EDITORIAL. is only a fragment, a segment of a cycle. of helpful loveliness. In future numbers

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1 VOL. XIII LOS ANGELES. JUNE NO. 9 EDITORIAL Editoril Chnge With th sue The The osophic Messenger psses into the hnds of the new editoril mngement. For some yers the editor's chir hs been filled by one of deep lerning nd cpc ity, nd it with some diffidence tht the new editor tkes up the duties which the former hs fulfilled so well, nd which he now. becuse of impertive pressure in other directions, obliged to ly side. I hope tht the pges of The Theosophic Messenger, notwith stnding the chnge, my be privileged to receive from time to time, contribu tions from its former editor, nd tht the high stndrd of excellence set by him my t lest be mintined by the present Kroton nd the Frontpiece mngement. In tking up my new edi toril duties, I m gld tht I cn nnounce the su nce of the mgzine from the n e w Theosophicl Hedqurters Kroton. Here it hoped tht the work of suing The Theosophic Messenger my proceed with some touch of the influence which the beuty nd pece home contribute. dow lies scene tht surround our new From the editor's win of which the frontpiece only frgment, segment of cycle of helpful loveliness. In future numbers we shll show different views from our hillside. The present one shows bit of the city which lies spred out t our feet; the next will show in the reverse direction the serene heights of the moun tins, in the foothills of which Hedqur ters re locted. On the one hnd we look down upon the ctivities of gret metropol, extending miles wy, from est to south nd west ; nd on the other, we lift our eyes to the still slopes tht brethe pece nd strength. We hve nmed the new Hedqurters Kroton, becuse of our devotion to the idels which were tught by the illustrious Pythgors in h Institute of Croton, mny centuries go. My the nme tend to inspire the workers here nd else where with the will to live dily more nd more of the noble stndrds the gret Mster then tught.. The Theosophic Messenger which The present number of The Theosophic Messenger being sued in time to in sure its rrivl t most est ern lodges nd news-stnds by the first dy of the month for which it sued, nd it proposed to observe th sched ule promptly in the future. Members,

2 o j > o I o z o -J > O < z o H o : O Di u. LU Z w u CO

3 514 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER therefore, my mke rrngements with the news-stnds in their cities nd towns to crry the Messenger regulrly, with the understnding tht it will be re ceived promptly like ll other mgzines which they hndle. We desire, not only to furnh theosophic news nd liter ture to our members promptly nd regu lrly, but lso to strive to plce in the mgzine mteril which will prove t trctive to the inquirer, nd we hope in th wy to continue to bring the mg zine into touch with life without s well s within our rnks. We should lso like to see the mgzine self-support ing rm of theosophic service, nd to th end I should be gld if sufficient members could be found who would pro cure dvertements of cceptble kind to be plced in our pges, t rtes which will be found publhed elsewhere. The number of copies sued ech month six thousnd, nd the circultion extends ll over the world. Members helping thus to plce the mgzine on selfpying bs will render most useful id to our cuse. MS. nd other mtter should be in the editor's hnds by the first of ech month. To Secretries Secretries will kindly s st us in mking more com plete the Lodge Directory s now rrnged, lso the lt of Delers in Theosophic Books found on n dver ting pge t the bck, by sending d ditionl dt for the sme to the office of The Theosophic Messenger. Mr. Irving Cooper will be Mr. Cooper open to enggements in the Est. All lodges est of Chicgo desiring Mr. Cooper to vit nd lecture for them between the dte of h rrivl nd Convention, will kindly notify Mr. L. W. Rogers, 119 Vn Dien Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey. In tking over the office of Generl Generl Secretry, it my SSSSSf8 wh to cll to myj sst- Kepresenttives nce in the execution of my new duties number of representtive members in vrious prts of the Section. To th end I hve p pointed six Generl Secretry's Repre senttives, who will form generl d vory bord of helpers through whom I my work, who will ct s dtributing centers for constructive ctivities nd ex erce sort of supervorship in regrd to the lodges within n ssigned territory. Following lt of the vrious p pointments under th pln, with outlines of ech one's territory: Dr. F. Milton Will, 25 Brod St., New York City, N. Y. New Englnd nd Middle Estern Sttes to include the Virginis. Mrs. M. V. Grnsey, L Grnge, 111. Minnesot, Wconsin, Michign, Illi no, Indin, Ohio, Kentucky. E. Y. Blum, 3444 Est 7th St., Kn ss City, Mo. Iow, Msouri, Knss, Nebrsk, Colordo, Wyoming, nd the Dkots. T. W. Thomsson, 305 Winch Bldg., Vncouver, B. C. Cnd, Wshing ton, Oregon, Idho, Montn, Alsk. T. D. Dwkins, Box 504, Austin, Texs. Texs, New Mexico, Oklhom, Arknss, Louin, Tennessee, Ms sippi, Albm, Georgi, Florid, nd the Crolins. Fritz Kunz, Kroton, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Cl. Cliforni, Arizon, Ne vd, Uth, Hwii. Presidents nd secretries of lodges re now sked to keep their Generl Sec retry's Representtive posted s to their ctivities ; to pply to them for ny needed informtion which they cn sup ply; nd to submit to them locl prob lems wherein their sstnce would

4 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 515 seem efficcious nd beneficil. A further ppointment tht of Mr. L. W. Rogers, of Ridgewood, N. J., s Generl Secretry's Propgnd Repre senttive, with dvory nd sstnt jurdiction over the entire Section in mtters of field propgnd. In connection with plns University ^or Theosophic Univer- Plns sity, it desirble to know s soon s prcticble the number of members in the Americn Section who hve tken University De grees. The Generl Secretry will p precite, therefore, letter from ech member hving such degree, stting wht it, where it ws obtined, nd wht re ltionship the member bers to educ tionl ctivities of the dy. In nother column re re- Noondy ports of Noondy Meet- Meetings ings. These meetings hve I been such success in Los Angeles nd Sn Frncco tht they re recommended to other lodges hving the spekers cpble of undertking them. believe similr meetings were strted lso by Mr. Mnning in Pittsburg, go. yer Mrs. Russk hs promed Mrs. Russk to come to Americ for the Coming fll nd winter. She will Chicgo Convention. rrive in time to ttend the Arrngements will be mde for her to vit cities where there n E. nd T. S. Lodge. The S. Section nd Lodges will of course need to defry the expenses of her journeyings. The expense to the lodges will in volve hospitlity nd just portion of the trvelling from plce to plce. The lodges which re ble to rrnge vit for Mrs. Russk will plese mke known the fct to the Generl Secretry t once. The importnce of hving vit from her lredy widely understood by the members. It probble tht Mrs. Russk's tour will begin just fter Convention nd ex tend westwrd, over the months of Oc tober, November, December nd Jnury. She will then doubtless come to Kroton, the new Cliforni There Hedqurters. perhps no subject The Relity *n^ interests people more closely. ;of Drems thn drems there none tht touches humnity more Everybody drems, more or less, nd ever wonders wht drems re. hve resoned out cler Few nd effective rtionle of th common phenomenon, nd hs been left to Theosophy to of fer n explntion tht seems to hold it good in mny wys. More nd more testimonils re recognized of the truth of the theosophicl explntion. tht certin type of drem relly n experience of the individul, hppening It when out of the body, but still in body, of finer mtter. In one word, the world "sleep" in relity the world "wke," in higher relm, where hu mnity lives nd brethes nd cts in finer mtter, but mtter s rel, more rel, thn wht icl plne. It seems rel on the phys in th stte tht the person physiclly sleep, but wide wke s to the higher world, ble to trvel he wkes, if he be skilled, ;nd see, lern nd experience nd when he my im press upon the physicl brin some in formtion of wht he hs been doing during h body's sleep. The following cse in point; such cses my be multiplied by hundreds The following n exct ccount of drem tht hd during the erly morning I : hours of Mondy, April 15th, 1912: I seemed to be stnding on something t the very edge of the wter. A voice sid:

5 516 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER "Here comes the biggest ferrybot in the world." I looked up nd sw gret stemer of tremendous length pssing slowly by, en tering s it were n exceedingly nrrow ps sge like ferry slip, but tht detil vgue. Then, s I wtched her, she suddenly tipped up on end nd snk before my eyes. The next thing I knew, I found myself with others in smll bot in the middle of the ocen. We hd come to rescue people tht were drowning. There were lots of drk things (life preservers or wreckge) floting on the wter nd I felt tht the people hd been clinging to them, but hd been forced to let go before we could rech them. We hd evidently come but moment too lte, for s I stood up nd looked down I could see mny blurred nd dtorted humn forms, sink ing, sinking into the green depths, their white rms stretched upwrds s if clutching for some support s they swirled downwrd. I lened over nd reched s fr s I could, try ing to ctch their hnds, but it ws useless, the wter ws closing over them nd they becme ever more nd more indtinct. Then someone strted to lower me into the wter, thinking tht in tht wy I might sve them, but 1 cried out : "No, no! Plese don't! I m frid to go down into the wter (it ws lredy wshing over me). There rc so mny people drowned here tht the se will be full of shrks nd dngerous fh. They will ttck me." Tht ll tht I remember. On wking, the morning pper ws hnded to me nd I red tht the pssenger stemer "Titnic," the biggest bot in the world, hd on tht very night collided with n iceberg off the Grnd Bnks of Newfoundlnd. It ws the first intimtion the world hd hd of the cts trophe, but it then ppered tht ll the ps sengers were sved nd the ship hd mn ged to keep flot. Thus I thought my drem must hve been composed of thought forms of nxious people who on receipt of the news imgined the worst. It ws not till the next dy tht we red the stggering truth nd knew tht the gret ship hd sunk during the erly hours of Mondy, April 15th (the time of my drem), crrying with her two miles down ll but few hundred of her precious humn crgo. Th ccount coincided with my drem, but whether it ws coincidence, thought trnsfer ence or n ctul experience, I m not we enough to sy. It could hve been telepthy, but to one knowing something of the true ex plntion of drems, it seems more likely to hve been n ctul experience from the higher plne. The present number of The Artts' Thcosophic Messenger hs Competition becn m(]e under d;ffi. for Our New r Volume cttlties. The new mnge ment necessrily begn with no equipment, no mnuscript, nd hd to pln the who hd not before publiction with printers done our work, nd in little over month we went to press. Few chnges cn be mde in the generl ppernce of the mgzine until fter the September number, which termintes the present volume, but beginning with the October number I desire to inugu rte some improvements. To tht end I invite competition of rtts mong our members to prepre sketches for new cover, ttrctive initils, suitble cuts, deprtment boxes, etc. An rtt will be chosen to mke the wrd. Sketches should be sent to the Editor s soon s possible, becuse the October number must needs be mde up erly in August. Strong, virile literry contributions re lso invited, of such chrcter s will show the reltionship of Theosophy to humn life. Th cll, therefore, for the best literry nd rttic tlent to be found in our rnks, to help me to mke The Theosophic Messenger mgzine which cn commnd much wider circu ltion outside the membership thn it now hs.

6 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER.-17 THEOSOPHY AND DRAMATIC ART [Editor's Note. Th rticle the mjor prt of one written by Mrs. Besnt in 1907 for The Show World, The Twentieth Century Amusement Weekly, nd which ws publhed conspicuously on its front pge, with comtnendry sttements nd good picture of the writer. Tody, the incresing betterment of our Americn stge, the wider snctioning of the drm s mode of teching by clergy nd lymn, nd the ppernce of plys long strikingly theosophicl lines, re significnt "signs of the times," nd, likewe, so mny venues for effective T. S. influence nd ser vice.] Among the most potent gencies for influencing the public mind the drm, nd it impossible to conceive limit to the power it might wield if plys were nobly plnned nd nobly cted. It the nturl eductor of the dult, s the school the eductor of the child. Eye nd er re mde the venues by which high thoughts nd stimulting inspir tions my rech the mind, nd the con tgion of herom nd self-scrifice my be mde to spred through crowd nd purify nd elevte every person sub mitted to it. The wve of common thought, of common impulse, sweeps through crowd of ordinry people nd crries them wy; how esily pnic my spred through mss of people, giving birth to wild, unresoning, ter ror-impelled ction, known to every one. As esily my be propgted through crowd noble emotion, nd even though it my subside nd seem to leve no trce, yet ech who hs been uplifted by it truly sensitive nd more responsive to cognte emotion there fter. Theosophy in rt ever the prophet of the idel, s ginst the mere copying of some outside fct. The fundmentl error of Zol nd h school lies in the view tht exct reproduction of trnsi tory ugliness nturlm. Nture fundmentlly n rtt of the beutiful, nd ever t work repiring the hideousness creted by mn nd chnging them into new beuties. Not n ugly rubbh-hep, nor dused qurry, but she will clothe it with vegettion, nd chnge it into little hills nd dles, ver dnt with wving grss nd frgrnt with blossoms. Her efforts re ll to wrds beuty, nd the ugly only trnsition-stge to some new firness, or mplced object out of hrmony with its surroundings. In every object Nture strives to express thought, nd the true rtt drmtic or otherwe he who seizes the thought nd mkes it more plpble to h less developed fellows. The drm rt, nd its specil func tion to portry humn emotions nd humn chrcter, nd to direct th por tryl to the evoking of right emotions nd the building of right chrcter in the theter-goers, winning their sym pthy for the noble nd the heroic, rous ing their indigntion ginst the bse nd degrding. Anlys of chrcter nd of motives, exmintion of socil nd politicl problems, lso legiti mte function of the philosophic drm, nd mny socil nd legl injustice might be remedied by drmtic pre senttion of it by true rtts, ll both uthor nd ctors fired with the idel of brotherhood nd delibertely seeking to express love nd justice so tht they my ttrct, hte nd injustice so tht they my repel. Populr drm must run on simple lines nd should tech high thoughts nd truths in simple nd lluring gue, lwys tking true thought for grnted, nd expressing its results in ttrctive forms. The mvs

7 518 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER tery plys of the Middle Ages were one of the mny wys in which the Church of Rome trined, tught nd elevted the minds of the msses while seeming only to muse. Some very noble plys might be writ ten on theosophicl lines, nd typicl series of reincrntions would form drm of enthrlling interest, s well s one which would convey most slutry lessons, if the working of the lw of Krm the lw of cuse nd effect were crefully brought out in the events portryed. Aprt from such direct teching of the fcts of nture, the the osophicl idel in drmtic rt would be stfied in ll plys tht roused noble emotion, tht showed the dngers of the bsence of n idel in life, tht inspired pure nd lofty thoughts, nd cst d credit on ll bse thinkings nd wys of life. Much might lso be done by the drm in presenting beutiful but nobly simple forms like of dress nd of home fur nhings. A dress nd furnhing re form might be brought bout by plys in which every ccessory ws beutiful nd fitting. Insted of the vulgr bzr dply clled drwing room on the modern stge, room nobly propor tioned, grcefully drped, in which every rticle ws necessry nd beuti ful, would serve s model which mny would copy. Dress on grceful nd dig nified lines for leure, or fitted for c tivity while beutiful in form nd color, should replce the befrilled Prin "Cretions" which dtort the humn form into fntstic nd grotesque out lines, nd inspire the specttor with wondor s to wht hidden pprtus cn so deform the noble outlines of perfect humn figure. Clever nd clen jokes, mirth-provok ing humor, the delightful phrses of Mrk Twin or Bernrd Shw, the delicte fun of Gilbert nd Sullivn, ll clim their plce within the drm, but vulgr horse-ply, empty nonsense, nd every touch of indecency should be rigorously excluded. In the City of the Future, the theter will hve its rightful plce beside the temple nd the school, nd its ctors shll be true rtts, servnts of the beu tiful, honored s highly s the priest nd the techer. Annie Besnt. A fire-mt nd plnet, A crystl nd cell, A jelly-fh nd surin, And cves where the cve-men dwell ; Then sense of lw nd beuty And fce turned from the clod, Some cll it Evolution, And others cll it God. A hze on the fr horizon, The infinite, tender sky, The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields, And the wild geese siling high ; And ll over uplnd nd lowlnd The chrm of the golden-rod, Some of us cll it Autumn, And others cll it God. EACH IN HIS OWN TONGUE From Ech in Like tides on crescent sc-bcch When the moon new nd thin, Into our herts high yernings Come welling nd surging in : Come from the mystic ocen, Whose rim no foot hs trod, Some of us cll it Longing, And others cll it God. A picket frozen on duty, A mother strved for her brood, Socrtes drinking the hemlock, And Jesus on the rood; And millions who, humble nd nmeless, The stright, hrd pthwy trod, Some cll it Consecrtion, And others cll it God. Willim Herbert Crruth. H Ozvn Tongue, nd Other Poems.

