tion as the direct or indirect result of a consciousness or will existing somewhere."

This is precisely the conclusion at which we have just arrived, and it is so absolutely demanded by the facts, so directly in accord with the rest of our knowledge, that it must carry conviction.

We assert then as a demonstrated scientific conclusion, that behind all phenomena in nature we are forced to recognize controlling mind.

Herbert Spencer has, in an outline of 4500 pages, made a serious attempt to reduce all science and all human knowledge to a single principle-that of the " persistence of force." But stupendously grand as his system is, it has fatal gaps. The system starts with matter and force, and that is all. He explicitly declares that between mind and matter there is a chasm which logic cannot cross. Yet it is precisely this chasm which he is obliged to cross. For starting with the persistence of force alone, he is obliged somewhere to obtain mind in the outcome. Of anything back of force there is no mention. Starting from a premise which does not include mind, no mind can be logically deduced.

In the light of our principle we see at once that "persistence of force" resolves itself into existence of mind. We start with

mind in our premises, with purpose back of force, and all becomes logical. In the light of our principle, we need not go outside of our premises to admit freedom. As the end of creation, we share to some extent the attributes of the will which guides creation; to a certain extent we exercise the same power of causality; within certain limits matter obeys our behest, even as matter is subject to mind; and we possess conscious personality, free will, and causality as partakers and co-workers with mind, through the possession of mind.

Here, then, we have a system which embraces the moral and spiritual as necessarily as the material and physical; and not the "persistence of force," but the invariableness of that which underlies all force, is the solid basis of it all. Without this guiding principle the facts lose coherence and significance, they mean nothing, and the entire system falls into fragments. With it, meaning and purpose light up every step, fragments are organically related, and the stupendous work of Spencer, which has been so violently attacked in the interests of theism, becomes the most convincing and comprehensive theistic argument science has ever framed.

Recognizing mind and purpose back of material manifestations, the question of man's future state becomes one in which, in the light of science, hypothesis gives way to certain conviction. The result of the whole vast scheme of orderly evolution we must regard as the action of mind guided by unchanging purpose. Still in accord with progressive conditions, we observe an orderly evolution of mind, emerging in conscious identity, and the conviction of freedom. Then become manifest moral responsibility, spiritual progress, conscience, selfdenial, all pointing in the light of purpose to some yet far-distant goal, and thus at last we are forced to regard man as the result of all this mighty process, as designed for some end commensurable with the vast agencies which have called him forth. If all this is to end in collapse and utter extinction of the very result attained, what a ridiculous mouse the mighty mountain has brought forth! Can such a conclusion stand for one moment the test of reason?

Professor Fiske well says:

The more thoroughly we comprehend the process of evolution by which things have come to be what they are, the more we are likely to feel that to deny the everlasting persistence of the spiritual element in man is to rob the whole process of meaning.

Here, then, man stands as the terminal bud of the tree of life, the end of mighty process, with a meaning which interprets the process, but which cannot be identified with it. "In the beginning psychical life was but an appendage of the body;

in the end the body is the vehicle of the soul." In the light of purpose, this means something.

There can be but one conclusion in terms of the rest of our knowledge. Happiness, enjoyment, the enrichment of life, these are pleasant things; but the earth, as science reads its future, cannot be their lasting abode. They are a means, but not an end. They have their purpose in the scheme, but the development of a conscious indefeasible personality,

One soul against the flesh of all mankind;

of a spiritual energy, capable of coöperation and fit tool for higher things-this is an end which alone satisfies reason, science, revelation, faith, and hope. This alone is commensurate with the whole mighty process. The attainment of such personality we begin here. So surely as we begin it, has our true life begun, and opportunity must be afforded to complete the work. And this personality, science tells us, as certainly

as it can tell anything, is not born to die.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS.

F

X. THE RISE OF THE POTTERY INDUSTRY.
EDWIN ATLEE BARBER.

Popular Science Monthly, New York, December.

OREIGN writers say the United States can boast of no

ceramic industry, and our own writers have let it pass. It can, however, be shown that the fictile art is almost as old in this country as in Great Britain, and has been developed in almost parallel lines.

