Benjamin Franklin Woodcox – The Silence, Thoughts on the Silence and on Various Other Subjects

 

SILENCE. It is in the silence that the master genius works. The Creator, and the created who create, work in the silence. It is in the silence that God conceived His masterpiece, and it is through the silence that this masterpiece is being evolved or created.

It is out of the silence that evolution comes. And it is through the medium of the silence that evolution is made possible. Fashioned and matured in the silence of nature, all things tend to become beautiful and great.

Destiny is to be met with in silence. That destiny that changes our lives, that opens our eyes, and that reveals to us that which has been hidden from us.

It is through the silence that we are able to tap the reservoirs of spiritual knowledge, and learn that which can never be learned in any other way.

The silence is necessary to spiritual sounds, and it is only when in the silence that we can approach sufficiently near to hear these sounds distinctly.

The spiritual ear is attuned to the silence. There­fore it is through the silence only, that we are capable of receiving a spiritual communication.

The voices that speak to us out of the silence are silent voices, though they are by no means voices that can not be heard.

The silence delivers a different message to each of us, a message that corresponds to our needs and states of development.

To some the silence speaks of the higher heavens, while to others it concerns itself merely with the things of this earth plane.

The voice of God can be heard only in and through the silence. His is a still small voice that comes to us on ethereal waves from a land that is far away.

There is a silence in which all must weep who enter, a silence that is too profound for human speech, and too full of approaching destiny to be unflinchingly borne.

The silence that is within us has a depth to which we can not go. It also has a height to which we can not climb.

To fear the silence is an admission of guilt. It is a confession that one is not living in harmony with the purpose of life. It is a confession that one is wilfully retarding and delaying one’s inner self on its way to per­fection.

It is only when we are in the silence, and when all is still, that the spirit life is active and capable of accom­plishing its task.

In the silence with God, or with another, there is understanding. No words need be spoken. The silence can remain unbroken forever, and yet we will know all that is necessary that we should know.

Those only who approach God through the silence can hope to draw near to Him, or to hold communication with Him. And those who would approach God must make long and careful preparation by living much of their time in the silence.

To attain to the silence is to attain to a unity, to a harmony, with God.

All that is worth while and valuable comes to us out of the silence and the invisible.

Truth comes to us in the silence—in the silence with nature and with God.

Go out into the silence of nature. Select for yourself a site that is beautiful, serene, peaceful, and far from the abode of man. There build a temple to God, and there worship God, each man alone in the silence.

NATURE. Nature is a great artist that is trying to evolve or create that which it sees, feels and knows.

The creation of life is nature’s master work, and the creation of the beautiful her pastime.

All nature, and all things in nature, fade and blend into one another. They become parts of one another, differing only in their development, their nearness to per­fection, to the Divine.

All of nature’s most valuable productions are in rhyme, metre and song.

We are all one with and in nature. Not to feel this oneness is to be out of conscious harmony with all life.

We are all one with nature and in sympathy and in rapport with her, or else we are prisoners imprisoned within nature with every means of escape cut off.

The more clearly we realize this oneness with nature, the more in harmony we are with the law, and the more rapid will be our evolution.

Nature takes on the aspect of that which we are. It reflects back to us the image of ourselves. It is our friend or enemy, even as we are the friend or enemy of nature.

Nature likes us to be calm, peaceful and patient. She does not love us so fully when we assume importance and excite ourselves with that which need not concern us.

Nature is more concerned in the creation of the beau­tiful than she is in our conception or appreciation of the beauty that she has created.

Nature has a voice with which to speak to those who have ears to hear, but most of us are deaf or know not how to listen.

It is through the silent beauty in nature that God speaks to us the most often—not through the tempest and the storm.

Nature leads the way that we should go. She detects all our mistakes, and sees that we eventually arrive at the port of our destination.

There are two sides to nature, a visible and an in­visible side. And the invisible side of nature is nature’s most important side.

If we could penetrate nature to a point where we could see both sides of nature, we could know all there is to be known.

In the realm of nature, wherever there is truth there is law, and wherever there is beauty there is joy.

Nature is the book of revelations. It is the book of laws, the guide board that leads to Heaven and to every other desirable place this side or beyond.

Observe the beauty of nature but do not seek to grasp it, in a physical sense, if you would not destroy it, or mar the greater part of its loveliness.

HARMONY. Harmony is a state of vibration. It is a being in tune with our environment, with the laws of nature and of life.

Harmony is the key to life. It is that which reveals to us whether or not we are living wisely.

Happiness is harmony. It is the result of being in harmony, though perhaps only temporarily, with life.

The exaltation resulting from our being continually in harmony with life is more profound, serene and peaceful than is mere happiness.

When there is complete harmony between the spirit- life and the physical life, then each of these lives trans­cends itself—becomes greater than itself.

Everything that produces harmony between us and the purpose of life is good, and greatly aids the spirit-life in obtaining its development the more rapidly.

When we are in harmony with the purpose of life we are quick to perceive the slightest spiritual jar that de­notes the presence of discord. We are equally quick to be warned, and to see that the harmony that exists be­tween us and the purpose of life is not broken.

When the harmony that exists between us and the purpose of life is broken, the stream of good that flows from the Divine to us in interrupted, and our spiritual development is retarded. When this happens our spirit- life is no longer serene, contented and full of peace.

If we are not in tune with the harmonies of the uni­verse, how can we expect to be anything more than a discord amid the harmonies of life? And if we are a discord amid the harmonies of life, how can we expect to know the truth, or to obtain our development the more rapidly, until we have found our way back into harmony ?

Everything that is in harmony with the purpose of life is a thing of beauty.

Harmony and beauty are one. These are united in nature.

BEAUTY. Beauty is the underlying principle of life. It is of beauty that life is made up.

Everything in the universe is filled with beauty for those who are able to see. And this beauty varies and increases for us with our spiritual development.

All beauty is striving to make itself manifest to us; is striving to disclose itself to our inner consciousness.

Our spirit-life is athirst for the beautiful. The beau­tiful is the food and the drink of the spirit-life. It is from absorbing the beauty from the beautiful that the inner life becomes more beautiful.

Beauty is absorbed and transformed by the spirit-life into spiritual beauty.

Spiritual beauty shines through its material encase­ment, and is revealed to all who are in position to observe it.

Beauty is the one thing which the inner life loves, and for which it seeks everywhere.

Much of the beauty that we perceive is in the vitality. It is in the life. It is in that part of us that is invisible, and beyond the field of our physical sense of perception.

Beauty is the language with which the spirit-life speaks. And the spirit-life needs no other language with which to make itself understood.

Beauty illuminates. It lights up the darkness of life, and greatly helps us to see our way about.

Beauty points the way that we should go. And when we go the way we should, all things become more and more beautiful.

We must learn to appreciate the beauty of earth before we can hope to appreciate the beauty of a more perfect sphere.

The beauty that we see is as nothing compared to the beauty that will be revealed to us, a little at a time, as we evolve higher and higher in the scale of spirtual development.

The amount of beauty possessed by our spirit-life de­pends upon the point to which it has attained in its devel­opment ; depends upon the height it occupies in the world of invisible life; depends upon its nearness to perfection, its nearness to the Divine.

For him to whom the beauty of nature is concealed, life has many hard lessons, and the grave many doors leading back into the physical-material world.

The beauty of nature and of life is not for man alone. Yet woe unto the man who fails to perceive this beauty, and to appreciate it, and to make it his own.

All of the higher forms of beauty are of the spiritual plane of life, and can not be perceived by those who have not yet attained to a high state of spiritual development.

The spirit-life judges all things by the beauty they contain, and has no other standard of judgment.

Physical beauty needs to be transformed before it can be of value to the inner life, but spiritual beauty needs no transformation.

The spirit-life transforms the beautiful, and is by the beautiful transformed into something more beautiful.

We are but children lost in the beauty of an unknown life. So we fear, lest we be found out and deprived of this beauty which is our joy.

A spirit-life is a thousand times more beautiful than the most beautiful thought to which it can give birth.

It is from the beautiful that we have derived all that is worth while in life. And it is out of the beautiful that each of us is fashioning a life of exquisite beauty.

Our conception of the beautiful is an accurate standard by which we can judge our spiritual development.

We must create the beautiful if we are to enjoy the beautiful, because all things must be born of us. And all things that are born of us must first be conceived by the inner life.

All the beauty that we perceive is in vibratory har­mony with all the good of which we can have any know­ledge.

All things beautiful approach close to the secret of life.

Beauty is in course of evolution. It is in course of becoming more beautiful on each and every plane of life.

There is no point beyond which the beautiful does not go, nor beyond which it does not continue to become more beautiful.

All beauty is symbolic and invisible, and is seen only by the inner or spirit-life.

A flower is beautiful, but the greater part of the beauty that we perceive in a flower is not physical beauty; or else we perceive but a comparatively small part of its beauty.

From the very day that we become conscious of our inner beauty, that beauty takes on new life and begins to grow, expand and evolve more rapidly than before.

The closer we approach to the invisible beauty that is about us, the more easily we can absorb this beauty and make it our own.

We can add to the beauty of our inner life by so liv­ing that our inner life can surround itself with the beau­ties of the invisible world.

By repeatedly adding to the beauty that is within, we eventually arrive at the doorway that leads to Heaven.

It should be understood that there is no other road to completion than that which goes from beauty to beauty, and still on to higher states of the beautiful.

Unless we have an artist within capable of creating the sublimely beautiful, we shall never behold such beauty in the outer world. Such an artist can come into ex­istence only through spiritual evolution.

Misfortune sometimes helps us to attain the more rapidly to a higher state of consciousness, and therefore to a greater beauty.

We live in a world of exquisite beauty, but most of the time we are not conscious of this beauty. Yet doth this beauty shine upon us unceasingly, and in varying shades, colors and shapes.

Beauty is necessary to harmony, to unity. Without beauty nothing is, or can be, complete.

The creation of the beautiful is the highest form of human endeavor, and ranks next to that which is neces­sary to the maintenance of life.

Beauty is the pathway that leads to God, and therefore to truth.

Beauty is a gift from God to man, and when created by man, from man to God.

We can add to the beauty by admiring it, or subtract from it by lack of appreciation.

It is sometimes necessary to see beauty where beauty does not exist—necessary to create the beautiful.

Develop carefully and minutely the photograph of all that is beautiful in your life, and see that all the im­pressions received by you that are not worth saving are left in an undeveloped state within your mind.

Cling to the beautiful. Use reflection, meditation and the silence, when necessary, in order that you may add to your inner life as much of the beautiful as possible.

To have beautiful memories, beautiful pictures stored in memory’s chamber of your life, you must be select in what you read, think and observe—in what you allow to influence your thought, feeling and emotion.

Feed upon the beautiful. Think only of the beautiful. Allow none but beautiful scenes to form vivid impressions within your mind.

All things are essentially beautiful, but this beauty ofttimes lies buried too deep, or is to be found at too lofty a height for most of us to see. Ofttimes the minds that are capable of penetrating to the profound beauty of the lower worlds are incapable of ascending to the higher beauty of the more ethereal regions.

All that is beautiful and good is permanent, has im­mortality, will endure through all eternity. But that which is not beautiful will disappear, as will also that which is not good.

GOODNESS. Goodness lifts us out of ourselves and shows us the Divine.

Goodness tends to make us Divine, and the nearer we are to spiritual perfection, the more we value and seek the good.

All things that are good illuminate life; tend to help us to see how beautiful life is, and how serene and certain is life’s purpose.

That which in the final result is helpful to us in our spiritual development, is the good. The good is often the knife that causes our hearts to shed tears of blood.

Once a spirit life has attained to the desire to be good, nothing but goodness will satisfy it, or will bring to it the joy for which it craves.

We can not be good for ourselves alone, because, by the very act of being good, we render a service to all mankind and for all time. By the very act of being good we render a service to all life, and for all eternity.

We are magnets that attract to us that which we possess. Once we attain to goodness, we will no longer have to struggle to be good; because all that which is good will be attracted, or drawn toward us, by an irres­istible force.

All goodness is by nature invisible. Seldom does goodness show its face, even for a moment, lest we be blinded by illumination. Yet all of us know of this in­visible goodness—goodness for which we offer many excuses when perchance we perceive that it has been dis­covered in our lives.

We attain to goodness through evolution. None are good because they desire to be, though the desire to be good may aid us in attaining goodness.

Goodness is enlightenment. It is knowledge. It is understanding. Because it is these things it makes no mistakes; it does not impede its own development as does evil.

LIFE. Life is an evolution to be obtained. It is a task to be performed, a series of lessons to be learned.

Life consists in outward events and in an inner growth, development, evolution; a gradual changing, with an upward tendency toward a more lofty sphere of life.

Life is a circle within a circle. And each circle grows, not smaller but larger, as it approaches the stage of a higher activity.

We are but little more acquainted with life than we are with death. There is but little more of the mysterious in the one than there is in the other.

Each of us must learn to know himself apart from himself, and to understand each of these selves separately, as well as in unity, if he is to understand life; for life is not one, nor two, but three. Life is a trinity composed of spirit-life, physical life and these two lives united in the intellect.

The highest conception that we are able to entertain of life is most likely the right one; or rather, is likely to be nearest to the truth.

To be out of harmony with the purpose of life is to be spiritually ill.

Life is in the mentality. The development of the mentality is therefore the strengthening of the life force within. It is the making of this life force more vital, more able to exist. This development of the mentality is necessary to completion. It is the preparation of the life for the higher spiritual zones; or rather, it is one of the things necessary in this preparation.

The development of the mentality does not make the spirit-life good. It merely makes it a stronger spirit, one more able to endure, to exist after it has passed over as well as while here.

Each rude awakening which our natures suffer carries us on to a higher plane of life.

We can illuminate life with our love or darken it with our hate. We can make all beautiful or ugly, even as we are beautiful or ugly within.

Life is made up largely of capacity, of the ability to appreciate, understand, enjoy and possess in a spiritual sense.

Life does not steal away. It goes forth with erected head and joyfully.

The greatest things of life cost us next to nothing, but for every little thing we must pay dearly.

Death adds to the value, and to the beauty of life.

DEATH. Death is merely the passing from one phase of existence to another. It is for us a passing from the visible to the invisible that we may again pass to the visible, and so on until we no longer have need of a visible incarnation or body.

Death is merely the end of a lesson, the brief quiet that exists between the tasks that evolution requires of us.

Death is the end of a chapter in the book of life, and birth is the beginning of the chapter that is to follow.

Must not the spirit die in the invisible world that it may be born in the world that is visible? Is not birth but the other side of death?

Death is the departing, and birth the arriving, of a spirit-life in a new incarnation or body.

Death is the gateway to immortality, and so also is birth.

Both the arrival and the departure of a spirit-life is beautiful, and there is beauty all the way between.

Death is merely an incident in life, like birth and marriage, and of no more importance in the scheme of things than either of these.

Death is often the point in the battle of our existence at which victory begins to march toward us. We die in order to live, and sometimes in order that we may accom­plish that for which we have lived.

We must go through the portals of death in order to have immortal life. And not once must we pass through these portals, but many, many times.

Each death is but a new beginning, another entrance into life through a brief rest which is within itself a new life.

It is well that we can not see all the pictures of death that are within the unconscious mind, because some of these are so beautiful that they would tempt us to depart this life.

Only those who do not understand, fear death. Death is full of the beautiful, and is as interesting and worth possessing as life.

LOVE. Love is a suffering that is sweet, that is enjoyable, that is well worth enduring. Love is both a gift and a reward.

Love is a compound made up of physical, mental and spiritual attractions compounded in equal proportions.

Love admits us into the presence of life. It discloses to us life’s secrets.

Love is a purifier. It creates a desire for purity even in the breast of the impure.

Love changes even the tone of one’s voice. Under the influence of love the voice becomes lower, sweeter, and more melodious.

Love is the greatest educator in the world. It fills us with respect and sympathy for others, and at the same time causes us to make the most of ourselves for the sake of others, for the sake of those whom we love.

Love enlightens. It helps us to see and to under­stand. It creates within us a spring of sympathy that flows forth to all the world. It enables us to see more than others see, and to understand better than those understand who do not love.

Love is a food that tends to stimulate life, and to nourish, sustain and make life more beautiful and health­ful.

Love tries to conceal from us the things that we should not see or know.

Love refines and elevates. It lifts us up to a more lofty height of living, and thereby produces the conditions most favorable to rapid spiritual development.

Love is capable of making heroes of us, or saints. It is capable even of making dishonest men honest.

Love is an anticipation of Heaven. It is a higher impulse than that of religion, and of more importance in the scheme of things.

Love is more important than religion because love is the supreme religion—the law itself—and not the theory, belief or creed.

We begin with but a single love, and end by loving everything and everybody.

All that we love, or sympahtize with, or feel for, be­comes a part of us, and we can never again be what we were before we loved, felt for, or sympathized with.

We may be harmed by love, but not by having loved.

Love discloses woman. In love woman’s inmost nature stands revealed.

Love can save those whom reason can not reach, can save those whom reason has failed to rescue.

Love is necessary to everything. Without love noth­ing can be accomplished that is worth accomplishing.

Only those love us who place us upon a pedestal; who approach us as they would a God; who attribute to our acts the highest motives; who see in us more virtue, goodness and beauty than we behold in ourselves.

In all life’s purposes yield to love only, be guided by love only.