8 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 519 A CONFERENCE [Editor's Note. Th drmtiztion rendering into Englh prose of the min story of Muntiq-ut-Tir, by Frid-ud-din Attr, Sufi poet of note. The work ws trnslted by Bij Nth nd publhed in Theosophy in Indi, My nd June, We reproduce it with slight chnges only in rrngement] A Conference of the Birds trns prent llegory wherein the Birds stnd for the humn souls, the Hudhud for the Techer, nd the Simurg for the Logos. The Hudhud, in Persin poetry, repre sented s the fvorite bird of Solomon nd employed by him s messenger. The Simurg fbulous bird supposed to hve the colors of ll the birds in h wing. The Khizr literlly green never-dying Invible Helper nd the gurdin of the wters of Immortlity. Plces vited by him become verdnt. ACT I Assembly of All the Chorus of Birds. Birds There no king dom without its chief. How it tht we hve no king? We cn no longer fford to be without one. We should mke common cuse in seeking king ; for when country without king, the rmy must be dorderly. The Hudhud enters. The sel of the pth zvs stmped on h hert; the crown of truth ppered on h hed. He ws keen in intellect, nd knew the zvy, its dvntges nd ddvntges. Hudhud. Birds, I m verily d ciple of, s well s messenger from, the unseen. As I m not ttched to the world so the world not ttched to me. As I m devoted to the king, I cn not be hrmed by h rmy. I know how to go cross the wters, nd m cquinted with ll the secrets con nected with the pst nd the future. I hve been for yers in the lnd nd the se. I hve trodden the pth with the OF THE BIRDS hed. I pssed the hills nd the forests, the whole world t the time of the del uge. I hve been with Solomon in h tours, frequently, throughout the worlds. I know the king, but I cn not go to Him lone. But if you ccompny me, you will know Him nd H Kingdom. How long th self-regrd! Get rid of th dgrce. He who surrenders th life to Him free from egom, nd from the good nd the evil found on the wy to the Beloved. Shke off the life, tred the wy nd prostrte yourself t the Snctury. We hve indeed king liv ing in the Mount Cucsus. H nme Simurg, ruler of the fethered tribe. He ner to us, but we re fr wy from Him. He bides in the mnsion of glory; ll lips re not privileged to utter H nme. He hs millions of veils of light nd drkness. When the holy soul cn not describe Him, how my the intellect guge Him? Mny lnds nd ses intervene. Do not you think the wy to be short. It needs courge to tred it. If we find Him, it ll right: else to live without Him dgrceful. Life without Him worthless : pour forth the der life s He does. If you pour life mnfully, He will shower greter life over you. Thereupon ll the birds felt n in tense love for H Mjesty nd whed to tred the zvy. But the wy being long, none hd the will to do nd ech brought forwrd n excuse. Nightingle. m so bsorbed in love of the Rose tht hve completely for gotten my own being. A nightingle hs I I it, not the cpcity of loving Simurg; love of the rose enough for her. Hudhud. You hve lgged behind in form ;do not be proud ny longer of your love. Fir s the rose, its beuty

9 5.'0 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER vnhes too soon. nent must be soul. Love of the imperm dgusting to developed Prrot. Every cruel hert puts me into cge. I m the Khizr of the birds ; so 1 m clothed in green nd hope to drink the wter of immortlity. I cnnot ber the shdow of the wings of Simurg. Hudhud. You do not know wht worth ; one who cnnot pour life worthless. You wnt the Elixir nd love life. Awy! You re mere shell with out kernel. Give up th vin desire nd then you will not be humilited by ny. Pecock. I m n ngel mongst the birds, but fte ordined otherwe; the compny of the Serpent ruined me nd brought bout my expulsion from Pr de. I wh you to led me from th gloomy erth to Heven. J cn not rech the king: enough would it be to get to H threshold e., heven). Hudhud. Heven the bode of de sires ;God vst ocen (i. the gol of the Hert. ; heven God smll drop. When you cn get to the ocen, why should you run fter drop? Wht business hs he, who the whole, with prt? Wht business hs he, who the soul, with single limb? you hve rel courge, If look for the whole, seek the whole nd become the whole. Duck. Few my stnd on wter s do. No one cn doubt of my mirculous I powers. birds clen. I I m n scetic mongst the ;my set, dress nd thought re Born in wter, I cn not do with out it, nd hve no love for the dry lnd. cnnot cross the drery wy nd rech Simurg. Hudhud. Wter intended for the unclen : you my seek it if you re un clen. Wter hs no permnence structure cn be founded thereon. Prtridge. I ;no hve ever been in the hills nd highlnds so tht Imy find out Jewel. Imust find or die. Hudhud. Enough of these idle ex cuses. Wht Jewel but colored stone The love of stone hs hrdened your hert. As the Jewel stone, do not dig in the mines cese to long for? ; it the Jewel but seek the Jeweller. All the Birds. Our guide nd chief, we re too wek to rech the mighty Simurg plese tell us there ny connection between Him nd us; there ; if if were ny, we hd felt some ttrction towrds Him. Hudhud. Timidity nd love cn hrd go together. He who unfolds the eye of love comes to offer h life cheer fully. Know tht when the Simurg un ly in veiled H fce like the sun. He cst myrids of reflections in the universe nd ech reflection becme bird. you relize th, you hve estblhed your connection with Him. When you hve known Him whose reflection you re, you will not cre whether you live or die. If you open the window, you will see the sun in reflection the re flection merged into the sun, ny s the sun himself. If Hut when you hve known th, tke cre not to dclose the secret. He who becomes Tht bsorbed there in, but not Tht. When the birds herd ll th, they understood the puzzling question their connection zrith the Simurg, nd ivcre inclined to tred the wy, nd jointly sked: Chorus Birds. Techer, how shll we perform the work in hnd? How of shll we weklings finh the journey? Hudhud. Love requires you to offer life, does not mtter you re sint or sinner. Your life n obstcle it get over it if nd see Him. If you re sked to give up your fith or life, do not cre for either. Wht hs love to ;

10 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 521 do with fith or infidelity? Wht hs the lover to do with life? When you trnscend fith nd infidelity, you lose your present body nd life, nd then be come fit for the work. How long will you fer s child? Hve courge like hero in seizing the gme. If hundreds of troubles befll you on the wy, you should not give wy to fer. Now the birds resolved to tred the wy, but wnted chief to led them. They cst lots for the purpose, nd the event ws in fvor of the worthy Hudhud, nd he ws ccordingly crowned. ACT II The Conference The Hudhud being crowned, the birds followed Him on the zvy. They found the wy, but it ws ever lengthening; they felt the pin, but the remedy zvs not known. Frightened, they cme be wildered to the Hudhud, nd sked Him to explin the rules of conduct towrds the King, nd solve their doubts. The Hudhud took H set on the d, nd opened the conference. Vrious Birds put questions which were nswered by the Hudhud. Question. Becoming similr to us how did you go hed of us to God? Answer. Th due to glnce of Solomon. It cnnot be gined by re ligious life. But it blsphemous to sy tht religion to be neglected. Prc tice religious life uncesingly, but do not overestimte its importnce. You should be life-long devotee in order tht Solomon my look t you. The c ceptnce of Solomon mkes you wht cnnot be expressed. Q. The wy long, nd the pssge hrd, beset with mny volcnoes nd be strewn with thousnds of victims. Here intellect bffled nd morlity too shy. How my such wekling s I tred the wy? A. How long will you keep yourself pent up nd frozen? Aspirtion fter the wy no worse thn love for vni ties ; ny it better to be ruined on the wy thn to be ttched to home nd trde. It th ttchment tht length ens the wy; the fte of the hnkering mendicnt indeed sd. He who not completely ded to the world worth deth, nd cnnot know the secret. Come on, if you re mn of ction, nd detch your hert from unmnly stories. Q. I m gret sinner. How my I tred the wy with my sins? A. O heedless! Do not despir of Divine Grce. Should scent be im possible, there would be no descent. If you hve committed sins, the door still open for you to return; the door will never be closed. If you come to the wy with pure motive, culties of yours will be solved. mny diffi Q. How my I protect myself from the Devil? He brs my wy t the time of dmsion. A. Influence of the Devil due to your impurity. There re myrids of devils in yourself. You generte them within you with the grtifiction of ech desire. Every thing in th pron-house of the world link in the devilh chin. Do not hold ny of these links, if you wh to get rid of ll complints. Q. I void ttchment nd give wy wht I get. I cquire purity so tht it my enble me to see him. A. Burn ll tht you hve, gther the shes, nd do not look t it. If you do so, you re freed from ll obstcles ; else you must suffer, for you re one of the obstcles. Unless you re ded to ech nd ll, you cnnot step into the snctury. 0. Is not high spirtion of gret

11 522 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER use? Though there little devotion in me, I m bcked by high spirtion. A. High spirtion the key to ll success. It the centre of ll spheres nd the soring power of the soul. Q. Wht the importnce of justice from the stndpoint of wdom? A. Justice the highest qulity. The just re free from frivolities. Justice better thn worship. Q. I think I hve ttined perfection, why should I dvnce more? A. You re self-conceited nd fr wy from wdom. If you perceive light, it hell-fire; if you feel bls, it purely imginry. So long s you retin the slightest relh of extence, you re n infidel. Q. How shll I be hppy? A. Go nd be hppy nd do not cre for populr criticm. God the source of ll life nd joy. Live in H joy nd sing the tune of H love, s do the spheres. Q. Wht boon should I sk Him for, when I see Him? A. He being higher thn ll the pos sible boons, no sensible cndidte will return stfied with nything short of Himself. So sk for no gift, sve Him self. Q. Der guide, the journey hs clouded our eyes. Will you tell us how long th drery wy? A. No one cn return from the wy or know the length of the pssge in terms of physicl mesurement. There re however seven Wdies in the wy, the seventh being the snctury itself; (1) seeking, (2) love, (3) knowledge, (4) glory, (5) pure unity, (6) terrible mzement, (7) unconsciousness. When you come to the wdy of seek ing you will ever meet with myrids of difficulties. Yers of ptient efforts re needed t th stge in order to chnge the inner ttitude. When the intellectul impressions hve been wiped out, the hert should be clensed of its impure qulities. The purified hert reflects the Divine Mjesty. The hert thus en lightened feels the png of seeking with thousnd-fold greter intensity, nd moves to Him hedlong s moth to lmp. Next comes the wdy of love to in flme the pilgrim. My there be none here who not fire! Since one who lcks in fire cn not ber love. A lover he who like fire, wrm, burning, looking up. He will never cre for re sults, ny, for h life. Love the flme, intellect, the smoke; s the one p proches, the other recedes. If you un fold the Invible Eye, you my see the source of love s well s ech tom suing therefrom nd dncing in love. Love looks indeed bewildering from the intellectul stndpoint. Love needs cndidte who dpssionte nd free. He who not dpssionte ded nd not fit for love. Next you fce the endless wdy of knowledge, which enbles ech cndidte to see ccording to h cpcity nd per ceive the one spirit behind vrious forms. Exerce constnt vigilnce ginst the inner thieves nd then you will un fold love nd knowledge both. Next comes the wdy of glory, where in the seven ses re but drop, the seven plnets but sprk. It not f fected by the destruction of the whole universe. Next you pproch the wdy of unity, oneness, onliness. It enbles you to see ll from the one source the few nd the mny from the ONE ; the mny being composed of units must be fter ll ONE. Here unit becomes the ALL which neither the whole nor the prt. Here the form becomes qulity which

12 neither the soul nor the body. There nothing sve itself in the universe. Next comes the wdy of mzement full of pin nd woe. All impressions of the stge of unity re wiped out from the hert. If pilgrim t th stge sked, "Do you ext or not? Are you conscious or unconscious or both?" He will nswer, "I do not know. I m lover; I do not know if I m believer or unbeliever." Onwrd stretches the wdy THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 523 of uncon sciousness tht dmits of no description. All the universe but reflection there of. The conference broke up mid gret gittion mong the Birds. ACT III The Pth The zvords of the Hudhud hd so gitted the Birds tht mny of them died where they were nd others turned bck. The trils fced by those who pushed on cn not be expressed in zvords; they my be known only s one treds the pth. Some of the Birds zvere drozvned in the se; others devoured tigers. Some were enshrouded in veils. Some lost their heds in their longing by for grin nd committed suicide. Some stood sttionry in their dmirtion of the wonders on the wy. Some brethed their lst in peceful' ecstcy. Only THIRTY out of the vst fethered tribe reched Simurg tired, feeble, nd de jected. They found in Him mjesty inexpressible, trnscending the senses nd the intellect, dred of zvorlds cpble of scorching hun by single ry of glory. They found millions of suns, moons, nd strs looking t Him in joy nd mze ment, nd merging in Him s n tom. The Prime Minter of Simurg, d dressing the Thirty Birds. Whence nd [En d] why hve you come? Wht re your nmes? Wht cn ye weklings do? Chorus of Birds. We re here to c knowledge Simurg s our King. They then relted the pinful inci dents they hd met on the wy. Prime Minter. H Mjesty bso lute, not concerned with your life nd deth. Myrids of universes re like hir on H body. You my do nothing sve crying; better go bck. The Birds then snk into despir nd felt s externlly ded. Chorus of Birds. O Gret King, no honor cn be greter thn the dgrce you inflict upon us. As they observed more closely, they found ll their deeds regtered in the snctury; th intensified their modesty nd humility, nd rendered them zvholly unconscious. Being thus purified, they were given Divine Life from H Mjesty, entered H service in new wy nd were overzvhelmed gin with peculir mzement. They lso found themselves to be the reflections of Si murg, ny, s similr to or identicl with Him. They zvere too mzed to under stnd ll th, mde mute ppliction for the solution of the problem the prob lem of egom, I-ness nd received mute reply. H Mjecty, Simurg. The tom cn not be similr to the sun. As you re thirty Birds here, you see thirty reflected in the divine mirror. If forty or fifty would come, they would see themselves simply unveiled. Whtever you hve sensed or known not Tht. Better merge into Me with joy, so tht you my gin find yourselves in Me. At lst they merged into Him; the re flections zvere lost in the sun. The secret of consciousness fter unconsciousness knozvn only to the Elect,

13 524 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER THE EYES Wht it comes to us out of eyes to hide or to revel the soul or tell of the possessor's lck or loss of spirit? Begin by looking into your mother's eyes. Do you see how she pours out her very spirit's blood through those eyes to you? Wht would she reserve of her inmost being if you, her child, hd need? Outpouring of her very self in her eyes for you. The dog looks t you, h mster, so wtfully, so lovingly, so trustfully, sy ing how gldly would he serve if some smll tsk were given, some tiny duty lying within h powers. If you look stedily into those eyes, wht do you see? A tiny semblnce of the humn soul, longing to shre your life, to be s you re. And we know he shll hve h spirtion. Your love will id him to cquire those ttributes, tht mond-link he now lcking. If you look long into the dog's eyes the continuity of h feeling. he wvers, turns nd loses The groupsoul cn spek for but moment through the little creture, still so wek in selfconsciousness nd in self-centering. If we seek to penetrte the depths of eyes of birds, we find but smll response, but little specultion or reflection of our mode of thought. The infinity we there must enter of the elementl essence, the mtter of the strl plne, n endless rech, yet of n lmost inchote phse of being. It like looking long into the gret blnk spces of the ir, which we know re not empty but re filled with life endowed with diffused self-con sciousness. Th gives to birds' eyes n eerie qulity of expression elsewhere. not to be seen Serpents' eyes, looked through, tell of the fltness of their lmost two-dimen sionl life, reduced from three by their degenercy from the dignity of qudru pedl life. A seprteness from our lw of evolving looks out from their pthetic eyes. How fllen from their high es tte! Yet their helplessness nd their wys of offense to other beings re not of mlevolence but of the lws of their lowly being. A downwrd offshoot from the stem of form-evolving, their rce will dpper nd their life will enter hp pier forms. The eyes tht re soul-windows of the insect people nd the youngest fmilies of nimls, of fhes, lizrds nd ll tht tribe, give glimpses through into spirit entity tht lmost formless, void of chrcter. Joy in the vegettive life, in the flowing of the tttvs nd in the c tion of the rjs nd tms guns to be felt. The dinty blnce of the higher sttv they seem not to experience or know. The scientt sprung from our mteril world must pply upon them h most delicte pprtus to mesure their vion s to rnge nd scope, nd then gin, s psychologt, determine through the eyes their mind ctivity nd their re sponses to the stimuli of their desire ture. n Such eyes hve these lesser beings, our youngest brothers, tht through them we my see the life in which but slight reflection of the Logos' third outpouring ; lmost entirely the consciousness belong ing to undifferentited life nd to tht life tht hs been trined to prefer extence in forms. To look into the eyes of higher devs would be to ctch glimpse of the Cre tor nd H mnifesttion in wy dif ferent from those of our fmilir world. They serve nd worship him s we cn not do ; in key their song set which we my not know until the expnded hrmonv of our nture comes to include

