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diff --git a/15568.txt b/15568.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36e070a --- /dev/null +++ b/15568.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4586 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Law and the Word, by Thomas Troward + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Law and the Word + +Author: Thomas Troward + +Release Date: April 6, 2005 [EBook #15568] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAW AND THE WORD *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Thomas Hutchinson and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + + + + + +THE LAW AND THE WORD + + +BY +T. TROWARD + +_Late Divisional Judge, Punjab. Honorary member of +the Medico-Legal Society of New York. +First Vice-President International +New Thought Alliance_ + +Author of the "Edinburgh Lectures on Mental +Science," etc. + + + + + +NEW YORK +ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY +1937 + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1917 +BY S.A. TROWARD + +_Published, May, 1917 + +Eighth Printing, June, 1937_ + + +THE LAW AND THE WORD + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE + +FOREWORD iii + + I SOME FACTS IN NATURE 1 + + II SOME PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES 18 + + III MAN'S PLACE IN THE CREATIVE ORDER 44 + + IV THE LAW OF WHOLENESS 75 + + V THE SOUL OF THE SUBJECT 85 + + VI THE PROMISES 103 + + VII DEATH AND IMMORTALITY 132 + +VIII TRANSFERRING THE BURDEN 168 + + + + +FOREWORD + +THOMAS TROWARD + +AN APPRECIATION + + +How is one to know a friend? Certainly not by the duration of +acquaintance. Neither can friendship be bought or sold by service +rendered. Nor can it be coined into acts of gallantry or phrases of +flattery. It has no part in the small change of courtesy. It is outside +all these, containing them all and superior to them all. + +To some is given the great privilege of a day set apart to mark the +arrival of a total stranger panoplied with all the insignia of +friendship. He comes unannounced. He bears no letter of introduction. No +mutual friend can vouch for him. Suddenly and silently he steps +unexpectedly out of the shadow of material concern and spiritual +obscurity, into the radiance of intimate friendship, as a picture is +projected upon a lighted screen. But unlike the phantom picture he is an +instant reality that one's whole being immediately recognizes, and the +radiance of fellowship that pervades his word, thought and action holds +all the essence of long companionship. + +Unfortunately there are too few of these bright messengers of God to be +met with in life's pilgrimage, but that Judge Troward was one of them +will never be doubted by the thousands who are now mourning his +departure from among us. Those whose closest touch with him has been the +reading of his books will mourn him as a friend only less than those who +listened to him on the platform. For no books ever written more clearly +expressed the author. The same simple lucidity and gentle humanity, the +same effort to discard complicated non-essentials, mark both the man and +his books. + +Although the spirit of benign friendliness pervades his writings and +illuminated his public life, yet much of his capacity for friendship was +denied those who were not privileged to clasp hands with him and to sit +beside him in familiar confidence. Only in the intimacy of the fireside +did he wholly reveal his innate modesty and simplicity of character. +Here alone, glamoured with his radiating friendship, was shown the +wealth of his richly-stored mind equipped by nature and long training to +deal logically with the most profound and abstruse questions of life. +Here indeed was proof of his greatness, his unassuming superiority, his +humanity, his keen sense of honour, his wit and humour, his generosity +and all the characteristics of a rare gentleman, a kindly philosopher +and a true friend. + +To Judge Troward was given the logician's power to strip a subject bare +of all superfluous and concealing verbiage, and to exhibit the gleaming +jewels of truth and reality in splendid simplicity. This supreme +quality, this ability to make the complex simple, the power to +subordinate the non-essential, gave to his conversation, to his +lectures, to his writings, and in no less degree to his personality, a +direct and charming naivete that at once challenged attention and +compelled confidence and affection. + +His sincerity was beyond question. However much one might differ from +him in opinion, at least one never doubted his profound faith and +complete devotion to truth. His guileless nature was beyond ungenerous +suspicions and selfish ambitions. He walked calmly upon his way wrapped +in the majesty of his great thoughts, oblivious to the vexations of the +world's cynicism. Charity and reverence for the indwelling spirit marked +all his human relations. Tolerance of the opinions of others, +benevolence and tenderness dwelt in his every word and act. Yet his +careful consideration of others did not paralyze the strength of his +firm will or his power to strike hard blows at wrong and error. The +search for truth, to which his life was devoted, was to him a holy +quest. That he could and would lay a lance in defence of his opinions is +evidenced in his writings, and has many times been demonstrated to the +discomfiture of assailing critics. But his urbanity was a part of +himself and never departed from him. + +Not to destroy but to create was his part in the world. In developing +his philosophy he built upon the foundation of his predecessors. No good +and true stone to be found among the ruins of the past, but was +carefully worked into his superstructure of modern thought, radiant with +spirituality, to the building of which the enthusiasm of his life was +devoted. + +To one who has studied Judge Troward, and grasped the significance of +his theory of the "Universal Sub-conscious Mind," and who also has +attained to an appreciation of Henri Bergson's theory of a "Universal +Livingness," superior to and outside the material Universe, there must +appear a distinct correlation of ideas. That intricate and ponderously +irrefutable argument that Bergson has so patiently built up by deep +scientific research and unsurpassed profundity of thought and +crystal-clear reason, that leads to the substantial conclusion that man +has leapt the barrier of materiality only by the urge of some external +pressure superior to himself, but which, by reason of infinite effort, +he alone of all terrestrial beings has succeeded in utilizing in a +superior manner and to his advantage: this well-rounded and exhaustively +demonstrated argument in favour of a super-livingness in the universe, +which finds its highest terrestrial expression in man, appears to be the +scientific demonstration of Judge Troward's basic principle of the +"Universal Sub-conscious Mind." This universal and infinite +God-consciousness which Judge Troward postulates as man's +sub-consciousness, and from which man was created and is maintained, +and of which all physical, mental and spiritual manifestation is a form +of expression, appears to be a corollary of Bergson's demonstrated +"Universal Livingness." What Bergson has so brilliantly proven by +patient and exhaustive processes of science, Judge Troward arrived at by +intuition, and postulated as the basis of his argument, which he +proceeded to develop by deductive reasoning. + +The writer was struck by the apparent parallelism of these two +distinctly dissimilar philosophies, and mentioned the discovery to Judge +Troward who naturally expressed a wish to read Bergson, with whose +writings he was wholly unacquainted. A loan of Bergson's "Creative +Evolution" produced no comment for several weeks, when it was returned +with the characteristic remark, "I've tried my best to get hold of him, +but I don't know what he is talking about." I mention the remark as +being characteristic only because it indicates his extreme modesty and +disregard of exhaustive scientific research. + +The Bergson method of scientific expression was unintelligible to his +mind, trained to intuitive reasoning. The very elaborateness and +microscopic detail that makes Bergson great is opposed to Judge +Troward's method of simplicity. He cared not for complexities, and the +intricate minutiae of the process of creation, but was only concerned +with its motive power--the spiritual principles upon which it was +organized and upon which it proceeds. + +Although the conservator of truth of every form and degree wherever +found, Judge Troward was a ruthless destroyer of sham and pretence. To +those submissive minds that placidly accept everything indiscriminately, +and also those who prefer to follow along paths of well-beaten opinion, +because the beaten path is popular, to all such he would perhaps appear +to be an irreverent iconoclast seeking to uproot long accepted dogma and +to overturn existing faiths. Such an opinion of Judge Troward's work +could not prevail with any one who has studied his teachings. + +His reverence for the fundamental truths of religious faith was +profound, and every student of his writings will testify to the great +constructive value of his work. He builded upon an ancient foundation a +new and nobler structure of human destiny, solid in its simplicity and +beautiful in its innate grandeur. + +But to the wide circle of Judge Troward's friends he will best and most +gloriously be remembered as a teacher. In his magic mind the +unfathomable revealed its depths and the illimitable its boundaries; +metaphysics took on the simplicity of the ponderable, and man himself +occupied a new and more dignified place in the Cosmos. Not only did he +perceive clearly, but he also possessed that quality of mind even more +rare than deep and clear perception, that clarity of expression and +exposition that can carry another and less-informed mind along with it, +on the current of its understanding, to a logical and comprehended +conclusion. + +In his books, his lectures and his personality he was always ready to +take the student by the hand, and in perfect simplicity and friendliness +to walk and talk with him about the deeper mysteries of life--the life +that includes death--and to shed the brilliant light of his wisdom upon +the obscure and difficult problems that torment sincere but rebellious +minds. + +His artistic nature found expression in brush and canvas and his great +love for the sea is reflected in many beautiful marine sketches. But if +painting was his recreation, his work was the pursuit of Truth wherever +to be found, and in whatever disguise. + +His life has enriched and enlarged the lives of many, and all those who +knew him will understand that in helping others he was accomplishing +exactly what he most desired. Knowledge, to him, was worth only what it +yielded in uplifting humanity to a higher spiritual appreciation, and to +a deeper understanding of God's purpose and man's destiny. + + A man, indeed! He strove not for a place, + Nor rest, nor rule. He daily walked with God. + His willing feet with service swift were shod-- + An eager soul to serve the human race, + Illume the mind, and fill the heart with grace-- + Hope blooms afresh where'er those feet have trod. + + PAUL DERRICK. + + + + + +THE LAW AND THE WORD + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SOME FACTS IN NATURE + + +If I were asked what, in my opinion, distinguishes the thought of the +present day from that of a previous generation, I should feel inclined +to say, it is the fact that people are beginning to realize that Thought +is a power in itself, one of the great forces of the Universe, and +ultimately the greatest of forces, directing all the others. This idea +seems to be, as the French say, "in the air," and this very well +expresses the state of the case--the idea is rapidly spreading through +many countries and through all classes, but it is still very much "in +the air." It is to a great extent as yet only in a gaseous condition, +vague and nebulous, and so not leading to the practical results, both +individual and collective, which might be expected of it, if it were +consolidated into a more workable form. We are like some amateurs who +want to paint finished pictures before they have studied the elements of +Art, and when they see an artist do without difficulty what they vainly +attempt, they look upon him as a being specially favoured by Providence, +instead of putting it down to their own want of knowledge. The idea is +true. Thought _is_ the great power of the Universe. But to make it +practically available we must know something of the principles by which +it works--that it is not a mere vaporous indefinable influence floating +around and subject to no known laws, but that on the contrary, it +follows laws as uncompromising as those of mathematics, while at the +same time allowing unlimited freedom to the individual. + +Now the purpose of the following pages, is to suggest to the reader the +lines on which to find his way out of this nebulous sort of thought into +something more solid and reliable. I do not profess, like a certain +Negro preacher, to "unscrew the inscrutable," for we can never reach a +point where we shall not find the inscrutable still ahead of us; but if +I can indicate the use of a screw-driver instead of a hatchet, and that +the screws should be turned from left to right, instead of from right to +left, it may enable us to unscrew some things which would otherwise +remain screwed down tight. We are all beginners, and indeed the +hopefulness of life is in realizing that there are such vistas of +unending possibilities before us, that however far we may advance, we +shall always be on the threshold of something greater. We must be like +Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up--heaven defend me from ever feeling +quite grown up, for then I should come to a standstill; so the reader +must take what I have to say simply as the talk of one boy to another in +the Great School, and not expect too much. + +The first question then is, where to begin. Descartes commenced his book +with the words "Cogito, ergo sum." "I think, therefore I am," and we +cannot do better than follow his example. There are two things about +which we cannot have any doubt--our own existence, and that of the world +around us. But what is it in us that is aware of these two things, that +hopes and fears and plans regarding them? Certainly not our flesh and +bones. A man whose leg has been amputated is able to think just the +same. Therefore it is obvious that there is something in us which +receives impressions and forms ideas, that reasons upon facts and +determines upon courses of action and carries them out, which is not the +physical body. This is the real "I Myself." This is the Person we are +really concerned with; and it is the betterment of this "I Myself" that +makes it worth while to enquire what our Thought has to do in the +matter. + +Equally true it is on the other hand that the forces of Nature around us +do not think. Steam, electricity, gravitation, and chemical affinity do +not think. They follow certain fixed laws which we have no power to +alter. Therefore we are confronted at the outset by a broad distinction +between two modes of Motion--the Movement of Thought and the Movement of +Cosmic Energy--the one based upon the exercise of Consciousness and +Will, and the other based upon Mathematical Sequence. This is why that +system of instruction known as Free Masonry starts by erecting the two +symbolic pillars Jachin and Boaz--Jachin so called from the root "Yak" +meaning "One," indicating the Mathematical element of Law; and Boaz, +from the root "Awaz" meaning "Voice" indicating Personal element of Free +Will. These names are taken from the description in I Kings vii, 21 and +II Chron. iii, 17 of the building of Solomon's Temple, where these two +pillars stood before the entrance, the meaning being that the Temple of +Truth can only be entered by passing between them, that is, by giving +each of these factors their due relation to the other, and by realizing +that they are the two Pillars of the Universe, and that no real progress +can be made except by finding the true balance between them. Law and +Personality--these are the two great principles with which we have to +deal, and the problem is to square the one with the other. + +Let me start, then, by considering some well established facts in the +physical world which show how the known Law acts under certain known +conditions, and this will lead us on in an intelligible manner to see +how the same Law is likely to work under as yet unknown conditions. If +we had to deal with unknown laws as well as unknown conditions we +should, indeed, be up a gum tree. Fancy a mathematician having to solve +an equation, both sides of which were entirely made up of unknown +quantities--where would he be? Happily this is not the case. The Law is +ONE throughout, and the apparent variety of its working results from the +infinite variety of the conditions under which it may work. Let us lay a +foundation, then, by seeing how it works in what we call the common +course of Nature. A few examples will suffice. + +Hardly more than a generation ago it was supposed that the analysis of +matter could not be carried further than its reduction to some seventy +primary chemical elements, which in various combinations produced all +material substances; but there was no explanation how all these +different elements came into existence. Each appeared to be an original +creation, and there was no accounting for them. But now-a-days, as the +rustic physician says in Moliere's play of the "Medecin Malgre Lui," +"nous avons change tout cela." Modern science has shown conclusively +that every kind of chemical atom is composed of particles of one +original substance which appears to pervade all space, and to which the +name of Ether has been given. Some of these particles carry a positive +charge of electricity and some a negative, and the chemical atom is +formed by the grouping of a certain number of negatively charged +particles round a centre composed of positive electricity around which +they revolve; and it is the number of these particles and the rate of +their motion that determines the nature of the atom, whether, for +instance, it will be an atom of iron or an atom of hydrogen, and thus we +are brought back to Plato's old aphorism that the Universe consists of +Number and Motion. + +The size of these etheric particles is small beyond anything but +abstract mathematical conception. Sir Oliver Lodge is reported to have +made the following comparison in a lecture delivered at Birmingham. "The +chemical atom," he said, "is as small in comparison to a drop of water +as a cricket-ball is compared to the globe of the earth; and yet this +atom is as large in comparison to one of its constituent particles as +Birmingham town-hall is to a pin's head." Again, it has been said that +in proportion to the size of the particles the distance at which they +revolve round the centre of the atom is as great as the distance from +the earth to the sun. I must leave the realization of such infinite +minuteness to the reader's imagination--it is beyond mine. + +Modern science thus shows us all material substance, whether that of +inanimate matter or that of our own bodies, as proceeding out of one +primary etheric substance occupying all space and homogeneous, that is +being of a uniform substance--and having no qualities to distinguish one +part from another. Now this conclusion of science is important because +it is precisely the fact that out of this homogeneous substance +particles are produced which differ from the original substance in that +they possess positive and negative energy and of these particles the +atom is built up. So then comes the question: What started this +differentiation? + +The electronic theory which I have just mentioned takes us as far as a +universal homogeneous ether as the source from which all matter is +evolved, but it does not account for how motion originated in it; but +perhaps another closely allied scientific theory will help us. Let us, +then, turn to the question of Vibrations or Waves in Ether. In +scientific language the length of a wave is the distance from the crest +of one wave to that of the wave immediately following it. Now modern +science recognizes a long series of waves in ether, commencing with the +smallest yet known measuring 0.1 micron, or about 1/254,000 of an inch, +in length, measured by Professor Schumann in 1893, and extending to +waves of many miles in length used in wireless telegraphy--for instance +those employed between Clifden in Galway and Glace Bay in Nova Scotia +are estimated to have a length of nearly four miles. These +infinitesimally small ultra-violet or actinic waves, as they are called, +are the principal agents in photography, and the great waves of wireless +telegraphy are able to carry a force across the Atlantic which can +sensibly affect the apparatus on the other side; therefore we see that +the ether of space affords a medium through which energy can be +transmitted by means of vibrations. + +But what starts the vibrations? Hertz announced his discovery of the +electro-magnetic waves, now known by his name, in 1888; but, following +up the labours of various other investigators, Lodge, Marconi and others +finally developed their practical application after Hertz's death which +occurred in 1894. To Hertz, however, belongs the honour of discovering +how to generate these waves by means of sudden, sharply defined, +electrical discharges. The principle may be illustrated by dropping a +stone in smooth water. The sudden impact sets up a series of ripples all +round the centre of disturbance, and the electrical impulse acts +similarly in the ether. Indeed the fact that the waves flow in all +directions from the central impulse is one of the difficulties of +wireless telegraphy, because the message may be picked up in any +direction by a receiver tuned to the same rate of vibration, and the +interest for us consists in the hypothesis that thought-waves act in an +analogous manner. + +That vibrations are excited by sound is beautifully exemplified by the +eidophone, an instrument invented, I believe, by Mrs. Watts-Hughes, and +with which I have seen that lady experiment. Dry sand is scattered on a +diaphragm on which the eidophone concentrates the vibrations from music +played near it. The sand, as it were, dances in time to the music, and +when the music stops is found to settle into definite forms, sometimes +like a tree or a flower, or else some geometrical figure, but never a +confused jumble. Perhaps in this we may find the origin of the legends +regarding the creative power of Orpheus' lyre, and also the sacred +dances of the ancients--who knows! + +Perhaps some critical reader may object that sound travels by means of +atmospheric and not etheric waves; but is he prepared to say that it +cannot produce etheric waves also. The very recent discovery of +transatlantic telephoning tends to show that etheric waves can be +generated by sound, for on the 20th of October, 1915, words spoken in +New York were immediately heard in Paris, and could therefore only have +been transmitted through the ether, for sound travels through the +atmosphere only at the rate of about 750 miles an hour, while the speed +of impulses through ether can only be compared to that of light or +186,000 miles in a second. It is therefore a fair inference that etheric +vibrations can be inaugurated by sound. + +Perhaps the reader may feel inclined to say with the Irishman that all +this is "as dry as ditch-water," but he will see before long that it has +a good deal to do with ourselves. For the present what I want him to +realize by a few examples is the mathematical accuracy of Law. The value +of these examples lies in their illustration of the fact that the Law +can always be trusted to lead us on to further knowledge. We see it +working under known conditions, and relying on its unchangeableness, we +can then logically infer what it will do under other hypothetical +conditions, and in this way many important discoveries have been made. +For instance it was in this way that Mendeleef, the Russian chemist, +assumed the existence of three then unknown chemical elements, now +called Scandium, Gallium and Germanium. There was a gap in the orderly +sequence of the chemical elements, and relying on the old maxim--"Natura +nihil facit per saltum"--Nature nowhere leaves a gap to jump over--he +argued that if such elements did not exist they ought to, and so he +calculated what these elements ought to be like, giving their atomic +weight, chemical affinities, and the like; and when they were discovered +many years later they were found to answer exactly to his description. +He prophesied, not by guesswork, but by knowledge of the Law; and in +much the same way radium was discovered by Professor and Madame Curie. +In like manner Hertz was led to the discovery of the electro-magnetic +waves. The celebrated mathematician Clerk-Maxwell had calculated all +particulars of these waves twenty-five years before Hertz, on the basis +of these calculations, worked out his discovery. Again, Neptune, the +outermost known planet of our system was discovered by the astronomer +Galle in consequence of calculations made by Leverrier. Certain +variations in the movements of the planets were mathematically +unaccountable except on the hypothesis that some more remote planet +existed. Astronomers had faith in mathematics and the hypothetical +planet was found to be a reality. Instances of this kind might be +multiplied, but as the French say "a quoi bon?" I think these will be +sufficient to convince the reader that the invariable sequence of Law is +a factor to be relied upon, and that by studying its working under known +conditions we may get at least some measure of light on conditions which +are as yet unknown to us. + +Let us now pass on to the human subject and consider a few examples of +what is usually called the psychic side of our nature. Walt Whitman was +quite right when he said that we are not all included between our hat +and our boots; we shall find that our modes of consciousness and powers +of action are not entirely restricted to our physical body. The +importance of this line of enquiry lies in the fact that if we do +possess extra-physical powers, these also form part of our personality +and must be included in our estimate of our relation to our environment, +and it is therefore worth our while to consider them. + +Some very interesting experiments have been made by De Rochas, an +eminent French scientist, which go to show that under certain magnetic +conditions the sensation of physical touch can be experienced at some +distance from the body. He found that under these conditions the person +experimented on is insensible to the prick of a needle run into his +skin, but if the prick is made about an inch-and-a-half away from the +surface of the skin he feels it. Again at about three inches from this +point he feels the prick of the needle, but is insensible to it in the +space between these two points. Then there comes another interval in +which no sensation is conveyed, but at about three inches still further +away he again feels the sensation, and so on; so that he appears to be +surrounded by successive zones of sensation, the first about an +inch-and-a-half from the body, and the others at intervals of about +three inches each. The number of these zones seems to vary in different +cases, but in some there are as many as six or seven, thus giving a +radius of sensation, extending to more than twenty inches beyond the +body. + +Now to explain this we must have recourse to what I have already said +about waves. The heart and the lungs are the two centres of automatic +rhythmic movement in the body, and each projects its own series of +vibrations into the etheric envelope. Those projected by the lungs are +estimated to be three times the length of those projected by the heart, +while those projected by the heart are three times as rapid as those +projected by the lungs. Consequently if the two sets of waves start +together the crest of every third wave of the rapid series of short +waves will coincide with the crest of one of the long waves of the +slower series, while the intermediate short waves will coincide with the +depression of one of the long waves. Now the effect of the crest of one +wave overtaking that of another going in the same direction, is to raise +the two together at that point into a single wave of greater amplitude +or height than the original waves had by themselves; if the reader has +the opportunity of studying the inflowing of waves on the seabeach he +can verify this for himself. Consequently when the more rapid etheric +waves overtake the slower ones they combine to form a larger wave, and +it is at these points that the zones of sensation occur. If the reader +will draw a diagram of two waved lines travelling along the same +horizontal line and so proportioned that the crest of each of the large +waves coincides with the crest of every third wave of the small ones, he +will see what I mean: and if he then recollects that the fall in the +larger waves neutralizes the rise in the smaller ones, and that because +this double series starts from the interior of the body the surface of +the body comes just at one of these neutralized points, he will see why +sensation is neutralized there; and he will also see why the succeeding +zones of sensation are double the distance from each other that the +first one is from the surface of the body; it is simply because the +surface of the body cuts the first long wave exactly in the middle, and +therefore only half that wave occurs outside the body. This is the +explanation given by De Rochas, and it affords another example of that +principle of mathematical sequence of which I have spoken. It would +appear that under normal conditions the double series of vibrations is +spread all over the body, and so all parts are alike sensitive to touch. + +I think, then, we may assume on the basis of De Rochas' experiments and +others that there are such things as etheric vibrations proceeding from +human personality, and in the next chapter I will give some examples +showing that the psychic personality extends still further than these +experiments, taken by themselves, would indicate--in fact that we +possess an additional range of faculties far exceeding those which we +ordinarily exercise through the physical body, and which must therefore +be included in our conception of ourselves if we are to have an adequate +idea of what we really are. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SOME PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES + + +The preceding chapter has introduced the reader to the general subject +of etheric vibration as one of the natural forces of the Universe, both +as the foundation of all matter and as the medium for the transmission +of energy to immense distances, and also as something continually +emanating from human beings. In the present chapter I shall consider it +more particularly in this last aspect, which, as included in our own +personality, very immediately concerns ourselves. I will commence with +an instance of the practical application of this fact. Some years ago I +was lunching at the house of Lady ---- in company of a well-known mental +healer whom I will call Mr. Y. and a well-known London physician whom I +will call Dr. W. Mr. Y. mentioned the case of a lady whose leg had been +amputated above the knee some years previously to her coming under his +care, yet she frequently felt pains in the (amputated) knee and lower +part of the left leg and foot. Dr. W. said this was to be attributed to +the nerves which convey to the brain the sensation of the extremities, +much as a telegraph line might be tapped in the middle, and Mr. Y. +agreed that this was perfectly true on the purely physical side. But he +went on to say, that accidentally putting his hand where the amputated +foot should have been he felt it there. Then it occurred to him that +since there was no material foot to be touched, it must be through the +medium of his own psychic body that the sensation of touch was conveyed +to him, and accordingly he asked the lady to imagine that she was making +various movements with the amputated limb, all of which he felt, and was +able to tell her what each movement was, which she said he did +correctly. Then, to carry the experiment further, he reversed the +process and with his hand moved the invisible leg and foot in various +ways, all of which the lady felt and described. He then determined to +treat the invisible leg as though it were a real one, and joined up the +circuit by taking her left foot in his right hand and her right foot +(the amputated one) in his left, with the result that she immediately +felt relief; and after successive treatments in this way was entirely +cured. + +A well authenticated case like this opens up a good many interesting +questions regarding the Psychic Body, but the most important point +appears to me to be that we are able to experience sensation by means of +it. In this case, however, and those mentioned in the preceding chapter, +the physical body was actually present, and if we stopped at this point, +we might question whether its presence was not a _sine qua non_ for the +action of the etheric vibrations. I will therefore pass on to a class of +examples which show that very curious phenomena can take place without +the physical body being on the spot. There are numerous well verified +cases of the kind to be found in the records of the Society for +Psychical Research and in other books by trustworthy writers; but it may +perhaps interest the present reader to hear one or two instances of my +personal experience which, though they may not be so striking as some of +those recorded by others, still point in the same direction. + +My first introduction to Scotland was when I delivered the course of +lectures in Edinburgh which led to the publication of my first book, +the "Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science." The following years I gave +a second course of lectures in Edinburgh, but the friends who had kindly +entertained me on the former occasion had in the meanwhile gone to live +elsewhere. However, a certain Mr. S., whose acquaintance I had made on +my previous visit, invited me to stay with him for a day or two while I +could look round for other accommodation, though, as it turned out, I +remained at his house during the whole month I was in Edinburgh. I had, +however, never seen his house, which was on the opposite side of the +town to where I had stayed before. I arrived there on a Tuesday, and Mr. +S. and his family at once met me with the question: + +"What were you thinking of at ten o'clock on Sunday evening?" + +I could not immediately recall this, and also wanted to know the reason +of their question. + +"We have something curious to tell you," they replied, "but first try to +remember what you were thinking of at ten o'clock on Sunday +evening--were you thinking about us?" + +Then I recollected that about that time I was saying my usual prayers +before going to bed and had asked that, if I could stay only a day or +two with Mr. S., I should be directed to a suitable place for the +remainder of the time. + +"That explains it," they replied; and then they went on to tell me that +at the hour in question Mr. S. and his son, a young man of about twenty, +had entered their dining-room together and seen me standing leaning +against the mantel-shelf. They were both hard-headed Scotchmen engaged +in business in Edinburgh, and certainly not the sort of people to +conjure up fanciful imaginings, nor is it likely that the same fancy +should have occurred to both of them; and therefore I can only suppose +that they actually saw what they said they did. Now I myself was in +London at the time of this appearance in Edinburgh, of which I had no +consciousness whatever; at the same time the fact of my being seen in +Edinburgh exactly at the time when my thought, in prayer, was centred +upon Mr. S.'s house (which I had not then seen) is a coincidence +suggesting that in some way my Thought had made itself visible there in +the image of my external personality. + +In this case, as I have said, I was not conscious of my psychic visit to +Edinburgh, but I will now relate a converse instance, which occurred in +connection with my first visit there. At that time I had never been in +Scotland, and so far as I knew was never likely to go there. I was wide +awake, writing in my study at Norwood, where I then lived, when I +suddenly found myself in a place totally unknown to me, where stood the +ruins of an ancient abbey, part of which, however, was still roofed over +and used as a place of worship. I felt much interested, and among other +things I noted a Latin inscription on a tablet in one of the walls. +There seemed to be an invisible guide showing me over the place, who +then pointed out a long low house opposite the abbey, and said: "This is +the house of the clergyman of the abbey"; and I was then taken inside +the house and shown a number of antique-looking rooms. Then I came to +myself, and found I was sitting at my writing-table in Norwood. I had, +however, a clear recollection of the place I had seen, but no idea where +it was, or indeed whether any such place really existed. I also +remembered a portion of the Latin inscription, which I at once wrote +down in a note-book, as my curiosity was aroused. + +As I have said, I had no reason at that time to suppose I should ever +go to Scotland, but some weeks later I was invited to lecture in +Edinburgh. Another visitor in the house where I was a guest there, was +the wife of the County Court Judge of Cumberland, and I showed her and +our hostess the part of the Latin inscription I had retained, and +suggested that perhaps it might exist somewhere in Edinburgh. However +nothing answering to what I had seen was to be found, so we relegated +the whole thing to the region of unaccountable fancies, and thought no +more about it. The Judge's wife took her departure before me, and kindly +invited me to spend a few days at their residence near Carlisle on my +return journey, which I did. One day she drove me out to see Lanercost +Abbey, one of the show-places of the neighbourhood, and walking round +the building I found in one of the walls the Latin inscription in +question. I called Mrs. ----, who was a little way off, and said: "Look +at this inscription." + +She at once replied: "Why! that is the very inscription we were all +puzzling over in Edinburgh!" + +It turned out to be an inscription in memory of the founder of the +abbey, dating from somewhere in the eleven-hundreds. The whole place +answered exactly to what I had seen, and the long low parsonage was +there also. + +"I should have liked you to see it inside," said Mrs. ----, "but I have +never met the vicar, though I know his mother-in-law, so we must give it +up." + +We were just entering our carriage when the garden-gate opened, and who +should come out but the mother-in-law. + +"Oh, Mrs. ----," she said, addressing the Judge's wife, "I am here on a +visit and you must come in and take tea." So we went in and were shown +over the house, much as I had been in my vision, and some portions were +so old that, among other rooms, we were shown the one occupied by King +Edward I on his march against Scotland in the year 1296, when the +Scottish regalia was captured, and the celebrated Crowning-Stone was +brought to England and placed in Westminster Abbey, where it has ever +since remained--a stone having an occult relation to the history of the +British and American peoples of the highest interest to both, but as +there is already an extensive literature on this subject I will not +enter upon it here. + +I will now relate another curious experience. We had only recently +taken up our residence at Norwood, when one day I was seated in the +dining-room, but suddenly found myself in the hall, and saw two ladies +going up the stairs. They passed close to me, and turning round the +landing at the top of the stairs passed out of sight in a perfectly +natural manner. They looked as solid as any one I have ever seen in my +life. One of them was a stout lady with a rather florid complexion, +apparently between forty-five and fifty, wearing a silk blouse with thin +purple and white stripes. Leaning on her arm was a slightly-built old +lady with white ringlets, dressed all in black and wearing a lace +mantilla. I noticed their appearance particularly. The next moment I +found I was really sitting in the dining-room, and that the ladies I had +seen were nothing but visionary figures. I wondered what it could mean, +but as we had only recently taken the house, thought it better not to +mention it to any of my family, for fear of causing them alarm. But a +few days later I mentioned it to a Mrs. F. who I knew had had some +experience in such matters, and she said: "You have seen either some one +who has lived in the house or who is going to live there." Then the +matter dropped. + +About a month later my wife arranged by correspondence for a certain +Miss B. to come as governess to our children. When she arrived there was +no mistaking her identity. She was the stout lady I had seen, and the +next morning she came down to breakfast dressed in the identical blouse +with purple and white stripes. There was no mistaking her, but I was +puzzled as to who the other figure could be whom I had seen along with +her. I resolved, however, to say nothing about the matter until we +became better acquainted, lest she should think that my mind was not +quite balanced. I therefore held my peace for six months, at the end of +which time I concluded that we knew enough of each other to allow one +another credit for being fairly level-headed. Then I thought, now if I +tell her what I saw she may perhaps be acted upon by suggestion and +imagine a resemblance between the unknown figure and some acquaintance +of hers, so I will not begin by telling her of the vision, but will +first ask if she knows any one answering to the description, and give +her the reason afterwards. I therefore took a suitable opportunity of +asking her if she knew any such person, describing the figure to her as +accurately as I could. + +Her look of surprise grew as I went on, and when I had finished she +explained with astonishment: "Why, Mr. Troward, where _could_ you have +seen my mother? She is an invalid, and I am certain you have never seen +her, and yet you have described her most accurately." + +Then I told her what I had seen. She asked what I thought was the +explanation of the appearance, and the only explanation I could give +was, that I supposed she was on the look-out for a post and paid us a +preliminary visit to see whether ours would suit her, and that, being +naturally interested in her welfare, her mother had accompanied her. +Perhaps you will say: "What came of it?" Well, nothing "came of it," nor +did anything "come" of my psychic visits to Edinburgh and Lanercost +Abbey. Such occurrences seem to be simple facts in Nature which, though +on some occasions connected with premonitions of more or less +importance, are by no means necessarily so. They are the functioning of +certain faculties which we all possess, but of the nature of which we as +yet know very little. + +It will be noticed that in the first of these three cases I myself was +the person seen, though unaware of the fact. In the last I was the +percipient, but the persons seen by me were unconscious of their visit; +and in the second case I was conscious of my presence at a place which I +had never heard of, and which I visited some time after. In two of these +cases, therefore, the persons, making the psychic visit, were not aware +of having done so, while in the third, a memory of what had been seen +was retained. But all three cases have this in common, that the psychic +visit was not the result of an act of conscious volition, and also, that +the psychic action took place at a long distance from the physical body. + +From these personal experiences, as well as from many well authenticated +cases recorded by other writers, I should be inclined to infer that the +psychic action is entirely independent of the physical body, and in +support of this view I will cite yet another experience. + +It was about the year 1875, when I was a young Assistant Commissioner in +the Punjab, that I was ordered to the small up-country station of +Akalpur,[1] and took possession of the Assistant Commissioner's +bungalow there. On the night of our arrival in the bungalow, my wife and +I had our charpoys--light Indian bedsteads--placed side by side in a +certain room and went to bed. The last thing I remembered before falling +asleep, was seeing my wife sitting up in bed, reading with a lamp on a +small table beside her. Suddenly I was awakened by the sound of a shot, +and starting up, found the room in darkness. I immediately lit a candle +which was on a chair by my bedside, and found my wife still sitting up +with the book on her knee, but the lamp had gone out. + +"Take me away, take me into another room," she exclaimed. + +"Why, what is the matter?" I said. + +"Did you not see it?" she replied. + +"See what?" I asked. + +"Don't stop to ask any questions," she replied; "get me out of this room +at once; I can't stop here another minute." + +I saw she was very frightened, so I called up the servants, and had our +beds removed to a room on the other side of the house, and then she told +me what she had seen. She said: "I was sitting reading as you saw me, +when looking round, I saw the figure of an Englishman standing close by +my bedside, a fine-looking man with a large fair moustache and dressed +in a grey suit. I was so surprised that I could not speak, and we +remained looking at each other for about a minute. Then he bent over me +and whispered: 'Don't be afraid,' and with that there was the sound of a +shot, and everything was in darkness." + +"My dear girl, you must have fallen asleep over your book and been +dreaming," I said. + +"No, I was wide awake," she insisted; "you were asleep, but I was awake +all the time. But you heard the shot, did you not?" + +"Yes," I replied, "that is what woke me--some one must have fired a shot +outside." + +"But why should any one be shooting in our garden at nearly midnight?" +my wife objected. + +It certain seemed strange, but it was the only explanation that +suggested itself; so we had to agree to differ, she being convinced that +she had seen a ghost, and that the shot had been inside the room, and I +being equally convinced that she had been dreaming, and that the shot +had been fired outside the house. + +The next morning the owner of the bungalow, an old widow lady, Mrs. La +Chaire, called to make kindly enquiries as to whether she could be of +any service to us on our arrival. After thanking her, my wife said: "I +expect you will laugh at me, but I cannot help telling you there is +something strange about the bungalow"; and she then went on to narrate +what she had seen. + +Instead of laughing the old lady looked more and more serious as she +went on, and when she had done asked to be shown exactly where the +apparition had appeared. My wife took her to the spot, and on being +shown it old Mrs. La Chaire exclaimed: "This is the most wonderful thing +I have ever heard of. Eighteen years ago my bed was on the very spot +where yours was last night, and I was lying in it too ill to move, when +my husband, whom you have described most accurately, stood where you saw +him and shot himself dead." + +This statement of the widow convinced me that my wife had really seen +what she said she had, and had not dreamed it; and this experience has +led me to make further enquiries into the nature of happenings of this +kind, with the result, that after carefully eliminating all cases which +could be accounted for in any other manner, I have found myself +compelled to admit a considerable number of instances of what are +called "ghosts," on the word of persons whose veracity and soundness of +judgment I should not doubt on any other subject. It is often said that +you never meet any one who has himself seen a ghost, but only those who +have heard of somebody else seeing one. This I can entirely contradict, +for I have met with many trustworthy persons of both sexes, who have +given me accounts of such appearances having been actually witnessed by +themselves. In conclusion, I may mention that I was telling this story +some twenty years later to a Colonel Fox, who had known the unfortunate +man who committed suicide, and he said to me: "Do you know what were the +last words he said to his wife?" + +"No," I replied. + +"The very same words he spoke to your wife," said Colonel Fox. + +This is the story I refer to in my book "Bible Mystery and Bible +Meaning" as that of "the Ghost that I did not see." I do not attempt to +offer any explanation of it, but merely give the facts as they occurred, +and the reader must form his own theory on the subject; but the reason I +bring in this story in the present connection is, that in this instance +there could be no question of the physical body contributing to the +psychic phenomenon, since the person seen had been dead for nearly +twenty years; and coupling this fact with the distance from the physical +body at which the psychic action took place in the other cases I have +mentioned, I think there is a very strong presumption that the psychic +powers can, and do, act independently of the physical body; though of +course it does not follow from this that they cannot also act in +conjunction with it. + +On the other hand, a comparison of the present case with those +previously mentioned, fails to throw any light on the important question +whether the deceased feels any consciousness of the action which the +percipient sees, or whether what is seen is like a sort of photograph +impressed upon the atmosphere of a particular locality, and visible only +to certain persons, who are able to sense etheric wave-lengths which are +outside the range of the single octave forming the solar spectrum. It +throws no light on this question, because, in the case of my being seen +by Mr. S. in Edinburgh and that of Miss B. and her mother being seen by +me at Norwood, none of us were conscious of having been at those +places; while in the case of my psychic visit to Lanercost Abbey, and +other similar experiences I have had, I have been fully aware of seeing +the places in question. The evidence tells both ways, and I can +therefore only infer that there are two modes of psychic action, in one +of which the person projecting that action, whether voluntarily or +involuntarily, experiences corresponding sensations, and the other in +which he does not; but I am unable to offer any criterion by which the +observer can, with certainty, distinguish between the two. + +It appears to me, that such instances as those I have mentioned, point +to ranges of etheric action beyond those ordinarily recognized by +physical science, but the principle seems to be the same, and it is for +this reason that I have taken the modern scientific theory of etheric +vibration as our starting-point. The universe is one great whole, and +the laws of one part cannot contradict those of another; therefore the +explanation of such queer happenings is not to be found by denying the +well-ascertained laws of Nature on the physical plane, but by +considering whether these laws do not extend further. It is on this +account that I would lay stress on the Mathematical side of things, and +have adduced instances where various discoveries have been made by +following up the sequence indicated by the laws already known, and which +have thus enabled us to fill up gaps in our knowledge, which would +otherwise stop, or at least seriously hinder, our further progress. It +is in this way that Jachin helps Boaz, and that the undeviating nature +of Law, so far from limiting us, becomes our faithful ally if we will +only allow it to do so. + +I think, then, that the scientific idea of the ether, as a universal +medium pervading all space, and permeating all substance, will help us +to see that many things which are popularly called supernatural, are to +be attributed to the action of known laws working under, as yet, unknown +conditions, and therefore, when we are confronted with strange +phenomena, a knowledge of the general principles involved, will show us +in what direction to look for an explanation. Now applying this to the +present subject, we may reasonably argue, that since all physical matter +is scientifically proved to consist of the universal ether in various +degrees of condensation, there may be other degrees of condensation, +forming other modes of matter, which are beyond the scope of physical +vision and of our laboratory apparatus. And similarly, we may argue, +that just as various effects can be produced on the physical plane, by +the action of etheric waves of various lengths, so other effects might +be produced on these finer modes of matter, by etheric waves of other +lengths. And in this connection we must not forget that a gap occurs +between the "dark heat" groups and the Hertzian group, consisting of +five octaves of waves, the lengths of which have been theoretically +calculated, but whose action has not yet been discovered. Here we +admittedly have a wide field for the working of known laws under as yet +unknown conditions; and again, how can we say that there are not ranges +of unknown waves, yet smaller than the minute ultra-violet ones, which +commence the present known scale, or transcending those largest ones, +which bear our messages across the Atlantic? Mathematically, there is no +limit to the scale in either direction; and so, taking our stand on the +demonstrated facts of science, we find, that the known laws of Nature +point to their continuation in modes of matter and of force, of which we +have as yet no conception. It is therefore not at all necessary to +spurn the ground of established science to spread the wings of our +fancy; rather it affords us the requisite basis from which to start, +just as the aeronaut cannot rise without a solid surface from which to +spring. + +Now if we realize that the ether is an infinitely subtle fluid, +pervading all space, we see that it must constitute a connecting link +between all modes of substance, whether visible or invisible, in all +worlds, and may therefore be called the Universal Medium; and following +up our conception of the Continuity of Law, we may suppose that trains +of waves, inconceivably smaller or greater than any known to modern +science, are set up in this medium, in the same way as the +electro-magnetic waves with which we are acquainted; that is, by an +impulse which generates them from some particular point. In the region +of finer forces we are now prospecting, this impulse might well be the +Desire or Will of the spiritual entity which we ourselves are--that +thinking, feeling, inmost essence of ourself, which is the "noumenon" of +our individuality, and which, for the sake of brevity we call our "Ego," +a Latin word which simply means "I myself." This idea of spiritual +impulse is quite familiar to us in our every-day talk. We speak of an +impulsive person, meaning one who acts on a sudden thought without +giving due heed to consequences; so in our ordinary speech we look upon +thought as the initial impulse, only we restrict this to the case of +unregulated thought. But if unregulated thought acts as a centre of +impulse, why should not regulated thought do the same? Therefore we may +accept the idea of Thought as the initial impulse, which starts trains +of waves in the Universal Medium, whether with or without due +consideration, and having thus recognized its dynamic power, we must +learn to make the impulsions we thus send forth intelligent, well +defined, and directed to some useful purpose. The operator at some +wireless station does not use his instruments to send out a lot of +jumbled-up waves into the ether, but controls the impulsions into a +definite and intelligible order, and we must do the same. + +On some such lines as these, then, we may picture the desire of the Ego +as starting a train of waves in the Universal Medium, which are +reproduced in corresponding _form_ on reaching their destination. As +with the electro-magnetic waves, they may spread all round, just as +ripples do if we throw a stone into a pond; but they will only take form +where there is a correspondence able to receive them. This is what in +the language of electrical engineers is called "Syntony," which means +being tuned to the same rate of vibration, and no doubt it is from some +such cause, that we sometimes experience what seem inexplicable feelings +of attraction or repulsion towards different persons. This also appears +to furnish a key to thought-transference, hypnotism, and other allied +phenomena. + +If the reader questions whether thought is capable of generating +impulses in the etheric medium I would refer him to the experiment +mentioned in Chapter XIV of my "Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science," +where I describe how, when operating with Dr. Baraduc's biometer, I +found that the needle revolved through a smaller or large arc of the +circle, in response to my mental intention of concentrating a smaller or +larger degree of force upon it. Perhaps you will say that the difference +in the movement of the needle depended on the quantity of magnetism that +was flowing from me, to say nothing of other known forces, such as heat, +light, electricity, etc. Well, that is precisely the proposition I am +putting forward. What caused the difference in the intensity of the +magnetic flow was my intention of varying it, so that we come back to +mental action as the centre of impulsion from which the etheric waves +were generated. If, then, such a demonstration can be obtained on the +plane of purely physical matter, why need we doubt that the same Law +will work in the same way, in respect of those finer modes of substance, +and wider ranges of etheric vibrations, which, starting from the basis +of recognized physical science, the Law of Continuity would lead to by +an orderly sequence, and which the occurrence of what, for want of a +better name, we call occult phenomena require for their explanation? + +Before passing on to the more practical generalizations to be drawn from +the suggestions contained in this chapter, I may advert to an objection +sometimes brought by the sceptical in this matter. They say: "How is it +that apparitions are always seen in the dark?" and then they answer +their own question by saying, it is because superstitious people are +nervous in the dark and imagine all sorts of things. Then they laugh and +think they have disposed of the whole subject. But it is not disposed +of quite so easily, for not only are there many well attested cases of +such appearances in broad daylight, but there are also scientific facts, +showing that if we are right in explaining such happenings by etheric +action, such action is more readily produced at night than in the +presence of sunlight. + +In the early part of 1902 Marconi made some experiments on board the +American liner _Philadelphia_, which brought out the remarkable fact +that, while it was possible to transmit signals to a distance of fifteen +hundred miles during the night, they could not be transmitted further +than seven hundred miles during the day. The same was found to be the +case by Lieutenant Solari of the Italian Navy, at whose disposal the +ship _Carlo Alberta_ was placed by the King of Italy in 1902, for the +purpose of making investigations into wireless telegraphy; and summing +up the points which he considered to have been fully established by his +experiments on board that ship, he mentions among them the fact, that +sunlight has the effect of reducing the power of the electro-magnetic +waves, and that consequently a greater force is required to produce a +given result by day than by night. Here, then, is a reason why we might +expect to see more supernatural appearances, as we call them, at night +than in the day--they require a smaller amount of force to produce them. +At the same time, it is found that the great magnetic waves which cover +immense distances, work even more powerfully in the light than in the +dark. May it not be that these things show, that there is more than a +merely metaphorical use of words, when the Bible tells us of the power +of Light to dissipate, and bring to naught, the powers of Darkness, +while the Light itself is the Great Power, using the forces of the +universe on the widest scale? Perhaps it is none other than the +continuity of unchanging universal principles extending into the +mysterious realms of the spiritual world. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MAN'S PLACE IN THE CREATIVE ORDER + + +In the preceding chapters we have found certain definite facts,--that +all known matter is formed out of one primordial Universal +Substance,--that the ether spreading throughout limitless space is a +Universal Medium, through which it is possible to convey force by means +of vibrations,--and that vibrations can be started by the power of +Sound. These we have found to be well established facts of ordinary +science, and taking them as our starting-point, we may now begin to +speculate as to the possible workings of the known laws under unknown +conditions. + +One of the first things that naturally attract our attention is the +question,--How did Life originate? On this point I may quote two leading +men of science. Tyndall says: "I affirm that no shred of trustworthy +experimental testimony exists, to prove that life in our day has ever +appeared independently of antecedent life"; and Huxley says: "The +doctrine of biogenesis, or life only from life, is victorious along the +whole line at the present time." Such is the testimony of modern science +to the old maxim "Omne vivum exvivo." "All life proceeds from antecedent +life." Think it out for yourself and you will see that it could not +possibly be otherwise. + +Whatever may be our theory of the origin of life on the physical plane, +whether we regard it as commencing in a vivified slime at the bottom of +the sea, which we call protoplasm, or in any other way, the question of +how life got there still remains unanswered. The protoplasm being +material substance, must have its origin like all other material +substances, in the undifferentiated etheric Universal Substance, no +particle of which has any power of operating upon any other particle +until some initial vibration starts the movement; so that, on any theory +whatever, we are always brought back to the same question: What started +the condensation of the ether into the beginnings of a world-system? So +whether we consider the life which characterizes organized matter, or +the energy which characterizes inorganic matter, we cannot avoid the +conclusion, that both must have their source in some Original Power to +which we can assign no antecedent. This is the conclusion which has been +reached by all philosophic and religious systems that have really tried +to get at the root of the matter, simply because it is impossible to +form any other conception. + +This Living Power is what we mean when we speak of the All-Originating +Spirit. The existence of this Spirit is not a theological invention, but +a logical and scientific ultimate, without predicating which, nothing +else can be accounted for. The word "Spirit" comes from the Latin +"spiro" "I breathe," and so means "The Breath," as in Job xxxiii, +4,--"The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath +given me life"; and again in Ps. xxxiii, 6--"By the word of the Lord +were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his +mouth." + +In the opening chapter of Genesis, we are told that "the Spirit of God +moved upon the face of the waters." The words rendered "the Spirit of +God" are, in the original Hebrew "rouah AElohim," which is literally "the +Breathing of God"; and similarly, the ancient religious books of India, +make the "Swara" or Great Breath the commencement of all life and +energy. The word "rouah" in Genesis is remarkable. According to +rabbinical teaching, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet has a certain +symbolic significance, and when examined in this manner, the root from +which this word is derived conveys the idea of Expansive Movement. It is +the opposite of the word "hoshech," translated "darkness" in the same +passage of our Bible, which is similarly derived from a root conveying +the idea of Hardening and Compressing. It is the same idea that is +personified in the Zendavesta, the sacred book of the ancient Persians, +under the names of Ormuzd, the Spirit of Light; and Ahriman, the Spirit +of Darkness; and similarly in the old Assyrian myth of the struggle +between the Sun-God and Tiamat, the goddess of darkness. + +This conception of conflict between two opposite principles, Light and +Darkness, Compression and Expansion, will be found to underlie all the +ancient religions of the world, and it is conspicuous throughout our own +Scriptures. But it should be borne in mind that the oppositeness of +their nature does not necessarily mean conflict. The two principles of +Expansion and Contraction are not necessarily destructive; on the +contrary they are necessary correlatives to one another. Expansion alone +cannot produce form; cohesion must also be present. It is the regulated +balance between them that results in Creation. In the old legend, if I +remember rightly, the conflict is ended by Tiamat marrying her former +opponent. They were never really enemies, but there was a +misunderstanding between them, or rather there was a misunderstanding on +the part of Tiamat so long as she did not perceive the true character of +the Spirit of Light, and that their relation to one another was that of +co-operation and not of opposition. Thus also St. John tells us that +"the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not" +(John i, 5). It is this want of comprehension that is at the root of all +the trouble. + +The reader should note, however, that I am here speaking of that +Primeval Substance, which necessarily has no light in itself, because +there is as yet no vibration in it, for there can be no light without +vibration. We must not make the mistake of supposing that Matter is evil +in itself: it is our misconception of it that makes it the vehicle of +evil; and we must distinguish between the darkness of Matter and moral +darkness, though there is a spiritual correspondence between them. The +true development of Man consists in the self-expansion of the Divine +Spirit working through his mind, and thence upon his psychic and +physical organisms, but this can only be by the individual's +_willingness to receive_ that Spirit. Where the hindrance to this +working is only caused by ignorance of the true relation between +ourselves and the Divine Spirit, and the desire for truth is present, +the True Light will in due course disperse the darkness. But on the +other hand, if the hindrance is caused by _unwillingness_ to be led by +the Divine Spirit, then the Light cannot be _forced_ upon any one, and +for this reason Jesus said: "This is the condemnation, that light is +come into the World, and men loved darkness rather than light, because +their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, +neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he +that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made +manifest, that they are wrought in God" (John iii: 19-21). In physical +science these things have an exact parallel in "Ohm's Law" regarding the +resistance offered by the conductor to the flow of the electric +current. The correspondence is very remarkable and will be found more +fully explained in a later chapter. The Primary Darkness, both of +Substance and of Mind, has to be taken into account, if we would form an +intelligent conception of the twofold process of Involution and +Evolution continually at work in ourselves, which, by their combined +action, are able to lead to the limitless development both of the +individual and of the race. + +According to all teaching, then, both ancient and modern, all life and +energy have their source in a Primary Life and Energy, of which we can +only say that IT IS. We cannot conceive of any time when it was not, +for, if there was a time when no such Primary Energizing Life existed, +what was there to energize it? So we are landed in a _reductio ad +absurdum_ which leaves no alternative but to predicate the Eternal +Existence of an All-Originating Living Spirit. + +Let us stop for a moment to consider what we mean by "Eternal." When, +do you suppose, twice two began to make four? And when, do you +suppose, twice two will cease to make four? It is an eternal +principle, quite independent of time or conditions. Similarly with the +Originating Life. It is above time and above conditions--in a word it +is _undifferentiated_ and contains in itself the _potential_ of +infinite differentiation. This is what the Eternal Life is, and what +we want for the expansion of our own life is a truer comprehension of +it. We are like Tiamat, and must enter into intelligent and loving +union with the Spirit of Light, in order to realize the infinite +possibilities that lie before us. This is the ultimate meaning of the +maxim "Omne vivum ex vivo." + +We see, then, that the material universe, including our own bodies, has +its origin in the undifferentiated Universal Substance, and that the +first movement towards differentiation must be started by some initial +impulse, analogous to those which start vibrations in the ether known to +science; and that therefore this impulse must, in the first instance, +proceed from some Living Power eternal in itself, and independent of +time and conditions. Now all the ancient religions of the world concur, +in attributing this initial impulse to the power of Sound; and we have +seen, that as a matter of fact, sound has the power of starting +vibrations, and that these vibrations have an exact correspondence with +the quality of the sound, what we now call synchronous vibration. + +At this point, however, we are met by another fact. Cosmic activity +takes place only in certain definite areas. Solar systems do not jostle +each other in space. In a word the Sound, which thus starts the initial +impulse of creation, is guided by Intelligent Selection. Now sounds, +directed by purposeful intention, amount to Words, whether the words of +some spoken language or the tapping of the Morse code--it is the meaning +at the back of the sound that gives it verbal significance. It is for +this reason, that the concentration of creative energy in particular +areas, has from time immemorial been attributed to "The Word." The old +Sanskrit books call this selective concentrative power "Vach," which +means "Voice," and is the root of the Latin word "Vox," having the same +meaning. Philo, and the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria who follow him, +call it "Logos," which means the same; and we are all familiar with the +opening verses of St. John's Gospel and First Epistle in which he +attributes Creation to "The Word." + +Now we know, as a scientific fact, that solar systems have a definite +beginning in the gyration of nebulous matter, circling through vast +fields of interstellar space, as the great nebula in Andromeda does at +the present day. AEons upon aeons elapse, before the primary nebula +consolidates into a solar system such as ours is now; but science shows, +that from the time when the nebula first spreads its spiral across the +heavens, the mathematical element of Law asserts itself, and it is by +means of our recognition of the mathematical relations between the +forces of attraction and repulsion, that we have been able to acquire +any knowledge on the subject. I do not for an instant wish to suggest +that the Spiritual Power has not continued to be in operation also, but +a centre for the working of a Cosmic Law being once established, the +Spiritual Power works through that Law and not in opposition to it. On +the other hand, the selection of particular portions of space for the +manifestation of cosmic activity, indicates the action of free volition, +not determined by any law except the obvious consideration of allowing +room for the future solar system to move in. Similarly also with regard +to time. Spectroscopic analysis of the light from the stars, which are +suns many of them much greater than our own, shows that they are of +various ages--some quite young, some arrived at maturity, and some +passing into old age. Their creation must therefore be assigned to +different epochs, and we thus see the Originating Spirit exercising the +powers of Selection and Volition as to the time when, as well as to the +place where, a new world-system shall be inaugurated. + +Now it is this power of inauguration that all the ancient systems of +teaching attribute to the Divine Word. It is the passing of the +undifferentiated into differentiation, of the unmanifested into +manifestation, of the unlocalized into localization. It is the ushering +in of what the Brahminical books call a "Manvantara" or world-period, +and in like manner our Bible says that "In the beginning was the Word." +The English word "word" is closely allied to the Latin word "verbum" +which signifies both _word_ and _verb_. Grammarians tell us that the +verb "to be" is a verb-substantive, that is, it does not indicate any +action passing from the subject to the object. Now this exactly +describes the Spirit in its Eternity. We cannot conceive of It except as +always BEING; but the distribution of world-systems both in time and +space shows that it is not always cosmically active. In itself, apart +from manifestation, it is Pure Beingness, if I may coin such a word; and +it is for this reason that the Divine Name announced to Moses was "I +AM." But the fact that Creation exists, shows that from this Substantive +Pure Being there flows out a Verb Active, which reproduces in action, +what the I AM is in essence. It is just the same with ourselves. We must +first _be_ before we can _do_, and we can _do_ only to the extent to +which we _are_. We cannot express powers which we do not possess; so +that our doing necessarily coincides with the quality of our being. +Therefore the Divine Verb reproduces the Divine Substantive by a natural +sequence. It is _generated_ by the Divine "I AM," and for this reason it +is called "The Son of God." So we see that The Verb, The Word, and The +Son of God, are all different expressions for the same Power. + +Creative vibration in the Universal Substance can, therefore, only be +conceived of, as being inaugurated by the "Word" which _localizes_ the +activity of the Spirit in particular centres. This idea, of the +localization of the Spirit through the "Word," should be fully realized +as the energizing principle on the scale of the Macrocosm or "Great +World," because, as we shall find later on, the same principle acts in +the same way on the scale of the Microcosm or "Small World," which is +the individual man. This is why these things have a personal interest +for us, otherwise they would not be worth troubling about. But a mistake +to be avoided at this point, is that of supposing that the "Word" is +something which dictates to the Spirit when and where to operate. The +"Word" is the word of the Spirit itself, and not that of some higher +authority, for the Spirit being First Cause there can be nothing +anterior to dictate to it; there can be nothing before that which is +First. The "Word" which centralizes the activity of the Spirit, is +therefore that of the Spirit itself. We have an analogy in our own case. +If I go to New York the first movement in that direction is that of my +Thought or Desire. It is true that in my present state of evolution I +have to follow the usual methods of travel, but so far as my Thought is +concerned, I have been there all the time. Indeed, such a case as the +one I have mentioned, of my being seen in Edinburgh while I was +physically in London, seems to point to the actual transference of some +part of the personality to another locality, and similarly with my visit +to Lanercost Abbey; and the reader must remember, that such phenomena +are by no means uncommon--they are the natural action of some part of +our personality, and must therefore follow some natural law, even though +we may at present know very little of how it works. + +We see, therefore, both from _a priori_ reasoning, and from observed +facts, that it is the Word, Thought, or Desire of the Spirit, that +localizes its activity in some definite centre. The student should bear +this in mind as a leading principle, for he will find that it is of +general application, alike in the case of individuals, of groups of +individuals, and of entire nations. It is the key to the relation +between Law and Personality, the opening of the Grand Arcanum, the +equilibrating of Jachin and Boaz, and it is therefore of immediate +importance to ourselves. + +We may take, then, as a starting-point for further enquiry, the maxim +that Volition creates Centres of Spiritual Activity. But perhaps you +will say: "If this be true, what word or words am I to employ?" This is +a question which has puzzled a good many people before you. This "Word" +which so many have been in search of, has been variously called "the +Lost Word," "the Word of Power," "the Schemhammaphorasch or Secret Name +of God," and so on. A quaint Jewish legend of the Middle Ages says that +the "Hidden Name" was secretly inscribed in the innermost recesses of +the Temple; but that, even if discovered, which was most unlikely, it +could not be retained because, guarding it, were sculptured lions, which +gave such a supernatural roar as the intruder was quitting the spot, +that all memory of the "Hidden Name" was driven from his mind. Jesus, +however, says the legend, knew this and dodged the lions. He transcribed +the Name, and cutting open his thigh, hid the writing in the incision, +which, by magical art, he at once closed up; then, after leaving the +Temple, he took the writing out and so retained the knowledge of the +Name. In this way the legend accounts for his power to work miracles. + +Jesus, indeed, possessed the Word of Power, though not in the way +told in the legend, and he repeatedly proclaimed it in his +teaching:--"According to your Faith be it unto you"--"Verily, I say unto +you, whosoever shall say to this mountain, 'Be thou taken up and cast +into the sea'; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that +what he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith" +(Mark xi, 23). And similarly in the Old Testament we are told that the +Word is nigh to us, even in our hearts and in our mouth (Deut. xxx, 14). +What keeps the Word of Power hidden, is our belief that nothing so +simple could possibly be it. + +At the same time, simple though it be, it has Law and Reason at the back +of it, like everything else. The ancient Egyptians seem to have had +clearer ideas on this subject than we have. "The name was to the +Egyptians the _idea_ of the thing, without which it could not exist, and +the knowledge of which therefore gave power over that which answered to +it." "The _idea_ of the thing represented its _soul_."[2] This is the +same conception as the "archetypal ideas" of Plato, only carried +further, so as to apply, not only to classes, but to each individual of +the class, and, as we shall see later, there is a good deal of truth in +it. Put broadly, the conception is this--every external fact must have +a spiritual origin, an internal energizing principle, which causes it to +exist in the particular form in which it does. The outward fact is +called the Phenomenon, and the corresponding inward principle is called +the Noumenon. The dictionary definition of these two words is as +follows: "Phenomenon--the appearance which anything makes to our +consciousness as distinguished from what it is in itself." "Noumenon--an +unknown and unknowable substance or thing as it is in itself--the +opposite to the Phenomenon or form through which it becomes known to the +senses or the understanding" (Chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary). +Whether the dictionary be right in saying that the "noumena" of things +are entirely unknowable, the reader must decide for himself; but the +present book is an attempt to learn something about the "noumena" of +things in general, and of ourselves in particular, and what I want to +convey is, that the "noumenon" of anything is its essence, _in terms of +the Universal Energy and the Universal Substance, in their relation to +the particular Form in question_. Probably the Latin word "Nomen," a +Name, is derived from this Greek word, and in this sense everything has +its "hidden name"; and the region in which Thought-Power works, is this +region of spiritual beginnings. It deals with "hidden names"--that +inward essence which determines the outward form of things, persons, and +circumstances alike; and it is in order to make this clearer, that I +have commenced by sketching briefly the general principles of Substance +and Energy as now recognized by modern science. + +If I have made my meaning clear, you will see that what is wanted is +not the knowledge of particular words, but an understanding of general +principles. At the same time I would not assert that the reciting of +certain forms of words, such as the Indian "mantras" or the word AUM, +to which Oriental teachers attach a mystic significance, is entirely +without power. But the power is not in the words _but in our belief in +their power_. I will give an amusing instance of this. On several +occasions I have been consulted by persons who supposed themselves to +be under the influence of "malicious magnetism," emanating in some +cases from known, and in others from unknown, sources; and the remedy I +have prescribed has been this. Look the adverse power, mentally, full +in the face, and then assuming an attitude of confidence say +"Cock-a-doodle-doo." The enquirers have sometimes smiled at first, but +in every case the result has been successful. Perhaps this is why +AEsculapius is represented as accompanied by a cock. Possibly the +ancient physicians were in the habit of employing the +"Cock-a-doodle-doo" treatment; and I might recommend it to the faculty +to-day as very effective in certain cases. Now I do not think the +reader will attribute any particularly occult significance to +"Cock-a-doodle-doo." The power is in the mental attitude. To +"cock-a-doodle-doo" at any suggestion is to treat it with scorn and +derision, and to assume the very opposite of that receptive attitude +which enables a suggestion to affect us. That is the secret of this +method of treatment, and the principle is the same in all cases. + +It matters, then, very little what particular words we use. What does +matter is the intention and faith with which we use them. But perhaps +some reader will here take the role of cross-examining counsel, and say: +"You have just said it is a case of synchronous vibration--then surely +it is the actual sound of the particular syllables that counts--how do +you square this with your present statement?" The answer is that the Law +is always the same, but the mode of response to the Law is always +according to the nature of the medium in which it is operating. On the +plane of physical matter the vibrations are in tune with physical +sounds, as in the experiments with the eidophone; and similarly, on the +plane of ideas or "noumena," the response is in terms of that plane. The +word which creates "noumena," or spiritual centres of action, must +itself belong to the world of "noumena," so that it is not illogical to +say that it is the intention and faith that counts, and not the external +sound. In this is the secret of the Power of Thought. It is the +reproduction, on the miniature scale of the individual, of the same mode +of Power that makes the worlds. It is that Power of Personality, which, +combined with the action of the Law, brings out results which the Law +alone could never do--as the old maxim has it, "Nature unaided fails." + +This brings us to another important question--is not the creative power +of the Word limited by the immutability of the Law? If the Law cannot be +altered in the least particular, how can the Word be free to do what it +likes? The answer to this is contained in another maxim: "Every creation +carries its own mathematics along with it." You cannot create anything +without at the same time creating its relation to everything else, just +as in painting a landscape, the contour you give to the trees will +determine that of the sky. Therefore, whenever you create anything, you +thereby start a train of causation, which will work out in strict +accordance with the sort of thought that started it. The stream always +has the quality of its source. Thought which is in line with the Unity +of the Great Whole, will produce correspondingly harmonious results, and +Thought which is disruptive of the great Principle of Unity, will +produce correspondingly disputive results--hence all the trouble and +confusion in the world. Our Thought is perfectly free, and we can use it +either constructively or destructively as we choose; but the immutable +Law of Sequence will not permit us to plant a thought of one kind, and +make it bear fruit of another. + +Then the question very naturally suggests itself: Why did not God create +us so that we could not think negative or destructive thoughts? And the +answer is: Because He could not. There are some things which even God +cannot do. He cannot do anything that involves a contradiction in terms. +Even God could not make twice two either more or less than four. Now I +want the student to see clearly why making us incapable of +wrong-thinking would involve a contradiction in terms, and would +therefore be an impossibility. To see this we must realize what is our +place in the Order of the Universe. The name "Man" itself indicates +this. It comes from the Sanscrit root MN, which, in all its derivatives, +conveys the idea of Measurement, as in the word Mind, through the Latin +_mens_, the faculty which compares things and estimates them +accordingly; Moon, the heavenly body whose phases afford the most +obvious standard for the periodical measurement of time; Month, the +period thus measured; "Man," the largest of the Indian weights; and so +on. Man therefore means "The Measurer," and this very aptly describes +our place in the order of evolution, for it indicates the relation +between Personal Volition and Immutable Law. + +If we grant the truth of the maxim "Nature unaided fails" the whole +thing becomes clear, and the entire progress of applied science proves +the truth of this maxim. To recur to an illustration I have employed in +my previous books, the old ship-builders thought that ships were bound +to be built of wood and not of iron, because wood floats in water and +iron sinks; but now nearly all ships are made of iron. Yet the specific +gravities of wood and iron have not altered, and a log of wood floats +while a lump of iron sinks, just the same as they did in the days of +Drake and Frobisher. The only difference is, that people thought out the +_underlying principle_ of the law of flotation, and reduced it to the +generalized statement that anything will float, the weight of which is +less than that of the mass displaced by it, whether it be an iron ship +floating in water, or a balloon floating in air. So long as we restrict +ourselves to the mere recollection of observed facts, we shall make no +progress; but by carefully considering _why_ any force acted in the way +it did, under the particular conditions observed, we arrive at a +generalization of principle, showing that the force in question is +capable of hitherto unexpected applications if we provide the necessary +conditions. This is the way in which all advances have been made on the +material side, and on the principle of Continuity we may reasonably +infer that the same applies to the spiritual side also. + +We may generalize the whole position thus. When we first observe the +working of the Law under the conditions spontaneously provided by +Nature, it appears to limit us; but by seeking the _reason_ of the +action exhibited under these limited conditions, we discover the +principle, and true nature, of the Law in question, and we then learn +from the Law itself, what conditions to supply in order to give it more +extended scope, and direct its energy to the accomplishment of definite +purposes. The maxim we have to learn is that "Every Law _contains in +itself_ the principle of its own Expansion," which will set us free from +the limitation which that Law at first appeared to impose upon us. The +limitation was never in the Law, but in the conditions under which it +was working, and our power of selection and volition enables us to +provide new conditions, not spontaneously provided by Nature, and thus +to _specialize_ the Law, and disclose immense powers which had always +been latent in it, but which would for ever remain hidden unless brought +to light by the co-operation of the Personal Factor. The Law itself +never changes, but we can _specialize_ it by realizing the principle +involved and providing the conditions thus indicated. This is our place +in the Order of the Universe. We give definite direction to the action +of the Law, and in this way our Personal Factor is always acting upon +the law, whether we know it or not; and the Law, under the influence +thus impressed upon it, is all the time re-acting upon us. + +Now we cannot conceive any limit to Evolution. To suppose a point where +it comes to an end is a contradiction in terms. It is to suppose that +the Eternal Life Principle is used up, which is to deny its Eternity; +and, as we have seen, unless we assume its Eternity, it is impossible to +account either for our own existence or that of anything else. +Therefore, to say that a point will ever be reached where it will be +used up, is as absurd as saying that a point will be reached where the +sequence of numbers will be used up. Evolution, the progress from lower +to higher modes of manifestation of the underlying Principle of Life, is +therefore eternal, but, in regard to the human race, this progress +depends entirely on the extent to which we grasp the principles of the +Law of our own Being, and so learn to specialize it in the right +direction. Then if this be our place in the Universal Order, it becomes +clear that we could not occupy this place unless we had a perfectly free +hand to choose the conditions under which the Law is to operate; and +therefore, in order to pass beyond the limits of the mineral, vegetable +and animal kingdoms, and reach the status of being Persons, and not +things, we must have a freedom of selection and volition, which makes it +equally possible for us to select either rightly or wrongly; and the +purpose of sound teaching is to make us see the eternal principles +involved, and thus lead us to impress our Personality upon the Law, in +the way that will bring out the infinite possibilities of good which the +Law, rightly employed, contains. If it were possible to do this by an +automatic Law, doubtless the Creative Wisdom would have made us so. This +is why St. Paul says: "If there had been a law given which could have +given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. iii, +21). Note the words "a law _given_," that is to say, imposed by external +command; but it could not be. The laws of the Universe are Cosmic. In +themselves they are _impersonal_, and the infinite possibilities +contained in them, can only be brought out by the co-operation of the +Personal Factor. It is only as we grasp the true relation between Jachin +and Boaz, that we can enter into the Temple either of our own +Individuality, or of the boundless Universe in which we live. The +reason, therefore, why God did not make us mechanically incapable of +wrong thinking, is simply because the very idea involves a contradiction +in terms, which negatives all possibility of Creation. The conception +lands us in a _reductio ad absurdum_. + +Therefore, we are free to use our powers of Personality as we will, only +we must take the consequences. Now one error we are all very apt to fall +into, is the mistaken use of the Will. Its proper function is to keep +our other faculties in line with the Law, and thus enable us to +specialize it; but many people seem to think that by force of will they +can somehow manage to coerce the Law; in other words, that by force of +will they can sow a seed of one kind and make it bear fruit of another. +The Spirit of Life seeks to express itself in our individuality, through +the three avenues of reason, feeling, and will; but as in the Masonic +legend of the murder of Hiram Abif, the architect of Solomon's Temple, +it is beaten back on the side of reasoning, by the plummet of a logic +based on false premises; on the side of feeling, by the level of +conventional ideas; and on the side of will, by the hammer of a +short-sighted self-will, which gives the finishing blow; and it is not +until the true perception of the Principle of Life is resurrected within +us, that the Temple can be completed according to the true plan. + +It should be remembered that the will is _not_ the Creative Faculty in +us. It is the faculty of Conception that is the creative agent, and the +business of the Will is to keep that faculty in the right direction, +which will be determined by an enlightened Reason. Conception creates +ideas which are the seed, that, in due time, will produce fruit after +its own kind. In a broad sense we may call it the Imaging Faculty, only +we must not suppose that this necessarily implies the visualizing of +mental images, which is only a subsidiary mode of using this faculty. An +"immaculate conception" is therefore the only means by which the New +Liberated Man can be born in each of us. The sequence is always the +same. The Will holds the Conception together, and the idea thus formed +gives direction to the working of the Law. But this direction may be +either true or inverted; and the impersonal Law will work constructively +or destructively, according to the conception which it embodies. In this +way, then, will-power may be used to hold together an inverted +conception--the conception that our personal force of will is sufficient +to bear down all opposition. But this mental attitude ignores the fact, +that the fundamental principle of creative power is the Wholeness of the +Creation; and that, therefore, the idea of forcing compliance with our +wishes, by the power of our individual will, is an inverted conception, +which, though it may appear to succeed for a time, is bound to fail +eventually, because it antagonizes the very power it is seeking to use. +This inverted use of the Will is the basis of "Black Magic," a term some +readers will perhaps smile at, but which is practised at the present day +to a much greater extent than many of us have any idea of--not always, +indeed, with a full consciousness of its nature, but in many ways which +are the first steps on the Left-hand Path. Its mark is the determination +to act by Self-will, rather than using our will to co-operate with that +continuous forward movement of the Great Whole, which is the Will of +God. This inverted will entirely misses the point regarding the part we +are formed to play in the Creative Order, and so we miss the development +of our own individuality, and retrograde instead of going forward. + +But if we work _with_ the Law instead of against it, we shall find that +our word, that is to say our conception, will become more and more the +Word of Power, because it specializes the general Law in some particular +direction. The Law will serve us exactly to the extent to which we first +observe the Law. It is the same in everything. If the electrician tries +to go counter to the fundamental principle, that the electric current +always flows from a higher to a lower potential, he will be able to do +nothing with it; but let him observe this fundamental law and there is +nothing that electricity will not do for him within the field of its own +nature. In this sense, then, of specializing the general Law in a +particular direction, we may lay down the maxim that "The Law flows from +the Word, and not _vice versa_." + +When we use our Word in this way, not as expressing a self-will that +seeks to crush all that does not submit to it, but as a portion, however +small, of the Universal Cause, and therefore with the desire of acting +in harmony with that Cause, then our word becomes a constructive, +instead of a destructive power. Its influence may be very small at +first, because there is still a great mass of doubt at the back of our +mind, and every doubt is, in reality, a Negative Word warring against +our Affirmative Word; but, by adhering to our principle, we shall +gradually gain experience in these things, and the creative value of our +word will grow accordingly. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE LAW OF WHOLENESS + + +It may seem a truism to say that the whole is made up of its parts, but +all the same we often lose sight of this in our outlook on life. + +The reason we do so is because we are apt to take too narrow a view of +the whole; and also because we do not sufficiently consider that it is +not the mere arithmetical sum of the parts that makes the whole, but +also the harmonious agreement of each part with all the other parts. The +extent of the whole and the harmony of the parts is what we have to look +out for, and also its objective; this is a universal rule, whatever the +whole in question may be. + +Take, for instance, the case of the artist. He must start by having a +definite objective, what in studio phrase is called a "motif"; something +that has given him a certain impression which he wants to convey to +others, but which cannot be stated as an isolated fact without any +surroundings. Then the surroundings must be painted so as to have a +natural relation to the main motif; they must lead up to it, but at the +same time they must not compete with it. There must be only one definite +interest in the picture, and minor details must not be allowed to +interfere with it. They are there only because of the main motif, to +help to express it. Yet they are not to be treated in a slovenly manner. +As much as is seen of them must be drawn with an accuracy that correctly +suggests their individual character; but they must not be accentuated in +such a way as to emphasize details to the detriment of the breadth of +the picture. This is the artistic principle of unity, and the same +principle applies to everything else. + +What, then, is the "Motif" of Life? Surely it must be, to express its +own Livingness. Then in the True Order all modes of life and energy must +converge towards this end, and it is only our short-sightedness that +prevents us from seeing this,--from seeing that the greater the harmony +of the whole Life, the greater will be the inflow of that Life in each +of the parts that are giving it expression. This is what we want to +learn with regard to ourselves, whether as individuals, classes or +nations. We have seen the cosmic workings of the Law of Wholeness in the +discovery of the planet Neptune. Another planet was absolutely necessary +to complete the unity of our solar system, and it was found that there +is such a planet, and similarly in other branches of natural science. +The Law of Unity is the basic law of Life, and it is our ignorant or +wilful infraction of this Law that is the root of all our troubles. + +If we take this Law of Unity as the basis of our Thought we shall be +surprised to find how far it will carry us. Each part is a complete +whole in itself. Each inconceivably minute particle revolves round the +centre of the atom in its own orbit. On its own scale it is complete in +itself, and by co-operation with thousands of others forms the atom. The +atom again is a complete whole, but it must combine with other atoms to +form a molecule, and so on. But if the atom be imperfect as an atom, how +could it combine with other atoms? + +Thus we see that however infinitesimal any part may be as compared with +the whole, it must also be a complete whole on its own scale, if the +greater whole is to be built up. On the same principle, our recognition +that our personality is an infinitesimal fraction of an inconceivably +greater Life, does not mean that it is at all insignificant in itself, +or that our individuality becomes submerged in an indistinguishable +mass; on the contrary, our own wholeness is an essential factor towards +the building up of the greater whole; so that as long as we keep before +us the building up of the Great Whole as the "main motif," we need never +fear the expansion of our own individuality. The more we expand, the +more effective units we shall become. + +We must not, however, suppose that Unity means Uniformity. St. Paul puts +this very clearly when he says, if the whole body be an eye, where would +be the hearing, etc. (1 Cor. xii, 14). How could you paint a picture +without distinction of form, colour, or tone? Diversity in Unity is the +necessity for any sort of expression, and if it be the case in our own +bodies, as St. Paul points out, how much more so in the expressing of +the Eternal Life through endless ages and limitless space! Once we grasp +this idea of the unity and progressiveness of Life going on _ad +infinitum_, what boundless vistas of possibility open before us. It +would be enough to stagger the imagination were it not for our old +friends, the Law and the Word. But these will always accompany us, and +we may rely upon them in all worlds and under all conditions. This Law +of Unity is what in natural science is known as the Law of Continuity, +and the Ancient Wisdom has embodied it in the Hermetic axiom "Sicut +superius, sicut inferius; sicut inferius, sicut superius"--As above, so +below; as below, so above. It leads us on from stage to stage, unfolding +as it goes; and to this unfolding there is no end, for it is the Eternal +Life finding ever fuller expression, as it can find more and more +suitable channels through which to express itself. It can no more come +to an end than numbers can come to an end. + +But it _must_ find suitable channels. Let there be no mistake about +this. Perhaps some one may say: Cannot it _make_ suitable channels for +any sort of expression that it needs? The answer is, that it can, and it +does so up to a certain point. As we have seen, the Word, Thought, or +Initial Impulse of the Ever-Living Spirit starts a centre of cosmic +activity in which the mathematical element of Law at once asserts +itself; thenceforward everything goes on according to certain broad +principles of sequence. This is a Generic Creation, creation according +to _genera_ or classes, like the "archetypal ideas" of Plato. This +creation is governed by a Law of Averages, and the legal maxim "De +minimis non curat lex"--the Law cannot trouble about minorities--applies +to it. This generic law keeps the class going, and slowly advancing, +simply as a class, but it can take no notice of individuals as such. As +Tennyson puts it in "In Memoriam," speaking of Nature: + + "So careful of the type she seems, + So careless of the single life." + +This mode of creation reaches its highest level, at any rate in our +world, in Genus Homo, or the human race. We also, as a race, are under +the Law of Averages. The race continues to exist, but from the moment of +birth the individual life is liable to be cut short in a hundred +different ways. In producing man, however, Generic Creation has produced +a _type_ having a mental and physical constitution capable of perceiving +the underlying principle of _all_ creation, that is, of seeing the +relation between the Word and the Law. We cannot conceive creation by +type going further than this. By the nature of this type every human +being has the potential of a further evolution, which will set it free +from bondage to an impersonal Law of Averages, by specializing it +through the Power of the Word, that is, by bringing the Personal Factor +to bear upon the Impersonal Factor, and so unfolding the possibilities +which can be achieved by their united activities. We have the power of +using the Word so as to specialize the action of the Law, not by +altering the Law, which is impossible, but by realizing its principle, +and enabling it to work under conditions which are not spontaneously +provided by Nature, but are provided by our own selection. The +_capacity_ for this exists in all human beings, but the practical +application of this capacity depends on our recognition of the +principles involved; and it is for this reason that I commenced this +book by citing instances of the combined working of Law and Personality +in purely physical science. I wanted first to convince the reader from +well ascertained facts, that the Law contains infinite possibilities, +but that this can only be brought out through the operation of the mind +of man. + +It is here that we find the value of the maxim "Nature unaided fails." +The more we consider this maxim and the principle of Unity and +Continuity, the clearer it will become, that Limitation is no part of +the Law itself, but results only from our own limited comprehension of +it; and that St. James uses no meaningless phrase, but is stating a +logical and scientific truth, when he speaks of "The perfect Law of +Liberty" (Jas. i, 25). What we have to do is, to follow this up, not by +petulant self-assertion, but by quietly considering the why and +wherefore of the whole thing. In doing so we can fortify ourselves with +another maxim, that "Principle is not limited by Precedent." When we +spread the wings of thought and speculate as to future possibilities, +our conventionally-minded friends may say we are talking bosh; but if +you ask them why they say so, they can only reply that the past +experience of the whole human race is against you. They do not speak +like this in the matter of flying-machines or carriages that go without +horses; they say these are scientific discoveries. But when it comes to +the possibilities of our own souls, they at once set a limit to the +expansion of ideas, and do not see that the scientific principle of +discovery is not confined to laboratory experiments. Therefore, we must +not let ourselves be discouraged by such arguments. If our friends doubt +our sanity, let them doubt it. The sanity of such men as Galileo and +George Stephenson was doubted by their contemporaries, so we are in good +company. At the same time we must not neglect to look after our own +sanity. We must know some intelligible reason for our conclusions, and +realize that however unexpected, they are the logical carrying out of +principles which we can recognize in the Creation around us. If we do +this we need not fear to spread the wings of fancy, even though some may +not be able to accompany us; only we must remember that we are using +wings. Fancy, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, has really no +wings; it is like a balloon that just floats wherever any passing +current of air may drive it. The possession of wings implies power to +direct our flight, and fancy must be converted into trained Imagination, +just as the helpless balloon has been superseded by navigable air-craft. +It must be "the scientific imagination"; and the "scientific +imagination" carried into the world of spiritual causation becomes the +Word of Power, and its Power is derived from the fact that it is always +working according to Law. Then we may go on confidently, because we are +following the same universal principles by which all creation has been +evolved, only now we are specializing its action from the standpoint of +our own individuality, according to the ancient teaching that Man, the +Microcosm, repeats in himself all the laws of the Macrocosm, or great +world, around him. + +As we begin to see the truth of these things, we begin to transcend the +simply generic stage. That first stage is necessary to provide a +starting-point for the next. The first stage is that of Bondage to Law. +It could not be otherwise for the simple reason that you must learn the +law before you can use it. Then from the stage of Generic Creation we +emerge into that of individual Creation, in which we attain liberty +through Knowledge of the Law of our own Being; so that it is not a mere +theological myth to talk of a New Creation, but it is the logical +outcome of what we now are, if, to our recognition of the Power of the +Law we add the recognition of the Power of the Word. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SOUL OF THE SUBJECT + + +We may now turn to speculate a little on some conceivable application of +the general principle we have been considering. It seems to me that, as +a result of the generic creation of which I have just spoken, there is +in everything what, for want of a better name, I may call "The soul of +the subject." + +Creation being by type, everything must have a _generic_ basis of being +in the Cosmic Law, not peculiar to that individual thing, but peculiar +to the class to which it belongs, an adaptation of the Cosmic Soul for +the production of all things belonging to that particular order, in +fact, what makes them what they are and not something else. Now just +because this basis is generic and common to the whole genus that is +built upon it, it is not specific, but it acquires _localization through +Form_; the form being that of the class to which it belongs, thus +producing the individual of that class, whether a cat or a cabbage. It +is this underlying _generic_ being of the thing, that I want the student +to understand by "the soul of the subject." In fact we may call it the +Noumenon or essential being of the class, as distinguished from the +specific characteristics that differentiate the individual from others +of the same class. It follows from this that this _generic_ soul has no +individuality of its own, and consequently is open to receive +impressions from any source that can penetrate the sheath of outward +form and specific characteristic that envelopes it. At the same time it +is a manifestation of Cosmic Law, and so cannot depart from its own +class-nature, and therefore any influence that may be impressed upon it +from some other source will always show itself _in terms of the sort of +generic soul that is thus impressed_; for instance, it would be +impossible so to impress a dog as to make it write a book; and we may +therefore generalize the statement, and lay down the rule, that "Every +_im_press receives _ex_pression in terms of the medium through which it +is expressed." This becomes almost a self-obvious truism when put into +plain language like this; thus, if I paint a picture in oils, my +impression is conveyed in terms of this medium, and if I paint one in +water-colours my conception will be conveyed in terms of that medium, +and the methods of handling will be perfectly different in the two +pictures. + +This applies all round; and if we keep this generalization in mind, it +will render many things clear, especially in psychic matters, which +would otherwise seem puzzling. + +Now we ourselves are included in the general creation, and consequently +we have in us a generic or _type basis_ of personality, which is +entirely impersonal. This is not a contradiction in terms, though it may +look like one. We belong to the class Genus Homo, the distinctive +quality of which is Personality, that is to say, the possession of +certain faculties which constitute us persons, and not things or +animals; but at the same time this merely generic personality is common +to all mankind, and is not that which distinguishes one individual from +another, and in this sense it is impersonal; so we may call it our +Cosmic or Impersonal Personality. + +Now it is upon this cosmic element, inherent in all things from mineral +to man, that Thought-Power acts, because, being impersonal, it has no +private purpose of its own with which to oppose the suggestion that is +being impressed upon it. The only thing is, that according to the rule +just laid down, the response will always be in terms of the cosmic +element which we have thus set in motion. Therefore on the human plane +it will always be in terms of Personality. + +The whole thing comes to this, that we impart to this impersonal element +the reflection of our own personality, and thereby create in it a +certain personality of its own, which will express itself in terms of +the inherent nature of the impersonal factor, which we have thus +temporarily invested with a personal quality; we are continually doing +this unconsciously, either for good or ill; but when we come to +understand the law of it, we must try so to regulate the habitual +current of our thoughts, that even when we are not using this power +intentionally, they may only exercise a beneficial influence. + +In our normal state this cosmic element in ourselves is so closely +united with our more conscious powers of volition and reasoning, that +they constitute a single unity; and this is how it should be, only, as +we shall see later on, with a difference. But there are certain +abnormal states which are worth considering, because they make clearer +the existence in us of this impersonal self, which in academical +language is called the subliminal consciousness. The work of the +subliminal consciousness exhibits itself in various ways, such as +clairvoyance, clair-audience, and conditions of trance; all of which +either occur spontaneously, or are induced by experimental means, such +as hypnotism; but the similarity of the phenomena in either case shows, +that it is the same faculty that is in evidence. + +In those hypnotic experiments in which the operator merely makes the +subject do some external act, we get no further than the fact that the +person's individual will has been temporarily put to sleep, and that of +the hypnotist has taken its place; still even this shows a power of +impressing upon the subliminal consciousness a personal quality of its +own, but it does not enable it to exhibit its own powers. The object of +such experiments is, to exhibit the powers of the hypnotist, not to +investigate the powers of the subliminal personality, which is of more +importance in the present connection. But where the hypnotist employs +his power of command to tell the subliminal self of the patient to +exercise its own powers, merely directing it as to the subject upon +which it is to be exercised, very wonderful powers indeed are exhibited. +Places unknown to the percipient are accurately described; correct +accounts are given of what people are doing elsewhere; the contents of +sealed letters are read; the symptoms of disease are diagnosed and +suitable remedies sometimes prescribed; and so on. Distance appears to +make no difference. In many cases time also does not count, and +historical events of long ago, with the details of which the seer had no +acquaintance, are accurately described in all their minutiae, which have +afterwards been corroborated by contemporary documents. Nor are cases +wanting in which events still future have been correctly predicted, as, +for example, in Cazotte's celebrated prediction of the French +Revolution, and of the fate that awaited each member of a large +dinner-party when it should occur--though this was a spontaneous case, +and not under hypnotism, which perhaps gives it the greater value. + +The same powers are shown in spontaneous cases also, of which my own +experiences related in a previous chapter may serve as a small example; +but as there are many books exclusively devoted to the subject I need +not go into further details here. If the reader be curious for further +information, I would recommend him to read Gregory's "Letters on Animal +Magnetism." It was published some fifty years ago, and, for all I know, +may be out of print, but if the reader can procure it, he will find that +it is a book to be relied upon, the work of a Professor of Chemistry in +the University of Edinburgh, who investigated the matter calmly with a +thoroughly trained scientific mind. But what I want the reader to lay +hold of is the fact, that whether the action occur spontaneously or be +induced by experimental means, these powers actually exist in us, and +therefore in reckoning up the faculties at our disposal they must not be +omitted. + +In our more usual condition however, these faculties are subordinate to +those which put us in touch with the every-day world, and I cannot help +thinking, that at our present stage this is the best place for them. In +this place they have a special function to perform, which I will speak +of in another chapter, and in the meanwhile for my own part I should +prefer to leave their development to the ordinary course of Nature, +neither stimulating them by hypnotic influence, or auto-suggestion, nor +repressing them if they manifest themselves of their own accord. +However, every one must follow his or her own discretion in this matter; +the only thing is, do not deny the existence of these faculties in +yourself because you may not consciously exercise them, for they hold a +very important place in our complex personality. + +All such evidence on the subject as has come my way, appears to me to +point to the fact, that it is through this impersonal or cosmic portion +of our mind that Thought-Power operates upon us, whether in the form of +telepathy, or of healing treatment, or in any other way; and it is +through this channel also that thought currents, not specially directed +towards ourselves, nevertheless affect us, just as the first wireless +telephone message sent on September 29, 1915, from the office of the +American Telephone Company in New York, and directed to San Francisco, +was simultaneously heard at San Diego, at Darien in Panama, and even as +far away as Pearl Island, Honolulu, in the Pacific Ocean. + +We sometimes pick up messages which are not intended for us; so we must +keep our receiver in perfect syntony of reciprocal vibration with the +stations from which we require to receive messages, to the exclusion of +others which would produce confusion. + +But I have strayed a little from our present point, which is rather that +of giving out influence than of receiving it. Through the +instrumentality of this impersonal cosmic soul we can send out our +Thought for the healing of disease, for the suggestion of good and happy +ideas, and for many other beneficial purposes; though the extent of the +result will of course be considerably influenced by the mental attitude +of the recipient, which is therefore a factor to be reckoned with. + +But this power of sending out a subtle influence, call it magnetism or +what you will, is not confined to operations upon the human subject. Two +ladies of my acquaintance experimented on two rose-trees, which, to all +appearances, were both in equally good condition. They daily blessed one +and cursed the other, with the result that at the end of a month the +anathematized plant had withered up from the roots, while the other was +in an abnormally flourishing condition. Nor are we entirely without +scientific backing even in such a case as this; for Professor Bose tells +us in his work on the "Response of Metals," that not only can they be +poisoned by certain chemicals, so as to deprive them of their normal +qualities, but that they can be mesmerized into a similar condition. +Such facts as these therefore give considerable support to the theory of +the existence in everything of a "soul of the subject," which responds +after its own manner to the power of human thought. + +In what manner, then, is this influence conveyed? It is here that our +study of etheric waves comes to our assistance, by carrying the same +principle further, and picturing the working of the known Law under +unknown conditions. It will at least enable us to form a working +hypothesis. I have stated that our actual commercial application of the +etheric waves extends from the ultra-violet waves used in photography, +and measuring only 1/254,000 of an inch, to those measuring many miles +employed in wireless telegraphy; but this practical application by no +means exhausts the conceivable possibilities of etheric vibrations; for +not only do we find a gap of five octaves of as yet unknown waves +between the dark heat group and the Hertzian group, but mathematically +there is no limit to the greatness or smallness of the waves, and the +scale may be prolonged indefinitely in either direction. Nor is this to +be wondered at; for if we consider that vibration is not a progress of +individual particles from one place to another, but the alternate rising +and falling of the substance at the same point, and that the ether is a +homogeneous and universally present substance, it is obvious that there +is nothing to limit the minuteness or the greatness of the intervals at +which the rising and falling will occur. Therefore we have an unlimited +field for our imagination to play about in. Then, if we further reflect +that all forms are built up of denser or finer aggregations of ether, +and that what determines the generic form of anything is its cosmic +soul, or the generating principle of the _class_ to which it belongs, it +follows that this soul must have a corresponding form, however +inconceivably fine may be the etheric condensation which thus +differentiates it from other souls, and prevents it from all being +mixed up together in an indistinguishable mass. If now, we combine these +two facts, that the soul of anything must have a form, however fine, and +that there is no limit either to the greatness or the minuteness of +etheric vibrations, we can draw certain deductions from these premises. + +It is an established fact of ordinary science that, however closely +particles of any substance may seem to cohere, they are in reality +separated by interstices through which etheric waves can penetrate. + +The principle may be illustrated by the power of the X-rays to penetrate +apparently solid bodies, such as iron. Then, if we combine with this the +fact, that there is no limit to the minuteness of etheric waves, we see +that however fine may be the particles constituting any form, it is +always possible to have etheric waves still finer and thus able to +penetrate that form and set up vibrations in it. It is our familiarity +with the denser modes of matter that makes it difficult for us to grasp +the idea of these finer activities; but there is nothing in what we know +of the denser modes to contradict the conception; on the contrary, it is +just by what we have learned of these denser modes that we reach the +principles on which these further conceptions are founded. Looking at +this, therefore, in the light of a mathematical proposition, there is +absolutely no limit to the fineness of any form, or to its +susceptibilities to etheric vibrations. + +Finally, to this add the power of the Word to start trains of etheric +vibration, and you get the following series: The Word starts the etheric +waves; these waves produce corresponding vibration in the soul of the +subject; and the soul of the subject in turn communicates corresponding +vibration to its body. We may thus explain the Creative Power of Thought +on the basis of recognizable Law, and so we believe, because we know +_why_ we believe, not because somebody else has told us so. Doubt is +still the creative action of Thought, only it is creating negatively; so +it is helpful to feel that we have some reason for confidence in the +Power of the Word. There are a great many "Thomases" among us, and as +one of the number I shall be glad if I can help my "Brother Tommies" to +get a grip of the why and wherefore of the things which appear at first +sight so fantastic and improbable. + +But the conception we are considering is not limited to concrete +entities, whether persons or things. It applies to abstractions also, +and it is for this reason that I have called it the "Soul of the +Subject." We often speak of the "Soul of Music," or the "Soul of +Poetry," and so on. Thus our ordinary talk stands on the threshold of a +great mystery, which, however, is simple enough in practice. If you want +to get a clearer view of any subject than you have at present, address +yourself mentally to the abstract soul of that subject, and ask it to +tell you about itself, and you will find that it will do so. I do not +say that it will do this in any miraculous manner, but what you already +know of the subject will range itself into a clearer order, and you will +see connections that have not previously occurred to you. Then again, +you will find that information of the class required will begin to flow +towards you through quite ordinary channels, books, newspapers, or +conversation, without your especially laying yourself out to hunt for +it; and again, at other times, ideas will come into your mind, you do +not know how, but illuminating the subject with a fresh light. I cannot +explain how all this takes place. I can only say from personal +experience that it happens. But of course we must not throw aside +ordinary common-sense. We must sort out the information that comes to +us, and compare it with our previous knowledge; in fact we must _work_ +at it: there is no premium for laziness. Nor must we expect to receive +by a sudden afflatus a complete acquaintance with some subject of which +we are entirely ignorant. I do not say that such a thing is altogether +impossible, for I cannot venture to limit the possibilities of the +Universe; but it is certainly not to be looked for in the ordinary +course. I have sometimes been shown specimens of "inspirational +painting" done by persons said to be entirely ignorant of art, and the +ignorance is very apparent on the face of the work. I dare say an artist +may be inspired in the production of a picture, but the technical +training comes first, and the inspiration afterwards. The same I believe +to be true of all other subjects, so that we come back to the maxim of +the power always expressing itself in terms of the instrument through +which it works. With this reservation, however, it appears to me, that +every class of subject has a sort of soul of its own with which we can +put ourselves _en rapport_ by, so to say, mentally unifying our own +personality with its abstract principle. + +We are told by some teachers, that we can in the same way even construct +entities in the nature of our Thought, and possessing a personality of +their own with which we have endowed them. Whether this be the case I +cannot say--I do not know all the secrets of the invisible. But if our +thoughts do not create personal entities able to hang "on their own +hook," they create forces which come to much the same thing. They start +waves in the Universal etheric medium, which, like the electro-magnetic +waves of telegraphy, spread all round from the point of initial impulse, +and are picked