We may be disappointed in those whom we love, but never while we love them will we reveal to them our disappointment.

Love draws us close to that which we love, be that which we love the world of the living or of the dead.

Love comes toward us gradually, and it departs the same way.

Love is melodious. It is music. It has power. It increases the rate of vibratory activity of the life, and brings this life into harmony with a world that it has never before known.

All men are tyrants save those whom love has made gentle.

The world is enriched by love, and made poor by hate.

We may both love and hate a person at the same time without willing to do either.

Love is the first key to our nature. It is the first chord that gives off a harmonious sound; the first feel­ing that has melody, joy, peace, happiness, Heaven. Love first and all other things afterwards.

Love is goodness. In so far as it is free from un­controlled passion, it is a gift from Heaven, a possession that has wings, and that can soar up and away from all of the undesirable things in life.

Love adds a preciousness to everything to which it attaches itself.

The language of love is a look, a silence. The more deeply we love, the less able we are to give expression to our love in words.

The silence of love speaks a language that is more beautiful than the sweetest melody.

Our loves and our friendships live on a more lofty plane than that of our thoughts and our verbal expres­sions.

Love between individuals creates a wave of sympathy that flows from one to the other, and carries from each to the other an accurate knowledge of each other’s thoughts, feelings and states of mind.

Love can be refined. It must be refined if it is to attain to supernatural beauty.

With love comes increased consciousness. The higher we are in the scale of spiritual development, the greater is our capacity for loving.

Our capacity for loving is an accurate standard by which we can gauge our spiritual development.

Love brings us into harmony with the purpose of life on each and every plane, both in this life and in the life to come.

Love produces harmony, destroys discord, and adds to the completion of each individual life.

He knows most of love who knows least of passion, because passion tends to destroy love, and to force love out of the human heart.

Through love we can approach nearer to the Divine than we can in any other way.

Those whom we love most are apt to be the most like

In our ability to love we are more fully blessed than we are in our ability to inspire love.

Love is the ultimate meaning of life.

Love grows, produces seed, multiplies and spreads.

He who is in love with the beautiful is in love with the universe.

The loss of love is not so much a misfortune as it is a punishment. Our loved ones are never won away from us. Rather, they are always driven away.

Love is the greatest saving power in the world, and next to love in saving power is faith.

Love is necessary to comprehension, to understanding. The greater our love the more complete our ability to understand.

Every spark of love that life generates adds to the beauty and to the value of life.

Spiritually, the life that possesses the most love possesses the most vitality and is the most highly devel­oped.

Love is more important than knowledge, because love begets knowledge, is the source of knowledge.

Love knows more about the immortality of the spirit- life than do all the institutions of learning.

In our love for another there is love for God, and also for self. If this love for another is love, then it is Divine, and has the power to transcend itself and become something more lofty than itself.

Not only is love the law, and necessary to spiritual evolution, but love also comes in under the law, and must itself be evolved.

We must not only love, but our love must grow as we grow, and must go out to all the world.

Love is a completeness, a wholeness, a unity. Love leaves nothing more to be desired except a broader, more lofty and more universal love.

Our love may lose itself in the love of another, and may become a part of a love of a perfect union, a union that is both human and divine.

Do not place your love too far above you, but place it sufficiently high that you will have to mount to attain it.

Love tends to make us better than we are by lifting us out of ourselves, and by causing us to desire strongly to be better than we are, to be more worthy than we are of the one we love. Thus love aids us greatly in obtain­ing our spiritual development the more rapidly.

Love is the road to perfection, for we can attain to perfection only through love.

Those who love us, and whom we love, are always with us even when they are away, while those who do not love us, and whom we do not love, are always away from us even when they are near.

Disappointed love sometimes cries out so loud that it is heard, not only by all the world, but by each succeed­ing century.

Love is a call, not a command. It is a call that we dare not disregard, because life depends upon it. Hap­piness, peace, contentment, even Heaven itself, depends upon love.

Love gives itself in endless gifts. By giving itself love becomes greater, more powerful. Through giving, love receives.

We can find rest in love only. Yet this love in which we find rest is in itself an intense spiritual activity.

Through love all things are conceived, in love created, and by love maintained.

Love leads to freedom, produces action, and results in great spiritual development.

The more we love, and the more universal our love is, the greater is our joy, peace, contentment, and the more rapidly do we evolve toward the Divine.

Love looks up and not down. It is not deceived by the purely physical aspects of a situation.

Love sees deep. And into the depth into which love sees there is nothing impure, unchaste, unholy.

Love sees into the infinite. It crosses the threshold of this life into the life to come, and beholds all that is necessary to its peace, health and happiness over there.

We can be free within the bonds of love, but not out­side. Outside the bonds of love there is no freedom, peace nor happiness.

The road that leads to Heaven, and the one that passes by way of love, are one and the same thoroughfare.

We gather all the beautiful fruits of life in order that we may share them with those whom we love, and with those who love us.

The love is in the dream. It is in the soul of the lover.

FRIENDSHIP. Friendship, like love, is a religion. It has faith, hope and charity. It lifts us to a higher plane of living, and greatly aids us in our spiritual devel­opment.

A friend can be no other than one who arouses in us the desire to be good, to be better than we are.

To be fit to be* the friend of one man, is to be worthy to be the friend of all men.

A friend is one to whom no explanation of our con­duct is necessary; is one who understands before we have had time to explain.

The moment that we cease to respect, to esteem our friend, that moment we cease to be a friend.

Most of our friends expect too little of us. They do not demand of us the best that is in us.

We are as good as we perceive our friends to be.

TRUTH. Truth is always more beautiful than we conceive it to be.

All truths wait to be discovered, to make themselves known to those who love truth.

We must love truth if we would discover it, if we would behold its beauty and profit by its wisdom, for truth reveals itself to none save those who love truth.

A truth must be poetical to be true, because if a truth does not contain harmony, rhythm and meter, it is out of relation with all other truths, and therefore can not be true.

A truth may be so beautifully expressed that we will be attracted by the beauty of the expression and overlook the truth.

Without the aid of the imagination, certain truths can not be discovered, nor observed, nor understood.

The deepest and most profound truths, those pertain­ing to the infinite, reach us by a route obscure and un­known, save to a few thinkers.

To the five senses that are known, must be added five others—five spiritual senses—if we are to account for the discovery of all truth.

A truth may be too lofty for us to behold in our present state of spiritual development. Therefore our observation of that truth must be delayed, until we have evolved to a higher state of consciousness.

Truth usually conceals truth. Therefore in observ­ing a truth, look closely, for doubtless there is an undis­covered truth concealed therein.

Truth is the common property of all who believe in truth, but no person has any right with a truth in which he does not believe.

He who seeks for truth in his wakeful hour, con­tinues his search through the night, and finds many truths in dreamland that are inaccessible to him in his wakeful state.

Some of our best thoughts, our most beautiful truths, are born in dreamland. They are truths that are dis­covered by the spirit-life while the physical life is asleep.

Nothing is more surprisingly beautiful than the simp­lest truths.

The truth must sometimes seem severe, but the truth, for all that, is more beautiful and more desirable than that which is not true.

A truth may be true without being true to us.

A lofty truth is one for which we must mount, must climb, must soar into the very Heavens themselves. A lofty truth is not necessarily a profound truth, nor an obscure truth. It is a truth that requires on our part a higher spiritual development than that to which we have yet attained.

Truth illuminates. It lights up the darkness, and helps us to find other truths. Without truth we could be lost in the infinite, never to find our way to God.

The nearer we attain to truth, the more truth appeals to us as a thing of beauty.

We are evolving toward truth, and truth is flowing toward us.

We do not possess truth because truth is too great to be possessed. It is too far beyond our comprehension, experience and development. But we do possess some parts of the truth, and the higher we are in the scale of spiritual development, the more of the truth we possess.

Truth is infinite. It is made up of all the truths of which we know and more.

All great truths come to us in pieces, and much de­pends upon our ability to put these pieces together cor­rectly.

If you have no inkling of the truth, then the truth can not be conveyed to you because the human mind can not grasp a wholly new and original idea, or truth, until it has built the foundation upon which the idea, or truth, can rest.

Point out that which is true and leave the untruths to die of their own falseness.

A great truth is like a great silence. It is too pro­found for words.

Poetry is the minstrel that proclaims the approach of truth. Truth is always preceded by the poetical.

Truth transcends reason. It goes far above our ex­perience and development, and leaves us in the dark, until we have evolved to a higher plane of life.

Some truths have wings. They soar to lofty heights, to which we must ascend if we would know them. Other truths have feet of lead. They sink to profound depths, to which we must descend to make their acquaintance.

A truth must reach the subconscious mind and there be digested and made a part of our life before that truth can be our truth.

There are some truths that are so beautiful that none save those who have attained to a high state of spiritual development can hope to behold them.

Until we perceive each truth as a thing of beauty, we do not perceive it accurately, completely, nor as it is in reality.

There are truths that are too lofty and too pure for the touch of a word, truths that must be conveyed from one life to another on the wings of silence; truths that must be conveyed from one spirit to another on the wings of a stillness so still that only the ear of the inner life will be able to hear them.

Only those truths which we have discovered for our­selves are our truths. Other truths may seem to us to be beautiful, desirable, and worth possessing, but they are not ours, and try as we may, they never can be as precious to us as those which we have discovered for ourselves.

The whole truth is not yet for us. We have not yet attained to a point in our development where we can appreciate and understand the whole truth.

Usually the truths concerning life approach nearer to woman than to man. They are usually more concerned with the life of woman than they are with the life of man.

If we could see for a single second the truth concern­ing our ultimate destiny all our religious theories and beliefs would drop from us like torn garments, and we would be stunned by the grandeur, the beauty of the life that some day is to be ours.

Every truth that concerns the spirit-life is a thing of beauty and can not be fully grasped in our present state of spiritual development.

Each truth that we perceive contains within itself a truth that is more marvelously beautiful than itself. And if we keep seeking within the truth for the truth, we may in time arrive at that one truth that is more astonishingly beautiful than all the rest.

The outward truths of life are disclosed to the mate­rialists, while the inner truths are revealed to those only who have attained to the heights in spiritual unfoldment.

Spiritual truths are mysterious, mystical, evanescent. They can not be grasped nor understood in their entirety until we attain to the spiritual height on which each of these truths resides.

Intuition is the great discoverer of truth. It takes intuition to discover truth, and reason to prove the truth of that which intuition has discovered.

We must see a truth clearly before we are able to help others see it.

A truth presented to us in a false light ofttimes causes us to instantly perceive the deception and to see the truth in its correct relation to life and to facts, something per­haps which we have never before been able to do.

Our most lofty thought approaches the nearest to truth, but none of our thoughts is as lofty as the truth itself.

The dreamer discovers truths, the value of which he can not understand. The thinker learns to understand the value of truths, the discovery of which he could not successfully undertake.

Truths, like human beings, are bom, suffer and die.

Comparatively few persons are able to appreciate truth.

Old truths are like old acquaintances, they bring to our minds pleasant memories, while new truths are like strangers with whom we have not yet become acquainted.

To know the truth is merely to be informed, but to admire, to love the truth, is to be enlightened.

Truth needs no reason. It needs only to be observed, and instantly it is recognized as the truth by those who are in position to understand.

All truths come into the field of our subconscious life first, and into that of our conscious life afterwards.

The more important truths of life usually are those that can be expressed in the fewest words.

Truth should be magnified so that he whose vision is not so clear may also see it.

It is in the silence that the greater truths come to us. And it is by and through the silence that we are best able to grasp and to understand them.

THOUGHTS. Thoughts are the materials with which we build structures that will endure. They are the materials with which we build stairways that ascend to more lofty worlds.

Our thoughts together with our feelings are the most

important things in our lives because upon these depends our spiritual development, our destiny.

We are more often governed by our feelings than we are by our thoughts, and when dealing with things other than of the physical life, more wisely governed.

Ever do our feelings soar upward because they are of the spirit-life.

Feeling is more necessary than thought, and always precedes thought.

When our thoughts have wings and continually soar upward with our feelings, we are no longer of earth, though the hour of our departure has not come.

Our thoughts are born beneath our consciousness where they are matured, and seldom do they come forth until they are fully grown and ready to be expressed.

All beauty is in our thought. All ugliness is there. All happiness, Heaven, sorrow, sadness, pain, death, hell—all is in our thought.

Thoughts pass through our minds like phantoms—like ghosts—some of them not sufficiently condensed for us to be conscious of their passing. Yet in every mind thoughts are continually passing in a never ending pro­cession.

We are all wiser than we think, but not so wise as we imagine.

Books may stimulate thought, but feeling is necessary to give the thought birth.

We can as easily understand a language of which we know nothing, as we can a thought that is too far removed from our experience or too far above our present state of development.

He who thinks with the aid of his reason must crawl. He can not fly. But he who thinks with the aid of his imagination can soar into the very Heavens themselves, and will bring back with him more truths that are true than his brother thinker, who crawls, can discover.

Most men do not think. They merely reflect the thoughts that others think.

There may be a great difference between that which we think best, and that which we like best.

In thought we can approach nearer to that which we wish than we can in any other way.

Many men who think, think but feebly. Their thoughts lack vitality and strength. Their thoughts are too feeble, too weak to bear fruit, to create anything, to sustain the thinker and hold him above the commonplace, the conventional things of life.

With the aid of imagination we can rise and soar to lofty heights, but only thought is able to sustain us upon a lofty height and prevent us from descending again to earth.

He who reaps a harvest of thought from his daily ex­perience in living, gets most out of life.

His thoughts are the most serene, peaceful, pure and lofty who lives most of the time with nature, who spends most of his time in the silence where none intrude and only God is near.

We use the same method in seeking to learn what we think as we would were we trying to learn what others think. We make inquiries, or begin a conversation with ourselves.

By thoughts all things are created, by will sustained, and by evolution made perfect.

The life of a man who does not think is like unto a barren plain. It is like unto a desert land which scarcely sustains a spark of life.

Your secret thoughts grow. They become strong. They rule your life, while the thoughts to which you give expression grow weak, lose their vitality, fade away.

If you would cast a thought from you, give it ex­pression. Translate the thought into language and make that language the common property of all.

A thought conceived by a lofty mind may soar to a height to which none but an angel can ascend.

Some thoughts are too timid to be expressed in words. They will not let themselves be clearly seen.

We may think so clearly that our thoughts will become audible, and will sound to our intelligence like the voice of an invisible presence.

He who thinks lofty thoughts and loves to converse on lofty subjects lives a life that is lofty.

We can not fully understand nor appreciate a thought that originates in a mind other than our own.

Our most profound thoughts we are unable to express. Of these we can but hint, but vaguely suggest.

Each person subtracts from our thought that part which he is able to understand.

The strong thinking mind clearly perceives and gives expression to that which many weaker minds vaguely perceive but have not sufficient strength to consciously recognize and express.

He who would become great in any field of thought must not belong to any school of thinkers. He must be free to pursue truth and truth alone.

We seldom attempt to communicate our greatest thoughts, our most lofty truths, because these can not be fully expressed in words.

Thoughtlessness goes blundering through the world. It causes little happiness and much sorrow.

That thought with which we have to struggle in an attempt to give expression is not yet ripe nor ready to be expressed.

It is impossible to convey a lofty thought to a mind that is not in some way lofty.

Thought that suggests thought is the most valuable of all thought.

The spirit-life demands that it be fed upon the most lofty thoughts obtainable.

Each thought that we think and each act that we do is but the culmination of other thoughts that we have thought and deeds that we have done.

Thought either takes us upward to lofty heights or downward to profound depths.

We should strive without ceasing to clarify as many as possible of the thoughts, ideas and images that come floating up to us from the subconscious mind.

No man is more surprised at what we think than we are.

Our thoughts, convictions, beliefs are formed beneath our consciousness, and many are not known to us until the moment we give them expression.

It is sometimes necessary to be provoked in order that we clarify our thought, and express what we think, feel and know.

That thought belongs to us that causes a sense of gladness to rise up within and overflow our nature in waves of pure joy, music, harmony and beauty. But no thought so influences us, unless it is a vital thought, and contains some nourishment that is essential to the inner life.

Thoughts resemble spirit-lives in that they have form, shape and color and are charged with vital energy.

Thought radiates light in varying shades and colors.

Think of some definite place and instantly you are there, though the mind may not consciously register your going nor what you see and learn while there.

Those who would control the world’s thought must go beyond thought, for that which controls thought lies buried within the subconscious mind.

We must capture every thought the moment that it forces itself into the field of our consciousness, else that thought may be lost to us forever.

If you would have beautiful thoughts coming into the field of your consciousness, you must desire such thoughts and must bid them welcome the moment they cross the threshold into your conscious life.

No thought is entirely clear to us until we have fre­quently given it expression.

Expression tends to clarify thought, to bring thought out into the sunshine of life, where we can see it clearly.

We must be beautiful within before we can be out­wardly beautiful in thought.

There is something magnetic in lofty thought that lifts us up and fills us with the Divine.

Every thought that we think is creative, tends to create that which we perceive, be that the beautiful or the ugly, the good or the bad.

In our thought the spiritual should have precedence over the physical.

Thought is the road by which we arrive at a know­ledge of truth.

Thoughts that are highly electrified by human emotion are immortal.

There is nothing in the nature of a wall that can pre­vent thought and emotion from passing through.

To add strength and beauty to a thought it is some­times necessary to omit all explanations.

If the thoughts written in moments of acstasy are to deliver up all of their meaning, they must be read by those who have knowledge of that exalted condition.

Our present thought is moulded, modified, created by the thoughts of our past.

You can not create a beautiful thought until you have built up within you all the various parts of beauty of which that thought is to be created.

Thoughts are forces. They have form, shape and color, and they go forth into the world in a vibrating, wavelike motion.

Thought travels in a straight line from the sending mind to its destination. It leaves the brain by way of the right temple, turns to its direction within a few inches of the sending mind, and proceeds on its journey with a speed equal to that of light.

Thought is of the nature of refined electricity. It is vital energy. It has life and intelligence, and is capable of accomplishing tasks that are inconceivable to the average human intellect.

Each thought persists within the mind until it is dis­placed by some other thought.

THINKER. To think is to be original. And he who is original sees things in a different light from that in which they are seen by others.

The thinker is ever apoligizing for having thought.

Each thinker thinks, not for himself alone, but for many thousands who do not think.

All great thinkers are diviners, are explorers and dis­coverers of that which they know not, and may never know.

The thinker lives continually in a world that is filled with new, strange and beautiful things that must forever remain concealed from those who do not think.

The thinker is never as wise as the thoughts to which he has given birth. Often he is totally ignorant as to the importance of a truth which he has expressed.

The thinker never suspects the depth to which his thoughts sometimes descend, nor the height to which they sometimes mount.

MIND. A beautiful mind is but the product of thought forms, ideas and impressions that have been received, perfected and made beautiful by the artist within.

We are constantly accepting and rejecting the thoughts, ideas, and impressions that are reaching us, and preserving only those that seem valuable or worthy of being possessed because of their beauty.

The most valuable of all our earthly treasures are the thought pictures, ideas and impressions to which we have given birth.

THOUGHT PICTURES. The thought picture* that are hung in memory’s chamber may be crude and imperfect of outline, or they may be clear, precise and of great artistic merit and beauty—all depends upon the artist within.

KNOWLEDGE. To know is better than to be known; to understand is better than to be understood.

Knowledge, understanding, wisdom—these generate sympathy, charity, love, and destroy fear, envy and hate.

We may desire to tell, but we never succeed in telling all that we know of our friend or our enemy.

To know one’s self is to be well informed.

Self-knowledge is the master key that unlocks all our sorrows and makes us able to gather unto ourselves all the joys and beauties of life.

To know, to understand is to be able to appreciate, to behold and to admire the beauties of life and nature.

We can not know the meaning of any word, idea or thought until we have been taught its meaning by ex­perience.

Nothing is known in its entirety. Everything is con­cealed from us, in part, and will not be revealed until we have evolved to a higher state of consciousness.

All knowledge lies hidden and dormant within us. It is not a thing that needs to be learned, but merely to be clarified, brought out, made plain. Knowledge needs to be expressed in order to be clearly grasped and under­stood.

All knowledge is the fruit of faith. Faith precedes knowledge, leads up to it and makes the knowledge possible.

We must mount to know, to understand, to grasp the truths that are flashed to us out of the great beyond.

Those who have begun to be conscious of the un­known are upon the threshold of knowledge. The first rays of enlightenment have begun to reach them.

If you wish to discover the new, the original, the un­known, you must seek for these in paths where the foot of man has never trod.

We are able to transmit to others only a vague im­pression of what we know, see, and understand. The vast bulk of our intellectual and spiritual treasures are ours alone and can not be bequeathed to others.

Unconscious knowledge is real knowledge. We know and act upon knowledge a long time before we are con­scious of possessing it.

We acquire knowledge by grains, a grain at a time, and not until we have acquired a great deal of knowledge can we hope to form even the faintest outline of a truth.

Only a fractional part of our knowledge lies within the field of consciousness, and is therefore available for immediate use.

There is a knowledge that lies beyond knowledge, a knowledge that is clearly perceivable but of which no tongue can give utterance.

Knowledge does not become comprehensible until we have experienced it, become a part of it, attained to the height in life to which belongs the knowledge we have acquired.

UNDERSTANDING. Not to understand—that is the greatest tragedy of life.

Perfect understanding is impossible. We can not understand anything in its entirety. But we can under­understand sufficiently to appreciate, to admire and, if necessary, excuse.

Everything that we do not understand looks foolish to us. And the further a thing is from our understand­ing the more foolish it looks.

Our understanding is continually expanding and bringing into the field of our consciousness a clearer view of that which we assume we understand.

Our understanding discloses the point that we have reached in our development, and the field in which we have advanced, or failed to advance.

All men are able to perceive more than they are able to understand,because understanding comes from a know­ledge of life.

It takes time to understand, and most of us lack time.

To understand requires perception, vision, the ability to see, to feel and to know.

He who understands does not forgive nor excuse— finds nothing to forgive, nor anything that needs to be excused.

To excuse and to forgive is easy, but to understand is difficult.

We are as wise as our understanding. Our under­standing marks the limit between our enlightenment and our ignorance.

To understand a great thought requires as much ability as it does to conceive such a thought.

Those who can not understand us wrong us, because in their failure to understand they arouse the worst that is in us.

We can not appreciate that which we do not under­stand, and most of us do not understand anything.

We do not understand all that we express, nor do we express all that we understand.

We all understand best that language with which we are the most familiar. Some of us are more familiar with the language of abuse than we are with the language of praise, or with that of appreciation and kindness.

We often laugh at that which we do not understand.

He is beginning to understand who recognizes the sincerity of other men.

REASON. It is the foundation upon which we base our reason that is most often at fault, that most often causes us to reach wrong conclusions.

Reason assumes too much. It always has in its foundation too much that can not be ascertained, that must be taken for granted or accepted upon faith.

Faith precedes reason and follows after it. It is to be found in the foundation upon which reason is built, and it proceeds to advance upward after reason has reached its highest point.

There is nothing more misleading nor more dangerous than reason when it is based upon a foundation that is false.

Reason is blind. It must feel its way about. And it is utterly incapable of discovering truth, unless it is aided in its search by intuition, by that within us which is greater than reason and more to be depended upon—the inner or spirit-life.

Reason is quite capable of traveling in a straight line from any given point, but it is utterly incapable of ascer­taining whether or not the point from which it starts is true.

Reason is incapable of anything lofty, of any concep­tion whatever that is above the ordinary affairs of life.

Reason belongs to the physical world. It is therefore a good guide when dealing with physical things, but a bad guide when dealing with spiritual things.

The reasonable is wise, but that which can not be reached through reason is sometimes wiser and more Divine.

We never find the bottom-most reasons for our acts, but we do find some of the reasons that float on the sur­face of life.

There are reasons that lie beyond reason and that are not within our grasp. Yet we have a vague knowledge of these reasons and know they are more accurate and nearer to the truth, than any of the reasons that come within the field of our consciousness.

WORDS. Words are shields with which we protect ourselves from the silence into which we dare not enter with another.

Words are poor vehicles with which to convey truth. With words we can only vaguely suggest that which we wish to express, and can not hope to be understood.

Each word in our language has a different meaning to each of us.

The dictionary is often unable to correct the impressions we have of certain words. These words have, according to our experience in life, come to mean certain things to us, and dictionary or no dictionary, that is what they mean to us.

There is no language with which to convey to another an accurate impression of that which he has never experienced for himself.

Words are images, like wood or stone, by means of which thoughts may be expressed. If a thought can be best expressed in wood or stone, then wood or stone is the vehicle that should be used to express that thought.

MUSIC. Music needs no words with which to ex­press itself.

Music is of the inner, or spirit-life. It has its seat in the emotions. It is a spring of joy that flows forth into beauty.

Music is one of the things that we may be able to take with us from world to world and from life to life.

Music is spirit-like. It is more closely related to the inner life than any other thing of which we know.

All lives that are highly developed spiritually, are in musical harmony with all nature.

MELODY. All the more beautiful melodies of life approach us from the other side of life. They are all spiritual melodies, attuned to the silence and to the spir­itual ear.

There is melody in everything in which there is life. Life is a melody. It is a song in which light, color and vibration form the three principal parts.

ADMIRATION. Admiration elevates us. It helps us to see and to approach closer to those whom we admire.

We are more apt to admire than we are to love.

Those who admire noble minds are themselves in some way noble.

It is easier to win the world’s admiration than it is to maintain this admiration after it has been won.

To win the world’s admiration and then to lose it is to fail.

We would be admired whether we have anything to be admired for or not.

Whatever we admire becomes a model within the workshop of the unconscious mind, and is there used in various ways in creating that to which the conscious mind shall later give expression.

FEELING. Our feelings may be too deep, or too lofty to he expressed in human language.

That which we feel to be true is true—to us.

We often feel ourselves above those who, with equal sincerity, feel themselves above us.

It is a relief to express our feelings. Such expression lowers our emotional temperature and makes us more able to withstand the ever accumulating energy that these feelings are generating.

EMOTIONS. It is only through the emotions that we can bridge the chasm that exists between each indi­vidual life.

Our emotions have wings. They cause us to soar into the very Heavens, and there they disclose to us beau­ties that are beyond the range of our ordinary sense of perception.

HOPE. We are punished for our lack of hope just as much as we are for our lack of courage.

Hope is a great tonic. It strengthens us, makes us more able to endure and to succeed.

HAPPINESS. We may be happy without knowing it, and unhappy without being aware of it.

Happiness is a condition. It is the result of holding the right attitude toward life, of getting into harmony with the purpose of life.

The fool seeks happiness outside himself, the wise man within himself.

When we attempt to cherish and to protect the hap­piness of others we are unwittingly cherishing and pro­tecting our own happiness.

A profound knowledge of life is necessary to the har- many that produces happiness. Such knowledge can be obtained only through a slow unfoldment, an evolution.

Happiness is an ecstacy. It is an exaltation.

Happiness is a gift that we get by giving it.

Happiness, like love, has wings. It can fly. And like love, it has the ability to maintain itself at a lofty height for a considerable length of time.

UNHAPPINESS. We are never entirely unhappy, when unhappy, nor entirely sad, when sad.

Unhappiness is a discord. It is the result of our being out of harmony with the purpose of life.

If we are long unhappy, we imagine that all the world is unhappy, and that most of the world is too stupid to be cognizant of its plight.

PLEASURE. The pleasures of life may belong to the rich, but the happiness of living belongs to the poor, belongs to those who have nothing but spiritual wealth and want nothing more.

We get the most enjoyment, or pleasure, out of that side of life that is most highly developed. Some of us, therefore, get the most enjoyment from physical activity, others from mental activity, and still others from spiritual activity.

SYMPATHY. We should never attempt to write on any subject with which we lack sympathy, upon any sub­ject that is a discord amid the harmonies of our mental life, because when there is no sympathy, there is no rap­port, no harmony and no understanding.

Sympathy is akin to love, and is sometimes superior to love. It understands more often than love understands and is less often selfish.

He who is not sympathetic is not well, is in some way out of harmony with nature and with life.

SORROW. Sorrow is nothing more nor less than disappointed selfishness.

We all feel sorry for those whom we do not under­stand, respect or like.

There is more to be learned from sorrow than there is from happiness.

Sorrow sometimes produces wonderful spiritual activ­ity and results in great spiritual growth.

Joy adds to the length of life, but sorrow adds to life itself—to the inner life.

Sorrow approaches us cautiously, timidly, as though afraid, until we begin to yield to it, to fear it, and then it approaches us boldly and with head erect.

Little sorrow would come to us if we did not bid it welcome; that is, if we did not first produce the conditions most favorable to sorrow.

There is in the memory of our sorrows something that is sweet and full of beauty. Therefore we cling to our sorrows a long time after they have ceased to have any hold upon us.

TEARS. The tears that we shed for those whom we love are Divine tears, and their effect upon our lives is like unto a shower from Heaven. These tears cleanse and purify us and prepare the way in us for a more rapid spiritual growth.

FLOWERS. The flowers of the human soul, and especially those pure white lilies of the spirit-life, are the only flowers that do not wither and that have immortal life.

FEAR. Fear is an invitation to that which we fear, an invitation that is always in some way accepted.

Fear is related to hate, to dislike and to distrust. But it is not related to love. To fear God is not to love Him.

Within us fear and faith struggle for supremacy, and much more depends upon the outcome of this struggle than most of us suspect, or understand.

Fear is an avenger. It is that which punishes us for having failed in our faith.

It is not in moments of danger that we are the most afraid, but in the moments before the danger has arrived, or in the moments immediately succeeding the danger.

Some of us fear to do that which we know is wrong, and lack sufficient courage to do that which is right.

Nothing is to be feared so much as fear, because fear is the root of all misfortunes.

That which we fear is more terrifying to us than the experiencing of that which we fear, and the anticipation of the pleasure to be derived from that which we hope, exceeds the pleasure that we enjoy when that which we have anticipated has been realized.

It is in the fear of danger not yet experienced, and in the anticipation of pleasure not yet realized, that we reach the two most extreme points in fear and pleasure.

COURAGE. Courage is bom of knowledge. Those who are the most ignorant are the most afraid.

To have sufficient courage to meet misfortune bravely is to triumph over it.

To think of one’s self in time of danger is to fear for one’s safety. Courage, bravery, heroism, these are the result of self-forgetfulness.

You can prove your courage by being superior to your misfortunes.

Courage is one of the things that is necessary to wise living, to living at all.

We are all braver than we think, know or understand. We are all brave in some ways, and in some ways we are all cowards.

COWARDICE. Cowardice is the overcoming of our courage by fear, and bravery is the overcoming of our cowardice by courage.

HATE. Hate and fear are closely related, for he who hates, fears, and he who fears, hates.

Hate is always accompanied by fear, just as love ia> always accompanied by faith.

Hate is a destructive force. It is an evil. It always does harm.

Hate belongs to the blind, to the unwise, to the foolish, and to those who do not understand.

To hate is to retard one’s spiritual development, is to hold one’s self back on the road to perfection.

He who hates has not yet learned how to live.

Those who hate most, understand the least.

To hate, to be angry, is neither to be wise, nor just, nor sensible.

Ignorance and hate are closely allied, and that which will destroy the one will prove fatal to the other.

WORK. Work is the greatest of all servants, eman­cipators, helpers, saviours.

He who works for love, works for God.

No task, no work that does not inspire us and fill us with renewed energy is worthy of us, nor we of it.

Whatever is our work that also is our most supreme pleasure.

PURSUIT. It is better that a man should pursue a ghost around the world than that he should not pursue anything, than that he should sit down and fold his hands and do nothing.

REFINEMENT. There is a refinement in nature that extends to the very depth of the human soul and that makes all beautiful. And there is a refinement obtained through culture that does not extend beneath the surface and that possesses no beauty whatever.

The refinement of culture is chiefly distinguished from natural refinement by an insincerity that pervades the en­tire personality and fills us with a sense of disgust.

EDUCATION. Education is a refining process. Anything that tends to make us kind, sympathetic and considerate of others is education.

CONSCIOUSNESS. The consciousness of the man who does not think has not yet reached a high state of development.

Consciousness reveals our lack of consciousness, and knowledge our lack of knowledge.

We are more conscious of the things that we have lost than we are of the things that we lack.

Our present state of conscious development will not permit us to know the real except vaguely, indefinitely and in a way that will not reveal to us all the truth. We must postpone our hope of obtaining an exact knowledge of life until we have attained to a higher state of con­sciousness.

PERCEPTION. We sometimes perceive with the aid of our imagination that which otherwise it would be impossible for us to perceive.

Until we begin to perceive spiritually we do not per­ceive accurately, and are therefore in no position to understand the truths of life.

We perceive clearly that only which is near to us and on our plane of life. If what we perceive is the beau­tiful, then we are near to the beautiful in our develop­ment—are beautiful. And if it be the ugly which we perceive, then we are also ugly.

Whatever sharpens our sense of perception at one point, increases our state of awareness at all other points within the field of our perception.

PESSIMISM. Optimism sees the truth but goes beyond it. Pessimism does not see the truth and never comes within sight of it.

Pessimism is a poison that is distilled from the think­ing of gloomy, evil and discontented thoughts. And such thoughts are largely the result of a loss of courage and an inability to see.

PRIDE. We take pride in whatever we possess, even though what we possess be selfishness.

The minute we cease to ta^ce pride in a thing, that thing ceases to hold an important place in pur lives.

PRAISE. Those who praise our aspirations rather than our accomplishments help us the most.

Praise may be used to comijiend us for our bad as well as for our good acts.

We never praise those in whom we are not in some way interested. And oujr interest in those whom we praise is never free from design.

FAITH. Faith has the power to save us after all hope is lost and every stronghold in the hands of the enemy. We always win if we have f^ith.

DESIRES. Trust not your desires. They are but children and need to be studied, guided and controlled.

We are either in control of our desires or else our desires are in control of us.

Most of our desires are subconscious, are desires that are concealed from us by the life within.

REPUTATION. Our reputation is but the history of our past, and has nothing to do with our present, nor with our future.

SUSPICION. By suspecting others we learn to suspect ourselves.

We often suspect others of having committed a crime in order that we may the more readily excuse ourselves for having committed a similar act.

APPEARANCE. We ofttimes try to appear that which we would like to be, that which we aspire to be, but sometimes we try to appear that which we are not and have no desire to be.

SECRETS. We can not keep anything to ourselves, not even the sunshine of our disposition.

