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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Science and the Infinite, by Sydney T. Klein
+
+
+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: Science and the Infinite
+       or Through a Window in the Blank Wall
+
+
+Author: Sydney T. Klein
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 29, 2008  [eBook #25931]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Clarke, Diane Monico, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE
+
+Or
+
+Through a Window in the Blank Wall
+
+by
+
+SYDNEY T. KLEIN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "THE MYSTERY OF THE APEX"
+
+VIEW NO. 3]
+
+
+
+Second Impression
+
+London
+William Rider & Son, Limited
+Cathedral House, Paternoster Row, E.C.
+1917
+
+First Published November 1912
+Reprinted September 1917
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE RIGHT HON.
+
+ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In venturing to prepare this little volume for the eyes of the reading
+public, I am fully aware of the difficulties of the subject and the
+inadequacy of the expressions I have been able to employ, but I have
+made the attempt at the request of those who have found consolation in
+some of the thoughts herein embodied; and the messages left by others
+before they passed away, embolden me to hope that many others may find
+in this volume some points of interest which will help them to
+appreciate better the "joys" which this life has for those who know
+how to look for them, and that perhaps others may even gain a clearer
+conception of that which awaits us beyond the Veil.
+
+Many of us allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the small worries and
+vexations of everyday life, clothing them with a reality quite
+disproportionate to their importance; we are too apt to look at them,
+as it were, through a powerful microscope, piling power upon power of
+magnification, until we have made mountains out of mole-hills,
+whereas if we treated them at their true value we should look at them
+through a telescope, in the reverse direction, when they would appear
+not only trivial, but would be seen to be too remote to have any
+material effect on our lives.
+
+The sub-title of this volume, and indeed its inception, arose from my
+lately coming in contact with one of those establishments which are
+doing for humanity what a mother's arms do for the child who is "sick
+unto death"--a beautiful home with cheerful rooms and cheerful nurses,
+where patients are tenderly cared for after severe operations, carried
+through by our most famous surgeons, some cases, alas, almost hopeless
+from the first. At the head of this establishment was one of those
+kindly self-abnegating personalities, whose loving sympathy and
+encouragement have comforted the dying and smoothed the path for many
+a weary pilgrim passing from this life to the next. With immense
+responsibilities on her shoulders, and after a day full of strenuous
+work, the head of this establishment would often sit through the night
+for hours by the couch of those whose lives could not possibly be
+prolonged for more than a few days. It was a few simple answers
+elicited by the questions brought to me from those poor sufferers, and
+the way such answers seemed to calm anxieties connected with the fear
+of death and to render the impenetrable Veil more transparent, which
+suggested the title, "Through a Window in the Blank Wall."
+
+I do not wish to lay claim to having made any startling discovery;
+similar thoughts, especially those concerning the non-reality of Time
+and Space, have no doubt occurred to others, but the whole problem
+"What is the Reality?" has been insistently pressing on me ever since
+I can remember, and I have tried to give here in simple colloquial
+language, without any attempt at rhetoric, the conclusions I have
+personally come to as to what is the Truth.
+
+The study of ancient and modern philosophic theories is useful as
+showing how impossible it is, for even the greatest thinkers of any
+age, to grasp the Absolute with our understanding or to measure the
+Infinite with our finite units. The propounders of all these theories
+seem to me to be, without exception, looking in the wrong direction
+for the "Reality of Being"; they are all arguing from the standpoint
+of "Intellectualism" in a similar manner to that of the "Theologians"
+referred to in View Three. Our latest expositor of this, M. Henri
+Bergson, bases his theory upon "Life" being the Reality; this he
+postulates is a "flowing" in Time, and _Movement_ therefore becomes
+for him the Reality; and yet we know that Motion is but the product
+of Time and Space, and these are only the two modes or _limitations_
+under which our senses act and upon which our very consciousness of
+living depends. Surely the Absolute cannot be localised, must be
+Omnipresent, and therefore independent of Space--cannot have a
+beginning or end, must be Omniscient, and therefore independent of
+Time; these two unrealities can therefore have no existence in
+"Reality of Being." If, then, there is any truth in "Intuition," we
+have, in this theory, the Reality, "Life," not only limited by the
+unreal but actually dependent for its very existence upon those
+limitations! In these Views I have attempted, on the contrary, to show
+that Time and Space have no existence apart from our Physical Senses;
+they are the modes only under which we appreciate motion, or what we
+call physical phenomena, and as our conceptional knowledge is based
+upon our perceptional knowledge, our very consciousness of living is
+limited by Time and Space, and we must surely therefore look behind
+consciousness itself, beyond the conditioning in Time and Space for
+the Reality of Being, otherwise _physical motion_, the product of
+these two limitations, would become the Reality of Being.
+
+I have also suggested reasons for looking upon physical life as a
+mode of frequency, akin to Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Chemical
+Action, the Vibration of a Tuning Fork, or the Swing of a Pendulum,
+and therefore a transient phenomenon having to do only with the Race;
+Life can under these conditions only be looked upon as a reality in
+the same sense in which all other forms of energy or matter appear
+real to our finite senses--namely, as the shadows or manifestations of
+the Absolute on our limited plane of Consciousness.
+
+However strongly I may be convinced--as I am--of the truth of my
+arguments, and however sure I may be that many others will not only
+agree with my conclusions, but will see that in "Introspection" rather
+than in "Intellectualism" lies the key to the Mystery, I do not wish
+to appear dogmatic in any of the suggestions contained in this volume;
+I am stating my own convictions, but at the same time I fully
+recognise that the presentation of the Absolute, with its infinite
+variety of aspects, must necessarily be different to every individual;
+we are all of the same genus, but each individual Ego is, as it were,
+a different species, and I do not therefore expect that my attempt to
+solve the Riddle of the Universe will appeal to all alike. It is,
+however, a true saying that "there is something to be learnt from
+every human being," and if I have by these suggestions succeeded in
+augmenting the number of those who have already started on the true
+"Quest," and have helped, however imperfectly, to enrich some lives
+with the "joy" of knowing their oneness with the All-loving, my aim
+has indeed been attained.
+
+                    SYDNEY T. KLEIN.
+
+  "HATHERLOW," REIGATE,
+    _1st June 1912._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                         PAGE
+    VIEW ONE
+
+CLEARING THE APPROACH                       1
+
+    VIEW TWO
+
+THE VISION                                 19
+
+    VIEW THREE
+
+MYSTICISM AND SYMBOLISM                    36
+
+    VIEW FOUR
+
+LOVE IN ACTION                             71
+
+    VIEW FIVE
+
+THE PHYSICAL FILM                         100
+
+    VIEW SIX
+
+SPACE                                     122
+
+    VIEW SEVEN
+
+TIME                                      141
+
+    VIEW EIGHT
+
+CREATION                                  165
+
+
+
+
+SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE
+
+
+
+
+VIEW ONE
+
+CLEARING THE APPROACH
+
+
+The proof that the Human Race is still in its infancy may be seen in
+the fact that we still require Symbolism to help us to maintain and
+carry forward abstract thought to higher levels, even as children
+require picture books for that purpose. The Glamour of Symbolism,
+Rapture of Music, and Ideal of Art, which come to us in later years,
+had their beginnings when to the child every blade of grass was a
+fairy tale and a grass plot a marvellous fairy forest. The great
+aspiration of the Human Race is to gain a knowledge of the Reality,
+the Noumenon behind the phenomenon; but the fact that from infancy we
+have been accustomed to confine our attention wholly to the objective,
+believing that to be the reality, has surrounded us with a concrete
+boundary wall through which we can only at times, with difficulty, get
+transient glimpses of that which is beyond. It is only in recent
+years that we have been able to realise that it is the Invisible which
+is the Real, that the visible is only its shadow or its manifestation
+in the Physical Universe, and that Time and Space have no existence
+apart from our physical senses, in short, that they are only the modes
+or limits under which those senses act or receive their impressions
+and by which they are necessarily rendered finite.
+
+The difficulty is that our physical senses only perceive the surface
+of our surroundings, and that we have hitherto been looking at the
+Woof of Nature as though it were the glass of a window covered with
+patterns, smudges, flies, &c., comprising all that we call physical
+phenomena and which, when analysed in terms of Time and Space, produce
+the appearance of succession and motion. It requires a keener
+perception, unbounded by these limitations, to look through the glass
+at the Reality which is beyond. I propose then in a series of short
+views, through a window not hitherto unshuttered and in a direction
+which I believe has not before been attempted, to lead those of my
+readers who have the necessary aspiration, patience, and, above all,
+strenuous persistence, to a watch-tower, situated well above the mists
+and illusions of our ordinary everyday thoughts, whence they will find
+it possible to get a glimpse of a strange new country, and where those
+who have by practice once attained to its clear perception, will be
+able to continue the study by themselves and thus get further insight
+into that wonderful region of Thought which I have called "True
+Occultism"--the knowledge of the Invisible which is the Real in place
+of the Visible which is only its shadow.
+
+Let us first try and understand the conditions under which phenomena
+are presented to us. In our perception of sight, we find the greater
+the light, the greater the shadow; a light placed over a table throws
+a shadow on the floor, though not sufficient to prevent our seeing the
+pattern of the carpet; increase the light and the shadow appears now
+so dark that no pattern or carpet can be seen; not that there is now
+less light under the table but the light above has to our sense of
+sight created or made manifest a greater darkness. Thus, throughout
+the Universe, as interpreted by our Physical Ego, we find phenomena
+ranging themselves under the form of positive and negative, the
+apparently Real and the Unreal.
+
+The Good making manifest its negative Evil.
+The Beautiful "    "      "     "     Ugly.
+The True      "    "      "     "     False.
+Knowledge     "    "      "     "     Ignorance.
+Light         "    "      "     "     Darkness.
+Heat          "    "      "     "     Cold.
+
+But the negatives have no real existence. As in the case of light we
+see that the shadow is only the absence of light, so the negative of
+Goodness, _i.e._ Evil, may in reality be looked upon as folly or
+wasting of opportunity for exercising the Good. Owing to their
+limitations our thoughts are based upon _relativity_, and it is hardly
+thinkable that we could, under our present conditions, have any
+cognisance of the positive without its negative; we shall in fact see
+later on that it is by examining the Physical, the negative or shadow,
+that we can best gain a knowledge of the Spiritual, the positive or
+real.
+
+The first step to a clear understanding of this, is to recognise that
+it is not we who are looking out upon Nature but that it is the
+Reality which is ever trying to enter and come into touch with us
+through our senses, and is persistently trying to waken within us a
+knowledge of the sublimest truths. It is difficult to realise this, as
+from infancy we have been accustomed to confine our attention wholly
+to the objective, believing that to be the reality.
+
+Let us try and grasp this fact. If we analyse our sense of sight, we
+find that the only impression made on our bodies by external objects
+is the image formed upon the retina; we have no cognisance of the
+separate electro-magnetic rills forming that image, which, reflected
+from all parts of an object, fall upon the eye at different angles,
+constituting form, and with different frequencies giving colour to
+that image; that image is only formed when we turn our eyes in the
+right direction to allow those rills to enter; and, whereas those
+rills are incessantly beating on the outside of our sense organ when
+the eyelid is closed, they can make no impression unless we allow them
+to enter by raising that shutter. It is not then any volition from
+within that goes out to seize upon and grasp the truths from Nature,
+but the phenomena are as it were forcing their way into our
+consciousness. This is more difficult to realise when the object is
+near to us, as we are apt to confound it with our sense of touch,
+which requires us to stretch out our hand to the object, but it is
+clearer when we take an object far away. In our telescopes we catch
+the rills of light which started from a star a thousand years ago and
+the image is still formed on the retina _now_ although those rills are
+in fact a thousand years old and, invisible to our unaided eye, have
+been falling upon mankind from the beginning of life on this globe,
+trying to get an entrance to consciousness. It was, however, only
+when, by evolution of thought, the knowledge of optics had produced
+the telescope that it became possible not only for that star to make
+itself known to us but to declare to us its distance, its size, and
+conditions of existence, and even the different elemental substances
+of which it was composed a thousand years ago. Yet, when we now allow
+its image to form on the retina, our consciousness insists on fixing
+its attention upon that star as an outside object, refusing to allow
+that it is only an image inside the eye and making it difficult to
+realise that that star may have disappeared and had no existence for
+the past 999 years, although in ordinary parlance we are looking at
+and seeing it there now.
+
+I have referred above to the sense of touch; it is, I think, clear
+that the first impression a child can have of sight must take the form
+of feeling the image on its retina, as though the object were actually
+inside the head, and it could have no idea that it was outside until,
+by touching with the hand, it would gradually learn by experience that
+the tangible outside object corresponded with the image located in the
+head; this is fully borne out by the testimony of men who, born blind,
+have, by an operation, received their sight late in life; in each case
+their first experience of seeing gave the impression that the object
+was touching the eye, and they were quite unable to recognise by sight
+an object such as a cup or plate or a round ball which they had
+commonly handled and knew perfectly well by touch; in fact, the idea
+of an object formed by the sense of touch is so absolutely different
+to that formed by the sense of sight that it would be impossible
+without past experience to conclude that the two sensations referred
+to one and the same object. The image formed on the retina has nothing
+in common with the sense of hardness, coldness, and weight experienced
+by touch, the only impression on the retina being that of colour or
+shade, and an outline; it is, however, hardly conceivable that even
+the outline of form would be recognised by the eye until touch had
+proved that form comprised also solidity and that the two ideas had
+certain motions in common both in duration in Time and extension in
+Space.
+
+Again, our senses of sight and hearing are alike based on the
+appreciation of frequencies of different rapidity; brightness and
+colour in light are equivalent to loudness and pitch in sound, but in
+sound we have no equivalent to perception of form or situation in
+space; it gives us no knowledge of the existence of objects when
+situated at great distances, nor can movements be followed even at
+short distances without having material contact, by means of the air,
+with the object; sight indeed appears to have to do with Space- and
+sound with Time-perception. In examining Nature by means of our
+senses we find we are so hemmed in by what we have always taken for
+granted and so bound down by modes of reasoning derived from what we
+have seen, heard, or felt in our daily life, that we are sadly
+hampered in our search after the truth. It is difficult to sweep the
+erroneous concepts aside and make a fresh start. In fact the great
+difficulty in studying the Reality underlying Nature is analogous to
+our inability to isolate and study the different sounds themselves
+which fall upon the ear, if our own language is being uttered, without
+being forced to consider the meaning we have always attached to those
+sounds.
+
+Let us now go back to the contention that it is not we who are looking
+out upon Nature but that our senses are being bombarded from without;
+we are living in a world of continuous and multitudinous changes, and
+as our senses require change or motion for their excitation, without
+those changes we could have no cognisance of our surroundings, we
+should have no consciousness of living; but if we base our thought
+entirely on sense perception, taking for granted that Time and Space
+have reality instead of recognising that they are only modes or limits
+under which those senses act, the Wall will ever remain opaque to us.
+Let us try and make this clearer. If we analyse the impression we
+receive from Motion, we find it is made up of the product of our two
+limitations, it is the time that an object takes to go over a certain
+space. We must come therefore to the conclusion also that Motion
+itself has no existence in reality apart from our senses. The result
+of not being able to appreciate this, is that the finiteness of our
+sense, caused by its dependence on Motion for excitation, surrounds us
+with illusions; one of these illusions is what we call solidity or
+continuity of sensation. If you hold a cannon-ball in your hand,
+perception by the sense of touch tells you that it is continuous, or
+what is called solid and hard; but it is not so in reality except as a
+concept limited by our finite senses. A fair analogy would be to liken
+it to a swarm of bees, for we know that it is composed of an immense
+number of independent atoms or molecules which are darting about, and
+circling round each other at an enormous speed but never touching;
+they are also pulsating at a definite enormous rate; we can at will
+increase their motion by heat or reduce by cold; if our touch
+perception were sensitive enough we should feel those motions and
+should not have the sensation of a solid. We have a similar case of
+limitation in our other senses, which we shall grasp better in another
+View through our Window. We can hear beats only up to fifteen in a
+second, beyond that number they give the sensation of a musical or
+continuous sound. In our sense of sight we can see pulsations or
+intermittent flashes up to only six in a second, beyond that number
+they give the sensation of a continuous light; a gas jet, if
+extinguished and relit six times in a second, can be seen to flicker,
+but beyond that rate is to our sense of sight a steady flame. The
+effect may also be shown by making the top of a match red-hot; when
+stationary or moving slowly, it is a point of light, but, moved
+quickly, it becomes a continuous line of light.
+
+Even apart from our senses we find Motion giving the characteristics
+of solidity: a wheel with only a few spokes, if rotated quickly
+enough, becomes quite impermeable to any substance, however small,
+thrown at it; a thin jet of water only half an inch in diameter, if
+discharged at great pressure equivalent to a column of water of 500
+metres, cannot be cut even with an axe, it resists as though it were
+made of the hardest steel; a thin cord, hanging from a vertical axis,
+and being revolved very quickly, becomes rigid, and if struck with a
+hammer it resists and resounds like a rod of wood; a thin chain and
+even a loop of string, if revolved at great speed over a vertical
+pulley, becomes rigid and, if allowed to escape from the pulley, will
+run along the ground as a hoop.
+
+Now with regard to this limit of time perception, which gives us the
+phenomenon of Solidity, I have lately been able to devise an
+arrangement which, acting as a microscope for Time, gives the
+sensation of an increase in sight perception up to several thousand
+units per second; it is based on the fact that though the eye can only
+see six times per second it can see for the one-millionth part of a
+second. An example of this is the well-known experiment of seeing a
+bullet in its flight; the bullet makes electrical connection resulting
+in a spark which illuminates the bullet when opposite the eye. The
+electrical spark exists only for the millionth of a second, and as the
+bullet in that time has no perceptible movement it is seen standing
+absolutely still with all marks upon it quite visible to the eye. When
+Sight perception is increased up to the rate at which time may be said
+to flow for any particular object we apparently get into the reality,
+the permanent _now_ where motion ceases to exist as a sensation. A
+tuning-fork, kept vibrating, by means of an electro-magnet, at 2000
+times per second, may to our sense of sight be gradually slowed down
+and, optically, brought absolutely to a standstill, for as long as
+desired, and the smallest irregularity of its surface may be minutely
+examined, though it continues to be heard and felt vibrating at that
+enormous rate. I have made several experiments in this direction, and
+some very curious facts connected with the sensation of Motion are
+brought to light by means of this increase in perceptive power. If the
+sense of sight is increased to 125 units per second, motion at the
+rate of one inch per second is barely visible; taking the common
+house-fly, whose wings vibrate about 400 times per second, its units
+of perception would appear to be about two-thirds of those beats, as I
+found it had no cognisance of Motion below two inches per second; you
+can put your finger on any fly provided you do not approach it faster
+than the above rate, it turns its head up to look at your finger but
+can see no motion in it; if you approach at over three inches per
+second it will always fly away before you are within a foot. I found
+that a dragon-fly, whose wings vibrate about 200 times per second, had
+only half the number of unit perceptions of the fly and could
+apparently see motion at about one inch per second but not under. In
+the converse of the above we have then the principle of a Microscope
+for Time, somewhat similar to the Microscope for Space of our
+laboratories. If our perception were increased sufficiently we could
+slow down any motion for examination, however rapid; there would be no
+difficulty in following a lightning flash or even arresting its
+visible motion for purposes of investigation without interfering with
+the natural sequence of cause and effect.
+
+If, on the other hand, our perception were decreased below six times
+per second, all motion would be accelerated, until with perception
+reduced to one unit in twenty-four hours the sun would appear only as
+a band across the sky, and we could not follow its motion any more
+than, as we have seen, we could follow the point of a red-hot match.
+If perception were reduced far enough, plants and trees would grow up
+visibly before our eyes. But we must leave this subject now, as this
+and the Time Microscope will be treated in a later View.
+
+Let us try and appreciate the fact that, under our present conditions,
+our conceptions of the immense and minute--namely, extension in Space,
+and that of quick and slow or duration in Time--are purely relative,
+and that from this arise those pseudo-conceptions which we call the
+infinitely extended and the infinitely lasting. Under our present
+limitations it is impossible for us to grasp the whole of any Truth,
+if we could do that, there would be no such mystery of Infinity to
+puzzle us; we could, as it were, see all around it, but that is again
+looking through another window. We are now considering _relativity_.
+If we cut off the very end of the point of the finest needle, we get
+so minute a particle of steel that it is hardly visible to the naked
+eye, and yet we know that that small speck contains not only millions
+but millions of millions of what are called atoms, all in intense
+motion and never touching each other. Try and conceive how small each
+of these atoms must be, and then try and grasp the fact, only lately
+proved by the discovery of Radio-activity, that each of these atoms is
+a great family made up of bodies analogous to the planets of our solar
+system and whose rate of motion is comparable only to that of Light.
+This is not theory, it is fact clearly demonstrated to us by the study
+of Radio-activity. Curiously enough, we know more about these bodies
+than we do of the atom itself; we actually know their size and weight
+and the speed with which they move. We do not yet know what is at the
+centre of this system, but we do know that each of these bodies is as
+far away from the centre as our planet is from the sun (93,000,000
+miles), and as far from its neighbours as our planet is, _relatively
+to its size_. And now, for the purpose of grasping this subject of
+relativity, I want you to ask yourself whether it is conceivable that
+a world, so small as those bodies are, could possibly be inhabited by
+sentient beings. Leaving you to form your own conclusion upon this
+point, I will ask you to follow me down another path leading to the
+elucidation of the same subject.
+
+If at this moment we and all our surroundings were reduced to half
+their size and everything were moving twice as quickly, we should
+absolutely have no cognisance of any change, neither could we possibly
+note any difference if everything were reduced to a hundredth part of
+the original size and were going a hundred times quicker; and even
+when reduced a thousand or a million times, or to such minuteness that
+the whole of our solar system with its revolving planets became no
+larger than one of those atoms in the needle point, and the whole of
+the starry universe therefore reduced to the size of the needle point,
+its millions of suns coinciding with the millions of planetary systems
+in that steel particle--our earth would still revolve round the sun,
+though no larger than one of those minute planetary particles and
+travelling at the rate of light, but we should still have no knowledge
+of any change, in fact, our life would go on as usual, though it was
+difficult a few minutes ago to think it conceivable that so small a
+globe could be inhabited by sentient beings.
+
+Once more let us consider that the change is made in the direction of
+expansion in space and slowing down of Time; let all our surroundings
+be so enormously increased that each of the atoms in the steel point
+became as large as our solar system and the steel point as large as
+the visible universe, each atom therefore taking the place of a star,
+and motion being reduced in proportion; it is still absolutely
+inconceivable that we could know of any change having taken place,
+though the length of our needle, which was at first, say, one inch,
+would now be so great that light, travelling 186,000 miles per second,
+would take 500,000 years to traverse its length, and the stature of
+each one of us would be so great that light would require over
+36,000,000 years to travel from head to foot, and that 36,000,000
+years would have to be multiplied 163,000,000 times, making 5860
+millions of millions of years to represent the time that an ordinary
+_sneeze_ would take under such conditions. And yet we have only gone
+towards the infinitely great exactly as far as we at first went
+towards the infinitely small, and it is still absolutely inconceivable
+that we could be conscious of any change, our everyday life would go
+on as usual, we should be quite oblivious to the fact that every
+second of time, with all its incidents and thoughts, had been
+lengthened to 5860 millions of millions of years. Do we not now begin
+to grasp the fact that immensity and minuteness in extension, and
+motion in duration, are figments only of our finite minds, that Time
+and Space have no objective reality apart from our physical senses,
+that they are only the modes under which we receive impressions of our
+surroundings? With perfect perception we should know that the only
+Reality is the Spiritual, the Here comprising all Space and the Now
+all Time.
+
+One more look through the window before we part, and we may see what I
+consider the greatest miracle in our everyday life: The Inner-self of
+each one of us, being part of the Reality or Spiritual, is independent
+of Space limitations and must therefore be _Omnipresent_, is
+independent of Time and therefore _Omniscient_. This inevitable
+deduction will be explained more fully in another View.
+
+It is from this store of knowledge that our Physical Ego is ever
+trying to win fresh forms of thought, and, in response to our
+persistent endeavours, that Inner-self, from time to time, buds out a
+new thought; the Physical Ego has already prepared the clothing with
+which that bud must be clad before it can come into conscious thought,
+because, as Max Müller has shown us, we have to form words before we
+can think; so does the Physical Ego clothe that ethereal thought in
+physical language, and by means of its organ of speech it sends that
+thought forth into the air in the form of hundreds of thousands of
+vibrations of different shapes and sizes, some large, some small, some
+quick, some slow, travelling in all directions and filling the
+surrounding space; there is nothing in those vibrations but physical
+movement, but each separate movement is an integral part or thread of
+that clothing. Another Physical Ego receives these multitudinous
+vibrations by means of its sense organ, weaves them together into the
+same physical garment, and actually becomes possessed of that ethereal
+thought--an unexplained marvel, and probably the most wonderful
+occurrence in our daily existence, especially as it often enables the
+second Physical Ego to gain fresh knowledge from its own Real
+Personality. Now, in connection with this, consider the fact, already
+emphasized, that it is not we who are looking out upon Nature, but
+that it is the Reality which is ever trying to make itself known to us
+by bombarding our sense organs with the particular physical impulses
+to which those organs can respond, and, if we aspire to gain a
+knowledge of what is behind the physical, it is clear that all our
+endeavours must be towards weaving these impulses into garments and
+then learning from them the sublime Truths which the Reality is ever
+trying to divulge to us.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW TWO
+
+THE VISION
+
+
+"Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven," is in true consonance
+with the old philosophic dictum that "Everything in heaven must have
+its counterpart on earth"; in other words, the Reality has all Its
+multitudinous manifestations, every noumenon its phenomenon, in the
+physical universe. If we now examine those traits of our surroundings
+which affect us most, and best help us to reach the highest level of
+abstract thought of which our nature is capable, we find that it is
+the recognition of the Beauty (comprising also the Good and the True)
+in everything, which constitutes the power held over our minds by what
+we may call the Glamour of Symbolism, the Rapture of Music, and the
+Ideal of Art. But this influence is still only _sensuous_, it does not
+carry us beyond the extension of that Wonderment and Enchantment which
+had their birth with our first visit to Fairyland. This is, I think,
+evident, as Beauty is not the Reality; it is only what may be called
+the sensuous expression of the Reality or Spiritual on the physical
+plane. Although we have no words to express, nor indeed minds to
+grasp, the wonders and glories of that which is behind the Veil, it is
+possible for some of us to get a glimpse of it through our Window, and
+to those the following pages may be helpful, but to others the Wall
+will remain blank; and, here at the commencement, I should like to
+warn those who have not been through a certain experience, to which I
+shall refer, that no words of mine will open the Window for them; at
+the same time it is probable that many of my readers, who think at
+this stage that they have no knowledge of the subject of this View,
+will, as we proceed, recognise in the view through the Window
+something they have experienced more than once in their lifetime, and
+to these I address myself.
+
+Let us first try to understand what we know concerning ourselves. The
+longer one lives and the more one studies the mystery of "Being," the
+more one is forced to the conclusion that in every Human Being there
+are two Personalities, call them what you like--"the _Real_ and its
+Image," "the _Spiritual_ and its Material Shadow," or "the
+_Transcendental_ and its Physical Ego." The former in each of these
+duads is, as referred to in our first View, not conditioned in Time
+and Space, is independent of Extension and Duration, and must
+therefore be Omnipresent and Omniscient, whereas the latter, being
+subservient to Time and Space, can only think in finite words,
+requires succession of ideas to accumulate knowledge, is dependent on
+perception of movements for forming concepts of its surroundings, and,
+without this perception, it would have no knowledge of existence.
+
+Let us go back into the far distant past, before the frame and brain
+of what we now call the genus Homo was fully developed: he was then an
+animal pure and simple, conscious of living but knowing neither good
+nor evil; there was nothing in his thoughts more perfect than himself;
+it was the golden age of innocency; he was a being enjoying himself in
+a perfect state of nature with absolute freedom from responsibility of
+action. But, as ages rolled on, under the great law of evolution, his
+brain was enlarging and gradually being prepared for a great and
+wonderful event, which was to make an enormous change in his mode of
+living and his outlook on the future. As seeds may fall continually
+for thousands of years upon hard rock without being able to germinate,
+until gradually, by the disintegration of the rock, soil is formed,
+enabling the seed at last to take root; so for countless ages was the
+mind of that noble animal being prepared until, in the fulfilment of
+time, the Spiritual took root and he became a living soul. The change
+was marvellous; he was now aware of something higher and more perfect
+than himself, he found that he was able to form ideals above his
+ability to attain to, resulting in a sense of inferiority, akin to a
+"Fall"; he was conscious of the difference of Right and Wrong, and
+felt happy and blessed when he followed the Good, but ashamed and
+accursed when he chose the Evil; he became upright in stature, and
+able to communicate his thoughts and wishes to his fellows by means of
+language; and by feeling his freedom to choose between the Good,
+Beautiful, and True on one hand, and the Evil, Ugly, and False on the
+other, he became aware that he was responsible and answerable to a
+mysterious higher Being for his actions. This at once raised him far
+above other animals, and he gradually began to feel the presence
+within him of a wonderful power, the nucleus of that Transcendental
+Self which had taken root, and which, from that age to this, has urged
+Man ever forward first to form, and then struggle to attain, higher
+Ideals of Perfection. As a mountaineer who, with stern persistence,
+struggles upward from height to height, gaining at each step a clearer
+and broader view, so do we, as we progress in our struggle upwards,
+toward the understanding of Perfection, ever see more and more clearly
+that the Invisible is the Real, that the visible is only its shadow,
+that our Spiritual Personality is akin to that Great Reality, that we
+cannot search out and know that Personality; it is not an idea, it
+cannot be perceived by our senses, any more than we can see a sound by
+our sense of sight or measure an Infinity by our finite units; all we
+can so far do is to feel and mark its effect in guiding our Physical
+Ego to choose the real from the shadow, the plus from the minus,
+receiving back in some marvellous mode of reflex action the power to
+draw further nourishment from the Infinite. As that Inner Personality
+becomes more and more firmly established, higher ideals and knowledge
+of the Reality bud out, and, as these require the clothing of finite
+expressions before they can become part of our consciousness, so are
+they clothed by our Physical Ego and become forms of thought; and,
+although the Physical Ego is only the shadow or image, projected on
+the physical screen, of the Real Personality, we are able, by
+examining these emanations and marking their affinity to the Good, the
+Beautiful, and the True, to attain at times to more than transient
+glimpses of the loveliness of that which is behind the veil. As in a
+river flowing down to the sea, a small eddy, however small, once
+started with power to increase, may, if it continues in midstream,
+instead of getting entangled with the weeds and pebbles near the
+bank, gather to itself so large a volume of water, that, when it
+reaches the sea, it has become a great independent force; so is each
+of us endowed, as we come into this life, with a spark of the Great
+Reality, with potential force to draw from the Infinite in proportion
+to our conscientious endeavours to keep ourselves free from the
+deadening effects of mundane frivolities and enticements, turning our
+faces ever towards the light rather than to the shadow, until our
+personality becomes a permanent entity, commanding an individual
+existence when the physical clothing of this life is worn out, and for
+us all shadows disappear.
+
+If man became a conscious being on some such analogous lines as
+indicated, it is clear that he is, as it were, the offspring of two
+distinct natures, and subject to two widely separated influences; the
+Spiritual ever urging him towards improvement in the direction of the
+Real or Perfect, and the Physical or Animal instincts inviting him in
+the opposite direction. These latter instincts are not wrong in
+themselves, in a purely animal nature, but are made manifest as urging
+him in the direction of the shadow or Imperfect when they come in
+contact, and therefore in competition, with the Spiritual. Neither the
+Spiritual nor the Physical can be said to possess Free-will; they must
+work in opposite directions, but this competition for influence over
+our actions provides the basis for the exercise of man's
+Free-will--the choice between progression and stagnation. The
+Spiritual influence must conquer in the long run, as every step under
+that influence is a step towards the Real and can never be lost; the
+apparent steps in the other direction are only negative or retarding,
+and can have no real existence, except as a drag on the wheel which is
+always moving in the direction of Perfection, thus hindering the
+process of growth of the Personality.
+
+The stages in development of the Physical Ego and its final absorption
+in the Transcendental may perhaps be stated as follows--
+
+The Physical Ego loquitur:
+
+     "I become aware of being surrounded by phenomena, I will to
+     see--I perceive and wonder what is the meaning of
+     everything--I begin to think--I reflect by combining former
+     experiences--I am conscious that I am, and that I am free to
+     choose between Right and Wrong, but that I am responsible
+     for my actions to a Higher Power; that what I call 'I am' is
+     itself only the shadow, or in some incomprehensible sense
+     the breathing organ, of a wonderful divine Afflatus or Power
+     which is growing up within, or in intimate connection with
+     me, and which itself is akin to the Reality. Owing to my
+     senses being finite I cannot with my utmost thought form a
+     direct concept of that power, although I feel that it
+     comprises all that is good and real in me, and is in fact my
+     true personality; I am conscious of it ever urging me
+     forward towards the Good, Beautiful, and True, and that each
+     step I take in that direction (especially when taken in
+     opposition to the dictates of physical instincts) results in
+     a further growth of that Transcendental Self. With that
+     growth I recognise that it is steadily gaining power over my
+     thoughts and aspirations. I learn that the whole physical
+     Universe is a manifestation of the Will of the Spiritual,
+     that every phenomenon is as it were a sublime thought, that
+     it should be my greatest individual aspiration to try to
+     interpret those thoughts, or when, as it seems at present,
+     our stage in the evolution of thought is not far enough
+     advanced, I should during my short term of life do my best
+     to help forward the knowledge of the Good, Beautiful, and
+     True for those who come after. As I grow old the Real Ego in
+     me seems to be taking my place, the central activity of my
+     life is being shifted, as I feel I am growing in some way
+     independent of earthly desires and aspirations, and, when
+     the term of my temporary sojourn here draws to a close, I
+     feel myself slackening my hold of the physical until at last
+     I leave go entirely, and my physical clothing, having
+     fulfilled its use, drops off and passes away, carrying with
+     it all limitations of Time and Space. I awake as from a
+     dream to find my true heritage in the Spiritual Universe."
+
+If we try to form a conception of the stages of growth of the
+Transcendental Self it would, I think, be somewhat as follows:
+
+The first consciousness}
+  of the Spiritual     } I know that Love is the Summum Bonum.
+  entity would be....  }
+
+As it became nourished } I love.
+  it would be....      }
+
+Then....                 I love with my whole being.
+
+
+Then....                 I know that I am part of God and God is Love.
+
+
+
+And lastly....           I am perfected in Loving and Knowing.
+
+And the above is the best description I have been able to formulate of
+the development of the Mystical Sense by means of which we can get a
+view of the Reality through our Window. I will try to give my own
+experience of this, which will, I know, wake an echo in other hearts,
+as I have met those who have felt the same. From a child I always had
+an intense feeling that Love was the one thing above all worth having
+in life, and, as I grew older and became aware that my real self was
+akin to the Great Spirit, at certain times of elation or what might
+be called a kind of ecstasy, I had an overpowering sense of longing
+for union with the Reality, an intense love and craving to become one
+with the All-loving. When analysed later in life this was recognised
+as similar in kind, though different in degree, to the feeling which,
+when in the country, surrounded by charming scenery, wild flowers, the
+depths of a forest glade, or even the gentle splash of a mountain
+stream, makes one always want to open one's arms wide to embrace and
+hold fast the beautiful in Nature, as though one's Physical Ego, wooed
+by the Beautiful which is the sensuous (not sensual) expression of the
+Spiritual, longed to become one with the Physical, as the Personality
+or Transcendental Ego craves to become one with the Reality. It is the
+same intense feeling which makes a lover, looking into the eyes of his
+beloved, long to become united in the perfection of loving and
+knowing, to be one with that being in whom he has discovered a
+likeness akin to the highest ideal of which he himself is capable of
+forming a conception.
+
+As in heaven, so on earth the Physical Ego, though only a shadow, has
+in its sphere the same fundamental characteristic craving as the
+Transcendental Personality has for that which is akin to it, and it is
+this wonderful love that, as the old adage says, makes the world go
+round. It is the most powerful incentive on earth, and is implanted
+in our natures for the good and furtherance of the race; it is, in
+fact, the manifestation on the material plane of that craving of the
+Inner self for union with, and being perfected in loving and knowing,
+that Infinite Love of which it is itself the likeness. If we can
+realise that everything on the physical plane is a shadow, symbol, or
+manifestation of that which is in the Transcendental, the Mystical
+Sense, through contemplating these as symbols, enables us at certain
+times, alas! too seldom and fleeting in character, to get beyond the
+Physical; but those of my readers who have been _there_ will know how
+impossible it is to describe, in direct words, which would carry any
+meaning, either the path by which the experience is gained or a true
+account of the experience itself. I will try, however, and I think I
+may be able to lead my readers, by indirect inductive suggestion, to a
+view of even these difficult subjects, by using the knowledge we have
+already gained in our first view through this Window. If an artist
+were required to draw a representation of the Omniscient
+Transcendental Self, budding out new forms of thought in response to
+the conscientious efforts of, and the providing of suitable clothing
+by, the Physical Ego, as referred to in View No. 1, he would be
+obliged to make use of symbolic forms, and I want to make it quite
+clear that the description I am attempting must necessarily be clothed
+in symbolic language and reasoning, and must not be taken as in any
+way the key by which the door of "the sanctuary" may be opened; it is
+only possible by it to help the mind to grasp the fact that there is a
+Window through which such things may be seen, the rest depends upon
+the personality of the seer.
+
+Now bear in mind that it is not we who are looking out upon Nature,
+but that it is the Reality, which, by means of the physical, is
+persistently striving to enter into our consciousness, to tell us
+what? [Greek: Theos agapê estin] (God is Love). As in Thompson's
+suggestive poem, "The Hound of Heaven"--the Hidden which desires to be
+found--the Reality is ever hunting us, and will never leave us till He
+has taught us to know and therefore to love Him, and, as seen in our
+first view, the first step is to try to see through the woof of nature
+to the Reality beyond. To this may also be added the attempt to hear
+the "silence" beyond the audible. Try now to look upon the whole
+"visible" as a background comprising landscape, sea, and sky--we shall
+get help in this direction in a later View--and then bring that
+background nearer and nearer to your consciousness. It requires
+practice, but it can be done; it may help you if you remember the
+fact that the whole of that visible scene is actually depicted on the
+_surface_ of your retina and _has no other existence for you_. The
+nearer you can get the background to approach, the more clearly you
+can see that the whole physical world of our senses is but a thin
+veil, a mere soap film, which at death is pricked and parts asunder,
+leaving us in the presence of the Reality underlying all phenomena.
+The same may be accomplished with the "audible," which is indeed part
+of the same physical film, though this is not at first easy to
+recognise. As pointed out in View No. 1, there is little in common
+between our sense of sight and hearing; but the chirp of birds, the
+hum of bees, the rustle of wind in the leaves, the ripple of a stream,
+the distant sound of sheep bells, and lowing of cattle form a
+background of sound which may be coaxed to approach you; the only
+knowledge you have of such sounds is their impression or image on the
+flat tympanum of your ear; they have _no other existence for you_; and
+again you may recognise that the physical is but a thin transient
+film. With the approach of the physical film all material sensation
+becomes as it were blurred, as near objects become when the eye looks
+at the horizon, and gradually escapes from consciousness.
+
+I have tried in the foregoing to suggest a method by which our Window
+may be unshuttered; it has necessarily been only an oblique view and
+clothed in symbolic phraseology, but those who have been able to grasp
+its meaning will now have attained to what may be called a state of
+_self-forgetting_, the silencing or quieting down of the Physical Ego;
+sight and sound perceptions have been put in the background of
+consciousness, and it becomes possible to worship or love the very
+essence of beauty without the distraction of sense analysis and
+synthesis or temptation to form intellectual conceptions.
+
+We are now prepared to attempt the last aspect of our view--namely,
+the description of what is experienced when the physical mists have
+been evaporated by the Mystical Sense. Again we find that no direct
+description is possible, language is absolutely inadequate to describe
+the unspeakable, communications have to be physically transmitted in
+words to which finite physical meanings have been allocated. The still
+small voice which may at times of Rapture be momentarily experienced
+in Music, is something much more wonderful than can be formed by
+sounds, and this perhaps comes nearest to the expression necessary for
+depicting the vision of the soul; but it cannot be held or described,
+it is quickly drowned by the physical sense of audition. As the
+Glamour of Symbolism can only be transmitted to one who has passed
+the portal of Symbolic Thought, the Rapture of Music can only be truly
+understood by one who has already experienced it, and the Ideal of Art
+requires a true artistic temperament to comprehend it, so it is, I
+believe, impossible to describe, with any chance of success, this
+wonderful experience to any but those whom Mr. A. C. Benson, in his
+_Secret of the Thread of Gold_, very aptly describes as having already
+entered "the Shrine." Those who have been _there_ will know that it is
+not at all equivalent to a vision, it is not anything which can be
+seen or heard or felt by touch; it is entirely independent of the
+physical senses; it is not Giving or Receiving, it is not even a
+receiving of some new knowledge from the Reality; it has nothing to do
+with thought or intellectual gymnastics; all such are seen to be but
+mist. The nearest description I can formulate is:--A wondrous feeling
+of perfect peace;--absolute rest from physical interference;--perfect
+contentment;--the sense of Being-one-with-the-Reality, carrying with
+it a knowledge that the Reality or Spiritual is nearer to us and has
+much more to do with us than the Physical has, if we could only see
+the truth and recognise its presence;--that there is no real
+death;--no finiteness and yet no Infinity;--that the Great Spirit
+cannot be localised or said to be anywhere, but that everywhere is
+God;--that the whole of what we call Creation is an instantaneous
+Thought of the Reality;--that it is only by the process of analysing
+in Time and Space that we imagine there is such a thing as succession
+of events;--that the only Reality is the _Spiritual_, the _Here_
+embracing all Space and the _Now_ embracing all Time.
+
+How few of us who are now drawing towards the end of our sojourn here,
+have not, at certain times during our lives, experienced something
+akin to what I have tried to put before you in the above! Does not a
+particular scent, a beautiful country scene, a phrase in music, the
+beauty or pathos in a picture, symbolic sculpture in a grand
+cathedral, or even a chance word spoken in our hearing, every now and
+then waken in our innermost consciousness an enchanting memory of some
+wonderful happy moment of the past when the sun seemed to have been
+shining more brightly, the birds singing more merrily, when everything
+in nature seemed more alive, and our very beings seemed wrapped up in
+an intense love of our surroundings? On those occasions we were not
+far from seeing behind the veil, though we did not recognise it at the
+time; but when we now look back, with experience gained by advancing
+years, and consider those visions of the past, we cannot help seeing
+that the physical film was to our eyes more transparent at those
+times, and the very joy of their remembrance seems to be giving us a
+prescience of that which we shall experience, when for each one of us
+the physical film is pricked and passes away like a scroll.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW THREE
+
+MYSTICISM AND SYMBOLISM
+
+
+"Who can doubt that the Mystics know more than the Theologians, and
+that the Poets know more than the Scientists? for this inner
+apprehension is surely the highest and truest kind of Knowledge." Such
+were the words written to me lately by a clergyman of great learning
+and of unimpeachable orthodoxy, whose mature knowledge of the Higher
+Mysteries has been gained by a life-long study of the Divine. In View
+No. 1 we saw that the first step towards opening our Window, was to
+grasp the fact that it is not we who are _looking out_ upon Nature,
+but that it is the Reality which is ever trying to enter and to _come
+into_ touch with us, through our senses, and is persistently trying to
+wake within us a knowledge of the sublimest truths: but this has not
+yet been appreciated by the Theologian; he is looking _outwards_
+instead of _inwards_, and asks the question, based on _intellectual_
+conception, in the form "Can I find out the Absolute so that I may
+possess Him?" and the answer ever comes back, "_No_, because I am
+trying to storm the _Sanctuary_ of the Unthinkable, the Infinite, by
+means of a Ladder which cannot reach beyond our finite conceptions,
+and can deal therefore only with the shadows, cast by the outlying
+ramparts, upon our physical plane." An example of this is surely seen
+in the lecture lately delivered by the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Gore) to
+the University of Oxford (13th February 1912, reported in the
+_Guardian_ of 16th February), when he made the statement that the
+greatest difficulty we have is to recognise that the Absolute is a God
+of Love. His exact words were: "I believe that there are a great many
+of us who know, perhaps from bitter experience, that whatever
+difficulties there are about religious belief are difficulties about
+believing in a God of Love; whatever is our experience, and however
+sunny is our disposition, any steady thinking will make it apparent
+that thought, apart from the Christian revelation, presumed and
+accepted, or reflected unconsciously, has never got at it, and even
+after it has been in the world, thought is continually finding it hard
+to retain the idea of God the Creator, or the truth that God is Love,
+partly owing to the limitations of human thinking, partly, and even
+more, owing to the experience of man and of nature."
+
+On the other hand the Mystic, with _introspection_, asks the question
+in the form "Can the Absolute find me out and possess me and thus
+make me feel that that which is within me is akin to, is, in fact, a
+part of Him and that I am possessed thereby?" and the answer ever
+comes back from those who are on the true Quest:--"_Yes_; because the
+Unthinkable, the Hidden which desires to be found, is ever trying to
+come into our Consciousness to waken the knowledge that His
+_Sanctuary_, or what is called the Kingdom of Heaven, is within us,
+that we are not an external but an internal creation of the
+All-loving." Such a realisation is, as pointed out in "The Vision,"
+far above Analysis and Synthesis or Intellectual gymnastics, which can
+deal only with the finite and are seen to be but Mist. How many
+valuable thoughts are wrecked and lost from our inability to formulate
+and describe them intellectually, even in our own consciousness. We
+are too apt to lay the blame upon, and to doubt, the Truth of those
+conceptions, because we are unable to find words to express them; the
+very act of attempting to analyse such thoughts in Time and Space
+destroys our power of carrying them to higher levels. Those who have
+once realised that the knowledge of the Absolute is the true Divine
+Life within us, can, as we have seen, at certain times and under
+certain conditions, experience that wonderful joy of perception by
+means of what I have called the Eye of the Soul; but that is missed
+by those who are always asking questions, and arguing, about what that
+knowledge consists in; the command "Seek and ye shall find, knock and
+it shall be opened unto you, ask and it shall be given you," was not
+meant for the intellect but for the Heart, not for logical controversy
+but for inward discernment, not for physical enjoyment but for the
+nourishment of the Transcendental Ego. All things _may_ be possible to
+him that believeth, but how much more is this true of him who, as
+referred to in View No. 2, is perfected in "Loving and Knowing." The
+nearer we get to that consciousness of Being-one-with-the-Reality, the
+more we see and can meditate upon the wonderful "joy" which permeates
+all creation; but without that consciousness it is invisible, and the
+world is dark and evil and unloving, and to many, alas! appears more
+the handiwork of a Devil than of a God of Love.
+
+Mysticism is not, as the man in the street generally thinks, the study
+of the "Mysterious," but is the attempt to gain a knowledge of the
+Reality, the ultimate Truth in everything, especially the perception
+of that wonderful Transcendental Power which is growing up within, or
+in close connection with, each one of us. The study of the Physical
+Sciences, as also of the various forms of Religion around us, is
+useful and fascinating in the domain of "Intellectualism," but does
+not take us far towards the goal of our aspirations. I shall, however,
+attempt to show, in my next View, that by examining the phenomena of
+Nature and realising that they are symbols only of the Noumenon, the
+Reality, which is behind them, it is possible to reach a point where
+we may even feel that we are thinking, or having divulged to us, what
+may be called the very thoughts of the Absolute. We shall see that
+this can only be accomplished by first recognising that the Invisible
+is the Real, that the visible is only its shadow, that all our
+surroundings are but the images, or outlines, of the Reality cast on
+the Physical plane of our Senses; to accomplish this, we have to
+understand the use of _Symbolic_ Thought for sustaining and carrying
+conceptions to a higher level; because, as already explained, we can
+only express and, indeed, think of the Invisible or Infinite under
+terms of the Visible or Finite. Let me give you a glimpse at what may
+be called the "Glamour of Symbolism"; it is difficult to explain to
+those who have not yet thought of or felt it, but the following may be
+helpful:
+
+Think of the loveliest story or poem you have ever read, the most
+entrancing music you have ever heard, or the most beautiful paintings
+you have ever seen, and think how, at the end, you experienced a
+wonderful glow of enchantment with the concept as a whole, apart from
+specialising any particular character or event in the story, phrase in
+the music, or subject in the pictures; then do the same with one of
+those wonderful cathedrals of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, the
+epoch of that beautiful Gothic style which I shall show was founded
+upon the highest mystical form of Symbolism possible to those who
+lived at the then zenith of Mystical Thought in the history of the
+world. The number of cathedrals built during those three centuries was
+so prodigious that, without the documentary evidence which we have, it
+would be absolutely incredible. Every part of those buildings, even to
+the smallest decorations, was, as shown by any of the old writers on
+Religious Symbolism, such as Durandus, planned to symbolise some
+beautiful thought, aspiration, tradition, or religious belief. The
+highest Thinkers, Artists, Poets, Philosophers, and Mystics in those
+centuries became Architects, and, in pure contemplation of and love
+for the Divine, helped to beautify design by giving up their lives and
+energies to the work without reward. It was, in fact, at that period
+the surest means by which they could record their ideals and
+aspirations. Before the advent of the printing press, with its
+facilities for spreading knowledge broadcast, they appreciated that
+Tectonic Art and Iconography were the means by which they could best
+permanently record and teach their aspirations to the masses. Every
+beautiful thought found its expression in some symbol of artistic
+design. Each Cathedral was, in fact, a beautiful complete _story_,
+and, when this has been fully grasped, the enchantment of the whole,
+the thread of gold running through the whole of that wonderful pile,
+is what may be called the Glamour of Symbolism.
+
+For the last 400 years, Archæologists, Architects, and others
+interested in the history of Tectonic art, have been trying without
+avail to discover what is called "the lost secret of Gothic
+Architecture"; even Sir Christopher Wren had a try and expressed his
+opinion that it was lost for ever. They were all looking in the wrong
+direction, confining themselves to the mists of physical intellectual
+perception, and could not get beyond that limited range of thought. I
+propose now, in illustration of this View, to show what this secret
+was. It has the making of a fascinating Romance; it is the most
+wonderful example of what I will call "the Evolution of Thought as
+depicted by Human strivings after the Transcendental in Mediæval
+Mysticism." I shall give it in a brief form, touching only on those
+essential points which require a very slight knowledge of Geometry,
+but those interested in the subject may refer to _Ars Quatuor
+Coronatorum_ (vol. xxiii., 1910), where I have given the whole
+subject, _in extenso_, under the title "Magister Mathesios."
+
+To understand the subject it is necessary to recognise fully the place
+Geometry held, not only among Mediæval Builders, but also in Classical
+times; it was recognised in those early times as the head of all the
+Sciences, and was the A, B, C of Hellenic Philosophy. Come back with
+me 2300 years, to the time when the "Greek Age of Reason" was at its
+zenith, and Plato, the greatest of the philosophers, was teaching at
+Athens, working thus, let it be known to his honour, solely for the
+love he bore to science, for he always taught gratuitously. What
+qualification was required of those who attended his Academy? Look up
+over the porch, and you will see written in large capitals these
+words:
+
+    [Greek: MÊDEIS AGEÔMETRÊTOS EISITÔ
+                 MOU TÊN STEGÊN.]
+
+"Let no one who is ignorant of Geometry enter my doors."
+
+At the root of Socratic teaching was the idea that wisdom is the
+attribute of the Godhead, and Plato, for twenty years the companion
+and most favoured pupil of Socrates, was imbued with that doctrine,
+and, having arrived at the conclusion that the impulse to find out
+TRUTH was the necessity of intellectual man, he saw in Geometry the
+keystone of all Knowledge, because, among all other channels of
+thought, it alone was the exponent of absolute and undeniable truth.
+He tells us that "Geometry rightly treated is the Knowledge of the
+Eternal"; and Plutarch gives us yet another instance of Plato's
+teaching concerning this subject, in which he looks upon God as the
+Great Architect, when he says, "Plato says that God is always
+geometrising." Holding, therefore, as Plato did, that God was a great
+Geometer, and that the aim of philosophy was the acquisition of a
+knowledge of the Eternal, it is natural that he should make a
+knowledge of Geometry imperative on those wishing to study philosophy.
+This was continued also by those philosophers who succeeded Plato in
+the management of the Academy, as we are told that Zenocrates turned
+away an applicant for admission, who knew no geometry, with the words:
+
+    [Greek: poreuou, labas gar ouk echeis tês philosophias.]
+
+"Depart, for thou hast not the _grip_ of philosophy."
+
+In connection with the idea that God was a Geometer, must be taken the
+contention held by the Egyptians, and after them the Greeks and Arabs,
+that the Right-Angled Triangle symbolised the nature of the Universe;
+it was called the law of the three squares, because in every
+Right-Angled Triangle, as expounded by the Pythagorean Theorem, the
+squares, formed on the two sides containing the Right Angle, must
+together be exactly equal to the square on the third side, whatever
+the shape of the triangle may be. The Right Angle at an early date
+gave its name to the odd numbers, which were called, by the Greeks,
+gnomonic numbers, as personifying the male sex, and the Right-Angled
+Triangle was also called the Nuptial Figure, or Marriage, the
+Pythagorean Theorem receiving the name, [Greek: to theôrêma tês
+nymphês] (the Theorem of the Bride). Plutarch, in his _Osiris and
+Isis_, tells us in explanation of this, "The Egyptians imagined the
+nature of the Universe like this most beautiful triangle, as Plato
+also seems to have done in his work on the _State_, when he sketches
+the picture of Matrimony under the form of a Right-Angled Triangle.
+That triangle contains one of the perpendiculars of three, the base of
+four, and the hypotenuse of five parts, the square of which is equal
+to the squares of those sides containing the right angle. The
+perpendicular (three) is the Male, Osiris, the originating principle
+([Greek: archê]); the base (four) is the Female, Isis, the receptive
+principle ([Greek: hypodochê]); and the Hypotenuse (five) is the
+offspring of both, Horus, the product ([Greek: apotelesma])." The
+central feature of this triangle, upon which its property is based,
+is the Right Angle. The Greeks gave to this Right Angle the name of
+_Gnomon_ (meaning Knowledge), and it has ever since been, under the
+form of a carpenter's "square," the emblem or symbol of an Architect,
+the Master Mason, as personifying the Great Architect of the
+Universe--namely, He who has the knowledge of Geometry; and, as the
+Right-Angled Triangle represented the Universe, it was upon the
+_perfection_ of this Gnomon, or knowledge, that the very existence of
+the Universe depended, because the law of the three squares only holds
+good when that angle is perfect.
+
+The Secret handed down in the Craft, from Architect to Architect, was
+how to form a perfect right angle, or, as it was called, the "Square,"
+without possibility of Error, and this I have called "the Knowledge of
+the Square." Vitruvius, who, at the beginning of our Era, wrote his
+thesis on Tectonic art, which is still the text-book of Architecture
+for Ancient buildings, says Pythagoras taught his followers to form a
+gnomon, or square, as follows: "Take three rods, of three lengths,
+four lengths, and five lengths long; with these form a triangle, and,
+if each rod be squared, you have 9, 16, and 25, and the areas of the
+two former will be equal to the latter."
+
+Now let us come to the closing years of the tenth century. What a
+strange condition of the building craft was to be seen all over
+Europe; not a church was being built, nor had been built, for the last
+twenty years; the thousand years after Christ was drawing to its
+close, everybody was waiting for, and expecting, the world to come to
+an end; no new undertakings were begun. How much money went into the
+hands of the Monasteries and other Religious Houses, as peace
+offerings for the future welfare of the givers, nobody can say; it was
+probably enormous. When, however, the eleventh century was well
+started and the crisis was over, churches were built on a large scale,
+as shown by the numerous remains we have of Norman buildings of the
+last half eleventh century, and building was probably at its height
+about A.D. 1140 to 1150; but at this period an extraordinary thing
+happened. Hitherto the arches in the Norman style were round-headed
+and their columns enormously thick to carry them; but suddenly the
+style changed into the beautiful Gothic all over Europe. No single
+country can claim precedence, it was almost simultaneous; churches
+half finished in the round style were not only completed in the
+pointed, but had parts already built altered to the new style. What,
+then, determined this sudden change, resulting in a wonderful
+accession of beauty to Architectural design? We must go to the
+Monasteries and Religious Houses to find the explanation. These Houses
+had become the Patrons of Masonry, the providers of the funds for
+building Cathedrals, &c.; it naturally followed that, growing up
+alongside the Operative Science, there was a Religious symbolism being
+gradually formed which attached itself specially to the tools used by
+Masons, and thus formed the basis of Moral teaching--"to act on the
+Square," "to keep within the bounds of the Compasses," "to be Level in
+all your dealings," &c., &c. A wonderful, new, and Mystical form of
+Symbolism was opened to them with the advent of Geometry. The
+text-book of Geometry was unknown throughout the whole of Europe,
+omitting Spain, from the sixth to the beginning of the twelfth
+century; it was, as I have pointed out, well known in Greece before
+our Era, and continued to be so up to about the sixth century A.D. In
+the fourth century lived the Greek, Theon of Alexandria, so well known
+for his edition of Euclid's Elements, with notes, from which all Greek
+MSS. which first came to light in the sixteenth century were taken,
+being entitled [Greek: ek tôn Theônos synousiôn], "from Theon's
+Lectures," and which he probably used as a text-book in his classes;
+but these MSS. had all been lost before the seventh century, and were
+not recovered again until the sixteenth century, when Simon Grynæus,
+the greatest Greek scholar on the Continent, and companion of
+Melancthon and Luther, discovered a copy in Constantinople. Meanwhile,
+Theon's edition had been translated into Arabic, and thus preserved by
+the Mohammedans, and it was only at the beginning of the twelfth
+century that Athelard of Bath, who had been travelling in the East,
+came to study at Cordova, in Spain, and there found the Arabic MSS. of
+Euclid; these he translated into Latin, and this translation must have
+come into the hands of the patrons of the building craft at the very
+time when the Gothic style had its origin; it was the only Latin
+translation known in Europe, and was, some centuries later, the
+text-book of the first printed edition of Euclid.
+
+The Operative Masons had always formed their Right-Angled Triangles by
+means of mundane measures of 3, 4, and 5 units to each side
+respectively, as was done by the Harpedonaptæ of Egypt 5000 years ago,
+and 2500 years later by Pythagoras, and this same method continues to
+be used to this day; but to those of a religious turn of mind, who had
+only lately become conversant with Euclid, and looked upon Geometry
+not only as the height of all learning, but, as they progressed in the
+knowledge of its bearing on the Science of building, actually made it
+synonymous with Tectonic Art (the old MSS. which have come down to us
+from that time _invariably_ state that "at the head of all the
+Sciences stands _Geometry which is Masonry_"), there must have come a
+wave of wonderful enthusiasm when they first discovered that the
+Geometrical way of creating a Right Angle, as given in Euclid I. ii.,
+was by means of an Equilateral Triangle, by joining the Apex with the
+centre of the base. This Equilateral Triangle was the earliest symbol
+we know of the Divine _Logos_ in connection with that wonderful figure
+the Vesica Piscis; and as the Bible declared that the Universe was
+created by the Logos (the Word), so the Square which represented the
+Universe was naturally created by means of the Equilateral Triangle. A
+great mystery this must have appeared to those who, like the Hellenic
+philosophers, postulated that everything on Earth has its counterpart
+in Heaven, and who, in their religious mysticism, were always looking
+for signs of the transcendental in their temporal surroundings.
+
+But in what awe and reverence must they have held Geometry, when they
+further found that the Equilateral Triangle, representing the Logos,
+was itself generated, as shown in the _first_ Problem of Euclid, upon
+which the whole Science of Geometry was therefore based, by the
+intersection of two Circles! These two Circles were held by the
+Greeks, at the beginning of our Era, to represent the Past and Future
+Eternities generating the Logos; but the whole figure (Euclid I. i.)
+was at the time we are now dealing with looked upon by Mediæval
+Architects as representing the Three Divine _personæ_, and that part,
+or _cavity_, of the figure which is bounded by the Arcs of the two
+circles, and which takes to itself one-third of each of the two
+generating circles (making its perifera exactly equal with that
+remaining to each of the two circles, all three therefore being
+_co-equal_), and in which the Equilateral Triangle is formed (_vide_
+frontispiece), was naturally held by the Mediæval Architects, and
+indeed from earliest times, as the most sacred Christian
+Emblem--namely, that of _Regeneration_ or "New Birth."
+
+The Cavity is evidently referred to in the Mystical Gospel of St. John
+(iii. 16), in the question by and answer to Nicodemus, and it was the
+eye of the needle referred to in St. Mark x. 25, in answer to the
+question in verse 17, and again in St. Luke xviii. 25. In later ages
+this symbol was extensively used by the Christian Church to surround
+the "Soul of a Saint" after death (illustrated in _Magister
+Mathesios_). The date of the birth of a Saint was always given as the
+date on which he or she died and had been born again in the Spiritual
+Life, and the Saint was depicted in a Vesica Piscis, the vulva of the
+_Ruach_ or Holy Spirit, representing this new birth. To show the
+extraordinary reverence and high value attached to this symbol, it is
+only necessary to remember that, from the fourth century, when Theon
+of Alexandria lectured on Geometry, and onwards, all Seals of
+Colleges, Abbeys, Monasteries, and other religious communities, as
+well as of ecclesiastical persons, have been made invariably of this
+form, and they continue to be made so to this day. It was also in
+allusion to this most sacred ancient emblem that Tertullian, and other
+early Fathers, spoke of Christians as "Pisciculi." It was called the
+"Vesica Piscis" (Fish's Bladder), and named, no doubt, by the Greeks
+at the beginning of our Era, for the purpose of misleading the
+ignorant from the true meaning of the Figure.
+
+One can well understand the object which led the learned Rabbi
+Maimonides, the greatest savant of the Middle Ages, when addressing
+his pupils in the twelfth century, to command his hearers: "When you
+have discovered the meaning thereof, do not divulge it, because the
+people cannot philosophise nor understand that to the Infinite there
+is no such thing as Sex;" but later on the noted writer on Symbolism,
+Durandus, in the introduction to his book, is more explicit, and gives
+the real meaning as follows: "The Mystical Vesica Piscis ... wherein
+the Divinity and, more rarely, the Blessed Virgin are represented,
+has no reference, except in name, to a fish, but represents the
+Almond, the symbol of Virginity and self-production."
+
+The Vesica Piscis, and its name, is intimately connected with the
+discovery, by Augustus Cæsar in the century preceding our Era, as
+narrated by Baronius, of a prophecy in one of the Sibylline books,
+foretelling "a great event coming to pass in the birth of One who
+should prove to be the true 'King of Kings,' and Augustus Cæsar
+therefore dedicated an altar in his palace to this unknown God."
+Eusebius and St. Augustine inform us that the first letter of each
+line of the verses from the Erythrean Sibyl containing this prophecy,
+formed the word [Greek: ICHTHYS] (a fish), and were taken as
+representing the sentence: [Greek: Iêsous Christos Theou Huios
+Sôtêr]("Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour"). Based upon this
+discovery arose that extraordinary enthusiasm, during the second,
+third, and fourth centuries, for hunting up further prophecies in
+Pagan sources, resulting in a great number of Sibylline verses being
+invented, giving the minutest details in the Life of our Lord. These
+fabrications seem to have been at that time generally accepted by the
+masses as true prophecies, though we know now that they were written
+some centuries after the events they were supposed to foretell.
+
+Let us now return to the Vesica Piscis. In the paintings and
+sculptures of the Middle Ages, we find it constantly used to
+circumscribe the figure of the Saviour, especially whenever He is
+represented as judging the world and in His glorified state. Many
+beautiful examples of this in Anglo-Saxon work of the tenth century
+may be seen in King Edgar's Book of Grants to Winchester Cathedral and
+the famous Breviary of St. Ethelwolfe. Numerous illustrations of these
+and other pictures of the Middle Ages, as also diagrams of the
+properties of the Vesica Piscis, can be seen in the volume I have
+already referred to dealing fully with this subject.
+
+The building fraternity was a purely Christian community; the First
+Crusade raised a great enthusiasm for building Christian Churches, and
+brought in large gifts of money for that purpose. Up to 1140 Norman
+Architecture held sway, having the "Square" for its unit, its greatest
+symbol being the _Gnomon_, representing knowledge; but about that
+time, as we have seen, arose from the study of Geometry, the head of
+all learning, a Mystical form having the mysterious figure of the
+Vesica Piscis, the true Gothic Arch, with the Equilateral Triangle
+enclosed as its unit, and symbolising the Trinity in Unity. The
+recognition of the import of the Trinity was paramount throughout
+those early days; all important documents began with an Invocation of
+the _Tres Personæ_, or were garnished with symbolic illustrations
+thereof; all the old MSS., already referred to, which have come down
+to us from that period, invariably commence with "In the name of the
+Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+It can therefore be readily understood what determined the sudden
+change between 1140-1150, resulting in that wonderful accession of
+beauty to architectural design which we find in the Gothic. The
+incentive had to be a strong one, and of an eminently religious
+character, to accomplish the radical change of throwing over so
+absolutely the Norman, and commencing to build entirely on what are
+called Gothic lines. A careful examination of the proportions of the
+structures themselves, and the character of the decorations found in
+the finest examples of buildings representing that style, at once
+shows us that the incentive was the symbolism attached to the
+mysterious figure called the Vesica Piscis, which appears to be not
+only the principal feature upon which the whole style rests, but is
+also employed, as a symbol of the Divine, wherever we have Gothic
+Architecture, either in painted windows or mural decorations. Every
+Cathedral has its Vesica Piscis, often of enormous dimensions.
+Geometry was synonymous with Masonry, and the very _foundation_
+of the Science of Geometry, as expounded by Euclid, was his
+_first_ proposition. _Every single problem_ in the whole of his
+books necessitates for its construction the use of this one
+foundation--namely, "how to form an Equilateral Triangle," and this is
+the Mystical form of "the Knowledge of the Square." This triangle,
+symbolising the Logos, is therefore not only the _beginning_ of the
+Science of Geometry, and therefore of Masonry, the Head of all the
+Sciences, but it is by that triangle that all Geometrical forms, and
+therefore forms of knowledge, are _made_, and it became the most
+mysterious and secret symbol of the Logos, for is it not written by
+St. John that "In the beginning was the Logos, and by it were all
+things made"; so the Vesica Piscis, the cradle of the Logos, became
+the great _secret_ of Masonry, the foundation as we find it upon which
+Gothic Architecture was evolved, the means by which its wonderful
+plans were laid down, and the most reverenced figure in Religious
+Symbolism, as shown by its use in seals, engravings, sculptures,
+pictures, &c., throughout the Middle Ages.
+
+Let me make this clearer. The more one examines the typical points in
+the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic styles of Architecture, the more clearly
+one sees that the Architects of the two former used circles and
+squares on their tracing-boards, as units for their proportions, in
+drawing up both ground plans and elevations, with here and there
+suggestions only of the Equilateral Triangle having been made use of
+in some of the smaller details; whereas the Gothic Architects seem to
+have used the Vesica Piscis almost entirely. This explains the reason
+why true Gothic buildings have always been said to be built mainly on
+the basis of the Equilateral Triangle; this naturally follows, because
+the use of the Vesica creates, and therefore necessitates, the
+appearance of the Equilateral Triangle in every conceivable situation.
+The following quotation is typical of the leading essay writers on
+this subject: "The Equilateral Triangle enters largely into, if it
+does not entirely control, all mediæval proportions, particularly in
+the ground plans. In Chartres Cathedral the apices of two Equilateral
+Triangles (_vide_ frontispiece to these Views), whose common base is
+the internal length of the transept, measured through the two western
+piers of the intersection, will give the interior length, one apex
+extending to the east end of the chevet within the aisles, the other
+to the original termination of the Nave westward, and the present
+extent of the side aisles in that direction. With slight deviation,
+most, if not all, the ground plans of the French Cathedrals are
+measurable in this manner, and their choirs may be so measured almost
+without exception. Troyes Cathedral is in exact proportion with that
+of Chartres, and the choirs of Rheims, Beauvais, St. Ouen at Rouen,
+and others are equally so. Bourges Cathedral, which has no transept,
+is exactly three Equilateral Triangles in length inside, from the East
+end of the outer aisle to the Eastern columns supporting the West
+Towers. Most English Cathedrals appear to have been constructed in
+their original plans upon similar rules." White's Classical Essay on
+Architecture compares the Norman with the Gothic, where he says: "In
+what is usually called the Norman period, the general proportions and
+outlines of the Churches are reducible to certain rules of setting out
+by the plain Square. As Architecture progressed the Square gradually
+disappeared, and the proportion of general outline, as well as of
+detail, fell in more and more with applications of the Equilateral
+Triangle, till the art, having arrived at its culminating point, or
+that which is generally acknowledged to be its period of greatest
+beauty and perfection in the thirteenth and the beginning of the
+fourteenth centuries, again began to decline. With this decline the
+Equilateral Triangle was almost lost sight of, and then a mode of
+setting out work by diagonal squares was taken up, for such is the
+basis found exactly applicable to the work of the fifteenth century,
+since which time mathematical proportions have been generally
+employed." And after referring to numerous scale drawings of Churches,
+windows, doors, and arches, he points out that every student of Church
+architecture must pronounce those of the untraceried and traceried
+first point to be the most beautiful of all, those of the Norman to be
+a degree less so, and those of the perpendicular and debased to be far
+inferior to either, and in that analysis we find that the Equilateral
+Triangle was used almost exclusively for determining one order (the
+Gothic), the Square for another (the Norman), and the Square
+diagonally divided for the other (the debased).
+
+Now let me try to describe the wonderful properties of the Vesica
+Piscis, so that you may understand the mystery which shrouded it in
+the minds of those Mediæval builders. The rectangle formed by the
+length and breadth of this figure, in the simplest form, has several
+extraordinary properties; it may be cut into three equal parts by
+straight lines parallel to the shorter side, and these parts will all
+be precisely and geometrically similar to each other and to the whole
+figure,--strangely applicable to the symbolism attached at that time
+to the Trinity in Unity,--and the subdivision may be proceeded with
+indefinitely without making any change in form. However often the
+operation is performed, the parts remain identical with the original
+figure, having all its extraordinary properties, the Equilateral
+Triangle appearing everywhere, whereas no other rectangle can have
+this curious property.
+
+It may also be cut into four equal parts by straight lines parallel to
+its sides, and again each of these parts will be true Vesicas, exactly
+similar to each other, and to the whole, and of course the Equilateral
+Triangle is again everywhere.
+
+Again, if two out of the tri-subdivisions mentioned above be taken,
+the form of these together is exactly similar, geometrically, to half
+the original figure, and again the Equilateral Triangle is ubiquitous
+on every base line.
+
+Again, the diagonal of the rectangle is exactly double the length of
+its shorter side, which characteristic is absolutely _unique_, and
+greatly increases its usefulness for plotting out designs; and this
+property of course holds good for all the rectangles formed by the
+original figure and for the other species of subdivision. But perhaps
+its most mysterious property (though not of any practical use) to
+those who had studied Geometry, and to whom this figure was the symbol
+of the Divine Trinity in Unity, so dear to them, was the fact that it
+actually put into their hands the means of _trisecting_ the Right
+Angle.
+
+Now, the three great problems of antiquity which engaged the attention
+and wonderment of geometricians throughout the Middle Ages, were "the
+Squaring of the Circle," "the Duplication of the Cube," and lastly,
+"the Trisection of an Angle," even Euclid being unable to show how to
+do it; and yet it will be seen that the diagonal of one of the
+subsidiary figures in the tri-subdivision, together with the diagonal
+of the whole figure, actually trisect the angle at the corner of the
+rectangle. It is true that it only showed them how to trisect one kind
+of angle, but it was that particular angle which was so dear to them
+as symbolising their craft, and which was created by the Equilateral
+Triangle. All these unique properties place the figure far above that
+of a square for practical work, because even when the diagonal of a
+square is given, it is impossible to find the exact length of any of
+its sides or _vice versa_; whereas in the Vesica rectangle the
+diagonal is exactly double its shorter side, and upon any length of
+line which may be taken on the tracing-board as a base for elevation,
+an Equilateral Triangle will be found whose sides are of course all
+equal and therefore known, as they are equal to the base, and whose
+line joining apex to centre of base is a true Plumb line, forming at
+its foot the perfect right angle, so important in the laying of every
+stone of a building.
+
+In the volume referred to I have given a skeleton plan upon such a
+scale of subdivision that a tracing-board, of 5 feet by 8 feet, would
+be divided up into over one million parts, and, as all these
+subdivisions are perfect representations of the original Vesica figure
+with all its properties, the design of the largest building, with the
+minutest detail, could be drafted with absolute accuracy. There are
+many other curious properties of this Figure, but they are difficult
+to explain without diagrams. I will, however, give one more example of
+its creative power. The problem of describing a Pentagon must have
+puzzled architects considerably in those early times, but this was
+again easily accomplished by means of the Vesica. Albrecht Dürer, the
+great designer and engraver, who lived at the end of the fifteenth
+century, refers to the Vesica in his works (_Dureri Institutune
+Geometricarum_, lib. ii. p. 56) in a way which shows that it was as
+commonly known in his time as the Circle, Square, and Triangle. His
+instructions for forming a Pentagon are: "Designa circino invariato
+tres piscium vesicas" (describe with unchanged compasses three vesicæ
+piscium). Three similar circles are described with centres at the
+angles of an Equilateral Triangle, forming the three Vesicæ, by means
+of which the Pentagon is drawn, and from which also we get a beautiful
+form of arch very common in the thirteenth century (_vide_
+illustrations in _Magister Mathesios_). This is also the method used
+in that old manuscript of the fifteenth century named "Geometria
+deutsch." In this old MS. it is also shown that the easiest method for
+finding the centre of a circle, however large, or any segment of a
+circle, is by means of the Vesica Piscis. And just as we see so many
+Cathedrals of the Middle Ages are stated by antiquarians to have been
+planned on the Equilateral Triangle, so do we find the Pentagon
+appearing as the basis of Architectural designs of buildings of a
+later date, such as Liverpool Castle, Chester Castle, and other
+similar structures; but the true means by which each were laid down,
+as in the case of the Equilateral Triangle, was again the Vesica
+Piscis. A beautiful example of decoration, on the basis of the Vesica,
+is seen in the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey.
+
+I will conclude this subject by quoting from the summing up by Prof.
+Kerrich (Principal Librarian to the University of Cambridge in 1820),
+in his masterly Essay on Architecture, where he gives the different
+forms of what he calls the "Mysterious Figure," used in the most
+noted Gothic buildings: he says, "I would in nowise indulge in
+conjectures as to the reference these figures might possibly have to
+the most sacred mysteries of religion; independently of any such
+allusion, their properties are of themselves sufficiently
+extraordinary to have struck all who have observed them."
+
+From earliest Christian times the principal _doctrine_ based upon the
+Mysticism of the Neo-platonists and the Kabalists was what was called
+the [Greek: Gnôsis], the Knowledge of the All, and the fundamental
+basis of this, as of all esoteric teaching from the beginning of
+History, was _Procreation_. From the first dawn of civilisation the
+"Great One" always had an enemy with whom he had to fight; having
+conquered, he married that enemy, and their offspring was Life or
+Duration. In the oldest forms, as in Persia and ancient Egypt, it was
+Light and Darkness, "Ormuz and Ahriman," "Osiris and Isis," the Light
+conquering Darkness, the Day conquering Night, resulting in Time and
+duration. In the Eleusinian Mysteries it was the "Sun and Earth"
+producing Vegetable Life, and in the [Greek: Gnôsis] it was the
+"Ainsoph and Ignorance," resulting in True Knowledge or Everlasting
+Life.
+
+In the Vesica Piscis (_vide_ frontispiece) we see two Equilateral
+Triangles formed on the same base, similar to what we found in the
+ground-plan of Chartres and other Gothic Cathedrals; these two
+triangles symbolised to the Mediæval Builders the Divine and Human
+Natures of the Logos, the Word, the Creator; they are both procreated
+and enclosed in the Vesica; the one having the Apex pointed upwards,
+represented Divine or Spiritual Life, and in that I have placed the
+"Tetragrammaton," the Word or name of God (Jehovah), which, throughout
+the Jewish race for thousands of years, was held to be so sacred that
+they did not dare to utter it aloud. It was, at this time, depicted in
+the Equilateral Triangle, the symbol of the Logos, becoming thus the
+Masonic Word of the Middle Ages, and was probably used, exoterically,
+for purposes of recognition among members of the Great Building
+Societies, with the introduction of Gothic Architecture; but the
+_esoteric_ teaching, which was known only to the élite of the Craft
+and not by the Ordinary Operatives, was the mystical _procreation_ of
+that triangle, the doctrine of Spiritual or New Birth, symbolised by
+that mysterious figure which we have seen was the very foundation
+stone of Geometry, and therefore of Tectonic Art, the Head of all
+learning, and the great Secret of Gothic Architecture, called for
+esoteric purposes "Vesica Piscis." The Triangle, having the Apex
+pointing downwards, represented Human or Physical Life, and I have
+placed therein a representation of _sacrificial_ death, which we shall
+see was introduced, as a necessity, for the good of the Race.