14 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 525 their=. So if we now look into 'lev's eyes we see n lien being, them the purity nd mjesty see through of the Lw in new nd foreign spects yet to be lerned by us. The trunt, the renegde or he who, for the nonce, rejects nd smites the Lw sees wrth or vengence in these eyes. He who would love the Lw sees fvor there, sees how ll the forces driven forth from the Cretor's will my id him when he yields we obedience to tht Lw. Music, hrmony divine, shines out from ngels' eyes. Form nd color joys re there in flmes of higher spheres thn ours! No other eyes we know re like the Chrt's eyes. For there we see the purity nd the power of Lw, the hr mony of hevens built on hevens, rnk ing bove nd ever bove ech other till the lotus throne nd dwelling plce of our cretive Logos stnd midst one of them too high for even our drems! And there, too, for us mortls the vion of immortlity, of conquered deth nd the betitude of the Love of God mde mni fest to men, clothed in the flesh we wer. In those eyes we rejoice to see included the der ones of our own experience nd cn see tht ll men shll one dy be der to us since they, too, like mothers, like brothers of our own blood, shll be thus known to us. Two mjesties, two infinities, opposite phses of God's mnifesting nd in brething of h forms re in the eyes of fwns nd in the eyes of just men mde perfect. W. V.-H. A GLIMPSE OF MRS. BESAXT Extrct from letter. Then, s lst resort, I wrote to Mrs. Besnt (whom I used to know nd worked with in London when she ws Seculrt, nd she nd Chrles Brdlugh, whom I lso knew well, conducted the Ntionl Reformer. I ws with them in ll tht fighting). In her reply she tells me "The Chrt will be preching gin on erth within the next twenty yers" ; lso in tht sme letter she writes "Our der old friend Chrles Brdlugh hppy nd busy on the other side; he ws surpred t first to find himself live, but ws nturlly very plesed." Now when Mrs. Besnt wrote tht, tht settled it for me, for I know her; I know of her bility, her studies, her very, pinfully lmost, cre with which she ex mines nd verifies, nd re-verifies ny thing before she commits herself to it. or to mking ny sttement s to thing. I know lso Brdlugh's method of mk ing everything bsolutely certin before stting it to be fct, nd how he incul cted it into ll of us. He ws one of the gret truly gret men of the world. Chrt-like in h love for humnity, nd yet mterilt nd thet. Therefore when Mrs. Besnt sys thing to me tht thing Gospel. And s to her rectitude nd th, when she ws sceptic I cn only sy tht, if I ws bnk president, I'd py nything to Mrs. Besnt's order nd prome, to the limits of tht bnk's funds. She honesty personified. Your President greter womn thn the Theosophicl Society relizes, gret s my be their regrd for her.... By 1920 the ntions will hve entered upon the Socilt regime, or be close to it, so tht the "New Religion" will be preched, under much more fvorble uspices rhn ws Chrtinity, for So cilm chnicl ity. nothing but the physicl, me frmework of nd for Chrtin Imen tht Socilm the best

15 526 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER setting for Chrtinity; the best socil, economic, politicl system tht could be deved to engender nd grow Chrtin ity. Chrtinity cn certinly never be reduced from theory to prctice under the present ntgontic cut-throt com petitive commercilm, no more thn oil nd wter cn mix. Tody's commercil m, with its bsic profit-mking out of the other fellow, nd Chrtinity re the ntipodes of ech other they re di metricl opposites. From succeeding letter in reply to one sking permsion to print the bove. Of course you my use whtever I hve sid s to Mrs. Besnt's integrity, nd I could mke it much stronger. If I ws to put in words if I could do so my belief in Mrs. Besnt, my bsolute knowledge of her honesty, the only effect I fncy would be for people to sy tht I hd n hllucintion s to her; tht I evidently believed in one God nd tht Mrs. Besnt ws H prophet. I cn honestly sy tht I believe in her more thn I do in myself. If the hevens were to fll I could not believe her to be flse. She my be mtken ; it impossible, impossible for her willfully to deceive. I knew nd worked with her in the seven ties, in London, when she ws coopert ing with Chrles Brdlugh. We were ll "infidels," sceptics, mterilts then. And the stress of those dys, the fight we mde would tke book in the telling nd then not tell it. Mrs. Besnt went through n ordel, greter thn which no other womn in the world, I believe, ever did. They did not burn her t the stke with physicl fire, but they did it ll unphysiclly. They dmned her reputtion nd chrcter by every foul lie, every mlignnt mrepresenttion, tht flse tongue nd pen dre concoct, but the wo mn who hd been stoned by the Alexn drin mob s Hypti nd burned t the stke s Giordno Bruno ws not likely to quil before the gutter-born of Whitechpel, or the titled blckgurds of Myfir nd St. Stephens. She rose through it ll like the morning-str fter tem pestuous night, nd she won her vindic tion from the lips of the Chief Justice of Englnd in the old htoric hll of West minster, nd when he hd spoken, the hyens of bigotry nd mlice, the jckls of the press nd the snrling cowrdly lesser vermin slunk into their holes in the brightening lustre of n honest dy, nd from then till now, when she honored nd consulted nd wooed by the Govern ment of the Gret Brith Empire, who recognize in her power in tht splendid Indi, Mrs. Besnt hs ren triumphnt yes nd militnt nd if she hs peer superior in the world of women, ye, or men for ll tht, I do not know who it. Love her? Did not the Grnd Army love Grnt nd Shermn nd Sheridn; did not the "Boys in Butternut" love Lee nd Stonewll Jckson ; did not "Mes enfnts" love "the Little Corporl," nd the Old Gurd "The Iron Duke"? Yet these ll directed from the rer ; Brdlugh nd Mrs. Besnt led ; they were lwys in front. They prcticlly, not theoreticlly, lid on the ltr of "the Cuse" their "life, liberty, nd scred honor." At one time big demonstrtion ws held in Hyde Prk, to demnd the right of Free Speech nd of meeting in the Prk when the Government hd denied us the right, climing it belonged to the Government nd we to the people. The troops were clled out; the big guns in Knightsbridge Brrcks just cross Rot ten Row were shotted nd the fuses redy, squd of Horse Gurds nd cor dons of police held the Mrble Arch nd Albert Gte t Hyde Prk corner, nd the Foot Gurds stood in rnks redy. They rested nd repulsed peceful entry

16 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 527 t the gtes, but the ngry crowd, the files of 200,000 procession, poured down Prk Lne like nest of hornets nd down cme the long line of iron fence, nd humn Nigr poured into the Prk nd under the old "Reformer's Tree" the meeting ws held. The Gov ernment ws wed, submitted, nd yield ed Free Speech nd the rights of the peo ple to the public prks ; one more bttle of the Chrter of Englh liberty ws won, nd Brdlugh led the vn. Spek ing with them before the demonstrtion, I sid : "But, Mr. Brdlugh, suppose the guns in Knightsbridge blze, sup pose they give us the edge insted of the flt of the sbre, wht will you do?" He tpped my shoulder nd sid : "When I led procession over West minster Bridge, no Horse Gurds Blue or Royl Troops will stop me ; rest s sured of tht." Tht ws the spirit of Brdlugh nd Mrs. Besnt; they did not sy "Go"; they clled "Come" nd we cme. Do you wonder we loved nd love them? Would you not: They were redy to ly down their lives for us, nd some of us cught the spirit of the exmple, or some of it. And hun dreds of thousnds of the miners of Northumberlnd, the opertors of Ln cshire, the yeomen from dle nd fell of Yorkshire, the shoemkers of North mpton, the cutlers of grimy Sheffield, the ironworkers from the Clyde nd Tyneside ; the sturdy clnsmen from "Be yond Forth," the Cymry from the rocky hills of Wles, the dlesmen from the sweeps nd lnes of Devon, the cockneys from London Town, from John O'Grot's to Lnd's End, nd from the North Se to the Atlntic billows, the poor of the Rose, Thtle nd Leek loved nd idolized "The Blessed B's" Brd lugh nd Besnt nd fell down nd worshipped them. And to them the toil ers of Englnd owe debt they cn only repy with undying reverence nd un covered heds when their nmes re men tioned. "Our Chrley," good old "Thor ough," hs pssed the bourne, but Mrs. Besnt still remins. As together they won the brwn of Englnd, she lone winning the brins ; cottge door nd p tricin hll like feel honored by Mrs. Besnt's grcious presence. R. J. K. FOR YOU Oh, hert of mine, we shouldn't Worry so! Wht we've msed of clm we couldn't Hve, you know! Wht we've met of stormy pin. And of sorrow's driving rin, We cn better meet gin If it blow. For we know, not every morrow Cn be sd ; So. forgetting ll the sorrow We hve hd, Let us fold wy our fers, And put by our foolh ters, And through ll the coming yers Just be gld. Jmes Whitcomb Riley.

17 52S THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER AS ABOVE, SO BELOW "Tht which below like tht which bove." Hermes Trmcgtus. "Mn, s the Microcosm, must imitte nd identify himself with the Mcrocosm, nd spir itulize h experience before he cn relte it to tht ultimte principle of himself which constitutes the Ego." The correltions herewith presented, between vrious stronomicl, strologi cl nd geogrphicl fcts hve been culled principlly from Albert Ross Pr son's New Light from the Gret Pyr mid. H pges ttest to n untiring re serch into comprtive religion, philol ogy, mythology, nd the sciences, while quottions from The Secret Doctrine nd from writings of Hrtmnn nd other theosophts prove tht the uthor exm ined whtever records of occultts were vilble. Tht he ws not Theosopht mde evident, when, fter noting the gret d vnce of thought wrought through ex plortion nd rcheologicl reserch, he writes : "Yet thus fr (1893) the only new movement in mtters of religion the so-clled Theosophicl (relly nti-theosophicl or theticl) Society. Its pltform certinly sound enough s fr s it goes. It nmely, tht "There No Religion Higher Thn, Truth." But with tht trum it creed, rites, or ceremonies, stops. Without to connect it with the bsic fcts of ncient religion, the veritble mteriliztion of mod it ern gnosticm, which confronts every creed tht rests its cse upon the sup posed humn impossibility of rking suf ficiently its ffirmtions chrge tht deep into the pst to prove tht it re flse, with the defint impossible for the dher ents of ny htoricl creed to prove tht its doctrines re true." Th prgrph should not be left to stnd lone, since, on the next pge, he mkes th kindlier sttement: "Chrtins of ll denomintions will find food for reflection in the fct tht hs been left for n exotic Theosophy it imported from the dtnt Orient to re cll from stte of bsolute irreligious mterilm into n enthusistic, self-de nying, nd philnthropic idelm, nds of intelligent nd educted thous persons in our midst whom the church of tody not only hs filed to rech, but hs ct ully repelled. probble tht our clergy little relize the extent to which It the ideltic Theosophicl movement hs lredy invded the rnks of forml church-goers in the most orthodox con gregtions. On the other hnd, Theoso phy hs enbled to ttend Chrtin ser vices with spiritul edifiction (though with certin mentl reservtions) mny who hd lost ll interest in Chrtinity.'" H personl ttitude towrds Chr tinity ppers so meritorious nd so theosophicl s to wrrnt, we believe, the giving of still nother quottion "Obviously, religion hs both form nd substnce, s n egg hs shell nd con tents. But : bird, deprived of clcreous nutriment, cnnot provide shells for her eggs. It does not follow from th, how ever, tht the crbonte of lime origintes either bird or eggs ;still less does the fct tht the bird turns the lime to ccount explin the origin of the lime itself. In respect like to theology, scriptures, rites, ceremonies, nd forms, Chrtinity hs built its shell from the sme mteril used for similr purposes by numerous extinct or still surviving religions. But th fct neither identifies Chrtinity with those rites nd religions nor ccounts for the origin of the mteril which ll l:ke hve

18 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 529 used, ech fter its own fshion. ed of its shell, Divest Chrtinity certinly re tins ll tht exted in the dys of Chrt nd h dciples, before the ccretions of subsequent centuries hd formed nd hrdened round nmely, its soul nd spirit, which lone re immortl. The it, present desperte determintion to cling to the shell sheer mterilm nd idoltry indeed, the rel heresy which neither dcerns the being of n, indestructible spirit nor trusts its sole sv ing power. Schopenhuer declres 'There nothing in which one hs to dtinguh the kernel so crefully s in Chrtinity. Just becuse prize the kernel highly, sometimes tret the shell with little ceremony; however, " thicker thn generlly supposed.' It I it I, not our purpose to review the book mentioned or even to stte wht the uthor's "new light" there put forth, but simply to mke some jottings which : my serve to ugment our interest in the vlue of some of the nmes used in Rents the Veil Time, or set us wondering in of on the mooted question of "ccidentl incidences," or to dreming over th wondrous celestil cypher wherein cn be red Time's stories long before they re trced on erth's scroll with the pen of humn cts, or, mybe, to wtching more closely for trcings nd reflections of the Strs bove in the nomenclture, the fiths, the mythology nd herldry of the lnds beneth. Mr. Prsons took mp of the world drwn on the Merctor projection, e., n oblong squre, nd upon imposed inverted, it i. co super chrt of the constelltions, so tht compron of the ter restril with the celestil could be mde, meridin by meridin, round the equ tor of the globe nd the ecliptic of the skies. The point of djustment of the two mps ws determined upon the hy pothes tht in the Gret Pyrmid we possess the connecting link between the stronomy nd the geogrphy of the n cients. Such connecting link recovered might possibly prove the veritble key stone between stronomy nd universl geogrphy, geogrphy like prehtoric, htoric, nd in futuro. One cnnot but recll here tht brillint surme of Schelling's :"How in mythology, the ruins of superior intelligence nd even if, perfect system were found which would rech fr beyond the horizon which the most ncient written records present to us?" The site of the Gret Pyrmid being bout 30 degrees est longitude, the mp of the constelltions ws therefore so d justed s to bring the str Alcyone direct in line with the foresid thirtieth ly meridin. Th unique double mp, reduced copy of which we present to our reders (in succeeding sue) the interesting bs of th rticle. Alcyone the brightest of the Pleides, tht well-known str-cluster commonly clled Seven Sters. Ordinry sight d tinguhes six strs only :Alcyone of the 3rd mgnitude ;Electr nd Atls of the 4th; Merope, Mi, nd Tyget of the 5th. Good sight cn dcern seventh, very gooi sight dtinguhes Asterope of the 7th mgnitude; excellent sight sees tht str s double, nd cn lso mke out Coeleno. A telescope shows th cluster so modest to the nked eye s group of bout six hundred suns which re immensely d tnt from ech other, nd there hs been tken telescopic photogrph t the Pr Observtory which increses tht num ber to over two thousnd. Alcyone in Hebrew mens centre, foundtion, bse, the Hebrew nme for the entire group being Chim, ;Pleione, of the 6th mgnitude the cumu lus, in the sense of being rolled round

