LUX NATURAE

UNIVERSALITY and personality are incompatible. Man is a reasonable being, and can only be supposed to believe what his reason is capable of understanding. The Deity is not an incomprehensible Being diffused through space, but a Person in whose image mortal man is made, and by the natural means of the etheric nerve system He is made cognizant of all that takes place everywhere without Himself being actually omnipresent. There is nothing stranger in this than in the fact that by the influence of the sun He provideth food for man and beast. By the latent forces and active laws in nature He sends the rain and the latter dew. They are His servants and instruments, by which He performs the work of the worlds. Given certain positions of the sun, moon, and earth, and certain conditions of the terrestrial tides must follow, because He has appointed them as cause and effect. He is not personally present on the battlefield in one country, and at the same time by the deathbed of a saint in another. No sane man can be supposed to call Him Father without believing in His personality, and no sane man can believe in His personality at the same time that he believes Him to be literally omnipresent. He is to the whole universe, in a manner, what the brain is to the individual man; and the ether rays are to Him what the nerves are to the human brain -- the communicators of all that disturbs or affects the normal condition of that universe, and all communications are made by symbolic vibrations of these nerves.

The sea in her normal condition is calm; the wind rises, and her surface is troubled; a hurricane comes, and her formerly tranquil waters lash themselves into fury with roars that reecho from the rocky shores, where dismantled ships that quietly rode upon her peaceful breast are remorselessly dashed to pieces. In the normal condition of our common atmosphere it is serene and calm, but when its temperature, by the influence of the sun, is suddenly and abnormally raised in one place, the disturbance rises to a tempest that leaves wide destruction in its wake. The troubled sea and the tempestuous winds are originally changed in their condition by a change of temperature or heat, and heat is but a vibration. Gunpowder in itself is harmless, but when fire is applied to it an explosion takes place that may be desolating in its effects. In these three instances, wind, heat, and fire are disturbing elements acting on latent forces that, without their interference, would remain calmly latent. The ether is the most powerful latent force in all Nature, and its province is universal. It is quiescent in its normal condition, yet it is more easily disturbed than any other element, from the gentlest vibration to the most violent explosion in physical or psychological realm. Everything that is contrary to its naturally pacific condition will disturb it. What is called conscience in its natural state is the normal condition of quietude of the ether, in which the mind of man rests like a physical atom. Any violation of the moral law will disturb this quietude as wind moves the sea, as heat causes the wind, or as fire explodes gunpowder. It takes but a small match to raise a large fire, and incredibly small is the power required to bring forth the energies from any latent force in Nature, and that frequently of a very opposite kind, the results having no resemblance to the causes. The combination of two gases makes water. The application of heat to air makes a cold tempest. Fire will reduce a solid to liquid and to gas. Where the skill of man handles the forces of Nature, the lightning carries his messages or commands to the ends of the earth almost instantaneously. By telephonic vibrations his whispers can be heard at once even a hundred miles away. Are these simple things more marvellous than that the vibrations of the physical ether should produce a disturbance in the mental sphere, this disturbance being interpreted as fear, terror, or knowledge of guilt ? Certain vibrations on the human ear are at once translated into articulate language. Certain vibrations on the human eye at once decide the colour that is before it, and yet in this merely physical operation there is nothing marvellous. What, then, is there to wonder at that a disturbance or vibration of ether in the mind should be mentally received and translated as certain emotions of the mind ? The thing is naturally simple and simply natural. There is no ghoul in the breast of man lying like a watch-dog, ready to jump upon and tear its master at any dyspeptic moment. The mental condition is governed by fixed laws that can no more be set aside than any of the well-known laws in Nature, and, in fact, they are the same laws. The result is that, as in physical nature, opposition to mental laws brings overthrow to the opponent; for while natural law may be utilized, it cannot successfully be opposed. All opposition to fixed laws causes disturbance to those latent forces which all these laws have as reserves, and the law most take its course, even if that course can only be taken after calling in the aid of those reserve forces. The power of these forces is illimitable. The breaking of any fixed law in Nature is therefore an impossibility, so that in humanly speaking of the breaking of a law of Nature we are verbally speaking of an impossibility. Even the feeble effort of trying to violate a law brings dire results. The mere ignorant approach to violating such a law would cause a kind of instant spontaneous combustion among the forces in the element which is the medium of the law's action. Every law acts through a medium, and in that medium lie all the reserve or latent forces whose energies, on any attempt at violating the law, it will call up in its defence - in proportion to any influence or attempt to disturb the action of that law. It is the law in Nature that Nature's law must be protected.