+
+As "everything in Heaven has its counterpart on Earth," so may we see,
+by introspection, that the _reflecting_ surface, the thin, physical
+film between the Human and Divine, is represented by that Base, and
+Human Life then becomes truly, as it should be, the reflection of the
+Divine.
+
+One more glance through the Window at what I will call--
+
+    "The Mystery of the Apex."
+
+The earliest forms of Life, the unicellular "Beings," whether animal
+or vegetable--for both divisions, if they can be said to be divided,
+have the same protoplasmic cell as basis of life--were, and are still,
+immortal except for accidents; they are not subject to natural death
+as we know it; they multiply by fission and not by "budding." It was
+only with the building up of cell upon cell into communities, and the
+advent of polycellular beings of greater and greater complexity of
+structure, that the "Wisdom" behind natural laws introduced death as
+an _adaptation_, to prevent monstrosities in the shape of mutilated
+specimens being perpetuated on the earth. Life is purely physical and,
+in conformity with the modes under which our physical senses act, has
+the appearance of tri-unity. As white light is seen to be composed of
+but three primary colours, as Music is based on the Triad, as Space is
+known to us in three dimensions only, and Geometry, "the Head of all
+Learning," is based upon the Circle, Square, and Triangle, so may we
+see life in its three primary aspects: the Animal, Vegetable, and
+Material. The last-mentioned aspect, though long suspected, from the
+investigation of Crystallography, to have in some mysterious way a
+common basis with the animal and vegetable, was not fully grasped
+until, in the last few years, we have been able to study in our
+laboratories the actual evolution, or more correctly devolution, of
+matter from one form to another; and as all plants and animals are
+found to be built up of the same identical protoplasmic cells, so are
+we now able to break down and analyse not only these cells but even
+the very structure of matter, and find that all substances are built
+up of exactly the same bricks, the different forms known to us as
+Elements being the _designs_ of the great Architect upon which each
+structure has been built; and these completed designs again are used
+and become the "ashlars" of the higher forms of plant and animal
+structure. As Evolution in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms has
+given us Species, so in the Material it has developed Elements. The
+structures of animal and vegetable life are of comparatively recent
+formation, and are still apparently progressing in the direction of
+complexity, whereas the structures of matter appear to have long
+passed the stage of highest complexity, and the elements are now
+undergoing the retrograde process of being transformed, by
+radio-activity, from the more complex into simpler elements of lower
+atomic denominations--namely, having fewer bricks in each atom.
+
+All these material designs are more or less radio-active--namely,
+changing into other elements, but some, like radium, polonium, &c.,
+are active to an extraordinary extent. Each molecule or atom may be
+looked upon as an _aperture_, more or less open, through which we have
+flowing the equivalent of what may be called a leak from the Infinite,
+the changing of one element into another being represented by the
+change of shape or activity of that aperture. Countless ages ago these
+apertures were, by evolution, growing more and more complex in shape,
+but when the limit of complexity was reached and the _Apex_ was
+passed, an adaptation, somewhat analogous to death in the animal and
+vegetable, must have come into play, with the result that these
+apertures are now becoming more and more simple in their shape and
+activity. The Infinite referred to above may be diagnosed by some as
+being in the fourth dimension of space, or it may even be comprised
+within the Ether of our known three dimensions, for the discovery of
+radio-activity has enabled us to see that Ether is not only as dense
+as iron, but millions of times denser than that metal, every cubic
+foot, or probably cubic inch, being capable of supplying millions of
+horse-power if it could only be tapped. A homely simile of this leak
+from the Infinite may be seen in a glass of aerated water, where an
+irregularity of surface, a crumb of bread, or a grain of sand becomes
+the means by which carbonic-dioxide escapes from the interstices of
+the water.
+
+Radio-active substances then are really forges for forming new
+structures of matter or forms of energy, rather than quarries from
+which they are cut, and we seem to get a glimpse of the origin of
+life, perhaps itself the cause of "retrogression" in the material,
+coming through from the Reality, the Infinite beyond the physical
+Universe.
+
+Life and its processes are well symbolised by a triangle, the base of
+which is the "Divide" between the Real and its reflections or shadows
+on the Material plane, and through which all energy percolates. One
+side of the triangle represents anabolism, or the process of building
+up, and the other katabolism, the process of breaking down, and at the
+Apex is the Mystical "Terror of the Threshold," the "Ainsoph" (_vide_
+frontispiece), which introduced _sacrificial_ death to the Physical,
+as an adaptation in the evolution of, and for the good of, the Human
+race. With the death of the Physical, the rending of the Veil, as we
+have seen in View Two, all Shadows and Reflections disappear, and, in
+place of "seeing as through a glass darkly," the Soul has its true
+birth, and at last enters upon its heritage in the Divine Life, face
+to face with the Reality, the Good, the Beautiful, and the True.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW FOUR
+
+LOVE IN ACTION
+
+
+In the preceding Views we have seen that Time and Space have no real
+existence apart from our physical senses; they are only modes or
+conditions under which those senses act, and by which we gain a very
+limited and illusory knowledge of our surroundings. Our very
+consciousness of living depends upon our perception of multitudinous
+changes in our surroundings, and our very thoughts are therefore also
+limited by Time and Space, because _change_ is dependent on those two
+limits, the very basis of perceived motion being the time that an
+object takes to go over a certain space; we must therefore look behind
+consciousness itself, beyond the conditioning in Time and Space, for
+the true reality of Being. We have seen that man is the offspring of
+two distinct natures--the Spiritual or Transcendental and the Material
+or Physical; the former is the Real, the latter is only a shadow. If
+we now try to consider the connection between these two natures, we
+have to recognise that, with all our advance in Knowledge during the
+last hundred years, we are indeed still as children playing with
+pebbles on the sea-shore, knowing neither why we are placed there, nor
+what those pebbles are, or whence they came. Though we seem ever to be
+discovering fresh truths concerning their relations one with another,
+when arranged in different patterns, built up into new forms, or split
+up into smaller fragments, we have to acknowledge (substituting
+thoughts for pebbles) that we are still only learning our alphabet and
+the simple rules of multiplication, addition, and division, which must
+be mastered before we can hope to take the real step towards
+understanding.
+
+We are surrounded by mysteries; we are indeed a mystery to ourselves,
+we do not even know how the Physical Ego is connected with the
+physical world; how the sense organs, receiving the impression of
+multitudinous and diverse frequencies of different intensities,
+transmit them to the brain, and how the mind is able to combine all
+these impressions and form concepts. But by examining the Physical
+Universe, we seem to see clearly that the only Reality is the
+Spiritual, the Here, and the Now, that our real _Personality_ being
+Spiritual is independent of Space and Time limitations, and is
+therefore Omnipresent and Omniscient; it may indeed be not only
+connected with the Physical Ego of this World, but be in close working
+connection with other Physical Egos in the Universe, and may, in some
+wonderful process, through its affinity with the Great Spirit, be
+helping them to progress in other directions possibly quite beyond our
+power to conceive under the conditions we are accustomed to here.
+
+A great forest tree forms each year a multitude of separate buds; each
+of these buds is an independent plant which has only a temporary
+existence and has no present knowledge of the other buds, but it is by
+means of all these buds and the leaves they develop, that the tree is
+nourished and increases from year to year. Still more wonderful is the
+fact that it is these temporary existences which, in accordance with
+the general law of life-production, form special "ovules," which we
+call seeds, each of which has the potentiality for growing up into a
+great forest tree, which, in its turn, is capable of pushing forth
+temporary existences in countless directions. We have, in the above
+process of creating a forest tree, a likeness on the Physical Plane to
+what I would suggest is the process not only of the creation of the
+Race, but, on the Transcendental Plane, the multiplication of
+permanent personalities by means of, or in connection with, the
+temporary and Space-limited Human Physical Ego.
+
+Again, as the human mind forms a thought, clothes it in physical
+language, and sends it forth in such a form as not only affects our
+material sense of hearing, but conveys to the hearer the very thought
+itself, so the whole Physical Universe is a temporary and
+Space-limited representation of the Reality which is behind, is in
+fact the materialisation of the Will or Thought of the Great Spirit.
+The "taking root" or advent of the Spiritual to the genus homo, made
+it possible for man to interpret the Good, Beautiful, and True in the
+phenomena of nature, and, as we, by studying these materialisations,
+gain knowledge of the Reality, and our personalities become real
+powers, so may we at length approach the point where we may feel that
+we are thinking, or having divulged to us, the very thoughts of God;
+and, though it may never be possible in this life to form a full
+conception of the Reality, we may, I think, even with our present
+state of knowledge, aspire to understand the messages conveyed to us
+in some of the multitudinous forms, under which these thoughts are
+presented to us, and I propose giving an example of this later on in
+this View.
+
+Once more, in the case of a picture, it is possible, by examining and
+comparing a number of certain short lines in perspective, to discover
+not only the position occupied by the Artist, but also the point to
+which all those lines converge; so by examining and combining certain
+lines of Thought on the Physical Plane, and following them as far as
+we can with our present knowledge towards the point where our Ideals
+of the Good, Beautiful, and True intersect, we may reach the position
+from which we may be able to form, although through a glass darkly,
+even a conception of the Great Reality, and therefore of Its Offspring
+the Transcendental Ego, and its connection with the Universe.
+
+As the whole of Nature is the temporary and Space-limited
+manifestation of the Reality, so the individual Physical Ego is the
+manifestation in Time and Space of the Transcendental Ego or true
+Personality. The Physical Ego is its transient expression and has no
+other use beyond this life. Each Physical Ego helps, or should help
+forward, the general improvement of the Race towards perfection. Each
+generation should come into being a step nearer to the Spiritual,
+until it can be pictured that at the final consummation, there will be
+nothing imperfect, no shadow left; the full complement of Spiritual
+Personalities being complete in the Great All-Father.
+
+Do we not then see clearly that the Physical Ego, comprised in what we
+call "I am," "I perceive," "I think," "I conceive," "I remember," is
+transient, and has only to do with the progress of the Race? It is the
+Shadow or Image in the Physical Universe of that Personality which
+Transcends Time and Space. Take away a small portion of the Brain, the
+organ of the Mind, and Memory is wiped out, remove the greater part of
+it and the manifestation of the Physical Ego is destroyed; though the
+body is as much alive as before, there is apparently nothing left but
+the physical life, which it has in common with all animals, plants,
+and probably, as strongly suggested by late discoveries in
+Radio-activity, even with what is called inorganic matter. The Brain,
+and therefore the Ego, is not a necessity for Physical life; this is
+clearly seen in the lower forms of life--it would be difficult to
+point out the brain of a Cabbage or an Oak Tree.
+
+In the last forty years we have entered upon a new era of religion and
+philosophy; we hear no more of the old belief that the study of
+scientific facts leads to atheism or irreligion; we begin to see that
+Religion and Science must go hand in hand towards elucidating the
+Riddle of the Universe, and such a change enables us even to aspire to
+show, as I now propose to do, that it is possible, by examining
+certain phenomena in Nature, to reach that point where we may feel
+that we are listening to and understanding, though through a glass
+darkly, what may be called the very Thoughts of the Great Reality. I
+will take for examination the subject most intimately connected with
+the title of this View--namely, the nature of the growth of the
+Transcendental Personality, upon what that growth depends, and how we
+may understand that the attainment to Everlasting Life is dependent
+upon that growth.
+
+I have already pointed out in View Two that the Transcendental
+Personality, being Spiritual, and therefore akin to the Great Reality,
+may be said to have no free-will of itself. Its will or influence must
+always be working towards perfection in the form "Let Thy Will, which
+is also my will, be done"; the efficacy of its influence with the
+Great Reality depends on its growth or nourishment by the knowledge of
+the Good, Beautiful, and True ever bringing it more and more nearly
+into perfect touch or sympathy with the All-loving. The power of
+prayer therefore depends upon two conditions; it must be in the form
+of "Let thy Will be done," and that which prays must be capable of
+making its petition felt, by having already gained a knowledge of what
+that Will is. I am, of course, not referring to that form of prayer
+which, alas with so many, seems to be the attempt to get as much out
+of the Absolute as is possible, with the least amount of trouble.
+
+If now we carefully examine the Phenomena around us, we make the
+extraordinary discovery that this power to influence is the very basis
+of survival and of progress throughout the universe. In the organic
+world all Nature seems to be praying in one form or another, and only
+those that pray with efficacy, based upon the above two conditions,
+survive in the struggle for existence. The economy of Nature is
+founded upon that inexorable law the "Survival of the Fittest"; every
+organism that is not in sympathy with its environment, and cannot
+therefore derive help and nourishment from its surroundings, perishes.
+Darwin tells us that the colours of flowering plants have been
+developed by the necessity of attracting the bees, on whose visits
+depends the power of plants to reproduce their species; those families
+of plants which do not as it were pray to the bees with efficacy, fail
+to attract, are not therefore fertilised, and disappear without
+leaving successors. Flowers may also be said to be praying to us by
+their beauty, or usefulness, and in some cases, as with orchids, by
+their marvellous shapes. We answer their prayer by building hot houses
+and tending them with care, because they please us, and therefore we
+help them to live; while, on the contrary, those plants that have not
+developed these qualities are not only neglected, but, in some cases,
+as with weeds, we take special trouble to exterminate them, because
+their existence is distasteful to us.
+
+Charles Darwin also tells us that Heredity and Environment are the
+prime influences under which the whole Organic World is sustained; in
+other words, every organism has implanted in it by heredity the
+principle of life, but the conditions under which it will be possible
+for that life to expand and come to perfection, rest entirely upon its
+power to bring itself into harmony with its environment. This
+principle of life does not come naked into the world, it is fortified
+by heredity, with power gained by its parents in their struggle for
+existence, and in their persistence to get into sympathy with their
+environment. The knowledge they gained, by this struggle, they have
+handed down to their offspring, and given it thereby the possibility
+of also gaining for itself that knowledge of, and power to get into
+sympathy with, its environment, upon which its future existence will
+depend. So may we not see that in the Spiritual World, these two
+conditions dominate, and that it is only by the clear comprehension of
+their reality that we can understand how all-important it is for the
+soul to bring itself nearer and nearer into harmony with its
+environment, the Spiritual, and how the efficacy of prayer depends
+upon the Knowledge of what is the Will of God?
+
+We have received from our Spiritual Father the principle of
+Everlasting Life, and the aspirations which, if followed, will enable
+that life to expand and come to perfection; but, as in the case of
+physical organism, the gift is useless unless we elect to use those
+aspirations aright, and gain thereby a knowledge of our Spiritual
+Environment, which alone can bring us into sympathy with the Great
+Reality. Without this "Knowledge of God," we can see by analogy on the
+Organic Plane that Everlasting Life is impossible--we are as weeds and
+shall be rooted out. This is no figment of the imagination, it seems
+to be the only conclusion we can come to if Nature is the work of
+Nature's God, and Man is made in the image (spiritual) of that God.
+Herbert Spencer came to the same conclusion when defining everlasting
+existence. He says: "Perfect correspondence would be perfect life;
+were there no changes in the environment but such as the organism had
+adapted changes to meet, and were it never to fail in the efficiency
+with which it met them, there would be Eternal Existence and Eternal
+Knowledge" (_Principles of Biology_).
+
+The power of influence, by sympathetic action, may also be seen in
+another direction; consider the fact that if we are in a room with a
+piano and we sing a certain note, say E flat, we not only hear that
+note coming back from the piano, but, if we examine the strings, we
+find that all the E flats are actually vibrating in sympathy, because
+they are in perfect harmony with the note given out by the voice; but
+none of the other strings are responding because they are out of
+harmony. With this simile in mind, let us consider the curious fact
+that a moth always lays its eggs on that particular plant upon which
+the caterpillars, when they hatch out of these eggs, must feed. The
+study of the Life History of Insects has always been of great interest
+to me, as I firmly believe that we are on the verge of a great
+discovery, and that the first indications are being revealed to us
+through the investigation of the Biology of Insects. Some of you may,
+perhaps, have watched this progress of ovipositing, as I have done,
+and noticed how the female moth will hover in a peculiar way over
+different plants, but does not alight until she comes to a plant near
+akin to the one she is seeking. She then alights, but remains, on
+tip-toe as it were, with legs outstretched and wings quivering, and
+soon mounts again into the air; it is only when she alights on the
+proper food plant that she shows unmistakably that she knows her quest
+is ended and her eggs are laid. This particular plant has no other
+attractions for her, she takes her food irrespectively from any other
+flower which secretes honey, and yet, when she is ready to fulfil her
+destiny, she is unerringly drawn towards that particular plant which
+must be the food of her offspring. What is this wonderful sense? We
+call it instinct, a name which is made to cover all other senses in
+the lower animals, of which we have no cognisance ourselves. Let us
+take our own senses as a guide: we find that they are all based on the
+appreciation of frequencies, of greater or less rapidity, by means of
+organs specially adapted to vibrate in sympathy with those pulsations,
+and thus we gain knowledge of external things. Two tuning forks or two
+organ pipes when vibrating close to each other, give out a pure
+musical note when they are in perfect harmony, and they then have, as
+it were, "rest" together; but when one is put even slightly out of
+harmony, there is, in place of a pure musical note, a rise and fall of
+sound in heavy throbs, strangely characteristic of "quarrelling"; in
+fact, discord and "unrest."
+
+In our sense of hearing we can only appreciate up to 40,000 vibrations
+in a second as a musical sound, whereas, with Light and other
+electrical phenomena, as we shall see in a later View, we can
+appreciate sympathetic frequencies of not only many millions, but
+indeed millions of millions in a second, and yet it is possible that,
+in the sense (of insects) we are now examining of life appreciating
+life, we may be in the presence of frequencies as far removed from
+light as light is from sound. If, then, we may follow the analogy from
+our highest senses, we seem to get a clear explanation of the mystery
+of insect discrimination. The insect, in her then state, could have no
+pleasure in the presence of certain plants, their modes of frequency
+being out of sympathy with that particular Insect Life, and, it may be
+conceived that, not only is there no inducement for the insect to
+alight on that plant, but that even in its near proximity that insect
+would feel discomfort or restlessness; when, however, a plant is
+reached which is near akin to the one required, less antipathy or
+unrest would be felt, and, when the true species of plant is reached,
+all would be harmony, pleasure, and rest, the functions of Insect Life
+would be vivified, and its life-work accomplished under the influences
+of sympathetic action.
+
+I have made several other investigations on this subject, but I must
+only give one more to illustrate the higher form of Animal Life
+appreciating Animal Life. There is a large class of insects, called
+Ichneumonidæ, which lay their eggs in the bodies of caterpillars, and,
+as in the case of a moth laying its egg on the special food plant upon
+which its caterpillar can feed, so does each species of these insects
+unerringly lay its eggs in the body of a particular kind of
+caterpillar. It must be a wonderful sense which can enable an
+Ichneumon Fly to do this; it has never seen that caterpillar before,
+as the egg, from which its own caterpillar was hatched, was laid
+inside the body of one of those caterpillars, and the caterpillar upon
+which it fed had been eaten up and disappeared at least six months
+before the Ichneumon Fly had even made its way out of its own cocoon;
+and yet this insect is not only forced, by some mysterious power, to
+lay its egg in the body of a caterpillar, but there is only one
+species which will serve its purpose, and it has to hunt up this
+particular caterpillar from among thousands of other different
+species.
+
+Let me put before you what is, perhaps, the most mysterious
+illustration which we have under this heading, wherein the Ichneumon
+Fly cannot even get sight of its prey, nor employ any sense similar to
+our own for its detection. There are several species of moths whose
+caterpillars live in the very heart of trees. We will take the case of
+the caterpillar of Zeuzera Aesculi, the Leopard Moth; the egg of this
+Moth is laid in a crevice of the bark, and, when first hatched, the
+small larva penetrates through the bark into the centre of an apple,
+pear, or plum tree, and then commences to eat its way upwards, forming
+at first a very small tunnel, but gradually increasing it, as the
+caterpillar grows larger, into a passage of about half an inch in
+diameter. In such a position, surrounded as it is by solid wood, the
+thickness of which would probably not be less than one and a half or
+two inches, we might suppose that the caterpillar would be safe from
+its enemies, but it is not: there is a large Ichneumon Fly which
+cannot propagate its species unless it can lay its eggs in the body of
+this particular caterpillar. This Ichneumon Fly can, from outside, not
+only tell that inside the stem of that tree there is a caterpillar,
+but can locate the exact spot, and, still more wonderful, is able to
+determine whether or not that caterpillar is the particular species it
+is in search of. There are numerous other species of moths whose
+caterpillars feed in the centre of trees, and yet this female
+Ichneumon is able to mark down as her prey, although far out of reach
+of any sense known to us, that one species which alone can serve her
+purpose. As soon as she has located the exact position of the
+caterpillar, she unsheathes a long delicate ovipositor, with which
+she is provided, and drills it right through the intervening solid
+wood until it pierces the body of the caterpillar; she then lays an
+egg down that long tube into its body and repeats the process two or
+three times. The caterpillar itself does not appear to feel any
+inconvenience from this process and continues to feed and grow larger;
+but it has the seeds of death within itself, and the two or three
+little caterpillars, which hatch out of the eggs of the Ichneumon, are
+also growing rapidly inside it. At last, when the time comes that the
+large caterpillar should have been full fed, and it has eaten its way
+outwards until it rests close under the bark, preparatory to turning
+into a chrysalis, its enemies finish their destructive work, and, if
+the tree is then opened, the empty skin and cartilage skeleton of the
+large caterpillar is found, together with two or three large cocoons.
+These cocoons, if kept, will produce in due time specimens of the
+Ichneumon Fly, and these will in their turn go about their murderous
+work as soon as their proper hunting season comes round again.
+
+This is only an isolated case out of thousands of similar occurrences
+in every locality; in fact, if you walk along any palings in the
+country in the early summer, you will see at every few steps the
+evidence of similar tragedies. Those of you who live in the country
+must often have seen on palings little heaps containing a dozen or
+more of the small yellow Microgaster Cocoons, and if these are
+examined carefully they will be found to be surrounding the skin of a
+caterpillar. These minute cocoons may be kept under a wine glass and,
+from each a minute Ichneumon Fly, with (if a female) its sharp
+ovipositor, will emerge in due time. It is curious what mistakes can
+be made even by intelligent persons. I have had the skin of the
+caterpillar and this little heap of yellow Microgaster Cocoons sent me
+to examine, and have been seriously asked whether this was not a true
+case of Parthenogenesis; the suggestion being that the caterpillar had
+actually laid eggs, instead of waiting until it had become a moth, and
+that its efforts, to alter the course of nature, had been too much for
+its constitution and it had died in the act! There are other
+illustrations I should have liked to give but space will not permit,
+the most remarkable being, perhaps, the knowledge a Queen Bee
+possesses of the proximity of another Queen, even when that other is
+still in the pupa state, sealed up in a waxen cell. I have made
+numerous experiments with Queens of the common black English Bee
+(_Apis mellifica_), and also the yellow-striped Italian Bee (_Apis
+ligustica_), which belong to the same order (_Hymenoptera_) as the
+Ichneumon Flies, and the same marvellous sense of life appreciating
+life at a distance, and through solid matter, is experienced.
+
+If we now follow the same Thought by examining the Inorganic, we make
+the extraordinary discovery that this power to influence, based on
+sympathetic action, is the very mainspring by which physical work can
+be sustained, and upon it depends entirely the very action of our
+physical senses. Our senses are based upon the appreciation of
+Vibration, in the Air and Ether, of greater or less rapidity,
+according to the presence in our organs of processes capable of acting
+in sympathy with those frequencies. The limits within which our senses
+can thus be affected are very small; the ear can only appreciate
+thirteen or fourteen octaves in sound, and the eye less than one
+octave in light; beyond these limits, owing to the absence of
+processes which can be affected sympathetically, all is silent and
+dark to us. This capacity for responding to vibration under
+sympathetic action is not confined to Organic Senses; the physical
+forces, and even inert matter, are also sensitive to its influences,
+as I will now demonstrate to you.
+
+In wireless telegraphy it is absolutely necessary that the transmitter
+of the electro-magnetic waves should be brought into perfect harmony
+with the receiver--without that condition it is impossible to
+communicate at a distance; again, a heavy pendulum or swing can, by a
+certain force, be pushed, say an inch, from its position of rest, and
+each successive push will augment the swing, but only on one
+condition, namely, that the force is applied in sympathy with the
+pendulum's mode of swing; if the length of the pendulum is 52 feet,
+the force must be applied only at the end of each eight seconds, as,
+although the pendulum at first is only moving one inch, it will take
+four seconds to traverse that one inch, the same as it would take to
+traverse 10 feet or more, and will not be back at the original
+position till the end of eight seconds; if the force is applied before
+that time the swing of the pendulum would be hindered instead of
+augmented. Even a steam engine must work under this influence if it is
+to be effective; there may be enough force in a boiler to do the work
+of a thousand horse-power, but, unless the slide valve is arranged so
+that the steam enters the cylinder at exactly the right moment,
+namely, in sympathy with the thrust of the piston, no work is
+possible.
+
+To understand the next example I want you first to recognise that,
+apart from its physical qualities, every material body has certain,
+what may be called, traits of character, which belong to it alone;
+there is generally one special trait or "partial," namely, the
+characteristic which it is easiest for the particular body to
+manifest, but I shall show you that by sympathetic action others can
+be developed. I have several pieces of ordinary wood, used for
+lighting fires, each of which, according to its size and density, has
+its special characteristic; if you examined each by itself you would
+hardly see that they are different from one another except slightly in
+length, but if I throw them down on the table, you would hear that
+each of them gives out a clear characteristic note of the musical
+scale: to carry this a step forward, I have a long, heavy, iron bar,
+about 4 feet long and 2 inches thick, so rigid that no ordinary manual
+force can move it out of the straight, and, from mere handling, you
+would find it difficult to imagine that it would be amenable to soft
+influences. But I have studied this inert mass, and, as each person
+has special characteristics, some being more partial than others to,
+say, Literary pursuits, Athletics, Music, Poetry, Engineering,
+Science, or Metaphysics, so I am able to show that this iron mass has
+not only a number of these "partials," some of which are
+extraordinarily beautiful and powerful, audible over long distances,
+but that by the lightest touch of certain small generating rubbers,
+not more than an ounce in weight and tipped with cork or leather,
+each of which has been put into perfect sympathy with one of those
+traits, I can make that mass demonstrate them both optically and
+audibly; but, without those special sympathetic touches, it is silent
+and remains an inert mass. This result is obtained by physical contact
+between the instrument and the mass, but we will now carry this
+another step forward and deal with the subject of the action of
+Influence at a distance, or what may be called Prayer, between two of
+these rigid masses. From what we have already seen, it is clear that
+the Soul of man could not possibly pray with efficacy to a graven
+image; there is nothing in sympathy between them, and, without
+sympathetic action, influence is impossible; but it is quite possible
+for Matter to pray with efficacy to Matter, provided the material
+soul, if we may use the analogy, is brought into perfect sympathy with
+the material god, and I can now put before you an experiment showing
+this taking place.
+
+I have another heavy bar of iron, not so long but of the same
+thickness as the one already described, and have found its strongest
+characteristic; I have another small rubber, fashioned so that its
+characteristic is in perfect sympathy with that of the bar, namely,
+that the number of vibrations, in a second, of the instrument are
+exactly equal to those of the iron mass, and it is, therefore, as we
+saw in the last experiment, able by contact to influence the bar
+sympathetically. The slightest touch throws the bar into such violent
+vibration that a great volume of sound is produced, which can be heard
+a quarter of a mile away. The result of this sympathetic touch is far
+from being transient, in fact, the bar will continue to move, audibly,
+for a long time. This movement in the mass of iron was started by
+physical contact, but having once started the bar praying, willing, or
+thinking, whichever you like to call it, that bar now has the power to
+affect, without contact, another rigid bar of iron even when removed
+to great distances, provided the second bar possesses a similar
+characteristic, and that that characteristic has been brought into
+perfect _sympathy_ with that of the first bar. I have a second bar
+which fulfils these conditions, and, although, at the outset, it had
+no power whatever to respond, it has been gradually, as it were,
+educated, namely, brought nearer and nearer into sympathy with the
+first bar, until it is now able to respond across long distances; it
+has acted across the whole length of one of the largest halls in
+London so strongly that it could be heard by all present. We will now
+reverse the process of bringing these bars into sympathy, and I will
+throw the first out of harmony by slightly changing its
+characteristic; the change is extremely small, quite inappreciable to
+the human ear, the bar giving out as full and pure a note as it did
+before the alteration was made; in fact, the change is so slight that
+it can still, with a little force, be stimulated by the same
+generator, and yet the whole power to influence has been lost; the
+first bar, although it is praying with great force, gets no response
+from the second bar, and, even if the bars are now brought on to the
+same table and put within a few inches of each other, there is still
+no reply, there is no sympathetic action, the efficacy of prayer
+between the two has been completely destroyed.
+
+Do we not then see the principle upon which the efficacy of Prayer
+depends, that the whole object of a Human Soul, when using the words
+"Thy Will be done," is to bring itself closer and closer into perfect
+sympathy with the Absolute? When that is accomplished, we may
+understand, from our simile, that not only shall we and our
+aspirations be influenced by the Will of the Deity, but that then our
+wishes, in their turn, must have great power with God, and it becomes
+possible for even "Mountains to be removed and cast into the midst of
+the sea."
+
+How truly the Philosopher Paul at the beginning of our Era recognised
+that the knowledge of God, which Christ Himself tells us is
+Everlasting Life, may be gained by the study of the material creation;
+His words were sadly overlooked by many who, half a century ago, were
+afraid that the discoveries of Science were dangerous to belief in the
+Divine. He says: the unrighteous shall be without excuse because "The
+invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly
+seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His
+everlasting power and divinity" (Romans i. 18 to 20, R.V.).
+
+We have seen the truth of this wonderful statement, we have traced the
+reflection of the greatest attribute of the Deity, Divine Love, on the
+material plane. What has been the result of our investigation? We find
+that throughout the whole of Nature the one great universal power is
+Sympathy.
+
+'Tis verily "love that makes the world go round." What a marvellous
+conclusion to our investigation! Let us see where it leads us. The
+whole of creation is the materialisation of the Thoughts of the Deity;
+we have, therefore, in the forces of Nature, the impress of the very
+Essence of God. Our Innermost Self is an emanation from Him, and
+Prayer, which, at the beginning, is only a striving to bring ourselves
+into harmony with the Deity, must, as the Soul grows in strength and
+knowledge, become a great power working under the wonderful principle
+of Sympathy. True prayer, indeed, becomes "_Love in Action_," and,
+under certain conditions, Prayer may actually be looked upon as the
+greatest physical force in Nature. But let us carry this one step
+further: can we, by our analogy of Matter praying, understand why "the
+knowledge of God is Everlasting Life"? Look at the first iron bar, and
+watch how, as long as it keeps on vibrating, the second bar, _because
+it is in sympathy_, will be kept in motion. If it were possible for
+the first bar to vibrate for ever, the second bar would, speaking
+materially, have everlasting life, through its being in perfect
+sympathy with the first bar; without this connection the bar would be
+lifeless. Now apply this to our Transcendental Personality; it is
+being nourished, the knowledge of God is increasing, it is at last
+pulsating in perfect harmony with the Deity, and when, for it, the
+Material Universe disappears, its _affinity_ to Infinite Love must
+give it Everlasting Life. Everything that has not that connection is
+but a shadow which will cease to be manifest when the Great Thought is
+completed, the volition of the Deity is withdrawn, and the Physical
+Universe ceases to exist; nothing can then exist except that which is
+perfected, that which is of the essence of God--namely, the
+Spiritual. Perfect harmony will then reign supreme, such happiness as
+cannot be described in earthly language nor even imagined by our
+corporeal senses; hence, in the many passages referring to that
+wondrous Life hereafter, we are not told what Heaven is like but only
+what is not to be found there:
+
+    "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
+    Neither have entered into the heart of man
+    The things that God hath prepared for them
+    that love Him."--1 COR. ii. 9.
+
+There are several other phenomena which I might have examined, but I
+chose this particular aspect of the Reality, as best illustrating the
+subject I am trying to elucidate in these Views, though it was
+probably the most difficult one to bring home to the general reading
+public. There are, I know, from personal knowledge, many of my readers
+who will have been able to follow and appreciate what I have attempted
+to demonstrate, but to those who have not grasped the connection
+between the Infinite and Finite, the Transcendental and the Physical
+Ego, the Real and its Shadow, a few more words of explanation may be
+helpful.
+
+It is easy to see that the negatives, Cold, Ignorance, Falsehood,
+Ugliness are manifestations of their positives, as given in my list
+in View One, and it is also not difficult to show that Evil or Sin is
+dependent upon Good in the same way as the Shadow depends upon Light
+for its manifestation. Do not let me be misunderstood; I have never
+suggested that these negatives or negations have not the appearance of
+realities to us, under our present conditions of existence; they
+indeed have to be dealt with by us as realities, but they are only
+manifested as phenomena on the physical plane, because our Senses, and
+therefore Thoughts, are limited by Time and Space and therefore
+dependent upon _relativity_.
+
+Let me put the case of Good and Evil before you, as analogous to, say,
+Light and Shadow. Moral laws and responsibility thereto are dependent
+upon the existence of Goodness; the purely animal Homo was, as I have
+pointed out, free from sin or responsibility until the advent of the
+Spiritual made manifest, in that animal, the physical Ego and raised
+him far above all other animals. Man thus became a responsible moral
+being, a living soul, aware of Right, and therefore of Wrong, and
+certain acts then became for him sin that were not sin before. Thus
+the advent of Christ, and, in a less degree, the coming into the world
+of every good man, so raised, and is raising, the level of moral
+rectitude that things become sin that were not sin before; St. Paul
+himself specially recognises this when he says that without law there
+is no sin. The Goodness, then, brought into the world by Christ, did
+not create sin but made it manifest, and gave it the appearance of
+reality under our present conditions of life and thought. How well the
+Mystic Paul understood that the Invisible is the Real, and that the
+Visible--namely, the phenomena of nature--is only dependent upon Time
+for its manifestation. His words are: "For the things which are seen
+are temporal, but the things which are not seen are Eternal."
+
+I have tried in these Views to use only simple everyday language, and
+am fully aware how inadequate are the words I have employed; but my
+readers will have, I hope, recognised how difficult, and in many cases
+impossible, it is, in treating these metaphysical subjects, to find
+words to express the exact meaning; we have to describe the Infinite
+in terms of the finite, and by use of imperfect finite analogies to
+get a glimpse of the otherwise unthinkable, and even then it requires
+a mystical sense, or what St. Paul called spiritual discernment, to
+see beyond the physical mists. If the whole of the phenomena of Nature
+must be looked upon as the manifestation of the Divine Noumenon, it
+follows that Matter is as divine as the Spiritual, though not as real;
+it is His shadow, or the outline of His very image, thrown upon the
+material plane of our sensations; and the principle of sympathetic
+action, upon which, as we have seen, the whole power to influence
+depends throughout the Universe, becomes surely the best symbol we can
+use for understanding the efficacy of prayer and the connection
+between our Transcendental Self and the All-loving. Realise that the
+Transcendental Ego is a Spirit, and therefore akin to the Great
+Spirit, not only in essence, but in "loving and knowing communion,"
+then look at my last experiment, where we saw two material bodies
+(remember they are shadow manifestations of the Reality) which could
+influence each other from the fact that they were akin, not only in
+substance, but in perfect sympathetic communion.
+
+If now we watch the shadows of two human beings thrown upon a wall,
+and see those shadows shaking hands and embracing each other, are we
+not justified in concluding that those images give us a true
+explanation of what is really taking place? and is not that exactly
+what I have done? have I not shown, as I proposed to do, that it is
+possible by examining the phenomena of Nature (the shadows of the
+Reality) to reach that point where we may even feel that we are
+listening to, or having divulged to us, some of what may be called the
+very thoughts of the Great Reality?
+
+
+
+
+VIEW FIVE
+
+THE PHYSICAL FILM
+
+
+We have seen in former Views that the whole Phenomenal Universe, as
+perceived by our senses, and all intellectual thoughts or concepts
+based on those perceptions, are, in reality, only mists or shadows;
+they have no existence apart from our physical senses, and may be
+likened to a thin film, which at death is pricked and passes away like
+a scroll, leaving us face to face with the Reality. We thus seemed to
+grasp that all phenomena, including our Physical Egos, are but the
+shadows or outline of the Reality, as depicted on our limited plane of
+consciousness; but these phenomena, having Motion for their basis, are
+none the less real to us under our present outlook, limited as it is
+by conditioning in Time and Space, and we have to deal with them as
+realities in our everyday life. I want to make this distinction clear
+in the present View.
+
+Those of us who were youngsters in the 'sixties, and were fortunate
+enough to be taken to that land of wonders for children, the London
+Polytechnic, will remember seeing what were called Professor Pepper's
+Ghosts. By means of a large sheet of glass on the stage, the
+_reflection_ of a human being (otherwise invisible), which we will
+call the "_unreal_," was, by the audience, seen walking alongside the
+people on the stage, and it was impossible to say which was the real
+and which the unreal. When the unreal was made to appear further back
+on the stage, it was apparently seen through the real figures and they
+appeared as ghosts, for they were seen to be transparent. If now we
+fix, perpendicularly on a table, a small pane of glass, and place,
+say, an orange in front and another orange behind it, we can arrange
+so that an observer, looking through the glass, sees two oranges
+alongside each other, one being the real and the other the unreal,
+and, with proper lighting and dark background, it is impossible to
+determine which is which, as they are both apparently real oranges. We
+will call the real, A, and the unreal, B; we now also introduce a
+human hand on both sides of the glass, and again we have apparently
+two real hands close to the oranges; if the real hand is now seen to
+try to touch the B orange, it passes through it, but it can take up
+the A; and the same result is seen when the unreal hand tries to grasp
+them, except that it can grasp the B but not the A; it is, in fact,
+only the unreal that can apprehend the unreal, and the real the real.
+
+The above simile may help some of my readers to understand how the
+phenomena of Nature, though having no real existence apart from our
+senses, have the appearance of reality to us, because both we and the
+whole Phenomenal Universe are the unreal of our analogy, namely, the
+reflection or shadow of the Real on the physical plane. If we run
+against a stone wall, which is also part, with us, of the shadow, we
+hurt ourselves and acknowledge its existence, but to the Real it would
+not be an obstruction at all, it is not there. We know that this wall
+is not really solid, it is made up of Atoms revolving round each other
+but never touching, but the man in the street would give as the reason
+why it hurt, that it was dense, or what is called hard; if the wall
+were made of hay, or cotton wool, or of sunbeams, we should not suffer
+by running against it; in fact, the denser anything becomes, the more
+it shows its character of being real to our senses. If we take this as
+the true explanation for the Physical Universe, we are met with
+something quite beyond our powers of comprehension, when we try to
+form a conception of the all-pervading Ether; unless we may look upon
+it as actually a _presentation_ of the Reality itself. If we wave our
+hand, we can feel the obstruction of the air, but we cannot feel the
+Ether. We think our earth very solid, and we know it is rushing round
+the sun at the enormous rate of 60,000 miles per hour, but it finds no
+obstruction in the Ether, there is no retardation of its velocity; and
+yet the study of Radio-Activity has quite lately shown us that that
+Ether is not only as dense as iron, or a hundred or a thousand times
+denser, but millions of times denser than that metal; and yet it
+permeates all matter like a sieve. In Sir Oliver Lodge's words, "the
+Ether is so dense that matter by comparison is like a gossamer or a
+filmy imperceptible mist." We can, therefore, by again using our
+"Ghost" analogy, understand why matter cannot obstruct the Ether, or
+vice versa; there is no perceivable friction between them, unless, as
+I shall presently suggest, we may find something akin to obstruction
+by Matter, not to Ether itself, but to its pressure, in the phenomenon
+of Gravitation.
+
+The evidence we are gradually winning from Radio-Activity seems to be
+leading us to the conclusion that all forms of matter are but
+different motions or strains in the Ether (perhaps, as Lord Kelvin
+thought, in the form of vortices), that the different atoms of which
+matter is composed are, as suggested in View Three, _apertures_ of
+different complexity of outline--namely, those points at which Ether
+is absent or its density attenuated. Have we not apparently here
+another example of Positive and Negative, the Invisible the Ether, as
+the Real, and the Visible, the Material Universe, as its Negative the
+Unreal, similar to our list of Positives and Negatives in View One?
+Ether itself cannot be explained by any of the known dynamical laws,
+though it is probably the very root and cause of all of them; it is
+absolutely beyond our plane of perception or conception. We can only
+perceive certain effects of its presence when it comes into our
+limited world of consciousness, under the aspects of Time and
+Space--namely, in its movements, which we classify as forms of matter
+and modes of energy.
+
+It is only lately that we have been able to see clearly that the
+effects known to us as Light, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism are
+caused by pulsations or rills of different rapidity in the Ether (this
+will be referred to in a later View); it is also probably the cause of
+what we call Gravitation, and we shall see that the action of
+Gravitation may, after all, be not in the direction of a pull but must
+be looked upon as a pushing force. Gravitation is common to all
+matter; in common language, every particle attracts every other
+particle with a force directly proportional to its mass, and
+inversely to the square of its distance; it is a very weak force
+compared with others we know, and difficult to measure except when a
+large mass of matter is involved. Perhaps this will be clearer, and
+not far from the truth, if I say that the force of Gravitation exerted
+between two masses of matter compared with that which we find acting
+between the constituents of matter--namely, in chemical affinity, is
+comparable to the difference existing between the density of matter
+and the density of Ether.
+
+The latest calculation of the pressure of the Ether is almost
+inconceivable--namely, about 25,000 tons on the square inch, or
+3,600,000 tons on the square foot; it may well therefore be that, in
+the degree of permeability of matter by the Ether, when we can
+calculate it, will be found the explanation of what we call
+Gravitation between two masses; they are each shielding the other from
+Ether pressure, in its own direction, with an obstructive force equal
+to its mass. The reason why the earth appears to attract us, is that
+it is shielding us from a certain amount of pressure in its direction;
+and we know that we are also apparently attracting every particle of
+the earth with a force proportionate to our mass, because we are,
+however slightly, shielding the earth from pressure in our direction;
+if this is the true explanation, Gravitation is a phenomenon of the
+Ether; it will be seen to be a movement of matter in the line of least
+pressure, and is therefore a push and not a pull.
+
+Let us now come down to what we understand better concerning the
+subject of this View.
+
+The question, "What is Truth?" "What is the Reality?" goes to the very
+root of the Riddle of the Universe. We are all trying in one direction
+or another to answer this question. As knowledge increases, old
+theories become untenable and have to be discarded, and, in their
+place, fresh ones are formulated to account for new phases of
+phenomena. There seems a general impression, among even thinking
+people, that scientists are wedded to, and always trying to find
+proofs for, their last theories, but this is not the case. The
+endeavour of the true seeker after truth is not so much to discover
+fresh facts which coincide with existing theories, as to find
+phenomena which cannot be explained thereby; there is indeed more joy
+over one fact which does not agree with preconceived theory, than over
+ninety-nine facts which are found to fall under that heading. In our
+everyday life we have become so accustomed to take for granted that
+what we see, hear, or feel by touch must be real, that it is difficult
+for the man in the street to realise that our senses woefully deceive
+us; that perception without knowledge often leads us astray into false
+concepts, and these false concepts lead us into difficulties which
+require fresh concepts to be formed, and these again demand further
+and more exact knowledge to be applied to perceived phenomena. This
+necessity for overcoming difficulties is the greatest incentive we
+have for gaining fresh knowledge of our surroundings. Owing to the
+fact, as already pointed out, that our sense perceptions are based
+upon the appreciation of change or motion, and must therefore be
+limited in Time and Space, and that the trueness of our conceptions of
+the Reality is dependent upon the knowledge which can be brought to
+bear upon those perceptions, we are forced to postulate two aspects of
+the Universe; one of these is what may be called the Visible, Finite,
+or Physical, which indeed carries the appearance of Reality to our
+limited senses, though it has no real existence for us apart from
+those senses, and the other is that which transcends our utmost
+conception, which we call the Invisible, the Infinite, or Spiritual.
+
+At the outset of all investigation, we are forced to recognise that
+the only way we can approach conception of the Infinite is necessarily
+in the form of a negative, the negative applying to those things of
+which we have cognisance; we carry our thought to the utmost limit
+possible with our present knowledge, and, when we have come to a
+standstill, we conceive the Infinite to be not that but something
+further on. As our knowledge increases by small steps, that something
+further on seems ever to be flying from our grasp by mighty strides,
+until we are forced to bow our heads and recognise that we are in the
+presence of, though still not in sight of, the Reality. A divine
+impulse is ever urging us forward to greater conceptions but
+shattering our hopes, and giving us a feeling akin to despair, if we
+arrogate to ourselves a greater power of conception than we have
+knowledge to sustain; we have to approach the study with, indeed, that
+feeling of elation which the consciousness of our origin and destiny
+wakes within us, giving us a feeling of certainty that we are capable,
+in the hereafter, of attaining to the highest summit of knowledge, but
+with that humility, in the present, which makes us acknowledge that he
+who knows most knows most how little he knows. In this frame of mind
+let us now examine our surroundings.
+
+We are living in a world of continuous and multitudinous changes; in
+fact, without change, we could have no cognisance of our surroundings,
+we should have no consciousness of living. We have become so
+accustomed to certain sensations that we are apt to take them, as
+facts, and scoff at the suggestion that they are non-realities. I
+propose, however, to show that what we perceive are not Realities, and
+true conception of our surroundings depends upon the knowledge which
+we can bring to bear to interpret the meaning of these sensations. It
+is only in response to our conscientious endeavours to form new
+concepts that knowledge is being daily revealed to us; the more we
+progress in Knowledge the more we see that Perception alone without
+Knowledge leads to false concepts, and these in their turn create
+fatal obstacles and difficulties to our progress towards the true
+appreciation of the Universe. Let me give a few examples.
+
+In early times the Sun and the Stars were seen to revolve round the
+Earth once every day, and, without Knowledge of Astronomy, this was
+taken for granted as an absolute fact, and was looked upon as a
+reality; later on, however, it was noted that the Stars never changed
+their relative positions; this necessitated a new concept, namely,
+that they were fixed on the inner surface of a huge globe, which was
+also revolving. This false concept brought other difficulties into
+play, the question arose as to what was beyond the globe, and also the
+difficulty that, when the Stars as well as the Sun were found to be
+at such enormous distances from the Earth, their rates of motion were
+quite inconceivable. Even in the case of the Sun the motion represents
+over twenty-five million miles per hour, and the apparent motion of
+the Stars is thousands of times faster than Light travels. These
+insuperable difficulties were not swept away until, by the advance of
+Knowledge, the falsity of Conception, based only upon appearance, was
+made manifest, and it was seen that it was the Earth which revolved
+and not the Stars. Even then, owing to its supposed antagonism to what
+was stated in the Bible, the new Conception was opposed with great
+bitterness, it being long looked upon and denounced as a sacrilegious
+invention, and anybody daring to promulgate such a doctrine was
+threatened with death.
+
+Our present Conception, that the Earth turns round on its axis once
+every day, and rolls in its orbit round the Sun once in every year,
+may be called a Reality to our finite Senses; but I shall show later
+on that, except for the finiteness of our senses and the imperfection
+of our Knowledge, the Concept is not a true one. With perfect
+Perception and perfect Knowledge we shall see that, apart from the two
+limitations or modes under which our physical senses act, there can be
+no such thing as Motion, because the very essence of Motion is but
+the product of those limitations, namely, Time and Space.
+
+We are so accustomed to take everything for granted, that it may
+perhaps seem strange to question whether it can even be asserted that
+we have ever seen matter. Let us turn towards a common object in this
+room. We catch in our eyes the multitudinous impulses which are
+reflected from its surface under circumstances somewhat similar to
+those in which a cricketer "fields" a ball; he puts his hand in the
+way of the moving ball and catches it, and, knowing the distance of
+the batsman, he perhaps recognises, by the hard impact of the ball,
+that the batsman has strong muscles, but he cannot be said to _see_
+the batsman by that impact, nor can he gain thereby any idea as to his
+character. So it is with objective intuition; we direct our eyes
+towards an object, and catch thereby rays of light reflected from that
+object at different angles, and, by combining all these directions, we
+recognise _form_, and come to the conclusion that we are looking at,
+say, a chair. The eye also tells us that rays are coming in greater
+quantity from some parts of it, and we know that those parts are
+_polished_; the eye again catches rays giving higher or lower
+frequencies of vibration, and we call that _colour_; our eyes also
+tell us that it intercepts certain rays reflected from other objects
+in the room, and we know that it is not _transparent_ to light; and
+those are our sight perceptions of a wooden chair.
+
+We may go a little further by "pushing," when we know, by the amount
+of resistance compared with the power exerted, what force of gravity
+is being exerted by and on that chair, and we declare it heavy or
+light, but by these means we get no nearer to the knowledge of what
+matter is. By tests and reagents we can resolve wood into other forms
+which we call Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, &c., which, because
+we cannot divide them into any other known substances, we call
+"Elements," but we can only look at these in the same way as we are
+looking at the chair. Chemists, however, carry us a little further,
+and show us that the Elementary substances have not only their likes
+and dislikes, but their passionate desires and lukewarmness to others
+of their ilk, and, when opportunity offers, they break up with great
+violence any ordinary friendship existing between them and their
+neighbours, and seize on their coveted prey with a strength of will
+surpassing anything experienced in the Organic World; and this new
+association they maintain, until they, in their turn, are
+dispossessed, or they encounter another substance of still greater
+attraction, when they leave their first love and take up new
+connections.
+
+I shall touch upon the subject of what matter is later on; meanwhile
+let us consider how, owing to our senses being limited by the
+considerations of Time and Space, we are surrounded by inconceivables,
+and yet it is those very inadequate conceptions which force us to
+acquire Knowledge; the greatest incentive we have to pursue our
+investigation is, as we have seen, the fact that Perception without
+sufficient Knowledge leads us into difficulties. Let me give you two
+instances of these inconceivables. Infinite Space is inconceivable by
+us, but it is also quite as inconceivable, or perhaps even more so, to
+think of Space being limited, and yet we are forced to declare that
+one of these two must be true. Again, Matter is either composed of
+ultimate bodies, of a certain size which cannot be divided, or is
+infinitely divisible; both of these are inconceivable, the latter for
+the same reason as that of the Infinity of Space, and the former
+because it is inconceivable that the ultimate body could not be
+divided into two parts by a sharp edge forced between its two sides,
+or by a stronger force than at present holds it together; it has
+indeed been suggested as an explanation that, if an atom could be
+divided, it might cease to be matter, that its parts would have no
+existence, but it is difficult to conceive how two nothings can form
+one something.
+
+Another example of Perception leading to a false Concept is our Sense
+of Pain; we apply a red-hot coal to the tip of one of our fingers and
+our Perception would have us believe that we feel intense pain at the
+point of contact, but we know this to be a false Concept, as it can be
+shown that the pain is only felt at the brain: there are in
+communication with different parts of our body small microscopical
+nerve threads, any of which may be severed with a pen-knife close to
+the base of the skull, with the result that no pain can then be felt,
+although the fingertip is just as much alive and is seen to be burning
+away.
+
+Another example is our Sense of Hearing. A musical sound is made up of
+a certain number of pushes in a second, but each push is silent. It is
+only, as we have seen, a musical sound to our Sense when the pushes
+recur at intervals of not more than the sixteenth part of a second.
+The prongs of a tuning-fork, vibrating 500 times per second, seem to
+be travelling very quickly, but are really only moving at the rate of
+10 inches per second, or not much over half a mile per hour, when the
+amplitude is the hundredth part of an inch, which gives quite a loud
+sound.
+
+Light is also composed of rills in the Ether, but the rill itself is
+not Light, it is only Light when these rills strike, with a certain
+enormous frequency, on a special organ adapted for, we might say,
+counting these frequencies, and if these frequencies fall below that
+certain number, or above twice that number per second, there is no
+Sense of Sight.
+
+How few people have ever realised what a wonderful Counting Machine
+they possess in their organ of Sight! I think the best method I can
+adopt, to bring this clearly before you, is to take our tuning-fork,
+vibrating 500 times per second, a rapidity which to some will be even
+difficult to comprehend, and then ask you to consider how long that
+fork must continue to vibrate before it has accomplished the full
+number of frequencies, which must necessarily impinge upon the eye in
+one second of time, before the phenomenon of sight becomes possible.
+That tuning-fork would have not only to continue its vibrations
+without diminution for seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months, years,
+or hundreds of years, but for 30,000 years before it has accomplished
+the full number of pulsations which, as Ether waves, must strike the
+eye in one second of time, to give the impression of Light; the
+calculation is easy, the rills of Red Light are so small that 40,000
+of these only cover one inch of length, and light travels 186,000
+miles per second. If therefore the number of inches in 186,000 miles
+are multiplied by the 40,000, and the product is divided by the 500
+times which the tuning-fork vibrates in one second, you have the
+number of seconds that tuning-fork must vibrate, before it has
+completed the number of impacts which, in one second of time, must
+fall on our retina to give us the impression of red light; and that
+tuning-fork would have to vibrate nearly twice as long, say 50,000
+years, to reach the number of impulses which strike the eye in one
+second of time and give the impression of violet light; and between
+these two limits are situated the colours--Orange, Yellow, Green,
+Blue, and Indigo.
+
+What a marvellous sense then is Sight, when we find that, not only can
+it grasp these innumerable vibrations, but can actually differentiate
+colours, appreciating as a different colour each increase of about
+one-tenth in these multitudinous frequencies; and it is principally by
+means of this Sense of Sight that we gain a knowledge of what is
+happening around us. And yet what strides we have made in the last two
+hundred years to improve upon that instrument! With all its wonderful
+capabilities, we shall see later on that the eye is a very imperfect
+instrument for seeing very small objects, or even large objects when
+at a great distance. With the present compound Microscope, only
+developed in the last hundred years, and its apochromatic lenses,
+invented only in the last forty years, we are able to see and
+photograph objects of a minuteness immeasurably beyond the power of
+the human eye, and, with our telescopes, we can see and photograph
+stars far beyond the possibility of vision by the unaided eye; and
+yet, by the stellar spectroscope, we are actually able to examine and
+identify the very atoms of which that distant star is composed, or
+rather was composed hundreds of thousands of years ago; we can compare
+those atoms with the same atoms in our laboratories, and we find that,
+though the former are hundreds of thousands of years older than the
+latter, they show absolutely no signs of wear or loss of energy,
+though they have been for that enormous time, and are still, pulsating
+at the rate of not only millions but billions of times per second; and
+though the pulsations they emit have travelled across such a vast
+depth of space that the mind cannot even imagine the distance, there
+has not been any diminution in the numbers of pulsations per second,
+nor the slightest slowing down of the rate of flight at which they
+started on their journey from that far-off world. If there had been
+the _slightest_ change we could detect it at once by means of the
+Spectroscope.
+
+With another instrument we are able, not only to hear but to converse
+audibly, as long as we like, with another human being a thousand miles
+away, who is also sitting comfortably in his own arm-chair and
+speaking to us with as much freedom as though we were both in the same
+room. With another instrument we can go further, and exchange
+thoughts, in a few seconds, with a being on the other side of the
+world, by means of a thin wire that is itself fixed, and does not
+move, and we have lately invented another means by which we can do the
+same, over several thousands of miles, without even a connecting wire.
+With another instrument we have gone far beyond the facility with
+which the Printing press enabled us to communicate our thoughts to our
+fellow human beings, we can actually imprint our very words and
+laughter upon a wax cylinder and send it to the antipodes, and our
+friends there, with a similar instrument, can not only hear and
+recognise our very voice, but can make that voice repeat our thoughts
+audibly, to a thousand others at the same time, and can repeat that
+process for hundreds of times without exhausting that voice. With
+another instrument we can depict on a film, not only the images of our
+friends but their very actions, which may also be sent to any
+distance, and the persons, thereon depicted, may be seen by their
+relatives alive and going about their everyday employments, with every
+movement exact to life. We can cross the Ocean against the wind and
+waves by means of harnessed sunbeams, without any exertion of our own,
+at the rate of an express train, which train, by the by, is also moved
+by the same means; we can dive to the bottom of the sea and journey
+there for hours, in perfect safety, without coming to the surface, and
+we are even developing wings, or their equivalent, which from
+immemorial tradition we were not to possess before we had finished
+doing our duty properly in this world and had gained admission to the
+next.
+
+We can do all these things, but how ignorant we still are in the
+commonest doings of Nature! By giving up our whole lifetime, and
+spending millions of pounds, we could never make a grain of wheat or
+an acorn, and wherever we turn we find ourselves confronted with
+mysteries beyond our power to explain from a finite material
+standpoint; even in material vibrations we meet a mystery almost
+beyond our power to comprehend. Take for instance those small insects,
+of the family of Grasshoppers, which make the primæval woods of
+Central America give out a noise like the roaring of the sea, a
+wondrous sound never to be forgotten by those who have heard it. By
+means of a kind of rasp one of these insects creates a sound which
+Darwin states can be heard to the distance of one mile: these insects
+weigh less than the hundredth part of an ounce, and the instrument by
+which the noise is made, weighs much less than one-tenth of the total
+insect; it is less therefore than one thousandth part of an ounce in
+weight, and yet it is found, by calculation, that this small
+instrument is actually able to move at the enormous rate of a thousand
+vibrations per second and keep in motion for hours, from five to ten
+million tons of matter, and it does this so powerfully that every
+particle of that enormous bulk of matter gives out a sound audible to
+our ears. But even these millions of tons are not its limit of action,
+for we know that these vibrations must go on until, in the end, every
+particle of matter connected with this earth has been affected by each
+of those vibrations.
+
+All our difficulties of understanding the true meaning of these and
+other phenomena around us are, as I have already pointed out, caused
+by our inability to recognise that vibration or motion has no reality,
+it is a pseudo-conception arising from the fact that our senses are
+entirely dependent upon the two modes or limitations, Time and Space,
+for their very action, and that, as conceptional knowledge is based
+upon perceptional knowledge, our very consciousness of living is also
+dependent upon these same limitations. We have seen that Motion is
+nothing but the product of these two modes of perceptions, and, in my
+next Views, I shall examine these elusive limitations, these two
+mysteries of Time and Space, the forever and the never-ending; I shall
+trace them to the utmost limit of our conception, and try to gain
+thereby a clearer insight into the fact, not only that the whole
+Physical Universe is but a transient and Space-limited phenomenon, a
+thin film which our senses have erected and which divides us from the
+Reality, but that, if our power of _introspection_ were fully
+developed, we should know that the Reality is nearer and dearer to us,
+and has much more to do with us, even in this life, than has the
+physical.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW SIX
+
+SPACE
+
+
+We have seen that our very thoughts, and therefore consciousness of
+living, are limited by Time and Space, but we cannot with the utmost
+endeavour conceive a limit to Time and Space; they are two twin
+sisters, alike in many respects but different in others, and we shall
+realise later on that they are readily interchangeable. The sensuous
+aspect of Motion is, as we have seen, the time that an object takes to
+go over a certain space--namely, what is called the rate at which it
+passes from one point to another, and we cannot imagine Motion unless
+it contains both of these modes in however small a quantity; we may
+have the greatest imaginable space traversed in a moment of time, or
+the smallest imaginable space covered in what may be called, for want
+of a better word, an eternity, but we still have to postulate what we
+call Motion; this, of course, follows from the fact that our thoughts
+require both these modes for forming concepts. If we compare our
+conception of Matter with that of Time and Space, we see that the two
+latter are not separately the object of any sense, but are the modes
+or conditions under which all our senses act, to a greater or less
+degree, and these conditions cannot therefore carry the same
+impression of objectivity to our senses as Matter does, except perhaps
+in the sense that all physical phenomena are simply motion, and motion
+is the product of both of these limitations but not of either of them
+separately.
+
+If we analyse our conceptions of Time and Space we seem forced to
+postulate that they are both infinitely divisible and infinitely
+extensible; they are both what is called continuous and not discrete,
+we cannot conceive any minimum in their division; both duration in
+Time and extension in Space can be reduced, as it were, to a
+mathematical point; nor can we conceive any maximum in either duration
+or extension. They are both therefore comprised in every conception
+possible to our consciousness; all parts of Time are time and all
+parts of Space are space; there are no holes, as it were, in Space
+which are not space, nor intervals in Time which are not time, they
+are both complete units; Space cannot be limited except by space, and
+Time cannot be limited except by time. So far they are alike, but, on
+the other hand, Space is comprised of three dimensions--namely,
+length, breadth, and depth, whereas Time has the appearance to us of
+comprising one dimension only--namely, length.
+
+Under our present conditions we can only think of one finite subject
+at a time, and, at that moment, all other subjects are cancelled. We
+can therefore only think of points in Time and Space as situated
+beyond, or in front of, other fixed points, which again must be
+followed by other points; we cannot fix a point in either so as to
+exclude the thought of a point beyond; we can only in fact examine
+them in a form of finite sequences.
+
+The Idea of Infinity, which we shall refer to in a later View and show
+to be a false conception, is therefore a necessary result of the
+limitation of our thoughts; our physical Ego cannot conceive beyond
+the Finite as long as we are conscious of living under present
+conditions. With every act of perception by our senses, we have
+therefore not only intuition of the Visible or Finite, but we become
+at the same moment aware of an Invisible Infinite beyond. Time appears
+to us as an inconceivable, intangible something, which gives us the
+impression of movement without anything that moves it. Space is an
+omnipresent, intangible, inconceivable nothing, outside of which
+nothing which has existence can be even thought to exist. Let us now
+try and get an insight into what we mean by perception of distance in
+space.
+
+The appreciation of distance depends upon what is called _parallax_,
+or the apparent displacement of projectment of an object when seen by
+our two eyes separately. If you hold up a finger and look at it, with
+each eye separately, you will see that the finger is projected by each
+eye on to a different part of the background; the angle which the
+lines of sight, from each eye, make when they meet at the object, is
+called the angle of parallax, and the further the object is away the
+smaller that angle becomes; it is, in fact, the angle subtended, at
+the object, by the distance between the two eyes. As the object is
+brought nearer the eyes have to be inclined inwards to impinge on that
+object; the appreciation of distance then, in our sense of sight, is
+dependent upon our perception of the amount of inclination of those
+two lines of sight, and is therefore an acquired knowledge. The
+distance between the eyes is about 2-1/2 inches, and this is a very
+short base line upon which to estimate distance; in fact, without the
+help of perspective and known dimensions of surrounding objects, it is
+doubtful if anyone could by its means estimate distance beyond a few
+hundred yards. The object would, of course, also have to be an unknown
+one, as, otherwise, the converse of the above comes into play, and the
+distance could be estimated by the angle which the known diameter of
+the object subtends at the eye; but this necessitates the size of the
+object being known beforehand and the employment of perspective.
+
+We can extend our perception of distances by, ourselves, moving from
+one place to another, gaining thereby a longer base line, and noting
+the displacement of projection of the object on a distant background;
+by that means, distance up to several miles can probably be
+appreciated. But, when we try to determine the distance of, say, the
+Moon (240,000 miles away), we are helpless, especially as we have no
+marked background, except in the case of occultations of the Sun or
+Stars. But the Astronomer at once comes to our aid; a distance of
+several miles is carefully measured on a level plane, and, by placing
+telescopes at the extremities of that known line, we can mark the
+inclination of those telescopes to each other when focussed upon a
+particular mountain peak on the moon; by this means we know the angle
+of parallax (180° less the sum of the two angles of inclination), and,
+from this and our known length of base line, we can calculate the
+distance. When however we go a step further and attempt to calculate
+the distance of the Sun (93,000,000 miles), we find our last base line
+again absolutely inadequate. But the astronomer helps us again; we now
+separate our two telescopic eyes by the whole diameter of the earth
+(7900 miles); this is accomplished by taking from the Equator two
+simultaneous observations of the Sun, at its rising and setting; for
+when the Sun is setting, at say the Equinox, it is at that moment
+rising at exactly the other side of the earth; the inclination of the
+two telescopes, directed to a certain point on the Sun, will now give
+the distance approximately, though even this base line is too short
+for exactitude. When however we attempt to go still further and try to
+ascertain the distance of stars, which are a million times further off
+than the Sun, such a base line is quite out of the question. How then
+can we get a base line for our telescopes longer than the whole width
+of the earth? The Astronomer again provides the means. The earth takes
+one year to complete its vast orbit round the sun, and the diameter of
+that path is 186,000,000 miles. This is made our new base line for
+separating our telescopes; an observation of a star is taken, say,
+to-day, and after waiting six months, to enable the earth to reach the
+other extremity of its vast orbit, another observation is taken, and
+yet it is found, as we shall see later on, that the distance of the
+nearest fixed star is so _stupendous_ that even this base line, of
+186,000,000 miles, shows absolutely no inclination between the two
+telescopes except in about a dozen cases, and even in those the angle
+of parallax, perceivable, is so minute that no reliable distance can
+be calculated; we can only say that the star is at least as far away
+as a certain distance, but it may be much farther.
+
+Let us now try by other means to get a clearer insight into the
+subject of this View, by tracing Space to the utmost limit of human
+conception. I think the best method I can adopt will be to take you,
+in imagination, for a journey as far as is possible by means of the
+best instruments at our disposal.
+
+We will start outwards from the Sun, and glance on our way at the
+worlds involved in the Solar System. Let us first understand what are
+the dimensions of our central Luminary. The distance of the Moon from
+the Earth is 240,000 miles, but the dimensions of the Sun are so great
+that, were the centre of the Sun placed where the centre of the Earth
+is, the surface of the Sun would not only extend as far as the Moon,
+but as far again on the other side, and that would give the radius
+only of the enormous circumference of the Sun; another way to
+understand its size is, to remember that, light travelling 186,000
+miles per second, would actually take five seconds to go across its
+disc. Let us now start outward from this vast mass. The first world we
+meet is the little planet Mercury, only 3000 miles in diameter,
+revolving round the Sun at a distance of 36 million miles. We next
+come upon Venus, at a distance of 67 million miles. She is only 400
+miles smaller in diameter than our Earth, and, with the dense
+atmosphere with which she is surrounded, animal and vegetable life
+similar to that on our Earth would be possible. Continuing our course,
+we arrive at our Earth, situated 93 million miles away from the Sun.
+Still speeding on, a further 50 million miles brings us to Mars, with
+a diameter of nearly 5000 miles, and accompanied by two miniature
+moons. The sight of this planet in a good instrument is most
+interesting. Ocean beds and continents are visible, and the telescope
+shows large tracts of snow, though not necessarily formed from water
+(perhaps carbonic dioxide), surrounding its polar regions, which
+increase considerably during the winter, and decrease during the
+summer seasons on that planet; but there are no canals! The fact that
+our largest and best telescopes failed to show these imaginary canals,
+was an insurmountable barrier to the advocates of these markings, but
+the "Canalites" made their contention ridiculous when they actually
+suggested that the reason for this failure to perceive them was that
+our telescopes were too large to see such small markings! How such a
+statement could have been made is incomprehensible on any supposition,
+as everybody knows that the whole use of size, or what is called
+aperture, in a telescope, is to help us to see more clearly small and
+faint markings.
+
+The distances we now have to travel become so great that I shall not
+attempt to give them; you can, however, form an idea of the tremendous
+spaces we are traversing when you consider that each successive planet
+is nearly double as far from the Sun as the preceding one.
+
+In the place where, by Bode's law, we should expect to have found the
+next world, we find a group of small planets, ranging in size from
+about 200 miles in diameter down to only a few hundred yards. They
+pass through nearly the same point once in each of their periods of
+revolution round the Sun, and it has been suggested that they are
+fragments of a great globe rent asunder by some mighty catastrophe;
+over 400 of these little worlds have been discovered and have received
+names, or are known under certain numbers.
+
+We now continue our voyage over the next huge space and arrive at
+Jupiter, the largest and grandest of the planets. This world is more
+than 1000 times larger than our Earth, its circumference being
+actually greater than the distance from the Earth to the Moon. It has
+seven moons, and its year is about twelve times as long as ours.
+Pursuing our journey, we next come to Saturn. It is nearly as large as
+Jupiter, and has a huge ring of planetary matter revolving round it in
+addition to seven moons. Further and further we go, and the planets
+behind us are disappearing, and even the Sun is dwindling down to a
+mere speck; still we hurry on, and at last alight on another planet,
+Uranus, about sixty times larger than our Earth; we see moons in
+attendance, but they have scarcely any light to reflect; the Sun is
+only a star now; but we must hasten on deeper and deeper into space.
+We shall again, as formerly, have to go nearly as far beyond the last
+planet as that planet is from the Sun. The mind cannot grasp these
+huge distances. Still we travel on to the last planet, Neptune,
+revolving on its lonely orbit; sunk so deep into space that, though it
+rushes round the Sun at the rate of 22,000 miles per hour, it takes
+164 of our years to complete one revolution. Now let us look back from
+this remote point. What do we see? One planet only, Uranus, is visible
+to the unaided eye; the giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have
+disappeared, and the Sun itself is now only a star; practically no
+heat, no light, all is darkness in this solitary world; the Sun is
+1000 times smaller than we see it from the earth, and gives,
+therefore, only one-thousandth part of its heat and light. Thus far
+have we gone, and, standing there at the enormous distance of
+3,000,000,000 miles from our starting-point, we can begin to
+comprehend the vast limits of the solar system; we can begin to
+understand the ways of this mighty family of planets and satellites.
+But let us not set up too small a standard whereby to measure the
+Infinity of Space. We shall find, as we go on, that this stupendous
+system is but an infinitesimal part of the whole universe.
+
+Let us now look forward along the path we are to take. We are standing
+on the outermost part of our Solar System, and there is no other
+planet towards which we can wing our flight; but all around are
+multitudes of stars, some shining with a brightness almost equal to
+what our Sun appears to give forth at that great distance, others
+hardly visible, but the smallest telescope increases their number
+enormously, and presents to our mind the appalling phantom of
+_immensity_ in all its terror, standing there to withstand our next
+great step. How are we to continue on our journey when our very senses
+seem paralysed by this obstruction, and even imagination is powerless
+from utter loneliness? One guide only is there to help us, the
+messenger which flits from star to star, universe to universe; Light
+it is which will help us to appreciate even these bottomless depths.
+Now, Light travels 186,000 miles per second, or 12 million miles every
+minute of time. It therefore takes only about four hours to traverse
+the huge distance between our Sun and Neptune, where we are now
+supposed to be standing; but to leap across the space separating us
+from the nearest star, it would require many years for Light,
+travelling at 186,000 miles every second of that time, to span the
+distance. There are, in fact, only fifteen stars in the whole heaven
+that could be reached, on the wings of Light, in sixteen years!
+
+Let us use this to continue our voyage. On a clear night the human eye
+can perceive thousands of stars, in all directions, scattered without
+any apparent order or design; but in one locality, forming a huge ring
+round the heavens, there is a misty zone called the Milky Way. Let us
+turn a telescope with a low aperture on this, and what a sight
+presents itself! Instead of mist, myriads of stars are now seen
+surrounded by nebulous haze. We put a higher aperture on, and thus
+pierce further and further into space; the haze is resolved into
+myriads more stars, and more haze comes up from the deep beyond,
+showing that the visual ray was not yet strong enough to fathom the
+mighty distance; but let the full aperture be applied and mark the
+result. Mist and haze have disappeared; the telescope has pierced
+right through the stupendous distance, and only the vast abyss of
+space, boundless and unfathomable, is seen beyond.
+
+Let us pause here for a moment to think what we have done. Light,
+travelling with its enormous velocity, requires on an average
+considerably over ten years to traverse the distance between our Solar
+System and Stars of the first magnitude, but the dimensions of the
+Milky Way are built up on such a huge scale that to traverse the whole
+stratum would require us to pass about 500 stars, separated from each
+other by this same tremendous interval; 10,000 years may therefore be
+computed as the shortest time which light, travelling with its
+enormous velocity, would take to sweep across the whole cluster, it
+being borne in mind that the Solar System is supposed to be located
+not far from the centre of this great star cluster, and that the
+cluster comprises all stars visible arrayed in a flat zone, the edges
+of which, where the stratum is deepest, being the locality of the
+Milky Way.
+
+Let us once more continue our journey. We have traversed a distance
+which even on the wings of light we could only accomplish in many
+thousands of years, and now stand on the outskirts of our great star
+cluster, in the same way, and I hope with the same aspirations, as
+when we paused the last time on the confines of our Solar System.
+Behind us are myriads of shining orbs, in such countless numbers that
+human thought cannot even suggest a limit, and yet each of these is a
+mighty globe like our Sun, the centre of a planetary system,
+dispensing light and heat under conditions similar to what we are
+accustomed to here. Let us, however, turn our face away from these
+clusterings of mighty suns, and look steadfastly forward into the
+unbroken darkness, and once more brace our nerves to face that
+terrible phantom--_Immensity_.
+
+We require now the most powerful instruments that science can put into
+our hands, and by their aid we will again essay to make another stride
+towards the appreciation of our subject. In what, to the unaided eye,
+was unbroken darkness, the telescope now enables us to discern a
+number of luminous points of haze, and towards one of these we
+continue our journey. The myriads of suns in our great star cluster
+are soon being left far behind; they shrink together, resolve
+themselves into haze, until the once glorious universe of countless
+millions of suns has dwindled down to a mere point of light, almost
+invisible to the naked eye. But look forward: the luminous cloud to
+which we are urging our flight has expanded, until what, at one time,
+was a mere patch of brightness, has now swelled into a mighty star
+cluster; myriads of suns burst into sight--we have traversed a
+distance which even on the wings of light would take hundreds of
+thousands of years, and have reached the confines of another Milky Way
+as glorious and mighty as the one we have left; whose limits light
+would require 10,000 years to traverse; and yet, in whatever direction
+the telescope is placed, star clusters are to be seen strewn over the
+surface of the heavens.
+
+Let us take now the utmost limit of telescopic power in all
+directions. Where are we after all but in the centre of a sphere whose
+circumference is 100,000 times as far from us as one of the nearest
+fixed stars, a distance that light would take over a million years to
+traverse, and beyond whose circuit, infinity, boundless infinity,
+still stretches unfathomed as ever? We have made a step, indeed, but
+perhaps only towards acquaintance with a new order of infinitesimals.
+Once the distances of our Solar System seemed almost infinite
+quantities; compare them with the intervals between the fixed stars,
+and they become no quantities at all. And now when the spaces between
+the stars are contrasted with the gulfs of dark spaces separating
+firmaments, they absolutely vanish away. Can the whole firmamental
+creation in its turn be nothing but a corner of some mightier scheme?
+But let us not go on to bewilderment: we have passed from planet to
+planet, star to star, universe to universe, and still infinite space
+extends for ever beyond our grasp. We have gone as far towards the
+infinite as our sight, aided by the most powerful telescope, can hope
+to go. Is there no way then by which we can continue our journey
+further towards the appreciation of this infinity? A few years ago we
+should probably have denied that it was possible for man to go
+further; but quite lately a new method of observation has been
+developed, and we will try and use this to continue our flight.
+
+The reason why, to our sight, an object becomes apparently smaller and
+smaller as it is withdrawn from the eye, until it at last disappears
+entirely, is that the eye is a very imperfect instrument for viewing
+objects at a great distance; it can only form an image of an object
+when that object is near enough to subtend a certain angle, or, in
+popular language, to show itself a certain size--the rays of light
+must converge--in fact, the eye cannot single out and appreciate
+parallel rays: could it do this, objects would not appear to grow
+smaller as they are removed. A pencil might be removed to the Moon,
+240,000 miles away, and would still appear to the eye the same size as
+it does here close to you; with perfect vision there would be no such
+thing as perspective, but, with our present conditions of sight, the
+result would be inconvenient. We should never be able to see, at one
+and the same time, anything larger than the pupil of our eye. The
+beauties of the landscape would be gone, and our dearest friends would
+pass us unheeded and unseen; everyday life would resolve itself into a
+task similar to that of attempting to read our newspaper every morning
+by means of a powerful microscope; we should commence by getting on to
+a big black blotch, and, after wandering about for half an hour, we
+might perhaps then begin to find out that we were looking at the
+little letter "e," but anything like reading would be quite out of the
+question. We may, therefore, with our limited aperture of sight, be
+thankful that our eyes have the imperfection of not appreciating
+parallel rays. But we will now consider how this imperfection may be
+remedied by science.
+
+There are two different ways of doing this--viz., first, by increasing
+the amount of light received, by means of telescopes of great
+aperture; and secondly, by employing an artificial retina a thousand
+times more sensitive than the human. Now, the human retina receives
+the impression of what it looks at in a very minute fraction of a
+second, provided of course that the eye is properly focussed, and no
+further impression will be made by keeping the eye fixed on that
+object; but in celestial photography, when the telescope is turned
+into a camera, the sensitive plate, having received the impression in
+the first second, may be exposed not only for many seconds, or
+minutes, or hours, but for an aggregate of even days by re-exposure,
+every second of which time details on that plate new objects, sunk so
+deep in the vast depths of space as to be immeasurably beyond the
+power of the human eye, even through telescopes hundreds of times more
+powerful than the largest instruments that science has enabled us to
+construct; and yet here is laid before us a faithful chart, by means
+of which we may once more continue our journey through space. A short
+exposure will show us firmaments and nebulæ just outside the range of
+our greatest telescopes, and every additional second extends our
+vision by such vast increases of distances that the brain reels at the
+thought; and yet, as we have seen, exposures of these sensitive plates
+may be, and have been, made not only for seconds, but for thousands
+and even hundreds of thousands of seconds! And still there is no end,
+no end where the weary mind can rest and contemplate; the finite mind
+of man can only cry out that there is no limit. In spite of all its
+strivings and groping by aid of speculative philosophy, the finite
+cannot attain to the Infinite, nor get any nearer to where the mighty
+sea of time breaks in noiseless waves on the dim shore of eternity.
