CHAPTER IV.

LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER HAS A COMMON DEVELOPMENT AND A COMMON PURPOSE.
It is with an increasing interest that the writer turns to the third and final proposition upon which this philosophy rests.
It is with this final proposition that this present work is mainly concerned. However interesting may be the mere enumeration of the cold facts of Nature, the deeper interest always attaches to man's relation to those facts and to the ethical princi- ples involved.
Reference to the scientific course of self-development is in- troduced in this work for one purpose only. The ethics of life are built upon this scientific foundation.
That brief outline contains but a necessary hint as to the scientific method of personally proving the spiritual facts of Nature and personally demonstrating the ethical principles un- derlying all activity.
This work is not intended as a purely scientific treatise. It does not include either the chemical formula or the ethical code for self-development. It does not embrace definite instruction as to the control of spiritual elements nor give direction as to the development of the mental forces.
Instead, the reader at this time is asked to consider mainly the ethical effects which flow from the operation of these prin- ciples, elements and forces which the student of the law demon- strates for himself. He is asked to consider the ethical effects rather than the scientific processes.
When the student of natural law demonstrates the fact of life after physical death, his education is only begun. He is now
58
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 59
confronted by other problems. He has pushed himself into a new and unfamiliar world of matter, life and intelligence. He is now in the midst of those conditions of which he had formerly only speculated. He is now called to study and analyze this new world under the laws which directly govern spiritual phenomena. He finds analogies to physical life everywhere. However, he finds no conditions that are identical with earthly life.
He finds instead a world of superior material refinement, whose vibratory activities respond to the spiritual senses only. He is oblivious to the physical side of matter. This new world appears to be wholly independent of the old. There is nothing in it that would impress the physical senses. The suddenly liberated stu- dent is very like the man born blind and deaf suddenly restored to the normal use of those senses. He sees that which he has no language to describe. He finds it difficult to comprehend those new conditions, and he has neither words nor ideas by which he can report the effects even upon himself. He is simply daz- zled, delighted, bewildered. He confesses that all efforts to trans- late that experience to man in the body are necessarily inade- quate. He finds, as literal truth, that statement which declares "It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive" what this higher world means, either as to its appearance, or its in- telligence, or its activities.
The first great fact that forces itself upon the intelligence is the universality of matter. In this one fact he corrects the com- mon error of regarding the spiritual world as an immaterial world.
This dogma of an "immaterial world" is one of those abso- lutely unthinkable propositions which discredits theology. It is also one that naturally offends modern science.
The spiritual world is as truly material as our own. It is simply a world of matter finer in particle and more rapid in vibratory action than our physical world. Because of this fact Natural Science uses those distinguishing terms "physical material" and "spiritual material." The spiritual world is just as real and tan-
60 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
gible and visible to a spiritual man as is the physical world to the physical man.
Finite intelligence has never yet succeeded in passing the limitations of matter. As far as science has penetrated (thus far) it finds both matter and intelligence in their natural rela- tions. That is, it finds intelligence everywhere manifesting itself as the positive force in Nature acting upon matter. It finds every- where matter as the negative property of Nature being acted upon by intelligence.
When the student is able to consciously and intelligently re- lease his own spiritual body from the physical he proves another fact. He proves that statement of St. Paul which has been the subject of controversy for nearly nineteen hundred years. He proves that there is a "natural" or physical body and that there is also a "spiritual body." He finds that this spiritual body is a material body which in form and expression is but a finer rep- resentation of the physical organism he has temporarily quitted.
Whether the ego, or intelligent soul, ever discards this spirit- ual body is a question not germain to this present writing. It is a question, however, that is much debated in spiritual life.
Another important fact reveals itself to the investigator. This spiritual world has locality. It encircles this planet like a vast girdle. How far outward and upward it extends is a question not involved in this discussion. In appearance that world is analogous to this. That is to say, it has a similar distribution of land and water. There are oceans and continents. There are mountains, valleys and plains. There are forests, lakes and rivers. The same activity in the material world exists there as here. There is movement of all waters. There are magnetic changes of matter. There is growth in vegetation.
Whether there are other spiritual worlds than the one cor- related to our planet is another question beyond the limitations of this work.
That world is inhabited just as this world is, by intelligent beings capable of moral improvement. They are real people; in
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 6l
fact, the same people who have previously lived here. They are simply spiritually embodied intelligences instead of physically em- bodied individuals. They preserve their identity as certain in- dividuals from this plane. They continue to follow in the same general lines of intellectual and moral activity which engaged them in this world.
The student who learns these facts for himself demonstrates the correlation of two worlds of matter and the continuity of life, intelligence and activity.
