"Life is the Divine impetus of Love. The Force behind the Universe is
Love--and from that Love is bred Desire and Creation. Even as the human
lover passionately craves possession of his beloved, so that from their
mutual tenderness the children of Love are born, the Divine Spirit,
immortally creative and desirous of perfect beauty, possesses space
with eternal energy, producing millions of solar systems, each one of
which has a different organisation and a separate individuality. Man,
the creature of our small planet, the Earth, is but a single result of
the resistless output of Divine fecundity,--nevertheless Man is the
'image of God' in that he is endowed with reason, will and intelligence
beyond that of the purely animal creation, and that he is given an
immortal Soul, formed for love and for the eternal things which love
creates. He can himself be Divine, in the Desire and Perpetuation of
Life. Considered in a strictly material sense, he is simply an embodied
force composed of atoms held together in a certain organised form,--but
within this organised form is contained a spiritual Being capable of
guiding and controlling its earthly vehicle and adjusting it to
surroundings and circumstances. In his dual nature Man has the power of
holding his life-cells under his own command--he can renew them or
destroy them at pleasure. He generally elects to destroy them through
selfishness and obstinacy,--the two chief disintegrating elements of
his mortal composition. Hence the result which he calls 'death'--but
which is merely the necessary transposition of his existence (which he
has himself brought about) into a more useful phase. If he were to
learn once for all that he can prolong his life on this earth in youth
and health for an indefinite period, in which days and years are not
counted, but only psychic 'episodes' or seasons, he could pass from one
joy to another, from one triumph to another, as easily as breathing the
air. It is judged good for a man's body that he should stand upright,
and that he should move his limbs with grace and ease, performing
physical exercises for the improvement and strengthening of his
muscles,--and he is not considered a fool for any feats of physical
valour or ability which he may accomplish. Why then should he not train
his Soul to stand as upright as his body, so that it may take full
possession of all the powers which natural and spiritual energy can
provide?
"Reader and Student!--you for whom these words are written, learn and
remember that the secret strength and renewal of life is
Adjustment--the adjustment of the atoms whereof the body is composed to
the commands of the Soul. Be the god of your own universe! Control your
own solar system that it may warm and revivify you with an ever
recurring spring! Make Love the summer of your life, and let it create
within you the passion of noble desire, the fervour of joy, the fire of
idealism and faith! Know yourself as part of the Divine Spirit of all
things, and be divine in your own creative existence. The whole
Universe is open to the searchings of your Soul if Love be the torch to
light your way!"
Having read thus far, I paused--the little room in which I sat appeared
darker--or was it my fancy? I listened for the voices which had so
confused and worried me--but there was no sound. I turned the pages of
the book before me, and found the following: