,,last ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,by ,,elsa ,,barker ,,letters ,,from ,a ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,war ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,songs ,,of ,a ,,vagrom ,,angel ,,last ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,the ,,son ,,of ,,mary ,,bethel ,,the ,,frozen ,,grail ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,love ,,stories ,,from ,,the ,,new ,,testament ,,for ,,children ,,last ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,written ,,down ,,by ,,elsa ,,barker ,,with ,,an ,,introduction ,,new ,,york ,,mitchell ,,kennerley #aiai ,,copyright1 #aiai1 ,,by ,,mitchell ,,kennerley ,,printed ,,in ,,america ,,by ,j4 ,j4 ,,little ,,ives ,,company ,,contents ,,introduction #g ,,letter ,i ,,the ,,genius ,,of ,,america #di ,,ii ,,fear ,,not #ed ,,iii ,,the ,,promise ,,of ,,spring #fa ,,iv ,,the ,,diet ,,of ,,gold #fg ,v ,,contingent ,,fees #ga ,,vi ,,the ,,three ,,appeals #gd ,,vii ,,the ,,builders #gf ,,viii ,,the ,,world ,,of ,,mind #hh ,,ix ,,america',s ,,good ,,friday #ie ,x ,,the ,,crucible #ig ,,xi ,,make ,,clean ,,your ,,house #ajc ,,xii ,,level ,,heads #aji ,,xiii ,,trees ,,and ,,brick ,,walls #aab ,,xiv ,,invisible ,,armies #aad ,,xv ,,the ,,weakest ,,link #aah ,,xvi ,a ,,council ,,in ,,the ,,forest #abc ,,xvii ,,the ,,ideal ,,of ,,success #adj ,,xviii ,,order ,,and ,,progress #adg ,,xix ,,the ,,federation ,,of ,,nations #aee ,,xx ,,the ,,new ,,ideal #aei ,,xxi ,a ,,rambling ,,talk #aff ,,xxii ,,the ,,lever ,,of ,,world ,,unity #aga ,,xxiii ,,the ,,stars ,,of ,,man',s ,,destiny #agi ,,xxiv ,,melancholy #ahb ,,xxv ,,compensatory ,,play #aij ,,xxvi ,,the ,,aquarian ,,age #aih ,,xxvii ,,the ,,watchers #bji ,,xxviii ,a ,,ritual ,,of ,,fellowship #baf ,,xxix ,,recruiting ,,agents #bah ,,xxx ,,the ,,virus ,,of ,,disruption #bbg ,,xxxi ,,the ,,altar ,,fire #bce ,,last ,,letters ,,from ,,the ,,living ,,dead ,,man ,,introduction ,,this book1 the third and last of the ,living ,dead ,man series1 was written between ,february1 #aiag1 and ,february1 #aiah4 ,then ,i lost the ability--or perhaps ,i should say the inclination--to do automatic writing4 ,as this third manuscript was shorter than the other two1 ,i had supposed it to be a fragment which would probably never be finished2 and it was not until my publisher urged me to issue it as a fragment that ,i read it all over for the first time and discovered that it was really a complete thing1 an organic whole4 8,perhaps10 ,i told myself1 surprised and still half-incredulous1 8there is a divinity that shapes our ends40 ,for had this book been published when it was written1 it would have seemed premature2 now the greater part of it is timely as yesterday's editorials4 ,for the benefit of those who have not read the earlier books of the series1 8,letters ,from a ,living ,dead ,man10 #aiad1 and 8,war ,letters ,from the ,living ,dead ,man10 #aiae1 ,i will quote from the ,introductions of those books4 ,in the first ,introduction ,i said3 8,one night last year in ,paris ,i was strongly impelled to take up a pencil and write1 though what ,i was to write about ,i had no idea4 ,yielding to the impulse1 my hand was seized as if from the outside1 and a remarkable message of a personal nature came1 followed by the signature #8,x4' 8,the purport of the message was clear1 but the signature puzzled me4 8,the following day ,i showed this writing to a friend1 asking her if she had any idea who #8,x' was4 8#8,why1' she replied1 #8don't you know that that is what we always call ,mr4 ----8' 8,i did not know4 8,now1 ,mr4 ---- was six thousand miles from ,paris1 and1 as we supposed1 in the land of the living4 ,but a day or two later a letter came to me from ,america1 stating that ,mr4 ---- had died in the western part of the ,united ,states1 a few days before ,i received in ,paris the automatic message signed #8,x4' 8,so far as ,i know1 ,i was the first person in ,europe to be informed of his death1 and ,i immediately called on my friend to tell her that #8,x' had passed out4 ,she did not seem surprised1 and told me that she had felt certain of it some days before1 when ,i had shown her the #8,x' letter1 though she had not said so at the time4 8,naturally ,i was impressed by this extraordinary incident4444 8,but to the whole subject of communication between the two worlds ,i felt an unusual degree of indifference4 ,spiritualism had always left me quite cold1 and ,i had not even read the ordinary standard works on the subject4444 8,several letters signed #8,x' were automatically written during the next few weeks2 but1 instead of becoming enthusiastic1 ,i developed a strong disinclination for this manner of writing1 and was only persuaded to continue it through the arguments of my friend that if #8,x' really wished to communicate with the world1 ,i was highly privileged in being able to help him4444 8,gradually1 as ,i conquered my strong prejudice against automatic writing1 ,i became interested in the things which #8,x' told me about the life beyond the grave4444 8,when it was first suggested that these letters should be published with an introduction by me1 ,i did not take very enthusiastically to the idea4 ,being the author of several books1 more or less well known1 ,i had my little vanity as to the stability of my literary reputation4 ,i did not wish to be known as an eccentric1 a #8freak4' ,but ,i consented to write an introduction stating that the letters were automatically written in my presence1 which would have been the truth1 though not all the truth4 ,this satisfied my friend2 but as time went on1 it did not satisfy me4 ,it seemed not quite sincere4 8,i argued the matter out with myself4444 ,the letters were probably two-thirds written before this question was finally settled2 and ,i decided that if ,i published the letters at all1 ,i should publish them with a frank introduction1 stating the exact circumstances of their reception by me40 ,the interest aroused by 8,letters ,from a ,living ,dead ,man10 which had been published simultaneously in ,london and ,new ,york1 astonished me4 ,requests for translation rights began to come in1 and ,i was flooded with letters from all parts of the world4 ,i answered as many as ,i could1 but to answer all was quite impossible4 ,now ,i will quote again1 briefly1 from the ,introduction to the second volume1 8,war ,letters ,from the ,living ,dead ,man10 #aiae4 8,in that first book of #8,x' ,i did not state who the writer was1 not feeling at liberty to do so without the consent of his family2 but in the summer of #aiad1 while ,i was still living in ,europe1 a long interview with ,mr4 ,bruce ,hatch appeared in the #8,new ,york ,sunday ,world1' in which he expressed the conviction that the #8,letters' were genuine communications from his father1 the late ,judge ,david ,p4 ,hatch1 of ,los ,angeles1 ,california4444 8,after the ,letters were finished in #aiac1 during a period of about two years ,i was conscious of the presence of #8,x' only on two or three occasions1 when he wrote some brief advice in regard to my personal affairs4 8,on the fourth of ,february1 #aiae1 in ,new ,york1 ,i was suddenly made aware one day that #8,x' stood in the room and wished to write2 but as always before1 with one or two exceptions1 ,i had not the remotest idea of what he was going to say4 ,he wrote as follows3 8#8,when ,i come back and tell you the story of this war1 as seen from the other side1 you will know more than all the ,chancelleries of the nations4'0 ,then ,i went on to describe the process of my automatic writing1 adding3 8,no person who had had even a minute fraction of my occult experience could be more coldly critical of that experience than ,i am4 ,i freely welcome every logical argument against the belief that these letters are what they purport to be2 but placing those arguments in opposition to the evidence which ,i have of the genuineness of them1 the affirmations outweigh the denials1 and ,i accept them4 ,this evidence is too complex and much of it too personal to be even outlined here40 ,the second volume1 which dealt with the war from the hidden side of things1 and predicted the victory of the ,allies1 aroused even more interest than the first one4 ,the flood of letters continued4 ,in #aiaf1 at the kind insistence of ,joyce ,kilmer1 ,i published another and different little book of automatic writings1 8,songs of a ,vagrom ,angel10 the angel being the ,beautiful ,being described by 8,x0 in the ,living ,dead ,man books4 ,the 8,songs0 were charmingly received by the critics4 ,the whole book1 with the exception of three of the songs1 had been 8written down0 in twenty-two hours4 ,in the summer of #aiaf ,i went to ,california1 and it was there1 in ,february1 #aiag1 that the writing of this third book began4 ,but ,i was growing more and more restive at the swamping of my literary career by automatic writings1 and my mountainous correspondence left me less and less time for original work4 ,finally1 in ,february1 #aiah1 the 8inner conflict0 culminated in a complete cessation of automatic writing4 ,the artist in me had become exasperated4 ,if the reader will permit the exaggeration of the simile1 ,i felt as a man might feel who was caught between the jaws of a lion that was carrying him away into a trackless jungle4 ,before ,march1 #aiad1 ,i had been known as a poet and a novelist2 since #aiad my name had become known in more countries than ,i have counted as a 8psychic10 a medium of communication between the visible and the invisible worlds4 ,i was not sorry that ,i had published the books1 because so many people had written me that ,i had saved them from despair and even suicide2 but ,i shrank from the publicity they brought me4 ,i have been nearly devoured by these books and the readers of these books4 ,i felt1 in ,february1 #aiah1 that ,i had a right to say that the incident was closed4 ,but that did not mean a cessation of correspondence4 ,suffering souls to whose letters the limitations of time and uncertain health 7for ,i had not been well since #aiae7 made it impossible to respond by return of post1 would write again reproaching me with indifference to their sufferings4 ,the situation had become inconceivable4 ,and if ,i went out somewhere for an hour or two of social 8rest10 ,i was surrounded by people who wanted me to talk to them about the 8,x0 books1 about their own dead friends1 and the possibilities of communication4 ,i was torn by pity for those who were suffering1 and after years of war nearly everyone was suffering2 but ,i wanted to be at the front with the ,red ,cross1 and my health would not permit me to go4 ,i could help various war committees1 but ,i could not go to my tortured and beloved ,france--to be perhaps an added burden1 should ,i break down altogether4 ,the only escape from this conflict was in abstruse studies1 studies where pure mind can work4 ,so ,i seriously took up ,analytical ,psychology1 in which ,i had been mildly interested since #aiae4 ,some fourteen hours a day for a year ,i studied1 some of the time with a teacher1 some of the time alone4 ,i burrowed under the theories of the three great schools1 and synthesized them1 after my fashion4 ,i had rather an active mind to experiment upon--my own4 ,the 8resistances10 so-called1 had been broken down by the teacher4 ,one of the things which appealed most to my reason was ,jung's insistence upon the psychological 7and therefore practical7 value of the irrational4 ,he says3 8,there is no human foresight nor philosophy which can enable us to give our lives a prescribed direction1 except for quite a short distance4 ,destiny lies before us1 perplexing us1 and teeming with possibilities1 and yet only one of these many possibilities is our own particular right way4444 ,much can certainly be attained by will-power4 ,but 444 our will is a function that is directed by our powers of reflection4444 ,has it ever been proved1 or can it ever be proved1 that life and destiny harmonize with our human reason1 that is1 that they are exclusively rational8 ,on the contrary1 we have ground for supposing that they are also irrational1 that is to say1 that in the last resort they too are based in regions beyond the human reason4 ,the irrationality of the great process is shown by its so-called accidentalness4444 ,the rich store of life both is1 and is not1 determined by law2 it is at the same time rational and irrational4 ,therefore1 the reason and the will founded upon it are only valid for a short distance4 ,the further we extend this rationally chosen direction1 the surer we may be that we are thereby excluding the irrational possibilities of life1 which have1 however1 just as good a right to be lived4 ,aye1 we may injure ourselves1 since we cut off the wealth of accidental eventualities by a too rigid and conscious direction4444 ,the present fearful catastrophic world-war has tremendously upset the most optimistic upholder of rationalism and culture40 ,now my rationally chosen 8line of life0 had been that of writing books of poetry1 fiction and essays4 ,but 8accidentalness0 cut in1 and ,i wrote automatically and published what ,i had written4 ,that destiny1 that second line of life1 may also have been1 for all we can prove to the contrary1 based 8in regions beyond the human reason40 ,i should not like to say that my having led the way1 in the spring of #aiad1 for writers of dignified reputation to publish their automatic writings might have been causally directed by the coming great need of the world for spiritual consolation during the most awful holocaust in history4 ,that would be pressing irrationality too far4 ,but that second line of life1 as ,jung would call it1 came to its inevitable end with the last of this manuscript in ,february1 #aiah4 ,the cause of that was also seemingly accidental4 ,but as this ,introduction is only an introduction1 it is impossible to follow the course of all the drops of water in the broad river that has flowed under my mental bridges during the last fourteen months4 ,my present line of life 7and through the analysis of my dreams ,i have means of knowing what it is7 points to the resumption of my original literary work1 poetry1 fiction and essays1 and to the exclusion1 so far as possible1 of everything that would deflect me from that course4 8,accidentality0 will cut in from time to time1 change of place and therefore change of outlook1 studies of all sorts1 and legitimate demands by that society of which ,i form a part2 but ,i have done enough automatic writing4 ,others will do it1 if it must be done2 and probably it must--because it is an outlet which it might be unsafe to stop up in the present state of the race consciousness4 ,of course if ,i should feel strongly impelled to do automatic writing1 ,i should do it1 trusting to that destiny which is another name for causes beyond our comprehension2 but it was the strength of my 8inner protest0 that made me realize that ,i had gone far enough along that line4 ,as in the forewords to the former books1 ,i state the psychological situation of the moment1 saying1 8so and so happened40 ,the reader1 as before1 will interpret in his own way4 ,this introduction indicates my point of view in the month of ,april1 #aiai4 ,before the month of ,may1 #bjai1 ,i shall have solved the problem of survival1 or demonstrated 7without knowing it7 that it is insoluble4 ,the more we know about all these things1 the less likely we are to assume that we have the sum of all knowledge4 ,we are like children1 groping among psychological lights and shadows4 ,my own belief in immortality seems ineradicable4 ,i did not know that until it was tested out4 ,but we must always remember that our personal belief is not absolute evidence of the truth of what we believe--at least until we shall have examined all the psychological roots of the belief1 and in the present state of our knowledge that is well-nigh impossible4 ,our rational belief1 if we have formed one for ourselves and have not merely accepted uncritically the beliefs of our predecessors and associates1 is merely our individual synthesis4 ,but we must not give an exaggerated value even to our own hard-won synthesis4 ,that also is a moving1 an ever-changing1 thing4 ,otherwise we should not grow4 ,when a man becomes fixed he begins to disintegrate4 ,in the first book of this series ,i stated the fact that ,i had never been interested in spiritualism4 ,consciously1 ,i never had4 ,now1 ,dr4 ,alfred ,adler1 the head of what we may call the ,ego ,school of analysis1 says3 8,often the negation is the assertion of an old interest that has become unconscious40 ,yes4444 ,my father was deeply interested in spiritualism1 and ,i was born in an old house where ghosts were supposed to walk4 ,my mother was afraid of the subject4 ,my father died when ,i was thirteen4 ,i was always a little afraid of my father4 ,the first time ,i met ,judge ,hatch ,i told him that perhaps he had been my father in a 8former incarnation40 ,he smiled1 and said1 8,maybe40 ,no microscopist had ever a greater interest in facts than ,i have4 ,my scientific friends say1 8,a scientist was lost in you40 ,other friends say1 8,you are a great psychic40 ,so there ,i found myself4 ,in studying with the scientific half the phenomena of the psychic half1 ,i am able to unify them4 ,the authority of the ,church has been knocked from under us4 ,we are adrift1 we thinking humans of the early twentieth century1 upon a sea of mind1 stormtossed by winds of feeling4 ,we were just beginning to believe in universal brotherhood--when universal war broke out4 ,our steersman seemed to have been washed overboard4 ,everybody wants to take the helm1 distrusting his neighbor's judgment4 ,is it any wonder that bewildered souls by thousands turned to automatic writing1 seeking for guidance1 for something authoritative8 ,in childhood our parents guided us4 ,later the ,church guided us--or tried to4 ,then science guided us--a little too far4 ,and in the reaction we turned inward1 to find 7sometimes7 the unconscious more troubled than the conscious4 ,but in the ,letters which follow there is no despair1 only light and courage and hope4 ,there seem to be two main streams in us1 the mental and the instinctive4 ,bergson says1 in his 8,creative ,evolution10 8,there are things which intelligence alone is able to seek1 but which1 by itself1 it will never find4 ,these things instinct alone could find2 but it will never seek them40 ,it was inevitable that modern psychology1 with its constructive curiosity1 should turn its attention to the religious beliefs of the past and present4 ,there was no other way of understanding what really goes on in the minds of people4 ,some of these old beliefs proved1 on examination1 to be scientifically tenable4 ,for instance1 the ,theosophists 7who got the idea from the ,hindoos7 tell us there are two streams of evolution1 the elemental and the human4 ,dr4 ,c4 ,j4 ,jung1 the head of the ,swiss school of ,analytical ,psychology1 divides the stream of 8energy0 into two currents1 one going forward and one going backward4 ,and this duality of will ,bleuler calls 8ambitendency40 ,the difference is chiefly a difference of phraseology and associations4 8,always the pull of the opposites10 ,i quote from the ,letters which follow4 ,the present psychic wave which is sweeping over the world is accompanied by modern analytical psychology4 ,truth may lie in the synthesis4 ,between the credulity of those who believe everything purporting to come from the other side of the veil1 who accept every suggestion from anybody claiming to be 8psychic0 who half-closes the eyes and says dreamily1 8,you will do so and so10--between this thirst for delusion and the materialists' denial that there is anything but matter and the functions of matter1 there is also a middle ground4 ,the great pioneer of analytical psychology himself said1 in a recent little volume on 8,war and ,death10 translated by ,dr4 ,a4 ,a4 ,brill3 8,in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality40 ,suppose the unconscious should be right8 ,and1 by the way1 between the statement of ,christian ,scientists1 8,all is love10 and the statement of the parent school of psychoanalysis1 8,all is libido10 there is striking similarity4 ,jung would say1 8,all is energy40 ,judge ,hatch wrote1 in a little book published in #aije1 8,we postulate immortal ,units of ,force1 each having the power to generate a constant but limited amount of energy1 and no two alike in quantity4 ,upon this force generation in the unit1 necessitated by law1 do we base life4 ,life results from the inter-dealing and inter-playing of these units among themselves eternally1 sometimes potential1 again kinetic1 each limited in the amount of force generated1 but unlimited in variety of motion1 manifestation or specialization40 ,truth may indeed be one1 though the roads to it are many4 ,fechner's assertion1 that the dead live in us and so influence us1 does not require much stretching to fit the hypothesis that the entire past of the human race is contained in the deeper levels of the unconscious4 ,if we go deep enough in analysis that hypothesis is illustrated by strange phenomena4 ,it is unwise1 at the present time more than any other1 even to try to take away man's belief in immortality4 ,the world is too sad1 too near the ragged edge where personal uncertainty drifts into social irresponsibility4 ,the psychic wave that is sweeping over the world1 though it is being carried to excess1 as all overcompensations are1 answers nevertheless to a tremendous need4 ,credulity is the other end of doubt4 ,dr4 ,smith ,ely ,jelliffe1 in the ,introduction to his translation of ,silberer's 8,problems