FAULTS. We are sometimes saved by our faults.

We are less apt to correct our faults than we are to improve our virtues.

We are attracted to others by their faults as well as by their virtues.

FALSEHOODS. We do not need to attack false­hoods because falsehoods attack themselves.

Be patient and every falsehood will destroy itself.

As a homing pigeon returns to its roost, so does a falsehood return to him who gave it birth.

IGNORANCE. Most of our ignorance is due, not so much to our lack of knowledge, but to the possession of so much knowledge that is not accurate.

We live in an ignorance so profound that not even the most learned are capable of sounding its depth.

We are followed everywhere by our stupidity and our ignorance, also by all the good and all the evil that we have done.

INNOCENCE. When innocence disappears, coarse­ness begins to appear.

Innocence is more refined than refinement and more beautiful than the merely beautiful.

POSSESSIONS. We possess more completely that which we envelope in our beauty but do not seek to touch.

We are possessed by our possessions.

To possess the beauty of one night or of one day is to be rich indeed.

It is not the things that we possess that seem the most desirable, but rather the things that we see in their beauty, but do not possess.

We seldom possess that which we think we possess.

We possess that only which we appreciate, under­stand and enjoy.

RICHES. He only is rich who is at peace with his own inner self.

PASSION. All passions are veils through which all things are distorted and nothing appears as it is in reality.

There are no passions that work no good, and none that work no harm.

Many persons who in actual life could not be com­pelled to surrender to their passions, readily do so in imagination.

TEMPER. We may not lose our temper, and yet lack sufficient wisdom to govern it.

He who loses his temper, loses his self-respect.

We must either govern our temper or else our temper will govern us.

SUPERIORITY. A person may be our superior without being our equal.

SIMPLICITY. Simplicity is one of the fine arts.

APOLOGY. By apologizing we console ourselves for wrongs we have done.

Apology is soothing to wounded feelings, but it takes time to heal the wound.

MAN. Man is a little piece of nature grown so proud that it disdains to own its kinship to all other nature, and even on occasions has an instinctive desire to destroy that of which it is a part.

To be wise in trifles, and to be foolish in all the essential things of life—that is the common tendency of man.

Collectively mankind sees God and understands him, but individually each man sees and understands but little of God.

A wise man is never as wise as the thoughts to which he gives birth.

There are those whose lives are so lofty and whose spirits are so highly developed that Heaven is to them but a few doors away.

The man who can skillfully and entertainingly keep himself company, has mastered one of the most important secrets of life.

Being a lady or a gentleman is an unpleasant sensation in comparison to that of being a woman or a man.

No man can be himself while in the presence of other men. If a man would be himself he must be alone with himself.

There is occasionally a man for whom nature waits and longs, and upon whom, when he has arrived, she depends for the accomplishment of some great task.

INNER-SELF. He has not traveled who has not explored the inner recesses of his own soul.

To have discovered one’s inner-self is to have dis­covered a wholly new and unexplored continent.

REALITY. Our ideal of today is the real of our tomorrow.

We create our own reality, and that reality which we create must differ in some particular from the reality of every other man.

The real changes for us with the development of our senses, and with each succeeding change upward in our development does our ability to enjoy the beauty in our reality increase.

DISLIKE. We always dislike those whom we have mistreated and feel kindly toward those to whom we have done a kindness.

Persons who dislike themselves do not like to be re­minded of themselves.

EXPERIENCE. Our horizon is no broader than our experience.

Experience is the only authority that can be implicitly depended upon.

Most of us prefer to learn from experience rather than from the dictionary.

RESPECT. It is better to be respectable than it is to be respected.

Anything that tends to destroy our self-respect tends to destroy us.

There is a great difference between losing one’s self­respect and losing the respect of others.

We can have sympathy for those whom we respect, but not for those who do not respect us.

INTELLECT. Many intellects throw light upon the path where man has trod, but in advance of the race, one must feel his way about like one in the dark.

The intellects that sparkle the most are the ones that have the least depth.

MINDS. Minds are like cameras. They are capable of portraying pictures. But they differ greatly in the size and the clearness of the pictures which they portray.

It is a poor mind that can not furnish one with an evening’s amusement at any time that one may desire to be amused.

MEMORY. The pictures that are hung in memory’s chamber are the work of an artist that is not sufficiently well known. They are the work of the inner, or spirit- life, and they possess a beauty that varies and increases with the development of this inner life.

AUTHORS. It is not what an author thinks, but what he causes us to think that decides his merit.

There are authors, who, if they should happen to think an original thought, would be so frightened that they would never think again.

BOOKS. When we read books that reveal ourselves to ourselves we are often shocked.

A book is sometimes a bad book, not because the book is bad, but because the book reveals to us that part in us that is bad.

INSPIRATION. He to whom inspiration is given is exalted among men, for upon him is bestowed the power to create beautiful things for the world.

Without inspiration there can be no genius, no great­ness, for talent unaided never soars to the height of the really great.

POETRY. Poems are but the shadows of things imperfectly seen. They are spiritual shadows of truths not yet clearly revealed to us.

There must be something sweet in the nature of a poet before there can be anything sweet in the poetry which he creates.

A poem is usually too delicate a plant to be trans­planted to a foreign soil.

SOCIETY. Society is organized stupidity.

We may be too stupid to obey all of the laws laid down by society, and we may be too enlightened.

GOVERNMENT. Government, like education, lags behind the enlightenment of the age. It is usually two hundred years behind its time.

We know how to govern much better than we govern.

GOOD SENSE. Good sense is the fruit of spiritual development, the result of being good.

Good sense is one of the rarest things in the world.

THE INVISIBLE. Everything is decided within the invisible that is brought to pass within the world of the physical living.

The invisible is only a step removed from the visible, and this step is not so far for some as it is for others.

It is the invisible beauty within us that makes us so charming, fascinating, beautiful. Were it not for this invisible beauty we would soon grow tired of each other and find in social intercourse nothing worth our while.

That which may be seen occupies but a narrow belt in life, occupies less than one-millionth part of our uni­verse.

EVIL. Every evil is a discord amid the harmonies of the universe.

RECEIVING. Every man receives that which he gives, and in the spirit in which he gives it.

REFLECTION. Reflection is the scale in which thought is weighed.

SELFISHNESS. Selfishness is something of which we are ashamed. And no matter how long nor how far we have followed selfishness, it is never with pride, nor with head erect, nor with a feeling of loftiness that we follow it.

Selfishness is the root of all sorrow. We suffer more from selfishness than from any other one thing.

FEELING. Feeling may become too deep for expression. We are never able to express our deepest feel­ings at the moment that we feel them most strongly.

To feel a thing is more than to see and to admire it. It is to caress it, not with the eye and the mind alone, but with the inner life also.

MEMORY. The pleasures that we derive from living today do not depend upon the conscious memory of bur yesterday.

No conscious memory of our past lives ifc hecessary tb oiir present or to our future happiness.

EXPRESSION. Expression is the road to belief. We begin tb believe a thing the moment we give it expression

Anything that expresses our thought or feeling is of benefit to us. It relieves us and tends to strengthen our hold on sanity and life.

The road to liberty lies through expression. Give expression to that which nature demands of you and you are free. But in every way in which you attempt to sup­press the tendencies of nature you become a sl&ve.

CONVERSATION. Conversation brings into the field of the conscious mind many new ideas and greatly aids us in arriving at truth and a more accurate know­ledge of ourselves.

THE INVISIBLE. There are as many different shades of the invisible as there are of the visible.

The invisible sometimes approaches so close to the visible that we are able to see it.

IMPORTANCE. A thing is of importance to us only in so far as it brings to us some message from life.

IDEAS. There are ideas that are beautiful only so long as they are not put into practice, ideas that are too delicate to be handled by the hand of man, and too ethereal to be applied to the coarser physical worlds.

THE PRACTICAL. The practical is always less beautiful than the impractical. There is in the practical too much of that which will not conform to the higher laws of beauty.

MORALITY. There is a morality that rises above morality, and that has no need of a moral law.

RESPECT. Respect and esteem are not so lofty as love and friendship.

LOVE. We live in whatever we love and die in whatever we hate.

PITY. One does not respect him whom he pities even though that one be himself.

Self-pity is cowardice.

BELIEF. We believe that which we need to believe, that which for thfe moment is necessary to our salvation.

MOODS. We are the sum total of all our moods, and each mood reveals not uis, but some part of us.

INSANITY. There is a divine insanity that causes some men to see more than others see, and to understand more than others understand.

IDEAS. All ideas are dangerous and should not be handled by those who do not understand them.

Not all men are sufficiently great to be trusted with great knowledge.

SACRIFICES. Many persons who are capable of making great sacrifices, are incapable of making little ones.

FAITH. Reality is a creation. It is a product of faith.