19 530 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER Alcyone. THE PLEIADES AS SEE From Flmmrion's Astronomers ssert tht there generl revolution of the entire mss of strs round the centre of grvity of the whole, nd uthorities go so fr s to compute tht centre s situted not fr from th str Alcyone. Our sun then moving through spce in n orbit whose centre my be tken to be in the Pleides. These indictions mke it fit symbol of the throne of government the universe nd mkes more importnt nd more interesting the fct, greed to by leding Egyptologts, tht the north nd the south glleries of the Gret Pyr mid were plnned nd constructed with direct reference to the mutul positions of the str Alcyone of the Pleides to the south nd the Pole Str to the north. "Obviously tht reltion must hve been of the highest importnce in the cosmologicl system of the builders the veri tble key, perhps, to ll the wdom of ntiquity" ; nd one tht would not occur of N BY THE NAKED EYE Populr Astronomy gin for whole Siderel Yer. Now if we turn to Estern Esotericm, we find tht the Kblh gives the Plei des s the siderel septente born from the first mnifested side of the upper tri ngle, or the Conceled; nd H. P. B. writes in the Secret Doctrine, Vol. II, p. 581 : "The Pleides (Alcyone especilly) re thus considered even in Astronomy, s the centrl point round which our uni verse of fixed strs revolves, the focus from which, nd into which, the Divine Breth, Motion, works incessntly during the Mnvntr. Hence in the siderel symbols of the Occult Philosophy it th circle with the strry cross on its fce which plys the most importnt prt." The Pleides hve undoubtedly left on the records of pst ntions more mrks thn ny other celestil object except the sun nd the moon. Festivls nd se sons, clendrs nd yers hve been regu

20 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 531 lted by their ring nd culmintion. new yer's festivl, fixed either by their ppernce t sunset, or by their mid night culmintion, found to be one of the most universl of ll customs. Among the Austrlins nd South Se Islnders, the Hindoos, Chinese nd Jp nese, ncient Egyptins, Persins, Mexi cns nd Hwiins, it found occur ring, nd everywhere th festivl ws connected with the memory of the ded. It ws fest of ncestors. It corre sponds with the Chrtin festivls of All Souls nd All Sints t the beginning of November, preceded in some countries by holy evening or Hllowe'en. In In di, November clled the month of the Pleides, nd on the 17th of tht month celebrted the Hindu Durg or festi vl of the ded." In the fce of such testimony hs th ny significnce tht the Theosophicl Society hs tht dte for its birthdy, its New Yer Dy, nd tht we mke it wht, by universl custom, it hs stood for throughout the ges, festivl for the ded, Anniversry Dy, fest to our T. S. ncestors? The portryl of the Pleides in the symbolm of vrious people found so interesting tht we believe we should, even before A turning to the study of our mp, introduce something of it t th point. The Pleides cluster being ccept ed s the pprent loction of the centrl sun of the universe, its strs supplnted the seven plnets s the celestil source of lw nd order, nd hence, lthough s we hve sid the cluster in relity compres hundreds of strs, the mystic number 7 hs lwys symboliclly been ssocited with it, while their mening hs been hidden, nd like, portryed, in the seven lmps of Moses' cndlestick, nd "the seven eyes of the Lord of Sboth, which run to nd fro through the whole erth." On the ncient Egyptin Zodic, the Pleides were represented by hen nd chickens. Will th not emphsize the significnce of the wording of Luke XIII, 34? "O, Jeruslem, Jeruslem, which killeth the prophets nd stoneth them tht re sent unto her!how often would hve gthered thy I children together even s hen gthereth her own brood under her wings, nd ye would not." In modern times, the Germns cll them Gluckhenne, Chickens of Fortune; the Itlins, Gllinelle, the Wter hens the French, Poussiniere or little chicks; in Chmbers' le the brood hen. Astronomy, they re clled The fct tht the Pleides re situted in the neck of the constelltion Turus, (the Bull) ws no doubt bck of the form of scrifice of the ncient Sbins, in tht they brought to the Pyrmids for their burnt offering, blck clf (Turus) nd cock (Pleides-poultry). Assyrin representtions often picture dove in llusion to the Pleides th the prticulr symbolic form which Chr tinity constntly using. An old ortho dox hymn so brimful of occult "point : ; ers" tht we re constrined to include verse of tking the liberty to put in it, itlics the words directly referring to "the Pleides doves of pure stellr fire." "Come, Holy Spirit, hevenly dove, With ll thy quickening powers, Kindle fime of scred love, In these cold herts of ours. Hst thou imprted to my soul A living sprk of holy fire. Oh, kindle now the scred fime, Mke me to burn with pure desire. Descend from heven, celestil Dove, With fimes of pure serphic love. Spirit of the living God, Brooding with dovelike wings, In thy sevenfold gifts descend, O Give us joys tht never end." The fourteen dys t Chrtms time

21 532 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER being clled the hlcyon dys of the yer hs bck of it the Phoenicin trdi tion tht when the Pleid Alcyone nd her husbnd perhed by deluge they were turned into hlcyons, only showed themselves t the nd therefter setting of the Pleides. They mde their nests during the seven dys preceding the win ter solstice, nd lid their eggs during the seven dys tht followed. Their nest re sembled kind of bll little flttened out t the top, nd the whole not unlike lrge sponge. We re ssured tht ''however much of th pure fble, it very good stronomy nd describes the shpe of the Pleides cluster very well." Pure fble indeed! Agin, the Hebrews hd the turtle dove s their symbol, whose use s offer ings so frequently prescribed in the Old Testment, nd we find quint Egyptin representtion of the Turus Bull nd the Pleides Dove, Alcyone spoken of s the Pleides hump upon the ox-body with the solr dc overhed portrying the Sun of Righteousness with heling in H wings. We would cll to your notice nother feture in th quint but deeply symbolic illustrtion. Did its ncient rtt men nything in putting into h picture tht potted plnt with its whorls of brnches? Wht? H. P. B. clls our ttention plinly to the fct tht the Greek myth which gives to Atls seven dughters but the record of the seven sub-rces r ing in succession from Atlnt, nd tht "stronomiclly the Atlntides hve be come the seven Pleides with Alcyone t present the brightest," s similrly she ws the sixth dughter llegory. of Atls in the Red th Greek myth nd wht we hve from the Secret theos'ophicl techings Doctrine nd our into the interpret tion of our picture. Out of the erth there growing rce-line which, up to th time, hs formed five nodes with rditing sub-brnches. The tip-shoot now extending, pushing on out of the fifth the min x of growth nd rech ing forwrd to tht sixth node-centre yet to be formed. Erth's ox-body hs ever been built up nd nourhed on th plnt ; yet hs its life point never been destroyed, but ever fertilized, tended nd trined onwrd by wtching Sviors, dove-mes sengers of the One. Turning to the fr Est we hve in the Hindu Trik demon destroyed by one From Prson's New Light jiom the Gret Pyrmi >.

22 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 533 of the Pleides who ws lso generl of the celestil rmies. He depicted s mounted upon pecock insted of upon the hen nd chickens of the Egyptin plnphere, or the dove of the Assyrins nd Hebrews. To the Theosophicl Society, th In din legend ought to ppel most strong ly, nd be herd s Voice out of the fr Pst, but O, so prophetic of th moment ous present! We give trnsltion : " A certin Dity, nmed Trik, ws ex tremely mbitious. To force Brhm to prom e him ny boon he should require, he went through numerous pennces, persting in ech for hundred yers. The effect of these us terities lrmed ll the gods. Brhm ssured them tht though he ws bound to grnt the boon of one who becme powerful by uster ities, he would render it inoffensive to the hevenly host. Trik sked for unrivlled strength, nd tht no hnd should sly him except son of Mhdev. H request being grnted, Trik plundered ll the minor gods the sun dreding him, gve no het the moon, in terror, remined lwys t the full in short, Trik usurped the entire control of the universe. The personifiction of Re son, Wdom, now prophesied tht sviour of the world would be born of Mhdev nd Prvti. But to the horror of the dcom fited world, Prvti ws brren. Whereupon Agni (fire, Agnus Dei) took the form of dove (Pleides) nd received from Mhdev the germ of Krtikey, the generl of the celestil rmies. Th germ the dove let fll into the Gnges, on whose bnks then rose boy, beutiful s the moon nd bright s the sun, who fought Trik in terrible conflict in which he cme off conqueror nd deliv ered the world." In Jpn, the enclosure to the scred portls of the Shinto temples mrked by stone, the originl purpose of which "ws to serve s perch for the scred fowls kept to give wrning of dybrek" nd the Jpnese yet explin to trvelers tht their scred doors re roosts for the Sun to light upon like bird. In Chin we find the golden cock. The tree of life pictured s Red Pech tree which coils up its leves to the height of 3000 miles (growth of Siderel Yer). Upon th tree golden cock sitting when the sunlight dwns. It h function to wken the glorious sun, which dpels the evil spirits of night, nd when he begins to crow ll the cocks in the world re stirred up nd crow lso. "I hve herd, The cock, tht the trumpet to the morn, Doth with h lofty nd shrill-sounding throt Awke the god of dy; nd t h wrning, Whether in se, or fire, in erth, or ir, The extrvgnt nd erring spirit hies To h confine. Some sy tht ever 'ginst tht seson comes Wherein our Svior's birth celebrted, The bird of dwning singeth ll night long." Wht induced Protestnts to substitute for the cross upon church spires the eqully ncient nd scred emblem of the wether-cock? Ws it from deep-set ed instinct? Ws it from n inner prompting of wht to come? Wht induced our leders to substitute nd use the nme of th sme emblem, Alcyone, for the erth-nme of one out of ll our host of brothers "on the bnks of the Gnges?" "The power of nmes gret, nd hs been known since the first men were instructed by Divine Ms ters." (Secret Volume, Vol. II, p. 811.) To conclude th prt ll of th sym bolm but reitertes the fct tht our sun nd plnets, our universe, ruled by nd delivered unto life eternl by stellr fire from the Pleides cluster, nd which, s we hve seen re vriously symbolized s Hen nd Chickens, Celestil Pecock, Golden-cock, Hevenly Dove, etc. (To be Isbel B. Holbrook. continued).

23 534 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER ]j\ elementry Ofyeosopl)? JJ NEW MEMBERS [New members re invited to send questions or write to Ms Alm Kunz, 680 Stephenson Street, Freeport, Illino. A lt of books recom mended to beginners will be found under the book notices on bck pge.] When new member joins the Society, unless he hs done much reding of Theosophic books, he will be in need of s stnce long one of severl lines. The Americn Section covers so much spce, tht mny of our members re quite o lted, sometimes being mny miles wy from ny other Theosophic student. Of the mny books dverted, he unble to choose wht most suitble without dvice. He my hve questions which trouble him, or he my wh to tke up prticulr line of study nd wnt dvice s to where h subject to be found. These nd mny other needs re felt by the incoming member. Relizing th need, Dr. Vn Hook, when elected Gen erl Secretry, ppointed n older stu dent to tke chrge of ll new members. Ech one received personl letter con tining offers of sstnce. During the four yers tht th ctivity ws crried on, gret mny letters were sent out nd the hundreds of replies received, showed the rel need for such help. As result of th correspondence, certin fcts hve become evident which my be interesting to the members of the Sec tion. One tht the motive for join, ing the Society my be, brodly speking, grouped under three heds. These re the wh to serve, the wh to cquire knowledge, nd the desire for personl gins such s the cquition of psychic powers. We my dpose of the lst t once, since they re only very smll number of the whole, who mtke us for body of people who re running fter phenomen nd who, when they dcover their error, frequently drop out. The wer ones, who remin, djust them selves to the conditions in the Society nd usully become ernest nd ctive mem bers. But by fr the greter mjority re t trcted to the Society by the first nd most importnt Object. The reliztion tht ll men re brothers one of over whelming joy nd gldness nd they hsten to ffilite themselves with the body which recognizes th fct, in or der tht they my serve their newly found brethren. Alcyone sys: "Of ll the Qulifictions, Love the most im portnt." And surely the wh to serve hs its roots in Love Perhps th recognition of Brotherhood wkens in most of us, the first touch of Buddhic consciousness, for on tht plne the true Brotherhood lredy exts. often It sid tht Theosophts re contented cuse, knowing of the lw of Krm, they relize tht ll well. my be, nd very likely the reson for our content It ment, but seems to me tht the secret of the positive hppiness which sings in it the hert of the member be lies in the fct tht he "loves much." We ll know the hppiness which comes from loving t lest one more thn life itself. When we relize the first Object of the So ciety, we seem to multiply tht hppiness thousndfold. Krm my mke us contented, but love mkes us gld The remining members who hve!

24 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 535 been ttrcted by the second nd third Objects, must not be thought of s in ny wy flling behind the others. There re three Pths of Union to God. They re the Pths of Love, of Wdom nd of Activity, nd even in these erly dys, the members show forth the chrcter tics of one or the other. equl in importnce The Pths re nd differ only t the beginning, for t the end, they merge in one. On the vlue of Wdom, Al cyone hs sid: "God Wdom s well s Love." And so, while the mem ber, who joins in order tht he my serve, helped to find work, the one who joins in order to cquire "right dcrim intion" helped with h studies. Now, the dvice nd instruction given to new members by no mens confined to the forementioned "older student". The lodges nd individuls the Section over give help when nd where they cn. And th brings us to the second fct which the correspondence brought to light the methods of the vrious lodges for the helping of their new mem bers. In most cses the help given mple. Wht with beginners' clsses, correspondence with members who cn not ttend meetings, the lending of books, etc., the pthwy of the young student mde esy. And invribly, the re sponse to the originl letter offering s stnce, when it cme from member of such well-ordered lodge, ws to the effect tht ll ws well with him. And it ws plesure to note tht these con ditions hold good in lmost every lodge in the Section. In the few lodges where the members re pssing through men tl "Prly," the new member does not fre so well. Occsionlly, lodge flls into groove, long which it runs for yers without chnge. Into such lodge, perchnce the Mster sends new mem ber, chrged with enthusism nd life. H fith gret enough to move mountin of inerti. A single word or helping hnd ll tht he needs, but even tht little sometimes withheld! And the Mster's servnt, bshed nd humilited, withdrws into the bck ground, mde conscious tht he hs pre sumed to "know more" thn older stu dents. And the lodge hs lost gret nd wonderful opportunity, for some times young member n old soul. Th not intended s criticm of lodges or lodge officers, but ple ple for the new member, who should be encourged, helped nd cherhed, for, fter ll, it for him tht the Society exts. The Society ws orgnized to spred the techings of Theosophy; to win others to the Theosophic wy of thinking. But when soul drwn into the Society, our work by no mens done. Let us not chill by indifference one who, full of the new hope, full of ides for the helping of h brothers, comes to us with h plns. On the other hnd, let the new member who comes into lodge which well orgnized nd doing effective work, fll quickly into line with the others, finding h plce with s little friction s possible. Let him give whole-herted devotion to the officers nd members who, by their work nd self-scrifice hve mde the lodge the vluble instrument for service which it. Henceforth, in th deprtment, the problems which hve been found to come up most frequently in the mind of the be ginner, will be delt with, nd questions of generl interest which they my send in will be nswered. It hoped tht th method of cring for the new mem ber will prove effective nd new nd "old" members re sked to cooperte in order tht it my be success. Alm Kunz.

