
And there is the question of prepared foods; is it enough that they be
chemically the same as the natural product?

       *       *       *       *       *

THE devising of new luxuries is of doubtful advantage; for not only is
luxury itself enervating, but it is often not even achieved, for our
needs and susceptibilities increase with their satisfaction.

Soon it will not be necessary to have any circulation in your feet;
nor to use warm foot-gear or warm your feet at the fire. The carpet
on which you tread will itself be warm; or if it is not, you can make
it so in a moment by merely pressing the ubiquitous and indispensable
button in the wall. Stoop down and examine this magic carpet; it looks
just like any ordinary unpretending piece of floor-furniture. But
unravel some of its threads and you will find that they contain that
all-pervading nerve of modern life--a wire. Upon a woolen thread is
wound a tape made up of fine strands of nickel wire; over this again
goes more wool, and so the wire is made invisible and flexible. A cord
ending in a plug connects the carpet with the wall or the lighting
fixture. One would think there was risk of the carpet going up in a
puff of blue smoke; nor is one much reassured by the statement, in
a scientific paper, that "when overheated, the resistance rises and
cuts down the current, so that an automatic regulating action is given
which prevents overheating." The rise of resistance would increase
the quantity of heat generated, whereas the lessening of the current
strength would only reduce the quantity of heat in the proportion of
the square root of the diminution in current strength.

       *       *       *       *       *

A NEW method of chemical analysis has been discovered by Sir J. J.
Thomson. It makes use of the Crookes vacuum tube, which, as is well
known, consists of a glass vessel containing a residuum of air or other
gas in a highly rarefied state. A platinum wire is sealed into each end
of the tube, each wire connected with an electrode within the tube. A
high-potential electric current is transmitted across the rarefied gas,
being carried by the particles, which, owing to the rarefaction, have
a greater freedom of movement. When these charged particles strike the
walls of the tube or an obstacle placed in their path they produce
beautiful luminous effects. Professor Thomson, in his new method of
analysis, pierces the negative electrode with a tube of very fine
bore, and it is found that the charged particles of gas pass through
this tube into the space behind, where they will produce luminosity
on a screen in their path. Now, as is known, these particles can be
deflected from their straight path and caused to take curved paths by
certain electric and magnetic methods. But the amount of deflection so
produced varies according to the mass and velocity of the particle.
Professor Thompson has so arranged the experiment that the amount of
deflection produced in the various particles present is indicated
by the spot at which they strike the screen. If they proceeded in a
straight path, they would strike the screen in the center; the more
they are deflected, the further from the center is the point at which
they strike. This affords a means of analysing the composition of the
gases present; but it is also necessary to take into account the fact
that the amount of deflection depends not only on the mass and velocity
of the particles but upon the amount of electric charge they are
carrying. But this merely multiplies or divides the results by integral
quantities.

It was found by these experiments that no matter what gas was being
examined, hydrogen was always present, and also carbon, nitrogen,
and mercury; mercury would be likely to be present in the air of
a laboratory. In examining marsh gas (CH_{4}), besides curves
corresponding to marsh gas, carbon, and hydrogen, there were found
other curves which by calculation would correspond to CH, CH_{2}, and
CH_{3}, compounds which are not known to the chemist and which must be
momentary transition stages in the decomposition of marsh gas.

This method of analysis is rapid, can be performed with minute
quantities, and is not hindered by the presence of impurities, for
these register themselves without interfering with the other elements.

Two prophecies by H. P. Blavatsky in _The Secret Doctrine_ were that
chemistry and biology were the twin magicians of the coming time,
and that it would soon be admitted by men of science that the Occult
teaching is true--that every cell, atom, and speck in the universe is
alive.

The microscopic germ is every day pushing more to the front and
threatening to elbow the mere molecule out of the field. Even familiar
chemical reactions will not come off if nothing else but the chemicals
concerned is present; there has to be something to start the reaction,
something electrical or who knows what. So we are told. Any day we
may expect to hear that the electrons are alive; at any rate they are
pretty lively and capable for "dead" things.

Bacteria are not all deadly or even maleficent. There are bacteria
that are good for us, necessary for our existence. The human body can
be described as made up of minute organisms. Disease means that the
destructive ones have prevailed over the constructive; but when there
is a proper balance of the two sorts we are healthy.

And now we learn that some of the beneficent bacteria shine--emit
light--a sure token of their saintly character! But they do not merely
absorb it and give it out again like some chemicals and phosphorescent
bodies; they create their own light. "_Fiat Lux_," they say, _et lux
fit_. This light, too, is without heat, wherefore it is the most
economical light possible. When _we_ create light we create with it
enough heat to run a hell, and all this represents waste. The most
efficient electric filament, it is said, gives only 5% of the energy
in the form of light. The luminous bacteria must have a nutritive
substance and oxygen. They abound most in sea-water, and on the Pacific
Coast the sea at certain seasons is a magnificent spectacle at night,
each wave shining with a soft bright light of undefinable colors.
But they can be experimented with in the laboratory. _Photobacterium
phosphorescens_ is obtained from the herring, duly fed and bottled, and
can be used to read by. A scientific magazine shows a photograph of a
picture of Lord Lister most appropriately illuminated by bacteria which
are contained in glass tubes near the picture.

Light has been regarded mainly as a means of vision; but it is
evidently more than this. In ancient science it is spoken of as one of
the creative powers. In physics we recognize it as among the active
transforming forces. We can regard it either as a form of energy or
as a form of matter--these amounting to little more than alternative
points of view. Behind the various phenomena classed as "light" lies
their ultra-physical _cause_--the _being_, the _thing-in-itself_.
When we speak of light as illuminating the mind or emanating from the
source of inspiration, we are commonly held to be employing a figure
of speech, a metaphor. But we might as well turn the matter around and
regard the scientific use of the word light as a metaphor.

There are various kinds of light. Moonlight may be mistaken for the
light of the sun by some creatures that have not seen the latter; also
there are owls and bats which prefer it. Candles prove a source of
destruction to ignorant moths. The lowliest germs, as we see, can emit
a certain luminosity; even decaying matter shines. And so there are
various kinds of light in the world of mind; but best of all is the
sunlight.

  Twinkle, twinkle, little germ,
  How I wonder why you squirm,
  Down among my flesh and blood,
  Like a diamond in the mud.

  How doth the little busy bug
  Improve each shining hour
  By causing it to shine some more
  With half a candle-power.

  _Dr. What's-his-name_




  LINNAEUS AND THE DIVINING-ROD:
  Contributed by P. F.


Linnaeus in one of his works relates an experience he had in the
finding of noble metals by means of the divining-rod, and does it in
the simple good-humored way that marks all his writings and makes them
such delightful reading. He says:

 The divining-rod is a curious contrivance, and people will have us
 believe that the rod can tell where metals are hidden. Now and again
 my secretary would take a twig of hazel forked evenly at one end and
 would amuse the company with it. This happened also at this place, one
 person concealing his silver snuff-box, another his watch, here and
 there in the bushes, and in most cases the secretary found them. Now
 I had never believed in the divining-rod and did not like to hear it
 mentioned. It provoked me that it should be recommended in this way,
 and I imagined that my friends and my secretary were in collusion to
 deceive the company. So going to a large field north of the barn,
 I cut out a piece of turf, placed my little purse in the hole, and
 covered it up so carefully that nobody could see the least trace
 of it. My own mark was a great ranunculus growing near the place,
 and there was no other tall flower in the whole field. When all was
 arranged I went back to the company, told them that I had concealed my
 purse in the field, and asked the secretary to find it with the help
 of his divining-rod. If he found it, then I would believe in the rod,
 so sure was I that no mortal but myself knew the place where the money
 was.

 The secretary was delighted with such an opportunity to make me think
 better of the rod which I used always to ridicule; and the company too
 were most anxious to watch this master-test. The secretary searched
 for a long while, a full hour at least, and my host and hostess and I
 had the pleasure of seeing the rod work in vain; and as we did not get
 the money back, the rod was held up to ridicule.

 At last I repaired to the spot with the intention of recovering my
 purse, but only to find that our rod-walkers had trampled down all the
 grass by their perambulations. Not a trace was left of my ranunculus,
 and I was compelled to search for my money with the same uncertainty
 as the rod. I felt no inclination to bet a hundred crowns on
 the rod, for all of us were engaged in a vain search which provoked
 both irritation and amusement. Finally I had to give it up, but the
 baron and the secretary asked me to tell them the place approximately,
 which I did. The wicked rod, however, refused to strike and pointed
 to a place right opposite. Finally, when all of us were tired of it,
 and I most of all, the secretary stopped at a place quite far from
 the one I had indicated, saying that if the purse was not there it
 would be useless to try to tell the place. I did not care to seek, as
 it was not at all in this direction that I had (as I thought) placed
 the purse. But Baron Oxenstjerna lay down upon the ground and put his
 fingers around the little piece of turf where the money was lying!

 Thus the rod was right that time, and gave me back the money I should
 otherwise have lost. This is fact. If I see more such instances, I
 suppose I must believe what I do not want to believe. For it is quite
 different from the magnet and attraction between iron and iron; that
 a hazel twig can tell me the place where noble metals are--to that
 neither our outer nor our inner senses consent. Still I am not settled
 as to the divining-rod; yet I will not venture to bet as many crowns
 on it another time.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. I. THE HEAD OF A
CAÑON, POINT LOMA: A STUDY OF COLOR AND SHADE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. II. ENTRANCE TO A
CAÑON, POINT LOMA: A VIEW OF SINGULAR BEAUTY]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. III. ANOTHER
STRIKING VIEW IN A LOMALAND CAÑON

  "Spirit that formed this scene ...
  These formless wild arrays, for reasons of their own...."]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. IV. WHERE THE CAÑON
LEAVES THE DAYLIGHT The last glimpse of bay and mountains before
descending 150 feet. At the bottom it is chill and damp, the sky a blue
ribbon.]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. V. IN THE HEART OF
THE CAÑON Though too large for the camera, every foot of the rock's
surface is interesting and beautiful to the eye.]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. VI. A CAÑON, POINT
LOMA; VIEW FROM ABOVE]




LOMALAND CAÑONS: by W. J. Renshaw


Point Loma is an age-old peninsula at the extreme south of southern
California, close to the Mexican border, "Table" and "Tent" mountains
in old Mexico forming part of the unsurpassable view across San Diego
Bay. It is situated between the thirtieth and thirty-fifth parallels
of latitude (N.), about half way between the latitudes of Gibraltar
and Cairo. It runs within a few points of due south from the mainland
and is roughly wedge- or pennant-shaped, its eastern curve forming the
western shore of San Diego Bay, its rocky west receiving the impact
of "the league-long rollers" of the Pacific. Except on the eastern
sand flats there is probably not five hundred yards of the main road
along the Point that is either level or straight, but up and down it
goes from level to level, winding in and out along the contours of
the ridge. From the ridge the sides fall away in slopes, terraces or
cliffs. On the flats on the eastern side are Roseville and La Playa and
the government coaling station, quarantine station, and military fort.
The western side is mainly abrupt cliffs fifty to sixty feet high,
affording descent to the shore in few places, and hollowed with caves.

The major surface formation of Point Loma is a friable sandstone
containing clays, gypsum, marls, pebbles, and a curious reddish iron
nodule varying in size from a small pea to a large marble. This occurs
in great quantities and is apparently of igneous origin, though whether
volcanic or meteoric is not known.

On both sides of the ridge deep cañons have been washed out by the
rains and here and there are irregular amphitheaters as if a former
cave had fallen in. Such a spot is shown in illustration No. I, the
characteristic washing of the adobe face of the break being very
picturesque, giving wonderful light and shade and color effects in the
brilliant sunshine. The prevailing color is a rich brown, shading from
gold to red, which seems to complement the intense blue of the sky. The
shrubs and vines add every gradation and "tone" of green. Wild flowers,
ferns, and cacti abound in these cañons, and many of the shrubs are
aromatic, not only beautiful to the eye when in bloom, but a fragrant
balsam to the sense of smell. Large owls and hawks nest in inaccessible
places, living on the prolific smaller fauna; and a large tufted-eared
wild cat has been met with.

The cañons on the west side are tame and uninteresting compared with
those on the east. Here many a delightful outing can be had, with a
spice of adventure in negotiating difficult ascents and descents,
needing agility and a quick strong frame and muscles; or, if one
does not possess such, the help of those who do. In some of the most
difficult places niches have been cut with a hatchet, making the climb
fairly easy.

Every few yards the character of these cañons alters, revealing views
of the most varied beauty. One such is shown in illustration No. II,
the entrance to one of the cañons: the silver sand of the bottom, the
varied greens of the scrub, the rich red-gold-brown of the cliffs with
the green chaparral peeping over, all flooded with golden sunshine
almost palpitating with vibrant life, and over all the bluest blue
sky, make a feast of color which must be seen to be appreciated. Or
again, as in illustration No. III, there is rugged and savage grandeur
recalling Whitman's words:

  Spirit that formed this scene
  These tumbled rock-piles grim and red

       *       *       *       *       *

  These formless wild arrays, for reasons of their own
  I know thee savage spirit--we have communed together.

Many of the finest views cannot be photographed because they recede
deep, deep out of the light of day. This can be seen by the center
foreground of illustration No. IV, the detail of which is quite lost
in a veritable yawning gulf. Here one catches the last glimpse of the
bay and the distant mountains before descending in five or six stages
some one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet. At the bottom it is
so narrow that one has to work his way along sideways. It is damp and
chill and earthy down there, the sky a narrow ribbon of blue away up,
and one emerges later feeling like an emancipated troglodyte.

Or as shown in illustration No. V--which is a view of the rock face
on the right-hand side of No. IV, about half-way down--the scene
is too large for the camera, while every foot of it is interesting
and beautiful to the eye: "no jutty, frieze, buttress nor coign of
vantage" but hath its festoon of vines, clump of ferns, or mass of wild
flowers, while the flat rock is stained and mottled with lichens--sage
green, old gold, brown, red; and only in such a place could mere light
and shade work such magic: fairy towers, demon caves, faces in the
rock--grotesque, fantastic, weird, beautiful, majestic, are the tricks
of sunshine in this miniature cataclysmic playground of nature.

The cañons are full of surprises. At one place--a winding defile
between bare rocks, just wide enough for _one_ to scramble through--the
members of a party while near enough to converse, are invisible to each
other because of the sudden turnings and doublings of the crack every
few feet. Some of the cañons open out almost imperceptibly from others.
Perhaps a rest will be called on the silver sand of some opening.
The older members of the party wish to drink in the beauty of the
surroundings. The younger ones work off superfluous energy--scaling the
sides, exploring the branchings, or making a toboggan of some thirty
feet or so of loose sand-slide. After a while someone will say: "It is
time to return." So we retrace our steps and after proceeding a little
way, if there be a newcomer in the party he is likely to say: "I don't
remember this on the way down; it is altogether different." Being told
that it is another cañon, he will say: "_When_ did we enter it?"

So we climb up and out again another way, someone perhaps climbing
up on another's shoulders and then hauling the rest up; and within
about two hours of starting out we are back home again, braced and
exhilarated by the exercise, refreshed and inspired by the unique and
varied beauty of these Lomaland cañons.




The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society

Founded at New York City in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky, William Q. Judge
and others

Reorganized in 1898 by Katherine Tingley

Central Office, Point Loma, California

 The Headquarters of the Society at Point Loma with the buildings and
 grounds, are no "Community" "Settlement" or "Colony." They form no
 experiment in Socialism, Communism, or anything of similar nature,
 but are the Central Executive Office of an international organization
 where the business of the same is carried on, and where the teachings
 of Theosophy are being demonstrated. Midway 'twixt East and West,
 where the rising Sun of Progress and Enlightenment shall one day
 stand at full meridian, the Headquarters of the Society unite the
 philosophic Orient with the practical West.


 MEMBERSHIP

 in the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society may be
 either "at large" or in a local Branch. Adhesion to the principle
 of Universal Brotherhood is the only pre-requisite to membership.
 The Organization represents no particular creed; it is entirely
 unsectarian, and includes professors of all faiths, only exacting from
 each member that large toleration of the beliefs of others which he
 desires them to exhibit towards his own.

 Applications for membership in a Branch should be addressed to
 the local Director; for membership "at large" to G. de Purucker,
 Membership Secretary, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point
 Loma, California.


OBJECTS

This Brotherhood is a part of a great and universal movement which has
been active in all ages.

This Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. Its
principal purpose is to teach Brotherhood, demonstrate that it is a
fact in Nature, and make it a living power in the life of humanity.

Its subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and modern religions,
science, philosophy, and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the
divine powers in man.


H. P. BLAVATSKY, FOUNDRESS AND TEACHER

The present Theosophical Movement was inaugurated by Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky in New York in 1875. The original name was "The Theosophical
Society." Associated with her were William Q. Judge and others. Madame
Blavatsky for a time preferred not to hold any outer official position
except that of Corresponding Secretary. But all true students know that
Madame Blavatsky held the highest authority, the only real authority
which comes of wisdom and power, the authority of Teacher and Leader,
the real head, heart, and inspiration of the whole Theosophical
Movement. It was through her that the teachings of Theosophy were given
to the world, and without her the Theosophical Movement could not have
been.


BRANCH SOCIETIES IN EUROPE AND INDIA

In 1878 Madame Blavatsky left the United States, first visiting
Great Britain and then India, in both of which countries she founded
branch societies. The parent body in New York became later the Aryan
Theosophical Society and HAS ALWAYS HAD ITS HEADQUARTERS IN AMERICA;
and of this, William Q. Judge was President until his death in 1896.

It is important to note the following:

In response to the statement published by a then prominent member in
India that Madame Blavatsky is "loyal to the Theosophical Society and
to Adyar," Madame Blavatsky wrote:

 It is pure nonsense to say that "H. P. B. ... is loyal to the
 Theosophical Society and to Adyar" (!?). _H. P. B. is loyal to death
 to the Theosophical_ CAUSE _and those Great Teachers whose philosophy
 can alone bind the whole of Humanity into one Brotherhood._... The
 degree of her sympathies with the Theosophical Society and Adyar
 depends upon the degree of the loyalty of that Society to the CAUSE.
 Let it break away from the original lines and show disloyalty in its
 policy to the cause and the original program of the Society, and H. P.
 B., calling the T. S. disloyal, will shake it off like dust from her
 feet.

To one who accepts the teachings of Theosophy it is plain to see that
although Theosophy is of no nationality or country but for all, yet
it has a peculiar relationship with America. Not only was the United
States the birthplace of the Theosophical Society, and the home of the
Parent Body up to the present time, but H. P. Blavatsky, the Foundress
of the Society, although a Russian by birth, became an American
citizen; William Q. Judge, of Irish parentage and birth, also became
an American citizen; and Katherine Tingley is American born. America
therefore not only has played a unique part in the history of the
present Theosophical Movement, but it is plain to see that its destiny
is closely interwoven with that of Theosophy; and by America is meant
not only the United States or even the North American continent, but
also the South American continent, and, as repeatedly declared by
Madame Blavatsky, it is in this great Western Hemisphere as a whole,
North and South, that the next great Race of humanity is to be born.


MADAME BLAVATSKY FOUNDS THE ESOTERIC SCHOOL; HER LIFE-LONG TRUST IN
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

In 1888, H. P. Blavatsky, then in London, on the suggestion and at the
request of her Colleague, William Q. Judge, founded the Esoteric School
of Theosophy, a body for students, of which H. P. Blavatsky wrote
that it was "the heart of the Theosophical Movement," and of which
she appointed William Q. Judge as her sole representative in America.
Further, writing officially to the Convention of the American Societies
held in Chicago, 1888, she wrote as follows:

 To William Q. Judge, General Secretary of the American Section of the
 Theosophical Society:

 My dearest Brother and Co-Founder of the Theosophical Society:

 In addressing to you this letter, which I request you to read to the
 Convention, summoned for April 22nd, I must first present my hearty
 congratulations and most cordial good wishes to the Society and
 yourself--the heart and soul of that body in America. We were several
 to call it to life in 1875. Since then you have remained alone to
 preserve that life through good and evil report. It is to you chiefly,
 if not entirely, that the Theosophical Society owes its existence in
 1888. Let me thank you for it, for the first, and perhaps for the
 last time publicly, and from the bottom of my heart, which beats only
 for the cause you represent so well and serve so faithfully. I ask
 you also to remember that on this important occasion, my voice is but
 the feeble echo of other more sacred voices, and the transmitter of
 the approval of Those whose presence is alive in more than one true
 Theosophical heart, and lives, as I know, pre-eminently in yours.

This regard that Madame Blavatsky had for her colleague William Q.
Judge continued undiminished until her death in 1891, when he became
her successor.

Madame Blavatsky, in 1889, writing in her Theosophical magazine
published in London, said that the purpose of the magazine was not
only to promulgate Theosophy, but also and as a consequence of such
promulgation, "to bring to light the hidden things of darkness." She
further says:

 As to the "weak-minded Theosophists"--if any--they can take care of
 themselves in the way they please. IF THE "FALSE PROPHETS OF
 THEOSOPHY" ARE TO BE LEFT UNTOUCHED, THE TRUE PROPHETS WILL
 BE VERY SOON--AS THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN--CONFUSED WITH THE FALSE. IT
 IS HIGH TIME TO WINNOW OUR CORN AND CAST AWAY THE CHAFF. The
 Theosophical Society is becoming enormous in its numbers, and if the
 _false_ prophets, the pretenders, or even the weak-minded dupes, are
 left alone, then the Society threatens to become very soon a fanatical
 body split into three hundred sects--like Protestantism--each
 hating the other, and all bent on destroying the truth by monstrous
 exaggerations and idiotic schemes and shams.

 We do not believe in allowing the presence of _sham_ elements in
 Theosophy, because of the fear, forsooth, that if even "a false
 element in the faith" is _ridiculed_, the latter is "apt to shake the
 confidence" in the whole.

 ... What _true_ Christians shall see their co-religionists making
 fools of themselves, or disgrace their faith, and still abstain from
 rebuking them publicly as privately, for fear lest this _false_
 element should throw out of Christianity the rest of the believers?

 THE WISE MAN COURTS TRUTH; THE FOOL, FLATTERY.

 However it may be, let rather our ranks be made thinner, than the
 Theosophical Society go on being made a spectacle to the world through
 the exaggerations of some fanatics, and the attempt of various
 _charlatans_ to profit by a ready-made program. These, by disfiguring
 and adapting Occultism to their own filthy and immoral ends, bring
 disgrace upon the whole movement.--_Lucifer_, Vol. iv, pp. 2 & 3


WILLIAM Q. JUDGE ELECTED PRESIDENT FOR LIFE

In 1893 there openly began what had been going on beneath the surface
for some time, a bitter attack ostensibly against William Q. Judge, but
in reality also against H. P. Blavatsky. This bitter attack threatened
to disrupt the whole Society and to thwart the main purpose of its
existence, which was to further the cause of Universal Brotherhood.
Finally the American members decided to take action, and at the annual
convention of the Society held in Boston in 1895, by a vote of 191
delegates to 10, re-asserted the principle of Theosophy as laid down
by H. P. Blavatsky, and elected William Q. Judge President for life.
Similar action was almost immediately taken by members in Europe,
Australia, and other countries, in each case William Q. Judge being
elected President for life. In this action the great majority of the
active members throughout the world concurred, and thus the Society
was relieved of those who had joined it for other purposes than the
furtherance of Universal Brotherhood, the carrying out of the Society's
other objects, and the spiritual freedom and upliftment of Humanity.
A few of these in order to curry favor with the public and attract a
following, continued among themselves to use the name of Theosophy,
but it should be understood that they _are not connected with the
Theosophical Movement_.


KATHERINE TINGLEY SUCCEEDS WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

One year later, in March 1896, William Q. Judge died, leaving as his
successor Katherine Tingley, who for several years had been associated
with him in the work of the Society. This Teacher not only began
immediately to put into actual practice the ideals of Theosophy as had
been the hope and aim of both H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, and
for which they had laid the foundations, thus honoring and illustrating
the work of her illustrious predecessors, but she also struck a new
keynote, introducing new and broader plans for uplifting humanity.
For each of the Teachers, while continuing the work and building upon
the foundations of his predecessor, adds a new link, and has his own
distinctive work to do, and teachings to give, belonging to his own
time and position.

No sooner had Katherine Tingley begun her work as successor, than
further attacks, some most insidious, from the same source as those
made against H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, as well as from
other sources, were inaugurated against her. Most prominent among
those thus attacking Katherine Tingley were some referred to by Madame
Blavatsky in the article above-quoted (pp. 159-60), who by their own
actions had removed themselves from the ranks of the Society. There
were also a few others who still remained in the Society who had not
joined hands with the disintegrators at the time the latter were
repudiated in 1895. These now thought it to their personal advantage
to oppose the Leader and sought to gain control of the Society and
use it for political purposes. These ambitious agitators, seeking to
exploit the Society for their own ends, used every means to overthrow
Katherine Tingley, realizing that she was the greatest obstacle to
the accomplishment of their desires, for if she could be removed they
expected to gain control. They worked day and night, stooping almost to
any means to carry out their projects. Yet it seemed that by these very
acts, i. e., the more they attacked, the more were honest and earnest
members attracted to the ranks of the Society under Katherine Tingley's
leadership.


KATHERINE TINGLEY GIVES SOCIETY NEW CONSTITUTION

SOCIETY MERGES INTO BROADER FIELD

To eliminate these menacing features and to safeguard the work of
the Theosophical Movement for all time, Katherine Tingley presented
to a number of the oldest members gathered at her home in New York
on the night of January 13th, 1898, a new Constitution which she had
formulated for the more permanent and broader work of the Theosophical
Movement, opening up a wider field of endeavor than had heretofore been
possible to students of Theosophy. One month later, at the Convention
of the Society, held in Chicago, February 18th, 1898, this Constitution
was accepted by an almost unanimous vote, and the Theosophical Society
merged itself into the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society.
In this new step forward, she had the heartiest co-operation and
support of the vast majority of the members throughout the world.


THEOSOPHY IN PRACTICE

It is of interest here to quote our Teacher's own words regarding this
time. In an article published in _The Metropolitan Magazine_, New York,
October, 1909, she says:

 Later, I found myself the successor of William Q. Judge, and I began
 my heart work, the inspiration of which is partly due to him.

 In all my writings and associations with the members of the
 Theosophical Society, I emphasized the necessity of putting Theosophy
 into daily practice, and in such a way that it would continuously
 demonstrate that it was the redeeming power of man. More familiarity
 with the organization and its workers brought home to me the fact that
 there was a certain number of students who had in the early days begun
 the wrong way to study Theosophy, and that it was becoming in their
 lives a death-like sleep. I noticed that those who followed this line
 of action were always alarmed at my humanitarian tendencies. WHENEVER
 I REMINDED THEM THAT THEY WERE BUILDING A COLOSSAL EGOTISM INSTEAD
 OF A POWER TO DO GOOD, THEY SUBTLY OPPOSED ME. AS I INSISTED ON THE
 PRACTICAL LIFE OF THEOSOPHY, THEY OPPOSED STILL MORE. They later
 exerted personal influence which affected certain members throughout
 the world. It was this condition which then menaced the Theosophical
 Movement, and which forced me to the point of taking such action as
 would fully protect the pure teachings of Theosophy and make possible
 a broader path for unselfish students to follow. Thus the faithful
 members of the Theosophical Movement would be able to exemplify the
 charge which Helena Petrovna Blavatsky gave to her pupils, as follows:

 "Real Theosophy is altruism, and we cannot repeat it too often. It is
 brotherly love, mutual help, unswerving devotion to truth. If once men
 do but realize that in these alone can true happiness be found, and
 never in wealth, possession or any selfish gratification, then the
 dark cloud will roll away, and a new humanity will be born upon the
 earth. Then the Golden Age will be there indeed."

 Here we find William Q. Judge accentuating the same spirit, the
 practical Theosophical life:

 "The power to know does not come from book-study alone, nor from mere
 philosophy, but mostly from the actual practice of altruism in deed,
 word, and thought; for that practice purifies the covers of the soul
 and permits the divine light to shine down into the brain-mind."


 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

 On February 18, 1898, at the Convention of the Theosophical Society
 in America, held at Chicago, Ill., the Society resolved, through its
 delegates from all parts of the world, to enter a larger arena, to
 widen its scope and to further protect the teachings of Theosophy.
 Amid most intense enthusiasm the Theosophical Society was expanded
 into the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, and I found
 myself recognized as its leader and official head. The Theosophical
 Society in Europe also resolved to merge itself into the Universal
 Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, and the example was quickly
 followed by Theosophical Societies in other parts of the world. The
 expansion of the original Theosophical Society, which Madame Blavatsky
 founded and which William Q. Judge so ably sustained, now called the
 Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, gave birth to a new
 life, and the membership trebled the first year, and ever since that
 time a rapid increase has followed.


INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS AT POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA

In 1900 the Headquarters of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical
Society were removed from New York to Point Loma, California, which
is now the International Center of the Theosophical Movement. This
Organization is unsectarian and non-political; none of its officers or
workers receives any salary or financial recompense.

In her article in _The Metropolitan Magazine_ above referred to,
Katherine Tingley further says:

 The knowledge that Point Loma was to be the World-center of the
 Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, which has for its
 supreme object the elevation of the race, created great enthusiasm
 among its members throughout the world. The further fact that the
 government of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society rests
 entirely with the leader and official head, who holds her office for
 life and who has the privilege of appointing her successor, gave
 me the power to carry out some of the plans I had long cherished.
 Among these was the erecting of the great Homestead Building. This I
 carefully designed that it might not stand apart from the beautiful
 nature about it, but in a sense harmonize with the sky, the distant
 mountains, the broad blue Pacific, and the glorious light of the sun.

 So it has been from the first, so that the practical work of Theosophy
 began at Point Loma under the most favorable circumstances. No one
 dominated by selfish aims and ambitions was invited to take part in
 this pioneer work. Although there were scores of workers from various
 parts of the world uniting their efforts with mine for the upbuilding
 of this world-center, yet there was no disharmony. Each took the duty
 allotted him and worked trustingly and cheerfully. Many of the world's
 ways these workers gladly left behind them. They seemed reborn with an
 enthusiasm that knew no defeat. The work was done for the love of it,
 and this is the secret of a large part of the success that has come to
 the Theosophical Movement.

 Not long after the establishment of the International Theosophical
 Headquarters at Point Loma it was plain to see that the Society was
 advancing along all lines by leaps and bounds. Letters of inquiry were
 pouring in from different countries, which led to my establishing
 the Theosophical Propaganda Bureau. This is one of the greatest
 factors we have in disseminating our teachings. The International
 Brotherhood League then opened its offices and has ever been active
 in its special humanitarian work, being the directing power which has
 sustained the several Râja Yoga schools and academies, now in Pinar
 del Rio, Santa Clara, and Santiago de Cuba, from the beginning. The
 Aryan Theosophical Press has yearly enlarged its facilities in answer
 to the demands made upon it through the publication of Theosophical
 literature, which includes THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH and several other
 publications. There is the Isis Conservatory of Music and Drama, the
 Department of Arts and Crafts, the Industrial Department, including
 Forestry, Agriculture, Roadbuilding, Photo-engraving, Chemical
 laboratory, Landscape-gardening, and many other crafts.


DO NOT FAIL TO PROFIT BY THE FOLLOWING

CONSTANTLY THE QUESTION IS ASKED, WHAT IS THEOSOPHY, WHAT DOES
IT REALLY TEACH? EACH YEAR THE LIFE AND WORK OF H. P. BLAVATSKY AND
THE HIGH IDEALS AND PURE MORALITY OF HER TEACHINGS ARE MORE CLEARLY
VINDICATED. EACH YEAR THE POSITION TAKEN BY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE AND
KATHERINE TINGLEY IN REGARD TO THEIR PREDECESSOR, H. P. BLAVATSKY, IS
BETTER UNDERSTOOD, AND THEIR OWN LIVES AND WORK ARE SEEN TO BE ACTUATED
BY THE SAME HIGH IDEALS FOR THE UPLIFTING OF THE HUMAN RACE. EACH YEAR
MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE COMING TO REALIZE THAT NOT ALL THAT GOES UNDER
THE NAME OF THEOSOPHY IS RIGHTLY SO CALLED, BUT THAT THERE IS
A COUNTERFEIT THEOSOPHY AS WELL AS THE TRUE, AND THAT THERE IS NEED OF
DISCRIMINATION, LEST MANY BE MISLED.

Counterfeits exist in many departments of life and thought, and
especially in matters relating to religion and the deeper teachings of
life. Hence, in order that people who are honestly seeking the truth
may not be misled, we deem it important to state that the Universal
Brotherhood and Theosophical Society is not responsible for, nor is it
affiliated with, nor does it endorse, any other society, which, while
calling itself Theosophical, is not connected with the International
Theosophical Headquarters at Point Loma, California. Having a knowledge
of Theosophy, the ancient Wisdom-Religion, we deem it as a sacred
trust and responsibility to maintain its pure teachings, free from the
vagaries, additions, or misrepresentations of ambitious self-styled
Theosophists and would-be teachers. The test of a Theosophist is not
in profession, but in action, and in a noble and virtuous life. The
motto of the Society is "There is no religion higher than Truth." This
was adopted by Madame Blavatsky, but it is to be deeply regretted that
there are no legal means to prevent the use of this motto in connexion
with counterfeit Theosophy, by people professing to be Theosophists,
but who would not be recognized as such by Madame Blavatsky.

It is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy
and of our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P.
Blavatsky, the Foundress, and even the Society's motto, to attract
attention to themselves and to gain public support. This they do in
private and public speech and in publications. Without being in any way
connected with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in
many cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading
the public, and honest inquirers are hence led away from the original
truths of Theosophy.

The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society welcomes to
membership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the
eradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste,
or color, which have so long impeded human progress; to all sincere
lovers of truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than
the mere pleasures and interests of a worldly life, and are prepared to
do all in their power to make Brotherhood a living energy in the life
of humanity, its various departments offer unlimited opportunities.

The whole work of the Organization is under the direction of the Leader
and Official Head, Katherine Tingley, as outlined in the Constitution.


OBJECTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD LEAGUE

 1. To help men and women to realize the nobility of their calling and
 their true position in life.

 2. To educate children of all nations on the broadest lines of
 Universal Brotherhood and to prepare destitute and homeless children
 to become workers for humanity.

 3. To ameliorate the condition of unfortunate women, and assist them
 to a higher life.

 4. To assist those who are or have been in prisons to establish
 themselves in honorable positions in life.

 5. To abolish capital punishment.

 6. To bring about a better understanding between so-called savage
 and civilized races, by promoting a closer and more sympathetic
 relationship between them.

 7. To relieve human suffering resulting from flood, famine, war, and
 other calamities; and, generally, to extend aid, help, and comfort to
 suffering humanity throughout the world.

 JOSEPH H. FUSSELL, Secretary




  BOOK LIST
  OF WORKS ON
  THEOSOPHY, OCCULTISM, RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, AND ART

  PUBLISHED OR FOR SALE BY

  THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
  INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS
  POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

  _The office of the Theosophical Publishing Company is at Point Loma,
                                                           California_

  _It has_ NO OTHER OFFICE _and_ NO BRANCHES


FOREIGN AGENCIES

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  Núm. 6 Kâmaloka y Devachán
  Núm. 7 Los Maestros y sus Discípulos
  Núm. 8 La Doctrina de los Ciclos
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PERIODICALS

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[Illustration: THE PATH]

  The Theosophical Path

  An International Magazine
  Unsectarian and nonpolitical

  Monthly      Illustrated

[Illustration]

Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the promulgation of Theosophy,
the study of ancient & modern Ethics, Philosophy, Science and Art, and
to the uplifting and purification of Home and National Life

  Edited by Katherine Tingley
  International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California, U.S.A.


_The philosophy that teaches selflessness contains the balm for the
pain and suffering of today. False ideas, false ambitions, inharmonious
methods of living, selfishness, and an unbrotherly spirit, are
accountable for the unhappiness and dissatisfaction...._

_Humanity has long wandered through the dark valley of bitter
experiences; but the mountain heights are again seen, suffused with the
glow of dawn and the promise of a new Golden Age, and a pathway is once
more shown to that realm where the gods still abide._

  KATHERINE TINGLEY




  THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH
  MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED

  EDITED BY KATHERINE TINGLEY

  NEW CENTURY CORPORATION, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

  Entered as second-class matter July 25, 1911, at the Post Office
  at Point Loma, California
  under the Act of March 3, 1879
  Copyright, 1911, by Katherine Tingley


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VOL. I NO. 3 CONTENTS SEPTEMBER 1911

  Southwest Corner of the Temple in the Greek Theater,
      Point Loma, Cal.                                    _Frontispiece_
  The New Cycle                                 by H. P. Blavatsky   165
  Recent Confirmation of H. P. Blavatsky's Teachings
                                    by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)   172
  View in the Grounds of the International Theosophical
      Headquarters (_ill._)                                 facing   172
  Lomaland Cañon and Hillside (_illustration_)              facing   173
  The Origin and Nature of Folk-music            by Kenneth Morris   174
  Lapland (_illustrated_)                                 by P. F.   180
  Cultivating Genius for Music                by E. A. Neresheimer   182
  Glimpses of Scandinavian Mythology        by Per Fernholm, M. E.   184
  The Dipylon and the Outer Ceramicus (_ill._)
                            by F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)   189
  The Theosophic Torch                             by Grace Knoche   190
  The Pythagorean Solids
                  by F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I.   194
  The "Black Age"                                by Ariomardes       196
  Egyptian Art Under the XXVIth Dynasty (_illustrated_)   by C. J.   200
  The House of Lords, London (_illustrated_)                 by R.   201
  Music Notes                                   by Charles J. Ryan   202
  Ancient Calendars                                     by Travers   205
  The Mysteries of Eleusis (_illustrated_)             by H. T. E.   207
  Glaciation, Past and Present (_illustrated_)         by T. Henry   209
  God and the Child (_verse_)                                        211
  Power                                       by Lydia Ross, M. D.   212
  Sokrates (_illustrated_)  by F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)   215
  Sokrates and Seneca (_illustration_)                      facing   222
  Scenes in Cuba and Florida (_illustrations_)              facing   223
  A Visit to a Louisiana Sugar Plantation       by Barbara McClung   223
  The Lorelei (_illustrated_)                by a Student-Traveler   225
  The Western Four-Toed Salamander (_illustrated_)
                                                  by Percy Leonard   227
  The Real Man                     by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.   229
  Book Reviews (by Carolus); and Notices                             233

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo.
and Engraving Dept. SOUTH-WEST CORNER OF THE GREEK TEMPLE IN THE
GREEK THEATER INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS, POINT LOMA,
CALIFORNIA]




THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

  VOL. I      SEPTEMBER, 1911      NO. 3

 There is but one Eternal Truth, one universal, infinite and changeless
 spirit of Love, Truth, and Wisdom, impersonal, therefore, bearing a
 different name in every nation, one Light for all, in which the whole
 Humanity lives and moves and has its being.--_H. P. Blavatsky_


THE NEW CYCLE: Extracts from an Article Written by H. P. Blavatsky,
the Foundress of the Theosophical Society, for the first number of "La
Revue Théosophique," 1889


The principal aim of our organization, which we are laboring to make
a real brotherhood, is expressed in the motto of the Theosophical
Society: "There is no religion higher than truth." As an impersonal
Society we must be ready to seize the truth wherever we find it,
without permitting ourselves more partiality for one belief than for
another. This leads directly to a logical conclusion. If we acclaim and
receive with open arms all sincere truthseekers, there can be no place
in our ranks for the bigot, the sectarian, or the hypocrite, enclosed
in Chinese Walls of dogma, each stone bearing the words "No admission."
What place indeed could such fanatics occupy in them, fanatics whose
religions forbid all inquiry and do not admit any argument as possible,
when the mother idea, the very root of the beautiful plant we call
Theosophy is known as--absolute and unfettered liberty to investigate
all the mysteries of nature, human or divine!

With this exception the Society invites everyone to participate in its
activities and discoveries. Whoever feels his heart beat in unison with
the great heart of humanity; whoever feels his interests are one with
those of every being poorer and less fortunate than himself; every man
or woman who is ready to hold out a helping hand to the suffering;
whoever understands the true meaning of the word "Egoism"; is a
Theosophist by birth and by right. He can always be sure of finding
sympathetic souls among us.

We have already said elsewhere, that "Born in the United States the
Theosophical Society was constituted on the model of its mother
country." That as we know, has omitted the name of God from its
Constitution, for fear, said the fathers of the Republic, that the word
might one day become the pretext for a state religion: for they desired
to grant absolute equality to all religions under the laws, so that
each form would support the State, which in its turn would protect them
all. The Theosophical Society was founded on that excellent model....

Each Body, like each member, being free to profess whatever religion
and to study whatever philosophy it prefers, provided all remain united
in the tie of solidarity or Brotherhood, our Society can truly call
itself a "Republic of conscience."

Though absolutely free to pursue whatever intellectual occupations
please him the best, each member of our Society must, however, furnish
some reason for belonging thereto, which amounts to saying that each
member must bear his part, small though it be, of mental or other
labor for the benefit of all. If one does not work for others one
has no right to be called a Theosophist. All must strive for human
freedom of thought, for the elimination of selfish and sectarian
superstitions, and for the discovery of all the truths that are within
the comprehension of the human mind. That object cannot be attained
more certainly than by the cultivation of unity in intellectual labors.
No honest worker, no earnest seeker can remain empty-handed; and there
is hardly a man or woman, busy as they may think themselves, incapable
of laying their tribute, moral or pecuniary, on the altar of truth....

In the present condition of the Theosophical history it is easy
to understand the object of a Review exclusively devoted to the
propagation of our ideas. We wish to open therein new intellectual
horizons, to follow unexplored routes leading to the amelioration of
humanity; to offer a word of consolation to all the disinherited of
the earth, whether they suffer from the starvation of soul or from the
lack of physical necessities. We invite all large-hearted persons who
desire to respond to this appeal to join with us in this humanitarian
work. Each co-worker, whether a member of the Society or simply a
sympathizer, can help. We are face to face with all the glorious
possibilities of the future. This is again the hour of the great cyclic
return of the tide of mystical thought in Europe. On every side we are
surrounded by the ocean of the universal science--the science of Life
Eternal--bearing on its waves the forgotten and submerged treasures
of generations now passed away, treasures still unknown to the modern
civilized races. The strong current which rises from the submarine
abysses, from the depths where lie the prehistoric learning and arts
swallowed up with the antediluvian Giants--demigods, though with but
little of mortality--that current strikes us in the face and murmurs:
"That which has been exists again; that which has been forgotten,
buried for aeons in the depths of the Jurassic strata may reappear to
view once again. Prepare yourselves."

Happy are those who understand the language of the elements. But
where are _they_ going for whom the word element has no other meaning
than that given to it by physics or materialistic chemistry? Will
it be towards well-known shores that the surge of the great waters
will bear them, when they have lost their footing in the deluge which
is approaching? Will it be towards the peaks of a new Ararat that
they will find themselves carried, towards the heights of light and
sunshine, where there is a ledge on which to place the feet in safety,
or perchance is it a fathomless abyss that will swallow them up as soon
as they try to struggle against the irresistible billows of an unknown
element?

We must prepare ourselves and study truth under every aspect,
endeavoring to ignore nothing, if we do not wish to fall into the abyss
of the unknown when the hour shall strike. It is useless to leave it
to chance and to await the intellectual and psychic crisis which is
preparing, with indifference, if not with crass disbelief, saying that
at the worst the flowing tide will drive us all in the course of nature
towards the farther shore; for it is far more probable that the tidal
wave will cast up nothing but a corpse. The strife will be terrible in
any case between brutal materialism and blind fanaticism on the one
hand, and philosophy and mysticism on the other--mysticism, that veil
of more or less translucency which hides the eternal Truth.

But it is not materialism that will gain the upper hand. Every
fanatic whose ideas isolate him from the universal axiom that "There
is no religion higher than Truth" will see himself by that very fact
rejected, like an unworthy stone, from the Archway called Universal
Brotherhood. Tossed by the waves, driven by the winds, reeling in that
element which is so terrible because unknown, he will soon find himself
engulfed....

Yes, it must be so, it cannot be otherwise when the chilly and
artificial gleam of modern materialism will disappear for want of fuel.
Those who cannot form any idea of a spiritual Ego, a living soul and
an eternal Spirit within their material shell (which owes its very
existence to these principles); those for whom the great hope of an
existence beyond the grave is a vexation, merely the symbol of an
unknown quantity, or else the subject of a belief _sui generis_, the
result of theological and mediumistic hallucinations--these will do
well to prepare for the serious troubles the future has in store for
them. For from the depths of the dark, muddy waters of materiality
which hide from them every glimpse of the horizons of the great
Beyond, there is a mystic force rising during these last years of the
century. At most it is but the first gentle rustling, but it is a
superhuman rustling--"supernatural" only for the superstitious and the
ignorant. The spirit of truth is passing over the face of the waters,
and in dividing them, is compelling them to disgorge their spiritual
treasures. This spirit is a force that can neither be hindered nor
stopped. Those who recognize it and feel that this is the supreme
moment of their salvation will be uplifted by it and carried beyond the
illusions of the great astral serpent. The joy they will experience
will be so poignant and intense that if they were not mentally isolated
from their body of flesh, the beatitude would pierce them like sharp
steel. It is not pleasure that they will experience but a bliss which
is a foretaste of the wisdom of the gods, the knowledge of good and
evil, of the fruits of the tree of life.

But although the man of today may be a fanatic, a sceptic, or a mystic,
he must be well convinced that it is useless for him to struggle
against the two moral forces at large today engaged in the supreme
contest. He is at the mercy of these two adversaries and there is
no intermediary capable of protecting him. It is but a question of
choice, whether to let himself be carried along on the wave of mystical
evolution, or to struggle against this moral and psychic reaction and
so find himself engulfed in the maelstrom of the rising tide. The
whole world, at this time, with its centers of high intelligence and
humane culture, its political, artistic, literary, and commercial life,
is in a turmoil; everything is shaking and crumbling in its movement
towards reform. It is useless to shut the eyes, it is useless to hope
that anyone can remain neutral between the two contending forces;
the choice is whether to be crushed between them or to become united
with one or the other. The man who imagines he has freedom, but who,
nevertheless, remains plunged in that seething caldron of foulness
called the life of Society--gives the lie in the face of his divine
Ego, a lie so terrible that it will stifle that higher self for a
long series of future incarnations. All you who hesitate in the path
of Theosophy and the occult sciences, who are trembling on the golden
threshold of truth--the only one within your grasp, for all the others
have failed you one after the other--look straight in the face the
great Reality which is offered you. It is only to mystics that these
words are addressed, for them alone have they any importance; for
those who have already made their choice they are vain and useless.
But you Students of Occultism and Theosophy, you well know that a
word, old as the world though new to you, has been declared at the
beginning of this cycle. You well know that a note has just been struck
which has never yet been heard by the mankind of the present era; and
that a new thought is revealed, ripened by the forces of evolution.
This thought differs from everything that has been produced in the
nineteenth century; it is identical, however, with the thought that has
been the dominant tone and key-stone of each century, especially the
last--absolute freedom of thought for humanity.

Why try to strangle and suppress what cannot be destroyed? Why hesitate
when there is no choice between allowing yourselves to be raised on the
crest of the spiritual wave to the very heavens beyond the stars and
the universes, or to be engulfed in the yawning abyss of an ocean of
matter? Vain are your efforts to sound the unfathomable, to reach the
ultimate of this wonderful matter so glorified in our century; for its
roots grow in the Spirit and in the Absolute, they do not exist, yet
they _are_ eternally. This constant union with flesh, blood, and bones,
the illusion of differentiated matter, does nothing but blind you.
And the more you penetrate into the region of the impalpable atoms of
chemistry the more you will be convinced that they only exist in your
imagination. Do you truly expect to find in material life every reality
and every truth of existence? But Death is at everyone's door, waiting
to shut it upon a beloved soul that escapes from its prison, upon the
soul which alone has made the body a reality; how then can it be that
eternal love should associate itself absolutely with ever-changing and
ever-disappearing matter?

But you are perhaps indifferent to all such things; how then can you
say that affection and the souls of those you love concern you at
all, since you do not believe in the very existence of such souls?
It must be so. You have made your choice; you have entered upon that
path which crosses nothing but the barren deserts of matter. You are
self-condemned to wander there and to pass through a long series of
similar lives. You will have to be contented henceforth with deliriums
and fevers in place of spiritual experiences, of passion instead of
love, of the husk instead of the fruit.

But you, friends and readers, you who aspire to something more than the
life of the squirrel everlastingly turning the same wheel; you who are
not content with the seething of the caldron whose turmoil results in
nothing; you who do not take the deaf echoes of the dead past for the
divine voice of truth; prepare yourselves for a future of which you
have hardly dared to dream unless you have at least taken the first few
steps on the way. For you have chosen a path, although rough and thorny
at the start, that soon widens out and leads you to the divine truth.
You are free to doubt while you are still at the beginning of the way,
you are free to decline to accept on hearsay what is taught respecting
the source and the cause of truth, but you are always able to hear what
its voice is telling you, and you can always study the effects of the
creative force coming from the depths of the unknown. The arid soil
upon which the present generation of men is moving at the close of this
age of spiritual dearth and of purely material satisfaction, has need
of a divine symbol, of a rainbow of hope to rise above its horizon. For
of all the past centuries our Nineteenth has been the most criminal.
It is criminal in its frightful selfishness, in its scepticism
which grimaces at the very idea of anything beyond the material; in
its idiotic indifference to all that does not pertain to personal
egotism--more than any of previous centuries of ignorant barbarism or
intellectual darkness. Our century must be saved from itself before
its last hour strikes. This is the moment for all those to act who see
the sterility and folly of an existence blinded by materialism and
ferociously indifferent to the fate of the neighbor; now is the time
for them to devote all their energies, all their courage to the great
intellectual reform. This reform can only be accomplished by Theosophy
we say, by the Occultism of the Wisdom of the Orient. The paths that
lead to it are many; but the Wisdom is one. Artistic souls foresee it,
those who suffer dream of it, the pure in heart know it. Those who
work for others cannot remain blinded to its reality, though they may
not recognize it by name. Only light and empty minds, egotistical and
vain drones, confused by their own buzzing will remain ignorant of
the supreme ideal. They will continue to exist until life becomes a
grievous burden to them.

This is to be distinctly remembered, however: these pages are not
written for the masses. They are neither an appeal for reforms, nor
an effort to win over to our views the fortunate in life; they are
addressed solely to those who are constitutionally able to comprehend
them, to those who suffer, to those who hunger and thirst after some
Reality in this world of Chinese Shadows. And for those, why should
they not show themselves courageous enough to leave their world of
trifling occupations, their pleasures above all and their personal
interests, at least as far as those interests do not form part of their
duty to their families or others? No one is so busy or so poor that
he cannot create a noble ideal and follow it. Why then hesitate in
breaking a path towards this ideal, through all obstacles, over every
stumbling-block, every petty hindrance of social life, in order to
march straight forward until the goal is reached?

Those who would make this effort would soon find that the "strait
gate" and the "thorny path" lead to the broad valleys of the limitless
horizons, to that state where there is no more death, because
one has regained one's divinity. But the truth is that the first
conditions necessary to reach it are a disinterestedness, an absolute
impersonality, a boundless devotion to the interests of others, and a
complete indifference to the world and its opinions. The motive must be
absolutely pure in order to make the first steps on that ideal path;
not an unworthy thought must attract the eyes from the end in view,
not one doubt must shackle the feet. There do exist men and women
thoroughly qualified for this whose only aim is to dwell under the
Aegis of their divine Nature. Let them, at least, take courage to live
the life and not conceal it from the eyes of others! The opinion of no
other person should be taken as superior to the voice of conscience.
Let that conscience, developed to its highest degree, guide us in the
control of all the ordinary acts of life. As to the conduct of our
inner life, we must concentrate the entire attention on the ideal we
have proposed to ourselves, and look straight ahead without paying the
slightest attention to the mud upon our feet.

Those who make this supreme effort are the true Theosophists.




RECENT CONFIRMATION OF H. P. BLAVATSKY'S TEACHINGS ABOUT ANCIENT
CONTINENTS AND RACES: by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)


The London _Times' South American Supplement_ (May 30) contains the
first half of an article on the ancient people of Peru, in which the
writer speaks of the gigantic works in masonry wrought by a people who
lived there ages before the Incas. Being on the wrong side of the Andes
for fertility, these people built the enormous irrigation systems which
still exist; and the writer asks why they did not cross the Andes to
the well-watered slopes and plains on the east. The extent to which
they had explored their own country and its mountain heights proves
that the other country should have been within their grasp. Yet they
took all this trouble to make the western slopes fertile.

The answer given is--that in those days perhaps there _was_ no land to
the east of the Andes.

The writer then goes on to speak of the ancient continental
distribution of land, of Atlantis, of the connexion between South
America and Australasia, etc., in a way that is now growing familiar.
People whose opinions are of weight are coming to see that the true
explanation of the ancient American civilizations, as well as those of
such isolated spots as Easter Island, with its marvelous statues, is to
be sought along these lines. At the same time the subject has afforded
a fertile field for cranks and others who pin their various fads or new
gospels thereto. The latter, however, cannot last, but the truth is
eternal. The myths will be exploded, but the actual facts as to past
history will be proved.

In _The Secret Doctrine_ H. P. Blavatsky sums up all the available
speculation and information on the subject of these ancient continents
and weaves it into consistency by applying to it the keys of the
Wisdom-Religion. There is little doubt that her writings have
contributed largely, in more or less direct ways, to many of the other
published utterances on the question.

It is maintained, and with reason, by Theosophists, that the statements
of H. P. Blavatsky refer to actual facts and must therefore one day
be verified. The history of discovery and speculation since she wrote
has already done much to confirm this conviction. But as her teachings
with regard to the ancient continents are inseparably bound up with her
statements as to the ancient races of mankind, and indeed with the
Theosophical teachings in general, it follows that these also will be
confirmed.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. LOOKING EASTWARD
OVER PART OF THE GROUNDS OF THE INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL
HEADQUARTERS, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. LOMALAND CAÑON AND
HILLSIDE]

The great importance of this enlarged knowledge about the human race
and its history is that it so enlarges and ennobles our view of human
life. Before the light of knowledge all narrow dogmas fade away. The
errors of theology, the mistakes of scientific theory, our inadequate
sociological ideas--all these must fade in the light which will be shed
when the Theosophical teachings are more fully recognized. And all this
remarkable progress in archaeology may be welcomed as one of the signs.

The publication to which reference has been made speaks of other
countries of South America, but seems unable to do so without
mentioning their antiquities. The Aztecs of Mexico, the Aymarás of
Peru, come in for notice. The ancient people of Peru present analogies
to the Egyptians, Babylonians, Indian peoples, Polynesians, and Malays,
it is said; and some writers have theories about their connexion with
Jews and Chinese. It is easy to see that speculation, left to itself,
runs amuck among the theories.

The same writer, Comyns Beaumont, concludes his article on the ancient
Peruvians in the issue for June 27, and says that:

 Central America, as the "Enterprise" or "Easter Divide," a large
 submarine ridge, indicates, was connected to the Pacific Continent.
 On the other side Central America was connected in the East with the
 Mediterranean by another continental mass that spread across the
 Atlantic Ocean, and of which today the Antilles, Azores, Canaries, and
 the Atlas Mountains in Morocco are the existing remains. Peru also
 was a member of this vast continental system. Apart from the evidence
 of geological strata, confirmation of this is obtained from the
 study of sea fauna. The marine deposits of Peru, Chile, and Ecuador
 belong to the same genus as those of Central America, and to find the
 corresponding genus elsewhere one must search in the Mediterranean.
 Precisely, therefore, as Europe, Asia, and Africa possess a continuous
 land connexion, at the epoch when the Peruvians were in the forefront
 of civilization there existed a world which comprised the regions
 of the Mediterranean (then very different from nowadays), the lost
 Atlantic Continent, Central America, and Peru, and the lost Pacific
 Continent which embraced lands not only in the Pacific Ocean, but
 continued to where the Indian Ocean now washes the shores of Africa,
 India, and Mesopotamia.

Thus a step is made in the fulfilment of H. P. Blavatsky's prophecy
that the present century would witness a recognition of many of the
teachings she outlined in her writings.

But there is still much to be done. And not the least important
point is to distinguish carefully between the "Sons of Light" and the
"Sorcerers" among the mighty men of these perished lands. There was a
true Wisdom and a false knowledge; and H. P. Blavatsky never fails to
discriminate between those who preserved the light and those who fell
into darkness. The Easter Island statues, for instance, she describes
as resembling the sensual type of the Atlantean sorcerers rather than
that of the "Buddhas" (so-called) of the Bamian colossi. The writer
in the _Times Supplement_ calls the Easter Island statues "Turanian,"
employing thereby such familiar classifications as he finds to hand;
and in any case he distinguishes them from that higher type loosely
designated by the term "Aryan." This "Turanian" type he finds also in
Chaldaea, India, Central America, etc., and alludes to their habit of
building pyramids.

Finally he shows how inadequate are the speculations of many
anthropologists as to the antiquity of man. Human bones disintegrate
after a comparatively short time; so that the few we find are such
as have been accidentally preserved. And these ancient civilizations
tend to disprove the conventional theories of human evolution--which
theories, however, change from year to year.




THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF FOLK-MUSIC, as Exemplified in the Welsh
National Melodies: by Kenneth Morris


Great attention is being paid nowadays to the collecting of old
folk-songs in such countries as Ireland, Wales, and England; and
there has been much discussion raised as to the nature and origin of
a folk-song, properly so called. The subject is one of considerable
interest, because it leads one to a point where the known and visible
things melt away, and forces and influences of a deeper nature are at
work. These may be called spiritual and formative; there is a hand
guiding, but no one can see any hand; there is a creative mind at
function, but it is not the mind of any human being.

In Wales one can still see the genuine folk-song coming into being;
one can still watch, more or less, the processes incidental to its
birth. In that country, poetry was never held to be a mere string
of words that you could repeat as if you were reading an article
from the newspaper; conversational methods of utterance are kept
for conversation, or for the lower levels of prose, and there is a
peculiar chant used for verse. The poem is born with a music of its
own; and if it have no such music innate in it, and inseparable from
its words, then for all its rhymes and scansion it is no poetry. So in
speaking their poems the bards give full value to this music, using a
kind of chant which is called "_hwyl_." The word means simply "sail";
the idea being that the inner music of the poem swells and extends
and drives along the words, as the wind will fill and drive the sails
of a ship. The method is perfectly natural; the least introduction of
artificiality into it is absolutely damning: there you would get the
desolating thump, thump, thump, of the motor boat instead of the free
flow of the winds of heaven.

As regards the musical scale, this _hwyl_ is mainly monotonous; there
is another kind or direction of scale in it, depending on the varying
vowel sounds, which, though you chant them upon one musical note, have
a certain rise and fall in them proper to themselves. If one imagines
the scale of _do_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, and the rest as being in a
vertical line; then this scale of _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _oo_, etc., would
fall horizontally; we can think of no better way of making a likeness
for it. The richness of the vowels will make the music, and therefore
the poetry. One can see this by comparing two lines, both popularly
supposed to be poetry.

  I am monarch of all I survey;

there is no music in that, and if one should attempt to put the
hwyl into it, he would be guilty of the sin of untruth, which is
the greatest of the crimes against poetry, according to the ancient
doctrine of the bards.

  I saw Osirian Egypt kneel adown

And one would be guilty of the same sin, should one repeat that
lifelessly, and without the hwyl that existed around the mind of Keats
before the line took verbal form, and out of which magical and alchemic
element it was precipitated.

The bard, then, chants his poem, and the words are noted down, and pass
from mouth to mouth; and as they pass, the horizontal scale takes on
gradually some coloring of the vertical scale, and the chant becomes
more and more a tune. The process is natural, and dependent upon no
brain-mind; no composer gets to work upon it, and no one inserts in it
consciously any ideas of his own. The Dorian mode, which (we quote
from Mrs. Mary Davies, an authority on Welsh music) has a minor third
as well as a minor seventh; and the Aeolian or _la_ mode, in which the
third as well as the sixth and seventh are minor, are still largely in
use in Wales; and we believe that these two modes represent a stage in
the passing of the chanted poem, or the chant of the poem, into the
full-fledged folk-tune. For one will sometimes hear an air which, in
the printed collections is given in the arbitrary modern major or minor
scales, sung a little differently, according to these older modes; and
it would appear that all or nearly all the well-known Welsh national
tunes have passed through such or similar stages.

It is here worthy of note that the Welsh hwyl--which is used not only
in poetry, but in all the higher levels of prose as well, particularly
in pulpit rhetoric--is not found, we believe, elsewhere in Europe, at
any rate as a popular custom (for all poets _chant_ and do not _say_
their verses); but it is to be heard in Morocco, along the coast of
Northern Africa, in Arabia, Persia, and throughout the East; where
also certain of these older modes of music, such as the Dorian, are
said to be in vogue to some extent. We imagine that the chant and the
music-modes both vary as they go eastward; but it is a gradual growth
or differentiation, not an abrupt change. The Persian poet, chanting
his Hafiz, and the Welsh preacher, giving out the hymn, have much more
in common with each other than either has with the modern conventional
drawing-room reciter.

And then there is the national air, the last stage in the growth of
that which began with some village bard's arrangement of his deep
vowels and diphthongs. Long ago the words were forgotten, or lost all
connexion with the tune they gave birth to; because at a certain stage
the harpers took the tune up, and sang whatever words to it they might
make up for the occasion. Such a tune as _All through the Night_, for
example, would set out with such and such a bard on his wanderings. He
would come to a wedding, and play it there, singing extempore verses
to it filled full of joy and merriment. Then he would come to a house
where there might be one newly dead; and his tune would again be called
for; now it would be a dirge laden with mystical wailing and the joy
that hides behind wailing. At the village fair it would appear as a
dance; in the house of the warward chieftain it would ring and clamor
with all the pomp and surging and uplift of the old wild, Quixotic,
ridiculous wars. There would be different songs for it on each
occasion; one hardly troubled much with the preservation of them, for
song was a thing that a gentleman could call upon himself for at any
time. Why keep the songs you sang today, when tomorrow you would surely
sing other songs as good? Poetry was of all things the cheapest and
most general where every other man, as you might say, was a poet.

One hears this kind of thing at the present day. Very few of the Welsh
national tunes have any traditional words to them. If there is any
special song attached to this tune or that, it will probably be the
work of Ceiriog, who may be called the Robert Burns of Wales, or of
some individual bard in the last two or three centuries, who sang such
and such words to the tune on such an occasion, or in whose tragic or
amusing history those words and that tune blended were pivotal, and
have passed into a popular tradition.

Generally speaking, the words sung to all these airs are what
are called _Pennillion_--_hen bennillion_, old verses; a kind
of traditional folk-poetry arising no one knows from whom, and
commemorating popular wisdom, historical events, personal peculiarities
and eccentricities of long dead countryside celebrities, the beauties
and delights of this or that locality, and so on. There will be
war-songs, love-songs, dance-songs, dirges and nature-songs; a pennill
on the three best dancers of Wales, and a pennill on the three prized
things of three neighboring villages: the yews of Bettws, the bridge
at Llandeilo, the sacred well at Llandybie. Unnumbered are these
pennillion; perhaps more many than the tunes themselves to which they
may be sung.


II

The old Welsh choirs and singing-parties--and they still do it, though
of course foreign music, both the work of the great composers and the
ribald stuff of the music halls, is making grand inroads--the old
choirs would delight to take such and such a tune for the work of their
evening, and sing song after song to it, now a dance, now a war-song,
and now a dirge, one after the other; and whichever kind of song they
might be singing, you would say that that tune was composed as, and
could inevitably be, only suitable for that. You would say that, of
course, by its very structure it would be impossible for it to be
anything but martial; there was the very pride and beat of war in it;
no blood could keep still, no feet forget to march at the sound of it.
And then you would change your mind, and know that it could never be
anything but a dirge; there as obviously the whole secret of sorrow in
it; you were at one, hearing it, with everyone who might be mourning
for their dearest dead; and you too, with them, were initiated into
marvelous hopes and superhuman certainties and joy--carried out of time
wherein men die, into that timelessness wherein they neither die nor
are born. And that too would pass, and the singers would bring you into
careless summer-evening merriment, and for the life of you, there was
no keeping your feet from the shaking and wandering of dance.

One hears the multifold music of the world; the innumerable rhythms and
variations of melody; combinations and intricacies many as the thoughts
in the minds of terrestrial beings. And of those thoughts themselves,
there will be all manner of ranks and no democratic equality. Some
will be clansmen, so to say, in the house of merriment, others in the
house of grief; mere commonalty of the mind, wearing at any time all
the badges of their clan. These are cheap, every-day wayfarers, and
stir the same emotion, or bring the same colorlessness, into whatever
mind they may enter and whenever they may enter it. Others will be
chieftains and tribal leaders, entering with greater circumstance, and
imposing a larger subjection. Good or evil, they too bear always their
own colors; grief will be grief and joy will be joy; love will be love,
and hatred never anything but hatred, of the emotions that follow in
their train.

But there are some few archetypal thoughts that you cannot so docket
and always rely upon. They are the kings and high bards, standing
beyond the limitations of tribe and sept. They will come in what
insignia and royal robings they may choose, and rouse up gladness or
sorrow, stillness or militancy according to their will. Such thoughts
are those of death, of duration, of humanity, of compassion. You have
spoken no true nor final word on death, when you have proclaimed him
the king of terrors; though indeed, the thought of august death comes
often in sorrowful and terrible disguise. Yet behind that dark regalia,
what serenity, what unstirred meditative calm, what "peace that passeth
all understanding," lie hidden! Compassion, too, comes doubly robed
in the purple; dark with the sorrow that is in pity; glowing with the
regality and gladness of unity with universal life. It is at once the
martial conqueror of the world, boundless in hope and exultation; the
sweet ministrant of the wounded, and the mourner at the graves of the
fallen.

I think that there are expressions of music that correspond to these
supernal and superpersonal thoughts; and that they are in fact simple
tunes, and that many of them must be to be found in the folk-music
of all nations. They are, as it were, archetypal patterns of song,
root rhythms, sprung absolutely from the fountains of feeling, where
feeling has not yet been diversified into all its countless forms of
pain and delight. I think that the most beautiful of the Welsh airs
fall into this class, or into that other corresponding with what we
have called the tribal leaders of the thought plane. The Marches of
the Men of Harlech, of Glamorgan or Meirionydd--indeed every district
in Wales seems to have had its own war-tune in the ancient days--these
are always distinctly martial, and there is no possibility of mistaking
them or of making them anything else. _Y Galon Drom_, _Anhawdd
Ymadael_, _Morfa Rhuddlan_ and a thousand others, again, are always
dirges; to _Gyrru'r Byd o'm Blaen_, or to _Pwt ar y Bys_, you would
never dream of doing anything but dance. All have with them a certain
distinction and aristocracy in their own kind: about folk-music there
is nearly always a bearing and a value, and vulgarity is impossible
to the bulk of it. But beyond and higher than these there are those
archetypal tunes which stir the source of whatever feeling they may be
directed towards; one might mention perhaps _Llwyn On_ the Ash Grove,
as a good example. There are hundreds of them among the Welsh airs.

Now the whole point of our inquiry is this--what was the creative or
directing mind that brought these things to be? It was not the bard
who first chanted the song; it was no one of the thousands of singers
who modified and modified it as they passed it on, until presently
the fixed tune was evolved, and changes and modifications ceased.
These were all instruments in its evolution; but there was also an
evolver. For it was brought, if indeed it is a primeval and radical
thing, to no haphazard conclusion. The music that you make up is one
thing; the music of the spheres is another: though it might happen
indeed, that sitting down to compose, there should be revealed to
you a measure from the music of the spheres. No doubt that would
have happened occasionally--probably only occasionally--with the
great transcendent geniuses of music: but then, there was no great
transcendent genius, neither Wagner nor Bach nor Beethoven, concerned
in the making of the folk-tune. We can posit the soul of Beethoven,
wrapt up into the universal soul, hearing immortal immeasurable
things, and after, producing some fragment of them in a sonata or a
symphony! But what soul was it here, who heard the rhythm and measure
of the star-music, and what the mountains are singing in their hearts
to make them eternal, and the song that drives the rivers and the
rain, and the bardic carol of the sun, and the ineffable yearning
of the souls of men, upward towards their divinity and evolutionary
destined grandeur--who heard, and set all these things bleakly and
magnificently down in the folk-song? I will not apologize for speaking
of the folk-song and the sonata in one breath: of the gods also are the
mountain and the pansy.

Do we not see here the working of a Soul greater than that of any
individual; the soul of the nation; the God that is this people or
that? His compositions are marked by a unity, as are those of any
composer: you can tell an Irish Air at a hearing, or a Welsh Air. And
He, or It, reveals through them greater and deeper things than are
known to any individual among his people; ancient memories that _they_
may have wholly forgotten; aspirations after spiritual glories which
not one of them may have ever foreseen or hoped for. So all the deepest
things that are in the national consciousness may be poured through
the playing of these composerless compositions; and we cannot doubt
that they remain a most potent link between the people and its hidden
divinity.




LAPLAND: by P. F.


More than one-fourth of Sweden is occupied by that vast wilderness,
Lapland. It is a remnant of archaic nature; its majestic snow-crowned
peaks are all of the very oldest geological structure. In primeval
times it was a compact mass of rock-ground; but time, with the aid of
water and ice, has formed a network of valleys between the remaining
ranges and peaks, and great lakes receive the melting snow and preserve
its crystalline purity, mirroring the snow-capped giants; from them
the water seeks its way to the sea by numerous mighty rivers, winding
around the towering masses and making many a daring leap down gorges in
foaming and roaring and whirling play.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. SKERFE, LAPLAND,
SWEDEN Photo by L. Wästfelt Jokkmokk.]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE RAPA VALLEY,
LAPLAND, SWEDEN Photo by L. Wästfelt Jokkmokk.]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE RAPA VALLEY,
LAPLAND, SWEDEN Photo by L. Wästfelt Jokkmokk.]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. LAJDAURE, LAPLAND,
SWEDEN Photo by L. Wästfelt Jokkmokk.]

It is a wilderness of singular beauty and serene atmosphere, and one
who has once tasted of its life will ever thereafter feel the longing
for its grandeur and silence; for where can man feel the pulse
of real life better than in places like this where the eternal snow
protects the original purity of Nature? It has been found that the
farther north one passes, the more alive become the soil and rock,
radiating life in such abundance that it can often be actually seen as
a kind of electric discharge. In summer-time, there is no vegetation
like that around and above the Polar Circle, no colors and fragrance of
flowers like those to be found in the sanctuary of these remote valleys
where human foot so seldom intrudes. And where can one witness such
interplay between Earth and its outer atmospheric layers, manifesting
in all the varied phenomena of northern lights and mystic, trembling
color-screens? One could sometimes fancy himself in the very forecourt
of a grander mode of existence.

H. P. Blavatsky tells us in _The Secret Doctrine_ that these mountain
ranges were part of previous great continents occupied by earlier
great races of humanity. What have they not witnessed? At one time in
far-past aeons, enjoying a tropical climate, fertile soil, and a golden
human life in all the bounteousness of Nature; at another, resting for
ages below the water, or stripped of their luxuriant garb by a mighty
ice-cover. Truly the history of it all is written somewhere and somehow
even now; and as one treads the archaic rock-ground in a solitude that
seems teeming with life, one begins to understand something of the
language of the great silence around, and to feel the presence of the
ancient past.

Since prehistoric times the Lapps, with their nomadic herds of
reindeer, have been the warders of this pristine land. But like
most ancient remnants of human races they are at present rapidly
disappearing, and the "Sons of the Sun," as the Lapps call themselves,
have had to give up much of their ground to the children of the present
civilization. Lapland is entering upon a new era; railroads have
already found their way across the wastes to bring its immense reserves
of iron-ore out to the world; its waterfalls are being harnessed in the
service of man; and its natural resources utilized in many novel ways.
Though at the same latitude as southern Greenland, its climate is by no
means so forbidding; it is, moreover, undergoing a slow but sure change
which seems to be one of the causes why the reindeer are dying out.
Evidently there are mighty forces at work, rendering hitherto shielded
places on Earth accessible to our civilization as a preparation for a
new phase of life awaiting all humankind.




CULTIVATING GENIUS FOR MUSIC: by E. A. Neresheimer


The natural gift for music which during recent years is so frequently
found in very young children of all civilized nations, is a
phenomenon that has given rise to much speculation on the part of
active theorists. However, the "brain molecule" scientists have been
significantly silent on that--to them--perplexing question, and so have
the other doctors of learning who explain every human quality on a
theory of "hereditary transmission." Nor does the "gift of God, or Holy
Spirit" theory explain this wonderful but most natural manifestation of
the progress of the human soul.

No theory will account for these and other gifts in children, that has
not for its basis knowledge of the natural growth from one life to
another--reincarnation.

When we reflect how diligently the smallest accomplishment must be
earned before we can call it our own, and how delightfully secure we
are in its possession when once we have attained to it, the question is
then more like this: May it not be that a musical prodigy is after all
_the Soul himself_ that has labored through many lives on earth with
ceaseless diligence, following its aspirations and love for music, and
is now earning the fruitage thereof?

Many people say: "Oh! I am so fond of music"; but they never go to a
concert or to an opera; nor are they any more fond of music in reality
than of hearing themselves talk, because the beginning of music is to
them the sign to begin a conversation quickly. To the majority music
scarcely yet exists.

There are some people who have a quiet love for music; they go
unobtrusively to places where good music is made, listen with
attention, and go home in a serene, satisfied mood. Such persons,
from their youth on, embrace every opportunity to hear music in high
and low places; they look longingly at the instruments displayed in
music-stores and, perchance, in the hours that others devote to rest or
folly, they plod away for years unaided, practising on some unsuitable
instrument. No one pays particular attention to such a budding artist.
Perhaps he himself is not aware that his judgment grows better, riper,
keener; that the finer distinctions of music are becoming to him
sharply defined and thus satisfactory to his consciousness; his ear,
too, waxes critical at dissonances, and his very soul also delights in
the musical gems, in the flowing rhythms and harmonies.

The long weary days that are drowned for the multitude in an ocean of
sensation, do not exist for the person who is deeply, truly, interested
in music. Such a one may not hear music for days or weeks, nor have any
particular melody running through his brain; but in his sub-conscious
mind there is such a reservoir of harmonies that flow and flow all the
time, making him thoughtful, meditative, happy. He laughs or sighs
like other people, but there is something besides, that shows in his
countenance or manner, something that one instinctively feels is lofty;
perhaps it is music running through his blood, singing all the while.

There are some who by Karma's decree have a father or a mother who
recognize a little talent for music in the child and let him be taught,
and by encouragement promote his musical development. This is like
bestowing a priceless treasure on the one so favored, for now he enters
upon the realm of one of the mysteries of the Eternal.

Once begun, there is no end. On and on goes the progress, revealing
with each step an ever-widening horizon of beauty, love, happiness.

The musician goes inward, ever inward. All is being transformed and
remodeled in his soul. The tears are music, the joys are music, the
whole world is music; men and women are like harps on which to play; he
can sway them from one extreme mood to another; and he?--he really owns
the world, never to lose it!

On the other hand there are some who practise on a musical instrument
for hours every day. Years roll by, but there seems to be no progress
made, at least there is no appreciation of progress at the hands of
other persons. Still, the musicians belonging to this class do not
seem to be discouraged. They may grow old the while, but never relax
in their aspirations. What for? Think you, perhaps, that all this
one-pointedness, this expenditure of energy to attain to an ideal,
will be lost when the man dies? Not so! Nothing is ever lost. Nature
preserves everything. Every single effort leaves its imprint upon the
soul in which the result finally inheres. When such a life has come to
its end the people may say: "Poor musician! he labored all his lifetime
and accomplished nothing!" But see! when a boy suddenly appears who
at the age of eight years can play an instrument, surmounting the
most difficult technique with great ease, almost as if he had known
it before he commenced--what then? We begin to look around for the
hereditary connexion; and here we see quite often that neither his
parents nor cousins or any relations have or had any trace of such
talent.

How comes it then that the prodigy can do this without having to learn
it like other people? May it not be that he has really learned it at
some time, _in another life_ and stored it away in his soul, and now,
he simply manifests most naturally what is his own?

Truly, artists are not made out of nothing. They are made out of all
these things that they previously, diligently and persistently, labored
for. Every bit of it, every feeling, every emotion, and every touch
of the heart, of the head, and of the hand that they now manifest is
of their own making, without any miracle or extraneous grace. Thus is
Genius for music cultivated.




GLIMPSES OF SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY: by Per Fernholm, M. E., Royal
Institute of Technology (Stockholm)


When the fragments still left of Scandinavian mythology, scattered
in the Icelandic sagas and tales, are carefully put together, they
give a grand picture of the history of Earth and Man from the first
dawn of the present great Day of evolution. Clear and scientific in
the broad outlines, they will some day surely prove a gold-mine of
useful knowledge for future researches into the past. Nor do they
stop with the history of the past and its blending with the present,
but go farther and picture the destruction of life as we know it in a
purifying fire, and show how a new earth arises from the sea, whereon a
new and lasting Golden Age will be enjoyed by Gods and men.

When Earth had assumed its shape and was ready to receive living
beings, the Creative Wisdom permeated the elements and in the ensuing
fermentation the cow Audumla appeared. Licking the salt rocks she
liberated from the life-germs of the various elements a great and
beautiful being endowed with a divine spirit. He became the father of
the Gods who rule and protect the world of Man in this cycle.

Drops of venom from the Fount of Frost grew to another being, the
giant Ymer, who nourished by Audumla's milk brought into being various
giants, some good, but many evil and horrible. Among the good are the
wise Mimer, the guardian of the Fount of Wisdom at one of the three
roots of the world-tree, Yggdrasil; and the three Norns, Urd, Verdande
and Skuld--Urd, the Norn of the Present, being the guardian of the
Fount of Life at another of Yggdrasil's roots.

Odin knew his mighty task as chief ruler of human life in this cycle.
But he was not yet perfect and felt himself lacking in strength;
therefore he went to Mimer to drink from the Fount of Wisdom. None, not
even the Gods, can, however, win this precious drink without proving
his worthiness, and here at the very outset we meet with the great
example of self-sacrifice. Odin gave up himself to his greater Self,
remained for "nine days and nights" in Yggdrasil without food or drink,
looking inward to the roots of things, listening to the mystic song out
of the depth. Purified and prepared, he was allowed to drink from the
water of Wisdom and learned from Mimer nine wonderful and potent songs.
And Odin grew henceforth rapidly in knowledge and creative power.

Presiding over the Gods and the various hierarchies in Nature he then
began to make Earth a fitting habitation for man. That done, Odin
visited Midgard with his two brothers, Höner and Lodur, and there on
the shore they found two trees, "powerless and without destiny." Lodur
loosened them from their connexion with earth, giving them power to
move and act from inner impulses, and made them images of the Gods;
Höner endowed them with a human Ego, having consciousness and will; and
finally Odin gave them the most precious gift, the spirit.

In the childhood of the Earth men long lived in a golden age of
unbroken peace, knowing of no evil. But there came a time when two
beings among the giants, both adopted by the Gods as members of the
Asgard family, appeared among men tempting them to evil things, the
man Loke, and the woman Gullveig (the golden way, or stream), Gullveig
being the worse. To strengthen the good in human hearts, enlighten them
and prepare them for coming days of strife, the Gods sent to Midgard as
Teacher Heimdall, the Shining One, the God of the pure and most sacred
fire. He brought with him many things not before seen in Midgard, and
as the ruler of the people he instructed them in cultivating the soil,
in sowing the seed he had brought, and in preparing bread; in carving
and forging, spinning and weaving, cutting runes and reading. He taught
them how to tame animals for domestic use, to build houses and to
form families and communities; also the use of weapons in protection
against animals. And further he informed them of the rules laid down
by the Norns for a righteous life, and of the names and functions of
the Gods. He showed them how to build altars and temples for worship,
and brought to them the pure and undefiled fire produced by friction,
the only one worthy of burning in the shrine of the Gods; and then he
taught them the sacred songs that ever since have sounded from the lips
of men in praise of divine powers.

But even now Gullveig began her wanderings among men and secretly
taught them runes and songs which counteracted Heimdall's teachings.
When the Gods became aware of this, they had her burned; but her heart
was proof against fire. Loke found it, and swallowing it he brought
into the world the monster-wolf Fenris, which feeds on all the evil
thoughts and feelings among men.

Gullveig soon incarnated again and continued her ways unrecognized
for a long period. When discovered she was burned a second time, Loke
again finding her heart and giving life to the giantess of pestilence,
Leikin. The same thing happened a third time, and then was born the
Midgard-Snake, destined to grow rapidly and finally to encircle the
whole earth.

While Gullveig spread ruin in human life, Loke caused enmity and
strife among the powers of nature and even among the Gods. Many were
the resulting wars in Asgard, besides the constant warfare against
the giants; and always they were followed by wars in Midgard. At last
the Gods were divided to such a degree that Odin, rather than cause
the death of many of his nearest kin, left Asgard and the guidance of
humanity in the care of the Vaner Gods, who otherwise presided over
the regular course of the processes of Nature. When the giants learned
this they thought it a fit time to gain supremacy not only over Midgard
but even over Asgard itself. Odin knew this in good time, through his
power of prevision, and he issued from his retreat "far in the East" to
warn the Vaner Gods and offer them assistance. The fearful resulting
war united the Gods once more, after which Odin was freely offered the
high seat in Asgard, where, purified and perfected by experience and
adversity he now rules with wisdom until the last day of the cycle.

Heimdall "died" in Midgard before the golden age was over, and he was
followed by his son Sköld-Borgar. His son, Halfdan, became the first
king, and led the people in all the battles that followed in the new
age, while constantly overshadowed by the Gods. On the other side the
chief was Od-Svipdag, a most heroic and valiant champion. War after war
raged, one of them being so frightful that a new generation had to grow
up before new armies could be collected.

Svipdag is a most remarkable character, who journeys to the Underworld
and obtains the "avenging sword" which nothing can resist, not even
the hammer of Thor. The fate of the world seems to depend on his mind,
when at the critical moment his love for the Goddess Fröja turns his
steps to Asgard, in order to make peace with the Gods. He then lives
mostly in Asgard with Fröja and is sent by the Gods on many difficult
journeys, even to the Underworld to find whether Balder, the God of
purity, who had died when strife came into the world, could not return
from his safe retreat near the Fount of Wisdom.

The great Ice period is described as coming in Halfdan's days, the
people being obliged to leave the Northern countries for more southern
climes. But when the ice at last receded they went back step by
step northward, fighting continual battles. Halfdan at last dies by
Svipdag's sword, and is followed by his brave son, Hadding. And thus we
reach the present age, which is depicted as one of supreme darkness.
Seldom nowadays the Gods appear before men, for they are few who by
a righteous and sincere life keep the link unbroken with the regions
in the crown of Yggdrasil. The evil is increasing all the time; men
have forgotten their divine birth, and they prostitute their divine
powers. Yet above the veil of darkness the Gods rule as ever, helping
wherever there is an opportunity; while elves and dwarfs and all the
other nature sprites continue to fulfil their duties in the economy of
nature, although no longer seen by men.

Much is said about the process of death. Man is made up of six
principles, and death is a purification whereby the higher and purer
elements, after passing through the second death, go to the bliss of
the presence of the Gods. If man in life has developed his "inner body"
by noble living, then he passes easily through the trials and the
judgment of the Gods. If not, then he is held down by the demons of
passion and lust and meets torture and suffering.

Of Reincarnation there is little in the form of direct statement,
probably partly because carefully removed in Christian times, and
partly because it forms an integral part of the whole conception of
life found in all ancient sagas. Some of the heroes are, however,
named in more than one incarnation, showing the same soul in different
garments. The noblest and the worst reincarnate almost immediately; for
others some time has first to elapse.

In the efflorescence of time the hour will at length arrive for
Ragnarök, the great purifying battle and fire, when evil will be
destroyed in the final war between good and evil. The Gods assemble
with their faithful, Odin leading, majestic, calm and wiser than ever,
knowing that he and most of the Gods will have to buy the victory with
their lives. The different groups on both sides are pictured with
matchless boldness and vividness, and we see how each has to meet his
fate. Odin is killed by the Fenris Wolf; Thor kills the Midgard Snake,
but falls dead from its venom. The giants who have possessed themselves
of the "avenging sword" use it in the battle, but at the same moment
their fate is sealed. For this sword was so forged that if swung by a
giant it would destroy the giant world.

At the close of the fearful battle the very foundations of the earth
seem to tremble. Fires rise towards heaven, and amid flame and smoke
and destruction--the Gods still living--Odin's sons Vidar and Vale,
and Thor's sons Magne and Mode, ride to the Underworld, to Balder's
peaceful land, where neither death nor destruction are.

And the old earth finally sinks into the sea, dissolved into slag
and ashes. The flames die. The air is purified by the fire, the sky
is bluer than ever. From the sea arises a new earth, covered with
luxuriant vegetation. It is the regions of the Underworld near the
Founts of Wisdom and Life, the lands of Mimer and Urd, that now appear.
Those founts, so long nearly dry, again flow copiously, and Yggdrasil
is fresh and green. The days of golden life return to Gods and men.
Balder assumes full sway, and the new earth is peopled from the two
races who have been spared for that purpose, living in purity unstained
along with Balder during the age of darkness. Even animals have been
spared in the same way and enjoy the new Day. It is the happy Day of
Balder the Pure and Righteous.

But even this is not the final scene, according to the Northern
mythology. A mightier Being than even Balder will come after him,
descending upon a still higher and more purified earth. It is the
unnamed God whose servant Urd is, One whose spirit blendeth with all
living things by virtue of the Fount of Wisdom--an omnipotent God, a
God bringing highest peace, who will then "establish a worship that
will endure forevermore."

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. RUINS OF THE DIPYLON
GATE OF ANCIENT ATHENS]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ANCIENT ATHENIAN
TOMBS ALONG THE SACRED WAY]




THE DIPYLON AND THE OUTER CERAMICUS: by F. S. Darrow, A. M., Ph. D.
(Harv.)


The Dipylon or "Double Gate" (so named because it consisted of an
inner and an outer gateway, separated by a court), was the principal
entrance of classical Athens at the west end of the city. Probably,
it was built under Perikles' directions on the site of the still
older Thriasian Gate, but the extant remains which are shown in the
accompanying illustration belong to a somewhat later alteration. The
gateway itself, because of its size and position (it was at the lowest
point of the city walls) was surrounded by massive fortifications. The
inner wall with the upright stone, marking one of the boundaries of the
Outer Ceramicus or ancient Potters' quarters just outside the city, was
built by Themistokles, but the outer wall shown in the illustration
was probably added by Perikles. About sixty yards to the west of
the Dipylon, that is to the right of the illustration, is a smaller
gateway, which is thought to be the Sacred Gate, used for the exit and
entrance of the Procession of Mystics during the celebration of the
Eleusinian Mysteries.

In ancient times three roads lined with tombs led from the Dipylon,
namely, the Road to the Academy, the Sacred Way leading to Eleusis,
and the Road to the harbor, the Peiraeeus. Along the Road leading to
the Academy were buried those who had died fighting for their country
on land and on sea. The public burials were made at the end of each
campaign, when the bones of the slain were placed in coffins of cypress
wood, one coffin for each of the ten Athenian tribes, and an empty
one, serving symbolically for the burial of those whose bodies could
not be recovered. Citizens and strangers alike were permitted to join
in the procession, and as the coffins were lowered, a speaker publicly
appointed ascended a lofty pulpit and delivered an oration in honor of
the dead.

Thukydides says:

 The public cemetery is situated in the most beautiful spot outside
 the walls and there the Athenians always bury those who fall in war;
 but after the battle of Marathon the dead in recognition of their
 pre-eminent valor were interred on the field.

It was here in the winter of 431 B. C., while delivering his immortal
funeral oration that Perikles declared:

 It is difficult to say neither too little nor too much. I do not
 commiserate the parents of the dead: I would rather comfort them.
 Those men may be deemed fortunate who have gained the greatest honor.
 To you who are sons and brothers of the departed I see that the
 struggle to emulate them will be an arduous one. The dead have been
 honorably interred and it remains only that their children should be
 maintained at the public charge until they are grown up; this is the
 solid prize with which, as with a garland, Athens crowns her sons,
 living and dead.

The tombs of many of the most famous figures in Greek history were in
this public cemetery, including those of Harmodios and Aristogeiton,
the Tyrannicides; Kleisthenes, the Law-giver; Perikles, the greatest
Athenian Statesman; Thrasybulos, the Liberator, who overthrew the
Thirty Tyrants; Chabrias; Phormio; Konon and Timotheus, father and
son, "second only to Miltiades and Kimon for their brilliant feats";
and Lykurgos, the son of Lykophron, the Athenian orator and statesman,
who finished the Dionysiac Theater in stone and built the Docks at the
Peiraeeus.

The public tombs which once lined the Road to the Academy seem to have
been almost entirely destroyed, but many of the private tombs along the
Sacred Way may still be seen _in situ_. Some of these, which have been
well preserved (thanks to the fact that they were covered by a huge
mound in 86 B. C. when the Roman Cornelius Sulla was besieging Athens),
are shown in the second illustration.




THE THEOSOPHIC TORCH: by Grace Knoche

 O the great benefactor who points the Way! To Triptolemus have
 all men erected temples and altars, because he gave us food by
 cultivation; but to him who discovered truth, and brought it to
 light and communicated it to all--not the truth which shows us how
 to live _but how to live well_--who of you has built an altar for
 this, or a temple, or has dedicated a statue, or who worships God for
 this?--_Epictetus_


The final stitches are taken in the little garment which has stood for
the evening's duty. It is folded and laid aside, to fill on the morrow
a need as impersonal as the service that need inspired, silent tribute
to a system of work so practical and so perfect in its conservation
of energy that the world is already clamoring at Lomaland gates to be
let into the secret. A pile of loved books--very tiny ones, _The Voice
of the Silence_, the _Bhagavad-Gitâ_, _Patañjali_, and the rest--lies
beside the sewing-basket, jostling the newspaper, which, because of the
temporary need of another, at present has to be given room. But I brush
it aside to take up one of the little writings--any one of them, from
cover to cover, would hardly make up a newspaper page--thankful that
if the frothy and distempered bilge-water of current crime and gossip
_does_ have to lie before me, I do not have to drink of it; grateful
that even in the present heyday of lower psychological influences I am
free to drink what I will, free to pick my associates from among the
immortals--if I choose. And so we parry, and give and take, question
on my part and answer on his--small wonder that H. P. B. paid tribute
to his philosophy and W. Q. J. to his life, this grand old Roman whose
company for an hour any one would be proud to have--Epictetus!

  O the great benefactor who points the Way!

This, a tribute to the Helpers of Humanity by one who was humbly, yet
with the courage of Hercules, trying to fire the mind of his age with
the torch-gleam of a true philosophy of life--Theosophy in fact, but
adapted to the conditions of his time, a fevered and cruel time, though
with gleams of nobility and spiritual splendor here and there.

What a picture comes before one of this brave old Roman Socrates,
banished in his last years from Rome by the Emperor Domitian--for
the crime of being a philosopher! And then another picture--of the
Epictetus as the Rome of Nero knew him, young but never strong, weakly,
lame, the abused slave of Nero's profligate secretary; allowed by
his owner to study philosophy because it chanced to be the fashion
in wealthy Rome to number wise men among one's "possessions" as one
numbered cocks and fine horses; Epictetus, a slave, often in chains,
tortured at his master's whim--but a Torch-bearer of the Truth!

Although a disciple of Rufus, the great Stoic teacher of the time,
Epictetus himself claiming no superiority to his teacher whom he
lovingly quotes, the conviction forces itself upon one that the latter
bathed in a wider ocean of truth than that of Stoicism as a doctrine.
He quotes Socrates, Plato, Diogenes, far more than Zeno; he had no part
in the tolerance of many Stoics to the idea of suicide. And we hear him
down the ages fulminating against the Academics, the Epicureans, the
Skeptics; declaring the Godhood, the Divinity, of man; immortality, the
higher law, man's obligation to study human nature _in its duality_;
Karma, the power of the Spiritual Will, the royal road to happiness;
and man's obligation to integrity, fidelity, compassion, reverence,
gratitude, trust, love, wisdom and a noble use of power. What was he
banished for? what is it that he said?

 If Caesar should adopt you, no one could endure your arrogance; to
 know, then, that you are the son of Zeus--will you not be elated?...
 You are a superior thing; you are a portion separated from the
 Deity; you have in yourself a certain portion of Him. Why then are
 you ignorant of your own noble descent? When you are in social
 intercourse, when you are exercising yourself, when you are engaged in
 discussion, _know you not that you are nourishing a god, that you are
 exercising a god_?

 But give me directions, you say. Why should I give you directions? Has
 not Zeus given you directions? What directions, what kind of orders,
 did you bring _when you came from Him_? To keep what is your own; not
 to desire what is not your own. Fidelity is your own, and integrity,
 and modesty and virtue; for who can take these things from you? who,
 excepting yourself, can hinder you from using them? Having such
 promptings and commands from Zeus, what kind do you still ask from me?
 Am I more powerful than he, am I more worthy of confidence?

 If you would make anything a habit, do it; if you would not make it
 a habit, do not do it.... So with respect to the soul: when you have
 been angry you must know that not only has this evil befallen you, but
 that you have also increased the habit, and in a manner increased the
 habit thrown fuel on the fire.... For he who has had a fever, and has
 been relieved from it, is not in the same state that he was before,
 unless he has been completely cured. _Something of the kind happens
 also in diseases of the soul. Certain traces and blisters are left in
 it, and unless a man shall completely efface them, when he is again
 lashed in the same places, the lash will produce not welts but sores._

 It is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are. Therefore,
 when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of
 wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. For what purpose?
 you may say. Why, that you may become an Olympic conqueror; _but it
 is not accomplished without sweat_.... Hercules, when he was being
 exercised by Eurytheus, never deemed himself wretched; but fulfilled
 courageously all that was laid upon him. But he who shall cry out and
 bear it hard when he is being exercised by Zeus, is he worthy to bear
 the scepter of Diogenes?

 The philosopher's school, ye men, is a surgery; you ought not to
 go out of it with pleasure but with pain, for you are not in sound
 health when you enter: one has dislocated his shoulder, another has
 an abscess ... another a headache. And shall I sit and utter to you
 little thoughts and exclamations, that you may praise me and go away,
 one with his shoulder in the same condition as when he entered,
 another with his head still aching, and a third with his fistula or
 his abscess just as they were? Is it for this that young men quit
 home and leave their parents and friends, their kinsmen and property,
 that they may say to you, Wonderful! when you are uttering your
 exclamations? Did Socrates do this, or Zeno, or Cleanthes?

 Diogenes well said to one who asked from him letters of
 recommendation, "That you are a man he will know as soon as he
 sees you; and he will know whether you are good or bad if he has,
 through experience, the skill to distinguish the good and the bad;
 but if he has not, he would not know though I were to write him ten
 thousand times." For it is just the same as if a drachma asked to be
 recommended to a person. If he is skilful in testing silver, he will
 know you (the drachma) for what you are. We ought then in life to be
 able to have some such skill as in the case of silver coin, that we
 may be able to say, like the judge of silver, Bring me any drachma and
 I will test it.

 When Florus was deliberating whether he should go down to Nero's
 spectacles, and also perform in them, he asked Agrippinus for advice,
 and Agrippinus said, Go down. But why do you not go down? said Florus;
 and Agrippinus replied, I do not even deliberate about the matter;
 _for he who has brought himself to calculate the value of external
 things, is very near to those who have forgotten their own character_.

 But if I do not take part, I shall have my head struck off. Go then,
 said Agrippinus, and take part; but I will not. Why? Because you
 consider yourself to be only one common thread in the tunic; it is
 then fitting for you to take thought how you shall be like the rest of
 men. But I wish to be purple, that small part which is bright, _and
 makes all the rest appear graceful and beautiful_.

Katherine Tingley said recently in one of her intimate talks on the
subject of the individual responsibility of students in being given the
opportunity to bring a deeper than the common touch into the production
of _The Aroma of Athens_:

 We are just now at a strange point in the cycle and in many ways are
 linking ourselves with the past.

May not one evidence of this be an easier recognition of the Theosophic
Light that has been passed from hand to hand down the ages? Many have
been its disguises, many and strange the lamps holding it, often
obscured it has been, again nameless--but ever the one Light, the one
Flame, shining upon and enlightening all men.




THE PYTHAGOREAN SOLIDS:

by F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I.


Students of _The Secret Doctrine_ and of ancient teachings such as
those of Pythagoras, the Kabala, and the sacred books of different
races and epochs, are often puzzled by the frequent references to
Number, and to elementary plane forms like the circle, triangle, and
square. It may be surmised that these symbols refer to _meta_-physical
forces of various orders concealed within the "atom" and within nature
generally. For nature is built, obviously enough, upon some internal
principles of structural harmony. Without discussing the many avenues
of thought suggested by a study of the five regular solids, the main
features of these forms may be briefly summarized.

In the first place, they may be all considered as generated by Twelve
Points on the surface of the Sphere, at equal adjacent distances, or by
six diameters of the sphere mutually inclined at angles whose tangent
is 2, the number of the octave in music. Joining each of the twelve
with every other point, we have 66 lines, of which 36 are internal.
Six of the latter being diameters, there remain 30, intersecting at 20
points, which give the 30 edges of the internal DODECAHEDRON. The 30
outer, or external lines of the 66, form the edges of the ICOSAHEDRON.

Joining one set of alternate corners of the Dodecahedron by 12 lines,
a CUBE appears. So far, there are 33 points defined, including the
center of the sphere. Joining opposite corners on each Cube-face by 12
lines, _two_ interlaced TETRAHEDRONS appear. These define, by their
intersection, 6 new points and 12 new lines forming the OCTAHEDRON,
beautifully poised in the heart of the Sphere.

Thus only 39 points, including the central point, are needed to define
the Pythagorean solids, only one solid form being repeated, the
Tetrahedron, which in fact is seen to repeat itself ten times. For
between the interlaced Tetrahedron corners and the eight faces of the
included Octahedron, eight smaller Tetrahedrons are seen.

The interlaced Tetrahedrons suggest the origin of the plane symbol--the
interlaced triangles; but the full beauty of the symbol does not appear
until we notice that the axis of symmetry of the Tetrahedrons coincides
with the diagonal of the Cube, and that the orthographic projection
of all these on a plane perpendicular to the diagonal gives a perfect
hexagon with the interlaced triangles in the center. The interlaced
Tetrahedrons--one a reflection of the other--in fact define the eight
corners of the Cube. The Tetrahedron is "3," and the Cube is "4" (or
6). So we see one way in which the "three fall into the four," and
why it is a septenary, and a decad, as well as a three, or a four,
according to the various aspects and interrelations considered of the
electric, rotary, magnetic, or vibratory forces symbolized by the
various lines.

Science has already reached the speculation that the hypothetical
carbon "atom" has a tetrahedronal form. Let us look at this Tetrahedron
with the eye opposite the middle of an edge and in line with the
center. The two opposite edges now form the Cross, composed of two
equal lines, but separated by a space. One is reminded of an electric
wire, and a magnetized needle placing itself at right angles to,
although at some distance from, the current in the wire. Thus the
opposite edges, whether as rotational vectors or in some other way,
indicate a connexion with the dual forces of attraction and repulsion.
The Tetrahedron, a triangular pyramid, may be a Fire-symbol. In any
case the following passage is suggestive:

 When the molecules of salt, clustering together, begin to deposit
 themselves as a solid, the first shape they assume is that of
 triangles, of small pyramids and cones. It is the figure of _fire_,
 whence the word "_pyramids_"; while the second geometrical figure
 in _manifested_ nature is a square or a cube, 4 and 6; for, "the
 particles of earth being cubical, those of fire are pyramidal"
 truly--(Enfield). The pyramidal shape is that assumed by the
 pines--the most primitive tree after the fern period. Thus the two
 opposites in cosmic nature--fire and water, heat and cold--begin their
 metrographical manifestations, one by a trimetric, the other by a
 hexagonal system. For the stellate crystals of snow, viewed under a
 microscope, are all and each of them a double or treble six-pointed
 star, with a central nucleus, like a miniature star within the larger
 one. (_The Secret Doctrine_, II, 594.)

The number Five penetrates the whole system of the Five solids in a
remarkable way. Thus there are 24 pentagons visible, and by joining
other corners of the Dodecahedron, Five Cubes are seen, which of course
produce Five Octahedrons, and twice that number of principal interlaced
Tetrahedrons. Five has been said to be the Number of Life.

Confining ourselves to one rectangular system, we find Four axes of
symmetry for the Tetrahedrons and Three for Cube and Octahedron. Thus
there are really 73 principal lines in the complete system defined by
the 39 points. A study of the three principal orthographic projections
shows that the circle should be divided into 3, 4, 5, 6, parts, and
the products of these, or 360 degrees. Certain angles are found in
abundance, such as 36, 60, 72, 90, 108, 144; and their combinations
and products by 10 and 12, and their multiples, give figures bearing a
strong resemblance to the various cyclic periods of eastern chronology.
Periodic orbits are vibrations on a large scale.

Twice the perimeter of an Icosahedron-face divided by the perimeter
of a Dodecahedron-face is 3.1416, the value of π used in all
ordinary scientific and constructional work.

The actual error is so small that if both were accurately made of
copper at the same temperature, the Icosahedron-face would only have to
be brought rather more than one degree Fahrenheit below the temperature
of the other for the π value to be absolutely correct. Accuracy of this
sort is unattainable outside of specially equipped laboratories. So the
Pythagorean solids may be said to "square the circle."




THE "BLACK AGE": by Ariomardes


Let us imagine a romance, such as most people must have heard, wherein
some royal child is stolen away and reared amidst peasants in ignorance
of his birth; and where some wise man comes and reveals to the youth
the secret of his parentage. The young man forthwith steps out from his
lowly life, and clothed in a new self-respect, begins to acquit himself
worthily of his origin and destiny.

Thus has Theosophy declared to outcast humanity, "Thou art the king's
son"; and in proof it has referred him to his ancestry. This is why H.
P. Blavatsky, pointing out in the skein of history certain clues which
scholars have hitherto overlooked, started that greater enthusiasm for
archaeology which since her day has already borne such wonderful fruit.

In a dark age there is the danger that man might forget his divine
origin altogether. The revelations of archaeology confirm the teachings
of Theosophy that before the dark age of our historical period set in,
there were brighter ages; and by showing what man has been, they are
indicating what he may again be in the future.

The epochs and durations of the various ages are not uniform all over
the earth, so that it cannot be said that the black age began, for the
earth generally, at any definite time. The ancient Hindûs have their
own chronology, showing the dates of the different ages for their race.
We find in a very ancient work, the _Vishnu-Purâna_, a prophecy of
the characteristics of Kali-Yuga or the "Black Age," from which the
following extracts are taken:

 Then property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source
 of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the
 sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and
 women will be objects merely of sensual gratification. Earth will be
 venerated but for its mineral treasures; the Brahmânical thread will
 constitute a Brâhman; external types (as the staff and red garb) will
 be the only distinctions of the several orders of life; dishonesty
 will be the (universal) means of subsistence; weakness will be the
 cause of dependence; menace and presumption will be substituted
 for learning; liberality will be devotion; simple ablution will be
 purification; mutual assent will be marriage; fine clothes will be
 dignity.... Amidst all castes, he who is the strongest will reign over
 a principality thus vitiated by many faults.--iv, ch. xxiv. (From H.
 H. Wilson's translation, vol. iv, pp. 226-228.)

Some of these details may be thought to apply more to the East, some to
the West; we can surely recognize many of the characteristics of our
own civilization. What is particularly striking is the way in which
things which we regard as inevitable qualities of human nature are
here spoken of with horror and classed among the iniquities. And there
are signs in our contemporary literature that some of the standard
human frailties are now being exalted into virtues. One of the signs
of decadence mentioned is the fact that passion will be regarded as
the sole bond of union between the sexes. And we have philosophers
who would persuade us that passion is and always has been and always
will be the bond of union! For some writers, passion, even in its most
material form, is the origin and supreme fact of all union. Here,
then, is the danger--that having allowed our ideals to drag down our
practices, we afterwards suffer our practices to drag down our ideals,
thus descending by a continuous and periodical process of leveling down.

It seems as if the saying that "property alone will confer rank" has
some meaning for us today, as also the phrase "wealth will be the
only source of devotion." What is said about falsehood in litigation
reflects no discredit on our jurisprudence, but surely it describes
much of what occurs in practice. That about the mineral treasures
of earth is very true; for we consider people simpletons when they
fail to tear out the bowels of their homeland in order to coin them
into "the only source of devotion." When the ancient scribe says that
dishonesty will be the means of subsistence, he may seem to be going
too far; but what does he mean by dishonesty? If it includes every form
of insincerity and injustice, the statement may not be too extreme
after all. The question, "Shall I do as the others do or let my family
starve?" becomes every day more difficult to answer.

"Menace and presumption will be substituted for learning." This may
allude to the fact that most people argue for the purpose of pushing
their own ideas, losing their temper and resorting to tricks in
order to attain this end; and that the attainment of knowledge is so
often subordinated to the desire to compel assent or gain notoriety.
"Liberality will be devotion," may be better understood if we
substitute the word "munificence," as applying to large donations to
churches and also to the prevalence of the charity of the purse rather
than the charity of the heart.

A difficult subject to speak upon, in view of the mental chaos reigning
today, is the hint that there can be higher motives for marriage than
mere mutual attraction or worldly convenience. The quotation gives a
rebuke to those who, seeing no farther back than the Black Age, argue
that there never have been any higher ideals of marriage. We may point
to the ancient Egyptian religion as an instance of a culture that is
free from the erotic element; while in the quotation given above the
erotic idea is expressly condemned. Clearly, then, that idea belongs
to the age of decadence. The word "love" having now become practically
useless from its association with passion, we must seek our clue to the
real meaning of marriage in the word "duty." Regarded as a sacred rite
involving vows of unselfishness and self-restraint, undertaken only
in sober earnestness and with a vision undimmed by the colored mists
of selfish romance, marriage might take its place among the blessings
instead of among the problems of life.

In days when philosophicules try to define honor in terms of vanity,
and devotion in terms of self-interest, it is beneficial to receive
from antiquity a hint that may help us to understand that honor and
devotion are the breath of the Soul. Pretended reformers, claiming a
superior acumen and to be quite grown-up and out of leading-strings,
may dissect before us the animal nature of man, pointing out its
sordid details and requesting us to believe that these represent our
entire endowment. Some prominent writers, whose outlook upon life has
somehow suffered from unfortunate circumstances, would have us accept
depravity and neurotic conditions as inevitable concomitants of human
nature; and, profanely invoking Freedom, they recommend open license
as a means of purity! Signs like these justify one in thinking that
the Black Age is casting the shadow of its pinions over the firmament
of modern thought; and we are grateful for the smallest hint of the
possibility of an age free from the all-absorbing morbidity and itching
self-consciousness that seem to dominate every department of inquiry.

Will society ever again be so constituted that honor and reverence and
duty shall be a universal atmosphere, a currency in which all share,
a life-force that flows from man to man, a common possession in the
maintenance of whose integrity all are involved--as we are now all
involved in the maintenance of commercial credit and the upkeep of
standards of outer respectability? Can we imagine a society wherein
no man would dare to sully the purity of this inner atmosphere by
any unworthy thought? If so, then we might call honor and morality
real existences instead of mere abstractions; these words might then
convey the genuine qualities they were meant to denote, instead of
the spurious imitations which they now seem to stand for in the minds
of those who try to express them in terms of selfishness and passion.
It is well to think that such things have been upon earth; and it is
easier thus to account for some of the deeds of antiquity whose signs
remain. It is easier to see in religion the faint echo of a former
knowledge and conduct, than to interpret it as an outgrowth of fear and
charlatanry. We need a greater faith in human nature.




EGYPTIAN ART UNDER THE XXVIth DYNASTY: by C. J.


The statue of Neshoron, of which we give an illustration, is a very
fine example of the work of the XXVIth Dynasty (B. C. 666 to 528).
This was a period of great prosperity for Egypt, after long years of
depression. Rawlinson says:

 The entire valley of the Nile became little more than one huge
 workshop, where stone-cutters and masons, bricklayers and carpenters,
 labored incessantly. Under the liberal encouragement of the king and
 his chief nobles, the arts recovered themselves and began to flourish
 anew. The engraving and painting of the hieroglyphs were resumed with
 success, and carried out with a minuteness and accuracy that provoke
 the admiration of the beholder. Bas-reliefs of extreme beauty and
 elaboration characterize the period. There rests upon some of them "a
 gentle and almost feminine tenderness, which has impressed upon the
 imitations of living creatures the stamp of an incredible delicacy
 both of conception and execution." Statues and statuettes of merit
 were at the same time produced in abundance.

Under King Psametik I, the first king of the XXVIth Dynasty, a
semi-Libyan devoid of Egyptian prejudices, foreigners, especially
Greeks, were encouraged to settle in the Delta and to establish
commercial relations on a large scale--a hitherto unheard-of
innovation. The effect of this was a great change in the character
of the Egyptians, perhaps not for the better. A mercenary army was
enlisted, and the beginning of Egypt's downfall and subjugation
drew nigh. In the reign of Apries (Uah-ab-Rā, the "Pharaoh Hophra"
of Jeremiah xliv, 30) an unsuccessful attempt was made to restore
the greatness of the ancient Egyptian empire. Apries, or Hophra,
finding the Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was unable to reduce Phoenicia
to subjection, concluded a treaty with Zedekiah, king of Judah, in
B. C. 588, promising him assistance if he would help him to attack
the Babylonians. The war that followed resulted in the capture and
destruction of Jerusalem, and the transfer of the Jews to Babylon.
Apries failed to protect Zedekiah, though he appears to have done his
best. He retreated before the victorious Babylonians, and with the
fall of Palestine, the two great powers of Babylon and Egypt became
conterminous. Within a few years Nebuchadnezzar had conquered Egypt,
making it a tributary kingdom.

The statue of Neshoron is remarkable for the realism shown in the
treatment of the face, which is obviously an excellent portrait. The
feet are also treated in a naturalistic manner, but the rest of the
figure is more conventional in accordance with the prevailing custom.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. STATUE OF NESHORON,
A DIGNITARY UNDER KING APRIES LOUVRE MUSEUM, PARIS]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE HOUSE OF LORDS,
LONDON]




THE HOUSE OF LORDS, PALACE OF WESTMINSTER, LONDON: by R.


Though such an important chamber, the House of Lords is only forty-five
feet wide, forty-five feet high, and ninety feet long, yet it is
very well adapted to its purpose. There is none of the crowding from
which the House of Commons suffers when all the members wish to be
present at some important debate. Like the rest of the Palace of
Westminster, the House of Lords is built in the Tudor-Gothic style,
but it does not date back to the fifteenth century. The old House of
Parliament, a patched-up and unimposing building, was almost completely
destroyed in 1835--an important service to architecture being rendered
thereby--and the new one was commenced upon the same site in 1840.
It took twenty-seven years to build and it is generally admitted,
in spite of many weaknesses, to be a worthy home for "the Mother of
Parliaments," and the most impressive modern Gothic building in Europe.
One important though indirect result of the fire which burned down the
old Parliament House was that public competition, almost unknown in
England, was adopted as the safest way to obtain a good design. Sir
Charles Barry, the architect, was greatly helped by the famous Pugin in
the superintendence of the detail, which, as can be seen in the plate,
is well-designed and executed, _for modern work_. Of course no modern
imitation-Gothic possesses the life and vigor of the old; there is a
mechanical feeling about it which can never be avoided in some degree;
there is want of spontaneity, a rigidity and formal correctness, which
is entirely absent in the old work. The House of Peers and the King's
Apartments occupy the western portion of the palace; the House of
Commons the eastern.

Being so new, there are few important historical associations connected
with the House of Lords, and in recent times the most thrilling scenes
in parliamentary life have taken place in the other House, where the
expression of the emotions has always been allowed freer play, and
where the Government of the day has to meet its strongest opponents in
debate, but a very impressive ceremony takes place when the Sovereign
in person opens Parliament. He then takes his seat on the throne,
which can be seen in the plate, and reads his speech from it before a
brilliant audience. The British monarchy being a constitutional one,
this speech is, of course, really an outline of the policy of the
Ministry in office, and it usually says very little.

The composition of the members of the House of Lords consists of Lords
spiritual (Bishops), and Lords temporal. The latter include the five
dignities of Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron. No new dignity
has been created since the time of Henry VI, when the rank of viscount
was established. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth there were only
fifty-nine temporal peers, but the present number is about ten times as
many. The principle under which a peer holds his seat is in the main
the hereditary one, but there are a few peerages which are bestowed for
life only. The peers who are judges, sitting as a judicial tribunal,
constitute the Supreme Court of British Law, and the presiding peer of
the whole House, the Lord Chancellor, is a lawyer, and always belongs
to the party of the government in power. The Lord Chancellor's seat
is known as the Woolsack; this peculiar term comes from a period in
Elizabeth's reign when wool was the staple industry of England and its
export was forbidden; sacks of wool were kept in the Chamber of Peers
to remind them of its importance.




MUSIC NOTES: by Charles J. Ryan


Richard Wagner's autobiography, just published to the world at
large, though it does not include the last twenty years of his
life when he had attained success, has made a great stir among all
who are interested in the study of human nature. It is an amazing
self-revelation, and, from the Theosophical standpoint, a striking
example of the duality of man. The popular conception of Wagner is
amply confirmed by this "human document." But why should we waste
our time, and perhaps feed our own sense of self-righteousness
injudiciously, by dwelling on the failings of genius? Have not the
great men given us, in their immortal works, that which is really
worthiest of remembrance? Whatever his personal shortcomings were,
Wagner never failed in his loyal devotion to his ideal in music-drama;
he dared everything and suffered greatly in his protracted efforts
to lead the incredulous world to listen to his novel and glorious
revolutionary forms, which he knew to be superior to those of his
time. The soul behind stands out in his immortal music, high above the
limitations of his personality, for there was that in him which had
listened to the music of the spheres and which lived serenely apart
from the jar and jangle of the petty life. That it is possible for an
inspired Soul in touch with the Realities to force its way through
all kinds of difficulties, even the greatest--the incarnation in a
hindering personality--and to deliver its message of living beauty to
men, seems to be the principal lesson this ill-advised autobiography
teaches. It would have been better perhaps that it had never seen the
light, for there are not many who have the understanding of the complex
nature of man, the higher and the lower, which alone can interpret so
unusual a character.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE SPIRIT of revolution was in the air of Europe when Wagner was
meditating upon the imperfections of the grand opera of his youth. He
says, "The spirit of revolution took possession of me once forever."
In 1842 _The Flying Dutchman_ was brought out in Dresden, and in 1845
_Tannhäuser_ appeared and set all musical Europe by the ears. For
the rest of his life, till 1882, Wagner was at war with his fellow
musicians and critics. His keen perception of natural beauty and
artistic fitness is shown in the following passage from his _Life_:

 One solitary flash of brightness was afforded by our view of the
 Wartburg, which we passed during the only sunlit hour of this journey.
 The sight of this mountain fastness, which from the Fulda side is
 clearly visible for a long time, affected me deeply. A neighboring
 ridge further on I at once christened the Hörselberg, and as I drove
 through the valley pictured to myself the scenery for the third act of
 my _Tannhäuser_. The scene remained so vividly in my mind that long
 afterwards I was able to give Despléchin, the Parisian scene painter,
 exact details when he was working out the scenery under my directions.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE DEATH of Felix Mottl came as a sudden blow to all music lovers.
It was known for a little while that the great Viennese conductor
was in bad health, but not that he was dangerously ill. He was only
fifty-five. His reputation was made at an early age; in 1885 he was
conducting _Tristan_ at Baireuth. Mottl was virtually the last of the
great conductors who had received the true Wagnerian tradition by
personal contact with the great composer. He was also distinguished
among German conductors of his time by his liking and understanding of
French music, and for the success with which he conducted French music
before the most discriminating Parisian audiences. He was well known
in New York; where his conducting of the Nibelungen Ring series made
a profound impression. His remains were cremated. At his funeral in
Munich no clergy were present, but Richard Strauss gave an eloquent
address.

       *       *       *       *       *

"THERE are women in Boston," says the _Boston Herald_, "who are
undoubtedly as good violinists as some of the younger members of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, and perhaps better. But the old prejudice
that woman is necessarily inferior to man and for the same work should
receive less pay, is still to be reckoned with." Miss Maud Powell is
perhaps the only American woman violinist who has reached the highest
success in this country, but there are many others who have spent many
years at the best European Conservatories and who are quartet and solo
players of distinction, and yet while a male violinist of fair quality
can find employment, it is often difficult for women of equal ability
to be admitted into the best orchestras. They have to become teachers,
or to give up.

       *       *       *       *       *

PADEREWSKI'S eloquent patriotic address at the Chopin Centenary
Festival has just been translated into English. He says: "Music is the
only art that actually lives. Her elements, vibration, palpitation, are
the elements of life itself." The great pianist is repeating exactly
what Katherine Tingley said many years ago. In her Râja Yoga system
of training, music is given a prominent position, and the effect upon
the character has been very marked. To produce the best results and
to avoid the undesirable ones which the ordinary musical training
sometimes engenders, great discrimination in the method of teaching is
necessary. In the Râja Yoga system of education music is taught in such
a way that the interest is sustained without the egotism and vanity of
the pupil being stimulated. Can this be said of musical training in
general?

       *       *       *       *       *

FRANCE is certainly the land of great opportunities. A café singer,
M. Couyba, who, fifteen years ago was earning a precarious salary at
a Montmartre restaurant by singing his own songs, is now Minister of
Commerce in the new French cabinet.




ANCIENT CALENDARS: by Travers


Among features of the Chinese calendar we find:

The connexion of the five planets and the sun and moon in a septenate
called the Seven Regulators, with a corresponding septenary week, and
in some cases a sabbath marked as inauspicious for doing work.

The Ten Celestial Stems, representing the Father Heaven or masculine
principle.

The Twelve Earthly Branches, representing the Mother Earth or feminine
principle; also standing for the twelve houses of the zodiac, which are
of uneven size, and are denoted by symbolic animals.

The year is lunar, but its commencement is regulated by the sun, the
new year falling on the first new moon after the sun enters Aquarius.

These features are supposed to have been "introduced," mostly from
Chaldaea; but whether the Chinese got them from the Chaldees or the
Chaldees from the Chinamen, the question as to how and by whom they
were originated remains the same.

The subject of ancient calendrical systems is extensive, and no
speculation can be of much account which has not been prefaced by
an examination of the various systems. It would be pertinent, for
instance, to see what is known about the calendars which have came down
to us from the ancient Central Americans. These evince an accurate
knowledge of the periods of the celestial movements, together with
knowledge of another kind; for the Mexicans had both a civil and a
sacred year. The former was 365 days, with 13 added every 52 years; the
latter 260 days, with 13 months of 20 days each, each month divided
into 4 weeks of 5 days each.

It is evident that the entire system from which all these various
ancient systems of computation were derived was complex and profound,
and that it comprised a mathematical knowledge having sound reason at
the bottom of it, but whose keys have not yet been discovered. The
competency of the computers is shown by their ability to ascertain with
exactitude all natural cycles, such as those of the solar year and the
eclipses, when such was their purpose; and this relieves them from the
imputation that their secret and sacred years were due to ignorance
and mal-observation. These cycles were not due to ignorance, but to a
knowledge and a purpose which remains to be discovered by research free
from both theological and scientific bias.

The septenate of planets is of course a very familiar symbol in ancient
lore; the number seven was recognized as the principal key-number in
cosmic architecture. The reason why the sun and moon are included
among the number of planets is not due to ignorance; and it is evident
that such an alleged ignorance is not compatible with the knowledge
displayed in other particulars. It was due to the fact that the real
septenate of planets was esoteric, an item of arcane knowledge, and
that when the septenate was mentioned exoterically, the place of two
secret planets had to be supplied, the sun and moon being introduced
for this purpose.

The question whether the number of zodiacal signs was originally twelve
or ten receives a suggestive hint from the fact that in the above
calendar both a denary and a duodenary were used. The ten and the
twelve are combined in some of these calendars by taking their least
common multiple, 60, and using that number to designate a period of 60
years. Ten and twelve are likewise said to be combined by addition in
the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

From such gleanings of archaic science as are accessible to us, we
may infer that it consisted largely in a marvelous application of
fundamental mathematical principles to mensuration and the measurement
of time. The computers, so far from being ignorant experimenters,
were very brainy people, as we find some of their descendants to be
still. The still unexplained existence of the very ancient Âryan Hindû
astronomy of the _Sûrya-Siddhânta_ and other works, proves that, when
exact calculation of natural cycles was the object, the calculators
were fully as competent as ourselves. We must infer, then, that their
secret and sacred cycles were based on the like competence and not upon
ignorance.

As to mathematics, there are some who think that our great progress in
that science may represent merely a partial recovery of what was known
before; and that logarithms and the calculus may be but a fraction of
what has been known. And there is much yet to be found out as to the
relation between numbers and dimensions. It is hardly to be expected,
however, that a culture so recent as our own should have reached the
point that must have been attained by civilizations of such duration as
those of the past.




THE MYSTERIES OF ELEUSIS: by H. T. E.


Eleusis is sacred as one of the last, and to us best known, spots where
the Ancient Mysteries survived in publicly recognized form until the
days when corruption and dogmatism caused their withdrawal. The name
wakes an echo in the recesses of our consciousness, for do we not
belong to the same humanity as that which flourished when the Mysteries
were recognized and venerated?

In considering the Mysteries we must choose between two hypotheses.
Either the whole thing was a delusion and a fraud, or the Mysteries
held and could impart knowledge inaccessible to the outsider and
since departed from among men. To maintain the former theory we must
discredit our own judgment and invalidate all human testimony on any
subject whatever, by supposing that whole nations and ages of competent
and highly cultured people were deluded. As so well argued by Thomas
Taylor, relatively to the ancient oracles (_Century Path_, Sept. 25,
1910), such a theory is altogether preposterous. The only thing which
stands in the way of our admitting in this particular case the true
value of evidence is our own foolish vanity and juvenile insularity
as regards the merits of our own culture. We are reluctant to admit
that anything we do not know can be knowledge; any one who contradicts
us must be wrong. A fine attitude to take! Yet of late years our
confidence has somewhat wavered. For one thing we have found that
our scientific universe is not so complete as we once thought it was
and that we have merely been exploring an anteroom; but now we find
ourselves on the threshold of a vast unexplored region. For another
thing, we find a few little difficulties arising in connexion with the
management of the affairs of civilized life, which makes us a little
mistrustful of the efficiency of our knowledge. Little details like
physical health bother us; there are insurrections of vice we cannot
quell; our religion is decaying; our philosophy is composed mostly of
doubts and questionings.

The Mysteries of Eleusis date from times to us prehistoric; but our
historians have at last been forced to admit that the period of Grecian
civilization covered by our history books was but the tail end of a
period equal in culture and antiquity to those of Egypt and Chaldaea.
The rites consisted of the Greater and the Lesser Mysteries, the former
celebrated between harvest and seed-time, the latter in the spring. The
inner teachings were kept secret by effectual means; for the public
there were "dramas," in which the exoteric teachings were symbolically
presented. The institutions of all past times were based on what
filtered out through many channels from the veiled Mysteries. The
Drama can be traced back through the plays of Aeschylus and the choric
dances in honor of Dionysus to the exoteric rites of the Mysteries.
Our own religious symbolism is derived therefrom: our term "Christ,"
our sacraments, our Cross, etc., etc. The Mysteries are the eternal
root of religions. For the gateway of knowledge is Man's own inner
faculties, by which, when purified, he comes into direct relation with
the mysteries of the Unseen. Hence the preliminary requisite for the
candidate was always purification; his attainments were conditioned on
his success in that respect.

It is even so today; for none but the pure, who have given guarantees
of unselfishness and integrity, can attain. Those who lust after
knowledge without having thus earned the right to it fall into
delusions--of which also the world today is not without illustrations.
So great is the power of these words, "Mysteries" and "Eleusis," in the
inner consciousness of man, that they are even now used by "magicians"
as part of the paraphernalia which, together with rabbits and top-hats,
they carry about in their carpet bags as a means of relieving the idle
of some of their spare cash.

If anybody today thirsts after knowledge the old way is still open.
He can either belong to οἱ πολλοί, the crowd, or seek to
enrol himself of the elect. But the latter dignity is not a matter of
privilege. He can neither be admitted nor refused, except according
to his qualifications. The desire to join a movement for uplifting
humanity is the key that will open the first door. Students of
Theosophy will find that that condition has always been made essential;
see H. P. Blavatsky's writings, as also those of her successors, W. Q.
Judge and Katherine Tingley. He who desires to be initiated into the
mysteries of his own Soul must first purify his heart and mind. Thus
alone can he distinguish between the false and the true. Otherwise
he must go by the erring light of his fallible judgment and accept
teachings on the authority of the teachers. But the man who relies on
the guidance of his own pure motives will not be imposed upon and will
follow only such teachings as give him the light he seeks.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PART OF THE RUINS OF
ELEUSIS]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. HAINES, ALASKA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AN ALASKAN VALLEY]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AN ALASKAN GLACIER]




GLACIATION, PAST AND PRESENT: by T. Henry


The stupendous effects of ice in ages long gone by have been
elaborately studied by geologists, who have given us fascinating
descriptions thereof. The enormous power of ice as an agent in
transforming the land is shown by the study of its doings at the
present day. Much has been done in this direction in the Alps, but
in America we have Alaska, which, besides the prospects of material
resources which it holds out to the future, is already affording a fine
field for the observer of nature. Here we may see glaciers at work;
and though the action of the ice-sheet at its bottom is hid from view,
what goes on at the advancing margin is evident from year to year,
and even from day to day. All the phenomena of moraines, the pushing
forward of rocks and trees, the damming up of valleys to form lakes,
the scraping up of boulder-clay, the rounding-off of the rocks, etc.,
may be witnessed; together with many details that could not easily have
been inferred from a study of the sites of past glaciation. One of the
most interesting of these effects is the way in which the glacier acts
indirectly through the force of the huge waves it produces when it
enters a river. Vast blocks from the ice-front fall off with a splash
and send up a wave and a series of waves that sweep over the bank and
into the forest beyond, achieving more erosion than ever rain or river
did. The greater erosive effects follow on brief sudden movements.

In the _National Geographical Magazine_ (Washington) for June, 1911,
there is a most interesting article recording the field-studies of the
National Geographical Society in Alaska. Many of the glaciers which
they studied had advanced during the last year or two, and others had
been retreating. The reasons why some should advance while others
retreat were not satisfactorily determined, and further study must
precede a decision in this respect. But earthquakes, of which there
were twenty-six days in September, 1899, are assigned a chief rôle. The
effect of an earthquake was to produce a sudden advance and great but
brief transformations.

 One of the largest glaciers in Yakutat Bay, the Nunatak, had changed a
 great deal since the year before. It had advanced decidedly, different
 parts of its front having come out 700 to 1000 feet up to June 17,
 1910. From 1890 to 1909 the Nunatak Glacier receded steadily, going
 back over two miles and a half in this time.... The forward movement
 commenced between July 6, 1909 and June 1910. This was due to the
 accession of unusually large quantities of snow to the reservoirs
 of this glacier by avalanches during the twenty-six days of severe
 earthquakes of September, 1899.

The size of glaciers is illustrated by the following description:

 On the lower Copper River is Childs Glacier, which is seriously
 threatening to destroy a steel railway bridge just completed. The rate
 of forward motion in Childs Glacier increased during the winter of
 1909-10 so that part of the margin of the glacier changed its forward
 movement from nothing to two and as much as eight feet a day....
 Childs Glacier is ten to twelve miles long, not much over a mile wide
 in the mountain valley, but it widens to over three miles in Copper
 River Valley.

 Its front is a precipitous white wall 250 to 300 feet high, and is
 swept at the base by Copper River....

 In August, 1909, Childs Glacier was advancing at about its normal
 rate--four feet a day at a point near the north side and perhaps six
 or seven feet a day in midglacier. The melting and the many icebergs
 discharged from the terminal cliff at that time just about balanced
 this advance, so that the front of the glacier remained in about the
 same place.... During the winter and early spring of 1909-10, however,
 the glacier began to advance more rapidly, buckling up the ice of the
 frozen river. In June 1910 the ice-front had moved forward from 920 to
 1225 feet, narrowing the river to 400 or 500 feet.

 Every time the ice cliff was sufficiently undercut by the river, great
 masses of ice would cascade down the front, raising a gigantic wave in
 the river.... During the advance the waves washed up over a bank five
 to twenty-five feet in height and rushed back 100 or 200 feet into
 the alder thicket. Ice blocks, up to ten tons in weight were thrown
 in among the trees. Stones a foot or two in diameter were hurled into
 the thicket. Alders nine to eleven inches in diameter were stripped of
 leaves and bark and bent backward or broken off short, or uprooted or
 buried beneath the gravel and boulders and macerated trunks of other
 trees.

 The river bank, which was cut back some in the preceding year was in
 1910 being fairly eaten up by the iceberg waves which crossed the
 river, fifty to sixty feet by actual measurement having been removed
 along the bank of the stream facing the glacier.

 It was a rare opportunity to see the visible forward movement of
 Childs Glacier into the forest. A series of lobes developed, though
 some of them were not persistent, and at the end of these lobes the
 day-to-day changes were most pronounced. Ice blocks were sliding down
 the frontal slope some of them being rolled many feet into the forest;
 trees were overturned, turf and grass were ploughed up and carried on
 the ice of the glacier. Yet one saw and heard little of a spectacular
 nature while traversing the ice-front. It was an irresistible steady
 movement, but slow, as the movement of the hour hand of a clock is
 slow. As impressive as anything was to find tons of ice resting where
 one stood to take a photograph the day before, or to find some great
 tree, 100 years old, prone on the ground with the butt beneath the
 glacier, where the day before the tree was upright with the ice just
 touching it.

 A whole grove ... was overturned between 1909 and 1910, ...
 practically not a tree remaining which was not overturned or leaning.
 Peat bogs were rolled up in great bolsters five or six feet high.
 Isolated trees in the peat were pushed forward a hundred feet or more
 without being overturned.... In the bay east of Heather Island marine
 deposits with shells are being pushed up above sea-level.

 On the east margin of the glacier a lake was formed where there was
 only a marginal stream.

It is evident that in ice we have an agent which in the past has played
a great part in cosmic changes and cataclysms, and may do so at any
time in the future. When we consider the changes in climate to which
the earth is believed to be liable, owing to certain cyclic changes in
the gearing of its revolving pinions, the conviction becomes stronger.
It is now generally admitted that the words "Ice Age" or "Glacial Age"
should be spelt with a final _s_ indicating the plural number; for if
there was one there were many. What we study in the north of America
and Europe is the effects of the last, or the last few, of these
periodic phenomena.




GOD AND THE CHILD

"For in Him we live and move and have our being."--_St. Paul_


  God and I in space alone
  And nobody else in view:
  "And where are the people, oh Lord," I said,
  "The earth below and the sky o'erhead
  And the dead whom once I knew?"

  "That was a dream," the good God said,
  "A dream that seemed to be true;
  There are no people living or dead,
  There is no earth and no sky o'erhead,
  There is only Myself--and you."

  "Why do I feel no fear?" I asked,
  "Meeting you here this way,
  For I have sinned, I know full well--
  And is there heaven and is there a hell
  And is this the judgment day?"

  "Nay, all are but dreams," the great God said;
  "Dreams that have ceased to be.
  There is no such thing as fear or sin,
  There is no you and never has been--
  There is nothing at all but Me."--_Selected_




POWER: by Lydia Ross, M. D.


His hearers agreed that the pastor of their ultra-fashionable church
had transcended himself that Sunday morning. This was no small praise,
for his trained mind and wide experience, his analysis of men, his
delicate wit, his eloquence, and the fervid poetry of his prayers made
the congregation regard his ordinary efforts with patronizing pride.
When he began with the beatitudes, in clear, resonant tones, his voice
seemed to radiate a grateful calm through the softly lighted interior.
Then he painted a graphic picture of the compensations of unselfish
work and sacrifice, artistically coloring the whole theme with the glow
of noble peace which comes to those who give themselves generously.

There was a responsive awakening in the cultured, ennuied minds of his
high-bred audience which was like wine to the speaker. The interest
which he had aroused reacted as a pungent mental stimulus. The very air
seemed to scintillate with new thoughts which he swiftly grasped and
clothed in vivid words.

My Lady Luxury, who had played the game of "slumming" for diversion,
breathed a little deeper in her faultless gown. The commonplace
creatures of work and weariness had never seemed quite the same kind
of flesh and blood as the members of her exclusive set. The poor were
interesting enough as authors' types or artists' models but she had
not supposed they had any of the finer feelings. She assumed that
the narrow ugliness of their lives could be no trial since they had
never known anything else. How skilfully the minister was analysing
things. After all, there was some comfort in religion when a man could
preach like that. If the homely struggles of the weary, dulled mothers
and fathers of poverty and toil had these compensating pleasures of
sacrifice, they could not complain. It really was an indifferent
matter, then, whether one gave alms or not, though of course, the
fashionable charities ought to be sustained. She was not stirred to
taste the higher sense of sacrifice so well described, but a complacent
feeling of the fitness of things came over her. How absurd the less
fortunate were to think this an unjust world. The toilers' backs were
fitted to their burdens as hers was meant for soft purple and fine
linen. This was not exactly what the minister was saying, but it suited
her to regard him as the author of her translation.

The members of the pulpit committee in their pews secretly
congratulated themselves upon their foresight in having selected this
candidate. The demands of the position were exacting, but he was equal
to them--even his physique fitted the pulpit admirably. His culture and
learning were a credit to even this patrician parish, which believed in
having the best that money could procure.

Down the central aisle was the clear-cut, immobile face of a financier
whose opinions in the money world were never discounted. His keen eyes
rested upon the speaker in admiration. Personally he played the game
of gold so intensely he forgot to calculate what life meant to the
individuals who composed "the market." He was rather hypnotized with
his own success: but he recognized his peer in this man who ruled in
his own world of thought. Why, he was making the game of life appear so
vivid and real that the whole financial play grew dull and artificial
beside it. The listener's quick eye noted the alert, interested faces
around him. Ah, it were indeed a great thing so to play upon the minds
of men and women as to win this tribute of silent, rapt attention. The
eloquent voice aroused in him no impulse of envy or of aspiration; but
his own ability inwardly saluted this master of words who could so
paint the atmosphere with sound.

A gratified flush crept into the minister's face as he looked over the
audience. Was this not ready proof of the compensations of work? He had
put his mind's best effort into this sermon, and there was not one in
the great church who was not touched, mentally.

That sense of the unreality of the market-place followed the financier
after the artistic music had ended the service. Later in the day he
wandered along the country roads in the spring sunshine, thinking of
the sermon. How dramatic it all had been and how perfect a performance!
It seemed a part of the fresh spring day as the inviting green fields
melted into his reverie and he followed the path with careless strides.

The wind gently stirred the branches and a delicate shower of fragrant
petals fell at his feet, while a strangely familiar odor filled the air
with its long-forgotten charm. Apple blossoms! How sweet they were!
With delicious subtlety the perfumed breath from the boughs filled him
with its own ethereal magic. Nature was playing a glorious game of
sound and color and form and fragrance. Deep in his slumbering heart
something stirred and fluttered and sprang up at the first touch of
this enchantment. The power in the fragile petals swept the sordid
earth from under his feet. The dear old apple orchard of his boyhood
was before him. Again he stood upon the threshold of joyous, strong,
young life. The taste of sweet belief in an untried world was on his
lips, the wine of high impulse tingling in every nerve. The harmony
of life's song thrilled him into vibrant sympathy with its purity and
beauty and his heart glowed with the faith which only youth knows.

Oh that he might crystallize the wondrous meaning of this perfumed
vision of unfolding life into sound or color or form that would make
the dreary world of men feel that this, this was the reality! His
pulses throbbed with a longing for toil and struggle and sacrifice--no
effort was too great, no price too much to pay, if only he might help
to voice this living poetry. He would valiantly espouse this cause of
beauty until mankind's glad belief should liberate the truth imprisoned
in a selfish world. No lesser ambition should lure him from the task:
this was the only thing worth while. Other champions might prove more
able, and he might sadly fail; but oh, how he longed to lose himself in
the glory of the attempt.

With uncovered head the financier stood disciple-wise among the
trees. Long and deeply he drank of the redolent air, feasting his
eyes upon the marvel of perfectly tinted petals and countless buds of
promise still brighter in their tender curves. It was all too subtle
for analysis, yet his heart recognized the meaning of the message
so strangely sweet and strong. What revelation lay at the heart of
this unfoldment, with its touch of the eternal spring which sleeps
beneath all forms! Oh the power and inspiration and the rare, old-time
enchantment of returning apple-blossoms!




SOKRATES: by F. S. Darrow, A. M., Ph. D. (Harv.)


Sokrates was born in 469 B. C. and was put to death in 399 B. C. at the
age of seventy. He grew to manhood among the splendors of the Periklean
Age; took an active and honorable part in the Peloponnesian War;
saw the Long Walls, extending from Athens to its harbor, Peiraeeus,
destroyed at the blast of Lysander's trumpet, and displayed the
fearlessness and nobility of his nature during the Reign of Terror when
the Thirty Tyrants ruled at Athens. Finally he was accused of heresy
and was condemned by his fellow-citizens to drink the hemlock--the
immemorial fate of great believers, to be condemned for unbelief by
unbelievers.

Three dialogs of Plato depict the last month of his master's life,
the _Apology_, the _Crito_, and the _Phaedo_. The _Apology_ is a
reproduction of the extemporaneous defense made by Sokrates at his
trial. The _Crito_ is a discussion between Sokrates and his old friend
Kriton on the subject: Would it be right and just for Sokrates to
accept Kriton's proffered assistance and escape? The _Phaedo_ is a most
beautiful and inspiring account of the last day of Sokrates' life, when
in prison surrounded by a few devoted disciples, in discussing the
nature and destiny of the soul he avowed his belief in its immortality,
its pre-existence, and its rebirth.

The personality of Sokrates was strikingly unique. He was unusually
robust and strong, capable of enduring fatigue and hardship to a
surprising degree. He went barefoot throughout the year, even when
campaigning at Potidaea and among the severe snows of Thrace. The same
clothing sufficed him in winter as in summer. His diet was simple
and temperate, and "he used to say in jest that Circe transformed
men into hogs by entertaining them with an abundance of luxury,
but that Odysseus through his temperance was not changed into a
hog." Nevertheless, at festivals and banquets when joviality and
indulgence were in order, Sokrates was able to outdo all the others.
He consciously limited the number of his wants and repressed all
artificial tastes. He was just, moderate, and above all independent
in thought and action, absolutely regardless of danger when confident
that he was acting rightly. His features were extremely ugly and
grotesque: his nose was flat, his nostrils large, his lips thick, his
eyes bulging; so that his companions jokingly compared him to the
mythical old Satyr, Silenus. He purposely avoided politics and never
held any public office until 406 B. C., when for a single day, as
chairman of the Prytanes, he presided at a meeting of the Popular
Assembly and refused to put to vote the unconstitutional proposal that
the victorious generals of Arginusae be condemned collectively and be
executed for their alleged neglect of duty. Heedless of threats and
protests, at the greatest personal risk Sokrates persisted in his noble
refusal to listen to the clamor of the mob. He was so law-abiding,
such an advocate of peace and stranger to violence, so diligent in
the performance of the duties of an upright man and of a brave and
righteous citizen, that despite his many enemies he was never summoned
to appear in court until in his seventieth year he was accused of
atheism and impiety. He was pre-eminently a teacher of ethics, a
preacher of morality, a defender of right, an earnest believer in duty.
He is the Prophet of Reason, who "more than any other one of the great
teachers of religion sought to sanctify the mind and to give to common
sense a sacramental power."

Three peculiarities mark Sokrates as a loyal member of that splendid
band of brothers who possess that wisdom which in all ages, entering
into noble souls, makes them prophets and reformers. First, he passed
his long life teaching in contented poverty, and devoted all his
energy to pointing out piety, self-control, and justice to all, young
and old alike. Secondly, he was of a deeply sensitive, religious
nature, and firmly believed that he had a divine mission to perform
under the inspiration of his Daemon or Higher Self. Thirdly, he was
intellectually original both in choice of subject and in method of
teaching. Plato calls him "a cross-examining God."

 His lecture-room was the street; his auditors were shoemakers,
 tanners, sailors, and other craftsmen; his philosophy was for the
 market-place. His disciples were young men whose minds he had
 quickened and whose lives he had elevated. He aimed to prick the
 bubble of pretension everywhere.... To Sokrates the precept inscribed
 on the Delphian temple, "Know thyself," was the holiest of all texts.

He accepted no salary for the instruction he gave and refused the
many rich gifts which were offered to him, spending the entire day in
conversing with all who cared to listen to him, treating without any
distinction rich and poor, never withholding his assistance from any
one who consulted him in the spirit of truth. As his words were both
interesting and instructive, some regularly attended him in public,
and these were commonly called his disciples of students, although
neither Sokrates nor his personal friends used the terms teacher and
disciple because of the disrepute then attached to them as a result of
the mercenary and casuistical teachings of the Sophists. Early in the
morning Sokrates frequented the public walks, the gymnasia, and the
schools. Then later, between nine and ten, he went to the market-place,
when it was most crowded.

Sokrates' power of meditation was developed very exceptionally.
Frequently for hours at a time the strength of his inner life made him
entirely oblivious to the outer world. In proof of this it is recorded
that while he was a soldier at Potidaea

 One morning he was thinking about something which he could not
 resolve; and he would not give it up but continued thinking from
 early dawn until noon--there he stood fixed in thought; and at noon
 attention was drawn to him and the rumor ran through the wondering
 crowd that Sokrates had been standing and thinking about something
 ever since the break of day. At last, in the evening after supper,
 some Ionians out of curiosity (I should explain that this was not in
 winter but in summer), brought out their mats and slept in the open
 air that they might watch him and see whether he would stand all
 night. There he stood all night as well as all day and the following
 morning; and with the return of light he offered up a prayer to the
 sun and went his way.

Two nights before he died, when the date of his execution was not known
by him or his friends, it was revealed to him by a vision "in the
likeness of a woman, fair and comely, clothed in white raiment, who
called out and cried: 'O Sokrates, the third day hence, to Phthia shalt
thou go.'" Sokrates also declares:

 In the course of my life I have often had intimations in dreams that
 "I should make music." The same dream came to me sometimes in one form
 and sometimes in another but always saying the same or nearly the same
 words: "Make and cultivate music," said the dream. And hitherto I
 imagined that this was only intended to exhort and encourage me in the
 study of philosophy, which has always been the pursuit of my life and
 is the noblest and best of music.

Also, Sokrates heard even in childhood a divine voice, which all
through his life acted as a restraining influence whenever he was about
to take a false step. This never urged him to adopt any particular
line of action but always served as a prohibitory warning. He heard
it not only on great but also on small occasions when it frequently
prevented him from continuing what he had begun to say or do. Later
writers refer to this as the Daemon or Genius of Sokrates, but he
always spoke of it as a "Divine Sign, a Prophetic Voice," and obeyed
it implicitly, referring to it publicly and familiarly to others. It
had continually forbidden him to enter public life, and after he was
indicted it forbade him to take any thought of what he should then do
or say, bidding him to trust that all would come out for the best.
So completely, he tells us, did he walk with a consciousness of this
bridle that whenever he felt no check he was confident that all was
well. His enemies asserted that this belief was an offensive heresy,
an impious innovation on the orthodox creed, atheistic and immoral.
Hence they accused him of not worshiping the recognized gods but of
introducing new and false divinities of his own. The truth is that
Sokrates believed in One Divine Life, the One in All and the All in
One, while he did not deny the existence of the popular gods but
declared that the popular conceptions were erroneous and imperfect.

To appreciate the mission of Sokrates, the message he had to deliver,
it is necessary to refer to the Oracle of Delphi, in which Apollo
proclaimed to Chaerephon, an intimate friend and enthusiastic follower,
that Sokrates was the wisest of all men of his time. This declaration
exerted a very great influence upon the subsequent life of Sokrates in
that it caused him to inquire continually, What is wisdom? and made him
not only a philosopher but a religious reformer as well. In the words
of Cicero: "Sokrates labored to bring philosophy from heaven to earth."

Sokrates taught:

 There is no better way to true glory than to endeavor to _be good_
 rather than to _seem so_.

 A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of
 living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything
 he is doing right or wrong--acting the part of a good man or of a bad.
 For wherever a man's place is, whether the place he has chosen or that
 in which he has been placed by a commander, there he ought to remain
 in the hour of danger; he should not think of death or of anything but
 of disgrace.

 The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding
 unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.

 Let every man be of good cheer about his soul, who has ruled his body
 and followed knowledge and goodness in this life; for if death be a
 journey to another place and there all the dead are, what good can be
 greater than this? Be of good cheer about death and know this of a
 truth that no evil can happen to a good man either in life or after
 death.

 To want as little as possible is to make the nearest approach to the
 Deity.

 Knowledge is the food of the soul.

 We ought not to retaliate and render evil for evil to any one,
 whatever evil we may have suffered from him. Neither injury nor
 retaliation nor warding off evil by evil is ever right. Act toward
 others as you would have others act toward you. Forgive your enemies,
 render good for evil, and kiss even the hand that is upraised to smite.

 Grant me to be beautiful in soul and may all I possess of outward
 things be at harmony with those within. Teach me to think wisdom the
 only riches.

 If thou wouldst know what is the wisdom of the gods and what their
 love is, render thyself deserving the communication of some of those
 divine secrets, which may not be penetrated by man and which are
 imparted to those alone who consult, adore, and obey the Deity.

Sokrates, speaking of his life-work, says:

 In this research and scrutiny I have been long engaged. I interrogate
 every man of reputation. I prove him to be defective in wisdom but I
 can not prove it so as to make him sensible of the defect. Fulfilling
 the mission imposed upon me, I have established the veracity of the
 god (Apollo), who meant to pronounce that human wisdom is of little
 reach and worth; and that he who like Sokrates feels most convinced of
 his own worthlessness as to wisdom is really the wisest of men, for
 the truth is, O men of Athens, the Deity only is wise. My service to
 the god has not only constrained me to live in constant poverty and
 neglect of political estimation, but has brought upon me a host of
 bitter enemies in those whom I have examined and exposed, while the
 bystanders talk of me as a wise man because they give me credit for
 wisdom respecting all the points on which my exposure of others turns.

 Whatever be the danger and obloquy which I may incur, it would be
 monstrous indeed, if having maintained my place in the ranks as an
 hoplite under your generals at Delium and Potidaea, I were now from
 fear of death or anything else to disobey the oracle and desert
 the post which the god has assigned to me, the duty of living for
 philosophy and cross-questioning both myself and others. And should
 you even now offer to acquit me, on condition of my renouncing this
 duty, I should tell you with all respect and affection that I will
 obey the god rather than you and that I will persist until my dying
 day in cross-questioning you, exposing your want of wisdom and virtue
 and reproaching you until the defect be remedied. My mission as your
 monitor is a mark of the special favor of the gods to you and if you
 condemn me it will be your loss; for you will find none other such.
 Perhaps you will ask me, Why cannot you go away, Sokrates, and live
 in peace and silence? This is the hardest of all questions for me to
 answer to your satisfaction. If I tell you that silence on my part
 would be disobedience to the god, you will think me in jest and not
 believe me. You will believe me still less, if I tell you that the
 greatest blessing which can happen to man is to carry on discussions
 every day about virtue and those other matters which you hear me
 conversing, when I cross-examine myself and others and that life
 without such examination is no life at all. Nevertheless so stands the
 fact, incredible as it may seem to you.

 I certainly have my enemies [the Pharisaical party and the High
 Priests of orthodoxy] and these will be my destruction if I am
 destroyed; of that I am certain; not that Meletos, nor yet Anytos, but
 the envy and detraction of the world, which has been the death of
 many more--there is no danger of my being the last of them.

Later, after his condemnation, he added:

 And I prophesy to you, my murderers, that immediately after my death,
 punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await
 you. Me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser and
 not to give an account of your lives. But that will not be as you
 suppose; far otherwise. For I say that there will be more accusers of
 you than there are now. For if you think that by killing men you can
 avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken--that is not
 a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest
 and noblest way is not to be crushing others but to be improving
 yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter to the judges who have
 condemned me.

How true have the last twenty-three centuries proved these words to be!
How many deaths and ruined lives have been accomplished by that same
spirit of intolerance! It led the way from Gethsemane to Golgotha. It
is responsible for the death of the martyrs in all ages. It lighted the
fagots that consumed the bodies of Giordano Bruno and Joan of Arc. Yes,
and hundreds of others. How just is the praise with which the Saint
Mark of Sokrates ends the _Memorabilia_ of his master:

 Of those who know what sort of a man Sokrates was, such as are lovers
 of virtue continue to regret him above all other men even to the
 present date, as having contributed in the highest degree to their
 advancement in goodness. To me, being such as I have described him, so
 pious that he did nothing without the sanction of the gods; so just,
 that he wronged no man even in the most trifling affair, but was of
 service in most important matters to those who enjoyed his society; so
 temperate that he never preferred pleasure to virtue; so wise that he
 never erred in distinguishing the better from the worse, needing no
 counsel from others but being sufficient in himself to discriminate
 between them; and so capable of discovering the character of others,
 of confuting those who were in error and of exhorting them to virtue
 and honor, he seemed to be such as the best and happiest of men would
 be.

  Then to side with Truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
  Ere her cause bring fame and profit and 'tis prosperous to be just,
  Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
  Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
  And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

  Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes--they were souls that stood alone
  While the men they agonized for, hurled the contumelious stone;
  Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline,
  To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine.--
  They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth.

Sokrates was early canonized as a Christian Saint, and Professor
John Stuart Blackie (1808-1895) "Scotland's greatest Greek scholar,"
has taken the idea of his Latin refrain in the following poem from a
rosary by an early Christian father beginning "Sancte Socrates, ora pro
nobis:"--"O, Sainted Socrates, pray for us."


O SANCTE SOCRATES, ORA PRO NOBIS!

  Dear God by wrathful routs
      How is thy church divided,
  And how may he that doubts
      In such turmoil be guided!
  When weeping I behold
      How Christian people quarrel,
  Ofttimes from Heathens old
     I fetch a saintly moral;
  And while they fret with rage
     The sore-distraught community,
  I look for some Greek sage
      Who preaches peace and unity.
          And thus I pray:
  O Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis!
      Let faith and love and joy increase,
  And reason rule and wrangling cease,
      Good saint, we pray thee!

  They pile a priestly fence
      Of vain scholastic babble,
  To keep out common sense
  With the unlearned rabble.
  A curious creed they weave,
      And, for the church commands it,
  All men must needs believe,
      Though no man understands it;
  Thus while they rudely ban
      All honest thought as treason
  I from the Heathen clan
      Seek solace to my reason.
          And thus I pray:
  O Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis!
      From creeds that men believe because
  They fear a damnatory clause,
      Good saint, deliver us!

  Some preach a God so grim
      That when his anger swelleth,
  They crouch and cower to him
      When sacred fear compelleth;
  God loves his few pet lambs,
      And saves his one pet nation,
  The rest he largely damns
      With swinging reprobation.
  Thus banished from the fold,
      I wisely choose to follow
  Some sunny preacher old
      Who worshiped bright Apollo.
          And thus I pray:
  O Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis!
      From silly flocks of petted lambs,
  And from a faith that largely damns,
      Good saint, deliver us!

         *       *       *       *       *

  Such eager fancies vain
      Shape forth the rival churches;
  And each man's fuming brain
      God's holy light besmirches;
  And thus they all conspire
      The primal truth to smother,
  And think they praise their sire
      By hating well their brother.
  Such wrangling when I see
      Such storms of godly rancor,
  To Heathendom I flee
      To cast a peaceful anchor.
          And thus I pray:
  O Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis!
      Let love and faith and joy increase,
  And reason rule and wrangling cease,
      Good saint, we pray thee!

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. SOKRATES AND SENECA
(Berlin Museum)]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AVENUE OF ROYAL
PALMS, CUBA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. CUBAN COUNTRY SCENE]


[Illustration: FLORIDA PALMETTOS ONE-HALF MILE AVENUE]

[Illustration: A CASUARINA AVENUE TREES 13 YEARS OLD]

ROYAL POINCIANA HOTEL, PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

Photos by Puffer, New York and Palm Beach




A VISIT TO A LOUISIANA SUGAR PLANTATION: by Barbara McClung


The writer recently made a visit to a section of the country that still
retains much of its own distinctive individuality and charm, most
delightful in these days, when the various widely-differing regions
of our vast commonwealth seem to be trying to become as much alike as
possible, and the very word _provincial_ is a name of scorn. We left
New Orleans in the early morning and much time was consumed in crossing
the Mississippi on a ferry. Soon after reaching the other side, the
sugar plantations began, and our way lay through mile after mile of
brown furrowed fields stretching, as flat as the sea, to the distant
river levee, the only high ground in sight. What a glorious scene it
must be in the spring, when the young green cane begins to sprout, or
in the fall, when it stands drawn up full height, waiting to be cut! It
is an extremely wet country, full of countless ditches and trenches,
and there is something about the flat land and straight, intersecting
canals that reminds one of Holland. As the train swept through one
plantation after another, we could see in the distance, gleaming white
homesteads, set in little islands of green live-oaks, cut off by a
fence from the spreading sea of bare fields. Each plantation had its
sugar-house, lifting four or five tall smoke-stacks in air, and its
laborers' quarters--quite a little village of cabins or cottages, and
sometimes, we ran close enough to see old-time darkies in actual red
bandannas, staring at the train.

There is a class of French "poor whites" in this region, called
"Cajins"--a corruption of "Arcadians"--and they are indeed a forlorn
remnant of those unfortunate exiles who wandered all the way from
Nova Scotia to the bayous of Louisiana. The writer's memory reverted
in a flash to the fields of Grandpré, which she had visited only last
summer, and to the vision of the lonely well-sweep and straggling line
of ancient French willows, which once bordered the vanished village
street. Strange to say, there is a noticeable resemblance between the
flat, inlet-threaded meadows of the Minas Basin and the winding bayous
around us. Occasionally the plantations would give way to swamps, where
palmettos, bamboos, and cypresses with their weirdly beautiful trailing
moss, were growing out of a watery, glassy floor, and it was hard to
realize that if drained, these marshes would be quite as good soil as
the rest. We saw a solitary hunter, gun in hand, standing on a bit of
tree trunk in the bog; how he could have gotten there without a boat or
else wings, is a mystery.

The house at which we visited, realized in every way one's ideal
of what an old plantation home should be. It is an immense square
building with double galleries, tall white columns and green shutters;
it faces the Mississippi, which, however, cannot be seen from the
ground floor on account of the levee. The architecture is of engaging
simplicity--four large rooms, each exactly twenty-five feet square,
upstairs and down, with a hall eighteen feet wide between. At the
rear is a long wing, perhaps a later addition, with the inevitable
and delightful gallery around it. The house contains many treasures
of beautiful antique workmanship and mementos of a by-gone time. Our
hostess pointed with pride to an immense pair of glass candle shields,
about two feet high, which had belonged to her grandmother. They stood
on each side of the mantelpiece, over tall silver candlesticks, whose
flame they could protect from all possible draughts. We slept in a high
four-poster bed, with a canopy, lined with red pleated cloth, like the
inside of a mushroom, which would have done credit to a lady of the
ancient régime.

Though the sugar-making season was over on our host's plantation, he
took us to one in the neighborhood that was still in operation. The
equipment was of the most up-to-date kind--great iron claws to rake the
cane from the cars to a sort of traveling trough, called a conveyor,
which carries it up to the chopper: from whence it travels through
several crushers until all the juice is squeezed out and the remaining
pulp is as dry as tinder. This is carried off to be used as fuel or
fertilizer. The cane juice goes from one boiling vat to another, being
purified with lime and sulphur, and refined again and again, smelling
more and more delicious at every stage of its progress. We watched the
syrup being changed to sugar by a very interesting centrifugal process,
and then shaken into barrels. Two barrels at a time were placed upon
metal plates, and by means of an electric current, were made to dance
gaily, shaking down the sugar as it fell until it was firmly packed.
It was an absurd sight, and the writer was reminded at once of dancing
furniture at a spiritualistic séance. We were surprised to learn that
one-third of the ground has to be planted in corn to supply the stock;
the crops are rotated so as to allow sugar-cane for two successive
years, then corn the third, etc.

Our host and hostess and their family were true types of southern
hospitality. The occasion of our visit was a wedding, and the old house
was crowded to its utmost capacity, with new guests arriving on every
train. Yet there was no stir of nervous excitement: everything moved
with a tranquil gaiety, and we felt a delightful sense of informality
as if we were a part of the household. Perhaps the strongest
sense-impression which remains with the writer, is the memory of waking
in the early morning and looking out, at the dawn-flushed sky beyond
the white pillars of the verandah and the gray Spanish moss draping the
live-oak trees. That tender, peaceful moment, full of color and soft
brightness, seemed to seal upon the mind something of the poetry and
the romance of the old South.




THE LORELEI: by a Student-Traveler


Just where the river Rhine narrows and inclines, making a drop of
five feet which causes the water to flow more swiftly, towers the
Rock of the Lorelei, four hundred and fifty feet high and nearly
perpendicular, at the base of which sunken rocks form a whirlpool in
the rapidly flowing stream. At the top of the high rock in olden days,
so the legend runs, a maiden sat and sang, and as she sang she combed
her golden hair. And her song was so full of magic that boatmen on
the river below, falling under the spell of her enchantment, as they
listened to the song, forgot the dangers of the whirling waters and
were dashed to pieces on the sunken rocks underneath.

Is the tale of the Lorelei a mere poetical personification of the
whirlpool and rocks? If so, how account for the tale being universal?
Who does not know the story of Ulysses and the Sirens? Virgil's Harpies
had the faces of maidens, but ended in foul feathers and talons. And
so with many another destructive enchantress in ancient myth. People
seem to have loved to trace out in the topography of their native land
its analogies with that internal region wherein the Soul goes its
pilgrimage. In every land there were sacred mountains, healing founts,
caves of the Sibyl, rocks of the Lorelei, etc. The eternal drama of the
human Soul has been allegorized again and again, always with the same
features, though the topography is changed to suit the race and time.
Every man knows the luring enchantress, for who has not been seduced
by the captivating charms of promised pleasure, only to be mocked and
punished?

And why these cheating experiences of the Soul? Are they the chiding
hand of a God or the mocking malice of a fiend; or are we the sport
of a Chance whose utter indifference outclasses alike the wrath of
deity and the malice of devil? The answer is a commonsense one. Life
is not a cradle of down nor a pleasure-garden. It is a drama full of
incident, an enterprise full of adventure, a world full of people.
In it we find the helper and the adversary; and if there are sirens
and wicked giants, there are also the meed of victory, the bride won,
the warrior's home-coming. Life is worth while, for the triumphs it
contains; and it is because we aspire to the triumphs that we engage in
the fights, though our lower nature, the mere varlet, may cry out at
the discomfort. The Dragon, once defeated, becomes our ally.

If we would win beauty and truth, we must not seek in them mere balm
for the senses, but rise in our strength and be worthy of them. What is
worth having is not to be had for the taking.

  Beauty rhymes with duty.
    Truth rhymes with ruth.

Tarry not in the pleasure grounds of sense, heed not the sweet voices
of illusion, thou who aspirest to wisdom--say the ancient teachings.
It is the illusion produced by the senses and desires that we have to
overcome, if we would not be dashed on the rocks of the Lorelei.


LORELEI

(Heinrich Heine)

  Ich weisz nicht was soll es bedeuten
    Dass ich so traurig bin,
  Ein Märchen von alten Zeiten
    Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.

  Die Luft ist kühl und es dunkelt
    Und ruhig flieszt der Rhein,
  Der Gipfel des Berges funkelt
    Im Abendsonnenschein.

  Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet
    Dort oben wunderbar,
  Ihr gold'nes Geschmeide blitzet,
    Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar;

  Sie kämmt es mit goldenem Kamme
    Und singt ein Lied dabei
  Das hat eine wundersame
    Gewaltige Melodei.

  Den Schiffer im kleinen Schiffe
    Ergreift es mit wildem Weh'
  Er sieht nicht die Felsenriffe
    Er schaut nur hinauf in die Höh'.

  Ich glaube die Wellen verschlingen
    Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn,
  Und das hat mit ihrem Singen
    Die Lorelei gethan.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE ROCK OF THE
LORELEI]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE WESTERN
FOUR-TOED SALAMANDER (_Batrachoseps attenuatus_)]




THE WESTERN FOUR-TOED SALAMANDER: by Percy Leonard


The Batrachians occupy a place between the reptiles proper and the
fishes. They are distinguished from the fishes by the possession of
paired limbs furnished with four fingers and a thumb, and though
their early days are passed beneath the water, breathing like fishes
through their gills, yet when fully grown, almost without exception
they breathe through well-developed lungs. There is a superficial
resemblance between the reptilian lizard and the batrachian newt or
salamander, and they are often confounded together in the popular mind.
True reptiles, however, are easily distinguished from batrachians by
their overlapping scales, quite different from the smooth moist skins
of the latter. Reptiles breathe as we do by expanding the ribs and
drawing the air into the hollow thus formed; but batrachians, lacking
ribs, are obliged to swallow their air, and a glance at a toad or a
salamander will reveal the incessant palpitation of the throat as the
air is forced into the lungs. Reptiles are hatched, or born, as the
case may be, perfect copies in miniature of their parents and never go
through the tadpole stage. Batrachians are divided into two groups: the
Salientia (or Jumpers), and the Urodela. The Salientia (or Jumpers)
comprise the frogs and toads; and the Urodela include the numerous
tribes of newts, water-dogs, efts, and salamanders.

The illustration shows one of the lowliest of the order of Urodela, the
western four-toed salamander (_Batrachoseps attenuatus_). The legs are
ridiculously small in comparison to the long, unwieldy body. That the
tail is fat and cylindrical is only to be expected, because being a
terrestrial salamander, it has no need of a flat tail for swimming like
the water-haunting newts. Probably the bulky tail serves as a store
of nourishment in reserve for use in time of famine, as does the hump
of a camel under similar circumstances. Here at Point Loma these odd
creatures may be found under stones in the damp cañons. In the absence
of pools they cannot pass through the tadpole stage under water and so
the various phases of tadpole transformation are gone through while
in the egg. The males are glossy black; but the female figured in the
picture has a light brown skin with irregular blotches of flesh color
on the tail.

A male once captured by the writer exhibited a curious case of mimicry.
He coiled up just like a rattlesnake and looked so venomous and
threatening as to inspire terror in anyone who was unaware of his utter
powerlessness to do an injury.

The abnormal humidity of the air enables this delicate animal to
survive the rainless months of summer, and probably he never ventures
from his shelter till the sun goes down and the dew provides a little
moisture. The mere contact of his skin with a dewy surface would
probably be as refreshing as a draught of water to a thirsty man; but
the salamander, like the frog, does not drink: he simply "blots up" his
water through the skin.

Thus the four-toed western salamander passes his uneventful days
and nights. His pleasures are few and simple and his sorrows
correspondingly light.

According to Theosophy, the inner Essence of every creature in this
broad universe either is, was, or prepares to become, man; but the mind
staggers in the attempt to conceive the enormous stretches of time
before such dull, inert, insensitive beings will arrive at the human
stage. But pain is a grand stimulant and spur to advance, and perchance
when the salamander gets eaten by a snake or a stoat, he gains as
compensation for the pangs of death some slight promotion to a higher
order of batrachians in his next rebirth! So mote it be.




THE REAL MAN: by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.


"Now we know the real man," is the usual comment when some heretofore
respectable citizen is convicted of forgery and sent to jail: "_Now_ we
know his real character."

Do we?

A fire breaks out in the prison and the forger reveals himself a hero,
risking life without a second's hesitation for the rescue of his jailer
or fellow-prisoners.

Do we _now_ know his "real character"?

Later on, his confinement, throwing him in upon himself, provides
opportunity for the manifestation of a marked vein of poetry, and from
his prison he issues a volume which at once takes high rank in the
literature of the day.

Some will now put away their _moral_ standard of measurement, produce
another, and remark that the "real man" after all turns out to have
been a poet.

You can photograph half of a man's face, right or left, throw the
picture over upon itself and get a whole face composed of two lefts,
and another of two rights--often quite different.

We judge character in that way, taking any one aspect of it upon which
we choose to dwell or which alone we see, and of that one constructing
a whole. Thus the same man viewed by various knowers of him is a
philosopher, a sharp lawyer, a skilful amateur actor, or an ever-ready
helper and friend in times of trouble or perplexity. To his cook he may
be solely a grumbler, and to his son at school a supply-machine whose
crank is not always easy to turn.

To come back to the prisoner. The "respectable citizen" was evidently
not the whole of him. Under stress he revealed the weakness and
dishonesty which led to the forgery. Environment, the temptation,
brought them to the surface. We need not say that his character
changed. Nevertheless, as we all know, a change of character is
possible--so thorough that after emergence from prison no stress of
temptation and no assurance from discovery would provoke another theft.
On the other hand we cannot conceive of his change from a hero into a
coward, nor hardly of his loss of the poetic vein. Environment--the
fire and the conditions of prison life--brought those traits out too.
But, once out they are out.

Being in search of the essence of character, the _really_ "real man,"
we cannot accept anything which may vanish or be surmounted, nothing
which in the normal course of individual evolution, gone far enough,
will for certain be surmounted. No man is essentially a thief, but he
may be essentially a hero or a poet or both.

