pened to him which he could not disclose. The colonel begged him to give him some kind of a reason in order to pacify the other officers. After a struggle with himself the captain confessed that for some time a ghost had been at his side and refused to leave him. The young lady, when informed of this extraordinary circumstance, could not master her fear and therefore the engagement had been broken off.

The colonel gazed in astonishment. "Ghost? nonsense!" he exclaimed. "That is a notion which you have hatched out in your lonesome life, and it will disappear of itself as soon as you have a wife. The young lady is a fool and her head will have to be set right."

Härdteck defended her and begged the colonel to attempt nothing that might offend or compromise her. The colonel consented at last, but said, "You must be helped. Ask the doctor for advice; perhaps he knows some way to banish your unbidden companion."

The captain, although he felt convinced that medical skill would avail nothing in this case, followed the colonel's advice and spent half a year in trying useless medicines. Then he refused further physical remedies and declared that he regarded his condition as fated; he would have to bear it until it changed of itself.

The colonel said, "Well, do as you wish; but I will make one more attempt myself. When I lived in the capital" he continued, "I once met a man who, without the least boastfulness and in all seriousness, stated that he had attained the gift of knowing all things; he therefore asked all those who found that human wisdom would not avail in unusual matters to turn to him for the advice or help which he could give. I will write to him, and if his words were not mere nothings perhaps he can help us." He wrote the same day. Shortly he received this answer:

one.

"The condition of your friend, which you have described, is a peculiar It originates in a too great conscientiousness, in that the captain doubts that the better nature of man can be joined to the life of a soldier. In consequence of this conflict two beings have been developed within him; one a soldier and the other an ordinary human being; these two would like to become one, but the indecision of the person prevents them. Greet your friend in my name and tell him he should befriend himself more with his ghostly companion and endeavor to become one with him in order that the latter may become absorbed in and make a completed man of him. Then he will see that true human worth excludes no calling and is confined to no garb, but manifests itself wherever the inner life is released from the external and gives to the latter the laws of thought and action. If your friend takes the contents of this letter to heart and carries them into practice, it will be well for him from time to time to give me news of how it stands with him, so that in case he should go astray I set him right again."

This letter made a great impression upon the captain and he exclaimed: "He speaks of an inner life. Is not the apparition which has come to me perhaps the beginning of that? I will follow his advice and see what comes of it."

Härdteck kept his promise. The figure which for a long time had kept at his side at last changed its position and appeared before him, turned itself around with the circle of his thoughts and gradually began to think and to speak within him.

"Man is a wondrous creature!" he said to himself; "spiritual and divine is his nature when his inner life awakens; but dead without this, however much of acquired theories he may have taken up. I perceive that now I am on the way to truth, and my first duty is to thank my friend and the teacher whom I found through him."

CONTINUATION OF THE ORAL INSTRUCTION.

At the end of six months Silbert* came to Fielding with an air that showed that his Ego had not been without effect and that his skeptical ideas had been powerfully shaken. After the first greetings were over he said: "I have passed through some hard struggles; my body rebelled against my persistence, and my reason reproached me for my mechanical obedience, but the will maintained the mastery! I persisted in my exercises, and I have convinced myself that much may be attained, the knowledge of which is sealed to the ordinary man."

Fielding questioned him concerning every circumstance of his practice and requested him to relate the nature of every effect of the same; he then frankly expressed his joy that his pupil had justified his expectations "You have acted as a man," he said; "this makes it my duty to guide you further. Therefore listen: The man must see, hear, and feel himself, not only outwardly, but inwardly, in the spiritually created image which always accords with the condition of our soul. These phenomena at first make themselves manifest in dreams, then in the waking condition also, and finally in the fullest clearness of our mental powers. You have had proofs of this in your own experiences; therefore let us examine the phenomena systematically.

"The power of the Ego has penetrated you to the extent that you have reached the conviction that your whole being is capable of receiving the Spirit. Since, however, the Ego is subject to so many powers, attaching itself to-day to this, to-morrow to that function, we will show it the way to find again its better self where it separates the pure nature of man, from all its worldly conditions and exalts itself to the place of power.

The natural man is born to the mastery. What the world gives us is fleeting and weak. When the condition stands above the man, when we are ruled by the self that the world has given us, then we are involved in darkness, and we fall a prey to Death if we do not save ourselves. But the pure Ego, when it triumphs over the other, conquers Death and opens for us the gate into the Life; therefore we will now penetrate to the real Man, and learn to feel him, as well as to distinguish him, within us. To this end take for your practice in future the task of thinking the name "man," until the power of the same seizes you, destroys completely the false germ, and places you upon the standpoint where only the stamp of humanity has any value for you. You have accomplished the first task; try now the second.

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It is harvest-time here, and therefore my time is limited; but I advise you to pass a few days with me that you may see the industry and the re

*We recall to the memory of the reader the last sentence in the first instalment, regarding Silbert, the disciple of the book: "Silbert returned to the capital where he "practiced" for several hours every day and, in the intervals, read for his recreation the tales in the book he had received from Fielding. In order to lead the reader by the same path we will give some of those stories" which are "The Scholar," "Caroline Rupert," The Image of the Betrothed" and "The Captain's Double." (Ed.)

joicings of the country people as they bring home the blessings of the fields. Our mood is brought nearer to Nature when we observe in what abundance she gives, and we forget, at least for the moment, that man has also laid upon nature's productions the ban that leads to so much discontent." Silbert staid with Fielding and observed the activities of the people of the neighborhood and at the same time began the practice of his task. It awakened in him sensations quite different from the other. "I feel myself internally and externally, he said to Fielding, "when I undertake the new practice.' Have courage," said the latter, "for you must possess yourself both within and without."

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One evening, when Fielding had finished his business earlier than usual, they sat together upon a height; the glorious landscape lay before them in the most beautiful sunset light. Silbert was involuntarily affected and cried: "Nature is wondrous fair; exalted above all expression and all description! Can the spiritual eye, then, behold still greater beauty?" "The Spirit beholds all in its own light," said Fielding.

"I do not understand that," said Silbert.

Fielding replied: "All that is proceeds from the Spirit. Within it are the rays of life, as well as all the forms and colors that charm our eye. It is the sum and substance of all beauty, and the external world is but a weak copy of the living glory of the Spirit, wherein it beholds itself. The more we recognize the Spirit, the more perfect appears the Creation also. Nature has no beauty for the unspiritual."

"According to this the wise have more enjoyment than the ignorant," said Silbert.

"Do you doubt that?" asked Fielding.

"No," replied the pupil. "But there appears to be a double meaning. Wisdom demands renunciation of all enjoyment, and still shall it retain the capacity for enjoyment?"

"That is a trifling with words learned from the unwise, who, in their parsimony, can tolerate no riches. Who made the plan of Creation? The eternal Wisdom. Who can understand this plan? The wise. And whereby can it be understood? By penetrating into the being of Creation, contemplating it in its beauty and its perfection, and thereby attaining the highest enjoyment."

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If that is so," remarked Silbert, "then the doctrine of Wisdom is that of enjoyment."

"Happiness is our aim !" said Fielding. "In that we find all conditions of life fulfilled."

"That is also the language of the egotist."

"It appears to be. Is he an egotist who by his conduct raises into honor in human society a calling which for a long time has been despised? No, in truth, no! He has only given in himself a proof of the worth of his calling. This is the example for man: Everyone shall strive to realize in himself the ideal of humanity; then he has worked for himself and humanity."

"You are right!" exclaimed Silbert. For the first time this view is clear to me. We seek to illuminate others while we are wandering in the darkness ourselves. I feel what I have neglected, and will strive, through knowledge of myself, to pay the debt which humanity has the right to demand of me."

Silbert laid aside for an indefinite period all his legal business and dedicated himself wholly to his new task. In order to live undisturbed, he left the city and leased a lonely estate in the country, whither he retired, seeing no one about him all the day, so that he could continue his practise in the house as well as in the open air. It lasted a year until the time when he could give reckoning concerning his new task. At last, however, the husk burst and he felt the necessity of seeking his friend, that the bud might not be injured by false treatment.

When he came to Fielding, he said: "Man must find himself, each for himself; thus mankind ennobles itself. I recognized the husk of man conduct me to that within." Fielding replied: "You have spoken that which you need, the Inner. Seek it for yourself! That it may be made certain and without illusion for you, however, think for a year: "Inner Nature."

Silbert thanked his friend and again went away. "Inner Nature" he said to himself, "I will learn to know thee. Inner Nature! Thou shall be my key!"

Another year passed by and he came by his practice to the conviction that man, without entire transformation, without rebirth, was swimming aimlessly upon an ocean where he could never hope to reach shore.

Since all the pictures that show themselves to men when dreaming or waking were now pretty clear to him, he read once again the stories contained in the afore-mentioned book, that he might explain to himself the causes upon which they were based.

"The scholar," he wrote in his notebook," is an example of the error into which so many fall when they set up an aim for themselves without considering the peculiarity of their nature. He was pleased with his calling and used all the powers of his mind to attain the highest position therein; in so doing his natural Ego became suppressed. He wrote mostly books of a moral nature, for children, upon their training, upon the improvement of men in particular and in general; he wrote against the sins of his fellows, and everybody held him for an apostle of the age, for a star which would light the world through coming generations. But all his writings were fruits merely of his industry, his capacity for making comparisons and speaking attractively according to given forms, they did not spring from his own powers. The Scholar estranged himself from his natural Ego and died in a living body. The latter, unnerved and enfeebled, could not lift itself to a rebirth, and so it became degraded to the rudest animal nature and at last fell into the arms of death.

"That is the way which I was going, and I have only a kind Providence to thank that I was saved by Fielding in time.

"A lovely example of the rebirth is given in the story of the sailor who found the inner life in the image of his beloved. It is not related in the story, but certainly he first saw her in his dreams; then she appears to him in his waking state, becomes his companion and at last leads him victoriously through the storms of the sea back to his native land. This is an example of those simple natures of the fifth grade, who in faith and love regain themselves. Happy are they who journey such ways.

"The story of the captain awakes my veneration. Fearful lest he violate the laws of humanity, the image of his unblemished Ego appears at his side and in this life receives him into itself. Exalted power of Human

ity, help me, and help all of us, that we at last may behold thee in thy image, and unite ourselves with thee!

"The story of Caroline Rupert is that of a chaotic character: manifold emotions struggle within her. The sorrow for her mother and the pangs of conscience awake at last her better self. The feeling of a cherished pride, paired with a touch of piety, take personified shape against her and would surely have wrought her destruction had not that illuminated man come to her rescue. Wonderful powers of the spirit! Even in error still exalted above ordinary wisdom and reason, since ye could raise the veil of the future for her; wherefore are ye so seldom sought? wherefore are we not shown how in your realm to distinguish Good from Evil? I thank thee, eternal Goodness, that thou hast received me into thy school! I thank my friend and benefactor who with such patience has led me out of the world's confusion."

For two years he practised the awakening and investigation of his inner nature. At the end of this period he came to Fielding and said: "The man and his Inner Nature have become alive, but I feel within this, still an innermost germ, or, I say, a fundamental cause of my being. Help me to bring this also to light."

Fielding replied: "You are right! In the innermost of all there is still a germ which is to be brought forth; to the Ego this is also possible. In order to fulfill all demands, and to raise you to the degree for which your courage and diligence make you worthy, call it King' and shall see what a power flows out from it.”

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

A FEW OCCULT MAXIMS.

you

THE end of all occult philosophy is to assure that unalterable serenity of soul which is the life of heaven and the surpassing peace of the elect.

BELIEVE in the wisdom of God and the harmony of natural laws. This faith will preserve us from anticipating evil, and being vexed by disorders we cannot prevent, for what appears irregular to us is often the result of a law which escapes our notice. We shall find in this consideration the great secret of resignation.

BE not disturbed by the apprehension of evil, for the evil which may overtake you will never be stronger than yourself. There is but one real evil, injustice, and it is in your power to be just. Calamities which are foreign to our conscience are either trials or favors of Providence.

BELIEVE in the reality of all that is good, even in the most fleeting forms of life. "A glass of water given in my name shall deserve eternal life," said the great Initiator.

BE humble; never imagine yourself great because you possess much knowledge or experience profound thoughts. A simple dewdrop reflects all the glories of a beautiful day, yet nothing thereof belongs to it; it is thus of the soul.

DISPUTE not about the essential nature of God. Faith in God should make men better, not lead their reason astray for how should we define the Infinite? How explain what we cannot understand? The more we dispute, the less we adore. Let us reason as we please on the necessity of adoration, but when we pronounce the name of the Indefinable, let us preserve supreme silence. Let us bow and adore!