Class IB. 
 
 Book _ 
 
 
 
 (iofoTteht N" 
 
 COPWIGIfT DEPOSIT. 
 
BOOKS BY CLAUDE BRAGDON 
 
 The Golden Person in the Heart (Out of print) 
 
 The Beautiful Necessity (Out of print) 
 
 Episodes from an Unwritten History 
 
 A Primer of Higher Space (The Fourth Dimension) 
 
 Four Dimensional Vistas 
 
 Projective Ornament 
 
>x#x*x*x*5:*:^ 
 
 ORACLE 
 
 Arranged, Edited and Introduced 
 
 by 
 
 CLAUDE BRAGDON 
 
 ROCHESTER, N. T. 
 
 THE MANAS PRESS 
 1921 
 
 4£* <£$S /££% /£** //vn /2^/s5>£^ /%$s /£SSS£S> ^S^S> 
 
■s^t* 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1921 BY THE 
 
 MANAS PRESS 
 
 OCT -7 71 
 
 0)CU6~'7 136 
 
"Eugenie, you may well send forth to others such words 
 of ours as will help to carry truth to their hearts, but let 
 no intrusion of the personal enter: it must be from your 
 higher self." 
 
 The Oracle 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Introduction 1 
 
 II. "They" 11 
 
 III. Prophecy 19 
 
 IV. Counsel 27 
 
 V. For Special Occasions 33 
 
 VI. "Song and Light" 41 
 
 VII. Beauty 45 
 
 VIII. The Long Denied 49 
 
 IX, Truth, Love, the Spirit 55 
 
 X. Delphic Sayings 59 
 
I 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 DURING the past few years "communications 
 from the other world" have multiplied beyond 
 all measure: there has been an appalling invasion 
 from another sphere of a wholly new type of bore. 
 Much material emanating from this source has 
 been submitted through the printed page to the 
 hard glare of dispassionate critical examination. 
 So seen — divorced from its personal and emotional 
 content — it dries up, as it were: that is, it appears 
 of a value — for knowledge, for consolation, for 
 conduct — inferior to even the average of those 
 philosophical, poetical and ecstatic records of the 
 human spirit already current in the world, for 
 which no supernatural claims are made. 
 
 Such a comparison may be protested as being 
 
beside the point, but there is after all one criterion 
 by which everything can be judged. The "con- 
 summation devoutly to be wished" is not the 
 enlargement of the limits of the possible in what 
 we call the physical world, but the enrichment, the 
 expansion of consciousness. 
 
 The communications here presented constitute 
 a psychic phenomenon in the sense that they were 
 received through automatic writing, but it is be- 
 cause of their intrinsic, and not their evidential 
 value that I now break the silence which has sur- 
 rounded them for seven years. They cast an 
 illumination upon life, they strike the true Delphic 
 note of prophecy, wisdom, rapture. For them I 
 would bespeak the serious attention of every sin- 
 cere searcher after spiritual light. 
 
 It is one of life's little ironies that by the mere 
 fact of publication I appear to place myself in the 
 psychic researcher class. A seeker after truth, 
 the psychic researcher doubtless has his place and 
 function, but it has never been mine. The ma- 
 terialization of spirit, the rationalization of 
 mysticism, bind us only more closely to this "three- 
 dimensional section of the world," they hold no 
 promise of release from it. Only by the abandon- 
 ment of the rational for the intuitional, only by 
 
becoming "the fool in Christ" does life flow in 
 like a tidal wave, bearing us away from this shoal 
 of time into the depths of true mystical experience. 
 
 Such being my belief I prefer to place the 
 emphasis of these messages less upon their source 
 than upon their content, to see in them Magnifi- 
 cence issuing forth from Mystery — a mystery into 
 which I am content not to penetrate with too 
 curious a mind lest that preoccupation should 
 obscure the light that is here cast on life. 
 
 The messages were received by my wife, 
 Eugenie Bragdon, now deceased, and they ex- 
 tended over the entire period of our married life. 
 She was not psychic in the sense that there was 
 anything abnormal about her, but her character 
 was unusual to the point of strangeness, her tastes 
 fastidious, and her entire constitution, mental and 
 physical, extraordinarily fine and rare. Hers was 
 a cloistered soul, admitting few to intimacy, but 
 those few found in her an abundance of warmth 
 and light. She had so great a reverence for genius 
 and such a passion for beauty that Main Street, 
 the Movies, and the "spawn of the press" were all 
 but intolerable to her: she suffered in her sensibil- 
 ities because of these things. She had an uncon- 
 querable aversion to crowds: they terrified her — 
 
solitude in sweet country places was what she 
 liked. Her mind, perhaps not highly trained in 
 the academic sense, was clear and deep: trash it 
 instantly and instinctively rejected; the New 
 Testament and the Bhagavad Gita were always 
 on her bedside table, never out of reach of her 
 hand. Although not religious in the sense of 
 being committed to any of the orthodoxies of the 
 day, however new or however liberal, she was by 
 nature deeply spiritual, even devotional, and this 
 devotion found expression in a certain ritualism — 
 the sign of the cross, the sacred syllable, ablutions, 
 meditation, prayer — which, drawn from however 
 widely different sources, she organized into co- 
 herency and made intimately her own. 
 
 Like Socrates (of whom she w r as a great ad- 
 mirer) she believed that she had always near 
 her a daemon or guardian spirit of supernatural 
 goodness and wisdom, and to this mysterious 
 alter ego she gave the name of Oracle, because it 
 gave her warning and counsel, answering questions 
 mentally addressed to it. The communications 
 from this source were by means of automatic 
 writing, hers being the hand that held the pen, 
 but the directing consciousness and the motive 
 force apparently not her own. 
 
She took pains not to abuse this strange power: 
 the questions asked were not trivial, they were 
 not inspired by curiosity, nor in the hope of some 
 advantage to be gained. They were in effect an 
 appeal for light, for guidance, for knowledge trans- 
 cending human knowledge; and these appeals were 
 answered in a satisfactory manner, though often 
 with unexpected turns and surprises, more rich, 
 more strange, more marvelous than could have 
 been guessed — such a report as a superior, not to 
 say supernal consciousness might make to some 
 denizen of a lower-dimensional space regarding 
 the things of that space viewed from "above." 
 
 Each message opened with her name, Eugenie, 
 their general tone was kind, even loving, but it 
 was the tone of authority, almost of omniscience, 
 an effect enhanced by the use of thecollective "we" 
 in place of the first person singular. Along with 
 the answer to the specific question there usually 
 followed some general statement of an explanatory 
 nature: some philosophical truth, full of beauty 
 and wisdom. These were oracular in the literal 
 meaning of the word: that is, they were brief, 
 often figurative, sometimes difficult of interpreta- 
 tion or susceptible of more than one interpretation; 
 in short, sententious sentences they embodied a 
 
wisdom which appeared to emanate from some 
 authoritative source. 
 