Earliest European settlers found the American natives proficient in the manufacture of earthen vessels. Of the primitive potteries which are known to have been early operated in the colonies, no extended accounts have been written by the older historians. As early as 1649 there were a number of small potteries carrying on a thriving local business in Virginia; and the first Dutch settlers in New York are said to have made a ware equal in quality to that of Delft. Dr. Daniel Coxe, of London, proprietor, and afterwards Governor of New Jersey, was the first to make white ware on this side of the Atlantic. He caused a pottery to be erected at Burlington, N. J., previous to the year 1690.

In 1685 Thomas Miles made a white "stone-ware" of pipeclay procured at Shelton; and a few years later a potter named Astbury improved upon it by a salt glaze. It is probable that the "chiney" of the Burlington pottery was somewhat similar to the cream-colored or white stone-ware made at the same time in England. Gabriel Thomas states in his description of Philadelphia (1697), “Potters have sixteen pence for an earthen pot which may be bought in England for four pence." A stone-ware factory was started in New York, at "Potter's Hill," near the Fresh-water Pond," back of the City Hall, about 1735, by John Remmey, who came from Germany. The business was carried on until 1820, and later a great-grandson, John Remmey, established a pottery at South Amboy, N. J.

..

Previous to the middle of the last century, and before the manufacture of porcelain had been attempted in America, English potters were using china clays procured in this coun

try. Mr. William H. Goss says: It is curious that it [the clay] should have been imported from among the Chirokees, when we had mountains of it so near us as Cornwall."

An attempt was made to manufacture fine porcelain in Philadelphia in 1771-72, but does not appear to have been financially successful.

The terra-cotta works owned by A. H. Hews, North Cambridge, Mass., were founded by his great-grandfather, Abraham Hews, at Weston, Mass., some time previous to 1765, The location was changed by the present proprietor in 1870 to North Cambridge, where, it is said, more flower-pots are pro

1

duced than at any other factory in the world. Here is also made the usual line of fancy garden terra-cotta, and a large variety of art pottery for decorators.

Before the close of the last century potteries for the manufactue of earthen and stone-ware had become numerous throughout the States. All the white-ware at that time was known as china, and the term was evidently applied to queen'sware-certainly not to porcelain. Paul Cushman had a stoneware factory at Albany, N. Y., in the first decade of this century, and some of his ware is now in the possession of S. L. Frey, of Palatine Bridge, N. Y.

Daniel Freytag was making in Philadelphia, in 1811, a finer quality of china-ware than had yet been produced in the United States. It was made in various colors, and embellished with gold and silver.

Porcelain was made in New York City early in this century, probably by Dr. Mead. How long this factory was in operation is not known, but it is believed that a fine grade of ware was made there from American materials. A vase over a foot in height, "finished in 1816," of excellent body and exceedingly white glaze, is preserved in the Franklin Institute.

In 1823, Henry Remmey started at Philadelphia a pottery, which now, under the proprietorship of Richard C. Remmey, is the largest stone-ware works in the United States. Here are manufactured fire-bricks of superior quality, and chemical stone and porcelain ware, some of the vessels having a capacity of 200 to 500 gallons. The factory produces a large line of household utensils, and ten large kilns are taxed to the

utmost.

From 1816 to 1819 Benjamin Tucker had a china shop on Market St., Philadelphia. He built a small decorating kiln in the rear of the store, for the use of his son, William Ellis Tucker, who painted and fired the imported white china, with at first only partial success. His experiments with different clays found near Philadelphia resulted in the manufacture of a fair quality of opaque ware. Then directing his attention to kaolin and feldspar, and finally discovering the proper proportions of these ingredients in combination with bone-dust and flint, he produced an excellent grade of natural or hard porcelain, and began to manufacture for the market in 1825. In 1828 Thomas Hulme was admitted to the business and great improvements were made in decoration. Later the firm became Tucker & Hemphill, and skilled artists were brought from France to decorate the ware. The later productions of this factory were superior to anything before produced in this country.

From this time the growth of the industry in the United States was rapid and successful, and steam and labor-saving machinery have greatly facilitated the work of the potter.

IT

THE PLANETARY CHAIN.

G. R. S. MEAD.

The Theosophist, Madras, August.

T is one of the postulates of ancient science that there is a Central Sun in the Universe, the heart of the great body of Cosmos. This may be called the microbe of the universal germ-cell granulates, and evolves into the perfect forms of its type; so does the universe, on its own stupendous scale, differentiate and evolve into its component systems. Strange enough it may seem, the study of the development of an insignificant germ-cell will teach the student of nature the genesis of a world or even of a universe. 'As it is above, so it is below." And just as the germ-cell requires a certain energy to develop into a plant, an animal, or a man, so does every sidereal body require an energy to evolve it into its present stage of manifestation This energy is called Fohat, the electro-vital force of the universe. Bearing, then, the facts of a Central Sun and Fohat in mind, we shall be able to understand the following from an ancient scripture: The Central

The universe and everything in it is septenary that is to say, is composed of seven interpenetrating States of Substance, three of which are spiritual and four material. This one substance, if anything, is LIFE, and its constituent particles or atoms are the LIVES which "live and have their being by consuming each other." Hence they are called the "Devourers' -these are the builders of everying in the Universe. The lowest, or outer and most material, state of this substance is that visible and objective universe which we recognize with our physical senses; its other states are, therefore, metaphysical and subjective, or outside the range of our normal and physical perception. We have, however, only to deal with the four lower and material planes of this substance, the three higher, or innermost, being of a spiritual nature, and entirely formless, and, therefore-as far as material consciousness is concerned-ineffable. These are the seven great cosmic elements or "rudiments," which must not be confused with the elements of the ancients, much less with the elements of our modern science. For while even the elements of the ancient Grecian physicists were all on the lowest of these seven planes, or, in other words, were sub-divisions of the seventh cosmic element; while even of these they only know four, viz., their so-called Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, with a problematical fifth called the quintessence; the gross elements of our present science are all on the lowest of these sub-divisions again in their turn. The Earth, Water, Air, and Fire even of the "Philosophers" were subtle elements" compared to the modern molecular army which Prof. Crookes is fast sweeping into the scientific dust-bin.

Remembering, then, that we are dealing with processes which, as far as our solar system is concerned, occurred thousands of millions of years ago, the genesis of a sidereal body can be traced along a line of evolution.

We can trace the evolution of a planet from its emergence from the laya or homogeneous state, through its various transformations, until it involves into the laya state again, which is the eternal and normal condition of Substance, differentiating only periodically; and being during that differentiation in an abnormal state-in other words, a transitory illusion of the senses. For just as the universe is out-breathed and inbreathed, so does the planet emerge from its world-germ to return again to its primordial state, after completing its spiral and cyclic path of evolution and involution.

Like everything else in the universe, this planetary cycle is of a septenary nature. consisting of seven root changes of state, which may, for convenience, be called "globes," but should not be imagined to occupy different places in space, but rather be thought of as images to represent changes of state caused by the information of the nebulous and ethereal planetary matter, which evolves from, and involves into, itself. These seven globes interpenetrate one another, although they are divided each from the other in degree, or state, just as the seven principles of man or the seven planes of consciousness, are

separated. What is to be remembered, however, is that it is a separation of state and not of locality.

The globes are further informed and their homogeneous matter differentiated and developed by a stream of life and consciousness, which cycles round the chain and produces all manifold forms of all the kingdoms of nature. This Monadic Host," as it is called, circles round the chain seven times, each of such cycles being called a Round. As the life-wave leaves one globe and passes to the next, the globe that has just been quitted remains in statù quo, or in a state called “obscuration," until the return of the Monadic Host on the next Round. Thus we have seven globes or material states through which the Monads pass seven times, making in all forty-nine stations. Further, there are on each globe, seven kingdoms, owing to the life-wave being also septenary, or, in other words, there are seven Monads or seven classes of in-forming essences, one for each kingdom. Each kingdom goes through seven transformations on each globe, and thus, in the human we find seven humanities succeeding each other on each globe. Each of these is called a Root-Race, which, after living thousands of thousands of years, transfers its life-principles into its successor. These Root-Races are again sub-divided, and so the analysis proceeds almost ad infinitum.

The fourth globe holds a unique position in the planetary chain, so also does the fourth Round, the fourth Kingdom and the fourth Race, etc. It is, as has been said, the point of balance of "Ezekiel's wheel," the battle-field on which the contending hosts of Spirit and Matter meet in almost equal conflict. We are told that this planet, of which our earth, its fourth globe, is the gross physical body, is in its fourth Round, and that its humanity is in its fifth Root-Race. We, therefore, see that we are just past the turning point of our cycle, and that the involution into Spirit is commencing.

With each Round the earth is said to have developed a new element. In the first it was Fire; in the second, Air; in the third, Water, etc. It should be steadily borne in mind that these "Elements are the substance of the cosmic planes of consciousness, and that our Fire, Air, Water, and Earth are not even the reflections of their shadows.

Such is the bare sketch of a Planetary Chain, and the difficulty has been to condense the wealth of information that can be drawn from religion, science, philosophy, as well as from "superstitions" and "enlightenments."

THE FIRST OBJECT OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

THE

KATHARINE HILLARD.

The Path, New York, December.

HE three principal objects of the Theosophical Society as laid down in the books are: First, "To form a nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, color, or creed." Second, "To promote the study of Aryan and other Scriptures, of the world's religions and sciences, and to vindicate the importance of old Asiatic literature, namely of the Brahminical, Buddhist, and Zoroastrian philosophies." Third, "To investigate the hidden mysteries of Nature under every subject possible, and the psychic and spiritual powers latent in man especially."

The three divisions are but three roads leading to one goal, but as St. Paul, in enumerating the theological virtues, declared that the greatest of these is charity," so of the three objects of the Theosophical Society the greatest of these is "Universal Brotherhood"; the others but side-paths leading into it.

dans practice it, and that, in fact, it is a great piece of presumption for theosophists to suppose they can make anything original out of so threadbare a doctrine. To which we would reply, in the first place, that truth never can be new, that the poet spoke of her with absolute assurance when he said "the eternal years of God are hers," and that that eternity stretches as far into what we short-sighted mortals call the Past, as into what we are pleased to term the Future; and when we learn to know the eternal verities we shall realize that upon the dial of the Absolute there are no figures, because beyond the realm of Illusion there is no Past, no Future, only one everlasting Present. The power and weight of truth are in its age, not in its newness; in the way that it appeals to our hearts as something that we have always known, but somehow unaccountably lost sight of; something that we greet like a dear friend we rejoice to see again after long absence. Therefore, we will not try to claim novelty as a characteristic of the doctrine of Universal Brotherhood.

But we may claim a certain freshness in the method of our teaching. Universal Brotherhood as taught by the churches has too often far too much of the "elder brother" element in it, of a certain virtuous condescension of the truly good towards those so far beneath them in physical and moral qualities that they can afford to demonstrate the height of their own position by the amount of effort they make to stretch a helping hand towards those whom they acknowledge as their "brethren in the Lord." Outside of this rather indefinite location, the brothers occupy the usual uncomfortable position of poor relations.

Brotherhood as taught by the churches is founded generally upon a physical basis. It implies equality, but not identity; men are brothers because they have similar organs, passions, capabilities, a common lot; because they share the great experiences of birth and death and a possible immortality. They are a collection of similar units, an agglomeration of shells upon the shore of life. But they are not one thing; each has his personality which shuts him out from his kind by inclosing him within the limits of self; and between man and man that barrier of personality is ever firmly set; come as near as they can, the consciousness of the I and the Thou is ever between them.

But in Theosophy the fundamental doctrine is that of absolute identity. These outward shows of things are but illusions, a deception of our senses, themselves but a fleeting image on the screen of Time. As life departs our bodies fade and crumble into dust, and mental faculties fail and disappear, our desires and our passions perish with the organs that gave them birth. What remains? Only the Spirit of Man, which is the Spirit of God.

Only by recognizing this absolute Unity of Spirit can we possibly understand the real meaning of the doctrine of Universal Brotherhood, and realize that it means, not the equality of man, but the identity of MAN. Only when we learn to think of Man as a whole, as a collective being, of which each one of us forms a more or less insignificant part, as the separate cells in our bodies make up that physical machine which we think of as our own, only when we can grasp this idea of identity instead of equality, shall we begin to see what “The first object of the Theosophical Society' really implies.

As the object of our individual existence is to return, a glorified and perfected consciousness, to that great Fount of Being whence we sprang, so Humanity as a whole must purge away the evil, dominate the physical, and become a God. To this end we must all work, and each year as it closes will bring nearer the time when the Divine Voice can say in the highest, 'Let there be light." Then indeed shall come the Golden Year, and then

"Shall all men's good

Be each man's rule, and universal Peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro' all the circle of the golden year."

R

RELIGIOUS.

THE PLURALITY OF NATURAL RELIGIONS.*
LOUIS MÉNARD, DOCTEUR ES LETTRES.

Revue Bleue, Paris, November 28. ELIGION is the general bond of human beings united in a society, the poetical and plastic expression of the ideals of peoples. It translates their first thoughts, is developed, transformed, and altered along with them. A theory in fashion during the last century traced all religions to one source, deism, which was called the natural religion par excellence, and of which the others, it was claimed, were alterations. To this hypothesis, nowadays abandoned, has succeeded that of an original fetichism, which also starts from a theoretical view and derives no support from history. Fetichism does not correspond to any view of man collectively; it is less a religion than an embryonic form of religious sentiment among inferior races. You find this fetichism at all epochs among individuals imprisoned in the limbos of intelligence, not only among peasants, but in all classes of society. Those vague terrors, which it is thought can be conjured away by arbitrary practices, that tendency to atribute to certain objects, certain words, certain men, a mysterious power, everything which constitutes the fetichism of savage tribes, exists among the most civilized people also, under the name of superstition. It is not impossible that at prehistoric epochs, such was the point of departure of religion among the best endowed races; but as we have no proof of that fact, to affirm it is not scientific.

The forms of religion vary according to places and times. There are several natural religions, just as there are several races and several languages. The primitive revelation, that is, the first impression of nature on human thought, assumed different characters according to the temperament of peoples. Each race manifested its particular genius in its religion and its language. Languages have been grouped into families, and in like manner religions can be grouped into families, answering to the families of peoples. The world can be conceived of as a machine, as an animal, or as a concert. To these three conceptions answer the three great forms of religion in antiquity. Monotheism regards nature as inert matter moved by a will exterior to it; pantheism represents nature as a living unity, having in itself its principle of action; polytheism sees in nature a collection of independent energies, of which the combination produces universal harmony.

The thought of primitive peoples is a plastic wax, on which nature makes a deep impression. Ten artists of genius, before the same model, will make ten portraits, each differing from all the others, yet all admirable. What would be the result if the model were multiplied like nature, which is so dissimilar in different countries? This variety of aspects contributes as much as the distinctive characters of races to explain the original difference between religions.

Pantheism is bound to be the natural religion of the inhabitants of Egypt, where universal life reveals itself in its unity by the fecundating action of the sun, in its diversity by the animal species. The periodical inundations of the Nile awaken the idea of an unchangeable order, with alternate periods of death and life which, for man as for other beings, hold forth a promise of resurrection. Monotheism is bound to be hatched spontaneously in sandy deserts, where a single living force, the simoon, the breath of which is a devouring fire, fills with its immensity the dumb solitude, and we understand the humiliated terror of man beneath this grand sky of Arabia, so deep and cloudless, always the same, when he compares his infinite pettiness with this infinite grandeur.

It was not fear, however, which revealed to the Aryans, our * From Doctor Ménard's lecture on "Ancient Cililization," introductory to the course on Universal History at the Hotel de Ville of Paris.

distant ancestors, their natural religion, polytheism. Bathed in a vapor of gold on luminous heights, they felt that they were near Heaven and were living with the Gods. The Rig Veda has preserved an echo of their joyous admiration of the first sunrises. This venerable book, written in the most ancient of Indo-European dialects, enables us to understand the bursting forth of religious sentiment in the superior races, as well as the truth of the religious language, which is mythology.

The Veda has remained the sacred book of the Aryans of India, although their religion passed from polytheism to pantheism, at the same time as the establishment of hereditary castes. In Greek poetry, polytheism is presented in a form less primitive than in the Veda, but much more perfect. Above the cosmic Forces, Greece conceived of the living Laws which are linked each with each in an eternal order. She sought the divine in humanity, and by the worship of Heroes prepared that apotheosis of human virtues which was to be summed up in the Christian dogma of the Man-God. The religion of the Romans and that of the Greeks resembled each other as much as the languages of the two peoples; but in Greece the popular beliefs were mobile and variable from one canton to another. There was no priestly body to fix these beliefs. The real theologians of Hellenism were the poets and sculptors. This poetical and plastic initiative was lacking with the Romans. Their mythology was so poor, that worship with them had more importance than dogma. The priesthood was. reserved for the heads of families. Religion was always for the Roman aristocracy a means of government.

As a compromise between a unity and a plurality of Causes, between monotheistic religions and polytheism, stands the Iranian dualism or Mazdeism, the only religion which has freely handled the problem of evil, that stumbling-block of religious spirits. Dualism regards the world as a field of battle for two opposite principles, light and darkness, good and evil, God and the Devil. This creed, connected with the name of a mythical revelator, Zoroaster, has served as a bridge of passage from ancient religions to modern religions. It is regarded as a reform or a heresy of the religions of India; perhaps it contains an element borrowed from the traditions of another race. The Mazdean doctrine of the Devil, foreign to the Bible, was introduced tardily among the Jews, and passed from them, as intermediaries, to the religion of the Christians and that of the Mussulmans.

THE

THE ESOTERIC CHRIST.

EDWARD MAITLAND.

Lucifer, London, November.

HE withdrawal of Christ from his true place in the Trinity of the Manifest, and his identification with the corresponding "Person,” Adonai, in the Trinity of the Unmanifest has been disastrous in the extreme in its consequences to religion and humanity. For by presenting the incarnation as occurring through abnormal devolution from above and without, instead of by normal evolution from below and withinthereby making Christ a being extraneous to man, and of a nature other than man's, instead of the perfected self-hood of man-orthodoxy has inverted the true conception and import at once of creation and redemption, with the result of placing an impassible barrier between man and God, and defrauding man of the divine potentialities which are his inalienable birthright.

This is not to say that the creed itself is in error. As the creed of a Church of the Manifest, the creed is a creed of the manifest. Hence it deals only with the kingdom within man, and recites the principles, processes, and states in the spiritual history of man become by regeneration Son of God, or Christ. But this kingdom and this Christ, orthodoxy has ignored, and has referred the symbol defining them to the Unmanifest, therein suppressing the real subject of the creed, the esoteric

Christ and his kingdom within. By their adoption of, and persistence in this course, the representatives of orthodoxy give proof positive, that in respect of their comprehension of the one essential doctrine of salvation, that of Regeneration, they have not advanced a step beyond him whose confession of ignorance of this very doctrine elicited from the typical man, regenerate himself, the exclamation, "Art thou a Master of Israel and knowest not these things?"

The same confusion of planes which has led to the identification of the Christ in the trinity in man, with the Adonai in the trinity of the Godhead, has led to the identification of the Virgin Mary in man with the corresponding element in original being, the Sophia" or divine Wisdom, this being the name of the feminine element, Substance, in the Godhead.

The term 66 Christ" is of manifold significance, implying alike a principle, a process, a state, an office, and a person; under which last aspect it is also manifold, being exoteric and esoteric, or historical and mystical; microcosmic and macrocosmic, or individual and universal.

As principle, "Christ" denotes that property or quality in virtue of which the substance of existence tends, under individuation, to revert to its original pure condition, by relinquishing its artificial or "created" state as matter, for its normal and divine state as spirit. And this tendency finds its expression and satisfaction in and through evolution. A definition of it, to be sufficient, must recognize these three things: (1) The divinity of inherency; (2) Evolution as the process of manifestation of such inherency; (3) the personal Christ as the crown of evolution; and this alike in his four aspects, the exoteric and the esoteric, the microcosmic and macrocosmic.

As process "Christ" denotes that which, in the language of the Higher Alchemy, is called “The Great Work, the Redemption of Spirit from Matter." The subject of this process is the Will. Its method--the "Secret and Method of Christ "sists in inward purification. And that from which such purification is requisite is the condition implied by the theological expression "original sin."

-con

All that is necessary to enable us to recognize the received definition of "original sin” as an indefeasible truth, is the right understanding of the term Adam." Following the esoteric method, and for persons reading principles, we at once recognize as intended by "Adam" that part of man's nature which, being the first to be elaborated, constitutes the first stage in his evolution as man, and being his outer and superficial part, constitutes the external self-hood only. Adam" is the bodily, or sense, nature; and the limitations which constitute original sin are those which arise from his derivation through and constitution of the lower modes of consciousness into which substance has been projected in order to serve as the raw material of creation.

There has yet to be taken into account that principle of man's nature, which is Eve." "Eve" is his soul, who, as a portion of the divine substance, segregated and individuated indeed, but uncreate, retains her original nature and is competent for his redemption, which she accomplishes by means of his re-creation or regeneration. But not all at once, or in the immediate present. Her function in regard to him, on the spiritual as on the social plane, may be expressed in the injunction, "Woman, redeem your animal!" She perpetuates him in order to build him up from man physical only and perishable, into man spiritual and eternal. And for this she must, like him, undergo trials and experiences and be "made perfect through suffering." The state of innocence that comes of ignorance must be exchanged for that of the virtue that comes of knowledge, which itself must be the product of experience. Only by sharing her Adam's limitations can she become to him the efficient helpmate she is destined to be.

Alchemy" already named, this is the secret and method of Christ:

The Will of God is the alchemical crucible, and the dross which is cast therein is matter.

The dross shall become pure gold, seven times refined, even perfect spirit.

It shall leave nothing behind it, but shall be transformed into the Divine Image.

It is not a new substance, but its alchemical polarity is changed and it is converted.

Except it were gold in its true nature, it could not resume the aspect of gold.

And except matter were spirit, it could not revert to spirit. To make gold the alchemist must have gold.

But he knows that to be gold which others take to be dross. Cast thyself into the Will of God, and thou shalt become as God.

For thou art God, if thy will be the Divine Will.
This is the great secret; it is the mystery of Redemption.
And, being this, it is the secret and method of Christ.

HOW THE ALL-BEAUTIFUL JOSEPH TOOK TO WIFE ASENATH, DAUGHTER OF PENTEPHRES,

I

HIGH PRIEST OF ON.

MISS M. BRODRICK.

Biblia, Meriden, Conn., December,

HAVE often been asked, How was it that Joseph, being a believer in El-Shaddai, came to marry Asenath, who believed in Ptah and Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and the other numerous divinities of the Egyptian Pantheon?

To the early Christians, this episode in the life of Joseph must have seemed peculiarly strange and unaccountable, all the more so from the fact that the patriarch was always upheld as one of the prototypes of their Divine Master. How came it, then, that Joseph could possibly have allied himself with one who was herself a heathen and the daughter of the chief priest of a false religion?

The historic fact remains that Joseph, the Syrian slave boy, rose to the dignity of Adon over the whole land of Egypt, and was given as his wife Snat, the daughter of "Pet-p-ra," the high priest of Annu. Upon this incident there was written, early in the Christian era, a most charming story; the most ancient text is the Greek, of which, unfortunately, part is lost. There is a Syriac version, made in the sixth century, and an Armenian translation from the Greek. The abridged story, as I now give it, is from an unpublished translation of the Greek version:

In the first year of Plenty, Pharaoh sent Joseph throughout the land of Egypt; and on the eighteenth day of the fourth month, he arrived at Heliopolis. Now there lived in that city a certain man named Pentephres; he was high priest of On. He had one only daughter, named Asenath; she being now eighteen years old was exceeding beautiful, "not like to the daughters of the Egyptians, but in all things like to the daughters of the Hebrews, being great of stature like Sarah, blooming as Rebecca, and beautiful as Rachel." Now when Joseph was come into the region of Heliopolis he sent sixteen of his young men to Pentephres, saying: “I will be thy guest to-day." And the high priest answered: 'Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, inasmuch as my lord Joseph hath esteemed me worthy." A feast was prepared for the honored guest; but before his arrival Pentephres called aside his daughter, explained the reason of Joseph's visit, adding: “Come, my dearest child, and I will present thee to him for wife; and thou shalt be his bride and he shall be thy bridegroom for all eternity." To which Asenath replied, in scorn and anger: Wouldst thou deliver me up as a captive to a man of foreign race, a runaway, and who has been sold as a slave? No, I shall