Karma is thought: spiritual, mental, psychic, physical thought.

Mental thought is of atomic life-matter in the mental zodiac.

—The Zodiac.

THE

WORD

KARMA

V

Mental Karma

IN the first article on karma, it was shown that karma is a compound word; that its two principles, ka, desire, and ma, mind, were united R, action; so that, karma is desire and mind in action. The action of desire and mind takes place in the sign sagittary (♐︎). The character of sagittary is thought. Karma is thought. Karma, thought, is both cause and effect. One’s karma, thought, is as effect the result of his previous karma, thought. Karma as cause is the parent thought, which will determine future results. Man is circumscribed, held in and limited by his own thoughts. No one can be raised except by his own thought. No one can be lowered except by his own thought.

Man is a thinker, who lives in the world of thought. He stands between the physical world of ignorance and shadows (♎︎ ) and the spiritual world of light and knowledge (♋︎–♑︎). From his present state, man may go into darkness or enter the light. To do either he must think. As he thinks, he acts and by his thoughts and actions he descends or ascends. Man cannot at once fall downward into ignorance and utter darkness, nor can he rise into knowledge and light. Each man is somewhere on the path which leads from the gross world of ignorance to the clear light world of knowledge. He may circle around his place on the path by re-thinking his past thoughts and generating them anew, but he must think other thoughts to change his place on the path. These other thoughts are the steps by which he lowers or raises himself. Each step downward is the transposing of an upper step on the path of thought. The steps downward cause mental pain and sorrow, even as pain and sorrow is caused by the effort to ascend. But however low man may go his mental light is with him. By it he may begin the climb. Each effort to think of one’s light and the higher life helps to build the step which takes him higher. Each step upward on the path to the light is made of the thoughts which formed a downward step. The thoughts which held him down are refined and transformed into the thoughts which take him up.

Thoughts are of many kinds. There is the thought of the physical, the psychic thought, the mental thought and the spiritual thought.

Physical thought is of the atomic life-matter of the physical world in its physical zodiac, psychic thought is of the atomic life-matter of the desire world in its astral or psychic zodiac, mental thought is made up of the atomic life-matter of the thought world in its mental zodiac.

By his thought, man is a creator or destroyer. He is a destroyer when he changes higher into lower forms; he is a builder and creator when he changes lower into higher forms, brings light into darkness and changes darkness into light. All this is done through thought in the world of thought which is his mental zodiac and on the plane of leo–sagittary (♌︎–♐︎), life–thought.

Through the thought world, spiritual things come into the psychic and physical worlds and through the thought world all things return into the spiritual world. Man, the thinker, as the incarnated mind, acts from the sign sagittary (♐︎), thought, on the matter of the sign leo (♌︎), life, which is atomic life-matter. As he thinks, he generates karma and the karma generated is of the nature of his thoughts.

A thought is generated by the brooding of the incarnated mind over the unformed body of his desires. As the mind broods over desire, desire is aroused into active energy which whirls from the heart upward. This energy increases with a vortex-like movement. The vortex-like movement draws into it the atomic life-matter of the zodiac in which the thinker is acting. As the mind continues to brood, the atomic life-matter is drawn into the vortex-like movement which increases in rapidity. The life-matter is moulded, polished, given outline or color, or both outline and color, by the brooding mind, and is finally born into the world of thought as a distinct and living thing. The complete cycle of a thought is made up of its gestation, birth, the length of its existence, its death, dissolution or transformation.

The birth of a thought results from the impregnation of desire by mind due to the presence of an idea. Then follows the period of gestation, formation and birth. The length of the life of a thought depends upon the health, strength, and knowledge of the mind which gave it birth, and on the nurture and care that the thought receives after birth.

The death or dissolution of a thought is determined by the inability or refusal of its parent mind to perpetuate its existence, or by its being overcome and dissolved by another thought. Its transformation is the changing of its form from one plane to another. A thought bears the same relation to the mind which gave it birth, as a child to its parents. After birth, the thought like a child, requires care and nurture. Like a child, it has its period of growth and activity and may become self supporting. But like that of all beings, its period of existence must come to an end. Once a thought is born and has reached its full growth on the mental plane it will there exist, until what it stands for is shown to be untrue by a mind which gives birth to the thought which takes the place of the one discredited. The one discredited then ceases to exist as an active entity, though its skeleton is kept in the world of thought, much the same as relics or antiques are kept in the world’s museums.