up whenever a centre happens to be attuned to a similar +rate of vibration, and each new centre energizes these vibrations again +with a fresh impulse of its own; so in this way thought-currents become +very real things. + +Such, then, is the power of our Word, whether spoken or only dwelt upon +in Thought, to impress itself upon the impersonal element around us, +whether in persons or things. We cannot divest it of the power, though +we may intensify its action by deliberate use of it, with knowledge of +the principle involved, and therefore, whether consciously or +unconsciously, we are sending out the influence of our personality all +the time. + +Now the more we know of these things the greater becomes our +responsibility, and I would therefore solemnly warn the reader against +any attempt to use the powers now indicated to the injury of any other +person, or for the purpose of depriving any one else of that liberty of +action which he would wish to enjoy himself. Such use of our mental +powers is in direct opposition to the Law of Unity which I have spoken +of; and since that Law is the basic principle of the whole Universe, any +opposition to it places us in antagonism with a force immeasurably +greater than ourselves. + +Our Thought always continues to be creative; but in destructive use it +becomes creative for destructive forces, and, since it has its origin in +our own personality, we are certain sooner or later to feel its effects, +on the principle that every action always produces a corresponding +reaction. As we have seen, the Law knows nothing of persons, but acts +automatically in strict accord with the nature of the power which has +set it in motion. Under negative conditions the great Law of the +Universe becomes your adversary, and must continue to be so, until by +your altered mode of Thought you put yourself in line with it. + +But on the other hand, if our intention be to co-operate with the Great +Law, we shall find that in it also exists a mysterious "Soul of the +Subject," which will respond to us, however imperfectly we may +understand its _modus operandi_. It is the intention that counts, not +the theoretical knowledge. The knowledge will grow by experience and +meditation, and its value is measured entirely by the intention that is +at the back of it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PROMISES + + +We have now, I hope, laid a sufficiently broad foundation of the +relation between the Law and the Word. The Law cannot be changed, and +the Word can. We have two factors, one variable, and the other +invariable; so that from this combination any variety of resultants may +be expected. The Law cannot be altered, but it can be specialized, just +as iron can be made to float by the same law by which it sinks. Now let +us try to figure out in our imagination an ideal of the sort of results +we should want to bring out from these two factors. + +In the first place I think we should like to be free from all worry and +anxiety; for a life of continual worry is not worth living. And in the +second we should like always to have something to look forward to and +feel an interest in; for a life entirely devoid of all interest is also +not worth living. But, granted that these two conditions be fulfilled, +I think we should all be well pleased to go on living _ad infinitum_. +Now can we conceive any combination of the Law and the Word which would +produce such results? that is the question before us. The first step is +to generalize our principle as widely as possible, for the wider the +generalization, the larger becomes the scope for specialization. The +invariable factor we already know. It is the Law, always creating in +accordance with the Word that sets it in motion, whether constructive or +destructive; so what we really have to consider is the sort of Word +(i.e. Thought or Desire) which will set the Law working in the right +direction. It must be a Word of confidence in its own power; otherwise +by the hypothesis of the case it would be giving contradictory +directions to the Law, or to borrow a simile from what we have learnt +about waves in ether, it would be sending out vibrations that would +cancel one another and so produce no effect. Then it must be a Word that +does not compromise itself by antagonizing the Law of unity, and so +producing disruptive forces instead of constructive ones. And finally, +we must be quite sure that it really is the right Word, and that we have +been making no mistake about it. If these conditions be fulfilled the +logical result will be entire freedom from anxiety. Similarly with +regard to maintaining a continued interest in life. We must have a +continued succession of ideals, whether great or small, that will carry +us on with something always just ahead of us; and we must work the +ideals out, and not let them evaporate in dreams. If these conditions be +fulfilled we have before us a life of never-ending interest and +activity, and therefore a life worth living. Where then are we to find +the Word which will produce these conditions: perfect freedom from +anxiety and continual, happy interest? I do not think it is to be found +in any way but by identifying our own Word with the Word which brings +all creation into existence, and keeps it always moving onward in that +continuous forward movement which we call Evolution. We must come back +to the old teaching, that the Macrocosm is reproduced in the Microcosm, +with the further perception that this identity of principle can only be +produced by identity of cause. Law cannot be other than eternal and +self-demonstrating, just as 2 x 2 must eternally = 4; but it remains +only an abstract conception until the Creative Word affords it a field +of operation, just as twice two is four remains only a mathematical +abstraction until there is something for you to count; and accordingly, +as we have already seen, all our reasoning concerning the origin of +Creation, whether based on metaphysical or scientific grounds, brings us +to the conception of a Universal and Eternal Living Spirit localizing +itself in particular areas of cosmic activity by the power of the Word. +Then, if a similar Creative Power is to be reproduced in ourselves, it +must be by the same method: the localizing of the same Spirit in +ourselves by the power of the same "Word." Then our Word, or Thought, +will no longer be that of separate personality, but that of the Eternal +Spirit finding a fresh centre from which to specialize the working of +the Law, and so produce still further results than that of the First or +simply Cosmic and Generic Creation, according to the two maxims that +"Nature unaided fails," and that "Principle is not limited by +Precedent." + +I want to make this sequence clear to the student before proceeding +further: + +1. Localization of the Spirit in specific areas of Creative Activity. + +2. Cosmic or Generic Creation, including ourselves as a race resulting +from this, and providing both the material and the instruments for +carrying the work further by _specializing the Original Creative Power_ +through individual Thought, just as in all cases of scientific +discovery. + +3. Then, since what is to be specialized through our individual Thought +is the Word of the Originating Power itself, in order to do this we must +think in terms of the Originating Word, on the general principle, that +any power must always exhibit itself in terms of the instrument through +which it works. + +This, it appears to me, is a clear logical sequence, just as a tree +cannot make itself into a box, unless there be first the idea of a box +which does not exist in the tree itself, and also the tools with which +to fashion the wood into a box; while on the other hand there could +never be any box unless there be first a tree. Now it is just such a +sequence as this that is set before us in the Bible, and I do not find +it adequately set forth in any other teaching, either philosophical or +religious, with which I am acquainted. Some of these systems contain a +great deal of truth, and are therefore helpful as far as they go; but +they do not go the whole way, and for the most part stop short at the +first or simply Cosmic Creation; or, if they attempt to pass beyond +this, it is on the line of making unaided power of the individual the +sole means by which to do so, and thus in fact always keeping us at the +merely generic level. Such a mode of Thought as this, fails to meet the +requirements of our conception of a happy life as one entirely exempt +from fear and anxiety. In like manner also it fails to meet the first +requirements of the whole series, viz.: the Word should be certain of +itself; and if it be not certain of itself we have no assurance that it +may not eventually disappoint our hopes. In short, this mode of thought +leaves us to bear the whole burden from which we want to escape. So it +is not good enough; we must look for something better. + +Now this something better I find in the _Promises_ contained in the +Bible, and it is this that to my mind distinguishes our own Scriptures +from the sacred books of all other nations, and from all systems of +philosophy. I do not at all ignore the current objections to the +possibility of Divine Promises, but I think that on examination they +will be found to be superficial and resulting from want of careful +enquiry into the true nature of the Promises themselves. How is it +possible for the Laws of the Universe to make exceptions? How can God +act by individual favouritism unless it be either through sheer caprice, +or by the individual managing to get round Him in some way, either by +supplying some need which He cannot supply for Himself, in which case +God is of limited power, or else by flattering Him, in which case He is +the apotheosis of absurd vanity. The two are really the same question +put in different ways--the question of individual exceptions to the +general Law. + +The answer is that there are no individual exceptions to the general +Law; but there are very various degrees of realization of the Principle +of the Law, and the more a man works with the Principle the more the Law +will work for him; so that the finer his perception of the Principle +becomes, the more he will appear to be an exception to the Law as +commonly recognized. + +Edison and Marconi are not capriciously favoured by the laws of Nature, +but they know more about them than most of us. + +Now it is just the same with the Bible Promises. They are Promises +according to Law. They are based upon the widest generalization and +hence lead to the highest specialization through the combined action of +the Law and the Word--Jachin and Boaz, the Two Pillars of the Universe. + +These Promises comprise all sorts of desirable things: health of body, +peace of mind, earthly prosperity, prolongation of life, and, finally, +even the conquest of death itself; but always on one condition: perfect +"Confidence in the power of the All-Originating Spirit in response to +our reliance on the Word." This is what the Bible calls Faith; and it is +perfectly logical when we understand the principle of it, for every +Thought of doubt is, in effect, the utterance of a Word which produces +negative results by the very same law by which the Word of Faith +produces positive ones. This is the only condition which the Bible +imposes for the fulfilment of its Promises, and this is because it is +inherent in the nature of the Law by which their fulfilment is to be +brought about. + +A few texts will suffice as examples of the Bible Promises, and no doubt +most of my readers are familiar with many others; but it would be worth +while to read the Bible through, marking all such texts, and classifying +them according to the sort of promises they contain. + +Read, for instance, Job xxii, 21, etc. This is a most remarkable passage +containing among other things the promise of earthly wealth; or again +Job v, 19, etc., where we find promises of protection in time of danger, +power over material nature, and prolonged life. While in Job xxxiii, 23, +etc., there is promise of return to youth, a promise which is repeated +in Psalm ciii, 5. Again in Isaiah lxi, 20, etc., there is the promise of +immensely extended physical life, death at the age of one hundred being +counted so premature as to resemble that of an infant, and the normal +standard of age being compared to a tree which lives for centuries; and +the same passage also promises immediate answer to prayers. The Psalms +are full of such promises, and they are scattered throughout the Bible. + +Now there is an unfortunate tendency among people who read their Bible +with reverence, to what they call "spiritualize" such passages as these, +which means that they do not believe them. They say such things are +impossible; and therefore they must have some other meaning, and +accordingly they interpret the words metaphorically, as referring to +something to be experienced in another life, but quite impossible in +this one. + +Of course there are spiritual equivalents to these things, and the +teaching of the Bible is, that they are the outward correspondences of +inward spiritual states; but to "spiritualize" them in the way I am +speaking of, is nothing but unbelief in the power of God to work on the +plane of Nature. How such readers square their opinion with the fact +that God has created Nature, I do not know. Even in the animal world we +find wonderful instances of longevity. If an elephant be not overworked +before he is twenty, he is in full working power up to eighty, and will +then be capable of light work for another twenty years, after which he +may yet enjoy another twenty years of quiet old age as the reward of his +labours, while crocodiles and tortoises have been known to live for +centuries. If then such things be possible in the ordinary course of +Nature in the animal world, why need we doubt the specializing power of +the Word to produce far greater results in the case of man? It is +because we will not accept the maxim, that "Principle is not limited by +Precedent" in regard to ourselves, though we see it demonstrated by +every new scientific discovery. We rely more on the past experience of +the race, than on the Creative Power of God. We call Him Almighty, and +then say that in His Book He promises things which He is not able to +perform. But the fault is with ourselves. We limit "the Holy ONE of +Israel," and as a consequence get only so much as by our mental attitude +we are able to receive--again the old maxim that "Power can only work in +terms of the instrument it works through." I do not say that it is at +all easy for us to completely rid ourselves of negative race-thought +ingrained into us from childhood, and subtly playing upon that generic +impersonal self in us of which I have spoken, and which readily responds +to those thought-currents to which we are habitually attuned. It is a +matter of individual growth. But the promises themselves contain no +inherent impossibility, and are logical deductions from the principles +of the Creative Law. + +If the power of the Spirit over things of the material plane be an +impossibility, then by what power did Jesus perform his miracles? Either +you must deny his miracles, or you must admit the power of the Spirit +to work on the material plane--there is no way out of the dilemma. +Perhaps you may say: "Oh, but He was God in person!" Well, all the +promises affirm that it is God who does these things; so what it is +possible for God to do at one time, it is equally possible for Him to do +at all times. Or perhaps you hold other theological views, and will say +that Jesus was an exception to the rest of the race; but, on the +contrary, the whole Bible sets Him forth as the Example--an exception +certainly to men as we now know them, but the Example of what we all +have it in us to become--otherwise what use is He to us? But apart from +all argument on the subject we have his own words, telling us that those +who believe in Him, i.e., believe what He said about Himself--shall be +able to do works as great as His own, and even greater (John xiv, 12). +For these reasons it appears to me that on the authority of the Bible +itself, and also on metaphysical and scientific grounds we are justified +in taking such promises as those I have quoted in a perfectly literal +sense. + +Then there are promises of the power that will attend our utterance of +the Word. "Thou shalt also decree a thing and it shall be established +unto thee" (Job xxii, 28). "All things are possible unto you" (Mark ix, +23). "Whosoever ... shall believe that what he sayeth cometh to pass, he +shall have whatsover he sayeth" (Mark xi, 23), and so on. + +Other passages again promise peace of mind. "Thou wilt keep him in +perfect peace whose mind is staid on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee" +(Isaiah xxvi, 3). "Let him take hold of my strength that he may make +peace with me" (Isaiah xxvii, 5). St. Paul speaks of "The God of Peace" +in many passages, e.g., Rom. xv, 33; 2 Cor. xiii, 11; 1 Thess. v, 23, +and Hebr. xiii, 20; and Jesus, in his final discourse recorded in the +fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of St. John's Gospel, lays +peculiar stress on the gift of Peace. + +And lastly there are many passages which promise the overcoming of death +itself; as for instance Job xix, 25-27; John viii, 51, and x, 28, and +xi, 25 and 26; Hebr. ii, 14 and 15; 1 Cor. xv, 50-57; 2 Tim. i, 10; Rom. +vi, 23 ("The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord"). + +"God commanded the blessing, even Life for evermore" (Ps. cxxxiii, 3). + +Now I hope the reader will take the trouble to look up the texts to +which I have referred, and not be lazy. I am sure he would do so if he +were promised a ten pound note or a fifty dollar bill for his pains, and +if these promises are not all bosh, there is something worth a good deal +more to be got by studying them. Just run through the list: health, +wealth, peace of mind, safety, creative power, and eternal life. You +would be willing to pay a good premium to an Insurance Office that could +guarantee you all these. Well, there is a Company that does this without +paying any premium, and its name is "God and Co., Unlimited"; the only +condition, is that you yourself have to take the part of "Co." and it is +not a sleeping partnership, but a wide-awake one! + +So I hope you will take the trouble to look up the texts; but at the +same time you must remember that the reading of single texts is not +sufficient. If you take any isolated phrase you choose, without +reference to the rest of the Book, there is no nonsense you cannot make +out of the Bible. You would not be allowed to do that sort of thing in a +Court of Law. When a document is produced in evidence, the meaning of +the words used in it are very carefully construed, not only in +reference to the particular clause in which they occur, but also with +reference to the intention of the document as a whole, and to the +circumstances under which they were written. The same word may mean very +different things in different connections; for instance I remember two +reported cases in one of which the word "Spanish" meant a certain sort +of leather, and in the other a kind of material used in brewing; and in +like manner particular texts are to be interpreted in accordance with +the gist of the Bible as a whole. + +This is just the mistake the Jews made, of building up theories on +particular texts, and which Jesus corrected when he said: "Search the +Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are +they which testify of me" (John v, 39), or, as the Revised Version puts +it: "Ye search the Scriptures because ye think that in them ye have +eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me," which +appears to be the better rendering. The words "ye think" is the key to +the whole passage. He says in effect: "You fancy that eternal life is to +be found in the book. It is not to be found in the book, but in what the +book tells you about, and here I am as a living example of it." It is +just the same with everything else. No book can do more than tell you +about a thing; it cannot produce it. You may study the cookery book from +morning till night, but that will not give you your dinner. + +What Jesus meant was, that we should read the Scriptures in the same way +we should read any other book of practical instruction. First think what +it is all about; then look at the nature of the general principles +involved, and then see what instruction the book gives you for their +practical application. _Then go and do it_. And remember also a further +difference between reading about a thing and doing it. A book is for +everybody, and can therefore, only give general instruction; but when +you come to do the thing you will always find it works with some +personal modifications,--not departures from the general principles you +have read about, but specializations of them--and in this way you will +learn much that is not to be got out of books, even the best. + +I remember many years ago, when I was much younger, asking one of our +leading water-colour artists,[3] how he would recommend me to study +landscape painting, and he said: "Practise continually from Nature, and +you will learn more than any one can teach you; that is how I have +learnt, myself." On the subject, then in question, he said just what +Jesus did: "Here I am as a practical example of what I tell you." And +another thing is, that the more you think principles out for yourself +and try to observe them in practice, the clearer the meaning of your +book will become to you. I have a few excellent books on painting, but I +had no idea how excellent they were when I first got them; practical +experience has taught me to find much more in them than I did at first, +for now I understand better what they are talking about. Well, that is +the way to read the Bible, neither despising it as worthless tradition, +nor treating the mere letter of it with superstitious veneration; both +extremes are to be equally avoided. In fact the Bible tells us so +itself: "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. iii, 6); +this, of course, does not mean that the letter can be tampered with, any +more than a judge can alter the wording of a document put in evidence; +it must be interpreted in the general sense of the document as a whole; +and when the letter is thus vivified by the Spirit, it will be found +fully to express it. But we require to enter into the Spirit of it +first. + +Now it appears to me, that taken in this way, the Bible is an +exceedingly practical book, and that is why I want the reader to get at +some general principles which he will find, _mutatis mutandis_, equally +applicable all round, whether to electricity, or to life, and whatever +may be the subject-matter, it will always be found to resolve itself +into a question of the relation between Law and Personality. If now we +read the Bible Promises in the light of the general principles we have +considered in the earlier pages, we shall find that they are all +Promises according to Law. They are statements of the results to be +obtained by a truer realization of the principles of Law and Personality +than we have hitherto apprehended. + +We must always bear in mind that the Law is set in motion by the Word. +The Word does not _make_ the Law, but gives it something to work upon, +so that without the Word there could be no manifestation of the Law, a +truth embodied in the maxim, that "Every Creation carries its own +mathematics along with it." If the reader remembers what I have said in +the chapter of "The Soul of the Subject," he will see that the +principle involved, is that of the susceptibility of the Impersonal to +suggestions from the Personal. This follows of course from the very +Conception of Impersonality; it is that which has no power of selection +and volition, and which is therefore without any power of taking an +initiative on its own account. + +In a previous chapter I have pointed out that the only possible +conception of the inauguration of a world-system, resolves itself into +the recognition of one original and universal Substantive Life, out of +which proceeds a corresponding Verb, or active energy, reproducing in +action what the Substantive is in essence. On the other hand there must +be something for this active principle to work in; and since there can +be nothing anterior to the Universal Life or Energy, both these factors +must be potentially contained in it. If, then, we represent this Eternal +Substantive Life by a circle with a dot in the centre, we may represent +these two principles as emerging from it by placing two circles at equal +distance below it, one on either side, and placing the sign "+" (plus) +in one, and the sign "-" (minus) in the other. This is how students of +these subjects usually map out the relation of the _prima principia_, +or first abstract principles. The sign "+" (plus) indicates the Active +principle, and the sign "-" (minus) the Passive principle. If the reader +will draw a little diagram as described, it will help to make what +follows clearer. + +Necessarily the initiative must be taken by the Active principle; and +the taking of initiative implies selection and volition, that is to say, +the essential qualities of personality; and Passivity implies the +converse of all this, and therefore is Impersonality. The two principles +in no way conflict with one another, but are polar opposites, like the +positive and negative plates of a battery, or the two ends of a magnet. +They are complementary to one another, and neither can work without the +other. A little consideration will show that this is not a mere fancy, +but a self-obvious generalization, the contrary to which it is +impossible to conceive. It is simply the case of the box which cannot +come into existence without the activity of the carpenter and the +passivity of the wood. + +From such considerations as this the deep thinkers of old times posited +the generating of a world-system by the interaction of what they named +Animus Dei, the Active principle, and Anima Mundi, or Soul of the +Universe, the Passive principle--the one Personal, and the other +Impersonal; and by the hypothesis of the case the only mode of activity +possible to Anima Mundi is response to Animus Dei. But the same +impersonal passivity must also make Anima Mundi receptive likewise to +lesser and more individualized modes of Personality, and it becomes, so +to say, fecundated by the ideas thus impressed upon it. In every case +"the word is the seed." We may picture this planting of an idea or +"word" in the Cosmic soul as acting very much like the initial impulse +that starts a train of waves in ether, and these thought-waves are +reproduced in corresponding forms; or, to recur to the simile of seed, +the cosmic soul acts like the soil and gives it nourishment. Looking at +it in this way the old exponents of these things regarded the Active +principle as Masculine, and the Passive as Feminine, the one generating +and the other nutritive, corresponding to the words _rouah_ and +_hoshech_, the expansion and compression principles in the Hebrew text +of the opening verses of Genesis. + +If then we posit this impersonal Soul of the Universe as the living +principle dwelling in the substance of the etheric Universal Medium it +will account for a good many things. If it be asked why we should assume +the presence of a living principle in the Universal Substance the answer +is in the maxim "Quod ex Vivo Vivum," what proceeds from Life is living. +Then as we see by our diagram, Anima Mundi equally with Animus Dei +proceeds from the original Substantive of Life, and therefore, on the +principle of the above maxim, that like produces like, Anima Mundi must +also be a living thing whose vehicle is the Universal Substance. + +We may picture then, the response of the indwelling Soul of the +Universal Medium to our Thought, as starting corresponding vibrations in +the Substance of the Medium, just as our own thought, acting through the +vibratory system of our nerves, causes our body to make the movement we +intend. But perhaps you will say: How can this be, seeing that by the +hypothesis the Soul of the Universe is Impersonal, and therefore +unintelligent? Well, it is just this fact of having no thought of its +own, that enables us to impress our thought upon it and cause it, so to +say, to "take on" an intelligence relatively to the subject of our +thought, much in the same way that the impersonal soul in the human +subject "takes on" or reflects the thought of the hypnotist, and not +infrequently develops it to a far greater extent than the original +thought of the operator expressed. Such a hypothesis--and I think some +such hypothesis is needed to account for any creation at all--throws +light on the _modus operandi_ of the Bible Promises. We plant the Word +of the Promise in the womb of Anima Mundi, and if we do not uproot it by +using the same power adversely, it is bound to come to fruition in due +course, by the same Law by which the world-systems are formed; and if we +are to believe that the Word of the Promise is not our own word, but the +Word of God, then our Thought of it is imbued with a corresponding power +as we hand it over to Anima Mundi. Thus the Promises fulfil themselves +automatically, in accordance with the principles of the relations +between Law and Personality, and they do so, _not in our own power_, but +by the Power of the Word of God. + +This, then, gives us at least an intelligible working hypothesis of the +rationale of the Bible Promises. The measurement of their fulfilment is +exactly proportional to our belief in them, not from any unintelligible +cause, and still less from any unreasoning feat of a capricious Deity, +but by the working of an intelligible Law. If any of my readers happens +to be an electrician, he will find an exact parallel in what is known as +Ohm's Law. Such readers will be familiar with the formula C = E/R, but +for the benefit of those to whom this formula may be unintelligible, I +will give a few words of explanation. C means the current of electricity +which is to be delivered for any work that is to be done. E stands for +the Electro-motive force which generates the current; and R is the +Resistance offered to the current by the conductor, such as the wires +through which it flows. If there be no resistance, the full amount of +current generated would be delivered. But without any conductor no +current could be delivered, and therefore there must be _some_ +resistance, and so the full power of the Electro-motive force can never +be delivered by the Current. The amount that will be delivered is the +original power of the Electro-motive force divided by the Resistance. +The Resistance therefore acts as a restricting force, limiting the +extent to which the power of the original Electro-motive force shall be +delivered at the point where the work is to be done, but at the same +time no delivery at that point could be effected without it; so the +Resistance also has a necessary part to play in the working of the +circuit. Now if we want to translate the formula C = E/R into terms of +spiritual force we may put it thus: E stands for the limitless Potential +of the Eternal Spirit; C stands for the current flowing from it; and R +stands for the localizing quality of our thought. We cannot entirely +dispense with this localizing quality, for our whole purpose is to +transmute the _unlimited_, undifferentiated power, which subsists in the +Eternal Substantive of Spirit, into a particular differentiated mode of +action, which therefore implies a corresponding centralization. This is +the proper function of our thought. It is this compressing power which, +as I said above, the Hebrew renders by the word "_hoshech_" in the +opening verses of Genesis, and which is the necessary complementary to +the converse expanding power or "_rouah_." It takes the co-operation of +the two to produce any results. + +Restricted, then, to its proper function our R or condensing quality is +an essential factor in the work. But if it be allowed to take the form +of doubt or unbelief, then it renders the flow of the current from the +Spirit ineffective to the extent to which the doubt is entertained; and +if doubt be allowed to degenerate into total unbelief and denial of the +Power of the Spirit, we thereby cancel the originating force altogether. +To put it in terms of the electrical formula, we make R greater than E, +in which case no current can flow. We thus find that the words +"According to your faith be it unto you" are actually the statement of a +Mathematical Law, having nothing vague about them. This may be a +somewhat original application of Ohm's Law, but the parallel is so +exact, that I cannot help thinking it will appeal to some of my readers +who may be conversant with Electrical Science. For those who are not, a +simpler simile may be, that you cannot deliver a more powerful stream of +water than the bore of the pipe through which it flows will admit of; +or, to employ a legal truism, delivery on the part of the donor must be +met by acceptance on the part of the donee before a deed of gift can +become operative; or, in still simpler language, "you may take a horse +to the water but you can't make him drink." + +We see, then, that there is a Law of Faith, and that Faith is not a +denial of the universal reign of Law, but the perception of its widest +generalization, and therefore giving scope to its highest +specialization. The opposition between Faith and Law, of which St. Paul +so often speaks, is the opposition between this broad view of the +ultimate Principle of the Creative Law and that narrower view of +restriction by particular laws, which prevents us from grasping the Law +of Faith; but that he does not deny the _Principle_ of Law, that is the +relation between C and E, is clear from his own statement in Rom. viii, +where he says: "The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus sets me +free from the law of Sin and Death;" in other words: the Law of the Good +sets us free from the Law of Evil; and for the same reason St. James +says, that the perfect law is the law, of Liberty (Jas. i, 25). + +Of course if we suppose that faith is something contrary to the law of +the Universe we at once import into our thought the negative quality +which entirely vitiates our action. We rightly perceive that the laws of +the Universe can never be altered, and if our notion of Faith be, that +it is an attempt to work in contradiction to these laws, the best +definition we can give it is that given by the little girl in the +Sunday school, who said that "Faith is trying to make yourself believe +what you know is not true." The reason for such a misconception is, that +it entirely omits one of the factors in the calculation. It considers, +only the Law, and gives no place to the Word in the scheme of things. +Yet we do not carry this misconception into the sciences of chemistry +and electricity. We take the immutability of the Law as the basis of +these sciences, but we do not expect the immutable Law to produce a +photographic apparatus, or an electric train, without the intervention +of a reasoning and selective power which specializes the fundamental +general Law into particular uses. We do not look to the Law for those +powers of reasoning and selection, through which we make it work in all +the highly complex ways of our ordinary commercial applications of +it--we know better than that. We look to Personality for this. In our +every-day pursuits we always act on the maxim that "Nature unaided +fails," and that the infinite possibilities stored up in the Law, can +only be brought to light by a power of reasoning and selection working +through the Law. This co-operation of the Personal with the Impersonal +is the Law _of_ the Law; and since the Law is unchangeable, this Law +_of_ the Law must also be unchangeable, and must therefore apply on all +planes, and through all time--the Law, that without co-operation of the +Law and the Word nothing can be brought into existence, from a solar +system to a pin; while on the other hand there is no limit to what can +be got out of the Law by the operation of the Word. + +If the student will look at the Bible Promises in the light of the +general principles, he will find that they are perfectly logical, +whether from the metaphysical or from the scientific standpoint, and +that their working is only from the same Law through which all +scientific developments are made. If this be apprehended it will be +clear that the Word of Faith is not "trying to make ourselves believe +what we know is not true," but, as St. Paul puts it, it is "giving +substance to things not yet seen" (Heb. xi, 1, R.V.). + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +DEATH AND IMMORTALITY + + +I think most of my readers will agree with me, that the greatest of all +the promises is that of the overcoming of death, for, as the greater +includes the less, the power which can do _that_ can do anything else. +We think that there are only two things that are certain in this +world--death and taxes, and no doubt, under the ordinary past +conditions, this is quite true; but the question is: are they really +inherent in the essential nature of things; or are they not the outcome +of our past limited, and often inverted modes of Thought? The teaching +of the Bible is that they are the latter. On the subject of taxes the +Master says: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's" (Matth. +xxii, 21), but on another occasion he said that the children of the King +were not liable to taxation (Matth. xvii, 26). However we may leave the +"taxes" alone for the present, with the remark that their resemblance to +death consists in both being, under present conditions, regarded as +compulsory. Under other conditions, however, we can well imagine "taxes" +disappearing in a unity of thought which would merge them in +co-operation and voluntary contribution; and it appears to me quite +possible for death to disappear in like manner. + +In whatever way we may interpret the story of Eden, whether literally, +or if, like some of the Fathers of the church such as Origen, we take it +as an allegory, the result is the same--that Death is not in the essence +of man's creation, but supervened as the consequence of an inverted mode +of thinking. The Creative Spirit thought one way, and Eve thought +another; and since the Thought of the Creating Spirit is the origin of +Life, this difference of opinion naturally resulted in death. Then, from +this starting-point, all the rest of the Bible is devoted to getting rid +of this difference of opinion between us and the Spirit of Life, and +showing us that the Spirit's opinion is truer than ours, and so leading +us to adopt it as our own. The whole thing turns on the obvious +proposition, that if you invert the cause you also invert the effect. It +is the principle that division is the inversion of multiplication, so +that if 2 x 2 = 4 then you cannot escape from the consequence that 4/2 = +2. The question then is, which of the two opinions is the more +reasonable--that death is essentially inherent in the nature of things, +or that it is not? + +Probably ninety-nine out of a hundred readers will say, the whole +experience of mankind from the earliest ages proves that Death is the +unchangeable Law of the Universe, and there have been no exceptions. I +am not quite sure that I should altogether agree with them on this last +point; but putting that aside, let us consider whether it really is the +essential Law of the Universe. To say that this is proved by the past +experience of the race, is what logicians call a _petitio principii_--it +is assuming the whole point at issue. It is the same argument which our +grandfathers would have used against aerial navigation--no one had ever +travelled in the air, and that proved that no one ever could. My father, +who was a junior officer in India when the first railway was run in +England, used to tell a story of one of his senior officers, who, on +being asked what he thought of the rapidity of the new mode of +travelling, said he thought it was "all a damned lie," which opinion +appeared to him to settle the whole question. But I hope that none of my +readers will hold the same opinion regarding the overcoming of death, +even though they might express it in more polite language. At any rate +it may be worth while to examine the theoretical possibility of the +idea. + +To begin with, it involves a self-contradiction to say that the energy +of any force can stop the working of that force. If a force stops +working, it is for one of two reasons, either that the supply of it is +exhausted, or that it is overcome by an opposite and neutralizing force. +But we have seen that the Originating Cause of all things can only be an +inexhaustible Power of Life, and therefore the hypothesis of it becoming +exhausted is eliminated; and similarly, since all the forces of the +Universe proceed from this Source, it is impossible for any of them to +have a nature diametrically opposite to that of the source from which +they flow. So the alternative must be eliminated also. Accordingly, the +outflow, undifferentiated, of Life and Energy from the Eternal +Substantive of Spirit, is never stopped _by its own current_ in any of +its differentiated streams; it is impossible for a current to be +stopped by its own flow, whether it be a current of electricity, steam, +water, or anything else. What then does stop the flow of any sort of +current? It is the Resistance or _inertia_ of the channel through which +it flows; so that we come back to the formula of Ohm's Law, C = E/R as a +general proposition applicable to any conceivable sort of energy. + +The neutralizing power then, is not that of the flowing of any sort of +energy, but the rigidity, or inertia of the medium through which the +energy has to make its way; thus bringing us back to _rouah_ and +_hoshech_, the expansive and compressive principles of the opening +verses of Genesis. It is the broad scientific generalization of the +opposition between Ertia, or Energy, and Inertia, or Absence of Energy; +and since, for the reasons just given, Ertia cannot go against itself, +the only thing that can stop it is Inertia. + +Now the components of the human body are simply various chemical +elements--so much carbon, so much hydrogen, etc., as any textbook on the +subject will tell you; and although, of course, every sort of substance +is the abode of ceaseless _atomic_ energy, we all recognize that merely +atomic energy is not that of the powers of thought, will, and +perception, which make us organized mentalities instead of a mere +aggregation of the various substances exposed to view in a biological +museum, as constituting the human body--you might take all these +substances in their proper proportions, and shake them up together, but +you would not make an intelligent man of them. We are therefore safe in +saying that the physiological body represents the principle of inertia +in us, while the something that thinks in us represents the principle of +Ertia. + +The balance of power between the Life Principle in us and the Death +Principle, is then, necessarily, a question of the balance between these +two, the spirit and the flesh, or ertia and inertia. + +Why then does the balance preponderate to the life-side for a certain +length of time, and then go over to the opposite side? + +Now this brings us to the distinction which the old writers drew, +between the "Vital Soul" of any living thing and the Spirit. Their +conception of the "Vital Soul" was very much the same as I have set +forth in the chapter on "The Soul of the Subject." It is the +individual's particular share of the Cosmic Soul or Anima Mundi, whether +it be an individual tree, or an individual person; and the ordinary +maximum length of time, during which the Vital Soul will be able to +overcome the inertia of its physical vehicle, depends upon the +particular class to which the individual belongs. What the ordinary +maximum is in regard to any species is a matter of experience, and it is +in this way that we have fixed the usual limit of human life at +three-score years and ten. + +Now it is here that we shall begin to profit by some knowledge about the +invisible part of ourselves. The actual molecules of our body, as I have +just said, are only so much dead matter. This inert material is pulled +about in various directions by strings which we call muscles, according +to the movements we wish our bodies to make, and these muscles are set +in motion by the vibrations of the nerves.[4] But what is it that +occasions these vibrations of the nerves? Here we begin to pass beyond +the limits of official Science, though not beyond the limits of +recognizable Law. We have to recognize the existence of an etheric body +acting as an intermediary between intention, desire, or (in the case of +human beings) thought of the soul and the physical vibrations of the +nerves. This is why, in an earlier chapter, I have drawn attention to +our power of sending out etheric vibrations beyond the limits of the +physical body, as in the case of De Rocha's experiments. Such +experiments show that there is in us something not composed of dense +matter, which is able to convey vibrations to dense matter; and it is +this something which we speak of as the etheric body. + +But if we wish to trace the links by which our thought operates upon the +physical body, we find ourselves compelled to postulate yet another +intermediary, what I have spoken of as the "Vital Soul"--a vehicle which +does not _consciously think_, but in which what we may call +race-consciousness becomes centred in the individual. This +race-consciousness is none other than the ever-present "will-to-live" +which is the basis of physical evolution--that automatically acting +principle--which causes plants to turn towards the sun, animals to seek +their proper food, and both animals and men to try instantly to escape +from immediate danger. It is what we call instinct which does not +reason. I may give a laughable experience of my own to illustrate the +fact that conscious reason is not the method of this faculty. Once when +on leave from India I was walking along a street in London in the heat +of a summer's day and suddenly noticed just at my feet a long dark thing +apparently wriggling across the white glare of the pavement. "Snake!" I +exclaimed, and jumped aside for all I was worth, and the next moment was +laughing at myself for not recollecting that cobras were not common +objects in the London streets. But it looked just like one, and of +course turned out to be nothing but a piece of rag. Well, instinct did +its duty even if it did make a fool of me; but there is certainly no +conscious reasoning in the matter, only the automatic action of inherent +Law--"Self-preservation is the first law of Nature." + +This Vital Soul, then, is the seat of all those instincts which go +towards the preservation of the individual's physical body, and towards +the propagation of the race; and it is on this account that our +theosophical friends call it the "Desire Body" or, to use the Indian +term "Kama rupa." It acts with conscious intention, but not with +conscious _reasoning_. It is thus distinguished on the one hand from the +etheric body, which is a mere vehicle for finer vibrations than can take +place in the denser matter of the physical body, but which has _no +intention_; and on the other from the _mind_ which acts by conscious +reasoning, and it thus forms an intermediary between the two. + +The importance of recognizing the place of this higher intermediary in +the ascending scale of living principle is, that for all practical +purposes the animal world does not rise higher than this in the scale. +It is true that in particular instances we find the first dawning of the +mental faculty in an animal, but it is only very faint; so this does not +affect the broad general principle. The point to be noted is that up to +this stage human beings are built on the same lines as animals, and what +distinguishes us, is the addition in ourselves of a higher factor,--that +of the reasoning mind exercising the power of conscious thought. + +Now it is the direction of this thought that influences the three lower +factors. The sequence, going upwards, is as follows:--movement is +communicated to the physical body by the etheric body; and movement is +communicated to the etheric body by the Vital Soul; then, in proportion +as the purely instinctive action of the Vital Soul is controlled by the +conscious thought, so its action upon the two lowest principles is +modified. + +Here, then, is the crucial point. In what direction is the conscious +thought going to modify the action of the three principles that are +below it? If it takes the soul of mere racial desire and the physical +body as its standard of thought, then it naturally follows that it +cannot raise it any higher. It has descended to _their_ level and so +cannot pour any stream of life into it, on the simple principle that no +current can ever flow from a lower to a higher level, whether the +difference in level be that of actual elevation, as in the case of +water, or different in potential, as in the case of electricity. On the +other hand if the conscious mind recognizes that itself proceeds from +some higher source, it looks to receive life from that source, and its +thought is modified accordingly, and in turn re-acts correspondingly +upon the lower principles. + +If this is clear to the student, he will now see how it is that by +limiting our conception of life to the current ideas entertained by the +race, we impress these ideas on our three lower principles. It is true +that these three principles are not capable of reasoning themselves, but +the highest of them, the Vital Soul, has its action modified by the +reasoning principle above it, and so communicates to the two lowest +principles corresponding waves of vibration. And in this connection we +must remember the distinction between the two systems of nerves; the +voluntary system connected with the brain and forming the medium of all +voluntary action, and the involuntary, or sympathetic system connected +with the solar plexus and controlling all the automatic actions of the +body, and thus being the agent of that continual renewal of the physical +organism which is always going on, and keeps in existence for a life +time a body which begins to disintegrate immediately the soul has left +it.[5] Now it is through this inner Builder of the Body that our Thought +re-acts upon our physical organism. The response is purely automatic, +for the simple reason that there is no original thinking power in the +three lower principles; the action is that of the Law as directed by +Thought or Word. + +In this way then, it appears to me, the Personal in us acts upon the +Impersonal in us; and if we assume, as I think we may, that this action +takes place by means of etheric waves, we have, on general scientific +principles, a clue to what we read in the Bible about the transmutation +of the body. The theory of the constitution of the atom shows us that +its nature is determined by the number of its particles and their rate +of revolution, and that a change in the rate of revolution results in +the throwing off of some of the particles. Then the number of particles +being altered, there results a change in the distribution of the +positive and negative charges within the sphere of the atom, since they +must always exactly balance one another; and this change in the +distribution of the positive and negative charges must instantly result +in a corresponding change in the geometrical configuration of particles +constituting the atom. + +That the particles automatically arrange themselves into groups of +different geometrical form within the sphere of the atom, has been +demonstrated both mathematically and experimentally by Professor J.J. +Thompson,[6] these geometrical forms resulting of course from the +balance of attraction and repulsion between the positive and negative +charges of the particles. + +That the transmutation of one substance into another is not a mere dream +of the mediaeval alchemists is now already shown by Modern Science. Under +suitable conditions an atom of Radium breaks down into atoms of another +sort known as Radium Emanations, and these again break down into yet +another sort of atoms to which the name of Radium Emanations X has been +given, while Radium Emanation also gives rise to the atom of Helium +(N.K. 124). Thorium also behaves in the same manner, transmuting into +atoms called Thorium X, which again change into atoms of another sort to +which the name of Thorium Emanations has been given and these in turn +transmute into atoms of yet another kind, known as Thorium Emanations X. +The same is the case also with Uranium which, however, so far as is yet +known, undergoes only one transmutation into what is known as Uranium X. + +The transmutation of one sort of atom into another is therefore not a +mere visionary fancy, but an established fact; and although our +laboratory experiments in this direction may not as yet have gone very +far, they have gone far enough to show that a Law of Transmutation does +exist in Nature. Then, since the difference between one sort of atom and +another results from the difference and arrangement of their particles, +and the difference in the number and arrangement of the particles +results from the difference in the speed of their rotation, and this +again results from the difference in the energy or rate of vibration of +the particles, we come back to different rates of etheric vibrations as +the commencement of the whole series of changes; and as is proved by the +facts of wireless telephoning, different rates of etheric vibrations can +be set in motion by the varying sounds of the human voice, even on the +physical plane. May it not be then, that by the same law, vibrations of +other wave-lengths, yet unknown to science, will be set in motion by the +unspoken word of our thought? + +The substance known as Polonium, even by its near approach to an +electric bell, causes it to ring, and if etheric waves can thus be +started by an inanimate substance, why should we suppose that our +thought has less power, especially when metaphysically we cannot avoid +the conclusion that the whole creation must have its origin in the +Divine Thought? + +From such considerations as these, I think we may reasonably infer that +if the mind be illuminated by a range of thought coming from a higher +mind, there is no limit to the power which may thus be exercised over +the material world, and that therefore St. Paul's statement regarding +the transmutation of the present physical body, is one which should be +included in the circle of our ideas, as being within the scope of the +Laws of the Universe when their action is specialized by the power of +the Word (1 Cor. xv); and similarly with regard to other statements to +the same effect contained in the Bible. What is wanted is the +realization of a greater Word than that which we form from the current +experience of the race. The race has formed its Word on the basis of the +lower principles of our being, and if we are to advance beyond this, the +Law of the subject clearly indicates that it can only be by adopting a +more fundamental Word, or Idea, than that which we have hitherto thought +to include the entire range of possibilities. The Law of our further +Evolution demands a Word not formed from past experiences, but based +upon the eternal principle of the All-Originating Life itself. And this +is in strict accord with scientific method. If we had always allowed +ourselves to be ruled by past experiences we should still be primitive +savages; and it is only by the gradual perception of underlying +principles, that we have attained the degree of civilization we have +reached to-day; so what the Bible puts before us is simply the +application to the life in ourselves of the maxim that "Principle is not +limited by Precedent." + +Now the Bible Promises serve to put us on the track of this Principle: +they suggest lines of enquiry. And the enquiry leads to the conclusion +that the two ultimate factors are the Law and the Word. What we have +missed hitherto is the conception of the limitless possibilities of the +Law, and the limitless power of the Word. On one occasion the Master +said to the Jews "Ye know not the Scriptures neither the power of God" +(Matth. xxii, 29) and the same is the case with ourselves. The true +"Scripture" is the "scriptura rerum" or the Law indelibly written in the +nature of things, and the written Scriptures are true only because they +contain the statement of the Principle of the Law. Therefore until we +see the Principle of the Law we "know not the Scriptures." On the other +hand, until we see the Principle of the operation of the Word through +the Law, we do not know "the Power of God"; and it is only as we come to +perceive the interaction of the Law and the Word that we see the +beginning of the way that leads to Life and Liberty. + +But although it is evident from the text just quoted, as well as from +other intimations in his Epistles, that St. Paul fully grasped the +principle of the transmutation of the body, he himself tells us that he +has not yet realized it in practice. He says he has not yet "attained to +the resurrection from the dead," but is still pressing on towards its +attainment (Ph. iii, 12). And it is to be remarked that he is not here +speaking of a general "resurrection _of_ the dead," but, as the word +_exanastasis_ in the original Greek indicates, of a special resurrection +from among the dead; this indicates an _individual_ achievement, not +merely something common to the whole race. From this and other passages +it is evident that by "the dead" it means those whose conception of Life +is limited to the four lower principles, thus #unifying# the mind with +the three principles which are below it; and the same idea is expressed +in a variety of ways all through the Bible. This therefore shows that he +is quite aware that knowledge of a principle does not enable us then and +there to attain the completeness of the application, and if this be the +case with St. Paul, we cannot be surprised to find it the same with +ourselves. But on the other hand knowledge of the principle is the first +step towards getting it to work. + +Well, St. Paul is dead and buried, and so I suppose will most of us be +in a few years; so the question confronts us, what becomes of us then? + +As Milton puts it in "Il Penseroso" we want: + + "to unsphere + The spirit of Plato and unfold + What worlds or what vast regions hold + The immortal mind that hath forsook + Her mansion in the fleshly nook." + +Yes, this is a question of deep personal interest to us; but as I cannot +speak from experience, I will restrict myself to seeing whether we can +form any sort of general hypothesis on the basis of the principles we +have recognized. What then is likely to survive? The physical body is of +course disintegrated by the chemistry of Nature. The etheric body +probably continues to retain its form longer, because it is a +condensation of etheric particles wrought together by the etheric waves +sent out by the Vital Soul, and is therefore not subject to the laws of +chemical affinity. The Vital Soul, being the race-principle of life in +the individual,--that principle which automatically seeks to preserve +the individual from disintegration,--probably survives longer still, +until, ceasing to receive any reflex vibrations from the body, it grows +gradually weaker in its sense of individual guardianship, and so is +eventually absorbed into the group-soul or generic essence of the class +to which it belongs. This is probably what happens in the case of +animals for want of any higher vivifying principle, and would be the +same with us were it not for the fact of having such a higher principle. +In our case I should imagine that the influx of etheric waves, received +from the thought action of the mind, would have the effect of continuing +to impress the Vital Soul with a sense of individuality, in terms of its +own plane, which would prevent it from being absorbed into the +group-soul so long as the vital current from the mind continued to reach +it. But eventually that current would cease to reach it, and in some +cases, because the individual mind that governed it would gradually +realize that its connection with the physical plane had ceased, and in +others, because through a higher illumination the mind had, of its own +volition, turned its thought in another direction. In either case, on +the ceasing of the influx of that vitalizing current, the Vital Soul of +the human being would likewise be absorbed into the Cosmic Soul, or +Anima Mundi. + +How long the processes of the disintegration of the etheric body, and +absorption of the vital soul may take, is a question on which I can +offer no opinion beyond saying that certain psychic phenomena suggest +that in some cases they may take a long period of time. But for the +reasons I have now given, it appears to me that the permanently +surviving factor is the thinking mind which is our real self, and is +positively our centre of consciousness after the physical body has been +put off. + +By the facts of the case its consciousness is no longer affected by +vibrations received from the physical body; and therefore, to the +extent to which our idea of life has been centred in that body, we shall +feel its loss. If our motto has been "Let us eat and drink, for +to-morrow we die" we shall feel very dead indeed--a living death, a +consciousness of being cut off from all that constituted our enjoyment +of life--a thirst for the satisfaction of our customary ideas, which we +have no power to quench; and, in proportion as our habitual mode of +thought is raised above that lowest level, so will our sense of loss be +less. Then, by the same Law, if our habitual mode of thought is turned +towards pure, beautiful, and helpful ideals, we shall feel no loss at +all, for we shall carry our own ideals with us, and, I hope, see them +more clearly by reason of their disentanglement from mundane +considerations. In what precise way we may then be able to work out our +ideals I will not now stop to discuss. What we want first is a +reasonable theory, based upon the principle of that universal Law which +is only varied in its actions by the conditions under which it works; +so, instead of speculating as to precise details, we may generalize the +question of how we can work out the good ideals which we carry over with +us, and put it this way:--Our ideas are embodied in thoughts; thoughts +start trains of etheric waves, which waves induce reciprocal action +whenever they meet with a receiver capable of vibrating synchronously +with them, and so eventually the thought becomes a fact, and our helpful +and beautiful ideal becomes a work of power, whether in this world or in +any other. + +Now it is to the forming of such ideals that the Bible, from first to +last is trying to lead us. From first to last it is working upon one +uniform principle, that the Thought is the Word, that the Word sets in +motion the Law, and that when the Law is set in motion it acts with +mathematical precision. The Bible is a handbook of instruction for the +use of our Creative Power of Thought, and this is the sequence which it +follows--one definite method, so fundamental in its nature, that it +applies equally to the making of a packing-case or the making of a solar +system. + +Now we have formed a generalized conception, based on