+
+In this journey through space we have apparently exhausted our power
+of conception of the _extension_ of this View. Although we have
+travelled in one direction only, our flight was applicable to every
+possible known direction _outwards_ into the vast abyss of Infinite
+space. But there is another path, by which we can also travel with
+profit to our understanding of this subject, running in the opposite
+direction--namely, _inwards_. Just as the outward journey seemed to
+take us towards the appreciation of what our finite senses call the
+infinitely great, so does this other path appear to intend to
+infinity, in the opposite direction, leading us to appreciate what is
+called the infinitely small. We have already considered this direction
+in View One, under the heading of "Relativity," and by combining these
+two experiences, we may see still more clearly that our very
+conception of Space is one of the modes only under which motion or
+physical phenomena are presented to our consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW SEVEN
+
+TIME
+
+
+In the last View I referred to the mysteries of Time and Space as
+twin-sisters; they have, as we saw, many aspects in common, and are
+the two modes or conditions under which all our senses act and by
+which our thoughts are limited. We arbitrarily divide each of these
+two mysteries into two parts, which parts are separated from each
+other, in either case, by a point which has, apparently, as its
+centre, our very consciousness of living. In the case of Space we call
+this point the HERE, and on one side of it, as we saw in our last
+View, we have extension towards the infinitely great, and, on the
+other, intension towards the infinitely small. In the case of Time we
+call the middle point the NOW, and on one side of this we place the
+duration of Time towards the future, and, on the other, we place what
+we call the duration of Time towards the past. In the case of Space we
+have the here and the _overthere_, equivalent in Time to the present
+and the _future_, but, though Time and Space are, as it were,
+twin-sisters, upon whose combined action depends our very
+consciousness of living, we do not treat them both equally.
+
+It is a remarkable fact that the human race on this particular world
+has, in some inexplicable way, come to look upon the future as
+non-existent until we arrive at, and are able to perceive, with our
+senses, what is happening there; this is all the more inexplicable
+when we realise that in traversing Space we certainly have to _move_
+to get anywhere, but in traversing Time we have nothing equivalent to
+movement. This curious way of looking upon the future as non-existent,
+may be another sign that our race is still in its infancy, but is more
+probably caused by human beings having always hitherto looked upon
+Time not only as a reality but as actually moving or extending along a
+line from past to future eternity; whereas, under our present outlook,
+we have no consciousness of the existence of Time except by intervals
+between successive thoughts; our consciousness of the very existence
+of Time is based upon our Physical Ego repeating the _present_, by
+saying to itself the words, Now--Now--Now; but there is nothing that
+can be called movement in this, any more than if you are standing
+still and saying, Here--Here--Here--relating to Space. Time is, as it
+were, "marking time," and as the present in time is common to all
+space, Time is "marking time" everywhere, and the Now therefore
+includes the whole of the past and the whole of future eternity
+everywhere. We shall get a clearer understanding of this later on;
+meanwhile, we are face to face with the fact that we look upon the
+future as non-existent.
+
+This curious state of things is probably only accidental to the
+present stage of development of the human mind, and may, at any time,
+be rectified by perhaps either a slight rearrangement of that slender
+network of nerves upon which depends our faculty of thinking, or the
+joining together of a few microscopical filaments attached to the
+cells in the grey cortical layer, or even a single bridge thrown
+across from one convolution to another of the brain; a very slight
+alteration would open up to our consciousness the present existence of
+the future. The prime perceivable difference between our brains and
+those of the Apes and lower animals is the larger number of
+enfoldments, or convolutions, that are developed by the Human. Each
+new line of thought, or sequence of thoughts, requires, and is
+provided with, a new wrinkle or small convolution, and it probably
+only requires the attention of the human race to be fixed, for a time,
+on the consideration of this subject, to evolve the slight alteration,
+or bridge, necessary to enable us to see that the future, as also the
+past, does actually exist and is included in the Now. It may make this
+a little clearer to consider that if you maintain that, in traversing
+the duration of time, the future does not exist until you arrive
+there, you should also in fairness insist that, in travelling through
+the extension of Space, your destination, say Rome, does not exist
+until you get there and can see it with your senses.
+
+As we have, in the former six Views, been gradually mounting above the
+mists and illusions of our everyday thoughts, and can look through our
+Window with, I hope, a clearer vision, I shall venture in this present
+View to carry the subject of the _Future_ still further, and show
+that, just as we have now before us and can read the papyri which were
+written 5000 years ago, so it is possible to conceive that books,
+written and being written and printed 5000 years hence, are _at
+present_ in existence, and that it is even possible the human race has
+actually already read them; whether we shall be able to see them and
+read them in our own lifetime may be open to question; that may again
+depend upon the development of special cross-circuiting of brain
+filaments. Meanwhile, in order to carry our present View to the utmost
+limit of our conception, in a manner somewhat similar to what we did
+for Space, I will again ask you to join me in a thought-flight
+towards the appreciation of this second great Mystery.
+
+With this object in view we will first consider the human senses of
+sight and hearing, commencing with sound, or the vibrations which
+affect the tympanum of the human ear. Sound travels in air at about
+1130 feet per second, and if the vibrating body, giving out the sound,
+oscillates sixteen times in one second, it follows that, spreading
+over this 1130 feet, there will be sixteen waves, giving a length of
+about 70 feet to each wave. This is the lowest sound that the human
+ear can appreciate as a musical note, and is, what may be called, the
+fourth Octave above one vibration in one second. When the number of
+vibrations in a second sinks below sixteen, the ear no longer
+appreciates them as a musical sound, but is able to hear them as
+separate vibrations or beats. The easiest way of illustrating this is
+by means of a revolving disc, with sixteen holes pierced at regular
+intervals round the edge, and a jet of high-pressure air, which is
+forced through each of the holes successively as they revolve. When
+the disc does not quite complete one revolution in a second, only
+fifteen puffs come to the ear in a second of time, and they are heard
+as puffs; but when the rate reaches one revolution in a second, the
+sound, as if by magic, changes into the lowest musical sound. The same
+result may be obtained in a more pronounced form by means of
+explosions or pistol shots; when these are slow and heard separately,
+they are painful and almost unbearable to the ear, but, as soon as
+their rapidity, namely, at sixteen per second, gets beyond the power
+of the ear to differentiate between the explosions, the impression, as
+if by magic, changes into a continuous or musical sound, like a
+thirty-foot pipe note of an organ.
+
+To go back to our disc. The octave above this lowest musical note is
+obtained by doubling the rate of puffs, namely, by revolving the disc
+twice in one second, and the next octave by revolving four times in a
+second, and so on, doubling each time, until, at about the thirteenth
+octave, the sound has become so high that the majority of listeners
+cannot hear it, and fancy it must have stopped, whereas a few will
+still be saying: "How shrill it is!" At last, at about the fourteenth
+octave, when there are 20,000 beats to the second and each wave is
+about half an inch long, it passes beyond human audition, and,
+although we can show that the air is still vibrating, all is silent,
+the human ear being incapable of hearing so many beats in a second
+even as a continuous sound, though I have evidence to show that many
+insects can hear probably considerably beyond this limit. It is,
+however, possible to make these higher vibrations perceptible to our
+senses by means of what are called sensitive flames: we can actually,
+by these, measure the length of these silent waves, and as we know the
+rate at which they travel, we can at once compute the number which
+occur in a second of time, and thus ascertain their pitch. By this
+means we can follow for about three more octaves above the audible
+limit, namely, up to 160,000 pulsations per second, with a length of
+wave of one-twelfth of an inch.
+
+Two and a half octaves above these numerically, _i.e._ at about the
+twentieth octave, we reach the frequency of Electro-Magnetic Rills,
+used by the Marconi System of wireless telegraphy, which pulsate at
+about 950,000 per second, and have a wave-length of something like
+1000 feet. The reason for this great increase in length of wave is
+caused by these frequencies being propagated in the Ether at the rate
+of 186,000 miles per second, instead of, as with sound waves, in the
+air, at only 1130 feet per second. We can trace these particular
+frequencies, called, after their discoverer, Hertzian waves, for about
+fifteen octaves, when we arrive at the frequency of 32,000,000,000 in
+a second, with a wave-length decreased to a quarter of an inch; we
+can render the effect of these waves visible, but have no physical
+organ by which we can feel these pulsations. After this, however, we
+get into the region of frequencies which, though still of exactly the
+same kind, we know and can feel as Radiant heat; these are situated in
+the next fourteen octaves, and bring us up to those subtle frequencies
+which affect another of our sense organs, and which we appreciate as
+light; these we have already seen have the enormous frequency of
+530,000,000,000,000 pulsations per second for red light, up to
+930,000,000,000,000 per second for violet, and having wave-lengths so
+small that it takes 40,000 and 70,000 of them respectively to cover
+one inch in length. There is only a little over half an octave that
+the eye can appreciate as light, and then all is darkness; but we can
+still go on further by the help of Science: beyond the violet we have
+the actinic or chemical rays, which are used in photography, and which
+enable us to trace the frequencies for a further two octaves. Beyond
+this we cannot pierce with our present knowledge; but there may be,
+and probably are, latent in our nature, senses which, properly
+developed, will be able to appreciate still more subtle vibrations,
+and organs which, perhaps, even now are being prepared for the
+reception of these influences.
+
+We have no organs yet developed for receiving and appreciating what
+are called Wireless waves, but we have already been able to devise
+physical Receivers, of wonderful sensitiveness, for them and other
+waves of the same nature, such as those of Radiant heat. In the case
+of Radiant heat, the Bolometer invented by Professor Langley has been
+able to receive and record a change of temperature of the one
+millionth of a degree Centigrade, and can easily make visible the heat
+of a candle at a distance of one and a half miles. In wireless
+telegraphy also the Receiver, perfected by Marconi, is affected by
+rills, made by a splash of electric discharge, over 3000 miles away.
+If our eyes were sensitive to these frequencies, both of which are
+composed, as is also light, of electro-magnetic rills, we could see
+anything that was happening anywhere in the world, for they go through
+matter as though it did not exist, as light passes through glass;
+indeed, if our region of Sight waves was only put an octave lower we
+could not use glass in our windows, it would be too opaque, we should
+be obliged to have our windows made of thin slabs of carbon or other
+substances permeable to Radiant heat waves. Science indeed steadily
+points to electricity and magnetism being a form of motion, and it may
+be that in these invisible rays we may some day discover the nature
+of those mysterious forces; and, even far beyond those, as suggested
+in View Four, we may in the not far distant future be able to
+appreciate Physical Life itself as a mode of frequency.
+
+We want, as it were, a special "Time Microscope," which I have already
+referred to, to examine these vibrations, and a method similar to that
+already mentioned in "Space," under Celestial Photography, by which we
+may traverse and examine hundreds or thousands of octaves by each
+second of exposure; for, although the path extends to infinity, we
+have already arrived at the utmost limits of our finite senses, and
+find that after all we can only appreciate fifty-one octaves, a few
+inches only, as it were, along the line of Infinite extent, reaching
+from the finite up to the Reality; and even so it must be borne in
+mind that we have only travelled in one direction, whereas the path we
+have taken extends in the opposite direction also to infinity. We
+started with sixteen vibrations in a second, as the lowest number of
+beats we human beings can appreciate as a musical sound; let us now
+descend by octaves. The octave below is eight vibrations in a second,
+and there are probably many animals that can only hear these as a
+musical sound; the next octave is four, then two, and then one
+vibration in a second. But we do not stop there; the octave below
+this is one vibration in two seconds, then in four seconds, eight
+seconds, sixteen seconds, and so on, until it is possible to conceive
+that even one frequency in a million years might be appreciated as a
+musical sound, or even as one of the colours of the spectrum, by a
+being whose time sensations were enormously extended in both
+directions, but still finite.
+
+Once more we must call a halt. Our finite minds become bewildered in
+attempting even to glance at these infinities of time.
+
+We measure space by miles, yards, feet, and inches; we measure time by
+years, hours, minutes, and seconds; and by these finite units we try
+to fathom these two marvellous infinities. With our greatest efforts
+of thought we find, however, that we can get relatively no distance
+whatever from the HERE of Space and the NOW of Time. It is true that
+the present, as a mathematical point, appears to be hurrying and
+bearing us with it along the line stretching from the past to future
+eternity, but in reality we get no further from the one nor nearer to
+the other. Let us change our view and examine this subject under a
+different aspect.
+
+First of all, look round a room and note the different objects to be
+seen. Even in a small room we do not see the objects as they really
+_are_ at this instant, but only as they _were_ at a certain fixed
+length of time ago. The present time is common to every point in space
+and each person is in the present, but only to his own perception; to
+everyone else in the room, each individual is, at this moment, being
+seen acting in the past; those objects which are further away are
+being seen further behind in point of time than those that are nearer;
+in fact, however near we are to an object, we can never see it as it
+is but only as it was. We are dealing with very minute differences
+here, they being based upon the rate at which light travels; but they
+are differences which are known with a wonderful degree of accuracy.
+
+We have here another example of how perception without knowledge leads
+to false concepts. When anyone views an extended landscape, he thinks
+that his sight shows him that the same point of Time, which he is
+experiencing, is common to every man, animal, plant, or material
+visible there, but we know now that he is seeing every part of that
+scene in the past compared with himself. Just as all objects therein
+are situated at separate distinct points of space, so to our vision
+the objects of that scene are acting or existing in different epochs
+of time. An Artist gives us on a flat surface a picture of that
+landscape, and his representations of all objects in that scene
+appear therefore to us as being in the same moment of Time, but to get
+that effect he has to draw objects at a distance smaller than those
+close at hand; a fly in the foreground has to be drawn larger than a
+horse supposed to be in the distance, though both are on the same flat
+surface; they have the same parallax and are therefore the same
+distance from the observer, and as this produces a similar image on
+our retina, we accept it though we know it is only a make-believe; it
+serves its purpose by giving us an impression on our retina which we
+have learnt to interpret as representing that landscape, but such a
+picture would indeed be a marvel of absurdity to a being who had
+perfect sight, such as we have already referred to, and who could
+appreciate parallel rays; in such a vision there would be no
+perspective, no vanishing point in perception.
+
+Now let us take a wider landscape. The Moon is 240,000 miles distant.
+We do not, therefore, ever see her as she is but as she was 1-1/4
+seconds ago. In the same way we see the Sun as he was eight minutes
+ago, and we see Jupiter as he was nearly an hour ago. Let us look
+still further to one of the nearest fixed stars. We at this moment
+only see that star as it was more than ten years ago; that star may
+therefore have exploded or disappeared ten long years ago, and yet we
+still see it shining, and shall continue to see it _there_ until the
+long line of light has run itself out; all around us, in fact, we see
+the appearance of blazing suns not as they are now but as they were
+thousands of years ago, and, by the aid of the telescope and of our
+sensitive plate, we are only now recording the light which started
+from clusters and firmaments probably millions of years ago.
+
+Now let us take the converse of this. To anybody on the moon at this
+moment the earth would be seen from there not as it is, but as it was
+1-1/4 seconds ago, and from the sun as it was eight minutes ago, and
+if we were in Jupiter, and were looking back, we should, at this
+particular moment, be viewing what was happening on this earth, and
+seeing what each of us was doing an hour ago. Now let us go in
+imagination to one of the nearest fixed stars, and looking back we
+should see what was happening ten years ago; going still further to a
+far-off cluster, the light would only just now be arriving there,
+which started from the earth at the time when man first appeared; or
+we might go to so remote a distance that the scene of the formation of
+the Solar System would be only now arriving there, and all the events
+which have taken place from that remote time to the present would, as
+time rolled on, reach there in exactly the same succession as they
+have happened on this earth; and remember that we should be looking,
+from that great distance, at all these past events with the same
+intuitional advantage as though we were actually present here in time,
+for however near we are to an object, we never see it as it is but
+only as it was in the past.
+
+Let us but turn to any point of space and we shall find at each point,
+according to its remoteness, the actual scenes of the past being
+enacted, in fact it may be said that throughout infinite space every
+event in past eternity is now indelibly recorded.
+
+A murder committed hundreds of years ago, in a country house, may
+never have been found out, the criminal and his victim have alike
+turned to dust, the blood has been washed from the floor, the very
+house and its surroundings have crumbled and disappeared, and in their
+place a waving corn field is all that can be seen, but at this very
+moment if we were at a certain point in space, we should now be
+witnessing there, the whole actual living scene from beginning to end,
+as though we were present _here_ hundreds of years ago: the murderer
+standing over his victim, the knife driven in and the blood gushing
+out. If we went further away we should at this same moment be seeing
+the criminal just arriving and knocking at the door of that house,
+then going upstairs into the room, and the same terrible scene with
+all its minutiæ would again be enacted. From a point still further
+removed, we should now see him, say, having lunch at a country inn
+some miles away, concocting his villainy, then he would be seen
+walking across the fields towards the house, again knocking at the
+door, mounting the staircase, and once more would that murderous scene
+be enacted before our eyes, and so on for ever; the scene, with the
+house and its surroundings, have indeed been completely swept away
+from the present _here_, but the whole tragedy will always be acting
+in the future _there_ in the presence of the Reality.
+
+Let us now come, in imagination, towards the earth, from some far-off
+cluster of stars. If we traverse the distance in one year, the whole
+of the events from the formation of this world would appear before us,
+only thousands of times quicker. Make the journey in a month, a day,
+an hour, a second, or a moment of time, and all past events, from the
+grandest to the most trivial, would be acted in an infinitesimal
+portion of time.
+
+When we have fully grasped this we recognise that Omniscience is
+synonymous with Omnipresence, and some may find, in this thought, a
+glimpse of that Great Book wherein are said to be registered every
+thought, word, and deed, which, in the direction of the Reality, has
+helped to nourish, or, in the direction of the shadow, has tended to
+starve the personality of each one of us; for we know that every word
+we utter, or that has been uttered from the beginning of the world,
+and every motion of our brain connected with thought is indelibly
+imprinted upon every atom of matter. If our sense of perception were
+greatly increased we need not go to Palestine to see on the rocks
+there the impressions of the image of Christ and His disciples, or of
+the words they uttered as they passed by, but any stone by the wayside
+_here_ would show His every action and resound with every word He
+uttered. In fact, every particle of matter on this earth is a witness
+to that which has happened, every point in space and every moment of
+time contains the history of the past in the smallest minutiæ. The
+_Here_, embracing all space, and the _Now_, embracing all time, are
+the only realities to the Omniscient.
+
+Let us once more change the scene and we may grasp even more clearly
+that Time and Space are not realities but are only modes or conditions
+under which our material senses act. A tune may be played either a
+thousand times slower or a thousand times quicker, but it still
+remains the same tune, it contains the same sequence of notes and
+proportion in time, the only characteristics by which we recognise a
+tune. And so in the same way with our sense of sight, an event may be
+drawn out to a thousand times its length or acted a thousand times
+quicker, it is still the same scene. An insect vibrates its wings
+several thousands of times in a second and must be cognisant of each
+beat, whereas we have seen that we, with our Senses of Sight and
+Hearing, can only appreciate respectively at the most seven and
+sixteen vibrations in a second as separate beats. That insect must
+therefore be able to follow a flash of lightning under the conditions
+of a Time microscope magnifying a thousand times compared with our
+vision. The whole life of some of these insects extends over a few
+hours only, but owing to their quick unit of perception it is to them
+as full of detail as our life of seventy years; but to them there is
+no day and night, the Sun is always stationary in the Heavens, they
+can have no cognisance of Seasons.
+
+I have already referred in View One to the curious results of
+increasing our unit of perception by a Time Microscope, and I will now
+carry the investigation of this subject a step further.
+
+As conceptional knowledge is based on perceptional knowledge, and we
+can only perceive about six times per second, and as the principal
+forms of knowledge are gained through the eye, we are conceiving
+progress in phenomena under a very restricted outlook; we cannot
+recognise such slow motions as, for instance, the hour-hand of a
+watch, the growth of a tree, or rise of the tide, except by noting the
+change that has occurred after a long interval; there is therefore a
+whole world of events which we cannot see. Owing to this limit, in our
+unit of time perception, we also cannot perceive events which are
+taking place beyond a certain quickness, they become blurred and give
+the impression of continuity, and constitute another world of events
+lost to us. For the same reason there is a whole world of sensation
+lost to us by our limited unit of sound perception; we cannot follow
+separate sound-events if they occur quicker than sixteen in a second,
+beyond that they become blurred and give the impression of continuity.
+If, on the other hand, our units of perception were increased a
+thousandfold, as is probably the case with some insects, our conscious
+lives would contain a thousand more events than they do at present,
+and, as the consciousness of length of life is dependent upon the
+number of events that have been perceived, we should under these
+conditions have passed on this earth a life equivalent to, say, 70,000
+years under our present restricted unit; every second of that long
+period would have been as full of events for us as is a second in our
+present life of seventy years. If, on the other hand, our unit of
+perception were decreased a thousandfold, our length of life, based
+upon perception of events, would be no longer than 25-1/2 of our
+present days; if our life were actually reduced to that period (so as
+to regain our present units of perception) we should be old and
+grey-headed before the sun had risen for the twenty-fifth time since
+our birth. If our unit of perception, with our length of life, were
+again reduced a thousandfold, the whole of our life of seventy years
+would now only be equal to forty-three minutes, and, in the whole of
+that life, we could only see the sun move ten degrees, namely, twenty
+of its own diameters in the heaven; if we were born, say, at noon on
+midsummer's day, we could never have any idea of anything but daytime,
+and neither our fathers, nor grandfathers, nor great-grandfathers for
+fifteen generations before them could have seen the sun rise; but
+there would have been a tradition, handed down from a far distant past
+generation, that a long time ago, beyond the memory of man, there was
+no sun at all, everything was pitch dark, and that time was called the
+"Great Shadow." If their records could have gone still further back
+for the same length of time they would have heard that, before the
+"Great Shadow," the sun was always shining in the heavens, and that
+that great "Sun" day lasted twice as long as the great shadow.
+
+To understand more clearly this subject of Time perception let me put
+another aspect before you; we are looking, say, at an insect whose
+wings are beating several thousand times per second, and, with our
+vision limited to six times per second, it would be impossible to
+count the number of hairs on that wing, or to see which of those hairs
+were split, or were bent from the straight, but, if we travelled away
+from that insect into space at the rate of light, and were looking
+back, the present would then always be with us; the wing, although
+still vibrating at that enormous rate, would appear to be stationary,
+and so would every other moving thing on the earth, however quick its
+movement, and everything would continue in that motionless state for a
+million years, provided we continued our flight with the rays of
+light. If we travelled a little slower than light, say one minute less
+in a thousand years, the same scene would be presented to us, but,
+that which was acted upon this earth during one minute of Time, would
+now take a thousand years to accomplish; the swiftest railway train
+would appear standing still, it would take 5-3/4 days and nights to
+cover each inch of ground. It is thus possible to again understand how
+the flight of a bird or the lightning flash might be examined under
+conditions of time which would lead to the discovery and tracing of
+even the principle of life itself. But let us go one step further and
+increase our flight beyond the rate at which light travels: scenes
+would now progress in the opposite direction to that which we are
+accustomed to; men would get out of bed and dress themselves at night
+and go to bed in the morning; old men would grow young again; tall
+trees would grow backwards and enter the earth, embedding themselves
+in the seed, and the seed would rise upwards to the branch that
+nourished it; the blood would turn into chyle, into food in the
+stomach, into the piece of meat, which would be transferred from the
+mouth to the plate, and would then be cut on to the joint, the joint
+would go down to the kitchen and be uncooked, would be carried to the
+butcher to be cut on to the carcase, and the animal would come to life
+and go out into the fields. Human bodies would be formed in the ground
+from the dust of the Earth, passing through what we call corruption to
+incorruption, the dead would be taken from their graves, brought back
+to their homes and put to bed; the Doctor would arrive, a miracle
+would happen, the patient would come to life; though this would hardly
+be a feather in the cap of the Doctor, as it would be seen that the
+medicine came out from the mouth of the patient, would be put into
+bottles to be thrown away, and it would be the Doctor who had to pay
+the Fee, and the bigger the Doctor the bigger the Fee he would have to
+pay. The future would in fact change places with the past, the effect
+would give birth to the cause as presented to our finite senses, and,
+though it is difficult to realise, it is indeed just as true, or
+untrue, that we come into this world through the grave, instead of in
+the way we are accustomed to, because to the Reality there is no
+change, the Here and the Now comprising all beginnings and ends, all
+causes and effects.
+
+In this flight on the wings of light we did not in reality depart in
+the least from the Here, because there is no such thing as space, it
+is all included in a mathematical point, the Here; and as the whole of
+time is included in the Now, the Future, however remote with all
+events therein, is existent in the present; the writers of books 5000
+years hence are therefore writing them now, and the Human Race has
+read and is reading them _now_; we have always hitherto maintained
+that these things are only "going to happen" 5000 years hence, but in
+reality all events in the future are events in the same Now in which
+we are living at the present moment, and, as it is just as true, that
+time is flowing from the Future to the Present and on to the Past, as
+in the contrary direction (of our present outlook), so it is quite
+conceivable that we may some day, in the not far distant future, not
+only realise that the future exists already, but that we may even be
+able to handle and read the books written 5000 years hence, in a
+similar manner to that which enables us now to handle and read those
+which were written 5000 years ago.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW EIGHT
+
+CREATION
+
+
+In our first View we saw the necessity of clearing away the weeds, the
+moss, and the lichen from the stem of our Real Personality before that
+Transcendental Self could send forth fresh buds for the advancement of
+_conscious_ thought to higher levels; we found that the first step
+towards this clearing the approach to our window, was to recognise
+that a knowledge of the Truth was to be gained by the use of
+"Introspection" rather than by Intellectualism--to realise, in fact,
+that it is not we, with our intellects, who are looking out upon
+Nature, but that it is the Absolute looking into us and ever trying to
+teach us divine truths concerning the "Reality of Being." We saw that
+the phenomena, which our senses would have us believe to be the
+reality or solidity of our material surroundings, are illusions
+created by the fact that those senses are limited in their perception
+to that which is conditioned in Time and Space, necessitating _motion_
+as the basis of our perceptions, and that, when the rate of motion
+exceeds our units of perception, we have the impression of continuity
+of events, which we accept as the objective existence of matter; we
+also saw that the duration of Time and extension of Space had no
+existence for us apart from those senses, our very consciousness of
+these two non-realities depending upon "relativity"--they could, in
+fact, be increased or diminished indefinitely, without our knowing
+that any change had been made.
+
+In our second View I attempted to take another step forward by showing
+how, by means of this "Introspection," it was even possible to
+understand that these two limitations might be eliminated from
+consciousness; we then realised that the whole Physical Universe is
+but a thin film, set up by our finite Senses, between our
+Consciousness and the "Reality of Being"; we saw that this could only
+be understood when, by the Mystical Sense, we realised that physical
+phenomena were but symbols or shadows of the Reality or Noumenon
+underlying them.
+
+In our next View I gave an example of the use of Mystical and
+Symbolical thought, leading, in the fourth View, to the subject of
+Everlasting Life and the Efficacy of Prayer, wherein I tried to show
+that by examining the phenomena of Nature, as depicted on the Physical
+Film, it is possible to reach a point where we may even feel that we
+are actually listening to, or having divulged to us, the very thoughts
+of the Absolute. This led to the next View, where we examined the
+Physical Film itself, and this we analysed in the next two Views into
+those component parts, by means of which this Film presents to our
+senses the impression of the whole Physical Universe as an objective
+reality.
+
+We have seen that it is the Invisible which is the Real, that the
+visible is only its shadow; that the Invisible, as distinguished from
+the Visible, is not in a place apart from the Physical, but is the
+Reality of which the visible constitutes the boundary lines or planes
+in our consciousness, as lines and planes are the visible boundaries
+of solids. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a locality but a _state_ of
+Divine "loving and knowing communion"; it is within us in the sense
+that we are interior and not exterior entities of the "Reality of
+Being."
+
+We have now arrived at a point where we can better realise that the
+Absolute cannot be localised or bounded by space, and must be
+Omnipresent--cannot be conditioned in Time, and must therefore be
+Omniscient--the Here comprising all Space, and the Now all Time in the
+"Reality of Being."
+
+With these conclusions before us I will ask you to form a new
+conception of Creation. All creation around us is the materialisation
+of the Thought of the Deity. He does not require time to think as we
+do--the whole of the Universe is therefore one instantaneous Thought
+of the Great Reality; the forming of this world and its destruction,
+the appearance of man, the birth and death of each one of us are
+absolutely at the same instant; it is only our finite minds which
+necessitate drawing this Thought out into a long line, and our want of
+knowledge and inability to grasp the whole, which force us to conceive
+that one event happened before or after another. In our finite way we
+examine and strive to understand this wondrous Thought, and at last, a
+Darwin, after a life spent in accumulating facts on this little
+isolated spot of the Universe, discovers what appears to be a law of
+sequence, and calls it the evolution theory; but this is probably only
+one of countless other modes by which the _intent_ of that Thought is
+working towards completion, the apparent direction of certain lines on
+that great tracing board of the Creator, whereon is depicted the whole
+plan of His work.
+
+Let me give a simple example of Creation by a "word," which even our
+finite minds can grasp. When I utter the word _Cat_, it starts a
+practically instantaneous thought in your minds, the power of that
+thought being dependent upon the knowledge you have gained. If you
+analyse it you will find that, though practically instantaneous, it
+comprises all the sensations you have ever felt on that subject
+throughout your life. It commenced, perhaps, when you were only a year
+old, and, sitting on your mother's knee, your hand was made to stroke
+a kitten, and you felt it was soft and it gave you pleasure. Later on,
+when you were older, you had it in your arms, and you felt the first
+intimation of that wonderful "[Greek: storgê]," which manifests itself
+in most children in their love for dolls; you found it delightful to
+cuddle and that it purred. Later on, you found that it played with a
+reel of cotton, and that it could scratch, make horrid noises, and
+countless other things, which not only make up the life of a cat, but
+connect it with the world around us. All these thousand and one facts
+are now drawn out, by analysis in Time and Space, into a long line,
+and are placed one in front of the other; but the thought started by
+the word Cat was a fair example of an instantaneous creation.
+
+One other example of an instantaneous thought. Let us suppose a large
+room fitted with, say, a hundred thousand volumes, comprising all the
+knowledge gained by every Specialist in every Science concerning the
+plan of Creation. In our finite minds, under the limits of Time and
+Space, the word representing the contents of that library would start,
+when uttered, an instantaneous thought analogous to that of our last
+example, according to the knowledge that each individual had already
+acquired of the contents of those books; but this knowledge had only
+been gained by taking down each volume separately and reading one book
+at a time, beginning at the beginning and taking each page and each
+word in succession, and a lifetime would not suffice to enable us to
+read them all; whereas, if our knowledge were _complete_, the word
+representing the contents of that room would start an instantaneous
+thought, comprising not only every book, but every chapter, page,
+word, letter, and punctuation contained in that library, or in one
+which comprised all knowledge from the beginning to the end of Time.
+
+It is a well-known fact that at the approach of death, when the
+perceptive senses are completely, or almost completely, in abeyance,
+as in the "self-forgetting" referred to in "The Vision," the duration
+of Time appears to have no reality; in numerous cases of drowning,
+where the person has been no more than one or two minutes under water,
+the whole of a long life, with every forgotten trivial occurrence and
+the multitude of thoughts attached thereto, have been brought vividly
+before the mind, as it were, instantaneously; those also who have been
+put under nitrous-oxide gas, though the life of the body is not
+affected, know how, with departure of sense perception, the sense of
+Time is completely annihilated. I have myself experimented under such
+conditions, and attempted to realise the duration of time by counting
+steadily, one, two, three, four, &c., and had no knowledge whatever
+that between, say, "four" and "five" there was a complete hiatus of
+several minutes when, for me, time had vanished; I was still counting
+steadily when the anæsthetic had passed away, and it was quite
+impossible to realise that such time had elapsed, as I had not reached
+more than the twelfth count, whereas, according to the time expired, I
+should have reached the fiftieth or sixtieth. A number of examples of
+what may be called instantaneous thoughts created in the mind of a
+sleeper have been collected, and many of us have had similar
+experiences. I give one as an example: "Maury was ill in bed and
+dreamed of the French Revolution. Bloody scenes passed before him. He
+held long conversations with Robespierre, Marat, and other monsters of
+that time, was dragged before the tribunal, was condemned to death,
+and carried through a great crowd of people, bound to a plank. The
+guillotine severed his head from his shoulders. He woke with terror to
+find that a rail over the bed had got unfastened and had fallen upon
+his neck like a guillotine, and, as his mother who was sitting by him
+declared, at that very moment."
+
+In the above case the whole scene was started instantaneously in his
+brain, but in waking his mind analysed it in Time and Space and spread
+it out into a long historical record. The opposite process to this,
+namely, the building up a thought-picture, is what we do every day
+when we form and combine our conceptions under the dominion of Time
+and Space, until we have accumulated in our minds a multitude of
+concepts which form as it were a single subject, somewhat analogous to
+a painter when he has completed his picture, a writer his book, an
+architect his house, or even a mechanic his machine. An interesting
+example of a musician constructing a thought-picture is given by
+Mozart himself:
+
+     "When I am all right and in good spirits, either in a
+     carriage or walking, and at night when I cannot sleep,
+     thoughts come streaming in and at their best. Whence and how
+     I know not, I cannot make out. The things which occur to me
+     I keep in my head, and hum them also to myself--at least
+     others have told me so. If I stick to it, there soon come,
+     one after another, useful crumbs for the pie, according to
+     counterpoint, harmony of the different instruments, &c. This
+     now inflames my soul, that is if I am not disturbed. Then it
+     keeps on growing, and I keep on expanding it more distinctly,
+     and the thing, however long it be, becomes indeed almost
+     finished in my head, so that I can always survey it in spirit
+     like a beautiful picture or a fine person, and also hear in
+     imagination, not indeed successively, as by and by it must
+     come out, but all together. That is a delight! All the
+     invention and construction go on in me as in a fine strong
+     dream, but the overhearing it all at once is still the best."
+
+With these illustrations before us may we not carry the analogy even
+further, and see that, as our conception of a Cat was made up of
+numberless small acquisitions of knowledge, some of which had to be
+discarded, or eliminated as errors, from our minds as our knowledge
+grew, and as each true fact became confirmed and impressed upon our
+brain it made itself a _permanent_ record and became a centre to be
+used for gaining further knowledge; so in this wonderful Thought of
+the Great Reality, whose mind may be said to be omnipresent, each
+individual soul is a working unit in the plan of Creation; each unit
+as it gains a knowledge of the Will of the Deity forms for itself a
+_personality_ helping forward the work towards its fulfilment;
+without that knowledge there can be no personality, no unit in the
+great completed thought, no life hereafter.
+
+The True Life is fulfilled by him who has progressed so far in the
+knowledge of the Divine as to realise that he is the offspring of the
+Absolute, and therefore stands face to face with his Transcendental
+Personality, his [Greek: Christos], of which the Physical Ego is only
+the outline or boundary form visible in the physical universe. Each
+individual has free will to define his own boundaries, his own
+limitations; he builds up the walls of the house in which he lives,
+and he has power to brick up or open out the windows through which he
+may see the Truth; happy are those whose windows are open, but many,
+alas, choose to make the wall opaque by confining their attention to
+the physical shadows, or by strangling their spiritual intuition and
+preventing all advance in thought by blind subservience to obsolete
+dogmas.
+
+We are instruments of Divine purpose in the scheme of Creation. Each
+individual Physical Ego seems to be a Micro-Cosmos, imaging the
+Universe, the Macro-Cosmos. As the phagocytes, the policemen of the
+blood, flock to a breach in the human body to overcome any invasion of
+the enemy, whether poisons or bacteria, which would otherwise detract
+from that progress of cell formation upon which the scheme of human
+life depends, so do the true lovers of the Divine meet, by active
+resistance, any attempt of the enemies of the Good, Beautiful and True
+to retard the advancement of the scheme of Creation to its ultimate
+goal of perfection. The human body is composed of innumerable cells
+and several special colonies of cells, which we call organs, each of
+which has its special work to do, and secretes and discharges special
+fluids necessary for the welfare of the whole body. All of these cells
+are alive, and myriads of them are moving on their own account,
+apparently quite independent of, and in complete ignorance of, the
+feeling and perception of the whole body; they are, however,
+microscopical units of that body, and its welfare depends upon their
+contribution of work; it is, in fact, only through their ceaseless
+activities that the life in that body is maintained--a phenomenon
+analogous to that described in the simile of a Forest Tree in View
+Four. So are we integral parts of the scheme of Creation, and each
+act, either in accordance with the Divine purpose or the reverse, is
+helping forward or retarding the completion of that Thought, though
+like the cells we are ignorant of the end which Creation has in view.
+
+In this life we seem indeed to be only, as it were, in embryo! The
+study of embryology has lately shown us clearly how the clothing of
+our Physical Ego has been formed, during the past millions of years,
+from the lowest forms of life. Each one of us has, during what may be
+called his lifetime, gone through all the different stages of
+evolutionary development which, since the beginning of life on this
+planet, have been employed to build up the human body in its present
+form. Embryology has shown us that, during gestation, each human
+embryo is a _replica_ of the past; it passes through the different
+Imago stages from protoplasm to man, being unrecognisable at certain
+stages from a monad, an amoeba, a fish with gills, a lizard, and a
+monkey with a tail and dense clothing of hair over the whole body. The
+human embryo has also, at an early stage, the thirteenth pair of ribs,
+which is found in lower animals and is still seen in a rudimentary
+form in anthropoid apes, but which disappears from the human embryo
+before birth. Each generation, under evolutionary development, will
+witness a further advancement in the clothing of the Physical Ego,
+until it may be conceived that a hundred thousand years hence our
+present stage of development will be seen only as one of the stages
+through which the embryo has to pass before birth at that distant
+time. May we not even glimpse at the future to which evolution is
+carrying us? For in any of these stages we see organs forming whose
+use only comes into play long after that stage has been passed; so
+also, in the new rudimentary forms of thought which are started by
+every fresh discovery may we not some day be able to descry the
+heights which we are destined to attain if we earnestly seek after
+Truth?
+
+Radio-Activity has shown us that all forms of matter are but different
+combinations of one primal brick; by synthesis thousands of new forms
+of matter, unknown in Nature, are actually now being built up in our
+laboratories, and the number of such combinations cannot conceivably
+be limited; so do we also see that all the known forms of energy in
+nature are interchangeable, one with another, with exactly known
+equivalents and ratios, pointing to their being only different
+combinations of one unit of energy. If such is the case, it would seem
+to follow that there are countless other forces of which we at present
+have no cognisance, but which may at any time come within our field of
+investigation.
+
+In our life here we are steadily progressing from the lower to the
+higher form of being, from the purely Physical towards the
+Transcendental, each generation starting from a higher level; the
+boundary line between the Physical and Transcendental is being
+continually advanced towards the latter, and it may well be, as I
+have already suggested in View IV, that we are even now on the eve of
+discovering a new force, or aspect of Creation, which will open a
+wider view and give us a clearer knowledge of the goal which we are
+destined to reach hereafter.
+
+Each generation will, according to the teaching of Embryology,
+gradually come into the world at a higher stage of development than
+its predecessors, until the last Physical Ego, at its birth, will
+coincide with the final stage of development, when there will be no
+more physical clothing, the disintegration of Matter being completed,
+and, it can be pictured that at the final consummation, there will be
+nothing imperfect, no shadow left, that all will be spiritual. The
+object of Creation would therefore appear to be the population of the
+Real Universe with spiritual entities, until the whole Spiritual
+Universe will be taken up by Transcendental Personalities, which will
+be one with the Reality, and the Great Thought completed.
+
+Once more let us recognise that we are dependent for knowledge of
+surroundings upon our perception of movements, and that as our
+conceptional knowledge is based on perceptional knowledge, our
+thoughts are limited by Time and Space and can only deal with finite
+subjects. From this arises all our difficulty of understanding the
+Infinite; we cannot under our present conditions know the whole
+Truth; if we could do that we should be able, as it were, to look all
+round the subject, and Infinity would then be seen to be a
+pseudo-conception of our finite thoughts. We can only think of one
+finite subject at a time, and, at that moment, all other subjects are
+cancelled; we can, in fact, only think in sequences, and, taking the
+particular Infinities of duration and extension which we have been
+examining, we can only think of points in Time and Space as existing
+beyond or before other fixed points, which again must be followed by
+other points. We cannot fix a point in Time or Space so as to exclude
+the thought of a point beyond; the idea of an Infinite is therefore a
+necessary result of the limitation of our thoughts. The whole Truth is
+there before us, but we can only examine it in a form of finite
+sequences. A book contains a complete story, but we can only know that
+story by taking each word in succession and insisting that one word
+comes in front of another, and yet the story is lying before us
+complete. So with Creation; we are forced to look upon it as a long
+line going back to past eternity, and another long line going on to
+future eternity, and, with our limitations, we can only think of all
+events therein as happening in sequence; but eliminate Time and we
+become Omniscient, the whole of Creation would be before us as an
+Instantaneous Thought of God.
+
+Accordingly under the dominion of Time we appear to be in a similar
+position to that of a being whose senses are limited to
+one-dimensional space--namely, to a line; we can only have cognisance
+of what is in front and behind, we have no knowledge of what is to the
+right or left, we appear to be limited to looking lengthwise in Time,
+whereas an Omniscient and Omnipresent Being looks at Time crosswise
+and sees it as a whole. A small light, when at rest, appears as a
+point of light, but when we apply quick motion, the product of Time
+and Space, to it, we get the appearance of a line of light, and this
+continuous line, formed by motion of a point, is, I think, analogous
+to the Physical Universe appearing to our finite senses as continuous
+in Time duration and Space extension, though really comprised in the
+Now and the Here, the whole of Creation being therefore an
+Instantaneous Thought.
+
+A consideration of our limitation in Space may also be useful to show
+how impossible it is for us to hope to see by our senses the Reality
+or by our thoughts to know the Spiritual. Our senses and thoughts are
+limited to a Space of three dimensions, and we can therefore only see
+or know that part of the Absolute which is or can be represented to
+us in three dimensions; a being whose senses were limited to a
+Universe of one dimension--namely, a _line_, could have no real
+knowledge of another being who was in a Universe of two
+dimensions--namely, a _flat surface_, except so far as the
+two-dimensional being could be represented within his line of
+sensation; so also the two-dimensional being, on a _plane_, could have
+no true knowledge of a being like ourselves in a Universe of three
+dimensions. To his thoughts, limited within two dimensions, a being
+like ourselves would be unthinkable, except so far as our nature could
+be made manifest on his plane; so can it be seen that we, limited by
+our finite senses to Time and Space, and our consciousness dependent
+upon that limited basis of thought, can only know that aspect of the
+Reality which can be manifested within that range of thought--namely,
+as Motion, or what we call physical phenomena.
+
+Let me attempt just one more view before we part, which may make this
+conception of Creation, as an Instantaneous Thought, even clearer to
+our finite senses. Imagine a Spectator endowed with the same sense of
+vision that we have--namely, limited to six units of perception per
+second, but able to look on, as it were, from outside the Universe,
+without himself being affected by any alteration that takes place in
+what may be called the flow of time. Consider some of the changes he
+would witness if Time were gradually eliminated from phenomena. The
+inhabitants, who at first were seen walking by slow, successive steps,
+would soon be seen gliding from place to place, the movement of their
+legs having passed beyond the sense of vision; the next stage would
+see the inhabitants unrecognisable as human beings when walking,
+although they would still be visible if they stood still, they would
+be moving too fast for sight, they would be seen only as lines or
+bands extended between their points of departure and destination; then
+day and night would be following each other so quickly that soon the
+day would only be a flicker of light, till, when the week became equal
+to one second of the Spectator's time, day and night would disappear
+as separate phenomena; then the week, the month, and the year would in
+turn flicker, solidify, or become continuous, and disappear with all
+the multitudinous events contained therein; human life would then be
+affected, would flicker, and follow the same course; to the Spectator
+the birth of each individual would become coincident with his death,
+and Nations would be seen to rise and progress towards their
+destination without any evidence of individual existence; the Human
+Race itself would next succumb, then the whole of planetary life,
+then the formation and destruction of Solar Systems, then the
+gathering together and dissemination of firmaments, and, finally, the
+beginning and end of the very Universe would coincide. Motion, or
+Physical phenomena, and therefore Matter, would vanish, and the Great
+instantaneous Thought be complete. We seem to have been able to
+glimpse from our Watch Tower, though through a glass darkly, the whole
+Truth, and to see that the Infinity of Time is a figment of our finite
+senses and is comprised in the Now. The same treatment, followed by
+the same result, may be applied to the Infinity of Space, and we again
+see that all Space is comprised in the Here; it is only by the
+conditions of our existence in this physical universe, _insisting_ on
+our analysing everything in Time and Space that Motion or Change
+become the very basis of our Consciousness.
+
+We have seen that the Idea of Infinity is a necessary result of our
+finite senses, that the only Reality is the Spiritual, the Here and
+the Now; that the Riddle of the Universe is not to be solved by the
+_Intellect_ but by that method which is employed by those who are
+earnestly following the "Quest of the Grail"--namely, by realising
+that our True Personality or Transcendental Ego is an emanation from
+the Absolute; that we are one-with Him, and that it is by following
+the old Hellenic command "[Greek: Gnôthi seauton]" (Know
+thyself)--namely, by _Introspection_, that we can hope to attain to
+the understanding of what is the Reality of Being.
+
+
+FINIS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+   Page 27: Braces } on multiple lines represent one large brace
+   encompassing those lines.
+
+   Page 53: Huios or Hyios. The Rule doesn't seem to address the
+   possibility of upsilon coming first in a diphthong: upsilon iota
+   is not common, but "Hui" looks more plausible than "Hyi".
+
+   Page 176: The word amoeba had an oe ligature in the original book.
+
+   Page 184: Typo Gnôthe changed to Gnôthi.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE***
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Science and the Infinite, by Sydney T. Klein</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Science and the Infinite</p>
+<p>       or Through a Window in the Blank Wall</p>
+<p>Author: Sydney T. Klein</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 29, 2008  [eBook #25931]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by David Clarke, Diane Monico,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="figcenter" style="width: 455px;">
+<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="455" height="500" alt="&quot;THE MYSTERY OF THE APEX&quot;
+View No. 3" title="&quot;THE MYSTERY OF THE APEX&quot;
+View No. 3" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;THE MYSTERY OF THE APEX&quot;<br />
+<span class="smcap">View No. 3</span></span>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>SCIENCE<br />
+
+AND THE INFINITE</h1>
+
+<h4>OR</h4>
+
+<h2>THROUGH A WINDOW IN THE<br />
+BLANK WALL<br /><br /></h2>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2>SYDNEY T. KLEIN<br /><br /></h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><i>SECOND IMPRESSION</i><br /><br /></h4>
+
+<h3>LONDON</h3>
+
+<h3>WILLIAM RIDER &amp; SON, LIMITED</h3>
+
+<h4>CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.</h4>
+
+<h3>1917</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="center"><i>First Published November</i> 1912</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Reprinted September</i> 1917</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h5>TO</h5>
+
+<h4>THE RIGHT HON.</h4>
+
+<h3>ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>In venturing to prepare this little volume for
+the eyes of the reading public, I am fully
+aware of the difficulties of the subject and
+the inadequacy of the expressions I have been
+able to employ, but I have made the attempt
+at the request of those who have found consolation
+in some of the thoughts herein
+embodied; and the messages left by others
+before they passed away, embolden me to
+hope that many others may find in this
+volume some points of interest which will
+help them to appreciate better the "joys"
+which this life has for those who know how
+to look for them, and that perhaps others may
+even gain a clearer conception of that which
+awaits us beyond the Veil.</p>
+
+<p>Many of us allow ourselves to be overwhelmed
+by the small worries and vexations
+of everyday life, clothing them with a reality
+quite disproportionate to their importance;
+we are too apt to look at them, as it were,
+through a powerful microscope, piling power
+upon power of magnification, until we have
+made mountains out of mole-hills, whereas if
+we treated them at their true value we should
+look at them through a telescope, in the reverse
+direction, when they would appear not
+only trivial, but would be seen to be too
+remote to have any material effect on our
+lives.</p>
+
+<p>The sub-title of this volume, and indeed its
+inception, arose from my lately coming in contact
+with one of those establishments which
+are doing for humanity what a mother's arms
+do for the child who is "sick unto death"&mdash;a
+beautiful home with cheerful rooms and
+cheerful nurses, where patients are tenderly
+cared for after severe operations, carried
+through by our most famous surgeons, some
+cases, alas, almost hopeless from the first. At
+the head of this establishment was one of those
+kindly self-abnegating personalities, whose
+loving sympathy and encouragement have
+comforted the dying and smoothed the path
+for many a weary pilgrim passing from this
+life to the next. With immense responsibilities
+on her shoulders, and after a day full
+of strenuous work, the head of this establishment
+would often sit through the night for
+hours by the couch of those whose lives could
+not possibly be prolonged for more than a few
+days. It was a few simple answers elicited
+by the questions brought to me from those
+poor sufferers, and the way such answers
+seemed to calm anxieties connected with the
+fear of death and to render the impenetrable
+Veil more transparent, which suggested the
+title, "Through a Window in the Blank Wall."</p>
+
+<p>I do not wish to lay claim to having made
+any startling discovery; similar thoughts,
+especially those concerning the non-reality of
+Time and Space, have no doubt occurred to
+others, but the whole problem "What is the
+Reality?" has been insistently pressing on me
+ever since I can remember, and I have tried
+to give here in simple colloquial language,
+without any attempt at rhetoric, the conclusions
+I have personally come to as to what is
+the Truth.</p>
+
+<p>The study of ancient and modern philosophic
+theories is useful as showing how impossible
+it is, for even the greatest thinkers
+of any age, to grasp the Absolute with our
+understanding or to measure the Infinite
+with our finite units. The propounders of
+all these theories seem to me to be, without
+exception, looking in the wrong direction for
+the "Reality of Being"; they are all arguing
+from the standpoint of "Intellectualism" in a
+similar manner to that of the "Theologians"
+referred to in View Three. Our latest expositor
+of this, M. Henri Bergson, bases his
+theory upon "Life" being the Reality; this
+he postulates is a "flowing" in Time, and
+<i>Movement</i> therefore becomes for him the
+Reality; and yet we know that Motion is but
+the product of Time and Space, and these are
+only the two modes or <i>limitations</i> under which
+our senses act and upon which our very
+consciousness of living depends. Surely the
+Absolute cannot be localised, must be Omnipresent,
+and therefore independent of Space&mdash;cannot
+have a beginning or end, must be
+Omniscient, and therefore independent of
+Time; these two unrealities can therefore
+have no existence in "Reality of Being." If,
+then, there is any truth in "Intuition," we
+have, in this theory, the Reality, "Life," not
+only limited by the unreal but actually dependent
+for its very existence upon those limitations!
+In these Views I have attempted, on the
+contrary, to show that Time and Space have no
+existence apart from our Physical Senses;
+they are the modes only under which we
+appreciate motion, or what we call physical
+phenomena, and as our conceptional knowledge
+is based upon our perceptional knowledge,
+our very consciousness of living is
+limited by Time and Space, and we must
+surely therefore look behind consciousness
+itself, beyond the conditioning in Time and
+Space for the Reality of Being, otherwise
+<i>physical motion</i>, the product of these two
+limitations, would become the Reality of
+Being.</p>
+
+<p>I have also suggested reasons for looking
+upon physical life as a mode of frequency, akin
+to Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Chemical
+Action, the Vibration of a Tuning Fork, or
+the Swing of a Pendulum, and therefore a
+transient phenomenon having to do only
+with the Race; Life can under these conditions
+only be looked upon as a reality in the
+same sense in which all other forms of energy
+or matter appear real to our finite senses&mdash;namely,
+as the shadows or manifestations of
+the Absolute on our limited plane of Consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>However strongly I may be convinced&mdash;as I
+am&mdash;of the truth of my arguments, and however
+sure I may be that many others will not
+only agree with my conclusions, but will see
+that in "Introspection" rather than in "Intellectualism"
+lies the key to the Mystery, I do
+not wish to appear dogmatic in any of the
+suggestions contained in this volume; I am
+stating my own convictions, but at the same
+time I fully recognise that the presentation
+of the Absolute, with its infinite variety of
+aspects, must necessarily be different to every
+individual; we are all of the same genus, but
+each individual Ego is, as it were, a different
+species, and I do not therefore expect that my
+attempt to solve the Riddle of the Universe
+will appeal to all alike. It is, however, a true
+saying that "there is something to be learnt
+from every human being," and if I have by
+these suggestions succeeded in augmenting
+the number of those who have already started
+on the true "Quest," and have helped, however
+imperfectly, to enrich some lives with
+the "joy" of knowing their oneness with the
+All-loving, my aim has indeed been attained.</p>
+
+<p class="author">SYDNEY T. KLEIN.</p>
+
+<p class="datesig">"Hatherlow," Reigate<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">1<i>st June</i> 1912.<br /></span>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="2" summary="toc">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW ONE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Clearing the Approach</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW TWO</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Vision</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW THREE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mysticism and Symbolism</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW FOUR</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Love in Action</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW FIVE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Physical Film</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW SIX</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Space</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW SEVEN</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Time</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'>VIEW EIGHT</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Creation</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h1>SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE</h1>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><a name="VIEW_ONE" id="VIEW_ONE"></a>VIEW ONE</h3>
+
+<h2>CLEARING THE APPROACH</h2>
+
+
+<p>The proof that the Human Race is still in its
+infancy may be seen in the fact that we still
+require Symbolism to help us to maintain and
+carry forward abstract thought to higher
+levels, even as children require picture books
+for that purpose. The Glamour of Symbolism,
+Rapture of Music, and Ideal of Art, which come
+to us in later years, had their beginnings when
+to the child every blade of grass was a fairy
+tale and a grass plot a marvellous fairy forest.
+The great aspiration of the Human Race is to
+gain a knowledge of the Reality, the Noumenon
+behind the phenomenon; but the fact that from
+infancy we have been accustomed to confine
+our attention wholly to the objective, believing
+that to be the reality, has surrounded us with
+a concrete boundary wall through which we
+can only at times, with difficulty, get transient
+glimpses of that which is beyond. It is only in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+recent years that we have been able to realise
+that it is the Invisible which is the Real, that
+the visible is only its shadow or its manifestation
+in the Physical Universe, and that Time
+and Space have no existence apart from our
+physical senses, in short, that they are only
+the modes or limits under which those senses
+act or receive their impressions and by which
+they are necessarily rendered finite.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulty is that our physical senses
+only perceive the surface of our surroundings,
+and that we have hitherto been looking at the
+Woof of Nature as though it were the glass
+of a window covered with patterns, smudges,
+flies, &amp;c., comprising all that we call physical
+phenomena and which, when analysed in terms
+of Time and Space, produce the appearance of
+succession and motion. It requires a keener
+perception, unbounded by these limitations, to
+look through the glass at the Reality which
+is beyond. I propose then in a series of short
+views, through a window not hitherto unshuttered
+and in a direction which I believe
+has not before been attempted, to lead those
+of my readers who have the necessary aspiration,
+patience, and, above all, strenuous persistence,
+to a watch-tower, situated well above
+the mists and illusions of our ordinary everyday
+thoughts, whence they will find it possible
+to get a glimpse of a strange new country,
+and where those who have by practice once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+attained to its clear perception, will be able to
+continue the study by themselves and thus get
+further insight into that wonderful region of
+Thought which I have called "True Occultism"&mdash;the
+knowledge of the Invisible which
+is the Real in place of the Visible which is
+only its shadow.</p>
+
+<p>Let us first try and understand the conditions
+under which phenomena are presented
+to us. In our perception of sight, we find the
+greater the light, the greater the shadow; a
+light placed over a table throws a shadow on
+the floor, though not sufficient to prevent our
+seeing the pattern of the carpet; increase the
+light and the shadow appears now so dark
+that no pattern or carpet can be seen; not that
+there is now less light under the table but the
+light above has to our sense of sight created
+or made manifest a greater darkness. Thus,
+throughout the Universe, as interpreted by
+our Physical Ego, we find phenomena ranging
+themselves under the form of positive and
+negative, the apparently Real and the Unreal.<br />
+The Good making manifest its negative Evil.<br />
+The Beautiful&nbsp;&nbsp; "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;      "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     Ugly.<br />
+The True&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;      "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     False.<br />
+Knowledge&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;      "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     Ignorance.<br />
+Light&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;      "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     Darkness.<br />
+Heat&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;    "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;      "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;     Cold.<br />
+But the negatives have no real existence. As
+in the case of light we see that the shadow is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+only the absence of light, so the negative of
+Goodness, <i>i.e.</i> Evil, may in reality be looked
+upon as folly or wasting of opportunity for
+exercising the Good. Owing to their limitations
+our thoughts are based upon <i>relativity</i>,
+and it is hardly thinkable that we could, under
+our present conditions, have any cognisance
+of the positive without its negative; we shall
+in fact see later on that it is by examining
+the Physical, the negative or shadow, that we
+can best gain a knowledge of the Spiritual,
+the positive or real.</p>
+
+<p>The first step to a clear understanding of
+this, is to recognise that it is not we who are
+looking out upon Nature but that it is the
+Reality which is ever trying to enter and
+come into touch with us through our senses,
+and is persistently trying to waken within us
+a knowledge of the sublimest truths. It is
+difficult to realise this, as from infancy we
+have been accustomed to confine our attention
+wholly to the objective, believing that to
+be the reality.</p>
+
+<p>Let us try and grasp this fact. If we
+analyse our sense of sight, we find that the
+only impression made on our bodies by external
+objects is the image formed upon the
+retina; we have no cognisance of the separate
+electro-magnetic rills forming that image,
+which, reflected from all parts of an object,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+fall upon the eye at different angles, constituting
+form, and with different frequencies
+giving colour to that image; that image is
+only formed when we turn our eyes in the
+right direction to allow those rills to enter;
+and, whereas those rills are incessantly beating
+on the outside of our sense organ when
+the eyelid is closed, they can make no impression
+unless we allow them to enter by
+raising that shutter. It is not then any
+volition from within that goes out to seize
+upon and grasp the truths from Nature, but
+the phenomena are as it were forcing their
+way into our consciousness. This is more
+difficult to realise when the object is near to
+us, as we are apt to confound it with our
+sense of touch, which requires us to stretch
+out our hand to the object, but it is clearer
+when we take an object far away. In our
+telescopes we catch the rills of light which
+started from a star a thousand years ago and
+the image is still formed on the retina <i>now</i>
+although those rills are in fact a thousand
+years old and, invisible to our unaided eye,
+have been falling upon mankind from the
+beginning of life on this globe, trying to get
+an entrance to consciousness. It was, however,
+only when, by evolution of thought, the
+knowledge of optics had produced the telescope
+that it became possible not only for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+that star to make itself known to us but to
+declare to us its distance, its size, and conditions
+of existence, and even the different
+elemental substances of which it was composed
+a thousand years ago. Yet, when we
+now allow its image to form on the retina,
+our consciousness insists on fixing its attention
+upon that star as an outside object, refusing
+to allow that it is only an image inside the
+eye and making it difficult to realise that that
+star may have disappeared and had no existence
+for the past 999 years, although in ordinary
+parlance we are looking at and seeing
+it there now.</p>
+
+<p>I have referred above to the sense of touch;
+it is, I think, clear that the first impression a
+child can have of sight must take the form
+of feeling the image on its retina, as though
+the object were actually inside the head, and
+it could have no idea that it was outside
+until, by touching with the hand, it would
+gradually learn by experience that the tangible
+outside object corresponded with the image
+located in the head; this is fully borne out by
+the testimony of men who, born blind, have,
+by an operation, received their sight late in
+life; in each case their first experience of
+seeing gave the impression that the object
+was touching the eye, and they were quite
+unable to recognise by sight an object such
+as a cup or plate or a round ball which they had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+commonly handled and knew perfectly well
+by touch; in fact, the idea of an object formed
+by the sense of touch is so absolutely different
+to that formed by the sense of sight that it
+would be impossible without past experience
+to conclude that the two sensations referred
+to one and the same object. The image formed
+on the retina has nothing in common with
+the sense of hardness, coldness, and weight
+experienced by touch, the only impression on
+the retina being that of colour or shade, and
+an outline; it is, however, hardly conceivable
+that even the outline of form would be recognised
+by the eye until touch had proved
+that form comprised also solidity and that
+the two ideas had certain motions in common
+both in duration in Time and extension in
+Space.</p>
+
+<p>Again, our senses of sight and hearing are
+alike based on the appreciation of frequencies
+of different rapidity; brightness and colour
+in light are equivalent to loudness and pitch
+in sound, but in sound we have no equivalent
+to perception of form or situation in space;
+it gives us no knowledge of the existence of
+objects when situated at great distances, nor
+can movements be followed even at short distances
+without having material contact, by
+means of the air, with the object; sight indeed
+appears to have to do with Space- and sound
+with Time-perception. In examining Nature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+by means of our senses we find we are so
+hemmed in by what we have always taken
+for granted and so bound down by modes
+of reasoning derived from what we have seen,
+heard, or felt in our daily life, that we are
+sadly hampered in our search after the truth.
+It is difficult to sweep the erroneous concepts
+aside and make a fresh start. In fact the
+great difficulty in studying the Reality underlying
+Nature is analogous to our inability to
+isolate and study the different sounds themselves
+which fall upon the ear, if our own
+language is being uttered, without being
+forced to consider the meaning we have
+always attached to those sounds.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now go back to the contention that
+it is not we who are looking out upon Nature
+but that our senses are being bombarded from
+without; we are living in a world of continuous
+and multitudinous changes, and as
+our senses require change or motion for their
+excitation, without those changes we could
+have no cognisance of our surroundings, we
+should have no consciousness of living; but
+if we base our thought entirely on sense perception,
+taking for granted that Time and
+Space have reality instead of recognising that
+they are only modes or limits under which
+those senses act, the Wall will ever remain
+opaque to us. Let us try and make this
+clearer. If we analyse the impression we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+receive from Motion, we find it is made up
+of the product of our two limitations, it is
+the time that an object takes to go over a
+certain space. We must come therefore to the
+conclusion also that Motion itself has no existence
+in reality apart from our senses. The
+result of not being able to appreciate this, is
+that the finiteness of our sense, caused by its
+dependence on Motion for excitation, surrounds
+us with illusions; one of these illusions is what
+we call solidity or continuity of sensation. If
+you hold a cannon-ball in your hand, perception
+by the sense of touch tells you that it is
+continuous, or what is called solid and hard;
+but it is not so in reality except as a concept
+limited by our finite senses. A fair analogy
+would be to liken it to a swarm of bees, for
+we know that it is composed of an immense
+number of independent atoms or molecules
+which are darting about, and circling round
+each other at an enormous speed but never
+touching; they are also pulsating at a definite
+enormous rate; we can at will increase their
+motion by heat or reduce by cold; if our touch
+perception were sensitive enough we should
+feel those motions and should not have the
+sensation of a solid. We have a similar case
+of limitation in our other senses, which we
+shall grasp better in another View through our
+Window. We can hear beats only up to fifteen
+in a second, beyond that number they give the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+sensation of a musical or continuous sound.
+In our sense of sight we can see pulsations
+or intermittent flashes up to only six in a
+second, beyond that number they give the
+sensation of a continuous light; a gas jet,
+if extinguished and relit six times in a second,
+can be seen to flicker, but beyond that rate
+is to our sense of sight a steady flame. The
+effect may also be shown by making the
+top of a match red-hot; when stationary or
+moving slowly, it is a point of light, but,
+moved quickly, it becomes a continuous line
+of light.</p>
+
+<p>Even apart from our senses we find Motion
+giving the characteristics of solidity: a wheel
+with only a few spokes, if rotated quickly
+enough, becomes quite impermeable to any
+substance, however small, thrown at it; a thin
+jet of water only half an inch in diameter, if
+discharged at great pressure equivalent to a
+column of water of 500 metres, cannot be
+cut even with an axe, it resists as though it
+were made of the hardest steel; a thin cord,
+hanging from a vertical axis, and being revolved
+very quickly, becomes rigid, and if
+struck with a hammer it resists and resounds
+like a rod of wood; a thin chain and even a
+loop of string, if revolved at great speed
+over a vertical pulley, becomes rigid and, if
+allowed to escape from the pulley, will run
+along the ground as a hoop.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now with regard to this limit of time
+perception, which gives us the phenomenon
+of Solidity, I have lately been able to devise
+an arrangement which, acting as a microscope
+for Time, gives the sensation of an
+increase in sight perception up to several
+thousand units per second; it is based on
+the fact that though the eye can only see
+six times per second it can see for the one-millionth
+part of a second. An example of
+this is the well-known experiment of seeing
+a bullet in its flight; the bullet makes electrical
+connection resulting in a spark which
+illuminates the bullet when opposite the eye.
+The electrical spark exists only for the millionth
+of a second, and as the bullet in that
+time has no perceptible movement it is seen
+standing absolutely still with all marks upon
+it quite visible to the eye. When Sight perception
+is increased up to the rate at which
+time may be said to flow for any particular
+object we apparently get into the reality, the
+permanent <i>now</i> where motion ceases to exist
+as a sensation. A tuning-fork, kept vibrating,
+by means of an electro-magnet, at 2000
+times per second, may to our sense of sight
+be gradually slowed down and, optically,
+brought absolutely to a standstill, for as long
+as desired, and the smallest irregularity of
+its surface may be minutely examined,
+though it continues to be heard and felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+vibrating at that enormous rate. I have
+made several experiments in this direction,
+and some very curious facts connected with
+the sensation of Motion are brought to
+light by means of this increase in perceptive
+power. If the sense of sight is increased to
+125 units per second, motion at the rate of
+one inch per second is barely visible; taking
+the common house-fly, whose wings vibrate
+about 400 times per second, its units of perception
+would appear to be about two-thirds
+of those beats, as I found it had no cognisance
+of Motion below two inches per second;
+you can put your finger on any fly provided
+you do not approach it faster than the above
+rate, it turns its head up to look at your
+finger but can see no motion in it; if you
+approach at over three inches per second it
+will always fly away before you are within a
+foot. I found that a dragon-fly, whose wings
+vibrate about 200 times per second, had only
+half the number of unit perceptions of the
+fly and could apparently see motion at about
+one inch per second but not under. In the converse
+of the above we have then the principle
+of a Microscope for Time, somewhat similar
+to the Microscope for Space of our laboratories.
+If our perception were increased
+sufficiently we could slow down any motion
+for examination, however rapid; there would
+be no difficulty in following a lightning flash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+or even arresting its visible motion for purposes
+of investigation without interfering
+with the natural sequence of cause and
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>If, on the other hand, our perception were
+decreased below six times per second, all
+motion would be accelerated, until with perception
+reduced to one unit in twenty-four
+hours the sun would appear only as a band
+across the sky, and we could not follow its
+motion any more than, as we have seen, we
+could follow the point of a red-hot match. If
+perception were reduced far enough, plants and
+trees would grow up visibly before our eyes.
+But we must leave this subject now, as this
+and the Time Microscope will be treated in a
+later View.</p>
+
+<p>Let us try and appreciate the fact that,
+under our present conditions, our conceptions
+of the immense and minute&mdash;namely, extension
+in Space, and that of quick and slow or
+duration in Time&mdash;are purely relative, and
+that from this arise those pseudo-conceptions
+which we call the infinitely extended and the
+infinitely lasting. Under our present limitations
+it is impossible for us to grasp the whole
+of any Truth, if we could do that, there would
+be no such mystery of Infinity to puzzle us;
+we could, as it were, see all around it, but
+that is again looking through another window.
+We are now considering <i>relativity</i>. If we cut off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+the very end of the point of the finest needle,
+we get so minute a particle of steel that it is
+hardly visible to the naked eye, and yet we
+know that that small speck contains not only
+millions but millions of millions of what are
+called atoms, all in intense motion and never
+touching each other. Try and conceive how
+small each of these atoms must be, and then
+try and grasp the fact, only lately proved by
+the discovery of Radio-activity, that each of
+these atoms is a great family made up of
+bodies analogous to the planets of our solar
+system and whose rate of motion is comparable
+only to that of Light. This is not theory,
+it is fact clearly demonstrated to us by the
+study of Radio-activity. Curiously enough,
+we know more about these bodies than we do
+of the atom itself; we actually know their size
+and weight and the speed with which they
+move. We do not yet know what is at the
+centre of this system, but we do know that
+each of these bodies is as far away from the
+centre as our planet is from the sun (93,000,000
+miles), and as far from its neighbours as our
+planet is, <i>relatively to its size</i>. And now, for the
+purpose of grasping this subject of relativity,
+I want you to ask yourself whether it is conceivable
+that a world, so small as those bodies
+are, could possibly be inhabited by sentient
+beings. Leaving you to form your own conclusion
+upon this point, I will ask you to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+follow me down another path leading to the
+elucidation of the same subject.</p>
+
+<p>If at this moment we and all our surroundings
+were reduced to half their size and everything
+were moving twice as quickly, we should
+absolutely have no cognisance of any change,
+neither could we possibly note any difference
+if everything were reduced to a hundredth
+part of the original size and were going a
+hundred times quicker; and even when reduced
+a thousand or a million times, or to such
+minuteness that the whole of our solar system
+with its revolving planets became no larger
+than one of those atoms in the needle point,
+and the whole of the starry universe therefore
+reduced to the size of the needle point, its
+millions of suns coinciding with the millions
+of planetary systems in that steel particle&mdash;our
+earth would still revolve round the sun,
+though no larger than one of those minute
+planetary particles and travelling at the rate
+of light, but we should still have no knowledge
+of any change, in fact, our life would go
+on as usual, though it was difficult a few
+minutes ago to think it conceivable that so
+small a globe could be inhabited by sentient
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>Once more let us consider that the change
+is made in the direction of expansion in space
+and slowing down of Time; let all our surroundings
+be so enormously increased that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+each of the atoms in the steel point became
+as large as our solar system and the steel
+point as large as the visible universe, each
+atom therefore taking the place of a star, and
+motion being reduced in proportion; it is still
+absolutely inconceivable that we could know
+of any change having taken place, though the
+length of our needle, which was at first, say,
+one inch, would now be so great that light,
+travelling 186,000 miles per second, would take
+500,000 years to traverse its length, and the
+stature of each one of us would be so great
+that light would require over 36,000,000 years
+to travel from head to foot, and that 36,000,000
+years would have to be multiplied 163,000,000
+times, making 5860 millions of millions of
+years to represent the time that an ordinary
+<i>sneeze</i> would take under such conditions. And
+yet we have only gone towards the infinitely
+great exactly as far as we at first went towards
+the infinitely small, and it is still absolutely
+inconceivable that we could be conscious
+of any change, our everyday life would go on
+as usual, we should be quite oblivious to the
+fact that every second of time, with all its
+incidents and thoughts, had been lengthened
+to 5860 millions of millions of years. Do we
+not now begin to grasp the fact that immensity
+and minuteness in extension, and motion
+in duration, are figments only of our finite
+minds, that Time and Space have no objective<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+reality apart from our physical senses, that
+they are only the modes under which we receive
+impressions of our surroundings? With
+perfect perception we should know that the
+only Reality is the Spiritual, the Here comprising
+all Space and the Now all Time.</p>
+
+<p>One more look through the window before
+we part, and we may see what I consider the
+greatest miracle in our everyday life: The
+Inner-self of each one of us, being part of the
+Reality or Spiritual, is independent of Space
+limitations and must therefore be <i>Omnipresent</i>,
+is independent of Time and therefore
+<i>Omniscient</i>. This inevitable deduction will be
+explained more fully in another View.</p>
+
+<p>It is from this store of knowledge that
+our Physical Ego is ever trying to win fresh
+forms of thought, and, in response to our
+persistent endeavours, that Inner-self, from
+time to time, buds out a new thought; the
+Physical Ego has already prepared the clothing
+with which that bud must be clad before
+it can come into conscious thought, because, as
+Max M&uuml;ller has shown us, we have to form
+words before we can think; so does the
+Physical Ego clothe that ethereal thought in
+physical language, and by means of its organ
+of speech it sends that thought forth into the
+air in the form of hundreds of thousands of
+vibrations of different shapes and sizes, some
+large, some small, some quick, some slow,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+travelling in all directions and filling the surrounding
+space; there is nothing in those
+vibrations but physical movement, but each
+separate movement is an integral part or
+thread of that clothing. Another Physical
+Ego receives these multitudinous vibrations
+by means of its sense organ, weaves them
+together into the same physical garment, and
+actually becomes possessed of that ethereal
+thought&mdash;an unexplained marvel, and probably
+the most wonderful occurrence in our
+daily existence, especially as it often enables
+the second Physical Ego to gain fresh knowledge
+from its own Real Personality. Now,
+in connection with this, consider the fact,
+already emphasized, that it is not we who are
+looking out upon Nature, but that it is the
+Reality which is ever trying to make itself
+known to us by bombarding our sense organs
+with the particular physical impulses to which
+those organs can respond, and, if we aspire
+to gain a knowledge of what is behind the
+physical, it is clear that all our endeavours
+must be towards weaving these impulses into
+garments and then learning from them the
+sublime Truths which the Reality is ever
+trying to divulge to us.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="VIEW_TWO" id="VIEW_TWO"></a>VIEW TWO</h3>
+
+<h2>THE VISION</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven,"
+is in true consonance with the old philosophic
+dictum that "Everything in heaven must have
+its counterpart on earth"; in other words, the
+Reality has all Its multitudinous manifestations,
+every noumenon its phenomenon, in
+the physical universe. If we now examine
+those traits of our surroundings which affect
+us most, and best help us to reach the highest
+level of abstract thought of which our nature
+is capable, we find that it is the recognition
+of the Beauty (comprising also the Good and
+the True) in everything, which constitutes the
+power held over our minds by what we may
+call the Glamour of Symbolism, the Rapture
+of Music, and the Ideal of Art. But this influence
+is still only <i>sensuous</i>, it does not carry
+us beyond the extension of that Wonderment
+and Enchantment which had their birth with
+our first visit to Fairyland. This is, I think,
+evident, as Beauty is not the Reality; it is
+only what may be called the sensuous expression
+of the Reality or Spiritual on the physical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+plane. Although we have no words to express,
+nor indeed minds to grasp, the wonders and
+glories of that which is behind the Veil, it is
+possible for some of us to get a glimpse of
+it through our Window, and to those the following
+pages may be helpful, but to others
+the Wall will remain blank; and, here at the
+commencement, I should like to warn those
+who have not been through a certain experience,
+to which I shall refer, that no words
+of mine will open the Window for them;
+at the same time it is probable that many
+of my readers, who think at this stage that
+they have no knowledge of the subject of
+this View, will, as we proceed, recognise in
+the view through the Window something they
+have experienced more than once in their
+lifetime, and to these I address myself.</p>
+
+<p>Let us first try to understand what we
+know concerning ourselves. The longer one
+lives and the more one studies the mystery
+of "Being," the more one is forced to the
+conclusion that in every Human Being there
+are two Personalities, call them what you
+like&mdash;"the <i>Real</i> and its Image," "the <i>Spiritual</i>
+and its Material Shadow," or "the <i>Transcendental</i>
+and its Physical Ego." The former in
+each of these duads is, as referred to in our first
+View, not conditioned in Time and Space, is
+independent of Extension and Duration, and
+must therefore be Omnipresent and Omniscient,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+whereas the latter, being subservient
+to Time and Space, can only think in finite
+words, requires succession of ideas to accumulate
+knowledge, is dependent on perception
+of movements for forming concepts of its
+surroundings, and, without this perception,
+it would have no knowledge of existence.</p>
+
+<p>Let us go back into the far distant past,
+before the frame and brain of what we now
+call the genus Homo was fully developed: he
+was then an animal pure and simple, conscious
+of living but knowing neither good nor evil;
+there was nothing in his thoughts more perfect
+than himself; it was the golden age of innocency;
+he was a being enjoying himself in a
+perfect state of nature with absolute freedom
+from responsibility of action. But, as ages
+rolled on, under the great law of evolution, his
+brain was enlarging and gradually being prepared
+for a great and wonderful event, which
+was to make an enormous change in his mode
+of living and his outlook on the future. As
+seeds may fall continually for thousands of
+years upon hard rock without being able to
+germinate, until gradually, by the disintegration
+of the rock, soil is formed, enabling the
+seed at last to take root; so for countless ages
+was the mind of that noble animal being
+prepared until, in the fulfilment of time, the
+Spiritual took root and he became a living
+soul. The change was marvellous; he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+now aware of something higher and more perfect
+than himself, he found that he was able
+to form ideals above his ability to attain to,
+resulting in a sense of inferiority, akin to a
+"Fall"; he was conscious of the difference of
+Right and Wrong, and felt happy and blessed
+when he followed the Good, but ashamed and
+accursed when he chose the Evil; he became
+upright in stature, and able to communicate
+his thoughts and wishes to his fellows by
+means of language; and by feeling his freedom
+to choose between the Good, Beautiful,
+and True on one hand, and the Evil, Ugly,
+and False on the other, he became aware
+that he was responsible and answerable to
+a mysterious higher Being for his actions.
