BRIEFS.

A clear, well-balanced mind is the brightest jewel that nature has ever produced. She has so constituted the human organism that, when a demand is made upon it, the function called upon to act summons to its assistance all the powers of brain and body, so that, for the time, the individual may be said to be out of balance, his whole being becomes the expression of one thought. This concentration of power greatly develops and enlarges the particular function in use, and increases the abil ity to think in the direction in which the faculties are active; but if the extreme tension be continued too long, it will throw the entire organism out of balance,-bring on derangement of the physical structure and produce abnormal colorings of thought.

For many generations the world has been living wholly in the material senses-so much so that there has arisen a certain deranged, unbalanced condition of mind, of which the result is that every spiritual thought, instead of shining with its true light and glory, appears as insane raving, dark miasma; and as all mind has its origin in spirit, has come out from God, the world is full of disease, sorrow, and death, brought on by distorted mental states. Consequently, before the human family ean again reach its normal longevity, it must find peace and happiness through a knowledge of spirit.

In order that a plant may grow it must have proper conditions; and, according to the old maxim, "As below so above," a law governing vegetable life must also be active in animal life, in man, and in mental and spiritual growth. Therefore a spiritual consciousness cannot develop and maintain its conscious existence unless one, by means of a proper life, makes conditions within himself suited to its unfoldment. There is a large class of people now before the world who think that spiritual growth is altogether dependent upon a recognition

of the fact that we came out from spirit, that we are spirit; but it would be as reasonable to expect the seed to germinate and grow on a dry, solid rock, provided it has plenty of sunlight, as to expect spiritual growth by simply opening the consciousness to the source of life and light,-spirit. Vegetation, in order to grow, must have not only the sunlight, but good rich earth and plenty of water; and if a human organism would grow into a spiritual man or woman, the human body must be well fed and taken care of, and well watered with the waters of regeneration. Then the sunlight of mind and spirit, as the whole being opens to the source of life, will cause the organization to grow and bring forth abundantly.

The way of attainment has been called the Narrow Way. The successful aspirant will find that it is too narrow to admit of any interests arising in a desire for amusement, pastime, or of any interests of a merely social nature. We have no time for forebodings, regrets, for hearty laughter; in fact, there is no room in that Way for anything that is not absolutely essential to the onward course of the traveller. We are told that it is so narrow that but one can pass that Way at a time. It is undoubtedly true that every soul will have all that it can possibly do to hold its own course along that Way, without carrying another with it. Others may follow the lone traveller or may precede him, but the cloudy pillar that enshrouds him, covers him from sight. This, of course, does not preclude a helpful word to another or a suggestion, or being used as an instrument to lead others into the Way; but whatever may be, one thing is certain,—each wayfarer must be absolutely alone with God.

Heaven is one: how can can there be more than one God there?- Lao Tseu.

Men were our masters to teach, we learn silence from the gods. Plutarch.

OUR EXCHANGES.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THOUGHT.

Mind is doing a good work in the metaphysical world. Its contributors present advanced thought, tersely and clearly expressed. We deem the magazine one of the most important of the century. The following article gives a good idea of the class of matter with which it deals.[ED.

We stand so nearly upon the border of the unseen world that, though prone to deny its very existence, we must commonly express the material in terms of the immaterial- -as when we speak of the "weight" of a body we must express it as a measure of gravity; that is to say, in terms of force-inappreciable by the senses.

Energy is known to the senses by its effect only, and the more available the form of energy the less crude is its embodiment. In the progress of the arts we work first with that which appeals to the five senses, but through the refining action of mind we deal eventually with force direct. Now, as the efficiency of refined oil is superior to that of a tallow dip, or as gas is superior to oil, or electricity to gas-so is that subtle energy known as thought more potent than electricity.