25 536 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER HAVE WE EVER LIVED ON EARTH BEFORE? [Editor's Note. Th the beginning of comprehensive trete which will run through number of mgzine sues. Mr. Titus well known to the older members of the So ciety, hving been one of its erly field lec turers nd writers. He endevors, under th present title, to put forth the belief in rebirth clerly nd simply, nd to support the pro posl by mny nlogies nd rguments bsed thereon. The work logiclly divided into three sections, () the presenttion; (b) ob jections ; nd (c) fvorble rguments. We believe it will prove vluble becuse of its clrity nd rrngement to new members by sub hedings. The completed rticle will be use ful propgnd literture, nd it could well be used s lecture for public udience.] Hve we ever exted on the erth be fore th present incrntion? Were th question sked in the presence of West ern udience, the nswer from the very lrge mjority would be in the negtive. We hve been born nd bred in mentl tmosphere to which th ide foreign. It therefore somewht strtling to be informed tht fully two-thirds of the popultion of the world subscribe unre servedly to the doctrine of the pre-extence of the humn soul ; yet such ppers to be the cse. Not ll dhere to the sme detils. There populr form of the fith which llows full ply to the imgintion, nd there re fnciful p plictions of the doctrine. But whether it be known s metempsychos, trns migrtion or reincrntion (the modern nme) there underneth ll the sme fundmentl proposition, nmely; tht the individulity which finds temporry home in the brin nd body of humn being, ppers in tht condition not for the first time. Around tht centrl tech ing ll else gthers, nd to it ll sub sidiry. But the rces to whom th teching most fmilir re those whose opinions we hve not hitherto highly regrded. On the contrry, we hve looked down upon them with much of contempt s being in ferior, undeveloped, often rude nd sv ge. The fct tht the doctrine c ceptble to them, so fr from ing it to us, rouses our prejudice. The mtter ssumes n entirely commend differ ent spect however when we find how strong hold it hs obtined on mny of the bright minds of our Western world. Mr. E. D. Wlker, in book entitled Reincrntion, collected some of the sy ings of hundreds of notble thinkers of the West who hve dvocted or in dorsed the doctrine of recurring erthlives. Poets re sid to be Nture's seers. Coming close to Nture's hert they gin by the swift process of intuition glimpse of her lws which denied to commoner cly. Tking the spontneous utternces of Americn nd Europen poets, Mr. Wlker finds "tht the gretest mjority of the occidentl poets len towrd th thought, nd mny of them unhesitting ly vow it." Quottions re mde from forty-two such uthors, mong whom re Whittier, Byrd Tylor, T. B. Aldrich, N. P. Will, J. T. Trowbridge, Longfel low, Jmes Russell Lowell, Wlt Whit mn, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Philip Jmes Biley, Browning, Boyeson, Vic tor Hugo, Bernger, Goethe nd Schiller. Among eminent theologicl writers nd divines th teching finds redy re sponse. In the Beecher fmily we find three t lest of the brothers boldly d vocting it (Henry Wrd, Chrles, nd Edwrd) ; while Phillips Brooks, Jmes Freemn Clrke, Dr. Julius Muller, Dr. Dorner, the Rev. Willim R. Alger, Prof. Frnc Bowen of Hrvrd, nd Prof. Wm. Knight of St. Andrews, hve used either voice or pen in showing its re

26 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 537 sonbleness. 2. Is the Anglo-Sxon Romn? Mny hve noticed the remrkble re semblnce between the ncient Greeks nd the French rce, between the Ro mns nd the Englh. In both Greeks nd French there mnifest similr mercuril temperment, which enbled, nd enbles, them fter defet, though temporrily much depressed, to recuper te rpidly. In the one s in the other, to be found tht love of rt, of beuty nd of science which mde Greece to be the model in these respects for mny cen turies nd Frnce the pioneer in lter yers. The Anglo-Sxon rce hve much in common with the Romn. There similr colonizing power; similr re spect for the fiths of conquered ntions which mke the rule of Britin over her dependencies less burdensome thn tht of other conquering ntions. Un der the Romn Empire Chrtin nd Jew, Buddht nd Brhmin, brbrin nd civilized like found their religious prejudices respected. Other ntions re quired their subjects to embrce the re ligion of their conquerors. Rome, like Britin, left to ech their religious free dom. Noticing these, nd other points of similrity, some hve thought tht the Greeks live gin on erth s citizens of the sunny lnd of Frnce, "the chosen home of chivlry, the grden of ro mnce," nd tht the Anglo-Sxons of tody re the Romns come to life gin ; tht in the new conditions, nd with fresh problems to fce, these people gin con tribute to the destinies of ntions nd the progress of mnkind. For the proposition enuncited by those who present the doctrine of prior erth lives ; Tht you nd I ext, tht every individul who finds himself fcing the joys nd sorrows of life in physicl body, exts here not for the first time. They trce our individul htories bck through mny ntions, in ech of which we were. And these proclimers of our ncient pst will not permit the mn of tody to find the strting point of h in dividul erthly creer in even ncient Greece or Rome. In Persi, they inti mte, perchnce we were in her golden dys when purity irrdited life nd lid the foundtions for our highest concep tions of virtue. In Chlde we my hve been dull scholrs in the schools of those gint intellects of science whose knowl edge pved the wy nd lid the found tions for tht wve of invention nd sci entific dcovery which sweeping over the Western mind in th fst moving ge. Bck thus they crry us to the erly dys of Indi, on whose fertile soil the Hindus, tht elder ster of the gret Aryn fmily of rces, thousnds of yers since, lived nd loved, fought nd fell, becme victors or vnquhed s the for tunes of wr overtook them, nd rered fht mighty fbric of philosophy which the wonder nd delight of our we men of tody. In her htory too they declre we hve occupied some plce, no ble or ignoble, s we plyed our prts well or ill. Not only it sserted tht we hve thus lived in every one of the gret subrces of the Aryn stock, but, pssing beyond our htoric period, we re told of gret continent clled Atlnt. Th continent, it sid, in its gretness ly out in wht nd stretched now the Atlntic Ocen, from ner the Brith Isles down to nd round the Southern point of Afric. Mny mighty convulsions of nture contributed to her destruction f ter n extence which lsted over hun dreds of thousnds of yers. On tht lnd mighty ntions rose nd fell. At

27 538 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER the height of its civiliztion develop ment in invention ws ttined which produced mny dcoveries which we re redcovering tody. From her shores cme to the new continents of Europe nd Afric nd to Asi, wves of immi grtion which lid the foundtion for the rces which lter cme into extence there. Upon her shores the forces of good nd evil contended s they yet con tend on our Western continent. Ntion l creers were worked out. Ntions hd their infncy, mnhood nd decy. Civiliztions cme nd went. Mn weved the web of destiny in those froff yers much s he doing tody. Yet upon lower level. For the world moves upwrd. Humnity, like mighty entity whose life mesured by mil lions of yers, slowly climbs the hill of progress, nd we, who pper nd re pper upon her bosom, ever re lifted higher nd higher s the unending strem of life moves on, throwing us like bubbles ever nd non to its surfce, to dpper for time nd to lter re pper. Mny were the sub-rces of the Atlnten fmily, nd it sid tht if we could but trce our individul htory bck, ech of us in those dtnt ges fced the sunlight, struggled with our surroundings, chieved our victories nd submitted to our defets in ech of these ntions whose records mde up the h tory of tht powerful rce. Thus we re crried bck life fter life, ntion fter ntion, rce fter rce, ge fter ge, to the very dwn of hu mn extence on th erth. In the very beginning of humnity's time it sid we were there lying the foundtion upon which we hve ever since contin ued to build. And since tht time, in every clime we hve wked to life in in fnt form, to gin new experiences, wken new powers or strengthen old ones, nd view erth points. Th the lluring picture from new vntge presented to us by those who ssert tht we hve lived on erth before. It beutiful ide of the mny dys in life's journey, ech opening on new scenes, though round us stnd mny of our old friends, who like ourselves wer new grments of flesh, through whose gue we find it impossible to pierce with our limited sight of soul, nd hence know not tht we know them, sve s there comes over us the conviction, borne on us from our inner nture, tht we indeed clsp hnds with old compnions or perchnce fce ncient foes. But beutiful though it, it true? Or does our nture which drws us to the beuty of life deceive us? If one were to formulte h beliefs by h de sires, nd determine tht nture's lws were thus nd so becuse thus nd so he desired them to be, th would surely be the pnormic view of life's journey which he would select s giving him ll the plesures which erth could fford him, stfying like to the love of chnge in which erth's gretest ples ures re cst nd the love of knowledge which cn only be stfied by our com pssing ll tht our plnet hs to be known. F. E. Titus. (To be continued) The smllest bird cnnot light upon the gretest tree without sending shock to its most dtnt fibre; every mind t times no less sensitive to the most trifling words. Lew Wllce.

28 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 539 hfi T5l)e ~Jul& ffi Lo/mj Lodge, Vncouver. April 15. The Lotus Lodge of Vncouver, B. C, ws orgnized on Jnury 8th, 1910, with 13 chrter members. At the present time only 3 of the orig inl chrter members remin s members of the lodge. The membership now con sts of 19 members, some of whom re non-resident in Vncouver, but formerly were resident here. The ctivities of the lodge run long lines of study nd medittion ; propgn d in quiet wys; the helping of other orgniztions, nd the founding where possible of other centres nd lodges. The lodge possesses librry of bout 89 volumes ll of which re in constnt demnd, nd which re lent to nyone whing to borrow. We hve three meetings per week, Tuesdy public study clss t which we re tking elementry Theosophy; Fridy the lodge meeting for members only, t which our study The Ancient Wdom, the members' meeting being preceded by medittion clss ; Sundy's meeting of semi-devotionl chrc ter. After two yers of ctivity long vry ing lines, which met with vrying suc cess, we seem to hve found the lines long which we cn work to best dvn tge, nd which seem to suit our mem bers. Our meetings re held in n Art Studio, the tmosphere of which hrmo nizes gretly with our work; our study clsses re well ttended nd seem to crry enthusism to those who come to them.. :.-". ' At our nnul meeting held on the lst Fridy in Jnury, Mr. G. A. Love ws elected President; Mrs. Arthur Thoms s Vice-President; Mr. T. W. Thomsson s Secretry-Tresurer; Mr. G. A. Wilkinson s Librrin. Though smll in numbers we re s Lodge strong nd hrmonious; we re grdully gining in membership, nd look for extension of our work long the lines we hve chosen. T. W. Thomss.on.,. Sn Antonio Lodge ; April 16. The regulr lodge meeting t 3:30 on Sundy. At present, Mrs. Wetherhed of London, one of our members, reding Populr Lectures by Mrs. Besnt. Lst Sundy, fter the reding, the Rev. C. M. Broomell, pstor of the New Church, gve us few minutes' tlk which ws severl times interrupted by ppluse. He hs promed to give us lecture in the ner future. Our lodge hs goodly number of members who re non-resident, one liv ing in Victori, B. C, one in Prk River, North Dkot, nd others not quite so fr field. Seiior del Mrmol of Spin, whom our president, Dr. Brustd, met in New York in the summer of 1910, nd who promptly becme member of th lodge, now with us. Most fortuntely th brother very tlented rtt. He now tiwork enlrging in oil the beu tiful colored picture of our der Colonel OlcOtt, which cme: in. the Theosopht, New Yer* He wnts to do H. R B-i M*&. Bestit, Mf.rLedbeter, nd

29 540 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER our symbol which cme in the sme Theosopht; nd lso Alcyone. I doubt if nother T. S. lodge room in Americ will be so well equipped in th respect. On Tuesdy evening we hve in the lodge room, which Dr. Brustd's wit ing-room, clss in A Study in Con sciousness, smll clss who mke up for lck of numbers by enthusism nd hrd study. On Fridy evening Mrs. Wetherhed hs clss in The Riddle of Life t her residence. On Mondy evening Mrs. Biley, our librrin, hs clss t her home for preprtory study for the Tuesdy evening clss. Mrs. Gillnd nd some of the other members re doing good work by clling on members who for vrious resons cn not ttend regu lrly, nd on occsionl vitors. While lodge ttendnce not so lrge s could be whed, one cn see decided growth mong the workers which prom es much for the future. One of the dily ppers hs offered publh short rticles for us, nd the Cr negie Librry hs sked for lt of our books to put upon their shelves. Juli M. Hyde. Knss City, Msouri. April 26. The Knss City Lodge, besides hv ing public lecture every Sundy even ing, given by one of the different mem bers, holds the following weekly study clsses : Elementry Clss, Mondy fternoon nd evenings; Membership Trining Clss, Wednesdy evening; Advnced Clss, Fridy fternoon nd evening; Lotus Circle for Children, Sundy morn ing ; Order of the Str in the Est, Tues dy evening. In ddition to to these we hve dopted the policy of orgnizing study clsses in our homes nd in the homes of our friends. Of these so fr, we hve four in number. Then the Annie Besnt Club, which doing uxiliry work for the Lodge, holding three clsses week. The Librrin reports sle of books since September mounting to $ A loning librry, contining 136 vol umes, n importnt feture of prop gnd service. For more effectul worn the pln of keeping the reding room open dily, from 9 :30 to 5 :30, with sec retry in chrge, ws inugurted the pst two months, nd by dverting th informtion Theosophy becoming more widely known nd ccepted. Through the efforts of the Librry Com mittee new furniture hs been dded to the reding room. A net ctlogue of books ws publhed nd good supply of books constntly kept on hnd for the public demnd. The Propgnd Committee, besides supplying the two Knss Cities with Theosophicl literture, hs lso since September been sending to neighboring cities nd surrounding suburbs. Th work hs been crried on long the fol lowing lines : We secure preliminry miling-lt from locl telephone book ; we first mil leflets on elementry Theosophy, to gether with circulr letter, setting briefly fits derived forth wht Theosophy nd the bene from its study, sking those interested to send us their nmes nd the nmes of friends who my be interested, upon crd which we enclose for the purpose ; the nmes of those replying we put on our permnent miling-lt nd to them we mil pmphlets nd hevier lit erture. When we secure number of nmes of interested persons in town, we follow up with lecture, given by different members of our lodge. Up to th time we hve estblhed clsses in three Knss towns, Atchon, Topek

30 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 541 nd Olnthe. At the Lnd Show t Convention Hll for two weeks in Mrch, we mintined booth, dseminting literture to the msses, selling books, nd dcoursing upon the truths of Theosophy. We se cured the nmes nd ddresses of gret mny people who showed intense inter est nd to them we mil literture nd invittions to our ctivities. Clr hinder. New Orlens Lodge. April 26. Our membership not lrge, but ll re much in ernest. Notice of the meet ings publhed in the ppers nd vit ors invited to ttend ; mny respond, nd there re usully more inquirers present thn members. A lecture, usully by Mrs. Besnt, red nd questions n swered. The press tking n interest in us nd often reporters re present, who insert little notices bout the meet ings in their ppers. Chicgo Letter. Muriel Mitchell. April 23. In these dys of fds nd fncies s well s of solemn investigtion into the deeper questions of life, we fce mny strnge fcts. Alwys we re told to look for the unexpected. Lst week I hd to go to the Public Librry nd I noted with surpre the mny books writ ten on dietetics. As I gzed t tht shelf full of books, the result, in some cses of the life study of different uthors, I thought wht sme subject medley of ides on the tht corner of the librry must contin, nd wht n excellent theosophicl stew might be concocted from the contents of ll those books, if onlyone were creful to eliminte the crniv orous element therein. Als! I did not know tht I should soon be clled upon to write for The Thcosophicl Messenger wht will be pot-pourri of s vried mteril s cn be forced into vegetrin soup. I m sup posed to wft to you from Chicgo gentle breeze which shll whper to the different brnches brief hint of the c tivities crried on by Chicgo lodges ; lso I m to chrge the swift moving zephyr with the burden of detils con cerning my own work in connection with the generl correspondence nd the propgnd committee. It cn be done, but there ny person with ptience suf ficiently evolved to red the result? There re mny clsses in the different centres t the Fine Arts Building; t Vn Buren Street, where the Chicgo Lodge, the prent lodge, meets ; t Englewood ; nd smll groups t homes in dif ferent prts of the city. The dy not long enough to get in ll the work we wh to do. Tht s it should be, nd often I think with regret nd deep sym pthy of the mny members who re o lted in obscure loclities nd unble to tke dvntge of these opportunities for work nd study in lrge clsses. How ever we know there lwys chnce to work for Theosophy if one feels the inclintion, nd it mtters not where one my be situted. We try to mke people relize tht fct when we nswer the mny pthetic letters tht come to us from friends who long for closer contct with theosophic centres. Five lodges meet t the Fine Arts Building t different hours ; the Co- Msons lso hold their meetings there, nd the Order of the Str in the Est nd the Krm nd Reincrntion Legue. All of these Orders re theo sophic in teching, even tht of Co- Msonrv. lthough the ltter not gen erlly included in the T. S. Movement.

31 542 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER They ll work, work, work for "WORK" the pssword which dmits ny person into the Chicgo ctivities. The more he cn work, the hppier he becomes tht he llowed to be live t th prticulr time in the world's h tory. The Adyr Lodge will surely hve wrm corner in the hert of the Hier rchy becuse of its fithful techers who hve so generously given of their time nd knowledge. Mr. Jinrjds founded th lodge nd hs lwys con tinued to ct s its president. When he in Chicgo you my be sure tht l wys he will be there to direct the meet ings nd no person dres go to sleep for one second for he never knows when he my be clled upon to nswer some knotty question. Dr. Vn Hook hs been fithful instructor, nd regulrly week fter week he hs come to the plce of meeting to help the eger pupils who look to him for instruction nd inspir tion. H Thursdy evening clss dels with the intellectul phse of Theosophy, nd becuse he himself deep thinker, nd in h professionl work ccustomed to teching, he ble to present the difficult nd often bstruse points of Theosophy in such mnner s to con vey understnding to h udience. H Sturdy fternoon clsses, for members only, re devotionl in chrcter nd so helpful tht we never like to ms meeting. Mr. Unger, with h knowledge of the Bible nd h theosophicl interpretttions of the scriptures, hs been won derful chnnel for good. To the Centrl nd Annie Besnt Lodges we look for entertinment, nd we hve not been d ppointed, lthough they hve friendly rivl, for the Co-Msons, under the su pervion of Mrs. Crr nd Professor Slmon hve given some most chrm ing socils nd recitls. I hve not been permitted to enter into the hert of ctivities of the Smpo Lodge becuse I hve never been ble to pronounce the word "Work" in the Finnh lnguge. But I hve often wtched the fces of the ernest members when, under the devoted ledership of Mr. John Forssell, they hve ttended the meetings, nd I know tht they hold beutiful plce in the work. There n element of fith fulness bout them which most im pressive. If you were to vit the Fine Arts T. S. rooms on Sundy evenings when the Germn clss meets, you would see little group of people hrd t work. A picture of Mr. Ledbeter plced upon the tble with some ceremony, for it clled the "Ledbeter Group," nd diminutive but most determined leder, in the person of Mrs. Breese, sees tht no person shll leve tht clss without the chnce to lern something bout The osophy. Dr. Shuddemgen conducts the Krm nd Reincrntion Legue nd he presents theosophicl techings in scientific mnner which lwys brings new phse of thought into the most f milir subjects. The Order of the Str in the Est conducted by Ms Mrjorie Turtle t the Fine Arts Building, nd by Mrs. Hill t the rooms t Vn Buren Street. The meetings which re under the instruction of Ms Turtle re lmost wholly devotionl in chrcter, nd cse contining two beutiful photogrphs of Alcyone plced upon white-clothed ltr where ll my see tht beutiful fce with its dremy, peceful eyes. It the wh tht the Order of the Str in the Est my ct s unifying force, nd tht the different centers shll intermingle freely. We re cently ttended the meeting of the Or der t the Chicgo Lodge rooms nd we were chrmed with the method dopted

32 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 543 by Mrs. Hill of conducting the clss. The ttempt being mde to interest the members in the mny different phses of work directed by the Gret Techers, nd to mke creful study of the little book At the Feet of the Mster. Of course there re mny interesting meet ings which I hve not time nd spce to mention, nd in ddition to the regu lr clsses you my usully find group of people t the T. S. rooms dcussing the subjects which especilly ttrct them. When we relize the splendid things tht re being ccomplhed through the efforts of devoted people who live but to serve, nd who lbor under the protec tion of the Gret White Wings of the Theosophicl Society, we rejoice tht there re people in the world who cn be led into the wy of richer nd fuller life. Is it not worth while to try nd keep our Movement live tht we my work for humnity, nd should not ll our members throughout the Section lep into ction nd respond immeditely whenever the cll sounded for their co-opertion nd sstnce in the work? We cn ll serve in some cpcity. If we re not ble to meet in the busy lodge centers, then t lest we cn l wys keep in touch with those who do, nd we cn id them by our good-will nd in mny beutiful wys. Addie M. Tuttle. NOONDAY MEETINGS Los Angeles In considering how to bring Theosophy to the people engged in the professions nd those employed in offices nd stores I decided on mking the experiment of trying to rech them during the noon hour with hlf-hour lectures on populr subjects. For th purpose the Los Angeles Lodge kindly llowed the use of its lec ture hll in the Blnchrd Building, which locted on Brodwy, the chief shopping street in the city. I hd crd pinted, nnouncing "Short Noon dy Tlks on populr Subjects of The osophy," from 12 :30 to 1 o'clock ech week-dy, during Jnury, nd plced similr notice in the clssified columns of one of the dily ppers which ws kept running during Jnury. The to tl expense for dverting for Jnury ws $5.25, nd while no printed pro grm of subjects ws gotten out, severl typewritten lts were mde nd well posted in the lodge rooms. The subjects selected were ll Theosophicl nd were so treted, nd covered every rnge of our philosophy, but were plinly put, s for illustrtion : "Wht Occultm?" "Wht the effect of Occultm upon one's interest in nd usefulness in the world?" "Wht Politicl Idels hs Theosophy?" "Wht Socil nd Economicl Idels hs The osophy?" "If Theosophy true why hve not the churches ccepted it?" "Who nd where re the Msters nd why don't they show themselves to the world?" These were the first six sub jects chosen nd the next week six sub jects were eqully populr nd were : "The Three Worlds In Which We Live." "Does Occultm Unfit Us for the Business nd Socil Life?" "Some Fcts About the Devs." "Brotherhood." "Some Thoughts on Evolution." "The Work of the Chrt nd H Ner Com ing." At first I dopted the rule to lecture on the Msters nd their work or of the

33 544 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER Chrt nd H ner coming on Stur dys, nd tht dy soon cme to be known s "Devotionl Dy." From Jn ury to th time, Sturdys hve been so set prt nd usully to the subject of the Chrt nd the new Religion of Hu mnity. And from the first, Sturdys hve been our biggest dys. Mny St urdys, numbers hve stood throughout being unble to obtin sets, while some hve been turned wy. And on one oc csion, when the subject chosen for the lecture hs been with reference to the Chrt, there hs been Holy Pece per vding the lecture hll nd ll hs been s reverent s though the services were High Mss. Not once since these meetings begn hs there been n ct or word on the prt of ny present tht ws drespectful or even irreverent. The numbers were smll during the first few dys, but begn to increse nd soon the lecture room would be com fortbly filled every dy nd finlly lrger lecture hll, seting 150 people, ws obtined nd it usully filled nd sometimes not lrge enough. The newspper dverting ws dcontinued fter Jnury, nd ech month since, the lt of subjects hs been printed in circulr form nd hnded out usully 1000 copies being printed. The tlks hve been just hlf n hour long in ech instnce nd hve been begun t 12:30. Following the tlks, questions hve been nswered for fif teen minutes but frequently mny would hve remined for n hour seemingly. Frequently people in the udience hve sked me to go on longer, fused nd sometimes but I hve re dozen to twentyfive people hve stood in line fter the lecture to sk questions tht they did not get the opportunity of sking or felt diffident bout doing so in public. There were some business men nd women who hd to get bck to their work t one o'clock nd, to mke it esy for such, I hve hd sets rrnged ner the exit so tht they might retire esily, nd some of such people hve never msed lec ture since they begn. From the first, I mde public n nouncements of the ctivities of the lodge open to the public nd prticulrly the four study clsses being conducted when I begn th work, nd I dved those who were interested nd wnted to ob tin more knowledge to join the study clsses. Th dvice ws cted on nd soon the clsses were filled up ; one clss jumped from three members to eighteen members in one week. And since these noondy tlks begn, Mr. Knudsen hs orgnized two weekly clsses, Mrs. Dunn one, Mrs. Vn Vlk t one, nd I hve orgnized one for be ginners which I conduct Tuesdy nights nd which ws strted with seventy-three members. I believe tht breks the record for regulr weekly study clss for beginners nd who were put to work on the Mnuls. If I m in error, I should like to be corrected. Since these meetings begn the lodge hs felt n inflow of new life nd there by hs been stimulted to greter ctiv ity nd some twenty-five or more new members hve been received. Following the lecture on Wednesdys meeting in the interest of the Order of the Str in the Est conducted by Mrs. Tffinder nd Mrs. McFrlnd, nd t some of their meetings s mny s eight new members hve been received. To dte, noondy tlks hve been giv en s follows : In Jnury, 21 ; in Feb rury, 25 ; in Mrch, 26 ; in April, 26 ; totl, 98. I hve given ll the lectures except nine during Mrch by Mr. Knud sen, while I ws engged in the tril of n importnt lw suit nd could not well

34 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 545 be present, nd on one other occsion Mr. Wrrington nd I divided the thirty min utes, he speking on the work of the Mnu nd I on the work of the Chrt. These collections lectures hve ll been free nd no tken. The ttendnce hs been 95 per cent. non-theosophts nd 5 per cent mem bers, nd hs consted of lwyers, doc tors, techers in schools nd business col leges, merchnts, clerks in stores nd of fices, rtts, musicins, ctresses nd ctors, mechnics, lborers, domestics, etc., nd lrge number of public lec turers nd techers in Spiritulm, New Thought Cults nd Metphysicl nd Sociltic Societies. Some of such tech ers nd lecturers regulrly ech dy. The clss of subjects hve ttended for weeks tht hve inter ested most seem to be in the order given : (1) The Coming of the Chrt; (2) The New Sixth Sub-Rce; (3) The Develop ment of the God Within ; (4) The Sub Rces of the Fifth Root Rce nd Their Five Gret Religions; (5) Reincrn tion; (6) Life After Deth ; (7) Krm. I bse th estimte on the ttendnce nd mnifested interest by questions sked. There were two striking events tht I will mention. An illustrted lecture on "Thought Forms" ws nnounced to be given by Mrs. Broennimn, dmsion twenty-five cents, proceeds to be devoted to expenses of the lodge, nd I sked those ttending the noondy meetings to ttend. They did, nd helped pck both lecture hlls. On nother occsion I ws to spek on "How Shll We Know the Chrt When He Conies." nd on the Fridy before the Sturdy when th ws to be the subject I nnounced tht "All who feel tht in their herts they would know the Blessed One when he comes nd wlks our streets my bring flower or some flowers tomorrow, nd do it In H Nme nd for Love of Him." Those who cme erly filled ll the vses nd vessels with flowers of gret beuty nd frgrnce nd when the lst ones hd come nd the lecture begn, the stnds nd tble were filled severl feet high with the richest nd sweetest of florl offerings, nd s I rose to spek, surrounded with bnks of roses of every hue, violets, crntions, lillies nd doz ens of other flowers, splendid picture of Hoffmn's Boy Chrt ner my hed nd in view of the vst udience ( we hd turned wy ll the members to mke room for the others), there seemed to go forth nd to sweep out over the heds of the people beutiful spirit of Pece nd Joy nd score or more present told me tht they were never before pres ent in such Holy Plce. If I could hve done hlfwy justice to th importnt bit of propgnd in shorter rticle I should hve done so nd it hs lso seemed impossible to eliminte myself from the telling of the work, but my only purpose hs been to tell some thing of wht being done in Los An geles, how it strted nd hs been cr ried on, with the hope tht other locli ties my profit from our experiences. Crlos S. Hrdy. Sn Frncco In the middle of the month of Mrch, our President, Mr. W. J. Wlters, in ugurted series of noon tlks t the hedqurters of the Sn Frncco Lodge, in the Pcific Building. Hering of the success of such meetings in Los Angeles, Mr. Wlters decided to institute simi lr ctivity here, nd see wht might be ccomplhed by tril. He rrnged progrm covering period of four weeks, nd including generl outline of the techings of Theosophy. The first meet

35 546 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER ing ws held on Mondy, Mrch 18th, from 12:30 to 1 o'clock, with n ttend nce of six or seven, mostly members. At the expirtion of the four weeks' course, incresed interest nd ttendnce seemed to wrrnt continunce of the meetings, nd second speker cme for wrd to relieve Mr. Wlters. At the dte of th writing, the ttendnce ws twenty-five, very smll percentge be ing members. Two pplictions bership for mem in the T. S. hve been received, nd three others hve become members of the Order of the Str in the Est, one tiny girl not yet three yers of ge. Th little one, ccompnied by her f ther nd mother, the noon meetings. regulr vitor t Severl times dy, the mother sys, she sks to see the pho togrph of Alcyone in At the Feet of the Mster. At the present time, the tlks re con fined to simple, elementry techings of Theosophy regrding the lws of Krm nd Reincrntion. Much genuine in terest hs been mnifested, nd every dy brings new fces. Following tlk of twenty minutes upon the subject n nounced, questions re invited nd nswered. Those who must return to their duties re permitted to leve, nd ny whing to remin for further tlk or questions re invited to do so. Thus we re ttrcting mny busy people to our hedqurters, where they cn find literture to borrow nd red, nd where they my meet older students willing to nswer their questions nd help them over the initil difficulties. C.W. tfi TLegues n6 bureus tfi Generl Correspondence Bureu. The work of the Correspondence Bureu during the pst yer hs con sted of clsses tking up different theosophicl text-books, conducted by cor respondence, nd the nswering of per sonl letters of inquiry from people in different prts of the world. The questions deling with the sub jects considered by different clsses re printed ech month by The Theosophic Messenger nd the nswers re written out by the members nd sent to the leder of the clss. After creful exmintion nd comments written on the mrgins, they re either returned to the writer, or kept on file until clled for. At the present time there clss in Esoteric Chrtinity conducted by Mr. Dvid M. Unger; one in the Germn lnguge on Mn nd H Bodies by Mrs. E. P. S. Breese; nd in Ancient Wdom, by Mrs. Addie Tuttle, ssted by Ms Wrren of Dillon, Montn. Six questions re sked ech month in the ltter clss, nd the pupils nswer them in their own wy. Ms Wrren writes pper ech month nswering these questions in detil nd using mteril from mny other theosophicl books in ddition to the pr ticulr one studied in the clss. A copy of th pper from Ms Wrren for wrded to ech member nd lso Mrs. Turtle writes personl letter to the pupil, with the ttempt to suit the letter to the needs of the prticulr individul.

36 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 547 We hve found th to be most st fctory method. Aside from the clss correspondence we invite inquiry from ll who my wh informtion. We try to shre the instruction nd inspirtion given us with our less fortunte friends of the lonely postl routes nd in other remote homes where they seldom meet Theosopht with whom they my ex chnge thoughts. Hundreds of people, some members of the Society, nd others not yet ttched themselves to the T. S. but who hve become interested in our philosophy, hve written to us dur ing the pst yer sking for instruc tion bout Theosophy. We hve nswered letters by mil from Hwii, Alsk, Mexico, South Americ nd South Afric, s well s from ll prts of our own country. We so gldly do th for in mny cses we hve hd the gret joy of knowing tht our letters hve helped to bring hppiness nd contentment to herts overburdened with the sorrows nd munderstndings of life. The cor respondence work hs incresed gretly. We wh tht it shll continue to be chnnel of useful service nd we shll endevor to provide to tht end in the future s in the pst. Addie M. Tuttle. Lotus Growers' Bureu. I m dved by friends in the Agri culturl Deprtment t Wshington tht it will be of no use to trnsplnt lotus roots unless we hve nice wrm spring ; tht these roots perh t the slightest chill when out of wter. Insmuch s the seson t lest thirty dys bckwrd here in the Middle Sttes th yer, it would seem unlikely tht the wrm nd sfe wether will come erly enough th seson to permit our contemplted dtribution. However, if possible, something of the sort will be ttempted. Willim G. Merritt. Propgnd Fund Committee. On August 22nd, 1911, s Chirmn of the Propgnd Fund Committee, nd t request of the Generl Secretry, I sent circulr letter to the secretry of every brnch in the Section sking tht they consider the pln of ppointing in ech lodge some member whose duty it should be to go bout mong the mem bers nd invite them to id, if they so whed to do, in mking up monthly sum from their lodge to be sent to the Generl Secretry, or to me, to be used towrds the expenses of the Section. There were but few responses to th letter. The first one ws most indig nnt protest tht their brnch should be included in the invittion to contribute nything for the good of the Section. Severl brnches wrote tht for vrious resons they could not id finncilly; few ppointed member to ttend to the collections for the Fund ; out of them, less thn hlf dozen hve been herd from since tht time. So fr s lodges re concerned, the report of the Prop gnd Fund Committee must mrk lck of success, bu* the subscriptions from individuls, irrespective of brnches, hve proved more stfctory. The first contribution ws reported October, 1911, nd since then the follow ing sums hve been received nd hnded over to the Generl Secretry: October, 1911 $ November December Jnury, Februry 5.00 Mrch Totl...- $

