%. 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 \^t
 
 THE 
 
 PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS REQUIREMENTS 
 
 OR 
 
 THE BENEFICENCE OF NATURE'S LAWS 
 
 BY 
 
 LUCIE BECKHAM STEVENS 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CAL. 
 CONCORD PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 3311 WEST TEMPLE 5TREET
 
 Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1907, 
 
 By LuciE Beckhaa\ Stevens, 
 
 In tiie office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington. D. C. 
 
 THE CAXTON PRESS, LOS ANGELES. CAL.
 
 6,3^ 
 
 WITH 
 
 LOVE AND GRATITUDE, THIS BOOK IS HEREWITH 
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 
 JOSEPHINE M. HOLMES, 
 
 MY TEACHER, GUIDE AND FRIEND. ALL HONOR BE 
 UNTO HER NAME. 
 
 6006GG 
 
 T TPPAT?V
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE subject matter of this book is treated with 
 special reference to clearness and forcefulness in 
 presenting the facts with which we purpose to impress 
 the reader. It is not written for entertainment; and 
 we have tried to handle it in such a way that he who 
 begins it for pastime will continue it because he finds 
 that which is of practical value to his own life. 
 
 We wish the book to be instructive, and therefore 
 have not hesitated to say the same thing in many ways, 
 and to repeat whenever we have found it necessary to 
 accentuate a point. We hope that all the salient facts 
 have been shown from a sufficient number of viewpoints 
 to free them from all doubt as to their exact meaning 
 and application, and that each fact thus presented will 
 leave an indelible impression on the mind of the reader. 
 If we have succeeded in doing these things we are con- 
 tent, even though we have approached redundancy to 
 further this end. We have, so far as possible, constructed 
 each sentence to contain an essential statement relative 
 to some vital fact, and have taken the liberty to address 
 the reader in the second person with the purpose of still 
 further making a mental impact that he will be unable 
 to forget. 
 
 We have herein dealt with the fundamental principles
 
 VI PREFACE 
 
 of life, which are true and unchanging throughout all 
 time; but we have not told the whole truth. We have 
 referred to some things which we have not explained, 
 and which may give rise to interrogation. It is our 
 present purpose to write another book, dealing with 
 subject matter less familiar but equally important to the 
 world at large, and to which this work forms a sort of 
 prologue. 
 
 We have but one object, and that is to help the indi- 
 vidual build a nobler character, to live a better and hap- 
 pier life, and to save himself from the destruction 
 imminent under present conditions. In the degree 
 that we accomplish this purpose is our work a success. 
 Whether this book receives blame or praise does not 
 signify— how many people begin, by its light, to disen- 
 tangle their natures and environment is of the utmost 
 importance. 
 
 Having done our best to present the principles which 
 insure progression— a higher individuality and a larger 
 and more beautiful life— our responsibility ends— the 
 reader's begins. That benefits will be received, accord- 
 ing to the comprehension and application of these prin- 
 ciples, is beyond question ; and if each reader lives the 
 life herein recommended with the same earnestness with 
 which we have endeavored to portray its precepts this 
 work will bear much fruit. 
 
 May it prove an inspiration and a practical help to 
 suffering humanity. 
 
 The Author.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 iNSTKUCTION ?AGE 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 I Earth Planes 1 
 
 II The Value, Use and Benefits of 
 
 THE Physical Organism 7 
 
 III The Senses 14 
 
 IV Mind 23 
 
 V The Spirit 32 
 
 VI Reason 39 
 
 VII Ambition 42 
 
 VIII Pride 44 
 
 IX Vanity 53 
 
 X Covetousness 59 
 
 XI Envy 65 
 
 XII Jealousy 72 
 
 XIII Suspicion 79 
 
 XIV Discontent 81 
 
 XV Fault-finding 91 
 
 XVI Fear and Anxiety 93 
 
 XVII Irritability, Touchiness, Anger, 
 
 Hatred and Revenge 97 
 
 XVIII Injurious Criticism, Condemna- 
 
 tion, Gossip and Slander 103 
 
 XIX Carelessness, Recklessness, 
 
 AND DESTRUCTIVENESS 110 
 
 XX Non-interference 114 
 
 XXI Duty 118
 
 vni 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Instruction Page 
 
 XXII Inquisitiveness, Curiosity and 
 
 Gaining Useless Knowledge ... 124 
 
 XXIII Wrong Desires, Indulgence, 
 
 Habits and Passions 129 
 
 XXIV Gluttony and Sloth 134 
 
 XXV Arguments and Contentions 141 
 
 XXVI Deceit and Hypocrisy 148 
 
 XXVII Sadness, Melancholy and 
 
 Peevishness 152 
 
 XXVIII Past and Future 159 
 
 XXIX Suicide 164 
 
 XXX Adultery 169 
 
 XXXI Summary Remarks 172 
 
 XXXII Aspiration 175 
 
 XXXIII Hope • 181 
 
 XXXIV Patience and Endurance 185 
 
 XXXV Forbearance and Forgiveness .... 188 
 
 XXXVI Generosity, Charity and 
 
 Goodwill 192 
 
 XXXVII Meekness, Submissiveness and 
 
 Obedience 197 
 
 XXXVIII Love 200 
 
 XXXIX Sympathy 207 
 
 XL Kindness 208 
 
 XLI Tenderness 210 
 
 XLII Ability !. 221 
 
 XLIII Nature's Beneficence to the 
 
 Self-Possessed 218 
 
 XLIV Resume 231 
 
 XLV A Tribute to the Higher Life .... 235
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE most fitting introduction to this book is a sketch 
 of the Hfe and work of Josephine M. Holmes, 
 through whom the philosophy herein embodied was first 
 given to the world. It has been through her instruc- 
 tion, guidance and helpfulness directed toward the life 
 of the writer that this particular expression of her prin- 
 ciples is possible. 
 
 For the past twenty years Miss Holmes has been 
 voicing the principles of the Progressive Life both in 
 Europe and America, and during all of her life she has 
 lived them. She is not one who preaches but does not 
 practise. The laws and methods herein described she 
 has constantly applied in her own life and in her work 
 with others. 
 
 While Miss Holmes has a public mission to perform, 
 she has thought best to limit it, for a time, to the devel- 
 opment of co-workers. There are many people scattered 
 over the earth who have special capabilities hidden 
 away under the errors they have allowed to creep into 
 their characters. These defects have darkened them, 
 and have made them unconscious of their real natures 
 and abilities. For the awakening, training and general 
 helpfulness of such souls Miss Holmes has for the last 
 fifteen years devoted the major part of her time. The
 
 X INTRODUCTION 
 
 sole object of her work in this direction has been to aid 
 those who are by nature fitted to co-operate with her in 
 extending help to suffering humanity. There are many 
 avenues through which help may go forth from the cen- 
 ter established by this most able leader. There is much 
 work waiting to be done by those who will reach the 
 required standard of character and ability. We shall go 
 further: there are many born for the purpose of uniting 
 to promote the Progressive Life, but they have been 
 deluded, lost their way and forgotten their missions. 
 
 Many have listened to Miss Holmes' philosophy during 
 the long period in which she has been teaching; many 
 have endorsed her principles as sound and true, and 
 many have started on the way to live them. Others 
 have vowed to attain the required standard and unite 
 their abilities with her's to carry the work forward. 
 Of those who have placed themselves under training, 
 with these objects in viev/, few have been able to stand. 
 A number have gone on for different periods of time, 
 and some have conquered much; but sooner or later they 
 have succumbed to certain weaknesses, which, when 
 the final test came, they refused to overcome. A few 
 have forged bravely ahead, doing much toward building 
 their characters and cultivating abilities which promised 
 well until they sighted success. Many people in this 
 world have not been able to endure success, and espe- 
 cially is it dangerous when one is just beginning to feel 
 the power which can come only by conquering a defec- 
 tive nature. In the cases of those who reached this 
 point they stumbled over the obstacles which, unsub-
 
 INTRODUCTION XI 
 
 jected, must always interfere with progression. Pride 
 and self-importance, followed by anger and discontent, 
 asserted themselves with rising capabilities, and they 
 stepped once more from the path that leads to victory. 
 
 There are those about Miss Holmes today, faithfully 
 serving the cause, who have stood loyal and true 
 through the rising and falling, coming and going of 
 the others. There are others who are earnestly en- 
 deavoring to prove themselves worthy, and who, we 
 hope, will stand all tests, and rise to the standard of 
 able workers. 
 
 During all the wavering, fluctuation and failure of 
 the students who should today be standing by Miss 
 Holmes' side, aiding and supporting her in her efforts, 
 this remarkable woman has stood firm and true to her 
 principles. All great teachers have been misunderstood 
 by their contemporaries, and most of them have been 
 appreciated only after their death. So far Miss Holmes 
 is no exception to the rule. People of all classes have 
 sought her for help, and have received it. All kinds of 
 physical, mental and spiritual ailments have succumbed 
 to the powers generated through the purity of her life. 
 The heads of royal families and their handmaids, the 
 rich and the poor; the intellectual and the unlearned, 
 all alike have received and may receive her blessings. 
 She has received much praise and much censure. 
 Tremendous has been her misrepresentation; and though 
 all who have accepted her instruction and ministration 
 have been helped, though many have been saved from 
 malignant forms of sickness, and from death, and others
 
 Xll INTRODUCTION 
 
 from mental and spiritual conditions worse than death, 
 yet— we regret to say— few today acknowledge the hand 
 that succored them. 
 
 To all these things Miss Holmes is impervious. Strong, 
 undisturbed, patient, enduring, just, wisely kind and 
 obedient to the Mighty Powers which govern and pro- 
 tect her, she has gone, and will go, steadily on in the 
 fulfilment of her duties. There are, however, many 
 who appreciate her, and we believe the number will 
 constantly increase as her work is better known and she 
 is better understood. Without over-estimation or preju- 
 dice, we do not hesitate to prophesy that before twenty 
 more years shall have passed Josephine M. Holmes will 
 be acknowledged as having advanced the most rational, 
 the most necessary and the most irrefutable philosophy 
 before the world; and that those who take the trouble, 
 and are capable of knowing her, will concede her to be 
 the most consistent, both in theory and practise, of any 
 teacher of the age. 
 
 Miss Holmes has erected a pleasant and sightly home 
 on one of the outlying hilltops of Los Angeles, dedicated 
 to the training of workers. Here, during certain periods, 
 she will receive, teach and train those who can and will 
 take advantage of this opportunity. 
 
 Further information may be received by communicat- 
 ing with Miss J. M. Holmes, 3311 West Temple street, 
 Los Angeles, Calif.
 
 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 INSTRUCTION I 
 
 EARTH PLANES 
 
 IN order that life shall be progressive, it must be 
 natural. 
 
 Growth is the inevitable corollary of the undisturbed 
 operation of nature's laws. 
 
 The laws of nature are rules the co-operation of which 
 result in natural growth. These rules relate to the sus- 
 tenance, protection and development of life, and apply 
 physically, mentally and spiritually. 
 
 Artificial development is not progression. 
 
 Progression depends upon the building or preserving 
 of a noble character, which insures a natural growth of 
 the whole organism. 
 
 Artificial development is the culture of mind, body 
 and environment as primal objects. 
 
 To show the operation and results of artificial life 
 versus the natural life and its fruits is the work that 
 lies before us. 
 
 We wish to announce in the beginning that the 
 philosophy we are presenting is entirely based upon
 
 2 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 —not the assumption— but the positive knowledge that 
 there is a spirit in man, for the protection, awaken- 
 ing- and development of which the earth has existence j 
 and ^ at/the purpose of life on the earth is growth into 
 higher and more complete states of individuality. The 
 development of individuality, in its highest and broadest 
 _sense, is what is meaaLby The Progressive Life. \^ 
 
 Progression is the law of nature, to further which all 
 other laws are formed. So important is The Progres- 
 sive Life that all laws conspire to promote development 
 or tend toward destruction. 
 
 One who understands nature and her operations may 
 thus read her message to humanity : 
 
 " I am thy guide , thy protector, and the promoter 
 of thy highest well-being. Disregard me not ; neither 
 disobey my mandates— or suffering and death shall be 
 thy portion. Let MY nature be thy nature. Follow 
 my behests and I will lead thee along paths of peace 
 to life eternal. From one point of excellence to another, 
 from one exalted state to the next, thou shalt finally 
 progress— even though thou art pursued through ages 
 of time by the lash of self-engendered suffering before 
 thou wilt consent to start on the upward path. ' * 
 
 There is no way to insure unbroken progression other 
 than by the strict observance of nature's laws. Human 
 life, thus far, has been characterized by a circular move- 
 ment caused by repeated steps forward and backward 
 —a rising to certain heights and crashing to pieces. 
 This has been true of nations, institutions and individ- 
 uals; and the agencies that have caused history to repeat 
 
 t
 
 EARTH PLANE 3 
 
 itself throughout the past are at work all over the 
 world today. These agencies are the destructive forces 
 operating because of man's disobedience to natural law, 
 and interference with natural growth. That the people 
 of the world are paying little or no heed to nature's laws, 
 and that they are leading false and artificial lives, is in 
 eveiy direction apparent. That they are receiving 
 results of the destructive forces thereby set in motion 
 is also evident. Evil is the result of broken laws and 
 perverted life, and he who would change his conditions 
 must change his life. 
 
 The following instructions will bear directly on the 
 principles of progression, their present perversions, and 
 the possibilities of the restoration of the individual to 
 his true state. 
 
 We shall deal with facts familiar to all, but view them 
 from a standpoint different from that usually taken, and 
 throw on them a new light. The modes of life we advo- 
 cate are, in most respects, the antitheses of those in 
 general use. If, according to the higher standards of 
 human life, and taken either individually or as a whole, 
 present results were satisfactory, the methods now 
 pursued could not be questioned. Inasmuch as there is 
 a great cry in the heart of humanity, and as individ- 
 uals are constantly seeking more than they have known, 
 it is evident that present ways and means are greatly 
 wanting. Many people would like better conditions 
 and brighter lives, but they are trying to get new results 
 from old methods. 
 
 We are going to make special appeal to the indi\idual
 
 4 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 who is conscious, or beginning to be conscious, that 
 there are needs in his Hfe for which the resources of 
 the world have nothing to offer. When one has reached 
 this place he has usually tried many methods— or many 
 ways of applying the same methods— to find satisfaction, 
 and, meeting with repeated failures, he becomes willing 
 to change. One who is satisfied is, with possible excep- 
 tions, beyond our present jurisdiction. Our work lies 
 with the one who has suffered enough to make him wil- 
 ling to listen, to learn, and to apply the principles which 
 make growth possible and enlarge human happiness. 
 
 Before further considering these principles, it is 
 necessary to explain something of the different planes 
 to which they apply: 
 
 The earth represents the material plane. It occupies 
 a place in the plan of creation with special reference to 
 the protective and magnetic qualifications of physical 
 organisms, which form envelopes peculiarly adapted to 
 the development of individuality. 
 
 Belonging to the earth, or material plane, are three 
 other planes, viz. , the physical, mental and spiritual, with 
 their substates. The substates of each plane simply 
 mean the different grades of development. These three 
 planes apply both to humanity at large and to the 
 individual. The material is the governing plane, and 
 while all who live on the earth function on all three 
 planes, they are subject to the laws of the physical. 
 
 With reference to humanity at large : People whose 
 lives are governed by their bodies, with little or no ref- 
 erence to the mental or spiritual, belong to the physical
 
 EARTH PLANE 
 
 plane in its more limited sense. This means that the 
 physical is subject to the abuse rather than the use of 
 the laws that govern it. Those who are extensively 
 influenced by intellectual considerations function largely 
 on the mental or intellectual plane. \That which per- 
 
 /tains to the moral nature, character, spirit or individu- 
 
 \ality belongs to the spiritual plane. 
 
 The three planes, in their application to the individual, 
 may be spoken of as separate organisms embodied in the 
 human organism as a whole. 
 
 The Phijsical Plane, or Organism, comprises the body, 
 its senses, faculties and the life forces. The life forces 
 the body attracts and incorporates into its organism, and 
 thereby it generates strength, vitality, power and 
 magnetism. 
 
 The Mental Plane, or Organism., is made up of the 
 mind, its faculties, activities and \ntal force. The vital 
 force is received from the spirit, and from the life forces 
 attracted and incorporated by and transmitted from the 
 physical. 
 
 The Spiritual Plane, or Organism, is formed of the 
 individual ego, or the spirit, with its faculties, feelings 
 and soul. The soul is the spirit body, composed of 
 the life forces attracted and gathered by the physical 
 body and attracted and held by the spirit. All the emo- 
 tions and feelings— other than those recorded by the 
 physical organism— all the attributes and traits of char- 
 acter belong to the spirit. Without the spirit no part 
 of the organism can feel or function; but we make a dis- 
 tinction, for sake of convenience, between the feelings
 
 6 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 of the physical and those that belong to the spiritual 
 plane. For example : fear, anger, jealousy, love, peace, 
 benevolence, or any characteristics, good or bad, and 
 the feelings and emotions arising therefrom, belong to 
 the spiritual plane. 
 
 Beside the earth and its states and substates, there 
 are many other planes, some lower, some higher. We 
 shall, at present, enter into no detail concerning these 
 planes, beyond stating, for the sake of future refer- 
 ence, that the earth plane, as a whole, is subordinate to 
 the Higher Planes, and under their direct jurisdiction. 
 
 The laws of nature, their application and relation to 
 these different planes and their substates, we shall 
 successively discuss with reference to the Progressive 
 Life.
 
 INSTRUCTION II 
 
 THE VALUE, USE AND BENEFITS OF THE PHYSICAL 
 
 ORGANISM 
 
 Humanity is functioning- on a much lower plane than 
 the standard of its capabilities. 
 
 Through disobedience to nature's laws progression 
 has been interfered with and deflected; therefore, the 
 present status of humanity represents a degraded state. 
 
 Probably no one thing has been and is less understood, 
 more misrepresented and more misused than the human 
 body and its senses. Without a clear understanding of 
 the purpose of your physical organism, and a consci- 
 entious application of that which you know, you cannot 
 develop in the way prescribed by nature. 
 
 The average mind, in its present degenerate state, 
 is prone to swing from one extreme to another, and it 
 is at these extreme points of the compass that we find 
 the masses of the people physically, mentally and spir- 
 itually functioning. What is needed is equilibrium, or 
 a place of balance; for only when this is preserved can 
 the truth be seen. 
 
 In regard to the human body this extreme attitude is 
 especially notable. Generally speaking, we may divide 
 the world into two classes— those who misuse the bodv
 
 8 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 for indulgence, and those who belittle and bemean it as 
 a stumbling block and an encumbrance. 
 
 The value of the body is more instinctively felt than 
 understood; its use is not known, and its benefits are not 
 realized. The various religions of the world have gar- 
 bled the subject of the human body until not a ray of 
 light penetrates the maze of theories and conjectures 
 with which they have bewildered the people, while the 
 facts that show the real value, use and benefits of life in 
 the physical body, here, on the earth or material plane, 
 have been almost lost to human consciousness. 
 
 The human body is an incalculable blessing— an oppor- 
 tunity for progression which cannot be over-estimated. 
 The sooner the individual awakens to this mighty fact 
 the sooner will he be in a position to begin living the 
 life that shall lift him out of his darkness and suffering. 
 So long as you do not know what your physical body is 
 for, you are apt to make mistakes which cause a long 
 line of troubles, one following in the wake of the other. 
 In fact, beginning with the body, you must learn the 
 whole law by which your life is governed, and which 
 applies on the three planes, the physical, mental and 
 spiritual— to which the human being belongs. 
 f The body is valuable because in no way can the indi- 
 vidual develop so rapidly and safely as while function- 
 ing on the earth plane, in the body, under the laws that 
 limit the physical organism. All of nature's laws are 
 limitations calculated to guard the progressing individ- 
 ual from mistakes which retard his growth. This will 
 more fully appear as we proceed. The laws that limit
 
 THE PHYSICAL ORGANISM 9 
 
 the physical body are peculiarly fitted to fulfill the needs 
 and augment the growth of the spirit or dweller in the 
 body. 
 
 The spirit of man is not necessarily divine or perfect, 
 but is capable either of development or degeneration. 
 What the chestnut bur is to the little kernel within, 
 what the chrysalis is to the butterfly, what the w^omb is 
 to the developing embryo it surrounds, the body rightly 
 used is to the awakening spirit of man. More than 
 this, the body is a magnet, a central point of attraction, 
 toward which gravitate the life essence or forces, the 
 potential energy, the soul elements— in short, the essen- 
 tials of the storehouse of nature. These elements are, in 
 turn, attracted by the spirit they surround— forming the 
 soul— and upon which the spirit feeds, by which it is 
 nourished, becomes illuminated, and finally awakens to 
 full consciousness. 
 
 Let us put thip. in another w?y. The soul of man is 
 composed of the life essence or forces, or potential 
 energy, or nature's essentials which clothe, nourish and 
 awaken the spirit. This soul substance is the divinest 
 part of the individual, as he stands on the earth today. 
 The spirit may have partaken of many inferiorities, but 
 the life forces come direct and pure from the creative 
 centers, and are conveyed to the human org-anism through 
 the various mediums— both crude and fine— which con- 
 nect with and belong to the earth or material plane. 
 There are many such mediums, the most familiar ones 
 being the sun, air, ether, electricity, and all kinds of 
 food which furnish the body with fuel.
 
 10 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 The use of the human body hes in the fact that it 
 forms a sort of armor for the spirit to dwell in while 
 sojourning on the earth; and, at the same time, it is a 
 sensitive, high-class mechanism, or organism through 
 which the spirit functions. 
 
 While the use of the body cannot be overestimated, it 
 should be the obedient servant of the spirit. Beyond 
 giving it necessary food, clothing and protection, to best 
 conserve the health, energy and the purposes for which 
 it is intended, the individual should never serve the body. 
 Because of the perversion and the confusion in which the 
 world is involved, the body has been given the position 
 that should be occupied by the spirit. The body is 
 enthroned as though it were the sole object of living. It 
 has been given a place of prominence until, in human 
 consciousness, the spirit has been almost eclipsed ; and 
 the theories that support the idea of the spirit's non- 
 existence have many advocates and adherents. In this 
 false position the body is over-fed, over-clothed, and 
 over-housed by nearly all who— through fair methods or 
 foul— can gather together the requisite materials. 
 
 The cause that lies back of all this is the fact that 
 desire has become king, ruler and leader of the people, 
 and that through the body, its senses and faculties, 
 human desire is gratified. Thus, that which was by na- 
 ture intended to serve the highest purposes of the spirit, 
 through its abuse becomes a medium for all kinds of 
 indulgence, which weaken and darken the spirit, and 
 check progression. For the gratification of innumerable 
 desires, men, women and children daily and hourly sell
 
 THE PHYSICAL ORGANISM 11 
 
 their bodies, minds, souls and spirits into all forms and 
 degrees of degradation and debauchery, all of which 
 smother nobler qualifications and higher aspirations, 
 until the light is almost extinguished, and they grovel 
 in a sensual, degenerate, darkened existence more 
 blameworthy than the beasts of the field. 
 
 The world is all twisted, distorted, confused and 
 chaotic with dishonesty, immorality and crime of every 
 kind, rampant and uncontrolled. Though we wrote 
 volumes in an effort to depict the breadth and depth to 
 which such excesses are carried, we could not tell but 
 the smallest portion of the sense debauchery or the 
 manifold forms of iniquity that ravage human life. 
 Carried by their mad impetus, they will doubtless con- 
 tinue unchecked until the Mighty Governing Hand, 
 operating through nature, shakes the earth to its very 
 center and awakens people from their deep, narcotic, 
 deadening lethargy. 
 
 The state characterized by these conditions and many 
 more equally deplorable, all of which beggar description, 
 man boasts of as a high civilization. In the promotion 
 . of a civilization which has no cure for the darkest, dead- 
 liest evils, but to which they are considered a necessary 
 corollary, the human race spends its energy, effort and 
 ability. On this state, from well meaning but short 
 sighted people, prayers continually go forth for blessings. 
 One who correctly interprets the past may know that 
 the Higher Powers do not bless such a civilization; nor 
 do they prosper its generations ; nor will any be blessed 
 or prospered in the future that do not absolutely change
 
 12 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 these conditions and abide by the law of righteousness— 
 or right hving— which leads to the building of noble 
 character and exalted life. 
 
 f If the religious world would learn, apply and teach 
 the laws of nature, which insure a pure, simple, useful 
 life, it would have less occasion for supplication and get 
 better results. 
 
 Let all adherents of the various cults, which are cur- 
 rently designated as "metaphysical," also study nature, 
 and learn to see things as they are, and they will awaken 
 
 I from the delusion that "All is spirit, " "All is good," 
 and "Man is di\^ne," and become conscious of the 
 quicksands of evil into which they are daily sinking. 
 They may further realize that through their ignorance 
 of the forces with which they are dealing, they are 
 hourly being robbed of their souls, or life elements, the 
 control of which they so proudly boast— children playing 
 with fire, the nature or danger of which they little com- 
 prehend. 
 
 The benefits of the body are found when it is rightly 
 understood— neither neglected nor made the avenue for 
 indulgence, but put into its right position as protector, 
 sustainer and servant of the spirit. The spirit should be 
 recognized as the object of all activity and the regulator 
 of the human organism. The purpose of each life should 
 'be the building of a beautiful character, and the physical 
 organism should serve to that end. 
 
 In this connection we wish to speak of a mistake very 
 common and little understood, viz. —the habit of living 
 too much on the mental and spiritual planes, exclusive
 
 THE PHYSICAL ORGANISM 1 
 
 o 
 
 of the physical. Tho spirit should learn not to allow 
 itself to be called away in useless mental activities, nor 
 to g-o floating- off onto spiritual planes, leaving- the body 
 devitalized and disabled. The body is the earthly tab- 
 ernacle of the spirit and there the spirit must live, and 
 through the body it must function— or be subject to 
 destructive forces. 
 
 As the individual lives a simple, wholesome, rig-ht life, 
 keeping all three planes united and co-operative, the 
 whole organism is purified and vivifi.ed. Nothing does 
 so much to restore and preserve the health and strength 
 of the body, to illumine the mind and increase the intel- 
 ligence as an awakened spirit, at hom.e and active in the 
 body. The body protects and feeds the spirit, but the 
 spirit vitalizes, harmonizes and regulates the entire 
 
 organism. 
 
 The body itself is composed of the life forces, and had 
 nature prevailed it would have been perfected with the 
 spirit, and in its perfect state it would have been a live, 
 vibrant, electrical mass— pliable, reflective and respon- 
 sive—a part of the soul of man. Through the inherit- 
 ance from ages of defiling, adulterating, misusing and 
 degrading it, the body has become the crude, cumber- 
 some, dense composition it now is. Much, however, 
 may still be done toward its refinement. It should be 
 regarded as a servitor, and at the same time as a sacred 
 temple in which the spirit— enveloped by the soul— may 
 grow, awaken to a higher state of consciousness, and be 
 able to see and know all that is needed for the perform- 
 ance of its duty, and for its preparation for the next 
 state in its life of progression.
 
 INSTRUCTION III 
 
 THE SENSES 
 
 V/e have said that humanity is in a state of degener- 
 acy. It is degenerate because it is artificial. Only that 
 which is natural is comprehensive and profound, and in 
 the degree that man has strayed from nature he has 
 descended from the enlarged and ennobled standard he 
 would have compassed had he naturally developed. 
 
 Nature is a generous endower, and the senses are a gift 
 from her bounty, which bounty has but one object— the 
 development of her offspring. The senses are most im- 
 portant because of their great capabilities, their use and 
 value in furthering this end. Through a false and artifi- 
 cial life man's senses and faculties have become deadened 
 and limitedto a tremendous degree when compared with 
 what they might have been and even with what they 
 may be if quickened and awakened to the extent of 
 their present capacity. The senses should and may 
 extend from the physical organism, through the mental 
 organism, to the spiritual organism. Their cognition 
 and comprehension should and may embrace not only 
 the grosser things but the subtler realities of all three 
 planes. There are m.yriad sounds, colors and forms, in 
 fact, vast realms teeming with life as real as the visible.
 
 THE SENSES 15 
 
 material plane, all of which are invisible and unknown 
 only because of the decadence of human powers. > 
 
 Man has no present concept of the real standard of 
 his possibilities. He looks upon his weak body, dulled 
 senses and limited abilities, and thinks he is as God or 
 nature ordained him to be. This is not true. He is just 
 that into which his ideas, desires, sense gratifications, 
 habits and passions have caused him to descend. He 
 has becom.e a dwarfed, distorted offspring of nature. 
 Still there is within him the impetus to be greater than 
 he is, and to know that which extends beyond his pres- 
 ent scope. To supply the deficiency he invents many 
 mechanical devices, and at the same time continues to 
 live the life and make the mistakes through which the 
 deficiency came. Wonderful is the genius that produces 
 the vast variety and complexity of mechanisms by which 
 man's depleted senses and faculties are artificially ex- 
 tended, yet there is no instrument, however fine or pow- 
 erful, now in use, nor will any come into existence for 
 this purpose, but by that same thing is measured the 
 power that belongs to the natural man and the depth to 
 which he has fallen. 
 
 It would be impossible to convey to the human mind 
 any sort of an adequate description of what the grand 
 and natural man would have been had he not interfered 
 with and perverted his development. We shall present 
 to you a picture, however, which may serve as an incen- 
 tive for you to live a natural life and meet the require- 
 ments for progression. As you develop you will your- 
 self see and know the possibilities of the highly awak- 
 ened spirit of man.
 
 16 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 Had man been carried onward and upward on the 
 natural currents of his being he would have grown to be 
 almost all powerful. His range of vision and under- 
 standing would have been alm.ost unlimited. He would 
 have been the very spirit of joyousness itself. Em- 
 bodied in him, in active manifestation, life of his life, 
 nature of his nature, would have been all of his most 
 exalted ideals. Man has in some degree preserved his 
 ideals, but for the most part he allows them to float over 
 his head, and sadly does he fail to bring them down and 
 incorporate them into his daily life. 
 
 Every individual should be master of himself and 
 master of earth conditions. What does it mean to be 
 master of earth conditions? Had man not fallen, it 
 would have meant that nature and all her laws would 
 have harmonized and co-operated for the preservation 
 and furtherance of the spiritual, mental and physical 
 well-being of the human race, and that the earth and 
 all forms of life thereon would have united in "the com- 
 mon purpose of progression along paths of purity, 
 peace, health and happiness for all. To be master of 
 earth conditions now means for each individual to make 
 his environment— however difficult, trying, or fraught 
 with suffering— conduce toward the strengthening and 
 beautifying of his character, until no phase or form or 
 degree of evil has power to master the spirit or to cause 
 him to yield one fraction of his nobility. It means that 
 in defiance of all difficulties and obstacles, the individual 
 must go steadily on in the fulfilment of his mighty pur- 
 pose to develop an exalted individuality.
 
 THE SENSES 17 
 
 Comparing the present possibilities of spiritual, mental 
 and physical development with the standard described 
 as belonging to natural man, it should be remembered 
 that the human race has from generation to generation 
 descended so low in the scale of natural ability and en- 
 dowment, and it carries with it such burdens of heredity, 
 that no individual can hope to retain all that belongs to 
 the earth life. But he who is willing to cease doing the 
 destructive things, and to conform, as far as possible, 
 to nature's laws, living a simple, useful life, at all times 
 being careful to use and not abuse the senses, will be 
 able to wonderfully increase his perceptive faculties and, 
 to a large degree, receive the blessings that accrue from 
 a natural life. 
 
 What people need to realize is the difference between 
 the use of and the indulgence in their senses. The 
 senses are created for the one purpose of being valuable 
 helpers to the progressing spirit, and they should never 
 be used for the gratification of desires. Through the 
 perceptive faculties knowledge should be gained, and 
 the less the senses are abused, and the more they are 
 purposefully used, the more quickened and accurate they 
 will become. When you want to know anything or do 
 anything use the senses or faculties needed to give you 
 the knowledge and to aid you in the performance of 
 your work. Be guided by that which you know through 
 the faculties given you for that purpose, and never allow 
 your present better understanding, gained through your 
 sense perceptions, to be governed by preconceptions 
 gleaned through reading, hearsay or opinions. 
 
 I
 
 18 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 If you wish to grow you should not try to gain knowl- 
 edge of any plane except the one on which you are liv- 
 ing. The only knowledge that can be depended upon 
 as unmixed and accurate is that which comes through 
 right living and the consequent development of the 
 senses and faculties. You are living on the physical 
 plane, and you should there be content to function; to 
 learn through the use of the senses, and to gain just 
 the knowledge that is necessary to promote your welfare 
 and the performance of your duty. 
 
 If you would like to be beyond the possibility of being 
 misled by any of the visionary and imaginary concepts 
 of life and its relations with which the atmosphere of 
 the world is teaming; if you wish to know the real facts 
 of nature and their application to your life; if you wish 
 to become more intelligent, more alert, to gain greater 
 ability, to be more useful ; if you wish to grow to a 
 higher standard of life, and regain something of your 
 lost state— as a first step, STOP your self indulgence. 
 
 Each one is here for a purpose. Each has duties to 
 perform. If one is not conscious of this, there is some- 
 thing deadly wrong. 
 
 If you are so situated that the necessity of earning a 
 livelihood does not impel you to useful action, and you 
 are not engaged in some occupation that is of practical 
 benefit to yourself and others; if you are spending your 
 time in useless entertainment and gratification of your 
 desires, let every nobler sentiment in your being cry out : 
 " Shame ! shame on such a hollow, empty existence ! " 
 You are squandering in your useless, indulgent life, that
 
 THE SENSES 19 
 
 which others have produced, and you, in return, produce 
 nothing. You are a leech and a vampire on society, and 
 you are sinking- yourself into the depths of a benighted 
 condition from which it may take you thousands of 
 years to emerge. 
 
 All who are today surrounding themselves with wealth 
 and luxury which have been gained at the expense of 
 the higher attributes or of whatever makes for the en- 
 nobling of character, let them listen. All who are wast- 
 ing their wealth in excesses and riotous living, let them 
 listen. Let them open their eyes, and by the little light 
 they have left, let them look for and see the signs of the 
 times. They are recorded in their own lives in indelible 
 letters which no earthly power can erase. These records 
 point to facts of nature behind which there are Mighty 
 Powers at work. In Their Governing Hands, whether 
 he realizes it or not, man's destiny is held. Nature's laws 
 are immutable, and so constructed that man must con- 
 form to their demands or be destroyed. 
 
 You who sacrifice honesty, integrity, nobility, purity 
 of character, the soul and life itself, for material wealth, 
 luxurious en\'ironment and an indulgent life, know that 
 your estimation of these things is a mere bagatelle to 
 the value that the Powers which operate through the 
 laws of nature place upon a perfect soul and an enno- 
 bled indi\aduality. It is a self-evident proposition— the 
 laws of nature operate to construct and preserve an ex- 
 alted invividuality. If the individual lives in conformity 
 with these laws he will be led from one state to another 
 in a line of unbroken progression, from which the neces-
 
 20 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 sary light and power are never withdrawn. If he per- 
 sists in his disregard of their operation, in the very 
 nature of things he sets destructive forces at work under 
 the ban of which he must surely come. 
 
 This fact should be remembered : Try to ignore nature 
 and avoid the straight and narrow path into which she 
 would lead you, and you are face to face with the inev- 
 itable. Do the destructive things and the destructive 
 forces will tear and rend you, body, soul and spirit. 
 Cease to do them, and the natural trend of your being is 
 onward and upward without end. 
 
 Through an indulgent life one dissipates his life forces; 
 his soul is destroyed, his body becomes more and more 
 crude, weakened and subject to disease. When death 
 comes the spirit goes out naked and unprotected, and in 
 a state of great suffering, from which it is most difficult 
 to be rescued. You have your choice, every step of the 
 way, as to which life you will lead— the constructive or 
 destructive— but be assured the longer you break laws, 
 and the more darkened you become, the greater your 
 loss will be, the less you will have on which to rebuild, 
 and the harder it will be for you to rise. 
 
 As it is with the individual, so it is with the whole. 
 The world is today in a state of indescribable chaos, 
 with almost every law— divine or temporal— torn into 
 shreds and ruthlessly trampled under foot. As a natural 
 result, the destructive forces are piling mountain high, 
 and daily gaining power. 
 
 Are you not awake to the truth of these facts ? Go 
 before the seats of the rulers of the world, whether in
 
 THE SENSES 21 
 
 Asia, Europe or America, and you will find them reeking 
 with corruption, injustice, cruelty and dishonesty. 
 
 Go into the social world, and there you will find men 
 and women— many of whom came to earth with a special 
 mission for suffering humanity— lost in the whirlpool of 
 sensuality— all forgotten save the pleasure of the hour. 
 
 Look into the world of literature, and there you read 
 just what the sensual, pleasure-loving public demands, 
 and that for which it will pay. With few exceptions, 
 man's genius is prostituted and used to tickle the fancy 
 of the highest bidder. The lessons that a straight and 
 honest history might have taught have been obscured 
 by the policies of church and state until we have them 
 handed down so shaded and manipulated that they are 
 well nigh valueless. Even the philosophy of the world, 
 which appears both in prose and poetry, is so mixed and 
 twisted that the harm done to the mind that imbibes it 
 far overbalances the good received from what truth it 
 contains. 
 
 The religions are unspeakably garbled. They have 
 retained a few facts, but they are largely obscured and 
 colored by the superstitions and the personal interests 
 of different individuals and classes of individuals, who 
 have cast their influences upon them as they have been 
 handed down from generation to generation, until today 
 religion is more of a farce than a reality. 
 
 Go into the industrial world and there are, not only 
 men and women, but millions of little children, .grinding 
 their bodies, minds and souls into gold, which shall serve 
 to increase the excesses that are destroying their 
 masters.
 
 22 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 Go into the home life and read the sad story written 
 there. The selfishness, the discontent, the inharmony, 
 the defiling of the holiest relations of human fife, and 
 the tragedies arising therefrom, are too well known to 
 need defining. 
 
 Yet we have only touched, in the barest outline and 
 generalities, a few of the evils that characterize the 
 highest civilizations, and the most respectable society, 
 to say nothing of the more benighted peoples and the 
 hideous haunts of the great masses that are designated 
 as social outcasts. 
 
 The only bright streak in the darkness that today en- 
 shrouds the world shines through the hope that many 
 individuals will enter the path of progression and unite 
 in the strict and undivided observance of every rule, 
 great and small, for the establishment of a just, pure 
 and upright life.
 
 INSTRUCTION IV 
 
 MIND 
 
 TT7E are now broug-ht to the subject of the mind and 
 ^ ' its faculties, in their relation to the Progressive 
 Life. 
 
 In order to get a clear idea of this subject, you must 
 remember that the individual self— the spirit— is the 
 operator back of the mind. The mind is the substance 
 or medium used by the spirit to receive intelligence 
 and through which it finds expression in thought, word 
 and deed. We may liken the mind to a reservoir into 
 which is poured all the streams of the being— good, 
 bad and indifferent. It has been made a dumping 
 ground and filled with all sorts of rubbish. The 
 average mind opens itself to every vibration, and is 
 ever ready to imbibe the multitudinous ideas, theories 
 and opinions to be gleaned from the many sources of 
 current information. 
 
 The brain is the organ that stores up much of this 
 material : it is also the transmitter of that which the 
 spirit wishes to convey. When an idea is accepted by 
 the mind in such a way as to become an influence upon 
 the individual, brain cells are formed which function
 
 24 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 in connection with that idea. Your brain is really 
 created according to that with which you choose to 
 identify yourself. You thus become responsible and 
 you have the power to reconstruct it at will. 
 
 Before proceeding further, it is necessary to define 
 our meaning of ' ' knowledge, " " wisdom, " " intellect ' ' 
 and " intelhgence, " which words we shall repeatedly 
 use in our explanation of the facts with which we are 
 dealing. Although authorized definitions of these 
 terms are so interchangeable as to make them practically 
 synonymous, v/e shall, for the sake of convenience and 
 clearness, draw distinctive lines amiong them. 
 
 One accepted definition given of intellect is "Mind 
 collectively and currently taken, ' ' and in this sense we 
 shall use it. That which pertains to the mind in its 
 present mixed state, with special reference to the 
 capacity of the brain for recording and transmitting 
 current know^ledge, we name intellect or intellectual. 
 
 ''Power of discernm.ent or cognition" is the meaning 
 of intelligence to which we shall confine ourselves. 
 
 One may have an intellect crammed with much lore 
 but be inferior in clear perceptive power and compre- 
 hensive ability. Our use of the word intelligence 
 signifies comprehension, power of perception or discern- 
 ment or cognition. 
 
 Knowledge we use in the sense of ' 'The state of being 
 aware of , learning or acquired information." Knowl- 
 edge may be based on fact or assumption : it may be 
 pure and accurate, or mixed and inaccurate.
 
 MIND 25 
 
 Wisdom is intelligence guided and directed to further 
 man's higher well-being. 
 
 It is a great mistake to allow the mind to be influ- 
 enced, colored or occupied with promiscuous and useless 
 knowledge. Other persons' opinions, theories and 
 ideas are not necessary nor valuable to you. They 
 make the mind muddy and disorderly, and nothing is 
 more destructive to a high-grade intelligence, or faculty 
 of knowing-that-which-exists-just-as-it-is, than the ac- 
 cumulation of general information. 
 
 When your brain is stored full of preconceived ideas, 
 theories, opinions and speculations, you become preju- 
 diced; your vision is clouded and your power of correct 
 discernment and analysis is destroyed. Even as when 
 you look through colored glasses, everything to your 
 vision takes on the hue of the glass, so your un- 
 derstanding is shaded by the ideas with which you 
 have stored your brain. Under these conditions your 
 consciousness cannot awaken to a higher standard; 
 neither can you accurately discern, nor wisely govern, 
 the conditions of your daily life. One of your first 
 duties on entering the Progressive Life is to close the 
 brain against intruding vibrations and influences. 
 
 Discontinue your promiscuous reading, especially for 
 pastime or amusement. The mind like the senses should 
 not be used for indulgence or useless entertainment. 
 Cease all unnecessary thinking. Just as it is a waste 
 of force and power to keep any part of the body in con- 
 stant and useless motion, so it weakens and destroys
 
 26 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 the brain and the mind; it also harms the spirit. You 
 should have the power to hold the mind perfectly still at 
 any moment and for any length of time. When not 
 necessarily engaged in the performance of duty it should 
 naturally lapse into non-action. 
 
 Withdraw your many interests in things that do not 
 concern you. Take special care to desist from the myr- 
 iad petty considerations that involve the average mind. 
 Learn to strictly mind your own business on the physi- 
 cal, mental and spiritual planes. Do not allow yourself 
 to be called off from the material plane on which you 
 are now functioning, nor try to gain knowledge be- 
 longing to any other state, or knowledge that carries 
 you beyond the demands of the present. All useless 
 mental activity, such as speculating, conjecturing, mem- 
 orizing, dreaming, dwelling on the past or looking into 
 the future, planning or scheming ahead of time, or any 
 sort of idle or unnecessary thinking, carries the spirit 
 away from the body; makes one impractical and delusive 
 and is in many ways both dangerous and destructive. 
 
 The mind is for use in connection with the senses and 
 faculties when the senses and faculties are engaged un- 
 der duty or necessary activity. We repeat : live in your 
 body; put life into every fiber of it; keep senses alert, 
 faculties alive and wide-awake and be fully conscious of 
 every action. To b^-conscious at all times, means never 
 to do anything mechanically, absent-mindedly or care- 
 lessly, and to accomplish this the spirit must be centered 
 in the body.
 
 MIND 27 
 
 In addition to the foregoing, you must be master of 
 your feelings, emotions and desires, for these things dis- 
 turb and darken the mind; and one by one, they, too 
 must be conquered and weeded out. The correct atti- 
 tude to be observed by the one who wishes to progress 
 is comprised in the following maxim. Ee always calm, 
 sweet, serene, wide-awake and alive, contented and 
 happy. 
 
 The natural state of the mind is pure, calm and reflec- 
 tive like a clear, still, lake. When this standard is 
 reached, as the lake reflects the rays of the sun, so such 
 a mind mirrors the light from higher planes and awak- 
 ens to a larger, keener intelligence. Such an intelli- 
 gence is followed by the knowledge and wisdom neces- 
 sary to the perfoiTnance of duty, and the guidance of the 
 individual from planes of darkness to higher states to- 
 ward which the spirit inherently gravitates. 
 
 As indispensable to the mental, spiritual and physical 
 growth, the child mind should be perserved from the 
 mistakes we have just delineated. The process of child 
 education greatly impairs and tends to destroy the brain. 
 
 The brain of the child is not formed, and while it is 
 growing it should not be filled with all sorts of informa- 
 tion which the world considers necessary. 
 
 During its period of development, the whole organism 
 should be allowed to progress as naturally as possible. 
 What is true of other portions of a child's body is true 
 of the brain. Force a child into labor which is either too 
 heavy or too prolonged for its delicate physique and its 
 growth is retarded— the physical, mental and spiritual
 
 28 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 organisms become dwarfed and incapacitated. This is 
 exemplified in the terrible conditions attendant upon 
 child labor. In a less conspicuous degree, but similarly, 
 this process is repeated through intellectual training of 
 the child. Begin the schooling of a child at an early- 
 age ; work and crowd the little, unformed brain, trying 
 to make it comprehend ideas far beyond its capacity, 
 and irreparable damage is done. Under these conditions 
 it is impossible for any child to reach the high standard 
 of intelligence of which it is naturally capable. 
 
 Our present system of education is one of the most 
 damaging mistakes that the world is today making. 
 
 Abstract mental culture, whether of the child or adult, 
 is artificial, therefore, an interference with natural 
 growth and necessarily detrimental. The curriculum of 
 present-day schools and colleges needs to be well sifted 
 through a broad-meshed sieve, with a view to extracting 
 that which is non-essential. Should this be done, very 
 little time and effort would be needed to complete any 
 course. 
 
 It is a great pity that we have no schools for the train- 
 ing of character, through the application of nature's 
 laws— schools where the child may be taught not to 
 interfere with nature's progressive methods. Teach a 
 child not to do the destructive things and its spirit, mind 
 and body will grow to a standard far beyond that ordina- 
 rily reached, and were it not weighed down by hereditary 
 weaknesses, it would grow to magnificent proportions. 
 
 Artificial cultivation is always of one part of the or- 
 ganism at the expense of another. Nature insures an all-
 
 THE SPIRIT 29 
 
 round development. The mind should not be cultivated 
 at the expense of the physical ; nor independent of the 
 physical. Neither should the physical be artificially ex- 
 ercised with no other purpose than physical culture. 
 
 Above all things, no development should be allowed 
 at the cost of the spiritual nature, or the finer attributes 
 that build a beautiful character. Furthermore, all who 
 try to build the spiritual nature through abstract mental 
 activity will not only meet with dismal failure, but may 
 cause irreparable damage to the whole organism. 
 
 Nature begins with the spirit. As the spirit becomes 
 pure, awakens, takes control, at the same time engag- 
 ing in useful activity, every part of the organism 
 becomes more vital, stronger and more powerful. 
 
 On the question of mental and physical culture the 
 world has gone to its usual extremes, but just so surely 
 as people follow artificial m.ethods, so surely will they 
 receive mediocre and transitory results. More than 
 this, artificiality insures ultimate degeneracy. All that 
 the most ambitious may strive to gain by such methods 
 is contained in nature. Beyond nature one cannot go, 
 and when one has exhausted artifice he has succeeded 
 only in deflecting the true course and gaining a coun- 
 terfeit culture which is a mere travesty on the beauty 
 of the real. 
 
 Humanity is a pigmy race, with the best and highest 
 types far below the standard, and all because of the 
 ignorance of, and disobedience to, the requirements of 
 nature. But all hope is not gone. The individual may 
 do much to restore his lost dominion, if he is willing to
 
 30 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 work for it. Begin now, wherever you find yourself, to 
 distrust all your opinions ; to cancel your preconceived 
 ideas, theories and attendant prejudices ; to refuse ad- 
 mittance to suggestions, influences and promiscuous 
 knowledge ; to quiet your mind and use it only when 
 necessary. Thus you will do much toward clarifying 
 your mind and another step will be taken toward your 
 restoration. 
 
 Emptying and clarifying the mind is often regarded 
 as a difficult task, and through the operation it some- 
 times seems as though one were losing his individuality. 
 
 This is one of the delusions which belongs to artificial 
 development. In all the accumulations of the average 
 brain— other than the actual knowledge gained through 
 practical activity— there is little that is accurate and 
 much that is hopelessly false. The current literature 
 of the day represents just these conditions. It is full of 
 conflicting theories, opinions and speculations— scarcely 
 any two representatives of a certain line of thought 
 agreeing as to subject matter or methods. 
 
 They who are intellectual fill their minds with all 
 these contradictions and inconsistencies from which— 
 spiced with limited experience— they deduct further 
 conclusions and many times formulate new theories, 
 which they add to the general mixture. There are 
 flashes of light which come in ; certain facts that are 
 laid hold of and carry power ; but whether the avenue 
 of knovviedge be science, mechanics, art, history, phil- 
 osophy or religion, that which is true is so intertwined
 
 MIND 31 
 
 with that which is false that the treatises on these var- 
 ious branches contribute comparatively little to practical 
 application ; while, from the standpoint of a high indi- 
 viduality, all such research confuses and darkens the 
 spirit. 
 Progression cannot begin until confusion ends.
 
 INSTRUCTION V 
 
 THE SPIRIT 
 
 We have explained the use, value and benefits of the 
 human body: we have told how the senses and faculties 
 may be quickened and awakened ; we have urged the 
 necessity of quieting and clarifying the mind and hinted 
 at the qualifications of the spiritual organism. The next 
 step is the consideration of these qualifications which, 
 including those of the other organisms, constitute the 
 requirements of a Progressive Life. 
 
 As to what the spirit is, current theories and opinions 
 which have percolated through the mixed and darkened 
 consciousness of man have so colored and twisted the 
 actual facts that hardly any two have the same idea. 
 The spirit is the central figure for which all exists. It 
 is the growing, or progressing, awakening, immortal 
 ego. Into the hands of the spirit may be given the key 
 of power, of light and of wisdom. The spirit is perfect 
 or imperfect in just the degree that it has served or 
 disobeyed the laws of nature. It may'be an angel or a 
 devil, according to the motives and attributes with 
 which it has become identified. 
 
 This brings us to the fall of man, or to his first dis- 
 obedience to law. ?Ages before the days of savagery,
 
 ERRATA 
 
 Page 32, 8th line, read the for "these ;" 
 p. 57, 3rd line, after "just," read halfway; 
 p. 144, 27th line, for "contentment," read 
 contention; p. 152 4th line, before "pre- 
 scribed," read path; p. 168, last line, after 
 "this," read life; p. 176, 7th hne, after 
 ' ' been, ' ' read made.
 
 THE SPIRIT 33 
 
 •which days mark the earliest period of man's hfe of 
 which there is any authentic record, there lived the 
 natural man. He was a perfect child of nature, simple, 
 pure and joyous, occupying a state of which there has 
 since been no known counterpart on the earth. Because 
 he was obedient to nature, he was guided, protected 
 and instructed from Higher Planes. Nature's bounty 
 was sufficient for all his needs, and so long as he con- 
 tinued in his pure, natural life his spiritual, mental and 
 physical progression was assured. 
 
 While history holds no record to verify this fact, 
 geology with its various branches tells the tale that 
 man lived upon the earth in prehistoric days, so far 
 remote that no accurate estimate of time can be given. 
 In the face of this fact, to say nothing of the un- 
 fathomed depths of nature's secrets— secrets of which 
 the most learned admit their ignorance— let no one then 
 presume to deny the thing he is powerless to refute. 
 
 Through desire man took his first step dov^nward. 
 Desire to gain more knowledge and greater power, in a 
 shorter time and an easier way than through the pro- 
 cess of natural growth, came into the mind of man. So 
 iDegan the long descent from a state of purity, simplic- 
 ity, sweetness and possibilities for development, wholly 
 TDeyond man's present power of conception. The grati- 
 fication of one^sire led to the creation of others; until 
 today humanity is so entangled in the net it has woven 
 about itself that no individual on the earth plane can 
 wholly extricate himself.
 
 34 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 At any time along the way man might tiave con- 
 quered his desires, turned back to nature and once more 
 have entered the Progressive Life. But even as he 
 refuses today, so at every step of the way, this he has 
 refused to do. 
 
 History has no record of man before he began break- 
 ing laws and, therefore, falling from his native state. 
 The records point to ages of wrong doing, during which 
 humanity has fluctuated through various stages of 
 inferiority. In an effort to com.pensate for this inferior- 
 ity, we have the great and complex mechanism called 
 civilization, nearly all of which would have been prac- 
 tically useless to the exalted and powerful being into 
 which man would have developed had he not begun 
 breaking laws and interfering with the natural trend of 
 his being. 
 
 All the different historical epochs define only different 
 stages since the fall of man and his long climb up the 
 ladder of artificiality. He has invented all kinds of 
 artificial and mechanical means and appliances to over- 
 come the difficulties which beset his way. His accom- 
 plishments toward bolstering and patching up his 
 weaknesses he calls wonderful progress. His success 
 is so limited, however, and his infirmities so apparent, 
 that he has no recourse save to attribute the deficiency 
 to nature; and to lower the standard of human ability, 
 whether mental, physical or spiritual to the plane that 
 suits his action. 
 
 If you are daily and hourly doing the things which 
 scatter and destroy your life forces— life forces upon
 
 THE SPIRIT 35 
 
 which your spirit, soul, mind and body feed and depend 
 for health, strength, light, power, wisdom and life it- 
 self—do you think any advance made in medicine or 
 surgery, in intellectual accumulation, in inventive gen- 
 ius, in creations for self gratification, in artificial 
 practices for spiritual development, can keep pace with 
 the destruction wrought upon the very essence of your 
 TDeing? 
 
 Going back to the days of savagery and following 
 along up through the different stages of barbarism and 
 civilization, the differences lie not so much in the moral 
 •status of society, or the amount -of evil extant, as in 
 the crudity and fineness of the methods pursued. So 
 far as the potency of evil is concerned, the differences 
 are in favor of the more primitive states. The civilized 
 man has polished up his exterior and glossed over the 
 reflected ugliness of his savage mind— but he is a 
 vvhited sepulcher. Active in the heart and mind of the 
 twentieth century are all the evils and passions of every 
 l^nown age. While many grosser forms of evil have 
 passed away, man has, step by step, learned to use his 
 mind to further his selfish ends and to gratify his more 
 •and more complex desires, until he has developed an 
 intellect which has taught him the use of finer methods 
 and subtler forces; giving into his hands greater power 
 to do evil than ever befora 
 
 Our forefathers slew people indiscriminately with 
 crude and deadly weapons— today the power of gold is 
 manipulated to subsidize the laws in such a way that 
 Tnillions of people are forced into conditions in which
 
 36 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 they are daily dying of excessive toil, starvation and 
 exposure. While those who live in the so-called high 
 places and hold the reins of temporal power are playing 
 with sharp-edged tools, no less destructive than those 
 that caused the downfall of nations, cities and powers 
 of the past. 
 
 Even were it possible to consider all the past and 
 present phases of earthly conditions, no one could accu- 
 rately estimate whether, on the whole, evil has in- 
 creased or decreased during the long ages of its fluctu- 
 ations. But, comparing man's progress with the possi- 
 bilities of natural growth ;— while he has gained in 
 temporal power, he has lost in the real power vested in 
 himself ; while he has gained in intellect and super- 
 ficial knowledge, he has lost in intelligence and wis- 
 dom ; while he has advanced in mechanical ingenuity, 
 he has lost in the intensity of his senses and brilliancy 
 of his faculties ; while he has found remedies for some 
 of his deficiencies, he has forgotten how to prevent 
 them ; while he has innumerable ways to gratify his 
 desires, he has lost the key to happiness ; and with all 
 his boasted gain of whatever kind, he has lost the 
 consciousness of even the possibility of living to the 
 standard of a perfected human nature, which standard 
 is only the first step toward an exalted individuality. 
 
 That humanity has made any moral or spiritual 
 advancement is not due to the processes of civilization, 
 but to the fact that the higher attributes which ennoble 
 nature and beautify character have not been permitted
 
 THE SPIRIT 37 
 
 to sink from view. They have been preserved and 
 exemphfied by the great ones who have for this purpose 
 been born from time to time, looking as far back as 
 history reaches ; and who have, in spite of the density 
 of earth conditions, been able to preserve their light 
 and to leave an indelible influence upon the world. 
 The mistake that has been made is that these great 
 ones have been regarded as beings especially endowed 
 and essentially different from the rest of humanity, 
 while it was intended that their lives should be exam- 
 ples, and that the results obtained by them should be 
 realized by all who would learn and live their precepts. 
 The time is coming when no individual shall be per- 
 mitted to cloak his weaknesses under such sophistry as 
 this. The law will be given forth simply, clearly and 
 unmistakably to all; and the rapidly increasing hard- 
 ships and suffering of the masses will tend to make the 
 people listen; until with the lash of the world on one 
 ■side, and the light that shines on the straight and 
 narrow path on the other, many will choose to enter, 
 and none shall escape the penalty of knowing and not 
 doing. 
 
 It is not sufiicient to comprehend all that is comprised 
 in the law; it must be as fully lived as comprehended. 
 Neither can you half understand and half live, nor fully 
 understand and partly live. Even though you have 
 fulfilled all the requirements, save one, you are not 
 trustworthy, for through that weakness you may be led 
 into darkness and confusion. Always is man faced 
 with the inexorable law. He must either cease from
 
 38 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 the gratification of his desires and the committing of 
 other destructive errors, and begin the disentangle- 
 ment of his fettered being; or continue in these things 
 and plunge more deeply into the abyss. There is no 
 salvation on the earth plane, nor on any other, save 
 through straightening out the distorted nature. 
 
 One who has built into his character all the require- 
 ments for progression stands perfected on this plane, 
 but there are heights undreamed of, beyond this vale of 
 tears, for which the one thus purified is but prepared 
 to enter. 
 
 In addition to other errors already defined, the pro- 
 gressive spirit must entirely abstain from ambition; 
 pride and vanity; selfishness and covetousness; envy, 
 jealousy and suspicion; discontent and fault-finding; 
 fear and anxiety; irritability, touchiness, anger, hatred 
 and revenge; criticism, condemnation, gossip and 
 slander; carelessness, recklessness and destructiveness; 
 interference in the affairs of others, except where duty 
 calls, and the over-doing of duty; inquisitiveness, curi- 
 osity arid gaining useless knowledge; wrong desires, 
 indulgence, habits and passions; gluttony and sloth; 
 arguments and contentions; deceit and hypocrisy; sad- 
 ness, melancholy and peevishness; and brooding over 
 the past and anxiety for the future. 
 
 We shall now follow with a detailed analysis of the 
 foregoing false characteristics which belong more parti- 
 cularly to the spiritual organism, but involve the whole 
 of human nature.
 
 INSTRUCTION VI 
 
 REASON 
 
 TT is our purpose in analyzing the destructive forces, 
 ■^ which are operating in the Hfe of man, to show their 
 action and just why they should be eliminated. It is 
 not sufficient to say "Thou shalt not" unless the reason 
 is shown for such command. 
 
 Reason is a natural faculty and when officiating in 
 conjunction with sense perceptions, it is the comprehen- 
 sion of the correct relation between cause and effect. 
 
 When one sees, feels, tastes, smells or sounds an ob- 
 ject, one knows its qualifications within the limit of the 
 cognition of the senses used. Applying this generally 
 on all three planes, in the degree that one's senses are 
 keen and comprehensive does his knowledge grow. 
 Information gained in any other way is guess work 
 and valueless. As the senses and perceptive faculties 
 have degenerated with succeeding generations of per- 
 verted life, comprehension has become limited and 
 reason sluggish. Because of this, man is confronted on 
 every side with things he does not understand, and as 
 a way out, he has invented the process of abstract 
 reasoning. Reasoning separate and apart from the ap-
 
 40 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 plication of the senses to concrete facts— or the process 
 of following a logical line of thought from an abstract 
 premise to a conclusion, is an artificial method of gain- 
 ing knowledge which results not only in inaccuracy, 
 but in the compounding of misconceptions to which the 
 distortions of human life are largely due. 
 
 A boy needs no abstract mental calculation to tell him 
 that a ball will hit the object at which he directly 
 throws, or that if it does not hit, he did not correctly 
 aim. He simply looks, sees and knows. Had man de- 
 veloped properly, so it would have been with all of the 
 phenomena of nature. Their operations and relations, 
 causes and effects would have been unable to resist his 
 powers of penetration. 
 
 Scientific research, though limited, is along the right 
 line and therefore, it is revealing many of nature's 
 secrets. It may finally do its part toward throwing 
 light on the necessity of living the higher life. Unless 
 it does this, its mission is not complete and all its reve- 
 lations are null and void. 
 
 As humanity stands today after ages of artificial cult- 
 ure, its knowledge is most meager. Man has strayed so 
 far from nature that nature is almost forgotten and less 
 understood. Regarding earth conditions, and his part 
 in creating them, man has little insight. Of the nature 
 of human characteristics and their consequences, he is 
 for the most part unconscious. He has even lost the 
 finer distinction between right and wrong. Had the 
 development of the subtler faculties of insight and dis- 
 crimination not been prevented, all these things would
 
 REASON 41 
 
 have been known at a glance— in fact, man would 
 never have become involved. That he is involved and 
 does not comprehend is proven in this, that he suffers 
 without power to prevent it. He constantly struggles 
 with results and has no eyes with which to see the 
 causes. 
 
 The power of analysis is a faculty which the mind 
 has developed for the purpose of rending the veil which 
 envelopes its clear vision. Because analysis deals with 
 facts and shows their correct relations, it is a valuable 
 agent to awaken comprehension and teach wisdom.
 
 INSTRUCTION VII 
 
 AMBITION 
 
 TT is difficult to convince the average mind that am- 
 bition is a destructive element. While selfishness 
 is readily admitted to be wrong, few have deep enough 
 insight to recognize that only a selfish nature can be 
 ambitious. Ambition is an eager or inordinate desire 
 for some object that confers special distinction. It is 
 a desire to excel beyond other men. Whatever tends 
 toward, or cultivates selfishness, whatever justifies per- 
 sonal gratification, or the excluding of one's self at the 
 expense of others, limits and wraps the nature. A beau- 
 tiful character, the horizon of whose activities extends 
 far beyond personal interests, is broad, open and com- 
 prehensive. 
 
 Ambition causes the nature to be self-centered, and 
 in its more excessive stages demands its ends at any 
 cost. In any degree it is not, as is generally consider- 
 ed, an incentive for growth, but rather an agency that 
 perverts the nature. It caters to desire and fosters 
 pride. It gives rise to jealousy and envy, engenders 
 hatred and discontent, and centers the spirit on a low 
 plane. The realm of ambition is temporal and artificial.
 
 AMBITION 43 
 
 therefore, it is unlawful. Whatever leads the spirit to 
 involve itself in the acquirements or accumulations that 
 belong to the world, or enlists it for self aggrandize- 
 ment, or holds its interests in any activity other than 
 duty, is necessarily an obstiiiction to progression. 
 
 Ambition should be sacrificed to aspiration. Aspira- 
 tion is the motive power of the spirit to carry it forward 
 to the attainment of a high standard. This does not 
 mean a standard where one enjoys some distinction 
 from others, but a state of perfection which inherently 
 belongs to all ; a state where one may be an example 
 to those who need it; and of developed ability which 
 enables him to better serve in whatever capacity he is 
 called into action.
 
 INSTRUCTION VIII 
 
 PRIDE 
 
 rpHE whole human family is a vast army. Each one is 
 -*- born to serve in some certain capacity, and the pur- 
 pose of the whole is an unobstructed development to 
 higher states of life. Life is not purposeless ; neither 
 has it been from the beginning ; but by man's interfer- 
 ence with the aim of the Governing Powers in whose 
 hands are held the reins of all creation, the original plan 
 has been destroyed, and the process of progression 
 greatly lengthened. 
 
 One of the unvarying laws of nature is the operation 
 of man's free will. While he is subject to obedience, in 
 that very obedience his will is involved. While he suf- 
 fers when his v/ill conflicts with the power that makes 
 for the highest good, yet generically speaking man ever 
 has his choice as to which path he will tread, the natural 
 or the artificial. The agencies which present the idea 
 that man is a puppet of his environment, and that he is to- 
 day where nature or force of circumstances has placed 
 him, are only adding their quota to the innumerable the- 
 ories that are deluding the individual and leading him fur- 
 ther and further astray. There is only one way in which 
 man may be said to be governed by his environment, and
 
 PHIDF 45 
 
 that is when he receives the brunt of brol^en laws. 
 
 Man cannot by his will change the laws that have 
 been created and put into operation for the definite pur- 
 pose of carrying- him to the highest point of which he 
 is capable of rising ; therefore, when, through his wilful 
 disobedience of these laws, he becomes almost hopelessly 
 involved in evil, he reasons that these conditions inev- 
 itably rule him. Breaking laws leads to a complexity of 
 conditions which gather about man and carry him seem- 
 ingly helpless before them. It is true that through the 
 long ages of self-destructive processes humanity has 
 received results and the compounding of results until 
 certain classes are practically submerged with no appar- 
 ent outlet toward restoration, and the whole of human 
 life is so weakened that without help the individual can- 
 not straighten out his life. But the fact remains that 
 today, after countless ages of wrong doing, the way to 
 do right is open to the large majority of the civilized 
 world, and almost any individual has his choice as to 
 what kind of a life he will lead— as to whether he will 
 enter the path that is full of blessings or continue on 
 the broad road over which he may be carried from one 
 state of darkness into another, to a depth from which 
 the combined Powers of Light may have difficulty in 
 rescuing him. 
 
 Let him use his will to conquer his pride, which 
 causes him to overestimate himself as independent of law 
 and order. Let him become willing to conform to the con- 
 structive principles and he will find that there are many 
 ways by which evil's clutches may be loosened and life
 
 46 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 be made easier and better. The first step toward receiv- 
 ing help is wilhngness on the part of the individual. 
 Nothing can be done until the spirit becomes willing 
 and submissive. This is the only good accompHshed 
 through suffering. It helps to humble the pride of the 
 spirit and to m.ake it willing to listen, learn and live. 
 
 You may begin to see why pride should be weeded 
 out of the nature. It is one of the greatest stumbling 
 blocks in the path of progression. Pride, or self-impor- 
 tance, has been cultivated from various standpoints by 
 the world until it has assumed a place in the nature of 
 many second to no other error. It has many phases, 
 and some are so subtle and misleading that so long as a 
 germ of pride remains there is danger. Many have 
 gone far along the way toward the prescribed standard 
 and have fallen over some point which has threatened 
 to prick a remaining bubble of self-importance and 
 which they were unwilling to sacrifice. 
 
 Human life should be like a gigantic machine with all 
 its innumerable parts held in perfect connection, each 
 serving its special purpose with a view to the harmonious 
 movement of the whole. In the operation of such a 
 mechanism there is no high nor low position, nor is one 
 part of more importance than another. As no machine 
 is run aimlessly, but to accomplish a definite result, so 
 it is with the great structure of human life. If, how- 
 ever, the different parts of either refuse to work in 
 unison with the whole and under the regulation of the 
 governing power, disorder follows, work is retarded and 
 the original plan thwarted.
 
 PRIDE 47 
 
 When one becomes proud, or self-important, it means 
 that he wants to run his own life in his own way, sub- 
 servient to none, obedient to none, and subordinate to 
 none. This is absolutely contrary to nature, and destroys 
 progression. Such an one may contribute to the artifi- 
 cial life, and rise to great heights in a superficial world, 
 but he must do so at the cost of soul and spirit power. 
 
 Of what shall the spirit be proud— of its ignorance, 
 its infirmities, its sins or its sorrows? Shall one be 
 proud of obedience to the laws of nature which develops 
 an exalted and beautiful life? The latter comprehends 
 all that is of real and permanent value on any plane, but 
 to be proud of it presents an impossible paradox. As 
 humility, simplicity, obedience and submissiveness are 
 necessary soil to growth, so pride must be the antipodes 
 of progression. 
 
 Shall one be proud of any earthly possession? Be it 
 wealth, fame or power, it lasts but for a day, and adds 
 nothing to the permanent welfare of the individual. 
 Furthermore, when one becomes proud over these things 
 they only serve to intoxicate the spirit and darken it 
 the more. 
 
 Life ever has been, and is now. so crowded with 
 examples of the rise and fall of nations, cities, institu- 
 tions and individuals that it is not necessary to long 
 dwell upon this point to insure its recognition. Nations 
 carry their temporal power to tremendous heights, until 
 they fall by the weight of their own errors. These 
 errors are blindly builded into their walls, and upon 
 them the structures rest. The only solid foundation
 
 48 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 upon which any nation can stand, and the only material 
 out of which it can permanently build, is the flawless 
 character of its ruling elements. 
 
 Cities of the past have been builded to the utmost of 
 the artificial ability of the period in which they flourished; 
 yet many of them lie buried deep beneath the feet of 
 modern civilization, and serve only as a foundation for 
 the cities of today. These cities, in turn, though won- 
 derful in structural magnifience, are none the less sub- 
 ject to destruction and decay. Let us come closer home 
 for an illustration : Yesterday there stood a modern 
 city, rapidly increasing in her wealth, beauty and power, 
 proudly rearing her gigantic structures against the set- 
 ting sun, and looking out through the Golden Gate to 
 the remotest points of the earth, scarcely one of these 
 points being untouched by her influence. One stroke of 
 nature— which no man fully comprehends— and she fell 
 prostrate in the midst of her glory! The indomitable 
 spirit of man once more arises to rebuild, even as he has 
 done all through the past ages, and thus he will do so long 
 as the world endures— but he cannot escape the lessons 
 taught by the repeated destruction of his handiwork. 
 
 So far as the greatness of individuals is concerned, 
 they whose work has been worthy and whose names 
 have lived beyond the hour, have been those who have 
 forgotten and sacrificed themselves for some great ser- 
 vice to humanity. 
 
 Why, then, blast your nature by self-inflation over 
 
 things held by an ephemeral world? Grasp them as 
 
 ou will, they may be taken from you at any moment.
 
 PRIDE 49 
 
 At best, earth life is but a short period ; why waste it 
 in trifles, and neglect to utilize the mighty forces which 
 not only bring peace and happiness to you here, but 
 accrue to your eternal well-being ? 
 
 There is another aspect to this question of pride which 
 needs special attention, and which seems to be opposite to 
 self-importance, but it is only the negative side of the 
 same thing. Self-depreciation is a subtle form of pride. 
 Whenever one is cringing or servile, or feels ashamed 
 of his environment, of his work, or of any condition in 
 which he is placed — unless he is thereby connected 
 with that which is destructive to character — he is yield- 
 ing to self-depreciation and jeopardizing his self-respect. 
 One should be quite as careful to preserve his self- 
 respect as to be truly humble. Self-importance is not 
 self-respect, neither is humility self-depreciation. 
 Self-importance throws the nature out of balance through 
 overestimation ; self-depreciation throws the nature out 
 of balance through underestimation. 
 
 Do right in thought, word and deed, and, whatever 
 your position in life, be independent of the opinions of 
 others. Only one who is inferior yields to public opinion. 
 Whether public opinion is on the side of right or wrong, 
 you should be influenced by something much higher than 
 its criticism. Do right at all times because it is your 
 nature to do so, and because it is the only path that leads 
 to higher and better things. Public opinion is fluctuating, 
 unsatisfactory and absolutely valueless to one who is 
 progressing. To that which is temporal and superficial it
 
 50 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 gives first place, while that which is of real and perma- 
 nent value it sinks into obscurity. 
 
 Any person— or number of persons— who represents a 
 principle beyond the current ideas of the day must defy 
 public opinion and face the ridicule and persecution 
 born of ignorance and attendant intolerance. To do 
 right and fear nothing is the attitude that is necessary 
 for one who disagrees with the world. To agree with 
 the world means to sink to its plane. To espouse a 
 cause that opposes the world means to stand firm and 
 unyielding to any pressure it may bring to bear, indif- 
 ferent to either its praise or blame. One who has not 
 learned to look closely and see clearly may not realize to 
 what extent simply doing right will antagonize the 
 world. Begin today, in the midst of your own surround- 
 ings, to do right ; simply cease to do the things herein 
 delineated as belonging to a false and artificial life ; also 
 demand that others do right so far as their dealings with 
 you are concerned, and see what a commotion you will 
 cause. Right here will come your opportunity to humble 
 yourself ; for you may have to take steps through which 
 you will be utterly shorn of the things which the world 
 holds in high repute. What it will cost you to do right 
 will depend entirely upon hov^ much you have in your 
 life that has been illegitim.ately gained, and how great 
 a value you place upon it. 
 
 If you have lived such a life as to richly feed, clothe 
 and surround the body with the things that gratify the 
 senses and cultivate desires, it has necessarily been at 
 the expense of the life forces or soul, upon which the
 
 PRIDE 51 
 
 spirit depends for growth. It inevitably follows that if 
 you would live the life which richly feeds and clothes 
 the spirit, those things by which the spirit has been de- 
 nuded must be sacrificed. To do right in thought, word 
 and deed means to enrich the soul, clothe the spirit and 
 illuminate the life. To do wrong means to impoverish 
 the soul and leave the spirit naked. For one to spend 
 a lifetime in wasting life forces— which are constantly 
 being collected by the body— in merely intellectual or 
 material pursuits means that when death comes the 
 spirit has lost the opportunity given by a life in the 
 physical body, and it goes out without a soul, with no 
 means of its own of being nourished, clothed or pro- 
 tected. 
 
