BOOK REVIEWS.

BY M. L. SEVERY.

"INQUIRENDO ISLAND" by Hudor Genone, (the author of "Bellona's Husband" which is creating a considerable interest among our people) is a book which all may read with profit. The work, which is a delicate satire, and in the Author's best vein, is particularly addressed to the absurd foibles of dogmatic religion so prevalent even at this advanced day.

In his preface the Author says; "while the story may be termed a satire, it will, I trust, not be found wanting in a spirit of full reverence for the essential truths of God's universe.

"Between the pestilential marshes of superstition and the cold glaciers of reason, lies the fertile table-land of common sense, and it is there I have endearored to take my stand."

We feel confident that every reader of "Inquirendo Island" will be pleased to acknowledge that the Author has admirably succeeded in this endeavor.

The humor of the book is of that subtlest and best of all kinds which does not depend merely upon verbal collocations, but lies behind them in the depth of the conceit. Such humor defies quotation, it must be drank first-hand from the chalice held by the Author.

There is a deeper, a more religious import in the work, than mere entertainment; it will set the world a-thinking upon the coming religion.

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The following are a few lines taken from the last pages of the work:

Science habitually employs diagrams, definitions, theorems, comparisons and symbols. The substance of religion is inherent in the heart of humanity. Its principles are eternal. Ultimate truth is as inexplicable as an axiom, and as certain ; but more absurdities are uttered in the name of truth, than crimes committed in that of liberty. All philosophical writing is but a record of varying phases of opinion. As the white light of the sun is distorted in a lens, or polarized by a refracting medium, so, by strata of opinion, the grand truths of God are refracted, bent, warped, distorted.

"Belief is an amazing word; but the spurious kind, concerning itself with oils and the guess-work of opinion, is utterly worthless.

"True religion is not a mere assent to doctrine - a chilly, formal politeness to the Almighty. It is not the wire over which the message of hope comes from God to man, it is the message itself. It makes the filial relations sure between man and his Maker. If this relation comes by form and ceremony, or if it comes without it; if doctrine brings it, or if philosophy brings it, or idolatry, or even infidelity, it matters not. Now I myself, dear mother, have never seen a man of whom I thought it could be said his philosophy was sufficient for him, or his idolatry, or his infidelity; neither have I seen one whose ceremonial of itself was sufficient. But this has nothing to do with the plain statement of fact, that if the filial relation is established that is the substance of all religion.

"You caution me, dear mother, against injuring the faith of the world. I am at bitter enmity with its superstitions, its bigotry, its intolerance. I am sure, that in what I have written I have upheld its faith, by showing the nature of the real thing. It is unfortunately at the present day the wayfaring man who is not a fool who is most apt to err. If there were no hypocrites within the churches there would be no infidels without. To intellect alone the ordinary spurious faith is mere cant and sham."

The above furnishes a sufficient, though somewhat brief hint of the moral impetus behind the work. Add to the good it can do, the delight of reading its exquisite humor, and the interest one is sure to feel in its characters, and it becomes a book well worthy of careful perusal. It has a lesson to teach a lesson most needed at this juncture, and it inculcates it in a most pleasant though effective

"A CHAPLET OF AMARANTH," by the author of "From Over the Tomb " is a little book of short extracts of which the following may give some idea.

Original sin is but a poor pretext for the neglect of natural duties." "Parents sow the seeds of sorrow, the children reap the harvest." Happiness is the guest of content and dwells within."

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"Contentment, the result of a well-spent life upon earth, is the beginning of

heaven."

"Love is the state of the angels, for selfishness breathes not in the atmosphere of heaven."

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Judge not that ye be not judged; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; forgive unto seventy times seven; love your neighbor as yourself; God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to die for it; all is charity."

The book contains many fine things. 102 pp., bound in cloth. Published by James Burns, High Holborn, W. C., London, England.

"THREE SEVENS, A STORY OF ANCIENT INITIATIONS," by W. P. and M. M. Phelon, is a neatly bound volume of 270 pages which will prove interesting to readers of occult literature. See advertisement for quotations from the work.

"Prince Starbeam, A Tale of Fairyland," by Arthur Edward Waite, is a volume tastefully bound in light blue, and containing 223 pages. It is published by James Burns, 15 Southampton Row, High Holborn, London, England.

NOTICE OF ANNOUNCEMENT.