+This at once raised him far above other
+animals, and he gradually began to feel the
+presence within him of a wonderful power,
+the nucleus of that Transcendental Self which
+had taken root, and which, from that age to
+this, has urged Man ever forward first to
+form, and then struggle to attain, higher
+Ideals of Perfection. As a mountaineer who,
+with stern persistence, struggles upward from
+height to height, gaining at each step a clearer
+and broader view, so do we, as we progress
+in our struggle upwards, toward the understanding
+of Perfection, ever see more and more
+clearly that the Invisible is the Real, that the
+visible is only its shadow, that our Spiritual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+Personality is akin to that Great Reality,
+that we cannot search out and know that
+Personality; it is not an idea, it cannot be
+perceived by our senses, any more than we
+can see a sound by our sense of sight or
+measure an Infinity by our finite units; all
+we can so far do is to feel and mark its
+effect in guiding our Physical Ego to choose
+the real from the shadow, the plus from
+the minus, receiving back in some marvellous
+mode of reflex action the power to draw
+further nourishment from the Infinite. As
+that Inner Personality becomes more and
+more firmly established, higher ideals and
+knowledge of the Reality bud out, and, as
+these require the clothing of finite expressions
+before they can become part of our
+consciousness, so are they clothed by our
+Physical Ego and become forms of thought;
+and, although the Physical Ego is only the
+shadow or image, projected on the physical
+screen, of the Real Personality, we are able,
+by examining these emanations and marking
+their affinity to the Good, the Beautiful,
+and the True, to attain at times to more than
+transient glimpses of the loveliness of that
+which is behind the veil. As in a river flowing
+down to the sea, a small eddy, however
+small, once started with power to increase,
+may, if it continues in midstream, instead of
+getting entangled with the weeds and pebbles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+near the bank, gather to itself so large a
+volume of water, that, when it reaches the
+sea, it has become a great independent force;
+so is each of us endowed, as we come into this
+life, with a spark of the Great Reality, with
+potential force to draw from the Infinite in
+proportion to our conscientious endeavours to
+keep ourselves free from the deadening effects
+of mundane frivolities and enticements, turning
+our faces ever towards the light rather
+than to the shadow, until our personality
+becomes a permanent entity, commanding an
+individual existence when the physical clothing
+of this life is worn out, and for us all
+shadows disappear.</p>
+
+<p>If man became a conscious being on some
+such analogous lines as indicated, it is clear
+that he is, as it were, the offspring of two
+distinct natures, and subject to two widely
+separated influences; the Spiritual ever urging
+him towards improvement in the direction
+of the Real or Perfect, and the Physical or
+Animal instincts inviting him in the opposite
+direction. These latter instincts are not wrong
+in themselves, in a purely animal nature, but
+are made manifest as urging him in the direction
+of the shadow or Imperfect when they
+come in contact, and therefore in competition,
+with the Spiritual. Neither the Spiritual nor
+the Physical can be said to possess Free-will;
+they must work in opposite directions, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+this competition for influence over our actions
+provides the basis for the exercise of man's
+Free-will&mdash;the choice between progression and
+stagnation. The Spiritual influence must conquer
+in the long run, as every step under that
+influence is a step towards the Real and can
+never be lost; the apparent steps in the other
+direction are only negative or retarding, and
+can have no real existence, except as a drag
+on the wheel which is always moving in the
+direction of Perfection, thus hindering the
+process of growth of the Personality.</p>
+
+<p>The stages in development of the Physical
+Ego and its final absorption in the Transcendental
+may perhaps be stated as follows&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The Physical Ego loquitur:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I become aware of being surrounded by
+phenomena, I will to see&mdash;I perceive and
+wonder what is the meaning of everything&mdash;I
+begin to think&mdash;I reflect by combining
+former experiences&mdash;I am conscious that I
+am, and that I am free to choose between
+Right and Wrong, but that I am responsible
+for my actions to a Higher Power; that what
+I call 'I am' is itself only the shadow, or
+in some incomprehensible sense the breathing
+organ, of a wonderful divine Afflatus
+or Power which is growing up within, or in
+intimate connection with me, and which itself
+is akin to the Reality. Owing to my senses
+being finite I cannot with my utmost thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+form a direct concept of that power, although I
+feel that it comprises all that is good and real in
+me, and is in fact my true personality; I am
+conscious of it ever urging me forward towards
+the Good, Beautiful, and True, and that each
+step I take in that direction (especially when
+taken in opposition to the dictates of physical
+instincts) results in a further growth of that
+Transcendental Self. With that growth I
+recognise that it is steadily gaining power
+over my thoughts and aspirations. I learn
+that the whole physical Universe is a manifestation
+of the Will of the Spiritual, that
+every phenomenon is as it were a sublime
+thought, that it should be my greatest individual
+aspiration to try to interpret those
+thoughts, or when, as it seems at present, our
+stage in the evolution of thought is not far
+enough advanced, I should during my short
+term of life do my best to help forward the
+knowledge of the Good, Beautiful, and True
+for those who come after. As I grow old the
+Real Ego in me seems to be taking my place,
+the central activity of my life is being shifted,
+as I feel I am growing in some way independent
+of earthly desires and aspirations, and, when
+the term of my temporary sojourn here draws
+to a close, I feel myself slackening my hold
+of the physical until at last I leave go entirely,
+and my physical clothing, having fulfilled its
+use, drops off and passes away, carrying with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+it all limitations of Time and Space. I awake
+as from a dream to find my true heritage in
+the Spiritual Universe."</p></div>
+
+<p>If we try to form a conception of the stages
+of growth of the Transcendental Self it would,
+I think, be somewhat as follows:</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="love">
+<tr><td align='left'>The first consciousness of the Spiritual entity would be....</td><td align='left'>I know that Love is the Summum Bonum.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>As it became nourished it would be....</td> <td align='left'>I love.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Then....</td><td align='left'>I love with my whole being.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Then....</td><td align='left'>I know that I am part of God and God is Love.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>And lastly....</td><td align='left'>I am perfected in Loving and Knowing.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>And the above is the best description I have
+been able to formulate of the development
+of the Mystical Sense by means of which
+we can get a view of the Reality through
+our Window. I will try to give my own
+experience of this, which will, I know, wake
+an echo in other hearts, as I have met
+those who have felt the same. From a
+child I always had an intense feeling that
+Love was the one thing above all worth
+having in life, and, as I grew older and became
+aware that my real self was akin to the
+Great Spirit, at certain times of elation or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+what might be called a kind of ecstasy, I had
+an overpowering sense of longing for union
+with the Reality, an intense love and craving
+to become one with the All-loving. When
+analysed later in life this was recognised as
+similar in kind, though different in degree,
+to the feeling which, when in the country,
+surrounded by charming scenery, wild flowers,
+the depths of a forest glade, or even the gentle
+splash of a mountain stream, makes one
+always want to open one's arms wide to embrace
+and hold fast the beautiful in Nature,
+as though one's Physical Ego, wooed by the
+Beautiful which is the sensuous (not sensual)
+expression of the Spiritual, longed to become
+one with the Physical, as the Personality or
+Transcendental Ego craves to become one
+with the Reality. It is the same intense feeling
+which makes a lover, looking into the eyes
+of his beloved, long to become united in the
+perfection of loving and knowing, to be one
+with that being in whom he has discovered a
+likeness akin to the highest ideal of which he
+himself is capable of forming a conception.</p>
+
+<p>As in heaven, so on earth the Physical Ego,
+though only a shadow, has in its sphere the
+same fundamental characteristic craving as
+the Transcendental Personality has for that
+which is akin to it, and it is this wonderful
+love that, as the old adage says, makes the
+world go round. It is the most powerful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+incentive on earth, and is implanted in our
+natures for the good and furtherance of the
+race; it is, in fact, the manifestation on the
+material plane of that craving of the Inner
+self for union with, and being perfected in
+loving and knowing, that Infinite Love of
+which it is itself the likeness. If we can
+realise that everything on the physical plane
+is a shadow, symbol, or manifestation of that
+which is in the Transcendental, the Mystical
+Sense, through contemplating these as symbols,
+enables us at certain times, alas! too
+seldom and fleeting in character, to get beyond
+the Physical; but those of my readers
+who have been <i>there</i> will know how impossible
+it is to describe, in direct words, which
+would carry any meaning, either the path
+by which the experience is gained or a true
+account of the experience itself. I will try,
+however, and I think I may be able to lead
+my readers, by indirect inductive suggestion,
+to a view of even these difficult subjects,
+by using the knowledge we have
+already gained in our first view through
+this Window. If an artist were required to
+draw a representation of the Omniscient
+Transcendental Self, budding out new forms
+of thought in response to the conscientious
+efforts of, and the providing of suitable clothing
+by, the Physical Ego, as referred to in
+View No. 1, he would be obliged to make use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+of symbolic forms, and I want to make it
+quite clear that the description I am attempting
+must necessarily be clothed in symbolic
+language and reasoning, and must not be
+taken as in any way the key by which the
+door of "the sanctuary" may be opened; it is
+only possible by it to help the mind to grasp
+the fact that there is a Window through which
+such things may be seen, the rest depends
+upon the personality of the seer.</p>
+
+<p>Now bear in mind that it is not we who are
+looking out upon Nature, but that it is the
+Reality, which, by means of the physical, is persistently
+striving to enter into our consciousness,
+to tell us what? &#920;&#949;&#959;&#962; &#945;&#947;&#945;&#960;&#951; &#949;&#963;&#964;&#953;&#957; (God is
+Love). As in Thompson's suggestive poem,
+"The Hound of Heaven"&mdash;the Hidden which
+desires to be found&mdash;the Reality is ever hunting
+us, and will never leave us till He has taught
+us to know and therefore to love Him, and, as
+seen in our first view, the first step is to try
+to see through the woof of nature to the
+Reality beyond. To this may also be added
+the attempt to hear the "silence" beyond the
+audible. Try now to look upon the whole
+"visible" as a background comprising landscape,
+sea, and sky&mdash;we shall get help in this
+direction in a later View&mdash;and then bring that
+background nearer and nearer to your consciousness.
+It requires practice, but it can be
+done; it may help you if you remember the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+fact that the whole of that visible scene is
+actually depicted on the <i>surface</i> of your retina
+and <i>has no other existence for you</i>. The nearer
+you can get the background to approach, the
+more clearly you can see that the whole
+physical world of our senses is but a thin veil,
+a mere soap film, which at death is pricked and
+parts asunder, leaving us in the presence of the
+Reality underlying all phenomena. The same
+may be accomplished with the "audible,"
+which is indeed part of the same physical
+film, though this is not at first easy to recognise.
+As pointed out in View No. 1, there is
+little in common between our sense of sight
+and hearing; but the chirp of birds, the hum
+of bees, the rustle of wind in the leaves,
+the ripple of a stream, the distant sound of
+sheep bells, and lowing of cattle form a background
+of sound which may be coaxed to
+approach you; the only knowledge you have
+of such sounds is their impression or image on
+the flat tympanum of your ear; they have <i>no
+other existence for you</i>; and again you may
+recognise that the physical is but a thin transient
+film. With the approach of the physical
+film all material sensation becomes as it were
+blurred, as near objects become when the eye
+looks at the horizon, and gradually escapes
+from consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>I have tried in the foregoing to suggest a
+method by which our Window may be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>unshuttered;
+it has necessarily been only an
+oblique view and clothed in symbolic phraseology,
+but those who have been able to grasp
+its meaning will now have attained to what
+may be called a state of <i>self-forgetting</i>, the
+silencing or quieting down of the Physical
+Ego; sight and sound perceptions have been
+put in the background of consciousness, and it
+becomes possible to worship or love the very
+essence of beauty without the distraction of
+sense analysis and synthesis or temptation to
+form intellectual conceptions.</p>
+
+<p>We are now prepared to attempt the last
+aspect of our view&mdash;namely, the description
+of what is experienced when the physical
+mists have been evaporated by the Mystical
+Sense. Again we find that no direct description
+is possible, language is absolutely
+inadequate to describe the unspeakable, communications
+have to be physically transmitted
+in words to which finite physical meanings
+have been allocated. The still small voice
+which may at times of Rapture be momentarily
+experienced in Music, is something much
+more wonderful than can be formed by sounds,
+and this perhaps comes nearest to the expression
+necessary for depicting the vision of
+the soul; but it cannot be held or described, it
+is quickly drowned by the physical sense of
+audition. As the Glamour of Symbolism can
+only be transmitted to one who has passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+the portal of Symbolic Thought, the Rapture
+of Music can only be truly understood by one
+who has already experienced it, and the Ideal
+of Art requires a true artistic temperament to
+comprehend it, so it is, I believe, impossible
+to describe, with any chance of success, this
+wonderful experience to any but those whom
+Mr. A. C. Benson, in his <i>Secret of the Thread
+of Gold</i>, very aptly describes as having already
+entered "the Shrine." Those who have been
+<i>there</i> will know that it is not at all equivalent
+to a vision, it is not anything which can be
+seen or heard or felt by touch; it is entirely
+independent of the physical senses; it is not
+Giving or Receiving, it is not even a receiving
+of some new knowledge from the Reality; it
+has nothing to do with thought or intellectual
+gymnastics; all such are seen to be but mist.
+The nearest description I can formulate is:&mdash;A
+wondrous feeling of perfect peace;&mdash;absolute
+rest from physical interference;&mdash;perfect contentment;&mdash;the
+sense of Being-one-with-the-Reality,
+carrying with it a knowledge that
+the Reality or Spiritual is nearer to us and
+has much more to do with us than the
+Physical has, if we could only see the truth
+and recognise its presence;&mdash;that there is no
+real death;&mdash;no finiteness and yet no Infinity;&mdash;that
+the Great Spirit cannot be localised or
+said to be anywhere, but that everywhere is
+God;&mdash;that the whole of what we call<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+Creation is an instantaneous Thought of the
+Reality;&mdash;that it is only by the process of
+analysing in Time and Space that we imagine
+there is such a thing as succession of events;&mdash;that
+the only Reality is the <i>Spiritual</i>, the
+<i>Here</i> embracing all Space and the <i>Now</i> embracing
+all Time.</p>
+
+<p>How few of us who are now drawing
+towards the end of our sojourn here, have
+not, at certain times during our lives, experienced
+something akin to what I have
+tried to put before you in the above! Does
+not a particular scent, a beautiful country
+scene, a phrase in music, the beauty or pathos
+in a picture, symbolic sculpture in a grand
+cathedral, or even a chance word spoken in
+our hearing, every now and then waken in
+our innermost consciousness an enchanting
+memory of some wonderful happy moment
+of the past when the sun seemed to have been
+shining more brightly, the birds singing more
+merrily, when everything in nature seemed
+more alive, and our very beings seemed
+wrapped up in an intense love of our surroundings?
+On those occasions we were not
+far from seeing behind the veil, though we
+did not recognise it at the time; but when we
+now look back, with experience gained by
+advancing years, and consider those visions
+of the past, we cannot help seeing that the
+physical film was to our eyes more transparent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+at those times, and the very joy of their remembrance
+seems to be giving us a prescience
+of that which we shall experience, when for
+each one of us the physical film is pricked and
+passes away like a scroll.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="VIEW_THREE" id="VIEW_THREE"></a>VIEW THREE</h3>
+
+<h2>MYSTICISM AND SYMBOLISM</h2>
+
+
+<p>"Who can doubt that the Mystics know more
+than the Theologians, and that the Poets know
+more than the Scientists? for this inner apprehension
+is surely the highest and truest kind
+of Knowledge." Such were the words written
+to me lately by a clergyman of great learning
+and of unimpeachable orthodoxy, whose
+mature knowledge of the Higher Mysteries
+has been gained by a life-long study of the
+Divine. In View No. 1 we saw that the first
+step towards opening our Window, was to
+grasp the fact that it is not we who are <i>looking
+out</i> upon Nature, but that it is the Reality
+which is ever trying to enter and to <i>come into</i>
+touch with us, through our senses, and is persistently
+trying to wake within us a knowledge
+of the sublimest truths: but this has
+not yet been appreciated by the Theologian;
+he is looking <i>outwards</i> instead of <i>inwards</i>,
+and asks the question, based on <i>intellectual</i>
+conception, in the form "Can I find out the
+Absolute so that I may possess Him?" and
+the answer ever comes back, "<i>No</i>, because I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+am trying to storm the <i>Sanctuary</i> of the Unthinkable,
+the Infinite, by means of a Ladder
+which cannot reach beyond our finite conceptions,
+and can deal therefore only with the
+shadows, cast by the outlying ramparts, upon
+our physical plane." An example of this is
+surely seen in the lecture lately delivered by
+the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Gore) to the University
+of Oxford (13th February 1912, reported
+in the <i>Guardian</i> of 16th February),
+when he made the statement that the greatest
+difficulty we have is to recognise that the
+Absolute is a God of Love. His exact words
+were: "I believe that there are a great many
+of us who know, perhaps from bitter experience,
+that whatever difficulties there are about
+religious belief are difficulties about believing
+in a God of Love; whatever is our experience,
+and however sunny is our disposition, any
+steady thinking will make it apparent that
+thought, apart from the Christian revelation,
+presumed and accepted, or reflected unconsciously,
+has never got at it, and even after it
+has been in the world, thought is continually
+finding it hard to retain the idea of God the
+Creator, or the truth that God is Love, partly
+owing to the limitations of human thinking,
+partly, and even more, owing to the experience
+of man and of nature."</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand the Mystic, with <i>introspection</i>,
+asks the question in the form "Can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+the Absolute find me out and possess me and
+thus make me feel that that which is within
+me is akin to, is, in fact, a part of Him and
+that I am possessed thereby?" and the answer
+ever comes back from those who are on the
+true Quest:&mdash;"<i>Yes</i>; because the Unthinkable,
+the Hidden which desires to be found, is
+ever trying to come into our Consciousness to
+waken the knowledge that His <i>Sanctuary</i>, or
+what is called the Kingdom of Heaven, is
+within us, that we are not an external but an
+internal creation of the All-loving." Such a
+realisation is, as pointed out in "The Vision,"
+far above Analysis and Synthesis or Intellectual
+gymnastics, which can deal only with
+the finite and are seen to be but Mist. How
+many valuable thoughts are wrecked and lost
+from our inability to formulate and describe
+them intellectually, even in our own consciousness.
+We are too apt to lay the blame upon,
+and to doubt, the Truth of those conceptions,
+because we are unable to find words to express
+them; the very act of attempting to analyse
+such thoughts in Time and Space destroys our
+power of carrying them to higher levels.
+Those who have once realised that the knowledge
+of the Absolute is the true Divine Life
+within us, can, as we have seen, at certain
+times and under certain conditions, experience
+that wonderful joy of perception by
+means of what I have called the Eye of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+Soul; but that is missed by those who are
+always asking questions, and arguing, about
+what that knowledge consists in; the command
+"Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be
+opened unto you, ask and it shall be given
+you," was not meant for the intellect but for
+the Heart, not for logical controversy but for
+inward discernment, not for physical enjoyment
+but for the nourishment of the Transcendental
+Ego. All things <i>may</i> be possible
+to him that believeth, but how much more is
+this true of him who, as referred to in View
+No. 2, is perfected in "Loving and Knowing."
+The nearer we get to that consciousness of
+Being-one-with-the-Reality, the more we
+see and can meditate upon the wonderful
+"joy" which permeates all creation; but
+without that consciousness it is invisible, and
+the world is dark and evil and unloving, and
+to many, alas! appears more the handiwork
+of a Devil than of a God of Love.</p>
+
+<p>Mysticism is not, as the man in the street
+generally thinks, the study of the "Mysterious,"
+but is the attempt to gain a knowledge
+of the Reality, the ultimate Truth in everything,
+especially the perception of that wonderful
+Transcendental Power which is growing
+up within, or in close connection with, each
+one of us. The study of the Physical Sciences,
+as also of the various forms of Religion
+around us, is useful and fascinating in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+domain of "Intellectualism," but does not
+take us far towards the goal of our aspirations.
+I shall, however, attempt to show, in
+my next View, that by examining the phenomena
+of Nature and realising that they are
+symbols only of the Noumenon, the Reality,
+which is behind them, it is possible to reach a
+point where we may even feel that we are
+thinking, or having divulged to us, what may
+be called the very thoughts of the Absolute.
+We shall see that this can only be accomplished
+by first recognising that the Invisible is the
+Real, that the visible is only its shadow,
+that all our surroundings are but the images,
+or outlines, of the Reality cast on the Physical
+plane of our Senses; to accomplish this, we
+have to understand the use of <i>Symbolic</i>
+Thought for sustaining and carrying conceptions
+to a higher level; because, as
+already explained, we can only express and,
+indeed, think of the Invisible or Infinite
+under terms of the Visible or Finite. Let me
+give you a glimpse at what may be called
+the "Glamour of Symbolism"; it is difficult to
+explain to those who have not yet thought of
+or felt it, but the following may be helpful:</p>
+
+<p>Think of the loveliest story or poem you
+have ever read, the most entrancing music you
+have ever heard, or the most beautiful paintings
+you have ever seen, and think how, at
+the end, you experienced a wonderful glow of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+enchantment with the concept as a whole, apart
+from specialising any particular character or
+event in the story, phrase in the music, or subject
+in the pictures; then do the same with one
+of those wonderful cathedrals of the twelfth to
+fourteenth centuries, the epoch of that beautiful
+Gothic style which I shall show was
+founded upon the highest mystical form of
+Symbolism possible to those who lived at the
+then zenith of Mystical Thought in the history
+of the world. The number of cathedrals built
+during those three centuries was so prodigious
+that, without the documentary evidence which
+we have, it would be absolutely incredible.
+Every part of those buildings, even to the
+smallest decorations, was, as shown by any of
+the old writers on Religious Symbolism, such as
+Durandus, planned to symbolise some beautiful
+thought, aspiration, tradition, or religious
+belief. The highest Thinkers, Artists, Poets,
+Philosophers, and Mystics in those centuries
+became Architects, and, in pure contemplation
+of and love for the Divine, helped to beautify
+design by giving up their lives and energies
+to the work without reward. It was, in fact,
+at that period the surest means by which
+they could record their ideals and aspirations.
+Before the advent of the printing press, with
+its facilities for spreading knowledge broadcast,
+they appreciated that Tectonic Art and
+Iconography were the means by which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+could best permanently record and teach their
+aspirations to the masses. Every beautiful
+thought found its expression in some symbol
+of artistic design. Each Cathedral was, in fact,
+a beautiful complete <i>story</i>, and, when this has
+been fully grasped, the enchantment of the
+whole, the thread of gold running through
+the whole of that wonderful pile, is what may
+be called the Glamour of Symbolism.</p>
+
+<p>For the last 400 years, Arch&aelig;ologists, Architects,
+and others interested in the history of
+Tectonic art, have been trying without avail
+to discover what is called "the lost secret of
+Gothic Architecture"; even Sir Christopher
+Wren had a try and expressed his opinion
+that it was lost for ever. They were all looking
+in the wrong direction, confining themselves
+to the mists of physical intellectual
+perception, and could not get beyond that
+limited range of thought. I propose now, in
+illustration of this View, to show what this
+secret was. It has the making of a fascinating
+Romance; it is the most wonderful example
+of what I will call "the Evolution of Thought
+as depicted by Human strivings after the
+Transcendental in Medi&aelig;val Mysticism." I
+shall give it in a brief form, touching only on
+those essential points which require a very
+slight knowledge of Geometry, but those
+interested in the subject may refer to <i>Ars
+Quatuor Coronatorum</i> (vol. xxiii., 1910), where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+I have given the whole subject, <i>in extenso</i>,
+under the title "Magister Mathesios."</p>
+
+<p>To understand the subject it is necessary
+to recognise fully the place Geometry held, not
+only among Medi&aelig;val Builders, but also in
+Classical times; it was recognised in those
+early times as the head of all the Sciences,
+and was the A, B, C of Hellenic Philosophy.
+Come back with me 2300 years, to the time
+when the "Greek Age of Reason" was at its
+zenith, and Plato, the greatest of the philosophers,
+was teaching at Athens, working
+thus, let it be known to his honour, solely
+for the love he bore to science, for he always
+taught gratuitously. What qualification was
+required of those who attended his Academy?
+Look up over the porch, and you will see written
+in large capitals these words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+&#924;&#919;&#916;&#917;&#921;&#931; &#913;&#915;&#917;&#937;&#924;&#917;&#932;&#929;&#919;&#932;&#927;&#931; &#917;&#921;&#931;&#921;&#932;&#937; &#924;&#927;&#933; &#932;&#919;&#925; &#931;&#932;&#917;&#915;&#919;&#925;.
+</p>
+
+<p>"Let no one who is ignorant of Geometry
+enter my doors."</p></div>
+
+<p>At the root of Socratic teaching was the
+idea that wisdom is the attribute of the Godhead,
+and Plato, for twenty years the companion
+and most favoured pupil of Socrates,
+was imbued with that doctrine, and, having
+arrived at the conclusion that the impulse
+to find out <span class="smcap">truth</span> was the necessity of intellectual
+man, he saw in Geometry the keystone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+of all Knowledge, because, among all
+other channels of thought, it alone was the
+exponent of absolute and undeniable truth.
+He tells us that "Geometry rightly treated
+is the Knowledge of the Eternal"; and
+Plutarch gives us yet another instance of
+Plato's teaching concerning this subject, in
+which he looks upon God as the Great Architect,
+when he says, "Plato says that God is
+always geometrising." Holding, therefore, as
+Plato did, that God was a great Geometer,
+and that the aim of philosophy was the acquisition
+of a knowledge of the Eternal, it
+is natural that he should make a knowledge
+of Geometry imperative on those wishing to
+study philosophy. This was continued also
+by those philosophers who succeeded Plato
+in the management of the Academy, as we
+are told that Zenocrates turned away an
+applicant for admission, who knew no geometry,
+with the words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&#960;&#959;&#961;&#949;&#965;&#959;&#965;, &#955;&#945;&#946;&#945;&#962; &#947;&#945;&#961; &#959;&#965;&#954; &#949;&#967;&#949;&#953;&#962; &#964;&#951;&#962; &#966;&#953;&#955;&#959;&#963;&#959;&#966;&#953;&#945;&#962;.
+</p>
+
+<p>"Depart, for thou hast not the <i>grip</i> of
+philosophy."</p></div>
+
+<p>In connection with the idea that God was
+a Geometer, must be taken the contention
+held by the Egyptians, and after them the
+Greeks and Arabs, that the Right-Angled
+Triangle symbolised the nature of the Universe;
+it was called the law of the three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+squares, because in every Right-Angled Triangle,
+as expounded by the Pythagorean
+Theorem, the squares, formed on the two
+sides containing the Right Angle, must together
+be exactly equal to the square on
+the third side, whatever the shape of the
+triangle may be. The Right Angle at an
+early date gave its name to the odd numbers,
+which were called, by the Greeks, gnomonic
+numbers, as personifying the male
+sex, and the Right-Angled Triangle was also
+called the Nuptial Figure, or Marriage, the
+Pythagorean Theorem receiving the name,
+&#964;&#959; &#952;&#949;&#969;&#961;&#951;&#956;&#945;
+&#964;&#951;&#962; &#957;&#965;&#956;&#966;&#951;&#962;
+(the Theorem of the Bride).
+Plutarch, in his <i>Osiris and Isis</i>, tells us in
+explanation of this, "The Egyptians imagined
+the nature of the Universe like this most
+beautiful triangle, as Plato also seems to
+have done in his work on the <i>State</i>, when
+he sketches the picture of Matrimony under
+the form of a Right-Angled Triangle. That
+triangle contains one of the perpendiculars
+of three, the base of four, and the hypotenuse
+of five parts, the square of which is equal to
+the squares of those sides containing the right
+angle. The perpendicular (three) is the Male,
+Osiris, the originating principle (&#945;&#961;&#967;&#7969;); the base
+(four) is the Female, Isis, the receptive principle
+(&#8017;&#960;&#959;&#948;&#959;&#967;&#951;); and the Hypotenuse (five) is
+the offspring of both, Horus, the product
+(&#945;&#960;&#959;&#964;&#7953;&#955;&#949;&#963;&#956;&#945;)." The central feature of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+triangle, upon which its property is based, is
+the Right Angle. The Greeks gave to this
+Right Angle the name of <i>Gnomon</i> (meaning
+Knowledge), and it has ever since been, under
+the form of a carpenter's "square," the emblem
+or symbol of an Architect, the Master Mason,
+as personifying the Great Architect of the
+Universe&mdash;namely, He who has the knowledge
+of Geometry; and, as the Right-Angled
+Triangle represented the Universe, it was
+upon the <i>perfection</i> of this Gnomon, or knowledge,
+that the very existence of the Universe
+depended, because the law of the three
+squares only holds good when that angle is
+perfect.</p>
+
+<p>The Secret handed down in the Craft,
+from Architect to Architect, was how to
+form a perfect right angle, or, as it was
+called, the "Square," without possibility of
+Error, and this I have called "the Knowledge
+of the Square." Vitruvius, who, at the
+beginning of our Era, wrote his thesis on
+Tectonic art, which is still the text-book of
+Architecture for Ancient buildings, says Pythagoras
+taught his followers to form a gnomon,
+or square, as follows: "Take three rods, of
+three lengths, four lengths, and five lengths
+long; with these form a triangle, and, if each
+rod be squared, you have 9, 16, and 25, and
+the areas of the two former will be equal to
+the latter."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now let us come to the closing years of
+the tenth century. What a strange condition
+of the building craft was to be seen all over
+Europe; not a church was being built, nor
+had been built, for the last twenty years; the
+thousand years after Christ was drawing to
+its close, everybody was waiting for, and expecting,
+the world to come to an end; no new
+undertakings were begun. How much money
+went into the hands of the Monasteries and
+other Religious Houses, as peace offerings for
+the future welfare of the givers, nobody can
+say; it was probably enormous. When, however,
+the eleventh century was well started
+and the crisis was over, churches were built
+on a large scale, as shown by the numerous
+remains we have of Norman buildings of the
+last half eleventh century, and building was
+probably at its height about <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1140 to 1150;
+but at this period an extraordinary thing
+happened. Hitherto the arches in the Norman
+style were round-headed and their columns
+enormously thick to carry them; but suddenly
+the style changed into the beautiful
+Gothic all over Europe. No single country
+can claim precedence, it was almost simultaneous;
+churches half finished in the round
+style were not only completed in the pointed,
+but had parts already built altered to the new
+style. What, then, determined this sudden
+change, resulting in a wonderful accession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+beauty to Architectural design? We must
+go to the Monasteries and Religious Houses
+to find the explanation. These Houses had
+become the Patrons of Masonry, the providers
+of the funds for building Cathedrals, &amp;c.; it
+naturally followed that, growing up alongside
+the Operative Science, there was a Religious
+symbolism being gradually formed which
+attached itself specially to the tools used by
+Masons, and thus formed the basis of Moral
+teaching&mdash;"to act on the Square," "to keep
+within the bounds of the Compasses," "to
+be Level in all your dealings," &amp;c., &amp;c. A
+wonderful, new, and Mystical form of Symbolism
+was opened to them with the advent
+of Geometry. The text-book of Geometry was
+unknown throughout the whole of Europe,
+omitting Spain, from the sixth to the beginning
+of the twelfth century; it was, as I have
+pointed out, well known in Greece before our
+Era, and continued to be so up to about the
+sixth century <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> In the fourth century lived
+the Greek, Theon of Alexandria, so well known
+for his edition of Euclid's Elements, with notes,
+from which all Greek MSS. which first came
+to light in the sixteenth century were taken,
+being entitled &#949;&#954; &#964;&#969;&#957; &#920;&#949;&#969;&#957;&#959;&#962; &#963;&#965;&#957;&#959;&#965;&#963;&#953;&#969;&#957;, "from
+Theon's Lectures," and which he probably used
+as a text-book in his classes; but these MSS. had
+all been lost before the seventh century, and
+were not recovered again until the sixteenth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
+century, when Simon Gryn&aelig;us, the greatest
+Greek scholar on the Continent, and companion
+of Melancthon and Luther, discovered
+a copy in Constantinople. Meanwhile, Theon's
+edition had been translated into Arabic, and
+thus preserved by the Mohammedans, and it
+was only at the beginning of the twelfth century
+that Athelard of Bath, who had been
+travelling in the East, came to study at Cordova,
+in Spain, and there found the Arabic
+MSS. of Euclid; these he translated into Latin,
+and this translation must have come into the
+hands of the patrons of the building craft at
+the very time when the Gothic style had its
+origin; it was the only Latin translation known
+in Europe, and was, some centuries later, the
+text-book of the first printed edition of Euclid.</p>
+
+<p>The Operative Masons had always formed
+their Right-Angled Triangles by means of
+mundane measures of 3, 4, and 5 units to each
+side respectively, as was done by the Harpedonapt&aelig;
+of Egypt 5000 years ago, and 2500
+years later by Pythagoras, and this same
+method continues to be used to this day; but
+to those of a religious turn of mind, who had
+only lately become conversant with Euclid,
+and looked upon Geometry not only as the
+height of all learning, but, as they progressed
+in the knowledge of its bearing on the Science
+of building, actually made it synonymous
+with Tectonic Art (the old MSS. which have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+come down to us from that time <i>invariably</i>
+state that "at the head of all the Sciences
+stands <i>Geometry which is Masonry</i>"), there
+must have come a wave of wonderful enthusiasm
+when they first discovered that
+the Geometrical way of creating a Right
+Angle, as given in Euclid I. ii., was by means
+of an Equilateral Triangle, by joining the
+Apex with the centre of the base. This
+Equilateral Triangle was the earliest symbol
+we know of the Divine <i>Logos</i> in connection
+with that wonderful figure the Vesica Piscis;
+and as the Bible declared that the Universe
+was created by the Logos (the Word), so the
+Square which represented the Universe was
+naturally created by means of the Equilateral
+Triangle. A great mystery this must
+have appeared to those who, like the Hellenic
+philosophers, postulated that everything on
+Earth has its counterpart in Heaven, and
+who, in their religious mysticism, were always
+looking for signs of the transcendental in their
+temporal surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>But in what awe and reverence must they
+have held Geometry, when they further found
+that the Equilateral Triangle, representing
+the Logos, was itself generated, as shown
+in the <i>first</i> Problem of Euclid, upon which
+the whole Science of Geometry was therefore
+based, by the intersection of two Circles!
+These two Circles were held by the Greeks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+at the beginning of our Era, to represent the
+Past and Future Eternities generating the
+Logos; but the whole figure (Euclid I. i.) was
+at the time we are now dealing with looked
+upon by Medi&aelig;val Architects as representing
+the Three Divine <i>person&aelig;</i>, and that part, or
+<i>cavity</i>, of the figure which is bounded by the
+Arcs of the two circles, and which takes to
+itself one-third of each of the two generating
+circles (making its perifera exactly equal with
+that remaining to each of the two circles, all
+three therefore being <i>co-equal</i>), and in which
+the Equilateral Triangle is formed (<i>vide</i> frontispiece),
+was naturally held by the Medi&aelig;val
+Architects, and indeed from earliest times, as
+the most sacred Christian Emblem&mdash;namely,
+that of <i>Regeneration</i> or "New Birth."</p>
+
+<p>The Cavity is evidently referred to in the
+Mystical Gospel of St. John (iii. 16), in the
+question by and answer to Nicodemus, and it
+was the eye of the needle referred to in St.
+Mark x. 25, in answer to the question in verse
+17, and again in St. Luke xviii. 25. In later
+ages this symbol was extensively used by the
+Christian Church to surround the "Soul of
+a Saint" after death (illustrated in <i>Magister
+Mathesios</i>). The date of the birth of a Saint
+was always given as the date on which he or
+she died and had been born again in the
+Spiritual Life, and the Saint was depicted in
+a Vesica Piscis, the vulva of the <i>Ruach</i> or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+Holy Spirit, representing this new birth. To
+show the extraordinary reverence and high
+value attached to this symbol, it is only necessary
+to remember that, from the fourth century,
+when Theon of Alexandria lectured on
+Geometry, and onwards, all Seals of Colleges,
+Abbeys, Monasteries, and other religious communities,
+as well as of ecclesiastical persons,
+have been made invariably of this form, and
+they continue to be made so to this day. It
+was also in allusion to this most sacred ancient
+emblem that Tertullian, and other early
+Fathers, spoke of Christians as "Pisciculi."
+It was called the "Vesica Piscis" (Fish's
+Bladder), and named, no doubt, by the Greeks
+at the beginning of our Era, for the purpose
+of misleading the ignorant from the true
+meaning of the Figure.</p>
+
+<p>One can well understand the object which
+led the learned Rabbi Maimonides, the greatest
+savant of the Middle Ages, when addressing
+his pupils in the twelfth century, to
+command his hearers: "When you have discovered
+the meaning thereof, do not divulge
+it, because the people cannot philosophise nor
+understand that to the Infinite there is no
+such thing as Sex;" but later on the noted
+writer on Symbolism, Durandus, in the introduction
+to his book, is more explicit, and gives
+the real meaning as follows: "The Mystical
+Vesica Piscis ... wherein the Divinity and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+more rarely, the Blessed Virgin are represented,
+has no reference, except in name, to
+a fish, but represents the Almond, the symbol
+of Virginity and self-production."</p>
+
+<p>The Vesica Piscis, and its name, is intimately
+connected with the discovery, by Augustus
+C&aelig;sar in the century preceding our Era, as
+narrated by Baronius, of a prophecy in one
+of the Sibylline books, foretelling "a great
+event coming to pass in the birth of One who
+should prove to be the true 'King of Kings,'
+and Augustus C&aelig;sar therefore dedicated an
+altar in his palace to this unknown God."
+Eusebius and St. Augustine inform us that
+the first letter of each line of the verses from
+the Erythrean Sibyl containing this prophecy,
+formed the word &#921;&#935;&#920;&#933;&#931; (a fish), and were
+taken as representing the sentence: &#921;&#951;&#963;&#959;&#965;&#962; &#935;&#961;&#953;&#963;&#964;&#959;&#962; &#920;&#949;&#959;&#965; &#933;&#7985;&#959;&#962; &#931;&#969;&#964;&#951;&#961; ("Jesus Christ, the
+Son of God, the Saviour"). Based upon this
+discovery arose that extraordinary enthusiasm,
+during the second, third, and fourth
+centuries, for hunting up further prophecies
+in Pagan sources, resulting in a great
+number of Sibylline verses being invented,
+giving the minutest details in the Life of
+our Lord. These fabrications seem to have
+been at that time generally accepted by the
+masses as true prophecies, though we know
+now that they were written some centuries
+after the events they were supposed to foretell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Let us now return to the Vesica Piscis.
+In the paintings and sculptures of the Middle
+Ages, we find it constantly used to circumscribe
+the figure of the Saviour, especially
+whenever He is represented as judging the
+world and in His glorified state. Many beautiful
+examples of this in Anglo-Saxon work of
+the tenth century may be seen in King Edgar's
+Book of Grants to Winchester Cathedral and
+the famous Breviary of St. Ethelwolfe. Numerous
+illustrations of these and other pictures
+of the Middle Ages, as also diagrams of the
+properties of the Vesica Piscis, can be seen
+in the volume I have already referred to dealing
+fully with this subject.</p>
+
+<p>The building fraternity was a purely Christian
+community; the First Crusade raised
+a great enthusiasm for building Christian
+Churches, and brought in large gifts of money
+for that purpose. Up to 1140 Norman Architecture
+held sway, having the "Square" for
+its unit, its greatest symbol being the <i>Gnomon</i>,
+representing knowledge; but about that time,
+as we have seen, arose from the study of Geometry,
+the head of all learning, a Mystical
+form having the mysterious figure of the
+Vesica Piscis, the true Gothic Arch, with
+the Equilateral Triangle enclosed as its unit,
+and symbolising the Trinity in Unity. The
+recognition of the import of the Trinity was
+paramount throughout those early days; all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+important documents began with an Invocation
+of the <i>Tres Person&aelig;</i>, or were garnished
+with symbolic illustrations thereof; all the
+old MSS., already referred to, which have
+come down to us from that period, invariably
+commence with "In the name of the
+Father and of the Son and of the Holy
+Ghost."</p>
+
+<p>It can therefore be readily understood
+what determined the sudden change between
+1140-1150, resulting in that wonderful accession
+of beauty to architectural design
+which we find in the Gothic. The incentive
+had to be a strong one, and of an eminently
+religious character, to accomplish the
+radical change of throwing over so absolutely
+the Norman, and commencing to build entirely
+on what are called Gothic lines. A
+careful examination of the proportions of
+the structures themselves, and the character
+of the decorations found in the finest examples
+of buildings representing that style,
+at once shows us that the incentive was the
+symbolism attached to the mysterious figure
+called the Vesica Piscis, which appears to
+be not only the principal feature upon which
+the whole style rests, but is also employed,
+as a symbol of the Divine, wherever we have
+Gothic Architecture, either in painted windows
+or mural decorations. Every Cathedral has its
+Vesica Piscis, often of enormous dimensions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+Geometry was synonymous with Masonry, and
+the very <i>foundation</i> of the Science of Geometry,
+as expounded by Euclid, was his <i>first</i>
+proposition. <i>Every single problem</i> in the whole
+of his books necessitates for its construction
+the use of this one foundation&mdash;namely, "how
+to form an Equilateral Triangle," and this is
+the Mystical form of "the Knowledge of the
+Square." This triangle, symbolising the Logos,
+is therefore not only the <i>beginning</i> of the
+Science of Geometry, and therefore of Masonry,
+the Head of all the Sciences, but it is by that
+triangle that all Geometrical forms, and therefore
+forms of knowledge, are <i>made</i>, and it
+became the most mysterious and secret symbol
+of the Logos, for is it not written by St. John
+that "In the beginning was the Logos, and
+by it were all things made"; so the Vesica
+Piscis, the cradle of the Logos, became the
+great <i>secret</i> of Masonry, the foundation as
+we find it upon which Gothic Architecture
+was evolved, the means by which its wonderful
+plans were laid down, and the most
+reverenced figure in Religious Symbolism, as
+shown by its use in seals, engravings, sculptures,
+pictures, &amp;c., throughout the Middle
+Ages.</p>
+
+<p>Let me make this clearer. The more one
+examines the typical points in the Saxon,
+Norman, and Gothic styles of Architecture, the
+more clearly one sees that the Architects of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+two former used circles and squares on their
+tracing-boards, as units for their proportions,
+in drawing up both ground plans and elevations,
+with here and there suggestions only
+of the Equilateral Triangle having been made
+use of in some of the smaller details; whereas
+the Gothic Architects seem to have used the
+Vesica Piscis almost entirely. This explains
+the reason why true Gothic buildings have
+always been said to be built mainly on the
+basis of the Equilateral Triangle; this naturally
+follows, because the use of the Vesica
+creates, and therefore necessitates, the appearance
+of the Equilateral Triangle in every conceivable
+situation. The following quotation
+is typical of the leading essay writers on this
+subject: "The Equilateral Triangle enters
+largely into, if it does not entirely control,
+all medi&aelig;val proportions, particularly in the
+ground plans. In Chartres Cathedral the
+apices of two Equilateral Triangles (<i>vide</i>
+frontispiece to these Views), whose common
+base is the internal length of the transept,
+measured through the two western piers of
+the intersection, will give the interior length,
+one apex extending to the east end of the
+chevet within the aisles, the other to the
+original termination of the Nave westward,
+and the present extent of the side aisles in
+that direction. With slight deviation, most,
+if not all, the ground plans of the French<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+Cathedrals are measurable in this manner,
+and their choirs may be so measured almost
+without exception. Troyes Cathedral is in
+exact proportion with that of Chartres, and
+the choirs of Rheims, Beauvais, St. Ouen at
+Rouen, and others are equally so. Bourges
+Cathedral, which has no transept, is exactly
+three Equilateral Triangles in length inside,
+from the East end of the outer aisle to the
+Eastern columns supporting the West Towers.
+Most English Cathedrals appear to have been
+constructed in their original plans upon similar
+rules." White's Classical Essay on Architecture
+compares the Norman with the Gothic,
+where he says: "In what is usually called the
+Norman period, the general proportions and
+outlines of the Churches are reducible to certain
+rules of setting out by the plain Square.
+As Architecture progressed the Square gradually
+disappeared, and the proportion of general
+outline, as well as of detail, fell in more and
+more with applications of the Equilateral
+Triangle, till the art, having arrived at its
+culminating point, or that which is generally
+acknowledged to be its period of greatest
+beauty and perfection in the thirteenth and
+the beginning of the fourteenth centuries,
+again began to decline. With this decline the
+Equilateral Triangle was almost lost sight
+of, and then a mode of setting out work by
+diagonal squares was taken up, for such is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+basis found exactly applicable to the work
+of the fifteenth century, since which time
+mathematical proportions have been generally
+employed." And after referring to numerous
+scale drawings of Churches, windows,
+doors, and arches, he points out that every
+student of Church architecture must pronounce
+those of the untraceried and traceried
+first point to be the most beautiful of all,
+those of the Norman to be a degree less so,
+and those of the perpendicular and debased
+to be far inferior to either, and in that analysis
+we find that the Equilateral Triangle was
+used almost exclusively for determining one
+order (the Gothic), the Square for another
+(the Norman), and the Square diagonally
+divided for the other (the debased).</p>
+
+<p>Now let me try to describe the wonderful
+properties of the Vesica Piscis, so that you
+may understand the mystery which shrouded
+it in the minds of those Medi&aelig;val builders.
+The rectangle formed by the length and
+breadth of this figure, in the simplest form,
+has several extraordinary properties; it may
+be cut into three equal parts by straight
+lines parallel to the shorter side, and these
+parts will all be precisely and geometrically
+similar to each other and to the whole figure,&mdash;strangely
+applicable to the symbolism attached
+at that time to the Trinity in Unity,&mdash;and
+the subdivision may be proceeded with indefinitely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+without making any change in form.
+However often the operation is performed,
+the parts remain identical with the original
+figure, having all its extraordinary properties,
+the Equilateral Triangle appearing everywhere,
+whereas no other rectangle can have
+this curious property.</p>
+
+<p>It may also be cut into four equal parts
+by straight lines parallel to its sides, and
+again each of these parts will be true
+Vesicas, exactly similar to each other, and
+to the whole, and of course the Equilateral
+Triangle is again everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>Again, if two out of the tri-subdivisions
+mentioned above be taken, the form of these together
+is exactly similar, geometrically, to half
+the original figure, and again the Equilateral
+Triangle is ubiquitous on every base line.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the diagonal of the rectangle is
+exactly double the length of its shorter side,
+which characteristic is absolutely <i>unique</i>,
+and greatly increases its usefulness for plotting
+out designs; and this property of course
+holds good for all the rectangles formed by
+the original figure and for the other species
+of subdivision. But perhaps its most mysterious
+property (though not of any practical
+use) to those who had studied Geometry, and
+to whom this figure was the symbol of the
+Divine Trinity in Unity, so dear to them,
+was the fact that it actually put into their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+hands the means of <i>trisecting</i> the Right
+Angle.</p>
+
+<p>Now, the three great problems of antiquity
+which engaged the attention and wonderment
+of geometricians throughout the Middle
+Ages, were "the Squaring of the Circle,"
+"the Duplication of the Cube," and lastly,
+"the Trisection of an Angle," even Euclid
+being unable to show how to do it; and yet
+it will be seen that the diagonal of one of
+the subsidiary figures in the tri-subdivision,
+together with the diagonal of the whole
+figure, actually trisect the angle at the
+corner of the rectangle. It is true that it
+only showed them how to trisect one kind of
+angle, but it was that particular angle which
+was so dear to them as symbolising their
+craft, and which was created by the Equilateral
+Triangle. All these unique properties
+place the figure far above that of a square
+for practical work, because even when the
+diagonal of a square is given, it is impossible
+to find the exact length of any of its sides or
+<i>vice versa</i>; whereas in the Vesica rectangle
+the diagonal is exactly double its shorter
+side, and upon any length of line which may
+be taken on the tracing-board as a base
+for elevation, an Equilateral Triangle will be
+found whose sides are of course all equal
+and therefore known, as they are equal to
+the base, and whose line joining apex to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+centre of base is a true Plumb line, forming
+at its foot the perfect right angle, so important
+in the laying of every stone of a building.</p>
+
+<p>In the volume referred to I have given a
+skeleton plan upon such a scale of subdivision
+that a tracing-board, of 5 feet by 8 feet, would
+be divided up into over one million parts, and,
+as all these subdivisions are perfect representations
+of the original Vesica figure with all its
+properties, the design of the largest building,
+with the minutest detail, could be drafted
+with absolute accuracy. There are many
+other curious properties of this Figure, but
+they are difficult to explain without diagrams.
+I will, however, give one more example of its
+creative power. The problem of describing a
+Pentagon must have puzzled architects considerably
+in those early times, but this was
+again easily accomplished by means of the
+Vesica. Albrecht D&uuml;rer, the great designer
+and engraver, who lived at the end of the
+fifteenth century, refers to the Vesica in his
+works (<i>Dureri Institutune Geometricarum</i>, lib.
+ii. p. 56) in a way which shows that it was as
+commonly known in his time as the Circle,
+Square, and Triangle. His instructions for
+forming a Pentagon are: "Designa circino
+invariato tres piscium vesicas" (describe with
+unchanged compasses three vesic&aelig; piscium).
+Three similar circles are described with
+centres at the angles of an Equilateral<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+Triangle, forming the three Vesic&aelig;, by means
+of which the Pentagon is drawn, and from
+which also we get a beautiful form of arch
+very common in the thirteenth century
+(<i>vide</i> illustrations in <i>Magister Mathesios</i>).
+This is also the method used in that old
+manuscript of the fifteenth century named
+"Geometria deutsch." In this old MS. it is
+also shown that the easiest method for finding
+the centre of a circle, however large, or any
+segment of a circle, is by means of the Vesica
+Piscis. And just as we see so many Cathedrals
+of the Middle Ages are stated by antiquarians
+to have been planned on the Equilateral
+Triangle, so do we find the Pentagon appearing
+as the basis of Architectural designs of
+buildings of a later date, such as Liverpool
+Castle, Chester Castle, and other similar
+structures; but the true means by which
+each were laid down, as in the case of the
+Equilateral Triangle, was again the Vesica
+Piscis. A beautiful example of decoration,
+on the basis of the Vesica, is seen in the
+tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster
+Abbey.</p>
+
+<p>I will conclude this subject by quoting from
+the summing up by Prof. Kerrich (Principal
+Librarian to the University of Cambridge in
+1820), in his masterly Essay on Architecture,
+where he gives the different forms of what
+he calls the "Mysterious Figure," used in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+most noted Gothic buildings: he says, "I
+would in nowise indulge in conjectures as
+to the reference these figures might possibly
+have to the most sacred mysteries of religion;
+independently of any such allusion, their properties
+are of themselves sufficiently extraordinary
+to have struck all who have observed
+them."</p>
+
+<p>From earliest Christian times the principal
+<i>doctrine</i> based upon the Mysticism of the
+Neo-platonists and the Kabalists was what
+was called the &#915;&#957;&#969;&#963;&#953;&#962;, the Knowledge of the
+All, and the fundamental basis of this, as of
+all esoteric teaching from the beginning of
+History, was <i>Procreation</i>. From the first
+dawn of civilisation the "Great One" always
+had an enemy with whom he had to fight;
+having conquered, he married that enemy,
+and their offspring was Life or Duration. In
+the oldest forms, as in Persia and ancient
+Egypt, it was Light and Darkness, "Ormuz
+and Ahriman," "Osiris and Isis," the Light conquering
+Darkness, the Day conquering Night,
+resulting in Time and duration. In the Eleusinian
+Mysteries it was the "Sun and Earth"
+producing Vegetable Life, and in the &#915;&#957;&#969;&#963;&#953;&#962; it
+was the "Ainsoph and Ignorance," resulting
+in True Knowledge or Everlasting Life.</p>
+
+<p>In the Vesica Piscis (<i>vide</i> frontispiece) we
+see two Equilateral Triangles formed on the
+same base, similar to what we found in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+ground-plan of Chartres and other Gothic
+Cathedrals; these two triangles symbolised to
+the Medi&aelig;val Builders the Divine and Human
+Natures of the Logos, the Word, the Creator;
+they are both procreated and enclosed in the
+Vesica; the one having the Apex pointed upwards,
+represented Divine or Spiritual Life,
+and in that I have placed the "Tetragrammaton,"
+the Word or name of God (Jehovah),
+which, throughout the Jewish race for
+thousands of years, was held to be so sacred
+that they did not dare to utter it aloud. It
+was, at this time, depicted in the Equilateral
+Triangle, the symbol of the Logos, becoming
+thus the Masonic Word of the Middle Ages,
+and was probably used, exoterically, for
+purposes of recognition among members of
+the Great Building Societies, with the introduction
+of Gothic Architecture; but the
+<i>esoteric</i> teaching, which was known only to
+the &eacute;lite of the Craft and not by the Ordinary
+Operatives, was the mystical <i>procreation</i> of
+that triangle, the doctrine of Spiritual or
+New Birth, symbolised by that mysterious
+figure which we have seen was the very
+foundation stone of Geometry, and therefore
+of Tectonic Art, the Head of all learning,
+and the great Secret of Gothic Architecture,
+called for esoteric purposes "Vesica Piscis."
+The Triangle, having the Apex pointing downwards,
+represented Human or Physical Life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+and I have placed therein a representation
+of <i>sacrificial</i> death, which we shall see was
+introduced, as a necessity, for the good of
+the Race.</p>
+
+<p>As "everything in Heaven has its counterpart
+on Earth," so may we see, by introspection,
+that the <i>reflecting</i> surface, the thin,
+physical film between the Human and Divine,
+is represented by that Base, and Human Life
+then becomes truly, as it should be, the reflection
+of the Divine.</p>
+
+<p>One more glance through the Window at
+what I will call&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+"The Mystery of the Apex."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The earliest forms of Life, the unicellular
+"Beings," whether animal or vegetable&mdash;for
+both divisions, if they can be said to be divided,
+have the same protoplasmic cell as basis of
+life&mdash;were, and are still, immortal except for
+accidents; they are not subject to natural
+death as we know it; they multiply by fission
+and not by "budding." It was only with the
+building up of cell upon cell into communities,
+and the advent of polycellular beings
+of greater and greater complexity of structure,
+that the "Wisdom" behind natural laws
+introduced death as an <i>adaptation</i>, to prevent
+monstrosities in the shape of mutilated specimens
+being perpetuated on the earth. Life is
+purely physical and, in conformity with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+modes under which our physical senses act,
+has the appearance of tri-unity. As white
+light is seen to be composed of but three
+primary colours, as Music is based on the
+Triad, as Space is known to us in three
+dimensions only, and Geometry, "the Head
+of all Learning," is based upon the Circle,
+Square, and Triangle, so may we see life
+in its three primary aspects: the Animal,
+Vegetable, and Material. The last-mentioned
+aspect, though long suspected, from the investigation
+of Crystallography, to have in
+some mysterious way a common basis with
+the animal and vegetable, was not fully
+grasped until, in the last few years, we have
+been able to study in our laboratories the
+actual evolution, or more correctly devolution,
+of matter from one form to another;
+and as all plants and animals are found to
+be built up of the same identical protoplasmic
+cells, so are we now able to break
+down and analyse not only these cells but
+even the very structure of matter, and
+find that all substances are built up of exactly
+the same bricks, the different forms
+known to us as Elements being the <i>designs</i>
+of the great Architect upon which each
+structure has been built; and these completed
+designs again are used and become
+the "ashlars" of the higher forms of plant
+and animal structure. As Evolution in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms has given us
+Species, so in the Material it has developed
+Elements. The structures of animal and vegetable
+life are of comparatively recent formation,
+and are still apparently progressing in
+the direction of complexity, whereas the structures
+of matter appear to have long passed
+the stage of highest complexity, and the
+elements are now undergoing the retrograde
+process of being transformed, by radio-activity,
+from the more complex into simpler
+elements of lower atomic denominations&mdash;namely,
+having fewer bricks in each atom.</p>
+
+<p>All these material designs are more or less
+radio-active&mdash;namely, changing into other elements,
+but some, like radium, polonium, &amp;c.,
+are active to an extraordinary extent. Each
+molecule or atom may be looked upon as an
+<i>aperture</i>, more or less open, through which
+we have flowing the equivalent of what may
+be called a leak from the Infinite, the changing
+of one element into another being represented
+by the change of shape or activity of that
+aperture. Countless ages ago these apertures
+were, by evolution, growing more and more
+complex in shape, but when the limit of complexity
+was reached and the <i>Apex</i> was passed,
+an adaptation, somewhat analogous to death
+in the animal and vegetable, must have come
+into play, with the result that these apertures
+are now becoming more and more simple in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+their shape and activity. The Infinite referred
+to above may be diagnosed by some as being
+in the fourth dimension of space, or it may
+even be comprised within the Ether of our
+known three dimensions, for the discovery
+of radio-activity has enabled us to see that
+Ether is not only as dense as iron, but
+millions of times denser than that metal,
+every cubic foot, or probably cubic inch,
+being capable of supplying millions of horse-power
+if it could only be tapped. A homely
+simile of this leak from the Infinite may be
+seen in a glass of aerated water, where an
+irregularity of surface, a crumb of bread, or
+a grain of sand becomes the means by which
+carbonic-dioxide escapes from the interstices
+of the water.</p>
+
+<p>Radio-active substances then are really
+forges for forming new structures of matter
+or forms of energy, rather than quarries from
+which they are cut, and we seem to get a
+glimpse of the origin of life, perhaps itself
+the cause of "retrogression" in the material,
+coming through from the Reality, the Infinite
+beyond the physical Universe.</p>
+
+<p>Life and its processes are well symbolised by
+a triangle, the base of which is the "Divide"
+between the Real and its reflections or shadows
+on the Material plane, and through which all
+energy percolates. One side of the triangle
+represents anabolism, or the process of building<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+up, and the other katabolism, the process
+of breaking down, and at the Apex is
+the Mystical "Terror of the Threshold," the
+"Ainsoph" (<i>vide</i> frontispiece), which introduced
+<i>sacrificial</i> death to the Physical, as an
+adaptation in the evolution of, and for the
+good of, the Human race. With the death
+of the Physical, the rending of the Veil, as
+we have seen in View Two, all Shadows and
+Reflections disappear, and, in place of "seeing
+as through a glass darkly," the Soul has its
+true birth, and at last enters upon its heritage
+in the Divine Life, face to face with
+the Reality, the Good, the Beautiful, and the
+True.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="VIEW_FOUR" id="VIEW_FOUR"></a>VIEW FOUR</h3>
+
+<h2>LOVE IN ACTION</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the preceding Views we have seen that
+Time and Space have no real existence
+apart from our physical senses; they are only
+modes or conditions under which those senses
+act, and by which we gain a very limited and
+illusory knowledge of our surroundings. Our
+very consciousness of living depends upon
+our perception of multitudinous changes in
+our surroundings, and our very thoughts are
+therefore also limited by Time and Space,
+because <i>change</i> is dependent on those two
+limits, the very basis of perceived motion
+being the time that an object takes to go
+over a certain space; we must therefore look
+behind consciousness itself, beyond the conditioning
+in Time and Space, for the true
+reality of Being. We have seen that man is
+the offspring of two distinct natures&mdash;the
+Spiritual or Transcendental and the Material
+or Physical; the former is the Real, the
+latter is only a shadow. If we now try
+to consider the connection between these
+two natures, we have to recognise that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+with all our advance in Knowledge during
+the last hundred years, we are indeed still as
+children playing with pebbles on the sea-shore,
+knowing neither why we are placed
+there, nor what those pebbles are, or whence
+they came. Though we seem ever to be
+discovering fresh truths concerning their
+relations one with another, when arranged
+in different patterns, built up into new forms,
+or split up into smaller fragments, we have
+to acknowledge (substituting thoughts for
+pebbles) that we are still only learning our
+alphabet and the simple rules of multiplication,
+addition, and division, which must be
+mastered before we can hope to take the real
+step towards understanding.</p>
+
+<p>We are surrounded by mysteries; we are
+indeed a mystery to ourselves, we do not
+even know how the Physical Ego is connected
+with the physical world; how the
+sense organs, receiving the impression of
+multitudinous and diverse frequencies of
+different intensities, transmit them to the
+brain, and how the mind is able to combine
+all these impressions and form concepts. But
+by examining the Physical Universe, we seem
+to see clearly that the only Reality is the
+Spiritual, the Here, and the Now, that our
+real <i>Personality</i> being Spiritual is independent
+of Space and Time limitations, and is therefore
+Omnipresent and Omniscient; it may indeed be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+not only connected with the Physical Ego of
+this World, but be in close working connection
+with other Physical Egos in the Universe, and
+may, in some wonderful process, through its
+affinity with the Great Spirit, be helping
+them to progress in other directions possibly
+quite beyond our power to conceive under
+the conditions we are accustomed to here.</p>
+
+<p>A great forest tree forms each year a
+multitude of separate buds; each of these
+buds is an independent plant which has only
+a temporary existence and has no present
+knowledge of the other buds, but it is by
+means of all these buds and the leaves they
+develop, that the tree is nourished and increases
+from year to year. Still more wonderful
+is the fact that it is these temporary
+existences which, in accordance with the
+general law of life-production, form special
+"ovules," which we call seeds, each of which
+has the potentiality for growing up into a
+great forest tree, which, in its turn, is capable
+of pushing forth temporary existences in
+countless directions. We have, in the above
+process of creating a forest tree, a likeness
+on the Physical Plane to what I would suggest
+is the process not only of the creation of
+the Race, but, on the Transcendental Plane,
+the multiplication of permanent personalities
+by means of, or in connection with, the temporary
+and Space-limited Human Physical Ego.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Again, as the human mind forms a thought,
+clothes it in physical language, and sends it
+forth in such a form as not only affects our
+material sense of hearing, but conveys to the
+hearer the very thought itself, so the whole
+Physical Universe is a temporary and Space-limited
+representation of the Reality which is
+behind, is in fact the materialisation of the
+Will or Thought of the Great Spirit. The
+"taking root" or advent of the Spiritual to
+the genus homo, made it possible for man
+to interpret the Good, Beautiful, and True
+in the phenomena of nature, and, as we, by
+studying these materialisations, gain knowledge
+of the Reality, and our personalities
+become real powers, so may we at length
+approach the point where we may feel that
+we are thinking, or having divulged to us,
+the very thoughts of God; and, though it
+may never be possible in this life to form
+a full conception of the Reality, we may, I
+think, even with our present state of knowledge,
+aspire to understand the messages
+conveyed to us in some of the multitudinous
+forms, under which these thoughts are presented
+to us, and I propose giving an example
+of this later on in this View.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, in the case of a picture, it is
+possible, by examining and comparing a
+number of certain short lines in perspective,
+to discover not only the position occupied by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+the Artist, but also the point to which all
+those lines converge; so by examining and
+combining certain lines of Thought on the
+Physical Plane, and following them as far as
+we can with our present knowledge towards
+the point where our Ideals of the Good,
+Beautiful, and True intersect, we may reach
+the position from which we may be able to
+form, although through a glass darkly, even
+a conception of the Great Reality, and therefore
+of Its Offspring the Transcendental Ego,
+and its connection with the Universe.</p>
+
+<p>As the whole of Nature is the temporary
+and Space-limited manifestation of the
+Reality, so the individual Physical Ego is the
+manifestation in Time and Space of the
+Transcendental Ego or true Personality. The
+Physical Ego is its transient expression and
+has no other use beyond this life. Each
+Physical Ego helps, or should help forward,
+the general improvement of the Race towards
+perfection. Each generation should come
+into being a step nearer to the Spiritual,
+until it can be pictured that at the final
+consummation, there will be nothing imperfect,
+no shadow left; the full complement
+of Spiritual Personalities being complete in
+the Great All-Father.</p>
+
+<p>Do we not then see clearly that the Physical
+Ego, comprised in what we call "I am," "I perceive,"
+"I think," "I conceive," "I remember,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+is transient, and has only to do with the
+progress of the Race? It is the Shadow or
+Image in the Physical Universe of that Personality
+which Transcends Time and Space.
+Take away a small portion of the Brain, the
+organ of the Mind, and Memory is wiped out,
+remove the greater part of it and the manifestation
+of the Physical Ego is destroyed;
+though the body is as much alive as before,
+there is apparently nothing left but the
+physical life, which it has in common with
+all animals, plants, and probably, as strongly
+suggested by late discoveries in Radio-activity,
+even with what is called inorganic matter.
+The Brain, and therefore the Ego, is not a
+necessity for Physical life; this is clearly
+seen in the lower forms of life&mdash;it would be
+difficult to point out the brain of a Cabbage
+or an Oak Tree.</p>
+
+<p>In the last forty years we have entered
+upon a new era of religion and philosophy;
+we hear no more of the old belief that the
+study of scientific facts leads to atheism or
+irreligion; we begin to see that Religion and
+Science must go hand in hand towards elucidating
+the Riddle of the Universe, and such a
+change enables us even to aspire to show, as
+I now propose to do, that it is possible, by
+examining certain phenomena in Nature, to
+reach that point where we may feel that we
+are listening to and understanding, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+through a glass darkly, what may be called
+the very Thoughts of the Great Reality. I
+will take for examination the subject most
+intimately connected with the title of this
+View&mdash;namely, the nature of the growth
+of the Transcendental Personality, upon what
+that growth depends, and how we may understand
+that the attainment to Everlasting Life
+is dependent upon that growth.</p>
+
+<p>I have already pointed out in View Two
+that the Transcendental Personality, being
+Spiritual, and therefore akin to the Great
+Reality, may be said to have no free-will of
+itself. Its will or influence must always be
+working towards perfection in the form "Let
+Thy Will, which is also my will, be done";
+the efficacy of its influence with the Great
+Reality depends on its growth or nourishment
+by the knowledge of the Good, Beautiful,
+and True ever bringing it more and
+more nearly into perfect touch or sympathy
+with the All-loving. The power of
+prayer therefore depends upon two conditions;
+it must be in the form of "Let
+thy Will be done," and that which prays
+must be capable of making its petition felt,
+by having already gained a knowledge of
+what that Will is. I am, of course, not
+referring to that form of prayer which,
+alas with so many, seems to be the attempt
+to get as much out of the Absolute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+as is possible, with the least amount of
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>If now we carefully examine the Phenomena
+around us, we make the extraordinary
+discovery that this power to influence is the
+very basis of survival and of progress
+throughout the universe. In the organic
+world all Nature seems to be praying in one
+form or another, and only those that pray
+with efficacy, based upon the above two
+conditions, survive in the struggle for existence.
+The economy of Nature is founded
+upon that inexorable law the "Survival of
+the Fittest"; every organism that is not in
+sympathy with its environment, and cannot
+therefore derive help and nourishment from
+its surroundings, perishes. Darwin tells us
+that the colours of flowering plants have
+been developed by the necessity of attracting
+the bees, on whose visits depends the
+power of plants to reproduce their species;
+those families of plants which do not as it
+were pray to the bees with efficacy, fail to
+attract, are not therefore fertilised, and disappear
+without leaving successors. Flowers
+may also be said to be praying to us by
+their beauty, or usefulness, and in some
+cases, as with orchids, by their marvellous
+shapes. We answer their prayer by building
+hot houses and tending them with care,
+because they please us, and therefore we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+help them to live; while, on the contrary,
+those plants that have not developed these
+qualities are not only neglected, but, in some
+cases, as with weeds, we take special trouble
+to exterminate them, because their existence
+is distasteful to us.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Darwin also tells us that Heredity
+and Environment are the prime influences
+under which the whole Organic World is sustained;
+in other words, every organism has
+implanted in it by heredity the principle of life,
+but the conditions under which it will be possible
+for that life to expand and come to perfection,
+rest entirely upon its power to bring
+itself into harmony with its environment.
+This principle of life does not come naked into
+the world, it is fortified by heredity, with
+power gained by its parents in their struggle
+for existence, and in their persistence to get
+into sympathy with their environment. The
+knowledge they gained, by this struggle,
+they have handed down to their offspring,
+and given it thereby the possibility of also
+gaining for itself that knowledge of, and
+power to get into sympathy with, its environment,
+upon which its future existence
+will depend. So may we not see that in the
+Spiritual World, these two conditions dominate,
+and that it is only by the clear comprehension
+of their reality that we can
+understand how all-important it is for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+soul to bring itself nearer and nearer into
+harmony with its environment, the Spiritual,
+and how the efficacy of prayer depends upon
+the Knowledge of what is the Will of God?</p>
+
+<p>We have received from our Spiritual Father
+the principle of Everlasting Life, and the
+aspirations which, if followed, will enable
+that life to expand and come to perfection;
+but, as in the case of physical organism, the
+gift is useless unless we elect to use those
+aspirations aright, and gain thereby a knowledge
+of our Spiritual Environment, which
+alone can bring us into sympathy with the
+Great Reality. Without this "Knowledge of
+God," we can see by analogy on the Organic
+Plane that Everlasting Life is impossible&mdash;we
+are as weeds and shall be rooted out. This
+is no figment of the imagination, it seems
+to be the only conclusion we can come to
+if Nature is the work of Nature's God, and
+Man is made in the image (spiritual) of that
+God. Herbert Spencer came to the same
+conclusion when defining everlasting existence.
+He says: "Perfect correspondence
+would be perfect life; were there no changes
+in the environment but such as the organism
+had adapted changes to meet, and were it
+never to fail in the efficiency with which
+it met them, there would be Eternal Existence
+and Eternal Knowledge" (<i>Principles of
+Biology</i>).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The power of influence, by sympathetic
+action, may also be seen in another direction;
+consider the fact that if we are in a room
+with a piano and we sing a certain note,
+say E flat, we not only hear that note
+coming back from the piano, but, if we
+examine the strings, we find that all the
+E flats are actually vibrating in sympathy,
+because they are in perfect harmony with
+the note given out by the voice; but none
+of the other strings are responding because
+they are out of harmony. With this simile
+in mind, let us consider the curious fact that
+a moth always lays its eggs on that particular
+plant upon which the caterpillars,
+when they hatch out of these eggs, must
+feed. The study of the Life History of
+Insects has always been of great interest to
+me, as I firmly believe that we are on the
+verge of a great discovery, and that the
+first indications are being revealed to us
+through the investigation of the Biology of
+Insects. Some of you may, perhaps, have
+watched this progress of ovipositing, as I
+have done, and noticed how the female moth
+will hover in a peculiar way over different
+plants, but does not alight until she comes
+to a plant near akin to the one she is
+seeking. She then alights, but remains, on
+tip-toe as it were, with legs outstretched
+and wings quivering, and soon mounts again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+into the air; it is only when she alights on
+the proper food plant that she shows unmistakably
+that she knows her quest is
+ended and her eggs are laid. This particular
+plant has no other attractions for her, she
+takes her food irrespectively from any other
+flower which secretes honey, and yet, when
+she is ready to fulfil her destiny, she is
+unerringly drawn towards that particular
+plant which must be the food of her offspring.
+What is this wonderful sense? We call it
+instinct, a name which is made to cover all
+other senses in the lower animals, of which
+we have no cognisance ourselves. Let us
+take our own senses as a guide: we find
+that they are all based on the appreciation
+of frequencies, of greater or less rapidity, by
+means of organs specially adapted to vibrate
+in sympathy with those pulsations, and thus
+we gain knowledge of external things. Two
+tuning forks or two organ pipes when vibrating
+close to each other, give out a pure
+musical note when they are in perfect harmony,
+and they then have, as it were, "rest"
+together; but when one is put even slightly
+out of harmony, there is, in place of a pure
+musical note, a rise and fall of sound in heavy
+throbs, strangely characteristic of "quarrelling";
+in fact, discord and "unrest."</p>
+
+<p>In our sense of hearing we can only appreciate
+up to 40,000 vibrations in a second as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+a musical sound, whereas, with Light and
+other electrical phenomena, as we shall see
+in a later View, we can appreciate sympathetic
+frequencies of not only many millions,
+but indeed millions of millions in a second,
+and yet it is possible that, in the sense (of
+insects) we are now examining of life appreciating
+life, we may be in the presence of
+frequencies as far removed from light as
+light is from sound. If, then, we may follow
+the analogy from our highest senses, we seem
+to get a clear explanation of the mystery of
+insect discrimination. The insect, in her then
+state, could have no pleasure in the presence
+of certain plants, their modes of frequency
+being out of sympathy with that particular
+Insect Life, and, it may be conceived that,
+not only is there no inducement for the
+insect to alight on that plant, but that even
+in its near proximity that insect would feel
+discomfort or restlessness; when, however, a
+plant is reached which is near akin to the
+one required, less antipathy or unrest would
+be felt, and, when the true species of plant
+is reached, all would be harmony, pleasure,
+and rest, the functions of Insect Life would
+be vivified, and its life-work accomplished
+under the influences of sympathetic action.</p>
+
+<p>I have made several other investigations on
+this subject, but I must only give one more to
+illustrate the higher form of Animal Life appreciating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+Animal Life. There is a large class of
+insects, called Ichneumonid&aelig;, which lay their
+eggs in the bodies of caterpillars, and, as in
+the case of a moth laying its egg on the special
+food plant upon which its caterpillar can feed,
+so does each species of these insects unerringly
+lay its eggs in the body of a particular kind
+of caterpillar. It must be a wonderful sense
+which can enable an Ichneumon Fly to do
+this; it has never seen that caterpillar before,
+as the egg, from which its own caterpillar
+was hatched, was laid inside the body of one
+of those caterpillars, and the caterpillar upon
+which it fed had been eaten up and disappeared
+at least six months before the
+Ichneumon Fly had even made its way out
+of its own cocoon; and yet this insect is not
+only forced, by some mysterious power, to
+lay its egg in the body of a caterpillar, but
+there is only one species which will serve its
+purpose, and it has to hunt up this particular
+caterpillar from among thousands of other
+different species.</p>
+
+<p>Let me put before you what is, perhaps, the
+most mysterious illustration which we have
+under this heading, wherein the Ichneumon
+Fly cannot even get sight of its prey, nor
+employ any sense similar to our own for its
+detection. There are several species of moths
+whose caterpillars live in the very heart of
+trees. We will take the case of the caterpillar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+of Zeuzera Aesculi, the Leopard Moth; the egg
+of this Moth is laid in a crevice of the bark,
+and, when first hatched, the small larva penetrates
+through the bark into the centre of an
+apple, pear, or plum tree, and then commences
+to eat its way upwards, forming at first a very
+small tunnel, but gradually increasing it, as the
+caterpillar grows larger, into a passage of about
+half an inch in diameter. In such a position,
+surrounded as it is by solid wood, the thickness
+of which would probably not be less than
+one and a half or two inches, we might suppose
+that the caterpillar would be safe from
+its enemies, but it is not: there is a large
+Ichneumon Fly which cannot propagate its
+species unless it can lay its eggs in the body
+of this particular caterpillar. This Ichneumon
+Fly can, from outside, not only tell that inside
+the stem of that tree there is a caterpillar,
+but can locate the exact spot, and, still more
+wonderful, is able to determine whether or
+not that caterpillar is the particular species
+it is in search of. There are numerous other
+species of moths whose caterpillars feed in
+the centre of trees, and yet this female
+Ichneumon is able to mark down as her prey,
+although far out of reach of any sense known
+to us, that one species which alone can serve
+her purpose. As soon as she has located the
+exact position of the caterpillar, she unsheathes
+a long delicate ovipositor, with which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+she is provided, and drills it right through
+the intervening solid wood until it pierces
+the body of the caterpillar; she then lays an
+egg down that long tube into its body and
+repeats the process two or three times. The
+caterpillar itself does not appear to feel any
+inconvenience from this process and continues
+to feed and grow larger; but it has the seeds
+of death within itself, and the two or three
+little caterpillars, which hatch out of the
+eggs of the Ichneumon, are also growing
+rapidly inside it. At last, when the time comes
+that the large caterpillar should have been
+full fed, and it has eaten its way outwards
+until it rests close under the bark, preparatory
+to turning into a chrysalis, its enemies
+finish their destructive work, and, if the tree
+is then opened, the empty skin and cartilage
+skeleton of the large caterpillar is found,
+together with two or three large cocoons.
+These cocoons, if kept, will produce in due time
+specimens of the Ichneumon Fly, and these will
+in their turn go about their murderous work
+as soon as their proper hunting season comes
+round again.</p>
+
+<p>This is only an isolated case out of thousands
+of similar occurrences in every locality;
+in fact, if you walk along any palings in the
+country in the early summer, you will see
+at every few steps the evidence of similar
+tragedies. Those of you who live in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+country must often have seen on palings
+little heaps containing a dozen or more of
+the small yellow Microgaster Cocoons, and
+if these are examined carefully they will be
+found to be surrounding the skin of a caterpillar.
+These minute cocoons may be kept
+under a wine glass and, from each a minute
+Ichneumon Fly, with (if a female) its sharp
+ovipositor, will emerge in due time. It is
+curious what mistakes can be made even by
+intelligent persons. I have had the skin of
+the caterpillar and this little heap of yellow
+Microgaster Cocoons sent me to examine, and
+have been seriously asked whether this was
+not a true case of Parthenogenesis; the suggestion
+being that the caterpillar had actually
+laid eggs, instead of waiting until it had
+become a moth, and that its efforts, to alter
+the course of nature, had been too much for
+its constitution and it had died in the act!