A thought of the physical is called into existence by the mind brooding over the desires of the physical. A physical thought fades out and dies if its parent refuses to feed it by thinking of it and brooding over it and energizing it with desire. Physical thoughts have to do directly with that which deals with mechanical instruments and processes in the physical world.

Houses, hovels, railroads, boats, bridges, printing-presses, tools, gardens, flowers, fruits, grains and other products, artistic, mechanical and natural, are the result of the continued brooding of the mind over physical desires. All such physical things are the embodying of the thoughts of the physical in the matter of the physical. When the human mind refuses to perpetuate the thoughts of physical things, houses will fall into ruins, railroads will be unknown and boats and bridges will disappear, machines and printing-presses will rust away, there will be no use for tools, gardens will be overgrown by weeds, and cultivated flowers, fruits and grains will fall back into the wild state from which they were evolved by thought. All these physical things are karma as results of thought.

Psychic thoughts deal especially with the organic structure in the physical world and with the sensations experienced through living organic animal bodies. A psychic thought is born in the same manner as a physical, but whereas the physical thought is connected with the things in the physical world, the psychic thought is essentially of desire and connected with sensation. The birth of a psychic thought is due to the presence of a psychic thought or force which acts directly on the organs of sense and causes the mind to breathe into the organ or organs of sense. After the mind has brooded over and given attention to the organs of sense, and has caused the atomic life-matter of its mental plane in its psychic zodiac to build up and fill out the thought, the thought is finally born into the psychic world in its psychic zodiac.

Psychic thought is a mass of desire given form and entity by man. According to the nature of the organic desire, the mind will give it form and birth and support its growth and persistence in the astral world. These psychic thoughts persisting in the psychic world are the types of all animals which exist in the physical world. The lion, tiger, rattlesnake, sheep, fox, dove, hippopotamus, peacock, buffalo, crocodile and asp, and all animal creatures which hunt or are hunted, will continue to exist in the world as long as mankind continues to produce in the astral world the characteristic desire forms which are the special types of the animal kingdom. The type of an animal is determined by the form which the mind of man gave to the principle of desire. As the desires and thoughts of mankind change, the types of the animal creation will change. The cycle of any animal type depends on the persistence or change of the nature of desire and thought.

Man’s mind acts with desire in clearness or confusion. When the mind acts in confusion with desire, so that the life-matter of the psychic zodiac is not given a sufficiently distinct form, then are called into being the misshapen forms or bodies of the desires, passions and emotions which circulate in the astral world. These vague misproportioned forms or bodies are the product of the great majority of men. Comparatively few men produce well defined and clearly formed thoughts.

Animals, desires, passions and emotions are both cause and effect of the psychic thought of man as he acts from the mental plane in his psychic zodiac. The passions, envy, jealousy, anger, hatred, murder and the like; greed, generosity, craft, lightheartedness, ambition, love of power and admiration, frivolity, excitability, whether produced with intensity or indifference, contribute to the psychic thoughts or karma of themselves and of the world. These unformed thoughts are liberated into the psychic world by man’s entertaining such feelings and giving expression to them in forceful speech or by the perpetual action of a rattle-tongue.

The unformed psychic thoughts contribute in large part to the sorrows and sufferings of men. Man as a unit of humanity must share the general karma of humanity. This is not unjust; because, as he shares the karma of others he compels others to share the karma which he produces. He shares the kind of karma of others that he causes others to share with him. When one is passing through a period of mental suffering he often refuses to believe that his suffering is just and that he had any part in its making. Were the truth known, he would find that he was indeed the cause of what he now suffers and that he did provide the means by which he now suffers.

One who has a feeling of hatred for any person or thing liberates the force of hatred. This may be directed to a person or to the world. The force of hatred liberated will act on the person against whom it is directed, only if that one has the feeling of hatred in him. If directed against the world, it acts on the particular condition of the world to which it is directed, but in any case the unformed dynamic force of hatred will return to its generator. When it returns, he may entertain and send it out again and it will again return to him. By so harboring hate, he will cause others to feel a hatred against him. At some time, he will do or say something to arouse hatred and then he will provide the conditions which will cause his own dynamic unformed hatred to precipitate on him. If he does not see that his unhappy state of mind is caused by his own hate he will say that he is unjustly treated by the world.

