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 Poems and Essays of 
 ANNIE M. L.JPEBOER 
 
 Publisher and Editor of 
 "GLAD TIDINGS OP THE DAWN" 
 
GIFT OF 
 
\s<&%**^ 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OF A 
 
 NOVITIATE 
 
 Poems and Essays of 
 ANNIE M. L. l DeBOER 
 
 Editor of 
 
 "Glad Tidings of the Dawn' 
 
 A Quarterly Magazine Devoted 
 
 to Theosophical Ideals and 
 
 Their Realization 
 
 Issued by 
 
 THE IDEAL PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 P. O. Box 731, Los Angeles, Cal. 
 Price $1.00 per copy 
 
10 
 Naraia 
 
 "The Words of Wisdom are chance pearls, 
 thrown among the rocks by the sullen waters of 
 oblivion, which diligence loves to gather and 
 hang around the neck of memory." 
 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1920 
 By ANNIE M. L. DeBOER 
 
LIFE'S IMMORTALITY 
 
 Never the spirit was born ; the spirit shall cease to 
 
 be never; 
 Never was time it was not ; end and beginning are 
 
 dreams ; 
 Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth 
 
 the spirit forever ; 
 Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the 
 
 house of it seems. _Bhagavad-Gita. 
 
 For centuries the question, what am I, whither 
 am I going, and what shall I be 1 ? have thrilled 
 human hearts and dominated human thought. 
 
 Clement, an illustrious Roman and one of the 
 founders of the Christian Church, in speaking of 
 himself has told the story of the world's seeking: 
 
 "From my earliest youth, doubts, of whose origin 
 I was uncertain, perplexed me. Shall I exist after 
 death no longer, and will no one bestow a thought 
 upon me while ceaseless time is burying all human 
 things in forgetfulness ? Will it be the same with 
 me as if I had never been born? When was the 
 world created, and what existed before the world 
 was? If it existed from eternity, then it will be 
 everlasting. If it had a beginning it will also have 
 an end. And what will there be after the end of 
 the world, unless the stillness of death ? Or per- 
 haps there will be something which it is now im- 
 possible to think of. 
 
 "Having been troubled with such thoughts from 
 my youth, I frequented the schools of the philoso- 
 phers in order to discover something certain ; but I 
 saw there little else than the advancement and 
 destruction of theories controversies and counter- 
 controversies first, the proposition was demon- 
 strated, and believed, that the soul is immortal ; 
 then again, that it is mortal. When the first pre- 
 vailed, I rejoiced; but when the other, I was 
 dispirited. 
 
 "Thus was I driven about by opposing proposi- 
 tions, and was at last compelled to admit that 
 these things did not appear in their true light, but 
 only as they were presented by the opposing views 
 of different persons. I was then seized with a 
 greater perplexity of mind, and groaned from the 
 very depth of my soul." 
 
 He then determined to travel to the land of 
 mysteries and search out in Egypt a magician who 
 would conjure up for him a .spirit, thinking thus to 
 secure satisfactory evidence of the immortality of 
 the soul, but a friendly philosopher withheld him 
 from thus seeking the truth by the practice of "the 
 unlawful art", fearing that he might never again 
 enjoy peace of mind. 
 
 Socrates, the philosopher, and greatest sage the 
 world has ever known, avowed his despair of 
 
 3 
 
ever discovering a solution by the aid of reason's 
 light alone, while he whispered a hope that 
 some messenger might come to earth who might 
 bring some light on the immortality of the soul. 
 Long years after, there appeared one greater than 
 Socrates, who proclaimed himself a Messenger of 
 Life and Immortality, but the same scorn that de- 
 stroyed the philosopher rejected the Christ, and 
 the great majority of mankind are waiting, like 
 Clement of old, to hear the voice of some loved 
 who has passed to the "Unknown Land." Although 
 the so-called dead are not dead at all, they are 
 nevertheless separated from the living by the bar- 
 riers that the material or physical world maintains. 
 They may be ever near us, but we are not conscious 
 of their presence, and our voices must call in vain 
 for their manifestation upon physical planes of 
 consciousness. Only in the realms of occult science 
 may the living enter into communication with the 
 astral world, but the pathway of adeptship is 
 beset with danger for any but the divine teachers 
 and Saviors of the World, whose help we may as 
 freely implore for the so-called dead as for the 
 living, and just as we find our power of friendly 
 help not altogether limited to our own order of 
 being, so higher and holier beings possess in fuller 
 fruition those privileges of communion which are 
 so helpful to us here. When our spirits are 
 attuned to the spirit of righteousness, our prayers 
 and aspirations exert an influence far beyond our 
 conscious range and bring us into communication 
 with the invisible helpers of the world. 
 
 Leaving the realms of the astral worlds to those 
 more fitted than ourselves to look beyond the veil 
 and grapple with the mysterious, may we not in 
 the light of twentieth century knowledge form an 
 intelligent hypothesis for an unquestioning belief 
 in the immortality of the soul? 
 
 Materialistic science maintains that the universe 
 is the result of natural forces, and that man him- 
 self is purely the result of evolution, but science 
 has failed to detect a transition from the lifeless 
 to the living. Wherever there is life it has been 
 evolved from pre-existing life, and no forces of 
 nature have been found adequate to produce out 
 of inorganic matter the chemical compounds 
 which make up living cell, and to group them into 
 organs and bodies endowed with the functions of 
 life, but the gulf between the living and the dead 
 has been bridged, and this proves the existence ^of 
 a power greater than nature. 
 
 There are multitudes of beings lower in the scale 
 of existence than man. Life exists in every variety 
 of animal, in the earth, the air and the sea, 
 and in every species of plants, and in all stages 
 of development, life is the result of a countle&o 
 number of preceding efforts. Human life, the very 
 
 4 
 
flower of evolution on the planet earth, reaches 
 back into the remotest eternity of time. 
 
 If evolution has by an eternity of effort brought 
 man to his present stage, which while the highest 
 type of evolution on this earth, is not yet such a 
 vehicle as the soul would desire, is it not reason- 
 able to conclude that the process of evolution will 
 be continued until that has been completed which 
 has been begun ^ 
 
 If our human life is a result it is a promise also, 
 and as the soul has made use of all the past, so 
 must the soul make use of all the future, for while 
 man is the highest of all the dwellers on the planet 
 earth, the earth is only one of the planets warmed 
 by the sun and the sun only one of a myriad of 
 similar suns, which are so distant that they group 
 as stars, and may we not believe that in some of 
 the innumerable worlds there are beings far 
 higher in the scale of evolution than ourselves *? As 
 our little planetary system is but the innermost 
 reaches of the illimitable universe, and as sun 
 after sun and constellation after constellation 
 reach on and on in a complexity of systems so vast 
 that only the mind of God has power to grasp 
 the complexity of it all, so only God may know 
 the capacities and possibilities of an immortal soul. 
 * * * 
 
 The soul of man contains both the past and the 
 future. We are part of the first cause which 
 originated all things and which leads through 
 every experience and transformation to the end 
 that was ordained for the beginning. Each specK 
 of protoplasm originating in the womb of Infinity 
 held within itself all the potentialities of the im- 
 mortal soul. Step by step and round by round in 
 the endless cycles of evolution, the soul is unfold- 
 ing its possibilities and powers. Eternity has time 
 enough for the full development of every latent 
 talent ; and through his every growing spiritual 
 power, man is drawing ever nearer to the divine 
 fulfillmnet of his immortal destiny. 
 
 If materalistic science cannot explain the origin- 
 ation of life, no more can such science explain the 
 law of gravitation, the law of motion as against 
 the natural forces of nature that tend to rest and 
 inaction. No one knows why a stone falls to the 
 ground, nor why it falls sixteen feet in the first 
 second ; no one knows why frost crystals are sym- 
 metrical nor why the rose is red and the violet 
 blue, and science cannot explain human intelli- 
 gence and the existence of the immortal soul with 
 its capacity for joy and sorrow, its deep wells of 
 affection, and hope of immortality ; therefore, ma- 
 terialistic science does not accept the immortality 
 of the soul. 
 
 Is is consistent to believe that this body of ours 
 when consigned to the elements shall live again in 
 
 ' 5 
 
leaf and flower, in plant and tree, but that our 
 human intelligence and love all that has made 
 life beautiful and worth while shall at the death 
 of the body pass into oblivion and cease to exist 
 forever"? 
 
 Between the infinite past, when, as science 
 maintains, there was no life, and the infinite future 
 when there will be no life, the moment of the 
 present emerges, a moment only, though measured 
 by millions of years. In this moment of time, man 
 as a child of the dust has painfully developed so 
 far as to become conscious of the difference be- 
 tween right and wrong. He knows that good is 
 that which promotes development and is in har- 
 mony with health, beauty and happiness, and he 
 learns to recognize evil as that which retards and 
 frustrates development, and is akin to disease, ugli- 
 ness and misery ; therefore, he is said to possess a 
 soul and a hope of immortality, but to what pur- 
 pose to what end ? 
 
 It is said by a modern scientist that our earth 
 has been destroyed many times by the power of 
 radium. Radium emanations have been found in 
 springs, in the air, in rocks, etc., and this has given 
 rise to his theory regarding the evolution of the 
 worlds. He says scientists have deduced that if 
 the earth contained only two parts radium per mil- 
 lion million, this minute quantity would raise the 
 temperature of the earth's core 1800 degrees in 100,- 
 000,000 years, there being no escape for the im- 
 prisoned heat. He argues that as the ages roll 
 by, the interior of the earth must become hotter 
 and hotter, until finally, after millions of millions 
 of years, the crust may give way to the heat within, 
 and the bursting earth go up in flames, becoming a 
 burning gas ball, just as our sun appears today. 
 This he calls the incandescent age. After another 
 ten million years the incandescent earth will have 
 expended all its heat into space by radiation and 
 gradually will cool. A new crust then begins to 
 form. This is seen at present on Jupiter and 
 Saturn. Thus he argues that worlds do not die, 
 but slowly pass from one stage to another, in an 
 endless cycle. 
 
 If this theory is true, where then has been the 
 soul of man, and what record has been kept in 
 the archives of eternity of his intellectual, moral 
 and spiritual progress? In the wreck and dissolu- 
 tion of worlds are souls annihilated, and has God 
 no record of the universe no link to bind the past 
 with the present and the future *? 
 
 If the soul may not live again in another life, 
 in another world, why is it made greater than this 
 world ? Why should the soul desire immortality 
 if that desire may not be satisfied*? We like to 
 think of ourselves as living after millions of year.-, 
 and sometimes in moments of exaltation we dimly 
 
remember that we have always existed, in fact we 
 believe that we are immortal. Why then should 
 we be tantalized by a dream that is only a dream? 
 We may promise ourselves a limited existence after 
 this life, but we will not be satisfied the soul can 
 accept nothing short of eternity. This eagerness 
 with which we look beyond the present to the 
 future is a promise of immortality. The soul is 
 never satisfied, and if. we are not heirs of immor- 
 tality, then we are too divine. 
 
 In all the ancient mysteries is beautifully sym- 
 bolized a belief in the immortality of the soul. In 
 autumnal decay, in wintry darkness and buried 
 seed, in opening bud, and summer light and ripen- 
 ing fruit is symbolized the fate of man. In the 
 Mystical Hymns of Orpheus is a hymn to Adonis 
 in which he is likened to the sun, sinking to Tar- 
 tarus, the black abyss under the earth the realm 
 of the dead then rising again to Heaven, the 
 bright expanse above the earth which was the 
 realm of the living. When he rises, all things 
 rejoice in his smile ; when he sinks nightly, sky and 
 earth wrap themselves in mourning. 
 
 Thus the human destiny was symbolically in- 
 terwoven with nature. Aphrodite, bewailing the 
 death of Adonis, is nature mourning for departed 
 man. Every autumn Persephone, symbol of the 
 buried grain, was carried down to the dark realm 
 of shadows, from whence she returned each spring, 
 becoming the "Queen of the Dead." Thus the 
 changes of nature typified the changes in the hu- 
 man lot, and the earliest immagination of man 
 was concerned with the immortality of the soul. 
 
 Socrates tried to explain the desire for immor- 
 tality in the hypothesis of the soul's pre-existence 
 to that of the body in the bosom of the Absolute, 
 the Infinite, the Eternal. The ideas which Socrates 
 held to be universal, and of primary importance, 
 were those of Equality, Justice, Goodness, Beauty, 
 etc., and he held that the world could not have 
 been made beautiful if there had not existed a pri- 
 mary conception of beauty. We must acknowledge 
 that mind has always existed, or something must 
 have arisen out of nothing. That we do not all 
 remember a previous existence is no proof against 
 our having had a previous existence. Sometimes 
 even in this life our recollection of certain events 
 is blotted out and sometimes the memory suddenly 
 returns of events that have not crossed our minds 
 for years. May we not conclude that the time will 
 come when we will be enabled to recall the events 
 of many lifetimes, when the aggregated experience 
 will lead to a fuller comprehension of God's Great 
 Eternal Plan ; and when we more fully compre- 
 hend will we not be more sympathetic and compas- 
 sionate toward those intelligences who are yet not 
 as highly evolved as ours*? 
 
The kind of immortality imagined by Socrates 
 was that of metempsychosis or endless progres- 
 sion. This theory has been attributed to Pytha- 
 gorus, but in an old Philosophy of Ancient Greece 
 we find the following: 
 
 "Herodotus affirms this tenet to have been first 
 taught by the Egyptians, and from them communi- 
 cated to the Greeks, although some of his country- 
 men assumed it as their own invention. It, was, as 
 he understood it, to this purpose ; that the human 
 soul, for the sake either of punishment or purga- 
 ation frcin corporeal attachments, was ordained to 
 roll through all the varieties of animal bodies, 
 whether those of the earth, or of the water, or of 
 the air; and having completed its -course of such 
 vicissitudes, in the space of three thousand years, 
 it then returned to inanimate bodily form. But 
 this doctrine, or what was similar to it, was by no 
 means peculiar to the Egyptians. It obtained among 
 the Celtae of Gaul, whose Druids taught that the 
 human soul did not perish, but passed from one 
 body to another ; and held also this general prin- 
 ciple, that all things which were in existence, 
 although changeable in their corporeal forms, re- 
 tained still their distinct natures or essences. The 
 immortality of the soul was the boasted principle 
 of the Scythian Getse, who got their particular 
 denomination from it; and, together with that of 
 the transmigration, was generally spread amongst 
 the eastern nations, as the common doctrine of 
 their philosophers." 
 
 The ancient Egyptians had a conception of a re- 
 volt and battle among the gods, when the defeated 
 deities were thrust out of heaven and shut up in 
 prison bodies of flesh. Life was a pennance, neces- 
 sarily repeated in order to be effectual. 
 
 In the ancient Celtic mysteries established at 
 Samothrace and observed by the Druids, the ap- 
 plicant was led through a series of scenic repre- 
 sentations "without the aid of words," which sha- 
 dowed forth in symbolic forms, the transmigration 
 of souls. He assumed the shape of a grain of 
 wheat, a tree, a rabbit, a hen, a horse, etc. He 
 died, was buried, and was born anew, rising from 
 a dark confinement, which symbolized a tomb, to 
 life again. The heirophant then put him in a lit- 
 tle boat and set him adrift, pointing to a distant 
 rock which was called "The Harbor fo Life," and 
 across the stormy waters he sought to gain the 
 beckoning refuge. * 
 
 The doctrine of the Ancients in regard to the 
 endless progression of the soul is not refuted in 
 the Christian doctrine of immortality, for Paul's 
 idea of a future life was not that of the resur- 
 rection of the same body, but that of the soul from 
 one body to another from one "corruptible body" 
 
to "an incorruptible body", from an earthly body 
 to a celestial body, and the process of regeneration 
 or reincarnation, if you please was likened to 
 that of the vegetations of the seed, "for that which 
 thou sowest is not quickened except it die." 
 
 There are many instances in the Christian Scrip- 
 tures which show that a belief in reincarnation was 
 received among the Jews. It is recorded that as 
 Jesus was passing near Siloam with His disciples 
 He saw a man who had been blind from his birth, 
 and the disciples said to Him : "Master, who did 
 sin, this man or his parents, that he was born 
 blind ?" When Herod heard of the miracles of 
 Jesus, he said: "This is John the Baptist, whom I 
 beheaded ; he is risen from the dead, and therefore 
 mighty works are wrought by Him." At another 
 time, Jesus asked His 1 disciples whom the people 
 thought He was, and they replied : "Some think 
 thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and some 
 Jeremiah, or some other of the old prophets, a 
 forerunner of Messiah." 
 
 Then Jesus asked : 
 
 "But who think ye that I am ?" 
 
 And Simon Peter said : "Thou art the promised 
 Messiah himself" for there was a tradition among 
 the Jews derived from the words of the Prophet 
 Malachi, that before the Messiah was received, 
 Elias would appear and proclaim His coming. 
 Therefore when the disciples recognized Him as 
 the Christ they were confused in regard to the 
 prophecy and asked the Master: "Why do the 
 scribes say that Elias must first come, and He 
 replied, in substance : "It is even so, the prophet's 
 words shall not fail ; they are now fulfilled, but 
 you do not understand. It does not mean that the 
 ancient prophet will appear again in the same 
 physical body, but one in his spirit and power 
 shall go before me ; John the Baptist is the Elias 
 which is to come." 
 
 Of all the parables of the Christ, the most im- 
 pressive one the one fraught with deepest mean- 
 ing is the following one : 
 
 "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should 
 cast seed into the ground and the seed should 
 grow up, but when the fruit is ripe, he putteth 
 in the sickle, because the harvest is come." 
 
 Thus we are sown in this world to ripen and be 
 harvested and garnered in another world and in 
 another sphere of being. And in the beautiful 
 assurance to his disciples. "In my father's house 
 are many mansions," we may conceive of the uni- 
 verse as one vast house of many rooms or man- 
 sions. We may pass* from one room to another, 
 and Oliver Wendell Holmes probably had this 
 beautiful conception or symbol of Jesus in mind 
 
when he wrote The Chambered Nautilus, in which 
 the closing stanza : 
 
 Build thee more stately mansions, O my Soul, 
 
 As the swift seasons roll 
 
 Leave thy low vaulted past 
 
 Let each new mansion, nobler than the last, 
 
 Shut thee from Heaven with a dome more vast 
 
 Till thou at length art free, 
 
 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting 
 
 And the goal of many lives shall be, as the 
 Buddha said at the moment when he had achieved 
 a state of detachment and at Oneness with the 
 Infinite. 
 
 "Through many different births 
 
 I have run, vainly seeking 
 
 The architect of the desire-resembling house. 
 
 Painful are repeated births, 
 
 House Builder, I have seen thee, 
 Again a house thou canst not build for me, 
 
 1 have broken thy rafters and ridge pole, 
 
 I have arrived at the extinction of evil desire. 
 My mind is gone to Nirvana." 
 
 The repeated return of the soul to the earth in 
 a different body and amid different surroundings 
 is made necessary, if we are to accept the law of 
 evolution, and no intelligent person of today will 
 say that souls are especially created for a new body. 
 Souls develop slowly, through many experiences, 
 and the many times repeated incarnation is 
 for the purpose of bringing the soul with every 
 type of experience so that it may develop spirit- 
 uality or Godlike qualities and the soul is always 
 born into the condition it has made for itself, for 
 throughout the successive incarnations of the soul 
 the Law of Karma, the all-pervading Law of 
 Causation has controlled his destiny. As then 
 are all possible grades of civilization in natioiif, 
 so there are all possible grades in the position of 
 individuals which make up the nations. One is 
 rich, another poor, one has health, another is a 
 cripple or deformed ; one has opportunity and 
 another hopelessness ; one is born into surround- 
 ings that elevate,- another into surroundings which 
 bring only suffering. Karma teaches that a soul 
 is placed just where it belongs ; that a man pos- 
 sesses what he has earned, and receives what he 
 deserves, and that this law was set in motion by a 
 great Loving Power that controls the Universe ; 
 that when we are in harmony with this law it 
 helps us and all creatures,^ and that while our 
 existence here in this life is but temporary, real 
 existence continues, without ceasing, in higher or 
 lower forms according as we make use of the 
 opportunities which this life affords, and that we 
 
 10 
 
are aided in the development of our higher self 
 by beings more highly evolved than ourselves to 
 whom we are bound by a mighty -fellowship of 
 love, and that as our spirits are attuned to the 
 spirit of righteousness we may have communion 
 with saints and fellowship with God to whom, 
 through our long pilgrimage, we are bound by in- 
 visible chains of love, and likewise to all other 
 souls, who also partake of divinity, and whom we 
 cannot injure without injuring ourselves. 
 
 I cannot do better than to. close this article with 
 the eloquent words of William Jennings Bryan : 
 
 "If the Father deigns to touch with divine powei 
 the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn 
 and to make it burst forth from its prison walls>, 
 will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of 
 man, made in the image of his Creator? If He 
 stoops to give to the rosebush whose withered blos- 
 soms float upon the autumn breeze the sweet as- 
 surance of another springtime, will He refuse the 
 words of hope to the sons of men when the frosts 
 of winter come *? If matter, mute and inanimate, 
 though changed by the forces of nature into a 
 multitude of forms, can never die, will the spirit 
 of man suffer annihilation when it has paid a brief 
 visit like a royal guest to this tenement of clay "I 
 No ; I am as sure that there is another life as I am 
 that I live today. 
 
 "In Cairo I secured a few grains of wheat that 
 had slumbered for more than three thousand years 
 in an Egyptian tomb. As I looked at them this 
 thought came into my mind : If one of those 
 grains had been planted on the banks of the Nile 
 the year after it grew and all its lineal descend- 
 ants planted and replanted from that time until 
 now, its progeny would today be sufficiently nu- 
 merous to feed the teeming millions of the world. 
 If this invisible germ of life in the grain of wheat 
 can thus pass unimpaired through three thousand 
 resurrections, I shall not doubt that my soul has 
 power to clothe itself with a body suited to its 
 new existence when this earthly frame has crum- 
 bled into dust." 
 
 NATURE 
 
 Nature never did betray 
 
 The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege 
 Through all the years of this our life to lead 
 From joy to joy; for she can so inform 
 The mind that is within us so impress 
 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 
 Nor greeting where no kindness is, nor all 
 The dreary Intercourse of daily life, 
 Shall e'er prevail against us. 
 
 William Wordsworth. 
 
 11 
 
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 
 
 The one first postulate or ground principle of 
 our philosophy of life is the great Law of Karma, 
 or Causation. All beings below the Infinite One 
 are bound in the chains of Environment by the 
 consequences of their virtues or vices. Merit or 
 demerit can only be balanced or neutralized by the 
 full fruition of its own natural and inevitable con- 
 sequences. The arrow continues in flight until all 
 of its imparted power is spent. Thus the cessation 
 of a virtue or vice does not put an end to its 
 effects until the full force is exhausted. 
 
 Philosophy teaches obedience to Natural Law. 
 
 Karma is one of the fundamental laws of na- 
 ture, and like all laws of nature, it is eternal, 
 invariable, inviolable, changeless and never to be 
 broken. But we need not feel ourselves hope- 
 lessly in the grip of a mighty power that whirls 
 us away wherever it will, for this power may be- 
 come a blessing to us in its action upon ourselves 
 and others, as soon as we have at our command 
 sufficient knowledge to work in accordance with 
 the law. For only by obedience to the law are 
 we enabled to conquer the law, and become 
 "Masters of our fate." 
 
 We learn that mental and moral laws are a 
 part of natural law that God's law and nature 
 are not in continual warfare as our old Orthodox 
 conception of the Universe led us to believe, but 
 that moral law and natural law is in complete 
 harmony that the physical and super-physical 
 worlds inter-penetrate and that causes set going in 
 one bring about results in the other. Karma is but 
 natural law the law of cause and effect. It un- 
 derlies all other laws, and none may escape it. 
 
 All parts of a world, of a system, or a universe, 
 are inter-related, and whatever affects a part affects 
 the whole. God is All and in All and man must 
 place before his mind the ideal of perfect unity 
 with all that exists. As the Early Egyptian phi- 
 losophy teaches, "All things are of One, and One 
 is all things." If all things are of One, and One 
 is all things, then my brother's Karma is my 
 Karma, and when man becomes fully conscious of 
 his own divinity he is conscious of the divinity of 
 every other soul. All are a part of the Absolute 
 the Eternal and if in manifestation some are 
 unequal or not as highly evolved mentally or 
 spiritually as others, the universe must be laid 
 under tribute to their wants, for not one soul can 
 attain to the highest perfection of bliss and peace 
 and eternal compensation as long as" any other 
 soul is held by Karma and separate from the 
 bosom of the Eternal Good of All. 
 
 According to the way we live, whether it be in 
 harmony with the great spirit of Truth and-Unity, 
 or whether it be in fighting against these and 
 
 12 
 
seeking selfish ends, so will be the results that we 
 bring about in our lives. Thus, by a knowledge 
 of the great law of Karma, we are enabled to 
 hasten our evolution for as we each and every 
 one of us have within us a^ spark of divinity 
 having come forth in the beginning from God, 
 and having passed through millions of different 
 stages in all kinds of forms we should at last 
 become "perfectly wise and perfectly good," and 
 be at One with Him who is the Creator and Author 
 of our Universe and in whom we now "live and 
 move and have our being." When we started on 
 our long pilgrimage we were only inert matter 
 and asleep but the little spark of divinity or 
 Light we had received from God has led us on 
 and on, growing brighter and brighter all the way, 
 quickening our senses and developing our minds, 
 and our sympathies and at the end of our- jour- 
 ney we shall have gained the power of being per- 
 fectly conscious on every plane of the Universe 
 or identified with all that exists and with God, 
 who is our Goal. 
 
 This world this universe or any other uni- 
 verse has always existed in the Thought of the 
 Creator. But we can only grasp only realize 
 such phenomena such part as our finite minds 
 have power to grasp successively. There may be 
 a thousand things in heaven and earth undreamed 
 of in our philosophy. If our eyes were opened to 
 see the inner worlds, how vast would be their 
 comprehensive organization, but our- knowledge 
 may not transcend our experience. To understand 
 God would mean to be God but the relation of 
 the individual mind to the universal mind may be 
 conceived and the organization of the corporeal 
 world is the expression of this relation in the 
 phenomenal world. Our abstract knowledge en- 
 ables us to see that our physical life is riot inde- 
 pendent, but is contained in a larger system. So 
 the long chains of Intermediate links of suc- 
 cessive phenomena with their relative inter-de- 
 pendence lead us into the all embracing com- 
 bination of the divine life. 
 
 On a large scale the order of Creation or causa- 
 tion is chaos, light, worlds, vegetable forms, ani- 
 mal life ; then man, then soul, then spirit, and 
 then what? There begins the long journey home- 
 ward to to God. 
 
 As in the Creation of the natural world, so in 
 the mental and moral worlds there is always some 
 link between phenomena that is never broken. 
 One event one act brings into existence another 
 event another act, or another effect and as an 
 immagination of high power seizes and assocites 
 at the same moment all the important ideas of 
 its work, so that while it is working with any one 
 of them it is at the same moment fitting them 
 
 13 
 
all into a perfect whole, so the faster Minds, 
 the Builders or Devas of the Universe, are fitting 
 all the little events all the little trials and dis- 
 cipline and suffering of our lives into the beauti- 
 ful pattern that exists in the thought of the 
 Eternal. 
 
 So long as we live in harmony with the law it will 
 be well with us, and although we may be far re- 
 moved from the possession of infinite goodne^a, 
 infinite power and infinite wisdom, we have come 
 to the attainment of the True Knowledge which 
 secures emancipation, and by obedience to the Law 
 are we enabled to conquer the law. 
 
 When viewed from the brief duration of time, 
 life seems confusion, but when we have acquired 
 an understanding of the Truth we know that there 
 is always exact compensation, eternal justice, an 
 abiding peace and fullness of joy, and fruition of 
 all our hopes. Sin and sorrow and suffering exist, 
 but behind all the conditions of existence is found 
 the great truth of eternal compensation of eter- 
 nal Justice. 
 
 Theosophists, of all people in the world, should 
 be the most forgiving, for as the French say, "Tout 
 comprendre, c'est tout pardonner" to understand 
 all is to pardon all. When once the great plan of 
 the Logos is revealed to our vision we forget self 
 and our own petty interests in divine service to all, 
 and we are not alone in our service to humanity, 
 for above us rises a great hierarchy of more highly 
 developed Beings who are assisting in our evolu- 
 tion and the evolution of every other soul. When 
 once the Gospel of Divine Wisdom has permeated 
 our minds, the glory of it will shine through our 
 lives, making us teachers of the Truth whether 
 we will or not. 
 
 It is a joyous thing to have come into possession 
 of a Truth that brings with it a certainty of help 
 to others in the great problems of life. When one 
 we love is bound down 'neath the weight of sorrow 
 or pain,- we need not be dumb in their presence, 
 or prate idly of "God's will", for out of the evil 
 of long ago shall come a present or future good, 
 and the acceptance of duties, trusts and environ- 
 ments may be made a stepping-stone to the higher 
 life of the soul. How joyous to know that there 
 is nothing to be saved from but ourselves our 
 own error and ignorance, and selfishness ; no divine 
 wrath, no place of eternal punishment ; and that 
 the whole world is moving forward to an end more 
 glorious than the highest flight of poetic imagina- 
 tion may yet conceive ; and, more glorious still, 
 to know that we will not be separated from those 
 we love, for as our lives in the past have 
 formed the associations of this life, the law of 
 attraction holds good in all the worlds, and 
 although we may be separated while the soul of 
 
 14 
 
some loved one returns to earth for other experi- 
 ences and other lessons, the time of the separation 
 will not be long, for in the scheme of eternity a 
 thousand years are as but a day, and when 
 we have reached the plane of Wisdom, or Divine 
 love, we are free from rebirth, and our progress 
 will thenceforth be on spiritual planes, where there 
 is no separation. 
 
 THE PURSUIT OF THE DIVINE IDEAL 
 
 I am Life Human Life 
 
 I have tasted mortal tears. 
 
 Memories of other worlds are mine ; 
 
 Touches of unseen lips upon my brow thrill me 
 with remembered bliss of days that are no 
 more. 
 
 Voices from the infinite reaches of Eternity are 
 bidding me hasten onward to the consumma- 
 tion of my desire. 
 
 I am Life Human Life 
 
 The vast, haunting, bewildering and inevitable 
 
 riddle of the ages ; 
 I am human sorrow and the incarnation of human 
 
 hope ; 
 Through measureless wanderings and triumphant 
 
 rest, 
 I have sensed the visible and invisible worlds. 
 
 I am Life Human Life 
 
 The entire and eternal soul revelation of the 
 universe ; 
 
 The Hindus, Egyptians, Chinese, iJruids, Phoeni- 
 cians, 
 
 Etruscans, and old Slavonic peoples have in me a 
 common origin ; 
 
 I am the Genesis and Exodus of the world. 
 
 Through poverty, oppression and slavery, 
 
 Through migrations and colonizations and endless 
 flights, 
 
 From primeval forests and barren wastes of desert 
 sands ; 
 
 From Egypt, India and Scythia, 
 
 Through sunny fields of Southern Italy and in- 
 cense breathing Arabia; 
 
 Across the Euphrates and the Tigris and the 
 flowering vales of Cashmere, 
 
 From Eleusina, Mecca and Jerusalem, 
 
 I have passed to the Elysium of the soul. 
 
 I am Life Human Life the mother of gods 
 
 and men. 
 I am the Egyptian Isis and Osiris the Hindu Isi 
 
 and Isana ; 
 
 The Demeter and Dionysus of Greece, the Roman 
 Ceres and Bacchus ; the Disa and Frey of Scan- 
 v dinavia, 
 
 15 
 
And the Mater Dolorosa and Dominus Salvator of 
 the Christian world. 
 
 In my poems of truth, in philosophy, art and 
 religion, 
 
 Is revealed my hatred of intolerance and injustice ; 
 
 My cry for Freedom and my prayer for Light. 
 
 I have repeated myself in different phases, in dif- 
 ferent ages, and under different skies, 
 
 And in each cycle of evolution from flights into 
 darkness and resurrections into Light, 
 
 I have come nearer to the Great Ideal. 
 
 I am Life Human Life 
 
 I have known love, fame, ambition, treachery and 
 defeat. 
 
 In moments of my greatest triumph has been re- 
 vealed my utmost frailty. 
 
 As deep as is my mystery, so deep is my sorrow; 
 
 My days of rejoicing have been changed to weep- 
 ing. 
 
 War, avarice, and hate make desolate my fair 
 fields. 
 
 Death shadows my footsteps and my sorrow is re- 
 peated without end. 
 
 I am Life Human Life 
 
 The mystery of the ages, the riddle of the Sphinx, 
 
 the Isis of a thousand names, 
 And my answer is ever the same : 
 "I am all that has been, is or shall be, and any 
 
 veil no mortal hath yet uncovered." 
 
 I am Life Divine Life 
 
 Ever I walk the earth as one wuose spiritual ear 
 
 is attuned to other worlds and other planes 
 
 of being; 
 The far tone of ante-natal music from out the 
 
 "misty realms of memory the pathos and pas- 
 sion and beauty of a dream, 
 Thrill me and haunt me, with remembrance of that 
 
 Divine land from which I came arid to which 
 
 I shall return 
 When the days of my pilgrimage are over and the 
 
 Peace which passeth all understanding shall 
 
 encompass my soul. 
 
 The truest heroism is that which is unseen, 
 unknown. Public martyrdom of every shade has 
 a certain eclat and popularity connected with 
 it, that will often bear men up to endure with 
 courage its trials ; but those who suffer alone, 
 without sympathy, for truth or principle, those 
 who, unnoticed by men, maintain their post, and 
 in obscurity, and amid discouragement, patiently 
 fulfil their trust, these are the real heroes of the 
 age, and the suffering they bear is the truest mar- 
 tyrdom. 
 
 16 
 
A WREATH OF POSY FOR THE ROSE 
 
 "A flower is not a flower alone ; 
 
 A thousand sanctities invest it, 
 And, as they form a radiant zone, 
 Around its simple beauty thrown, 
 Their magic tint becomes its own, 
 
 As if their spirit had possessed it." 
 
 The Persians have a tradition that all roses were 
 white until Bulbul, the nightingale, burning with 
 love for a fair rose, pierced it with a thorn, and 
 her blood as she expired tinged the leaves of the 
 flower with red ; but Carey's poetic lines are. more 
 beautiful : 
 
 "As erst in Eden's blissful bowers 
 Young Eve surveyed her countless flowers, 
 An opening rose of purest white 
 She marked with eye that beamed delight. 
 Its leaves she kissed and straight it drew 
 From beauty's lips the vermeil hue." 
 
 That all roses were originally white the poets 
 would have us believe, and Anacreon, the Greek 
 poet, says that they arose from the foam that hung 
 in snow-white flakes on the limbs of Aphrodite, as 
 she came forth from the sea in transcendant beauty. 
 
 In the study of mythologic symbolism a rose in 
 bloom was a symbol of divinity. It was God, both 
 male and female, manifested as Love and Light. 
 It was born of the sun and the morning star. Its 
 color was that of the dawn as beautifully set forth 
 by the poet Ansonius : 
 
 "There Paestan roses blushed before my view, 
 Bedropped with early morning's freshening dew ; 
 'Twere doubtful if the blossoms of the rose 
 Had robbed the morning, or the morning those ; 
 In dew and tint the same, the star and flower, 
 For both confess the Queen of Beauty's power. 
 Perchance their sweets the same, but this more nigh 
 Exhales the breath, while that embalms the sky". 
 
 It was also the symbol of youth. Youth is the 
 rose-time of love, the June of its summer. 
 
 The tendency of roses to quickly fade has given 
 the poets of every land a simile for fleeting youth : 
 
 "Go, lovely rose ! 
 Tell her that wastes her time and me, 
 
 That now she knows, 
 v When I resemble her to thee, 
 
 How sweet and fair she seems to be ! 
 ******* 
 
 "Then die, that she ; 
 The common fate of all things rare 
 
 May read in thee 
 How small a part of time they share 
 That are so wondrous sweet and rare." 
 
 17 
 
And Hafiz, the Persian poet, questions : 
 
 "Can cheeks where living roses blow, 
 Where nature spreads her richest dyes, 
 Require the borrowed gloss of Art?" 
 
 But as the nature lore of earliest times also 
 reflected the very opposite, so the rose as a symbol 
 of life also reflected Death, as typified by the cruel 
 thorns which remained after the rose had van- 
 ished ; and this symbolism is also expressed by 
 Ansonius : 
 
 "I saw a moment's interval divide 
 The rose that blossomed from the rose that died. 
 This with its cap of tufted moss looked green ; 
 That, tipped with reddening purple, peeped be- 
 tween ; 
 
 One reared its obelisk with opening swell, 
 The bud unsheathed its crimson pinnacle ; 
 Another, gathering every purpled fold, 
 Its foliage multiplied ; its blooms unrolled, 
 The teeming chives shot forth ; the petals spread ; 
 The bow-pot's glory reared its smiling head; 
 While this, that ere the passing moment flew 
 Flamed forth one blaze of scarlet on the view, 
 Now shook from withering stalk the waste per- 
 fume, 
 
 Its verdure stript, and pale its faded bloom. 
 I marvelled at the spoiling flight of time, 
 That roses thus grew old in earliest prime ; 
 E'en while I speak, the crimson leaves drop 'round, 
 And a red brightness veils the blushing ground. 
 These forms, these births, the changes, bloom, de- 
 cay, 
 
 Appear and vanish in the self-same day. 
 The flower's brief grace, O Nature ! moves my 
 
 sighs, 
 
 Thy gifts, just shown, are ravished from our eyes. 
 One day the rose's age ; and while it blows 
 In dawn of youth, it withers to its close. 
 The rose the glittering sun beheld at morn, 
 Spread to the light its blossoms newly born, 
 When in his round he looks from evening skies 
 Already droops in age, and fades, and dies. 
 Yet blest that, soon to fade, the numerous flower 
 Succeeds herself, and still prolongs her hour. 
 O virgins ! roses cull, while yet ye may ; 
 So bloom your hours, and so shall haste away." 
 
 The Persians claim that roses are a product of 
 their land : 
 
 "And in Eastern lands they talk in flowers, 
 
 And they tell in a garland their loves and cares ; 
 
 Each blossom that grows in their garden bowers 
 On its leaves a mystic language bears." 
 
 18 
 
In Persia the rose is inseparably connected with 
 the song of the nightingale. As one of their poets 
 has said : "You may place a hundred handf uls of 
 fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale, 
 yet he wishes not, in his constant heart, for more 
 than the sweet breath of his beloved rose. Moore 
 has crystallized the beautiful belief in poetry as 
 - beautiful as in "Lalla Rookh" : 
 
 "There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream, 
 And the nightingale sings round it all the day 
 
 long; 
 In the time of my childhood it was like a sweet 
 
 dream 
 To sit in the roses and hear the birds song. 
 
 That bower and the music I never forget, 
 But oft when alone in the bloom of the year 
 
 I think : Is the nightingale singing there yet, 
 Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeer '*? 
 
 And Byron alludes to it in "Giaour" : 
 
 "For there the rose 'mid crag and vale, 
 
 Sultana of the nightingale ; 
 
 The maid for whom his melody, 
 
 His thousand songs are heard on high, 
 
 Blooms blushing to her lover's tale." 
 
 The opening of the rosebuds by the singing of 
 the nightingale is a figure of speech much used b> 
 poets of the east. Thus: 
 
 "The nightingales warbled their enchanting notes 
 and rent the thin vests of the rosebud and the 
 rose." 
 
 Moore has told o'f the hundred-leaved rose of 
 Cashmere, but it is only a dream. 
 
 The Mohammedans say the rose sprung from 
 the sweat of Mohammed. Thus they will not 
 tread upon the leaves, or see them wither upon the 
 ground. 
 
 Solomon likens the church to the "Rose of 
 Sharon." And we read in Isaiah 35 (one of the 
 most beautiful chapters in the Bible) : "The desert 
 shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" a prophecy 
 that has been fulfilled in many desert places of 
 the earth. 
 
 The flower degraded by the Greeks and Romans 
 to feasts and conviviality was raised by the Chris- 
 tians to its true sphere. 
 
 In the Litany of Loretta the Blessed Virgin is 
 called "Rosa Mystica", or mystical rose, and in a 
 poem from the Spanish we read : 
 
 "When the Eternal God would make himself a 
 
 child, 
 
 To Gabriel he said, in tender voice, and smiled : 
 'Go, my Gabriel, go to the land of Galilee ; 
 
 19 
 
There, in a lonesome place, a hamlet you will see ; 
 'Tis Nazareth the blest, the blest for ever more, 
 Where you will see a rose-bough a-bloom beside 
 
 the door. 
 
 In a little house you will know it by the sign 
 Lives the chosen maiden, White Rose of David's 
 
 line. 
 
 In Montalembert's "Life of St. Elizabeth" is told 
 the legend of the miraculous roses. 
 
 St. Elizabeth often visited the poor and minis- 
 tered to their needs. At one time, during a time 
 when famine threatened in Hungary, over which 
 her husband ruled, and economy must be practiced 
 within the palace, Elizabeth could scarcely meet 
 the wants of her people, for her husband had for- 
 bidden her to distribute food. One case of suf- 
 fering especially appealed to her, and she concealed 
 some articles of food in the folds of her dress, go- 
 ing alone on her mission of charity. 
 
 Just as she had descended the castle steps she 
 met her husband and some friends returning from 
 the chase. The king was astounded to see her, 
 and asked her to reveal to him her secret mission. 
 She held her dress in terror to her breast, but he 
 gently disengaged her hands and discovered only 
 sweet clusters of red and white roses ! 
 
 Shakespeare has made Juliet avow that "a rose 
 by any other name would smell as sweet" ; but we 
 doubt it. A rose is a rose, and its associations 
 are peculiarly its own, as is also its name, and of 
 all roses the writer loves the sweet wild rose the 
 best, because it is so intimately associated with 
 childhood days. 
 
 During Caesar's reign so abundant had forced 
 flowers become in that city that when the Egyp- 
 tians, intending to compliment him on his birth- 
 day, sent him roses in midwinter, they found their 
 present almost valueless in the profusion of roses 
 in Rome. 
 
 The following translation, a Latin Ode to Caesar 
 upon the present, will give some idea of the state 
 of floriculture then. There were hundreds of 
 varieties of roses, cultivated by the Romans now 
 entirely lost : 
 
 "The ambitious inhabitants of the land watered 
 by the Nile have sent thee, O Caesar, the roses 
 of winter, as a present valuable for its novelty, 
 but the boatman of Memphis will laugh at the 
 gardens of Pharoah, as soon as he has taken one 
 step in thy capital city, for the spring in all its 
 charms and the flowers in their fragrance and 
 beauty, equal the glory of the fields of Palestine. 
 Wherever he wanders or casts his eyes, every street 
 is brilliant with garlands of roses. And thou, O 
 Nile, must yield to the fogs of Rome. Send us 
 thy harvests and we will send thee roses." 
 
 20 
 
SWEET LAND OF OUR VISIONS AND 
 DREAMS 
 
 When a child I learned of a place called Heaven, 
 
 Far away in the starry sky, 
 Where the souls of the good are carried 
 
 By the Angels, when they die. 
 I loved to hear of this far-away land, 
 
 The story was always new; 
 And I even wished that the Angels would come 
 
 And take me to Heaven, too. 
 
 Sometimes in my dreams I thought the clouds 
 
 At sunset as gates would unfold, 
 And I caught a glimpse of the glittering spires 
 
 Of that city whose streets are pure gold. 
 I saw the Angels, a white robed throng, 
 
 As they sang around the throne ; 
 Now that vision returns, though the years have 
 been long, 
 
 For memory treasures her own. 
 
 O, somewhere I know is a beautiful land, 
 
 Where the dreams and the dreamer shall meet; 
 Where the world weary soul shall find peace and 
 rest, 
 
 And the rest shall be long and sweet. 
 It may not be far since many I love 
 
 Have passed to that mystical shore 
 Some day we shall know and shall understand 
 
 With the faith of a child once more. 
 
 MY SONG 
 
 I sing a song of the one that fails, 
 
 Of the one who toils in vain ; 
 Of all who may never know the joy 
 
 That the victorious gain. 
 
 I sing of the man bowed down 'neath the weight 
 
 Of calumny and wrong 
 Battling hard with a cruel fate 
 
 Of him I sing my song. 
 
 I sing of the women who are driven down 
 
 Down into the depths of despair 
 God pity them all and grant that they 
 
 May Thy great mercy share. 
 
 I sing of the poor little stunted child 
 
 The child of despair and crime 
 O ! Heaven forbid that my heart should refuse 
 
 To give them more than a rhyme. 
 
 This world has laurels enough to bestow 
 
 On all who win in life's race ; 
 I sing of those on who fortune turns 
 
 A dark and frowning face. 
 
NATURE, THE GREAT TEACHER 
 
 It should be one of the chief points in the educa- 
 tion of children to awaken their susceptibility to 
 the charms of nature. They should early be taught 
 the delights of common things, in order that they 
 may take the place of that craving for sensation- 
 alism and artificiality which leads away from 
 the healthful pursuits of life. It is possible to 
 acquire a knowledge and love of nature in the 
 later years of life, but this knowledge nearly 
 always comes in the early education of childhood 
 days when the sensibilities are delicately impress- 
 ive and the desire for knowledge is most active. 
 
 Every child loves dirt and water and the open 
 air, and these elements fulfill a divine purpose in 
 his spiritual and physical economy. 
 
 The great business of childhood is growth, and 
 the first duty of a parent is to give to a child a 
 healthy body, for without a healthy body he can be 
 of but little use to the world. 
 
 Pure air is the life of the blood, which nourishes 
 the body. The terrible aggregate of infant mor- 
 tality in the cities shows how deadly impure air 
 is to the existence of infant life. Adults offensive 
 in air that children die in, or rather, die slowly 
 where children die quickly. Then, too, children 
 must have exercise, not gymnastics, but the free- 
 dom of the woods and the hills, in order to develop 
 every muscle, and they need contact with the dirt, 
 with the soil. Dirt is not filth ; dirty children are 
 those unclean from the unwashed excretions of 
 their skins. Many a sickly child allowed to play 
 in the dirt would become strong and well. Then, 
 too, there is the beneficent influence of the sunlight 
 which is essential to perfect health. Light is a 
 powerful stimulant to the skin, rousing it to the 
 performance of its excretory function. Many a 
 sickly child has been restored to health by daily 
 baths of sunlight in the open air. Life in the city' 
 is a life of shadow. Hundreds of thousands of chil- 
 dren sleep in rooms that are never reached by one 
 ray of sunlight, and on their way to and from 
 school they pass in the shadow of stone walls. God 
 pity them all, and may those who delight in phil- 
 anthropy devise some means whereby the schools, at 
 least, shall be great open-air courts, heated artificially 
 if necessary, where the sunlight many enter freely 
 at all times of the year. Of course, they may not 
 be deported bodily to the country, for there are 
 multitudes of people of ample means whose chil- 
 dren are entire strangers to the charms of country 
 life. Those people have no intelligent conception 
 of the necessity of pure air, exercise and sunlight 
 to the healthful development of their children. En- 
 grossed as they are in the pusuit of wealth and 
 pleasure, they forget the lives that have been 
 placed in their keeping. 
 
 22 
 
The late war took many a youth who had been 
 reared in an unnatural atmosphere of city life, 
 into the open-air training camps of the country and 
 made a man of him. 
 
 No child allowed to play in the dirt and sun- 
 light of the open air ever developed an unnatural 
 appetite for food or any sensual indulgence. Only 
 an unnatural, artificial life induces an unhealthful 
 appetite. A child that plays all day long has an 
 appetite for the simplest and best food. 
 
 Then, too, the early association of childhood 
 with nature is essential to the growth of a healthy 
 mind and a healthy soul. In the formative period" 
 of a child's life it is absolutely necessary that all 
 influences be such as tend to call out and develop 
 that which is good. Goodness cannot be developed 
 in an unhappy child, and the instinct of play, of 
 natural not artificial play is an animal instinct 
 which they hold in common with lambs, kittens, 
 puppies, and other young animals. 
 
 Nature is always the best teacher. To make the 
 personal acquaintance of plants, trees, hills, 
 and streams, and a thousand form of animal life ; 
 to observe the processes of birth and decay, of 
 seed time and harvest, and learn how by the labor 
 of human hands the food is drawn from the soil, 
 is a great privilege, and without such knowledge 
 no education can be complete. It is said that the 
 country boy holds the key to all knowledge, and 
 all literature, and in the knowledge of the relation 
 of nature to human want and human happiness he 
 is enabled to become a power and a leader in the 
 world of affairs. But it is not alone in its influ- 
 ence upon health and character that an early love 
 of nature is to be considered. A love of nature, 
 an intuitive understanding of nature, is a fountain 
 of inspiration to the soul. The soul attuned to the 
 contemplation of nature sees a thousand charms 
 never revealed to a sordid mind. Homer had no 
 books, yet his soul "kept house in the universe". 
 His heart, like the Aoelian harp, was responsive 
 to the passing breeze. A mind cannot fail to bring 
 good tidings whose feet are on the mountins. Our 
 greatest poets and prose writers, our greatest ora- 
 tors and artists have been those -most keenly sus- 
 ceptible to the delights of nature ; and in childhood 
 days we lay up in the receptacle of memory the 
 natural impressions which we draw upon for re- 
 freshment in after years. 
 
 To the student of nature is opened an inexhaust- 
 ible store of knowledge and enjoyment. To the 
 mind trained to think no object of nature, no 
 event of life is destitute of interest ; all places, all 
 times are full of interest, full of joy; "the music 
 of the spheres" is not an empty phrase, for he has 
 acquired a sense by which he hears it; the objects 
 of nature form an animated society in which he 
 
 23 
 
delights to dwell, and with all things he claims 
 brotherhood. 
 
 It is only the material or tangible part of nature 
 which may be calculated and made to minister to 
 sensual pleasures. If the lessons of the harvest 
 with its good seed and tares, and the angels its 
 reapers ; the teaching of the sparrow and the divine 
 love which watched over them ; the grass and the 
 lilies of the field clothed with splendor, bring no 
 lessons to the soul, then are we no more highly 
 evolved than the beasts that perish. The higher 
 the order of intelligence the more the divine image 
 becomes palpable in all around them, and more 
 highly evolved spirits and angels have perceptions 
 far more acute and rapturous than ours. High gifts 
 have been wrought into the dim soul which art. 
 destined to be gradually awakened through the 
 growing peerceptions of the mind. 
 
 In all the myriad forms of natural beauty in 
 the changing seasons, in the bursting bud and ex- 
 panding leaf, in liberated streams and singing birds 
 and timely showers and pulsing sod, is found the 
 renewal of organic life, the endless conceiving and 
 forming and begetting, through pain, death and 
 decay, through sorrow, hope and tears, into the 
 glorious consciousness of Divinity. There is no 
 understanding a little and leaving the rest for him 
 who would "consider the lily" and explore the 
 infinite realms which lead from nature up to Na- 
 ture's God. 
 
 In all the varied forms of nature is found a 
 beautiful symbolism and a marvelous fabric of 
 thought, and to those who understand their hidden 
 lore, every object is invested with deep significance 
 and earnest, passionate beauty. In fact, all that 
 the world has given to Beauty owes its incarnation 
 to the innate love of the monad for the manifest 
 laws of nature. 
 
 It is a mistake to think that all who are thrown 
 into close association with nature are lovers of 
 nature. In this twentieth century world lovers of 
 nature must acquire by education and observa- 
 tion a certain kind of intellectual training; not 
 necessarily the training purchased from accepted 
 schools of thought, whose diplomas and degrees 
 do not confer upon the recipient: any unusuat 
 powers of mind, but only imply the possession 
 of artificial knowledge derived from books, which 
 is an invaluable adjunct to education, but not 
 education itself. Education means development 
 from within. Most people think of education as 
 a process of filling up, or cramming, the brain 
 and memory with facts, data, etc. Children are 
 sent to school as to a prison to be confined and 
 handled and jilled up, and shook down and exam- 
 ined. True, education is purely and simply a 
 leading out into natural channels of development. 
 
 24-- 
 
The school room should be an enchanted spot 
 which the child may enter naturally and 
 joyously. Education is in the power of concen- 
 tration that leads to contemplation and medita- 
 tion. When the soul possesses these powers 
 it may go direct to the sources of knowledge. 
 "The privileges of the university will not sup- 
 ply the want of thought, but thought and ob- 
 servation will amply atone for them. And we 
 should be careful to place our children in schools 
 where they will be taught to think, observe and 
 derive their education and their happiness from 
 objects that lie immediately around them. It was 
 a beautiful idea of the ancients that the universe is 
 an allegorical representation, under the visible 
 forms of which are couched ideas -and wisdom that 
 only the wise can read. Every object of land and 
 sea was the subject of a myth, and this myth had 
 a meaning founded in the deepest laws of life, and 
 all were curiously connected in one vast system 
 dove and serpent, flower and tree, cup and ring, 
 were each the object of a pretty fable, having a 
 deep meaning, and each and all were the essen- 
 tial parts of one vast whole. Man had not learned 
 to worship God apart from His creation. This 
 form of worship is not common today, but excep- 
 tional. What the ancients possessed as intuitional 
 we may only regain by education and contempla- 
 tion. Sometimes, however, there are souls who 
 may yet discern the loveliness, the deep inner 
 meaning of things. We call them poets, painters, 
 people of genius, and speak of them as gifted, but 
 they have only brought over from the past in a 
 greater or less degree what the ancients possessed 
 as a natural sequence of their close association with 
 nature. Simple melodies, more highly evolved 
 forms, and less attractive colors appeal only to 
 people of intuitive minds. Among such simple and 
 refined pleasures are the song of birds, the study 
 of wild flowers, the formation of crystals, anu 
 all the varying aspects of nature in her more 
 retiring moods. 
 
 Of all the many forms of nature study none is 
 more delightful than a study of flowers, wild 
 flowers in particular, for in reality all flowers must 
 revert to their original type, and one need not be 
 familiar with all the technical terms and botanical 
 lore, although such knowledge of the schools is 
 helpful, when not detrimental, as it very often is, 
 to a revelation of those hidden mystical meanings 
 which the soul of things reveals to him who is 
 athirst for the truth. 
 
 Nature has made all her scenes and the sights 
 and sounds that accompany them more beautiful 
 by causing them to be suggestions of certain sensa- 
 tions. The music of birds, like the fragrance of 
 flowers, awakens the affections and the imagina- 
 
tion, delighting the soul with visions of memory, 
 of golden mornings and glorious sunsets, of rus- 
 tling leaves in the autumn woods of childhood, of 
 the song of the reapers under the harvest moon, 
 of hollyhocks and climbing roses, and the old elm 
 that beat a tattoo upon the roof that sheltered the 
 attic bed. 
 
 There are flowers too holy for culture and birds 
 whose tones inspire the soul with a sense of free- 
 dom and unutterable longings for the Infinite. 
 
 One of the sweetest poems the writer has ever 
 read is from the pen of Bliss Carmen, and is enti- 
 tled "The Rainbird". I give it here because of its 
 innate beauty and simplicity : 
 
 THE RAINBIRD 
 
 Far off I heard a rainbird, 
 Listen ! How fine and clear 
 
 His plaintive voice comes ringing 
 With rapture to the ear ! 
 
 Over the misty woodlots, 
 Across the first spring heat, 
 
 Comes the enchanted cadence, 
 So clear, so solemn-sweet. 
 
 How often I have hearkened 
 To that high pealing strain, 
 
 Across the cedar barrens, 
 Under the soft gray rain. 
 
 How often have I 'wondered, 
 And longed in vain to know 
 
 The source of that enchantment 
 That touch of long ago. 
 
 O brother, who first taught thee 
 To haunt the teeming spring 
 
 With that divine sad wisdom 
 Which only age can bring*? 
 
 Bliss Carman. 
 
 The poet is one gifted to read the mystic sym- 
 bols of nature. True poetic language always 
 expresses the invisible thought of the soul ; and, as 
 Coleridge has said: "Whenever you find a sen- 
 tence musically worded, of true rhythm and mel- 
 ody in the words, there is always something deep 
 and true in the meaning, too." 
 
 A philosopher once said : "If the gods would 
 grant me all knowledge, I wound not thank them 
 for the boon ; but if they would grant me the 
 everlasting pursuit of it, I would render them 
 everlasting thanks/' 
 
 26 
 
I LIVE IN THE GREAT FOREVER 
 
 With apologies to an ancient Hindu, who sang 
 the words I have quoted, many thousand years ago. 
 
 "I live in the great Forever, 
 
 I lave in the ocean of Truth : 
 I bask in the golden sunlight 
 
 Of endless love and youth. 
 
 God is within and around me, 
 
 All good is forever mine : 
 To all who seek, it is given, 
 
 And it comes by a law divine." 
 
 In the majesty of the tempest, 
 
 In the lightning that cleaves the night, 
 
 In the sorrow that lifts the spirit 
 Upward to realms of Light. 
 
 In the radiance of the morning, 
 
 In the glow of the evening sky : 
 In the song of the reapers returning, 
 
 After the day has gone by. 
 
 In success that rewards endeavor, 
 
 In peace at the close of day ; 
 In voices that come in the silence 
 
 From the land of the far-away. 
 
 In all the bright birds that are singing, 
 In all the fair flowers that bloom, 
 
 In the ceaseless resurrection 
 
 Of life from death and the tomb. 
 
 In the tender word that is spoken, 
 In -the laugh of a little child, 
 
 In the bread that is daily broken, 
 In the faith that is undefiled. 
 
 In the golden glow of the sunset, 
 In the silver sheen of the night, 
 
 In all the bright worlds above me, 
 Circling in radiance bright. 
 
 In the sunlight on hills and valleys, 
 In the scent of the rain-washed sod, 
 
 My soul is forever singing 
 In worship and praise to God. 
 
 Thus I live in the Great Forever, 
 With God, while eternities roll, 
 
 His spirit forsakes me never, 
 
 His love is the Home of my soul. 
 
 27 
 
SUPPLICATION AND ADORATION 
 
 (Written for the Church of the New Age) 
 
 Grant us Thy blessing, Lord, 
 
 As now before Thy throne 
 We kneel in adoration 
 
 And worship Thee alone, 
 Who art the Mighty Trinity 
 
 Of Wisdom, Love and Light. 
 Strengthen us in courage, 
 
 And guide us through the night 
 Of all our earthly sorrows 
 
 Until at last we stand 
 Rejoicing in Thy presence, 
 
 One great unbroken band, 
 Where Cherubim and Seraphim 
 
 And all the mighty throng 
 Sing praise to Him who is the theme 
 
 Of Love's triumphant song. 
 
 Thou art the King of Glory, 
 
 Descend to us, we pray, 
 For lo, the earth expectant waits 
 
 Thy coming, Lord, today. 
 Pour out Thy blessing freely 
 
 In all Thy sevenfold grace ; 
 Sanctify and purify, 
 
 That we may see Thy face. 
 We worship and adore Thee, 
 
 Make our spirits free 
 To come within the presence 
 Of Thine Infinite Majesty. 
 Thou art from the beginning 
 
 The Uncreated One 
 Thine essence is outpouring 
 
 All Power from sun to sun. 
 
 We worship and adore Thee, 
 
 May holy fires refine 
 And lift us from the dross of earth 
 
 To joys which are divine. 
 Submit the senses to the soul, 
 
 Exalt the highest self 
 And teach us to discriminate 
 
 In all Thy boundless wealth. 
 We worship and adore Thee, 
 
 Make our profession real, 
 That in a world of sorrow 
 
 We may have power to heal 
 And lift each burdened spirit 
 
 Unto Thy fount of Truth, 
 Where all may share the blessing 
 
 Of Thine immortal youth. 
 
 28 
 
We worship and adore Thee, 
 
 Because Thou art divine, 
 Thou gavest unto each of us 
 
 A little spark of Thine, 
 And dimly as our candle burns 
 
 Its feeble rays of Light 
 Are whispering of tomorrows 
 
 And guiding through the night, 
 And we have but to reach our hand 
 
 And clasp a brother's hand, 
 To form a mighty channel 
 
 And find that radiant bands 
 Are reaching upward to the Throne 
 
 From whence our light descends, 
 And that worlds and worlds of power 
 
 With our little candle blends. 
 
 FARE ON, MY SOUL! 
 
 "The awakened soul must sail or die." Edmund 
 Gosse. 
 
 Fare on, my soul, nor rest content ; 
 
 Thy course is ever onward bent ; 
 
 Though naked, poor, despised, alone, 
 
 Heaven waits for thee, thy way is known. 
 
 Fare on,- my soul, nor count the cost; 
 
 Fare on, my soul, though all is lost 
 
 That my poor heart so fondly craves ; 
 
 Fare on, my soul, through storm-tossed waves, 
 
 To that far haven where thou shalt reign 
 
 And all thy high estate regain. 
 
 Fare on, my soul, fare ever on, 
 Until thy goal at last is won ; 
 Though ages pass and stars grow old 
 Ere yet thy journey has been told ; 
 Press onward to the realms of light 
 Through all the sorrow of the night. 
 Thou art not fettered, thou art free! 
 Fare on, my soul, I'll follow the. 
 
 Published in the Messenger, Krotona, Holly- 
 wood, Los Angeles. 
 
 GROWTH 
 
 As through the sunshine and rain, 
 
 From seed to plant, then flower, 
 
 The world-old miracle is wrought 
 
 Of growth in Nature's bower. . 
 
 So not with observation comes 
 
 God's kingdom in the heart ; 
 
 His angels build all silently 
 
 And weave in every part 
 
 The golden threads of love and truth, 
 
 In joy, sometimes in tears 
 
 To Faith and Love shall be revealed 
 
 The fruitage of the years. 
 
 29 
 
THE LAW OF UNITY 
 
 In the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the Ro- 
 man philosopher, are found the following passages 
 which partook of the Ancient Wisdom: 
 
 "Constantly regard the universe as one living 
 being: and observe how all things have reference 
 to one perception, the perception of this one living 
 being ; and how all things act with one movement, 
 and how all things are the co-operating causes of 
 all things which exist. Observe, too, the continu- 
 ous spinning of the thread, and the contexture of 
 the web." 
 
 "Time is like a river made up of the events 
 which happen, and a violent stream, for as soon as 
 a thing has been seen it is carried away and an- 
 other comes in its place, and this will be carried 
 away too." 
 
 "In the series of things, those which follow are 
 always aptly fitted to those which have gone 
 before, for the series is not like a mere enumera- 
 tion of disjointed things, which has only a neces- 
 sary sequence, but it is a rational connection; and 
 as all existing things are arranged together har- 
 moniously, so all things which come into existence 
 exhibit no mere succession, but a certain wonderful 
 relationship." 
 
 "Frequently consider the connection of all things 
 in the universe and their relation to one another." 
 
 "We are all working together to one end some 
 with knowledge and design, and others without 
 knowing what they do."- 
 
 It seems to me that the Emperor of Rome dis- 
 covered in part a great truth, but he does not 
 take us far enough ; he does not give us any 
 reason for the great interdependence of all that 
 exists. We must go much farther back to the 
 most remote civilizations of ancient Egypt and 
 India, to find the triumphant Truth the grand- 
 eet inspiration ^that can come to any human soul 
 the thought of a Power, illimitable, incomprehen- 
 sible and eternal, behind all the phenomena of the 
 universe enduring while all things change fill- 
 ing immensity and eternity holding worlds, sys- 
 tems and universes moored to His throne, and yet 
 manifesting His love, in each grain of dust be- 
 neath our feet, in every atom of every universe 
 to whom he has given life and intelligence and 
 unity, with Himself the great Author and Creator 
 of All. 
 
 God is All, and in All, and man himself, whom 
 He has made a little lower "than the angels, and 
 clothed with glory and honor, is yet but a part of 
 the great cosmic law of the universe he cannot 
 separate himself from all other created things. 
 The longer he rebels against the law of unity, the 
 greater will be his suffering, for he must inevitably 
 return to at-one-ness with God and all that exists. 
 
 30 
 
Were the human soul complete in itself, no 
 necessity for striving would exist. Man would 
 be a God unto himself, but the innate longing for 
 the Infinite, and our yearning for that fullness of 
 time, when the past and future shall live with us 
 as really as the present itself, reveals itself in an 
 insane seizing upon something in the present which 
 we insist upon worshipping and calling divine. 
 "We cannot escape from the intuition of Eternal 
 Love ; it is ever knocking at the door of our hearts 
 in sweet unexpected missions of grace and tender- 
 ness. We are haunted by it in our lowliest walks, 
 and out of earth and sky, flowers and trees the 
 loveliness of moon and stars, and sweet human 
 eyes, creeps into our spirits the knowledge that God 
 is Love, and all His handiwork an expression of 
 harmony and unity. "There is an invisible bond 
 of unity between the finite and the infinite, and as 
 all are a part of the Infinite all are bound in the 
 unity of love. When man becomes fully awake 
 to his own divinity he is conscious of the divinity 
 of every other soul, and the problem of unity of 
 the finite and infinite has been solved. Indeed, 
 there are moments in our lives when we are deeply 
 conscious of the bond that unites us with all ani- 
 mate and inanimate things. As one writer has 
 expressed this : "I seated myself after sunset by 
 the water's edge. Nothing was heard but the dash 
 of the waves as they broke upon the lonely shore, 
 and I gradually fell into that state so well known 
 among solitary travelers ; no distinct remembrance 
 of my separate being remained to me. I seemed to 
 be but a part of some great whole to undulate 
 with the lake, to sigh with the winds, to vegetate 
 with the trees, and blossom with the flowers." This 
 feeling of the Infinite may so pervade the soul 
 that man may lose consciousness of his own per- 
 sonality, regarding himself as but a part of the 
 absolute unity of the world. When we are "in 
 tune with the Infinite" we do not fear death, nor 
 the loss of all personal identity we are not bound 
 hand and foot under the despotism of a pitiless 
 fate for in the glorified humanity of all, the 
 union of the finite with the infinite is at last accom- 
 plished. Even as Christ took our humanity upon 
 Him, so infinite love must pass through all degrees 
 of suffering and experience and it was of this 
 unity He spoke when He said : 
 
 "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
 also which shall believe on me through their word, 
 that they may be all One, as thou, Father, art in 
 me, and I in thee." 
 
 The interdependence of all humanity is an 
 essential characteristic of life itself. Without ad- 
 herence and interdependence no creature could 
 maintain existence for a moment. There is no 
 matter, no spirit that is not held in unity of some 
 
 31 
 
kind with other creatures, in which unity is found 
 their strength. This unity of a common humanity 
 manifests itself in sympathy, in mutual helpful- 
 ness, in deeds of mercy and kindness^ and insep- 
 arable dependence upon each other. No soul can 
 develop all its latent powers without the trust 
 and confidence of its fellow beings, and in times of 
 suffering such as the world has recently undergone 
 is now undergoing we feel a common danger 
 and a common devotion to a great principle a 
 great Ideal unites our common humanity. 
 * * * 
 
 Unity manifesting in lower form of life than 
 the human gives beauty, order, symmetry and 
 variety to flower and plant and tree. It turns 
 the dust into crystals of marvelous beauty and 
 symmetry. It forms continents, rivers and oceans, 
 and the fleecy clouds that pitch their tents in 
 the blue vault of heaven. "It is the clinging 
 together that gives power to the winds, weight to 
 the waves, heat to the sunbeams, stability to the 
 mountains, and melody and harmony to sound." To 
 every atom of matter in the universe God has 
 spoken His command, "Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God, with all thy soul, mind and strength, 
 and thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou shalt attach 
 thyself to His eternal throne with all thy capacity 
 of unity, and draw with thee thy fellow creature 
 to the same center." Since the world was created 
 not a grain of sand, not a drop of water has ever 
 broken that law. Particle to particle, atom to 
 atom, sun to sun, system to system, all material 
 creatures are moored to His throne. Only the 
 spirit of man rebels, to learn at last, after many 
 wanderings and much suffering, that in unity only 
 may be found peace and rest. He who sets his 
 spirit against the law of Love or unity in its oper- 
 ation in the moral and spiritual worls, would set 
 at naught the mighty law that centers in God, and 
 which binds together all the hearts that beat with 
 spiritual existence. He who cherishes hate in his 
 heart would sever the attraction that binds together 
 all created things. It is the nature of hate to in- 
 spire fear, and fear leads to slavery and dearth of 
 all the finer qualities of the soul ; hence hate must 
 be met, first with courage, which leads to power, 
 and power must be tempered with love and mercy, 
 ere the final victory is won. 
 
 "Listen, I will tell thee 
 
 The song Creation sings, 
 From the Humming of bees in the heather 
 
 To the flutter of angels' wings. 
 An echo rings for ever, 
 
 The sound can never cease ; 
 It speaks to God of glory, 
 It speaks to earth of peace." 
 
 32 
 
THE INVISIBLE WORLDS 
 
 There is a world within and around us other 
 than the material world or the visible world where 
 the mind may wake to consciousness, and where the 
 vast results of spiritual existence are garnered and 
 stored and utilized in the immortal development 
 of the soul. From this supernatural realm the 
 man Jesus poured forth His divine philosophy of 
 life ; here Dante wrote his "mystic unfathomable 
 song"; here Shakespeare wove for our delight all 
 those noble qualities of the soul; and here the 
 blind Milton dwelt in "the light that never was 
 on land or sea." When the soul has developed the 
 power to wake to consciousness in the invisible, 
 realms of being, it matters not what the circum- 
 stances of life may be. 
 
 "His eyes may open on a prison cell, but the bared 
 walls glow with imagery, 
 
 His ears may be filled with execration, but are lis- 
 tening to the music of sweet thoughts ; 
 
 He may dwell in a hovel with a hero's heart, and 
 canopy his penury wtih peace, 
 
 For mind is a kingdom to the man who gathereth 
 his pleasures from knowledge." 
 
 "Man is a Resplendent spiritual being and within 
 each soul infinity lies hidden." The transitory ma- 
 terial or physical realms which address themselves 
 to the five senses, are only the threshold to the 
 inner invisible realms of the soul. Man has al- 
 ready outgrown his environment with mere matter 
 and he is not content all his faculties are not 
 filled he feels that his real self will not be satis- 
 fied with time and worlds. His soul speaks "of 
 power illimitible," "wisdom unsearchable" ; and 
 at-one-ness with the Author and Maker of All." 
 Constantly before him the "unknown is breaking 
 into light," and "the universal heart beats with the 
 promise of divinity." 
 
 TOGETHER 
 
 You are not lost to me, my dear, 
 Though days and years have fled ; 
 
 I never think of you as gone, 
 Nor feel that you are dead. 
 
 There is no death ; 'tis but a dream 
 
 A phantom of despair. 
 Now clothed in garments of the light 
 
 I see you smiling there. 
 And not alone my struggling feet 
 
 Press onward day by day 
 One walks with me whose heart was glad 
 
 To tread the self-same way. 
 
 33 
 
AWAKEN ! 
 
 "He came unto his own and his own received 
 him not, but as many as received him, to them he 
 gave power to become the sons of God." 
 
 Children of the Dawn, awaken! 
 
 Glory fills the earth and sky. 
 Night's dark mantle falls around her, 
 
 And her legions soon must die. 
 For the radiance of The Coming 
 
 Breaks athwart the world with Light; 
 Lo, His steps are on the mountains, 
 
 Splendor falls on every height, 
 And the valleys break forth in singing ; 
 
 Rocks and rivers, hills and plain 
 Hush my soul, it is The Coming 
 
 Of the God in man again. 
 
 He who once in Bethlehem's manger 
 
 Came to earth a little child ; 
 He who once as the Lord Buddha 
 
 Spake and stilled life's passions wild 
 Comes again ; Ah, who may know Him ? 
 
 How may He again appear; 
 He who cometh in the Glory 
 
 Of the day that is so near ? 
 Will He speak with noise of trumpet, 
 
 Sounding forth His mighty word, 
 Or within our hearts' deep silence 
 
 Will His tender voice be heard? 
 Will we know Him? Will we heed Him? 
 
 Will we see Him face to face 
 As He stands within our presence, 
 
 Clothed in all His matchless grace ? 
 Will we love Him, will we serve Him, 
 
 Have we kept an inner shrine 
 Where the fires are ever burning 
 
 For the guest who is Divine ? 
 
 Ah, my soul, even now He is waiting ; 
 
 Have you closed and locked the door? 
 Lo, He standeth at the portal 
 
 Where He oft hath stood before. 
 Yesterday He was an outcast, 
 
 Blind and of an alien race ; 
 Now He comes as thine accuser 
 
 And thou turnest away thy face. 
 Or perchance as one who wronged thee, 
 
 Lo, He pleads for mercy there. 
 Seek Him not where thou wouldst find Him, 
 
 For He is not anywhere 
 Save within thine own soul's being 
 
 And as thou art, so is He. 
 Haste, then, make thy life a temple 
 
 Fit for One who dwells in thee. 
 
 34 
 
THE GOD OF THE IDEALIST 
 
 Upon an Egyptian temple as Sais was engraved 
 the inscription : "I am all that hath been, is, or 
 shall be, and my veil no mortal hath yet uncov- 
 ered. 
 
 The God of the Idealist is the mystical unity of 
 Oriental Theosophy the Unchangeable, Unborn 
 Everlasting the Universal Soul of the World. All 
 proceeds from the Creator, exists in the Creator, 
 and returns to the Creator. He is the "eternal 
 spider who weaves from his own bosom the tissue 
 of creation". All history is God, "the Universe is 
 a two-fold epic, one part being the Journey out 
 from the Absolute, and the other the return back 
 again one the Iliad, the other the Odyssy of crea- 
 tion". 
 
 Man is himself part of the Absolute ; his indi- 
 viduality and personality are but a detachment of 
 Divinity, and the natural yearning or aspiration of 
 the soul is to be in communion with God. Relig- 
 ion is the relation of man to himself as to another, 
 and the consecration of self to the service of all. 
 I must love my neighbor as myself, for as a part 
 of God I feel this love as the instinct of my nature 
 there is an inevitable bond of unity between the 
 infinite and the finite, and the finite tends to ap- 
 proach and become absorbed in the Infinite. All 
 partake of the divine essence, and all are bound in 
 the unity of love. "All is God", therefore the 
 Idealist must place before his mind the ideal of 
 unity, and strive in all his actions to attain it. 
 Were man all, were man God, no necessity for 
 striving would exist, but as man is only a part of 
 the Absolute, the necessity for striving exists. All 
 are equal in idealism, all are equal in the promise 
 of divine fulfillment, and If in their manifestations 
 on the lower planes of being some are, in reality, 
 unequal, the universe must be laid under necessity 
 to their wants. As Mrs. Besant, in her book, "The 
 Masters", has written: "The sorrows of everyone 
 must be our sorrow ; the pain of everyone, our 
 pain ; and the joy of everyone, our joy." We 
 must give because we cannot keep, we must love 
 because we cannot hate, and we may serve for the 
 joy of serving. The mistakes, the strivings, the 
 sinnings of any are but the self strugglings of In- 
 finite Love, and it is our great privilege, our great 
 joy to aid in the Divine fulfillment and become 
 Saviors of the world or ideals and teachers unto 
 others in their journey homeward to God. 
 
 A theosophical friend has invented a capital 
 way to prevent the smell of cooking in a house. 
 It is to have nothing for breakfast, and warm it 
 over for dinner and supper. 
 
 35 
 
THE MYSTICAL NUMBER SEVEN 
 
 Seven is composed of the two first perfect num- 
 bers, equal and unequal three and four ; for the 
 number two consists of repeated unity, which is no 
 number, is not perfect ; it comprehends the primary 
 numerical triangle, or trine, and is square or quar- 
 tile ; conjunctions considered by the favorers of 
 planetary influence, as of the most benign aspect. 
 
 In six days creation was perfected, the 7th was 
 consecrated to rest. On the 7th of the 7th month, 
 a holy observance was ordained to the Children of 
 Israel, who fasted 7 days, and remained 7 days in 
 tents; the 7th year was directed to be a sabbath 
 of rest for all things ; and at the end of 7 times 
 7 years, commenced the grand jubilee ; every 7th 
 year the land lay fallow : every 7th year there was 
 a general release from all debts, and all bondsmen 
 were set free. From this law may have originated 
 the custom of binding young men to 7 years' ap- 
 prenticeship and of punishing incorrigible offend- 
 ers by transportation for 7, twice 7 or three times 
 7 ; every 7th year the law was directed to be read 
 to the people. Jacob served 7 years for the pos- 
 session of Rachel, and also another 7 years. Noah 
 had 7 days warning of the flood, and was com- 
 manded to take the fowls of the air into the ark 
 by 7's, and the clean beasts by 7's. The ark touched 
 the ground on the 7th month ; and in 7 days a 
 dove was sent, and again in 7 days after. The 7 
 years of plenty and the 7 years of famine were 
 foretold in Pharaoh's dream, by the 7 fat and the 
 7 lean beasts ; and the 7 ears of full, and the 7 
 ears of blasted corn. Nebuchadnezzar was 7 years 
 a beast, and the fiery furnace was heated 7 times 
 hotter to receive Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed- 
 nego. By the old law, man was commanded to 
 forgive his offending brother 7 times ; but the 
 Christ's revealed religion extended his humility 
 and forbearance to 70 times 7. "If Cain shall be 
 revenged 7 fold, truly Lamech 70 times 7." In the 
 destruction of Jericho, 7 priests have 7 trumpets 
 7 days. On the 7th, they surrounded the walls 7 
 times and after the 7th time the walls fell. Ba- 
 laam prepared 7 bullocks and 7 rams for a sacri- 
 fice. Laban pursued Jacob 7 days journey. Job's 
 friends sat with him 7 days and 7 nights, and 
 offered 7 bullocks and 7 rams as an atonement for 
 their wickedness. Miriam was cleansed of her lep- 
 rosy by being shut up 7 days. Solomon was 7 
 years building the temple, at the dedication of 
 which he feasted 7 days. In the Tabernacle were 
 7 lamps ; 7 days were appointed for an atonement 
 upon the Altar, and the Priest's son was ordained 
 to wear his father's garment 7 days. The children 
 of Israel eat unleavened bread 7 days. Joseph 
 mourned 7 days for Jacob. The Rabbins say that 
 God employed the power of answering this number 
 
 36 
 
to perfect the greatness of Samuel, his name an- 
 swering the value of the letters in the Hebrew 
 word which signifies 7 ; whence Hannah, his 
 mother, in her thanks, says "that the barren had 
 brought forth 7." In scripture are enumerated 7 
 resurrections the widow's son by Elias, the Shuna- 
 mite's son by Elisha, the soldier who touched the 
 bones of the prophet, the daughter of the ruler 
 of the Synagogue, the widow's son of Nain, Laz- 
 arus, and our blessed Lord. The Apostles chose 7 
 deacons. Enoch, who was translated, was the 7th 
 after Adam, and Jesus Christ the 77th in a direct 
 line. Our Saviour spoke 7 times from the cross, 
 on which he remained 7 hours ; he appeared 7 
 times ; after 7 times 7 days sent the Holy Ghost. 
 In the Lord's Prayer are 7 petitions, contained in 
 7 times 7 words, omitting those of mere gram- 
 matical connection. Within this number are con- 
 nected all the mysteries of the Apocalypse, re- 
 vealed to the 7 churches of Asia. There appeared 
 7 golden candlesticks, and 7 stars in the hand of 
 him that was in the midst 7 lambs before the 7 
 spirits of God ; the book with 7 seals ; the lamb 
 with 7 horns and 7 eyes ; 7 angels with 7 seals ; 7 
 kings ; 7 thunders ; 7 thousand men slain ; the 
 dragon with 7 heads and 7 crowns ; the beast with 
 7 heads ; 7 angels bringing 7 plagues and 7 phials 
 of wrath. The vision of Daniel was 70 weeks. 
 The Elders of Israel were 70. There are also 
 numbered 7 heavens, 7 planets, 7 stars, 7 wise men, 
 7 champions of Christendom, 7 notes in music, 7 
 primary colors, 7 deadly sins, 7 Sacraments in the 
 Roman Catholic Church the 7th son was con- 
 sidered as endowed with pre-eminent powers. The 
 7th son of a 7th son is still thought to posess the 
 power of healing disease spontaneously. Perfec- 
 tion is likened to gold 7 times purified in the fire ; 
 and we say, "you frighten me out of my 7 senses." 
 Hippocrates says that the septenary number, by its 
 occult virtues, tends to the accomplishment of all 
 things, to be the dispenser of life and fountain of 
 all its changes: and, like Shakespeare, he divides 
 the life of a man into 7 ages. In 7 months a child 
 may be born and live, and not before ; and ancient- 
 ly it was not named before 7 days, not being ac- 
 counted fully to have life before that periodical 
 day. The teeth spring out in the 7th month, and 
 are shed and renewed in the 7th year, when in- 
 fancy is changed into childhood. At twice 7 puber- 
 ty begins ; at thrice 7 the faculties are developed, 
 manhood commences. At four times 7 man is in- 
 full possession of his strength ; at five times 7 he 
 is fit for the business of the world ; at six times 
 7 he becomes grave and wise, or never ; at 7 times 
 7 he is in his apogee, and from that time decays : 
 at eight times 7 he is in his first climacteric ; at 
 nine times 7 or sixty-three, he is in his grand 
 
 37 
 
climacteric, or year of danger; and ten times 7, or 
 three score years and ten, has, by the Royal 
 Prophet, been pronounced the natural period of 
 human life. "The shield of Ajax consisted of 7 
 bulls' hides." There were 7 chiefs before Thebes. 
 The blood was to be sprinkled 7 times before the 
 Altar. Naaman was to be dipped 7 times in the 
 Jordan. Apuleius speaks of dipping the head 7 
 times in the sea for purification. In all solemn 
 rights of purgation, dedication, and consecration, 
 the oil or water was 7 times sprinkled. The house 
 of wisdom, in Proverbs, has 7 pillars. 
 
 From the Science of Correspondence, we learn 
 that the number 7 signifies: 
 
 What is holy and inviolable like the number 
 three. 
 
 A state of peace and rest. 
 
 The union and conjunction of good and truth 
 after 6 days of labor. 
 
 An entire period from beginning to end, thus a 
 full state. 
 
 The coming of the Lord, the end of a former 
 state, and the beginning of a new state with those 
 who are about to be regenerated. 
 
 The celestial marriage, or state of heavenly 
 peace. 
 
 The celestial man, the celestial church, the celes- 
 tial kingdom, and the Lord Himself. 
 
 Seven days or a week, whether of days, months, 
 or years, denote an entire period, great or small 
 from beginning to end, including every state of 
 reformation, regeneration and temptation, both in 
 general and in particular. 
 
 The seventh day or sabbath of rest signifies the 
 union of the Divinity called the Father, with the 
 Divine Humanity called the Son, thus the Divine 
 Humanity itself in which that union has taken 
 place. 
 
 The seventh or sabbatic year, also the year of 
 jubilee, after a period of seven times seven years, 
 represented the marriage of good and truth in the 
 inmost heaven, and a state of celestial peace and 
 tranquility. 
 
 Seven-fold denotes what is holy and inviolable. 
 
 The essential divine principle, the celestial prin- 
 ciple of love. 
 
 From the Secret Doctrine we learn that the odd 
 numbers are divine. "The evil numbers are terres- 
 trial, devilish and unlucky. With the Pythagore- 
 ans the binary was the origin of differentiation, 
 hence of contrasts, discord, or matter, the begin- 
 ning of evil." 
 
 "The early Gnostics claimed that their Science, 
 the Gnosis, rested on a square, the angles of which 
 represented respectively Sige (Silence), Bythos 
 (depth), Nous (Spiritual soul or Mind), and Ale- 
 thia (Truth). 
 
"It was they who were the first to introduce 
 and reveal to the world that which had remained 
 concealed for ages : namely, the Tau, in the shape 
 of a Procrustean bed, and Christos as incarnating 
 in Chrestos, he who became for certain purposes 
 a willing candidate for a serious of tortures, mental 
 and physical. For them the whole of the Universe, 
 metaphysical and material, was contained within 
 and could be described by the digits of Number 
 10, the Pythagorean decade. 
 
 "This Decade^ representing the Universe and its 
 evolution out of Silence and the unknown Depths 
 of the Spiritual soul, or anima mundi, presented 
 two sides or aspects to the student. It could be, 
 and was at first so used and applied to the Macro- 
 cosm, after which it descended to the Microcosm, 
 or Man. 
 
 "There was, then, the purely intellectual and 
 metaphysical, or the 'inner Science' and the as 
 purely materialistic or 'surface Science', both of 
 which can be expounded by and contained in 
 the Decade. It could .be studied, in short, from 
 the Universals of Plato, and the inductive method 
 of Aristotle. The former started from a divine 
 comprehension, when the plurality proceeded from 
 unity, or the digits of the decade appeared, but to 
 be finally re-absorbed in the infinite circle. The 
 latter depended on sensuous perception alone, when 
 the decade could be regarded either as the unity 
 that multiplies, or matter which differentiates, its 
 study being limited to the plane surface ; to the 
 cross or the Seven which proceeds from the ten 
 or the perfect number on earth as in heaven. 
 
 "This dual system was brought, together with the 
 decade, by Pythagoras from India. That it was 
 that the Brachmans and Iranians as they were 
 called by the ancient Greek philosophers, is war- 
 ranted to us by the whole range of Sanscrit liter- 
 ature, such as the Puranas and the laws of Manu. 
 In these laws or 'Ordinances' it is said that Brah- 
 ma first creates 'the ten lords of Being, the ten 
 Prajapati or creative Forces ; which ten produce 
 'seven' other Manus, 'devotees', or holy Beings, 
 which are the Seven Angels of the Presence in 
 the Western Religion. This mysterious number 
 seven, born from the upper triangle, the latter 
 itself born from the apex thereof, or the Silent 
 Depths of the unknown universal soul, is the sev- 
 enfold Saptaparna plant, born and manifested on 
 the surface of the soil of mystery, from the three- 
 fold root buried deep under that impenetrable 
 soil. 
 
 "Pan, at one time absolute nature, the one and 
 Great-All, possessed a seven-piped flute, the em- 
 blem of the seven forces of nature, of the seven 
 planets, the seven musical notes, of all the sep- 
 tenary harmony. 
 
 39 
 
"The sacred numbers 3, 4, 7 are the sacred num- 
 bers of Life, Light and Union. 
 
 "The old Esoteric doctrine teaches : 
 
 '' 'When the first seven appeared on the earth 
 they threw the seed of everything that grows on 
 the land into the soil. First came three, and four 
 was added to those as soon as stone was trans- 
 formed into plant. Then came the second Seven, 
 who, guiding the Jivas of the' plants, produced 
 the middle (intermediate) nature between plant 
 and moving living animal. The third Seven 
 evolved their Chhayas. . . . The fifth Seven 
 imprisoned their Essence. Thus man became a 
 Saptaparna. 
 
 "Thus man became a seven-leaved plant. 
 
 "Numbers 3 and 4 are respectively male and 
 female, Spirit and Matter, and their union is the 
 emblem of life eternal in spirit on the ascending 
 arc, and in matter as the ever-recurring element, 
 by procreation and reproduction. 
 
 "When the Three and Four kiss each other, the 
 Quartenary joins its middle nature with that of 
 the Triangle, and becomes a cube ; then only does 
 it become the vehicle and the number of Life, 
 the Father Mother, Seven. 
 
 "The number seven is closely connected with the 
 moon, whose occult influence is ever manifesting 
 itself in septenary periods. 
 
 "The 4 was called by the Pythagoreans the Key 
 Keeper of Nature ; but in union with the 3 which 
 made it seven it became the most perfect and har- 
 monious number nature itself. The four was 
 'the Masculine of Feminine form, when forming 
 the 'Master of the Moon/ for this planet is forced 
 to alter her appearance every seven days. It is 
 on seven that Pythagoras composed his doctrine on 
 the harmony and music of the Spheres, calling a 
 "tone" the distance of the moon from the earth : 
 from the moon to Mercury half a tone, from 
 thence to Venus the same, from Venus to the sun 
 \]/2 tones, from the sun to Mars a tone, from thence 
 to Jupiter half a tone, from Jupiter to Saturn half 
 a tone, and thence to the Zodiac a tone ; thus mak- 
 seven tones thue diapason of harmony. All the 
 melody of Nature is in these seven tones, and 
 therefore is called 'the voice of nature.' 
 
 "The Septenary was sacred to several gods and 
 goddesses ; to Mars, with his seven attendants ; to 
 Osiris, whose body was divided into seven and 
 twice seven parts ; to Apollo (the Sun) between his 
 seven planets and playing the hymn to the seven- 
 rayed on his seven-stringed harp ; to Minerva, the 
 fatherless and motherless, and others. 
 
 "It is not the Jewish bible that brought number 
 seven into prominence. Hesiod used the words 
 'The seventh is the sacred day' before the Sabbath 
 of Moses was ever heard of. The use of number 
 
 40 
 
seven was never confined to any one nation. This 
 is well testified by the seven vases in the temple 
 of the Sun, near the ruins of Babion in Upper 
 Egypt; the seven fires burning continually for 
 ages, before the altar of Mithra ; the seven holy 
 fanes of the Arabians, the seven peninsulas, the 
 seven islands, seven seas, mountains and rivers of 
 India, and of the Zohar ; the Jewish Sephirata of 
 the Seven Splendors, the seven Gothic deities, 
 the seven worlds of the Chaldeans, and their seven 
 spirits ; the seven constellations mentioned by Hesi- 
 od and Homer ; and all the interminable sevens 
 which the Orientalists find in every MS. they dis- 
 cover." //. P. Blavatsky in Secret Doctrine. 
 
 IF YOU LOVE ME TELL ME SO 
 
 If you love me, tell me so, 
 Love would temper winds that blow ; 
 Love would make the fleeting hours 
 Bring us all life's sweetest flowers 
 All the gems that sparkling shine. 
 Dearest would be yours and mine. 
 
 If you love me, tell me so ; 
 
 Speak the words so sweet and low 
 
 That the birds would wake to hear 
 
 Music so divinely dear, 
 
 And the stars that shine above 
 
 Would be envious of our love. 
 
 If you love me, tell me so ; 
 Love me dear, come weal or woe. 
 Why should I just wait and wait 
 Until it shall be too late, 
 Hoping, trusting, doubting, fearing, 
 When you might be so endearing. 
 
 ZADA 
 
 An angel came to me one morn 
 
 We communed awhile 
 And life is brighter, fairer, 
 
 For the light of her sweet smile. 
 
 We did not meet as strangers 
 I knew her when she spoke 
 
 And all the wealth of harmony 
 Within my soul awoke. 
 
 Her eyes were eloquent with the light 
 That ne'er shone on land or sea, 
 
 And their liquid depths revealed a wealth 
 Of soulful sympathy. 
 
 Her spirit lingers with me, 
 
 And her love, so pure and sweet, 
 
 Draws me- ever nearer Heaven 
 And the blessed Master's feet. 
 
 41 
 
TO SAINT NARADA 
 
 My love for you is a principle, 
 
 A clear, undying flame 
 That warms and thrills and inspires me, 
 
 And beckons to heights of fame. 
 You are my Saint Narada, 
 
 My light and my guiding star, 
 And I am the poet Usana, 
 
 And we came from a land afar ; 
 Always our spirits commingled, 
 
 Somewhere in etheric space ; 
 But my soul came into being 
 
 Within the light of your face. 
 We stood in primeval shadows, 
 
 We listened while Sappho sung, 
 We have spoken in every language 
 
 Since we met when the world was young. 
 We witched while the Christ was nailed 
 
 Unto the cruel cross ; 
 We have erred and judged without mercy, 
 
 And paid the bitter cost. 
 Always we two were fated 
 
 To meet, then separate. 
 We drew to ourselves all Karma 
 
 By our fierce desires and hate ; 
 And now in the light of knowledge 
 
 Of all that has been our own, 
 There remains but the sweetest essence 
 
 Of the love that our lives have known. 
 I called to you in the dawning 
 
 Of our lives' most golden day, 
 And you are here to bless me 
 
 In a divinely beautiful way. 
 As sweet as the fragrance of flowers, 
 
 As clear as a vesper chime, 
 As calm as a benediction, 
 
 As pure as a spirit divine. 
 Thus into my thoughts you come stealing 
 
 In the calm of a quiet hour, 
 Bringing a wealth of healing, 
 
 And filling my soul with power. 
 You linger to soothe and bless me, 
 
 And I thrill because you are near, 
 But when I reach out to possess you 
 
 I find that you are not here. 
 
 "/ will be merciful to their unrighteousness and 
 their sins and their iniquity I will remember no 
 
 All, all, shall be forgotten, 
 
 The faithless servitude 
 The rebellious sins and doubting 
 
 The cruel ingratitude. 
 
 All, all, shall be forgotten, 
 
 O Love Supreme, Divine, 
 That welcomes to Thy presence 
 
 Each wandering child of Thine. 
 42 
 
TO ESTHER 
 
 God bless you, my dear, when the sunshine shall 
 
 waken 
 Your eyes from their slumber, your heart from 
 
 its rest; 
 
 When song birds have joyfully carroled in greet- 
 ing, 
 And Zephyrs of morning have fondly carressed. 
 
 God bless you, my dear, when the morning is 
 calling you forth from your slumbers to 
 service and praise ; 
 
 May you walk in the light of the love that sur- 
 rounds you 
 As you gather the flowers of life's happy days. 
 
 God bless you, my dear, when vespers are calling 
 
 Your soul from the cares of the day unto prayer, 
 
 When flowers have faded and snowflakes are 
 
 falling, 
 And song birds have fled from the chill wintry 
 
 air. 
 When day has departed and shadows of evening 
 
 Shall gather around you and you are alone 
 In visions of midnight in waking or dreaming 
 If you call me, I'll come for your heart is my 
 home. 
 
 SPRING 
 By A. M. L. 
 
 (My first published writing in The Midland, a 
 Presbyterian magazine, published at Omaha, Neb.) 
 
 Again the frosts of winter have passed away 
 and old Time in his slow, unceasing round, has 
 brought us the glad and happy springtime. The 
 spring rains are gently falling, awakening every 
 thing to a new and beautiful life. The birds are 
 chirruping among the budding branches. The 
 farmer is scattering broadcast the seeds that will 
 'yield him a bountiful harvest. The prairies are 
 covered with a soft carpet of green that will in a 
 short time be decked with wild flowers of every 
 imaginable hue. As we mortals walk forth into 
 God's beautiful sunlight, comes there not thought 
 of that blessed assurance, "If God so clothe the 
 grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow 
 is cast into the oven, shall He not much more 
 clothe you, Oh ye of little faith?" And we are 
 led to Him, "The Giver of every good and every 
 perfect gift," and from whose hand all blessings 
 flow. We exclaim with that prophet of old, "Oh 
 Lord, how manifold are Thy works ! in wisdom 
 hast Thou made them all : the earth is full of 
 Thy riches." 
 
 43 
 
NOTHING IS LOST 
 
 ' Nothing is lost. All things in the Universe are 
 moving forward toward the grand consummation 
 appointed from the beginning. What we call death 
 and decay is only a change an awakening again 
 into similar or more beautiful forms of life. Na- 
 ture is a great reviver a great economist. All 
 things fulfill their appointed task or mission in the 
 divine plan. The leaves fall to the ground to 
 mingle again with the elements; the flowers we 
 love wither and decay, but the seed or life germ is 
 safely stored in Nature's great treasure house to 
 awaken again into beautiful forms of life. The 
 mighty oak in time succumbs to the elements, but 
 the acorn lives to perpetuate the species. The 
 mountains are worn by erosion and shaken by vol- 
 canic elements, but the valleys become enriched, 
 and where once was only a wide expanse of ocean 
 fertile plains and mighty forests may reign. 
 Worlds may be destroyed and mingle again with 
 the star dust, but from the chaotic atoms in God's 
 good time new worlds shall be evolved. The lavv.* 
 of nature are just and equitable, although the 
 magnitude of her operations is beyond the compre- 
 hension of our finite minds. We who unwillingly 
 crush myriad forms of life beneath our feet are 
 shocked and appalled when a cyclone or earth- 
 quake perchance a war sweeps thousands of our 
 fellow creatures from the face of the earth, and yet 
 is not the physical form of mankind likewise sub- 
 ject to the law of change and decay 4 ? 
 
 We, too, are but fulfilling a part in the great 
 cosmic law of the universe, but our mission is one 
 of ineffable glory and splendor, for the soul of 
 man is immortal! What matter then, though the 
 physical or material form decay and mingle again 
 with the elements ; what matter though the earthly 
 house of our habitation be shaken again and 
 again *? The soul is capable of an independent 
 state of existence and shall gather unto itself, 
 through successive reincarnations, all experience 
 or discipline necessary for its evolution or return 
 unto the divinity which is our birthright, and of 
 which we cannot be defrauded for, truly : 
 
 "Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts 
 are ever restless 'till they rest in Thee!' 
 
 A perception of Truth is intuitional and the 
 masses always accord in their estimation of glory 
 and shame, of vice and virtue, and courage and 
 cowardice. A belief in eternal justice is one of 
 the divine attributes of mind, and it stands as one 
 of the Eternal Truths that whatever may be the 
 strife and contention upon the earth, Justice will 
 triumph in the final ordering of all things. 
 
 44 
 
FOR THE SWEETEST, THE DEAREST 
 AND PRETTIEST 
 
 "For the sweetest, the dearest and prettiest," 
 Wrote the child with the gift of flowers. 
 
 And the grandmother brushed the tears away 
 In remembrance of happier hours. 
 
 I v 
 
 "For the sweetest, the dearest and prettiest," 
 Grandmother with snow-white hair, 
 
 With kindly eyes and voice grown sweet 
 With blessing and murmured prayers. 
 
 Lending their grace to your spirit 
 
 Are the angels of other days. 
 Old books, old songs, old friendship 
 
 And the dear old fashioned" ways. 
 
 Your frailty gives grace and tenderness 
 
 Unto the strength of youth ; 
 Your advice is a benediction 
 
 Of love and experience and truth. 
 
 Blessed is the home where you linger, 
 
 A loved and honored guest, 
 And blessed are those grandchildren 
 
 Who nestle close to your breast. 
 
 Plato's Critias contains the earliest record of 
 Atlantis. It reads : 
 
 "Among the great deeds of Athens, of which 
 recollection is preserved in our books, there is one 
 that should be placed above all others. Our book 
 tells us that the Athenians destroyed 'an army that 
 came across the Atlantic seas, and insolently in- 
 vaded Europe and Asia, for this sea was then nav- 
 igable ; and beyond the straits where you place the 
 Pillars of Hercules was an immense island, larger 
 than Asia (Minor) and Libya combined. From this 
 island one could pass easily to the other islands, 
 and from these to the continent beyond. The sea 
 on this side of the straits resembled a harbor with 
 a narrow entrance, but there is a veritable sea, and 
 the land which surrounds it is a veritable continent. 
 On this island of Atlantis there reigned three kings 
 with great and marvelous power. They had, under 
 their domain, the whole of Atlantis, several of the 
 other islands, and part of the continent. At one 
 time their power extended into Europe as far as 
 Tyrrhenia (Etruria in Italy), and, uniting their 
 whole force, they sought to destroy our country at 
 a blow, but their defeat stopped the invasion and 
 gave entire freedom to the countries this side of 
 the Pillars of Hercules. Afterward, in one day 
 and one fatal night there came mighty earthquakes 
 and inundations, and then that sea became inacces- 
 sible, on account of the vast quantities of mud that 
 the engulfed island left in its place." 
 
 45 
 
PETER 
 
 I hear you when others had forsaken Him 
 Saying: "Master, where shall we go?" 
 
 "Thou hast the words of eternal life 
 Thou art the Christ, we know." 
 
 And then when the Supper was over 
 
 And the Master washed your feet, 
 So shamed were you and rebellious 
 
 That such humble service was meet. 
 
 And soon again you are speaking 
 
 In your self-confidence : 
 "O Master whither goest thou *? 
 
 May I not follow thee thence *? - 
 
 I love thee, my Lord and Master, 
 
 I would lay down my life for thy sake." 
 
 And then the Master told you 
 
 You should deny Him thrice, ere day break. 
 
 Impulsive repentant Peter, 
 
 Did not the Christ love you best, 
 Knowing that you must suffer 
 
 Far more than all the rest *? 
 
 "Go tell His disciples and Peter," 
 
 How tender the angel's thought 
 Of Peter, bowed in anguish 
 
 With sorrow over wrought. 
 
 And when near the shore of Tiberias 
 
 You cast yourself into the sea, 
 So eager to greet the Risen Lord 
 
 And know indeed it was He. 
 
 And then to hear the question, 
 
 "Simon Peter, lovest thou me." 
 One, twice, aye thrice, you answer 
 
 "Thou knowest that I love Thee." 
 
 And now in your lonely dungeon 
 
 You drop the clanking chains 
 To pillow your head on the cross of Christ 
 
 And rejoice in its cruel pains. 
 
 "Not as Thou didst die. Nay, I am not fit." 
 
 Ah, Peter, even now your pride, 
 Thou you have repented, and suffered and served, 
 
 You may not die, as He died. 
 
 "And as material life is planned, 
 That even the loneliest must stand 
 Dependent on his brother's hand ; 
 So links more subtle, and more fine, 
 Bind every other soul to Thine 
 In one great brotherhood divine." 
 
 46 
 
THE DESERT 
 
 There's a turbulent land in the limitless west 
 
 Where methinks I would go, if my spirit unblest, 
 
 Should ever be fated to wander afar 
 
 From the mansions of rest where the glorified are. 
 
 There the winds with the sands of the desert sift, 
 
 And coil and writhe and circle and lift 
 
 Out into the far horizon line, 
 
 A spectral sea of treacherous brine ; 
 
 Where the wraiths of travelers seen no more 
 
 Forever search for an unknown shore. 
 
 There the rabbit nests in the mesquite shade 
 
 And the wily coyote his lair has made ; 
 
 Where the horned toad and the desert owl 
 
 Are undisturbed by his dismal howl. 
 
 There at the foot of the mountain lies 
 
 Like a river of death, the black Mai Pais, 
 
 Where torrents of red hot lava were poured 
 
 From the crater's mouth, like hell from a goard. 
 
 Plowing a path through the fertile plain 
 
 That may never blossom or wave with grain ; 
 
 Where gaping holes and caves of despair 
 
 Are fit for naught but the rattlesnake's lair 
 
 Or the home of the "bob cat," who roams at will, 
 
 Out over the foothills to plunder and kill. 
 
 There the eagle at nightfall furls his wings 
 
 And sinks to rest, where old Boreas flings 
 
 His mantle of snow over beetling crags 
 
 And world old volcanic mountain snags. 
 
 There rivers of silver wind out to the sea 
 
 Through turrets of gold whose immensity 
 
 Is lost in the purple and dreamy haze 
 
 That falls over all when night softly lays 
 
 Her fingers of rest on the brow of care, 
 
 Whispering of Heaven, and Peace, and Prayer. 
 
 TO E. J. C. 
 
 When self become submerged in life 
 We are the part we play, 
 The Ideal ever is the real 
 
 All else must pass away. 
 My sister, in your eyes I read 
 
 A heart, a soul, an aim ; 
 You are a woman nobly planned 
 And in "Was she to Blame," 
 I found the secret that could thrill 
 Responsive to your every will. 
 Be all that you have taught me 
 
 To think that you can be. 
 Be Truth and Goodness, mother love, 
 And grace and charity. 
 Be to the night the starlight 
 And to the day the dawn ; 
 Be sunshine after shadows, 
 And hope when hope is gone. 
 
 47 
 
NIOBE 
 
 Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, according to 
 the ancient story, was blessed with seven sons 
 and as many daughters. In the pride of her heart 
 she dared to triumph over the" goddess Leto or 
 Latona, who had only two children, Apollo, and 
 Artemis, called by the Romans Diana. To pun- 
 ish Niobe for her insolence, Apollo and Diana 
 destroyed all her children with their arrows; and, 
 according to some stories the wretched mother 
 was turned into stone through grief, and even 
 the solid rock still continued to shed tears. 
 
 The story of Niobe became a favorite subject 
 for sculptors : and it is not improbable that there 
 were once several groups representing the mother 
 and her children. Pliny speaks of one being in a 
 temple of Apollo at Rome in his time: "It is 
 doubtful whether Scopas or Praxiteles made the 
 dying Niobe and her children." 
 
 There are a number of short Greek pieces in 
 verse, commonly called epigrams. Several of 
 these epigrams refer to some figure or figiires rep- 
 resenting Niobe, or Niobe and her children. One 
 of them, in two lines, runs thus : 
 
 "The Gods turned me while living into stone, 
 but out of Stone Praxiteles has restored me to 
 life." 
 
 This was evidently intended to express the writ- 
 er's admiration of some piece of sculpture to 
 which the chisel of Praxiteles had given a living 
 and breathing form. 
 
 But there is another longer inscription which 
 alludes more particularly to some group of which 
 the Niobe, at Rome, seems to have been a part; 
 or at least there can be little doubt thai: the fol- 
 lowing lines refer to a similar group : 
 
 "Daughter of Tantalus, Niobe, hear my words 
 which are the messengers of woe ; listen to the 
 piteous tale of thy sorrows. Loose the bindings of 
 thy hair, mother of a race of youths who have 
 fallen beneath the deadly arrows of Phoebus. 
 Thy sons no longer live. But what is this 4 ? I see 
 something more. The blood of thy daughters too 
 is streaming around. One lies at her mother's 
 knees ; another in her lap ; a third on the earth ; 
 and one clings to the breastbone gazes stupined 
 at the coming blow, and one crouches down to 
 avoid the arrow, while another still lives. But 
 the mother, whose tongue once knew no restraint, 
 stands like a statue, hardened into stone." 
 
 "Titus Vespasian, the Roman Emperor, at the 
 close of a day in which he had neither gained 
 knowledge nor conferred benefit, was accustomed 
 to exclaim, 'Perdidi diem!' 7 have lost a day'" 
 
 48 
 
GOODBYE.. OLD HOME 
 
 Goodbye, old Home, a long farewell 
 
 To all the scenes I love so well; 
 
 Goodbye, old home, blest hallowed spot, 
 
 Whatever be my earthly lot, 
 
 Where're I go on land or sea 
 
 Thou shalt be dear to memory. 
 
 Should fortune strew my way with flowers, 
 
 I yet would long for thy sweet bowers ; 
 
 Should wealth and fame perchance be mine 
 
 Here would my heart's affection twine. 
 
 Goodbye, old home, I leave with you 
 So many secrets pray be true. 
 Thou knowest many happy days 
 When life was one sweet song of praise ; 
 Thou knowest the lonely anguished hours 
 When death had called our sweetest flowers, 
 Thou knowest the friends whose light foot falls 
 We loved to hear within thy walls. 
 Thou knowest the lessons that I learned, 
 Thou knowest the love that I decerned 
 How sad it is to bid farewell 
 To the old home I love so well. 
 
 LIFE'S JOURNEY 
 
 "He travels the fastest who travels alone" 
 
 Behold him at dawn of day, 
 With face turned toward the purple hills, 
 
 Already far on his way. 
 Before him gleams the goal of his hopes, 
 
 The Mecca of his desire, 
 His heart is thrilled with the joy of the quest, 
 
 His steed climbs higher and higher, 
 Up to the crest of the sunrise hills, 
 
 Where, outlined against the light, 
 He pauses a moment as in farewell, 
 
 Then vanishes from our sight. 
 
 He travels the fastest who travels alone, 
 
 But he brings no sheaves, no grain ; 
 His hand has not lightened a brother's load, 
 
 Or soothed a heart in pain. 
 Better to travel the winding road 
 
 And linger awhile by the way ; 
 Better to live and love and hope, 
 
 And do what God bids us today. 
 
 For all must come to their journey's end 
 Ere the gates of Nirvana shall close, 
 
 And whether a soul is early or late, 
 Only the Master knows. 
 
 -Published in "The Messenger", Krotona, Holly- 
 wood, California. 
 
 49 
 
"JUDGE NOT" 
 
 "When we condemn another, by that act we con- 
 demn ourselves." R. W . Trine. 
 
 Can we rightly judge another, 
 
 Dare we say that naught of good 
 Lingers with an erring brother 4 ? 
 
 Kindly words are heavenly food, 
 And the souls who are denied them 
 
 Lower sink in depths of sin, 
 Little caring what betide them 
 
 When the heart is starved within. 
 Life is made so hard and bitter 
 
 When one toils unloved, alone ; 
 Many ask the bread of kindness 
 
 And we give them but a stone. 
 For this old world is so busy 
 
 All would take and nothing give. 
 Hearts grow hard and heads grow dizzy 
 
 In the struggle just to live. 
 Words of praise are seldom spoken 
 
 Though we do our best each day 
 Flowers are kept for memory's token 
 
 When our lives are worn away. 
 You who call your self a Christian, 
 
 And who pass from day to day 
 Some poor outcast, erring sister, 
 
 Without one kind word to say, 
 Little know your own heart's secrets, 
 
 Nor what the future will reveal. 
 Some day you may suffer keenly 
 
 All the scorn you made her feel. 
 You have been so loved and sheltered 
 
 In a quiet comfortable home, 
 While the one you scorn was battling 
 
 With the powers of evil alone. 
 Then, besides you should not judge her 
 
 Just because you do not know 
 In what guise the tempter won her 
 
 From the way she sought to go. 
 When this veil of flesh is severed 
 
 And the mists that blind shall roll 
 From our vision, we'll see clearly. 
 
 Soul may then commune with soul 
 And the one we thought so sinful 
 
 Suffering may have glorified 
 Even as the lowly Master 
 
 Who by us was crucified. 
 
 Hearts would break 'neath sorrow's weight 
 And life would be in league with fate, 
 If thou didst not our grief abate. 
 Sweet Sympathy. 
 
 Thou bringest to pain the balm of sleep 
 Thou bidst the eyes of grief to weep 
 While 'round about the angels keep 
 Sweet Vigil, Sympathy. 
 
 50 
 
FOR THE CHILDREN'S SAKE. 
 
 In this New Age there are many thoughtless peo- 
 ple who term marriage an antiquated institution 
 the tomb of love and a source of stupidity to 
 the whole human race. They quote Carpenter on 
 Love and Ousprensky on Love, and Hinton on 
 Love and prate of love as a "cosmic phenomena" 
 in which men (and women, too, we suppose, and 
 probably the children "are mere accidents." It is 
 said that a new sex relationship must replace the 
 old, that a new morality and a new sex equality 
 must replace the marriage law. and it is boldly 
 stated that the new sex relationship of the fu- 
 ture will not be a union for the birth of children, 
 but a spiritual relationship, a platonic relationship, 
 if you please, between man and woman "when 
 the union results in children, the state may inter- 
 fere but children apart, it is unbearable that the 
 church or state should interfere with lovers." 
 
 Voicing our regret of the great prevalence of 
 divorce cases, to a friend, a successful physician, 
 and a recognized philosopher along many lines of 
 thought, she frankly said to us: "Why, you arc 
 way behind the times," and she forthwith brought 
 forth so many arguments to prove that the divorce 
 law was often woman's only means of escape from 
 what was often a life of slavery and a veritable 
 hell, that for a while thereafter I contemplated 
 the complete annihilation of this essay. I could not 
 write in favor of divorce, never having been di- 
 vorced, so I decided not to write anything at all 
 upon such an unpopular subject. Then one day 
 I read an outline of my written thoughts to an- 
 other friend, and she said : "Go ahead ! Give 
 your ideals full swing. They are needed." While 
 yet another woman said to me, "Oh, yes, you are 
 just the one to write ideally of marriage your 
 husband died." 
 
 But weighing everything both for and against 
 the essay, we decided to write, because we are 
 old-fashioned enough to believe that the mar- 
 riage law is a part of moral law, and that men 
 and women are not merely victims of love but 
 masters of love and arbiters of their fate. Those 
 people who boldly state that two people should 
 live together only as long as passionate desire 
 binds them together, would put themselves rather 
 below the scale of animal existence, which as it 
 rises in the scale of evolution tends toward a life- 
 long union. 
 
 In the beginning moral law was embraced in 
 natural law. Primitive man was subject only to 
 natural law. The primitive form of love was the 
 reproductive instinct which attracted one sex to 
 the other for the purpose of re-creation. The ob- 
 servance of this form of love is yet seen through- 
 out all nature, but as mankind progressed in the 
 
 51 
 
scale of evolution the altruistic or spiritual form 
 of love came into existence, and this form of 
 love is always a promise of immortality. 
 
 That which is sought in love is perfection, and 
 perfection is God r thus the idea of love unfolded 
 in all its beautiful significance discloses the idea 
 of God. Men and women will live and die for 
 the attainment of perfection and it is necessary 
 that the marriage ideal should give promise ot 
 perfection. The Buddha said that religion is the 
 faculty of Love, and this idea or ideal of love 
 has been beautifully expressed by a woman to 
 whom love was in reality a religion. 
 
 "That love which a young man gives to a wo- 
 man whom he feels to be greater than himself is 
 hardly distinguishable from religious feeling. 
 What deep and worthy love is not so, whether of 
 woman or child or art or music *? Our caresses, 
 our tender words, our still raptures, under the 
 influence of autumn sunsets, pillard vistas, or 
 calm, majestic statues or Beethoven symphonies, 
 all bring with them the consciousness that, they 
 are mere riples and waves, in an unfathomable 
 ocean of love and beauty ; our emotion at its keen- 
 est moment passes from expression into silence ; 
 our love at its highest flood rushes beyond its 
 object and loses itself in the sense of the divine 
 mystery". 
 
 Is it then any wonder that the man or woman 
 disappointed in love may exclaim in bitterness 
 with Milton's Satan : "All good to me is lost ; 
 evil be thou my good". 
 
 Perfection in the marriage state must be at- 
 tained since marriage is a part of moral law and 
 divine law, and perfection cannot be attained 
 when marriage is entered into with the probability 
 of divorce. If the perfect ideal of indissoluable 
 marriage is ever altogether rejected by the world, 
 society will fall back to a degenerate state. Ot 
 course a spiritual and moral union an ideal 
 union ought to survive the repeal of the mar- 
 riage law, but to assume that the ideal union will 
 survive, is to concede to mankind, a higher state 
 of evolution than the great prevalence of divorce 
 cases in the world of today would prove to the 
 contrary. Perfection in Love cannot be attained 
 by the marriage that is entered into with the hope 
 of divorce, or by the willful putting away of the 
 marriage tie with its attendant self-sacrifice and 
 suffering and responsibilities. Moral law and the 
 attainment of an ideal of perfection is always a 
 principle of self-realization, or soul evolution 
 and this development is always attendant upon 
 the acceptance of duties, trusts and responsibili- 
 ties. In scripture marriage is a symbol, whereby 
 spiritual life is joined to the temporal frame. 
 "The Holy City, New Jerusalem," is called "The 
 
 52 
 
Bride, the Lamb's Wife" and it is so called be- 
 cause natural marriage corresponds to spiritual 
 marriage and spiritual marriage is the union of 
 true and faithful souls with the Lord. They are 
 internally and spiritually married to Him. The 
 circumstance of the angel's calling the New Jeru> 
 salem, the bride the Lamb's wife, is conclusive of 
 the fact that it typified an ideal state of Love 
 and Marriage on earth, and ideal marriage is al- 
 ways a symbol whereby man and woman may at- 
 tain to the highest unselfish devotion which life 
 affords. 
 
 Within the family circle is inculcated that that 
 discipline and self-sacrifice which is absolutely 
 essential to the formation of character. The en- 
 thusiasts of sexual revolution would seem to err 
 in putting the welfare of the state before that of 
 the family. It is said that each child should be a 
 ward of the state to be maintained and educated 
 with the supreme object or end in view, of mak- 
 ing an ideal citizen. It is said that maternity or 
 child-bearing is only an economical problem to be 
 dealt with in its relation to the state. They for- 
 get that the family has always been a unit before 
 the state, and that love of home is the very found- 
 ation and essense of all patriotism. The Spartan 
 mother who told her sons to fall -upon their 
 swords rather than surrender to the enemy, first 
 instilled within their hearts the virtue of filial 
 obedience. The family has always been the in- 
 spiration of all healthy 'national life, and the 
 gradual and insiduous repeal of social law is a 
 grave error and one fraught with momentous im- 
 port in the spiritual evolution of the race. The 
 grave in the backwoods where the pioneer and his 
 faithful companion were buried side by side, tells 
 the history of the development of our American 
 nation, and as long as hardship and privation and 
 self-sacrifice may be endured, American ideals are 
 safe. It is only when wealth and luxury begin 
 to eat into the heart of a nation, which is the 
 home, that^ civilization and spirituality is endang- 
 ered. Rome survived until luxury and the lax- 
 ity of the marriage law undermined the state, and 
 all readers of classic liaterature know what a state 
 of morals, or lack of morals, intervened and made 
 necessary the coming of the great founder of 
 Christianity, who proclaimed "monogamy holy and 
 indissoluable." The evolution of humanity moves in 
 cycles history repeats itself. Rome fulfilled her 
 mission to the world in the evolution of many 
 great souls, then she sank into barbarism. 
 
 It is sad indeed, when one reads history in the 
 light of Time. It should always.be read in the 
 Light of Eternity. 
 
 We are glad to say that with all the boasted 
 emancipation of the American woman and the 
 
 53 
 
great number of divorce cases, there is yet a 
 yearning for the normal lot for the sweet home 
 life. Women desire love, dependence and self- 
 surrender for the very natural reason that Pope 
 the poet-philosopher, set forth in his ideal of a 
 perfect union of the sexes. 
 
 "For woman is not undeveloped man 
 
 But diverse ; could we make her as the man, 
 
 Sweet love were slain ; his dearest bond is this 
 
 Not like to like, but like in difference, 
 
 Distinct in individualities, 
 
 But like each other even as those who love." 
 
 A man cannot give his best to the world, either 
 in the labor of his hands or his brains if he may 
 not return in the evening to the sacred influence 
 of a peaceful and happy home, and home ah, 
 what is home without children. To the child- 
 less man and woman I would say you have been 
 denied children that you may learn the lesson of 
 unselfishness adopt two or three or a dozen 
 orphans, only be sure to stop adopting before 
 your home becomes an institution, which is the 
 other extreme of a modern city apartment house 
 where no dogs, cats or children are allowed. 
 
 It is held that hopeless uncongeniality or "in- 
 compatibility of temper" is a justifiable cause of 
 divorce, but it is far more excusable than infidel- 
 ity in the marriage relation which should be the 
 only cause for divorce other than insanity. Such 
 reasons for divorce as drunkenness or addiction 
 to the drug habit are now obsolete, and as to "in- 
 compatibility of temper," it is in reality a proof 
 of a rather advanced stage of evolution. We can 
 imagine that the bride obtained by capture would 
 be rather docile and submissive, and Herbert 
 Spencer in one of his sociological works insinu- 
 ates that all the so-called graces of women are 
 in reality forms of hypocrisy. "In a savage state 
 of society woman was compelled by necessity to 
 practice deception in order to please her brutal 
 lord and secure favor in his eyes among danger- 
 ous rivals. She must return caresses for blows, 
 smiles for discourtesy. She dared not, she could 
 not accomplish her purpose by force, so she be- 
 came an expert in domestic diplomacy. Thus a 
 false relationship came about in the marriage 
 state. 
 
 What the twentieth century woman would do 
 with the husband who attempts to beat her re- 
 mains to be told. We venture the assertion that 
 her physical and mental training combined will 
 be sufficient to maintain her rights without re- 
 course to the divorce courts. Somehow we have 
 always failed in pity for the woman whose hus- 
 band beat her but just where the line may be 
 drawn against weakness and submissivcness is 
 
 54 
 
rather hard to predict, for it takes all sorts of 
 people to make up a world. 
 
 When the writer was editor of a newspaper in 
 New Mexico, we were given first hand informa- 
 tion by an eye-witness of a rather extreme cast 
 of "incompatibility of temper". A man in the 
 town drove his wife away from home at the point 
 of a revolver. In fact, he did take a few sho-ts 
 at her as she fled to a neighbor's house. We 
 wrote up the occurrence for our paper, not spar- 
 ing the desperado, and the day the paper came out, 
 we too, looked into the muzzle of a loaded gun. 
 We were told to retract and I believe we got out 
 a special edition, so that there might be no delay 
 in our execution for the woman came also, and 
 reprimanded us severely for our interference in 
 their conjugal happiness. The man gave no rea- 
 son for the "gun play", but had they lived in 
 Hollywood they might have excited' rio com- 
 ment as everybody would have supposed that 
 they were rehearsing for the "movies". 
 
 The desire for self-assertion impels many wo- 
 men to seek a separate existence. It is difficult to 
 avoid a desire for self-assertion, when one's good 
 qualities and evil qualities are taken as a mat- 
 ter of course. When the full conjugal tribute is 
 paid to the ego, it seldom assumes offensive forms. 
 Democracy is only beginning to revolutionize all 
 forms of government and we cannot yet hope for 
 its complete dominion in the household. How- 
 ever, we are glad to say that when a woman mar- 
 ries, in our commonwealth at least, she no longer 
 comes "under the hand of her husband," Up to 
 the sixteenth century women were slaves, doing all 
 the drudgery; they plowed the ground with a 
 crooked stick ; they cut the grain with a knife, and 
 thrashed out the wheat with a club, then ground 
 it into flour between a couple of rocks, baking the 
 bread in the ashes of an open fire. And all this 
 while her liege lord was busy about the definition 
 of spirit or "universals" or the origin of the race. 
 Sometimes in the sixteenth century aye v even in 
 the tenth and eleventh centuries many thou- 
 sands of men were gathered together in woods or 
 canyons of the mountains for the discussion of 
 philosophical themes ; now, if sometimes the men 
 are left at home to take care of the babies while 
 women congregate at club or lodge meetings, to 
 likewise discuss transcendental themes, it is only 
 because the great wheel of life has turned part 
 way 'round and the men find themselves bound 
 to the earth side while women are lifted up into 
 the upper air of freedom and emancipation from 
 drudgery. Woman now has her legal rights as 
 well as her spiritual rights, although we did hear 
 of a woman who applied for a divorce or was di- 
 vorced in order that she might "make her will." 
 
 55 
 
One t>f the things that adds fuel to the divorce 
 courts is the average American's love of publicity. 
 It is considered quite a compliment for the af- 
 fairs of the home to be "aired" in the society col- 
 umns of the Sunday newspaper. In this the ideals 
 of the average American home differ from the 
 average English home. The average Englishman 
 has a conviction that privacy is his invaluable 
 privilege, but the average American rather .loves 
 a house set upon a hill, and it may even be a 
 glass house, for he has learned not to throw 
 stones ; in fact, we are rather too tolerant of some 
 well-known evils, especial^ the divorce evil. 
 
 For centuries the domestic infelicities of tem- 
 peramental people has been dished up in some 
 form or other to satisfy a morbid sensation-loving 
 public, and the press of today is yet making capi- 
 tal of wedded unhappiness, until "to wed or not 
 to wed has become the theme of the modern Ham- 
 let's soliloquy ; but standing out in beautiful relief 
 against all pictures of wedded unhappiness, we 
 have in history the life-long devotion of Vittoria 
 Colonno and Ferdinand d'Avalos, Alfiri and the 
 Countess of Albany, the Brownings, and thousands 
 yes, millions of others, the influence of whose 
 lives has gone out from the home to sweeten the 
 world. 
 
 A husband and wife should be friends in the 
 highest and truest sense of the word ; and friend- 
 ship rightly u/iderstood embraces mutual trust, 
 sympathy, devotion, and love : in fact, love rightly 
 understood embraces all other virtues. 
 
 The ideal wedded love is friendship love such 
 love as that of the Countes of Albany and Alfiri. 
 In his autobiography Alfiri states that he is in- 
 debted to her for all that he had achieved ; and 
 the following is his beautiful tribute to her: 
 
 "As the years go on, and as time robs my friend 
 of her youth and beauty, I cling to her more and 
 more. Through her my brightest nature has been 
 developed, my soul refined and elevated. Setween 
 us there has never been deceit, disloyalty, distrust 
 or untruth. Quitting this world, in which she has 
 been my only comforter, I shall know no other 
 sorrow save that of leaving her. When that time 
 comes I implore heaven to call me first." 
 
 A woman need not, because she has taken the 
 vows of chastity to one man, shut out from her 
 life all inspiration of friendships. Our ideals find 
 personification where they will, and the love that 
 a woman gives to the Christ sometimes finds per- 
 sonification in one who is not altogether divine, 
 but it is essential always that the beloved individ- 
 ual be kept at the line of distance which is in- 
 cluded in the ideal, for fidelity and life-long devo- 
 
 56 
 
tion to the marriage vow is absolutely essential to 
 the preservation of family, society and civilization. 
 It is all well enough to talk about children being 
 cared for by the State, but moral law posits 
 self-development, and the discipline of family life 
 with its attendant self-sacrifice tends to the up- 
 building of character in the children. We cannot 
 hope for much in the way of self-realization when 
 a child is educated and cared for by the State. The 
 greatest law that has been framed in recent years 
 is the mothers' pension law : that law tends to keep 
 the home intact against widowhood and poverty. 
 The writer is a great believer in old-age pensions, 
 and all sorts of pensions, but let us safeguard the 
 home, and not, for the sake of re-population, put a 
 premium upon immorality and promiscuity, as 
 France is doing today. 
 
 I am going to close this essay with a letter a 
 letter received thirty years ago from a woman 
 then much older than myself, my pastor's wife (the 
 wife of a United Presbyterian minister), wlfbsc 
 friendship enriched my girlhood days, and the 
 memory of whose love has been the inspiration of 
 every beautiful ideal. I was an ungainly, awk- 
 ward country girl when I first met her, but she 
 invited me to her home and introduced me to other 
 young people whom I met there, and when I came 
 from school to teach school she wrote to me, and 
 when I wrote to her, telling her of my marriage, 
 she wrote me this letter. It is yellow with age 
 now, like the other letters received from her which 
 have been treasured throughout the years, and as I 
 bring them again from their receptacle, to copy for 
 these pages, the spirit of the writer comes to me in 
 blessing, as though she understood why I give to 
 others that which I love so dearly. Once, years 
 ago, the same dear friend came to me in a dream, 
 when I had been troubled because I had seemingly 
 drifted away from the faith which she had taught 
 me to love; but even then it seemed she under- 
 stood and maybe, if I could be with her now she 
 would be in sympathy with my ideals. And after 
 you have read that letter will you not read again 
 a great _ teacher's admonition to "Self-Sacrifice and 
 Renunciation" ? 
 
 Rock Valley, Iowa, 
 
 June the 22d, 1891. 
 My dear Friend Annie : 
 
 Your letter was indeed a surprise to us, but 
 from the depth of our hearts we wish you rich 
 blessings and happiness. 
 
 If they cannot be found in married life, I know 
 not where to search for them. I believe it is the 
 true life, the satisfying life, the contented life. Of 
 course there is nothing perfect here below, but it 
 is ours to make it as nearly so as possible. 
 
 57 
 
A happy home is not for the husband or wife to 
 make alone, but both together, each doing his and 
 her share. 
 
 The kindest and the happiest pair 
 
 Will have occasion to forbear, 
 
 And something every day they live 
 
 To pity and perchance forgive. 
 
 The love that cheers life's greatest stage, 
 
 Proof against sickness and old age, 
 
 Is gentle, delicate and kind, 
 
 To faults compassionate or blind, 
 
 And will with sympathy endure 
 
 Those evils it will gladly cure. 
 
 And another has said: 
 
 "Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers, 
 We who improve his golden hours 
 
 By sweet experience know 
 That marriage rightly understood 
 Gives to the loyal and the good 
 A paradise below." 
 
 May the vows you have taken prove to you and 
 yours not only a paradise below, but may it be a 
 union to continue all through the ages of eternity. 
 Lovingly yours, 
 
 Mrs. C. L. McCracken. 
 
 INDIAN MOTHER'S SLUMBER SONG 
 
 Sleep, baby, sleep, 
 
 Breathe the breath of morning ; 
 Drink fragrance from the fresh-blown flower, 
 
 Thy gentle brow adorning. 
 
 Sleep, baby, sleep, 
 
 Rocked by the flowing river, 
 While for thy gentle spirit gift 
 
 Lindoyah thanks the giver. 
 
 Sleep, baby, sleep, 
 
 Sweet be thy rosy dreaming, 
 While o'er the flowing spirit land 
 
 Thy blessed eyes are gleaming. 
 
 Sleep, baby, sleep, 
 
 No danger here is biding, 
 While soft along the greenwood bank 
 
 The light canoe is gliding. Selected. 
 
 "Answer me, burning stars of night, 
 
 Where hath the spirit gone 
 That past the reach of human sight, 
 
 Even as a breeze hath flown*? 
 And the stars answer me : 'We roll 
 
 In light and power on high, 
 But of the never-dying soul, 
 
 Ask that which cannot die!'" 
 
 58 
 
SELF-SACRIFICE AND RENUNCIATION 
 
 We talk of the Great Renunciation, we speak 
 of Those, before whose feet we bow, as Those 
 who have "made the Great Renunciation". Do 
 not dream that They made Their renunciation 
 when, standing on the threshold of Nirvana, They 
 heard the sobbing of the world in anguish and 
 turned back to help. It was not then that the real, 
 the great renunciation was made. They made it 
 over and over again in the hundreds of lives that 
 lie behind Them. They made it by the constant 
 practice of the small renunciations of life, by con- 
 tinual pity, by daily sacrifices in common human 
 life. They did not make it at the last hour when, 
 on the threshold of Nirvana, but through the 
 courses of lives of sacrifice, until at last the law of 
 Sacrifice became so much the law of Their being 
 that They could not do anything at the last mo- 
 ment, when the choice was Theirs, save register 
 on the Record of the universe the innumerable re- 
 nunciations of the past. 
 
 You and I, my brothers, today if we will, may 
 begin to make the Great Renunciation, and if we 
 do not begin it in the daily life, in our hourly 
 dealings with our fellows, be assured we should 
 not be able to make it when we stand on the moun- 
 tain crest. The habit of daily sacrifice, the habit 
 of thinking, the habit of always giving and not 
 taking, only thus shall we learn to make that which 
 the outer world calls the Great Renunciation. We 
 dream of great deeds of heroism, we dream of 
 mighty ordeals, we think that the life of disciple- 
 ship consists in tremendous trials for which the 
 disciple prepares himself, towards which he 
 marches with open vision, and then by one supreme 
 effort, by one brave struggle, gains his crown of 
 victory. 
 
 Brothers, it is not so. The life of the disciple 
 is one long series of petty renunciations, one long 
 series of daily sacrifices } one continual dying in 
 time in order that the higher may eternally live. 
 It is not a single deed which strikes the world 
 with wonder, which makes true discipleship, else 
 were the hero or the martyr greater than the dis- 
 ciple. The life of the disciple is lived in the home, 
 is lived in the office, is lived in the market place, 
 yea, amid the common lives of men. The true life 
 of sacrifice is that which utterly forgets itself, in 
 which renunciation becomes so common that there 
 is no effort, that it becomes a thing of course. If 
 we lead that life of sacrifice, if we lead that life 
 of renunciation, if daily, perseveringly, we pour 
 out ourselves for others, we shall find ourselves 
 one day on the summit of the mountain, and shall 
 discover that we have made the Great Renuncia- 
 tion, without ever dreaming that another act were 
 possible. ANNIE BESANT. 
 
 59 
 
THE BOOK OF ESTHER 
 
 Lovers of dramatic literature wil] find events of 
 absording interest recorded in the Bible narrative 
 of Queen Esther. The events as recorded took 
 place in the Persia founded by Cyrus the Great, 
 who was succeeded as ruler by Cambysei, Darius, 
 Xerxes the Great, Artabanes,Ahasshirus, and other 
 kings down to Alexander the Great, who reigned 
 as conqueror. The city of Shushan was the capi- 
 tal. This city was surrounded by a wall 120 stadia 
 in circumference. The palace of the king was 
 built of white marble and covered with gold and 
 precious stones. We are told in this most fascinat- 
 ing story that there was a banquet given in the 
 palace to all the princes and nobles of the land. 
 Upon this occasion the pavilion in which the ban- 
 quet was held was "fastened with cords of fine 
 linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of 
 marble", and there were ottomans "of gold and 
 silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white 
 marble", and all this was to show "the riches of 
 his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excel- 
 lent majesty in the court of the garden of the 
 king's palace." 
 
 Now, in this banquet the golden wine cup 
 passed briskly 'round and the bacchanalian revels 
 shook the splendid pavilions, and it was not a 
 proper place for a gentleman, and certainly not 
 for a woman. So the queen made a feast for the 
 women apart in the royal house that belonged to 
 King Ahasshirus." Now, this feast was in reality 
 the final seven days of a festival which had lasted 
 as many months, and the king having exhibited 
 everything in proof of his greatness, but in reality 
 of his weakness, finally conceived the idea of 
 "showing off" his wife to his guests, as the bright- 
 est jewel in his crown. So he ordered that she be 
 arrayed in her royal apparel and conducted into 
 his presence and the presence of his guests by 
 seven chamberlains, "to show the princes and the 
 people her beauty", but she refused to come at 
 the king's commandment." 
 
 "The king was very wroth and his anger burned 
 within him." He called his cabinet together to 
 know what should be done to the disobedient 
 queen, and they decided to divorce her, to take 
 away her crown and send her forth a wanderer 
 from the palace. And when he had divorced his 
 beautiful, proud queen, Vashti, he gave orders 
 that all the beautiful maidens in Persia should be 
 assembled in order that he might choose another 
 victim, if you please. Now, Mordecai, the Ben- 
 jamite, who had been carried captive to Jerusa- 
 lem, and who was a Jewish politician and a 
 statesman, conceived the ambition of presenting 
 his adopted daughter, Esther, who was an orphan 
 and a captive, as an applicant, for the king's favor 
 
 60 
 
So he brought her to the king's house, where for 
 twelve long months she waited to be presented to 
 the king. During the probationary or ^preparatory 
 period, it is recorded that Mordecai "walked every 
 day before the court of the woman's house to 
 know what Esther did and what should become of 
 her", and so great was his solicitude that he ap- 
 plied for the position of porter to the palace. 
 When the hour of her presentation to the king 
 arrived, among all the richly attired applicants for 
 the king's favor, Esther alone required nothing 
 of adornment but her natural beauty and modest, 
 simple apparel, as she walked into the presence of 
 the king ; and we are told that "she obtained grace 
 and favor in his sight more than all the virgins." 
 So he set the royal crown upon her head and made 
 her queen instead of Vashti," and although Mor- 
 decai was overjoyed because of her good fortune, 
 he admonished her not to reveal her station and 
 her creed, while he himself remained as an hum- 
 ble porter before the gates of the king's palace ; 
 and while in this station he was so fortunate as to 
 hear two conspirators plotting against the king. 
 He immediately conveyed to the queen the knowl- 
 edge, which saved the king's life. 
 
 Now, the king's favorite at court was Prime 
 Minister Haaman, and this man was in reality 
 "a power behind the throne", for all the people 
 did homage unto him all prostrated themselves 
 in his presence, excepting the Jew Mordecai. Day 
 after day Mordecai refused him reverence, and 
 when Haaman learned that he was a Jew, one of 
 a captive and despised nation, his hatred knew 
 no bounds, and he resolved that all Jews should 
 die, and accordingly cast lots for the date of their 
 extermination, which fell on the month of Adyar, 
 the 13th day, which gave twelve months to his 
 victims. Then he applied to the king for a de- 
 cree in favor of their extermination, representing 
 them as a race of worthless outcasts, difficult to 
 govern ; and to win the consent of the king to 
 their extermination against the loss of subjects 
 who produced revenue, he promised the king 
 twelve thousand talents of silver about nine 
 million dollars. So the king gave his signet ring 
 to Haaman to affix the decree, and the Jews were 
 thus condemned to slaughter. So the decree went 
 forth, "to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish 
 all Jews, both young and old, little children and 
 women, in one day, even on the 13th day of Ad- 
 yar, and all the spoils were to go into the king's 
 coffers. 
 
 Indeed, it is recorded that "the city of Shu- 
 shan was perplexed". The king and Haaman sat 
 down to drink, but "the city of Shushan was per- 
 plexed, and in all the provinces there was weep- 
 ing and wailing, sackcloth and ashes", and Morde- 
 
 61 
 
cai, because he was conscious that he was the 
 cause of all this misery, "went 'round the city 
 crying with a loud and bitter cry. And when 
 Queen Esther noticed hif grief she sent a messen- 
 ger to know what troubled him, and thus the 
 queen heard of the cruel decree of the one to 
 whom she w r as bound by karma, and whom she 
 could not possibly love, knowing his weakness of 
 character. What could she do to save her peo- 
 ple ? The king had not yet bestowed upon her 
 his guilty confidence : besides, she had promised 
 Mordecai not to reveal her nationality. Now, 
 however, he implored her to confess the fact and 
 seek to gain the kings' mercy for the lives of her 
 people. Mordecai had asked nothing for himself ; 
 his adopted daughter was queen, yet he must 
 save the people from the slaughter, and he said 
 to her : 
 
 "If thou altogether boldest thy peace at this 
 time, then shall their enlargement and deliver- 
 ance arise from another place, but thou and thy 
 father's house shall be destroyed,'' and in a mo- 
 ment her answer was given : 
 
 "Gather together all the Jews that are present 
 in Shushan and fast ye for me ; I also and my 
 maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go unto 
 the king, which is not according to the law, and 
 if I perish, I perish." 
 
 And the king upon beholding her said : "What 
 wilt thou, Queen Esther, and what is thy re- 
 quest? It shall be granted to thee i even the^half 
 of the kingdom", and Esther, in her tact and di- 
 plomacy, simply asked the favor of the king and 
 his friend Haaman's presence at a banquet which 
 she intended to give in their honor. 
 
 Her request was granted and the invitation 
 conveyed to Haaman, who was overjoyed at first 
 because of the great favor the queen had de- 
 stowed upon him, but when he again passed by 
 the king's gate, and the Jew Mordecai still re- 
 fused to prostrate himself before him, he con- 
 fessed to his wife and his friends ; "All this 
 availeth me nothing as long as I see Mordecai the 
 Jew still sitting at the king's gate." So it was 
 ordered that a gallows should be erected at once, 
 and the king's consent asked for Mordecai's ex- 
 ecution thereon. But the hand of karma was 
 moving toward the downfall of the enemy, for the 
 king had been reviewing the chronicles of his 
 realm and it was recalled to his notice that Mor- 
 decai, who saved his life against the plot of the 
 conspirators, had never been rewarded, but was 
 yet an humble porter at his gates, and just at this 
 moment of remembrance of Mordecai, Haaman 
 appeared before him, and the king, having Mor- 
 decai in mind, said to him : 
 
 62 
 
"What shall be done to the man whom the 
 king delighteth to honor*?" 
 
 And Haaman, thinking in his vanity that he 
 was the man whom the king wished to honor, 
 said: 
 
 "Let him be clothed in royal apparel, with the 
 royal crown upon his head, set him upon the 
 king's horse, lead him through the gates of the 
 city arid proclaim, 'Thus shall be done to the 
 man whom the king delighteth to honor." 
 
 And the king said : 
 
 "Do even so to Mordecai, the Jew, who sitteth 
 at the king's gate." 
 
 And in the midst of the rage and mortification 
 of Haaman the order came from the queen for 
 him to attend the banquet. 
 
 Now, this banquqet had been appointed as the 
 time when Queen Esther would plead before the 
 king for the delivery of her people, and she said : 
 
 "If it please the king, let my life be given to 
 me at my petition and my people at my request." 
 And the king, astonished to hear that her life was 
 in danger her people in danger said : 
 
 "What people, what danger threatens thee *?" 
 and Esther said : "We are sold, I and my peo- 
 ple, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish." 
 
 And the king said : "Where is he who dost 
 presume in his heart to do this *?" and Esther said : 
 
 "Thine adversary and enemy is the wicked 
 Haaman." 
 
 Thus the truth dawned upon the king, and he 
 rushed into the garden for reflection, while Haa- 
 man in his terror threw himself upon the couch 
 of the queen, supplicating her mercy, but the at- 
 tendants muffled his face and hurried him out 
 of her presence, and "he was hanged on the gal- 
 lows he had prepared for Mordecai" 
 
 And we wish that the king might have shared 
 his fate. 
 
 MILTON'S SONNET ON HIS BLINDNESS 
 
 When I consider how my light is spent 
 
 Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 
 And that one talent which is death to hide. 
 Lodged with me useless, though my soul more 
 bent 
 
 To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
 My true account, lest he, returning, chide : 
 "Doth God exact day-labour, light denied*?" 
 I fondly ask: but Patience, to prevent 
 
 That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need 
 Either man's work ,or his own gifts ; who best 
 Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his 
 state 
 
 Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed, 
 And pass o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
 They also serve, who only stand and wait/' 
 
 63 
 
ABSENCE 
 
 It is spring time in the country, 
 All the fields are gay with bloom, 
 
 And the apple and lilac blossoms 
 Fill the air with their perfume. 
 
 In the fields, the lengthening furrow 
 Tempts the flocks of greedy birds, 
 
 And the tender, juicy grasses 
 Are as manna to the herds. 
 
 All the sweet low calls of spring-time, 
 Vibrate on the pulsing air 
 
 Heaven bestows on earth a blessing 
 Every whisper is a prayer. 
 
 But I may not worship with you 
 Mother Nature I must stay 
 
 And it is in vain you call me 
 
 Thru the night and thru the day. 
 
 I am one of many millions 
 Caught within the cities' strife, 
 
 Where the wheels are turning swiftly, 
 But the noise is life sweet life. 
 
 I am side by side with others 
 
 As we tread the busy streets ; 
 As we toil at desk or type case, 
 
 And my heart its kindred greets 
 In a world of understanding 
 
 As our humble tasks we share. 
 And sometimes we meet and mingle 
 
 Where we dine on princely fare. 
 
 But at night when o'er the city 
 
 Erebus her wing has thrown, 
 And the soul is free to visit 
 
 All the places it has known 
 Then I find that in my dreaming 
 
 I am with you, mate of mine, 
 And we wander in the home-paths 
 
 As we did in Auld Lang Syne. 
 For my heart is ever calling 
 
 Calling for you night and day 
 And the country was all sadness 
 
 For me, when you went away. 
 
 (Published in the Minneapolis Journal.) 
 
 The Priestess Night takes up her mystic censer 
 
 At Nature's moonlight shrine ; 
 My love consumes my life in costlier incense, 
 
 Beloved, to burn at thine. 
 Shall I not move thee from thy cold white silente 
 
 By the strange strength of pain? 
 I will conquer all the allied worlds to clasp thee 
 
 If thou love me back again. 
 
 64 
 
HOW GOOD ARE THE POOR! 
 
 'Tis night within the close stout cabin door, 
 The room is wrapped in shade save where there 
 
 fall 
 Some twilight rays that cre^p along the floor, 
 
 And show the fisher's nets upon the wall. 
 Janet is sad : her husband is alone, 
 Wrapped in the black shroud of this bitter 
 
 night : 
 His children are so little, there is none 
 
 To give him aid. "Were they but old, they 
 might." 
 
 She takes his lantern 'tis his hour at last: 
 
 She will go forth, and see if the day breaks 
 And if his signal-fire be at the mast : 
 
 Ah, no not yet no breath of morning wakes. 
 Sudden her humane eyes that peer and watch 
 
 Through the deep shade, a moldering dwelling 
 
 find, 
 No light within the thin door shakes the thatch 
 
 O'er the green wall is twisted of the wind. 
 
 Yellow, and dirty, as a swollen rill 
 
 "Ah me," she saith, ''here does that widow 
 
 dwell ; 
 Few days ago my good man left her ill : 
 
 I will go in and see if all be well." 
 She strikes the door, she listens, none replies, 
 
 And Janet shudders. "Husbandless, alone, 
 And with two children they have scant supplies. 
 
 Good neighbor! She sleeps heavy as a stone." 
 
 She calls again, she knocks, 'tis silence still : 
 
 No sound no answer suddenly the door. 
 As if the senseless creature felt some thrill 
 
 Of pity, turned and open lay before. 
 She entered, and her lantern lighted all 
 
 The house so still, but for the rude waves' din, 
 Through the thin roof the plashing raindrops 
 fall, 
 
 But something terrible is couched within. 
 # # * * * * * 
 
 And why does Janet pass so fast away 1 ? 
 
 What hath she done within that house of dread ? 
 What foldeth she beneath her mantle gray 
 
 And hurries home, and hides it in her bed ? 
 "Ah, my poor husband ! we had five before, 
 
 Already so much care, so much to find, 
 For he must work for all. I give him more. 
 
 What was that noise"? His step! Ah, no, the 
 wind." 
 
 Sudden the door flies open wide, and lets 
 Noisily in the dawn-light scarcely clear, 
 
 And the good fisher, dragging his damp nets, 
 Stands on the threshhold with a joyous cheer. 
 
 "'Tis thou!" she cries, and, eager as a lover, 
 Leaps up and holds her husband to her breast: 
 
 65 
 
Her greeting kisses all his vesture cover; 
 
 "'Tis I, good wife!" and his broad face ex- 
 pressed 
 How gay his heart that .Janet's love made light. 
 
 "What weather was it 1 ?" "Hard." "Your 
 
 fishing?" "Bad. 
 The sea was like a nest of thieves to-night; 
 
 But I embrace thee, and my heart is glad. 
 There was a devil in the wind that blew; 
 
 It tore my net, caught nothing, broke my line, 
 And once I thought the bark was broken too ; 
 
 What did you all the night long, Janet mine'?" 
 
 She, trembling in the darkness, answered, "I? 
 
 Oh, naught I sew'd, I watch'd, I was afraid, 
 The waves were loud as thunders from the sky ; 
 
 But it is over." Shyly then she said 
 "Our neighbor died last night; it must have been 
 
 When you were gone. She left two little ones, 
 So small, so frail William and Madeline ; 
 
 The one just lisps, the other scarcely runs." 
 
 The man looked grave, and in the corner cast 
 
 His old fur bonnet, wet with rain and sea, 
 Muttered awhile, and scratched his head. at last; 
 
 "We have five children, this makes seven," said 
 
 he, 
 
 "Go fetch them, wife ; they will be frightened 
 sore, 
 
 If with the dead alone they waken thus. 
 That was "the mother knocking at our door, 
 
 And we must take the children home to us. 
 
 "Brother and sister they shall be to ours, 
 
 And they will learn to climb my knees at even : 
 
 When He shall see these strangers in our bowers,, 
 
 More fish, more food, will give the God of 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 I will work harder : I will drink no wine 
 Go fetch them. Wherefore doet thou linger, 
 
 dear? 
 
 Not thus were wont to move those feet of thine." 
 She drew the curtain saying, "They are here." 
 
 Victor Hugn, 
 
 TO CHARITY 
 
 Sweet Angel of a Heavenly sphere 
 How good that thou dost linger here. 
 This world would be a dreary place 
 Without the sunshine of thy face. 
 And Heaven would be far indeed 
 For weary mortals didst thou not plead 
 For us, and help us when we fall, 
 For we are erring creatures all, 
 Who stumble where the wise have trod, 
 Upon life's stairway up to God. 
 (Published in "The Bohemian," Fort Worth, 
 Texas.) 
 
"DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME' 
 
 Did you pass by the one who was weary 
 
 Because you were busy today ^ 
 Did you notice the flower that was drooping 
 
 As you hurried along on your way *? 
 Did you smile in the eyes of a brother 
 
 Because you understood 
 That a laborer's coat may cover 
 
 A prince of the royal blood "? 
 Did you come to your door in answer 
 
 To the timid knock that you heard 
 And listen with unfeigned interest 
 
 To the old story, word for word *? 
 Did you go to the one in sorrow 
 
 Who does not "live on the hill", 
 And whisper to her the message 
 
 Of Peace and Love and Good-will'? 
 Did you gather the children around you, 
 
 All dirty and tattered and torn, 
 Did you carry the flowers and sunshine 
 
 Into lives to the shadow born'? 
 Or are you telling the Master 
 
 That your work and your time is so great, 
 That all things of minor importance 
 
 Must wait and indefinitely wait"? 
 Then hear Him tenderly speaking, 
 
 "This do in remembrance v of me," 
 And "inasmuch as you did it not," 
 
 "You did it not to me." 
 
 OUT OF THE EVERYWHERE INTO THE 
 HERE 
 
 Out of the everywhere into the here 
 
 Many are coming and going ; 
 Hark to their voices so far and so near ; 
 
 How softly the boatman is rowing ! 
 Greetings are spoken and farewells are said 
 
 Gladness and sorrowing ever 
 A kiss for the new born, a dirge for the dead 
 
 How today is entwined with forever! 
 
 Out of the everywhere into the here 
 
 Are'coming the hopes of tomorrow; 
 Lights that will lead our world-weary feet 
 
 Through the dark valley of sorrow ; 
 Truths that will live when the stars grow old, 
 
 Faith that will know not deceiving, 
 True worth that may never be bartered for gold 
 
 And Love that will bless the believing. 
 
 (Published in "The Messenger," Krotona, Hol- 
 lywood, Los Angeles, California.) 
 
 The IDEAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 P. O. Box 731, Los Angeles, Calif. 
 
 67 
 
"BACK TO THE LAND" 
 
 "Enough if something from our hands have power 
 To live, and work, and serve the future hour" 
 
 More than 2000 years ago, Aristotle taught the 
 world that man is a moral being having a per- 
 ception of right and wrong, and justice and in- 
 justice and as students of history we have learned 
 that to obey moral law is the good of nations, 
 and that disobedience to moral law has brought 
 about evil and destruction. Moral law teaches 
 that natural rights exist, and in the natural rights 
 of mankind reside "Life, liberty and pursuit of 
 happiness," but liberty of one is dependent upon 
 the liberty of all ; the happiness of one is depend- 
 ent upon the happiness of all ; and the liberty and 
 happiness of all is absolutely dependent upon the 
 attitude of one toward the many. 
 
 The first step in moral law, following the dic- 
 tates of reason, is to ascertain that natural rights 
 exist, and the second step is to ascertain what 
 these rights are, and how they may be conditioned 
 or secured to all humanity. 
 
 Under present industrial conditions 90 per cent 
 of the workers or wealth producers of our coun- 
 try have no home, no bit of soil, no room, that 
 they may call their own, and they are often housed 
 in places which are not sanitary. They are sit- 
 uated from actual want by so narrow a margin 
 that a month or even a week of sickness or un- 
 expected loss brings them face to face with actual 
 hunger, starvation or pauperism. 
 
 Since the world began civilizations 'have concen- 
 trated human beings in the cities and this has 
 always meant the creation of slum districts and 
 birth in the slums has increased vice and poverty 
 and the death rate. We are told that the dream 
 of putting the people back to the land cannot be 
 realized. Every dream, even the wildest dreams 
 that ever existed in the mind of man, have been 
 realized, and surely those dreams those ideals 
 which are inspired by a love of humanity have 
 within them the very essence of that power which 
 shall eventually bring about their realization to 
 all humanity. Agitation and organization is, of 
 course, necessary. There must be a union of all 
 interested parties against the forces which are 
 meeting our dreams, first with ridicule and then 
 as will come later -determined opposition. 
 
 One of the greatest battles to be fought out will 
 be against the old gangs of sportsmen and cattle 
 kings, and ranchers, and speculators, who are hold- 
 ing our country's land in thrall for selfish inter- 
 ests. Our country must produce enough food for 
 the people, and the land cannot be made to pro- 
 duce until it passes out of the hands of specu- 
 lators. Our war-time harvests were the food ol 
 the world but they only proved what could be 
 68 
 
done when every man who could be spared from 
 the fighting line went back to the cultivation of 
 the soil. During the war all farming was im- 
 proved, and the good work must go on until every 
 man woman and child has been placed above tlic 
 danger of actual starvation, such as the high 
 cost of labor on the farms is bringing about in 
 our country today. Owing to the high price of 
 labor the farms are not being made to yield to the 
 utmost and new lands should not be thrown open 
 to cultivation until the outcome of a homestead 
 entry will not be 99 chances to 1 in favor of the 
 Government and against the settler. 
 
 All the good homestead land long ago passed 
 into the hands of; private ownership, and today 
 nothing but arid land remains, which only the 
 invested capital of the Government may make a 
 safe and sane adventure for any man who has a 
 family dependent upon him for support. We 
 homesteaded in New Mexico and Western 
 South Dakota and in both instances "starved out." 
 The New Mexico 160 acres was a beautiful tract 
 in a valley between the mountains. It looked 
 good at first, but the rains did not come until 
 July and August and then it was too late even 
 for a vegetable garden, for the altitude was 
 more than 4,000 feet and the frost came early. 
 Although the soil in these tracts is the richest and 
 deepest soil in the world, it is non-productive with- 
 out irrigation. All the "cattle kings" located in 
 an early day near the springs or a stream of water 
 and wherever the water can be turned on that 
 land, it blossoms as a rose alfalfa, fruit and 
 grain grow in abundance rejoicing the laborer 
 with a bountiful harvest. Millions of acres of 
 such land in New Mexico Arizona and Cali- 
 fornia much of it already homesteaded and de- 
 serted by too optimistic settlers lies waiting for 
 the hand of proper development in order to be. 
 made to feed the teeming millions of the world, 
 whose cry for bread must reach the throne of a 
 merciful God. 
 
 Under the old homestead laws the story of the 
 pioneer is a sad story of hope deferred and hard- 
 ship and privation and actual want. Few, indeed, 
 of the first settlers have remained on the land. 
 When the little money they brought with them 
 was gone they moved out and relinquished their 
 holdings to someone else a little better fitted than 
 themselves to struggle against the adverse chances 
 of the elements that dstroy, while they journeyed 
 back across the desert in covered wagons heart- 
 sick and penniless to the old home, which had 
 passed into the hands of strangers. 
 
 The experiencing of homesteading in Western 
 South Dakota and in Montana is not much more 
 encouraging. Sometimes in those sections the 
 
rains come it is true, but one rainy season is fol- 
 lowed by many periods of drought, and the gamble 
 is only a little longer drawn out and starvation 
 inevitable unless the homesteader has been so for- 
 tunate as to be able to purchase a few cows and 
 some chickens and to have located near a railroad 
 town where supplies may be purchased in ex- 
 change for butter and egg money. 
 
 Employment in new countries is rarely known, 
 and the homesteader is often compelled to leave 
 his family but poorly protected against the rigors 
 of winter while he returns to the city in search of 
 a "job." 
 
 Sometimes a woman homesteader is so fortunate 
 as to be abk to teach school, but so many other 
 women want that school, or rather the salary de- 
 rived from teaching that school, that her situation 
 is rather precarious and unlikely to please. 
 
 The homesteaders are the recipients of many 
 neighborly kindnesses. Tender hearts sympathise 
 with them in affliction, and no hired funeral direc- 
 tor is called in to place them in their graves. 
 
 Lifelong friends are made and the ties of affec- 
 tion cemented, but leaving all these things aside 
 the chances are 99 to 1 against the home- 
 steader being able to hold out and get a deed for 
 his land from the Government. 
 
 The writer used her widows' right to home- 
 stead 160 acres of land in the Cheyenne Reserva- 
 tion in South Dakota, where, with her two chil- 
 dren, she lived for two and one-half years. A 
 three-room house was built, a cow, some chickens 
 and a team of ponies purchased. The first year it 
 rained and there was a nice garden ; the last year 
 the farm was fenced and 50 acres broken up by a 
 tractor, at a cost of $4.50 per acre, and disced and 
 planted to flax. The flax seed, also the seeds 
 planted in the garden, remained unsprouted up to 
 the first of July and then we came away, for the 
 cow and horses had already gone on a mortgage 
 lumber bills remained unpaid, and there was only 
 $50 left to pay car fare back to the city where 
 we have since remained with a lot of other people 
 who have their dreams and love of the country, 
 but not the experience we have had. It used to 
 be a standing joke among homesteaders about the 
 gamble they entered into with Uncle Sam. 
 
 O, it's all a mistake to talk about free land 
 under present conditions and it's almost a crime 
 to encourage the homesteader to stake his all 
 against the elements unless he is backed up with 
 money and implements and seed grain and a 
 shelter place that may protect him against the 
 intolerable heat of the summers, and the blizzards 
 of wjnter. But why may not those who really 
 want to live on the land, and cultivate the soil, 
 be encouraged and protected and educated so that 
 
 70 
 
they may become important factors in the world's 
 food production *? Why must the settler take such 
 awful chances because God has implanted within 
 his soul a love of the soil and the glorious sun- 
 shine of the open fields and woods and hills'? 
 Why may not our Government encourage farm- 
 ing, first of all by appropriating to use the great 
 reserves of fertile and tillible and naturally 
 watered land and giving it back to the people 
 the working people and then when the demand 
 for land has increased, owing to agricultural edu- 
 cation in the schools, opening up to settlement 
 and production by irrigation the vast tracts of 
 arid land ? Why are such vast sums being appro- 
 priated to the maintenance of parks and reserves 
 which only the rich may enjoy? Why need the 
 people be compelled to pay such unheard of prices 
 for produce when every family might have an 
 abundance of food which they have had the great 
 privilege of making the land produce *? It's all a 
 mistake to allot 160 acres of land to a family 40 
 acres even 20 acres or less would be enough. 
 The land should be made free to all and if people 
 would not cultivate the soil they should not eat. 
 Other things manufactured articles should pass 
 current for commerce, but God made the land free 
 to all. He made the land for man not man to 
 serve as slaves to the land and when the harvest 
 fails, owing not to lack of industry but due to 
 other unavoidable conditions, he should have un- 
 disputed access to the public warehouses or grana- 
 ries where the surplus food has been stored. It 
 should be said to all: "This is your land to use; 
 you have tilled the soil and sowed the seed and 
 reaped the harvest, which is yours also to use, but 
 not to hoard. If you have an over-supply of 
 food you must distribute it among your less fro- 
 tunate neighbors." Man may not develop along 
 intellectual, moral and spiritual lines until he is 
 properly fed and clothed and sheltered, and he 
 should be a ward of the Nation and the State 
 until his natural rights are supplied and he him- 
 self has been educated and made a factor in the 
 industry and highest development of the nation. 
 
 Henry George in his book, "Progress and Pov- 
 erty," has stated as the central truth evolved from 
 his investigation into the causes of the rise and 
 fall of nations, and the growth and decay of 
 civilizations, that the causes arising from the un- 
 equal distribution of wealth are tendencies which 
 bring progress to a halt that they will not cure 
 themselves, but on the contrary, unless the causes 
 are removed, grow greater and greater until they 
 sweep back into barbarism by the road that every 
 previous civilization has trod; that these evils 
 are not imposed by natural laws; that they spring 
 solely from social mal-adjustment which ignores 
 
 71 
 
natural laws, and that in removing . their causes 
 we shall be giving enormous impetus to progress. 
 He states further: "The poverty which in the 
 midst of abundance enslaves and embitters men, 
 and the manifold evils which flow from it, spring 
 from a denial of justice. In permitting the mon- 
 opolization of the natural opportunities which na- 
 ture freely offers to all, we have ignored the 
 fundamental law of justice (for so far as we can 
 se when we view things on a large 'scale, justice 
 seems to be the supreme law of the universe), but 
 by sweeping away the injustice and asserting the 
 rights of all men to natural opportunities we shall 
 conform ourselves to the law and remove the 
 great cause of unnatural opportunity in the dis- 
 tribution of wealth and power ; we shall abolish 
 poverty ; tame the ruthless passion of greed ; dry 
 up springs of vice and misery ; light in dark 
 places the lamp of knowledge ; give new vigor to 
 invention, and fresh impulse to discovery ; substi- 
 tute political strength for political weakness, and 
 make tyranny and anarchy impossible. 
 
 "These rights are denied when the equal right 
 to land on which and by which men alone can live 
 is denied. Political liberty, when the equal right 
 to land is denied, becomes as population increases ; 
 and invention goes on, merely the right to com- 
 pete for employment at starvation wages." 
 
 Of course if Henry George is familiar with the 
 conditions of today, he knows that the high wages 
 of today are yet only starvation wages as com- 
 pared with the high cost of living which is not 
 altogether one of after the war conditions, but 
 rather mainly due to the concentration of people 
 in the cities where they become consumers rather 
 than producers of the world's food supply. 
 
 Someone has advocated, by way of reform, that 
 the unearned increment of the land be divided 
 pro-ratio among the population, but that would 
 not do away with the cities and all the vices 
 they engender, which far over-balance the good. 
 What mankind men, women and children need 
 is contact with the soil and the open air and sun- 
 light in order that they may develop physically, 
 mentally, morally and spiritually. 
 
 In 1908, when the writer was the editor of a 
 country newspaper in Iowa, and when the rail- 
 roads somehow were led to believe that the coun- 
 try editor had a little influence over votes in the 
 community in which he or she lived we were 
 given mileage books on which we might travel in 
 state, or at least first class. Well, ye editor used 
 her mileage book in a trip to Chicago the very 
 first time we had ever been in a city of more 
 than 5000 population. The friend whom we vis- 
 ited had been a probation officer of the Juvenile 
 Court for many years, and in her company we at- 
 
 72 
 
tended an afternoon session of the court. When 
 I returned I wrote the following editorial for my 
 paper: 
 
 "In company with a friend of ours, we attended 
 a session of the Juvenile Court where so much 
 total depravity was aired that we grew sick at 
 heart, and since our return we have been racking 
 our brains to find w some solution to the great prob- 
 lem which is so overwhelmingly real to all char- 
 itable people of the city. What a pity that the 
 wealth and population of the city may not be 
 distributed throughout the length and breadth of 
 this great country of ours." 
 
 That gained for "ye editor" the appelation of 
 "Socialist" from the pen of a brother editor, and 
 shortly afterward we received a letter from the 
 chairman of the State Central Committee inviting 
 us to become a member of the party. But the 
 cares and woes of a country newspaper editor and 
 publisher's life were so great, especially in those 
 days when the journeyman typesetter would take 
 a vacation in the middle of the week, that we had 
 no time to study the platform of the Socialist 
 party. But I think that I was started in the right 
 direction even then, insofar as the land question 
 and the abolishment of vice and poverty is 
 concerned. 
 
 Count Leo Tolstoi put into practice in his own 
 life his theory of service and moral responsibility, 
 as he worked with his people in the fields and 
 lived on the simplest and humblest fare. Shortly 
 before his death he struck the keynote of all mortal 
 philosophy 'in the following words : 
 
 "Standing on the threshold of the grave, I be- 
 seech you to do this for your children. Let them 
 do all they can for themselves : carry out their 
 own slops, fill their own jugs, wash up, arrange 
 their own rooms, clean their boots and clothes, 
 lay the table, etc. Believe me, that unimportant 
 as these things may seem, they are a hundred times 
 more important for your children's happiness than 
 a knowledge of French or of history. It is true 
 that here the chief difficulty crops up : children 
 do willingly what their parents do, and therefore, 
 I beg of you, do these things. Believe me, that 
 without that condition there is no possibility of 
 a moral education, a Christian education, or a 
 consciousness of the fact that all men are not 
 divided into two classes, masters and slaves but 
 brothers and equals." 
 
 Let us repeat: 
 
 "Not masters and slaves, but brothers and 
 equals." Yes, that is the ultimate good, and now 
 that I have presented to you an ideal, a dream, 
 let us see what chance that ideal has for a realiza- 
 tion in the world of today, for however much we 
 may believe that the world is making rapid strides 
 
toward the realization of the ideals of universal 
 brotherhood, one must confess that certain deplor- 
 able conditions still exist, and we fail in our duty 
 as enlightened Christian citizens if we are not 
 doing all in our power to bring about a realiza- 
 tion of the highest ideals of human welfare. 
 
 When Germany imposed the menacing U-Boat 
 blockade on the British Isles, England was faced 
 either with famine or the necessity of producing 
 food enough from its confines sufficient to feed 
 its 40,000,000 inhabitants. She immediately set 
 about to achieve this task. Women and children 
 took up the shovel and the hoe, while the men 
 were bearing arms, and 300,000 new acres were 
 brought into cultivation almost over night, and 
 the man who saved his country from starvation 
 through the far-sighted sense of his food saving 
 and food producing program was Lord Lee, direct- 
 or-general of agriculture, and since the war he has 
 been working for a change in the British system 
 which will relieve the old handicap of vested in- 
 terests and forever provide against a peril of food 
 shortage due to isolation from the outside world. 
 The methods by which he proposes to bring about 
 reform are as follows : 
 
 "Stimulate public interest in land in England ; 
 consider each acre part of the public domain ; 
 adopt a sane policy of rural regeneration ; be in- 
 dependent of imports in prime necessities." 
 
 "Each acre (and this must be recognized and 
 considered in every plan of management), is an 
 integral part of the public domain, no matter who 
 may 'own' it. Its value can either be increased 01 
 diminished by the manner of its management; it 
 it is increased, the State gains ; if it is decreased, 
 the State must lose. Individuals must not be 
 permitted to proceed in such a way as will mean 
 public loss." 
 
 "Urge soldiers to go back to the land." 
 
 This admonition and advice to soldiers to "Go 
 back to the land" has been the advice of our 
 United States Government, but nothing better for 
 the soldier than the old homestead law has been 
 devised in the way of settlement of the land. 
 As all the really productive land is held in private 
 ownership or by corporations and vested inter- 
 ests,* or set apart in Government reserves as a 
 sporting ground for the rich the poor returned 
 soldier boy hasn't much of a chance. 
 
 The laborer should be a ward of the nation 
 insofar that he may have hours of recreation and 
 rest and be free from the harassing fear of actual 
 want in order that he, too, may develop all the 
 latent intellectual and artistic longings of his soul. 
 Everyone longs to create, to give expression to 
 the dreams of beauty which haunt the soul, but 
 what chance has the laborer for such expression 
 
 74 
 
in the world today when after eight or nine hours 
 of toil he returns to his humble home with aching 
 muscles and dulled brain to hear the old story 
 of increasing prices of all the actual and often 
 the barest necessities of life *? No wonder the fear 
 of poverty and dependency for himself and his 
 loved ones crushes out all thought of mental and 
 spiritual needs, making him merely a creature of 
 today without hope of a tomorrow, where even 
 in the manufacture of the simplest articles of 
 commerce he is compelled to do piece work and 
 is not enabled to use any inventive genius or 
 originality he may possess. Herbert Spencer tersely 
 and happily summed up the situation : "One man 
 will not be suffered to enjoy, without working, that 
 which another produces without enjoying." 
 
 Coming home on the street car from down-town 
 in Los Angeles, a few days ago, I made room 
 beside me for an elderly woman who seemed ill 
 motioning her to the seat at my side with a word 
 of kindness and a smile of understanding and 
 on the way out to Hollywood, where she was go- 
 ing to do some sewing, she told me her story of 
 a life time given to serving others without any 
 chance to save out of her earnings to provide for 
 old age ; that she had come to Los Angeles to 
 escape the severe winters of the east, but she re- 
 gretted her coming as there were no old ladies' 
 homes here, and now she must work until she 
 dropped into her grave. O! the shame of a civ- 
 ilization which does not take care of the aged! 
 
 Truly, there is a gospel of selfishness sooth- 
 ing as soft flutes to those who, having fared 
 - well themselves, think that everybody ought 
 to be satisfied. Such an attitude of mind Carlyle 
 defined as "Wretched, unsympathetic, scraggy 
 egoism." A too eager acceptance of another soul's 
 bad Karma is not conducive to our own highest 
 development ; things may not be glossed over 
 they must be boldly and sympathetically faced 
 and remedied, if possible, else that persons Karma 
 may in another lifetime, or even in this changing 
 world, become our own. 
 
 'A traveler through a dusty road, 
 
 Strewed acorns on the J.ea ; 
 And one took root and sprouted up, 
 
 And grew into a tree. 
 Love sought its shade at evening time, 
 
 To breathe its early vows : 
 And age was pleased at heat of noon, 
 
 To bask beneath its boughs; 
 The doormouse loved its dangling twigs, 
 
 The birds sweet music bore; 
 It stood a glory in its ^ place, 
 
 A blessing evermore." 
 
 75 
 
PURSUIT OF THE IDEAL 
 
 The Soul to the Ideal : 
 
 thou who art enthroned afar, 
 Insatiate, calm, divine, 
 
 Have mercy, speak to me, and warm 
 This fainting heart of mine. 
 
 Long, long a pilgrim, at thy shrine 
 
 I knelt and homage paid ; 
 All that I am I owe to thee, 
 
 True sacrifice was made. 
 
 1 have now outgrown the bonds 
 Of form and earthly place, 
 
 I would fly to realms of Light 
 And see thee face to face *? 
 
 thou who art my life, my all, 
 My spirit cries to thee, 
 
 Break thou my limitations 
 And set thy captive free. 
 
 The Ideal to the Soul : 
 
 Come thou pale suppliant and view 
 
 The form you thought Divine ; 
 Come, dwell with one whose life is full 
 
 Of frailties as thine. 
 
 1 was but a Light that shone 
 To lead thee to thy God, 
 
 As thou wilt be a light to those 
 Who choose the path you trod ; 
 
 Come, I will show thee mine ideal, 
 
 For thou art now as me, 
 And we will fare together 
 
 Through all eternity. 
 
 Published in The Hesperian, St. Louis, Mo. 
 in 1900. 
 
 BECAUSE YOU LOVE ME 
 
 To Jean 
 
 Because you love me 
 Life is fair, 
 
 I dine each day on princely fare, 
 And all the dreary round of care 
 Has lighter grown, 
 
 Because you love me. 
 
 Because you love me 
 Thought has wings; 
 
 Each moment some sweet message brings, 
 And all my soul in rapture sings, 
 
 Because you love me. 
 
 Because you love me 
 Faith is given, 
 
 And charity and hope of heaven, 
 And grace to make this life of mine 
 Worthy of such love as thine, 
 
 Because you love me. 
 '76 
 
SAPPHO 
 
 There came a dark browed spirit on whose head 
 laurel and withering roses loosely hung. She 
 held a harp, amongst whose chords her hand 
 wandered for music and it came. She sang a 
 song dispairing, and the whispering winds seemod 
 envious of her melody, and streamed admist the 
 wires to rival her, in vain. Short wa? the strain, 
 but sweet. Methought it spoke of broken hearts 
 and still and moonlight seas, of love and loneli- 
 ness, and fancy gone, and hopes decayed forever ; 
 and my ear caught well remembered names, "Leu- 
 cadia's rock" at times, and "faithless Phaon." 
 Then her form passed not, but seemed to melt in 
 air away. This was the Lesbian Sappho." 
 
 Sappho, the celebrated poetess of antiquity, was 
 a native of Lesbos, one of the islands of the 
 Aegean sea. Lesbos seems to have been a center 
 of intelligence and refinement, and there is a tra- 
 dition that Orpheus was buried there. The Poets 
 Arion and Terpander the founders of Greek 
 music were natives of this island. 
 
 She was married early in life, but soon was 
 widowed, and afterward conceived a violent pas- 
 sion for a man of Lesbos named Phaon, who 
 seemed at first to return her love but afterward 
 to have grown weary of her, and to have fled to 
 Sicily to escape her reproaches, and although sad- 
 ness was supposed to offend Apollo, and the 
 muses, and Sappho had never been a foe to mirth 
 and joyousness, after she had been deserted by 
 Phaon she determined to put an end to her exist- 
 ence and took the "Leucadian or Lover's Leap." 
 
 This lover's leap was from a lofty promontory 
 or cliff from which those unhappy persons, who 
 sought release from unrequited love, after having 
 made their vows in a temple of Apollo, cast them- 
 selves into the sea. 
 
 It was thought that this sometimes fatal experi- 
 ment was a "sure cure," and the one "who had 
 been loved in vain," in turn must "love in vain," 
 for according to a passage from Ovid 
 
 "Ducalion once with hopeless fury burned ; 
 
 In vain he loved ; relentless Pyrrha scorned ; 
 
 But when from hence he plunged into the main, 
 
 Ducalion scorned and Pyrrha loved in vain." 
 
 And Anacaron says : 
 
 "From dread Leucate's frowning steep, 
 I'll plunge into the whitening deep, 
 And there lie cold, to death resigned, 
 For love intoxicates my mind." 
 
 One love-lorn Lacedaemonian, when about ttv 
 take the leap, is said to have exclaimed: "I did 
 not suppose that my vow to Apollo would re- 
 quire another, still more stringent." 
 
 77 
 
The origin of this custom was as follows: 
 
 Venus, after the death of Adonis, having dili- 
 gently sought for his remains, at last found them 
 in the temple of Opollo. Having made known 
 her sufferings, she was taken to the Leucadian 
 Rock and bidden to cast herself from it as a re- 
 lief for her malady, and the reason the rock held 
 such magic for the lovers was because Jupiter fre- 
 quented this rock while dreaming of Juno, and 
 hence the Leucadian Rock figures more than a 
 little in the affairs d'amour of Grecian history. 
 
 Sappho seems not to have been exempt from 
 the weakness of her sex, and Phaon, her lover, 
 was a boatman of Mitylene. who, as a reward for 
 having conveyed Venus, disguised as an aged 
 woman, from the island to the continent, re- 
 ceived as his reward from her an alabaster box of 
 ointment, the use of which imparted to him a 
 beauty so remarkakble that he was an object of 
 admiration and love. 
 
 Sappho says to him in verse : 
 
 "By charms like thine, which all my soul have 
 won, 
 
 Who might not ah, who would not be un- 
 done !" 
 
 All of Sappho's poetry was sung or intoned to 
 the lyre, in public. It is said that the Lesbian 
 maidens attended her performances in crowds and 
 it is said that as a singer and lyrist she has never 
 been equalled. 
 
 Plato and Ansonius speak of her as the "tenth 
 muse." Some Greek writers speak of her as "the 
 divine," "the beautiful," "the flower of the 
 graces," "the chief muse," "the glory of Lesbos," 
 "a prodigy," etc., and she is spoken of as a sybil. 
 It is said that she excelled all other poetesses as 
 Homer excelled all other poets. And Solon, hav- 
 ing heard some of her verses read, said he would 
 not willingly die until he had fixed them in his 
 memory. 
 
 A Greek epigram reads : 
 
 "To Juno's shrine, O Lesbian maids proceed; 
 
 There join the dance; the choir let Sappho lead, 
 
 Striking a golden lyre. Each listening ear 
 
 Shall seem enrapt, the Muse herself to hear." 
 
 The following lines are a translation of the 
 Hymn to Venus, one of Sappho's amatory poems. 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox as a poetess of passion, 
 rather pales in the glow of her sister Sappho's 
 muse. 
 
 "Oh, Venus, beauty of the skies, 
 To whom a thousand temples rise, 
 Gaily false in gentle smiles, 
 Full of love-perplexing wiles : 
 Oh, goddess! from my heart remove 
 The wasting cares and pains of love; 
 
 78 
 
If ever thou hast kindly heard 
 A song in soft distress preferr'd, 
 Propitious to my tuneful vow, 
 Oh, gentle goddess ! hear one now ; 
 Descend, thou bright, immortal guest ; 
 In all thy radiant charms confest. 
 
 Thou once didst leave almighty Jove, 
 And all the golden roofs above, 
 The car thy wanton sparrows drew, 
 Hovering in air they lightly rlew ; 
 As to my bower they wing'd their way, 
 I saw their quivering pinions play. 
 
 The birds dismist (while you remain,) 
 Bore back their empty car again ; 
 Then you, with looks divinely mild, 
 In every heavenly feature smil'd, 
 And ask'd what new complaints I made, 
 And why I call'd you to my aid ? 
 
 What phrenxy in my bosom raged, 
 And by what cure to be assuaged 'I 
 What gentle youth I would allure, 
 Whom in my artful toils secure ? 
 Who does thy tender heart subdue, 
 Tell me, my Sappho, tell me who *? 
 
 Though now he shuns thy longing arms, 
 
 He soon shall court thy slighted charms ; 
 
 Though now thy ofF rings he despise, 
 
 He soon to thee shall sacrifice ; 
 
 Though now he freeze, he soon shall buru. 
 
 And be thy victim in his turn. 
 
 Celestial visitant, once more 
 Thy needful presence- 1 implore ! 
 In pity come and ease my grief, 
 Bring my distemper'd soul relief ; 
 Favour thy suppliant's fires, 
 And give me all my heart desires." 
 
 One wonders in what form the soul of Sappho 
 next reincarnated. If she is living in the world of 
 today the fires of her love have probably been 
 transmuted into the pure gold of the spirit. The 
 preparatory discipline of a great soul is in the 
 school of emotion and Sappho certainly excelled 
 in that. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF A NOVITIATE 
 
 $1.00 per copy 
 THE IDEAL PUB. CO., 
 
 P. O. Box 731, Los Angeles, California." 
 
 .79 
 
"COME UNTO ME" 
 
 I come to Thee in the dawning 
 
 When the first lights of morning break, 
 I corrte to thee in the silence 
 
 'Ere the birds from their sleep awake. 
 
 I come to Thee in the splendour 
 Of the sunshine that bathes the hills ; 
 
 I come to Thee in the music 
 
 Of Thy woods and temples and rills. 
 
 I come to Thee in the noonday 
 
 When my spirit is burdened with care 
 
 I come to Thee in life's tempest 
 And kneel before Thee in prayer. 
 
 I come to Thee in the evening, 
 So weary and longing for rest ; 
 
 I pillow my head on thy bosom 
 And feel Thou dost love me best. 
 
 KIND ACTIONS REPAID 
 
 The Mohammedans have a fanciful idea that 
 the true believer, in his passage to Paradise, is 
 under the necessity of passing barefooted over a 
 bridge composed of red-hot iron. But on this occa- 
 sion all the pieces of paper which the Moslem has 
 preserved during his life, lest some holy thing be- 
 ing written upon them might be profaned, arrange 
 themselves between his feet and the burning metal, 
 and so save him from injury. In the same man- 
 ner, the effects of kind and benevolent actions are 
 sometimes found, even in this world, to assuage 
 the pangs of subsequent afflictions. Scot. 
 
 "What matters it if you and I look like failures : 
 what matters it if our petty plans crumble to pieces 
 in our. hands ; 'what matters it if our schemes of a 
 moment are found to be useless and thrown aside 9 
 
 "The life we have thrown into them, the devo- 
 tion with which we planned them, the strength 
 with which we strove to carry them out, the sacri- 
 fice with which we offered them to the success of 
 the mighty whole, that enrolled us as sacrificial 
 workers with Diety, and no glory is greater than 
 the glory of personal failure which ensures the 
 universal success." ANNIE BESANT, 
 
 The Theosophist, March, 1909. 
 
 GLAD TIDINGS OF THE DAWN 
 
 A magazine devoted to theosophical ideals and 
 
 their realisation. Edited by the author cf 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF A NOVITIATE 
 
 $1 .00 per year 
 
 80 
 
THE SOUL OF HISTORY 
 
 History is said to be the record of what men 
 have done and suffered and achieved. It takes 
 account of arts, languages, literature, politics and 
 religions of all the institutions and all the spirit- 
 ual products which the mind of man has called 
 into being. In fact, it is said that "History shows 
 what things are" But does it not rather sho\v 
 what things are not? Only in the Light ot 
 Philosophy may we find any solution of causes 
 and reasons and powers and laws. It has been 
 said that all systems of philosophy are inane ; that 
 it has no fruits merely leading from- one wilder- 
 ness of opinion into another, and that nothing 
 has been established by the long series of philoso- 
 phers except that nothing can be known. 
 
 This is because the average student of philoso- 
 phy has but little discrimination and is soon lost 
 in the different schools of thought. In studying 
 philosophy as in reading history one must com- 
 bine and deduce and harmonize, and the faculties 
 of combination and deduction and discrimination 
 are faculties which only the mind of a Shakespeare 
 may compass ; but if philosophy did not more for 
 us than to remind us of the mystery of this mys- 
 terious world and to open windows of the mind to 
 a feeble conception of other worlds, and the rec- 
 ognition of spirit as a supreme reality, it would 
 have fulfilled an inestimable service to the world. 
 
 The word Philosophy is derived from two Greek 
 words meaning love of wisdom ; and that is the 
 mission of philosophy to instill within the mind 
 and heart of man a love of Wisdom, of Truth. 
 
 History is said to be but a product of Nature, 
 but Nature in its manifestation is God. The glo- 
 ries of vast empires, the splendor of cities long 
 buried in silence and drifting sands Atlantis. 
 Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, poets, priests, sages, 
 soldiers, art, song, science, good and evil, joy and 
 sorrow, genius, energy, courage, constancy and 
 sacrifice, are a part of the soul of each individual, 
 and national life as human life, is a continuous 
 development. As the individual has no separate 
 historical existence, so the national life lias no 
 separate existence, and becomes merged in the 
 Spirit of Humanity. He is but a poor student of 
 history who has not acquired the faculty of bring- 
 ing to all subjects and events of history the 
 Light of Philosophy ; for History in its outward 
 aspect is but a revelation of evil and misery and 
 unrealized ambition. The philosopher looks be- 
 yond the evil to. its purpose and its use in the 
 universe, and pervading all is the spirit of Truth 
 and Justice, and harmony and unity. 
 
 Pascal, the acute philosopher, said: "The suc- 
 cession of men in all ages may be regarded as one 
 
 81 
 
man who lives always and learns always." The 
 life of a single individual is a partial development 
 of all humanity. Links do not make a chain unless 
 they are united, and all the colors of the sunbeam 
 must be combined to form one ray of light. His- 
 tory draws together and combines individuals and 
 communities, and nations,, and races and history 
 in its development is God. Origion was right when 
 he said : "The soul of the world is nothing other 
 than the power and the wisdom of God which is 
 able to combine these great mortal differences 
 into one living whole, and which pervades and 
 animates the universe, subjecting all dissonances 
 to a higher law of harmony." Thus God may 
 not be excluded from history. He is not an idle 
 spectator of its processes, but He is the soul, the 
 essence, the vitality of all that exists, and the 
 first requisite of the historian is a profoundly 
 philosophical spirit. 
 
 The unity of history is something which com- 
 prises all the facts and forces which produce the 
 ages. There is but one universe because there is 
 but one Unifying Will. Every one of the num- 
 berless suns and stars and systems, all laws of 
 intelligence and motion and memory find their 
 explanation in the unity of the Divine Plan. 
 
 In the Rig Veda, Vach, the goddess of speech, 
 says : 
 
 "I pervade Heaven and Earth. I bear the father 
 on the summit of the world ; my origin is in the 
 water, in the sea ; from thence I go forth among 
 all beings, and touch the heavens by my height. 
 I myself breathe forth like the wind, embracing 
 all things, above the heavens, beyond the earth : 
 such am I in greatness." 
 
 It is said of Diogenes, that when his friends 
 asked him, toward the close of his life, how he 
 would be buried, he replied that he "did not desire 
 them to bury him at all, but to throw him into 
 the field." That, they told him, was the way to 
 be devoured by the birds and beasts. "No," says 
 he, "you must put a cudgel by my side." "A 
 cudgel ! How should you make use of it, when 
 you have neither sense nor feeling V" " 'Tis there," 
 said he, "that I wanted you. What need I care 
 what is done with me, when I have neither sense 
 nor feeling ?" 
 
 If a comrade be faithless, let us be faithful to 
 him; if an enemy injure, let us forgive him; if a 
 friend betray, let us stand by him. Thus shall the 
 hidden God in us shine forth. 
 
 ANNIE BESANT. 
 
 82 
 
THE DAWN 
 
 "The dawn, which is to us merely a beautiful 
 sight, was to the early gazer and thinker the prob- 
 lem of all problems. It was the unknown land 
 from whence rose every day those bright emblems 
 of a divine power which left in the mind of man 
 the first impressions and intimations of another 
 world, of power above, of order and wisdom. 
 What we simply call the sun-rise, brought before 
 their eyes every day the riddle of all riddles, the 
 riddle of existence. The days of their lives sprang 
 from that dark abyss which every morning seemed 
 instinct with life and light. Their youth, their 
 manhood, their old age, all were to the Vedic 
 bards the gift of that heavenly mother who 
 appeared bright, young, unchanged, immortal 
 every morning, while everything else seemed to 
 grow old, to change and droop, and at last to set, 
 never to return. It was there, in that bright 
 chamber, that, as their poets said mornings and 
 days, were spun. A new life flashed up every 
 morning before their eyes, and the fresh breezes 
 of the dawn reached them like greetings wafted 
 across the golden threshold of the sky from the 
 distant lands beyond the mountains, beyond the 
 clouds, beyond 'the immortal sea which brought 
 us hither'. The dawn seemed to them to open 
 golden gates for the sun to pass in triumph, and 
 while those gates were open, their eyes and their 
 minds strove in their childish way to pierce beyond 
 the limits of this finite world. That silent aspect 
 awakened in the human mind the conception of 
 the Infinite, the Immortal, the Divine." But as 
 yet there was no name for this Divine One. We 
 may imagine they reasoned upon the subject 
 somewhat as follows : "Our inner being tells us 
 there is a God. We see him each morning, bat- 
 tling with darkness, and driving away its black 
 demons to their dens, opening the portals of the 
 morning, and letting in the sun shining in his 
 strength ; our very existence depends upon him ; 
 our hearts go out toward him. But oh that we 
 knew his name that we might speak to him ! 
 All his acts bring joy to our hearts ; he sheds glad- 
 ness over the whole creation ; he is the eternal 
 enemy of night and darkness ; he is the friend of 
 the bright sun of day; he always comes with the 
 dawn; let that be his name! Let us call him 
 "Dyans", the Dawn, the Bright God, the Shining 
 One, the Resplendent Being, the God of Light." 
 
 There is a story of a Scotch clergyman, who, 
 after reading the passage in the Psalms where 
 David says, "And I said in my haste all men are 
 liars," being struck with the applicability of the 
 passage to his own cure of souls, broke off, and 
 remarked, "Dauvid, Dauvid, an' ye'd lived^ in this 
 parish ye micht ha' said it at your leisure!" 
 
TWO MASTERPIECES 
 
 There were two poems written, one in the orig- 
 inal Greek, and the other in our own loved Eng- 
 lish which for sublimity of expression transcend 
 all others. 
 
 One is Cleanthe's Hymn to Jupiter, quoted by 
 St. Paul in his address to the Athenians, Acts 
 xvii :28 : and the other is Coleridge's Hymn Before 
 Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni. May I not give 
 them both to those of my readers to whom their 
 beauty is as yet unknown ? 
 
 HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE 
 OF CHAMOUNI 
 
 Hast thou a charm to stay the Morning-star 
 In his steep course ? So long he seems to pause 
 On thy bald, awful head, O sovran Blanc! 
 The Arve and Arveiron at thy base 
 Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form, 
 Riseth from forth silent sea of pines, 
 How silently! Around thee, and above. 
 Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black, 
 An ebon mass : methinks thou piercest it 
 As with a wedge! But when I look again, 
 It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, 
 Thy habitation from eternity! 
 
 dread and silent Mount ! I gazed upon thee, 
 Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, 
 
 Didst vanish from my thought : entranced in prayer 
 
 1 worshipp'd the Invisible alone. 
 
 \ 
 
 Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody 
 So sweet we know not we are listening to it 
 Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my 
 
 thought, 
 
 Yea, with my life and life's own secret joy: 
 Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused, 
 Into the mighty vision passing there, 
 As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven ! 
 
 Awake, my soul ! not only passive praise 
 Thou owest not alone these swelling tears, 
 Mute thanks, and secret ecstasy ! Awake, 
 Voice of sweet soing ! Awake, my heart, awake ! 
 Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn! 
 
 Thou first and chief, sole Sovran of the Vale ! 
 O, struggling with the darkness all night, 
 And visited all night by troops of stars, 
 Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink : 
 Companion of the Morning-star at dawn, 
 Thyself earth's rosy star, and of the dawn 
 Co-herald ! wake, O wake, and utter praise ! 
 Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth? 
 Who fill'd thy countenance with rosy light? 
 Who made thee parent of perpetual streams? 
 
 84 
 
And you, ye five wild torrents, fiercely glad ! 
 Who call'd you forth from night and utter death, 
 From dark and icy caverns call'd you forth, 
 Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, 
 For ever shattered and the same for ever*? 
 Who gave you your invulnerable life, 
 Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your 
 
 joy, 
 
 Unceasing thunder and eternal foam 4 ? 
 And who commanded (and the silence came), 
 Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest? 
 
 Ye ice-falls ! ye that from the mountain's brow 
 Adown enormous ravines slope amain 
 Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, 
 And stopp'd at once amid their maddest plunge ! 
 Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts ! 
 Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven, 
 Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun 
 Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living 
 
 flowers 
 
 Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet? 
 God ! let the torrents, like a shout of nations, 
 Answer! and let the ice-plains echo, God! 
 God ! sing, ye meadow-streams with gladsome 
 
 voice ! 
 Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like 
 
 sounds ! 
 
 And they, too, have a voice, you piles of snow, 
 And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God ! 
 
 Ye livery flowers, that skirt th' eternal frost ! 
 Ye wild goats, sporting 'round the eagle's nest ! 
 Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain-storm ! 
 Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds ! 
 Ye signs and wonders of the element! 
 Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise b 
 
 Once more, hoar Mount! with thy sky-pointing 
 
 peaks, 
 
 Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, 
 Shoots downward, glittering thro' the pure serene, 
 Into the depth of clouds that veil thy breast 
 Thou too again, stupendous Mountain ! thou, 
 That as I rise my head, awhile bow'd low 
 In adoration, upward from thy base, 
 Slow travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears, 
 Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury cloud, 
 To rise before me. Rise, O ever rise! 
 Rise, like a cloud of incense from the earth! 
 Thou kingly spirit, throned among the bills ! 
 Thou dread ambassador from earth to Heaven! 
 Great hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky, 
 And tell the, stars, and tell yon rising sun. 
 Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God! 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 85 
 
CLEANTHE'S HYMN TO JUPITER 
 
 Hail, mightiest of Immortals ! many a name 
 Bespeaks, whose greatness, evermore the same ! 
 Ruler of Nature, whose dread sovereignty, 
 . Upholdeth all things by a fixed decree. 
 Thee I invoke, great king! for, frail and weak, 
 Fitting is it for man thy praise to speak! 
 For they who breathe the air and tread the ground 
 Are all his offspring, and, compared with Thee, 
 Are all his fleeting image of a sound ; 
 Therefore my office and my joy shall be 
 To sing thy matchless power eternally! 
 This countless train of worlds their course fulfill, 
 Encircling earth, obedient to thy will ! 
 Thy steadfast hand the thunderbolt doth fling, 
 That two-edged, fiery, ever-living thing, 
 With which, when rent, all nature breathless 
 
 stands, 
 
 Fearing the power of thy resistless hands ! 
 The mighty plan of nature thou dost guide, 
 Pervading all things, to all life allied! 
 Without thee,God, thy presence and thy care, 
 Nor in the -earth, nor in the empyreal air, 
 Nor in the heaven divine, nor tossing sea 
 Can aught be done, save through the impiety 
 Of senseless man. Thy penetrating view 
 Can pierce the mazes of confusion through, 
 And render all things unperplexed and bright, 
 All discord harmony, all darkness light : 
 So that, or good or evil, all shall tend 
 To the fulfillment of one common end. 
 But this eternal purpose men deride, 
 And scorn this heavenly wisdom, in their pride. 
 Oh, wretched men ! still longing to possess, 
 Forever thirsting after happiness, 
 They neither seek to learn, nor care to know 
 This Law divine, whose guidance can bestow 
 A life of honor, by the good beloved, 
 By reason guided and by heaven approved ; 
 But now, alas, rush headlong onward still, 
 Each at the guidance of his own vain will. 
 Of some ambition is the end and aim, 
 A thirst insatiate for the draught of fame ; 
 Some blindly gain and hoard and worship gold, 
 While others yield to passion uncontrolled. 
 But thou, the all-bestowing God of love, 
 The thunder- ruling, cloud-compelling Jove ! 
 Save from this mournful ignorance this vain, 
 Distempered mind, and give us to attain 
 That wisdom which directs thy guiding hand, 
 In the wide circuit of thy just command ; 
 So that, thus honored, we may honor thee, 
 In rendering worthier praise eternally ; 
 Since not to man on earth, nor gods in heaven 
 Can any higher, nobler task be given, 
 Than in an endless song to celebrate 
 This LAW eternal, universal, great! 
 
 86 
 
GLEANINGS FROM "PROVERBIAL PHIL^ 
 OSOPHY" , 
 
 The words of wisdom are chance pearls flung 
 among the rocks by the sullen waters of oblivion ; 
 which diligence loves to gather and hang around 
 the neck of Memory. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Consider, whatever thy fate, that it might and 
 ought to have been worse, and that it lieth in thy 
 hand to gather even blessings from afflictions. Be- 
 think thee, wherefore were they sent*? and hath 
 not use blunted their keenness ? 
 
 Need hope and patience and courage be stra- 
 gers to the meanest hovel *? 
 
 * * * 
 
 Is there not unmitigated ill in the sharpest of 
 the world's sorrows'? 
 
 Cast off the weakness of regret and gird thee 
 to redeem thy loss. 
 
 Thou hast gained in the furnace of affliction, 
 self knowledge, patience and humility. And these 
 are as precious ore that waiteth the skill of the 
 
 I say not, avenge injuries ; for the ministry of 
 
 vengeance is not thine : 
 But wherefore rebuke not a liar '? wherefore do 
 
 dishonour to thyself? 
 Wherefore let the evil triumph, when the just 
 
 and the right are on thy side ? 
 Such Humility is abject, it lacketh the life of sen- 
 
 sibility, 
 And that resignation is but mock, when the bur- 
 
 den is not felt; 
 Suspect thyself and thy meekness : thou art mean 
 
 and indifferent to sin ; 
 And the heart that should grieve and _f orgive is 
 
 case-hardened and forgetteth. 
 * * * 
 
 Beware of the angry in his passion; but fear not 
 
 to approach him afterward ; 
 For if thou acknowledge thine errer, he himself 
 
 will be sorry for his wrath ; 
 Beware of the hater in his coolness ; for he medi- 
 
 tateth evil against thee ; 
 Commending the resources of his mind calmly to 
 
 work thy ruin. 
 Deceit and treachery skulk with hatred, but an 
 
 honest spirit flieth with anger: 
 The one lieth secret, as a serpent; the other 
 
 chaseth, as a leopard. 
 Speedily be reconciled in love, and receive the re- 
 
 turning offender, 
 For wittingly tempering with anger, thou tam- 
 
 perest unconsciously with hatred. 
 
 87 
 
Ridicule is a weak weapon, when levelled at a 
 
 strong mind ; 
 But common men are cowards, and dread an 
 
 empty laugh, 
 Fear a nettle, and touch it tenderly, its poison 
 
 shall burn thee to the shoulder; 
 But grasp it with bold hand, is it not a bundle 
 
 of myrrh ? 
 Betray mean terror of ridicule, thou shalt find 
 
 fools enough to mock thee j 
 But answer thou their laughter with contempt, 
 
 and the scoffers will lick thy feet. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Man, thou hast a social spirit, and art deeply in- 
 debted to thy kind ; 
 
 Therefore claim not. all thy rights : but yreld, for 
 thine own advantage. 
 
 Society is a chain of obligations, and its links must 
 support each other; 
 
 The branch cannot but wither, that is cut from 
 the parent vine. 
 
 Wouldst thou be a dweller in the woods, and cast 
 away the cords that bind thee, 
 
 Seeking, in thy bitterness of pride, to be exiled 
 from thy fellows *? 
 
 Behold, the beasts shall hunt thee, weak, naked, 
 houseless outcast, 
 
 Disease and Death shall track thee out, as blood- 
 hounds, in the wilderness ; 
 
 Better to be vilest of the vile, in the hated com- 
 pany of men, 
 
 Than to live a solitary wretch, dreading and want- 
 ing all things ; 
 
 Better to be chained to thy labour, in the dusky 
 thoroughfares of life, 
 
 Than to reign monarch of sloth, in losesome sav- 
 age freedom. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Better is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the 
 
 right with falsehood: 
 And a prudent man will not not lay siege to the 
 
 stronghold of ignorant bigotry. 
 To unsettle a weak mind were an easy inglorious 
 
 triumph, 
 And a strong cause taketh little count of the 
 
 worthless suffrage of a fool : 
 Lightly he held to the wrong, loosely will he cling 
 
 to right ; 
 Weakness is the essence of his mind, and the reed 
 
 cannot yield an acorn. 
 
 :|c :;< 5ji 
 
 Mind may act upon mind, though bodies be far 
 divided ; 
 
 For the life is in the blood, but souls communi- 
 cate unseen : 
 
 And the best of an exalted intellect, radiating to 
 its fellows, 
 
Doth kindle dry leaves afar off, while the green 
 wood around it is unwarmed. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The dog may have a spirit, as well as his brutal 
 
 master ; 
 A spirit to live in happiness ; for why should he 
 
 be robbed of his existence *? 
 Hath he not a conscience of evil, a glimmer of 
 
 moral sense, 
 Love and hatred, courage and fear, and visible 
 
 shame and pride ? 
 There may be a future rest for the patient victims 
 
 of the cruel ; 
 And a season allotted for their bliss, to compensate 
 
 for unjust suffering. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Spurn not at seeming error, but dig below its sur- 
 face for the truth ; 
 
 And beware of seeming truths, that grow on the 
 roots of error: 
 
 For comely are the apples that spring from the 
 Dead Sea's cursed shore : 
 
 But within are they dust and ashes, and the hand 
 that plucked them shall rue it. 
 
 * * * 
 
 There is truth in the wildest scheme that imagin- 
 ative heat hath engendered, 
 
 And a man may gather somewhat from the crudest 
 theories of fancy. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The alchemist laboureth in folly, but catcheth 
 
 chance gleams of wisdom, 
 And findeth oue many inventions, though his 
 
 crucible breed not gold. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Hints, shrewdly strown, mightily disturb the 
 spirit, 
 
 Where a barefaced accusation would be too ridic- 
 ulous for calumny: 
 
 The sly suggestion toucheth nerves, 
 
 And friendships, the growth of half a century, 
 those oaks that laugh at storms, 
 
 Have been cankered in a night by a worm. 
 
 A sidelong look can please or pain thy heart more 
 than the multitude of proofs. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Yet there is a meanness of spirit that is fair in 
 
 the eyes of most men, 
 Yea, and seemeth fair unto itself, loving to be 
 
 though Humility. 
 Its choler is not roused by insolence^ neither do 
 
 injuries disturb it: 
 Honest indignation is strange unto its breast, and 
 
 just reproof unto its lip. 
 
 89 
 
It shrinketh, looking fearfully on men, fawning 
 
 at the feet of the great; 
 The breath of calumny is sweet unto its ear, and 
 
 it courteth the rod of persecution. 
 But what! art thou not a man, deputed chief of 
 
 the creation? 
 Art thou not^a soldier of the right, militant for 
 
 God and good *? 
 Shall virtue and truth be degraded because thou 
 
 art too base to uphold them? 
 
 * * -; 
 
 For mystery is man's life ; we wake to the whis- 
 perings of novelty ; 
 
 And what, though we lie down disappointed'? we 
 sleep, to wake in hope. 
 
 The letter, or the news, the chances and the 
 changes, matters that may happen, 
 
 Sweeten or embitter daily life with the honey- 
 gall of mystery. 
 
 For we walk blindfold, and a minute may be 
 much, a step may reach the precipice ; 
 
 What earthly loss, what heavenly gain, may not 
 this day produce ? 
 
 Levelled of Alps and Andes, without its valleys 
 and ravines, 
 
 How dull the face of earth, unfeatured of both 
 beauty and sublimity : 
 
 And so, shorn of mystery, beggared in its hopes 
 and fears, 
 
 How flat the prospect of existence, mapped by 
 intuitive foreknowledge. 
 
 Praise God, creature of earth, for the mercies 
 linked with secrecy, 
 
 That spices of uncertainty enrich thy cup of life : 
 
 Praise God, his hosts on high, for the mysteries 
 that make all joy. 
 
 TO ELLA WHEELER WILCOX 
 
 Musical Spirit, stay not long 
 Within the realms of Light. 
 
 Come back, we miss thee, 
 
 Earth is sad and sorrowful tonight. 
 
 Come tripping back upon the winds, 
 Come in the dance of the flowers ; 
 Come in the song of the lover, 
 Come in the joyous hours. 
 
 Laugh and we will laugh with you 
 As of old, for we would not weep, 
 Come from the land of silence, 
 Come from the land of sleep. 
 
 Come after you have garnered 
 The peace of a thousand years, 
 
 For still the old earth will be waiting 
 For you in sorrow and tears. 
 
 90 
 
SANCTUARY 
 
 "Thou art weary of struggling and striving, 
 
 Come home," said the convent bell ; 
 "Here is my cloistered silence, is peace, 
 
 Bid the world farewell." 
 How often I longed to enter 
 
 When temptations would darkly assail, 
 But always the Light returning, 
 New strength and faith would prevail ; 
 Then at last, with courage broken, 
 
 I stood on the very brink, 
 And the cup that was proffered was bitter ; 
 
 Yes, far too bitter to drink. 
 When again to my burdened spirit 
 
 Came the chimes of the convent bell : 
 "Here in my cloistered silence 
 
 Is peace; bid the world farewell." 
 
 I turned at last to enter 
 
 With eager heart and feet, 
 When lo! the noise of the rabble! 
 
 And there in the dusty street 
 Stood the Christ, footsore and weary, 
 
 With thorns encircling his brow ; 
 And I said, "My Master, My Master ! 
 
 I may not enter now." 
 No cloistered walls, no solitude, 
 
 However dear to me, 
 Could hide Him from the presence 
 Of His life's Gethsemene 
 Henceforth my soul thy sanctuary 
 
 In service to all is found ; 
 Wherever heart hath need of thee, 
 
 Ah, there is holy ground. 
 
 (Published in the Los Angeles Times, Sunday, 
 December the 21st, 1919.) 
 
 AT FOUR 
 
 Every morning, sure as sunrise, 
 
 Is a little willow chair 
 Drawn up in our cosy corner, 
 
 Then a maid with golden hair 
 Sits and rocks her cherished dolly, 
 
 Prattling to me all the while 
 Such bright, happy childish fancies 
 
 That I think the angels smile ; 
 For perchance they often whisper 
 
 To my darling when asleep 
 In the morning she must prattle 
 
 For such secrets will not keep. 
 -Published in the "Golden Chain", San Francisco, 
 
 CaL, in 1902. 
 
 91 
 
FLOWERS AND THOUGHTS 
 
 Published in The Theosophist, Adyar, Madras, 
 India, December 1918, with the following mention 
 in the "Watch Tower" from the pen of Mrs. Annie 
 Besant, president of the International Theosoph- 
 ical Society : 
 
 "The following very pretty and musical littie 
 poem, was written by Mrs. Annie M. Long DeBoer, 
 American lady. It is thoroughly Theosophical in 
 spirit" : 
 
 If thoughts are living things 
 
 That speed away on wings, 
 To fall in blight or blessing on the earth, 
 
 Then flowers that deck the sod 
 
 Are thoughts of love, from God, 
 For in Him all things of beauty have their birth. 
 
 And when we may plainly see 
 
 That in beauty is degree, 
 We will know that even weeds may yet* be flowers, 
 
 For all things in beauty grow, 
 
 'Twas the Father willed it so, 
 
 When He planned this ever changing world of 
 ours. 
 
 Transmutation is supreme, 
 
 Laws immutable redeem, 
 Changing forms and baser metals into gold ; 
 
 And the star dust of the spheres, 
 
 Mingled with our many tears, 
 Are the jewels that the future will unfold; 
 
 Faith may wear them on her breast 
 
 Opaline and amethyst 
 Wondrous jewels from the alchemy of Time, 
 
 And their scintillating beams 
 
 Shall reveal to her our dreams ; 
 To the pure all things in Nature are divine. 
 
 TO MARGUERITE 
 
 To you, my Friend and Teacher, 
 
 Who brought to me a jewel of priceless value, 
 And then, lest I should love the giver more than 
 
 the gift, 
 
 Bade me a long farewell 
 Knowing that I must go out alone 
 
 From sheltered pathways, into endless wander- 
 ing and trials and suffering 
 Wherein my Jewel would alone suffice to bring 
 
 me Peace, 
 
 I come in perfect understanding and communion 
 of spirit, after twenty years. 
 
 92 
 
IDEALS 
 
 AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WORLD IDEAL 
 
 The Necessity of an Ideal 
 
 The original fact of every soul is a concrete, de- 
 termined will, and the original form of the will is 
 impulse, or the birth of ideas or ideals. These 
 ideals exist as desire, or a longing for a definite 
 exercise of life. Thus our will or desire nature is 
 the architect who determines the form or style of 
 our ideals, and mind is the intelligence which 
 directs and executes .the plans. Mind is the spark 
 of divinity within us which has existed from the 
 beginning, but the development of mind or the 
 unfoldment of divinity within us depends upon 
 the existence of ideas or ideals. Thus our desires 
 are the arbiters of our fate, choosing what is best 
 for us in the infinite realms of experience. It is not 
 mind or intelligence which creates ideals. Mind 
 cannot attain to any degree of unfoldment or culti- 
 vation until the will has formed an idea or ideal 
 of that state which it desires to realize. To him 
 who has no will, no desires, no emotional nature, 
 all things are of equal importance, and of no im- 
 portance^. Such lives are practically useless to the 
 world unless devoted to the ideals of others. With- 
 out some definite object or goal in view, we divide 
 and misdirect our energies, labor in vain, and pro- 
 duce no valuable result. The true artist or archi- 
 tect first perfects an ideal in his mind, and then 
 seeks to give embodiment to that ideal. So it is in 
 regard to the attainment of any- perfection in 
 mental or moral culture. All depends upon the 
 existence of an ideal, or some accepted standard of 
 excellence to be attained or realized. All true 
 human progress is, therefore, the advancement to- 
 ward some object of unattained ideal perfection, 
 and the influence of that ideal will shape all sub- 
 ordinate objects of the mind and soul of an indi- 
 vidual, or of a nation for nations have ideals, and 
 their influence is revealed upon art, industry, com- 
 merce, music, literature, and all social institutions 
 of civil and religious life. If the ideals of a nation 
 are Liberty, Equity and Universal Brotherhood, 
 those ideals must be realized to all mankind, 
 although the way of their realization shall lead 
 men through the valley and the shadow of death. 
 Every day, every moment of the past, has been the 
 servant of the present. Tne overthrowing of crowns 
 and scepters has but one message to the world the 
 message of Universal Brotherhood. Obedient to a 
 mighty impulse, the impulse of a resistless evolu- 
 
 93 
 
tion, the ideals of nations as the ideals of individu- 
 als are moving forward to the highest uses of law, 
 and the divinest privilege of Freedom. When 
 Plato brought his ideal dream of a Republic to 
 Athens he wrought for our Republic, and when a 
 patricion of Rome said to Cicero, "You are a plebe- 
 ian", and he answered him thus : "I AM a plebe- 
 ian ; the nobility of my family begins with me ; 
 that of yours will end with you. I hold no man 
 deserves to be crowned with honor whose life is a 
 failure ; and he who lives only to eat and drink 
 and accumulate money is a failure. The world is 
 no better for his living in it," he spoke for true 
 manhood, everywhere. 
 
 IDEALS AND TRUTHS ARE PROGRESSIVE 
 
 Those who, unnoticed or noticed and martyred 
 by the world, maintain their devotion to their 
 ideals of truth and principle, are the truly great; 
 but, however devoted man may be to an ideal 
 of truth, if he is progressive he will find his 
 ideals of Truth constantly changing. As our con- 
 viction or perception of Truth should always be 
 held subject to education and observation, so our 
 ideals should always be held subject to each new 
 perception of Truth. 
 
 We are reluctant to admit that ideals and truths 
 are progressive, yet a mind incapable of under- 
 standing that there is such a thing as unconditioned 
 truth, is incapable of enjoying mental freedom, 
 and a mind incapable of understanding that ideals 
 are progressive is likely to end its present incarna- 
 tion in bigotry, superstition, or intolerance of the 
 ideals of others. If we are capable of fitting out 
 our best truth to each new experience, instead of 
 fitting each new experience to our accepted truth, 
 we may hope to grow and expand normally and 
 healthfully, and if a soul is capable of understand- 
 ing that ideals are progressive, it is spared suffering 
 and disappointment ; however, the very existence 
 of our ideals will not permit of doubt and unbe- 
 lief, hence sorrow and disappointment in the van- 
 ishing of our mighty gods is always attendant upon 
 our ideals and is a part of the Divine Plan. 
 
 Emerson says that "Valor consists in self-recov- 
 ery, so that a man cannot be turned, cannot be out- 
 generaled, but put him where you will, he stands," 
 and that "this can only be by his preferring truth 
 to his past apprehension of truth, and his alert 
 acceptance of it from whatever quarter." So would 
 I say that occultism, spirituality, or soul progress, 
 consists in soul recovery of our ideals. When we 
 have been brought to realize that the world of our 
 ideals which we had created and in which we lived 
 and moved and had our being has been destroyed 
 and we are adrift in a chaotic void of space, we 
 
have progressed far toward God if we are capable 
 of gathering up the broken fragments of our ideals 
 and weaving them together again into a more per- 
 fect pattern. 
 
 The continual effort to raise ourselves above our- 
 selves is revealed in our ideals. We are heart 
 hungry for praise and approbation, but we cannot 
 forgive our friend who praises us and is seemingly 
 satisfied with the result of our endeavor, for our 
 own soul is ever urging is onward and upward to 
 heights of unattained perfection. Great artists 
 have destroyed various creations of their own 
 brush ; sculptors have spent months on statues only 
 to smash them; Carlyle three times wrote the His- 
 tory of the French Revolution, the first two pro- 
 ductions having been destroyed. There are ines- 
 timable resources in our souls upon which we have 
 not drawn ; in some supreme crisis of our lives is 
 revealed our strength our visions. Our soul de- 
 velopment is a series of surprises ; step by step we 
 climb the mysterious ladder of our lives, and as we 
 climb, new scenes, new visions open before our 
 wondering eyes ; every found thing suggests some 
 unfound thing ; every truth suggests some new 
 truth ; every star that is brought within our ken 
 suggests still further constellations, and with Ste- 
 phenson we would exclaim : 
 
 "O toiling hands of mortals ! O unwearied feet, 
 traveling you know not whither! Soon, soon it 
 seems to you, you must come forth upon some con- 
 spicuous hilltop, and but a little way farther against 
 the setting sun, descry the spires of Eldorado. Lit- 
 tle do you know your own blessedness, for to travel 
 hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the 
 true reward- is to labor." 
 
 THE FRIENDSHIP-LOVE IDEAL 
 
 Love in its purity and friendship in its sublimity 
 have always been the inspiration of ideals. 
 
 For a hundred years or more, during the age of 
 chivalry, the bravest, the noblest men of Europe 
 knqw no duty above their ladies' pleasure. This 
 devotion to their ideal woman brought civilization 
 out of savagery and barbarism, and added to the 
 warrior's courage the royal name of gentleman. But 
 for this devotion of Knight to Lady there would 
 have been no modern era with its finer social senti- 
 ments, and just in proportion is this devotion is 
 lost and men become skeptical of woman's sanc- 
 tity, does society lose its moral, no less than its 
 sentimental tone. 
 
 Dante, the immortal Dante, was born at the close 
 of the age of chivalry. The influence of its sell- 
 abnegating spirit in its loyalty to ideal womanhood 
 had already been bequethed to the world, but in 
 Dante is found its truest exponent. 
 
 95 
 
The life of Dante is one of the saddest annals of 
 history. Of noble birth and a proud earnest 
 nature, he became involved in the political disturb- 
 ances of his day. The opposing party gaining the 
 ascendancy, his property was confiscated and Dante 
 himself exiled. An old document still extant in 
 the archives of Florence states that he shall be 
 burnt alive should he be caught. 
 
 He wandered from place to place filled with sar- 
 casm and sorrow, but keeping always the image of 
 his beloved Beatrice within his heart. Exiled for- 
 ever from her and his home in Florence, he dwelt 
 more and more in the eternal world. His Divine 
 Comedy, his mystic unfathomable song, is as it 
 were the soul of Dante laid on the altar of love 
 as an offering to the ages. 
 
 In a series of poems, Dante himself tells of the 
 great love for Beatrice which possessed his whole 
 being through the ideal which she presented to 
 him. His whole thought was of her transcendent 
 worth and his whole desire was to live so as to 
 be worthy to be known as her friend. Always his 
 acquaintance with her was of the slightest and she 
 was wedded to another. In speaking of the effect 
 upon him of the sight of her, he said : 
 
 "There no longer remained to me an enemy, nay 
 a flame of charity possessed me which made me 
 pardon everyone who had done me wrong, and had 
 anyone at that time questioned me of anything, my 
 only answer would have been lov, and my face 
 would have been clothed in humility." 
 
 After her death and after his triumph over a 
 temptation to give her a lower place in his mind, 
 he recorded this new purpose of his : 
 
 "A wonderful vision appeared to me in which I 
 saw things which made me resolve to speak no 
 more of the blessed one until I could more worth- 
 ily treat of her, and to attain this I study to the 
 utmost of my power as she truly knoweth. So that 
 if it may please Him, through Whom all things 
 live, that my life may be prolonged for some years, 
 I hope to say of her what has never been said of 
 any woman." 
 
 The outcome of this purpose of Dante was the 
 Divine Comedy, wherein Beatrice appears as the 
 personification of heavenly enlightenment. As 
 Longfellow has so beautifully said : 
 
 "Ah, from what agonies of heart and brain 
 
 What exultation trampling on despair, 
 What tenderness, what tears, what hate of wrong, 
 What passionate outcry of a soul in pain, 
 _ Uprose this poem of earth and air, 
 This medieval miracle of song!" 
 
 96 
 
-4 beautiful parable of a Persian poet tells us 
 that : 
 
 "One knocked at the Beloved's door, and a voice 
 asked from within, 'Who is there ?' and he an- 
 swered, 'It is I.' Then the voice said, 'This house 
 will not hold me and thee,' and the door was not 
 opened. Then went the lover into the desert and 
 fasted and prayed in solitude, and after a year he 
 returned and knocked again at the door, and again 
 the voice said, v 'Who is there *?' and he said, 'It is 
 thyself,' and the door was opened to him." 
 
 Thus it shall always be with our ideals. As we 
 image in our lives the character of our ideals, so do 
 we progress in our journey toward God, Who is 
 our home. He who cannot idealize a friend has 
 never known the great joy and sorrow of friend- 
 ship, and to discover divinity within another soul 
 is to be divine. Never perhaps have we read any- 
 thing more beautiful (in the thought it conveys) 
 than the following poem, entitled "Transfigured" : 
 
 Almost afraid they led her in : 
 
 (A dwarf more piteous none could find) : 
 
 Withered as some weird leaf, and thin, 
 The woman was and wan and blind. 
 
 "Into the mirror with a smile 
 Not vain to be so fair, but glad 
 
 The South-born painter looked the while, 
 With eyes than Christ's alone less sad. 
 
 "Mother of God," in calm surprise 
 
 He whispered, "What am I to paint?" 
 
 A voice that sounded from the skies 
 Said to him : "Raphael, a saint." 
 
 She sat before him in the sun ; 
 
 He scarce could look at her, and she 
 Was still and silent. "It is done," 
 
 He said. "Oh, call the world to see!" 
 
 And there was she in veriest truth 
 Transcendent face and haloed hair ; 
 
 The beauty of divinest youth, 
 Divinely beautiful, was there. 
 
 Herself into her picture passed 
 Herself and not her poor disguise 
 
 Made up of time and dust. At last 
 One saw her with the Master's eyes." 
 
 Thus a poet's ideals are revealed in his poetry, a 
 sculptor's ideals are embodied in his creation, and 
 the soul of the musician speaks to the world in the 
 divine rhapsodies of song. Sometimes in towers 
 and aisles of granite, the soul's worship is builded, 
 and sometimes only in words, but in words fraught 
 with vitality and power. 
 
 97 
 
The shadowy gods of the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans are insignificant in comparison with the 
 immortal representation of their ideals in art. In 
 the Venus de Milo and the Apollo Belvidere are 
 assembled all the beauties and perfections that then 
 existed in the soul of man. Their architecture is 
 yet the marvel of the world. 
 
 The man of ideals becomes the prophet of his 
 ideals ; only he can give who has received, and 
 only he can inspire others whose own soul has 
 received inspiration. When we have received an 
 inspiration we must of necessity impart that vision 
 to others, and blessed are they who having not seen 
 believe! Blessed are they who are putting into 
 visible forms of beauty and usefulness for the 
 world, the dream that exists in the soul of the 
 dreamer. They are the toilers, the builders, the 
 very salt of the earth. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS IDEAL 
 
 Religion, or the binding of human beings to the 
 unseen power of the universe, has existed in some 
 form since the evolving faculties of man first 
 grasped the idea of a cause, and the strongest ideals 
 of a people are always objectified in the nature of 
 its gods or God. Even in mythology or nature 
 worship are found the ideals which prove the exist- 
 ence of great moral or spiritual forces working on 
 the hearts of men. 
 
 The first and perhaps greatest development of a 
 religious ideal was in the valley of the Nile. There, 
 far back in the shadowy ages of the past, existed in 
 Egypt a religion of astounding sublimity and a 
 civilization to which the world must look up for 
 ages to come. This religion and its resultant civil- 
 ization is known to the present only by its ideals 
 as embodied in what remains of its art and its liter- 
 ature, as engraved on excavated tablets and stones, 
 and what Greek and Latin historians have recorded 
 in their annals. When Plato wove the story of 
 Atlantis, when Herodotus visited Egypt in the 
 third century before Christ, or when Plutarch gath- 
 ered the legend of Osiris, within seventy or eighty 
 years after, the glory of ancient Egypt was a thing 
 of the past, and the religion of that period was as 
 remote to the Egyptians themselves as it now is 
 to us, except to priests initiated in the mysteries, 
 who have always felt a certain horror at the Greek 
 and Roman interpretations ; but it was plainly re- 
 vealed to the Greek and Roman historians that the 
 ancient religion, in its purity, taught the immor- 
 tality of the soul, and worship of a Power, illimit- 
 able, incomprehensible and eternal, behind the vis- 
 ible phenomena of the universe. He was the "One", 
 "Living in Truth", "Truth Itself", "The Essence 
 
 98 
 
of Righteousness", words used in the "Book of the 
 Dead", the most ancient of human documents, a 
 collection of prayers, invocations and protecting 
 spells, laid with the mummy to guard the dead in 
 his perilous journey through Amenti. He who 
 knows this book," says a sarcophagus of the XII 
 dynasty, "is one who in the day of ressurrection in 
 the under world arises and enters in." 
 
 The ancient document calls the day of death the 
 "day of birth", when clothed in the garment of 
 truth, the soul journeyed onward to the "divine 
 lower world", where he is brought before Osiris. 
 In chapter 125, the most famous chapter of this 
 book, the justified one speaks as follows to the 
 forty-two accusers, or assessors: 
 
 "Oh gods, dwellers of the divine under-world, 
 hear the voice of Osiris N.! He has arrived near 
 you. There is no fault found in him, no sin 
 against him; no witness against him. He lives 
 on truth, nourishes himself on truth. The heart of 
 the gods is satisfied with what he has done he 
 has given bread to the hungry, water to the 
 thirsty, clothing to the naked. . . There is no 
 witness against him before any god." 
 
 And the defense of the dead : 
 
 "I have guarded myself from holding godless 
 speeches. I have committed no revenge in act or 
 in heart; no excesses in love; I have injured no 
 one with lies; have driven away no beggars, com- 
 mitted no treacheries, caused no tears. I have not 
 taken another's property, nor committeed murder, 
 nor ruined another, nor destroyed the laws of 
 righteousness. I have not aroused contests, nor 
 neglected the Creator of my soul. I have done no 
 robbery. I have not disturbed the joy of others. 
 I have not passed by the oppressed, sinning against 
 my Creator or the Lord or the heavenly powers." 
 
 The rubric or written instruction which follows 
 this chapter states that it was to be repeated on 
 earth with great solemnity, and the worshiper 
 must be "clad in pure linen, shod with white san- 
 dals, and annointed with fragrant oil, because he 
 is received into the service of Osiris". A hidden 
 and inspired meaning was attached to the Book of 
 the Dead which only the priests were supposed to 
 understand. 
 
 The sun was worshiped as a manifestation oi 
 the unknown being! "Thy rays," says the wor- 
 shiper, "come from a face unknown; thou march- 
 est unknown; thou shinest upon us, and we do 
 not know thy body." 
 
 "Book of the Dead" is one long song of praise 
 to Osiris. There are found such selections as 
 the following: "He was appointed to reign over 
 the gods in the presence of the supreme lord 
 
 99 
 
in the day of the constitution of the world. 
 From assimilation with him comes the perfection 
 of being." "Oh, Osiris, thy mother hath begotten 
 thee in the world. She hath called thee with a 
 beautiful name. Goodness, thy name in the lower 
 heaven ; Lord of Life thy name among the liv- 
 ing, . . . but thy true name is God." 
 
 Osiris was the embodiment of love, and the 
 dream of union with him was the dying hope of 
 all Egyptians. Almost every grave inscription 
 speaks of the dead as having "passed over to union 
 with Osiris, the high and holy." At the close of 
 the "Book of the Dead" it is said of him: "He 
 shall be deified among the gods ... he shall 
 not be rejected. It shall be granted to him to 
 shine like a star forever in heaven." 
 
 This religion of the Egyptians raised them from 
 a nomadic state of existence, taught them science, 
 agriculture and art, and lifted them to the highest 
 state of civilization such civilization as was later 
 idealized and imitated in Greece and Rome. Why, 
 then, may we ask, did it perish from the earth, or 
 change into polytheism and idolatry ? 
 
 Was it because of the abuse of power by the 
 priests who kept the people in ignorance and super- 
 stition ? Was it because it lacked the simplicity 
 and humility and humanity of Christianity, or was 
 it because, unlike Buddhism, "the Light of India", 
 it took its inspiration from without, from the 
 visible aspects of nature, and not from knowledge 
 and understanding of the invisible things of the 
 spirit? We know that the Ancient Egyptians 
 were versed in all the mechanism of nature. They 
 studied the stars and formulated our present sys- 
 tem of astronomy and astrology. They produced 
 gems wondrous in beauty which were of stupen- 
 dous power when used in conjunction with words 
 of mystic meaning. The "woman of Endor", whom 
 King Saul visited, was versed in all the wisdom of 
 ancient Egypt. She could summon spirits, and 
 she was appalled when she saw "gods descending 
 to the earth", but that did not make her spiritual. 
 Spirituality, which is only another name for divine 
 love and mercy, is acquired in the hard school of 
 life, through days of sorrow and nights of pain. 
 It does not consist in feeling good nor in being 
 lulled to sleep by the power of ritual, rites, or 
 ceremonies. There is far more spirituality in the 
 world today than ever before, because the world 
 is waking up to the great fact of Brotherhood and 
 Unity of all Humanity. It is easy to forget self in 
 service to others, and he who gives a cup of cold 
 water to the thirsty, he who gives bread to the 
 hungry, or heals the* sick, or leads the blind, is 
 functioning on higher planes, whether he knows 
 it or not. The secrets and mystical ceremonies 
 of the ancient Egyptians never interpreted the 
 
 100 
 
spiritual universe, but the spiritual universe has 
 found unfoldment within the natural universe. 
 Divine powers unfold only to him who is fitted to 
 receive them, and to use them in the advancement 
 of the evolution of all humanity. As is written 
 in Mabel Collins' wonderful book, the "Black Art 
 of Fleta must be changed to he White Art of Man, 
 the occultist." 
 
 Human nature, apart from the divine nature, is 
 susceptible only of a certain degree of cultivation, 
 and when that point has been reached a decline 
 necessarily follows. 
 
 * * * 
 
 THE TRUE IDEAL 
 
 The true idea of development is the unfolding 
 of the divine nature from within. The nations 
 and their religions of antiquity perished because 
 they had not developed progressive, humanitarian 
 ideals. The true intellectual or moral progress of 
 an individual, of a nation or of a world, depends 
 upon an ideal standard toward which an endless 
 advance can be made. It is then a point of first 
 importance to come to a determination of the true 
 ideal. This ideal does not consist of an ideal of 
 national supremacy. The Romans reached that 
 ideal and saw k decline. It does not end in civil 
 and religious freedom, nor the exercise of "inalien- 
 able rights". Such are only constructive elements, 
 absolutely necessary and conducive to the greater 
 ideal. America has realized the ideal of civil and 
 religious freedom. She has attained to a realiza- 
 tion of the beautiful and useful in the arts and 
 sciences, and she excels in all departments of in- 
 dustry and commerce, but all these attainments are 
 only conducive to and prophetic of a more glori- 
 ous career wherein the true ideal is beginning to 
 have form within the hearts of men. Human prog- 
 ress is not in the promotion of merely national 
 interests. Man's highest development is in the 
 perfection of his mental and moral nature, the 
 realization of his divinity, and the unfolding of 
 this ideal is from within. 
 
 The visible forms and civilizations of antiquity 
 perished, but the divine attributes of the mind and 
 soul of man are never lost, but live forever, pass- 
 ing from life to life, experience to experience, even 
 as the Divine Truth which lives in higher forms 
 beyond the reach of the "changing worlds". The 
 infinite mutations of form and the endless pil- 
 grimage of the soul are beautifully expressed in 
 Shelley's mystical poem, "The Cloud" : 
 
 "I am the daughter of earth and water, 
 
 And the nursling of the sky ; 
 I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores, 
 
 I change, but I cannot die. 
 
 101 
 
For, after the rain, when with never a stain 
 
 The pavilion of heaven is bare, 
 And the winds and the sunbeams, with their con- 
 vex gleams, 
 
 Build up the blue dome of the air, 
 I silently laugh at my own centotaph, 
 
 And out of the caverns of rain, 
 Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the 
 tomb, 
 
 I arise and upbuild it again." 
 
 Thus to the soul in its long pilgrimage this 
 world is only a school, and the knowledge acquired 
 here will aid in its future travels into the unknown. 
 Nature, always cautious of expenditure, has been 
 millions of years preparing for the future of the 
 soul. Always cautious of the suffering of her chil- 
 dren, while seemingly grim and inexorable in her 
 laws, she has often permitted a baptism of blood 
 that shall bear to this end, and throughout all the 
 ages of the world, during man's development 
 from savagery, and during the rise and fall of 
 nations the great wheel of life has moved slowly 
 forward to the consummation of the divine ideal. 
 Truly, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 hath entered into the heart of man, the things 
 that God hath prepared for those that love Him." 
 
 There are people (we are glad to know they are 
 constantly coming into the light) who think of the 
 universe as a clock, wound up and set in motion 
 and left to itself in the fulfillment of immutable 
 law a vast machinery, constantly grinding out the 
 fate of all. To such souls prayer is a mockery 
 and hope is vain. Ah! could they but know that 
 the union of the finite and Infinite is so close that 
 when we lift our hearts in prayer we make pos- 
 sible the answer to that prayer for "God is All 
 and in All", and we are co-workers with Him in 
 
 shaping our lives. 
 
 * * * 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOSOPHICAL IDEAL 
 
 Philosophy has been defined as "man's innate 
 curiosity", but it is our "moving about in worlds 
 not realized" which proves us divine. The human 
 mind will not acknowledge limits to its powers. 
 That philosophy of life, or that religion of life, 
 which is baffled by mystery is unsatisfactory. The 
 soul, kept in ignorance of latent powers, drifts 
 into superstition, intolerance, and gross materiality. 
 Theosophy rightly maintains that "There is no re- 
 ligion higher than Truth", and Truth in its 
 entirety is God. All ideals, all religions have con- 
 tained some portion of Truth. Any ideal, any 
 religion, is better than no ideal, no religion, for 
 in all have been revealed some fragment of Truth ; 
 and as students of Theosophy we hold that Truth 
 may be sought by purity of life and devotion to 
 
 102 
 
high ideals. The essence of Theosophy is the 
 fact that man, being divine, partaking in the part 
 of the divine nature, may know the divinity of the 
 life he shares, and if all are divine, then the Broth- 
 erhood or Unity of all is a fact in nature to be 
 lived up to if we wish not to injure or destroy 
 ourselves. The world has progressed tremendously 
 within the past fifty years, not only in science and 
 invention, but in the advancement of all stand- 
 ards of morality. Orthodoxy once taught people 
 to think of morality as a collection of arbitrary 
 laws, imposed upon them by a super-mundane be- 
 ing for their spiritual instruction. It is now uni- 
 versally recognized that moral law is natural law, 
 in the sense of its being the condition of our health 
 and happiness, and that the transgression of -moral 
 law will bring upon nations as well as individuals 
 misfortune and destruction. Whoever disregards 
 the law of fire will be consumed by fire ; whoever 
 disregards the law of gravity will be dashed to 
 pieces on the rocks below, and whoever disobeys 
 the laws of morality will pay the cost in physical 
 and mental suffering. He who surrenders himself 
 to idleness and pleasure will find his physical as 
 well as his moral well-being destroyed useful act- 
 ivity is followed by pleasure, and mental activi- 
 ties or capacities grow strong through exercise. 
 
 The standards of merits are no longer those of 
 wealth and power over the lives of others. The 
 world is entering upon a new era, an era of supra- 
 consciousness. Existence can no longer be ex- 
 plained by the means of physical forces alone, and 
 the relation of tfye individual mind to the univer- 
 sal mind is beginning to be realized. As our ab- 
 stract knowledge has enabled us to perceive that 
 our physical life is not independent, but is con- 
 tained in a larger system, so we now perceive that 
 our soul life, is also not independent, but is con- 
 tained in a much larger system, and as Weller ^Van 
 Hook pointed out in a recent number of "The 
 Messenger", "the illuminating truth of Dharma" 
 is "breaking through the darkness". The world is 
 learning that stronger souls may help advance 
 the evolution of the "small and weak", and that 
 in unity only is strength and eternal progress. If 
 you doubt the development of this new World 
 Ideal, ponder again those words of President 
 Wilson : 
 
 "We are fighting for the liberty, the self-gov- 
 ernment, and the undictated development of all 
 peoples, and every settlement that concludes this 
 war must be conceived and executed for that pur- 
 pose. 
 
 "No people must be forced under sovereignty 
 under which it does not wish to live. The Broth- 
 erhood of Mankind must no longer be a fair but 
 empty phrase ; it must be given the structure of 
 
 103 
 
force and reality. The nations must realize their 
 common 'life, and effect a workable partnership 
 to secure that life against the aggressions of auto- 
 cratic and self-pleasing power." 
 
 In the new philosophical ideal that is forming 
 within the mind and hearts of men, it is clearly 
 recognized that no nation, no class, or no indi- 
 vidual has any true interest apart from the uni- 
 versal good, and that we best promote our own 
 welfare when we are helping to advance the inter- 
 ests of all humanity. It is now universally recog- 
 nized that he who is truly great has become the 
 servant of all. After nineteen centuries the teach- 
 ing of the Christ to His disciples, "Whoever shall 
 be great among you shall be your minister, and 
 whoever among you will be chiefest shall be the 
 servant of all," is being universally recognized, 
 if not universally practiced, as the great basic 
 Truth of all religion and philosophy of life. 
 
 In following the life of Christ as recorded in 
 the Gospels, we mark how keenly alive He was 
 to the real or unreal, but terribly vital needs of 
 the world in which He lived. The amelioration 
 of human ills in whatever form constituted the 
 burden of his life. All who needed sympathy 
 found in Him a friend, and the more they were 
 despised and rejected by others, the warmer was 
 His love and sympathy toward them. The sick 
 and the blind, the oucast and the erring, the cap- 
 tive and the oppressed, all were objects of His 
 divine love and sympathy. His life, as the lives 
 of all great philanthropists and all great reform- 
 ers, was a failure as judged from natural stand- 
 point. He had come to proclaim a kingdom and 
 had been defeated. His death on the cross was 
 seemingly the end of a life of failure, and yet, 
 how glorious, how sublime was His life as judged 
 from the standpoint of service to the world! 
 
 As -we have listened to the world's conflicting 
 interests, nation at war with nation, and avarice 
 and greed trampling down the weak and poor, we* 
 have wondered if the teaching of the world's sav- 
 iours, the world's failures will ever be universally 
 observed, but the cloud of our doubts is begin- 
 ning to reveal the silver lining. Always the dark- 
 est hour ushers in the dawn, and the signs of the 
 times tend to prove that the world is entering 
 upon a new era, an era of universal brotherhood, 
 and that a better and higher life is spreading 
 throughout the world. Everything tends to prove 
 that we are approaching that phase of civiliza- 
 tion, that cycle of evolution, when a great World 
 Teacher, a World Savior will again appear. It is 
 a startling fact that the coming of the Wave of 
 Peace has always been preceded by wars, by great 
 cataclysms and great industrial strife. Those who 
 have gone before and prepared the way have 
 
 104 
 
always been the apparent martyrs and victims, and 
 every great gift to humanity has been dyed in 
 the heart blood of the brave. The war brought 
 an appalling amount of suffering, and the period 
 of readjustment and reconstruction will be long 
 and severe, but we know it will not be in vain, 
 and that out of it all will come a better and higher 
 life for all humanity. We know, we perceive, 
 that great potencies for good are abroad in the 
 world of today unity, friendliness, industry, pro- 
 hibition, discipline and so far as we can see when 
 we view things on a large scale, Justice seems to 
 be the keynote of the age. Great suffering, great 
 trials are bringing to pass the abolishment of 
 caste and creed. There are no longer any social 
 disturbances because of wealth, and the rights of 
 all mankind to natural opportunities are being 
 asserted. There will never be an accepted crite- 
 rion for the division of wealth, for man is en- 
 dowed with moral freedom and hope and fear, gain 
 and loss, success and failure must ever be possible, 
 for the great law of Karma rules the world and 
 man must reap as he has sown, but the right of 
 property, as the world is beginning to realize it, 
 is simply the right of a steward to discharge his 
 trust without interference. 
 
 Intelligent people of today may not set them- 
 slves upon a lofty pedestal and look down in scorn 
 upon those below them in the scale of evolution. 
 It is now conceded that a weak heart, or a weak 
 mind, needs a strong heart and a strong mind, en- 
 couragement, advice and knowledge. The insane 
 asylums of tomorrow will all be sanitariums, where 
 the normal mental equilibrium will be restored ; 
 and the prisons of the future will be schools, great 
 vocational centers if you will, where virtue, hon- 
 or, mercy and self-control will unconsciously be 
 ingrafted upon the minds and hearts of all. 
 
 A cheerful place to work in, a clean place to 
 live in, and hours of recreation and rest may not 
 be withheld from the laboring class of today, and 
 inasmuch as we fail in our duty to our fellow- 
 beings, in-so-far do we fail to realize our own 
 divinity. 
 
 ANNIE M. L. DEBOER. 
 
 "7 shall be satisfied when I awake in thy like- 
 ness" Psalm xvii-15. 
 
 Not here, not here, where the sparkling waters 
 
 Change to mocking sands as I draw near; 
 Not here, not here, where my imperfections 
 
 In the beautiy of all that I love appear, 
 But when I awake in thy likeness 
 
 Then I shall be satisfied ; 
 Ah, when I awake in thy likeness 
 
 Then I shall be glorified. 
 
 105 
 
THE EARTH AND THE FLOWERS 
 
 "Only the actions of the just smell sweet, and 
 blossom in the dust" 
 
 I am the soil where grew the flowers 
 That gathered the sunshine and dew ; 
 
 I am the essence that gave to beauty, 
 The delight that was given to you. 
 
 I am the dust of the earth, 
 
 I care not if beauty may live 
 All that the Master gave to me 
 
 I give and I joyfully give. 
 
 I am the humble toiler 
 
 The seeming victim of fate, 
 But the destinies of nations 
 
 On my brain and my brawn await. 
 
 I am the hand of the artist 
 That fashioned the Great Ideal ; 
 
 I" am the brick and mortar 
 That the dreams of the dreamer reveal. 
 
 I am the eyes of the seeing, 
 
 I am the voice of the song ; 
 I am the heart of the lover, 
 
 I am the strength of the strong. 
 
 I am the cells of the living, 
 
 I am the brain of the wise; 
 I am the temple of spirit, 
 
 I am a god in disguise. 
 
 What matter if I am forgotten 
 
 If the Beautiful the True and the Just 
 
 Shall live in fragrance forever, 
 And blossom in my dust. 
 
 OUT OF THE PAST 
 
 Out of the past came the present, 
 
 Out of its struggle our rest, 
 Out of its wars our freedom 
 
 Whatever is, is best. 
 
 Out of the past came the present, 
 
 Out of its error, our woe ; 
 Out of its virtue, our blessing 
 
 We reap whatever we sow. 
 
 Out of the present the future ; 
 
 O what shall the future be? 
 We are building today for tomorrow, 
 
 And now is eternity. 
 
 -Published in the Progress, Minneapolis, Minn. 
 106 
 
THE LILIES OF THE FIELD 
 
 "Consider the lilies of the field" 
 
 Flowers ! when the Saviour's calm, benignant eyes 
 Fell on your gentle beauty ; when from you 
 That heavenly lesson for all hearts He drew, 
 Eternal, universal, as the sky, 
 Then in the bosom of your purity 
 A voice he set as in a temple-shrine, 
 That life's quick travelers ne'er might pass you by 
 Unwarned of that sweet oracle divine. 
 
 And though too oft its low, celestial sound 
 By the harsh notes of work-day care is drowned, 
 And the loud steps of vain, unlistening haste, 
 Yet the great ocean hath no tone of power 
 Mightier to reach the soul in thought's hushed 
 
 hour, 
 
 Than yours, ye Lilies ; chosen thus and graced. 
 Felicia Dorothea Hemans. 
 
 "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: 
 they toil not, neither do they spin ; 
 
 "And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in 
 all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." 
 
 As the Great Teacher passed to and fro amid 
 the vine-clad hills and blossoming valleys of Pales- 
 tine, intent upon his mission of love to humanity, 
 how great must have been his peace as he drew 
 from the surrounding objects of Nature his mys- 
 tical symbolism of Truth. 
 
 The magnificent temple of Solomon at Jerusa- 
 lem was the deepest expression of Jewish pride. 
 Into the treasury of this great temple the poor 
 widow's two mites were cast with the offerings of 
 the rich, for the glory of his reign yet thrilled the 
 hearts of the people, so that even the Great Teach- 
 er had been admonished to "see what manner of 
 stones and what buildings are here." The Temple 
 pointed to Solomon, and the glory of the Jewish 
 people, when this king who possessed more than 
 human wisdom, occupied the throne of David. Yet 
 the Master points them to the lily of the field, and 
 says : "Even Solomon in all his glory was not 
 arrayed as one of these." 
 
 The comparison was no random utterance. There 
 was deep significance in its meaning. It was be- 
 tween man's wisdom and God's wisdom ; between 
 human achievement and divine immensity ; and 
 between human restlessness and divine confidence 
 and peace. This flower this lily of Palestine, 
 which abounded in the districts of Galilee was as 
 common to the Jews as the daisy or the dandelion 
 is to us, yet this flower cast all the fine linen and 
 purple robes and elaborately wrought ornaments of 
 of Solomon into the shade, for it had a depth of 
 design and a perfection of execution in its net- 
 
 107 
 
work of tendrils and fibers in the stalk, the leaves, 
 the stamens and pistels, and in all its mystical 
 tints, that the wisdom of man may not fully com- 
 prehend. Even the great temple of Solomon, 
 wrought of marble and cedarwood and inlaid with 
 gold and silver and precious stones, paled into 
 insignificance in comparison with the humble lily. 
 Man cannot hope to "add one cubit to his stature" 
 nor one tint to its bloom. The mystical signifi- 
 cance of its life is something beyond the wisdom 
 of man. But for the Omnipotent it were as easy 
 to frame and fashion a world as this unpretending 
 flower of the field ! 
 
 The family of lilies is very large, and in this 
 feeble tribute to their beauty the writer will not 
 attempt to mention all varieties. A few, only, 
 appeal to me, being more familiar, of more trans- 
 cendent beauty, or like the lotus in particular, hav- 
 ing a deep significance and an unrivaled historical 
 value. 
 