This is the fundamental law of all the Correct government of the universe -- mind, matter, and spirit. The mental condition of man is embedded in quiescent ether, and that ether is between the creature and Creator, the medium on which the law of vibrations acts. Any attempt to disturb, oppose, or violate the fixed action of this law (in spheres physical, mental, moral, and spiritual) instantly calls into defensive action the latent forces in the ether, and so clears away all offensive opposition to the due execution of the inviolable law. This clearance is made by disturbances proportioned to the opposition, even when that opposition is not wilful but accidental. Such mental disturbances we call troubled conscience, and as this trouble comes by law, in proportion to the wilful or ignorant offense of law, its results are invariably registered with an accuracy that no human design could equal. Thus the mechanical disturbance is sometimes the still, small voice of playful guilt, at other times the horror of despair that lashes the subject of disturbance into a state of madness. Conscience is the normal condition of the ether with which mind is surrounded, and wrong-doing is to the latent forces in that ether what a match is to gunpowder, and any attempt to violate the moral laws whose medium ether is, will at once convulse these forces in the ether, and cause that disturbance in the mind which is popularly known as the voice of conscience.

All latent forces in Nature are primarily placed there as reserve defensive forces for the protection of the fixed laws in Nature, and, whilst both the forces and the laws themselves may be utilized by man, the laws cannot be broken by any conceivable power, nor can any attempt be made to violate them without immediately putting into defensive action the forces latent in the medium through which the laws operate. If there were no attempt at violating or disturbing Nature's laws, these latent protective forces would never be naturally called into action, although they might still be called into artificial use as they are by man. The equilibrium of the universe (mind, matter and spirit) would be perfect if no disturbing influences affected these laws, and in proportion to their disturbance in any part of the universe will matters be wrong. Thus it is in connection with laws that govern worlds as well as with those laws that have their dominion in the most secret chamber of the human heart. In a justly governed country there is not one law for the rich and another for the poor, neither is there in the great universe one law for great matters and a different law for small matters in practically the same concerns. The law of vibrations is universally the same, no matter what the variations of vibrations may be. The law is the same everywhere, but different variations of vibrations of course produce different results, and that, too, by unchangeable law. While it is perfectly impossible to treat in a small treatise on the whole philosophy and physics of the vibrations of this ether, some instances are too important to be entirely passed over. Perhaps nothing is more important than the action of these vibrations upon the brain from a purely physical point of view. In the normal condition of this ether on the brain, that is, when the vibrations act without being affected by any unnatural disturbance (or where the latent reserve forces of Nature called to the assistance of the opposed operating law are sufficient to liberate that law from obstruction), then the brain is in a healthy state. But there are conditions where diseased matter, malformation of organs, etc., may unduly divert the action of these forces, so that the results may seem as if the law were actually violated, which is an impossibility. The vibrations must be correct, the registrations of them correct, but by the outside influence of these forces in contact with the diseased matter, or malformed organs, etc., the interpretations are misunderstood; and when this takes place to such an extent as to make the subject affected totally different in his conclusions from his fellowmen, he is said to have a disordered brain Perhaps the most marked of simple cases is that of colour-blindness, where a man believes red to be green because he sees it so. Colour has been scientifically proved to be the result of variations of vibrations, and nothing more. When a colour is placed before the eyes which affects them to a certain number of millions of times in a second, that colour is said to be red. The same colour has the same effect upon all healthy eyes. Yet there are some cases of men with healthy eyes who maintain that red is green. The man's eyes are healthy, and the variation of vibrations required to produce the colour red is invariably the same, and yet to this man red is green. The difference of opinion is caused by the latent etheric forces in his brain detracting from or overruling the interpretation of the registration of the number of vibrations. Such disorders of the mind cause all mental delusions, from the simplest fancy of the poet to the most complicated madness.

