App. HII. witches, their compacts, supposed crimes, trials, confessions, and deaths. No lack of material is wanting, as witch literature is extremely voluminous. It is enough to read of the execrable registers (that remain to us) of the Inquisition. Their platitudes, their full dryness, all so 5 terribly savage; at the end of some pages you feel chilled. Death, death, death is in every line. The horror is in pace.' Those words return unceasingly, like an abominable bell that is rung and re-rung, always the same words 'Immured." Page Line Magic. —“Benedict Carpzov (1596-1666), writer on law, who heli high 10 office at Dresden and Leipsic, divides dealers in magic inte five classes: 267 "1. Wizards (praestigiatores). 15 "These are such people, who through exorcisms and frauds, seek to delude men into the belief that they see things which do not exist, 255 or cannot see things which stand clearly before their eyes. "2. Seers (haruspices). 19 21 1 "These prophesy out of the course and position of the stars. They 458 observe day and hour, also they are able to behold future events out of 125 18 the entrails of animals. 117 43 "3. Venefici, a class of wizard, who through godless sayings, unholy 104 13 20 signs, imprecations, through devilish herbs and brews, prepare ruin and death to animals and men. 53 20 275 2 "4. Witches. 461 41 "These are able to conjure up bad weather, storms, hail and thunder. They prepare the downfall and ruin of man. 339 21 462 33 Against these formidable creatures, then, was the papal bull fulminated; and in England, the Statute, De Hæretico Comburundo, was more particularly directed."* (F. Leonard). The writings of the early fathers show that they thoroughly believed in supernatural results obtained by magie, although they only distinguished true miracles wrought by God from the magical results by pointing to the greatness, majesty, and sublimity of the former, and by saying that the results of Jesus were prophesied. Justin Martyr says: "Should any one object to us that Christ wrought his miracles by magic, we refer him to the prophets."† Irenæus says: "If they say that the Lord wrought these wonders by illusion, we refer them to the prophetical writings, from which we shall show that all these things were predicted of him." I Professor J. W. Draper, M.D., LL.D., draws attention to the 30 tremendous belief in the supernatural for more than 1,000 years after the time of Constantine. He says: "A relic of some martyr 529 is bought at a great price; no one seeks to criticise the channel through which it has come, but everyone asks, Can it work 219 miracles?" Men tested everything in those days by results. 35 40 Supernatural notions were modified by an element derived from "Witches and Wizards" ("Westminster Review," May, 1910). § "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," p. 112. 25 25 460 16 53 21 Page Line 460 16 144 41 215 9 104 17 204 31 App. III. the births of women and the increase of cattle; they blast the corn on the ground, the grapes in the vineyard, the fruits of the trees, and the grass and herbs of the field.' At this time, therefore, the head of the Church had not relinquished a belief in these delusions. The consequences of the punishment he ordained were very dreadful. In the valleys of the Alps many hundred aged women were committed to the flames under an accusation of denying Christ, dishonouring the crucifix, and solemnising a devil's sabbath in company with the fiend. Such persecutions, begun by Papal authority, continued among illiterate Zealots till late times, and, 10 as is well known, were practised even in America" (J. W. Draper). This attack against witchcraft continued for a long time. James I. had torture applied to Agnes Simpson, and then had her burnt for "sailing, in company with two hundred other Scotch witches, in sieves, from Leith to North Berwick church," and on his 15 accession to the throne, an Act of Parliament was passed against anyone convicted of witchcraft, sorcery, or enchantment, or having commerce with the devil. In 1892 a trial took place in Wemding, Southern Germany, where the husband of a woman brought an action for slander against the Capuchin Father Aurelian, as the Father had charged the wife with bewitching a boy. In 1914 three men in India were sentenced to transportation for life for having burnt alive an old woman, Sunjo by name, who they believed had caused the illness of their wives by witchcraft. This general belief in witches and all classes of occult phenomena was simply due to the fact that the world in general thought that 20 such results were possible. Consequently those with a peculiar class of mind were able easily to bring about alterations in the counterfeit aspect of spiritual realities, called matter, which, until lately was difficult, because believed to be impossible, but which now is daily becoming more common as people see that it is 25 possible. SORCERY. There is no doubt that in many cases most extraordinary results were obtained, as the following quotation shows. Nowadays these manifestations are called spiritualistic phenomena. This is only because they are easier to obtain if it is thought that they have something to do with departed spirits. 