 We must not be construed to mean that man should 
 make no effort for that which is necessary to the suste- 
 nance, health and usefulness of material life, but that 
 effort must always be consistent with honesty and up- 
 rightness of character. If your position, viewed from 
 the standpoint of the ambitious, is an exalted one, but 
 interferes with your progression, you must either sacri- 
 fice your position or your progression. If your position 
 is lowly and obscure, but legitimate and in no wise con- 
 flicts with the fulfilling of your aspirations, then be con- 
 tent and thankful. Make the most of every opportunity, 
 however small, develop your ability in whatever you are 
 doing, and you will not only be richly blessed in this 
 life, but that which you gain will be of the utmost value 
 to you as you pass from plane to plane. Whether your
 
 52 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 position be high or low, measured by worldly standards, 
 does not signify, but your attitude toward it is of great 
 importance. 
 
 There is, in the Progressive Life, no room for self- 
 exaltation or self-depreciation. Be content to be yourself 
 whether that self be greator small. Be subservient to 
 to no one's opinion, nor allow yourself to be influenced 
 by any one's criticism. Be humble, sweet and obedient 
 to duty, and go steadily on to the fruition of your life's 
 work, whatever you find it to be.
 
 INSTRUCTION IX 
 
 VANITY 
 
 T TANITY is another phase of pride. Generally speak- 
 ^ ing, it may be said to be an extreme stage of self- 
 importance; therefore, its destructive action is at once 
 apparent. It is in connection with the more common 
 use of the word, with special reference to personal ap- 
 pearance, that we have something- to say. 
 
 As apparently superficial as are appearances, they are 
 given a place of tremendous importance in the life of 
 man. That he may appear well before the world, forms 
 a major part of man's motive power to action. Society 
 does not ask after the character of its devotee: nor 
 trace his antecedents to ascertain their standard of 
 right or wrong doing— but the question is, does he come 
 from a family who has been well stationed politically, 
 intellectually and above all things financially? To be 
 sure, no blatant crime may be tolerated in the family 
 tree closer than a couple of generations back; but much 
 may be forgiven and forgotten, which, —on the ground 
 of decency would ostracize the individual. — pro\iding 
 he carries a polished exterior and his golden mantle is 
 thick enough to hide the impurities of his nature.
 
 54 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 When we speak of society, we do not refer to one 
 class alone, but to every class belonging to the whole 
 social fabric. Each class has its vanities, and whether 
 these vanities belong to the lowest or the so called high- 
 est they operate in exactly the same way. To one who 
 is sufficiently free from these things to enable him to 
 get a sort of bird's-eye view of the whole situation, the 
 aspect that is presented would be irresistibly ludicrous 
 were it not so pitifully degrading to the whole human 
 family, and were there not caught in these meshes so 
 many beautiful ones, who have lost their way and forgot 
 ten their earth missions. In every land there are social di- 
 visions—whether among the rich or poor, learned or 
 ignorant, or even among the lowest haunts where im- 
 morality needs no cover. With all alike, such social di- 
 visions are based never upon nobility of character, but 
 on some vainglorious bauble which man has enthroned 
 and tried to inflate with some semblance of reality. 
 
 Betw^een the luxuriantly environed demimonde and 
 those of the same class who live in the dark and narrow 
 streets there is an impossible social barrier ; or the 
 wife of the day laborer snubs all of her former compan- 
 ions because her husband "has become boss of the 
 job," and she wears better clothes. Ah, lady fair! 
 surrounded by wealth that has given you your position 
 in what is deemed the best society, you need not smile. 
 Is not the vanity of your so called fallen sister, or 
 that of the laborer's wife over her social advancement 
 and the better appearance she is enabled to make, the 
 same quality that renders it impossible for you to con-
 
 VANITY 55 
 
 tinue your social relations with the friends who once 
 patronized your father's corner grocery, and that causes 
 you a thrill of pleasure when you flash your diamonds in 
 your neighbor's eyes? After all, you know, the day 
 laborer may take another step, and in turn become the 
 proprietor of a corner grocery. His good wife may one 
 day wear diamonds and take her place in the ranks of 
 the best society. 
 
 It is useless to say that this does not illustrate social 
 progression, or that there are exclusive circles where 
 the parvenu is not admitted. Such circles are very 
 small, and, viewed from the standpoint of a higher life, 
 their lines are as vainly drawn as those which surround 
 any other class. Nor have we forgotten the caste that 
 has perched itself on the pinnacle of intellectuality, and 
 which grows such prickly hedges between itself and the 
 vulgar herd. Tell me, my intellectual friend, —you who 
 have delved into all the ancient and modern lore of the 
 known world, — tell me, whence came you? Why are 
 you here? What is the nurpose of your being? Whither 
 are you going? Do you live after the demise of your 
 body, and if so, what then? What ! YOU do not know 
 these things? We shall give you another trial. Itemize 
 your character. Be honest and analytical— how does it 
 foot up? Are you self-possessed? Do you control your 
 own mind? Do you think your own thoughts? Do you 
 know whether you think your own thoughts or not? 
 Do you get angry ? Do you criticize or condemn ? 
 Do you have any ill feeling toward another ? Is there 
 any one whom you cannot forgive? Are you irritable?
 
 56 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 Do you yield to disturbing influences? Are you wide- 
 awake and alive, calm, sweet, serene, contented and 
 happy at all times, under all conditions? Is your life 
 chaste and pure? Are you breaking nature's laws? 
 Do you know what nature's laws are ? If you cannot 
 pass this examination creditably, then take down your 
 barriers and mingle with common, simple folk. They 
 may teach you some valuable lessons about life and na- 
 ture and your responsibility. If your intellectuality has 
 left you wanting in the principles of a self-possessed, 
 noble, pure and happy life, then because it assumes so 
 much and gives so little, must it be classed as vanity of 
 vanities. 
 
 Neither will we allow the objection that such vanity 
 applies only to American society. We refer you to the 
 well known fact that there are permanently established 
 commerical bureaus whose sole business it is to negoti- 
 ate between American wealth and European nobility, 
 that inter-marriages may take place, whereby American 
 women may receive the honor of title, and European 
 men may re-establish their depleted fortunes, to say 
 nothing of the other avenues through which America's 
 wealth is constantly increasing her influence over all 
 nations of the world. These interrelations of all kinds 
 are doing their work in levelling conditions in a way 
 that nature does not forget to use, whenever man gives 
 her an opportunity. 
 
 In regard to personal appearances, let us now give a 
 thought toward centering the pendulum. When any 
 condition has gone to one extreme, in bringing it back
 
 VANITY 57 
 
 it is often necessary to use enough force to carry it be- 
 yond the center ; but the best place from which to oper- 
 ate is just between. Appearances are not to be alto- 
 gether despised nor neglected. The action here is sim- 
 ple—make as good an appearance, according to current 
 standards, or individual taste, as you can without any 
 cost to your higher development. If the appearance 
 you wish to make costs justice, honesty or integrity- 
 sacrifice it. If it costs time, labor or force which duty 
 demands in other directions — sacrifice it. If on consci- 
 entious analysis you find your appearance militates for 
 or against your happiness— sacrifice it until such time 
 as you shall have become neutral. When you are neu- 
 tral, you may, without danger of vanity, give whatever 
 attention to appearances the occasion demands. 
 
 A good appearance, without cost to character, genteel 
 manners and a courteous address, born of a kindly na- 
 ture, and regard for others, all tend to soften and har- 
 monize conditions, and may thus serve in the path of 
 progression. Vanity in any degree is destructive to the 
 soul and deludes the spirit. The point we wish partic- 
 ularly to emphasize is this — it is not the native goodness 
 of the individual that makes him valuable in the eyes of 
 the world ; but, good or evil, how brilliant an appear- 
 ance can he make. Social caste is not based upon true 
 merit but upon superficial acquirement, whether such 
 acquirement be on the spiritual, intellectual or physical 
 planes ; and more and more is the requisite being nar- 
 rowed down to a mere material acquisition. 
 
 There are individuals of beautiful character and great
 
 58 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 possibilities to be found in all walks of life — among the 
 rich and among the poor, among the ignorant and 
 among the learned, among the Asiatics, Europeans and 
 Americans. Let such individuals gravitate toward each 
 other and form a social union to which there is but one 
 " open sesame," and that a willingness to purge from 
 their natures all that is false, and to build on the true 
 that remains, until all means have been observed which 
 lead to a more perfect state. 
 
 Let such a society open its doors to those from all 
 classes who will make character building the first con- 
 sideration, and who will be obedient to all phases of the 
 progressive law ; and let its doors swing irrevocably 
 shut against the highest potentate of church or state 
 who refuses to abide by the platform thus installed. 
 
 Such a society would sink its roots deep into the dark- 
 est planes, and rear its branches unto the centers of 
 the Planes of Light, thereby overturning and checking 
 evil and dispensing good to the utmost of its ever- 
 increasing power.
 
 INSTRUCTION X 
 
 COVETOUSNESS 
 
 COVETOUSNESS is only one of the many forms of 
 desire. Even as desire was the rock on which hu- 
 manity first stranded, so, in his present state of en- 
 tanglement, the same force operates to prevent the in- 
 dividual from taking action in the right direction, even 
 after he has begun to see what is wrong. So long have 
 desires been justified and cultivated that they now 
 have power to rule the better judgment. So strong a 
 hold have they on human nature that they are consid- 
 ered even the motive power to growth. It is reasoned 
 that desires cannot be eradicated from the nature ; for, 
 though all others go, there must remain the desire to do 
 good and to be good. 
 
 If desire leads you to do good, you will make many 
 mistakes, for desire and wisdom cannot co-operate. 
 Desire will always rule and blind the vision to wise 
 action. Where there is desire, there is also some self- 
 gratification, and one should be neutral, willing to do or 
 not to do, as duty, not desire directs.
 
 60 COVETOUSNESS 
 
 Neither can a high standard be reached through a 
 desire for it, but only through a wiUingness to be obe- 
 dient to the power which leads one thence. You should 
 not desire to grow, for that very desire may conflict 
 with duty and retard your progress. Cease to commit 
 the errors that darken the spirit, and growth is as nat- 
 ural to you as to the plant. Again, cease to commit 
 these errors, not because you desire to grow, but be- 
 cause you see they are foreign to your nature, and be- 
 cause they becom.e repulsive to you. 
 
 If you pit your desire for growth against the desires 
 of the world you will surely fail. You cannot create in 
 yourself a desire for growth equal to the drawing pow- 
 er of one desire for that which the world has to offer. 
 Only as your worldly interests cease can you enter the 
 higher life. Many have fallen on this point. They 
 have become attracted by the beauty of this philosophy; 
 they have caught a glimpse of the blessings enjoyed by 
 those who live the life ; and desired the power gained 
 thereby. So they have started on the way dragging 
 with them their indulgent natures, depending on the 
 desire to grow to overbalance desires for self-gratifi ca- 
 tion. Whether there have been many desires or only 
 one to darken their path they have fallen back and once 
 more have given their time to worldly pursuits. 
 
 This takes place in conformity with law. The nature 
 of desire is to draw the individual toward its gratifica- 
 tion, and it always operates most powerfully when 
 directed toward some concrete thing. One's desire to 
 grow is abstract, while his worldly desires are for def-
 
 COVETOUSNESS 61 
 
 inite objects through which he expects to find happi- 
 ness or satisfaction. So long as he is satisfied by these 
 things, no transcendental desire can permanently influ- 
 ence him. Neither can one succeed through a desire for 
 certain endowments which result from growth; for this 
 involves a selfish motive and through selfishness growth 
 is defeated. 
 
 The question then is, how much power has the world 
 to charm you? Do you find it interesting, and are you 
 happy there? Does it look beautiful to you, and are 
 you blinding yourself to the evil that surges on every 
 side and lurks in every corner of the benighted globe? 
 Have your eyes become so dazzled by the glare of its 
 tremendous pretense that you cannot see the hideous 
 form that crouches and leers behind? Or have your 
 brain cells been constructed to respond to some of the 
 fictitious doctrines which claim that all its monstrous 
 evils are unreal? Or, does your dependence on religious 
 forms and ceremonies close your eyes and make you 
 passive in its hands? 
 
 There are many excuses for loving the world, and so 
 long as one excuse remains, however innocent it may 
 appear, it will hold you and it will be your master. If 
 there is anything in the world which interests you, sat- 
 isfies you, or upon which you place any value— save as 
 you make it serve some purpose of progression — you 
 are not prepared to walk in the right path. Finish with 
 the world — test its values to the utmost, if this you find 
 necessary. When you find them counterfeit ; when you 
 realize that no desire is ever gratified save to give rise
 
 62 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 to another and lead to increasing excesses to assuage 
 the sated taste; when your spirit sickens with the emp- 
 tiness of such a quest, and you awaken to the fact that 
 over the whole world conditions are hopelessly sub- 
 merged in evil ; then you are ready to enter and live 
 the ProgTessive Life, When you have reached this place 
 —though the way be very straight and very narrow be- 
 cause there is nothing behind you that can attract— you 
 will have the strength to go on to the end. 
 
 We are endeavoring to paint such pictures of condi- 
 tions as will tend to stir and awaken the individual from 
 his hypnotic sleep. Some awaken with a touch, but 
 there are others who need to be rudely and persistently 
 shaken, while, alas ! many have sunken so deep under 
 the poisonous vapor which permeates the very atmos- 
 phere they breathe, though the voice of heaven were 
 thundered in their ears they would not listen. 
 
 Have w^e said enough to make you see ' ' Thou shalt 
 not covet " ? There is nothing in the world worth the 
 effort to possess for its own sake. You have a right to 
 that which is necessary for the promotion of your gen- 
 eral welfare, and such comforts as will not foster an in- 
 dulgent nature. Your attitude should be one of demand 
 for these things in return for a reasonable equivalent, 
 for even under a moderately righteous adjustment there 
 is ample for all. Greed and varying degrees of selfish- 
 ness are in such full operation and control that the ef- 
 fort necessary to supply the necessities of life is with 
 the masses abnormal. This is so because they are 
 forced to produce not only all the idle classes can use.
 
 COVETOUSNESS 63 
 
 but all they can hoard and squander through the many 
 devices of their indulgent lives. 
 
 While one who has taken his stand for justice and 
 right must not brook covetousness or the desire for 
 anything that does not belong to him, he must learn to 
 use his awakening faculties, to increase his ability, and 
 to be on the alert to embrace any legitimate means to 
 cope with the greed of the world and to check it when- 
 ever opportunity offers. 
 
 One of nature's lav/s is that like attracts like on every 
 plane. Through the perfect operation of this law the 
 individual and whatever belongs to him gravitate 
 toward each other. Just as the body is by nature a 
 magnet to attract its life forces, so the natural individ- 
 ual under normal conditions would draw about him all 
 that is required to complete his life. Selfishness, desire 
 and covetousness— all degrees of the same destinictive 
 force— interfere with the working of this most wise and 
 beneficent regulation of nature. While it cannot per- 
 fectly operate in present earth conditions, you have the 
 power by right living to master unjust circumstances to 
 a certain extent. If you remember to keep alive and 
 awake and lose no opportunity to cultivate your ability, 
 you may go forth with power and demand your own 
 wherever the operation of greed has robbed you. You 
 may have to make many sacrifices along the way, but 
 if you live to the law and hold your ground for right and 
 justice, the end will be victorious. Every one has a 
 right to his own territory; but even though utterly shorn
 
 64 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 of his own, one should never covet that which belongs 
 to another. If this error is overcome, in conjunction 
 with others, forces will be set in motion which will en- 
 able you to navigate in spite of the obstructions along 
 the way.
 
 INSTRUCTION XI 
 
 ENVY 
 
 Tj^ULL analysis of any subject necessitates the opening 
 -*- of all the avenues that lead thereto. Errors do not 
 come into the nature single-handed, but each is the re- 
 sult of a preceding error or the condition caused by it. 
 A condition, however, is always the secondary and not 
 the first cause. Hence, to get a clear understanding of 
 our subject, we must view it by the light of all the con- 
 ditions connected therewith. This rule of action is 
 given not only in relation to the subject matter at hand, 
 but for the instruction of the progressing individual, 
 and it should be applied to all his investigations. 
 
 The average person is prone to gather a few facts 
 which bear on the condition, or to be satisfied with even 
 one, if prominent, and from this meager information to 
 jump to conclusions. A conclusion should never be 
 drawn until the whole field of facts has been revealed 
 to view. The accuracy of the conclusion accepted should 
 be so apparent from every point of approach as to abso- 
 lutely preclude any possibility of change because of the 
 arising of unweighcd conditions. If this rule is followed 
 you may readily see that you will draw very few conclu-
 
 66 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 sions. The only wise course to pursue is to live in such 
 a way that the faculty of comprehension shall be awak- 
 ened into full activity. When this is done one is 
 enabled to see and know existing conditions just as 
 they are. 
 
 One should look at the facts of nature, and be content 
 to leave them without any speculation as to what may 
 be beyond the range of one's vision. Furthermore, 
 if you v/ish to preserve the faculty of correctly seeing 
 and knowing, you must refrain from any embellishment 
 of the thing seen from the storehouse of your preconcep- 
 tions. Learn to look and see, and leave the fact seen 
 alone, just as it is. If this you do, you will see other 
 facts relating to the first one which will often explain 
 the first. If, however, having seen the first, you form 
 an opinion and draw a conclusion, your mind will at 
 once begin to operate along the line of your opinion or 
 conclusion, and the modifying facts may never be re- 
 vealed; or, if they are revealed, your impression of them 
 will be so colored as to make the result of your obser- 
 vation inaccurate. 
 
 Watch the daily action of your mind, and observe how 
 constantly you are forming opinions which are influenced 
 by accumulated ideas, or based on current or individual 
 theories, all of which lead to conclusions and prejudices 
 which color the life and regulate action. Trace your 
 conclusions or prejudices, step by step, back to- their 
 origin; then analyze the condition in which they were 
 conceived, and in many instances you will find such flaws 
 along the way that the fallacy of your position will be
 
 ENVY 67 
 
 found long before you reach the end ; and, once having 
 learned to doubt the material stored in your brain, you 
 will more quickly see defects, and break the habit of 
 indiscriminately forming opinions and drawing conclu- 
 sions. The average person is so lost in the maze of 
 such mental accumulations that he is, at first, not only 
 incapable of realizing his errors, but many times quite 
 unwilling to have them brought out. 
 
 Here, again, comes the action of pride or self-import- 
 ance, which forbids the uncovering and correcting of 
 mistakes, and keeps the individual in bondage to them. 
 As before said, the first step is willingness and submis- 
 siveness of spirit— willingness to have every error in 
 the nature revealed for the purpose of correction, and 
 submissiveness to the regulation of the force operating 
 to correct. You will be neither of these things so long 
 as you are sure of your own opinions. Nothing can 
 penetrate settled opinions and justified prejudices. 
 Such mental actions go on in ever increasing ratio of 
 errors until the result is, the human mind as it is today 
 —a receptacle of matter both foul and false, with the 
 few ideas of righteousness and truth that remain so 
 submerged, and lov/ered to such a standard, as to be 
 scarcely worthy of being stepping stones toward its 
 original state. 
 
 If one wishes to clear a room, or a drawer which is 
 full of things in disorder, the first step is to empty it of 
 its contents. This being done, one assorts— permanently 
 rejecting that which is of no use, and rearranging that 
 which is worthy to be retained. This is the quickest
 
 68 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 and most effectual way to clarify the mind. Eject all 
 your preconceptions, theories, opinions and ideas, and 
 reject all that try to come in through the old method. 
 Then, holding the mind steady,— still as a placid lake— 
 open it to the reflection of the untarnished realities 
 which exist in nature, and which will be cast thereon 
 by the light that shines into your purified life. Having 
 done this, you will find that whatever of your previous 
 ideas were based on facts will return and find their 
 proper places in relation to new facts. V/ith these they 
 will conjunctively operate to prepare the way for still 
 further facts, which action shall lead to an ever increas- 
 ing revelation of nature's treasures. Thus may one 
 finally stand behind a bulv/ark of irrefutable truths, 
 against which the accumulated but unverified theories 
 and beliefs of the ages may beat in vain. 
 
 One can receive only according to one's capacity to 
 appropriate. The individual who reads this book will 
 glean from its contents varying degrees of substance, 
 according to his preparation. Those whose brains are 
 artificially organized, and who are satisfied with the 
 quality of that with which their brains are stored, will 
 get nothing, save as there m^ay be ideas expressed which 
 agree with what they have already accepted as true. 
 
 There are others v/ho, reading and not heeding, will 
 go on in their old ways of thinking and doing. 
 
 Those whose prejudices are especially dear to them 
 will put on the armor of non-acceptance through fear 
 of losing them. 
 
 Some will be antagonized by the presumption that
 
 ENVY 69 
 
 dare attack pet traditions universally unquestioned. 
 
 Varying emotions— as many as there are people who 
 read— will be set in action as the facts herein handled 
 intrude on the secret places and bring the misconcep- 
 tions to light. 
 
 The ones who will receive the real benefit are they 
 who have in various ways been awakened to see, not 
 only the full message conveyed by the written words, 
 but who shall discover the interwoven suggestions lead- 
 ing to the comprehension of still further facts to be later 
 on revealed. These forthcoming facts will elucidate 
 certain points that would otherwise remain obscure. 
 
 One who stands equipped with the powers and abili- 
 ties that belong to a life regulated by the unchanging 
 principles of nature finds in his heart no occasion for 
 envy. Envy is but the ripened fruit of covetousness, 
 and as has been shown under that head, the world holds 
 no attraction for one who has been awakened to its 
 shallows. 
 
 Sound the world wherever you will, and to the ear 
 that has quickened its finer sense of hearing, there 
 comes only a hollow response. In its pleasure saloons 
 one is drawn into a vortex of excesses which react in 
 the misery that follows conflicting passions and surfeited 
 desire. He who touches even the hem of nature's gar- 
 ment finds contentment in a pure life and useful action. 
 No special device is needed to entertain a spirit that is 
 sufficiently disentangled to become conscious of its native 
 peace and ioy. 
 
 In its halls of learning may be found the fluctuating
 
 70 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 knowledge of all ages. The wisdom which no analysis 
 can undermine, and which has stood and shall stand 
 through eternity, comes to the one who refuses to use 
 the brain for storing up the lore of the preceding gen- 
 erations—generations whose basis of life and action has 
 ever been unstable. 
 
 In the quest after fame, distinction, position, or of 
 any avenue through which ambition is gratified, one 
 squanders his life forces for a satisfaction that lasts but 
 for the hour to which his ascendancy is limited, ere his 
 successor catches the shifting fancy of a fickle public. 
 Such purposes can never enlist the effort of one who is 
 conscious of the value of using his life forces— his facul- 
 ties and ability — to build into his life that which makes 
 for his eternal progression. 
 
 In the ruling centers of the world is found only the 
 temporal power, gained through such cost to the spirit 
 that it may indefinitely sufi^er from its impoverished 
 condition. The ever increasing power gained by the 
 progressing spirit grows out of the conservation of its 
 life elements, through which they become greater cen- 
 ters of attraction, thus continually enriching the whole 
 individual. 
 
 Shall one who values nothing that money can buy, 
 beyond the supply of his reasonable needs, envy those 
 who have wealth they cannot use, and through which 
 they cannot gain one of the endowments of the purified 
 spirit ? Even though one who has risen finds himself 
 at times unable to successfully cope with the greed and 
 dishonesty with which he must compete, he is so content
 
 ENVY 71 
 
 with the blessings of the true life that he would accept 
 no financial aid, however great, were it proffered at the 
 cost of the conditions he thus enjoys. Furthermore, the 
 progressing individual so quickens his faculties and in- 
 creases his ability that he embraces many opportunities 
 before unseen, and uses many means to defeat the 
 agencies which make living difficult, so, all in good 
 time, he may find himself better equipped than before. 
 
 Thus the awakened spirit may go on to the end of the 
 world's gifts, and it finds none to covet, let alone to 
 arouse the spirit of anger or discontent because they are 
 held by others. One must be thoroughly benighted ere 
 he covets one or many things, and then grows discon- 
 tented, irritated, angry, or even malicious, because they 
 are withheld from him and enjoyed by those about him. 
 
 Envy in any degree pollutes the mind and impairs its 
 ability to operate even in the world. It makes the in- 
 dividual destructive to himself and others with whom 
 he comes in contact. It often operates to shut out of 
 his life the very object desired. An envious person, 
 distempered with the craving of inordinate desire, is 
 necessarily discontented. He allows free play of hate- 
 ful, acrid and critical feelings which poison the blood 
 and jeopardize the health of the body, and, above all 
 things, hold the individual on a low plane from which 
 he cannot extricate himself so long as envy remains in 
 his nature.
 
 INSTRUCTION XII 
 
 JEALOUSY 
 
 TN handling the different errors which make up the 
 -'- perverted nature of humanity it is necessary, for the 
 sake of correct analysis, to segregate them in regard to 
 even their finer shades of meaning. Otherwise we should 
 not be able to illustrate to the mind of the reader all the 
 various conditions growing out of these errors. Our 
 whole purpose is to clearly show that the conditions in 
 which man is struggling are of his own creating, and 
 the only way to prevent them and their attendant suf- 
 fering, is to reach and forstall the cause. Any good 
 physician directs his efforts toward removing the cause 
 of the disease, and until this is done no permanent ben- 
 efit is obtained. So long as man endeavors to find rem- 
 edies through dealing alone with effects he will ulti- 
 mately discover that he has spent his time, energy and 
 ability for nothing. 
 
 This is the lesson taught, and which should be learned 
 by the repeated downfall of institutions, and the per- 
 sistent failure of reforms. No structure, whether ma- 
 terial, mental or spiritual, can stand unless it is built
 
 ' JEALOUSY 73 
 
 along lines that insure its permanency. Build on the 
 sand and its shifting particles will undermine the foun- 
 dation, and however beautiful the outline and magnificent 
 the embellishment, destruction must follow. We are 
 not here dealing with mere figures of speech, but we 
 are stating facts based on stern and unyielding reality. 
 We would that he who reads might heed this warning— 
 that all who hear this truth proclaimed might listen and 
 comprehend its full purport. For in this way, and this 
 alone, can they be saved from the crashes that will 
 surely come. 
 
 Can you not see that institutions of any kind which 
 are resting on selfishness, pride and ambition— much 
 more those that are supported by greed, and for indul- 
 gence—are tottering on foundations that are absolutely 
 rotten ? We appeal to your common sense— can these 
 endure ? 
 
 There are many props which are being and will be 
 used to keep the main structures in place, but they are 
 not sufficient to overcome the destructive forces oper- 
 ating in their very groundwork. We look out over the 
 world today and see very few institutions, great or small, 
 that can stand the searchlight of exact analysis. Even 
 those that are organized for the purpose of doing good, 
 while, under existing circumstances, they are necessary 
 to somewhat check evil and ameliorate its. results, they 
 help to support others which are false to the core. We 
 are only hinting at these conditions, but one example we 
 will give. All charitable institutions serve to allay the 
 suffering caused by the many edifices dedicated to self-
 
 74 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 ishness and greed, and therefore tend to protect them. 
 If no man claimed or appropriated more than belonged 
 to him there would be no need for charity. The earth 
 and the fruits thereof belong to all of earth's people, 
 and nature yields an abundance to amply provide for 
 each and every one ; but man allows his avaricious na- 
 ture to run riot, and uses his abilities to their limit to 
 control and appropriate, not only nature's products, but 
 the strength and ability of others to gratify his ever 
 increasing indulgent demands. Thus every man's hand 
 is raised against his neighbor, and many must necessa- 
 rily be vanquished in the greedy fight, and become 
 slaves of the victors of the spoils. This has been going 
 on since the early days of barbarism. The primitive 
 tribes, desiring more lands, cattle or wives, went out to 
 take them from their neighbors by brute force, and 
 then, as now, to the victors belonged the spoils. 
 
 So interwoven with man's consciousness has this idea 
 become that he still regards might as right. There are 
 m.any — among them highly reputed moral teachers and 
 philosophers — who claim that what one, by his ability 
 gains, belongs to him. We would amend this, and say 
 that if one does not sacrifice any of the higher qualifica- 
 tions which constitute a noble character, nor encroach 
 upon, nor in any way interfere with, the domain of 
 another, whatever one through his ability gains justly 
 belongs to him. Were this attitude m.aintained, or even 
 approximated, there would be no defenceless want; but 
 all would be comfortably clothed, housed, fed and cared 
 for according to the needs of the hour.
 
 JEALOUSY 75 
 
 In regard to the illegitimate gaining of wealth, the 
 only advance man has in this respect made over his sav- 
 age progenitors is in the methods he uses. He makes 
 laws for the punishment of those who rob others by 
 brute force, but he holds as legitimate subtler means 
 unparalleled in their effectiveness, by which he extorts, 
 enslaves and even murders to inc'rease his possessions. 
 The old crude methods are far too limited to satiate the 
 appetite of the highly civilized man. The m.embers of 
 this TWENTIETH CENTURY SOCIETY use all the 
 finer faculties of mind and body to manipulate conditions 
 by which they may wrest from each other to the utmost 
 of their strength and power. As lust for gain becomes 
 more intense— which is the inevitable result of the pres- 
 ent m.ode of life— and as finer and finer forces are re- 
 vealed to the searching intellect, all are used to fill the 
 ever expanding maw of greed. Thus the forces given 
 man for the ennobling and enlarging of his life are 
 diverted toward his destruction. 
 
 There are many secondary causes for poverty and the 
 distress arising therefrom, and much suflTering might be 
 avoided by the individual would he learn to apply the 
 principles of right living even in his present conditions. 
 Underneath all, however, the first cause of lack for the 
 necessities of life lies in the universal spirit of selfish- 
 ness and greed. This perversion of nature does not 
 belong to one class alone, but to all classes, whether 
 they are the victorious or the vanquished in the fight. 
 
 Another point that needs consideration here is that 
 through greed and general perversion of nature's laws.
 
 76 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 life has become so complex that every individual — even 
 he who has risen above selfishness — is forced, in some 
 degree, to conform to present rules and regulations. 
 From another standpoint one may thus see how inter- 
 dependent is human life. Nature's laws can never be 
 obliterated — only bent and caused to operate in a differ- 
 ent way from the original design. 
 
 Under the existing conditions the best that can be 
 done is to manipulate the mistakes and errors which are 
 too deeply rooted for imm.ediate extirpation, with the 
 object of gaining sufficient power to claim more and 
 more territory for that which, under the circumstances 
 of the hour, is the most just and right. The next step 
 is to press closer and closer to the center, until, though 
 often forced to choose the lesser of two evils, one shall, 
 in every increasing ratio, force the greater evils to suc- 
 cumb to the lesser, the lesser to the least, and finally, 
 the least to that which is absolutely pure and true. 
 
 As it is with institutions of charity, so it is with all 
 remedies and reforms that do not directly aim at, and 
 squarely and forcefully strike the cause. Anything less 
 than this only mollifies the condition in one direction, 
 while it grows to greater proportions in another. A na- 
 tion can be no better or stronger than the average good- 
 ness or strength of the people of which it is composed. 
 So it is with all lesser institutions. The corruption in 
 man's nature, which causes his institutions to need re- 
 form, has in the past reduced, and will in the future 
 reduce, all his reform movements to the level of his 
 errors. And all superficial remedies shall finally fail
 
 JEALOUSY 77 
 
 through their inability to check the force of growing evil 
 the roots of which are undisturbed. From whatever 
 point we view the situation we are forced back to the 
 original position. The only way out of the difficulties 
 from which man is striving to escape is through eradi- 
 cating from his nature the evils cut of which the condi- 
 tions grew and by which they flourished. 
 
 Jealousy is a trait of character which grows out of 
 greed and the conditions arising therefrom. In perfect 
 accord with nature's law of action and reaction, greed 
 promotes jealousy and jealousy increases greed. If 
 there were no greed operative in human nature, no one 
 would need to fear that his own, or that which he law- 
 fully acquired, would be taken from him. Nature would 
 so regulate all life that each individual would ask for 
 no more nor receive less than his own ; and in this as- 
 surance he would rest secure. There would be no sense 
 of lack, nor dissatisfaction, hence no occasion to guard 
 from the intrusion of others. 
 
 We must, however, handle this characteristic in its 
 relation to present conditions. The very nature of jeal- 
 ousy condemns it, and only in abnormal life can it find 
 place. Its nature is revealed through its action, which 
 is to clutch, grasp and bind for personal gratification. 
 It also gives rise to suspicion, anger and hatred. It pol- 
 lutes the nature in which it exists, and poisons the 
 atmosphere breathed by its victim. There is no circum- 
 stance or relationship that justifies its presence, yet 
 people are deluded by the idea that it is the accompani- 
 ment of love. Be sure that where jealousy exists, love
 
 78 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 is unknown, and in its place is only an unholy emotion 
 born of lust for self. 
 
 Jealousy is not an attractive but a repellant force. 
 One who becomes jealous of another's love or attention 
 takes the attitude most detrimental to his desire. The 
 desire is in no sense justifiable, but from his own selfish 
 standpoint jealousy diametrically opposes the gaining of 
 one's end. One who is the victim of jealousy will natu- 
 rally resist the unjust bondage to which such jealousy 
 subjects him ; so the more intense the clutching directed 
 toward one the greater the resistance and the wider 
 the breach becomes. Unselfish love is the attractive 
 force, and where this is not active, or when it suffices 
 not to unite and harmonize, all effort on low planes is 
 useless. 
 
 Watch and guard your possessions as you will, never 
 will you be able to insure them against the destructive 
 forces which are everywhere in operation on the low 
 plane coexistent with jealousy— so it is useless as well 
 as destructive. If you imagine your happiness depends 
 upon a person, place, condition or circumstance, and 
 thus you become jealous, you are pitifully deluded — 
 happiness is born of a pure spirit. The more absorbing 
 your jealousy the more miserable you become ; so again 
 your end is defeated. Having shown the action of 
 jealousy and its nativity, no further denunciation is 
 needed — it speaks for itself.
 
 INSTRUCTION XIII 
 
 SUSPICION 
 
 HAND in hand with jealousy and envy stalks suspi- 
 cion, and it is the invariable accompaniment of 
 these characteristics. Suspicion is sometimes found in 
 a nature in which jealousy and envy are not prominent, 
 but is never lacking when these errors appear. One who 
 lives on so low a plane as to allow suspicion to color his 
 nature, constantly scents and fears evil, with or with- 
 out a cause — and as directed toward himself and his 
 interests. Behind every friend he sees a foe— under 
 every act a sinister motive. Living to gratify desire, 
 he hedges in his possessions by jealous watchfulness, 
 envies all whom he cannot surpass, and interprets the 
 movements of those with whom he comes in contact as 
 inimical to his welfare. That this illustrates the action 
 of a suspicious nature, and represents an abnormal, de- 
 structive state, needs no further argument. 
 
 From a superficial view of the situation— because of 
 the many evils that dominate current motives and ac- 
 tions—one might justify suspicion; but it is always the 
 accomplice of darkness, and dwarfs and warps the na- 
 ture. We must make a distinction, however, between 
 a consciousness awake to that which actually exists— 
 whether it be good or evil— and one that is so distorted
 
 80 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 as to expect evil from every source and imagine it where 
 none exists. 
 
 There is an opposite extreme to the action of suspicion 
 which catches and deludes many well-meaning people. 
 One who blindly trusts every person with whom he 
 deals, and people in general, with the hope or belief 
 that they will do right, simply deceives himself with as 
 vague and baneful a fancy as that which colors a suspi- 
 cious mind. Neither attitude is correct. There are all 
 kinds of natures, which are in varying degrees, both 
 good and bad, according to the habits they have formed 
 and the influences to which they are yielding. While 
 one should never brood over nor fear any evil, either 
 imaginary or real, one who is awakened to see conditions 
 and deal with them exactly as they are, is many times 
 enabled to protect him.self by foreseeing and compre- 
 hending some approaching danger. He has learned to 
 deal with facts, and is sufficiently awake to see and 
 know, to correctly analyze, and to interpret that which 
 exists about him; to place things just where they be- 
 long—the good on one side and the evil on the other— 
 the one to be utilized to promote further good, and the 
 other to be conquered by whatever means it is wise to 
 use, or when wise to be avoided, or perhaps to be con- 
 trolled and made to serve some good end. 
 
 Optimism dazzles the eyes with the tinsel of imagi- 
 nary good, and prevents clear perception. 
 
 Pessimism clouds the vision with the darkness of 
 imaginary evil. 
 
 Both retard progression.
 
 INSTRUCTION XIV 
 
 DISCONTENT 
 
 WE hope our readers will closely and accurately fol- 
 low us in our efforts to present the differences 
 between the artificial and the natural man. When the 
 brain is constructed to operate in accord with certain 
 ideas it cannot at once function in connection with oth- 
 ers, especially when such ideas contradict those previ- 
 ously accepted. This is the reason why people follov/ 
 in certain grooves without question as to whether they 
 are right or wrong. One is physically unable to at once 
 create new channels in the brain through which new 
 ideas may f.ow. In order to conquer a habit it is neces- 
 sary to destroy the brain cells which operate in response 
 to it. This is done by the will of the spirit in persist- 
 ently refusing the idea or set of ideas that lead thereto 
 and that usually express themselves in the form of de- 
 sires. One may have many habits, to which desires do 
 not lead, but they are more easily broken, and have not 
 such perfect functioning organs in the brain. Entire 
 disuse of an organ insures its decadence, and this law 
 applies to the brain as well as to other parts of the 
 body.
 
 82 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 Thus you see the great importance of gaining control 
 over the mind. You should employ your mind with the 
 same surety of command with which you use your hand. 
 You should not only be able to prevent ideas from en- 
 tering or remaining in your mind against your will, but 
 you should govern your faculties and senses with equal 
 power. That which you do not wish to see, hear, feel, 
 taste or smell you should be able to resist. The spirit 
 that has taken full and conscious charge of its organ- 
 ism dictates as to what brain cells shall be created, in 
 what connection they shall be used, and regulates the 
 operation of those created. 
 
 The brain should not be a seemingly automatic ma- 
 chine, but under the direct and conscious guidance of 
 the spirit. We say the brain should not be seemingly 
 automatic, because in reality it is not so. Even when 
 the individual is not in conscious control, the brain can 
 only function in response to that which is active in the 
 mind; and only that may be active in the mind which 
 the spirit has accepted and permits to there have place. 
 The will of the spirit is absolute on its own territory 
 and there is no power to interfere with it. Man is to- 
 day just what he has permitted himself to become, and 
 barring some inherited limitations, you individually are 
 today just what you permit yourself to be. In making 
 these statements we first use the term "man" gener- 
 ically, in contradistinction to the individual, because, as 
 we have before shown, however bound and limited the 
 human race now finds itself, its conditions are all due 
 to the overpowering of the pure nature by willful
 
 DISCONTENT 83 
 
 gratification of selfish ends. And, while every individual 
 born onto the earth plane now inevitably suflPers from 
 the long descent of accumulated M'caknesses, still he is 
 able to absolutely govern his mind and build his char- 
 acter to a perfect state. In this way forces are set in 
 operation that aid him to become spiritually, mentally 
 and even physically strong and powerful. 
 
 Remember, we are dealing with the things not as we 
 should like them— not in accord with current opinions 
 or belief —but just as we actually find them. While the 
 laws and forces of restoration cannot, during earth life, 
 produce for the individual the conditions that he would 
 have enjoyed had man not sacrificed his original state, 
 yet, according to how much is left on which to build, 
 one can almost be reorganized and re-established. 
 When the organism, physically, mentally or spiritually, 
 has become too far disintegrated, it cannot be fully re- 
 suscitated until such time as conditions are perfected 
 for that purpose. This may never be possible in the 
 physical body. 
 
 It is true that the health of the body is largely de- 
 pendent on the status of the spirit; but if, before awak- 
 ening, the spirit has long tolerated destructive elements, 
 the forces may have become so scattered as to have al- 
 most destroyed the magnetic power of the body. In 
 this case there would not be sufficient foundation upon 
 which to rebuild. There are many who will be found 
 in this condition when they are brought to realize the 
 necessity of a higher life. However, though one is ab- 
 solutely beyond physical restoration, one may clarify the
 
 84 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 mind and purify the spirit so that all waste is checked. 
 If this is done a condition will thereby be produced in 
 which the soul will be restored. The spirit may thus 
 be clothed when it separates from the physical body, 
 and go forth conscious, and prepared to continue in the 
 Progressive Life. 
 
 In this connection we would say that a highly devel- 
 oped spirit may sometimes enter and through life be 
 burdened with a weakened or diseased physical organ- 
 ism, in which case the body is the inheritance of the 
 condition it has entered. It is not true to say that such 
 a spirit is responsible for the state of the physical body, 
 —providing it retains the high standard it has already 
 reached. * 
 
 Concerning the renewal of health, one should never 
 form a judgment as to the stage of disease that precludes 
 the possibility of healing. This depends upon conditions 
 so deeply hidden that few, if any, are able to know all 
 about it. 
 
 As it is with the physical, so it is with mental and 
 spiritual conditions. Many minds have become too cha- 
 otic for self restoration— many spirits too involved for 
 self delivery. Under present circumstances there is no 
 help for them. As individuals grow to the prescribed 
 standard, and begin their work in conscious co-opera- 
 tion with the forces of restoration, many miracles will 
 be performed. It is vain to promise that all on the 
 earth will be saved, but many who are hopeless, so far 
 
 * The questions arising on certain points- — here left unexplained — will be 
 answered in a later publication.
 
 DISCONTENT 85 
 
 as any current knowledge is concerned, will be helped, 
 and many fully re-established. 
 
 Directly returning to the subject of the differences 
 between the artificial and natural man, we want you to 
 realize that when you turn away from the artificial you 
 are sacrificing nothing that is of permanent or real value. 
 Vested in the one who has chosen the natural life— even 
 with the discount he is forced to yield to present ruling 
 influences— is the real thing that the spirit is seeking. 
 For this worldly endowments are but poor substitutes. 
 The special quest of the individual is for happiness, and 
 all the avenues which the world opens to him, and into 
 which he endeavors to enter, promise in the end to re- 
 sult in some form or degree of happiness. 
 
 We have said that man's first false step was to gratify 
 desire. This is true, but that desire was for the thing 
 he thought would more quickly and more easily lead to 
 a state of fuller satisfaction and greater joy. This was 
 the first delusion, from which he has never awakened 
 and which has led to the overwhelming perplexity of 
 his present state. But even as he might have learned 
 his lesson in the beginning, when the gratification of the 
 first desire gave rise to a second, so he may at any time 
 cease his quest for happiness through false avenues 
 when he has once proven to himself that none lead 
 to the goal. 
 
 It would seem that experiences have been varied and 
 bitter enough to teach man that happiness cannot be 
 obtained through desire. Happiness is the native state, 
 and grows only as the spirit progresses and gains greater
 
 86 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 power of appropriation. One can receive the benefit of 
 nothing beyond his ability of adaptation, and the abiUty 
 to adapt oneself depends upon perfect or imperfect 
 assimilation. When one tries to take into the physical, 
 mental or spiritual organism more than he is prepared 
 to digest, equilibrium is sacrificed, and general disturb- 
 ance follows. Excessive exhileration is as detrimental 
 to serenity as agitation from any other cause. 
 
 Man knew as much happiness in his simple, natural 
 state as he was able to appropriate without disturbing 
 the balance and calm which is at all times necessary to 
 a condition of growth. Thus again we see the action of 
 nature's law to hold the spirit in just the condition that 
 augments its general welfare, or causes it to feel the 
 lash of suffering accompanying disobedience. 
 
 The objection maybe raised that happiness does come 
 through the gratification of desires. Whether the ful- 
 filment of desires be on a higher or a lower plane, what 
 it brings is only a counterfeit emotion which passes for 
 real happiness among those who do not know the differ- 
 ence, and this emotion is not only false but fleeting. 
 The child throws aside one toy for another, and the 
 playthings that catch fancy after fancy must grow in 
 com.plexity with his increasing years, while the toys 
 with which the grown-up child plays suffice to hold his 
 interest but little longer than those that passed with his 
 youth. Why then continue such fruitless search ? You 
 are facing the inevitable ! The artificial man seeks and 
 never finds— the natural man seeks nothing and finds all. 
 
 The action of discontent may thus be seen, and it
 
 DISCONTENT 87 
 
 avails worse than nothing. However difficult may be 
 your path, yield not to discontent. We admit the terri- 
 ble pressure of the constantly turning thumb-screws 
 under which the ruling forces of the world hold so many 
 pinioned, but if one will begin and bravely continue to 
 live in accordance with the rules herein presented, one 
 will generate a force of character which shall make him 
 superior to his conditions and contented in any walk of 
 life. 
 
 To be contented in spite of circumstances does not 
 mean to stagnate and do nothing to improve them. It 
 is a tremendous perversion of principle to claim that 
 discontent is necessary to reform or progression. One 
 should enlist his efforts in a good cause to improve his 
 own condition or environment— i)ot because of personal 
 dissatisfaction, but for right's sake. The average indi- 
 vidual is so in the habit of responding only to personal 
 desires, or because of discontent arising from personal 
 experiences, that it is difficult for such an one to con- 
 tribute to united and harmonious effort in promoting 
 any good work. One who tries to do good from selfish 
 motives is quite sure to be governed by personal consid- 
 erations all along the way, and usually accomplishes 
 more toward causing disturbance and inharmony than 
 in any other direction ; while the one who is most valua- 
 ble in any service is the one who is actuated by a sense 
 of duty— not selfish interest. 
 
 Discontent may sometimes lead to right action, but it 
 is a very unstable premise from which to work, and is 
 a state of mind that renders growth impossible. How-
 
 88 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 ever reverse the seeming, contentment does not depend 
 upon environment or circumstances. Like happiness, 
 it is an inherent attribute of the spirit. Discontent is 
 an inherent quality of artificial life, and does not yield 
 to change of conditions. 
 
 Contentment should not be confused with insensibility 
 or a sluggish, stagnant state. One in the last named 
 state cannot be aroused to progress through discontent, 
 but, if at all, through being awakened to right action. 
 Growth, progression, improvement, power to surm.ount 
 obstacles, increase of ability, mastery of conditions, are 
 all embodied under natural law, and belong to the nor- 
 mal individual. To such an one discontent forms no 
 incentive. In fact, with discontent these things cannot 
 be accomplished. One preserving a contented mind, 
 whose incentive to action is right and duty, gains light, 
 wisdom, force and power which accompany no other 
 state. 
 
 Discontent is not confined to those who may be said to 
 have some real cause. It is undoubtedly most prevalent 
 among the people whose lives from a w^orldly standpoint 
 are most complete, and who, being forced into, or rec- 
 ognizing, few duties, live in idleness. Useful activity 
 is the best antidote for discontent. They who keep so 
 busy that they have no time to think of their ungratified 
 desires are the people of the world v/ho are most con- 
 tented. There may be apparent exceptions among 
 extreme cases where excessive indulgence has stupefied 
 the spirit. This is not contentment, but spiritual death 
 — almost beyond recall.
 
 DISCONTENT 89 
 
 So necessary is activity to the individual that we find 
 the idle classes, in the degree that they decrease the 
 necessity of useful work, inventing all sorts of games, 
 entertainments and physical exercises which shall tend 
 to counteract the stagnation and decay attendant upon 
 physical idleness and the discontent of an unoccupied 
 mind. 
 
 There is a growing spirit of emulation of ancient 
 Greece, and this spirit expresses itself both consciously 
 and unconsciously, and along various lines. It is believed 
 that it will be possible in time to not only attain all the 
 mental and physical power enjoyed at the height of the 
 Roman Empire— but, because of the advance of civiliza- 
 tion, to far surpass it. 
 
 This, again, shows that humanity tends to revolve. 
 The worn out, abandoned methods of the past are again 
 and again being recurred to, and used at the different 
 stages through which human life passes. Both ancient 
 and modern history repeats itself, with certain varia- 
 tions in modes of expression. Not only does society 
 revert to ancient customs, but it makes innumerable 
 little circles along the circumference and within the 
 confines of the great circle. Things that were in vogue 
 a hundred, fifty, ten or five years ago may at any time 
 be brought forward to take the place of present dis- 
 carded objects, and for a time the interest in them is 
 revived. Occasionally something new is introduced 
 which makes a starting point for another whirl. It too 
 will follow in the wake of all its predecessors. 
 
 Just so surelv as each successive thing has served its
 
 90 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 day, and sunken into obscurity, to be revived, at best, 
 but for another short period, just so surely shall the 
 world continue to turn on its social axis until some 
 mightier force than it has yet known deflects its revolu- 
 tions. Just as the nations of the past, despite their 
 vaunted power, have found the level of their intrinsic 
 worth, so surely shall the nations of today complete the 
 circles they began when they laid their corner-stones on 
 the same characteristics which limited the life of the 
 old. 
 
 Do you not see that when an ignoble trait of charac- 
 ter is touched, we are led into long labyrinths of out- 
 growing conditions which seem to have no end? By 
 this take warning, for the error that necessitates the 
 presenting of such an endless chain of facts in its dis- 
 cussion must surely involve the spirit far beyond the 
 possibility of delineation. Whether the flaw be discon- 
 tent, or any of the imperfections that constitute the 
 artificial man, spare no effort in uprooting all of them, 
 and casting them out to wither and to die.
 
 INSTRUCTION XV 
 
 FAULT-FINDING 
 
 OUT of the discontented mind grows the habit of fault- 
 finding, and by this we mean a disposition on the 
 part of the individual to pick flaws and to complain. 
 We are living in a world of imperfections. Nearly 
 everything man has touched has become faulty. Only 
 where man has been unable to interfere, do we find 
 nature in its purity. Wherever it has escaped the ma- 
 nipulation of the human mind, the earth— with its sky, 
 its seas, its forests, its valleys, its planes and its moun- 
 tains, in their infinitely varied expression of form, col- 
 oring, lights and shades— is beautiful, grand and enno- 
 bling. But the world— the direct domain and creation 
 of fallen man — is in its best phases a maze of hope- 
 less defects. 
 
 Could the fault-finder regulate the circumstances or 
 people of which he complains he would only vary the 
 state of imperfection. People and conditions of this 
 world can never be changed to satisfy the individual. 
 No two people agree as to what characterizes the excel- 
 lence of any person or thing. Taking this into consid-
 
 92 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 eration, fault-finding becomes a doubly useless in- 
 dulgence. 
 
 But this is not all; even though complaint should lead 
 to the bettering of conditions in a degree, it is most 
 hurtful to the individual through whom it comes, and 
 is a retrogressive method. One who is fault-finding can- 
 not be satisfied by any change, for his nature is inter- 
 woven with discontent. The only lawful thing for such 
 an one to do is to patiently and sweetly accept the 
 necessities of his situation, refusing to be affected by 
 any imperfection. One who wishes to progress must 
 cease to find fault with anything, and cultivate a satis- 
 fied mind— this state must under all circumstances be 
 maintained. This does not mean that facts should not be 
 dealt with, nor that changes should not take place when 
 conditions are not conducive to the general welfare of 
 the individual. Where changes are necessary, make 
 them. When unnecessary errors exist reveal and cor- 
 rect them, if you have the ability, and it is your busi- 
 ness to do so. Improvements should be made wherever 
 possible, but all this may be done without fault-finding. 
 If you cannot improve your environment, then let it be 
 an opportunity for you to learn patient endurance.
 
 INSTRUCTION XVI 
 
 FEAR AND ANXIETY 
 
 A S we proceed with our analysis it will be made clear, 
 -^"^ not only how each error in human nature grows 
 out of preceding errors, but that the false nature be- 
 comes more complex as this process continues. As a 
 natural consequence, man's entanglement increases in 
 the same ratio. 
 
 As has been heretofore described, the operations of 
 perverted human nature must lead to unhappy and dis- 
 astrous results. These results cause suffering, and 
 because of suffering, fear of evil; or fear of those con- 
 ditions which bring physical, mental or spiritual pain 
 enters the nature. Present conditions, woven from 
 
 innumerable threads of wrong doing, naturally engen- 
 der an uncertainty as to when and where evil may 
 attack, or as to what circumstances may arise to cause 
 the most carefully laid plans to miscarry. 
 
 Involved in worldly pursuits, the individual lives in a 
 state of greater or less anxiety, and so long as he de- 
 pends for happiness upon what he considers the success- 
 ful culmination of his movements, he will he anxious as
 
 94 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 to results. Worldly standards necessitate worldly meth- 
 ods and lead to worldly issues. Such issues are sure to 
 be mixed— both good and evil. In short the mixed 
 operations of good and evil belong to the present state 
 of the globe and none are wholly immune from their con- 
 sequences. It does not follow, however, that none are 
 exempt from fear and anxiety. There are many who, 
 seeing that an anxious mind does not help any condi- 
 tion, exert their wills against anxiety and temporarily 
 free themselves. So far this is good, but temporary 
 abstinence from any weakness is not sufficient. The 
 standard set is that all destructive characteristics shall 
 be entirely eradicated from the nature, and no occasion 
 may justify their return. Fear and anxiety do not be- 
 long to the Progressive Life, and the spirit cannot grow 
 while hampered by them. Fear and anxiety cannot 
 help you even if they do not hurt you, but they do you 
 much harm. They weaken the spirit, disturb the mind, 
 cloud the vision and thereby render wise action impos- 
 sible. In this way mistakes may be made which will 
 result in the very condition one wishes to avoid. On 
 the other hand, the ceasing of anxious thought may, in 
 many cases, be all that is necessary to clear the vision 
 and enable one to protect himself from evil. 
 
 Fear and anxiety really depend upon the valuation 
 that is placed upon earthly conditions. The natural 
 spirit is neutral, and the freer the individual becomes 
 from the attachments he has formed during his life the 
 more neutral will he be— therefore, the less subject to 
 fear and anxiety. Material surroundings beyond neces-
 
 FEAR AND ANXIETY 95 
 
 sities are not important if one does not allow himself 
 to become involved in them. However simple or insig- 
 nificant one's earthly possessions, they may be detri- 
 mental through his attitude toward them. Or one may 
 abound in material wealth and because he does not over- 
 estimate its value it does him no harm. The standard 
 set for one who has entered the Progressive Life is that 
 no valuation shall be put upon any person or thing to 
 the degree that any change can destroy the peace of the 
 spirit. Set no value on the relationships or conditions 
 of the world. Keep yourself free and untrammeled to 
 do your duty and to develop to the standard of charac- 
 ter set before you. There is only one thing of real or 
 permanent value, and that is a sustained attitude of 
 keen sensibility, calm, sweetness, serenity, contentment 
 and happiness. This attitude must be so deeply rooted 
 that none of the fluctuations of human life can dis- 
 turb it. 
 
 We live in a world of sorrow, sin and tragedy, but in 
 the midst of these conditions the spirit must learn 
 to sing. 
 
 When you have ceased from your desires, conquered 
 ambition, overcome pride, and when you value nothing 
 in life— not life itself —as you value an undisturbed atti- 
 tude, then will you become neutral regarding all of life's 
 variations. Always do your best; then, whether results 
 are good or bad, be not concerned, and fear and anxiety 
 will fade away from your nature. 
 
 It is well, however, to attack each error as it presents 
 itself to your consciousness. Take an attitude— assert
 
 96 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 your will— against the thing itself; never yield to its 
 disturbing influence. Much may be accomplished in 
 this way, but, at the same time, the cause must be 
 reached and cured ere the disease will entirely suc- 
 cumb. Place no valuation on anything whatsoever 
 beyond its ability to assist you in your life of progres- 
 sion. So value the attitude of mind in which growth is 
 made possible that no action and no result can tempt 
 you to sacrifice it. 
 Into such a state neither fear nor anxiety can enter.
 
 INSTRUCTION XVII 
 
 IRRITABILITY, TOUCHINESS, ANGER, HATRED 
 AND REVENGE 
 
 A S the spirit becomes more and more involved in false 
 -^-^ traits of character, and as their destructive oper- 
 ations proceed in the mind, senses and body of the indi- 
 vidual, his will is weakened, his powers of resistance 
 lessened, and his whole organism loses equilibrium. We 
 see in the perverted nature many degrees of the same 
 errors, and these degrees depend upon the hold the 
 errors have been able to get on the spirit and how much 
 force is given to feed them. If the nature is mild or 
 passive its errors are not so aggressive, and from the 
 currently accepted viewpoint are not so objectionable. 
 It is nevertheless true that if they form any part of the 
 nature, they are noxious and will surely prevent the 
 spirit from reaching a high standard. 
 
 If you are repeatedly detained by mild or subtle 
 weaknesses your progress is interfered with as effect- 
 ually as when you subject yourself to the grosser or 
 more intense forms of evil. In fact, when evil is pro- 
 nounced it forms a vulnerable point of attack, and there 
 is often more hope of quickly restoring the individual
 
 98 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 because his need is apparent to a teacher and he is him- 
 self usually conscious of his mistakes. Subtle forms of 
 error delude the individual in whom they are operating; 
 and because they do not manifest themselves, it is diffi- 
 cult for him to receive help from others. The more in- 
 tense forms of evil— which finally take the nature by 
 storm — are but the developed stages of the milder 
 forms, and exist only because they were not checked in 
 their incipiency. It is not necessary to enter into an 
 extended analysis of those traits of character that are 
 palpably false and destructive, for it is generally con- 
 ceded that they distort and darken the nature, so no 
 argument is needed to prove that they are undesirable. 
 The thing that the world is not recognizing is the 
 possibihty of conquering these evils. So identified has 
 the spirit of man become with its accumulated weak- 
 nesses, that while it knows they are wrong, it is delud- 
 ed by the idea that they are part of human life. Thus 
 humanity justifies the belief that the best that can be 
 done is to hold the worst of them in check, preventing, 
 their operation where their destructive nature is most 
 pronounced. There is no delusion more deadly to its 
 welfare, nor better calculated to keep the spirit bound 
 on a low plane than this. 
 
 Until the individual is awakened to the fact that he 
 is wholly responsible for his imperfections, and that his 
 development into a beautiful character— a character 
 wholly free from weaknesses — depends entirely upon 
 his own effort, he is not only a slave to the lower ele- 
 ments of his own nature, but he is subject to all the
 
 IRRITABILITY, TOUCHINESS, ANGER, ETC. 99 
 
 influences about him, arising from similar conditions in 
 others. You have the power to conquer all your defects, 
 and the thing we wish to impress upon you is, that not 
 only do you need to attack the worst features, but you 
 must continue until all the secret corners are exposed to 
 the light, and the so called insignificant faults, as well 
 as the greater ones, are weeded out of your nature. 
 
 Illustrating and verifying the facts just presented for 
 your consideration, is a scale of false traits with which 
 human nature has become painfully familiar. This scale 
 is composed of irritability, touchiness, anger, hatred 
 and revenge— different degrees of the same faults — the 
 more intense forms following in inevitable sequence to 
 the unrestricted operations of the others. 
 
 The nature in which desire, ambition, selfishness and 
 pride, one or all, are fostered, will so lose its balance as 
 to be easily wrought into a state of irritability, which, 
 if unchecked, will cause the individual to bristle with 
 points through which he takes personal oflFerce. The 
 form of irritatibility that matures in touchiness depends 
 largely upon the degree of pride and self-importance 
 that serves as its foundation. Let the individual closely 
 analyze the consciousness through which he becomes 
 hurt or offended, and he will soon see that it arises from 
 wounded pride or a sense of self-importance that is not 
 duly appreciated. 
 
 One who has reached the standard which tolerates no 
 pride or special estimation of himself, as apart from 
 others, never takes offence at any slight or insult. His 
 acts are governed by his highest sense of right or duty,
 
 100 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 and to the opinions of others he is never obsequious, nor 
 does he in any degree yield to their influence. The 
 thwarted will, directed toward the fruition of ambition 
 and the fulfillment of desires, also results in various stages 
 of irritability, of which the most intense stage is anger. 
 The nature in which ambition, pride and indulgence, 
 one or all, are well developed, will be capable of extreme 
 anger, and anger usually increases in the degree that 
 the will, which operates in connection with the above 
 errors, is curtailed. When anger, from any cause, is 
 tolerated and allowed to grow, hatred is soon engen- 
 dered, and extends to both people and things. Anger 
 against or hatred of the most evil condition or person 
 can find no place in the Progressive Life. Even likes 
 and dislikes should be checked, and hatred under any 
 circumstances is intolerable. 
 
 Out of hatred grows the spirit of revenge. Revenge, 
 too, operates in diflierent degrees, according to the 
 intensity of the force back of it. To permit a desire or 
 disposition to return evil for evil, or in common parlance 
 to "get even" with the wrong doer, at once levels you 
 to his plane, feeds the animal nature of both, and 
 poisons the whole organism. The nature of revenge, 
 whether mild or intense, is to directly wreak vengeance 
 upon its victim. All errors are destructive, but those 
 that are directed toward some outside object, and espe- 
 cially toward another individual, are doubly and 
 trebly so. 
 
 The first action of this class of evils is to consume the 
 life forces of the individual to whom they belong. The
 
 IRRITABILITY, TOUCHINESS, ANGER, ETC. 101 
 
 second action is to cause destructive forces to operate in 
 connection with their victim, and the third is a reaction 
 on the individual in whom they were generated. This 
 in a general way shows how these destructive forces 
 grow and intensify until they end in varying phases of 
 crime. We reiterate there is no occasion that can pos- 
 sibly justify any of them, even in their mildest forms. 
 The only attitude suppoi-table by the progressive spirit 
 is one in which the greatest usefulness is promoted. If 
 you are angry, if you hate, or feel revengeful toward 
 any condition or person, you are thereby unfitted to be 
 helpful. One who is in authority may correct, rebuke, 
 or punish, as occasion demands, but one must be beyond 
 all possibility of any shade of the above faults ; other- 
 wise the mind will be clouded by the feehngs, and wise 
 action thereby precluded. 
 
 When we consider how far the people of the world 
 now are from the standard of absolute non-revenge, non- 
 anger, non-hatred or even non-irritability, it is little 
 wonder that injustice is almost always the accompani- 
 ment of authority. Though one's purposes and resolves 
 are to do right, unless the nature is pure the mind is 
 not clear, and correct judgment cannot at all times be 
 formed. All people need to learn this lesson, especially 
 those in authority. There is one class in particular to 
 whom we wish to make appeal. Let the teachers, par- 
 ents, and all who have direct control and guidance of 
 children, rid their own natures of anger and irritability. 
 As a result, not only would children be saved from the 
 polluting influence of such characteristics and resulting
 
 102 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 injustice, but righteous discipline would be far more 
 effectual, and the power to control wonderfully increased. 
 One who is perfected in self-control has, in that degree, 
 power to govern others ; and one who has not gained 
 self-control is, in the degree that he lacks, unfitted to 
 be in authority. 
 
 In no walk of life is not only self-control but self-puri- 
 fication so necessary as in the guidance of budding lives 
 which are learning to take their first steps in the diffi- 
 cult conditions of this benighted globe. 
 
 Thus the shadows fall one upon another, increasing 
 in density as the errors multiply and grow. Through 
 these errors the spirit is enshrouded in darkness. In 
 this darkness it must remain until the evils that shut 
 out the light are by itself recognized and cast out. We 
 hope that each one who reads these pages will see the 
 overwhelming necessity of conquering all weaknesses, 
 thus allowing the spirit to rise to its true state— ivide- 
 awake and alive, calm, sweet, serene, contented and happy.
 
 INSTRUCTION XVIII 
 
 INJURIOUS CRITICISM, CONDEMNATION, GOSSIP 
 AND SLANDER 
 
 ANOTHER scale of errors which clouds human nature 
 and darkens the spirit consists of injurious criti- 
 cism, condemnation, gossip and slander. These charac- 
 teristics are interdependent, and, as cited in the previ- 
 ous instruction, if the milder form is checked the more 
 virulent phases cannot ensue. 
 
 Criticism is a phase of mind vv^hich, when used in cer- 
 tain ways, is not only generally considered justifiable 
 but highly valuable. There is some justification for this 
 position within a limited scope. The original and more 
 restricted meaning of the word criticism is a fine and 
 accurate judgment of an object, especially applied to 
 works of art and literature, with a view rather of pre- 
 senting their excellences than of finding fault. But 
 from this standard, usage has caused criticism to degen- 
 erate into an agency for unrestricted fault-finding. 
 Criticism, applied to the world of art, music, drama, 
 literature, etc., which forms such wide fields for its 
 unlimited exercise, consists largely of the varying and
 
 104 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 conflicting opinions of different individuals. Such opin- 
 ions at best are valueless. Furthermore, they are often 
 given from selfish motives, and many times colored by 
 angry, revengeful and malicious feelings, on which 
 occasions they are not only useless, but positively inju- 
 rious, both to the object toward whom they are directed 
 and the individual who formulates them. 
 
 Originally, only masters of an art were considered 
 capable of criticising it. Today any individual who can 
 cleverly formulate his opinions, however inferior his 
 ability may be, is accepted as a critic by the general 
 public. 
 
 The confines of advantageous criticism are very lim- 
 ited. In fact, criticism has become almost wholly de- 
 structive. Teachers, and those in authority, when their 
 personal interests are not involved, may closely scan the 
 work or natures of those directly under their training, 
 with the sole object of showing where errors exist and 
 correcting them. But this is, strictly speaking, rather 
 analysis than criticism, as criticism is today currently 
 understood and used. Analysis, used in this connection, 
 is the division of certain conditions into their various 
 parts, for the purpose of showing the individual that 
 which is destructive and to be avoided, and that which 
 is constructive and to be cultivated. This kind of anal- 
 ysis also should be used only by those who are free from 
 selfish interests and where duty commands. 
 
 Like all habits, criticism, indulged in, rapidly grows 
 and takes possession of the individual, until, whatever 
 his surroundings, his peace of mind is marred because
 
 INJURIOUS CRITICISM, ETC. 105 
 
 of the flaws which everywhere present themselves to 
 his fastidious mind. Through cultivating the mind 
 according- to certain standards, the senses may become so 
 keenly critical that whenever they contact an object 
 comparisons are at once made and criticisms formed 
 corresponding to one's likes and dislikes. When any 
 person or thing irritates or annoys you, examine your 
 mind and you will find that you are disturbed through 
 your own criticism. Cease your criticism, and the dis- 
 turbance will pass. Avoid comparisons if you would 
 check the first step toward criticism. Why should you 
 waste your time in drawing comparisons between people, 
 or things, or conditions, and— as inevitably follows— dis- 
 turb yourself by critical opinions? Your position here, 
 as elsewhere, should be neutral. 
 
 Remember that no two people have the same tastes 
 or standards as to what is or is not beautiful or desira- 
 ble. This is a world of endless variety, all created ac- 
 cording to widely differing ideas, and if you allow your- 
 self the privilege of criticising, even in your thought, 
 that which does not conform to your particular fancies, 
 you will not only make yourself and others unnecessari- 
 ly uncomfortable, but you will be detained in your pro- 
 gression by trifles unworthy of your consideration. 
 
 Let each object have its own place and stand for just 
 what it is, irrespective of other things. Learn to see 
 people, conditions and things just as they are, without 
 being tinged by comparisons, and you will more readily 
 check the habit of criticism. Do not vindicate strong
 
 106 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 likes and dislikes, and rid yourself of critical thoughts 
 as well as critical speech. 
 
 It should be well understood that there is probably no 
 error that is more of an open door to, and more hope- 
 lessly holds the spirit in touch with low planes, than 
 criticism. It leads to a whole train of destructive hab- 
 its and passions. Because it has long been given such 
 free scope, it has become such a persistent and insidious 
 habit that even after the aspirant has conquered other 
 errors and the grosser aspect of criticism, it often insin- 
 uates itself on his unsuspecting mind and once more 
 drags him into the mJre of its own plane. There is only 
 one way to handle criticism, and that is to throttle it in 
 its incipiency whenever and wherever it appears. 
 
 A critical mind not only in itself checks progression, 
 but it leads to the more destructive quality of condem- 
 nation. If you do not begin by criticising you will not 
 end in condemning. Condemnation is a two-edged 
 sword, which very few are capable of using, and, indis- 
 criminately handled, as it is today, infused with the 
 harmful elements of anger, hatred and revenge, it is 
 wholly damaging. 
 
 Because of the power that evil has gained over the 
 hfe of man, condemnation is occasionally unavoidable, 
 but the circumstances under which it is beneficial are 
 even more limited than those which circumvent the use 
 of criticism. Had man not entangled himself in evil, 
 neither criticism nor condemnation would ever have 
 entered his consciousness, much less would it have been
 
 INJURIOUS CRITICISM, ETC. 107 
 
 necessary to employ either one to promote his progres- 
 sion. But he has become tremendously involved. It is, 
 therefore, sometimes indispensable, for one who is espe- 
 cially appointed, to not only analyze the conditions 
 which hold an individual, but to forcefully denounce 
 them, ere the individual can be aroused to sufficient 
 effort to free himself. In extreme cases, when every 
 other method has failed, suffering is the only remaining 
 means of bring-ing one to himself. 
 
 In dealing with the individual the greatest wisdom 
 must be used or fatal mistakes will be made. Only 
 those who are superior to personal feelings or motives 
 can receive sufficient wisdom to act. Furthermore, one 
 should never be a self-appointed authority. One may 
 have so purified his nature that he would be wholly dis- 
 interested in his judgment, but he may have no author- 
 ity. When one condemns maliciously, or to gratify 
 personal feeling, or from habit or carelessness, or for 
 any reason save because compelled from duty, he sets 
 destructive forces to work within himself ; he is subject 
 to the law of reaction, and opens himself to the destruc- 
 tive influences which inhabit low planes. 
 
 Unless you are in a position which unquestionably 
 demands your judgment and regulation, never allow 
 your interests to carry you far enough into affairs or 
 conditions not your own, to criticise, condemn, or even 
 form an opinion thereon. That which does not strictly 
 belong to your jurisdiction do not touch in thought, word 
 or deed.
 
 108 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 When indiscriminate criticism and condemnation be- 
 come habits of mind it is an easy step to gossip and 
 slander. We need not give much time to the discussion of 
 slander, for its destructive nature is so thoroughly rec- 
 ognized that it has come under the limit of criminal law. 
 Gossip— its inevitable forerunner — is considered more 
 innocent. It is, however, both idle and pernicious. You 
 have in these pages been repeatedly warned against 
 allowing yourself to enter any territory except where 
 duty calls. This is another way of saying— strictly mind 
 your own business. If this rule is observed you will 
 never be led into the consideration of people or things 
 that do not concern you. Gossip is not confined to speak- 
 ing illy of people, but any idle discussion of the affairs 
 of others com.es under this head. One who wishes to 
 progress must absolutely cease from any phase or form 
 of gossip. 
 
 The world is full of gossipers, and you must closely 
 guard yourself that you are not led into it unawares ; 
 also that you do not become a party to it by listening to 
 the gossip of others. You are fully justified in check- 
 ing one who attempts to engage you in any sort of idle 
 discussion. If you do not refuse to give attention to a 
 gossiper you are quite as responsible as though you 
 entered into the conversation. 
 
 Gossip is another insidious habit — as difficult to check 
 as destructive, and it should be handled, whenever it 
 interferes, with inexorable severity. 
 
 So let it be thoroughly understood that criticism, con- 
 demnation, gossip and slander are dangerous forces.
 
 INJURIOUS CRITICISM, ETC. 109 
 
 Criticism, in the sense of fault-finding, should never 
 be used. 
 
 Condemnation should be handled only by those who, 
 having gained wisdom, have been especially appointed 
 to authority ; and it should never be used in malice, 
 anger, irritation or selfishness. 
 
 Gossip will hold the individual on a low plane, and 
 ends in slander. 
 
 Slander is a crime punishable by law.
 
 INSTRUCTION XIX 
 
 CARELESSNESS, RECKLESSNESS AND DESTRUCTIVENESS 
 
 nnHE human mind, in its tendency to touch extreme 
 -^ points, finding itself handicapped or helpless, swings 
 out with the hope of gaining in one direction what it 
 loses in the other. In this way have carelessness and 
 recklessness entered the nature of man. Because these 
 defective traits have descended through many genera- 
 tions they have become a settled fact in human nature, 
 and their origin is almost obscure. It is nevertheless 
 true that as man has received the various results of his 
 perverted nature— results which cause him suffering 
 and that suffering to increase— and as he has settled 
 into a consciousness that evil is an inevitable conse- 
 quence of sentient life, fear and anxiety have found 
 their antipodes in carelessness, and carelessness un- 
 checked ends in recklessness. 
 
 While many are both careless and reckless from birth, 
 for the reason heretofore stated, we often see the pass- 
 ing from the point of excessive care to its opposite, 
 recklessness, exemplified in the individual. Many begin 
 life full of enthusiasm for what they term success, and
 
 CARELESSNESS, RECKLESSNESS, ETC. HI 
 
 toward this end bend their energ-ies to the utmost. This 
 means that their feeHngs and desires are fully involved. 
 When repeated failures and disappointments come, the 
 mind often finds refuge from fear and despair in varying 
 degrees of carelessness. Carelessness may take many 
 forms, any one of which will retard progression. 
 
 One who is careless does not properly use his senses. 
 He is delusive, doing one thing and thinking about many. 
 In this way he makes mistakes, and destroys. This 
 cannot be excused in the Progressive Life, for if one is 
 fulfilling the earlier commands, to use his senses, to be 
 alive and awake, living centered in his body, with a 
 quiet, well controlled brain, he will never be heedless, 
 but full of care as to the correct performance of his 
 duties. 
 
 Generally speaking, a careless nature is not earnest, 
 and without earnestness one cannot faithfully perform 
 duty, nor grow to a high standard. Carelessness car- 
 ried to the point of desperation is recklessness, and 
 marks an extreme state which can only be entered 
 because of the impetus given the nature by indulgence 
 in many other forms of evil. 
 
 One phase that recklessness assumes is a torpid indif- 
 ference to life and its relations and obligations. From 
 being involved in the unsuccessful effort to fulfill desires, 
 or from the reaction following satiated desires, one may 
 swing to the extreme of pessimism. In this state the 
 spirit becomes dull and hopeless. Because it has failed 
 under wrong action it draws the conclusion that nothing
 
 112 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 is worth effort, and it is difficult to arouse it to right 
 action. 
 
 Recklessness is the very antithesis of caution, and 
 without caution one co-operates with and invites baneful 
 agencies. One has no right to jeopard any possession, 
 whether it be his own or another's, or whether it 
 belongs to the physical, mental or spiritual plane. Cau- 
 tion to preserve as well as to promote well being is a 
 quality indispensible to growth. A reckless or even 
 careless nature is unavoidably destructive both in the 
 smaller details of life and the more important issues. 
 Such a nature is not only disastrous to externals, but 
 self destructive. An individual who is so little self pos- 
 sessed as to allow recklessness or carelessness and 
 destructiveness to govern him cannot, at the same time, 
 guard his soul elements or life forces. The two things 
 stand opposed. A door cannot be open and shut at the 
 same time, neither can a nature be both destructive and 
 constructive. 
 
 While destructiveness is the invariable accompaniment 
 of a reckless or careless nature, there are other causes 
 that lead to this trait of character. As selfishness 
 grows, human nature becomes more deleterious in its 
 activity. Destructiveness is a force in universal evi- 
 dence. Usually, when man finds it necessary to destroy 
 to further his selfish ends, he does not hesitate to do so, 
 so long as he keeps within the limits set by society for 
 the protection of any one of its members from others. 
 On the destruction that is wrought in defiance of tem- 
 poral law we need not dwell— that speaks for itself.
 
 CARELESSNESS, RECKLESSNESS, ETC. 113 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, nature is the guide. While she 
 is prolific and generous, she is also economical. In all 
 nature nothing is destroyed. Dissolution and decay are 
 only processes of change attendant upon the dissolving 
 of material into its original elements prior to its being 
 once more taken up and manifested in different forms. 
 Besides ridding himself of all the elements which them- 
 selves ravage human nature, the individual should 
 endeavor, in all walks of life, to conserve and utilize all 
 things to the utmost of his ability, avoiding destruction 
 on the mental, physical and spiritual planes. 
 
 The Progressive Life, perfectly lived, is perpetually 
 upbuilding, and one living according to its laws destroys 
 only when forced to choose the lesser of two evils, or to 
 rebuild a more perfect edifice.
 
 INSTRUCTION XX 
 
 NON - INTERFERENCE 
 
 TpARLY in these instructions the statement was made 
 -*--^ —learn to strictly mind your own buisness. This 
 is one of the first lessons needed by the one who is en- 
 deavoring to turn back into the way of the Progressive 
 Life. 
 
 Had man in his original state of innocence not broken 
 this law he would not have fallen to his present con- 
 dition. His business was to maintain his undisturbed 
 state of mind— to do duty and to grow— but he tried 
 to climb another way, and interested himself in many 
 things which do not belong to the life of natural pro- 
 gression. Wherever his interests engaged him in pur- 
 suits that were unnecessary to his growth he disobeyed 
 one of nature's most essential provisions, viz. —non- 
 interference, or, in language familiar to all, strictly 
 mind your own business. What was true in the begin- 
 ning is true today and will always endure. Your busi- 
 ness is to maintain an undisturbed state of mind, to do 
 duty and to grow. 
 
 It is, however, far more difficult to mind one's own 
 business in the turmoil of present conditions than it
 
 NON-INTERFERENCE 115 
 
 would have been had man not become entangled. Life 
 is now full of disturbing influences, and duties have 
 become complicated and difficult. There is nevertheless 
 no other way. Each individual who wishes to reach 
 the required standard must face his conditions and per- 
 form his duties, however arduous, keeping wide-awake 
 and alive, calm, sweet, serene contented, and happy. 
 
 The average individual has become so accustomed to 
 interfering not only with nature's laws but with innu- 
 merable affairs that should not concern him, that con- 
 siderable training is usually necessary before he realizes 
 the scope of the application of the law of non-interfer- 
 ence. It is not sufficient for one to refrain from intrud- 
 ing upon the affairs of others in deed only ; one must 
 abstain in deed, word and thought. In fact, the first 
 intrusion is always in thought, and much destruction 
 may be wrought, even though such transgression does 
 not go beyond this plane. 
 
 You have been told to keep the mind still, except 
 when it is necessary to use it. If this rule is observed 
 you will not interfere on the mental plane. Checking 
 action here will keep you from making this mistake in 
 word and deed— unless you are not clear as to what 
 constitutes necessary action. When you have entered 
 the Progressive Life nothing is really your business 
 save those things that are requisite to promote your 
 physical, spiritual and mental welfare ; or, under spe- 
 cific circumstances, where it becomes your duty to pro- 
 mote the welfare of others. This will check out of the
 
 116 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 average life much that has heretofore been deemed 
 essential. 
 
 We may correctly say that the object of our whole 
 discourse is to show the aspirant how to cease interfer- 
 ing, or how to mind his own business. It is not only 
 necessary for the individual to learn not to intrude upon 
 others, but he must guard his own territory with equal 
 care. The utmost effort is made to protect earthly 
 possessions, but the treasures of the mind and the soul 
 are left wide open to intrusion. 
 
 Whenever you place your mind upon another person 
 to scan him with interest, to speculate upon his condi- 
 tions or nature, —even though you do not make the 
 greater mistake of criticising— and especially if you try 
 to read or influence his mind, you have penetrated the 
 sacred chambers of his being, and both of you are 
 harmed beyond your present power of realization. In 
 whatever way or for whatever purpose one mentally or 
 spiritually intrudes upon another mind or soul one 
 unlawfully handles dangerous forces. Whether this 
 be done through mental suggestion or by any other 
 method, and whether it be done with or without permis- 
 sion, injury and ultimate destruction will surely follow. 
 Both the one who practices these methods and the one 
 practiced upon become victims. The soul, composed of 
 the life forces gathered by the body, held and protected 
 by the spirit, should be the undisturbed and unbroken 
 covering for the awakened spirit. 
 
 When the mind is carried away from the body and its
 
 NON-INTERFERENCE 117 
 
 activity in abstract thinking or speculation, when it in 
 any way intrudes upon the domain of another, when it 
 is influenced or disturbed by being intruded upon, or 
 disturbed by its own errors, the soul, through the vibra- 
 tions thus set in motion, is pierced, opened and scattered 
 in the degree that the agitations are violent or pro- 
 longed. In this way the spirit— sensitive and quivering 
 — is robbed of its natural protection, and becomes more 
 or less exposed to the chaotic, polluting and deadening 
 conditions with which the very atmosphere of the globe 
 is filled. 
 
 On the streets, in crowds, wherever you go, you are 
 constantly subjected to such interferences. If you wish 
 to preserve and protect your soul— which is your only 
 means for growth— avoid promiscuous and unnecessary 
 mingling with people. When called into their midst 
 through duty take the utmost care not to interfere with 
 so much as one thought, and maintain an unyielding 
 attitude against any intrusion from others. 
 
 When your territory is in any way trespassed upon it 
 is necessary for you to give the intruder to understand 
 that you will permit no interference. This should be 
 done without any annoyance on your part, and in the 
 wisest way possible to avoid giving offence. 
 
 There is no lesson more imnortant for the protection 
 of the progressing individual than non-interference. 
 
 In order that this subject shall be complete it must be 
 supplemented by a discussion of the requirement— do not 
 fail to do your duty, but take care not to overdo it.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXI 
 
 DUTY 
 
 rPHE duties of an individual depend upon his spiritual 
 standing and the conditions to which he has become 
 subject. On the question of duty there is much misap- 
 prehension. One may do many things from a miscon- 
 ceived sense of duty, and, on the other hand, one may 
 neglect real duties. The question of duty is largely an 
 individual matter, and each one must so live as to receive 
 sufficient wisdom for guidance 
 
 There is, however, a general rule for all, viz., it be- 
 comes the duty of each individual to cease all mental 
 and spiritual action that interferes with growth, and as 
 far as possible to make his physical conditions or sur- 
 roundings conform to the best interests of progression. 
 We make a provision concerning the physical plane be- 
 cause many are so encumbered by conditions and rela- 
 tionships that it is not possible for them to immediately 
 free themselves. Whatever your environment, however, 
 you should make the utmost effort to govern the mind 
 and purify the spirit. One who really purposes to reach 
 the highest standard should closely analyze himself to 
 see that he is not held in detrimental conditions through
 
 DUTY 119 
 
 selfishness or desire. It is many times necessary to 
 choose between two evils, and in this case decision should 
 be made in favor of the thing that is the less indulgent 
 to a selfish nature— whether that nature is one's own or 
 belongs to another. 
 
 There are times when one is held in bondage to others 
 under the subterfuge of duty, and thereby prevented 
 from taking necessary steps to augment progression. 
 Such duties should not hold, and sometimes severe 
 methods must be used to free the individual. The mere 
 fact of relationship should not prevent one from arrang- 
 ing his affairs to best conform to his development. 
 Duty should be measured by something more profound 
 than earthly ties. One has no right to be an obstnaction 
 in the path of another through the sense of ownership 
 accompanying such relations. The selfish and detri- 
 mental demands made by a father, mother, son, daugh- 
 ter, sister or brother who refuses to live the true life 
 should not be regarded by the progressive spirit. The 
 spirits that are really related are those that are united 
 in progression. 
 
 Whatever the conditions, however, it is your duty to 
 be calm, serene, contented and happy, wide-aivake and 
 alive. Many times, when one's aspirations are high, 
 and one maintains an undisturbed attitude, coupled with 
 an unwavering determination to conquer, difficulties 
 give way before the power thus generated, and opportu- 
 nities are found which otherwise would have been im- 
 possible. 
 
 The only way that the individual can always know
 
 120 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 just wherein duty lies is through awakening to accurate 
 perception, or through the guidance of a teacher who is 
 capable of correctly analyzing one's conditions. We are, 
 however, presenting a few general instractions which, 
 if followed as occasion demands, will be guides along 
 the way. 
 
 We have, in general, touched on one side of the ques- 
 tion, which is — do not fail to fully do duty. And now 
 we have a few points to bring forth on the other side, 
 viz. —take care not to overdo duty. Under existing cir- 
 cumstances of human life, the latter is perhaps the more 
 difficult part of the question to apply. So unconscious 
 has humanity becom^e of the source of its helpfulness, 
 and so closed are the avenues through which such aid 
 may come, that many people are almost defeated by 
 their environment, and the pressure is so great that 
 enforced duty carries them far beyond the natural limit. 
 One should never be called upon to sacrifice physical, 
 mental or spiritual welfare through the performance of 
 duties. The fact that this is ever necessary is only a 
 part of the web in which the human race has entangled 
 itself. Here, as always, you must face the condition as 
 it is, and to the best of your ability observe the laws 
 which make for freedom. 
 
 Before this subject can be clarified we must turn to 
 man in his natural state. You will remember that he 
 was simple, pure and sweet, and that he was held 
 in obedience to and under the protection of the 
 Planes of Light. Despite his long disobedience, and 
 the darkness that has settled upon him, his connection
 
 DUTY 121 
 
 has never been entirely broken. There has never been 
 a time when the Higher Powers have not had their 
 light-bearers on the earth. Because of this there is 
 hope for the individual who is struggling- under tremen- 
 dous disadvantages, providing that in the midst of his 
 conditions he will apply the principles herein delineated. 
 
 We are now appealing to the one who is in extreme 
 conditions— conditions that are detrimental to progres- 
 sion, and where it seems impossible to regulate duty so 
 that time and force are not almost wholly involved. To 
 such an one we can only say : Begin with the mind 
 and feelings, and persist in the effort to quiet them ; 
 to weed out defects in the nature : to use the senses, 
 and to be keenly conscious of every act. In the degree 
 that this is done will you be able to gather force, 
 strength and wisdom through which may come your 
 spiritual, mental and physical emancination. 
 
 The command is have a care that you do not overdo 
 duty. Whatever your ciscumstances, then, make the 
 effort to regulate duty to conform to your progression, 
 trusting to the force gained through purifying your 
 nature to enable you to take still further steps in the 
 right direction. An excellent rule, which will apply in 
 many cases, is : Endeavor to increase your efficiency in 
 whatever capacity you are engaged, and do not fear to 
 make righteous demands. Preserve your serenity of 
 mind, and keep keenly conscious ; do right in all your 
 dealings, and let your attitude be, that of demanding 
 justice and right from others. Regarding details, 
 proceed as under the circumstances seems wise.
 
 122 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 The individual who has power to govern his duties 
 according to his will may more easily exert a care not 
 to overdo. In many cases, going just beyond the limit 
 of wisdom in doing duty will turn acts that might other- 
 wise have been beneficial into a detriment. The states 
 of mind that are most apt to carry one beyond the point 
 of wisdom are — over-zeal, enthusiasm, over-estimation 
 of one's ability, and pride or selfishness. While these 
 things govern you, you are never safe. Too great a 
 valuation placed on worldly things and on your relation- 
 ships may also misguide you. 
 
 In regard to the helping of others, you must learn to 
 accurately estimate modifying circumstances ere you 
 will be able to know when duty calls and how far it 
 extends. There is always a cost to pay for what you 
 do in this world ; and even doing duty is expensive. 
 Every act of one's life costs life forces ; and one's 
 capacity to receive is necessarily limited. No matter 
 how abundant the supply of nature, one should never 
 expend faster than he can accumulate. If, at any time, 
 you use or scatter your life forces faster than you. 
 gather or appropriate them, you are impoverished. 
 The thing then to always be considered is, what can 
 you afford? Cost is always counted when material 
 wealth is used. It is necessary to make much closer 
 divisions when soul or life elements are in question. 
 
 So long as an individual is struggling to conquer his 
 own imperfections, and to keep his own forces from 
 being scattered, with possible exceptions, duty does not 
 demand that he give spiritual aid to others. Even one
 
 DUTY 12:-5 
 
 who has risen must estimate the amount of life forces 
 he has to give, and his strength to deal with difficulties, 
 before entering actioiL One is really not fully equip- 
 ped for the duty of helping others until he is rich enough 
 in life forces, and sufficiently self possessed, to give of 
 the overflow. This means that one has learned never 
 to heedlessly scatter soul elements, and that, beyond all 
 that are needed for his spiritual, mental and physical 
 sustenance, there remains a surplus fund from which to 
 draw for the help of others. 
 
 Beyond the observance of these suggestions the indi- 
 vidual must depend upon his own development for 
 further guidance in doing and not overdoing duty.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXII 
 
 INQUISITIVENESS, CURIOSITY, AND GAINING USELESS 
 
 KNOWLEDGE 
 
 A N intelligent comprehension and application of the 
 -^-^ previous lessons on non-interference and duty will 
 preclude the errors of inquisitiveness and curiosity. 
 
 An inordinate desire to pry into other people's affairs, 
 and to know all about them, is another fault which will 
 open the door to lower planes. Whenever one curiously 
 penetrates any condition he must more or less partake 
 of whatever elements are therein found. As when one 
 enters smoke he is surrounded and clouded thereby, so 
 is one affected by an impure atmosphere. As when the 
 door is open in a storm one receives the full brunt of its 
 fury, so when the door to a low plane is opened by 
 inquisitiveness and curiosity, the one thus indiscrete 
 receives the force of its elements and influences. These 
 coalesce with one's own errors of like nature, and he 
 has an additional problem to solve, or burden to carry. 
 The individual who is endeavoring to rise out of mixed 
 conditions must exercise great care that he does noth- 
 ing that tends to weigh him down, or to make his 
 overcoming more difficult ; so, from this viewpoint as
 
 INQUISITIVENESS, ETC. 125 
 
 well as from all others, inquisitiveness and curiosity are 
 hindrances to progression. 
 
 If what is known as the vulgar phases of these 
 defects were the only avenues through which they do 
 damage we would not need to go further into their 
 analysis. The individual who is excessively inquisitive 
 and curious is even below the world's standard of a 
 desirable character, and the errors that are most de- 
 nounced by public opinion we need only refer to as de- 
 structive, while we give more time to those that receive 
 less recognition, and especially dwell on the phases of 
 evil which the world considers desirable, but which are 
 none the less impediments to natural growth. 
 
 There is a shade of difference between inquisitiveness 
 and curiosity. Both retard progression, but there is 
 one limited consideration in favor of the former. When 
 one is deeply involved in his own errors, and still the 
 spirit cries for light, persistent inquiry may finally lead 
 him to see the true way. But this is the longest, hard- 
 est and most destructive method of finding it, and at 
 best it is only a choice between two evils. When the 
 individual delves into all phases of thought for truth he 
 gathers a few facts, as he goes along, and much error. 
 He does not know enough to segregate the true from 
 the false ; for had he the wisdom to do this the same 
 wisdom would render his research unnecessary. One 
 whose inquisitiveness takes this form is held for a tim.e 
 by the facts found, but he cannot long remain satisfied 
 with the mixture. Spurred by restlessness, he goes on 
 from one point of investigation to another, doing more
 
 126 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 or less sifting but all the time accumulating and never 
 correctly separating the wheat from the chaff. There 
 are times when such experiences assist to awaken the 
 individual to the fact that none of these avenues lead to 
 the light he seeks. Thus he is benefitted only by the 
 preparation which may make him willing to learn and 
 apply the laws through which he may gain' pure wis- 
 dom. 
 
 No one can awaken to the intelligence that satisfies 
 the spirit and reveals the now hidden facts of nature, 
 save by purifying the character and maintaining a calm 
 undisturbed yet keenly sentient attitude. A teacher 
 may give you the law and exemplify its application, but 
 you must make it a part of your own life ere you can 
 know it for yourself. 
 
 Because this method of inquiry is so universally justi- 
 fied we have analyzed it, but it is not the natural or 
 best way. While it sometimes leads out of confusion, 
 it often serves only to carry the individual around in a 
 circle or causes him to lapse into a state of indifference 
 or pessimism, in the darkness of which he may indefi- 
 nitely remain. At best the path of inquisitiveness is 
 only better than a settling into some mixed condition 
 under the delusion that one has found wisdom ; or into 
 a conclusion that there is no way by which one may 
 know what is true. This is the most that can be said in 
 favor of inquisitiveness, which, after all, can only lead 
 one to realize that it is not the way to gain accurate 
 knowledge. 
 
 One who has no ambition to know, and makes no
 
 INQUISITIVENESS, ETC. 127 
 
 effort in that direction, but who Hves, in spite of con- 
 ditions, a sweet, pure, contented, useful Hfe, combining 
 the activity of the spiritual, mental and physical organ- 
 isms, will gain more light than can ever come through 
 intellectual research. If you want knowledge of many 
 things valued by the world, if you want a high intellec- 
 tual development— which means a brain filled with con- 
 flicting opinions of all ages— cultivate an inquiring 
 mind. You will gain these things, however, at the 
 expense of a keen, accurately discerning intelligence ; 
 at the expense of a highly developed spiritual organism 
 which is capable of reflecting and interpreting wisdom 
 from the Planes of Light, and at the expense of a high 
 standard of self-possession, all of which can be gained 
 in no other way than by fulfilling the requirements for 
 progression. 
 
 If inquisitiveness retards the natural growth, curios- 
 ity is still less lawful. The knowledge you need in the 
 performance of duty, or the knowledge that will in- 
 crease your ability or usefulness, or better your condi- 
 tion without unnecessary cost to your progression, it is 
 wise to acquire. To seek any information whatsoever 
 from curiosity is idle, irdulgent and destructive. 
 Here is a place where people at large need sadly to mind 
 their own business. We must once more remind you 
 that if you would reach a high standard you must not 
 seek knowledge beyond the necessity of the hour ; and 
 above all things you are prohibited from entering planes 
 other than the one on which you are prepared to 
 function.
 
 128 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 If duty in the highest sense of the word is fulfilled, 
 the knowledge that is necessary, or for any reason wise 
 to receive, will come as a natural result of development. 
 But to try to gain knowledge of any plane from curios- 
 ity, or through inquiry before one is matured to receive 
 it, is not only useless but most dangerous. 
 
 We hope we have made it clear that inquisitiveness 
 and curiosity in their grosser forms, as well as the 
 phases which lead to the gaining of useless knowledge, 
 are but the false offsprings of nature, and have no place 
 in the higher development.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXIII 
 
 WRONG DESIRES, INDULGENCE, HABITS 
 AND PASSIONS 
 
 WE have already analyzed the question of desires, 
 and referred to indulgence as destructive 
 agencies in human nature. We now have further spe- 
 cific remarks to make on these characteristics, concern- 
 ing their relation to some of the more extrem.e states. 
 We have shown that all desires are wrong, when they 
 are considered from the standpoint of the higher devel- 
 opment, but not all desires are equally destructive. 
 Hence, we have dealt with the subject in a general 
 way, only specifically touching on the less damaging 
 forms. We wish now to analyze the more mature 
 stages of indulgence which destroy self-possession. 
 
 Individuality cannot become established until one 
 grows self-possessed. Self-possession depends upon the 
 purification of the nature from all weaknesses, both 
 great and small, until it stands transparent in its per- 
 fection. So long as a person can be governed in the 
 sHghtest degree by any influence which operates detri- 
 mentally, either within his own nature or without, he
 
 130 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 is not self-possessed. Generally speaking, the desires 
 that have the greatest hold upon human nature are 
 those that are most deadly to the soul and spirit. And 
 the forms of indulgence that are most universal are of 
 the desires that belong to this class. 
 
 Indulgence is the free gratification of desire granted 
 either to one's self or to another. While checking 
 desires may not always eradicate them, indulgence 
 destroys the soul and degrades the spirit. Indulgence 
 must cease, and desires must be fully conquered or they 
 will ultimately conquer and become habits. When 
 indulgence has gone far enough to form a habit it has 
 taken possession of you, and the habit— not your spirit- 
 is in command. A habit is a form of indulgence that 
 has become involuntary, or that operates either with or 
 without one's consent. / 
 
 Habits fully grown become passions, and passions 
 rend the soul, dissipate the life elements and obsess the 
 spirit. Anger, hatred, malice or lust may take posses- 
 sion of the spirit and transform it into a demon of like 
 nature. Even dissatisfaction and melancholly may be- 
 come passions in which the spirit loses its identity. All 
 the defective traits of character may become passions. 
 Whether they reach this extreme stage or not depends 
 upon how freely they are licensed to operate. The free 
 exercise of the lower traits of character are the most 
 deadly, but any indulgence, though seemingly quite in- 
 nocent, will detract from your self-possession. 
 
 Art, music or literature may become passions either 
 in their contemplation or production. If these things,
 
 WRONG DESIRES, ETC. 131 
 
 or any others, though regarded as equally desirable, 
 cause you to lose your self-control they are not permis- 
 sible. In the degree that your nature is in any way con- 
 trolled against your better judgment you are harmed, 
 and in the degree that your acts— physical, mental or 
 spiritual— are indulged, and lead to habits, you are con- 
 trolled; and when passions are developed you have lost 
 your self-possession, destroyed your individuality, and 
 have become the tool of lower elements. 
 
 There is one passion racking humanity which it is 
 most necessary for every matured individual to face and 
 understand. Its importance becomes paramount for two 
 reasons. One is because it is the desecration of the 
 holiest function of sentient life. The other is because 
 what was intended as a creative progressive force has 
 descended into a means of universal indulgence, densely 
 polluting and deadly destiTictive. Nature's undefiled 
 law of generation is the blending of the pure elements 
 of highly developed individualities. These elements are 
 chosen by the law of spiritual affinity, which law, undis- 
 turbed, never m.akes a mistake. And both these laws 
 operate for the one purpose of producing a more perfect 
 expression of life. 
 
 Through the fulfillment of this— the fruition of all 
 nature's laws on the earth — humanity would have pro- 
 gressed from generation to generation, with all the laws 
 of inheritance promoting higher development in an 
 unbroken scale of ascent from one state of excellence to 
 another. Had this process not been destroyed— but had 
 it continued from the time of man's pure state through
 
 132 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 the ages— the human race would today have reached a 
 grandeur of mental, physical and spiritual stature be- 
 yond all possibility of estimation. Instead of so living 
 that nature might have promoted this mighty principle; 
 over the misinterpretation, misuse and degradation of 
 this progressive law, humanity has spread the mantle 
 of justification and the protection of temporal law— and 
 thereby plunged, unrelenting, into its long degeneracy. 
 
 In this respect, as in all others, nature's divinest plans 
 and holiest purposes have been torn asunder and merci- 
 lessly trampled in the mire. 
 
 Whether nature has worked for the creation, suste- 
 nance, protection or development of her offspring, her 
 methods have been ignored, her precepts distorted, and 
 her laws of beneficence turned into a curse. 
 
 Applying the laws of nature to present conditions, the 
 institution of marriage should never serve anything less 
 than the promotion of the highest ideals. There is less 
 excuse for selfish motives carrying people into the mar- 
 riage state than into any other relationship. A marriage 
 that takes place for the gratification of —or that justi- 
 fies—desires, of any kind, is null and void in the sight 
 of that which is highest and best in human nature. The 
 real purposes of such unions should always be the bet- 
 tering of the natures, the producing and caring for off- 
 spring, and the increased powers of usefulness engen- 
 dered through united force and action. 
 
 Nature is the active principle of the most Transcen- 
 dent Intelligence and Wisest Beneficence. One who has 
 learned to read her behests uncolored by any distorting
 
 WRONG DESIRES, ETC. 133 
 
 influence, sees therein an unparalleled provision for the 
 harmonious adjustment of all creation. Could we but 
 awaken the consciousness of man to one jot or tittle of 
 the gladness that is born of the perfect functioning of 
 nature's laws in the creation and protection of her off- 
 spring, he would be willing to sacrifice the whole of 
 civilization to unite his being with her exalted trend. 
 To fully do this is now impossible. Nature's commands 
 he has destroyed ; her warnings have passed unheeded ; 
 her way has been lost in his — he must pay the cost. 
 Nevertheless, as has been repeatedly shown, nature's 
 laws are eternally the same, both in substance and 
 application. Neither does her beneficence abate, and 
 though much has been irreparably lost through the long 
 period of disobedience, yet, even as nature would have 
 led along peaceful paths to a perfected earthly condi- 
 tion, so she will still guide those who are willing and 
 obedient to a far more beautiful state than can be in 
 any other way obtained ; and which state shall serve as 
 a first step toward complete disentanglement and eter- 
 nal progression.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXIV 
 
 GLUTTONY AND SLOTH 
 
 T)EFORE we leave the subject of habits and passions 
 "^ we must bring before you still another habit which, 
 carried to its extreme, amounts to a passion. Because 
 of its prevalence and justification, and also because it 
 contributes largely to a secondary state that accom- 
 panies an indulgent life, it is necessary to give it special 
 attention. 
 
 The habit referred to is gluttony, and the state it ac- 
 centuates is sloth, or excessive indolence. When the 
 senses have been used for the purpose of self-indul- 
 gence, sensation is deadened ; and more and more ex- 
 treme methods must be used to induce response. The 
 reason for this is that the life forces which feed the 
 whole organism are squandered, and the magnetic cen- 
 ters through which they are gathered are almost de- 
 stroyed. Hence, the whole sensory apparatus is 
 partially paralyzed, and excitation can be produced only 
 by constantly increasing stimulus. 
 
 The sense of taste is no exception to this rule ; and in 
 this respect, as in all others, the whole human race is 
 abnormal. The child begins life nearer the natural
 
 GLUTTONY AND SLOTH 135 
 
 state, but inherited desires and education soon cause it 
 to follow in the same ruts traveled by its progenitors. 
 The specific and only purpose of food is to supply the 
 body with fuel from which it may generate the needed 
 substance to give it health, strength and power. 
 Whenever eating is done for the purpose of gratifying 
 taste— beyond the point where taste aids digestion— it 
 becomes an indulgence. Carried to an extreme, indul- 
 gence either in quantity or quality of food is gluttony. 
 The quantity, quality and variety of feed consumed 
 daily, by a great many people, do much to impair bod- 
 ily health. There are probably quite as many people in 
 the world suffering from over-eating, or eating improp- 
 er kinds of food, as there are people suffering from 
 being under-fed. In this respect, as in all others, 
 either extreme is destructive. What is needed is the 
 purest, simplest ard m.ost natural food to which the 
 civilized man can accommodate his system, and in just 
 the quantity that is conducive, according to individual 
 conditions, to his physical welfare. 
 
 In this connection, we wish to express our approval 
 of— and add encouragement to — rapidly increasing 
 num.bers of people who are realizing that the taking of 
 sentient life is not necessary to man's sustenance. 
 There are many forces at work, or sets of circum- 
 stances, through which it is being proven that flesh-eat- 
 ing is non-essential, and the time is not far distant 
 when no intelligent voice will be lifted in its defense on 
 any ground other than that flesh is a habitual food and 
 caters to man's perverted taste.
 
 136 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 There are many sound ideas now being put forth to 
 show that there is in the vegetarian diet all the nutri- 
 ment that is contained in flesh, fish or fowl. Further- 
 more, many diseases are now attributed to these latter 
 kinds of food. Whenever sentient life has become 
 extinct, disintegration and decay at once set in. When 
 the bodies of once living things are fed upon there is 
 taken into the system substance from which poisonous 
 gases are generated that are more or less destructive to 
 the system. How much injury is done by them depends 
 upon the power of the system to neutralize, resist or 
 throw off the disturbing agency. 
 
 The nearer first-hand nature's nutritive substance is 
 received the purer it is and the more vital, therefore 
 the more helpful. At best, all animal food gives na- 
 ture's elements second-hand. They are first incorporated 
 into the organism of the animal, and then, with the 
 noisome elements to which animal life is always more 
 or less subject, they pass into the human organism, and 
 when the bodies of animals are eaten the elements are 
 not only second-hand but in the process of putrifaction. 
 
 Fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains are more tena- 
 cious of the life forces than any animal organism. As 
 may be discerned, simply through observation, long 
 periods may pass after these things are gathered before 
 disintegration begins. If the system is healthful it 
 will appropriate the vital elements of all these kinds of 
 food— coming as they do more directly from nature — 
 and excrete the surplus long before decay sets in. 
 Such animal products as eggs, milk and butter also
 
 GLUTTONY AND SLOTH 137 
 
 have the life elements undisturbed, and are, therefore, 
 less objectionable. But all kinds of food produced by 
 severing the life from the organism are always both 
 non-essential and inimical. 
 
 As one progresses and the organism becomes more 
 refined, one not only loses all appetite for any kind of 
 flesh, but one is not able to endure its magnetism. 
 Animal Magnetism is a force that penetrates all animal 
 substance, and partaking of the nature of the substance 
 to which it belongs, it tends to unite elements of like 
 nature. The magnetism of the flesh of animals will 
 coalesce with the lower elements of the magnetism of 
 the one who partakes of it ; and the more there is in 
 his own magnetism that is like that of the animal, the 
 less conscious he is of any change. Also, the more he 
 eats its flesh the more polluted he becomes and the less 
 conscious he is. The more refined the magnetism 
 grows, the more awake the individual becomes to the 
 presence of a foreign element, and the more forcefully 
 will his organism resist its intrusion. Contact with 
 lower elements will do less permanent harm to one who 
 has purified his own magnetism than it will do to one 
 who is progressing, for the reason that one who has 
 risen has less in his organism in common with a lower 
 magnetism ; is thus more conscious of a foreign element 
 and has greater powers of resistance. Every person, 
 however, whether on a high or a low plane, is detrimen- 
 tally affected— both from a standpoint of health and 
 through magnetic influence— by eating the flesh of 
 animals.
 
 138 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 If killing animals for food is not necessary to man's 
 welfare, then surely their wholesale slaughter should 
 not go on for his gratification. When the barbarity of 
 this custom is once realized one needs no other induce- 
 ment to refuse to abet it through any form of indul- 
 gence. 
 
 There are many reasons, however, why it is not wise 
 to go to the extreme of refusing, under all circumstances, 
 to use any article gained through the sacrifice of animal 
 life. Civilization has so bound and subjected the human 
 race that many things which would otherwise be intol- 
 erable are necessary as the lesser of two evils. But 
 where one may substitute a vegetable for an animal pro- 
 duct, without injury, it is certainly best to do so. 
 
 The fact, seemingly demonstrated by nature, that 
 miany forms of life are sustained by the preying of the 
 stronger upon the weaker is not one of nature's laws, 
 but one of man's gigantic corruptions. It will not serve 
 our present purpose to enter an analysis of the above 
 statement, but it will permanently stand. As it is now 
 being clearly shown that a vegetarian diet is more 
 wholesome and more natural, so will all of nature's per- 
 versions ultimately be exposed. 
 
 Animal life should not be sacrificed to supply any of 
 man's needs. The vegetable world aficords ample mate- 
 rial from which may be furnished any necessary article. 
 As soon as people awaken to the necessity of substitut- 
 ing the vegetable kingdom for all animal products they 
 will find a way to do so. 
 
 Over-eating or drinking, or partaking of that which
 
 GLUTTONY AND SLOTH 139 
 
 caters to an abnormal taste, immediately throws the 
 digestive apparatus out of balance and impairs the 
 assimilation. This weakens physically, and the mental 
 and spiritual organisms are also involved. That gluttony 
 destroys health and interferes with mental activity will 
 probably not be questioned, but how the spiritual nature 
 is thereby affected is not so generally recognized. It is, 
 however, a well known fact that certain physical dis- 
 eases are accompanied by mental disorders and spiritual 
 weaknesses, such as irritability, a tendency to melan- 
 choly, etc. There is a constant action and reaction 
 among the physical, mental and spiritual planes, and 
 whatever affects one part of the organism, to a greater 
 or less extent, colors every other part. 
 
 In the degree that the fuel given to the body is assim- 
 ilated force is generated. This force adds vitality to 
 the whole organism. Whenever the body is diseased or 
 weakened, even as its force and powers of resistance 
 are lessened, so the nature becomes less vigorous in its 
 efforts to prevent or combat any disturbing influence. 
 
 The very fact that the appetite has become gratified 
 to the point of gluttony shows that it has ruled the bet- 
 ter judgm.ent, and whatever rules the better judgment 
 is immoral. 
 
 Appetite, in the sense in which it is here used, should 
 not be confused with hunger or thirst. Hunger and 
 thirst are the calls of nature which guide the individual 
 as to what the system needs in the way of sustenance. 
 Appetite may or may not be normal, according to how 
 much it has been abused.
 
 140 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 Out of a glutted nature grows the habit of sloth or 
 indolence. One may be lazy from many causes, but it 
 invariably has its beginnings in indulgence. The more 
 indulgent the nature the more the different stages of 
 indolence take possession. Sloth is only laziness carried 
 to an extreme, and the habit of gluttony adds much to 
 physical, mental and spiritual lethargy. In all depart- 
 ments of nature idleness or uselessness or inactivity 
 causes stagnation and decay. So, in view of these 
 results, there can be no hesitation about the necessity 
 of conquering the desires that lead to gluttony; nor 
 checking all indulgence which contributes to an idle life, 
 and which leads into the habits and passions that pre- 
 clude the possibility of rising to the natural state of 
 self-possession.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXV 
 
 ARGUMENTS AND CONTENTIONS 
 
 rpHE currently accepted idea of Individuality is that it is 
 comprised of theories, opinions, ideas and character- 
 istics which have been accepted and incorporated into 
 the nature, and which distinguish one person from 
 another. Viewed from this standpoint it is self-evident 
 that individuality must be impermanent. One's theories, 
 opinions, ideas and characteristics are constantly sub- 
 ject to change. They come and go according to the 
 various influences of experience and accumulated knowl- 
 edge. Were there nothing more stable than these 
 things to form its basis individuality would be nothing 
 more valuable than a kaleidoscope of shifting, influences. 
 The fact revealed by nature is that individuality con- 
 sists of whatever there is within the physical, mental 
 or spiritual organisms that partakes of its purity, and 
 is, therefore, unchanging. In so far as characteristics 
 are induced by that which belongs to the highest attri- 
 butes of a perfected spirit they add to the individuality. 
 In so far as ideas are in accord with facts of nature, — 
 which always have been true, and which, unvarying, 
 shall endure through eternity— they belong to the indi- 
 viduality.
 
 142 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 If you wish to know how much individuality you pos- 
 sess eject from your mind every phase of consciousness 
 that does not testify to what you actually know. Give 
 nothing else— however high its superficial valuation- 
 place in, or power to function through, your brain. 
 Count as nothing all the characteristics that have come 
 as distorted products of nature— this includes all human 
 weaknesses. When this is done, what remains is your 
 individuality. However minute that remainder, it is all 
 that is of the least value in your mental or spiritual 
 organism, and the only fit foundation on which to build 
 the noble and everlasting structure which constitutes 
 the natural man. 
 
 The natural man is strongly individualized, but his 
 individuality is not marked by the differences existing 
 between his own and other people's ideas and superficial 
 characteristics. Correct ideas must be based upon un- 
 changing facts. Therefore all people who have correct 
 ideas must agree. 
 
 A beautiful character must be natural, for nature un- 
 disturbed leads the spirit to awaken in unison with all 
 the nobler attributes. The attributes that belong to 
 strong individuality must agree — not differ— wherever 
 and however they find expression. 
 
 Neither does individuality lie in one's likes or dislikes, 
 for these are also unstable and belong to the perverted 
 nature. In the natural individual likes and dislikes are 
 not pronounced. He is neutral toward all things— 
 always contented and always happy. 
 
 If the body had never been degraded it would have
 
 ARGUMENTS AND CONTENTIONS 143 
 
 reflected and expressed one's individuality so perfectly 
 as to have been a part of it. But as it stands today, 
 the result of ages of inherited states of degeneracy, its 
 pliability is largely destroyed and it has become crude 
 and fixed. The most pronounced traits of character 
 speak through the subtler expressions of the body, as 
 of the face, eyes, mouth and through mannerisms ; and 
 when the nature becomes purified the individuality is in 
 turn reflected in these limited ways. Further than 
 this the body can never become sufficiently refined to 
 form a part of the individuality. 
 
 The life forces attracted by the body— permeating it, 
 surrounding the spirit, forming the soul and the aura 
 about the body— become a part of the individuality, and 
 after the individuality is firmly established these things 
 do not change. 
 
 Humanity is no exception to the following rule that 
 applies everywhere in nature : 
 
 The organic world differs not so much in its compo- 
 nent elements as in the manifold variety of ways in 
 which the fundamentals are compounded into concrete 
 form. Perfected natures are essentially alike, and the 
 distinctions of individuality are produced by the various 
 blendings of the elements which make up the whole. 
 It should therefore be understood that individuality can 
 be based on nothing less than fundamentals, which are 
 permanent and which vary only in arrangement, color- 
 ing and expression. 
 
 All highly developed individualities embrace the attri- 
 butes of serenity, humility, contentment, generosity,
 
 144 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 patience, kindness, love, tenderness, and all the requis- 
 ite elements of a beautiful character. But in different 
 ones they are differently expressed and accented. For 
 example, one highly individualized person may be a 
 pronounced expression of earnestness, another of joy- 
 ousness, another of tenderness and another of humility. 
 Or there may be accentuated combinations of earnest- 
 ness and tenderness, of joyousness and tenderness, of 
 humility and earnestness, and so on indefinitely— each 
 person lacking in none of the higher attributes or qual- 
 ifications of an exalted nature, but taking on the color- 
 ing and shading of those with which he is especially 
 endowed. 
 
 While we have only touched on the possiblities of in- 
 dividual expression, our illustrations are sufficient to 
 offer a suggestion of the unlimited variety of combina- 
 tions, with their hues, lights and shades, which consti- 
 tute individuality. Nature, in her infinite variations, is 
 the best exemplification of this principle which is every- 
 where at work. 
 
 When one becomes conscious of the foregoing facts 
 regarding individuality one sees no occasion for argu- 
 ments or contentions. 
 
 The looseness of language sometimes tends to confuse 
 rather than elucidate ideas. Therefore, for the sake of 
 clearness, we must limit the term arguments, used in 
 this connection, to mean a milder form of contentment, 
 and place its broader significance under the heads of 
 discussion and analysis. Arguments, to which we refer 
 as unlawful, are the persistent presenting of statements
 
 ARGUMENTS AND CONTENTIONS 145 
 
 in opposition to those already made, and which lead into 
 contention. 
 
 Arguments usually arise over points which have no 
 foundation in facts, or which are colored by misconcep- 
 tions, and misconceptions, however viewed, lead to 
 erroneous conclusions. In other words, both sides of 
 an ar^ment are generally wrong ; and though each 
 side is presented in every conceivable way. all that is 
 accomplished is the pitting of error against error. 
 Neither one engaged in the contest is convinced, for 
 each clearly sees where his opponent is wrong, but is 
 blind to the weakness of his own side of the question. 
 The only result is indefinite and disturbing contention. 
 
 Granting that one is correct, if the opponent is suffi- 
 ciently fixed in his opinions to argue, both are still 
 wasting time. No person can be convinced against his 
 will. Intelligent discussion, without feeling or self 
 assertion, is not harmful, and often opens up the real 
 nature of a fact or condition. In this way discussion is 
 helpful to all concerned. Whenever such discussion 
 reaches the point of argument, however, it immediately 
 becomes not only useless but detrimental. Nothing 
 more quickly gives rise to conflicting vibrations— which 
 act and react on all the minds subjected thereto— than 
 arguments and contentions. If this conflict continues, 
 irritability and anger invariably follow. Thus the mind 
 is disturbed, life forces are scattered, and the nature 
 darkened. One who wishes to progress must begin at 
 once to check any disposition to argue or contend. 
 However unreasonable or wrong you may feel the peo-
 
 146 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 pie you contact to be, no satisfactory result can ever be 
 reached through contention, whether that contention be 
 mild or heated. No one has indulged in this spirit 
 without having had ample opportunity to learn this 
 lesson by experience. The harmony of many homes is 
 destroyed by this worse than useless practice. 
 
 You should remember that so far as differences in 
 opinion are concerned your neighbor has as much right 
 to his opinion as you have to yours. The one who does 
 not see this is blinded by pride and selfishness, and is 
 therefore doubly at fault. We must again remind you 
 that you are interfering with your growth if you form 
 opinions, much less assert them, in opposition to others. 
 
 Untimely assertion of facts leading to contention is 
 also unlawful. Generally speaking, for one who is 
 learning to walk in the straight and narrow path, it is 
 far better to yield a point than contend for it. Yield- 
 ing—except to wrong-doing— even to the point of self- 
 sacrifice, will not hurt you. In fact, whatever interferes 
 with your selfishness or self-importance will do you. 
 good, while idle self-assertion will block your way. 
 
 When the individual reaches the place where he makes 
 no comparisons, forms no opinions, draws no conclusions, 
 is influenced by no likes or dislikes — and when he real- 
 izes that individuality, however varied its expression, is 
 always to be highly respected and appreciated, and that 
 false concepts cannot be overcome through argument or 
 contention— he will never jeopardize his own harmonious 
 state by lifting his voice to quibble over differences. 
 Neither will he waste his time or force in an effort to
 
 ARGUMENTS AND CONTENTIONS 147 
 
 convince any but a willing spirit, and tlien he will do so 
 only when it has become his business to instruct. 
 
 As one learns to appreciate individuality, and to gain 
 greater self-possession, arguments and contentions, with 
 other bad habits, pass from the life.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXVI 
 
 DECEIT AND HYPOCRISY 
 
 TTAD the human race not begun wrong doing-, false 
 representation would never have entered the mind. 
 When a spider weaves his web one strand forms the 
 foundation for another, and every fiber of that intricate 
 little mechanism connects, directly or indirectly, with 
 every other, and the whole is for the specific purpose of 
 entangling. In this same way evil has woven the net- 
 work of perverted human nature, and every individual 
 is caught therein. 
 
 The more complex human nature becomes in its errors, 
 and the more complete its subjection, the more neces- 
 sary does deception seem, and the more varied do its 
 forms become. The further human nature descends 
 from the high state to which itreally belongs— the more 
 it assumes to be what it is not — the more nefarious its 
 means to ends and the greater the necessity of covering 
 its tracks. The reasons for deceit and hypocrisy are 
 manifold, depending, we repeat, upon the density of 
 the errors in which the individual is involved. Gen- 
 erally speaking, because people have never been able to 
 forget their ideals, they are not willing to acknowledge 
 their iniquities.
 
 DECEIT AND HYPOCRISY 149 
 
 The individual represents himself to be better than 
 he is, largely because he has not the courage to face the 
 judgment of his own errors. The condemnation of oth- 
 ers plays its part, but even if one does not fear this, the 
 conscience is less troublesome when the evils in the na- 
 ture are well cloaked. The exception to this state is 
 when one is sufficiently awake to condemn one's own 
 errors, whether they are known to others or not ; but 
 this is the first step toward self-purification. 
 
 Shame is probably one of the most valuable charac- 
 teristics that has entered man's artificial nature. Had 
 man remained pure he would never have known shame, 
 but because he fell and yet could not wholly forget, this 
 quality is developed, and only in extreme cases of degrada- 
 tion is shame lacking. Had no means been devised to cov- 
 er evil, shame would operate to much greater advantage 
 than it now does. When man found that he must either 
 give up his evils or be exposed, the intellect— which has 
 always ministered to artificial development— gave him 
 the mantle of misrepresentation. This mantle he has 
 used to its utmost, until today deception and hypocrisy 
 are so universal that their manifold hues have, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, deeply dyed the whole of 
 human nature. 
 
 Social relations reek with insincerity and assumption. 
 
 Religious life has few corners that are not infested 
 with hypocrisy. 
 
 In home life lurks secret disloyalty. 
 
 Business and political life flaunt their prostituted hon- 
 esty, justice and integrity to the four winds of heaven.
 
 150 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 There is probably no evil more theoretically condemned 
 and practically condoned than dishonesty. It is another 
 of Greed's hideous offspring, and an inseparable twin to 
 Injustice. Man dare not effectually attack dishonesty, 
 for such an attack would reach back to its parentage, 
 whose roots are buried deep in the vitals of civilization. 
 He must tolerate dishonesty, or yield up greed and 
 shake the institutions built thereon from center to cir- 
 cumference. 
 
 We must here sound another note of warning. The 
 individual might either realize that he is entrapped, 
 and, strand by strand, disengage himself and enlist his 
 forces, intelligence, energy and abilities on the side of 
 right, or be crushed by evil, when either universal or 
 individual wrong grows too heavy for its pedestal and 
 crashes onto planes below. 
 
 It is not necessary to go into further detail concerning 
 dishonesty, beyond what is embodied in the caution, 
 never resort to misrepresentation, either direct or im- 
 plied, to gain your ends or to serve your purposes. 
 There is always a better way, and if you are alive, wide- 
 awake and able, this way you will find. That which 
 cannot be legitimately gained through developed intelli- 
 gence and ability, sacrifice without one moment's hesi- 
 tation. For the one who would progress there is no 
 possible compromise— there must be absolute integrity 
 in every detail of the daily life. Whatever else you are 
 called upon to sacrifice, preserve your character. 
 
 Referring to the more petty forms of deceit and 
 hypocrisy, there is nothing that will add more to your
 
 DECEIT AND HYPOCRISY 151 
 
 own self-respect, and more quickly demand respect from 
 others, than a non-assuming attitude. Always be will- 
 ing to express your own individuality. However little, 
 however humble, be yourself. Do not compare yourself 
 with other people nor emulate them. Remember that 
 individuality never expresses itself twice alike, and that 
 one phase is as desirable as another, and as much needed 
 to make a perfect whole. 
 
 Do not try to make yourself anything but what nature 
 intended you to be ; and at no time in your progression 
 assume to be what you are not. There is great strength 
 gained in being willing to have one's errors revealed. 
 Do not waste your forces trying to hide your weaknesses, 
 but do your utmost to conquer them. Remember that 
 whichever phase of it is viewed, false representation 
 serves but one purpose, and that is to form a gilded 
 casket which hides a venomous serpent. 
 
 He who would avoid a more hopeless entanglement in 
 the meshes of the web that entraps to destroy, must rid 
 his nature of all phases of dishonesty, deceit, hypocrisy, 
 insincerity, disloyalty and injustice— for these things all 
 co-operate to add density to darkness and confusion to 
 chaos.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXVII 
 
 SADNESS, MELANCHOLY AND PEEVISHNESS 
 
 QORROW is the offspring of sin. 
 ^ When we have said this we have told the whole 
 truth of human suffering. Sin is the departure from the 
 prescribed by nature. 
 
 Sorrow and suffering of all kinds are only fibers of the 
 web of entanglement. 
 
 So intricate are the weavings of cause and effect that 
 the original cause of sorrow is lost to superficial view, 
 but it nevertheless has but one source, and that is man's 
 disobedience to nature. 
 
 As we view present conditions of the human race, 
 every effect becomes a secondary cause, and every cause 
 is but the effect of a prior cause, until we are faced 
 with almost limitless multiplications of causes and 
 effects ; but all reach back through seons of generations 
 until we arrive at the origin of all earthly evils— the day 
 that man began his efforts to improve on nature by arti- 
 ficial methods. In that hour was laid the foundation 
 for all classes of suffering, sorrow, sadness and mel- 
 ancholy. 
 
 The deeper has become man's involvement the more 
 universal sorrow has become, and the more varied in its
 
 SADNESS, MELANCHOLY, ETC, 153 
 
 nature. Even as deceit and hypocrisy developed to 
 cover sin, so, as sorrow has grown to such proportions 
 as to seem to be the inevitable accompaniment of human 
 life, man has invented many methods to drown this dis- 
 turbing elem.ent. But, probably, of all his devices to 
 mitigate the results of natural deficiency, those invented 
 to prevent and cure the sufferings of humanity have the 
 least served the purposes for which they were intended. 
 A large part of human energy and intellect is directed 
 toward the prevention, alleviation and cure of the ills of 
 mind, body and spirit of man. Much is accomplished in 
 many directions, but, taken as a whole, human woe 
 stalks on. When checked in one direction it presents 
 itself in another, and the veil of sorrow is never lifted. 
 
 We do not wish to be understood to say that human- 
 ity is wholly void of happiness, but we do mean that 
 there are many fitful emxotions that pass for happiness 
 which are counterfeit, and come and go as the scene 
 changes. Furthermore, there is no door at which sor- 
 row may not at any moment knock— unless the one who 
 resides therein has pressed so close to nature's heart 
 that her arms protect him from intrusion. He who lives 
 the most natural and the most useful life, and seeks his 
 own happiness the least, is the one who knows the real 
 from the counterfeit, and to such an one genuine happi- 
 ness is most constant. 
 
 There are innumerable direct causes for sorrow, but 
 we are now dealing with the question as a whole ; and, 
 considered from that standpoint, no artificial means 
 ever have been found, nor will any be found in the time
 
 154 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 to come, to alleviate the saddened spirit of the human 
 race. All the varied creations that may be placed 
 under the head of entertainment, bring, at best, 
 only a temporary cessation from care — a surcease which 
 comes because of the involving of the interests in fleet- 
 ing pleasures. When entertainments are indulged in 
 for their own sake, tlie enjoyment in them is not only 
 passing but reactionary ; therefore, we say, inventions 
 to allay sorrow are vain. They do not really relieve the 
 condition, because the more they involve the nature the 
 greater is the reaction in satiety and discontent. 
 
 Coming to the individual, the only recourse for a sad 
 heart is through natural development. In the begin- 
 ning he must check his sorrowing with an iron hand, 
 whatever the cause or nature of it may be. Under no 
 circumstances can yielding to feelings in the least help 
 the situation. 
 
 One may be helped by analyzing some of the causes 
 of his unhappiness. Are you sad because of ungratified 
 desires or unfulfilled ambitions ? There is but one way 
 — uproot desires — conquer ambition. Does your des- 
 pondency arise from severed ties and attendant loneli- 
 ness ? Here, also, your desires are involved, and your 
 love is selfish. The natural spirit is never lonely. If it 
 is best or inevitable that your loved one should go, or 
 you should, in any way, be severed from what you con- 
 sider your own, repining is detrim.ental to all concerned. 
 It serves to make the breach seem wider, and prevents 
 both the one grieved for and the one who grieves from 
 rising. Sorrowing holds all who are touched by its influ-
 
 SADNESS, MELANCHOLY, ETC. 155 
 
 ence down to its own plane, which is the realm of sin 
 and darkness. Under any and all circumstances conquer 
 your selfish clinging to the thing, condition, place or 
 person loved, and any form of grief because of changes 
 wrought. 
 
 It is necessary to remember that happiness does not 
 come from any external conditions or relationship, but 
 that is the state of the pure nature— the natural sup- 
 plement of self-possession, and must endure through 
 all variations attendant upon human existence. A de- 
 termined and persistent effort may have to be made to 
 gain and maintain this attitude, but it is absolutely 
 necessary to progression. 
 
 After the spirit has yielded to many disappointments 
 and trials, each doing its part toward discouraging and 
 saddening the nature, the spirit often enters a perma- 
 nently sorrowful state, which in its extreme is melan- 
 choly. Melancholy means that the individual has set- 
 tled into its darkened conditions, through which little 
 or no light penetrates. 
 
 There are people in the world who are saddened, or 
 even melancholy, not because of ungratified desire, nor 
 because of any special set of circumstances ; but because 
 there is a sense of discontent with all the conditions of 
 human life, and especially with the errors of their own 
 natures. A spirit of this class is sufficiently awake to 
 see that things in general are wrong, but it is not con- 
 scious of the reason ; nor of the way of indixidual 
 emancipation. Such an one may grope through life
 
 156 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 with a heavy heart, restless and discontented, and he 
 may also sink into darkness of settled melancholy. 
 
 If one who becomes thus conscious that life is a per- 
 version would extend his vision to reach the causes, 
 and then set to work to overcome them in his own na- 
 ture, instead of sinking into melancholy he would rise 
 into gladness. When the spirit, for any reason, has 
 reached the point of melancholy, it is difficult to arouse 
 it. Many more methods fail than succeed, and usually 
 such cases can be reached only by the help of one who 
 has risen. Even with such help there are extreme con- 
 ditions which may baffle human power. If the one 
 who is melancholy from the desolation attendant upon 
 partial awakening could be properly dealt with, and 
 shown the way to rise, there would be much ground for 
 hope of his recovery. 
 
 Peevishness is a mixture of irritaiblity and sadness. 
 It is a puerile state of mind. Where it exists there is 
 little power of endurance and no patience. Like other 
 states it has many causes, but often developes when the 
 nature has become petty— interested in and influenced 
 by many trifles, and hence peevish by the thwarting of 
 petty desires. Peevishness may also grow through 
 much indulgence — desires gratifled by one's self or 
 through another. It is often attendant upon sickness 
 or old age, but it is not justifiable under any circum- 
 stances, and it is only possible because of many prior 
 mistakes which have led to it. 
 
 Usefulness is one of the quickest and surest helps for 
 any of the above difficulties. One who has many duties
 
 SADNESS, MELANCHOLY, ETC. 157 
 
 to engage his time should rejoice, and use them to the 
 utmost to promote his progression. Forget your sor- 
 rows in useful activity. This is the best method to be- 
 gin with in overcoming sorrow ; but be sure, as you 
 work, that your mind does not wander. Under all cir- 
 cumstances, and at all tim.es, the mind should be wholly 
 centered on the work at hand. One should be perfectly 
 conscious of every act of his life, and never allow him- 
 self to do one thing and think another. This is what 
 it means to live in your body. For no reason are you 
 justified in allowing yourself to be entertained by idle 
 thinking, dreaming, or building air castles, seeing vis- 
 ions, or by any kind of fanciful ideas. Neither should 
 you enter any kind of meditation, for any purpose, or 
 allow yourself to float off onto spiritual planes. 
 
 When the times of rest come, one should be still. If 
 the physical requires rest, then be physically as well as 
 mentally still— at no time should the mind be unneces- 
 sarily active. A good practice for times of rest is to sit 
 or lie in perfect physical and mental quiescence, relaxed 
 and still. In this state the whole organism rests and 
 recuperates. The mind should always be quieted before 
 sinking into sleep. There is no way to so naturally and 
 quickly induce sleep as by refusing to think. Persist- 
 ence in this effort until it is accomplished is the cure 
 for insomnia. 
 
 Sinking to sleep with a quiet mind will help to pre- 
 vent dreams. The most refreshing and the only nat- 
 ural sleep is dreamless. Your conscious wakeful state 
 will largely regulate your condition during sleep, A
 
 158 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 quiet, well controlled mind during wakeful hours will 
 insure peaceful slumber. In fact, a mind becalmed by 
 a keenly conscious spirit is the cure for all mental and 
 spiritual ills and many bodily ones. Too much cannot 
 be said to impress the student of this philosophy with 
 the importance of ceasing, at will, to think. 
 
 If desires, habits or passions would hold you, refuse 
 to allow your mind to work as they dictate. Hold it 
 absolutely still. If anger, irritability or criticism as- 
 sert themselves, refuse to think. Keep absolutely still. 
 If fear and anxiety come your way, banish from your 
 mind every suggestion accompanying them. 
 
 Sadness and peevishness must be treated in the same 
 way. Refuse to allow your mind to respond to any er- 
 roneous vibration, and your victory is complete ; your 
 permanent and unalloyed happiness is assured.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXVIII 
 
 PAST AND FUTURE 
 
 TTTHY do the past and future— filled with specters of 
 ^ ' lost joy, opportunities, or wrongs committed, on 
 the one side, and the possibilities of waiting doom, on 
 the other— stand out so prominently in human life? 
 
 By this time the mind of the one who has followed us 
 must make immediate response— because the funda- 
 mentals and methods of man's life are false and 
 artificial. 
 
 Man has in the past rooted his tree of life in such 
 poor soil as to make the blossoms of ttie present defec- 
 tive and the fruit of the future uncertain. When the 
 nature is pure, and thoughts, words and deeds are gov- 
 erned thereby, the roots of the life tree are well nour- 
 ished, the blossoms perfect and the fruit assured. 
 
 Had human nature thus preserved itself, its begin- 
 nings would have been pure, its activities wise, and it.** 
 results wholesome, however varied and manifold in 
 manifestation. With no conditions arising from perver- 
 sions of nature to be regretted or forestalled, man would
 
 160 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 have lived each day, each hour, in peace, with no reason 
 for dragging with him the past, and no necessity for 
 looking into the future. 
 
 Everywhere in nature life forces are given to the 
 present stage of development, with no account taken of 
 the past or the future. When there is no interference 
 the perfection of each phase or step insures the perfec- 
 tion of the whole when completed. Had there been no 
 mistakes made, thus would nature have worked with all 
 life on the globe. Today the earth would have been 
 beautiful with myriad perfected expressions, and over 
 all would have been shining the glory of an exalted hu- 
 man nature, resplendent with the reflected light of 
 Higher Planes. 
 
 Notwithstanding present darkened conditions, the 
 Progressive Life must be centered in the present. Di- 
 viding one's time among the three stages— past, present 
 and future— retards growth. To the one who chooses 
 the natural life the past is immediately lost in the inter- 
 ests of the present. And because the interests of the 
 present are constructive one is indifferent as to the 
 future. 
 
 Depending upon individual willingness and effort, the 
 threads of each darkened life must be picked up and 
 readjusted as nearly as possible in accord with the orig- 
 inal plan. Begin now— do today that which your hand 
 finds to do, and to the best of your ability. Let no feel- 
 ings govern you ; keep keenly sensible ; quiet your mind, 
 and preserve an undisturbed state. Be just as nearly
 
 PAST AND FUTURE 161 
 
 rig-ht, do just as nearly right, each moment, as you can 
 conceive. As this you do, force and strength will be 
 given you to make your best better— thus your growth 
 is assured. This attitude will obviate regret for the 
 past and prevent fear for the future. You do not need 
 to be told that brooding over the past is useless, and 
 only for a few specific reasons should one re-enter it at 
 all. Valuable lessons may sometimes be learned from 
 past experiences. Experience is the lash that falls be- 
 cause of disobedience. In the worldly life, if one gains 
 any wisdom it must be through experience, which is the 
 long, hard way. In the Progressive Life one may be 
 guided past the shoals by the light of the awakened 
 consciousness. Past experiences cannot injure your 
 nature or prevent your growth if you resolve to keep the 
 present clear and pure. If you sanction any error of the 
 past, through your justification you preserve the influ- 
 ence. If any feeling that governed you in the past 
 comes up with the memory of the circumstance that 
 gave rise to the feeling its power is renewed and you 
 are injured by its influence now as then. 
 
 If you retain any feeling or there remains with you any 
 influence on account of past events, it will be necessary 
 for you to call up the past and free yourself from this 
 condition. You must be as careful to denounce all past 
 wrong doing as you are that of the present. When you 
 have thus disconnected yourself, however blotted and 
 stained the pages of your life book, you may close them 
 forever and turn a fresh leaf. You are then held
 
 162 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 accountable not for the misdeeds of the past, but for 
 whatever bhirs the pure whiteness of the page before 
 you. 
 
 Because, at best, one is somewhat involved in worldly 
 conditions, more or less planning and preparation are 
 necessary to insure satisfactory results ; but plans laid 
 before time for action are both useless and apt to mis- 
 carry. When future events depend upon present acts, 
 then plan and carry out present conditions to bring 
 required results. If you are not required to take action 
 in unison with your plan the planning is unnecesary. 
 Do, each moment, what you have to do with an intelli- 
 gent view of future needs. 
 
 There are times when one becomes conscious of coming 
 events. Such premonitions may come either from vari- 
 ous apparent forerunning indications or from the awak- 
 ening of the intelligence to read the subtler forecasts. 
 One is thereby enabled to take action according to the 
 necessities of the case. All these acts are lawful, but, 
 unless for a definite and necessary purpose, one should 
 not peer into the future, nor look forward to any event. 
 Anxiety concerning either the past or the future is never 
 permissible. 
 
 If you carefully guard your present from evils which 
 through your higher development you have power to 
 prevent, you will receive sufficient force and wisdom to 
 master your future when your future comes before you 
 and the time for action is ripe. 
 
 With the foregoing exceptions you are admonished to
 
 PAST AND FUTURE 1G3 
 
 close the door of the past, neither thinking nor talking 
 of it, and to leave the future to be developed from the 
 purity, wisdom and power by which you regulate the 
 present. 
 
 In this way the individual life may become established, 
 flourish, and yield unto fuller and richer expressions of 
 being.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXIX 
 
 SUICIDE 
 
 rpHE two evils which we are now about to discuss 
 are too criminally wrong to be placed under the 
 head of the respectable sins already analyzed, but 
 they do not come sufficiently under general condemna- 
 tion, nor are they fully enough understood, to enable us 
 to pass them by with only the references that we have 
 given to others of their class. These evils are viz.— 
 suicide and adultery. Both are crimes ; but the first is 
 obviously beyond the reach of the penal code, and the 
 other is almost universally excused from it. That there 
 are still extant moral laws limiting both these crimes 
 is true ; but that the influence of said laws is growing 
 visibly weaker is also incontrovertible. 
 
 Because the conditions which lead to suicide are not 
 generally understood and the state after death so little 
 known, and because the pressure that the world brings 
 to bear is often so severe, suicide is not so rigorously 
 denounced as formerly. Regarding the punishment for 
 suicide, as in all cases where nature is defied, one can- 
 not escape the self-inflicted penalty of revolt against 
 her laws. One who severs his own life from the body
 
 SUICIDE 1G5 
 
 as ruthlessly outrages nature as one who kills another. 
 
 It should be self-evident and it is true that the condi- 
 tions arising from contravention of nature do not end 
 vv^ith the dissolution of the body. Hov^ever brutally the 
 world may apply the lash, the real causes of the suffer- 
 ing and desperation that determine a person to take his 
 own life are vested in the nature, and the death of the 
 body does not change the state of the spirit. What- 
 ever colors the nature coheres to the spirit and goes 
 with it. So did one not lose by destroying his body he 
 could not gain thereby. But the loss to a suicide is 
 almost irreparable. The fact that a person has reached 
 the point of self-murder is sufficient evidence that the 
 spirit is submerged in dense darkness. However ex- 
 treme and cruel the circumstances that goad their vic- 
 tim toward this fatal act, such circumstances are the 
 result of a false life. 
 
 One who finds himself thus tempted should remember 
 that life in the body is a blessed opportunity for the de- 
 velopment of the whole being, and whatever the stress 
 or complication of noxious conditions, it is the duty of 
 every individual to learn his lessons and make his en- 
 vironments, and his experiences serve to improve and 
 strengthen his character. Never, in cowardice or des- 
 pair, turn your back upon an evil which attacks you. 
 
 Face it with a will and determination to conquer or 
 endure it to the end. If you can see no way out of a 
 difficulty without sacrificing your character, patient en- 
 durance will beautify your nature and enrich your soul. 
 It will also insure a final end to suffering. An unre-
 
 166 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 lenting determination to bravely and unrepiningly en- 
 dure the thing one cannot help, will calm the mind, 
 soothe the spirit and prepare it to receive the light. 
 Light shining into a life, thus tempered, will guide one 
 to wise action and ultimately lead into paths of peace 
 and gladness. A cowardly act, doing violence to na- 
 ture, will but plunge one more deeply into despair. 
 
 The spirit of one who suicides must necessarily be 
 distorted, benighted and naked. To be naked means 
 that it has squandered its soul, or spirit body. Such a 
 spirit has lost not only the protection of the physical 
 body, but, shocked and bewildered, it goes out denuded 
 of its soul covering, defenceless and quivering with the 
 suffering caused by exposure ; or. if stunned, none the 
 less subject to the nefarious conditions of darkened 
 planes. To a low plane it must gravitate because of 
 both the m.anner of its earth-life and the self-inflicted 
 blow which severed the spirit from the body. The 
 state of a spirit thus submerged is all but hopeless. 
 
 Even as there are restorative influences at work on 
 the earth, trying to reach and save the individual from 
 evil, so there are forces on other planes engaged in 
 restoring darkened and denuded spirits to the normal 
 state. In this fact lies the hope of the spirit which has 
 for any reason allowed itself to be drawn into the cur- 
 rents of retrogression. 
 
 While touching this point of life after death, we wish 
 to say that through self -destructive agencies man has 
 lost his finer senses of perception and subtler faculties 
 which should sufifice to make him cognizant of higher
 
 SUICIDE 167 
 
 planes, and that these rarified sensibilities are just as 
 much a natural part of the human organism as the in- 
 ferior residue he has managed to preserve. Out of this 
 darkened state certain phases of intellectual develop- 
 ment have arisen from which are formulated theories 
 and conclusions to the effect that life ends with the 
 death of the body. That immortality is superstition, 
 that the earth-expression, misshapen, corrupted, tem- 
 porary farcical, tragic and hideous as it has become, when 
 viewed in all its aspects, is the beginning and end of 
 human life, marks the ultimatum to which the intellect 
 has been able to arrive during all the ages of artificial 
 development. 
 
 If intellectual acquirement did not preclude a pure 
 intelligence, and if theories and conclusions, resulting 
 from m.ental accum.ulations, did not end in confusion 
 and darkness, all who are seeking the light would see 
 that the dissolution of the body does not mean death, 
 but a change from one plane to another. There is 
 really but one death, and that is the sinking of the 
 spirit into evil states in which it loses its indentity for 
 varying periods of time. The length of time during 
 which it is thus enshrouded depends upon the degree 
 of its submergence and upon the influences that can be 
 brought to bear for its restoration. The death of the 
 body is but the severing of the outer covering, which 
 belongs to this— the physical — plane. In the case of 
 the normal individual, when this takes place, the soul 
 or spirit body, mind and spirit are readjusted to new 
 conditions on higher planes.
 
 168 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 We are not attempting to prove these statements, 
 but none the less dare to make them. We further de- 
 clare that the time shall surely come when no person 
 will dispute the immortality of the spirit of man. This 
 day will come because facts pertaining to the continuity 
 of individual life will be irrefutably demonstrated. 
 Even as many heretofore hidden forces are now not 
 only proven to exist but are being practically utilized, 
 so these facts will become apparent through many ave- 
 nues and in many ways. Through scientific research 
 many truths have been twisted, many facts covered, 
 and many hidden realities partially revealed. Science 
 may find a way to a fact or set of circumstances that 
 will unquestionably point to immortality. Even should 
 this be so, by whatever artificial methods man may 
 stumble onto hidden treasures, they can be accurately 
 and fully revealed only to those who live the life that 
 unites the spirit with the wealth of nature. One who 
 fulfills the requirements of the Progressive Life will 
 know the purpose of this and its eternal continuity.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXX 
 
 ADULTERY 
 
 TDECAUSE of the ignorance of their own natures and 
 -'-^ the hold that desires, throuj?h indulgence, have 
 gained over the people of the world, the moral law that 
 restricts adultery has become more of a pretense than 
 a reality. 
 
 Of all evils, adultery is for many reasons the most far- 
 reaching, the most deadly, the most justified, and there- 
 fore, deserving of the greatest condemnation. We do 
 not speak of this evil merely in its more limited sense, 
 which confines it to the disregard of the sacredness of 
 the marriage relationship. We apply the word adultery 
 to the degradation of the creative principle in deed, word 
 and thought. 
 
 As has been indicated in a previous lesson, whenever 
 the creative force is set in motion for any purpose other 
 than that of producing offspring, even though sanctioned 
 by temporal law, the creative principle has been dese- 
 crated. With this position there is no possible compro- 
 mise for one who wishes to rise. So long as there is in 
 the mind a thought, or in the nature a vibration that
 
 170 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 conflicts with the law of chastity, the individual is pol- 
 luted and darkened thereby. 
 
 That the defiling of the creative principle is protected 
 and justified by both the written and moral code is one 
 of the strongest reasons why it is so universally and 
 deadly destructive. Another reason is that the men of 
 the world are under practically no moral obligation 
 which restricts them from unlimited debauchery of this, 
 —life's holiest instinct. That there should exist, either 
 in theory or practice, any different application of the 
 moral law to women than to men, is but a subterfuge 
 through which free scope is given to the indulgence of 
 the lowest phases of lust and licentiousness that blacken 
 human nature. Neither the acts nor the natures of 
 men and women should differ in any of the essential 
 qualifications of a sweet, pure and beautiful life. For 
 all hum.an beings there is one moral code ; one standard 
 of perfection— none are excused. 
 
 Adultery is so insidious in its nature and its ramifica- 
 tions are so extended that its destructiveness cannot be 
 overestimated ; nor can one tithe of its vitiating influence 
 or resulting depravity be here shown or described. Suf- 
 fice to say : it has spread its blackened pall over the 
 human race ; it insinuates its presence into the most sa- 
 cred places ; it tarnishes youth and debases old age. 
 Leaving its traces upon every generation, breathing 
 its fetted breath into almost every soul, it strangles 
 progression and corrupts and degrades human life. 
 
 Nature's mightiest force for the rebuilding of human- 
 ity to magnificent proportions has been perverted into the
 
 ADULTERY 171 
 
 strongest agency for its destruction. The principle that 
 was by nature intended to operate to promote the hu- 
 man race from its beginnings of childlike purity and 
 simplicity to a state second only to the angels of heaven, 
 has through its violation served to aid its descent into a 
 condition second only to the benighted spirits of the 
 planes of darkness.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXI 
 
 SUMMARY REMARKS 
 
 TTTE have now touched on all the types of human 
 ^ ' weaknesses that are most prevalent, at the same 
 time most justified in the human mind, and, with all, the 
 least understood. We have chosen to give more detailed 
 analysis to the milder forms of evil, and to those phases 
 that assume to be something better than that which 
 actually exists in the real nature of the evil defined. 
 For example : ambition versus aspiration ; self-import- 
 ance versus self-respect ; criticism versus analysis ; con- 
 tention versus argument ; and gratification of desires 
 versus the wealth of nature. All of these, and others, 
 have been particularized sufficiently to show the false 
 from the true, and to enable one— who sees the wisdom 
 of so doing— to rid his nature of that which is erroneous, 
 and to thereby make room and opportunity for the high- 
 er attributes to grow. 
 
 We have not specifically dealt with the grossest or the 
 most extreme forms of evil, such as malice, thievery, 
 robbery, murder, and other crimes and horrors, into 
 which such large portions of the race have sunken. For 
 several reasons it would not serve our purpose to do so. ,
 
 SUMMARY REMARKS 173 
 
 Firstly, there is no object in analysing an evil that is 
 already understood, condemned and limited by either 
 written or unwritten law. 
 
 Secondly, much time, energy and money are being 
 spent toward checking, controlling and overcoming these 
 lowest elements. Work is progressing in this direction 
 as well as it can under existing conditions. As people 
 engaged in reform work themselves grow to a higher 
 standard, they will receive more light, act with greater 
 wisdom and increase their power to accomplish their 
 purposes. 
 
 Thirdly, it must follow that he who weeds from his 
 nature the lesser errors will be incapable of entertain- 
 ing or committing any flagrant form of evil. 
 
 Fourthly, we are especially appealing to the individual 
 who is weary of present conditions, who is seeking 
 something better, who is willing to exchange old meth- 
 ods for new and who is capable of rising to a high stand- 
 ard. Among this class of spirits there may be those 
 who have become deeply involved in evil, but any indi- 
 vidual who sinks below worldly standards sins in the 
 more atrocious ways, not because he does not know 
 better, but because he has allowed his desires and pas- 
 sions to carry him to extremes, and he ultimately reaches 
 the point where shame is gone and conscience dead- 
 ened. The spirit that cries out of this darkness needs 
 no analysis of the excesses he has known. He needs 
 to be aroused to action and helped to free himself from 
 habits and obsessing passions. He needs also to be 
 shown that the errors that are tolerated in respectable
 
 174 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 society, corrupt the nature, and always precede the 
 lowest states. 
 
 We now draw the curtain on the delineation of the 
 evils which are combining to destroy mankind, and 
 pass to pleasanter scenes — the attributes of the natural 
 man, and the results, endowments and possibilities of a 
 pure life.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXII 
 
 ASPIRATION 
 
 TNTER WOVEN throughout these instructions are re- 
 -"- peated references to the light from Higher Planes 
 and the Powers which operate through nature. It 
 forms no part of our present purpose, nor does this 
 work in any way call for either proof of nor any at- 
 tempt to describe the Higher Powers, from whom 
 earth's people receive guidance and protection. 
 
 That such Powers exist ; what they are and how they 
 operate, can only be known to those who fulfil the re- 
 quirements for awakening to such comprehension. We 
 will say, however, that if there had been no restraining 
 hand at the helm, the human race, long ere this, would 
 have been self-destroyed. Even as all forms of life 
 upon the earth are dependent upon the sun, and even 
 as they would perish without its light, so it is true that 
 if the earth were wholly disconnected from the Planes 
 of Light to which it is subject, humanity would perish 
 in its own darkness. Had man never gone astray, all 
 his activities would have been under the full light of 
 Higher Powers. With the development of the evils in
 
 176 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 human nature, an atmosphere more and more dense 
 has been created, through which it is difficult for the 
 hght to penetrate. 
 
 The reason that the human race has not sunken to 
 the depths of its own evils and to destruction, is be- 
 cause the light has never been quite obscured and be- 
 cause, at times, great rifts have been in the darkness 
 by the great souls who have been born to keep the con- 
 nection. These messengers have left behind them cer- 
 tain precepts so vital and poignant, that, despite all the 
 twisting and veiling to which they have been subject, 
 they have retained their influence for the betterment of 
 human nature 
 
 Because of the light that man has received from 
 the Higher Planes, he has gained all his abihty and 
 power. One important fact must here be considered. 
 By the light all forms of life are set in motion and 
 grow irrespective of their qualifications. While under 
 the influence of light, nature, uninterfered with becomes 
 more beautiful; all her distortions and malformations 
 also gain vitality and power. So, as the ages have 
 passed and man has received light, he has gained power 
 to promote both good and evil. Good has been aug- 
 mented and evil licensed, and side by side both have 
 grown to greater proportions. 
 
 As human intelligence has awakened, it has been 
 diverted to the accumulation of knowledge and the 
 manipulation of conditions to serve selfish ends. 
 Repeatedly has this process reached its climax and 
 destruction has followed. It must always come in nat-
 
 ASPIRATION 177 
 
 ural sequence, that whenever evil elements grow un- 
 checked they will predominate — when they prevail 
 they will control and ultimately destroy. 
 
 The question to be answered by the individual is— 
 which side has the ascendency in his life, good or evil? 
 
 Is your life satisfactory? 
 
 Are you embodying in your own nature your ideals of 
 a noble character? Have the methods you have hereto- 
 fore pursued led you to this end, or brought you happy 
 results? If you must answer "no" to these questiors 
 and you find your life centered far below your aspira- 
 tions, then do not fear to make changes, however radi- 
 cal, which are necessary to the fulfillment of your ideals. 
 
 Are your thoughts, words and deeds governed by that 
 which is purest and best in your nature, or do you re- 
 peatedly descend below your own level? That which 
 you are at your highest point is the real standard of your 
 character. At this place through all external changes 
 you should rem.ain. When you have subjected your 
 whole nature to the best there is in it, and have learned 
 to maintain the standard you sometimes touch, you have 
 taken your first step. The second step is to lift your 
 whole character to equal your ideals. What you aspire 
 to be you can attain, so far as the development of your 
 spiritual organism is concerned. Care must be taken 
 not to confuse aspiration with desire. Aspiration points 
 to the exaltation resulting from the purification of tl:e 
 spirit, and not to conditions or endowments which may 
 follow. 
 
 Your ideals should be vested in the higher attributes.
 
 178 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 and should not extend to your activities or your envi- 
 ronment. What you will do, how you will act, or how 
 you will be placed when you have risen, is not your 
 present business. Possible or probable results should 
 not engage your attention. We refer you to the instruc- 
 tion on duty. Do that which is necessary under exist- 
 ing circumstances, and to the best of your ability. Main- 
 tain a contented spirit, an undisturbed mind, and a keen 
 sensibility. Let your primal object be to grow, with all 
 your aspirations and ideals centered in an unwavering 
 effort toward that end. Be always calm, sweet, serene, 
 alive and wide-aivake, contented and hajjpy. 
 
 When your mind has been clarified from its theories, 
 opinions and ideas; when your nature has been freed 
 from desires, selfishness and other errors, sufficiently 
 for the light from Higher Planes to illuminate your con- 
 sciousness, those things which heretofore have seemed 
 valuable and necessary to you will no longer attract you. 
 As you progress, people, places, things and conditions 
 will become less and less important to your happiness. 
 Then, as always, you will perform the duties that belong 
 to the time, place and conditions at hand, and have no 
 concern as to the manner of them. 
 
 When you are v/orking to advance your life to equal 
 your ideals be careful that your ideals do not settle at 
 any point below the standard of a perfected nature. 
 Each form of life tends toward the state of perfection 
 possible to its kind; or, through contravention, growth 
 is arrested, and the trend is immediately changed tow- 
 ard degeneration. It is just the same with your own
 
 ASPIRATION 179 
 
 development — you must either progreSvS to the apex of 
 human excellence, or, from any point at which you check 
 growth, you will retrograde. 
 
 Again we are brought to note the third movement 
 to which humanity is particularly prone. This move- 
 ment does not contradict the fact that life must tend to 
 progress or retrograde, but is caused by the successive 
 repetition of both tendencies which sends life round in 
 a circle. The whole history of human life is marked by 
 the repeated rising and falling, progression and retro- 
 gression of nations, institutions and individuals. If 
 conditions of human life were correctly read it would 
 be seen that this circular movement is continuous, with 
 portions of humanity always ascending and descending. 
 There are, on earth today, fallen nations which were 
 once strong and powerful. There are other nations that 
 are scarcely more than beginning their ascent. There 
 are others that are about to touch, or have just touched 
 their zenith. There are others struggling in the clutches 
 of decay. 
 
 So far, no nation of the past or present has risen be- 
 yond the point where the destructive forces culminate 
 and send it on the dov/nward path. This is so because 
 the same deadly agencies are always allowed to work 
 unchecked, and, finally gaining the mastery, the same 
 results follow. There ever has been, and is now, the 
 bitter conflict between good and evil, and so the fight 
 must continue until human nature is sufliciently purified 
 to gain the ascendancy over evil and force it into subjec- 
 tion. This cannot be done with humanity as a whole ;
 
 180 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 it has gone too far. It must be accomplished with indi- 
 viduals who are not too deeply submerged to heed the 
 call. 
 
 Each one who so lives that his life shall be illuminated 
 from the Planes of Light will become a center through 
 whom the forces and influences of restoration may- 
 operate to conquer evil. 
 
 One who has purified his nature may be compared to 
 a dynamo which generates a subtle but powerful force. 
 Under the guidance of wisdom such a force may set into 
 operation vast mechanisms for the production of many 
 form.s of good over which no evil shall ultimately pre- 
 vail. In this way the work of restoring such portions 
 of the human race as can be reached may be powerfully 
 reinforced by every individual who fulfills the require- 
 ments for progression.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXIII 
 
 HOPE 
 
 /^NE of the strongrest factors for good in human life is 
 ^^ the invincible spirit of hope. Through all the long 
 ages of suffering and repeated desolations, hope has 
 burned undimmed in the midst of the darkness. That 
 there is something better than has yet been known is 
 an idea that dominates the largest part of the human 
 race and spurs it to repeated activity in the face of 
 manifold disappointments and failures. 
 
 Notwithstanding that hope is a most salutary influence 
 and that it can be used when every other tendril that 
 holds the individual in touch with his true nature has 
 been broken, we must recognize the fact that it has en- 
 tered human nature as a counteracting influence to the 
 destructive errors that have darkened it. Had man- 
 kind developed naturally under the never failing guid- 
 ance of Higher Planes there would have been no occa- 
 sion in his life for hope. The nature of hope is to pre- 
 suppose the possibility of evil which may be averted. 
 Such a conception could not have entered the human 
 consciousness if the laws of nature had never been 
 broken. Human life would have developed as the flow-
 
 182 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 er unfolds. In it no evil could have intruded, and there 
 would have been no need to hope for better things. 
 
 Throughout the complications there has descended 
 from one age to another something that resembles a 
 memory of the state when all of life's operations were 
 with a view to the ennobling of the individual and the 
 furthering of his welfare. This memory is what is 
 known as hope. 
 
 Hope is largely centered in many things that have 
 only temporal value, and even in the gratification of 
 desires and selfishness, still its nature, especially in 
 reference to its persistency, lends to humanity a buoy- 
 ancy which greatly aids to keep it from sinking into 
 greater darkness and despair. 
 
 So long as the individual lives on the plane of desire, 
 hope must survive the dissatisfaction resulting from 
 repeated disappointment and failure, or from satiation 
 through gratification, until the spirit is led, step by 
 step, to see that the ultimatum of all hope lies in purity, 
 simplicity and obedience to nature. 
 
 The natural qualification is faith, or an abiding trust 
 that all is well because governed and protected by 
 Superlative Powers which fail not. In the beginning 
 man knew the Powers that governed and protected his 
 life. He knew the laws of nature and their unfailing 
 results. So long as he was simple and obedient, all his 
 activities were in accord with a perfect confidence that 
 his life was governed to promote his highest well-being. 
 As by his own indiscretions he began to be shadowed, 
 and as the shadows grew denser, the light that was still
 
 HOPE 183 
 
 able to penetrate the errors asserting themselves in his 
 nature, took on the coloring of his increasing impurities, 
 and his operations and their results became correspond- 
 ingly mixed. In this state was bom the opposites, — 
 good and evil— and the long conflict began. One of 
 the first costs paid by erring humanity was the sweet, 
 peace-preserving faith in the happy fruition of life and 
 its activities. 
 
 The quality that is claimed and felt by many people, 
 called faith in God, is an abstract idea based on widely 
 divergent theories which have been accumulated as the 
 race has passed through the different stages of intellec- 
 tual development. If faith is not born of a clear under- 
 standing of unvarying and irrefutable truths, it neces- 
 sarily degenerates into a pretense or counterfeit emo- 
 tion with no other foundation than shifting beliefs. 
 
 In regard to temporal affairs, under certain circum- 
 stances man has retained something of the unmixed 
 quality of faith, while he has lost it as applied to his 
 highest well-being. Faith, as applied to people or 
 agencies that have been tested and found trustworthy, 
 inasmuch as it is based on knowledge, partakes of the 
 natural attribute. 
 
 Humanity should so live that the faith arising from 
 proven fidelity or verity could extend to life as a whole 
 and all its operations and results. Under existing cir- 
 cumstances this is impossible, but, because of hope, 
 individuals may accomplish much. 
 
 Were it not for the survival of hope, in many in- 
 stances, by the time the individual had suffered enough
 
 184 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 to make him willing and obedient to the laws that oper- 
 ate for his good, there would remain no incentive for 
 effort. In fact, hope is the motive power of all effort. 
 It is the attribute which, remaining as the shadow of a 
 memory of a lost state, becomes the stepping-stone to 
 the awakening of the spirit. Out of the awakening 
 shall inevitably grow an abiding faith in the Powers 
 which operate through nature to bless the pure life and 
 lead along the path of unbroken progression to higher 
 and higher states of nobility and happiness.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXIV 
 
 PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE 
 
 n^HE spiritual attitude necessary to the aspirant in 
 the life of progression is one of keen sensibility and 
 enduring, unwavering, calm, sweetness, contentment 
 and happiness. Only when the spirit is peaceful, pure, 
 satisfied and glad can it awaken to the higher states of 
 consciousness, and the growth of the whole organism 
 be assured. In order that growth shall be perpetual 
 this attitude must be maintained without reference to 
 circumstances or conditions. In the midst of surround- 
 ing inharmony the progressive spirit must preserve its 
 calm. Though fraught with trial, it must still be sweet. 
 Though faced with deprivation, it must be content. 
 Though surrounded by sorrow, it must be happy. 
 
 The world is full of densest sin, and life is teeming 
 with misery. None who live on the earth can wholly 
 escape its nefarious conditions. The only way to wade 
 through its mire without sinking therein or being per- 
 manently sullied is by responding only when duty calls, 
 and by preventing the interests from centering at any 
 point that is not directed toward the higher life. Even 
 when this is done, to navigate these stormy waters with
 
 186 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 any degree of safety one must ^ard the attitude com- 
 prised of calm, sweetness, contentment and happiness, 
 and a consciousness that is alive and awake— sls is pro- 
 tected the rarest jewel. 
 
 A nature that has become disinterested in worldly 
 considerations ; that vibrates only in response to duty ; 
 that is alive and awake to necessities ; that is serene 
 and peaceful under any pressure ; that is sweet, satis- 
 fied and happy in any environment, presents an invul- 
 nerable front to evil, behind which the individual is 
 lifted into a state that is always illumined by stream- 
 ers of light from Higher Planes. Thus surrounded, one 
 may operate and be blessed even on this benighted 
 globe. 
 
 The weaknesses in your own nature you have power 
 to conquer, but the evils of the world are beyond your 
 jurisdiction, save where, by self purification, your light 
 may shine to help others less awake to see the right 
 path. But the progressive spirit, in helping others, must 
 exercise great care that, by so doing, his own light is 
 not dimmed. In the strength of his untouched attitude 
 lies his protection. 
 
 The relation that patience and endurance hold to 
 the Life of Progression may thus be seen. Without 
 untiring patience and unending endurance you will fal- 
 ter on the way. With the aid of these inestimable at- 
 tributes you may forge through all obstructions that 
 would debar development to higher states. 
 
 When considering the necessity of exercising patience 
 and its stronger complement, endurance, one is apt to
 
 PATIENCE AND ENDURANCE 187 
 
 contemplate the greater obstacles and to forget the 
 trivial annoyances which beset the daily life. Stum- 
 bling over petty offences by allowing them to repeatedly 
 stir the mind into little bubbles of irritation does as 
 much to undermine the nature as the failure to sur- 
 mount greater errors. Through continuous failure to 
 patiently endure little disturbances, life forces are scat- 
 tered and the whole physical, mental and spiritual or- 
 ganism is depleted. In this way one becomes totally 
 unfitted to cope with severer trials, and for such trials 
 one should always be prepared. If the disposition be 
 carefully watched and the lesser discrepancies eradica- 
 ted, force and power will, day by day, be added with 
 which to meet and rise superior to any emergency. 
 
 Whatever the necessities of your life, and whatever 
 your tribulations, small or great, remember that un- 
 wavering patience, and endurance unto the end, of ne- 
 cessity will fortify the character with increased strength 
 toward the final mastery of earth conditions.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXV 
 
 FORBEARANCE AND FORGIVENESS 
 
 PATIENCE and endurance find their counterpart in 
 forbearance and forgiveness, the latter attributes 
 differing only with reference to their special application 
 to individuals. Forbearance and forgiveness are included 
 in patience and endurance. If one has learned the for- 
 mer lesson he must have learned the latter also. If one 
 is patient and enduring, his forbearance with the weak- 
 nesses of others is already established, and forgiveness 
 of wrongs committed follows in natural sequence. En- 
 durance is patience indefinitely extended, and forbear- 
 ance holds the same relation to forgiveness. Forgive- 
 ness and forbearance are both phases of endurance, and 
 all are possible because of patience. 
 
 Some of the higher attributes belong primarily to the 
 spirit, and some have been introduced as helpers toward 
 its extrication. A calm, undisturbed willingness to 
 await coming events in their right time and place is the 
 quality of patience that originally characterized human 
 nature. The necessity of extending patience to grope 
 with growing evils gave rise to the qualifications of 
 endurance, forgiveness and forbearance.
 
 FORBEARANCE AND FORGIVENESS 189 
 
 Because of the complexity of human errors, all laws 
 created for the disentanglement of the individual must 
 operate subject to modifications adjusted to varying 
 conditions. Such laws and their modifications may be 
 properly termed intermediary agencies, or means to an 
 end. Their office, in some instances, is to form a con- 
 nection between the natural state and the darkened 
 condition of involved human nature. They also indicate 
 the correct attitude for the progressive spirit to assume 
 toward evils over which he has no control beyond the 
 point where he is obliged to personally contact them. 
 The relation of hope and faith, and the relation existing 
 between patience and the three outgrowing attributes, 
 —endurance, forgiveness and forbearance — form exam- 
 ples of these interposing agencies. 
 
 The nature must be capable of the attributes of pa- 
 tience, endurance, forbearance and forgiveness to an 
 unlimited degree ; but this does not mean that endur- 
 ance and forbearance are to be used without wisdom or 
 discrimination. Both these attributes should be wisely 
 modified to apply to the circumstances of the hour in 
 such a way as to promote the highest well-being of all 
 concerned. 
 
 To be enduring does not mean to allow imposition. 
 Endurance must be modified by the law of non-interfer- 
 ence. (See Instruction XX. ) You should never endure 
 unnecessary trespassing on your territory, and your 
 territory embraces your spiritual, mental and physical 
 organisms and the environment of each. Repel intru- 
 sion, but in repelling never lose your patience. Calm,
 
 190 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 sweet, serene, contented and happy, alive and wide- 
 awake is the unalterable attitude whatever the exigen- 
 cies of the occasion, and whatever action is necessary 
 to cope with them. 
 
 While patience has no justifiable limit, no evil that 
 can be cured without cost to the higher nature should 
 ever be endured. When you are so conditioned that 
 endurance becomes necessary, we must again remind 
 you to be sure that it serves to strengthen character. 
 
 Forbearance should never be carried to the point of 
 indulgence. If, through the exercise of forbearance, 
 you find you are fostering an indulgent nature, forbear- 
 ance should give place to whatever action duty de- 
 mands. Duty should be governed according to circum- 
 stances, and under the guidance of wisdom which al- 
 ways operates for the highest good of all concerned. So 
 long as evil natures endure, so long as the individual 
 is caught bound and subjected to habits and passions 
 which enthrall him and rob him of his self-possession, 
 forgiveness must repeat itself. Whenever the nature 
 is penitent it must be given another opportunity. 
 Uniorgiveness can never be vindicated whether the 
 wrong doer is penitent or not. Unforgiveness is born 
 of a deep sense of injury, which is usually brooded over 
 and always excused in the mind of the one thus indulg- 
 ing. It is a sort of solace for self-pity, and has no 
 place in the Progressive Life. One who has risen never 
 allows the wrong doing of others to influence his nature 
 in the least degree. You have nothing to do with 
 any evil directed toward you, other than to protect
 
 FORBEARANCE AND FORGIVENESS 191 
 
 yourself to the best of your ability and in whatever way 
 the occasion demands, and to preserve your attitude 
 from being disturbed. However often one asks your 
 forgiveness, it must be granted— in fact, make no rec- 
 ord of wrong doing in reference to personal feeling. 
 Forgive and forget the offences of others. 
 
 Through inharmonious conditions or tribulations ; 
 through sunshine or shadow ; through the right or 
 wrong doing of others ; through justice or injustice ; 
 through fair weather or storms ; through sickness, 
 through suffering, through death, keep your nature 
 calm, sweet, serene, fully conscious, contented and happy.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXVI 
 
 GENEROSITY, CHARITY AND GOOD-WILL 
 
 npHE generosity of nature expresses itself in every de- 
 -^ partment of life, and is limited only where man has 
 stifled it by his selfishness. The fruitfulness of the 
 earth is unbounded in its variety and abundance. Of 
 every kind there is ample for the sustenance of all forms 
 of life. For every demand that nature makes, she 
 yields a corresponding supply. Had the human race 
 remained true to itself want would have been unknown. 
 
 Through man's selfishness, as through no other 
 agency, the founts of nature have been dammed and 
 their flow diverted from the fulfilment of universal need 
 to the gratification of individual desires. Notwithstand- 
 ing the operation of selfishness, in corralling nature to 
 gratify desire, so prolific is nature in its bounty that even 
 desires might be fulfilled and normal needs still fed did 
 selfishness not lose itself in greed and the gorging of 
 greed not run into madness. 
 
 The thing that makes angels weep for hum.anity is 
 that its errors have grown to such gigantic proportions 
 that they stand like hideous monsters seeking whom 
 they may devour. All those who are suflSciently awake 
 to realize the awful truth of this statement cannot too
 
 GENEROSITY, CHARITY AND GOOD-WILL 193 
 
 quickly check from their natures all phases of evil 
 which hold them on the plane where these destructive 
 forces operate. 
 
 When we speak of the plane of the destructive forces 
 we do not refer to the earth or material plane, as has 
 been heretofore described. Belonging to the earth there 
 are many grades or states of development, and each 
 grade is governed by certain forces, subject to which 
 all on that plane must operate. The standard of your 
 nature marks the plane to which you belong. Ambi- 
 tion, selfishness, desire, or any of their phases or off- 
 shoots, hold you on the plane where operate the vilest 
 passions of human life, and you are subservient to the 
 forces that govern them. These forces operate to de- 
 stroy. Destruction is their only purpose; their only ac- 
 tivity; their only culmination. The less guilty and the 
 more guilty alike are caught in the maelstrom and car- 
 ried on the breast of this resistless tide. 
 
 We are not speaking figuratively, but of the most real 
 and most familiar state on earth today. Nearly all of the 
 human family are operating on this plane, and even a 
 child need but look about him to see that destruction is 
 being wrought on every side. The earth, or physical 
 plane, because of man's degradation, has become almost 
 wholly subject to this low plane and its destructive ele- 
 ments. For this reason the physical cannot be wholly 
 ifnmune from its influence, even when occupied by a 
 spirit that has risen. Beyond using all possible means 
 to insure physical health and protection, let the purpose 
 of life be to lift the nature to a state superior to the
 
 194 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 operations of the destructive forces. The body may not 
 always escape, but the soul and spirit may safely func- 
 tion beyond the reach of evil. Furthermore, when the 
 nature is pure, and the spirit awakens to the conscious- 
 ness of the Planes of Light, many ways may be seen and 
 used to help and protect the body, which to a darkened 
 spirit could not be revealed. 
 
 While the original human nature was characterized by 
 the same generous spirit that nature in all directions, 
 manifests, there is a far greater need today to exercise 
 generosity, charity and good-will than at any time when 
 selfishness and good-will were less extreme. The 
 greater greed grows, and the more menacing malice 
 becomes, the more demand there is for the operation of 
 the opposing attributes on behalf of their victims. 
 
 Whatever can be done should be done both indi\ddu- 
 ally and collectively to relieve human suffering— except 
 when such help is used to more deeply involve the spirit 
 in sin and darkness. With few exceptions suffering is 
 the only thing that will awaken the spirit to its mis- 
 takes, or make it willing to correct them. The people 
 of the world are so hypnotized through their indulgence 
 that, though brutal blows fall thick and fast, they still 
 continue in their delusion, and account for their condi- 
 tion in every way save the one which points to their 
 personal responsibility and hence leads to their libera- 
 tion. All sorts of remedies are resorted to to bolster 
 up a defective nature. Various phases of religion and 
 philosophy are promulgated which promise solace or
 
 GENEROSITY, CHARITY AND GOOD-WILL 195 
 
 release, but, when they are examined, it is seen they 
 all soften precepts by justifying indulgence. 
 
 The truest and most far-reaching generosity is that 
 which helps one to help himself. The only effectual 
 help that can be given humanity is that which comes as 
 a result of ennobling life. If the individual would con- 
 quer his destructive nature, his possibilities for becom- 
 ing able, and living a beautiful and happy life are 
 almost unlimited. When one has been taught and giv- 
 en ample opportunity to build his character to the re- 
 quired standard, and he refuses, it is then neither wise 
 nor right that the life forces and time of those who have 
 risen be given to his temporal aid at the expense of his 
 higher development. The more comfortable is an in- 
 dulgent life, the more will the individual vindicate his 
 state, and thereby sink deeper and deeper under delu- 
 sion and degradation. It is not generous to allay the 
 suffering that comes because of the persistency in an 
 indulgent life. 
 
 The charities that go on among the people of the 
 world— though they never reach the cause, scarcely touch 
 the need, and at best afford but temporary relief —should 
 not be discouraged, because they do a little to alleviate 
 extreme conditions that would otherwise be hopeless. 
 The spark of generosity is also in this way fanned and 
 kept from wholly succumbing to the cold breath of 
 greed. 
 
 The spirit of generosity should be cultivated, and, 
 wherever possible, its activity and expression should be 
 encouraged. It is the antidote for the selfishness that
 
 196 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 is devouring the human race. The progressive spirit 
 must be generous, not only in the greater things, but in 
 the Httle affairs of the daily life. Do not hesitate to 
 give your time, your ability and your substance, when- 
 ever you are able, and wherever it will be a help and a 
 blessing to others. Giving to others, serving others, 
 blessing others will enlarge and enrich your own nature, 
 and this spirit is absolutely essential to progression. 
 Be generous, as well as just, in all your feelings, in all 
 your acts and associations. When selfishness is weighed 
 in the balance with a liberal thought, word or deed, 
 always let generosity tip the scale. This means to view 
 all things from all sides— to be comprehensive and to 
 withhold judgment. It means no criticism, no con- 
 dem. nation, and kindliness toward all. It means no 
 petty, trivial considerations, desires and offences. It 
 means breadth and depth of character— an ennobled 
 individuality. 
 
 While evil is deserving of condemnation, it must 
 arouse no disturbance in one's own nature, nor ill will 
 toward either the individual or humanity at large. 
 Universal good-will should imbue and permeate all hu- 
 m_an nature, and the one who wishes to progress must 
 take great care to cultivate this feeling tow^ard all 
 forms of life. 
 
 As selfishness is overcome, and one rises above petty, 
 personal interests, good-will spontaneously springs up 
 in the nature and becomes a fixed attribute. 
 
 Generosity, charity and good-will act on the charac- 
 ter as sunlight, moisture and fresh air on the plant, 
 helping it to unfold and to blossom.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXVII 
 
 MEEKNESS, SUBMISSIVENESS AND OBEDIENCE 
 
 TF there is one attribute more valuable than another 
 -*- to the promotion of the higher well-being it is 
 meekness of spirit. 
 
 Because humility is so necessary to natural growth it 
 receives little respect from the world. That which 
 is valued by the world must foster the artificial, not the 
 natural. 
 
 The nature that does not hesitate to condescend to 
 the least is the greatest. One who performs the lowest 
 service faithfully fits himself for greater and still 
 greater responsibilities. There is no stumbling block 
 so fatal to growth as self-importance. 
 
 One who is proud is not trustworthy, and the arro- 
 gant must be brought low ere progression can begin. 
 
 Meekness is especially valuable because it leads the 
 spirit to be submissive to helpfulness. Without sub- 
 missiveness and obedience the darkened spirit cannot 
 rise out of its gloom. One who is educated by the 
 world finds obedience a most difficult lesson to learn. 
 One who lives close to nature through obedience receives 
 the greatest blessings. Through obedience the indi-
 
 198 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 vidual becomes valuable both to his fellow men and to 
 the Planes of Light. 
 
 Through meekness, submissiveness and obedience one 
 becomes an active agent for good. Whatever your posi- 
 tion in life, be humble, submissive and obedient to 
 authority. Make necessary ser\'ice an opportunity to 
 gain ability. 
 
 While the world does not respect or em.ulate the qual- 
 ity of meekness, when viewed in the abstract, he who 
 adds ability to humility will be sought to serve in the 
 best places. 
 
 If you have placed yourself under the instruction of 
 a teacher for any purpose, and especially for guidance 
 from a lower plane of life to a higher, obedience to 
 principles and methods pursued is absolutely necessary. 
 If you are not humble enough to accept help, and sub- 
 missive enough to obey commands, you have not reached 
 the point where growth may even begin, and the only 
 teacher whose time you will not waste is the lash of 
 the world. 
 
 That humility may do its perfect work you must be 
 alive and awake to right, and on the alert to see where 
 duty calls. Meekness must not serve as an excuse to 
 do wrong, nor submissiveness as an opportunity through 
 which one may be led into an erroneous condition. 
 
 If one is active on the physical plane, keeping the 
 mind and spirit centered in the body, fully conscious on 
 all three planes, alert to detect any influence from the 
 lower planes, making clear divisions between right
 
 MEEKNESS, SUBMISSIVENESS, ETC. 199 
 
 and wrong, humility, indispensible to growth, will also 
 do much to brighten the path to higher states. 
 
 Meekness and obedience assist you, not only in the per- 
 formance of duties in the world, and to receive the best 
 helpfulness from a teacher, but in the degree that your 
 nature incorporates these attributes and you faithfully 
 apply them in the lesser things, you will become trust- 
 worthy. Other requisite qualifications being fulfilled, 
 you will then stand prepared to receive light, strength 
 and wisdom from Higher Planes. You may thus be 
 taught higher lessons ; guided to better things ; pro- 
 tected from evil ; blessed with fuller happiness ; endow- 
 ed with abilities and equipped to serve in the mighty 
 army of restoration.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXVIII 
 
 LOVE 
 
 f\P all the attributes preserved in human nature the 
 ^-^ quality of Love is most misrepresented and least 
 understood. When one learns that love can become 
 active only in a spirit that is pure, and that it is not 
 co-operative with the errors of an artificial nature, one 
 may understand to what extent it has been counterfeited. 
 
 Love is the dynamic principle of life itself— the inte- 
 rior element of the creative principle and the central 
 fire of the spirit. 
 
 Had human nature remained true enough to itself to 
 have permitted the development and free activity of this 
 mighty force, all humanity would have been vitalized 
 and glorified by its influence, and nowhere would it have 
 been lacking. The golden rule w^ould have been a natu- 
 ral function of human life, and peace and happiness and 
 good-will would have breathed in every soul. 
 
 As desires and selfishness colored the nature, and 
 their long train of evils crow^ded in, the fires of love 
 were smothered, and only a spark has remained to cast 
 its faint glow through the darkness. The divinest prin- 
 ciple of both earth and heaven has been trailed through 
 the mire of the lowest passions that debauch the human 
 race.
 
 LOVE 201 
 
 Notwithstanding all the evils that have surrounded 
 and stifled human love, its fires have never been wholly 
 quenched in the spirit of man. For this reason, dis- 
 satisfied natures delude themselves by grasping coun- 
 terfeit emotions to fill the void felt by the spirit 
 whose love nature is not dead, but submerged. That 
 love has never been quite lost to the spirit has preserved 
 man from utter desolation. By its remaining warmth 
 hope has lived— hope which leads to light and faith. 
 
 With rare exceptions, pure love is not known on the 
 earth today. The feelings, emotions and attachments 
 masquerading as love are but effects of the contact of 
 like elements drawn together by the force of the law of 
 attraction. 
 
 The laws of nature repeat themselves on every plane. 
 The differences arise from the modifying circumstances 
 of the plane on which they operate, and from the adjust- 
 ment of the laws to their various connections. The law 
 of attraction, recognized throughout the physical plane, 
 known by many names, such as gravitation, cohesion, 
 chemical affinity, capillary attraction, magnetism, etc., 
 extends itself to all forms of life, not excluding the hu- 
 man family. When perfectly operating among individ- 
 uals—though not generally acknowledged— the law of 
 attraction is none the less properly named the law of 
 spiritual aflfinity. 
 
 When there is a preponderance of elements in one 
 object over the same kind of elements in another object 
 —if the objects are placed in juxtaposition, and provid- 
 ing the other elements of which the objects are com-
 
 202 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 posed are so arranged as not to interfere — the law of 
 attraction operates to unite like elements, and the 
 objects are drawn together. When this occurs because 
 of the excess of quantity and force of the elements in 
 each object over the same kind of elements in the other, 
 opposites are said to attract. This is justified only by 
 appearances — the attraction is between elements of a 
 like nature. 
 
 If this law and its application is understood, the shift- 
 ings and inconsistencies of what is known as human 
 love will all be explained. Not only is the human being 
 subject to this law, but it operates on all three planes 
 of his organism, the physical, mental and spiritual. In- 
 dividuals may be drawn together through the physical 
 alone, through the mental alone, or only through the 
 spiritual. Various combinations among the three may 
 also be formed through which people are attracted, 
 
 When union takes place through only the senses or 
 physical organism the vilest passions of perverted nature 
 counterfeit love, and are soon expended in satiated 
 desire. From this state, under the pressure of the 
 accompanying passions of anger, jealousy and hatred,, 
 it is an easy step to tragedy and crime. 
 
 Unions formed through mental attraction, or attrac- 
 tion of minds of like character, are less destructive ; but 
 such contact does not awaken love. It gives rise to an 
 attachment born only of the gratification of blended 
 intellectual tastes and qualifications. No union can be 
 blessed with pure love that is influenced by either sen- 
 sual or intellectual gratification. Indulgence of desires
 
 LOVE 203 
 
 on any plane is a contravention of natural law and must 
 result detrimentally. Those who are attracted through 
 their spiritual natures do not necessarily love. They 
 may be kindred spirits on a low plane, but love cannot 
 live in other than a pure atmosphere. Whether the 
 emotion felt by like spirits is pure love or not depends 
 upon their standard. 
 
 Individuals may be united through the harmonious 
 blending of the physical, mental and spiritual natures, 
 and even then know nothing higher than a set of emo- 
 tions generated through the contact of like elements. 
 
 By these exam.ples one may readily see how the law 
 of attraction, operating under various superficial influ- 
 ences and associations, may draw together all kinds of 
 people. Many combinations are thus formed which by 
 their veiy nature must be inharmonious, inconsistent 
 and temporary. 
 
 Not only are the emotions between the sexes usually 
 nothing more exalted than chemical affinity or magnet- 
 ism on another plane, but the attachm.ents between 
 parents and their children, and among all sorts of 
 earthly relationships where love is said to exist, are for 
 the most part formed of far baser metal than the gold 
 of pure love. Almost all parental love, which is con- 
 sidered the highest type of earthly love, is selfish and 
 binding to the child, while filial love is equally selfish 
 and exacting. When criticism, condemnation, selfish- 
 ness and general inharmony characterize family life, 
 the attachments are little more than fleshly ties. 
 
 If desire, jealousy or any form of selfishness sur-
 
 204 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 rounds or colors the feelings called love, know that they 
 mark an attachment of a much lower order. If one 
 grieves for the loss of a loved one his love is selfish. 
 
 When there is a bond between two people, and a 
 necessary separation ensues, grief on the part of either 
 one darkens and blinds both. When death comes, sor- 
 rowing relatives and friends hold the spirit earth-bound 
 and in the condition of suffering and darkness that 
 belongs to this plane. Love is absolutely unselfish, and 
 never binds its object. If one's love is pure, one will 
 release the selfish ties that bind, and give his loved one,, 
 whether on the earth or having passed beyond, freedom 
 to go and come in response to duty or in pursuit of his 
 higher well being, or to advance as nature guides. 
 
 The nature of love is to give and to bless, as the sun 
 gives its light and the flowers their perfume, and it 
 does not demand or require anything in return. When 
 this test is applied to the various emotions of human 
 nature called love it becomes apparent that we have not 
 been too severe in our analysis. 
 
 Because of the manifold activities of the law of 
 attraction on planes other than the highest, the pro- 
 gressive spirit must protect himself froni its influence. 
 One who is developing should neither attract nor be 
 attracted. This is another way of saying — do not allow 
 your interests to become involved. Keep your self- 
 interest free, care-free and desire-free. As you live 
 close within nature's requirements, doing duty and 
 increasing ability, that which belongs to you, small or 
 great, will tend to gravitate toward you unless interfered
 
 LOVE 205 
 
 with. In the case of an intervening- influence apply the 
 law of non-interference— demand what is right, and 
 clear your territory from intrusion. 
 
 As the spirit conquers its weaknesses, meets the 
 requirements for progression and returns to its pure 
 nature, love, fanned by the breath of purity, awakens 
 and flames into being-. The life that is lived in accord 
 with the whole law, and which embodies all the other 
 attributes, fruits in love ; love is the fruition of the 
 purified nature. When individuals, who have thus 
 risen, come together and their pure elements contact 
 through the law of spiritual affinity, love becomes 
 active, and, true to its nature, radiates of itself and 
 blesses whom.soever it touches. 
 
 Pure love responds only to the union of spirits that 
 are characterized by the higher attributes, and their 
 capabilities of pure love are measured by the degree in 
 which the lower elements have been misplaced by the 
 nobler qualifications. Inharmony results from a con- 
 flict of elements governed by selfish, crude and uncon- 
 trolled natures. When individuals unite through the 
 blending of spirits that are unselfish, self-possessed and 
 pure, the mental and physical organisms are subjected 
 and harmonized. 
 
 The enmities, the inharmonies, the abnormal condi- 
 tions, expressing themselves in the bodies, in the minds 
 and in the natures of the members of many families, 
 are largely due to inherited ills from parents, who have 
 united through the misapplication of the law of attrac- 
 tion. The law of spiritual affinity, uninterfered with.
 
 206 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 will operate to attract individuals whose united elements 
 will promote the highest well-being of both parents and 
 offspring. The sexes should never unite except under 
 the perfect working of this law, and with the object of 
 producing and promoting higher types of life. 
 
 We wish to impress the mind with the fact that the 
 law of spiritual affinity cannot have its perfect way 
 until individuals have lifted their natures from the 
 plane of selfishness and desire, and the spiritual natures 
 have become pure enough and vital enough to govern 
 the whole organism and overcome attraction on any 
 other plane. 
 
 When individuals unite under the perfect working of 
 this law, love seals the union with a bond that endures 
 not only during earth life but through eternity.
 
 INSTRUCTION XXXIX 
 
 SYMPATHY 
 
 SYMPATHY, used in the sense of sorrowing with 
 others, is not permissible in the Progressive Life. 
 It may be exercised in appreciation of another's suffer- 
 ing, but should be used only in conjunction with help- 
 ful ministration. One's sympathies should never be 
 enlisted to the point of disturbing one's own equilibrium. 
 When sympathy disturbs it weakens, and that which 
 weakens tends to destroy. Through weeping with or 
 for another you increase his suffering and unfit your- 
 self for helpfulness. Remember that no circumstance 
 justifies a disturbed attitude. Be always calm, sweet, 
 serene, alive and tvi de-awake, contented and happy. 
 
 Sympathy, in its higher sense, is a subtle faculty 
 through which one readily comprehends and appreci- 
 ates the finer, higher sensibilities of others, and through 
 which one's own are in turn comprehended and appre- 
 ciated. It is the invariable accompaniment of pure 
 love, and lends a sweetness and joy to human relation- 
 ships paralleled by no other qualification.
 
 INSTRUCTION XL 
 
 KINDNESS 
 
 T7' INDNESS, operating under the light of love, and 
 -^^ guided by wisdom, may take many forms. That 
 quality which acts according to individual caprice, 
 independent of either love or wisdom, is not kindness, 
 but a mere imitation which often does more harm than 
 good. Only one who is obedient to the Planes of Light 
 can always know how to be truly kind. To gratify an 
 indulgent nature is not kind. That which aids the spirit 
 to rise above desire, or rid itself of weaknesses, is truly 
 benevolent. 
 
 The idea, so currently expounded, that love leads the 
 way to a higher life, and that, to right and purity, love 
 will open the doors even of a nature which has closed 
 them by the densest forms of evil, is only one of the 
 fallacies that divert the minds of the people into wrong 
 channels and keep them revohdng in their unconquered 
 errors. Love is never the harbinger of the law, but 
 follows in its wake. It is true that every teacher or 
 reformer should have risen to the plane of love. It is 
 also true that kindness, governed by wisdom, should be 
 the motive power. Wisdom, however, may demand the
 
 KINDNESS 209 
 
 greatest severity in the handling- of an evil nature, and 
 the only kind method is the one that effectually conquers 
 the evil and leaves the individual free. Methods may 
 sometimes be mild and gentle, and still be effectual, but 
 there are occasions when necessity demands drastic 
 measures. Whether gentle or loving methods will lead 
 the spirit forward, or not, depends upon the extent of 
 its involvement and its subm.issiveness and obedience to 
 guidance. Where right and justice are submerged, 
 kindness will not avail, and love may stand and beat in 
 vain at the door of a nature that is governed by selfish- 
 ness. Under such conditions the sword must be used, 
 and love is not the sword, but the motive power behind 
 it, and the balm that heals the wound. Whatever resists 
 the law of right will smother love, and one who tries to 
 use love's methods indiscriminately, in evil conditions, 
 will find himself like a child beating flames with a toy. 
 To be kind is first to be just, and demand justice — to 
 do right, and demand right in return. To be kind is to 
 be merciful, charitable and generous, whenever occasion 
 permits without cost to the higher nature. To be kind 
 is to bless where such blessings enrich the soul and lead 
 the spirit toward the light. Let all who would grow be 
 kind in nature, in consciousness, in speech, in acts, 
 as opportunity permits, as love prompts and wisdom 
 guides.
 
 INSTRUCTION XLI 
 
 TENDERNESS 
 
 rpENDERNESS is the touch of angels on Planes of 
 Light. It is too frail, too delicate, too divine to 
 fully blossom in a shadowed world. For this reason, of 
 all the attributes, it is least expressed. Through mother 
 love it is best preserved, and where love is purest it is 
 most manifest. That which is sweetest, purest and 
 most guileless calls into play the tender nature. 
 
 In the place where purified natures shall unfold and 
 find fruition in pure love, there, under the light of 
 Higher Planes, will the founts of tenderness be uncov- 
 ered, and flow to bless and enrich the lives of all. 
 Awakened spirits shall thus unite in true companionship 
 and common service for the restoration of mankind.
 
 INSTRUCTION XLII 
 
 ABILITY 
 
 A GREAT spirit is an able one. 
 -^^ Ability to cope with and handle the conditions of 
 all the planes with which the spirit comes in contact is 
 absolutely necessary to the development of an exalted 
 individuality. 
 
 For present purposes we shall confine ourselves to the 
 discussion of this subject in its relation to the earth 
 plane. It should be borne in mind that the earth or 
 material plane includes the physical, mental and spir- 
 itual organisms and their relations. One's capabilities 
 should extend over the whole territory. 
 
 Natural growth means an equalized development of 
 the whole human organism and versatility of action 
 within the confines of the laws that limit it. 
 
 The value of useful activity is paramount. No one 
 has any excuse for spending his time in any other way. 
 Idle, purposeless passing of time is destructive and 
 criminal. It is destructive because idleness means 
 stagnation. Stagnation is contrary to nature and 
 insures degeneracy. One who lives an idle life is irre-
 
 212 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 sistbly drawn into the current of destructive forces, 
 and his nature is thereby prepared for all sorts of 
 fungus accretions in the shape of habits and passions. 
 
 No proverb extant is truer or more worthy of regard 
 than the familiar saying "The devil finds work for idle 
 hands." If you wish to avoid being a prey to the evil 
 forces and influences always circulating throughout the 
 world look to it that your days are usefully employed. 
 That idleness is self destructive— spirit, mind and body 
 —is almost too apparent to need comment, yet in cer- 
 tain walks of life this most reprehensible, inexcusable 
 state represents the acme of ambition. A spirit that 
 has no incentive in useful action becom.es dulled, insen- 
 sible, darkened, A miind that is not purposefully 
 employed by a keenly conscious spirit becomes delusive, 
 stupid or erratic, just as surely as an inactive body 
 becomes sluggish in its vital processes, and all these 
 conditions mean daily death. The less active a person 
 is the more difficult does exertion become, and degener- 
 ation into a lazy, slothful, lethargic state is an easy 
 step. Such a state is more resistant to the light from 
 Higher Planes than the stone walls of a cavern to the 
 light of day. 
 
 To say that the idle are criminal is not an exaggera- 
 ted expression. Whenever a good thing is carried to an 
 extreme it operates detrimentally. Work is absolutely 
 essential to physical health and strength, to mental 
 vigor and a beautiful nature ; but overwork— work that 
 becomes a strain on any part of the organism— neces- 
 sarily retards growth and becomes destructive. Each
 
 ABILITY 213 
 
 person who lives an idle life does so at the expense of 
 someone else— he causes someone else to overwork. 
 Even under the most normal conditions there would be 
 justly proportioned useful employment for all, and as 
 the world now stands there is more than enough neces- 
 sary work— when physical, mental and spiritual needs 
 are considered— to keep all beneficially occupied. It 
 follows then that the idleness of each one, thus indulg- 
 ing-, not only forces another to do a double amount of 
 labor, but into excesses which are varied and indefinite, 
 according to modifying circumstances. The workers of 
 the world must do, not only the necessary work of the 
 drones, but all that is attendant upon the gratification 
 of inordinately indulgent lives. The life forces of the 
 one who is thus forced into overwork are unavoidably 
 consumed faster than he can gather them. ; his whole 
 organism is depleted and destruction is imminent. In 
 view of these facts, it must become apparent to any fair 
 minded person, that idleness can be placed under no 
 milder head than crime. 
 
 If one lives and operates in conformity with nature's 
 regulations, as one develops the ability of the physical 
 organism, the intelligence is enlarged, and valuable, 
 accurate knowledge increased. The spiritual nature 
 will also be correspondingly beautified. Naturally ac- 
 quired ability is the key note of well-rounded individu- 
 ality. To naturally gain ability means to use the senses 
 to aid one in doing whatever comes to hand. All kinds 
 of necessary work are worth while, and one kind is just 
 as good as another. You should have no choice of
 
 214 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 work, but be governed entirely by duty, or what 
 seems best and right under existing circumstances. 
 What kind of work you do is not important, but your 
 attitude toward it and the way you do it cannot be over- 
 estimated. However or wherever you are employed, do 
 your work to the best of your ability, and if your abil- 
 ity is not equal to the best requisite standard of efficiency, 
 lose no time or effort in becoming fully able to cope with 
 the situation. Let your attitude be " I am able ; " to that 
 attitude add energy and strict attention, and you will 
 accomplish much in leveling difficulties. 
 
 Perfection on any plane should be your goal, and all 
 your activities should converge to that end. Not only 
 should fundamentals and correct methods be observed 
 in carrying forth any work to completion, but finish 
 must also be given its due place. Finish is just as 
 important as any other part of the operation. Comple- 
 tion means finish ; and no work, however well begun, is 
 completed unless it has the finish which belongs to its 
 peculiar construction. 
 
 The precious stone, however symetrical its cutting 
 and shaping, would be dull and uninteresting were it 
 not for the polish that brings out its color and brilliancy. 
 
 The fine lines of finish given by the sculptor's hand 
 impart life and expression to his statue. 
 
 The Hghts and shades on the mountain enhance its 
 rugged beauty, and the bloom on the rosy cheeked 
 peach completes its perfection. 
 
 Gentle manners, thoughtful actions and kindly ex- 
 pressions give finish to a noble character.
 
 ABILITY 215 
 
 The practice of carefully finishing all kinds of work, 
 simple or complex, will help to develop qualities indis- 
 pensible to your own nature. Finishing touches, where- 
 €ver applied, mean intelligent attention, carefulness 
 and accuracy. In order for these qualities to become 
 active, the spirit must be centered in the body, alive 
 and awake and self possessed. In the degree that your 
 work engages your attention will it be well done, will 
 your abilities grow, and will you receive general benefit. 
 Dislike toward your work should never be permitted. 
 It engenders irritability, annoyance and discontent ; 
 thereby setting up disturbing mental vibrations and 
 scattering life forces. Whatever the nature of your 
 employment, make it assist to develop ability along that 
 particular line. Do not waste your valuable time and 
 forces in rebelling against anything which you find 
 necessary to do. Much fatigue attendant upon labor 
 comxes not because of physical activity, but because the 
 life forces are w^asted through scattering thoughts and 
 feelings while the body is mechanically occupied. 
 
 The spirit and the mind are inseparable. As the mind 
 becomes irritated, discontented, or for any reason wan- 
 ders away from the body, the spirit is thus withdrawn. 
 When the spirit— the vital protective center about which 
 the life forces concentrate — is more or less absent, the 
 body's attractive power is lessened and its \dtality de- 
 pleted. Dissatisfied, disgruntled, irritable and absent- 
 minded people are almost sure to have mediocre ability, 
 and they unavoidably squander strength and vitality. 
 Those who are centered in the body, alive and aivake.
 
 216 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 calm, sweet, serene, contented and happy, through all 
 their activities, increase their ability, vitality and endur- 
 ance. There is no way by which the body may be 
 strengthened, the senses quickened, the intelligence 
 awakened and the spirit illumined, so well as by a cor- 
 rect attitude and the united action of body and mind. 
 The special business of the progressive spirit is to do 
 useful work here on the earth, in the body, through the 
 senses and faculties, which should always assist the 
 mind. The mind, under the conscious control of the 
 spirit, should direct the whole operation. 
 
 Abihty on any plane and under any circumstances is 
 an inseparable, augmenting and resulting factor of pro- 
 gression. It is doubly indispensible to one who is plod- 
 ding through the difficulties of earth's present state. 
 The only way to meet an obstacle is as an opportunity 
 for increasing ability through overcoming the obstacle. 
 
 V/hen light is used to blind the higher perceptions 
 and to promote darkness, when intelligence is sacrificed 
 to intellectual accumulations, and ability is dedicated to 
 greed and sensuality ; when light, knowledge and power 
 are transfigured into shrewdness, cunning and trickery, 
 the honest, just and right-abiding indi\adual must in- 
 crease his skill to cope with the situation. This means 
 that he must reach a point where ability plus honesty, 
 plus uprightness, plus purity of purpose can successfully 
 compete with ability plus selfishness, plus craftiness, 
 plus dishonesty. 
 
 What the respective footings of these problems shall 
 be— which shall ultimately prove its superior strength
 
 ABILITY 217 
 
 and power— remains to be demonstrated as the g-reat 
 fight between good and evil proceeds, and it depends 
 upon how many awaken and enlist with the forces of 
 light marshaled on the one side, against the forces of 
 darkness, manifold, but disorganized, on the other. 
 
 Health and strength of body, keen intelligence, accu- 
 rate knowledge, broad comprehension, force and purity 
 of character in active co-operation, constitute the re- 
 quirements of one who hopes to conquer in defiance of 
 all obstructions. 
 
 Whether the outlook, individually or collectively, au- 
 gurs defeat or promises victory, ABILITY is the slogan 
 of all those who unite in the mighty cause of progression.
 
 INSTRUCTION XLIII 
 nature's beneficence to the self-possessed 
 
 T1[7E deem it a fitting close to our analysis of the 
 requirements and attributes of progression to 
 bring before the mind of the reader a sort of summary 
 of the endowments and possibilities of the natural life 
 under the beneficent operation of the laws that make 
 for man's highest well-being. 
 
 We have shown how nature promotes progression of 
 the human life, or, contravened, tends to destroy. We 
 have in more or less detail pointed to the kindly provi- 
 dence of nature's laws, but we shall herewith recapitu- 
 late, in order that we may so accentuate this all-import- 
 ant fact as to prevent any possibility of its being over- 
 looked. 
 
 Because man has strayed so far from the heart of 
 nature, and lost his way amid the briars and brambles 
 of artificiality, he looks about him and says there is no 
 beneficent principle operating in nature ; or he concludes 
 the ways of the Governing Intelligence are beyond the 
 discernment of the finite mind. Thus he reconciles 
 himself to evil.
 
 nature's beneficence 219 
 
 The only reason that the beneficence of nature is hid- 
 den from view is because the spirit is too enveloped in 
 theories, ideas, prejudices and speculations, and too 
 darkened by desires, selfishness, passions and habits to 
 see. With rare exceptions the individual is self hypno- 
 tized, and blighted by the smoke of his own errors, and 
 through their clouds the light cannot penetrate. 
 
 With senses dulled by indulgence, cognitive power 
 befogged by misconceptions, and spirit deadened by the 
 narcotic influence of the many errors with which it has 
 become identified, man presumes to judge of heaven, 
 earth and hell— of nature, God and man, and their rela- 
 tionships. As a result is presented a conglomerate, 
 confused and chaotic mixture of what is known as 
 religion, philosophy, science, materialism, atheism, 
 agnosticism, pessimism, optimism, and states of a 
 happy-go-lucky-absence-of-all, with thousands of shades 
 and variations of each— no two agreeing, all conflicting, 
 and each claiming to be the best. All seeking power, 
 all justifying some forms of indulgence, and all tending 
 to keep humanity revolving in a whirlpool of contradic- 
 tions which daze it, delude it, rob it of its life forces, 
 weaken it physically, mentally and spiritually, and 
 insure its ultimate degeneracy. 
 
 We would not be understood to say that man has 
 arrived at no truth through these various avenues. All 
 contain indisputable facts. Surrounding these facts, 
 however, often coloring and twisting them into innumer- 
 able shapes, and many times torturing them past all 
 recognition, are all kinds of errors. Some are less
 
 220 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 destructive, some more destructive, and many pernicious 
 and deadly in their operations and results. 
 
 It is the truth underlying theories of any kind that 
 attracts the best minds. Not knowing the false from 
 the true, the individual is unable to segregate, and 
 usually accepts or rejects the whole mixture. 
 
 Are we, through these instructions, advancing another 
 theory through which to still further confuse the 
 human mind? On the contrary, we are referring you 
 to incontrovertible laws of nature, their operation and 
 results. We are showing you that if you let nature 
 have its perfect way, your mind will be absolutely 
 denuded of theories, prejudices, conclusions, ideas, 
 speculations and idle thoughts ; that you will entertain 
 and be influenced by nothing that you do not know ; and 
 that such knowledge must come through your senses, 
 your faculties or your perceptive powers. Is this 
 theory? We are reminding you that your senses are 
 for use, not abuse, and that use increases power. We 
 are also reminding you that even as the body becomes 
 weakened by constant action, the mind also needs rest. 
 Is this not common sense? We have shown you that 
 whatever governs you against your better judgment 
 robs you of self control. This is self evident. We 
 have accentuated the fact that a pure, noble, natural, 
 useful life is the happiest one. This is one of the facts 
 that has endured through the ages and that no amount 
 of corruption has been able to obliterate. 
 
 We have touched on the existence of the Heavenly 
 Powers. This is an eternal truth, well known and fully
 
 nature's beneficence 221 
 
 demonstrated to those who have so Hved as to under- 
 stand the law through which these Powers operate. If 
 the existence of the Planes of Light is a theory to you 
 it proves that your mind is too clouded to let the light 
 through, and if you wish to become conscious, we 
 advise you to clarify your mind according to prescribed 
 methods. 
 
 The principles and methods herein delineated are not 
 only demonstrated facts which are today being prac- 
 tised, but they are, by their very nature, self-evident 
 and irrefutable. 
 
 Let us once more glance at nature's laws in their 
 application to man's physical organism. That all forms 
 of life are composed of life forces or elements concreted 
 through the ever present law of attraction, and that the 
 physical body is no exception to the rule, no one will 
 question. That every part of the organism depends for 
 vitality upon these life forces attracted and incorpor- 
 ated by the body, is also authentic. That there is a 
 central ego or a spirit in man, draped with and depend- 
 ent upon these same life elements, and that these ele- 
 ments form the soul, are facts the denial of which no 
 man can substantiate. That the spirit not only exists 
 but is immortal, is a question that will not down. 
 Though the spirit and its immortality has many times 
 been buried under manifold theories and conclusions, it 
 persistently resurrects itself. Not only through religion 
 and philosophy is the spirit revived, but the scientific 
 mind is constantly searching its annals of reason and 
 experiment for positive proof or disproof of this ques-
 
 222 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 tion— a question which ever remains the most vital and 
 interesting of any before the human mind. 
 
 In order to prepare the miind to understand how the 
 physical body was originally included under nature's 
 providence we wish to call your attention to the follow- 
 ing facts : Though the body has lost its pliability or 
 pure reflective quality in its crudeness, still it is e\adent 
 that the status of the mental and spiritual organisms 
 does influence the physical to a considerable degree. 
 That fear, surprise, or shock sends the blood pulsating 
 through the veins to the head, or checks its flow, causing 
 one to pale or flush, the heart to pulse rapidly or seem 
 to stop, is a fact within every person's experience. 
 That mental depression or agitation affects digestion 
 and assimilation is also generally recognized. Various 
 experiments are, from tim.e to time, being made which 
 show that anger, hatred, irritability, etc. , actually poison 
 the blood, and that there is a close connection between 
 the conditions of the body and the nature of the indi\id- 
 ual. It necessarily follows that all weaknesses, habits 
 and passions, inasmuch as they disturb equilibrium and 
 scatter life forces, tend to destroy health. 
 
 These facts point to the law of nature that would 
 have rendered physical diseases and weaknesses impos- 
 sible. Originally the body of man was not different 
 from, but a part of, the soul — life forces held together 
 by the force of attraction under the control of the spirit. 
 Even as we may understand that life elements are light, 
 pliable and reflective, so we may comprehend the body 
 of the natural individual. Had man not lost his state,
 
 nature's beneficence 223 
 
 and introduced crude elements through defiling- his 
 nature, the body would have surrounded, protected and 
 served the spirit, and it v^ould have been strong, vital, 
 responsive, and as free from disease as the spirit was 
 pure. 
 
 Through the long process of inheriting crude elements 
 the body has become the fixed and dense organism we 
 now know, subject also, by inheritance and the force of 
 its environment, to weakness, disease and death. The 
 fact that the body still partakes of its original nature 
 accounts for its being influenced by the spirit and its 
 activities. In view of the fact that a spirit, purified, 
 strong and obedient to law, will do much to restore a 
 depleted physical organism and preserve health, it 
 should also be remembered that the atmosphere of the 
 world is dense and darkened, and at best one is subject 
 to a great complexity of destructive conditions. As the 
 spirit refines the physical refines also and becomes more 
 and more sensitive to conflicting elements. In this state 
 its protection lies in a rigid application of the law. 
 This means that the spirit must keep within its own 
 territory— refusing to attract or be attracted ; strictly 
 minding its own business ; taking no interest save where 
 duty calls ; never allowing interest or sympathy to carry 
 it to the point of disturbance ; preserving at all times a 
 keenly sensible, calm, sweet, serene, contented and happy 
 attitude. If this is done the individual may build about 
 him from his own pure elements an armor of protection. 
 So long as he does not break this armor, through somp
 
 224 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 indiscretion which scatters his Hfe forces, he may safely 
 function even on darkened planes. 
 
 There are diseases which come entirely from physical 
 causes. In such cases the troubles should be treated on 
 that plane, and the best possible physical remedies used 
 and conditions observed to heal the patient. There are 
 also bodily sicknesses that have their origin on the 
 mental and spiritual planes— the mental being always 
 subject to the phyoiea -l. When this is so the diagnosis 
 should be from the spiritual standpoint, and the cause 
 found and removed. 
 
 There are healing agencies on all three planes. Even 
 as it is true that means and methods of healing on the 
 physical plane should be applied by those who have 
 knowledge and experience, so the forces of the subtler 
 planes should be clearly understood ere they are tam- 
 pered with. Much harm and destruction is today being 
 wrought through the indiscriminate manipulation of 
 finer forces by people who know nothing of their real 
 nature or operation. Every plane has its own specific 
 forces. When one grasps any force or set of forces of 
 which he has gleaned a slight consciousness, and in his 
 ignorance applies them, without reference to law and 
 order, to any and every plane on which he wishes to 
 operate, he naturally gets mixed results. More than 
 this, such results are ultimately fatal to the body, delud- 
 ing to the mind, and most injurious to the spirit. 
 
 Whenever one individual, silently operating through 
 the mental or spiritual organism, influences another
 
 nature's beneficence 225 
 
 sufficiently to get any response or result, however much 
 the appearance may be for good, both have been greatly 
 harmed. The extent of the harm done depends some- 
 what upon the spiritual states of the individuals, and 
 upon their environment, but under no circumstances can 
 injurious results be avoided. When individuals enter 
 this sort of a relationship through the rapport of their 
 finer organisms, there necessarily ensues a mixture of 
 elements — which is both unnatural and destructive. 
 Each individual should live and grow surrounded by his 
 own elements or soul, and the importance of preserving 
 the soul sacred from intrusion cannot be overestimated. 
 When one directs toward another a suggestion which 
 takes effect, or when one assumes a spiritual attitude 
 forceful enough to affect the subject, and receives a 
 response therefrom, one has made a rent in his own 
 soul, and has sent his life forces quivering into space. 
 Some of these forces penetrate the soul of the victim 
 toward whom they are directed, and in turn make an 
 opening in his sacred garment and scatter his life forces. 
 In this way the spirits of both are exposed. Whatever 
 disturbs and scatters life forces leaves the spirit open to 
 all the mixed evils and destructive elements with which 
 the earth atmosphere is constantly teeming. When the 
 soul is intruded upon, as above described, it directly 
 partakes of the impure elements of its environment, 
 and of the intruder, however good his intentions 
 may be. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand that the developing 
 embryo should be undisturbed in its protective chamber.
 
 226 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 and that its seclusion is absolutely necessary, and above 
 all sacred — but the individual, deluded by little knowl- 
 edge, forces his elements into other souls regardless of 
 the fact that the spirit depends upon the undisturbed 
 soul elements for life, light, sustenance and growth, and 
 that such intrusion leaves the spirit ruthlessly exposed 
 and unprotected. 
 
 There are remedial agencies on all planes, and through 
 the manipulation of finer forces these agencies are some- 
 times set to work, and certain sicknesses of the body 
 may be cured. There are many ways of curing diseases 
 which it will not serve the purpose of this set of instruc- 
 tions to enter into, but we wish to repeat that whenever 
 the above methods are used, whatever the effects on 
 the body, they are at best temporary and always at the 
 tremendous cost of the soul and spiritual welfare. One 
 who would progress must keep himself free from all 
 such interferences. 
 
 As to the health of the body, let nature work, so far 
 as possible, through fresh air, sunshine, useful activity, 
 suitable clothing and pure, nourishing food. Take such 
 physical remedies as the occasion demands. Above all 
 things keep the spirit at home in the body, and preserve 
 the attitude— a^-ive, and wide-awake, calm, sweet, serene, 
 contented and happy. As you learn to conserve your 
 life forces you will find that your strength, vitality and 
 health will be improved and preserved. 
 
 We now come to the mental organism and its natural 
 gifts. It will hardly be necessary to make more than a 
 passing reference to the fact that humanity is flounder-
 
 nature's beneficence 227 
 
 ing in ignorance of many vital truths, and that many 
 people are in a state of constant research, inquisitiveness 
 and experimentation. It was not nature's intent to 
 withhold from her children her now unfathomed depths. 
 This is demonstrated by the fact that one who has even 
 in a degree purified his nature receives light by which 
 he comprehends laws that lead to the unveiling of fur- 
 ther truths. As one developes naturally, his intelligence 
 becomes more and more comprehensive until he clearly 
 sees and knows all the facts necessary to preserve and 
 bless his present state, and all that lead to Higher 
 Planes and to their attendant revelations. 
 
 Not only is nature provident of man's highest well- 
 being on the physical and mental planes, but every 
 higher attribute of the spirit it is her purpose to exalt 
 to its highest point and express in its fulness through- 
 out the natures and lives of all. Peace, harmony, sat- 
 isfaction, contentment, intelligence, wisdom, compre- 
 hension, faith, strength, power, force, love, sympathy, 
 kindness, tenderness and happiness are embodied in 
 pure nature, and by nature developed and promoted to 
 the utmost of their possibilities. 
 
 So unnatural has human life become that hardly more 
 than a sham, or memory of these characteristics, is now 
 expressed— even in the places where they are most 
 claimed. The peace, harmony, satisfaction and content- 
 ment known to the world arise largely from the tem- 
 porary adjustment of conditions to suit ambition and 
 gratify desire. They take wings when conditions refuse 
 or cease to conform, and are therefore but little more
 
 228 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 than the artificial counterparts of the deep and enduring- 
 qualifications of the natural man. 
 
 Intelligence, wisdom, and comprehension are, for the 
 most part, counterfeited by acquired knowledge and 
 versatility of brain power, which utterly fail to protect 
 man from his suffering, to guide him into light, to teach 
 him the vital and sustaining facts of nature and to bring 
 him happiness. 
 
 Because man guesses at so much, and actually knows 
 so little, thus having such a poor foundation for its exer- 
 cise, he has little faith. 
 
 Strength, power and force man plays with, today, as a 
 child with dangerous weapons — tomorrow they hurl him 
 prostrate at their feet. 
 
 A world that holds the golden rule as an impracticable 
 and impossible ideal can scarcely claim to have kissed 
 the hems of the garments worn by love, kindness, sym- 
 pathy and tenderness, and the happiness the world 
 knows, for the most part, is but temporary exhileration. 
 Had man not distorted nature from her very roots, and 
 bent her branches into channels crooked and foul, these 
 qualities would have fully blossomed on the tree of life 
 and fruited for its exaltation. 
 
 A tree that is diseased and bears no fruit is by nature 
 cursed. If the higher attributes and qualifications, in 
 all their purest and divinest aspects, are the natural 
 fruits of the natural life, then is the artificial life, which 
 characterizes the world, a barren tree diseased and 
 cursed. Is a selfish, desirous, sensual, licentious, indul- 
 gent, curious, critical, condemnatory, irritable, angry.
 
 nature's beneficence 229 
 
 revengeful, jealous, envious, contentious, suspicious, 
 lazy, peevish, melancholy, reckless, destructive, and 
 with all, a proud and self-important human nature not 
 diseased? Are sickness, deformity, delusion, ignorance, 
 imbecility, madness, crime, poverty, sorrow and death 
 not accursed products of a diseased state? Is it not 
 true that nearly every human being, however respect- 
 able, moral, religious or philosophic, is guilty of not one 
 but many of the weaknesses of perverted nature, to say 
 nothing of the masses that are so submerged as to be a 
 constant menace to society? 
 
 We are not painting the picture too dark. No mature 
 mind can but admit that the wickedness of the world 
 beggars all possible description, and the goodness of the 
 world falls far below the standard of a human nature in 
 which there are no passions, no habits, no prejudices, no 
 falsities, no conceptions, no petty, nor impure emotions, 
 no indulgence, no fears, no sorrowing and no weak- 
 nesses. 
 
 We do not wish to be understood to imply that there is 
 no good left in human nature. No, life is full of hope; and 
 our sole purpose is to awaken the individual to his tre- 
 mendous possibilities. 
 
 The spirit of man sleeps. The mighty powers of Higher 
 Planes combine with those of earth to awaken humanity 
 —a humanity for the progression of which all nature's 
 laws co-operate : — a humanity whose capabilities are 
 almost infinite. Loved and cherished by the Planes of 
 Light, there is no sacrifice too great which shall serve 
 toward the final restoration of the human race. In
 
 230 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 pursuance of this purpose, the work of the mighty forces 
 thus engaged shall find expression in many ways and in 
 many places. 
 
 There are many beautiful characters scattered over 
 the earth who are making an earnest effort to live 
 according to the highest precepts, and who are doing 
 noble and effectual service for the betterment of human 
 life. There are still others who, through their suffer- 
 ings and awakenings, are being rapidly prepared to 
 enter and to live the pure life. They are by nature 
 great, and capable of the highest. To all such may 
 the message of this book go speedily forth. May their 
 needs be fully met, and may they be guided into the full 
 light which shines on the path of progression.
 
 INSTRUCTION XLIV 
 
 ' RESUME 
 
 T^HE fundamental laws of nature are the law of 
 equilibrium and the law of attraction. 
 
 All the rules of action embodied in this philosophy are 
 tributary or subordinate to and in accord with these two 
 great underlying laws. 
 
 The laws of equilibrium and attraction are applicable 
 on the physical, mental and spiritual planes. On each 
 plane, under each law, there are subordinate and tribu- 
 tary laws. 
 
 Under the law of equilibrium on the physical plane 
 are mechanical forces— static. 
 
 On the mental plane are mental forces— quiescent. 
 
 On the spiritual plane is the spirit— calm, still. 
 
 Under the head of the law of attraction on the 
 physical plane are gravity, cohesion, adhesion, chem- 
 ical affinity, magnetism, etc. 
 
 On the mental plane are agreement, harmony of con- 
 sciousness, concord of thought. 
 
 On the spiritual plane are affinity— love. 
 
 The most potent attractive force of nature on any
 
 232 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 plane is light. To the attractive power of light all 
 growth on any plane is directly or indirectly due. 
 
 On all planes nature persistently tends toward equi- 
 librium. 
 
 On all planes the law of attraction is equally persis- 
 tent and operative. 
 
 The activity caused by attraction disturbing equilib- 
 rium, and nature's effort to restore balance, results in 
 the law of action and reaction, which is equal to 
 mechanical, mental and spiritual forces— dynamic. 
 
 As attraction and the tendency toward equilibrium 
 are omnipresent and persistent in nature, so the result- 
 ant law of action and reaction operates universally. 
 
 Man's intervention between his own life and the 
 laws of nature cannot destroy or check the action of 
 nature's laws, but he interferes with them, deflects their 
 course, nullifies their purpose and receives antithetical 
 results. 
 
 Progression on the spiritual plane is the resultant of 
 nature's tendency to preserve equilibrium under the 
 stress of the attractive power of light. On other planes 
 there is similar activity resulting in growth. 
 
 Sin is the departure from the path prescribed by 
 nature. If the errors of human nature are examined, 
 it will be seen that their iniquity lies in their departure 
 from— or their interference with— equilibrium and 
 attraction. For example : desire, the first sin, is harm- 
 ful in its action because it sets up i counter attractive 
 force to that of the light. 
 
 The light, in this sense, is the spiritual vibratory
 
 RESUME 23:3 
 
 force generated by and radiated from the composite of 
 attributes comprised in an exalted individuality. 
 
 The nature of desire is to attract the individual and 
 the thing desired toward each other. Desire deflects 
 the course of the spirit from its natural trend toward 
 the light to multitudinous objects belonging to the 
 lesser, denser, darker planes. On the plane where man 
 gratifies desire there is no equilibrium. All things are 
 artificial and out of balance. Still the tendency toward 
 equilibrium persists, and as a result of the perversion 
 of this law there is a settling into sense gratification. 
 This is the satisfaction felt on low planes. The cor- 
 ruption of equipoise also results in idleness, indolence 
 and sloth, all of which are antagonistic to the balanced 
 calm that belongs to growth. These are rather the 
 states of stagnation attendant upon decay. 
 
 Low planes are teeming with deflected forces and 
 their results— all in conflict and confusion. To live on 
 the plane of desire means to be subject to these forces- 
 chactic. In connection with what we have previously 
 written on the subject of desire its exact action and the 
 primal seat of its subversive nature may be seen. 
 
 Whatever errors are considered, it will be found that 
 they are tributary to— or forms of— desire. Their 
 action is to deflect natural attraction and unnaturally 
 disturb equilibrium. Ambition, selflshness, covetous- 
 ness, jealousy, envy, inquisitiveness and curiosity are 
 forms of desire, and prevent aspiration. Aspiration is 
 the natural trend of being toward the light. Pride, 
 vanity, irritability, hatred, anger, revenge, destructive-
 
 234 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 ness, recklessness, sadness, discontent, fear and criti- 
 cism are tributary to desire, and represent the nature out 
 of plumb— out of balance — equilibrium destroyed and 
 natural attraction checkmated. 
 
 Such attributes as patience, contentment, meekness, 
 forbearance, generosity and kindness tend to restore 
 equilibrium. They also forestall forces opposed to the 
 attraction of light. 
 
 Happiness is a dynamic force resulting from the yield- 
 ing of the becalmed, self-possessed spirit to the attrac- 
 tion of the light. 
 
 Thus we close our rehearsal of the requirements for 
 progression, or our summary of the laws of nature 
 which promote the welfare of those who, no longer gov- 
 erned by human ills or weaknesses, become self- 
 possessed. 
 
 One who is self-possessed nature guards, cherishes, 
 blesses, guides and endov/s with whatever intelligence 
 and ability he needs for the furtherance of his work. 
 Nor does nature cease her providence here, but carries 
 her self-possessed child to higher endowments, increas- 
 ing wisdom, abilities and powers, enriching her bless- 
 ing of peace, harmony, love and joy. Illumined under 
 the full radiance of Higher Powers, en rapport with 
 angelic planes, equipped for ser\dce— such an one 
 becomes master of earth conditions. The spirit thus 
 prepared, glorified, and embodying richer and nobler 
 states of individuality, passes from sphere to sphere, 
 through a life that ends not.
 
 INSTRUCTION XLV 
 
 A TRIBUTE TO THE HIGHER LIFE 
 
 T^TOULD that we might write in letters of eternal 
 fire upon the tablets of man's soul something of 
 the promised beauty of an unpolluted life. Would that 
 by the light of this same fire he might receive an un- 
 checked flow of inspiration to crush life's thorns beneath 
 his iron heel and scale life's heights to realms of bliss 
 unfathomed. 
 
 0, dear ones, struggling in the mists below — by sin, 
 sorrow and death environed — look up, and know that 
 life beyond these present shadows is as sunlight to the 
 shades of night ; and not one ray, however brilliant its 
 effulgence, but falls within the radius of your possibility 
 to embrace, and to receive the warmth and glory thus 
 reflected. You have but to choose the way, and follow 
 closely by the light that leads you thence. 
 
 Gather the perfume of all the blossoms in nature's 
 fields, and you have but breathed the sweetness of the 
 higher life. 
 
 Listen to the sweetest notes of song birds, of running-
 
 236 THE PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
 
 brooks, of bow and string, and chiming bells, and you 
 have but the echo of its harmonies. 
 
 Enter the cool shades of a mountain forest, or drift 
 on the bosom of a placid lake, and you have but one 
 faint glimmer of its smile of peace. 
 
 Center the thunders in one mighty bolt, and hear the 
 announcement of its power. 
 
 Catch the laughter of children, the cooing of doves, 
 and sparkling of dew-drops kissed by the sun, and you 
 have but suggested its joy. 
 
 This, and more than language can portray or imagery 
 encompass, awaits the one who conquers earth conditions 
 and forges through its darkness to the planes of light. 
 From planes illumined shines the sun of purity, of love, 
 of joy into the unspotted soul. With great ones he 
 holds true concourse, and sweet communion with angehc 
 hosts, who lead him on, from light to exaltation, from 
 exaltation to sublimity, in an unbroken progression 
 through the eternal realms of being.
 
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