Thus the whole universe, in all its ramifications, is welded together by this volatile substance -- ether. Even disintegrated atoms are wrapped up in it, and the lowest order of material creation is connected by it with the highest spiritual existence, for if matter and spirit be not joined together, there must be at some place a space between in which there is nothing, and if so, scientists must swallow their own great dogma, that 'Nature abhors a vacuum.' As a flying bird is connected with the earth by the air, or as by that material on which the law of gravity acts worlds are connected with each other, so by this ether matter, mind and spirit are connected and cannot physically be disconnected, any more than a carriage uncoupled from a train can still remain part of that train. If spirit be absolutely nothing, then there is nothing spiritual to connect with matter; but spirit is something, just as wind is something. The very motion of the air is something tangible to matter. The thought in my mind is something that sends a thrill of joy or grief through my material body and tangibly affects my corporeal senses, and therefore the very operations of my mind are connected with my material body, and so, too, my soul is connected with both, and my Creator connected with all, for the living soul in me is part of His own eternal life. The whole universe, whatever its constituent parts, is of one leaven. Nowhere in space can even the finest needle-point be placed where it may be said, 'This is not a part of the universe,' whether that universe in part contains uncreated beings or not, for whether created or uncreated all are united, and that by the inexorable law of necessity. Man derives his food from the earth, the earth is fruitful only through the influences of the sun, and the sun's power was communicated from the Origin of creation, and thus material man is continually connected with the Source of creation, and, if possible, more truly is it the case that the higher or spiritual part of man is continually connected with the Source of spirit-life, which is the same as the Origin of creation. It is, then, an absolute necessity, physically speaking, that the whole universe is compacted into one, and it is a greater necessity still, psychologically speaking, that all intelligent powers should be in continuous communication, and, above all, that the Source of all knowledge and light should be in constant communication with that mortal part of His own image to which He has given both the power and the desire to know truth.

BUT ether is more than a mere material connection. Every element in Nature is a medium for the activity of some law, as well as a reservoir of latent reserve forces. There is not one indolent atom in Nature, not one that is incapable of work. There is nothing useless in the universe. So there is no inert law. There is no law that does not do the extremest amount of desired or necessary work. If there be work to be done, it is done entirely by one law where it is possible. Two laws never govern or do the work that one is capable of doing. No known law works so universally as the law of vibrations. By it life is given to the material world through the agency of the sun. Light, heat, sound, colour, magnetism, electricity, etc., are controlled by it. Under its government the nerve-system of the human body acts, and all the senses are under its control. All psychological idosyncrasies obey it, and all psychic conditions are results of its sway. A ray of sunlight is part of an element on which the law of vibration acts with at least two distinct results, which are dependent on the variations of vibrations. One set of variations produces heat, and another set of variations of these vibrations produces light. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the only work that light and heat do, is to make the earth bring forth fruit. Christian men and women at once acknowledge that this is God's way of making the earth produce fruit, but, on the other hand, it would be just as easy for the Almighty to say to the earth, 'Be fruitful, and bring forth fruit at once,' and it would do so. This would be a simpler method, and in some opinions a more God-like method. Why does He not adopt this method ? Simply because He has ordained, in accordance with His general system, that even the fruits of the earth shall be brought forth through the governing influences of evolutionary laws which He has methodically appointed for that very purpose. Every action of His in this material world, at least as far as is known to man, is produced in consonance with His fixed laws. If a Christian man owned one hundred acres of barren land, they would not bring forth fruit although the sun shone on them for 365 days every year, even if the owner prayed day and night for good harvests, and that because the vibratory laws have no productive powers over barren lands. On the other hand, if land be properly prepared for receiving the chemical action of the sun's rays, it will produce, even to a most godless man, an excellent harvest, because these laws have nothing to do with the man, while they must do their duty to the land. Yet it must be borne in mind that another law may be brought into action by the Almighty that might neutralize the effects of these productive vibratory forces (neutralizing the effects of a law does not mean violating or destroying the law, for no law in Nature can be destroyed). God is Almighty, but He works by systematically established laws as His agents. No scientist or researcher of truth can name a single process in Nature that is not the outcome of law- established order. The origin of minerals, the growth of herbs and fruits, the generation of life, and the naturalness of death, are all in strict conformity with law. Why should this law-institution begin and end with this material world, when He who made and governs it also made and governs the whole universe? Is it not most reasonable to think that He should also govern His whole universe by law, and if laws that are applicable here are also applicable in another sphere, should they not be there applied ? Is it not especially likely that the same laws will be everywhere applied, seeing that all the universe is one united whole ? Why should His actions here be carried on in a different method from what they are there ? Why should His methods on His earth be inharmonious with His methods in His heaven ? With Him there is no changeableness, neither variableness of action. He is ever the same. The inference, by analogy, is, that the whole universe is governed by law, and that laws which are applicable to the government of this world will also be applicable to the government of the universe, and that what is true of the whole will be true of details.

