IC-NRLF 
 
 SB EbD 
 
GIFT OF 
 
 iS^ C. Wul 
 
 

 REV. ERNEST C. WILSON 
 
THE SIMPLE TRUTH 
 
 HARMONIALLY INTERPRETED 
 
 BY 
 ERNEST C. WILSON 
 
 "Under and back f the Universe of Time, 
 Space and Change, is ever to be found the 
 Substantial Reality the Fundamental Truth." 
 
 The Kybalion. 
 
 FIRST EDITION 1920 
 
 THE HARMONIAL PUBLISHERS 
 4328 ALABAMA STREET 
 SAN DIEGO. CALIFORNIA 
 
COPYRIGHT 192O 
 
 BY 
 ERNEST C. WILSON 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction 5 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 How to Study This Book - 8 
 
 I. The First Cause - - - - 9 
 
 II. The Universal Principle - 16 
 
 HI. The Law in Action - 23 
 
 IV. The Value of Service - - - 30 
 
 V. Universal Brotherhood - - 37 
 
 VI. Universal Justice ----- 44 
 
 VII. The Way of Reality - - - 50 
 
 VIII. Form and Consciousness - - 58 
 
 IX. Adjustment ------ 65 
 
 X. Oneness - 72 
 
 XI. The Utility of Wisdom - - 78 
 
 XII. The Greatest Gift - - - - 84 
 
 XIII. Harmonial Living - - - 91 
 
 Aims of the Harmonial Institute - 99 
 Announcements - - - - - --100 
 
 Index 103 
 
 481511 
 
j > ' j , , > 
 
 Finding within himseff "Tne Simple Trui/i" 
 concerning the seemingly complex conditions of 
 life, man traces the golden thread of relative being 
 through all forms of thought and action; and by 
 comparative study learns the relative equality of 
 the seeming and the real. This constructive study 
 and exemplification, which have characterized 
 many people in all ages of the world, come to us 
 in this age as The Harmonial Philosophy of An- 
 drew Jackson Davis (1826-1910). His ex- 
 tensive writing and teaching inspired the founding 
 of THE HARMONIAL INSTITUTE FOR RE-EDU- 
 CATION; and the Founder-Secretary, Ernest C. 
 Wilson, has responded to the need for "The Simple 
 Truth, Harmonially Interpreted," by writing this 
 book. 
 
 The Harmonial Philosophy is an eclectic method 
 of thinking and acting, by which the inward reali- 
 zation of infinite potentiality may become outward 
 manifestation, through harmonious correlation of 
 capability and opportunity. By discovery of rela- 
 tionship between exterior effects and interior causes 
 man may adjust himself to environment, and 
 profit by every experience. By awakening a con- 
 sciousness of the Oneness existing in all forms, the 
 seeming complex will become simple. Arouse the 
 universal in each, and the many readily discern in- 
 timate fraternalism. Whatever benefits one up- 
 lifts all: so each will endeavor to benefit others, 
 that he may be uplifted. 
 
 The contents of this volume, alive with the 
 
the.-auth&r to serve, will find a 
 Welcbnie'amcmg.'tJie. in'ahy ,who are atole to realize 
 that truth must be awakened from within. Read 
 its pages carefully, reflect and meditate upon the 
 vital statements made; and within you will arise 
 a clearer vision, a broader view, and a keener 
 sense of brotherhood. Cultivate the tendencies, in 
 yourself, which led you to study "The Simple 
 Truth", and they will direct you in the ways of 
 such usefulness as will disclose the abundance of 
 happiness, success and growth which surrounds 
 you. Encourage the manifestation of this interior 
 realization which urges you to bless and serve, as 
 opportunity presents itself; and you will be en- 
 riched by the imperishable principle which pro- 
 duces all things. Constantly increase your corre- 
 spondences with the positive, real and permanent 
 qualities in life, which neither change nor decay; 
 and you will become an exemplification of The 
 Harmonial Philosophy. You will bless the day 
 which brought you "The Simple Truth, Harmoni- 
 ally Interpreted", by bringing its message into the 
 lives of others. 
 I am always, 
 
 In Patient Service, 
 
 JOHN WILLIS RING. 
 
 September 7th, 1920. 
 
PREFACE. ,,.,,,, , 
 
 HERE IS A BOOK iiisc/ibea withirr ihe m- 
 most part of man's being, differing in detail 
 with every individual, though wonderfully 
 similar in theme; and all that is read or discovered 
 through other sources must ultimately be referred 
 to it. Within its pages the Truth about Life and 
 Self are recorded, not in words, but in Spirit. 
 
 No writer can say what is Truth for any but 
 himself; no teacher can impart wisdom to his pupil; 
 for there exists to every man one Author and 
 Teacher, the fathomless, Deific energy with which 
 he is endowed by existence. The solution of all 
 problems, the answer to all questions must come, 
 at last, from this inner source of Wisdom. But 
 man must first know his own powers before they 
 may be used with understanding. Therefore this 
 book has been written, not so much to advance 
 the writer's personal concept of Truth, though it 
 must of necessity embody this; not so much to ad- 
 vance a particular philosophy or religious convic- 
 tion, though it may seem to do so; but most of all 
 to awaken within you who read, the power to dis- 
 cover your own inward Teacher, that you may 
 harmoniously evolve your own conception of Truth, 
 and Philosophy, and Religion; and joyously live 
 by the light whose spark the Author of all lights 
 has kindled. 
 
 In Service For Humanity, 
 
 ERNEST C. WILSON. 
 September II, 1920. 
 
STUDY THIS BOOK 
 
 ^u endeavored to make 
 "The Simple Truth" so easily understood 
 that even those who are entirely unacquainted 
 with so-called advanced thought will find its mes- 
 sage comprehensible. However, the subject mat- 
 ter with which it deals is so inclusive and funda- 
 mental in its nature, that many who receive inspira- 
 tion from its pages will wish to make a careful, 
 systematic study of the book. For these a page of 
 Themes For Meditation has been arranged to fol- 
 low each chapter, adding to the thought of the 
 author, the testimony of great philosophic minds 
 who have expressed themselves upon the themes 
 treated of. To make "The Simple Truth" of 
 even greater value to students, sets of questions 
 concerning each chapter have been prepared by the 
 author and will be mailed to anyone wishing them, 
 in exchange for a free will offering to cover the 
 cost of printing and mailing. In connection with 
 these, the book should be carefully studied, a chap- 
 ter at a time, and the question sheets filled out and 
 mailed to The Harmonial Publishers, 4328 Ala- 
 bama Street, San Diego, California. They will 
 receive the personal attention of the author, and 
 will be re-mailed, with notations, to the sender. 
 
 The quotations which head each chapter, are 
 the twelve fundamental statements of The Har- 
 monial Institute For Re-Education. 
 
I. THE FIRST ,CAVSE, ; , , 
 
 '.' " " '* 9^ 
 
 **77iere are many Effects, *fci#*one Cause* (Goa*)V 
 
 ACK of every effect in life lies a finer 
 cause; and each cause itself is the effect 
 of a cause which preceded it; so that ulti- 
 mately all things are seen to be the effects of One 
 Cause, in which they have their source, and by 
 reason of which they exist. Effect and cause are 
 as inseparable as sunlight and the sun. Place a 
 barrier between a ray of sunlight and its golden 
 source in the heavens; it ceases to be sunlight; it 
 has no existence apart from that which gave it 
 being. So it is with all else. Effects are distinct 
 from their cause, yet exist only by reason of the 
 cause which preceded them. 
 
 The material world is a world of effects, of 
 forms, or what is commonly termed * 'matter." It 
 is a world of infinite variety, in which many ele- 
 ments seem to be manifested. They appear in the 
 mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, and in 
 the manifold expressions of number, color, sound 
 and form within these realms; they appear where- 
 ever the physical senses of man meet a response ; and 
 yet when closely examined all of these elements 
 are seen to merge into one; one element which is 
 common to all, the essence of all, and without 
 which nothing that exists can have being; an 
 essence which permeates and animates all things, 
 yet is distinct from that which it permeates and 
 animates. Men have called this intangible, all- 
 pervading essence, Spirit or God. It is the First 
 Cause, in relation to which all else are effects. 
 
T We. exists .between. Gad and the manifest 
 wqrfcf -thej $arne: felatMty that exists between Cause 
 and Elf "feet; they are the two halves of the one 
 thing. Matter is the garment of God; the means 
 by which spirit expresses; the emanation of the 
 Great Positive Mind. Hence as the outer results 
 from the inner, so are the inner and outer, the 
 source and the emanation, spirit and matter re- 
 lated. There exists at all times a perfect harmony 
 between spirit and matter, and the purpose of the 
 latter is to express in perfection all of the spiritual 
 powers of the former. Involved in matter are all 
 the powers and perfection of Deity. These are 
 destined to evolve harmoniously through form until 
 all the grandeur of the Cause is made manifest 
 through the effect; until there are expressed in the 
 material world all of the attributes of the causa- 
 tive or spiritual world. The entire system of the 
 universe presents the action and reaction of im- 
 mutable law by which the infinite perfection of the 
 Cause is evolved through finite form. All expres- 
 sions of life, motion, sensation and intelligence lead 
 progressively from one to another like notes in a 
 musical scale. From the lowest, least expressive 
 form of life to the highest, all are obedient to the 
 same laws of being; each manifests some attribute 
 of the Divine. Nothing is wholly evil for all are 
 animated by the same essence. The distinction be- 
 tween the various forms of life is due to the modes 
 of expression and a difference in quantity of the 
 animating essence. From the protoplasmic cell and 
 the isolated electron, through all gradations of 
 mineral, vegetable and animal life to man, each 
 
 10 
 
form is in some degree the possessor of the same 
 central essence, and each expresses some idea 
 which, by reason of its Source, is Divine. Physical 
 scientists trace a gradual refinement and growing 
 perfection of form from the lowest expressions of 
 life upward; and declare that these find their ulti- 
 mate completion in mankind. Each form and ex- 
 pression of life has contributed something to man's 
 physical body. Those perfections of development 
 which exist separately in the lower forms of life 
 find combined expression in the form of man. 
 Chemically man is a composite of all the elements 
 of life. As the ocean is mirrored in a drop of its 
 water which contains all the elements of the larger 
 body, so in man are represented all of the physical 
 properties and characteristics which exists separate- 
 ly elsewhere in nature. 
 
 Along with this harmonious physical evolution 
 a mental evolution has taken place; so that the 
 mind of man is a composite of the mental develop- 
 ment in material creation. Man exists then as the 
 localization, the epitome of all the life below him; 
 the apex of physical and mental evolution: but 
 with this difference that while all forms of life 
 are expressive of divinity, and all partake of the 
 spiritual nature of their Source, only in man is 
 there discoverable a consciousness of that Source. 
 In man alone have the mental faculties been co- 
 ordinated to serve as the vehicle for the over-shad- 
 owing consciousness of God, and in him alone is 
 there the inherent consciousness of an indwelling 
 Presence. 
 
 The lower forms of life, as we speak of them, 
 
 ii 
 
obey the laws of their being because they know 
 no other law, obedient to a power beyond their 
 perception, each adds his quota of development to 
 the sum which manifests in man alone. As well 
 as being the epitome of physical and mental evo- 
 lution, man is intimately related to and deeply 
 in the debt of every form of life that exists. The 
 allegory of the Creation in Genesis in which man 
 was given dominion over "every living thing" ex- 
 presses the power entrusted to him: but with every 
 power there comes the responsibility of its use; and 
 only when it is used wisely, justly, harmoniously 
 and humanely is man proven worthy of his title 
 "the Lord of creation.** 
 
 This evolution through material things is at all 
 times characterized by perfect harmony and order 
 by reason of an immutable law which is the first 
 expression of Deity. What seem to be discord 
 and disharmony are due to our incomplete grasp 
 of the Divine Plan. Until man completely con- 
 ceives and grasps the plan of Deity the Means 
 will always remain incomprehensible and incom- 
 patible with his ideas of justice and harmony. An 
 understanding of this Plan is natural to man and 
 has never presented any insurmountable obstacle 
 to his spiritual nature. There is that within him 
 which bears a constant and never changing rela- 
 tionship to all that exists outside himself. In so 
 far as he relies upon this inner spiritual nature, 
 the perception of Divinity presents no true im- 
 possibility. Seeking for the principle inherent in 
 form difficulties are transformed into powers. It 
 is when man disregards his sense of the unity of 
 
 12 
 
life that his difficulties commence. Surveyed 
 singly as either Cause or Effect the problem of 
 life presents innumerable insurmountable obstacles 
 which human reason and logic cannot overcome. 
 Seen from the viewpoint of the senses which per- 
 ceive only effects, and judged by the attribute of 
 reason which is guided by the evidence of the senses 
 alone, the truth seeking man encounters only the 
 outer husks of appearance and fincTs nothing to in- 
 dicate to him the existence of anything other than 
 this husk of form. Seen from the viewpoint of 
 his spiritual nature which responds only to the 
 realities of causation, and judged by his intuitive 
 faculties which deny the realm of effects, man 
 loses sight of the beauties of the outer world and 
 is at a loss to interpret its meaning. 
 
 To him who can so adjust himself to life as to 
 include both cause and effect, spirit and matter, 
 reason and intuition within his mind, these difficul- 
 ties are overcome. Viewed separately there appears 
 to be constant contention between spirit and mat- 
 ter, both as these manifest in man's individual life 
 and in the world at large. It is only by a realiza- 
 tion of their perfect unity and accord that the 
 riddle of existence can be solved. To declare an 
 opposition between spirit and matter in the world 
 at large, or to sever their counterparts in man, is 
 like trying to separate water from the ocean, or 
 sunlight from the sun, or cause from effect. One 
 exists only by reason of the other; they are merely 
 convenient names that have been agreed upon to 
 express two phases of one idea. Their very na- 
 ture implies a perfect harmony of action and inter- 
 
 13 
 
action at all times. Apparent opposition and dis- 
 cord are due to a limited viewpoint. In a musical 
 theme two notes may be sounded together which, 
 separated from the whole of which they are a part, 
 would sound like a discord. Listening to the com- 
 plete melody, however, the discord resolves itself 
 into perfect harmony by a co-ordination of the 
 musical intervals. So it is in the greater melody 
 of life; hearing only a fragment of its theme we 
 think we have discovered a discord; but the limit- 
 ation is ours, the melody goes on. If you listen 
 patiently with an ear for the whole instead of the 
 parts, you will begin to sense the Divine Harmony 
 of Creation by which each thing in its place is 
 best. Such is the attitude of him who seeks to 
 live the Harmonial Life; who views the life of 
 which he is a part in that inclusive light which cor- 
 relates all its phases and expressions; and seeks to 
 manifest in the outer world of sense the Divine Idea 
 which is latent within him. 
 
 -u- 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "Each soul hath sprung from One Great Source, 
 
 The force of which doth guide 
 With perfect law its onward course, 
 
 Nor can it be denied 
 That as the ocean draws the dew 
 From highest mountain wood, 
 E'en so each soul, with hopeful view, 
 Is drawn toward Central Good," 
 
 John Willis Ring. 
 
 "God is the Cause, Nature is the Effect, and 
 Man is the ultimate; a thought of God clothed in 
 material vesture." 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 "There is no bar or wall in the soul where man, 
 the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, begins. 
 Cause and effect are two sides of one fact." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 -15- 
 
II. THE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE 
 
 There are many Laws, but one Principle (Cause 
 and Effect)." 
 
 relationship between life and its Source, 
 which is expressed by the duality of God 
 and the universe, Cause and effect, is re- 
 produced on a smaller scale by all the forms which 
 go to make up life. There is discernible in the 
 manifold workings of nature, a vast system of cor- 
 respondences, by which the whole is represented in 
 each of its parts; and the same laws which govern 
 the movements of the worlds in space, apply to the 
 earth itself, to man, and to every form of life that 
 has ever come under man's observation. The ex- 
 pression of the One Cause (God) in manifest life, 
 is always dual in its nature. Light and dark, heat 
 and cold, fire and water, man and woman, God 
 and nature, are all expressions of this one principle 
 of duality or cause and effect. The analogies and 
 correspondences they lead to are innumerable, and 
 have given rise to so many laws of being, that the 
 student who is not constantly mindful of their one 
 underlying principle, is very likely to become con- 
 fused. Realizing the first Fundamental statement 
 that "There are many Effects, but one Cause 
 (God)," the student will then be ready to add the 
 second statement, that "There are many Laws, 
 but one Principle (Cause and Effect)": and how- 
 ever diversified the manifestations of this principle 
 may be, he will discover the unity in their diversity, 
 and be able to comprehend their significance. 
 Furthermore, from the viewpoint of principle, these 
 
 16 
 
dualities will be transformed. Humanity has long 
 attempted to draw a line which would separate 
 them, to divide one from the other. The student of 
 the Harmonial Life will hesitate to draw a line 
 "where God does not," and will be more likely to 
 surround them with the form which nature uses 
 so lavishly, the circle, not to separate but to 
 combine all apparent opposites. Seen separately 
 they are antagonistic ; an apparent contention divides 
 them. Seen harmonially, as the dual manifestation 
 of the One Cause, they are transformed into unity 
 by the introduction of the third element which com- 
 bines them into one. It will be observed that in 
 the operations of natural law a third element 
 always creeps in between each of the dualities; an 
 element which is neither the one nor the other, yet 
 partakes of the elements of both; a unifying, com- 
 bining element, which forms the trinity, and by 
 adding a third to the two makes one of the three. 
 This operation, having its basis in nature, is the 
 pattern from which all religious trinities are evolved ; 
 and points the lesson they all teach. Between light 
 and dark comes twilight; between heat and cold, 
 moderation; between man's idea of heaven and 
 hell, purgatory; between fire and water, steam; 
 between positive and negative a neutral condition; 
 between man and woman that which partakes of 
 both, yet is neither, which unites rather than sep- 
 arates them, the child; between all extremes, the 
 means. So between spirit and matter there enters 
 the third element which is neither the one nor the 
 other, but unites both, the tremendous power of 
 mind which alone can conceive a relationship in 
 
 17 
 
place of apparent separateness. There is yet the 
 significant probability growing nearer actual ac- 
 complishment every day, that physical science will 
 demonstrate the unity of spirit and matter by show- 
 ing that both have an origin in mind. In re- 
 ligious study, by which Spirit and God are used 
 synonymously, this thought is paralleled by the 
 appelation given Deity by the Founder of The 
 Harmonial Philosophy, Andrew Jackson Davis, 
 who designated Deity interchangeably by the terms 
 Spirit and The Great Positive Mind. Scientists 
 now claim to have isolated the electron and de- 
 clare it to be the smallest unit of matter; but quite 
 as many of them declare it to be a unit of mind, 
 thereby verging on the metaphysical idea that the 
 universe is mental, and that matter is the combina- 
 tion of mind units in motion. As to what unites 
 these units, science is silent, or resorts to the vague 
 hazard that the uniting force is ether. According to 
 The Harmonial Philosophy, this force is spirit; 
 and such it will probably prove to be. 
 
 Between God and nature the third element to 
 enter is man; not to separate them, but to point 
 their unity in Principle. "God is the Cause, Na- 
 ture is the Effect, and Man the Ultimate." He 
 stands as the means between the realms of matter 
 and spirit; the epitome of all below him, the 
 prophecy of that above. His feet are grounded in 
 the earth, from which he has evolved a body; his 
 head reaches up to the heavens, which symbolize 
 the Source of his spirit. In him are embodied both 
 elements, material and spiritual. In the past he 
 has imagined an opposition between the two. He, 
 
 18 
 
himself, has struggled between two forces which 
 seemed to contend within him; he has been swayed 
 first by one and then the other. In his mind the 
 distance between the two has widened into a broad 
 chasm to entrap the unwary. But as man himself 
 has given rise to this contention, so he must ulti- 
 mately replace it with the harmonial conception of 
 their unity. So long as his own world of being is 
 divided against itself, like the kingdom which could 
 not stand, just so long will he see the reflection of 
 this inward contention manifested in the world 
 about him. "As within, so without." Mind is the 
 great power which will arouse in man an under- 
 standing of the duality of spirit and matter; and 
 when this has been done, man will discover that he 
 himself is the connecting link between God and 
 nature. But the action of mind is dual like all 
 else; and while its influence upon human life is 
 a tremendous power for good when used to that 
 end, it is an equally potent force for evil. Mind 
 is creative in its tendency; but it will create unde- 
 sirable as well as desirable conditions. It will re- 
 spond to a limited, restrictive thought as well as it 
 will to an inclusive, harmonial thought. If influ- 
 enced by the belief of an interior contention with- 
 in himself, man sees similar contentions between 
 exterior dualities, then inevitably his mind will 
 create such contentions. From the inclusive view- 
 point of The Harmonial Life, these contentions 
 have no absolute existence. They exist only rela- 
 tively or temporarily, and are the result of inhar- 
 monious thinking. They exist in the same way 
 that the discord referred to in chapter one exists. 
 
 jn 
 
They are very real and tangible, but their exist- 
 ence is dependent upon the limitations of the indi- 
 viduals to whom they appear. When such limita- 
 tions are overcome by spiritual evolution, these 
 contentions will cease to exist as such, and will 
 become co-operative in the expression of the One 
 Cause. Even human limitations have no real or 
 permanent existence, any more than a child may 
 be said to have a real or permanent existence. The 
 child will evolve into a man and the adult will 
 evolve to the point where his body ceases to serve 
 him, and he will become intangible to physical 
 senses. The real child, if we refer not to his 
 body, but to the spirit within, which is akin to 
 God, will never cease to exist; but will continue 
 to evolve into constantly greater realizations of the 
 divine idea he represents. 
 
 All things point to the truthfulness of this philoso- 
 phy, and its ideas will stand the test of applica- 
 tion and usage, as has already been abundantly 
 demonstrated, and will be more universally recog- 
 nized as man evolves to the point of receptivity. 
 "The lips of wisdom are sealed excepting to the 
 ears of understanding." If the idea of conten- 
 tion which man has so long cherished, were actual- 
 ly true we would expect the members to remain 
 permanent, invariable, absolute; as all real and 
 perfect things are: but all experience contradicts 
 such a belief. These dualities constantly change, 
 according to the perception- and development of 
 humanity. Our ideas of good and bad have under- 
 gone many and progressive changes. Human ideas 
 of right and wrong are becoming more and more 
 
 20- 
 
inclusive, and less and less distinct as humanity 
 approaches a more complete understanding of the 
 law of compensation which includes them both. 
 We are discovering that light and dark are rela- 
 tive and appear as one or the other to us, because 
 of the manner in which the optic nerve responds 
 to vibration. Sound and silence merge indefinitely 
 into each other, dependent upon the receptivity 
 of vibrations through the ear. Science has learned 
 that man and woman each possesses qualities and 
 attributes of both. So one by one we leave the old 
 conceptions behind us as we traverse the cycle of 
 progress. With the involution of spirit into matter, 
 an unconscious union with God was displaced by 
 apparent separateness from God ("the fall of 
 man" or involution into matter). This in turn, to 
 complete the cycle of progress, must be displaced 
 by the evolution of a conscious union with God; 
 when man shall have learned to express consciously 
 the unity with the One Cause, which has always 
 existed but not as a part of human consciousness. 
 Such is the mission of life. 
 
 21- 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "Reasoning from Cause to Effect, is the only 
 safe guide to Truth ; and then analogy and associa- 
 tion may follow, as carrying direct evidence to the 
 mind of that which is beyond the reach of the 
 senses. Exterior effects are ever the signs of inte- 
 rior causes. Principles are the progenitors of 
 manifestations." 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 "There is never a broken link in the chain, 
 
 And never a careless flaw, 
 For cause and effect, and loss and gain, 
 Are true to a changeless law." 
 
 Elizabeth Doten. 
 
 "Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and 
 fruit, cannot be severed, for the effect already 
 blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, 
 the fruit in the seed." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 "There is but one law for all; namely, that law 
 which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the 
 law of humanity, justice, equity." 
 
 Burke. 
 
 -22 
 
III. THE LAW IN ACTION 
 
 "There, are many States of Consciousness, but 
 one Life (Progression)." 
 
 CONDITION which probably contributes 
 more to the confusion of students than any 
 other one thing is that of the many paradoxes 
 they encounter. On every side they see the ap- 
 pearance of inharmony, of injustice, of evil. This 
 in itself is sufficient to shake their faith ofttimes; and 
 when there is added to the appearance of these 
 things the many and varied explanations (?) 
 which contradict each other and do not explain 
 at all, it is small wonder that students often feel 
 inclined to retreat from their position as truth 
 seekers, and try to be content with that which has 
 failed to satisfy them. But they cannot long re- 
 main thus, for the imperative law of all life is 
 progression; and once we have taken a step for- 
 ward, or started to do so, we cannot recede from 
 our position. So to all who seek truth there is 
 this to be said: that while they may not find all 
 truth, they will find, if they persist in their aspira- 
 tion for it, such an aspect as will meet their need. 
 Being infinite, truth can never be circumscribed; it 
 requires infinite time and infinite development for 
 its full apprehension. But so universally does the 
 Law apply that "it divides severally to every man 
 as he will," and each receives such a phase of it 
 as his needs require and as his consciousness can 
 grasp. 
 
 The observing mind will soon discover, in its 
 search for understanding, that all growth is from 
 
within outward; from involution toward evolution. 
 It comes not by accretion or impression, but by 
 unfoldment and expression. So it is with man. 
 It is by contact with the outer world that he grows; 
 yet his growth is not from the outer world, but to- 
 ward it or in it. The whole process is an elab- 
 orate system of correspondences whose principle is 
 unseen and whose operation is as yet largely un- 
 observed. Thus the confusion and disturbance 
 which seem so evident, are explainable as being 
 the operation of laws we do not wholly understand. 
 
 We may, however, gain such an understanding, 
 and such is our ultimate destiny. As the apex of 
 material creation, man is a repository of the com- 
 bined possibilities of all other forms of life car- 
 ried to their ultimates. "He is a thought of God 
 clothed in material vesture." He is intimately re- 
 lated to all that is and is essentially God-like and 
 perfect by reason of his Divine Source. 
 
 How then can we reconcile his perfection with 
 appearances? Like all truth the answer to this 
 question is simple. Perfection is an absolute con- 
 dition; a changeless aspect of the Infinite. Appear- 
 ances, contrariwise, are relative conditions; the 
 manifestation of the Infinite in finite form. The 
 one may be described as complete, the other as 
 partial. The one refers to conception, the other 
 to expression. Appearances are no less perfect 
 than perfection itself, but seem so because they are 
 seen, not in their entirety, but in part. Perfection 
 does not exist in point of time, but transcends time, 
 hence exists in the present tense or in eternality. Ap- 
 pearances are dependent upon time for their per- 
 
ception, hence "do not exist"; or to state it more 
 clearly, they exist only partially and require the 
 future for fulfilment; the statement that "they are" 
 requires the modification "in the process of be- 
 coming." 
 
 So the great eternal paradox of existence is pre- 
 sented, by which everything seems to be two things, 
 perfection and imperfection, good and evil, com- 
 plete and partial; yet all these are unified and re- 
 conciled when we consider them harmonially. The 
 simple truth of their existence is this: that in actual- 
 ity or God-consciousness all things are perfect, but 
 that in our consciousness of them they are not. A 
 crude illustration of this is afforded by an ant hill. 
 If our viewpoint were very limited so that we could 
 see only a small section of the surface, the move- 
 ments of the hurrying little creatures would seem 
 to us absolutely erratic and disorderly; we would 
 be unable to trace any semblance of plan or pur- 
 pose in their busy life. But if our vision were 
 gradually enlarged until it took in a view of the 
 whole hill, could include the surrounding country 
 and penetrate beneath the surface to the innumer- 
 able galleries and passages and storehouses, our 
 idea of the movements of the colonies would under- 
 go a wonderful change as the orderliness of the 
 whole became evident. So to us the affairs of 
 our lives seen in the narrowed perspective of our 
 own individual development, seem very erratic until 
 gradually we include in consciousness more and 
 more of their plan and purpose. 
 
 By degrees we perceive the purpose of life; 
 which is that we may express in the material world 
 
the perfection which is ours and which we are in 
 spirit. Matter is only spirit formed and the purpose 
 underlying the division of substance into spirit and 
 matter, or force and form, was that man might ex- 
 press consciously the perfection which he already 
 possessed unconsciously; that he might learn, 
 through evolution and the appearance of separate- 
 ness, the at-one-ment with God which has always 
 existed. The prime purpose of life is a progres- 
 sive realization by man of his inherent divinity. In 
 this evolutionary process by which man achieves 
 a conscious unity with his Source many varying 
 degrees of development are undergone. He must 
 run the whole gamut of experience until he shall 
 have completely evolved his involved possibilities. 
 This necessity has given rise to the many different 
 conditions of life which, according to our individ- 
 ual development, we designate as good or bad, 
 high or low, just or unjust. So it has come about 
 that a thing may seem good to one and evil to an- 
 other according to whether or not he has included 
 it in experience and learned the helpful lesson it 
 -contains. If he has not thus established a cor- 
 respondence to it, he is likely to think it wholly 
 <evil; if he has met and mastered the lesson it af- 
 fords, his attitude is likely to be more considerate. 
 And since, though alike in purpose and generalities, 
 the paths trod by us all vary considerably in detail 
 and order of events, no two of us are at exactly 
 the same point in evolution. So we view appear- 
 ances in different lights and with different degrees 
 of understanding or comprehension. Comprehen- 
 sion is the measure of consciousness; consciousness 
 
in turn is the evolution by degrees of the infinite 
 involved nature and power of the real or God-self. 
 We comprehend and appreciate only as much about 
 ourselves and about things as we have awakened to 
 consciousness, through experience. 
 
 In essence or in truth all things partake alike 
 of the Divine Source, differing not in quality but in 
 degree; and so essentially all things are good, all 
 things just and equable. In point of Tact or ap- 
 pearance, however, this is not so; and the great 
 problem which each can solve alone for himself, 
 and which each must solve ultimately, is the recon- 
 ciliation of appearances with principle or the real- 
 ization that no enmity or discrepancy exists between 
 them but that each has its proper and appointed 
 place in the great stupendous Whole. 
 
 The nearer we can attain to the position of the 
 Harmonial Thinker, who "thinks from the immut- 
 able Principle inherent," the easier and readier 
 will be the solution. For while facts or appear- 
 ances are the effects of which trutn is the Cause, 
 truth exists as a principle, independent of facts; 
 whereas the latter are dependent upon principle, 
 and vary according to our perception and accept- 
 ance of them. To think harmonially and to live 
 the harmonial life of adjustment to both principle 
 and appearance, is to be consciously that which 
 in truth we are eternally; to awaken upon the harp 
 of the senses, whose strings are our human emo- 
 tions, the perfect melody of our being; to mirror 
 within our own souls the harmony which finds 
 visual expression in nature; to sum up in con- 
 scious unity the manifold diversities of life. The 
 
 27 
 
Harmonial life is one of conscious, knowing co- 
 operation with the perfect plan, of reverence to 
 God through service to His creatures, and of at- 
 tuning the human will to the Divine Will; it is the 
 philosophy of having our own way by making our 
 way God's Way. 
 
 ts 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "The one remains, the many change and pass; 
 Heaven's light forever shines ; earth's shadows fly." 
 
 Percy Bysshc Shelley. 
 
 'The law of progress is imperious. The germs 
 of vegetation first move into life; then they grow 
 upward; then they outwardly unfold. So is the 
 whole nature of man." 
 
 Andre* Jackson Davis. 
 
 "Man's life is a progress, not a station. All 
 our progress is an unfolding, like a bud. 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 "Progress is the law of life, man is not man 
 as yet." 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 "Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing 
 
 purpose runs, 
 
 And the thoughts of men are widened with Ac 
 progress of the suns." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
IV. THE VALUE OF SERVICE 
 
 "There are many Planes of Life, but one 
 World (Service): 9 
 
 RE are many gradations to life as it ex- 
 presses on the physical plane through the 
 Four Kingdoms; and the study and classi- 
 fication of these is the work of the natural scientist. 
 That there are many other planes of life, beside 
 the physical plane in which many of us live most 
 of the time, is equally true; and each of these 
 different planes is susceptible to as many different 
 divisions as is the physical or "natural" world. The 
 study and classification of these is the work of the 
 occult scientist. The comprehension of them and 
 a familiarity with the many terms used to describe 
 them, constitute the technique of occult scince. But 
 the vast majority of us neither are nor wish to be 
 scientists, either natural or occult. Scientists are 
 necessary and valuable members of society; but a 
 society composed solely of scientists would be quite 
 as dreary as one whose members were all shoe- 
 makers, or blacksmiths, or poets. We do not all 
 want to be the same thing, nor was it, evidently, 
 intended that we should be. We are no more 
 alike and no less so, than our bodies are alike. 
 In the aggregate we are very similar; in particular 
 we are very different. Each individual expresses 
 a Divine idea which is absolutely distinct from 
 every other. No two persons have exactly the 
 same thoughts, emotions, talents, or development; 
 and yet while we are all so different in expression, 
 we are wonderfully alike in, and united by, one 
 
 30 
 
thing. The purpose of all life is progression; and 
 every living thing on every plane of life is a factor 
 in the great problem of existence. 
 
 The great illusion of the past has been that of 
 separateness : the idea that each must live for him- 
 self alone. We prize our individuality more than 
 anything else in life. None of us, however poor 
 his lot, would exchange places with the richest 
 man in the land, because of that precious posses- 
 sion vouchsafed us by our Creator, individuality, 
 that something within us which is different from 
 every other individual and yet is akin to God. In 
 our unity with the Father we are all made one, 
 and the more completely we express our oneness 
 with Him, the more do we find ourselves related 
 to all else that lives. 
 
 Our individuality is like that of an island in the 
 ocean. The whole surface of the earth is a series 
 of islands in a tremendous Sea. Each island is 
 distinct in itself, separated by the water between it 
 and its neighbors. Each has its inhabitants, who 
 differ from each other in habits, customs, ideals; 
 and yet everyone knows the great truth which none 
 of us thinks about, that down under the surface 
 of the water, no matter how deep it may be, all of 
 the islands are joined into one great sphere. So it 
 is with wonderful, struggling, aspiring humanity. 
 All are striving for their ideals; they prize their 
 separateness from others and take a lonesome path 
 toward God; but when all the non-essentials, the 
 differences, that after all amount to very little, are 
 pushed aside and man removes the veil of limita- 
 tion from his eyes, he will see what all along he has 
 
 31 
 
been sub-consciouslly aware of, that all are one. 
 
 So while it is possible for us to attain the 
 knowledge which will make us occult scientists, 
 after a fashion, the demand for expression of that 
 Divine urge within, which we feel so strongly at 
 times, impels us to be something else; to be, in 
 short, that which we are destined in our fullness of 
 development, to be. It is a wonderful inspiration 
 to feel, beating, surging, clamoring for expression 
 beneath the humble thing we seem to be, That 
 Which We Are. To know that the great Power 
 which gave us being may be safely depended upon 
 to lead us through the maze of existence, so that 
 we are always just where we should be, and, if 
 our desire for growth be great enough, and our 
 trust secure enough, exactly where we want, for 
 the time, to be. But we are here for a purpose 
 and are only content so long as we feel that pur- 
 pose being fulfilled; the progress of our develop- 
 ment toward self-mastery, toward the point when 
 we shall, by having mastered ourselves, be master 
 of all things. As we near by infinite degrees that 
 grand ultimate of the spirit, the truth is borne in 
 upon our understanding that to master all is to 
 serve all: that "there is nothing that is evil except 
 because a man has not mastery over it; and there 
 is no good thing that is not evil if it have mastery 
 over a man .... but all are good so soon as they 
 are brought into subjection" (Carpenter). The 
 Teachers of all time have brought us no more 
 sublime philosophy than that of service. 
 
 About two thousand years ago a humble Teach- 
 er walked the shores of Galilee, with a little group 
 
of men who aspired to teach the truth. "And they 
 came to Capernaum: and when he was in the 
 house he asked them, What were ye reasoning on 
 the way? But they held their peace: for they had 
 disputed one with another on the way, who was 
 the greatest. And he sat down, and called the 
 twelve; and he saith unto them, If any man would 
 be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all. 
 And he took a little child, and set him in the midst 
 of them; and taking him in his arms, he said unto 
 them: Whosoever shall receive one of such little 
 children in my name, receiveth me, and whosoever 
 receiveth me, receiveth not me, but him that 
 sent me." 
 
 By one common purpose, progression, all life 
 is united; and by service all planes of life become 
 one world. Thus is the complex philosophy of the 
 occult scientists, with their laborious technique of 
 planes and bodies and states of consciousness, ef- 
 fects and laws, made simple and comprehensible, 
 so that "he who runs may read." 
 
 Likewise the plane of the senses is united with 
 other planes of life which appear less tangible to 
 us. As the veil of sense between them grows 
 thinner we are fast learning that individuals cannot 
 be accurately described as living and dead accord- 
 ing to the plane of life in which they function. In 
 this New Age of Spiritual Freedom, the so-called 
 dead must be reckoned with. Humanity can no 
 longer speak of the world of the living and the 
 world of the dead, for the two worlds have merged 
 into one, and the "dead" have ceased to be. There 
 is only one world, that of the living; and the 
 
 33 
 
true indication of being really alive in this wonder- 
 ful New Age, is that of serving others. It is in 
 the joy of service that man most truly lives and 
 most truly expresses his Divine nature. It is those 
 who refuse to serve, who limit the channels of their 
 lives to self-interest, that are "dead." Men draw 
 within themselves until their lives, like their bodies, 
 become shrivelled and twisted and cramped in the 
 process. If man would find happiness it must be 
 by living largely, generously, not for himself alone, 
 but for others. He must serve, not merely for 
 possible reward to himself, but for the pure joy of 
 having a place of usefulness in the world and fill- 
 ing it well. In all the broad fields of study opened 
 up by man's growing consciousness of continued 
 life, no new aspect of truth stands out with greater 
 emphasis, and perhaps none is less heeded, 
 than this: that he most truly fulfills his destiny 
 and most truly lives who serves; and this is a 
 truth that applies not alone to the physical, the 
 mental, and astral "worlds," but to all that live 
 everywhere. 
 
 Learn, if you can make the knowledge serve you 
 well, the evidence for reincarnation and for con- 
 tinued existence; study the technique of conscious- 
 ness, planes and auras; add to your vocabulary the 
 formidable list of mystical names which have come 
 to us out of the East; but do not make the sad 
 mistake of believing they will lead you one step 
 upward on the path of attainment, if nearby hum- 
 ble opportunities to serve remain unheeded. If 
 the laws which sound so interesting when couched 
 in unfamiliar terms are true, as very many of 
 
 34 
 
them are, then you may rest assured that you 
 need not seek your opportunities for growth afar. 
 They lie always close at hand, drawn to you by 
 your own soul's need. In love they have been at- 
 tracted to you from out the great Central Heart 
 of the universe; in love accept them; learn their 
 hidden lesson. If you do not like your environ- 
 ment, your circumstances, the duties which crowd 
 your busy days ; if you feel yourself called to higher 
 things; then first discover what in you has brought 
 them so near, what lesson undiscovered makes 
 them stay, and in patient service make them step- 
 ping stones to the greater things you crave. 
 
 35 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "If we would worship God or Good 
 
 Devotedly through life, 
 Then we must serve the brotherhood 
 
 And cheer man 'mid the strife. 
 
 My creed for life shall be some deed 
 
 To help man on his way; 
 I serve the best to fill some need 
 
 And brighter make the day. 
 
 I'll give my best with willing trust, 
 
 The best will come to me, 
 For Nature's laws are sure and just; 
 
 The Truth shall make all free." 
 
 John Willis Ring. 
 
 "Service is love in action." 
 
 Gup Bogarl. 
 
 "No man is born into the world whose work is 
 not bom with him." 
 
 James Russell Lowell. 
 
V. UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD 
 
 "There are many Races, but one Brotherhood 
 (Humanity)." 
 
 more inclusive we become in our atti- 
 tude toward life, the more clearly do we 
 see the wonderful ties that bind us insepar- 
 ably together as units of the great Brotherhood of 
 Humanity. All hatred, jealousy and prejudice, 
 the grim trinity, are transmuted by understand- 
 ing and a recognition of the Divine idea which 
 each race of the brotherhood represents. Again 
 the beautiful symbol of the rainbow and its seven 
 colors is applicable. In the light of the Harmonial 
 Philosophy the dread "race problem" is trans- 
 formed. We see humanity as the inclusive white 
 light which includes all the color-rays; and yet 
 because we see the unity of these rays, we are no 
 less conscious or appreciative of the separate colors. 
 This simply analogy will wonderfully help the stu- 
 dent to see the real nature of the race problem 
 and the harmonial solution for it. 
 
 So far, almost all discussion of the relation of 
 the different races to each other, has been based 
 upon the idea of a supposititious superiority or in- 
 feriority existing between them. We, being mem- 
 bers of the Caucasian race, have been almost unan- 
 imous in our firm belief that we stand vastly higher 
 in the scheme of evolution and development than 
 any of the other races. There are certain lines of 
 progress in which we undoubtedly excel; but there 
 is an equal certainty that other races possess qual- 
 ities which we have developed very little. Each 
 
 17- 
 
of us as an individual is likely to have difficulty in 
 clearly discerning his own status of development. 
 We are too close to ourselves to see our strong 
 points and our weaknesses in their true relation. 
 Experience indicates that this statement is equally 
 true of races, as a general thing. It is not easy for 
 us to become so detached from our environment of 
 custom, tradition and usage, to see ourselves as 
 "ithers see us." Therefore the analogy of color 
 is resorted to as an aid in viewing ourselves from the 
 more nearly impersonal viewpoint. 
 
 It would be difficult for us logically to defend 
 the position that any of the colors in the rainbow is 
 superior to the others. Our scientific study of color 
 too forcibly impresses us with the fact that all are 
 component parts of one form of light containing 
 them. We may more clearly see the value of one 
 color than another; we may have a partiality for 
 a particular hue; but reason tells us that even 
 though the others do not make the same appeal to 
 our appreciation, they are of equal importance in 
 nature's plan, since she has given each an equal 
 place in the composition of light. Even in objec- 
 tive nature, while she seems partial to certain colors 
 in the vegetable kingdom, these are subordinated 
 in the mineral or animal worlds to others which are 
 given prominence, so that a balance is maintained. 
 In a like manner the impersonal attitude toward 
 human races adjudges them as relatively of equal 
 importance. 
 
 Races are related to each other much as individ- 
 uals are. As human beings we are all equal in 
 possibilities, and in only a slightly more limited 
 
 -38- 
 
sense, in opportunity; yet no two of us develop 
 along the same lines or in the same way. Some of 
 us appear to have attained^ a greater development 
 than others, but we are not for thar reason neces- 
 sarily composed of finer clay. The Divine idea 
 which seeks expression through any one individual, 
 is equal in quality to that which attempts to mani- 
 fest through every other, for all have a common 
 Source. One may more perfectly express that 
 which he represents; but the idea is no less per- 
 fect in him even if it is yet dormant. 
 
 We must all, perforce, climb upward to reach 
 the summit of attainment. Because one ascends 
 more slowly than another, or by a different route, 
 there is no less truly one end in view, and ulti- 
 mately all will attain it. If we have taken a step 
 in advance of some of our fellow-travellers, let us 
 feel no superiority over those below us. We, too, 
 have labored there, and the path still stretches above 
 us all. Those now below may in time reach and 
 pass us. There are periods of slow and of rapid 
 growth in the life of all things. Races do not vio- 
 late this universal law. Egypt and Rome once led 
 the world; but the Occident has been making rapid 
 strides and the balance has shifted. We cannot 
 say it will not shift again. 
 
 The race problem is not a natural problem, but 
 an artificial one, created by a misunderstanding of 
 our mutual relations as individuals and races. It 
 is man's failure to accept this principle of equality 
 that has given rise to it. The idea of equality here 
 advocated should not be confused with the doc- 
 trine prevalent among certain groups of individuals, 
 
 39 
 
that races must inter-marry and mingle without 
 any differentiation in the social sense. Because the 
 rainbow colors are of equal beauty and value, is 
 no reason that we must mix them to prove their 
 equality. Nor is the opposite of this argument 
 necessarily inferred. The ideas of equality and 
 of inter-association are distinct in the problems they 
 involve. 
 
 In other forms of life than the human, distinct 
 types are the most prized, rather than those which 
 are "crossed." This is not necessarily due to any 
 difference in adjudged value of the types which 
 contribute to the "crossing" process, but to the 
 admiration inherent in man (perhaps with a sig- 
 nificance not yet discerned) for any living thing 
 which is true to type. So, perhaps, with a broad- 
 er, more inclusive understanding of an equality of 
 value among races, these will arrive at an inde- 
 pendence based in fraternity. Thus it may be that 
 we shall severally respect each other as races; that 
 we shall accord to each other the same rights we 
 claim for ourselves, and shall be able, with mutual 
 understanding and sympathy, to evolve the Divine 
 ideas we racially represent, without infringement 
 upon each other's rights or destiny. Let us be 
 true to the idea God intended us to express; let 
 us develop a sense of the fitness of things which 
 relies on nature as a guide. The rose does not 
 seek to be an herb; it sheds its perfume on the air, 
 grows into a thing of wonderful beauty and fra- 
 grance. The herb is not envious of the rose's beau- 
 ty, if its enthusiasm in its own growth be a good 
 indication. Its every energy is centered to develop 
 
the possibilities implanted in it by the law of its 
 being. It does well, that for which it is fitted; ulti- 
 mately it may save a human life. We do not se- 
 lect roses for medicine or herbs for perfume, yet 
 each contributes, in its own way, to human welfare 
 and happiness. Let us "to our own selves be true." 
 
 We must attain a self-respect which will remove 
 from our thoughts any tendency toward envy, on 
 the one hand, or prejudice on the other. When every 
 man, black, white, yellow, or red, : is so im- 
 pressed with the value of the Divine idea his race 
 represents, that he has no room for envy of the 
 others, and is so mindful of the value of the others 
 that he has no room for prejudices, the race prob- 
 lem will be solved and men will come to realize in 
 actuality, what is already true of them in reality, 
 that they are one brotherhood. 
 
 Each race is pre-eminent in some attainment; 
 none is without its strength or its weakness; each 
 represents some Divine idea of the Creator, just as 
 every individual does. If you are a black man, 
 rejoice in it and endeavor to exemplify through 
 your life the completeness of the wonderful idea 
 God is expressing through the black race. If you 
 are white, a member of the race which in the pres- 
 ent period of history, leads the civilized world, then 
 take care that you are worthy of that leadership. 
 The power which leadership affords, carries with 
 it the responsibility of its just and merciful use. It 
 implies an understanding, a sympathy and rever- 
 ence for those whom it leads, expressing through 
 humility rather than arrogance. It should be pa- 
 ternaJ and fraternal rather thari 
 
 -41 
 
There is a wonderful sense of independence, of 
 self-reliance, which comes with the knowledge of 
 inter-dependence, and reliance on a common Source ; 
 and that independence and self-reliance should be 
 the possession of every race, nation and individual. 
 This inspiring consciousness comes as a result of ad- 
 justment; the balance between the world of the 
 individual and the world of humanity, between all 
 people and all nations. It is the awakening of a 
 consciousness of the God within us, and its relation 
 to the same essence of Divinity in all else, by 
 which all things are transformed, united and exalt- 
 ed. Thus are the nations healed and thus is the 
 brotherhood of races exemplified. 
 
 -42- 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood." 
 
 /. Peter 2:17. 
 
 "Ye are all the leaves of one tree and the fruits 
 of one arbor." 
 
 Baha V//Q/I. 
 
 "It is good for us to think no grace or blessing 
 truly ours till we are aware that God has blessed 
 someone else with it through us." 
 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 "If we love one another, God abideth in us, and 
 his love is perfected in us. . . He that loveth not his 
 brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom 
 he hath not seen." 
 
 /. John 4:12,20. 
 
 "To come near to understanding the use of 
 materials is divine, and he that has never despised 
 a weaker or more ignorant than himself is nearest 
 to this." 
 
 Edward Carpenter. 
 
 "A mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men 
 one." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
 43 
 
VI. UNIVERSAL JUSTICE. 
 There are mam; Ideas, but one Ideal (Justice)." 
 
 ACH HUMAN SOUL represents a Divine 
 idea of God, working out into conscious ex- 
 pression its latent divinity ; expressing by de- 
 grees in the external world the fullness of that 
 which is already existent in the inner world. All 
 souls are alike in this, that their origin is uncon- 
 scious union with a common Source, and that their 
 ultimate destiny is conscious union with that same 
 Source; but the infinite .details by which this evo- 
 lution from unconsciousness to consciousness is at- 
 tained, varies with each individual. 
 
 In surveying this condition from the viewpoint 
 of the manifest, we see much of what appears to 
 be injustice, imperfection, and violation of law, 
 because then we are viewing things relatively. From 
 the viewpoint of principle (cause and effect) , it be- 
 comes clear to us that injustice, imperfection, and 
 the violation of the law are only appearances, im- 
 pressing us as they do because of our limited un- 
 derstanding. They exist in the same sense that we 
 might say imperfections exist in a masterpiece of 
 sculpture during the process of its completion. It 
 will express perfection when it is complete, and it 
 contains that perfection inherently all during the 
 process. The mind of the artist conceives it per- 
 fect before his fingers touch the clay, and as he 
 labors day by day, to fashion his ideal in the ma- 
 terial he uses, he alone is able to see with the vision 
 of the Creator the ultimately perfect thing he has 
 conceived. To all others it appears crude, imper- 
 
feet, and possibly, seems to violate the laws of 
 symmetry. 
 
 So with humanity and all life; it has been con- 
 ceived in perfection; every element that composes 
 it is of itself perfect material, which is being 
 molded to express outwardly the Divine idea, 
 which in the inward sight of the Creator, already 
 exists. During the manifold stages by which the 
 ideas of the Creator gradually find expression in 
 form, the beholder, seeing the form and not the 
 spirit, pronounces it imperfect. The only imper- 
 fection that really exists is in the mind of the 
 ignorant beholder. 
 
 The beholder thinks through the ages without 
 the spiritual vision which alone can see the per- 
 fection of God's works. Man has long believed 
 himself to be imperfect and abused, thrust into life 
 without his volition, compelled to work out severe 
 problems against his will, suffering unhappiness, ill- 
 ness and defeat, and leaving life with less chance 
 of happiness than he possessed when he entered it. 
 From this viewpoint he has failed to understand 
 the Divine plan; he seems to believe that God has 
 deliberately created us apart from Himself, and 
 has thrust us, without purpose, into life, whereas in 
 reality we are created akin to God, are parts of 
 His being, so that it is really He, through us, who 
 has elected to undergo the experience of incarna- 
 tion, for the working out of His purpose. Not 
 realizing this, and seeing apparent injustice in 
 everything about him, man has sought to correct 
 this condition by making laws of his own, in an ef- 
 fort to satisfy his own sense of right or expediency. 
 
 45 
 
Then because even to his imperfect sense of right, 
 material justice has not proved adequate, he has 
 involved the idea of mercy, the naive confession 
 of his own inability to reconcile his own ideas of 
 law and of right. 
 
 Man, reasoning from effects, has conceived God 
 to be like himself, with merely magnified powers 
 and attributes; rather than thinking of himself as 
 being like God, but incompletely expressing his 
 Godhood. This erroneous concept has led to cer- 
 tain ideas which have become so rooted in man's 
 consciousness, that it has taken ages for him to 
 evolve out of them. One of these is that justice is 
 incomplete in itself and must be supplemented by 
 what man calls mercy. This is man's misconcep- 
 tion of the Divine urge within him to overcome the 
 limitations he has surrounded himself with, and 
 declaring the existence of a higher law than human 
 justice. But the law which is higher than justice, 
 is the same law, expressing absolutely instead of 
 relatively. Mercy is the imperfect attempt of man 
 to reconcile his execution of justice with what his 
 inner nature tells him it should be. Human justice 
 is always approximate rather than absolute; and 
 mercy is its antithesis, the attempt of man to right 
 what he knows to be wrong. The limitations of 
 vision and understanding which characterize most 
 of humanity, at the present time, causes him to 
 reason more from effect than principle. His dis- 
 pensations of justice are similarly inspired, not 
 usually by penetration to the underlying interior 
 causes of the deed he considers wrong, but in ac- 
 cordance with his appraisal of the manifest situa- 
 
tion. In human judgment the innocent are often 
 punished for the guilty, and we know that some- 
 times violation of the law is not wrong in any 
 other sense than that it conflicts with an arbitrary 
 code of conduct, more or less generally accepted 
 by man. So between absolute justice as an aspect 
 of Deity, and approximate justice, as conceived 
 and executed by man, a wide gap intervenes, les- 
 sening in width as human development approaches 
 the expression of its latent Divinity. 
 
 A great writer has said "Earthly power doth 
 then show likest God's, when mercy seasons jus- 
 tice,'* which is true in principle, but not in state- 
 ment. God's justice being perfect, needs no ad- 
 justment; it is both merciful and just. There can 
 be no mercy so great as the perfect dispensation of 
 justice. The purpose of life, which is to know 
 and express our union with God, is attained through 
 experience. We know God through His laws. 
 Only by the perfect action of those laws can we 
 know Him rightly or comprehend accurately our 
 relationship with Him. Anything less than all 
 good is partial evil. If it were possible, temporar- 
 ily, to set aside law (which it is not) in favor of 
 "mercy" to some individual, such an action would 
 have to be atoned for ultimately, and so it would 
 not be mercy at all. 
 
 Nor is this attitude harsh or cruel; rather is it 
 infinitely tender and loving; it substitutes for our 
 pitiable make-shift of justice, never accurate and 
 only occasionally and imperfectly eked out by our 
 idea of mercy, the inspiring rule of Divine law. 
 Nothing can approach in justice, in mercy, in 
 
 47 
 
loving kindness, the execution of the Ideal Justice, 
 for in its working all things combine to express the 
 greatest good for each and all. This law is not 
 a merciless one, but it resents any violation of its 
 absolute mercy. If we do not learn of its work- 
 ings harmoniously, or in any manner seek to violate 
 it, we at once bring its adverse action upon our- 
 selves. And even though it cause us pain, it is 
 much better so than that we fail in learning the 
 law of our being. 
 
 So, just as all effects merge into one cause, as 
 all laws merge into one principle, as all states of 
 consciousness merge into one life, and all planes of 
 life into one world, do all of the ideas we individ- 
 ually represent and express, merge into and give 
 evidence of, one ideal, Justice. 
 
 -48- 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 " Divine Mind is the immortal law of justice." 
 
 Mary Balder Eddy. 
 
 "The path of the just is as the dawning light 
 that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
 
 Pro. 4:18. 
 
 "More eternal, more fundamental than your suf- 
 fering is the love, the justice, the thoughtfulness of 
 God. Let your soul rest on them and be at peace." 
 
 Phillips Brooks. 
 
 "Justice is a germ from which grows the flower, 
 Wisdom; and the fruit is Goodness." 
 
 John Willis Ring. 
 
 "We are punished because our entire moral be- 
 ing, our mind no less than our character, is incapable 
 of living and acting except in justice." 
 
 Maeterlinck- 
 
 -49- 
 
VII. THE WAY OF REALITY. 
 
 "There are many Illusions, but one Reality 
 (At-one-ment)" 
 
 HIM who fails to see the absolute one- 
 ness of all things, there constantly arise many 
 questions which cause perplexity and lead to 
 innumerable misunderstandings and difficulties. It is 
 well (because it is natural) for each of us to prize 
 his individuality, that indescribable something that 
 distinguishes him from all other beings : and yet it is 
 a very poor sort of individuality whose pride is 
 based upon separateness from other expressions of 
 the First Cause. The Harmonial attitude toward 
 our individuality and its relation to the individuality 
 of others is this: that while all are distinct they are 
 not separate except in expression. We are both 
 many and one, but from different points of view; in 
 principle we are one, in manifestation many. Our 
 ultimate destiny, like our common Source, is one: 
 the means by which we evolve from Source to ulti- 
 mate are many and as varied as nature's forms, 
 through which they find expression. 
 
 Reasoning from Effects it is easily seen that 
 confusion may arise in the student's mind as he 
 gradually embraces in knowledge and experience an 
 expanding circle of consciousness, including con- 
 stantly greater and more numerous concepts of 
 life. The dim mysteries of the Past from whence 
 he seems to have emerged, the human eagerness to 
 unfold the mystic Future and "know" the des- 
 tiny of the soul, and the tremendous urge, which 
 seems little short of necessity, to solve the manifold 
 
 50 
 
problems of the great eternal Present, combine to 
 form a trinity whose magnitude is calculated to 
 weigh down the student seeking to solve these mys- 
 teries singly. He rightly feels that he has under- 
 taken a Herculean task whose completion he can- 
 not forecast; and from the point of view he allows 
 himself to assume this is true, and the task is even 
 greater and more difficult than he supposes. Small 
 wonder that many students of so-called advanced 
 thought become mentally deranged, to the dis- 
 couragement of other travellers on the Path of At- 
 tainment, who are dismayed to observe this evi- 
 dence of an unbalanced mind. The use of the 
 word "unbalanced" to describe the mental state 
 of those who are oppressed by the great problems 
 they have undertaken to solve, is literal. They are 
 actually lacking in equilibrium. True mental bal- 
 ance consists in a recognition of the unity of Cause 
 and Effect, of Principle and Laws; it necessitates 
 a clear conception of the unity in principle of all 
 these problems and effects and an equal acceptance 
 of the diversity of their expression. Who seeks to 
 sever these two elements, Cause and Effect, or 
 Spirit and Form, is the victim of the greatest of 
 illusions. "The harmonial thinker thinks from the 
 immutable principle inherent," as the Founder of 
 the Harmonial Philosophy, Andrew Jackson Davis, 
 has truly stated; but that is only half of the com- 
 plete truth. The harmonial thinker thinks from 
 principle, but that is not the end of his thinking, 
 and the thought is only fulfilled by the further 
 statement that he thinks toward the manifestation 
 of Principle in Laws, or of Spirit in Form. The 
 
 51 
 
use of the word "from" implies two extremes: in- 
 ception and expression; it necessitates the prag- 
 matic attitude that a thought does not justify itself 
 until it is "carried over" into tangibility. Thus the 
 harmonial thinker thinks from the immutable prin- 
 ciple toward the progressive manifestation of that 
 principle. To be harmonially balanced the student 
 must seek to attain the middle ground, to establish 
 himself at the pivotal point of balance and em- 
 brace within his mind's vision the two extremes of 
 the One Reality. 
 
 No one has ever succeeded in attaining this 
 equilibrium of himself alone. The problem is too 
 far-reaching to be disposed of so easily. The stu- 
 dent must think of himself, not only as a unit dis- 
 tinct and complete in itself, but likewise as a com- 
 ponent part of a greater unit, the One Reality, 
 in which all are merged. He can only solve 
 his perplexity and reduce diversity to unity by para- 
 doxically adding one more element to his conscious 
 thought. If he reasons from Effects he must in- 
 clude the Cause as well; if he reasons from Spirit 
 he must include Form; and his first step in embrac- 
 ing the One Reality is to learn that Cause precedes 
 Effect, that Spirit precedes Form, and Principle 
 Laws, precedes them in point of time, which 
 seem so necessary to finite understanding. Then it 
 will be that he shall ally himself first with the One 
 Cause, and second with the manifold Effects of 
 this Cause, not as separate factors in his reason- 
 ing process, but as the halves of one thing, the 
 One Reality which includes both. So it will be 
 seen that all success in understanding and thereby 
 
solving the problems of the world and overcoming 
 the illusions which are so deceptive to the unbal- 
 anced mind, consists in working toward that attain- 
 ment, not alone, but in unity with the Father of 
 Being, God, as Cause, and with Mother Nature, 
 Form or Effect. God the Cause, Nature the Ef- 
 fect, and man the ultimate, is the divine trinity by 
 which an understanding of the One Reality is 
 attained. 
 
 The old injunction "Man, know thyself,'* so 
 often cited to students, strikes a responsive chord 
 in every soul who seeks truth, let pessimists doubt 
 as they will. In regard to self-knowledge, as in 
 most other respects, human intent is basically good. 
 Men often shun self-knowledge, but for the rea- 
 son that the very little they have is a guilty sort 
 of possession. When man does not wish to know 
 himself it is because he not only has no knowledge 
 of his Real Self, but actually has failed to con- 
 ceive that it is worth while becoming acquainted 
 with. Human history is sufficient to indicate that 
 it is possible for man, even with good intent, tem- 
 porarily so far to miss the discovery of his true 
 nature as to imagine that the only "self" of him 
 that exists is the objective self which expresses, as 
 he thinks, so imperfectly. It is not strange then that 
 man has sought for inspiration from other sources 
 than Self. 
 
 In the age of man's development just closing, 
 this tendency to seek outwardly for an understand- 
 ing of life, may well prove to be the reason for 
 human intentness on unravelling the tangled threads 
 of the Past and trying to peer into the Future. 
 
 53 
 
Unaware of the rich legacy of wisdom lying dor- 
 mant within him, man, with commendable persist- 
 ence though faulty judgment, has sought for un- 
 derstanding from the exterior world alone. Since 
 this outer world is one of Effects rather than 
 Cause, the manifold expressions of Being have 
 more deeply impressed him than has the One Cause, 
 or Principle, in which all are united; in other 
 words, the incidents along the path of life have 
 engaged more of his attention than either the 
 Source or the goal; not that man has wished to be 
 thus diverted, but he has found the details more 
 easily discoverable (by reason of the outward di- 
 rection of his search) than the more fundamental 
 objects of inquiry. And even while allowing him- 
 self to be misled (with recurring intimations from 
 his unrecognized Real Self, that he has taken the 
 more difficult course) he has done so in the sublime 
 hope that ultimately he shall attain the object of 
 his search, understanding. And he will: but he 
 has adopted a method of reasoning from Effects 
 which is much slower and more fraught with un- 
 certainties than the more fundamental and truly 
 harmonial way of reasoning from the Cause. 
 
 By classifying and studying the laborious tech- 
 nique which sometimes serves to awaken memories 
 of the past and recall the steps by which we have 
 evolved through other fragments of existence, and 
 by boldly venturing into the maze of ignorant and 
 wilful deception which surrounds the investigation 
 of psychic phenomena, and a penetration of the 
 future state, man may achieve a consciousness 
 which will ultimately point him back to the Real 
 
Source of knowledge ; but such a course is compar- 
 able to the other alternative, as tracing the wind- 
 ing course of a spiral spring is to ascending per- 
 pendicularly through its center. There exists with- 
 in man at all times an at-one-ment with the First 
 Cause of Being. This thought has been sufficiently 
 explained in the preceding lessons of this volume 
 to need no further elaboration, and is axiomatic 
 in a consideration of Harmonial Philosophy. Of 
 this at-one-ment man is often unaware, which fact 
 in no wise lessens its reality, but may prevent its 
 harmonious manifestation. This awareness opens 
 to man possibilities of which he is as yet but dimly 
 conscious; it is the way of all knowledge, all pow- 
 er, all understanding, all truth. It is the "Way" 
 of which the Christ spoke when He said, "I am 
 the Way, the Truth and the Life.*' The charac- 
 ter of the Christ is a symbolical portrayal of the 
 Spirit in man which is at-one with God. Paul 
 asked of the Corinthians, "Know ye not that your 
 body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in 
 you?" This is the mystical I AM so often referred 
 to in advanced thought literature. Man may ac- 
 cept the Way and gain the truth and the life in 
 consequence, by becoming consciously at-one with 
 the Father as Christ said He was; or we may try 
 the many other "ways" which are so profusely 
 presented to truth-seekers, and through them ulti- 
 mately discover that all ways merge into the Way. 
 We may take the "straight and narrow way" of 
 at-one-ment, or more slowly achieve the same re- 
 sult by taking the circuitous, spiral, outward 
 course. Both lead upward. The spiral spring 
 
 55 
 
itself forms a perpendicular, defining or enclosing 
 the narrow space within. "Choose ye.'* 
 
 This lesson should define to the student's mind 
 the Harmonial attitude toward all of the advanced 
 cults and isms which are seeking to lead man to- 
 ward truth. They are as the many stars of the 
 heavens. Each one helps to prepare the soul for 
 the greater sunlight of truth which includes them 
 all, and by reason of which they are seen. They 
 are based, generally speaking, on Effects rather 
 than Cause, and so are more apt to mislead than 
 to guide the student, since their light is partial 
 rather than complete. All bear witness to truth 
 and they may seem to give evidence of truth, but 
 "true evidences come through the two inward 
 sources of wisdom, intuition and reflection" so 
 that whatever seems wrong or undesirable, the 
 many illusions, are made, in accordance with 
 immutable Principle, to lead at last, though by 
 devious ways, to the One Reality, At-one-ment. 
 "Seek first the kingdom of God (within) and all 
 these things shall be added unto you (you will 
 understand their one-ness)." 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "All is of God that is and is to be, 
 And God is good, let this suffice us still." 
 
 /. G. Whiiiitr. 
 
 "Those who dare to be truthful to inward sources 
 of knowledge will feel positive evidences of immor- 
 tality, and by such the manifestations of spiritual- 
 ism will not be sought as evidences.*' 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 " Nature and God and I as One, 
 Work in accord till work is done." 
 
 John Willis Ring. 
 
 "The things which are seen are temporal, but 
 the things which are not seen are eternal." 
 
 //. Cor. 4:18. 
 
 "He who can open the bud does it so simply. 
 
 He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs 
 through its veins. 
 
 At his breath the flower spreads its wings and 
 flutters in the wind. 
 
 Colors flush out like heart-longings, the perfume 
 betrays a sweet secret. 
 
 He who can open the bud does it so simply." 
 
 Rabindranath Tagore. 
 
 57 
 
VIII. FORM AND CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 "There are many Kingdoms, but one Source 
 (Divinity )." 
 
 intimate relationship that exists between 
 the one individual and the many, does not 
 stop there. Even as the members of hu- 
 manity are inseparably bound together by the law 
 of unity, so are they also related to all other forms 
 of life, and to all that is. The illusion of separate- 
 ness has not been overcome so long as we still are 
 lacking in a sense of our oneness with what we 
 term the lower forms of life. The principle which 
 animates the animal kingdom is no less divine than, 
 and is no different in essence from the vivifying 
 principle in man. The apparently Inanimate rock 
 beneath our feet is only seemingly lifeless; and is 
 pulsating with the prophecy of coming animation. 
 The vegetable and floral kingdoms express a life 
 that is intimately related to the vast mineral world 
 from which it has sprung, and to the animal world 
 toward which its evolution trends; and all these 
 different forms of life are but progressive steps in 
 the one grand scale of existence. In the harmony 
 of progress, each note sounds a clarion tone, and 
 represents a definite idea of the Divine Mind. In 
 man these notes are blended to form a perfect har- 
 mony whose tones are sounded separately by other 
 forms of life. Thus man is greater than the so- 
 called lower kingdoms only in that he expresses 
 more than they do, or expresses in unified form 
 what they express separately. 
 
 Man is the apex of a triangle of existence whose 
 
base is the mineral kingdom, and whose interme- 
 diary steps are formed by the vegetable and animal 
 kingdoms. He is as intimately related to them as 
 the figure implies, and exists as an objective entity, 
 by reason of the basis for his expression which 
 they have formed. The principles, laws, forces 
 and essences which they specifically represent, are 
 given combined or centralized expression in the 
 human organism. Physical man is a microcosmic 
 embodiment of all the varied elements which com- 
 pose the different kingdoms of nature. The bone 
 structure of every animal, the circulatory system 
 of plants, and the chemical properties of the min- 
 eral world are united, refined, and given new and 
 more beautiful expression in the human organism. 
 Every form of life that exists seems to have given 
 its choicest gifts to perfect the fleshly temple through 
 which the spirit of man evolves consciousness. Thus 
 man's only claim to physical superiority over the 
 rest of creation, is due to his greater inclusion; to 
 the fact that he expresses in one what they express 
 in many, that he unites in the whole-ness of one 
 form what elsewhere manifests partially through 
 many forms. 
 
 Thus man owes a fabulous debt to the lower 
 forms of life, and it is ill-befitting that he should 
 scoff at the steps by which he has climbed; the 
 fabric from which his wonderful garment of flesh 
 is fashioned. With an understanding of his inti- 
 mate relationship to other forms of life it is difficult 
 to conceive how he can entertain for them any other 
 feeling but that of deepest love and reverence; to 
 think that through their travail and suffering, their 
 
mute patience, and the inevitable tragedy which 
 characterizes life in the animal world particularly, 
 the forms beneath our feet are evolving, preparing, 
 and giving of their very selves, to fashion the bodies 
 we so often degrade and abuse. Strange indeed 
 that man should be ashamed of his body; that he 
 should seek to disguise and distort and insult it; 
 and stranger still that he can be moved by a de- 
 structive spirit such as no other form of nature need 
 acknowledge, to ruthlessly maim and blight the 
 humble life to which he owes so much. Small won- 
 der that he disclaims the passion which so poorly 
 becomes him, and seeks to shift his shame by sweep- 
 ing reference to his "animal" nature. 
 
 This same intimate relationship which exists be- 
 tween man and other expressions of nature on the 
 material plane of life, is also borne out upon the 
 spiritual plane of existence, and even as man is 
 supreme in the material world by reason of his in- 
 clusion, so, too, is he the dominant power in the 
 spiritual world; not that the spirit of man is more 
 truly divine than is that of the other kingdoms, 
 for the quality of the spiritual essence is alike in 
 all things; but as man includes within himself more 
 on the physical plane than does any one other ma- 
 terial form, so in the subtle realm of spirit, he is 
 likewise blessed by a greater impregnation of the 
 divine energy. Endowed alike in spirit and form 
 with possibilities which exceed, by reason of their 
 extent, those of any other phase of existence, the 
 third force which unites and correlates these two 
 great powers for his use, is that of mind. It is in 
 
 30-- 
 
the mental realm that the connecting link is made, 
 whereby that which is innermost within (spirit) and 
 that which is outermost in expression (form) are 
 guided into the harmonious co-operative expression 
 natural to them. In the wondrous realm of mind 
 is conceived all that is involved in spirit and evolved 
 through form; and it is in this potent realm of be- 
 ing that the student gains the clearest, conception 
 of his relation to the several kingdoms. 
 
 The commencement of all manifestation is men- 
 tal. The conception of all creation must first have 
 existed as pragmatic thought in the Divine Mind 
 before it was carried over into expression through 
 form. Thus in order of occurrence, all of the 
 manifold expressions of life, mineral, vegetable, 
 floral, animal and human must first have existed 
 in God-consciousness as Divine Ideas. The order 
 of conception in consciousness is parallel to that of 
 expression in form. In point of exactness all 
 "things" are Ideas first, and forms second. The 
 form is but the objectivity of the thought, the pic- 
 turization in temporality of that which is eternal in 
 spirit. The mineral world, with its perfect geo- 
 metric crystals, and its wonderfully exact arith- 
 metic formulas and proportions, is the reflection in 
 outward semblance, of the first expression of all 
 creation, as being numerical and mathematical. 
 The vegetable and floral kingdoms express these 
 principles in combination with still others; the ani- 
 mal kingdom adds yet more to the evolution of 
 Ideas, and the human form expresses the focali- 
 zation of what might well be termed "world-con- 
 
 61 
 
sciousness." As man himself possesses an individ- 
 ual consciousness which is the measure of his own 
 development, so there is a mass consciousness which 
 is representative of the combined consciousness of 
 all creation. As man and other forms of being 
 evolve by constantly expanding degrees the Divine 
 conception of Spirit, this world-consciousness 
 changes, manifesting with increasing refinement 
 and beauty, the stupendous conception whose first 
 impulsion was from the Divine Mind. 
 
 From the foregoing, it will be seen that all ob- 
 jective forms of the material world are nothing 
 more nor less than the imprint in matter, of a state 
 of consciousness, in which the human development 
 (as expressed through man's mental consciousness) 
 is the greatest single determining factor. As man 
 progressively gives more complete expression to the 
 powers within him, thus augmenting the " world- 
 consciousness" proportionately, the forms assumed 
 in objectivity gradually change to keep pace with 
 such development. We have only to compare the 
 forms of the lower kingdoms of past ages with 
 those of the present, to see the upward trend of all 
 life. Man who is at once the embodiment, and, 
 in part, the cause, of all forms of life, is insep- 
 arably linked in expression and destiny, with those 
 of the various kingdoms below him. His failure to 
 recognize their common Source and Divinity, and 
 his own one-ness with them, retards his own prog- 
 ress by retarding theirs. As he belittles them he 
 mitigates against his own best interests. As he 
 seeks and discloses the wonderful mystery of his 
 
 62 
 
own relation to them, and sees in them his own re- 
 flected self, he is enabled to understand his own 
 nature more clearly, and harmonize the all with 
 the One. 
 
 Who seeks to save himself alone 
 Seeks what has never yet been done; 
 For all are one, say Tvhat you U>i7/, 
 Deny the truth it conquers still; 
 In selflessness is progress TV on. 
 
 63 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "Know that like birds and beasts and flowers 
 
 The life that moves you is divine; 
 Nor time nor space nor human powers 
 Your God-like spirit can confine." 
 
 Elizabeth Dolen. 
 
 "There is a mutual affinity existing between all 
 forms and substances throughout Nature, including 
 the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms." 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 "He prayeth best who loveth best 
 All things, both great and small." 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 "As water rained on broken ground runs away 
 among the mountains; so he who beholds separate 
 natures runs hither and thither after them. 
 
 "As pure water poured in pure remains the same, 
 so is the Self of the discerning sage." 
 
 The Upanishads. 
 
 64 
 
IX. ADJUSTMENT. 
 
 "There are mam; Efforts, but one Purpose 
 (Unfoldment)" 
 
 *f IfLL human effort resolves itself, at last, into 
 \ the accomplishment of one specific purpose; 
 
 and whether he sets about this purpose with 
 understanding of its nature or not, man's desires 
 and circumstances both conspire to Its accomplish- 
 ment. The urge to fulfill it is felt by every man 
 at some time or other, and manifests in outward ex- 
 pression according to the development of the indi- 
 vidual. The highest methods of Deity are some- 
 times subserved to small ends. It may express in 
 a lust for wealth or power, or some destructive ex- 
 pression of energy, such as the commission of a 
 morbid crime, or indulgence in some destroying 
 vice. It may be the incentive for a work of art, 
 a masterpiece of music, or for a life of helpful 
 willing service. The basic principle underlying 
 them all is the same, and whether it manifests desir- 
 ably or otherwise is in accordance with how much 
 or how little of the true nature of the inner urge the 
 individual has apprehended. So the same energy 
 that inspires one man to some deed of heroism may 
 manifest in another as a destructive impulse; and 
 this, not because the urge in one is Divine and in 
 the other demoniacal, but because the direction it 
 takes depends upon the channel through which it 
 expresses, just as the channel of a stream depends, 
 not upon the quality of the water, but upon the 
 "lay of the land." 
 
 Man is eternally seeking something, which 
 
usually he accepts as existing, but regarding whose 
 details he is rather hazy; and this ephemeral ideal 
 becomes the basis of all his endeavor. He may 
 think that money, or fame, or power, or health or 
 freedom from some material limitation which op- 
 presses him, will bring into expression that which 
 he seeks; but in the last analysis he discovers that 
 it is none of these things, as such, which have the 
 power to transform his life and make real and 
 tangible the illusory phantom he seeks. And when 
 he has attaind the wealth or power or health or 
 freedom which he sought, he may learn, as he can 
 seldom bring himself to realize otherwise, that these 
 things are not the end, but the means, and that the 
 thing he really seeks is happiness, or content of 
 mind. It may be that the thing for which he has 
 striven will bring him what he seeks, and there is 
 one way in which he may sometimes foretell wheth- 
 er or not it will. True happiness is the result of a 
 state of mind, induced by the consciousness that he 
 is expressing the thing for which he is best fitted in 
 life, that he has found his place and is filling it. 
 If he has done this; if the object to which he gives 
 his life is in answer to an inner urge, and he does 
 it for the joy he finds in the doing, rather than for 
 merely material gratification of some sort, he may 
 be quite sure that he has discovered the purpose of 
 his existence, and in the fulfillment of it he will 
 find the content, the happiness which he desires. 
 A beautiful old legend tells the story of how 
 the voice of the Lord (Law) spoke to Solomon, 
 the son of David, in a dream; and said, "Ask 
 what I shall give thee." And Solomon answered, 
 
"O, Lord, my God, thou hast made thy servant 
 king instead of David my father; and I am but a 
 little child; for I know not how to go out or come 
 in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people 
 which thou hast chosen, a great people, that can- 
 not be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give 
 therefore thy servant an understanding heart to 
 judge thy people, that I may discern between good 
 and evil; for who is able to judge this thy so 
 great a people." 
 
 And the Lord was pleased and answered that 
 because Solomon had chosen so wisely, and had 
 not asked for temporal blessings, long life and 
 riches, or revenge upon his enemies, but had asked 
 for judgment; that he should also have the things 
 he had not asked, riches and honor and long life 
 as well as understanding. 
 
 Happiness comes with striving toward the ex- 
 pression of life's purpose, the unfoldment of the 
 Divine idea inherently possessed, and once a 
 realization of this fact is attained, and the soul's 
 mission in life discovered, "all these things" shall 
 be added. In the story of Solomon, the soul-of- 
 man is represented as having attained a knowledge 
 that unfoldment is the purpose of life, and hence 
 his prayer to the God-within is not for material 
 blessings, since he knows these are temporal and 
 do not of themselves bring that which he seeks, but 
 rather does he pray for "an understanding heart," 
 that he may judge his people, who are a multitude 
 beyond counting. These people symbolize the 
 myriad thoughts which fill the mind of the aspiring 
 student of truth ; and one of the great lessons to be 
 
learner! in the process of unfoldment is to choose 
 one's thoughts carefully, to cease the careless habit 
 of aimless thinking, and to select from the multi- 
 tude which Dress against the gates of our con- 
 sciousness, only such as will further the soul's best 
 interests, which means, of course, the best inter- 
 ests of all as well. 
 
 It Js sometimes taught that life is not for happi- 
 ness, but for experience, and that he who aspires to 
 happiness seeks in vain. Sometimes, too, just the 
 reverse of this admonishment is impressed upon the 
 student's mind: that happiness is the true goal of 
 life, and that jubilance is the first duty of the aspir- 
 ins soul. If we conceive experience as a means to 
 self -unfoldment, and happiness to mean, not aban- 
 don, but allegiance to that which is best in us, the 
 two statements are reconciled and express a truth. 
 The soul's highest duty and greatest pleasure are 
 one, and both are fulfilled when man is true to 
 himself. 
 
 If you are unhappy, discontented, "a round peg 
 in a square hole" you may be quite sure that you 
 have not yet discovered your life's purpose, 
 though each circumstance of existence is the agent 
 of Deity, and is working toward that purpose. In 
 reality every experience of our lives is in some way 
 furthering the Divine Plan, and the difference be- 
 tween happiness and unhappiness is not primarily 
 one of circumstance but of consciousness. Learning 
 to live the harmonial life of consciously furthering 
 God's purpose, is very much like learning anything 
 else, and there is the same difference of feeling 
 between doing it knowingly, for the joy of it and 
 
in anticipation of its object, or drudging through 
 something that does not interest you, that may be 
 very disagreeable, and unintelligible to you. The 
 child who is forced to learn multiplication tables 
 till his whole little mental world reels with figures 
 which are without meaning to him, is never so will- 
 ing or happy a student as the one to whom their 
 meaning and purpose have been explained. The 
 first feels that he is being deprived of enjoying 
 something else which would be infinitely more in- 
 teresting and worth-while ; he is humiliated by being 
 forced to do something against his will, and will 
 probably forget the lesson he is supposed to be 
 learning just as soon as possible. The second feels 
 that, even though he might like to do something 
 else for the moment, he is going to a little trouble 
 now to save much when he grows older; he is 
 made a sort of partner with his teacher in prepar- 
 ing the future of the man that he will be some 
 day. The multiplication is the same in both in- 
 stances, but the attitude is vastly different. So it is 
 with life; not its circumstances, but consciousness 
 of their purpose is what brings happiness. 
 
 Building a life is like building a house. When 
 the process is started it requires all the faith of one 
 not familiar with the methods employed to sustain 
 him during the period when excavation is going 
 on, and even the solid earth is invaded. Instead of 
 a towering structure looms a dark hole. During the 
 whole subsequent period of construction an unsight- 
 ly tower of scaffolding distorts the symmetry of the 
 slowly growing house; and he must be keen indeed 
 who can, with prophetic vision, keep single-eyed to 
 
the ultimate structure in the face of so much that 
 seems unnecessary and unsightly. Even so it is 
 with the soul; and the student must be well forti- 
 fied by an understanding of the purpose of life, 
 and the varied means used in its accomplishment, 
 to withstand the doubts which seeming failure and 
 other negative conditions in life arouse. 
 
 No one can impart to another the serenity which 
 comes with understanding and adjustment to life's 
 purpose; it is awakened and quickened into expres- 
 sion not, usually, by a life of asceticism and detach- 
 ment, or the mortification of the flesh, but by be- 
 coming a very part of all other life. By serving 
 humanity do we best serve God and our own in- 
 terests. By finding the spark of Divinity in others 
 do we rouse it to a flame within ourselves. And 
 once it is found, it best fulfills its mission by lighting 
 the lives and warming the hearts of others. 
 
 -70- 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "The perfect dawn is near when you will mingle 
 your life with all life, and know at last your 
 purpose." 
 
 Rabindranath Tagore. 
 
 "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." 
 
 Matt. 6:28. 
 
 "Human improvement is from within outward." 
 
 Froude. 
 
 "Within man is the soul of the whole; the wise 
 silence; the universal beauty, to which every part 
 and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 -71 
 
X. ONENESS 
 
 "There are many Forms, but one Religion 
 (Truth). 9 ' 
 
 SCIENCE tells us that of all the millions 
 of people who inhabit the earth, no two 
 have ever been discovered to have bodies 
 which are just alike. There have been many 
 famous cases of "doubles/ but their resemblance 
 is only approximate and differs in innumerable 
 ways. Nature seems to have made an especial 
 mould for every form she has cast. There is 
 something awe-inspiring about the fact that Na- 
 ture never duplicates. Every man's temple has 
 been designed for himself alone. And what is 
 true of the bodies we wear, is equally true of 
 our minds; they are startlingly similar in a few 
 general respects, yet vastly different in detail. 
 In so far as we are true to ourselves we are 
 original. "Imitation is suicide." 
 
 It is only in detail of expression that originality 
 and identity exist. When we speak concerning 
 principle, when we act upon the great vital issues 
 of existence there is never any great variation; 
 we are wonderfully alike. But when it comes 
 to the expression of our ideas concerning those 
 principles and vital issues we are wonderfully 
 different. This is the beautiful method of Nature 
 by which all things conform in general to a type 
 from whose pattern she will not let us wander 
 very far, but within the limits of whose boundary 
 she allows infinite variation. In principle all are 
 one; in expression all differ. Upon questions of 
 
principle men are seldom at variance; it is in re- 
 gard to the manner in which principle shall mani- 
 fest that differences arise. 
 
 Religion is no exception to this rule. Most of 
 the differences which separate the hundreds of 
 cults of the world are not differences in essentials, 
 but in accretions and form. " Difference of prin- 
 ciple" is a commonly used but commonly mean- 
 ingless phrase, because what we generally term 
 "principle" i s not principle at all, but is more 
 often some variety of "form" disguised. There 
 is a prevalent tendency among religionists to allow 
 the whole truth to be concealed from them by a 
 part, and to mistake the lesser for the greater. 
 
 We are often led to think that what is obvi- 
 ous is necessarily real by reason of that fact, or 
 that what is most apparent is most important. 
 Quite the opposite is usually true. In politics a 
 favorite "dodge" of the wily ones is to cloud the 
 real issues of a campaign by engaging public 
 attention with the non-essentials. In forms of re- 
 ligion this is equally true. The great Christian 
 religion is the best example possible. With its 
 real issues there has never been any quarrel. 
 Christian and pagan alike have been pretty well 
 agreed upon the wisdom of these for many 
 hundreds of years, and other men for thousands 
 of years before they were given their present des- 
 ignation. The great mission of the Nazarene was 
 not to present a new religion to the world, but to 
 quicken to life the Spirit of the one eternal re- 
 ligion. The many doctrinal points upon which 
 theologians differ, and which divide the Chris- 
 
 -73 
 
tian world, were never taught by the gentle Man 
 of Nazareth. The principles of brotherhood, 
 mercy, humility, charity and temperance; these 
 are some of the things He emphasized; and of 
 these not enough has yet been said to arouse any- 
 one's antagonism. 
 
 It is being stated very often nowadays that 
 Christianity has failed; but it cannot have failed 
 for it has never been given a real trial. Its 
 teachings have fallen on deaf ears. If anything 
 connected with religion has failed, it is theology; 
 and even theology is not a total failure if it has 
 served to demonstrate its own fallacy. Good- 
 ness, love, truth, wisdom; these have never failed 
 and never can fail. Our concept of them will 
 undergo changes, it is to be hoped. Our defini- 
 tion and understanding of them will be altered, 
 but on the side of inclusion, not exclusion. It is 
 in inclusion that forms of religion find their great- 
 est strength, and in their affirmations that they 
 are the nearest to truth. It is in exclusion and 
 denial that their weakness lies. 
 
 Two men who were enemies once set out to 
 reach a King whose home was in the heavens. 
 Seeking a way to reach the abode of their Mas- 
 ter, yet hating each other, one went East and the 
 other went West, ever choosing the highlands, 
 which would bring them nearer the One they 
 sought. Their travels were long and arduous, and 
 toiling alone their upward way, both arrived at 
 last near the foot of a great mountain peak, whose 
 summit, gleaming in the sunlight, towered far 
 up into the clouds. "Surely I shall be at the 
 
very gates of the King's golden palace when I 
 reach the top of this mountain," each one thought; 
 and renewed in spirit by the idea they started up 
 the steep slope from opposite sides. And as they 
 mounted higher, and approached nearer and 
 nearer to the attainment of their desire, they came 
 nearer to each other, though they knew it not. 
 
 Each day found them toiling upward. As they 
 climbed their horizon broadened and they could 
 see more and more of the wonderful world in 
 which they strove to find their king. Their thoughts 
 broadened, too, as their ascending paths con- 
 verged. In an ecstacy of anticipation they ap- 
 proached the summit. With heads upraised and 
 arms outstretched they reached the very highest 
 point on the whole great, wonderful earth. Lost 
 in thought to all but the object of their journey, 
 they scanned the heavens above. The bright 
 sunlight streamed down upon them. The vast 
 dome of heaven's blue reached overhead. A bird 
 winged the gleaming air. No golden palace 
 faced their eager sight; no smiling Monarch said, 
 "Well done." They sank to earth in prayer, 
 with sadly downcast eyes, and as they rose again 
 their search was ended and their prayers were 
 heard. The King they sought for stood revealed, 
 within each other. 
 
 There is no wrong in seeking God in one's 
 own way; no wrong in being one's self; and en- 
 couraging the Divine Urge which insists upon ex- 
 pression of the God-within. There is no wrong 
 in acclaiming the viewpoint of truth our own 
 soul's growth affords us. The wrong, if wrong 
 
 75 
 
there be, consists in failing to realize that truth 
 may be seen from other angles than our own, and 
 that, though variously seen, it is itself the same. 
 The principle is absolute, all-inclusive; it is our 
 human understanding of it that varies, and which 
 must ever vary if we are to be progressive, for- 
 ward-looking individuals. It is not the principle 
 which lacks if in it we find no place for some of 
 God's humanity: rather is the lack ours, in that 
 we cannot see the place which each one fills. 
 
 " There is no religion higher than truth," and 
 in so far as religion is true to its name, it must 
 be based like truth itself, upon inclusion. 
 
 "Let there be many windows to your soul 
 
 That all the glory of the universe 
 
 May beautify it. Not the narrow pane 
 
 Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays 
 
 That shine from countless sources. Tear away 
 
 The blinds of superstition; let the light 
 
 Pour through fair windows broad as Truth itself 
 
 And high as God." 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise 
 From outward things, whatever you may believe. 
 There is an inmost center in us all, 
 Where Truth abides in fullness; and around 
 Wall upon wall the gross flesh hems in it, 
 This perfect clear perception which is Truth!" 
 
 Robert Browning. 
 
 **That mind which loves truth more than any 
 other thing, is clothed in the armor of heaven; and 
 that mind which comprehends truth is intimately 
 allied to God, being well-nigh omnipotent. It is 
 by the process of spiritual analysis that truth is 
 obtained.*' 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 "The exclusionist in religion does not see that 
 he shuts the door of heaven on himself, in striving 
 to shut out others." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 77 
 
XL THE UTILITY OF WISDOM. 
 
 "There are many Paths, but one Door (Wis- 
 dom)." 
 
 BLL PROGRESS consists in knowing the 
 Law and living the Life. Neither the 
 one nor the other is sufficient of itself. 
 Good people are no*: always wise people; and 
 there are many who know the Law who do not 
 live it. True wisdom is pragmatic, and but half 
 expresses itself in knowledge. Its destiny is ful- 
 filled only when knowledge is acted upon, and 
 that which has existed generally as a fact begins 
 to function specifically as a life. 
 
 As all of the efforts of life lead, ultimately, to 
 the fulfilment of one Purpose, so do all the paths 
 of life lead to one Door, which is Wisdom. All 
 life, all circumstance, all conditions conspire to 
 the achievement of one object, the expression in 
 consciousness of that which is possessed in poten- 
 tiality, and knowingly or ignorantly all humanity 
 is striving to attain that object. The time required 
 and the degree of success achieved are propor- 
 tionate to our knowledge of the laws which deter- 
 mine such attainment, and our co-operation with 
 them. Unless we know the object of our striving, 
 and the way or ways in which it can be attained, 
 our progress is apt to be slow and difficult. It is 
 like searching for someone whose whereabouts are 
 unknown to us. We do not know where to seek 
 first or how to reach the location we have decided 
 upon as most probable. Moreover, if we know 
 only the external facts of the case one possibility 
 
 78- 
 
is quite as uncertain as every other. We think of 
 the thousands of cities of the world, the many 
 ways of reaching them, and the thousands of 
 people in every community. The task before us 
 is almost futile, and practically an endless one, 
 unless we "accidentally" hit upon some clue which 
 narrows the search. So it is with humanity. We 
 are seeking something, often without even knowing 
 what or where it is. A myriad possibilities are 
 before us. Reasoning from effects our search is 
 fraught with innumerable difficulties. Knowing 
 neither direction nor goal our plight is indeed a 
 sorry one. And because we have sought so 
 blindly, we have also had to seek very long; and 
 the paths of attainment have grown to be numerous 
 indeed. But as in seeking someone in the outer 
 world there are always ways by which we may 
 narrow the search, there are means by which 
 both object and attainment may be approached in 
 consciousness. Reasoning from effects alone in 
 either case is the slow, laborious process of the 
 ignorant one who must beat against the closed 
 door until he has futilely bruised himself against 
 it, before he will consent to think, to realize that 
 there must be a better way, and ultimately, placing 
 his hand upon the latch, lift it and enter. For 
 many long years man stood on the shores of the 
 world's great continents, and viewed with dismay 
 the great liquid barrier which separated him from 
 the rest of the earth; until at length he began to 
 think, to delve beneath the fact of separation to 
 the principle which the fact evidenced. Then he 
 began to learn the law; he applied it, and built 
 
 79 
 
ships. The sea is no longer a barrier but a thor- 
 oughfare, which unites rather than separates differ- 
 ent sections of the earth. 
 
 No man has ever been so completely lost as to 
 leave no clue to his whereabouts; if he has not 
 been found it is because the principle underlying 
 the facts has not been discovered and applied; nor 
 are human destiny and its attainment more mysteri- 
 ous. There are definite, unmistakable indications 
 of the truth about life, so evident ofttimes that their 
 import is lost by their very obviousness. Believing 
 truth to be obscure, feeling that Nature conspires 
 to hide rather than reveal her secrets, we often fail 
 to be helped where we might. 
 
 Wisdom does not consist in seeking always to 
 change our circumstances, but more often in 
 mak'mg use of them. Resignation is less practical 
 a virtue than adaptation. The wise man knows 
 that accord with the Divine Will is the true 
 secret of spiritual progress, but he does not assume 
 as a sequence that that Will is contrary to his 
 material welfare. A half-wise man, walking a 
 road and seeing an auto approach, would possibly 
 accept the situation as the Will of God and allow 
 himself to be run over, or at most get out of 
 harm's way. The truly wise man would be more 
 likely to make use of the situation by hailing the 
 driver and getting a ride. 
 
 The Divine Will is always kind and loving; 
 our ignorance makes it seem harsh. Fire will 
 burn the fingers of an innocent babe as readily or 
 a little more so, than those of a hardened criminal ; 
 but if the infant felt no pain it might allow its 
 
 -80- 
 
whole body to be consumed ; and the fire that sears 
 our flesh, will also consume the trash we do not 
 want, and will give us warmth and food as well. 
 
 The Law is constant and kind. It is we who 
 change and are caustic. We are, moreover, pro- 
 tected against ourselves. Our very ignorance of 
 many of our possibilities prevents us from their 
 extravagant abuse. The man who does not know 
 the true value of money, cannot misuse it to any 
 great extent, because he cannot retain possession 
 of it. Before we can too greatly abuse our bodies 
 or our minds, Nature calls a halt by making us 
 ill, so that even our misfortunes and our troubles 
 are unappreciated blessings which save us from our- 
 selves; and always and ever there is the oppor- 
 tunity of learning some needed lesson through every 
 experience we attract in life. 
 
 If there is any room for regret m life it should 
 not be for the experiences which beset our paths, 
 but for our failure to appreciate and benefit by 
 them. Our sorrow should not be that we must 
 learn lessons but that we do not. No lesson is 
 ever so thoroughly learned as through experience, 
 and doubtless at some time or another in our soul 
 growth we undergo all experiences. If then, an 
 experience we do not like comes into our life, the 
 very fact that we can see no good in it indicates 
 that we need it, and have yet to learn its lesson. 
 Far better, then, to learn it at once, instead of 
 trying to avoid or evade it. Any philosophy of 
 life which promises to ward off the disagreeable 
 experiences of life (even if the promise could be 
 fulfilled, which it cannot) would be a most decided 
 
 81 
 
detriment to human progress. The wisest man 
 literature offers us, spoke no other prayer than this, 
 "Give thy servant an understanding heart." 
 Therein is the essence of wisdom, the door to 
 which all paths lead. 
 
 The most any philosophy of life can do is to 
 help the student in understanding the circumstances 
 of his life. There are many which claim to do 
 more and for a time their claims may seem to be 
 authorized; but their method is at most an evasion 
 whose advantage is more apparent than real. The 
 circumstances of our lives do not come to us by 
 chance, but by Law. Compliance with, or satis- 
 faction of the Law is the only safe method of dis- 
 pelling them. Remove their cause and they will 
 disappear of themselves. Seek to remove them 
 otherwise and you but delay them. Unsolved prob- 
 lems and unrequited Law construct a barrier 
 about their "victim" which will in time become so 
 high as to fall in a crash. Physical breakdowns, 
 financial failures, nervous exhaustion and brain fag 
 are some of the names humanity gives to the bar- 
 riers it has been piling up; and all are based upon 
 a false system of philosophy which mistakenly sup- 
 poses that there are exceptions to the rule of Law. 
 God's Law is loving but also wise; merciful but 
 just, gentle but unswerving in its operation. 
 "Law eternal reigns supreme, 
 
 Running through the universe. 
 
 From the atom to the sphere, 
 
 Worlds in space, and details here, 
 
 Perfect order holdeth sway, 
 
 Moving on in tuneful theme." John Willis Ring. 
 
 - 82 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, 
 And the man that draweth forth understanding. 
 For the gaining of it is better than the gaining 
 
 of silver, 
 And the profit thereof than fine gold." 
 
 Pro. 3:13-14. 
 
 "Wisdom is of the soul, is not susceptible of 
 proof, is its own proof. Something there is in the 
 float of the sight of things that provokes it out of 
 the soul." 
 
 Walt Whitman. 
 
 'There is a certain wisdom of humanity which 
 is common to the greatest men with the lowest, 
 and which our ordinary education often labors to 
 silence and obstruct. We denote this primary 
 wisdom as Intuition, whilst all later teachings are 
 tuitions." 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 "The fall of a leaf through the air, and the 
 greeting of one that passes on the road shall be 
 more to you than the wisdom of all the books ever 
 written and of this book." 
 
 Edward Carpenter. 
 
XII. THE GREATEST GIFT 
 
 "There are many Manifestations, but one 
 Spirit (Love)." 
 
 Y?^vOW far from simplicity the world has 
 I strayed in its search for truth is indicated 
 """"* in the vast number of books which have 
 been written on the subject. It would seem that 
 if truth can be described as simple there is no real 
 need for the prolific literature that demand has 
 given rise to. In a sense this is true. It is possi- 
 ble for man to evolve from within himself an an- 
 swer to every question which books can reply to. 
 Nature herself is a book which all men would 
 profit by reading. It is doubtful if any printed 
 page can imbue its reader with the same spirit ot 
 joyous discovery which is felt by the student who 
 reads his lessons from the broad page of hillside 
 and valley. Yet not all men hare the confidence 
 or the wisdom to seek within for knowledge. Long 
 outward seeking, and dependence upon external 
 sources of information have dulled the spiritual 
 senses which convey the message from interior 
 powers. Lives which swing in the narrow orbit of 
 a workaday world do not always respond to the 
 lauguage of Nature quickly. So books have their 
 place; not to usurp the function of inward light 
 and power, but to guide man back to these. Their 
 mission is that of the teacher; not to impart knowl- 
 edge, but to awaken it. There is but one author- 
 itative Teacher; the spirit of Love within the 
 human soul; but all ears are not attuned to its 
 still, small voice; and all eyes cannot respond to 
 
its inner light; so there is need for teachers to 
 point the way. 
 
 Truth is simple; wisdom does not demand the 
 conning over of vast libraries; love is the intuitive 
 emotion of the human heart. Still not all men 
 know truth, nor are they wise, nor loving; for hu- 
 man energies have been so long engaged with ef- 
 fects, which are complex; with external sources of 
 information, which are partial and innumerable; 
 and with reason to the detriment of more subtle 
 guides to understanding, that the Source in which 
 all these are centered has been lost sight of. 
 
 It requires much greater skill to convince man 
 of something simple than that which is complex; 
 he will go to great lengths to acquire from others 
 what may be much inferior to his own possessions; 
 for all his recent development has given emphasis 
 to the eternal world and the things which comprise 
 it. Of the interior world and its wonders he 
 knows comparatively little. Of the rich legacy 
 within his own being he is but dimly aware. The 
 mission of the Christ was no other than this: to 
 point men to the indwelling Presence of the Spirit 
 of Love within themselves. "God is love. Seek 
 ye first the kingdom of God which is within you. 
 Love one another." Such was the essence of His 
 message, spoken so simply and beautifully and truly, 
 that the greatest of all writers and orators since then 
 could do no more than quote Him. Paul's great- 
 est utterances were variations of this theme. The 
 illuminati of all ages have been stirred by the sublim- 
 ity of God's greatest gift. All things partake alike 
 
of the Divine Essence; all give the evidence of "that 
 one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man 
 severally as he will." 
 
 Love is the animating principle of the universe. 
 From the lowliest forms of life to the highest all 
 things are stirred by this principle. It manifests 
 variously according to the channel through which its 
 life-bearing substance flows; yet in Spirit it is ever 
 the same. It is called chemical affinity, the creat- 
 ive instinct, passion, affection, attraction and a hun- 
 dred other names, to indicate the particular manner 
 in which its power expresses. It may denote the 
 highest and holiest spiritual affection, or the meanest, 
 most selfish impulse; yet love itself is invariable and 
 always greater than anything through which it finds 
 vent. 
 
 Love is impersonal in principle. It includes all 
 things yet transcends them. Only in its most rudi- 
 mental expression is it personal. As man approaches 
 in expression the divinity of that which he repre- 
 sents, the animating principle of his existence, Love, 
 is given increasingly harmonious manifestation in his 
 life. That which is selfish or personal or sensual 
 in his interpretation of it gives way and is replaced 
 by an inclusive, spiritual fraternity which is the 
 evidence of his own soul growth. 
 
 Love is the fulfilling of the Law. It is the 
 greatest positive force in the universe; the direct ex- 
 pression of the Great Positive Mind. Whoso would 
 understand himself and his Source, let him seek to 
 understand Love. In no other way does humanity 
 more surely reveal the degree of its spiritual de- 
 
 -86- 
 
velopment than in its conception and exemplifica- 
 tion of the Love Principle. 
 
 Love is the light that "lighteth every man that 
 cometh into the world." It manifests in everything 
 that lives, but in proportion to the development of 
 that through which it expresses. From the most 
 primitive conception of life's purpose which mani- 
 fests in self-preservation, to the most exalted ideal 
 of an impersonal union with all life, this Love Prin- 
 ciple is the vivifying force, the animating essence. 
 Therefore, while it is one in principle, its appear- 
 ance in the world of form is extremely varied. An- 
 drew Jackson Davis, founder of the Harmonial 
 Philosophy, classifies the expression of this Principle 
 under six elements of existence, which, from the least 
 expressive to the most inclusive, he terms self-love, 
 conjugal love, parental love, fraternal love, filial 
 love and universal love. Within the meaning of 
 these terms are defined all phases of this essence, 
 and they represent the successive steps in the prog- 
 ress of the soul as it gradually evolves the perfect 
 involved idea it represents. 
 
 All natural Law is executed in Love, for God is 
 Love. What we term the lower forms of life are 
 much more true to this Law of Love than we are. 
 Their conception of it may be more limited than 
 ours, but they are invariably true to the under- 
 standing of it which they have. The love of ani- 
 mals for their young, and for the human masters 
 who ofttimes so little merit it, is not exceeded in the 
 human family. Whoever has witnessed the an- 
 guish pf a little furred or feathered mother when 
 
 87- 
 
some danger threatens her young, cannot doubt that 
 her suffering is as intense as that of a human mother, 
 even though less enduring. Love's benediction seems 
 to rest on all God's creatures, but we human be- 
 ings alone appear to violate its Law, and give vent 
 to hatred. The "lower" forms of life know only 
 the positive aspect of the Law of their being; but 
 humanity has been entrusted with the knowledge of 
 not only the good, but the evil as well; and he is 
 always confronted with the possibility of choice. 
 How great is human responsibility in proving worthy 
 of that trust. To man it has been given to have a 
 share in the glorious plan of creation, to be the con- 
 scious co-operator with the Creator in evolving His 
 Divine Plan. 
 
 In the light of this knowledge man stands trans- 
 formed. Once the full realization of this truth has 
 been aroused in consciousness, man can never more 
 allow himself the belief that anything in the uni- 
 verse opposes or seeks to thwart his good, for "all 
 things work together for good to them that love 
 God." The universal Law of Life is Love, and it 
 manifests eternally in goodness. Firmly based in 
 such a consciousness, the student is made strong in 
 the knowledge of the ineffable beneficence of all 
 things. Circumstance, environment, associates, ex- 
 perience; all are tranformed and glorified. No 
 longer is it possible to conceive himself the victim 
 of Law; rather is he the recipient of all blessings. 
 All things have been created to his use, that by co- 
 operation with their purpose he may further the 
 Divine Purpose. In Love are all things given life ; 
 
only by reason of Love do they exist; apart from 
 it they cannot endure. Blessed indeed is the man 
 who possesses this knowledge, and works in accord 
 with it; for he sees beyond the appearance of life's 
 negations to the Divine Reality of At-one-ment 
 with his Source, which is the Spirit of Love. In 
 Truth he is made free from temporal limitations, 
 in Wisdom he knows the Law, and in Love he 
 works the Divine Will. 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth 
 not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth 
 not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is 
 not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth 
 not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 
 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
 things, endureth all things. Love never faileth." 
 
 /. Cor. 73:4-8. 
 
 "Man's highest feeling is universal Love, that 
 is, the love of a God of love." 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 "Send me the love that would soak down into 
 the center of being, and from there would spread 
 like the unseen sap through the branching tree 
 of life, giving birth to fruit and flower." 
 
 Rabindranaih Tagorc. 
 
 "Love is ever the beginning of knowledge as 
 fire is of light." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. 
 
XIII. HARMONIAL LIVING 
 
 ' 'Harmonial Living 9 means the progressive real- 
 ization of the inherent divinity of the individual, and 
 the manifestaton, by co-ordination of his faculties, 
 of the perfect idea awaiting unfoldment." 
 
 AN STANDS at the middle point of crea- 
 tion. Below him stretches the vast infinitude 
 of Nature; above him the vast infinitude of 
 God. He is at once the focalization of both; an 
 ultimate and a prophecy. He is like the narrowest 
 point between the bowls of an hour glass; like the 
 tiny grains of sand flowing between two great reser- 
 voirs of being. One of these we call Nature, of 
 which he is the apex; the other we call God, of 
 which he is the expression in fine; and the terms 
 we use to express Nature and God are as flexible 
 and as easily transferred as are the terms "above" 
 and "below" when we apply them to the reversible 
 hour glass. God and Nature, good and bad, high 
 and low, are expressions whose meaning changes 
 with every passing hour. They are a tyranny of 
 words, in which man's reason is firmly enmeshed; 
 and only when at last he can extricate himself will 
 he discover their falsity and evanescence. 
 
 Between these extremes, these dualities, man al- 
 ways finds himself the central point, the center of 
 their apparent contention, the axis on which the 
 whole system of contradictions swings. As in the 
 hour glass, which, turn it as you will, always main- 
 tains the relation of its parts, so in the sphere of 
 man's existence he always remains at the central 
 point. 
 
 -91 
 
He rides the hub of a wheel, whose spokes and 
 rim surround him; and looking first to one side and 
 then the other, he bisects it in his thought, labeling 
 the two halves high and low, or top and bottom, 
 good and bad. But the wheel turns: what was high 
 becomes low, and the lowest mounts to the highest. 
 Revolving with the wheel he rides, he is unconscious 
 of the motion, unmindful of the change, ignorant of 
 the fallacy he allows himself. He turns to verify 
 his reasoning, but the wheel turns with him, and the 
 error checks itself. So while cold reason sways his 
 intellect he cannot be persuaded otherwise than that 
 his senses serve him perfectly. Self-centered upon 
 his wheel of life, he rides complacently unaware of 
 the truth about him, the truth of which he him- 
 self is the center and the greatest evidence. 
 
 From the center of the wheel he cannot see the 
 rim, nor know that all the spokes merge into it; 
 he cannot see or be conscious of the movement of 
 which he is a part. To left and right he turns, 
 always seeing the same apparent contention. And 
 just so long as he remains thus riding on the hub 
 his vision is limited, his conceptions confined to the 
 plane in which he lives, moves, and has his being. 
 
 Sometime, however, there comes a point in de- 
 velopment when the soul seeks a wider view; when 
 a vague and glorious discontent with limitation de- 
 mands a larger scope of action; for there is that 
 within him which is even greater than the wheel 
 on which he rides, a power akin to and a part of 
 that Power which made the wheel possible. That 
 Power it is which comes to his assistance and re- 
 veals the wholeness of what seemed to be small 
 
 --92- 
 
parts. Then, in obedience to the Law of Progres- 
 sion, the power within seeks for expression, and by 
 its expansion lifts mankind above the plane of the 
 senses, above the sway of opposites. Man then 
 looks upon his hub and spokes and wheel from the 
 advantage of another dimension of space, the im- 
 personal plane of thought, and then for the first 
 time he beholds the grand unity, the majestic move- 
 ment of the Whole. He discovers by what method 
 the spokes are centered in the hub on which he 
 rides; his vision follows their course outwardlv on 
 all sides, and he finds them to be joined back to 
 unity in the rim. The symmetry, the unity, the 
 harmony of the Whole, are impressed upon that 
 power within him to which it is akin. So it is, 
 that no matter what may thereafter befall him, nor 
 what apparent limitations may hedge him about, 
 he is not deceived. Serenely once more he rides 
 his hub of material existence. He watches, as they 
 vanish into the oblivion of nothingness, the spokes 
 which extend outwardly on all sides away from him. 
 His soul tells him what his human reason cannot, 
 that though they seem to get farther and farther 
 away from each other, they really become one at 
 their extremity as he knows them to be in their 
 source. Though no mental glimpse of their pur- 
 pose is vouchsafed to his mind, the spiritual vision 
 has been his, and he knows that what in spirit he 
 has conceived, he can ultimately comprehend in 
 mind. 
 
 To be thus conscious of the dualities, the oppo- 
 sites, the contradictions of material life, and yet re- 
 main poised in an understanding of their temporal- 
 
 93 
 
ity, and what is in a sense their unreality; to recog- 
 nize the limitations of human reasoning and under- 
 standing without being bound by those limitations; 
 to be neither scornful of human relations to the 
 humble forms of life through which Spirit has 
 evolved, nor unmindful of a similar kinship to the 
 Highest toward which progression leads; to seek 
 the solution of all problems through an awakening 
 of the God-power within the individual, and yet con- 
 form the particular good to that which is universal ; 
 to distinguish between Service and servitude, be- 
 tween liberty and license; to be neither so absorbed 
 in material pursuits as to forget culture, refinement 
 and spirituality, nor so involved in the development 
 of mental and spiritual possibilities as to neglect the 
 just use and development of material good; to 
 strike a balance between self-neglect and selfish- 
 ness, to live, in short, in the knowledge that all 
 extremes meet, and that all dualities are based in 
 oneness; this is to live the Harmonial Life. 
 
 No growth or development is truly harmonial 
 which neglects or denies the constructive expression 
 of any phase of human possibilities. No impulse 
 or emotion or desire of man is evil when its principle 
 is discovered and action harmonized therewith. 
 What he denies or ignores in life reveals the limit 
 of his development in that regard. The "Thou 
 Shalt Not's" of the moral code prove that the un- 
 derlying principle of harmonial development, which 
 is Use, has not yet been learned. Use brings all 
 impulses, emotions and desires into accord with Di- 
 vine Law. It is the abuse of these things which 
 is the source of evil. Use is the golden means be- 
 
 ...94... 
 
tween the extremes of denial and excess. If there 
 be a single element or condition in life, or a thought 
 in the human mind, which man feels is wrong or 
 evil, or to which he feels impelled to close the por- 
 tals of his thought, it is because he has not yet 
 evolved within his own soul an understanding of the 
 use of that thing. Then let him close his thoughts, 
 not to the thing or condition he deplores, but to 
 the belief in its evilness. Poised in thought, let him 
 look not to the fact but to the principle. If men 
 misapply a principle, no evil devolves upon that 
 which he misuses. It is still susceptible of use, and 
 may then be seen rightly. Evil or misuse is only 
 one-half of the action of the law. The other half 
 is the adjustment of the evil to goodness, or the 
 misuse to use. The adjustment may not at once 
 appear, but it will appear, and in the process every- 
 thing involved will have added in some degree to 
 its growth. Every thought conspires to further in- 
 dividual progress in some degree, if in no other way 
 than to reveal its own fallacy. 
 
 The harmonial thinker ceases either condemning 
 or condoning the circumstances of life, simply rec- 
 ognizing them as the working out of a principle. If 
 the same problems do not confront all men, know 
 that at some time they have or will. Nothing can 
 violate the law of goodness. There are many ap- 
 pearances of such violation, but they are only seem- 
 ing. Beneath the appearance is the eternal verity 
 to which all things conform, and within its action 
 all things work together for good. 
 
 Thus the question of good and evil is abrogated 
 
by the consciousness that God's Law n>ors/ Every 
 thought, word and deed pronounces judgment upon 
 itself, and executes its own reward or punishment. 
 To the exemplar of the Harmonial Life, circum- 
 stance is transformed. He sees neither high nor 
 low, but only Oneness. No good nor ill confuses 
 him, for he knows that all effects find a common 
 Cause in God. The laws of man and those of 
 God express to him one principle, Cause and Ef- 
 fect. The many differences of attainment, the in- 
 equalities of existence, all point to imperative prog- 
 ress. The miracles of the unknown past and the 
 vaguely seen hereafter declare themselves to be one 
 world, of Service. No difference of caste or race 
 deceives him, for all are parts of one great Brother- 
 hood, clinging as best they know, to the wheel of 
 life, Humanity. Theories, movements, philoso- 
 phies, all seeking to explain the Mysteries, merge 
 into one Ideal which gives to each its place in ac- 
 cordance with the universal law of Justice. He 
 views with equanimity the opposites which chal- 
 lenge his reason, knowing that somewhere in the 
 great circle of God's life in which all are safely 
 held, they become parts to the one reality in the 
 world of form, At-one-ment. Below him stretch 
 the kingdoms of earth; the mineral world of Life, 
 the vegetable world of Motion, the animal world 
 of Sensation, and his own human world of Intelli- 
 gence. He observes the wondrous manner in which 
 each adds its quota to the harmony of creation, and 
 sees beneath their differences the common source of 
 Divinity. As colors in a rainbow, the creeds and 
 sects of men become, combining in his sight to form 
 
one religion of inclusiveness, Truth. He traces 
 the winding path by which men climb upward, and 
 points them to the one Door to which all lead, 
 Wisdom. And with a faith and trust based on the 
 revelations of his own inner Self, he looks on un- 
 dismayed as men strive and vie and contend with 
 one another. Yea, even though all others doubt 
 the Purpose and Plan, and fight and maim and 
 kill, he cleaves to Wisdom and to Truth, and says 
 with reverence, * 'These, too, shall pass away; for 
 though the manifestations of God's power be many, 
 there endureth but one Spirit, Love." 
 
 97 
 
THEMES FOR MEDITATION 
 
 "From harmony, from heavenly harmony, 
 
 This universal frame began: 
 From harmony to harmony 
 
 Through all the compass of the notes it ran, 
 The diapason closing full in inan." 
 
 DrpJen. 
 
 **A whole Mind is in tune with Nature; a har- 
 monious mind is in tune with Reason; a spiritual 
 mind is in tune with Intuition; and such, in the true 
 definition, is a harmonial thinker." 
 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 "Pray for and work for fullness of life above 
 everything; full red blood in the body; full honesty 
 and truth in the Mind; and the fullness of a grate- 
 full love for God in your heart." 
 
 Phillips Broods. 
 
 "There is but one definition of Harmonial Liv- 
 ing, and that is its exemplification, through the unity 
 of body, mind and spirit." 
 
 John IVillis Ring. 
 
AIMS OF THE HARMONIAL INSTITUTE 
 FOR RE-EDUCATION: 
 
 To Teach "HARMONIAL LIVING" which will 
 enable the individual to understand and demon- 
 strate the practical usefulness of the FUNDAMENT- 
 ALS. ("HARMONIAL LIVING*' means the progress- 
 ive realization of the inherent divinity of the indi- 
 vidual, and the manifestation, by co-ordination of 
 his faculties, of the perfect idea awaiting unfold- 
 ment. ) 
 
 To arouse in man a veneration for all forms of 
 life, by a sense of his unity with them; that he may 
 neither abuse nor seek to destroy them. 
 
 To encourage a constructive study and solution 
 of social, economic, religious and educational prob- 
 lems. 
 
 To further the arts and sciences as being diversi- 
 fied expressions of the Universal Law of Mathe- 
 matical Harmony. 
 
 To concentrate human energies on the reality of 
 Spirit TRUTH, WISDOM, LOVE, Life, Health, Justice 
 and Peace, thereby healing and saving the world 
 from the unreality of temporal conditions, such as 
 matter, error, ignorance, death, dis-ease, tyranny 
 and war. 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT 
 
 mechanical process of production of 
 "The Simple Truth" has been undertaken 
 primarily as a part of the work of The 
 Harmonial Institute For Re-Education, 4328 
 Alabama Street, San Diego, California, for use as 
 a text-book ; but the usefulness of the book, and the 
 power and scope of its message, like that of 
 the Institute itself, is unlimited to any objective 
 organization. 
 
 However, many readers of "The Simple Truth" 
 will want to know more of The Harmonial 
 Philosophy which it rudimentally presents, and to 
 such The Harmonial Institute For Re-Education 
 will have an especial interest. It combines the work 
 of a church and school in its headquarters at San 
 Diego, California, and under the direction of its 
 founders, John Willis Ring and Ernest C. Wilson, 
 reaches a great number of truth students in person, 
 through its various religious and educational activ- 
 ities. Public devotional services, lecture courses, 
 classes in philosophy, religion, healing, and the 
 secular arts, attended by both children and 
 adults, are provided those whose place of resi- 
 dence makes attendance possible; and a very much 
 larger number of students, the world over, is 
 reached through local study Centers in various 
 
 100 
 
cities, by means of correspondence courses of study, 
 and through two exceptional publications. "The 
 Harmonial Thinker," a quarterly magazine contain- 
 ing sixty-four pages of reading matter, is offered at 
 $1.00 a year, and "The Harmonial Bulletin," a 
 smaller monthly periodical, is but 25 cents per 
 year. All other Institute activities are presented on 
 the Free Will Offering Plan. Subscriptions to 
 periodicals, orders for literature, and requests for 
 information should be addressed to The Harmonial 
 Institute For Re-Education, 4328 Alabama Street, 
 San Diego, California. 
 
 
 -101 
 
INDEX 
 
 Absolute Truth 76 
 
 Ar.use, Protection from 81, 95 
 
 Adjustment 13, 17, 42, 65, 70, 95 
 
 Age, The New 33, 34 
 
 "All is of God," Whiiiier 57 
 
 Animal Life 59, 60, 87 
 
 Ant-hill 25 
 
 Apparent Contention . 12, 91 
 
 Appearances 24, 27, 44, 95 
 
 Artist, The Ideal of the 44 
 
 Astral World 34, 93 
 
 "As within, so without" 19 
 
 At-one-ment 26, 50, 55, 56, 89, 97 
 
 Attainment 75, 78 
 
 Auras 34 
 
 Bad, Good and 20, 26, 67, 88, 91, % 
 
 Baha 'ollah 43 
 
 Balance 52, 94 
 
 Barrier, The Sea a 80 
 
 Bible Quotations: 
 
 "And they came to Capernaum" 33 
 
 "Ask what I shall give thee" 66, 67 
 
 "Choose ye" 56 
 
 "Consider the lilies" 71 
 
 "Every living thing" 12 
 
 "Give thy servant an understanding heart" 82 
 
 "God is love" 85 
 
 "Happy is the man" 83 
 
 "He took a little child" 33 
 
 "He who runs may read" 33 
 
 "I am the way, the truth, and the life" 55 
 
 "Love one another" 85 
 
 "Love suffereth long" 90 
 
 "Seek ye first the kingdom" 56 
 
 That one and the selfsame spirit" 86 
 
 The path of the just" 49 
 
 "The things which are seen" 57 
 
 103 
 
Body, Man's 59, 60 
 
 Bogart, Guy - 36 
 
 Book, Nature a. 84 
 
 Books, Carpenter. 83 
 
 Brooks, Phillip 43, 49, 98 
 
 Brotherhood, Universal 37, 43, 96 
 
 Browning, Robert 29 
 
 Building a House 69 
 
 "Bulletin, The Harmonial" 92 
 
 Burke 22 
 
 Carole, Thomas 43, 90 
 
 Carpenter, Edward 32, 43, 83 
 
 Caucasian Race 37 
 
 Cause and Effect 9, 13, 15, 16, 22, 51, 52, 96 
 
 Cause, First, God 9, 50, 96 
 
 Cause, God 15, 53 
 
 Cause, One 54 
 
 Cause, One, Source of all Things 9, 16, 21 
 
 Central Heart, The 35 
 
 Christ, The 33, 55, 85 
 
 Christian Religion 73 
 
 Christianity Has Not Failed, Why 74 
 
 Circle, The 96 
 
 Coleridge, S. T 64 
 
 Colors 37, 38, 41, 57, 97 
 
 Common Source 44, 50, 62 
 
 Comprehension Defined 26 
 
 Concealed Truth 73 
 
 Consciousness 1 1 , 44, 58 
 
 Consciousness Defined 21 
 
 Consciousness, God- 25, 61 
 
 Consciousness, World- 62 
 
 Contentions, Apparent 12, 91 
 
 Corinthians I. 13:4-8 90 
 
 Corinthians II. 4:18 57 
 
 Creator, The 22, 31, 41, 45, 88 
 
 Davis, Andrew Jac^on 15, 22, 29, 51, 57, 64, 87, 90, 98 
 
 "Dawn is near, The perfect," Tagore 71 
 
 "Dead, The" 33, 34 
 
 Death . 20 
 
 Debt, Man's 12, 59 
 
 -104- 
 
Deity 10, 12, 18, 47, 65, 68 
 
 Destiny, Human 50 
 
 Discontent 92 
 
 Discord, Source of 12 
 
 Divine Essence 86 
 
 Divine Ideas 61 
 
 Divine Mind 49, 58, 62 
 
 Divine Plan 45, 68, 88 
 
 Divine Purpose 88 
 
 Divine Urge 32, 46, 75, 92 
 
 Divine Will 80, 89 
 
 Dominion, Man's 12, 60 
 
 Door, One, Wisdom 78, 97 
 
 Do/en, Elizabeth 22 64 
 
 Dryden 98 
 
 Duality 1 6 
 
 Eddy, Man; Bafcer 49 
 
 Effect (See Cause and Effect) 
 
 Effect, Material World One of 9 
 
 Effect, Nature the 15, 53 
 
 Effects, Reasoning from. 79 
 
 Efforts, Many 65 
 
 Egypt 39 
 
 Electron 1 0, 1 8 
 
 Element, Only One 9 
 
 Element, Third 1 7 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 15, 22, 29, 71, 83 
 
 Enemies, Two 74 
 
 Energy 65 
 
 Epitome of Nature, Man is 1 1 , 24 
 
 Equality of Races 39, 40 
 
 Essence, The Divine 86 
 
 Eternal Law, Ring 82 
 
 Eternal One, the, Emerson 71 
 
 Every Man's Temple 72 
 
 Evidences of Immortality, Davis 57 
 
 Evil, Good and 67, 95 
 
 Evil, Nothing Wholly 10, 32, 94 
 
 Experience 26, 50, 81, 95 
 
 Expression 24, 61, 72, 94 
 
 -105- 
 
Failure, Meaning of 70 
 
 First Cause, God 9, 50 
 
 Flesh, Mortification of the 70 
 
 Form 58 
 
 Form, Spirit and 51, 52, 61 
 
 Forms, Many 72 
 
 Four Kingdoms 30, 58 
 
 Fraternity 40 
 
 Froude 71 
 
 Future Life 34, 50, 53, 96 
 
 Galilee v 32 
 
 Genesis, Quoted 
 
 God-consciousness 25, 61 
 
 "God is Good," Whittier 57 
 
 "God is Love" 85 
 
 God is Spirit 9 
 
 God, The Cause 15, 53 
 
 God, The First Cause 9 
 
 God, Union With 10 
 
 God Within, The 42, 56, 75, 91, 94 
 
 God's Garment 1 
 
 God's Perfect Justice 47 
 
 God's Purpose 68 
 
 God's Way 28 
 
 Good 32 
 
 Good and Evil 20, 26, 67, 88, 91, 96 
 
 Goodness, Ring 49 
 
 Gratification, Material 66 
 
 Great Positive Mind 10, 18, 36 
 
 Great Source, One 15 
 
 Greatest Gift, The 65 
 
 Greatness, True 33 
 
 Grim Trinity, The 37 
 
 Growth from Within 23, 24, 94 
 
 Happiness 66, 67 
 
 Harmonial Institute 5, 100 
 
 Harmonial Life 14, 19, 27, 28, 68, 91, 94, 98 
 
 Harmonial Philosophy 5, 18, 51, 55, 87 
 
 Harmonial Thinker 27, 51, 95 
 
 "Harmonial Thinker, The" 101 
 
 Harmonious, Spirit and Matter are 10, 13, 17 
 
 106 
 
Harmony 14, 27, 58, 93, 97 
 
 Harmony, Dryden 98 
 
 Harp of the Senses 27 
 
 Having Our Way 28 
 
 Heaven, Emerson 77 
 
 Herb and Rose 40 
 
 "He who can open the bud," Tagore 57 
 
 Holy Spirit 55 
 
 Hour Glass, The 91 
 
 House, Building a 69 
 
 Hub and Wheel, The 92 
 
 Human Improvement, Froude 71 
 
 Human Justice 46 
 
 Humanity 37, 78, 96 
 
 Humanity, Serving 70 
 
 1 AM 55 
 
 Ideal, One, Justice. 44, 96 
 
 Ideals, Human 31 
 
 Ideas 44, 61, 72 
 
 Illusion of Separateness 58 
 
 "Imitation is suicide," Emerson 72 
 
 Immortality 20, 50, 57 
 
 Immutable Law 82 
 
 Imperfection 44 
 
 Impersonal Love 86 
 
 Improvement, Human, Froude 71 
 
 Incompletion 44 
 
 Independence 42 
 
 Individuality 30, 31, 72 
 
 Infinite, Truth is 23 
 
 Inharmony 23 
 
 Inherent Principle 1 2 
 
 Injustice 23, 44 
 
 Inseparable, Cause and Effect 9 
 
 Interior World, Riches of 85 
 
 Intuition 12 
 
 Intuition, Emerson 83 
 
 Islands and Sea 31 
 
 John I. 4:12-20 43 
 
 Judgment 96 
 
 Justice, God's Perfect 47 
 
 107- 
 
Justice, Human 46 
 
 Justice, One Ideal 44, % 
 
 Justice, Ring 49 
 
 Justice, Universal 44, 49 
 
 Kinds of Philosophy, Two 81, 82 
 
 King, The 74 
 
 Kingdoms 58, 97 
 
 Kingdoms, Four 30 
 
 Kingdoms of Life 64 
 
 Knowing God 47 
 
 Law Eternal, Ring 82 
 
 Law, Fulfilled in Love 86 
 
 Law, Immutable 82 
 
 Law is Kind 81 
 
 Law of Love 87 
 
 Law, One 22 
 
 Law, Universal, is Love 88 
 
 Laws and Principle 51 
 
 Lessons and Sorrow 81 
 
 "Let there be many windows,*' Wilcox 76 
 
 Liberty and License 94 
 
 Life a Progress, Emerson 29 
 
 Life, Animal 87 
 
 Life, Future 34, 50, 53, 96 
 
 Life, Kingdoms of 64, 97 
 
 Life, Living the 78 
 
 Life, Mission of 21, 70 
 
 Life, Path of 26, 38 
 
 Life, Planes of 30, 33, 94 
 
 Life, Purpose of 25, 26, 31, 32, 33 
 
 Life, Simplicity in 84 
 
 Life, The Harmonial 14, 19, 27, 28, 68, 91, 94 
 
 Light 38 
 
 Limitations Unreal _ 20, 93 
 
 "Lips of wisdom are sealed** 20 
 
 Living, the 33 
 
 Love 35, 84, 85 
 
 Love, Beginning of knowledge, Carlyle 90 
 
 Love, Bogart _ 36 
 
 Love Fulfils the Law 86 
 
 108 
 
Love in Animals 87 
 
 Love, Paul 90 
 
 "Love, Send me the," Tagore 90 
 
 Love, Six Phases 87 
 
 Love, Spirit in Man 84 
 
 Love the Universal Law 88 
 
 Love T ransforms . ... 88 
 
 Love, Truth, Wisdom. 74, 97 
 
 Love, Universal, Davis 90 
 
 Lowell, James Russell 36 
 
 Lower Forms of Life and Man 11, 59, 60, 94 
 
 Maeterlinck, Maurice 49 
 
 Man a Thought of God 15, 24 
 
 Man, and Lower Forms of Life 1 1 
 
 "Man, Know Thyself" 53 
 
 Man a Microcosm 11, 59 
 
 Man of Nazareth 74 
 
 Man's Life a Progress, Emerson 29 
 
 Man, the Apex of a Triangle 58 
 
 Man the Epitome of Nature 11, 24, 91 
 
 Man the Ultimate 15, 18 
 
 Man's Body 59, 60 
 
 Man's Debt 12, 59 
 
 Man's Dominion 12, 60 
 
 Many Manifestations 84 
 
 Master is the Servant 32 
 
 Mastery, Self 32 
 
 Material Gratification 66 
 
 Material World 62, 93 
 
 Material World One of Effects 9 
 
 Matter and Spirit Harmonious 10, 13, 17 
 
 Matter, God's Garment 10 
 
 Matter, is Spirit Formed 26 
 
 Maiihe-D) 6:28 71 
 
 Meaning of failure 70 
 
 Mercy 46, 47, 74 
 
 Message of the Christ 85 
 
 Mind, Davis 77, 98 
 
 Mind, Divine 49, 58, 62 
 
 Mind, The Great Positive 10, 18, 86 
 
 Mind, Power of 60, 94 
 
 109- 
 
Mind, Unbalanced 51 
 
 Miracles 96 
 
 Mission of Life 21, 70 
 
 Mission of the Nazarene 73 
 
 Mortification of the Flesh 70 
 
 Mysteries 5 1 , 96 
 
 Nations Healed 42 
 
 Natural Scientist 30 
 
 Nature a Book 84 
 
 Nature, "Animal" 60 
 
 Nature an Effect 15, 53 
 
 Nature, Man the Epitome 11, 24, 91 
 
 Nazarene, Mission of 73 
 
 New Age 33, 34 
 
 Nothing Wholly Evil 10, 32, 94 
 
 Occident 39 
 
 Occult Scientist 30, 32 
 
 Omnipotence, Davis 77 
 
 One Cause 9, 16, 21, 54 
 
 One Door, Wisdom 78 
 
 One Element, Only 9 
 
 One Great Source 15 
 
 One Ideal, Justice 44 
 
 One Law 22 
 
 One Purspose 29, 68, 69, 78, 93, 97 
 
 One Purpose, Tennyson 29 
 
 One Religion, Truth 72 
 
 One Spirit, Love 84 
 
 One World, Service 30, 33 
 
 Oneness 62, 72, 93, 96 
 
 Order, Ring : 82 
 
 Orient 34, 39 
 
 Origin Alike 44 
 
 Originality 72 
 
 Outward Seeking 53 
 
 Paradoxes 23, 25 
 
 Past, The 50, 53, 96 
 
 Path of Life 26, 38, 78 
 
 Paul's Message 85 
 
 Peace, Broods 49 
 
 110 
 
Perfection 10, 24, 44 
 
 Peter I. 2:17 43 
 
 Phases of Love, Six 87 
 
 Philosophies 96 
 
 Philosophy, Two Kinds 81, 82 
 
 Physical Plane 30, 92 
 
 Plan, The 12, 45, 68, 88, 97 
 
 Planes of Life 30, 33, 94 
 
 Politics 73 
 
 Positive Mind, The Great 10, 18, 86 
 
 Power 41, 60, 94 
 
 Power of Thought 19, 60 
 
 Powers, Man's 60, 94 
 
 Pragmatic Attitude 52, 61, 78 
 
 Prayer, Coleridge 64 
 
 Prayer, Brooks 98 
 
 Present, The 51 
 
 Principle 16, 22, 51, 52, 72, 86, 95 
 
 Principle Inherent 12, 27 
 
 Problem, The Race 37, 38, 39 
 
 Progress, Man's Life a, Emerson 29 
 
 Progress an Unfolding, Emerson 29 
 
 Progression 23, 31, 33, 63, 78, % 
 
 Prophecy 91 
 
 Protection from Abuse 81 
 
 Proverbs 4:18 49 
 
 Psychic Phenomena 54, 96 
 
 Punishment, Maeterlinck 49 
 
 Purpose, Tagore 71 
 
 Purpose of Life 25. 31, 33, 65 
 
 Purpose, One. 29, 68, 69, 78, 88, 93, 97 
 
 Race, Caucasian 37 
 
 Race Problem 37, 38, 39 
 
 Races 37 
 
 Rainbow 37, V7 
 
 Real Self 53, 54, 97 
 
 Reality 50 
 
 Keason 12, 79, 91 
 
 Regret 81 
 
 Reincarnation 34, 50 
 
 Religion 73, 97 
 
 111 
 
Religion, Emerson 77 
 
 Responsibility 1 2, 4 1 
 
 Richness of the Interior World 85 
 
 Right and Wrong 21, 46 
 
 Ring, John Willi* _ 15, 36, 49, 57, 82, 98, 115 
 
 Rose and Herb 40 
 
 Science 72 
 
 Scientists, Natural and Occult 30 
 
 Sea, a Barrier Transformed 80 
 
 Sea, Islands and 31 
 
 Self-Knowledge 53 
 
 Self-Mastery 32, 63, 94 
 
 Self-Respect 41 
 
 Senses, Harp of the 27 
 
 Separateness, Illusion 31, 58, 79 
 
 Separateness, Upanishads 64 
 
 Serenity 70 
 
 Servant 67 
 
 Servant, Master is 32 
 
 Service 30, 34, 35, 36, 70, 97 
 
 Service and Servitude 94 
 
 Shame , 60 
 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe 29 
 
 Simplicity in Life 84 
 
 Simplicity of Truth 85 
 
 Solomon 66 
 
 Sound and Silence 21 
 
 Sorrow 8 1 
 
 Source, Common 39, 42, 44, 50, 62, 86 
 
 Source of All Things, One Cause 9, 16, 21 
 
 Source of Discord 12, 14, 23, 24 
 
 Source, One Great 15, 83 
 
 Spiral Spring 55 
 
 Spirit and Form 51, 52, 61 
 
 Spirit, God is 9 
 
 Spirit and Matter Harmonious 10, 13, 17 
 
 Spirit, Formed 26 
 
 Spirit, Holy 55 
 
 Spirit of Love 84, 97 
 
 Spirit of Religion 73 
 
 112 
 
Spiritualism 57 
 
 Straight and Narrow Way 55 
 
 Success .. ..... /O 
 
 Sunlight and Sun Inseparable 
 
 Superiority 37 
 
 Superstition, Wilcox 76 
 
 Tagore, Rabindranath 57, 71, 90 
 
 Teacher, Only One Authoritative 84 
 
 Teacher, The 32 
 
 Temple, Every Man's 72 
 
 Tennyson 29 
 
 Themes For Meditation 
 
 15, 22, 29, 36, 43, 49, 57, 64, 71, 77, 83, 90, 98 
 
 Third Element 1 7 
 
 "Thou Shalt Not" 95 
 
 Thought of God, Man is a. 15, 24 
 
 Thought, Power of 19, 95 
 
 Time Transcended 24 
 
 Travellers 39 
 
 Triangle, Man the Apex of a 58 
 
 Trinity 1 7 
 
 Trinity, The Grim 37 
 
 True Greatness 33 
 
 True Worship, Ring 36 
 
 Truth 72, 74, 97 
 
 Truth, Ring . 36 
 
 Truth, Wilcox 76 
 
 Truth, Absolute 76 
 
 Truth Concealed 73 
 
 Truth Infinite 23 
 
 Truth, Proclaiming 75 
 
 Truth Simple 85 
 
 Truth Within, Browning 77 
 
 Ultimate, Man the 15, 18 
 
 Unbalanced Mind 51 
 
 Understanding 43, 54, 67, 83, 86 
 
 Unfoldment _ 65 
 
 Union with God 21 
 
 Unity 16, 27, 31, 93 
 
 Unity, Doten 64 
 
 Universal Brotherhood 37 
 
 -113 
 
Universal Justice 44, 96 
 
 Universal Love 88, 97 
 
 Universal Love, Davis ~ 90 
 
 Unreality of Limitations 20 
 
 Upanishads, The 64 
 
 Urge, Divine 32, 46, 75, 92 
 
 Use 80, 95 
 
 Utility 78 
 
 Verity, The Eternal 96 
 
 Water and Ocean 11, 13 
 
 Way, God's 28 
 
 Way, Having Our 28 
 
 Way, of Reality 50 
 
 Way, The 55 
 
 "Well Done" 75 
 
 Whitman, Walt 83 
 
 Whitticr, John Creenleaf 57 
 
 Wilcox, Ella Wheeler 76 
 
 Will, Divine 28, 80, 89 
 
 Wisdom 54, 74, 78, 80, 97 
 
 Wisdom, Ring 49 
 
 Wisdom and Intuition, Emerson 83 
 
 Wisdom of the Soul, Whitman 83 
 
 Wisdom from Nature, Carpenter 83 
 
 Within, The God 42, 56, 75, 91, 94 
 
 114 
 

 "Let each day find us stronger, more gentle; 
 firmer in what we think right, and more tolerant 
 of the opinions of others." 
 
 John Willis Ring. 
 
 -115- 
 
CITY PRINTING Co. 
 
 SAN DIEGO 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY