BE NATURAL. BY THEODORE WRIGHT. BETTER, fuller, holier, and more comprehensive advice could not be given to man than to be natural. Pure nature is the embodiment of all perfection; but we have become by habit so mixed up and confused in our ideas that very many helplessly think that to be artificial is a much higher and more worthy attainment than to be natural. This commonly accepted thought only serves to illustrate how completely man has contrived to invert all that is good, pure, and perfect. It is a thousand times easier for man to be natural than to become artificial. No man can be educated to anything higher than pure nature herself will compass; and the less cramming undertaken by the teacher, and the less craving for such cramming begotten in the organism of the pupil, the more rapid and perfect will the attainments of the same pupil be. With the inversion that is now habitual to the race generally, it has become quite habitual also to call darkness light, and vice versa. The best elocutionists everywhere indicate perfect naturalness as the highest attainment of the would-be orator; so that the whole truth of the matter when stripped of the glamor that the tyrant custom, and ingrained habits have imposed upon us - is that the culture of the oratorical art is simply the highest development of the native abilities and oratorical powers. To be natural amidst the endless diversities that inseparably pertain to the human family cannot mean making any two exactly alike. We ought to have outlived and outgrown the time when we could lend ourselves to the employment of "iron bedsteads." fitted with appliances for regulating the proper elongation or shortening of the human figure. It is as natural for one to be six feet six inches tall, as for another to be five feet six inches tall. It is as natural for one to put the scales down at 200 pounds, as for another to weigh 130 pounds. And the diversities thus showing themselves so plainly upon the physical plane, are but loud-speaking correspondences pointing to the same truth on higher planes. No doubt much of the grating discord and disturbing inharmony greeting us continually on every hand has arisen mainly from the short-sightedness of teachers and pupils in trying to force conformation to ways and ideas out of all harmony with their construction. But nature is a much broader and more comprehensive field than little man has for centuries taken it to be. Something prejudicial has been at work curtailing and circumscribing the scope of his outlook, and nature is, therefore, mostly supposed to be restricted to the physical phases and plane of man's being. Such a thought is a gross and grievous libel upon nature, and has very much to do with the evils that have beset man in consequence thereof. Nature is very simply and sufficiently defined as "that which of necessity pertains to everything that is." If, then, matter embraces all that is, the word "nature" is correctly restricted to it. But if "mind" is more than matter, and if "spirit" is other and higher than matter and mind, then both mind and spirit possess that which of necessity pertains to them, and such must and will be their nature. Now we begin to see where immense differences must come into play in the application of our exhortation "be natural." Those who live only on the animal plane of their being will be natural to it by indulging that nature in accordance with its bent. They may, owing to surrounding influential circumstances, wish to appear as belonging to a higher plane, and to succeed must put on by art the understood indications of manner, and so forth, belonging to the plane they have not risen to, and so cannot naturally or actually fill. A man who has never succeeded in making the least spiritual attainment, whose spiritual nature has never been quickened, but who intellectually and aspirationally aims to shine as though a spiritual light and authority, must, to realize the least modicum of success show something that will pass current for the spirituality he covets, and wishes to pose as employing. Here comes in all the arts and contrivances of the character-actor. How singular it will appear to many that when the Great Master sought to express with point and perspicuity the character that he most loathed, and which he would that all his own should shun, he selected the Greek term meaning the play-actor-"hupocritees!" The Great Master was not at all singular or inapt in so speaking, he said exactly what the circumstances of the case most naturally and happily demanded. * The genuine spiritual man only requires to be natural, and he will, to the full extent of his spiritual capacity, then be actually Christ-like. * WHILE we refrain from editing out portions of the above which seem to us the result of partial views and personal dislikes, we cannot allow an assertion to pass unnoticed which, inferentially, if not with absolute directness, casts a slur upon a noble art, -- yes, upon the noblest of all arts, - and which would seem to have had its inception either in prejudice or a total ignorance of the whole question which should have been sufficient to enforce silence. It is not a novel thing for a certain class of writers to seek to maintain untenable assertions by a mischievous warping of language. The world is full of men who, in the attempt to establish a point, will wrench words until they fairly shriek. To say, even through inference, that because a hypocrite character-actor plays a part, and a "character-actor" plays a part, the " must of necessity be a hypocrite is of a piece with that childish sophistry which builds its logical (?) card-houses from such material as this; an orange is round (globular;) the earth is round, therefore the earth is an orange. To such sophists we can only say that the chief trouble with the above statement is that, not only in point of fact are the two premises of the syllogism false, as well as the conclusion, but were the premises true the conclusion would not inhere in them. An orange is not round [globular]; the earth is not round; and even were both globular, the conclusion that the earth is an orange would be unwarrantable and pernicious in the extreme. What can be more absurd than any attempt to make it appear that Christ had the dramatic artist in mind when he cautioned his followers against hypocrisy? It will not appear at all singular to the thoughtful mind that the Savior in warning his hearers against hypocrisy used the word meaning hypocrisy. What word, pray, should he have used? What should he have said if not what he meant? The fallacy lies in attempting to make it appear that Christ used a word with two distinct meanings, and that he intended that both of those meanings should inhere in his utterance. Imagine the Savior cautioning his disciples not to become dramatic artists! Is it not better to abandon all attempts to make distorted words plead a lost case, and admit at the start that the same Greek word was used for a dissembler and a play-actor," not because both were rascals, -not because of any personal similarity between a deceiver and an actor, but simply because they both, the one with malicious intent, and the other with the noblest of motives, -played a part. 66 Words, especially with their ancient significance, should not be dragged into the forum of modern thought, without some attention being paid to their present garb. Words acquire new meanings with age, and these new meanings are often the direct opposite of their original definitions. We find "let," now generally used in the sense of to allow, formerly had the meaning of to retard or hinder. Hamlet says, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me :" and even as late as Tennyson we find, "Mine ancient wound is hardly whole, And lets me from the saddle." "Tyrant" which now generally conveys the idea of despotic power, originally meant merely an absolute sovereign. The word pope originally meant father, and " 'criticize, which is rapidly becoming synonymous with "to find fault with" really means "to separate or "divide." Hundreds of such instances might be cited showing how words have strayed from their original meanings, but enough has been written to demonstrate the care which the ingenuous writer will display in drawing inferences from definitions of words. M. L. S. Nothing less than the Christ in any man can qualify him for acceptance in Divine work; and the use thus qualified for will be constantly disappointed, if he allow himself to dream that such attainments will ever make him popular. But those so qualified will always know better than to expect to be sought after by the many; the few may and will always be true to them; but until the human race, as a whole, has grown to a better stature and standing than it exhibits to-day, it is madness to attempt to associate popularity with anything purely heavenly or spiritual. Those who court popularity, and stoop to all manner of expedients to attain their self-aggrandizing, do not and cannot realize how they are degrading themselves, and also their highest possibilities by such short-sighted attempts. The greater necessarily includes the lesser. The planes of man's being, on which he may be natural, are three; body, soul, and spirit; matter, mind, and reality. When man truly "comes to himself" he then discovers Divinity enthroned within himself, and bows down thereto with meekness and avidity, as having met with salvation and every possible blessing. Then it quietly dawns upon him, here a little, and there a little, that he is utterly independent of his fellows for tuition, for a satisfying intuition crowds in upon him just as fast as he is ready for it, and can put it to good use; and then, with the newly-awakened Divine nature working within him to set all crooked places straight, and make all rough places smooth within his structure, he feels that all he has to do is to work out what God has wrought into his inmost being; and thus, becoming in the highest and holiest sense of the word natural, he satisfies every requirement of his animal, mental and spiritual being perfectly. The Leader of the Esoteric Movement has frequently urged the same thought in his own way in plain language upon the Readers of this Magazine, and who shall say it is not in every sense of the word sound and satisfactory? Even if a man is something less than spiritual, and a spiritual man would be greatly more in every way than himself, it still remains true that such a man could never be more actually than he was naturally. All that artifice and mimicry could assist him to be would become vanity and vexation of spirit, it would be the very Alpha and Omega of hypocrisy, or -as the world really expresses it-putting on by character-acting. Let then no man or woman ever assume to be anything more, less, or different from what he or she actually is. If such are not satisfied with present attainments, then by all means let them work persistently in the required direction, and condition themselves to make them; but let them beware, above all things, of putting on, and so assuming to be something they actually are not. Those on the physical plane cannot be natural to the mental except by climbing to it and living there; those on the mental plane cannot be natural to the spiritual except by actually rising to it and coming into possession of its vital forces. That people do by mimicry and art try to pose for more than they are, proves infallibly that they are more or less conscious of their deficiencies; and moreover, that they would be more without, however making proper sacrifices to become so. "God's plans, like lilies pure and white unfold; ESOTERIC TALKS. BY J. VINCENT TAYLOR. WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FORMER CONDITION BUT, asks a casual observer just tapped upon the shoulder by one of the associated "we" of the daily press. "What do we want to know about the former condition and inhabitants of the globe?" That recalls a circumstance in our own late experience while discussing the pros and cons of this very theme with a person of mature years and sober discipline, who, after listening to our display of stellar facts, etc., put the same kind of interrogation to us. But begging pardon for his brusqueness, he continued; 66 Do you suppose the earth is to be burned up the next time the wrath of a just Judge falls upon it?" We replied: "The Bible does not read that way according to our individual interpretation of both the letter and spirit of the statement from which such an inference has been drawn.” We were desirous of drawing out the gentleman to ascertain the quality of acumen he really possessed, as well, if possible, as to convince him from any point he might select to occupy, of the possible correctness of our theories. So we ventured in the next breath to ask him ; * "But what might be your own private opinion in the matter, sir?" Well," he replied, "it is not in the actual, permanent nature of fire, as we understand it, to be continually burning; it tends more to change than to annihilation. Then, too, to be forever in a burning state, it would be forever requiring something to consume. If the globe is to be so destroyed, the internal sources of chemical fire already contained within it would necessarily have penetrated from the centre to the crust and destroyed it long ago." "Rather problematical," we returned, in an attitude of patient listening. "True," he rejoined, "that does not really dispose of the argument, or give a feasible answer to my own interrogation. But to do so fully, admitting that fire instead of water will be the next purging element to be employed in eradicating the present, and formulating the new, phase of the world, the actual destruction will extend only to corrupt responsible, and degenerate physical irresponsible life and nature; that, after a set period of time, the globe will be called forth again from such a furnace of trial and purgation, once more to become a scene of life to a new type or class of celestial, physical, or simply natural beings." "Upon honor!" we exclaimed, "do you really believe such a thing possible in regard to the future of Mother Earth?" "Yes," he reiterated, "I regard such phenomena as a possible event in the history of the globe during the futurity of ages." "Is the hypothesis thus presented by you, shared by any circle of your acquaintances?" was asked. "I cannot answer for the thoughts of others on such a grave issue. I want to be satisfied myself first. And since you have pointed out to me the great events (possible great events, you know,)-continually going This dialogue, short as it is, should satisfy the critic that the author is on perfectly legitimate grounds of argument. on in the universe around us, I do not see why the earth should be exempt from similar loop-holes of escape from the utter damnation of beetlebrowed ultramontanes. Once I am so satisfied in my thoughts, which mature my judgment, I shall most assuredly believe what I may be compelled to logically receive as possible or positive fact, even though the basis of my belief shall unfortunately lack the forces peculiar to a recognized popular theory, in either illustrative philosophy or self-demonstrative science or art; " and the good man looked very ingenuous as he added; "because, as you have asserted, I see it going on around me in all that withers and decays, to come eventually to life again in renewed leases of grace and beauty; more still, I feel it within myself. The blade of grass, the petal, the blossom, the vine, twig, leaves, etc., identical to the varying seasons of one year, do vanish- but are not lost to the universe never to be seen again; yet during the seasons of the next year, new blades of grass, petals, blossoms, vines, twigs, and leaves appear where others had previously been, withered, decayed, and were gone! The roots of plants, flowers, and trees always remained - proving a sort of yearly resurrection in nature which I dream of as a possible contingency for the globe throughout the great and awful condition through which it is predicted it will have to pass; because, you see, the root, the material of which the globe is composed, will always be somewhere in space! "You possess a most eloquent idea," we said "ideas are capable of legitimate, as well as extreme expansion. Your remarks are analogous to Proctor's Planetary Life and Death.' We believe your sentiments are capable of demonstration in science, and illustration in philosophy. Resurrection in nature proves the possibility of a resurrection to man; and most undoubtedly implies a resurrection or recall and procreation, as it were, for the globe itself or a rejuvination from chaos and disorder at the bidding of a recalling source of power after a lapse of an age or number of ages." "That's it; that's it exactly!" he exclaimed, as he brought his right hand down upon our shoulder with a vigorous blow; "that's my idea of the future burning this world of ours is doomed to pass through; and sometimes I think the sooner the great work begins the better for all concerned." "Hump!" we remarked, "you must not be too hard upon either human or mother nature; the one may have erred, while the other never has." "But look at the sin and corruption;"" he retorted, look at the contentions of all the sins in the world; look at the seeming apathy of more than one-half of those who, dressed in the livery of heaven, are afraid to teach the true religion - unselfish, impartial religion of the simple Nazarene' Review the rottenness of political cliques; the double-dealing of diplomatic corps; the secret ambition of ministers seeking public notoriety all over the world, ever craving for that which they may not have. Truly, God may honestly repent that He had ever made man at all!" "For all that we returned," be sure there are many honest-minded, celestial souls walking the earth to-day; there are also many earnest prayers daily ascending from the globe like incense from a universal altar to the eternal ear of Elohim. Man may have sinned, men do daily sin; but the globe it has never sinned. Nature is as free from actual sin to-day as when Adam (in all the beauty of innocent manhood) first stood erect in Eden. Hence, though the human race is doomed to extermination, or celestial change, neither the spirits of men, nor the material earth will |