+There are other illustrations I should have
+liked to give but space will not permit, the
+most remarkable being, perhaps, the knowledge
+a Queen Bee possesses of the proximity
+of another Queen, even when that other is
+still in the pupa state, sealed up in a waxen
+cell. I have made numerous experiments
+with Queens of the common black English Bee
+(<i>Apis mellifica</i>), and also the yellow-striped
+Italian Bee (<i>Apis ligustica</i>), which belong
+to the same order (<i>Hymenoptera</i>) as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+Ichneumon Flies, and the same marvellous
+sense of life appreciating life at a distance,
+and through solid matter, is experienced.</p>
+
+<p>If we now follow the same Thought by examining
+the Inorganic, we make the extraordinary
+discovery that this power to influence,
+based on sympathetic action, is the very mainspring
+by which physical work can be sustained,
+and upon it depends entirely the very
+action of our physical senses. Our senses are
+based upon the appreciation of Vibration, in
+the Air and Ether, of greater or less rapidity,
+according to the presence in our organs of
+processes capable of acting in sympathy with
+those frequencies. The limits within which
+our senses can thus be affected are very small;
+the ear can only appreciate thirteen or fourteen
+octaves in sound, and the eye less than
+one octave in light; beyond these limits,
+owing to the absence of processes which can
+be affected sympathetically, all is silent and
+dark to us. This capacity for responding to
+vibration under sympathetic action is not
+confined to Organic Senses; the physical
+forces, and even inert matter, are also sensitive
+to its influences, as I will now demonstrate
+to you.</p>
+
+<p>In wireless telegraphy it is absolutely
+necessary that the transmitter of the electro-magnetic
+waves should be brought into
+perfect harmony with the receiver&mdash;without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+that condition it is impossible to communicate
+at a distance; again, a heavy pendulum
+or swing can, by a certain force, be pushed,
+say an inch, from its position of rest, and
+each successive push will augment the swing,
+but only on one condition, namely, that
+the force is applied in sympathy with the
+pendulum's mode of swing; if the length of
+the pendulum is 52 feet, the force must be
+applied only at the end of each eight seconds,
+as, although the pendulum at first is only
+moving one inch, it will take four seconds to
+traverse that one inch, the same as it would
+take to traverse 10 feet or more, and will not
+be back at the original position till the end of
+eight seconds; if the force is applied before
+that time the swing of the pendulum would
+be hindered instead of augmented. Even a
+steam engine must work under this influence
+if it is to be effective; there may be enough
+force in a boiler to do the work of a thousand
+horse-power, but, unless the slide valve is arranged
+so that the steam enters the cylinder
+at exactly the right moment, namely, in
+sympathy with the thrust of the piston, no
+work is possible.</p>
+
+<p>To understand the next example I want
+you first to recognise that, apart from its
+physical qualities, every material body has
+certain, what may be called, traits of character,
+which belong to it alone; there is generally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+one special trait or "partial," namely, the
+characteristic which it is easiest for the
+particular body to manifest, but I shall show
+you that by sympathetic action others can
+be developed. I have several pieces of ordinary
+wood, used for lighting fires, each of
+which, according to its size and density, has its
+special characteristic; if you examined each
+by itself you would hardly see that they are
+different from one another except slightly
+in length, but if I throw them down on the
+table, you would hear that each of them gives
+out a clear characteristic note of the musical
+scale: to carry this a step forward, I have a
+long, heavy, iron bar, about 4 feet long and
+2 inches thick, so rigid that no ordinary
+manual force can move it out of the straight,
+and, from mere handling, you would find it
+difficult to imagine that it would be amenable
+to soft influences. But I have studied this inert
+mass, and, as each person has special characteristics,
+some being more partial than others
+to, say, Literary pursuits, Athletics, Music,
+Poetry, Engineering, Science, or Metaphysics,
+so I am able to show that this iron mass has
+not only a number of these "partials," some
+of which are extraordinarily beautiful and
+powerful, audible over long distances, but
+that by the lightest touch of certain small
+generating rubbers, not more than an ounce
+in weight and tipped with cork or leather,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+each of which has been put into perfect
+sympathy with one of those traits, I can
+make that mass demonstrate them both optically
+and audibly; but, without those special
+sympathetic touches, it is silent and remains
+an inert mass. This result is obtained by
+physical contact between the instrument
+and the mass, but we will now carry this
+another step forward and deal with the
+subject of the action of Influence at a
+distance, or what may be called Prayer, between
+two of these rigid masses. From what
+we have already seen, it is clear that the
+Soul of man could not possibly pray with
+efficacy to a graven image; there is nothing
+in sympathy between them, and, without
+sympathetic action, influence is impossible;
+but it is quite possible for Matter to pray
+with efficacy to Matter, provided the material
+soul, if we may use the analogy, is brought
+into perfect sympathy with the material god,
+and I can now put before you an experiment
+showing this taking place.</p>
+
+<p>I have another heavy bar of iron, not so
+long but of the same thickness as the one
+already described, and have found its strongest
+characteristic; I have another small rubber,
+fashioned so that its characteristic is in
+perfect sympathy with that of the bar,
+namely, that the number of vibrations, in a
+second, of the instrument are exactly equal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+to those of the iron mass, and it is, therefore,
+as we saw in the last experiment, able by
+contact to influence the bar sympathetically.
+The slightest touch throws the bar into such
+violent vibration that a great volume of
+sound is produced, which can be heard a
+quarter of a mile away. The result of this
+sympathetic touch is far from being transient,
+in fact, the bar will continue to move, audibly,
+for a long time. This movement in the mass
+of iron was started by physical contact, but
+having once started the bar praying, willing,
+or thinking, whichever you like to call it,
+that bar now has the power to affect, without
+contact, another rigid bar of iron even when
+removed to great distances, provided the
+second bar possesses a similar characteristic,
+and that that characteristic has been brought
+into perfect <i>sympathy</i> with that of the first
+bar. I have a second bar which fulfils these
+conditions, and, although, at the outset, it
+had no power whatever to respond, it has
+been gradually, as it were, educated, namely,
+brought nearer and nearer into sympathy
+with the first bar, until it is now able to
+respond across long distances; it has acted
+across the whole length of one of the largest
+halls in London so strongly that it could be
+heard by all present. We will now reverse
+the process of bringing these bars into sympathy,
+and I will throw the first out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+harmony by slightly changing its characteristic;
+the change is extremely small, quite
+inappreciable to the human ear, the bar
+giving out as full and pure a note as it did
+before the alteration was made; in fact, the
+change is so slight that it can still, with a
+little force, be stimulated by the same generator,
+and yet the whole power to influence
+has been lost; the first bar, although it is
+praying with great force, gets no response
+from the second bar, and, even if the bars are
+now brought on to the same table and put
+within a few inches of each other, there is
+still no reply, there is no sympathetic action,
+the efficacy of prayer between the two has
+been completely destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Do we not then see the principle upon
+which the efficacy of Prayer depends, that the
+whole object of a Human Soul, when using
+the words "Thy Will be done," is to bring
+itself closer and closer into perfect sympathy
+with the Absolute? When that is accomplished,
+we may understand, from our simile,
+that not only shall we and our aspirations be
+influenced by the Will of the Deity, but that
+then our wishes, in their turn, must have
+great power with God, and it becomes possible
+for even "Mountains to be removed and cast
+into the midst of the sea."</p>
+
+<p>How truly the Philosopher Paul at the
+beginning of our Era recognised that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+knowledge of God, which Christ Himself tells
+us is Everlasting Life, may be gained by the
+study of the material creation; His words
+were sadly overlooked by many who, half a
+century ago, were afraid that the discoveries
+of Science were dangerous to belief in the
+Divine. He says: the unrighteous shall be
+without excuse because "The invisible things
+of Him since the creation of the world are
+clearly seen, being perceived through the
+things that are made, even His everlasting
+power and divinity" (Romans i. 18 to 20,
+R.V.).</p>
+
+<p>We have seen the truth of this wonderful
+statement, we have traced the reflection of
+the greatest attribute of the Deity, Divine
+Love, on the material plane. What has been
+the result of our investigation? We find
+that throughout the whole of Nature the one
+great universal power is Sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>'Tis verily "love that makes the world go
+round." What a marvellous conclusion to
+our investigation! Let us see where it leads
+us. The whole of creation is the materialisation
+of the Thoughts of the Deity; we have,
+therefore, in the forces of Nature, the impress
+of the very Essence of God. Our Innermost
+Self is an emanation from Him, and
+Prayer, which, at the beginning, is only a
+striving to bring ourselves into harmony
+with the Deity, must, as the Soul grows in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+strength and knowledge, become a great
+power working under the wonderful principle
+of Sympathy. True prayer, indeed,
+becomes "<i>Love in Action</i>," and, under certain
+conditions, Prayer may actually be looked
+upon as the greatest physical force in Nature.
+But let us carry this one step further: can
+we, by our analogy of Matter praying, understand
+why "the knowledge of God is Everlasting
+Life"? Look at the first iron bar,
+and watch how, as long as it keeps on vibrating,
+the second bar, <i>because it is in sympathy</i>,
+will be kept in motion. If it were possible
+for the first bar to vibrate for ever, the second
+bar would, speaking materially, have everlasting
+life, through its being in perfect sympathy
+with the first bar; without this connection
+the bar would be lifeless. Now apply
+this to our Transcendental Personality; it is
+being nourished, the knowledge of God is increasing,
+it is at last pulsating in perfect harmony
+with the Deity, and when, for it, the
+Material Universe disappears, its <i>affinity</i> to
+Infinite Love must give it Everlasting Life.
+Everything that has not that connection is
+but a shadow which will cease to be manifest
+when the Great Thought is completed,
+the volition of the Deity is withdrawn, and
+the Physical Universe ceases to exist; nothing
+can then exist except that which is perfected,
+that which is of the essence of God&mdash;namely,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+the Spiritual. Perfect harmony will then
+reign supreme, such happiness as cannot be
+described in earthly language nor even imagined
+by our corporeal senses; hence, in the
+many passages referring to that wondrous
+Life hereafter, we are not told what Heaven
+is like but only what is not to be found
+there:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"Eye hath not seen nor ear heard,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Neither have entered into the heart of man<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The things that God hath prepared for them that love Him."&mdash;1 <span class="smcap">Cor.</span> ii. 9.<br /><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>There are several other phenomena which I
+might have examined, but I chose this particular
+aspect of the Reality, as best illustrating
+the subject I am trying to elucidate
+in these Views, though it was probably the
+most difficult one to bring home to the general
+reading public. There are, I know, from
+personal knowledge, many of my readers
+who will have been able to follow and appreciate
+what I have attempted to demonstrate,
+but to those who have not grasped
+the connection between the Infinite and
+Finite, the Transcendental and the Physical
+Ego, the Real and its Shadow, a few more
+words of explanation may be helpful.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to see that the negatives, Cold,
+Ignorance, Falsehood, Ugliness are manifestations
+of their positives, as given in my list<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+in View One, and it is also not difficult to
+show that Evil or Sin is dependent upon Good
+in the same way as the Shadow depends upon
+Light for its manifestation. Do not let me
+be misunderstood; I have never suggested
+that these negatives or negations have not
+the appearance of realities to us, under our
+present conditions of existence; they indeed
+have to be dealt with by us as realities, but
+they are only manifested as phenomena on
+the physical plane, because our Senses, and
+therefore Thoughts, are limited by Time and
+Space and therefore dependent upon <i>relativity</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Let me put the case of Good and Evil
+before you, as analogous to, say, Light
+and Shadow. Moral laws and responsibility
+thereto are dependent upon the existence of
+Goodness; the purely animal Homo was, as
+I have pointed out, free from sin or responsibility
+until the advent of the Spiritual made
+manifest, in that animal, the physical Ego
+and raised him far above all other animals.
+Man thus became a responsible moral being,
+a living soul, aware of Right, and therefore
+of Wrong, and certain acts then became for
+him sin that were not sin before. Thus the
+advent of Christ, and, in a less degree, the
+coming into the world of every good man, so
+raised, and is raising, the level of moral rectitude
+that things become sin that were not sin
+before; St. Paul himself specially recognises<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+this when he says that without law there is
+no sin. The Goodness, then, brought into the
+world by Christ, did not create sin but made
+it manifest, and gave it the appearance of
+reality under our present conditions of life
+and thought. How well the Mystic Paul understood
+that the Invisible is the Real, and
+that the Visible&mdash;namely, the phenomena of
+nature&mdash;is only dependent upon Time for its
+manifestation. His words are: "For the
+things which are seen are temporal, but the
+things which are not seen are Eternal."</p>
+
+<p>I have tried in these Views to use only
+simple everyday language, and am fully
+aware how inadequate are the words I have
+employed; but my readers will have, I hope,
+recognised how difficult, and in many cases
+impossible, it is, in treating these metaphysical
+subjects, to find words to express
+the exact meaning; we have to describe
+the Infinite in terms of the finite, and by
+use of imperfect finite analogies to get a
+glimpse of the otherwise unthinkable, and
+even then it requires a mystical sense, or
+what St. Paul called spiritual discernment,
+to see beyond the physical mists. If the
+whole of the phenomena of Nature must be
+looked upon as the manifestation of the
+Divine Noumenon, it follows that Matter is
+as divine as the Spiritual, though not as
+real; it is His shadow, or the outline of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+His very image, thrown upon the material
+plane of our sensations; and the principle
+of sympathetic action, upon which, as we
+have seen, the whole power to influence
+depends throughout the Universe, becomes
+surely the best symbol we can use for
+understanding the efficacy of prayer and the
+connection between our Transcendental Self
+and the All-loving. Realise that the Transcendental
+Ego is a Spirit, and therefore
+akin to the Great Spirit, not only in essence,
+but in "loving and knowing communion,"
+then look at my last experiment, where we
+saw two material bodies (remember they are
+shadow manifestations of the Reality) which
+could influence each other from the fact that
+they were akin, not only in substance, but
+in perfect sympathetic communion.</p>
+
+<p>If now we watch the shadows of two human
+beings thrown upon a wall, and see those
+shadows shaking hands and embracing each
+other, are we not justified in concluding that
+those images give us a true explanation of
+what is really taking place? and is not that
+exactly what I have done? have I not shown,
+as I proposed to do, that it is possible by
+examining the phenomena of Nature (the
+shadows of the Reality) to reach that point
+where we may even feel that we are listening
+to, or having divulged to us, some of what may
+be called the very thoughts of the Great Reality?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="VIEW_FIVE" id="VIEW_FIVE"></a>VIEW FIVE</h3>
+
+<h2>THE PHYSICAL FILM</h2>
+
+
+<p>We have seen in former Views that the
+whole Phenomenal Universe, as perceived by
+our senses, and all intellectual thoughts or
+concepts based on those perceptions, are, in
+reality, only mists or shadows; they have no
+existence apart from our physical senses,
+and may be likened to a thin film, which at
+death is pricked and passes away like a
+scroll, leaving us face to face with the
+Reality. We thus seemed to grasp that all
+phenomena, including our Physical Egos, are
+but the shadows or outline of the Reality,
+as depicted on our limited plane of consciousness;
+but these phenomena, having
+Motion for their basis, are none the less
+real to us under our present outlook, limited
+as it is by conditioning in Time and Space,
+and we have to deal with them as realities
+in our everyday life. I want to make this
+distinction clear in the present View.</p>
+
+<p>Those of us who were youngsters in the
+'sixties, and were fortunate enough to be
+taken to that land of wonders for children,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+the London Polytechnic, will remember seeing
+what were called Professor Pepper's
+Ghosts. By means of a large sheet of glass
+on the stage, the <i>reflection</i> of a human being
+(otherwise invisible), which we will call the
+"<i>unreal</i>," was, by the audience, seen walking
+alongside the people on the stage, and it
+was impossible to say which was the real
+and which the unreal. When the unreal was
+made to appear further back on the stage,
+it was apparently seen through the real
+figures and they appeared as ghosts, for they
+were seen to be transparent. If now we fix,
+perpendicularly on a table, a small pane of
+glass, and place, say, an orange in front and
+another orange behind it, we can arrange
+so that an observer, looking through the
+glass, sees two oranges alongside each other,
+one being the real and the other the unreal,
+and, with proper lighting and dark background,
+it is impossible to determine which
+is which, as they are both apparently real
+oranges. We will call the real, A, and the
+unreal, B; we now also introduce a human
+hand on both sides of the glass, and again
+we have apparently two real hands close to
+the oranges; if the real hand is now seen
+to try to touch the B orange, it passes
+through it, but it can take up the A; and
+the same result is seen when the unreal hand
+tries to grasp them, except that it can grasp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+the B but not the A; it is, in fact, only the
+unreal that can apprehend the unreal, and
+the real the real.</p>
+
+<p>The above simile may help some of my
+readers to understand how the phenomena
+of Nature, though having no real existence
+apart from our senses, have the appearance
+of reality to us, because both we and the
+whole Phenomenal Universe are the unreal
+of our analogy, namely, the reflection or
+shadow of the Real on the physical plane.
+If we run against a stone wall, which is
+also part, with us, of the shadow, we hurt
+ourselves and acknowledge its existence, but
+to the Real it would not be an obstruction
+at all, it is not there. We know that this
+wall is not really solid, it is made up of
+Atoms revolving round each other but never
+touching, but the man in the street would
+give as the reason why it hurt, that it was
+dense, or what is called hard; if the wall
+were made of hay, or cotton wool, or of
+sunbeams, we should not suffer by running
+against it; in fact, the denser anything
+becomes, the more it shows its character of
+being real to our senses. If we take this
+as the true explanation for the Physical
+Universe, we are met with something quite
+beyond our powers of comprehension, when
+we try to form a conception of the all-pervading
+Ether; unless we may look upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+it as actually a <i>presentation</i> of the Reality
+itself. If we wave our hand, we can feel
+the obstruction of the air, but we cannot
+feel the Ether. We think our earth very
+solid, and we know it is rushing round the
+sun at the enormous rate of 60,000 miles
+per hour, but it finds no obstruction in the
+Ether, there is no retardation of its velocity;
+and yet the study of Radio-Activity has
+quite lately shown us that that Ether is not
+only as dense as iron, or a hundred or a
+thousand times denser, but millions of times
+denser than that metal; and yet it permeates
+all matter like a sieve. In Sir Oliver Lodge's
+words, "the Ether is so dense that matter
+by comparison is like a gossamer or a filmy
+imperceptible mist." We can, therefore, by
+again using our "Ghost" analogy, understand
+why matter cannot obstruct the Ether, or vice
+versa; there is no perceivable friction between
+them, unless, as I shall presently suggest, we
+may find something akin to obstruction by
+Matter, not to Ether itself, but to its pressure,
+in the phenomenon of Gravitation.</p>
+
+<p>The evidence we are gradually winning
+from Radio-Activity seems to be leading us
+to the conclusion that all forms of matter
+are but different motions or strains in the
+Ether (perhaps, as Lord Kelvin thought, in
+the form of vortices), that the different
+atoms of which matter is composed are, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+suggested in View Three, <i>apertures</i> of different
+complexity of outline&mdash;namely, those
+points at which Ether is absent or its density
+attenuated. Have we not apparently here
+another example of Positive and Negative,
+the Invisible the Ether, as the Real, and the
+Visible, the Material Universe, as its Negative
+the Unreal, similar to our list of Positives and
+Negatives in View One? Ether itself cannot
+be explained by any of the known dynamical
+laws, though it is probably the very root and
+cause of all of them; it is absolutely beyond
+our plane of perception or conception. We can
+only perceive certain effects of its presence
+when it comes into our limited world of consciousness,
+under the aspects of Time and Space&mdash;namely,
+in its movements, which we classify
+as forms of matter and modes of energy.</p>
+
+<p>It is only lately that we have been able
+to see clearly that the effects known to us
+as Light, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism
+are caused by pulsations or rills of different
+rapidity in the Ether (this will be referred
+to in a later View); it is also probably the
+cause of what we call Gravitation, and we shall
+see that the action of Gravitation may, after
+all, be not in the direction of a pull but must
+be looked upon as a pushing force. Gravitation
+is common to all matter; in common
+language, every particle attracts every other
+particle with a force directly proportional to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+its mass, and inversely to the square of its
+distance; it is a very weak force compared
+with others we know, and difficult to measure
+except when a large mass of matter is involved.
+Perhaps this will be clearer, and not
+far from the truth, if I say that the force of
+Gravitation exerted between two masses of
+matter compared with that which we find
+acting between the constituents of matter&mdash;namely,
+in chemical affinity, is comparable to
+the difference existing between the density
+of matter and the density of Ether.</p>
+
+<p>The latest calculation of the pressure of
+the Ether is almost inconceivable&mdash;namely,
+about 25,000 tons on the square inch, or
+3,600,000 tons on the square foot; it may
+well therefore be that, in the degree of permeability
+of matter by the Ether, when we
+can calculate it, will be found the explanation
+of what we call Gravitation between two
+masses; they are each shielding the other
+from Ether pressure, in its own direction,
+with an obstructive force equal to its mass.
+The reason why the earth appears to attract
+us, is that it is shielding us from a certain
+amount of pressure in its direction; and we
+know that we are also apparently attracting
+every particle of the earth with a force proportionate
+to our mass, because we are, however
+slightly, shielding the earth from pressure
+in our direction; if this is the true <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>explanation,
+Gravitation is a phenomenon of the
+Ether; it will be seen to be a movement of
+matter in the line of least pressure, and is
+therefore a push and not a pull.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now come down to what we understand
+better concerning the subject of this
+View.</p>
+
+<p>The question, "What is Truth?" "What is
+the Reality?" goes to the very root of the
+Riddle of the Universe. We are all trying
+in one direction or another to answer this
+question. As knowledge increases, old theories
+become untenable and have to be discarded,
+and, in their place, fresh ones are formulated
+to account for new phases of phenomena.
+There seems a general impression, among
+even thinking people, that scientists are
+wedded to, and always trying to find proofs
+for, their last theories, but this is not the
+case. The endeavour of the true seeker after
+truth is not so much to discover fresh facts
+which coincide with existing theories, as to
+find phenomena which cannot be explained
+thereby; there is indeed more joy over one
+fact which does not agree with preconceived
+theory, than over ninety-nine facts which
+are found to fall under that heading. In
+our everyday life we have become so accustomed
+to take for granted that what we see,
+hear, or feel by touch must be real, that it
+is difficult for the man in the street to realise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
+that our senses woefully deceive us; that perception
+without knowledge often leads us
+astray into false concepts, and these false
+concepts lead us into difficulties which require
+fresh concepts to be formed, and these
+again demand further and more exact knowledge
+to be applied to perceived phenomena.
+This necessity for overcoming difficulties is
+the greatest incentive we have for gaining
+fresh knowledge of our surroundings. Owing
+to the fact, as already pointed out, that our
+sense perceptions are based upon the appreciation
+of change or motion, and must therefore
+be limited in Time and Space, and that
+the trueness of our conceptions of the Reality
+is dependent upon the knowledge which can
+be brought to bear upon those perceptions,
+we are forced to postulate two aspects of the
+Universe; one of these is what may be called
+the Visible, Finite, or Physical, which indeed
+carries the appearance of Reality to our limited
+senses, though it has no real existence for us
+apart from those senses, and the other is
+that which transcends our utmost conception,
+which we call the Invisible, the Infinite,
+or Spiritual.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset of all investigation, we are
+forced to recognise that the only way we
+can approach conception of the Infinite is
+necessarily in the form of a negative, the
+negative applying to those things of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+we have cognisance; we carry our thought
+to the utmost limit possible with our present
+knowledge, and, when we have come to a
+standstill, we conceive the Infinite to be not
+that but something further on. As our knowledge
+increases by small steps, that something
+further on seems ever to be flying from our
+grasp by mighty strides, until we are forced
+to bow our heads and recognise that we are
+in the presence of, though still not in sight
+of, the Reality. A divine impulse is ever
+urging us forward to greater conceptions
+but shattering our hopes, and giving us a
+feeling akin to despair, if we arrogate to
+ourselves a greater power of conception than
+we have knowledge to sustain; we have to
+approach the study with, indeed, that feeling
+of elation which the consciousness of our
+origin and destiny wakes within us, giving
+us a feeling of certainty that we are capable,
+in the hereafter, of attaining to the highest
+summit of knowledge, but with that humility,
+in the present, which makes us acknowledge
+that he who knows most knows most how
+little he knows. In this frame of mind let
+us now examine our surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>We are living in a world of continuous
+and multitudinous changes; in fact, without
+change, we could have no cognisance of our
+surroundings, we should have no consciousness
+of living. We have become so accustomed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+to certain sensations that we are apt to take
+them, as facts, and scoff at the suggestion
+that they are non-realities. I propose, however,
+to show that what we perceive are not
+Realities, and true conception of our surroundings
+depends upon the knowledge which
+we can bring to bear to interpret the meaning
+of these sensations. It is only in response
+to our conscientious endeavours to form new
+concepts that knowledge is being daily revealed
+to us; the more we progress in
+Knowledge the more we see that Perception
+alone without Knowledge leads to false
+concepts, and these in their turn create
+fatal obstacles and difficulties to our progress
+towards the true appreciation of the Universe.
+Let me give a few examples.</p>
+
+<p>In early times the Sun and the Stars were
+seen to revolve round the Earth once every
+day, and, without Knowledge of Astronomy,
+this was taken for granted as an absolute
+fact, and was looked upon as a reality; later
+on, however, it was noted that the Stars
+never changed their relative positions; this
+necessitated a new concept, namely, that
+they were fixed on the inner surface of a
+huge globe, which was also revolving. This
+false concept brought other difficulties into
+play, the question arose as to what was
+beyond the globe, and also the difficulty
+that, when the Stars as well as the Sun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+were found to be at such enormous distances
+from the Earth, their rates of motion were
+quite inconceivable. Even in the case of the
+Sun the motion represents over twenty-five
+million miles per hour, and the apparent
+motion of the Stars is thousands of times
+faster than Light travels. These insuperable
+difficulties were not swept away until, by the
+advance of Knowledge, the falsity of Conception,
+based only upon appearance, was
+made manifest, and it was seen that it was
+the Earth which revolved and not the Stars.
+Even then, owing to its supposed antagonism
+to what was stated in the Bible, the new
+Conception was opposed with great bitterness,
+it being long looked upon and denounced
+as a sacrilegious invention, and anybody
+daring to promulgate such a doctrine was
+threatened with death.</p>
+
+<p>Our present Conception, that the Earth
+turns round on its axis once every day, and
+rolls in its orbit round the Sun once in
+every year, may be called a Reality to our
+finite Senses; but I shall show later on that,
+except for the finiteness of our senses and
+the imperfection of our Knowledge, the
+Concept is not a true one. With perfect
+Perception and perfect Knowledge we shall
+see that, apart from the two limitations or
+modes under which our physical senses act,
+there can be no such thing as Motion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+because the very essence of Motion is but
+the product of those limitations, namely,
+Time and Space.</p>
+
+<p>We are so accustomed to take everything
+for granted, that it may perhaps seem
+strange to question whether it can even be
+asserted that we have ever seen matter.
+Let us turn towards a common object in
+this room. We catch in our eyes the
+multitudinous impulses which are reflected
+from its surface under circumstances somewhat
+similar to those in which a cricketer
+"fields" a ball; he puts his hand in the
+way of the moving ball and catches it, and,
+knowing the distance of the batsman, he
+perhaps recognises, by the hard impact of
+the ball, that the batsman has strong muscles,
+but he cannot be said to <i>see</i> the batsman by
+that impact, nor can he gain thereby any
+idea as to his character. So it is with
+objective intuition; we direct our eyes
+towards an object, and catch thereby rays
+of light reflected from that object at different
+angles, and, by combining all these
+directions, we recognise <i>form</i>, and come to
+the conclusion that we are looking at, say,
+a chair. The eye also tells us that rays are
+coming in greater quantity from some parts
+of it, and we know that those parts are
+<i>polished</i>; the eye again catches rays giving
+higher or lower frequencies of vibration,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+and we call that <i>colour</i>; our eyes also tell
+us that it intercepts certain rays reflected
+from other objects in the room, and we
+know that it is not <i>transparent</i> to light;
+and those are our sight perceptions of a
+wooden chair.</p>
+
+<p>We may go a little further by "pushing,"
+when we know, by the amount of resistance
+compared with the power exerted, what
+force of gravity is being exerted by and on
+that chair, and we declare it heavy or light,
+but by these means we get no nearer to
+the knowledge of what matter is. By tests
+and reagents we can resolve wood into other
+forms which we call Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen,
+Nitrogen, &amp;c., which, because we cannot
+divide them into any other known substances,
+we call "Elements," but we can only look
+at these in the same way as we are looking
+at the chair. Chemists, however, carry us
+a little further, and show us that the Elementary
+substances have not only their likes
+and dislikes, but their passionate desires and
+lukewarmness to others of their ilk, and,
+when opportunity offers, they break up with
+great violence any ordinary friendship existing
+between them and their neighbours, and
+seize on their coveted prey with a strength
+of will surpassing anything experienced in
+the Organic World; and this new association
+they maintain, until they, in their turn, are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+dispossessed, or they encounter another substance
+of still greater attraction, when they
+leave their first love and take up new connections.</p>
+
+<p>I shall touch upon the subject of what
+matter is later on; meanwhile let us consider
+how, owing to our senses being limited
+by the considerations of Time and Space,
+we are surrounded by inconceivables, and
+yet it is those very inadequate conceptions
+which force us to acquire Knowledge; the
+greatest incentive we have to pursue our
+investigation is, as we have seen, the fact
+that Perception without sufficient Knowledge
+leads us into difficulties. Let me give
+you two instances of these inconceivables.
+Infinite Space is inconceivable by us, but it
+is also quite as inconceivable, or perhaps even
+more so, to think of Space being limited, and
+yet we are forced to declare that one of
+these two must be true. Again, Matter is
+either composed of ultimate bodies, of a
+certain size which cannot be divided, or is
+infinitely divisible; both of these are inconceivable,
+the latter for the same reason as
+that of the Infinity of Space, and the former
+because it is inconceivable that the ultimate
+body could not be divided into two parts by
+a sharp edge forced between its two sides,
+or by a stronger force than at present holds
+it together; it has indeed been suggested as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+an explanation that, if an atom could be
+divided, it might cease to be matter, that its
+parts would have no existence, but it is
+difficult to conceive how two nothings can
+form one something.</p>
+
+<p>Another example of Perception leading to
+a false Concept is our Sense of Pain; we
+apply a red-hot coal to the tip of one of our
+fingers and our Perception would have us
+believe that we feel intense pain at the point
+of contact, but we know this to be a false
+Concept, as it can be shown that the pain
+is only felt at the brain: there are in communication
+with different parts of our body
+small microscopical nerve threads, any of
+which may be severed with a pen-knife close
+to the base of the skull, with the result that
+no pain can then be felt, although the fingertip
+is just as much alive and is seen to be
+burning away.</p>
+
+<p>Another example is our Sense of Hearing.
+A musical sound is made up of a certain
+number of pushes in a second, but each push
+is silent. It is only, as we have seen, a musical
+sound to our Sense when the pushes recur
+at intervals of not more than the sixteenth
+part of a second. The prongs of a tuning-fork,
+vibrating 500 times per second, seem
+to be travelling very quickly, but are really
+only moving at the rate of 10 inches per
+second, or not much over half a mile per hour,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+when the amplitude is the hundredth part of
+an inch, which gives quite a loud sound.</p>
+
+<p>Light is also composed of rills in the Ether,
+but the rill itself is not Light, it is only Light
+when these rills strike, with a certain enormous
+frequency, on a special organ adapted
+for, we might say, counting these frequencies,
+and if these frequencies fall below that certain
+number, or above twice that number per
+second, there is no Sense of Sight.</p>
+
+<p>How few people have ever realised what a
+wonderful Counting Machine they possess in
+their organ of Sight! I think the best method
+I can adopt, to bring this clearly before you,
+is to take our tuning-fork, vibrating 500
+times per second, a rapidity which to some
+will be even difficult to comprehend, and then
+ask you to consider how long that fork must
+continue to vibrate before it has accomplished
+the full number of frequencies, which must
+necessarily impinge upon the eye in one
+second of time, before the phenomenon of
+sight becomes possible. That tuning-fork
+would have not only to continue its vibrations
+without diminution for seconds, minutes,
+hours, weeks, months, years, or hundreds of
+years, but for 30,000 years before it has
+accomplished the full number of pulsations
+which, as Ether waves, must strike the eye
+in one second of time, to give the impression
+of Light; the calculation is easy, the rills of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+Red Light are so small that 40,000 of these
+only cover one inch of length, and light
+travels 186,000 miles per second. If therefore
+the number of inches in 186,000 miles are
+multiplied by the 40,000, and the product is
+divided by the 500 times which the tuning-fork
+vibrates in one second, you have the
+number of seconds that tuning-fork must
+vibrate, before it has completed the number
+of impacts which, in one second of time, must
+fall on our retina to give us the impression of
+red light; and that tuning-fork would have
+to vibrate nearly twice as long, say 50,000
+years, to reach the number of impulses which
+strike the eye in one second of time and give
+the impression of violet light; and between
+these two limits are situated the colours&mdash;Orange,
+Yellow, Green, Blue, and Indigo.</p>
+
+<p>What a marvellous sense then is Sight,
+when we find that, not only can it grasp
+these innumerable vibrations, but can actually
+differentiate colours, appreciating as a different
+colour each increase of about one-tenth in
+these multitudinous frequencies; and it is
+principally by means of this Sense of Sight
+that we gain a knowledge of what is happening
+around us. And yet what strides we have
+made in the last two hundred years to improve
+upon that instrument! With all its
+wonderful capabilities, we shall see later on
+that the eye is a very imperfect instrument<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+for seeing very small objects, or even large
+objects when at a great distance. With the
+present compound Microscope, only developed
+in the last hundred years, and its apochromatic
+lenses, invented only in the last forty
+years, we are able to see and photograph
+objects of a minuteness immeasurably beyond
+the power of the human eye, and, with
+our telescopes, we can see and photograph
+stars far beyond the possibility of vision by
+the unaided eye; and yet, by the stellar
+spectroscope, we are actually able to examine
+and identify the very atoms of which that
+distant star is composed, or rather was composed
+hundreds of thousands of years ago;
+we can compare those atoms with the same
+atoms in our laboratories, and we find that,
+though the former are hundreds of thousands
+of years older than the latter, they show
+absolutely no signs of wear or loss of energy,
+though they have been for that enormous
+time, and are still, pulsating at the rate of
+not only millions but billions of times per
+second; and though the pulsations they emit
+have travelled across such a vast depth of
+space that the mind cannot even imagine the
+distance, there has not been any diminution
+in the numbers of pulsations per second, nor
+the slightest slowing down of the rate of
+flight at which they started on their journey
+from that far-off world. If there had been the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+<i>slightest</i> change we could detect it at once
+by means of the Spectroscope.</p>
+
+<p>With another instrument we are able, not
+only to hear but to converse audibly, as long
+as we like, with another human being a
+thousand miles away, who is also sitting
+comfortably in his own arm-chair and speaking
+to us with as much freedom as though we
+were both in the same room. With another
+instrument we can go further, and exchange
+thoughts, in a few seconds, with a being on
+the other side of the world, by means of a
+thin wire that is itself fixed, and does not
+move, and we have lately invented another
+means by which we can do the same, over
+several thousands of miles, without even a
+connecting wire. With another instrument
+we have gone far beyond the facility with
+which the Printing press enabled us to communicate
+our thoughts to our fellow human
+beings, we can actually imprint our very
+words and laughter upon a wax cylinder and
+send it to the antipodes, and our friends
+there, with a similar instrument, can not only
+hear and recognise our very voice, but can
+make that voice repeat our thoughts audibly,
+to a thousand others at the same time, and
+can repeat that process for hundreds of times
+without exhausting that voice. With another
+instrument we can depict on a film, not only
+the images of our friends but their very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+actions, which may also be sent to any
+distance, and the persons, thereon depicted,
+may be seen by their relatives alive and
+going about their everyday employments,
+with every movement exact to life. We can
+cross the Ocean against the wind and waves
+by means of harnessed sunbeams, without
+any exertion of our own, at the rate of an
+express train, which train, by the by, is also
+moved by the same means; we can dive to
+the bottom of the sea and journey there for
+hours, in perfect safety, without coming to
+the surface, and we are even developing
+wings, or their equivalent, which from immemorial
+tradition we were not to possess
+before we had finished doing our duty properly
+in this world and had gained admission to the
+next.</p>
+
+<p>We can do all these things, but how ignorant
+we still are in the commonest doings
+of Nature! By giving up our whole lifetime,
+and spending millions of pounds, we could
+never make a grain of wheat or an acorn, and
+wherever we turn we find ourselves confronted
+with mysteries beyond our power
+to explain from a finite material standpoint;
+even in material vibrations we meet a mystery
+almost beyond our power to comprehend.
+Take for instance those small insects, of the
+family of Grasshoppers, which make the
+prim&aelig;val woods of Central America give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+out a noise like the roaring of the sea, a
+wondrous sound never to be forgotten by
+those who have heard it. By means of a kind
+of rasp one of these insects creates a sound
+which Darwin states can be heard to the
+distance of one mile: these insects weigh less
+than the hundredth part of an ounce, and
+the instrument by which the noise is made,
+weighs much less than one-tenth of the
+total insect; it is less therefore than one
+thousandth part of an ounce in weight, and
+yet it is found, by calculation, that this small
+instrument is actually able to move at the
+enormous rate of a thousand vibrations per
+second and keep in motion for hours, from five
+to ten million tons of matter, and it does this
+so powerfully that every particle of that
+enormous bulk of matter gives out a sound
+audible to our ears. But even these millions
+of tons are not its limit of action, for we
+know that these vibrations must go on until,
+in the end, every particle of matter connected
+with this earth has been affected by each of
+those vibrations.</p>
+
+<p>All our difficulties of understanding the
+true meaning of these and other phenomena
+around us are, as I have already pointed out,
+caused by our inability to recognise that
+vibration or motion has no reality, it is a
+pseudo-conception arising from the fact that
+our senses are entirely dependent upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+two modes or limitations, Time and Space,
+for their very action, and that, as conceptional
+knowledge is based upon perceptional knowledge,
+our very consciousness of living is also
+dependent upon these same limitations. We
+have seen that Motion is nothing but the
+product of these two modes of perceptions,
+and, in my next Views, I shall examine these
+elusive limitations, these two mysteries of
+Time and Space, the forever and the never-ending;
+I shall trace them to the utmost
+limit of our conception, and try to gain thereby
+a clearer insight into the fact, not only
+that the whole Physical Universe is but a
+transient and Space-limited phenomenon, a
+thin film which our senses have erected and
+which divides us from the Reality, but that,
+if our power of <i>introspection</i> were fully developed,
+we should know that the Reality is
+nearer and dearer to us, and has much more
+to do with us, even in this life, than has the
+physical.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="VIEW_SIX" id="VIEW_SIX"></a>VIEW SIX</h3>
+
+<h2>SPACE</h2>
+
+
+<p>We have seen that our very thoughts, and
+therefore consciousness of living, are limited
+by Time and Space, but we cannot with the
+utmost endeavour conceive a limit to Time
+and Space; they are two twin sisters, alike
+in many respects but different in others, and
+we shall realise later on that they are readily
+interchangeable. The sensuous aspect of
+Motion is, as we have seen, the time that an
+object takes to go over a certain space&mdash;namely,
+what is called the rate at which it
+passes from one point to another, and we
+cannot imagine Motion unless it contains
+both of these modes in however small a
+quantity; we may have the greatest imaginable
+space traversed in a moment of time,
+or the smallest imaginable space covered in
+what may be called, for want of a better
+word, an eternity, but we still have to postulate
+what we call Motion; this, of course,
+follows from the fact that our thoughts require
+both these modes for forming concepts.
+If we compare our conception of
+Matter with that of Time and Space, we see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+that the two latter are not separately the
+object of any sense, but are the modes or
+conditions under which all our senses act, to
+a greater or less degree, and these conditions
+cannot therefore carry the same impression
+of objectivity to our senses as Matter does,
+except perhaps in the sense that all physical
+phenomena are simply motion, and motion
+is the product of both of these limitations
+but not of either of them separately.</p>
+
+<p>If we analyse our conceptions of Time and
+Space we seem forced to postulate that they
+are both infinitely divisible and infinitely extensible;
+they are both what is called continuous
+and not discrete, we cannot conceive
+any minimum in their division; both duration
+in Time and extension in Space can be
+reduced, as it were, to a mathematical point;
+nor can we conceive any maximum in either
+duration or extension. They are both therefore
+comprised in every conception possible
+to our consciousness; all parts of Time are
+time and all parts of Space are space; there
+are no holes, as it were, in Space which are
+not space, nor intervals in Time which are not
+time, they are both complete units; Space
+cannot be limited except by space, and Time
+cannot be limited except by time. So far
+they are alike, but, on the other hand, Space
+is comprised of three dimensions&mdash;namely,
+length, breadth, and depth, whereas Time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+has the appearance to us of comprising one
+dimension only&mdash;namely, length.</p>
+
+<p>Under our present conditions we can only
+think of one finite subject at a time, and,
+at that moment, all other subjects are cancelled.
+We can therefore only think of points
+in Time and Space as situated beyond, or in
+front of, other fixed points, which again must
+be followed by other points; we cannot fix a
+point in either so as to exclude the thought
+of a point beyond; we can only in fact examine
+them in a form of finite sequences.</p>
+
+<p>The Idea of Infinity, which we shall refer to
+in a later View and show to be a false conception,
+is therefore a necessary result of the
+limitation of our thoughts; our physical Ego
+cannot conceive beyond the Finite as long as
+we are conscious of living under present conditions.
+With every act of perception by our
+senses, we have therefore not only intuition
+of the Visible or Finite, but we become at the
+same moment aware of an Invisible Infinite
+beyond. Time appears to us as an inconceivable,
+intangible something, which gives us the
+impression of movement without anything
+that moves it. Space is an omnipresent, intangible,
+inconceivable nothing, outside of
+which nothing which has existence can be
+even thought to exist. Let us now try and
+get an insight into what we mean by perception
+of distance in space.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The appreciation of distance depends upon
+what is called <i>parallax</i>, or the apparent displacement
+of projectment of an object when
+seen by our two eyes separately. If you
+hold up a finger and look at it, with each
+eye separately, you will see that the finger
+is projected by each eye on to a different part
+of the background; the angle which the lines
+of sight, from each eye, make when they meet
+at the object, is called the angle of parallax,
+and the further the object is away the smaller
+that angle becomes; it is, in fact, the angle
+subtended, at the object, by the distance between
+the two eyes. As the object is brought
+nearer the eyes have to be inclined inwards
+to impinge on that object; the appreciation
+of distance then, in our sense of sight, is dependent
+upon our perception of the amount
+of inclination of those two lines of sight, and
+is therefore an acquired knowledge. The distance
+between the eyes is about 2-1/2 inches, and
+this is a very short base line upon which to
+estimate distance; in fact, without the help
+of perspective and known dimensions of surrounding
+objects, it is doubtful if anyone could
+by its means estimate distance beyond a few
+hundred yards. The object would, of course,
+also have to be an unknown one, as, otherwise,
+the converse of the above comes into
+play, and the distance could be estimated by
+the angle which the known diameter of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+object subtends at the eye; but this necessitates
+the size of the object being known beforehand
+and the employment of perspective.</p>
+
+<p>We can extend our perception of distances
+by, ourselves, moving from one place to
+another, gaining thereby a longer base line,
+and noting the displacement of projection of
+the object on a distant background; by that
+means, distance up to several miles can probably
+be appreciated. But, when we try to
+determine the distance of, say, the Moon
+(240,000 miles away), we are helpless, especially
+as we have no marked background, except
+in the case of occultations of the Sun or
+Stars. But the Astronomer at once comes
+to our aid; a distance of several miles is
+carefully measured on a level plane, and, by
+placing telescopes at the extremities of that
+known line, we can mark the inclination of
+those telescopes to each other when focussed
+upon a particular mountain peak on the
+moon; by this means we know the angle
+of parallax (180&deg; less the sum of the two
+angles of inclination), and, from this and
+our known length of base line, we can calculate
+the distance. When however we go
+a step further and attempt to calculate the
+distance of the Sun (93,000,000 miles), we find
+our last base line again absolutely inadequate.
+But the astronomer helps us again;
+we now separate our two telescopic eyes by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+the whole diameter of the earth (7900 miles);
+this is accomplished by taking from the Equator
+two simultaneous observations of the Sun, at
+its rising and setting; for when the Sun is
+setting, at say the Equinox, it is at that
+moment rising at exactly the other side of the
+earth; the inclination of the two telescopes,
+directed to a certain point on the Sun, will
+now give the distance approximately, though
+even this base line is too short for exactitude.
+When however we attempt to go
+still further and try to ascertain the distance
+of stars, which are a million times
+further off than the Sun, such a base line is
+quite out of the question. How then can we
+get a base line for our telescopes longer than
+the whole width of the earth? The Astronomer
+again provides the means. The earth takes
+one year to complete its vast orbit round
+the sun, and the diameter of that path is
+186,000,000 miles. This is made our new base
+line for separating our telescopes; an observation
+of a star is taken, say, to-day, and after
+waiting six months, to enable the earth to
+reach the other extremity of its vast orbit,
+another observation is taken, and yet it is
+found, as we shall see later on, that the distance
+of the nearest fixed star is so <i>stupendous</i>
+that even this base line, of 186,000,000 miles,
+shows absolutely no inclination between the
+two telescopes except in about a dozen cases,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+and even in those the angle of parallax, perceivable,
+is so minute that no reliable distance
+can be calculated; we can only say that the
+star is at least as far away as a certain distance,
+but it may be much farther.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now try by other means to get a
+clearer insight into the subject of this View,
+by tracing Space to the utmost limit of
+human conception. I think the best method
+I can adopt will be to take you, in imagination,
+for a journey as far as is possible by
+means of the best instruments at our disposal.</p>
+
+<p>We will start outwards from the Sun, and
+glance on our way at the worlds involved
+in the Solar System. Let us first understand
+what are the dimensions of our central
+Luminary. The distance of the Moon from
+the Earth is 240,000 miles, but the dimensions
+of the Sun are so great that, were the centre
+of the Sun placed where the centre of the
+Earth is, the surface of the Sun would not
+only extend as far as the Moon, but as far
+again on the other side, and that would give
+the radius only of the enormous circumference
+of the Sun; another way to understand its
+size is, to remember that, light travelling
+186,000 miles per second, would actually take
+five seconds to go across its disc. Let us now
+start outward from this vast mass. The
+first world we meet is the little planet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+Mercury, only 3000 miles in diameter, revolving
+round the Sun at a distance of
+36 million miles. We next come upon Venus,
+at a distance of 67 million miles. She is
+only 400 miles smaller in diameter than our
+Earth, and, with the dense atmosphere with
+which she is surrounded, animal and vegetable
+life similar to that on our Earth
+would be possible. Continuing our course,
+we arrive at our Earth, situated 93 million
+miles away from the Sun. Still speeding on,
+a further 50 million miles brings us to Mars,
+with a diameter of nearly 5000 miles, and
+accompanied by two miniature moons. The
+sight of this planet in a good instrument
+is most interesting. Ocean beds and continents
+are visible, and the telescope shows
+large tracts of snow, though not necessarily
+formed from water (perhaps carbonic dioxide),
+surrounding its polar regions, which increase
+considerably during the winter, and decrease
+during the summer seasons on that planet;
+but there are no canals! The fact that our
+largest and best telescopes failed to show
+these imaginary canals, was an insurmountable
+barrier to the advocates of these
+markings, but the "Canalites" made their
+contention ridiculous when they actually
+suggested that the reason for this failure to
+perceive them was that our telescopes were
+too large to see such small markings! How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+such a statement could have been made is
+incomprehensible on any supposition, as
+everybody knows that the whole use of
+size, or what is called aperture, in a telescope,
+is to help us to see more clearly small
+and faint markings.</p>
+
+<p>The distances we now have to travel
+become so great that I shall not attempt
+to give them; you can, however, form an
+idea of the tremendous spaces we are
+traversing when you consider that each
+successive planet is nearly double as far
+from the Sun as the preceding one.</p>
+
+<p>In the place where, by Bode's law, we
+should expect to have found the next world,
+we find a group of small planets, ranging
+in size from about 200 miles in diameter
+down to only a few hundred yards. They
+pass through nearly the same point once in
+each of their periods of revolution round
+the Sun, and it has been suggested that
+they are fragments of a great globe rent
+asunder by some mighty catastrophe; over
+400 of these little worlds have been discovered
+and have received names, or are
+known under certain numbers.</p>
+
+<p>We now continue our voyage over the
+next huge space and arrive at Jupiter, the
+largest and grandest of the planets. This
+world is more than 1000 times larger than
+our Earth, its circumference being actually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+greater than the distance from the Earth
+to the Moon. It has seven moons, and its
+year is about twelve times as long as ours.
+Pursuing our journey, we next come to
+Saturn. It is nearly as large as Jupiter,
+and has a huge ring of planetary matter
+revolving round it in addition to seven
+moons. Further and further we go, and
+the planets behind us are disappearing, and
+even the Sun is dwindling down to a mere
+speck; still we hurry on, and at last alight
+on another planet, Uranus, about sixty times
+larger than our Earth; we see moons in
+attendance, but they have scarcely any light
+to reflect; the Sun is only a star now; but
+we must hasten on deeper and deeper into
+space. We shall again, as formerly, have
+to go nearly as far beyond the last planet
+as that planet is from the Sun. The mind
+cannot grasp these huge distances. Still we
+travel on to the last planet, Neptune, revolving
+on its lonely orbit; sunk so deep
+into space that, though it rushes round the
+Sun at the rate of 22,000 miles per hour,
+it takes 164 of our years to complete one
+revolution. Now let us look back from this
+remote point. What do we see? One planet
+only, Uranus, is visible to the unaided eye;
+the giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have
+disappeared, and the Sun itself is now only
+a star; practically no heat, no light, all is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+darkness in this solitary world; the Sun is
+1000 times smaller than we see it from
+the earth, and gives, therefore, only one-thousandth
+part of its heat and light.
+Thus far have we gone, and, standing there
+at the enormous distance of 3,000,000,000
+miles from our starting-point, we can begin
+to comprehend the vast limits of the solar
+system; we can begin to understand the
+ways of this mighty family of planets and
+satellites. But let us not set up too small
+a standard whereby to measure the Infinity
+of Space. We shall find, as we go on,
+that this stupendous system is but an infinitesimal
+part of the whole universe.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now look forward along the path
+we are to take. We are standing on the
+outermost part of our Solar System, and
+there is no other planet towards which we
+can wing our flight; but all around are
+multitudes of stars, some shining with a
+brightness almost equal to what our Sun
+appears to give forth at that great distance,
+others hardly visible, but the smallest telescope
+increases their number enormously, and
+presents to our mind the appalling phantom
+of <i>immensity</i> in all its terror, standing there
+to withstand our next great step. How are
+we to continue on our journey when our
+very senses seem paralysed by this obstruction,
+and even imagination is powerless from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+utter loneliness? One guide only is there
+to help us, the messenger which flits from
+star to star, universe to universe; Light it
+is which will help us to appreciate even
+these bottomless depths. Now, Light travels
+186,000 miles per second, or 12 million miles
+every minute of time. It therefore takes
+only about four hours to traverse the huge
+distance between our Sun and Neptune,
+where we are now supposed to be standing;
+but to leap across the space separating us
+from the nearest star, it would require many
+years for Light, travelling at 186,000 miles
+every second of that time, to span the
+distance. There are, in fact, only fifteen
+stars in the whole heaven that could be
+reached, on the wings of Light, in sixteen
+years!</p>
+
+<p>Let us use this to continue our voyage.
+On a clear night the human eye can perceive
+thousands of stars, in all directions, scattered
+without any apparent order or design; but in
+one locality, forming a huge ring round the
+heavens, there is a misty zone called the
+Milky Way. Let us turn a telescope with a
+low aperture on this, and what a sight presents
+itself! Instead of mist, myriads of
+stars are now seen surrounded by nebulous
+haze. We put a higher aperture on, and thus
+pierce further and further into space; the
+haze is resolved into myriads more stars, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+more haze comes up from the deep beyond,
+showing that the visual ray was not yet strong
+enough to fathom the mighty distance; but let
+the full aperture be applied and mark the result.
+Mist and haze have disappeared; the telescope
+has pierced right through the stupendous distance,
+and only the vast abyss of space, boundless
+and unfathomable, is seen beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Let us pause here for a moment to think
+what we have done. Light, travelling with
+its enormous velocity, requires on an average
+considerably over ten years to traverse
+the distance between our Solar System
+and Stars of the first magnitude, but
+the dimensions of the Milky Way are built
+up on such a huge scale that to traverse
+the whole stratum would require us to pass
+about 500 stars, separated from each other
+by this same tremendous interval; 10,000
+years may therefore be computed as the
+shortest time which light, travelling with its
+enormous velocity, would take to sweep
+across the whole cluster, it being borne in
+mind that the Solar System is supposed to be
+located not far from the centre of this great
+star cluster, and that the cluster comprises all
+stars visible arrayed in a flat zone, the edges
+of which, where the stratum is deepest, being
+the locality of the Milky Way.</p>
+
+<p>Let us once more continue our journey.
+We have traversed a distance which even on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+the wings of light we could only accomplish
+in many thousands of years, and now stand
+on the outskirts of our great star cluster, in
+the same way, and I hope with the same
+aspirations, as when we paused the last time
+on the confines of our Solar System. Behind
+us are myriads of shining orbs, in such countless
+numbers that human thought cannot
+even suggest a limit, and yet each of these is
+a mighty globe like our Sun, the centre of a
+planetary system, dispensing light and heat
+under conditions similar to what we are accustomed
+to here. Let us, however, turn our face
+away from these clusterings of mighty suns,
+and look steadfastly forward into the unbroken
+darkness, and once more brace our nerves to
+face that terrible phantom&mdash;<i>Immensity</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We require now the most powerful instruments
+that science can put into our hands,
+and by their aid we will again essay to
+make another stride towards the appreciation
+of our subject. In what, to the unaided
+eye, was unbroken darkness, the telescope
+now enables us to discern a number of
+luminous points of haze, and towards one
+of these we continue our journey. The
+myriads of suns in our great star cluster are
+soon being left far behind; they shrink together,
+resolve themselves into haze, until the
+once glorious universe of countless millions
+of suns has dwindled down to a mere point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+light, almost invisible to the naked eye. But
+look forward: the luminous cloud to which we
+are urging our flight has expanded, until what,
+at one time, was a mere patch of brightness,
+has now swelled into a mighty star cluster;
+myriads of suns burst into sight&mdash;we have
+traversed a distance which even on the wings
+of light would take hundreds of thousands of
+years, and have reached the confines of another
+Milky Way as glorious and mighty as
+the one we have left; whose limits light
+would require 10,000 years to traverse; and
+yet, in whatever direction the telescope is
+placed, star clusters are to be seen strewn
+over the surface of the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take now the utmost limit of telescopic
+power in all directions. Where are we
+after all but in the centre of a sphere whose
+circumference is 100,000 times as far from us
+as one of the nearest fixed stars, a distance that
+light would take over a million years to traverse,
+and beyond whose circuit, infinity, boundless
+infinity, still stretches unfathomed as ever?
+We have made a step, indeed, but perhaps
+only towards acquaintance with a new order
+of infinitesimals. Once the distances of our
+Solar System seemed almost infinite quantities;
+compare them with the intervals between
+the fixed stars, and they become no
+quantities at all. And now when the spaces
+between the stars are contrasted with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+gulfs of dark spaces separating firmaments,
+they absolutely vanish away. Can the whole
+firmamental creation in its turn be nothing
+but a corner of some mightier scheme? But
+let us not go on to bewilderment: we have
+passed from planet to planet, star to star,
+universe to universe, and still infinite space
+extends for ever beyond our grasp. We have
+gone as far towards the infinite as our sight,
+aided by the most powerful telescope, can
+hope to go. Is there no way then by which
+we can continue our journey further towards
+the appreciation of this infinity? A few years
+ago we should probably have denied that it
+was possible for man to go further; but quite
+lately a new method of observation has been
+developed, and we will try and use this to
+continue our flight.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why, to our sight, an object
+becomes apparently smaller and smaller as it
+is withdrawn from the eye, until it at last
+disappears entirely, is that the eye is a very
+imperfect instrument for viewing objects at
+a great distance; it can only form an image
+of an object when that object is near enough
+to subtend a certain angle, or, in popular
+language, to show itself a certain size&mdash;the
+rays of light must converge&mdash;in fact, the eye
+cannot single out and appreciate parallel
+rays: could it do this, objects would not
+appear to grow smaller as they are removed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+A pencil might be removed to the Moon,
+240,000 miles away, and would still appear to
+the eye the same size as it does here close to
+you; with perfect vision there would be no
+such thing as perspective, but, with our
+present conditions of sight, the result would
+be inconvenient. We should never be able
+to see, at one and the same time, anything
+larger than the pupil of our eye. The
+beauties of the landscape would be gone, and
+our dearest friends would pass us unheeded
+and unseen; everyday life would resolve
+itself into a task similar to that of attempting
+to read our newspaper every morning
+by means of a powerful microscope; we
+should commence by getting on to a big
+black blotch, and, after wandering about for
+half an hour, we might perhaps then begin to
+find out that we were looking at the little letter
+"e," but anything like reading would be quite
+out of the question. We may, therefore,
+with our limited aperture of sight, be thankful
+that our eyes have the imperfection of
+not appreciating parallel rays. But we will
+now consider how this imperfection may be
+remedied by science.</p>
+
+<p>There are two different ways of doing
+this&mdash;viz., first, by increasing the amount
+of light received, by means of telescopes of
+great aperture; and secondly, by employing
+an artificial retina a thousand times more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+sensitive than the human. Now, the human
+retina receives the impression of what it
+looks at in a very minute fraction of a
+second, provided of course that the eye is
+properly focussed, and no further impression
+will be made by keeping the eye fixed on that
+object; but in celestial photography, when
+the telescope is turned into a camera, the
+sensitive plate, having received the impression
+in the first second, may be exposed not only
+for many seconds, or minutes, or hours, but
+for an aggregate of even days by re-exposure,
+every second of which time details on that
+plate new objects, sunk so deep in the vast
+depths of space as to be immeasurably beyond
+the power of the human eye, even
+through telescopes hundreds of times more
+powerful than the largest instruments that
+science has enabled us to construct; and yet
+here is laid before us a faithful chart, by
+means of which we may once more continue
+our journey through space. A short exposure
+will show us firmaments and nebul&aelig;
+just outside the range of our greatest telescopes,
+and every additional second extends
+our vision by such vast increases of distances
+that the brain reels at the thought; and yet,
+as we have seen, exposures of these sensitive
+plates may be, and have been, made not only
+for seconds, but for thousands and even
+hundreds of thousands of seconds! And still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+there is no end, no end where the weary mind
+can rest and contemplate; the finite mind of
+man can only cry out that there is no limit.
+In spite of all its strivings and groping by
+aid of speculative philosophy, the finite cannot
+attain to the Infinite, nor get any nearer to
+where the mighty sea of time breaks in noiseless
+waves on the dim shore of eternity.</p>
+
+<p>In this journey through space we have apparently
+exhausted our power of conception of
+the <i>extension</i> of this View. Although we have
+travelled in one direction only, our flight was
+applicable to every possible known direction
+<i>outwards</i> into the vast abyss of Infinite space.
+But there is another path, by which we can
+also travel with profit to our understanding
+of this subject, running in the opposite direction&mdash;namely,
+<i>inwards</i>. Just as the outward
+journey seemed to take us towards the appreciation
+of what our finite senses call the
+infinitely great, so does this other path appear
+to intend to infinity, in the opposite direction,
+leading us to appreciate what is called the
+infinitely small. We have already considered
+this direction in View One, under the heading
+of "Relativity," and by combining these
+two experiences, we may see still more
+clearly that our very conception of Space
+is one of the modes only under which
+motion or physical phenomena are presented
+to our consciousness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="VIEW_SEVEN" id="VIEW_SEVEN"></a>VIEW SEVEN</h3>
+
+<h2>TIME</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the last View I referred to the mysteries
+of Time and Space as twin-sisters; they have,
+as we saw, many aspects in common, and are
+the two modes or conditions under which all
+our senses act and by which our thoughts are
+limited. We arbitrarily divide each of these
+two mysteries into two parts, which parts are
+separated from each other, in either case, by a
+point which has, apparently, as its centre, our
+very consciousness of living. In the case of
+Space we call this point the <span class="smcap">Here</span>, and on one
+side of it, as we saw in our last View, we have
+extension towards the infinitely great, and,
+on the other, intension towards the infinitely
+small. In the case of Time we call the middle
+point the <span class="smcap">Now</span>, and on one side of this we
+place the duration of Time towards the
+future, and, on the other, we place what we
+call the duration of Time towards the past.
+In the case of Space we have the here and
+the <i>overthere</i>, equivalent in Time to the present
+and the <i>future</i>, but, though Time and
+Space are, as it were, twin-sisters, upon whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+combined action depends our very consciousness
+of living, we do not treat them both equally.</p>
+
+<p>It is a remarkable fact that the human
+race on this particular world has, in some
+inexplicable way, come to look upon the
+future as non-existent until we arrive at, and
+are able to perceive, with our senses, what
+is happening there; this is all the more inexplicable
+when we realise that in traversing
+Space we certainly have to <i>move</i> to get anywhere,
+but in traversing Time we have nothing
+equivalent to movement. This curious way
+of looking upon the future as non-existent,
+may be another sign that our race is still in its
+infancy, but is more probably caused by human
+beings having always hitherto looked upon
+Time not only as a reality but as actually
+moving or extending along a line from past
+to future eternity; whereas, under our present
+outlook, we have no consciousness of
+the existence of Time except by intervals
+between successive thoughts; our consciousness
+of the very existence of Time is based
+upon our Physical Ego repeating the <i>present</i>,
+by saying to itself the words, Now&mdash;Now&mdash;Now;
+but there is nothing that can be called
+movement in this, any more than if you are
+standing still and saying, Here&mdash;Here&mdash;Here&mdash;relating
+to Space. Time is, as it were,
+"marking time," and as the present in time
+is common to all space, Time is "marking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+time" everywhere, and the Now therefore
+includes the whole of the past and the whole
+of future eternity everywhere. We shall get
+a clearer understanding of this later on;
+meanwhile, we are face to face with the fact
+that we look upon the future as non-existent.</p>
+
+<p>This curious state of things is probably only
+accidental to the present stage of development
+of the human mind, and may, at any
+time, be rectified by perhaps either a slight
+rearrangement of that slender network of
+nerves upon which depends our faculty of
+thinking, or the joining together of a few
+microscopical filaments attached to the cells
+in the grey cortical layer, or even a single
+bridge thrown across from one convolution
+to another of the brain; a very slight alteration
+would open up to our consciousness the
+present existence of the future. The prime
+perceivable difference between our brains
+and those of the Apes and lower animals is
+the larger number of enfoldments, or convolutions,
+that are developed by the Human.
+Each new line of thought, or sequence of
+thoughts, requires, and is provided with, a
+new wrinkle or small convolution, and it
+probably only requires the attention of the
+human race to be fixed, for a time, on the
+consideration of this subject, to evolve the
+slight alteration, or bridge, necessary to
+enable us to see that the future, as also the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+past, does actually exist and is included in
+the Now. It may make this a little clearer
+to consider that if you maintain that, in
+traversing the duration of time, the future
+does not exist until you arrive there, you
+should also in fairness insist that, in travelling
+through the extension of Space, your destination,
+say Rome, does not exist until you
+get there and can see it with your senses.</p>
+
+<p>As we have, in the former six Views, been
+gradually mounting above the mists and
+illusions of our everyday thoughts, and can
+look through our Window with, I hope, a
+clearer vision, I shall venture in this present
+View to carry the subject of the <i>Future</i> still
+further, and show that, just as we have now
+before us and can read the papyri which
+were written 5000 years ago, so it is possible
+to conceive that books, written and being
+written and printed 5000 years hence, are
+<i>at present</i> in existence, and that it is even
+possible the human race has actually already
+read them; whether we shall be able to see
+them and read them in our own lifetime may
+be open to question; that may again depend
+upon the development of special cross-circuiting
+of brain filaments. Meanwhile, in order
+to carry our present View to the utmost limit
+of our conception, in a manner somewhat
+similar to what we did for Space, I will
+again ask you to join me in a thought-flight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+towards the appreciation of this second
+great Mystery.</p>
+
+<p>With this object in view we will first
+consider the human senses of sight and
+hearing, commencing with sound, or the
+vibrations which affect the tympanum of the
+human ear. Sound travels in air at about
+1130 feet per second, and if the vibrating
+body, giving out the sound, oscillates sixteen
+times in one second, it follows that,
+spreading over this 1130 feet, there will be
+sixteen waves, giving a length of about
+70 feet to each wave. This is the lowest
+sound that the human ear can appreciate
+as a musical note, and is, what may be
+called, the fourth Octave above one vibration
+in one second. When the number of
+vibrations in a second sinks below sixteen,
+the ear no longer appreciates them as a
+musical sound, but is able to hear them as
+separate vibrations or beats. The easiest
+way of illustrating this is by means of a
+revolving disc, with sixteen holes pierced at
+regular intervals round the edge, and a jet
+of high-pressure air, which is forced through
+each of the holes successively as they revolve.
+When the disc does not quite complete
+one revolution in a second, only fifteen
+puffs come to the ear in a second of time,
+and they are heard as puffs; but when the
+rate reaches one revolution in a second, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+sound, as if by magic, changes into the
+lowest musical sound. The same result may
+be obtained in a more pronounced form by
+means of explosions or pistol shots; when
+these are slow and heard separately, they
+are painful and almost unbearable to the
+ear, but, as soon as their rapidity, namely,
+at sixteen per second, gets beyond the power
+of the ear to differentiate between the explosions,
+the impression, as if by magic,
+changes into a continuous or musical sound,
+like a thirty-foot pipe note of an organ.</p>
+
+<p>To go back to our disc. The octave
+above this lowest musical note is obtained
+by doubling the rate of puffs, namely, by
+revolving the disc twice in one second, and
+the next octave by revolving four times in
+a second, and so on, doubling each time,
+until, at about the thirteenth octave, the
+sound has become so high that the majority
+of listeners cannot hear it, and fancy it must
+have stopped, whereas a few will still be
+saying: "How shrill it is!" At last, at
+about the fourteenth octave, when there are
+20,000 beats to the second and each wave is
+about half an inch long, it passes beyond
+human audition, and, although we can show
+that the air is still vibrating, all is silent,
+the human ear being incapable of hearing so
+many beats in a second even as a continuous
+sound, though I have evidence to show that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+many insects can hear probably considerably
+beyond this limit. It is, however, possible
+to make these higher vibrations perceptible
+to our senses by means of what are called
+sensitive flames: we can actually, by these,
+measure the length of these silent waves,
+and as we know the rate at which they
+travel, we can at once compute the number
+which occur in a second of time, and thus
+ascertain their pitch. By this means we can
+follow for about three more octaves above the
+audible limit, namely, up to 160,000 pulsations
+per second, with a length of wave of
+one-twelfth of an inch.</p>
+
+<p>Two and a half octaves above these numerically,
+<i>i.e.</i> at about the twentieth octave,
+we reach the frequency of Electro-Magnetic
+Rills, used by the Marconi System of wireless
+telegraphy, which pulsate at about 950,000
+per second, and have a wave-length of something
+like 1000 feet. The reason for this
+great increase in length of wave is caused
+by these frequencies being propagated in
+the Ether at the rate of 186,000 miles per
+second, instead of, as with sound waves, in
+the air, at only 1130 feet per second. We
+can trace these particular frequencies, called,
+after their discoverer, Hertzian waves, for
+about fifteen octaves, when we arrive at the
+frequency of 32,000,000,000 in a second, with
+a wave-length decreased to a quarter of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+inch; we can render the effect of these
+waves visible, but have no physical organ
+by which we can feel these pulsations. After
+this, however, we get into the region of
+frequencies which, though still of exactly
+the same kind, we know and can feel as
+Radiant heat; these are situated in the next
+fourteen octaves, and bring us up to those
+subtle frequencies which affect another of
+our sense organs, and which we appreciate
+as light; these we have already seen have
+the enormous frequency of 530,000,000,000,000
+pulsations per second for red light, up to
+930,000,000,000,000 per second for violet, and
+having wave-lengths so small that it takes
+40,000 and 70,000 of them respectively to
+cover one inch in length. There is only a
+little over half an octave that the eye can
+appreciate as light, and then all is darkness;
+but we can still go on further by the help
+of Science: beyond the violet we have the
+actinic or chemical rays, which are used in
+photography, and which enable us to trace
+the frequencies for a further two octaves.
+Beyond this we cannot pierce with our present
+knowledge; but there may be, and probably
+are, latent in our nature, senses which,
+properly developed, will be able to appreciate
+still more subtle vibrations, and organs
+which, perhaps, even now are being prepared
+for the reception of these influences.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We have no organs yet developed for receiving
+and appreciating what are called
+Wireless waves, but we have already been
+able to devise physical Receivers, of wonderful
+sensitiveness, for them and other waves of the
+same nature, such as those of Radiant heat.
+In the case of Radiant heat, the Bolometer
+invented by Professor Langley has been able
+to receive and record a change of temperature
+of the one millionth of a degree Centigrade,
+and can easily make visible the heat of a
+candle at a distance of one and a half miles.
+In wireless telegraphy also the Receiver,
+perfected by Marconi, is affected by rills,
+made by a splash of electric discharge, over
+3000 miles away. If our eyes were sensitive
+to these frequencies, both of which are
+composed, as is also light, of electro-magnetic
+rills, we could see anything that was happening
+anywhere in the world, for they go
+through matter as though it did not exist,
+as light passes through glass; indeed, if our
+region of Sight waves was only put an
+octave lower we could not use glass in our
+windows, it would be too opaque, we should
+be obliged to have our windows made of
+thin slabs of carbon or other substances
+permeable to Radiant heat waves. Science
+indeed steadily points to electricity and
+magnetism being a form of motion, and it
+may be that in these invisible rays we may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+some day discover the nature of those
+mysterious forces; and, even far beyond
+those, as suggested in View Four, we may
+in the not far distant future be able to
+appreciate Physical Life itself as a mode of
+frequency.</p>
+
+<p>We want, as it were, a special "Time Microscope,"
+which I have already referred to, to
+examine these vibrations, and a method similar
+to that already mentioned in "Space," under
+Celestial Photography, by which we may
+traverse and examine hundreds or thousands
+of octaves by each second of exposure; for,
+although the path extends to infinity, we have
+already arrived at the utmost limits of our
+finite senses, and find that after all we can
+only appreciate fifty-one octaves, a few inches
+only, as it were, along the line of Infinite
+extent, reaching from the finite up to the
+Reality; and even so it must be borne in mind
+that we have only travelled in one direction,
+whereas the path we have taken extends in
+the opposite direction also to infinity. We
+started with sixteen vibrations in a second,
+as the lowest number of beats we human
+beings can appreciate as a musical sound; let
+us now descend by octaves. The octave below
+is eight vibrations in a second, and there are
+probably many animals that can only hear
+these as a musical sound; the next octave is
+four, then two, and then one vibration in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+second. But we do not stop there; the octave
+below this is one vibration in two seconds,
+then in four seconds, eight seconds, sixteen
+seconds, and so on, until it is possible to conceive
+that even one frequency in a million
+years might be appreciated as a musical
+sound, or even as one of the colours of the
+spectrum, by a being whose time sensations
+were enormously extended in both directions,
+but still finite.</p>
+
+<p>Once more we must call a halt. Our finite
+minds become bewildered in attempting even
+to glance at these infinities of time.</p>
+
+<p>We measure space by miles, yards, feet, and
+inches; we measure time by years, hours,
+minutes, and seconds; and by these finite
+units we try to fathom these two marvellous
+infinities. With our greatest efforts of
+thought we find, however, that we can get
+relatively no distance whatever from the
+<span class="smcap">Here</span> of Space and the <span class="smcap">Now</span> of Time. It is
+true that the present, as a mathematical
+point, appears to be hurrying and bearing
+us with it along the line stretching from the
+past to future eternity, but in reality we get
+no further from the one nor nearer to the
+other. Let us change our view and examine
+this subject under a different aspect.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, look round a room and note the
+different objects to be seen. Even in a small
+room we do not see the objects as they really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+<i>are</i> at this instant, but only as they <i>were</i> at a
+certain fixed length of time ago. The present
+time is common to every point in space and
+each person is in the present, but only to his
+own perception; to everyone else in the room,
+each individual is, at this moment, being seen
+acting in the past; those objects which are
+further away are being seen further behind
+in point of time than those that are nearer;
+in fact, however near we are to an object, we
+can never see it as it is but only as it was.
+We are dealing with very minute differences
+here, they being based upon the rate at
+which light travels; but they are differences
+which are known with a wonderful degree of
+accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>We have here another example of how
+perception without knowledge leads to false
+concepts. When anyone views an extended
+landscape, he thinks that his sight shows him
+that the same point of Time, which he is
+experiencing, is common to every man, animal,
+plant, or material visible there, but we know
+now that he is seeing every part of that scene
+in the past compared with himself. Just as
+all objects therein are situated at separate
+distinct points of space, so to our vision the
+objects of that scene are acting or existing in
+different epochs of time. An Artist gives us
+on a flat surface a picture of that landscape,
+and his representations of all objects in that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+scene appear therefore to us as being in the
+same moment of Time, but to get that effect
+he has to draw objects at a distance smaller
+than those close at hand; a fly in the foreground
+has to be drawn larger than a horse
+supposed to be in the distance, though both
+are on the same flat surface; they have the
+same parallax and are therefore the same
+distance from the observer, and as this produces
+a similar image on our retina, we accept
+it though we know it is only a make-believe;
+it serves its purpose by giving us an impression
+on our retina which we have learnt to
+interpret as representing that landscape, but
+such a picture would indeed be a marvel of
+absurdity to a being who had perfect sight,
+such as we have already referred to, and
+who could appreciate parallel rays; in such
+a vision there would be no perspective, no
+vanishing point in perception.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us take a wider landscape. The
+Moon is 240,000 miles distant. We do not,
+therefore, ever see her as she is but as she
+was 1-1/4 seconds ago. In the same way we
+see the Sun as he was eight minutes ago, and
+we see Jupiter as he was nearly an hour ago.
+Let us look still further to one of the nearest
+fixed stars. We at this moment only see that
+star as it was more than ten years ago; that
+star may therefore have exploded or disappeared
+ten long years ago, and yet we still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+see it shining, and shall continue to see it
+<i>there</i> until the long line of light has run
+itself out; all around us, in fact, we see the
+appearance of blazing suns not as they are
+now but as they were thousands of years ago,
+and, by the aid of the telescope and of our
+sensitive plate, we are only now recording
+the light which started from clusters and
+firmaments probably millions of years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Now let us take the converse of this. To
+anybody on the moon at this moment the
+earth would be seen from there not as it is,
+but as it was 1-1/4 seconds ago, and from the
+sun as it was eight minutes ago, and if we
+were in Jupiter, and were looking back, we
+should, at this particular moment, be viewing
+what was happening on this earth, and seeing
+what each of us was doing an hour ago.
+Now let us go in imagination to one of the
+nearest fixed stars, and looking back we
+should see what was happening ten years
+ago; going still further to a far-off cluster,
+the light would only just now be arriving
+there, which started from the earth at the
+time when man first appeared; or we might
+go to so remote a distance that the scene
+of the formation of the Solar System would
+be only now arriving there, and all the events
+which have taken place from that remote
+time to the present would, as time rolled on,
+reach there in exactly the same succession as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+they have happened on this earth; and remember
+that we should be looking, from that
+great distance, at all these past events with
+the same intuitional advantage as though we
+were actually present here in time, for however
+near we are to an object, we never see it
+as it is but only as it was in the past.</p>
+
+<p>Let us but turn to any point of space and
+we shall find at each point, according to its
+remoteness, the actual scenes of the past
+being enacted, in fact it may be said that
+throughout infinite space every event in past
+eternity is now indelibly recorded.</p>
+
+<p>A murder committed hundreds of years
+ago, in a country house, may never have
+been found out, the criminal and his victim
+have alike turned to dust, the blood has been
+washed from the floor, the very house and its
+surroundings have crumbled and disappeared,
+and in their place a waving corn field is all
+that can be seen, but at this very moment if
+we were at a certain point in space, we should
+now be witnessing there, the whole actual
+living scene from beginning to end, as though
+we were present <i>here</i> hundreds of years ago:
+the murderer standing over his victim, the
+knife driven in and the blood gushing out.
+If we went further away we should at this
+same moment be seeing the criminal just
+arriving and knocking at the door of that
+house, then going upstairs into the room,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+and the same terrible scene with all its
+minuti&aelig; would again be enacted. From a
+point still further removed, we should now
+see him, say, having lunch at a country inn
+some miles away, concocting his villainy, then
+he would be seen walking across the fields
+towards the house, again knocking at the
+door, mounting the staircase, and once more
+would that murderous scene be enacted before
+our eyes, and so on for ever; the scene, with
+the house and its surroundings, have indeed
+been completely swept away from the present
+<i>here</i>, but the whole tragedy will always be
+acting in the future <i>there</i> in the presence of
+the Reality.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now come, in imagination, towards
+the earth, from some far-off cluster of stars.
+If we traverse the distance in one year, the
+whole of the events from the formation of
+this world would appear before us, only
+thousands of times quicker. Make the journey
+in a month, a day, an hour, a second,
+or a moment of time, and all past events,
+from the grandest to the most trivial, would
+be acted in an infinitesimal portion of time.</p>
+
+<p>When we have fully grasped this we recognise
+that Omniscience is synonymous with
+Omnipresence, and some may find, in this
+thought, a glimpse of that Great Book wherein
+are said to be registered every thought,
+word, and deed, which, in the direction of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+Reality, has helped to nourish, or, in the
+direction of the shadow, has tended to starve
+the personality of each one of us; for we
+know that every word we utter, or that has
+been uttered from the beginning of the world,
+and every motion of our brain connected with
+thought is indelibly imprinted upon every
+atom of matter. If our sense of perception
+were greatly increased we need not go to
+Palestine to see on the rocks there the
+impressions of the image of Christ and His
+disciples, or of the words they uttered as they
+passed by, but any stone by the wayside <i>here</i>
+would show His every action and resound
+with every word He uttered. In fact, every
+particle of matter on this earth is a witness
+to that which has happened, every point in
+space and every moment of time contains the
+history of the past in the smallest minuti&aelig;.
+The <i>Here</i>, embracing all space, and the <i>Now</i>,
+embracing all time, are the only realities to
+the Omniscient.</p>
+
+<p>Let us once more change the scene and we
+may grasp even more clearly that Time and
+Space are not realities but are only modes or
+conditions under which our material senses
+act. A tune may be played either a thousand
+times slower or a thousand times quicker, but
+it still remains the same tune, it contains the
+same sequence of notes and proportion in
+time, the only characteristics by which we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+recognise a tune. And so in the same way
+with our sense of sight, an event may be
+drawn out to a thousand times its length or
+acted a thousand times quicker, it is still the
+same scene. An insect vibrates its wings
+several thousands of times in a second and
+must be cognisant of each beat, whereas we
+have seen that we, with our Senses of Sight
+and Hearing, can only appreciate respectively
+at the most seven and sixteen vibrations in a
+second as separate beats. That insect must
+therefore be able to follow a flash of lightning
+under the conditions of a Time microscope
+magnifying a thousand times compared with
+our vision. The whole life of some of these
+insects extends over a few hours only, but
+owing to their quick unit of perception it is
+to them as full of detail as our life of seventy
+years; but to them there is no day and night,
+the Sun is always stationary in the Heavens,
+they can have no cognisance of Seasons.</p>
+
+<p>I have already referred in View One to
+the curious results of increasing our unit of
+perception by a Time Microscope, and I will
+now carry the investigation of this subject a
+step further.</p>
+
+<p>As conceptional knowledge is based on
+perceptional knowledge, and we can only
+perceive about six times per second, and as
+the principal forms of knowledge are gained
+through the eye, we are conceiving progress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+in phenomena under a very restricted outlook;
+we cannot recognise such slow motions
+as, for instance, the hour-hand of a watch,
+the growth of a tree, or rise of the tide,
+except by noting the change that has occurred
+after a long interval; there is therefore a
+whole world of events which we cannot see.
+Owing to this limit, in our unit of time
+perception, we also cannot perceive events
+which are taking place beyond a certain
+quickness, they become blurred and give the
+impression of continuity, and constitute another
+world of events lost to us. For the
+same reason there is a whole world of sensation
+lost to us by our limited unit of sound
+perception; we cannot follow separate sound-events
+if they occur quicker than sixteen in a
+second, beyond that they become blurred and
+give the impression of continuity. If, on the
+other hand, our units of perception were
+increased a thousandfold, as is probably the
+case with some insects, our conscious lives
+would contain a thousand more events than
+they do at present, and, as the consciousness
+of length of life is dependent upon the number
+of events that have been perceived, we should
+under these conditions have passed on this
+earth a life equivalent to, say, 70,000 years
+under our present restricted unit; every
+second of that long period would have been
+as full of events for us as is a second in our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+present life of seventy years. If, on the
+other hand, our unit of perception were
+decreased a thousandfold, our length of life,
+based upon perception of events, would be
+no longer than 25-1/2 of our present days; if
+our life were actually reduced to that period
+(so as to regain our present units of perception)
+we should be old and grey-headed before
+the sun had risen for the twenty-fifth time
+since our birth. If our unit of perception,
+with our length of life, were again reduced
+a thousandfold, the whole of our life of
+seventy years would now only be equal to
+forty-three minutes, and, in the whole of that
+life, we could only see the sun move ten degrees,
+namely, twenty of its own diameters in
+the heaven; if we were born, say, at noon on
+midsummer's day, we could never have any
+idea of anything but daytime, and neither
+our fathers, nor grandfathers, nor great-grandfathers
+for fifteen generations before
+them could have seen the sun rise; but there
+would have been a tradition, handed down
+from a far distant past generation, that a
+long time ago, beyond the memory of man,
+there was no sun at all, everything was pitch
+dark, and that time was called the "Great
+Shadow." If their records could have gone
+still further back for the same length of time
+they would have heard that, before the "Great
+Shadow," the sun was always shining in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+heavens, and that that great "Sun" day
+lasted twice as long as the great shadow.</p>
+
+<p>To understand more clearly this subject of
+Time perception let me put another aspect
+before you; we are looking, say, at an insect
+whose wings are beating several thousand
+times per second, and, with our vision limited
+to six times per second, it would be impossible
+to count the number of hairs on that wing, or
+to see which of those hairs were split, or were
+bent from the straight, but, if we travelled
+away from that insect into space at the rate
+of light, and were looking back, the present
+would then always be with us; the wing,
+although still vibrating at that enormous
+rate, would appear to be stationary, and so
+would every other moving thing on the
+earth, however quick its movement, and
+everything would continue in that motionless
+state for a million years, provided we continued
+our flight with the rays of light. If
+we travelled a little slower than light, say
+one minute less in a thousand years, the same
+scene would be presented to us, but, that
+which was acted upon this earth during one
+minute of Time, would now take a thousand
+years to accomplish; the swiftest railway
+train would appear standing still, it would
+take 5-3/4 days and nights to cover each inch of
+ground. It is thus possible to again understand
+how the flight of a bird or the lightning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
+flash might be examined under conditions of
+time which would lead to the discovery and
+tracing of even the principle of life itself.
+But let us go one step further and increase
+our flight beyond the rate at which light
+travels: scenes would now progress in the
+opposite direction to that which we are
+accustomed to; men would get out of bed
+and dress themselves at night and go to bed
+in the morning; old men would grow young
+again; tall trees would grow backwards and
+enter the earth, embedding themselves in the
+seed, and the seed would rise upwards to the
+branch that nourished it; the blood would
+turn into chyle, into food in the stomach,
+into the piece of meat, which would be transferred
+from the mouth to the plate, and
+would then be cut on to the joint, the joint
+would go down to the kitchen and be uncooked,
+would be carried to the butcher to
+be cut on to the carcase, and the animal
+would come to life and go out into the fields.
+Human bodies would be formed in the ground
+from the dust of the Earth, passing through
+what we call corruption to incorruption, the
+dead would be taken from their graves,
+brought back to their homes and put to bed;
+the Doctor would arrive, a miracle would
+happen, the patient would come to life;
+though this would hardly be a feather in the
+cap of the Doctor, as it would be seen that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+the medicine came out from the mouth of
+the patient, would be put into bottles to be
+thrown away, and it would be the Doctor
+who had to pay the Fee, and the bigger the
+Doctor the bigger the Fee he would have to
+pay. The future would in fact change places
+with the past, the effect would give birth to
+the cause as presented to our finite senses,
+and, though it is difficult to realise, it is
+indeed just as true, or untrue, that we come
+into this world through the grave, instead of
+in the way we are accustomed to, because to
+the Reality there is no change, the Here and
+the Now comprising all beginnings and ends,
+all causes and effects.</p>
+
+<p>In this flight on the wings of light we did
+not in reality depart in the least from the
+Here, because there is no such thing as space,
+it is all included in a mathematical point, the
+Here; and as the whole of time is included in
+the Now, the Future, however remote with
+all events therein, is existent in the present;
+the writers of books 5000 years hence are
+therefore writing them now, and the Human
+Race has read and is reading them <i>now</i>; we
+have always hitherto maintained that these
+things are only "going to happen" 5000 years
+hence, but in reality all events in the future
+are events in the same Now in which we are
+living at the present moment, and, as it is
+just as true, that time is flowing from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
+Future to the Present and on to the Past, as
+in the contrary direction (of our present outlook),
+so it is quite conceivable that we may
+some day, in the not far distant future, not
+only realise that the future exists already, but
+that we may even be able to handle and read
+the books written 5000 years hence, in a
+similar manner to that which enables us
+now to handle and read those which were
+written 5000 years ago.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+<h3><a name="VIEW_EIGHT" id="VIEW_EIGHT"></a>VIEW EIGHT</h3>
+
+<h2>CREATION</h2>
+
+
+<p>In our first View we saw the necessity of
+clearing away the weeds, the moss, and the
+lichen from the stem of our Real Personality
+before that Transcendental Self could send
+forth fresh buds for the advancement of
+<i>conscious</i> thought to higher levels; we found
+that the first step towards this clearing the
+approach to our window, was to recognise
+that a knowledge of the Truth was to be
+gained by the use of "Introspection" rather
+than by Intellectualism&mdash;to realise, in fact,
+that it is not we, with our intellects, who
+are looking out upon Nature, but that it is
+the Absolute looking into us and ever trying
+to teach us divine truths concerning the
+"Reality of Being." We saw that the phenomena,
+which our senses would have us believe
+to be the reality or solidity of our material
+surroundings, are illusions created by the
+fact that those senses are limited in their
+perception to that which is conditioned in
+Time and Space, necessitating <i>motion</i> as the
+basis of our perceptions, and that, when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+rate of motion exceeds our units of perception,
+we have the impression of continuity
+of events, which we accept as the objective
+existence of matter; we also saw that the
+duration of Time and extension of Space
+had no existence for us apart from those
+senses, our very consciousness of these two
+non-realities depending upon "relativity"&mdash;they
+could, in fact, be increased or diminished
+indefinitely, without our knowing that any
+change had been made.</p>
+
+<p>In our second View I attempted to take
+another step forward by showing how, by
+means of this "Introspection," it was even
+possible to understand that these two limitations
+might be eliminated from consciousness;
+we then realised that the whole Physical
+Universe is but a thin film, set up by our
+finite Senses, between our Consciousness and
+the "Reality of Being"; we saw that this
+could only be understood when, by the Mystical
+Sense, we realised that physical phenomena
+were but symbols or shadows of the
+Reality or Noumenon underlying them.</p>
+
+<p>In our next View I gave an example of the
+use of Mystical and Symbolical thought, leading,
+in the fourth View, to the subject of
+Everlasting Life and the Efficacy of Prayer,
+wherein I tried to show that by examining
+the phenomena of Nature, as depicted on the
+Physical Film, it is possible to reach a point<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+where we may even feel that we are actually listening
+to, or having divulged to us, the
+very thoughts of the Absolute. This led to
+the next View, where we examined the
+Physical Film itself, and this we analysed
+in the next two Views into those component
+parts, by means of which this Film presents
+to our senses the impression of the whole
+Physical Universe as an objective reality.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that it is the Invisible which
+is the Real, that the visible is only its
+shadow; that the Invisible, as distinguished
+from the Visible, is not in a place apart
+from the Physical, but is the Reality of which
+the visible constitutes the boundary lines or
+planes in our consciousness, as lines and
+planes are the visible boundaries of solids.
+The Kingdom of Heaven is not a locality but
+a <i>state</i> of Divine "loving and knowing communion";
+it is within us in the sense that
+we are interior and not exterior entities of
+the "Reality of Being."</p>
+
+<p>We have now arrived at a point where we
+can better realise that the Absolute cannot
+be localised or bounded by space, and must
+be Omnipresent&mdash;cannot be conditioned in
+Time, and must therefore be Omniscient&mdash;the
+Here comprising all Space, and the Now all
+Time in the "Reality of Being."</p>
+
+<p>With these conclusions before us I will
+ask you to form a new conception of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+Creation. All creation around us is the
+materialisation of the Thought of the Deity.
+He does not require time to think as we
+do&mdash;the whole of the Universe is therefore
+one instantaneous Thought of the Great
+Reality; the forming of this world and its
+destruction, the appearance of man, the
+birth and death of each one of us are
+absolutely at the same instant; it is only
+our finite minds which necessitate drawing
+this Thought out into a long line, and our
+want of knowledge and inability to grasp
+the whole, which force us to conceive that
+one event happened before or after another.
+In our finite way we examine and strive to
+understand this wondrous Thought, and at
+last, a Darwin, after a life spent in accumulating
+facts on this little isolated spot of
+the Universe, discovers what appears to be
+a law of sequence, and calls it the evolution
+theory; but this is probably only one of
+countless other modes by which the <i>intent</i>
+of that Thought is working towards completion,
+the apparent direction of certain
+lines on that great tracing board of the
+Creator, whereon is depicted the whole plan
+of His work.</p>
+
+<p>Let me give a simple example of Creation
+by a "word," which even our finite minds
+can grasp. When I utter the word <i>Cat</i>, it
+starts a practically instantaneous thought in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+your minds, the power of that thought being
+dependent upon the knowledge you have
+gained. If you analyse it you will find that,
+though practically instantaneous, it comprises
+all the sensations you have ever felt on that
+subject throughout your life. It commenced,
+perhaps, when you were only a year old,
+and, sitting on your mother's knee, your
+hand was made to stroke a kitten, and you
+felt it was soft and it gave you pleasure.
+Later on, when you were older, you had it
+in your arms, and you felt the first intimation
+of that wonderful "&#963;&#964;&#959;&#961;&#947;&#951;," which manifests
+itself in most children in their love for
+dolls; you found it delightful to cuddle and
+that it purred. Later on, you found that it
+played with a reel of cotton, and that it
+could scratch, make horrid noises, and countless
+other things, which not only make up
+the life of a cat, but connect it with the
+world around us. All these thousand and
+one facts are now drawn out, by analysis
+in Time and Space, into a long line, and
+are placed one in front of the other; but
+the thought started by the word Cat was a
+fair example of an instantaneous creation.</p>
+
+<p>One other example of an instantaneous
+thought. Let us suppose a large room fitted
+with, say, a hundred thousand volumes, comprising
+all the knowledge gained by every
+Specialist in every Science concerning the plan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+of Creation. In our finite minds, under the
+limits of Time and Space, the word representing
+the contents of that library would
+start, when uttered, an instantaneous thought
+analogous to that of our last example, according
+to the knowledge that each individual
+had already acquired of the contents of those
+books; but this knowledge had only been
+gained by taking down each volume separately
+and reading one book at a time, beginning
+at the beginning and taking each page and
+each word in succession, and a lifetime would
+not suffice to enable us to read them all;
+whereas, if our knowledge were <i>complete</i>,
+the word representing the contents of that
+room would start an instantaneous thought,
+comprising not only every book, but every
+chapter, page, word, letter, and punctuation
+contained in that library, or in one which
+comprised all knowledge from the beginning
+to the end of Time.</p>
+
+<p>It is a well-known fact that at the approach
+of death, when the perceptive senses are completely,
+or almost completely, in abeyance, as
+in the "self-forgetting" referred to in "The
+Vision," the duration of Time appears to have
+no reality; in numerous cases of drowning,
+where the person has been no more than
+one or two minutes under water, the whole
+of a long life, with every forgotten trivial
+occurrence and the multitude of thoughts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+attached thereto, have been brought vividly
+before the mind, as it were, instantaneously;
+those also who have been put under nitrous-oxide
+gas, though the life of the body is
+not affected, know how, with departure of
+sense perception, the sense of Time is completely
+annihilated. I have myself experimented
+under such conditions, and attempted
+to realise the duration of time by counting
+steadily, one, two, three, four, &amp;c., and had
+no knowledge whatever that between, say,
+"four" and "five" there was a complete
+hiatus of several minutes when, for me, time
+had vanished; I was still counting steadily
+when the an&aelig;sthetic had passed away, and
+it was quite impossible to realise that such
+time had elapsed, as I had not reached more
+than the twelfth count, whereas, according
+to the time expired, I should have reached
+the fiftieth or sixtieth. A number of examples
+of what may be called instantaneous thoughts
+created in the mind of a sleeper have been
+collected, and many of us have had similar
+experiences. I give one as an example:
+"Maury was ill in bed and dreamed of the
+French Revolution. Bloody scenes passed
+before him. He held long conversations with
+Robespierre, Marat, and other monsters of
+that time, was dragged before the tribunal,
+was condemned to death, and carried through
+a great crowd of people, bound to a plank.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+The guillotine severed his head from his
+shoulders. He woke with terror to find that
+a rail over the bed had got unfastened and
+had fallen upon his neck like a guillotine,
+and, as his mother who was sitting by him
+declared, at that very moment."</p>
+
+<p>In the above case the whole scene was
+started instantaneously in his brain, but in
+waking his mind analysed it in Time and
+Space and spread it out into a long historical
+record. The opposite process to this, namely,
+the building up a thought-picture, is what we
+do every day when we form and combine our
+conceptions under the dominion of Time and
+Space, until we have accumulated in our
+minds a multitude of concepts which form as
+it were a single subject, somewhat analogous
+to a painter when he has completed his
+picture, a writer his book, an architect his
+house, or even a mechanic his machine. An
+interesting example of a musician constructing
+a thought-picture is given by Mozart himself:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"When I am all right and in good spirits,
+either in a carriage or walking, and at night
+when I cannot sleep, thoughts come streaming
+in and at their best. Whence and how I
+know not, I cannot make out. The things
+which occur to me I keep in my head, and
+hum them also to myself&mdash;at least others have
+told me so. If I stick to it, there soon come,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+one after another, useful crumbs for the pie,
+according to counterpoint, harmony of the
+different instruments, &amp;c. This now inflames
+my soul, that is if I am not disturbed. Then
+it keeps on growing, and I keep on expanding
+it more distinctly, and the thing, however long
+it be, becomes indeed almost finished in my
+head, so that I can always survey it in spirit
+like a beautiful picture or a fine person, and
+also hear in imagination, not indeed successively,
+as by and by it must come out, but
+all together. That is a delight! All the invention
+and construction go on in me as in
+a fine strong dream, but the overhearing it
+all at once is still the best."</p></div>
+
+<p>With these illustrations before us may we
+not carry the analogy even further, and see
+that, as our conception of a Cat was made up
+of numberless small acquisitions of knowledge,
+some of which had to be discarded, or eliminated
+as errors, from our minds as our knowledge
+grew, and as each true fact became
+confirmed and impressed upon our brain it
+made itself a <i>permanent</i> record and became
+a centre to be used for gaining further knowledge;
+so in this wonderful Thought of the
+Great Reality, whose mind may be said to be
+omnipresent, each individual soul is a working
+unit in the plan of Creation; each unit
+as it gains a knowledge of the Will of the
+Deity forms for itself a <i>personality</i> helping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
+forward the work towards its fulfilment;
+without that knowledge there can be no
+personality, no unit in the great completed
+thought, no life hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>The True Life is fulfilled by him who has
+progressed so far in the knowledge of the
+Divine as to realise that he is the offspring of
+the Absolute, and therefore stands face to
+face with his Transcendental Personality, his
+&#935;&#961;&#953;&#963;&#964;&#959;&#962;, of which the Physical Ego is only
+the outline or boundary form visible in the
+physical universe. Each individual has free
+will to define his own boundaries, his own
+limitations; he builds up the walls of the
+house in which he lives, and he has power to
+brick up or open out the windows through
+which he may see the Truth; happy are those
+whose windows are open, but many, alas,
+choose to make the wall opaque by confining
+their attention to the physical shadows, or
+by strangling their spiritual intuition and
+preventing all advance in thought by blind
+subservience to obsolete dogmas.</p>
+
+<p>We are instruments of Divine purpose in
+the scheme of Creation. Each individual
+Physical Ego seems to be a Micro-Cosmos,
+imaging the Universe, the Macro-Cosmos.
+As the phagocytes, the policemen of the
+blood, flock to a breach in the human body
+to overcome any invasion of the enemy,
+whether poisons or bacteria, which would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+otherwise detract from that progress of cell
+formation upon which the scheme of human
+life depends, so do the true lovers of the
+Divine meet, by active resistance, any attempt
+of the enemies of the Good, Beautiful
+and True to retard the advancement of
+the scheme of Creation to its ultimate goal
+of perfection. The human body is composed
+of innumerable cells and several special
+colonies of cells, which we call organs, each
+of which has its special work to do, and
+secretes and discharges special fluids necessary
+for the welfare of the whole body. All
+of these cells are alive, and myriads of them
+are moving on their own account, apparently
+quite independent of, and in complete ignorance
+of, the feeling and perception of the
+whole body; they are, however, microscopical
+units of that body, and its welfare depends
+upon their contribution of work; it is, in fact,
+only through their ceaseless activities that the
+life in that body is maintained&mdash;a phenomenon
+analogous to that described in the simile of
+a Forest Tree in View Four. So are we
+integral parts of the scheme of Creation, and
+each act, either in accordance with the Divine
+purpose or the reverse, is helping forward or
+retarding the completion of that Thought,
+though like the cells we are ignorant of the
+end which Creation has in view.</p>
+
+<p>In this life we seem indeed to be only, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+it were, in embryo! The study of embryology
+has lately shown us clearly how the
+clothing of our Physical Ego has been formed,
+during the past millions of years, from the
+lowest forms of life. Each one of us has,
+during what may be called his lifetime, gone
+through all the different stages of evolutionary
+development which, since the beginning
+of life on this planet, have been employed
+to build up the human body in its present form.
+Embryology has shown us that, during gestation,
+each human embryo is a <i>replica</i> of the
+past; it passes through the different Imago
+stages from protoplasm to man, being unrecognisable
+at certain stages from a monad,
+an am&#339;ba, a fish with gills, a lizard, and a
+monkey with a tail and dense clothing of hair
+over the whole body. The human embryo has
+also, at an early stage, the thirteenth pair of
+ribs, which is found in lower animals and is
+still seen in a rudimentary form in anthropoid
+apes, but which disappears from the human
+embryo before birth. Each generation, under
+evolutionary development, will witness a further
+advancement in the clothing of the
+Physical Ego, until it may be conceived that
+a hundred thousand years hence our present
+stage of development will be seen only as one
+of the stages through which the embryo has
+to pass before birth at that distant time. May
+we not even glimpse at the future to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+evolution is carrying us? For in any of these
+stages we see organs forming whose use only
+comes into play long after that stage has been
+passed; so also, in the new rudimentary forms
+of thought which are started by every fresh
+discovery may we not some day be able to
+descry the heights which we are destined to
+attain if we earnestly seek after Truth?</p>
+
+<p>Radio-Activity has shown us that all forms
+of matter are but different combinations of
+one primal brick; by synthesis thousands of
+new forms of matter, unknown in Nature,
+are actually now being built up in our laboratories,
+and the number of such combinations
+cannot conceivably be limited; so do we also
+see that all the known forms of energy in
+nature are interchangeable, one with another,
+with exactly known equivalents and ratios,
+pointing to their being only different combinations
+of one unit of energy. If such is the
+case, it would seem to follow that there are
+countless other forces of which we at present
+have no cognisance, but which may at any
+time come within our field of investigation.</p>
+
+<p>In our life here we are steadily progressing
+from the lower to the higher form of being,
+from the purely Physical towards the Transcendental,
+each generation starting from a
+higher level; the boundary line between the
+Physical and Transcendental is being continually
+advanced towards the latter, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>
+may well be, as I have already suggested in
+View IV, that we are even now on the eve of
+discovering a new force, or aspect of Creation,
+which will open a wider view and give us a
+clearer knowledge of the goal which we are
+destined to reach hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>Each generation will, according to the
+teaching of Embryology, gradually come into
+the world at a higher stage of development
+than its predecessors, until the last Physical
+Ego, at its birth, will coincide with the final
+stage of development, when there will be no
+more physical clothing, the disintegration of
+Matter being completed, and, it can be pictured
+that at the final consummation, there
+will be nothing imperfect, no shadow left, that
+all will be spiritual. The object of Creation
+would therefore appear to be the population
+of the Real Universe with spiritual entities,
+until the whole Spiritual Universe will be
+taken up by Transcendental Personalities,
+which will be one with the Reality, and the
+Great Thought completed.</p>
+
+<p>Once more let us recognise that we are
+dependent for knowledge of surroundings
+upon our perception of movements, and that
+as our conceptional knowledge is based on
+perceptional knowledge, our thoughts are
+limited by Time and Space and can only
+deal with finite subjects. From this arises
+all our difficulty of understanding the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>Infinite;
+we cannot under our present conditions
+know the whole Truth; if we could
+do that we should be able, as it were, to
+look all round the subject, and Infinity
+would then be seen to be a pseudo-conception
+of our finite thoughts. We can only
+think of one finite subject at a time, and, at
+that moment, all other subjects are cancelled;
+we can, in fact, only think in sequences, and,
+taking the particular Infinities of duration
+and extension which we have been examining,
+we can only think of points in Time and
+Space as existing beyond or before other fixed
+points, which again must be followed by other
+points. We cannot fix a point in Time or
+Space so as to exclude the thought of a point
+beyond; the idea of an Infinite is therefore
+a necessary result of the limitation of our
+thoughts. The whole Truth is there before
+us, but we can only examine it in a form of
+finite sequences. A book contains a complete
+story, but we can only know that story by
+taking each word in succession and insisting
+that one word comes in front of another, and
+yet the story is lying before us complete.
+So with Creation; we are forced to look upon
+it as a long line going back to past eternity,
+and another long line going on to future eternity,
+and, with our limitations, we can only
+think of all events therein as happening
+in sequence; but eliminate Time and we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+become Omniscient, the whole of Creation
+would be before us as an Instantaneous
+Thought of God.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly under the dominion of Time
+we appear to be in a similar position to
+that of a being whose senses are limited to
+one-dimensional space&mdash;namely, to a line;
+we can only have cognisance of what is in
+front and behind, we have no knowledge of
+what is to the right or left, we appear to
+be limited to looking lengthwise in Time,
+whereas an Omniscient and Omnipresent
+Being looks at Time crosswise and sees it
+as a whole. A small light, when at rest, appears
+as a point of light, but when we apply
+quick motion, the product of Time and Space,
+to it, we get the appearance of a line of light,
+and this continuous line, formed by motion
+of a point, is, I think, analogous to the Physical
+Universe appearing to our finite senses as continuous
+in Time duration and Space extension,
+though really comprised in the Now and the
+Here, the whole of Creation being therefore
+an Instantaneous Thought.</p>
+
+<p>A consideration of our limitation in Space
+may also be useful to show how impossible
+it is for us to hope to see by our senses
+the Reality or by our thoughts to know
+the Spiritual. Our senses and thoughts are
+limited to a Space of three dimensions, and
+we can therefore only see or know that part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>
+of the Absolute which is or can be represented
+to us in three dimensions; a being
+whose senses were limited to a Universe of
+one dimension&mdash;namely, a <i>line</i>, could have
+no real knowledge of another being who was
+in a Universe of two dimensions&mdash;namely, a
+<i>flat surface</i>, except so far as the two-dimensional
+being could be represented within his
+line of sensation; so also the two-dimensional
+being, on a <i>plane</i>, could have no true knowledge
+of a being like ourselves in a Universe
+of three dimensions. To his thoughts, limited
+within two dimensions, a being like ourselves
+would be unthinkable, except so far as our
+nature could be made manifest on his plane;
+so can it be seen that we, limited by our finite
+senses to Time and Space, and our consciousness
+dependent upon that limited basis of
+thought, can only know that aspect of the
+Reality which can be manifested within that
+range of thought&mdash;namely, as Motion, or what
+we call physical phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>Let me attempt just one more view before
+we part, which may make this conception of
+Creation, as an Instantaneous Thought, even
+clearer to our finite senses. Imagine a Spectator
+endowed with the same sense of vision
+that we have&mdash;namely, limited to six units
+of perception per second, but able to look
+on, as it were, from outside the Universe,
+without himself being affected by any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>alteration
+that takes place in what may be
+called the flow of time. Consider some
+of the changes he would witness if Time were
+gradually eliminated from phenomena. The
+inhabitants, who at first were seen walking
+by slow, successive steps, would soon be seen
+gliding from place to place, the movement of
+their legs having passed beyond the sense of
+vision; the next stage would see the inhabitants
+unrecognisable as human beings when
+walking, although they would still be visible
+if they stood still, they would be moving too
+fast for sight, they would be seen only as
+lines or bands extended between their points
+of departure and destination; then day and
+night would be following each other so quickly
+that soon the day would only be a flicker of
+light, till, when the week became equal to one
+second of the Spectator's time, day and night
+would disappear as separate phenomena; then
+the week, the month, and the year would in
+turn flicker, solidify, or become continuous,
+and disappear with all the multitudinous
+events contained therein; human life would
+then be affected, would flicker, and follow
+the same course; to the Spectator the birth
+of each individual would become coincident
+with his death, and Nations would be seen to
+rise and progress towards their destination
+without any evidence of individual existence;
+the Human Race itself would next succumb,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+then the whole of planetary life, then the
+formation and destruction of Solar Systems,
+then the gathering together and dissemination
+of firmaments, and, finally, the beginning
+and end of the very Universe would coincide.
+Motion, or Physical phenomena, and therefore
+Matter, would vanish, and the Great instantaneous
+Thought be complete. We seem to
+have been able to glimpse from our Watch
+Tower, though through a glass darkly, the
+whole Truth, and to see that the Infinity of
+Time is a figment of our finite senses and is
+comprised in the Now. The same treatment,
+followed by the same result, may be applied
+to the Infinity of Space, and we again see
+that all Space is comprised in the Here; it
+is only by the conditions of our existence
+in this physical universe, <i>insisting</i> on our
+analysing everything in Time and Space that
+Motion or Change become the very basis of
+our Consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that the Idea of Infinity is
+a necessary result of our finite senses, that
+the only Reality is the Spiritual, the Here
+and the Now; that the Riddle of the Universe
+is not to be solved by the <i>Intellect</i> but
+by that method which is employed by those
+who are earnestly following the "Quest of
+the Grail"&mdash;namely, by realising that our
+True Personality or Transcendental Ego is an
+emanation from the Absolute; that we are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+one-with Him, and that it is by following the
+old Hellenic command "&#915;&#957;&#969;&#952;&#953; &#963;&#949;&#945;&#965;&#964;&#959;&#957;" (Know
+thyself)&mdash;namely, by <i>Introspection</i>, that we
+can hope to attain to the understanding of
+what is the Reality of Being.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center">FINIS</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<p class="center"><small>PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.</small></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h4>Transcriber's Notes</h4>
+
+<p>The accents for the Greek words have been ignored.</p>
+
+<p>Page 184: Typo &#915;&#957;&#969;&#952;&#949; (Gn&ocirc;the) changed to &#915;&#957;&#969;&#952;&#953; (Gn&ocirc;thi).</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Science and the Infinite, by Sydney T. Klein
+
+
+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: Science and the Infinite
+       or Through a Window in the Blank Wall
+
+
+Author: Sydney T. Klein
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 29, 2008  [eBook #25931]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Clarke, Diane Monico, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE
+
+Or
+
+Through a Window in the Blank Wall
+
+by
+
+SYDNEY T. KLEIN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "THE MYSTERY OF THE APEX"
+
+VIEW NO. 3]
+
+
+
+Second Impression
+
+London
+William Rider & Son, Limited
+Cathedral House, Paternoster Row, E.C.
+1917
+
+First Published November 1912
+Reprinted September 1917
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE RIGHT HON.
+
+ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+In venturing to prepare this little volume for the eyes of the reading
+public, I am fully aware of the difficulties of the subject and the
+inadequacy of the expressions I have been able to employ, but I have
+made the attempt at the request of those who have found consolation in
+some of the thoughts herein embodied; and the messages left by others
+before they passed away, embolden me to hope that many others may find
+in this volume some points of interest which will help them to
+appreciate better the "joys" which this life has for those who know
+how to look for them, and that perhaps others may even gain a clearer
+conception of that which awaits us beyond the Veil.
+
+Many of us allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the small worries and
+vexations of everyday life, clothing them with a reality quite
+disproportionate to their importance; we are too apt to look at them,
+as it were, through a powerful microscope, piling power upon power of
+magnification, until we have made mountains out of mole-hills,
+whereas if we treated them at their true value we should look at them
+through a telescope, in the reverse direction, when they would appear
+not only trivial, but would be seen to be too remote to have any
+material effect on our lives.
+
+The sub-title of this volume, and indeed its inception, arose from my
+lately coming in contact with one of those establishments which are
+doing for humanity what a mother's arms do for the child who is "sick
+unto death"--a beautiful home with cheerful rooms and cheerful nurses,
+where patients are tenderly cared for after severe operations, carried
+through by our most famous surgeons, some cases, alas, almost hopeless
+from the first. At the head of this establishment was one of those
+kindly self-abnegating personalities, whose loving sympathy and
+encouragement have comforted the dying and smoothed the path for many
+a weary pilgrim passing from this life to the next. With immense
+responsibilities on her shoulders, and after a day full of strenuous
+work, the head of this establishment would often sit through the night
+for hours by the couch of those whose lives could not possibly be
+prolonged for more than a few days. It was a few simple answers
+elicited by the questions brought to me from those poor sufferers, and
+the way such answers seemed to calm anxieties connected with the fear
+of death and to render the impenetrable Veil more transparent, which
+suggested the title, "Through a Window in the Blank Wall."
+
+I do not wish to lay claim to having made any startling discovery;
+similar thoughts, especially those concerning the non-reality of Time
+and Space, have no doubt occurred to others, but the whole problem
+"What is the Reality?" has been insistently pressing on me ever since
+I can remember, and I have tried to give here in simple colloquial
+language, without any attempt at rhetoric, the conclusions I have
+personally come to as to what is the Truth.
+
+The study of ancient and modern philosophic theories is useful as
+showing how impossible it is, for even the greatest thinkers of any
+age, to grasp the Absolute with our understanding or to measure the
+Infinite with our finite units. The propounders of all these theories
+seem to me to be, without exception, looking in the wrong direction
+for the "Reality of Being"; they are all arguing from the standpoint
+of "Intellectualism" in a similar manner to that of the "Theologians"
+referred to in View Three. Our latest expositor of this, M. Henri
+Bergson, bases his theory upon "Life" being the Reality; this he
+postulates is a "flowing" in Time, and _Movement_ therefore becomes
+for him the Reality; and yet we know that Motion is but the product
+of Time and Space, and these are only the two modes or _limitations_
+under which our senses act and upon which our very consciousness of
+living depends. Surely the Absolute cannot be localised, must be
+Omnipresent, and therefore independent of Space--cannot have a
+beginning or end, must be Omniscient, and therefore independent of
+Time; these two unrealities can therefore have no existence in
+"Reality of Being." If, then, there is any truth in "Intuition," we
+have, in this theory, the Reality, "Life," not only limited by the
+unreal but actually dependent for its very existence upon those
+limitations! In these Views I have attempted, on the contrary, to show
+that Time and Space have no existence apart from our Physical Senses;
+they are the modes only under which we appreciate motion, or what we
+call physical phenomena, and as our conceptional knowledge is based
+upon our perceptional knowledge, our very consciousness of living is
+limited by Time and Space, and we must surely therefore look behind
+consciousness itself, beyond the conditioning in Time and Space for
+the Reality of Being, otherwise _physical motion_, the product of
+these two limitations, would become the Reality of Being.
+
+I have also suggested reasons for looking upon physical life as a
+mode of frequency, akin to Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Chemical
+Action, the Vibration of a Tuning Fork, or the Swing of a Pendulum,
+and therefore a transient phenomenon having to do only with the Race;
+Life can under these conditions only be looked upon as a reality in
+the same sense in which all other forms of energy or matter appear
+real to our finite senses--namely, as the shadows or manifestations of
+the Absolute on our limited plane of Consciousness.
+
+However strongly I may be convinced--as I am--of the truth of my
+arguments, and however sure I may be that many others will not only
+agree with my conclusions, but will see that in "Introspection" rather
+than in "Intellectualism" lies the key to the Mystery, I do not wish
+to appear dogmatic in any of the suggestions contained in this volume;
+I am stating my own convictions, but at the same time I fully
+recognise that the presentation of the Absolute, with its infinite
+variety of aspects, must necessarily be different to every individual;
+we are all of the same genus, but each individual Ego is, as it were,
+a different species, and I do not therefore expect that my attempt to
+solve the Riddle of the Universe will appeal to all alike. It is,
+however, a true saying that "there is something to be learnt from
+every human being," and if I have by these suggestions succeeded in
+augmenting the number of those who have already started on the true
+"Quest," and have helped, however imperfectly, to enrich some lives
+with the "joy" of knowing their oneness with the All-loving, my aim
+has indeed been attained.
+
+                    SYDNEY T. KLEIN.
+
+  "HATHERLOW," REIGATE,
+    _1st June 1912._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                         PAGE
+    VIEW ONE
+
+CLEARING THE APPROACH                       1
+
+    VIEW TWO
+
+THE VISION                                 19
+
+    VIEW THREE
+
+MYSTICISM AND SYMBOLISM                    36
+
+    VIEW FOUR
+
+LOVE IN ACTION                             71
+
+    VIEW FIVE
+
+THE PHYSICAL FILM                         100
+
+    VIEW SIX
+
+SPACE                                     122
+
+    VIEW SEVEN
+
+TIME                                      141
+
+    VIEW EIGHT
+
+CREATION                                  165
+
+
+
+
+SCIENCE AND THE INFINITE
+
+
+
+
+VIEW ONE
+
+CLEARING THE APPROACH
+
+
+The proof that the Human Race is still in its infancy may be seen in
+the fact that we still require Symbolism to help us to maintain and
+carry forward abstract thought to higher levels, even as children
+require picture books for that purpose. The Glamour of Symbolism,
+Rapture of Music, and Ideal of Art, which come to us in later years,
+had their beginnings when to the child every blade of grass was a
+fairy tale and a grass plot a marvellous fairy forest. The great
+aspiration of the Human Race is to gain a knowledge of the Reality,
+the Noumenon behind the phenomenon; but the fact that from infancy we
+have been accustomed to confine our attention wholly to the objective,
+believing that to be the reality, has surrounded us with a concrete
+boundary wall through which we can only at times, with difficulty, get
+transient glimpses of that which is beyond. It is only in recent
+years that we have been able to realise that it is the Invisible which
+is the Real, that the visible is only its shadow or its manifestation
+in the Physical Universe, and that Time and Space have no existence
+apart from our physical senses, in short, that they are only the modes
+or limits under which those senses act or receive their impressions
+and by which they are necessarily rendered finite.
+
+The difficulty is that our physical senses only perceive the surface
+of our surroundings, and that we have hitherto been looking at the
+Woof of Nature as though it were the glass of a window covered with
+patterns, smudges, flies, &c., comprising all that we call physical
+phenomena and which, when analysed in terms of Time and Space, produce
+the appearance of succession and motion. It requires a keener
+perception, unbounded by these limitations, to look through the glass
+at the Reality which is beyond. I propose then in a series of short
+views, through a window not hitherto unshuttered and in a direction
+which I believe has not before been attempted, to lead those of my
+readers who have the necessary aspiration, patience, and, above all,
+strenuous persistence, to a watch-tower, situated well above the mists
+and illusions of our ordinary everyday thoughts, whence they will find
+it possible to get a glimpse of a strange new country, and where those
+who have by practice once attained to its clear perception, will be
+able to continue the study by themselves and thus get further insight
+into that wonderful region of Thought which I have called "True
+Occultism"--the knowledge of the Invisible which is the Real in place
+of the Visible which is only its shadow.
+
+Let us first try and understand the conditions under which phenomena
+are presented to us. In our perception of sight, we find the greater
+the light, the greater the shadow; a light placed over a table throws
+a shadow on the floor, though not sufficient to prevent our seeing the
+pattern of the carpet; increase the light and the shadow appears now
+so dark that no pattern or carpet can be seen; not that there is now
+less light under the table but the light above has to our sense of
+sight created or made manifest a greater darkness. Thus, throughout
+the Universe, as interpreted by our Physical Ego, we find phenomena
+ranging themselves under the form of positive and negative, the
+apparently Real and the Unreal.
+
+The Good making manifest its negative Evil.
+The Beautiful "    "      "     "     Ugly.
+The True      "    "      "     "     False.
+Knowledge     "    "      "     "     Ignorance.
+Light         "    "      "     "     Darkness.
+Heat          "    "      "     "     Cold.
+
+But the negatives have no real existence. As in the case of light we
+see that the shadow is only the absence of light, so the negative of
+Goodness, _i.e._ Evil, may in reality be looked upon as folly or
+wasting of opportunity for exercising the Good. Owing to their
+limitations our thoughts are based upon _relativity_, and it is hardly
+thinkable that we could, under our present conditions, have any
+cognisance of the positive without its negative; we shall in fact see
+later on that it is by examining the Physical, the negative or shadow,
+that we can best gain a knowledge of the Spiritual, the positive or
+real.
+
+The first step to a clear understanding of this, is to recognise that
+it is not we who are looking out upon Nature but that it is the
+Reality which is ever trying to enter and come into touch with us
+through our senses, and is persistently trying to waken within us a
+knowledge of the sublimest truths. It is difficult to realise this, as
+from infancy we have been accustomed to confine our attention wholly
+to the objective, believing that to be the reality.
+
+Let us try and grasp this fact. If we analyse our sense of sight, we
+find that the only impression made on our bodies by external objects
+is the image formed upon the retina; we have no cognisance of the
+separate electro-magnetic rills forming that image, which, reflected
+from all parts of an object, fall upon the eye at different angles,
+constituting form, and with different frequencies giving colour to
+that image; that image is only formed when we turn our eyes in the
+right direction to allow those rills to enter; and, whereas those
+rills are incessantly beating on the outside of our sense organ when
+the eyelid is closed, they can make no impression unless we allow them
+to enter by raising that shutter. It is not then any volition from
+within that goes out to seize upon and grasp the truths from Nature,
+but the phenomena are as it were forcing their way into our
+consciousness. This is more difficult to realise when the object is
+near to us, as we are apt to confound it with our sense of touch,
+which requires us to stretch out our hand to the object, but it is
+clearer when we take an object far away. In our telescopes we catch
+the rills of light which started from a star a thousand years ago and
+the image is still formed on the retina _now_ although those rills are
+in fact a thousand years old and, invisible to our unaided eye, have
+been falling upon mankind from the beginning of life on this globe,
+trying to get an entrance to consciousness. It was, however, only
+when, by evolution of thought, the knowledge of optics had produced
+the telescope that it became possible not only for that star to make
+itself known to us but to declare to us its distance, its size, and
+conditions of existence, and even the different elemental substances
+of which it was composed a thousand years ago. Yet, when we now allow
+its image to form on the retina, our consciousness insists on fixing
+its attention upon that star as an outside object, refusing to allow
+that it is only an image inside the eye and making it difficult to
+realise that that star may have disappeared and had no existence for
+the past 999 years, although in ordinary parlance we are looking at
+and seeing it there now.
+
+I have referred above to the sense of touch; it is, I think, clear
+that the first impression a child can have of sight must take the form
+of feeling the image on its retina, as though the object were actually
+inside the head, and it could have no idea that it was outside until,
+by touching with the hand, it would gradually learn by experience that
+the tangible outside object corresponded with the image located in the
+head; this is fully borne out by the testimony of men who, born blind,
+have, by an operation, received their sight late in life; in each case
+their first experience of seeing gave the impression that the object
+was touching the eye, and they were quite unable to recognise by sight
+an object such as a cup or plate or a round ball which they had
+commonly handled and knew perfectly well by touch; in fact, the idea
+of an object formed by the sense of touch is so absolutely different
+to that formed by the sense of sight that it would be impossible
+without past experience to conclude that the two sensations referred
+to one and the same object. The image formed on the retina has nothing
+in common with the sense of hardness, coldness, and weight experienced
+by touch, the only impression on the retina being that of colour or
+shade, and an outline; it is, however, hardly conceivable that even
+the outline of form would be recognised by the eye until touch had
+proved that form comprised also solidity and that the two ideas had
+certain motions in common both in duration in Time and extension in
+Space.
+
+Again, our senses of sight and hearing are alike based on the
+appreciation of frequencies of different rapidity; brightness and
+colour in light are equivalent to loudness and pitch in sound, but in
+sound we have no equivalent to perception of form or situation in
+space; it gives us no knowledge of the existence of objects when
+situated at great distances, nor can movements be followed even at
+short distances without having material contact, by means of the air,
+with the object; sight indeed appears to have to do with Space- and
+sound with Time-perception. In examining Nature by means of our
+senses we find we are so hemmed in by what we have always taken for
+granted and so bound down by modes of reasoning derived from what we
+have seen, heard, or felt in our daily life, that we are sadly
+hampered in our search after the truth. It is difficult to sweep the
+erroneous concepts aside and make a fresh start. In fact the great
+difficulty in studying the Reality underlying Nature is analogous to
+our inability to isolate and study the different sounds themselves
+which fall upon the ear, if our own language is being uttered, without
+being forced to consider the meaning we have always attached to those
+sounds.
+
+Let us now go back to the contention that it is not we who are looking
+out upon Nature but that our senses are being bombarded from without;
+we are living in a world of continuous and multitudinous changes, and
+as our senses require change or motion for their excitation, without
+those changes we could have no cognisance of our surroundings, we
+should have no consciousness of living; but if we base our thought
+entirely on sense perception, taking for granted that Time and Space
+have reality instead of recognising that they are only modes or limits
+under which those senses act, the Wall will ever remain opaque to us.
+Let us try and make this clearer. If we analyse the impression we
+receive from Motion, we find it is made up of the product of our two
+limitations, it is the time that an object takes to go over a certain
+space. We must come therefore to the conclusion also that Motion
+itself has no existence in reality apart from our senses. The result
+of not being able to appreciate this, is that the finiteness of our
+sense, caused by its dependence on Motion for excitation, surrounds us
+with illusions; one of these illusions is what we call solidity or
+continuity of sensation. If you hold a cannon-ball in your hand,
+perception by the sense of touch tells you that it is continuous, or
+what is called solid and hard; but it is not so in reality except as a
+concept limited by our finite senses. A fair analogy would be to liken
+it to a swarm of bees, for we know that it is composed of an immense
+number of independent atoms or molecules which are darting about, and
+circling round each other at an enormous speed but never touching;
+they are also pulsating at a definite enormous rate; we can at will
+increase their motion by heat or reduce by cold; if our touch
+perception were sensitive enough we should feel those motions and
+should not have the sensation of a solid. We have a similar case of
+limitation in our other senses, which we shall grasp better in another
+View through our Window. We can hear beats only up to fifteen in a
+second, beyond that number they give the sensation of a musical or
+continuous sound. In our sense of sight we can see pulsations or
+intermittent flashes up to only six in a second, beyond that number
+they give the sensation of a continuous light; a gas jet, if
+extinguished and relit six times in a second, can be seen to flicker,
+but beyond that rate is to our sense of sight a steady flame. The
+effect may also be shown by making the top of a match red-hot; when
+stationary or moving slowly, it is a point of light, but, moved
+quickly, it becomes a continuous line of light.
+
+Even apart from our senses we find Motion giving the characteristics
+of solidity: a wheel with only a few spokes, if rotated quickly
+enough, becomes quite impermeable to any substance, however small,
+thrown at it; a thin jet of water only half an inch in diameter, if
+discharged at great pressure equivalent to a column of water of 500
+metres, cannot be cut even with an axe, it resists as though it were
+made of the hardest steel; a thin cord, hanging from a vertical axis,
+and being revolved very quickly, becomes rigid, and if struck with a
+hammer it resists and resounds like a rod of wood; a thin chain and
+even a loop of string, if revolved at great speed over a vertical
+pulley, becomes rigid and, if allowed to escape from the pulley, will
+run along the ground as a hoop.
+
+Now with regard to this limit of time perception, which gives us the
+phenomenon of Solidity, I have lately been able to devise an
+arrangement which, acting as a microscope for Time, gives the
+sensation of an increase in sight perception up to several thousand
+units per second; it is based on the fact that though the eye can only
+see six times per second it can see for the one-millionth part of a
+second. An example of this is the well-known experiment of seeing a
+bullet in its flight; the bullet makes electrical connection resulting
+in a spark which illuminates the bullet when opposite the eye. The
+electrical spark exists only for the millionth of a second, and as the
+bullet in that time has no perceptible movement it is seen standing
+absolutely still with all marks upon it quite visible to the eye. When
+Sight perception is increased up to the rate at which time may be said
+to flow for any particular object we apparently get into the reality,
+the permanent _now_ where motion ceases to exist as a sensation. A
+tuning-fork, kept vibrating, by means of an electro-magnet, at 2000
+times per second, may to our sense of sight be gradually slowed down
+and, optically, brought absolutely to a standstill, for as long as
+desired, and the smallest irregularity of its surface may be minutely
+examined, though it continues to be heard and felt vibrating at that
+enormous rate. I have made several experiments in this direction, and
+some very curious facts connected with the sensation of Motion are
+brought to light by means of this increase in perceptive power. If the
+sense of sight is increased to 125 units per second, motion at the
+rate of one inch per second is barely visible; taking the common
+house-fly, whose wings vibrate about 400 times per second, its units
+of perception would appear to be about two-thirds of those beats, as I
+found it had no cognisance of Motion below two inches per second; you
+can put your finger on any fly provided you do not approach it faster
+than the above rate, it turns its head up to look at your finger but
+can see no motion in it; if you approach at over three inches per
+second it will always fly away before you are within a foot. I found
+that a dragon-fly, whose wings vibrate about 200 times per second, had
+only half the number of unit perceptions of the fly and could
+apparently see motion at about one inch per second but not under. In
+the converse of the above we have then the principle of a Microscope
+for Time, somewhat similar to the Microscope for Space of our
+laboratories. If our perception were increased sufficiently we could
+slow down any motion for examination, however rapid; there would be no
+difficulty in following a lightning flash or even arresting its
+visible motion for purposes of investigation without interfering with
+the natural sequence of cause and effect.
+
+If, on the other hand, our perception were decreased below six times
+per second, all motion would be accelerated, until with perception
+reduced to one unit in twenty-four hours the sun would appear only as
+a band across the sky, and we could not follow its motion any more
+than, as we have seen, we could follow the point of a red-hot match.
+If perception were reduced far enough, plants and trees would grow up
+visibly before our eyes. But we must leave this subject now, as this
+and the Time Microscope will be treated in a later View.
+
+Let us try and appreciate the fact that, under our present conditions,
+our conceptions of the immense and minute--namely, extension in Space,
+and that of quick and slow or duration in Time--are purely relative,
+and that from this arise those pseudo-conceptions which we call the
+infinitely extended and the infinitely lasting. Under our present
+limitations it is impossible for us to grasp the whole of any Truth,
+if we could do that, there would be no such mystery of Infinity to
+puzzle us; we could, as it were, see all around it, but that is again
+looking through another window. We are now considering _relativity_.
+If we cut off the very end of the point of the finest needle, we get
+so minute a particle of steel that it is hardly visible to the naked
+eye, and yet we know that that small speck contains not only millions
+but millions of millions of what are called atoms, all in intense
+motion and never touching each other. Try and conceive how small each
+of these atoms must be, and then try and grasp the fact, only lately
+proved by the discovery of Radio-activity, that each of these atoms is
+a great family made up of bodies analogous to the planets of our solar
+system and whose rate of motion is comparable only to that of Light.
+This is not theory, it is fact clearly demonstrated to us by the study
+of Radio-activity. Curiously enough, we know more about these bodies
+than we do of the atom itself; we actually know their size and weight
+and the speed with which they move. We do not yet know what is at the
+centre of this system, but we do know that each of these bodies is as
+far away from the centre as our planet is from the sun (93,000,000
+miles), and as far from its neighbours as our planet is, _relatively
+to its size_. And now, for the purpose of grasping this subject of
+relativity, I want you to ask yourself whether it is conceivable that
+a world, so small as those bodies are, could possibly be inhabited by
+sentient beings. Leaving you to form your own conclusion upon this
+point, I will ask you to follow me down another path leading to the
+elucidation of the same subject.
+
+If at this moment we and all our surroundings were reduced to half
+their size and everything were moving twice as quickly, we should
+absolutely have no cognisance of any change, neither could we possibly
+note any difference if everything were reduced to a hundredth part of
+the original size and were going a hundred times quicker; and even
+when reduced a thousand or a million times, or to such minuteness that
+the whole of our solar system with its revolving planets became no
+larger than one of those atoms in the needle point, and the whole of
+the starry universe therefore reduced to the size of the needle point,
+its millions of suns coinciding with the millions of planetary systems
+in that steel particle--our earth would still revolve round the sun,
+though no larger than one of those minute planetary particles and
+travelling at the rate of light, but we should still have no knowledge
+of any change, in fact, our life would go on as usual, though it was
+difficult a few minutes ago to think it conceivable that so small a
+globe could be inhabited by sentient beings.
+
+Once more let us consider that the change is made in the direction of
+expansion in space and slowing down of Time; let all our surroundings
+be so enormously increased that each of the atoms in the steel point
+became as large as our solar system and the steel point as large as
+the visible universe, each atom therefore taking the place of a star,
+and motion being reduced in proportion; it is still absolutely
+inconceivable that we could know of any change having taken place,
+though the length of our needle, which was at first, say, one inch,
+would now be so great that light, travelling 186,000 miles per second,
+would take 500,000 years to traverse its length, and the stature of
+each one of us would be so great that light would require over
+36,000,000 years to travel from head to foot, and that 36,000,000
+years would have to be multiplied 163,000,000 times, making 5860
+millions of millions of years to represent the time that an ordinary
+_sneeze_ would take under such conditions. And yet we have only gone
+towards the infinitely great exactly as far as we at first went
+towards the infinitely small, and it is still absolutely inconceivable
+that we could be conscious of any change, our everyday life would go
+on as usual, we should be quite oblivious to the fact that every
+second of time, with all its incidents and thoughts, had been
+lengthened to 5860 millions of millions of years. Do we not now begin
+to grasp the fact that immensity and minuteness in extension, and
+motion in duration, are figments only of our finite minds, that Time
+and Space have no objective reality apart from our physical senses,
+that they are only the modes under which we receive impressions of our
+surroundings? With perfect perception we should know that the only
+Reality is the Spiritual, the Here comprising all Space and the Now
+all Time.
+
+One more look through the window before we part, and we may see what I
+consider the greatest miracle in our everyday life: The Inner-self of
+each one of us, being part of the Reality or Spiritual, is independent
+of Space limitations and must therefore be _Omnipresent_, is
+independent of Time and therefore _Omniscient_. This inevitable
+deduction will be explained more fully in another View.
+
+It is from this store of knowledge that our Physical Ego is ever
+trying to win fresh forms of thought, and, in response to our
+persistent endeavours, that Inner-self, from time to time, buds out a
+new thought; the Physical Ego has already prepared the clothing with
+which that bud must be clad before it can come into conscious thought,
+because, as Max Mueller has shown us, we have to form words before we
+can think; so does the Physical Ego clothe that ethereal thought in
+physical language, and by means of its organ of speech it sends that
+thought forth into the air in the form of hundreds of thousands of
+vibrations of different shapes and sizes, some large, some small, some
+quick, some slow, travelling in all directions and filling the
+surrounding space; there is nothing in those vibrations but physical
+movement, but each separate movement is an integral part or thread of
+that clothing. Another Physical Ego receives these multitudinous
+vibrations by means of its sense organ, weaves them together into the
+same physical garment, and actually becomes possessed of that ethereal
+thought--an unexplained marvel, and probably the most wonderful
+occurrence in our daily existence, especially as it often enables the
+second Physical Ego to gain fresh knowledge from its own Real
+Personality. Now, in connection with this, consider the fact, already
+emphasized, that it is not we who are looking out upon Nature, but
+that it is the Reality which is ever trying to make itself known to us
+by bombarding our sense organs with the particular physical impulses
+to which those organs can respond, and, if we aspire to gain a
+knowledge of what is behind the physical, it is clear that all our
+endeavours must be towards weaving these impulses into garments and
+then learning from them the sublime Truths which the Reality is ever
+trying to divulge to us.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW TWO
+
+THE VISION
+
+
+"Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven," is in true consonance
+with the old philosophic dictum that "Everything in heaven must have
+its counterpart on earth"; in other words, the Reality has all Its
+multitudinous manifestations, every noumenon its phenomenon, in the
+physical universe. If we now examine those traits of our surroundings
+which affect us most, and best help us to reach the highest level of
+abstract thought of which our nature is capable, we find that it is
+the recognition of the Beauty (comprising also the Good and the True)
+in everything, which constitutes the power held over our minds by what
+we may call the Glamour of Symbolism, the Rapture of Music, and the
+Ideal of Art. But this influence is still only _sensuous_, it does not
+carry us beyond the extension of that Wonderment and Enchantment which
+had their birth with our first visit to Fairyland. This is, I think,
+evident, as Beauty is not the Reality; it is only what may be called
+the sensuous expression of the Reality or Spiritual on the physical
+plane. Although we have no words to express, nor indeed minds to
+grasp, the wonders and glories of that which is behind the Veil, it is
+possible for some of us to get a glimpse of it through our Window, and
+to those the following pages may be helpful, but to others the Wall
+will remain blank; and, here at the commencement, I should like to
+warn those who have not been through a certain experience, to which I
+shall refer, that no words of mine will open the Window for them; at
+the same time it is probable that many of my readers, who think at
+this stage that they have no knowledge of the subject of this View,
+will, as we proceed, recognise in the view through the Window
+something they have experienced more than once in their lifetime, and
+to these I address myself.
+
+Let us first try to understand what we know concerning ourselves. The
+longer one lives and the more one studies the mystery of "Being," the
+more one is forced to the conclusion that in every Human Being there
+are two Personalities, call them what you like--"the _Real_ and its
+Image," "the _Spiritual_ and its Material Shadow," or "the
+_Transcendental_ and its Physical Ego." The former in each of these
+duads is, as referred to in our first View, not conditioned in Time
+and Space, is independent of Extension and Duration, and must
+therefore be Omnipresent and Omniscient, whereas the latter, being
+subservient to Time and Space, can only think in finite words,
+requires succession of ideas to accumulate knowledge, is dependent on
+perception of movements for forming concepts of its surroundings, and,
+without this perception, it would have no knowledge of existence.
+
+Let us go back into the far distant past, before the frame and brain
+of what we now call the genus Homo was fully developed: he was then an
+animal pure and simple, conscious of living but knowing neither good
+nor evil; there was nothing in his thoughts more perfect than himself;
+it was the golden age of innocency; he was a being enjoying himself in
+a perfect state of nature with absolute freedom from responsibility of
+action. But, as ages rolled on, under the great law of evolution, his
+brain was enlarging and gradually being prepared for a great and
+wonderful event, which was to make an enormous change in his mode of
+living and his outlook on the future. As seeds may fall continually
+for thousands of years upon hard rock without being able to germinate,
+until gradually, by the disintegration of the rock, soil is formed,
+enabling the seed at last to take root; so for countless ages was the
+mind of that noble animal being prepared until, in the fulfilment of
+time, the Spiritual took root and he became a living soul. The change
+was marvellous; he was now aware of something higher and more perfect
+than himself, he found that he was able to form ideals above his
+ability to attain to, resulting in a sense of inferiority, akin to a
+"Fall"; he was conscious of the difference of Right and Wrong, and
+felt happy and blessed when he followed the Good, but ashamed and
+accursed when he chose the Evil; he became upright in stature, and
+able to communicate his thoughts and wishes to his fellows by means of
+language; and by feeling his freedom to choose between the Good,
+Beautiful, and True on one hand, and the Evil, Ugly, and False on the
+other, he became aware that he was responsible and answerable to a
+mysterious higher Being for his actions. This at once raised him far
+above other animals, and he gradually began to feel the presence
+within him of a wonderful power, the nucleus of that Transcendental
+Self which had taken root, and which, from that age to this, has urged
+Man ever forward first to form, and then struggle to attain, higher
+Ideals of Perfection. As a mountaineer who, with stern persistence,
+struggles upward from height to height, gaining at each step a clearer
+and broader view, so do we, as we progress in our struggle upwards,
+toward the understanding of Perfection, ever see more and more clearly
+that the Invisible is the Real, that the visible is only its shadow,
+that our Spiritual Personality is akin to that Great Reality, that we
+cannot search out and know that Personality; it is not an idea, it
+cannot be perceived by our senses, any more than we can see a sound by
+our sense of sight or measure an Infinity by our finite units; all we
+can so far do is to feel and mark its effect in guiding our Physical
+Ego to choose the real from the shadow, the plus from the minus,
+receiving back in some marvellous mode of reflex action the power to
+draw further nourishment from the Infinite. As that Inner Personality
+becomes more and more firmly established, higher ideals and knowledge
+of the Reality bud out, and, as these require the clothing of finite
+expressions before they can become part of our consciousness, so are
+they clothed by our Physical Ego and become forms of thought; and,
+although the Physical Ego is only the shadow or image, projected on
+the physical screen, of the Real Personality, we are able, by
+examining these emanations and marking their affinity to the Good, the
+Beautiful, and the True, to attain at times to more than transient
+glimpses of the loveliness of that which is behind the veil. As in a
+river flowing down to the sea, a small eddy, however small, once
+started with power to increase, may, if it continues in midstream,
+instead of getting entangled with the weeds and pebbles near the
+bank, gather to itself so large a volume of water, that, when it
+reaches the sea, it has become a great independent force; so is each
+of us endowed, as we come into this life, with a spark of the Great
+Reality, with potential force to draw from the Infinite in proportion
+to our conscientious endeavours to keep ourselves free from the
+deadening effects of mundane frivolities and enticements, turning our
+faces ever towards the light rather than to the shadow, until our
+personality becomes a permanent entity, commanding an individual
+existence when the physical clothing of this life is worn out, and for
+us all shadows disappear.
+
+If man became a conscious being on some such analogous lines as
+indicated, it is clear that he is, as it were, the offspring of two
+distinct natures, and subject to two widely separated influences; the
+Spiritual ever urging him towards improvement in the direction of the
+Real or Perfect, and the Physical or Animal instincts inviting him in
+the opposite direction. These latter instincts are not wrong in
+themselves, in a purely animal nature, but are made manifest as urging
+him in the direction of the shadow or Imperfect when they come in
+contact, and therefore in competition, with the Spiritual. Neither the
+Spiritual nor the Physical can be said to possess Free-will; they must
+work in opposite directions, but this competition for influence over
+our actions provides the basis for the exercise of man's
+Free-will--the choice between progression and stagnation. The
+Spiritual influence must conquer in the long run, as every step under
+that influence is a step towards the Real and can never be lost; the
+apparent steps in the other direction are only negative or retarding,
+and can have no real existence, except as a drag on the wheel which is
+always moving in the direction of Perfection, thus hindering the
+process of growth of the Personality.
+
+The stages in development of the Physical Ego and its final absorption
+in the Transcendental may perhaps be stated as follows--
+
+The Physical Ego loquitur:
+
+     "I become aware of being surrounded by phenomena, I will to
+     see--I perceive and wonder what is the meaning of
+     everything--I begin to think--I reflect by combining former
+     experiences--I am conscious that I am, and that I am free to
+     choose between Right and Wrong, but that I am responsible
+     for my actions to a Higher Power; that what I call 'I am' is
+     itself only the shadow, or in some incomprehensible sense
+     the breathing organ, of a wonderful divine Afflatus or Power
+     which is growing up within, or in intimate connection with
+     me, and which itself is akin to the Reality. Owing to my
+     senses being finite I cannot with my utmost thought form a
+     direct concept of that power, although I feel that it
+     comprises all that is good and real in me, and is in fact my
+     true personality; I am conscious of it ever urging me
+     forward towards the Good, Beautiful, and True, and that each
+     step I take in that direction (especially when taken in
+     opposition to the dictates of physical instincts) results in
+     a further growth of that Transcendental Self. With that
+     growth I recognise that it is steadily gaining power over my
+     thoughts and aspirations. I learn that the whole physical
+     Universe is a manifestation of the Will of the Spiritual,
+     that every phenomenon is as it were a sublime thought, that
+     it should be my greatest individual aspiration to try to
+     interpret those thoughts, or when, as it seems at present,
+     our stage in the evolution of thought is not far enough
+     advanced, I should during my short term of life do my best
+     to help forward the knowledge of the Good, Beautiful, and
+     True for those who come after. As I grow old the Real Ego in
+     me seems to be taking my place, the central activity of my
+     life is being shifted, as I feel I am growing in some way
+     independent of earthly desires and aspirations, and, when
+     the term of my temporary sojourn here draws to a close, I
+     feel myself slackening my hold of the physical until at last
+     I leave go entirely, and my physical clothing, having
+     fulfilled its use, drops off and passes away, carrying with
+     it all limitations of Time and Space. I awake as from a
+     dream to find my true heritage in the Spiritual Universe."
+
+If we try to form a conception of the stages of growth of the
+Transcendental Self it would, I think, be somewhat as follows:
+
+The first consciousness}
+  of the Spiritual     } I know that Love is the Summum Bonum.
+  entity would be....  }
+
+As it became nourished } I love.
+  it would be....      }
+
+Then....                 I love with my whole being.
+
+
+Then....                 I know that I am part of God and God is Love.
+
+
+
+And lastly....           I am perfected in Loving and Knowing.
+
+And the above is the best description I have been able to formulate of
+the development of the Mystical Sense by means of which we can get a
+view of the Reality through our Window. I will try to give my own
+experience of this, which will, I know, wake an echo in other hearts,
+as I have met those who have felt the same. From a child I always had
+an intense feeling that Love was the one thing above all worth having
+in life, and, as I grew older and became aware that my real self was
+akin to the Great Spirit, at certain times of elation or what might
+be called a kind of ecstasy, I had an overpowering sense of longing
+for union with the Reality, an intense love and craving to become one
+with the All-loving. When analysed later in life this was recognised
+as similar in kind, though different in degree, to the feeling which,
+when in the country, surrounded by charming scenery, wild flowers, the
+depths of a forest glade, or even the gentle splash of a mountain
+stream, makes one always want to open one's arms wide to embrace and
+hold fast the beautiful in Nature, as though one's Physical Ego, wooed
+by the Beautiful which is the sensuous (not sensual) expression of the
+Spiritual, longed to become one with the Physical, as the Personality
+or Transcendental Ego craves to become one with the Reality. It is the
+same intense feeling which makes a lover, looking into the eyes of his
+beloved, long to become united in the perfection of loving and
+knowing, to be one with that being in whom he has discovered a
+likeness akin to the highest ideal of which he himself is capable of
+forming a conception.
+
+As in heaven, so on earth the Physical Ego, though only a shadow, has
+in its sphere the same fundamental characteristic craving as the
+Transcendental Personality has for that which is akin to it, and it is
+this wonderful love that, as the old adage says, makes the world go
+round. It is the most powerful incentive on earth, and is implanted
+in our natures for the good and furtherance of the race; it is, in
+fact, the manifestation on the material plane of that craving of the
+Inner self for union with, and being perfected in loving and knowing,
+that Infinite Love of which it is itself the likeness. If we can
+realise that everything on the physical plane is a shadow, symbol, or
+manifestation of that which is in the Transcendental, the Mystical
+Sense, through contemplating these as symbols, enables us at certain
+times, alas! too seldom and fleeting in character, to get beyond the
+Physical; but those of my readers who have been _there_ will know how
+impossible it is to describe, in direct words, which would carry any
+meaning, either the path by which the experience is gained or a true
+account of the experience itself. I will try, however, and I think I
+may be able to lead my readers, by indirect inductive suggestion, to a
+view of even these difficult subjects, by using the knowledge we have
+already gained in our first view through this Window. If an artist
+were required to draw a representation of the Omniscient
+Transcendental Self, budding out new forms of thought in response to
+the conscientious efforts of, and the providing of suitable clothing
+by, the Physical Ego, as referred to in View No. 1, he would be
+obliged to make use of symbolic forms, and I want to make it quite
+clear that the description I am attempting must necessarily be clothed
+in symbolic language and reasoning, and must not be taken as in any
+way the key by which the door of "the sanctuary" may be opened; it is
+only possible by it to help the mind to grasp the fact that there is a
+Window through which such things may be seen, the rest depends upon
+the personality of the seer.
+
+Now bear in mind that it is not we who are looking out upon Nature,
+but that it is the Reality, which, by means of the physical, is
+persistently striving to enter into our consciousness, to tell us
+what? [Greek: Theos agape estin] (God is Love). As in Thompson's
+suggestive poem, "The Hound of Heaven"--the Hidden which desires to be
+found--the Reality is ever hunting us, and will never leave us till He
+has taught us to know and therefore to love Him, and, as seen in our
+first view, the first step is to try to see through the woof of nature
+to the Reality beyond. To this may also be added the attempt to hear
+the "silence" beyond the audible. Try now to look upon the whole
+"visible" as a background comprising landscape, sea, and sky--we shall
+get help in this direction in a later View--and then bring that
+background nearer and nearer to your consciousness. It requires
+practice, but it can be done; it may help you if you remember the
+fact that the whole of that visible scene is actually depicted on the
+_surface_ of your retina and _has no other existence for you_. The
+nearer you can get the background to approach, the more clearly you
+can see that the whole physical world of our senses is but a thin
+veil, a mere soap film, which at death is pricked and parts asunder,
+leaving us in the presence of the Reality underlying all phenomena.
+The same may be accomplished with the "audible," which is indeed part
+of the same physical film, though this is not at first easy to
+recognise. As pointed out in View No. 1, there is little in common
+between our sense of sight and hearing; but the chirp of birds, the
+hum of bees, the rustle of wind in the leaves, the ripple of a stream,
+the distant sound of sheep bells, and lowing of cattle form a
+background of sound which may be coaxed to approach you; the only
+knowledge you have of such sounds is their impression or image on the
+flat tympanum of your ear; they have _no other existence for you_; and
+again you may recognise that the physical is but a thin transient
+film. With the approach of the physical film all material sensation
+becomes as it were blurred, as near objects become when the eye looks
+at the horizon, and gradually escapes from consciousness.
+
+I have tried in the foregoing to suggest a method by which our Window
+may be unshuttered; it has necessarily been only an oblique view and
+clothed in symbolic phraseology, but those who have been able to grasp
+its meaning will now have attained to what may be called a state of
+_self-forgetting_, the silencing or quieting down of the Physical Ego;
+sight and sound perceptions have been put in the background of
+consciousness, and it becomes possible to worship or love the very
+essence of beauty without the distraction of sense analysis and
+synthesis or temptation to form intellectual conceptions.
+
+We are now prepared to attempt the last aspect of our view--namely,
+the description of what is experienced when the physical mists have
+been evaporated by the Mystical Sense. Again we find that no direct
+description is possible, language is absolutely inadequate to describe
+the unspeakable, communications have to be physically transmitted in
+words to which finite physical meanings have been allocated. The still
+small voice which may at times of Rapture be momentarily experienced
+in Music, is something much more wonderful than can be formed by
+sounds, and this perhaps comes nearest to the expression necessary for
+depicting the vision of the soul; but it cannot be held or described,
+it is quickly drowned by the physical sense of audition. As the
+Glamour of Symbolism can only be transmitted to one who has passed
+the portal of Symbolic Thought, the Rapture of Music can only be truly
+understood by one who has already experienced it, and the Ideal of Art
+requires a true artistic temperament to comprehend it, so it is, I
+believe, impossible to describe, with any chance of success, this
+wonderful experience to any but those whom Mr. A. C. Benson, in his
+_Secret of the Thread of Gold_, very aptly describes as having already
+entered "the Shrine." Those who have been _there_ will know that it is
+not at all equivalent to a vision, it is not anything which can be
+seen or heard or felt by touch; it is entirely independent of the
+physical senses; it is not Giving or Receiving, it is not even a
+receiving of some new knowledge from the Reality; it has nothing to do
+with thought or intellectual gymnastics; all such are seen to be but
+mist. The nearest description I can formulate is:--A wondrous feeling
+of perfect peace;--absolute rest from physical interference;--perfect
+contentment;--the sense of Being-one-with-the-Reality, carrying with
+it a knowledge that the Reality or Spiritual is nearer to us and has
+much more to do with us than the Physical has, if we could only see
+the truth and recognise its presence;--that there is no real
+death;--no finiteness and yet no Infinity;--that the Great Spirit
+cannot be localised or said to be anywhere, but that everywhere is
+God;--that the whole of what we call Creation is an instantaneous
+Thought of the Reality;--that it is only by the process of analysing
+in Time and Space that we imagine there is such a thing as succession
+of events;--that the only Reality is the _Spiritual_, the _Here_
+embracing all Space and the _Now_ embracing all Time.
+
+How few of us who are now drawing towards the end of our sojourn here,
+have not, at certain times during our lives, experienced something
+akin to what I have tried to put before you in the above! Does not a
+particular scent, a beautiful country scene, a phrase in music, the
+beauty or pathos in a picture, symbolic sculpture in a grand
+cathedral, or even a chance word spoken in our hearing, every now and
+then waken in our innermost consciousness an enchanting memory of some
+wonderful happy moment of the past when the sun seemed to have been
+shining more brightly, the birds singing more merrily, when everything
+in nature seemed more alive, and our very beings seemed wrapped up in
+an intense love of our surroundings? On those occasions we were not
+far from seeing behind the veil, though we did not recognise it at the
+time; but when we now look back, with experience gained by advancing
+years, and consider those visions of the past, we cannot help seeing
+that the physical film was to our eyes more transparent at those
+times, and the very joy of their remembrance seems to be giving us a
+prescience of that which we shall experience, when for each one of us
+the physical film is pricked and passes away like a scroll.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW THREE
+
+MYSTICISM AND SYMBOLISM
+
+
+"Who can doubt that the Mystics know more than the Theologians, and
+that the Poets know more than the Scientists? for this inner
+apprehension is surely the highest and truest kind of Knowledge." Such
+were the words written to me lately by a clergyman of great learning
+and of unimpeachable orthodoxy, whose mature knowledge of the Higher
+Mysteries has been gained by a life-long study of the Divine. In View
+No. 1 we saw that the first step towards opening our Window, was to
+grasp the fact that it is not we who are _looking out_ upon Nature,
+but that it is the Reality which is ever trying to enter and to _come
+into_ touch with us, through our senses, and is persistently trying to
+wake within us a knowledge of the sublimest truths: but this has not
+yet been appreciated by the Theologian; he is looking _outwards_
+instead of _inwards_, and asks the question, based on _intellectual_
+conception, in the form "Can I find out the Absolute so that I may
+possess Him?" and the answer ever comes back, "_No_, because I am
+trying to storm the _Sanctuary_ of the Unthinkable, the Infinite, by
+means of a Ladder which cannot reach beyond our finite conceptions,
+and can deal therefore only with the shadows, cast by the outlying
+ramparts, upon our physical plane." An example of this is surely seen
+in the lecture lately delivered by the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Gore) to
+the University of Oxford (13th February 1912, reported in the
+_Guardian_ of 16th February), when he made the statement that the
+greatest difficulty we have is to recognise that the Absolute is a God
+of Love. His exact words were: "I believe that there are a great many
+of us who know, perhaps from bitter experience, that whatever
+difficulties there are about religious belief are difficulties about
+believing in a God of Love; whatever is our experience, and however
+sunny is our disposition, any steady thinking will make it apparent
+that thought, apart from the Christian revelation, presumed and
+accepted, or reflected unconsciously, has never got at it, and even
+after it has been in the world, thought is continually finding it hard
+to retain the idea of God the Creator, or the truth that God is Love,
+partly owing to the limitations of human thinking, partly, and even
+more, owing to the experience of man and of nature."
+
+On the other hand the Mystic, with _introspection_, asks the question
+in the form "Can the Absolute find me out and possess me and thus
+make me feel that that which is within me is akin to, is, in fact, a
+part of Him and that I am possessed thereby?" and the answer ever
+comes back from those who are on the true Quest:--"_Yes_; because the
+Unthinkable, the Hidden which desires to be found, is ever trying to
+come into our Consciousness to waken the knowledge that His
+_Sanctuary_, or what is called the Kingdom of Heaven, is within us,
+that we are not an external but an internal creation of the
+All-loving." Such a realisation is, as pointed out in "The Vision,"
+far above Analysis and Synthesis or Intellectual gymnastics, which can
+deal only with the finite and are seen to be but Mist. How many
+valuable thoughts are wrecked and lost from our inability to formulate
+and describe them intellectually, even in our own consciousness. We
+are too apt to lay the blame upon, and to doubt, the Truth of those
+conceptions, because we are unable to find words to express them; the
+very act of attempting to analyse such thoughts in Time and Space
+destroys our power of carrying them to higher levels. Those who have
+once realised that the knowledge of the Absolute is the true Divine
+Life within us, can, as we have seen, at certain times and under
+certain conditions, experience that wonderful joy of perception by
+means of what I have called the Eye of the Soul; but that is missed
+by those who are always asking questions, and arguing, about what that
+knowledge consists in; the command "Seek and ye shall find, knock and
+it shall be opened unto you, ask and it shall be given you," was not
+meant for the intellect but for the Heart, not for logical controversy
+but for inward discernment, not for physical enjoyment but for the
+nourishment of the Transcendental Ego. All things _may_ be possible to
+him that believeth, but how much more is this true of him who, as
+referred to in View No. 2, is perfected in "Loving and Knowing." The
+nearer we get to that consciousness of Being-one-with-the-Reality, the
+more we see and can meditate upon the wonderful "joy" which permeates
+all creation; but without that consciousness it is invisible, and the
+world is dark and evil and unloving, and to many, alas! appears more
+the handiwork of a Devil than of a God of Love.
+
+Mysticism is not, as the man in the street generally thinks, the study
+of the "Mysterious," but is the attempt to gain a knowledge of the
+Reality, the ultimate Truth in everything, especially the perception
+of that wonderful Transcendental Power which is growing up within, or
+in close connection with, each one of us. The study of the Physical
+Sciences, as also of the various forms of Religion around us, is
+useful and fascinating in the domain of "Intellectualism," but does
+not take us far towards the goal of our aspirations. I shall, however,
+attempt to show, in my next View, that by examining the phenomena of
+Nature and realising that they are symbols only of the Noumenon, the
+Reality, which is behind them, it is possible to reach a point where
+we may even feel that we are thinking, or having divulged to us, what
+may be called the very thoughts of the Absolute. We shall see that
+this can only be accomplished by first recognising that the Invisible
+is the Real, that the visible is only its shadow, that all our
+surroundings are but the images, or outlines, of the Reality cast on
+the Physical plane of our Senses; to accomplish this, we have to
+understand the use of _Symbolic_ Thought for sustaining and carrying
+conceptions to a higher level; because, as already explained, we can
+only express and, indeed, think of the Invisible or Infinite under
+terms of the Visible or Finite. Let me give you a glimpse at what may
+be called the "Glamour of Symbolism"; it is difficult to explain to
+those who have not yet thought of or felt it, but the following may be
+helpful:
+
+Think of the loveliest story or poem you have ever read, the most
+entrancing music you have ever heard, or the most beautiful paintings
+you have ever seen, and think how, at the end, you experienced a
+wonderful glow of enchantment with the concept as a whole, apart from
+specialising any particular character or event in the story, phrase in
+the music, or subject in the pictures; then do the same with one of
+those wonderful cathedrals of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, the
+epoch of that beautiful Gothic style which I shall show was founded
+upon the highest mystical form of Symbolism possible to those who
+lived at the then zenith of Mystical Thought in the history of the
+world. The number of cathedrals built during those three centuries was
+so prodigious that, without the documentary evidence which we have, it
+would be absolutely incredible. Every part of those buildings, even to
+the smallest decorations, was, as shown by any of the old writers on
+Religious Symbolism, such as Durandus, planned to symbolise some
+beautiful thought, aspiration, tradition, or religious belief. The
+highest Thinkers, Artists, Poets, Philosophers, and Mystics in those
+centuries became Architects, and, in pure contemplation of and love
+for the Divine, helped to beautify design by giving up their lives and
+energies to the work without reward. It was, in fact, at that period
+the surest means by which they could record their ideals and
+aspirations. Before the advent of the printing press, with its
+facilities for spreading knowledge broadcast, they appreciated that
+Tectonic Art and Iconography were the means by which they could best
+permanently record and teach their aspirations to the masses. Every
+beautiful thought found its expression in some symbol of artistic
+design. Each Cathedral was, in fact, a beautiful complete _story_,
+and, when this has been fully grasped, the enchantment of the whole,
+the thread of gold running through the whole of that wonderful pile,
+is what may be called the Glamour of Symbolism.
+
+For the last 400 years, Archaeologists, Architects, and others
+interested in the history of Tectonic art, have been trying without
+avail to discover what is called "the lost secret of Gothic
+Architecture"; even Sir Christopher Wren had a try and expressed his
+opinion that it was lost for ever. They were all looking in the wrong
+direction, confining themselves to the mists of physical intellectual
+perception, and could not get beyond that limited range of thought. I
+propose now, in illustration of this View, to show what this secret
+was. It has the making of a fascinating Romance; it is the most
+wonderful example of what I will call "the Evolution of Thought as
+depicted by Human strivings after the Transcendental in Mediaeval
+Mysticism." I shall give it in a brief form, touching only on those
+essential points which require a very slight knowledge of Geometry,
+but those interested in the subject may refer to _Ars Quatuor
+Coronatorum_ (vol. xxiii., 1910), where I have given the whole
+subject, _in extenso_, under the title "Magister Mathesios."
+
+To understand the subject it is necessary to recognise fully the place
+Geometry held, not only among Mediaeval Builders, but also in Classical
+times; it was recognised in those early times as the head of all the
+Sciences, and was the A, B, C of Hellenic Philosophy. Come back with
+me 2300 years, to the time when the "Greek Age of Reason" was at its
+zenith, and Plato, the greatest of the philosophers, was teaching at
+Athens, working thus, let it be known to his honour, solely for the
+love he bore to science, for he always taught gratuitously. What
+qualification was required of those who attended his Academy? Look up
+over the porch, and you will see written in large capitals these
+words:
+
+    [Greek: MEDEIS AGEOMETRETOS EISITO
+                 MOU TEN STEGEN.]
+
+"Let no one who is ignorant of Geometry enter my doors."
+
+At the root of Socratic teaching was the idea that wisdom is the
+attribute of the Godhead, and Plato, for twenty years the companion
+and most favoured pupil of Socrates, was imbued with that doctrine,
+and, having arrived at the conclusion that the impulse to find out
+TRUTH was the necessity of intellectual man, he saw in Geometry the
+keystone of all Knowledge, because, among all other channels of
+thought, it alone was the exponent of absolute and undeniable truth.
+He tells us that "Geometry rightly treated is the Knowledge of the
+Eternal"; and Plutarch gives us yet another instance of Plato's
+teaching concerning this subject, in which he looks upon God as the
+Great Architect, when he says, "Plato says that God is always
+geometrising." Holding, therefore, as Plato did, that God was a great
+Geometer, and that the aim of philosophy was the acquisition of a
+knowledge of the Eternal, it is natural that he should make a
+knowledge of Geometry imperative on those wishing to study philosophy.
+This was continued also by those philosophers who succeeded Plato in
+the management of the Academy, as we are told that Zenocrates turned
+away an applicant for admission, who knew no geometry, with the words:
+
+    [Greek: poreuou, labas gar ouk echeis tes philosophias.]
+
+"Depart, for thou hast not the _grip_ of philosophy."
+
+In connection with the idea that God was a Geometer, must be taken the
+contention held by the Egyptians, and after them the Greeks and Arabs,
+that the Right-Angled Triangle symbolised the nature of the Universe;
+it was called the law of the three squares, because in every
+Right-Angled Triangle, as expounded by the Pythagorean Theorem, the
+squares, formed on the two sides containing the Right Angle, must
+together be exactly equal to the square on the third side, whatever
+the shape of the triangle may be. The Right Angle at an early date
+gave its name to the odd numbers, which were called, by the Greeks,
+gnomonic numbers, as personifying the male sex, and the Right-Angled
+Triangle was also called the Nuptial Figure, or Marriage, the
+Pythagorean Theorem receiving the name, [Greek: to theorema tes
+nymphes] (the Theorem of the Bride). Plutarch, in his _Osiris and
+Isis_, tells us in explanation of this, "The Egyptians imagined the
+nature of the Universe like this most beautiful triangle, as Plato
+also seems to have done in his work on the _State_, when he sketches
+the picture of Matrimony under the form of a Right-Angled Triangle.
+That triangle contains one of the perpendiculars of three, the base of
+four, and the hypotenuse of five parts, the square of which is equal
+to the squares of those sides containing the right angle. The
+perpendicular (three) is the Male, Osiris, the originating principle
+([Greek: arche]); the base (four) is the Female, Isis, the receptive
+principle ([Greek: hypodoche]); and the Hypotenuse (five) is the
+offspring of both, Horus, the product ([Greek: apotelesma])." The
+central feature of this triangle, upon which its property is based,
+is the Right Angle. The Greeks gave to this Right Angle the name of
+_Gnomon_ (meaning Knowledge), and it has ever since been, under the
+form of a carpenter's "square," the emblem or symbol of an Architect,
+the Master Mason, as personifying the Great Architect of the
+Universe--namely, He who has the knowledge of Geometry; and, as the
+Right-Angled Triangle represented the Universe, it was upon the
+_perfection_ of this Gnomon, or knowledge, that the very existence of
+the Universe depended, because the law of the three squares only holds
+good when that angle is perfect.
+
+The Secret handed down in the Craft, from Architect to Architect, was
+how to form a perfect right angle, or, as it was called, the "Square,"
+without possibility of Error, and this I have called "the Knowledge of
+the Square." Vitruvius, who, at the beginning of our Era, wrote his
+thesis on Tectonic art, which is still the text-book of Architecture
+for Ancient buildings, says Pythagoras taught his followers to form a
+gnomon, or square, as follows: "Take three rods, of three lengths,
+four lengths, and five lengths long; with these form a triangle, and,
+if each rod be squared, you have 9, 16, and 25, and the areas of the
+two former will be equal to the latter."
+
+Now let us come to the closing years of the tenth century. What a
+strange condition of the building craft was to be seen all over
+Europe; not a church was being built, nor had been built, for the last
+twenty years; the thousand years after Christ was drawing to its
+close, everybody was waiting for, and expecting, the world to come to
+an end; no new undertakings were begun. How much money went into the
+hands of the Monasteries and other Religious Houses, as peace
+offerings for the future welfare of the givers, nobody can say; it was
+probably enormous. When, however, the eleventh century was well
+started and the crisis was over, churches were built on a large scale,
+as shown by the numerous remains we have of Norman buildings of the
+last half eleventh century, and building was probably at its height
+about A.D. 1140 to 1150; but at this period an extraordinary thing
+happened. Hitherto the arches in the Norman style were round-headed
+and their columns enormously thick to carry them; but suddenly the
+style changed into the beautiful Gothic all over Europe. No single
+country can claim precedence, it was almost simultaneous; churches
+half finished in the round style were not only completed in the
+pointed, but had parts already built altered to the new style. What,
+then, determined this sudden change, resulting in a wonderful
+accession of beauty to Architectural design? We must go to the
+Monasteries and Religious Houses to find the explanation. These Houses
+had become the Patrons of Masonry, the providers of the funds for
+building Cathedrals, &c.; it naturally followed that, growing up
+alongside the Operative Science, there was a Religious symbolism being
+gradually formed which attached itself specially to the tools used by
+Masons, and thus formed the basis of Moral teaching--"to act on the
+Square," "to keep within the bounds of the Compasses," "to be Level in
+all your dealings," &c., &c. A wonderful, new, and Mystical form of
+Symbolism was opened to them with the advent of Geometry. The
+text-book of Geometry was unknown throughout the whole of Europe,
+omitting Spain, from the sixth to the beginning of the twelfth
+century; it was, as I have pointed out, well known in Greece before
+our Era, and continued to be so up to about the sixth century A.D. In
+the fourth century lived the Greek, Theon of Alexandria, so well known
+for his edition of Euclid's Elements, with notes, from which all Greek
+MSS. which first came to light in the sixteenth century were taken,
+being entitled [Greek: ek ton Theonos synousion], "from Theon's
+Lectures," and which he probably used as a text-book in his classes;
+but these MSS. had all been lost before the seventh century, and were
+not recovered again until the sixteenth century, when Simon Grynaeus,
+the greatest Greek scholar on the Continent, and companion of
+Melancthon and Luther, discovered a copy in Constantinople. Meanwhile,
+Theon's edition had been translated into Arabic, and thus preserved by
+the Mohammedans, and it was only at the beginning of the twelfth
+century that Athelard of Bath, who had been travelling in the East,
+came to study at Cordova, in Spain, and there found the Arabic MSS. of
+Euclid; these he translated into Latin, and this translation must have
+come into the hands of the patrons of the building craft at the very
+time when the Gothic style had its origin; it was the only Latin
+translation known in Europe, and was, some centuries later, the
+text-book of the first printed edition of Euclid.
+
+The Operative Masons had always formed their Right-Angled Triangles by
+means of mundane measures of 3, 4, and 5 units to each side
+respectively, as was done by the Harpedonaptae of Egypt 5000 years ago,
+and 2500 years later by Pythagoras, and this same method continues to
+be used to this day; but to those of a religious turn of mind, who had
+only lately become conversant with Euclid, and looked upon Geometry
+not only as the height of all learning, but, as they progressed in the
+knowledge of its bearing on the Science of building, actually made it
+synonymous with Tectonic Art (the old MSS. which have come down to us
+from that time _invariably_ state that "at the head of all the
+Sciences stands _Geometry which is Masonry_"), there must have come a
+wave of wonderful enthusiasm when they first discovered that the
+Geometrical way of creating a Right Angle, as given in Euclid I. ii.,
+was by means of an Equilateral Triangle, by joining the Apex with the
+centre of the base. This Equilateral Triangle was the earliest symbol
+we know of the Divine _Logos_ in connection with that wonderful figure
+the Vesica Piscis; and as the Bible declared that the Universe was
+created by the Logos (the Word), so the Square which represented the
+Universe was naturally created by means of the Equilateral Triangle. A
+great mystery this must have appeared to those who, like the Hellenic
+philosophers, postulated that everything on Earth has its counterpart
+in Heaven, and who, in their religious mysticism, were always looking
+for signs of the transcendental in their temporal surroundings.
+
+But in what awe and reverence must they have held Geometry, when they
+further found that the Equilateral Triangle, representing the Logos,
+was itself generated, as shown in the _first_ Problem of Euclid, upon
+which the whole Science of Geometry was therefore based, by the
+intersection of two Circles! These two Circles were held by the
+Greeks, at the beginning of our Era, to represent the Past and Future
+Eternities generating the Logos; but the whole figure (Euclid I. i.)
+was at the time we are now dealing with looked upon by Mediaeval
+Architects as representing the Three Divine _personae_, and that part,
+or _cavity_, of the figure which is bounded by the Arcs of the two
+circles, and which takes to itself one-third of each of the two
+generating circles (making its perifera exactly equal with that
+remaining to each of the two circles, all three therefore being
+_co-equal_), and in which the Equilateral Triangle is formed (_vide_
+frontispiece), was naturally held by the Mediaeval Architects, and
+indeed from earliest times, as the most sacred Christian
+Emblem--namely, that of _Regeneration_ or "New Birth."
+
+The Cavity is evidently referred to in the Mystical Gospel of St. John
+(iii. 16), in the question by and answer to Nicodemus, and it was the
+eye of the needle referred to in St. Mark x. 25, in answer to the
+question in verse 17, and again in St. Luke xviii. 25. In later ages
+this symbol was extensively used by the Christian Church to surround
+the "Soul of a Saint" after death (illustrated in _Magister
+Mathesios_). The date of the birth of a Saint was always given as the
+date on which he or she died and had been born again in the Spiritual
+Life, and the Saint was depicted in a Vesica Piscis, the vulva of the
+_Ruach_ or Holy Spirit, representing this new birth. To show the
+extraordinary reverence and high value attached to this symbol, it is
+only necessary to remember that, from the fourth century, when Theon
+of Alexandria lectured on Geometry, and onwards, all Seals of
+Colleges, Abbeys, Monasteries, and other religious communities, as
+well as of ecclesiastical persons, have been made invariably of this
+form, and they continue to be made so to this day. It was also in
+allusion to this most sacred ancient emblem that Tertullian, and other
+early Fathers, spoke of Christians as "Pisciculi." It was called the
+"Vesica Piscis" (Fish's Bladder), and named, no doubt, by the Greeks
+at the beginning of our Era, for the purpose of misleading the
+ignorant from the true meaning of the Figure.
+
+One can well understand the object which led the learned Rabbi
+Maimonides, the greatest savant of the Middle Ages, when addressing
+his pupils in the twelfth century, to command his hearers: "When you
+have discovered the meaning thereof, do not divulge it, because the
+people cannot philosophise nor understand that to the Infinite there
+is no such thing as Sex;" but later on the noted writer on Symbolism,
+Durandus, in the introduction to his book, is more explicit, and gives
+the real meaning as follows: "The Mystical Vesica Piscis ... wherein
+the Divinity and, more rarely, the Blessed Virgin are represented,
+has no reference, except in name, to a fish, but represents the
+Almond, the symbol of Virginity and self-production."
+
+The Vesica Piscis, and its name, is intimately connected with the
+discovery, by Augustus Caesar in the century preceding our Era, as
+narrated by Baronius, of a prophecy in one of the Sibylline books,
+foretelling "a great event coming to pass in the birth of One who
+should prove to be the true 'King of Kings,' and Augustus Caesar
+therefore dedicated an altar in his palace to this unknown God."
+Eusebius and St. Augustine inform us that the first letter of each
+line of the verses from the Erythrean Sibyl containing this prophecy,
+formed the word [Greek: ICHTHYS] (a fish), and were taken as
+representing the sentence: [Greek: Iesous Christos Theou Huios
+Soter]("Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour"). Based upon this
+discovery arose that extraordinary enthusiasm, during the second,
+third, and fourth centuries, for hunting up further prophecies in
+Pagan sources, resulting in a great number of Sibylline verses being
+invented, giving the minutest details in the Life of our Lord. These
+fabrications seem to have been at that time generally accepted by the
+masses as true prophecies, though we know now that they were written
+some centuries after the events they were supposed to foretell.
+
+Let us now return to the Vesica Piscis. In the paintings and
+sculptures of the Middle Ages, we find it constantly used to
+circumscribe the figure of the Saviour, especially whenever He is
+represented as judging the world and in His glorified state. Many
+beautiful examples of this in Anglo-Saxon work of the tenth century
+may be seen in King Edgar's Book of Grants to Winchester Cathedral and
+the famous Breviary of St. Ethelwolfe. Numerous illustrations of these
+and other pictures of the Middle Ages, as also diagrams of the
+properties of the Vesica Piscis, can be seen in the volume I have
+already referred to dealing fully with this subject.
+
+The building fraternity was a purely Christian community; the First
+Crusade raised a great enthusiasm for building Christian Churches, and
+brought in large gifts of money for that purpose. Up to 1140 Norman
+Architecture held sway, having the "Square" for its unit, its greatest
+symbol being the _Gnomon_, representing knowledge; but about that
+time, as we have seen, arose from the study of Geometry, the head of
+all learning, a Mystical form having the mysterious figure of the
+Vesica Piscis, the true Gothic Arch, with the Equilateral Triangle
+enclosed as its unit, and symbolising the Trinity in Unity. The
+recognition of the import of the Trinity was paramount throughout
+those early days; all important documents began with an Invocation of
+the _Tres Personae_, or were garnished with symbolic illustrations
+thereof; all the old MSS., already referred to, which have come down
+to us from that period, invariably commence with "In the name of the
+Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."
+
+It can therefore be readily understood what determined the sudden
+change between 1140-1150, resulting in that wonderful accession of
+beauty to architectural design which we find in the Gothic. The
+incentive had to be a strong one, and of an eminently religious
+character, to accomplish the radical change of throwing over so
+absolutely the Norman, and commencing to build entirely on what are
+called Gothic lines. A careful examination of the proportions of the
+structures themselves, and the character of the decorations found in
+the finest examples of buildings representing that style, at once
+shows us that the incentive was the symbolism attached to the
+mysterious figure called the Vesica Piscis, which appears to be not
+only the principal feature upon which the whole style rests, but is
+also employed, as a symbol of the Divine, wherever we have Gothic
+Architecture, either in painted windows or mural decorations. Every
+Cathedral has its Vesica Piscis, often of enormous dimensions.
+Geometry was synonymous with Masonry, and the very _foundation_
+of the Science of Geometry, as expounded by Euclid, was his
+_first_ proposition. _Every single problem_ in the whole of his
+books necessitates for its construction the use of this one
+foundation--namely, "how to form an Equilateral Triangle," and this is
+the Mystical form of "the Knowledge of the Square." This triangle,
+symbolising the Logos, is therefore not only the _beginning_ of the
+Science of Geometry, and therefore of Masonry, the Head of all the
+Sciences, but it is by that triangle that all Geometrical forms, and
+therefore forms of knowledge, are _made_, and it became the most
+mysterious and secret symbol of the Logos, for is it not written by
+St. John that "In the beginning was the Logos, and by it were all
+things made"; so the Vesica Piscis, the cradle of the Logos, became
+the great _secret_ of Masonry, the foundation as we find it upon which
+Gothic Architecture was evolved, the means by which its wonderful
+plans were laid down, and the most reverenced figure in Religious
+Symbolism, as shown by its use in seals, engravings, sculptures,
+pictures, &c., throughout the Middle Ages.
+
+Let me make this clearer. The more one examines the typical points in
+the Saxon, Norman, and Gothic styles of Architecture, the more clearly
+one sees that the Architects of the two former used circles and
+squares on their tracing-boards, as units for their proportions, in
+drawing up both ground plans and elevations, with here and there
+suggestions only of the Equilateral Triangle having been made use of
+in some of the smaller details; whereas the Gothic Architects seem to
+have used the Vesica Piscis almost entirely. This explains the reason
+why true Gothic buildings have always been said to be built mainly on
+the basis of the Equilateral Triangle; this naturally follows, because
+the use of the Vesica creates, and therefore necessitates, the
+appearance of the Equilateral Triangle in every conceivable situation.
+The following quotation is typical of the leading essay writers on
+this subject: "The Equilateral Triangle enters largely into, if it
+does not entirely control, all mediaeval proportions, particularly in
+the ground plans. In Chartres Cathedral the apices of two Equilateral
+Triangles (_vide_ frontispiece to these Views), whose common base is
+the internal length of the transept, measured through the two western
+piers of the intersection, will give the interior length, one apex
+extending to the east end of the chevet within the aisles, the other
+to the original termination of the Nave westward, and the present
+extent of the side aisles in that direction. With slight deviation,
+most, if not all, the ground plans of the French Cathedrals are
+measurable in this manner, and their choirs may be so measured almost
+without exception. Troyes Cathedral is in exact proportion with that
+of Chartres, and the choirs of Rheims, Beauvais, St. Ouen at Rouen,
+and others are equally so. Bourges Cathedral, which has no transept,
+is exactly three Equilateral Triangles in length inside, from the East
+end of the outer aisle to the Eastern columns supporting the West
+Towers. Most English Cathedrals appear to have been constructed in
+their original plans upon similar rules." White's Classical Essay on
+Architecture compares the Norman with the Gothic, where he says: "In
+what is usually called the Norman period, the general proportions and
+outlines of the Churches are reducible to certain rules of setting out
+by the plain Square. As Architecture progressed the Square gradually
+disappeared, and the proportion of general outline, as well as of
+detail, fell in more and more with applications of the Equilateral
+Triangle, till the art, having arrived at its culminating point, or
+that which is generally acknowledged to be its period of greatest
+beauty and perfection in the thirteenth and the beginning of the
+fourteenth centuries, again began to decline. With this decline the
+Equilateral Triangle was almost lost sight of, and then a mode of
+setting out work by diagonal squares was taken up, for such is the
+basis found exactly applicable to the work of the fifteenth century,
+since which time mathematical proportions have been generally
+employed." And after referring to numerous scale drawings of Churches,
+windows, doors, and arches, he points out that every student of Church
+architecture must pronounce those of the untraceried and traceried
+first point to be the most beautiful of all, those of the Norman to be
+a degree less so, and those of the perpendicular and debased to be far
+inferior to either, and in that analysis we find that the Equilateral
+Triangle was used almost exclusively for determining one order (the
+Gothic), the Square for another (the Norman), and the Square
+diagonally divided for the other (the debased).
+
+Now let me try to describe the wonderful properties of the Vesica
+Piscis, so that you may understand the mystery which shrouded it in
+the minds of those Mediaeval builders. The rectangle formed by the
+length and breadth of this figure, in the simplest form, has several
+extraordinary properties; it may be cut into three equal parts by
+straight lines parallel to the shorter side, and these parts will all
+be precisely and geometrically similar to each other and to the whole
+figure,--strangely applicable to the symbolism attached at that time
+to the Trinity in Unity,--and the subdivision may be proceeded with
+indefinitely without making any change in form. However often the
+operation is performed, the parts remain identical with the original
+figure, having all its extraordinary properties, the Equilateral
+Triangle appearing everywhere, whereas no other rectangle can have
+this curious property.
+
+It may also be cut into four equal parts by straight lines parallel to
+its sides, and again each of these parts will be true Vesicas, exactly
+similar to each other, and to the whole, and of course the Equilateral
+Triangle is again everywhere.
+
+Again, if two out of the tri-subdivisions mentioned above be taken,
+the form of these together is exactly similar, geometrically, to half
+the original figure, and again the Equilateral Triangle is ubiquitous
+on every base line.
+
+Again, the diagonal of the rectangle is exactly double the length of
+its shorter side, which characteristic is absolutely _unique_, and
+greatly increases its usefulness for plotting out designs; and this
+property of course holds good for all the rectangles formed by the
+original figure and for the other species of subdivision. But perhaps
+its most mysterious property (though not of any practical use) to
+those who had studied Geometry, and to whom this figure was the symbol
+of the Divine Trinity in Unity, so dear to them, was the fact that it
+actually put into their hands the means of _trisecting_ the Right
+Angle.
+
+Now, the three great problems of antiquity which engaged the attention
+and wonderment of geometricians throughout the Middle Ages, were "the
+Squaring of the Circle," "the Duplication of the Cube," and lastly,
+"the Trisection of an Angle," even Euclid being unable to show how to
+do it; and yet it will be seen that the diagonal of one of the
+subsidiary figures in the tri-subdivision, together with the diagonal
+of the whole figure, actually trisect the angle at the corner of the
+rectangle. It is true that it only showed them how to trisect one kind
+of angle, but it was that particular angle which was so dear to them
+as symbolising their craft, and which was created by the Equilateral
+Triangle. All these unique properties place the figure far above that
+of a square for practical work, because even when the diagonal of a
+square is given, it is impossible to find the exact length of any of
+its sides or _vice versa_; whereas in the Vesica rectangle the
+diagonal is exactly double its shorter side, and upon any length of
+line which may be taken on the tracing-board as a base for elevation,
+an Equilateral Triangle will be found whose sides are of course all
+equal and therefore known, as they are equal to the base, and whose
+line joining apex to centre of base is a true Plumb line, forming at
+its foot the perfect right angle, so important in the laying of every
+stone of a building.
+
+In the volume referred to I have given a skeleton plan upon such a
+scale of subdivision that a tracing-board, of 5 feet by 8 feet, would
+be divided up into over one million parts, and, as all these
+subdivisions are perfect representations of the original Vesica figure
+with all its properties, the design of the largest building, with the
+minutest detail, could be drafted with absolute accuracy. There are
+many other curious properties of this Figure, but they are difficult
+to explain without diagrams. I will, however, give one more example of
+its creative power. The problem of describing a Pentagon must have
+puzzled architects considerably in those early times, but this was
+again easily accomplished by means of the Vesica. Albrecht Duerer, the
+great designer and engraver, who lived at the end of the fifteenth
+century, refers to the Vesica in his works (_Dureri Institutune
+Geometricarum_, lib. ii. p. 56) in a way which shows that it was as
+commonly known in his time as the Circle, Square, and Triangle. His
+instructions for forming a Pentagon are: "Designa circino invariato
+tres piscium vesicas" (describe with unchanged compasses three vesicae
+piscium). Three similar circles are described with centres at the
+angles of an Equilateral Triangle, forming the three Vesicae, by means
+of which the Pentagon is drawn, and from which also we get a beautiful
+form of arch very common in the thirteenth century (_vide_
+illustrations in _Magister Mathesios_). This is also the method used
+in that old manuscript of the fifteenth century named "Geometria
+deutsch." In this old MS. it is also shown that the easiest method for
+finding the centre of a circle, however large, or any segment of a
+circle, is by means of the Vesica Piscis. And just as we see so many
+Cathedrals of the Middle Ages are stated by antiquarians to have been
+planned on the Equilateral Triangle, so do we find the Pentagon
+appearing as the basis of Architectural designs of buildings of a
+later date, such as Liverpool Castle, Chester Castle, and other
+similar structures; but the true means by which each were laid down,
+as in the case of the Equilateral Triangle, was again the Vesica
+Piscis. A beautiful example of decoration, on the basis of the Vesica,
+is seen in the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey.
+
+I will conclude this subject by quoting from the summing up by Prof.
+Kerrich (Principal Librarian to the University of Cambridge in 1820),
+in his masterly Essay on Architecture, where he gives the different
+forms of what he calls the "Mysterious Figure," used in the most
+noted Gothic buildings: he says, "I would in nowise indulge in
+conjectures as to the reference these figures might possibly have to
+the most sacred mysteries of religion; independently of any such
+allusion, their properties are of themselves sufficiently
+extraordinary to have struck all who have observed them."
+
+From earliest Christian times the principal _doctrine_ based upon the
+Mysticism of the Neo-platonists and the Kabalists was what was called
+the [Greek: Gnosis], the Knowledge of the All, and the fundamental
+basis of this, as of all esoteric teaching from the beginning of
+History, was _Procreation_. From the first dawn of civilisation the
+"Great One" always had an enemy with whom he had to fight; having
+conquered, he married that enemy, and their offspring was Life or
+Duration. In the oldest forms, as in Persia and ancient Egypt, it was
+Light and Darkness, "Ormuz and Ahriman," "Osiris and Isis," the Light
+conquering Darkness, the Day conquering Night, resulting in Time and
+duration. In the Eleusinian Mysteries it was the "Sun and Earth"
+producing Vegetable Life, and in the [Greek: Gnosis] it was the
+"Ainsoph and Ignorance," resulting in True Knowledge or Everlasting
+Life.
+
+In the Vesica Piscis (_vide_ frontispiece) we see two Equilateral
+Triangles formed on the same base, similar to what we found in the
+ground-plan of Chartres and other Gothic Cathedrals; these two
+triangles symbolised to the Mediaeval Builders the Divine and Human
+Natures of the Logos, the Word, the Creator; they are both procreated
+and enclosed in the Vesica; the one having the Apex pointed upwards,
+represented Divine or Spiritual Life, and in that I have placed the
+"Tetragrammaton," the Word or name of God (Jehovah), which, throughout
+the Jewish race for thousands of years, was held to be so sacred that
+they did not dare to utter it aloud. It was, at this time, depicted in
+the Equilateral Triangle, the symbol of the Logos, becoming thus the
+Masonic Word of the Middle Ages, and was probably used, exoterically,
+for purposes of recognition among members of the Great Building
+Societies, with the introduction of Gothic Architecture; but the
+_esoteric_ teaching, which was known only to the elite of the Craft
+and not by the Ordinary Operatives, was the mystical _procreation_ of
+that triangle, the doctrine of Spiritual or New Birth, symbolised by
+that mysterious figure which we have seen was the very foundation
+stone of Geometry, and therefore of Tectonic Art, the Head of all
+learning, and the great Secret of Gothic Architecture, called for
+esoteric purposes "Vesica Piscis." The Triangle, having the Apex
+pointing downwards, represented Human or Physical Life, and I have
+placed therein a representation of _sacrificial_ death, which we shall
+see was introduced, as a necessity, for the good of the Race.
+
+As "everything in Heaven has its counterpart on Earth," so may we see,
+by introspection, that the _reflecting_ surface, the thin, physical
+film between the Human and Divine, is represented by that Base, and
+Human Life then becomes truly, as it should be, the reflection of the
+Divine.
+
+One more glance through the Window at what I will call--
+
+    "The Mystery of the Apex."
+
+The earliest forms of Life, the unicellular "Beings," whether animal
+or vegetable--for both divisions, if they can be said to be divided,
+have the same protoplasmic cell as basis of life--were, and are still,
+immortal except for accidents; they are not subject to natural death
+as we know it; they multiply by fission and not by "budding." It was
+only with the building up of cell upon cell into communities, and the
+advent of polycellular beings of greater and greater complexity of
+structure, that the "Wisdom" behind natural laws introduced death as
+an _adaptation_, to prevent monstrosities in the shape of mutilated
+specimens being perpetuated on the earth. Life is purely physical and,
+in conformity with the modes under which our physical senses act, has
+the appearance of tri-unity. As white light is seen to be composed of
+but three primary colours, as Music is based on the Triad, as Space is
+known to us in three dimensions only, and Geometry, "the Head of all
+Learning," is based upon the Circle, Square, and Triangle, so may we
+see life in its three primary aspects: the Animal, Vegetable, and
+Material. The last-mentioned aspect, though long suspected, from the
+investigation of Crystallography, to have in some mysterious way a
+common basis with the animal and vegetable, was not fully grasped
+until, in the last few years, we have been able to study in our
+laboratories the actual evolution, or more correctly devolution, of
+matter from one form to another; and as all plants and animals are
+found to be built up of the same identical protoplasmic cells, so are
+we now able to break down and analyse not only these cells but even
+the very structure of matter, and find that all substances are built
+up of exactly the same bricks, the different forms known to us as
+Elements being the _designs_ of the great Architect upon which each
+structure has been built; and these completed designs again are used
+and become the "ashlars" of the higher forms of plant and animal
+structure. As Evolution in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms has
+given us Species, so in the Material it has developed Elements. The
+structures of animal and vegetable life are of comparatively recent
+formation, and are still apparently progressing in the direction of
+complexity, whereas the structures of matter appear to have long
+passed the stage of highest complexity, and the elements are now
+undergoing the retrograde process of being transformed, by
+radio-activity, from the more complex into simpler elements of lower
+atomic denominations--namely, having fewer bricks in each atom.
+
+All these material designs are more or less radio-active--namely,
+changing into other elements, but some, like radium, polonium, &c.,
+are active to an extraordinary extent. Each molecule or atom may be
+looked upon as an _aperture_, more or less open, through which we have
+flowing the equivalent of what may be called a leak from the Infinite,
+the changing of one element into another being represented by the
+change of shape or activity of that aperture. Countless ages ago these
+apertures were, by evolution, growing more and more complex in shape,
+but when the limit of complexity was reached and the _Apex_ was
+passed, an adaptation, somewhat analogous to death in the animal and
+vegetable, must have come into play, with the result that these
+apertures are now becoming more and more simple in their shape and
+activity. The Infinite referred to above may be diagnosed by some as
+being in the fourth dimension of space, or it may even be comprised
+within the Ether of our known three dimensions, for the discovery of
+radio-activity has enabled us to see that Ether is not only as dense
+as iron, but millions of times denser than that metal, every cubic
+foot, or probably cubic inch, being capable of supplying millions of
+horse-power if it could only be tapped. A homely simile of this leak
+from the Infinite may be seen in a glass of aerated water, where an
+irregularity of surface, a crumb of bread, or a grain of sand becomes
+the means by which carbonic-dioxide escapes from the interstices of
+the water.
+
+Radio-active substances then are really forges for forming new
+structures of matter or forms of energy, rather than quarries from
+which they are cut, and we seem to get a glimpse of the origin of
+life, perhaps itself the cause of "retrogression" in the material,
+coming through from the Reality, the Infinite beyond the physical
+Universe.
+
+Life and its processes are well symbolised by a triangle, the base of
+which is the "Divide" between the Real and its reflections or shadows
+on the Material plane, and through which all energy percolates. One
+side of the triangle represents anabolism, or the process of building
+up, and the other katabolism, the process of breaking down, and at the
+Apex is the Mystical "Terror of the Threshold," the "Ainsoph" (_vide_
+frontispiece), which introduced _sacrificial_ death to the Physical,
+as an adaptation in the evolution of, and for the good of, the Human
+race. With the death of the Physical, the rending of the Veil, as we
+have seen in View Two, all Shadows and Reflections disappear, and, in
+place of "seeing as through a glass darkly," the Soul has its true
+birth, and at last enters upon its heritage in the Divine Life, face
+to face with the Reality, the Good, the Beautiful, and the True.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW FOUR
+
+LOVE IN ACTION
+
+
+In the preceding Views we have seen that Time and Space have no real
+existence apart from our physical senses; they are only modes or
+conditions under which those senses act, and by which we gain a very
+limited and illusory knowledge of our surroundings. Our very
+consciousness of living depends upon our perception of multitudinous
+changes in our surroundings, and our very thoughts are therefore also
+limited by Time and Space, because _change_ is dependent on those two
+limits, the very basis of perceived motion being the time that an
+object takes to go over a certain space; we must therefore look behind
+consciousness itself, beyond the conditioning in Time and Space, for
+the true reality of Being. We have seen that man is the offspring of
+two distinct natures--the Spiritual or Transcendental and the Material
+or Physical; the former is the Real, the latter is only a shadow. If
+we now try to consider the connection between these two natures, we
+have to recognise that, with all our advance in Knowledge during the
+last hundred years, we are indeed still as children playing with
+pebbles on the sea-shore, knowing neither why we are placed there, nor
+what those pebbles are, or whence they came. Though we seem ever to be
+discovering fresh truths concerning their relations one with another,
+when arranged in different patterns, built up into new forms, or split
+up into smaller fragments, we have to acknowledge (substituting
+thoughts for pebbles) that we are still only learning our alphabet and
+the simple rules of multiplication, addition, and division, which must
+be mastered before we can hope to take the real step towards
+understanding.
+
+We are surrounded by mysteries; we are indeed a mystery to ourselves,
+we do not even know how the Physical Ego is connected with the
+physical world; how the sense organs, receiving the impression of
+multitudinous and diverse frequencies of different intensities,
+transmit them to the brain, and how the mind is able to combine all
+these impressions and form concepts. But by examining the Physical
+Universe, we seem to see clearly that the only Reality is the
+Spiritual, the Here, and the Now, that our real _Personality_ being
+Spiritual is independent of Space and Time limitations, and is
+therefore Omnipresent and Omniscient; it may indeed be not only
+connected with the Physical Ego of this World, but be in close working
+connection with other Physical Egos in the Universe, and may, in some
+wonderful process, through its affinity with the Great Spirit, be
+helping them to progress in other directions possibly quite beyond our
+power to conceive under the conditions we are accustomed to here.
+
+A great forest tree forms each year a multitude of separate buds; each
+of these buds is an independent plant which has only a temporary
+existence and has no present knowledge of the other buds, but it is by
+means of all these buds and the leaves they develop, that the tree is
+nourished and increases from year to year. Still more wonderful is the
+fact that it is these temporary existences which, in accordance with
+the general law of life-production, form special "ovules," which we
+call seeds, each of which has the potentiality for growing up into a
+great forest tree, which, in its turn, is capable of pushing forth
+temporary existences in countless directions. We have, in the above
+process of creating a forest tree, a likeness on the Physical Plane to
+what I would suggest is the process not only of the creation of the
+Race, but, on the Transcendental Plane, the multiplication of
+permanent personalities by means of, or in connection with, the
+temporary and Space-limited Human Physical Ego.
+
+Again, as the human mind forms a thought, clothes it in physical
+language, and sends it forth in such a form as not only affects our
+material sense of hearing, but conveys to the hearer the very thought
+itself, so the whole Physical Universe is a temporary and
+Space-limited representation of the Reality which is behind, is in
+fact the materialisation of the Will or Thought of the Great Spirit.
+The "taking root" or advent of the Spiritual to the genus homo, made
+it possible for man to interpret the Good, Beautiful, and True in the
+phenomena of nature, and, as we, by studying these materialisations,
+gain knowledge of the Reality, and our personalities become real
+powers, so may we at length approach the point where we may feel that
+we are thinking, or having divulged to us, the very thoughts of God;
+and, though it may never be possible in this life to form a full
+conception of the Reality, we may, I think, even with our present
+state of knowledge, aspire to understand the messages conveyed to us
+in some of the multitudinous forms, under which these thoughts are
+presented to us, and I propose giving an example of this later on in
+this View.
+
+Once more, in the case of a picture, it is possible, by examining and
+comparing a number of certain short lines in perspective, to discover
+not only the position occupied by the Artist, but also the point to
+which all those lines converge; so by examining and combining certain
+lines of Thought on the Physical Plane, and following them as far as
+we can with our present knowledge towards the point where our Ideals
+of the Good, Beautiful, and True intersect, we may reach the position
+from which we may be able to form, although through a glass darkly,
+even a conception of the Great Reality, and therefore of Its Offspring
+the Transcendental Ego, and its connection with the Universe.
+
+As the whole of Nature is the temporary and Space-limited
+manifestation of the Reality, so the individual Physical Ego is the
+manifestation in Time and Space of the Transcendental Ego or true
+Personality. The Physical Ego is its transient expression and has no
+other use beyond this life. Each Physical Ego helps, or should help
+forward, the general improvement of the Race towards perfection. Each
+generation should come into being a step nearer to the Spiritual,
+until it can be pictured that at the final consummation, there will be
+nothing imperfect, no shadow left; the full complement of Spiritual
+Personalities being complete in the Great All-Father.
+
+Do we not then see clearly that the Physical Ego, comprised in what we
+call "I am," "I perceive," "I think," "I conceive," "I remember," is
+transient, and has only to do with the progress of the Race? It is the
+Shadow or Image in the Physical Universe of that Personality which
+Transcends Time and Space. Take away a small portion of the Brain, the
+organ of the Mind, and Memory is wiped out, remove the greater part of
+it and the manifestation of the Physical Ego is destroyed; though the
+body is as much alive as before, there is apparently nothing left but
+the physical life, which it has in common with all animals, plants,
+and probably, as strongly suggested by late discoveries in
+Radio-activity, even with what is called inorganic matter. The Brain,
+and therefore the Ego, is not a necessity for Physical life; this is
+clearly seen in the lower forms of life--it would be difficult to
+point out the brain of a Cabbage or an Oak Tree.
+
+In the last forty years we have entered upon a new era of religion and
+philosophy; we hear no more of the old belief that the study of
+scientific facts leads to atheism or irreligion; we begin to see that
+Religion and Science must go hand in hand towards elucidating the
+Riddle of the Universe, and such a change enables us even to aspire to
+show, as I now propose to do, that it is possible, by examining
+certain phenomena in Nature, to reach that point where we may feel
+that we are listening to and understanding, though through a glass
+darkly, what may be called the very Thoughts of the Great Reality. I
+will take for examination the subject most intimately connected with
+the title of this View--namely, the nature of the growth of the
+Transcendental Personality, upon what that growth depends, and how we
+may understand that the attainment to Everlasting Life is dependent
+upon that growth.
+
+I have already pointed out in View Two that the Transcendental
+Personality, being Spiritual, and therefore akin to the Great Reality,
+may be said to have no free-will of itself. Its will or influence must
+always be working towards perfection in the form "Let Thy Will, which
+is also my will, be done"; the efficacy of its influence with the
+Great Reality depends on its growth or nourishment by the knowledge of
+the Good, Beautiful, and True ever bringing it more and more nearly
+into perfect touch or sympathy with the All-loving. The power of
+prayer therefore depends upon two conditions; it must be in the form
+of "Let thy Will be done," and that which prays must be capable of
+making its petition felt, by having already gained a knowledge of what
+that Will is. I am, of course, not referring to that form of prayer
+which, alas with so many, seems to be the attempt to get as much out
+of the Absolute as is possible, with the least amount of trouble.
+
+If now we carefully examine the Phenomena around us, we make the
+extraordinary discovery that this power to influence is the very basis
+of survival and of progress throughout the universe. In the organic
+world all Nature seems to be praying in one form or another, and only
+those that pray with efficacy, based upon the above two conditions,
+survive in the struggle for existence. The economy of Nature is
+founded upon that inexorable law the "Survival of the Fittest"; every
+organism that is not in sympathy with its environment, and cannot
+therefore derive help and nourishment from its surroundings, perishes.
+Darwin tells us that the colours of flowering plants have been
+developed by the necessity of attracting the bees, on whose visits
+depends the power of plants to reproduce their species; those families
+of plants which do not as it were pray to the bees with efficacy, fail
+to attract, are not therefore fertilised, and disappear without
+leaving successors. Flowers may also be said to be praying to us by
+their beauty, or usefulness, and in some cases, as with orchids, by
+their marvellous shapes. We answer their prayer by building hot houses
+and tending them with care, because they please us, and therefore we
+help them to live; while, on the contrary, those plants that have not
+developed these qualities are not only neglected, but, in some cases,
+as with weeds, we take special trouble to exterminate them, because
+their existence is distasteful to us.
+
+Charles Darwin also tells us that Heredity and Environment are the
+prime influences under which the whole Organic World is sustained; in
+other words, every organism has implanted in it by heredity the
+principle of life, but the conditions under which it will be possible
+for that life to expand and come to perfection, rest entirely upon its
+power to bring itself into harmony with its environment. This
+principle of life does not come naked into the world, it is fortified
+by heredity, with power gained by its parents in their struggle for
+existence, and in their persistence to get into sympathy with their
+environment. The knowledge they gained, by this struggle, they have
+handed down to their offspring, and given it thereby the possibility
+of also gaining for itself that knowledge of, and power to get into
+sympathy with, its environment, upon which its future existence will
+depend. So may we not see that in the Spiritual World, these two
+conditions dominate, and that it is only by the clear comprehension of
+their reality that we can understand how all-important it is for the
+soul to bring itself nearer and nearer into harmony with its
+environment, the Spiritual, and how the efficacy of prayer depends
+upon the Knowledge of what is the Will of God?
+
+We have received from our Spiritual Father the principle of
+Everlasting Life, and the aspirations which, if followed, will enable
+that life to expand and come to perfection; but, as in the case of
+physical organism, the gift is useless unless we elect to use those
+aspirations aright, and gain thereby a knowledge of our Spiritual
+Environment, which alone can bring us into sympathy with the Great
+Reality. Without this "Knowledge of God," we can see by analogy on the
+Organic Plane that Everlasting Life is impossible--we are as weeds and
+shall be rooted out. This is no figment of the imagination, it seems
+to be the only conclusion we can come to if Nature is the work of
+Nature's God, and Man is made in the image (spiritual) of that God.
+Herbert Spencer came to the same conclusion when defining everlasting
+existence. He says: "Perfect correspondence would be perfect life;
+were there no changes in the environment but such as the organism had
+adapted changes to meet, and were it never to fail in the efficiency
+with which it met them, there would be Eternal Existence and Eternal
+Knowledge" (_Principles of Biology_).
+
+The power of influence, by sympathetic action, may also be seen in
+another direction; consider the fact that if we are in a room with a
+piano and we sing a certain note, say E flat, we not only hear that
+note coming back from the piano, but, if we examine the strings, we
+find that all the E flats are actually vibrating in sympathy, because
+they are in perfect harmony with the note given out by the voice; but
+none of the other strings are responding because they are out of
+harmony. With this simile in mind, let us consider the curious fact
+that a moth always lays its eggs on that particular plant upon which
+the caterpillars, when they hatch out of these eggs, must feed. The
+study of the Life History of Insects has always been of great interest
+to me, as I firmly believe that we are on the verge of a great
+discovery, and that the first indications are being revealed to us
+through the investigation of the Biology of Insects. Some of you may,
+perhaps, have watched this progress of ovipositing, as I have done,
+and noticed how the female moth will hover in a peculiar way over
+different plants, but does not alight until she comes to a plant near
+akin to the one she is seeking. She then alights, but remains, on
+tip-toe as it were, with legs outstretched and wings quivering, and
+soon mounts again into the air; it is only when she alights on the
+proper food plant that she shows unmistakably that she knows her quest
+is ended and her eggs are laid. This particular plant has no other
+attractions for her, she takes her food irrespectively from any other
+flower which secretes honey, and yet, when she is ready to fulfil her
+destiny, she is unerringly drawn towards that particular plant which
+must be the food of her offspring. What is this wonderful sense? We
+call it instinct, a name which is made to cover all other senses in
+the lower animals, of which we have no cognisance ourselves. Let us
+take our own senses as a guide: we find that they are all based on the
+appreciation of frequencies, of greater or less rapidity, by means of
+organs specially adapted to vibrate in sympathy with those pulsations,
+and thus we gain knowledge of external things. Two tuning forks or two
+organ pipes when vibrating close to each other, give out a pure
+musical note when they are in perfect harmony, and they then have, as
+it were, "rest" together; but when one is put even slightly out of
+harmony, there is, in place of a pure musical note, a rise and fall of
+sound in heavy throbs, strangely characteristic of "quarrelling"; in
+fact, discord and "unrest."
+
+In our sense of hearing we can only appreciate up to 40,000 vibrations
+in a second as a musical sound, whereas, with Light and other
+electrical phenomena, as we shall see in a later View, we can
+appreciate sympathetic frequencies of not only many millions, but
+indeed millions of millions in a second, and yet it is possible that,
+in the sense (of insects) we are now examining of life appreciating
+life, we may be in the presence of frequencies as far removed from
+light as light is from sound. If, then, we may follow the analogy from
+our highest senses, we seem to get a clear explanation of the mystery
+of insect discrimination. The insect, in her then state, could have no
+pleasure in the presence of certain plants, their modes of frequency
+being out of sympathy with that particular Insect Life, and, it may be
+conceived that, not only is there no inducement for the insect to
+alight on that plant, but that even in its near proximity that insect
+would feel discomfort or restlessness; when, however, a plant is
+reached which is near akin to the one required, less antipathy or
+unrest would be felt, and, when the true species of plant is reached,
+all would be harmony, pleasure, and rest, the functions of Insect Life
+would be vivified, and its life-work accomplished under the influences
+of sympathetic action.
+
+I have made several other investigations on this subject, but I must
+only give one more to illustrate the higher form of Animal Life
+appreciating Animal Life. There is a large class of insects, called
+Ichneumonidae, which lay their eggs in the bodies of caterpillars, and,
+as in the case of a moth laying its egg on the special food plant upon
+which its caterpillar can feed, so does each species of these insects
+unerringly lay its eggs in the body of a particular kind of
+caterpillar. It must be a wonderful sense which can enable an
+Ichneumon Fly to do this; it has never seen that caterpillar before,
+as the egg, from which its own caterpillar was hatched, was laid
+inside the body of one of those caterpillars, and the caterpillar upon
+which it fed had been eaten up and disappeared at least six months
+before the Ichneumon Fly had even made its way out of its own cocoon;
+and yet this insect is not only forced, by some mysterious power, to
+lay its egg in the body of a caterpillar, but there is only one
+species which will serve its purpose, and it has to hunt up this
+particular caterpillar from among thousands of other different
+species.
+
+Let me put before you what is, perhaps, the most mysterious
+illustration which we have under this heading, wherein the Ichneumon
+Fly cannot even get sight of its prey, nor employ any sense similar to
+our own for its detection. There are several species of moths whose
+caterpillars live in the very heart of trees. We will take the case of
+the caterpillar of Zeuzera Aesculi, the Leopard Moth; the egg of this
+Moth is laid in a crevice of the bark, and, when first hatched, the
+small larva penetrates through the bark into the centre of an apple,
+pear, or plum tree, and then commences to eat its way upwards, forming
+at first a very small tunnel, but gradually increasing it, as the
+caterpillar grows larger, into a passage of about half an inch in
+diameter. In such a position, surrounded as it is by solid wood, the
+thickness of which would probably not be less than one and a half or
+two inches, we might suppose that the caterpillar would be safe from
+its enemies, but it is not: there is a large Ichneumon Fly which
+cannot propagate its species unless it can lay its eggs in the body of
+this particular caterpillar. This Ichneumon Fly can, from outside, not
+only tell that inside the stem of that tree there is a caterpillar,
+but can locate the exact spot, and, still more wonderful, is able to
+determine whether or not that caterpillar is the particular species it
+is in search of. There are numerous other species of moths whose
+caterpillars feed in the centre of trees, and yet this female
+Ichneumon is able to mark down as her prey, although far out of reach
+of any sense known to us, that one species which alone can serve her
+purpose. As soon as she has located the exact position of the
+caterpillar, she unsheathes a long delicate ovipositor, with which
+she is provided, and drills it right through the intervening solid
+wood until it pierces the body of the caterpillar; she then lays an
+egg down that long tube into its body and repeats the process two or
+three times. The caterpillar itself does not appear to feel any
+inconvenience from this process and continues to feed and grow larger;
+but it has the seeds of death within itself, and the two or three
+little caterpillars, which hatch out of the eggs of the Ichneumon, are
+also growing rapidly inside it. At last, when the time comes that the
+large caterpillar should have been full fed, and it has eaten its way
+outwards until it rests close under the bark, preparatory to turning
+into a chrysalis, its enemies finish their destructive work, and, if
+the tree is then opened, the empty skin and cartilage skeleton of the
+large caterpillar is found, together with two or three large cocoons.
+These cocoons, if kept, will produce in due time specimens of the
+Ichneumon Fly, and these will in their turn go about their murderous
+work as soon as their proper hunting season comes round again.
+
+This is only an isolated case out of thousands of similar occurrences
+in every locality; in fact, if you walk along any palings in the
+country in the early summer, you will see at every few steps the
+evidence of similar tragedies. Those of you who live in the country
+must often have seen on palings little heaps containing a dozen or
+more of the small yellow Microgaster Cocoons, and if these are
+examined carefully they will be found to be surrounding the skin of a
+caterpillar. These minute cocoons may be kept under a wine glass and,
+from each a minute Ichneumon Fly, with (if a female) its sharp
+ovipositor, will emerge in due time. It is curious what mistakes can
+be made even by intelligent persons. I have had the skin of the
+caterpillar and this little heap of yellow Microgaster Cocoons sent me
+to examine, and have been seriously asked whether this was not a true
+case of Parthenogenesis; the suggestion being that the caterpillar had
+actually laid eggs, instead of waiting until it had become a moth, and
+that its efforts, to alter the course of nature, had been too much for
+its constitution and it had died in the act! There are other
+illustrations I should have liked to give but space will not permit,
+the most remarkable being, perhaps, the knowledge a Queen Bee
+possesses of the proximity of another Queen, even when that other is
+still in the pupa state, sealed up in a waxen cell. I have made
+numerous experiments with Queens of the common black English Bee
+(_Apis mellifica_), and also the yellow-striped Italian Bee (_Apis
+ligustica_), which belong to the same order (_Hymenoptera_) as the
+Ichneumon Flies, and the same marvellous sense of life appreciating
+life at a distance, and through solid matter, is experienced.
+
+If we now follow the same Thought by examining the Inorganic, we make
+the extraordinary discovery that this power to influence, based on
+sympathetic action, is the very mainspring by which physical work can
+be sustained, and upon it depends entirely the very action of our
+physical senses. Our senses are based upon the appreciation of
+Vibration, in the Air and Ether, of greater or less rapidity,
+according to the presence in our organs of processes capable of acting
+in sympathy with those frequencies. The limits within which our senses
+can thus be affected are very small; the ear can only appreciate
+thirteen or fourteen octaves in sound, and the eye less than one
+octave in light; beyond these limits, owing to the absence of
+processes which can be affected sympathetically, all is silent and
+dark to us. This capacity for responding to vibration under
+sympathetic action is not confined to Organic Senses; the physical
+forces, and even inert matter, are also sensitive to its influences,
+as I will now demonstrate to you.
+
+In wireless telegraphy it is absolutely necessary that the transmitter
+of the electro-magnetic waves should be brought into perfect harmony
+with the receiver--without that condition it is impossible to
+communicate at a distance; again, a heavy pendulum or swing can, by a
+certain force, be pushed, say an inch, from its position of rest, and
+each successive push will augment the swing, but only on one
+condition, namely, that the force is applied in sympathy with the
+pendulum's mode of swing; if the length of the pendulum is 52 feet,
+the force must be applied only at the end of each eight seconds, as,
+although the pendulum at first is only moving one inch, it will take
+four seconds to traverse that one inch, the same as it would take to
+traverse 10 feet or more, and will not be back at the original
+position till the end of eight seconds; if the force is applied before
+that time the swing of the pendulum would be hindered instead of
+augmented. Even a steam engine must work under this influence if it is
+to be effective; there may be enough force in a boiler to do the work
+of a thousand horse-power, but, unless the slide valve is arranged so
+that the steam enters the cylinder at exactly the right moment,
+namely, in sympathy with the thrust of the piston, no work is
+possible.
+
+To understand the next example I want you first to recognise that,
+apart from its physical qualities, every material body has certain,
+what may be called, traits of character, which belong to it alone;
+there is generally one special trait or "partial," namely, the
+characteristic which it is easiest for the particular body to
+manifest, but I shall show you that by sympathetic action others can
+be developed. I have several pieces of ordinary wood, used for
+lighting fires, each of which, according to its size and density, has
+its special characteristic; if you examined each by itself you would
+hardly see that they are different from one another except slightly in
+length, but if I throw them down on the table, you would hear that
+each of them gives out a clear characteristic note of the musical
+scale: to carry this a step forward, I have a long, heavy, iron bar,
+about 4 feet long and 2 inches thick, so rigid that no ordinary manual
+force can move it out of the straight, and, from mere handling, you
+would find it difficult to imagine that it would be amenable to soft
+influences. But I have studied this inert mass, and, as each person
+has special characteristics, some being more partial than others to,
+say, Literary pursuits, Athletics, Music, Poetry, Engineering,
+Science, or Metaphysics, so I am able to show that this iron mass has
+not only a number of these "partials," some of which are
+extraordinarily beautiful and powerful, audible over long distances,
+but that by the lightest touch of certain small generating rubbers,
+not more than an ounce in weight and tipped with cork or leather,
+each of which has been put into perfect sympathy with one of those
+traits, I can make that mass demonstrate them both optically and
+audibly; but, without those special sympathetic touches, it is silent
+and remains an inert mass. This result is obtained by physical contact
+between the instrument and the mass, but we will now carry this
+another step forward and deal with the subject of the action of
+Influence at a distance, or what may be called Prayer, between two of
+these rigid masses. From what we have already seen, it is clear that
+the Soul of man could not possibly pray with efficacy to a graven
+image; there is nothing in sympathy between them, and, without
+sympathetic action, influence is impossible; but it is quite possible
+for Matter to pray with efficacy to Matter, provided the material
+soul, if we may use the analogy, is brought into perfect sympathy with
+the material god, and I can now put before you an experiment showing
+this taking place.
+
+I have another heavy bar of iron, not so long but of the same
+thickness as the one already described, and have found its strongest
+characteristic; I have another small rubber, fashioned so that its
+characteristic is in perfect sympathy with that of the bar, namely,
+that the number of vibrations, in a second, of the instrument are
+exactly equal to those of the iron mass, and it is, therefore, as we
+saw in the last experiment, able by contact to influence the bar
+sympathetically. The slightest touch throws the bar into such violent
+vibration that a great volume of sound is produced, which can be heard
+a quarter of a mile away. The result of this sympathetic touch is far
+from being transient, in fact, the bar will continue to move, audibly,
+for a long time. This movement in the mass of iron was started by
+physical contact, but having once started the bar praying, willing, or
+thinking, whichever you like to call it, that bar now has the power to
+affect, without contact, another rigid bar of iron even when removed
+to great distances, provided the second bar possesses a similar
+characteristic, and that that characteristic has been brought into
+perfect _sympathy_ with that of the first bar. I have a second bar
+which fulfils these conditions, and, although, at the outset, it had
+no power whatever to respond, it has been gradually, as it were,
+educated, namely, brought nearer and nearer into sympathy with the
+first bar, until it is now able to respond across long distances; it
+has acted across the whole length of one of the largest halls in
+London so strongly that it could be heard by all present. We will now
+reverse the process of bringing these bars into sympathy, and I will
+throw the first out of harmony by slightly changing its
+characteristic; the change is extremely small, quite inappreciable to
+the human ear, the bar giving out as full and pure a note as it did
+before the alteration was made; in fact, the change is so slight that
+it can still, with a little force, be stimulated by the same
+generator, and yet the whole power to influence has been lost; the
+first bar, although it is praying with great force, gets no response
+from the second bar, and, even if the bars are now brought on to the
+same table and put within a few inches of each other, there is still
+no reply, there is no sympathetic action, the efficacy of prayer
+between the two has been completely destroyed.
+
+Do we not then see the principle upon which the efficacy of Prayer
+depends, that the whole object of a Human Soul, when using the words
+"Thy Will be done," is to bring itself closer and closer into perfect
+sympathy with the Absolute? When that is accomplished, we may
+understand, from our simile, that not only shall we and our
+aspirations be influenced by the Will of the Deity, but that then our
+wishes, in their turn, must have great power with God, and it becomes
+possible for even "Mountains to be removed and cast into the midst of
+the sea."
+
+How truly the Philosopher Paul at the beginning of our Era recognised
+that the knowledge of God, which Christ Himself tells us is
+Everlasting Life, may be gained by the study of the material creation;
+His words were sadly overlooked by many who, half a century ago, were
+afraid that the discoveries of Science were dangerous to belief in the
+Divine. He says: the unrighteous shall be without excuse because "The
+invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly
+seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His
+everlasting power and divinity" (Romans i. 18 to 20, R.V.).
+
+We have seen the truth of this wonderful statement, we have traced the
+reflection of the greatest attribute of the Deity, Divine Love, on the
+material plane. What has been the result of our investigation? We find
+that throughout the whole of Nature the one great universal power is
+Sympathy.
+
+'Tis verily "love that makes the world go round." What a marvellous
+conclusion to our investigation! Let us see where it leads us. The
+whole of creation is the materialisation of the Thoughts of the Deity;
+we have, therefore, in the forces of Nature, the impress of the very
+Essence of God. Our Innermost Self is an emanation from Him, and
+Prayer, which, at the beginning, is only a striving to bring ourselves
+into harmony with the Deity, must, as the Soul grows in strength and
+knowledge, become a great power working under the wonderful principle
+of Sympathy. True prayer, indeed, becomes "_Love in Action_," and,
+under certain conditions, Prayer may actually be looked upon as the
+greatest physical force in Nature. But let us carry this one step
+further: can we, by our analogy of Matter praying, understand why "the
+knowledge of God is Everlasting Life"? Look at the first iron bar, and
+watch how, as long as it keeps on vibrating, the second bar, _because
+it is in sympathy_, will be kept in motion. If it were possible for
+the first bar to vibrate for ever, the second bar would, speaking
+materially, have everlasting life, through its being in perfect
+sympathy with the first bar; without this connection the bar would be
+lifeless. Now apply this to our Transcendental Personality; it is
+being nourished, the knowledge of God is increasing, it is at last
+pulsating in perfect harmony with the Deity, and when, for it, the
+Material Universe disappears, its _affinity_ to Infinite Love must
+give it Everlasting Life. Everything that has not that connection is
+but a shadow which will cease to be manifest when the Great Thought is
+completed, the volition of the Deity is withdrawn, and the Physical
+Universe ceases to exist; nothing can then exist except that which is
+perfected, that which is of the essence of God--namely, the
+Spiritual. Perfect harmony will then reign supreme, such happiness as
+cannot be described in earthly language nor even imagined by our
+corporeal senses; hence, in the many passages referring to that
+wondrous Life hereafter, we are not told what Heaven is like but only
+what is not to be found there:
+
+    "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
+    Neither have entered into the heart of man
+    The things that God hath prepared for them
+    that love Him."--1 COR. ii. 9.
+
+There are several other phenomena which I might have examined, but I
+chose this particular aspect of the Reality, as best illustrating the
+subject I am trying to elucidate in these Views, though it was
+probably the most difficult one to bring home to the general reading
+public. There are, I know, from personal knowledge, many of my readers
+who will have been able to follow and appreciate what I have attempted
+to demonstrate, but to those who have not grasped the connection
+between the Infinite and Finite, the Transcendental and the Physical
+Ego, the Real and its Shadow, a few more words of explanation may be
+helpful.
+
+It is easy to see that the negatives, Cold, Ignorance, Falsehood,
+Ugliness are manifestations of their positives, as given in my list
+in View One, and it is also not difficult to show that Evil or Sin is
+dependent upon Good in the same way as the Shadow depends upon Light
+for its manifestation. Do not let me be misunderstood; I have never
+suggested that these negatives or negations have not the appearance of
+realities to us, under our present conditions of existence; they
+indeed have to be dealt with by us as realities, but they are only
+manifested as phenomena on the physical plane, because our Senses, and
+therefore Thoughts, are limited by Time and Space and therefore
+dependent upon _relativity_.
+
+Let me put the case of Good and Evil before you, as analogous to, say,
+Light and Shadow. Moral laws and responsibility thereto are dependent
+upon the existence of Goodness; the purely animal Homo was, as I have
+pointed out, free from sin or responsibility until the advent of the
+Spiritual made manifest, in that animal, the physical Ego and raised
+him far above all other animals. Man thus became a responsible moral
+being, a living soul, aware of Right, and therefore of Wrong, and
+certain acts then became for him sin that were not sin before. Thus
+the advent of Christ, and, in a less degree, the coming into the world
+of every good man, so raised, and is raising, the level of moral
+rectitude that things become sin that were not sin before; St. Paul
+himself specially recognises this when he says that without law there
+is no sin. The Goodness, then, brought into the world by Christ, did
+not create sin but made it manifest, and gave it the appearance of
+reality under our present conditions of life and thought. How well the
+Mystic Paul understood that the Invisible is the Real, and that the
+Visible--namely, the phenomena of nature--is only dependent upon Time
+for its manifestation. His words are: "For the things which are seen
+are temporal, but the things which are not seen are Eternal."
+
+I have tried in these Views to use only simple everyday language, and
+am fully aware how inadequate are the words I have employed; but my
+readers will have, I hope, recognised how difficult, and in many cases
+impossible, it is, in treating these metaphysical subjects, to find
+words to express the exact meaning; we have to describe the Infinite
+in terms of the finite, and by use of imperfect finite analogies to
+get a glimpse of the otherwise unthinkable, and even then it requires
+a mystical sense, or what St. Paul called spiritual discernment, to
+see beyond the physical mists. If the whole of the phenomena of Nature
+must be looked upon as the manifestation of the Divine Noumenon, it
+follows that Matter is as divine as the Spiritual, though not as real;
+it is His shadow, or the outline of His very image, thrown upon the
+material plane of our sensations; and the principle of sympathetic
+action, upon which, as we have seen, the whole power to influence
+depends throughout the Universe, becomes surely the best symbol we can
+use for understanding the efficacy of prayer and the connection
+between our Transcendental Self and the All-loving. Realise that the
+Transcendental Ego is a Spirit, and therefore akin to the Great
+Spirit, not only in essence, but in "loving and knowing communion,"
+then look at my last experiment, where we saw two material bodies
+(remember they are shadow manifestations of the Reality) which could
+influence each other from the fact that they were akin, not only in
+substance, but in perfect sympathetic communion.
+
+If now we watch the shadows of two human beings thrown upon a wall,
+and see those shadows shaking hands and embracing each other, are we
+not justified in concluding that those images give us a true
+explanation of what is really taking place? and is not that exactly
+what I have done? have I not shown, as I proposed to do, that it is
+possible by examining the phenomena of Nature (the shadows of the
+Reality) to reach that point where we may even feel that we are
+listening to, or having divulged to us, some of what may be called the
+very thoughts of the Great Reality?
+
+
+
+
+VIEW FIVE
+
+THE PHYSICAL FILM
+
+
+We have seen in former Views that the whole Phenomenal Universe, as
+perceived by our senses, and all intellectual thoughts or concepts
+based on those perceptions, are, in reality, only mists or shadows;
+they have no existence apart from our physical senses, and may be
+likened to a thin film, which at death is pricked and passes away like
+a scroll, leaving us face to face with the Reality. We thus seemed to
+grasp that all phenomena, including our Physical Egos, are but the
+shadows or outline of the Reality, as depicted on our limited plane of
+consciousness; but these phenomena, having Motion for their basis, are
+none the less real to us under our present outlook, limited as it is
+by conditioning in Time and Space, and we have to deal with them as
+realities in our everyday life. I want to make this distinction clear
+in the present View.
+
+Those of us who were youngsters in the 'sixties, and were fortunate
+enough to be taken to that land of wonders for children, the London
+Polytechnic, will remember seeing what were called Professor Pepper's
+Ghosts. By means of a large sheet of glass on the stage, the
+_reflection_ of a human being (otherwise invisible), which we will
+call the "_unreal_," was, by the audience, seen walking alongside the
+people on the stage, and it was impossible to say which was the real
+and which the unreal. When the unreal was made to appear further back
+on the stage, it was apparently seen through the real figures and they
+appeared as ghosts, for they were seen to be transparent. If now we
+fix, perpendicularly on a table, a small pane of glass, and place,
+say, an orange in front and another orange behind it, we can arrange
+so that an observer, looking through the glass, sees two oranges
+alongside each other, one being the real and the other the unreal,
+and, with proper lighting and dark background, it is impossible to
+determine which is which, as they are both apparently real oranges. We
+will call the real, A, and the unreal, B; we now also introduce a
+human hand on both sides of the glass, and again we have apparently
+two real hands close to the oranges; if the real hand is now seen to
+try to touch the B orange, it passes through it, but it can take up
+the A; and the same result is seen when the unreal hand tries to grasp
+them, except that it can grasp the B but not the A; it is, in fact,
+only the unreal that can apprehend the unreal, and the real the real.
+
+The above simile may help some of my readers to understand how the
+phenomena of Nature, though having no real existence apart from our
+senses, have the appearance of reality to us, because both we and the
+whole Phenomenal Universe are the unreal of our analogy, namely, the
+reflection or shadow of the Real on the physical plane. If we run
+against a stone wall, which is also part, with us, of the shadow, we
+hurt ourselves and acknowledge its existence, but to the Real it would
+not be an obstruction at all, it is not there. We know that this wall
+is not really solid, it is made up of Atoms revolving round each other
+but never touching, but the man in the street would give as the reason
+why it hurt, that it was dense, or what is called hard; if the wall
+were made of hay, or cotton wool, or of sunbeams, we should not suffer
+by running against it; in fact, the denser anything becomes, the more
+it shows its character of being real to our senses. If we take this as
+the true explanation for the Physical Universe, we are met with
+something quite beyond our powers of comprehension, when we try to
+form a conception of the all-pervading Ether; unless we may look upon
+it as actually a _presentation_ of the Reality itself. If we wave our
+hand, we can feel the obstruction of the air, but we cannot feel the
+Ether. We think our earth very solid, and we know it is rushing round
+the sun at the enormous rate of 60,000 miles per hour, but it finds no
+obstruction in the Ether, there is no retardation of its velocity; and
+yet the study of Radio-Activity has quite lately shown us that that
+Ether is not only as dense as iron, or a hundred or a thousand times
+denser, but millions of times denser than that metal; and yet it
+permeates all matter like a sieve. In Sir Oliver Lodge's words, "the
+Ether is so dense that matter by comparison is like a gossamer or a
+filmy imperceptible mist." We can, therefore, by again using our
+"Ghost" analogy, understand why matter cannot obstruct the Ether, or
+vice versa; there is no perceivable friction between them, unless, as
+I shall presently suggest, we may find something akin to obstruction
+by Matter, not to Ether itself, but to its pressure, in the phenomenon
+of Gravitation.
+
+The evidence we are gradually winning from Radio-Activity seems to be
+leading us to the conclusion that all forms of matter are but
+different motions or strains in the Ether (perhaps, as Lord Kelvin
+thought, in the form of vortices), that the different atoms of which
+matter is composed are, as suggested in View Three, _apertures_ of
+different complexity of outline--namely, those points at which Ether
+is absent or its density attenuated. Have we not apparently here
+another example of Positive and Negative, the Invisible the Ether, as
+the Real, and the Visible, the Material Universe, as its Negative the
+Unreal, similar to our list of Positives and Negatives in View One?
+Ether itself cannot be explained by any of the known dynamical laws,
+though it is probably the very root and cause of all of them; it is
+absolutely beyond our plane of perception or conception. We can only
+perceive certain effects of its presence when it comes into our
+limited world of consciousness, under the aspects of Time and
+Space--namely, in its movements, which we classify as forms of matter
+and modes of energy.
+
+It is only lately that we have been able to see clearly that the
+effects known to us as Light, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism are
+caused by pulsations or rills of different rapidity in the Ether (this
+will be referred to in a later View); it is also probably the cause of
+what we call Gravitation, and we shall see that the action of
+Gravitation may, after all, be not in the direction of a pull but must
+be looked upon as a pushing force. Gravitation is common to all
+matter; in common language, every particle attracts every other
+particle with a force directly proportional to its mass, and
+inversely to the square of its distance; it is a very weak force
+compared with others we know, and difficult to measure except when a
+large mass of matter is involved. Perhaps this will be clearer, and
+not far from the truth, if I say that the force of Gravitation exerted
+between two masses of matter compared with that which we find acting
+between the constituents of matter--namely, in chemical affinity, is
+comparable to the difference existing between the density of matter
+and the density of Ether.
+
+The latest calculation of the pressure of the Ether is almost
+inconceivable--namely, about 25,000 tons on the square inch, or
+3,600,000 tons on the square foot; it may well therefore be that, in
+the degree of permeability of matter by the Ether, when we can
+calculate it, will be found the explanation of what we call
+Gravitation between two masses; they are each shielding the other from
+Ether pressure, in its own direction, with an obstructive force equal
+to its mass. The reason why the earth appears to attract us, is that
+it is shielding us from a certain amount of pressure in its direction;
+and we know that we are also apparently attracting every particle of
+the earth with a force proportionate to our mass, because we are,
+however slightly, shielding the earth from pressure in our direction;
+if this is the true explanation, Gravitation is a phenomenon of the
+Ether; it will be seen to be a movement of matter in the line of least
+pressure, and is therefore a push and not a pull.
+
+Let us now come down to what we understand better concerning the
+subject of this View.
+
+The question, "What is Truth?" "What is the Reality?" goes to the very
+root of the Riddle of the Universe. We are all trying in one direction
+or another to answer this question. As knowledge increases, old
+theories become untenable and have to be discarded, and, in their
+place, fresh ones are formulated to account for new phases of
+phenomena. There seems a general impression, among even thinking
+people, that scientists are wedded to, and always trying to find
+proofs for, their last theories, but this is not the case. The
+endeavour of the true seeker after truth is not so much to discover
+fresh facts which coincide with existing theories, as to find
+phenomena which cannot be explained thereby; there is indeed more joy
+over one fact which does not agree with preconceived theory, than over
+ninety-nine facts which are found to fall under that heading. In our
+everyday life we have become so accustomed to take for granted that
+what we see, hear, or feel by touch must be real, that it is difficult
+for the man in the street to realise that our senses woefully deceive
+us; that perception without knowledge often leads us astray into false
+concepts, and these false concepts lead us into difficulties which
+require fresh concepts to be formed, and these again demand further
+and more exact knowledge to be applied to perceived phenomena. This
+necessity for overcoming difficulties is the greatest incentive we
+have for gaining fresh knowledge of our surroundings. Owing to the
+fact, as already pointed out, that our sense perceptions are based
+upon the appreciation of change or motion, and must therefore be
+limited in Time and Space, and that the trueness of our conceptions of
+the Reality is dependent upon the knowledge which can be brought to
+bear upon those perceptions, we are forced to postulate two aspects of
+the Universe; one of these is what may be called the Visible, Finite,
+or Physical, which indeed carries the appearance of Reality to our
+limited senses, though it has no real existence for us apart from
+those senses, and the other is that which transcends our utmost
+conception, which we call the Invisible, the Infinite, or Spiritual.
+
+At the outset of all investigation, we are forced to recognise that
+the only way we can approach conception of the Infinite is necessarily
+in the form of a negative, the negative applying to those things of
+which we have cognisance; we carry our thought to the utmost limit
+possible with our present knowledge, and, when we have come to a
+standstill, we conceive the Infinite to be not that but something
+further on. As our knowledge increases by small steps, that something
+further on seems ever to be flying from our grasp by mighty strides,
+until we are forced to bow our heads and recognise that we are in the
+presence of, though still not in sight of, the Reality. A divine
+impulse is ever urging us forward to greater conceptions but
+shattering our hopes, and giving us a feeling akin to despair, if we
+arrogate to ourselves a greater power of conception than we have
+knowledge to sustain; we have to approach the study with, indeed, that
+feeling of elation which the consciousness of our origin and destiny
+wakes within us, giving us a feeling of certainty that we are capable,
+in the hereafter, of attaining to the highest summit of knowledge, but
+with that humility, in the present, which makes us acknowledge that he
+who knows most knows most how little he knows. In this frame of mind
+let us now examine our surroundings.
+
+We are living in a world of continuous and multitudinous changes; in
+fact, without change, we could have no cognisance of our surroundings,
+we should have no consciousness of living. We have become so
+accustomed to certain sensations that we are apt to take them, as
+facts, and scoff at the suggestion that they are non-realities. I
+propose, however, to show that what we perceive are not Realities, and
+true conception of our surroundings depends upon the knowledge which
+we can bring to bear to interpret the meaning of these sensations. It
+is only in response to our conscientious endeavours to form new
+concepts that knowledge is being daily revealed to us; the more we
+progress in Knowledge the more we see that Perception alone without
+Knowledge leads to false concepts, and these in their turn create
+fatal obstacles and difficulties to our progress towards the true
+appreciation of the Universe. Let me give a few examples.
+
+In early times the Sun and the Stars were seen to revolve round the
+Earth once every day, and, without Knowledge of Astronomy, this was
+taken for granted as an absolute fact, and was looked upon as a
+reality; later on, however, it was noted that the Stars never changed
+their relative positions; this necessitated a new concept, namely,
+that they were fixed on the inner surface of a huge globe, which was
+also revolving. This false concept brought other difficulties into
+play, the question arose as to what was beyond the globe, and also the
+difficulty that, when the Stars as well as the Sun were found to be
+at such enormous distances from the Earth, their rates of motion were
+quite inconceivable. Even in the case of the Sun the motion represents
+over twenty-five million miles per hour, and the apparent motion of
+the Stars is thousands of times faster than Light travels. These
+insuperable difficulties were not swept away until, by the advance of
+Knowledge, the falsity of Conception, based only upon appearance, was
+made manifest, and it was seen that it was the Earth which revolved
+and not the Stars. Even then, owing to its supposed antagonism to what
+was stated in the Bible, the new Conception was opposed with great
+bitterness, it being long looked upon and denounced as a sacrilegious
+invention, and anybody daring to promulgate such a doctrine was
+threatened with death.
+
+Our present Conception, that the Earth turns round on its axis once
+every day, and rolls in its orbit round the Sun once in every year,
+may be called a Reality to our finite Senses; but I shall show later
+on that, except for the finiteness of our senses and the imperfection
+of our Knowledge, the Concept is not a true one. With perfect
+Perception and perfect Knowledge we shall see that, apart from the two
+limitations or modes under which our physical senses act, there can be
+no such thing as Motion, because the very essence of Motion is but
+the product of those limitations, namely, Time and Space.
+
+We are so accustomed to take everything for granted, that it may
+perhaps seem strange to question whether it can even be asserted that
+we have ever seen matter. Let us turn towards a common object in this
+room. We catch in our eyes the multitudinous impulses which are
+reflected from its surface under circumstances somewhat similar to
+those in which a cricketer "fields" a ball; he puts his hand in the
+way of the moving ball and catches it, and, knowing the distance of
+the batsman, he perhaps recognises, by the hard impact of the ball,
+that the batsman has strong muscles, but he cannot be said to _see_
+the batsman by that impact, nor can he gain thereby any idea as to his
+character. So it is with objective intuition; we direct our eyes
+towards an object, and catch thereby rays of light reflected from that
+object at different angles, and, by combining all these directions, we
+recognise _form_, and come to the conclusion that we are looking at,
+say, a chair. The eye also tells us that rays are coming in greater
+quantity from some parts of it, and we know that those parts are
+_polished_; the eye again catches rays giving higher or lower
+frequencies of vibration, and we call that _colour_; our eyes also
+tell us that it intercepts certain rays reflected from other objects
+in the room, and we know that it is not _transparent_ to light; and
+those are our sight perceptions of a wooden chair.
+
+We may go a little further by "pushing," when we know, by the amount
+of resistance compared with the power exerted, what force of gravity
+is being exerted by and on that chair, and we declare it heavy or
+light, but by these means we get no nearer to the knowledge of what
+matter is. By tests and reagents we can resolve wood into other forms
+which we call Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, &c., which, because
+we cannot divide them into any other known substances, we call
+"Elements," but we can only look at these in the same way as we are
+looking at the chair. Chemists, however, carry us a little further,
+and show us that the Elementary substances have not only their likes
+and dislikes, but their passionate desires and lukewarmness to others
+of their ilk, and, when opportunity offers, they break up with great
+violence any ordinary friendship existing between them and their
+neighbours, and seize on their coveted prey with a strength of will
+surpassing anything experienced in the Organic World; and this new
+association they maintain, until they, in their turn, are
+dispossessed, or they encounter another substance of still greater
+attraction, when they leave their first love and take up new
+connections.
+
+I shall touch upon the subject of what matter is later on; meanwhile
+let us consider how, owing to our senses being limited by the
+considerations of Time and Space, we are surrounded by inconceivables,
+and yet it is those very inadequate conceptions which force us to
+acquire Knowledge; the greatest incentive we have to pursue our
+investigation is, as we have seen, the fact that Perception without
+sufficient Knowledge leads us into difficulties. Let me give you two
+instances of these inconceivables. Infinite Space is inconceivable by
+us, but it is also quite as inconceivable, or perhaps even more so, to
+think of Space being limited, and yet we are forced to declare that
+one of these two must be true. Again, Matter is either composed of
+ultimate bodies, of a certain size which cannot be divided, or is
+infinitely divisible; both of these are inconceivable, the latter for
+the same reason as that of the Infinity of Space, and the former
+because it is inconceivable that the ultimate body could not be
+divided into two parts by a sharp edge forced between its two sides,
+or by a stronger force than at present holds it together; it has
+indeed been suggested as an explanation that, if an atom could be
+divided, it might cease to be matter, that its parts would have no
+existence, but it is difficult to conceive how two nothings can form
+one something.
+
+Another example of Perception leading to a false Concept is our Sense
+of Pain; we apply a red-hot coal to the tip of one of our fingers and
+our Perception would have us believe that we feel intense pain at the
+point of contact, but we know this to be a false Concept, as it can be
+shown that the pain is only felt at the brain: there are in
+communication with different parts of our body small microscopical
+nerve threads, any of which may be severed with a pen-knife close to
+the base of the skull, with the result that no pain can then be felt,
+although the fingertip is just as much alive and is seen to be burning
+away.
+
+Another example is our Sense of Hearing. A musical sound is made up of
+a certain number of pushes in a second, but each push is silent. It is
+only, as we have seen, a musical sound to our Sense when the pushes
+recur at intervals of not more than the sixteenth part of a second.
+The prongs of a tuning-fork, vibrating 500 times per second, seem to
+be travelling very quickly, but are really only moving at the rate of
+10 inches per second, or not much over half a mile per hour, when the
+amplitude is the hundredth part of an inch, which gives quite a loud
+sound.
+
+Light is also composed of rills in the Ether, but the rill itself is
+not Light, it is only Light when these rills strike, with a certain
+enormous frequency, on a special organ adapted for, we might say,
+counting these frequencies, and if these frequencies fall below that
+certain number, or above twice that number per second, there is no
+Sense of Sight.
+
+How few people have ever realised what a wonderful Counting Machine
+they possess in their organ of Sight! I think the best method I can
+adopt, to bring this clearly before you, is to take our tuning-fork,
+vibrating 500 times per second, a rapidity which to some will be even
+difficult to comprehend, and then ask you to consider how long that
+fork must continue to vibrate before it has accomplished the full
+number of frequencies, which must necessarily impinge upon the eye in
+one second of time, before the phenomenon of sight becomes possible.
+That tuning-fork would have not only to continue its vibrations
+without diminution for seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months, years,
+or hundreds of years, but for 30,000 years before it has accomplished
+the full number of pulsations which, as Ether waves, must strike the
+eye in one second of time, to give the impression of Light; the
+calculation is easy, the rills of Red Light are so small that 40,000
+of these only cover one inch of length, and light travels 186,000
+miles per second. If therefore the number of inches in 186,000 miles
+are multiplied by the 40,000, and the product is divided by the 500
+times which the tuning-fork vibrates in one second, you have the
+number of seconds that tuning-fork must vibrate, before it has
+completed the number of impacts which, in one second of time, must
+fall on our retina to give us the impression of red light; and that
+tuning-fork would have to vibrate nearly twice as long, say 50,000
+years, to reach the number of impulses which strike the eye in one
+second of time and give the impression of violet light; and between
+these two limits are situated the colours--Orange, Yellow, Green,
+Blue, and Indigo.
+
+What a marvellous sense then is Sight, when we find that, not only can
+it grasp these innumerable vibrations, but can actually differentiate
+colours, appreciating as a different colour each increase of about
+one-tenth in these multitudinous frequencies; and it is principally by
+means of this Sense of Sight that we gain a knowledge of what is
+happening around us. And yet what strides we have made in the last two
+hundred years to improve upon that instrument! With all its wonderful
+capabilities, we shall see later on that the eye is a very imperfect
+instrument for seeing very small objects, or even large objects when
+at a great distance. With the present compound Microscope, only
+developed in the last hundred years, and its apochromatic lenses,
+invented only in the last forty years, we are able to see and
+photograph objects of a minuteness immeasurably beyond the power of
+the human eye, and, with our telescopes, we can see and photograph
+stars far beyond the possibility of vision by the unaided eye; and
+yet, by the stellar spectroscope, we are actually able to examine and
+identify the very atoms of which that distant star is composed, or
+rather was composed hundreds of thousands of years ago; we can compare
+those atoms with the same atoms in our laboratories, and we find that,
+though the former are hundreds of thousands of years older than the
+latter, they show absolutely no signs of wear or loss of energy,
+though they have been for that enormous time, and are still, pulsating
+at the rate of not only millions but billions of times per second; and
+though the pulsations they emit have travelled across such a vast
+depth of space that the mind cannot even imagine the distance, there
+has not been any diminution in the numbers of pulsations per second,
+nor the slightest slowing down of the rate of flight at which they
+started on their journey from that far-off world. If there had been
+the _slightest_ change we could detect it at once by means of the
+Spectroscope.
+
+With another instrument we are able, not only to hear but to converse
+audibly, as long as we like, with another human being a thousand miles
+away, who is also sitting comfortably in his own arm-chair and
+speaking to us with as much freedom as though we were both in the same
+room. With another instrument we can go further, and exchange
+thoughts, in a few seconds, with a being on the other side of the
+world, by means of a thin wire that is itself fixed, and does not
+move, and we have lately invented another means by which we can do the
+same, over several thousands of miles, without even a connecting wire.
+With another instrument we have gone far beyond the facility with
+which the Printing press enabled us to communicate our thoughts to our
+fellow human beings, we can actually imprint our very words and
+laughter upon a wax cylinder and send it to the antipodes, and our
+friends there, with a similar instrument, can not only hear and
+recognise our very voice, but can make that voice repeat our thoughts
+audibly, to a thousand others at the same time, and can repeat that
+process for hundreds of times without exhausting that voice. With
+another instrument we can depict on a film, not only the images of our
+friends but their very actions, which may also be sent to any
+distance, and the persons, thereon depicted, may be seen by their
+relatives alive and going about their everyday employments, with every
+movement exact to life. We can cross the Ocean against the wind and
+waves by means of harnessed sunbeams, without any exertion of our own,
+at the rate of an express train, which train, by the by, is also moved
+by the same means; we can dive to the bottom of the sea and journey
+there for hours, in perfect safety, without coming to the surface, and
+we are even developing wings, or their equivalent, which from
+immemorial tradition we were not to possess before we had finished
+doing our duty properly in this world and had gained admission to the
+next.
+
+We can do all these things, but how ignorant we still are in the
+commonest doings of Nature! By giving up our whole lifetime, and
+spending millions of pounds, we could never make a grain of wheat or
+an acorn, and wherever we turn we find ourselves confronted with
+mysteries beyond our power to explain from a finite material
+standpoint; even in material vibrations we meet a mystery almost
+beyond our power to comprehend. Take for instance those small insects,
+of the family of Grasshoppers, which make the primaeval woods of
+Central America give out a noise like the roaring of the sea, a
+wondrous sound never to be forgotten by those who have heard it. By
+means of a kind of rasp one of these insects creates a sound which
+Darwin states can be heard to the distance of one mile: these insects
+weigh less than the hundredth part of an ounce, and the instrument by
+which the noise is made, weighs much less than one-tenth of the total
+insect; it is less therefore than one thousandth part of an ounce in
+weight, and yet it is found, by calculation, that this small
+instrument is actually able to move at the enormous rate of a thousand
+vibrations per second and keep in motion for hours, from five to ten
+million tons of matter, and it does this so powerfully that every
+particle of that enormous bulk of matter gives out a sound audible to
+our ears. But even these millions of tons are not its limit of action,
+for we know that these vibrations must go on until, in the end, every
+particle of matter connected with this earth has been affected by each
+of those vibrations.
+
+All our difficulties of understanding the true meaning of these and
+other phenomena around us are, as I have already pointed out, caused
+by our inability to recognise that vibration or motion has no reality,
+it is a pseudo-conception arising from the fact that our senses are
+entirely dependent upon the two modes or limitations, Time and Space,
+for their very action, and that, as conceptional knowledge is based
+upon perceptional knowledge, our very consciousness of living is also
+dependent upon these same limitations. We have seen that Motion is
+nothing but the product of these two modes of perceptions, and, in my
+next Views, I shall examine these elusive limitations, these two
+mysteries of Time and Space, the forever and the never-ending; I shall
+trace them to the utmost limit of our conception, and try to gain
+thereby a clearer insight into the fact, not only that the whole
+Physical Universe is but a transient and Space-limited phenomenon, a
+thin film which our senses have erected and which divides us from the
+Reality, but that, if our power of _introspection_ were fully
+developed, we should know that the Reality is nearer and dearer to us,
+and has much more to do with us, even in this life, than has the
+physical.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW SIX
+
+SPACE
+
+
+We have seen that our very thoughts, and therefore consciousness of
+living, are limited by Time and Space, but we cannot with the utmost
+endeavour conceive a limit to Time and Space; they are two twin
+sisters, alike in many respects but different in others, and we shall
+realise later on that they are readily interchangeable. The sensuous
+aspect of Motion is, as we have seen, the time that an object takes to
+go over a certain space--namely, what is called the rate at which it
+passes from one point to another, and we cannot imagine Motion unless
+it contains both of these modes in however small a quantity; we may
+have the greatest imaginable space traversed in a moment of time, or
+the smallest imaginable space covered in what may be called, for want
+of a better word, an eternity, but we still have to postulate what we
+call Motion; this, of course, follows from the fact that our thoughts
+require both these modes for forming concepts. If we compare our
+conception of Matter with that of Time and Space, we see that the two
+latter are not separately the object of any sense, but are the modes
+or conditions under which all our senses act, to a greater or less
+degree, and these conditions cannot therefore carry the same
+impression of objectivity to our senses as Matter does, except perhaps
+in the sense that all physical phenomena are simply motion, and motion
+is the product of both of these limitations but not of either of them
+separately.
+
+If we analyse our conceptions of Time and Space we seem forced to
+postulate that they are both infinitely divisible and infinitely
+extensible; they are both what is called continuous and not discrete,
+we cannot conceive any minimum in their division; both duration in
+Time and extension in Space can be reduced, as it were, to a
+mathematical point; nor can we conceive any maximum in either duration
+or extension. They are both therefore comprised in every conception
+possible to our consciousness; all parts of Time are time and all
+parts of Space are space; there are no holes, as it were, in Space
+which are not space, nor intervals in Time which are not time, they
+are both complete units; Space cannot be limited except by space, and
+Time cannot be limited except by time. So far they are alike, but, on
+the other hand, Space is comprised of three dimensions--namely,
+length, breadth, and depth, whereas Time has the appearance to us of
+comprising one dimension only--namely, length.
+
+Under our present conditions we can only think of one finite subject
+at a time, and, at that moment, all other subjects are cancelled. We
+can therefore only think of points in Time and Space as situated
+beyond, or in front of, other fixed points, which again must be
+followed by other points; we cannot fix a point in either so as to
+exclude the thought of a point beyond; we can only in fact examine
+them in a form of finite sequences.
+
+The Idea of Infinity, which we shall refer to in a later View and show
+to be a false conception, is therefore a necessary result of the
+limitation of our thoughts; our physical Ego cannot conceive beyond
+the Finite as long as we are conscious of living under present
+conditions. With every act of perception by our senses, we have
+therefore not only intuition of the Visible or Finite, but we become
+at the same moment aware of an Invisible Infinite beyond. Time appears
+to us as an inconceivable, intangible something, which gives us the
+impression of movement without anything that moves it. Space is an
+omnipresent, intangible, inconceivable nothing, outside of which
+nothing which has existence can be even thought to exist. Let us now
+try and get an insight into what we mean by perception of distance in
+space.
+
+The appreciation of distance depends upon what is called _parallax_,
+or the apparent displacement of projectment of an object when seen by
+our two eyes separately. If you hold up a finger and look at it, with
+each eye separately, you will see that the finger is projected by each
+eye on to a different part of the background; the angle which the
+lines of sight, from each eye, make when they meet at the object, is
+called the angle of parallax, and the further the object is away the
+smaller that angle becomes; it is, in fact, the angle subtended, at
+the object, by the distance between the two eyes. As the object is
+brought nearer the eyes have to be inclined inwards to impinge on that
+object; the appreciation of distance then, in our sense of sight, is
+dependent upon our perception of the amount of inclination of those
+two lines of sight, and is therefore an acquired knowledge. The
+distance between the eyes is about 2-1/2 inches, and this is a very
+short base line upon which to estimate distance; in fact, without the
+help of perspective and known dimensions of surrounding objects, it is
+doubtful if anyone could by its means estimate distance beyond a few
+hundred yards. The object would, of course, also have to be an unknown
+one, as, otherwise, the converse of the above comes into play, and the
+distance could be estimated by the angle which the known diameter of
+the object subtends at the eye; but this necessitates the size of the
+object being known beforehand and the employment of perspective.
+
+We can extend our perception of distances by, ourselves, moving from
+one place to another, gaining thereby a longer base line, and noting
+the displacement of projection of the object on a distant background;
+by that means, distance up to several miles can probably be
+appreciated. But, when we try to determine the distance of, say, the
+Moon (240,000 miles away), we are helpless, especially as we have no
+marked background, except in the case of occultations of the Sun or
+Stars. But the Astronomer at once comes to our aid; a distance of
+several miles is carefully measured on a level plane, and, by placing
+telescopes at the extremities of that known line, we can mark the
+inclination of those telescopes to each other when focussed upon a
+particular mountain peak on the moon; by this means we know the angle
+of parallax (180 deg. less the sum of the two angles of inclination), and,
+from this and our known length of base line, we can calculate the
+distance. When however we go a step further and attempt to calculate
+the distance of the Sun (93,000,000 miles), we find our last base line
+again absolutely inadequate. But the astronomer helps us again; we now
+separate our two telescopic eyes by the whole diameter of the earth
+(7900 miles); this is accomplished by taking from the Equator two
+simultaneous observations of the Sun, at its rising and setting; for
+when the Sun is setting, at say the Equinox, it is at that moment
+rising at exactly the other side of the earth; the inclination of the
+two telescopes, directed to a certain point on the Sun, will now give
+the distance approximately, though even this base line is too short
+for exactitude. When however we attempt to go still further and try to
+ascertain the distance of stars, which are a million times further off
+than the Sun, such a base line is quite out of the question. How then
+can we get a base line for our telescopes longer than the whole width
+of the earth? The Astronomer again provides the means. The earth takes
+one year to complete its vast orbit round the sun, and the diameter of
+that path is 186,000,000 miles. This is made our new base line for
+separating our telescopes; an observation of a star is taken, say,
+to-day, and after waiting six months, to enable the earth to reach the
+other extremity of its vast orbit, another observation is taken, and
+yet it is found, as we shall see later on, that the distance of the
+nearest fixed star is so _stupendous_ that even this base line, of
+186,000,000 miles, shows absolutely no inclination between the two
+telescopes except in about a dozen cases, and even in those the angle
+of parallax, perceivable, is so minute that no reliable distance can
+be calculated; we can only say that the star is at least as far away
+as a certain distance, but it may be much farther.
+
+Let us now try by other means to get a clearer insight into the
+subject of this View, by tracing Space to the utmost limit of human
+conception. I think the best method I can adopt will be to take you,
+in imagination, for a journey as far as is possible by means of the
+best instruments at our disposal.
+
+We will start outwards from the Sun, and glance on our way at the
+worlds involved in the Solar System. Let us first understand what are
+the dimensions of our central Luminary. The distance of the Moon from
+the Earth is 240,000 miles, but the dimensions of the Sun are so great
+that, were the centre of the Sun placed where the centre of the Earth
+is, the surface of the Sun would not only extend as far as the Moon,
+but as far again on the other side, and that would give the radius
+only of the enormous circumference of the Sun; another way to
+understand its size is, to remember that, light travelling 186,000
+miles per second, would actually take five seconds to go across its
+disc. Let us now start outward from this vast mass. The first world we
+meet is the little planet Mercury, only 3000 miles in diameter,
+revolving round the Sun at a distance of 36 million miles. We next
+come upon Venus, at a distance of 67 million miles. She is only 400
+miles smaller in diameter than our Earth, and, with the dense
+atmosphere with which she is surrounded, animal and vegetable life
+similar to that on our Earth would be possible. Continuing our course,
+we arrive at our Earth, situated 93 million miles away from the Sun.
+Still speeding on, a further 50 million miles brings us to Mars, with
+a diameter of nearly 5000 miles, and accompanied by two miniature
+moons. The sight of this planet in a good instrument is most
+interesting. Ocean beds and continents are visible, and the telescope
+shows large tracts of snow, though not necessarily formed from water
+(perhaps carbonic dioxide), surrounding its polar regions, which
+increase considerably during the winter, and decrease during the
+summer seasons on that planet; but there are no canals! The fact that
+our largest and best telescopes failed to show these imaginary canals,
+was an insurmountable barrier to the advocates of these markings, but
+the "Canalites" made their contention ridiculous when they actually
+suggested that the reason for this failure to perceive them was that
+our telescopes were too large to see such small markings! How such a
+statement could have been made is incomprehensible on any supposition,
+as everybody knows that the whole use of size, or what is called
+aperture, in a telescope, is to help us to see more clearly small and
+faint markings.
+
+The distances we now have to travel become so great that I shall not
+attempt to give them; you can, however, form an idea of the tremendous
+spaces we are traversing when you consider that each successive planet
+is nearly double as far from the Sun as the preceding one.
+
+In the place where, by Bode's law, we should expect to have found the
+next world, we find a group of small planets, ranging in size from
+about 200 miles in diameter down to only a few hundred yards. They
+pass through nearly the same point once in each of their periods of
+revolution round the Sun, and it has been suggested that they are
+fragments of a great globe rent asunder by some mighty catastrophe;
+over 400 of these little worlds have been discovered and have received
+names, or are known under certain numbers.
+
+We now continue our voyage over the next huge space and arrive at
+Jupiter, the largest and grandest of the planets. This world is more
+than 1000 times larger than our Earth, its circumference being
+actually greater than the distance from the Earth to the Moon. It has
+seven moons, and its year is about twelve times as long as ours.
+Pursuing our journey, we next come to Saturn. It is nearly as large as
+Jupiter, and has a huge ring of planetary matter revolving round it in
+addition to seven moons. Further and further we go, and the planets
+behind us are disappearing, and even the Sun is dwindling down to a
+mere speck; still we hurry on, and at last alight on another planet,
+Uranus, about sixty times larger than our Earth; we see moons in
+attendance, but they have scarcely any light to reflect; the Sun is
+only a star now; but we must hasten on deeper and deeper into space.
+We shall again, as formerly, have to go nearly as far beyond the last
+planet as that planet is from the Sun. The mind cannot grasp these
+huge distances. Still we travel on to the last planet, Neptune,
+revolving on its lonely orbit; sunk so deep into space that, though it
+rushes round the Sun at the rate of 22,000 miles per hour, it takes
+164 of our years to complete one revolution. Now let us look back from
+this remote point. What do we see? One planet only, Uranus, is visible
+to the unaided eye; the giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have
+disappeared, and the Sun itself is now only a star; practically no
+heat, no light, all is darkness in this solitary world; the Sun is
+1000 times smaller than we see it from the earth, and gives,
+therefore, only one-thousandth part of its heat and light. Thus far
+have we gone, and, standing there at the enormous distance of
+3,000,000,000 miles from our starting-point, we can begin to
+comprehend the vast limits of the solar system; we can begin to
+understand the ways of this mighty family of planets and satellites.
+But let us not set up too small a standard whereby to measure the
+Infinity of Space. We shall find, as we go on, that this stupendous
+system is but an infinitesimal part of the whole universe.
+
+Let us now look forward along the path we are to take. We are standing
+on the outermost part of our Solar System, and there is no other
+planet towards which we can wing our flight; but all around are
+multitudes of stars, some shining with a brightness almost equal to
+what our Sun appears to give forth at that great distance, others
+hardly visible, but the smallest telescope increases their number
+enormously, and presents to our mind the appalling phantom of
+_immensity_ in all its terror, standing there to withstand our next
+great step. How are we to continue on our journey when our very senses
+seem paralysed by this obstruction, and even imagination is powerless
+from utter loneliness? One guide only is there to help us, the
+messenger which flits from star to star, universe to universe; Light
+it is which will help us to appreciate even these bottomless depths.
+Now, Light travels 186,000 miles per second, or 12 million miles every
+minute of time. It therefore takes only about four hours to traverse
+the huge distance between our Sun and Neptune, where we are now
+supposed to be standing; but to leap across the space separating us
+from the nearest star, it would require many years for Light,
+travelling at 186,000 miles every second of that time, to span the
+distance. There are, in fact, only fifteen stars in the whole heaven
+that could be reached, on the wings of Light, in sixteen years!
+
+Let us use this to continue our voyage. On a clear night the human eye
+can perceive thousands of stars, in all directions, scattered without
+any apparent order or design; but in one locality, forming a huge ring
+round the heavens, there is a misty zone called the Milky Way. Let us
+turn a telescope with a low aperture on this, and what a sight
+presents itself! Instead of mist, myriads of stars are now seen
+surrounded by nebulous haze. We put a higher aperture on, and thus
+pierce further and further into space; the haze is resolved into
+myriads more stars, and more haze comes up from the deep beyond,
+showing that the visual ray was not yet strong enough to fathom the
+mighty distance; but let the full aperture be applied and mark the
+result. Mist and haze have disappeared; the telescope has pierced
+right through the stupendous distance, and only the vast abyss of
+space, boundless and unfathomable, is seen beyond.
+
+Let us pause here for a moment to think what we have done. Light,
+travelling with its enormous velocity, requires on an average
+considerably over ten years to traverse the distance between our Solar
+System and Stars of the first magnitude, but the dimensions of the
+Milky Way are built up on such a huge scale that to traverse the whole
+stratum would require us to pass about 500 stars, separated from each
+other by this same tremendous interval; 10,000 years may therefore be
+computed as the shortest time which light, travelling with its
+enormous velocity, would take to sweep across the whole cluster, it
+being borne in mind that the Solar System is supposed to be located
+not far from the centre of this great star cluster, and that the
+cluster comprises all stars visible arrayed in a flat zone, the edges
+of which, where the stratum is deepest, being the locality of the
+Milky Way.
+
+Let us once more continue our journey. We have traversed a distance
+which even on the wings of light we could only accomplish in many
+thousands of years, and now stand on the outskirts of our great star
+cluster, in the same way, and I hope with the same aspirations, as
+when we paused the last time on the confines of our Solar System.
+Behind us are myriads of shining orbs, in such countless numbers that
+human thought cannot even suggest a limit, and yet each of these is a
+mighty globe like our Sun, the centre of a planetary system,
+dispensing light and heat under conditions similar to what we are
+accustomed to here. Let us, however, turn our face away from these
+clusterings of mighty suns, and look steadfastly forward into the
+unbroken darkness, and once more brace our nerves to face that
+terrible phantom--_Immensity_.
+
+We require now the most powerful instruments that science can put into
+our hands, and by their aid we will again essay to make another stride
+towards the appreciation of our subject. In what, to the unaided eye,
+was unbroken darkness, the telescope now enables us to discern a
+number of luminous points of haze, and towards one of these we
+continue our journey. The myriads of suns in our great star cluster
+are soon being left far behind; they shrink together, resolve
+themselves into haze, until the once glorious universe of countless
+millions of suns has dwindled down to a mere point of light, almost
+invisible to the naked eye. But look forward: the luminous cloud to
+which we are urging our flight has expanded, until what, at one time,
+was a mere patch of brightness, has now swelled into a mighty star
+cluster; myriads of suns burst into sight--we have traversed a
+distance which even on the wings of light would take hundreds of
+thousands of years, and have reached the confines of another Milky Way
+as glorious and mighty as the one we have left; whose limits light
+would require 10,000 years to traverse; and yet, in whatever direction
+the telescope is placed, star clusters are to be seen strewn over the
+surface of the heavens.
+
+Let us take now the utmost limit of telescopic power in all
+directions. Where are we after all but in the centre of a sphere whose
+circumference is 100,000 times as far from us as one of the nearest
+fixed stars, a distance that light would take over a million years to
+traverse, and beyond whose circuit, infinity, boundless infinity,
+still stretches unfathomed as ever? We have made a step, indeed, but
+perhaps only towards acquaintance with a new order of infinitesimals.
+Once the distances of our Solar System seemed almost infinite
+quantities; compare them with the intervals between the fixed stars,
+and they become no quantities at all. And now when the spaces between
+the stars are contrasted with the gulfs of dark spaces separating
+firmaments, they absolutely vanish away. Can the whole firmamental
+creation in its turn be nothing but a corner of some mightier scheme?
+But let us not go on to bewilderment: we have passed from planet to
+planet, star to star, universe to universe, and still infinite space
+extends for ever beyond our grasp. We have gone as far towards the
+infinite as our sight, aided by the most powerful telescope, can hope
+to go. Is there no way then by which we can continue our journey
+further towards the appreciation of this infinity? A few years ago we
+should probably have denied that it was possible for man to go
+further; but quite lately a new method of observation has been
+developed, and we will try and use this to continue our flight.
+
+The reason why, to our sight, an object becomes apparently smaller and
+smaller as it is withdrawn from the eye, until it at last disappears
+entirely, is that the eye is a very imperfect instrument for viewing
+objects at a great distance; it can only form an image of an object
+when that object is near enough to subtend a certain angle, or, in
+popular language, to show itself a certain size--the rays of light
+must converge--in fact, the eye cannot single out and appreciate
+parallel rays: could it do this, objects would not appear to grow
+smaller as they are removed. A pencil might be removed to the Moon,
+240,000 miles away, and would still appear to the eye the same size as
+it does here close to you; with perfect vision there would be no such
+thing as perspective, but, with our present conditions of sight, the
+result would be inconvenient. We should never be able to see, at one
+and the same time, anything larger than the pupil of our eye. The
+beauties of the landscape would be gone, and our dearest friends would
+pass us unheeded and unseen; everyday life would resolve itself into a
+task similar to that of attempting to read our newspaper every morning
+by means of a powerful microscope; we should commence by getting on to
+a big black blotch, and, after wandering about for half an hour, we
+might perhaps then begin to find out that we were looking at the
+little letter "e," but anything like reading would be quite out of the
+question. We may, therefore, with our limited aperture of sight, be
+thankful that our eyes have the imperfection of not appreciating
+parallel rays. But we will now consider how this imperfection may be
+remedied by science.
+
+There are two different ways of doing this--viz., first, by increasing
+the amount of light received, by means of telescopes of great
+aperture; and secondly, by employing an artificial retina a thousand
+times more sensitive than the human. Now, the human retina receives
+the impression of what it looks at in a very minute fraction of a
+second, provided of course that the eye is properly focussed, and no
+further impression will be made by keeping the eye fixed on that
+object; but in celestial photography, when the telescope is turned
+into a camera, the sensitive plate, having received the impression in
+the first second, may be exposed not only for many seconds, or
+minutes, or hours, but for an aggregate of even days by re-exposure,
+every second of which time details on that plate new objects, sunk so
+deep in the vast depths of space as to be immeasurably beyond the
+power of the human eye, even through telescopes hundreds of times more
+powerful than the largest instruments that science has enabled us to
+construct; and yet here is laid before us a faithful chart, by means
+of which we may once more continue our journey through space. A short
+exposure will show us firmaments and nebulae just outside the range of
+our greatest telescopes, and every additional second extends our
+vision by such vast increases of distances that the brain reels at the
+thought; and yet, as we have seen, exposures of these sensitive plates
+may be, and have been, made not only for seconds, but for thousands
+and even hundreds of thousands of seconds! And still there is no end,
+no end where the weary mind can rest and contemplate; the finite mind
+of man can only cry out that there is no limit. In spite of all its
+strivings and groping by aid of speculative philosophy, the finite
+cannot attain to the Infinite, nor get any nearer to where the mighty
+sea of time breaks in noiseless waves on the dim shore of eternity.
+
+In this journey through space we have apparently exhausted our power
+of conception of the _extension_ of this View. Although we have
+travelled in one direction only, our flight was applicable to every
+possible known direction _outwards_ into the vast abyss of Infinite
+space. But there is another path, by which we can also travel with
+profit to our understanding of this subject, running in the opposite
+direction--namely, _inwards_. Just as the outward journey seemed to
+take us towards the appreciation of what our finite senses call the
+infinitely great, so does this other path appear to intend to
+infinity, in the opposite direction, leading us to appreciate what is
+called the infinitely small. We have already considered this direction
+in View One, under the heading of "Relativity," and by combining these
+two experiences, we may see still more clearly that our very
+conception of Space is one of the modes only under which motion or
+physical phenomena are presented to our consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW SEVEN
+
+TIME
+
+
+In the last View I referred to the mysteries of Time and Space as
+twin-sisters; they have, as we saw, many aspects in common, and are
+the two modes or conditions under which all our senses act and by
+which our thoughts are limited. We arbitrarily divide each of these
+two mysteries into two parts, which parts are separated from each
+other, in either case, by a point which has, apparently, as its
+centre, our very consciousness of living. In the case of Space we call
+this point the HERE, and on one side of it, as we saw in our last
+View, we have extension towards the infinitely great, and, on the
+other, intension towards the infinitely small. In the case of Time we
+call the middle point the NOW, and on one side of this we place the
+duration of Time towards the future, and, on the other, we place what
+we call the duration of Time towards the past. In the case of Space we
+have the here and the _overthere_, equivalent in Time to the present
+and the _future_, but, though Time and Space are, as it were,
+twin-sisters, upon whose combined action depends our very
+consciousness of living, we do not treat them both equally.
+
+It is a remarkable fact that the human race on this particular world
+has, in some inexplicable way, come to look upon the future as
+non-existent until we arrive at, and are able to perceive, with our
+senses, what is happening there; this is all the more inexplicable
+when we realise that in traversing Space we certainly have to _move_
+to get anywhere, but in traversing Time we have nothing equivalent to
+movement. This curious way of looking upon the future as non-existent,
+may be another sign that our race is still in its infancy, but is more
+probably caused by human beings having always hitherto looked upon
+Time not only as a reality but as actually moving or extending along a
+line from past to future eternity; whereas, under our present outlook,
+we have no consciousness of the existence of Time except by intervals
+between successive thoughts; our consciousness of the very existence
+of Time is based upon our Physical Ego repeating the _present_, by
+saying to itself the words, Now--Now--Now; but there is nothing that
+can be called movement in this, any more than if you are standing
+still and saying, Here--Here--Here--relating to Space. Time is, as it
+were, "marking time," and as the present in time is common to all
+space, Time is "marking time" everywhere, and the Now therefore
+includes the whole of the past and the whole of future eternity
+everywhere. We shall get a clearer understanding of this later on;
+meanwhile, we are face to face with the fact that we look upon the
+future as non-existent.
+
+This curious state of things is probably only accidental to the
+present stage of development of the human mind, and may, at any time,
+be rectified by perhaps either a slight rearrangement of that slender
+network of nerves upon which depends our faculty of thinking, or the
+joining together of a few microscopical filaments attached to the
+cells in the grey cortical layer, or even a single bridge thrown
+across from one convolution to another of the brain; a very slight
+alteration would open up to our consciousness the present existence of
+the future. The prime perceivable difference between our brains and
+those of the Apes and lower animals is the larger number of
+enfoldments, or convolutions, that are developed by the Human. Each
+new line of thought, or sequence of thoughts, requires, and is
+provided with, a new wrinkle or small convolution, and it probably
+only requires the attention of the human race to be fixed, for a time,
+on the consideration of this subject, to evolve the slight alteration,
+or bridge, necessary to enable us to see that the future, as also the
+past, does actually exist and is included in the Now. It may make this
+a little clearer to consider that if you maintain that, in traversing
+the duration of time, the future does not exist until you arrive
+there, you should also in fairness insist that, in travelling through
+the extension of Space, your destination, say Rome, does not exist
+until you get there and can see it with your senses.
+
+As we have, in the former six Views, been gradually mounting above the
+mists and illusions of our everyday thoughts, and can look through our
+Window with, I hope, a clearer vision, I shall venture in this present
+View to carry the subject of the _Future_ still further, and show
+that, just as we have now before us and can read the papyri which were
+written 5000 years ago, so it is possible to conceive that books,
+written and being written and printed 5000 years hence, are _at
+present_ in existence, and that it is even possible the human race has
+actually already read them; whether we shall be able to see them and
+read them in our own lifetime may be open to question; that may again
+depend upon the development of special cross-circuiting of brain
+filaments. Meanwhile, in order to carry our present View to the utmost
+limit of our conception, in a manner somewhat similar to what we did
+for Space, I will again ask you to join me in a thought-flight
+towards the appreciation of this second great Mystery.
+
+With this object in view we will first consider the human senses of
+sight and hearing, commencing with sound, or the vibrations which
+affect the tympanum of the human ear. Sound travels in air at about
+1130 feet per second, and if the vibrating body, giving out the sound,
+oscillates sixteen times in one second, it follows that, spreading
+over this 1130 feet, there will be sixteen waves, giving a length of
+about 70 feet to each wave. This is the lowest sound that the human
+ear can appreciate as a musical note, and is, what may be called, the
+fourth Octave above one vibration in one second. When the number of
+vibrations in a second sinks below sixteen, the ear no longer
+appreciates them as a musical sound, but is able to hear them as
+separate vibrations or beats. The easiest way of illustrating this is
+by means of a revolving disc, with sixteen holes pierced at regular
+intervals round the edge, and a jet of high-pressure air, which is
+forced through each of the holes successively as they revolve. When
+the disc does not quite complete one revolution in a second, only
+fifteen puffs come to the ear in a second of time, and they are heard
+as puffs; but when the rate reaches one revolution in a second, the
+sound, as if by magic, changes into the lowest musical sound. The same
+result may be obtained in a more pronounced form by means of
+explosions or pistol shots; when these are slow and heard separately,
+they are painful and almost unbearable to the ear, but, as soon as
+their rapidity, namely, at sixteen per second, gets beyond the power
+of the ear to differentiate between the explosions, the impression, as
+if by magic, changes into a continuous or musical sound, like a
+thirty-foot pipe note of an organ.
+
+To go back to our disc. The octave above this lowest musical note is
+obtained by doubling the rate of puffs, namely, by revolving the disc
+twice in one second, and the next octave by revolving four times in a
+second, and so on, doubling each time, until, at about the thirteenth
+octave, the sound has become so high that the majority of listeners
+cannot hear it, and fancy it must have stopped, whereas a few will
+still be saying: "How shrill it is!" At last, at about the fourteenth
+octave, when there are 20,000 beats to the second and each wave is
+about half an inch long, it passes beyond human audition, and,
+although we can show that the air is still vibrating, all is silent,
+the human ear being incapable of hearing so many beats in a second
+even as a continuous sound, though I have evidence to show that many
+insects can hear probably considerably beyond this limit. It is,
+however, possible to make these higher vibrations perceptible to our
+senses by means of what are called sensitive flames: we can actually,
+by these, measure the length of these silent waves, and as we know the
+rate at which they travel, we can at once compute the number which
+occur in a second of time, and thus ascertain their pitch. By this
+means we can follow for about three more octaves above the audible
+limit, namely, up to 160,000 pulsations per second, with a length of
+wave of one-twelfth of an inch.
+
+Two and a half octaves above these numerically, _i.e._ at about the
+twentieth octave, we reach the frequency of Electro-Magnetic Rills,
+used by the Marconi System of wireless telegraphy, which pulsate at
+about 950,000 per second, and have a wave-length of something like
+1000 feet. The reason for this great increase in length of wave is
+caused by these frequencies being propagated in the Ether at the rate
+of 186,000 miles per second, instead of, as with sound waves, in the
+air, at only 1130 feet per second. We can trace these particular
+frequencies, called, after their discoverer, Hertzian waves, for about
+fifteen octaves, when we arrive at the frequency of 32,000,000,000 in
+a second, with a wave-length decreased to a quarter of an inch; we
+can render the effect of these waves visible, but have no physical
+organ by which we can feel these pulsations. After this, however, we
+get into the region of frequencies which, though still of exactly the
+same kind, we know and can feel as Radiant heat; these are situated in
+the next fourteen octaves, and bring us up to those subtle frequencies
+which affect another of our sense organs, and which we appreciate as
+light; these we have already seen have the enormous frequency of
+530,000,000,000,000 pulsations per second for red light, up to
+930,000,000,000,000 per second for violet, and having wave-lengths so
+small that it takes 40,000 and 70,000 of them respectively to cover
+one inch in length. There is only a little over half an octave that
+the eye can appreciate as light, and then all is darkness; but we can
+still go on further by the help of Science: beyond the violet we have
+the actinic or chemical rays, which are used in photography, and which
+enable us to trace the frequencies for a further two octaves. Beyond
+this we cannot pierce with our present knowledge; but there may be,
+and probably are, latent in our nature, senses which, properly
+developed, will be able to appreciate still more subtle vibrations,
+and organs which, perhaps, even now are being prepared for the
+reception of these influences.
+
+We have no organs yet developed for receiving and appreciating what
+are called Wireless waves, but we have already been able to devise
+physical Receivers, of wonderful sensitiveness, for them and other
+waves of the same nature, such as those of Radiant heat. In the case
+of Radiant heat, the Bolometer invented by Professor Langley has been
+able to receive and record a change of temperature of the one
+millionth of a degree Centigrade, and can easily make visible the heat
+of a candle at a distance of one and a half miles. In wireless
+telegraphy also the Receiver, perfected by Marconi, is affected by
+rills, made by a splash of electric discharge, over 3000 miles away.
+If our eyes were sensitive to these frequencies, both of which are
+composed, as is also light, of electro-magnetic rills, we could see
+anything that was happening anywhere in the world, for they go through
+matter as though it did not exist, as light passes through glass;
+indeed, if our region of Sight waves was only put an octave lower we
+could not use glass in our windows, it would be too opaque, we should
+be obliged to have our windows made of thin slabs of carbon or other
+substances permeable to Radiant heat waves. Science indeed steadily
+points to electricity and magnetism being a form of motion, and it may
+be that in these invisible rays we may some day discover the nature
+of those mysterious forces; and, even far beyond those, as suggested
+in View Four, we may in the not far distant future be able to
+appreciate Physical Life itself as a mode of frequency.
+
+We want, as it were, a special "Time Microscope," which I have already
+referred to, to examine these vibrations, and a method similar to that
+already mentioned in "Space," under Celestial Photography, by which we
+may traverse and examine hundreds or thousands of octaves by each
+second of exposure; for, although the path extends to infinity, we
+have already arrived at the utmost limits of our finite senses, and
+find that after all we can only appreciate fifty-one octaves, a few
+inches only, as it were, along the line of Infinite extent, reaching
+from the finite up to the Reality; and even so it must be borne in
+mind that we have only travelled in one direction, whereas the path we
+have taken extends in the opposite direction also to infinity. We
+started with sixteen vibrations in a second, as the lowest number of
+beats we human beings can appreciate as a musical sound; let us now
+descend by octaves. The octave below is eight vibrations in a second,
+and there are probably many animals that can only hear these as a
+musical sound; the next octave is four, then two, and then one
+vibration in a second. But we do not stop there; the octave below
+this is one vibration in two seconds, then in four seconds, eight
+seconds, sixteen seconds, and so on, until it is possible to conceive
+that even one frequency in a million years might be appreciated as a
+musical sound, or even as one of the colours of the spectrum, by a
+being whose time sensations were enormously extended in both
+directions, but still finite.
+
+Once more we must call a halt. Our finite minds become bewildered in
+attempting even to glance at these infinities of time.
+
+We measure space by miles, yards, feet, and inches; we measure time by
+years, hours, minutes, and seconds; and by these finite units we try
+to fathom these two marvellous infinities. With our greatest efforts
+of thought we find, however, that we can get relatively no distance
+whatever from the HERE of Space and the NOW of Time. It is true that
+the present, as a mathematical point, appears to be hurrying and
+bearing us with it along the line stretching from the past to future
+eternity, but in reality we get no further from the one nor nearer to
+the other. Let us change our view and examine this subject under a
+different aspect.
+
+First of all, look round a room and note the different objects to be
+seen. Even in a small room we do not see the objects as they really
+_are_ at this instant, but only as they _were_ at a certain fixed
+length of time ago. The present time is common to every point in space
+and each person is in the present, but only to his own perception; to
+everyone else in the room, each individual is, at this moment, being
+seen acting in the past; those objects which are further away are
+being seen further behind in point of time than those that are nearer;
+in fact, however near we are to an object, we can never see it as it
+is but only as it was. We are dealing with very minute differences
+here, they being based upon the rate at which light travels; but they
+are differences which are known with a wonderful degree of accuracy.
+
+We have here another example of how perception without knowledge leads
+to false concepts. When anyone views an extended landscape, he thinks
+that his sight shows him that the same point of Time, which he is
+experiencing, is common to every man, animal, plant, or material
+visible there, but we know now that he is seeing every part of that
+scene in the past compared with himself. Just as all objects therein
+are situated at separate distinct points of space, so to our vision
+the objects of that scene are acting or existing in different epochs
+of time. An Artist gives us on a flat surface a picture of that
+landscape, and his representations of all objects in that scene
+appear therefore to us as being in the same moment of Time, but to get
+that effect he has to draw objects at a distance smaller than those
+close at hand; a fly in the foreground has to be drawn larger than a
+horse supposed to be in the distance, though both are on the same flat
+surface; they have the same parallax and are therefore the same
+distance from the observer, and as this produces a similar image on
+our retina, we accept it though we know it is only a make-believe; it
+serves its purpose by giving us an impression on our retina which we
+have learnt to interpret as representing that landscape, but such a
+picture would indeed be a marvel of absurdity to a being who had
+perfect sight, such as we have already referred to, and who could
+appreciate parallel rays; in such a vision there would be no
+perspective, no vanishing point in perception.
+
+Now let us take a wider landscape. The Moon is 240,000 miles distant.
+We do not, therefore, ever see her as she is but as she was 1-1/4
+seconds ago. In the same way we see the Sun as he was eight minutes
+ago, and we see Jupiter as he was nearly an hour ago. Let us look
+still further to one of the nearest fixed stars. We at this moment
+only see that star as it was more than ten years ago; that star may
+therefore have exploded or disappeared ten long years ago, and yet we
+still see it shining, and shall continue to see it _there_ until the
+long line of light has run itself out; all around us, in fact, we see
+the appearance of blazing suns not as they are now but as they were
+thousands of years ago, and, by the aid of the telescope and of our
+sensitive plate, we are only now recording the light which started
+from clusters and firmaments probably millions of years ago.
+
+Now let us take the converse of this. To anybody on the moon at this
+moment the earth would be seen from there not as it is, but as it was
+1-1/4 seconds ago, and from the sun as it was eight minutes ago, and
+if we were in Jupiter, and were looking back, we should, at this
+particular moment, be viewing what was happening on this earth, and
+seeing what each of us was doing an hour ago. Now let us go in
+imagination to one of the nearest fixed stars, and looking back we
+should see what was happening ten years ago; going still further to a
+far-off cluster, the light would only just now be arriving there,
+which started from the earth at the time when man first appeared; or
+we might go to so remote a distance that the scene of the formation of
+the Solar System would be only now arriving there, and all the events
+which have taken place from that remote time to the present would, as
+time rolled on, reach there in exactly the same succession as they
+have happened on this earth; and remember that we should be looking,
+from that great distance, at all these past events with the same
+intuitional advantage as though we were actually present here in time,
+for however near we are to an object, we never see it as it is but
+only as it was in the past.
+
+Let us but turn to any point of space and we shall find at each point,
+according to its remoteness, the actual scenes of the past being
+enacted, in fact it may be said that throughout infinite space every
+event in past eternity is now indelibly recorded.
+
+A murder committed hundreds of years ago, in a country house, may
+never have been found out, the criminal and his victim have alike
+turned to dust, the blood has been washed from the floor, the very
+house and its surroundings have crumbled and disappeared, and in their
+place a waving corn field is all that can be seen, but at this very
+moment if we were at a certain point in space, we should now be
+witnessing there, the whole actual living scene from beginning to end,
+as though we were present _here_ hundreds of years ago: the murderer
+standing over his victim, the knife driven in and the blood gushing
+out. If we went further away we should at this same moment be seeing
+the criminal just arriving and knocking at the door of that house,
+then going upstairs into the room, and the same terrible scene with
+all its minutiae would again be enacted. From a point still further
+removed, we should now see him, say, having lunch at a country inn
+some miles away, concocting his villainy, then he would be seen
+walking across the fields towards the house, again knocking at the
+door, mounting the staircase, and once more would that murderous scene
+be enacted before our eyes, and so on for ever; the scene, with the
+house and its surroundings, have indeed been completely swept away
+from the present _here_, but the whole tragedy will always be acting
+in the future _there_ in the presence of the Reality.
+
+Let us now come, in imagination, towards the earth, from some far-off
+cluster of stars. If we traverse the distance in one year, the whole
+of the events from the formation of this world would appear before us,
+only thousands of times quicker. Make the journey in a month, a day,
+an hour, a second, or a moment of time, and all past events, from the
+grandest to the most trivial, would be acted in an infinitesimal
+portion of time.
+
+When we have fully grasped this we recognise that Omniscience is
+synonymous with Omnipresence, and some may find, in this thought, a
+glimpse of that Great Book wherein are said to be registered every
+thought, word, and deed, which, in the direction of the Reality, has
+helped to nourish, or, in the direction of the shadow, has tended to
+starve the personality of each one of us; for we know that every word
+we utter, or that has been uttered from the beginning of the world,
+and every motion of our brain connected with thought is indelibly
+imprinted upon every atom of matter. If our sense of perception were
+greatly increased we need not go to Palestine to see on the rocks
+there the impressions of the image of Christ and His disciples, or of
+the words they uttered as they passed by, but any stone by the wayside
+_here_ would show His every action and resound with every word He
+uttered. In fact, every particle of matter on this earth is a witness
+to that which has happened, every point in space and every moment of
+time contains the history of the past in the smallest minutiae. The
+_Here_, embracing all space, and the _Now_, embracing all time, are
+the only realities to the Omniscient.
+
+Let us once more change the scene and we may grasp even more clearly
+that Time and Space are not realities but are only modes or conditions
+under which our material senses act. A tune may be played either a
+thousand times slower or a thousand times quicker, but it still
+remains the same tune, it contains the same sequence of notes and
+proportion in time, the only characteristics by which we recognise a
+tune. And so in the same way with our sense of sight, an event may be
+drawn out to a thousand times its length or acted a thousand times
+quicker, it is still the same scene. An insect vibrates its wings
+several thousands of times in a second and must be cognisant of each
+beat, whereas we have seen that we, with our Senses of Sight and
+Hearing, can only appreciate respectively at the most seven and
+sixteen vibrations in a second as separate beats. That insect must
+therefore be able to follow a flash of lightning under the conditions
+of a Time microscope magnifying a thousand times compared with our
+vision. The whole life of some of these insects extends over a few
+hours only, but owing to their quick unit of perception it is to them
+as full of detail as our life of seventy years; but to them there is
+no day and night, the Sun is always stationary in the Heavens, they
+can have no cognisance of Seasons.
+
+I have already referred in View One to the curious results of
+increasing our unit of perception by a Time Microscope, and I will now
+carry the investigation of this subject a step further.
+
+As conceptional knowledge is based on perceptional knowledge, and we
+can only perceive about six times per second, and as the principal
+forms of knowledge are gained through the eye, we are conceiving
+progress in phenomena under a very restricted outlook; we cannot
+recognise such slow motions as, for instance, the hour-hand of a
+watch, the growth of a tree, or rise of the tide, except by noting the
+change that has occurred after a long interval; there is therefore a
+whole world of events which we cannot see. Owing to this limit, in our
+unit of time perception, we also cannot perceive events which are
+taking place beyond a certain quickness, they become blurred and give
+the impression of continuity, and constitute another world of events
+lost to us. For the same reason there is a whole world of sensation
+lost to us by our limited unit of sound perception; we cannot follow
+separate sound-events if they occur quicker than sixteen in a second,
+beyond that they become blurred and give the impression of continuity.
+If, on the other hand, our units of perception were increased a
+thousandfold, as is probably the case with some insects, our conscious
+lives would contain a thousand more events than they do at present,
+and, as the consciousness of length of life is dependent upon the
+number of events that have been perceived, we should under these
+conditions have passed on this earth a life equivalent to, say, 70,000
+years under our present restricted unit; every second of that long
+period would have been as full of events for us as is a second in our
+present life of seventy years. If, on the other hand, our unit of
+perception were decreased a thousandfold, our length of life, based
+upon perception of events, would be no longer than 25-1/2 of our
+present days; if our life were actually reduced to that period (so as
+to regain our present units of perception) we should be old and
+grey-headed before the sun had risen for the twenty-fifth time since
+our birth. If our unit of perception, with our length of life, were
+again reduced a thousandfold, the whole of our life of seventy years
+would now only be equal to forty-three minutes, and, in the whole of
+that life, we could only see the sun move ten degrees, namely, twenty
+of its own diameters in the heaven; if we were born, say, at noon on
+midsummer's day, we could never have any idea of anything but daytime,
+and neither our fathers, nor grandfathers, nor great-grandfathers for
+fifteen generations before them could have seen the sun rise; but
+there would have been a tradition, handed down from a far distant past
+generation, that a long time ago, beyond the memory of man, there was
+no sun at all, everything was pitch dark, and that time was called the
+"Great Shadow." If their records could have gone still further back
+for the same length of time they would have heard that, before the
+"Great Shadow," the sun was always shining in the heavens, and that
+that great "Sun" day lasted twice as long as the great shadow.
+
+To understand more clearly this subject of Time perception let me put
+another aspect before you; we are looking, say, at an insect whose
+wings are beating several thousand times per second, and, with our
+vision limited to six times per second, it would be impossible to
+count the number of hairs on that wing, or to see which of those hairs
+were split, or were bent from the straight, but, if we travelled away
+from that insect into space at the rate of light, and were looking
+back, the present would then always be with us; the wing, although
+still vibrating at that enormous rate, would appear to be stationary,
+and so would every other moving thing on the earth, however quick its
+movement, and everything would continue in that motionless state for a
+million years, provided we continued our flight with the rays of
+light. If we travelled a little slower than light, say one minute less
+in a thousand years, the same scene would be presented to us, but,
+that which was acted upon this earth during one minute of Time, would
+now take a thousand years to accomplish; the swiftest railway train
+would appear standing still, it would take 5-3/4 days and nights to
+cover each inch of ground. It is thus possible to again understand how
+the flight of a bird or the lightning flash might be examined under
+conditions of time which would lead to the discovery and tracing of
+even the principle of life itself. But let us go one step further and
+increase our flight beyond the rate at which light travels: scenes
+would now progress in the opposite direction to that which we are
+accustomed to; men would get out of bed and dress themselves at night
+and go to bed in the morning; old men would grow young again; tall
+trees would grow backwards and enter the earth, embedding themselves
+in the seed, and the seed would rise upwards to the branch that
+nourished it; the blood would turn into chyle, into food in the
+stomach, into the piece of meat, which would be transferred from the
+mouth to the plate, and would then be cut on to the joint, the joint
+would go down to the kitchen and be uncooked, would be carried to the
+butcher to be cut on to the carcase, and the animal would come to life
+and go out into the fields. Human bodies would be formed in the ground
+from the dust of the Earth, passing through what we call corruption to
+incorruption, the dead would be taken from their graves, brought back
+to their homes and put to bed; the Doctor would arrive, a miracle
+would happen, the patient would come to life; though this would hardly
+be a feather in the cap of the Doctor, as it would be seen that the
+medicine came out from the mouth of the patient, would be put into
+bottles to be thrown away, and it would be the Doctor who had to pay
+the Fee, and the bigger the Doctor the bigger the Fee he would have to
+pay. The future would in fact change places with the past, the effect
+would give birth to the cause as presented to our finite senses, and,
+though it is difficult to realise, it is indeed just as true, or
+untrue, that we come into this world through the grave, instead of in
+the way we are accustomed to, because to the Reality there is no
+change, the Here and the Now comprising all beginnings and ends, all
+causes and effects.
+
+In this flight on the wings of light we did not in reality depart in
+the least from the Here, because there is no such thing as space, it
+is all included in a mathematical point, the Here; and as the whole of
+time is included in the Now, the Future, however remote with all
+events therein, is existent in the present; the writers of books 5000
+years hence are therefore writing them now, and the Human Race has
+read and is reading them _now_; we have always hitherto maintained
+that these things are only "going to happen" 5000 years hence, but in
+reality all events in the future are events in the same Now in which
+we are living at the present moment, and, as it is just as true, that
+time is flowing from the Future to the Present and on to the Past, as
+in the contrary direction (of our present outlook), so it is quite
+conceivable that we may some day, in the not far distant future, not
+only realise that the future exists already, but that we may even be
+able to handle and read the books written 5000 years hence, in a
+similar manner to that which enables us now to handle and read those
+which were written 5000 years ago.
+
+
+
+
+VIEW EIGHT
+
+CREATION
+
+
+In our first View we saw the necessity of clearing away the weeds, the
+moss, and the lichen from the stem of our Real Personality before that
+Transcendental Self could send forth fresh buds for the advancement of
+_conscious_ thought to higher levels; we found that the first step
+towards this clearing the approach to our window, was to recognise
+that a knowledge of the Truth was to be gained by the use of
+"Introspection" rather than by Intellectualism--to realise, in fact,
+that it is not we, with our intellects, who are looking out upon
+Nature, but that it is the Absolute looking into us and ever trying to
+teach us divine truths concerning the "Reality of Being." We saw that
+the phenomena, which our senses would have us believe to be the
+reality or solidity of our material surroundings, are illusions
+created by the fact that those senses are limited in their perception
+to that which is conditioned in Time and Space, necessitating _motion_
+as the basis of our perceptions, and that, when the rate of motion
+exceeds our units of perception, we have the impression of continuity
+of events, which we accept as the objective existence of matter; we
+also saw that the duration of Time and extension of Space had no
+existence for us apart from those senses, our very consciousness of
+these two non-realities depending upon "relativity"--they could, in
+fact, be increased or diminished indefinitely, without our knowing
+that any change had been made.
+
+In our second View I attempted to take another step forward by showing
+how, by means of this "Introspection," it was even possible to
+understand that these two limitations might be eliminated from
+consciousness; we then realised that the whole Physical Universe is
+but a thin film, set up by our finite Senses, between our
+Consciousness and the "Reality of Being"; we saw that this could only
+be understood when, by the Mystical Sense, we realised that physical
+phenomena were but symbols or shadows of the Reality or Noumenon
+underlying them.
+
+In our next View I gave an example of the use of Mystical and
+Symbolical thought, leading, in the fourth View, to the subject of
+Everlasting Life and the Efficacy of Prayer, wherein I tried to show
+that by examining the phenomena of Nature, as depicted on the Physical
+Film, it is possible to reach a point where we may even feel that we
+are actually listening to, or having divulged to us, the very thoughts
+of the Absolute. This led to the next View, where we examined the
+Physical Film itself, and this we analysed in the next two Views into
+those component parts, by means of which this Film presents to our
+senses the impression of the whole Physical Universe as an objective
+reality.
+
+We have seen that it is the Invisible which is the Real, that the
+visible is only its shadow; that the Invisible, as distinguished from
+the Visible, is not in a place apart from the Physical, but is the
+Reality of which the visible constitutes the boundary lines or planes
+in our consciousness, as lines and planes are the visible boundaries
+of solids. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a locality but a _state_ of
+Divine "loving and knowing communion"; it is within us in the sense
+that we are interior and not exterior entities of the "Reality of
+Being."
+
+We have now arrived at a point where we can better realise that the
+Absolute cannot be localised or bounded by space, and must be
+Omnipresent--cannot be conditioned in Time, and must therefore be
+Omniscient--the Here comprising all Space, and the Now all Time in the
+"Reality of Being."
+
+With these conclusions before us I will ask you to form a new
+conception of Creation. All creation around us is the materialisation
+of the Thought of the Deity. He does not require time to think as we
+do--the whole of the Universe is therefore one instantaneous Thought
+of the Great Reality; the forming of this world and its destruction,
+the appearance of man, the birth and death of each one of us are
+absolutely at the same instant; it is only our finite minds which
+necessitate drawing this Thought out into a long line, and our want of
+knowledge and inability to grasp the whole, which force us to conceive
+that one event happened before or after another. In our finite way we
+examine and strive to understand this wondrous Thought, and at last, a
+Darwin, after a life spent in accumulating facts on this little
+isolated spot of the Universe, discovers what appears to be a law of
+sequence, and calls it the evolution theory; but this is probably only
+one of countless other modes by which the _intent_ of that Thought is
+working towards completion, the apparent direction of certain lines on
+that great tracing board of the Creator, whereon is depicted the whole
+plan of His work.
+
+Let me give a simple example of Creation by a "word," which even our
+finite minds can grasp. When I utter the word _Cat_, it starts a
+practically instantaneous thought in your minds, the power of that
+thought being dependent upon the knowledge you have gained. If you
+analyse it you will find that, though practically instantaneous, it
+comprises all the sensations you have ever felt on that subject
+throughout your life. It commenced, perhaps, when you were only a year
+old, and, sitting on your mother's knee, your hand was made to stroke
+a kitten, and you felt it was soft and it gave you pleasure. Later on,
+when you were older, you had it in your arms, and you felt the first
+intimation of that wonderful "[Greek: storge]," which manifests itself
+in most children in their love for dolls; you found it delightful to
+cuddle and that it purred. Later on, you found that it played with a
+reel of cotton, and that it could scratch, make horrid noises, and
+countless other things, which not only make up the life of a cat, but
+connect it with the world around us. All these thousand and one facts
+are now drawn out, by analysis in Time and Space, into a long line,
+and are placed one in front of the other; but the thought started by
+the word Cat was a fair example of an instantaneous creation.
+
+One other example of an instantaneous thought. Let us suppose a large
+room fitted with, say, a hundred thousand volumes, comprising all the
+knowledge gained by every Specialist in every Science concerning the
+plan of Creation. In our finite minds, under the limits of Time and
+Space, the word representing the contents of that library would start,
+when uttered, an instantaneous thought analogous to that of our last
+example, according to the knowledge that each individual had already
+acquired of the contents of those books; but this knowledge had only
+been gained by taking down each volume separately and reading one book
+at a time, beginning at the beginning and taking each page and each
+word in succession, and a lifetime would not suffice to enable us to
+read them all; whereas, if our knowledge were _complete_, the word
+representing the contents of that room would start an instantaneous
+thought, comprising not only every book, but every chapter, page,
+word, letter, and punctuation contained in that library, or in one
+which comprised all knowledge from the beginning to the end of Time.
+
+It is a well-known fact that at the approach of death, when the
+perceptive senses are completely, or almost completely, in abeyance,
+as in the "self-forgetting" referred to in "The Vision," the duration
+of Time appears to have no reality; in numerous cases of drowning,
+where the person has been no more than one or two minutes under water,
+the whole of a long life, with every forgotten trivial occurrence and
+the multitude of thoughts attached thereto, have been brought vividly
+before the mind, as it were, instantaneously; those also who have been
+put under nitrous-oxide gas, though the life of the body is not
+affected, know how, with departure of sense perception, the sense of
+Time is completely annihilated. I have myself experimented under such
+conditions, and attempted to realise the duration of time by counting
+steadily, one, two, three, four, &c., and had no knowledge whatever
+that between, say, "four" and "five" there was a complete hiatus of
+several minutes when, for me, time had vanished; I was still counting
+steadily when the anaesthetic had passed away, and it was quite
+impossible to realise that such time had elapsed, as I had not reached
+more than the twelfth count, whereas, according to the time expired, I
+should have reached the fiftieth or sixtieth. A number of examples of
+what may be called instantaneous thoughts created in the mind of a
+sleeper have been collected, and many of us have had similar
+experiences. I give one as an example: "Maury was ill in bed and
+dreamed of the French Revolution. Bloody scenes passed before him. He
+held long conversations with Robespierre, Marat, and other monsters of
+that time, was dragged before the tribunal, was condemned to death,
+and carried through a great crowd of people, bound to a plank. The
+guillotine severed his head from his shoulders. He woke with terror to
+find that a rail over the bed had got unfastened and had fallen upon
+his neck like a guillotine, and, as his mother who was sitting by him
+declared, at that very moment."
+
+In the above case the whole scene was started instantaneously in his
+brain, but in waking his mind analysed it in Time and Space and spread
+it out into a long historical record. The opposite process to this,
+namely, the building up a thought-picture, is what we do every day
+when we form and combine our conceptions under the dominion of Time
+and Space, until we have accumulated in our minds a multitude of
+concepts which form as it were a single subject, somewhat analogous to
+a painter when he has completed his picture, a writer his book, an
+architect his house, or even a mechanic his machine. An interesting
+example of a musician constructing a thought-picture is given by
+Mozart himself:
+
+     "When I am all right and in good spirits, either in a
+     carriage or walking, and at night when I cannot sleep,
+     thoughts come streaming in and at their best. Whence and how
+     I know not, I cannot make out. The things which occur to me
+     I keep in my head, and hum them also to myself--at least
+     others have told me so. If I stick to it, there soon come,
+     one after another, useful crumbs for the pie, according to
+     counterpoint, harmony of the different instruments, &c. This
+     now inflames my soul, that is if I am not disturbed. Then it
+     keeps on growing, and I keep on expanding it more distinctly,
+     and the thing, however long it be, becomes indeed almost
+     finished in my head, so that I can always survey it in spirit
+     like a beautiful picture or a fine person, and also hear in
+     imagination, not indeed successively, as by and by it must
+     come out, but all together. That is a delight! All the
+     invention and construction go on in me as in a fine strong
+     dream, but the overhearing it all at once is still the best."
+
+With these illustrations before us may we not carry the analogy even
+further, and see that, as our conception of a Cat was made up of
+numberless small acquisitions of knowledge, some of which had to be
+discarded, or eliminated as errors, from our minds as our knowledge
+grew, and as each true fact became confirmed and impressed upon our
+brain it made itself a _permanent_ record and became a centre to be
+used for gaining further knowledge; so in this wonderful Thought of
+the Great Reality, whose mind may be said to be omnipresent, each
+individual soul is a working unit in the plan of Creation; each unit
+as it gains a knowledge of the Will of the Deity forms for itself a
+_personality_ helping forward the work towards its fulfilment;
+without that knowledge there can be no personality, no unit in the
+great completed thought, no life hereafter.
+
+The True Life is fulfilled by him who has progressed so far in the
+knowledge of the Divine as to realise that he is the offspring of the
+Absolute, and therefore stands face to face with his Transcendental
+Personality, his [Greek: Christos], of which the Physical Ego is only
+the outline or boundary form visible in the physical universe. Each
+individual has free will to define his own boundaries, his own
+limitations; he builds up the walls of the house in which he lives,
+and he has power to brick up or open out the windows through which he
+may see the Truth; happy are those whose windows are open, but many,
+alas, choose to make the wall opaque by confining their attention to
+the physical shadows, or by strangling their spiritual intuition and
+preventing all advance in thought by blind subservience to obsolete
+dogmas.
+
+We are instruments of Divine purpose in the scheme of Creation. Each
+individual Physical Ego seems to be a Micro-Cosmos, imaging the
+Universe, the Macro-Cosmos. As the phagocytes, the policemen of the
+blood, flock to a breach in the human body to overcome any invasion of
+the enemy, whether poisons or bacteria, which would otherwise detract
+from that progress of cell formation upon which the scheme of human
+life depends, so do the true lovers of the Divine meet, by active
+resistance, any attempt of the enemies of the Good, Beautiful and True
+to retard the advancement of the scheme of Creation to its ultimate
+goal of perfection. The human body is composed of innumerable cells
+and several special colonies of cells, which we call organs, each of
+which has its special work to do, and secretes and discharges special
+fluids necessary for the welfare of the whole body. All of these cells
+are alive, and myriads of them are moving on their own account,
+apparently quite independent of, and in complete ignorance of, the
+feeling and perception of the whole body; they are, however,
+microscopical units of that body, and its welfare depends upon their
+contribution of work; it is, in fact, only through their ceaseless
+activities that the life in that body is maintained--a phenomenon
+analogous to that described in the simile of a Forest Tree in View
+Four. So are we integral parts of the scheme of Creation, and each
+act, either in accordance with the Divine purpose or the reverse, is
+helping forward or retarding the completion of that Thought, though
+like the cells we are ignorant of the end which Creation has in view.
+
+In this life we seem indeed to be only, as it were, in embryo! The
+study of embryology has lately shown us clearly how the clothing of
+our Physical Ego has been formed, during the past millions of years,
+from the lowest forms of life. Each one of us has, during what may be
+called his lifetime, gone through all the different stages of
+evolutionary development which, since the beginning of life on this
+planet, have been employed to build up the human body in its present
+form. Embryology has shown us that, during gestation, each human
+embryo is a _replica_ of the past; it passes through the different
+Imago stages from protoplasm to man, being unrecognisable at certain
+stages from a monad, an amoeba, a fish with gills, a lizard, and a
+monkey with a tail and dense clothing of hair over the whole body. The
+human embryo has also, at an early stage, the thirteenth pair of ribs,
+which is found in lower animals and is still seen in a rudimentary
+form in anthropoid apes, but which disappears from the human embryo
+before birth. Each generation, under evolutionary development, will
+witness a further advancement in the clothing of the Physical Ego,
+until it may be conceived that a hundred thousand years hence our
+present stage of development will be seen only as one of the stages
+through which the embryo has to pass before birth at that distant
+time. May we not even glimpse at the future to which evolution is
+carrying us? For in any of these stages we see organs forming whose
+use only comes into play long after that stage has been passed; so
+also, in the new rudimentary forms of thought which are started by
+every fresh discovery may we not some day be able to descry the
+heights which we are destined to attain if we earnestly seek after
+Truth?
+
+Radio-Activity has shown us that all forms of matter are but different
+combinations of one primal brick; by synthesis thousands of new forms
+of matter, unknown in Nature, are actually now being built up in our
+laboratories, and the number of such combinations cannot conceivably
+be limited; so do we also see that all the known forms of energy in
+nature are interchangeable, one with another, with exactly known
+equivalents and ratios, pointing to their being only different
+combinations of one unit of energy. If such is the case, it would seem
+to follow that there are countless other forces of which we at present
+have no cognisance, but which may at any time come within our field of
+investigation.
+
+In our life here we are steadily progressing from the lower to the
+higher form of being, from the purely Physical towards the
+Transcendental, each generation starting from a higher level; the
+boundary line between the Physical and Transcendental is being
+continually advanced towards the latter, and it may well be, as I
+have already suggested in View IV, that we are even now on the eve of
+discovering a new force, or aspect of Creation, which will open a
+wider view and give us a clearer knowledge of the goal which we are
+destined to reach hereafter.
+
+Each generation will, according to the teaching of Embryology,
+gradually come into the world at a higher stage of development than
+its predecessors, until the last Physical Ego, at its birth, will
+coincide with the final stage of development, when there will be no
+more physical clothing, the disintegration of Matter being completed,
+and, it can be pictured that at the final consummation, there will be
+nothing imperfect, no shadow left, that all will be spiritual. The
+object of Creation would therefore appear to be the population of the
+Real Universe with spiritual entities, until the whole Spiritual
+Universe will be taken up by Transcendental Personalities, which will
+be one with the Reality, and the Great Thought completed.
+
+Once more let us recognise that we are dependent for knowledge of
+surroundings upon our perception of movements, and that as our
+conceptional knowledge is based on perceptional knowledge, our
+thoughts are limited by Time and Space and can only deal with finite
+subjects. From this arises all our difficulty of understanding the
+Infinite; we cannot under our present conditions know the whole
+Truth; if we could do that we should be able, as it were, to look all
+round the subject, and Infinity would then be seen to be a
+pseudo-conception of our finite thoughts. We can only think of one
+finite subject at a time, and, at that moment, all other subjects are
+cancelled; we can, in fact, only think in sequences, and, taking the
+particular Infinities of duration and extension which we have been
+examining, we can only think of points in Time and Space as existing
+beyond or before other fixed points, which again must be followed by
+other points. We cannot fix a point in Time or Space so as to exclude
+the thought of a point beyond; the idea of an Infinite is therefore a
+necessary result of the limitation of our thoughts. The whole Truth is
+there before us, but we can only examine it in a form of finite
+sequences. A book contains a complete story, but we can only know that
+story by taking each word in succession and insisting that one word
+comes in front of another, and yet the story is lying before us
+complete. So with Creation; we are forced to look upon it as a long
+line going back to past eternity, and another long line going on to
+future eternity, and, with our limitations, we can only think of all
+events therein as happening in sequence; but eliminate Time and we
+become Omniscient, the whole of Creation would be before us as an
+Instantaneous Thought of God.
+
+Accordingly under the dominion of Time we appear to be in a similar
+position to that of a being whose senses are limited to
+one-dimensional space--namely, to a line; we can only have cognisance
+of what is in front and behind, we have no knowledge of what is to the
+right or left, we appear to be limited to looking lengthwise in Time,
+whereas an Omniscient and Omnipresent Being looks at Time crosswise
+and sees it as a whole. A small light, when at rest, appears as a
+point of light, but when we apply quick motion, the product of Time
+and Space, to it, we get the appearance of a line of light, and this
+continuous line, formed by motion of a point, is, I think, analogous
+to the Physical Universe appearing to our finite senses as continuous
+in Time duration and Space extension, though really comprised in the
+Now and the Here, the whole of Creation being therefore an
+Instantaneous Thought.
+
+A consideration of our limitation in Space may also be useful to show
+how impossible it is for us to hope to see by our senses the Reality
+or by our thoughts to know the Spiritual. Our senses and thoughts are
+limited to a Space of three dimensions, and we can therefore only see
+or know that part of the Absolute which is or can be represented to
+us in three dimensions; a being whose senses were limited to a
+Universe of one dimension--namely, a _line_, could have no real
+knowledge of another being who was in a Universe of two
+dimensions--namely, a _flat surface_, except so far as the
+two-dimensional being could be represented within his line of
+sensation; so also the two-dimensional being, on a _plane_, could have
+no true knowledge of a being like ourselves in a Universe of three
+dimensions. To his thoughts, limited within two dimensions, a being
+like ourselves would be unthinkable, except so far as our nature could
+be made manifest on his plane; so can it be seen that we, limited by
+our finite senses to Time and Space, and our consciousness dependent
+upon that limited basis of thought, can only know that aspect of the
+Reality which can be manifested within that range of thought--namely,
+as Motion, or what we call physical phenomena.
+
+Let me attempt just one more view before we part, which may make this
+conception of Creation, as an Instantaneous Thought, even clearer to
+our finite senses. Imagine a Spectator endowed with the same sense of
+vision that we have--namely, limited to six units of perception per
+second, but able to look on, as it were, from outside the Universe,
+without himself being affected by any alteration that takes place in
+what may be called the flow of time. Consider some of the changes he
+would witness if Time were gradually eliminated from phenomena. The
+inhabitants, who at first were seen walking by slow, successive steps,
+would soon be seen gliding from place to place, the movement of their
+legs having passed beyond the sense of vision; the next stage would
+see the inhabitants unrecognisable as human beings when walking,
+although they would still be visible if they stood still, they would
+be moving too fast for sight, they would be seen only as lines or
+bands extended between their points of departure and destination; then
+day and night would be following each other so quickly that soon the
+day would only be a flicker of light, till, when the week became equal
+to one second of the Spectator's time, day and night would disappear
+as separate phenomena; then the week, the month, and the year would in
+turn flicker, solidify, or become continuous, and disappear with all
+the multitudinous events contained therein; human life would then be
+affected, would flicker, and follow the same course; to the Spectator
+the birth of each individual would become coincident with his death,
+and Nations would be seen to rise and progress towards their
+destination without any evidence of individual existence; the Human
+Race itself would next succumb, then the whole of planetary life,
+then the formation and destruction of Solar Systems, then the
+gathering together and dissemination of firmaments, and, finally, the
+beginning and end of the very Universe would coincide. Motion, or
+Physical phenomena, and therefore Matter, would vanish, and the Great
+instantaneous Thought be complete. We seem to have been able to
+glimpse from our Watch Tower, though through a glass darkly, the whole
+Truth, and to see that the Infinity of Time is a figment of our finite
+senses and is comprised in the Now. The same treatment, followed by
+the same result, may be applied to the Infinity of Space, and we again
+see that all Space is comprised in the Here; it is only by the
+conditions of our existence in this physical universe, _insisting_ on
+our analysing everything in Time and Space that Motion or Change
+become the very basis of our Consciousness.
+
+We have seen that the Idea of Infinity is a necessary result of our
+finite senses, that the only Reality is the Spiritual, the Here and
+the Now; that the Riddle of the Universe is not to be solved by the
+_Intellect_ but by that method which is employed by those who are
+earnestly following the "Quest of the Grail"--namely, by realising
+that our True Personality or Transcendental Ego is an emanation from
+the Absolute; that we are one-with Him, and that it is by following
+the old Hellenic command "[Greek: Gnothi seauton]" (Know
+thyself)--namely, by _Introspection_, that we can hope to attain to
+the understanding of what is the Reality of Being.
+
+
+FINIS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+   Page 27: Braces } on multiple lines represent one large brace
+   encompassing those lines.
+
+   Page 53: Huios or Hyios. The Rule doesn't seem to address the
+   possibility of upsilon coming first in a diphthong: upsilon iota
+   is not common, but "Hui" looks more plausible than "Hyi".
+
+   Page 176: The word amoeba had an oe ligature in the original book.
+
+   Page 184: Typo Gnothe changed to Gnothi.
+
+
+
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