THE final announcement of the donation of methods and knowledges must be deferred until the unexpectedly numerous answers to the questions of the Work and Culture have been classified and studied. Hundreds of persons have applied for admission to the New Trainings; and those who are found capable will be classified according to their abilities, and their Nucleus allegiance will be determined according to their subjects of study and mental and moral needs. From the several hundreds of people constituting the Branches will be selected the members for the formation of several Nuclei, and to each Nucleus will be assigned a teacher of sufficient scientific ability and training to administer the Work and Culture.

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The donations were to those that DO to those who were selected according to merit for the formation of a class or college of people to whom accurate methods of gaining knowledges were to be taught. Such a people having once been formed, will need industries to assist in maintaining the students and teachers at the place of instruction.

All members of this selected class must pledge themselves never to teach anything until they know and can show it to be true. Who would refuse to make such a pledge?

To study the fourteen answers which hundreds of people have made to the Work and Culture questions, requires much time, labor, and computation: those selected must be classified, and when this is done the report will be ready; and we hope the next, or the June issue at least, will contain the final statement. To arrange and study one letter requires from one to several hours; there are yet several hundred letters to examine: the Readers hereof can be their own judges of the time and work required.

Pupils of the Work and Culture are required to master one group of natural knowledge, say some one science or department thereof; and they are to master it by actual experience so that they may know it to be true, and then to develop the corresponding moral powers belonging to that group of knowledge.

The chief mistake of moral and religious teaching has been that people taught what they did not know to be true. The Pupils of the Movement to whom the donation is to be made are required to pledge themselves not to

teach anything until they know it to be true. Each pupil selects one subtect most to his liking and ability, and masters all the facts of that subject by experience with the objects and phenomena belonging to it, and then he will know of himself the truth thereof. In the same way pupils will be taught moral development, and the development of the latent powers, etc.

The work alluded to in the Vision of the Mission-Workers has been started. Many are making the tests which enable them to be classified and taught, several hundred at least. These people are asked to accept only the authority of what they themselves learn under our guidance. They are thus not accepting theories. To master one subject and collect the known knowledge relating to that subject, and to develop the corresponding powers of mind and soul, and new senses, is to become a member of a Department. The pupil then knows upon the authority of the Infinite, the truth of what he teaches and practises. If you desire to belong to those to whom the donations are to be given, take the pledge and master your chosen subject, and follow the Nucleus Instruction. Surely you cannot expect to receive unless you do; nor to enter a class to which by nature you do not belong. We desire the expression of the Nucleus Applicants upon this subject. As soon as the classification has been made the report will be given.

Those desiring to colonize will, if acceptable, be classed under a sepa rate head.

We ask the full co-operation of all those who desire to see truth and morality placed upon the basis of actual knowledge.

May the Infinite Good attend you,

EDITORIAL NOTES.

TEACHER OF NUCLEI.

ATTENTION is here called to the circular of "Preliminary Instructions" giving explanation of the Nucleus-Work and Culture. These can be had for fifteen cents per copy, and contain thirty pages of the most interesting explanations.

WE would offer a word of explanation and advice to some of our Branch Members. There have been a few, we are pleased to say a very few, who have been terrified at the idea of having real work to do, and these people have, in a few instances, withdrawn, because they lacked the courage to face and conquer an obstacle. Now we are confident that those who have been thus frightened off will almost immediately realize that they have put aside the opportunity of their lives. We mean this in no figurative or strained sense, but as the direct expression of a most vital and practical fact! They will feel, if they follow the Movement until they comprehend it - which they certainly do not now, else would they esteem it co-important with existence-that they are like Othello's "base Indian" who; "Threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe."

We cannot but feel that those who have set aside the urn we have brought them, because they would not exert the strength to lift it, will yet thirst for its sacred content of truth. If so, we would offer them every facility to once more take up the great work. It will be seen, however, that our time is too fully employed to indulge in an idle play of "fast and loose," in view of which fact we shall reserve the right to set a period of probation for those who have once feebly fallen from the ranks, and this period shall be such as may be deemed necessary for the acquirement, on their part, of more sinewy resolves. We desire that the Movement should confer its blessing upon ALL, -as well those who have once lost sight of their opportunity, as those who steadfastly stand by the Movement which is so rapidly working out their highest potentialities.

The Nucleus-Work has no theories, no creeds, no dogmas. Its gonfalon is blazoned with the one word "Truth." A poet has said;

"And a lie that is half truth is ever the blackest of lies."

We want no admixiture, however pleasant it may seem to taste, of truth and falsehood, but the pure, distilled, refined attar of TRUTH.

THE ESOTERIC.

A Magazine of Advanced and Practical Esoteric Thought.

VOL. III.]

Copyrighted 1890.

8

APRIL 19. TO MAY 20.

VISTÆ VITÆ. (Continued.)

BY M. T. MARTIN, M. D.

Who can solve the human problem? Who our life can understand?
Who can apprehend an atom? Who can know a grain of sand?
All is blank, unfathomed darkness. Man, with all his boasted lore,
No more baffles comprehension than the pebble on the shore.
Atoms reach a life organic, as the ceaseless cycles roll.

Man and star return to vapor. Nature's process knows no goal.

In this mighty sea of splendor where the stellar legions float,
Man is but a Lilliputian, but a microscopic mote.

All his vaunted subtle wisdom in regard to things unseen,

Is but arrogant assumption, child-like ignorance to screen :

And the sage of ancient Athens could no greater truth have shown,

1.

Than the truth that man's sole knowledge, is that nothing can be known.

Though the vital spark of being, and the dust upon the ground,
Are alike beyond man's genius, far beyond his thoughts profound;
Though the truth is ever shrouded, ever hidden from our view,
Still we work with strong endeavor, still the fleeting truth pursue.
And, in universal nature, every gulf we try to span,

Yet, the all-absorbing labor is to know the creature - Man.

We would know his source of action, see the fountain of his mind,
And resolve the dark enigma-how is life with dust intwined?
We would know from whence he cometh, where his past, unknown abode;
Whether realms of bright Nirvana, or where Stygian waters flowed :
We would know his future dwelling, on the shaded thither shore :
We would pierce the ebon darkness and oblivion explore.

But we can not draw the curtain which futurity conceals;
From that harbor beams no beacon; not a gleam the bourne reveals,
Though our eyes grow dim with watching for a single guiding ray;
Though with bated breath we listen, as life swiftly slips away:
We can see but raven blackness, rolling silent evermore;
We can only hear the echo of the plash of Charon's oar.

Though we can not see man's future, though we can not know his past;
Neither comprehend his being, nor his course of thought forecast;
Though man's life is no more mystic than the crystal drop of dew;
Yet, a magic spell alluring, still the shadow we pursue.
And of all the life in nature, every form and every kind,
We have found no wisdom higher than the occult human mind.
We're at sea without a captain, and no trusty pilot guides;
None on board e'er made this voyage on life's restless, rolling tides;
Not a soul on board remembers from what port he sailed away;
No one knows the final haven; no one knows the landing day.
Oft we're tossed by angry tempests, but no light-house shines afar;
There's no faithful pointing needle, there's no constant polar star.
Man is born to toil and labor, born to suffering and pain:
Joy is always for the morrow, but the morrow's hope is vain.
Every breast is cloyed with sorrow; every moment holds a moan;
Every ear is filled with wailing; every zephyr bears a groan.
Man is born a helpless infant, and his first breath is a cry;
Soon he passes o'er the river, and his last breath is a sigh.

Though each heart well knows its frailty, knows how prone to make mistakes;

Though each feels his utter weakness when temptation overtakes
Though we're slow to pardon others for their strong, besetting vice;
We claim perfect absolution, and a home in Paradise.
And we judge our friend's backsliding while our own feet often slip;
And we censure others' falling as our wayward footsteps trip.
And, though racked by pain and anguish, torn by many bitter pangs;
Though we're wounded in the bosom by black Envy's poisoned fangs;
Though our toil is unrequited, and man wrongs his fellow man;
Though distress and deep affliction largely fill life's little span ;
Though the path is full of dangers, and the darkness gathers round;
Though we hear the distant murmur of the storm's portentous sound;
Still we bear the grief and torture, still endure the weight of woe;
Striving not for joy nor gladness; striving not to crush the foe;
Striving not to slay the tyrant whom we serve as abject slaves;
Striving only for the pittance which a servile spirit craves;
Giving thanks to God Almighty for a dry and moldy crust,
While our idle, scheming neighbors roll in luxury and lust.

For 'tis law that makes us servants, and though justice long has flown,
We, in childish adoration, praise this fetich on his throne;
And in innocence and blindness, seeing not the bands of steel
Which the law is round us winding, as before its shrine we kneel,
We, with foolish hallelujahs, loudly cheer each foul decree;

While the poor man serves his sentence, and the rich man goes scot free.

All the governments and nations suffer from the reign of law;
And, before each unjust statute, all the people bow in awe,
Filled with superstitious honor for the men who make the codes;
For each legislative body which the commonwealth corrodes;
Thinking legal edicts holy, and official robes unstained,

Though the ermine sells at auction, and the court's by bribes profaned.