TO THE READERS OF THE ESOTERIC.

We have for some time been studying to know what line of thought would be most useful to you, and to the greatest number of the human family, and we see many reasons to believe that, in view of our limited time, and the space in this Magazine, that no line of thought would be of so much value as the Bible. First, the greater part of English speaking people believe in it as a Book of truth, and a standard of moral and religious life; and many believe in its prophecies, but admit that they do not understand their import; and last, but not least; we believe after many years of study of its pages and comparison with the facts of nature that it is all the above, and much more, viz.: that it is a Book of scientific knowledge, of a character not understood and most needed by the world to-day. For the past hundred years the mind of the civilized world has been turned toward the physical sciences, and away from the mental and spiritual sciences, for we have come to know that the mental and spiritual is as literally scientific — being capable of demonstration-as the physical sciences, and also that, so far as a knowledge of their absolute facts is concerned, neither can be complete without the other.

The Bible is a Book of mental and spiritual science once known to the few: that few were commonly known as prophets and seers. They having a knowledge of the laws and methods of applying these sciences to their own lives, and a will to do so, obtained powers over the subtile forces of nature, to a degree that was wonderful to the common people, and obtained knowledge thereby, thought to belong alone to God. These knowledges and powers were partially known to all nations at the time the Bible was written, therefore, it appears ambiguous to many, because the occult knowledge common to all at that time has been lost to us. Therefore it appears like a Book of uncertain language.

During the last eight years the literature of the East has been translated, and placed in our hands, which, when properly understood, will give us that which was commonly known at the time the Bible was written; and the base of the Bible-language from which it can be understood; but it, in its highest phase, is as far below the Bible, as the races through which it came are below the Caucasian race. But to talk about the great truths of our Bible without that knowledge, would be like talking algebra to one who had no knowledge of mathematics, whereas, if he had first learned the lower branches, he would be ready to begin to learn algebra.

If a chemist were talking to one versed in chemistry, he would talk the language of the science, and one unlearned, listening, would not understand. And if you were relating an occurrence to one familiar with the circumstances under which it occurred, you would not go over the details, but would begin at once with the part unknown to the hearer, and so did they through whom the Bible came. Every good, clear-headed minister, when he attempts to explain the Bible, begins by explaining the circumstances under which the words were expressed, but, unfortunately, he only knows but very little of them,-almost nothing of the learning with which that people were endowed, which consisted mainly of laws and methods, regarding what we now recognize as mundane magic. That having come first, it formed a language which made it possible for the celestial and divine magic to be taught, with its uses, its abuses, results, etc.

When we speak of magic, we refer to the control of laws and forces beyond the realm of the five senses. And what we call mundane magic, is that domain of the unseen governed by the animalized or selfish will of man, whether used intelligently, or by instinct, or by ceremonies taught him. What we mean by celestial and divine magic, is the knowledge and power gained by a holy, devout life, i. e., a life devoted to acquiring knowledge and methods for the elevation and harmonization of the world to the laws of God or spirit, bringing them thereby to a condition of perpetual consciousness in this, and in the spirit-world, this is "eternal life."

The Bible, especially, those portions relating to the prophets and the teachings of Jesus, is replete with this thought of continued consciousness after the dissolution of the physical body.

This doctrine is presented with laws and methods by which the physical and mental conditions of the adherent might be changed from a state of unconsciousness in sleep and death, to consciousness in both.

Now, if we find that in this Book there are laws, and methods for applying them, for the accomplishment of the above, then we must all admit that this Book is not only a Book of morals, but of science also.

There are many noble, clear-headed and honest-hearted men who, in their life and habits, are patterns worthy of imitiation. Among the most prominent are Robert Ingersoll and many of his followers, who have been disgusted at the erroneous and contradictory doctrines supposed to be based on the teachings of this Book.

The many learned men whose business it is and has been for many years, to study and teach the Bible, have made such a work of baseless fabrications of it, that the above class of men have taken for granted that their errors are the errors of the Bible, and, therefore, have never taken the trouble to examine for themselves; for all these have the capacity, if they saw good reason for using it in the study of this Book, to discover the many important parts which lie hidden beneath the verbiage of theological ignorance.

Some would ask; "Do you not believe that the majority of the Christian ministers are honest?" To that I must answer yes and no! How can both be true? No, because they are not honest with their own intelligence and intuitive perception: yes, because the fear of their associates prohibits them from allowing their own common sense to have freedom of action. The doctrines which they are forced to preach were formed by men during the "dark ages" of the world; by men whose ignorance and illiteracy was so great that these ministers of to-day would not countenance them if they were living now; they would only be acceptable as common laborers in the most menial spheres.

Nearly all ministers now see clearly that if they read and gave due credit to the teachings of the Bible it would overthrow all their creeds, and what they call the "essential doctrines," and, therefore, they fear to speak the true sentiments of their minds, and try to justify themselves by the thought of how much good the church has done, and is doing, and what disaster it would bring to make the overturning of beliefs which they see would inevitably follow; so they close their eyes to the truth, and refuse to see it, will not allow their intelligence to work.

I heard a prominent minister say, "I once thought I knew something, but thank God, I do not want to know anything but Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Certainly he knew less of that than of anything else, and

he went on with his argument against thinking and desiring to know the truths of the Scriptures. Many are plainly acknowledging that it will not do for them to allow themselves to think on these subjects, for fear of skepticism. What would be the appropriate name for this condition? Let us see.

In what is man superior to the beast? Is it not wholly in his capacity to think, to reason logically, and to understand laws, principles, etc.? Is not the object of a life of experience to develop these powers? Is not the soul of man the conscious, thinking part of him? All these ministers will answer yes to this. Then are they not trying to crush this thinking part of themselves out of existence? Are they not then committing suicide and murdering their followers? This sounds harsh, but, admitting their own position, it must be so; for who commits the greatest crime, the man who destroys the body, and frees the soul to go to its rewards, or the man who destroys the soul, or at least deprives it of all that comprises existence, which they do, if it is "the conscious, thinking part," and they destroy the power to think. It follows then that they destroy the soul. These are thoughts that the clergy should think about, and weigh well what they say and do in these matters. It is almost unbelievable what prejudice will do among this class of men.

There was one case which came under my immediate notice, of a minister of a prominent congregation who became interested in THE ESOTERIC and recommended it to his people. His associate ministers could find nothing objectionable in the Magazine whereon to base a charge against the minister, yet, so afraid were they of what their people would think, that they went back to the time when this minister was a young man in college, and brought up things said to have been done then, whereupon to base a scandal to destroy the influence of this, their follow-minister, because he dared to think and speak his best thought: and these accusations were of a nature but little considered at the time, and they who brought them were guilty of worse things during the same period. The people will not admit, to themselves even, to what extent they are controlled by these men. A little experience of my own will well illustrate this point.

In 1874 I was living in the Alleghany Mountains giving my whole time to the study of the Bible and nature. I went out to a little town some fourteen miles distant, by the name of Forksville, in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. There was a Union church edifice there, and a Methodist and Baptist. I called on the minister and informed him that I wished to give a course of lectures on the Bible prophecies, but obtained no encouragement from him: so I enquired for the trustees of the fine, large schoolhouse there, and found the hotel-keeper and the village blacksmith had charge, and was proffered its free use for the lectures. The room was large and commodious. At the first lecture only about twenty-five persons were present. The second about fifty; the third, the house was packed to its utmost capacity, and both ministers were present, as I was afterwards told, through the invitation of their own people to hear and answer the arguments. After the lecture closed the people gathered around the desk, some with tears of gladness in their eyes, all desiring to take my hand and express their great delight at what they had heard. It took fully three-quarters of an hour before all could reach me and give expression to their gratitude. The next Sunday afternoon was set for the next lecture. That

time found me on the stand waiting for my audience, but alas! who came? None but the village blacksmith and the landlord of the hotel, with their families, both known among the church people as "infidels." After the hour had arrived and past, and no others came, the blacksmith said to me; "I guess you won't have any more, for the ministers have told their people that they consider your doctrines dangerous, and advised them not to come any more to hear you; and they thought it not worth the while to try to answer the arguments." Here was probably two hundred earnest and even enthusiastic persons filled to overflowing with joy at the opportunity of thinking reasonably upon their favorite topic, and all that was necessary to scare them away was for their minister to say "dangerous doctrines," and they believed it without any effort being made to show them why or wherein they were so. My soul pities such priests and people!

Ministers, are you willing to shoulder this awful responsibility of the souls of the people? You certainly are taking it, and does not your professional business livelihood enter into the consideration for this responsibility?

Ministers, do not take this unnecessary burden. There is no amount of money, honor, or pleasure, that will half pay the cost of such a position. Lastly, can you trust your soul to the keeping of professional men who have so many inducements for studying to please you, rather than to educate you in the way of life?

Now, before entering upon the proposed task, let me ask you, one and all, all classes of minds in all the different church organizations, in all free thought, both gnostic and agnostic, will you do yourself the kindness to follow me through these illustrations, and if then you do not find abundance of reason to continue your study of this Book, you will have at least done your duty. But remember, in order to be honest with yourself in this matter, you must be free from previously formed opinions.

You would not like to trust your case to a jury which was biased against you, and the law of your land would consider such jurymen unqualified for judgment on any important matter. You need to be equally honest with yourself, for it is none but you who will profit or suffer by the way you receive these thoughts. They are my honest effort, and the result of many years of careful study and thought to get the truth that will be of the greatest USE to the people. If these thoughts were not of practical value we would not waste time with them. But we know them to be of more value than any subject of thought that can now occupy the human mind.

THE METHOD ADOPTED.

We do not propose to write a commentary on the Bible, but simply to give the keys to the whole subject matter, in as brief and concise a way as possible. We shall endeavor to touch mainly those points out of which the greatest errors have grown, and those where the most important truths are concealed. We beg you to bear with us if many of our utterances appear abrupt, and even harsh; for if so, it will be for the sake of point and brevity. We will begin with Genesis, first, and dwell on those points which will furnish a commentary on that which will follow of importance: therefore, if some of the first of these articles appear to you abstruse and valueless, we pray you read and remember them, for they will

serve as a foundation without which those containing the most important suggestions would not be understood.

And to you, friends, who have laid this Book aside as valueless, we wish to say that we do not present these thoughts dogmatically: not even do we assert that this Book deserves any more credence from you than its own intricate value merits, but we do ask all to look at it with the same degree of thoughtful credence that you would give to any history or Book claiming scientific value.

[To be continued.]

ART CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT UPON THE CON

DUCT OF LIFE.

BY MELVIN L. SEVERY.

(Number Thirteen.)

As each one of the art articles published in THE ESOTERIC must repeat, in a very limited space, the substance of four extemporaneous lectures, it is expected that the Reader will pardon the absence of that elegance of diction, as well as the lack of that continual expression of strong, logical coherence, which could only be obtained through the employment of more space than we can command, and accept in their stead the somewhat cursory and detached statement here presented.

In addition to the component attributes of the ideal voice already given, there are yet to be treated four others, namely; uniformity, evenness, smoothness and purity.

Uniformity is that attribute of the voice which produces what may be called vocal consistency. A voice may be said to have perfect uniformity when each one of its sounds seems, to the imagination, to be made by the same vocal organs. Suppose I illustrate by taking a musical instrument for example. If you were to have an instrument with one violin string, one guitar string, one piano string, one harp string, and one zither string, the tones given off in the production of a piece of music would be devoid of uniformity or consistency, however beautiful they might be individually. We see the same truth clearly illustrated in the case of countenances. Here, on the one hand, is a face every feature of which, considered separately, is perfect, and yet the tout ensemble of the face cannot be called beautiful; there, on the other hand, is a countenance no feature of which can be considered either classic or beautiful when separately analyzed, and yet, despite all this, the face is beautiful. What is the explanation of this? Simply this; in the former case the face lacked uniformity -its features did not all belong to the same personality; in the latter case the features were in harmony, the consistent out-working of the character of the person to whom they belonged. In the case of the instrument above referred to, each string, having a timbre different from its neighbors, would speak to a different emotion, or different shade of emotion, and the result would be the perfect analogue of a psalm read with one word joyous, the next sad, the next indifferent, and so on throughout the list of emotions.

If you were to hear a person utter words expressive of a certain emotion, in tones some or all of which bore no relation to that emotion, you would immediately realize a lack of uniformity, and this would report to your understanding in the form of inconsistency. In such a case the deduction your intellect as well as your feelings would make, would be that