37 548 "HE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER Further dontions, either from the different lodges, or from individul mem bers who my wh to contribute be forwrded s heretofore should to the Chir mn of Propgnd Fund Committee. Addie M. Tuttle. The Stereopticon Bureu. At the present time the following sets re in circultion : Rces nd Religions, Theosophiclly considered ; The Constitution nd Powers of Mn ; Mn, Vible nd Invible; Thought-Forms. A new lecture now redy for circu ltion, entitled Reincrntion nd Krm. It contins 50 slides. Phses emphsized in the following order : Introduction ; The Three Possible Theories of Humn Extence ; Remrks on the Sme; Wht it tht Reincr ntes nd Wht it tht does not Re incrnte ; The Humn cnnot become n Animl ; The Method of Reincrntion ; The Object of Reincrntion ; The Cuses of Reincrntion ; Reincrntion in the Bible (the cse of John the Bptt, 7 slides) ; Proofs of Reincrn tion ; Krm (5 slides); The End of Reincrntion nd Krm. Mny of the slides re mde up of typewritten portions of Mrs. Besnt's Austrlin Lecture, "Do We Live on Erth Agin?" which give us reson nd need for reincrntion. There re chrts, digrms nd colored pic tures enough nd conclusive to mke very interesting lecture. /. C. Myers. Mystic Drm Legue. Th Legue ws orgnized in Chicgo in In ccordnce with its object, "to crete nd to promote the cretion of drms which represent Theosophicl idels in dily life," the Legue begn the building of drm. The subject Reincrntion. The ply consts of three cts, ech ct representing spe cil period of time in htory, in which the vrious chrcters illustrte the prog ress in evolution since the lst pst life. The first nd second cts re now com pleted nd the third ct under wy. The students of the Legue, working under the help of Mrs. V. C. Mrshll, represent rther unique expression of coopertive work. Ech student writes out the dilogues (the min conditions of sttion in life, of sex, nd of chr cter hving been decided upon by the clss) nd ech reds h own produc tion to the clss. Then the clss selects from ech, such points s seem best suited to its own ply. Thus ech stu dent not only helping to write the clss drm, but hs h own individul ply worked out lso, which lter he cn elborte if he will. The herty good-will mong the mem bers, the pprecition nd emphsizing of others' good points, with, t the sme time, ferless friendly choice of the best only, for the good of the public, nd n ernest desire to put forth the truths of Theosophy in th field, mke the clss meetings very plesnt nd profitble. My more of th work be done, so tht the thetricl thought-world my bound in Theosophicl ides which plywriters cn use. M. W.B. Pron Work Bureu. Two Knss City workers, Dr. Lindberg nd Mrs. B. C. Crr, vited the federl pron t Levenworth, Kn., on Sundy, April 14. Dr. Lindberg gve n interesting lecture on The Signs of the Time, nd Mrs. Crr sng to the pr oners. Our friends were well received nd were invited to come gin. On

38 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 549 Sundy, April 21st, they lectured nd sng to the proners t Lnsing, Kn. At both prons they found the men re mrkbly redy for Theosophy. Such service pprecited. Members of the Pron Work Legue re now corresponding with forty-six proners. During the month of April we received nmes from the Tombs pr on, New York ; Stillwter, Minn. ; St. Cloud, Minn. ; Deer Lodge, Montn ; Levenworth nd Lnsing, Kn. The Pron Work Legue will be plesed to furnh correspondent to ny proner who interested in The osophy nd would like to know more bout it. Address the hed of the Bureu. Nineteen copies of At the Feet of the Mster for dtribution mong the "boys" t Deer Lodge nd copy of Thought Forms for the pron librry were re ceived lst month from n Oklnd, Cl., friend who whes to remin nonymous. A member living t White Slmon, Wsh., sent box of books nd mg zines by freight. Books nd mgzines hve been received from Sod Cnyon, Np, Cl., nd from Chicgo. A Los Angeles member sent check for $5.00. Edwin B. Ctlin. ififfiffilfiffis Questions SfiSWffiSW ANCIENT WISDOM Lesson Fifteen. 1. IVhy low type of mn worse thn n niml? 2. Wht the purpose of erth life? 3. How hrmonious development gined? 4. On wht do the generl chrcter tics of the mentl body depend? 5. How re the formless subdivions of the mentl plne relted to the ego? 6. Wht order of vibrtions rech the Cusl Body nd how does it grow? Send nswers to Mrs. Addie Tuttle, 2453 Est 72nd St., Chicgo, 111. DER MENSCH UND SEINE KOERPER SEITE Welcher Koerper t ds Werkseug des Denkers, des Ego's? 2. Beschreibe ihn. 3. Wie vergleichen sich die Funktionen zu den Seimen, welche der Gebruch durch den Besit des Denk Koerpers einem Menschen giebt. 4. Wie t der Denk Koerper gennnt und wie wechst er? 5. Weshlb sollten zvir ds llgemeine T'erhltcn des Bevusstseins im Tglichen Leben veriindcrn? 6. Ws geschieht m Ende der Devchn Periodc mit don Denk Koerper? Antworten sende mn bitte n Mrs. F. P. Breese, 3761 Lke Ave., Chicgo, 111.

39 550 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER The im which our reders hve set before the O. S. JE. to help prepre for the coming mong men of very gret One. Th tsk relly very prcticl service, nd we must cll to our id ll the common sess s well s our devotion sense which we pos nd enthus ism. Let us consider for moment some of the things tht need to be done in our western lnds in order to smooth the pthwy for H feet. First of ll, perhps, comes the tsk which entrust ed to us smller ones, the tsk which ech individul my tke shre in, the tsk of spreding the news widely so tht mny people my be led to t lest con sider the possibility of the Techer's com ing. In th business-like twentieth cen tury when men's minds often work in other grooves, there my be some whose brins hve not even thought of the ques tion in tht wy. H. P. B. sid to hve remrked, "It doesn't mtter so much wht they think, if we cn only get them to think!" So let them reject our mes sge if they will, but let us see tht the thought of the coming Chrt hs worked t lest one chnnel in the gry mtter of s mny brins s possible! Another effort which needed in mny prts of our country the rous ing of reverence nd devotion. Devo tion one of the forces which gret Techer cn esily use, nd in western lnds where our religion, though void ing superstition on the one hnd, tkes n intellectul insted of devotionl turn, it often found tht devotion not so redily or deeply roused s in the Estern countries. Then, too, the lws of krm nd reincrntion must be more fully understood in the west, nd lso it hs been suggested tht inter ntionl pece nd good-will re bso lutely necessry conditions for the com ing mongst us of the Gret One. It only by the breking down of those n tionl prejudices which people of one n tion feel for their "foreign brothers" tht we cn hope to hve Him find welcome in ll lnds. Still nother phse of the work of preprtion hs been drwn to my tten tion of lte. We re fmilir with the ide tht t certin times nd for cer tin wrork, specil morl qulities re needed. A different virtue hs to be especilly imed t in the successive rces, nd different kinds of work re quire different tlents. There my be times when the world's work will need most such virtues s courge, obedience, intellect; t other times ptience, gentle ness, or rttic bility my be most needed. My it not be true, then, tht the qulities emphsized in the O. S. E. my be the ones most needed t the pres ent time when the world being pre pred for certin type of event? How necessry for us, if tht be so, to lern our lessons well, to seek ernestly for the mny hints given us s to the qulities nd types of effort needed t the present moment. In ll these lines of work, which 1 only summrize from the suggestions of oth ers who re more cpble of judging the needs thn I m myself, we find plenty to do. And in ddition, my not the O. S. E. try to mke here in Americ %

40 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 551 network of centres to which the Gret One my come, where He my find wit ing for Him nucleus of people willing, nd wht more, cpble of serving Him, where He my find group of peo ple redy nd ccustomed to ct s hosts to the flocks of lteners which H gret mgnetm will drw to her Him. And truly, there re mny of us who feel confident tht it will not be mny yers before we shll hve the opportunity of giving th loving hospitlity to the Di vine One Who hs been holding H rms open to us for countless ges. Mrjorie Tuttle. Str in the Est groups my be inter ested in the following lt of subjects tken for considertion t its meetings in Chicgo. 1. A Summry of Resons for Expect ing Gret Techer t th Time. 2. The Effects of the Coming of Spiritul Techer. 3. The Definite Work which Ech Per son My Do for H Coming. 4. Is the Techer Whom we Expect the Sme Who Founded Chrtinity? 5. The Principles of the O. S. E. 6. The Office of Chrt. 7. The Appernce of Gret Techers in the Pst. 8. Glimpses of Sury (in the Lives of Alcyone). 9. Movements which re Prepring the World for the Coming of the Techer. sons. 10. The Seven Rces nd their Les A specil meeting to consider venues for propgnd work ws clled t Los Angeles Mrch 27th, 70 members nd number of interested non-members pres ent. A thousnd copies of Mrs. Besnfs Prophecy were redy for dtribution, nd tems of volunteers were mde up for every deprtment of the work. The following progrm my fford helpful suggestions for similr ctivities in other loclities. No. 1. A tem of volunteers to plce boxes or receptcles for O. S. E. liter ture in ll depots in the city nd other plces such s grocery stores, cfeteris, etc. The pln for the tem to sectionize the city nd if necessry, select help ers to keep such holders filled with liter ture ; str either in silver, white or blue to be pinted on the holders nd the in scription Order of the Str in the Bst, The World Movement for the Coming of the World Techer. No. 2. A tem of volunteers to plce literture in book-stores or on book-stlls, lso when possible to plce there, nd lso in Public Librries, At the Feet of the Mster; The Immedite Future; nd The Chnging World. No. 3. A tem to secure nmes of members of the Y. M. C. A. nd the Y. W. C. A. nd to send literture to the sme. No. 4. A tem to dtribute literture to hospitls nd nurses. No. 5. A tem to send pmphlets to clergymen. No. 6. A tem to dtribute literture to clubs nd kindred ssocitions, nd to endevor to get the literture nd the three books bove mentioned plced on the reding tbles nd in the librries of such orgniztions. No. 7. A tem to dtribute literture in prons. No. 8. techers. No. 9. A tem to send literture to A tem to plce literture in rest-rooms in lrge stores. No. 10. Individul work in dtribut ing literture. One ernest worker hs hd thousnd copies of the "Prophecy"

41 552 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER beutifully printed nd sending them to O, toiling hnds of mortls! O unselected Church-members. Every member of the Order should feel keen responsibility, personl pledge to the Lord Mitrey to do ll he weried feet, trveling ve know not whlther! Soon' soon' lt seems to >' "> you must come forth on some conspicucn to help to prepre hospitble t- ous hill-top, nd but little wy further, mosphere for H coming. Privte let-..,.,,,..... ginst the setting sun, descry the spires ters cn convey some hint, some thought r in H Nme, or quottion from some of EI Dordo. Little do ye know your of Mrs. Besnt's msterful lectures, or own blessedness ; for to trvel hopefullv folder. Let us neglect no opportunity, js bettef thing thn tq ^.^ nd ^ knowing tht every right ct unselfhly performed will be vitlized by Them. Adeli H. TfUnder. ' true success t0 lbor- Robert Lou Stevenson. The Theosophicl Sundy School Lesson I. July 7. MALIGNANT UNBELIEF Lesson Text : Mrk 3 : Golden Text: "Th the condemn tion, tht light come into the world, nd men loved drkness rth er thn light, becuse their deeds were evil." Exoteric Lesson: There no doubt gret del of frud nd hypocry in the world tody, nd perhps no less in the lnd of Plestine 2000 yers go, but becuse frud nd hypocry ext men should not refuse to give credit for honor nd sincerity wher ever found. In our lesson it ppers tht the Phri sees hd their doubts s to the qulity of the Power tht csts out devils. They c knowledged the Power but credited it to Stn or the Devil. Our Lord spoke most truly when He sid: "How cn Stn cst out Stn?" Such thing illog icl nd unresonble becuse the world t lrge expects the Good to triumph over Evil, nd it fct tht th so; for Good of the Spirit (the Immortl) while Evil of the Mteril, which (Mortl) nd the Spirit ever victori ous. Mtter, or Illusion s the Orientls term sometimes blinds one to the truth, it, but the Light of the Spirit ever nd when the gloom pierced shines then the illusion dpelled, nd the true mn sees with the Eye of the Spirit. The sin ginst the Holy Ghost, sid to be impossible of forgiveness, stood to be under constnt refusl to lten to Power which convicts of Sin ;the there deeper mening thn th. (See Esoteric Notes.) "For whomsoever doeth the Will of God, the sme my brother, my ster, my mother." Mn n immortl spirit, frgment of the One Fther, who the Gret Unmnifest ;ech Spirit, therefore, s one prt of whole therefore, ll Spirits or frgments re brothers, or sters, or ltogether one whole. ; they form one complete fmily, Chrt, though truly Son of God, yet hving for H Fther the sme One who our Fther, therefore re we ll breth- ;mothers s we my wh to clss them

42 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 553 ren. Th fct should mke men feel their divine reltionship nd live s chil dren of one God. Esoteric Lesson: The gret hindrnce to neophyte in the study of occult science or religious experience Unbelief. Our Lord hs tught th so plinly ; we re fmilir with H words "ccording to your Fith," nd "thy Fith hs mde thee whole." It fct tht when one doubts he puts wll between himself nd the ob ject in which he should trust; but if he believes, n open chnnel mde, nd tht which ws not, becomes ; Fith hs "chnged to sight, nd pryer to pre." Students who would know the hidden things of Theosophy, or the knowledge of the Sints must erly lern to trust nd believe. Unless the student cn do th he will never tred the Wy of the Cross, or know the steps upon the Pth of Knowledge. To blspheme ginst the Holy Ghost mens, for one thing, to perstently re st the Power of Evolution, to work only for self-grtifiction, nd refuse to enter the forwrd mrch of Spiritul progress. Th not the. ct of one life, but of mny. It nturl then if the humn Soul lives life fter life for self, the time comes when the Spirit of the mn ( who sinless ) cn no longer mn ifest in the humn soul, nd the tie tht binds severed for ever, nd the soul thus seprted from the Holy Spirit lost; th ' one explntion of the Sin ginst the Holy Ghost, for which there no forgiveness. Lesson II. July 14. THE SEED IX FOUR KINDS SOIL OF Lesson Text: Mrk 4: Golden Text : "Receive with meekness the engrfted sve your souls." word, which ble to Exoteric Lesson: From the time when mn first p pered on our erth there hve been techers who hve sowed the Seeds of Knowledge in the Soil of mn's hert. Since the Techers first cme to us, mil lions of yers hve rolled wy, nd still They sow the Seeds of Knowledge. The Blessed Lord my hve been thinking of the Gret Ones who preced ed Him, nd looking over the fields tht wondrous dy told the people the prble of the sower nd the four kinds of soil in which the seed ws sown, nd t the conclusion of the telling of the prble He sid, "He tht hth ers to her, let him her." It would lmost seem the people t lrge were left in doubt s to the hidden mening of H story, for only those who could red the inner truths "hd ers to her," for tht the mening of our Lord*s words. To "hve ers to her" to hve n inner perception, fculty to comprehend the hidden knowl edge. Then our Lord tkes side the dciple nd explins the mening of H prble. We see in the world tody on every side evidences of the bundnt seed sown by the Divine Sowers nd their helpers. Esoteric Lesson: It of utmost significnce tht our Lord sid to H dciples. "Unto you given to know the mystery of the King dom of God." The dciples into the "Kingdom." stnd for those initited hving right, be cuse of being "born gin," to know the "mysteries of the Kingdom." which mens they could be told certin truths not reveled to "them tht re without" those not of the Kingdom. The Church t lrge does not tech

43 554 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER these fcts becuse its priests nd min ters do not understnd tht Chrt gve knowledge to H dciples (Initites) which the public could not comprehend. There reson for th. The humn fmily mde up of souls t mny stges of evolution. The vst mss of humnity undeveloped ; lrge number re considerbly developed; these include the modertely religious people; much smller number compose the students of the world's mysteries, the devout nd we priests, the Sercher fter Wdom ; nd smll, very smll number re pupils nd Initites of the Mster of Wdom. These re the four grdes of Soil our Lord spoke of in H prble. Consider th fct, der student, tht it obviously would be impossible for the lrge mss of humnity to understnd such techings s might be given to the smller clss of good people, lso it would be unreson ble to expect the msses of either of these lower divions to understnd such techings s might be the rewrd of those who seek for the hidden truths. Nor could the three lower divions under stnd the divine knowledge which im prted to the pupils nd Initites of the Msters of Wdom. There re mny beutiful lessons hid den in the words of the Prble of the Sower, the diligent seeker shll find them. Lesson III. July 21. THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM Lesson Text : Mrk 4 : 26-32, Mtt. 13 : 33. Golden Text : "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be clone in erth, s it in heven." Exoteric Lesson: The Chrtin Techers of tody refer to the Kingdom of Heven s beinsr spiritul kingdom composed of those in heven nd on erth who cknowledge the Slvtion from Sin by fith in Chrt s vicrious tonement. There deeper mening thn th, s we shll try to show in the Esoteric lesson. Let us, however, for the time, consider tht the child of the kingdom hs grow ing within him the elements of the king dom. Our Lord likens the growth of the kingdom s: I. The Seed growing secretly. II. The Mustrd Seed. III. The Leven. The seed growing secretly the result, in child, of we nd loving cre of fther nd mother; the child hrdly knows how he grows, yet he grows up strong of body, clen of mind, nd hert of gold. He hs grown, yet ws not conscious of h growth. Thus the king dom of heven grows. The mustrd seed it smll, yet potentil, for it brings forth tree ; so good thought, kind word or deed will be the mustrd seed to some trveler on life's highwy ; it will grow up to heven nd tke root deep down in the hert of the mn, nd h life will be bless ing to ll who touch him. Thus the Kingdom of Heven grows. The Leven grows by contct, nd im prts of itself to tht which lter it be comes. No mn cn hide h light under bushel, nd mn who lives virtuous life, who ptterns h cts fter God's gret pln, who lives the Chrt life, c cording to h understnding, tht mn leven in the home, in the commun ity in which he lives; nd the world better for the life of such mn. Thus the Kingdom of Heven grows. Esoteric Lesson: The Kingdom of Heven the King dom of the Spirit ; it the Divine King dom. There minerl kingdom,