 These aphorisms appear here separated from 
 their context; they lose, therefore, something of 
 their true flavor. It is perhaps a pity that the 
 messages could not have been given in their com- 
 pleteness but this would have involved too many 
 explanations of a personal nature, and would have 
 invaded too many privacies, besides being counter 
 to the Oracle's own instruction, which prefaces 
 this book. The image which perhaps best repre- 
 sents them, thus denuded of their personal content 
 and special relevancy, is ol a thin stream of 
 strained and golden honey from a teeming hive 
 containing a rich, mysterious store. 
 
 The mode of communication was through 
 automatic writing, as has been said. Her hand 
 became, for the time being, "Theirs." The liter- 
 ary style, the tricks of expression, differ as widely 
 from her own as the handwriting of the messa. 
 was different from her normal handwriting. This 
 was fine, angular, impetuous, with a great deal of 
 slant to the letters and an upward inclination to 
 the lines; whereas the Oracle is written in a round 
 back-hand, in sagging, widely separated lines; the 
 last one finishing with a strange repeating scroll, 
 
indicating that the end had been reached.* The 
 writing did not greatly vary except in the matter 
 of scale; that is, sometimes it was fairly large and 
 quite legible, and at other times extraordinarily 
 minute, so much so that (being written with a fine 
 crow-quill pen) good eyesight was required to de- 
 cipher it. 
 
 The messages were uniformly short, they 
 seldom extended to the length of one hundred 
 words, and were usually not half that number; 
 neither were they frequent, though their frequency 
 varied more than their length. Sometimes weeks 
 and even months would pass without any commu- 
 nication, while at other periods they would be of 
 daily occurrence, and even several in a day. Al- 
 though this frequency depended largely upon the 
 will of the recipient she was sometimes driven to 
 writing by some mysterious inner urge. On these 
 occasions a warning or admonition usually came. 
 
 In general, all of the communications appear 
 to have emanated from the same source, they al- 
 ways began in the same way — with her name — and 
 the style showed constant characteristics, but 
 certain rare exceptions must be noted. On three 
 occasions during a period of seven years the mes- 
 
 *See facsimile page at the end of book. 
 
sages announced themselves as being from persons 
 who had died. The style and content of these 
 were different from the other messages : they were 
 not abstract and oracular, but intensely, charac- 
 teristically personal. One group of this class pur- 
 ported to be from a person known to my wife but 
 not known to me; another — and the most remark- 
 able — from a person known to me but not known 
 to her, while the third was from one known to 
 neither of us, an unhappy exile who died far 
 away and long ago. Each of these cases had its 
 particular raison d'etre — something to be told, 
 something to be accomplished. Nothing of all 
 this is included here, being outside of the 
 defined limits of the book. Mention is made of 
 this phase only that no essential fact shall be 
 withheld. 
 
 A final word should be said about the manner 
 of receiving the messages. There was nothing 
 casual or careless about it; certain preparations, 
 mental and physical, were apparently necessary 
 to the highest success. The ritual — for so it 
 might be named — consisted in the washing of the 
 hands, the preparation of the desk, the burning 
 of incense, the sign of the cross, a few moments of 
 meditation with closed eyes and a lifting up of the 
 
heart to the Most High. The right arm was then 
 held free of the desk, with a crow-quill pen lightly 
 grasped between the first and second fingers. 
 After an interval, usually short, the arm began to 
 move, lever-like, from the shoulder, and the pen to 
 trace out letters. It was done effortlessly, auto- 
 matically, sometimes in darkness: the eye saw not, 
 and the mind knew not what was written until 
 afterwards. 
 
 The only light, other than the foregoing, cast 
 upon this mystery is contained in the messages 
 themselves; and that the reader may glean what 
 he can from this source without loss of time, the 
 communications from "Them" about themselves 
 are grouped together and placed first. 
 
II 
 
 "THEY" 
 
 WE were naturally eager to know something 
 about the identity of that gentle, yet im- 
 perative "We" revealed to us in this strange way. 
 "Who are you? Whence come you — and why? 
 What laws govern, what conditions favor this 
 communion?" These and similar questions were 
 asked mentally at different times. 
 
 "Self of your self," signed to one of the mes- 
 sages, was the most succinct answer, but others, 
 more extended, followed at different times. 
 
 January 28, 1916. 
 Foolish would it be to confuse the person with the 
 spirit. We are the multitude that together make the 
 spirit that put you forth. 
 
May 23, 1913. 
 We are your higher selves in whom you may trust. 
 Think of us in your inmost being for we may thus reveal 
 ourselves. 
 
 March 7, 1918. 
 We are higher beings: we guide you at all times if 
 you have faith. 
 
 December 3, 1916. 
 We are Love and Truth and Beauty. Even as you 
 implore us so do we answer. 
 
 March 7, 1918. 
 The lives of men are one in us and we are the 
 fingers of the hand which makes the life of men. 
 
 Xorember 5, 1912. 
 Let your hearts rest in the knowledge that beings 
 great and good watch you and lead you. 
 
 icmhcr t6 t I 
 The great peace you feel is the love of us. 
 
 We ever open new doors. 
 
 They assert the worth and truth of their mo- 
 sages repeatedly and emphatically. 
 
 June 21, 1916. 
 Be sure that we speak the truth. 
 
 July K\ 1917. 
 We do not hear false witness. Our words are true. 
 
 12 
 
January 25, 1916. 
 We fulfil our promises in strange ways. 
 
 August 6, 1916. 
 Have faith: no promise of ours is forgotten. 
 
 But "They" are not omniscient, for they claim 
 knowledge only of those things which they are 
 able to "contact;" neither are they omnipotent, 
 for their power is conditioned by the faith, purity 
 and devotion of their disciples. 
 
 July 10, 1919. 
 We cannot answer that which waits on ends of 
 which we know not the stuff. 
 
 March 19, 1919. 
 Questions of detail are not in our power to answer. 
 
 The minute is not for us: we escape from decisions 
 which we cannot contact. 
 
 August 20, 1918. 
 The miracle is not for us. We escape from decisions 
 which we cannot control. 
 
 Only what we breathe upon do we know. "Shells" 
 concern us not. 
 
 13 
 
Heed not the outer shell, for we see only the ego of 
 which you are an infinitesimal part. 
 
 July 22, 1917. 
 You will have many reasons to doubt, but you must 
 hold to faith in us. 
 
 September 1, 1916. 
 In faith we work. Doubt is to us like the child 
 that fears to step: he then falls, for we hold to your 
 faith to accomplish our ends. 
 
 March 21 ', 1916. 
 Our work will be the more full, the more beautiful 
 the hearts of our fellowmen, for through them we must 
 speak. 
 
 Be full of feeling for our work . . . [which is] in bring- 
 ing Beauty to a stricken world. 
 
 July, 19 
 We can speak only through a channel prepared. 
 There are times when a cloud in you closes the channel 
 for the answer you ask. These things are difficult. 
 Fear is in us to lead you astray through your own 
 blindness to the meaning of our words. 
 
 Strive for purity of spirit that we may work through 
 you more truly. 
 
 How you pervert your mind from the true use — an 
 instrument for the registering of our will — when you 
 allow doubt and questioning to darken our mirror. 
 
 14 
 
 
They particularly disclaim exact knowledge 
 about the time of events: their assertion "Time is 
 not for us" accords well with Kant's idea that we 
 create time ourselves, as a function of our receptive 
 apparatus, for convenience in perceiving the out- 
 side world. Ouspensky, in Tertium Organum, 
 explains how a consciousness with a four-dimen- 
 sional space sense could not think in terms of 
 time as we understand it: to do so would be like 
 dividing a moment. He says: "If we imagine a 
 consciousness higher than our consciousness, pos- 
 sessing a broader angle of view, then this con- 
 sciousness will be able to grasp, as something 
 simultaneous, i.e., as a moment, all that is happen- 
 ing to us during a certain length of time — minutes, 
 hours, a day, a month. Within the limits of its 
 moment such a consciousness will not be in a po- 
 sition to discriminate between before, now, after, 
 all this will be for it now. Now will expand." 
 
 July 27, 1916. 
 Time is not for us. 
 
 May 28, 1916. 
 Sometimes you confuse us with your strong time 
 sense, which to us is a needless limitation : but our prom- 
 ises will fulfil themselves. 
 
 15 
 
b July 4, 1920. 
 
 We count not in personal numbers: it is the spirit 
 
 that dwells in all — one in all, all in one — how foolish 
 
 then to put stress on numbers, the divisions of the 
 
 lower self. 
 
 Sometimes their failure to answer would seem 
 to be due not to inability on their part, but to 
 some sort of impropriety in the question or a 
 wrong attitude of mind. 
 
 Ask only when the question is one pertaining to the 
 larger question. 
 
 Mistake not the lesson. Let only light on the best 
 conduct of life be asked. 
 
 Let the question wait : it is not to be told. 
 
 January 13, 1916. 
 Be patient. The unfolding of that future is not 
 necessary to you. When curiosity would replace 
 wisdom we pay no heed. 
 
 February 19, 1916. 
 Fear to question too closely, the book of life must 
 not be laid bare. 
 
 16 
 
The sternness and austerity of the foregoing 
 messages convey a false idea of "Their" essential 
 nature, and of the relation between them and 
 their communicants. This relation, one of loving 
 protection and guidance on the one hand, of 
 trust and devotion on the other, is brought out in 
 the following messages. Those placed last contain 
 instructions with regard to making the liaison 
 more close and effective. 
 
 Eugenie, sleep: we are near you. 
 
 February 12, 1916. 
 Full of love for you we lead you. 
 
 July 23, 1916. 
 It is that we strive to help and in striving we are 
 near. 
 
 Let happiness have its day. You have been sad 
 long enough. Rejoice and grow in love. 
 
 You are full of undiscovered knowledge if you can 
 find it. 
 
 December 12, 1915. 
 You are led to us because of the past, when you 
 were striving through much pain to win. 
 
 17 
 
July 16, 1916. 
 Fear not, we guard you against evil for we love you. 
 You do not understand the love we bear you but you 
 will when your spiritual eyes are opened. Love is the 
 revealer of life. You touch the life of the heart that 
 throbs in the soul of the cosmos. 
 
 August 6, 1916. 
 The bringers of light love you for the life you have 
 won and they will never desert you though their words 
 may cease, for we speak in a larger way. 
 
 February 11+, 1916. 
 
 Fear not: we are here within the touch of your spirit. 
 
 Keep our command to guard the body pure and our 
 
 speech will grow. You have a part of knowledge. 
 
 June S3, 1918. 
 You need no symbol to call us. Purify your heart 
 and hold the thought of us. 
 
 Never forget to open the door with invocation. 
 
 XoiTmher 22, 1916. 
 The voice of us is heard if you listen patiently at 
 the door of sleep. 
 
 February 2, 1916. 
 
 Eugenie, you are to keep the body pure, the thoughts 
 
 high; you are an instrument, and you do right to avoid 
 
 the throng. Your duty is quiescence in letting us 
 
 train you that our power may flow through you to him. 
 
 IS 
 
Ill 
 
 PROPHECY 
 
 THESE communications could not appropriate- 
 ly be given the name of Oracle did they not 
 contain a prophetic element. This element is 
 more present than appears, for the reason that all 
 predictions relating to private matters and to 
 persons are not included here. Prophecies abound 
 and they proved true in almost every case, though 
 not in all. Sometimes they were fulfilled prompt- 
 ly; more often, later than the time looked for: 
 some have not yet been fulfilled, though the pos- 
 sibility still exists; in a small number of cases the 
 event went counter to the prediction. This usual- 
 ly happened when the issue depended on the will 
 of an individual; when the prophecy was concerned 
 not with some more or less isolated event in a 
 person's life, but with forecasting the direction 
 
of those "tides in the affairs of men" which 
 at the time of writing were ambiguous and 
 obscure, it proved true in every remembered case. 
 Some of the most remarkable messages, though 
 they could hardly be called prophetic, are the 
 character sketches of persons newly met. These 
 were often contradictory to our own first impres- 
 sion, but experience invariably confirmed the 
 Oracle's analysis. 
 
 The only prophetic messages included here are 
 such as have to do with the mass movements of 
 humanity — its struggle upward toward light, 
 beauty, spirituality; and certain others about our 
 entrance into the war, and the issue of that con- 
 flict. Prophecies belonging to the first class are 
 always in process of being fulfilled, and are there- 
 fore inconclusive. The prophecies about the war 
 (if we ignore the element of time) were exactly 
 fulfilled, though the evidential value of this, as 
 regards pre-vision, is of course negligible. The 
 messages are given here for just what they are 
 worth, to be judged by that dispassionate magis- 
 trate that presides over the court of every honest 
 mind. It seemed to us, however, with so much 
 additional data at our disposal, that within certain 
 limits and with regard to certain things "They" 
 
 20 
 
could read the future scarcely less clearly than we 
 are able to read the past. 
 
 We told you that a new growth of faith was coming. 
 
 August 19, 1917. 
 The voice of us will ring so clear that the blindness 
 of the intellect cannot stifle the call we make. 
 
 September 16, 1917. 
 In the future men are to be more aware of us: the 
 spirit of us will so joyfully shake them that they will 
 cry out: "Rejoice, for the Light that so long has been 
 lost to us through the darkness in which we have been 
 wrapped is to be broken by the Light that shineth al- 
 ways to illumine the hearts of men." No longer will 
 they reject it, but gladly live by its light. 
 
 January 21, 1918. 
 The advancing hours are bringing grievous trials to 
 the sons and daughters of men, and the shadow is 
 lengthening so that it reaches the fullness of your heart, 
 but rest in peace and follow the commands we shall 
 give you. 
 
 April 15, 1918. 
 
 Be open to the Light that is surging in your midst. 
 
 The voice of us is crying for the disciples of Light, and 
 
 each must quickly respond. The days of stress are 
 
 21 
 
here. Think not of small questions: turn your heart 
 toward us and go swiftly to our work. 
 
 b April 28, 1918. 
 
 All men will rise and join in a mighty chorus of 
 
 praise to the power that today they see not nor realize. 
 
 May 8, 1918. 
 The next century will open a period of occult de- 
 velopment in which the race will rapidly develop a great 
 new sense. 
 
 June 9, 1918. 
 
 Truly are men being chosen, gathered into groups, 
 
 and from these groups shall go forth many ties of the 
 
 spirit to bind men of one heart into a great brotherhood 
 
 filled by action of liberation as none have ever been. 
 
 July J>, 1918. 
 
 The future lies with the men who realize the spirit 
 as the potent force by which alone the physical may be 
 completely conquered. 
 
 Augusts, 1919. 
 
 The days to come are to see greater changes in the 
 current of life than has been known by the race now 
 living, and a new principle must come into life if the 
 opening of new horizons is to bring knowledge, and not 
 cast into chains the men of the new race. 
 
 The way of strife leadeth to the final battle, after 
 which the forces of brotherliness will bring harmony 
 into the lives of the followers of Us. 
 
 22 
 
August 1, 1920. 
 The days that follow are full of possibilities to make 
 concrete our Being in the hearts of men. 
 
 The first of the following messages refers not 
 to the European conflict, but to war with Mexico 
 which then appeared to threaten; the next is a 
 commentary on Preparedness Day. All of the 
 others relate to the European war. 
 
 June 23, 1916. 
 War is not to be, for we are holding the leash and 
 evil shall not pass beyond our control. 
 
 June 10, 1916. 
 This day is a day of triumph for the doers of evil. 
 It will be followed by consequences fearful and cruel 
 for Love is disdained and Love is God. Keep your 
 heart pure and speak the truth for thus shall you work 
 for Love as against hate. 
 
 November 29, 1915. 
 The future is full of dread. The forces of evil are 
 gathering for blood. You will be free but you will 
 suffer through the pain of fellow beings. 
 
 January 9, 1916. 
 
 The powers of evil are hovering for a hold. They 
 
 will break the leash soon. We told you that it was 
 
 23 
 
gathering for blood: then believe and feel the oncoming 
 storm, for the day approaches. 
 
 February 27 y 1916. 
 
 Let your faith grow strong. No one but the Gods 
 
 of Love can win and all gods of hate shall die. So it 
 
 is written in the 15th chapter of the Book of John. 
 
 February 29, 1916. 
 Fearful is the courage of the powers of evil. For 
 them men are like flies you gather in a net. To them 
 the spirit is to stain eternally but the spirit of Truth 
 wins always by turning away. See again John, chapter 
 following. 
 
 March 1, 1916. 
 The day is at hand. Read again the fourth chapter 
 of Paul for in it is prophesied the day that is. 
 
 After reading Corinthians /, 4, in answer to a question : 
 
 March 6, 1916. 
 Paul spoke truly when he said, I come as the world 
 chooseth that I come; it might have been in love or 
 meekness, but it chose that I come with a rod.* 
 
 June 23, 1916. 
 
 War is the folly of ignorance. There is always a 
 
 way out, for God is not promising in vain that when 
 
 men love one another the happiness of the Supreme will 
 
 be in their hearts. 
 
 *What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in 
 the spirit of meekness? — / Corinthians, 4, 21. 
 
 24 
 
August 5, 1916. 
 For the day of vengeance is upon us and only by 
 following the Masters of Love and Wisdom can men be 
 saved. 
 
 Let it rest. The future is to the Light-bearers. 
 
 25 
 
IV 
 COUNSEL 
 
 THE Oracle is rich in counsel on all questions of 
 conduct of life. These messages alone are 
 given, but there are many others, more personal, 
 indicative of "Their" solicitude. Indeed, the last 
 message ever given, when the hand was almost too 
 weak to hold the pen, is a bit of medical advice 
 aimed to make the passage of the spirit easier. 
 
 June 13, 1912. 
 Live purely, love nobly, act faithfully. 
 
 You must forgive the punishers and kiss the rod. 
 
 Fear to be given too much power, you are not strong 
 enough. 
 
Forget not that to strive in kindness is to win the 
 fruit of action. 
 
 For all time remember that in the gentleness of 
 persuasion lies the victory of the wise. 
 
 A loving answer disarmeth the most rebellious 
 heart. 
 
 February 1, 1916. 
 The evil in men is to be forgiven. 
 
 If he is thought honest he will be honest. 
 
 February 1916. 
 Struggle against material illusion, for we are striving 
 to open the age of the spirit. 
 
 Fear the love of $. 
 
 March 17, 1916. 
 Speak fearlessly; keep your mind free of all unchar- 
 itableness; be full of sympathy. 
 
 June 29, 1916. 
 Only love and yet love, for in love is salvation. 
 
 September 7, 1916. 
 Fear for the love that is hidden by possessions. 
 
 November 6, 1916. 
 Holdfast the thought of justice to all creatures: 
 pray thus that the right which is truth may come into 
 its own. 
 
Lift your spirit toward joy for in joy is illumination. 
 Not by the path of the downcast may you know the 
 truth. 
 
 July 12, 1917. 
 Be full of pity for the ignorance of men, for ignorance 
 is the punishment of sin: only they who have loved 
 much may see Beauty. 
 
 March 8, 1918. 
 Cut no knots: they will fall apart even as rotten 
 threads let fall the stuff they were meant to hold. 
 
 July 15, 1918. 
 All is to be won and may be won by effort. 
 
 March 28, 1919. 
 Remember that there are moments when physical 
 repose is necessary to the spirit. 
 
 June H, 1919. 
 To falter in faith is to lose the thing you seek. 
 
 July 8, 1920. 
 Let the eye see, but weep not; the ear hear, but 
 resent not. 
 
 August 15, 1920. 
 Find in quietness the light that illumines the heart. 
 
 Remember the danger of things. Keep to Beauty, 
 and Beauty is in passing. 
 
 29 
 
Remember that Beauty is in life and not in things. 
 
 Beauty is in passing. It feels the breath of the 
 spirit. 
 
 Beauty is in all things: you are laying stress on its 
 material side. Let it shine in your life. Let loving 
 beauty of conduct be the thought on which you con- 
 centrate. 
 
 THE BODY 
 
 The following observations on man's passional 
 and physical nature and their relation to his spirit- 
 ual part constitute the residuum as it were of the 
 messages last referred to — the answers to specific 
 questions on the subject of disease, diet, sex, and 
 matters of that sort. 
 
 August 9, IS 
 
 Passion is of God and may not be denied. 
 
 June IS, 1916. 
 
 As the force of water overfloweth the bank, so does 
 
 the force of life overflow the bounds of the body. 
 
 July 1 : 
 The bird of the spirit is ever fluttering, but we feel 
 the wings only when . . . 
 
 30 
 
March 21, 1917. 
 • . . the struggle of the bird of life to feel its wings. 
 
 June 15, 1917. 
 The flow of sex withholds from growth so long as it is 
 the passion of the blood. When it rises to the passion 
 of the spirit it liberates, and that liberation is the ulti- 
 mate result. The long struggle for mastery of the 
 passion of the blood opens at last the door through 
 which the spirit enters. It is strange that the one can- 
 not come to birth without the long trial that plunges 
 the soul through agonies of remorse. 
 
 In controlling all the gateways of the body the 
 spirit has an unknown liberty of expression. 
 
 June 19, 1916. 
 