Consider the question in the light of evolution, the evolution of each
of us. We sometimes make imaginary pictures of the ripened humanity
of the far future, a noble flower of which there are as yet but
indications of the bud. Let us add another touch. Let us recognize in
that far humanity, however godlike, _ourselves_. Many, many births and
lifetimes and deaths lie between this and that for all of us. But the
lines of continuity are unbroken. It is we ourselves who shall be that
splendid and radiant humanity. The evolution of the human race means
the evolution of the present members of the human race. We shall "meet
each other in heaven" because we are always children of the earth that
will _be_ that heaven.

We note that some qualities, such as a tendency to theft, have every
encouragement to vanish. Sooner or later, in one or another lifetime,
they bring about so much disgrace and pain or are found so incompatible
with an ever increasing love of right and inner peace, that they are
cast out and away, are outgrown and done with. The last dirty fiber is
ripped out of the ever perfecting pattern.

On the other hand the germs of some other qualities will have a
constant and in the long run irresistible tendency to grow, root and
branch.

Shall we say "real character" of traits destined to grow or of those
destined to disappear? So far we only use the words of so much as
we can see of a man: a poor enough application. We talk of the
"respectable citizen," and behold a thief. In the next change the thief
"turns out to be a hero"; and whilst we are admiring the hero we are
invited to read a volume of poetry.

We had better restrict the words "real character" to that which time
shall at last unveil and develop, to the permanent germs and their
ripened product; not to the spores and fungi which, however noticeable
now, will sometime be entirely cleaned away. _There is no thief; there
are men who thieve_--at present, but who will cease to do so. There
_are_ poets and heroes; for these men will not only not cease to create
and do, but will create and do more and more worthily as they go
forward through time to the great light. There are some men whom _no_
stress of temptation would force into theft. Are there any men in whom
_no_ circumstances would evoke some smallest gleam of heroism?

Still we are not clear about real character. For there some qualities,
for example courage and love of the race and sensitiveness to the
supernal light, which time will perfect in _all_ men. We must put
aside all the elements, however splendid, in whose possession men will
_resemble_ each other and seek for what will be peculiar to each.
Within the unity of essence, apart from common sensitiveness to the
great light, there will be essential diversity. And it is to this
finally appearing individuality, this uniqueness of each, that the
words "real character" properly belong. In a few men only has this germ
of true individuality yet achieved much manifestation.

The end of man, said Carlyle, is not a thought, were it the noblest,
but a deed.

The aphorism cries aloud for completion. What sort of a deed would
be that which had no thought behind it? The end of man is a deed
faithfully manifesting a worthy "thought," and the mere writing down
of a thought is often its sufficient and only possible manifestation.
Even the careful nurture of a thought may be a deed. The universe is
the ideation of the divine getting itself written down on the face of
substance. Man's entire business is to aid that, to make manifest as
much of the divine, the light, as he can come at or get aware of in
his inner conscience or consciousness. If he constantly tries to live
in that way, the divine will presently take turns and come at _him_.
Inspiration is the final reward of aspiration. But the light has a
separate and special ray or aspect of itself in store for each man, so
that the _whole_ of it can only shine through _all_ men.

There is a part of the divine essence unborn as yet into the world,
unmanifest. And there is a part of it which men and gods have wrought
into the manifest, each according to his nature and comprehension of
his duty. From the highest to the lowest departments of human life this
way of work is possible, to search out duty and do it.

But "duty" has here a very full meaning. The soul of the Beethoven
searches, and is illumined by, the divine essence, _whatever his name
for it or thought of it_. Then he renders it or manifests it for the
world. The craftsman might search it as he designed a wall-paper; he
who did so, who worked that he might manifest it for men, would find
his invention grow ever richer and readier. The divine has no _one_
kind of manifestation or inspiration. The mother might search it to
learn the highest ways of conduct with her children, not even waiting
for their birth; and their souls would in time show her what she had
done for them. The gardener might thus work among his flowers and would
find in them a new responsiveness. There is no one who has not some
work which can be fruitfully done in this spirit of bringing forth for
the world. This use of will in no metaphoric sense is the real magic.
When all men and women work in this way the world will begin to be for
the first time an expression of the divine plan, governed--through them
and of their will and choice--by the divine. By that time work will
have been raised to its highest terms and there will be modes of work
as inconceivable to us now as the work of Beethoven to a savage. Each
of us will have found _his_ work--that is, will have found that aspect
of the divine which he is uniquely constituted to deliver forth to the
rest. No one can be spared. All will need all the others. All will
stand unveiled as artists, creators, or showers-forth or thinkers-out
of something good and necessary for the work of their fellows. We have
ourselves made life dark and work monotonous, stifled the latent or
nascent craftsman or thinker in ourselves and the others, and created
forms of work that should never have been to do at all. Now we must
live them through and be thankful that some few, the thinkers, the
musicians, the poets, the artists, have in some sort broken through
into a corner of their heritage and can serve us and lighten our lives
and make the day nearer when we too can break through.

Here then is what we may mean by "real character." It is the veiled
creator or shower-forth. No man is what he seems. He is waiting for
his own nature, and the divine in nature is waiting for him, to give
him the ray he alone can transmit. Neither Händel nor Beethoven could
have given us the music of the other; and the music of both was made
possible by every bit of divine-serving and divine-revealing work that
was ever done since man began. That principle holds throughout, in
small and great. The humblest work, if it have one ray of the divine
put into it, helps the whole world for all time to come. And no work
need lack that ray, no life need lack such work.




REVIEWS


"Life of Leonardo da Vinci" by Professor Osvald Sirén

by Carolus

We have just received another important work from the indefatigable and
accomplished pen of Professor Osvald Sirén, PH. D., of the Stockholm
University. It is a study of Leonardo da Vinci's life and work, a
most complete and thorough monograph of 468 pages, magnificently
illustrated by hundreds of full-page and smaller reproductions, the
majority taken from Leonardo's pictures, sketches and diagrams; the
rest are mostly from the works of other painters which throw light upon
the special points discussed; there are also some pleasing views of
places referred to. The first edition consists of 700 numbered copies,
beautifully printed on thick paper, and is in all respects but one a
perfect example of what such a book should be; the one thing lacking
is an index to the subject-matter and illustrations. This can easily
be remedied in the next edition, for there is no doubt that another
will immediately be called for, as the work will be invaluable to all
lovers of art who wish to read the latest and most complete analysis of
Leonardo's career and to learn the results of the most recent research.
This edition is, of course, written in Swedish, but we understand that
in response to the demand, it will soon appear in other languages, and
so be made accessible to a much larger public. Dr. Sirén has spent a
long time in Italy and elsewhere studying everything connected with
Leonardo and his contemporaries, and this volume is largely the result
of his original researches. It has been very favorably received by the
most competent Swedish critics.

The monograph is founded upon a series of lectures lately given in
the University of Stockholm (in which Dr. Sirén occupies the chair
of Art-history) and it has been the author's aim to show the great
master as he appears in his works and writings, with as little of the
"personal equation" of the writer visible as possible--to make Leonardo
tell his own story--but at the same time, one cannot help feeling and
approving of the warm glow of appreciation which inspires every word
Dr. Sirén writes about his hero. His admiration for the master seems
to have influenced his style, for there is a greater simplicity and
clearness, and a more easy flow of words and sentences than we have
observed in previous works from his able pen.

The book is arranged in four main sections. The first consists of
extracts from the famous Italian art-historian, Vasari's almost
contemporary life of Leonardo, translated into Swedish and freely
commented upon and greatly expanded by Dr. Sirén. Many illustrations
are given showing Leonardo's extraordinary knowledge of mechanics,
engineering, architecture, fortification, anatomy, etc. Dr. Sirén
finally demolishes one of our pet illusions, i. e., that Leonardo died
in the arms of Francis I of France, by showing that King Francis was
at St. Germain-en-Laye, attending the birth of a son, at the moment
when Leonardo was breathing his last at Cloux in Touraine. It appears
this was one of Vasari's occasional "decorations of the truth" for the
sake of picturesqueness. Another myth was that Leonardo prostrated
himself at the feet of the church at his last hour with tears and
cries of repentance for the independence of thought for which he
had consistently stood. In this connexion it is noteworthy that he
studiously avoided introducing halos or nimbuses round the figures in
his religious pictures! Neither is there more than one example of the
cross in any of his undoubted works, and that may have been added by
another hand afterwards. His object was plainly to accentuate the
simple human and natural side in everything that he touched. Even the
head of the Christ in _The Last Supper_ has no radiance; the Teacher
is painted just as he might have been seen by ordinary vision. The
distinction of Leonardo's sacred figures depends upon the superior
beauty and majesty of expression and bearing. This was a very daring
innovation on Leonardo's part.

The second portion of Dr. Sirén's learned volume treats of Leonardo's
pictures and sculptures in more detail; his scientific work is
sufficiently dealt with in the earlier part of the volume, for after
all, his fame depends mainly upon his standing as an artist. Special
chapters are devoted, respectively, to the work of his youth: _The
Adoration of the Magi_, the _Madonna among the Rocks_, _The Last
Supper_, _The Battle of the Standard_, _Leda and the Swan_, _John the
Baptist_, _St. Anne_, and his studies for equestrian statues, etc.

Dr. Sirén strongly accentuates the fact that Leonardo's leading motive
was Movement. While he rivaled Michel Angelo in form, Titian and
Giorgione in color, and Raphael in composition, his greatest efforts
were concentrated upon the true rendering of life and action. His
brilliant effects of light and shade, for which he was particularly
noted, were skilfully used to emphasize the impression of vital energy
which he felt to be the principal object of the true painter's art.

Dr. Sirén has most carefully weighed the evidence concerning the rival
claims of the two or three replicas of the _Virgin among the Rocks_,
one of which is in London and the others in Paris and Copenhagen,
and he conclusively establishes the authenticity of the one in the
Louvre, Paris. That one, the famous _Vierge aux Rochers_, is by far
the most satisfactory in composition, and the faces and figures of the
children are much more beautiful than those of the others. The one in
the National Gallery, London, is by Ambrogio Preda, who was a close
imitator of Leonardo. The figures have nimbuses in that one, but not in
Leonardo's. Dr. Sirén illustrates his argument with a large number of
plates.

With respect to _The Last Supper_ at Milan, it is satisfactory to learn
that Professor Cavenaghi, who has just finished a long and extremely
careful scientific examination of the work, has proved that it is far
better preserved than was believed. It turns out that very little
indeed has been repainted; the heads are quite untouched, and though
greatly damaged and obscured in places, we really are able to look at
the actual work of the master. This has been a great surprise to the
artistic world.

The third part of the book deals with Leonardo's personality, and
several good portraits of him are given. It is to be regretted that
there is not one surviving that was taken when he was young, for it
is related of him that he was almost divinely beautiful. In his old
age his countenance is very impressive. Dr. Sirén discusses the moot
question of Leonardo's alleged visit to Oriental countries, and he
throws the weight of his opinion in favor of the journey. Certainly
it is difficult to see how Leonardo could have given such accurate
descriptions unless he had been to the places and undergone certain
experiences. There are many gaps in his life which are yet unfilled by
reliable evidence. When one reflects upon the extraordinary character
and knowledge of the great man it seems not unlikely that he spent some
time in the East receiving instruction which it was impossible to get
in Europe.

The fourth part consists of a translation into Swedish of his _Treatise
on Painting_, and it gives, as Dr. Sirén says:

 a glimpse of a section through a soul-life filled with all that is
 possible or thinkable for a human being, of observation of nature, of
 experience of the world, of search for truth, and passion for beauty.
 One lays the treatise down with the grateful and humble feeling that
 one has stood before one of the greatest of our race, has met his eye
 and heard him speak.

We may learn almost more about him from this work and from his sketches
than from his pictures, for as Dr. Sirén says:

 What Leonardo painted and carved constitutes only a small part of his
 creative activity, a fragment of that great soul's universality....
 Many of his designed works never reached expression ... others were
 left half done, and those which were carried out, have, moreover, in
 no small degree, had the misfortune to be destroyed or corroded and
 defaced by time. Many of Leonardo's most important works which are
 spoken of by the old writers, seem to have disappeared without leaving
 a trace. The great work of his prime, _The Last Supper_, is little
 more than a shadow of what it once was, and the powerful monumental
 composition of his old age, _The Battle of the Standard_, was only
 carried out in paint to a partial degree, and now can only be studied
 through imperfect copies. The stately equestrian statues which truly
 denoted the culminating point of that branch of art did not reach
 final material expression either, and only live in rough sketches and
 sundry imitations, while of the noble architectural projects for domed
 cathedrals, for mausoleums and palaces, for entire towns, not even one
 has come to anything.... The art historian has to trust to preparatory
 studies, to copies or imitations, to reports, in order to get an idea
 of the appearance and quality of the works of the master.... For
 analysis we have to lean on sketches when the finished work fails us.
 It cannot indeed be denied that herein lies a deplorable limitation
 and a special difficulty in the way of popularizing his work, but
 perhaps the limitation is not so great as many are inclined to assume.
 A great musical composer's preludes and fantasias may contain the
 beautiful motives of the entire symphony, even if the instrumentation
 is incomplete and the execution imperfect.... Leonardo has been placed
 before us as an ideal man, because his life and work are stamped by
 a sovereign balance which in our time is so greatly coveted and so
 rarely obtained.

 To the degree that the author has succeeded in letting Leonardo
 express himself, free from all fanciful embellishments and arbitrary
 hypotheses--speaking to the reader through his own words and art--he
 will consider his mission fulfilled and his work to possess something
 more than temporary value.

There is no doubt that Dr. Sirén has done this and more than this,
and we must heartily congratulate him upon the production of a most
valuable contribution to the literature of art. It may interest our
readers to know that engrossed as he is in his labors for the cause of
the higher intellectual education, Dr. Sirén is able to find time to
work strenuously for the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society
of which he is a very active member.

 Note. Just as this is going to press the startling news has arrived
 that Leonardo's great masterpiece, the so-called _Mona Lisa_, has been
 stolen from the Louvre, an almost unprecedented event. Its recovery
 will be anxiously awaited by the whole art-loving world of the two
 continents.




The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society

Founded at New York City in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky, William Q. Judge
and others

Reorganized in 1898 by Katherine Tingley

Central Office, Point Loma, California

 The Headquarters of the Society at Point Loma with the buildings and
 grounds, are no "Community" "Settlement" or "Colony." They form no
 experiment in Socialism, Communism, or anything of similar nature,
 but are the Central Executive Office of an international organization
 where the business of the same is carried on, and where the teachings
 of Theosophy are being demonstrated. Midway 'twixt East and West,
 where the rising Sun of Progress and Enlightenment shall one day
 stand at full meridian, the Headquarters of the Society unite the
 philosophic Orient with the practical West.


 MEMBERSHIP

 in the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society may be
 either "at large" or in a local Branch. Adhesion to the principle
 of Universal Brotherhood is the only pre-requisite to membership.
 The Organization represents no particular creed; it is entirely
 unsectarian, and includes professors of all faiths, only exacting from
 each member that large toleration of the beliefs of others which he
 desires them to exhibit towards his own.

 Applications for membership in a Branch should be addressed to
 the local Director; for membership "at large" to G. de Purucker,
 Membership Secretary, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point
 Loma, California.


OBJECTS

This brotherhood is a part of a great and universal movement which has
been active in all ages.

This Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. Its
principal purpose is to teach Brotherhood, demonstrate that it is a
fact in Nature, and make it a living power in the life of humanity.

Its subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and modern religions,
science, philosophy, and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the
divine powers in man.


H. P. BLAVATSKY, FOUNDRESS AND TEACHER

The present Theosophical Movement was inaugurated by Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky in New York in 1875. The original name was "The Theosophical
Society." Associated with her were William Q. Judge and others. Madame
Blavatsky for a time preferred not to hold any outer official position
except that of Corresponding Secretary. But all true students know that
Madame Blavatsky held the highest authority, the only real authority
which comes of wisdom and power, the authority of Teacher and Leader,
the real head, heart, and inspiration of the whole Theosophical
Movement. It was through her that the teachings of Theosophy were given
to the world, and without her the Theosophical Movement could not have
been.


BRANCH SOCIETIES IN EUROPE AND INDIA

In 1878 Madame Blavatsky left the United States, first visiting
Great Britain and then India, in both of which countries she founded
branch societies. The parent body in New York became later the Aryan
Theosophical Society and HAS ALWAYS HAD ITS HEADQUARTERS IN AMERICA;
and of this, William Q. Judge was President until his death in 1896.

It is important to note the following:

In response to the statement published by a then prominent member in
India that Madame Blavatsky is "loyal to the Theosophical Society and
to Adyar," Madame Blavatsky wrote:

 It is pure nonsense to say that "H. P. B. ... is loyal to the
 Theosophical Society and to Adyar" (!?). _H. P. B. is loyal to death
 to the Theosophical_ CAUSE _and those Great Teachers whose philosophy
 can alone bind the whole of Humanity into one Brotherhood_.... The
 degree of her sympathies with the Theosophical Society and Adyar
 depends upon the degree of the loyalty of that Society to the CAUSE.
 Let it break away from the original lines and show disloyalty in its
 policy to the cause and the original program of the Society, and H. P.
 B., calling the T. S. disloyal, will shake it off like dust from her
 feet.

To one who accepts the teachings of Theosophy it is plain to see that
although Theosophy is of no nationality or country but for all, yet
it has a peculiar relationship with America. Not only was the United
States the birthplace of the Theosophical Society, and the home of the
Parent Body up to the present time, but H. P. Blavatsky, the Foundress
of the Society, although a Russian by birth, became an American
citizen; William Q. Judge, of Irish parentage and birth, also became
an American citizen; and Katherine Tingley is American born. America
therefore not only has played a unique part in the history of the
present Theosophical Movement, but it is plain to see that its destiny
is closely interwoven with that of Theosophy; and by America is meant
not only the United States or even the North American continent, but
also the South American continent, and, as repeatedly declared by
Madame Blavatsky, it is in this great Western Hemisphere as a whole,
North and South, that the next great Race of humanity is to be born.


MADAME BLAVATSKY FOUNDS THE ESOTERIC SCHOOL; HER LIFE-LONG TRUST IN
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

In 1888, H. P. Blavatsky, then in London, on the suggestion and at the
request of her Colleague, William Q. Judge, founded the Esoteric School
of Theosophy, a body for students, of which H. P. Blavatsky wrote
that it was "the heart of the Theosophical Movement," and of which
she appointed William Q. Judge as her sole representative in America.
Further, writing officially to the Convention of the American Societies
held in Chicago, 1888, she wrote as follows:

 To William Q. Judge, General Secretary of the American Section of the
 Theosophical Society:

 My dearest Brother and Co-Founder of the Theosophical Society:

 In addressing to you this letter, which I request you to read to the
 Convention, summoned for April 22nd, I must first present my hearty
 congratulations and most cordial good wishes to the Society and
 yourself--the heart and soul of that body in America. We were several
 to call it to life in 1875. Since then you have remained alone to
 preserve that life through good and evil report. It is to you chiefly,
 if not entirely, that the Theosophical Society owes its existence in
 1888. Let me thank you for it, for the first, and perhaps for the
 last time publicly, and from the bottom of my heart, which beats only
 for the cause you represent so well and serve so faithfully. I ask
 you also to remember that on this important occasion, my voice is but
 the feeble echo of other more sacred voices, and the transmitter of
 the approval of Those whose presence is alive in more than one true
 Theosophical heart, and lives, as I know, pre-eminently in yours.

This regard that Madame Blavatsky had for her colleague William Q.
Judge continued undiminished until her death in 1891, when he became
her successor.

Madame Blavatsky, in 1889, writing in her Theosophical magazine
published in London, said that the purpose of the magazine was not
only to promulgate Theosophy, but also and as a consequence of such
promulgation, "to bring to light the hidden things of darkness." She
further says:

 As to the "weak-minded Theosophists"--if any--they can take care of
 themselves in the way they please. IF THE "FALSE PROPHETS OF
 THEOSOPHY" ARE TO BE LEFT UNTOUCHED, THE TRUE PROPHETS WILL
 BE VERY SOON--AS THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN--CONFUSED WITH THE FALSE. IT
 IS HIGH TIME TO WINNOW OUR CORN AND CAST AWAY THE CHAFF. The
 Theosophical Society is becoming enormous in its numbers, and if the
 _false_ prophets, the pretenders, or even the weak-minded dupes, are
 left alone, then the Society threatens to become very soon a fanatical
 body split into three hundred sects--like Protestantism--each
 hating the other, and all bent on destroying the truth by monstrous
 exaggerations and idiotic schemes and shams.

 We do not believe in allowing the presence of _sham_ elements in
 Theosophy, because of the fear, forsooth, that if even "a false
 element in the faith" is _ridiculed_, the latter is "apt to shake the
 confidence" in the whole.

 ... What _true_ Christians shall see their co-religionists making
 fools of themselves, or disgrace their faith, and still abstain from
 rebuking them publicly as privately, for fear lest this _false_
 element should throw out of Christianity the rest of the believers?

 THE WISE MAN COURTS TRUTH; THE FOOL, FLATTERY.

 However it may be, let rather our ranks be made thinner, than the
 Theosophical Society go on being made a spectacle to the world through
 the exaggerations of some fanatics, and the attempt of various
 _charlatans_ to profit by a ready-made program. These, by disfiguring
 and adapting Occultism to their own filthy and immoral ends, bring
 disgrace upon the whole movement.--_Lucifer_, Vol. iv, pp. 2 & 3.


WILLIAM Q. JUDGE ELECTED PRESIDENT FOR LIFE

In 1893 there openly began what had been going on beneath the surface
for some time, a bitter attack ostensibly against William Q. Judge, but
in reality also against H. P. Blavatsky. This bitter attack threatened
to disrupt the whole Society and to thwart the main purpose of its
existence, which was to further the cause of Universal Brotherhood.
Finally the American members decided to take action, and at the annual
convention of the Society held in Boston in 1895, by a vote of 191
delegates to 10, re-asserted the principle of Theosophy as laid down
by H. P. Blavatsky, and elected William Q. Judge President for life.
Similar action was almost immediately taken by members in Europe,
Australia, and other countries, in each case William Q. Judge being
elected President for life. In this action the great majority of the
active members throughout the world concurred, and thus the Society
was relieved of those who had joined it for other purposes than the
furtherance of Universal Brotherhood, the carrying out of the Society's
other objects, and the spiritual freedom and upliftment of Humanity.
A few of these in order to curry favor with the public and attract a
following, continued among themselves to use the name of Theosophy,
but it should be understood that they _are not connected with the
Theosophical Movement_.


KATHERINE TINGLEY SUCCEEDS WILLIAM Q. JUDGE

One year later, in March 1896, William Q. Judge died, leaving as his
successor Katherine Tingley, who for several years had been associated
with him in the work of the Society. This Teacher not only began
immediately to put into actual practice the ideals of Theosophy as had
been the hope and aim of both H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, and
for which they had laid the foundations, thus honoring and illustrating
the work of her illustrious predecessors, but she also struck a new
keynote, introducing new and broader plans for uplifting humanity.
For each of the Teachers, while continuing the work and building upon
the foundations of his predecessor, adds a new link, and has his own
distinctive work to do, and teachings to give, belonging to his own
time and position.

No sooner had Katherine Tingley begun her work as successor, than
further attacks, some most insidious, from the same source as those
made against H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, as well as from
other sources, were inaugurated against her. Most prominent among
those thus attacking Katherine Tingley were some referred to by Madame
Blavatsky in the article above-quoted (pp. 159-60), who by their own
actions had removed themselves from the ranks of the Society. There
were also a few others who still remained in the Society who had not
joined hands with the disintegrators at the time the latter were
repudiated in 1895. These now thought it to their personal advantage
to oppose the Leader and sought to gain control of the Society and
use it for political purposes. These ambitious agitators, seeking to
exploit the Society for their own ends, used every means to overthrow
Katherine Tingley, realizing that she was the greatest obstacle to
the accomplishment of their desires, for if she could be removed they
expected to gain control. They worked day and night, stooping almost to
any means to carry out their projects. Yet it seemed that by these very
acts, i. e., the more they attacked, the more were honest and earnest
members attracted to the ranks of the Society under Katherine Tingley's
leadership.


KATHERINE TINGLEY GIVES SOCIETY NEW CONSTITUTION

SOCIETY MERGES INTO BROADER FIELD

To eliminate these menacing features and to safeguard the work of
the Theosophical Movement for all time, Katherine Tingley presented
to a number of the oldest members gathered at her home in New York
on the night of January 13th, 1898, a new Constitution which she had
formulated for the more permanent and broader work of the Theosophical
Movement, opening up a wider field of endeavor than had heretofore been
possible to students of Theosophy. One month later, at the Convention
of the Society, held in Chicago, February 18th, 1898, this Constitution
was accepted by an almost unanimous vote, and the Theosophical Society
merged itself into the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society.
In this new step forward, she had the heartiest co-operation and
support of the vast majority of the members throughout the world.


THEOSOPHY IN PRACTICE

It is of interest here to quote our Teacher's own words regarding this
time. In an article published in _The Metropolitan Magazine_, New York,
October, 1909, she says:

 Later, I found myself the successor of William Q. Judge, and I began
 my heart work, the inspiration of which is partly due to him.

 In all my writings and associations with the members of the
 Theosophical Society, I emphasized the necessity of putting Theosophy
 into daily practice, and in such a way that it would continuously
 demonstrate that it was the redeeming power of man. More familiarity
 with the organization and its workers brought home to me the fact that
 there was a certain number of students who had in the early days begun
 the wrong way to study Theosophy, and that it was becoming in their
 lives a death-like sleep. I noticed that those who followed this line
 of action were always alarmed at my humanitarian tendencies. WHENEVER
 I REMINDED THEM THAT THEY WERE BUILDING A COLOSSAL EGOTISM INSTEAD
 OF A POWER TO DO GOOD, THEY SUBTLY OPPOSED ME. AS I INSISTED ON THE
 PRACTICAL LIFE OF THEOSOPHY, THEY OPPOSED STILL MORE. They later
 exerted personal influence which affected certain members throughout
 the world. It was this condition which then menaced the Theosophical
 Movement, and which forced me to the point of taking such action as
 would fully protect the pure teachings of Theosophy and make possible
 a broader path for unselfish students to follow. Thus the faithful
 members of the Theosophical Movement would be able to exemplify the
 charge which Helena Petrovna Blavatsky gave to her pupils, as follows:

 "Real Theosophy is altruism, and we cannot repeat it too often. It is
 brotherly love, mutual help, unswerving devotion to truth. If once men
 do but realize that in these alone can true happiness be found, and
 never in wealth, possession or any selfish gratification, then the
 dark cloud will roll away, and a new humanity will be born upon the
 earth. Then the Golden Age will be there indeed."

 Here we find William Q. Judge accentuating the same spirit, the
 practical Theosophical life:

 "The power to know does not come from book-study alone, nor from mere
 philosophy, but mostly from the actual practice of altruism in deed,
 word, and thought; for that practice purifies the covers of the soul
 and permits the divine light to shine down into the brain-mind."


 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

 On February 18, 1898, at the Convention of the Theosophical Society
 in America, held at Chicago, Ill., the Society resolved, through its
 delegates from all parts of the world, to enter a larger arena, to
 widen its scope and to further protect the teachings of Theosophy.
 Amid most intense enthusiasm the Theosophical Society was expanded
 into the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, and I found
 myself recognized as its leader and official head. The Theosophical
 Society in Europe also resolved to merge itself into the Universal
 Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, and the example was quickly
 followed by Theosophical Societies in other parts of the world. The
 expansion of the original Theosophical Society, which Madame Blavatsky
 founded and which William Q. Judge so ably sustained, now called the
 Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, gave birth to a new
 life, and the membership trebled the first year, and ever since that
 time a rapid increase has followed.


INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS AT POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA

In 1900 the Headquarters of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical
Society were removed from New York to Point Loma, California, which
is now the International Center of the Theosophical Movement. This
Organization is unsectarian and non-political; none of its officers or
workers receives any salary or financial recompense.

In her article in _The Metropolitan Magazine_ above referred to,
Katherine Tingley further says:

 The knowledge that Point Loma was to be the World-center of the
 Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, which has for its
 supreme object the elevation of the race, created great enthusiasm
 among its members throughout the world. The further fact that the
 government of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society rests
 entirely with the leader and official head, who holds her office for
 life and who has the privilege of appointing her successor, gave
 me the power to carry out some of the plans I had long cherished.
 Among these was the erecting of the great Homestead Building. This I
 carefully designed that it might not stand apart from the beautiful
 nature about it, but in a sense harmonize with the sky, the distant
 mountains, the broad blue Pacific, and the glorious light of the sun.

 So it has been from the first, so that the practical work of Theosophy
 began at Point Loma under the most favorable circumstances. No one
 dominated by selfish aims and ambitions was invited to take part in
 this pioneer work. Although there were scores of workers from various
 parts of the world uniting their efforts with mine for the upbuilding
 of this world-center, yet there was no disharmony. Each took the duty
 allotted him and worked trustingly and cheerfully. Many of the world's
 ways these workers gladly left behind them. They seemed reborn with an
 enthusiasm that knew no defeat. The work was done for the love of it,
 and this is the secret of a large part of the success that has come to
 the Theosophical Movement.

 Not long after the establishment of the International Theosophical
 Headquarters at Point Loma it was plain to see that the Society was
 advancing along all lines by leaps and bounds. Letters of inquiry were
 pouring in from different countries, which led to my establishing
 the Theosophical Propaganda Bureau. This is one of the greatest
 factors we have in disseminating our teachings. The International
 Brotherhood League then opened its offices and has ever been active
 in its special humanitarian work, being the directing power which has
 sustained the several Râja Yoga schools and academies, now in Pinar
 del Rio, Santa Clara, and Santiago de Cuba, from the beginning. The
 Aryan Theosophical Press has yearly enlarged its facilities in answer
 to the demands made upon it through the publication of Theosophical
 literature, which includes THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH and several other
 publications. There is the Isis Conservatory of Music and Drama, the
 Department of Arts and Crafts, the Industrial Department, including
 Forestry, Agriculture, Roadbuilding, Photo-engraving, Chemical
 laboratory, Landscape-gardening, and many other crafts.


DO NOT FAIL TO PROFIT BY THE FOLLOWING

CONSTANTLY THE QUESTION IS ASKED, WHAT IS THEOSOPHY, WHAT DOES
IT REALLY TEACH? EACH YEAR THE LIFE AND WORK OF H. P. BLAVATSKY AND
THE HIGH IDEALS AND PURE MORALITY OF HER TEACHINGS ARE MORE CLEARLY
VINDICATED. EACH YEAR THE POSITION TAKEN BY WILLIAM Q. JUDGE AND
KATHERINE TINGLEY IN REGARD TO THEIR PREDECESSOR, H. P. BLAVATSKY, IS
BETTER UNDERSTOOD, AND THEIR OWN LIVES AND WORK ARE SEEN TO BE ACTUATED
BY THE SAME HIGH IDEALS FOR THE UPLIFTING OF THE HUMAN RACE. EACH YEAR
MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE COMING TO REALIZE THAT NOT ALL THAT GOES UNDER
THE NAME OF THEOSOPHY IS RIGHTLY SO CALLED, BUT THAT THERE IS
A COUNTERFEIT THEOSOPHY AS WELL AS THE TRUE, AND THAT THERE IS NEED OF
DISCRIMINATION, LEST MANY BE MISLED.

Counterfeits exist in many departments of life and thought, and
especially in matters relating to religion and the deeper teachings of
life. Hence, in order that people who are honestly seeking the truth
may not be misled, we deem it important to state that the Universal
Brotherhood and Theosophical Society is not responsible for, nor is it
affiliated with, nor does it endorse, any other society, which, while
calling itself Theosophical, is not connected with the International
Theosophical Headquarters at Point Loma, California. Having a knowledge
of Theosophy, the ancient Wisdom-Religion, we deem it as a sacred
trust and responsibility to maintain its pure teachings, free from the
vagaries, additions, or misrepresentations of ambitious self-styled
Theosophists and would-be teachers. The test of a Theosophist is not
in profession, but in action, and in a noble and virtuous life. The
motto of the Society is "There is no religion higher than Truth." This
was adopted by Madame Blavatsky, but it is to be deeply regretted that
there are no legal means to prevent the use of this motto in connexion
with counterfeit Theosophy, by people professing to be Theosophists,
but who would not be recognized as such by Madame Blavatsky.

It is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy
and of our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P.
Blavatsky, the Foundress, and even the Society's motto, to attract
attention to themselves and to gain public support. This they do in
private and public speech and in publications. Without being in any way
connected with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in
many cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading
the public, and honest inquirers are hence led away from the original
truths of Theosophy.

The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society welcomes to
membership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the
eradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste,
or color, which have so long impeded human progress; to all sincere
lovers of truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than
the mere pleasures and interests of a worldly life, and are prepared to
do all in their power to make Brotherhood a living energy in the life
of humanity, its various departments offer unlimited opportunities.

The whole work of the Organization is under the direction of the Leader
and Official Head, Katherine Tingley, as outlined in the Constitution.


OBJECTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD LEAGUE

 1. To help men and women to realize the nobility of their calling and
 their true position in life.

 2. To educate children of all nations on the broadest lines of
 Universal Brotherhood and to prepare destitute and homeless children
 to become workers for humanity.

 3. To ameliorate the condition of unfortunate women, and assist them
 to a higher life.

 4. To assist those who are or have been in prisons to establish
 themselves in honorable positions in life.

 5. To abolish capital punishment.

 6. To bring about a better understanding between so-called savage
 and civilized races, by promoting a closer and more sympathetic
 relationship between them.

 7. To relieve human suffering resulting from flood, famine, war, and
 other calamities; and, generally, to extend aid, help, and comfort to
 suffering humanity throughout the world.

  JOSEPH H. FUSSELL, Secretary




  BOOK LIST
  OF WORKS ON
  THEOSOPHY, OCCULTISM, RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, AND ART

  PUBLISHED OR FOR SALE BY

  THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
  INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS
  POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

  _The office of the Theosophical Publishing Company is at Point Loma,
                                                           California_

  _It has_ NO OTHER OFFICE _and_ NO BRANCHES


FOREIGN AGENCIES

 _=THE UNITED KINGDOM=_--Theosophical Book Co., 18 Bartlett's
 Buildings, Holborn Circus, LONDON, E. C., England

 _=GERMANY=_--J. Th. Heller, Vestnertorgraben 13, NÜRNBERG

 _=SWEDEN=_--Universella Broderskapets Förlag, Barnhusgatan, 10,
 STOCKHOLM

 _=HOLLAND=_--Louis F. Schudel, Hollandia-Drukkerij, BAARN

 _=AUSTRALIA=_--Willans and Williams, 16 Carrington St., Wynyard Sq.,
 SYDNEY, N. S. W.

 _=CUBA=_--H. S. Turner, Apartado 127; or Heredia, Baja, 10, SANTIAGO
 DE CUBA

 _=MEXICO=_--Samuel L. Herrera, Calle de la Independencia, 55 altos,
 VERA CRUZ, V. C.


  ADDRESS BY KATHERINE TINGLEY at San Diego Opera House,
      March, 1902                                                  $ .15

  AN APPEAL TO PUBLIC CONSCIENCE: an Address delivered by
      Katherine Tingley at Isis Theater, San Diego, July 22, 1906.
      Published by the Woman's Theosophical Propaganda League,
      Point Loma                                                     .05

  ASTRAL INTOXICATION, and Other Papers (W. Q. Judge)                .03

  BHAGAVAD GÎTÂ (recension by W. Q. Judge). The pearl of the
      scriptures of the East. American edition; pocket size;
      morocco, gilt edges                                           1.00

  CONCENTRATION, CULTURE OF (W. Q. Judge)                            .15

  DEVACHAN; or the Heavenworld (H. Coryn)                            .05

  ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT; a broad Outline of Theosophical Doctrines.
      Written for the newspaper reading public. (W. Q. Judge)
      Sm. 8vo, cloth                                                 .50
      Paper                                                          .25

  EPITOME OF THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS, AN (W. Q. Judge); 40 pages      .15

  FREEMASONRY AND JESUITRY, The Pith and Marrow of the Closing and
      Coming Century and Related Position of, (Rameses)              .15
      8 copies for $1.00; per hundred, $10.00

  KATHERINE TINGLEY, Humanity's Friend; A VISIT TO KATHERINE TINGLEY
      (by John Hubert Greusel); A STUDY OF RÂJA YOGA AT POINT LOMA
      (Reprint from the San Francisco _Chronicle_, Jan. 6, 1907).
      The above three comprised in a pamphlet of 50 pages, published
      by the Woman's Theosophical Propaganda League, Point Loma      .15

  HYPNOTISM: _Hypnotism_, by W. Q. Judge (Reprint from _The Path_,
      vol. viii, p. 335); _Why Does Katherine Tingley Oppose
      Hypnotism?_ by a Student (Reprint from _New Century Path_,
      Oct. 28, 1906); _Evils of Hypnotism_, by Lydia Ross, M. D.     .15

  INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT;
      by Joseph H. Fussell. 24 pages, royal 8vo.                     .15

  ISIS UNVEILED, by H. P. Blavatsky. 2 vols, royal 8vo, about 1500
      pages; cloth; with portrait of the author. _Point Loma Edition,
      with a preface._ Postpaid                                     4.00

  KEY TO THEOSOPHY, THE: by H. P. Blavatsky. _Point Loma Edition_,
      with _Glossary_ and exhaustive _Index_. Portraits of H. P.
      Blavatsky and William Q. Judge. 8vo., cloth, 400 pages.
      Postpaid                                                      2.25

  LIFE AT POINT LOMA, THE: Some Notes by Katherine Tingley.
      (Reprinted from the _Los Angeles Saturday Post_,
      December, 1902)                                                .15

  LIGHT ON THE PATH (M. C.), with Comments, and a short chapter on
      Karma. Authoritative rules for treading the path of a higher
      life. _Point Loma Edition_, pocket size edition of this classic,
      leather                                                        .75
      Embossed paper                                                 .25

  MYSTERIES OF THE HEART DOCTRINE, THE. Prepared by
     _Katherine Tingley_ and her pupils. Square 8vo, cloth          2.00
      Paper                                                         1.00
      A SERIES OF 8 PAMPHLETS, comprising the different Articles
      in above, paper, each                                          .25

  NIGHTMARE TALES (H. P. Blavatsky). _Illustrated by R. Machell._
      A collection of the weirdest tales ever written down. Cloth    .60
      Paper                                                          .35

  THE PLOUGH AND THE CROSS. A story of New Ireland; by William
      Patrick O'Ryan. 12mo, 378 pages. Illustrated. Cloth           1.00

  SECRET DOCTRINE, THE. The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and
      Philosophy, by H. P. Blavatsky. _Point Loma Edition_; with
      Index. Two vols., royal 8vo, about 1500 pages; cloth. Postage
      prepaid                                                      10.00
      Reprinted from the original edition of 1888, as issued by
      H. P. Blavatsky

  SOME OF THE ERRORS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. Criticism by H. P.
      Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge                                      .15

  VOICE OF THE SILENCE, THE. (For the daily use of disciples.)
      Translated and annotated by H. P. Blavatsky.
      Pocket size, leather                                           .75

  YOGA APHORISMS (translated by W. Q. Judge), pocket size, leather   .75


  _=GREEK SYMPOSIA=_, as performed by students of the Isis League of
      Music and Drama, under direction of Katherine Tingley. (Fully
      protected by copyright.)
      1 THE WISDOM OF HYPATIA. 2 A PROMISE. Each                     .15


  _=NEW CENTURY SERIES.=_ THE PITH AND MARROW OF SOME SACRED WRITINGS.

      Ten Pamphlets; Scripts, each                                   .25
      Subscription (Series of 10 Pamphlets)                         1.50

 SCRIPT 1--_Contents_: The Relation of Universal Brotherhood to
 Christianity--No Man can Serve Two Masters--In this Place is a Greater
 Thing

 SCRIPT 2--_Contents_: A Vision of Judgment--The Great
 Victory--Co-Heirs with Christ--The "Woes" of the Prophets--Fragment:
 from Bhagavad Gîtâ--Jesus the Man

 SCRIPT 3--_Contents_: Lesson of Israel's History--Man's Divinity and
 Perfectibility--The Man Born Blind--The Everlasting Covenant--Burden
 of the Lord

 SCRIPT 4--_Contents_: Reincarnation in the Bible--The Money-Changers
 in the Temple--The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven--The Heart
 Doctrine--The Temple of God

 SCRIPT 5--_Contents_: Egypt and Prehistoric America--Theoretical and
 Practical Theosophy--Death, One of the Crowning Victories of Human
 Life--Reliance on the Law--Led by the Spirit of God

 SCRIPT 6--_Contents_: Education Through Illusion to Truth--Astronomy
 in the Light of Ancient Wisdom--Occultism and Magic--Resurrection

 SCRIPT 7--_Contents_: Theosophy and Islâm, a word concerning
 Sufism--Archaeology in the Light of Theosophy--Man, a Spiritual Builder

 SCRIPT 8--_Contents_: The Sun of Righteousness--Cant about the Classics

 SCRIPT 9--_Contents_: Traces of the Wisdom-Religion in Zoroastrianism,
 Mithraism, and their modern representative, Parseeism--The Druses of
 Mount Lebanon

 SCRIPT 10--_Contents_: The Religions of China

 SCRIPT 11--(Supplementary Number) _Contents_: Druidism--Druidism and
 its Connexion with Ireland


  _=OCCULTISM, STUDIES IN=_ (H. P. Blavatsky). Pocket size, 6 vols.
      cloth; each                                                    .35
      Per set of six vols.                                          1.50
      Vol. 1. Practical Occultism. Occultism _vs._ the Occult Arts.
      The Blessing of Publicity
      Vol. 2. Hypnotism. Black Magic in Science. Signs of the Times
      Vol. 3. Psychic and Noetic Action
      Vol. 4. Kosmic Mind. The Dual Aspect of Wisdom
      Vol. 5. The Esoteric Character of the Gospels
      Vol. 6. Astral Bodies; The Constitution of the Inner Man


  _=THEOSOPHICAL MANUALS.=_ Elementary Handbooks for Students.
      16mo, price, each, paper 25c; cloth                            .35

  No. 1 ELEMENTARY THEOSOPHY
  No. 2 THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF MAN
  No. 3 KARMA
  No. 4 REINCARNATION
  No. 5 MAN AFTER DEATH
  No. 6 KÂMALOKA AND DEVACHAN
  No. 7 TEACHERS AND THEIR DISCIPLES
  No. 8 THE DOCTRINE OF CYCLES
  No. 9 PSYCHISM, GHOSTOLOGY, AND THE ASTRAL PLANE
  No. 10 THE ASTRAL LIGHT
  No. 11 PSYCHOMETRY, CLAIRVOYANCE, AND THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE
  No. 12 THE ANGEL AND THE DEMON (2 vols., 35c each)
  No. 13 THE FLAME AND THE CLAY
  No. 14 ON GOD AND PRAYER
  No. 15 THEOSOPHY: THE MOTHER OF RELIGIONS
  No. 16 FROM CRYPT TO PRONAOS; an Essay on the Rise and Fall of Dogma
  No. 17 EARTH: Its Parentage, its Rounds and its Races
  No. 18 SONS OF THE FIREMIST: a Study of Man


  _=THE PATH SERIES.=_ Specially adapted for Inquirers in Theosophy.

  _Already Published_:

  No. 1 THE PURPOSE OF THE UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHICAL
        SOCIETY                                                      .05
  No. 2 THEOSOPHY GENERALLY STATED (W. Q. Judge)                     .05
       _Reprinted from Official Report, World's Parliament of
        Religions, Chicago, 1893_
  No. 3 MISLAID MYSTERIES (Herbert Coryn, M. D.)                     .05
  No. 4 THEOSOPHY AND ITS COUNTERFEITS                               .05
  No. 5 SOME PERVERTED PRESENTATIONS OF THEOSOPHY (H. T. Edge, B.A.) .05
        Thirty Copies of above Path Series, $1.00;
        one hundred copies, $3.00

 _=MISCELLANEOUS.=_ SOUVENIR POSTAL CARDS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL
 HEADQUARTERS. Two for 5c; postage 1c. extra; 50 copies, postpaid,
 $1.00; 100 copies, postpaid, $1.50

  LOMALAND. An Album of Views and Quotations; 10½ × 13½ in.
      (postage 6c. extra)                                            .50

  REPRODUCTIONS OF FAMOUS PAINTINGS BY R. MACHELL. _The Path_--
     _Parsifal_--_The Prodigal_--_The Bard_--_The Light of the
      Coming Day_--_'Twixt Priest and Profligate_--_The Hour of
      Despair_--_The Dweller on the Threshold_.
      Size of photographs, 8 × 6 in., approximate. Price, unmounted,
      50c; mounted                                                   .75

  PATH MAGAZINE, THE--Vol. ix ('94-95); Vol. x ('95-96); each       2.00

  PATH MAGAZINE, THE--Index to Vols. I to VIII; cloth                .50

  PATH MAGAZINE, THE--Back Numbers; each                             .20

  SEARCHLIGHT, No. 6--Full Report of Great Debate on Theosophy and
      Christianity held at Fisher Opera House, San Diego, Cal.,
      September and October, 1901.
      72 pages. Special number issued to the public                  .15

  SEARCHLIGHT, No. 7                                                 .15

  SEARCHLIGHT, Vol. II, No. 1                                        .15

  UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD PATH     }
  UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD MAGAZINE } Back numbers                      .20
      Vols. xiii (1898-9), xiv (1899-00), xv (1900-01),
      xvi (1901-2), each                                            2.00


_LOTUS GROUP LITERATURE_

_Introduced under the direction of Katherine Tingley_

  No. 1 THE LITTLE BUILDERS, and their Voyage to Rangi (R. N.)       .50
  No. 2 THE COMING OF THE KING (Machell); cloth,                     .35
  LOTUS SONG BOOK. Fifty original songs with copyrighted music;
      boards                                                         .50
  LOTUS SONG: "_The Sun Temple_," with music                         .15


FRENCH

  THÉOSOPHIE ÉLÉMENTAIRE                                             .05
  LES MYSTÈRES DE LA DOCTRINE DU CŒUR (1^{re} Section)               .50


SPANISH

  ECOS DEL ORIENTE (W. Q. Judge)                                     .50
  EPÍTOME DE LAS ENSEÑANZAS TEOSÓFICAS (W. Q. Judge). 40 páginas     .25
  LA TEOSOFÍA EXPLICADA                                              .05
  LA TEOSOFÍA Y SUS FALSIFICACIONES. Para uso de investigadores      .05
      30 copies $1.00; 100 copies $3.00
  LA VIDA EN POINT LOMA (Notas por Katherine Tingley).               .15

  Libros Teosóficos Elementales para uso de los Estudiantes
      16mo, precios cada uno, en papel 25c; en tela                  .35

  Núm. 1 Teosofía Elemental
  Núm. 2 La Constitución Septenaria del Hombre
  Núm. 3 Karma
  Núm. 4 Reencarnación
  Núm. 5 El Hombre después la Muerte
  Núm. 6 Kâmaloka y Devachán
  Núm. 7 Los Maestros y sus Discípulos
  Núm. 8 La Doctrina de los Ciclos
  Núm. 9 Psiquismo, Fantasmalogía, y el Plano Astral
  Núm. 10 La Luz Astral
  Núm. 11 Psicomancia, Clairvoyancia, y Telepatía
  Núm. 12 El Angel y el Demonio (dos tomos, cada uno 35c)
  Núm. 13 La Llama y el Barro
  Núm. 14 Sobre Dios y las Oraciones
  Núm. 15 Teosofía, la Madre de las Religiones
  Núm. 16 Desde la Cripta á Pronaos: un Ensayo sobre la Elevación y
          Decadencia del Dogma
  Núm. 17 La Tierra
  Núm. 18 Los Hijos de la Neblina Ardiente: un Estudio del Hombre

_Order above from the Theosophical Publishing Company, Point Loma,
California._

 The following in other languages may be procured by writing direct to
 the respective Foreign Agencies (see first page) for Book List and
 prices.


GERMAN

 AN IHREN FRÜCHTEN SOLLT IHR SIE ERKENNEN--WER IST EIN THEOSOPH?--WAS
 THEOSOPHIE ÜBER MANCHE PUNKTE LEHRT UND WAS SIE WEDER LEHRT NOCH
 BILLIGT

 AUSBILDUNG DER KONZENTRATION (von William Q. Judge).

 DAS LEBEN ZU POINT LOMA (Katherine Tingley). Schön Illustriert.
 (Recommended)

 DIE BHAGAVAD-GÎTÂ (nach der englischen Ausgabe von William Q. Judge).

 DIE WISSENSCHAFT DES LEBENS UND DIE KUNST ZU LEBEN

 ECHOS AUS DEM ORIENT (von William Q. Judge).

 STUDIEN ÜBER DIE BHAGAVAD GÎTÂ (William Q. Judge).

 THEOSOPHIE ERKLÄRT

 RÜCKBLICK UND AUSBLICK AUF DIE THEOSOPHISCHE BEWEGUNG

 WAHRHEIT IST MÄCHTIG UND MUSS OBSIEGEN!

 POSTKARTEN MIT ANSICHTEN VON POINT LOMA


Theosophische Handbücher:

  No. 1 ELEMENTARE THEOSOPHIE
  No. 2 DIE SIEBEN PRINZIPIEN DES MENSCHEN
  No. 3 KARMA
  No. 4 REINKARNATION
  No. 5 DER MENSCH NACH DEM TODE
  No. 6 KÂMALOKA UND DEVACHAN
  No. 7 LEHRER UND IHRE JÜNGER
  No. 8 DIE THEORIE DER ZYKLEN U. S. W.


DUTCH

 DIE BHAGAVAD-GÎTÂ: Het Boek van Yoga; with Glossary. Bound in morocco
 or paper

 DE KLEINE BOUWERS EN HUN REIS NAAR RANGI; een Geschiedenis voor
 Kinderen door R. N. (_met illustraties van R. Machell_)

 DE OCEAAN DER THEOSOPHIE (door William Q. Judge)

 DE RIDDERS VAN KEIZER ARTHUR--Een Verhaal voor Kinderen, door _Ceinnyd
 Morus_

 DRIE OPSTELLEN OVER THEOSOPHIE. In verband met Vraagstukken van den Dag

 ECHO'S UIT HET OOSTEN; een algemeene schets der Theosophische
 Leeringen door William Q. Judge (_Occultus_)

 HET LEVEN TE POINT LOMA, Enkele Aanteekeningen door Katherine Tingley

 HOOGERE EN LAGERE PSYCHOLOGIE. Enkele Aanteekeningen door Katherine
 Tingley (_met Portret en Illustratie_)

 H. P. BLAVATSKY EN WILLIAM Q. JUDGE, De Stichters en Leiders der
 Theosophische Beweging (_Leerling_). pp. 42

 KATHERINE TINGLEY, DE AUTOCRAAT (_De Geheimen van de Leer van het
 Hart_)

 LICHT OP HET PAD (door M. C.) Bound in morocco or paper

 PIT EN MERG, uit sommige Heilige Geschriften, 1^e Serie

  _Inhoud_: Theosophie en Christendom. "Niemand kan twee heeren dienen."
  Iets Meerders dan de Tempel. Een Gezicht des Oordeels. De Mensch Jezus

 PIT EN MERG VAN DE EINDIGENDE EN KOMENDE EEUW, en de daarmede in
 betrekking staande positie van _Vrijmetselarij_ en _Jesuitisme_, door
 _Rameses_


Theosophical Manuals, Series No. 1

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Theosophical Manuals, Series No. 2

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[Illustration: THE PATH]

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_Among many ideas brought forward through the Theosophical Movement
there are three which should never be lost sight of. Not speech, but
thought, really rules the world; so, if these three ideas are good let
them be rescued again and again from oblivion._

THE FIRST IDEA _is, that there is a great Cause--in the sense of
an enterprise--called the Cause of Sublime Perfection and Human
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the same thing._

THE SECOND IDEA _is, that man is a being who may be raised up to
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incarnate. This noble doctrine was in the mind of Jesus, when he said
that we must be perfect even as the Father in Heaven. This is the idea
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nations for centuries._

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the others. It is, that the great Helpers of Humanity--those who have
reached up to what perfection this period of evolution and this solar
system will allow--are living veritable facts, and not abstractions
cold and distant. They are, as our old H. P. Blavatsky so often said_,
LIVING MEN. _These Helpers as living facts and high ideals will fill
the soul with hope, will themselves help all who wish to raise the
human race._

_Let us not forget these three great ideas._

  WILLIAM Q. JUDGE




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  VOL. I NO. 4       CONTENTS       OCTOBER 1911


  Scene from _The Aroma of Athens_                        _Frontispiece_
  Karma, Reincarnation, and Immortality
                                       H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)   243
  Scenes from _The Aroma of Athens_ (_illustrations_)
                                               246-247, 254-255, 266-267
  Poetry and Criticism                              Kenneth Morris   247
  "The Music of the Spheres"          H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.   258
  Does Nirvâna mean Annihilation?                            T. H.   261
  Cathedrals in Ancient Crete                            A Student   262
  The World of Womanhood                              Grace Knoche   264
  "Magnetons," Force and Matter                         H. Travers   267
  The Natural History Museum, London (_illustrated_)                 270
  Scenes in Geneva and near Champéry, Switzerland (_illustrations_)  271
  Was H. P. Blavatsky a Plagiarist?    H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)   271
  A Farmhouse on the Norfolk Broads, England (_illustration_)        274
  Buckingham Palace, London (_illustrated_)                          275
  The Golden Chain of Platonic Succession
                               F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)   276
  Classical Cyrene                                      Ariomardes   280
  Killarney, Ireland (_illustrated_)
                     F. J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I.   282
  The Vrbas Defile, Bosnia (_illustrated_)                F. J. B.   286
  Rocking-Stone Pinnacle, Tasmania (_illustration_)                  287
  Astronomical Notes       C. J. Ryan       287
  St. Paul's Cathedral from Ludgate Hill (_illustrated_)   Carolus   293
  Who Made the Eucalypts? (_illustrated_)             Nature-Lover   295
  Australian Marsupials (_illustrated_)               Nature-Lover   296
  Hoa-Haka-Nana-Ia (_illustrated_)                    P. A. Malpas   299
  Sun-Life and Earth-Life          Per Fernholm, M. E. (Stockholm)   300
  The Spade of the Archaeologist                        Ariomardes   303
  The Lands now Submerged                         Durand Churchill   305
  Scene in Amsterdam. Oil Creek Falls, Alberta, Canada
      (_illustrations_)                                          306-307
  Book Reviews: _Il est ressuscité_ (Charles Morice) H. A. Fussell   307

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. SCENE FROM "THE AROMA OF ATHENS," AS PRESENTED IN THE
GREEK THEATER, INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS, POINT LOMA,
CALIFORNIA, APRIL 17, 1911 PROCLAMATION OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR BY
MELESIPPOS, THE SPARTAN HERALD]




THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

VOL. I OCTOBER, 1911 NO. 4

 HE who thinks himself holier than another, he who has any pride in his
 exemption from vice or folly, he who believes himself wise, or in any
 way superior to his fellow-men, is incapable of discipleship.--_Light
 on the Path_


KARMA, REINCARNATION, AND IMMORTALITY: by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)


People habitually discuss the past and the future of the human race
with a zeal and interest that clashes strangely with their professed
views on the subject of immortality; for what living interest could we
have in the drama and prospects of a world if our appearance on the
stage were actually limited to the term of a single mortal life? This
constitutes the strongest kind of argument against the conventional
views, theological or otherwise. It would seem that we are really
conscious, though in a dim and undefined way, of our immortality--or,
rather, of the immortality of our essence. The same conviction also
arises when we consider the readiness with which people will face
death, sooner than sacrifice some ideal of love or duty; a readiness
quite inconsistent with professed beliefs.

While most of that which goes to make up a man has grown together
during the period since his birth, and will fall asunder again when he
dies, there is an immortal seed which was before and shall be again.

What is needed is to make our philosophy agree with our inner
convictions, instead of contradicting them. If the consciousness of
immortality in the young were preserved, and not destroyed by wrong
teachings, the old would not have to spend so much time and energy
in trying to solve problems that would never have arisen. We do not
sufficiently realize what we owe to centuries of theological dogmatism
and other forms of materialism; and consequently we underestimate the
effect which would be produced if the rising generations were guided on
higher, broader, and more generous lines of thought.

Theosophy justly claims that its philosophy enables us to interpret our
own intuitions. Its teachings do not contradict our innate conviction
of the justice of universal law. Theosophy may be called a science,
inasmuch as it interprets nature, studying the effects and unraveling
their causes, finding explanations that will account for the facts. It
might also be called rationalism, since it imposes no dogmas but points
out facts. But both science and reason must be understood in a vastly
wider sense than the conventional one. Nature is not limited to her
external manifestations; for the body is but the vesture of the soul
within--whether in man or in the earth. Nor can the function of science
be limited to physics.

The justice and harmony of a human life cannot be discerned if we
regard that life separately--apart from its sequel and apart from that
of which it is the sequel. This circumstance accounts for most of the
strivings and strainings to reconcile faith with experience and to
find a place for God in philosophy. But the idea of Reincarnation is
so unfamiliar to Western culture and habits of thought that reasonable
as it is it will take some time to win its appeal. The process of
familiarizing this truth is rendered slower by the fact that much
nonsense is talked about it, and reasonable inquirers thereby warned
off. Yet it is possible to speak of Reincarnation in a sane and serious
way.

What people most often forget is to distinguish properly between
that which survives and that which does not, and this may lead them
to expect proofs of a kind that cannot logically be demanded. They
also confound memory with recollection, assuming, quite illogically,
that where there is no recollection there can be no memory. But it is
conceivable that memories may be stored up beyond our present reach,
and yet be accessible to stronger efforts which we may be able to
make at some future time. It may be true that we do not _recollect_
our past lives, but we are not warranted in inferring that the memory
is obliterated or that there never was any such record made. The
recollection of past lives is a question of memory training; but it is
probably unnecessary to say that anyone who should venture on such a
task in the expectation of achieving speedy results by his own unaided
efforts would be liable to disappointment and delusion. For this
attainment lies a long way ahead of us on the Path.

If people were habituated from birth to regard their present life as
only one of a series, a great benefit would accrue. The fear of death
would disappear; in time it might come to be looked upon as a mere
incident. The haste to achieve disproportionate material prosperity
would be seen to be needless. There could never be any ground for the
philosophy, "Let us eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we die!"
But, more important still, confidence and courage would be restored.
It would never be too late to mend; the oldest man might begin a new
study or enterprise. Things left undone in this life could confidently
be left for completion in the future. Failings not entirely overcome
would be left behind, and a clean start would be in prospect. We do
indeed already act as though we believed in Reincarnation; for old
men begin new studies, and in many other ways people behave as though
they were not going to die for good. Our intuitions are better than
our philosophy; they tell us true, but we give them the lie; hence we
marvel at our "inconsistency" or say that "God moves in a mysterious
way," when it is ourselves who are moving in a mysterious way, our
wonders to perform. How much more reasonable it would be, if we could
give up these dogmas and mold our philosophy into harmony with our
inner perceptions. And, speaking of dogmas, be it remembered that there
are dogmas and dogmas; and one of the latter is that nothing is true
unless it can be shown to follow from certain arbitrary rules of reason.

Another mistake made in thinking of immortality consists in regarding
it merely in relation to time. Yet the Soul exists all the time; and
while the personality is living its temporal life, the Soul, free from
the limitations of time and sense, is living its eternal life. Hence we
may truly be said to be experiencing immortality while in the flesh;
and though we but faintly realize it, we do so in different degrees,
some people more than others.

A useful comparison is that between death and sleep, between a lifetime
and a day. During the period of a day we pass through successive
phases similar to youth, maturity, and old age. At night we cheerfully
lay down our work, confident that we shall resume it. Each day is
determined to a large extent by preceding days, and is in its turn the
parent of following days. In every day our free initiative works amid
conditions imposed by our actions on preceding days, and here we find
an analogy with the workings of the law of Karma during a lifetime. If
we but regard a lifetime as a longer day, the analogy will clear up
many difficulties.

Continuing this analogy further, we find that as regards the successive
days of our lifetime, our mind is conscious of them all; in fact our
mind is in the same position with regard to the days as the Higher Mind
is with regard to the successive lives. Knowing this, we do not make
the mistake of scolding Providence for conditions which we know we have
created ourselves. The only difference, in the case of a lifetime, is
that we are not yet cognizant of the continuity of our existence, and
find ourselves in circumstances whose origin we have forgotten. Yet
these circumstances are the logical consequence of past actions. The
opportunities we enjoy and the drawbacks under which we suffer were
made by ourselves.

It is maintained by Theosophists that the doctrines of Karma and
Reincarnation are perfectly adaptable to ordinary life; that they are
not mere theories such as a scholar might amuse himself with; that they
represent actual facts and constitute an interpretation--indeed the
only logical interpretation--of things as they are. It may be regarded
as certain that these tenets will eventually become generally adopted;
there is great vitality behind them, and the human mind is at present
in a fluid condition, during which it is rapidly assimilating new
ideas. The future may be forecast by a comparison of present ideas with
those of a few years ago. The important thing is to provide that the
pure teachings, and not any absurd travesty of them, shall prevail.

It is a solemn and oft-repeated truth that no real reform in human
circumstances can be made unless the characters of the people are
reformed. And how can these be reformed so long as there is such a
chaos of beliefs and non-beliefs, theological dogmas that teach us
to fear ourselves, so-called "scientific" theories that magnify our
animal nature and animal heredity? What is needed is views of life
based upon common sense, views which dignify man and inspire him with
self-confidence of the right kind. The Theosophical teachings as to
Karma, Reincarnation, and the sevenfold nature of man can achieve this;
but they need to be seriously studied, and above all made the basis of
action. Theosophist is who Theosophy does.

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. THE CROWNING OF HOMER A TABLEAU PRESENTED IN THE GREEK
THEATER, INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS ON APRIL 17, 1911, IN
THE GREEK PLAY "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. IRIS ADVISING PRIAM TO RANSOM HEKTOR'S BODY ANOTHER
TABLEAU PRESENTED IN "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. CHILDREN'S SCENE IN "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. ANOTHER CHILDREN'S SCENE IN "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]




POETRY AND CRITICISM: by Kenneth Morris


I

Matthew Arnold will have it that the function of Poetry is the
Criticism of Life; and the work of a poet will be important, according
to him, only in so far as it throws light on human life and character.
But in the work of all poets there is a kind of cream that may be
skimmed off (_provided that there is a cream_, and that it was not all
sky-blue wretchedness from the first); and when it has been so skimmed,
one may say that the poetry is the cream, and the criticism of life
the skim-milk. "Such and such a lyric, by so and so," says your poet
or poetry-lover, "is of equal value with Hamlet or the Odyssey, all
three being absolute in their beauty." "Gammon!" says your man of the
world in letters; "there is the criticism of life to be thought of.
How shall ten lines be equal to ten thousand?" Which is right? The
second will get all the votes; which is no great argument, perhaps.
The epic took longer in the writing; but one never knows what may lie
behind the lyric. The didactic or philosophic poem, the work full
of this criticism, will influence the thought of the world; and if
thinking is to be the judge, it will win unquestionably. But the lyric
will be singing itself through thousands of minds, in the sunshine,
in the mines, over the washtub, heaven knows where: without noise, it
will shed its brightness through a million eyes, its sweetness on a
million tempers, its clearness and magic on a million imaginations.
To the writer of the most perfect lyric, I am not sure that we do not
owe as much gratitude as to the writer of the greatest epic or drama:
I am almost positive that we owe him more than to the best writer of
criticism of life; though it be a dozen lines against a dozen volumes.

Most of the English-writing poets have been also, and many of them
mainly, philosophers; writing their thought in verse form, and perhaps
sprinkling it from the spice-box of pure poetry, and perhaps not.
Often and often we find stories or philosophic disquisitions in verse,
that might have been told as well in prose; although it has been
said rather wisely that nothing should have verse form that could be
told honorably without metre. There is a class of idea that journeys
leisurely and step by step through the mind; this should be reserved
for prose. There are other classes that have the sweep and charge of
cavalry, and you build epics and all heroic poetry of them; others
that soar singing like the skylark, or that wander from bloom to bloom
droning out a magical and honey-laden monody, secrets of a learning
incomprehensible to the minds of men. These will be the right stuff for
your pure lyrics, these bees and birds in the golden regions west of
thought. Their revelations are more esoteric than philosophy; they home
to deeper places.

But one cannot deal with all poetry or all life in one article; and it
is the intention here to consider narrative poetry alone. Narrative
poetry, when it is anything more than a ballad, is epic: and epic is
heroic poetry; not by any convention, I believe, but in accordance
with deep-seated law. There is room for nothing personal or limited
here; for no dissection of personal characteristics, no consideration
or criticism of problems of exterior life. Those things all belong to
prose; poetry proclaims the actions and perceptions of the soul. Heroic
or epic poetry tells of the soul as hero, warrior, redeemer; as Sigurd
going out against Fafnir, Arthur ferried in a dark barge to The Island
of the Apples; as Satan unconquered in the lake of flame; as Christ on
Golgotha, or Prometheus on Caucasus. It has to show forth the glory,
the indomitableness, the magnanimity of the soul, dwelling in those
lofty regions and letting who will come to it for general strength
and inspiration. It is the Mountain; it will not descend from itself
for any Mohammed. For this reason is its aloofness, its tendency to
concern itself with periods _apparently_ in the far past, but really
in the eternal. That atmosphere all narrative poetry must retain,
under penalty of sinking into berhymed or bemetred prose; or into the
ballad--which, indeed, can be good, at its best, but not supremely
good. Yet how many stories there are, beautifully written in verse,
which are neither epic in spirit nor ballad in form; which are, if the
truth should be told, novels strayed from their proper fold of prose,
valley wanderers by no means at home on the mountain.

One thinks, for example, of such a work as Mrs. Browning's _Aurora
Leigh_. If she had only written it in prose! With that faultlessness of
expression, that delicate insight and unerring justness of criticism
which mark it, it would have become a classic; we should have said,
"Why, this is a prose poem, a literary treasure among novels." But
being in verse, it remains, however beautiful, only versified prose;
and it is to be feared that we neglect it; to be feared, but hardly to
be wondered at. If she had only written it in prose!

Or one thinks of nearly all Tennyson's narrative poetry. The aim, one
feels, was nearly always criticism of life, the life of all these
myriads of personalities; not poetry, which is the illumination of
the hidden life of the soul. It was for this reason that _Idylls of
the King_, although flaming up here and there with such poetry as has
not been excelled in any known literature, perhaps--yet fails as a
whole to be a great poem. The Nineteenth Century was too insistent,
and the troubles and problems of the day. Milton, dealing with matters
beyond the crystalline and the brink of time, achieved the epic; but
even Milton, coming down to Eden, heaven, and the familiar things of
dogmatic theology, attained only to be ... Well, well, all honor to
him; he deserves that all that should be lost and forgotten. Poetry and
personality cannot be blended; they are a veritable God and Mammon.

Then there are those charming stories of Tennyson's: _Dora_, _Enoch
Arden_, _Almer's Field_, _The Princess_. He dignified them all with
his own high gift of style; stamped on every line his own noble and
melodious manner; adorned them all richly, and with consummate taste,
with the best color of English rural life. Yet they remain essentially
of the nature of prose; and we should not have been lured into thinking
them poetry, but for the wonderful genius with which Tennyson handled
them. The matter is the matter of the novel; and the style--what a
wonderful style it is!--is rather the polished style that reflects
light, the style of prose, than the white-hot luminosity of the genuine
epic.

Let us take, for example, _The Princess_, perhaps the most romantic
and beautiful of this series, the one it takes the greatest temerity
to speak of as not really poetic. Its aim is to throw light on, or
to consider, or discuss, a certain present-day problem, that of the
"emancipation of women"; and who shall say that that might not be done
in prose? Is poetry to throw no light on our modern problems, or on
contemporary problems, then? Turn to your Milton for an answer:

  Dare ye for this adjure the civil sword
    To force our consciences that Christ set free,
    And ride us with a classic hierarchy
  Taught ye by mere A. S. and Rutherford?
  Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent
    Would have been held in high esteem with Paul
      Must now be named and printed heretics
  By shallow Edwards and Scotch What-d'ye-call!
      But we do hope to find out all your tricks.

Poetry? By heaven, yes! And on a contemporary problem? Look at
the title of it: "On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long
Parliament"; and the date given, too; 1646. But does he discuss? Does
he consider? Indeed he does not. He flames forth from the standpoint of
the soul; he is still God's Warrior, and you dare not mention truce to
him. So those prosaic names, that "mere A. S. and Rutherford," "shallow
Edwards," and above all the ridiculous "Scotch What-d'ye-call," become
flaming and terrible poetic utterances on his lips; he blasts with them
the fools that dare stand up against the liberty and supremacy of the
soul. But suppose, instead of this terse, burning sonnet so entirely
free from the atmosphere of argumentation, he had written a long story
designed to thrash the matter out from the standpoint of pure reason?
Some one might do so; and the work might be one of great value; but it
would not be poetic; it could not be Miltonic; it would be a novel with
a purpose, not an epic poem.

There are problems and problems; those which poetry may specifically
handle, are, I think, the same yesterday, today and forever. Who is
to hinder her handling what problems she likes; will you set down
rules for her? Heaven forbid! it were more profitable to build a fence
about the cuckoo. But the fact remains that she will touch these, and
will not touch those others. Charm you never so wisely, she will not
come from her own ground. For all your birdlime of earnestness, of
enthusiasm, of excellent purpose, it is some masquerading jackdaw you
will have captured, not the Bird of Paradise; unless it is the trees of
Paradise you have limed. Poetry hardly deals with any historic period,
old or new; she leaves those to the historians, and has a period of her
own, which is eternal. What then, you say, of those "New Forcers of
Conscience in the Long Parliament?" This! that that parliament is so
long that it has been sitting any time this two thousand years, and is
sitting now, in all our towns and villages. "New Presbyter is but old
Priest writ large"; A. S. and Rutherford, Shallow Edwards and Scotch
What-d'ye-call--they all preach in a thousand pulpits every Sunday.
For they are prototypal figures, and plot and persecute wherever there
is bigotry or ecclesiastical dominance. Against them, and, so far as
one has been able to discover, against them _only_, does poetry ever
come forth armed, enangered, utterly ruthless. It is she that has pity
and pardon for the Magdalene and the publican; but a whip of bitter
small chords for those that have made her Father's house into a den
of thieves. Do you doubt it? Then find some passage where anger is
expressed, not in rhetoric, not in mere fustian bombast, but with the
sublime music and undertone, the ring of genuine poetry; perhaps an
anger without mercy, a declaration of utter war; and see whether it is
not directed _always_ against this same ecclesiasticism.

But we set out to discuss the epic; and here we have wandered off to
consider a sonnet with particular gusto; a grave digression, surely?
I think not. You shall not judge a poem's right to the epic name by
its length. This little sonnet is an epic too, with Milton on Pegasus
for hero; and A. S., Rutherford, Edwards, and What-d'ye-call for
four-headed Chimaera. I think the very archaeus of the epic is the
eternal battle of the world; and that all epics have their root in
that, and are great and regal in proportion to their nearness, inwardly
and spiritually speaking, to it. Tennyson knew it when he set out to
write in his _Idylls of the King_ a record of the Soul at war with
sense; only perhaps he knew it too personally and consciously; and lost
the grand epic symbolism in his quest after actual _criticism_ of life.


II

But to return to _The Princess_. Here, the objective is not to set
forth eternal verity, but to discuss, perhaps throw light on, a problem
of our own day; a social, in a sense, rather than a spiritual problem.
What figure can stand for the battling soul, and what for the principle
of evil? There are epic places in the _Idylls of the King_, where this
symbolism stands forth majestically, and style and glory correspond. We
have the story of that "last, dim battle in the west" and the passing
of Arthur thereafter; clean, antique, touched with the infinite and
with eternity; therein, if you will, is the epic atmosphere. But here
it is the benevolent, thoughtful Tennyson that is speaking, troubled
by the evils that he sees around him; not Tennyson the great Bard on
fire with ultimate and secret truth. You see, there was the duality
there; and both sides of it are honorable, to be revered and loved.
If criticism has a work to perform in discriminating between the two,
she does no dishonor to the thinker in separating him from the poet.
We have to ask what there is in this work, _The Princess_, that might
entitle it to be considered poetry, in the highest sense.

The style? Style is there, undoubtedly. Every line has been molded,
heightened, shaped, polished, chiseled. But let us compare it with the
style of poetry, and we shall see the difference. Here is one of the
most fiery passages; one in which you can feel that the invitation was
to the supreme, super-personal compassion to enter in:

  "O brother, you have known the pangs we felt,
  What heats of indignation when we heard
  Of those that iron-cramp'd their women's feet;
  Of lands in which at the altar the poor bride
  Gives her harsh groom for bridal-gift a scourge;
  Of living hearts that crack within the fire
  Where smoulder their dead despots; and of those--
  Mothers--that, all prophetic pity, fling
  Their pretty maids in the running flood, and swoops
  The vulture, beak and talon, at the heart
  Made for all noble motion; and I saw
  That equal baseness lived in sleeker times
  With smoother men: the old leaven leaven'd all:
  Millions of throats would bawl for civil rights,
  No woman named: therefore I set my face
  Against all men, and lived but for mine own.
  Far from all men I built a fold for them."

So speaks the princess of the story; profusely, if with great dignity;
bitterly, but argumentatively: it is a heightened, an exalted prose
style; but it has not taken that leap into infinity which is the mark
of the poetic grand manner. For a contrast, consider this; the work of
another Victorian bard; one not greater than Tennyson, but here with
his poet's blue mantle upon him, robed with the infinite. He, too, is
smitten with compassion for certain women; and the flame leaps up from
the blow in this wise:

  Here, down between the dusty trees,
    At this lank edge of haggard wood,
  Women with labour-loosened knees,
    With gaunt backs bowed by servitude,
  Stop, shift their loads, and pray, and fare
  Forth with souls easier for the prayer.

         *       *       *       *       *

  God of this grievous people, wrought
    After the likeness of their race,
  By faces like thine own besought,
    Thine own blind helpless eyeless face,
  I too, that have nor tongue nor knee
  For prayer, I have a word to thee.

  It was for this then, that thy speech
    Was blown about the world in flame,
  And men's souls shot up out of reach
    Of fear or lust or thwarting shame--
  That thy faith over souls should pass
  As sea-winds burning the young grass?

  It was for this, that prayers like these
    Should spend themselves about thy feet.
  And with hard overlaboured knees
    Kneeling, these slaves of men should beat
  Bosoms too lean to suckle sons,
  And fruitless as their orisons?

It is the first and the last verses quoted that count; and I think much
might be learned from a careful comparison of them with the passage
from _The Princess_. Tennyson has made a catalog, in the manner of
prose, of the sorrows of women; his mind traveling with passion,
but with a certain artistic, conscious discrimination, from China,
India, Arabia, to the hustings of Victorian England (for it is that,
in reality). The style of prose we say; well, the style of rhetoric:
picture by picture has been chosen with a view to make the case strong,
to impress who should hear it. "Ida's answer ... Oration-like," says
Tennyson, knowing well what he was writing. Swinburne, in the supreme
manner of poetry, has burned upon our vision that solemn, terrible
picture, bare, unornate, unforgetable, of the women at the wayside
crucifix; "slaves of men" beating "bosoms too lean to suckle sons":
and with the picture there is that impression of augustness, that
sense as of the presence of a great avenging angel, or perhaps, of
the majesty of the Law. The attitude of the Princess Ida towards the
evils that she condemns, is one of personal protest; she dwells on the
same plane as they do, albeit in the brighter regions of it; she is a
human personality, and speaks with a human and quite personal voice.
But the anger of Swinburne here, the condemnation that he deals out,
is not personal: the words are such as might be spoken by a god from
his throne. They come from a loftier place than the thing condemned
occupies, as though they were a sentence passed from the tribunal
against whose decrees there is no appeal. So they are indeed. For this
is Poetry, which is the voice of the Soul; and the Soul is deific,
sovereign, aloof; and it does look down and pass sentence on the things
of this world--a sentence damnatory or compassionate, but based on
the evidence of direct vision and certitude, never on argument and the
weighing up of pros and cons.

Look at those last lines again; with what sure intensity the
whole tragedy is revealed! Compassion, in her own manner loftily
_disdainful_, we might almost say, is suddenly focused; nine-tenths
of the story are left untold, but the one-tenth that remains has the
whole cry, the whole tragedy in it of a world blighted by lies: it is
"dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn," and, _mirabile
dictu_, with the "love of love," or compassion, in a breath.

We get that same strange glorious blending of compassion and
scorn--pride or scorn, one does not know what to call it; it is
neither of those things in reality, but rather the native accent
of divinity in the voice of the soul--we hear that same majestic
blending of compassion and haughtiness pre-eminently in a line from
the _Purgatorio_ which Arnold justly gives as one of the most perfect
examples of the Grand Manner of poetry, the highest style than can be
impressed on written or chanted words; the line: _Che drizza voi che il
mondo fece torti_, "Which straightens you whom the world made crooked."
We see here, I think, as in the passage from Swinburne, the same
impatience of words and details; the same godlike aloofness; the same
pity too compressed, too burning and intense, to reveal itself fully
or tenderly: the feeling has passed beyond the limits of the power of
tenderness, we might say, to be tender: it is such a super-passional
passion of tenderness, suppressed, governed, boiling, that it must be
stern, swift, momentary--or nothing. Is it not the very naked voice
of the august divinity hidden within us?--the greatest fashion that
can be burned and infused into the brute stuff of language; because
ringing with the dominance of that hidden Master? It bears the mark of
compassion, because compassion is the inevitable attitude of the soul
outward from itself; and it bears the stamp of sublime titanism--that
thing that would be scorn, were it bitter and hostile, and that would
be mere majesty, might it remain passive and in repose--because the
soul is a god, and knows itself to be a god, and breathes out the
atmosphere of godhood. Here it is in Milton, again:

            His form had not yet lost
  All her original brightness, nor appeared
  Less than archangel ruined:

and of course, it is Milton and Dante who are the supreme masters in
modern literature of the Grand Manner; as poets, the greatest of the
poets.

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. PHEIDIAS, EURIPIDES, AND ARISTON GROUP IN "THE AROMA OF
ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. KRITON, THUKYDIDES, PHEIDIAS, ARISTON, AND HIPPONIKOS
(READING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. HIPPARETE, PERIKTIONE, POTONE, ASPASIA, AGATHOKLEIA,
DIOTIMA, DEINOMACHE, AND MYRTO (READING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) "THE AROMA
OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. DIOTIMA, PERIKLES, AND ASPASIA, SEATED "THE AROMA OF
ATHENS"]

Now it will be said that there is compassion in the passage quoted from
_The Princess_; and undoubtedly there is; but is not the effort all to
manifest it, to make it plain to every one that it is there, to lead it
from picture to picture that will feed and excite it? We may say that
it is a voice from below upward, an inspiration; it has the style and
atmosphere of a great endeavor of the personal self towards the soul:
whereas in the other cases, it is the comment and utterance of the soul
itself. _There_, there is no effort to manifest compassion; the effort
is all to suppress and control it. The effort is like the metal walls
of a bomb, without which the explosive would only fizzle and waste.
The poet--Swinburne, Milton, or Dante--had no doubt of his dynamite;
it was too mighty, too awesome a thing; all he must do is to make the
bomb walls strong, strong, strong. So, in reading, we get the effect,
and are blown up--to the altitudes of consciousness. Tennyson, being
also a poet, and therefore knowing the nature of dynamite; but writing
here, not poetry, but mere criticism of life in the guise of poetry,
puts what he can, out of his memory, of dynamite into his work: infuses
what he may of the atmosphere of compassion into it. Swinburne and
Dante and Milton have a Niagara to deal with, and they must make the
channel of it as small as they may; they must dam it as well as they
can, or heaven knows where they and the world would be swept to--mere
incoherence and blind fury perhaps, or silence. Tennyson (in this case)
has to deal with an irrigation scheme, and must make his channels as
wide and deep as he can, and coax the waters of the world into them.
Then, too, see how he deals with that other quality. He knew well
enough that it is integral in the Grand Manner of Poetry, and he will
weave it in here, if he may. So we have:

  Far from all men I built a fold for them:

         *       *       *       *       *

  And prospered; till a _rout of saucy boys
  Brake on us at our books_.

There is no doubt what quality that is; scorn, indignation,
separateness, bitterness, hostility. It is a personal imitation of
loftiness, the compassionate element has quite vanished from it; there
is all the difference in the world between it and the fierce pity of--

            these slaves of men should beat
  Bosoms too lean to suckle sons,
  And fruitless as their orisons:

or the sudden stern mercy implied in--

                la Montagna
  Che drizza voi che il mondo fece torti:

or the serene, august luminance of compassion shining through--

            His form had not yet lost
  All her original brightness.

Or, since the compassion is out of it, we might compare it with those
many lines from Milton that convey only the sense of the grandeur,
without the compassion, of the soul; lines such as these:

  An old and haughty nation, proud in arms;

or:

  Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
  More safe I sing with mortal voice, _unchanged_
  To hoarse or mute, _though fallen on evil days,
  On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues,
  In darkness, and with dangers compassed round_;

or:

  Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench
  Of that forgetful lake benumb not still,
  _That in our proper motion we ascend
  Up to our native seat; descent and fall
  To us are adverse_:

--these speak of the majesty of the soul; but the other only of the
bitterness of the personality.

But you will say, Tennyson was putting words into the mouth of a very
human, limited personality; and so the piece is more artistic as it is,
and would be inappropriate otherwise. These are the words she actually
would have said. True. The personality does speak in prose. Prose is
the language of personality; and no doubt it was first invented when
first the souls rayed out personalities from themselves; no doubt
poetry is the older, as it is the more august. So the style used in
_The Princess_ is suitable, well-chosen, artistic; it fits the subject
admirably; which proves that the subject is essentially a prose one.
For prose--history, philosophy, criticism--examines and criticises life
from without; but poetry illumines it from within. Prose considers and
passes judgment on the external, the seeming, the current: Poetry
dwells within the holy of holies and her whole burden is the story of
the Soul.

If she looks outward at all--and she does that too, at times--it is
from her own standpoint, and in the eternal manner. She does not then
criticise; her tones do not mince nor falter. The bardic schools had a
law, that the office of the Bard was solely to extol what was noble;
there were other orders, not sacred like the bardic, whose business was
to satirize or to amuse. One can see that such a law must have come
from a time when that one force which, as was said above, alone can
move poetry to anger absolute, was not in evidence: for, except that
they must fight that force, that old law holds for the bards now. So
poetry, looking down into this world, criticises no one and nothing.
She exalts whom she will; she mantles humanity with godhood: and whom
she will--the antihumanists, the plotters against the freedom and
beauty of the soul--she thunders upon.

Swinburne, looking at the roadside crucifix ghastly in its deification
of decay and death, criticises _that_--nay, scourges the idea it
symbolizes, the soul-fettering dogmatism; pours on it the hate of hate,
the scorn of scorn, if you like--but it is because the awful vision of
the real Crucified burns up before him; the tragedy of the ages, the
enslaved, thwarted, hindered, persecuted _Soul of Man_. Dante beholds
the severe mercy of the Great Law, "that straightens us, whom the
world has made crooked." Milton, vainly endeavoring to be orthodox,
to write within the limits of the dogmas, justifying the ways of his
strange deity, and holding up Satan for our abhorrence, gives way to
the great spirit of the Poet within him time and again; and shows, time
and again, the sublime pathos of the Soul, Unchanged, though fallen on
evil days. Nay, but they do not tell of these things; they make them
live; they are revelations shown before us; so that our own eyes have
seen, and the universe has undergone transfiguration, and ourselves.
For Poetry is no little thing, no mere refinement. It is magic; it is
the life of the Gods; it is the secret and spiritual nature of things.
Without it, this Universe like a rotten bough, would break off from
the Tree of Life. Without it, there would be no Tree of Life. It is
the living sap, the greenness, the subtle vigor, and the beauty of the
Tree.




"THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES":

by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.


Hegel, commenting upon the Pythagorean doctrine of number as the basis
of all things says:

 Numbers have been much used as the expression of ideas. This, on one
 side, has a look of depth. For, that another meaning is implied in
 them than they immediately present, is seen at once; but how much is
 implied in them is known neither to him who proposes, nor by him who
 tries to understand.... The more obscure the thoughts, the deeper they
 seem; the thing is, that what is most essential, but also what is
 hardest, namely, the expression of one's self in definite notions--is
 precisely what the proposer spares himself.

Upon which Stirling remarks:

 But the curious point is that Hegel himself adopts this very numerical
 symbolism, so far as it suits _the system_! It is only, indeed, when
 that agreement fails, that the agreement of Hegel fails also. The
 moment it does fail, however, his impatience breaks out. The one, the
 two, the three, he contentedly, even warmly and admiringly accepts,
 nay, "as far as five," he says, "there may well be something like
 a thought in numbers, _but_ on from six there are simply arbitrary
 determinations!"

Especially, said Hegel, there is meaning in _three_, the Trinity. The
Trinity is only unintelligible when considered as three separate units;
its divine meaning appears when we take it as a whole.

 It would be a strange thing if there were no sense in what for two
 thousand years has been the holiest Christian idea.

It would be stranger if one of the profoundest thinkers that ever
lived, a teacher whose grandeur of character made him almost an object
of worship to his pupils, had selected his symbols to "spare himself"
the labor of clear conception (or had let them conceal from himself the
confusion of his own thought). According to Hegel we must respectfully
see philosophy in the Christian Trinity; in the Pythagorean Dekad, none.

Pythagoras wrote nothing. And his teaching was esoteric, delivered
under pledge of secrecy. The essence of the echoes that reach us
amounts to this: that numbers and ratio are the soul of things; that
the soul itself is a number and a harmony.

Is there any possible reading of this from which it might appear
profoundly true and illuminating?

We sometimes estimate savage intelligence by the power of counting,
of adding units. From one point of view the power does not seem to go
very far with ourselves. We cannot in one act of perception count more
than a very few dots irregularly placed on a sheet of paper. If more
than that few they must have some arrangement. Nine must be perhaps in
three threes, twelve in four threes or three fours. But even before
twenty is reached, no arrangement will permit one act of perception to
accomplish the numbering. There is merely a considerable number, and
actual unitary counting--of units or groups--is necessary to know how
large it is.

But now let there be a sufficient number of dots to suggest to the eye
say a flower form or a frieze pattern, and let them be so arranged.
Before that arrangement they were a mere horde of _ones_; in their
definite arrangement they have a _meaning_, excite an idea, a state of
consciousness. Is not the advent of this meaning, the perception of
this form as a whole, a new and transcendental kind of counting? Number
in this sense, is form; and the form is form and not inchoateness,
chaos, just because of its meaning; that is, because of the state of
consciousness it excites in us.

You can count the ticks of the clock--as ones. If they were four
times as fast you could perhaps still count them. As they became more
rapid than that they would pass beyond the power of counting. As they
became still more rapid they would presently cease to be units at all
_and become a musical note_. Now they excite what might be called an
idea, a state of feeling peculiar to that number per second. Is not
the perception of that number _as a note_ a kind of counting? Let the
number per second be now suddenly doubled. Are we aware of the ratio of
this new number to the previous one? Yes, but as a rise of an octave
in the note, not as a counted doubling. To this corresponds another
state of feeling, partly due to the new note as it is, partly due to
its relation to the old one. It is a perception of ratio appearing in
consciousness as aesthetic feeling.

Set this clock to beat twice as fast again, and having listened a
moment so as to get the sense of the new note, stop it. Set a second
clock to beat _five_ for the first one's four. Listen so as to get the
sense of it and then stop that clock also. Set a third to beat _six_
for the first one's four and do the same.

Now start them all at once. You cannot by counting ascertain that
whilst one beats six the other two are respectively beating five and
four. But your appreciation of the fact takes the form of _hearing
the musical chord do, mi, sol_, C, E, G, the common chord in its
first position. Is not the perception of that chord, the acceptation
of that state of feeling, really a recognition of the ratio, a highly
transcendental counting? In the feeling you have the _meaning_ of the
numbers and of the ratios between them. It is those numbers themselves
viewed from a high standpoint.

The same might be said of every other chord. Listening to music is
perceiving ratios of vibratory speed between the successive notes and
chords, transcendental counting. The feelings aroused are what those
ratios _mean_. The meaning, the feeling, of the composer gets out into
expression through those numbers and ratios. Number in the ordinary
one-plus-one sense is the body of music; number in the transcendental
sense is its soul.

We cannot in the ordinary sense count ether-touches on the optic
nerve. But when they reach a certain number of trillions per second we
suddenly perceive the _meaning_ of that number--which we call the color
red or the sensation of redness. When the rapidity is seven-fourths as
many we get the sensation violet. But there is more than a sensation;
the colors have an _aesthetic_ and emotional value. And when colors,
that is rates, are juxtaposited in certain ways we get _art_ and the
value may become _spiritual_.

But no two people are affected in exactly the same way by the same
piece of music or of art work, though the souls of both may be touched.
Since, as we have seen, the highest aspect of number and ratio is
_spiritual meaning_, we can already see something in the Pythagorean
saying that the soul is a number and a ratio or harmony. In its
self-consciousness it has a spiritual meaning for itself; it means
something to itself; it understands itself. And so each soul, each with
its own special nature or meaning, reacts a little differently to the
spiritual meaning of numbers and ratios coming to it from without.

Nature herself, thought the Pythagoreans, is instinct with spiritual
meanings. Whilst the soul is embodied and limited by the senses she
cannot ordinarily or easily get these meanings direct. They have
to be clothed or bodied in those masses of units and ratios that
are color, sound, and form. She touches these ordered aggregations
(numbers them, understands them) on three planes: first as sensation;
then as aesthetic feeling; then, perhaps, in their spiritual meaning.
The musician, as he composes, does receive direct a bit of nature's
spiritual meaning and then aggregates such numbers and ratios of
vibration as will express it. And if his music, carrying this meaning,
be so sounded as to affect plates of sand or other fine powder, forms
will result such as nature herself makes--perhaps in the same way,
though we cannot hear the sound for its subtlety--forms of flowers,
trees, groves, and what not. For any of nature's meanings may get out
along the ways of sound, color, or form. We can conceive that the whole
of evolution is guided by number, ordered number, ratio. The electrons
in an atom and the atoms in a molecule and the molecules in a cell or
crystal are not only so many in number but definite in arrangement,
in form. They _mean_ something; they express in arrangement and in
successive changes in arrangement a unitary spiritual idea of nature's,
and in that is the force of evolution. If the units disintegrate and
scatter so that we speak of death, the idea, the real life, remains
and embodies again in a new harmonized mass of units. The idea is the
magnet that attracts and arranges them and incarnates among them. It
is their spiritual number, the cause of their countable number and
scientifically ascertainable arrangement.

Number, therefore, in the highest sense, is not the same as a heap, a
mass, an anyhowness; it is an order expressive of a spiritual meaning.
In the highest sense it is that spiritual meaning itself even before
expression in an ordered mass of items or vibrations. And in this sense
the soul is a number and nature the synthesis of numbers; both finding
expression, the one in the soul's several garments (one only known to
science) and works; the other in what we call "nature." Pythagoras will
yet find his full vindication in philosophy. He is of the future, not
the past.




DOES NIRVÂNA MEAN ANNIHILATION? by T. H.


It is sometimes said by superficial students that Nirvâna means total
annihilation; while more accurate scholars point out that it means the
extinction of the impermanent part of our nature, whereby the permanent
prevails. This is well brought out in the following quotation from _The
Kashf al-Mahjûb_, the oldest Persian treatise on Sûfiism, translated by
Reynold A. Nicholson.

 Annihilation is the annihilation of one attribute through the
 subsistence of another attribute.... Whoever is annihilated from his
 own will subsists in the will of God, as the power of fire transmutes
 to its own quality anything that falls into it ... but fire affects
 only the quality of iron without changing its substance.

It is evident that what is annihilated is the _personality_, which,
according to the teachings, is an erroneous conception preventing the
manifestation of the real Self. Thus the doctrine of annihilation
is seen to be a consistent part of a logical teaching and not the
untenable idea which some critics have represented it to be. The
fact that most of us in our present state of development look with
reluctance at the idea of losing our transitory personality does not
invalidate the truth of the teaching; for the teaching relates to the
destinies of the permanent Spirit, in which the wishes of our erring,
transitory personality play but little part. Were we washed clean,
standing forth in robes of light, as most religious believers hope to
be at some time or other, we might consent in will and understanding to
this teaching; seeing then that the personality is indeed a delusion
and a source of woe, whose annihilation is even to be desired.

In the meantime, and for immediate practical purposes, we can
consider annihilation as a process applicable to the development
of our character; substituting, however, a less harsh word--say
neutralization. There are in our character many elements which we
should wish to reduce to nothing; there are many false selves which
obtrude themselves on us, claiming a share of our life and crowding
out the better phases of our character. The elimination of these, in
order that the better elements may shine forth unobscured, is a process
of purification. Why, then, may not Nirvâna be so considered? To what
extent have our prejudices on the subject been aroused by the mere use
of an inadequate word in translation? Nirvâna is extinction of the
_false_. "Ring out the false, ring in the true!"




CATHEDRALS IN ANCIENT CRETE: by a Student


Great as is the reverence which we have for our religion, we scarcely
realize how much more ancient and venerable it is than is usually
supposed. But archaeology is doing much to enlighten opinion on that
point. For instance, we read in _The Discoveries in Crete_, by Ronald
M. Burrows, that

 It was long ago suggested that the Roman Basilica, which formed the
 earliest type of Christian church, was derived both in structure and
 in name from the "Stoa Basilike" or King's Colonnade at Athens.
 This was the place where the King Archon, the particular member of
 the board of nine annual magistrates who inherited the sacred and
 judicial functions of the old kings, tried cases of impiety. It had
 further seemed possible that the building as well as the title was a
 survival from some earlier stage, when a king was a king in more than
 name. What we have found at Knossos seems curiously to confirm this
 suggested chain of inheritance.

 At one end of a pillared hall, about thirty-seven feet long by fifteen
 wide there is a narrow raised dais, separated from the rest of the
 hall by stone balustrades, with an opening between them in which three
 steps give access to the center of the dais. At this center point,
 immediately in front of the steps, a square niche is set back in the
 wall, and in this niche are the remains of a gypsum throne.... We
 seem to have here ... a pillar hall with a raised "Tribunal" or dais
 bounded by "Cancelli" or balustrades, and with an "Exedra" or seated
 central niche which was the place of honor. Even the elements of a
 triple longitudinal division are indicated by the two rows of columns
 that run down the Hall. Is the Priest-King of Knossos, who here gave
 his judgments, a direct ancestor of Praetor and Bishop seated in the
 Apse within the Chancel, speaking to the people that stood below in
 Nave and Aisles?

The antiquity and universality of the doctrinal basis of Christianity
forms the subject of frequent remarks in Theosophical writings, as it
is a topic much to the fore in religious circles just now. But here the
question is of ecclesiastical architecture; and that too, as we see,
is ancient and pre-Christian. Little do many people seem to suspect
that the grand cathedral, with its nave and aisles, its transept, its
chancel, and its altar, are founded on such ancient models. While
such facts are for the most part unknown or deliberately ignored,
there are some Christian writers who admit them, but are disposed to
regard Christianity as a capstone to the entire edifice of ancient
wisdom, a final and complete revelation. Whether or not Christianity
really occupies or can occupy such a commanding position is of course
a question of fact; the proofs must be practical; by results we must
judge.

Mere claims will not replace actualities, nor would claims be needed
where actualities were present. If Christianity can maintain such a
position, it will doubtless win the respect it so yearns for.




THE WORLD OF WOMANHOOD: by Grace Knoche


There are subjects which even thought floats round and round, as a
bird above her nestlings or incense over the flame which gave it
birth--subjects which the brain-mind hesitates to touch directly,
so reverential is the appeal they make to the inner and the best in
heart-life. Words seem out of place. Even reason before them pauses,
makes obeisance, and dowered with glamor, passes on, as one might
pass who stands for a moment in the presence of a new light. There
are events, though they are few, that so enshrine within themselves
the deeper sacredness of soul-life that words seem poor and mean as
carriers of their _largess_. The heart feels intuitively that silence,
"the great Empire of Silence," alone could hope to attune human lives
to the voice of them.

Deep answereth unto deep, but sometimes not by the Marconi messages of
the soul. There are times when from deep to deep the mystic, intangible
bridge that is to be builded must use living words for its piers and
masonry. But they must be _living_ words, golden-tongued words, words
glowing with the lambent touch of flame rekindling flame. They must
be vital, electric, surcharged with the mighty currents of compassion
and that love that layeth down its life for a friend; heart-messengers
of Wisdom herself they must be, and even then can build no bridge
royal enough for Wisdom's whole mighty _entourage_ to pass over when
the Event is such as recent days have brought forth in the world of
womanhood--the _world of womanhood_, bear in mind, which is a larger,
more soulful realm than the _world of women_, merely.

Yet words are the only masonry-stuff at hand, and so build we must with
them. Hearts that respond to the finer harmonies of life and nature,
and minds that have touched understandingly to a degree the great
problem of woman's work and woman's true place in life, will quicken
and respond.

At Isis Theater, San Diego, on the evening of Monday, February 19, and
again on February 27, _Anno Fraternitatis Universalis XIV_, Katherine
Tingley looked into the eager, upturned faces of more than a thousand
women, respectful, waiting, aspiring, dead-in-earnest women. Both
meetings had been called for women only. As I glanced over pit and
gallery while the strains of music announced that the meeting was
about to begin, the words which Mr. Judge once used in reference to
right action and the altruistic life, seemed to sing out in tones of
unmistakable triumph from the very bosom of the air: "It is better than
philosophy, _for it enables us to know philosophy_."

Nothing in this world of unity can be rightly judged if conceived of
as an isolated something, just a fragment. "A primrose by the river's
brim" is far other than "a yellow primrose ... and nothing more" to the
rational, open mind. It is a part of all the rich nature-environment
which, when we think of it _in_ parts, as some mosaicist might think of
his design, we call river and bank and forest-wildness and sedge and
shimmer and sky. The distant mountain is no mountain, merely, but part
of a noble panorama, its base melting into gentler slope and foreground
at just what point no living soul can say, its heights suffused in
sunshine, its edges softened and purpled and cooled and warmed in the
shimmering atmosphere, its stature rising grandly undefined against
the misty, illimitable Beyond of azure or gold or gray. No more can
the artist in color say "Here, definitely _here_, the foreground or
distance end and the mountain begins," than the artist in life can
say, "Here we will mark off and limit _truthfulness_, and next to it,
_virtue_, and beyond the next hard dividing-line, _compassion_, and a
goodly collection of such separate items we will call _character_." Ah
no, life is no rag-bag of scraps and shreds and patches, nor is nature.
It is one grand whole and no part can be understood, or even seen _as
it is_, unless looked at and studied in its relation to all the other
parts which with it constitute the whole.

So also with historic truth. The mountain-peaks of history, rising as
they do above the plain and level of general human action, never rise
separate to the philosopher's vision from all that lies behind them,
nor are they ever wholly unsuffused by the glow or the dimness that
speaks to the prescient mind of glories or of disillusionments ahead.

There could be no question, in the minds of those whose duties led
them both before and behind the scenes of action at the two meetings
referred to, that the twentieth century call for women had come.
Katherine Tingley, in inaugurating this work, issued a challenge to
all the nobler possibilities of womanhood. Those who could look beyond
the present into the dim aerial distance and adown the vistas of the
past, knew the Event for what it was and made no mistake in prophesying
wonderful things for the future from the glow of promise which fell
upon it. It was part of the past, yes, but a nobler than the common
part; one felt that it had somehow swung out from old limitations, as
some great glorious member of a star group might be conceived of as
swinging out into space, into a greater orbit and an orbit of its own.
It was as a new note sounded in the long, ascending gamut of woman's
evolution, a gamut in which there are, here and there, glorious notes,
royal notes, with echoing overtones of soulfulness and strength, but
which has, alas! its burden of discord to carry, as well.

There has been no unity of soul in past efforts, as a whole, and the
keynote struck by Katherine Tingley had a ring of newness, somehow,
on very real lines. Which does not mean that women have not worked
together, often in large bodies, as we see them doing today. But both
their aims and the quality of result that grew from these showed that
real unity on lines of soul-strength and soul-effort has been lacking.
For example, we have today the apparently united body of women who
are storming council-chambers and invoking hand-to-hand battles with
policemen; and yesterday we had their prototypes in old Rome, excited
groups of fad-ridden women who even barred the approaches to the Forum
as an argument in support of their demands for political equality--and
Roman homes going to pieces by the hundred for lack of true womanhood
at the helm. Oh, if women would read history _in a new way_!

Efforts characterized by a certain outer binding-together, while of
real inner unity there was none, there have been in all ages. But,
strange to say, until the inauguration of Theosophical work for women
in this year of the twentieth century, the true note has been sounded,
in most cases, by some one woman who was more or less _un_helped
by the women about her. History inspires us with the virtues of
Alcestis, that peerless wife; of Antigone; of that perfect exemplar of
motherhood, Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi; of the queenly Thusnelda;
of Cleopatra, Semiramis, and Zenobia; and let us not forget the peasant
girl of Domremy, whose simple purity and absolute self-forgetfulness
did more for the "woman movement" of the ages than even her generalship
did for France.

Yet these are isolated types. Barring Sappho and her woman pupils,
Birgitta of Sweden and her wonderful work for and with the women who
flocked to the home centers that ecclesiastical enemies fortunately
did not prevent her from establishing, history has little to say as to
women who have _worked together_ for some truly spiritual cause, in
which the noblest they had was placed on Humanity's altar.

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. PHEIDIAS "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 KRATINOS IN CENTER,
EURIPIDES TO LEFT, ATTENDANT AT RIGHT "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]




"MAGNETONS," FORCE AND MATTER: by H. Travers


A man of science has presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences a paper
in which he attempts to prove from the results of certain experiments
that the atoms of magnetic bodies, such as iron and manganese, contain
definite quantities of an elementary magnetic _substance_, which he
proposes to call "magneton." This is regarded as a sequel to the new
way of regarding electricity; for in the electrons we now seem to
find a means of defining electricity in terms of a unit of substance.
Electricity, light, and other physical forces, have at different times
been defined either as kinds of matter or as modes of motion. At the
present moment, many people think, we are passing from the kinetic to
the corpuscular view again. But it is more likely that our present
studies will end by giving us a more accurate and adequate notion of
the nature of force on the one hand and matter on the other. We shall
see more clearly that force and matter are inseparable, and that in
our use of these words we are merely making mental abstractions for
the purpose of calculation. What was at one time considered to be
inert matter was later found to be teeming with energy; so that this
kind of matter, instead of being inert substance, was found to be the
result of forces acting in some finer kind of matter. This finer kind
of matter--hypothetical so far--was denominated "ether"; and should
we succeed in examining this ether, we should probably find that it
too is the result of forces acting in a still more recondite form of
matter--a sub-ether, as it were. At all events we should have no choice
but to describe it in that way. In the same way force must always be
inseparably associated with mass, for the quantity denoted by the
term "mass" is included in the definition of force. Thus the question
whether electricity, magnetism, etc., are "forces" or "forms of matter"
loses its meaning, since (strictly speaking) they cannot be either but
must be both.

The experiments mentioned seem to have shown that there is a definite
physical unit of quantity for magnetism, just as the negative electron
is said to be a definite unit of quantity for negative electricity.
In this case we should have arrived at the conclusion that magnetic
substances are those to whose atoms or molecules are attached these
magnetic atoms.

As to the kinetic theory of electricity, light, and other physical
forces, we certainly know that kinetic effects attend the
manifestation of these forces; and where there is no physical matter
present we have predicated an ether to serve as a substratum for these
kinetic effects. But is that the same as saying that electricity and
light are modes of energy or forms of motion? Later research has
shown us that these physical forces are attended, not only by kinetic
effects, but also by those other effects which we denote by such terms
as "mass," "inertia," or "substance." Again, are we entitled to say
that electricity, light, etc., _are_ substances, or forms of matter? It
would seem more reasonable to say that both energy and mass are to be
classed among the effects or accompaniments of electricity and light,
electricity and light themselves being something that is neither energy
nor mass but parent to both.

In brief, the life or _vis viva_ of the physical universe escapes
observation and analysis, while its various effects, appearing in the
forms which we describe as light, heat, electricity, etc., are defined
by us in terms of our two mental concepts "mass" and "energy." The
farthest limit to which physical observation has reached, or seems
likely to reach, is that of minute and extremely active particles,
whose motions are attended with luminous, thermal, and electric
phenomena. To put the matter in a nutshell: we find that the so-called
inert matter of the universe is composed of what are to all intents and
purposes small beings, very much alive and endowed with proclivities.
Given our electron or magneton, we are obliged to take for granted its
innate properties of energy, etc., for we have no means of explaining
them except by reducing them to smaller factors of precisely the
same kind--and this is no explanation. That is, we have to assume
the universal presence of active and purposeful life--for that is
what it amounts to, whatever names we may give. And behind all this
manifestation of life there of course lies _mind_; otherwise we must
suppose the existence of causeless and purposeless life--a conception
which is highly arbitrary and unnecessary.

Science has a great future before it, but at present it is laboring
under limitations due to the restriction of its sphere. A large portion
of its proper domain having been usurped by theology and wild deductive
philosophy, science has confined itself to such limits as give it a
free field. But if the careful and logical methods of true science
could be applied to all departments of investigation, knowledge would
take a great leap. Of late years we have seen many foolish attempts to
establish a "higher science," many of them associated with "psychism"
and similar eccentricities. All this naturally arouses the antagonism
of true men of science and causes them to shun the possibility of
association with such movements. Take the psychical research movements,
for example; is it not evident that in many cases these are destined
to achieve delusion rather than any useful truth? Or take hypnotism:
how can such a dangerous pseudo-science be adequately studied without
the grave risks which its knowledge brings upon society in the shape of
credulous folly and a cover for cowardly vice?

It seems evident that science is too unorganized and indiscriminate
at present, and that when it extends its boundaries so as to include
the larger fields it will also have to raise its standards. Scientific
work, if valuable, should be treated like other valuables--that
is, protected. This can only be done by intrusting it to worthy
and competent people; from which we see that the character of the
professors becomes an important matter. This principle is recognized
in many of our departments; for we do not intrust the performing of
surgical operations nor the care of lunatics to all and sundry. Why
then should other departments be thrown open, allowing dangerous drugs
and dynamite to pass into the hands of weaklings and criminals? Above
all, why should the far more dangerous powers of hypnotism and so forth
be made thus free to all?

In brief, knowledge is as inseparably connected with conduct as
force is with matter. He who attempts to separate them and to pursue
knowledge independently of duty and conduct, does not achieve
knowledge; he achieves only partial knowledge or harmful knowledge.
The fair bride is won only by the pure and valiant knight. One of the
most important adjustments which our views have to undergo is that of
recognizing the proper relative positions of religion and science. They
should be one and not separate. But before this can be done there is
much rubbish to be cleared away from the foundations.




THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, SOUTH KENSINGTON, LONDON


The British Museum was completed as recently as 1847, yet hardly
thirty years elapsed before it was found to be too small to hold the
continually accumulating specimens, and an enlargement had to be made.
To preserve and properly exhibit the enormous collection of natural
history objects a commodious building was erected at South Kensington,
near the well-known Museum of Science and Art. It was finished in 1880
and stocked with the old specimens from the British Museum and many
new ones; the crowded rooms from which the old specimens were taken
being immediately filled with other objects which had been waiting for
exhibition.

The Natural History Museum was designed by Waterhouse, and there has
always been a strong difference of opinion as to its architectural
beauty, at least externally. The interior design and decoration is
generally approved. The large towers are 192 feet high, and the length
of the building is 675 feet. The ornamental decoration is composed of
terra cotta, and consists of bands and dressings of animals and other
natural objects.

The interior consists of a great central hall with long side galleries
and basement. The eastern galleries are devoted to the geological,
mineralogical, and botanical collections; the western to the zoological
collections. The great hall is an index or typical museum, arranged
with such specimens as to give a general idea of the scope of the
subject of natural history. The historical development of those species
of whose past there is definite knowledge, the effect of seasonal
changes upon the colors of certain animals and birds, protective
resemblances and mimicry, etc., are here displayed. Among the most
interesting and rare fossils are the gigantic kangaroo of Australia
(six times larger than the present representative, which is placed near
it), the gigantic armadillo of Buenos Aires and its modern dwarfed
descendant, the huge megatherium from Buenos Aires compared with the
sloth of today, etc. The collection of stuffed birds shown in natural
positions and with the correct surroundings always attracts admiring
attention from the general public. In a commanding position on the
first landing of the main staircase there is a fine statue by Böhm of
the great naturalist, Charles Darwin. The Natural History Museum faces
Cromwell road, a street of palatial residences, called after one of
Oliver Cromwell's sons, who lived in a house once existing there.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. NATURAL HISTORY
MUSEUM, SOUTH KENSINGTON, LONDON]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF
PART OF GENEVA, SWITZERLAND SHOWING THE END OF THE LAKE OF GENEVA, THE
RIVER RHÔNE, AND "OLD GENEVA" IN THE CENTER]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. NEAR CHAMPÉRY
(VALAIS), SWITZERLAND THE ROUTE DU COL DE COUX; AND LA DENT DU MIDI]




WAS H. P. BLAVATSKY A PLAGIARIST? by Henry T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.), a
Pupil under H. P. Blavatsky


This article, written by an old pupil under H. P. Blavatsky, and
voicing the feelings of other students, is a vindication of the memory
of that great teacher against certain charges brought against her.
The charges are many and mutually inconsistent; so that if brought
together they would confute each other and the various critics might be
left to settle their own quarrel. Thus H. P. Blavatsky is accused both
of inventing her teachings, and also of plagiarizing them from other
people; her works are said to be at once a stale rehash, and a new
fad. But, as any one of these charges may appear alone and thus gain a
plausibility it would not otherwise have had, it is both the desire and
the duty of those who uphold the truth about H. P. Blavatsky to show up
the absurdity of the attacks.

The particular charge in question just now is that of unoriginality.
It has been based on a quotation from the Introduction to H. P.
Blavatsky's great work, _The Secret Doctrine_, which is as follows:

 I may repeat what I have stated all along, and which I now clothe in
 the words of Montaigne: Gentlemen, "I HAVE HERE MADE ONLY A NOSEGAY OF
 CULLED FLOWERS, AND HAVE BROUGHT NOTHING OF MY OWN BUT THE STRING THAT
 TIES THEM."

The attempt to construe this into a charge of plagiarism signifies
the wish to depreciate H. P. Blavatsky's writings, as being so stale
and unoriginal that it is not worth while reading them. But, if this
were so, why did the critics deign to notice them at all, instead of
suffering them to sink into the rapid and perfect oblivion which awaits
all works that are actually open to such a charge? Evidently there was
a desire to prejudice the mind of the inquirer, so that he would be
deterred from reading the works for himself and thus forming his own
opinion. In short, the arguments of these critics, not resting upon
fact, would have been disproved by such a reading; and therefore they
have preferred to rest their statements upon mere assertion.

Of course the genuine truth-seeker will always derive his opinion from
his own investigations; and if he finds anywhere the help and knowledge
for which he is seeking, he will not hesitate to accept it from any
doubts as to the popularity of the author. Rather he will base his
opinion of the author upon his or her works. But as the conditions of
life render it necessary for us to a great extent to be dependent
upon the judgments of professional literary people, it is possible for
any prejudice that may exist in that quarter to inflict much injustice
by lending the weight of authority to false representations. We may
find, for instance, some standard work, having great influence and
repute, treating of H. P. Blavatsky and Theosophy in a way that would
lead one to think the writers had studied these subjects; whereas the
contrary is the case, and the apparently scholarly treatise is actually
a misrepresentation of fact, amounting to throwing dust in the eyes of
the inquirer.

The inquirer, the sincere seeker for knowledge, is therefore referred
to _The Secret Doctrine_ itself, where he may ascertain what the author
really does say in her Preface and Introduction and where he may study
the actual teachings she thus introduces. Her attitude is both plain
and frank; there should be no difficulty in understanding it, and its
sincerity is apparent to anyone who has studied the book enough to see
whether or not the writer has justified her claims. In the Preface we
read:

 These truths are in no sense put forward as a _revelation_; nor
 does the author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore now
 made public for the first time in the world's history. For what is
 contained in this work is to be found scattered throughout thousands
 of volumes embodying the scriptures of the great Asiatic and early
 European religions, hidden under glyph and symbol, and hitherto left
 unnoticed because of this veil.

Here the charge of having invented a new system is met by the express
affirmation that the materials are gleaned from ancient sources; while
the charge of unoriginality is rendered pointless. A plagiarist is one
who gives out the teachings of others as his own, and the charge of
unoriginality is not usually brought against writers who set out with
the deliberate and announced intention of quoting and expounding other
writers. As H. P. Blavatsky herself says, in the very passage from
which the words of the critic were selected, it would be as reasonable
to charge Renan with having plagiarized his _Life of Jesus_ from the
Gospels, or Max Müller his _Sacred Books of the East_ from the Indian
philosophical writings.

And what shall be said of the insinuation that _The Secret Doctrine_
is merely a compost, a stale and profitless rehash? That it is equally
absurd. A nosegay is not a mere heap of flowers, nor does a heap of
stones make a temple. The riddle of ancient knowledge is not solved by
merely collecting the scattered fragments. Anyone may bring together
a lot of colored threads, but only a weaver and artist can make them
into a beautiful and symmetrical fabric. The question is, What has H.
P. Blavatsky made of her studies of the world's mystic lore? What use
has she made of her quotations and references? Has she succeeded any
better than other writers who have delved in the same soil? Is _The
Secret Doctrine_ really but one more of those numerous compilations
that find a speedy and eternal tomb on dusty shelves?

On consulting the Preface we find that the author has made the claim
that she has been able to weave the tangled threads into a symmetrical
whole, to put the various fragments in their right places, and to apply
a key that will unlock mysteries. In proof of her claim she refers the
reader to the book itself. This is the only test she demands; surely
not an unreasonable one!

 It is written in the service of humanity, and by humanity and the
 future generations it must be judged. Its author recognizes no
 inferior court of appeal.--_Preface._

Other authors who have compiled voluminous works on ancient lore have
signally failed to render them profitable to the student. They have
either been mere compilers having no definite purpose other than the
production of a learned book, or they have been overruled by some
theory or fad which they have sought to prove. But H. P. Blavatsky has
pointed out the real clues and for the first time made sense of what
was chaotic. To quote her words again:

 What is now attempted is to gather the oldest tenets together and to
 make of them one harmonious and unbroken whole. The sole advantage
 which the writer has over her predecessors is that she need not
 resort to personal speculations and theories. For this work is a
 partial statement of what she herself has been taught by more advanced
 students, supplemented, in a few details only, by the results of her
 own study and observation.

It is not easy to see how a plainer and franker statement could have
been made. The indebtedness to other sources is freely admitted; and,
as the reader can see, all references to sources are fully given in the
text. The author mentions her own teachers, but not for the purpose of
lending a fictitious authority to her statements. For these statements
do not need any such support, consisting, as they do, of appeals to
reason, to the weight of testimony, and to accepted authorities in the
different branches of learning. The reference to her teachers was made
simply in modest and honorable disclaim of credit which the writer
felt was due to others. As to the teachings thus received and thus
transmitted by her, they are to be judged on their merits, and should
neither be accepted or rejected on any other principle. Information
is information, however gained; and a man lost in a forest, who has
actually been conducted out of it, does not need any testimonials to
the trustworthiness of his guide. If _The Secret Doctrine_ can really
solve problems, answer questions, and remove doubts, that fact alone is
sufficient for the genuine truth-seeker; and the author's statement as
to the source of her knowledge will be taken for what it was intended
for--a due acknowledgement of gratitude and indebtedness.

If H. P. Blavatsky's work is of the kind which these critics wish to
make it out to be, surely the student may be trusted to find out that
fact for himself; but if it is not of this kind, then the statement
that it is, is a misrepresentation--founded possibly on ignorance,
but in any case unworthy of a scholar. She claims that she has
_pointed out_ many things that have hitherto _escaped the attention_
of scholars. And this is a statement which can only be tested by
investigation; anyone presuming to affirm or deny it without such
investigation is either a simpleton or a bigot. The pointing out of
truths is not an act of dogmatism, since the person to whom they are
pointed out is left perfectly free to use his own judgment (if he has
any) as to whether that which he has been shown is true or not, whether
it is what he was looking for or not.

H. P. Blavatsky did not write for recognition, but she has succeeded in
the object for which she did write--that of arousing thought, calling
attention. She desired to startle the world of thought; and this she
has certainly done; for her opponents cannot let her alone. Moreover
a kind of acknowledgement is to be found in the large and increasing
number of facts, denied in her day but since admitted by scholars.
It is true that for these revised views credit is not given to their
originator; but that must be left to posterity when time shall have
obliterated selfishness and ignorance. The question of originality may
be settled by calling H. P. Blavatsky a pioneer. The lands into which
she has led us are indeed ancient and many a foot has trod them of
yore; yet to the modern world they were virgin forests.

But one word remains to be said. Fortunately for the credit due to
Theosophy and its first promulgator in this age, H. P. Blavatsky's
writings do not constitute the whole of her work. She has left
behind her the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society,
an organization which embodies many teachings which could never be
communicated by books alone. This means that her work is in hands that
will take care that she gets the credit to which she is entitled, and
that the real Theosophical work is of a kind that can only be done by
Theosophists, and so can not be plagiarized. And even the clues given
in her writings will prove inadequate unless taken in connexion with an
application of Theosophy in the student's daily life; for she took good
care to show the inseparable connexion between knowledge and conduct.
Thus those who try to use _The Secret Doctrine_ as a mine from which
they may dig out something that they can use to their own private
advantage are more likely to serve the author's cause than their own;
for the only use that can be made of half-truths is to point the way to
the _missing_ halves.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A FARMHOUSE ON
THE NORFOLK BROADS, ENGLAND A district to the west of Great Yarmouth
watered by three rivers with many open spaces called "broads," roads
and long narrow lanes, all of water. Many birds--water-fowl--nest and
feed amongst the sedges; pure white swans sail about with majestic
dignity and grace, some carrying their cygnets on the back, between the
raised wings.]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. BUCKINGHAM PALACE,
LONDON: THE LONDON RESIDENCE OF THE BRITISH SOVEREIGN]




BUCKINGHAM PALACE, LONDON


The illustration shows the eastern façade of Buckingham Palace, the
residence of King George V when in London. It is taken from St. James'
Park. The end of the lake, which is five acres in area, can be seen in
the picture. The private gardens occupy fifty acres. The eastern wing
of the palace, 360 feet long, was added by Blore in 1846, making the
building a large quadrangle. Buckingham Palace was originally erected
in 1703 by a Duke of Buckingham, on the site of Arlington House,
where it is recorded that tea was first drunk in England. George III
purchased it, and it was remodeled by Nash in 1825 for George IV. The
exterior is generally condemned as an architectural failure, imposing
only from its size, but the interior has some good features. The white
marble staircase is considered very handsome. The palace contains a
fine sculpture gallery, library, etc. The Throne Room is 66 feet long,
the State Drawing Room 110 feet by 60. The Picture Gallery, which is
180 feet long, contains a very fine collection, chiefly Dutch pictures.
There are excellent examples of Rembrandt (the great _Adoration of the
Magi_--1667), Hals, Teniers, Rubens, Osrade, Van Dyck (_Charles I on
horseback_), Cuyp, Potter, De Hooch, Titian, Carracci, Claude, etc.
Permission for strangers to visit the gallery is difficult to obtain,
but may sometimes be obtained when the court is not in residence. The
new monument to Queen Victoria, just unveiled, stands in front of
Buckingham Palace.




THE GOLDEN CHAIN OF PLATONIC SUCCESSION: by F. S. Darrow, A. M., Ph.
D. (Harv.)


A key to the interpretation of Greek philosophy, generally neglected
except by Platonists and Theosophists, is given by the following
statement of Proklos, the "Platonic Successor":

 What Orpheus delivered in hidden allegories, Pythagoras learned when
 he was initiated into the Orphic Mysteries, in which Plato next
 received a perfect knowledge from the Orphic and Pythagorean writings.

In this connexion it was pointed out by H. P. Blavatsky, the foundress
of the Theosophical Society (_Isis Unveiled_, vol. II, p. 39, Point
Loma edition) that Plato himself in his Letters declares that his
teachings were derived from _ancient_ and _sacred_ doctrines. In the
Seventh Letter of the collection which has come down to us he says:

 It is ever necessary to believe in the truth of the _Sacred Accounts_
 of the _Olden Time_, which inform us that the soul is immortal and has
 judges of its conduct and suffers the greatest punishments when it is
 liberated from the body. Hence it is requisite to regard it a lesser
 evil to suffer than to commit the greatest sins and injuries.

It is unjustifiable to assume as scholars usually do that we are in a
position to judge correctly of all of Plato's thoughts because, most
fortunately, it appears that all of his published works have been
preserved. The last thirty-eight years of Plato's life were spent as
Scholarch or Head of the Platonic School among the olive groves of
the Academy where the philosopher dwelt with some of his principal
students, namely, his successor and pupil Speusippos, Xenokrates,
and others, teaching Divine Wisdom freely to those who were able to
understand. The fact that Aristotle refers to various teachings of
Plato not now extant in the Platonic works, as well as the request in
the Second of our Platonic Letters that the letter be burned after its
frequent reading so that it may not fall into improper hands, both
afford corroborative evidence of the tradition that Plato refused
to _publish_ any of his numerous lectures and oral teachings. It is
therefore _a priori_ probable that Plato treated philosophy in two
distinct ways, one treatment intended for public circulation and the
other intended for School instruction. If this be true, presumably
his published dialogs give mere indirect hints, illustrations, and
applications of the central principles of his teachings, which were
revealed only orally to a selected audience. Doubtless the character
of his oral instructions also varied and certain teachings were given
only to a few of his more advanced students, as even Grote admits.
Therefore in seeking to understand Plato it is important to recollect
that today "the Prince of Western Philosophers" is known only from
his Dialogs, while his teachings as Scholarch are now unknown. It is,
however, certain from the statement of Aristotle in regard to Plato's
lectures "On the Supreme Good," that Plato in his oral instructions
taught Pythagorean Doctrines, and dealt with the highest and most
transcendental concepts in a mystical and enigmatical way.

In regard to this there are important declarations in the extant
Letters of Plato, Letters which it is orthodox to declare to be
apocryphal, but whose genuineness is rightly defended by Grote in his
_Plato and Other Companions of Socrates_. In the Second Letter, which
is addressed to Dionysios the Younger of Syracuse, Plato uses some very
suggestive language in referring to the effect upon the newly fledged
student of entering the School:

 I must speak to you in enigmas that should this tablet meet with any
 accident by land or by sea, he, who might perchance read it, may
 not understand. This has not happened to you alone but in truth no
 one when he first hears me is otherwise affected. Some have greater
 troubles, others less but nearly every student has a struggle of no
 slight power from which in truth he is freed only with difficulty.
 Be careful, however, that these discussions do not become known by
 men devoid of knowledge--discussions which if continually heard for
 many years at length with great labor are purified like gold. Many
 persons apt at learning and remembering have heard them for not less
 than thirty years and after testing them in every way have recently
 declared that those things which formerly appeared to them to be least
 worthy of belief now appear to be most worthy of belief and perfectly
 clear. The most important protection is to learn but _not_ to _commit_
 to _writing_ because what is written will almost certainly become
 public knowledge. _Therefore on this account I have never myself at
 any time written anything on these subjects. There neither is nor ever
 shall be any treatise of Plato. The opinions called by the name of
 Plato are those of Socrates in his days of youthful vigor and glory._

These words of Plato, if admitted to be genuine, especially when linked
with the following statements made in the Seventh of our Letters, show
the futility of the current dogmatism of what purport to be correct and
complete modern expositions and criticisms of Platonism, and ought to
instil more humility in the orthodox dogmatists who strive to interpret
the thoughts of the Master. The declarations referred to in the Seventh
Letter are set forth as follows:

 In regard to all who either have written or who shall write
 confidently stating that they know about what I am occupied, whether
 they claim to have heard it from me or from others or to have
 discovered it themselves, _I can say that it is impossible for them to
 know anything as to my beliefs about these matters; for there is not
 and never will be any composition of mine about them_. _For a matter
 of this kind can not be expressed in words as other sciences are. But
 by a long acquaintance with the subject and by living with it suddenly
 a light is kindled in the mind, as from a fire bursting forth, which
 being engendered in the soul feeds itself upon itself._

He adds:

 I should consider it the proudest accomplishment of my life, as well
 as of signal benefit to mankind, to bring forward an exposition of
 Nature luminous to all. But I think the attempt would be in nowise
 beneficial except to a few who require merely slight guidance to
 enable them to find it out for themselves; to most persons it would do
 no good but would only fill them with the empty conceit of knowledge
 and with contempt for others, as if they had learnt something solemn.

It may therefore be safely assumed that Plato intentionally refused to
publish his views upon the most important subjects in a world of spite
and puzzling contention. Note what he says in the Seventh Letter of the
true disciple who is

 _in fact_ a lover of Wisdom, related to it and worthy of it by reason
 of his own inherent divinity. He thinks that he has been told of a
 wonderful Path, on which he ought forthwith to travel and that any
 other manner of life is unendurable. After this he does not torture
 both himself and his Leader by departing from the Path before he
 reaches the Goal, thereby obtaining the power of journeying without a
 Guide to point out the way before him. But they, who are not really
 lovers of Wisdom, but have only a coating of color like those whose
 bodies are sunburnt, when they perceive how many things are to be
 learnt and find out how great is the labor and what temperance in
 daily nourishment is requisite, they deem it too difficult and beyond
 their powers and become unable to attend to it at all and some of them
 persuade themselves that they have sufficiently heard the whole and do
 not wish further to exert themselves.

At Plato's death in 347 B. C. the house, the library, and the garden in
the Academy, were bequeathed by the Master as the permanent property
of the School, whose income in the course of the centuries was largely
increased by endowments. For about three hundred years the grounds at
the Academy remained uninterruptedly the Headquarters of the School,
but during the Siege of Athens by the Roman general Sulla in 87 B.
C., the Teacher or Scholarch of that time was forced to retire within
the city walls and gave his instruction in the Gymnasium, called
Ptolemaeum, where Cicero heard the Scholarch Antiochos in 79 B. C.
For more than six hundred years longer the grounds at the Academy
remained in possession of the School, which however soon degenerated
into a form of philosophical scepticism and eclecticism, from which
it was later recalled by the so-called Neo- or New Platonists.
Finally under the pressure of ecclesiastical bigotry and greed the
Emperor Justinian confiscated the School property and forbade the
last Scholarch Damascius to teach. Accordingly a little band of seven
Platonic Pilgrim-sages, consisting of Damascius, Simplicius, Eulalius,
Priscian, Hermeias, Diogenes, and Isidore, to avoid ecclesiastical
persecution, were forced to wander away from the domains of Christendom
over mountain and desert to the distant court of the Persian Emperor
Chosroës, who four years later forced Justinian by treaty to let
the last of the Neoplatonists return to their native land and die a
natural death, guaranteeing them protection against further monkish
persecution. It is a strange fact that as soon as the School grounds
in the Academy were confiscated, a rumor, true or false, presently
spread to the effect that the deserted property had become straightway
unhealthy, a rumor which has persisted to this day, although it is
impossible for one who has visited the spot to perceive any reason why
it should not under proper cultivation re-become the healthful and
beautiful garden it once was.

The following notice appeared in the _Bibliotheca Platonica_ for
November-December, 1889:

 _Secure the Academy!_ We desire to call the attention of Platonists
 throughout the world to the fact that the site of the Ancient Academy
 at Athens, Greece, could probably be secured by prompt and concerted
 action. Proper measures should be taken at once to organize an
 association having for its object the purchase, preservation and
 restoration of the place where Plato lived and taught and where his
 disciples continued his sublime and enlightening work for centuries.
 It should be rescued from the hands of the profane, and set aside
 for the perpetual use and benefit of all true followers of Divine
 Philosophy. There is no good reason, why, in due time, the Platonic
 School should not again become, as it once was, the nursery of Science
 and Wisdom for the whole World.

Note the significant words of Thomas Taylor, the great Platonist of a
hundred years ago, who in the words of H. P. Blavatsky is "one of the
very few commentators on old Greek and Latin authors who have given
their just dues to the ancients for their mental development":

 As to the philosophy (Platonism, as taught by Orpheus, Pythagoras,
 and Plato) by whose assistance these (the Eleusinian and Orphic)
 Mysteries are developed, it is coeval with the universe itself; and
 however its continuity may be broken by opposing systems, it will
 make its appearance at different periods of time, as long as the sun
 himself shall continue to illuminate the world. It has been, indeed,
 and may hereafter be violently assaulted by delusive opinions; but the
 opposition will be just as imbecile as that of the waves of the sea
 against a temple, built on a rock, which majestically pours them back,

  "Broken and vanquish'd foaming to the main."

Somewhat similar although less suggestive is the tribute of a recent
writer upon Neoplatonism:

 The Neoplatonist held that nothing perishes and Neoplatonism is still
 alive. Its mysticism has lived on. Its idealism can never die.




CLASSICAL CYRENE: by Ariomardes


What we call "history" is largely a dogma. It stands on a basis very
similar to that on which some other dogmas, religious, literary,
scientific, etc., stand; that is, it stands on a particular,
restricted, and local brand of culture, known as "Western
civilization." And, like these other dogmas, it is destined to become
seriously modified by later researches and discoveries.

For look at our classical history; it is founded chiefly upon a
literature--the literature of cultured circles in Greece and Rome. That
this literature does not reflect the life of the people to any adequate
extent we know; for the spade of the archaeologists, instead of
confirmations, too often unearths surprises. The results of archaeology
go to show that ancient peoples were more advanced in many important
arts of life than we had surmised from our acquaintance with the said
literature. Hebraic tradition, too, backed by the weight of religious
authority, has colored our views of the past, and prevented us from
estimating aright the claims of non-Christian peoples. In considering
the history of Hindûstân, Persia, Egypt, etc., students have sought
to make dates agree with their own sacred traditions. Again, we have
too often shown a lack of appreciation of the form and style of other
historians, when these have not adopted the literal and precise form
favored by our own historians; and have consequently, in a vain attempt
to take poetical language in the sense of a scientific treatise,
frequently rejected it and its message altogether.

Around that Mediterranean basin which was the classic theater, were
great nations to whose history we have not hitherto had access, but
of which we are now beginning to learn a little. The civilization--or
rather, several distinct civilizations--that preceded Greece, and whose
center at one time was Crete, at another the western shores of Asia
Minor; the mysterious Nabatheans and Sabaeans; the equally mysterious
Hittites; empires in Africa, south of Egypt, and inland from the east
coast; these and other fragmentary remains slowly accumulate to confirm
the assurances made by H. P. Blavatsky in _The Secret Doctrine_ that a
far greater and longer past lies behind us than we have so far guessed.

The name Cyrene is suggestive along these lines, and forms the topic
of a recent article by Professor Alfred Emerson of the Chicago Art
Institute, in _The Scientific American_.

A number of Dorian islanders, we are there told, planted a European
colony on the great Libyan headland to the south of Greece proper,
640 years B. C., so that Cyrene and its neighborhood had as long an
authentic history as ancient Rome itself. A dynasty of kings was
succeeded by a republic and the Libyans sometimes pressed the Greek
colony hard. Cyrene had its own school of philosophy and a famous
school of medicine. It had over 100,000 inhabitants, and the Ptolemies
gave it kings again.

Sporadic explorations have brought to light a few relics, but
heretofore the Ottoman government has repressed the curiosity of more
systematic researchers. Now, however, an American expedition has won a
firman to explore the ruins, and we shall soon have a record of this
powerful but little known outlier of classic culture.




KILLARNEY, IRELAND: by F. J. Dick, M. Inst. C. E., M. Inst. C. E. I.


Those who pass hurriedly through the Killarney district know little
of its manifold fascination. Even among natives few have thoroughly
explored its features. But to one who has made many more or less
prolonged visits there, at all seasons, and who has gained a
sympathetic interest in its people and in the legends that belong to
every rock, islet, and mountain, and who has seen it in storm and
sunshine, at dawn and sunset, and by moonlight, the feeling grows that
here the immutable decree of Karmic law, "there shall be no more going
up and down," during this cycle, never fully descended--that, in fact,
this is no part of the ordinary world at all, but something distinct,
sacred, set apart for some inscrutable reason and purpose. The very
atmosphere of some fairy-world of Light and Day hovers about these
Lakes and wooded mountain heights, and seems to penetrate everything.
Right in the center, in the very heart of all the beauty, between
Dinish Island and Glena, rises the Shee, or Sidhe (Sanskrit _Siddhi_)
Mountain--the mountain of the Fairy World, next to Purple Mountain.

Strange to say, it is just here, too, that the luxuriant vegetation of
Killarney seems fairly to run riot, and we find trees and shrubs of
tropical character growing side by side with those of temperate and
colder climes. Eucalyptus, palm, bamboo, jostle cedar and pine; while
the profusion of flowers of all kinds is amazing. And the delicious
perfumes of the place, with just a faint suggestion of a turf-fire
somewhere a little way off, are something to remember. Some of the
Killarney plants belong to what was once an unbroken coast-line
extending to Spain. Such are _saxifraga umbrosa_ (London pride),
_saxifraga geum_, _arbutus unedo_, and _pinguicula grandiflora_. The
arbutus grows in profusion at Killarney, although its real home, in a
sense, is among the Pyrenees. Other plants are found along the west
coast, which are indigenous to the eastern shores of America.

One thinks of Breasil, and the Isles of the Western Sea, a later
geological period than that when there was unbroken, or practically
unbroken, connexion between Ireland, Spain, and America. And then one
begins to wonder when the links of the past will be more clear.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE OLD WEIR BRIDGE,
KILLARNEY]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE GAP OF DUNLOE,
KILLARNEY]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. COLLEEN BAWN ROCK,
KILLARNEY]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AN OLD IRISH
FARMYARD]

These memories of the past! Are they not pressing more strongly than
ever on the hearts and imaginations--on the soul--of the Irish? No
attempted deadening of this urge by half-hearted dry-as-dust methods
ingeniously forced on the poor folk by interested parties (vested
interests) will avail much. The unrest, which manifests in so many
ways in contemporary Irish life, has surely a deep source. There are
incarnations and incarnations. Some kinds are racial, that is, belong
to the larger sweep of things. No artificial barriers can stop them.
No pretended patronage of the Irish language movement will be able
to check influences belonging to the inner life of a race-soul under
recurrent upward impulse.

Hy-breasil and the Isles of the West! Once the Coom-Dhuv, or Black
Valley, to the west of the Killarney Upper Lake, was an arm of the sea;
and those who lived on the temple-crowned heights of Killarney could
have told us something of those Isles, which were in no shadow-world,
but were realities, relics of Atlantis, undoubtedly. These legends must
find their solution, partly by the names, partly by the details; and be
studied in the light of H. P. Blavatsky's writings, particularly _The
Secret Doctrine_, where many a clue is given; and where the Sanskrit,
Chaldaean, and Irish names fail to give the clues, it seems the Welsh
will come triumphantly to the rescue. After all, the details have only
relative importance, for the broad facts are already plainly outlined
in _The Secret Doctrine_; and it is no very difficult matter to see
what is meant by Partholon, with the cow-faced and the goat-headed; by
Nemed; by the Tuatha de Danaan (Fourth Race Atlanteans of the Right
Path), and Formorians (those of the Left); some of their descendants
living on in archaic Ireland; and the Milesians, the early arrivals of
the Fifth, from Central Asia via Egypt and Scandinavia, when Spain and
Africa were one and Ireland was part of Scandinavia. All of which was
long before what we call the Celts, crossed the Caucasus into Europe.
Irish mythology is real history, some of it disfigured, as usual,
by irreverent or ignorant hands. The worst of it is that the Irish
seemed to enjoy having their past belittled, and their gods and heroes
dethroned in favor of a piece of patchwork of alien growth; a kind of
travesty of Eastern and Egyptian teachings, belittled, like the Irish
gods; and dethroned, truly! It was a "magical and Druidic mist" of the
wrong kind unfortunately, which descended upon the heirs of Atlantean
knowledge. And it will take some effort to dispel it, very probably. It
_is_ dispelled though!

Thoughts like these are apt to cross one's mind among the regal
solitudes of Killarney, where for miles, as you look down from some
crag, no human habitation can be seen--one of the places where you can
sit, and watch the Sword of Light, and the Spear of Victory getting
busy; so that the other two Jewels brought from the Isles of the West
will shine again.

One visible sign, at least, of the Sword of Light, is a growing
temperance movement among the youth of Ireland. Right conduct leads
to light, whatever be the mists obscuring one's vision along the
road of life. Perhaps the youth of Ireland will next look into the
ancient past to discern vestiges of nobility as well as simplicity of
character; and note what manner of men some true kings were, and by
whom attended--bards, or poet-seers; lawgivers, or disciplinarians;
craftsmen; and warriors. Another kind of functionary was--well, he was
not needed.

One of the legends of Killarney, really connected, it would seem, with
Inisfallen, has no very exact parallel, and possesses some interesting
and suggestive features. The story as given by Mr. Ockenden a century
and a half ago is somewhat as follows. There lived in Inisfallen many
hundred years ago a prince named O'Donoghoe. He manifested during his
stay on earth great munificence, great humanity, and great wisdom;
for by his profound knowledge in all the secret powers of nature, he
wrought wonders as miraculous as any tradition has recorded, of saints
by the aid of angels, or of sorcerers by the assistance of demons;
and among many other astonishing performances, he rendered his person
immortal. After having continued a long time on the surface of the
globe without growing old he one day took leave of his friends, and
rising from the floor, like some aerial existence, passed through the
window, shot away horizontally to a considerable distance, and then
descended. The water, unfolding at his approach, gave him entrance to
the sub-aqueous regions and then, to the astonishment of all beholders,
closed over his head, as they believed, for ever; but in this they were
mistaken.

He returned again, some years after, revisiting--not, like Hamlet's
ghost "the glimpses of the moon, making night hideous," but--the
radiance of the sun, making day joyful, to those at least who saw him;
since which time he has continued to make very frequent expeditions to
these upper regions, sometimes three or four in a year; but sometimes
three or four years pass without his once appearing, which the
bordering inhabitants have always looked upon as a mark of very bad
times. Mr. Ockenden continues the tale of his experiences:

 It was feared this would be the third year he would suffer to elapse,
 without his once cheering their eyes with his presence; but the latter
 end of last August he again appeared, to the inexpressible joy of all,
 and was seen by numbers in the middle of the day. I had the curiosity,
 before I left Killarney, to visit one of the witnesses to this very
 marvelous fact.

 The account she gives is, that, returning with a kinswoman to her
 house at the head of the Lake, they both beheld a fine gentleman
 mounted upon a black horse, ascend through the water along with a
 numerous retinue on foot, who all moved together along the surface
 towards a small island, near which they again descended under water.
 This account is confirmed in time, place, and circumstance, by many
 more spectators from the side of the Lake, who are all ready to swear,
 and, not improbably, to suffer death in support of their testimony.

Another account says that at the feast, before he first disappeared, he
was engaged in a prophetic relation of the events which were to happen
in the ages to come; and that after he reached the center of the Lake
opposite them, he paused a moment, turned slowly round, looked toward
his friends, and waving his hand to them with the cheerful air of one
taking a short farewell, descended.

Mrs. S. C. Hall relates that an English soldier of the 30th Regiment,
and an Irish comrade, were while she was at Killarney engaged in
plowing up part of the old churchyard in Inisfallen, a work they both
disliked. As they were mooring the boat in which they came to the
island in the morning, a day or so after the work had commenced,

 they saw a procession of about two hundred persons pass from the
 old churchyard, and walk slowly and solemnly over the lake to the
 mainland. Reynolds (the soldier) himself was terribly alarmed, but his
 companion fainted in the boat.

He repeatedly afterward saw smaller groups of figures, but no crowd so
numerous.

 In answer to our questions, he expressed his perfect readiness to
 depose to the fact on oath; and asserted he would declare it if on his
 death-bed.

Some say the best way to approach Killarney for the first time is
by the wildly picturesque road over the mountains from Kenmare and
Glengarriff. One obtains a magnificent view of the Upper Lake from the
turn of the road a little north of the police barrack. Others again
have experienced the charm of an absolutely sudden surprise awaiting
them, when, arriving at Killarney by rail and driving south about a
mile or more, during which nothing is seen but the over-arching trees,
and turning to the left up a steep road south of the Flesk demesne,
toward one of the guest-houses there, the whole panorama of the
Lower Lake and the mountains bursts upon you just as you reach your
destination. Nothing has prepared you for a scene of so great beauty;
so this way of arriving has its merits. From this situation, or from
Flesk Castle; from a point above the Torc cascade; and from the point
first mentioned, are obtained perhaps the three finest views of the
Lakes. But in truth unrivaled view-points seem endless, each having its
own especial charm. The play of color, cloud, and shadow at various
hours and seasons is so extraordinary that no brush of painter could
ever do Killarney justice. As for photographs, they are merely like
pegs to hang one's memory-hats upon.

To know Killarney stay two months there at least, make friends with the
natives, learn the legends, and absorb the harmony of the region.

  And though many an isle be fair,
  Fairer still is Inisfallen,
  Since the hour Cuchullain lay
  In the bower enchanted.
  See! the ash that waves today,
  Fand its grandsire planted.

  When from wave to mountain-top
  All delight thy sense bewilders,
  Thou shalt own the wonder wrought
  Once by her skilled fingers
  Still, though many an age be gone,
  Round Killarney lingers.

_William Larminie_




THE VRBAS DEFILE, BOSNIA: by F. J. B.


Bosnia, in Europe, best known as one of the Balkan Provinces, belonged
in the fourteenth century to the kingdom of Stephen of Servia:
it attained freedom in 1376, then fell again under the Turkish
invasion of Europe. In 1878 the treaty of Berlin provided for the
occupation, by Austria-Hungary, of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Dalmatia,
accomplished only after severe conflict with the Mahommedans. Count
Callay was appointed administrator and made it his life-work to
promote harmony between the different races, as well as to develop
the country's resources. Ultimately the three provinces were annexed
by Austria-Hungary; compensation was awarded to Turkey and the
long-feared European war averted. The Vrbas is a tributary of the
Save, which divides Slavonia from Bosnia, on its northern border. The
accompanying print exhibits the deep, narrow, rocky bed of the Vrbas
and the precipitous height of the cliffs forming this magnificent
defile, the summits being invisible from certain parts of the road.
The river was once probably one of the underground watercourses of
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nature is majestic there and hews out her own rock
temples.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE VRBAS DEFILE,
BOSNIA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ROCKING-STONE
PINNACLE, MOUNT WELLINGTON, TASMANIA]




ASTRONOMICAL NOTES: by C. J. Ryan


There has lately been an interesting correspondence in _The English
Mechanic_ upon the subject of meteorites, and a remarkable conflict
of opinion has been manifested, showing that there is really not much
positive knowledge about them. The Earth's atmosphere is continually
being bombarded by these missiles, and the dust into which they are
transformed during their passage through it falls upon the Earth,
sprinkling it annually with a layer of dark mineral substance, which
if evenly spread, would cover the surface to about the thickness of a
match. For long it was denied by the Academies of Science that mineral
masses, varying in weight from a few ounces to several tons, ever fell
from the sky, although they had been frequently seen in the act of
falling and had been handled while still warm. But the incredulity of
the astronomers was broken down about a century ago and they could no
longer hold to their axiom that "as there are no stones in the sky,
they cannot fall out of it." The careful study of "shooting-stars" has
not been undertaken for much more than half a century. Although there
is no doubt that meteoric masses do fall to the ground occasionally and
that the meteoric dust which is found in the enduring snows on high
peaks and in the Arctic regions comes from the disintegration of such
objects, it is not certain that all of the shooting stars that flash
across our night skies (and day ones too, though we rarely see one by
day) are of the same nature as the meteoric stones which we can examine
in our museums.

One of the most difficult problems to explain is the cause of the
luminosity of the meteors. Many of them start into brilliancy at the
enormous heights of eighty or ninety miles above the Earth and, after
dashing at planetary speed across a distance of perhaps a hundred
miles or more, disappear at heights of thirty or forty miles from the
surface. Compared with the rapidity of their motion the quickest bullet
is practically at rest. The explanation most widely accepted is that
the friction of the meteorite in passing through our atmosphere at
such an enormous speed ignites it and rapidly destroys it. Objection
has been raised to this theory on the ground that the atmosphere
at great heights is exceedingly rare and that it is difficult to
believe it could offer enough resistance. Another problem has hitherto
proved quite insoluble; i. e., the long persistence of the train of
luminous particles which remain drifting in the upper air after the
disappearance of the explosive bolides. For instance, on February 22,
1909, such a luminous train was seen for several hours drifting across
the sky at high speed. Its height was so great that it was visible
over a large part of England and France. Why these sparks do not go
out instantly, in the same manner as those which follow the ordinary
shooting-stars, is an unsolved mystery.

The only thing that is well established about meteor showers is
that most of them are periodic and come from well-defined quarters
of the heavens. From the study of the directions from which these
streams come, it has been calculated that they travel round the sun
in long elliptical orbits, and are members of his family. An orbit of
thirty-three years has been computed for the famous November meteors.
They probably extend about as far as the planet Neptune on one side
of the Sun. The wonderful displays of November meteors seen in 1833
and 1866, which astonished the whole world, were probably caused by
the passing of the Earth through a particularly dense portion of the
stream. In 1866 we met the same portion that we had encountered in
1833. It was again looked for in 1899, thirty-three years later, but,
to the surprise of the astronomers, there was but a very ordinary
display. Many reasons have been offered for this, but no one really
knows enough to explain it satisfactorily. A few of the meteoric
streams follow the tracks of comets, and it is supposed that they may
be the disintegrated remains of comets, particularly in the cases where
the latter have faded away. There are many other peculiarities in the
behavior of meteorites and of the meteoric streams which are quite
incomprehensible, but enough has been said to show that the problem is
full of interest to inquiring minds.

       *       *       *       *       *

Students of H. P. Blavatsky's teachings will not have failed to notice
that there is a continual effort being made by astronomers to find
some really satisfactory theory to explain the formation and behavior
of comets' tails. She discusses the subject in _The Secret Doctrine_
in such a way and gives such suggestive hints as to make it clear that
when we do get the real clue to the mystery there will be need for
further readjustments in our theories of matter. She also leads us to
understand that partly through the discoveries which will be made in
connexion with the anomalies of comets' tails, science will find that
the present theory of gravitation is highly incomplete, and that there
is an opposite force--repulsion--to be understood. Gravitation is only
one aspect of a mysterious force which is as definitely polarized as
electricity or magnetism. It is of interest to notice that Professor
Kapteyn, the famous Dutch astronomer of Groningen, has just declared at
the thirteenth Science Congress of Holland that the law of gravitation
is abrogated among the spiral nebulae. His words are:

 All the known facts indicate that the so-called universal force of
 Gravitation exerts no influence upon the primordial matter from which
 all stars have been produced.

A few years ago--even to a date considerably later than the time
when H. P. Blavatsky wrote the daring suggestions in _The Secret
Doctrine_--such a statement would have been considered the rankest
heresy; no scientist would have dared to throw doubts upon the
universal supremacy of the law of gravitation. Truly, indeed, did she
prophesy that in the twentieth century it would be recognized that
she had but sketched an outline, which, though rejected at its first
appearance, was based upon real knowledge.

In seeking a plausible hypothesis to explain comets' tails, Signor
Luigi Armellini, an Italian astronomer, has advanced the revolutionary
idea that they are optical illusions, merely the effect of light
passing through the more or less lens-shaped head of the comet. He
publishes, in the _Astronomische Nachrichten_, fourteen photographs of
comet-like forms which he produced by passing beams of light at various
angles through lenses so as to fall upon sensitized plates. He claims
that the different angles at which the solar rays fall upon the nucleus
of a comet as it moves round the sun sufficiently explain the familiar
changes in shape of the tail.

This hypothesis has not been favorably received, for it provokes more
difficulties than it solves, plausible though it may seem at first
sight. For instance, there is the undeniable fact that comets' tails
display an entirely different spectrum from that of the Sun. Then
there is the fact that they are frequently most irregular in shape,
with strange bends and gaps in them, and sometimes they show bright
projections pointing _towards_ the Sun. Everyone who saw the great
daylight comet of the winter before last (Comet 1910 a) will remember
the curious bend half way down the tail which was plainly visible
without optical aid. This was a curious freak for a comet!

It is singular that a somewhat similar hypothesis to that of Signor
Armellini was offered by a correspondent to the _Century Path_ not long
ago (April 24, 1910), the difference being that he suggested that the
comet's tail was a _shadow_ of the nucleus thrown upon a surrounding
spherical nebulosity and which became visible as a bright object when
relieved against the intensely black background of the sky. This
hypothesis lies open to the same objection as the lens theory, and
also to others. But the important thing is that the mystery of comets
has not been cleared up, nor will it be until the properties of other
states of matter than those with which we are familiar are discovered
by science.

The following quotation from _The Scientific American_ shows some of
the difficulties which comet theorists have to meet:

 The tail of Halley's comet has conducted itself in the most whimsical
 fashion.... It seems to have split longitudinally into three more or
 less well-defined parts. When we consider that Morehouse's comet of
 1908 exhibited some extraordinary changes; that it repeatedly formed
 tails which were discarded to drift out bodily into space until they
 finally melted away; that in several cases tails were twisted or
 corkscrew shaped, as if they had gone out in a more or less spiral
 form; that areas of material connected with the tail would become
 visible at some distance from the head, where apparently no supply
 had reached it from the nucleus; that several times the matter of the
 tail was accelerated perpendicularly to its length; and that at one
 time the entire tail was thrown forward and curved perpendicularly
 to the radius vector in the general direction of the tail's sweep
 through space (_a peculiarity opposed to the law of gravitation_) it
 is evident that a comet presents important problems for the future
 astronomer to solve. (May 28, 1910, Italics ours).

In connexion with the profoundly interesting problem of gravitation
and the dead mechanical theory of the universe _versus_ the living,
spiritual teachings which H. P. Blavatsky brought us, the student
should consult Sections III and IV of Part III of _The Secret
Doctrine_, Vol. I. Nothing displays more forcibly the strength and
beauty of the Theosophical position, which sees the working of Divine
Intelligence and Control in every thing, from the least to the greatest.

To the general public as well as to astronomers the question of the
habitability of the planets is a perennial subject of interest, and it
is curious to observe how the opinions of experts have been modified
lately. A few years ago it would have appeared most unlikely that
the time was quickly coming when it would be seriously advanced by a
distinguished astronomer that _with the exception of Mars_ all the
planets are probably inhabited! Yet that is the position taken today
by Professor T. J. J. See of the U. S. Observatory, Mare Island. "Mars
has been inhabited in the past, but life has doubtless vanished there,
as but little of the Martian atmosphere remains." Until recently it
was thought that the extensive dark shadings on Mars were oceans, but
the numerous observations made of late with finer telescopes and under
more favorable conditions than were formerly available have proved
that these dark areas, instead of being the smooth, even surfaces they
should be if composed of water, are irregularly mottled and actually
crossed in places by some of the fine lines called "canals" about
which so much controversy has raged. Very limited dark blue regions
surrounding the white "snowcaps," which are most distinctly visible
during the Martian summers, are most probably water, but these are so
small that conditions must be very different on Mars from those on the
Earth or any similar planet. The state of things upon Venus appears to
be far more like that to which we are accustomed. No mountains such
as Venus possesses are to be traced on Mars. Professor See feels sure
that Mars must have been the seat of life in the past, and with respect
to the families of planets which we are morally certain must surround
the myriads of gigantic suns which we see only as twinkling stars, he
is convinced that they also must have been formed for the habitation
of intelligent beings, for to regard them as barren deserts would make
Nature ridiculous.

H. P. Blavatsky, in _The Secret Doctrine_ and elsewhere, and William Q.
Judge in his writings, have plainly stated the Theosophical teaching
about the condition of Mars in its present cycle. According to this,
the planet is under "obscuration," that is, it is not the seat of
full and complete active life, though there may be some lower vital
forces at work. But this does not mean that Mars is becoming extinct
or that it is a dead planet. According to the Esoteric philosophy, of
which H. P. Blavatsky was permitted to unveil a little and to give a
partial outline, the planets are subject to great periodic changes of
state. From a high condition of activity in which life in every form
flourishes, they decline to a state of quiescence during which the
vital forces are active in the unseen planes; but in due course the
nearly extinct fires are re-lighted and a further and higher evolution
commences. We see this taking place on a smaller scale around us;
civilizations rise and fall only to rise again; nations and even races
disappear to be replaced by others commencing their upward march.

During the intervals between the active manifestations on the physical
plane the life-stream or wave passes into other and interior states
which are necessary for the full development of perfected intelligence.
What takes place in the case of the individual man in the comparatively
short cyclic alternations of earth-lives and Devachanic or Heavenly
conditions is a reflection of the vast cosmic process of the planets
and the suns. Modern science has not yet grasped the enormous and
far-reaching significance of Cyclic or Periodic laws, particularly in
their application to human life, and how firmly everything, from the
lowest animalcule to the great sun itself, is held in their grasp. When
Cyclic Law as the key to the greater mysteries of life is thoroughly
understood we shall no longer find any opposition to the fact of the
reincarnation of the human soul, which is simply a necessary corollary
to it. The soul is not _supernatural_ in the sense of being outside
Nature's laws; it is a part of the whole.

So with respect to Mars. It is, as Professor See and others believe,
under obscuration today, but its energies will revive or reincarnate
in some future age. It has not reached the state of our Moon, which is
a decaying corpse, having passed through its life-history long ago.
The Moon's life-principles "reincarnating" in the sphere of the Earth
hundreds of millions of years ago, are now pursuing a higher evolution
here. The Earth will in its time "reincarnate" similarly.




ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL FROM LUDGATE HILL: by Carolus


The great fire of London in September 1666 destroyed eighty-nine
churches, the city gates, hospitals, schools, libraries, and many other
public buildings, thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling houses, and
the fortunes of over two hundred thousand people; but only eight lives
were lost, and the plague, which only the year before had destroyed a
hundred thousand persons in London alone, was never afterwards a cause
of serious anxiety. Notwithstanding the temporary suffering the fire
was a great hygienic benefit, and the city rapidly recovered more than
its former prosperity. One of the severest losses was that of the old
cathedral of St. Paul, a magnificent thirteenth century Gothic building
with a central spire. Its dimensions were enormous; the total length
being 700 feet, the height of the nave 102 feet, and the spire attained
the extraordinary altitude of 534 feet, 130 feet higher than Salisbury
Cathedral spire, which gives the impression, today, of enormous height.
The old cathedral had suffered many losses and injuries before the
fire, its spire had been destroyed, and its monuments defaced, while
many outrages called restorations had injured its beauty.

After the fire much of the work of rebuilding was entrusted to Sir
Christopher Wren, the most renowned architect of modern times in
England. In four years ten thousand houses had been rebuilt, and very
soon fifty-one churches were commenced by Wren. The greatest was new
St. Paul's. The first stone was laid on June 21, 1675, the last in
1710. Just before the fire Wren had been commissioned by King Charles
II to restore old St. Paul's, and he proposed to remodel all but
the choir in "a good Roman manner." We may be thankful that such an
atrocity was providentially prevented. Wren made several designs for
the new building on the lines of his proposed remodeling of the old
one; but for various reasons none of them were finally carried out. The
finished building is very different from even the last approved design,
and is generally considered far superior. In place of the one-storied
effect produced by a single order of columns, which he originally
intended, he divided the whole height into two orders. The result
was an immense gain in apparent size. St. Peter's in Rome is utterly
dwarfed by the colossal size of the columns and pilasters of its single
order, and it is a remarkable fact, that although the top of St. Paul's
dome is only about the same height as the springing of that of St.
Peter's, owing to Wren's ingenious design in this matter, the one looks
about as high as the other.

It is rather a singular fact that the greatest cathedral of
the Protestant Reformation should be called after the "wise
master-builder," St. Paul, while the central church of the Roman faith
is dedicated to the apostle who thrice denied his Master.

The ground plan as finally built, is much smaller than that of the old
cathedral, being only 500 feet long, by 250 across the transepts. The
front towers are 250 feet high, and the dome is 404. The dome is a
wonderful example of Wren's constructive skill. The stone lantern at
the summit is quite independent of the external wooden and lead dome;
it is supported on a cone of brickwork, concealed from the interior by
an internal dome. Wren said he was building for eternity, and he was
especially careful about the strength of the foundations, but he had no
suspicion of the boring and tunneling that would before many centuries
take place around the cathedral, and serious anxiety has been caused of
late years by sundry cracks which have appeared in some of the walls
and vaults.

There is good reason to suppose that the site of St. Paul's was once
dedicated to the worship of Diana. Ox heads, which were sacred to that
goddess, were discovered near the church in 1316, and at other times
fragments of vessels that seem to have been used in the old ceremonies
have been dug up. A chronicler of the fifth century speaks of the
worship of Diana being restored in London in his time. The site of the
building is the highest in the city, and it is the most reasonable
place for the sacred Temple of pre-christian times to have been founded.

Fortunately there are no thirty-five-story skyscrapers in London to
dwarf the picturesque mass of the majestic edifice which has an abiding
place in the heart of every Londoner--and indeed of every Englishman.

        See! how shadowy,
  Of some occult magician's rearing,
    Or swung in space of heaven's grace,
  Dissolving, dimly reappearing,
    Afloat upon ethereal tides
  St. Paul's above the city rides.

_John Davidson_

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ST. PAUL'S
CATHEDRAL, LONDON. VIEW TAKEN FROM LUDGATE HILL]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A EUCALYPTUS GROVE,
POINT LOMA]




WHO MADE THE EUCALYPTS? by Nature-Lover


Australia is a remnant of Lemuria, as geologists call that ancient
continent which once stretched across the Southern hemisphere. In
Australia we find strange animals and plants, the relics of a bygone
age. One plant is the Eucalyptus, of many varieties, a very perfect
tree, with two systems of roots, one to catch surface water, the
other to dig deep; formed for hardiness, yet distilling every kind of
fragrant and health-giving balm. Is this tree a product of evolution?
Or has Man had a hand in the perfecting of it?

Men in our recent civilization are already learning how to manipulate
plants so as to make them into better plants than they were before.
If it be true that the ancient continent of Lemuria was occupied by
an ancient humanity, divided into races and sub-races, nations and
tribes, enduring for millenniums, it must also be true that they made
discoveries in science, of which agriculture is a branch. Perhaps they
had gone further than we have yet gone in the art of plant culture;
perhaps they had carried it to a point of perfection; perhaps they made
the Eucalypts. There are many other plants and fruits and trees on the
earth which seem as if they had been made at some time or another; and
it is quite possible that bygone human races may have had something to
do with it.

The influence of man upon nature may have been underestimated. Plants
and animals seem to remain about the same for very long periods; man
is able to produce variations in them; and then the varieties often
remain permanent and unaltered. It is quite conceivable that scientific
agriculture on a large scale may have been practised at one time or at
several times in the world's history, and that many now-existing forms
may be attributable thereto.

Thus far we have spoken only of the direct and purposeful influence
of man upon nature; but man has also an indirect and undesigned
influence. For just as the physical body of man is continually
discarding atoms, which return to the soil, carrying thither vital
elements that will be used over again in the lower kingdoms of nature;
so man is as constantly throwing off other elements, not physical,
and these likewise return to the lower kingdoms of nature to enter as
vital forces into the constitution of lower forms. In other words, man
excretes used-up and superfluous elements from his mind; and these,
though no longer of use to man, and being now divested of everything
human, may nevertheless serve to ensoul lowlier forms. It will thus be
seen that some of the theories of evolution held by biologists are the
reverse of the truth. The analogy between animals and the organs in man
has been regarded as pointing to a descent of man from the animals; but
why might it not imply a descent of animals from man? Once get rid of
the idea that physical begetting is the only way in which one thing can
be derived from another, and the way is clear for postulating a descent
or derivation of animals from man. The crab, all claws and stomach,
works off naturally and harmlessly certain proclivities which in man
were cultivated to an excess too great for their further expression in
the human kingdom. In the same way we have the spider, built perhaps
from the cast-off atoms of a bogus-company promoter (!), the snake, the
pig, etc. It has been well said that in the Zoo one may meet all one's
friends and enemies--behind the bars of the cages; and the cartoonist
can represent faithfully his human characters by giving them animals'
heads.

But let us not overdo the idea. It is true that many of the animals
now on earth appeared subsequently to man in the present "Round" of
evolution; but this does not apply to all the animals. The facts are,
as might be expected, not so simple as one might like them to be; for
the history of evolution in all its ramifications is a long and complex
one. To return to the main proposition: man plays an important part in
the evolution of nature, both conscious and unconscious.




AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIALS: by Nature-Lover


Australia is one of the oldest lands, says H. P. Blavatsky; it can
produce no _new_ forms, unless helped by fresh races or artificial
cultivation and breeding. This is in keeping with the native race whose
home it has been; for a portion of the present native tribes are the
descendants of those later Lemurians who escaped the destruction of
their fellows when the main continent was submerged. This remnant has
since declined. Its environment is suggestive of a survival from a long
bygone age. As Jukes says, in his _Manual of Geology_, it is a curious
fact that the fossil marsupials found in Oxfordshire, England, together
with Trigonias and other shells, and even some fossil plants, should
much more nearly resemble those now living in Australia than the living
forms of any other part of the globe. This fact is interesting and
suggestive.

From a recent article in _The English Mechanic_ we condense the
following.

The remains of some of the oldest mammals were discovered in the
Keuper beds of bone breccia of Upper Triassic age near Stuttgart. They
consisted of the teeth of a small animal about the size of a rabbit,
Microlestes antiquus. Teeth of a similar animal were found in the
Rhaetic beds at Frome, England, while in the red sandstones of the
Upper Trias in Virginia and North Carolina were found the lower jaws
of Dromatherium sylvestre, and in beds of similar age in Basutoland
the skull of Tritylodon longaevus. All these are believed to have
been marsupials, mammals that bring forth their young in an imperfect
condition and place them in a pouch formed by the skin of the abdomen,
where their development is completed.

In the Australian regions there are about one hundred and sixty
species of living marsupials including the kangaroo, kangaroo rat,
phalanger, tarsipes, wombat, bandicoot, rat, koala, Tasmanian wolf or
Thylacine dasyure, and the Tasmanian devil or Ursine dasyure; while in
the remainder of the world there are only about forty-six, and these
confined to North and South America, the representatives being the
opossum and the South American selvas. The kangaroo is also found in
Tasmania, New Guinea, New Ireland, and in the Aru and other islands of
these regions.

Up to the present very few fossil remains of Monotremes have been
found. These are the lowest forms of mammals and lay eggs; they
seem to form a link with the reptiles. Their skeletons exhibit very
reptilian characters and true teeth are absent. They appear to have
been followed by the Marsupials and finally by the Placentals, which
bring forth matured young, and which seem to have made their appearance
in the Upper Jurassic. The only representatives that now exist of the
monotremes are the duck-billed platypus or Ornithorhyncus, and the
spiny anteater, both of Australia, and Parechidna of New Guinea. These
lay soft-shelled eggs and have no teats, the milk being exuded from
pores in the skin, which the young ones lick when hatched. The fossil
remains of Echidna have been brought to light in the bone breccia of
Tertiary times in Australia. In the Stonesfield Slate of Oxfordshire,
which is Lower Oolitic, the lower jaws of several small marsupials
have been found, and these were contemporary with the great saurians.
The latter waned as the former increased. Similar lower jaws have been
found at Swanage in Dorsetshire, the lower jaw being the first bone
to become detached and being left stranded while the rest of the body
or skeleton was carried out to sea. There would seem to have been a
world-wide distribution of monotremes and marsupials; but they did not
develop any size except in Australia, where they became isolated.

In the newer Tertiary deposits of Australia are the remains of a large
marsupial allied to the kangaroo and named Diprotodon Australis; and
in the Post-Tertiary another named Nototherium; as also a few others
including fossil kangaroos.

This concludes our abstract from the article. In reference to what
is said therein about the first two forms of Mammals--the Monotremes
and the Marsupials--their analogies with the types below and above
them, and the gradation in development which they exhibit, it may be
recalled that the teachings given in _The Secret Doctrine_, with regard
to animal and human evolution, are not the same as the conjectures of
most modern theorists. The Mammalia, it is stated, are (_in the present
Round_) posterior to Man on this globe. The evolutionary process which
culminated in the production of a physical organism for Man took place
in an earlier Round. Similarly, it is not in the present Round that the
Monads inhabiting animals now living will progress so as to enter into
the composition of Man. That destiny awaits them in a future Round.
Hence these Monotremes and Marsupials do not represent early stages in
the evolution of our present humanity. Analogy in form does not always
mean derivation of the one form from the other; and when it does, there
still remains the doubt as to which form was prior to the other. The
subject of evolution, as taught by ancient Science, is comprehensive
and fascinating. It is evident that the actual facts must be far more
complex and vaster in scale than tentative hypotheses.

Australia is a country with natural scenery of fascinating type. The
illustrations accompanying this note give an idea of it.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A CASCADE, NEW SOUTH
WALES, AUSTRALIA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. NEAR NATURE'S HEART,
NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AN AUSTRALIAN PICNIC
RESORT]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. WHERE THE RAINBOW
SPORTS NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. WHERE THE FERNS
THRIVE: AUSTRALIA]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE AUSTRALIAN GUM]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ONE OF THE LESSER
STATUES BROUGHT FROM EASTER ISLAND THIS STATUE (NOW IN THE BRITISH
MUSEUM) HAS BEEN CALLED "HOA-HAKA-NANA-IA"]




HOA-HAKA-NANA-IA: by P. A. Malpas


Much has been written and said about the famous Easter Island statues
in mid-Pacific. So little is really known about them that until H.
P. Blavatsky called attention to their immense antiquity they were
not thought to be of any particular value. There were one or two
speculations which she, as with so many other scattered data, gathered
together, sifted, confirmed, or refuted, adding a few details to
complete the bare outline of the picture.

The one in the illustration stands at the entrance outside the British
Museum with a smaller, more shapeless companion. They were brought to
England in Her Majesty's Ship _Topaze_, and presented in 1869 by Queen
Victoria to the national collection in the Museum.

As they are said to be of hard trachyte and the ravages of time are
great, therefore it is said they are very, very old. Presumably they
were carved in the "Stone Age," wherever that mysteriously ancient (yet
still existing!) epoch of science may be situated in the years of the
world. It would be interesting to know by what "Stone Age" tools they
were carved. Perhaps Aladdin's diamonds may have helped in the carving?

In any case they are evident "sun-worship" monuments. So would our
clocks and sundials be if we could emulate our "Stone Age" brothers
(what wonderful masons they were!) in making them last a million years
or so.

We would wish to remark that the cross on the backs of these very
ancient statues, made in one of the hardest kinds of stone, is a very
remarkable case of testimony by anticipation. They were only "Stone
Age" men, but they had shrewd powers of anticipation--almost as
wonderful as their masonry!




SUN-LIFE AND EARTH-LIFE: by Per Fernholm

Indwelling

  If thou couldst empty all thyself of self,
  Like to a shell dishabited,
  Then might He find thee on the Ocean shelf,
  And say--"This is not dead,"--
  And fill thee with Himself instead.

  But thou art all replete with very thou,
  And hast such shrewd activity,
  That, when He comes, He says: "This is enow
  Unto itself--'twere better let it be:
  It is so small and full, there is no room for Me."

_T. E. Brown_, "_Collected Poems_."


There, in your garden, is a plant, busily engaged in collecting
material for its future growth, although you can see nothing as yet
above the ground. Still in the darkness of the earth it is sending out
numerous root-threads amongst many strange material things, of which
some serve it as nourishment. Buried in the soil without any visible
link with the life of the air above, it lies, dormant and inactive
until that life above reaches it with its beneficent influence in the
form of rain and sunshine, quickening the soul of the plant to begin
the weaving of its material garb on the already present ideal form.

And then, one day, the budding life breaks through the soil separating
it from the air, and from now on a new life is entered upon, a double
existence. The roots in the dark "prison of earth" continue to collect
nourishment for the redoubled activity needed to build the ideal form.
But the plant is now directly nourished and stimulated to growth by
water and air and sunshine by means of its leaves as well. And thus,
in proper time, the culmination comes in form of the flower, in its
beauty really belonging to another world and a constant promise of a
higher life. When it has given its message, blended its note of form,
color, and fragrance in the great symphony of vegetable life, it passes
away to rest; but in doing so it produces a store of seeds for future
plant-lives similar to its own, thus binding together past and future
and securing the continuity of its species.

How much food for thought there is in a simple picture that we
constantly have before us! How thoughts and analogies built upon it
help us--far better than the filling of our brains with narrow and
petty theories without any spark of life, or the poisoning of our
emotional life by our artificial aims and desires. Men are overburdened
by false ideas and unsound emotions of their own making. Purification
of heart, mind, and body, is surely needed, before the wholesome
influences always reaching us from the Center of Life can make us grow
rightly, intensely, though quietly and in silence.

"I am not of this world," said the great Master whom the Western
world professes to follow. It was the Christos that spoke thus, the
spiritual, glorious, ideal being that breathes the air of the higher
life. Each of us has--nay, each one in essence is--the Christos, though
few have consciously and purposely taken up the great task before
us all: to weave the worthy, shining garment that will allow this
spiritual being to take actual form in manifested existence. Man is not
like the flower, he is self-conscious, and he cannot grow as the flower
grows until he freely uses his self-consciousness in full accordance
with the laws of life. He cannot hope to burst through the dark soil of
material existence that separates him from the air where the spiritual
sun sheds its glory until, in every moment of daily life, he feels its
influence and adjusts his life accordingly, gathering nourishment from
all his duties, from all the opportunities that the threads of his mind
may encounter, and pushing upwards all the time.

_Trust_ is the key to it all, the magic power that will bring the
human plant to bloom. _Compassion_ is the guiding power for the mental
root-threads in their work of gathering nourishment; the giving of
the good tidings to all we can reach, the extending of aid to all as
we progress. And when the glorious moment arrives when the soil opens
above us, there comes redoubled activity in our earthly life, reaching
out farther and farther, inspiring and stimulating more and more the
hearts of the "hosts of souls" that grope blindly in the dark and
finally have come to doubt even the existence of any spiritual life.

We watch the plant in our garden and nurse it even before we see any
visible sign of its growth, knowing that it will blossom in due time.
Have we ever thought that there may be beings in the spiritual world
that watch the humans in like manner and give them the tenderest care?
Have we thought of how some already may have reached up into the air
of spiritual existence, preparing to bloom, or already blooming, or,
in going to rest, scattering all over the earth seeds of potential
spiritual growth? How these may be working with all the powers of
heart, mind, and body, to give the good tidings to us that still
struggle in the dark? How they are to be recognized by that divine
Compassion that does not shut out anyone of the blind and faltering
human beings, and how they are able to inspire that Trust which acts
like a kindling spark, producing light and order in a chaos?

The sun does not enter into the growth of a plant otherwise than
spiritually, inspiring and drawing it upwards. It is not of this world;
and yet it is the basis of all growth in this world. So even in human
life; the Christos stands apart from all nature's activity, and yet it
is illuminating every particle therein, living in the heart-life of
all. The mind can open to its rays by acting in unison with the heart,
by finding its way upward in trust, and by expanding, as compassion
makes it embrace ever wider circles of earthly existence. Seen thus,
earth-life, dark and confusing as it still often may be, has its great
purpose and is felt to be the means of a glorious spiritual blossoming.
Every thought and act may then serve the interblending of the spiritual
influences with the lives of our fellows, and as purification proceeds
and the life-currents more and more easily and normally find their
course through our hearts and minds, Joy becomes manifest and comes to
stay with us, the Joy of True Living, precursor of the blossoming of
the spiritual life.

In this work of bursting through the dark soil of material existence,
woman has her predominant position. Being in close contact with nature
she can clothe the spiritual rays entering her heart in a thousand
forms that make everything she touches radiant in its turn. And she
can protect the sanctuary thus brought down to earth. If her trust is
sublime, her spiritual will unflinching, none will dare to desecrate
it. She can challenge others to leave the false and cheap glitter of
life, for the precious jewels of the higher life. How glorious her
position as guardian of the home, if she enters into it in the right
spirit, trustingly! The seeds of love and unselfishness, scattered
over the earth by those who already have blossomed forth in the higher
glory, may in such a home find the soil needed for their quickening.
And what a reward for a mother to watch over and guide such a soul in
acquiring a serviceable instrument for the delivering of its message of
Truth, Light, and Liberation!

The most fertile soil is often composed of the most unpleasant and
incongruous ingredients, and it is often the darkest. Our age is
certainly dark, but just _because_ of the swift vibrations of material
life it permits a growth that could not be equaled at any other time.
This century has to make a bold step forward towards the realization
of a higher life. Let the woman who feels its urge and who longs to
help and serve, know that by doing rightly the small duties that lie
nearest at hand, her path will gradually widen. The plant blooms where
the seed falls. What woman cannot, deep within the heart, feel some
hint of the glory and joy of stepping forth as a conscious worker with
nature?

One of the most wonderful passages in the pearl of the Eastern
scriptures, the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, that poem of the spiritual life, is
where Arjuna discovers the majesty of Krishna, whom he had taken
for a friend and at times had treated "without respect in sport, in
recreation, in repose, in thy chair, and at thy meals, in private and
in public"; and where he exclaims: "Forgive, O Lord, as the friend
forgives the friend, as the father pardons his son, as the lover the
beloved." We will all some day waken to find Krishna, the Christos, at
our side. But we must ask ere we can receive, we must call before the
inner Christ can show himself in his true form, before he really can
help us. We must change our whole attitude, our polarity, and drink in
the light from above. We must let Sun-life illuminate Earth-life and
draw forth the divine blossoms.




THE SPADE OF THE ARCHAEOLOGIST: THE RESURRECTION OF TRUTH--ERROR'S
FUNERAL: by Ariomardes


 The resurrection of the prehistoric age of Greece, and the disclosure
 of the astonishing standard of civilization which had been attained
 on the mainland and in the isles of the Aegean at a period at least
 2000 years earlier than that at which Greek history, as hitherto
 understood, begins, may be reckoned as among the most interesting
 results of modern research into the relics of the life of past ages....

 All preconceived ideas may be upset by the results of a single
 season's spade work on some ancient site. The work is by no means
 complete; but already the dark gulf of time that lay behind the Dorian
 conquest is beginning to yield up the unquestionable evidences of a
 great and splendid and almost incredibly ancient civilization....

 Most surprising of all, in many respects, was the revelation of the
 amazingly complete system of drainage with which the palace was
 provided. Indeed the hydraulic science of the Minoan architects is
 altogether wonderful in the completeness with which it provided for
 even the smallest details....

 Perhaps the most striking and interesting result that has been
 attained is the remarkable confirmation given to the broad outlines
 of those traditions about Crete which have survived in the legends and
 in the narratives of the Greek historians.--_The Scientific American_,
 in a review of James Baikie's _Sea Kings of Crete_.

Preconceived ideas may certainly be said to be in a precarious
situation, if they can be so easily upset by a spade. Pagan tradition,
however, comes out triumphant. Should we not therefore, place more
faith in the pagan legends than in the preconceived ideas?

Refusing to believe that the Greek legends were imaginary, Schliemann
and his successors investigated the sites at Troy, Tiryns and Mykenae,
there discovering the old civilization described. Now we learn
that this was but the dying remnant of a still older and grander
civilization whose center was Crete. How much more has the spade to
reveal to us? How much further will discovery go? It can but show, as
revelation follows revelation, that the map of ancient history sketched
in H. P. Blavatsky's _The Secret Doctrine_ is correct; that our annals,
as far as we can trace them back, record not a rise but a fall. The
present Fifth Root-Race of humanity, being in its middle course, has
reached the lowest point of its cycle before its reascent; the earlier
of its seven sub-races have lived; some of the most enduring of their
colossal works in masonry have survived, silent yet eloquent witnesses.
The spade is slowly uncovering the vestiges of civilization gradually
rising in knowledge and culture as we go backwards; until at last the
completed chain of history will conduct us to the glory of our Race in
the Golden Age of its birth.

Confirmation, Theosophy has in plenty, as H. P. Blavatsky foretold of
the dawning years of this century. Recognition, it may get later. And
this important question arises: Will archaeologists, while admitting
the truth of the Theosophical teachings about history, also admit
those teachings as to the nature of Man and other kindred subjects,
which logically depend on the historical teachings? If not, then,
Archaeology, thy name is inconsistency. For Nineteenth Century views of
the origin of man will not fit.

And let us not become so absorbed over the Aegeans as to forget the
rest of the world and devise theories to account for our own particular
discoveries regardless of the discoveries in other fields. The ancient
Chimu civilization recently uncovered in Peru claims our attention.
History in America too goes back through rising stages to a mightier
past. And linking all, we have the admissions, now being made on all
sides, as to the truth of the Theosophical teachings (in _The Secret
Doctrine_) about Atlantis. This links together the prehistoric cultures
of the Old World and the New.

Even in mechanical science there was prowess, as we learn in connexion
with these drainage works of Crete. Perhaps we have been wont to solace
our pride by the reflection that if the Egyptians surpassed us in
building, and the Greeks in art, in science at least we bear the palm.
But is this consolation merely based on the fact that the civilizations
with which we have so far been familiar have not expended their genius
in that particular direction? Could antiquity have surpassed us in
applied science also, if it had had the mind to apply its abilities
in that direction? Nay, have there actually been civilizations which
surpassed us? This particular Cretan culture seems to have been
distinguished by many features which connect it more with modern times
than with the intervening Greek culture. The same has been said with
regard to the choice and treatment of subjects in the decorative and
imitative pottery unearthed on the Chimu site in Peru.




THE LANDS NOW SUBMERGED: by Durand Churchill


To those persons who are interested in geographical facts and
geological statistics, as well as to those who are students of
climatology, the following remarkable features of the great bodies
of water which cover such a large part of the surface of this globe,
a part of the surface which in bygone ages has borne upon it races
of people from whom our remote ancestors were descended, will be of
interest.

Thanks to modern energy, skill, and perseverance, the great oceans have
been sounded practically throughout, so that today we have published
maps, which show quite clearly enough the general contour of the ocean
bottoms.

From these we see that the floor of the ocean is an extensive plain, or
series of plains, lying at an average depth of about two and one-half
miles beneath the ocean surface. In some places, gigantic mountain
ranges rise up from these submerged plains to the very surface of the
ocean, or to within points so near the surface that they form dangerous
reefs, and volcanic islands.

The depth of the ocean thus varies quite as irregularly and as
precipitously as does the level of dry lands in the mountain ranges of
Switzerland or South America or India. So far as is officially known
in 1911, the greatest depth in the Atlantic Ocean is found between the
West Indies and Bermuda, at a point called the Nares Deep, which is
4662 fathoms, or 27,972 feet. The greatest depth, so far discovered in
the Indian Ocean, is between Christmas Island and the coast of Java,
which is 3828 fathoms, and is called the Wharton Deep.

The greatest depth, so far discovered in the Pacific Ocean is called
the Challenger (or Nero) Deep in the North Pacific, which is 5269
fathoms (31,614 feet). To get a comparative idea of this great depth,
we can imagine the highest mountain in the world placed in this depth
of water, and would then find that the peak of this great mountain
would be 2600 feet below the surface of the sea. Thus could Mount
Everest be lost in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

There are, at present on record, fifty-six of these great holes in the
sea bottoms which exceed three miles in depth. There are ten areas
which lie at a depth greater than four miles, and four places where the
depth exceeds five miles.

The depth seems to bear a certain relation to the salinity of the
water, for it is found that the amount of salt held in solution is less
as the depth increases. This of course is the effect of temperature and
pressure changes, as well as the greater quietness of the subsurface
waters.

The composition of the salts found in sea-water, that is the
proportional amounts of the various component salts, does not vary
materially in the different parts of the ocean, although the degree of
saturation does vary, as above explained.

The temperature of the ocean varies, at the surface, from 28° F. at the
poles, to over 80° F. in the tropics. The cold water, near the poles,
at any given point, varies less than 10° F.; and the warm water of the
tropics, likewise has a variation, annually, of less than 10° F., in a
band that nearly encircles the earth; this band, it is interesting to
observe, is the region of coral reefs.

Between these regions of small annual variation, there are two bands
surrounding the earth, where the annual temperature variation is
greater, and may at some spots even exceed 40° F.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AMSTERDAM: THE
"GREEN CANAL," AND THE STEEPLE OF THE ZUIDERKERK ("SOUTH CHURCH")]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. OIL CREEK FALLS,
WATERTON LAKES, ALBERTA, CANADA]




[Illustration: The Screen of Time]

BOOK REVIEWS: Charles Morice's "Il est ressuscité":

by H. A. Fussell

  Once to every man and nation
  Comes the moment to decide,
  In the strife of truth with falsehood,
  For the good or evil side.


That there do occur critical periods in the lives of nations and
of individuals, when the irrevocable step is taken which allies
them definitely with the beneficent or maleficent forces which are
contending for the mastery of the world, has become a truism. It is
seldom a spectacular contest--this "battle of Armageddon"; even when it
is, at the moment of choice we are alone, face to face with the Higher
Self.

The many and varied ways in which this contest may occur furnish the
moralist and the preacher with occasions for the highest flights of
eloquence, and it forms the background of history, biography, and
fiction. One of its most recent presentations is by Charles Morice in
his book _Il est ressuscité!_ of which we give a résumé.

One day in the middle of December the Parisians were surprised on
opening their daily papers to see the last page perfectly blank, all
the questionable advertisements had disappeared, no Stock Exchange
news, all the transactions by which clever financiers attract the
unwary and pile up their millions, had been suppressed. Why? No one
could say! Amazement on all faces! It was the same the next day, and
the next--even the feuilleton, containing the inevitable sensational
and sometimes salacious story was no more. At the Bourse itself there
was "nothing doing"; would-be purchasers were told of the watered
stocks, were advised not to buy.

In the evening the leading journalists met as usual at the "Lapin Cru."
They were no wiser than the rest. Consternation was on all faces.
Their occupation was gone, there was not a single piquant event in
all Paris--suddenly become virtuous--to write up. On unfolding their
papers--the first impression was always brought in at midnight by the
office-boys from the publishers--on one of the blank pages was this
notice in small print:

 The Son of God needs no advertising. He has put up at the Three Kings'
 Hotel, Place de l'Étoile. He will be at home from noon to noon, all
 the day, the 14th of December and tomorrow.

Narda, a prince among journalists, sat apart, moodily. Suddenly he
became aware of a man opposite him at the next table.

 But what a man! There was in fact nothing remarkable about him, except
 that perhaps he lacked precisely those little peculiarities and
 idiosyncracies which distinguish one man from another. Yet he was a
 fine man, but his remarkable beauty did not cause surprise. The fact
 is, that one would have been surprised, nay scandalized, if it were
 not so, for his beauty, formed of the perfect equilibrium of all the
 elements of his person, revealed man in his ordinary and magnificent
 integrity. It was as if necessitated by the soul, sovereignly and
 ineffably serene, which shone in the eyes of the man: a constant,
 rich, intense light, eclipsing the crude brilliancy of the electric
 lights, and forming a halo in his unusually long hair. Narda was not
 dazzled by the light: on the contrary, he felt himself illuminated by
 it to the very depths of his being. He looked at this unknown man with
 a sympathy mingled with trust and deference. He had no desire to speak
 to him, to question him, fully satisfied by his presence alone, the
 presence of _a man_. A real man! he said to himself, and not a puppet
 like my comrades and myself.

The stranger went, Narda scarcely knew how; and without him the room,
life itself, seemed empty and vain again.

The subject is not new--the incompatibility of the Christ and modern
civilization. We are all acquainted with sensational pictures, painted
by well-known artists, depicting Christ in the midst of decadent modern
society, with all its revolting contrasts; or with lurid sketches
written by clever journalists; but never have we seen the subject
treated with so much reverence and psychological insight as in the work
before us. Read the scene the following night at the "Lapin Cru," where
Narda was sure he would meet again with the Son of God. They communed
as of old the disciples with the Master.

"I thought, Lord, you were to come in a different manner."

"Are you also without intelligence?" Jesus replied. "Visible or
invisible the Son of Man comes every day."

The question rose to the lips of Narda: "You come, doubtless, to finish
the work begun two thousand years ago?"

"It is finished to all eternity."

"Why then have you not conquered?"

"Because I wished to leave to you the merit of the victory."

After some further talk, Narda, who has been led into the depths of
his own conscience, depths unsuspected by him before, exclaims: "Lord,
perhaps you are only _myself_, my self raised to perfectness...."

"But has not one of your writers said: 'It is only God who is really
man.' How do you know, if I have not become _little by little_ divine?"

And while they were speaking Jesus was giving, at "the Three Kings,"
in its three hundred rooms, _private_ audience to three hundred
interviewers at the same time, and to each he appeared different. On
leaving, some declared he had fair hair, others that it was dark. To
the philosopher he appeared a philosopher; to the artist more beautiful
than Apollo; to the soldier a divine warrior.

Last of all came "the Scribes and Pharisees," as of old, to question
him. "Are you really the Son of God?" "Are you going to tell us again
that salvation is difficult for the rich?" "Are you going to be
crucified anew?" and so on. The Churches held aloof. _He had not come
as they expected._

We will not describe how our author solves the problems, economic,
social, and religious, which this unsuspected advent of Jesus causes in
Paris. It suffices to say that the crisis was met and tided over for
the time being.

One circumstance, however, must be mentioned: woman was honored as
never before. Civil marriage alone is legal in France; in more than
sixty per cent of the couples presenting themselves before the civil
authorities for the ratification of their marriage, the unexpected
happened. Instead of the perfunctory "Yes" which was almost invariably
the rule, one or other of the contracting parties would say "No."
There were no more ill-assorted matches, none of those crimes against
humanity that the marriage service, not only among the French, but in
every nation, condones. And the children, they had never been so happy
before, so unrestrained, and yet so well-behaved. Even the youths and
maidens, as they walked through the streets or wandered in the parks,
showed a self-restraint and tenderness for one another never remarked
before. Older people stood and looked after them in wonder. Something
idyllic and noble had entered into and stopped the bantering, mocking,
scoffing tone of the average Parisian. It was beautiful, some thought
it unnatural--would it last?

Towards the end of December Jesus preaches to the people--this time
from Montmartre. All Paris is gathered there to hear him. Again the
gracious words are heard, but are received and interpreted by each in
accordance with his own interests and prejudices. "The common people
heard him gladly," but the rich and learned murmured. He spoke of
self-sacrifice and devotion to ideals; the majority, though convicted
of sin, with seared hearts, felt revolt rising within. When Jesus had
ended and had betaken himself away, "for their eyes were holden, that
they should not see," it was in a state of astonishment, deception,
consternation, even rage, that the crowd slowly melted away. Many
men, mere simulacra of humanity--though considered the pillars of
society--made haste to flee the place where all they held most dear,
their success, their station, their darling sins, were menaced. But the
innocent, the poor and the wretched, felt that it was an awakening from
an all-too-sweet dream to the harsh realities of the pitiless struggle
for life.

It was the beginning of the end. Ere many days had passed, Jesus
was asked to leave the city, "and normal life, with its political
institutions, its scientific progress, its suffragettes, its railway
accidents, theater-parties, and fashionably attired women, resumed its
wonted course." By a kind of tacit agreement no one spoke any more of
the disconcerting events of the last days of December. The newspapers
wore their wonted appearance; "twenty lines, identical in every case,"
was all the press notice of what had so profoundly stirred men's souls.

And Narda, the veteran journalist, the new disciple of Jesus? Brought
face to face with his divine self, he saw himself once again when
in youth, with forehead high and heart full of hope, he had vowed
allegiance to the highest. And now? Was it lack of courage? He lost
his grasp of that divine life to which all are called, and which had
awakened once again with so much power in him. "He has come in vain,"
he cried, "we cannot endure him."

How true, alas! are the sad words of Baudelaire, which Charles Morice
prefixes to his work: "_Mais le damné répond toujours: Je ne veux
pas!_"--The lost soul always replies: I do not want to.




The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society

Founded at New York City in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky, William Q. Judge
and others

Reorganized in 1898 by Katherine Tingley

Central Office, Point Loma, California

 The Headquarters of the Society at Point Loma with the buildings and
 grounds, are no "Community" "Settlement" or "Colony." They form no
 experiment in Socialism, Communism, or anything of similar nature,
 but are the Central Executive Office of an international organization
 where the business of the same is carried on, and where the teachings
 of Theosophy are being demonstrated. Midway 'twixt East and West,
 where the rising Sun of Progress and Enlightenment shall one day
 stand at full meridian, the Headquarters of the Society unite the
 philosophic Orient with the practical West.


 MEMBERSHIP

 in the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society may be
 either "at large" or in a local Branch. Adhesion to the principle
 of Universal Brotherhood is the only pre-requisite to membership.
 The Organization represents no particular creed; it is entirely
 unsectarian, and includes professors of all faiths, only exacting from
 each member that large toleration of the beliefs of others which he
 desires them to exhibit towards his own.

 Applications for membership in a Branch should be addressed to
 the local Director; for membership "at large" to G. de Purucker,
 Membership Secretary, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point
 Loma, California.


OBJECTS

This Brotherhood is a part of a great and universal movement which has
been active in all ages.

This Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. Its
principal purpose is to teach Brotherhood, demonstrate that it is a
fact in Nature, and make it a living power in the life of humanity.

Its subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and modern religions,
science, philosophy, and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the
divine powers in man.

It is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy
and of our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P.
Blavatsky, the Foundress, and even the Society's motto, to attract
attention to themselves and to gain public support. This they do in
private and public speech and in publications. Without being in any way
connected with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in
many cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading
the public, and honest inquirers are hence led away from the original
truths of Theosophy.

The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society welcomes to
membership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the
eradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste,
or color, which have so long impeded human progress; to all sincere
lovers of truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than
the mere pleasures and interests of a worldly life and are prepared to
do all in their power to make Brotherhood a living energy in the life
of humanity, its various departments offer unlimited opportunities.

The whole work of the Organization is under the direction of the Leader
and Official Head, Katherine Tingley, as outlined in the Constitution.

Inquirers desiring further information about Theosophy or the
Theosophical Society are invited to write to

  THE SECRETARY
  International Theosophical Headquarters
  Point Loma, California


[Illustration: THE PATH]

  The Theosophical Path

  An International Magazine
  Unsectarian and nonpolitical

  Monthly      Illustrated

[Illustration]

Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the promulgation of Theosophy,
the study of ancient & modern Ethics, Philosophy, Science and Art, and
to the uplifting and purification of Home and National Life

  Edited by Katherine Tingley
  International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California, U.S.A.




_All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded
on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts
with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot
of the ox that draws the carriage._

_All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded
on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts
with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never
leaves him._

_"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me."--in those
who harbor such thoughts hatred will never cease._

_"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me."--in those
who do not harbor such thoughts hatred will cease._

_For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by
love, this is an ancient rule._

 DHAMMAPADA, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. (Translation by F. Max Müller, _Sacred
 Books of the East_, Vol. X.)




  THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH
  MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED

  EDITED BY KATHERINE TINGLEY

  NEW CENTURY CORPORATION, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

  Entered as second-class matter July 25, 1911, at the Post Office at
  Point Loma, California under the Act of March 3, 1879
  Copyright, 1911, by Katherine Tingley


 COMMUNICATIONS

 Communications for the Editor should be addressed to "KATHERINE
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 Century Corporation, Point Loma, California."


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  VOL. I NO. 5      CONTENTS      NOVEMBER 1911


  A Group from _The Aroma of Athens_                      _Frontispiece_
  Evolution in the Light of Theosophy  H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)   311
  The Mysteries of Rotation                              A Student   316
  Scenes from The _Aroma of Athens_ (_illustrations_)   316-317, 322-323
  What are the Bases of an Intelligent Belief in Reincarnation?
                               F. S. Darrow, A. M., PH. D. (Harv.)   317
  The Victory of the Divine in Man Rev.                S. J. Neill   320
  Ancient America (_illustrated_)                 An Archaeologist   323
  The Parable of the Crucifixion                Cranstone Woodhead   328
  Is Light Corpuscular?                                   T. Henry   332
  Astronomical Lore                                      A Student   334
  The Mystery of the Molars                                Medicus   336
  A Dutch House Court by Pieter de Hooch (_illustrated_)             338
  Point Loma Hills at Eventide (_illustration_)                      339
  The Incarnation of Geniuses                           H. Travers   339
  The Plight of the Vivisector           H. Coryn, M. D., M.R.C.S.   341
  The Ekoi: Children of Nature         H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)   344
  An Unknown American Nation (_illustrated_)          H. S. Turner   347
  The Confines of Science                             Investigator   349
  The Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament (_illustrated_)
                                                           Carolus   352
  Point Loma Notes                                        C. J. R.   354
  The Woman's International Theosophical League
                                            A Member of the League   357
  Illusion and Reality                           Lydia Ross, M. D.   362
  Venice (_illustrated_)                              Grace Knoche   366
  Humanity and Theosophical Education        Elizabeth C. Spalding   375
  Book Reviews: "Commentary upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex"
      (William E. Gates), C. J. Ryan. A New Magazine.
      _The Strange Little Girl_, a Story for Children                378

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. DIOTIMA, MYRTO, AND ASPASIA GROUP IN "THE AROMA OF
ATHENS," AS PRESENTED IN THE GREEK THEATER INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL
HEADQUARTERS, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA ON APRIL 17, 1911]




THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

  VOL. I      NOVEMBER, 1911      NO. 5

 Spirit feeds and sustains the air and the earth and the liquid plains
 of the sea; also the shining globe of the moon, and the Titanian
 stars: while Mind pervading (the Universe) puts the whole in action,
 and blends itself with the mighty frame. Thence men, and the races
 of the beasts and of the flying kind, and the huge creatures brought
 forth by the Sea beneath his mottled surface. A fiery energy works
 through these elementals and a celestial origin in the seed, so far as
 heavy bodies, earth-sprung limbs, and mortal members, weigh not their
 vigor down.--Virgil, _Aeneid_, vi, 724-732


EVOLUTION IN THE LIGHT OF THEOSOPHY: by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)


After studying the various theories of biological evolution and the
controversies of their respective exponents, one reaches the conclusion
that each of the theorists is worrying a small fragment of the truth,
and that the actual facts comprehend not only all these theories
but a good deal more besides. There is (1) the theory of continuous
evolution, which supposes that forms reproduce other forms in a
continuous and uniform series; and there is (2) the theory of mutation
or saltation, which supposes that new species appear suddenly. An
American professor of palaeontology is quoted as reconciling these
two supposedly conflicting views by still another hypothesis, which
supposes that evolution is on the whole continuous, but with occasional
jumps and divergences.

Then there is the controversy as to whether changes are produced by
the influence of external environment or whether they occur within the
germ; or whether, again, both these influences co-operate.

The confusion is due mainly to two causes: the attempt to define the
operations of nature within too narrow limits; and the attempt to form
an idea of evolution by considering its visible products only, and
apart from the invisible something which is manifesting itself in those
products. Our thought should reach out to wider horizons.

All growth consists in the physical manifestation of something which
previously was not physical. Take the case of a tree growing from a
seed. The tons of material composing the body of that tree have been
collected from the air and the soil. Within the seed was enshrined
_something_ (which afterwards passes into the tree) having the power
to perform this wonderful operation. We may say, if we like, that
the whole tree existed _in potentia_ in the seed; but unless this
expression is to remain a mere logical figure, we must attach a
concrete meaning to it. In other words, we must inquire _what_ was
that something which existed in the seed. Here we are driven right up
against the real point at issue; out of the seed comes the tree, the
tree cannot come from any other source than a seed or its equivalent
(such as a slip); hence the whole future tree must be in some way
locked up within the seed. But in what guise? Is there perhaps a
miniature tree folded up within that husk? But even so, whence that
miniature tree and why does it grow? Theorists, in spite of their
alleged practicality, are often contented with abstractions that would
not satisfy a more concrete mind; and for this reason many inquirers
will not be satisfied with the explanation that there is some "force"
or "tendency" in the seed. Theorists may deal with "tendencies," but
the Theosophist will demand something less imaginary and abstract. The
primary postulates demanded by theorists are often so comprehensive
as to amount to a begging of the main question. Give Archimedes his
standing ground and he will move the whole earth; grant Euclid his
postulates, and he will soon knock you off a few theorems; give a
biological theorist his "tendencies," and the rest is as easy as
rolling off a log. But the inquirer would like to know something about
those tendencies.

So then there is locked up in the seed, which is to become a tree,
a _tendency_. Translating this highly abstract and even theological
expression into the matter-of-fact language of Theosophy, we get this:
that the whole future physical tree has existed beforehand in some
form other than physical, and complete in everything except the purely
physical attributes. Size and dimension, mass and solidity, being
physical attributes, do not pertain to the tree in this antecedent
form. Is science prepared to say that that which has no dimensions
nor any other physical attributes does not exist? If so, then we are
reduced to the conclusion that the physical _visible_ universe is
self-creative and all-sufficient and all-inclusive--in short, that
physical matter is the prime material, the source of all intelligence,
substance, all energy, everything; in which case it is of course
useless to try to explain it, and it must be simply accepted as an
irresolvable fact. But, setting aside such an untenable proposition, if
physical matter has not produced itself, if it is _not_ the ultimate
unknowable, let us ask from what was it produced? Driven thus to the
conclusion that there are states of existence prior to physical matter,
is it out-of-the-way to suggest that the tree within the seed exists in
one of those states?

Accustomed as we are to think in terms of physical matter and of its
principal attribute--extension (or, as we wrongly call it, space)--we
cannot imagine that there can be room in the universe for anything
else. We think that matter entirely fills space; we imagine that, if a
thing is not in what we call "space," it cannot be anywhere. But space
is in reality immeasurable; it can have no dimensions, no up-and-down,
no fore-and-aft, no right-and-left. It may well be that physical
matter, so far from crowding it, does not incommode it at all--that
there is "plenty of room" still, so to say.

Another consequence of our habit of regarding physical extension as
a plenum is that when we have to allow for the existence of anything
else, we think it necessary to suppose that that something else must
be _extremely small_. Thus the tree in the seed has to be extremely
small, the atom has to be extremely small, and so on; and this simply
because we imagine that space is packed full with the physical objects.
But what logical reason is there why there should not be a world full
of trees, animals, and every other form that is become physical, all
in a pre-physical state, and yet by no means interfering with anything
in the physical world? Why, even in the familiar terms of physical
science, this view is quite reasonable; for the atoms, we are told, are
so minute in comparison with the intervals between them that they are
like planets swimming in an ocean of ether. These atoms are of course
utterly imperceptible to any of our senses; we know them only through
their groupings and motions. Now suppose there are other atoms between
them, or even different groupings of the same atoms, what would we know
about these? Their vibrations might not happen to be attuned to our
physical senses.

We have imagined, then, our tree as existing, complete in all but
physical attributes, in this world, but in a state where it is beyond
the ken of our physical senses. The microscopic germ within the seed
is the point through which the change from pre-physical to physical
is operated--a door, as it were, through which the tree has to pass,
admitting it to its new state. This point is like one of the knots
where the fabrics of these two worlds are woven together; the very
small seems in some way to be the gateway to another world.

But let us extend the idea to the case of evolution generally. So far
we have taken a tree as an instance; but, on the same analogy, all
organized physical beings will have pre-existed in this pre-physical
state. The germ, the point within the germ, is their gateway to
physical existence; but before passing through this portal, they have
already existed, complete in all but physical attributes, in another
state. To sum up the argument--we must predicate the existence of a
_type-world_, wherein exist the prototypes, the models, of all that is
to become physical; and we have already seen that it is necessary, on
other grounds, to predicate the existence of such a world.

This hypothesis will explain the riddles of evolution readily. In one
point in particular does it clear up difficulties. If organisms grow
and change in the physical state, why may they not also grow and change
in the pre-physical state? This would fully account for the so-called
"saltations" and for the "missing links." An organism, after passing
out of physical life, shedding all its physical atoms, and resuming
once more its former non-physical state, might undergo modification
while in that state and before re-entering the physical condition.
Thus, when it reappeared, it would be different, and biologists would
call it a mutation or saltation.

Palaeontology shows us that in past epochs there were on earth forms
intermediate between different forms existing on earth now. This at
least indicates that the complete chain is not necessarily all upon
the earth at one time; and this again agrees with the idea that the
earth is never at any one time fitted to support every form of life.
This being so, how can we possibly trace a chain of evolution by
reproduction? A good idea of the process of evolution can be got by
watching from one side the ascending threads of a revolving screw. They
pass up and up, one after the other, but we cannot see where they are
connected; to see that, we must take an all-round view. In a similar
way the organisms are passing around a spiral curve, of which curve but
one side comes to our view; hence we see it as a number of disconnected
elements.

The process of evolution, in fact, is not carried on entirely within
the limits of our physical vision--surely not an unreasonable
statement. It would be strange indeed, if all that we see were all
that there is. Hence biologists should expect, as a logical inference
from their own conditions of research, that the results at which they
arrive shall be incomplete; the imperfection of these results is rather
to be regarded as evidence of their truth than the contrary.

But, instead of taking the case of animals, suppose we take that of
human beings; for here we can view the matter more from the inside.
We are human beings ourselves and are conscious of our own mind. This
mind, as we know, undergoes development; it gains experience from day
to day and ends up with a very different outfit from that with which
it started. When this inner being again enters into the make-up of
physical humanity, will it be the same as before? Shall we have the
same old horoscope at our next nativity? Jupiter and Saturn forbid! But
in case any reader should cavil over the question of death and rebirth,
we can consider the matter apart from those. We are actually being
reincarnated all the time; for does not our body continually discard
old atoms and take on new ones? And does not the growing and changing
body accommodate itself to the requirements set by our mind? If not,
what do habit and exercise amount to? We can create for ourselves
a body different from the one we have now, by muscular exercise,
temperance, intemperance, and other means. So here we have a definite
example of the process of growth and evolution. Death itself is but
a major change, similar in kind, if greater in degree, to the lesser
deaths that are taking place in us every day.

The physical structure is slow in its movements and conservative in its
habits; and so in the course of a life in the physical state a misfit
is apt to result; and this is adjusted by death and rebirth. It is
reasonable to suppose--indeed it is inevitable--that the animals, in
their own smaller and slower way, learn while they live, and that the
indwelling animal monad is not forever doomed to reside in the same
kind of form, but passes very gradually on to higher forms.

The species that we see and study are the beads on the string. It is
almost like studying the different houses which a man may have built
and left standing while he himself has gone elsewhere. These would give
a clue to his mental development; but we must presuppose the existence
of the man.

The question of physical reproduction is closely involved with that
of evolution; and here again biology investigates but a few of the
factors that enter into the process. Biology gets down as far as the
microscopic germinal speck, and naturally enough has to stop there. A
fertilized ovum provides the essential conditions for the entry of a
life, but it needs other kinds of research to trace the source of that
life.

In the light of Theosophy, evolution becomes a vast and entrancing
study, for it concerns worlds and ages. Apart, however, from merely
curious interest, this study is of the greatest positive importance to
humanity, for the reason that inadequate theories are giving rise to
various movements that we believe to threaten great harm, should all
their ideas be carried out. A king who should ruthlessly slaughter all
those among his subjects who did not happen to suit his ideals of what
a subject should be, would justly be considered a cruel and stupid
tyrant; yet there are proposed methods of eliminating the "unfit,"
which, though clothed in ambitious language, seem none the less
monstrous. Hence the need of greater knowledge to prevent erroneous
ideas from incarnating as monstrous acts.




THE MYSTERIES OF ROTATION: by a Student


One of the most fascinating results of the attention bestowed in the
last few years upon gyroscopic effects, has been the almost final
perfection of the gyrostat-compass, and the _Scientific American
Supplement_ contains an excellent account of it, together with one of
the clearest popular explanations of its action which we have seen. The
tests of the Anschütz instrument as improved by Sperry, were carried
out last April for five days on a steamer plying between New York and
a port in Virginia. Although the vessel rolled in heavy seas, it was
found that the compass kept practically absolutely on the meridian
during the whole period. The electric motor runs at 6000 revolutions
per minute, and the instrument is in the steering-engine room,
connected electrically with a repeating compass on the bridge. It is
stated that at all ordinary latitudes this compass has a directional
force some fifteen times greater than a corresponding magnetic compass.
This, however, diminishes on approaching the poles. The interesting
feature of the gyro-compass is that its action in pointing true north
depends upon the rotation of the Earth.

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo.
and Engraving Dept. SCENE FROM "THE AROMA OF ATHENS" IN THE CENTER
IS PHARNABAZOS, THE PERSIAN ENVOY TO ATHENS, WITH HIS SUITE AND
ATTENDANTS]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. ANOTHER SCENE IN "THE AROMA OF ATHENS" CENTRAL FIGURES
ARE PERIKLES AND PHEIDIAS]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. ARCHERS IN "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. ANOTHER SCENE IN "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]




WHAT ARE THE BASES OF AN INTELLIGENT BELIEF IN REINCARNATION? by F. S.
Darrow, A. M., Ph. D. (Harv.)


Reflection inevitably reveals the limitations of the actual, the
confines of the present. So narrow is the sphere within which our
daily life revolves that even the man who most prides himself on his
avoidance of philosophy is forced, perhaps unconsciously, to construct
a theory of metaphysics. How is it possible to do our daily duties
without forming a working hypothesis as to the nature of the world
within which those duties lie? Inarticulate and crude as the theory
may be, each and every man is forced to adopt a life-hypothesis and
by it, as best he can, to mold his actions. No specious reasoning can
free us from speculation. Therefore it is a solemn duty which we owe
to ourselves to choose intelligently our hypothesis as to life and its
meaning. This duty can be trusted neither to chance nor to tradition.
To shirk a moral responsibility incurs grave consequences.

It is necessary that our life-hypothesis shall fulfil two conditions:
it must be thinkable and it must be livable. Life leads to thought
about life; but our judgment must concern itself with life. Therefore
what we believe must be both logical and practical. Logical because
fact makes the appeal to logic, and practical because logic must answer
fact. Our life-hypothesis, since its subject-matter is the Self and the
World in which the Self lives, must be both universal and particular.

In answering the query, What are the bases of an intelligent belief
in Reincarnation? we are primarily concerned with the Self. Without
considering the nature of the Self in detail, let me postulate that by
the Self I mean the Real You and the Real I, the Individual Life, which
expresses itself through your physical nature and through mine, the
Individuality at the basis of the Personality, the Character underlying
the physical man.

The conception of reincarnation or rebirth of soul, I grant, is
speculative, since it ranges far beyond the cramped present. So, if it
is to become part of our life-hypothesis it must be both logical and
practically imperative. If logic and practical requirements combine
in their demands, then we must conclude that reincarnation has been
demonstrated to be true in so far as any hypothesis can be. The most
probable is and must be accepted actually as the true.

Many circumstances suggest that the Self existed previously to its
birth in the present body. Poetry voices the thought as follows:

  Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
  The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
        Hath had elsewhere its setting,
        And cometh from afar.

Children frequently instinctively believe that they have lived before.
The poets do not monopolize those tantalizingly vague sensations of
familiarity, which sometimes accompany strange and apparently novel
experiences.

  Sometimes a breath floats by me,
      An odor from Dreamland sent,
  Which makes the ghost seem nigh me
      Of a something that came and went
  Of a life lived somewhere, I know not
      In what diviner sphere:
  Of mem'ries that come not and go not:
      Like music once heard by an ear
  That cannot forget or reclaim it--
      A something so shy, it would shame it
          To make it a show:
  A something too vague, could I name it
          For others to know:
  As though I had lived it and dreamed it,
  As though I had acted and schemed it
          Long ago.

Whittier voices the impression of many when he says:

  A presence strange at once and known
  Walked with me as my guide:
  The skirts of some forgotten life
  Trailed noiseless at my side.

So, too, the recurrence of the seasons, the ebb and flow and re-ebb of
the tides, the cycles of day and night, the phenomenon of genius, and
countless other things, suggest that the old is continually reborn. Yet
classing all these together they amount merely to presumptive evidence,
hints at possibilities, but not proof.

We are born with a sense of Justice, a sense which extends at least as
far as our private rights. Further, justice is so valued that we regard
Deity as perfectly just. The kernel of justice is: "As a man sows so
shall he reap." The effect must be equal to the cause. To talk of the
justice of a god who creates Souls is to babble nonsense. Personal
responsibility is an indispensable requirement for the maintenance of
justice, and personal responsibility can exist only if souls are the
creators of their own destinies. Otherwise "Justice" is a mockery and
a delusion. Therefore, if we are to believe that the Universe is ruled
justly, eternal pre-existence of soul must be a fact.

  The books say well, my brothers, each man's life
    The outcome of his former living is:
  The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes,
    The bygone right breeds bliss.
    So is a man's fate born.

_Ex nihilo nihil fit_--from nothing nothing is made. Nineteenth century
science has succeeded in proving what the world's thinkers have long
believed. Matter and energy are indestructible. "Creation" in the sense
of manufacture out of nothing is unthinkable. If the soul is one with
the Universal Energy, "it is not a thing of which a man may say, 'It
hath been, it is about to be, or is to be hereafter,' for it is without
birth and meeteth not death." "Nature is nothing less than the ladder
of resurrection, which step by step leads upward." The eternal Soul,
now linked to a mortal body, has lived before and will live hereafter.

The last and most important of the logical imperatives demanding a
belief in reincarnation is the thesis: Immortality of soul demands
complete eternity of soul. That which has a beginning, of necessity
has an end. The child is born, grows into youth and manhood, lives its
life, but it dies. Death's fingers clutch at birth. That which is born
is mortal. Thus the soul must be birthless if it is to be deathless. It
must have lived before its present body and it will outlive any body
which it may hereafter enliven. Reincarnation is merely the natural
corollary to eternity.

Let us now turn to the practical considerations reinforcing our
belief. Even when discouraged we feel that life has a purpose and a
meaning. This is, to keep adding to experience and to knowledge. The
amount actually experienced and learned within the limits of a single
life is so small in comparison with the possibilities of experience
and knowledge that it can only serve as an introduction into deeper
mysteries. The scholar does not graduate until he has fulfilled the
requirements of a definite standard. The knowledge and experience of
one life is surely too low a standard to admit of graduation from
earth. Our globe is a school and the souls are the scholars. What is
once gained is never lost. "Be ye perfect even as your Father who is
in heaven is perfect." Think of the hope! An infinite future with the
possibility of an infinite progress in knowledge and attainment!

Ambition, zeal, and love, demand an infinity to express themselves.
Love of work, love of learning, love of loved ones, presuppose by their
existence the complete eternity of the Soul. So, too, all our impulses
which tend toward expansion and increase, all those which break loose
from the present into the expanse of the future, require that the soul
be immortal and consequently eternal.

Notice, aside from logic, what a belief in rebirth and in the eternity
of the Soul, means. It gives hope in the perfectibility of man,
inspiration in his divinity, and comfort in the trials of life, trials
that are just and capable of teaching greater knowledge. There is no
inspiration which in the future cannot be attained by honest effort.
These are a few of the blessings which the philosophy of Theosophy has
to offer to you and to me, a philosophy of soul-evolution that is an
ever-present help in trouble, one that is both logical and practical, a
"religious science, and a scientific religion." Search within yourself
and listen to the message of Theosophy: Truth

        takes no rise
  From outward things, whate'er you may believe;
  There is an inmost center in us all,
  Where truth abides in fulness.




THE VICTORY OF THE DIVINE IN MAN: by Rev. S. J. Neill


Nothing moves on with even flow. It seems to be inherent in the very
nature of the universe that there should be ripples in the great
Life-Current of Existence, just as there are waves in the sea. A
well-known scientist once asked me if I had ever noticed how a stream
of water, perfectly smooth, apparently flowing over a sheet of quite
smooth glass would nevertheless produce ripples. There is no known
explanation of this except it be that the water at its source had
received unequal impulse which it never lost. So in the universe, the
great impulse of the Creative Word in manifestation stamps cyclic law
on all things. We see this in the coming and going of the seasons; in
the recurrence of day and night; in the ebb and flow of the sea. Human
life too, is made up of cycles great and small. The seven ages of human
life, mentioned by Shakespeare, are distinctly marked. The four ages
corresponding to the changing seasons of the year, are also well known.

The wise note and take advantage of cyclic law. To educate during the
time of youth is like sowing seed in the springtime. Many people have
distinct moods at certain times: at one time they are happy, hopeful,
buoyant; at another time they are miserable and despondent. No doubt
much of this moodiness is the result of people allowing themselves to
drift. We can, if we _will strongly enough_, rise above this condition
of things. We can cast out the morose, sullen, discontented states of
mind, and make the character firm and strong, calm and hopeful. We can
cultivate a good temper and a sunny atmosphere. Just as man can make a
clearing in the forest or on the hillside, so we can make a clearance
within our minds and in our mental atmosphere. And the happy feeling
thus produced will be part of the harvest we shall reap, for it will
return and return, it will become cyclic, until at last it will be most
truly natural for us to dwell in light and sunshine. And we ourselves
shall be producers of light and sunshine. Joy and peace will attend our
steps, and wherever we come it will be a sunny place.

We can do this; we can rise above circumstances and control them
because at the center of our being the Light of Life ever shines forth.
Dwelling in Time, and therefore to some extent subject to heat and
cold, summer and winter, joy and sorrow, we can, nevertheless, rise
above these things. We can create surroundings for ourselves. The more
we are truly alive the more we shall be able to do this. It may be
that the birds by some act of will, to them as simple as breathing,
can change their polarity and thus remain poised in air without a
motion. It should be possible, and it is possible, for us to change
our moral or spiritual polarity when we will, and rise above all
terrestrial attractions. All holy scriptures regard this as certain.
The _Bhagavad-Gîtâ_ on nearly every page speaks of man overcoming his
lower nature and being master of circumstances. The Bible teaches the
same thing: "Cease to do evil; learn to do well." "Resist the Devil and
he will flee from you." "Overcome evil with good." "Do good hoping for
nothing again." Jesus treats his disciples as men who have within them
a divine possibility, and says: "Where I am, there shall ye be also."

There is much darkness in the world, much evil; but we can lessen it;
we can to some extent remove it and annihilate it; and in the end we
can, if we so will, produce the reign of light everywhere.

As the moral sense in us is more and more sensitive we shall regard
many things as wrong which now we do not so regard. Just as we now
regard many things as wrong which people in a less advanced stage do
not regard as evil at all. The brighter the light, the deeper the
shadows. In this sense Light and Dark are the world's Eternal ways. But
a time will come when, as St. Paul says, "Mortality will be swallowed
up of Life"; when the Great Light will shine so fully within us and
around us that there will be nothing to cast a shadow.

Is this not some of the meaning of such places as that in the book of
Revelation, where it says, "and there shall be no night there; and they
need no lamp, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them
light"? Or as we read in the _Gitâ_, "neither the sun nor the moon nor
the fire enlighteneth that place; from it there is no return; it is my
supreme abode." It is also written that "the path of the just is as a
shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

Surely all this means, if words mean anything, that perfection can be
and will be reached; and that even here a large degree of perfection
may be attained. "Each victory will help us some other to win." Each
step we mount upward over our lower selves gives us a wider horizon and
a heavenlier air to breathe. The foes we slay today, we shall never
have to fight again. We not only become stronger but we become _much
stronger relatively_ as our foes are weaker and fewer.

The more we live with perfect unselfishness then the more we come into
the "Path of the Just." But if we do good things even, looking for the
reward, we do not take the highest path. It is much to understand the
nature of these two paths, for it is written: "Knowing these two paths,
O Son of Prithâ, the man of meditation is not deluded." Or, in other
words, though we dwell in Time, and our lower nature belongs to it, yet
in our inmost and only true Self, we belong, not to Time, but to the
Eternal; that is our Home and Place of Peace always.

The man who retires often to this fortress, to this place of peace,
though he may have to pass through much suffering, will be raised above
its destroying influence. Like the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace
he will pass through the fire of affliction and not a hair will be
singed nor even the smell of fire be on his garments.

We are assured that Nirvâna is on both sides of death. We can take the
highest path now, and the sooner we take it the sooner shall we reach
the goal. So bright a hope should give us greater strength.

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 ASPASIA]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. ATHENIAN SOLDIERS]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. "HEKTOR CHIDING PARIS" TABLEAU PRESENTED IN "THE AROMA
OF ATHENS"]

[Illustration: Copyright by Katherine Tingley, 1911 Lomaland Photo. and
Engraving Dept. "THETIS BRINGING THE ARMOR TO ACHILLES" ANOTHER TABLEAU
IN "THE AROMA OF ATHENS"]




ANCIENT AMERICA: by an Archaeologist


Like an oasis in a desert, like a moment of silence and a sound of
distant bells amid a din of discordant sounds, comes a brief note on
prehistoric America in the midst of a monthly review devoted to a
résumé of the Babel of modern thought. Bewildered with foolish spite of
party politics, disgusted with lucubrations on "The Coming Christ," and
a new Elixir of Life discovered in Africa, the reader achieves a moment
of silence and inward joy inspired by this paragraph on an ancient City
of the Sun, with its illustrations of the sublime architecture and
sculpture of that epoch. These pictures inspire a reverence, similar in
nature, if different in quality, to that which the ancient classical
architecture and statues inspire; it is more akin to that inspired by
ancient Egypt. It speaks of a _spirit_, so different from any that
pervades our modern life, yet arousing in the soul a response as of
something familiar--familiar but very deep and ancient.

We read that in the _Bulletin of the Pan-American Union_ a writer
describes Chichén Itzá. The Itzás were a tribe of the Mayas, whose
civilization reached a height equaled by no other people of the Western
hemisphere. They excelled in architecture, sculpture, printing, and
astronomy. The pyramid on which the temple stands is 195 feet long on
each side at the base and covers nearly an acre. It is made of nine
terraces of faced masonry. Up the center of each of its four sides
rises a stairway thirty-seven feet wide. A picture of a temple façade,
in rectangular massive style like that of Egypt and covered with
elaborate symbolic carving, while up from the roof rise tropical plants
that have grown there, is labeled, "View of an Ancient Monastery"
(so-called). The impression it gives is anything but that given by the
idea of a monastery. Its spirit is alien to that of any spirit familiar
to the times in which monasteries have prevailed.

It is awe-inspiring to think that this continent of America has behind
it such a past, more ancient than Egypt, as great and perhaps greater.
The Red Men must, many of them at least, be the remote descendants of
this past.

There is something about their physiognomy that reminds us of the faces
on the ancient pottery and carving; a broad-featured bronzed type--what
one might call a solar type. Peoples like the Zuñis and Moquis have
mysteries, into which but few white men have even partially penetrated;
which shows they are the remnants of a once greater race, a part of
whose knowledge they preserve in memory.

This subject of ancient America has not yet received from
archaeologists the attention it deserves. Nevertheless there are
explorers who study in this field, and the results of their researches
are frequently written up for the Sunday editions. In this way the
public gets acquainted with the subject independently of academical
instruction. Such periodicals as the _National Geographical Magazine_
and _Records of the Past_ often give beautiful illustrated accounts of
the ruins.

Thus we read that Dr. Max Uhle, director of the University of
California's archaeological work in Peru, has discovered that a great
civilization flourished at least 2000 years before the Incas, and that
a highly cultured race was in existence in Peru before the Trojan war.

In Guerrero, Mexico, in a region south of the Balsas River, over
an area of fifty square miles, there are remains of thousands of
prehistoric dwellings and scores of pyramids. The sculptured tablets
bear the usual mystic geometrical symbols of the ancient Science of
Life.

A mining engineer, Mr. A. Lafave, is reported to have discovered
in Arizona a prehistoric city older than Babylon or Nineveh, but
nevertheless the center of a civilization very highly advanced. Great
architectural skill is shown, and the symbol of what is called a
sun-god was found.

The British Museum recently acquired the collection of pottery and
other relics discovered by Mr. Hubert Myring in the Chimcana Valley of
Peru and stated by him to be at the lowest estimate 7000 years old.
Yet this pottery shows the highest possible degree of skill, while the
subjects represented prove that the artists had the materials of a
highly cultured and complex civilization to draw upon.

In Ecuador Dr. Marshall H. Saville of Columbia University discovered
many tombs, and the objects collected show that the district was
densely populated by a highly civilized people.

Writing from New Orleans, May 13, Charles F. Lummis of Los Angeles
records his excavations at Quiriguá, Guatemala. A trackless jungle had
to be cleared, and numerous monuments of heroic size were found; one
was twenty-six feet above ground and sixteen feet below and weighed
about 140,000 pounds. The greatest discovery was a palace which must
have been magnificent. It was surrounded by columns and the frieze was
covered with carved heads.

The ruined temples of Palenque, Uxmal, Chichén Itzá, etc., have often
been described. The mysterious hieroglyphics of the Mayas have yet to
be deciphered; and when they are we shall have another epoch-making
revelation like that following the deciphering of the Egyptian
hieroglyphics by Champollion.

Dr. Heath, a writer on Peruvian Antiquities, gives an account of the
incredible size and quantity of the ruins, from which the following is
selected. (See _Kansas City Review of Science and Industry_, Nov. 1878)

 The coast of Peru extends from Tumbez to the river Loa, a distance
 of 1233 miles. Scattered over this whole extent there are thousands
 of ruins ... while nearly every hill and spire of the mountains
 have upon them or about them some relic of the past; and in every
 ravine, from the coast to the central plateau, there are ruins of
 walls, cities, fortresses, burial vaults, and miles and miles of
 terraces and water-courses.... Of granite, porphyritic lime and
 silicated sandstone, these massive colossal cyclopean structures have
 resisted the disintegration of time, geological transformations,
 earthquakes, and the sacrilegious destructive hand of the warrior and
 treasure-seeker. The masonry composing these walls, temples, houses,
 towers, fortresses, or sepulchres, is uncemented, held in place by the
 incline of the walls from the perpendicular, and by the adaptation
 of each stone to the place designed for it, the stones having from
 six to many sides, each dressed and smoothed to fit another or others
 with such exactness that the blade of a small penknife cannot be
 inserted in any of the seams thus formed.... These stones ... vary
 from one-half cubic foot to 1500 cubic feet of solid contents, and if
 in the many many millions of stones you could find one that would fit
 in the place of another, it would be purely accidental.

Speaking of the terraces, he says:

 Estimating five hundred ravines in the 1200 miles of Peru, and ten
 miles of terraces of fifty tiers to each ravine, which would only be
 five miles of twenty-five tiers to each side, we have 250,000 miles of
 stone wall, averaging three to four feet high--enough to encircle this
 globe ten times.

The mention of hieroglyphs yet undeciphered, which may any day prove
the key to a new revelation of history, receives apposite illustration
in an article in the _Los Angeles Times_ (Sunday magazine edition) for
May 14. This describes the discovery of several cylinders, resembling
the clay cylinders of Babylonian civilization, which have been
deciphered; and it is thought that these may prove the Rosetta stone of
American Egypt. They are about three inches long by an inch and a half
in diameter, hollow, the walls a quarter of an inch thick. The clay
has turned to stone, thus being preserved, and the inscriptions repeat
hieroglyphs known to correspond to familiar phrases.

The account in which this occurs is that of a discovery made by Prof.
William Niven, a field archaeologist of Mexico City; and his statements
as to the age and value of his finds are confirmed by Dr. Edward E.
Seler, head of the National School of Archaeology of the Republic of
Mexico. The latter authority declares the ruins and relics to be the
evidences of a civilization new to archaeology, though bearing some
resemblance to the ruins of the Tigris and Euphrates. This center of
civilization lies about forty minutes' ride from Mexico City, under the
suburb of Azcapotzalco.

It is eighteen feet beneath the surface, and from it have been produced
pottery of a type different from any hitherto found in Mexico, an
entire goldsmith's outfit with patterns and molds for the making of
ornaments of gold and silver, pendants and rings and beads of jade,
copper knives _which cut like steel_, skulls containing teeth whose
cavities are filled with cement and turquoise, the cylinders just
mentioned, and many other objects.

These things were found in an immense basin containing the ruins of
a city some ten miles long by three or four wide. Its houses were of
laid stone, cemented with a white cement, unlike the black cement of
Mitla or the gray composition of Palenque. The rooms were of uniform
height--nine feet; the floors of tile--or, rather, of small squares of
cement, colored and traced in beautiful patterns; the walls ornamented
with frescoes and friezes showing a remarkable development of the color
art. _Paints used on these buildings, though evidently of vegetable
composition and more than 3000 years old, are fresh and do not fade
when exposed to light._

The skulls and arrowheads found in the soil above are similar to those
found in other parts, and relate to peoples having no connexion with
the occupants of this ancient city. Does not this prove that so-called
"primitive man" was merely odd tribes of lowly nomads or settlers,
belonging to fallen remnants of earlier civilizations; whereas many
anthropologists seem to try to make out that they represent an earlier
stage in evolution? This ancient city flourished long before the
owners of the skulls and arrow-heads. All through the period of Aztec
civilization it lay buried and unsuspected by the Aztecs.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PYRAMID, AND
BUILDING COMMONLY CALLED "THE CASTLE"--CHICHÉN ITZÁ, YUCATAN
(Photograph by A. P. Maudslay)]

[Illustration: ANOTHER VIEW OF CHICHÉN ITZÁ THE SO-CALLED "TEMPLE OF
THE TIGERS," AND "THE CASTLE"]

[Illustration: PORTION OF THE EASTERN FAÇADE OF THE SO-CALLED
"GOVERNOR'S HOUSE," UXMAL, YUCATAN]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PANORAMIC VIEW OF
SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACÁN, TAKEN FROM THE NORTH (Sketched by W. H. Holmes)
A. Pyramid of the Moon. B. Pyramid of the Sun. C. The Path of the Dead.
FF. San Juan River. G. Town of San Juan.]

The great age of this civilization is amply proved by the fact that the
city was buried under the wash of a great river that came down from the
mountains. Geological considerations enable us to fix the date of that
river back beyond other changes that have taken place in the ground
since. Hence the city must be older still. And even before this
flood the city was probably already abandoned--through pestilence, war,
or some such cause. It was quite by accident that it was found; the
exploring party chanced to step into a cave-in. It lies beneath the
thick and long-cultivated residual soil, and consequently there may be
an indefinite number of such cities almost anywhere.

Among objects found was _a dental cast of a human mouth_.

The more we discover, the more do we confirm the teaching that
civilization is not of recent growth. The older the civilization,
the more advanced--this seems to be the rule everywhere. Clearly the
arts of modern civilization have been known before and we are but
rediscoverers of them.

We might go on quoting indefinitely, but must pass on to comment. It
is very clear that these mighty builders, whose achievements have
never since been equaled or even approached by any race in any part
of the world were no barbarians or "primitive men." And we have to
remember that it is not only from America that such archaeological
accounts come, but from Asia, Africa, Europe, New Zealand--practically
everywhere. And always one tale is the same--that of ancient
civilizations and their prowess. Only recently the discoveries in Crete
have altered all our views of Greek history by showing the existence of
a great and widespread civilization in the Aegean, far preceding that
of Greece.

And side by side with all this we find the extraordinary fact that
many anthropologists are still deeply engaged in their attempts to
establish a gradual ascent of man from ape ancestors. Ignoring these
evidences, they are diligently seeking and collecting the bones of
unburied wanderers. But even these bones do not bear out the theory,
for the older bones are no more ape-like than the later ones. Men exist
on earth today, even among civilized peoples, as backward in type as
these bones. What is quite certain is that man degenerates as well as
evolves. Culture moves in waves, having ebbs and flows. The so-called
aboriginal peoples are the remote and degenerated descendants of
civilizations.

But what is the real import of these discoveries? Are they mere
subjects of curiosity and wonder? No; the interest lies in what they
imply. For if there is to be any coherence in our views, we must make
the rest of our ideas agree with our enlarged view of past history. And
the conventional views of man and his life do not thus agree; they are
too insignificant, and out of tune with increasing knowledge.




THE PARABLE OF THE CRUCIFIXION:

by Cranstone Woodhead


For nearly two thousand years the story of the Crucifixion which we
find in the four Gospels of the New Testament has appealed in various
ways to the deepest and most sacred feelings of the human heart. Yet it
may possibly be questioned whether its history and deeper meaning have
been entirely comprehended by more than a very small fraction of those
who have fashioned the framework of their lives and aspirations upon
the tragic story.

Before attempting the explanation which modern enlightenment and
research have thrown upon this deeper meaning, it may be useful to
consider what we really know of the origin of the gospels themselves;
for the investigations of the last half century or so, have thrown much
light upon this question.

It is now the opinion of most well-informed biblical critics, that the
gospels, as we now know them, did not exist until about two centuries
after the beginning of the Christian era. They are merely different
editions of the manuscripts containing the sayings and teachings of the
Nazarene initiate, which were handed round and copied by his disciples
after his death, with additions and interpolations added by later
writers.

It would not be profitable, nor have we time within the compass of this
paper, to sketch even in outlines, the almost endless arguments which
have been educed in the elucidation of the questions involved. Only a
vast library could contain all the books which have been written upon
the history of the gospels. Nearly all of them were written in days
when the psychological influence of the ecclesiasticism of the middle
ages still enthralled the judgment of even the most learned. But as
time passes on, and the vast literary and archaeological treasures
of the Eastern home of the gospels become more widely known, several
points stand out more and more clearly from the haze of controversy and
dogmatic prejudice.

For instance, it is now well known that the gospel of Matthew is but a
later and much-changed edition in Greek, of the original gospel of the
Hebrews (a work constantly referred to by early Christian writers),
which is now almost entirely lost, only a few fragments remaining.
But none of the numerous references to it lead us to suppose that it
contained anything more than a collection of the logia or especial
"sayings" of the Master whom they revered and followed.

The gospel of Luke, on the other hand, was originally the gospel used
by Marcion the Gnostic, derived from similar sources; and this gospel
also suffered the same kind of mutilation and addition at the hands of
the patristic fathers.

The early Christian writers of the first two centuries, such as Papias
and his contemporaries, do not appear to have been aware of the
existence of the gospels which have come down to us in the present
canon of the New Testament. Their quotations from what they call the
"scriptures," are almost entirely from the books of the Old Testament.
And when they quote the sayings of their Nazarene Master, they do it
in such a way as to show that they reverenced them as ethical precepts
to be followed, each man for himself, as counsels of perfection. Then
the words used in these quotations vary considerably from those of our
present gospels, and some of the quotations most often used, are not
to be found in any of the four. They are evidently not drawn from that
source. Nor is there any word or sign in these early Christian writers
that they regarded their Teacher other than as a great philosopher.
We find no reference whatever to the Man-God whom later dogmatism
represented as a sacrifice for the sins of Humanity.

It is therefore evident that before these earlier books were
incorporated into our present gospels, a mystical story was superadded
containing an account of his supposed death upon the cross. This story
was perfectly well understood by its writers to have an entirely
different meaning to that which has been given to it in later
centuries. It was a superb piece of poetic imagery derived partly from
the traditions of the ancient Mysteries, then just fading away into
oblivion, and partly from the teaching of the apostle Thomas, who, on
his return from India, had brought home the mystical parable of the
deified Krishna.[4]

[4] _Isis Unveiled_, Vol. II, p. 539.

The contemporary history of the Christian era has been so beclouded by
the benumbing effect of misconceptions that it is exceedingly difficult
to bring into play a dispassionate judgment of such data as are left to
us. But there is no doubt that the gospels cannot be trusted as regards
historical detail. The more reliable accounts show, however, that Jesus
was condemned to death by the Jewish Sanhedrim after he had wandered
about in Judaea for many years as a teacher. One definite tradition
says that when about sixty years of age, he was stoned to death, and
his body was hung upon a tree.

Had it not been for the mad fanaticism which in the early centuries,
time and again, destroyed so much of the priceless literature of the
past, all this would doubtless be widely known. All we can do now,
therefore, is to rise above the shadows which have obscured our vision
for so many centuries, and in reading for ourselves the true story
of the crucifixion, find therein a message which is of the deepest
importance for man's real salvation. For the crucifixion is a parable
and simile of the supreme mystery of evolution, the goal towards
which every human soul is progressing in the course of its spiritual
development.

The student who has realized the teachings of Theosophy that man is a
divine soul inhabiting a material body, on a dual line of evolution for
the perfection of both, knows well the opposing nature of the forces
continually at work within his inner consciousness. He knows that in
his real Self, he is not the body in which he finds himself; and that
the task before him is the conquest and mastery of the lower animal
nature by the aid of the God within him, which is, indeed, that real
Self, when he can so realize the fact so as to assume his own potential
godhood.

Such has been the teaching of the Wisdom-Religion of Humanity for
countless ages, and such has been the doctrine of all the divine
Teachers whose wisdom has come down to us in the sacred books of the
world. Of these Teachers and Sages, Jesus was one of the illustrious.

Those who have studied the religions of ancient times, the myths
and allegories of all nations, especially in the poetic East from
whence all historical religions have sprung, have found that there
are countless records of men who have so far advanced on the line of
interior enlightenment and evolution, that they have solved the supreme
mystery of their own inner godhood, and have thenceforward devoted
themselves to the help and enlightenment of souls less advanced in the
scale of spiritual progress. There have been such men in all ages of
the world, men who have accomplished the union with their own Higher
Selves, and such men there are today, although little known to the
world at large.

The contest which thus takes place within the human heart, has been
symbolized in the imagery of every ancient civilization. The conquest
of the dragon by St. Michael, of the python by Apollo, and the labors
of Hercules to cleanse the Augean stable, are examples of these ancient
allegories. Life after life, again and again, we slowly evolve towards
the great goal. And though the end may be far away, for the great mass
of humanity, yet there are ages in advance of us, as there have been
ages in the past, and the Law must be fulfilled.

Thus the provision of the divine law of evolution is, that all have the
potentiality of godhood. Yet some are in advance of the rest. There
are gradations. Still, the unity of the one divinity in its countless
aspects is preserved by the law of love and helpfulness to one another.
Each man becomes his brother's keeper, and the more he realizes this,
the nearer he is to his own divinity.

It is now well known that the symbolism of the crucifixion is many
thousands of years older than the days of Jesus. It was created by some
of the divine sages of prehistoric times to represent a great ideal,
and to serve as a permanent metaphor for a great event which must come
sooner or later in the history of every seeker for divine truth. This
has been expressed by a modern writer as follows.

 To put on armor and go forth to war, taking the chances of death
 in the hurry of the fight is an easy thing; to stand still amid
 the jangle of the world, to preserve stillness amid the turmoil of
 the body, to hold silence amid the thousand cries of the senses
 and desires, and then, stripped of all armor and without hurry or
 excitement, take the deadly serpent of self and kill it, is no easy
 thing. Yet that is what has to be done.

It will be evident that in these days, comparatively few attain the
great enlightenment which follows this supreme victory. Yet, on our way
thither, and in the experiences which follow the repeated conquests
which must precede it, we may realize, that the voice of conscience,
_when obeyed_, will gradually grow into intuition, and that intuition
in its final victory becomes enlightenment. Thus self-denial, which is
only another name for self-conquest, is transmuted from a dismal task
into a joyful duty performed as a sacrifice to the God within.

Thus we see that the symbolism of the crucifixion is that of the
conquest of the lower passional material self. Fixed upon the cross of
matter the body is pierced by the spear of the spiritual will, and the
soul is freed from the tyranny of the lower human self. Thenceforth,
whether in or out of a body, it lives not for self but for humanity.

Such was the well-understood symbolism of the crucifixion in ancient
times. It was the supreme ceremonial enacted in the divine Mysteries
of Ancient Egypt, India, and Greece. And the reason why we do not
now hear more about it, is that in recent centuries, these ancient
teachings have been forgotten in the rush and strain of nations armed
to the teeth, and in the allurements of material prosperity.

In the ignorance and darkness which followed the death of the ancient
Mysteries, the beautiful ancient symbolism of the Crucifixion was soon
forgotten. It was very early degraded into a materialistic dogma which
has come down to our own times. The earliest Christians knew nothing of
the crucifixion as _now_ taught in the churches. It is entirely absent
from their writings. All they had were manuscripts containing the words
of their Master, and it was not till long afterwards that this poetic
symbol was added to the early versions.

Of the esoteric teachings of Jesus, one version alone has come down
to later times, the _Pistis-Sophia_, of the Gnostics; and it is to be
noted that therein, the teachings of Jesus are distinctly stated to
have been given for years _after his crucifixion_, implying thereby his
initiation into the mysteries of his own divinity.




IS LIGHT CORPUSCULAR? by T. Henry


The latest scientific contribution to the reinstated corpuscular
theory of light has been made by Professor Bragg, of Leeds University,
England, who in a recent lecture at the Royal Institution announced his
conclusion that the _x_-rays are corpuscular. He said, as reported,
that the alpha and beta rays are considered to be electrons, while the
gamma rays and the _x_-rays are held to be etheric vibrations. But he
thinks that all four are corpuscular, also that ultra-violet light may
be corpuscular; and from this he infers that even ordinary light may
be so. As we have frequently found occasion to point out, the nature
of either a corpuscle on the one hand or a vibration on the other has
not yet been sufficiently accurately defined to enable us to state
definitely whether anything is the one or the other of the two. Light,
and also electricity and other forces, are manifestations of _life_;
and we view their effects alternately under their positive and negative
aspects, as best suits our temporary convenience, thus forming the
ideas of energy and matter. Speaking of matter or substantiality, as
contrasted with force or energy, what distinctive attributes may we
assign to it? "Mass" or "inertia" is one of its supposed attributes;
yet there is no definite idea of what this is; often it seems to reduce
itself to a passive force or resistance. But then if we are to express
everything, even matter, in terms of force and energy, how can we
conceive a force without a substratum or vehicle? Is not the quantity
"mass" a component of the mathematical definitions of force and energy?
All this confusion comes from the attempt to define physical matter in
terms of physical matter. There are in physics certain primary notions
of space, mass, dimension, etc., correlative with our five-sense
physical consciousness. These we may either accept as axioms without
attempting to resolve them any further, or, if we do make that attempt,
we must resolve them into something other than themselves. This latter
course means that we must leave the field of physics altogether; for it
is necessary to conceive of things that are not in physical space and
have none of the attributes of physical nature. To analyse dimension,
space, etc., is a metaphysical inquiry. Yet it is surely essential if
we are to arrive at an explanation of the phenomena _antecedent_ to
physical phenomena.

Then there is the purely practical side of physical science--applied
science. The worker in this field may leave metaphysics alone perhaps;
but let him either leave it alone or not--one of the two. And above
all, let him not overstep that sphere to lay down laws for the
governance of human life; such laws being based on a knowledge that is
admittedly restricted in its scope.

To return to the point at which we started--the corpuscles of light--we
may suggest a new way of looking at such matters. We have been
accustomed to regard the minuteness of these corpuscles as a negative
quality--to say that they are deficient in size. But why not speak of
bulk as a negative quality and say that physical objects are deficient
in smallness? The less bulk a thing has the quicker it gets about,
the more active and potent it is. There seems no limit to velocity,
except the presence of objects that impede the motion of a body. Given
the absence of matter, a corpuscle can get across any distance in a
practically negligible time. Thus what we call "space" seems rather
like an _obstacle_, and when we remove the matter we seem to remove
the distance also--for practical purposes. Logically, when two things
have nothing between them they are in contact; and the corpuscles
seem to recognize this conclusion. The condition of greatest activity,
power, and omnipresence, is that a thing shall have as little size as
possible; size is a weakness. What we call space and dimension is a
delusion correlative with our physical consciousness. It is a reality
relatively to that consciousness, but a delusion relatively to those
deeper strata of consciousness which we penetrate when we try to
analyse our ideas.

We have arrived at the conception of light as a very refined,
omnipresent, and active form of matter. We might as well call it a
spirit; those who did so meant the same thing. At any rate it is a
reality. When we call it a vibration in the ether, we reduce it to an
abstraction; for a vibration is nothing in itself; nor does the device
help us, for we are obliged to suppose an ether.

The universe is full of _life_ guided by _mind_. The life is on various
planes, in various grades. These forces we are studying are its
physical manifestation.




ASTRONOMICAL LORE: by a Student


Among the exhibits in the Science Section at the Coronation Exhibition
in London, was a Chinese planisphere from the Royal Scottish Museum,
which records observations that must have been made some thousands of
years before the Christian era and handed down to the time of the maker.

Ancient Hindû astronomy is a standing puzzle to modern astronomers,
for its records have preserved from the remotest antiquity accurate
calculations of the revolution periods of the heavenly bodies, their
nodes, apsides, etc.; and the ordinary theories respecting the
evolution of human knowledge are flatly contradicted thereby. The
_Sûrya-Siddhânta_ gives the number of revolutions performed by each
planet in a period of 4,320,000 years; and the quotients obtained by
dividing the period by the number of revolutions give in each case
figures agreeing with our own to a nicety. How were these results
obtained?

Moreover there are in some of these ancient treatises calculations
that go beyond anything our astronomy has yet accepted, dealing as
they do with those larger cycles concerned with apparent displacements
of the fixed stars. The celebrated French astronomer Bailly made a
careful study of these. Despite certain limitations due to a natural
reluctance to concede superiority to an ancient Oriental people, and
confessedly poor translations, he arrived at the conclusion that this
people had attained profound knowledge in astronomy, and drew the
general inference that civilization is extremely old, and that this
earth has witnessed its rise and fall many times. Some of Bailly's
conclusions are considered at length by H. P. Blavatsky in _The Secret
Doctrine_, where they are used, together with those of other later
well-known writers, to show the consensus of evidence in support of
this branch of the teachings she outlines.

Was this knowledge obtained by observations or deductively? In both
ways, probably. We know that ancient civilizations lasted for long
ages, and we known that indelible records in stone were kept. Modern
astronomers have discovered that one object at least of Stonehenge
and similar monuments was to fix epochs depending on the precessional
movement. But there is also a strong presumption that the ancient
calculators possessed numerical keys. In this case their method
would have been partly observation and partly deduction from general
principles; a method we all apply, whether intentionally or not.

The existence of such mathematical clues--applicable to the measurement
both of time and of space--has often been suspected; and in our own
times isolated workers have labored in this field of speculation,
discovering sundry fragments. Their efforts being usually solitary,
however, and unsupported (when not actually opposed) by the generality
of workers, have not achieved recognized success. Some of such
speculations are considered in _The Secret Doctrine_, where it is shown
that not infrequently these so-called "cranks" arrived at results
commensurate with what we learn about the ancient science from other
sources. Among these isolated workers may be mentioned Ralston Skinner
and even Piazzi Smyth in connexion with the measurements of the Great
Pyramid and certain integral approximations to the ratio π.

Doubtless mankind in bygone times, having brains and other faculties,
as we have, but having studied for far longer periods than our
civilization has yet had time to study, reached results which for us
are still in prospect. It is conceivable too that their faculties
may have been superior to ours in some respects--less materialistic,
perhaps; and they may have been more united among themselves. Ancient
astronomy is certainly a hard nut to crack for conventionalists.




THE MYSTERY OF THE MOLARS: by Medicus


The hero of Artemus Ward's story languished for twenty-seven long and
weary years in jail. At last a happy thought struck him--he raised the
window and got out.

The evolution of teeth in mammalia presents a problem which calls for
an analogous feat of inventive genius. As the problem is representative
of many others it is worth consideration. The study of these teeth is a
specialty of Professor Henry F. Osborn's, and though to the layman this
may seem a very small matter it is really big enough to concern not
only science but philosophy.

Anyone who will look into the glass at his back teeth, the molars or
grinders, will perceive that their tops are not flat but raised into
little promontories, tubercles, or "cusps." An eye-tooth, on the other
hand, is a single sharp peg or fang.

Were the molars, then, far back in evolution, made by fusing together
two or three original peg-shaped teeth, each component being now
represented by a cusp? Or were they always single, each growing its own
several cusps for grinding purposes?

Professor Osborn has shown that the latter was the case.

We used the words "for grinding purposes." That was raising the window.
It has been raised before. Once in a long while a biologist gets out.
As a rule however they will not even see it, or, seeing it, they deny
that it is a window. If these words, implying something possessed of
the purposes, conscious and capable, will not do, how came the cusps to
grow? How came the original sharp peg tooth, a _cutter_ and _piercer_,
to broaden and tuberculate its top so as to form, with its opposing
fellow in the other jaw, a pair of convenient _grinders_?

According to the Darwinian theory all sorts of small chance variations,
useful and useless, are constantly appearing among the progeny of all
species. The useful ones, conferring an advantage in the struggle for
existence, persist. The others do not. The usefulness is the cause of
the persistence. In scarce seasons an animal that had, for example,
developed opposing grinders among its teeth would be able to utilize
food not available for the mere cutters. It would tend to live--and
therefore produce offspring--while they died. The grinders being handed
on by heredity, their usefulness would in time secure the whole field
for their owners. A new and predominant species would have arisen, to
live until ousted by a stronger.

But this would only apply to variations useful from the moment of
their appearance. If at first--as they often are--so small as to be
useless, a mere tendency or suggestion, they would not persist. Having,
according to the theory, no special purposive force behind them, and
being the products of mere accident, they would quickly be diluted out
of existence.

The chance theory would therefore be able to account for the
persistence of such few variations only as were useful from their
first appearance. Are there any such variations? _According to the
theory itself, no!_ For it does not admit sudden jumps; merely fine
shadings from the common type. And these fine shadings confer no
advantage. Since, moreover, they occur only by some chance confluence
of conditions, they must depend for their force of heredity upon the
continuance of this confluence. And to account for the next, and the
next, degree in the progression, the theory must require that the
conditions become more and more effective--and so on, till the degrees
sum up to a _useful_ degree.

What a lot of wriggling to escape the conclusion that there is a
purposive force at work! Even Professor Osborn does not see it in his
studies of teeth, though he walks straight up to it. Mr. Gruenberg,
summarizing the Professor's work in _The Scientific American_ says:

 The cusps of the molar teeth do not appear "fortuitously" and then
 survive in accordance with their relative fitness, as would be
 required by the Darwinian theory, nor do they appear fully formed in a
 discontinuous manner, in the sense of De Vries' theory; they appear at
 definite points, at first too small to have any adaptive or selective
 value, and become with succeeding ages larger and larger until they
 are of adaptive value. In other words they are _determinate_ in
 their origins; they develop _gradually_; and they are _adaptive_
 in the direction of their development from the very start.... They
 arise because of some inherent tendency or potentiality to vary in a
 determinate direction. What this internal determining factor is we do
 not know.

The same problem presents itself in the origin of horns, at first and
for ages too small to be of any value.

Science has recently discovered the "subconscious," finding that it
possesses powers over the body, fashioning, healing, or deforming,
which are quite beyond the reach of the conscious mind.

Suppose that the _sub_conscious is part of the _conscious_ of nature.
Grant to nature the purposiveness which we find in the subconscious,
and the difficulties respecting the appearance of variations vanish.
Heredity is an aspect of the persistence of the purpose, a persistence
shown likewise by the relatively wide area of a species in which a
variations occurs, and by the steady progression of the variation,
despite its primary uselessness, on to the stage where first it becomes
helpful in the struggle for life.




A DUTCH HOUSE COURT BY PIETER DE HOOCH


Practically nothing is known of the life of Pieter de Hooch, but the
fifty or sixty examples of his exquisite _genre_ painting are now
almost priceless. He was a native of Rotterdam, and it is supposed
he died in 1681 at Haarlem at the age of fifty. There are three
of his pictures in the London National Gallery, from one of which
the illustration herewith reproduced is taken. This is an out-door
subject--a rather unusual choice for the master, who preferred
interiors as a rule. He is noted for an extraordinary skill in
depicting the atmosphere of rooms lighted by various doors and windows,
and for his marvelous perfection in detail, which however, is never
obtrusive nor does it interfere with the broad effect. There is an
air of the greatest serenity in all his pictures, and the simple,
homely subjects he preferred are transfigured into classics by the
discrimination of his choice and the perfection of his mastery of
the most difficult problems of light and shade and tone values. No
reproduction can give the least idea of the delicate handling of tone
in his works. His drawing is absolutely true to nature; the perspective
of his buildings is more than photographically accurate, but it never
obtrudes itself or interferes with the general effect of repose.

De Hooch painted very few large pictures; unfortunately the only one
which came down to our time perished in a fire in 1864. He was little
appreciated in his own lifetime--indeed it was not until the eighteenth
century that he was recognized in his own country. He was a disciple
of the school of Rembrandt, but his taste did not lie in the direction
of life-size portraits or of the classical or scriptural stories which
were the greater master's favorite subjects.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A DUTCH HOUSE COURT,
BY P. DE HOOCH: B. 1630, D. 1677 (NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON)]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. POINT LOMA HILLS AT
EVENTIDE]




THE INCARNATION OF GENIUSES: by Henry Travers


Enthusiasts for "eugenics" imagine a time when vice and disease shall
have been eliminated from the race. Their critics reply by suggesting
that not only vice and disease, but also genius, would then have been
eliminated from the race, and humanity be reduced to a dead uniformity.
But the power which makes geniuses may be stronger than the eugenists,
thus preventing them from succeeding in their utopian plan. What is
genius? It is often defined as a "sport"--a natural phenomenon which
defies calculations and makes light of theories of heredity. We cannot
breed a race of geniuses.

As to the cause of the appearance of geniuses, some theorists appear
to find sufficient explanation in a _fortuitous_ combination of
parental qualities. One son in one family _happens_ to extract from
his parents all their best qualities. To other thinkers, however,
this "explanation" will seem more like a restatement of the problem
to be solved than like a solution of it. For what is fortuity? If a
scientific principle, let it be explained; if a god, perhaps we may not
be willing to worship it.

The appearance of geniuses finds easy explanation in accordance
with the teachings as to reincarnation, _karma_, and the sevenfold
constitution of man. A human being is like a seed in a soil, drawing
some of its traits from its surroundings, others from its internal
nature. A lifetime is like a day, whose deeds are determined partly
by present conditions and partly by the deeds of preceding days. In
some people the present conditions--their parentage, upbringing, and
circumstances--have the paramount influence, and their innate character
evinces but little effect. In others the innate character is strong
enough to mold and alter the other conditions considerably. In a genius
the innate character may altogether predominate over the acquired
character.

Besides our physical heredity we have a spiritual heredity--character
built up in previous existences. The usual trend of upbringing is to
smother this, to destroy originality.

Parenthetically one must introduce a caution here, to the effect
that there are certain well-meaning attempts to preserve the
originality of children, which, however, do not accomplish the right
object. The parent or guardian, while shielding the child from some
influences, lays it open to the assault of other influences. These
other influences are the passional nature of the child. This way of
preserving or stimulating originality is by no means that intended
above.

To give freedom for the child's higher nature to express itself, we
must protect the child from all influences that proceed from the lower
nature. Then we would get geniuses; innate character would be enabled
to manifest itself.

The ideas of eugenists are worthy, but, we feel sure, too narrow.
In many a satire they have been ridiculed. Owing to the prevalent
ignorance of man's nature, many disastrous mistakes would be made. What
authority is there in sight, to which we should be willing to intrust
the regulation of marriage and parentage? Great as the existing evils
are, might not the remedies be worse? Might not we indeed provide
conditions that would preclude any useful or aspiring soul from
incarnating at all?

The remedy lies in educating the people to a better understanding of
the laws of life. Till then, there will be nobody competent to devise
or apply any methods of eugenics. In short, before we can treat the
young properly we must educate the old. The work of the Universal
Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in its Râja Yoga Schools at Point
Loma gives illustrations of what can be done by the proper upbringing
of children; and here we escape from the weary desert of schemes and
theories to a fertile land of produce. Here we have a _result_; the
problem has been solved as an ancient sage solved the problem of
motion--_solvitur ambulando_. This is one of Theosophy's _practical_
answers to one of the questionings of today.




THE PLIGHT OF THE VIVISECTOR: by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.


It is very well worth while to work out on Theosophical principles the
plight of the vivisector himself. He is creating causes whose effects
will take him a long time to be done with, more than one lifetime,
effects connected with some very interesting and very little known
laws of nature. His plight may presently appear worse than that of his
animals.

By way of text we will take some non-vivisectional work recently
carried out at the biological station of the Prater in Vienna, by Paul
Kammerer. He has proved, says _Cosmos_,

 that the maintenance of the lizard _Lacerta Vivipara_ in an
 unaccustomedly warm temperature for several generations, transforms
 it from a live-young-bearing animal to an egg layer. This acquired
 property is retained even when the subsequent generations are
 returned to their normal conditions. We must remember that
 the live-young-bearing lizard ... may be characterized as an
 arctic-alpine animal. Its status as a glacial creature explains its
 live-young-bearing habit; the development of the young is evidently
 better assured in the mother's body than when the eggs are exposed to
 the vicissitudes of exterior cold.

Some other lizards, and the field cricket, have been made to vary by
similar methods, the new characteristics being likewise transmitted.

What was that intelligence which, working within the body of the
lizard, noted the warmer temperature without and knew at once that
the hatching of the eggs _within the protecting body of the mother_,
and the further development of the young there, were no longer
necessary? We do not propose to admit that we are prejudging a dispute
in using the word "intelligence." If it seem so now, it will not
in ten years. No one will suggest the intelligence of the lizard
itself. The ancients--not _very_ ancient ancients, either--believed
in the existence of certain classes of lesser "gods" constantly at
work behind the visible veil of nature. When in a few years this
belief reincarnates among the scientists as a necessary hypothesis
(a reincarnation already beginning), some new name will have to be
found for the collective intelligence of these beings. "Gods" is not
a good word, neither for them nor for their directive superiors,
the absolutely spiritual powers on the same plane of being as that
spiritual soul of man whereof he knows so little.

The "gods" then, to use that word, have charge of the centers of life,
the living beings, in all departments of nature, mineral, vegetable,
and animal; contain and work in accordance with the principle of
evolution both of form and intelligence; and guide the appearance of
variations--not without occasional mistakes needing rectification.
Kammerer unwittingly made an indirect appeal to them, and they
responded by producing an interior physiological change corresponding
with the change of exterior temperature which he maintained.

We come here upon specifically Theosophical criticisms of vivisection.
The man who vivisects has made himself the enemy of conscious
nature--at work in his own body as much as in that of the animal he
injures.

To make the matter clearer, let us think of the One Supreme
Intelligence of the universe as manifesting in two ways or directions:
in the first, as the spiritual souls of _men_, and, lower down, as
their minds; in the second, as the spiritual directive intelligences of
_nature_ and, lower down, as the lesser "gods" whom these direct. In
time, when men's minds are sufficiently spiritualized and potentized,
sufficiently at one with the omnipresent spirit of evolution and intent
upon co-operating with it, they will themselves be able to direct the
lesser gods, helping and guiding them in their work upon animal, plant,
and mineral--the power of immense prolongation of their own lives then
coming within their reach. There is already--as the abnormal success
of men like Burbank shows--_some_ interplay between man's mind and
the working "gods"; whilst the relation between man's _soul_ and the
_greater_ nature-powers, the directive, is very much closer. He who
serves and studies nature in the right way, begins at once to stand
nearer to her consciousness, and is at once the better for it on one
or more planes of his being. The partnership begins. And a first way
to serve her is to make her children, the animals, feel man as friend,
a feeling which enables their minds to come into some measure of inner
contact with his and thus be suddenly and immensely stimulated in their
evolution.

There is vivisection attended with much immediate pain connected in
the animal's mind with man as its cause; and other with little, say
a hypodermic injection, the pain following later in the form of the
disease sown by the syringe and often not connected by the animal with
man at all.

Either way the operator is a disease-producer and has the mental
attitude of one. To say that he is recognized by nature as such may
seem absurd. But as he who really wills and pictures health, whether
his own or that of some other, finally affects the nature-mind in his
own body and--other things being co-ordinate--begins to move toward it:
so likewise the constant willing and picture-making of disease and pain
at last affects the same mind but in the contrary direction. The man
moves and is moved _away_ from health.

There are states of ill-health unattended, at any rate for a long time,
by a single definite symptom. The activities of the bodily machine may
maintain their _relations_, their general balance, yet drop as a whole
to very low levels. If there is no radiance, no responsiveness to the
finer forces of nature, no vital spring, there may yet be no point of
actual friction, and to its human tenant the body may seem in average
working order.

We say then that the preoccupations of the vivisector's mind have taken
his body outside the conscious life-stream of nature, have stopped
her constructive and vitalizing work. The body is not simply a living
thing; it is an organized complex of living things, conscious centers,
life-charged monads, far finer than any of the bacteria which the
microscope has shown us or can show us. Drawn in from nature, they
dwell with us a while and then return to her somewhat as the blood
cells go to the lungs for aeration. _It is the quality of our mental
states which determines the quality of the elemental coming in_ and
determines also the intervening history of those which leave. The
circulation is constant, and if we lived ideal mental lives we could,
as already said, achieve something like physical immortality. The
monads would come back to us refreshed and recharged with electric
vitality.

Death liberates them _all_. They take their ways into the nature-stream
and are regenerated in nature's thought and life. The process continues
during all the time between death and rebirth. Whilst the man, the
soul, rests, his body (the subtler elements of it) is being refashioned
and reinvigorated for him. At his rebirth _his own_ monads, blended
with those he receives from hereditary sources, are animating the
infant form with which he connects himself and in which he will
ultimately incarnate. So far as the thought and habit of his last
life permitted--for, as said, they are absolutely sensitive to the
thought-color of their owner's mind and feeling--they have been renewed.

But there will have been little renewal possible for them if that
mind was filled with the color and thought of death, disease, pain,
was occupied with the will to _produce_ these--a will exactly
oppositely directed to that of the worthy physician. They were untuned
with nature's keynote during life and consequently return nearly
unchanged--which, in medical language, will mean a case of congenital
disease, ill-health, or deformity; and, as part of the penalty,
the reaction of the physical defects and disease upon the mind and
disposition of child and youth and man.

Nor does the penalty finish at that. The entire personality of such
a child and man is in greater or less degree repellant to others, to
children, _to animals_. The latter especially, feel him not as a friend
but as enemy. Their dislike is instinctual. And all this will continue
till in one or another life the man has been stung to the redress of
the evil he has done, has returned kindliness for hostility year by
year, has changed, freshened, and sweetened his thought and feeling and
so by degrees every atom of his body.

Truly the plight of the vivisector is a thousandfold worse than that of
the animal he worst outrages.




THE EKOI; Children of Nature: by H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)


The ideas current about ancient or ethnic peoples are largely qualified
by the "personal equation" of those who have observed and described
them. These ideas are not facts but points of view. In too many cases
the point of view is so colored by an unsympathetic attitude on the
part of the viewer as to constitute a misrepresentation--a fancy
picture, having no counterpart in reality. Thus have been described the
classical times and the non-Christian races. But times are changing.
As our civilization grows older it grows wiser, loses some of its
supercilious ignorance, and can view other times and places than its
own with more sympathy and sense. Already the histories and geographies
of our childhood seem prejudiced in our present eyes. But we cannot
boast; for there is still much to be done in the same direction.

As a notable instance of what may be achieved in the way of beauty,
charm, and uplifting of the mind, by viewing and treating a subject
sympathetically, we welcome an account of "The Land of the Ekoi,
Southern Nigeria," by P. A. Talbot, B. A., F. L. S., F. R. A. S., F.
Z. S., in _The Geographical Journal_ (London, Dec., 1910). By the
adoption of such an attitude, in place of the too frequent attitude of
superiority and condescension, error is avoided, truth learned, and
both writer and reader benefited. We give some extracts and comments,
and refer to _The Geographical Journal_ for the rest.

The Ekoi live to the north and northwest of Calabar, the headquarters
of the eastern province of Southern Nigeria, partly under British rule,
partly under German.

 The river is magical, and bold indeed would be that man who should
 break an oath sworn on its name. For somewhere in its depths dwells
 Nimm--the terrible--who is always ready, at the call of her women
 worshipers, to send up her servants, the beasts that flock down to
 drink and bathe in her stream, to destroy the farms of those who have
 offended. She manifests herself sometimes as a huge snake, sometimes
 as a crocodile.

This could have been described so as to make it a heathen superstition.
But we see it is possible to give it another color. The interdependence
of man's conduct and the powers of nature is indicated; and retribution
is shown as the logical consequence of violating natural law. Honor
and fidelity are qualities essential to man's well-being. Evil fortune
is the result of his putting himself out of tune with nature by his
conduct.

We take care about the physical needs of children, but are strangely
reckless in other and more important matters concerning them. Contrast
this with the following about the Ekoi:

 The Ekoi are devoted parents, but it will take years of patient
 teaching before they grasp the importance of fresh air and the
 simplest sanitary measures for the health of their little ones. They
 have curious beliefs as to the advent and death of their babes. One
 charming superstition [!] forbids all quarreling in a house where
 there are little children. The latter, so they say, love sweet words,
 kind looks, and gentle voices, and if these are not to be found in the
 family into which they have been reincarnated, they will close their
 eyes and forsake the earth, till a chance offers to return again amid
 less quarrelsome surroundings.

Rather a healthy superstition, is it not? One that we might adopt with
benefit, so that fewer of our children should grow up with quarrel
interwoven with every thread of their bodies, mentally, psychically,
and physically too. We wish well of the efforts to teach the Ekoi the
use of soap and toothbrushes; but only on condition that it does not
mean _unteaching_ them their own "beautiful superstition."

 The children gave a particularly charming series of games, singing all
 the while in the pretty lilting way usual among them. Nothing could
 be more graceful than the waving arms and swaying limbs of the little
 brown forms as they bent and moved, always in perfect time to their
 song. The musical faculty of this people is certainly wonderful,
 though developed along peculiar lines. During the whole period spent
 among them I have never heard a false note nor found a dancer or
 accompanist one fraction of a second out of time.

Of this, by way of contrast with us, but one thing can be said: that if
it be true, then in time and tune they are immensely our superiors; for
how few people can whistle a tune correctly, and how difficult it is to
drill people into keeping time!

 The religious observances of the Ekoi are altogether a fascinating
 study. Beneath many modern corruptions and disfigurements are yet to
 be found traces of an older, purer, form of worship, traces which
 carry us back to the oldest-known Minoan civilization, and link the
 belief of the modern Ekoi with that of the ancient Phoenician, the
 Egyptian, the Roman, and the Greek.

Trees are sacred; birds are sacred, for

 Should the birds be injured or driven away the women would become
 barren and even the cattle cease to bear.

More recognition of the inviolability of cosmic law! Call it
self-interest, if you will, it is at least a higher and worthier form
of self-interest than the kind that rips the feathers off the birds and
turns them loose to die a lingering death, or planes off the wooded
hills in order to pile up riches on high.

 The Ekoi spend their whole lives in the twilight of the beautiful
 mysterious bush, peopled, to their fancy, not by wild animals alone,
 of which they have no fear, but by were-leopards, and all kinds of
 terrible half-human shapes, and by the genii of rocks, trees, and
 rivers. Here, more truly even than in old Greece, the terror of Pan is
 everywhere!

Verily "savage" life is not without its consolations. We have dwelt on
the bright side of the picture, and purposely so, for the other side
has been too much dwelt upon; and so far from exaggerating, we are
merely tending to restore the balance of an equable view. If we regard
life as mainly the experience of a Soul, then the outward appurtenances
of civilization count for less; and a people like the Ekoi may possibly
fulfil the purposes of Soul in quite a satisfactory way. One can even
imagine a Soul, wearied with life in modern civilization, taking a
resting incarnation in such a people, to dwell with Pan in these
beautiful glades.

That the journal of the Royal Geographical Society should publish such
a sympathetic account is a noteworthy sign of the times. There seems
to be a reactionary movement by which the heathen in his darkness is
shedding a little light on our inveterate superstition.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A SEMINOLE INDIAN
(Photo. by the Albertype Co., Brooklyn, N. Y.)]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A FAMILY GROUP OF
SEMINOLE INDIANS]




AN UNKNOWN AMERICAN NATION: by H. S. Turner


But few people know that living within the precincts of this country,
there is a nation, independent and virtually free from dominance of the
United States Government, or of any of its States. Its history is a
singular one and is practically unknown. Even our school histories have
but little to say about it; so that the impression left on the minds of
casual readers is that this nation long ago ceased to exist, as a body
of people.

Far down in the southern part of the peninsula of Florida, this nation
has its center; its rulers, laws, and government. It has no written
treaties with foreign governments--for such is the United States
considered by them--yet there is an unwritten treaty accepted by both,
which to their common credit has never been broken. This treaty, or
agreement as it should be called, stipulates that each nation shall go
its own way and not interfere with the other.

The Seminole Nation is its name, and its existence, as at present
constituted, dates from the year 1842. Seven years previous to this
date, the United States Government decided that the Seminole Indians,
who belong to the family of the Muscogees, should be moved from their
fertile Florida lands and taken to those of the Creek Nation, far away
in the West. At this time the authorities concentrated our Indian wards
in a few special places.

The Seminoles bitterly resisted the efforts made to remove them. It was
only after a seven years' war that two thousand of them surrendered and
were duly sent westward.

Originally the Seminoles had been numerically strong. This hard-fought
war reduced their numbers to such a point that after those who
surrendered had been transported, but five hundred remained in Florida.
They represented, however, the strongest and most determined of their
tribe; those who preferred death to surrender.

Separating themselves from those who decided to surrender, they
penetrated to the innermost recesses of the Everglades, that
death-dealing morass, covered with reeds and jungle-growth, through
which winds a veritable labyrinth of stagnant streams, in whose mud
crocodiles and alligators disport themselves, and where snakes,
mosquitos, and other poisonous life abound. What little solid earth was
to be found was nothing but a bog-like mass of sodden ground, thickly
covered with grass and vines. Yet there and under such conditions these
were determined to look up their home. They valued their freedom above
all, and were willing to make any sacrifice and undergo any hardship
rather than lose what they valued so highly.

White men could not endure the conditions they had to meet in the
swamps, neither could they ever equal the Red man in ability to move
quickly in such a place. The little band of Indians scattered and
built their shelters on the driest spots they could find, maintaining
themselves by hunting the game that was found on every hand.

So accustomed have they become to the conditions in which they live,
that they are almost amphibious and absolutely immune to the bites of
mosquitos or other poisonous insects.

At times some of the Indians will come out of their retirement and
visit their white neighbors. Quite often many of them can be seen on
the streets of Miami, Florida, where they go to purchase what limited
supplies they may need, the money for the same being obtained by the
sale of alligator hides.

At times a few white men have been invited by them to visit their
homes in the Everglades. Those who have accepted this invitation have
always been glad to hasten their departure, on account of the ravenous
hordes of mosquitos and the familiarity of the water-snakes, and this
notwithstanding the hospitality and sincere cordiality of their hosts.

Undoubtedly it is due to the ravages of these so-called pests--to their
beneficent protection in this instance--that these Indians owe their
freedom from the usual contaminating vices of the white man. The latter
is simply unable to get close enough in touch to demoralize them. So we
find these Indians today, whose life is the same as it was before the
white man set foot upon the North American Continent.

They are free from the vice of drink, they live according to the
highest moral code, they do not gamble, and are altogether a happy and
care-free people. Let us hope they will ever remain so; that they will
never lose their natural simplicity of character and their dignified
reserve.

The typical costume of the Seminoles is as singularly different from
the one usually adopted by American Indians, as their customs and mode
of life are. The accompanying photographic reproductions show this
feature, as well as give one an idea of their strength of character.
The "American type" is clearly shown by the facial angles.




THE CONFINES OF SCIENCE: by Investigator


It is still debated whether the earth in its orbital motion drags the
adjacent part of the ether along with it, or whether the earth travels
through the ether without stirring the latter. On the one hand it is
argued that if the earth (and presumably other planets also) dragged
the ether along, complex currents would thereby be set up in the ether;
and this circumstance would upset the calculations with regard to the
aberration of light, whereas the observations of aberration do not
indicate the existence of any such currents in the ether. On the other
hand are cited certain delicate experiments of Michelsen and Morley,
connected with the measurement of vibration-rates of light, which go to
show that there is little or no relative motion between the earth and
the ether, or, in other words, that the circumjacent ether moves with
the earth. Hence we are required to make the ether stationary for some
purposes, but moveable and full of currents for other purposes; not the
first time that the ether has been required to perform inconsistent, or
apparently inconsistent, rôles.

This quandary has led some petulantly to throw the ether overboard,
alleging that "there ain't no such a thing"; while others have sought
refuge in abstruse mathematico-metaphysical speculations as to the
nature of our conceptions of space and time and the meaning of such
conceptual words as _mass_ and _velocity_.

It must be remembered that the ether so far is not an observed object
but a hypothetical something. The necessities of our reasoning
have demanded that we should, on various occasions and for various
purposes, postulate a fixed standard of reference. Thus the undulatory
theory of light has required the supposition of a medium to convey
the undulations; the kinetic theory of matter has required that we
postulate a substantial basis wherein the supposed vortices or centers
of energy can inhere. But the ether is, and _ex hypothesi_ must be,
beyond the reach of sense perception. Could we but weigh it or measure
it in any way--at once we should stand in need of another ether yet
more subtle. In a word, however far we go, there is always something
beyond.

Physical science, being admittedly a limited sphere, must of course
become indeterminate near its borders. Rules which are found to apply
with sufficient exactitude within certain limits will be found to
apply no longer when we transcend those limits. So long as we study
physical phenomena in their relation to each other, we may find those
mutual relations sufficiently exact and constant; but when we begin to
study physical phenomena in relation to _what lies beyond_, then the
uncertainty supervenes. We find it necessary to inquire into the nature
of our own perceptions and conceptions.

A phenomenon has its subjective factor as well as its objective
factor; but our physics has so far been based on the tacit assumption
that the subjective factor is fixed and constant. And it may indeed
be so regarded within certain limits. But now we propose to explore
the limits of the illimitable and the confines of eternity, regions,
whither our senses and our instruments cannot penetrate. What wonder
that we find those conceptions of time, space, and motion, which we
have derived from our sensory experience in this world, inadequate as a
means of formulating what lies beyond!

A slight acquaintance with certain ancient sciences suffices to
show that they took into account the subjective component of our
perceptions and conceptions, studying the mind and its organs along
with nature and its qualities. Regarding phenomena as the result of
interactions or coalescences between faculties within and qualities
without, they studied both concurrently. Neglecting to do this, we have
landed ourselves in not a few difficulties. Needing a fixed standard
of reference in our study of motion, we have postulated _space_ as
objective, while at the same time our very hypothesis has divested
that space of every property which could entitle it to be regarded as
an object at all. In vain do we try to overtake our shadow, to put
things on a shelf out of our reach, to explore the land of nowhere,
or to measure the cubic contents of zero. The notion of "space" as
possessing size and three-dimensional extension, but _nothing_ else, is
an assumption that may well be regarded by Nature as groundless; yet it
is to this standard that we refer our calculations as to motion, etc.

Practical science strides ahead in defiance of such speculations, for
it is founded on an investigation of what actually exists in Nature.
And even where the theories serve to guide our path to new discoveries,
it is as likely as not that our discoveries will outstrip the limits
of the theories. There is bound to come a time, if it has not begun to
dawn already, when we shall be uncertain whether it is external nature
or our own internal faculties that we are studying; as was brought
out in connexion with those very singular "Blondlot rays," which were
visible (apparently) to Latin races but not to Teutonic!

Having thus suggested the possibility of a study of states of
consciousness, such as might result in placing the observer in an
entirely new relation to external nature and thereby rendering nugatory
all his previous conceptions of time, space, and the like--it remains
to add a few words on that topic. There are many people engaged in a
heedless and unguided dabbling in such fields, and both old-time wisdom
and contemporary experience indicate that the practice is fraught with
dangers to health and mental balance. Such explorations demand that
we shall step out from the safe shelter of our familiar five-sense
consciousness and brave the perils of an unknown land. We are in
precisely the position of a man who forsakes the dry land, his native
element, where he is lord of the beasts and can plant his feet and his
dwelling firmly, and plunges into a sea without bottom or stability and
teeming with sharks, and where his life depends on his constant energy
and watchfulness. Hence the study of science in its deeper aspects
becomes primarily a question of _discipline_--a fact always recognized
in the ancient Mysteries. In proof that this statement is true, we
need only point to the state of affairs in the world of psychic
investigation today; a condition which breathes more of menace than of
promise to the future welfare of society, a world where fatuity and
folly seem to dog the steps of the heedless explorer.

We give out all our secrets to the mob because there is no one who can
successfully assert his claim to be above the mob; our only rule of
fair-play is indiscriminate distribution. One cannot presume to set up
a sacred college, and the mob rightly and justly fears the possible
domination of a clique of biological or theological theorists. Yet
knowledge is inseparably connected with duty and obligation; and if
this connexion is ignored, that which should be a blessing will prove a
curse. What has already occurred in connexion with dynamite and drugs
can occur in far worse form in connexion with hypnotism and mental
influence. This is sufficient to explain the Theosophical program of
work and the reason why Theosophical workers do not find such public
researches a profitable field for their efforts while there is so much
preliminary work yet to be done both in their own characters and in the
world.

When we begin to explore the ether of our own inner nature, we find
that investigation comes second to management; we must _control_ our
nature--or it will control us. Knowledge is relative to Duty.




THE TOWER OF LONDON AND THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT: by Carolus


The Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, are the
most striking and important buildings that stand on the banks of the
Thames in London. Both are on the north side of the river, but are at a
considerable distance from each other.

The Tower is one of the few early Norman castles which have come down
to us in a fairly perfect condition. Tradition says a fortress was
built by Julius Caesar on the site, but the nucleus of the present
building was begun in 1078 by William the Conqueror. This was the
White Tower, the highest building with the four turrets shown in our
illustration. It was completed by William Rufus, who also built the
famous "Traitor's Gate," through which the unfortunate victims of
Royal displeasure were rowed in from the river. Many additions were
afterwards made, and the building and courts now cover thirteen acres
surrounded by a moat. The Tower was closely identified with many of
the most tragic events in English history for at least five hundred
years after its erection, and if its walls could speak the tale of
horror could hardly be surpassed by the record of any other medieval
building. In the Chapel of St. Peter-in-Chains, lie the bodies of
Queen Anne Boleyn and her brother, Queen Catherine Howard, the Earl of
Essex, the Duke of Monmouth, Bishop Fisher, More, and many other great
personages who suffered death in the Tower. It was a short road from
the Traitor's Gate, through the Bloody Tower, to this chapel. Many
State prisoners have spent weary years of incarceration in the Tower;
Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the greatest and noblest, was confined here
for thirteen years.

The Tower of London was occasionally the residence of the earlier
sovereigns of England, but its main purpose was the defense of the
city. In these days of powerful weapons it would be useless as a
fortress, but it is still a military post and headquarters, and
contains a large collection of armor. The Jewel Room, in which the
Royal Regalia are kept, and the rooms where distinguished prisoners
were confined, attract many visitors.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE TOWER OF LONDON]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. HOUSES OF
PARLIAMENT, LONDON VIEW FROM THE RIVER]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. TRAFALGAR SQUARE,
LONDON TAKEN FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY]

The Houses of Parliament at Westminster are--with the exception of
Westminster Hall, built by William Rufus--quite modern, and have no
gloomy associations such as those of the Tower. The building covers
about eight acres and the façade overlooking the Thames is nine
hundred feet long. The tall tower on the left in the illustration is
the Victoria Tower; it is supported upon four pointed arches sixty
feet in height, and the highest point is three hundred and forty feet
above the ground. The central tower is three hundred feet high, and
the picturesque Clock Tower, on the right, is three hundred and twenty
feet high. During the evening sittings of the Houses a lamp is kept
burning near the top of the Clock Tower, which is extinguished when the
debates are over. The building consists mainly of the House of Peers
and the House of Commons, with the connected apartments and offices,
the whole forming one structure. Just above the river, along the front
of the palace runs the Terrace, a broad paved walk where the members of
Parliament can stroll in the fresh air and yet be within sound of the
division bell.

The towers of Westminster Abbey are visible to the left of the Victoria
Tower, and a small portion of Westminster Bridge is seen at the extreme
right.

Not far from the Houses of Parliament is Trafalgar Square, which is
probably more familiar to the general public than any spot in London,
for it is the meeting-place of so many important thoroughfares. Our
illustration is taken from the steps of the National Gallery of
Pictures. The fluted Corinthian Column erected to Admiral Nelson
dominates the scene. The colossal bronze statue of the hero is elevated
one hundred and seventy-six feet in the air and, needless to say, the
artistic workmanship is above criticism, for no one can distinguish
any detail at that height! The bronze lions at the base are by Sir
Edwin Landseer, and possess considerable dignity. At the far end of
the street to the left of the Nelson Monument (Parliament Street) the
faint outline of the Clock Tower of the Houses of Parliament can just
be distinguished. At the top of this street, not far from the Nelson
Monument, stands the fine antique equestrian statue of Charles I,
one of the few outdoor monuments that are creditable to the British
metropolis. A few steps to the left of Trafalgar Square as shown in the
plate is the new Charing Cross; the original one was destroyed by the
Puritan Parliament.




POINT LOMA NOTES: by C. J. R.


Here at Lomaland the yerba santa, whose leaves never lose their
delicate gray-green, is a widely scattered bush. It is a favorite
of the Leader's. Among other plants, the sumach, the manzanita, the
grease-wood, the "mahogany," and the dwarf-oak, clothe the sides of
the romantic cañons and the tops of the hills with bright verdure
throughout the year. There are always some wild flowers too, though the
kinds that blossom during the summer are generally not as plentiful or
beautiful as those of the spring. The thousands of eucalypts and cedar
trees, etc., which have been planted mainly upon the lower portions
of the grounds during the past few years by the Lomaland Forestry
Department, have greatly improved the beauty of the landscape for
miles along the ocean front; and the Canary palms and Date palms, the
lemon and pepper trees, the acacias and pines, within the Homestead
gardens and bordering the avenues, have now grown to a size and beauty
which make them a pleasure to look at. Every visitor who comes into
the grounds expresses delight at the wealth of foliage and cultivated
flowers which surround the Râja Yoga College and Temple as well as the
students' homes and bungalows.

In a few weeks we may expect the first rains, though sometimes they
do not arrive till nearly Christmas, and then the multitude of seeds
that have been quietly biding their time will begin to stir, and soon
after the opening of the new year the hills will assume the vivid
green which will not diminish till next summer; the five varieties of
Lomaland ferns will unfold their delicate fronds on the shady southern
side of the cañons; and then the ground will become carpeted with
spring flowers of many colors, chiefly purple and gold. When Katherine
Tingley first established the headquarters of our Society here there
was very little grass, except at the lower levels near San Diego, but
it has been gradually creeping up the hills until it has become a
characteristic feature of the Spring; it seems to have increased in
proportion to the enlargement of the human population of Point Loma.

       *       *       *       *       *

WE have been reading with sympathy of the terrible heat that has been
such a marked feature of the present summer throughout Europe and the
larger portion of the United States. In Lomaland, and all along the
Pacific slope, nothing of the sort has been felt, for the constant
westerly breezes which blow from the ocean keep the temperature down;
no case of sunstroke has ever been recorded here, and there is never
any need to cease from outdoor work or exercise during the heat of the
day; the nights are never too hot for a blanket.

       *       *       *       *       *

THOUGH we usually do not get our best sunsets until the so-called
"winter" months, lately there have been several of the magnificent ones
for which Lomaland is famous. In August a very remarkable mirage was
seen by a large number of persons at a sea-coast town about a hundred
miles to the northward. It represented a ship ashore on dangerous
rocks with the waves beating over it, and it was so real and vivid
that the lifeboat went out to rescue the supposed drowning crew. But
when it reached the spot (less than a mile from the beach) the boatmen
could see nothing, and there were no rocks near. From the shore it
appeared as if the lifeboat passed through the wreck. An attempt made
to photograph the mirage turned out a failure. About ten years ago a
strange mirage was seen from the Homestead in the form of an island
far out at sea. It persisted for several days and was so realistic
that some persons were on the point of chartering a boat to sail out
to it and take possession when it disappeared. The mystery of many
well-authenticated mirages has never been explained by the ordinary
laws of refraction and reflection. _The Century Path_ of October 25,
1908, which can be found in nearly all the libraries in America and
other countries, contains a special article on the subject, giving many
examples and treating it from the Theosophical standpoint.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE Woman's International Theosophical League, with its center at
Point Loma and its world-wide membership elsewhere, is becoming, or
has become, one of the most potent instruments for the spread of our
work that the Leader possesses. First organized under the name of the
Woman's Propaganda League, it has greatly extended and enlarged its
activities under the new title. During the Spring months of this year
the women of the League in Lomaland organized a most successful series
of meetings for women only at the Isis Theater, San Diego, at which
the Leader gave addresses which are said by those who were present to
have been the most uplifting and inspiring she has ever delivered.
She spoke out in the plainest language about the causes and the only
remedies for the steady degeneration of the so-called civilized world,
and she showed what a marvelous power for redemption women have in
their own sphere, the home. The Isis Theater was crowded to its
utmost capacity on each occasion Katherine Tingley spoke, hundreds of
eager women of all classes could not find accommodation and, to judge
by the mass of correspondence received, the impression made was most
profound. According to the Leader's words, the splendid organizing
work of the women of the Woman's International Theosophical League and
the perfect harmony and unity prevailing among them in no small degree
helped in producing this admirable result; the conditions were ideally
perfect, and the audiences felt that there was an entirely different
spirit present from anything ever before experienced. From the loyal,
impersonal and womanly efforts of the League a new life has come into
the atmosphere of Lomaland, a broadening and harmonizing influence. Its
members are giving a fine expression to the principle of Co-operation
between men and women which the Leader is ever striving to build up.

       *       *       *       *       *

SOON after the last of the women's meetings at Isis Theater the Leader
gave the signal for dramatic work, and the Woman's League began the
preparations for the Greek Symposium, _The Aroma of Athens_, several
representations of which were given with conspicuous success, first in
the Isis Theater and then in the open-air Greek Theater, Lomaland. Here
was an excellent opportunity for the co-operation spoken of, and it was
realized to the uttermost. While the artists and craftsmen prepared
the scenery and properties, or built the stately Grecian structures in
the open-air theater which remain permanently for use in the future
dramatic work, the skilful and tireless needlewomen made the hundreds
of costumes needed, all being done under the personal supervision
of the Leader and from her own designs. The same cheerful spirit of
co-operation was evinced in the musical and dramatic rehearsals for
the Symposium, and in the frictionless management of the arrangements
for the staging of the couple of hundred characters who appear in the
play--no easy task.

In view of the greater activities of the Woman's Theosophical League
which are shortly to take place, it has secured a spacious hall within
the Homestead grounds which will afford ample accommodation for the
present as a headquarters for its business meetings and other general
activities. It is known as the Woman's League Hall.




THE WOMAN'S INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL LEAGUE, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA

Woman's Work in Lomaland; a Side Light: by a Member of the League

 THAT is the true athlete, the man who exercises himself against
 appearances (illusion). Pause, consider, do not be carried away. Great
 is the combat, divine is the work. It is for kingship, for freedom,
 for happiness.--_Epictetus_

 I DESIRE not to disgrace the soul. The fact that I am here certainly
 shows me that the soul had need of an organ here. Shall I not assume
 the post? Shall I skulk and dodge and duck with my unseasonable
 apologies and vain modesty and imagine my being here impertinent--less
 pertinent than Epaminondas or Homer being there? and that the soul did
 not know its own needs?

 LET us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action
 is of an infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated
 with the celestial air until it eclipses the sun and moon. Let us seek
 _one_ peace by fidelity.--_Emerson_


Several years ago Katherine Tingley said to a group of Lomaland
Students, while touching in a cursory way upon the general
world-problem of woman's work and true place in life, that her great
longing was to take up this question in a public way. She added,
reflectively, and with a trace of sadness in her voice,

 But I cannot do this as yet. I should have to do it Theosophically,
 and while the need is there, conditions are not yet ready; the time
 for it has not come.

As all Students know, the time came early in 1911, and the work that
had waited so long was ushered in by a series of meetings for women
only, at Isis Theater, San Diego, under the auspices of the Woman's
International Theosophical League of Lomaland, a body founded by
Katherine Tingley on July 24th, 1906. Any question as to this being
the right time--the psychological moment--had a twofold answer in the
eager and wide-reaching public response, and in the superb nature of
the service rendered in the arrangement and conduct of the meetings by
members of the Lomaland Woman's League. Everything was placed in their
hands, though under the Leader's direction, from the advertising and
distribution of tickets--the meetings of course being free although
admission was by tickets secured in advance--to the seating of the
audience and the carrying out of the beautiful and impressive program,
of which Katherine Tingley's address was at each meeting the central
feature.

The work was begun at a time when the tourist season was at its height
and in the audiences that crowded Isis Theater to the doors were
hundreds of women from distant points--Canada, Vancouver, the far
South, the Middle States, the Atlantic Coast, Europe, and even the
Orient. Consider that these were thinking women, by their very interest
in Theosophy marked as women apart from the mass; consider as well that
the subjects taken up by Katherine Tingley in the impassioned addresses
that formed the axis, so to speak, the real fulcrum, of the meetings,
were subjects of the most vital import to the home--the higher duties
of wifehood and motherhood, the sacredness of the home as a spiritual
temple and woman's duty as guardian of that temple, the key to a
knowledge of child nature, the protection of the growing child, the
Theosophic keynote of duty--and add to that the fact that nearly every
woman in those vast audiences was an important factor in some home,
and it is evident that the influence of these meetings could not be
measured.

Consider also that this work was launched at the present time of
transition, when all the old ideas of woman's work are being torn up,
root and branch, in some cases, by fanatics who little dream of the
reaction their frenzy and unwisdom is certain to produce, a reaction
that will make doubly difficult the path of unselfish workers for a
long time to come.

The climax of effort in the Woman's International Theosophical League
was of course reached in the marvelous production of _The Aroma of
Athens_, given under the League's auspices, with accounts of which
both Students and the public are familiar. Social Hall was converted
into a huge costumer's shop and greenroom for the space of nine magic
days, with the Leader here, there, everywhere, directing, designing
and fitting costumes, designing properties, drilling individuals,
rehearsing, oblivious for the time of all such gentle excellencies as
food, relaxation, or rest.

Here again shone forth in the members of this Woman's League the
qualities that were of such pre-eminent service in the conduct of
the women's meetings--intuition, fidelity, alertness, conservation
of energy, the power to work on lines of least resistance, unity,
trust. There was no friction, no personal competition, no jealousy, no
over-reaching, no gossip, no "rule or ruin" spirit, no personality, and
as a result there was a general capacity to get things done that made
the onlooker wonder if some hidden Aladdin's lamp were not in a nearby
corner, just "rubbing" results into existence.

What _was_ it? Pre-eminently, it was the power these women had created
by learning to _work together_. It was the Christos-spirit, that
magic-working something that harmony is powerful to create, the spirit
of which Jesus spoke when he said, "For where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

But _what_ did it? Theosophy as a system of thought did not, or it
would have done so in past centuries, for Theosophy has been brought to
the world before under this and other names. The inspiration that is
born when women work for women did not, for if this could do it then
we would have some royal examples of unity in women's organizations
elsewhere. What then did it in Lomaland?

There was a Sower once who went forth to sow; and some seeds fell on
stony ground and the fowls of the air devoured them; and others fell on
thin and shallow soil, springing up only to wither in the noontide heat
because there was no depth of root. But of the seeds which fell upon
good soil we are told that they sprang up and bore fruit an hundredfold.

There is the answer, and the answer also to the question as to why
Katherine Tingley could not and would not start this woman's work
earlier. The seeds were waiting and they are forever the same, the
Sower was waiting, the world was waiting, for whatever may be the
needs or conditions of any age the true Teacher knows how to adapt her
message to it. But--oh women of Lomaland! _we_ were not ready, for we
were the soil. The Sower was compelled to wait until _we_ would let the
hot plowshare of truth _in action_ break through, and break up, the
hard surface-crust of mental limitations and personality, and reach,
with its diamond-tipped point, the warm, rich, moist soil of integrity
and soul-life that lay underneath.

It has taken time, and patience on the part of husbandman, and trust
on our part, though with greater trust it could all have been done
so much earlier. But we had no knowledge of our own natures, when we
first touched Theosophic truth, and it was necessary to learn that
in Katherine Tingley's curriculum lip-knowledge and wisdom are two
different things--that one _may_ have a brain-mind understanding of the
literature of Theosophy without being a Theosophist in the slightest
degree; that in short, the Theosophy that is not lived, that is,
applied to every act, every problem, every relationship of daily life,
need not hope to be recognized in Lomaland.

And this takes time. From the precept to _the life_ there is a path
to be traveled, often a long one. It is indeed plain that the work
upon which the women of Lomaland have been permitted to enter is one
that could not be done Theosophically by any body of women who had not
gotten beyond the limitations of the lower psychology, that master of
the brain-mind, where only diversity lies; it could not be done by
any who had not found and clasped hands on the plane of soul-life,
where alone is unity. If all other proofs of brotherhood as a fact in
nature--Theosophy's shibboleth and standard--were to be swept away
and the Woman's International Theosophical League alone permitted
to remain, that would suffice to demonstrate to the world that
Theosophy is what the Teachers declare it to be, a living power, and
that universal brotherhood _is_. Small wonder that as we listened to
Katherine Tingley's heart-appeal to the women of the great world--truly
orphaned, as is all humanity--we saw barriers swept away, limitations
dissolve, mountains move, and, verily, a new world come into being. In
the discourses of Epictetus, slave of the profligate Epaphroditus, and
in chains, but the grandest Stoic in all Rome, we read:

 Never then look for the matter in one place and progress towards it in
 another....

 What then is progress? ... lo, _if_ a man, in every matter that occurs,
 works out his principles, as the runner does in reference to running
 and the trainer of the voice does with reference to the voice--this is
 the man who truly makes progress, and who has not traveled in vain.

 If I were talking to an athlete, I should say, Show me your shoulders.
 And then he might say, Here are my Halteres. You and your Halteres
 look to that, I should reply, I wish to see the _effect_ of the
 Halteres!

That is the point and that is Theosophy.

The burden of this ancient problem of woman's work lies heavy upon the
world, unspeakably heavy because so many lesser problems are enfolded
within it--the problems of the home, of the protection of childhood,
of man's true place in the grand creative scheme, of the much
misunderstood and more discussed sex-question, in short, of education
in all its phases. To borrow the old Socratic metaphor, myriad other
problems hang down from it as from a ring held in suspension by a
magnet other rings hang down, chainlike, one depending from the other.
To carry such a burden, or even part of it, requires not treatises
nor diplomas but _shoulders_, strong shoulders, strong in a threefold
sense, physically, yes, but still more mentally and spiritually.

We women of Lomaland see now why this great public work for women could
not have been begun earlier with absolute confidence on the Teacher's
part that the heat of noontide endeavor would not cause it to wither
and fall away. It would have withered if begun earlier, as women's
efforts are withering all over the world today, partly because they are
mistaken in themselves, it is true, but mainly because _the soil is
not there_. The workers themselves cannot stand the test. The storms
of jealousy and rancor, the hot winds of ambition, the noontide heat
of heavy demands, the shallow soil of brain-mind interests and desires
which point like a weathercock to a new quarter with every gust of
illusion--ay, these are what test the nature.

Thinking it all over, a gratitude wells up within the heart too deep
for words to touch--gratitude to the Teacher who has led us along the
path with so much patience and love; helping but not putting props
under us; heartening and encouraging, but not carrying us along on
silver platters; forcing us to put into practice these treatises we
have been studying--for Theosophy is the science of soul-strength and
it enunciates principles and possesses rules. Lomaland is verily a
great School of Philosophy, greater than those of past ages, for here
divine principles are actually demonstrated which in the golden days of
our historic past were but dreamed of, and the Woman's International
Theosophical League is one of its Halls of Learning. Plato and
Epictetus, Sappho and Hypatia, would understand.

Gratitude--it is a feeble word, plumb the depths of its meaning though
you will. Even the most splendid examples of womanhood that graced
the audiences at the various Women's meetings which the Teacher of
Theosophy addressed, can realize what is being done and what is going
on only to a very limited degree. We in Lomaland do not realize it
fully for if we did we would rise to that height of trust and calm
that would verily make us _like_ the Teacher; not like her in wisdom,
for that is the rare fruit of ages of search and service, and we are
but beginners on the Path; but like her in a certain _quality_ of
courage and devotion that would makes us ten times in effectiveness the
instruments in her hands that we are today.

For the acquirement of soul-strength is the object of this soul's
gymnasium, this _life_, the living out of which in all its fulness of
opportunity alone makes it possible for the Teacher to sow the seeds of
that tree the leaves of which shall be for the healing of the nations.
Here is the keynote, sounded clear amid the resolving harmonies of
Katherine Tingley's last address:

 Overcome! That is the song the gods would sing to you women and to all
 the world. Overcome! Learn to overcome and learn to love!




ILLUSION AND REALITY: by Lydia Ross, M. D.


The Man was wearied with success. He had sought to win beauty, fame,
fortune, and personal power, and he had linked them all with his name.
Around him was a wide circle of desirable things; within him was a
restless center of discontent.

Far into the night he sat musing over his career. He had been fortunate
beyond all expectation. He could name no ambition which had not been
gratified; but the thought brought with it no feeling of elation or of
satisfaction. Just now his keenest sense was that stinging ache in his
breast which so often came of late at quiet times like this.

"It is all illusion and disappointment," he said, at last. "Marriage is
a failure; fame is a mockery; happiness is not had at any price, and
life is not worth living."

That nameless hunger from which he suffered was so baffling. If it were
only possible to find the meaning of that dreary want. With all the new
inventions for lighting the world why was there no illumination for the
dimness of the inner life? If he could only find the source of that
hungry need which devoured all the pleasure in his possessions.

Filled with intense desire for light, he drifted into the Land of
Dreams with its countless pictures. There he saw a moving figure which
was himself and yet not himself. There were no familiar lines in the
form; but the eyes were his own and through them he read the thoughts.

He knew that this Traveler had come from afar. Along dusty highways,
in shady bypaths and green meadows, through thickets and unwholesome
swamps and across waters he had played a part in many scenes of a
changing world. Youth and strength and gaiety were his companions, and
together they sought activity and pleasure. Through places all unknown
and often full of hidden dangers they made their way with merry jest
and idle song and noise, fearing nothing save it were the Silence.

Then came a day when the Traveler grew tired of dust and heat and
stains, of noisy mirth and empty songs and poisonous miasma. He wished
for solitude and rest. As his companions sped along he turned aside and
wandered into the deep forest. Throwing himself upon the ground long he
lay beneath the trees with closed eyes and fingers threaded through
the soft grass, finding refreshment in the touch. His chest rose with
deep draughts of clear air, and as the cool quiet stole into his blood
the throbbing pulses sank into a healing stream.

He had found some pleasant places in the old life that seemed so far
away now, but this was beyond compare. Filled with a novel sense of
awakening, the past appeared but a feverish dream. The sweetness of the
place seemed to be taking form somewhere near and to be surrounding him
with a delicious perfume.

As he sprang up his wondering eyes rested upon a new-blown Rose growing
near. The dainty folded petals had uncurled and opened out until its
golden heart was centered in tinted light. Its fragrance filled the air
with a subtle tenderness. It was beautiful!

He had not failed to gather flowers, too, in his time--conventional
hot-house blooms and gorgeous tropical beauties, and some with cold,
odorless petals--how many had drifted through his hands. Never was
there one among them all like this. Standing out against the guardian
green leaves like a beloved queen, it shed a royal circle of uplifting
peacefulness over everything.

Softly he knelt before this symbol of purity and loveliness with its
message from the source of light and sweetness. The soul of the Rose
was glowing upon him with tender beauty and glad fearlessness. His own
soul stirred into life and looked out of eyes all too sadly strange
to their indwelling guest. The littleness and folly of the past were
but faded pictures of half-forgotten dreams. He knew that this was the
awakening; this was the steady, noble, tender glow of real life.

His heart dilated with a sense of all that life might mean: its
dignity, its love, its aspiration, its unspeakable destiny. Oh, but he
would struggle to keep alive this enlarged and transfigured sense of
things! His rapt gaze rested on the Rose until the mystery of color
and light and sweetness entered into his very heart. He felt himself a
part of the brightness that lives at the center of all things, and his
confident soul swept out to the unseen stars to claim its own. Beyond
and beyond, throughout distant space, everywhere was a flush of light
and beauty and a radiant heart of peace.

Then came a memory--a mere shadow from his dream-life--and a selfish
doubt brought him back to earth again. The Rose still smiled upon him
in sweet faith. He would never leave it, but together they would live
the larger life. As the wind whispered in the leaves the Rose bent and
brushed his cheek and a swift wave of tenderness surged over him.

What if someone else should find this flower and should rise upon its
power as he had risen? What if he should lose it? A hungry look stole
into his eyes and his old self in a misery of longing cried hoarsely,
"Never! It shall be mine, mine, only mine!" He leaned forward until the
petals quivered beneath his breath. What if it should turn from him?
"It is mine, mine," cried the selfish self as with eager, passionate
grasp he kissed it and crushed it close, close, until he grew faint and
sick with the spent sweetness.

He is stung with pain. Ah, the thorns, the thorns! Impatiently he tries
to pick them out, but the sting remains. And oh! the pitiful Rose that
he holds--so crushed and weary and broken! Gone is the delicate fire
of the higher life that breathed through every curve of its free-born
petals. And the fragrance which had radiated waves of tender gladness
falls like the faltering breath of some beautiful, wounded, dying thing.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the dim light which fills the mind in sleep, a mountain scene
took form upon the moving screen. Up the steep side a Hunter toiled,
burdened with weapons and game. In his strangely familiar eyes was a
weary, dissatisfied look. The trail he had followed grew indistinct and
was lost; but as he pushed onward he reached a place where the rough
mountain side stretched out into a broken level of fertile plateau. How
grateful it looked after the steep climb. This was the place to rest,
he thought, catching sight of a tiny, sheltered lake and turning his
steps toward it. Even now he can see its unruffled surface reflecting
the blue sky and a drowsy chorus of encircling pines.

On the lake-shore the Hunter stood spell-bound with the beauty of the
scene. The spoils of the chase and the weapons dropped from relaxed
fingers as with uncovered head he drank deeply of rest and comfort and
inspiration.

As the wind swayed the bordering pine-branches flecks of light came
and went through the shadowy circle of scintillating water. Around the
shallow border the glint and tint of glossy stone and delicate shell
lighted the mosaic curtain of shadows with the fire of a living iris.
Deep and dark and clear was the mystical center. A tall, slender fringe
of grasses around the edge softened and deepened the whole liquid
beauty before him like the lashes of a sentient eye.

A feathery cloud floated by overhead. Its reflection brushed the
surface like a breath of fancy, a mere passing thought. The opalescent
gold of the sunshine sank down, down, down, until, transmuted into a
look of love in unfathomed consciousness its glow was diffused through
the limpid depths.

Beyond the beauty of the lake was the infinite calm, the untouched
purity and the perfect peace.

The atmosphere was filled with restfulness. From the lighted depths
came an answering look to his eager eyes. The soul of the lake speaks
to him in lingering softness and silence; and oh, how serene it is! The
iridescent picture of a flying bird falls into the clear water, a song
in color. He sees his own face bathed in a tender light.

He will seize this mysterious beauty of a living calm and hold it
forever. It shall reflect only his face, he thought, jealous of the
very sky. "This treasure is for me, for me alone," he said, as his eyes
followed the shafts of light that illumined the shadowy depths. "For
me," plunging in and stretching out greedy hands.

The first footstep broke the mirror of light into troubled waters.
The soil and sand rose beneath the desecrating feet in a sorrowful
cloud that hid the glory in advance and around him. "The peace lies
deeper yet," he thought, watching the center and pushing on. But ever
before him rose the obscuring cloud of his own creation. He can no
longer wade, but strikes out boldly, greedily, to plunder the lake of
its secret. He finds that no physical force or finesse can touch the
delicate beauty he desires; and after vainly striving to grasp the fine
lines of soul-sense, he returns to the shore, weary, disappointed, and
bitter.

"It is all illusion," he railed. "No other Hunter excels me in strength
or skill; yet when this promised happiness is almost within my grasp,
it fades and disappears. There is no reality behind the dissolving
pictures of a deceitful world."

The Dreamer looked from the fair strength of the Hunter on the bank to
the cloudy, restless water. There he saw reflected his own figure--a
dusky, broken image with the pessimistic poise. Then the light which
he had longed for shone full upon his mind. He was the Traveler
whose rude selfishness had despoiled the trusting Rose. He was the
Hunter of Happiness. Around him were the rejected trophies of his
skill--sweet-voiced birds and creatures fleet of foot and quick of
eye. Too well they vouched for his unerring aim with bloody breast and
broken limb and dull, unseeing eyes. He had wasted the life that gave
these things their joy and beauty. Only the pitiful, unlovely forms
were his possessions; from these his wearied senses turned in sick
distaste.

The Dreamer's eyes fell before the luminous scene in which the Hunter
was the one dark stain. How worse than blind his whole career had been.
His life was but a crowded list of failures. How fair were Nature's
pictures everywhere before he marred them with greedy, sordid touch.
Now he saw that the world was alive with a wondrous reality for those
who sought it unselfishly.

"The fault is all my own," he groaned in bitter shame. "That is mine,
indeed, all mine. Oh, for a chance to redeem this wretched past!" he
cried, pierced with so keen a heartache that he awoke.

Through the open windows the dewy morning air came in, sweet with the
breath of flowers and alive with the subdued joy of birds. The great
elms brooded over the lesser things with stately tenderness, while with
slender, outstretched branches, like waving magnetic fingers, they
soothed and awakened the freshened earth. In the east the lavender
veil fell down before the sacred flame which daily gives new hope and
strength to light dull lamps of clay.




VENICE: by Grace Knoche


It is one of the world's wonders that a little community should rise
up from the midst of untillable marsh lands--literally out of the
sea--and within a few centuries, through its energy, thrift, invention,
and sheer ability, should become a world power not only in diplomacy,
arms, and commerce, but in architecture, art, philosophy, and _belles
lettres_. And all this, in spite of envy and attacks from without and
conspiracies from within.

The power of Venice, "the wealthy republic," was so great in her palmy
days that the honor of alliance with her was covetously sought by
emperors and popes alike. At a time when, as history declares, a dictum
from the Pope, or a threat of excommunication, would have brought
almost any other nation of Europe to its knees in groveling terror,
Venice laughed at both and pursued the even tenor of her imperial way.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. FRA PAOLO SARPI]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. CARTA GATE AND
CORNER OF DUCAL PALACE, VENICE, ITALY]

The climax of her independence of dogmatic rule was reached in those
glorious and courageous later days when Fra Paolo Sarpi lived and
guided her destinies, Sarpi, "the noblest of the Venetians," who
realized more fully than any other in that republic the dangers that
would threaten should outside influences ever gain a foothold in the
chambers of government. Had there been a successor to Fra Paolo, one
worthy of his example, one who grasped his purposes, knew the spirit
of the teacher that molded them and what beneficent power lay behind,
who possessed as well the power to continue Sarpi's work--had such
an exceptional soul appeared, Venice would not have decayed. At Fra
Paolo's death the decline of Venetian greatness set in.

In the course of her history--and three centuries practically included
the period of her undisputed greatness--Venice attained a position of
supremacy on virtually every line of activity. In war she was dreaded.
Says Yriarte, author of _L'Histoire de Venise_:

 The arsenal of Venice, which still exists, was its palladium; the
 high organization of this establishment, the technical skill of its
 workmen, the specially selected body of the "arsenalotti," to whom the
 republic entrusted the duty of guarding the senate and great council,
 and its admirable discipline, were for centuries the envy of other
 European powers.... At the most critical period in its history, when
 it (Venice) was engaged in its great struggle with the Turks ... the
 arsenal regularly sent forth a fully equipped galley each morning
 for a hundred successive days.... At the acme of its prosperity the
 arsenal employed 16,000 workmen.

It is impossible to touch upon the political life and fortunes of
Venice in the short space of a single article. Moreover, information
on this is very accessible, for the Venetians themselves were great
chroniclers, who firmly believed that their city was building in a
strange way for the future and that its foundation stones should not
rest unmarked. And though the last thing these old recorders dreamed of
was the imminent decay of their proud city--their idol, their divinity,
the object of their passionate adoration--they were right. Venice _was_
building for the future--to which seeming mystery Theosophy also has
the key.

Suffice it to say that when the inner history of Katherine Tingley's
visit to Venice, upon the occasion of her first trip around the
world in the interest of Theosophy, is given out publicly, a new
interpretation will be given to some of these old records. The spirit
of Venice has never died although untoward aims and evils have for
nearly four centuries obscured the outer expression of it. But that,
like the history of Fra Paolo, is another story, too, and volumes would
be needed to contain it.

Venice was in her days the commercial link between Europe and the
Orient and her merchants neglected no opportunity. The result was that
not only did the city become fabulously wealthy but new trades and
wonderful art-crafts sprung up. Rare damasks, glass, tapestries, silks,
enamels, metal-work of various kinds, plastic work, mosaics, brought
from the countries of the Orient by Venetian merchants, served as
models to craftsmen who not only copied but improved upon them in the
great industrial centers which sprang up. Venetian art-craftsmanship
became throughout Europe a synonym for the ultra, the perfect.

A link between Italy and Greece, Venice afforded an asylum for Grecian
men of letters when the light in their own land failed. These men
Venice honored. They taught in her universities; they lighted up in
the city not only a knowledge of the great literary monuments of
the ancients but a love for them; they filled her libraries with
translations. Plato, Socrates, Thucydides, Strabo, Xenophon, Homer, and
Orpheus, became something more than names. Says Yriarte:

 Venice, more than any other town, has the credit of having rescued
 from oblivion, by editions and translations, the master-pieces of
 Greek literature.

The art of printing was welcomed upon the very threshold of its
discovery and the services of Venice on this line are unique in the
history of letters. Her printers were not mere workmen; some of them
were scholars. "The Aldine Press" is synonymous with scholarship today
as it was in renaissance Italy. Symonds describes the enthusiasm of
the elder Aldus (or Aldo) for Greek literature, and his life-ambition,
which was "to secure the literature of Greece from further accident
by committing its chief masterpieces to type." He relates how Aldo,
already a scholar and qualified as a humanist, "according to the
custom of the country," spent a further two years in a study of Greek
literature. Not a Venetian himself and with no ties in the city, by
some "accident of fortune" he selected Venice as the place in which to
build up a work whose parallel the world has not since afforded and of
which a similar record is not to be found in the past unless possibly
in the secret records of ancient China.

 At Venice Aldo gathered an army of Greek scholars and compositors
 around him. His trade was carried on by Greeks and Greek was the
 language of his household. Instructions to typesetters and binders
 were given in Greek. The prefaces to his editions were written in
 Greek. Greeks from Crete collated MSS., read proofs, and gave models
 of calligraphy for casts of Greek type.

 Not counting the craftsmen employed in merely manual labor, Aldo
 entertained as many as thirty of these Greek assistants in his family.

 His own energy and industry were unremitting. In 1495 he issued the
 first volume of his Aristotle. Four more volumes completed the work in
 1497-98. Nine comedies of Aristophanes appeared in 1498. Thucydides,
 Sophocles, and Herodotus followed in 1502; Xenophon's _Hellenics_ and
 Euripides in 1503; Demosthenes in 1504.

 The troubles of Italy, which pressed heavily on Venice, suspended
 Aldo's labors for awhile. But in 1508 he resumed his work with an
 edition of the minor Greek orators; and in 1509 appeared the lesser
 works of Plutarch.

 Then came another stoppage. The league of Cambray had driven Venice
 back to her lagoons, and all the forces of the republic were
 concentrated on a struggle to the death with the allied powers of
 Europe. In 1513 Aldo reappeared with Plato ... in a preface eloquently
 and earnestly comparing the miseries of warfare and the woes of Italy
 with the sublime and tranquil objects of a student's life. Pindar,
 Hesychius, and Athenaeus followed in 1514.

But Aldo's enthusiasm for the classics was not confined to those of
Greece. He issued superb editions of the principal Latin and Italian
classics as well, in an exquisite type especially cast for his Press
and which it is said he had copied from the very handwriting of
Petrarch.

There is something very reminiscent of the Orient in Aldo's reverence
for beautiful calligraphy. To the Chinese scholar the ideograph is
sacred and to write it well demands art and philosophy both. There is
an ancient Chinese legend which says that once upon a time certain
ideographs "came down from their tablets and spoke unto mankind."
Curious, that one should recall it here. But not to know Aldo is to
miss a great light upon the spirit that made Venice what it became, the
spirit that animated every soul in that wonderful city--devotion to
a high ideal, absolute unselfishness and service. Where is the Press
today that combines these unpurchasable qualities with the acme of
scholarship? We know of one--but only one.

Even in a short article, with Venice herself a subject for volumes,
libraries, it is impossible to omit the following--also from Symonds:

 Aldo ... burned with a humanist's enthusiasm for the books he printed;
 and we may well pause astonished at his industry, when we remember
 what a task it was in that age to prepare texts of authors so numerous
 and so voluminous from MSS. Whatever the students of this century may
 think of Aldo's scholarship, they must allow that only vast erudition
 and thorough familiarity with the Greek language could have enabled
 him to accomplish what he did. In his own days Aldo's learning won the
 hearty acknowledgment of ripe scholars.

 To his fellow workers he was uniformly generous, free from jealousy
 and prodigal of praise. His stores of MSS. were as open to the learned
 as his printed books were liberally given to the public. While aiming
 at that excellence of typography which renders his editions the
 treasures of the book-collector, he strove at the same time to make
 them cheap.... His great undertaking was carried on under continual
 difficulties, arising from strikes among his workmen, the piracies of
 rivals, and the interruptions of war. When he died, bequeathing Greek
 literature as an inalienable possession to the world, he was a poor
 man.

To touch with any show of justice upon the architecture of Venice would
task the eloquence of a Ruskin. But it is possible to indicate a few of
the causes that contributed to make Venice the architectural marvel of
Europe and her palaces and churches unique in the world.

According to tradition, there were both castles and "churches" in
Venice several centuries before the earliest examples that survive.
The first "church," it is said, was founded in 432 by one Giacomo del
Rialto, but the earliest of which we have tangible evidence--and it is
still standing--was built in the eleventh century. Of the eleventh and
twelfth century castles or palaces, a number still may be seen.

Venetian architecture, like her literary and industrial life--indeed,
like her whole life--was a combination of Oriental and Occidental
influences. Her people were discoverers, adapters; they had a
perfect genius for appreciation of the artistic, the eloquent, the
statesmanlike, the progressive--in a word, "the Good, the Beautiful and
the True" in the work of others--and with opportunities strewn along
her path thicker than flowers in June, Venice seemed to grasp them all.

Although Venetian architecture was complex and composite to a degree,
it is possible to trace the predominating influences as they set
their mark upon style after style. Up to the thirteenth century the
prevailing style was Byzantine, of which the leading characteristics
seem to have been in Venice the semi-circular arch and a prodigal use
of sculptured ornament. The method of construction employed by the
Venetians--the walls being of a fine hard brick which was covered with
stucco, or in the finer buildings with thin slabs of costly marbles and
porphyries--permitted no end of surface decoration. And in this the
color-loving Venetians reveled. Moldings, carvings, rolls, _cavettos_,
flutings, panels, bands and diapers of flowing scroll work, lent
their support to most varied adaptations of characteristic Persian or
Moslem design, with its semi-conventional foliage, animals, dragons,
birds, flowers, etc. Markedly beautiful, and in a way peculiar, is the
effect of the façades of many buildings, "studded with gorgeous panels
like jewels on a rich brocade."

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. VENICE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A "STREET" IN VENICE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ST. MARK'S, VENICE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. RIO PINELLI]

But in the thirteenth century a period of transition ushered out the
round Byzantine arch, and in the pointed Gothic arch of the countries
immediately north. Very soon, however, the Early Renaissance style, as
exemplified in Verona and other Italian cities, became a dominating
influence, this in turn to give way to the Classic, which became the
"grand style" of sixteenth-century Venice. After that, the deluge--of
mediocrity.

The Venetians, a conquering people by virtue of their navy which was
the envy of Europe, made their city the storehouse of rich treasures
stripped from the ruined cities of the past, and from other cities made
her own by conquest. And her merchants did the rest. Quantities of
rich marbles were brought from fallen Aquileia, Ravenna, and Heraclea,
cities which in their turn had brought them from Egypt, Greece, and
Arabia, and Numidia--

 the red porphyry of Egypt and the green porphyry of Mt. Taygetus,
 red and gray Egyptian granites, the beautiful lapis Atracius (_verde
 antico_), Oriental alabaster from Numidia and Arabia, the Phrygian
 _pavonazzetto_ with its purple mottlings, cipollino from Carystus,
 and, in great quantities, the alabaster-like Proconnesian marble with
 bluish and amber-colored striations.

Add to this magnificence a lavish use of gold and color, particularly
the warm ochres and earth reds, and the costly ultramarine, and the
modern mind, accustomed to uncolored and unstriated marbles and the
quiet gray of stone, can hardly imagine the gorgeous luxuriance of
color that marked the city in her prime.

The architectural glory of Venice is of course the Church of St. Mark,
which, says Professor Middleton,

 stands quite alone among the buildings of the world in respect of
 its unequaled richness of material and decoration, and also from the
 fact that it has been constructed with the spoils of countless other
 buildings, and therefore forms a museum of sculpture of the most
 varied kind, nearly every century from the fourth down to the latest
 Renaissance being represented in some carved panel or capital, if not
 more largely....

 During the long period from its dedication in 1085 till the overthrow
 of the Venetian republic by Napoleon, every doge's reign saw some
 addition to the rich decorations of the church--mosaics, sculpture,
 wall linings or columns of precious marbles. By degrees the whole
 walls inside and outside were completely faced either with glass
 mosaics on gold grounds or with precious colored marbles and
 porphyries, plain white marble being only used for sculpture, and
 then thickly covered with gold.... No less than five hundred columns
 of porphyry and costly marbles are used.... A whole volume might be
 written on the sculptured capitals, panels, screens.

 The use of inlay is almost peculiar to St. Mark's, as is also the
 method of enriching sculptured reliefs with backgrounds of brilliant
 gold and colored glass mosaics, producing an effect of extraordinary
 magnificence.

 One of the great glories of St. Mark's is the most magnificent gold
 retable in the world, most sumptuously decorated with jewels and
 enamels, usually known as the Pala d'Oro.... This marvelous retable is
 made up of an immense number of microscopically minute gold cloisonné
 enamel pictures, of the utmost splendor in color and detail.

Of the architecture and art of the great council hall of the doges, the
Ducal Palace, little need be said after the description of St. Mark's,
for while not so lavishly ornamented, it is a world in itself in the
style of architectural beauty that most appealed to the Venetians.

The original Palace of the Doges was built in the ninth century, but
the vicissitudes of war and of fire decreed its rebuilding several
times, and the Ducal Palace that we know today dates from the
fourteenth century. Says Professor Middleton:

 The two main façades, those towards the sea and the _Piazzetta_,
 consist of a repetition of the same design, that which was begun in
 the early years of the fourteenth century.... The design of these
 façades is very striking, and unlike that of any other building in the
 world....

 The main walls are wholly of brick; but none was left visible. The
 whole surface of the upper story is faced with small blocks of fine
 Istrian and red Verona marbles, arranged so as to make a large diaper
 pattern, with, in the center of each lozenge, a cross made of verde
 antico and other costly marbles. The colonnades, string-courses, and
 other decorative features are built in solid Istrian stone.

 Very beautiful sculpture, executed with an ivory-like minuteness
 of finish, is used to decorate the whole building with wonderful
 profusion. At each of the three free angles is a large group
 immediately over the lower column. At the south-east angle is the
 Drunkenness of Noah, at the south-west the Fall of Man, and at the
 north-west the Judgment of Solomon. Over each at a much higher level
 is a colossal figure of an archangel--Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel.

 The sculpture of all the capitals, especially of those on the
 thirty-six lower columns, is very beautiful and elaborate, a great
 variety of subjects being introduced among the decorative foliage,
 such as the virtues, vices, months of the year, age of man,
 occupations, sciences, animals, nations of the world, and the like.
 On the whole, the sculpture of the fourteenth century part is finer
 than that of the later part near St. Mark's.

 On the walls of the chief council chambers are a magnificent series
 of oil paintings by Tintoretto and other, less able, Venetians--among
 them Tintoretto's masterpiece, Bacchus and Ariadne and his enormous
 picture of Paradise, the largest oil painting in the world.

Up to and during a part of the sixteenth century the state prisons were
on the ground floor of the Ducal Palace, but they were finally removed
to a new structure on the opposite side of the narrow canal, and a
bridge, the "Ponte dei Sospiri" or "Bridge of Sighs," was thrown across
the canal, connecting the two buildings.

In the magnificence and beauty of its homes--its _palazzi_ or
palaces--Venice is unique in the world. It is said that no other city,
then or since, is to be compared with Venice in the loveliness and
romantic interest of its domestic architecture. Up to the twelfth
century the Byzantine style of architecture prevailed, but the
thirteenth and fourteenth century palaces--whose builders were more
or less influenced by the design of the Ducal Palace, then nearing
completion--are Venetian Gothic.

The climax of splendor was reached in the "Golden House" the wonderful
_Ca' d'Oro_, so named from the lavish use of gold leaf on its
sculptured ornamentations. It was literally a "golden house."

 No words can describe the magnificence of this palace on the Grand
 Canal, its whole façade faced with the most costly variegated marbles,
 once picked out with gold, vermillion and ultramarine, the walls
 pierced with the elaborate traceried windows and enriched with bands
 and panels of delicate carving--in combined richness of form and
 wealth of color giving an effect of almost dazzling splendor.

But following close upon this magnificence--which was reflected
in nearly all the palaces that were built toward the close of the
fourteenth century--came the inevitable reaction toward a less ornate
style, the Early Renaissance. Compared with the _Ca' d'Oro_ one
writer has described the sixteenth century palaces, which followed
Early Renaissance and Classic models, as "dull and scholastic." They
certainly must have been a restful change.

So much for the architecture of Venice--

  White swan of cities, slumbering in her nest
  So wonderfully built among the reeds
  Of the lagoon.

But the visitor to the Venice of today finds his interest in her
buildings doubled from the fact that upon the walls of many of them are
to be found the works of some of the greatest painters the Occident
has known. When we reflect that in the sixteenth century Venice
possessed a school of art that for power, technical perfection, and
gorgeous interpretation of color, stood pre-eminent in its own day
and has not been surpassed in ours, little more need be said. Palma
Vecchio, Giorgione, the great portraitist Lorenzo Lotto, Paul Veronese,
Tintoretto, and--Titian! What a galaxy! Surely nothing more need be
said upon the art of Venice. As in everything else, the impossible
seemed not the exceptional but the mediocre.

In short, to give one the outline of only a few of the activities of
the people of this City of Destiny is to drown oneself in superlatives.
Her history is as fraught with heroism, with simple dauntless courage,
as that of the Dutch Republic; it is as colored with romance as that
of Palmyra or Thebes. _Karma_ is the only key to an understanding of
the strange destiny which brought to flower such transcendant energy in
so seemingly sterile a soil. _Reincarnation_ is the only theory which
can hope to throw light upon the _quality_ of effort that marked her
citizens as a body of people apart, who must have worked together in
the past as they unquestionably will in the future.

Not that Venice was perfect; her citizens made their mistakes; there
were the jealous and the covetous, and there were conspiracies within
her borders as well as without. Her doges were not all, like Caesar's
wife, "above suspicion," her counsellors were not all like Fra Paolo
nor all her scholars like Aldo. But there was no apathy and there _was_
a nucleus of impersonal, united effort sufficiently vitalized to hold
back the agencies of disintegration during century after century of
steady upward effort. And then the Wheel of Destiny turned and the
Venice of Sarpi passed.

But the days to dawn will again see Venice whirled upward into the
light on the rim of this mighty Wheel. This is inevitable. It is
Theosophical teaching. The old clans will gather--and _there_--and they
will work again and aspire again and build again; and in the light of
the lessons learned through the failures and successes of the past will
rise again to greater heights.

Doge and counsellor, artist and craftsman, scientist and scholar,
statesman, philosopher, and poet--as the "whirling wheel of spiritual
will and power" brought to you great opportunities in the past, so will
it bring them to you again and yet again, in the future.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE DUCAL PALACE,
VENICE IN THE FOREGROUND THE LION OF ST. MARK'S]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. COURTYARD OF THE
DUCAL PALACE]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. BRIDGE OF THE RIALTO]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PONTE DEI
SOSPIRI--THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE]




HUMANITY AND THEOSOPHICAL EDUCATION: by Elizabeth C. Spalding

 Had our modern philosophers studied, instead of sneering at, the old
 Books of Wisdom--they would have found that which would have unveiled
 to them many a secret of ancient church and state. As they have not
 the result is evident. The dark cycle of Kali-Yug has brought back
 a Babel of modern thought, compared with which the "confusion of
 tongues" itself, appears a harmony.--_H. P. Blavatsky_


To the placid minds of one part of humanity the idea that there is
an imperious need for Humanity to be saved, may seem quite absurd.
To them the world appears to be moving on well enough; children are
born to them, and are trained in the same methods they were, and their
ancestors before them for centuries, possibly; life passes smoothly
along, so they ask in wonder, Why change?

On the other hand is noticeable amongst a large class, a great unrest,
a fretting against established conditions, and a reaching out for
something new. Individuals striving with different motives, but massing
together into various societies, and associations, united in the
purpose of breaking down the old, but with no ideals upon which to form
new and better ones. It is like building an edifice on shifting sands.

This vague but extreme restlessness is permeating every race and
country. Is it not pitiful that with such an expenditure of force,
there should be a lack of the right understanding to lead men and
women out of all their difficulties, discouragements, and adverse
conditions, to the correct solution of life's problems? Truly the
world is harvesting a chaotic mass of thought that unless checked,
will tend rapidly towards degeneracy, and the disintegration of all
things. We need a clearer and cleaner atmosphere mentally, morally, and
physically, and to secure this the minds of people must be opened to
the truth.

Theosophy offers to humanity this knowledge, and shows the way
to restore balance and harmony. These few words convey a simple
declaration of the truth, but a world of meaning lies in them.

Down through the ages has this touch of wisdom been kept burning in the
hearts of a few. Great Teachers passing its light to their pupils, they
in their turn to others, thus forming a noble and devoted band. They
held the knowledge as a sacred trust awaiting the time to come, when
humanity could receive these truths, without crucifying the great Souls
who revealed to them the teachings.

H. P. Blavatsky had the key to this knowledge, the "Secret Archaic
Doctrine" in other words "Theosophy," which she brought to the western
world. In _Isis Unveiled_, written thirty-three years ago, she wrote:

 The said key must be turned seven times before the whole system is
 divulged. We will give it but one turn, and thereby allow the profane
 one glimpse into the mystery. Happy he who understands the whole.

In her book, _The Secret Doctrine_, which followed later, she gave out
much more information. So little did the world then understand her
that she was considered a charlatan by some. But others did recognize
that a Teacher had come, and they gathered around her. She appointed
Wm. Q. Judge, another Teacher, as her successor, to carry on the work
she had created, the Theosophical Society. He, in his turn, appointed
Katherine Tingley, the present Leader of the Universal Brotherhood
and Theosophical Society, who is electrifying the world with her
educational work in different countries.

Katherine Tingley is now making practical the true Theosophical
education.

What is a Theosophical education?

"Man Know Thyself," was one of the most valued teachings of the
ancients. To know that one is a compound being, spiritual, mental, and
physical; to know that this trinity also makes man a dual being; that
he has both the potentiality of the God, and the lower forces as well;
to learn how to conquer the evil that the God may prevail, and the soul
be liberated to become the living power in him for good. All this is
but a part of what Theosophy teaches.

Socrates asked "Which of us is skilful or successful in the treatment
of the Soul, and which of us has had good teachers?" If that question
were asked today Katherine Tingley's students could answer, here, at
Point Loma, and her various centers throughout the world. Consider
what it means to a child, to enter upon life's path favored with an
understanding of these truths, imparted to him in such a simple,
practical, logical manner that he lives naturally from the beginning,
the proper life. "The first shoot of every living thing is by far the
greatest and fullest." Such a child has the right foundation on which
to build; he is truly educated.

The physical has not been strengthened at a loss of the mental and
spiritual; the intellectual has not been so abnormally developed that
the intuitional and spiritual have been absolutely shut off. The
Theosophical education gives a gradual unfolding of the whole nature,
from within, outwards. Its growth may be likened to the ripening of the
Lotus seed into the pure, white perfect blossom. The soul of the child
who has developed under this training (making due allowance for Karmic
heredity) will look forth, when matured, upon the world with so clear
a vision, that confusion of ideas will be to him an unknown quantity.
He can more clearly detect right from wrong--the necessary from the
unnecessary, the practical from the unpractical--the true brotherhood
from the selfish independence. In fact he will restore equilibrium, and
always for humanity's welfare.

Theosophy has been a revelation to the women. Women as a rule cling
to old established forms and conventionalities, some from fear of
varying kinds, others from ignorance, or a lack of desire to take
the initiative, owing to an inertia which the habits and customs of
centuries have bred in them. It is mainly because of the manifold
possibilities which have been dormant so long in woman that she feels
the impelling urge to do something now, perhaps more than ever before.
In her effort to respond, she sometimes strikes an extreme note which
results in making the whole tide of life about her, of which she should
be the harmonious center, stormy and discordant. Without the spiritual
thread of knowledge how can she act wisely? Yet woman is responsible to
a large degree for the unsettled condition that the minds of men are in
today, and she always will carry a heavy responsibility, because she is
the matrix of humanity.

One of our best-known American cartoonists has pictured the condition
of the world, as a large globe held in a woman's hand. Consider what a
power for good woman has in her position of motherhood, which must of
course embrace wifehood. Words cannot depict all the fine possibilities
and capabilities of mother-love. It has been said that great men have
great mothers, and if we trace the life and thought of the mother prior
to the child's birth, we can invariably find a clue which explains the
strength, or weaknesses of the child.

Are not the majority of humanity simply drifting? Men and women
growing apart, the seeds of separateness and consequent disintegration
being sown, instead of their growing together into the nobler, fuller
comradeship which Theosophy encourages.

As Katherine Tingley has said:

 We want not only the hearts, but the divine fire, the divine life,
 and the splendid royal warriorship of men and women. Theosophy is the
 panacea.




[Illustration: THE SCREEN OF TIME]

BOOK REVIEWS: "Commentary upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex" (William
E. Gates) by C. J. Ryan


The Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard
University recently published a new _Paper_ (Vol. VI, No. 1) on the
subject of Central American hieroglyph writing. The _Paper_ is entitled
"_Commentary upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex_, with a concluding
_Note upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya Glyphs_." Professor
Wm. E. Gates, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma,
the author, has been a member of the Theosophical Society for about
twenty-five years, beginning the serious study of Theosophy during
H. P. Blavatsky's lifetime. Later, an ardent supporter of William Q.
Judge, he is now one of the most active workers at Point Loma under the
direction of Katherine Tingley. Professor Gates has applied himself
largely to the historical and ethnological side of H. P. Blavatsky's
teachings, and, by a careful study of her _Secret Doctrine_ and other
works, he has been able to bring to the problem of ancient American
culture a fund of information and many valuable clues not familiar
to the average student of archaeology. Professor F. W. Putnam of the
Peabody Museum, Harvard, in his prefatory note to the _Commentary_,
says:

 The Museum is fortunate in adding to its collaborators Mr. William
 E. Gates, of Point Loma, California, who for more than ten years has
 been an earnest student of American hieroglyphs. From his life-long
 studies in linguistics in connexion with his research in "the motifs
 of civilizations and cultures" he comes well-equipped to take up the
 difficult and all-absorbing study of American hieroglyphic writing.
 Mr. Gates has materially advanced this study by his reproduction
 of the glyphs in type. These type-forms he has used first in his
 reproduction of the Codex Perez, and now in this Commentary they are
 used for the first time in printing. This important aid to the study
 will be highly appreciated by all students of American hieroglyphs, as
 it will greatly facilitate the presentation of the results of future
 research.

The Harvard _Papers_ are taken by the principal Universities and
learned societies throughout the world. The Commentary on the Perez
Codex and the reproduction of it have been printed by the Aryan Press
at Point Loma and are fine examples of the highest class of printing.

[Illustration: A PAGE OF THE MAYA-TZENTAL PEREZ CODEX FROM CENTRAL
AMERICA]

[Illustration: PEREZ CODEX: PAGE 17]

The Perez Codex itself, of which Professor Gates' _Commentary_ treats,
and of which he has just issued a new, definitive edition, redrawn,
colored as in the original and slightly restored, is a Central American
manuscript on specially coated "maguey" paper, of unknown antiquity.
It was discovered about fifty years ago in a forgotten chimney corner
of the Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris, black with dust and without
record of its antecedents. It is but a fragment, but fortunately
the twenty-two remaining pages contain several chapters complete. The
artistic quality of the work is of a high order; the coloring is most
harmonious and the drawing of the hieroglyphs firm and refined. The
human figures in the accompanying illustrations are conventionalized
in certain grotesque though evidently intentional ways, but they have
character and a real dignity, and admirably fit the spaces alloted
to them. As an example of decorative art the manuscript must take
high rank. It irresistibly reminds one of the best Egyptian Papyri.
Professor Gates says:

 And when, ... one advances to an appreciation of the work in its
 bearings as a whole, one has to acknowledge himself facing the
 production of craftsmen who had the inheritance of not only
 generations, but ages of training. Such a combination of complete
 mastery in composition, perfect control of definite and fixed forms,
 and hand technique, can grow up from barbarism in no few hundred
 years.... Had we nothing but the Perez Codex and Stela P at Copan, the
 merits of their execution alone, weighed simply in comparison with
 observed history elsewhere, would prove that we have to do not with
 the traces of an ephemeral, but with the remains of a wide-spread,
 settled race and civilization, worthy to be ranked with or beyond even
 such as the Roman, in its endurance, development and influence in the
 world, and the beginnings of whose culture are still totally unknown.
 As to the Codex before us, we can only imagine what the beauty,
 especially of the pages we now come to discuss, must have been when
 the whole was fresh and perfect.

But, alas, no one can yet read the meaning of this and the two
other Maya Codices that have escaped the destructive hands of the
over-zealous Spanish missionaries who saw nothing in such things but
hindrances to the spreading of the "True Faith," yet at the time of the
Conquest they could be read easily by the cultured natives, and the
_language is still spoken_! Though it seems almost incredible, there is
no living person known who can decipher any of the hieroglyphs on the
manuscripts or the hundreds of stone monuments except a few calendar
signs and other signs of little consequence. We are indebted to Don
Diego Landa, second bishop of Yucatan, for the destruction of all the
manuscripts he could find, but it is to him also that we owe some
gratitude for preserving the meaning of the hieroglyphs of the days and
the months and a few other signs, which he inserted in his book. The
little he has given us is not enough to help much; we may have to await
the discovery of some "Rosetta Stone" like that which opened the lost
secret of the Egyptian sacred writings to Champollion. In Professor
Gates' words:

 Up to date our knowledge of the meanings of the glyphs is still to all
 intents and purposes limited to the direct tradition we have through
 Landa, and the deductions immediately involved in these. We know the
 day and month signs, the numbers, including 0 and 20, four units
 of the archaic calendar count (the day, tun, katun and cycle), the
 cardinal point signs, the negative particle. We have not fully solved
 the uinal or month sign, which seems to be chuen on the monuments and
 a cauac, or chuen, in the manuscripts. We are able to identify what
 must be regarded as metaphysical or esoteric applications of certain
 glyphs in certain places, such as the face numerals. But every one of
 these points is either deducible directly by necessary mathematical
 calculation, or else from the names of certain signs given by Landa
 in his day and month list, and then found in other combinations, such
 as _yax_, _kin_, etc. That we have as many of the points as we have,
 and still cannot form from them the key--that we cannot read the
 glyphs--is a constant wonder; but a fact nevertheless.

A large portion of the _Commentary_ is devoted to a highly technical,
detailed and closely-reasoned examination and analysis of the glyphs
and illustrations in the Codex, of interest chiefly to specialists, but
a considerable space is given to some general conclusions on language
which are highly significant to students of Theosophy.

 There is one point from which this question of American origins, at
 least of American place in human society and civilization, can be
 studied in its broader lines, even with what materials we have. It is
 that of language in general. From one point of view language is man
 himself, and it certainly is civilization. Without it man is not man,
 a Self-expressing and social being.... It is the constant effort of
 the conscious self to formulate thought. It is the use of the energy
 of creation, of objectivation, a veritable many-colored rainbow bridge
 between the inner or higher man and the outer or lower worlds. And
 it is not only the expression of Man as man, but in its varied forms
 it is the inevitable and living expression of each man or body of
 men at any and every point of time. Itself boundless as an ocean,
 it is in its infinite forms and streams and colors and sounds, the
 faithful and exact exponent both of the sources and channels by which
 it has come, and of the banks in which it is held, racial, national or
 individual.... Every word or form comes to us with the thought-impress
 of every man or nation that has used or molded it before us. We must
 take it as it comes, but we give it something of ourselves as we pass
 it on. If our intellectual and spiritual thought is aflame, whether as
 nation or individual, we may purify it, energize it, give it power to
 form and arrange the atoms around it--and we have a new literature,
 a new and beneficent, creative social vehicle of intercourse, mutual
 understanding, and human unification....

 It is evident that the criterion of the perfectness of any language
 is not to be found in a comparison of its forms or methods with those
 of any other, but in its fitness as a vehicle for the expression of
 deeper life, of the best and greatest that is in those who use it, and
 above all in its ability to react and stimulate newer and yet greater
 mental and spiritual activity and expression. The force behind man,
 demanding expression through him, and him only, into the human life of
 all, is infinite--of necessity infinite. There is no limit, nor ever
 has been any limit, to what man may bring down into the dignifying,
 broadening and enriching of human life and evolution, save in his own
 ability to comprehend, express, and live it. And the brightness and
 cleanness of the tools whereby he formulates his thought, as well as
 the worthiness and fitness of the substance and the forms into which
 he shapes it for others to see, are the essentials of his craft....

 There is one great broad line that divides the nations and
 civilizations of the earth, past and present, in all their arts of
 expression. We may call it that of the ideographic as against the
 literal. It controls the inner form of language and of languages; it
 manifests in the passage of thought from man to man; it determines
 whether the writing of the people shall be hieroglyphic or alphabetic;
 it gives both life and form to the ideals of their art. It is a
 distinction that was clearly recognized by Wilhelm von Humboldt,
 when he laid down that the incorporative characteristic essential to
 all the American languages is the result of the exaltation of the
 imaginative over the ratiocinative elements of mind.

Ideographic writing directs the mind of the reader by means of a
picture or a symbol directly to the idea existing in the mind of the
one who uses it; while alphabetic or literal writing is simply the
written expression of the sound, and only indirectly expresses the idea.

Passing on from the culture of ancient America with its ideographs, the
writer draws attention to the great transition of thought, as indicated
by language, that took place in Central Asia probably, the supposed
seat of the Aryan beginnings after the destruction of Atlantis and the
general break-up of the former civilizations. He says:

 I believe ... that coincident with a new and universal world-epoch, as
 wide in its cultural scope as the difference between the ideographic
 and literal, there was finally formed a totally new vehicle for
 the use of human thought, the inflectional, literal, alphabetic.
 That this vehicle was perfected into some great speech, the direct
 ancestor of Sanskrit, into the _forms_ of which were concentrated
 all the old power of the ancient hieroglyphs and their underlying
 concepts. For Sanskrit, while the oldest is also the mightiest of
 Aryan grammars; and no one who has studied its forms, or heard
 its speech from educated native mouths, can call it anything but
 concentrated spiritual power. That the force which went on the one
 hand into the Sanskrit forms, was on the other perpetuated on into
 the special genius of Chinese, in which, as we know it, we have a
 retarded survival, not of course of outer form so much as of method
 and essence. And in Tibetan, in spite of all that is said to the
 contrary, I suspect that we have a derivative, not from either Chinese
 or Sanskrit as we know them, but by a medial line from a common point.

Many students feel convinced that once we solve the problem of the
Maya-Tzental manuscripts and carved inscriptions, which undoubtedly
relate to enormous periods of time, we shall have conclusive evidences
of the civilization and destruction of Atlantis. Several illuminating
quotations from H. P. Blavatsky's _Secret Doctrine_ are given by
Professor Gates, and in his last paragraph he sums up the results
of his long application to the study of ancient American and other
languages, in which he has been so notably helped by the teachings of
Theosophy, in these words:

 And I am convinced that the widest door there is to be opened to
 this past of the human race, is that of the Maya glyphs. The narrow
 limitations of our mental horizon as to the greatness and dignity of
 man, of his past, and of human evolution, were set back widely by
 Egypt and what she has had to show, and again by the Sanskrit; but the
 walls are still there, and advances, however rapid, are but gradual.
 With the reading of America I believe the walls themselves will fall,
 and a new conception of past history will come.




A NEW MAGAZINE

 Translation of an article that appeared in the Gothenburg paper
 _Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfarts Tidning_ for August 23, 1911, written
 by the literary and dramatic critic of the paper, J. Atterbom.


THE first number of a new international magazine which seems worthy of
recognition is now out in a Swedish edition. The publication is called
_Den Teosofiska Vägen_ (_The Theosophical Path_) and the ultimate
direction is in the hands of Katherine Tingley, the Leader of the
international Theosophical Movement. The editor of the Swedish edition
is Dr. Gustaf Zander, Stockholm.

This monthly magazine is intended to continue, on a broader scale, the
work of the former magazine _Theosophia_, which has been published
for a good many years. The interest in Theosophy has grown steadily
of late, not only in our country but in all civilized countries. And
the more attention the Theosophical Movement has attracted through
its propaganda and educational activities, the more the need has been
felt of a publication which, instead of devoting most of its space to
theoretical Theosophy and the deeper teachings of its philosophy suited
to advanced students, would serve primarily to enlighten and inform
all genuine seekers of Truth upon the essential character of this
Theosophical Movement throughout the world, and indicate _the path_
along which its workers are trying to make Theosophy a living power in
the world's life, as well as in the daily life of each of them.

The new international magazine, which is published in America at
the Center of the Movement, Point Loma, California, and in England,
Germany, Holland, and Sweden in the respective languages, will thus
be a valuable source of information for all who wish to know what
Theosophy, as understood in the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical
Society and as an ideal power for good, is really doing in a practical
way. The magazine seems to have an important mission to fulfil towards
the public in dispelling divers prejudices which the Movement has
encountered in its progress; prejudices of which its adversaries have
readily sought to avail themselves. And all who would like to see
better established those principles of compassion and helpfulness that
lead to practical results have in this magazine an excellent means of
reaching and helping new fellow-travelers on the path of Theosophy.

The international character of the magazine ensures contributions from
prominent foreign writers on problems and questions of general human
and international interest. And the intimate connexion with Point Loma,
it is stated, will allow it to present some views of the life of the
Students there, and to show some of the causes that have made the Râja
Yoga College at Point Loma an educational institution of world-wide
significance.

Not long ago Mrs. Tingley secured an estate on Visingsö, as all know,
in order to establish a school there on the same lines. As a reminder
of this the Swedish publication opens with a picture of the ruins
of Visingsborg Castle. Under the heading "The Path" are given some
quotations from William Q. Judge, who was a Student and co-worker of
H. P. Blavatsky, the Founder of the Theosophical Movement. Later he
became her successor. He passed away in 1896 and was followed by Mrs.
Tingley. General information regarding the early days and growth of the
Theosophical Movement can be found at the end of the magazine, where a
résumé is given.

H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society is the subject of a
special article. Then follow under the heading "On Firm Basis Stands
the Doctrine of Karma" some profound thoughts of Viktor Rydberg. He
says in part:

 Our acts and their effects constitute a series as everlasting as all
 other series of causes in nature. If you think that death on earth
 is able to break it, do not for confirmation plead the judgment of
 natural science. Science has its own ground and method, and knows that
 it has to explain the quantitative series of causes; beyond these
 it is unable to go. If you have not conviction with respect to the
 unseen, beware of the contrary shallow idea, that everything which
 cannot be seen does not really exist.... The doctrine of Karma has
 sprung from the depths of righteousness, which are indeed those of
 truth. No one escapes the effects of his acts.

An article by the editor, Dr. Zander, is on "The Power of Imagination
Inherent in Man." Professor Osvald Sirén gives a profusely illustrated
description of Point Loma; and Mr. Per Fernholm, M. E., who is
living at that place, gives some thoughts on Sweden in the Stone
Age, elucidating some points in our ancient history in the light of
Theosophical chronology, which seems to differ somewhat from that still
adopted by archaeologists and geologists.

The American publication presents perhaps a still fuller outline of
the field proposed to be covered by the magazine, as also of the
resources that the Theosophical Movement possesses for the realization
of its objects. A prominent place is evidently given to Art--music,
painting, and sculpture, literature and drama--as a means to reach a
wider circle; serving as a mediator between the supersensible and the
sensible, the immaterial spiritual life and the material physical life.

The object of the magazine is placed in a special light by a quotation
from H. P. Blavatsky, chosen as motto in the American edition. It reads:

 The Secret Doctrine is the common property of the countless millions
 of men born under various climates, in times with which History
 refuses to deal, and to which esoteric teachings assign dates
 incompatible with the theories of Geology and Anthropology. The
 birth and evolution of the Sacred Science of the Past are lost in
 the very night of Time.... It is only by bringing before the reader
 an abundance of proofs all tending to show that in every age, under
 every condition of civilization and knowledge, the educated classes of
 every nation made themselves the more or less faithful echoes of one
 identical system and its fundamental traditions--that he can be made
 to see that so many streams of the same water must have had a common
 source from which they started. What was this source?... There must be
 truth and fact in that which every people of antiquity accepted and
 made the foundation of its religions and its faith.

A full list of general Theosophical literature is found in the magazine.




THE STRANGE LITTLE GIRL: a Story for the Children, by V.M.

Illustrations by N. Roth. 12mo, about 70 pages, cloth 75 cents.


This little book, printed by the Aryan Theosophical Press, Point Loma,
California, will be ready in time to form a wholly charming Christmas
or New Year's gift. It is in large clear type on good paper, and
the fourteen illustrations are quite unique. Eline, a princess who
lived in a marvelous realm of joy and peace, divines from what some
travelers left unsaid that there is another and a different world. She
interrogates the king, who finally says the children are free to come
and go. A harper arrives whose music speaks of far off sorrow. They
pass away together; she drinks the cup of forgetfulness, and reaches
the other world where many things happen of interest so supreme that we
fancy older folk will be eagerly reading this book when the children
are asleep, for it will interest both young and old.




The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society

Founded at New York City in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky, William Q. Judge
and others

Reorganized in 1898 by Katherine Tingley

Central Office, Point Loma, California


 The Headquarters of the Society at Point Loma with the buildings and
 grounds, are no "Community" "Settlement" or "Colony." They form no
 experiment in Socialism, Communism, or anything of similar nature,
 but are the Central Executive Office of an international organization
 where the business of the same is carried on, and where the teachings
 of Theosophy are being demonstrated. Midway 'twixt East and West,
 where the rising Sun of Progress and Enlightenment shall one day
 stand at full meridian, the Headquarters of the Society unite the
 philosophic Orient with the practical West.


MEMBERSHIP

 in the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society may be
 either "at large" or in a local Branch. Adhesion to the principle
 of Universal Brotherhood is the only pre-requisite to membership.
 The Organization represents no particular creed; it is entirely
 unsectarian, and includes professors of all faiths, only exacting from
 each member that large toleration of the beliefs of others which he
 desires them to exhibit towards his own.

 Applications for membership in a Branch should be addressed to
 the local Director; for membership "at large" to G. de Purucker,
 Membership Secretary, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point
 Loma, California.


OBJECTS

This Brotherhood is a part of a great and universal movement which has
been active in all ages.

This Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. Its
principal purpose is to teach Brotherhood, demonstrate that it is a
fact in Nature, and make it a living power in the life of humanity.

Its subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and modern religions,
science, philosophy, and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the
divine powers in man.

It is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy
and of our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P.
Blavatsky, the Foundress, and even the Society's motto, to attract
attention to themselves and to gain public support. This they do in
private and public speech and in publications. Without being in any way
connected with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in
many cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading
the public, and honest inquirers are hence led away from the original
truths of Theosophy.

The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society welcomes to
membership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the
eradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste,
or color, which have so long impeded human progress; to all sincere
lovers of truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than
the mere pleasures and interests of a worldly life and are prepared to
do all in their power to make Brotherhood a living energy in the life
of humanity, its various departments offer unlimited opportunities.

The whole work of the Organization is under the direction of the Leader
and Official Head, Katherine Tingley, as outlined in the Constitution.

Inquirers desiring further information about Theosophy or the
Theosophical Society are invited to write to


  THE SECRETARY

  International Theosophical Headquarters

  Point Loma, California


[Illustration: THE PATH]

The Theosophical Path

An International Magazine

Unsectarian and nonpolitical

  Monthly      Illustrated

[Illustration]

Devoted to the Brotherhood of Humanity, the promulgation of Theosophy,
the study of ancient & modern Ethics, Philosophy, Science and Art, and
to the uplifting and purification of Home and National Life


Edited by Katherine Tingley

International Theosophical Headquarters, Point Loma, California, U.S.A.




_A knowledge concerning spiritual and Divine things is surely
attainable with much greater precision than commonplace modern
philosophy dreams of: it has been attained by great Theosophists
in all ages; it is recorded in a hundred enigmatic volumes, the
comprehension of which exacts the care and effort which in due time
it will so well reward, and the pursuit of this knowledge is one of
the great aims of the Theosophical Society.... And another great aim
of the Theosophical Society has been to show how the pursuit even of
the highest philosophical knowledge must itself, to be successful, be
wedded with the wish to do good to the whole family of mankind. As a
mere intellectual luxury, sought for in a selfish spirit, spiritual
knowledge itself must necessarily be futile and unprogressive. This
is a great mystic truth, and out of the full knowledge thereof on the
part of those from whom the Theosophical Society received its creative
impulse, has arisen_ THAT PRIMARY WATCH-WORD OF OUR ASSOCIATION
"UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD."--H. P. BLAVATSKY

  (_The Theosophist_. Vol. I, No. 2, Leading Article.)




  THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH
  MONTHLY ILLUSTRATED

  EDITED BY KATHERINE TINGLEY

  NEW CENTURY CORPORATION, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.

  Entered as second-class matter July 25, 1911, at the Post Office at
  Point Loma, California under the Act of March 3, 1879
  Copyright, 1911, by Katherine Tingley


 COMMUNICATIONS

 Communications for the Editor should be addressed to "KATHERINE
 TINGLEY, _Editor_, THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH, Point Loma, California."

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  VOL. I   NO. 6      CONTENTS      DECEMBER 1911


  Southeastern View of the Râja Yoga College,
      Point Loma, California                              _Frontispiece_
  Christmas                                         Kenneth Morris   387
  Views of Rothenburg, Germany (_illustrations_)                 390-391
  Peace on Earth: Good Will toward Men                  R. Machell   391
  Psychism: A Study in Hidden Connexions
                                       H. T. Edge, B. A. (Cantab.)   393
  A Magic Boat                                               D. F.   399
  Irish Scenes (_illustrated_)
                   Fred J. Dick, M. INST. C. E., M. INST. C. E. I.   400
  The Bluebells of Wernoleu: A Welsh Legend (_verse_)
                                                    Kenneth Morris   404
  The Soul at the British Association                Henry Travers   406
  Warwick Castle (_illustrated_)                        C. J. Ryan   409
  Man and Nature                                        R. Machell   410
  The Will as a Chemical Product                      Investigator   413
  Open-Air Drama (_illustrated_)   Per Fernholm, M. E. (Stockholm)   415
  Intra-Atomic Energy                 H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.   417
  A Japanese Writer's Views on Modern Civilization
                                              E. S. (Tokyo, Japan)   418
  Copán, and its Position in American History (_illustrated_)
                                                  William E. Gates   419
  Scientific Brevities                                The Busy Bee   427
  Views of San Diego, California; Seraejevo, Capital of Bosnia;
      Klamath Reclamation Project, Oregon-California (_illustrations_)
                                                                 434-435
  Conflict of the Ages (_verse_)                             S. F.   435
  Women who have Influenced the World         The Rev. S. J. Neill   436
  The Turkish Woman                                   Grace Knoche   439
  An English Lady's Letter (_with illustration_)
                                              F. D. Udall (London)   442
  A Magic Place: A Forest Idyll for Young Folks (_illustrated_)
                                                 M. Ginevra Munson   443
  Current Topics                                          Observer   447
  Book Reviews: _Les Derniers Barbares: Chine, Tibet, Mongolia_
      (Commandant d'Ollone), _with illustrations_;
      H. Alexander Fussell. _The Plough and the Cross_
      (William Patrick O'Ryan): F. J. D.                             452
  Notices; Advertisements                                            458

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. SOUTHEASTERN VIEW OF
THE RÂJA YOGA COLLEGE, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA THE ARYAN MEMORIAL TEMPLE
TO THE LEFT]




THE THEOSOPHICAL PATH

KATHERINE TINGLEY, EDITOR

  VOL. I      DECEMBER, 1911      NO. 6

 The dayspring from on high hath visited us, ... to guide our feet into
 the way of peace.--_Luke_ i. 78. 79

CHRISTMAS: by Kenneth Morris


This is the time when we decorate our habitations with holly and
mistletoe, and our hearts with unwonted good feeling, commemorating the
dawning of a great light. There are certain stations in the journey of
the year, where we may see the legend writ large on the signboards:
"Change here for a better way of life; change here for happiness." We
read, and come out on the platform; make festivity a little in the
waiting (and refreshment) rooms, and then bundle back into the old
train, having never changed at all. The Christmas-New Year time, and
the Easter-time of the flowers, are two such important junctions; and
it is worth while to note that these feasts were kept long before the
advent of Christianity. For Christmas is in the very nature of things,
and not merely historically, the birthday of the Christ. It is the end
of the winter solstice, when the sun is, as it were, born anew after
his months of decline, and begins to flow towards the high tide mark of
his power.

That there is a certain reality in the significance of the season,
is proven by the bright good will that greets us when we rise on a
Christmas morning, and that it is so hard to escape. Marley's ghost and
the three spirits will be apt to haunt the veriest Scrooge among us,
forcing issues, compelling us to see that benevolence and kindliness
are part of the essential business of life. Though we starve our
souls on a thin diet of self-interest during the rest of the year,
now our fare shall be less meager, and the whole world demands of us
that we share in the common joy. There lies the heart and crux of it
all--_share_. It is a great thing that there should be the habit of
present-giving; it is so easy, when one is considering the giving
of a gift, to escape from self, and take thought in some degree for
the one to whom the gift is destined. Just a little such thought
is cleansing; for even the least trickle of it, Augean selfhood is
the sweeter and more habitable. And here it is flowing at Christmas
time, a full current of which all the world may partake. The force of
age-long custom has dedicated the day, and the habit has been formed
of making an effort at brotherly feeling. We think of the children, of
absentees, of many we give no thought to at other times. No doubt but
for this, many a soul still flickers on, that would else have dwindled
long since into pin-point insignificance, or waned altogether out of
minds anchored at all other times to dreary and sordid self-interest.
No doubt our civilization would be nearer to the rocks even than it
is, or quite battered and broken on them, were it not that we do put
some strain on the rudders, and turn, if falteringly and without clear
design, to the free open waters on this one day of the year.

It is the proof of brotherhood, and that we are all filled with a
common life, this generality of Christmas good will. We share in
thought and feeling, as much as we do in the very air we breathe;
mental infection is as real, and perilous, as the physical infection
of disease. One man's thinking, though unuttered, shall pass through a
thousand minds, sowing wheat or tares, good or evil, light or darkness,
health or disease, in every one of them. What a new light this sheds
on the question of reform! New laws are only efficient as old modes
of thought are sweetened and uplifted. Will you move heaven and earth
over the mote that is in your brother's eye, forgetting the beam that
is in your own? Then do you stand accused, not merely of hypocrisy, but
of being a worthless, profitless laborer, a twister of sand-ropes, a
plower of the barren shore.

But what might not Christmas be for us, were we to treat it really
reasonably! Happiness lies not in the region of sanctimonious
ecstatics; but then, it is also incompatible with an overloaded
stomach. We begin well enough with the wishes for a "Merry Christmas";
excellently well with the geniality and present-giving. What a promise
there is for all sorts and conditions of men, or nearly all, on a
Christmas morning: what a general sun of Austerlitz is it that rises!
But how of its setting? What heavy physical clouds there are apt to be;
what a sinking low, a simple vanishing, of ideals--what mere brute,
material indigestion! Heigho! here's a come-down--from PEACE ON EARTH,
GOOD WILL TO MEN, to these well-known, brain-deadening results!

It all comes of our erratic, freakish extremism. We pride ourselves on
the practical trend of our lives: Gad, there's no nonsense here; it is
a businesslike and commonsense generation, with the whole trade of the
world on its hands; and what would you have, sir? Why, some evidence of
that same so-much-bragged-of commonsense, if there be any. Our notion
of carrying on the work of the world is, on the whole and for the most
part, a fever; a wearing out of manhood, a furious, unseemly jostling
round the trough wherein providence, like a swineherd, pours the wash
of money, position, fame, power, etc.; and while we are so fighting
and swilling, the work of the world is left undone; it may take care
of itself, it may go hang, we will have none of it. Does anyone doubt
that? Let him look around and see the abuses that remain and fester,
heaven knows, till the world is rank with the corruption of them. Let
him think of the reformatories that don't reform; of the horror that
walketh by night in the cities. When he has taken note of _all_ the
work left undone within the limits of his own nation, let him consider,
but with more charity--for the conditions will be less easy for him
to understand--the work that other nations are leaving undone; the
work that humanity as a whole whistles past unheeding. And meanwhile
we sweat and drudge and strain, strain and drudge and sweat after the
things we desire, money and so forth; we give health for it, culture
for it, leisure for it, honor for it, virtue for it, manhood for it;
and call that business; call that doing the work of the world. Oh how
this aching earth must be desiring a humanity that can put in some
claim to be human!

We cannot go on so always; we must of course have safety-valves
somewhere; and so we arrange these holidays and festivals, when we
shall react and revolt against the things of common day, and be wildly
different, for those few annual hours at least. Now we will have
pleasure, rest, recreation. So--

Oh, we know the sweet fair picture! We know how it is done, only too
often, this recreation business. Come now, who is it that is recreated?
Which element, which party, which guild or stratum of society in that
curious pathocratical republic, that kingless, impolitic, mob-swayed
kingdom called the human personality, rises like a giant refreshed from
the somnolent, torpid nebulosity wherewith the liver, poor drudge on
strike, has its revenge on its tyrant? How much of Christmas good will,
Christmas merriment and cheer, will be carried forward? What new light
will shine on our workaday activities?

You pass through a treasure-house, from which you may take what you
will, and the more you take, the better. But you "take no thought
for the morrow"--with a vengeance! you pay no heed to the rich and
beautiful things; you allow yourself to be beguiled, from entrance to
exit of it, by that most wily esurient companion Appetite, that should
be slave and porter but has tricked himself into the position of master
and guide. We do go in there, indeed; we do see the treasures; it is
proven for us that they exist, and undoubtedly we are the better for
that. But we might go forth enriched for the whole year; and--we don't.
Christmas, that might be perennial, hardly lasts for a whole day.

Why should not such a birthday be kept in a fitting manner? Is there
nothing within ourselves that corresponds to the Hero of the day--no
sunbright redeeming principle? Indeed there is; and it is the service
of that that pays (to put it vulgarly); for that is the soul, whose
mere garments are brain and body and appetites; indeed, whose mere
hopples and handcuffs they are. No joy is acceptable, or without its
sickening foul aftertaste, unless countersigned by It; that feast is
poisonous of which It does not partake. To carry through the day the
jolly atmosphere of good will and good service, of stepping outside
selfhood; to keep one's insolent servant, appetite, cowed and right
down in its place, finding pleasure in the things that belong to
ourselves, not to it--that would be to celebrate Christmas rationally.
When we do so, we do not find that the Christmas spirit wanes with the
waning of the holidays.

I wish the whole world could have just a glimpse of the Lomaland
Christmas, which is such a rational one, permeated with sunlight "both
within and without." Then it would be more generally understood,
how that the day may be, and ought to be, the feast-day of Human
Brotherhood, the annual reconsecration of the celebrants to all things
bright and beautiful, and cheerful and excellent, and happy and
thoroughly practical and of good report. By heaven, the influence of
these Theosophical Christmases will make its mark on the world yet!

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ROTHENBURG: A VIEW
OF THE MEDIEVAL TOWN]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ANOTHER VIEW OF
ROTHENBURG: A ROMANTIC CORNER]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. VIEW OF ROTHENBURG
SHOWING SOME OF THE OLD TOWN HOUSES]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ROTHENBURG: THE
"STRAFTHURM"]




PEACE ON EARTH: GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN: by R. Machell


Peace to all beings! is an Eastern benediction. Peace on earth: good
will toward men! is the Christian expression of the same heart-felt
emotion. But what is peace? Is it merely the suspension of war, or
the prevention of war, or its postponement? Is a long period of
peace merely _in itself_ productive of "good will toward men"? Does
prosperity necessarily produce generosity, love, nobility, dignity,
purity, or happiness? Can we possibly answer in the affirmative with
the statistics of want and crime, corruption and suicide before our
eyes constantly? Is peace the absence of war? If so we must stretch the
meaning of the word war very considerably, stretch it indeed until it
includes all unbrotherly acts; but then it will include a great part
of our commercial system as well as of our social life. What then? Is
peace a mockery? If so why is it so generally recognized as a desirable
state, a blessed state, a state of beauty and joy? The cessation of
international wars, so greatly to be desired, is peace of one kind
only. "The peace of God that passeth all understanding," is another.

It has been found that the greatest stability can be attained by
maintaining rapid motion in a heavy body, as in the gyrostat, the
power of which has made the monorail train and other strange things a
possibility. Thus stability in mechanics is found to be increased by
rapid motion; rest is produced by action. Even in the arts of peace,
and indeed more particularly in these, prosperity depends upon intense
activity; when the works are at rest there is not usually an extra
amount of peace and good will in evidence. Prosperity is not the result
of idleness, and peace is not attained by the prevention of war; an
idle man may grow fat, and a nation that does not fight may grow rich;
but the fat man is not the healthy man, not the ideal human being,
and the rich nation is not the happy nation; neither the fat man nor
the rich nation are types of true progress in the eyes of any but the
grossest of materialists.

I venture to think that peace is not at all a question of war or its
prevention, but entirely a matter of _self-discipline_: self-discipline
in the individual, in the family, the community, the nation, and the
entire human race. It is the result of ceaseless activity. If this
activity of self-discipline (_not_ self-torture or abuse of the body)
ceases there is an end of the state of peace as surely as the top or
gyrostat falls when its rotation ceases. The essence of this rotation
is the recognition of the center or axis of rotation by all the
particles of the revolving body, from which an important analogy may be
drawn. Self-discipline begins at home, as surely as the circle can only
be described around a center. A circle without a center is unthinkable,
and so is self-control without a self; but as the center of any visible
object is itself an abstract point (having no magnitude) but subsisting
on the plane of the immaterial, so the self is not material, but in its
spiritual reality bears a similar mysterious relation to the material
body that the abstraction called the center bears to a mass. A homeless
man may be self-disciplined, but a nation is not composed of homeless
men; national life depends upon the family and the family depends
upon the home. The home is the spiritual center of the nation. It is
everywhere and depends upon the ceaseless activity of its parts. This
is the great binding-force that holds a nation in balance, and when
this home-life weakens, the whole nation, like a top whose rotation
slows down, begins to wobble; then, like the top, it is likely to fall
over and rush off violently in any direction, and it becomes a dead
body.

So if we would have peace in ourselves we must keep up a ceaseless
fight against the inertia of the lower nature and replace the false
peace of inertia by the stability, which, as in the gyrostat, results
from rapid motion round its own center--that is to say, constant
attention to duty. If we would have peace in the nation we must have
it in our homes, and the home must have its invisible center of
attraction, and the constant attention to duty of its parts or members.

If this is established there will be no great need to think about the
sorrows of international wars or the means of preventing them.

       *       *       *       *       *

 UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD has no creeds or dogmas; it is built on the
 basis of common sense. It teaches that man is divine, that the soul
 of man is imperishable, and that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature, and
 consequently takes in all humanity.

 Men must rid themselves of fear, and reach a point where they realize
 that they are souls, and where they will strive to live as souls, with
 a sense of their duty to their fellows.--_Katherine Tingley_




PSYCHISM: A Study in Hidden Connexions: by H. T. Edge, B. A.
(Cantab.)


The wave of psychism which is sweeping over us grows more pronounced as
time goes on. If we do not master it, it will master us and bring our
civilization to an untimely end.

Theosophy did not bring on this tide of psychism. Theosophy was
introduced (in part) for the purpose of coping with it. When H. P.
Blavatsky entered upon her work she foresaw what was approaching. An
era of materialism was about to be succeeded by a reaction towards
psychism. The first beginnings were already manifest in the rise of
phenomenalism. One of the objects of founding the Theosophical Society
was to prevent the disasters that would arise if this wave of psychism
should come in the midst of an atmosphere of selfishness and ignorance.
Some people still wrongly suppose that H. P. Blavatsky initiated the
interest in psychism; but what she really did was to prepare the way
for a successful fight against the abuse of psychism; to prepare the
way by introducing to the world a knowledge of OCCULTISM--a very
different thing. She did work among the Spiritists because that
movement was there ready to hand; among them she found many awaiting
the teachings of Theosophy. She sought to turn the prevalent craze
for phenomena into channels of true knowledge. Her writings all show
how strongly she emphasized the dangers of dabbling in phenomenalism
and the distinction between Occultism and the occult arts, between
Spiritual powers and psychic powers.

Some may think the warnings of Theosophists against psychism are
exaggerated, but the record of facts tells a different story. Every day
brings new justification of these warnings. In a newspaper published by
the American-Examiner Company there lately appeared an article entitled
"The Soul-Destroying Poison of the East." Let it be said at the outset
that the phrase thus unqualified would constitute a libel upon the
East, and that it is not the East in general, but merely a particular
phase of orientalism, that is intended. The title goes on: "The Tragic
Flood of Broken Homes and Hearts, Disgrace and Suicide, that follows
the broadening stream of Morbidly Alluring Oriental 'Philosophies' into
Our Country."

The article begins as follows:

 It is startling to realize that in many a commonplace flat ... occult
 rites are being celebrated as shocking as the ancient worship of
 Moloch and Baal. A long series of recent occurrences has proved that
 Oriental occultism in various forms has many followers in the United
 States.... Hindu occultism is leprous.

This kind certainly is; but should it not be the ambition of Hindûs
to clear their name from such an aspersion? The article then recounts
several cases of the breaking up of homes, suicides, and other
calamities, of a kind with which we are daily becoming more familiar
through the columns of the newspapers; and it traces all these to
the subtle influence of the said poison. It goes on to speak of
"Tantrikism," a cult which is said to have 100,000 followers in the
United States and to have been introduced by the "Swamis," many of
whom came over ostensibly to attend the Congress of Religions in 1893.
We know of a certain class of Swâmis, sanctimonious and plausible
individuals, who reap a harvest from a credulous and admiring public.

According to my interpretation of the following quotations, the basis
of this cult is a deification of passion and sensuality. Indeed that
seems to be the whole tenor of it. It exalts weakness and vice into an
appearance of virtue and makes a religion of depravity. The fundamental
principle is thus expressed:

 Our emotional longings are not to be crushed, but we must lend brain,
 heart and muscle to secure their eternal gratification.

To quote again:

 Some of the American Tantriks would persuade American parents that it
 is an honor to have their daughters chosen as nautch-girls, _and it is
 sad to say that they sometimes succeed_.

Oh, parents! Fond and foolish, but how ignorant!

All this fully justifies Theosophists in asserting that there is a
cancer lurking at the roots of our racial vitality. How futile and
frivolous, in face of this terrible fact, seem our puny efforts at
reform by legislation and philanthropy, a mere tinkering at the
symptoms. The sexual passion has obtained a fearful hold on us, as is
manifested in numerous ways, in secret and open depravity, in the form
of new religions and philosophies. Here we have a cult which exalts it
into a worship and which is well calculated to ensnare the morbidly
excited imaginations, debilitated nervous systems, and untrained minds
of our ill-guided youth of either sex.

No doubt the above account will come as a revelation to many, and
it may serve to enlighten them on some matters which before were
dark, particularly as to the underground connexions between certain
things which on the surface seem unconnected. One of these is _the
connexion between psychism and crank religions on the one hand and
sexual depravity on the other_. From the beginning Theosophists have
insisted on this fact and issued warnings against the danger. It is
a commonplace of the history of religions and cults that, when the
devotees fail in following the path of light and duty, they lapse into
sensual perversions. As far as we can trace back, we find instances of
pure worship and sacred symbolism being perverted into gross license
and corrupt teachings. In our times we have witnessed many eruptions of
vice associated with crank religions. The connexion is not accidental;
it simply means that when anyone dares to try and make the higher
nature serve the lower he ends in a complete breakdown.

How well is illustrated the truth that psychic practices merely
stimulate the animal centers, send up a foul current to the brain, and
produce an emotional and erotic intoxication, which is often mistaken
by the ignorant dabbler for divine inspiration!

And here we call attention to the circumstance that innumerable people
today are _ignorantly and heedlessly dabbling in psychism_. Many of
them are perfectly innocent of any leanings to depravity. Yet observe
the connexion. Theosophists have never failed to warn them; and for
their pains have been laughed at; yet see the confirmation of their
warnings. We merely take this occasion to point out to the heedless and
innocent experimenters the dangers that lie ahead of them in the path
they are treading. There are only two paths in Occultism--the right and
the wrong; the right path is the path of duty, service, and righteous
living; any other path is the wrong path.

In an age when nothing is immune against perversion, it is no slur upon
the Theosophical Society to say that even that body, pure and lofty
as its teachings and work are, has not been free from attempts made
to divert it into some wrong direction. From time to time ambitious
and misguided adherents have deserted its ranks that they might pursue
outside the courses which they were prevented from pursuing within.

In this way a number of so-called "Theosophical" cults have originated,
which in varying degrees carry on a propaganda that misrepresents
Theosophy and thereby wrongs the public. The reason for alluding to
this here is that some members of these cults are preaching the very
psychism which, as has just been shown, is so intimately related to
these grave abuses. In books and on the lecture platform we may find
their leaders reproducing some form of the original Theosophical
teachings and even professing lofty principles of morality; but a
closer examination of the teachings prevailing among them reveals
only too often the same unsavory atmosphere of psychism. If these
"teachers" really followed the lofty teachings they profess there
could be no reason why they should not be working in harmony with real
Theosophists; but it is because they have cut themselves from the pure
teachings of H. P. Blavatsky and the original Theosophical program that
Theosophists are obliged to repudiate them.

It behooves all people who have a reputation to preserve to search
out carefully these hidden connexions and make sure of the nature of
everything they may endorse; for a man is judged by his associations.

Again, all kinds of "new" social doctrines are being preached, usually
in the name of liberty, honesty, and purity; and those who protest
against them are dubbed "slaves of Mrs. Grundy." But in view of the
above newspaper revelations it would seem as though the protestors
had some justification for their warnings. In much of this talk
about liberty we detect not liberty but license. We are told, on
high authority, apparently, that it is better to give vent to one's
"youthful vitality" than to let it smoulder; but what becomes of this
argument in view of the Tântrik program mentioned above, or other
similar cults?

There is a class of popular writers who, having won the public ear
by novels, brilliant criticism, or some such way, are now using the
opportunity to vent their crude speculations and unripe imaginings,
which pass current as "daring and original views." The morbidity,
acidity, or angularity of their minds--seemingly unsuspected by
themselves--is revealed in a way that dismisses them from the
consideration of the more thoughtful readers; but they serve as
ringleaders to a host of readers who share their temperament if not
their literary gifts. They analyse in their peculiar fashion the
institutions of human life as though they were people sent from another
planet to inspect this world. Ignorant of the existence or possibility
of points of view other than their own, they discuss marriage as if it
were a physiological problem, and men as if they were but draughts on
a checkerboard.

We have had novels based on the theory that human life is a
physiological question, whose heroines are soulless over-cerebrated
women of the most intolerable type; and a continuous torrent of smart
writing whose aim seems to be to turn everything upside down and
take the perverse view on every possible occasion. All this literary
rubbish, whatever its moving spirit may be, must be regarded as a part
of the general disintegrative force that is at work among us; its
effect is to unsettle inexperienced minds at a time when they need
guidance; and thus to pave the way for the implanting of the noxious
seeds described above.

Time and space will not suffice for a full list of the movements and
cults and fads which are all heading, consciously or unconsciously,
in this dangerous direction--fads scientific, religious, social, what
not. Sometimes one can detect the same element at the root of them--the
morbid craving, the pruriency of thought, the subtle suggestion of
the lower nature seeking new recognition for itself by assuming an
attractive disguise.

The difficulties of a Theosophist may be realized when we bear in mind
that he has to warn people against dangers which, though real to him,
by reason of his knowledge of human nature, are by them unsuspected.
So many of the fads seem quite harmless. Yet the Theosophist may be
aware of the direction in which they are tending, or of some ugly
facts beneath the surface. His warnings are uttered with the voice of
genuine compassion. He sees every one of his warnings justified as
time goes on and the latent seeds of evil develop and come into view.
His one aim in life is to spread a knowledge of the noble and helpful
teachings of Theosophy, for these alone can cope with such a subtle and
powerful foe. His pity is aroused for those who are innocently lending
themselves to such a propaganda, and for those earnest truth-seekers
who are deceived by the misrepresentation.

So great is the menace of evils like the above, and so rapidly are
they spreading, that every attempted reform sinks into insignificance
beside the importance of dealing with this. We fret about the evils
of our educational system, the increase of insanity and suicide,
child-degeneracy, consumption and cancer, drug-taking, the white slave
traffic, unemployment and labor troubles, all kinds of problems;
when down in the very marrow of our twentieth century life lurks
this frightful decay. Under the most plausible and specious forms it
insinuates itself. Many "teachers" are insinuating the same poison
into us under the guise of fine high-sounding doctrines, and sometimes
_even by using Theosophical terms_. Sometimes from beneath the surface
of their public teachings some "inner doctrine" pops up as though the
teachers were experimenting with the public tolerance; and we hear
whispers of a "new morality," strange sexual doctrines, etc. Then, if
we are wise, we suspect what lies at the root.

The consequences to our children and youth are a thing that should
surely move our hearts. Parents and teachers alike are by their own
confession unable to cope with the evils becoming so rampant among the
young. Noted headmasters have given up in despair the attempt to stop
unnatural vice among the boys entrusted by loving parents to their
care. Most mothers are sublimely ignorant of what goes on in the inner
life of their boys and girls, who in secret and in ignorance are all
the time sowing in their constitution the soil of debility in which the
poison seeds so ruthlessly sown can sprout.

In fact there is no visible power competent to deal with this evil. It
lies beyond the reach of any criminal or judicial procedure. Religion
is powerless before it; science can find no cure. So the conclusion
remains that unless something is done, the evil will continue to grow
and spread unchecked, involving in its decay the very powers that
should check it, until the fabric of society is altogether loosened and
our civilization comes to a premature end.

In the past whole nations probably have been swept away by this cause.
Our own race has reached a point in its development where the same
fate threatens it. Unless we are to experience a general outburst of
libertinism, a welter of disease and insanity, a universal strife, we
must find some means of restoring a knowledge of the immutable laws of
life and an adherence thereto, such as taught by Theosophy. Passion
can never be overcome by being indulged; it has to be subdued by
self-knowledge.

Those unfortunately afflicted with unlawful desires should not seek to
make society their victim in the hope of thus saving their miserable
selves. Let them patiently and loyally bear their burden until
unremitting effort at last brings the meed of success. Such infirmities
must perish at last if they are not fed by the mind; but as they
took a long time in the acquiring, they may take a long time in the
undoing. Disease is thrown off by building surely, if slowly, a healthy
foundation. We conclude with a few quotations from H. P. Blavatsky:

 Do not believe that lust can ever be killed out if gratified or
 satiated, for this is an abomination inspired by Mâra [delusion]. It
 is by feeding vice that it expands and waxes strong, like to the worm
 that fattens on the blossom's heart.--_The Voice of the Silence_

 Occultism is not Magic. It is comparatively easy to learn the trick
 of spells and the methods of using the subtler, but still material,
 forces of physical nature; the powers of the animal soul in man are
 soon awakened; the forces which his love, his hate, his passion,
 can call into operation, are readily developed. But this is Black
 Magic--Sorcery.... The powers and forces of animal nature can be used
 by the selfish and revengeful, as much as by the unselfish and the
 all-forgiving; the powers and forces of Spirit lend themselves only
 to the perfectly pure in heart--and this is DIVINE MAGIC.--_Practical
 Occultism_

 There are not in the West half-a-dozen among the fervent hundreds who
 call themselves "Occultists," who have even an approximately correct
 idea of the nature of the Science they seek to master. With a few
 exceptions, they are all on the highway to Sorcery. Let them restore
 some order in the chaos that reigns in their minds, before they
 protest against this statement. Let them first learn the true relation
 in which the Occult Sciences stand to Occultism, and the difference
 between the two, and then feel wrathful if they still think themselves
 right. Meanwhile, let them learn that Occultism differs from Magic
 and other secret Sciences as the glorious sun does from a rush-light,
 as the immutable and immortal Spirit of Man--the reflection of the
 absolute, causeless, and unknowable ALL--differs from the mortal clay,
 the human body.--_Occultism versus the Occult Arts_




A MAGIC BOAT: by D. F.


In the Scandinavian saga the vessel _Ellida_ one day quietly sailed
into harbor and dropped anchor, without a living creature on board.
This performance seems at first to be surpassed by that of an electric
launch on Lake Wann, Berlin, which though carrying no human freight
effected the following feats at the behest of a distant but controlling
intelligence: steering; starting, stopping, or reversing of engines;
firing of signal guns, fireworks, mines, or torpedoes; ringing of
bells; lighting or extinction of electric lamps; and other operations.
Of course the agency is an ingenious extension and adaptation of
wireless telegraphic methods, said to be applicable also to airplanes,
railroad trains, life-boats, etc. But the _Ellida_ had some excellent
qualities, too, for work in all weather on the high seas.




IRISH SCENES: by Fred J. Dick, M. Inst. C. E., M. Inst. C. E. I.


To the archaeologist, the geologist, the folk-lorist, and the lover of
nature in all her aspects, perhaps no area of similar extent is more
replete with interest than that of Ireland. As to fairies, the county
Sligo folk will tell you they have more of them to the square yard than
can be found in a square mile of the county Kerry. Folk-lorists will
doubtless pass upon this claim intelligently, when they wear the right
sort of spectacles. Fairies aside, however, hardly a square mile of the
country lacks some ruin of great antiquity.

Nearly two thousand years have elapsed since Baile Atha Cliath
Duibhlinne (the town of the hurdle-ford on the black river), now
Dublin, began to share with Tara the honor of being chief city. Dublin,
therefore, has no known history that could be called really ancient;
for in the light of the Theosophical teachings and records, two
thousand years is merely modern. Tara, on the other hand, was a center
of national life and government so ancient as to be probably coeval
with Brugh na Boinne. Which means they were there "before the flood,"
or in other words, long before Poseidon went down, some eleven or
twelve thousand years ago.

The fact that the city of Tara was set on a hill, suggests the idea
that there may have been a time, once, when cities having certain high
functions to fulfil, were usually set on hills.

In correspondence with the withdrawal of the higher influences of the
Tuatha de Danaans from visible participation in Irish life, and the
reign of the Formorians and their heirs, leading Ireland in common with
other places to descent through dark ages, it was fitting that regal
and poetic Tara should fade, and Dublin rise with its distilleries,
breweries, and vivisection halls, and with many of its folk within
hospitals, poor-houses, and insane asylums--in accentuation of the
modern spirit. That such conditions are, in point of fact, unnecessary,
can easily be deduced from the study of certain small races who have
not wholly forgotten some essential principles in the art of living.

Nevertheless, Dublin, equally with other parts of Ireland, has its
bright side. Much of its social life is vivacious, artistic, and
literary in high degree, surpassing many cities in these respects.
This city began to assume its present appearance in the eighteenth
century, when Sackville street, as then named, was built. It is one
of the finest streets in Europe. The munificent grants of the Irish
parliament enabled many handsome public buildings to be constructed,
as well as hospitals, harbors, canals, etc. Among the finest of the
public edifices is that of the old houses of parliament, now occupied
as a bank.

The first meeting of the Irish parliament within the part of this
structure then completed, took place in 1731; but entire legislative
independence was only reached in 1782. Eighteen years later, owing
to some rather meretricious influences, the parliament voted away
its rights; and the Union occurred in 1800. The building, which took
many years to complete, possesses majesty in design combined with
simplicity in arrangement, and has few rivals. Constructed of Portland
stone, the style is chastely classic, owing nothing to extraneous
embellishment--the mere outline producing a harmonious effect. The
principal front is formed by an Ionic colonnade, raised on a flight
of steps, and ranged round three sides of a spacious quadrangle. In
the central part a portico projects, formed of four Ionic columns,
sustaining a tympanum with the royal arms, while the apex is adorned
with a colossal statue--Hibernia--with others representing Fidelity
and Commerce on the western and eastern points. From the outer ends of
these colonnades the building sweeps eastward and westward in circular
form, the walls, unpierced by openings, standing behind rows of
Corinthian columns, and having the interspaces tastefully indented by
niches. Over the eastern portico are statues of Fortitude, Justice, and
Liberty. The original designer of this noble edifice is unknown. The
House of Lords has been left practically untouched to this day, save
that the Speaker's chair is now in the Royal Irish Academy.

On the opposite side of College Green is the extensive Corinthian
façade of Trinity College; and passing a short way towards Sackville
(now O'Connell) street, one reaches the Carlisle Bridge, from which can
be seen another magnificent building called the Custom House (though
so immense as to accommodate many government offices), as well as the
Four Courts and other massive structures, so numerous as to give the
impression of a people possessing energy, taste, and industry. Since
the early years of the nineteenth century, however, there have been no
fine buildings added, if we except the splendid pile of the Science and
Art Museums and Library in Kildare street.

The environs of Dublin, within a dozen miles or so, possess singular
charm and variety; and on Sundays the good folk keep the jaunting-cars
busy throughout the regions from Delgany, Powerscourt and the Dublin
mountains, to Leixlip, Howth and Malahide. Not many know that Malahide
Castle contains an altar-piece from the oratory of Mary Queen of Scots,
at Holyrood, for which Charles II gave two thousand pounds sterling.
Among the valuable paintings in this Castle is a portrait of Charles I
by Vandyke.

There is a territory within almost equally easy reach of Dublin, whose
loveliness excels anything of the kind in Ireland except possibly the
Blackwater in county Waterford. It is the Boyne valley between Slane
and Beauparc. Everyone in Dublin admits it lovely--but no one has seen
it!

In the north and west of Ireland the scenery is frequently wild
and stern. Of this character is Fairhead on the Antrim Coast, the
_Robogdium Promontorium_ of Ptolemy the geographer, where on one's
northward journey is obtained the first glimpse of the remarkable
columnar basalt formation met with in profusion in the Giant's Causeway
region. One of the basaltic pillars forming the stupendous natural
colonnade over six hundred feet high at Fairhead, is a rectangular
prism 33 feet by 36 on the sides, and 319 feet in height, and is the
largest basaltic pillar known.

Further along this coast is the rope-bridge at Carrick-a-Rede, which
sways in the wind as you walk over it, while the Atlantic waves boil in
the appalling chasm beneath; and woe to you, if overcome by terror you
attempt to lean on the thin hand-line.

The coast scenery in the vicinity of the Giant's Causeway is grandly
impressive, as seen from a boat. The promontory called the Pleaskin,
consisting of terrace upon terrace of columnar basalt, and the
succession of extraordinary rock groups such as the Sea Gulls, the
King and his Nobles, the Nursing Child, the Priest and his Flock, the
Chimney Rock, the Giant's Organ, and finally the Causeway itself, form
astonishing instances of nature's sportfulness.

The pillars in the Causeway number about forty thousand, and are
composed mainly of irregular hexagonal prisms varying from fifteen to
twenty-six inches in diameter, but all fitting together compactly.
Among other features of the place is the Giant's Amphitheatre, which
is exactly semi-circular, with the slopes at the same angle all round;
while around the uppermost part runs a row of columns eighty feet high.
As a German writer, Kahl, continues:

 Then comes a broad rounded projection, like an immense bench, for the
 accommodation of the giant guests of Finn MacCumhal; then again a row
 of columns sixty feet high, and then again a gigantic bench, and so
 down to the bottom, where the water is enclosed by a circle of
 black boulder stones, like the limits of the arena.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE OLD HOUSES OF
PARLIAMENT--NOW THE BANK OF IRELAND; COLLEGE GREEN, DUBLIN]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AN IRISH PEASANT
WOMAN]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AN IRISH FARMER]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. PART OF THE GIANTS'
CAUSEWAY, ANTRIM, IRELAND]

We should have to go back to the era when the Bamian statues were
carved out of the living rock (see _The Secret Doctrine_, ii, 388) to
find giants tall enough to occupy this amphitheater gracefully.

The convulsion which lowered the Giants' Causeway, with its substratum
of ocher, below the upper tier level of the Pleaskin, produced the
landslide at the Giants' Organ, and submerged the continuous land
connexion with Staffa, must have belonged to far pre-Atlantean times
(the Atlantean continental system proper having ended nearly a million
years ago), and be referable to the Secondary Age, when there really
were giants somewhat approaching the size suggested. It must have been
far back in Lemurian times, for the sinking and transformation of the
Lemurian continental systems began in the vicinity of Norway, and ended
at Atlantean Lankâ, of which Ceylon was the northern highland.

There are traditions of enormous giants in many parts of Ireland. Thus
the rope-bridge chasm above mentioned, is said to have been cut by a
stroke of Finn MacCumhal's sword, a feat that would have been difficult
for even a Lemurian giant. The legends in Kerry express, by similar
exaggeration, the size and strength of a former giant race.

This reminds us that the Raphaim (phantoms), Nephilim (fallen ones),
and Gibborim (mighty ones) of the Bible refer to the First and Second
semi-ethereal Races, the Third (Lemurian), and the Fourth (Atlantean)
respectively.

But in order to grasp this subject intelligently, the reader may be
referred to those volumes which it will be more and more the principal
business of the scholars, archaeologists, and scientific men of the
twentieth century to study, interpret and vindicate (vindication is
already in full stride), namely, _The Secret Doctrine_, written by H.
P. Blavatsky.

       *       *       *       *       *

 True glory consists in doing that which deserves to be written, in
 writing what deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the
 world happier for our living in it.--_Pliny_




THE BLUEBELLS OF WERNOLEU: a Welsh Legend by Kenneth Morris


  Out of the bluebell bloom of the night
  When the east's agloom and the west's agleam.
  Over the wern at Alder-Light
      And the dark stile and the stream,
  There's dew comes dropping of dream-delight
      To the deeps where the bluebells dream.

  It's then there's brooding on wizard stories
  All too secret for speech or song,
  And rapture of rose and daffodil glories
      Where the lone stream wandereth long;
  And I think the whole of the Druids' lore is
      Known to the bluebell throng.

  For they say that a sky-bee wandered of old
  From her island hive in the Pleiades,
  Winging o'er star-strewn realms untold,
      And the brink of star-foamed seas--
  Thighs beladen with dust of gold,
      As is the wont of bees.

  She left the hives of magical pearl,
  Of dark-heart sapphire and pearl and dreams,
  Where the flowers of the noon and the night unfurl
      Their rose-rimmed blooms and beams--
  Fain of the wandering foam awhirl
      On the wild Dimetian streams,

  Of the rhododendron bloom on the hills--
  (There's dear, red bloom in the pine-dark dell)--
  Of rhododendron and daffodils,
      And the blue campanula bell,
  And the cuckoo-pint by the tiny rills
      That rise in Tybie's Well.

  (And where's the wonder, if all were known?
  There's many in Michael's hosts that ride
  Would lay down scepter and crown and throne,
      And their aureoled pomp and pride,
  So they might wander and muse alone
      An hour by the Teifi side.

  And if anything lovely is under the sky,
  That the eye beholds, or the proud heart dreams,
  When the pomp of the world goes triumphing by,
      When the sea with the sunlight gleams--
  It's show you a lovelier thing could I,
      'Twixt Tywi and Teifi streams.

  Let be! whatever of praise be sung,
  Here's one could never make straight the knee,
  Nor stay the soul from its paeans flung
      Where the winds might flaunt them free,
  For a thousand o' mountains, cloud-fleece hung,
      'Twixt Hafren Hen and the sea.)

  Musing, down through the firmament vales,
  Here and there in a thousand flowers,
  Even till at last she was wandering Wales,
      Lured by the pure June hours,
  Lured by the glamor of ancient tales,
      And the glory of age-old towers.

  Peony splendor of eve and dawn.
  Tulips abloom on the border of day,
  West on fire with the sun withdrawn,
      Night and the Milky Way--
  Ah, it was midnight's bluebell lawn
      Most in her heart held sway.

  O'er Bettws Mountain she came down slowly,
  Drowsy winged through the tangled wern;
  Where in the sky was there hill so holy,
      With so much glamor to burn,
  As the hyacinth wilds beyond Wernoleu,
      With their white bells 'mid the fern?

  Musing, round by the wern she wandered
  From bell to bell with her wings acroon,
  There where they laughed and nodded and pondered
      Through the beautiful hours of June;
  Bluebell-dark were the dreams she squandered
      On the gold and green of noon.

  And the wild white hyacinths, wondering, heard her,
  Suddenly caught by her starry song;
  Gave no more ear to the woodland bird, or
      Heeded the wild bee throng,
  Or laughed with delight of the sunbright verdure
      Of fern they had loved so long.

  Marvelous thought took hold of them wholly,
  Azure of mingled darkness and light,
  And they deepened to dark-heart sapphire slowly
      With brooding on the splendor of night;
  And the first of the bluebells of white Wernoleu
      Bloomed, night-blueness dight.

  And that's why the wern at Alder-Light
  Is sweet with silence and deep in dream,
  In that wizard region of dream-delight
      Beyond the stile and the stream,
  When the dews have fallen from the bloom of night
      On the glooms where the bluebells gleam.

  International Theosophical Headquarters
  Point Loma, California




THE SOUL AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION: by Henry Travers


The majority of people are not very original and independent in their
thinking, and consequently prefer to await the sanction of some
recognized authority before accepting a doctrine. For this reason
it is scarcely just to lay _all_ the blame on the institutions,
ecclesiastical and otherwise, which supply this demand. For this
reason, too, it will be a matter of considerable moment that a
professor at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science should have brought forward arguments which, according to
the report of his address, "help the belief that man has a soul."

The arguments brought forward are as old as man himself, it is true;
but doctrines are judged largely according to their immediate source.
Thus a new color, an additional weight, is given to the idea that
the eye has been made by "some external agency cognizant of all the
properties of light," and to the idea that the brain is an instrument
played upon by some power that is not material. We have heard this from
the pulpit, perhaps; now we hear it from the lecture table; so we can
believe it a little more strongly than we did before.

The lecturer's cautious remarks, as gathered from a brief report, seem
to indicate a belief on his part that there may be a soul after all.
The report is headed, "Eye and Brain Show a Soul Possibly Independent
of Life." His view is said to be regarded by physiologists as offering
a great stimulus to research, and "it provides for the general
public a new exposition of the theory of belief in a divinity." The
eye and the brain are such wonderful instruments that they surely
must have been made by some intelligent power. That is the argument,
and it surely must have occurred to many people before. "The brain's
workings and the will-power suggested," he said, "that the brain was
mysteriously affected by invisible and untraceable harmonies." The
following is of interest to Darwinists:

 It was natural to suppose, he declared, the existence of some external
 agent over and above natural selection, which [latter] would have done
 no more than assist in the process.

Natural selection is in fact no more than a phrase descriptive of the
process itself; it can neither help nor hinder, any more than the
theory of the law of gravitation can pull down a stone or the calculus
of probabilities affect the destiny of a soul.

One feels as if the ancient faiths of humanity, after being confirmed
and appealed against times without number, had been laid before a final
court of appeal, which, after many painstaking and protracted labors,
had at last begun to hand down opinions, slowly and carefully. The
existence of the soul has at last been established beyond all possible
cavil. It has passed all the courts, there is no further appeal, it is
law. The most irrational rationalist, the most credulous sceptic, the
most visionary materialist, may now believe in the soul. There really
is one. At least "there was some loophole for the view that mind was
not directly associated with life or living matter, but only indirectly
with certain dispositions of dynamic state that were sometimes present
within certain parts of it." (_Times_ report.) At present, then, we may
believe in a soul--cautiously. One wonders if the British Association
will ever get so far as to say that we _must_ believe in a soul.

But why should there be only one soul? Why not separate souls for the
eye, the brain, the heart, the liver--all equally wonderful? The fact
is that such problems as this have been debated from time immemorial,
and one can but refer the curious to the world's literature. While our
learned men are cautiously speculating about "a soul," the literature
of Hindûstân (to take a single instance), thousands of years old,
summarizes the tenets of many different schools of philosophy on the
subject of the various souls in man, the faculties of these souls,
the nature of the mind, its numerous powers and functions, the inner
senses and their external organs, and so forth. And back of all lies
the inscrutable Self of man, the Master and possessor of all these
powers. Verily we have much yet to learn--the road we are going. It
looks like a snail verifying the tracks of a bird. It looks as if these
physiologists had just arrived at the edge of the sea, near enough
to get their feet wet so as to know there is a sea. And now they are
talking about a promising field of investigation.

Of course these physiologists are souls, the same as the rest of us,
and they have minds and other faculties which they use all the time.
But what they are doing is to bring a little of this actual practical
knowledge down to the plane of formal theory. An extraordinary duality
of the mind, truly! To be a soul, to act as a soul, and yet to live
half in and half out of a mental state wherein conditions are entirely
different! One sometimes wonders what bearing these speculations have
upon actual life at all. The achievements of science lie mainly in the
region of applied mechanics and chemistry. Physiology brings us closer
into contact with vital questions that cannot be ignored and that yet
lie without the prescribed domain.

The zoological professor also indulged in a little flight of the
imagination; for in lecturing on "The Greater Problems of Biology," he
made "Wonderment" a part of his theme. He pointed out that the problems
of consciousness and the mystery of the reasoning soul were not for the
biologist but the psychologist.

 Beyond and remote from physical causation lay the End, the Final Cause
 of the philosopher, the reason why, in the which were hidden the
 problems of organic harmony and autonomy and the mysteries of apparent
 purpose, adaptation, fitness, and design. Here, in the region of
 teleology, the plain rationalism that guided them through the physical
 facts and causes began to disappoint them, and Intuition, which was of
 close kin to Faith [capitals not ours], began to make herself heard.

This is enough to make Tyndall turn in his grave, thereby causing
an earthquake in Scotland. He was so very satisfied with the plain
rationalism, and died before it began to disappoint. What would he
have said of Intuition, if not that it is a secretion of one of our
glands? It seems to have taken a long time to realize that purpose,
design, etc., are qualities of mind and not of matter. It is absolutely
essential that physiologists should study mind and soul, even though
their immediate object be the body. What geologist could adequately
study the earth if he ignored the existence of the air and the sea?




WARWICK CASTLE: by C. J. Ryan


Warwick Castle, one of the most magnificent and well-preserved of the
baronial palaces of the middle ages, is among the first of the historic
monuments that American travelers visit in England, for it is in the
immediate neighborhood of Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace,
to which most Americans pay their respects early in their tour.
Warwickshire is a typically English county. It is not only central in
situation but, as Henry James writes, "It is the core and center of
the English world, midmost England." He rightly considers there is
no better way for a stranger who wishes to know something of typical
English life and scenery than to spend some time in Warwickshire, with
its richly-wooded and densely-grassed undulating landscape, its famous
historical relics, and its literary associations. Not only is the
county sacred to the memory of Shakespeare, but it is also the scene of
many of George Eliot's finest stories. The backgrounds of _Middlemarch_
and _Adam Bede_ are here.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. WARWICK CASTLE, FROM
THE AVON]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. INNER COURT AND
TOWERS OF WARWICK CASTLE. GUY'S TOWER ON THE LEFT]

The castle stands on a commanding eminence, overlooking the river
Avon, and from every point of view it presents an imposing and highly
picturesque appearance. It is little touched by time, though some of
it dates from Saxon times, and it passed through a great siege in
Cromwellian times. The oldest portion which is conspicuous is Caesar's
Tower, a solid building 150 feet high, built soon after the Norman
conquest. The greater part of the castle was built in the 14th and
15th centuries, and, with the exception of the great Keep, which has
disappeared, it has been very little injured. The roof of the great
Hall and some parts of the other buildings were destroyed by fire
in 1871, but they have been carefully restored. The dungeons below
Caesar's Tower are painfully interesting, and the view from Guy's Tower
is famous for its beauty. Guy, Earl of Warwick in the tenth century,
is a notable hero of chivalric legend, though it is probable that the
stories about him have been greatly exaggerated. Tradition relates
that he defeated in single combat a doughty champion of the Danes in
the time of Athelstan. If the Dane had won the English would have lost
their independence, says the legend. Guy, who was disguised as a simple
pilgrim when chosen--through a vision--for the defender of his country,
immediately afterwards retired for life to a hermitage in a cave near
Warwick, at Guy's Cliff, a romantic spot where the river Avon winds
through picturesque rocks, woods, and meadows.

The interior of Warwick Castle contains many priceless relics of
antiquity, such as the mace of the great Earl of Warwick, the
"King-maker" (died 1471), relics of the legendary Guy, the helmet of
Oliver Cromwell, the well-known Warwick vase found in Hadrian's villa,
Tivoli, and many celebrated portraits by Vandyck and Rubens.

Warwick Park is noted for its magnificent ancient cedars. Nathaniel
Hawthorne has written about Warwick Castle and the surrounding scenery
in a way that cannot be bettered. He says, in one passage:

"We can scarcely think the scene real, so completely do those
machicolated towers, the long line of battlements, the high windowed
walls, the massive buttresses, shape out our indistinct ideas of the
antique time."




MAN AND NATURE: by R. Machell


No sooner is the right man in the right place than order begins to
take the place of confusion in any department of human activity; for
order is natural and disorder is the result of an interference with
the law of nature. There are some who seem to think that natural law
can operate without agents and instruments, which is absurd; and there
are some who seem to think that the agents and instruments of natural
law are gods and angels and spirits, but not men; or that they are
microbes and bacteria, and "forces," whatever that may be, and anything
invisible and intangible, but not man. And why not man? Is man outside
the field of nature, while he is still subject to her laws? That is
hardly reasonable.

The divine, the human, and the natural, are but different aspects of
the Universal, which is called Nature. The right man was not in power
when these separations and limitations took the place of the true
teaching. The right man is Theosophy. When Theosophy comes in then
knowledge of the unity underlying all multiplicity of manifestations
takes the place of ignorance which breeds confusion and causes discord.
It is so easy to get hold of one part of the truth, and to make it
false by separating it from the other parts of the great whole. This is
what men have done and still are doing. And the Teachers, while trying
to proclaim the greater Truth, have been forced at times to limit their
teachings to that which will serve the immediate need of the hour
by correcting some evil that has sprung from making a dogma out of a
partial aspect of truth. Yet in the old mythology preserved in the
Scandinavian book of the Wisdom of Brunhilda there is the teaching of
man's duty to nature as the instrument of the Higher Law plainly stated
in the lines from William Morris' version:

  Know thou, most mighty of men, that the Norns shall order all;
  And yet without thine helping shall no whit of their will befall.

The Norns are the emblems of Natural Law; they are above mankind and
above the gods. All-Father Odin, who seems to correspond to the Greek
Zeus, was forced to pay dearly for but a glimpse of their knowledge.
They are above all the hierarchies of spiritual beings, a primordial
trinity, prototype of all lesser trinities; and yet without man's help,
their will remains unaccomplished among men.

It seems as if the Universal Law is supreme, but that in the world
of man its action may be blocked by man, creating confusion in that
world, and in those dependent upon it, which lies within the sphere of
illusion we call Time. This great illusion "produced by the succession
of our states of consciousness as we pass through eternal duration"
(_The Secret Doctrine_), is the field of man's operation, when he
blocks the action of the supreme Law by the interposing of his personal
will; in it he dreams, and the dream becomes a nightmare, which
beneficent nature ends by periodic cataclysms of fire or flood, while
the deluded souls returning to their waking soul-state know that it was
a dream.

It seems as if this state of illusion, in which we think of ourselves
and our world as separate from the divine or from nature, were produced
by the refusal of the personal will to carry out the will of the
Supreme; for when this opposition ceases and the personal will becomes
the direct agent of the spiritual will, order reigns and the world of
disorder disappears. This amounts to saying that the illuminated man
is no longer in darkness, when the inner light is allowed to shine
through his lower mind. But as such men are no longer subject to the
darkness, or the illusion of the world, they are lost to those who are
still blind and in the dark unless they hold themselves down to that
condition in order to help others to get free from the darkness which
obscures the true life.

So in the old mythologies we find the Gods, doing on a higher plane
what man does in his world, interposing their personal will in
interference with the will of the Supreme, and thereby throwing a
veil of illusion over the lower worlds which is the cause of a cycle
of strife and discord; for the personal will has shut out the light
and suspended the action of the higher Law through the failure of
its agent, and produced the illusion of that series of states of
consciousness we call Time. The Eternal, being beyond time, is not
affected; but that is a mystery to man in his lower consciousness,
in which he cannot get away from the reality of time. The lower
consciousness is bound up in time, and to it time is reality; but man
is not bound up in his lower consciousness, nor is he limited to its
field of operation. The eternal is in him and at any moment he may get
a ray of that light which we call inspiration or intuition, and by
that illumination he may see the solution of the problem and feel his
divinity, while utterly unable to put that knowledge so obtained into
any satisfactory form of words; he may even be unable to put it into a
form of thought, and may find himself with a knowledge that must remain
secret.

As natural Law is Universal, so it must operate in an appropriate
manner on all planes; "as above so below" (Hermetic maxim); "Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven" (a Christian prayer); but as the
action of a law is conditioned by the mind and matter on which and
through which it acts, it may not be easy to recognize the One Law in
its various manifestations. So we find the application of the highest
philosophy in the most ordinary circumstances of daily life, for the
law is universal; and when we have reached up to some high thought
and got some new light, we must find means to see its application to
some practical detail of life, or we have again blocked the course of
the higher Law, which is seeking to penetrate to the lowest depths of
matter through us.

We are thus agents of the higher Law of Nature and it is our duty to
get into line as quickly as may be, and to let the light shine through.

       *       *       *       *       *

 COURAGE consists not in hazarding without fear but being resolutely
 minded in a just cause.... The Deity is the brave man's hope and not
 the coward's excuse.--_Plutarch_




THE WILL AS A CHEMICAL PRODUCT: by Investigator


In a current review appears an article entitled "The Will as a Chemical
Product," accompanied by the portrait of a professor, beneath which
is written, "Who holds that what we call 'will' in the lower animals
is a mere chemical or physical phenomenon, like the sunflower's
turning toward the light." This statement might just as well be turned
around so as to run, "What we call chemical action is nothing but a
manifestation of the mere will." However, this professor appears to be
haunted with the desire to represent the whole universe as a mechanism;
for, by a daring use of the "scientific imagination," which vaults
scornfully over all gaps in the chain of reasoning, he applies his
theory to man--including presumably himself, the author of the theory,
since he does not make any mention of himself as an exception.

To begin with the sunflower, which is where the professor begins--the
idea is that the solar rays cause chemical actions in the plant, the
chemical actions in their turn causing movements which switch the
flower around into a position where the balance of forces results
in stability. Next we go to the small fresh-water crustacean. This
animal, when experimented upon, did not show any heliotropism; but
the professor was nothing daunted. He just poured some acid into the
water, and the result was that the pollywogs all flocked to the light
and stayed there. It was the same when carbonic acid gas or alcohol was
put into the water. Our explanation is that the pollywogs were upset by
the poisoned water and crowded into that part where the light rendered
the water less poisonous or gave them greater strength to resist the
ill effects. But the professor has a theory to prop; so his conclusion
is that the chemical poured into the water "sensitized" the creature,
rendering them heliotropic. It is wonderful what a great theory a
little fact can be made to prove!

Passing to ethics--rather a large jump--the professor suggests that
persons who exhibit the highest manifestation of ethics--that is,
persons who are willing to sacrifice their lives for an idea--are
victims of a "tropism." In other words, these unfortunate people have
become slaves to the chemical reactions produced in them by the stimuli
of ideas.

Well, it may suit this professor to define self-sacrifice as an
obsession, but we could give other instances of the obsession of
ideas which would fit the definition better. Ethics may be a chemical
phenomenon, but in that case it does not much matter after all, since
every other thing in the universe is also a chemical process. The
professor himself is a chemical process--so, a fig for his theory! say
we; who cares for a theory made by a chemical process? Frankly, we do
not believe this theory. But, if the theory is false, it follows that
it was not made by a chemical process after all; hence it is perhaps
_not_ false. And so the logic goes round and round.

People who weave theories of this fantastic kind are people whose
ideas have no relation to life; they live in a world of imagination.
People who can define their own mind as a chemical process--the very
mind which they are using all the time--must surely have something the
matter with their thinking machinery. And we recognize in the sneer
at ethics the shadow of a certain destructive "stimulus" which is
certainly not of the sun but which acts on people's brains a good deal
in these days.

Under the influence of a stimulus which has acted on our chemical
cells, and which we feel powerless to resist, we state without
apology that all chemical, physical, and electrical processes are
manifestations of will. The action of the sunflower in turning to the
sun is a manifestation of will. Without will, no atom could approach
or recede from its neighbor. Physical notation cannot get any further
than corpuscles separated by empty space; and what short of a will
can bridge such a gap? Shall we define the whole universe as chemical
processes, or shall we define it as mind and will? Take your choice. In
the one case you have a chemical process defining itself as a chemical
process; for your mind, which defines, is a chemical process; in the
other case you have mind recognizing mind in other beings. Analysis
of the universe must begin with consciousness; we must define matter
in terms of mind; to attempt to define mind in terms of matter, while
at the same time using a mind to do it with, is to make a fundamental
mistake in logic that can only lead to a piling up of absurdities.

In speculating as to the cause of motion, try to imagine any other
cause for it than volition. You have, let us say, two atoms; they
approach one another; here is motion; what causes it? You can only
answer "Attraction," which is only defining it by an equivalent word;
for attraction is nothing more than a name for the very thing we are
seeking to explain. If we study our own organism we find that volition
is the cause of motion, and we infer that it is the same in other
people. We are not conscious of any volition that moves our own vital
organs, or the muscles of other people or animals, or the sunflower,
or the chemical mixture. But if we do not put these actions under
the same category as the ones of which we are conscious, we have to
find a new and special explanation for them. It is better to accept,
provisionally at least, volition as being one of the fundamental facts
of the universe, and to use it as a basis of inference; for volition is
a thing of which we have actual experience, while the atoms and blind
forces of materialistic speculation are mere suppositions.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE NOBLE VIKINGS
Presentations in the Open Air in Sweden, 1911]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ANOTHER VIEW]

But delusions, however erroneous, do actually exist as such in the
minds of those obsessed by them; and are capable of giving rise to
mischievous actions. We have at present a regular epidemic of awful
sociological theories, threatening to develop into action, and based
on these mechanical and chemical ideas of the universe. Such proposals
as that criminals shall be vivisected, that private or co-operative
self-abuse shall be officially taught as a means of keeping down the
population, and many other such notions, are the fruit of a perverted
and materialistic philosophy. They give a faint idea of the reign of
terror that might supervene if the destructive forces now at work
should gain the upper hand. A section of the world of thought seems to
be going mad and the sooner the people find it out the better.




OPEN-AIR DRAMA: by Per Fernholm, M. E., Royal Institute of Technology
(Stockholm)


All know that to act with knowledge at the critical moment is like
throwing out a kindling spark that sets minds aflame and makes possible
things which long have loomed in unattainable horizons. But the
spreading of this fire proceeds on inner planes and can not be followed
by those ignorant of the source. Seldom does it leave obvious traces in
so short a time as is the case in the recent development of the drama.

Not more than twelve years have passed since the hills of Lomaland
resounded with the soul-stirring stanzas of the _Eumenides_, the
open-air drama being directed and supervised in all its detail by
Katherine Tingley, and played by her students. She then declared that
a new awakening in this art was at hand and that the drama would be
restored once more to its true dignity as a most potent means of
expressing the life of the Soul. The seed at that moment planted
knowingly by her fell into a rich soil--today there is hardly a
country where an attempt has not been made to present ancient life by
representations in the open air.

This year, in Lomaland, another note has been struck, a new impulse
given by the presentation of _The Aroma of Athens_ in the open-air
Greek Theater. More plays are to follow, of different lands and times,
opening up limitless opportunities for all who are in earnest and have
the welfare of the nations at heart. Ancient life is here given in
unstained purity, suffused with the inspiring splendor of soul-life.
Here all the rays come from within, from above; the false glamor from
below has no place.

Elsewhere efforts have not always been successful, and we need not
wonder at that. Where do we find knowledge of ancient times except in
regard to scattered details of superficial life? Modern plays are few
which can withstand the silent environment of nature, for there the
conflict of human passions are out of place, as also much of the modern
way of acting, dissecting emotions and sensations. Nature demands
sincerity, and requires that a rôle should not only be _acted_, but
actually _lived_, supported by a worthy life. Then only will nature
help in many a hidden way; then only shall we have before our eyes the
drama of all ages: Man learning to use his own powers wisely and to
work in harmony with Nature.

One of the happier attempts outside Lomaland seems to have been that
made in Sweden this summer by a band of young and enthusiastic actors.
Their success may be due to the fact that they started out with the
sincere wish to give the people out in the country who never had
seen a play, and especially the young, an opportunity to obtain a
glimpse of their ancient life. Refreshing simplicity and heart-feeling
characterized their whole work, going around, as they did, from place
to place where the young usually meet in summertime, selecting a fit
place on a mountain, at a lake, in a grove, or whatever they could
find, the audience having to resort to the flower-sprinkled grassy
slope of a hill. Over one hundred representations were given in this
way, most of them far away from cities.

Even as a string vibrates when its note is sounded from a distance,
so the deeper heart-strings vibrate when their note is struck; and it
seems as if a new means of reaching the people has been found in such
representations.

If only the highest and purest notes be sounded, as was the case in
Lomaland, new and helpful forces are called into play in human life.




INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY: by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.


Will the turn of Keeley (of motor fame) come for vindication? The turn
of the Keeley _principle_, the disintegration of atoms by sound, and
the consequent liberation of their stored energy, undoubtedly will.

In his recent address to the British Association for the Advancement
of Science Sir William Ramsay dealt with the _self_-disintegration of
atoms, especially radium atoms, and then went on:

 This leads to the speculation whether, if elements are capable of
 disintegration, the world may not have at its disposal a hitherto
 unsuspected source of energy. If radium were to evolve its stored-up
 energy at the same rate that gun-cotton does, we should have an
 undreamed of explosive; could we control the rate we should have a
 useful and potent source of energy.... If some form of catalyser
 [promotor of atomic change] could be discovered which would usefully
 increase their [such elements as radium] almost inconceivably slow
 rate of change, then it is not too much to say that the whole future
 of our race would be altered.

A _Scientific American_ writer follows on naturally:

 Iodide of nitrogen, a black powder, is one of the most dangerous of
 all explosives. When dry, the slightest touch will often cause it to
 explode with great violence. There appears to be a certain rate of
 vibration which this compound cannot resist. Some of it in the damp
 state was rubbed on the strings of a bass viol. It is known that the
 strings of such an instrument will vibrate when those of a similar
 instrument, having an equal tension, are played upon. In the present
 case, after the explosive had become thoroughly dry upon the strings,
 another bass viol was brought near and its strings sounded. At a
 certain note the iodide exploded. It was found that the explosion
 occurred only when a rate of vibration of sixty per second was
 communicated to the prepared strings. The note G caused an explosion
 while E had no effect.

The writer goes on to state that damage to stone and brick walls has
been traced to long continued violin playing.

 It follows, of course, that there must have been continuous playing
 for years to cause the loosening of masonry or to make iron brittle,
 but it will do so in time.

The point of interest is _the special rate of vibration_ required
to set free the energy locked up in the iodide of nitrogen. It was
intra-_molecular_ energy. Sir William Ramsay was referring to the far
greater stores of intra-_atomic_ energy, energy _within_ the atoms,
holding each one together. The other ties them one to another within
the molecule, i. e., holds the molecule together.

But may not the atom too respond to some special rate of vibration
producible by sound, lying far among the upper harmonics of any audible
tone? This at any rate was Keeley's statement and claim. The causes of
his equally unquestionable successes and failure may be worth looking
into once more now that a certain high temperature surrounding the
subject has died down. _Sound_ may be Sir William Ramsay's "catalyser."




A JAPANESE WRITER'S VIEWS ON MODERN CIVILIZATION: Contributed by E. S.
(Tokyo, Japan)


In an essay on the future of civilization in Japan, quoted in the
_Japan Chronicle_, Dr. Otsuki says:

 There can be little doubt that Western civilization and Japanese
 civilization will eventually be united.... The harmonizing of the two
 can be brought about only by mutual concessions; but it seems to me it
 would be a calamity if we were to concede too much. There are times
 when one feels as Dr. Nitobe felt when he wrote his _Soul of Japan_,
 and as Lafcadio Hearn felt when he described the moral beauty of old
 Japan; one fears that in their conflict with European civilization our
 Japanese ideals will be gradually wiped out, that the good and the
 beautiful as we have known it and loved it, will be sacrificed to the
 coarser forms of modern utilitarianism....

The blending of the two civilizations

 leads us to inquire what is likely to be the future of Western
 civilization. On this subject there is a great variety of opinion in
 the West; but of one thing deep thinkers seem sure: the present system
 of material civilization can only escape from ending in a terrible
 cataclysm by the addition to it of spiritual and moral elements that
 will guide, control, and conserve its energy.... Is it not possible
 that Japan may be able to take a prominent part in this work? Can she
 not save Europe and America from the dangers that now beset them? If
 by blending her civilization with theirs she can supply the elements
 of strength and permanence which are now lacking, then her future as
 well as that of Western nations will be one of increasing prosperity.
 But if, while receiving from Europe and America much that is good,
 she takes also much that is distinctly bad, and in addition to this,
 she allows her own fine old system of civilization to be blotted out
 of existence--then her future destiny cannot be contemplated by any
 patriotic Japanese with anything but grave misgiving and profound
 grief.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. FACE OF STELA B:
COPAN From Maudslay's _Archaeologia_]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. FACE OF STELA P:
COPAN From Maudslay's _Archaeologia_]




COPAN, AND ITS POSITION IN AMERICAN HISTORY: by William E. Gates


No place among all the sites of ancient ruins on the continent of
America, arouses a livelier interest in both the observer and the
student, than does Copan. Other remains, in Peru, and even in Mexico,
are of vaster bulk; but the ensemble of Copan produces upon the mind an
effect comparable in Egypt only by that of Thebes. And this evidence
grows and is supported at every step by the evidence of such researches
and excavations as it has been so far possible to carry on.

 All would seem to indicate a gradual addition of new features
 accompanied by abandonment of older parts. It can readily be seen how
 a process of this kind carried on for centuries, without any well
 designed plan to adhere to or any definite idea to carry out, would
 result in a great complex mass of structures like that of Copan to
 puzzle and perplex the explorer.

 There are other evidences that point to several successive periods of
 occupation. The river front presents what looks like _at least three
 great strata_, divided by floors or pavements of mortar cement. If
 these floors mark the various levels corresponding to different epochs
 in the history of the city, the question of the age of the ruins
 becomes still more complicated; for between each successive period of
 occupancy _there is the period of silence_, the length of which can
 only be inferred from the thickness of the superimposed stratum.--Dr.
 Geo. B. Gordon, _Exploration of Copan_, (in Peabody Museum _Memoirs_).

The ruins of Copan lie on the level plain of a beautiful valley, a
mile and a half wide by seven or eight miles long, in Honduras, some
twelve miles east of the Guatemala boundary. The site thus marks
the eastern limit of the region covered by the ancient Maya remains
and inscriptions, as Palenque about marks its western edge, a short
distance beyond the Guatemala line, in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
The valley of Copan is watered by a swift river which enters and
leaves by a gorge, washing the eastern side of the ruins. The force of
the annual freshets each year carries away more of this river wall,
and by its washings has shown that the entire elevation of 120 feet
is of historical or artificial growth, showing the stratification of
occupancy mentioned by Dr. Gordon, and yielding fragments of pottery
and obsidian down to the water level.

As can be seen by the plan, the ruins form a composite whole, some 2300
by 1400 feet, and the historical development of the site is shown by
three independent pieces of evidence. Of these the most striking at
first sight is the very apparent growth of the ground plan, pointing
to successive additions and enlargements of an original nucleus,
just as we see at Thebes. The second evidence is that of excavation,
which proves beyond all question, even by the little so far done, that
new structures and temples were built upon or into the old. And this
evidence is corroborated by the dates on some of the monuments.

The striking unity of the whole group of structures at Copan is
therefore a composite unity, the result of long-continued occupation.
Structures and temples were built and used; life flowed on around
them, and after lapses of time whose length we have no means whatever
(save in one case) of even estimating, other buildings were added, and
the earlier ones built over, or even covered up by the new. People do
not build temples and tear them down to build new ones the next year;
nor on the other hand do alien peoples and civilizations expand by a
harmonious enlargement the works of those they supersede, but rather
change, destroy, or build their own.

The first thing then to be realized about the entire group of
structures at Copan is their composite unity; then that this is not
the result of a single construction, but of growth and successive
additions; then that these periods of enlargement are separated by
other, more or less long, periods of continued use and occupation,
during which the civilization of the people maintained itself, somewhat
modified by time, but not broken or interrupted. And finally, this
evidence, together with that of the monumental dates, to which we will
come, has so far only to do with the ground plan and the structures
we can discover by a few feet of digging on the surface of the plain
of Copan; for we have not the slightest means as yet of relating
anything we can see at Copan to the various strata of occupation, with
intervening silence, marked on the 120 feet of the disintegrating river
wall. Those periods of silence may indeed, for everything we can yet
tell, be the silence of non-occupation, of civilizations destroyed and
forgotten, only to be followed by others. One Copan after another may
have been built upon the obliterated site of its predecessor. Whatever
evidence there is, read in comparison with similar evidence elsewhere,
points to that; a few years ago we disbelieved in a historical Troy,
only to find successive Troys, and many like places elsewhere, built
one above the other. To _deny_ the like or its probability at Copan,
would be foolish.

But to return to the Copan whose remains we can see, one great question
is forced upon us at the very outset. That is this: what must have
been the state of the _American continent_, as regards civilization,
during the ages into which we are trying to look? And that they were
long ages, even for the Copan we have before us, we shall presently
see. While all this was going on there, what was the rest of the
continent like? Our preconceived notions of savagery or nomadic tribal
communities must be thrown entirely to the winds, together with the
statement of the historian Robertson, made in 1777, that in all New
Spain there is not "any monument or vestige of any building more
ancient than the Conquest."

As a first step towards an appreciation of the place of Copan in
American history, we must consider the actual state of New Spain (that
is, the region from the Rio Grande to Panama, approximately) at the
time of the Discovery. The Aztecs were in possession of the valley
of Mexico, with an elaborate civilization, fairly comparable if not
superior to that of Europe at the same time; but their history only
goes back a few hundred years, for they were merely a warlike nation
who had come in, probably from the north, and were about comparable
to the Manchus in China, or the Goths in Rome. They settled upon and
appropriated _some_ (a very small part) of the civilization before
them. Around them were various semi-independent peoples whom they had
neither destroyed nor entirely subdued, and among whom they had only
a primacy of force. To the southwest of Mexico the ancient Zapotec
kingdom still existed, a link with the past, towards its end, but
still owing nothing to the Aztecs. In Yucatan and Central America were
the fragments of the Mayan peoples, broken up into half a dozen main
language stocks, and a score of separate dialects. Between the Mayas
and those of Mexico there was some intercourse and a little borrowing,
with some very ancient traditions probably in common. In culture and
mythology, as to which we have limited material for comparison, and in
language, as to which we have ample material, they were about as much
alike, or as closely related, as the ancient Germans to the ancient
Romans. Both were Americans, as the others were Aryans, with a common
inheritance of tradition, mythology, and language type; no more.

Beyond all possible dispute, the Mayas were indefinitely the older
people. The Aztecs had but a picture or rebus writing, and there is
no evidence they ever had more than this. There are slight traces of
writing akin to the Maya, among the Zapotecs. But the Mayas had a
complete system of genuine hieroglyphic writing, certainly not derived
from the Aztec picture-writing, but dissimilar from this in every way,
with monuments antedating the period of Aztec history, on which the
hieroglyphic forms are fully developed and perfect. The civilization,
monuments, and hieroglyphs of Copan, Palenque, and of Tikal in southern
Yucatan, are Mayan; but they are not the Mayan of the time of the
Discovery.

The period immediately preceding the entry of the Spaniards is a
historical period. We have various chronicles written by native hands,
princes, priests or recorders, giving us some of the early cosmic
traditions, brought down into contemporary times. We have these in Maya
for Yucatan, and in Quiché-Cakchiquel for Guatemala. In each case the
period of definable history goes back several centuries, but throws
no light on the earlier period. In 1500 the triple Quiché kingdom
was still a powerful and civilized nation; and if we know less of it
than we do of the Aztec it is only because it was more quickly wiped
out, because Lake Tezcoco and not Lake Atitlán became the seat of
the Spanish capital, and because no efforts were made at the time to
preserve the Mayan knowledge and traditions, as was done by a few in
Mexico.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE HIEROGLYPHIC
STAIRWAY: COPAN (AFTER EXCAVATION, SHOWING ONE-SIXTH OF ORIGINAL
HEIGHT) From Peabody Museum _Memoirs_]

[Illustration]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. COPAN: GENERAL PLAN
From Maudslay's _Archaeologia_]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. STELA H: COPAN From
Maudslay's _Archaeologia_]

In northern Yucatan the capital of the last Mayan confederacy, Mayapán,
had been destroyed in the middle of the 15th century; Chichén Itzá
lasted as a city practically up to that time; and on the island of
Tayasal in Lake Petén, southern Yucatan, there was a powerful and
flourishing Itzá nation down to 1697. Of the architecture, manner of
life, house furnishings, etc. of the different living Maya centers we
have reasonably full descriptions left by different Spanish writers
of the time. And they do not correspond in the smallest degree, to
the monuments and buildings we have left at Copan and other ancient,
abandoned sites. We are only able to trace a continuation of the type,
and to know that the same hieroglyphic writing we find on the carved
monuments of the older places, continued to be used until the Conquest.
So that after sifting the various descriptions, we find that even the
powerful cities of Tayasal and Utatlán, the Quiché capital, were but
villages in comparison. The nearest link is Chichén Itzá, which seems
to have been the last really great Maya city. Its architectural remains
are indeed in size and extent comparable with the older sites; but in
style and in the life of the people displayed by the carved and painted
scenes, it is like comparing the Egypt of the Ptolemies with that of
Ramessu and Hatshepsu. But Chichén Itzá itself was abandoned as the
capital at least a century before the coming of the Spaniards.
And to quote from the description of Mr. A. P. Maudslay, from whose
great work most of our illustrations are taken, after saying: "I fear
that this slight description of Chichén must wholly fail to convey to
my readers the sensation of a ghostly grandeur and magnificence which
becomes almost oppressive to one who wanders day after day amongst the
ruined buildings"; and then after noting various differences between
the ruins of Chichén and those of Copan and Quiriguá, he adds:

 the absence of sculptured stelae, the scarcity of hieroglyphic
 inscriptions, and, most important of all, the fact that every man
 is shown as a warrior with atlatl and spears in his hand; the only
 representation of a woman depicts her watching a battle from the roof
 of a house in a beleaguered town, whereas at Copan and Quirigua there
 are no representations of weapons of war, and at Copan a woman was
 deemed worthy of a fine statue in the Great Plaza [see illustration,
 Stela P]. I am inclined to think that it must have been the stress of
 war that drove the peaceable inhabitants of the fertile valleys of the
 Motagua and Usumacinta and the highlands of the Vera Cruz [Copan],
 to the less hospitable plains of Yucatan, where, having learnt the
 arts of war, they re-established their power. Then again they passed
 through evil times: intertribal feuds and Nahua invasions may account
 for the destruction and abandonment of their great cities, such as
 Chichén Itzá and Mayapán, ...

So much for the Maya civilization in the 15th century, and its then
centers and capitals. But of Copan, Palenque, Tikal, and Quiriguá, we
have not the slightest trace as living cities. Cortes visited Tayasal
on his way to Honduras; Alvarado overran and conquered the Quiché
kingdoms; but no one even mentioned the existence of any of these older
places. Not a tradition about any of them has ever been discovered
among the living natives at any time; for all we can see they were
_then_ buried, in ruins, in the forests, and forgotten.

In 1576 Diego García de Palacio, Judge of the Royal Audiencia, made a
report to King Philip II of his travels, by royal order, in what is now
eastern Guatemala and western Honduras. He reached Copan, and describes
"ruins and vestiges of a great civilization and of superb edifices,
of such skill and splendor that it appears that they could never have
been built by the natives of that province." He sought, but could
find no tradition of their history, save that a great lord had come
there in time past, built the monuments and gone away, leaving them
deserted. This, in the face of what we see on the site, means exactly
nothing. Palacio's original manuscript, which is still in existence,
was forgotten, only to be later discovered, and printed first in 1860.
For 259 years Copan was again forgotten, until visited in 1835 by John
L. Stephens. Palenque for its part remained entirely unknown until
about the middle of the 18th century. For what we know of real value
concerning these ruins we are indebted to the works of Stephens, to the
archaeological survey and excavations carried on by Mr. A. P. Maudslay,
by the Peabody Museum of Cambridge, and to a few less extended visits
by other explorers. In 1891, by the enlightened zeal of President
Bográn of Honduras, the Peabody Museum acquired the official care of
the Copan ruins for a period of years.

As seen upon the plan, Copan consists of a group of pyramids, on
the summit of each of which probably once stood a small temple; of
terraces and walls; and finally of sculptured pillars or stelae, each
of which has or had before it a low, so-called altar. Nearly all
of these stelae bear on one face a human figure surrounded by most
elaborate symbolism of dress, ornament, and other figures. The faces
are dignified and for the most part not grotesque. Above the head is
usually a triple overshadowing. The main symbolism is worked out in
bird and serpent motifs, and into the dress at different parts of the
body, notably the chest, are worked medallions of faces, as if to
symbolize different human centers of consciousness in the body. The
sides and back of all are covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, whose
general characteristic it is to begin with a date, which is followed by
the indication of intervals which reach to other dates throughout the
whole inscription. This statement holds good for practically all Mayan
monumental inscriptions, on stelae or otherwise. And these dates, or
most of them, are all we can yet read of these writings. We can, that
is, read them in their own terms, but without being definitely able to
translate them into our chronology.

The first and greatest work done by the Peabody Museum was in the
excavation and partial restoration of the Hieroglyphic Stairway.
This stairway is on the west side of mound 26, almost in the center
of the plan. It is 26 feet wide, with a three foot carved balustrade
on each side. The risers of the steps are carved with a hieroglyphic
inscription; at the base is an altar, and the ascent is, or was, broken
by seated figures. But fifteen steps are left in place, although an
approximate restoration was made by Dr. Gordon of the position of what
were probably the upper rows. Originally they must have numbered about
ninety, to the top of a pyramid as many feet high; but a landslip at
some time, probably since Palacio's time, carried the upper rows down
and on over the lower ones, which remained buried until Maudslay's
first visit. Palacio mentioned a great flight of steps descending to
the river, which the river may have destroyed.

In front of the Stairway stands Stelae M, of which Dr. Gordon closes
by saying: "It would seem to have stood in front of the older edifice,
that served at last as a foundation for the Hieroglyphic Stairway with
its temple, for centuries before the latter was built." And what now is
the chronological evidence on these monuments?

Without going into what would be long details to set forth even what
is known of the very elaborate Maya methods of time reckoning, it is
enough to say that these sculptured dates regularly specify a certain
day (indicated by the combination of twenty names with thirteen
numbers), and hence recurring only once in 260 days, falling on a
certain day of a certain month, in a certain year expressed by _four
numbers in vigesimal_ (instead of decimal) _progression_, so that the
successive figures stand for 1, 20, 400, and 8000 years, instead of
as with us, 1, 10, 100, 1000. It is a moot point whether the dates
include the next stage, of 160,000 years, in the reckoning, or not.
And it may be stated by the way, that though the Mayas knew and used
the ordinary solar year, their long chronological count was kept in
terms of 360 days, the same as we find in co-ordinate use in ancient
India, and perhaps significantly identical with the perfect circle of
360 degrees. Whatever the fact, however, as to these higher periods,
it is established that nearly all the Maya inscription dates occur
within the ninth 400 of the current 8000-year cycle; that is, they are
dated between about 3200 and 3600 years after the initial date of that
particular period. It is not possible for us to consider these dates
other than as the contemporary dates of the monuments themselves; and
the great number of them, all over the Maya territory, slightly varying
for different sites, points most clearly to a special "building" period
of about that extent.

A very few monumental dates go much back of this period. The initial
dates of the Temples of the Sun and of the Foliated Cross at Palenque
both fall in the 765th year of the same current 8000-year cycle, and
that of the Temple of the Cross about five years before that great
cycle began. But as these inscriptions then go on to cover long
successions of years, _these_ earlier dates are probably historical,
but not contemporary. On the other hand, a very few dates come on into
the tenth 400; and the only large stela bearing so late a date is at
Chichén Itzá, the last great Maya city, so far as our history goes. An
analysis of the groupings of these dates on the various monuments of
the different sites, and their mutual comparison, gives a good deal of
basis to check future historical researches, and at Copan it gives us
one definite confirmation, already referred to, of the evidence which
the structures themselves afford of successive separated "building"
periods, with continued intervening use. Of four consecutive and
deciphered dates on the fifteen lower steps of the Stairway, still in
position, at Copan, the second and third are respectively 48 and 74
years, and the last, at the lower right hand of our illustration, is
937 years, 44 days _later than the first_. We can hardly regard this
date as a future or prophetic one; it must be, like similar final
dates of long inscriptions at Palenque, the contemporary date of the
structure. All the other dates at Copan, those as initial dates on
stelae, fall within the "building" era of the ninth 400, which we have
mentioned as common to nearly all the inscriptions--except one, Stela
C, in the middle of the north part of the Great Plaza, whose date is
apparently almost contemporary with this final date of the stairway.
And these two dates are 730 years later than any other stela date at
Copan. Of Stela C, Dr. Gordon says:

 The two monuments [the Stela and the Stairway] have certain technical
 affinities in the carving, as though they might have been the work of
 the same master.

In short, while we are still far from the end, the story of the
monuments and their dates alike so far is that there was a great
building period among the most ancient known Maya cities, in what we
know as the ninth period, about date 3400 of the current cycle; that
Copan shared in this; that then such building ceased, so far as dated
monuments go, at Copan for some 730 years. That then the Stairway was
rebuilt over a former pyramid, and Stela C erected; that this latter
period was a few hundred years later than one Stela we find at Chichén
Itzá; that after that silence fell, oblivion for all the southern
sites, and internal strife, warfare, and disintegration for the last
great Itzá city; then its abandonment; and then finally, on new sites,
local dynastic histories, _each silent as to these earlier places_,
yet embracing several hundred years of history, and carrying on even
into Spanish times what were still then powerful and, as things went,
civilized kingdoms. But they were not Copan.




SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES: by the Busy Bee


Egyptian mummies have been put to a use for which they were probably
never intended--the manufacture of a particular fine brown pigment. The
body, being preserved in the finest bitumen, has assumed an appearance
like leather; and it has been found that this mixture of bitumen and
leather, when ground down, makes a brown pigment prized by portrait
painters for the representation of brown hair.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN is responsible for the statement that the power
which drives the mechanism of a watch is equivalent to only four times
that used in a flea's jump; or, in mathematical language, a watch
is a four-flea-power motor. One horse-power would suffice to drive
270,000,000 watches, whence we infer that one horse is equivalent to
more than a billion fleas! We suggest the dividing of the horse-power
unit into convenient sub-multiples, such as the dog-power or the
mouse-power, instead of using the names of people, like Watt and Joule.

       *       *       *       *       *

MEDIEVAL churches took whole reigns to build, and some of the monuments
left to us from antiquity may have taken centuries. Structures designed
for more immediate and less enduring purposes can be rushed up in a
very business-like way. In fact the stately pile can be reared by
gasoline jacks. Reference is had to the description and pictures of a
church which was built in this way. It is of concrete; the molds are
laid horizontally upon the jacks, and the walls cast each in one solid
piece. Then the motors are started and the structure rears itself into
place.

       *       *       *       *       *

EVIDENCE as to the persistency of life is afforded by some experiments
in which fish were frozen up in their water, and the block of ice then
cooled down to 20° C. below the freezing point; after thawing, the fish
came to life and swam about as usual. Yet, if the frozen block were
broken, the fish would break up into little pieces along with the ice.
Frogs can be frozen down to 28° C. below the freezing point and still
revive; while snails will resist 120° C. From this it may be inferred
that life can be preserved throughout long periods of glaciation.

       *       *       *       *       *

IT is reported that the farmers in the province of Skåne, Sweden,
have organized to build a central station to furnish their farms with
electric current, which will be used both for mechanical power and for
lighting; and that in another part of the country the farmers have
formed a company to purchase power from a power station and distribute
it to the farms.

       *       *       *       *       *

AT a meeting of the Selborne Society (for Natural History) England, it
was suggested that a sanctuary for wild birds should be provided and a
tract of wild country acquired and set aside for the preservation of
birds likely to become exterminated, such as the chough, the raven, the
buzzard, the peregrine, and the kite. If the Government did not see its
way to undertake the work, it might give a grant as the nucleus for an
appeal for subscriptions. The United States, Switzerland, and Austria
already provide such sanctuaries.

       *       *       *       *       *

BY looking at one object too hard we may so bedazzle ourselves that
we can see nothing else. This remark is suggested by the views of a
botanist who appears to regard the colors and scents of flowers as
being designed entirely and solely for the benefit of insects, in order
that the insects may pollenize the flowers. We dare say that object
forms part of the plan; but we surmise it does not form the whole
plan. Birds carry seeds, but that is not the sole object and purpose
of a bird's existence. Besides, the idea that insects and flowers were
created for each other reminds one of the old story of the posts that
held up the wires and the wires that held up the posts.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE Swiss correspondent of the London _Morning Post_ said recently
that the glaciers in the Rhône district of Switzerland are in retreat,
some of them to an extent "which may almost be described as alarming."
The Arolla glacier has receded 85ft. in the past twelve months; the
Aletsch, the longest in the Alps, 65ft.; the Gorner, 58; the Zinal,
51; while the Turtmann, in the Zermatt range, and the Zanfleuren or
Sanetsch have retreated nearly 46ft. each. Within the last ten years
the Zigiornuovo glacier has shrunk by 904ft., the Zanfleuren by 718,
the Aletsch by 459, the Zinal by 378, and the Gorner by nearly 190.
Other glaciers were observed, and all showed more or less shrinkage;
but, as for the small Mont Bouvin glacier, in the space of four years
it has entirely "disappeared from sight"--a cautious expression. These
changes may of course be part of a periodic variation.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE encroachment of the sea on the east coast of England is such that
at Pakefield, near Lowestoft, a row of cottages has been brought to the
edge of the cliff. In one of these cottages live an old couple, who
own the house, but are now forced to move, as the cliff edge is only a
few feet from the front door. The woman was born in the cottage and
remembers when it was a good walk to reach the cliff. Old fishermen
in Pakefield are now catching fish where as boys they gathered
blackberries.

Such rapid encroachments of the sea on some shores, accompanied by
recession of the sea on others, alone suffice to account for great
changes in the course of ages. These changes include tilting of the
strata and change of the configuration of the shores. Judging by
general analogy, one would infer that geological changes are of various
speeds, some very gradual, others more rapid, just like the work of
running water, which goes on all the time and yet may accomplish more
during a single flood than during several ordinary years. There is room
for both the "catastrophists" and the advocates of slow and gradual
movement.

       *       *       *       *       *

THAT the presence of comets causes or indicates hot weather is an
item of ancient belief, and theorists may choose between rejecting
or explaining it. There is a well-known story of a philosopher, who,
desirous of proving that his philosophy could, if need be, be turned
to material profit, bought up some vineyards in view of a prospective
comet, thus reaping the harvest of a good season. The phrase "comet
vintage", as applying to wine, is also well known. A recent theory,
as announced in the papers, attributes the great heat of the summer
of 1911 to the presence of a comet in the solar system, the head of
the comet being supposed to act like a lens and to concentrate the
solar power. Whether or not this lens plays any tricks with optics,
we are not told. As science progresses, more attention is paid to the
influence of electric and magnetic conditions upon the weather; while
recent discoveries provide us with an ample machinery of rays and
emanations to act as go-betweens from celestial bodies to the earth.

  This is the Dog that worried the Cat
  That killed the Rat
  That ate the Malt
  That lay in the House that Jack built.

So says an ancient poem, and it reminds us of the "balance of nature"
which people are always upsetting. If we kill the Dog there will be too
many cats and they will have to supplement their rat-diet with birds.
If we kill the Cat, the Rat will eat all the Malt; and if we kill the
Rat, we starve the Cat. So with agriculture; one scarcely knows what to
kill or what to spare. We are told now that we must avoid deep plowing,
or we shall kill the Spider which worries the Grub which eats the
Crop that Jack sowed. This spider is the aerial spider, a small but
very numerous creature who--doesn't fly, but uses a filament of web as
an aeroplane. A writer in _The Technical World Magazine_ has studied
their habits. Their webs are seen during the warm autumn days floating
in countless numbers through the air; but even these are but a small
fraction of the real number; for what we see are merely the ones who
have made failures and got their aeroplanes caught on something. It is
estimated that on cultivated grass-land there are enormous numbers of
these spiders per square foot.

       *       *       *       *       *

AS to the "old style" and "new style" calendars, people are often in
doubt as to the number of days by which these differ from each other,
and whether to add or subtract the days. If we remember that when the
new style is adopted anywhere, days are omitted from the calendar,
and the date thereby set forward, we shall see that the old style
dates are always behind those of the new style, and we must add or
subtract as required. The astronomer Clavius, whose work has lent
immortality to the name of Pope Gregory XIII, put the calendar date
ten days forward, to make up for the error which had been accumulating
for centuries. This was in the 16th century. To prevent the calendar
from getting wrong again, he suppressed the intercalary days (Feb. 29)
three times in every 400 years, namely, in 1700, 1800, 1900, but not
in 1600 or 2000, the intercalary days being thus allowed to remain
in every century year whose first two digits are divisible by 4. By
the time England made the change it was necessary to put the date
forward 11 days, as this was in the 18th century, and the year 1700 had
intervened. Those countries which have not yet adopted the change were
12 days behind in the 19th century, and are now 13 days behind. The
correct way to write a date so as to represent it in both styles is,
for instance, July 31 / Aug. 13, 1911; or July 31 / Aug. 12, 1831. The
calendars, unless the old style is given up, will continue to differ by
13 days until March 1st, 2100.

       *       *       *       *       *

A WRITER on heredity says that if a person has not inherited the music
disposition, he will never become a musician, although he may acquire
a knowledge of music; and that a person not born with the potentiality
of the poetical disposition will never be a poet, although he may gain
a knowledge of prosody. This is a dogmatic statement, but it does not
amount to much after all; for it can be turned around by saying that if
a person does not become a musician or a poet, the inference is that
he has not inherited the faculties. Thus it is mainly a question of
words and phrases.

At all events let the aspirant to the Muses put the matter to a
practical test. Let him strive to become a poet or a musician; and if
he succeeds, he can say: "See, I must have inherited the power." If he
fails, why then he can foist the blame upon heredity.

But surely it would be difficult, in many cases of musical genius, to
trace the effect to heredity. Still harder would it be, reversing the
process, to predict such hereditament. So the above-quoted theory is
only tantamount to an acknowledgment of the facts and the provision of
a plausible formulation of them.

Characteristics come partly from the parental and ancestral soil
wherein the human seed grows; partly from the mental atmosphere of
the race and community; partly from one's education; and partly from
qualities which the Individual himself has brought over from his own
past. All of these concomitants have to be taken into account in
considering the question of heredity. Needless to say, nobody should
permit his efforts and aspirations to be relaxed in consequence of any
dogma or theory which may tend to cast discouragement thereon.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO BE conscious of one's ignorance is to have taken the first step from
folly towards wisdom; and doubtless the tremendous overhauling that
is now taking place in the stock of our ideas should be taken as a
hopeful sign rather than an omen of woe. Hence the fact that chaos, as
it seems, reigns in our ideas about the science of agriculture may be
regarded as the sign that something is about to hatch out.

According to quotations made by _The Literary Digest_, a university
professor of agricultural science takes to task the Bureau of Soils
of the United States Department of Agriculture. These opponents take
diametrically opposite views with regard to the care of the soil. The
Bureau is credited, on the strength of quotations from its circulars,
with maintaining that the soil contains an inexhaustible fund of plant
food which is continually replaced by natural processes. Its opponents
declare that this teaching is wrong and disastrous. The professor in
question claims to have taken the opinions of most of the land-grant
experiment stations, and maintains that the opinions of the Bureau are
derided by these and by most other authorities in this country and in
Europe. The soil needs to be taken care of, or else it will become
barren. History is quoted in support.

This controversy indicates that our theories are in a state of chaos.
The more we learn about agriculture, the more there is to learn; for
each new discovery opens up a new field. Plants need mineral food;
they need nitrogen; they need bacteria to help them get the nitrogen.
The chemist, the physicist, and the biologist all have a say in
agriculture. Some of the great nations of the past seem to have known a
good deal about agriculture; and probably there is a good deal of their
knowledge that has not yet been transmitted or revived.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE statement that the emu is almost extinct is misleading, says an
Australian correspondent to a scientific paper. The birds exist in
large numbers in north and northwest New South Wales and practically
all over Queensland, and South and Western Australia. And he adds
that he does not think they will become extinct yet, "because they
are practically valueless." Can this be an instance of the survival
of the fittest? The naïve assumption that man destroys that which he
values can but lead to the scientific inference that the world will
become stocked with things which man does not value. Hence, whatever
may be supposed to be the case in nature, the influence of man is to
promote the survival of the unfit. True, this works out all right for
nature, but man becomes reduced to a mere destructive agency whose
influence nature eliminates. Eventually, on this theory, man will
find himself the denizen of a world stocked with things which are to
him "practically valueless"; and then, presumably, he will leave off
destroying, for want of anything to destroy.

Still it must not be forgotten that man, even in such a destructive
civilization as the present, is a creator. He is potent on the
invisible planes where thoughts are things; and according to hints
given in the ancient teachings, mankind is concerned in the processes
by which the animated forms of nature are evolved.

       *       *       *       *       *

WITH regard to instinct in animals, people are sometimes prone to
take too extreme views. Experience teaches us that instinct which is
so reliable in beaten tracks of habit proves a failure in unfamiliar
circumstances. A bird in a room cannot find the way out, even when door
and windows are open, but flies back and forth just above the level
of the openings. But even here we must be cautious; for animals can
adapt themselves to new circumstances. The timid wild-bird learns to
feed from the hand. In this respect we notice degrees among different
animals, some having more plastic minds than others; this marks
different upward stages in the perfection of the animal monad.

Because instinct, the accumulation of age-long experience, is so
infallible in ordinary cases, we must not assume that it cannot err.
On the contrary we often meet with cases of dunderhead stupidity and
of a blind addiction to custom that savors almost of automatism. Thus
a correspondent of an English paper writes about a blackbird which had
been brought up as a nestling in the house. When grown up and given her
liberty, she insisted on coming back to build, and made her nest in a
bookshelf. But the family was a failure, because the hen had no mate
and nature failed to depart from her rule; there were no young; fertile
eggs had to be procured for her to hatch.

Another story in the same paper tells of a mare which lost her foal and
was given a calf dressed in the skin of the departed. The giving of
stuffed calves to cows, while being milked, is a familiar practice. In
animals we see minds in course of development, capable of considerable
growth, but within limits. The self-conscious ego, characteristic of
man, is not there. We must bear in mind that the animal is an animal
soul (or monad) within a form; that it is the monad which undergoes the
evolution; and that though an animal does not become a man, that which
ensouls the animal will in some future cycle of evolution enter into
the making of man. It is by the gift of the self-conscious Mind, which
links the Spiritual to the terrestrial, that the animal consciousness
was made to subserve the purposes of the human kingdom.

       *       *       *       *       *

WHILE the acknowledged scientific method of inquiry consists in logical
inferences from observations, it is well known that a very limited
amount of observation is frequently made to support an unlimited amount
of inference. The "scientific use of the imagination" (Tyndall) is
highly recommended, but may o'erleap itself and "give to airy nothings
a local habitation and a name," unless checked by some sedater quality.

We see that a biologist has gone back in imaginative speculation beyond
"protoplasm" as the origin of life; for, just as the physicists have
subdivided their atom into electrons, so this theorist has subdivided
his protoplasm into something still more elementary and primordial,
which he calls "mycoplasm." The first part of the word means "fungus,"
so now we can speak of our ancestor as the primordial fungus; and
indeed fungoid traits do seem to survive in some people. Science, we
are told, knows a whole world of minute corpuscles which do not need
oxygen for their existence and cannot be killed by boiling water. They
do not make the amoeboid movements characteristic of protoplasm and
are immune to the strongest poisons. This kind of creature, therefore,
could exist on earth long before protoplasm could, as it is so very
hardy; and from it, as soon as the crust had cooled and oxygen been
formed, the protoplasm sprang. Such is the theory, but it may be wrong.
What we want to know, however, is what the mycoplasms sprang from;
because either they must have sprung from something else, or else they
are the great "I Am," eternal and uncreate.

It is a curious method, this, which traces the great back to the small,
thus making the small greater than the great. The man in a silk hat
proceeded from the man without a silk hat, and he from the ape, and
the ape from the duck-billed platypus, and so on back to Haeckel's
"moneron," and back again to this primordial mushroom.

So we may trace the scale of numbers back to prime factors and to
unity; but between the unit and the zero, infinitude stretches. Is not
unity, though in one sense the smallest of numbers, in all other senses
the greatest? From whatever source we derive life, that source must be
greater than life itself. So let us set up an image of the Mycoplasm
and worship it. Jehovah himself could not have done more than it has
done.

Is it not clear that material evolution is but one aspect, and that
a small one, of the process? Growth and evolution mean nothing if
not a coming into visibility from invisibility, into actuality from
potentiality. A seed grows; and, seen from the material point of
view, it seems to grow from nothing. But all the time the material
plant is unfolding, something unseen is expanding into it. Evolution
is a twofold process. A mycoplasm would lie forever wrapped in its
complacent hardihood in the primordial fiery atmosphere, unless some
Impulse gave it the word to unfold and turn itself into protoplasm.
The view of the world as a great machine without any motive power, and
running by the power of its own motion, may be interesting, but it is
not convincing.

If ever our globe were in such a primitive condition as that imagined,
it is equally certain that the life-impulse which it received came
from somewhere; and all analogy would lead us to surmise that that
life-impulse came from another globe. But obviously the matter is too
vast for little theories. The important point is that some theorists,
in spite of good intentions, appear to have got things wrong way up.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE SURF AT
CORONADO, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA THIS VIEW SHOWS THE SOUTHERN END OF
POINT LOMA Photograph by Slocum, San Diego]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE MAMMOTH CAVE, LA
JOLLA, SAN DIEGO]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. SERAEJEVO, CAPITAL
OF BOSNIA The minarets of the city's mosques are especially elegant]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. KLAMATH RECLAMATION
PROJECT, OREGON-CALIFORNIA PART OF TULE LAKE, OREGON, LOOKING TOWARD
BLOODY POINT

Nature frequently puts too much water in some places, and too little
in others, to suit the purposes of man. Draining a piece of wet land
is just the opposite of irrigating a piece of dry land. Both processes
are called reclamation. This picture shows Tule Lake, in Oregon, which
required to be drained that its fertile bed might be turned into
farms.]




CONFLICT OF THE AGES: by S. F.


  The bugle calls! while far and near
    The gathering hosts are marching by;
  Their clanging arms, their tread I hear,
    The sounds which tell the strife is nigh.

  To arms! to arms! each loyal heart
    Responsive trembles at the call!
  Each valorous soul will do his part
    To win the victory for all.

  'Tis not for selfish worldly gain,
    For cross or crescent, king or crown,
  They marshal on the battle plain
    To strike the bold usurper down.

  It is no mortal foe they seek--
    No Brother's blood they wish to spill,
  Nor strong that triumph o'er the weak--
    Their good to gain through other's ill.

  Ah no! the world has never yet
    Been called to arm for such a fray,
  Nor e'er such countless hosts have met
    As those that bear the sword today.

  'Tis hidden Forces they oppose--
    A subtle Power that rules the earth--
  While Nature shudders in her throes
    To bring the Savior, Truth, to birth.

  And 'tis not only men's weak hands
    Which bear aloft the spear and lance--
  Lo! o'er the plains the Master's bands
    With swift and noiseless feet advance.

  The Helpers of mankind are They--
    Great Elder Brothers of the Race!
  At dawning of the grand New Day
    Each Warrior stands within his place.

  The Order of the Ages New
    Has come at last in dawning Light--
  Its soldiers neither weak nor few--
    And they are armed with God's own might.

  In vain the hosts of Darkness rise
    And shriek aloud their battle cry!
  The dawn of Truth lights all the skies
    And crime and wrong and fraud shall die.




WOMEN WHO HAVE INFLUENCED THE WORLD:

by the Rev. S. J. Neill


As gravitation existed before Newton made his discovery, so, also, has
the influence of woman exerted a powerful sway among many nations long
before the modern movement towards woman's emancipation.

That the modern movement is a powerful one cannot be denied by anyone
who knows what is going on in the world. The wise study the action of
the winds and waves and use them for beneficent purposes. We smile
at the picture of the English ruler ordering back the tide; and at
the Persian ruler who commanded the waters of the Bosphorus to be
castigated. The woman's emancipation of the present day calls for
careful study and wise direction on the part of all lovers of human
welfare. Everything which gives a clearer understanding of woman in her
own nature, and in her relation to man must be of service. What women
have done in the past may throw some light on what woman may achieve in
the future. As "lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives
sublime," even so the lives of great and noble women are a beacon light
and a prophecy.

Though a truism, it must never be forgotten that woman's nature and
her function in the world differ from man's. Many mistakes have been
made, and are still made, through forgetting that woman and man are
two aspects of the One Life in manifestation; therefore they are not
opposed to each other, but are complementary of each other--"like
perfect music unto noble words." Milton has tried to express this in
the well-known lines:

  For contemplation he and valor formed;
  For softness she, and sweet attractive grace.

Harmony in nature consists in each part of the whole working according
to its proper use or function. While this general law may seem to
preclude the possibility of women being in their proper sphere and yet
acting as great generals, great statesmen, or great rulers, we find
that women have again and again become illustrious in these respects.
In doing so it is possible that the woman parts with some of that
"softness and sweet attractive grace," of which Milton speaks. It is
possible that she may "lose the childlike in the larger mind," which
Tennyson says the perfect woman should not lose; yet she remains a
woman essentially while doing work supposed to be appropriate to man.
Joan of Arc retained her girlish heart to the last, and after she had
led the armies of France to victory, wished for nothing better than to
return to her native village and live in peace. Even Queen Elizabeth
of England, generally regarded as one of the most masculine of her
sex, retained to the end some of those qualities which distinctly
belong to woman. Queen Isabella of Spain, though weighted down with
domestic sorrows and engrossed with cares of state, was moved with deep
compassion for the condition of the Indians, and in her last moments
exacted from her husband a promise for their protection. A biographer
says that she was possessed of all the "personal grace, gentleness, and
feminine accomplishments of Mary Stuart, without her weakness." Great
queen as she was, the name bestowed on her by her people, and ratified
by history, was: "Isabella of peace and good will."

From the dawn of history we find great women in many countries of the
world. Passing by Biblical women, as too well known to need mention, we
find in Egypt, according to Meyer in his _Oldest Books of the World_,
that "the position of woman both in religion and government was very
elevated." He says:

 Woman appears to have met with more consideration among the old
 Egyptians than with any other people of Oriental antiquity. It is to
 the glory of ancient Egyptian wisdom, that it has been the first to
 express the dignity and high position of the wife and woman.

Near the Great Pyramid a tomb has been opened which gives us a
few facts concerning the first Queen of Egypt of whom we have any
knowledge. Her name was Mer-ti-tef-s, which means "the beloved of her
father." She was also described as "the wife of the king whom she
loved." Another great ruler of Egypt, about 1516 B. C., was Hatshepsut.
Dr. Wallis Budge of the British Museum tells us that this queen
dressed herself as a man. Some of the other great queens of Egypt
are: Nitocris; Aah-hotep; Mutemva, mother of Amen-hotep III; Ti, wife
of Amen-hotep, whose tomb was found not long ago, and whose remains
were found wrapped in sheets of gold, with the exquisitely worked
crown of gold at her head. These two with Nefert-i-tain, are said to
have "worked harmoniously together for the establishment of ancient
truth in Egypt." Besides these we have Batria, wife of Rameses III;
the well-known Cleopatra; and last but not least, Dido of Carthage,
whom, had Aeneas married, the whole course of history would have been
different.

Crossing over to Greece, we may mention Sappho, the sweet singer, who
has suffered much misrepresentation, and of whom Professor Palgrave
says:

 There is no need for me to panegyrise the poetess whom the whole world
 has been long since contented to hold without a parallel.

There is also Aspasia, the wife of Pericles. From Greek statuary we see
how noble woman must have been in Greece.

In Italy we have Cornelia, who has been called "the ideal mother," and
Volumnia, mother of Coriolanus; and Portia, wife of Brutus; nor must we
forget Beatrice, the heroine of _The Divina Commedia_.

In Japan, in China, and in India, we find many names of great women
whose influence has endured through the ages. The Taj Mahal is
sufficient to remind us of what a woman has been in the Moslem world.
J. S. Mill says that

 if a Hindû principality is strong, vigilantly and energetically
 governed; if order is preserved without oppression, in three cases out
 of four that principality is under the regency of a woman.

Coming to Western lands we find the valiant British queen Boadicea.
In ancient Germany there was Queen Radigünde, who founded a school
for women. In Sweden Birgitta was famous as a patron of learning; her
schools numbered eighty, and there still exist six schools of her order
on the Continent and one in England, the only one that can boast of an
unbroken existence from pre-Reformation times. Ireland too had a Saint
Brigit, some of whose wonderful works were evidently transferred to her
from the Celtic goddess Ceridwen.

Who has not seen the beautiful picture of Queen Louise of Prussia, of
whom such a great historian as Mommsen speaks so enthusiastically? She
is said to have been by no means a genius, nor in any way abnormal,
but she was so beautiful, so winning, so optimistic, and combined such
dignity and charm, such cheerfulness, faith and fortitude, that she
gained Silesia for her husband from Napoleon. Then we have such great
women as Madam Guyon, the mystic; Caroline Herschel; Frances Power
Cobbe; Florence Nightingale; Queen Olga of Greece; Queen Victoria;
Madame Curie, and many others whom time does not permit to mention.
There is no need here to speak of H. P. Blavatsky and Katherine
Tingley, the heralds of a new age, except to say that the world in that
new age will render them that justice which is so tardily given now.

While the greatness to which women have attained proves to us what
woman is capable of doing, yet, in a sense, it may be a little
depressing, for all cannot be queens or rulers. But true greatness
consists in doing well what has to be done. Besides, who can say what
is great and what is small in the Divine Economy? "The hand that rocks
the cradle rules the world," is an old saying. And for the great
majority of women the making of the home to be a _real home_ is the
highest service that can be done to help the world; for the home is the
foundation of the nation. And as Ruskin says:

 Wherever a true wife comes, this home is always round her. The stars
 only may be over her head, the glow-worm in the night-cold grass may
 be the only fire at her foot, but home is yet wherever she is; and for
 a noble woman it stretches far around her, better than ceiled with
 cedar or painted with vermilion, shedding its quiet light far, for
 those who else were homeless.




THE TURKISH WOMAN: by Grace Knoche


The Sultan of Turkey recently received a deputation of representative
Ottoman women and in the course of his conference with them pledged
them his support in their efforts to bring about a reform of certain
conditions. Press dispatches state that the members of this deputation
were heavily veiled.

The veil has always been, to the European mind, the point of departure
for Turkish feministic reform, and the wearing of it by those who
stand for such reform, when many Turkish women have discarded the
impenetrable _yashmak_ entirely and a still larger number wear only
veils of gauze, seems an anomaly. To realize that it is not, one must
get below current misunderstandings and baseless reports and know
the high-caste Turkish woman as she really is--for with her Turkish
feministic reform begins and by her it is being safeguarded.

Many who are familiar with the diplomatic and social life of our
European capitals have stated that the high-caste Turkish woman of
today is _as a class_ more highly educated, and also more feminine,
in the tenderest and most refined meaning of the term, than any other
woman in the world. She not only knows the history, geography, and
literature of her own and foreign nations, but in addition knows two,
three, and often four languages besides her own--always French and
German, usually English, and often Italian or Russian--languages which
she does not speak haltingly but with fluency and perfection, for in
the wealthier Turkish families of today French, German, and English
governesses are a recognized institution. She is very beautiful, always
refined, unobtrusively thoughtful of others, and supremely loyal to her
ideals of character and duty--and her ideals always center about the
home.

Yet her life is virtually an imprisoned one, bounded as it is, day and
night, year in and year out, by the four walls of the women's apartment
or _harem_. She cannot go out unattended in the daytime, nor in the
evening at all; she may not attend theaters nor even a concert; she may
not attend social or other gatherings where men are present.

This state of things was not so unendurable to the women of the
preceding generation, for they had not been permitted to embrace
European ideas through an education on European lines, but to the
high-caste woman of today, who has been given a glimpse into a larger
world than her own, and a world very wonderful and alluring, the old
_harem_ existence is almost intolerable. Yet she must continue in it
for a time, and here is the wonderful thing--she does this, in the
deeper sense, willingly.

Those who know her best tell us that out of the silence and seclusion
of her life, the Turkish woman has evolved a philosophy of her own, and
one that is not limited to the orthodox Muslim view of woman; those who
know life and humanity best know also that this could never have come
to her past the impenetrable barriers of caste and orthodox religious
doctrine, had she not attuned her life to some, at least, of the higher
notes of Life Universal. And it is the teaching of Theosophy that this
can only be done by those with whom duty is the highest ideal--duty,
for ever and ever, _duty_. In a heroic determination to do her whole
duty to husband and family, to nation and to home, the Turkish woman
may well be commended to that ultra-modern type who leaves husband
and children to their own devices while she is away, chasing some
will-o'-the-wisp or fad. Of this type Turkey is yet as destitute as
certain strata of European and American life are prolific.

The Turkish woman is wise enough to wait in trust the day of her
complete emancipation, and she feels it is approaching--but she also
knows that to push or hurry it forward would invoke a reaction that
might ruin her country and defeat her hopes. She knows that methods
even approaching those of the modern "suffragette" would only blot
the golden dawn and put back until a later cycle the glorious day. We
see now why the members of this deputation wore the orthodox veil, or
partly why, for no Turkish woman of the educated class is unaware that
to needlessly offend the conservative element is to fetter the Young
Turk movement, that evolving drama of national life in which woman
played so heroic a part. Says a current writer:

 Everybody agrees that the most remarkable change in social conditions
 caused by the revolution in Turkey has occurred among the feminine
 portion of the population, and it is conceded that the wives and
 mothers of the Young Turk party had a powerful influence in bringing
 it about. During the anxious months of conspiracy and preparation
 many high-born Turkish ladies worked with courage, enthusiasm
 and intelligence for the cause of liberty. Some of them acted as
 messengers, carrying concealed about their persons papers which,
 if discovered, would have been their death; others afforded the
 revolutionary committees opportunities for holding their meetings, and
 furnished those who were in danger means of escape. Twelve thousand
 spies in the employ of Abdul Hamid were unable to outwit the women of
 Turkey in this work, and the leaders of the Young Turk party concede
 that they owe their success largely to the assistance of their wives
 and sisters and mothers.

In that intimate blending of heroic self-abnegation and of wisdom
which characterizes the efforts and the daily life of the typical
high-caste Turkish woman, the world has offered for its reading a great
lesson. The Ottoman woman possibly has found her intuition, which is
the soul's own voice, and her will, which is "the soul at work." Pain,
misunderstanding, oppression, and heartache, have opened many doors in
the chambers of her being, and in wrestling with the angel of untoward
circumstance she has found the inner power that enables one to turn
the leaden fetters about one's feet into the golden sandals of Hermes
himself. If this has come about, and those who know the Ottoman woman
best declare that it has, then we know that it is because she has
striven to attune her life to that which must be the keynote of all
lasting feministic reform--womanliness--true womanliness, with its
overtones of tenderness, compassion and aspiration, and its deepening
undertones of solid attainment, of patriotism, of courage, of loyalty
to one's ideal, and of faithfulness to duty.




AN ENGLISH LADY'S LETTER: by F. D. Udall (London)


Pevensey Castle is one of the most interesting of all the ancient and
historic castles of old England. It was seized by William the Conqueror
immediately he landed in the bay close by, and he left a garrison to
hold it while he pushed on to Hastings and subsequently to the country
round about the "hoar apple tree" mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle,
where the decisive engagement with Harold and his army took place. This
spot, ever since commemorated in the name of the village--Battle--is
some seven miles inland. Harold had taken care to leave a garrison,
too, at Pevensey, while he went north, but according to Freeman,
William found the place wholly undefended or else with a force totally
inadequate to resist the Normans. At all events there appears to have
been no resistance offered to the invaders, on that fateful Michael's
Eve. The castle and land for miles around eventually became the
property of the Conqueror's half-brother.

How old the castle is nobody knows. British coins have been discovered
at Pevensey, and it is thought that the place was an ancient British
settlement. As to the castle itself, the general opinion is that it was
built by the Romans, and the many Roman coins found in its precincts,
chiefly of the Constantine family, give support to the theory. In the
days of the venerable Bede there was a great forest in these parts,
the forest of Anderida, roamed by herds of deer and swine. Pevensey
is first mentioned in historical documents in the year 792, when its
owner--generous man!--gave it away, together with Hastings, to the
Abbey of St. Denis at Paris. Sir John Pelham was appointed Constable
of the Castle in the reign of Edward III, and his courageous wife held
it during a siege in her husband's absence, in the following reign,
in 1399. This lady gives the old ruins an interest of quite another
character from their warlike associations by reason of a letter she
dispatched to her husband during that siege. He was up in Yorkshire
at the time. The letter has come down through the centuries--a brave,
sweet, womanly, wifely relic of those early days in "our rough island
story." It enjoys the honor of being enshrined in Hallam's _Literature
of Europe_, and well it deserves the distinction. Here is what the lady
wrote while the enemy was at the gate.

 MY DEAR LORD:

 I recommend me to your high lordship with heart and body and all my
 poor might, and with all this I thank you as my dear lord, dearest
 and best beloved of all earthly lords, I say for me, and thank you,
 my dear lord, with all this that I say before of your comfortable
 letter that ye sent me from Pontefract, that come to me on Mary
 Magdalene day (July 22); for by my troth I was never so glad as when I
 heard by your letter that ye were strong enough with the grace of God
 for to keep you from the malice of your enemies. And, dear lord, if it
 like to your high lordship that as soon as ye might that I might hear
 of your gracious speed; which God Almighty continue and increase. And,
 my dear lord, if it like you for to know of my fare, I am here by laid
 in manner of a siege with the county of Sussex, Surrey, and a great
 parcel of Kent, so that I may nought out, nor none victuals get me but
 with much hard. Wherefore, my dear, if it like you by the advice of
 your wise counsel for to set remedy of the salvation of your castle,
 and withstand the malice of the shires aforesaid. And also that ye be
 fully informed of their great malice workers in these shires, which
 that haves so despitefully wrought to you, and to your castle, to your
 men, and to your tenants for this country, have yai (sic) wasted for
 a great while. Farewell, my dear lord; the Holy Trinity you keep from
 your enemies, and soon send me good tidings of you.

 Written at Pevensey in the Castle on St. Jacob day (St. James, July
 25) last past,

  By your own poor,
  J. Pelham.

  To my true lord.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. RUINS OF PEVENSEY
CASTLE]

[Illustration: IN THE FOREST]




A MAGIC PLACE: A Forest Idyll for Young Folks: by M. Ginevra Munson


Who has not felt the inspiring and soothing influence of certain quiet
spots? as though the jarring and restless forces of nature were there
rendered impotent and the soul could commune freely with the great
heart-life of all. The conflicting vibrations of human thought are
annulled and nature speaks in whatever language you choose: in song or
verse, art or science. How it draws one up to the heights of infinitude
to sit in solitude, with eye on the expanse of ocean in which is
mirrored all the gorgeous tints and cloud-forms in the sky at sunset;
or on mountain heights where no sounds or sights except the blue dome
overhead and the distant landscape beneath, can distract the mind from
the sense of the invisible Presence that fills all space; or in the
depths of a noble forest where the foot of man seldom comes.

It was in such a place as this, surrounded by the elves and fairies of
the wood, that Helena, in the company of her father and a few other
artist spirits, pitched their tents for summer work in the stillness
of the forest; sculptors, painters, poets, musical composers, and
writers on various themes, each lived in the quiet and privacy of his
own domicile, out of sight or hearing of any other.

Helena was the daughter of a poet and inherited that keen sense of
communion with and understanding of nature's moods and voices, but had
never before been in such a place as this, having been born near a
thriving city. She was devoted to her father, and though only yet in
her early teens, showed such appreciation of her father's work that
he brought her along with him as a sort of mentor when reading his
poems over. Then too, her mother was dead, and he felt it his duty to
keep Helena under his own care as much as possible, as she was an only
child. Nothing could have made her happier or have been better for
her than this forest air and odor of fragrant wood, and her spirits
and health responded to it gratefully. While her father was busy she
wandered about, making companions of the birds, trees, and other
forest-life. The inspiration and magic of the place was so great that
she was seized with the desire to express the joy and budding knowledge
that stirred within her soul; so without saying anything to her father,
she would take out tablet and pencil and sit on a fallen log near the
singing brook that ran close by, and write down the daily dialog she
heard going on around her. Overhead the trees said to the birds: "Are
you happy my pretty ones, fluttering and hopping from twig to branch,
pluming your feathers as I sway and swing you about?" "Oh yes, dear
trees," twittered the birds, "and we will be diligent in destroying
the worms that prey on your beautiful leaves, while we sing to you our
thanks for the lacy bowers and secret hiding-places for our nests of
young birdlings, who take their first lessons in song from the music of
the breeze through your branches"; and then they poured forth a chorus
in greater glee than ever.

Up in a high fork of the great spreading top of an oak was a huge nest
of dead leaves, from one edge of which peered a pair of bright eyes in
a furry gray head, over which curled a bushy gray and white tail. A
chattering voice chimed in with the birds: "Dear trees, I too love you,
for with your leaves for my nest you provide me a home out of reach of
all harm, and you feed me with lovely acorns in such abundance that
I can store up enough for the whole round year; but I'm sorry I can
return so little back to you, save a grateful heart."

"Oh, thanks, I am safe home," said a bounding cotton-tail rabbit, as he
shot into the protecting walls of a hollow log. "What would I do if
it were not for the deserted trunk of a tree; and even the live ones
sometimes give me a home in a hole in their bodies, quite low enough
down for me to jump into, yet too small and deep for intruders to poke
their noses in very far."

"Yes, yes, I too," chirped a striped ground squirrel, "owe all my
comforts to the trees, and no one can find my cosy nest of pine
needles, so fragrant and clean."

An old sly fox ran swiftly by, saying: "O shelter me in your depths,
dark forest, for I hear the bay of a hound on the scent of my track,"
then he jumped the purling stream to cut off the lead of the dog, and
sped away.

As Helena glanced down the stream she saw a beaver working away on a
pile of logs and heard him murmur: "What would I do if the trees did
not furnish me logs for my dam? Nothing else would serve me so well, I
am sure, and I only cut down young saplings where they are too crowded
to thrive. In turn for the favor I will make the stream deeper so the
water will not dry away in hot weather, but will give drink to the tree
roots all the year through."

Away in the distance Helena spied the red-brown coat of a deer and
heard its call to the fawn. Out from a tangled mass of vines and low
swaying branches bounded the spotted young beauty, and answered back:
"Here mother-deer, the forest has safely sheltered me, and fed me too
on sweet young sassafras shoots. May I now take a run with you?"

Then Helena gazed in the stream at the fishes, who answered her
thought: "Yes, we too would perish were it not for the shady pools that
reflect the lacy network of the trees that draw down the rain from
heaven to fill the stream and keep the water fresh."

Filled with wonder at these voices of the woods, Helena realized that
though it seemed so silent it was full of song and happy life, but that
the love and harmony of these beings made the magic of the place and
filled it with peace and soul-inspiring influences. While she meditated
and watched the bees gathering sweets from the fragrant wood-violets
and wild-plum blossoms, she heard a voice so startlingly loud that
she jumped with surprise. It said "Who? Who? Who----o?" and seemed to
come from the very tree tops. While looking up in wonder, Helena saw
a great, fluffy cream-colored bird with brownish bars on its wings
and a big round head with two enormous yellow eyes, float noiselessly
away through the forest. Could that voice have come from the bird?
"What did he say 'Who? Who? Who----?' It seemed to question me, asking
to whom were all these creatures, as well as myself, beholden? Why,
yes, every voice spoke of love for and indebtedness to the trees. They
stand here so silently and majestically through ages, affording food,
shelter, shade, and protection, for all these other beings whose very
lives depend upon them. The dear trees are monarchs over all, yet
serve all, standing here with their roots fast in the soil and their
heads touching the sun-bright heavens. To us people too, though we may
live in cities and never know or think of the forest trees, we could
scarcely live without them. Our houses, our furniture, and almost
everything that is of use or convenience to us have some wood about
them; and then we enjoy the nuts, the fruit, and other kinds of food
produced by the trees as much as the squirrels and birds, no doubt.
Perhaps these trees bring down from higher regions other forces that
feed our souls also--Who? Who Who----o knows?"

"Yes, now I understand," thought Helena, "why the great Initiates,
Masters and Saviors of the world, were called '_Trees_.' Jesus was
called 'the Tree of Life,' and the Initiates spoken of in the Bible,
'the Cedars of Lebanon.' They stand and serve and protect."

Then Helena remembered that she had read in her Scandinavian Mythology
that trees were formed from the hair of the giant Ymir, in the creation
of the world. "His blood formed the oceans and rivers; his bones the
mountains; his teeth the rocks and cliffs; and his hair, the trees."
Also that "the universe springs from beneath the branches of the
world-tree Yggdrasil, the tree with three roots."

Helena must certainly have been sitting on a branch or root of the tree
of wisdom when getting into such a deep strain of thought. The spirit
of the forest had awakened her soul to the realization of the fact of
Brotherhood in Nature too, the give and take, the unity and inseparable
life of the denizens of the wood that made it such a magic place. She
also saw why the tree was made a symbol of universal life, for all
other life in the world is really somewhat dependable upon the trees.

"No wonder," Helena thought, as she walked back to her father's
bungalow, "no wonder there is such magic in the depth of the forest,
and that father comes here to get in touch with the _soul of things_.
That is why 'tis said that 'Poetry is the true language of the soul.'"




[Illustration: THE SCREEN OF TIME]

CURRENT TOPICS: by Observer


The recent theft of the famous _Mona Lisa_ of Leonardo da Vinci from
the Louvre, which is such a loss to the artistic world, has brought to
light the fact that many other valuable works of art have been stolen
from the Louvre and other public museums without any arrests following.
One thief is reported as having admitted that he lately stole many
small pieces of sculpture from the Phoenician gallery in the Louvre
and sold them for trifling sums. He lately returned a statuette to
the museum in return for a payment, and the authorities admitted that
it was actually one from their collection. Three years ago there were
forty sculptured heads in one of the cases; now there are about twenty!
There seems to be no hope of regaining the _Mona Lisa_ at present, but,
just as the famous _Duchess of Devonshire_ of Gainsborough was restored
after many years upon the payment of heavy blackmail, it is possible
that the robbers will take some favorable opportunity of realizing a
large sum by the return of Leonardo's masterpiece.

       *       *       *       *       *

FOR the first time since the creation of the French Academy at Rome,
a woman has been admitted as a student at the Villa Medici. Mlle.
Lucienne Heuvelmans, the successful winner of the famous "Prix de Rome"
for sculpture, had to compete against nine other contestants, but her
remarkable ability compelled the judges to decide in her favor and to
establish an entirely new precedent. Her subject was _The Sister of
Orestes Guarding her Brother's Sleep_.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE Norwegian Academy of Sciences has just recognized the claim of
woman to admission to that body for the first time, by admitting Miss
Kristine Bonnevin of Christiania, a doctor of philosophy and an eminent
zoologist. She is Conservator of the Zoological laboratory of the
Christiania University, and has produced several interesting scientific
works in Norway, Germany, and the United States.

       *       *       *       *       *

A COMPLETE revision of the rules of the road is being made in France.
Instead of vehicles keeping to the right, as has hitherto been the
custom, they will now have to travel on the left side of the road. This
will bring France into line with Great Britain and most other European
countries, and will be a great advantage for many automobilists and
cyclists touring in France, for the difficulty of breaking through the
automatic habit of turning to the left when another vehicle approaches
is very great to those who have been accustomed to keeping on that
side. Americans, who obey the rule of keeping to the right, will
however find the new French regulation irksome. It is claimed that the
rule of the left is more sensible for many reasons.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE French people seem very quick to modify old-established customs
when something they consider better is offered. They lately adopted
Greenwich Observatory (England) as the place of first meridian for
time and nautical calculations, as it was shown to be practically
advantageous; they did not let an exaggerated patriotism stand in the
way, though it may be questioned whether the change would have been
made a few years ago, before the _entente cordiale_ between France and
England had been established, to which the indefatigable efforts of
King Edward VII so largely contributed.

       *       *       *       *       *

EVERYONE who has read Irving's _Alhambra_ and has felt the charm of
that delightfully romantic account of the celebrated Moorish palace in
Granada, will be glad to hear that the Spanish Government is taking
active measures to remove the débris which has collected during the
last several centuries and to clear out the watercourses, and otherwise
prevent the famous masterpiece of Moorish architecture from falling to
ruin. Many interesting antiquities have been discovered and the finds
have been removed to the old palace of the Emperor Charles V, which is
being turned into a museum. Beautiful arabesque decorations have been
discovered in unexpected places, and a hitherto unknown staircase has
been laid bare, leading to a large system of underground vaults.

       *       *       *       *       *

IT is difficult to realize that it is only six years ago since the
Wrights made their first flight of eleven miles in a power-driven
aeroplane, and now we are reading of attempts to fly across the United
States from ocean to ocean, and speeds of over a hundred miles an hour
for long distances are continually being made. The days of racing and
sensational exhibitions are apparently nearing an end, for a demand is
arising for less flimsy aeroplanes which can be used for practical
purposes. It will certainly be many years before the art of aviation
arrives at perfection, and before it becomes as safe and practicable to
travel by air-line as by train or automobile. Nothing but careful and
scientific experimenting, free from the sensational element, can bring
this about. The days of the big gas-bag type of flying machine, the
dirigible, seem to be numbered, for the numerous accidents which have
happened to these machines, even when directed with the greatest skill
and caution, have greatly disappointed their supporters. A mere puff
of wind, which would have presented no terrors to a heavier-than-air
machine, destroyed the British naval dirigible lately. Its cost--about
$400,000--would have paid for eighty of the best aeroplanes of the
heavier-than-air-type.

The lifting power of the air is being utilized in man-carrying kites
for war-scouting purposes, and they have proved quite practicable.
They have been adopted by the British navy and are now being tried in
that of the United States. Large six-sided box-kites are used; the
total pull of fifteen of these, carrying a man in a boatswain's chair,
is more than two thousand pounds. At the height of four hundred feet
observations covering a range of some forty miles can be made.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE celebrated Boston Symphony Orchestra completed its thirtieth
year of existence and uninterrupted success on Oct. 22. At the last
Symphony Concert of the Harvard Musical Association in Boston, in
March, 1881, a Concert Overture was conducted by the composer, Georg
Henschel, whose brilliant performance attracted the attention of Major
H. L. Higginson, a music-lover who had for several years been maturing
a new scheme of symphony concerts, and who was willing and able to
subsidize it out of his own pocket. He was only waiting to find the
orchestral conductor in whom he could have sufficient confidence. The
Harvard Musical Association, then more than twenty years old, had been
gradually declining in popularity, and he saw that there was an opening
for a really first-class orchestra in Boston. Large audiences were
attracted from the very first, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra has
advanced from success to success. Its twenty-four annual performances
now fill a very large place in the musical life of Boston, and the
orchestra has now a double fame and a double audience, for it gives
ten concerts yearly in New York, where it is equally popular. Of the
original seventy members four are still playing in the orchestra, which
at present numbers one hundred and one.

       *       *       *       *       *

IT is surprising that there is so much misapprehension in Western
lands about the real character of the Turkish people. During the
present difficulty with Italy many most exaggerated charges have been
made against the Turks, which those who know them best deny with
indignation. A writer in _The Boston Transcript_ has just published
an article which is unusually fair and which is marked with a due
appreciation of the weakness of our frenzied manner of life which we
call civilization. A few quotations will be of interest to all who are
not prejudiced against the "heathen." Mr. Cobb, the writer, says:

 No people in the world are more likeable than the Turks. They are
 kindly, honest, and generous-hearted.... The English and Americans who
 live among the Turks like them--come to feel a real affection for them.

To the charge that they are cruel, he assents, but he says that
the reason is that they possess to a marked degree the Oriental
indifference to physical pain, and that, above all, they are still in
the condition we were during the later middle ages.

 It is only a few centuries ago that we too held life and suffering
 in little value.... We burnt men at the stake in order to save their
 souls.... Even within two or three centuries we could have found
 in England the prototype of the modern Turk--the cultured English
 gentleman, the kindly, dignified merchant, who could witness with
 calmness, torture, execution, burning at the stake.

 Already there has been a great refining process in the Near East
 during the last half century; and within the lifetime of this
 generation we shall see the East purged of its cruelty and physical
 roughness.

Speaking of the new movement in Turkey towards a better interpretation
of the Korân, Mr. Cobb says:

 A protestant wave is sweeping over Islâm; quietly and cautiously a
 translation of the Korân into modern Turkish is being prepared. The
 grip of the clergy is waning in proportion as the people are becoming
 educated.

 It must be said in justice to Islâm, that it has never been as
 fanatical and intolerant of heresy as the Christian Church. There has
 never been any Inquisition in Islâm, and persecutions for religious
 differences have been far rarer than in Christianity. The Turks are
 the broadest and most tolerant of all Mohammedans.

While both Turkey and Persia are yet mostly in the middle ages as
regards education,

 In both countries there are a number of leaders who have received a
 European education and are thoroughly in sympathy with its ideas.
 Their influence is radiating throughout the country and in the end it
 must pervade the masses.

Mr. Cobb speaks in a most significant and welcome manner about
industrial conditions in Turkey:

 In methods of industry and business the medieval form holds sway....
 Their hours are long, but their labor dignifies instead of degrading
 them. Now and then they stop work, light a cigarette and dream. There
 is a chance for a bit of meditation, a broadening of the vision of
 life.... Compare all that with the feverish activity of our modern
 industrial system with its soul-racking machines and unhumanizing
 servitude to work.... Poor East! Little does it dream, in its silent,
 meditative happiness, that it will one day have to face the industrial
 system--the age of machinery and iron. Already this is creeping upon
 them--already factories are being established, and labor is being
 chained to the loom....

Let us hope it will profit by the bitter experience of the West, and
keep the good things it has. The Turkish craftsman

 makes a living--he is happy, he lives near to God.... Will you
 undertake to show him the possibilities of combination, of fierce
 competition, of ostentatious wealth? Will you take away his soul
 and give him a few millions in return? Pray do not! Leave us some
 distant corner of the earth where we can flee when the shadows of
 industrialism oppress us; when the soullessness of human faces arouses
 our despair.... The East is yet a land where one can seek the eternal
 solitudes of the spirit.... The despotism of the East is over. No more
 can its rulers consign to death at their whim.... Will the East be
 able to keep its characteristic of peace?

       *       *       *       *       *

THE Irish-language demonstration held in Dublin on September 17 was
impressive and successful; indeed the citizens appear to celebrate
this annual event as a festival day. A considerable number of those
taking part wore the ancient national costume. The first part of the
procession, consisting of branches of the Gaelic League, occupied half
an hour in passing a given point. Then came various schools. Next the
National Foresters formed a picturesque element, an innovation being
the attire of two branches of the lady Foresters, who appeared in green
velvet cloaks and hoods which imparted a very realistic Celtic touch.
Numerous labor organizations brought up the rear.

At the subsequent mass meeting Dr. Douglas Hyde, the energetic
President of the Gaelic League, presented resolutions dealing with the
education question in connexion with the preservation of the Irish
language and industrial development. He said the National Board of
Education had informed him that the managers of the schools and the
parents of the children were colder towards the Irish language than
the Board itself. "The priests of Ireland are the managers of the
schools," he went on to say, "and if it was true that the priests are
colder than the Board it is a sad state of affairs. I do not believe
it, but I will leave this question because it does not touch us." He
concluded by asking the Gaelic League members to have a welcome for
every person who was an Irishman, and to apply no tests except that
when members came in they should leave religion and politics outside
the door.

One cannot but admire the optimism of Dr. Douglas Hyde, and if the
course he outlined be followed many will soon realize that the words
unsectarian and non-political, sound a keynote of progress. And
the Gaelic League is surely for progress! There is an eastern book
called _The Arabian Night's Entertainments_. It contains the Story
of Es-Sindibâd, who had the ill-luck to encounter trying adventures,
among which was the task of carrying an Old-Man-of-the-Sea on his back.
Perhaps the parents, the National Board, and Dr. Douglas Hyde might
think of an Irish version. Meanwhile the children suffer most.

Talking of translations, we wonder whether some Gaelic League member
will think of putting _Atlantis_, by Ignatius Donnelly, into Irish. To
be sure, it would give young folk a wider outlook on life, but this
might not be an insuperable objection.




BOOK REVIEWS: "Les Derniers Barbares: Chine, Tibet, Mongolie," par le
Commandant d'Ollone. Pierre Lafitte et Cie., Paris. By H. Alexander
Fussell


In the preface to this most interesting and readable book of
exploration Commandant d'Ollone reminds us that within or about the
confines of the Chinese Empire there still exist "those races which
conquered Cyrus, stopped Alexander, ravaged the Roman Empire, conquered
Asia and half of Europe," that they are still the same, "unconquered
and untamable." And he asks the question: "Will they succumb under
the pressure of civilization; or shall we see them, armed with our
own weapons, with modern artillery, utilizing the railways we have
constructed, to begin again their terrible incursions?"

The names of these barbarians are familiar enough: Scythians, Huns,
Turks, Mongols; to these must be added the Lolos, a race, according to
some theorists, more nearly allied to our own, the Indo-European, than
to the so-called Mongolian or Yellow race. To study the Lolos and their
characteristics was one of the principal objects of the expedition
d'Ollone.

Inhabiting the high mountainous plateau, about 11,000 square miles
in extent, on the left bank of the Blue River, to the north of the
province of Yunnan, they have maintained their independence at the
price of continual war with the Chinese. Theirs is "the forbidden
land," "the country where the Chinese never go"; for the latter, if
found in the country of the Lolos, are either massacred or reduced to
slavery. Nevertheless, they are admitted at certain seasons to gather
the much coveted "insect-wax," a source of riches to the neighboring
province of Sseu-Tch'ouan, which is found only in "the Great Cold
Mountains" of the Lolo country. To do this they must get the protection
of some Lolo chief and pay an indemnity to each of the frontier clans.
The Lolos, on the other hand, go freely in times of peace into Chinese
territory to buy weapons and firearms.

The expedition had some difficulty in finding Lolo chiefs to be their
introducers or "sponsors"; not only was it impossible to proceed
without them, but with them they would be treated more as guests than
travelers. However, three Lolo chiefs were induced to undertake this
office. D'Ollone describes them as

 tall, magnificent men, with nothing of the Asiatic. One of them,
 Ma-Yola, having one of the finest heads that could be imagined, not
 yellow in complexion, but tanned like the inhabitants of Southern
 Europe, straight large eyes, arched eyebrows, aquiline nose,
 well-formed mouth, and an open, frank, martial expression. Truly, a
 European head, with a touch of the Red Indian.

The Lolo woman, too, is _quasi_-European in appearance and attire--a
high bodice, a long pleated skirt with flounces, a cloak of fine
wool, and turban. Describing the wife of Ma-Djédjé, another of their
"sponsors" from a different clan, d'Ollone says, "of stately and noble
beauty, she at once compels attention, and all her movements are
graceful and dignified."

Among many customs which testify to the high moral development of the
Lolos is that of dividing property equally among the heirs of both
sexes; as an unmarried woman, however, cannot inherit, her share is
held over till her marriage, when it forms her dowry--and until her
marriage her brothers must provide for her maintenance. If there is any
inequality in the division of property, the youngest is favored. The
Lolos appear to be Theists, but have no temples or religious ceremonies.

Who are the Lolos, and to what race do they belong? Hardy mountaineers,
good horsemen, fond of war and violent exercise, of proud bearing,
noble and often beautiful in countenance, they show all the signs of
an energetic race well fitted to develop. What statues, monuments, or
architecture have they to tell of their past? None, much to d'Ollone's
disappointment. Though their system of government reminded him strongly
of the feudal system, yet noble and serf would sleep together on the
ground wrapped in their long cloaks, or in cabins without a scrap of
furniture. What is the explanation of this anomaly? The real home of
the Lolos is not the mountainous country where they have maintained
their independence, but on the other bank of the Blue River, where the
semi-independent Lolos (and the Miao-Tseu) live under their hereditary
chiefs, who, however, acknowledge Chinese authority. But even here
no traces of their ancient civilization are to be found, for the
Chinese conquerors destroyed everything that reminded them of the Lolo
supremacy.

The ethnological problem is thus succinctly stated by Commandant
d'Ollone:

 Are there in the midst of China populations which do not belong to the
 Yellow Race? If there are and they have come from elsewhere, we ought
 to find traces of their passage, colonies which they have left on the
 way, discover whence they came and to what original family to assign
 them. If, however, they are indigenous, or at least if they arrived
 before the beginning of history, then the Far East is not the cradle
 of the Yellow Race; it is this last which has come from far and has
 dispossessed the indigenous races, incorporating many of them without
 doubt, and its homogeneity is a fiction.

Here may be quoted a note by Madame Blavatsky in _The Secret Doctrine_,
Vol. II, page 280;

 "What would you say to our affirmation that the Chinese--I speak of
 the inland, the true Chinaman, not of the hybrid mixture between
 the Fourth and Fifth Races now occupying the throne, the aborigines
 who belong in their unallied nationality wholly to the highest and
 last branch of the Fourth Race--reached their highest civilization
 when the Fifth had hardly appeared in Asia" (_Esoteric Buddhism_, p.
 67). And this handful of the inland Chinese are all of a very high
 stature. Could the most ancient MSS. in the Lolo language (that of
 the aborigines of China) be got at and translated correctly, many
 a priceless piece of evidence would be found. But they are as rare
 as their language is unintelligible. So far one or two European
 archaeologists only have been able to procure such priceless works.

This was written in 1888. It may be added that the Lolo nobles preserve
very carefully their genealogies. To return to the Miao-Tseu. They,
says d'Ollone,

 are usually considered as having no writing of their own. Taking
 advantage of the fact that one of them, who had a law-suit, asked my
 help, I begged him to put his case in writing. This he did without any
 difficulty, and assured me that since their subjection by the Chinese,
 the latter having destroyed all the books they could discover, the
 Miao-Tseu had hidden those that remained, and had feigned ever since
 to be ignorant of the art of writing; they possessed, however,
 numerous books containing the annals of their race.

We must refer our readers to d'Ollone's book for an interesting account
of his "hunt for documents."

After studying the Miao-Tseu and the semi-independent Lolos the
expedition returned to Ma-Tao-Tseu, whence they had set out, where
d'Ollone met some pimos or learned Lolos who while they can read the
sacred books, have no priestly functions and must by no means be
considered as priests. With one of them, who was especially intelligent
and well-informed, "my Lolo professor," as he calls him, d'Ollone
worked hard for a fortnight, learning the Lolo writing and laying the
foundations of a Lolo-French dictionary. At the end of that time,

 as a recompense for my zeal, my professor presented me with five
 volumes, treating, he said, of religion, geography, history,
 mathematics, and various sciences.

Our sympathy is secured in advance for all brave people who are
striving to retain their nationality and their own language. The last
twenty-five years or so has witnessed a great Celtic revival; the Welsh
and Irish are both studying their ancient literature, speaking their
original languages, and publishing books about their traditions
which go back to a time when England was joined to the Continent and
our forefathers could walk dryshod from Wales to Ireland. It is at
least curious that far away in Central Asia, a Lolo prince, one of the
most powerful and learned of them all, the nzemo Len, fired by the
same national enthusiasm and patriotism should have founded a school
where eighteen pupils are educated at his own expense in Lolo, not in
Chinese. He has moreover established a rude printing-press, so as to
publish books in his own language, to disseminate not only the old Lolo
learning, but to popularize European science and discoveries, notably
railroads, telegraphy, and ballooning, about which he has heard.

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. COMMANDANT D'OLLONE
Chief of the recent Mission d'Ollone to the Far East and author of _Les
Derniers Barbares_]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ARCHAIC COLOSSAL
STATUES OF KIANG-K'EU]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. A LOLO WARRIOR]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. LOLO MEN AND THEIR
INSEPARABLE CLOAK]

[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. MIAO-TSEU DANCING.
BOTH MEN AND WOMEN ARE REPRESENTED The musical instruments are of
curious form]

We have indicated but a small part of the work undertaken by the
expedition d'Ollone. Many other interesting and hitherto unknown
regions in Tibet and Mongolia were explored and are described with
a wealth of anecdote and adventure which makes the book delightful
reading even for those who are not attracted by the important data
it has gathered for the solution of ethnographic and archaeological
problems. For the sake of the latter we would observe that among the
results of the expedition are

 forty-six vocabularies of non-Chinese dialects; four dictionaries of
 native writings hitherto unknown or undecipherable; thirty-two Lolo
 manuscripts; two hundred and twenty-five historical inscriptions in
 Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongol, Manchu, Arabic and Lolo; the local
 histories of forty-two towns, about which hardly anything was known
 before, etc., etc.

These documents, illustrated by nearly 2000 photographs, are now being
published in seven volumes with the collaboration of eminent savants,
aided by a grant from the French Government.

The success of the expedition was due to the high qualities of the
French nation, always the pioneers alike in science and in exploration.
The difficulties to be surmounted only made their task the more
attractive. Commandant d'Ollone and his confrères, Captains Lepage
and de Fleurelle and Sous-lieutenant Boyve, have done honor to their
country and made scientists the world over their debtors.

In conclusion one may refer in justification of the warning with which
this review opens, to an earlier work by d'Ollone, published in 1906,
_La Chine novatrice et guerrière_ (Armand Colin, Paris). It does away,
once for all, with the old idea of the homogeneity and inertia of the
Chinese Empire--as large, we must remember, as Europe, and more densely
populated by a hundred different races. This Empire, which Europe not
so long ago spoke of dividing into "spheres of influence," so as better
to pursue a policy of commercial and military aggression, is wide awake
now and intends to be "master in its own household." The patriotism
that was flouted a few years ago is breaking out today in cries for war.

 In the province of the lower Yang-Tse, where, Marco Polo declared
 disdainfully, there was scarcely to be seen a man-at-arms, there are
 now young men training, by gymnastic exercises and drill for the
 coming struggle.

 "Soon," so runs one of their military marching songs, "soon, chiefs
 will lead millions of young men whose battalions will crush Europe and
 America."

"O stupid white-faced Barbarians," is the refrain of the Gymnastic
Society of Hang-tche'ou, "do not think that the wrongs of the Yellow
Race will last many years longer!" And d'Ollone avers that all over
China the same songs are sung.

It seems indeed as if we were approaching one of those great crises of
the world's history. East and West are getting to know each other, and
are measuring their strength. May a peaceful solution be found in the
higher ideals which each proclaims, and the Federation of Nations and
the Brotherhood of Man at last become a reality!

The work is beautifully printed on calendered paper, and illustrated
very handsomely with views photographed during the expedition. A few
of them are reproduced on these pages; they give one an idea of the
different peoples.




"The Plough and the Cross: a Story of New Ireland," by William Patrick
O'Ryan. The Aryan Theosophical Press, Point Loma, California. By F. J.
D.


This story is surely one of the most arresting and charming which has
appeared for many years. Reviewers of the first edition were almost
unanimous in saying that it has to be read and re-read, because of its
absorbing interest. Filled with beauties of ideation born of Celtic
inspiration, are many memory-haunting passages. Seldom has there been
a book portraying with such skill and grace the contemporary mental
states of a naturally buoyant and imaginative people.

The first chapter is an adumbration, almost an epitome both of the
story and of the general situation in Ireland along certain lines,
mainly in the thought-world. For in spite of occasional brief personal
or scenic sketches, one lives, in these pages, pre-eminently within
the very thought-life of a people--a bold departure, and few have been
the writers competent to make the attempt. Withal, the story is so
genial and humorous, that one lives in that world unconscious of the
magic woven around him. Most stories and dramas depend largely for
their interest upon plot, incident, and stirring situations. Yet here
the keenest interest is sustained within realms of mind, aspiration,
and the higher planes of emotion; with little or no aid from plot or
dramatic situation; although there are in reality deeply dramatic
touches, those which belong to soul-drama.

One feels that the writer, while taking life seriously, looks ever to
the brighter side--a wonderful achievement for any Thinker living in
the Ireland of today. Because of this inherent attitude, he succeeds
in throwing a strong search-light on existing conditions; and again
because of it, that light illumines conditions prevalent in some other
countries equally. The story has thus an almost universal character,
and is in fact a kind of prose-poem. Some, entire strangers to Ireland,
declare the characters in the story to be to them much more familiar
than their most intimate friends. For being typical, they are real.

In one aspect it is the oft-told tale of struggle against
conventionality and dogmatism; but the remarkable thing is that here
these are presented in a sympathetic, rather than in an antagonistic
light. It is a masterly touch; for conventionality, dogmatism, and even
intolerance, are ways in which our imperfect natures cling fearfully to
some halting-place, ere a new step is taken on the upward journey.

And so there must always be pioneers, leaders who encourage us to
take the next step onward. Books such as this are like refreshing
waters pouring new streams of life on jaded souls, weary of the
squirrel-in-cage business of the accepted order. The book is full of
good-humored raillery, and abounds in richly imaginative and poetic
flashes. Although practically a recital of actual occurrences in
Ireland, and therefore occasionally weighted with sad and unavoidably
stern vicissitudes (less stern than the reality), one discerns plainly
those undercurrents of aspiration and effort which are pressing
upward in many places today--forces which, indeed, attain embodied
expression before the world, in the Theosophical movement led by
Katherine Tingley. And it was Katherine Tingley who, recognizing the
high merit of this little work, acquired the copyright and caused the
first edition to appear from the workshops of the Aryan Theosophical
Press. The author himself, who is unconnected with the Universal
Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, replying to his critics, and
after disclaiming the idea that there was any propagandist design in
his mind, went on to say:

 The truth is that life and character in the Ireland that is waking up
 are extraordinarily rich and interesting if we look a little below
 the surface.... To take such ideas and characters and try to press
 them into the service of some personal theory or propaganda would
 be a crude and senseless proceeding. The point is to illustrate and
 interpret them, as well as one can, to let them speak for themselves.

The following extracts, much to the point, are taken from a review
which appeared in _The Gaelic-American_, New York.

 Here we see the mysticism of the medieval poet done into prose. Into
 his love romance the author has woven his own peculiar ideas about
 religion, society, theosophy, altruism, and every-day politics. His
 characters talk these things without, however, losing their human and
 personal traits. That is why the story is so interesting.

 In some respects _The Plough and the Cross_ is a psychological study.
 Katherine Tingley, the famous Theosophist of Point Loma, condenses the
 features of the novel in the following brief introduction:

 "A story of real life in Ireland--in the deepest sense as well as in
 the usual one--it elucidates certain heart problems in social and
 religious life with a candor, charm, and fearlessness, and with so
 tender a restraint and sympathy that it can hardly fail to be regarded
 as a wholly unique contribution to modern thought.

 "More than one actual initiation into the real meaning and purpose of
 human life is subtly and exquisitely depicted here--the outcome of
 those stern yet joyful experiences which must come sooner or later
 to all true hearts that toil nobly and unselfishly for the uplift of
 social and national life...."




The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society

Founded at New York City in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky, William Q. Judge
and others

Reorganized in 1898 by Katherine Tingley

Central Office, Point Loma, California

 The Headquarters of the Society at Point Loma with the buildings
 and grounds, are no "Community" "Settlement" or "Colony," but are
 the Central Executive Office of an international organization where
 the business of the same is carried on, and where the teachings of
 Theosophy are being demonstrated. Midway 'twixt East and West, where
 the rising Sun of Progress and Enlightenment shall one day stand at
 full meridian, the Headquarters of the Society unite the philosophic
 Orient with the practical West.


 MEMBERSHIP

 in the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society may be
 either "at large" or in a local Branch. Adhesion to the principle
 of Universal Brotherhood is the only pre-requisite to membership.
 The Organization represents no particular creed; it is entirely
 unsectarian, and includes professors of all faiths, only exacting from
 each member that large toleration of the beliefs of others which he
 desires them to exhibit towards his own.

 Applications for membership in a Branch should be addressed to
 the local Director; for membership "at large" to G. de Purucker,
 Membership Secretary, International Theosophical Headquarters, Point
 Loma, California.


OBJECTS

This Brotherhood is a part of a great and universal movement which has
been active in all ages.

This Organization declares that Brotherhood is a fact in Nature. Its
principal purpose is to teach Brotherhood, demonstrate that it is a
fact in Nature, and make it a living power in the life of humanity.

Its subsidiary purpose is to study ancient and modern religions,
science, philosophy, and art; to investigate the laws of Nature and the
divine powers in man.

It is a regrettable fact that many people use the name of Theosophy
and of our Organization for self-interest, as also that of H. P.
Blavatsky, the Foundress, and even the Society's motto, to attract
attention to themselves and to gain public support. This they do in
private and public speech and in publications. Without being in any way
connected with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, in
many cases they permit it to be inferred that they are, thus misleading
the public, and honest inquirers are hence led away from the original
truths of Theosophy.

The Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society welcomes to
membership all who truly love their fellow men and desire the
eradication of the evils caused by the barriers of race, creed, caste,
or color, which have so long impeded human progress; to all sincere
lovers of truth and to all who aspire to higher and better things than
the mere pleasures and interests of a worldly life and are prepared to
do all in their power to make Brotherhood a living energy in the life
of humanity, its various departments offer unlimited opportunities.

The whole work of the Organization is under the direction of the Leader
and Official Head, Katherine Tingley, as outlined in the Constitution.

Inquirers desiring further information about Theosophy or the
Theosophical Society are invited to write to

  THE SECRETARY
  International Theosophical Headquarters
  Point Loma, California




  Transcriber's Notes:

  Bold type is shown as =strong=.

  Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.

  Small capitals have been capitalised.

  Illustrations have been moved out of mid-paragraph.

  Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

  Punctuation has been retained as published.

  Typographical errors that were noticed during transcription
  have been changed.

  In the List of Illustrations, Temple in the Greek Theater, Point Loma,
  California, P10, has been removed, it does not exist.

  In the book list, the unclear superscript in the dutch entry for
  Pit en Merg, uit sommige Heilige Geschriften has been given the
  value 'e'.

  In the Index, 'Egyptian Art, 26th Dynasty', has been corrected to
  page 200 from page 20.