One whose passions caused him to do and say things to arouse the passions in others will endure the suffering which passion brings. The passion which he pours out into the psychic world returns to him. Not knowing the manner in which he generates it, not being able to trace its path through the psychic world, and forgetting or ignorant of his having entertained the passion, he does not see the connection between the passion which he threw into the world and the suffering which its return brings to him. One who is without passion will not generate passion and therefore will have no passion of his own to suffer from; neither can he suffer from the passion of another, because, unless he so wills, the passion of another can find no entrance into his mind.

Those who slander others, either from the desire to harm or from the habit of frivolous gossip, liberate mean and ill-formed thoughts into the psychic world which may find their vent on the persons to whom they are directed; but in all cases they contribute to the thoughts of slander in the world and they will surely return and be precipitated on those who generate them. Those who slandered suffer from slander that they may understand the mental pain which it brings and learn that slander is unjust.

One who boasts and brags concerning his powers, possessions or knowledge hurts no one so much as himself. He generates a cloud-like body of desire which overawes or weighs down upon the minds of others. He increases the psychic thought cloud of bragging. He is more deluded by it than others until at last it bursts and he is overwhelmed by it. He sees that others see that he was only boasting and bragging and this causes him to feel as small as his bragging was intended to make him great. Unfortunately, the one who suffers such mental karma often does not see that it was caused by himself.

One who thinks and tells a lie brings into the thought world a force as violent and nefarious as that of murder. A liar pits himself against eternal truth. When one tells a lie he is attempting to murder truth. He attempts to put a falsehood in place of a fact. If a falsehood could be put successfully in place of a fact, the universe could be thrown out of balance. By telling a lie one attacks the principle of justice and truth more directly than in any other manner. From the standpoint of mental karma, a liar is the worst of all criminals. It is because of the lies of the units of humanity that humanity as a whole and the units themselves must endure the suffering and the unhappiness in the world. When a lie is thought and told it is born into the world of thought and affects the minds of all with whom it comes in contact. The mind yearns, aspires to see the truth in its own purity. A lie would prevent the truth from being seen. The mind yearns to know. A lie would deceive it. In its highest aspiration, the mind seeks its happiness in the truth. A lie would prevent such attainment. The lies which are universally told and which circulate in the mental world, cloud, befog and obscure the mind, and prevent it from seeing its proper course. The karma of a liar is a perpetual mental torment, which torment is eased while he is deceiving himself and others, but the torment is accentuated on the return of his lies to him. The telling of one lie causes the liar to tell two to conceal his first. So his lies multiply until they precipitate themselves on him; then they are discovered and he is overwhelmed by them. As men continue to lie, their ignorance and unhappiness will continue.

If one would know true mental karma, he must stop lying. One cannot see his own or the mental operations of another clearly while he continues to obscure his own and the minds of others. Man’s happiness increases with the love of truth for its own sake; his unhappiness disappears as he refuses to lie. Heaven upon earth would be more fully and quickly realized than by any other means if people would speak what they know and believe to be true. A man may make quicker mental progress by telling the truth as he knows it than in any other way.

All things come as the karma of one’s previous thoughts: All the physical conditions of life, such as health or disease, wealth or poverty, race and social position; one’s psychic nature, such as the nature and kind of his desires, his tendency to mediumship, or the development of the inner senses and faculties; the mental faculties also, such as the capacity to learn and assimilate teachings from the schools and books and the inclination to persistently investigate. Many of the possessions, afflictions, psychic tendencies and mental faculties or defects which he now has, may be traced back by him or one acquainted with his career as the results of his own persistent thoughts and efforts. In such case the justice is apparent. On the other hand, there are many physical things, psychic tendencies and mental endowments, which cannot be traced to anything which he may have done in the present life. In this case he and others may say that he does not deserve that which he now has, and that he is unjustly favored or abused. Such judgment is incorrect and due to inability to connect present effects with their past causes.

As the result of the many incarnations of the mind in human bodies and the innumerable motives, thoughts and actions good and bad which have been held, thought and done by the mind in other lives, there is stored an immense amount of credit and debit to the account of the mind. Each mind now incarnated has to its credit many of the good things and the bad things which it longs for, despises and dreads. It may also have to its credit the psychic accomplishments which it now yearns for, or it may lack them. Intellectual powers far beyond one’s present attainments or dullness of mind may be in store. All of these may be quite opposite to present possessions and ability, but they must come home to their parent at last.

The karma which he is about to have is determined by man himself. Consciously or unconsciously, man determines that particular part of his karma which he will suffer or enjoy, work out or postpone. Though he knows not how he does it, yet he calls into the present from the great storehouse of the past, the things and faculties which he has. He precipitates his own karma, some long overdue, some which should not yet come. All this he does by his thought and the mental attitude which he assumes. His mental attitude decides whether he is willing or not to do that which he should. For a time he may escape his present karma, good or bad, by refusing to go through it when it comes, or in putting it off through working energetically in another direction. Nevertheless he cannot get rid of his karma except by the doing and suffering of it.

There are four classes of individuals according to the mental karma they receive. The manner in which they receive it, largely determines the manner and kind of karma which they create for the future.

There is first the individual who thinks little. He may be sluggish or active. He takes what he finds not because he would not take better, but because he is too lazy either in body or in mind or in both to work for it. He is heavy or light-hearted, and is carried along on the surface of life. Such are the servants of environment because they do not try to understand and master it. Environment does not create or determine their lives, but they choose to accept things as they find them and, with what mental powers they have, continue to shape their lives according to the environment in which they are. Such as these work out their karma as it comes. They are servants in inclination, nature and development.

The second class is that of individuals whose desires are strong, who are active and energetic, and whose mind and thoughts accord with their desires. They are not satisfied with their condition and, by the use of their latent and active mind, seek to exchange one condition of life for another. By constantly keeping their mind occupied, they see opportunities of gain, and they take advantage of them. They improve their condition and sharpen their mind to see other opportunities. They overcome the physical conditions instead of being satisfied with or ruled by them. They put off the bad karma as long as they can and precipitate the good karma as quickly as they can. Bad karma they call that which brings no material advantage, which causes loss of possessions, brings trouble, or causes disease. Good karma they call that which gives them material wealth, family and enjoyment. Whenever their bad karma would appear, they strive to prevent it. They may do so by diligent work in body and mind, in which case they meet their karma as they should. By their mental attitude as to their honesty in meeting debts and losses and striving honestly to repay them they precipitate much of their bad karma; to all of which they are equal so long as their determination to act justly continues, in which case they precipitate and work out their bad karma and create and set in motion the just and proper conditions for good karma in the future. But if they refuse to acknowledge or pay their debts, and by cunning or trickery evade them, they may prevent their bad karma from being precipitated when it naturally would appear. In this case, the immediate work of the present will tide them over for a while, but by refusing to meet their bad karma they add more to their debits. They can carry their debts forward, but the longer they carry them the heavier they will be. At last they are not able to meet the demands made on them; they can no longer pay the heavy interest, for to carry forward bad karma, requires wrong action. When the bad karma becomes heavy, their deeds must become more evil to carry along the bad karma, until at last the rate and amount of interest is so heavy that they are not able to meet it, not because they would not, but because others with whose interest they interfere prevent them. Not being able longer by cunning and duplicity to hide their actions and ward off disaster, they see it at last break and overwhelm them.

To this class belong the individuals whose minds are directed to barter for money and possessions and lands, who commit one dishonest act and to cover it commit another and another, who plan and connive to take advantage of others, who continue to accumulate material wealth even though their acts are unjust and plainly dishonest. They flourish not because justice is overcome, but because according to justice they get what they work for to the uttermost farthing. Working dishonestly with their minds they acquire what they dishonestly work for, but their works are at last paid. Their own work overtakes them; they are crushed by the just law of their own thoughts and deeds.

Among them are the individuals who are the heads or behind the heads of large industrial institutions, banks, railroads, insurance associations, who fraudulently deprive citizens of their rights, who acquire large possessions and vast fortunes by the application of their minds to physical and material ends. Many such are for a time considered as models by those who long to occupy similar positions and influence, but when their account comes due and is presented by the bank of karma and they cannot or will not meet it, their dishonesty is discovered. They become objects of ridicule and contempt and their physical sentence is pronounced in the court which is composed of judge and jury, or is a disease, or an evil disposition, which will soon bring physical retribution.

Those whom they injure are not without their karma. Their karma is both in the learning of how to meet conditions and in the payment for past acts when they themselves were wrong-doers, and all of these are witnesses in mind against the evil done by the culprit who has thereby accumulated wealth and possessions dishonestly. According to his rise will be the depth of his fall.

This is the mechanical automatic side of karma which has to do with the sentence pronounced on the physical body; but no one hears or sees pronounced the sentence of such a one’s mental karma. The sentence of mental karma is pronounced in the mental courts of karma, witnesses and attorneys in which are one’s own thoughts, and where the judge is one’s higher Ego. The culprit serves the sentence willingly or unwillingly. Serving the sentence willingly is to recognize one’s misdeeds and the justice of the sentence; in this case he learns the lesson which his wrong acts and thoughts should teach him. By so doing he pays the debt of mental karma, wipes off the mental account. An unwilling serving of the sentence is his effort to excuse himself mentally, to plot how to overcome the difficulty and to rebel against the sentence; in which case he does not cease to suffer mentally, fails to learn the lesson intended and creates evil conditions for the future.

Of the third kind of individuals are such as have ambitions and ideals, and whose thought is employed in attaining and preserving them. Such are people proud of their birth or standing who would rather be poor gentlemen or ladies of “family” than of the wealthy vulgar who are nobodies; and those engaged in educational and literary pursuits; those of artistic temperament and endeavor; the explorers who seek to discover new regions; inventors who would bring new devices into operation; those who seek military and naval distinction; those who engage in pursuits for disputation, debates and mental advantages. Individuals of this class work out their mental karma naturally so long as they hold to the particular ambition or ideal which they have in view and work for that alone. But all manner of difficulties and dangers beset those of this class who, losing sight of their particular ambition or ideal which is in the world of thought, attempt to deviate from their particular path. Then they precipitate karma which they have incurred at previous times while acting in other capacities.

He, for instance, who is proud of his lineage, must keep up the “family honor,” and place other laurels to its credit. If he enters into transactions requiring trickery, he may continue them for a while, but sooner or later one who envies him or one who has been unjustly dealt with by him, will make known dishonest and disgraceful transactions and bring to light skeletons concealed in the closet. When such karma is about to precipitate, then he may, if he attempts to cover up his unjust action, or plans to get those out of the way who would be the means of disgracing him, put off his bad karma for a while, but he does not remove it. He places it to his account in the future, and it will accumulate interest and precipitate at some future time when he seeks to claim honors and distinctions that do not rightfully belong to him. On the other hand, if he should meet the bad karma manfully and deal with it honorably, he will pay the debt, by which conduct he makes future good karma. His attitude may even add to the honor and probity of the family, and what might at first have seemed disgrace will by his action add to the worth of the family name.

He whose ambition is in the mental world, though this ambition be represented in the physical world by position, may obtain his ambition by using his mind to that end; but his endeavor must be in keeping with his ambition, in which case he works along the line of his past thought and precipitates no evil karma. But should he deviate from this, he puts himself out of his class and calls down upon himself quickly the retribution for many actions other than those warranted by his particular ambition.

Those engaged in educational pursuits will achieve success if education is the object of their thought. No danger is incurred and no bad karma made so long as they hold to educational ambitions. But when they seek education with a view to business or profit, or when unfair means are resorted to in order to obtain educational positions, then the conflicting thoughts in their mental world will eventually clash, and a storm is precipitated to clear the mental atmosphere. At this time those thoughts not in keeping with the object of receiving and spreading education are brought to light, and these persons must square their accounts, or, if they succeed in putting off the day of reckoning, they must answer in the future, but answer they must.

Soldiers, sailors and statesmen work according to the law, only when they seek to serve their country, that means the welfare of the people. If their object is the welfare of the people and that alone, no circumstances can intervene by which they may be discredited. Their services may not be desired at first by the people, but if they persist in doing that only which is for the people’s good, the people, as the unconscious agents of karma, will find it out and they, like the great intelligent agents of karma, will make use of the services of such men, who gain in strength as they refuse personal advantages. But should they abandon their object, and barter the position which they hold for money, or use the influence of their position to further their prejudice, then they precipitate on themselves the karma of their own actions. The people will find them out. They will become disgraced in the eyes of others and of themselves. If the lesson of right action is learned, they may regain their power by paying the penalty of the wrong action and continuing in the right.

Inventors and discoverers are explorers of the mental world. Their object should be the public good, and he among them will be most successful in his search who looks most eagerly for the public good. If one uses an invention or discovery for personal ends and against others, he may prevail for a considerable time, but eventually that which he has used against others will be turned against him, and he either loses or suffers from that which he has discovered or invented. This may not occur in the life in which he has misused his success, but it will surely come, as in the cases of the persons whose inventions have been taken from them and used by others, of those who spend much of their time, labor and money in trying to discover or invent something for financial gain, but who do not succeed, or of those persons who have discovered or invented that which causes their own death, disfigurement, or ill health.

Those of an artistic or literary temperament, who seek their ideal in attaining perfection in literature and whose efforts are all to that particular end, will realize their ideal according to the manner in which they have worked for it. When their ambitions are prostituted to lower aims, they incur the karma of their particular work. For instance, when artists turn their efforts to the making of money, the object of art is superseded by the object of money or gain and they lose their art, and even though it be not at once, they lose their standing in the mental world and descend to lower levels.

The fourth class of individuals are those who are eager for or who possess the higher mental faculties. They place knowledge of whatever kind above social distinction or material wealth. They are concerned with all questions of right and wrong; with philosophy, science, religion and with politics. The politics with which they are concerned is not the petty party spirit, the trickery, jobbing and the dishonorable intrigues resorted to by those who are called politicians. The politics with which this fourth class is concerned is chiefly the welfare of the state and good of the people, aside from any party, faction or clique. These politics are free from trickery and concerned only with the best means of administering justice.

This fourth class is broadly divided into two groups. Those who seek knowledge of a purely intellectual nature, and those who seek spiritual knowledge. Those who seek knowledge of the intellect arrive at spiritual truth after long processes of intellectual search. Those who seek spiritual knowledge in itself, see into the nature of things without long processes of reasoning and then use their intellect in applying the spiritual truth according to the needs of the time.

So long as knowledge is sought for its own sake and to pass it on to the world, each of these groups lives according to the law of knowledge, which is justice; but if the degree of knowledge attained is used for personal ends, subordinated to ambitions, or as a means of barter, then bad karma is either at once precipitated or is sure to follow.

The social circle of the individual of the first class is made up of those of his kind and he feels ill at ease with others. The second class find their greatest enjoyment socially among those who understand and appreciate their business ability and where kindred topics are discussed. Sometimes, as their influence and power increase, their social aims may be for circles other than their own and they try for the veneer of society. The social life of the third class will be most satisfactory among the cultured of artistic temperament or literary attainments. The social inclinations of the fourth class are not for the conventions of society, but rather for the companionship of those who have knowledge.

With one of the first class the individual prejudices are strong when aroused. He usually considers that the country in which he is born is the best; that other countries are barbarian as compared with his own. He is ruled by his prejudices and party spirit in politics. The politics of the individual of the second class depend on business. He would not plunge his country into a war or any enterprise, nor does he favor any institution that would interfere with his business interests. Reforms in politics are assented to or tolerated so long as they will not lower stocks or interfere with trade, and thereby affect his prosperity. The politics of the individual of the third class will be influenced by questions of ethics and convention; he will uphold long established customs and give precedence to pedigree and education in political matters. The politics of the individual of the fourth class are those of just and honorable government, defending the rights of citizen and state, with a view of justice to other countries.

In the first class the individual inherits and follows the religion which is taught by his parents. He will have no other because no other is familiar to him, and he prefers to use what he has rather than to question the right of it. In the second class the individual’s religion is that which offers the most to him. He will exchange the one he has been taught, if by doing so the other will absolve him for the commission of certain crimes and give him the best bargain for heaven. He may not believe in religion as a rule of life, but knowing of the uncertainty of death, and not being willing to be caught short by it, he, being a good business man, prepares for contingencies. While young and strong he may not believe in a future life, but as he knows that it is better to be sure than sorry, he buys shares in that religion which will give him the best value for his money, and he increases his insurance policies as he nears that future. The religion of the individual of the third class is of a moral and ethical nature. It may be a state religion attended with long ceremonies and rituals, having pomp and magnificence, or an heroic religion, or one which appeals to the sentimental and emotional nature. Individuals of the fourth class have the religion of knowledge. They are not zealous concerning questions of creeds or dogmas. They seek the spirit rather than the form which it animates.

The philosophy of the individual of the first class is to know how to get his living in the easiest way. The individual of the second class looks on life as a great game full of uncertainties and opportunities; his philosophy is to prepare against the first and to make the most of the second. He is a keen student of the weaknesses, prejudices and powers of human nature, and makes use of them all. He hires those of the first class who cannot manage others, combines with others of his own class, and negotiates for talents and powers of the third and fourth classes. The individuals of the third class will see the world as a great school in which they are students, and positions, circumstances and environments as the subjects of their study and understanding in life. The philosophy of the individual of the fourth class is to find his real work in life and how to perform his duties in relation to that work.

(To be continued)