 The struggle of the spirit to form the physical body 
 
 to its needs takes a form not full past the known, but 
 
 quite simply follows the physical law, for the spirit uses 
 
 physical law as the mathematician uses mathematics. 
 
 July 2U 1919. 
 In the future the men who attain to illumination 
 will treat the lower self as a cast-off sheath, and think 
 of it as an instrument. 
 
 September SO, 1919. 
 
 All men are not to be led by the same path: some 
 
 must follow the way of the body clothing the spirit. 
 
 31 
 
The inner self cannot contact the physical until it 
 has adjusted the physical to new motions, and this is 
 long and tedious. 
 
 January 18, 1920. 
 For the body is the most perfect instrument for the 
 flow of spirit that has developed, it should be admired 
 as we admire beautiful handicraft. 
 
 Sense is of the self, it grows to light. 
 
 The physical incarnates through the spirit and all 
 attainment is through the spirit: not otherwise could 
 growth be. 
 
 Rice is excellent: it contains the least disturbing 
 quality in its nature of food for the body not meant 
 for physical stress. 
 
 Fur is full of bits of life: it is full of chance for bad 
 flowing toward . . • 
 
 Fur is not for ornament. It may rightfully be used 
 for warmth but not for ornament. 
 
 32 
 
V 
 FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS 
 
 THE recipient of chese messages was repeatedly 
 warned that she was the object of special pro- 
 tection and guidance, and that only by reason of 
 this fact — and her own devotional attitude — was 
 she immune from the dangers that ordinarily 
 attend everything in the nature of mediumship. 
 The first of the following messages is in answer to 
 an inquiry about the Ouija board, and the second 
 contains advice to a woman who, having lost by 
 death a dearly beloved brother, wrote to ask if we 
 knew of any way of getting into communication 
 with him. 
 
 May 12, 1916. 
 Leave it, that is not for you: we have a discipline 
 that is higher. 
 
July 20, 1920. 
 The woman suffers. Let us be the Way : not by the 
 stuff of materialism but by the way of the spirit. Let 
 her realize that her love is more real than the chemical 
 substance of her body. By her love she may enter into 
 communion with his spirit. 
 
 On those infrequent occasions when I was 
 called upon to address an audience we would some- 
 times ask the Oracle for a message from them to 
 be delivered in this way. The following came in 
 answer to such appeals. The first is for some 
 meeting of some Community Chorus; the second 
 for a lecture at the MacDowell Club which never 
 came off; the third is for a Sunday afternoon ad- 
 dress at St. Mark's in-the-Bouwerie, New York. 
 This was delivered in the very words of the Oracle 
 and the effect upon the audience was so pronounced 
 as to become the subject of subsequent comment. 
 
 Let him speak of the spiritual need of a bond that 
 has spiritual expression. Many go to the song without 
 thought of the meaning, but even as sound goes forth 
 from them so is born a bond that, invisible to the 
 physical eye, is more powerful than any metal known 
 to man. 
 
 Present to them the great thrusting into conscious- 
 ness of the facts of the unseen. The unseen is the 
 
 34 
 
immanent; the seen is the passing. It is the passing 
 that makes the unseen seem full of doubt, difficult to 
 believe. 
 
 December 19, 1919. 
 Men grow toward the Light which is the expression 
 of Love by turning away from the objective world and 
 studying their own souls. This is not a religious work 
 in the old sense, but an actual necessity of growth. In 
 the past men thought that the turning inward was the 
 way to God. Let them realize that it is the way to 
 themselves and there is God. 
 
 April 16, 1918. 
 • . . He cannot too strongly emphasize that the great 
 art of the future will be given out not as in the past, 
 conceived and executed at the behest of need. 
 
 When I was engaged upon an article for publica- 
 tion we somtimes went to the Oracle for help. 
 The first of the two following messages is apropos 
 of a letter I wrote to the New York Tribune pro- 
 testing against the dirt, disorder, and general 
 ugliness of that part of the approach to the New 
 York Public Library where solicitations were made 
 for charitable and other purposes. The second 
 I embodied in an essay printed in the (Adyar) 
 Theosophist, on the subject of impending changes 
 in consciousness and in the world. The third 
 concerns itself with architecture after the war, the 
 
 35 
 
subject of the last of a series of three essays con- 
 tributed to The Architectural Review. 
 
 Great ideals demand the sacrament of Beauty. 
 Men may not wantonly desecrate the altars at which 
 they are asked to serve. 
 
 January 11, 19 
 Keep to the issue: the necessity of remembering that 
 consciousness moves in cycles, and once the new cycle 
 is opened vast changes take place almost instantly. 
 This is because the spirit awakes to new vision. Al- 
 ways has it been thus. Man is a blind creature whose 
 vision is continually tending toward light. 
 
 April 26, 1918. 
 The manner must be suited to the dwellers in dark- 
 ness, but let him force home the truth by all telling 
 deeds of the spirit in its return to bodily incarnation. 
 For the men who are to build are the men who will see 
 the reality and return quickly to draw that picture in 
 a physical body. 
 
 December 7, 1919. 
 There is great need that people may realize their 
 power, not with the weapon of materiality, but with 
 the self within. Man is all power. More wonderfuf 
 than any physical instrument is the power of conscious- 
 ness to work amelioration in the physical lot of man. 
 
 36 
 
The following message is about Bishop Berk- 
 eley, written at Newport, in the very jaws of that 
 strange landmark known as the Bishop's Seat. 
 
 August 22, 1919. 
 The strange stone you saw is potent, and there he 
 revolved in his thought many ideas that will come to 
 birth. He was a man who could not express the full 
 content, but if you follow him closely you will learn new 
 vistas in the future thought of men. Men will recog- 
 nize him as greater in the future. 
 
 The following interesting commentaries on the 
 play of Hamlet, and the two on Romeo and Juliet 
 were inspired by questions asked during the time 
 in which I was engaged upon a production of 
 Hamlet for Walter Hampden, and when I was 
 looking forward to a similar labor on Romeo and 
 Juliet. 
 
 The flagellation of the Movies came as a com- 
 mentary on an essay I had written on the subject. 
 I was surprised by it. Although averse to the 
 commercialized film-drama I had thought that 
 the Movie might have an educational value- 
 
 37 
 
HAMLET 
 
 April 22, 1919. 
 It is our will that the great story should reach the 
 hearts of men. 
 
 The play is to turn consciousness from the outward 
 to the inner significance. Many subtle meanings yet 
 undiscovered may be laid bare. Like a chamelion the 
 play is full of new interpretations as the consciousness 
 of man evolves from the slaughter that has been. 
 
 March 6, 1919. 
 In the hidden things is the pearl of price. The 
 sense seems full of importance to the little mind: it 
 must turn to the unseen, and this great play has its 
 meaning there. Hamlet sees the spiritual meaning 
 and all must learn to see it likewise. 
 
 March 21, 1919. 
 
 In the days to come people will learn to reveal the 
 
 unspeakable words. These that are now but sticks by 
 
 which the imagination is stirred in its muddy depths will 
 
 spring to life and become the realities of the sense. 
 
 March £5, 1919. 
 