this universal +method, of the sort of consciousness we are likely to have when we pass +out of the physical body. Then our thought naturally passes on to the +question what will happen after this? + +It is here that some theory of the reconstitution of the physical body +appears to me to hold a most important place in the order of our +evolution. Let us try to trace it out on the general lines of the +Creative Power of Thought indicated above, the keynote to which is that +the Law is specialized by the Word, and cannot of itself bring out the +infinite possibilities contained in it without such specializing, just +as in all scientific development of ordinary life. The clue to the whole +question is, that our place in the Universal Order is to develop the +infinite resources of the Original Life and Substance into actual facts. +"Nature unaided fails." The Personal Factor must co-operate with the +Impersonal, alike for setting up an electric bell, or for the +furtherance of cosmic evolution; and the reason it is so is, because it +could not possibly be otherwise. + +If now we start by recognizing this as our necessary place in the +Progressive Order of the Universe, I think it will help us to form a +reasonable theory as to the reconstruction of the body. First of all, +why have we any physical body at all? As a matter of fact we have one, +and no amount of transcendental philosophizing will alter the fact, and +so we may conclude that there is some reason for it. We have seen the +truth of the maxim "Omne vivum ex vivo," and therefore that all +particular forms of life are differentiations of the one Basic Life. +This means a localizing of the Life-Principle in individual centres. The +formation of a centre implies condensation; for where there is no +condensation the Energy, whether electricity or Life, is simply +_dispersed_ and _achieving no purpose_. Therefore distinctness from the +undifferentiated Original Life is a necessity of the case. Consequently +the higher the degree of Consciousness of Individuality, the greater +must be the Consciousness of _Distinctness of Personality_. + +We say of a "wobbly" sort of person: "That fellow is no use, you can't +depend on him." We say of a person whose ideas, intentions, and methods +are subject to continual variations under all sorts of outside +influences, whether of opinions or circumstances, that he has "no +backbone," meaning that he is in want of individuality. He has no real +thought of his own, and so has no Word of Power by which to co-operate +with the Law; therefore, to the extent to which this is the case with +any of us, we are of no use in furthering the unfoldment of Evolution, +whether in ourselves or anywhere else. + +Now we talk a lot about Evolution or the _un_-folding, but we seem often +not to realize that there must be something to unfold; and that +therefore _In_-volution, or the concentration of the Life-principle, +must be a condition precedent to its _E_-volution. This process of +Involution must therefore be a process of gradually increasing +concentration of the Life-principle, by association with denser and +denser modes of the Universal Substance. Then, on the principle of +Vibration, the less dense the substance in which the Life is immersed, +the more it must be subject to being stirred by vibratory currents other +than those produced by the conscious action of the Ego, or inherent +Life, of the individuality that is being formed. + +But "_the Sum of the Vibrations in anything determines the mode, power, +and direction of its action_"; therefore, the less the Ego be +concentrated through association with a dense vehicle, the more "wobbly" +it must be, and consequently the less able to take any effective part in +the further work of Creation. But in proportion as the Ego builds up an +_Individual_ _Will_, the more it gets out of the "wobbly" state--or, to +refer once more to the idea of etheric waves--it becomes able to select +what vibrations it will receive, and what vibrations it will send out. + +The involution of the Ego into the physical body, such as we at present +know it, is therefore a necessity of the case, if any effective +Individuality is to be brought into existence, and the work of Creation +carried on instead of being cut short, not for want of material, but for +want of workmen capable of using the tools of the builders' craft--the +Law as "Strength" and the Word as "Beauty." + +The Descending Arc of the Circle of Being is therefore that of the +Involution of Spirit into denser and denser modes of Substance,--a +process called in technical language by the Greek name "Eleusin," and +the process continues until a point is reached where Spirit and +Substance are in equal balance, which is where we are now. Then comes +the tug of war. Which of the two is to predominate? They are the +Expansive and Constrictive primal elements, the "rouah" and "hoshech" of +the Hebrew Genesis. + +If the Constrictive element be allowed to go further than giving +necessary form to the Expansive element, it imprisons the latter. The +condensation becomes too dense for the Ego to receive or send forth +vibrations according to its free will, and so the Individuality becomes +lost. If the condensation process be not carried far enough, no +Individuality can be built up, and if it be carried too far, no +Individuality can emerge; so in both cases we get the same result that +there is no one to speak the Word of Power without which "Nature unaided +fails." + +Thus we are now exactly at the bottom of the Circle of Being. We have +completed the Descending Arc and reached the point where the realization +of the Distinctness of Conscious Individuality enables us to choose our +own line, whether that of progressing through the stages of the +Ascending Arc of Being, or of falling out from the living Circle of +Progression, at least for a period, into what is sometimes mystically +spoken of as "the Moon," or (in descending order) the "Eighth Sphere," +and which is called in Scripture "The Outer Darkness,"--the rigidity +which stops the action of Life. + +Therefore it is with regard to this stage of our career that the Bible +lays so much stress on the conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh--it +is a fact in the course of our evolution, and the purpose of the Bible +is to teach us how to move forward along the Ascending Arc of the Circle +of Being, so as to build up individualities which will be able to use +the tools of Intelligence and Will in the great work of Evolution, both +Personal and Cosmic. + +Now what is shown diagrammatically as the Ascending Arc of the Circle of +Life is the Return from its lowest point, or the _Full Consciousness of +Personal Distinctness_, gained through _the Material Body_, back to its +highest point or the Originating Life itself. This is the truth embodied +in the parable of the Prodigal Son. It is a Cosmic truth, and this +return journey is technically called by the Green name "Anaktorion." It +is the Rising-again, that is from matter to Spirit, and is the +Resurrection Principle. + +But what is accomplished by the journey of the Ego round the Circle of +Life? + +_A New Centre_ of Intelligence and volition is established; from this +the Creative Word of Power can be spoken--a _Complete Man_ has been +brought into existence, who can take a _free and intelligent_ part in +the further work of Creation, by his understanding of the interaction +between the Law and the Word. The "Volume of the Sacred Law" lies open +before us, and the Vibratory Power of the Word to give effect to it is +the "Blazing Star" that illuminates its contents, and so we become +fellow-workers with the Great Architect of the Universe. + +For these reasons it appears to me that our self-recognition in a +physical body is a necessary step in our growth. But why should the +reconstruction of a physical body be either necessary or desirable? The +answer is as follows: + +Obviously self-recognition is the necessary basis for all use of those +powers of selection and volition by which the Impersonal Law is to be +specialized so as to bring to light its limitless potentialities; and +self-recognition means the recognition of our personal Distinctness from +our environment. Therefore it must always mean the possessing of a body +as a vehicle, by means of which to act upon that environment, and to +receive the corresponding reaction from it. In other words it must +always be a body constituted in terms of the plane upon which we are +functioning. But it does not follow that we should always be tied down +to one plane. + +On the contrary, the very conception of the power of the Word to +specialize the action of the Law, implies the power of functioning on +any plane we choose; but always subject to the Law, that if we want to +act on any particular plane in _propria persona_, and not merely by +influencing some other agent, we can only do so by assuming a body in +terms of the nature of that plane. Therefore, if we want to act on the +physical plane, we must put on a physical body. But when we have fully +grasped the Power of the Word we cannot be tied to a body. We shall no +longer regard it as composed of so many chemical elements, but we shall +see beyond them into the real primary etheric substance of which they +are composed, and so by our volition shall be able to put the physical +body on or off at pleasure,--that at least is a quite logical deduction +from what we have learnt in the preceding pages. + +Seen in this light the "Resurrection Body" is not the old body +resuscitated, but a new body, just as real and tangible as the old one, +only not subject to any of its disabilities,--no longer a limitation, +but the ever ready instrument for any work we may desire to do upon the +physical plane. + +But perhaps you will say, "Why should we want to have anything more to +do with the physical plane? surely we have had enough of it already!" +Yes; in its old sense of limitation; but not in the new sense of a world +of glorious possibilities, a new field for our creative activities; not +the least of which is the helping of those who are still in those lower +stages which we have already passed through. + +I think if we realize the position of the Fully Risen Man, we shall see +that he is not likely to turn his back upon the Earth as a rotten, old +thing. Therefore a new physical body is a necessary part of his +equipment. + +If, then, we take it as a general principle, that for self-recognition +upon any plane a body in terms of that plane is a necessity, this will +throw some light on the Bible narrative of our Lord's appearances after +his Resurrection. It is noteworthy that he himself lays stress on the +body as an integral part of the individuality. When the disciples +thought they had seen an apparition he said: "Handle me and see that it +is I _myself_, and _not_ a spirit, for a spirit hath not flesh and +bones as ye see I have" (Luke xxiv, 39). This very clearly states that +the spirit without a corresponding body is not the complete "I myself"; +yet from the same narrative we gather that the solid body in which he +appeared is able to pass through closed doors, and to be disintegrated +and re-integrated at will. Now on the electronic theory of the +constitution of matter which I have spoken of in the earlier part of +this book, there is nothing impossible in this; on the contrary it is +only the known Law of synchronous vibration carried into those further +ranges of wave-lengths which, though not yet produced by laboratory +experiment, are unavoidably recognized by the mathematicians. + +In this way then the Resurrection of the Body appears to me to be the +legitimate termination of our present stage of existence. What further +developments may follow, who shall say? for we must remember that the +end of one series is always the commencement of another--that is the +doctrine of the Octave. But this is far enough to look forward in all +conscience. As to _when_ the completion of our present stage of +evolution will be attained, it is impossible even to hazard a guess; but +that the _individual_ attainment of such a Resurrection is not +dependent on any particular date in the world's history, is clearly the +teaching of Scripture. When Martha said to Jesus that she knew her +brother would rise again "at the last day," he ignored the question of +"the last day," and said "I am the Resurrection and the Life" (St. John +xi, 25); and similarly St. Paul puts it forward as a thing to be +attained (Ph. iii, 15). It is not a resurrection _of_ the dead but _from +among_ the dead that St. Paul is aiming at--not an "anastasis ton +nekron," but an "anastasis _ek_ ton nekron." + +Doubtless there are other passages of Scripture which speak of a general +resurrection, which to some will be a resurrection to condemnation (St. +John v, 29), a resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. xii, +2). This is a subject upon which I will not attempt to enter--I have a +great many things to learn, and this is one of them; but if the Bible +statements regarding resurrection are to be taken as a whole, these +passages cannot be passed over without notice. On the other hand the +Bible statements regarding _individual_ resurrection are there also, and +the general principle on which they are based becomes clear when we see +the fundamental relation between the Law and the Word. Only we must +remember that the Word that can thus set in motion the Law of Life, and +make it triumph over the Law of Death, cannot be spoken by the limited +personality which only knows itself as John Smith or Mary Jones. We must +attain a larger personality than that, before we can speak the Word. And +this larger personality is not just John Smith or Mary Jones magnified; +that is the mistake we are all so apt to fall into. Mere magnification +will not do it. A square will continue to be a square however large you +make it; it will never become a circle. But on the other hand, there is +such a thing as stating the area of a circle in the form of a square; +and when we learn to regard our square as not existing on its own +account, but as an expression of the circle in another form, our +attention will be directed to the circle first, as the generating +figure, and _then_ to the square as a particular mode of expressing the +same area. If we look at it in this way we shall never mistake the +square for the circle, but we shall see that as the circle grows, the +corresponding square will grow with it. It is this dependence of the +square on the circle that makes all the difference, and makes it a +living, growing square. For the true circle represents Infinitude. It is +not bounded by a limiting circumference as in the merely symbolic +geometrical figure, but is rather represented by the impulse which +generates an ever widening circle of electro-magnetic waves; and when we +realize this, our square becomes a living thing. The "Word" that we +speak with this recognition is no longer ours, but His who sent us--the +expression, on the plane of individuality, of the Thought that sent us +into existence and so it is the "Word of Life." This is the true +Resurrection of the Individual. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TRANSFERRING THE BURDEN + + +The more we grow into a clear perception of what is really meant by +"Squaring the Circle," the freer we shall find ourselves from the burden +of anxiety. We shall rise to a larger generalization of the Law of Cause +and Effect. We shall learn in all things to reach out to First Cause as +operating through the channels of secondary causation,--"causa causas" +as producing, and therefore controlling "causa causata"--and so we cease +to worry about secondary causes. On the plane of the lower personality +we see certain facts, and argue that they are bound to produce certain +results, which would be quite true if we really saw _all_ the facts; or, +again, allowing that in any particular case we actually did see all the +facts as they now exist, we can either deny the operation of First +Cause, or recognize its infinite capacity for creating new facts. +Therefore, whatever may be the nature of our anxiety, we should +endeavour to dispel it by the consideration that there may be already +existing other facts we do not know of, which will produce a different +result from the one we fear, and that in any case there is a power which +can produce new facts in answer to our appeal to it. + +But I can imagine some one saying to us, "You bumptious little midget, +do you think First Cause is going to trouble Itself about you and your +petty concerns? Do you not know that First Cause works by universal Law, +and makes no exceptions?" Well, I would not have written this book if I +did not suppose that First Cause works by universal Law, and it is just +because It does so that I believe It _will_ work for me and my concerns. +The Law makes no exceptions, but it can be specialized through the power +of the Word. Then our sceptic says, "What, do you think _your_ word can +do that?" To which I reply, "It is not my word because I am not using it +in my lower personality, as John Smith or Mary Jones, but in that higher +personality which recognizes only one all-embracing Personality and +itself as included in that." + +Which comes first, the Law or the Word? + +The distribution of the solar systems in space, the localization of the +Spirit in specific areas of cosmic activity, proclaims the starting of +all manifestation through the "Word." Then the operation of Law follows +with mathematical precision, just as when we write 2 x 2 we cannot avoid +getting 4 as the result--only there is no reason why we should not write +2 x 3 and so get 6 instead of 4. Let it be borne in mind that the Law +flows from the Word, and not _vice versa_, and you have got the clue to +the enigma of Life. + +How far we shall be able to make practical use of this clue depends, of +course, on our acceptance of its principle. + +The Directing Power of the Word is _inherent_ in the Word, and we cannot +alter it. _It is the Law_ OF _the Law_, and so, like any other law, it +cannot be broken, but its action can be inverted. We cannot deprive the +Word of its efficacy, but our denial of it as the Word of Expansion is +equivalent to an affirmation of it as the Word of Contraction, and so +the Law acts towards us as a Limitation. But the fault is not in the +Law, but in the way we use the Word. Now if the reader grasps this, he +will see that the less we trouble ourselves about what appear to us to +be the visible and calculable causes of things, the freer we must become +from the burden of anxiety; and as we advance step by step to a clearer +recognition of the true order of Cause and Effect, so all intermediate +causes will fade from our view. Only the two extremes of the sequence of +Cause and Effect will remain in sight. First Cause, moving as the Word, +starting a sequence, and the desired result terminating it, as the Word +taking Form in Fact. The intermediate links in the chain will be there, +but they will be seen as effects, not causes. The wider the +generalization we thus make, the less we shall need to trouble about +particulars, knowing that they will form themselves by the natural +action of the Law; and the widest generalization is therefore, to state +not what we want to _have_, but what we want to _be_. The only reason we +ever want to _have_ anything, is because we think it will help us to be +something--something more than we are now; so that the "having" is only +a link in the chain of secondary causes, and may therefore be left out +of consideration, for it will come of itself through the natural +workings of the Law, set in operation by the Word as First Cause. This +principle is set forth in the statement of the Divine Name given to +Moses (Ex. iii, 13-14). The Name is simply "I AM"--it is Being, not +having--the having follows as a natural consequence of the Being; and if +it be true that we are made in the likeness and image of God, that is to +say on the same Principle, then what is the Law of the Divine nature +must be the Law of ours also--and as we awake to this we become +"partakers of the Divine Nature" (2 Pet. i, 4). + +What we really want, therefore, is to _be_ something--something more +than we are now; and this is quite right. It is our consciousness of the +continually generative impulse of the Eternal Living Spirit, which is +the _fons et origo_ (fountain and source) of all differentiated life +working within us for ever more and more perfect individual expression +of all that is in Itself. If the reader remembers what I said at the +beginning of this book about the Verb Substantive of Being, he will see +that each of us is in truth a "Word (verbum) of God." Let not the +orthodox reader be shocked at this--I am only saying what the Bible +does. Look up the following passages: "I will write upon him the name +of my God and my own new name" (Rev. xiii, 12). "I saw, and behold a +lamb standing on the Mount Zion (note, the word Zion means the principle +of Life), and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his +name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads" (Rev. xiv, +1). "His name shall be on their foreheads" (Rev. xxii, 4). Read +particularly the whole passage Rev. xix, 11-16, where we are expressly +told that the name in question is "the Word of God"; and that this name +is the one put upon those who follow their Leader, is shown by the same +description being given of the followers as of the Leader. They all ride +upon "white horses," and the "horse" is the symbol of the intellect. +Also in the case of the Leader, the peculiarity of his Name is that "no +one knows it but himself," and in Rev. ii, 17, exactly the same thing is +said of the "New Name" to be given "to him that overcometh." Again, in +Isaiah lxii, 2, "Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of +the Lord shall name"; and again in Num. vi, 27, "They shall put my name +upon the children of Israel." + +Then as the meaning of that Name "the Word of God." In Ps. cxix, 160: +"Thy word is true from the beginning," and Jesus said: "Thy Word is +Truth" (John xvii, 17). + +This also corresponds with the description in Rev. xix, 11-16 where +another name for "the Word of God" is "Faithful and True"; and the same +metaphor of the Truth "_riding into action_" is contained in Ps. xlv, 3, +4. "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy +majesty; and in thy majesty ride prosperously because of Truth." The +same symbol of "riding" also occurs in Ps. lxviii: "Extol him that +rideth upon the heavens," "Sing praises to him that rideth upon the +heaven of heavens which were of old (i.e., _ab initio_); lo, he doth +send out his Voice and that a mighty Voice"--and the word "Voice" is the +Hebrew Word [Hebrew: "K[=o]l"], meaning "Sound" or "Word"--so that here +again we have the idea of "The Word" riding into action. Once +more--"Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name" (Ps. cxxxviii, +2), thus repeating the idea of the Word as the Name. + +In other passages we have the idea of the Word as a Weapon. "The Sword +of the Spirit which is the Word of God" (Eph. vi, 17), which answers to +the description in Revelations of the Sword proceeding out of the mouth +of the Word; and we have the same metaphor of the Word riding into +action in Habakkuk iii, 8 and 9. "Thou didst ride upon thine horses and +thy chariots of salvation. Thy bow was made quite naked ... even thy +Word"; and similarly those that oppose the Word are "killed with the +sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his +mouth." + +In other passages we have the Word put before us as a Defence. "His +Truth shall be thy shield and buckler" (Ps. xci, 4); and again "The Name +of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is +safe" (Prov. xviii, 10); and we have already seen that this Name is "The +Word of God"; and similarly in Ps. cxxiv, 8: "Our help is in the name of +the Lord, who made heaven and earth." + +Lastly, we get "the Word" as the final deliverance from all ill; "Into +thy hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth" +(Ps. xxxi, 5). + +And the reason of all this is because "His Truth endureth to all +generations" (Ps. c, 5); it is everlasting, Changeless Principle. "By +the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by +the breath of his mouth" (Ps. xxxiii, 6), as is also said of the Word in +the opening of St. John's Gospel and First Epistle. + +Now a careful comparison of these and similar passages will make it +clear that the sequence presented to us is as follows: The "Word" is the +passing of the Verb Substantive of Being into Action. It is always the +same in Principle, on whatever scale, and therefore applies to ourselves +also, so that each one of us is a "Word of God." We are this by the very +essence of our being, and that is why the first thing we are told about +Man is, that he is made in the image and likeness of God. But how far +any of us will become a really effective "Word," depends upon our +acceptance of the New Name which is ready to be bestowed upon each one. +"To as many as _receive_ him, to them gives he power to become Sons of +God, even to them that believe on his Name" (John 1-12). We get the New +Name by realizing the Truth, which Truth is that we ourselves are +included in THE NAME, and that name is called "The Word of God." + +The meaning of which becomes clear if we remember that the spiritual +name of anything is its "Noumenon" or essential being, which is +manifested through its "Phenomenon" or outward reproduction in Form; so +that the true order is first our "Name" or essential Being, then our +"Word" or active manifestation of this essential Being, then the "Truth" +or the unchangeable Law of Being passing into Manifestation--and these +three are ONE. Then when we see that this is true of ourselves, not +because of some arbitrary favouritism making us exceptions to the human +race, but because it is the working on the plane of Human Individuality +of the same Power and the same Law by which the world has come into +existence, we can see that we have here a Principle which we can trust +to work as infallibly as the principle of Mathematics; and that +therefore the desire to become something more than we now are is nothing +else than the Eternal Spirit of Life seeking ever fuller expression. + +The correction which our mode of thinking needs therefore is to start +with Being, not with Having, and we may then trust the Having to come +along in its right order; and if we can get into this new manner of +thinking, what a world of worry it will save us! If we realize that the +Law flows from the Word, and not vice versa, then the Law of attraction +must work in this manner, and will bring to us all those conditions +through which we shall be able to express the more expanded Being +towards which we are directing our Word; and as a consequence, we shall +have no need to trouble about forcing particular conditions into +existence--they will grow spontaneously out of the seed we have planted. +All we have to do now, or at any time, is to take the conditions that +are ready to hand and use them on the lines of the sort of "being" +towards which we are directing our Thought--use them just as far as they +go at the time, without trying to press them further--and we shall find +by experience that out of the present conditions thus used to-day, more +favourable conditions will grow in a perfectly natural manner to-morrow, +and so on, day by day, until, when later on we look back, we shall be +surprised to find ourselves expressing all, and more than all, the sort +of "_being_" we had thought of. Then, from this new standpoint of our +being, we shall continue to go on in the same way, and so on _ad +infinitum_, so that our life will become one endless progress, ever +widening as we go on. And this will be found a very quiet and peaceful +way, free from worry and anxiety, and wonderfully effective. It may lead +you to some position of authority or celebrity; but as such things +belong to the category of "Having" and not of "Being" they were not what +you aimed at, and are only by-products of what you have become in +yourself. They are conditions, and like all other conditions should be +made use of for the development of still more expanded "being"; that is +to say, you will go on working on the more extended scale which such a +position makes possible to you. But the one thing you would not try to +do with it would be to "boss the show." The moment you do this you are +no longer using the Word of the larger Personality, and have descended +to your old level of the smaller personality, just John Smith or Mary +Jones, ignorant of yourselves as being anything greater. It is true your +Word still directs the operation of the Law towards yourself--it always +does this--but your word has become inverted, and so calls into +operation the Law of Contraction instead of the Law of Expansion. A +higher position means a wider field for usefulness--that is all; and to +the extent to which you fit yourself for it, it will come to you. So, if +you content yourself with always speaking in your Thought the Creative +Word of "Being" from day to day, you will find it the Way of Peace and +the Secret of a Happy Life--by no means monotonous, for all sorts of +unexpected interests will be continually opening out to you, giving you +scope for all the activities of which your present degree of "being" +renders you capable. You will always find plenty to do, and find +pleasure in doing it, so you need never be afraid of feeling dull. + +But perhaps you will say: + +"How am I to know that I am not speaking my own Word instead of that of +the Creative Spirit?" + +Well, the word of the smaller personality is always based on the idea of +possessing, and the Word of the Spirit is always based on the idea of +Becoming--that is the criterion. And also, if we base our speaking of +the Word on the Promises of Spirit, we may be sure that we are on the +right track. + +We may be sure of it, because when we come to analyze these promises we +shall find that they are all statements of the Creative Law of Being, +and the nature of this Law is obvious from the facts of the Visible +Creation. + +These things are not true because they are written in the Bible, but the +Bible is true because these things are written in it. The more we +examine the Bible Promises, the more they will impress themselves upon +us as being Promises according to Law; and since the Law can never be +broken, we can feel quite secure of it, subject to the one condition +that we do not stop the Law from working to the fulfilment of the +Promise, by our own inverted use of the Word. But if we take the _Word +of the Promise_ and make it our own Word, then we know that we are +speaking the right Word, which will so specialize the action of the Law, +as to produce the fulfilment of the Promise. Apart from the Word there +is no Foundation. In all other systems we have either Law without Will, +or Will without Law. + +Then we know that we are not speaking of ourselves, but are speaking the +Word of the Power that sent us into the World. The Law alone cannot +fulfil the Promises. It is in itself Cosmic and Impersonal, and, as +every scientific discovery amply demonstrates, it needs the co-operation +of the Personal Factor to bring out its latent possibilities; so that +the Word is as necessary as the Law for the fulfilment of the Promises; +but if the Word which we speak is that of the Creating Spirit, we may +reckon it as being just as certain in its operation as the Law, and the +two together form an infallible Power. + +But there is one thing we must not forget, and this is the Law of +Growth. If the Law which we plant is the seed, then we must allow time +for it to grow; we must leave it alone and go about our business as +usual, and the seed we have