This ether is an element of the greatest activity. It is the railway of the greatest carrying power in the universe -- the telegraph system of intercommunication between God and man, the telephone of humanity as well as of celestial beings, the telegraph of mind and spirit. Time and distance are of no account on it, for action is instantaneous, and the action is not less simple than the physical production of light, heat, sound, etc.

Turn aside for a paragraph, and see what may be considered the requirements of man. What is man ? Earth, dust ! Suppose him to be dust and nothing more. The very dust has its claims upon the satisfying resources of Nature, and claims, too, that are paid with the fixed regularity of the seasons. Man, as mere dust, has an equal claim on the resources of Nature as his common earth. Suppose him to be of the lowest order of animal creation with a living body, sensitive nerves, and an animal existence that vanishes into oblivion or annihilation at death. Even then he would have higher requirements and claims than the mere dust man, for surely that which has been created for existence has a right to expect that the requirements of that existence should be obtainable. The wilful starvation of an animal is a crime at which we all shudder, and we should shudder at the wilful starvation of the animal man, if the necessities of an animal life were denied him by his Creator. But man is more than dust or mere animal, and his necessary requirements must be more. He is a being with mind. The acquisition of knowledge is a necessity to that mind. It is as necessary for that mind to know as it is for his body to eat. Does Nature deny the necessary food for either mind or body ? Nature has satisfaction for every created desire. Every natural claim Nature is capable of gratifying. There must be satisfying food for the inquiring mind of men, and to ask that food, which is wisdom and knowledge, is natural. Were such food not provided, and search for it not permitted, ay, and guidance to it not granted, then the wilful starvation of the mind of man would have been a cruelty that Nature herself would have shuddered at. But man is more than this matter with mind, for in him there is a part of eternal life itself -- that eternal life that knows all -- and, therefore, his justifiable claims on Nature, and on the Creator of Nature and himself are as boundless as the claims of matter, mind, and spirit. Man has a right to know the universe in which he is so peculiarly placed, and he has been made capable of knowing it, and shall know it some day, although the evolutionary laws by which the universe is governed may so divert his acquisition of knowledge, through his own ignorance of them, that his attainable perfection must be delayed until these inexorable laws are known and obeyed.

The Source of creation is the Centre of knowledge as well as the Origin of life, and from that Centre comes all wisdom, knowledge, and truth, which are transmitted thence to all beings capable of receiving them, just as vegetable life may be said to be transmitted from the sun to the earth by means of his rays. To and from this Centre the invisible but material ether extends and does the double work of giving and receiving; just as the sun's rays send down light and heat, and take up surplus moisture from the earth. This great work of the ether is done by vibration, and these vibrations provide the necessary food for the reasonable mind and living soul. By this means the Deity speaks intelligibly to intelligent beings, and thereby provides satisfactorily for the legitimate cravings of mind and soul, just as the natural demands of fruitful soil are provided for by the vibratory action of the sun's rays. Colour, etc., is distinguished by the accurate interpretation of certain vibratory symbols, so sympathy (see 'Vera Vita' * Published by Digby, Long & Co.), including wisdom, the natural requirement and food of the mind, is symbolically transmitted from the fountain of sympathy, and is translated by the sixth sense ('Vera Vita'). Any one colour is the same to all men, because it affects the sense of sight of all men with the same number of symbolic vibrations, and so a message from the Deity to man is given to all who may receive it by the same vibratory symbols, and translated by each into his own vernacular language. From London to Aberdeen there are many telegraph stations, and a message sent from the one place to the other may be read en route at any of the intervening stations, and so the vibrations of an etheric chord, passing through many people and recording some Divine message or discovery of truth, may be similarly read by all these people. No great and new discovery of truth has ever been declared to the world by any distinguished person but many people have felt that they knew it before, and they are just as likely to have known it as the first exponent of it. Thus, too, when some so-called new truth has been well received, the air has previously been full of it. People then willingly receive the truth, for the fact of the matter is, they have intuitively received it before, yet the one who first announces it is called the discoverer of it. New truth is sometimes simultaneously announced in different parts of the world by persons utterly unknown to each other. The message of truth has come in the same way to each, and doubtless to many more, who have not declared it because of their natural timidity, ignorance, or inability to express themselves, etc. By this vibratory transmission of intelligible symbols comes all inspiration, and generally through some mind specially prepared for its reception and disclosure. Great inspirations of truth for the benefit of mankind never come until mankind is prepared to receive them, and when mankind is prepared for any such new light it invariably comes, just as the fructifying forces of the sun never come until the chemical effects of winter and spring prepare the earth to receive them with good effect. Great teachers of the race have never failed the world at a time of need, just as great generals invariably spring up in times of real necessity either to crush the oppressor or relieve the oppressed. The whole trend of human life, whatever pessimists say, has been upward towards the highest evolutionary condition, and as enlightenment has been required it has been given through religion, philosophy, science, etc.; the enlightenment, though not so traced at the time, being afterwards acknowledged as inspiration, and that inspiration has been transmitted from the Source of enlightenment to some prepared individual by the symbolic means of vibrations of ether. The voice that reaches all the senses is vibration; why should the voice that reaches mind and soul not be the same? The material vibrations are understood at the brain and by the senses; why, then, should the interpreter for the mind and soul show less intelligence ?

NATURE with the same voice speaks to all, and in no country is her tongue a foreign language. The real origin in all ages of the beautiful ideas of fairyland is the irrepressibly innate belief in this voice of Nature whispering into the willing ears of expectant youth, which sees nothing unnatural in the enchantment that falls like sweet harmony on the soul. Out from her most inmost chambers, Nature, by vibratory symbols of speech, pours upon her lovers the very essence of poesy and music from all that is lovely, beautiful, noble, and pure.

Except in the case of the Hebrews, it has never been maintained that the Deity has had personal and verbal communication with man in the case of inspired individuals, and it is generally acknowledged in all countries that the dawn of any so-called new truth has come by inspiration. The eminent poets of all nations, heathen and otherwise, have been inspired men. Pagan philosophers, who have first announced great truths, have been inspired men, but no one could affirm that they were men who walked with God. There is no reason why an atheist should not be an inspired man, for he might be constitutionally and intellectually adapted to be the best interpreter of the vibratory motions of the ether wave passing through him in common with others. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings the truth might be spoken. It is rarely indeed that the inspired teacher or genius has a high scholastic training which tends to derogate from that simplicity that reaches the hearts of all men. Without in any way despising book-learning, it may safely be asserted that the greatest wisdom is obtained through those teachers who seek close and secret communion with Nature, the most attractive and fascinating schoolmistress of mankind. To such humble students she opens what the world calls the hidden arcana, and shows them there is no mystery but the sublime simplicity of a master Creator. Nor has she anything more wonderful to show than the admirable simplicities of this law of vibration that astonishes all the senses and thrills the nerve system. She speaks with one language to all nations, and they are as deaf adders who will not hear her. The vibratory melody of one country will be melodious in all countries, and what is discordant music to one people will be discordant to another, and that when there are only musical notes without words. These notes are but symbols, but they are symbols similarly understood by all nations. Indisputably, also, they are but vibrations. The whistling or humming of an air needs no words for the human mind to put its true interpretation on it. The mere humming of the notes of a melancholy air is but a certain variation of vibrations to which the whole world would give one translation. Spirited strains of notes, too, are but another variation of vibrations that the human understanding never mistakes, no matter what the nationality may be. This is a fact that no reasonable mortal can reasonably gainsay. The truth of this symbolic language is incontrovertibly acknowledged and daily exemplified in all grades of the human family. Catching airs, without words, are hummed and strummed in the lowest alleys and most refined palaces, and yet the interpretations in barbarian and refined minds are the same. Prince and peasant receive the same vibratory symbols from the orchestra that makes the one tap his gilded fingers on the richly-embroidered tiers, and the other stamp his hobnailed boots on the hard floor of the gallery- gods. The minds of both take the same meaning from the vibratory symbols. The symbolic language is the same to both, yet in the daily vernacular of neither. Such symbolic vibration is the language understood by all humanity at least. Nor is this language ever disputed in the most mixed audiences, for where the harmony is catching, all are more or less equally affected. It is not disputed because it is the language of Nature that is understood by all. Nature is never ambiguous, though, through the ignorances and prejudices of man, she may be misunderstood. This vibratory symbolic language of Nature is understood, acknowledged, and appreciated by all; why, then, should it not be believed that her language at all times is this same symbolic vibration ? The language of Nature is the language of God.

All articulated language, from the highest stage of civilization to the lowest barbarism, is received by the ear as a mere vibration upon the tympanum, whence the communication is immediately transmitted through the vibrating nerve to the brain, from which, back to the sense of hearing, comes the understood translation of the received vibrations. It matters nothing to what nationality the spoken language belongs, it is simply carried to the ear by symbolic vibratory signs. The same signs are used in every tongue and clime, ay, the animals that have no reason speak to each other by the selfsame signs, but we do not understand them simply because we do not know their code of signals. The variations of vibrations in the language of the lower animals have a very small range indeed, as may be observed from the limited number of notes in the whistling of a bird, or in the natural call of any beast. Even the dog, the most intelligent of the lower animals, has comparatively few changes in his bark. The likelihood is that the feelings communicated by any of the nerve-senses of these animals to the brain are not so finely registered there, or so minutely translated, as they are in the case of human beings, hence their sufferings cannot be so acute, their joys so great, nor their hopes and fears so strong, because these feelings, though felt by the nerve, are registered and measured on the brain according to the interpretation of the symbols, which are so few as to be incapable of measuring the detailed sensitiveness. The chief thing contended for here is that the ear only receives vibrations, and that these vibrations are completely under the control of a law in Nature, compelling the same results to all according to the variations of vibrations communicated to the ear.

On the sense of sight beholding a scene, the nerve attaching the eyes to the brain communicates the effect by vibrations which are at once translated as the apparent quality of the scene. In other words, a beautiful scene affects the eyes with a fixed variation of vibrations, just as they are affected by a different number of vibrations to testify to color. The variations of vibrations, too, decide whether the scene be pleasing or otherwise to the sense of sight. The intellectual pleasure is distinctly after the sensual one, which is first transmitted by vibratory symbols. All sensual feelings are transmitted in the same way, and so, too, are all the emotions of the mind, such as grief, fear, joy, hope, etc. If the immediate objects or causes of these emotions be material, the vibrations will be communicated to the mind also through the senses affected; but if they be ideal, mental or imaginary, the etheric chords on which they act will be vibrated exactly in the same way that the corporal nerves vibrate when in contact with anything tangible. This mental communication is made by code-signals arranged on the same principles, and differing only in variations. It is as if an idea were to the mind something tangible on the tangible ether nerve, and vibrating it with the required number of variations to indicate the mental feeling or emotion. Similar cause of hope, for instance, to any number of similarly disposed people, even of mixed nations, will produce similar mental emotion, and therefore must be similarly communicated, and not by one language to one people, and by another language to another people, and the language of communication used is Nature's. So it is with all similar fears, joys and all emotions of the mind. There is no inequity in the laws in Nature. She has the emotion to communicate to the mind, and is compelled to do it in the same way to all, without fear or favour, and that is entirely by prescribed vibratory signals. Where there is any symptom of Nature being a respecter of persons, it must lie with the persons themselves, for she herself cannot budge an atom, as her actions are more fixed than the stars of heaven.

Every bird has a flight peculiar to its own species, because the number of times that the wings vibrate in flying is different in any one species from that in any other species. Fishes, too, propel themselves with particular peculiarities dependent on the vibratory strokes given to the water by the fins. Such peculiarities are naturally dependent on the difference in vibrations. As in the material world so in the mental condition, where mind is surrounded by ether as the flying bird is surrounded by air, or the fish by water. There is not a single mental movement that does not cause commotion in the volatile ether, nor is there any motion of the ether in contact with the mind that does not communicate its motion to that mind. This body of ether is like a solid mass of nerves, rays or chords, all capable of being differently vibrated at the same time, or it is like many telegraph wires attached to one station (or passing through it); each having its own message to and fro. Each ray, whatever the original cause of its vibration, communicates and registers its own vibrations, and the interpretation is returned to the senses, intellect, mind or soul, or to each, to some or to all of them, according to the natural sympathetic interest in the communication. Such etheric transmission is the origin in man of thought, and the work or operation and bent of thought depends on the dispersion of the interpretation to the sense, intellect, mind or soul. Thus one thought may concern all four, or it may be taken up entirely by one of them. The vibrations of the ether, indeed, may be answered by sense, mind, intellect or soul. Thus, thoughts may either be communicated to man or from him, but in either case the transmission is by vibratory signals. Several of the immovable ether chords may vibrate communications at the same time, and then there is a vague activity of thought that seems to be a mere commingling of discordant ideas without any definite thought about anything. When a man is actually not thinking about anything, his mind is still active, and he knows it, but he cannot concentrate his attention on any of the many thoughts that pass through his mind like a day-dream. In such conditions, uneducated men can catch no thread of thought, no clue that can be unravelled, whereas an intellectual man by training can so concentrate any individual idea that the others may be cast into the shade, obliterated or drawn into subservience; in other words, he can strain his efforts and so get into a train of thought where the unintellectual one would be quite at sea with chaotic thoughts that would take no form.

Cultivated and uncultivated minds alike are continually active, inasmuch as there is a constant ebb and flow of vibrations quite translatable though untranslated. They are magnetic batteries charged with the most volatile fluid which exerts itself into law-guided action at the very appearance even of material, spiritual, or other influences. The stronger vibration of one chord may awaken one in a weaker chord which shall naturally partake of the nature of the generating one, and so by sympathy many chords may be vibrated which, differing in their particular variations, will still be allied in their general motions. This begets in the mind a train of thought that is filled with associations of ideas, an experience common to all, but especially to writers of works of imagination, who pour out series upon series of ideas most naturally associated with their subject matter. Thus, too, in meditative moments, a small incident may strike a chord that may so reverberate others that a long chain of connected cogitations may result. Sometimes these cogitations, though associated actually, gradually so diverge that between the first and last ideas of the chain the connection seems lost sight of. The vibrations of the different chords have originated through sympathy. The fancies of the poet are frequently the beautiful blendings, or the ringing of the changes upon the ether chords producing such associations of ideas. The ability to read and express such vibrations is the pre-eminent work of a genius, the great peculiarity of whose lasting works is that they touch the hearts of all men, although the fact is they have touched the hearts of all men before, but only as vibrations which the receivers themselves could not give a definite meaning to. The great poets are thus the interpreters of Nature's signal-codes. They re-operate in their native language, understood by their countrymen, on the chords that affect the emotions of the mind. Because these vibrations are common to all mankind, the poet who is great in one country is accounted great in foreign lands also, through translations of his works. He is the translator of Nature that is common to all, and so his translation is true to all when rendered into the different vernaculars. When he is said to understand the hearts of all men, the fact is, he is the true reader of Nature, a condition attainable by all though attained by few. His words are sympathetically appreciated universally, because what he says is already vibrated in every mind, and is spontaneously generated into understood life by his language. It is as when one musical note is struck another of the same pitch sounds in sympathy. There is a unison in Nature that loses no opportunity of courting harmony, that binds so fast the whole universe with chords of sympathy that neither man nor atom can say, 'I am independent.'

THE field of vibrations widens illimitably. The steel jumps to the magnet, yet it is drawn to it by nothing more than a vibration: steel and magnet are as one by the power of these vibrations. Thousands of iron filings, unattached and apparently unattachable, not only cling to the applied magnet but to each other, and become as one solid mass, and it is but a vibrating motion that binds them. The vibratory matter is not seen, although the influence be so plainly perceived. In the same way, the whole universe is welded into one solid mass, so that the least vibration of one atom reverberates to the utmost of the mass like a shudder or a quiver through the corporal nerve-system. The stone thrown into the still pool makes a widening though a weakening wave that ends only with the end of the water, and so one touch to the great etheric sea in which all atoms are, affects its whole system of nerve-like life. All life is in one comprehensive element, ether, embracing the elements of air and water, the uninterchangeable habitat of innumerable varieties of life, and so men, angels, souls and God inhabit the one united universe that comprehends every sphere, and every sphere is governed by the laws of vibration, with one signal-code for all nations and for all worlds. There is no isolation for man nor for man's earth, and one individual is as much an atom of the whole as any other individual is, and his possible superiority of position depends entirely on knowledge of and obedience to the inexorable, law-governed laws in Nature. Obedience to the laws would be suffficient without knowledge, but,then, all such obedience would, humanly speaking, be accidental. The laws may be known, and are meant to be known, and will never be universally or even generally obeyed until known. Nature's voice is perfectly intelligible to all. It is a God-ordained voice, and therefore is sufficient, and being sufficient, will never be supplemented. The voice of Nature is the voice of God. He never has spoken to and never will speak to man except through His law- established agents, just as no man can speak to his neighbour except by the same law- established vibratory agency, using only the fixed code of signals.

All mental actions and emotions are caused by vibrations. The unexpressed compassion one feels for distress sometimes undulates so strongly on the ether wave that the human tongue cannot speak it, yet it wells out chiefly by the senses of sight and touch, in such a way that the afflicted one can both see and feel it. A kindly word to the downcast is a vibratory message that never fails to generate sympathetic vibratory joy. As a human eye is affected by the appearance of colour, so the soul translates a sympathetic smile. The friendly but silent shake of the hand is instantly interpreted as the successful nurse of hope, just as to the sense of touch warmth begets comfort of body. The icy coldness of deceit needs no words to express itself to the deceived one. A haughty look has the same vernacular in all minds. The most ignorant person may understand the look of fear and despair, and none can mistake the appearance of hope and love. It is the experience of all that there is a language that has no words, and yet which is more eloquent and truthful than words could be. The dumb can express themselves without articulation, and the deaf can hear with understanding without the agency of sounds. There is a language more universal and sweeter far, than that of the human tongue. Words may deceive, but this language never does, although it may be misunderstood. By it confidence is confirmed, conventionalities supported, and the sweet mysteries of life are fathomed. By it heart communes with heart and soul with God, for it is the language of universal Nature -- the code-signal vibrations of the ether capable of being understood by every being in the universe independently of instinct or reason.

Instinct, at first sight, seems to some to be more unerring than reason, but, according to this philosophy, they are virtually the same thing, with practically this difference -- that whereas instinct is the simple and unbiased interpretation of the code-signal vibrations, reason in man is the same thing originally with the after-addition of collateral issues surmised, instigated or promulgated by prejudices or dogmas become by habit a part of the reasoning being. For exemplification take the case of a dog feeling sympathy or antipathy towards a man, and take also the case of a man feeling sympathy or antipathy towards another man. By physical necessity there is an etheric connection between the lower animals and man, and etheric vibrations are generated between the man and dog at their mere appearance, just as the sense of sight is immediately by vibratory action informed of the colour of any presented object. The dog feels sympathy with the man, and at once unflinchingly fawns upon him without considering whether his action is wise or advantageous. That is, the dog at once recognises, accepts and trusts the voice of Nature. By the same natural and unerring medium one man may feel sympathy for another, and yet be shaken in his conclusions when he reasons that it would not be diplomatic to sympathize, and thus he reasons himself into a wrong opinion. Thus reason seems to lead a man astray where instinct would not, but that is not the fault of Nature, who communicates with both man and beast by the same simple and unmistakable vibratory signs through the medium of universal ether.

Does this invaluable and infallible language of Nature require to be supplemented by the articulate speech of the tongue ? Has Nature not done enough ? The work of the unruly member is a necessity of man's social condition. As well might the world be considered complete without the beauty of scenery or the harmony of sound, both of which might easily be considered quite superfluous to necessity. The tongue is not a generator, but a transmitter of thought; moreover, it is especially the transmitter of thought from the mental to the material world. The thought in the mind, where there is attenuated or refined ether, is transmitted by the tongue in the form of a vibration to the denser ether of the common air, which is in direct communication with the receiving ear. Then, again, there are other agents at work that have power to influence the thought-vibrations in their passage from the mind to the tongue, and from the tongue to the ear; so that the tongue does not necessarily articulate the thought of the mind, nor does the ear receive the vibrations exactly as they are transmitted by the tongue. The tongue is falsely accused of much evil. It is a mere instrument or agent, and in itself as guiltless as the razor that cuts a suicide's throat. The current of thought-vibration passes through man's influencing reason previous to its transmission to the material air, and if that reason be adulterated, and it may be, and generally is, then the transmission will be more or less tinged with the adulterated dye. The vibrations caused by the mere words of the tongue do not convey the full meaning of the transmission, although the code-signals for tongue vibrations is the universal vibratory code. The mere vibrations caused by the tongue are influenced, or have variations thrown into them, by the intonation, by the effect produced on the sense of sight through gesture, etc., and by the hearer's reasoning, etc. There is an infinitely greater likelihood of mistaking the tongue of man than there is of mistaking the voice of Nature. They are as fallibility to infallibility, and yet they are both transmitters of thought, governed by the same law that rules vibrations everywhere.