the sake of man—­in abjuring the spiritual for the material—­before you rush recklessly onward.  The end for all of you can be but death; and are you quite positive after all that there is no Hereafter?  Is it sense to imagine that the immense machinery of the Universe has been set in motion for nothing?  Is it even common reason to consider that the Soul of man, with all its high musings, its dreams of unseen glory, its longings after the Infinite, is a mere useless vapour, or a set of shifting molecules in a perishable brain?  The mere fact of the existence of A desire clearly indicates an equally existing capacity for the gratification of that desire; therefore, I ask, would the wish for a future state of being, which is secretly felt by every one of us, have been permitted to find a place in our natures, if there were no possible means of granting it?  Why all this discontent with the present—­why all this universal complaint and despair and world-weariness, if there be no hereafter?  For my own part, I have told you frankly what I have seen and what I know; but I do not ask you to believe me.  I only say, if—­if you admit to yourselves the possibility of a future and eternal state of existence, would it not be well for you to inquire seriously how you are preparing for it in these wild days?  Look at society around you, and ask yourselves:  Whither is our “Progress” tending—­Forward or Backward—­Upward or Downward?  Which way?  Fight the problem out.  Do not glance at it casually, or put it away as an unpleasant thought, or a consideration involving too much trouble—­struggle with it bravely till you resolve it, and whatever the answer may be, Abide by it.  If it leads you to deny God and the immortal destinies of your own souls, and you find hereafter, when it is too late, that both God and immortality exist, you have only yourselves to blame.  We are the arbiters of our own fate, and that fact is the most important one of our lives.  Our will is positively unfettered; it is a rudder put freely into our hands, and with it we can steer wherever we choose.  God will not compel our love or obedience.  We must ourselves desire to love and obey—­desire it above all things in the world.

As for the Electric Origin of the Universe, a time is coming when scientific men will acknowledge it to be the only theory of Creation worthy of acceptance.  All the wonders of Nature are the result of light and heat alone—­i.e., are the work of the Electric Ring I have endeavoured to describe, which must go on producing, absorbing and reproducing worlds, suns and systems for ever and ever.  The Ring, in its turn, is merely the