of students, this no doubt being his intention.  But the instructions given in the volume placed, as I imagined, for my perusal, were simple and in accordance with many of the facts discovered by modern science, and as I read on and on I began to see light through the darkness, and to gain a perception of the way in which I might become an adept in what the world deems ‘miracle,’ but which after all is nothing but the scientific application of common sense.  To begin with, I will quote the following,—­headed

LIFE AND ITS ADJUSTMENT

“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?