of the soul germs of faculties powerful and varied. The soul is called upon to develop above all others one special form of genius, until it is brought to its highest excellence. These multiple aspects of intelligent wisdom and beauty are eternal. Music, poetry, eloquence, invention, prevision of the future and hidden things, the gifts of education, the power to heal, are some of the innumerable forms. In projecting the human entity, the divine thought impregnates that one of these forces assigned particularly to the soul in the vast universal concert. The mission of the being, his destiny, his actions in the general evolution, grow more and more precise, and from being latent and confused become accentuated and clearly defined in the measure that he climbs the immense spiral. The inspirations that he receives from on high respond to those in his character. According to his need and his appeals will he hear in his own depths the divine melody. It is so God, by the infinite variety of contrasts, causes the great harmony to vibrate in nature and in the breast of humanity. If the soul abuses these gifts, or applies them to evil purposes, if it entertains vanity or pride, it must in expiation be reborn in an organism powerless to manifest them. It will live an unknown genius, humiliated among men, long enough for sorrow to lift it above the excesses of its own personality, and to permit it to take a sublime flight towards its ideal. Oh, you who peruse these pages, elevate your thoughts and your resolutions to the high tasks which fall to you. The road to the Infinite opens before you, sown with inextinguishable marvels. Wherever your flight is directed, subjects for study will await you, with inexhaustible sources of joy and beauty. Always are there unsuspected horizons succeeding horizons known. All is beauty in the divine work, and in your ascension it is reserved for you to enjoy innumerable aspects smiling or terrible, from the delicate flower to the flamboyant stars: and to wait at the unfolding of worlds and humanities. At the same time, you will feel your understanding of celestial things grow, and there will awaken in you an ardent desire to perpetuate God - to plunge in Him, in His light, His love. In God our source - our essence - our life! Human intelligence cannot describe the futures presented, the ascension perceived. Our spirit shut in a perishable organism, cannot therein find the necessary resources to express these splendors. The soul, with its profound intuitions, has the sense of infinite things in which it will participate, and to which it aspires. It seeks in vain to express them in feeble human words; in vain to translate those eternal truths in the poor language of earth. But the evolved consciousness perceives the subtle radiations of the superior life. A day will come when the soul will dominate time and space, and a century will be no more for it than an instant, and with a flash of thought it will crown the summits of Heaven. Its subtle organism, refined by thousands of lives, will vibrate to every breeze, to every voice, to all the appeals of immensity. Its memory will plunge into vanished ages, and it will revive at will all that it has lived, and call to it, or join all the cherished souls who have partaken of its joys and sorrows. For all affections of the past are found in the life of space, and new ties are formed, binding us closer and closer in a more powerful and perfect communion. Believe, love, hope! Man my brother, and then act. Apply yourself and put into your work the reflections, the thoughts and the aspirations of your heart - the joys and certitudes of your immortal soul. Communicate your faith to the intelligent minds which surround you, that they may be able to second your efforts for the uplifting of the world and the opening of a way for the evolution of the spirits. By and by will come science, virile and renewed, no longer the science of prejudices, routines, and worn-out methods, but a science open to all kinds of research, to all investigations, the science of the Invisible and the Beyond. It will come to fertilize understanding, to enlighten intelligence and to fortify conscience. Faith in the survival of the soul stands upon the rock of experiences and defies criticism. An art purer and more idealistic, illumined by the light that never dies, will come to vivify the spirit of earth. It will be the same with religious beliefs and systems. In the flight of thought, to lift truths from their relative order to the order superior, they will approach, join, and mingle, making of the multiple faiths of the past, hostile or dead, a living faith which will unite humanity in adoration and prayer. Work with all the power of your being to prepare this evolution. Human activities must be used with more intensity on this route of the spirit. After physical humanity, mind humanity must be created - after the body, the soul. That which has been conquered by material energy has been lost in deeper knowledge and revelation of inner senses. Man has triumphed over the visible world; now it remains for him to conquer the interior world, and to know the secrets of his splendid future. 94
Instead of arguing, act! Discussion is vain - criticism sterile, but action is grand when it consists of making yourself and others greater. Do not forget that you work for yourself in working for others. The universe, like your soul, renews itself, and is perpetuated and embellished without cessation by work and exchange. God is perfecting his work, enjoy it as you rejoice in embellishing your own: your most beautiful work is yourself. By constant efforts you can make your intelligence and your consciousness an admirable work which you will enjoy indefinitely. From each fertile crucible of a life you should come forth capable to perform new tasks and higher missions appropriate to your strength, and each one should be recompense and a joy. So with your hands, day-by-day you fashion your destiny. You will be reborn in such forms as your desires construct, until your desires prepare for you forms and organisms superior to those of earth. You will be reborn in the environment you love, near to the being you have loved, and they will live with and for them. Then when your earthly evolution is finished, when you have exalted your faculties and forces to a sufficient degree of power, when you have emptied the cup of suffering, bitterness, and felicity that the world has offered you, and communed with all the aspects of human genius, then you will mount with your dear ones toward other more beautiful worlds - worlds of peace and harmony. Your lost earth envelope returning to dust, your pure essence reaching the spiritual regions, your memory and your work still sustaining men in their strife and trials, you can say with serene joy - 'My life on earth has not been sterile - my efforts have not been in vain!' 95
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