 . . . Remember that death is resurrection, and let the 
 scene picture the lifting of the veil. 
 
 April W, 1919. 
 
 Think not that this is to live a short day: it belongs 
 
 not to the great world of hurrying men, but to seekers 
 
 38 
 
of wisdom; and to the subject that stirs the heart to 
 seek the right, no past or future may be set. 
 
 March 7, 1921. 
 
 The play is our message . . It is a growing child : 
 each year must make it nearer the picture of the soul 
 as Hamlet saw it. 
 
 March IS, 1920. 
 . . . This story of the soul is necessary to the hearts of 
 men. Great is our will to bring men to a serene and 
 beautiful belief that man has two bodies that act to- 
 gether but may be apart; the Being physical will dis- 
 integrate, but the Being etheric joins itself to a higher 
 form. 
 
 March 16, 1921. 
 
 Let him arrange the light that it speaks even more 
 loudly when the Lord of the body departs himself to 
 the Eternal. 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET 
 
 The play is significant in a way that the other 
 [Hamlet] fails. It shows that love, not revenge, unties 
 all knots. 
 
 October 22, 1919. 
 
 The play is a perfect picture of the love of the soul 
 for the soul that lies within. 
 
 THE MOVIES 
 
 January 15, 1920. 
 
 They deceive themselves with the word "education,'* 
 
 forgetting that men are one. That a few may learn 
 
 39 
 
easily a few physical phenomena they support an insti- 
 tution that eats at the very heart of the spirit of man. 
 
 January 17 y 1920. 
 Those who offer this know not that they are offering 
 a form of amusement that stifles the mind, tortures the 
 soul, and converts the heart into a play machine [me- 
 chanical toy]. The moving pictures are a heartless 
 torment. The multitudes go away to suffer the de- 
 gradation of their souls . . All who seek joy in picturing 
 the suffering, the wickedness of others, are stained with 
 a foul odor. 
 
 The next message is about Tertium Organum 
 a philosophy based on the idea of the fourth dimen- 
 sion, by P. Ouspensky. It was received at the 
 time when I was putting forth the English trans- 
 lation of this remarkable book. 
 
 May 9, 1920. 
 The book is very necessary to tie in one bond men 
 of the one spirit. It is intended as a precursor. An- 
 other will follow that could not be understood without 
 the discipline of this. 
 
 40 
 
VI 
 "SONG AND LIGHT 5 
 
 THAT the note of Beauty should be struck so 
 often and so insistently in these messages, and 
 that it should be so linked up with the idea of Light 
 is partly explained by the fact that the release of 
 Beauty, and its revelation in Light was the ab- 
 sorbing preoccupation of these years. At times 
 this took a particularly practical and concrete 
 form — when I was called upon to design and super- 
 intend decorative lighting out of doors in connec- 
 tion with "Song and Light" festivals, a mode of 
 civic entertainment and expression devised by 
 Harry Barnhart and myself. These festivals were 
 held in Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and three 
 successive summers in Central Park, New York. 
 They were on a vast scale and involved an enor- 
 mous amount of concentrated work and responsi- 
 
bility. At these times I asked — and received — 
 help from the Oracle. It gave me information 
 about the persons with whom I worked, instruc- 
 tions as to where to go for what I needed, it fore- 
 warned me of difficulties and dangers. In all 
 this I was never misled or disappointed, and I may 
 say that without the help thus given in some cases 
 I could not have carried my part of the work to a 
 successful issue within the given time. 
 
 Intermingled with more detailed information, 
 there were as usual illuminating general state- 
 ments about Music and Light. These are gather- 
 ed together here. 
 
 October 22, 1916. 
 
 It is in the unity of the voices that the first words 
 of the new gospel shall reach the hearts of men. The 
 voice of a great chorus brings to life a spirit that has 
 been longing to enter into the life of man, and when it 
 attains its voice the fulfillment of the words of Christ 
 will be given to man. 
 
 December 22, 1918. 
 
 The singing will spring naturally from the hearts 
 that feel the joy of loving. 
 
 December 22, 1916. 
 The great power of the Word will show in the faces 
 and voices of the multitude which will greet the power 
 of light to spread afar the flaming Word. 
 
 42 
 
December 28, 1916. 
 
 The house of the Lord is to be built not of stone but 
 of the spirit of song. 
 
 February 24, 1920. 
 
 In sound is a bond that is powerful beyond the 
 imagination of men. The law of the universe is not in 
 physical laws, but in etheric laws, and these do strangely 
 depend on sound as known to men in Music. Music is 
 the physical manifestation of a great force that is neces- 
 sary to life. 
 
 . . . And many will turn their eyes toward the path of 
 Beauty, which is the sign heaven sent of the God of 
 Love. 
 
 The Light [brought to birth in Song and Light] 
 persists, it is phosphoresence in the heart, always shin- 
 ing and allowing no failure of the self to hide in com- 
 placent satisfaction. Never forget that the Light is 
 the symbol of a great spiritual truth — truth that will 
 change the physical lives of men. 
 
 All things are manifested in Light. 
 
 September 16, 1916. 
 
 In Light lies the future of art. Even as painting 
 
 spake of old, now will light revolutionize the art of man. 
 
 It is in Light that the meaning of life will be revealed. 
 
 . . . A great art which will bring men immeasurably 
 nearer the heart of life which is God. 
 
 43 
 
September 19, 1916. 
 
 For in the Light there is us, and we carry the Word. 
 
 It is not in anger or passion that we shine: only in Love. 
 
 February 22, 1917. 
 Light carries the depth of the soul by storm. Music 
 holds it to the end. 
 
 March 11, 1919. 
 Great festivals of Light, carrying the word forward, 
 can only be given in their true beauty and with their 
 true spiritual message under the sky of night. 
 
 March 3, 1920. 
 Light is a benediction; it cannot play the game of 
 life. 
 
 March 8, 1920. 
 Remember that there is always Light: even in the 
 darkness the Light shineth. 
 
 March U, 1920. 
 We speak the highest word in Light. Its potency 
 may not be visible at once to the physical eye, but it 
 stirs the etheric body as no other medium. For Music 
 touches the soul through the senses, but Light through 
 the soul direct. This may not be clear, but Light is 
 the direct medium: it passes through and beyond all 
 limitations. 
 
 44 
 
VII 
 BEAUTY 
 
 THE messages on Beauty outnumber those on 
 any other subject. Whenever the Oracle 
 speaks of Beauty the language becomes positively 
 lyrical. Extended comment on the following pas- 
 sages would be in the nature of an impertinence. 
 They are like the beads of a rosary — each one a 
 prayer; or the jewels of a crown — each one a light. 
 
 July 4y 191b. 
 Beauty is part of happiness. 
 
 June 10, 1916. 
 
 The power of Beauty is the power of Love, and that 
 
 is far as the farthest light, for Beauty is the face of 
 
 Love, and that force overcometh all things in the end. 
 
 June 20, 1916. 
 All lovers of Beauty are of one principle and each 
 adds to the other's glory. 
 
July 21, 1916. 
 In the pressing forward [of the work] lies the failure 
 of sin to invade men's souls, for with Beauty in the heart 
 sin cannot enter: it is a talisman. 
 
 July SO, 1916. 
 All Beauty striven for blossoms in the work of the 
 hands of men. 
 
 To be right in Beauty is the duty of all. 
 
 August 12, 1916. 
 The power of Beauty cannot be prostituted. 
 
 May 2, 1917. 
 The word of God speaketh only through Beauty : 
 not in high display, not in the lowliness that is lost to 
 the light that shines through the spirit, but only in the 
 loveliness that like the dawn of a spring morning, 
 speaketh to the soul and lights the dead fire to a new 
 flame of worship. 
 
 May 8, 1917. 
 Beauty is of the long past, returning to it is slow for 
 the blind children : they wander, groping for the thing 
 they cannot see. 
 
 August 1, 1918. 
 Beauty is the highest expression of the love that is 
 steeped in God. 
 
 . . a Beauty to glorify the spirit that in man has so 
 long been covered by the dust of futile things. 
 
 46 
 
August 13, 1916. 
 
 The power of Beauty is beyond even your dream. 
 
 The whole world shall wake to it. Put it in conduct 
 
 and Christ rises in the heart, and with the risen Christ 
 
 the soul of man is freed. 
 
 September 19,1917. 
 Beauty is the very truth of God. Without it the 
 spirit cannot manifest. 
 
 August 1 9 1919. 
 By Beauty men live in the world of the spirit. Not 
 without it may the spirit grow. 
 
 In all the Oracle messages the word art is used 
 as a synonym for Beauty. "They" are not concerned 
 with the existing or past forms of art, but with 
 that new art, as yet uncreated, the organization 
 of light and color into an emotional language, just 
 as in music sound has been organized. 
 
 January 3, 1917. 
 . . . great art which will bring men immeasurably 
 nearer the heart of life which is God. 
 
 February 22, 1919. 
 . . . Not of old and Buried Beauty, but a Beauty trans- 
 cendent; a Beauty that holds in its shining heart a mes- 
 sage of joy and love to all men. For the heart of man 
 
 47 
 
turns to joy, and until he has quaffed his thirst at that 
 fountain he cannot liberate his spirit. 
 
 August 26,1919. 
 
 Each must live, but no one who would attain the 
 
 path may gain; for gain to him the goal must be the 
 
 love of Beauty, the love that is the only light of the 
 
 artist. 
 
 May 16, 1920. 
 . . . the new art that is to touch men's souls to turn 
 toward the light that shines in the heart. 
 
 48 
 
VIII 
 THE LONG DENIED 
 
 WHENEVER the Oracle refers to those whom 
 it names the Long Denied the tone loses 
 something of its dispassion. There is still the 
 play of a supernal intelligence upon life, but tinged 
 with a certain emotional quality — compassion not 
 unmixed with indignation. No group of messages 
 is more forceful, more formidable — one might al- 
 most say more menacing — than this. 
 
 March 27, 1916. 
 Our cause is the cause of the long denied. Beauty 
 must come to them. 
 
 May 1,1917. 
 
 The Masters work for the humble: they are called 
 
 to do for them what their servants here have neglected, 
 
 wrapping themselves in a blind mantle of self-love, and 
 
losing from their soul the supreme love of Beauty with- 
 out which the word of God cannot be manifested to man. 
 
 April 3, 1918. 
 
 Remember the long denied, the need they have of the 
 
 help that Beauty in life alone can bring. Long have 
 
 they suffered the poverishment of the most necessary, 
 
 receiving only the hard crust of science. 
 
 November 18, 1918. 
 Little do they [the priveleged] understand the great 
 forces that will put them into the hands of the injured 
 — those whom they have denied the joy that conies 
 with the simple unfoldment of daily delight in Beauty. 
 They are ignorant, they see only this outer lining. All 
 that is real, all that is substance is to them delusion. 
 
 AvfU*S8 t 1917. 
 
 The meaning in our hearts that goes to men in 
 Beauty is to bring to birth a movement of the spirit by 
 which all men rising in their higher selves will cease to 
 torment their brothers to their own unrighteous profit. 
 A city should be a community ruled by loving brothers, 
 else it becomes a bed of disease: the spirit which is 
 Beauty cannot find a home within its confines. 
 
 The following are in something of the same 
 strain. The first is in answer to an inquiry about 
 the merits of certain sand-bagging methods some- 
 
 50 
 
times employed in soliciting funds for charitable 
 and patriotic purposes; the second is apropos 
 the then impending electrocution of a mere boy 
 for murder. 
 
 May 8, 1919. 
 
 If they hold to the path of force they destroy the 
 
 springs of charity, the child of Love. A charity that 
 
 springs not from Love but from fear creates a stain that 
 
 is washed away with pain and suffering. 
 
 What can it profit society to take life, since in taking, 
 it blots itself with the greater crime of vengeance which 
 is not for man since it blinds to the laws of life. 
 
 August 10, 1916. 
 
 The way of the deceitful leadeth to destruction. 
 
 . . . for the doers of deceit uncover themselves even as 
 
 the snow melted leaveth the earth bare and sodden. 
 
 April 9, 1917. 
 The foolish, in ignorance, compass our ends, for in 
 the folly of them is destruction. 
 
 When the spirit is most conscious of its power to 
 create evil, then do the forces of good make the most 
 valiant fight to triumph. All unwittingly do these 
 [ignorant persons] lend themselves to the great destruc- 
 tion and they are chosen because their past has balanced 
 the evil as against the good. 
 
 51 
 
February 23, 1919. 
 Difficult it is for the unawakened to hear the call of 
 the morning. 
 
 The following treat of death, sin, suffering, 
 subjects rarely touched upon by the Oracle and 
 then only in answer to some specific appeal. 
 
 April 11, 1914. 
 Each being has to suffer. 
 
 August 7, 1917. 
 Suffering is given to the loved that they may more 
 quickly come to illumination. 
 
 February 9, 1917. 
 Sin is a growth, and its overcoming requires long 
 patience. 
 
 Trial and suffering is the path of the soul. We do 
 not promise happiness but the greater thing which is 
 the joy of fulfillment. 
 
 January 3, 1918. 
 The lesson of death, like the lesson of birth, is but a 
 going forward to new spiritual experience, held not back 
 by any physical considerations. Death is the step 
 toward illumination that we all take and the quality of 
 the illumination is dependent on the quality that has 
 been won in physical incarnation. 
 
 
DUTY : SERVICE 
 
 The outstanding feature of this group of mes- 
 sages lies in the distinction made between the 
 undertaking of service as a duty, and its assump- 
 tion in a spirit of love and joy; the first leads to 
 a certain sort of suffering, and the second to 
 "liberation." The initial message came in answer 
 to a question about one of Billy Sunday's revival 
 meetings. 
 
 In a great throng turned toward service we wield 
 our greatest strength. It matters not the words, the 
 spirit is all with which we work. 
 
 Knowledge is won in loving service. 
 
 August^ 10, 1917. 
 Not until all men learn that service is in serving 
 the higher self, a self that takes no cognizance of acclaim, 
 can the true light be seen by men. 
 
 February 23, 1918. 
 Those who have shut their hearts to all save what 
 they hold as duty suffer through that one channel left 
 open. The realization of the blessing of faith enters 
 by the one path open to service, and they the more 
 heavily suffer. 
 
 53 
 
October 18 y 1918. 
 The generous heart is filled with rich reward. 
 
 The suffering you save is a throng of happy beings 
 to bless you. 
 
 February 11, 1919. 
 Only in joy is salvation. Duty is a path so piercing 
 to the spirit that it suffuses one mortally. In joy is 
 health and in health all functions of the body spiritual 
 are performed even as the blood flows regularly through 
 the body physical. 
 
 February 1919. 
 What may seem a sacrifice is the great opportunity. 
 Only the men who lead away from the path of power 
 will reach the goal. 
 
 54 
 
IX 
 TRUTH : LOVE : THE SPIRIT 
 
 THE messages in this group are in the main 
 only variations on certain dominant themes 
 common to all mystical literature, expressed by 
 such sayings as "God is Love" and "The kingdom 
 of Heaven is within you;" nevertheless they are 
 full of freshness and the language is extraordinarily 
 beautiful. 
 
 November 27, 1915. 
 Only in the spirit is there truth. Where the spirit 
 is false the spirit of truth flies away. 
 
 December 9, 1915. 
 The lesson of life is in feeling for the truth, for truth 
 is ever revealing itself in new ways. 
 
May £4, 1916. 
 The truth is always known : never can it be hidden, 
 for the Gods hide not their faces in the question of 
 rebuke. 
 
 June 8, 1916. 
 God is Love and Truth in one. 
 
 All messages of Love bring happiness. 
 
 Love knoweth no condition in ignorance. It 
 mattereth not what the man hath of material things, 
 if his spirit dwelleth in darkness his need is as great as 
 he who hath not bread to fill his belly. 
 
 March 18, 1917. 
 It is by bringing to life the spirit that lies in each 
 heart that the great deliverance will come true. 
 
 July 5, 1917. 
 Love is the breath by which the spirit of fortunate 
 souls know God. 
 
 July 15, 1917. 
 . . . For the cry of the heart is never stilled : the words 
 in which the cry is expressed are of no import. Only 
 the spirit sends the message. 
 
 September 23, 1918. 
 The daily turning toward the spirit can alone sustain 
 the temptations of the way. 
 
 56 
 
September 25, 1920. 
 The multitude see only their material needs. The 
 friend of man knows that only by the spirit does man 
 come to the dawn. 
 
 INNER AND OUTER 
 
 July 17, 1915. 
 The farthest star is in your heart: the farthest sun 
 shines within you, and to make you understand it is to 
 make the inner the outer. 
 
 December 8, 1918. 
 The West only understands the soul as fading. It 
 cannot realize its immanence. The Self has power to 
 translate the outer into the inner vision. 
 
 July 11, 1919. 
 Men should be taught that within themselves lies 
 their only salvation. 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE 
 
 The eye of the spirit seeth not the material image, 
 but he who harkeneth to the voice — by that we mean 
 the voice that speaks in the silence of meditation — 
 cannot fail of our end. 
 
 57 
 
X 
 
 DELPHIC SAYINGS 
 
 UNDER this heading are here gathered certain 
 brief and pregnant sayings pre-eminently ora- 
 cular, which do not lend themselves to classifica- 
 tion in any of the foregoing groups. 
 
 DESTINY 
 
 January 16, 1916. 
 The strange is the natural. To you things are 
 strange because you answer to the vision of mortal. If 
 you saw the finer light you would know that all things 
 fulfill their destiny in a way than which there could be 
 no other. Destiny is determined at the birth of the 
 soul, and the will enters only to fulfill destiny. 
 
 CYCLES 
 
 January 20 ', 1916. 
 All years do not begin by the calendar. Each person 
 has his own. 
 
FORCE AND LOVE 
 
 July 13, 1916. 
 The best is making force play the game of Love. 
 
 THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 December 22, 1916. 
 The things of the spirit are not measured in the coin 
 of the world. 
 
 NEW FLIGHTS 
 
 January », 1917. 
 For all things lead to new flight! . . for the future 
 is in first trying and then advancing. 
 
 THE BLIND IN SPIRIT 
 
 November 2 k 1917. 
 
 The blind in spirit are difficult to move for the call 
 of wisdom cannot pass through the shell of selfishness. 
 
 OVERCONFIDENT K 
 
 ptcmbcr 7, 19 
 Overconfidence blinds the spirit to the necessary 
 alertness. 
 
 60 
 
YOUTH 
 • . . For Youth needs must tie so many knots. 
 
 SELFISHNESS 
 
 February 9 y 1918. 
 Selfishness is fostered by too easy a life, and resent- 
 ment grows not from the things forced upon [them] but 
 by the voice of the inner self, which well knows that the 
 personal self is straying into paths that will make its 
 light dark. 
 
 THE CROSS 
 
 May 8, 1918. 
 The cross is an emblem that gathers the power of 
 beings for manifestation. 
 
 FREEDOM OF THE SPIRIT 
 
 May 30, 1918. 
 . . . The freedom of the spirit is accomplished only 
 after long periods of struggle alternating with respite. 
 
 POWER AND WISDOM 
 
 June 6, 1918. 
 They only have power who have wisdom. 
 
 61 
 
BEGINNINGS 
 
 April 30, 1919. 
 The world of reality is big in beginnings: in the 
 infinitely smaH appears the great. 
 
 LEADERS 
 
 Men must accept this truth if they are to go forward : 
 Unless they recognize in men of high spiritual develop- 
 ment, leaders, they cannot go forward but will stay 
 closed in darkness. 
 
 SUPERMAN 
 
 July 22, 1919. 
 
 The meaning of the Superman: he is human, but 
 
 with dormant faculties alert. Men do not realize the 
 
 blindness of themselves living in this darkness: the 
 
 illumined man sees the darkness from the light. 
 
 LIGHT 
 
 Men are the Light — it is only when they turn from 
 God that they lose their fire. 
 
 82 
 
FREEDOM 
 
 December 11, 1919. 
 Not until men learn to do right toward one another 
 because their hearts tell them will they win the road to 
 freedom. 
 
 PAIN 
 Fear of pain is to be banished from the world. 
 
 PERSONALITY 
 
 January 3, 1920. 
 In constant companionship is a loss of personality, 
 
 THOUGHT 
 
 March 3, 1920. 
 Thought has substance: it is of one body, and brings 
 its own future. 
 
 FLOWERS 
 
 Flowers call out the blessing of Love. 
 
 63 
 
FALLEN FORMS 
 
 The forces of life are full of the mysteriousness of 
 fallen forms. 
 
 KNOWLEDGE 
 
 June 20, 1920. 
 In knowledge lies all danger and all safety, for the 
 soul must know. 
 
 CONVERSION 
 
 The highest effort is in the turning of the forces of 
 evil into the way of righteousness. 
 
 LIFE 
 
 Life is to be lived, and the living is in the compass- 
 ing with our personal consciousness as deep the ocean 
 of experience as may be in our power. 
 
 64 
 
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