44 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 555 vegetble kingdom, humn kingdom, to which mn belongs, nd then there kingdom which we cll the Divine Kingdom, to which gods belong; th the Kingdom of Heven. When Chrt pryed "Thy kingdom come" he ment th Divine Kingdom, the Kingdom of gods. He pryed tht the time might come soon when the erth might own llegince to the Kingdom of Heven, when ll men would be divine, thus becoming gods. Now the Kingdom of Heven, which signifies the Spirit, comes to mn individ ully, nd when the Spirit, which the Divine Aspect of Mn, mnifest con sciously in mn, then it sid of tht mn, he "of the Kingdom," hving been "born gin." H first birth s mn ws into the humn kingdom; h second birth s mn into the Divine Kingdom. Such mn hs not chieved h entrnce into the Kingdom of Heven in one life, by one hrvest of good deeds, but of very mny. He hs known drouth nd flood, he hs felt both plesure nd pin, he hs suffered for others s for himself, nd when he reched the stge of life where he lived becuse the fruits of h life nourhed others, where he ws scrificed dily for the slvtion of oth ers, then did he enter in t the "strit gte," into the Kingdom of Heven. Lesson IV. July 28 THE WHEAT AND THE TARES' Lesson Text : Mtt. 13 : 24-30, Golden Text : "Gther ye together first the tres, nd bind them in bundles to burn them ; but gther the whet into my brn." Exoteric Lesson: Th lesson found in nother pr ble, wonderful story of wdom. There re severl points to ber in mind, the two sowers, the two kinds of seed, nd but one field. The Blessed Lord endevoring to tech those who would follow Him to wtch constntly lest the tres be sown with the whet ; tht the evil with the good. One interprettion my be th: The two sowers re the Chrt who sows the good seed, nd the Prince of Drkness, who sows the evil seed. The good seed consts of good, thoughts, good feelings nd good deeds; the evil seed consts of evil thoughts, evil feelings nd evil deeds. The field the Humn Soul or the World. When the Wtcher not creful, the Prince of Drkness sows the evil seed in with tht which the Lord hs sown. It then well nigh impossible to seprte the growing good nd evil, so the Mster sys wit until the hrvest, then seprte the tres nd burn them, nd preserve the good. "It lso too true tht men re often morlly sleep, unconscious of dnger. Mny re so busy with their work, their plesure nd the cres of the world, tht they do not relize tht they re becoming selfh, forgetful of God, nd of right eousness. Gret wrongs creep into busi ness, gret evils grdully previl in so ciety, crimes ginst the people in govern ment, intempernce, the neglect of chil dren, the white slve trffic, bribery, d honesty, nd multitude of evils grow up ginst us while we re ignornt of wht going on." (From Peloubet's Select Notes.) Truly when we re idlers, when it we sleep, tht evil creeps upon us ;when we re not employed in some good nd useful lbor for others s well s for our selves, then we, unconsciously, bsorb evil. The poet hs well explined th stge of humn experience when he sys :

45 556 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER "And yet it never ws in my soul To ply so ill prt, But evil wrought by wnt of thought As well s wnt of hert." The dy of hrvest comes t some gret cr in the life, nd mid some gret sorrow the Soul looks t h field of whet nd tres, nd there in the fire of h fur nce of pin he burns the tres nd sves the grin for sustennce. It sometimes necessry for God to bring hrvest dy. dy when the field my once more yield its good nd evil, the evil to be burned, the good enriched by good resolves, for future sowing. Esoteric Lesson: Here gin, s in the lst lesson, we find our Lord tkes H dciples into house prt from the multitude, nd then proceeds to instruct them s to the hidden mening of H words. Let us consider. Our Lord sys in the prble, the Kingdom of Heven like unto mn tht sowed good seed in h field. Now the Kingdom of Heven the Holy Spirit becoming mnifest, in tht he hs sown good seed. The Holy Spirit even sows good thoughts, good feelings nd good cts; these re fruits of the Spirit The enemy of mn h niml n ture, the "old Adm,*' the ''old mn'' spoken of in the Bible ; we might lso cll him "Pst Evil Krm." Now the Spirit lwys plnting H good seed, nd while the mn not wke to the dnger of the world's sin nd tempt tion, the Pst Evil Krm grows gin the seed of evil pssions, hte, jelousy, pride, love of plesure, neglect of duty, nd neglect of study of Wdom, nd ere the good mn knows he hs nture of good intentions, good impulses, but hin dered by the tres of evil intertwined. The hrvest when one becomes Ini tite, t th stge the evil (fetters) must be burned ; thus dposed of they re gone forever. The Pth of Initition, which the entrnce into the fullness of the life in Chrt, the time of the finl hrvest ; th hrvest in ll my tke not less thn fourteen lives fter the Aspirnt hs entered upon the Wy. During th stge of fourteen lives he rids himself completely nd finlly of ll sin ; the good left represents the result of ll h humn extence, the sum totl of mny thousnds of lives, nd when the lst dy over, the lst hour struck, the Fther welcomes home H child so long gone, nd the triumphnt Soul psses into life hid with God. Th the Kingdom of Heven. Dvid S. M. Unzcr. It cnnot be tht the erth mn's only biding plce. It cnnot be tht our life mere bubble cst up by Eternity to flot moment on its wves nd then sink into Nothingness. Else why it tht the glorious spirtions which lep like ngels from the temple of our herts re forever wndering unstfied? Why it tht ll the strs tht hold their festivl round the midnight throne re set bove the grsp of our limited fcul ties, forever mocking us with their unp prochble glory? And. finlly, why it tht bright forms of humn beuty presented to our view re tken from us, leving the thousnd strems of our ffections to flow bck in Alpine torrents upon our herts? There relm where the rinbow never fdes ; where the strs will be spred out be fore us like lnds tht slumber in the ocen ; nd where the beutiful beings which now pss before us like shdows will sty in our presence forever. Geo. D. Prentice.

46 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 557 An Appel to Common-Sense. '1lie Folly of Met-Eting. A reply to n editoril of the New York nd Chicgo Evening Americn nd Sn Frncco Exminer, by Otto Crque, uthor of The Foundtion of All Re forms, Medicinl Foods, etc. Price : United Sttes nd Cnd, 10c; Gret "Britin, 6d. The uthor quotes from the New York Evening Journl, the populr fllcy concern ing met-eting: "We must et met, we must et the cow tht cts the grss, leving her to digest the grss, since we hve not the vitlity to do it"; lso "tht the eting of met s necessry s the brething of ir or the drinking of wter." He then clssi fies nd ctlogues other foods ccording to their vlution, nming the orgnic constitu ents of the body nd crefully clssifying their essentil combintions so tht ech deprtment my esily supply the nturl nd inevitble wste. He clims tht fruits, nuts, succulent plnts nd cerels re lone ble to produce the highest type of mn, both physiclly nd men tlly. He speks of met s lwys polluted by wste products of niml life, while it deficient in certin minerl elements (orgnic slts) which rc indpensble to the proper oxidtion nd purifiction of the blood. Met wekens the digestive power, becuse it docs not supply the elements necessry for the re newl of the digestive juices. He sys: "The ide tht met in some mnner prcdigested plnt food redy to be ssimilted entirely erroneous from chemicl s well s physio logicl stndpoint.'' The rticle prticulrizes very minutely the necessity of creful nd intelligent djustment of the physicl orgnm, giving most st fctory suggestions for redjustment when met-eting hs pursued its poonous course in the humn system. Any one wh» will give th invluble trete creful study will find wherein he suffers, nd will find rtionl remedy. The rgument of the uthor stnds quite upon its own merits side from Theosophicl views ; it should strongly ppel to those in terested in vegetrinm. S. E. G. An Introduction to Experimentl Ftychologi'i by Dr. Chs. S. Myers. Publhers: Cmbridge University Press, London. In these truly busy times in busy world, good condensed mnuls re most vluble. Dr. Myers, lecturer in Experimentl Psy chology t Cmbridge, hs provided us with such mnul, one tht will ppel to the techer nd to the physicin nd those in terested in prcticl psychology. The book provided with two good colored pltes, showing the pssing of one color into nother by imperceptible chnge. The pr ticulr result of the vrious experiments given to show the gret rnge of sensibility in different subjects, how different the rhymes re pprecited in music, the curves nd col ors in rchitecture nd pinting, nd how the vlue of dcord or dull color cn be mes ured. The use of the ssocition of ides s shown in the experiments will be pprecited. One experiment might be quite entertining nd instructive to group of people tht of giv ing them certin word, nd sking for the first ssocition tht res in their mind, nd from it determining the temperment of ech individul. In the lst chpter of the book there re reports of some importnt mentl tests on children. V. A. B. Life nd Mtter, by Mr. Blfour nd M. Bergeson ; Hibbert Journl. The recent rticles on Life nd Mtter by Mr. Blfour nd M. Bergeson hve been delt with in n ddress by Sir Oliver Lodge, Prin cipl of the University of Birminghm, Eng lnd. The rticles in question re worthy the ttention of our Theosophicl students s hv ing direct bering on our philosophy. M. Bergeson's contention tht the im of life nd consciousness self-development, not the development of mtter. The im to bring into ctivity every fibre of our being; mtter mens to tht end ; it used in the process nd dcrded ; mtter provokes effort nd renders it possible. Force could not be exerted where there no restnce, so tht the very inerti nd obstructiveness

47 558 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER of mtter, the restnce which it offers to the reliztion of idels, contributes to the de velopment of incrnte consciousness, nd en bles it to re in the scle of extence. There no ignornce or uncertinty s to the de sired gol, though there contingency s to its being reched by ny ttempted direc tion, for the evolutionry progress not like river flowing in predestined chnnel nor like the mrch of lnd crbs in stright lines. Sir Oliver Lodge suggests "tht the cells of the brin re presumbly not stgnnt until the Will cts on them; the cells of living body must be s ctive s toms of rdium; withdrw the controlling influence of life nd they speedily work hvoc nd devsttion." The Chrt Myth, by Arthur Drew, Ph. D., Professor of Philosophy t Krlsruhe. Pub lhers : T. Fher Unwin, London ; 7s 6d net. If, s stted, Protestnt Germny nd Eng lnd hve been roused to protest by the con clusions of th book, nd tht the ltter tking ctive mesure ginst the spred of Prof. Drew's views, it somewht unclled for, insmuch s the pure gold of the truth of Chrtinity will withstnd ny onslught of the fire of Higher Criticm, nd with the seprtion of the gold from the dross it will come out brighter for the ordel. Tht the present dy Chrtinity needs tht purifiction evident to the student of Comprtive Re ligion. The Chrt Myth essentilly book for the student. And to such we would sy tht long go Mdme Blvtsky stted the sme fcts tht the uthor now. giving to the world. The Secret Doctrine nd Is Unveiled will be most useful to the T. S. student desiring to corroborte the sttements of Prof. Drew, while in the works of Mrs. Besnt nd Mr. Ledbeter there much tht will explin wy erroneous conclusions nd fill up some of the serious gps in the text of the book. Thus on pges , Esoteric Chrtinity, Mrs. Besnt tells of the Htor icl Jesus, explining the dtinction between Chrt nd Jesus, lso the Bptm of the Spirit, which Prof. Drew finds difficulty in explining. And in The Inner Life, Vol. I, pp , Mr. Ledbeter most bly de scribes the connection between the Htoricl Jesus nd the Mythicl Chrt. It. useful study of the origin of Chr tinity. V. A. B. The Comte de St. Germin, by Mrs. Isbel Cooper-Okley. "Ars Regi," Miln, 1912; pper cover ; pp In 1897 series of rticles ws publhed in the Theosophicl Review concerning the Comte de St. Germin, mysterious personge who ppered in the eighteenth century t the court of Lou XV of Frnce. These rticles, with much dditionl mteril, re now embodied in book form, nd will hve chrm nd interest for students of Theosophy nd Msonry. Mrs. Okley hs tken infinite pins to present ll points of view of th strnge individul. The most relible sources of informtion seem to indicte tht he ws the third son of Prince Rgoczy of Trnsyl vni, whose principlity ws bsorbed into the Austrin Empire. Some, it true, unble to comprehend the mystic or h motives, did not hesitte to cll him "chrltn" or "swindler," but others recog nized him s mn of lmost royl blood, remrkble for h knowledge nd ttin ments, nd mply provided with funds. He ws known to hve trveled extensively in the Orient nd in Afric. It ws quite im possible to determine h ge, s he seems lwys to hve borne the ppernce of mn of forty-five or therebouts. It re lted tht the Countess v. Gergy, who met him in 1758 t the court of Lou XV, showed much surpre on seeing him, nd inquired if h fther hd vited Venice in The Count replied tht h fther hd died long prior to 1710, but tht he himself, t tht dte, hd vited Venice. Whereupon the Countess exclimed : "Forgive me, but tht impossible! The Comte de St. Germin I knew in those dys ws t lest 45 yers old, nd you, t the outside, re tht ge t pres ent." The chpters deling with the events led ing up to the French Revolution, nd the ef forts of the Comte de St. Germin to min tin the pece of Europe nd to vert revolu tion in Frnce, re full of fscintion to the reder. Lengthy extrcts from the "Memoirs of the Countess d'adhemr" contin mny references to th most extrordinry per songe. They cover period rnging from 1760 to There lso n interesting chp ter on "Msonic Trdition," from which we my lern something of the ctivity of the Comte de St. Germin mong Freemsons in the eighteenth century. C.W.

48 THE THEOSOPHIC MESSENGER 559 «L d&r MAGICAL NOTES OF PRISM PAN The Pine Tree dropped some of her needles, but not to be idle, for she up fresh took ones, nd begn to work on new pttern, while she clled to the old Fern, nerby: "Th June nd Prm Pn ought to be coming down from the hills, for he lwys ppers when I weve my summer perfume." "Weve your summer perfume?" sked the old Fern ; "how cn nybody weve perfume?" The Pine Tree shook with lughter, s she sid : "Well, th joke on me! You blind old fellow, do you men to tell me tht you hve never seen my nubi ur, t which I m constntly weving, though I hve kept my most beutiful side towrd you ll th yer?" "Oh, Mtress Pine!" sdly nswered the Fern, s he strightened out h old spine nd glnced up, "forgive n old fellow like me, for I hve been enjoying the scent, nd never dremed of seeing such beutiful lights s I now behold, streming in scrolls from your needles!" The Pine smiled, nd while her needles went click--de-click, she looked gin towrd the hills nd remrked : "There, now Prm Pn must be coming, for I see the music of h flute." "SEE the music of h flute, did you sy, Mtress Pine?" "Yes, he plys but seven notes on h flute nd so we know the seven colors he sets flot, those prmtic colors we ll so love." The Fern ltened quietly, nd then sked: "Do you men tht fint tink ling sound which I now her?" "No, no, tht little ringing comes from the vlley below, for the elfs lwys ring the flower-bells when Prm Pn rrives, in order to wken ll the fy-folk for Firy dnce." Now the sounds of the flute could be herd very dtinctly, nd the Pine be gn singing with the firy-folk : "Do, we ll sing, nd red blossoms bloom ; Re, nd ornge colored flowers loom. Mi, brings every bright yellow out ; F, the green folige ppers bout. Sol, nd the blue bells come out in song; I_, nd the indigo comes long. Si, brings ll violets into view. All of these notes we sing just for you." The Pine Tree lifted one of her brnches, so tht the pretty sight of the