Faith is that mysterious law by which all things are called into existence.

CONFESSIONS. Everything that we do is a confession. Each look, act, and expression betrays us in some way.

MARRIAGE. Marriage is a mistake that every one should make at least once in a life time.

RIDICULOUS. Almost everything that we do would be ridiculous did not custom make it otherwise.

HYPOCRISY. No man is a hypocrite, save in the presence of other men. All men with themselves are sincere.

EXPLANATION. Explanation is an endless cftam, for each explanation needs itself to be explained.

SHOCKS. Anything that shocks us, fascinates, pleases us. We like to be shocked.

WANT. He who has not felt the want of anything, is not in a position to fully enjoy anything.

DUTY. The man who does no more than his duty, does little, is not worthy of our praise.

TACT. Those only need to be tactful, who can not afford to be real.

CAUTION. Men who are bold in speech are usually cautious in action.

HABIT. Habit causes us to continue doing things which we no longer desire to do, and from which we derive no pleasure.

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. Self-righteousness is self-ignorance.

HUMAN BEINGS. Human beings are like fish. Some of them live near the surface, while others live at a great depth.

QUARRELS. A quarrel will sometimes produce a friendship when everything else has failed.

MISERY. All misery is inward and is the result of our being out of harmony with the purpose of life.

SELF-CONCEIT.  By self-conceit we are made blind.

SEX. The most highly developed part of us is sex.

THE UNFORSEEN. We are the product of the unforseen, the product of the little events and influences of which we have not been conscious.

SELF-APPROVAL. That which does not win our self-approval is wrong, even though it may win the ap­proval of every one else.

EXPECTATION. Men most expect of us only the cheap and trivial things of life, and they usually get from us that which they expect.

He who expects little of us, wrongs us, is not worthy of being called our friend.

SKEPTICISM. The dangers that are concealed in skepticism are greater than those that lie hidden in the various superstitions to which men cling.

WISHES. We are usually worthy of that which we sincerely wish another.

APPRECIATION. Appreciation precedes posses­sion. It is always after we have begun to appreciate a thing that we begin to possess it.

ARRIVAL. Rarely are we conscious of the arrival of a thing until it has arrived, or of its departure until it is gone.

FUTURE. In the moment lies the door thiough which the future will enter, but who is there who is brave enough to open this door before the future has arrived?

ENVY. Envy has as many faces as there are peb­bles on the sea shore.

Envy is but the outward symbol of an inward self­contempt. It is a poisonous weed that will not grow in a heart that has attained to a high state of consciousness.

DESPISE. We may despise on one side of our nature that which we adore on the other.

ILLNESS. An illness, though fatal, can not harm us unless it goes beyond the body and attracts the inner life.

HARMONY. The mere presence of one whose life in some way harmonizes with ours, greatly aids us in our search for truth, and in our arriving at an under­standing of ourselves.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE. Self-knowledge is the rarest kind of knowledge. No matter how profound is our ignorance, it is nearly always the most profound in the region of self.

COMPLETION. We are in ourselves complete, but we have not yet brought our completion out of ourselves.

ILLUSIONS. We suffer as much from the loss of an illusion, as we would were that illusion a gem of the purest reality.

CALMNESS. There is a calmness that is more to be feared than a tempest, one that is more deadly and more powerful; a calmness that rises superior to physical nature and that supersedes her.

MISFORTUNE. Misfortune approaches most often those whose ideas are not sufficiently lofty, those who live on the psychic plane on which misfortune operates.

ORIGINALITY. We do not care to have people live in a way that is original, a way that is different from our way of living, and we always protest when any one tries so to live.

NATURAL. Only those can afford to be natural whom manners would not become.

ASPIRATION. Man becomes what he aspires to be, though perhaps not m one life, nor in two, nor in three.

FATALISTS. We are not all fatalists, but we are all victims of fate.

LAWS OF NATURE. All the laws of nature run directly through and operate in the spiritual world as well as in the physical.

The laws of nature show us the way that we should go by causing us to suffer every time we attempt to do otherwise.

SPIRITUAL REST. Rest, in a spiritual sense, is obtained by the most intense vibratory activity, is obtained by an activity that destroys all sense of motion, and that results in rapid spiritual development.

VANITY, PRIDE. Vanity and pride are the motive powers behind most of our acts, while fear rather than hope gives us the courage with which to win.

OUR SENSES. Our senses reveal to us but a small part of the truth. They leave us in ignorance of much that we should know.

BALANCE. There must be no supremacy of the physical over the mental, nor the spiritual, if we are to acquire a balanced conception of life.

Perfect physical, mental and spiritual balance is neces­sary if we are to see things in their right relation to truth and to life.

PHYSICAL COMPLETION. Some of us are too far from physical completion to behold the spiritual.

UNSEEN. We must go to the unseen for an explanation of that which is seen, and to the unknown for a foundation on which to base that which is known.

THE PROVEN. That which can be proven is within the common experience of mankind, but the most beau­tiful truths lie beyond that region and are known to those only who are in advance of the race.

SINCERITY. Sincerity is a jewel as rare as intel­ligence or beauty, and like these has a lofty place in the scheme of things.

TO DO NOTHING. There is a way to do nothing gracefully and without harm to ourselves or to others.

FLOWERS. God gives us the flowers in order that we may give them back again.

THE BEAUTIFUL. To feel the presence of the beautiful is one thing, but to be sufficiently enlightened to know why it is beautiful is quite another.

SEEING. Everything that we see for the first time is a revelation, is the opening up of a new world for us.

SENSITIVENESS. Most of us are so sensitive that we take on the color of that with which we are sur­rounded.

POVERTY.  Poverty seeks to pass unnoticed.

Poverty is not so bad as being continually reminded of it.

There is no poverty so pitiful as that of the heart.

STUPIDITY. Stupidity stands behind our unjust acts.

Man is too stupid to enjoy Heaven. He needs to spend a few more lives in human form.

Stupidity laughs oftener than wisdom.

STORMS. All the storms of life have their origin beneath the consciousness, and do not appear on the horizon of the conscious life until they have reached a velocity that is terrific.

SUBCONSCIOUS MIND. The subconscious mind is Divine ground. It is here that we must advance cautiously, for the beauty of this region is well nigh overpowering.

EVOLUTION. Evolution is the way; reincarnation up to a certain point is a necessity, and completion the final goal—physical completion first, spiritual completion afterwards.

PAST. Our past is remodeled by the artist within and made into a thing of beauty.

PRESENT. Our present is colored by the tints and shades of the mood in which it is given birth.

PERSONALITY. A beautiful personality adds a sweetness and a beauty that, like the perfume of flowers, lingers in the atmosphere he breathes.

CHILDREN. We are all children lost in the forest of the invisible where the things that we see are as noth­ing compared to the things that we do not see, and the things that influence our lives the most are the things that we do not see.

MERIT. Criticism is one thing, but to know wherein a work excels or fails of merit is quite another.

The merit of a work can best be ascertained by com­parison, by comparing it with other work of its kind from the pen of writers whose merits have been established.

INTERPRETATION. Everything is capable of an interpretation other than ours.

ARTIST WITHIN. The artist within is never satisfied with the truth in its cruder form. He must see that every point is polished, that every curve is made artistic and that all is beautiful.

DISCORD. Discord is a psychic condition. It is the result of a lack of proper adjustment to law or to truth.

SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. Most of us are just beginning to develop a sense of things spiritual, a knowledge of that which lies beyond the physical. Spiritual knowledge transcends reason, goes far beyond reason.

DISCOVERY. We discover some things by seeing them, and other things by seeing the reflection of them in that which wc see.

CONSEQUENCE. With every act that we do and thought that we think we accept a responsibility and create a consequence from which there is no possible means of escape.

RESPONSIBILITY, We are the sum total of all that has gone before us, and all those who will follow after us will be the sum total of us. Therefore our responsibility is not to ourselves but to those who as yet do not exist upon the physical plane of life.

DISCORDANT NOTES. Discordant notes tend to disintegrate, to send back into the invisible all the various compounds that have been created,

IMMORTALITY. That part of us which clamors the loudest for immortality is the very part of us which has not yet attained to immortality.

COMPLETION. Everything is complete in what it is, and incomplete in what it is to be.

TRUTH. Truth and beauty go hand in hand through life. They are companions and are never separated.

HEAVEN. Every road leads to Heaven, even those that are seemingly remote from every form of wor­ship.

BEAUTIFUL. Those who keep the beautiful within their thought are ever surrounded by the beautiful.

SILENCE. The silence whispers to me of the solitude and says, “Behold my earth-born brother.”

IN CONCLUSION. Read these thoughts slowly, thoughtfully, carefully, reflectfully, lest you leave some beauty, some charm, some merit undiscovered, and some truth unobserved.

 

The End