30 35 "Everyone believes that rain and wind may be purchased of wizards, and that fair weather may be obtained by prayer. The head of the Church, Sylvester II., makes a brazen head, which speaks to him prophetically. The protestator of the Greek emperor is accused of a conspiracy against his master's life by making invisible men. Robert Grostete, the Bishop of Lincoln, makes another speaking head. Nay, more, Albertus Magnus constructs a complete brazen man, so cunningly contrived as to 40 serve him for a domestic. This was at the time that Thomas Aquinas was living with him. The household trouble arising from the excessive garrulity of this simulacrum grew so intolerablefor it was incessantly making mischief among the other inmates- "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," p. 116. App. III. Page Line that Thomas, unable to bear it any longer, took a hammer and broke the troublesome android to pieces' (J. W. Draper, M.D., LL.D.). The present material beings and articles which appear in spiritualistic seances are of exactly the same nature. 21 130 1 Simon Magus.-" Romanus and Anastasius Sinaita, speaking of 255 5 Simon Magus, say that he could make himself invisible; that he 461 14 formed a man out of air; that he could pass bodily through moun- 260 35 tains without being obstructed thereby; that he could fly, and sit un- 131 19,25 harmed in flames; that he constructed animated statues and selfmoving furniture, and not only changed his countenance into the 261 11 10 similitude of many other men, but that his whole body could be 461 13 transformed into the shape of a goat, a sheep, a snake"† (J. W. Draper). 261 16 261 11 35 83 6 77 33 28 21 40 It is a question whether the latter powers were due to his being able to hypnotise those present, so that apparently they saw what he 255 15 desired. I have many first-hand evidences, verified by photography, of this power being possessed by so-called "mental," really ethereal, workers in the East. It must not be forgotten that, by the action of thoughts on the human consciousness, these thoughts can become materialised. There are many cases known which are not supposed 20 to have anything to do with spiritualism or magic. For instance, 261 Luther was what is called a strong-minded thinker, really a vivid picturer, as his life shows. Thoughts were so intensified on his mind that he is said to have once seen the devil, hoofs, horns, and all, and to have thrown his candle at him. "The devil," says Luther, 25 "knows well enough how to construct his arguments, and to urge them with the skill of a master. He delivers himself with a grave and yet with a shrill voice. Nor does he use circumlocutions and beat about the bush, but excels in forcible statements and quick rejoinders. I no longer wonder that the persons whom he assails 30 in this way are occasionally found dead in their beds. He is able 542 to compress and throttle, and more than once he has so assaulted me and driven my soul into a corner, that I have felt as if the next moment it must leave my body. I am of opinion that Gesner and 135 Ecolampadius came in that manner to their deaths." In another 35 place he writes: "As I found he was about to begin again, I gathered together my books, and got into bed. Another time in the night I heard him above my cell, walking in the cloister, but as I knew it was the devil, I paid no attention to him, and went to sleep." One friend of mine said to me seriously: "This shows how 40 courageous he was, when he knew what the devil really could do!" 21 33 11 40 22 20 This is what we all have done. Instead of recognising the evil, and praying, that is, scientifically thinking, so that it destroys itself, 321 25 most of us are asleep and snoring. At the best we are only talking in our sleep, imagining that this is thinking, creating, speaking, etc. 45 We must wake up, and then we shall find the beauties of God's thoughts, the marvels of God's creation, the glories of God's speech. * "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," p. 115. † Ibid.. p. 114. 58 34 APPENDIX IV.. FORESHADOWINGS OF HEAVEN. to us as 5 The Radiation of God's Ideas. God's ideas never come to us singly in reality, and even in the material world a rose is apparently a combination of parts. Spiritual ideas always come combinations of wondrous beauty, which we group together into further glorious combinations. These radiate out from us into infinity, giving infinite spiritual beings happiness. Now, in heaven, God, the Principle of good, being essentially ever active, has been for ever creating these perfect combinations through man, yet no combination can exist in Mind without some 10 part of consciousness, some spiritual individuality, being conscious of it. How can this be so, when one spiritual being in the reality can no more be separately conscious of more than one group of ideas at a time than this material counterfeit? The answer can only be this. On receiving a group of ideas a man reflects it, and it is 15 reflected from one to another until it comes to one who, needing it for building up a perfect combination, groups it together with other groups of ideas and it forms a part of a new and larger combination. These combinations again are sometimes subdivided up into their component parts.* Now this has been going on for ever, 20 and thus these groups of ideas, which cannot increase or diminish in number, being infinite, increase or diminish in respect of the number of ideas of which each is individually composed. The quality of ideas of which they are composed is always infinite, giving infinite happiness. By man passing them on the ideas are circulated in Mind. Heaven is a world of four dimensions, of which we see three, seeing it therefore all wrongly. The fourth dimension is infinity, which cancels the other three, as there are no limitations of space in Mind. Man has existed for an infinite time, and will exist for ever, as part of God's consciousness; to him have come an infinite number of perfect ideas; he has grouped these ideas into an infinite number of glorious combinations-to express it materially, has composed an infinite number of sonatas, an infinite number of poems, etc.-he has been conscious of an infinite number of spiritual worlds; he has known an infinite number of spiritual beings in the past, and will have the joy of becoming acquainted with an infinite number of spiritual worlds in the future. Man is made in the image and likeness of God, therefore he reflects infinite Love, infinite Life, infinite Truth, infinite wisdom, knowledge, beauty, joy, etc. The only limitation, if it can be called a limitation, is, that he can never know the whole of God, because the ideas of God are infinite, continually unfolding to him, idea after idea coming into his consciousness, this constituting man's eternal life. When first I realised that man grouped together the ideas of God, and reflected them with infinite power, the idea followed immediately that this "This Mind forms ideas, its own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light, intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, whose seed 30 is in itself.' Thus God's ideas multiply and replenish the earth. The divine Mind supports the sublimity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation ("Science and Health," p. 511, line 1. Mary Baker Eddy). "God expresses in man the infinite idea for ever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis" ("Science and Health, 35 p. 258, line 13 Mary Baker Eddy). App. IV. Page Line 162 23 123 was the action of God as the Word or Logos or Eon. "In the beginning was the Word, . . . All things were made by him" (John 1, ver. 1, 3). Still praying, realising God as Truth, I was led to turn up the meaning of " Eon" in Webster's Dictionary, and found that it was defined as a certain substantial power of Divine nature emanating from the Superior Deity and performing various functions in the creation and government of the universe." This 167 is another illustration of the practical way in which knowledge is obtainable when one knows the scientific method of praying in the 10 way the Master taught. I since find that Archdeacon Wilberforce has written: "The Logos is the quality of Originating Mind that forms, upholds, sustains all that is. Without the Logos was not anything made that was made. . . The Logos is the dominating power in the soul of man. It has always been so. The early Aryans, 1700 B.C., knew it, but generations of wrong thinking have darkened human minds to their Divine origin as possessors of the Logos Emphutos.' -- 16 12 61 12 282 Food. The material misrepresentation of these ideas that come to us to be grouped together is the food that the material man eats, 66 and the spiritual reality of the act of taking food is the taking 453 12 in of ideas with the object of grouping them together in a new 15 combination. The real plates and cups are therefore the spiritual man's power of mentally holding a certain number of ideas, whilst additional ideas are coming to him to be grouped together into a new and beautiful combination. The knowledge of the reality of food is of value in the treatment of troubles arising from imperfect working of 20 the internal organs. God as Life causes us to receive the ideas, God as Truth enables us to understand the ideas, and God as Love causes us to re-present them. It is Life that settles the order in which the ideas come to us, and therefore Life enables us to understand them. Soul gives the 25 spiritual man wisdom and intelligence and enables him to understand the ideas.† 61 26 34 31 Animals. These symbolise qualities of the spiritual man, the consciousness of good, God's consciousness; for instance, the lion, moral courage; the worm, tireless patience; the serpent, wisdom; the dog, 377 19 30 fidelity; the cat, watchfulness; the lamb, innocence. Note ZZ, on page 622, deals with the spiritual reality of animals. This is why we have the appearance of evolution in the material world. The so-called ancestors of the material man were animals. Binet, in the "Physical Life of Micro-Organisms," maintains that infusoria exhibit memory, volition, surprise, fear, and the germinal 35 properties of human intelligence. 455 4 14 17 The counterfeit material animal is much closer to the counterfeit See Note Z material man than most people think. Maudesley says: "There on page 618 is not a single mental quality which man possesses, even to his moral feeling, that we do not find the germ is more or less fully 40 displayed in animals. Memory, attention, foresight of ends, courage, anger, distress, envy, revenge, and love of kind." Note Similarly every so-called inanimate thing has its spiritual reality: oil-gladness; perfume-gratitude; wine-understanding. G on page 575 gives the spiritual reality of a number of material beliefs. "Life is the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of Truth" ("Science and Health," p. 427, line 2. Mary Baker Eddy). Life settles the order in which the ideas come to man, and therefore is the law that causes these ideas to be 45 understood. Philosophy of the Unconscious," Vol. III.. p. 106. |