of ,mysticism and ,its ,symbolism10 says3 8,much of the strange and outr1 as well as the commonplace1 in human activity conceals energy transformations of inestimable value in the work of sublimation4 ,the race would go mad without it4 ,it sometimes does even with it1 a sign that sublimation is still imperfect and that the race is far from being spiritually well4 ,a comprehension of the principles here involved would further the spread of sympathy for all forms of thinking and tend to further spiritual health in such mutual comprehension of the needs of others and of the forms taken by sublimation processes40 ,william ,james defended the ,christian ,scientists4 ,and ,jung himself says1 in one of his famous letters to ,dr4 ,loy1 8,every method is good if it serves its purpose1 including ,christian ,science1 ,mental ,healing1 etc40 ,during the last five years man has had such varied reasons for fearing objective things that he has come to fear the subjective1 perhaps even more than during the ,middle ,ages4 ,dr4 ,h4 ,w4 ,frink says1 in his masterly book on 8,morbid ,fears and ,compulsions03 8,the biological function or purpose of fear is protective or preservative4 ,every one of us alive to-day owes his existence to the fact that his human and pre-human ancestors were afraid40 ,nearly everyone is afraid of something4 ,sublime ,jeanne d',arc was terribly afraid of the fire4 7,perhaps she had been badly burned in infancy1 and the unconscious memory twisted and turned in the deeps of her pure soul4 ,perhaps1 and perhaps 444 for we shall never know47 ,when we really know what fear is1 we shall have solved the mystery of 8the one and the many0 that disturbed the cerebration of our ancestors4 ,fear may be a momentary surging up of the ego's consciousness of its own helpless littleness before the immensity of the unknown and unknowable non-ego4 ,the reckless courage of the soldier may be an overcompensation1 a triumphant sublimation--sometimes followed by reaction1 secret or unconcealable1 depending on the intensity4 ,for1 as ,silberer says1 8,the conflicts do not indeed lie in the external world1 but in our emotional disposition towards it2 if we change this disposition by an inner development1 the external world has a different value44440 ,man is indeed his own cosmos1 the microcosm of the macrocosm1 to a degree incomprehensible to one who has not intelligently studied 7and in himself7 the phenomena of 8projection10 and compensation including sublimation4 ,the great mystics of all ages1 through introversion1 having discovered this and reduced it to a science1 after their fashion1 great modern scientists like ,jung and ,silberer have found their systems worthy of profound study4 ,writing of mysticism1 ,professor ,dwelshauvers of ,brussels says3 8,the effects of mystic union are logical and coherent2 a second quality of the acts of the order of grace is the positive character of the contribution1 the increase which they bring to the psychic life of those who benefit by them4444 ,the idea of ,god1 the divine presence1 or any other form of inspiration1 is no more strange to the mind of the religious man than is for the savant the sudden conception of a solution long sought for1 or for the artist the vision of the work which he meditates and of which he pursues the construction with patience and tenacity4444 ,neither the invasion of the soul by ,god1 nor the #8return' of the mystics1 has any resemblance to mental disintegration40 ,it is not easy to get rid of ,god4 ,will you read what ,jung says on this subject in the 8,collected ,papers on ,analytical ,psychology10 edited by ,dr4 ,constance ,e4 ,long3 8,the concept of ,god is simply a necessary psychological function4444 ,the concensus gentium has spoken of gods for ons past1 and will be speaking of them in ons to come4 ,beautiful and perfect as man may think his reason1 he may nevertheless assure himself that it is only one of the possible mental functions1 coinciding merely with the corresponding side of the phenomena of the universe4 ,all around is the irrational1 that which is not congruous with reason4 ,and this irrationalism is likewise a psychological function1 namely the absolute unconscious2 whilst the function of consciousness is essentially rational4444 ,heraclitus1 the ancient1 that really very wise man1 discovered the most wonderful of all psychological laws1 namely1 the regulating function of antithesis4 ,he termed this enantiodromia' 7clashing together7 by which he meant that at some time everything meets with its opposite4444 ,man may not identify himself with reason1 for he is not wholly a rational being1 and never can or ever will become one4 ,that is a fact of which every pedant of civilization should take note4 ,what is irrational cannot and may not be stamped out4 ,the gods cannot and may not die4 ,woe betide those men who have disinfected heaven with rationalism2 ,god-,almightiness has entered into them1 because they would not admit ,god as an absolute function4444 ,only he escapes from the cruel law of enantiodromia who knows how to separate himself from the unconscious--not by repressing it1 for then it seizes him from behind--but by presenting it visibly to himself as something that is totally different from him4444 ,he must learn to differentiate in his thoughts between what is the ego and what is the non-ego4 ,the latter is the collective psyche or absolute unconscious4444 ,in order to differentiate the psychological ego from the psychological non-ego1 man must necessarily stand upon firm feet in his ego-function4444 8,obviously the depreciation and repression of such a powerful function as that of religion has serious consequences for the psychology of the individual4444 ,one period of skepticism came to a close with the horrors of the ,french revolution4 ,at the present time we are again experiencing an ebullition of the unconscious destructive powers of the collective psyche4 ,the result is an unparalleled general slaughter4 ,that is just what the unconscious was tending towards4 ,this tendency had previously been inordinately strengthened by the rationalism of modern life1 which by depreciating everything irrational caused the function of irrationalism to sink into the unconscious44440 8,there is indeed no possible alternative but to acknowledge irrationalism as a psychological function that is necessary and always existent4 ,its results are not to be taken as concrete realities 7that would involve repression71 but as psychological realities4 ,they are realities because they are effective things1 that is1 they are actualities40 ,so we need not be ashamed to admit that we pray6 ,in this grim period of history1 when the soul is face to face with itself and its brother as it has never been1 we may speak with a greater simplicity than in the old conventionally-smiling days before the war4 ,i pray--and so do you1 whoever you are1 if only by groaning 8,oh1 ,god60 when you suffer4 ,prayer is an instinct4 ,even an atheist will pray1 if he finds himself beyond human aid4 ,a friend of mine who was killed at the front used to take holy communion every morning1 and he was doubtless a saner and better soldier for it4 ,one need not be a ,roman ,catholic to see the beauty of that act of faith4 ,whether ,god be a 8dominant of the superpersonal unconscious10 a psychological function1 or a mathematical equation1 makes not the slightest difference to me4 ,as ,william ,james would say1 8,he works40 ,and whether the souls of our dead live in us1 as ,fechner says1 or whether they are relics in the personal and collective unconscious1 or whether they are 8concrete realities0 that can materialize by using astral and etheric substance1 makes also not the slightest difference to me4 ,if you could know how utterly ,i am at peace about this whole question6 ,and many other differences appear1 on close examination1 to be mainly differences of viewpoint and phraseology4 ,the 8astral world0 of the ,theosophists1 medival and modern1 corresponds to a certain level of the unconscious4 8,x0 says in one of the ,letters which follow1 written in #aiag1 that melancholy may be produced by the pressure of the unhappy dead who make us fear4 ,if you locate the dead in the unconscious1 which surges up in moments of passivity1 the dead will have the same effect4 ,having given much of the leisure time of a laborious life to a study of the theories and practices of mysticism and occultism1 as formulated by many different schools1 ,i could write volumes 7if ,i had the inclination1 which ,i have not7 in tracing out the psychological roots and the relations between these things4 ,my own unconscious is rich with such images4 ,some of the most striking parallels have not been written about1 so far as ,i know4 ,and ,jung seems to have covered1 with the wide mantle of his comprehension1 even the frailties of those who believe in prophetic dreams4 ,he says3 8,the unconscious possesses possibilities of wisdom that are completely closed to consciousness1 for the unconscious has at its disposal not only all the psychic contents that are under the threshold because they have been forgotten or overlooked1 but also the wisdom of the experience of untold ages1 deposited in the course of time and lying potential in the human brain4 ,the unconscious is continually active1 creating combinations of its materials2 these serve to indicate the future path of the individual4 ,it creates prospective combinations just as our consciousness does1 only they are considerably superior to the conscious combinations both in refinement and extent4 ,the unconscious may therefore be an unparalleled guide for human beings4444 8,the unconscious must contain all the material that has not yet reached the level of consciousness4 ,these are the germs of future conscious contents40 ,he seems to think that true prophecies are merely the result of synthesis by the unconscious of tendencies 7whether in the personal or universal unconscious7 significant for future occurrences4 ,referring to ,maeterlinck's 8inconscient suprieur10 he says of the prophetic interpretation of dreams3 8,the aversion of the exact sciences against this sort of thought-process which is hardly to be called phantastic is only an overcompensation of the thousands of years old but all too great inclination of man to believe in soothsaying40 ,i am told that the hearing of voices in the hypnogogic state indicates 8a slight tendency to dissociation40 ,very well4 ,probably the voices come from a deeper level than automatic writing1 whatever the inspiration of automatic writing may be4 ,now while the things which 8,x0 in the following letters advised ,america to do1 before ,america came into the war1 were the very things which we did after we came into the war and which we could not have done except as war measures1 our entrance was not written down as a specific prophecy in these letters4 ,any startling prophecy has always had a tendency to shake me out of the passive state in which automatic writing is possible4 ,but--during the weeks from ,february to ,april1 #aiag1 in the hypnogogic state preceding sleep1 ,i several times heard1 8,we are coming into the war40 ,of course ,i did not write that down in the manuscript1 as it was not a part of the manuscript4 ,what is heard is heard1 what is written is written4 ,i merely mention it as a curious phenomenon for it was probably the synthesis of the deeper levels of my unconscious4 ,it was certainly the tragic hope of my conscious mind2 but the conscious alone would not have produced a voice4 ,if anybody wonders that ,i should admit hearing hypnogogic voices1 ,i can only say that ,i regard these things rather objectively and impersonally4 ,i never hear voices except when half-asleep4 ,if my very accurate memory has not slipped a cog1 ,william ,james used to talk freely of his hypnogogic experiences4 ,the more we know about our little personalities1 the less monstrously important they seem4 ,and the 8hearing of voices0 has more than once played a respectable rle in history1 before and after ,moses4 ,but ,i do not imagine that ,i have any prophetic mission1 nor do ,i feel in any hurry to 8unite myself with the ocean of divinity10 nor feel any impulse violently to turn my back upon the universal4 ,there is a happy mean1 which makes for efficiency in life1 for health and understanding4 ,i have touched upon analytical psychology in this ,introduction because ,i am so constituted that ,i cannot publish this last volume of my automatic writings without indicating my point of view1 with the same frankness as in former ,introductions4 ,please do not blame science because ,i have not lost through the analytic process my instinctive belief in individual immortality4 ,i assure you it has not been the fault of science4 ,if anyone objects that ,i have only touched the threads of this great web of psychology which lead towards the subject of this book1 ,i can only say that this foreword being by way of preface to this book1 no other course was possible on account of the limitations of space and artistic relevancy4 ,psychology as a method of healing ,i leave to the physicians1 who have written many books about it1 containing bibliographies4 ,and booksellers have catalogues4 ,anyone interested can write to them4 ,this is by way of excusing myself from answering letters of enquiry4 ,i have unselfishly and laboriously written so many hundreds of letters6 ,now ,i want to write other things4 ,the resolution of psychological 8complexes0 frees energy for sublimation in work4 ,it frees ideas for use in art4 ,dr4 ,beatrice ,m4 ,hinkle1 in the introduction to her translation of ,jung's 8,psychology of the ,unconscious10 says that 8this psychology which is pervading all realms of thought 444 seems destined to be a psychological-philosophical system for the understanding and practical advancement of human life40 ,so1 having found a well whose waters were refreshing1 ,i note the fact--and pass on4 ,the train of thought which the reader has followed in this ,introduction is the train of thought which led me--after some delay--to the publication of the book4 ,i am glad that these 8,last ,letters from the ,living ,dead ,man0 are a call to courage1 to restraint1 to faith in the great and orderly future of ,america and the world1 a call to all those positive qualities so gravely needed in these days of the rebuilding of ,peace4 ,for ,i do not believe that ,bolshevism1 or any other form of lunacy1 will find foothold in the ,united ,states4 ,a nation with universal suffrage1 for man and woman1 certainly has no incentive for a resort to insane destruction4 ,in the last ,state campaign it was interesting to watch the reactions of women to the privileges and duties of suffrage4 ,i watched it only in one party1 the ,democratic1 but it was doubtless everywhere the same4 ,there was an added dignity1 a sense of new responsibility1 and always courtesy and real fellowship among the women and the men4 ,its happening to correspond in time with the ,fourth ,liberty ,loan campaign1 and the printing of casualty lists1 made it all the more significant4 ,no1 these level-headed1 socially-responsible women will never be swept away by collective insanity2 and as the men who return from the front will return to these women1 their mothers1 wives and sisters1 ,i do not think that we shall lose in peace what we have gained in war4 ,and now--remembering always that this book was written between ,february1 #aiag1 and ,february1 #aiah--you may read the 8,last ,letters from the ,living ,dead ,man40 ,,elsa ,,barker ,new ,york1 ,easter ,day1 #aiai4 ,,letter ,i ,,the ,,genius ,,of ,,america ,february #c1 #aiag4 ,i ,,want to write of ,america1 land of my latest birth1 land of the future4 ,great is the road that the ,genius of ,america may travel1 and her feet have already passed the early stages of it4 ,the ,genius of ,america6 ,each land is watched over and its children guided--guided and moved--by a ,genius4 ,would you feel the ,genius of ,america1 go alone into the woods at night1 watch and listen and invoke4 ,perhaps the answer may come1 its recognition of you1 your recognition of it4 ,if you are one of those who can hear the words which the ,great ,ones speak in the silence1 perhaps you will hear something with the ears of your soul4 ,if so1 do not hasten to divulge the message1 but treasure it in your heart2 for that which is treasured in the heart can sometimes be felt and understood by the hearts of others4 ,if you are one of those who will serve willingly1 the secret of your heart may be shared in silence with those who can hear in the silence4 ,the hour approaches when the mission of this land may be manifested4 ,the hour approaches when the ,genius of this land shall force its will upon this land4 ,that will not be an easy task4 ,so many wills have sought to wrest the reins from the guiding hand2 so many eyes1 looking in so many directions1 have seen so many goals4 ,but there is one will so strong that it can1 when its hour is come1 gather up the wills of men as a strong wind gathers a mass of loosely-lying straws and sweeps them along4 ,you know not the power of a will that has ,god behind it4 ,you know not the power of a purpose that has ,god behind it and the future before it4 ,those who get in the way of the ,genius of this land will be broken1 like straws that would resist the wind4 ,i have watched from my unseen place the labors of many4 ,i have helped unseen with my faith to strengthen the hearts of many4 ,i shall wait now unseen till the act of destiny is accomplished4 ,you who have followed me from my first gropings in the twilight of the new life1 before the clearness came2 you who have followed me on my journeys among the battlefields1 both in and above the world1 follow me yet a little further1 with your minds ajar for the entrance of the truth ,i have to tell you1 the advice ,i have to give you4 ,for my advice is disinterested as the rain1 and my truth is offered as freely as the light4 ,i have come a long way since ,i laid down my body a few brief years ago1 years of a crowded brevity1 in which the world has moved as fast as ,i1 and sometimes with more pain4 ,for he who knows the purpose of his pain can bear it better than the child who knows only that he suffers4 ,i should have spoken to you before1 but you would not let me4 ,child6 ,would you stand in the way with your personal wishes1 and your shrinkings that are also wishes of a negative kind8 ,blocked by your will to avoid this labor1 ,i sought another entrance2 but it was too much encumbered by prejudices and preconceived ideas1 and all the litter of mental fragments that had accumulated through years of residence in a creed-bound place4 ,you who have dwelt but briefly in many tents have no obstructions at your door1 save such as are placed by your will1 and those ,i now sweep away4 ,i shall pass in and out1 and speak to you as ,i choose4 ,,letter ,,ii ,,fear ,,not ,february #h1 #aiag4 ,,did ,i not tell you many months ago that the soul of ,abraham ,lincoln kept watch above this land that he died to save from disruption1 and that he would keep vigil until ,america should have passed through her next great trial8 ,you questioned then what that trial would be4 ,do you question now8 ,and yet you do not know4 ,slowly the months have gone by1 receding into the past4 ,when1 in the spring of #aiae1 you saw in vision the ,german ,emperor in spiked helmet standing opposite to ,uncle ,sam in his shirt-sleeves1 did you not suppose that it would come to this8 ,you are wise to keep such visions to yourself4 ,do not fancy that this war will end without greater changes than the world has ever known before4 ,when ,i told you nearly two years ago that the battle between the powers of good and evil had been won in the invisible regions1 ,i knew because my ,teacher told me so2 but do not believe that the new age can dawn without greater trouble and greater changes than you can now imagine4 ,birth is change and birth is painful1 and birth is bloody and exhausting4 ,the pains that have gone before are only the pains of labor4 ,the stars in their courses fight for the new race4 ,i have written of the bloody fields of ,europe4 ,now ,i would write of ,america and her future1 her near and her far future2 for the sun is approaching the ,eastern horizon and the dawn clouds are already tinged with the coming day4 ,america1 do not despair6 ,your destiny is assured4 ,in the storms to come1 think of the freshness after the storm1 when the ground shall smell sweet and birds shall sing4 ,for birds will sing to the children of the new age4 ,in the midst of changes there will come a lull4 ,the world will say1 8,it is over1 the old things will return1 and all will be as before40 ,but nothing will ever be exactly as it was before4 ,in the lull you shall draw breath1 and make ready for other changes4 ,yes1 many things will be changed1 even the hearts of men4 ,the world has known terror4 ,without experience of terror1 without the poise that comes from the facing of terror undaunted1 the world could not face the future without failure4 ,is there anything now1 after thirty months of war1 that could surprise the world8 ,is there anything that the world could not face8 ,oh1 remember that you are immortal1 and that you who go out of life will come back again1 strengthened by the rest in the invisible6 ,for a change of place is a rest of consciousness4 ,to those whose nerves are weary1 wise doctors prescribe a change4 ,a rest in the invisible worlds is more refreshing than a summer in the mountains4 ,do not fear death4 ,i passed through death1 and ,i am more rested now than a strong man in the morning4 ,i would not go back to my old body4 ,when ,i want a body again ,i shall build a new one4 ,i know the process of building1 having built so many before4 ,be joyous with me4 ,a wise man once said that only the unendurable is tragic4 ,the world1 and the souls of the world1 can endure the change that is coming4 ,have not wars prepared them for it8 ,that is why wars had to be4 ,america is rich4 ,her vaults are full of gold1 her mines are full of ore1 and her fresh soil is full of richness4 ,shall she fear a future in which labor can procure all things for the body1 and faith can procure all things for the soul8 ,the history of this land is a history of faith4 ,did not ,columbus start across the trackless ocean1 led only by the star of his faith8 ,did not your ancestors follow1 led by their faith in the future8 ,the past has gone back to ,god1 it is safe as a dead man2 but the future is coming to you1 and your faith shall make it sure4 ,fear naught4 ,in the early days of this land your forefathers slept in quiet1 though the red man lurked in the forest1 and hunger lurked in the failure of harvests1 and men and children could only be winter-warm when trees had been felled for fuel4 ,now you fear famines of coal8 ,the earth is heavy with coal4 ,you fear famines of wheat1 when your muscles grow fat for lack of exercise4 ,they who came first to this land had varied reasons for fear1 but you have no reasons for fear4 ,labor is sweet4 ,the child who makes labor of play can vouch for the truth of that saying4 ,can you not then make play of your labor8 ,when ,i was a child ,i built houses of blocks4 ,i longed to be building4 ,i dug ditches in the garden4 ,i made boats of chips and sailed them on a puddle4 ,i planted seeds4 ,and learning8 ,in the libraries of the world and in the brains of men is stored the learning of the ages4 ,the new age will not lack the archives of all ages4 ,though paper is less enduring than parchment1 it will last over into the new age4 ,fear not4 ,by hints ,i convey to your mind that many changes will come4 ,what then8 ,all progress is change4 ,go out with it to meet the future1 with a smile on your face and a song on your lips4 ,the future wears a rose in its buttonhole1 as your ,vagrom ,angel would say4 ,,letter ,,iii ,,the ,,promise ,,of ,,spring ,february #ag1 #aiag4 ,,when you learn to think of life as a whole1 of which you are a part containing in yourself the potentialities of the whole1 then you will look upon these great changes with joy4 ,the ,one must sometimes sacrifice itself to ,itself1 and by elimination secure a new lease of life4 ,the whole--call it the race1 or the earth-spirit1 or what you will--may grow too fat and lazy1 as a man may grow too large to move about with ease1 and then by war among the organs1 by fever1 fasting or remedies1 the equilibrium is restored1 and he starts again a new man1 ready to face the future4 ,grim1 does it seem8 ,but who told you that the purposes of life were always smiling8 ,in the deeps of the earth and in the deeps of man are dark substances4 ,the cold of winter is a hardship for those who expose themselves to the elements2 but winter is the ebb-tide of that changing sea of life whose flood-tide is the summer4 ,rhythm1 always rhythm4 ,i would not have you discouraged by the winter of the race1 for the spring will come and the roses will bloom again4 ,march winds6 ,they are followed by ,april showers and ,mayflowers4 ,we are now in ,february4 ,when the skies are dark and the snows fall1 we gather round the fire and think of the future1 when the flowers shall bloom again and green grass shall cover the earth and birds shall sing in the trees4 ,the sun 8crosses the line0 in ,march when the winds blow1 and enters the sign of the ,ram1 and the ,zodiac is traversed again by the great light-giver the ,sun4 ,do you shiver and grow afraid when the ,equinox approaches8 ,the soul1 too1 has its winter of materialism and its ideal spring4 ,i have looked at the world from the outside1 and ,i see no cause for despair4 ,i have looked at the soul from the inside1 and ,i see great cause for rejoicing4 ,you look forward to the end of the war1 but the soul must battle to the end of its journey4 ,so long as the soul is cased in matter there will be wars enough1 for the greatest struggles are the soul's struggles with itself4 ,i have told you this before4 ,sometimes it goes out to fight1 sometimes it goes in2 the sword will not rust in the scabbard4 ,think less of yourself and think more of the race4 ,you lose the vision of the whole by regarding too closely the parts1 by regarding too closely yourself that is only one of the parts4 ,think of yourself as the race1 and think of the race as yourself2 then yourself becomes the race1 and the race becomes yourself2 8the ,universe grows ,i40 ,there was once a ,god so great that the cells of his body were minor gods4 ,you may become so great that the cells of your body will be glad to sacrifice themselves to your welfare4 ,by renouncing the will to live1 you may make yourself immortal4 ,by renouncing the will to joy1 you may become joyous4 ,once ,i desired to be a great man4 ,now when ,i only desire that ,man shall be great1 ,i have increased in stature myself4 ,once ,i desired to be loved2 but now when ,i love for love's sake and not for my own sake1 ,i am loved by a multitude4 ,surely ,i found my life by losing it1 and the words of the ,master were justified4 ,i look down at the world as ,i once looked down at my garden4 ,i see that the grass is sprouting and ,i know that seeds are in the ground4 ,i have planted seeds in the hearts of men that shall germinate and reach up towards the sunshine1 for ,i had faith in the spring4 ,for a while ,i have left ,europe to itself1 and have come back to the land ,i love best4 ,i have journeyed from ,state to ,state1 and have watched the wills of our legislators4 ,they too are aware that a ,force is at work through them4 ,they feel the responsibility of their place1 they feel themselves as moving parts of the great whole whose name is ,america4 ,the ,flag is the symbol of their consecration4 ,i have walked in the woods1 where the spirits of the land fore-gather for counsels which the newspapers do not report4 ,they too are aware of their consecration4 ,they strengthen you with their faith4 ,when ,i lived as a man in ,america ,i did not know ,america4 ,to know the meaning of home we must wander4 ,i am all for unity now4 ,do not let yourselves be weakened by fear of the parts4 ,america is a whole1 and as a whole she must work4 ,to fuse these many races together is the mission of the present hour4 ,do not lend your hearts to division4 ,i see a great leader of men who shall arise in this land4 ,his mission will be the union of races4 ,he will be a teacher and a prophet4 ,,letter ,,iv ,,the ,,diet ,,of ,,gold ,march #aj1 #aiag4 ,,the very influences that now tend to disrupt this country will later draw it together4 ,the many will find their meeting-point in the ,one4 ,that idea of national unity must be fostered1 even to the extent of patient tolerance of racial temperaments4 ,those who are in the process of being separated from their old race and amalgamated with the new race1 feel the strain of the change4 ,it irritates them and their blood protests1 even when their wills bid them forge new bonds for themselves4 ,few 8hyphenated ,americans0 would be willing to go bodily back to their old allegiance4 ,america is the most interesting of all countries1 and we who see it from this side of the airy frontier see it in historical perspective4 ,the view that is nearest to our point of view is that of your present ,chief ,executive4 ,his eyes are far-seeing4 ,he anticipates the clearer sight that will one day be his1 when he has finished his work4 ,our country is suffering at this moment1 in ,march1 of the year of our ,lord nineteen hundred and seventeen1 from an indigestion of gold4 ,you have swallowed more gold than you can assimilate1 and your organs are congested4 ,if to restore the equilibrium1 some of this gold should be regurgitated1 by war or by other means1 do not in the weariness that follows fancy that the nation is going to die4 ,do not be shocked by my figures of speech4 ,i want to get into your consciousness an understanding of facts and conditions as they exist4 ,you cannot feed on gold4 8,gold is a medium of exchange40 ,when it is merely hoarded it has lost its relation to life4 ,a miser nation is a sadder subject for contemplation than a miser man1 with his long claws and his gloating eyes4 ,he may think1 the miser man1 to secure himself from the dangers of the future by amassing gold for its own sake4 ,a miser nation may think that by amassing gold for its own sake it can save itself from the financial dangers threatening the world after these years of war4 ,but the miser1 known as such1 is in danger of being robbed and murdered4 ,and the miser nation is in danger of being attacked and looted by other nations4 ,you ,americans want to be generous to the homeless and foodless people of ,europe2 but your generosity has not yet deprived of one square meal the hundred-million-headed being that is ,america4 ,i do not care so much what you do with your gold4 ,but ,i care much what you do with your food4 ,you are not alchemists that you can make gold potable4 ,you are humans with delicate stomachs4 ,even a hen will not lay eggs for you unless she is well fed4 ,if she protests1 you can punish her by eating her2 but the luckiest break of her wish-bone will not produce for you another hen4 ,better conserve her labor power by gifts of grain1 and have your eggs for breakfast and for hatching4 ,she has periods of laziness when she wants to sit still2 but put a few of her own eggs under her1 and watch for results4 ,later ,i shall tell you of other but no less practical ways of ensuring a supply of breakfasts4 ,,letter ,v ,,contingent ,,fees ,march #aj1 #aiag4 ,,to-,,day ,i heard that a certain rich man 7unmindful of the camel and the needle's eye71 supposing that the letters from this ,living ,dead ,man had been profitable to you1 that there was 8money in them10 was considering the question of whether he should financially back a medium who stood ready to declare that she was in communication with me1 that ,i repudiated the books written through you1 and stood sponsor for certain manuscripts written 8through0 her1 as my only genuine messenger to the world4 ,i join in your laughter1 at your supposed 8profitable0 investment in the securities of the other world1 and at the eagerness to get aboard a sea-of-ether-worthy ship exhibited by people who have not paid their fare4 ,i may as well tell you now that this country and some others are scattered over with supposed 8communications0 from me4 ,it would seem that my writing arms are as numerous as the feet of a centipede4 ,it would also seem by the style of some of these supposed communications1 by their contents and their contradictions1 that ,i have as many minds as ,indra has eyes4 ,even the elementals of the ouija board do not contradict themselves so frequently as these amanuenses make me contradict myself4 ,i think you will have to trademark me4 ,after the serious nature of my recent letters1 it relaxes me to jest4 ,if you include this letter in the book1 please head it 8,contingent ,fees40 ,,letter ,,vi ,,the ,,three ,,appeals ,march #aa1 #aiag4 ,i ,,stand outside the world and look inside the hearts of men4 ,i see more than ,i saw when ,i was a man among them4 ,had ,i then looked as deep into my own heart as ,i now look into theirs1 ,i should have seen the hearts of my fellow beings reflected in my own1 for we differ from one another as one insect differs from another4 ,there are differences between insects4 ,i look into your hearts1 ,o men6 and this is what ,i see3 ,ideals and hypocrisy1 self-interest and altruism1 hunger and satiety4 ,shall ,i1 in offering advice1 appeal to your ideals1 your self-interest1 or your hunger8 ,the opposite three would never spur you to action along the lines ,i would have you spurred4 ,,letter ,,vii ,,the ,,builders ,march #bb1 #aiag4 ,i ,,have promised to offer you advice as to how you may restore your equilibrium4 ,use much of this superfluity of gold in rebuilding devastated ,europe4 ,give her credits and give her food4 ,you who can work in the fields1 raise food to feed ,europe4 ,you who can build1 give the labor of your hands wherever it is needed4 ,you who are discontented here1 go back to that ,europe which gave you birth4 ,by so doing you will give yourselves a new point of view1 and you will give yourselves a new interest4 ,a new interest is a new lease of life4 ,make sacrifices4 ,in saying that1 ,i have two objects in view1 the effect on the world and the effect on yourselves4 ,to work for the ideal is sometimes more practical than to work for what is called the real4 ,when ,i tell you to rebuild ,europe1 you can take it as ideal advice or practical advice1 depending on your point of view4 ,it is ideal because ,europe needs rebuilding2 it is practical because just now and for a time to come ,america needs to get her mind on something outside herself4 ,we give that advice to individuals when they are too self-centred4 ,there is so much discontent and so much uncertainty that anything which can catch and hold the attention of masses of men1 which can make them forget themselves1 may enable them to be used by the ,genius of the race1 which works for the welfare of the race as a whole4 ,lend your money to ,europe1 and do not ask usurious interest4 ,yes1 you can take interest1 for money has earning power1 and the laborer--even the laborer ,gold--is worthy of his hire4 ,but help by your generous lendings at low interest to lessen the awful burden of taxation for the people of ,europe1 which makes also for discontent and discouragement4 ,go to ,europe1 many of you1 that you may see what war does to a country1 what it might do to your country should you selfishly expose yourselves to a desire on the part of outsiders to take from you by force that which you have so skilfully acquired4 ,go1 that you may see and feel1 as you can only see and feel face to face1 the spirit of self-sacrifice and national devotion which has animated the people of ,europe in this long war4 ,they have found their souls1 but you have not yet found your soul4 ,there are engineers in this country who are less needed here than they will be needed in ,europe4 ,there are specialists in all the branches of science who are more needed there than here4 ,we have specialists enough4 ,we can spare a few of them4 ,build ships4 ,build more ships4 ,keep the men occupied4 ,give them an objective4 ,do not let them brood4 ,an idle brain is the devil's workshop4 ,if you have not work enough1 make work4 ,there are things enough to be done4 ,build ships4 ,now in regard to your management of railroads and other public utilities4 ,the day for government control was heralded when the threat of a strike came that would have1 if put into effect1 blocked the wheels of the nation4 ,all those public utilities whose blocked wheels could threaten the national life and the movements of men should be managed by the government4 ,this is not socialism1 or any other ism4 ,you who have stock in them1 do not take alarm4 ,a way can be found that will satisfy you4 ,think of the good of the whole1 for you who are a part cannot prosper without the welfare of the whole4 ,this is not cant4 ,it is a sort of race biology4 ,i look down and see you as a great being1 and ,i prescribe for you as a being1 a race-unity1 not as a few individuals here and there4 ,the cells in the body of the race-being must all be working together4 ,get a unit of consciousness1 as a race4 ,yield yourselves to the consciousness of the race-unit4 ,be as individual as you please1 but be individual parts4 ,get into balance with other individuals1 positive and negative4 ,make the rebuilding of ,europe an objective point4 ,make it possible for many discontented workers to go to work in ,europe4 ,you may say that the armies of ,europe1 when released from military service1 will furnish workers enough2 but there cannot be too many4 ,there is a double object in this3 the object of getting work done1 and that of the psychological effect upon the worker4 ,i wish ,i could get into your minds by infusion the state of consciousness that is mine4 ,i wish ,i could make you see that separation is death and that unity is life4 ,i have spoken of government control of railroads1 but that is only the beginning4 ,there should be governmental handling of food4 ,begin gradually1 one thing after another4 ,it is the destiny of the world to go in that direction4 ,you cannot block the wheels of that chariot4 ,serve if you hope to survive would be a good motto4 ,you cannot survive if you do not serve--all of you4 ,i like that figure of the cell which is a part of the race-being4 ,it is the way ,i see you4 ,just a word about nervous diseases4 ,yes1 it is related to what ,i have been saying4 ,when at last the let-up comes after the unnatural strain of war1 the minds of men in going back1 or in attempting to go back to their normal state1 may find themselves unable immediately to adjust to the changed conditions4 ,for a long time the brains of men and women have been stimulated by the coffee of concerted action2 when they are thrown back on themselves they may relax too much4 ,or1 on the other hand1 an unnatural excitement may drive them into all kinds of excesses4 ,have you ever seen victims of mania who could not rest1 who had lost the ability to rest8 ,they walk up and down1 and drum with their feet1 and clench their hands4 ,so many men and women may be1 after this war4 ,there is certain to be an excess of love excitement1 and work is a good panacea for that complaint4 ,then again1 after years of war1 years in which many have not known in the morning whether they would be alive at night1 they may retain the habit of dread4 ,they may fear to rest and fear to relax4 ,thus they may welcome any excitement1 as a substitute for the stimulus to which they have been accustomed4 ,that is another reason why ,i would send ,americans to labor with the laborers of ,europe4 ,not that the ,american working man is phlegmatic1 far from it2 but with his mind unaccustomed to fear anything1 except the loss of his job and consequent hunger1 he will have an effect of confidence and hope on those around him4 ,the ,american likes to feel that he is leading1 and in what better way can he indulge that propensity than in leading his associates to hope8 ,you have no idea--you cannot have an idea--of the great depression that will follow this war for a short while4 ,it will be the relaxation1 the letting go4 ,always after war the ebb-tide is followed by great activity2 but it is that ebb-tide which we have to consider4 ,you in ,america will feel it4 ,you have become accustomed to seeing gold flow towards these shores4 ,when the stream lessens1 you will have to combat the tendency to fear that lessening4 ,panics are like personal fear1 intensified by mass4 ,the world is drawing close together1 and what influences a part influences the whole4 ,after the war will also come an opening of the psychic senses of men1 everywhere4 ,this1 while good in itself1 may become an added danger4 ,prophets1 true and false1 will arise everywhere1 with many remedies for the diseases of souls and of bodies4 ,if ,i may make another suggestion1 it would be that those who have psychic awakening should think twice before proclaiming the fact4 ,it is a new sense that is coming into manifestation2 but as the opening of the eyes in an early stage of evolution probably revealed as many dangers as blessings1 so the new sense will reveal dangers4 ,do not try to close the new sense1 but do not be carried away by it4 ,remember that it will be practically general1 and like every new sense it will be defective for a long time4 ,it will reveal false things as well as true4 ,if a man opened his eyes for the first time upon a harmless tree1 he might mistake it for a monster4 ,restraint in all things1 moderation in all things1 even in the laudable desire to action4 ,weigh and measure4 ,prove before accepting anything--prove by reason and by intuition if you cannot wait for proof by practice4 ,weigh and measure what ,i say1 as well as what the wildest new prognosticator says4 ,discourage hysteria4 ,a wave of hysteria is likely to sweep over the world4 ,as revolution follows revolution1 the startled inhabitants of the world may tell themselves that nothing in the universe is stable1 that all is going to destruction1 and that as they cannot save themselves from what seems to be universal chaos1 they may as well get all the pleasurable excitement possible out of the passing moment4 ,restraint1 restraint6 ,i see women afraid to bear children because of the uncertainty of the morrow4 ,i see men afraid to marry because of the uncertainty of domesticity4 ,i see farmers hesitate to plant because of the uncertainty of the harvest4 ,again ,i say1 be not afraid4 ,if you sow1 you shall reap4 ,if you marry1 you shall build a home4 ,if you have children1 the race will protect them--and you are a part of the race4 ,restraint6 ,fearlessness6 ,,letter ,,viii ,,the ,,world ,,of ,,mind ,march #bd1 #aiag4 ,i ,,wish that more people of sane1 sound mind would experiment in telepathic communication4 ,i know there is any amount of uncoordinated and half-serious playing with phenomena2 but with scientific accuracy of observation and scientific precision in recording data1 not only the body of sensible literature on these subjects would be increased1 but the habits of careful observation and precision in reporting supernormal facts would be developed in the experimentalists4 ,you who write for me1 continue to make and to record experiments4 ,you are almost too cautious1 but most persons are not cautious enough4 ,explain the necessary conditions of passivity and activity between those working together4 ,though the best results are often obtained by you alone1 yet the testimony of one person is not so convincing as the testimony of several who have witnessed and taken part in the same phenomena4 ,but you are right in hesitating to take on the psychic conditions of insincere and merely curious people who would like to work with you4 ,the great difficulty with most persons is that they cannot make themselves sufficiently negative for the time being4 ,when the experiments are over they can and should become equally positive4 ,they can shift from one pole to the other1 and they must do so if they wish to preserve their physical health and balance4 ,but bear in mind that the influences from this side are good and bad1 even as the influences in the world are2 and if you feel that any 8presence0 is hostile1 at once banish it and become positive4 ,after any approach by an undesirable influence1 you should not for some hours let yourself become negative4 ,go for a walk1 or attack some difficult piece of work1 or read a book that demands mental activity in order to grasp its meaning4 ,you live in a sea of mind1 as well as in a psychic sea2 they interpenetrate1 and they interpenetrate with the physical2 but in working through and with them1 keep them as distinct as possible4 ,i work more and more in the mental world1 and less and less in the astral2 but the majority of my readers will not know exactly what ,i mean by that statement4 ,there is a greater difference between the astral and the mental than there is between the astral and the physical4 ,do not despise the astral4 ,its dynamics are of colossal import4 ,but cultivate more and more the purely mental1 because the astral in all of you is developed beyond the mental4 ,in my former writings ,i have told you something of the dangers of the astral4 ,now ,i want to tell you some of the more obvious dangers of the mental4 ,those who learn that they can create in mind need to develop a sense of responsibility4 ,they are too reckless in demonstrating their power4 ,remember that as you go up in the planes of being you get into subtler and subtler regions1 and strength increases with the degree of subtlety--not the reverse1 as you would naturally suppose4 ,one of the greatest temptations of the mental world is that of the creation of falsehoods4 ,by stating that which is not true1 you project into the realm of mind a picture that has a certain permanency4 ,it may deceive others1 but in time it will deceive you1 its creator4 ,those who speak falsely cannot perceive truth4 ,those who create false pictures in the mental world will be deceived by those very pictures2 they will reap the effects of the causes they have set up4 ,have you not known people who were always being deceived by their 8friends08 ,they are generally those who have left deceiving pictures behind themselves4 ,there are people who cannot discriminate between the false and the true4 ,they deceive and are deceived4 ,those who deceive are always deceived1 whatever their supposed intellect may be4 ,and ,i would say to those to whom ,i now suggest experiments with clairvoyance and telepathy1 that if they have planted the seeds of falsehood they will reap a harvest of deceptive appearances4 ,test yourselves in that way1 you who believe yourselves to be sincere4 ,you may learn something of value regarding your own karma4 7,yes1 ,i will use ,theosophic or ,indian terms when they express my meaning4 ,those who re-write the ,oriental philosophies in western terms can pass for original only with the ignorant47 ,what the new race needs most of all is truth4 ,modern science is preparing the world for the fearless facing of truth4 ,the man who toils over a microscope that he may observe and record some fact in nature1 is more the servant of ,god than the man who with sanctimonious face tells his fellow creatures what they must not do2 for his work at least is positive in its results4 ,there are too many 8thou shalt nots02 too few 8,i shalls40 ,the new race will develop a wide tolerance4 ,it will discourage undesirable things more by ignoring them than by attacking them4 ,by attacking a thing we give it power4 ,work more and more in the world of mind4 ,the results in the physical will be immense4 ,,letter ,,ix ,,america',s ,,good ,,friday ,april #f1 #aiag4 ,,it is past midnight4 ,it is ,good ,friday4 ,momentous decisions for the world and for all time are heavy in the souls of men4 ,on the day that this day stands for1 in the long ago1 a man 7who was also a god7 stood forth alone for the ideas of love and human brotherhood4 ,at last1 after all these years1 the thing for which he died may be realized4 ,but there was a crucifixion on that ,friday1 centuries ago4 ,i have brought you from a far-away shore that you might witness a great struggle in the souls of men4 ,you have arrived at a centre4#a ,to-day1 in thousands of churches throughout ,christendom1 prayers will be offered to the god-man who died that the god in man might live4 ,to-day in millions of hearts the cross will be set up4 ,it is so still here at midnight1 at a few minutes past midnight on this day of days4 ,christianity has arisen1 and presses forward to ,golgotha to witness an event4 ,pray6 ,prayer is the affirmation by the soul of its unity with the ,one4 ,war is the affirmation of the soul of its separateness from many4 ,love your enemies4 ,it is the only way that you can conquer them4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #a3 ,i had arrived in ,new ,york a few hours before after a long sojourn in ,california4 ,,letter ,x ,,the ,,crucible ,april #ab1 #aiag4 ,,let us speak a little of this initiation through which the race is passing4 ,always the trials precede the attainment4 ,when these wars are over there will be a new world1 for the souls of men will have been baptized with the fire and the blood4 ,america must have her part in it4 ,to her also must come the trials and the attainment4 ,watch and pray4 ,some day ,i will send you back to commune with the soul of the ,old ,world--some day we will send you back4 ,it is another ,europe you will find1 a ,europe tried by fire1 and some of it will be fine steel1 and some of it will be clinkers in the furnace1 for the fire proves the metal1 and separates the metal from the slag4 ,from before the war to this day1 the battles of the earth have been enacted also in your soul1 the blood and the fire1 the pain and the travail4 ,you too have passed through the fiery furnace4 ,long ago1 when you identified your soul with the soul of the world1 you took upon yourself the trials of the world1 the initiatory trials4 ,you also called down upon yourself the weight of your old karma1 the effects of the causes you had set up through the ages4 ,that you are at rest for a time means only that you have worked yourself free from a little of the load4 ,had you not done it now1 you would have had to do it in the future4 ,rejoice for every trial that brings you nearer to the goal4 ,and this ,i say for all men4 ,if ,i speak of the world now1 instead of that part only that we call ,america1 it is to identify the part with the whole4 ,if ,i speak of you personally1 it is to identify you with the whole4 ,back in that ,europe to which you will go1 you will find two classes1 those who have become fine steel1 and those who have become refuse4 ,you will know the one from the other4 ,they will welcome you back1 for you have passed through the fire with them4 ,they will welcome your country1 too1 for it now turns its face to the fire4 ,be not discouraged by dismal prophecies4 ,man does not live by bread alone4 ,if you have less to eat1 your bodies will grow finer4 ,if you have more to do1 your minds and spirits will expand4 ,few of you work to your full capacity4 ,the unit of force that is man may generate much energy1 drawing it up from the deeps of himself at the call of need or of will4 ,work harder now4 ,once ,i told you to rest more1 but the laborers are called to the vineyard4 ,the hour of rest will come again1 when the day draws near its close4 ,in entering into the war1 my country1 put away all rancor1 and fight for the right in which there is no rancor4 ,hate not4 ,the hour for hate is past4 7,i say this1 knowing that ,hate and ,fear1 the mother of ,hate1 will come and challenge your souls47 ,i do not hate1 and ,i do not fear1 and ,i shall stay with you until the day draws to its close4 ,are you sorry now that you let me speak again8 ,when fear comes to your house1 ,i will speak to you of courage4 ,when hate shall menace you1 ,i will turn it into love4 ,i have found the ,philosopher's ,stone that can transmute base metals into gold4 ,hate will be turned to love in this land where the ,eagle cries4 ,listen to the cry of the ,eagle4 ,it is a free bird1 and it flies high4 ,its message has only been hinted at1 in the years that have yet been numbered4 ,the ,eagle will teach freedom4 ,they will listen--across the sea4 ,america is indeed the melting-pot of nations4 ,i can find no better figure of speech4 ,the ,german-,american who is loyal to ,america now1 who hides the tragedy in his heart behind a brave face1 may also come through the furnace fine steel4 ,i am glad you know that they suffer4 ,hold the loyal ones in your heart1 with all other loyal ,americans4 ,so you will help in the process of melting4 ,to some of them the tragedy will open the doors of initiation4 ,their loyalty to a pledge is a finer trial than the fire of a battlefield4 ,those who are loyal must not be made pariahs4 ,of those who are disloyal ,i say nothing1 but leave them to the ,law4 ,the initiatory process6 ,it has the earth in its grasp4 ,there are those whom you love that it has in its grasp1 too4 ,they suffer1 as you have suffered4 ,but they shall find peace4 ,,letter ,,xi ,,make ,,clean ,,your ,,house ,may #d1 #aiag4 ,,do you know that the human race is being weighed in the balances8 ,work and pray that it may not be found wanting4 ,we who dwell in the clear light of that world which is to you the ,other ,world1 can see the handwriting on the wall4 ,the world has been too dishonest4 ,in an honest world1 could this war have been8 ,in the world that is to come1 nation will not distrust nation1 nor man distrust man4 ,but now distrust is a necessary part of the human equipment4 ,you may trust--but not too far4 ,you may love your neighbor--but not too much4 ,you may do to your brother as you would have him do to you--but not all the time4 ,america was built on a foundation of ideals2 but there is too much of the mud of personal seeking mixed with the good clay of your bricks4 ,you washed away with your blood one plague-spot1 that of slavery2 but there is another plague-spot you have got to wash away4 ,will you do it with the free water of good will1 or will you do it again with your blood8 ,i wait to see4 ,do not say that the world's troubles are over1 because ,america has come into the war4 ,the world's troubles are not over4 ,when the war is over--the greater war--make clean your house1 ,o ,america6 ,there is no other civilized country where the premiums upon dishonesty are so high4 ,can you buy a pound of butter and be certain that you get sixteen full ounces8 ,can you buy a pound of meat and be sure that the scales are true8 ,a new race is being born4 ,begin with those children1 and teach them honesty before you teach them geography--honesty with the parents1 honesty with each other1 honesty with themselves4 8,as the twig is bent the tree inclines40 ,when ,i was a little boy ,i was taught that ,george ,washington could not tell a lie4 ,i had an ideal of ,george ,washington4 ,i wanted to emulate him4 ,and so when ,i was a man ,i sought truth4 ,i looked for it on the surface of the ground1 and also in deep wells4 ,once ,i spent years in the wilderness trying to find truth in myself4 ,i remained in the wilderness until ,i found it4 ,had ,i not found it1 ,i should have left my bones there4 ,you need a new set of copy-book maxims4 ,if the boy who writes 8,honesty is the best policy0 at school in the morning1 sees in the afternoon his father trying to trade a balky horse for a good roadster1 he wonders if his teacher is fooling him4 ,the disillusionment of children is tragic with menace for the coming ,state4 ,i would rather see reproach in the eyes of an ,adept ,teacher than in the eyes of a child4 ,if ,i fail my ,teacher ,i do not hurt him seriously1 if ,i fail my child ,i hurt him irreparably4 ,you must face the fact that the life of ,america is going to be reorganized4 ,you have wondered why ,i have not written of late4 ,i have been busy1 studying ,america4 ,i have seen much that ,i can tell you1 and much that ,i cannot tell you--yet4 ,for ,i want you to be quiet4 ,you could not be quiet if you knew as much as ,i know4 ,it has been said that necessity knows no law4 ,forget it not1 you war-profiteers who would corner the world's necessities4 ,remember that a cornered animal is dangerous1 and a cornered necessity has hoofs and horns4 ,there is a disease that has no name among the doctors--the disease of colossal possessions4 ,its symptoms are a voracious appetite for more possessions1 and a phobia lest possessions should be lost4 ,it is worse than neuralgia and indigestion combined to disturb the rest of the victim4 ,i long to see a hundred million and more people living in peace and plenty in ,america4 ,fanatics prattle about the confiscation of great fortunes4 ,i do not care so much what you do with your fortunes4 ,but ,i care much what you do with your land and your food1 and ,i care more what you do with your men and women and little children4 ,do not get into a panic1 ,i pray you4 ,a panic is worse than a quicksand to get into4 ,keep calm4 ,the country is in no danger1 if it does not lose its head4 ,,letter ,,xii ,,level ,,heads ,may #ae1 #aiag4 ,,do not get excited1 you ,americans4 ,if you keep your heads1 you will come through this all right4 ,if you lose your heads1 you may lose much besides--you may lose more than you can win back in a hundred years4 ,i am not excited4 ,i have not lost my head4 7,yes1 ,i still have a head1 and hands and feet4 ,if ,i should try to live out here without hands and feet1 the adjustment to that unaccustomed condition would have a reactionary effect upon my head4 ,i am not experimenting in the elimination of my members47 ,you see a country now1 ,russia1 that is making the experiment of living without its head4 ,no nation can continue as a nation without a head1 and a level one4 ,even the most extremely republican1 democratic1 socialistic1 or any other kind of a nation must have a head4 ,a completely anarchistic aggregation of people could not be called a nation4 ,its land would be only a geographical section populated with units1 and such units unrelated to other units might as well be ciphers4 ,do not be impatient because ,i write seldom at present4 ,i am rather busy4 ,i shall always come when ,i have something that must be said4 ,a change is coming in ,america4 ,quite a change has already come about1 has it not8#b ,this country is great1 this country is strong1 this country is adaptable4 ,it can adjust itself to change4 ,the people of this country have not been slaves for a long time4 ,the people of ,russia have been so many kinds of slaves that their reaction to freedom is unexpected by a free world4 ,wait6 ,do not lose your heads about this matter4 ,i do not object to there being a few persons who know that ,i am writing with you again4 ,they cannot affect me1 save to encourage me with their interest4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #b3 ,it was about this time1 if ,i remember rightly1 that many of our wealthy men began working for the government at one dollar a year4 ,,letter ,,xiii ,,trees ,,and ,,brick ,,walls ,may #af1 #aiag4 ,,you fear lest the dismal prophecies of world-disaster1 of cataclysm1 of the destruction of half the human race which you hear from many sources1 may tend to discourage the world4 ,remember that hope springs eternal in the human breast4 ,and if the minds of men are familiar with the idea of cataclysm1 they will more readily adjust themselves to lesser changes4 ,read the ,old ,testament4 ,the most dismal prophecies were not verified1 but changes came4 ,some of the 8independent ministers0 of ,america are more violent than ,jeremiah4 ,but they help indirectly--in accustoming the minds of men to the idea of change4 ,if panics come--and they may--refuse to be panic-stricken4 ,if violence comes--and it may--refuse to be violent4 ,if discouragements come--and they will--refuse to be discouraged4 ,when your brains become over-heated1 look steadily at the trees4 ,they will quiet you4 ,if there are no trees in your neighborhood--why1 look at a brick wall in moments of excitement4 ,a brick wall is a soothing spectacle4 ,it stands steady1 unless moved from without4 ,,letter ,,xiv ,,invisible ,,armies ,may #bc1 #aiag4 ,,many of the soldiers out here who have become fully awake and self-conscious are striving to bring about those ends for which they gave their lives on earth4 ,there are thus soldiers working on both sides of the war and on this side of the veil4 ,immediately after the change many of them fight each other2 but they soon learn that they can do more effective work by giving attention to their comrades in the flesh4 ,they can soothe and inspire and instruct4 ,we are forming an army out here4 ,there is no lack of recruits4 ,america must be saved1 and few of you know how much ,america has to be saved from4 ,but we know--we who have watched the world for the last two years and three-quarters4 ,it is not so terrible to die4 ,it is really far more terrible to be born4 ,the army that we are recruiting here is made up of men of all ages--all ages in this life1 ,i mean4 ,yes1 there are women also in our army4 ,there are some veterans of the ,civil ,war and veterans of the ,war with ,spain4 ,over the regiments and divisions of this army there are commanders1 as over the armies of earth4 ,otherwise the work would lack unity of purpose4 ,ours is mostly a volunteer army1 though conscription is not unknown among us4 ,you wonder what ,i mean8 ,do you not suppose that we can call a soul from a useless occupation and give him useful labor8 ,we can and do1 daily4 ,we have even recruited largely from the old and native ,americans1 the red skinned hunters and warriors who remain in such large numbers in the neighborhood of the earth4 ,there is work which they only can do4 ,there are many kinds of work and a great variety of workers4 ,i come and go1 from coast to coast4 ,i know what is doing on the shores of the ,pacific1 in the ,atlantic ,states1 on the ,gulf of ,mexico1 and the ,middle and ,rocky ,mountain ,states are familiar ground to me4 ,i am renewing my youth in this period of activity4 ,i am working for my country4 ,i am in training1 too4 ,why do you smile8 ,there is a training of the mind and the will that is more effective than any training of the physical body--quicker and more effective4 ,then too the astral body can be trained to a high degree of efficiency and elasticity4 ,surely ,i need not tell you this4 ,and ,i am training others4 ,we old fellows can be very useful in a time like this4 ,i am glad now that ,i came out when ,i did1 that ,i went through my novitiate while the world was still at peace and there was leisure for many things which now ,i should not have time for4 ,i had a delightful holiday4 ,i hunted through the wilds of the invisible1 and fished in the waters of space2 but now ,i am back at my work again4 ,,letter ,,xv ,,the ,,weakest ,,link ,june #b1 #aiag4 ,,there are in the archives of the ,masters of ,wisdom certain data relative to the past and future of this country which would make interesting reading could they be published in the newspapers at this time of national crisis4 ,america is aware of her mission of democracy2 but she is not aware of another mission equally potent--that of making the world safe for spiritual culture4 ,i do not mean religion1 as the word is ordinarily used2 but ,i mean the culture of the spirit of love--such ideas of love as the world has inadequately grasped from the teachings of ,jesus of ,nazareth1 grasped and let fall again because those ideas were too warm to be comfortably held by hands cooled in the material labors of selfishness4 ,america has laid up for herself in the regions beyond the physical a debt--an obligation that is not by any means a treasure in heaven1 but which1 when the debt is paid1 may be a real spiritual treasure4 ,i refer to the armies of souls who once occupied this land as free owners1 and who were expelled and disinherited by the expanding civilization which grew up in the place of wigwam and hunting-ground4 ,those souls1 many of them1 desire to return4 ,many have already returned1 and unless some way is open for them to live again the free life to which they were accustomed in the past1 they will tend to become a destructive force4 ,they cannot be eliminated so easily now1 when they wear white bodies and claim citizenship with you4 ,they are scattered from shore to shore of this wide land4 ,you can tell them by their eagle eyes and their high cheek bones1 by their free gait and their love of freedom4 ,they are hard to restrain in factory and counting-house4 ,they are clerks with a difference and laborers with a dream4 ,many of them have found entrance into the sun-lighted world as the children of ,european immigrants1 for they find it easier to enter the blood of certain other races than the blood of the ,anglo-,saxon1 for all the ,anglo-,saxon love of freedom4 ,a time may come when these now foreign-blooded primitive ,americans will instinctively rebel against the restraining influences that have held them1 when they will seek to live over again the old life of nature1 even though they have to take it as the kingdom of heaven is said to have been taken4 ,there is coming a time when love will be needed in this land as it has never been needed before1 when 8live and let live0 must become a law as well as a phrase4 ,those who long for freedom with ,nature can be given that freedom4 ,conditions may be hard in the great cities4 ,i am not trying to instill fear into the ,american heart4 ,on the contrary1 ,i am trying to insure you against fear4 ,not long could the wheels of civilization stop turning4 ,but they could stop--for a wink of the ,cosmic ,eye4 ,america is going to be saved1 and saved in the hour of her greatest danger4 ,what will her greatest danger be8 ,you must think that out for yourself4 ,learn to see through the eye of the ,planetary ,spirit4 ,your view is too narrow4 ,where your library stands on shelves is for you the centre of things2 but the centre of things is in the heart1 and hearts are everywhere4 ,if you think about the race and not about yourself1 your heart will be magnified2 you will see with the eyes of the heart1 and he who sees with the eyes of the heart is wiser than historians or intellectual prophets4 ,the world must be made safe for love4 ,all men must be provided for in the scheme of the future1 all men and women and little children4 ,it is not safe to disregard any1 for a chain is as strong as its weakest link1 and every link must be made strong4 ,,letter ,,xvi ,a ,,council ,,in ,,the ,,forest ,,one night1 to repose my soul from the labors ,i had undertaken1 ,i retired to a pine forest upon the earth1 in one of the ,new ,england ,states4 ,thinking to be alone1 ,i had sought the place2 but no sooner had ,i drifted into meditation than a strange sound fell upon my ears4 ,it was not like the sounds of earth1 it was more subtle yet more penetrating2 and ,i knew that ,i was listening to a song 7if you may call it a song7 by some of my fellow sojourners in the region beyond the sunlight4 ,suddenly with a rush they leaped past me into the clearing1 and forming in a circle1 they waited4 ,then ,i saw a light that was not of earthly origin1 the light of a campfire1 and ,i knew that ,i had been surprised by a band of ,indians who were preparing to hold some rite of their old religion4 ,though ,i had not been invited to their ceremony1 neither had ,i invited them to intrude upon my contemplation1 so ,i remained and watched them4 7,yes1 there is less secrecy out here1 for the reason that there is greater understanding and greater tolerance47 ,soon ,i was looking on at a strange dance4 ,all in a circle they swung round and round the blazing fire1 singing and leaping4 ,i did not know the meaning of the words they sang2 but ,i could read their minds by the thought-images they formed1 and ,i knew that they were celebrating the date--reached by what lunar reckoning ,i knew not--of some great ,indian massacre in which they had taken part a hundred or two hundred years ago4 ,and the impulse of their dance1 the motive power of it1 was hatred of the white man who had scattered them and driven them away from their old hunting grounds4 ,shocked1 yet fascinated by this inner glimpse at the souls of the ,american aborigines1 ,i watched them4 ,though ,i am not skilled in magic rituals1 ,i soon perceived that there was form and method in this dance1 method and form and a hostile purpose4 ,they were1 by exciting themselves and by fixity of thought1 trying to excite a scattered company of men in these ,united ,states--men of a low grade of intellect but of psychic temperament--to deeds of violence and destruction4 8,so that is the way they do it60 ,i thought4 ,then ,i drew a veil around my thoughts1 that they might not be perceived by the beings before me4 ,yes1 ,i can do that1 and so can many men upon the earth4 ,i could smell the keen fresh odors of the pine grove1 and ,i could feel the rising wind as it swept across the clearing2 for the wind seemed to respond to their call and to offer its forces to them4 ,you must know that the elements are impersonal1 though semi-personalities inhabit them1 and that the elements and these semi-personalities can be used and guided1 for purposes good or evil1 by any being who has gained that peculiar power in one or many lives4 ,and looking off in the distance1 ,i could see that the wind as it swept along carried the thoughts and passions of these long dead men1 these souls that by reason of their downward tendencies had not broken away from the attraction of matter1 the astral gravitation that makes so many souls earth-bound4 ,still looking off and projecting my consciousness in a way ,i have learned to do1 ,i saw the influence of this magic ritual of revenge and menace as it touched the minds of men far scattered4 ,i saw their thoughts take on suddenly the tinge of hatred1 hatred for the civilization in which they had failed to realize their personal desires4 ,and ,i knew that on that night and on the morrow1 and at intervals for many days1 deeds of violence would be committed1 that property would be destroyed1 and men of order threatened4 ,my heart was sad1 for ,i had not understood before how real was the danger to my country in these times of crisis from the karma the old settlers had made4 ,of course they believed they were doing right in ridding themselves and their adopted land from the simple but complex natives1 whose civilization was older than the civilization of ,europe1 and who had loved this land as only those can love a land who have known the freedom of its spaces4 ,when the magic dance was over1 and one by one and two by two the communicants slipped away among the shadows1 ,i strode forward into the circle to have speech with any who should willingly respond to my desire for acquaintanceship4 ,suddenly ,i found myself face to face with a majestic chieftain1 wearing one of those long feather bonnets whose every feather marks some deed of daring or achievement4 7,what a splendid custom was that6 ,what an incentive to action6 ,truly among the red men1 deeds won a feather in the cap47 ,his face was like that of a hawk1 and his eyes were bright with an inner fire1 that intensity of feeling and thought commingled which marks the leader and master of men and him alone4 ,and ,i said to him in the forms of thought1 for ,i knew no word of his old language3 8,i have been an unintentional witness to your ceremony this evening4 ,will you enlighten me further as to its purpose8 for ,i see that it was directed towards the land of breathing men40 ,with a sweep of his authoritative arm he dismissed the few of his companions who had not already moved away among the trees1 and we two were alone together4 8,i come as a friend10 ,i said1 seeing that he hesitated4 ,and the word was true2 for ,i saw that whatever harm he mistakenly sought to accomplish1 in his soul was the consciousness of justice1 that fundamental balance between right and wrong1 that proposition of law1 which when native in the mind gives it dignity and attracts respect4 ,this was no dabbler in aboriginal and nasty sorcery1 but a kind of priest of retribution1 a tribal demi-god who might perhaps some day be made constructive and not destructive1 an instrument of the great ,genius of ,america of which ,i have spoken in a former letter1 the ,weaver of ,destiny who has our land in charge4 ,we measured each other with the eyes1 and ,i cast aside the veil that ,i had before drawn around my thoughts1 that he might see me mind to mind and realize that ,i respected and to a degree understood him4 8,you have seen what you have seen10 he observed4 8,and you do not resent my presence80 8,no40 ,the fresh odor of the pine grove was keen in my senses1 and my new-found companion threw back his head with a splendid motion as if to drink it in4 8,freedom is good10 he said1 8and the land was ours40 ,so ,i perceived that by excusing himself and his associates he had perceived that ,i accused them4 ,then ,i knew that ,i could really commune with him mind to mind1 and ,i was glad2 for ,i ever seek to extend the range of my knowledge and to form acquaintance with those of sturdy will4 8,but the land is free to all the world10 ,i said1 8to you and to me1 and to those of both our races40 8,we do not see it so10 was his reply4 8,but10 ,i insisted1 8are we not now1 you and ,i1 enjoying it in freedom80 ,it is difficult to translate in words the rapid give and take of our thoughts1 the pictures that flashed back and forth between us1 as ,i strove with kindliness and will to make him understand that the welfare of his race did not call for the destruction of mine4 ,i told him--and the idea was so new to him that1 lacking words1 ,i had to draw my story on the canvas of thought in the minutest detail--how the soul that leaves the earth for a time returns to it in another form4 ,and ,i explained how hundreds upon hundreds of his people1 and the most advanced among them1 had already come back in material form to that ,america they had loved before1 that they wore white bodies1 and could only be distinguished from other white men by the keenness of their eyes1 their gait1 and certain peculiarities of speech and manner4 ,he followed my story with astonished1 almost painful1 intensity2 for he knew1 with that inner knowledge which on this side of life is almost impossible to deceive1 that ,i spoke honestly and believed that which ,i told him4 8,and do you not deceive yourself80 was his inevitable question4 ,then ,i told him of those recent and former lives of my own which ,i most vividly remember1 and cited proofs that ,i did not deceive myself4 8,but what a life is that of the white man for one of my people80 he demanded4 ,then he flashed me picture after picture of the simple white man's life in ,america1 the schoolhouse with the choking-hot stove and the bad air1 the house and home with closed doors and windows1 the 8meeting-house0 where a droning or a noisy preacher prated of things he did not understand1 to others who believed or did not believe that they believed him4 ,he held up before me as for ridicule the clothing of the white man in the lower walks of life1 the confining and uncomfortable shoes1 the binding trousers1 the ugly hat that makes bald the head1 and the collar4 ,the one he pictured was a paper collar1 soiled and wilted at the edges4 ,then he showed me--as if to prove the breadth of his observations--an office in a city1 with the clerks seated upon stools and bent with aching backs over ledgers that contained figures1 figures1 long lines of figures that were the symbols of the white man's wampum1 which seemed so trivial when made the principal occupation of a soul that had rejoiced in the red man's forest4 8,and is it for this that they come back to their native land80 he asked4 8,but the soul must gain all experience10 ,i said4 ,the idea seemed new to him1 and he pondered it with knitted brows4 8,why should the soul gain all experience80 he asked4 8,that it may return to its ,god rich in knowledge10 ,i replied4 8,its ,god40 ,at that thought the strange eyes of him lighted1 though his face remained immobile4 8,yes10 ,i said1 8for your ,god and my ,god are both ,god40 8,there are many gods10 he replied4 8,there is the ,great ,spirit1 and there are the others40 8,in the centre of each of them10 ,i assured him1 8there is a spot1 a core of the heart that is the same in all1 that exists everywhere1 and in every heart is one1 that knows no division2 and that centre is also in your heart and mine and in that of our respective ,gods40 8,did you learn that in one of those hot schoolhouses80 he asked4 8,no4 ,i did not learn it even when ,i was an old man upon the earth1 but after ,i came out here4 ,on earth ,i rather prided myself on my separateness40 8,then one can learn new religions out here80 he asked1 in surprise4 8,if one finds a teacher10 ,i replied4 8,but what need is there of new religions80 8,there is10 ,i said1 8in the core of every religion also that central spot where all are one4 ,and there is in all races10 ,i pursued1 for ,i saw that he watched with half-belief1 8there is in all races a core of unity4 ,the red man is the brother and not the permanent enemy of the white man4 ,so why should you injure the descendants of those who followed what they believed to be right in extending their holdings in this land long ago80 8,but ,i was not seeking to injure them for injury's sake40 8,then ,i misunderstood the purpose of your magic song40 8,oh60 he exclaimed4 8,you caught the feeling of my children1 who cannot see beyond feeling4 ,my purpose is only to destroy the present to make way for the old life40 8,but the present is always a stage10 ,i said1 8on the highroad that leads to the future4 ,and my people reincarnated1 and yours reincarnated--or so many of them as are ready to go on--shall go on together and in this land4 ,they will form1 with those who join them from beyond the seas1 a new race4 ,and thanks to the labors of a few among the white men who have studied and appreciated the traditions and civilization of the red man and sought to save them from utter obliteration1 the old forest lore will become a part of the inheritance of that new race which is to grow out of the union of yours and mine and the others4 ,and for a part of every year1 when the life of the new race is adjusted1 the boys and girls and men and women will go out to the wilds and enjoy the freedom of the tent and the society round the campfire1 and we shall be brothers--real blood-brothers--at last1 and all the old wounds shall be healed4 ,can you not recognize me as your brother80 ,he nodded his head4 8,and will you not spread among your people the glad tidings of the new race1 in all of whose possessions they will share80 ,we stood long looking in each other's eyes1 and ,i told him more than ,i could record here if ,i held the use of your pencil for many hours4 ,in the end he understood me4 ,it is my belief that he will spread the story among his people1 and that one danger will be lessened thereby1 to some degree1 for the children of the new race4 ,,letter ,,xvii ,,the ,,ideal ,,of ,,success ,june #bc1 #aiag4 ,,put fear out of your hearts4 ,the future will give you no greater lessons than you can master4 ,it is not well to know the future in complete detail4 ,had the world known during the last ten years all it would be obliged to suffer in this war1 would it have made the progress it has made in art1 science and commerce8 ,no4 ,every thought would have been haunted4 ,you may say that the weaker races 7and the stronger ones7 would have made better preparation4 ,but a part of this lesson has been not to delay inevitable preparation1 and to know in future that a nation which idealizes war and is mostly army1 has not cultivated that ideal and that army solely for its own amusement4 ,if you want to understand national life and individual life1 you must look for their dominating ideals4 ,an ideal is a tendency4 ,what is the dominating ideal of ,america8 ,summed in a word1 it is success1 is it not8 ,now ,america is in a great war1 and you may be sure that she will leave nothing undone that can make for success in that war1 as she has left nothing undone that could make for success in business4 ,take your own case4 ,what are your dominating ideals and tendencies8 ,you would say1 off-hand1 work and study and intellectual companionship1 would you not8 ,very well4 ,as to work1 do not fear a future in which good work is pretty sure of at least a living wage4 ,study8 ,there will always be books to feed your hunger for reading4 ,companionship8 ,there are too many lonely souls in the world for you ever to be lonely4 ,what else8 ,you lift your pencil and think4444 ,that is about all1 is it not8 ,now let us return to ,america4 ,america is not--has not been--a warlike nation1 except when threatened by injustice1 to herself or others4 ,will she lose this war8 ,i think not4 ,but there will be complexities regarding the end of this war4 ,i want to refer to something ,i said in a recent letter1 that we were organizing on this side of the airy frontier for work for the future of ,america4 ,i have spoken of the ,genius of this land1 a composite entity you may call it1 if your imagination is not equal to the task of seeing that you--all of you--are cells in the body of the ,genius of ,america4 ,now the ,genius of this land has glorious purposes1 and she uses you--all of you--for her purposes1 as you use the cells of your body1 as you are using at this moment the aggregation of cells that form the hand with which you hold your pencil4 ,in registering yourselves at the call of your country1 you are affirming your acceptance of the office of cells in the great body of her4 ,some of you she must sacrifice in the war for the welfare of the whole1 as every day cells die and are born in the body of man1 the microcosm4 ,extend the idea to the whole human race1 and the figure will be still more apt4 ,the genius of the race is suffering now4 ,the process will ultimate in a more perfect health4 ,you perhaps protest that many of those who are dying are the flower of the race1 the young1 the fitted to survive4 ,but do you not remember that their souls survive8 ,the essential part of them is not lost1 but set free for a greater work4 ,have you considered that earth-life may be the dream1 and the life after death the waking8 ,sages have considered it before you1 and accepted the possibility4 ,out here we are hopeful1 and very busy4 ,it is because ,i am so busy that ,i come to you only occasionally4 ,do not hurry me1 for ,i do not hurry you4 ,we have problems to solve out here4 ,as ,i have said1 one of our problems is the great number of ,indian souls1 red men souls1 who went out of life with resentment and revenge in their hearts for the elimination of their race by the white man in ,america4 ,somehow we must placate them1 and enlist them on your side4 ,otherwise they may be a dangerous element for the future4 ,some of them would like to see your civilization destroyed1 as theirs was destroyed1 and a few of them are strong enough to do real harm4 ,the best way to make an enemy harmless is to understand his peculiar qualities1 to learn something from the frankness of his enmity1 to turn away evil by letting it go off at a tangent4 ,but the ,indian souls are not famous for their frankness4 ,even with me they sometimes conceal their resentment--deep1 fundamental--at the 8theft10 as they feel it1 of the land where they once roamed in freedom4 ,i advise ,america to cultivate the free life of the open4 ,i have advised you in a former book that the old woodcraft should be resuscitated and taught to the children4 ,there may come a time when the rudiments of this knowledge will be useful to many of you4 ,great changes are coming in the world1 a period of adjustment to new conditions4 ,there is a restless element in all adjustment1 and national restlessness is like that of puberty2 it needs to be minimized by healthful outdoor play1 or by work which masquerades as play4 ,the future will take from the present those elements that are most important for survival4 ,do not fear that we shall return to the ,dark ,ages4 ,oh1 no4 ,we are going into a ,light ,age4 ,it is only twilight now4 ,,letter ,,xviii ,,order ,,and ,,progress ,july #ah1 #aiag4 ,,our purpose is to make the changes that must come1 come gradually4 ,we want to avoid sudden changes4 ,you in the world have no faint idea of the influence and power we can wield on our side4 ,we can speak to the minds of men without their knowing whence the ideas come4 ,they think1 when a sudden idea comes into their minds1 that they have evolved it2 but sudden ideas generally come from outside4 7,i put one in your mind this morning1 then ran away before you could recognize me4 ,why did ,i run away8 ,because ,i wanted you to use your own judgment47 ,just at present we are trying to encourage ,america as to her future--her orderly and peaceful future1 after peace is declared in ,europe4 ,you may as well know that there are many out here who are anxious about the future of the world4 ,all men do not cease to worry when they have left their bodies4 ,there are many here who think the world is going to smash4 ,they always had that fear in life whenever things seemed to go wrong2 and now they are no less inclined to accept every perplexity as an omen of failure and confusion4 ,all over ,america there are men and women--and many of them are in pulpits and on platforms--who are croaking away about the destruction of society following this war4 ,bless your troubled hearts6 ,society is not going to be destroyed4 ,some elements in society will be gradually done away with1 and good riddance to them6 ,but society has made too great advance1 in mechanical and intellectual ways1 to permit its structure to be pulled from beneath its feet4 ,do not worry4 ,watch out1 but do not worry4 ,as ,abraham ,lincoln once prevented this country from being territorially divided and thus weakened1 so he and others are now working to prevent a spiritual division that would be even more disastrous4 ,no1 we are not going to see your useful inventions and your structures that the future has need of1 cast into the rubbish heap by reckless violence and extravagance4 ,what is useful must be conserved4 ,what is useless for the future can be made over into something useful4 ,humanity has not been in the habit of taking sudden jumps4 ,it has put one foot regularly before the other1 and gone ahead rather steadily4 ,the way of man in the past has been to improve and make over1 rather than suddenly to discard its institutions1 or even its garments4 ,only that which is really worn out is cast away4 ,and our financial system1 and our social system in general1 will be improved and not discarded4 ,did you think we were going back to wampum8 ,oh1 no6 ,there is a strong pull from this side1 and from those who inhabited your continent1 to simplify the life in ,america4 ,but ,america is no longer isolate4 ,she has now taken her place in the republic of nations4 ,some of the souls who used to be ,american ,indians would like to see ,america resume wigwams and campfires1 because those souls want to come back1 and they dread the complexity of modern ,american life4 ,but there are teachers here--and some of them red teachers--who can instruct the souls behindhand in adaptability4 ,i have told you that there is an influence tending to draw ,america backward4 ,but ,i have not told you to be panicky regarding the fact4 ,there are reactionaries--even in your world4 ,the influence from this side is subtle4 ,but the majority here who desire to lead the world1 desire to lead it forward and not back4 ,the world will go forward4 ,yes1 the souls you call the 8departed0 are organizing themselves4 ,they realize that their influence can be more effective if it has a purpose and a program4 ,for a time after the war began there was great confusion out here1 but things are becoming more orderly4 ,minds are becoming more united4 ,many of us who have common sense and some measure of political judgment give most of our time to lecturing here and there1 wherever we can draw a crowd together4 ,that is one reason why you have seen me so seldom of late4 ,i have been busier than ever before4 ,knowing that a time is coming soon when ,i can rest from my present labors1 ,i am using my strength as fast as ,i generate it4 ,for those whom ,i convince that ,america and other countries are going forward--must go forward to greater activity--seek to convince others in their turn4 ,no lecturer on earth ever had so busy a month as ,i have had this last month4 ,i have spoken to hundreds several times every day1 going from place to place1 from ,state to ,state1 from city to city4 ,i can speak in ,san ,francisco in the morning1 in ,new ,york at noon1 in ,new ,orleans at two o'clock1 in ,butte1 ,montana1 in the evening4 ,i am not limited to railway time-tables1 nor do ,i pay my fare4 ,believe me1 we are going to save ,america1 and we are going to save the world4 ,for the ,masters are behind us1 and they will not let the world be destroyed4 ,i should not like you to know how near it has been to destruction more than once during the last three years4 ,but the forces of premeditated evil against which we fought so long have been scattered now1 and though they have not been destroyed1 their effect has been greatly lessened4 ,what we have reason to fear now is the unwisdom of those who believe they wish good to the world--the unwisdom of fanatics and agitators and fuss-budgets of all sorts1 stirring up confusion and darkening counsel with their unpractical and conflicting ideas4 ,order1 order1 order6 ,that is what the world must strive for in the period of reaction which will follow this war4 ,the reaction must be reckoned with2 but it will be only a brief rest of overwearied hearts1 who will again begin building4 ,it is in that building period that ,i hope for ,america1 because she will be less tired than the other members of the great world brotherhood4 ,but in ,america at that time there will be a danger4 ,i tell you that1 lest you be taken unawares and relax your attention4 ,be watchful1 but not over-anxious4 ,and trust the ,masters of ,life somehow to lead you through4 ,,letter ,,xix ,,the ,,federation ,,of ,,nations ,august #i1 #aiag4 ,,the time has now come for ,america to get out into the world and take her place in the federation of nations4 ,let her unite with ,england in a strong bond1 and thereby she can keep the peace of the world4 ,the isolation of ,america in the past has been in line with her destiny2 it was necessary for her to develop to her present state of power without interruptions1 or the influence of international complications upon her statesmen4 ,free and alone1 she has not had to become a part of the great and creaking machine of international diplomacy and intrigue4 ,but now she is independent1 and1 politically speaking1 her character is formed4 ,you may say that ,america has attained her majority1 and is entitled to vote in the councils and elections of the world4 ,she has much to do for both ,france and ,england1 as they have both done so much for her in the past4 ,they have formed her culture and influenced her spirit2 now she will influence their spirit4 ,when you read the other day of the work which our soldiers are doing in ,france1 helping in many little ways in the villages and on the farms1 your heart glowed with pleasure2 you remembered what ,i said to you before ,america came into the war1 that our men were to go to ,france and to work1 work1 work for the upbuilding of ,france4 ,that is only the beginning4 ,more and more will our men work over there1 during and after war4 ,soon there will come a call for a new kind of work--new for us4 ,there is deep meaning in this bringing together of the nations for a common cause4 ,from that1 there is only a step to the bringing together of all nations for one cause4 ,the force of revolt in the world must spend itself1 as the force of race hatred has spent itself--for it is already spent4 ,the continuation of the war will be practically without the rage of the beginning4 ,we go on because it is our job1 and even in ,new ,york now there is no longer the fierceness of two years ago4 ,and in ,england it is lessened1 and in ,france it is lessened1 and in ,germany it is lessened4 ,war has now become a task like any other1 to be gone through with4 ,when it no longer seems worth while1 it will stop4 ,the question of ,america's part in the federation of states interests me now4 ,,letter ,,xx ,,the ,,new ,,ideal ,august #ai1 #aiag4 ,,since ,germany evolved her idea of flamboyant nationalism and tried to foist it upon the world in imperial fashion1 the world has grown skeptical of the national fetish4 ,it will believe in the good intentions of no nation or race that flaunts its perfections in the face of friend or enemy4 ,america1 as she grows more and more sure of her high destiny1 must also grow more modest4 ,she must realize herself as one of the sister states in the great commonwealth of nations1 and the eagle will take lessons in voice culture4 ,as a quiet voice can make itself heard in a medley of noises where a screaming voice would be inaudible1 so must ,america's voice become deep and quiet4 ,she is paying for her place in the councils of the world4 ,let her voice be heard by reason of its dignified and restrained accents4 ,a great change is taking place in ,europe1 in its conception of the ,american character4 ,hitherto ,france has known the ,american tourist1 and the uprooted ,american who lived there in preference to his own country4 ,now ,france is learning something about the ,american man in his workaday1 playaday1 fighting and loving1 living and dying sublimity4 ,she has rubbed her eyes as she watched him1 wondering if she were awake4 ,she has recognized a new type4 ,she does not understand it yet1 but she wants to understand it4 ,there is a new and disturbing warmth now at the heart of ,france for this new brother from across the seas4 ,she sees 7for she is subtle7 the crudity of him as measured by her more artificial standards4 ,but she sees also the grandeur and chivalry of him1 as compared with her old idea of the foreigner4 ,ah1 ,america and ,americans6 ,you are on trial now in the courts of the world's judgment as you have never been before4 ,my heart is aglow as ,i see our boys go out into the larger world1 carrying with them the clear outdoor spirit of the ,american plains and woodlands4 ,when ,i see the eyes of the sublime and pain-chastened ,french grow deep and warm as they rest upon our boys1 ,i am so proud of them6 ,i forget that ,i also am uprooted1 having left the land of my birth for the regions beyond death4 ,in the councils at the ending of the war and after the war1 may the modesty of greatness restrain ,america from any suggestion to ,france or ,england that she saved them from destruction4 ,i clasp my hands--to you they would be shadowy hands--together with excess of emotion1 as ,i pray for the guidance of ,america in the councils that are to come4 ,modesty--let that be the watchword4 ,the soul of ,france is aflame with gratitude1 the soul of ,france is aflame with love4 ,the hearts of the ,french people in the night grow warm and their eyes grow wet as they whisper to themselves1 8,les ,amricains6 ,les ,amricains60 ,oh1 be mindful of the love you have won6 ,i would die all over again a thousand times rather than see my ,americans disappoint their ,french brethren in this crisis of the world's life4 ,you wonder why ,i say nothing of ,england8 ,ah6 ,england knows you already4 ,england has known you long4 ,you cannot surprise ,england4 ,she knows you as the mother knows her son or daughter2 but to the ,french you are a mystery1 a mystery that has come to help1 an angel in a khaki shirt and a slouch hat and a strange voice4 ,don't you understand8 ,she prays for you4 ,she would pray to you if she were not so shy in her love4 ,there is a new strange wonder in her eyes1 and a sweet thrill all over her4 ,oh1 exalt the brotherhood of nations--that never before realized ideal6 ,you cannot take away from a boy who has grown up in a free world the deep-rooted idea that ,america is and ever must be free4 ,in years gone by the sons of this soil have died for freedom1 freedom for themselves1 freedom for the black man4 ,now they fight and die for the freedom of the world4 ,do you know what it means to be free8 ,only the self-restrained man is free1 for lawlessness is not freedom4 ,lawlessness is always in leash to passions tyrannical4 ,in the new ,america that ,i see just over the edge of the horizon 7for my eye reaches farther than yours71 there will be room for the fullest development of the individual idea1 while the idea of social responsibility will make it stable4 ,hitherto individuality has run rampant4 ,witness the hoarding of food by a few1 while many go without4 ,watch the clash and struggle of each interest to take some advantage for itself out of this tragic opportunity4 ,before the war is ended the hearts of men must work in harness with their minds4 ,the old generation is dying off1 the generation whose initiative girdled the continent with railroads1 spurred by the hope of personal gain4 ,the new men who will follow the old 8captains of industry0 will glimpse a new ideal4 ,i am told by one who knows more than ,i that the men who have made industrial ,america1 by their foresight and initiative1 were guided and inspired by ,beings who used them and their ambitions for world purposes beyond their comprehension4 ,,letter ,,xxi ,a ,,rambling ,,talk ,november #ae1 #aiag4 ,i ,,am not in a literary mood to-night1 so ,i may talk in a rambling way4 ,i wonder if you know the seriousness of the enterprise which ,america has undertaken4 ,you think you do4 ,but before the matter is all threshed out at the end you may have surprises in store4 ,do not worry about your things in ,london4 ,london is large1 and a good many bombs can fall without destroying any great portion of it4 ,yes1 ,i say emphatically again what ,i said some two years and a half ago1 that there will be internal troubles in ,germany--and in other places1 too4 ,the world is going to be made over4 ,do not be afraid4 ,the making over of the world will not hurt you4 ,humanity is so afraid of change6 ,the race has gone through many changes--some of them in prehistoric times--more dramatic than the present change4 ,humanity has a long history1 and little of it is recorded in books that you can read4 ,yes1 the world will be united1 and the world will be cut up4 ,that sounds like a paradox1 perhaps4 ,as ,i am resting to-night1 ,i may take the liberty of being disconnected4 ,you ought always to live in a quiet place like this1 a little remote from the centre of things4 ,you do not belong in the bustle and crowd downtown1 either in ,new ,york or any other large city4 ,all those who have developed their inner senses should live a little apart4 ,that does not mean that they should all become hermits2 but they should live in the outskirts4 ,when you feel a desire for the crowd you can go down into it4 ,tell ---------- not to worry because this book is going slowly4 ,you are not working against time4 ,the world will go on1 and you will go with it4 ,make no mistake about that4 ,the world is going very fast4 ,all these new 8psychic0 books are an evidence that the world is going fast4 ,a few years ago no publisher would have issued them4 ,i do not wonder that your head swims a little4 ,you have been impressed by 8losing0 so many personal friends since the war began1 friends whose deaths seemed unconnected with the war4 ,but they are of those who could not adjust to the new world that is coming4 ,their ,silent ,watchers are taking them out4 ,you each have a ,silent ,watcher1 a something1 a part of you that is above and beyond you1 yet which is the most real of all the parts of you4 ,the ,watchers of the universe are watching more intently than usual4 ,your own is watching you as well as the world4 ,it will give you notice when any important action is necessary4 ,it seems as if the world had adjusted itself to the idea that the dead may speak with the living4 ,but that is only the beginning of knowledge4 ,when the worst of the war is over1 and men begin to adapt themselves to peace1 they will try to know themselves4 ,and they will discover that their bodies and souls are only parts of them1 that they exist on as many planes of being as there are planes of matter and of subtler substance1 and that each of these selves is as real as the personality they see in the mirror4 ,they will learn to form links between them1 to build bridges of communication4 ,finally they will become consciously complete beings4 ,joy is coming back to the world some day1 such joy as the world has never known4 ,you will one day be glad to be alive again1 and ,i mean all of you4 ,do not fret because you have to remain in ,america4 ,at the moment ,america is a good place in which to be4 ,the world is opening its eyes at the efficiency of ,america4 ,she is setting an example that her friends will be ashamed not to follow4 ,some day she will set the highest example of all4 ,,letter ,,xxii ,,the ,,lever ,,of ,,world ,,unity ,november #ai1 #aiag4 ,,do you not see that the unifying influence of ,america is already being felt in the war8 ,do you not see how ,america1 through the ,president of the ,united ,states1 is drawing the ,allies together8 ,that is her destiny1 to assemble all nations in a brotherhood of democratic freedom and mutual helpfulness4 ,this demand of ,president ,wilson for a council1 for unified action in prosecuting the war1 is one of the most significant events in history4 ,for the first time a group of friendly nations may really work as one1 putting aside all personal jealousies and fears--for a great world end4 ,it is the lever of world unity which shall lift the burden of wastefulness that heretofore has cost the world half the fruits of its labor4 ,oh1 nations of ,europe1 do not fear the great free land across the waters6 ,she wants nothing of you1 save now the privilege of helping you to save yourselves1 and in the future to work with you for the ideals that will make you all strong4 ,the ,anglo-,saxon race must again be like one family1 though in two houses2 but bye and bye1 when ,america shall have amalgamated her foreign residents with herself in one indissoluble race1 she will still be your sister1 ,o ,britain6 and you two shall counsel together for the further enlightening of the world4 ,sometimes ,i go high in the etheric regions and look down upon the earth1 so high that the horizons bound one hemi-sphere after another4 ,the horizons of time are also thus expanded1 and ,i see ahead of and behind the present hour4 ,i see the causes that have brought the world to its present impasse4 ,you will have to remove the wall that separates you from the age of enlightened brotherhood4 ,you have read about the golden age of the past4 ,did you think it was a fanciful story1 to amuse children in the fire-light8 ,i tell you it will sometime be realized again1 and on this earth--now rent by hatred and war4 ,you must retain all you have won from the mines of the earth and from the activity of your own brains4 ,inventions and arts1 they will all have their place in the new age that is coming1 and hitherto unimagined art and science will add further to the glory and comfort of life4 ,it will be the fault of your own folly and blindness if you lose anything of value to the soul4 ,the soul needs matter as matter needs the soul4 ,because we look forward to an age without hatred and wasteful division1 we do not look forward to an age of idleness and inertia4 ,limitless will be the opportunities for genius1 for talent1 for ambition4 ,the greatest aristocracy of earth is the aristocracy of mind and soul1 and mind and soul will be cultivated4 ,the education of the future will be not only practical but humanistic2 nothing will be thrown away that makes for beauty or for thought4 ,the treasures of dead languages will not be thrown into the dust-bin4 ,after the labor necessary to provide for the material wants of the world1 time will be left for art and beauty and scholarship1 for social discussion and religious exaltation4 ,the mystic also will have his place4 ,three years ago ,i would not have dared to prophesy a happy outcome for this tragic fracas4 ,more than two years ago ,i told you that the battle had been won in the regions above the earth--won by the powers of good1 who labor for the welfare of mankind4 ,how can you doubt8 ,if the war had ended two years ago1 the world might have gone on more or less as it went before4 ,but now it can never go back to the old selfish ways4 ,in the need that will follow the war the races will help one another2 they will turn to one another as brothers and sisters turn4 ,never lose faith that out of this tragedy will come the guerdon of the world's desire4 ,i see it1 ,i live for it 7for ,i live more vitally than you72 and that you may see and live for it also ,i struggle against the lightness of my present body1 that has a tendency to carry me away from the dense regions where you suffer and pray1 you men of earth4 ,you who have followed me from those early days when ,i wrote you letters from the lower astral world1 describing as a traveller in a strange country the things ,i had seen2 you who followed me through the hells of astral turmoil during the early months of the war1 follow me yet a little further4 ,i will show you the way as it has been shown to me4 ,and you will walk in that way1 though stumbling at first and groping for the thread of purpose through the labyrinth of reconstruction1 in the days that shall be called days of peace4 ,for perfect peace will not come at once4 ,you will have to work for it1 as you have worked for triumph in war4 ,but if you have faith1 you will ride the stormy waters into the haven of a new earth4 ,and a new heaven will spread above the earth1 for heaven is largely peopled from below2 it recruits its population from below4 ,no new angels are being created now4 ,the outgoing ,breath rests1 and the indrawing ,breath is about to begin4 ,you who have practised 8yogi breathing0 know how difficult it is to hold the breath out for more than a short time4 ,it can only be done by force of will4 ,the tendency is to return1 as the tendency in the race is to return towards the ,source from which it came4 ,it is therefore ,i say that you cannot retard1 save for a little while1 the flow of the race-breath towards harmony and peace and love4 ,this struggle of men with each other in the selfishness of separation is like the struggle of the yogi not to inbreathe--the young and inexperienced yogi2 for the wise one breathes at stated intervals1 and knows when the period is full4 ,the race knows4 ,it will follow the law of the outflow and inflow4 ,you cannot prevent it4 ,so yield yourselves to the current that would carry you back to ,god4 ,it will not be a hurried journey1 for the inflowing breath is measured too4 ,there will be time for labor and for rest1 and to gather flowers by the way4 ,do you fear the return to ,god1 however slow it may be8 ,i who have tasted death know there is nothing to fear2 and ,i who have tasted the new life tell you there is everything to hope4 ,,letter ,,xxiii ,,the ,,stars ,,of ,,man',s ,,destiny ,november #bd1 #aiag4 ,,has it occurred to you that the powers that have in charge the progress of the world may be obliged to use methods repugnant to your desires1 in order to accomplish inevitable purposes at the time when they are due8 ,man1 by rebelling against the tendencies of cosmic progress1 may retard it--for a time2 but when the wave rises high enough it will carry him along against his will1 and inevitable effects are produced in spite of his rebellion4 ,take this war4 ,the hour had struck on the world clock when races of men should work together for a common purpose4 ,they rebelled in their fear that each would not get his share of world benefits2 so the world was attacked by a common enemy1 and the races have had to unite for a common purpose1 that of preserving civilization from the destruction that threatens it4 ,could this war have been prevented8 ,by prevision1 yes4 ,but no one with influence enough to be heard respectfully had that prevision4 ,those who stand high in the world's regard have generally so concentrated upon their individual work and their individual ambitions1 that they have lost the ability to see impersonally and to see the world as a whole4 ,some can see as a whole the tendencies of their own country2 few can see the world tendency4 ,and ,i tell you now that if1 when this universal war is ended1 the races do not recognize the necessity to unite in a federation for the good of all1 there will be after forty years little left of all that has been accomplished during that marvellous nineteenth century which saw material progress equalling that of the preceding two thousand years4 ,can man not see the stars of his destiny without being struck on the head with a hammer8 ,if man will not work for the good of the whole1 then the whole has to be threatened4 ,it is so threatened now1 if you could see it4 ,,letter ,,xxiv ,,melancholy ,december #bc1 #aiag4 ,i ,,want to write about melancholy1 not the depression produced by bad digestion or pressure on the nerves1 but that cloud of darkness that sometimes descends upon the most brilliant mind and the stoutest heart1 making them for a while useless for any purpose--except that of drawing knowledge from the experience of melancholy itself4 ,not all sadness originates in the heart that is sad1 and fear1 the basis of melancholy1 may be suggested to a soul on earth by a soul beyond the earth4 ,you do not realize what a cloud of dissatisfied and fearful souls this holocaust has let loose in the invisible regions2 they flock round the sensitive souls upon the earth1 longing to 8tell their troubles10 longing for sympathy and help4 ,they are no more self-reliant than many in your world whose very presence depresses a stronger fellow being4 ,now whenever you feel that cloud of melancholy1 stop and ascertain the cause4 ,you have observed the workings of suggestion4 ,if you find nothing in your environment or circumstances to fill you with hopelessness1 would it not be safe to assume--unless you are bilious--that the cloud gathered elsewhere and merely descended upon you8 ,the student who hopes some day--though maybe many lives in the future--to achieve adeptship1 may as well begin now to control and direct his thoughts and feelings4 ,you need not be melancholy unless you want to be4 ,there are texts1 mantras1 adages1 even copy-book maxims you can recall and meditate upon1 that will drive away the worst fit of the blues4 ,here are a few3 ,pleasure and pain are opposite expressions of one force4 ,i am a part of ,god1 and no harm can overtake ,god4 ,what is the truth hidden in this well of discontent8 ,if ,i go deep enough into this midnight earth1 ,i shall come out on the other side where the sun shines4 ,i was happy yesterday1 and ,i am still ,i4 ,a frightened dog will never scare away a robber4 ,if all these ills befall me1 it will be an exercise of power to conquer them4 --,not very profound1 perhaps2 but you can write better ones if you wish4 ,i am merely illustrating one process of shaking off the burden of dread4 ,why should you men dread anything8 ,even death is only dreadful when you are afraid of it4 ,the ,masters enjoy difficulties4 ,they are the acid that tests the gold of their mastership4 ,and speaking from a lower plane1 there is pleasure in doing any difficult thing4 ,why1 in the writing of a big novel there is more actual work1 mental and physical1 than in overcoming some great misfortune4 ,it is less work to go out and overcome a threatened misfortune than it is to write a short story4 ,how anybody in good health and with even ordinary ability can yield to melancholy is a question for a philosopher4 ,i am not talking now of grief for dead friends1 or for false friends1 which grief is far worse2 but of the fear of some imaginary disaster which in all probability will never happen4 ,the surest way to attract disasters is to imagine them4 ,you can create almost anything if you imagine it strongly enough--even joy and courage4 ,a ,master once told me that the control and exorcism of melancholy was a greater test of power than the control of desire4 ,both often come from outside1 are suggested to the receptive1 passive mind4 ,now the ,master entertains only those suggestions that can strengthen his purposes4 ,if you have a friend who makes you courageous by his very presence1 cultivate his society4 ,if you have a friend who makes you melancholy1 either teach him better or get rid of him2 send him to a doctor4 ,what is the use in our talking about occult power if we have not power over our moods8 ,practise on moods4 ,as an exercise1 some time when you are active1 force yourself to be lazy4 ,when you are lazy and not tired1 force yourself to be active4 ,natural fatigue should not be pressed too far1 it is a mere reaction2 but indolence is not fatigue4 ,it is in the physical what melancholy is in the mental4 ,as another exercise1 when your mind circles round and round something1 switch it off as you would switch off an electric light4 ,turn and think of something else4 ,you can do it4 ,and1 by the way1 one of the best cures for melancholy is an hour of mathematical calculations4 ,i defy anybody to be melancholy in the arms of geometry or trigonometry4 ,why8 ,you cannot think in mathematical terms and of yourself at the same time4 ,people always think of themselves when they are melancholy4 ,but you tell me that you became melancholy the other day in thinking about a friend who had lost her job4 ,think again4 ,by wondering what you could do for this friend and whether you could afford it1 you began to fear4444 ,is it not so8 ,you may be sad because a friend is in trouble1 but you cannot be melancholy for anybody but yourself4 ,another can make you melancholy by making you morbid and fearful4 ,our thoughts are so chained to our ego that it is difficult for them to escape for long4 ,but are you ever melancholy when creating imaginatively a scene in a book8 ,could you be melancholy while figuring the 8polar elevation0 of a planet1 or computing one of those converse 8primary directions08 ,i see you smile4 ,when you are engaged with figures you forget yourself4 ,now take my advice4 ,when auto-suggestion is powerless to conquer melancholy1 draw up an astrological figure in a low latitude with that table of oblique ascensions that ,i saw you using yesterday1 and work out the converse primaries and the longitude of ,vulcan4 ,you remind me that when on earth ,i had small interest in astrology4 ,but ,i am talking about mathematical calculations4 ,,letter ,,xxv ,,compensatory ,,play ,february #a1 #aiah4 ,i ,,have looked in on you occasionally during the last few weeks1 pleased with your resting for a time4 ,the ambitious and energetic are prone to underestimate the value of occasional idleness4 ,you cannot run even a machine all the time without oil and rest4 ,neither can the most vigorous engineer-soul run its brain and body too long without letting them cool4 ,the farmer knows when to let a field lie fallow4 8,after the war0 it is to be hoped that the soldiers who have worked so long at one labor--that of war--may be given a period of compensatory play1 doing nothing1 before being replaced in the hive of industry4 ,let them enjoy the breezes and the perfume of idleness for a little time2 the reaction from that rest will send them back into the workshops with renewed desire for activity4 ,if the world has to get along with less for a few weeks1 that will not hurt the world4 ,in the years to come there will be more rest and recreation in ,america4 ,in ,europe there is going to be some degree of fatigue after this war1 and ,america can easily hold her own if she carries a lower steam-pressure4 ,the idle hours are sometimes as valuable as those that are spent in labor4 ,it is in so-called idle hours that we meditate1 get acquainted with ourselves1 build air castles1 which are working-plans for our edifice of the future4 ,day dreams are good4 ,i had a day dream during my life1 and it was really the working-plan for the future ,i am building now4 ,i wanted to get back something ,i had lost1 and ,i have got it back4 ,you wonder what it was8 ,i do not mind telling you4 ,in a former life ,i went far along the road towards mastership4 ,then once upon a time ,i slipped back a long way4 ,my day dream was to recover that lost ground1 and ,i have recovered much of it out here4 ,if ,i had not left the world with that day dream vivid in my consciousness1 ,i should not have made the progress and the recovery ,i have made4 ,i was talking the other day with an old friend--a very dear old friend--who came out here a year or two ago1 and she and ,i agreed that the day dreams we had dreamed together were among the most valuable products of our recent life4 ,she is revelling in the recovery of her own lost ground1 and she will run me a good race as the years go on4 ,yes1 one can race across recovered ground of adeptship4 ,my friend said laughingly the other day that she had made more plans since coming out here than she could execute in a long while4 8,take your time10 ,i advised1 8in the execution4 ,you have all eternity40 ,she looked at me in the old way ,i remember so well1 and said3 8,time may be made for slaves1 but eternity is made for masters40 ,she too is glad that she came out4 ,she had done one kind of work long enough1 and is now enjoying another4 ,is she helping me1 you wonder8 ,well1 no1 unless you count the pleasure of our renewed association as a help4 ,why should she help me1 or ,i her8 ,our work is our own4 ,you in the world should help each other when you can2 but out here we of equal stature help each other by being4 ,that is a good help1 though1 the being together sometimes4 ,what a wonderful expression1 by the way1 8being together06 ,what poetry6 ,not working together1 nor playing together1 but simply being4 ,you must often have felt that joy when with a loved friend4 ,words are not necessary for that enjoyment4 ,words often lessen the enjoyment by the very effort of uttering them4 ,effortless being6 ,even the birds enjoy it1 and the rose could give you valuable secrets of that joy4 ,in the world ,i have heard busybodies say of a beautiful woman that she did nothing4 ,what of it8 ,a rose does not run a sewing-machine1 or write books4 ,joy is coming back to the world4 ,it has been long absent4 ,being for its own sake has taken on new meanings in the minds of those who are glad to be still alive4 ,to have passed through all the perils of a long war and still to 8be0 a living man is something to make the soul wonder4 ,the men who have fought in this war from the beginning should not be crowded too hard when at last they can stretch their limbs in the hammocks of peace4 ,they have earned the right4 ,as they spin their soldier yarns1 gaze at them with respect4 ,they passed through the shadow of death for you4 ,that ,god has retained them among the active cells of ,his body is because ,he has need of them still2 but it does not mean that they should go on working for you every minute4 ,suppose you work for them for a while4 ,when they are rested they will join you in your labor4 ,last night ,i listened to two soldiers talking1 and this is what they said to each other3 8,what will you do1 ,john1 when it's all over80 8,i'll lie in the bath tub an hour every morning1 in the warm1 soft1 soapy water2 and in the afternoon ,i'll call on one dear girl after another1 and drink tea1 and listen to their talk4 ,and what will you do80 8,oh1 ,i'll just look at my wife and hold her hand40 ,idle talk1 you think8 ,that depends upon what you mean by idle talk4 ,to me that talk was immensely significant4 ,soon after our little skirmish with ,spain ,i remember hearing an active woman say of her husband that he had never been good for anything since he came back from ,cuba4 8,well10 ,i said1 8he was good for a lot in ,cuba40 ,the ,spanish-,american war6 ,a fly beside an elephant1 as compared with this war4 ,and the ,german is tired1 too4 ,you may not have to overwork yourself to keep up with him after the war4 ,,letter ,,xxvi ,,the ,,aquarian ,,age ,february #b1 #aiah4 ,,you have wondered why the ,masters speak now of the interests of the common man1 while in former times they said little about them4 ,but do you not know that when the need for a thing is come1 the work of the ,masters with the world is to urge the world in the direction of its destiny8 ,you have read of the iron age1 the golden age1 etc41 and that the golden age follows the iron4 ,you may have wondered how two states so utterly dissimilar could be juxtaposed4 ,now between the iron age and the golden age there is a period of transition1 a period short as compared with one of the great ages1 for example the longest one1 the golden1 which is given as one million1 seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand years4 ,i have not visited you this evening to announce that the golden age is immediately at hand4 ,oh1 no6 ,but we approach the termination of a minor cycle1 and the period of transition from the present state of the world to the next#c will be of about one thousand years4 ,that is to say1 this period of one thousand years will bring us to the middle of what is called the ,aquarian age1 for the half of one of these lesser ,zodiacal periods is approximately of that length4#d ,what is the ,aquarian age8 ,you know the humanitarian nature of ,aquarius4 ,you also know the characteristics of the planet ,uranus1 to which ,aquarius is now attributed4 ,well1 the inference is obvious4 ,we shall have an ,aquarian world1 and a world where things will go after the manner of that strange and abrupt planet ,uranus4 ,the old-fashioned world is passing away1 the ,jupiterian world1 and we are entering upon a period of change1 political1 social1 religious and personal4 ,there is going to be an attempt at a federation of states1 a federation of souls4 ,nothing but this war could have effected it--with the suddenness characteristic of that mysterious planet ,uranus4 ,in the later ,aquarian age the creative will of man will have such scope as the world has not dreamed of4 ,it will be set free from the limitations which have held it4 ,when all men are assured of a means of livelihood1 how free they will be in mind6 ,the freedom of the past in a free country like ,america is nothing like the freedom which the new age will usher in4 ,when education is really universal1 the moral as well as the mental will be trained1 and new ideas will have room to develop in the developing brain4 ,be not afraid1 ,o world6 ,three years ago1 even we who see far out here had grave doubts for the future of your planet4 ,but the great ,masters always told us that the world would pass through its period of trial1 still poised on its old axis1 and that the forces which make for order would triumph over the forces which make for disorder4 ,have you not noticed in the psychic world a lessening of strain8 ,have you not noticed an absence of the hostile and adverse beings that in the early months of the war seemed to threaten the earth and you and all men with a triumphant malice8 ,that is a straw which shows the way of 8the winds that blow between the worlds40 ,i am glad you are a keen observer of psychic states4 ,that faculty of observation will be of use to you in the years that are to come4 ,those who cannot adjust to new conditions will pass out for a time and return later with the fresh outlook of children1 to take up their experience in the new age4 ,there will be much rebellion in the beginning4 ,things are not so stable as they seemed four years ago4 ,the war has proved that they were not really stable4 ,the wave of psychic research that is now sweeping across the world will wear thin the veil between the visible and the invisible4 ,more and more men and women will live in two worlds at the same time2 for the two worlds occupy the same space1 and their differences are differences of consciousness1 of vibration1 the latter including a difference in states of matter4 ,men will grow more magnetic under the influences that will play upon them4 ,they will affect each other more and more1 and that is one reason why greater freedom will be necessary4 ,with the greater sensitiveness which the new time will bring1 it will be more difficult for large families to live together a common life4 ,while the tendency is for all mankind to be one family in sympathy1 more and more it will be recognized that each man requires privacy for his best development4 ,the tyranny of the family will give place to freedom in the family4 ,strip family life of its tyranny and it may be very charming4 ,the sensitive and highly charged beings of the new age would explode if they should be obliged to sit every evening round the family 8centre-table10 listening to the maunderings of the least progressive among them1 who by reason of greater age assumed the right to lay down the law4 ,this does not mean that children will not honor their parents2 but under the new dispensation parents will honor their children's need for the individual life1 and will give it to them--thereby securing their own freedom4 ,the freedom of the later ,aquarian age will be manifest in the mind4 8,heresy0 will cease to exist2 the word will become obsolete4 ,the sin against the ,holy ,ghost will be understood as the attempt to enchain the will of another4 ,great friendliness will result from this mutual tolerance4 ,we hate only those whom we fear1 and in a tolerant world there will be few seeds of hatred4 ,all men will study2 the school is only the first stage of study4 ,when man becomes his own schoolmaster he makes great strides4 ,what you know of art1 music and literature can give you but a vague idea of what these arts will become in the age that is to follow4 ,take the catchwords of the immediate past1 impressionism1 for example4 ,it will be applied to all the arts4 ,science is only in its swaddling-clothes4 ,aquarius is a sign of air1 the old books tell us1 and the air holds many secrets which you must take for your own1 not only secrets of transportation but psychological secrets4 ,the airplane and psychical research grew up together4 ,you have not taken the last redoubt of electricity4 ,that also has treasures for you4 ,when you can draw that from the air where it hides from you and laughs1 you will have little need of coal1 and the miners can leave the bowels of the earth and play in the sunshine of the heights4 ,inventions6 ,i see in the 8pattern world0 ,i told you about in my first book many things that would puzzle you down here4 ,new fabrics will be worn before many years1 and the patient silkworm will not be the aristocrat it now is4 ,the human ego is coming into its own4 ,when it loses selfishness it will find itself4 ,that is not a paradox for its own sake1 but the statement of a psychological fact4 ,the seeming chaos will take form1 and in it you will find new beauties4 ,i will not conceal from you the knowledge that many will use the word chaos during the reconstruction period4 ,but be at peace4 ,the formless shall take on form4 ,the clairvoyance that is developing in man will help him to see1 where the eyes of his old faith would have been blind4 ,he will trust the future and trust his brother1 and will not be deceived4 ,the intuition of the soul will point man to the substance which he needs for his well-being4 ,behind and within the air is the ether1 which is substance1 which is ,god4 ,and man will take it for his uses1 with the consent of ,god1 who joys in giving ,himself to ,his children4 ,as ,i said before1 the ,masters urge the world along in the direction of its destiny2 but they are too wise to hurry it4 ,they see the face of the cosmic clock1 and they wake the world at the hour of the new sunrise4 ,we are blest in being their servants4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #c3 ,still far short of the golden age1 probably4--,e4 ,b4 ,footnote #d3 ,this does not correspond exactly with the popular ,hindoo reckoning4 ,but automatic writings are what they are4 ,i can cut out repetitions1 etc41 but ,i cannot re-write1 add to1 or distort4--,e4 ,b4 ,,letter ,,xxvii ,,the ,,watchers ,february #c1 #aiah4 ,i ,,stood one day before a great soul that had renounced the rest in heaven1 and questioned him as to the work that called us loudest4 ,what do you think he said8 8,labor with those who fear for the future40 8,are there so many1 then1 who look forward with apprehension80 ,i asked4 8,all those who think and see and have responsibilities are apprehensive10 he replied4 ,then ,i wandered here and there about ,america1 looking in upon all sorts of men and a few women4 ,and ,i read in their minds a great uncertainty4 8,sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof10 ,i thought so intensely at them that many responded with a hopeful smile4 ,yes1 ,i can win response from many people when ,i think strongly enough in their company4 ,the faith of one great soul out here has helped many to stand steady when the winds blew strong against them4 ,he knows that ,america cannot fail of her destiny2 but that she may not take a wrong tack1 he would guide the hand and brush the mists from before the eye of the skipper4 ,there are often mists before the path of the 8ship of ,state0 in these grey days4 ,when ,wilson took over the railroads1 what courage was there6 ,when all is over there will be many to criticize and blame him2 but criticism and blame are ever the rewards of those who depersonalize themselves and labor for the good of their country or the world4 ,the man who is great enough to cast his personality overboard is not hurt by criticism4 ,it is only the personality that can be hurt4 ,the soul stands serene and pure above the adverse storms4 ,i do not advise all men to disregard their personality4 ,only those who bear great responsibilities may safely become impersonal4 ,the small man1 the undeveloped man1 could not persuade his soul to take the place of his lesser self4 ,for the soul must be persuaded to descend and dwell in the personality4 ,most souls are only partially incarnated4 ,the higher self of most men dwells above and apart4 ,it is their ,silent ,watcher2 but it seldom acts save to warn and save4 ,it leaves the lesser self to acquire experience and learn its lessons through suffering and joy1 through success and failure4 ,but when the man has so far evolved that his acts become of more than personal significance1 then the soul may descend and truly guide and influence the man1 for the designs of the soul are ever beyond the personal4 ,it is a conscious part of the great whole1 a conscious part of ,god whom it worships and serves1 however the lower self may be immersed in trivialities and blasphemies4 ,in any man who has not lost his soul the ,higher ,watcher has an interest4 ,for the ,watcher is ,one and he is many4 ,he is your link with ,god1 ,oh1 men6 ,he is your link with immortality4 ,you do not meet him merely by dying1 for you may dwell long in the astral and lower mental world before meeting him face to face4 ,but if you can ascend after death to the higher regions1 you will find him there waiting for you4 ,you may bring to him all the fine fruits of your recent life1 and he will enjoy them with you4 ,i have met my soul face to face2 but ,i am unable to remain in the higher regions in peaceful contemplation of his beauty while there is so much work to be done for the races on earth as calls to me now4 ,bye and bye ,i shall re-ascend2 but when ,i go to heaven for a long sojourn you will hear from me no more4 ,yes1 ,i too have seen your soul4 ,but ,i need not describe its face to you1 who see it better than ,i4 ,cling to it4 ,the failure of mortal friendship has no power to shatter the faith of one who can reach to his own ,silent ,watcher4 ,and the soul of the faithless friend is pure as his own1 and understands all things4 ,friendships1 like loves1 are made in heaven1 and true friendship cannot die4 ,its roots are deep in waters of eternity4 ,it is deathless as the ,ygdrasil1 and its roots are also above and its branches below4 ,but it is better to fail in business than to fail in friendship4 ,if a man is great and strong enough1 he may draw down his soul to dwell with him wherever he may be4 ,then the man is a whole man1 he is an adept4 ,lincoln is such a man1 such a soul4 ,he has become one with his ,higher ,watcher1 and the two that are one can work even in the regions of the astral4 ,but such a marriage of heaven and earth is uncommon1 as adepts are uncommon4 ,your father in heaven is one with the ,father1 and if you are really one with your father in heaven he can dwell with you even on earth4 ,the higher souls of men are closer to men now than they have been for ages4 ,the doors have been opened4 ,grief and terror and pain and devotion to ideals of duty have raised the race of men in three and a half years as it could not have been raised in a hundred years of peace4 ,if the race falls back now1 it will be a lost opportunity4 ,but the race will not fall back4 ,,letter ,,xxviii ,a ,,ritual ,,of ,,fellowship ,february #h1 #aiah4 ,i ,,have been waiting for you half an hour1 as you sat sewing a seam and thinking of your friends in ,france4 ,it warms the heart now to think of ,france4 ,the tie between the two great republics is being drawn closer and closer4 ,shall ,i tell you an occult secret8 ,the ,french mixed their blood with ours long ago1 and we have loved them ever since4 ,we are now mixing our blood with the blood of ,france1 and ,france will love us in the days that are to come4 ,it is a ritual of fellowship1 that mixing of blood4 ,english and ,french and ,americans and ,italians1 ,irish1 ,scotch1 and all the others4 ,is there not a foundation for brotherhood8 ,the blended blood cries from the ground for love4 ,i see in the eyes of the ,french their feeling for our men as they march by1 or help in the little ways to which ,american boys are accustomed4 ,never again will they look upon us as queer people from beyond the sea4 ,we have travelled in their country and spent our money and swaggered and talked through our noses2 but now we are living and dying with them1 and we are brothers of mixed blood4 ,yes1 go back to ,france when you can4 ,they always loved you because you loved them1 but now you will see that they also love your native land4 ,,letter ,,xxix ,,recruiting ,,agents ,february1 #aiah4 ,,for a day or two after ,america declared that a state of war existed1 ,i spent most of my time in going about this country1 studying conditions in both worlds4 ,even before that survey ,i had a general idea of how matters stood in those worlds2 but ,i wanted to freshen my memory1 for ,i had a great idea4 ,many times during my life on earth ,i had told myself that ,i had a great idea1 and sometimes ,i put it into execution1 and sometimes ,i failed in doing so4 ,but this time ,i was determined there should be no failure4 ,when ,i had seen from my survey that the materials were all at hand1 ,i sought out a great man1 spirit1 or whatever you choose to call him4 ,then together we mapped out our campaign4 ,here are the main points of it3 ,conservation--where the negative forces should be applied4 ,construction--with our positive forces4 ,coordination--with the synthetic forces4 ,we marshalled a group of those strong-minded1 strong-willed men and women who had been out here long enough to know not only their way about1 but how to impress their thoughts upon material-bodied men and women4 ,these were dispatched here and there1 to think1 think1 think1 in the neighborhood of senators and congressmen1 chiefs of industry and members of the general public4 ,the burden of their impressed thought was conservation of food1 conservation of expenditure1 conservation of all material that would be needed for the activities of war4 ,others who were filled with a great love for the land of their latest birth1 ,america1 went about in bands instilling their patriotic enthusiasm into the hearts and minds of those millions who had too long taken ,america as a matter of course4 ,they sang patriotic songs1 and though they could not be heard by the ears of earth1 the spirit of their singing could be felt1 and they accomplished much4 ,then others1 the wisest among old leaders of men1 were busy in quelling disorder1 in suppressing discontent with the war4 ,wherever a group of wild-eyed1 peace-prating 8idealists0 got together to talk twaddle1 there was one or more of these unseen auditors to put the brakes on responsive enthusiasm to the dangerous principles enunciated4 ,i will not bore you by giving all the details of this plan of help which we labored to make effective4 ,but there were enrolled more than one million beings out here who have pledged themselves to serve until their services are no longer required4 ,that may not seem to you a great number to help invisibly a nation of more than one hundred millions2 but one to every hundred is enough among the active workers1 for each is free to choose assistants among those younger in earth experience4 ,to the one who acted as our commander-in-chief1 the generals of this auxiliary army made reports1 and many were the strange orders he gave them4 ,but no one questioned his wisdom1 and the results have proved it over and over4 ,one time when ,i wanted to go ,north1 he sent me to the ,south1 and in ,mobile ,i learned why my course was changed4 ,it is a wonder that the legislators at the various capitols have not 8seen ghosts0 during the last months4 ,perhaps they have4 ,but men are becoming accustomed to the idea of us now4 ,that is one of the good results of the war4 ,in looking across the border for their loved ones1 they may encounter the ,teachers1 even the angels of their loved ones1 and be enlarged in mind4 ,i had an amusing experience in the city of ----4 ,there is a 8pacifist0 there who has a considerable influence among the members of a certain set1 and ,i found that when he began one of his 8philosophic0 talks to one or more persons1 for he has not lectured publicly1 ,i could bewilder him by speaking in his ear and answering his questions in a way that made him wonder4 ,for1 strange to say perhaps1 he could hear me4 ,but not believing in the possibility of communication between the worlds1 he thought he was having 8clairaudient hallucinations10 and consulted a doctor who told him that he had been brooding too much about the war4 ,the doctor1 who was not a pacifist1 advised our friend to take up ornithology4 ,yes1 he is young--and will be young for many incarnations4 ,we have also done our share of recruiting4 ,those who were later called by the draft were merely encouraged2 but there were others who needed only the dream we sent1 or the thought we whispered1 to move them in the right direction2 and when a young man's country is at war1 the right direction is generally towards the nearest recruiting station4 ,there was a boy in ---- who had been reading about ,france and the fighting in ,france with a tightening at the heart1 a tightening of horror4 ,he feared the draft4 ,he was not a husky fellow4 ,his labors as bookkeeper in a bank had not developed his leg muscles1 and he had a capricious digestion4 ,so he told himself that he would be a failure as a soldier4 ,but one time when in sleep he came out into our world1 ,i met him and invited him to take a stroll with me4 ,do you think ,i took him to a battlefield8 ,oh1 not6 ,i took him to an exercise ground4 ,you may wonder how ,i could do that at night2 but it chanced that he had fallen asleep in the daytime4 ,and ,i made it easy for him to see down into the world he had temporarily left--to see the exercise ground4 ,it interested him4 ,and next day the labor over the ledger seemed duller and more monotonous than usual4 ,and he overheard a girl say to a friend at the paying teller's window1 that a sallow faced clerk was not her ideal of a man1 that she liked the soldier boys4 ,when he went for a walk after banking hours1 ,i went along with him1 and drew his attention to some marching soldiers who had a good band4 ,the boy went home and looked at himself in the mirror and found that he was sallow1 and he reminded himself that he was a clerk4 ,so he enlisted4 ,you may wonder why ,i took so much trouble to gather one uninteresting young man into the fold of ,uncle ,sam's army1 when we had so many subordinate workers at that business4 ,but ,i had known the boy's father twenty years before1 and something he had said influenced me towards a decision that enlightened my whole after life4 ,when that boy returns he will be no longer sallow-faced1 and he will be a hero--not a clerk4 ,i like to pay my debts4 ,,letter ,,xxx ,,the ,,virus ,,of ,,disruption ,february #af1 #aiah4 8,,freedom with self-restraint and social responsibility0 would be a good motto for ,americans in the years that are before them4 ,the underground and overground propaganda of ,bolshevism1 ,anarchism1 etc41 inspired and fed by the forces of destruction1 can be successfully combated by the spirit of order1 of restraint1 of responsibility to the body politic4 ,the end of this war will not be the end of confusion4 ,the world-soul has been inoculated with the virus of disruption1 and it will need the wills of millions working together for a common end to expel the poison and restore the body of humanity to health and security4 ,america as we know it was born of protest against oppression1 and the love of liberty1 father and mother1 positive and negative1 in the old days4 ,if now the protest against oppression degenerates into the protest against all restraint1 and if the love of liberty degenerates into the love of license1 then ,i may tell you that those who cannot govern themselves have to be governed from outside4 ,the human race is passing through a period of initiation4 ,the morally weak and the weak of will are always in danger of being carried away4 ,the spirit of destruction finds them ready tools with which to work its will4 ,the kingdom of heaven is not immediately at hand1 and full seven years will be needed to settle the consciousness of mankind after the shaking-up it has received4 ,the dregs1 as usual in such cases1 have risen and diffused themselves throughout the fluid of the cup4 ,if there were only a dozen people in the ,united ,states who understood or could be made to understand the occult forces behind the present universal unrest1 and if those twelve could work together with unity of purpose1 some here1 some there1 with the pen1 the voice and the will1 under a leader1 those twelve might lead the people out of the wilderness4 ,but where are they8 ,every leader knows that in unity is strength4 ,and ,i may mention the opposite law1 that in disunity is disintegration4 ,bolshevist and anarchist6 ,finding the world not to their liking1 and being unable to adjust to environment so as to satisfy their love of power1 or their love of ease1 these people have devoted themselves to destroying the society in which they are unsuccessful4 ,they believe themselves right4 ,there is so much of the divine in almost the worst man1 that he has to believe he is working for the right even when he is working evil4 ,it is necessary for a murderer to justify his act in order to do it1 unless he is swept away by blind passion1 and then he seeks to justify passion itself4 ,the heart of man is superior to the brain of man4 ,almost anyone can feel a good impulse2 but the man who can think independently of his passions is rare and isolate4 ,popular education does not mean universal reasoning power4 ,but popular education is the beginning2 it is the seed out of which will grow the tree of world-intellect4 ,i have told you of the reign of love that is at length to comfort the hearts of mankind2 but ,i have not told you that it is coming to-morrow or the next day4 ,if you can get away from the personal and the temporary1 and see life and the movements of cycles in perspective1 you will see how temporary unrest is only a stage by the way4 ,he who adjusts to environment adjusts even to unrest4 ,remember that4 ,the supple tree feels the wind1 but its roots cling tight to the soil and the rock of individuality4 ,be like the supple tree1 ,america4 ,in the wind that sweeps across the world1 cling tight to the soil of freedom and the rock of social responsibility4 ,you can save the world if you do not lose your hold on the soil and the rock that have steadied and sustained you4 ,the anxious eyes of a ,europe in conflagration are turned in your direction1 your friends with hope1 your enemies with dread4 ,when you threw the weight of your strong young body into the scales of justice1 you changed the destiny of the world4 ,yes1 it was your destiny to do it4 ,all you who have studied 8occultism10 which merely means knowledge too profound to be understood by the material-minded1--you who have studied occultism know that to the candidate for initiation come trials and tests1 and that without them he cannot go on4 ,think of the human race as a candidate for initiation4 ,if your mind is developed beyond the minds of your fellows--you1 and you1 and you--do not forget that you are united to them by an indissoluble bond4 ,you cannot break away from the race4 ,you may rise above it as the ,master does1 or sink beneath it as the lost souls do2 but the link between you and those other fragments of ,god can only be broken at your peril4 ,the ,master works for the race1 knowing well that he cannot safely ignore it4 ,even if he made himself equal with the gods and desired to build a world of his own1 he would have to take the substance for it from the common reservoir of substance4 ,if like a spider he could spin his world-web from himself1 he would have to eat the common substance to sustain himself in his power4 ,you may as well love the race1 for you cannot escape it altogether4 ,even if you rise and dwell in the thin air of the kingdom of the mind1 you will feel the wind-currents from your fellows above and below4 ,some will deny this1 but ,i have made the test4 ,i recently sought a high place for rest4 ,but the needs of the world pulled me back4 ,the greatest need of the world for the next few years will be the knowledge of the law of conservation4 ,retain1 ,o world6 the treasures you have labored for throughout the centuries1 and discard only the worn-out garments and utensils4 ,the wooden plough and the wooden shoe are no longer needed in a wisely ordered world2 but the sciences and the arts you will need1 and the ,gothic cathedrals you destroy can never be replaced4 ,,letter ,,xxxi ,,the ,,altar ,,fire ,february #ah1 #aiah4 ,,always the pull of the opposites6 ,in all the talk of internationalism1 let us not forget nationalism4 ,the enemy of the present hour made great use of it1 but he did not reckon with its opposite4 ,it is not true internationalism to support spies as commercial agents in all the countries of earth4 ,america of all nations is best fitted to carry on her standards3 ,each for all1 and all for each4 ,but in her love for other races1 for other nationalities1 let her not forget to strengthen and uphold her own4 8,my ,country1 'tis of ,thee60 ,as that sentiment grows ever stronger in your heart1 so will your justice to other nations make you recognize that their countries are of them4 ,for your country was not built upon the idea of world domination1 but of freedom--for yourselves and for all men4 ,your president has been called a maker of phrases4 ,that is good4 ,a man who can make phrases that shall carry themselves around the world can influence the thought of the world4 8,to make the world safe for democracy40 ,those words will go down the centuries4 ,you ,americans who love the storied lands of ,europe1 do not underestimate this land that gave you birth4 ,it is great as the greatest now1 and its clock has not yet struck twelve noonday4 ,it is still morning in ,america4 ,the present day ,american is the ancestor of the man of the ,sixth ,race4 ,from many stocks he will spring1 and his blood will be blended from that of all the races which have preceded him4 ,he will be unique in his qualities4 ,no man of the older races can imitate him1 for his consciousness will be his own4 ,a man is not1 as you have so often said1 so many pounds of flesh and bone and blood and sinew1 but a man is a state of consciousness4 ,it is because you recognize their state of consciousness as being themselves1 that men and women reveal themselves to you4 ,if--or when--you go back to ,europe to live1 do not forget your country4 ,do not remain too long away from it1 lest you lose touch with that unique consciousness which shall flower in the ,sixth ,race4 ,yes1 a great art will grow up in ,america4 ,after another fifty years it will be ripe4 ,let us hope it will not begin to rot thereafter1 but like a sound ,american apple preserve its solidity for a long time4 ,this war is good for ,america4 ,it is not well for a race to have so great a material success without some pain and struggle4 ,it is pain that mellows the heart4 ,america has not yet found her soul1 but she will find it4 ,those ,americans who are now broken-hearted are finding their souls4 ,france found her soul a long time ago1 and she is now finding her divinity4 ,would she have found it but for suffering8 ,the ,christ upon the cross is greater than the ,christ at the marriage supper in ,cana of ,galilee4 ,if ,i had not wanted you to write this book1 ,i should have sent you back to ,london1 that you might experience the strain of air raids and insufficient food4 ,i should have sent you back to ,france1 that you might see and touch and minister to the wounded4 ,though you have endured the strain of the astral world at war1 you have not yet seen and touched and tasted the agony of physical suffering that the women of ,france have seen and touched and tasted4 ,but you cannot live and suffer in too many worlds at once4 ,do you not think that our ,american boys who are fighting now in ,france will be greater for the experience--whether they live or die8 ,life in material form is not the only life1 and those who make the great sacrifice will gain more than they lose4 ,it is sublime to die for an ideal4 8,to make the world safe for democracy40 ,america is better known to ,europeans now than she has been before4 ,many of you will go and come1 as you have done in the past2 and a few of you will vitalize the mutual understanding between ,america and ,europe4 ,but you can do that only by glorifying your own nationality in your hearts4 ,i do not mean flaunting it4 ,let it burn as an altar fire1 in the secret temple of your being4 ,,the ,,end ,,transcriber',s ,,notes ,simple typographical errors have been silently corrected2 unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious1 and otherwise left unbalanced4 ,punctuation1 hyphenation1 and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book2 otherwise they were not changed4