sown will spring and grow up of itself, we +know not how, a truth which we have been told by the Master himself +(Mark iv, 26, 29). + +We must not be like children who plant a seed one day, and dig it up the +next to see whether it is growing. Our part is to plant the seed, not to +make it grow,--the Creative Law of Life will do that. It is for this +reason that the Bible gives us such injunctions as "Study to be quiet" +(1 Thess. iv, 11). "He that believeth shall not make haste" (Is. +xxviii, 16). "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" +(Is. xxx, 15). To make ourselves anxious as to whether the Word we have +planted will fructify is just to dig it up again, and then of course it +will not grow. + +The fundamental maxim, then, which we must always keep in mind is that +"Every creation carries its own Mathematics along with it," and that +therefore "The Law flows from the Word, and not _vice versa_;" and +consequently "_The Word is the Foundation of every creative series_," +whether that series be great or small, cosmic or individual, +constructive or destructive. Every series commences with Intention; and +remember the exact meaning of the Word. It is from the two Latin words +"in," towards, and "tendere," to stretch, and it therefore means a +"reaching out in a certain direction." This "reaching out in a certain +direction" is the Conception of ourself as arrived at the destination +towards which our Thought tends, and is therefore _the conceiving of an +idea_, and our formulated idea is stated, if only mentally, in +Words--and the termination of the series is the realization of the idea +in actual fact. Therefore it is equally true of every series, whether it +be the creation of a lady's blouse or the creation of a world, that "in +the Beginning is the Word"--the Word is _the Point of Origination_. + +Then, since the Word is the Point of Origination, what is our conception +of the best thing we can originate with it? There is a great variety of +opinion as to what is desirable; and it is only natural and right that +it should be so, for otherwise we should be without any individuality, +which means that we should have no real life in us--in fact such a world +is unthinkable; it would be a world that had ceased to move, it would be +a dead world. So it is the varied conception of "the Good" that makes +the world go on. Uniformity means reducing things to one dead level. But +on the other hand there must be Unity--unity of action resulting from +unity of purpose, otherwise the world logically terminates in +internecine strife. If then the world is to go on, it can only be by +means of Unity expressing itself in Variety, and therefore the question +is: What is the _unifying Desire_ which underlies all the varieties of +expression? It is a very simple one--it is just to ENJOY LIVING. Our +ideas of an enjoyable life may be very various, but that is what we all +really want; so what we want to get at is: What is the basis of an +enjoyable life? + +I have no hesitation in saying that the secret of enjoying life is _to +take an interest in it_. The opposite of Livingness is Deadness, that +is, inertia and stagnation. Dying of "ennui" is a very real thing +indeed, and if we would not die of this malady we must have an interest +in life that will always keep going on. + +Now for anything to interest us we must enter into the spirit of it. If +we do not enter into the spirit of a game it does not interest us; if we +do not enter into the spirit of a book, it does not interest us, we are +bored to death with it; and so on with everything. So from our own +experience we may lay down the maxim that "To enjoy anything we must +enter into the spirit of it," and if this be so, then, to enjoy the +"Living Quality of Life" we must enter into the Spirit of Life itself. I +say the "Living Quality of Life" so as to dissociate it from all ideas +of particular conditions; because what we are trying to get at is the +fundamental principle of Life which creates conditions, and not the +reflex of sensations, whether physical or mental, which any particular +set of conditions may induce in us for the time being. In this way we +come back to the initial proposition with which we started--that the +origin of everything is only to be found in a Universal Ever-Living +Spirit, and that our own life proceeds from this Spirit in accordance +with the maxim "Omne vivum ex vivo." Thus we are logically brought to +the conclusion that the ultimate Desire of all Humanity is to +consciously enter into the Spirit of Life as it is _in itself_, +antecedently to all conditions. This is the widest of all +generalizations, and so opens the door to the highest of all +specializations; for it is a scientific fact that the more widely we can +generalize the principle of any Law, the more highly we can specialize +its working. It is only as our conception of it is limited that any Law +limits us. + +A principle _per se_ is always undifferentiated, and capable of any sort +of differentiation into particular modes of expression that are not in +opposition to the principle itself; and it is true of the Principle of +Life as of all others. There is therefore no limit to its expression +except that which inverts it,--that is to say, anything which tends +towards Death; and, accordingly, what we have to avoid is the negative +mode of Thought, which starts an inverted action of the Law, logically +resulting in destructiveness instead of constructiveness. But the +mistake we make from not seeing the basic principle of the whole thing, +is that of looking to the conditions to form the Life, instead of +looking to the Life to form the conditions; and therefore what we +require is a _Standard of Measurement_ for our Thought, by which we +shall be able to form _The Perfect Word_ which will set in motion the +Law of Cause and Effect in such a manner as to fulfil that _Basic Desire +of Life_ which is common to all Humanity. The Perfect Word must +therefore fulfil two Conditions--it must have the essential Quality of +the Undifferentiated Eternal Life, and it must have the essential +Quality of "Genus Homo." It must say with Horace "Homo sum; nihil humani +mihi alienum puto" (I am Man; I regard nothing human as alien to +myself). When we think it out carefully, there is no escaping the +conclusion that this must be the essential Quality of the Perfect Word +we are in search of. It is the final logical inference from all that we +have learnt regarding the interaction between Law and Personality, that +the Perfect Word must combine in itself the Quality of each--it must be +at once both Human and Divine. + +Of course all my readers know where the description of such a Word is to +be found; but what I want them to realize is the way in which we have +now reached a similar description of the Perfect Word. We have not +accepted it unquestioningly as the teaching of a scholastic theology, +but have arrived at it by a course of careful reasoning from the facts +of physical Nature and from our experience of our own mental powers. +This way of getting at it makes it really our own. We know what we mean +by it, and it is no longer a mere traditional form of words. It is the +same with everything else; nothing becomes our own by being just told +about it. + +For instance, if I show an artist a picture, and he tells me that a boat +in it is half a mile away from the spectators, I may accept this on his +authority, because I suppose he knows all about it. But if next day a +friend shows me a picture of a bit of coast with a fishing-boat in the +distance, and asks me how far off that boat is, I am utterly stumped +because I do not know how the artist was able to judge the distance. +But if I understand the principle, I give my friend a very fair +approximation of the distance of the boat. I work it out like this. I +say:--the immediate foreground of the picture shows an amount of detail +which could not be seen more than twenty yards away, and the average +size of such details in nature shows that the bottom edge of the picture +must measure about ten yards across. Then from experience I know that +the average length of craft of the particular rigging in the picture is, +say, about eighty feet, and I then measure that this length goes sixteen +and a half times across the picture on the level where the boat is +situated, and so I know that a line across the picture at this level +measures 80 x 16-1/2 = 1320 ft. = 440 yards. Then I make the +calculation: 10 yds.: 440 yds.:: 20 yds.: the distance required to be +ascertained 440 x 20 / 10 = 880 yds. 1760 yds. = 1 mile and 1760 / 2 = +880 yds. Therefore I know that the boat in the picture is represented as +being about half a mile from the spectator. I really know the distance +and do not merely guess it, and I know _how_ I know it. I know it simply +from the geometrical principle that with a given angle at the apex of a +triangle the length of a perpendicular dropped from the apex to the base +of the triangle will always bear the same ratio to the length of the +base, whatever the size of the triangle may be. In this way I know the +distance of the boat in the picture by combining mathematics and my own +observation of facts--once again to co-operation of Law and Personality. +Now a familiar instance like this shows the difference between being +told a thing and really knowing it, and it is by an analogous method +that we have now arrived at the conclusion that the Perfect Word is a +combination of the Human and the Divine. We have definite reasons for +seeing this as the ultimate fact of human development--the power to give +expression to the Perfect Word--, and that this follows naturally from +the fact of our own existence and that of some originating source from +which we derive it. + +But perhaps the reader will say: How can a Word take form as a Person? +Well, words which do not eventually take form as facts only evaporate +into thin air, and we cannot conceive the Divine Ideals of Man doing +this. Therefore the expression of the Perfect Word on the plane of +Humanity must take substance in the Form of Humanity. It is not the +manifestation of any limited personality with all his or her +idiosyncrasies, but the manifestation of the basic principle of Humanity +itself common to us all. + +To quote Dryden's words--but in a very different sense to that intended +in "Absolom and Achitophel,"--such a one must be "Not one, but all +Mankind's epitome." The manifestation must be the Perfect Expression of +that fundamental Life which is the Root Desire in us all, and which is +therefore called "The Desire of all nations." + +Here then we have reached (Haggai ii, 7) the foundation fact of Human +Personality. It is the Eternal "Will-to-live," as Schopenhauer calls it, +which works subconsciously in all creation; therefore it is the root +from which all creation springs. In the atom it becomes atomic energy, +in the plant it becomes vegetable life, in the animal it becomes animal +life, and in man it becomes personal life, and therefore, if a Perfect +Standard of the Eternal Life is to be set before us, it must be in terms +of Human Personality. + +But some one will say: Why should we need such a Standard? The answer +is that since the working of the Law towards each of us is determined by +our mode of Thought, we require to be guarded against an inverted use of +the Word. "Ignorantia Legis nemini excusat" (ignorance of the Law does +not excuse you from its operation), is a scientific, as well as a +forensic maxim, for the Law of Cause and Effect can never be altered. +Our ignorance of the laws of electricity will not prevent us from being +electrocuted if we get into the circuit of some powerful voltage. + +Therefore, because the Law is _Impersonal_ and knows no exceptions, and +will bring us either Life or Death according to the direction which we +give it by our Word, it is of the first importance for us to have a +Standard by which to measure the Word expressed through our own +Personality. This is why St. Paul speaks of our growing to "the measure +of the stature of the fulness of Christ," (Eph. iv, 13) and why we find +the symbol of "Measurement" so frequently employed in the Bible. + +Therefore, if a great scale of measurement for our Word is to be +exhibited, it can only be by its presentation in human form. + +Then if the purpose be to establish such a standard of measurement, the +scale must be expressed in units of the same denomination as that of our +own nature--you cannot divide miles by amperes--and it is because the +scale of our potential being is laid out in the same denomination as +that of the Spirit of Life itself that we can avail ourselves of the +standard of "the Word made Flesh." + +When this is clearly seen it removes those intellectual difficulties +which so many feel with regard to the doctrine of the Atonement. If we +want to avail ourselves of the Bible Promises on the basis of the Bible +teaching, we cannot throw the teaching overboard. As I have said before, +if a doctrine is to be rightly interpreted, it must be interpreted as a +whole, and in one form or another the doctrine of the Atonement is the +pivot point of the whole Bible. To omit it is like trying to play +"Hamlet" with Hamlet left out, and you may put your Bible out on the +rubbish-heap. How, then, does the Atonement come in? + +Here are the usual intellectual difficulties. To whom is the sacrifice +offered? To God or to the Devil? If it be to the Devil, then the Devil +is a greater power than God. If it be to God, then how can a God who +demands a sacrifice of blood be Love? And in either case how can guilt +be transferred from one person to the other? + +Now as a matter of fact none of these questions arise. They are beside +the real point at issue, which is: How can we so combine the Personal +action of the Word with the Impersonal action of the Law, as to make the +Law become to us the Law of Life instead of the Law of Death (Rom. viii, +2)? + +Let us recur to the principles which we have worked out. The Law flows +from the Word and not _vice versa_--it acts for good or ill according to +the Quality of the Word which calls it into action. Therefore to get the +Law of Life we must speak the Word of Life. Then, on the principle of +"Omne vivum ex vivo," the Word of Fundamental Basic Life, which is not +subject to conditions because it is antecedent to all conditions, can +only be spoken through consciousness of participating in the Eternal +Life which is the "fons et origo" of all particular being. Therefore, to +be able to speak this Word we must have a foundation of assurance that +we are in no way separated from the Eternal Life, and since this +foundation is required for all men, it must be broad enough to +accommodate all grades of perceptions. + +Theologically the separation from the Eternal Life is said to be caused +by "Sin." But what do we mean by "Sin"? + +We can only judge of what a thing _is_ by what it _does_; and so, if +"Sin" is that which prevents the inflowing of the Eternal Life, which we +know is the root of our individual being, then it must be the +transgression of the inherent Law of our own Being. The truth is that we +live simultaneously in two worlds, the visible and the invisible, just +as trees draw their life from the earth beneath and from the air and +light above, and the transgression consists in limiting ourselves only +to the lower world, and thereby cutting ourselves off from the essential +part of our own life, that which _really lives_. + +We do not realize the true function of the three lower principles of our +nature, viz.: Vital Spirit, etheric body, and outward form; the function +of which is to give concentration to the current of spiritual life +flowing from the Eternal Spirit, and thus enable the undifferentiated +Life to differentiate itself into Individual Consciousness, which will +be able to specialize the action of the Law into higher manifestations +than it can produce without the co-operation of Personality. + +On the analogy of Ohm's Law our error is making our "_R_" so rigid that +it ceases to be a conductor, and so no current is delivered and no work +done. This is the true nature of sin, and it is this opposition of our +_R_ to E.M.F. or Eternal Motive Force that has to be removed. We have to +realize the true function of our R, as the channel through which the +E.M.F. is enabled to carry on its work. When we awake to the fact that +our true place in the Order of the Universe is to be fellow-workers with +God in carrying on the work of Creation, then we see that hitherto we +have entirely missed the purpose of our calling, and have misused the +Divine image in which we were created; and therefore we want an +assurance that our past errors will not stand in the way of our future +advance into continually fuller participation in the Divine Creative +Work, which, in virtue of our true nature should be our rightful +inheritance. + +That our future destiny is to actually take an individual part, however +small, in guiding the great work of Evolution, may not be evident to us +in the earlier stages of our awakening; but what is clear as a matter +of feeling, but not yet intellectually, is, that in some way or other we +have been cutting ourselves off from the Great Source of Light, and that +what we therefore want, is to be re-united to it. What is wanted, then, +is something which will give us a firm ground of assurance that we _are_ +re-united to it, and that that something must be of such a nature as +never to lose anything of its efficiency at any stage of our +progress--it must cover the whole ground. + +Now, if we think deeply upon this question, we shall gradually come to +see that this expansive quality is to be found in the doctrine of the +Atonement. It meets all the needs of our spiritual nature in a way that +no other theory does, and responds to every stage of our progress. There +is only one thing that will prevent it working, and that is, saying that +we have no need of it. That is why St. John said, that if we say we have +no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John i, 8). +But the more we come into the light of Truth, and realize that sin is +everything that is not in accordance with the Law of our own essential +being as related to the Eternal Life, the more we shall see, not only +that we have transgressed the Law in the past, but also that even now +we are very far from completely fulfiling it; and the more light we get +the more clearly we shall see this to be the case. Therefore, whatever +may be the stage of our mental development, the assurance which we all +need for the basis of our new life is that of the removal of sin--the +sins of the past, and the daily errors of the present. We may form +various theories, each to our own satisfaction, as to _how_ this takes +place. For instance we may argue that, since "the Word" is the +undifferentiated potential of Humanity, every human soul is included in +the Self-offering of Christ, and that in Him we ourselves suffered on +the Cross. Or we may say that our confession that such an offering is +needed amounts to our participation in it. Or we may say with St. Paul +that, as in Adam all are sinners, so in Christ all are made free from +sin (1 Cor. xv, 22). That is, taking Adam and Christ as the +representatives of two orders of men. Or we may fall back on the +statement "Sacrifice and burnt offerings Thou wouldst not" (Ps. xl, 6), +and on Jesus' own explanation of his death, that He offered himself in +testimony to the Truth--that is, that the Eternal Life will no more +exercise a retrospective vengeance upon us for our past misunderstanding +of It, than would electricity or any other force. We may explain the +_modus operandi_ of the great offering in any of these ways, for the +Scripture presents it in all of them--but the great thing is to accept +it; for by the nature of our mental constitution, such an acceptance, +whether with or without an intellectual explanation, affords the +assurance which we stand in need of; and building upon the Foundation we +can safely rear the edifice of our future development. + +Also it affords us a continual safeguard in all the further stages of +our evolution. As our psychic consciousness increases, we become more +and more responsive to psychic stimulus whether that stimulus proceed +from a good or evil influence; and therefore the recognition of our +Redemption in Christ surrounds us with a protecting barrier, through +which no evil spirit or malign influence can pass; so that, resting upon +this Truth, we need never be in fear of any such invasion, but shall at +all times be clothed with the whole armour of God (Eph. vi, 11). + +From whatever point of view we regard it, we therefore find in the One +Offering once made for the sin of the whole world, a standpoint such as +is provided by no other teaching, whether religious or philosophical; +and we shall see on examination that it is not an arbitrary decree for +which we can give no account, but that it is based on the psychological +constitution of man--a provision so perfectly adapted to our +requirements at every stage of our evolution, that we can only attribute +it to the Divine Wisdom acting through One, who by Perfect Love, thus +willingly offered himself, in order to provide the Foundation of +complete assurance for all who recognize their need of it. + +On this basis, then, of reunion with the Eternal Source of Life, all the +Promises of the Bible are found to be according to Law--that is, +according to the inherent Law of our Being; so that, in the laying of +this Foundation, we find the supreme manifestation of the interaction +between the Law and the Word, which, when its significance is +apprehended, opens out vistas of limitless possibilities to the +individual and to the race. + +But the race, as a whole, is yet very far from apprehending this, and +for the most part has no perception of spiritual causation. Where some +dim perception of spiritual causation is beginning to emerge, it is very +frequently inverted, because people only apprehend it as giving them an +additional power of exercising compulsion over their fellow-men, and +thus depriving them of that individuality which it is the one purpose of +Evolution to develop. This is because people do not look beyond the +three lower principles of life, those principles which animals have in +common with man; and consequently the higher principle of mind, which +distinguishes man, is brought down to the lower level, so that the man +is distinguished from the beast only by the possession of intellectual +faculties, which by their perversion make him not merely a beast, but a +devil of a beast. Therefore the recognition of psychic powers, when not +safeguarded by the higher principles of Truth, plunges man even deeper +into darkness than does a simple materialism; and so the two go hand in +hand on the downward path. There is abundant evidence that this is +increasingly the case at the present day; and therefore it is that the +Bible Promises culminate in the Promise of the return of Him who offered +himself in order to lay the foundation of Peace. As I have said before, +we must either take the Bible as a whole, or reject it entirely. We +cannot pick and choose what pleases us, and refuse what does not. No +legal document could be treated in this way; and in like manner the +Bible is one great whole, or else it is just--"skittles." + +Therefore, if that Divine "Word" was manifested to save the world from +destruction, by opening the way for the _individual_ through recognition +of his true relation to God, then it is only a reasonable carrying out +of the same thought that, when the bulk of mankind fail to realize the +beneficent use of these powers, and persist in using them invertedly, +the same Being should again appear to save the race from utter +self-destruction, but not by the same method, for that would be +impossible. + +The individual method is that of individual self-recognition in the +light of Truth; but that cannot be _forced_ upon any one. The headlong +downward career of the race as a whole cannot therefore be stopped _vi +et armis_, and this can only be done by first letting it have a bitter +experience of what intellect, depraved to the service of the Beast in +Man, leads to, and then forcibly restraining those who persist in this +madness. Therefore a Second Coming of the Divine Man is a logical +sequence to the first, and equally logical, this Second Coming must be +as One who will rule the nations with irresistible power; so that men, +reflecting upon the evils of the past, and enquiring into their cause, +may be led to see that cause in the inverted action of the Law of their +own being, and may therefore learn so to renew their thoughts in +accordance with the Divine Thought as to bring them into the glorious +liberty of the Sons of God. + +This, then, is the Promise we have to look forward to at the present +day, and though it might not be wise to speculate as to the precise time +and manner of its fulfilment, there can be no doubt as to the nature of +the general principles involved; and I trust the reader has at least +learned from this book that principles unfold themselves with unfailing +accuracy, though it depends on our Word, or mental attitude, in what way +their unfoldment will affect us personally. + +For such reasons as these, it appears to me, that the current objections +to the doctrine of Atonement are entirely beside the mark. They miss the +whole point of the thing. Punishment for Sin? Of course there is +punishment for sin so long as it is persisted in. It is the natural +working of the Law of Cause and Effect. Forgiveness of sin? Of course +there is forgiveness of sin as soon as, through knowledge, we make a +right use of the Law of our own Being. It could not be otherwise. It is +the natural working of the Law of Cause and Effect. + +"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith +the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will +I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" +(Heb. x, 16); and similarly in Jer. xxxi, 32, from which the writer of +the Epistles to the Hebrews quotes this. "Now the Lord is the Spirit" (2 +Cor. iii, 17, R.V.), i.e., the Originating Spirit of life, and therefore +"my laws" means the inherent Law of the Originating Principle of Being, +so that here we have a plain statement that the realization of the True +Law of our Being _ipso facto_ results in the cancelling of all our past +errors. When once we see the principle of it the whole sequence becomes +perfectly plain. + +There is nothing arbitrary in all this. It results naturally from a New +mode of Thought producing a New order of Consciousness; and it is +written that "if any man be in Christ he is a new creature" or, as it +says in the margin, "a new creation" (2 Cor. v, 17), and on the +principle that "every Creation carries its own mathematics with it," +every such man has passed from the Law of Death into the Law of Life. +The full fruition may not yet be visible--we must allow for the Law of +Growth--but the Principle is in him and has become the central, +generating point of his consciousness, and is therefore bound, sooner or +later, to develop into perfect manifestation by the Law of its own +nature. If the Principle be accepted it will work all the same, whether +we accept it by simple trust in the written Word, or whether we analyze +the grounds of our trust; just as an electric bell will ring when you +press the button, whether you are an electrical engineer or not. But +there will be this difference, that if you _are_ an electrical engineer +you will see the principle implied in the ringing of the bell, and you +will find in it the promise of infinite possibilities which it is open +to you to develope; and in like manner, the more clearly you see the +relation which necessarily exists between yourself and the +All-Originating Living Spirit, the more clear it will become to you, +that this relation opens up an endless vista of boundless potentialities +which can never be exhausted. This is the true nature of the Bible +Promises; they were not made by some external Deity about whose ideas we +can never have any certainty, but by the Indwelling God, who is at once +the Life, the Law, and the Substance of all things, and therefore they +are Promises according to Law, containing in themselves the principle of +their own fulfilment. + +But, as I trust the reader is now convinced, the Law can fulfil the +Promise which is latent in it only by the co-operation of the Word; that +is, the Personal Factor which provides the necessary conditions for the +Law to work under; and therefore, if the Promise is to be fulfilled, we +must meet the All-originating Life, the "Premium mobile," not only on +the Plane of Law, but on the Plane of Personality also. This becomes +evident if we consider that this Originating Life must be _entirely +undifferentiated_ in Itself; for otherwise it could not be the origin of +all differentiated modes of Life and Energy. As long as we find +differentiation, on however wide a scale, we have not arrived at First +Cause. There will still be something further back, out of which the +differentiations have proceeded; and it is this "Something" which is at +the back of "Everything" that we are in search of. Therefore the +Originating Spirit must be _absolutely undifferentiated_, and +consequently the Personal Factor in ourselves must be the +differentiation into individuality of a Quality eternally subsisting in +the All-Originating Undifferentiated Spirit. + +Then, since our individual differentiation of this Quality must depend +on the mode of our recognition of it, it follows that a Standard of +Measurement is needed, and the Standard is presented to us in the form +of the Personality around whom the whole Bible centres, and who, as the +Standard of the Divine Infinitude differentiating Himself into units of +individual personality, can only be described as at once The Son of God +and The Son of Man. If we see that the Eternal Life, by reason of its +non-differentiation in itself, must needs become to each of us _exactly +what we take it to be_, then it follows that in order to realize it on +our own plane of Personality we must see it _through the medium of +Personality_, and it is therefore not a theological figment, but the +Supreme Psychological Truth that no man can come to "the Father"--that +is, to the Parent Spirit--except through the Son (John xiv, 6). + +When we see the reason at the back of it, the Bible becomes a New Book +to us, and we learn that the interpretation of it is not to be found in +learned commentaries, but in ourselves. Then we find that it is indeed +The Book of Promises, not vague and uncertain, but logical and +scientific, teaching us how to combine the instrumentality of the Law +with the freedom of the Word; so that through the Perfect Word, +manifested as the Perfect Man, we reach the Perfect Law, and find that +THE PERFECT LAW IS THE LAW OF LIBERTY. + + +THE END + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] For various reasons I am not giving the actual names of places and +persons in this story. + +[2] "Out of Egypt" by Miss Crouse. Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A. + +[3] R.W. Allen. + +[4] See Chapters on "Body, Soul, and Spirit" in my "Edinburgh Lectures +on Mental Science." + +[5] See "Edinburgh Lectures." + +[6] "New Knowledge." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Law and the Word, by Thomas Troward + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAW AND THE WORD *** + +***** This file should be named 15568.txt or 15568.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/6/15568/ + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Thomas Hutchinson and the PG +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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