Yesterday the vast efficiency of electricity went for nothing: to-day the mind has harnessed the intangible and commands the unseen. We whisper across the Atlantic; we put an ear to the ground and hear the voice of the world. The schoolboy reads of the modern miracles of Edison and of Roëntgen, and dozes over the book whose simple statement would have confounded Newton. The child that rides in a trolley-car, speaks through a telephone, and can prove the earth is round, passes judgment on the world that arraigned Galileo. And, wise in our day and generation, we would now stand for something incontrovertible. But no! The flood has swept the place where we stood yesterday and shall cover the ground whereon we now stand. We shall presently see that nothing is stable; that only Being is. We are working from the circumference to the center-from the seeming to the real; and from the dark

caverns of the human mind the bats are flitting silently before the light. That which is ridiculed one day becomes axiomatic the next. To-day we burn witches, and to-morrow attend seances. Witness, then, how relative are all things-for it is not the Light we have seen, but its reflection in the myriad mirrors of the mind; and no man presents a plane mirror but such as have all degrees of curvature, both concave and convex-and all images are distorted.

The child of the future shall marvel at the reputed wisdom of this day; and as we read with incredulity of that Roman Catholic world that declared the earth was flat, so shall he read in pitying wonder of those races of men that builded great nations, possessed a vast commerce, were skilled in the arts— yet failed to perceive the significance of thought!

Men talk vaguely of the Ideal and the Real: one for poet and one for banker. But the ideal is the only real, and, as we shall learn, is alone practical. Let us have done with the false distinction-it is the real and the unreal that confront us! Here is a practical age, and common sense is greatly esteemed; but our common sense is oftenest nonsense. It is the uncommon sense that should be made common: the sense to perceive and hold fast the Real. Stocks and bonds-a princely incomeseem real and substantial; but a lack of confidence-a thought of fear-enters the minds of men, and that value, apparently so solid and enduring, vanishes into thin air. The thought alone remains. The eloquent speaker to whom we listen today is gone to-morrow; but his thought lives and bears fruit.

Thought is a living, active force; it is a mode of vibration whose rate is not yet ascertained; it is the thunderbolt of Jove, and its action is irrevocable. As we think, so are we. The condition of the body is the mathematical resultant of the parallelogram of thought forces; so is the condition of the money market; so is the world; and so is every man's life:

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage. If a man

speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him."

In the control and direction of thought lies the method of true reform, which deals with causes, not effects; it opens the

way to individual emancipation and progress, and the regeneration of society shall follow. But no convention, no massmeeting will avail; it is a question for the individual-a silent reform. It is love in the heart and corresponding thoughts in the mind that shall bring peace on earth. A little observation shows that the mind projects its thought upon the world's canvas: the canvas is nothing, but the thought merits our profound consideration.

We are "out of sorts," and all men and events appear to be at cross purposes: we are in a cheerful frame of mind, and the whole world seems to rejoice. We may trace the thought of anger or fear to its deleterious effect upon the body; its action is unfailing. And we may as surely witness the wholesome influence of benign thoughts. The prevailing thoughts and aspirations of the men and women of to-day shall be factors in the mental caliber, temperament, and moral status of the children of to-morrow-and the explanation of many unlooked-for proclivities. A present devotion to art, a love of the beautiful, and the worship of Truth-all shall bear fruit in the coming race. Joy or despondency, purity or sensualitywhichever is propitiated shall become the fairy godmother of our children, The mothers of this day are shaping the destinies of the men of the future; and to the emancipation of women we must look for the elevation of the race. The teeming population of the globe is truly one family, and the thought and influence of each member are communicated ad infinitum. No man shall so much as in thought contribute to the degrada tion of woman but he weaves a dark thread in the life of races yet to be born.

This perplexing problem of disease finds its own solution in the relation that exists between mind and body. We ask ourselves why the majority of men pass out of this life through the agency of disease; why it is so exceptional to hear of a "natural death"; why so seldom a perfectly normal and sound body? And there is but one logical answer: the body is built by the mind, and it is the departure from truth-it is erroneous thinking that causes bodily imperfection and disease. Disease is not a thing in itself; it is not a "roaring lion seeking to devour,” but merely a register, an indicator, of mental error. A mind perfectly controlled and directed ever upon the truth will produce a normal body and maintain it in a state of equilibrium,