 Among our native lilies, the wild yellow lily, or 
 Canada lily, is especially beautiful. Blooming in 
 June and July, the low meadows and marshy 
 places are bright with its swaying, golden bells, 
 and it is thought by many to be the lily of Scrip- 
 ture, the only flower mentioned in the New Testa- 
 ment, by the Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 The red, wood, flame, or Philadelphia lilies, and 
 the beautiful Spotted lilies, and Mariposa lilies 
 may be members of this branch of the lily family, 
 and somewhere on the Pacific coast grow sweet 
 little clusters of wood lilies, as sweet as our Lilies 
 of the Valley, whereunto we so often liken our 
 Beloved. 
 
 The acknowledged queen of our natural aquatic 
 lilies is the sweet-scented white water lily or pond 
 lily. This lily is of the same family as the gigantic 
 Victoria Regia of Brazil, and all the other, rose, 
 lavender, blue and golden exotic water lilies that 
 bloom in the fountains of our city parks. Its most 
 humble sister is the yellow water lily to which 
 Longfellow compared Hiawatha's canoe : 
 
 "Floated on the river like a yellow water lily." 
 
 Who that has enjoyed the castle-building of 
 youth and love can forget the fragrance of the 
 water lilies as they drifted out among the shallows, 
 idly as the fleecy clouds of June *? 
 
 The water lily comes of an ancient and white- 
 robed family of priests. Symbols of meditation 
 and repose, they have assisted in religious ceremo- 
 nies from the beginning of time. The lotus of 
 Egypt, India, China, Japan, Persia and Asiatic 
 Russia is a relative of our sweet-scented water lily. 
 
 A Chinese writer of the eleventh century paid 
 the following beautiful tribute to the water lily : 
 
 "Since the opening of the T'ang dynasty it has 
 108 
 
been fashionable to admire the peony, but my 
 favorite is the water lily. 
 
 "How stainless it rises from its slimy bed ; how 
 modestly it reposes on the clear pool an emblem 
 of purity and truth. Symmetrically perfect, its 
 subtle perfume is wafted far and wide. While 
 there it rests in spotless state, something to be 
 regarded reverently from a distance, and not to be 
 profaned by familiar approach." 
 
 The Egyptian lotus was a sacred plant, the em- 
 blem of the sacred Nile. It was held as a symbol 
 of the creation of the world from the waters. It 
 was not only a symbol of physical life, "but 
 mainly a type of the generating forces of all Na- 
 ture, expressing "water, health, life". Its meaning 
 was that of endless revival and endless begetting, 
 or the continuous renewing of nature. In their 
 hieroglyphic representation of plant life, the pome- 
 granate, the lotus and date palms are always dis- 
 tinguishable. It was believed that the pomegranate 
 seeds once eaten kept the soul in another life be- 
 yond the reach of death. The date palms and per- 
 simmons sometimes were called lotus. This plant 
 is said by some writers to be the plant of the lotus 
 eaters, a people of the north coast of Africa who 
 lived on the fruit of the lotus tree. Homer tells 
 us that they received Ulysses and his followers 
 hospitably, but the sweetness of the fruit produced 
 such a happy languor that they forgot their native 
 land, and ceased to desire to return to it, their sole 
 desire being to live in delicious, dreamy idleness in 
 lotus land. 
 
 Of the lily lotus, Herodotus says : 
 
 "When the river is full and has made the plains 
 like a sea, great numbers of lilies, which the Egyp- 
 tians call lotus, spring up in the water; these they 
 gather and dry in the sun; then, having pounded 
 the middle of the lotus, which resembles a poppy, 
 they make bread of it and bake it. The root also 
 of the lotus is fit for food, and is tolerably sweet, 
 and is round, and of the size of an apple. There 
 are also other lilies, like roses, that grow in the 
 river, the other fruit of which is contained in a 
 separate pod, that spring up in form very like a 
 wasp's nest. In this there are many berries fit to 
 be eaten, of the size of an olive-stone, and they 
 are eaten both fresh and dried." 
 
 However, the lotus was not only valuable for its 
 edible properties. Its significance was highly relig- 
 ious. The sacred bull, Apis, was wreathed with 
 its garlands, and there were niches for water to 
 place it in tombs. It was offered to Osiris and 
 laid upon the bodies of the dead, as a symbol of 
 resurrection, just as our Lilium longiflorum has a 
 similar meaning with us and is used for decoration 
 at Easter. The Egyptian sacred flower was always 
 
 109 
 
blue or white, and in all their art the lotus excels 
 in ornament, having solar Or magic significance. 
 Isis, the great mother, holds it, and the god Nilus 
 binds a wreath about the brow of Memnon. 
 
 From Egypt the symbolism of this sacred flower 
 was carried to Assyria, having been found in the 
 sculptures at Ninevah, and to the ancient Chinese 
 the lotus was symbolical and invested with poetic 
 meaning, being associated with Fuh or Buddha, 
 and symbolizing beauty. 
 
 The Sanscrit word for the lotus is Padua. The 
 learned Brahmins called the Egyptian deities 
 "Padua Devi", or Lotus Gods. 
 
 In the "Purana" may be found the following 
 account of the origin of Brahma : 
 
 "When Vishnu was about to create the world he 
 produced a lotus several thousand miles long, from 
 the unfolded flower of which proceeded Brahma. 
 He reflected with much amazement who he was 
 and whence he came, and at last concluded that the 
 lotus flower was his author. He therefore trav- 
 eled downward a hundred years in hope to reach 
 the root; but seeing no end of his journey, he 
 turned about and traveled upward another century 
 without reaching the end of the immense plant. At 
 last Vishnu was seen ; and a quarrel ensuing, the 
 two gods were going to fight when Siva appeared 
 and prevented the combat. Vishnu, then in the 
 shape of a boar, traveled down the lotus a thou- 
 sand years until he came to Fatal, and Brahma 
 wandered upward in the shape of a goose, until he 
 came to the world above." 
 
 The color of the flower in India is white or red ; 
 the last color was dyed, according to a fable, by 
 the blood of Siva, when Kamadeva, or Cupid, 
 wounded him with the fatal arrow of love. 
 
 Of the Hindoo Venus, Sri, or Lakshmi, it is said : 
 
 "Seated on a full-blown lotus and holding a 
 lotus in her hand, the goddess Sri, radiant with 
 beauty, rose from the waves." 
 
 And when the virtuous Prahlada was burned at 
 the stake, he cried to his cruel father: 
 
 "The fire burneth me not, and all around me I 
 behold the face of the sky, cool and fragrant with 
 beds of lotus flowers." Thus the lotus is as 
 favorite a subject' with the Hindu poets as the rose 
 is with the Persians. The moon is often called the 
 lover or lord of the lotuses. Thus Kalidisa makes 
 reference : 
 "While the round moon withdraws his looming 
 
 disc 
 
 Beneath the western sky, the full-blown flower 
 Of the night-loving lotus sheds her leaves 
 In sorrow for her loss, bequeathing naught 
 But the sweet memory of her loveliness 
 To my bereaved sight." 
 110 
 
The story of the transformation of Krishna is 
 beautiful with lotus flowers, and such beautiful 
 symbolism as this is used : 
 
 "The clear sky was bright with the autumnal 
 moon, and the air fragrant with the perfume of the 
 wild water lily, in whose buds the clustering bees 
 were murmuring their song." 
 
 In the book "Lotus Time in Japan" we read : 
 "Sadly at variance with the grand teachings of 
 Buddhism are many of the superstitions and prac- 
 tices which now dim 'The Light of Asia', but just 
 as the lotus flower rises from the slime in purity 
 and beauty, so do the great pure thoughts of Bud- 
 dha stand forth from the mists of superstition in 
 which the cult has long been shrouded" ; and a 
 Japanese schoolboy in an English composition 
 writes : 
 
 "Though growing in the foulest slime the flower 
 remains pure and undefiled, and the soul of him 
 who remains ever pure in the midst of temptation 
 is likened unto the lotus. Therefore it is the lotus 
 carved or painted upon the furniture of temples; 
 therefore also does it appear in all representations 
 of our Lord Buddha." 
 
 IF WE LISTEN TO THE MUSIC 
 
 If we listen to the music 
 
 As we journey day by day, 
 Joy will take the place of sadness 
 
 And our cares will fade away. 
 Peace will spread her snowy pinions 
 
 Over all earth's warring strife ; 
 Love will lighten the path of duty 
 
 Making one sweet song of life. 
 
 TO-DAY 
 By Carlyle 
 
 Lo, here hath been dawning 
 Another blue day ; 
 Think, wilt thou let it 
 Slip useless away. 
 
 Out of Eternity 
 
 This new day is born; 
 
 Into eternity, 
 
 At night, will return. 
 
 Behold it aforetime 
 No eye ever did ; 
 So soon it forever 
 From all eyes is nid. 
 
 Ill 
 
"THE STORY OF A SMILE AND A ROSE" 
 
 A Study in Reincarnation. 
 
 It is the time of Nero, and the persecution and 
 martyrdom of the Christians at Rome. A beautiful 
 maiden has been condemned to the arena, there 
 to become food for the tigers. At the last moment, 
 a young nobleman, feeling his heart moved with 
 pity for one so fair, takes from his robe the rose 
 he wears and throws it at her feet. Forgetting 
 that she stands in the presence of death, she looks 
 up to meet the smile of the donor. 
 
 The haughty ladies of his party cast upon him 
 looks of scorn. 
 
 When the spectacle is over he is summoned into 
 the presence of the emperor and his soldiers, where 
 he, too, is condemned to death and led away in 
 chains. 
 
 * * * 
 
 It is France of the Age of Chivalry. A woman 
 riding alone through a deep forest is accosted 
 by a gay young cavalier, who grasps the bridle 
 rein of her horse and stares boldly into her 
 face. Another horseman a knight dashes up 
 lashes him with his whip thus leaving him smart- 
 ing with pain. They gallop away together through 
 the shadows. 
 
 * * # 
 
 Before a richly carved window in a castle tower 
 looking down upon a broad terrace green with 
 closely-shaven turf, and gay with the many col- 
 ored blooms of flowers, a handsome Frenchman 
 stands with his plumed cap in his hand, watching 
 the window with an eager passionate look. After 
 a little while he stoops and picks a flower, presses 
 it to his lips, then fastens it in the brooch of his 
 velvet cap and walks away. 
 
 The scene has again changed. A broad field is 
 crowded with people dressed in quaint, antiquated 
 costumes, except where a space in the centre is 
 boarded off with a low but strong partition. There 
 are men in trunk-hose and slashed doublets, and 
 women in short petticoats tight, square-cut bod- 
 dices, and strange head-gear, all pressing to the 
 barrier, which is guarded by stout fellows in steel 
 caps and leathern jerkins, armed with double- 
 headed axes and broad, short-bladed daggers. 
 Near the center of the lists is a high wooden plat- 
 form filled with ladies in gay attire, and at one 
 end is a large tent before which a spear is^planted 
 bearing a fluttering silken pennon. Just in front 
 of this, pawing the ground impatiently, stands a 
 horse with spiked frontlet and flowing caparison, 
 on which sat a knight in full armor, a blue silken 
 scarf bound to his helmet his small, triangular 
 shield hung round his neck, his visor closed, and 
 his long lance resting on the point of his steel- 
 
 112 
 
shod foot. At the opposite end the barrier opens 
 and another knight rides in and takes his place. 
 He,, too, is armed in plate but his casque displays 
 no plume or colors save a little faded red flower. 
 There is a stir among the crowd, and a sudden 
 pressing toward the barrier. The lances fall into 
 rest; the glittering helmets bow toward the 
 chargers' crests; the dust rises in clouds as the 
 horses rush together and meet with a shock in the 
 middle of the lists ; the lances bend and fly into 
 fifty shivers, and the blue scarf goes down be- 
 neath the hoofs of the fallen, steed. A shield is 
 laid upon the truncheons of four spears, the 
 wounded knight is borne off to his tent, while he 
 of the flower rides proudly toward the stand, 
 where he halts and bows to the saddlepeak. 
 
 A lady steps forward. He tenders to her the 
 faded flower, then swoons in the arms of his 
 attendants, and he too, is bourne away on their 
 shields. 
 
 ********* 
 
 It is nineteenth century. 
 
 Place a modern American city. 
 
 The opera is over and a beautiful, richly gowned 
 woman, accompanied by an elderly man, her father, 
 are about to enter their car to be taken to their 
 home. The driver has opened the door and stanas 
 waiting for them to enter, when, attracted by 
 loud talking and laughter, they turn to find the 
 cause of merriment. 
 
 A young musician who has been wont to fre- 
 quent the opera is now evidently the worse for 
 liquor. His clothes are spattered with mud and 
 his high silk hat is battered and torn as though 
 he had been picked up out of the gutter. Some 
 young bloods are having a great deal of fun at 
 his expense. 
 
 Moved with compassion for the weak, or prompt- 
 ed by her soul in memory of the great debt she 
 owes him from the past, she takes from her bosom 
 the rose she wears and, with a word of explanation 
 to her father, advances toward the cause of ridi- 
 cule and, smiling sweetly, bestows upon him the 
 rose. 
 
 As much astonished as though an angel from 
 heaven had appeared before him, he accepts the 
 rose with a low bow, taking from his head the 
 battered hat, and murmuring a word of thanks. 
 
 For a while after she has disappeared into the 
 waiting car he stands as though dazed or stunned 
 by the apparition, his tormentors having accepted 
 their rebuke and having left him alone; then 
 placing on his head the battered hat, throwing back 
 his shoulders, stepping lightly and briskly, he 
 walks away into the night, his soul having found 
 an ideal that shall lead to his reformation. 
 
 113 
 
It is now the triumph hour of the musician. 
 After years of study abroad he has returned to his 
 native city. He bows before a vast audience that 
 he has held spellbound and enraptured by the 
 sweet strains he has evoked from his beloved vio- 
 lin. Bouquets of flowers fall at his feet. Select- 
 ing from them all a beautiful full-blow rose, he 
 touches it reverently with his lips and then tosses 
 it lightly into the lap of a beautiful woman, who 
 in company with her friends occupies a box not 
 far from the stage. Blushing deeply, she appar- 
 ently fails to comprehend the meaning, then, 
 clearly from out the past comes the memory of the 
 martyrdom at Rome. She sees the vast arena ana 
 the assembled multitude, hears the blood-thirsty 
 cheers as the tigers emerge from the cells with 
 dilating nostrils and stealthy tread, in scent of 
 their prey; then as she commends her soul unto 
 God and realizes again that supreme exaltation of 
 soul and indifference to her fate, there falls at 
 her feet a rose, and she meets the smile of the 
 donor. 
 
 Only once before had this memory dimly occur- 
 red to her and that at the time when she had been 
 impelled to bestow the rose that night after the 
 opera. 
 
 Now in this idol of the hour, who comes as a 
 conquering hero from the salons of the royal pal- 
 aces of Europe, she recognizes the soul that has 
 been so closely linked to her own throughout the 
 past, and thus begins or ends one of the sweetest 
 romances^ of all history. 
 
 CHILDHOOD'S HOUR 
 
 There was one shrine at which I knelt 
 
 In childhood's hour; 
 Fond memory lingers still, and 
 
 Thought has power 
 To take me back. In fancy free 
 I kneel again at mother's knee. 
 
 Hers was the truest friendship life can know 
 No other will so brightly grow, 
 
 Undimmed by tears 
 
 In after years. 
 
 She was the one who oft caressed 
 Or held in slumber on her bre-ast 
 
 One tired of play 
 
 At close of day. 
 
 The years have quickly passed since then, 
 And I will never know again 
 
 Such slumber deep 
 
 Until I sleep 
 
 Where I can never wake to weep 
 On earth again. 
 
THE POETRY OF THE STARS 
 
 "When I consider thy heavens the work of thy 
 fingers, the moon and the stars that thou hast or- 
 dained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? 
 or the son of man, that thou visitest him?" 
 
 The practical uses of astronomy are of inestima- 
 ble value, relating as they do to times, seasons, 
 and chronology, but the study of the heavens is of 
 far greater value, because it has opened up our 
 minds and hearts to a conception of Infinitude. 
 The man who looks up to the stars and who says 
 within his soul, "There are greater worlds than 
 ours" is as wise as the wisest of astronomers. He 
 may not understand the scientific phraseology of 
 astronomy, be able to calculate an eclipse, the 
 effects of planetary attraction, or know the prin- 
 ciples of spectrum analyses, but he has grasped the 
 one fact, the one truth which lies at the heart of 
 our knowledge of the universe. 
 
 In worship of the stars, primitive man took the 
 first step forward in soul evolution. To the prim- 
 eval man everything in nature is godlike or God. 
 In the old Norse Mythology, Baldar, the White 
 God, is the sun most wonderful of all created 
 things and are we not all worshipers of the sun 
 lovers of the sun for his beneficent influence upon 
 the earth? healing the sick, dispelling the shad- 
 ows, inspiring the birds, coloring the flowers, ripen- 
 ing the fruits and fields of waving grain, and fill- 
 ing all life with his rejuvenating and cleansing 
 power. 
 
 The influence of the sun upon the- earth is so 
 great that it really becomes a part of the things 
 that grow out of the earth. All vegetable sub- 
 stance, all flesh and bone are really composed of 
 solar properties. No wonder astrologers hold that 
 an ethereal fluid emanates from the stars, control- 
 ling mind and emotion, and shaping the destiny of 
 the soul. 
 
 In mythological symbolism the Earth is repre- 
 sented as the Sorrowing One, and the sun as the 
 Father and Saviour of all. "The earth was rent 
 with storm and earthquake she was the Mother 
 and hers the travail of all birth. In sorrow she 
 forever gathered to herself her fate conquered 
 children ; her sorrowful countenance she veiled in 
 thick mists, and year after year shrouded herself 
 in wintry desolation, while he, the Sun, was the 
 Eternal Father, the Revealer of all Things. He 
 drove away the darkness, and as out of darkness he 
 called into birth the flowers and the numberless 
 forests, even as he himself was every morning 
 born anew out of darkness, so he called the chil- 
 dred of the earth to a glorious rising in His light. 
 Under these symbols the sun and the earth have 
 been worshiped by an overwhelming majority of 
 
 115 
 
the human race, having their representatives in 
 every system of faith. 
 
 The poetical Greeks peopled the starry spaces 
 with their gods half human, half divine. Thus 
 Jove was the power of the heavens (which ^of 
 course centered in the sun) ; Apollo was only an- 
 other name for the sun ; Aesculapius represents his 
 healing virtues; Hercules his saving strength, and 
 Prometheus, who gave fire to men, as Vulcan the 
 God of fire, was probably connected with the wor- 
 ship of the sun. Some of the goddesses, such as 
 Juno, wife of Jove, and Diana, who was only the 
 reflection of Apollo, as is the moon of the sun, 
 were also in the same category. The representa- 
 tions of the Earth, the Sorrowing One, on " the 
 other hand, were such as the ancient Rhe, ; Latonia 
 with her dark and starry veil ; Tethys, the world 
 nurse, and the Artemis of the East, or Syrian 
 Mother. 
 
 Plato, the philosopher whose writings remain as 
 a text book of all philosophy, in his Phaedrus 
 speaks thus of the "Chariot of the Soul", symbol- 
 ized by the sun: 
 
 "Our soul, which has a triple nature, is as a 
 charioteer riding in a chariot drawn by two winged 
 steeds, one of a mortal and the other of an im- 
 mortal nature. Their wings are the divine element 
 which, if it be perfect and fully nourished on the 
 pastures of truth, lifts the soul heavenward to the 
 dwelling of the gods. There, on a certain day, 
 gods and demigods ascend the heaven of heavens, 
 Zeus leading the way in a winged chariot, to hold 
 high festival, and all who can may follow. The 
 
 fods and the immortal souls whose steeds have 
 ull-grown wings, are carried by a revolution of 
 the spheres into a celestial world beyond, where all 
 space is filled by a sea of intangible essence, which 
 the mind, 'lord of the soul," alone can contem- 
 plate ; and here are the absolute ideas of Truth, 
 Beauty, and Justice. And in these divine pastures 
 of pure knowledge the soul feeds during the time 
 th'at the spheres revolve, and rests in perfect hap- 
 piness, and then returns to the heavens whence it. 
 came, where the steeds feast in their stalls on nec- 
 tar and ambrosia. 
 
 "But only to a few souls out of many is it 
 granted to see these celestial visions. The rest 
 are carried into the gulfs of space by the plunging 
 of the unruly steeds, or are lamed by unskillful 
 driving; and often the wings droop or are broken, 
 and the soul fails to see the light and sinks to 
 earth beneath a load of forgetfulness and vice. 
 And then she takes the form of a man, and becomes 
 a mortal creature ; and according to the degree in 
 which she has attained the celestial truth, she is 
 implanted in one of the nine classes the highest 
 
 116 
 
being that of the philosophers, artists, poets, or 
 lovers, and the lowest stage of all, the tyrant. 
 
 "But from the souls of those who have once 
 gazed on celestial beauty the remembrance can 
 never be effaced. Like some divine inspiration, the 
 glories of this other world possess and haunt them ; 
 and it is because their souls are ever struggling 
 upward, and fluttering like a bird that longs to 
 soar heavenward, and. because they are wrapt in 
 contemplation, and careless of earthly matters, 
 that the world calls the philosopher, the artist, the 
 lover and the poet 'mad'. 
 
 "And thus the sight of any earthly beauty, in 
 face or form, thrills the genuine lover with unut- 
 terable awe and amazement, because it recalls the 
 memory of the celestial beauty seen by him once 
 in the sphere of celestial being. The divine wings 
 of his soul are warmed and glow with desire and 
 he lives in a sort of ecstacy, and shudders 'with 
 misgivings of a former world'." 
 
 Such was the beautiful conception of a pagan 
 mind. # * * 
 
 IMMENSITY OF THE UNIVERSE 
 
 Aristotle, taught that the earth was the center 
 of the moon and the stars, and not until after 
 the lapse of hundreds of centuries came Copernicus 
 proclaiming the universe as extending far beyond 
 the limits of finite minds. Everything trembled 
 and crumbled into ruin when the mind of man 
 tried to grasp some comprehension of innumer- 
 able worlds and illimitable space. That there are 
 no bounds, no limits to the universe of God 
 that wherever we go we may go further still was 
 not accepted by science or religion. Ancient philoso- 
 phers could not conceive that God would waste 
 time by allowing the great distances between the 
 planets, and religion could not conceive of God as 
 being the God of other worlds than ours. That 
 there is one 'Life, one Consciousness, one Intelli- 
 gence, controlling and permeating all, was beyond 
 the comprehension of minds that were unwilling to 
 think of themselves and their little world as being 
 other than the center of the universe. Not until 
 the nineteenth century did the most skillful astron- 
 omers find the vast difference in position of the 
 sun and stars. The mind of man has been slowly 
 expanding to grasp some idea of the universe. We 
 learn that in a single second light traverses a space 
 equal to eight times the circumference of the 
 earth ; from the moon, light takes little more than 
 a second and a quarter in reaching us ; from the 
 sun, eight minutes ; about thirty-five or forty min- 
 utes in reaching us from Jupiter ; about an hour 
 and twenty minutes in traveling the distance from 
 Saturn; from beyond the limits of our solar sys- 
 tem, from the nearest of the stars, it is said that 
 
 117 
 
light takes three years in traveling to the earth ; 
 from the myriad of stars, only just visible with 
 the aid of the most powerful telescope, light only 
 reaches the earth after thousands of years, and as 
 the universe is limitless there must be stars so far 
 away that it takes millions of years for their light 
 to reach us, and as Richard Proctor has written : 
 "The eternal galaxies, which are perhaps ever 
 hidden from the eye of man, could their light ever 
 reach us at all, would reveal them as they were, 
 ages on ages before man appeared on the earth." 
 
 The number of stars visible with the aid of the 
 most powerful telescopes has been carried up into 
 the millions, and as every one of these stars is a 
 sun with planets circling around it, may not other 
 planets be inhabited, or is our little earth the only 
 one favored as the habitation of immortal souls ? 
 Is it not reasonable to conclude that as the soul of 
 man journeys onward he inhabits the planets best 
 suited to his individual development and evolu- 
 tion? And why should there not be a finer uni- 
 verse, interpenetrating this material universe a 
 fit home for more highly evolved souls'? Science 
 has discovered that what was once thought to be 
 empty space is intensely alive, and as Sir Oliver 
 Lodge asserts : "Any ordinary mass of matter con- 
 sists, like the cosmos, of separated particles, with 
 great intervening distances in proportion to their 
 size." The "great intervening distances" consist of 
 the unmodified ether, the subtle matter, the finer 
 matter of which the unseen worlds are made, and 
 to be conscious of the finer universe that interpene- 
 trates this material universe, we would need finer 
 senses. Only supersensitive souls may receive 
 messages, however incomplete from these higher 
 realms. 
 
 As Harriet Beecher Stowe has so beautifully 
 said : 
 
 "It lies around us like a cloud 
 
 A world we do not see ; 
 Yet the sweet closing of an eye 
 
 May bring us there to be." 
 
 "Theosophy teaches that the spirit matter of uni- 
 verse is divided into seven distinct grades, each 
 with its own atomic level, and each with a fixed 
 rate of vibration. Each grade is divided into seven 
 sub-grades or types, as physical matter, emotional 
 matter, mental matter, intuitional matter, and three 
 higher grades of spiritual matter. In scientific 
 phraseology these seven subgrades would be termed 
 as solid, liquid, gaseous, etheric, super-etheric, sub- 
 atomic and atomic. All these grades interpene- 
 trate, but do not mingle ; all exist in the human 
 body, but the higher states or realms of being are 
 latent until the ego or soul has gained control over 
 the lower planes. Thus occultism explains the soul 
 complexity of the universe of God, and interpene- 
 
 118 
 
trating planes of being. Before man can function 
 on higher planes of being than the material or 
 physical, he must build sense organs that will 
 vibrate to their own kinds of matter. In the ordi- 
 nary process of evolution this takes many success- 
 ive incarnations, but the knowledge of the higher 
 law that has come to us through the lives of the 
 Masters of Wisdom enables deeply earnest and 
 compassionate souls to develop and use super-sense 
 organs for the advancement and blessing of human- 
 ity. Jesus possessed in the highest degree the intu- 
 itional and spiritual powers, hence he became the 
 Healer and Saviour of all humanity." 
 * * # 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS RELATING TO STARS 
 
 The world has ever been ready to attribute to 
 supernatural causes all unexplained phenomena of 
 the heavens. In olden times blazing stars or comets 
 foretold great events. The reader of Josephus is 
 told that a comet shaped and glittering like a 
 sword, without any rays or beams, was seen to 
 hover over Jerusalem for nearly a year before it 
 fell into the hands of the Romans. A comet hav- 
 ing the resemblance of a horn was seen during the 
 battle of Salamis. The wars of Caesar and Pom- 
 pey, the murder of Claudius, and the tyranny of 
 Nero, were all prefigured by comets, but they were 
 not always regarded as the portents of evil omen, 
 for the birth and accession of Alexander, of Mith- 
 ridates, the accession of Charlemagne, and the 
 commencement of the Tartar empire, were all an- 
 nounced by blazing stars. After the murder of 
 Julius Caesar a brilliant comet which illumined the 
 Italian sky for seven nights was supposed to indi- 
 cate his apothesis or the passing of his soul to 
 the regions of the gods. One old writer declares 
 that comets "signify corruption of the aire. They 
 are signs "of earthquake, of- warres, changing of 
 kingdoms, great dearth of corn, yea, a common 
 death of man and beast." 
 
 The Star of Bethlehem, announcing the birth of 
 the Infant Redeemer, appeared to ignorant shep- 
 herds, who watched their flocks at night under the 
 blue sky of Syria. It is a great thing even today 
 to feel the spiritual influences that come to us from 
 the celestial worlds. There are many supersensi- 
 tive people who by their gift of intuition have 
 power to read the very soul of life and make pre- 
 dictions which confuse our reasoning powers. 
 
 We are told in the Scriptures that one star dif- 
 fereth from another in glory, and in a strange old 
 book called the "Syntagma" the author says of the 
 stars that they shine "more like torches burning 
 with eternal flame before the altar of the Most 
 High, than the lamps of the eternal vault or the 
 funereal lights of the setting sun" ; and he tells of 
 the various colors seen among the stars, arguing 
 
 119 
 
that the stars show by their colors to which plan- 
 etary party they belong: The followers of Saturn 
 have a dull leaden aspect ; the Jovial stars shine 
 brilliantly white ; the Martian stars, with fierce red 
 rays. Those stars which have an orange light are 
 followers of the sun, while those which are faint 
 and pale belong to the moon. Lastly, those stars 
 which obey the planet of Love shine with a yel- 
 lowish light. 
 
 The colors which are noticed in the stars give 
 only the faintest notion of the real splendor in 
 which they shine. If we could behold the galaxy 
 of suns from above the limits of our atmosphere, 
 as one writer has said, "We should see Arcturus, 
 and Aldebaran, Pollux, Antares, and Betelgeux 
 blazing like sunlit rubies among their fainter neigh- 
 bors, the glorious yellow of Capella and Procyon 
 would surpass the most splendid yellow or topaz 
 colors known to our artists, while the brilliant 
 white hues of Vega and Altair, and the blazing 
 Sirius would be no less beautiful and striking. But 
 even such a scene as this, brilliant as it wcwld 
 appear, would be as nothing, compared to the 
 splendor which would come into view if the powers 
 of the observer's vision could be gradually in- 
 creased until the stars which are now detected only 
 by the piercing eye of the telescope were seen in 
 all the richness and variety of their colors. It is 
 among the stars which are invisible to the unaided 
 eye that the real splendor of celestial colors are to 
 be found. No words can .describe the beauty of 
 the celestial coloring which the observer would 
 behold. We see in the nocturnal skies no traces of 
 those green and violet, and blue and purple suns, 
 which are really pouring forth their richly tinted 
 rays on other worlds and other scenes." 
 
 We have learned to love the flowers of the 
 earth ; may we not more intimately know the 
 "flowers of the sky" ? 
 
 The Japanese have poetically termed the Milky 
 Way the "Silver River of Heaven", and to the 
 imaginative mind it represents a shining pathway 
 through the skies. In olden times people had 
 strange ideas about this strange group of_stars. It 
 was called the Pathway of Spirits, and a beautiful 
 French legend relates that the stars are torches 
 held by angel spirits to guide us to Heaven. In 
 reality the Milky Way consists of myriads of what 
 appear to us but small stars (but which are in 
 reality suns) interwoven with masses of cloudy 
 lieht. 
 
 As Mary Proctor has so beautifully said : 
 
 "Come, let us speed on the wings of thought 
 across the depths of space, which extend between 
 us and that distant shore, and wander for awhile 
 by the Silver River of Heaven. In a moment we 
 are beside that mighty stream, dazzled by a blaze 
 
 120 
 
of glory from myriad suns. Floating on the sur- 
 face of this fathomless river, we see sun and sys- 
 tem, cluster and universe, all majestically moving 
 onward in their orbits, their movements being in 
 perfect harmony. The music of the spheres that 
 are swayed and held in bondage by our own sun is 
 echoed by that of ten million moving suns, singing 
 their solemn chant the grandest of epics the 
 Poem of the Universe, as they wing their flight 
 through infinite space." 
 
 "What wonder that the overwrought soul should 
 
 reel 
 
 With its own weight of thought, and the wild e>i 
 See fate within those tracks of glory lie." 
 
 Richter says that "an angel once took a man and 
 stripped him of his flesh, and lifted him up into 
 space to show him the glory of the universe. When 
 the flesh was taken away the man ceased to be 
 cowardly, and was ready to fly with the angel past 
 galaxy after galaxy, and infinity after infinity, and 
 so man and angel passed on, viewing the universe, 
 until the sun was out of sight until our solar sys- 
 tem appeared as a speck of light against the black 
 empyrean, and there was only darkness. And they 
 looked onward, and in the infinities of light before, 
 a speck of light appeared, and suddenly they were 
 in the midst of rushing worlds. But they passed 
 beyond that system, and beyond system after sys- 
 tem, and infinity after infinity, until the human 
 heart sank, and the man cried out: 'End is there 
 none of the universe of God *?' The angel strength- 
 ened the man by words of counsel and courage, and 
 they flew on again until worlds left behind them 
 were out of sight, and specks of light in advance 
 were transformed, as they approached them, into 
 rushing systems ; they moved over architraves of 
 eternities, over pillars of immensities, over archi- 
 tecture of galaxies, unspeakable in dimensions and 
 duration, and the human heart sank again and 
 called out: 'End is there none of the universe of 
 God*?' And all the stars echoed the question with 
 amazement : 'End is there none of the universe of 
 God *?' And this echo found no answer. They 
 moved on again past immensities of immensities, 
 and eternities of eternities, until in the dizziness of 
 uncounted galaxies the human heart sank for the 
 last time, and called out : 'End is there none of 
 the universe of God ?' And again all the stars re- 
 peated the question, and the angel answered : 'End 
 is there none of the universe of God. Lo, also, 
 there is no beginning.' " 
 
 In the material universe there is one law upon 
 which hang all the laws that govern matter or 
 motion. That law is the law of gravity. Herschel 
 has said : "It is reasonable to regard gravity as 
 the result of a Consciousness and a will, existent 
 
 121 
 
somewhere." May we not conclude that that Con- 
 sciousness and that Will is God ? 
 
 Not a grain of sand, not a drop of moisture has 
 ever broken the law of gravity. Atom to atom, sun 
 to sun, system to system, all are held in a divine 
 bond of harmony to the One Great Center of the 
 Universe. Upon the almighty and omnipotent 
 force of that law depends the destiny of our little 
 solar system and millions of systems yet unknown ; 
 should this law of gravitation, that holds atom to 
 atom, and sun to sun, be for one moment suspend- 
 ed, millions of millions of suns would be plunged 
 into everlasting night, worlds would crumble into 
 atoms, chaos would reign supreme, and not the 
 least throb of life would awaken again forever. 
 But higher than the law of gravitation, God has 
 enthroned the Law of Love. As the law of gravi- 
 tation attracts atom to atom, and sun to sun, so 
 the Law of Love attracts heart to heart, soul to 
 soul, and spirit to spirit, and all to God ; and 
 although the material universe may be destroyed 
 at the bidding of His Almighty Will, there would 
 yet remain an invisible spiritual universe, where 
 the Law of Love would reign supreme and the 
 immortal soul be safe from death in the ceaseless 
 cycles and ever recurring mornings of eternal life. 
 
 Le us respect the attraction of atom to atom, of 
 sun to sun, of system to system, for they all elo- 
 quently proclaim the attraction of the soul to God. 
 
 THE IVY 
 
 To the ancients the ivy was the subject of a 
 myth or religious allegory. It was the plant sacred 
 the Bacchus, the god of wine. The ivy furnished 
 the wreath of Bacchus, the wood of his cup and 
 the material for the chest of the great mysteries. In 
 the architecture of the middle ages the ivy leaf is 
 used as a symbol of Nature and life, intelligence, 
 knowledge and joyousness, against the gloomy 
 prison of form and tyranny which held Truth in 
 chains and was used as a symbol of the Free- 
 masons and carved on the capitals of old cathe- 
 drals, and was frequently introduced by the Greeks 
 in the architectural ornaments of their temples 
 
 FAITH 
 
 By Frances Anne Kemble 
 
 Better trust all and be deceived, 
 
 And weep that trust and that deceiving, 
 
 Than doubt one heart that if believed 
 Had bless'd one's life with true believing. 
 
 Oh, in this mocking world too fast 
 
 The doubting fiend o'ertakes our youth ; 
 
 Bettar be cheated to the last 
 
 Than lose the blessed hope of truth. 
 
 122 
 
A SONG OF VICTORY 
 
 (Dedicated to President Wilson, the servant of 
 humanity, who has so nobly labored for World 
 Peace.) 
 
 To Thee, O God, all Nation's Light, 
 We give thanks for victory won. 
 
 From land and sea now fades the night 
 The dawn of Peace has come. 
 
 Now autocratic rule that brings 
 
 Unhallowed power fails 
 Thy flaming Angel may fold his wings 
 
 Humanity's cause prevails. 
 
 Thine are the sceptre and the sword 
 Stretch forth Thy mighty hand 
 
 Thou art all people's Judge and Lord ; 
 Bring endless peace to every land. 
 
 Though war has shadowed all the earth, 
 And every home must mourn the slain, 
 
 Yet in our hearts new hopes have birth. 
 That Brotherhood and Peace may reign. 
 
 We gave our loved for Freedom's sake 
 Our wealth, our hearts, our lives are Thine 
 
 If in the sacrifice we make 
 Shall live our Cause Divine. 
 
 When Peace shall clothe the battlefields 
 
 With flowers and waving grain, 
 Then Thy love shall reign triumphantly, 
 And our hallowed dead shall live again. 
 
 (Dedication accepted in letter of thanks from 
 President Wilson. Published in the Minneapolis 
 Tribune November llth, 1919. Set to music by 
 Arthur Ward, composer, Minneapolis.) 
 
 SONNET TO SOLITUDE 
 
 To solitude shall memory bring 
 
 The treasures of the past, 
 And bright on hope's prophetic wing 
 
 Shall love her splendor cast. 
 O'er broken vows, and ruined hopes, 
 
 And days and nights of pain ; 
 For the soul, a glad immortal, 
 
 Rebuilds our hopes again. 
 In fairer forms and shapes of light, 
 
 For more celestial spheres, 
 And not one treasure shall be lost 
 
 When God completes the years ; 
 Safe garnered in the worlds above 
 Are all the treasures of our love. 
 
 123 
 
THE SYBILS, THE WITCH OF ENDOR, 
 AND MODERN FORTUNE TELLING 
 
 The word Sybil signifies the counsel of a god. 
 To the ancients the Sybils were prophetesses, and 
 they foretold the future to all who believed in 
 their oracles. Plato and Cicero often speak of 
 them with respect in their writings, and it has 
 been said that Virgil in his "Pollio" took from the 
 Sybilline verses the prophecy, translated by Dry- 
 den, which foretold the birth of the Messiah and 
 which is strikingly like the Prophecy in the elev- 
 enth chapter of Isaaih. 
 
 Little is known of these ancient prophetesses. 
 Erythraea was the most conspicuous among them. 
 Cuma, a city of Campania, was the field of her pro- 
 phetic labors. Her oratory was, so says tradition, a 
 cave, or the artificial hollow of a rock, from 
 whence issued her solemn responses. 
 
 It is affirmed by ancient writers, that, under the 
 reign of the last Tarquin, there came a woman to 
 Rome, who offered the king nine volumes of the 
 Sibylline oracles for three hundred pieces of gold. 
 On being refused, she destroyed three of the vol- 
 umes, and demanded the same price for the re- 
 mainder. On being refused a second time, she 
 destroyed three more volumes, and still demanded 
 the three hundred, which the king, on consulting 
 the Augurs, paid down and received the books as a 
 present from the gods. These books were care- 
 fully preserved till the monarchy was destroyed, 
 and were then used as instruments of government, 
 the senate alone having authority to consult them 
 through the quindecemviri, and the responses 
 clothed their policy in popular estimation with 
 divine authority. Afterwards the capitol was partly 
 consumed, and the books were burned. Others 
 were collected and deposited in their place, but 
 they were gradually corrupted, and about the year 
 A.D. four hundred they were all destroyed. Whole 
 books of Greek verses have since appeared as Sybil- 
 line oracles, but they are little if anything more 
 than feeble rhapsodies, without the least evidence 
 that they are the true oracular responses. 
 
 THE WITCH OF ENDOR 
 
 "God is departed from me, and answereth me 
 no more neither by prophets nor by dreams there- 
 fore have I called thee, that thou mayest make 
 known unto me what I shall do." 
 
 From his early boyhood days King Saul had 
 leaned toward the occult, the mysterious. Always 
 he had sought to read the future with the aid of 
 those who expounded the mysteries, and now, 
 stricken by calamities and appalled by the immi- 
 
 124 
 
nence of foreign invasion, "his heart greatly trem- 
 bles", and in the depths of his despair he consults 
 the Woman of Endor. 
 
 The Woman of Endor! The great king Saul 
 visits a fortune teller, a trance medium, a witch, if 
 you please. 
 
 Was she old and hideous in aspect, whispering 
 words fraught with hidden meaning while replen- 
 ishing the fires under a cauldron of boiling herbs, 
 or young and beautiful ? Alas ! we do not know ; 
 but listen to her words of greeting : 
 
 "Behold thou hast prevailed upon me to listen 
 to thy voice, even at the peril of my life. Now 
 hearken to the voice of thy hand-maid and let me 
 set out a morsel of bread before thee, and eat that 
 thou mayst have strength." 
 
 A beautiful picture of hospitality and kindly 
 ministry i 
 
 Does such a voice, such womanly solicitude for 
 one in physical and mental distress accompany a 
 harsh, forbidding nature ? Rather let us picture 
 her in her dark, majestic beauty, clothed in richly- 
 colored oriental robes, with chiseled nostril and 
 deep, spiritual eyes. 
 
 "She had gathered the sacred lotus for the wor*- 
 ship of Isis. She had smoothed the dark-winged 
 Ibis in the temple of the gods. She was familiar 
 with the mysteries of the Pyramids. She had 
 quaffed the waters of the Nile, even where they 
 well up in the cavernous vaults of the ancient 
 Cheops. She had watched the stars and learned 
 their names and courses. She was familiar with the 
 influence of Pleiads and Orion. Her teachers were 
 meek and reverent worshipers of nature and the 
 Maid of Endor an earnest pupil. She worked with 
 them in the laboratory, creating the gem and: pearl 
 and all things whatsoever wherein the breath of life 
 entered not. Thus was she learned in all the wis- 
 dom of the East. She had listened to the sage of 
 Brahma, ^and she knew the philosophy of the 
 schools to which the accomplished Greeks after- 
 ward turned to find Truth ; and now she had 
 come to Israel to learn of the new faith." An 
 earnest disciple of Truth, was she not, and the 
 great King Saul heard at last his doom, for "the 
 spirit of the old man covered with a mantle" 
 appeared and said : "Tomorrow shalt thou and 
 thy sons be even as I am." 
 
 AND MODERN FORTUNE TELLING 
 
 We are prone to condemn all fortune tellers* 
 as charlatans, but they all possess some mysterious 
 power. Dignify it with the ancient name of 
 Prophecy if you will, it has in reality degenerated 
 into common psychism. The world will always have 
 
 125 
 
its dreams, its visions, but they will come un- 
 sought in moments of spiritual and mental exalta- 
 tion and supreme self-denial. Visions do not 
 come through crossing the palm of the fortune 
 teller with gold. King Saul commanded the 
 Woman of Endor to reveal his doom. She could 
 do no less than obey; but we rather like to think 
 of her as a revealer of ideals, of visions. 
 
 Let fortune telling prevail, but put a ban upon 
 any but good fortune telling. Those who have 
 only dark pictures to reveal should be relegated to 
 the shades. They are not nearly so highly evolved 
 as were the Delphian and Olympian oracles whose 
 prophecy might always be construed to augur vic- 
 tory rather than defeat. Sometimes I have thought 
 that dark picture in the Bible, of the destruction 
 of Babylon, although sublime in its awful symbol- 
 ism, was enough to have brought about the very 
 fate that was foretold. 
 
 'And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty 
 of the Chaldean excellency, shall be as when God 
 overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never 
 be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from 
 generation to generation ; neither shall the Arabian 
 pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make 
 their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert 
 shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of 
 doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, and 
 satyrs shall dance: and the wild beasts of the 
 islands shall cry in their desolate houses and 
 dragons in their pleasant places ; and her time 
 is near to come, and her days shall not be pro- 
 longed." Every particular of this prophecy was 
 fulfilled, and for centuries the very place where 
 Babylon, the wonder of the world, once stood, was 
 unknown. 
 
 Rather let our modern prophets, our modern 
 fortune tellers, picture what the world will be 
 when the years have rolled away what man will 
 be when he comes to fulfillment of his divine 
 estate. 
 
 Don't be a fortune teller unless you can be a 
 good one. In fact, it is rather productive of harm 
 "to undertake to read another person's future un 
 less you are divine unless you are a god for if 
 you are less, your soul will be shaken as the 
 soul of Savonarola was shaken when he "touched 
 the fiery lips of Truth and died." 
 
 The unfortunate are always superstitious. Such 
 persons need help not confirmation of their fears. 
 Too feeble to enter the precincts of Truth, they 
 fall back into darkness, because there is no help- 
 ing hand, that they might be led to see that the 
 temporal will soon be lost in the universal, and 
 from the shadows of their fears they shall emerge 
 into the ,glorious sunlight of Truth. 
 
 126 
 
LIGHT AND DARKNESS, 
 
 OR 
 
 Thought As Related to Color and Sound 
 
 "In the beginning God created the heaven and 
 the earth. 
 
 And the earth was without form, and void, 
 and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and 
 God said : Let there be light, and there was light." 
 
 Thus in the beginning were the two symbols of 
 Light and Darkness, from which the two principles 
 of good and evil were derived. Physical light rep- 
 resents spiritual holiness, and physical darkness 
 rperesents spiritual depravity. To the ancients all 
 good came from the dazzling world of light beyond 
 the sky, and all evil came from the underworld of 
 darkness. 
 
 Light is a trinity which corresponds to the Holy 
 Trinity for, when resolved into its component 
 colors, it consists of seven colors red, orange, 
 yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet of which 
 colors, red, yellow and blue are the primary colors, 
 or Trinity of Light. 
 
 The ancient Chaldeans, who were in reality star- 
 worshipers, attributed different colors to the differ- 
 ent planets. 
 
 In Egyptian mythology, Isis is the great mother, 
 the earth, whose robe sparkles with all colors of 
 reflected light from Osiris, the sun. 
 
 In the Koran, chapter XVI, Mahomet says : "The 
 colors which the earth displays to our eyes are 
 manifest signs to those who think." Thus the many- 
 colored robe which Isis wore corresponds to the 
 colors which the Seer beheld in the world of 
 spirits. 
 
 The brilliant colors set in the gems of the 
 breastplate of Aaron and of the precious stones 
 which formed the foundations of the Holy City 
 signify the qualities of heavenly wisdom and 
 intelligence beaming forth from the Word of 
 God. 
 
 Occult science teaches that sound and color are 
 simply numbers speaking to us on the plane of 
 hearing and sight. Thus in the religion of the 
 ancient Chaldeans who were so susceptible to 
 planetary influence all were in direct com- 
 munication with the planets, which communicated 
 to them vibrations of color, ,md of sound, and each 
 person wore a robe of the color belonging to the 
 planet worshiped. Thus they were akin to 
 flowers which have affinity for certain colors, 
 according as they correspond with their disposi- 
 tion and character. Thus the members of the same 
 family participated in different festivities, and the 
 worship accorded to the star Deva was a tribute 
 of affection or natural affinity. The people lived 
 
 127 
 
in the light or vibration of the planet reflected or 
 selected, and the sick were laid within its rays. 
 
 All seven colors were revealed in the sunlight, 
 hence the great performance was the Festival of 
 the Sun, when upon a particular day of the year 
 the rays of the sun shone upon and lighted a 
 lamp in front of the altar, by means of a lens 
 constructed of a globe of water ; this was called the 
 "lighting of the moon fire" which was kept burning 
 for a year and then allowed to go out that it might 
 be lighted again in the same way. All the seven 
 colors revealed in the sunlight have each a certain 
 rate- of vibration, which makes the color. Red is 
 slower than any of the other colors, and violet 
 faster. When the rate of vibration of light be- 
 comes slowest it ceases to be color and becomes 
 sound ; then the seven colors of light become the 
 seven notes of the octave. And the ancients were 
 in reality right who spoke of the music of the 
 spheres, for each planet has its individual color, 
 which again become the seven notes of the dia- 
 pason, and there are souls who are attuned to 
 the music of the spheres. 
 
 Light is in reality the creator of the universe, 
 for everything that exists in nature is only an 
 expression of rhythmical numbers of Light. Thus 
 it is that Nature always geometmes and why an 
 archetype of creation has existed from the begin- 
 ning. 
 
 Every leaf and twig, every drop of water and 
 grain of sand is a combination of rhyth- 
 mical numbers which are in reality bu,t emanations 
 of Light. Thus the snowflakes fall in six-rayed 
 figures whose needles converge from each other 
 at an angle of sixty degrees. Thus every geomet- 
 rical figure is found in nature, in one of the four 
 kingdoms, and every plant every human being, 
 has a certain keynote, or color vibration, to which 
 they involuntarily respond. Protoplasm* the jelly- 
 like basis of physical life, consists of myriads of 
 tiny lives having a strong affinity for certain 
 colors, and repulsive to other colors. Thoughts 
 are vibrations sent out into the world, a mental 
 world, which register themselves in colors in the 
 astral light. By thinking thoughts of peace and 
 harmony and good will to all creatures we may 
 become co-workers wi-th the spirits of Light, the 
 great Devas, who are assisting in the evolution of 
 the world; by thinking thoughts of hate we not 
 only hinder our own evolution, but become akin 
 to the spirits of the underworld of darkness and 
 disintegration. 
 
 When color registers itself upon the physical 
 organism it Becomes sensation and feeling. Thus 
 in our emotions we are merely the victims of the 
 vibratory forces of our own thoughts and our 
 environment, and this proves the great necessity 
 
 128 
 
of a counter-will or thought-force which may pro- 
 tect us from the thought of others and transform 
 our own lives into the likeness of our ideal, for 
 the physical atoms arrange themselves into the 
 likeness of our ideal, in obedience to our will; and 
 when we desire that which is beautiful and good 
 and true, we not only become the architect of 
 the physical body, but create an astral body, 
 and a spiritual or mental body, in which invisible 
 bodies we shall assimilate to ourselves all experi- 
 ences, as we progress in our pilgrimage through the 
 many spheres and planes of existence unto God. 
 
 THE NEW AND THE OLD 
 
 Give me old songs whose every tone 
 
 Is but an echo of my own. 
 
 Give me old books whose pages hold 
 
 A rarer worth than gems or gold. 
 
 Give me old friends, the tried of years, 
 
 Whose soul is in their smiles and tears. 
 
 Give me old shoes, but not to tread old paths. 
 
 Old paths are old 
 
 I want the splendor of the dawn 
 And all the gates of gold. 
 I want the road that ever winds 
 
 Toward the sunrise hills. 
 I want adventure and great hopes, 
 
 And all the modern thrills. 
 Old paths are old with moss o'er grown; 
 Old comrades are not there, 
 They passed before us; we are old 
 And they are young and fair. 
 There are no old 
 
 We only love that which is ever new 
 Old songs, old books, old friends, old Truths : 
 
 Are they not new to you"? 
 
 THE RETURN 
 
 Long have I loved thee, Solitude, 
 
 Thy scenes are dear to me ; 
 Now like a bird with broken wing 
 
 I hide at last in thee. 
 My weary heart I pillow now 
 
 Upon the lap of Mother Earth, 
 And feel the love that nourished me 
 
 And blest me from my birth. 
 I come to thee a failure, 
 
 To die, perchance to live 
 O Solitude, receive me, 
 
 And thy sweet blessing give. 
 
 129 
 
HURRAH FOR OUR AMERICA! 
 
 Hurrah for our America! 
 Too proud indeed to fight, 
 
 In her calm majestic beauty, 
 Save in the cause of Right ! 
 
 Hurrah for our America ! 
 
 When the tyrant tried the seas, 
 She wore the garb of pleasure, 
 
 And quaffed the cup of ease ; 
 Now the wealth of all the country 
 
 Has been sent to feed the brave, 
 And the lifeblood of the nation 
 
 Has been poured upon the wave. 
 
 Through the red sea of carnage, 
 
 Still she struggles in the fight, 
 Speaking courage to her allies 
 
 In the cause of Peace and Right. 
 While our starry Flag of Freedom 
 
 Waves above the brimming hell 
 Men may fight and die with courage, 
 
 Knowing that all things are well, 
 And that when the awful slaughter 
 
 Has been ended and victory won, 
 Still the flag of Home and Freedom 
 
 Shall be waving in the sun. 
 
 Hurrah for our America ! 
 
 Liberty's immortal crown 
 Shall fulfill the world's great longing, 
 
 Such shall be her great renown, 
 And where now the tyrant trembles 
 
 As the hosts of God move on ; 
 Shackled hands are reaching upward 
 
 To the glory of the dawn. 
 Nevermore shall greed assemble 
 
 Armies in the lust of power ; 
 In war's furnace souls are learning 
 
 The great lessons of the hour. 
 Published in the Minneapolis Tribune. 
 
 If you love me tell me so, 
 For you loved me long ago ; 
 In some mystic memory land, 
 Where we wandered hand in hand ; 
 Methinks 'twas in ancient Greece, 
 Where your art found sweet release 
 There I sang the hours away, 
 While you chiseled forms of clay, 
 Or in beauteous frescoes wrought 
 All the marvels of your thought. 
 Now that beauty is in your face, 
 You are clothed in classic grace, 
 And the silver of your hair 
 Is a halo that you wear, 
 As you wore the laurel and bay 
 In that day so far away. 
 
 130 
 
THEOSOPHY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL 
 SOCIETY 
 
 THE THREE OBJECTS ARE 
 First. To form a nucleus of the Universal 
 
 Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of 
 
 race, creed, sex, caste or color. 
 
 Second. To encourage the study of comparative 
 
 religion, philosophy and science. 
 
 Third. To investigate the unexplained laws of 
 
 nature and the powers latent in man. 
 
 No person's religion opinions are asked upon his 
 joining, nor is interference with them permitted, 
 but everyone is required to show to the religion 
 of his fellow-members the same respect as he claims 
 for his own. 
 
 The Society has no dogmas, and therefore no 
 heretics. It does not shut any man out because he 
 does not believe the Theosophical teachings. A 
 man may deny every one of them, save that of 
 human Brotherhood, and claim his place and his 
 right within its ranks. 
 
 Theosophists realize that just because the intel- 
 lect can only do its best work in its own atmosphere 
 of freedom, truth can best be seen when no condi- 
 tions are laid down as to the right of investigation, 
 as to the methods of research. To them Truth is 
 so supreme a thing, that they do not desire to bind 
 any man with conditions as to how, or where, or 
 why he shall seek it. 
 
 The future of the Society depends on the fact 
 that it should include a vast variety of opinions 
 on all questions on which differences of opinions 
 exist ; it is not desirable that there should be within 
 it only one school of thought, and it is the duty 
 of every member to guard this liberty for himself 
 and for others. The Theosophical Society is the 
 servant of the Divine Wisdom, and its motto is: 
 "There is no Religion higher than Truth." It seeks 
 in every error for the heart of truth whereby it 
 lives, and whereby it attaches to itself human 
 minds. 
 
 Every religion, every philosophy, every science, 
 every activity, draws what it has of truth and 
 beauty from the Divine Wisdom, but cannot claim 
 it as exclusively its own, or as against others. 
 Theosophy does not belong to the Theosophical 
 Society; the Theosophical Society belongs to 
 Theosophy. 
 
 The Theosophical Society is composed of stu- 
 dents, belonging to any religion in the world or to 
 none, who are united by their approval of the 
 above objects, by their wish to remove religious 
 antagonisms and to draw together men of good 
 will, whatsoever their religious oponions, and by 
 their desire to study religious truths and to share 
 
 131 
 
the results with others. Their bond of union is not 
 the profession of a common belief, but a common 
 search and aspiration for Truth. They hold that 
 Truth should be sought by study, by reflection, by 
 purity of life, by devotion to high ideals, and they 
 regard Truth as a prize to be striven for, not as" a 
 dogma to be imposed by authority. They consider 
 that belief should be the result of individual study 
 or intuition, and not its antecedent, and should rest 
 on knowledge, not on assertion. They extend tol- 
 erance to all, even to the intolerant, not as a priv- 
 ilege they bestow, but as a duty they perform, and 
 they seek to remove ignorance, not to punish it. 
 They see every religion as a partial expression of 
 the Divine Wisdom, and prefer its study to its 
 condemnation, and its practice to proselytism. 
 Peace is their watch-word, as Truth is their aim. 
 
 THEOSOPHY 
 
 Theosophy is the body of truths which forms the 
 basis of all religions and which cannot be claimed 
 as the exclusive possession of any. It offers a phil- 
 osophy which renders life intelligible, and demon- 
 strates the justice and the love which guide its evo- 
 lution. It puts death in its rightful place, as a re- 
 curring incident in an endless life, opening the 
 gateway of a fuller and more radiant existence. It 
 restores to the world the Science of the Spirit, 
 teaching man to know the Spirit as himself, and 
 the mind and body as his servants. It illuminates 
 the scriptures and doctrines of religions by unveil- 
 ing their hidden meanings, and thus justifying 
 them at the bar of intelligence, as they are ever 
 justified in the eyes of intuition. 
 
 Members of the Theosophical Society study these 
 truths, and Theosophists endeavor to live them. 
 Every one willing to study, to be tolerant, to aim 
 high, and to work perseveringly, is welcomed as a 
 member, and it rests with the member to become 
 a true Theosophist. 
 
 THE THREE GREAT TRUTHS 
 
 There are Three Truths which are absolute, and 
 cannot be lost, and yet may remain silent for lack 
 of speech. They are as great as life itself, and yet 
 as simple as the simplest mind of man. 
 
 I. God exists, and He is good. He is the great 
 life-giver who dwells within us and without us, is 
 undying and eternally beneficent. He is not heard, 
 nor seen, nor touched, yet He is perceived by the 
 man who desires perception. 
 
 II. Man is immortal, and his future is one whose 
 glory and splendor have no limit. 
 
 III. A divine law of absolute justice rules the 
 world, so that each man is in truth his own judge, 
 the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself, the 
 decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment. 
 
 132 
 
Put shortly, and in the language of the "man of 
 the street," this means that God is good, that man 
 is immortal, and that as we sow we must reap. 
 
 We distinguish between God as the Infinite Exis- 
 tence, the Absolute, the All, and the manifestation 
 of this One Existence as a revealed God, or Logos, 
 the Word, evolving and guiding a universe. 
 
 To each of these great truths are attached certain 
 others, subsidiary and explanatory. 
 
 From the first of them it follows : 
 
 1. That, in spite of appearances, all things are 
 definitely and intelligently moving together for 
 good; that all circumstances, however untoward 
 they may seem, are in reality exactly what are 
 needed ; that everyhting around us tends, not to 
 hinder us but to help us, if it is only understood. 
 
 2. That, since the whole scheme thus tends to 
 man's benefit, clearly it is his duty to learn to 
 understand it. 
 
 3. That, when he thus understands it, it is also 
 his duty intelligently to co-operate in this scheme. 
 
 From the second great truth it follows : 
 
 1. That the true man is a Spirit, and that this 
 body is only an appanage. 
 
 2. That he must, therefore, regard everything 
 from the standpoint of the Spirit, and that in every 
 case, when an internal struggle takes place, he must 
 realize his identity with the higher and not with 
 the lower. 
 
 3. That what we commonly call his life is only 
 one day in his true and larger life. 
 
 4. That death is a matter of far less importance 
 than is usually supposed, since it is by no means 
 the end of life, but merely the passage from one 
 stage of it to another. 
 
 5. That man has an immense evolution behind 
 him, the study of which is most fascinating, inter- 
 esting and instructive. 
 
 6. That he has also a splendid evolution before 
 him, the study of -which will be even more fas- 
 cinating and instructive. 
 
 7. That there is an absolute certainty of final 
 attainment for every human being, no matter how 
 far he may seem to have strayed from the path 
 of evolution. 
 
 From the third great truth it follows: 
 
 1. That every thought, word, or action produces 
 its definite result not a reward or a punishment 
 imposed from without, but a result inherent in the 
 action itself, definitely connected with it in the 
 relation of cause and effect, these being really only 
 the two inseparable parts of one whole. 
 
 2. That it is both the duty and the interest of 
 man to study this divine law closely, so that he 
 
 133 
 
may be able to adapt himself to it and to use it, 
 as we use other great laws of nature. 
 
 3. That it is necessary for man to obtain perfect 
 control over himself, so that he may guide his life 
 intelligently in accordance with this law. 
 
 BROTHERHOOD 
 
 The first and last word of Theosophy is the 
 spirit of Brotherhood. We are all one Life. We 
 are all one Love. Poor and rich, weak and strong, 
 we are all one humanity, and we sink and rise 
 together. Believe not that by retiring to your own 
 wealthy and happy homes and closing your win- 
 dows against the misery of the wretched, you in- 
 sure for yourselves a happy and peaceful life. 
 There is no peace while one man, woman, or child 
 is living in misery and destitution. There is only 
 one life, theirs and ours alike, and only as we 
 strive for the redemption of human misery and 
 the defence of the weak and the miserable, only 
 then can we hope to be recognized as fellow- 
 workers with nature in that great army of the 
 redeemers of the world, to whom God and the 
 Teachers look as Their human instruments, to do 
 in the physical world that which is essentially their 
 right, their duty, and if they only knew it, their 
 highest happiness and their supreme fruit. 
 
 WHY You SHOULD JOIN THE THEOSOPHICAL 
 SOCIETY 
 
 Why should you come in*? For no reason at all, 
 unless to you it is the greatest privilege to come 
 in, and you desire to be among those who are the 
 pioneers of the thought of the coming days. No 
 reason at all ; it is a privilege. We do not beg 
 you to come in ; we only say : "Come if you like to 
 come, and share the glorious privilege that we pos- 
 sess ; but if you would rather not, stay outside, and 
 we will give you everything which we believe will 
 be serviceable and useful to you." The feeling 
 that brings people into the Society is the feeling 
 that makes the soldier spring forward to be 
 amongst the pioneers when the army is going forth. 
 There are some people so built that they like to 
 go in front and face difficulties, so that other peo- 
 ple may have an easier time, and walk along a 
 path that has already been hewn out for them by 
 hands stronger than their own. That is the only 
 reason why you should come in ; no other. 
 
 Come in to give, to toil, to be enrolled amongst 
 the Servants of Humanity who are working for 
 the dawn of the day of a nobler knowledge, for 
 the coming of the recognition of a spiritual Broth- 
 erhood amongst men. Come in, if you have the 
 spirit of the pioneer within you, the spirit of the 
 
 134 
 
volunteer; if to you it is a delight to cut the way 
 through the jungle that others may follow, to tread 
 the path with bruised feet in order that others may 
 have a smooth road to lead them to the heights of 
 knowledge. That is the only advantage of coming 
 in: to know in your heart that you realize what 
 is coming, and are helping to make it come more 
 quickly for the benefit of your fellow-men ; that 
 you are working for humanity ; that you are co- 
 workers with God, in making the knowledge of 
 Him spread abroad on every side ; that you are 
 amongst those to whom future centuries will look 
 back, thanking you that you saw the light when 
 all men thought it was dark, and that you recog- 
 nized the coming dawn when others believed the 
 earth was sunk in midnight. 
 
 There is no inspiration more inspiring, no ideal 
 that lifts men to greater heights, no hope that is 
 so full of splendor, no thought that is so full of 
 energy, as the inspiration and the ideal, the hope 
 and the thought, that you are working for the 
 future, for the day that is yet to come. The work 
 is its own reward, and the opportunity seized to- 
 day gives you a new and larger opportunity to- 
 morrow. To adopt the words of a great poet: 
 
 Theosophy 
 
 . . , says to you: "Son,, 
 Silver and gold have I none; 
 I give but the love of all nations, 
 And the life of my people of old." 
 
 MRS ANNIE BESANT, 
 President Theosophical Society. 
 
 ADMISSION TO THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Every application for membership in the Society 
 must be made on an authorized form, and must, 
 whenever possible, be endorsed by two members 
 and signed by the applicant ; but no persons under 
 the age of twenty-one years are admitted without 
 the consent of their guardians. Blank application 
 forms may be obtained from the Secretary of any 
 Lodge, or from the General Secretary at Krotona, 
 Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. 
 
 God has His worshipers who praise 
 
 In temples not made with hands, 
 And day by day His solitudes 
 
 Are bright with angel bands 
 Who chant His litanies of praise 
 
 Before each flower and leafy shrine 
 No doughty saint would know them, 
 
 But they are no less divine. 
 
 135 
 
KIND WORDS from THEOSOPHISTS and 
 OTHER NOTED PEOPLE 
 
 From Mr. B. P. Wadia, Manager of the The- 
 osophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras, India, 
 and co-Editor with Mrs. Annie Besant of the 
 "Theosophist" and "Adyar Bulletin," Theosophical 
 monthly magazines : 
 
 "There is much that is admirable in your es- 
 says and poems. If you decide to publish a book I 
 will be glad to place copies on our shelves and do 
 all in my power to aid in its sale." 
 
 From Mrs. Annie Besant, International Presi- 
 dent of the Theosophical Society : 
 
 The following poem ("Flowers and Thoughts") 
 published in The Theosophist is from the pen of 
 an American lady, Mrs. Annie M. Long DeBoer. 
 It is a very pretty and rmisical little poem, and 
 thoroughly Theosophical in spirit. 
 * * * 
 
 Mrs. Anna M. DeBoer : 
 
 I regard your poems on "Childhood's Hours" in 
 the last Progress as the best one. In my idea it 
 reaches to the true height of successful poetry. 
 Many poems are good, but now and then there is 
 one we regard better. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 ROBERT HENRY CALLAGHAN. 
 
 Corona, California. 
 My dear Mrs. DeBoer: 
 
 Your letter with enclosures (herewith returned) 
 was forwarded to me here from Krotona. I have 
 read with interest the proof sheets of your little 
 booklet, and I love it. You have made a mosaic of 
 inspiring and beautiful thoughts. I like particu- 
 larly what you say of brotherhood. The need is 
 great and immediate. 
 
 With best wishes, I am, Very truly yours, 
 ELLEN DALE BRANDT. 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 4, 1916. 
 
 From Mary Hanford Ford, lecturer for the 
 Bahai Society and art lecturer for the Panama 
 Pacific Exposition. 
 
 "Thank you so much for your beautiful little 
 poem which is so full of the spirit of beauty that 
 it cannot be far away from God. I shall keep 
 your charming poem always, and hope sometime 
 to know the author better." 
 
 With love to you and to our dear brothers, 
 
 MARY HANFORD FORD. 
 
 136 
 
Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 1902. 
 My dear Mrs. DeBoer: 
 
 It gives me pleasure to inform you that at our 
 meeting held Tuesday evening of last week, you 
 were unanimously elected to membership in the 
 Writer's League of Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 Some of our members read selections from your 
 poems, and one of our members sang your song, 
 which we all thoroughly enjoyed. 
 
 It is our sincere wish that you may derive as 
 much pleasure from your association with us as 
 we shall receive. 
 
 Wishing you all success in your literary and 
 musical work, I am, Sincerely yours, 
 
 LUCY SHERMAN MITCHELL, 
 Secretary. 
 
 * * * 
 
 From Governor Albert Cummings, now Senator 
 Cummings of Washington, D. C. 
 
 March 7, 1906. 
 Anna M. DeBoer, 
 Dear Madam : 
 
 The Governor directs me to thank you for the 
 kindly mention of his candidacy appearing in the 
 Courier of date of February 22nd. You well say 
 there is only one right way under present condi- 
 tions, and that is forward, and not backward. This 
 is a fight for principle, and the welfare of the 
 common people of the State of Iowa is the stake. 
 
 Hoping that we may win, and wishing you 
 prosperity, Yours truly, 
 
 JOHN BRIAR, 
 Private Secretary. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Dear Associate : 
 
 I have read your proofs, every one of them. 
 You asked my opinion and I shall say that some of 
 them are very good. The thought in all of them 
 is good, and ought to spread Theosophical Ideals. 
 
 MARIE HOTCHENER. 
 
 * * * 
 
 A letter of thanks for my "Song of Victory." 
 THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 Washington, April 15, 1918. 
 Mrs. Annie M. DeBoer, 
 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
 Dear Madam: 
 
 In behalf of the President, permit me to ac- 
 knowledge the receipt of your letter of recent date 
 and to thank you for your courtesy in sending him 
 its enclosures. Sincerely yours, 
 
 J. P. TUMULTY, 
 Secretary to the President. 
 
 137 
 
From J. P. Holt, President Citizens' Improve- 
 ment League, Hammond, Louisiana. 
 
 Hammond, La., June 8, 1901. 
 Mrs. Anna M. DeBoer. 
 
 My dear Mrs. DeBoer: I have been made the 
 happy recipient of your complimentary copy of 
 that beautiful and bewitching song. I beg you to 
 conceive of my high and lasting appreciation, not 
 only for this song, invaluable to the world of 
 music, but also for your very kind thoughtfulness ; 
 for all of which I am more or less indebted, I 
 presume, to our mutual friend, Mrs. O. C. C., of 
 your city. 
 
 Give your grand muse free swing and further 
 thrill us with the sweet symphonies within your 
 power to invoke. 
 
 Again thanking you, and with every good and 
 golden wish, I am, Yours very truly, 
 
 J. POTTS HOLT. 
 
 * * * 
 
 From the Acting Editor of The Messenger : 
 
 I think many of your essays are exceedingly 
 good, and your book, as a whole, when finished, 
 will be more than worth while. 
 
 ANTOINETTE PHILLIPS. 
 
 * * * 
 
 April 14, 1904. 
 My dear Mrs. DeBoer: 
 
 I've almost fallen in love with you for the no- 
 tice you gave my book in the Progress ' f hams 
 you heartily. Of course you are coming to the 
 Exposition *? Truly yours, 
 
 ALEXANDER N. DEMENIL, 
 
 Editor and publisher, "The Hesperian" ; author of 
 literature of Louisiana Territory, and Director of 
 the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 * * * 
 
 From the Editor of The Messenger. Krotona, 
 Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. 
 
 May 1st, 1918. 
 My dear Mrs. DeBoer: 
 
 Your essay, "Life's Immortality," is exceedingly 
 
 rd. Did I understand }'ou to say it was written 
 The Messenger V If so I am more than thank- 
 ful. I am returning some of your manuscripts 
 because I am leaving day after tomorrow for 
 Australia to be away probably a year. We have 
 some copy of yours enough for several months, I 
 think. Mrs. Phillips is taking my place. You will 
 like her, I know. 
 
 My very best wishes to you, and my love, 
 
 MAY S. ROGERS. 
 
 * * * 
 
 "Take up your work you have the good will of 
 all" MARIE POUTZ. 
 
 138 
 
NEW HOME OF THEOSOPHICAL 
 PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 It is with pleasure that we announce the pur- 
 chase of an attractive and conveniently located 
 home for the Theosophical Publishing House, 
 American Branch. 
 
 Our new headquarters are situated at the main 
 Vista Del Mar entrance to Krotona. The rapid 
 growth of the business and its reorganization on a 
 scale more commensurate with the ever increasing 
 demand for Theosophic literature necessitated our 
 moving into commodious quarters. 
 
 Mr. B. P. Wadia, International Manager of the 
 T. P. H., who has been the guest of the American 
 Section for the past few months, after carefully 
 viewing the American book situation, decided that 
 the needs of the business demanded a permanent 
 headquarters at Krotona. The new home i-> large 
 enough to meet the needs of the business for sev- 
 eral years to come. 
 
 The conspicuous awakening of the American 
 people to the truths of Theosophy has made ap- 
 parent the necessity for publishing many The- 
 osophical books in America. To meet this demand, 
 two initial steps have already been taken an at- 
 tractive home has been purchased, and the prelim- 
 inary papers of incorporation of the T. P. H. filed 
 in order to largely increase its capitalization. 
 
 It is a matter of satisfaction that Mr. Wadia has 
 been able to secure additional capital, which places 
 our business on a sound financial footing. 
 
 To secure the largest degree of efficiency in the 
 T. P. H. business, an Advisory Committee consist- 
 ing of prominent Theosophists with long business 
 experience, has been appointed to confer with the 
 Manager and Board of Directors on request, in 
 matters pertaining to broad business policies. 
 
 IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION 
 
 Members of the American Section who realize 
 the immeasurable importance of H. P. B.'s Secret 
 Doctrine to the World, and the necessity for its 
 wide distribution if the T. S. is to fulfill the 
 sacred trust bequeathed to it by our great found- 
 ers, will be glad to know that our first step will 
 be the publication of this priceless work, in a large 
 edition. Other much wanted Theosophical books 
 will also be published in the near future. The 
 International T. P. H. holds the exclusive right to 
 publish the works of our most prominent Theo- 
 sophical leaders. 
 
 Plans are already under way for the' establish- 
 ment of an eastern or central branch for more 
 convenient distribution of books to our eastern 
 customers. 
 
 139 
 
All members cognizant of the great opportunity 
 for the dissemination of Theosophical literature 
 will rejoice that the American Section is to benefit 
 by this timely expansion of the American T. P. H. 
 
 CRAIG P. GARMAN, 
 Manager American Branch. 
 
 B. P. WADIA, 
 International Manager. 
 
 The Theosophical Society consists of a number 
 of National Societies or "Sections," in different 
 countries of the world, each with its own General 
 Secretary and its own organization. While prac- 
 tically independent as regards internal affairs, each 
 is subject to the General Rules of the Society. 
 
 The General Headquarters, at Adyar, Madras 
 S., India, comprise the Presidential and Secretarial 
 offices, publishing department, printing press, quar- 
 ters for residents and students, and the Adyar 
 Library. The latter contains 12,000 oriental man- 
 uscripts and about 8,000 books in its Eastern Sec- 
 tion, and in what is called the Western Section 
 there are about 12,000 books and pamphlets on 
 eastern and western religions, philosophies and 
 science. The Headquarters Estate has a frontage 
 upon the Adyar River and the Bay of Bengal, and 
 covers 300 acres. 
 
 Each National Society consists of not less than 
 seven Lodges, and of members unattached to any 
 Lodge. National Societies or Sections are found 
 in the following countries: America, England and 
 Wales, India, Australia, Scandinavia, New Zealand, 
 Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Cuba, Hun- 
 gary, Finland, Russia, Bohemia, South Africa, 
 Scotland, Switzerland, Belgium, the Dutch East 
 Indies and Austria. A list of Lodges of the The- 
 osophical Society the world over with the name 
 and address of each Secretary is published in the 
 report of the Annual General Meeting or Con- 
 vention which is held at Adyar and Benares alter- 
 nately in the month of December. This report 
 usually appears shortly after the convention in 
 the chief magazine of the Societyy, called the 
 "Theosophist." 
 
 SALAAM ALEIKUM 
 
 (Peace be with you) 
 
 I pray the prayer that Easterns do 
 May the peace of Allah abide with you ; 
 Wherever you stay, wherever you go, 
 May the beautiful Palms of Allah grow; 
 
 Through the days of labour and the nights of rest, 
 The love of Good Allah make you blest ; 
 So I touch my heart as the Easterns do 
 May the peace of Allah abide with you. 
 
 140 
 
BOOKS RECOMMENDED FOR STUDY 
 
 GENERAL 
 
 The Riddle of Life. By Annie Besant $ .25 
 
 An Outline of Theosophy. By C. W. Lead- 
 
 beater 25 
 
 Theosophy. By Annie Besant 50 
 
 Popular Lectures on Theosophy. By Annie 
 
 Besant 50 
 
 Hints to Young Students of Occultism. By 
 
 L. W. Rogers 50 
 
 A Textbook of Theosophy. By C. W. Lead- 
 beater 75 
 
 The Ancient Wisdom. By Annie Besant 1.50 
 
 The Astral Plane. By C. W. Leadbeater 35 
 
 The Devachanic Plane. By C. W. Leadbeater .35 
 Man and His Bodies. By Annie Besant 35 
 
 RELIGIOUS 
 
 Universal Textbook of Religion and Morals 
 
 Part I, paper 50 
 
 Part II, paper 50 
 
 Advanced Textbook of Hindu Religion and 
 
 Ethics 1.25 
 
 Four Great Religions. By Annie Besant 85 
 
 The Wisdom of the Upanishads. By Annie ' 
 
 Besant 75 
 
 Hints on Study of the Bhagavad Gita. By 
 
 Annie Besant 1.00 
 
 Introduction to Yoga. By Annie Besant 75 
 
 Buddhist Catechism. By H. S. Olcott 50 
 
 The Light of Asia. Sir Edwin Arnold 1.00 
 
 Esoteric Christianity. By Annie Besant 1.50 
 
 ETHICS 
 
 Spiritual Life for the Man of the World. By 
 
 Annie Besant 35 
 
 In the Outer Court. By Annie Besant 75 
 
 The Path of Discipleship. By Annie Besant. . .75 
 Initiation : The Perfecting of Man. By Annie 
 
 Besant 1.00 
 
 At the Feet of the Master. By J. Krishna- 
 
 murti (Alcyone) 50 
 
 Education as Service. By J. Krishnamurti 
 
 (Alcyone) 50 
 
 The Voice of the Silence. By H. P. Bla- 
 
 vatsky 60 
 
 Light on the Path. By Mabel Collins .50 
 
 The Bhagavad Gita. Translated by Annie 
 
 Besant 50 
 
 VARIOUS 
 
 Theosophy and the New Psychology. By 
 
 Annie Besant 75 
 
 Dreams. By C. W. Leadbeater 50 
 
 Clairvoyance. By C. W. Leadbeater 75 
 
 141 
 
Man Visible and Invisible (illustrated). By 
 
 G. W. Leadbeater 5.00 
 
 Thought- Forms (illustrated). By C. W. 
 
 Leadbeater and Annie Besant 3.50 
 
 Invisible Helpers. By C. W. Leadbeater 75 
 
 Life After Death. By C. W. Leadbeater 25 
 
 Some Glimpses of Occultism. By C. W. Lead- 
 beater 2.00 
 
 The Inner Life. By C. W. Leadbeater 4.00 
 
 Methods of Psychic Development. By Irving 
 
 S. Cooper 50 
 
 Ways to Perfect Health. By Irving S. Cooper .50 
 The Secret of Happiness. By Irving S. Cooper .50 
 
 Thought Power. By Annie Besant 75 
 
 A Study in Consciousness. By Annie Besant. . 2.00 
 
 Some Problems of Life. By Annie Besant 75 
 
 The Changing World. By Annie Besant 1.50 
 
 The Immediate Future. By Annie Besant 1.00 
 
 The Ideals of Theosophy. By Annie Besant. .75 
 
 Study in Karma. By Annie Besant 50 
 
 The Principles of Occult Healing. By 
 
 Dr. Mary Weeks Burnett 75 
 
 Send Orders to 
 THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 Krotona, Hollywood, California 
 
 GLAD TIDINGS OF 
 THE DAWN 
 
 A magazine devoted to Theosophi- 
 cal Ideals and Their Realization. 
 
 Issued by 
 
 The Ideal Publishing Company 
 
 ANNIE M. L. DeBOER, Editor 
 P. O. Box 731, Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
 25 Cents per Copy $1.00 per Year 
 
 142 
 
^UIIIUMIItUIIIIIIIIIIMMUIMIMIIUtMmilHmNIHIIIUilinHIUIIIIIIKniMIMMtlllUnMIUUIMIUUIIinillllUllllllltllllllMlllllllllltlltlllltltllllllllllllllllll!: 
 
 g>alufatt0n nf ilj? aunt I 
 
 Listen to the Salutation of the Dawn! 
 
 Look to this Day 
 In its brief course lie all the 
 
 Varieties and Realities of your existence 
 The Bliss of Growth, 
 The Glory of Action, 
 
 The Splendor of Beauty. 
 For yesterday is but a dream 
 And tomorrow only a vision. 
 
 But today well lived makes 
 Every yesterday a Dream of happiness 
 
 And every tomorrow a Vision of Hope. 
 Look well therefore to this Day; 
 For it is Life, the very Life of Life. 
 
 Such is the Salutation of the Dawn. 
 From the Sanscrit. 
 
 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM 
 
UNIVEESITY OF CALIFOENIA LIBEAEY, 
 BEEKELEY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 Books not returned on time are subject to a firm nf 
 
 to t 1 P nn VOlUme 1 after the third da y overdue increasing 
 to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in 
 
 OCt 
 
 
 'OLD 
 
 W 2i 1959 
 
 
 50m-7,'29 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY