Title: The Law and the Word
Author: Troward, T. (Thomas), 1847-1916
Language: English
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THE LAW AND THE WORD


BY
T. TROWARD

_Late Divisional Judge, Punjab. Honorary member of
the Medico-Legal Society of New York.
First Vice-President International
New Thought Alliance_

Author of the "Edinburgh Lectures on Mental
Science," etc.



NEW YORK
ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY
1937



COPYRIGHT, 1917
BY S.A. TROWARD

_Published, May, 1917

Eighth Printing, June, 1937_


THE LAW AND THE WORD

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.



CONTENTS

CHAPTER                                  PAGE

FOREWORD                                  iii

   I SOME FACTS IN NATURE                   1

  II SOME PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES              18

 III MAN'S PLACE IN THE CREATIVE ORDER     44

  IV THE LAW OF WHOLENESS                  75

   V THE SOUL OF THE SUBJECT               85

  VI THE PROMISES                         103

 VII DEATH AND IMMORTALITY                132

VIII TRANSFERRING THE BURDEN              168



FOREWORD

THOMAS TROWARD

AN APPRECIATION


How is one to know a friend? Certainly not by the duration of
acquaintance. Neither can friendship be bought or sold by service
rendered. Nor can it be coined into acts of gallantry or phrases of
flattery. It has no part in the small change of courtesy. It is outside
all these, containing them all and superior to them all.

To some is given the great privilege of a day set apart to mark the
arrival of a total stranger panoplied with all the insignia of
friendship. He comes unannounced. He bears no letter of introduction. No
mutual friend can vouch for him. Suddenly and silently he steps
unexpectedly out of the shadow of material concern and spiritual
obscurity, into the radiance of intimate friendship, as a picture is
projected upon a lighted screen. But unlike the phantom picture he is an
instant reality that one's whole being immediately recognizes, and the
radiance of fellowship that pervades his word, thought and action holds
all the essence of long companionship.

Unfortunately there are too few of these bright messengers of God to be
met with in life's pilgrimage, but that Judge Troward was one of them
will never be doubted by the thousands who are now mourning his
departure from among us. Those whose closest touch with him has been the
reading of his books will mourn him as a friend only less than those who
listened to him on the platform. For no books ever written more clearly
expressed the author. The same simple lucidity and gentle humanity, the
same effort to discard complicated non-essentials, mark both the man and
his books.

Although the spirit of benign friendliness pervades his writings and
illuminated his public life, yet much of his capacity for friendship was
denied those who were not privileged to clasp hands with him and to sit
beside him in familiar confidence. Only in the intimacy of the fireside
did he wholly reveal his innate modesty and simplicity of character.
Here alone, glamoured with his radiating friendship, was shown the
wealth of his richly-stored mind equipped by nature and long training to
deal logically with the most profound and abstruse questions of life.
Here indeed was proof of his greatness, his unassuming superiority, his
humanity, his keen sense of honour, his wit and humour, his generosity
and all the characteristics of a rare gentleman, a kindly philosopher
and a true friend.

To Judge Troward was given the logician's power to strip a subject bare
of all superfluous and concealing verbiage, and to exhibit the gleaming
jewels of truth and reality in splendid simplicity. This supreme
quality, this ability to make the complex simple, the power to
subordinate the non-essential, gave to his conversation, to his
lectures, to his writings, and in no less degree to his personality, a
direct and charming naïveté that at once challenged attention and
compelled confidence and affection.

His sincerity was beyond question. However much one might differ from
him in opinion, at least one never doubted his profound faith and
complete devotion to truth. His guileless nature was beyond ungenerous
suspicions and selfish ambitions. He walked calmly upon his way wrapped
in the majesty of his great thoughts, oblivious to the vexations of the
world's cynicism. Charity and reverence for the indwelling spirit marked
all his human relations. Tolerance of the opinions of others,
benevolence and tenderness dwelt in his every word and act. Yet his
careful consideration of others did not paralyze the strength of his
firm will or his power to strike hard blows at wrong and error. The
search for truth, to which his life was devoted, was to him a holy
quest. That he could and would lay a lance in defence of his opinions is
evidenced in his writings, and has many times been demonstrated to the
discomfiture of assailing critics. But his urbanity was a part of
himself and never departed from him.

Not to destroy but to create was his part in the world. In developing
his philosophy he built upon the foundation of his predecessors. No good
and true stone to be found among the ruins of the past, but was
carefully worked into his superstructure of modern thought, radiant with
spirituality, to the building of which the enthusiasm of his life was
devoted.

To one who has studied Judge Troward, and grasped the significance of
his theory of the "Universal Sub-conscious Mind," and who also has
attained to an appreciation of Henri Bergson's theory of a "Universal
Livingness," superior to and outside the material Universe, there must
appear a distinct correlation of ideas. That intricate and ponderously
irrefutable argument that Bergson has so patiently built up by deep
scientific research and unsurpassed profundity of thought and
crystal-clear reason, that leads to the substantial conclusion that man
has leapt the barrier of materiality only by the urge of some external
pressure superior to himself, but which, by reason of infinite effort,
he alone of all terrestrial beings has succeeded in utilizing in a
superior manner and to his advantage: this well-rounded and exhaustively
demonstrated argument in favour of a super-livingness in the universe,
which finds its highest terrestrial expression in man, appears to be the
scientific demonstration of Judge Troward's basic principle of the
"Universal Sub-conscious Mind." This universal and infinite
God-consciousness which Judge Troward postulates as man's
sub-consciousness, and from which man was created and is maintained,
and of which all physical, mental and spiritual manifestation is a form
of expression, appears to be a corollary of Bergson's demonstrated
"Universal Livingness." What Bergson has so brilliantly proven by
patient and exhaustive processes of science, Judge Troward arrived at by
intuition, and postulated as the basis of his argument, which he
proceeded to develop by deductive reasoning.

The writer was struck by the apparent parallelism of these two
distinctly dissimilar philosophies, and mentioned the discovery to Judge
Troward who naturally expressed a wish to read Bergson, with whose
writings he was wholly unacquainted. A loan of Bergson's "Creative
Evolution" produced no comment for several weeks, when it was returned
with the characteristic remark, "I've tried my best to get hold of him,
but I don't know what he is talking about." I mention the remark as
being characteristic only because it indicates his extreme modesty and
disregard of exhaustive scientific research.

The Bergson method of scientific expression was unintelligible to his
mind, trained to intuitive reasoning. The very elaborateness and
microscopic detail that makes Bergson great is opposed to Judge
Troward's method of simplicity. He cared not for complexities, and the
intricate minutiæ of the process of creation, but was only concerned
with its motive power--the spiritual principles upon which it was
organized and upon which it proceeds.

Although the conservator of truth of every form and degree wherever
found, Judge Troward was a ruthless destroyer of sham and pretence. To
those submissive minds that placidly accept everything indiscriminately,
and also those who prefer to follow along paths of well-beaten opinion,
because the beaten path is popular, to all such he would perhaps appear
to be an irreverent iconoclast seeking to uproot long accepted dogma and
to overturn existing faiths. Such an opinion of Judge Troward's work
could not prevail with any one who has studied his teachings.

His reverence for the fundamental truths of religious faith was
profound, and every student of his writings will testify to the great
constructive value of his work. He builded upon an ancient foundation a
new and nobler structure of human destiny, solid in its simplicity and
beautiful in its innate grandeur.

But to the wide circle of Judge Troward's friends he will best and most
gloriously be remembered as a teacher. In his magic mind the
unfathomable revealed its depths and the illimitable its boundaries;
metaphysics took on the simplicity of the ponderable, and man himself
occupied a new and more dignified place in the Cosmos. Not only did he
perceive clearly, but he also possessed that quality of mind even more
rare than deep and clear perception, that clarity of expression and
exposition that can carry another and less-informed mind along with it,
on the current of its understanding, to a logical and comprehended
conclusion.

In his books, his lectures and his personality he was always ready to
take the student by the hand, and in perfect simplicity and friendliness
to walk and talk with him about the deeper mysteries of life--the life
that includes death--and to shed the brilliant light of his wisdom upon
the obscure and difficult problems that torment sincere but rebellious
minds.

His artistic nature found expression in brush and canvas and his great
love for the sea is reflected in many beautiful marine sketches. But if
painting was his recreation, his work was the pursuit of Truth wherever
to be found, and in whatever disguise.

His life has enriched and enlarged the lives of many, and all those who
knew him will understand that in helping others he was accomplishing
exactly what he most desired. Knowledge, to him, was worth only what it
yielded in uplifting humanity to a higher spiritual appreciation, and to
a deeper understanding of God's purpose and man's destiny.

     A man, indeed! He strove not for a place,
     Nor rest, nor rule. He daily walked with God.
     His willing feet with service swift were shod--
     An eager soul to serve the human race,
     Illume the mind, and fill the heart with grace--
     Hope blooms afresh where'er those feet have trod.

                                                        PAUL DERRICK.



THE LAW AND THE WORD



CHAPTER I

SOME FACTS IN NATURE


If I were asked what, in my opinion, distinguishes the thought of the
present day from that of a previous generation, I should feel inclined
to say, it is the fact that people are beginning to realize that Thought
is a power in itself, one of the great forces of the Universe, and
ultimately the greatest of forces, directing all the others. This idea
seems to be, as the French say, "in the air," and this very well
expresses the state of the case--the idea is rapidly spreading through
many countries and through all classes, but it is still very much "in
the air." It is to a great extent as yet only in a gaseous condition,
vague and nebulous, and so not leading to the practical results, both
individual and collective, which might be expected of it, if it were
consolidated into a more workable form. We are like some amateurs who
want to paint finished pictures before they have studied the elements of
Art, and when they see an artist do without difficulty what they vainly
attempt, they look upon him as a being specially favoured by Providence,
instead of putting it down to their own want of knowledge. The idea is
true. Thought _is_ the great power of the Universe. But to make it
practically available we must know something of the principles by which
it works--that it is not a mere vaporous indefinable influence floating
around and subject to no known laws, but that on the contrary, it
follows laws as uncompromising as those of mathematics, while at the
same time allowing unlimited freedom to the individual.

Now the purpose of the following pages, is to suggest to the reader the
lines on which to find his way out of this nebulous sort of thought into
something more solid and reliable. I do not profess, like a certain
Negro preacher, to "unscrew the inscrutable," for we can never reach a
point where we shall not find the inscrutable still ahead of us; but if
I can indicate the use of a screw-driver instead of a hatchet, and that
the screws should be turned from left to right, instead of from right to
left, it may enable us to unscrew some things which would otherwise
remain screwed down tight. We are all beginners, and indeed the
hopefulness of life is in realizing that there are such vistas of
unending possibilities before us, that however far we may advance, we
shall always be on the threshold of something greater. We must be like
Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up--heaven defend me from ever feeling
quite grown up, for then I should come to a standstill; so the reader
must take what I have to say simply as the talk of one boy to another in
the Great School, and not expect too much.

The first question then is, where to begin. Descartes commenced his book
with the words "Cogito, ergo sum." "I think, therefore I am," and we
cannot do better than follow his example. There are two things about
which we cannot have any doubt--our own existence, and that of the world
around us. But what is it in us that is aware of these two things, that
hopes and fears and plans regarding them? Certainly not our flesh and
bones. A man whose leg has been amputated is able to think just the
same. Therefore it is obvious that there is something in us which
receives impressions and forms ideas, that reasons upon facts and
determines upon courses of action and carries them out, which is not the
physical body. This is the real "I Myself." This is the Person we are
really concerned with; and it is the betterment of this "I Myself" that
makes it worth while to enquire what our Thought has to do in the
matter.

Equally true it is on the other hand that the forces of Nature around us
do not think. Steam, electricity, gravitation, and chemical affinity do
not think. They follow certain fixed laws which we have no power to
alter. Therefore we are confronted at the outset by a broad distinction
between two modes of Motion--the Movement of Thought and the Movement of
Cosmic Energy--the one based upon the exercise of Consciousness and
Will, and the other based upon Mathematical Sequence. This is why that
system of instruction known as Free Masonry starts by erecting the two
symbolic pillars Jachin and Boaz--Jachin so called from the root "Yak"
meaning "One," indicating the Mathematical element of Law; and Boaz,
from the root "Awáz" meaning "Voice" indicating Personal element of Free
Will. These names are taken from the description in I Kings vii, 21 and
II Chron. iii, 17 of the building of Solomon's Temple, where these two
pillars stood before the entrance, the meaning being that the Temple of
Truth can only be entered by passing between them, that is, by giving
each of these factors their due relation to the other, and by realizing
that they are the two Pillars of the Universe, and that no real progress
can be made except by finding the true balance between them. Law and
Personality--these are the two great principles with which we have to
deal, and the problem is to square the one with the other.

Let me start, then, by considering some well established facts in the
physical world which show how the known Law acts under certain known
conditions, and this will lead us on in an intelligible manner to see
how the same Law is likely to work under as yet unknown conditions. If
we had to deal with unknown laws as well as unknown conditions we
should, indeed, be up a gum tree. Fancy a mathematician having to solve
an equation, both sides of which were entirely made up of unknown
quantities--where would he be? Happily this is not the case. The Law is
ONE throughout, and the apparent variety of its working results from the
infinite variety of the conditions under which it may work. Let us lay a
foundation, then, by seeing how it works in what we call the common
course of Nature. A few examples will suffice.

Hardly more than a generation ago it was supposed that the analysis of
matter could not be carried further than its reduction to some seventy
primary chemical elements, which in various combinations produced all
material substances; but there was no explanation how all these
different elements came into existence. Each appeared to be an original
creation, and there was no accounting for them. But now-a-days, as the
rustic physician says in Molière's play of the "Médecin Malgré Lui,"
"nous avons changé tout cela." Modern science has shown conclusively
that every kind of chemical atom is composed of particles of one
original substance which appears to pervade all space, and to which the
name of Ether has been given. Some of these particles carry a positive
charge of electricity and some a negative, and the chemical atom is
formed by the grouping of a certain number of negatively charged
particles round a centre composed of positive electricity around which
they revolve; and it is the number of these particles and the rate of
their motion that determines the nature of the atom, whether, for
instance, it will be an atom of iron or an atom of hydrogen, and thus we
are brought back to Plato's old aphorism that the Universe consists of
Number and Motion.

The size of these etheric particles is small beyond anything but
abstract mathematical conception. Sir Oliver Lodge is reported to have
made the following comparison in a lecture delivered at Birmingham. "The
chemical atom," he said, "is as small in comparison to a drop of water
as a cricket-ball is compared to the globe of the earth; and yet this
atom is as large in comparison to one of its constituent particles as
Birmingham town-hall is to a pin's head." Again, it has been said that
in proportion to the size of the particles the distance at which they
revolve round the centre of the atom is as great as the distance from
the earth to the sun. I must leave the realization of such infinite
minuteness to the reader's imagination--it is beyond mine.

Modern science thus shows us all material substance, whether that of
inanimate matter or that of our own bodies, as proceeding out of one
primary etheric substance occupying all space and homogeneous, that is
being of a uniform substance--and having no qualities to distinguish one
part from another. Now this conclusion of science is important because
it is precisely the fact that out of this homogeneous substance
particles are produced which differ from the original substance in that
they possess positive and negative energy and of these particles the
atom is built up. So then comes the question: What started this
differentiation?

The electronic theory which I have just mentioned takes us as far as a
universal homogeneous ether as the source from which all matter is
evolved, but it does not account for how motion originated in it; but
perhaps another closely allied scientific theory will help us. Let us,
then, turn to the question of Vibrations or Waves in Ether. In
scientific language the length of a wave is the distance from the crest
of one wave to that of the wave immediately following it. Now modern
science recognizes a long series of waves in ether, commencing with the
smallest yet known measuring 0.1 micron, or about 1/254,000 of an inch,
in length, measured by Professor Schumann in 1893, and extending to
waves of many miles in length used in wireless telegraphy--for instance
those employed between Clifden in Galway and Glace Bay in Nova Scotia
are estimated to have a length of nearly four miles. These
infinitesimally small ultra-violet or actinic waves, as they are called,
are the principal agents in photography, and the great waves of wireless
telegraphy are able to carry a force across the Atlantic which can
sensibly affect the apparatus on the other side; therefore we see that
the ether of space affords a medium through which energy can be
transmitted by means of vibrations.

But what starts the vibrations? Hertz announced his discovery of the
electro-magnetic waves, now known by his name, in 1888; but, following
up the labours of various other investigators, Lodge, Marconi and others
finally developed their practical application after Hertz's death which
occurred in 1894. To Hertz, however, belongs the honour of discovering
how to generate these waves by means of sudden, sharply defined,
electrical discharges. The principle may be illustrated by dropping a
stone in smooth water. The sudden impact sets up a series of ripples all
round the centre of disturbance, and the electrical impulse acts
similarly in the ether. Indeed the fact that the waves flow in all
directions from the central impulse is one of the difficulties of
wireless telegraphy, because the message may be picked up in any
direction by a receiver tuned to the same rate of vibration, and the
interest for us consists in the hypothesis that thought-waves act in an
analogous manner.

That vibrations are excited by sound is beautifully exemplified by the
eidophone, an instrument invented, I believe, by Mrs. Watts-Hughes, and
with which I have seen that lady experiment. Dry sand is scattered on a
diaphragm on which the eidophone concentrates the vibrations from music
played near it. The sand, as it were, dances in time to the music, and
when the music stops is found to settle into definite forms, sometimes
like a tree or a flower, or else some geometrical figure, but never a
confused jumble. Perhaps in this we may find the origin of the legends
regarding the creative power of Orpheus' lyre, and also the sacred
dances of the ancients--who knows!

Perhaps some critical reader may object that sound travels by means of
atmospheric and not etheric waves; but is he prepared to say that it
cannot produce etheric waves also. The very recent discovery of
transatlantic telephoning tends to show that etheric waves can be
generated by sound, for on the 20th of October, 1915, words spoken in
New York were immediately heard in Paris, and could therefore only have
been transmitted through the ether, for sound travels through the
atmosphere only at the rate of about 750 miles an hour, while the speed
of impulses through ether can only be compared to that of light or
186,000 miles in a second. It is therefore a fair inference that etheric
vibrations can be inaugurated by sound.

Perhaps the reader may feel inclined to say with the Irishman that all
this is "as dry as ditch-water," but he will see before long that it has
a good deal to do with ourselves. For the present what I want him to
realize by a few examples is the mathematical accuracy of Law. The value
of these examples lies in their illustration of the fact that the Law
can always be trusted to lead us on to further knowledge. We see it
working under known conditions, and relying on its unchangeableness, we
can then logically infer what it will do under other hypothetical
conditions, and in this way many important discoveries have been made.
For instance it was in this way that Mendeléef, the Russian chemist,
assumed the existence of three then unknown chemical elements, now
called Scandium, Gallium and Germanium. There was a gap in the orderly
sequence of the chemical elements, and relying on the old maxim--"Natura
nihil facit per saltum"--Nature nowhere leaves a gap to jump over--he
argued that if such elements did not exist they ought to, and so he
calculated what these elements ought to be like, giving their atomic
weight, chemical affinities, and the like; and when they were discovered
many years later they were found to answer exactly to his description.
He prophesied, not by guesswork, but by knowledge of the Law; and in
much the same way radium was discovered by Professor and Madame Curie.
In like manner Hertz was led to the discovery of the electro-magnetic
waves. The celebrated mathematician Clerk-Maxwell had calculated all
particulars of these waves twenty-five years before Hertz, on the basis
of these calculations, worked out his discovery. Again, Neptune, the
outermost known planet of our system was discovered by the astronomer
Galle in consequence of calculations made by Leverrier. Certain
variations in the movements of the planets were mathematically
unaccountable except on the hypothesis that some more remote planet
existed. Astronomers had faith in mathematics and the hypothetical
planet was found to be a reality. Instances of this kind might be
multiplied, but as the French say "à quoi bon?" I think these will be
sufficient to convince the reader that the invariable sequence of Law is
a factor to be relied upon, and that by studying its working under known
conditions we may get at least some measure of light on conditions which
are as yet unknown to us.

Let us now pass on to the human subject and consider a few examples of
what is usually called the psychic side of our nature. Walt Whitman was
quite right when he said that we are not all included between our hat
and our boots; we shall find that our modes of consciousness and powers
of action are not entirely restricted to our physical body. The
importance of this line of enquiry lies in the fact that if we do
possess extra-physical powers, these also form part of our personality
and must be included in our estimate of our relation to our environment,
and it is therefore worth our while to consider them.

Some very interesting experiments have been made by De Rochas, an
eminent French scientist, which go to show that under certain magnetic
conditions the sensation of physical touch can be experienced at some
distance from the body. He found that under these conditions the person
experimented on is insensible to the prick of a needle run into his
skin, but if the prick is made about an inch-and-a-half away from the
surface of the skin he feels it. Again at about three inches from this
point he feels the prick of the needle, but is insensible to it in the
space between these two points. Then there comes another interval in
which no sensation is conveyed, but at about three inches still further
away he again feels the sensation, and so on; so that he appears to be
surrounded by successive zones of sensation, the first about an
inch-and-a-half from the body, and the others at intervals of about
three inches each. The number of these zones seems to vary in different
cases, but in some there are as many as six or seven, thus giving a
radius of sensation, extending to more than twenty inches beyond the
body.

Now to explain this we must have recourse to what I have already said
about waves. The heart and the lungs are the two centres of automatic
rhythmic movement in the body, and each projects its own series of
vibrations into the etheric envelope. Those projected by the lungs are
estimated to be three times the length of those projected by the heart,
while those projected by the heart are three times as rapid as those
projected by the lungs. Consequently if the two sets of waves start
together the crest of every third wave of the rapid series of short
waves will coincide with the crest of one of the long waves of the
slower series, while the intermediate short waves will coincide with the
depression of one of the long waves. Now the effect of the crest of one
wave overtaking that of another going in the same direction, is to raise
the two together at that point into a single wave of greater amplitude
or height than the original waves had by themselves; if the reader has
the opportunity of studying the inflowing of waves on the seabeach he
can verify this for himself. Consequently when the more rapid etheric
waves overtake the slower ones they combine to form a larger wave, and
it is at these points that the zones of sensation occur. If the reader
will draw a diagram of two waved lines travelling along the same
horizontal line and so proportioned that the crest of each of the large
waves coincides with the crest of every third wave of the small ones, he
will see what I mean: and if he then recollects that the fall in the
larger waves neutralizes the rise in the smaller ones, and that because
this double series starts from the interior of the body the surface of
the body comes just at one of these neutralized points, he will see why
sensation is neutralized there; and he will also see why the succeeding
zones of sensation are double the distance from each other that the
first one is from the surface of the body; it is simply because the
surface of the body cuts the first long wave exactly in the middle, and
therefore only half that wave occurs outside the body. This is the
explanation given by De Rochas, and it affords another example of that
principle of mathematical sequence of which I have spoken. It would
appear that under normal conditions the double series of vibrations is
spread all over the body, and so all parts are alike sensitive to touch.

I think, then, we may assume on the basis of De Rochas' experiments and
others that there are such things as etheric vibrations proceeding from
human personality, and in the next chapter I will give some examples
showing that the psychic personality extends still further than these
experiments, taken by themselves, would indicate--in fact that we
possess an additional range of faculties far exceeding those which we
ordinarily exercise through the physical body, and which must therefore
be included in our conception of ourselves if we are to have an adequate
idea of what we really are.



CHAPTER II

SOME PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES


The preceding chapter has introduced the reader to the general subject
of etheric vibration as one of the natural forces of the Universe, both
as the foundation of all matter and as the medium for the transmission
of energy to immense distances, and also as something continually
emanating from human beings. In the present chapter I shall consider it
more particularly in this last aspect, which, as included in our own
personality, very immediately concerns ourselves. I will commence with
an instance of the practical application of this fact. Some years ago I
was lunching at the house of Lady ---- in company of a well-known mental
healer whom I will call Mr. Y. and a well-known London physician whom I
will call Dr. W. Mr. Y. mentioned the case of a lady whose leg had been
amputated above the knee some years previously to her coming under his
care, yet she frequently felt pains in the (amputated) knee and lower
part of the left leg and foot. Dr. W. said this was to be attributed to
the nerves which convey to the brain the sensation of the extremities,
much as a telegraph line might be tapped in the middle, and Mr. Y.
agreed that this was perfectly true on the purely physical side. But he
went on to say, that accidentally putting his hand where the amputated
foot should have been he felt it there. Then it occurred to him that
since there was no material foot to be touched, it must be through the
medium of his own psychic body that the sensation of touch was conveyed
to him, and accordingly he asked the lady to imagine that she was making
various movements with the amputated limb, all of which he felt, and was
able to tell her what each movement was, which she said he did
correctly. Then, to carry the experiment further, he reversed the
process and with his hand moved the invisible leg and foot in various
ways, all of which the lady felt and described. He then determined to
treat the invisible leg as though it were a real one, and joined up the
circuit by taking her left foot in his right hand and her right foot
(the amputated one) in his left, with the result that she immediately
felt relief; and after successive treatments in this way was entirely
cured.

A well authenticated case like this opens up a good many interesting
questions regarding the Psychic Body, but the most important point
appears to me to be that we are able to experience sensation by means of
it. In this case, however, and those mentioned in the preceding chapter,
the physical body was actually present, and if we stopped at this point,
we might question whether its presence was not a _sine qua non_ for the
action of the etheric vibrations. I will therefore pass on to a class of
examples which show that very curious phenomena can take place without
the physical body being on the spot. There are numerous well verified
cases of the kind to be found in the records of the Society for
Psychical Research and in other books by trustworthy writers; but it may
perhaps interest the present reader to hear one or two instances of my
personal experience which, though they may not be so striking as some of
those recorded by others, still point in the same direction.

My first introduction to Scotland was when I delivered the course of
lectures in Edinburgh which led to the publication of my first book,
the "Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science." The following years I gave
a second course of lectures in Edinburgh, but the friends who had kindly
entertained me on the former occasion had in the meanwhile gone to live
elsewhere. However, a certain Mr. S., whose acquaintance I had made on
my previous visit, invited me to stay with him for a day or two while I
could look round for other accommodation, though, as it turned out, I
remained at his house during the whole month I was in Edinburgh. I had,
however, never seen his house, which was on the opposite side of the
town to where I had stayed before. I arrived there on a Tuesday, and Mr.
S. and his family at once met me with the question:

"What were you thinking of at ten o'clock on Sunday evening?"

I could not immediately recall this, and also wanted to know the reason
of their question.

"We have something curious to tell you," they replied, "but first try to
remember what you were thinking of at ten o'clock on Sunday
evening--were you thinking about us?"

Then I recollected that about that time I was saying my usual prayers
before going to bed and had asked that, if I could stay only a day or
two with Mr. S., I should be directed to a suitable place for the
remainder of the time.

"That explains it," they replied; and then they went on to tell me that
at the hour in question Mr. S. and his son, a young man of about twenty,
had entered their dining-room together and seen me standing leaning
against the mantel-shelf. They were both hard-headed Scotchmen engaged
in business in Edinburgh, and certainly not the sort of people to
conjure up fanciful imaginings, nor is it likely that the same fancy
should have occurred to both of them; and therefore I can only suppose
that they actually saw what they said they did. Now I myself was in
London at the time of this appearance in Edinburgh, of which I had no
consciousness whatever; at the same time the fact of my being seen in
Edinburgh exactly at the time when my thought, in prayer, was centred
upon Mr. S.'s house (which I had not then seen) is a coincidence
suggesting that in some way my Thought had made itself visible there in
the image of my external personality.

In this case, as I have said, I was not conscious of my psychic visit to
Edinburgh, but I will now relate a converse instance, which occurred in
connection with my first visit there. At that time I had never been in
Scotland, and so far as I knew was never likely to go there. I was wide
awake, writing in my study at Norwood, where I then lived, when I
suddenly found myself in a place totally unknown to me, where stood the
ruins of an ancient abbey, part of which, however, was still roofed over
and used as a place of worship. I felt much interested, and among other
things I noted a Latin inscription on a tablet in one of the walls.
There seemed to be an invisible guide showing me over the place, who
then pointed out a long low house opposite the abbey, and said: "This is
the house of the clergyman of the abbey"; and I was then taken inside
the house and shown a number of antique-looking rooms. Then I came to
myself, and found I was sitting at my writing-table in Norwood. I had,
however, a clear recollection of the place I had seen, but no idea where
it was, or indeed whether any such place really existed. I also
remembered a portion of the Latin inscription, which I at once wrote
down in a note-book, as my curiosity was aroused.

As I have said, I had no reason at that time to suppose I should ever
go to Scotland, but some weeks later I was invited to lecture in
Edinburgh. Another visitor in the house where I was a guest there, was
the wife of the County Court Judge of Cumberland, and I showed her and
our hostess the part of the Latin inscription I had retained, and
suggested that perhaps it might exist somewhere in Edinburgh. However
nothing answering to what I had seen was to be found, so we relegated
the whole thing to the region of unaccountable fancies, and thought no
more about it. The Judge's wife took her departure before me, and kindly
invited me to spend a few days at their residence near Carlisle on my
return journey, which I did. One day she drove me out to see Lanercost
Abbey, one of the show-places of the neighbourhood, and walking round
the building I found in one of the walls the Latin inscription in
question. I called Mrs. ----, who was a little way off, and said: "Look
at this inscription."

She at once replied: "Why! that is the very inscription we were all
puzzling over in Edinburgh!"

It turned out to be an inscription in memory of the founder of the
abbey, dating from somewhere in the eleven-hundreds. The whole place
answered exactly to what I had seen, and the long low parsonage was
there also.

"I should have liked you to see it inside," said Mrs. ----, "but I have
never met the vicar, though I know his mother-in-law, so we must give it
up."

We were just entering our carriage when the garden-gate opened, and who
should come out but the mother-in-law.

"Oh, Mrs. ----," she said, addressing the Judge's wife, "I am here on a
visit and you must come in and take tea." So we went in and were shown
over the house, much as I had been in my vision, and some portions were
so old that, among other rooms, we were shown the one occupied by King
Edward I on his march against Scotland in the year 1296, when the
Scottish regalia was captured, and the celebrated Crowning-Stone was
brought to England and placed in Westminster Abbey, where it has ever
since remained--a stone having an occult relation to the history of the
British and American peoples of the highest interest to both, but as
there is already an extensive literature on this subject I will not
enter upon it here.

I will now relate another curious experience. We had only recently
taken up our residence at Norwood, when one day I was seated in the
dining-room, but suddenly found myself in the hall, and saw two ladies
going up the stairs. They passed close to me, and turning round the
landing at the top of the stairs passed out of sight in a perfectly
natural manner. They looked as solid as any one I have ever seen in my
life. One of them was a stout lady with a rather florid complexion,
apparently between forty-five and fifty, wearing a silk blouse with thin
purple and white stripes. Leaning on her arm was a slightly-built old
lady with white ringlets, dressed all in black and wearing a lace
mantilla. I noticed their appearance particularly. The next moment I
found I was really sitting in the dining-room, and that the ladies I had
seen were nothing but visionary figures. I wondered what it could mean,
but as we had only recently taken the house, thought it better not to
mention it to any of my family, for fear of causing them alarm. But a
few days later I mentioned it to a Mrs. F. who I knew had had some
experience in such matters, and she said: "You have seen either some one
who has lived in the house or who is going to live there." Then the
matter dropped.

About a month later my wife arranged by correspondence for a certain
Miss B. to come as governess to our children. When she arrived there was
no mistaking her identity. She was the stout lady I had seen, and the
next morning she came down to breakfast dressed in the identical blouse
with purple and white stripes. There was no mistaking her, but I was
puzzled as to who the other figure could be whom I had seen along with
her. I resolved, however, to say nothing about the matter until we
became better acquainted, lest she should think that my mind was not
quite balanced. I therefore held my peace for six months, at the end of
which time I concluded that we knew enough of each other to allow one
another credit for being fairly level-headed. Then I thought, now if I
tell her what I saw she may perhaps be acted upon by suggestion and
imagine a resemblance between the unknown figure and some acquaintance
of hers, so I will not begin by telling her of the vision, but will
first ask if she knows any one answering to the description, and give
her the reason afterwards. I therefore took a suitable opportunity of
asking her if she knew any such person, describing the figure to her as
accurately as I could.

Her look of surprise grew as I went on, and when I had finished she
explained with astonishment: "Why, Mr. Troward, where _could_ you have
seen my mother? She is an invalid, and I am certain you have never seen
her, and yet you have described her most accurately."

Then I told her what I had seen. She asked what I thought was the
explanation of the appearance, and the only explanation I could give
was, that I supposed she was on the look-out for a post and paid us a
preliminary visit to see whether ours would suit her, and that, being
naturally interested in her welfare, her mother had accompanied her.
Perhaps you will say: "What came of it?" Well, nothing "came of it," nor
did anything "come" of my psychic visits to Edinburgh and Lanercost
Abbey. Such occurrences seem to be simple facts in Nature which, though
on some occasions connected with premonitions of more or less
importance, are by no means necessarily so. They are the functioning of
certain faculties which we all possess, but of the nature of which we as
yet know very little.

It will be noticed that in the first of these three cases I myself was
the person seen, though unaware of the fact. In the last I was the
percipient, but the persons seen by me were unconscious of their visit;
and in the second case I was conscious of my presence at a place which I
had never heard of, and which I visited some time after. In two of these
cases, therefore, the persons, making the psychic visit, were not aware
of having done so, while in the third, a memory of what had been seen
was retained. But all three cases have this in common, that the psychic
visit was not the result of an act of conscious volition, and also, that
the psychic action took place at a long distance from the physical body.

From these personal experiences, as well as from many well authenticated
cases recorded by other writers, I should be inclined to infer that the
psychic action is entirely independent of the physical body, and in
support of this view I will cite yet another experience.

It was about the year 1875, when I was a young Assistant Commissioner in
the Punjab, that I was ordered to the small up-country station of
Akalpur,[1] and took possession of the Assistant Commissioner's
bungalow there. On the night of our arrival in the bungalow, my wife and
I had our charpoys--light Indian bedsteads--placed side by side in a
certain room and went to bed. The last thing I remembered before falling
asleep, was seeing my wife sitting up in bed, reading with a lamp on a
small table beside her. Suddenly I was awakened by the sound of a shot,
and starting up, found the room in darkness. I immediately lit a candle
which was on a chair by my bedside, and found my wife still sitting up
with the book on her knee, but the lamp had gone out.

"Take me away, take me into another room," she exclaimed.

"Why, what is the matter?" I said.

"Did you not see it?" she replied.

"See what?" I asked.

"Don't stop to ask any questions," she replied; "get me out of this room
at once; I can't stop here another minute."

I saw she was very frightened, so I called up the servants, and had our
beds removed to a room on the other side of the house, and then she told
me what she had seen. She said: "I was sitting reading as you saw me,
when looking round, I saw the figure of an Englishman standing close by
my bedside, a fine-looking man with a large fair moustache and dressed
in a grey suit. I was so surprised that I could not speak, and we
remained looking at each other for about a minute. Then he bent over me
and whispered: 'Don't be afraid,' and with that there was the sound of a
shot, and everything was in darkness."

"My dear girl, you must have fallen asleep over your book and been
dreaming," I said.

"No, I was wide awake," she insisted; "you were asleep, but I was awake
all the time. But you heard the shot, did you not?"

"Yes," I replied, "that is what woke me--some one must have fired a shot
outside."

"But why should any one be shooting in our garden at nearly midnight?"
my wife objected.

It certain seemed strange, but it was the only explanation that
suggested itself; so we had to agree to differ, she being convinced that
she had seen a ghost, and that the shot had been inside the room, and I
being equally convinced that she had been dreaming, and that the shot
had been fired outside the house.

The next morning the owner of the bungalow, an old widow lady, Mrs. La
Chaire, called to make kindly enquiries as to whether she could be of
any service to us on our arrival. After thanking her, my wife said: "I
expect you will laugh at me, but I cannot help telling you there is
something strange about the bungalow"; and she then went on to narrate
what she had seen.

Instead of laughing the old lady looked more and more serious as she
went on, and when she had done asked to be shown exactly where the
apparition had appeared. My wife took her to the spot, and on being
shown it old Mrs. La Chaire exclaimed: "This is the most wonderful thing
I have ever heard of. Eighteen years ago my bed was on the very spot
where yours was last night, and I was lying in it too ill to move, when
my husband, whom you have described most accurately, stood where you saw
him and shot himself dead."

This statement of the widow convinced me that my wife had really seen
what she said she had, and had not dreamed it; and this experience has
led me to make further enquiries into the nature of happenings of this
kind, with the result, that after carefully eliminating all cases which
could be accounted for in any other manner, I have found myself
compelled to admit a considerable number of instances of what are
called "ghosts," on the word of persons whose veracity and soundness of
judgment I should not doubt on any other subject. It is often said that
you never meet any one who has himself seen a ghost, but only those who
have heard of somebody else seeing one. This I can entirely contradict,
for I have met with many trustworthy persons of both sexes, who have
given me accounts of such appearances having been actually witnessed by
themselves. In conclusion, I may mention that I was telling this story
some twenty years later to a Colonel Fox, who had known the unfortunate
man who committed suicide, and he said to me: "Do you know what were the
last words he said to his wife?"

"No," I replied.

"The very same words he spoke to your wife," said Colonel Fox.

This is the story I refer to in my book "Bible Mystery and Bible
Meaning" as that of "the Ghost that I did not see." I do not attempt to
offer any explanation of it, but merely give the facts as they occurred,
and the reader must form his own theory on the subject; but the reason I
bring in this story in the present connection is, that in this instance
there could be no question of the physical body contributing to the
psychic phenomenon, since the person seen had been dead for nearly
twenty years; and coupling this fact with the distance from the physical
body at which the psychic action took place in the other cases I have
mentioned, I think there is a very strong presumption that the psychic
powers can, and do, act independently of the physical body; though of
course it does not follow from this that they cannot also act in
conjunction with it.

On the other hand, a comparison of the present case with those
previously mentioned, fails to throw any light on the important question
whether the deceased feels any consciousness of the action which the
percipient sees, or whether what is seen is like a sort of photograph
impressed upon the atmosphere of a particular locality, and visible only
to certain persons, who are able to sense etheric wave-lengths which are
outside the range of the single octave forming the solar spectrum. It
throws no light on this question, because, in the case of my being seen
by Mr. S. in Edinburgh and that of Miss B. and her mother being seen by
me at Norwood, none of us were conscious of having been at those
places; while in the case of my psychic visit to Lanercost Abbey, and
other similar experiences I have had, I have been fully aware of seeing
the places in question. The evidence tells both ways, and I can
therefore only infer that there are two modes of psychic action, in one
of which the person projecting that action, whether voluntarily or
involuntarily, experiences corresponding sensations, and the other in
which he does not; but I am unable to offer any criterion by which the
observer can, with certainty, distinguish between the two.

It appears to me, that such instances as those I have mentioned, point
to ranges of etheric action beyond those ordinarily recognized by
physical science, but the principle seems to be the same, and it is for
this reason that I have taken the modern scientific theory of etheric
vibration as our starting-point. The universe is one great whole, and
the laws of one part cannot contradict those of another; therefore the
explanation of such queer happenings is not to be found by denying the
well-ascertained laws of Nature on the physical plane, but by
considering whether these laws do not extend further. It is on this
account that I would lay stress on the Mathematical side of things, and
have adduced instances where various discoveries have been made by
following up the sequence indicated by the laws already known, and which
have thus enabled us to fill up gaps in our knowledge, which would
otherwise stop, or at least seriously hinder, our further progress. It
is in this way that Jachin helps Boaz, and that the undeviating nature
of Law, so far from limiting us, becomes our faithful ally if we will
only allow it to do so.

I think, then, that the scientific idea of the ether, as a universal
medium pervading all space, and permeating all substance, will help us
to see that many things which are popularly called supernatural, are to
be attributed to the action of known laws working under, as yet, unknown
conditions, and therefore, when we are confronted with strange
phenomena, a knowledge of the general principles involved, will show us
in what direction to look for an explanation. Now applying this to the
present subject, we may reasonably argue, that since all physical matter
is scientifically proved to consist of the universal ether in various
degrees of condensation, there may be other degrees of condensation,
forming other modes of matter, which are beyond the scope of physical
vision and of our laboratory apparatus. And similarly, we may argue,
that just as various effects can be produced on the physical plane, by
the action of etheric waves of various lengths, so other effects might
be produced on these finer modes of matter, by etheric waves of other
lengths. And in this connection we must not forget that a gap occurs
between the "dark heat" groups and the Hertzian group, consisting of
five octaves of waves, the lengths of which have been theoretically
calculated, but whose action has not yet been discovered. Here we
admittedly have a wide field for the working of known laws under as yet
unknown conditions; and again, how can we say that there are not ranges
of unknown waves, yet smaller than the minute ultra-violet ones, which
commence the present known scale, or transcending those largest ones,
which bear our messages across the Atlantic? Mathematically, there is no
limit to the scale in either direction; and so, taking our stand on the
demonstrated facts of science, we find, that the known laws of Nature
point to their continuation in modes of matter and of force, of which we
have as yet no conception. It is therefore not at all necessary to
spurn the ground of established science to spread the wings of our
fancy; rather it affords us the requisite basis from which to start,
just as the aeronaut cannot rise without a solid surface from which to
spring.

Now if we realize that the ether is an infinitely subtle fluid,
pervading all space, we see that it must constitute a connecting link
between all modes of substance, whether visible or invisible, in all
worlds, and may therefore be called the Universal Medium; and following
up our conception of the Continuity of Law, we may suppose that trains
of waves, inconceivably smaller or greater than any known to modern
science, are set up in this medium, in the same way as the
electro-magnetic waves with which we are acquainted; that is, by an
impulse which generates them from some particular point. In the region
of finer forces we are now prospecting, this impulse might well be the
Desire or Will of the spiritual entity which we ourselves are--that
thinking, feeling, inmost essence of ourself, which is the "noumenon" of
our individuality, and which, for the sake of brevity we call our "Ego,"
a Latin word which simply means "I myself." This idea of spiritual
impulse is quite familiar to us in our every-day talk. We speak of an
impulsive person, meaning one who acts on a sudden thought without
giving due heed to consequences; so in our ordinary speech we look upon
thought as the initial impulse, only we restrict this to the case of
unregulated thought. But if unregulated thought acts as a centre of
impulse, why should not regulated thought do the same? Therefore we may
accept the idea of Thought as the initial impulse, which starts trains
of waves in the Universal Medium, whether with or without due
consideration, and having thus recognized its dynamic power, we must
learn to make the impulsions we thus send forth intelligent, well
defined, and directed to some useful purpose. The operator at some
wireless station does not use his instruments to send out a lot of
jumbled-up waves into the ether, but controls the impulsions into a
definite and intelligible order, and we must do the same.

On some such lines as these, then, we may picture the desire of the Ego
as starting a train of waves in the Universal Medium, which are
reproduced in corresponding _form_ on reaching their destination. As
with the electro-magnetic waves, they may spread all round, just as
ripples do if we throw a stone into a pond; but they will only take form
where there is a correspondence able to receive them. This is what in
the language of electrical engineers is called "Syntony," which means
being tuned to the same rate of vibration, and no doubt it is from some
such cause, that we sometimes experience what seem inexplicable feelings
of attraction or repulsion towards different persons. This also appears
to furnish a key to thought-transference, hypnotism, and other allied
phenomena.

If the reader questions whether thought is capable of generating
impulses in the etheric medium I would refer him to the experiment
mentioned in Chapter XIV of my "Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science,"
where I describe how, when operating with Dr. Baraduc's biometer, I
found that the needle revolved through a smaller or large arc of the
circle, in response to my mental intention of concentrating a smaller or
larger degree of force upon it. Perhaps you will say that the difference
in the movement of the needle depended on the quantity of magnetism that
was flowing from me, to say nothing of other known forces, such as heat,
light, electricity, etc. Well, that is precisely the proposition I am
putting forward. What caused the difference in the intensity of the
magnetic flow was my intention of varying it, so that we come back to
mental action as the centre of impulsion from which the etheric waves
were generated. If, then, such a demonstration can be obtained on the
plane of purely physical matter, why need we doubt that the same Law
will work in the same way, in respect of those finer modes of substance,
and wider ranges of etheric vibrations, which, starting from the basis
of recognized physical science, the Law of Continuity would lead to by
an orderly sequence, and which the occurrence of what, for want of a
better name, we call occult phenomena require for their explanation?

Before passing on to the more practical generalizations to be drawn from
the suggestions contained in this chapter, I may advert to an objection
sometimes brought by the sceptical in this matter. They say: "How is it
that apparitions are always seen in the dark?" and then they answer
their own question by saying, it is because superstitious people are
nervous in the dark and imagine all sorts of things. Then they laugh and
think they have disposed of the whole subject. But it is not disposed
of quite so easily, for not only are there many well attested cases of
such appearances in broad daylight, but there are also scientific facts,
showing that if we are right in explaining such happenings by etheric
action, such action is more readily produced at night than in the
presence of sunlight.

In the early part of 1902 Marconi made some experiments on board the
American liner _Philadelphia_, which brought out the remarkable fact
that, while it was possible to transmit signals to a distance of fifteen
hundred miles during the night, they could not be transmitted further
than seven hundred miles during the day. The same was found to be the
case by Lieutenant Solari of the Italian Navy, at whose disposal the
ship _Carlo Alberta_ was placed by the King of Italy in 1902, for the
purpose of making investigations into wireless telegraphy; and summing
up the points which he considered to have been fully established by his
experiments on board that ship, he mentions among them the fact, that
sunlight has the effect of reducing the power of the electro-magnetic
waves, and that consequently a greater force is required to produce a
given result by day than by night. Here, then, is a reason why we might
expect to see more supernatural appearances, as we call them, at night
than in the day--they require a smaller amount of force to produce them.
At the same time, it is found that the great magnetic waves which cover
immense distances, work even more powerfully in the light than in the
dark. May it not be that these things show, that there is more than a
merely metaphorical use of words, when the Bible tells us of the power
of Light to dissipate, and bring to naught, the powers of Darkness,
while the Light itself is the Great Power, using the forces of the
universe on the widest scale? Perhaps it is none other than the
continuity of unchanging universal principles extending into the
mysterious realms of the spiritual world.



CHAPTER III

MAN'S PLACE IN THE CREATIVE ORDER


In the preceding chapters we have found certain definite facts,--that
all known matter is formed out of one primordial Universal
Substance,--that the ether spreading throughout limitless space is a
Universal Medium, through which it is possible to convey force by means
of vibrations,--and that vibrations can be started by the power of
Sound. These we have found to be well established facts of ordinary
science, and taking them as our starting-point, we may now begin to
speculate as to the possible workings of the known laws under unknown
conditions.

One of the first things that naturally attract our attention is the
question,--How did Life originate? On this point I may quote two leading
men of science. Tyndall says: "I affirm that no shred of trustworthy
experimental testimony exists, to prove that life in our day has ever
appeared independently of antecedent life"; and Huxley says: "The
doctrine of biogenesis, or life only from life, is victorious along the
whole line at the present time." Such is the testimony of modern science
to the old maxim "Omne vivum exvivo." "All life proceeds from antecedent
life." Think it out for yourself and you will see that it could not
possibly be otherwise.

Whatever may be our theory of the origin of life on the physical plane,
whether we regard it as commencing in a vivified slime at the bottom of
the sea, which we call protoplasm, or in any other way, the question of
how life got there still remains unanswered. The protoplasm being
material substance, must have its origin like all other material
substances, in the undifferentiated etheric Universal Substance, no
particle of which has any power of operating upon any other particle
until some initial vibration starts the movement; so that, on any theory
whatever, we are always brought back to the same question: What started
the condensation of the ether into the beginnings of a world-system? So
whether we consider the life which characterizes organized matter, or
the energy which characterizes inorganic matter, we cannot avoid the
conclusion, that both must have their source in some Original Power to
which we can assign no antecedent. This is the conclusion which has been
reached by all philosophic and religious systems that have really tried
to get at the root of the matter, simply because it is impossible to
form any other conception.

This Living Power is what we mean when we speak of the All-Originating
Spirit. The existence of this Spirit is not a theological invention, but
a logical and scientific ultimate, without predicating which, nothing
else can be accounted for. The word "Spirit" comes from the Latin
"spiro" "I breathe," and so means "The Breath," as in Job xxxiii,
4,--"The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath
given me life"; and again in Ps. xxxiii, 6--"By the word of the Lord
were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his
mouth."

In the opening chapter of Genesis, we are told that "the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters." The words rendered "the Spirit of
God" are, in the original Hebrew "rouah Ælohim," which is literally "the
Breathing of God"; and similarly, the ancient religious books of India,
make the "Swára" or Great Breath the commencement of all life and
energy. The word "rouah" in Genesis is remarkable. According to
rabbinical teaching, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a certain
symbolic significance, and when examined in this manner, the root from
which this word is derived conveys the idea of Expansive Movement. It is
the opposite of the word "hoshech," translated "darkness" in the same
passage of our Bible, which is similarly derived from a root conveying
the idea of Hardening and Compressing. It is the same idea that is
personified in the Zendavesta, the sacred book of the ancient Persians,
under the names of Ormuzd, the Spirit of Light; and Ahriman, the Spirit
of Darkness; and similarly in the old Assyrian myth of the struggle
between the Sun-God and Tiámat, the goddess of darkness.

This conception of conflict between two opposite principles, Light and
Darkness, Compression and Expansion, will be found to underlie all the
ancient religions of the world, and it is conspicuous throughout our own
Scriptures. But it should be borne in mind that the oppositeness of
their nature does not necessarily mean conflict. The two principles of
Expansion and Contraction are not necessarily destructive; on the
contrary they are necessary correlatives to one another. Expansion alone
cannot produce form; cohesion must also be present. It is the regulated
balance between them that results in Creation. In the old legend, if I
remember rightly, the conflict is ended by Tiámat marrying her former
opponent. They were never really enemies, but there was a
misunderstanding between them, or rather there was a misunderstanding on
the part of Tiámat so long as she did not perceive the true character of
the Spirit of Light, and that their relation to one another was that of
co-operation and not of opposition. Thus also St. John tells us that
"the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not"
(John i, 5). It is this want of comprehension that is at the root of all
the trouble.

The reader should note, however, that I am here speaking of that
Primeval Substance, which necessarily has no light in itself, because
there is as yet no vibration in it, for there can be no light without
vibration. We must not make the mistake of supposing that Matter is evil
in itself: it is our misconception of it that makes it the vehicle of
evil; and we must distinguish between the darkness of Matter and moral
darkness, though there is a spiritual correspondence between them. The
true development of Man consists in the self-expansion of the Divine
Spirit working through his mind, and thence upon his psychic and
physical organisms, but this can only be by the individual's
_willingness to receive_ that Spirit. Where the hindrance to this
working is only caused by ignorance of the true relation between
ourselves and the Divine Spirit, and the desire for truth is present,
the True Light will in due course disperse the darkness. But on the
other hand, if the hindrance is caused by _unwillingness_ to be led by
the Divine Spirit, then the Light cannot be _forced_ upon any one, and
for this reason Jesus said: "This is the condemnation, that light is
come into the World, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he
that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made
manifest, that they are wrought in God" (John iii: 19-21). In physical
science these things have an exact parallel in "Ohm's Law" regarding the
resistance offered by the conductor to the flow of the electric
current. The correspondence is very remarkable and will be found more
fully explained in a later chapter. The Primary Darkness, both of
Substance and of Mind, has to be taken into account, if we would form an
intelligent conception of the twofold process of Involution and
Evolution continually at work in ourselves, which, by their combined
action, are able to lead to the limitless development both of the
individual and of the race.

According to all teaching, then, both ancient and modern, all life and
energy have their source in a Primary Life and Energy, of which we can
only say that IT IS. We cannot conceive of any time when it was not,
for, if there was a time when no such Primary Energizing Life existed,
what was there to energize it? So we are landed in a _reductio ad
absurdum_ which leaves no alternative but to predicate the Eternal
Existence of an All-Originating Living Spirit.

Let us stop for a moment to consider what we mean by "Eternal." When,
do you suppose, twice two began to make four? And when, do you
suppose, twice two will cease to make four? It is an eternal
principle, quite independent of time or conditions. Similarly with the
Originating Life. It is above time and above conditions--in a word it
is _undifferentiated_ and contains in itself the _potential_ of
infinite differentiation. This is what the Eternal Life is, and what
we want for the expansion of our own life is a truer comprehension of
it. We are like Tiámat, and must enter into intelligent and loving
union with the Spirit of Light, in order to realize the infinite
possibilities that lie before us. This is the ultimate meaning of the
maxim "Omne vivum ex vivo."

We see, then, that the material universe, including our own bodies, has
its origin in the undifferentiated Universal Substance, and that the
first movement towards differentiation must be started by some initial
impulse, analogous to those which start vibrations in the ether known to
science; and that therefore this impulse must, in the first instance,
proceed from some Living Power eternal in itself, and independent of
time and conditions. Now all the ancient religions of the world concur,
in attributing this initial impulse to the power of Sound; and we have
seen, that as a matter of fact, sound has the power of starting
vibrations, and that these vibrations have an exact correspondence with
the quality of the sound, what we now call synchronous vibration.

At this point, however, we are met by another fact. Cosmic activity
takes place only in certain definite areas. Solar systems do not jostle
each other in space. In a word the Sound, which thus starts the initial
impulse of creation, is guided by Intelligent Selection. Now sounds,
directed by purposeful intention, amount to Words, whether the words of
some spoken language or the tapping of the Morse code--it is the meaning
at the back of the sound that gives it verbal significance. It is for
this reason, that the concentration of creative energy in particular
areas, has from time immemorial been attributed to "The Word." The old
Sanskrit books call this selective concentrative power "Vach," which
means "Voice," and is the root of the Latin word "Vox," having the same
meaning. Philo, and the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria who follow him,
call it "Logos," which means the same; and we are all familiar with the
opening verses of St. John's Gospel and First Epistle in which he
attributes Creation to "The Word."

Now we know, as a scientific fact, that solar systems have a definite
beginning in the gyration of nebulous matter, circling through vast
fields of interstellar space, as the great nebula in Andromeda does at
the present day. Æons upon æons elapse, before the primary nebula
consolidates into a solar system such as ours is now; but science shows,
that from the time when the nebula first spreads its spiral across the
heavens, the mathematical element of Law asserts itself, and it is by
means of our recognition of the mathematical relations between the
forces of attraction and repulsion, that we have been able to acquire
any knowledge on the subject. I do not for an instant wish to suggest
that the Spiritual Power has not continued to be in operation also, but
a centre for the working of a Cosmic Law being once established, the
Spiritual Power works through that Law and not in opposition to it. On
the other hand, the selection of particular portions of space for the
manifestation of cosmic activity, indicates the action of free volition,
not determined by any law except the obvious consideration of allowing
room for the future solar system to move in. Similarly also with regard
to time. Spectroscopic analysis of the light from the stars, which are
suns many of them much greater than our own, shows that they are of
various ages--some quite young, some arrived at maturity, and some
passing into old age. Their creation must therefore be assigned to
different epochs, and we thus see the Originating Spirit exercising the
powers of Selection and Volition as to the time when, as well as to the
place where, a new world-system shall be inaugurated.

Now it is this power of inauguration that all the ancient systems of
teaching attribute to the Divine Word. It is the passing of the
undifferentiated into differentiation, of the unmanifested into
manifestation, of the unlocalized into localization. It is the ushering
in of what the Brahminical books call a "Manvantara" or world-period,
and in like manner our Bible says that "In the beginning was the Word."
The English word "word" is closely allied to the Latin word "verbum"
which signifies both _word_ and _verb_. Grammarians tell us that the
verb "to be" is a verb-substantive, that is, it does not indicate any
action passing from the subject to the object. Now this exactly
describes the Spirit in its Eternity. We cannot conceive of It except as
always BEING; but the distribution of world-systems both in time and
space shows that it is not always cosmically active. In itself, apart
from manifestation, it is Pure Beingness, if I may coin such a word; and
it is for this reason that the Divine Name announced to Moses was "I
AM." But the fact that Creation exists, shows that from this Substantive
Pure Being there flows out a Verb Active, which reproduces in action,
what the I AM is in essence. It is just the same with ourselves. We must
first _be_ before we can _do_, and we can _do_ only to the extent to
which we _are_. We cannot express powers which we do not possess; so
that our doing necessarily coincides with the quality of our being.
Therefore the Divine Verb reproduces the Divine Substantive by a natural
sequence. It is _generated_ by the Divine "I AM," and for this reason it
is called "The Son of God." So we see that The Verb, The Word, and The
Son of God, are all different expressions for the same Power.

Creative vibration in the Universal Substance can, therefore, only be
conceived of, as being inaugurated by the "Word" which _localizes_ the
activity of the Spirit in particular centres. This idea, of the
localization of the Spirit through the "Word," should be fully realized
as the energizing principle on the scale of the Macrocosm or "Great
World," because, as we shall find later on, the same principle acts in
the same way on the scale of the Microcosm or "Small World," which is
the individual man. This is why these things have a personal interest
for us, otherwise they would not be worth troubling about. But a mistake
to be avoided at this point, is that of supposing that the "Word" is
something which dictates to the Spirit when and where to operate. The
"Word" is the word of the Spirit itself, and not that of some higher
authority, for the Spirit being First Cause there can be nothing
anterior to dictate to it; there can be nothing before that which is
First. The "Word" which centralizes the activity of the Spirit, is
therefore that of the Spirit itself. We have an analogy in our own case.
If I go to New York the first movement in that direction is that of my
Thought or Desire. It is true that in my present state of evolution I
have to follow the usual methods of travel, but so far as my Thought is
concerned, I have been there all the time. Indeed, such a case as the
one I have mentioned, of my being seen in Edinburgh while I was
physically in London, seems to point to the actual transference of some
part of the personality to another locality, and similarly with my visit
to Lanercost Abbey; and the reader must remember, that such phenomena
are by no means uncommon--they are the natural action of some part of
our personality, and must therefore follow some natural law, even though
we may at present know very little of how it works.

We see, therefore, both from _a priori_ reasoning, and from observed
facts, that it is the Word, Thought, or Desire of the Spirit, that
localizes its activity in some definite centre. The student should bear
this in mind as a leading principle, for he will find that it is of
general application, alike in the case of individuals, of groups of
individuals, and of entire nations. It is the key to the relation
between Law and Personality, the opening of the Grand Arcanum, the
equilibrating of Jachin and Boaz, and it is therefore of immediate
importance to ourselves.

We may take, then, as a starting-point for further enquiry, the maxim
that Volition creates Centres of Spiritual Activity. But perhaps you
will say: "If this be true, what word or words am I to employ?" This is
a question which has puzzled a good many people before you. This "Word"
which so many have been in search of, has been variously called "the
Lost Word," "the Word of Power," "the Schemhammaphorasch or Secret Name
of God," and so on. A quaint Jewish legend of the Middle Ages says that
the "Hidden Name" was secretly inscribed in the innermost recesses of
the Temple; but that, even if discovered, which was most unlikely, it
could not be retained because, guarding it, were sculptured lions, which
gave such a supernatural roar as the intruder was quitting the spot,
that all memory of the "Hidden Name" was driven from his mind. Jesus,
however, says the legend, knew this and dodged the lions. He transcribed
the Name, and cutting open his thigh, hid the writing in the incision,
which, by magical art, he at once closed up; then, after leaving the
Temple, he took the writing out and so retained the knowledge of the
Name. In this way the legend accounts for his power to work miracles.

Jesus, indeed, possessed the Word of Power, though not in the way
told in the legend, and he repeatedly proclaimed it in his
teaching:--"According to your Faith be it unto you"--"Verily, I say unto
you, whosoever shall say to this mountain, 'Be thou taken up and cast
into the sea'; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
what he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith"
(Mark xi, 23). And similarly in the Old Testament we are told that the
Word is nigh to us, even in our hearts and in our mouth (Deut. xxx, 14).
What keeps the Word of Power hidden, is our belief that nothing so
simple could possibly be it.

At the same time, simple though it be, it has Law and Reason at the back
of it, like everything else. The ancient Egyptians seem to have had
clearer ideas on this subject than we have. "The name was to the
Egyptians the _idea_ of the thing, without which it could not exist, and
the knowledge of which therefore gave power over that which answered to
it." "The _idea_ of the thing represented its _soul_."[2] This is the
same conception as the "archetypal ideas" of Plato, only carried
further, so as to apply, not only to classes, but to each individual of
the class, and, as we shall see later, there is a good deal of truth in
it. Put broadly, the conception is this--every external fact must have
a spiritual origin, an internal energizing principle, which causes it to
exist in the particular form in which it does. The outward fact is
called the Phenomenon, and the corresponding inward principle is called
the Noumenon. The dictionary definition of these two words is as
follows: "Phenomenon--the appearance which anything makes to our
consciousness as distinguished from what it is in itself." "Noumenon--an
unknown and unknowable substance or thing as it is in itself--the
opposite to the Phenomenon or form through which it becomes known to the
senses or the understanding" (Chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary).
Whether the dictionary be right in saying that the "noumena" of things
are entirely unknowable, the reader must decide for himself; but the
present book is an attempt to learn something about the "noumena" of
things in general, and of ourselves in particular, and what I want to
convey is, that the "noumenon" of anything is its essence, _in terms of
the Universal Energy and the Universal Substance, in their relation to
the particular Form in question_. Probably the Latin word "Nomen," a
Name, is derived from this Greek word, and in this sense everything has
its "hidden name"; and the region in which Thought-Power works, is this
region of spiritual beginnings. It deals with "hidden names"--that
inward essence which determines the outward form of things, persons, and
circumstances alike; and it is in order to make this clearer, that I
have commenced by sketching briefly the general principles of Substance
and Energy as now recognized by modern science.

If I have made my meaning clear, you will see that what is wanted is
not the knowledge of particular words, but an understanding of general
principles. At the same time I would not assert that the reciting of
certain forms of words, such as the Indian "mantras" or the word AUM,
to which Oriental teachers attach a mystic significance, is entirely
without power. But the power is not in the words _but in our belief in
their power_. I will give an amusing instance of this. On several
occasions I have been consulted by persons who supposed themselves to
be under the influence of "malicious magnetism," emanating in some
cases from known, and in others from unknown, sources; and the remedy I
have prescribed has been this. Look the adverse power, mentally, full
in the face, and then assuming an attitude of confidence say
"Cock-a-doodle-doo." The enquirers have sometimes smiled at first, but
in every case the result has been successful. Perhaps this is why
Æsculapius is represented as accompanied by a cock. Possibly the
ancient physicians were in the habit of employing the
"Cock-a-doodle-doo" treatment; and I might recommend it to the faculty
to-day as very effective in certain cases. Now I do not think the
reader will attribute any particularly occult significance to
"Cock-a-doodle-doo." The power is in the mental attitude. To
"cock-a-doodle-doo" at any suggestion is to treat it with scorn and
derision, and to assume the very opposite of that receptive attitude
which enables a suggestion to affect us. That is the secret of this
method of treatment, and the principle is the same in all cases.

It matters, then, very little what particular words we use. What does
matter is the intention and faith with which we use them. But perhaps
some reader will here take the rôle of cross-examining counsel, and say:
"You have just said it is a case of synchronous vibration--then surely
it is the actual sound of the particular syllables that counts--how do
you square this with your present statement?" The answer is that the Law
is always the same, but the mode of response to the Law is always
according to the nature of the medium in which it is operating. On the
plane of physical matter the vibrations are in tune with physical
sounds, as in the experiments with the eidophone; and similarly, on the
plane of ideas or "noumena," the response is in terms of that plane. The
word which creates "noumena," or spiritual centres of action, must
itself belong to the world of "noumena," so that it is not illogical to
say that it is the intention and faith that counts, and not the external
sound. In this is the secret of the Power of Thought. It is the
reproduction, on the miniature scale of the individual, of the same mode
of Power that makes the worlds. It is that Power of Personality, which,
combined with the action of the Law, brings out results which the Law
alone could never do--as the old maxim has it, "Nature unaided fails."

This brings us to another important question--is not the creative power
of the Word limited by the immutability of the Law? If the Law cannot be
altered in the least particular, how can the Word be free to do what it
likes? The answer to this is contained in another maxim: "Every creation
carries its own mathematics along with it." You cannot create anything
without at the same time creating its relation to everything else, just
as in painting a landscape, the contour you give to the trees will
determine that of the sky. Therefore, whenever you create anything, you
thereby start a train of causation, which will work out in strict
accordance with the sort of thought that started it. The stream always
has the quality of its source. Thought which is in line with the Unity
of the Great Whole, will produce correspondingly harmonious results, and
Thought which is disruptive of the great Principle of Unity, will
produce correspondingly disputive results--hence all the trouble and
confusion in the world. Our Thought is perfectly free, and we can use it
either constructively or destructively as we choose; but the immutable
Law of Sequence will not permit us to plant a thought of one kind, and
make it bear fruit of another.

Then the question very naturally suggests itself: Why did not God create
us so that we could not think negative or destructive thoughts? And the
answer is: Because He could not. There are some things which even God
cannot do. He cannot do anything that involves a contradiction in terms.
Even God could not make twice two either more or less than four. Now I
want the student to see clearly why making us incapable of
wrong-thinking would involve a contradiction in terms, and would
therefore be an impossibility. To see this we must realize what is our
place in the Order of the Universe. The name "Man" itself indicates
this. It comes from the Sanscrit root MN, which, in all its derivatives,
conveys the idea of Measurement, as in the word Mind, through the Latin
_mens_, the faculty which compares things and estimates them
accordingly; Moon, the heavenly body whose phases afford the most
obvious standard for the periodical measurement of time; Month, the
period thus measured; "Man," the largest of the Indian weights; and so
on. Man therefore means "The Measurer," and this very aptly describes
our place in the order of evolution, for it indicates the relation
between Personal Volition and Immutable Law.

If we grant the truth of the maxim "Nature unaided fails" the whole
thing becomes clear, and the entire progress of applied science proves
the truth of this maxim. To recur to an illustration I have employed in
my previous books, the old ship-builders thought that ships were bound
to be built of wood and not of iron, because wood floats in water and
iron sinks; but now nearly all ships are made of iron. Yet the specific
gravities of wood and iron have not altered, and a log of wood floats
while a lump of iron sinks, just the same as they did in the days of
Drake and Frobisher. The only difference is, that people thought out the
_underlying principle_ of the law of flotation, and reduced it to the
generalized statement that anything will float, the weight of which is
less than that of the mass displaced by it, whether it be an iron ship
floating in water, or a balloon floating in air. So long as we restrict
ourselves to the mere recollection of observed facts, we shall make no
progress; but by carefully considering _why_ any force acted in the way
it did, under the particular conditions observed, we arrive at a
generalization of principle, showing that the force in question is
capable of hitherto unexpected applications if we provide the necessary
conditions. This is the way in which all advances have been made on the
material side, and on the principle of Continuity we may reasonably
infer that the same applies to the spiritual side also.

We may generalize the whole position thus. When we first observe the
working of the Law under the conditions spontaneously provided by
Nature, it appears to limit us; but by seeking the _reason_ of the
action exhibited under these limited conditions, we discover the
principle, and true nature, of the Law in question, and we then learn
from the Law itself, what conditions to supply in order to give it more
extended scope, and direct its energy to the accomplishment of definite
purposes. The maxim we have to learn is that "Every Law _contains in
itself_ the principle of its own Expansion," which will set us free from
the limitation which that Law at first appeared to impose upon us. The
limitation was never in the Law, but in the conditions under which it
was working, and our power of selection and volition enables us to
provide new conditions, not spontaneously provided by Nature, and thus
to _specialize_ the Law, and disclose immense powers which had always
been latent in it, but which would for ever remain hidden unless brought
to light by the co-operation of the Personal Factor. The Law itself
never changes, but we can _specialize_ it by realizing the principle
involved and providing the conditions thus indicated. This is our place
in the Order of the Universe. We give definite direction to the action
of the Law, and in this way our Personal Factor is always acting upon
the law, whether we know it or not; and the Law, under the influence
thus impressed upon it, is all the time re-acting upon us.

Now we cannot conceive any limit to Evolution. To suppose a point where
it comes to an end is a contradiction in terms. It is to suppose that
the Eternal Life Principle is used up, which is to deny its Eternity;
and, as we have seen, unless we assume its Eternity, it is impossible to
account either for our own existence or that of anything else.
Therefore, to say that a point will ever be reached where it will be
used up, is as absurd as saying that a point will be reached where the
sequence of numbers will be used up. Evolution, the progress from lower
to higher modes of manifestation of the underlying Principle of Life, is
therefore eternal, but, in regard to the human race, this progress
depends entirely on the extent to which we grasp the principles of the
Law of our own Being, and so learn to specialize it in the right
direction. Then if this be our place in the Universal Order, it becomes
clear that we could not occupy this place unless we had a perfectly free
hand to choose the conditions under which the Law is to operate; and
therefore, in order to pass beyond the limits of the mineral, vegetable
and animal kingdoms, and reach the status of being Persons, and not
things, we must have a freedom of selection and volition, which makes it
equally possible for us to select either rightly or wrongly; and the
purpose of sound teaching is to make us see the eternal principles
involved, and thus lead us to impress our Personality upon the Law, in
the way that will bring out the infinite possibilities of good which the
Law, rightly employed, contains. If it were possible to do this by an
automatic Law, doubtless the Creative Wisdom would have made us so. This
is why St. Paul says: "If there had been a law given which could have
given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. iii,
21). Note the words "a law _given_," that is to say, imposed by external
command; but it could not be. The laws of the Universe are Cosmic. In
themselves they are _impersonal_, and the infinite possibilities
contained in them, can only be brought out by the co-operation of the
Personal Factor. It is only as we grasp the true relation between Jachin
and Boaz, that we can enter into the Temple either of our own
Individuality, or of the boundless Universe in which we live. The
reason, therefore, why God did not make us mechanically incapable of
wrong thinking, is simply because the very idea involves a contradiction
in terms, which negatives all possibility of Creation. The conception
lands us in a _reductio ad absurdum_.

Therefore, we are free to use our powers of Personality as we will, only
we must take the consequences. Now one error we are all very apt to fall
into, is the mistaken use of the Will. Its proper function is to keep
our other faculties in line with the Law, and thus enable us to
specialize it; but many people seem to think that by force of will they
can somehow manage to coerce the Law; in other words, that by force of
will they can sow a seed of one kind and make it bear fruit of another.
The Spirit of Life seeks to express itself in our individuality, through
the three avenues of reason, feeling, and will; but as in the Masonic
legend of the murder of Hiram Abif, the architect of Solomon's Temple,
it is beaten back on the side of reasoning, by the plummet of a logic
based on false premises; on the side of feeling, by the level of
conventional ideas; and on the side of will, by the hammer of a
short-sighted self-will, which gives the finishing blow; and it is not
until the true perception of the Principle of Life is resurrected within
us, that the Temple can be completed according to the true plan.

It should be remembered that the will is _not_ the Creative Faculty in
us. It is the faculty of Conception that is the creative agent, and the
business of the Will is to keep that faculty in the right direction,
which will be determined by an enlightened Reason. Conception creates
ideas which are the seed, that, in due time, will produce fruit after
its own kind. In a broad sense we may call it the Imaging Faculty, only
we must not suppose that this necessarily implies the visualizing of
mental images, which is only a subsidiary mode of using this faculty. An
"immaculate conception" is therefore the only means by which the New
Liberated Man can be born in each of us. The sequence is always the
same. The Will holds the Conception together, and the idea thus formed
gives direction to the working of the Law. But this direction may be
either true or inverted; and the impersonal Law will work constructively
or destructively, according to the conception which it embodies. In this
way, then, will-power may be used to hold together an inverted
conception--the conception that our personal force of will is sufficient
to bear down all opposition. But this mental attitude ignores the fact,
that the fundamental principle of creative power is the Wholeness of the
Creation; and that, therefore, the idea of forcing compliance with our
wishes, by the power of our individual will, is an inverted conception,
which, though it may appear to succeed for a time, is bound to fail
eventually, because it antagonizes the very power it is seeking to use.
This inverted use of the Will is the basis of "Black Magic," a term some
readers will perhaps smile at, but which is practised at the present day
to a much greater extent than many of us have any idea of--not always,
indeed, with a full consciousness of its nature, but in many ways which
are the first steps on the Left-hand Path. Its mark is the determination
to act by Self-will, rather than using our will to co-operate with that
continuous forward movement of the Great Whole, which is the Will of
God. This inverted will entirely misses the point regarding the part we
are formed to play in the Creative Order, and so we miss the development
of our own individuality, and retrograde instead of going forward.

But if we work _with_ the Law instead of against it, we shall find that
our word, that is to say our conception, will become more and more the
Word of Power, because it specializes the general Law in some particular
direction. The Law will serve us exactly to the extent to which we first
observe the Law. It is the same in everything. If the electrician tries
to go counter to the fundamental principle, that the electric current
always flows from a higher to a lower potential, he will be able to do
nothing with it; but let him observe this fundamental law and there is
nothing that electricity will not do for him within the field of its own
nature. In this sense, then, of specializing the general Law in a
particular direction, we may lay down the maxim that "The Law flows from
the Word, and not _vice versa_."

When we use our Word in this way, not as expressing a self-will that
seeks to crush all that does not submit to it, but as a portion, however
small, of the Universal Cause, and therefore with the desire of acting
in harmony with that Cause, then our word becomes a constructive,
instead of a destructive power. Its influence may be very small at
first, because there is still a great mass of doubt at the back of our
mind, and every doubt is, in reality, a Negative Word warring against
our Affirmative Word; but, by adhering to our principle, we shall
gradually gain experience in these things, and the creative value of our
word will grow accordingly.



CHAPTER IV

THE LAW OF WHOLENESS


It may seem a truism to say that the whole is made up of its parts, but
all the same we often lose sight of this in our outlook on life.

The reason we do so is because we are apt to take too narrow a view of
the whole; and also because we do not sufficiently consider that it is
not the mere arithmetical sum of the parts that makes the whole, but
also the harmonious agreement of each part with all the other parts. The
extent of the whole and the harmony of the parts is what we have to look
out for, and also its objective; this is a universal rule, whatever the
whole in question may be.

Take, for instance, the case of the artist. He must start by having a
definite objective, what in studio phrase is called a "motif"; something
that has given him a certain impression which he wants to convey to
others, but which cannot be stated as an isolated fact without any
surroundings. Then the surroundings must be painted so as to have a
natural relation to the main motif; they must lead up to it, but at the
same time they must not compete with it. There must be only one definite
interest in the picture, and minor details must not be allowed to
interfere with it. They are there only because of the main motif, to
help to express it. Yet they are not to be treated in a slovenly manner.
As much as is seen of them must be drawn with an accuracy that correctly
suggests their individual character; but they must not be accentuated in
such a way as to emphasize details to the detriment of the breadth of
the picture. This is the artistic principle of unity, and the same
principle applies to everything else.

What, then, is the "Motif" of Life? Surely it must be, to express its
own Livingness. Then in the True Order all modes of life and energy must
converge towards this end, and it is only our short-sightedness that
prevents us from seeing this,--from seeing that the greater the harmony
of the whole Life, the greater will be the inflow of that Life in each
of the parts that are giving it expression. This is what we want to
learn with regard to ourselves, whether as individuals, classes or
nations. We have seen the cosmic workings of the Law of Wholeness in the
discovery of the planet Neptune. Another planet was absolutely necessary
to complete the unity of our solar system, and it was found that there
is such a planet, and similarly in other branches of natural science.
The Law of Unity is the basic law of Life, and it is our ignorant or
wilful infraction of this Law that is the root of all our troubles.

If we take this Law of Unity as the basis of our Thought we shall be
surprised to find how far it will carry us. Each part is a complete
whole in itself. Each inconceivably minute particle revolves round the
centre of the atom in its own orbit. On its own scale it is complete in
itself, and by co-operation with thousands of others forms the atom. The
atom again is a complete whole, but it must combine with other atoms to
form a molecule, and so on. But if the atom be imperfect as an atom, how
could it combine with other atoms?

Thus we see that however infinitesimal any part may be as compared with
the whole, it must also be a complete whole on its own scale, if the
greater whole is to be built up. On the same principle, our recognition
that our personality is an infinitesimal fraction of an inconceivably
greater Life, does not mean that it is at all insignificant in itself,
or that our individuality becomes submerged in an indistinguishable
mass; on the contrary, our own wholeness is an essential factor towards
the building up of the greater whole; so that as long as we keep before
us the building up of the Great Whole as the "main motif," we need never
fear the expansion of our own individuality. The more we expand, the
more effective units we shall become.

We must not, however, suppose that Unity means Uniformity. St. Paul puts
this very clearly when he says, if the whole body be an eye, where would
be the hearing, etc. (1 Cor. xii, 14). How could you paint a picture
without distinction of form, colour, or tone? Diversity in Unity is the
necessity for any sort of expression, and if it be the case in our own
bodies, as St. Paul points out, how much more so in the expressing of
the Eternal Life through endless ages and limitless space! Once we grasp
this idea of the unity and progressiveness of Life going on _ad
infinitum_, what boundless vistas of possibility open before us. It
would be enough to stagger the imagination were it not for our old
friends, the Law and the Word. But these will always accompany us, and
we may rely upon them in all worlds and under all conditions. This Law
of Unity is what in natural science is known as the Law of Continuity,
and the Ancient Wisdom has embodied it in the Hermetic axiom "Sicut
superius, sicut inferius; sicut inferius, sicut superius"--As above, so
below; as below, so above. It leads us on from stage to stage, unfolding
as it goes; and to this unfolding there is no end, for it is the Eternal
Life finding ever fuller expression, as it can find more and more
suitable channels through which to express itself. It can no more come
to an end than numbers can come to an end.

But it _must_ find suitable channels. Let there be no mistake about
this. Perhaps some one may say: Cannot it _make_ suitable channels for
any sort of expression that it needs? The answer is, that it can, and it
does so up to a certain point. As we have seen, the Word, Thought, or
Initial Impulse of the Ever-Living Spirit starts a centre of cosmic
activity in which the mathematical element of Law at once asserts
itself; thenceforward everything goes on according to certain broad
principles of sequence. This is a Generic Creation, creation according
to _genera_ or classes, like the "archetypal ideas" of Plato. This
creation is governed by a Law of Averages, and the legal maxim "De
minimis non curat lex"--the Law cannot trouble about minorities--applies
to it. This generic law keeps the class going, and slowly advancing,
simply as a class, but it can take no notice of individuals as such. As
Tennyson puts it in "In Memoriam," speaking of Nature:

    "So careful of the type she seems,
     So careless of the single life."

This mode of creation reaches its highest level, at any rate in our
world, in Genus Homo, or the human race. We also, as a race, are under
the Law of Averages. The race continues to exist, but from the moment of
birth the individual life is liable to be cut short in a hundred
different ways. In producing man, however, Generic Creation has produced
a _type_ having a mental and physical constitution capable of perceiving
the underlying principle of _all_ creation, that is, of seeing the
relation between the Word and the Law. We cannot conceive creation by
type going further than this. By the nature of this type every human
being has the potential of a further evolution, which will set it free
from bondage to an impersonal Law of Averages, by specializing it
through the Power of the Word, that is, by bringing the Personal Factor
to bear upon the Impersonal Factor, and so unfolding the possibilities
which can be achieved by their united activities. We have the power of
using the Word so as to specialize the action of the Law, not by
altering the Law, which is impossible, but by realizing its principle,
and enabling it to work under conditions which are not spontaneously
provided by Nature, but are provided by our own selection. The
_capacity_ for this exists in all human beings, but the practical
application of this capacity depends on our recognition of the
principles involved; and it is for this reason that I commenced this
book by citing instances of the combined working of Law and Personality
in purely physical science. I wanted first to convince the reader from
well ascertained facts, that the Law contains infinite possibilities,
but that this can only be brought out through the operation of the mind
of man.

It is here that we find the value of the maxim "Nature unaided fails."
The more we consider this maxim and the principle of Unity and
Continuity, the clearer it will become, that Limitation is no part of
the Law itself, but results only from our own limited comprehension of
it; and that St. James uses no meaningless phrase, but is stating a
logical and scientific truth, when he speaks of "The perfect Law of
Liberty" (Jas. i, 25). What we have to do is, to follow this up, not by
petulant self-assertion, but by quietly considering the why and
wherefore of the whole thing. In doing so we can fortify ourselves with
another maxim, that "Principle is not limited by Precedent." When we
spread the wings of thought and speculate as to future possibilities,
our conventionally-minded friends may say we are talking bosh; but if
you ask them why they say so, they can only reply that the past
experience of the whole human race is against you. They do not speak
like this in the matter of flying-machines or carriages that go without
horses; they say these are scientific discoveries. But when it comes to
the possibilities of our own souls, they at once set a limit to the
expansion of ideas, and do not see that the scientific principle of
discovery is not confined to laboratory experiments. Therefore, we must
not let ourselves be discouraged by such arguments. If our friends doubt
our sanity, let them doubt it. The sanity of such men as Galileo and
George Stephenson was doubted by their contemporaries, so we are in good
company. At the same time we must not neglect to look after our own
sanity. We must know some intelligible reason for our conclusions, and
realize that however unexpected, they are the logical carrying out of
principles which we can recognize in the Creation around us. If we do
this we need not fear to spread the wings of fancy, even though some may
not be able to accompany us; only we must remember that we are using
wings. Fancy, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, has really no
wings; it is like a balloon that just floats wherever any passing
current of air may drive it. The possession of wings implies power to
direct our flight, and fancy must be converted into trained Imagination,
just as the helpless balloon has been superseded by navigable air-craft.
It must be "the scientific imagination"; and the "scientific
imagination" carried into the world of spiritual causation becomes the
Word of Power, and its Power is derived from the fact that it is always
working according to Law. Then we may go on confidently, because we are
following the same universal principles by which all creation has been
evolved, only now we are specializing its action from the standpoint of
our own individuality, according to the ancient teaching that Man, the
Microcosm, repeats in himself all the laws of the Macrocosm, or great
world, around him.

As we begin to see the truth of these things, we begin to transcend the
simply generic stage. That first stage is necessary to provide a
starting-point for the next. The first stage is that of Bondage to Law.
It could not be otherwise for the simple reason that you must learn the
law before you can use it. Then from the stage of Generic Creation we
emerge into that of individual Creation, in which we attain liberty
through Knowledge of the Law of our own Being; so that it is not a mere
theological myth to talk of a New Creation, but it is the logical
outcome of what we now are, if, to our recognition of the Power of the
Law we add the recognition of the Power of the Word.



CHAPTER V

THE SOUL OF THE SUBJECT


We may now turn to speculate a little on some conceivable application of
the general principle we have been considering. It seems to me that, as
a result of the generic creation of which I have just spoken, there is
in everything what, for want of a better name, I may call "The soul of
the subject."

Creation being by type, everything must have a _generic_ basis of being
in the Cosmic Law, not peculiar to that individual thing, but peculiar
to the class to which it belongs, an adaptation of the Cosmic Soul for
the production of all things belonging to that particular order, in
fact, what makes them what they are and not something else. Now just
because this basis is generic and common to the whole genus that is
built upon it, it is not specific, but it acquires _localization through
Form_; the form being that of the class to which it belongs, thus
producing the individual of that class, whether a cat or a cabbage. It
is this underlying _generic_ being of the thing, that I want the student
to understand by "the soul of the subject." In fact we may call it the
Noumenon or essential being of the class, as distinguished from the
specific characteristics that differentiate the individual from others
of the same class. It follows from this that this _generic_ soul has no
individuality of its own, and consequently is open to receive
impressions from any source that can penetrate the sheath of outward
form and specific characteristic that envelopes it. At the same time it
is a manifestation of Cosmic Law, and so cannot depart from its own
class-nature, and therefore any influence that may be impressed upon it
from some other source will always show itself _in terms of the sort of
generic soul that is thus impressed_; for instance, it would be
impossible so to impress a dog as to make it write a book; and we may
therefore generalize the statement, and lay down the rule, that "Every
_im_press receives _ex_pression in terms of the medium through which it
is expressed." This becomes almost a self-obvious truism when put into
plain language like this; thus, if I paint a picture in oils, my
impression is conveyed in terms of this medium, and if I paint one in
water-colours my conception will be conveyed in terms of that medium,
and the methods of handling will be perfectly different in the two
pictures.

This applies all round; and if we keep this generalization in mind, it
will render many things clear, especially in psychic matters, which
would otherwise seem puzzling.

Now we ourselves are included in the general creation, and consequently
we have in us a generic or _type basis_ of personality, which is
entirely impersonal. This is not a contradiction in terms, though it may
look like one. We belong to the class Genus Homo, the distinctive
quality of which is Personality, that is to say, the possession of
certain faculties which constitute us persons, and not things or
animals; but at the same time this merely generic personality is common
to all mankind, and is not that which distinguishes one individual from
another, and in this sense it is impersonal; so we may call it our
Cosmic or Impersonal Personality.

Now it is upon this cosmic element, inherent in all things from mineral
to man, that Thought-Power acts, because, being impersonal, it has no
private purpose of its own with which to oppose the suggestion that is
being impressed upon it. The only thing is, that according to the rule
just laid down, the response will always be in terms of the cosmic
element which we have thus set in motion. Therefore on the human plane
it will always be in terms of Personality.

The whole thing comes to this, that we impart to this impersonal element
the reflection of our own personality, and thereby create in it a
certain personality of its own, which will express itself in terms of
the inherent nature of the impersonal factor, which we have thus
temporarily invested with a personal quality; we are continually doing
this unconsciously, either for good or ill; but when we come to
understand the law of it, we must try so to regulate the habitual
current of our thoughts, that even when we are not using this power
intentionally, they may only exercise a beneficial influence.

In our normal state this cosmic element in ourselves is so closely
united with our more conscious powers of volition and reasoning, that
they constitute a single unity; and this is how it should be, only, as
we shall see later on, with a difference. But there are certain
abnormal states which are worth considering, because they make clearer
the existence in us of this impersonal self, which in academical
language is called the subliminal consciousness. The work of the
subliminal consciousness exhibits itself in various ways, such as
clairvoyance, clair-audience, and conditions of trance; all of which
either occur spontaneously, or are induced by experimental means, such
as hypnotism; but the similarity of the phenomena in either case shows,
that it is the same faculty that is in evidence.

In those hypnotic experiments in which the operator merely makes the
subject do some external act, we get no further than the fact that the
person's individual will has been temporarily put to sleep, and that of
the hypnotist has taken its place; still even this shows a power of
impressing upon the subliminal consciousness a personal quality of its
own, but it does not enable it to exhibit its own powers. The object of
such experiments is, to exhibit the powers of the hypnotist, not to
investigate the powers of the subliminal personality, which is of more
importance in the present connection. But where the hypnotist employs
his power of command to tell the subliminal self of the patient to
exercise its own powers, merely directing it as to the subject upon
which it is to be exercised, very wonderful powers indeed are exhibited.
Places unknown to the percipient are accurately described; correct
accounts are given of what people are doing elsewhere; the contents of
sealed letters are read; the symptoms of disease are diagnosed and
suitable remedies sometimes prescribed; and so on. Distance appears to
make no difference. In many cases time also does not count, and
historical events of long ago, with the details of which the seer had no
acquaintance, are accurately described in all their minutiæ, which have
afterwards been corroborated by contemporary documents. Nor are cases
wanting in which events still future have been correctly predicted, as,
for example, in Cazotte's celebrated prediction of the French
Revolution, and of the fate that awaited each member of a large
dinner-party when it should occur--though this was a spontaneous case,
and not under hypnotism, which perhaps gives it the greater value.

The same powers are shown in spontaneous cases also, of which my own
experiences related in a previous chapter may serve as a small example;
but as there are many books exclusively devoted to the subject I need
not go into further details here. If the reader be curious for further
information, I would recommend him to read Gregory's "Letters on Animal
Magnetism." It was published some fifty years ago, and, for all I know,
may be out of print, but if the reader can procure it, he will find that
it is a book to be relied upon, the work of a Professor of Chemistry in
the University of Edinburgh, who investigated the matter calmly with a
thoroughly trained scientific mind. But what I want the reader to lay
hold of is the fact, that whether the action occur spontaneously or be
induced by experimental means, these powers actually exist in us, and
therefore in reckoning up the faculties at our disposal they must not be
omitted.

In our more usual condition however, these faculties are subordinate to
those which put us in touch with the every-day world, and I cannot help
thinking, that at our present stage this is the best place for them. In
this place they have a special function to perform, which I will speak
of in another chapter, and in the meanwhile for my own part I should
prefer to leave their development to the ordinary course of Nature,
neither stimulating them by hypnotic influence, or auto-suggestion, nor
repressing them if they manifest themselves of their own accord.
However, every one must follow his or her own discretion in this matter;
the only thing is, do not deny the existence of these faculties in
yourself because you may not consciously exercise them, for they hold a
very important place in our complex personality.

All such evidence on the subject as has come my way, appears to me to
point to the fact, that it is through this impersonal or cosmic portion
of our mind that Thought-Power operates upon us, whether in the form of
telepathy, or of healing treatment, or in any other way; and it is
through this channel also that thought currents, not specially directed
towards ourselves, nevertheless affect us, just as the first wireless
telephone message sent on September 29, 1915, from the office of the
American Telephone Company in New York, and directed to San Francisco,
was simultaneously heard at San Diego, at Darien in Panama, and even as
far away as Pearl Island, Honolulu, in the Pacific Ocean.

We sometimes pick up messages which are not intended for us; so we must
keep our receiver in perfect syntony of reciprocal vibration with the
stations from which we require to receive messages, to the exclusion of
others which would produce confusion.

But I have strayed a little from our present point, which is rather that
of giving out influence than of receiving it. Through the
instrumentality of this impersonal cosmic soul we can send out our
Thought for the healing of disease, for the suggestion of good and happy
ideas, and for many other beneficial purposes; though the extent of the
result will of course be considerably influenced by the mental attitude
of the recipient, which is therefore a factor to be reckoned with.

But this power of sending out a subtle influence, call it magnetism or
what you will, is not confined to operations upon the human subject. Two
ladies of my acquaintance experimented on two rose-trees, which, to all
appearances, were both in equally good condition. They daily blessed one
and cursed the other, with the result that at the end of a month the
anathematized plant had withered up from the roots, while the other was
in an abnormally flourishing condition. Nor are we entirely without
scientific backing even in such a case as this; for Professor Bose tells
us in his work on the "Response of Metals," that not only can they be
poisoned by certain chemicals, so as to deprive them of their normal
qualities, but that they can be mesmerized into a similar condition.
Such facts as these therefore give considerable support to the theory of
the existence in everything of a "soul of the subject," which responds
after its own manner to the power of human thought.

In what manner, then, is this influence conveyed? It is here that our
study of etheric waves comes to our assistance, by carrying the same
principle further, and picturing the working of the known Law under
unknown conditions. It will at least enable us to form a working
hypothesis. I have stated that our actual commercial application of the
etheric waves extends from the ultra-violet waves used in photography,
and measuring only 1/254,000 of an inch, to those measuring many miles
employed in wireless telegraphy; but this practical application by no
means exhausts the conceivable possibilities of etheric vibrations; for
not only do we find a gap of five octaves of as yet unknown waves
between the dark heat group and the Hertzian group, but mathematically
there is no limit to the greatness or smallness of the waves, and the
scale may be prolonged indefinitely in either direction. Nor is this to
be wondered at; for if we consider that vibration is not a progress of
individual particles from one place to another, but the alternate rising
and falling of the substance at the same point, and that the ether is a
homogeneous and universally present substance, it is obvious that there
is nothing to limit the minuteness or the greatness of the intervals at
which the rising and falling will occur. Therefore we have an unlimited
field for our imagination to play about in. Then, if we further reflect
that all forms are built up of denser or finer aggregations of ether,
and that what determines the generic form of anything is its cosmic
soul, or the generating principle of the _class_ to which it belongs, it
follows that this soul must have a corresponding form, however
inconceivably fine may be the etheric condensation which thus
differentiates it from other souls, and prevents it from all being
mixed up together in an indistinguishable mass. If now, we combine these
two facts, that the soul of anything must have a form, however fine, and
that there is no limit either to the greatness or the minuteness of
etheric vibrations, we can draw certain deductions from these premises.

It is an established fact of ordinary science that, however closely
particles of any substance may seem to cohere, they are in reality
separated by interstices through which etheric waves can penetrate.

The principle may be illustrated by the power of the X-rays to penetrate
apparently solid bodies, such as iron. Then, if we combine with this the
fact, that there is no limit to the minuteness of etheric waves, we see
that however fine may be the particles constituting any form, it is
always possible to have etheric waves still finer and thus able to
penetrate that form and set up vibrations in it. It is our familiarity
with the denser modes of matter that makes it difficult for us to grasp
the idea of these finer activities; but there is nothing in what we know
of the denser modes to contradict the conception; on the contrary, it is
just by what we have learned of these denser modes that we reach the
principles on which these further conceptions are founded. Looking at
this, therefore, in the light of a mathematical proposition, there is
absolutely no limit to the fineness of any form, or to its
susceptibilities to etheric vibrations.

Finally, to this add the power of the Word to start trains of etheric
vibration, and you get the following series: The Word starts the etheric
waves; these waves produce corresponding vibration in the soul of the
subject; and the soul of the subject in turn communicates corresponding
vibration to its body. We may thus explain the Creative Power of Thought
on the basis of recognizable Law, and so we believe, because we know
_why_ we believe, not because somebody else has told us so. Doubt is
still the creative action of Thought, only it is creating negatively; so
it is helpful to feel that we have some reason for confidence in the
Power of the Word. There are a great many "Thomases" among us, and as
one of the number I shall be glad if I can help my "Brother Tommies" to
get a grip of the why and wherefore of the things which appear at first
sight so fantastic and improbable.

But the conception we are considering is not limited to concrete
entities, whether persons or things. It applies to abstractions also,
and it is for this reason that I have called it the "Soul of the
Subject." We often speak of the "Soul of Music," or the "Soul of
Poetry," and so on. Thus our ordinary talk stands on the threshold of a
great mystery, which, however, is simple enough in practice. If you want
to get a clearer view of any subject than you have at present, address
yourself mentally to the abstract soul of that subject, and ask it to
tell you about itself, and you will find that it will do so. I do not
say that it will do this in any miraculous manner, but what you already
know of the subject will range itself into a clearer order, and you will
see connections that have not previously occurred to you. Then again,
you will find that information of the class required will begin to flow
towards you through quite ordinary channels, books, newspapers, or
conversation, without your especially laying yourself out to hunt for
it; and again, at other times, ideas will come into your mind, you do
not know how, but illuminating the subject with a fresh light. I cannot
explain how all this takes place. I can only say from personal
experience that it happens. But of course we must not throw aside
ordinary common-sense. We must sort out the information that comes to
us, and compare it with our previous knowledge; in fact we must _work_
at it: there is no premium for laziness. Nor must we expect to receive
by a sudden afflatus a complete acquaintance with some subject of which
we are entirely ignorant. I do not say that such a thing is altogether
impossible, for I cannot venture to limit the possibilities of the
Universe; but it is certainly not to be looked for in the ordinary
course. I have sometimes been shown specimens of "inspirational
painting" done by persons said to be entirely ignorant of art, and the
ignorance is very apparent on the face of the work. I dare say an artist
may be inspired in the production of a picture, but the technical
training comes first, and the inspiration afterwards. The same I believe
to be true of all other subjects, so that we come back to the maxim of
the power always expressing itself in terms of the instrument through
which it works. With this reservation, however, it appears to me, that
every class of subject has a sort of soul of its own with which we can
put ourselves _en rapport_ by, so to say, mentally unifying our own
personality with its abstract principle.

We are told by some teachers, that we can in the same way even construct
entities in the nature of our Thought, and possessing a personality of
their own with which we have endowed them. Whether this be the case I
cannot say--I do not know all the secrets of the invisible. But if our
thoughts do not create personal entities able to hang "on their own
hook," they create forces which come to much the same thing. They start
waves in the Universal etheric medium, which, like the electro-magnetic
waves of telegraphy, spread all round from the point of initial impulse,
and are picked up whenever a centre happens to be attuned to a similar
rate of vibration, and each new centre energizes these vibrations again
with a fresh impulse of its own; so in this way thought-currents become
very real things.

Such, then, is the power of our Word, whether spoken or only dwelt upon
in Thought, to impress itself upon the impersonal element around us,
whether in persons or things. We cannot divest it of the power, though
we may intensify its action by deliberate use of it, with knowledge of
the principle involved, and therefore, whether consciously or
unconsciously, we are sending out the influence of our personality all
the time.

Now the more we know of these things the greater becomes our
responsibility, and I would therefore solemnly warn the reader against
any attempt to use the powers now indicated to the injury of any other
person, or for the purpose of depriving any one else of that liberty of
action which he would wish to enjoy himself. Such use of our mental
powers is in direct opposition to the Law of Unity which I have spoken
of; and since that Law is the basic principle of the whole Universe, any
opposition to it places us in antagonism with a force immeasurably
greater than ourselves.

Our Thought always continues to be creative; but in destructive use it
becomes creative for destructive forces, and, since it has its origin in
our own personality, we are certain sooner or later to feel its effects,
on the principle that every action always produces a corresponding
reaction. As we have seen, the Law knows nothing of persons, but acts
automatically in strict accord with the nature of the power which has
set it in motion. Under negative conditions the great Law of the
Universe becomes your adversary, and must continue to be so, until by
your altered mode of Thought you put yourself in line with it.

But on the other hand, if our intention be to co-operate with the Great
Law, we shall find that in it also exists a mysterious "Soul of the
Subject," which will respond to us, however imperfectly we may
understand its _modus operandi_. It is the intention that counts, not
the theoretical knowledge. The knowledge will grow by experience and
meditation, and its value is measured entirely by the intention that is
at the back of it.



CHAPTER VI

THE PROMISES


We have now, I hope, laid a sufficiently broad foundation of the
relation between the Law and the Word. The Law cannot be changed, and
the Word can. We have two factors, one variable, and the other
invariable; so that from this combination any variety of resultants may
be expected. The Law cannot be altered, but it can be specialized, just
as iron can be made to float by the same law by which it sinks. Now let
us try to figure out in our imagination an ideal of the sort of results
we should want to bring out from these two factors.

In the first place I think we should like to be free from all worry and
anxiety; for a life of continual worry is not worth living. And in the
second we should like always to have something to look forward to and
feel an interest in; for a life entirely devoid of all interest is also
not worth living. But, granted that these two conditions be fulfilled,
I think we should all be well pleased to go on living _ad infinitum_.
Now can we conceive any combination of the Law and the Word which would
produce such results? that is the question before us. The first step is
to generalize our principle as widely as possible, for the wider the
generalization, the larger becomes the scope for specialization. The
invariable factor we already know. It is the Law, always creating in
accordance with the Word that sets it in motion, whether constructive or
destructive; so what we really have to consider is the sort of Word
(i.e. Thought or Desire) which will set the Law working in the right
direction. It must be a Word of confidence in its own power; otherwise
by the hypothesis of the case it would be giving contradictory
directions to the Law, or to borrow a simile from what we have learnt
about waves in ether, it would be sending out vibrations that would
cancel one another and so produce no effect. Then it must be a Word that
does not compromise itself by antagonizing the Law of unity, and so
producing disruptive forces instead of constructive ones. And finally,
we must be quite sure that it really is the right Word, and that we have
been making no mistake about it. If these conditions be fulfilled the
logical result will be entire freedom from anxiety. Similarly with
regard to maintaining a continued interest in life. We must have a
continued succession of ideals, whether great or small, that will carry
us on with something always just ahead of us; and we must work the
ideals out, and not let them evaporate in dreams. If these conditions be
fulfilled we have before us a life of never-ending interest and
activity, and therefore a life worth living. Where then are we to find
the Word which will produce these conditions: perfect freedom from
anxiety and continual, happy interest? I do not think it is to be found
in any way but by identifying our own Word with the Word which brings
all creation into existence, and keeps it always moving onward in that
continuous forward movement which we call Evolution. We must come back
to the old teaching, that the Macrocosm is reproduced in the Microcosm,
with the further perception that this identity of principle can only be
produced by identity of cause. Law cannot be other than eternal and
self-demonstrating, just as 2 × 2 must eternally = 4; but it remains
only an abstract conception until the Creative Word affords it a field
of operation, just as twice two is four remains only a mathematical
abstraction until there is something for you to count; and accordingly,
as we have already seen, all our reasoning concerning the origin of
Creation, whether based on metaphysical or scientific grounds, brings us
to the conception of a Universal and Eternal Living Spirit localizing
itself in particular areas of cosmic activity by the power of the Word.
Then, if a similar Creative Power is to be reproduced in ourselves, it
must be by the same method: the localizing of the same Spirit in
ourselves by the power of the same "Word." Then our Word, or Thought,
will no longer be that of separate personality, but that of the Eternal
Spirit finding a fresh centre from which to specialize the working of
the Law, and so produce still further results than that of the First or
simply Cosmic and Generic Creation, according to the two maxims that
"Nature unaided fails," and that "Principle is not limited by
Precedent."

I want to make this sequence clear to the student before proceeding
further:

1. Localization of the Spirit in specific areas of Creative Activity.

2. Cosmic or Generic Creation, including ourselves as a race resulting
from this, and providing both the material and the instruments for
carrying the work further by _specializing the Original Creative Power_
through individual Thought, just as in all cases of scientific
discovery.

3. Then, since what is to be specialized through our individual Thought
is the Word of the Originating Power itself, in order to do this we must
think in terms of the Originating Word, on the general principle, that
any power must always exhibit itself in terms of the instrument through
which it works.

This, it appears to me, is a clear logical sequence, just as a tree
cannot make itself into a box, unless there be first the idea of a box
which does not exist in the tree itself, and also the tools with which
to fashion the wood into a box; while on the other hand there could
never be any box unless there be first a tree. Now it is just such a
sequence as this that is set before us in the Bible, and I do not find
it adequately set forth in any other teaching, either philosophical or
religious, with which I am acquainted. Some of these systems contain a
great deal of truth, and are therefore helpful as far as they go; but
they do not go the whole way, and for the most part stop short at the
first or simply Cosmic Creation; or, if they attempt to pass beyond
this, it is on the line of making unaided power of the individual the
sole means by which to do so, and thus in fact always keeping us at the
merely generic level. Such a mode of Thought as this, fails to meet the
requirements of our conception of a happy life as one entirely exempt
from fear and anxiety. In like manner also it fails to meet the first
requirements of the whole series, viz.: the Word should be certain of
itself; and if it be not certain of itself we have no assurance that it
may not eventually disappoint our hopes. In short, this mode of thought
leaves us to bear the whole burden from which we want to escape. So it
is not good enough; we must look for something better.

Now this something better I find in the _Promises_ contained in the
Bible, and it is this that to my mind distinguishes our own Scriptures
from the sacred books of all other nations, and from all systems of
philosophy. I do not at all ignore the current objections to the
possibility of Divine Promises, but I think that on examination they
will be found to be superficial and resulting from want of careful
enquiry into the true nature of the Promises themselves. How is it
possible for the Laws of the Universe to make exceptions? How can God
act by individual favouritism unless it be either through sheer caprice,
or by the individual managing to get round Him in some way, either by
supplying some need which He cannot supply for Himself, in which case
God is of limited power, or else by flattering Him, in which case He is
the apotheosis of absurd vanity. The two are really the same question
put in different ways--the question of individual exceptions to the
general Law.

The answer is that there are no individual exceptions to the general
Law; but there are very various degrees of realization of the Principle
of the Law, and the more a man works with the Principle the more the Law
will work for him; so that the finer his perception of the Principle
becomes, the more he will appear to be an exception to the Law as
commonly recognized.

Edison and Marconi are not capriciously favoured by the laws of Nature,
but they know more about them than most of us.

Now it is just the same with the Bible Promises. They are Promises
according to Law. They are based upon the widest generalization and
hence lead to the highest specialization through the combined action of
the Law and the Word--Jachin and Boaz, the Two Pillars of the Universe.

These Promises comprise all sorts of desirable things: health of body,
peace of mind, earthly prosperity, prolongation of life, and, finally,
even the conquest of death itself; but always on one condition: perfect
"Confidence in the power of the All-Originating Spirit in response to
our reliance on the Word." This is what the Bible calls Faith; and it is
perfectly logical when we understand the principle of it, for every
Thought of doubt is, in effect, the utterance of a Word which produces
negative results by the very same law by which the Word of Faith
produces positive ones. This is the only condition which the Bible
imposes for the fulfilment of its Promises, and this is because it is
inherent in the nature of the Law by which their fulfilment is to be
brought about.

A few texts will suffice as examples of the Bible Promises, and no doubt
most of my readers are familiar with many others; but it would be worth
while to read the Bible through, marking all such texts, and classifying
them according to the sort of promises they contain.

Read, for instance, Job xxii, 21, etc. This is a most remarkable passage
containing among other things the promise of earthly wealth; or again
Job v, 19, etc., where we find promises of protection in time of danger,
power over material nature, and prolonged life. While in Job xxxiii, 23,
etc., there is promise of return to youth, a promise which is repeated
in Psalm ciii, 5. Again in Isaiah lxi, 20, etc., there is the promise of
immensely extended physical life, death at the age of one hundred being
counted so premature as to resemble that of an infant, and the normal
standard of age being compared to a tree which lives for centuries; and
the same passage also promises immediate answer to prayers. The Psalms
are full of such promises, and they are scattered throughout the Bible.

Now there is an unfortunate tendency among people who read their Bible
with reverence, to what they call "spiritualize" such passages as these,
which means that they do not believe them. They say such things are
impossible; and therefore they must have some other meaning, and
accordingly they interpret the words metaphorically, as referring to
something to be experienced in another life, but quite impossible in
this one.

Of course there are spiritual equivalents to these things, and the
teaching of the Bible is, that they are the outward correspondences of
inward spiritual states; but to "spiritualize" them in the way I am
speaking of, is nothing but unbelief in the power of God to work on the
plane of Nature. How such readers square their opinion with the fact
that God has created Nature, I do not know. Even in the animal world we
find wonderful instances of longevity. If an elephant be not overworked
before he is twenty, he is in full working power up to eighty, and will
then be capable of light work for another twenty years, after which he
may yet enjoy another twenty years of quiet old age as the reward of his
labours, while crocodiles and tortoises have been known to live for
centuries. If then such things be possible in the ordinary course of
Nature in the animal world, why need we doubt the specializing power of
the Word to produce far greater results in the case of man? It is
because we will not accept the maxim, that "Principle is not limited by
Precedent" in regard to ourselves, though we see it demonstrated by
every new scientific discovery. We rely more on the past experience of
the race, than on the Creative Power of God. We call Him Almighty, and
then say that in His Book He promises things which He is not able to
perform. But the fault is with ourselves. We limit "the Holy ONE of
Israel," and as a consequence get only so much as by our mental attitude
we are able to receive--again the old maxim that "Power can only work in
terms of the instrument it works through." I do not say that it is at
all easy for us to completely rid ourselves of negative race-thought
ingrained into us from childhood, and subtly playing upon that generic
impersonal self in us of which I have spoken, and which readily responds
to those thought-currents to which we are habitually attuned. It is a
matter of individual growth. But the promises themselves contain no
inherent impossibility, and are logical deductions from the principles
of the Creative Law.

If the power of the Spirit over things of the material plane be an
impossibility, then by what power did Jesus perform his miracles? Either
you must deny his miracles, or you must admit the power of the Spirit
to work on the material plane--there is no way out of the dilemma.
Perhaps you may say: "Oh, but He was God in person!" Well, all the
promises affirm that it is God who does these things; so what it is
possible for God to do at one time, it is equally possible for Him to do
at all times. Or perhaps you hold other theological views, and will say
that Jesus was an exception to the rest of the race; but, on the
contrary, the whole Bible sets Him forth as the Example--an exception
certainly to men as we now know them, but the Example of what we all
have it in us to become--otherwise what use is He to us? But apart from
all argument on the subject we have his own words, telling us that those
who believe in Him, i.e., believe what He said about Himself--shall be
able to do works as great as His own, and even greater (John xiv, 12).
For these reasons it appears to me that on the authority of the Bible
itself, and also on metaphysical and scientific grounds we are justified
in taking such promises as those I have quoted in a perfectly literal
sense.

Then there are promises of the power that will attend our utterance of
the Word. "Thou shalt also decree a thing and it shall be established
unto thee" (Job xxii, 28). "All things are possible unto you" (Mark ix,
23). "Whosoever ... shall believe that what he sayeth cometh to pass, he
shall have whatsover he sayeth" (Mark xi, 23), and so on.

Other passages again promise peace of mind. "Thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is staid on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee"
(Isaiah xxvi, 3). "Let him take hold of my strength that he may make
peace with me" (Isaiah xxvii, 5). St. Paul speaks of "The God of Peace"
in many passages, e.g., Rom. xv, 33; 2 Cor. xiii, 11; 1 Thess. v, 23,
and Hebr. xiii, 20; and Jesus, in his final discourse recorded in the
fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of St. John's Gospel, lays
peculiar stress on the gift of Peace.

And lastly there are many passages which promise the overcoming of death
itself; as for instance Job xix, 25-27; John viii, 51, and x, 28, and
xi, 25 and 26; Hebr. ii, 14 and 15; 1 Cor. xv, 50-57; 2 Tim. i, 10; Rom.
vi, 23 ("The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord").

"God commanded the blessing, even Life for evermore" (Ps. cxxxiii, 3).

Now I hope the reader will take the trouble to look up the texts to
which I have referred, and not be lazy. I am sure he would do so if he
were promised a ten pound note or a fifty dollar bill for his pains, and
if these promises are not all bosh, there is something worth a good deal
more to be got by studying them. Just run through the list: health,
wealth, peace of mind, safety, creative power, and eternal life. You
would be willing to pay a good premium to an Insurance Office that could
guarantee you all these. Well, there is a Company that does this without
paying any premium, and its name is "God and Co., Unlimited"; the only
condition, is that you yourself have to take the part of "Co." and it is
not a sleeping partnership, but a wide-awake one!

So I hope you will take the trouble to look up the texts; but at the
same time you must remember that the reading of single texts is not
sufficient. If you take any isolated phrase you choose, without
reference to the rest of the Book, there is no nonsense you cannot make
out of the Bible. You would not be allowed to do that sort of thing in a
Court of Law. When a document is produced in evidence, the meaning of
the words used in it are very carefully construed, not only in
reference to the particular clause in which they occur, but also with
reference to the intention of the document as a whole, and to the
circumstances under which they were written. The same word may mean very
different things in different connections; for instance I remember two
reported cases in one of which the word "Spanish" meant a certain sort
of leather, and in the other a kind of material used in brewing; and in
like manner particular texts are to be interpreted in accordance with
the gist of the Bible as a whole.

This is just the mistake the Jews made, of building up theories on
particular texts, and which Jesus corrected when he said: "Search the
Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are
they which testify of me" (John v, 39), or, as the Revised Version puts
it: "Ye search the Scriptures because ye think that in them ye have
eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me," which
appears to be the better rendering. The words "ye think" is the key to
the whole passage. He says in effect: "You fancy that eternal life is to
be found in the book. It is not to be found in the book, but in what the
book tells you about, and here I am as a living example of it." It is
just the same with everything else. No book can do more than tell you
about a thing; it cannot produce it. You may study the cookery book from
morning till night, but that will not give you your dinner.

What Jesus meant was, that we should read the Scriptures in the same way
we should read any other book of practical instruction. First think what
it is all about; then look at the nature of the general principles
involved, and then see what instruction the book gives you for their
practical application. _Then go and do it_. And remember also a further
difference between reading about a thing and doing it. A book is for
everybody, and can therefore, only give general instruction; but when
you come to do the thing you will always find it works with some
personal modifications,--not departures from the general principles you
have read about, but specializations of them--and in this way you will
learn much that is not to be got out of books, even the best.

I remember many years ago, when I was much younger, asking one of our
leading water-colour artists,[3] how he would recommend me to study
landscape painting, and he said: "Practise continually from Nature, and
you will learn more than any one can teach you; that is how I have
learnt, myself." On the subject, then in question, he said just what
Jesus did: "Here I am as a practical example of what I tell you." And
another thing is, that the more you think principles out for yourself
and try to observe them in practice, the clearer the meaning of your
book will become to you. I have a few excellent books on painting, but I
had no idea how excellent they were when I first got them; practical
experience has taught me to find much more in them than I did at first,
for now I understand better what they are talking about. Well, that is
the way to read the Bible, neither despising it as worthless tradition,
nor treating the mere letter of it with superstitious veneration; both
extremes are to be equally avoided. In fact the Bible tells us so
itself: "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. iii, 6);
this, of course, does not mean that the letter can be tampered with, any
more than a judge can alter the wording of a document put in evidence;
it must be interpreted in the general sense of the document as a whole;
and when the letter is thus vivified by the Spirit, it will be found
fully to express it. But we require to enter into the Spirit of it
first.

Now it appears to me, that taken in this way, the Bible is an
exceedingly practical book, and that is why I want the reader to get at
some general principles which he will find, _mutatis mutandis_, equally
applicable all round, whether to electricity, or to life, and whatever
may be the subject-matter, it will always be found to resolve itself
into a question of the relation between Law and Personality. If now we
read the Bible Promises in the light of the general principles we have
considered in the earlier pages, we shall find that they are all
Promises according to Law. They are statements of the results to be
obtained by a truer realization of the principles of Law and Personality
than we have hitherto apprehended.

We must always bear in mind that the Law is set in motion by the Word.
The Word does not _make_ the Law, but gives it something to work upon,
so that without the Word there could be no manifestation of the Law, a
truth embodied in the maxim, that "Every Creation carries its own
mathematics along with it." If the reader remembers what I have said in
the chapter of "The Soul of the Subject," he will see that the
principle involved, is that of the susceptibility of the Impersonal to
suggestions from the Personal. This follows of course from the very
Conception of Impersonality; it is that which has no power of selection
and volition, and which is therefore without any power of taking an
initiative on its own account.

In a previous chapter I have pointed out that the only possible
conception of the inauguration of a world-system, resolves itself into
the recognition of one original and universal Substantive Life, out of
which proceeds a corresponding Verb, or active energy, reproducing in
action what the Substantive is in essence. On the other hand there must
be something for this active principle to work in; and since there can
be nothing anterior to the Universal Life or Energy, both these factors
must be potentially contained in it. If, then, we represent this Eternal
Substantive Life by a circle with a dot in the centre, we may represent
these two principles as emerging from it by placing two circles at equal
distance below it, one on either side, and placing the sign "+" (plus)
in one, and the sign "-" (minus) in the other. This is how students of
these subjects usually map out the relation of the _prima principia_,
or first abstract principles. The sign "+" (plus) indicates the Active
principle, and the sign "-" (minus) the Passive principle. If the reader
will draw a little diagram as described, it will help to make what
follows clearer.

Necessarily the initiative must be taken by the Active principle; and
the taking of initiative implies selection and volition, that is to say,
the essential qualities of personality; and Passivity implies the
converse of all this, and therefore is Impersonality. The two principles
in no way conflict with one another, but are polar opposites, like the
positive and negative plates of a battery, or the two ends of a magnet.
They are complementary to one another, and neither can work without the
other. A little consideration will show that this is not a mere fancy,
but a self-obvious generalization, the contrary to which it is
impossible to conceive. It is simply the case of the box which cannot
come into existence without the activity of the carpenter and the
passivity of the wood.

From such considerations as this the deep thinkers of old times posited
the generating of a world-system by the interaction of what they named
Animus Dei, the Active principle, and Anima Mundi, or Soul of the
Universe, the Passive principle--the one Personal, and the other
Impersonal; and by the hypothesis of the case the only mode of activity
possible to Anima Mundi is response to Animus Dei. But the same
impersonal passivity must also make Anima Mundi receptive likewise to
lesser and more individualized modes of Personality, and it becomes, so
to say, fecundated by the ideas thus impressed upon it. In every case
"the word is the seed." We may picture this planting of an idea or
"word" in the Cosmic soul as acting very much like the initial impulse
that starts a train of waves in ether, and these thought-waves are
reproduced in corresponding forms; or, to recur to the simile of seed,
the cosmic soul acts like the soil and gives it nourishment. Looking at
it in this way the old exponents of these things regarded the Active
principle as Masculine, and the Passive as Feminine, the one generating
and the other nutritive, corresponding to the words _rouah_ and
_hoshech_, the expansion and compression principles in the Hebrew text
of the opening verses of Genesis.

If then we posit this impersonal Soul of the Universe as the living
principle dwelling in the substance of the etheric Universal Medium it
will account for a good many things. If it be asked why we should assume
the presence of a living principle in the Universal Substance the answer
is in the maxim "Quod ex Vivo Vivum," what proceeds from Life is living.
Then as we see by our diagram, Anima Mundi equally with Animus Dei
proceeds from the original Substantive of Life, and therefore, on the
principle of the above maxim, that like produces like, Anima Mundi must
also be a living thing whose vehicle is the Universal Substance.

We may picture then, the response of the indwelling Soul of the
Universal Medium to our Thought, as starting corresponding vibrations in
the Substance of the Medium, just as our own thought, acting through the
vibratory system of our nerves, causes our body to make the movement we
intend. But perhaps you will say: How can this be, seeing that by the
hypothesis the Soul of the Universe is Impersonal, and therefore
unintelligent? Well, it is just this fact of having no thought of its
own, that enables us to impress our thought upon it and cause it, so to
say, to "take on" an intelligence relatively to the subject of our
thought, much in the same way that the impersonal soul in the human
subject "takes on" or reflects the thought of the hypnotist, and not
infrequently develops it to a far greater extent than the original
thought of the operator expressed. Such a hypothesis--and I think some
such hypothesis is needed to account for any creation at all--throws
light on the _modus operandi_ of the Bible Promises. We plant the Word
of the Promise in the womb of Anima Mundi, and if we do not uproot it by
using the same power adversely, it is bound to come to fruition in due
course, by the same Law by which the world-systems are formed; and if we
are to believe that the Word of the Promise is not our own word, but the
Word of God, then our Thought of it is imbued with a corresponding power
as we hand it over to Anima Mundi. Thus the Promises fulfil themselves
automatically, in accordance with the principles of the relations
between Law and Personality, and they do so, _not in our own power_, but
by the Power of the Word of God.

This, then, gives us at least an intelligible working hypothesis of the
rationale of the Bible Promises. The measurement of their fulfilment is
exactly proportional to our belief in them, not from any unintelligible
cause, and still less from any unreasoning feat of a capricious Deity,
but by the working of an intelligible Law. If any of my readers happens
to be an electrician, he will find an exact parallel in what is known as
Ohm's Law. Such readers will be familiar with the formula C = E/R, but
for the benefit of those to whom this formula may be unintelligible, I
will give a few words of explanation. C means the current of electricity
which is to be delivered for any work that is to be done. E stands for
the Electro-motive force which generates the current; and R is the
Resistance offered to the current by the conductor, such as the wires
through which it flows. If there be no resistance, the full amount of
current generated would be delivered. But without any conductor no
current could be delivered, and therefore there must be _some_
resistance, and so the full power of the Electro-motive force can never
be delivered by the Current. The amount that will be delivered is the
original power of the Electro-motive force divided by the Resistance.
The Resistance therefore acts as a restricting force, limiting the
extent to which the power of the original Electro-motive force shall be
delivered at the point where the work is to be done, but at the same
time no delivery at that point could be effected without it; so the
Resistance also has a necessary part to play in the working of the
circuit. Now if we want to translate the formula C = E/R into terms of
spiritual force we may put it thus: E stands for the limitless Potential
of the Eternal Spirit; C stands for the current flowing from it; and R
stands for the localizing quality of our thought. We cannot entirely
dispense with this localizing quality, for our whole purpose is to
transmute the _unlimited_, undifferentiated power, which subsists in the
Eternal Substantive of Spirit, into a particular differentiated mode of
action, which therefore implies a corresponding centralization. This is
the proper function of our thought. It is this compressing power which,
as I said above, the Hebrew renders by the word "_hoshech_" in the
opening verses of Genesis, and which is the necessary complementary to
the converse expanding power or "_rouah_." It takes the co-operation of
the two to produce any results.

Restricted, then, to its proper function our R or condensing quality is
an essential factor in the work. But if it be allowed to take the form
of doubt or unbelief, then it renders the flow of the current from the
Spirit ineffective to the extent to which the doubt is entertained; and
if doubt be allowed to degenerate into total unbelief and denial of the
Power of the Spirit, we thereby cancel the originating force altogether.
To put it in terms of the electrical formula, we make R greater than E,
in which case no current can flow. We thus find that the words
"According to your faith be it unto you" are actually the statement of a
Mathematical Law, having nothing vague about them. This may be a
somewhat original application of Ohm's Law, but the parallel is so
exact, that I cannot help thinking it will appeal to some of my readers
who may be conversant with Electrical Science. For those who are not, a
simpler simile may be, that you cannot deliver a more powerful stream of
water than the bore of the pipe through which it flows will admit of;
or, to employ a legal truism, delivery on the part of the donor must be
met by acceptance on the part of the donee before a deed of gift can
become operative; or, in still simpler language, "you may take a horse
to the water but you can't make him drink."

We see, then, that there is a Law of Faith, and that Faith is not a
denial of the universal reign of Law, but the perception of its widest
generalization, and therefore giving scope to its highest
specialization. The opposition between Faith and Law, of which St. Paul
so often speaks, is the opposition between this broad view of the
ultimate Principle of the Creative Law and that narrower view of
restriction by particular laws, which prevents us from grasping the Law
of Faith; but that he does not deny the _Principle_ of Law, that is the
relation between C and E, is clear from his own statement in Rom. viii,
where he says: "The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets me
free from the law of Sin and Death;" in other words: the Law of the Good
sets us free from the Law of Evil; and for the same reason St. James
says, that the perfect law is the law, of Liberty (Jas. i, 25).

Of course if we suppose that faith is something contrary to the law of
the Universe we at once import into our thought the negative quality
which entirely vitiates our action. We rightly perceive that the laws of
the Universe can never be altered, and if our notion of Faith be, that
it is an attempt to work in contradiction to these laws, the best
definition we can give it is that given by the little girl in the
Sunday school, who said that "Faith is trying to make yourself believe
what you know is not true." The reason for such a misconception is, that
it entirely omits one of the factors in the calculation. It considers,
only the Law, and gives no place to the Word in the scheme of things.
Yet we do not carry this misconception into the sciences of chemistry
and electricity. We take the immutability of the Law as the basis of
these sciences, but we do not expect the immutable Law to produce a
photographic apparatus, or an electric train, without the intervention
of a reasoning and selective power which specializes the fundamental
general Law into particular uses. We do not look to the Law for those
powers of reasoning and selection, through which we make it work in all
the highly complex ways of our ordinary commercial applications of
it--we know better than that. We look to Personality for this. In our
every-day pursuits we always act on the maxim that "Nature unaided
fails," and that the infinite possibilities stored up in the Law, can
only be brought to light by a power of reasoning and selection working
through the Law. This co-operation of the Personal with the Impersonal
is the Law _of_ the Law; and since the Law is unchangeable, this Law
_of_ the Law must also be unchangeable, and must therefore apply on all
planes, and through all time--the Law, that without co-operation of the
Law and the Word nothing can be brought into existence, from a solar
system to a pin; while on the other hand there is no limit to what can
be got out of the Law by the operation of the Word.

If the student will look at the Bible Promises in the light of the
general principles, he will find that they are perfectly logical,
whether from the metaphysical or from the scientific standpoint, and
that their working is only from the same Law through which all
scientific developments are made. If this be apprehended it will be
clear that the Word of Faith is not "trying to make ourselves believe
what we know is not true," but, as St. Paul puts it, it is "giving
substance to things not yet seen" (Heb. xi, 1, R.V.).



CHAPTER VII

DEATH AND IMMORTALITY


I think most of my readers will agree with me, that the greatest of all
the promises is that of the overcoming of death, for, as the greater
includes the less, the power which can do _that_ can do anything else.
We think that there are only two things that are certain in this
world--death and taxes, and no doubt, under the ordinary past
conditions, this is quite true; but the question is: are they really
inherent in the essential nature of things; or are they not the outcome
of our past limited, and often inverted modes of Thought? The teaching
of the Bible is that they are the latter. On the subject of taxes the
Master says: "Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's" (Matth.
xxii, 21), but on another occasion he said that the children of the King
were not liable to taxation (Matth. xvii, 26). However we may leave the
"taxes" alone for the present, with the remark that their resemblance to
death consists in both being, under present conditions, regarded as
compulsory. Under other conditions, however, we can well imagine "taxes"
disappearing in a unity of thought which would merge them in
co-operation and voluntary contribution; and it appears to me quite
possible for death to disappear in like manner.

In whatever way we may interpret the story of Eden, whether literally,
or if, like some of the Fathers of the church such as Origen, we take it
as an allegory, the result is the same--that Death is not in the essence
of man's creation, but supervened as the consequence of an inverted mode
of thinking. The Creative Spirit thought one way, and Eve thought
another; and since the Thought of the Creating Spirit is the origin of
Life, this difference of opinion naturally resulted in death. Then, from
this starting-point, all the rest of the Bible is devoted to getting rid
of this difference of opinion between us and the Spirit of Life, and
showing us that the Spirit's opinion is truer than ours, and so leading
us to adopt it as our own. The whole thing turns on the obvious
proposition, that if you invert the cause you also invert the effect. It
is the principle that division is the inversion of multiplication, so
that if 2 × 2 = 4 then you cannot escape from the consequence that 4/2 =
2. The question then is, which of the two opinions is the more
reasonable--that death is essentially inherent in the nature of things,
or that it is not?

Probably ninety-nine out of a hundred readers will say, the whole
experience of mankind from the earliest ages proves that Death is the
unchangeable Law of the Universe, and there have been no exceptions. I
am not quite sure that I should altogether agree with them on this last
point; but putting that aside, let us consider whether it really is the
essential Law of the Universe. To say that this is proved by the past
experience of the race, is what logicians call a _petitio principii_--it
is assuming the whole point at issue. It is the same argument which our
grandfathers would have used against aerial navigation--no one had ever
travelled in the air, and that proved that no one ever could. My father,
who was a junior officer in India when the first railway was run in
England, used to tell a story of one of his senior officers, who, on
being asked what he thought of the rapidity of the new mode of
travelling, said he thought it was "all a damned lie," which opinion
appeared to him to settle the whole question. But I hope that none of my
readers will hold the same opinion regarding the overcoming of death,
even though they might express it in more polite language. At any rate
it may be worth while to examine the theoretical possibility of the
idea.

To begin with, it involves a self-contradiction to say that the energy
of any force can stop the working of that force. If a force stops
working, it is for one of two reasons, either that the supply of it is
exhausted, or that it is overcome by an opposite and neutralizing force.
But we have seen that the Originating Cause of all things can only be an
inexhaustible Power of Life, and therefore the hypothesis of it becoming
exhausted is eliminated; and similarly, since all the forces of the
Universe proceed from this Source, it is impossible for any of them to
have a nature diametrically opposite to that of the source from which
they flow. So the alternative must be eliminated also. Accordingly, the
outflow, undifferentiated, of Life and Energy from the Eternal
Substantive of Spirit, is never stopped _by its own current_ in any of
its differentiated streams; it is impossible for a current to be
stopped by its own flow, whether it be a current of electricity, steam,
water, or anything else. What then does stop the flow of any sort of
current? It is the Resistance or _inertia_ of the channel through which
it flows; so that we come back to the formula of Ohm's Law, C = E/R as a
general proposition applicable to any conceivable sort of energy.

The neutralizing power then, is not that of the flowing of any sort of
energy, but the rigidity, or inertia of the medium through which the
energy has to make its way; thus bringing us back to _rouah_ and
_hoshech_, the expansive and compressive principles of the opening
verses of Genesis. It is the broad scientific generalization of the
opposition between Ertia, or Energy, and Inertia, or Absence of Energy;
and since, for the reasons just given, Ertia cannot go against itself,
the only thing that can stop it is Inertia.

Now the components of the human body are simply various chemical
elements--so much carbon, so much hydrogen, etc., as any textbook on the
subject will tell you; and although, of course, every sort of substance
is the abode of ceaseless _atomic_ energy, we all recognize that merely
atomic energy is not that of the powers of thought, will, and
perception, which make us organized mentalities instead of a mere
aggregation of the various substances exposed to view in a biological
museum, as constituting the human body--you might take all these
substances in their proper proportions, and shake them up together, but
you would not make an intelligent man of them. We are therefore safe in
saying that the physiological body represents the principle of inertia
in us, while the something that thinks in us represents the principle of
Ertia.

The balance of power between the Life Principle in us and the Death
Principle, is then, necessarily, a question of the balance between these
two, the spirit and the flesh, or ertia and inertia.

Why then does the balance preponderate to the life-side for a certain
length of time, and then go over to the opposite side?

Now this brings us to the distinction which the old writers drew,
between the "Vital Soul" of any living thing and the Spirit. Their
conception of the "Vital Soul" was very much the same as I have set
forth in the chapter on "The Soul of the Subject." It is the
individual's particular share of the Cosmic Soul or Anima Mundi, whether
it be an individual tree, or an individual person; and the ordinary
maximum length of time, during which the Vital Soul will be able to
overcome the inertia of its physical vehicle, depends upon the
particular class to which the individual belongs. What the ordinary
maximum is in regard to any species is a matter of experience, and it is
in this way that we have fixed the usual limit of human life at
three-score years and ten.

Now it is here that we shall begin to profit by some knowledge about the
invisible part of ourselves. The actual molecules of our body, as I have
just said, are only so much dead matter. This inert material is pulled
about in various directions by strings which we call muscles, according
to the movements we wish our bodies to make, and these muscles are set
in motion by the vibrations of the nerves.[4] But what is it that
occasions these vibrations of the nerves? Here we begin to pass beyond
the limits of official Science, though not beyond the limits of
recognizable Law. We have to recognize the existence of an etheric body
acting as an intermediary between intention, desire, or (in the case of
human beings) thought of the soul and the physical vibrations of the
nerves. This is why, in an earlier chapter, I have drawn attention to
our power of sending out etheric vibrations beyond the limits of the
physical body, as in the case of De Rocha's experiments. Such
experiments show that there is in us something not composed of dense
matter, which is able to convey vibrations to dense matter; and it is
this something which we speak of as the etheric body.

But if we wish to trace the links by which our thought operates upon the
physical body, we find ourselves compelled to postulate yet another
intermediary, what I have spoken of as the "Vital Soul"--a vehicle which
does not _consciously think_, but in which what we may call
race-consciousness becomes centred in the individual. This
race-consciousness is none other than the ever-present "will-to-live"
which is the basis of physical evolution--that automatically acting
principle--which causes plants to turn towards the sun, animals to seek
their proper food, and both animals and men to try instantly to escape
from immediate danger. It is what we call instinct which does not
reason. I may give a laughable experience of my own to illustrate the
fact that conscious reason is not the method of this faculty. Once when
on leave from India I was walking along a street in London in the heat
of a summer's day and suddenly noticed just at my feet a long dark thing
apparently wriggling across the white glare of the pavement. "Snake!" I
exclaimed, and jumped aside for all I was worth, and the next moment was
laughing at myself for not recollecting that cobras were not common
objects in the London streets. But it looked just like one, and of
course turned out to be nothing but a piece of rag. Well, instinct did
its duty even if it did make a fool of me; but there is certainly no
conscious reasoning in the matter, only the automatic action of inherent
Law--"Self-preservation is the first law of Nature."

This Vital Soul, then, is the seat of all those instincts which go
towards the preservation of the individual's physical body, and towards
the propagation of the race; and it is on this account that our
theosophical friends call it the "Desire Body" or, to use the Indian
term "Kama rupa." It acts with conscious intention, but not with
conscious _reasoning_. It is thus distinguished on the one hand from the
etheric body, which is a mere vehicle for finer vibrations than can take
place in the denser matter of the physical body, but which has _no
intention_; and on the other from the _mind_ which acts by conscious
reasoning, and it thus forms an intermediary between the two.

The importance of recognizing the place of this higher intermediary in
the ascending scale of living principle is, that for all practical
purposes the animal world does not rise higher than this in the scale.
It is true that in particular instances we find the first dawning of the
mental faculty in an animal, but it is only very faint; so this does not
affect the broad general principle. The point to be noted is that up to
this stage human beings are built on the same lines as animals, and what
distinguishes us, is the addition in ourselves of a higher factor,--that
of the reasoning mind exercising the power of conscious thought.

Now it is the direction of this thought that influences the three lower
factors. The sequence, going upwards, is as follows:--movement is
communicated to the physical body by the etheric body; and movement is
communicated to the etheric body by the Vital Soul; then, in proportion
as the purely instinctive action of the Vital Soul is controlled by the
conscious thought, so its action upon the two lowest principles is
modified.

Here, then, is the crucial point. In what direction is the conscious
thought going to modify the action of the three principles that are
below it? If it takes the soul of mere racial desire and the physical
body as its standard of thought, then it naturally follows that it
cannot raise it any higher. It has descended to _their_ level and so
cannot pour any stream of life into it, on the simple principle that no
current can ever flow from a lower to a higher level, whether the
difference in level be that of actual elevation, as in the case of
water, or different in potential, as in the case of electricity. On the
other hand if the conscious mind recognizes that itself proceeds from
some higher source, it looks to receive life from that source, and its
thought is modified accordingly, and in turn re-acts correspondingly
upon the lower principles.

If this is clear to the student, he will now see how it is that by
limiting our conception of life to the current ideas entertained by the
race, we impress these ideas on our three lower principles. It is true
that these three principles are not capable of reasoning themselves, but
the highest of them, the Vital Soul, has its action modified by the
reasoning principle above it, and so communicates to the two lowest
principles corresponding waves of vibration. And in this connection we
must remember the distinction between the two systems of nerves; the
voluntary system connected with the brain and forming the medium of all
voluntary action, and the involuntary, or sympathetic system connected
with the solar plexus and controlling all the automatic actions of the
body, and thus being the agent of that continual renewal of the physical
organism which is always going on, and keeps in existence for a life
time a body which begins to disintegrate immediately the soul has left
it.[5] Now it is through this inner Builder of the Body that our Thought
re-acts upon our physical organism. The response is purely automatic,
for the simple reason that there is no original thinking power in the
three lower principles; the action is that of the Law as directed by
Thought or Word.

In this way then, it appears to me, the Personal in us acts upon the
Impersonal in us; and if we assume, as I think we may, that this action
takes place by means of etheric waves, we have, on general scientific
principles, a clue to what we read in the Bible about the transmutation
of the body. The theory of the constitution of the atom shows us that
its nature is determined by the number of its particles and their rate
of revolution, and that a change in the rate of revolution results in
the throwing off of some of the particles. Then the number of particles
being altered, there results a change in the distribution of the
positive and negative charges within the sphere of the atom, since they
must always exactly balance one another; and this change in the
distribution of the positive and negative charges must instantly result
in a corresponding change in the geometrical configuration of particles
constituting the atom.

That the particles automatically arrange themselves into groups of
different geometrical form within the sphere of the atom, has been
demonstrated both mathematically and experimentally by Professor J.J.
Thompson,[6] these geometrical forms resulting of course from the
balance of attraction and repulsion between the positive and negative
charges of the particles.

That the transmutation of one substance into another is not a mere dream
of the mediæval alchemists is now already shown by Modern Science. Under
suitable conditions an atom of Radium breaks down into atoms of another
sort known as Radium Emanations, and these again break down into yet
another sort of atoms to which the name of Radium Emanations X has been
given, while Radium Emanation also gives rise to the atom of Helium
(N.K. 124). Thorium also behaves in the same manner, transmuting into
atoms called Thorium X, which again change into atoms of another sort to
which the name of Thorium Emanations has been given and these in turn
transmute into atoms of yet another kind, known as Thorium Emanations X.
The same is the case also with Uranium which, however, so far as is yet
known, undergoes only one transmutation into what is known as Uranium X.

The transmutation of one sort of atom into another is therefore not a
mere visionary fancy, but an established fact; and although our
laboratory experiments in this direction may not as yet have gone very
far, they have gone far enough to show that a Law of Transmutation does
exist in Nature. Then, since the difference between one sort of atom and
another results from the difference and arrangement of their particles,
and the difference in the number and arrangement of the particles
results from the difference in the speed of their rotation, and this
again results from the difference in the energy or rate of vibration of
the particles, we come back to different rates of etheric vibrations as
the commencement of the whole series of changes; and as is proved by the
facts of wireless telephoning, different rates of etheric vibrations can
be set in motion by the varying sounds of the human voice, even on the
physical plane. May it not be then, that by the same law, vibrations of
other wave-lengths, yet unknown to science, will be set in motion by the
unspoken word of our thought?

The substance known as Polonium, even by its near approach to an
electric bell, causes it to ring, and if etheric waves can thus be
started by an inanimate substance, why should we suppose that our
thought has less power, especially when metaphysically we cannot avoid
the conclusion that the whole creation must have its origin in the
Divine Thought?

From such considerations as these, I think we may reasonably infer that
if the mind be illuminated by a range of thought coming from a higher
mind, there is no limit to the power which may thus be exercised over
the material world, and that therefore St. Paul's statement regarding
the transmutation of the present physical body, is one which should be
included in the circle of our ideas, as being within the scope of the
Laws of the Universe when their action is specialized by the power of
the Word (1 Cor. xv); and similarly with regard to other statements to
the same effect contained in the Bible. What is wanted is the
realization of a greater Word than that which we form from the current
experience of the race. The race has formed its Word on the basis of the
lower principles of our being, and if we are to advance beyond this, the
Law of the subject clearly indicates that it can only be by adopting a
more fundamental Word, or Idea, than that which we have hitherto thought
to include the entire range of possibilities. The Law of our further
Evolution demands a Word not formed from past experiences, but based
upon the eternal principle of the All-Originating Life itself. And this
is in strict accord with scientific method. If we had always allowed
ourselves to be ruled by past experiences we should still be primitive
savages; and it is only by the gradual perception of underlying
principles, that we have attained the degree of civilization we have
reached to-day; so what the Bible puts before us is simply the
application to the life in ourselves of the maxim that "Principle is not
limited by Precedent."

Now the Bible Promises serve to put us on the track of this Principle:
they suggest lines of enquiry. And the enquiry leads to the conclusion
that the two ultimate factors are the Law and the Word. What we have
missed hitherto is the conception of the limitless possibilities of the
Law, and the limitless power of the Word. On one occasion the Master
said to the Jews "Ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God"
(Matth. xxii, 29) and the same is the case with ourselves. The true
"Scripture" is the "scriptura rerum" or the Law indelibly written in the
nature of things, and the written Scriptures are true only because they
contain the statement of the Principle of the Law. Therefore until we
see the Principle of the Law we "know not the Scriptures." On the other
hand, until we see the Principle of the operation of the Word through
the Law, we do not know "the Power of God"; and it is only as we come to
perceive the interaction of the Law and the Word that we see the
beginning of the way that leads to Life and Liberty.

But although it is evident from the text just quoted, as well as from
other intimations in his Epistles, that St. Paul fully grasped the
principle of the transmutation of the body, he himself tells us that he
has not yet realized it in practice. He says he has not yet "attained to
the resurrection from the dead," but is still pressing on towards its
attainment (Ph. iii, 12). And it is to be remarked that he is not here
speaking of a general "resurrection _of_ the dead," but, as the word
_exanastasis_ in the original Greek indicates, of a special resurrection
from among the dead; this indicates an _individual_ achievement, not
merely something common to the whole race. From this and other passages
it is evident that by "the dead" it means those whose conception of Life
is limited to the four lower principles, thus #unifying# the mind with
the three principles which are below it; and the same idea is expressed
in a variety of ways all through the Bible. This therefore shows that he
is quite aware that knowledge of a principle does not enable us then and
there to attain the completeness of the application, and if this be the
case with St. Paul, we cannot be surprised to find it the same with
ourselves. But on the other hand knowledge of the principle is the first
step towards getting it to work.

Well, St. Paul is dead and buried, and so I suppose will most of us be
in a few years; so the question confronts us, what becomes of us then?

As Milton puts it in "Il Penseroso" we want:

                          "to unsphere
    The spirit of Plato and unfold
    What worlds or what vast regions hold
    The immortal mind that hath forsook
    Her mansion in the fleshly nook."

Yes, this is a question of deep personal interest to us; but as I cannot
speak from experience, I will restrict myself to seeing whether we can
form any sort of general hypothesis on the basis of the principles we
have recognized. What then is likely to survive? The physical body is of
course disintegrated by the chemistry of Nature. The etheric body
probably continues to retain its form longer, because it is a
condensation of etheric particles wrought together by the etheric waves
sent out by the Vital Soul, and is therefore not subject to the laws of
chemical affinity. The Vital Soul, being the race-principle of life in
the individual,--that principle which automatically seeks to preserve
the individual from disintegration,--probably survives longer still,
until, ceasing to receive any reflex vibrations from the body, it grows
gradually weaker in its sense of individual guardianship, and so is
eventually absorbed into the group-soul or generic essence of the class
to which it belongs. This is probably what happens in the case of
animals for want of any higher vivifying principle, and would be the
same with us were it not for the fact of having such a higher principle.
In our case I should imagine that the influx of etheric waves, received
from the thought action of the mind, would have the effect of continuing
to impress the Vital Soul with a sense of individuality, in terms of its
own plane, which would prevent it from being absorbed into the
group-soul so long as the vital current from the mind continued to reach
it. But eventually that current would cease to reach it, and in some
cases, because the individual mind that governed it would gradually
realize that its connection with the physical plane had ceased, and in
others, because through a higher illumination the mind had, of its own
volition, turned its thought in another direction. In either case, on
the ceasing of the influx of that vitalizing current, the Vital Soul of
the human being would likewise be absorbed into the Cosmic Soul, or
Anima Mundi.

How long the processes of the disintegration of the etheric body, and
absorption of the vital soul may take, is a question on which I can
offer no opinion beyond saying that certain psychic phenomena suggest
that in some cases they may take a long period of time. But for the
reasons I have now given, it appears to me that the permanently
surviving factor is the thinking mind which is our real self, and is
positively our centre of consciousness after the physical body has been
put off.

By the facts of the case its consciousness is no longer affected by
vibrations received from the physical body; and therefore, to the
extent to which our idea of life has been centred in that body, we shall
feel its loss. If our motto has been "Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die" we shall feel very dead indeed--a living death, a
consciousness of being cut off from all that constituted our enjoyment
of life--a thirst for the satisfaction of our customary ideas, which we
have no power to quench; and, in proportion as our habitual mode of
thought is raised above that lowest level, so will our sense of loss be
less. Then, by the same Law, if our habitual mode of thought is turned
towards pure, beautiful, and helpful ideals, we shall feel no loss at
all, for we shall carry our own ideals with us, and, I hope, see them
more clearly by reason of their disentanglement from mundane
considerations. In what precise way we may then be able to work out our
ideals I will not now stop to discuss. What we want first is a
reasonable theory, based upon the principle of that universal Law which
is only varied in its actions by the conditions under which it works;
so, instead of speculating as to precise details, we may generalize the
question of how we can work out the good ideals which we carry over with
us, and put it this way:--Our ideas are embodied in thoughts; thoughts
start trains of etheric waves, which waves induce reciprocal action
whenever they meet with a receiver capable of vibrating synchronously
with them, and so eventually the thought becomes a fact, and our helpful
and beautiful ideal becomes a work of power, whether in this world or in
any other.

Now it is to the forming of such ideals that the Bible, from first to
last is trying to lead us. From first to last it is working upon one
uniform principle, that the Thought is the Word, that the Word sets in
motion the Law, and that when the Law is set in motion it acts with
mathematical precision. The Bible is a handbook of instruction for the
use of our Creative Power of Thought, and this is the sequence which it
follows--one definite method, so fundamental in its nature, that it
applies equally to the making of a packing-case or the making of a solar
system.

Now we have formed a generalized conception, based on this universal
method, of the sort of consciousness we are likely to have when we pass
out of the physical body. Then our thought naturally passes on to the
question what will happen after this?

It is here that some theory of the reconstitution of the physical body
appears to me to hold a most important place in the order of our
evolution. Let us try to trace it out on the general lines of the
Creative Power of Thought indicated above, the keynote to which is that
the Law is specialized by the Word, and cannot of itself bring out the
infinite possibilities contained in it without such specializing, just
as in all scientific development of ordinary life. The clue to the whole
question is, that our place in the Universal Order is to develop the
infinite resources of the Original Life and Substance into actual facts.
"Nature unaided fails." The Personal Factor must co-operate with the
Impersonal, alike for setting up an electric bell, or for the
furtherance of cosmic evolution; and the reason it is so is, because it
could not possibly be otherwise.

If now we start by recognizing this as our necessary place in the
Progressive Order of the Universe, I think it will help us to form a
reasonable theory as to the reconstruction of the body. First of all,
why have we any physical body at all? As a matter of fact we have one,
and no amount of transcendental philosophizing will alter the fact, and
so we may conclude that there is some reason for it. We have seen the
truth of the maxim "Omne vivum ex vivo," and therefore that all
particular forms of life are differentiations of the one Basic Life.
This means a localizing of the Life-Principle in individual centres. The
formation of a centre implies condensation; for where there is no
condensation the Energy, whether electricity or Life, is simply
_dispersed_ and _achieving no purpose_. Therefore distinctness from the
undifferentiated Original Life is a necessity of the case. Consequently
the higher the degree of Consciousness of Individuality, the greater
must be the Consciousness of _Distinctness of Personality_.

We say of a "wobbly" sort of person: "That fellow is no use, you can't
depend on him." We say of a person whose ideas, intentions, and methods
are subject to continual variations under all sorts of outside
influences, whether of opinions or circumstances, that he has "no
backbone," meaning that he is in want of individuality. He has no real
thought of his own, and so has no Word of Power by which to co-operate
with the Law; therefore, to the extent to which this is the case with
any of us, we are of no use in furthering the unfoldment of Evolution,
whether in ourselves or anywhere else.

Now we talk a lot about Evolution or the _un_-folding, but we seem often
not to realize that there must be something to unfold; and that
therefore _In_-volution, or the concentration of the Life-principle,
must be a condition precedent to its _E_-volution. This process of
Involution must therefore be a process of gradually increasing
concentration of the Life-principle, by association with denser and
denser modes of the Universal Substance. Then, on the principle of
Vibration, the less dense the substance in which the Life is immersed,
the more it must be subject to being stirred by vibratory currents other
than those produced by the conscious action of the Ego, or inherent
Life, of the individuality that is being formed.

But "_the Sum of the Vibrations in anything determines the mode, power,
and direction of its action_"; therefore, the less the Ego be
concentrated through association with a dense vehicle, the more "wobbly"
it must be, and consequently the less able to take any effective part in
the further work of Creation. But in proportion as the Ego builds up an
_Individual_ _Will_, the more it gets out of the "wobbly" state--or, to
refer once more to the idea of etheric waves--it becomes able to select
what vibrations it will receive, and what vibrations it will send out.

The involution of the Ego into the physical body, such as we at present
know it, is therefore a necessity of the case, if any effective
Individuality is to be brought into existence, and the work of Creation
carried on instead of being cut short, not for want of material, but for
want of workmen capable of using the tools of the builders' craft--the
Law as "Strength" and the Word as "Beauty."

The Descending Arc of the Circle of Being is therefore that of the
Involution of Spirit into denser and denser modes of Substance,--a
process called in technical language by the Greek name "Eleusin," and
the process continues until a point is reached where Spirit and
Substance are in equal balance, which is where we are now. Then comes
the tug of war. Which of the two is to predominate? They are the
Expansive and Constrictive primal elements, the "rouah" and "hoshech" of
the Hebrew Genesis.

If the Constrictive element be allowed to go further than giving
necessary form to the Expansive element, it imprisons the latter. The
condensation becomes too dense for the Ego to receive or send forth
vibrations according to its free will, and so the Individuality becomes
lost. If the condensation process be not carried far enough, no
Individuality can be built up, and if it be carried too far, no
Individuality can emerge; so in both cases we get the same result that
there is no one to speak the Word of Power without which "Nature unaided
fails."

Thus we are now exactly at the bottom of the Circle of Being. We have
completed the Descending Arc and reached the point where the realization
of the Distinctness of Conscious Individuality enables us to choose our
own line, whether that of progressing through the stages of the
Ascending Arc of Being, or of falling out from the living Circle of
Progression, at least for a period, into what is sometimes mystically
spoken of as "the Moon," or (in descending order) the "Eighth Sphere,"
and which is called in Scripture "The Outer Darkness,"--the rigidity
which stops the action of Life.

Therefore it is with regard to this stage of our career that the Bible
lays so much stress on the conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh--it
is a fact in the course of our evolution, and the purpose of the Bible
is to teach us how to move forward along the Ascending Arc of the Circle
of Being, so as to build up individualities which will be able to use
the tools of Intelligence and Will in the great work of Evolution, both
Personal and Cosmic.

Now what is shown diagrammatically as the Ascending Arc of the Circle of
Life is the Return from its lowest point, or the _Full Consciousness of
Personal Distinctness_, gained through _the Material Body_, back to its
highest point or the Originating Life itself. This is the truth embodied
in the parable of the Prodigal Son. It is a Cosmic truth, and this
return journey is technically called by the Green name "Anaktorion." It
is the Rising-again, that is from matter to Spirit, and is the
Resurrection Principle.

But what is accomplished by the journey of the Ego round the Circle of
Life?

_A New Centre_ of Intelligence and volition is established; from this
the Creative Word of Power can be spoken--a _Complete Man_ has been
brought into existence, who can take a _free and intelligent_ part in
the further work of Creation, by his understanding of the interaction
between the Law and the Word. The "Volume of the Sacred Law" lies open
before us, and the Vibratory Power of the Word to give effect to it is
the "Blazing Star" that illuminates its contents, and so we become
fellow-workers with the Great Architect of the Universe.

For these reasons it appears to me that our self-recognition in a
physical body is a necessary step in our growth. But why should the
reconstruction of a physical body be either necessary or desirable? The
answer is as follows:

Obviously self-recognition is the necessary basis for all use of those
powers of selection and volition by which the Impersonal Law is to be
specialized so as to bring to light its limitless potentialities; and
self-recognition means the recognition of our personal Distinctness from
our environment. Therefore it must always mean the possessing of a body
as a vehicle, by means of which to act upon that environment, and to
receive the corresponding reaction from it. In other words it must
always be a body constituted in terms of the plane upon which we are
functioning. But it does not follow that we should always be tied down
to one plane.

On the contrary, the very conception of the power of the Word to
specialize the action of the Law, implies the power of functioning on
any plane we choose; but always subject to the Law, that if we want to
act on any particular plane in _propria persona_, and not merely by
influencing some other agent, we can only do so by assuming a body in
terms of the nature of that plane. Therefore, if we want to act on the
physical plane, we must put on a physical body. But when we have fully
grasped the Power of the Word we cannot be tied to a body. We shall no
longer regard it as composed of so many chemical elements, but we shall
see beyond them into the real primary etheric substance of which they
are composed, and so by our volition shall be able to put the physical
body on or off at pleasure,--that at least is a quite logical deduction
from what we have learnt in the preceding pages.

Seen in this light the "Resurrection Body" is not the old body
resuscitated, but a new body, just as real and tangible as the old one,
only not subject to any of its disabilities,--no longer a limitation,
but the ever ready instrument for any work we may desire to do upon the
physical plane.

But perhaps you will say, "Why should we want to have anything more to
do with the physical plane? surely we have had enough of it already!"
Yes; in its old sense of limitation; but not in the new sense of a world
of glorious possibilities, a new field for our creative activities; not
the least of which is the helping of those who are still in those lower
stages which we have already passed through.

I think if we realize the position of the Fully Risen Man, we shall see
that he is not likely to turn his back upon the Earth as a rotten, old
thing. Therefore a new physical body is a necessary part of his
equipment.

If, then, we take it as a general principle, that for self-recognition
upon any plane a body in terms of that plane is a necessity, this will
throw some light on the Bible narrative of our Lord's appearances after
his Resurrection. It is noteworthy that he himself lays stress on the
body as an integral part of the individuality. When the disciples
thought they had seen an apparition he said: "Handle me and see that it
is I _myself_, and _not_ a spirit, for a spirit hath not flesh and
bones as ye see I have" (Luke xxiv, 39). This very clearly states that
the spirit without a corresponding body is not the complete "I myself";
yet from the same narrative we gather that the solid body in which he
appeared is able to pass through closed doors, and to be disintegrated
and re-integrated at will. Now on the electronic theory of the
constitution of matter which I have spoken of in the earlier part of
this book, there is nothing impossible in this; on the contrary it is
only the known Law of synchronous vibration carried into those further
ranges of wave-lengths which, though not yet produced by laboratory
experiment, are unavoidably recognized by the mathematicians.

In this way then the Resurrection of the Body appears to me to be the
legitimate termination of our present stage of existence. What further
developments may follow, who shall say? for we must remember that the
end of one series is always the commencement of another--that is the
doctrine of the Octave. But this is far enough to look forward in all
conscience. As to _when_ the completion of our present stage of
evolution will be attained, it is impossible even to hazard a guess; but
that the _individual_ attainment of such a Resurrection is not
dependent on any particular date in the world's history, is clearly the
teaching of Scripture. When Martha said to Jesus that she knew her
brother would rise again "at the last day," he ignored the question of
"the last day," and said "I am the Resurrection and the Life" (St. John
xi, 25); and similarly St. Paul puts it forward as a thing to be
attained (Ph. iii, 15). It is not a resurrection _of_ the dead but _from
among_ the dead that St. Paul is aiming at--not an "anastasis ton
nekron," but an "anastasis _ek_ ton nekron."

Doubtless there are other passages of Scripture which speak of a general
resurrection, which to some will be a resurrection to condemnation (St.
John v, 29), a resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. xii,
2). This is a subject upon which I will not attempt to enter--I have a
great many things to learn, and this is one of them; but if the Bible
statements regarding resurrection are to be taken as a whole, these
passages cannot be passed over without notice. On the other hand the
Bible statements regarding _individual_ resurrection are there also, and
the general principle on which they are based becomes clear when we see
the fundamental relation between the Law and the Word. Only we must
remember that the Word that can thus set in motion the Law of Life, and
make it triumph over the Law of Death, cannot be spoken by the limited
personality which only knows itself as John Smith or Mary Jones. We must
attain a larger personality than that, before we can speak the Word. And
this larger personality is not just John Smith or Mary Jones magnified;
that is the mistake we are all so apt to fall into. Mere magnification
will not do it. A square will continue to be a square however large you
make it; it will never become a circle. But on the other hand, there is
such a thing as stating the area of a circle in the form of a square;
and when we learn to regard our square as not existing on its own
account, but as an expression of the circle in another form, our
attention will be directed to the circle first, as the generating
figure, and _then_ to the square as a particular mode of expressing the
same area. If we look at it in this way we shall never mistake the
square for the circle, but we shall see that as the circle grows, the
corresponding square will grow with it. It is this dependence of the
square on the circle that makes all the difference, and makes it a
living, growing square. For the true circle represents Infinitude. It is
not bounded by a limiting circumference as in the merely symbolic
geometrical figure, but is rather represented by the impulse which
generates an ever widening circle of electro-magnetic waves; and when we
realize this, our square becomes a living thing. The "Word" that we
speak with this recognition is no longer ours, but His who sent us--the
expression, on the plane of individuality, of the Thought that sent us
into existence and so it is the "Word of Life." This is the true
Resurrection of the Individual.



CHAPTER VIII

TRANSFERRING THE BURDEN


The more we grow into a clear perception of what is really meant by
"Squaring the Circle," the freer we shall find ourselves from the burden
of anxiety. We shall rise to a larger generalization of the Law of Cause
and Effect. We shall learn in all things to reach out to First Cause as
operating through the channels of secondary causation,--"causa causas"
as producing, and therefore controlling "causa causata"--and so we cease
to worry about secondary causes. On the plane of the lower personality
we see certain facts, and argue that they are bound to produce certain
results, which would be quite true if we really saw _all_ the facts; or,
again, allowing that in any particular case we actually did see all the
facts as they now exist, we can either deny the operation of First
Cause, or recognize its infinite capacity for creating new facts.
Therefore, whatever may be the nature of our anxiety, we should
endeavour to dispel it by the consideration that there may be already
existing other facts we do not know of, which will produce a different
result from the one we fear, and that in any case there is a power which
can produce new facts in answer to our appeal to it.

But I can imagine some one saying to us, "You bumptious little midget,
do you think First Cause is going to trouble Itself about you and your
petty concerns? Do you not know that First Cause works by universal Law,
and makes no exceptions?" Well, I would not have written this book if I
did not suppose that First Cause works by universal Law, and it is just
because It does so that I believe It _will_ work for me and my concerns.
The Law makes no exceptions, but it can be specialized through the power
of the Word. Then our sceptic says, "What, do you think _your_ word can
do that?" To which I reply, "It is not my word because I am not using it
in my lower personality, as John Smith or Mary Jones, but in that higher
personality which recognizes only one all-embracing Personality and
itself as included in that."

Which comes first, the Law or the Word?

The distribution of the solar systems in space, the localization of the
Spirit in specific areas of cosmic activity, proclaims the starting of
all manifestation through the "Word." Then the operation of Law follows
with mathematical precision, just as when we write 2 × 2 we cannot avoid
getting 4 as the result--only there is no reason why we should not write
2 × 3 and so get 6 instead of 4. Let it be borne in mind that the Law
flows from the Word, and not _vice versa_, and you have got the clue to
the enigma of Life.

How far we shall be able to make practical use of this clue depends, of
course, on our acceptance of its principle.

The Directing Power of the Word is _inherent_ in the Word, and we cannot
alter it. _It is the Law_ OF _the Law_, and so, like any other law, it
cannot be broken, but its action can be inverted. We cannot deprive the
Word of its efficacy, but our denial of it as the Word of Expansion is
equivalent to an affirmation of it as the Word of Contraction, and so
the Law acts towards us as a Limitation. But the fault is not in the
Law, but in the way we use the Word. Now if the reader grasps this, he
will see that the less we trouble ourselves about what appear to us to
be the visible and calculable causes of things, the freer we must become
from the burden of anxiety; and as we advance step by step to a clearer
recognition of the true order of Cause and Effect, so all intermediate
causes will fade from our view. Only the two extremes of the sequence of
Cause and Effect will remain in sight. First Cause, moving as the Word,
starting a sequence, and the desired result terminating it, as the Word
taking Form in Fact. The intermediate links in the chain will be there,
but they will be seen as effects, not causes. The wider the
generalization we thus make, the less we shall need to trouble about
particulars, knowing that they will form themselves by the natural
action of the Law; and the widest generalization is therefore, to state
not what we want to _have_, but what we want to _be_. The only reason we
ever want to _have_ anything, is because we think it will help us to be
something--something more than we are now; so that the "having" is only
a link in the chain of secondary causes, and may therefore be left out
of consideration, for it will come of itself through the natural
workings of the Law, set in operation by the Word as First Cause. This
principle is set forth in the statement of the Divine Name given to
Moses (Ex. iii, 13-14). The Name is simply "I AM"--it is Being, not
having--the having follows as a natural consequence of the Being; and if
it be true that we are made in the likeness and image of God, that is to
say on the same Principle, then what is the Law of the Divine nature
must be the Law of ours also--and as we awake to this we become
"partakers of the Divine Nature" (2 Pet. i, 4).

What we really want, therefore, is to _be_ something--something more
than we are now; and this is quite right. It is our consciousness of the
continually generative impulse of the Eternal Living Spirit, which is
the _fons et origo_ (fountain and source) of all differentiated life
working within us for ever more and more perfect individual expression
of all that is in Itself. If the reader remembers what I said at the
beginning of this book about the Verb Substantive of Being, he will see
that each of us is in truth a "Word (verbum) of God." Let not the
orthodox reader be shocked at this--I am only saying what the Bible
does. Look up the following passages: "I will write upon him the name
of my God and my own new name" (Rev. xiii, 12). "I saw, and behold a
lamb standing on the Mount Zion (note, the word Zion means the principle
of Life), and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his
name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads" (Rev. xiv,
1). "His name shall be on their foreheads" (Rev. xxii, 4). Read
particularly the whole passage Rev. xix, 11-16, where we are expressly
told that the name in question is "the Word of God"; and that this name
is the one put upon those who follow their Leader, is shown by the same
description being given of the followers as of the Leader. They all ride
upon "white horses," and the "horse" is the symbol of the intellect.
Also in the case of the Leader, the peculiarity of his Name is that "no
one knows it but himself," and in Rev. ii, 17, exactly the same thing is
said of the "New Name" to be given "to him that overcometh." Again, in
Isaiah lxii, 2, "Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of
the Lord shall name"; and again in Num. vi, 27, "They shall put my name
upon the children of Israel."

Then as the meaning of that Name "the Word of God." In Ps. cxix, 160:
"Thy word is true from the beginning," and Jesus said: "Thy Word is
Truth" (John xvii, 17).

This also corresponds with the description in Rev. xix, 11-16 where
another name for "the Word of God" is "Faithful and True"; and the same
metaphor of the Truth "_riding into action_" is contained in Ps. xlv, 3,
4. "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy
majesty; and in thy majesty ride prosperously because of Truth." The
same symbol of "riding" also occurs in Ps. lxviii: "Extol him that
rideth upon the heavens," "Sing praises to him that rideth upon the
heaven of heavens which were of old (i.e., _ab initio_); lo, he doth
send out his Voice and that a mighty Voice"--and the word "Voice" is the
Hebrew Word [Hebrew: "K[=o]l"], meaning "Sound" or "Word"--so that here
again we have the idea of "The Word" riding into action. Once
more--"Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name" (Ps. cxxxviii,
2), thus repeating the idea of the Word as the Name.

In other passages we have the idea of the Word as a Weapon. "The Sword
of the Spirit which is the Word of God" (Eph. vi, 17), which answers to
the description in Revelations of the Sword proceeding out of the mouth
of the Word; and we have the same metaphor of the Word riding into
action in Habakkuk iii, 8 and 9. "Thou didst ride upon thine horses and
thy chariots of salvation. Thy bow was made quite naked ... even thy
Word"; and similarly those that oppose the Word are "killed with the
sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his
mouth."

In other passages we have the Word put before us as a Defence. "His
Truth shall be thy shield and buckler" (Ps. xci, 4); and again "The Name
of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is
safe" (Prov. xviii, 10); and we have already seen that this Name is "The
Word of God"; and similarly in Ps. cxxiv, 8: "Our help is in the name of
the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

Lastly, we get "the Word" as the final deliverance from all ill; "Into
thy hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth"
(Ps. xxxi, 5).

And the reason of all this is because "His Truth endureth to all
generations" (Ps. c, 5); it is everlasting, Changeless Principle. "By
the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by
the breath of his mouth" (Ps. xxxiii, 6), as is also said of the Word in
the opening of St. John's Gospel and First Epistle.

Now a careful comparison of these and similar passages will make it
clear that the sequence presented to us is as follows: The "Word" is the
passing of the Verb Substantive of Being into Action. It is always the
same in Principle, on whatever scale, and therefore applies to ourselves
also, so that each one of us is a "Word of God." We are this by the very
essence of our being, and that is why the first thing we are told about
Man is, that he is made in the image and likeness of God. But how far
any of us will become a really effective "Word," depends upon our
acceptance of the New Name which is ready to be bestowed upon each one.
"To as many as _receive_ him, to them gives he power to become Sons of
God, even to them that believe on his Name" (John 1-12). We get the New
Name by realizing the Truth, which Truth is that we ourselves are
included in THE NAME, and that name is called "The Word of God."

The meaning of which becomes clear if we remember that the spiritual
name of anything is its "Noumenon" or essential being, which is
manifested through its "Phenomenon" or outward reproduction in Form; so
that the true order is first our "Name" or essential Being, then our
"Word" or active manifestation of this essential Being, then the "Truth"
or the unchangeable Law of Being passing into Manifestation--and these
three are ONE. Then when we see that this is true of ourselves, not
because of some arbitrary favouritism making us exceptions to the human
race, but because it is the working on the plane of Human Individuality
of the same Power and the same Law by which the world has come into
existence, we can see that we have here a Principle which we can trust
to work as infallibly as the principle of Mathematics; and that
therefore the desire to become something more than we now are is nothing
else than the Eternal Spirit of Life seeking ever fuller expression.

The correction which our mode of thinking needs therefore is to start
with Being, not with Having, and we may then trust the Having to come
along in its right order; and if we can get into this new manner of
thinking, what a world of worry it will save us! If we realize that the
Law flows from the Word, and not vice versa, then the Law of attraction
must work in this manner, and will bring to us all those conditions
through which we shall be able to express the more expanded Being
towards which we are directing our Word; and as a consequence, we shall
have no need to trouble about forcing particular conditions into
existence--they will grow spontaneously out of the seed we have planted.
All we have to do now, or at any time, is to take the conditions that
are ready to hand and use them on the lines of the sort of "being"
towards which we are directing our Thought--use them just as far as they
go at the time, without trying to press them further--and we shall find
by experience that out of the present conditions thus used to-day, more
favourable conditions will grow in a perfectly natural manner to-morrow,
and so on, day by day, until, when later on we look back, we shall be
surprised to find ourselves expressing all, and more than all, the sort
of "_being_" we had thought of. Then, from this new standpoint of our
being, we shall continue to go on in the same way, and so on _ad
infinitum_, so that our life will become one endless progress, ever
widening as we go on. And this will be found a very quiet and peaceful
way, free from worry and anxiety, and wonderfully effective. It may lead
you to some position of authority or celebrity; but as such things
belong to the category of "Having" and not of "Being" they were not what
you aimed at, and are only by-products of what you have become in
yourself. They are conditions, and like all other conditions should be
made use of for the development of still more expanded "being"; that is
to say, you will go on working on the more extended scale which such a
position makes possible to you. But the one thing you would not try to
do with it would be to "boss the show." The moment you do this you are
no longer using the Word of the larger Personality, and have descended
to your old level of the smaller personality, just John Smith or Mary
Jones, ignorant of yourselves as being anything greater. It is true your
Word still directs the operation of the Law towards yourself--it always
does this--but your word has become inverted, and so calls into
operation the Law of Contraction instead of the Law of Expansion. A
higher position means a wider field for usefulness--that is all; and to
the extent to which you fit yourself for it, it will come to you. So, if
you content yourself with always speaking in your Thought the Creative
Word of "Being" from day to day, you will find it the Way of Peace and
the Secret of a Happy Life--by no means monotonous, for all sorts of
unexpected interests will be continually opening out to you, giving you
scope for all the activities of which your present degree of "being"
renders you capable. You will always find plenty to do, and find
pleasure in doing it, so you need never be afraid of feeling dull.

But perhaps you will say:

"How am I to know that I am not speaking my own Word instead of that of
the Creative Spirit?"

Well, the word of the smaller personality is always based on the idea of
possessing, and the Word of the Spirit is always based on the idea of
Becoming--that is the criterion. And also, if we base our speaking of
the Word on the Promises of Spirit, we may be sure that we are on the
right track.

We may be sure of it, because when we come to analyze these promises we
shall find that they are all statements of the Creative Law of Being,
and the nature of this Law is obvious from the facts of the Visible
Creation.

These things are not true because they are written in the Bible, but the
Bible is true because these things are written in it. The more we
examine the Bible Promises, the more they will impress themselves upon
us as being Promises according to Law; and since the Law can never be
broken, we can feel quite secure of it, subject to the one condition
that we do not stop the Law from working to the fulfilment of the
Promise, by our own inverted use of the Word. But if we take the _Word
of the Promise_ and make it our own Word, then we know that we are
speaking the right Word, which will so specialize the action of the Law,
as to produce the fulfilment of the Promise. Apart from the Word there
is no Foundation. In all other systems we have either Law without Will,
or Will without Law.

Then we know that we are not speaking of ourselves, but are speaking the
Word of the Power that sent us into the World. The Law alone cannot
fulfil the Promises. It is in itself Cosmic and Impersonal, and, as
every scientific discovery amply demonstrates, it needs the co-operation
of the Personal Factor to bring out its latent possibilities; so that
the Word is as necessary as the Law for the fulfilment of the Promises;
but if the Word which we speak is that of the Creating Spirit, we may
reckon it as being just as certain in its operation as the Law, and the
two together form an infallible Power.

But there is one thing we must not forget, and this is the Law of
Growth. If the Law which we plant is the seed, then we must allow time
for it to grow; we must leave it alone and go about our business as
usual, and the seed we have sown will spring and grow up of itself, we
know not how, a truth which we have been told by the Master himself
(Mark iv, 26, 29).

We must not be like children who plant a seed one day, and dig it up the
next to see whether it is growing. Our part is to plant the seed, not to
make it grow,--the Creative Law of Life will do that. It is for this
reason that the Bible gives us such injunctions as "Study to be quiet"
(1 Thess. iv, 11). "He that believeth shall not make haste" (Is.
xxviii, 16). "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength"
(Is. xxx, 15). To make ourselves anxious as to whether the Word we have
planted will fructify is just to dig it up again, and then of course it
will not grow.

The fundamental maxim, then, which we must always keep in mind is that
"Every creation carries its own Mathematics along with it," and that
therefore "The Law flows from the Word, and not _vice versa_;" and
consequently "_The Word is the Foundation of every creative series_,"
whether that series be great or small, cosmic or individual,
constructive or destructive. Every series commences with Intention; and
remember the exact meaning of the Word. It is from the two Latin words
"in," towards, and "tendere," to stretch, and it therefore means a
"reaching out in a certain direction." This "reaching out in a certain
direction" is the Conception of ourself as arrived at the destination
towards which our Thought tends, and is therefore _the conceiving of an
idea_, and our formulated idea is stated, if only mentally, in
Words--and the termination of the series is the realization of the idea
in actual fact. Therefore it is equally true of every series, whether it
be the creation of a lady's blouse or the creation of a world, that "in
the Beginning is the Word"--the Word is _the Point of Origination_.

Then, since the Word is the Point of Origination, what is our conception
of the best thing we can originate with it? There is a great variety of
opinion as to what is desirable; and it is only natural and right that
it should be so, for otherwise we should be without any individuality,
which means that we should have no real life in us--in fact such a world
is unthinkable; it would be a world that had ceased to move, it would be
a dead world. So it is the varied conception of "the Good" that makes
the world go on. Uniformity means reducing things to one dead level. But
on the other hand there must be Unity--unity of action resulting from
unity of purpose, otherwise the world logically terminates in
internecine strife. If then the world is to go on, it can only be by
means of Unity expressing itself in Variety, and therefore the question
is: What is the _unifying Desire_ which underlies all the varieties of
expression? It is a very simple one--it is just to ENJOY LIVING. Our
ideas of an enjoyable life may be very various, but that is what we all
really want; so what we want to get at is: What is the basis of an
enjoyable life?

I have no hesitation in saying that the secret of enjoying life is _to
take an interest in it_. The opposite of Livingness is Deadness, that
is, inertia and stagnation. Dying of "ennui" is a very real thing
indeed, and if we would not die of this malady we must have an interest
in life that will always keep going on.

Now for anything to interest us we must enter into the spirit of it. If
we do not enter into the spirit of a game it does not interest us; if we
do not enter into the spirit of a book, it does not interest us, we are
bored to death with it; and so on with everything. So from our own
experience we may lay down the maxim that "To enjoy anything we must
enter into the spirit of it," and if this be so, then, to enjoy the
"Living Quality of Life" we must enter into the Spirit of Life itself. I
say the "Living Quality of Life" so as to dissociate it from all ideas
of particular conditions; because what we are trying to get at is the
fundamental principle of Life which creates conditions, and not the
reflex of sensations, whether physical or mental, which any particular
set of conditions may induce in us for the time being. In this way we
come back to the initial proposition with which we started--that the
origin of everything is only to be found in a Universal Ever-Living
Spirit, and that our own life proceeds from this Spirit in accordance
with the maxim "Omne vivum ex vivo." Thus we are logically brought to
the conclusion that the ultimate Desire of all Humanity is to
consciously enter into the Spirit of Life as it is _in itself_,
antecedently to all conditions. This is the widest of all
generalizations, and so opens the door to the highest of all
specializations; for it is a scientific fact that the more widely we can
generalize the principle of any Law, the more highly we can specialize
its working. It is only as our conception of it is limited that any Law
limits us.

A principle _per se_ is always undifferentiated, and capable of any sort
of differentiation into particular modes of expression that are not in
opposition to the principle itself; and it is true of the Principle of
Life as of all others. There is therefore no limit to its expression
except that which inverts it,--that is to say, anything which tends
towards Death; and, accordingly, what we have to avoid is the negative
mode of Thought, which starts an inverted action of the Law, logically
resulting in destructiveness instead of constructiveness. But the
mistake we make from not seeing the basic principle of the whole thing,
is that of looking to the conditions to form the Life, instead of
looking to the Life to form the conditions; and therefore what we
require is a _Standard of Measurement_ for our Thought, by which we
shall be able to form _The Perfect Word_ which will set in motion the
Law of Cause and Effect in such a manner as to fulfil that _Basic Desire
of Life_ which is common to all Humanity. The Perfect Word must
therefore fulfil two Conditions--it must have the essential Quality of
the Undifferentiated Eternal Life, and it must have the essential
Quality of "Genus Homo." It must say with Horace "Homo sum; nihil humani
mihi alienum puto" (I am Man; I regard nothing human as alien to
myself). When we think it out carefully, there is no escaping the
conclusion that this must be the essential Quality of the Perfect Word
we are in search of. It is the final logical inference from all that we
have learnt regarding the interaction between Law and Personality, that
the Perfect Word must combine in itself the Quality of each--it must be
at once both Human and Divine.

Of course all my readers know where the description of such a Word is to
be found; but what I want them to realize is the way in which we have
now reached a similar description of the Perfect Word. We have not
accepted it unquestioningly as the teaching of a scholastic theology,
but have arrived at it by a course of careful reasoning from the facts
of physical Nature and from our experience of our own mental powers.
This way of getting at it makes it really our own. We know what we mean
by it, and it is no longer a mere traditional form of words. It is the
same with everything else; nothing becomes our own by being just told
about it.

For instance, if I show an artist a picture, and he tells me that a boat
in it is half a mile away from the spectators, I may accept this on his
authority, because I suppose he knows all about it. But if next day a
friend shows me a picture of a bit of coast with a fishing-boat in the
distance, and asks me how far off that boat is, I am utterly stumped
because I do not know how the artist was able to judge the distance.
But if I understand the principle, I give my friend a very fair
approximation of the distance of the boat. I work it out like this. I
say:--the immediate foreground of the picture shows an amount of detail
which could not be seen more than twenty yards away, and the average
size of such details in nature shows that the bottom edge of the picture
must measure about ten yards across. Then from experience I know that
the average length of craft of the particular rigging in the picture is,
say, about eighty feet, and I then measure that this length goes sixteen
and a half times across the picture on the level where the boat is
situated, and so I know that a line across the picture at this level
measures 80 x 16-1/2 = 1320 ft. = 440 yards. Then I make the
calculation: 10 yds.: 440 yds.:: 20 yds.: the distance required to be
ascertained 440 x 20 / 10 = 880 yds. 1760 yds. = 1 mile and 1760 / 2 =
880 yds. Therefore I know that the boat in the picture is represented as
being about half a mile from the spectator. I really know the distance
and do not merely guess it, and I know _how_ I know it. I know it simply
from the geometrical principle that with a given angle at the apex of a
triangle the length of a perpendicular dropped from the apex to the base
of the triangle will always bear the same ratio to the length of the
base, whatever the size of the triangle may be. In this way I know the
distance of the boat in the picture by combining mathematics and my own
observation of facts--once again to co-operation of Law and Personality.
Now a familiar instance like this shows the difference between being
told a thing and really knowing it, and it is by an analogous method
that we have now arrived at the conclusion that the Perfect Word is a
combination of the Human and the Divine. We have definite reasons for
seeing this as the ultimate fact of human development--the power to give
expression to the Perfect Word--, and that this follows naturally from
the fact of our own existence and that of some originating source from
which we derive it.

But perhaps the reader will say: How can a Word take form as a Person?
Well, words which do not eventually take form as facts only evaporate
into thin air, and we cannot conceive the Divine Ideals of Man doing
this. Therefore the expression of the Perfect Word on the plane of
Humanity must take substance in the Form of Humanity. It is not the
manifestation of any limited personality with all his or her
idiosyncrasies, but the manifestation of the basic principle of Humanity
itself common to us all.

To quote Dryden's words--but in a very different sense to that intended
in "Absolom and Achitophel,"--such a one must be "Not one, but all
Mankind's epitome." The manifestation must be the Perfect Expression of
that fundamental Life which is the Root Desire in us all, and which is
therefore called "The Desire of all nations."

Here then we have reached (Haggai ii, 7) the foundation fact of Human
Personality. It is the Eternal "Will-to-live," as Schopenhauer calls it,
which works subconsciously in all creation; therefore it is the root
from which all creation springs. In the atom it becomes atomic energy,
in the plant it becomes vegetable life, in the animal it becomes animal
life, and in man it becomes personal life, and therefore, if a Perfect
Standard of the Eternal Life is to be set before us, it must be in terms
of Human Personality.

But some one will say: Why should we need such a Standard? The answer
is that since the working of the Law towards each of us is determined by
our mode of Thought, we require to be guarded against an inverted use of
the Word. "Ignorantia Legis nemini excusat" (ignorance of the Law does
not excuse you from its operation), is a scientific, as well as a
forensic maxim, for the Law of Cause and Effect can never be altered.
Our ignorance of the laws of electricity will not prevent us from being
electrocuted if we get into the circuit of some powerful voltage.

Therefore, because the Law is _Impersonal_ and knows no exceptions, and
will bring us either Life or Death according to the direction which we
give it by our Word, it is of the first importance for us to have a
Standard by which to measure the Word expressed through our own
Personality. This is why St. Paul speaks of our growing to "the measure
of the stature of the fulness of Christ," (Eph. iv, 13) and why we find
the symbol of "Measurement" so frequently employed in the Bible.

Therefore, if a great scale of measurement for our Word is to be
exhibited, it can only be by its presentation in human form.

Then if the purpose be to establish such a standard of measurement, the
scale must be expressed in units of the same denomination as that of our
own nature--you cannot divide miles by ampères--and it is because the
scale of our potential being is laid out in the same denomination as
that of the Spirit of Life itself that we can avail ourselves of the
standard of "the Word made Flesh."

When this is clearly seen it removes those intellectual difficulties
which so many feel with regard to the doctrine of the Atonement. If we
want to avail ourselves of the Bible Promises on the basis of the Bible
teaching, we cannot throw the teaching overboard. As I have said before,
if a doctrine is to be rightly interpreted, it must be interpreted as a
whole, and in one form or another the doctrine of the Atonement is the
pivot point of the whole Bible. To omit it is like trying to play
"Hamlet" with Hamlet left out, and you may put your Bible out on the
rubbish-heap. How, then, does the Atonement come in?

Here are the usual intellectual difficulties. To whom is the sacrifice
offered? To God or to the Devil? If it be to the Devil, then the Devil
is a greater power than God. If it be to God, then how can a God who
demands a sacrifice of blood be Love? And in either case how can guilt
be transferred from one person to the other?

Now as a matter of fact none of these questions arise. They are beside
the real point at issue, which is: How can we so combine the Personal
action of the Word with the Impersonal action of the Law, as to make the
Law become to us the Law of Life instead of the Law of Death (Rom. viii,
2)?

Let us recur to the principles which we have worked out. The Law flows
from the Word and not _vice versa_--it acts for good or ill according to
the Quality of the Word which calls it into action. Therefore to get the
Law of Life we must speak the Word of Life. Then, on the principle of
"Omne vivum ex vivo," the Word of Fundamental Basic Life, which is not
subject to conditions because it is antecedent to all conditions, can
only be spoken through consciousness of participating in the Eternal
Life which is the "fons et origo" of all particular being. Therefore, to
be able to speak this Word we must have a foundation of assurance that
we are in no way separated from the Eternal Life, and since this
foundation is required for all men, it must be broad enough to
accommodate all grades of perceptions.

Theologically the separation from the Eternal Life is said to be caused
by "Sin." But what do we mean by "Sin"?

We can only judge of what a thing _is_ by what it _does_; and so, if
"Sin" is that which prevents the inflowing of the Eternal Life, which we
know is the root of our individual being, then it must be the
transgression of the inherent Law of our own Being. The truth is that we
live simultaneously in two worlds, the visible and the invisible, just
as trees draw their life from the earth beneath and from the air and
light above, and the transgression consists in limiting ourselves only
to the lower world, and thereby cutting ourselves off from the essential
part of our own life, that which _really lives_.

We do not realize the true function of the three lower principles of our
nature, viz.: Vital Spirit, etheric body, and outward form; the function
of which is to give concentration to the current of spiritual life
flowing from the Eternal Spirit, and thus enable the undifferentiated
Life to differentiate itself into Individual Consciousness, which will
be able to specialize the action of the Law into higher manifestations
than it can produce without the co-operation of Personality.

On the analogy of Ohm's Law our error is making our "_R_" so rigid that
it ceases to be a conductor, and so no current is delivered and no work
done. This is the true nature of sin, and it is this opposition of our
_R_ to E.M.F. or Eternal Motive Force that has to be removed. We have to
realize the true function of our R, as the channel through which the
E.M.F. is enabled to carry on its work. When we awake to the fact that
our true place in the Order of the Universe is to be fellow-workers with
God in carrying on the work of Creation, then we see that hitherto we
have entirely missed the purpose of our calling, and have misused the
Divine image in which we were created; and therefore we want an
assurance that our past errors will not stand in the way of our future
advance into continually fuller participation in the Divine Creative
Work, which, in virtue of our true nature should be our rightful
inheritance.

That our future destiny is to actually take an individual part, however
small, in guiding the great work of Evolution, may not be evident to us
in the earlier stages of our awakening; but what is clear as a matter
of feeling, but not yet intellectually, is, that in some way or other we
have been cutting ourselves off from the Great Source of Light, and that
what we therefore want, is to be re-united to it. What is wanted, then,
is something which will give us a firm ground of assurance that we _are_
re-united to it, and that that something must be of such a nature as
never to lose anything of its efficiency at any stage of our
progress--it must cover the whole ground.

Now, if we think deeply upon this question, we shall gradually come to
see that this expansive quality is to be found in the doctrine of the
Atonement. It meets all the needs of our spiritual nature in a way that
no other theory does, and responds to every stage of our progress. There
is only one thing that will prevent it working, and that is, saying that
we have no need of it. That is why St. John said, that if we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John i, 8).
But the more we come into the light of Truth, and realize that sin is
everything that is not in accordance with the Law of our own essential
being as related to the Eternal Life, the more we shall see, not only
that we have transgressed the Law in the past, but also that even now
we are very far from completely fulfiling it; and the more light we get
the more clearly we shall see this to be the case. Therefore, whatever
may be the stage of our mental development, the assurance which we all
need for the basis of our new life is that of the removal of sin--the
sins of the past, and the daily errors of the present. We may form
various theories, each to our own satisfaction, as to _how_ this takes
place. For instance we may argue that, since "the Word" is the
undifferentiated potential of Humanity, every human soul is included in
the Self-offering of Christ, and that in Him we ourselves suffered on
the Cross. Or we may say that our confession that such an offering is
needed amounts to our participation in it. Or we may say with St. Paul
that, as in Adam all are sinners, so in Christ all are made free from
sin (1 Cor. xv, 22). That is, taking Adam and Christ as the
representatives of two orders of men. Or we may fall back on the
statement "Sacrifice and burnt offerings Thou wouldst not" (Ps. xl, 6),
and on Jesus' own explanation of his death, that He offered himself in
testimony to the Truth--that is, that the Eternal Life will no more
exercise a retrospective vengeance upon us for our past misunderstanding
of It, than would electricity or any other force. We may explain the
_modus operandi_ of the great offering in any of these ways, for the
Scripture presents it in all of them--but the great thing is to accept
it; for by the nature of our mental constitution, such an acceptance,
whether with or without an intellectual explanation, affords the
assurance which we stand in need of; and building upon the Foundation we
can safely rear the edifice of our future development.

Also it affords us a continual safeguard in all the further stages of
our evolution. As our psychic consciousness increases, we become more
and more responsive to psychic stimulus whether that stimulus proceed
from a good or evil influence; and therefore the recognition of our
Redemption in Christ surrounds us with a protecting barrier, through
which no evil spirit or malign influence can pass; so that, resting upon
this Truth, we need never be in fear of any such invasion, but shall at
all times be clothed with the whole armour of God (Eph. vi, 11).

From whatever point of view we regard it, we therefore find in the One
Offering once made for the sin of the whole world, a standpoint such as
is provided by no other teaching, whether religious or philosophical;
and we shall see on examination that it is not an arbitrary decree for
which we can give no account, but that it is based on the psychological
constitution of man--a provision so perfectly adapted to our
requirements at every stage of our evolution, that we can only attribute
it to the Divine Wisdom acting through One, who by Perfect Love, thus
willingly offered himself, in order to provide the Foundation of
complete assurance for all who recognize their need of it.

On this basis, then, of reunion with the Eternal Source of Life, all the
Promises of the Bible are found to be according to Law--that is,
according to the inherent Law of our Being; so that, in the laying of
this Foundation, we find the supreme manifestation of the interaction
between the Law and the Word, which, when its significance is
apprehended, opens out vistas of limitless possibilities to the
individual and to the race.

But the race, as a whole, is yet very far from apprehending this, and
for the most part has no perception of spiritual causation. Where some
dim perception of spiritual causation is beginning to emerge, it is very
frequently inverted, because people only apprehend it as giving them an
additional power of exercising compulsion over their fellow-men, and
thus depriving them of that individuality which it is the one purpose of
Evolution to develop. This is because people do not look beyond the
three lower principles of life, those principles which animals have in
common with man; and consequently the higher principle of mind, which
distinguishes man, is brought down to the lower level, so that the man
is distinguished from the beast only by the possession of intellectual
faculties, which by their perversion make him not merely a beast, but a
devil of a beast. Therefore the recognition of psychic powers, when not
safeguarded by the higher principles of Truth, plunges man even deeper
into darkness than does a simple materialism; and so the two go hand in
hand on the downward path. There is abundant evidence that this is
increasingly the case at the present day; and therefore it is that the
Bible Promises culminate in the Promise of the return of Him who offered
himself in order to lay the foundation of Peace. As I have said before,
we must either take the Bible as a whole, or reject it entirely. We
cannot pick and choose what pleases us, and refuse what does not. No
legal document could be treated in this way; and in like manner the
Bible is one great whole, or else it is just--"skittles."

Therefore, if that Divine "Word" was manifested to save the world from
destruction, by opening the way for the _individual_ through recognition
of his true relation to God, then it is only a reasonable carrying out
of the same thought that, when the bulk of mankind fail to realize the
beneficent use of these powers, and persist in using them invertedly,
the same Being should again appear to save the race from utter
self-destruction, but not by the same method, for that would be
impossible.

The individual method is that of individual self-recognition in the
light of Truth; but that cannot be _forced_ upon any one. The headlong
downward career of the race as a whole cannot therefore be stopped _vi
et armis_, and this can only be done by first letting it have a bitter
experience of what intellect, depraved to the service of the Beast in
Man, leads to, and then forcibly restraining those who persist in this
madness. Therefore a Second Coming of the Divine Man is a logical
sequence to the first, and equally logical, this Second Coming must be
as One who will rule the nations with irresistible power; so that men,
reflecting upon the evils of the past, and enquiring into their cause,
may be led to see that cause in the inverted action of the Law of their
own being, and may therefore learn so to renew their thoughts in
accordance with the Divine Thought as to bring them into the glorious
liberty of the Sons of God.

This, then, is the Promise we have to look forward to at the present
day, and though it might not be wise to speculate as to the precise time
and manner of its fulfilment, there can be no doubt as to the nature of
the general principles involved; and I trust the reader has at least
learned from this book that principles unfold themselves with unfailing
accuracy, though it depends on our Word, or mental attitude, in what way
their unfoldment will affect us personally.

For such reasons as these, it appears to me, that the current objections
to the doctrine of Atonement are entirely beside the mark. They miss the
whole point of the thing. Punishment for Sin? Of course there is
punishment for sin so long as it is persisted in. It is the natural
working of the Law of Cause and Effect. Forgiveness of sin? Of course
there is forgiveness of sin as soon as, through knowledge, we make a
right use of the Law of our own Being. It could not be otherwise. It is
the natural working of the Law of Cause and Effect.

"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will
I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more"
(Heb. x, 16); and similarly in Jer. xxxi, 32, from which the writer of
the Epistles to the Hebrews quotes this. "Now the Lord is the Spirit" (2
Cor. iii, 17, R.V.), i.e., the Originating Spirit of life, and therefore
"my laws" means the inherent Law of the Originating Principle of Being,
so that here we have a plain statement that the realization of the True
Law of our Being _ipso facto_ results in the cancelling of all our past
errors. When once we see the principle of it the whole sequence becomes
perfectly plain.

There is nothing arbitrary in all this. It results naturally from a New
mode of Thought producing a New order of Consciousness; and it is
written that "if any man be in Christ he is a new creature" or, as it
says in the margin, "a new creation" (2 Cor. v, 17), and on the
principle that "every Creation carries its own mathematics with it,"
every such man has passed from the Law of Death into the Law of Life.
The full fruition may not yet be visible--we must allow for the Law of
Growth--but the Principle is in him and has become the central,
generating point of his consciousness, and is therefore bound, sooner or
later, to develop into perfect manifestation by the Law of its own
nature. If the Principle be accepted it will work all the same, whether
we accept it by simple trust in the written Word, or whether we analyze
the grounds of our trust; just as an electric bell will ring when you
press the button, whether you are an electrical engineer or not. But
there will be this difference, that if you _are_ an electrical engineer
you will see the principle implied in the ringing of the bell, and you
will find in it the promise of infinite possibilities which it is open
to you to develope; and in like manner, the more clearly you see the
relation which necessarily exists between yourself and the
All-Originating Living Spirit, the more clear it will become to you,
that this relation opens up an endless vista of boundless potentialities
which can never be exhausted. This is the true nature of the Bible
Promises; they were not made by some external Deity about whose ideas we
can never have any certainty, but by the Indwelling God, who is at once
the Life, the Law, and the Substance of all things, and therefore they
are Promises according to Law, containing in themselves the principle of
their own fulfilment.

But, as I trust the reader is now convinced, the Law can fulfil the
Promise which is latent in it only by the co-operation of the Word; that
is, the Personal Factor which provides the necessary conditions for the
Law to work under; and therefore, if the Promise is to be fulfilled, we
must meet the All-originating Life, the "Premium mobile," not only on
the Plane of Law, but on the Plane of Personality also. This becomes
evident if we consider that this Originating Life must be _entirely
undifferentiated_ in Itself; for otherwise it could not be the origin of
all differentiated modes of Life and Energy. As long as we find
differentiation, on however wide a scale, we have not arrived at First
Cause. There will still be something further back, out of which the
differentiations have proceeded; and it is this "Something" which is at
the back of "Everything" that we are in search of. Therefore the
Originating Spirit must be _absolutely undifferentiated_, and
consequently the Personal Factor in ourselves must be the
differentiation into individuality of a Quality eternally subsisting in
the All-Originating Undifferentiated Spirit.

Then, since our individual differentiation of this Quality must depend
on the mode of our recognition of it, it follows that a Standard of
Measurement is needed, and the Standard is presented to us in the form
of the Personality around whom the whole Bible centres, and who, as the
Standard of the Divine Infinitude differentiating Himself into units of
individual personality, can only be described as at once The Son of God
and The Son of Man. If we see that the Eternal Life, by reason of its
non-differentiation in itself, must needs become to each of us _exactly
what we take it to be_, then it follows that in order to realize it on
our own plane of Personality we must see it _through the medium of
Personality_, and it is therefore not a theological figment, but the
Supreme Psychological Truth that no man can come to "the Father"--that
is, to the Parent Spirit--except through the Son (John xiv, 6).

When we see the reason at the back of it, the Bible becomes a New Book
to us, and we learn that the interpretation of it is not to be found in
learned commentaries, but in ourselves. Then we find that it is indeed
The Book of Promises, not vague and uncertain, but logical and
scientific, teaching us how to combine the instrumentality of the Law
with the freedom of the Word; so that through the Perfect Word,
manifested as the Perfect Man, we reach the Perfect Law, and find that
THE PERFECT LAW IS THE LAW OF LIBERTY.


THE END



FOOTNOTES:

[1] For various reasons I am not giving the actual names of places and
persons in this story.

[2] "Out of Egypt" by Miss Crouse. Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A.

[3] R.W. Allen.

[4] See Chapters on "Body, Soul, and Spirit" in my "Edinburgh Lectures
on Mental Science."

[5] See "Edinburgh Lectures."

[6] "New Knowledge."





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