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understand how the heavenly bodies, which, according to their interpretation of things, are material, can exert influences over the mental states of human beings on the earth, or determine conditions affecting them. But if man is to be treated as psychic, so also must be treated the heavenly orbs, and everything else we take into account in this connection, if we are to reach any logical conclusion.

In the psychic universe (i. e., the universe interpreted as mind) each atom, planet, human being, or other individual centre of mental activity, of whatever description, is capable of exerting, consciously or subconsciously, influences, varying in degree and quality, over other individuals. Such physical phenomena as growth and digestion are outward correspondences of certain phases of mental activity, subconscious processes of thought; the adjustment of emotional and volitional relations between one's self and certain individual intelligences of the atomic order, vastly inferior to the human type, to be sure, yet representing some degree of unfoldment. Subconsciously we establish more or less definite relations with representatives of this lower order of life, building them into variously related communities which constitute our bodies; and, in turn, in variously combined capacities, they exert potent influences over our own moods or mental states, whenever we assume the attitude of receptivity to their suggestions. For this reason we experience pain, sickness and like emotions, or suffer agony from poison. In the latter instance the intensely antagonistic psychic qualities proceeding from certain definite atomic combinations offer a suggestion too potent for our thought to withstand, so that, under ordinary conditions, it yields to their spell.

Moreover, as we exert a certain amount of control over the atomic intelligences which constitute our psychic bodies, we are also in like manner more or less susceptible to the influence of intelligences of a superior order, represented by the heavenly bodies. Everything we recognize outwardly, from atom to solar system, symbolizes something of interior significance; it expresses certain phases of mind. The conception of a Universal Body, matter, implies another conception, a Universal Mind. Scientists tell us that thought is attended by definite activity among the particles of the brain; so that some students have been led to the conclusion

that thought is a product of brain-activity, an emanation from the body; others, that brain-activity is the result of thought, thus, in either case, regarding the one as dependent on the other, instead of seeing in them parallel exhibitions of the same activity, the apparent distinctions being due to different methods of perception. If the psychic activity we know as emotion be interpreted outwardly as motion, vibration, then, conversely, the objective phenomena of motion, the spectacle of bodies or forces moving in space, must be interpreted inwardly, subjectively, psychically, as emotion, thought, mental activity.

As already noted, size has no absolute value; so that it makes little difference, in this regard, whether the active bodies we observe be atoms or worlds, for what is true of one class must be true of all classes. Therefore we are bound to consider the orderly movements of the planets in their orbits, and the solar systems among themselves, as facts of the deepest psychic significance. They point to the existence of a higher intelligence, beyond our comprehension. Nevertheless, may we not obtain some faint suggestion of their meaning and intent? What are our sentiments, thoughts, emotions, while gazing upward into space on a clear night, and beholding countless myriads of heavenly bodies circling through that limitless expanse, extending far beyond the range of our insignificant vision? May we not catch a glimpse of the sublime thought of a mind vastly greater than our own?

Pantheism, nature-worship and the ancient mythologies, all represent half-truths quite as important, perhaps, if not so logical, as the more modern half-truths of blind materialism, which seeks to reduce the universe to the level of a mere mechanism, and man to the rank of a material body, so constituted that, when wound up, it may be expected to run, under favorable conditions, for three score and ten years.

Investigators of natural phenomena inform us of the existence of a world of intensely active ether-waves, extending far beyond the range of our powers of perception. Tesla says: "Ere long intelligence transmitted without wires will throb through the earth like a pulse through a living organism. The wonder is that, with the

present state of knowledge and the experience gained, no attempt is being made to disturb the electrostatic and magnetic currents of the earth, and transmit, if nothing else, intelligence."

And Professor Hering,* referring to this declaration of Tesla, remarks: "It is probable that this wonder will give place to still greater, at no distant period, by reason of successful attempts of just the kind here mentioned.

Professor Crookes says: "Up to the present time we have been acquainted with only a very narrow range of ethereal vibrations— from extreme red on one side to ultra-violet on the other. Within this comparatively limited range of ethereal vibrations, and equally narrow range of sound vibrations, we have been hitherto limited to receive and communicate all knowledge which we share with other rational beings. Whether vibrations of the ether slower than those which affect us as light may not be constantly at work around us, we have until lately never seriously inquired. But the researches of Lodge in England and of Hertz in Germany give us an almost nfinite range of ethereal vibrations, or electrical rays, from wavelengths of thousands of miles down to a few feet. Here is unfolded to us a new and astonishing universe, one which it is hard to conceive should be powerless to transmit and impart intelligence."

The whole material universe is the bodily aspect of something vital and intelligent. This limitless world of ethereal vibrations represents the outward manifestation of thought, mental activity.

What are the ethereal vibrations we perceive as light, heat, electricity and sound, but thoughts translated into symbols, hieroglyphics, forms comprehensible in an outer conception of things? We even speak of the light of truth and the warmth of love. Are not such expressions suggestive of an inner significance attributable to material phenomena? As all material bodies are now considered, by many authorities in scientific matters, to be formed from the universal ether, in which they "live and move and have their being," so all finite lives, all finite mentalities, have a basis on an infinite life, a universal intelligence, which lives in them, and they in it.

*Popular Science Monthly, Nov., 1894.

Ibid, Feb., 1892.

Science and Philosophy, on the one and the other hand, are fast closing the gap which has so long yawned between the apparently distinct worlds of Mind and Matter, and are making it increasingly evident that they are simply subjective and objective views, polar aspects, of one and the same Ultimate Reality. The investigations of Lord Kelvin, Tesla, Professor Dolbear and many other equally noted authorities, give hints which point to a final solution of the riddle of the sphinx of matter at no distant day. Professor Dolbear says:* study of molecular science is steadily making us aware that that which we call matter is something very different in its nature from what men have formerly thought. It has generally been assumed that matter is dead, inert, and made of nothing, whereas it turns out to have a basis on something which we call ether, the properties of which are so radically different from those of matter as exhibited in physical phenomena, that no conclusion as to its possibilities can be drawn except as they are manifested in the attributes of matter. The so-called laws of nature represent only a portion of the laws of matter. The latter are called mechanical, and phenomena of that class are all subservient to what are called mechanical laws. The atoms of matter appear to be manufactured articles, and therefore have a substratum; as they possess energy, energy must have been in existence prior to the existence of the first atom. And as the mechanical activities such as physical science at present has to do with, show to us the utter impossibility of constructing a single one, it leaves us with the persuasion that the energy in existence before matter was not of the mechanical kind. For that kind is what we have to deal with at present. Choice is exhibited in such disposition. of the energy as is displayed in the creation of matter.

The conclusion is seemingly as necessary as any reached in physical Science—indeed, it has the same cogency as that which has resulted in the nebular theory of the whole visible universe. Physical science, then, so far gives us a direct contribution to the subject. of theism, pronouncing distinctly in favor of a creator, as Christianity has so long assumed, but has not yet been able to prove in a satisfactory way."

* In a paper read at a philosophical conference, Tufts College, Nov. 10, 1897.

But, after all, even the psychic interpretation of life is unsatisfying. Every one, in his inmost nature, longs for freedom, and absolute freedom cannot possibly be realized in a psychic order-one in which a multitude of individuals are striving among themselves for supremacy. Bondage, servility, subordination, in greater or less degrees, are the lot of all such beings. If absolute freedom is ever to be gained, it must be on a plane superior even to the psychic.

Freedom is entirely excluded from the mechanical conception; in the physical conception it is subordinated to the operation of definite law-governed processes; in the psychic conception the superiority of self over fixed conditions begins to be evident; and on the spiritual plane we appreciate the absolute freedom of Self, and its triumph over all outer semblance of reality, such as force, necessity, law. We are made aware of the essential nature of law (i. e., compulsion, restraint, prohibition) only when we get out of tune with our Deeper Self. Law, in the conditioning sense, is unknown on the spiritual plane, for harmony and consistency are spontaneous, and do not result from compulsion. Law is not, therefore, destroyed, but fulfilled. Law and freedom are the polar opposites of experience; each excludes the other. We seem bound by law, until released from the thought of restraint by Spiritual Consciousness, for law only retains its supremacy over those who hold conceptions into which it enters, and of which it forms a part. We are taught by it to know our Deeper Self, and thereby to realize our essential freedom. The attainment of complete self-consciousness gives perfect freedom. No being can be absolutely free and still be subject to law. Realization of an absolute standard of selfhood, conscious oneness with our Deeper Self, and so with the Infinite, insures to the individual perfect freedom. The idea of law is derived from a conception of Reality essentially external. The degree to which we recognize the supremacy of law, then, indicates the incompleteness or insufficiency of our realization of our deeper selfhood. The assumption that external, absolutely immutable laws do in reality exist, denotes a deficiency or inadequacy in our conception of our essential nature. While we recognize the supremacy of law we cannot realize our potential freedom; when we gain this freedom we cease to be subject to law. This does not imply that we

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