The spiritual plane is divided into many planes or spheres of life and action. The divisions are local as well as intellectual, social and moral. Scientifically speaking, the spiritual material of this higher plane is subject to the law of polarity or vibration. By reason of this law its several zones or spheres are regulated by what is known as the spiritual law of gravitation. The coarser material moving at lower rates of vibration very naturally consti- tutes the immediate stratum encircling the coarse physical earth. By the same law of spiritual gravitation the remote regions of the spiritual world are those whose material substance is finest and whose vibratory action is highest.
The physically released inhabitants of the spiritual plane oc- cupy the several zones or belts composing the spiritual world. They find their spiritual homes in one or another of those strata representing lower or higher states of refinement and vibratory action. They select as their homes that particular sphere or locality to which their own vibratory condition impels them. This means that spiritually embodied men differ in degree of ma- terial refinement and vibratory action just as do men in the phys- ical body. It means that spiritual people, like earthly people, seek those localities and that social environment which corre- spond to their own stages of development.
The spiritual law of polarity or vibration is again illustrated by the separation of spiritual beings into many social castes.
For example, the spiritual plane immediately surrounding this earth consists of the least refined spiritual material moving
62 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
at the lowest rates of vibration. Hence that zone is the negative state of spiritual material. It therefore does not reflect light. It appears (to spiritual vision) darker than those localities above and beyond.
Another important fact confronts the traveler. He finds that mere liberation from the physical body does not in the least change man in his essential nature. He finds that it does not mean an instantaneous absorption of universal knowledge. It does not effect a sudden revolution in the moral nature. In fact, the change called death leaves a man very little wiser and morally no better than he was immediately before. He finds himself somewhat in the same position of an ignorant American who has been suddenly transported to the center of some European civilization. Certain additional facts of Nature are literally thrust upon him. He cannot, however, obtain any definite information as to the nature of those facts without study and investigation.
His own limitations, spiritual, mental and moral, curtail his comprehension and enjoyment of that which confronts him, just as ignorance curtails a man's enjoyment in this world. He finds in the spiritual world, as in the physical, that a man enlarges his store of knowledge and capacity for enjoyment through the slow processes of education and self-development. If ignorant and vicious when released by physical death, such a man will follow the same impulses and passions which governed him in earthly life. He neither appreciates nor seeks that which is refined, in- telligent and noble. Instead, he seeks that which is in natural or vibratory sympathy with himself.
The physically disembodied man discovers that it is his own acts, thoughts and motives, which have conditioned his spiritual body to one or another of the spiritual zones or localities. If his earth life has been intelligent, chaste and purposeful he finds himself attuned to the higher planes and the higher circles of spiritual life. Under such conditions he passes outward from the earth plane by the law of spiritual gravity and dwells in that sphere and among such people as are harmonious to himself. If,
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 63
on the contrary, his life has been vicious, ignorant, criminal and impure he finds that the "spirit" has been coarsened by that pre- vious life in the body. He finds, therefore, that he is in touch with only the lower stratum of spiritual material and spiritual society.
Under these conditions the spiritual body cannot rise. It remains in the negative regions of spiritual existence. It is there- fore an integral part and natural representative of negation or darkness. It cannot rise to the light. It appears, therefore, as darkness to itself and to others.
By reason of this natural law and this actual condition in the spiritual world have arisen those well-known but mysterious allusions to "earth-bound spirits/' to "angels of darkness," to "regions of darkness," to the "outer darkness" and to the "dark- ness of ignorance."
In this physical world darkness and evil and ignorance are linked rather in a figurative sense. In the spiritual world they are linked in a literal as well as in a figurative and ethical sense.
What we term the law of spiritual gravity is, in fact, that uni- versal spiritual principle of polarity which governs evolution upon both planes of matter. This is the principle which underlies all of the propositions of Natural Science. It is the principle of spirit- ual affinity which constitutes the text of this present writing.
Reducing this principle of polarity to a general proposition it would read as follows:
There is in Nature a universal principle which impels every entity to seek vibratory correspondence with other entities of its kind.
Under this universal principle the spiritual world divides itself into many material and social regions. By the same prin- ciple spiritual beings seek that zone or locality whose material refinement and social development correspond to themselves. It follows, therefore, that the wise and the ignorant, the good and the evil, the active and the idle, group themselves in the order of their affinities.
64 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
When the student sees these conditions as facts in Nature he proves for himself that Nature embraces a principle which con- tinually tends to bring together all things of the same degree of refinement and vibratory activity.
This same principle of polarity operates in human society upon the physical plane. While caste in this world appears to depend almost wholly upon external advantages and physical conditions, this is not the fact. In reality all human organiza- tions and social integrations are dominated by the spiritual sym- pathies rather than the physical conditions, professions or ad- vantages. A common expression in our own society illustrates this principle. We hear it said that such or such person is "out of his sphere," meaning that the individual is not mentally or morally equipped for fellowship in a certain circle.
There is one radical difference between the physical and spiritual worlds in this respect. On the physical plane we only know by intuition when a person is spiritually out of touch with his social environment. In the spiritual world, however, the law of vibration sets its ineffaceable sign upon every man. That is to say, one who remains in the lower stratum of the spiritual world is himself in that negative state which causes him to appear dark. On the contrary, he who rises by reason of his own re- finement vibrates at a higher tension. He is in a positive state of activity which may appear first as color and next as light.
"Hell" and "darkness," therefore, are not mere figures of speech. The word "heaven" has a literal significance. Darkness is both locality and condition, as well as appearance. Light is both locality and condition, as well as appearance.
Every individual, whether physically or spiritually embodied, throws off spiritual magnetism. During earthly life those mag- netic waves are invisible to the physical eye.
In spiritual life, however, they are distinctly visible to the spiritual eye. The spiritual man appears to his fellow men as veiled in darkness, or he gives off magnetic waves so rapid in vibratory action as to produce the effect of either color or light to
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 65
the spiritual eye. Thus a spiritual man appears in an aura of darkness, or of color, or of light, according to his degree of development, viz., according to the degree of his material re- finement, vibratory action and magnetic power.
Persons familiar with the seance room will recall how fre- quently a clairvoyant medium will refer to the "aura" of certain visitors. At one time the medium may allude to a physically em- bodied visitor, at another time to a spiritual visitor. In both cases the medium sees spiritually those waves of spiritual mag- netism thrown off by the person in the physical body or out of it, as the case may be.
In this we find explanation of the "halo" or the shining cloud surrounding "angels" that have for all ages been written about or reported by mediums or pictured by artists. The finer the spiritual condition the more brilliant and magnetic becomes this aura.
Saul of Tarsus was prostrated by what he could only describe as a great light. There was a very excellent reason why Moses* spiritual visitors were concealed by a cloud, from the un- instructed Israelites. The effect of sudden contact between a highly developed spiritual being and a physically embodied man wholly unprepared for such contact is a dangerous encounter for the earthly man. It would be as fatal as the live electric wire. ,
Thus the law of vibration governs the material conditions of the spiritual world. It is a natural law that assigns man to dark- ness or envelops him in light in accordance with his own essen- tial nature.
It must be understood, however, that it is the intelligent soul itself which controls the vibratory action of both bodies, physical and spiritual. The vibratory action of the spiritual body is, in fact, but the reflex action of the soul itself. It is, therefore, the soul or the ego which is coarse or fine, weak or forceful, dull or active. To be dull and heavy of soul is to be coarse in material texture, slow in vibratory action, negative in condition, dark in 6
66 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
appearance. To be active of soul or intelligence is to be fine in material particle, rapid in vibratory action, positive in condi- tion and luminous in appearance.
Thus, after all, it is the soul which drags the body down. It is the activity or inactivity of the intelligent soul which deter- mines the local habitation of the spiritual body and thus its own social environment.
Caste in the spiritual world means more than it does here. People there are not so often found out of place. In a literal sense, men show their "true colors" in the spiritual world. The natural spiritual law leaves the individual little opportunity for simulation. He appears as he is, stupid or active, dull or in- telligent, evil or good. He appears selfish or cowardly, noble or exalted, just as he is in fact. He is clothed in darkness or light according to his own self-made conditions. In short, he is "known" in the spiritual world.
At the hour of physical death the released ego, invested with its ethereal body, may rise rapidly from the earth or it may cling indefinitely to its former earthly haunts. It may condition itself to the coarser and darker regions close to the physical plane, or it may be able to rise rapidly to those finer, lighter and more posi- tive regions lying far from the physical world. It is the soul of man which holds his spirit earth-bound, or impels it to higher planes when once released from the physical body.
Except a man knows this law he can form but the faintest conception of earth's immediate spiritual surroundings. It is only the student who realizes that humanity as a whole is in closest touch with the lowest stratum of spiritual life and intelli- gence. He perceives that mankind is assailed by evil spiritual influences more frequently than he is approached by the higher and better influences. The too often demoralizing results of the seance room are particularly due to the easy approach of vicious disembodied intelligences.
It must be understood, however, that the physically disem- bodied man is not permanently bound to any one locality nor
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 67
to any particular social environment. Nothing but his own con- dition binds him either to place or to people. When that con- dition changes he releases himself. In that life, as in this, the individual is the arbiter of his own destiny. He rises or sinks by and through his own efforts or his own failures. In that world, as in this, love of knowledge, together with the courage to do and the strength to persevere, will gradually raise a man from a lower to a higher plane of existence.
The spiritual man overcomes unhappy spiritual conditions through educational processes. As a result his spiritual body becomes finer in particle with increased vibratory action. He is thus changed from the coarse, negative and dark state of being to the fine, positive and luminous state.
Thus there is a basis for our popular belief in halo-enveloped angels who go down into the dark places and among the fallen.
In the spiritual world the student finds an increase of purely intellectual activity as well as of philanthropic effort. Released from the exactions imposed by the physical functions of life man finds leisure for the intellectual pursuits he may have been denied here. Release from physical life means increase of time and opportunity for higher work. When the strain of this planetary life is over, the intelligent soul is free to follow its highest as- pirations.
The scholar, statesman, artist, and poet, as well as the phi- lanthropist, is now free to move forward in his chosen lines. In that world, as in this, there are facts to be learned. There are people to govern. There are beauty and love to be translated. There is music to be written and there are songs to be sung. There are romances to be lived. There is work to do.
In short, the higher life furnishes opportunity and means which most of us vainly seek here.
In another respect that life is analogous to our own. The same differences of opinion and intellectual controversy exist there as here. It is true that men no longer dispute as to the fact of life after physical death. It is true that they no longer
68 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
regard the spirit world as a supernatural world. There is, however, no abatement of discussion and dispute and speculation over other facts in Nature. Men there, as here, debate the ultimate issues of existence. They speculate upon the immor- tality of the soul, the nature and character of God, and the proba- bilities of rebirth upon this planet.
In yet another respect these two worlds are analogous. The inhabitants of the spiritual world are men and women. The sex division is as distinct on that side of life as on this. More than this, upon that plane as upon this, man is the intellectual master. He is the organizer and ruler of spiritual mankind. On the other hand, woman is there, as she is here, his companion, co-worker and mate. In that world, as in this, man is the ag- gressive factor, while woman is the pacific factor, typifying the spirit of love. Though man continues to dominate the larger public life, the influence of woman continues to penetrate and ennoble the entire social organism. ^
Men and women continue to occupy the same relative posi- tion in that life as in this. In spiritual life, as in this life, man particularly represents law, order and knowledge, while woman particularly represents peace, love and all the aesthetic and ethi- cal activities.
The student learns another still more important fact. He set- tles for himself a question that has been debated for ages.
He discovers that men and women in spiritual life continue the individual love relation. Between men and women on the spiritual side exists the same irresistible attraction which leads them into individual love relations.
This individual love relation must not be understood to mean merely an impersonal and altruistic friendship. It means in- stead, a personal and exclusive love and partnership based upon the spiritual law of affinity. This relation, therefore, is a more permanent one than the average marriage here. The union of a spiritual man and woman is unlike marriage upon the physical plane in that it lacks the physical functions, passions and sympa-
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 69
thies growing out of the purely physical nature and physical conditions. Instead, it is a much closer bond based upon the spiritual principle of affinity. It is a union based, not upon phys- ical passion, but wholly upon spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic and ethical sympathies.
In short, the student of Natural Science discovers that sex is an immutable spiritual principle.
He discovers that the bond between men and women out- lasts all earthly and physical ties and relationships. The mutual love of man and woman transcends the physical functions and passions. It includes all that which goes to make up the higher man and woman. On earth we cherish an ideal of true marriage. That ideal contemplates not only the physical relation but a perfect sympathy in the higher intellectual and moral nature. How seldom that ideal is realized, let each one judge from ob- servation and from his or her personal matrimonial experiences.
These facts concerning sex in spiritual life are accepted by the student as proof that it is a fundamental principle in Nature, and that the spiritual destinies of man and woman are correlated to each other. They are accepted as proof that the sex office tran- scends the mere physical functions of generation and reproduc- tion. They are accepted as proof that the uses and purposes of sex are not exhausted in physical life. Instead, on the best authority of Natural Science it is declared that this question of sex is bound up in the highest development of intelligent moral beings.
It is natural, .perhaps, that physical science should claim that sex represents nothing but a set of physical organs. This is to be expected of a science which studies man wholly through the organs of generation and reproduction. Upon the spiritual plane, however, science clearly demonstrates that sex represents a set of principles.
Thus, one by one, the advanced student of Nature demon- strates principles and gathers facts which directly controvert cer- tain popular dogmas of physical science.
70 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
A scientific acquaintance with the spiritual side of life estab- lishes the fact of two correlated worlds of matter, life, intelligence and love. Man occupies each of these worlds in turn. The in- vestigator discovers that both are governed by one set of general principles and that causes in one world may produce effects in the other.
There is no death. Instead, a man has one life in two worlds. When he leaves the physical body he simply takes up life on the other side as would any stranger suddenly transported to some strange and unfamiliar country. He takes up life under new conditions while remaining in essence the same man he was on earth. He is released from physical exactions and phys- ical activities, nothing more. He continues to feel the same impulses, passions, appetites and desires that he had encouraged here. He is moved by the same hopes and aspirations which governed him here. He is released from physical toil but not from activity. He does not suffer pain through physical disease. He is not, however, exempt from pain.
All of which means that an ex-human being is the identical individual who passes from this life to that, be he wise or foolish, good or evil.
Spiritual life is an inevitable sequence of physical life and development. An intelligent, purposeful and happy spiritual life depends upon the substantial basis of an intelligent, purposeful and chaste human life. Man is, therefore, the arbiter of his own destiny. Nature furnishes the time and the opportunity. Man is left to either improve or waste his time. He is left to accept or ignore the opportunities which Nature offers.
What may appear to be adverse conditions in this life may, in fact, be the very conditions which best develop the individual spiritually and morally.
With this array of important facts Natural Science looks upon the evolution of man from a very different point of view from that taken by either scientific skepticism or dogmatic the- ology. These conclusions represent the combined research, ex-
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 7*
periment, experience and judgment of all the great Masters of the Law, past and present. Thus it follows that the whole phi- losophy of life is based upon that proposition which constitutes the text of this chapter, viz. :
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER HAS A COMMON DEVELOPMENT AND A COMMON PURPOSE.
This is one of those propositions which, though contradicting physical science, yet explains those facts of Nature which phys- ical science cannot explain. Scientific investigation, extending through all the ages in both worlds of matter and life, clearly demonstrates that the evolution of man is a correlated physical and spiritual process. It goes further. It shows that this cor- related and ceaseless movement of life and intelligence involves a stupendous plan and purpose.
Evolution is not a matter of chance nor of mere physical adaptation to physical ends. Instead, evolution moves in given lines according to certain immutable spiritual principles. Na- ture's plan and purpose are discovered through and by the dem- onstration of one principle, fundamental in Nature, which cease- lessly operates to improve Nature's products. This plan of progress is traced through the refinement of matter, the increase of intelligence, and the development of morality. The study of this plan begins with the study of the mineral atom upon the physical plane. It embraces the plant and the animal. It in- cludes man upon this physical plane. It reaches out to the study of man in the spiritual world.
Nature's plan involves a purpose. The universal activities look to something more than a physically improved or even a spiritually improved being. The principle which operates to improve all of Nature's products has an ultimate purpose in view. That purpose is faintly foreshadowed in the mineral and in the plant. It is revealed in the animal. It must be consummated in man. Natural Science, therefore, declares:
i. That evolution is the expression of intelligent spiritual principles.
72 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
2. That evolutionary processes conserve an intelligent pur- pose.
3. That Nature seeks to fulfill that purpose under one gen- eral spiritual principle which refines matter and increases its vibratory action.
This work will be devoted to an exposition of this universal plan and purpose and of that particular principle which conserves this plan and purpose.
The philosophy to be presented rests upon Natural Science. It, therefore, consists of deductions drawn from demonstrated principles and facts in Nature. The theories of physical science rest entirely upon certain proved facts of physical Nature. The philosophy here discussed rests upon certain proved facts of both physical and spiritual Nature.
Modern physical science traces the individual living entity from a single life-cell to the higher state of man, a rational being with physical functions, necessities and passions. The higher sci- ence goes further. It also deals with the individual living entity from the life-cell to the higher estate as a physical man. It does more than this. It deals with man, first, as a rational, spiritual being physically embodied, and next as a rational, spiritual being upon the spiritual side of life. Natural Science deals with the individual entity, from cell to physical man, not merely as a phys- ical entity, but as a spiritual entity about which physical material integrates.
Natural Science goes further. It declares that man is the highest expression of Nature's great plan. It declares that he is the nearest approach to Nature's ultimate purpose.
Man is found to be the highest product of Nature on either plane of life and activity. It is found that it is he who acceler- ates or impedes his own progress under Nature's plan. It is man alone who hastens or delays individual fulfillment of Nature's ultimate purpose.
Having demonstrated all this, the broader Science seeks to assist humanity in working out the plan and purpose of exist-
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 73
ence. Such assistance may be rendered only by teaching man- kind the spiritual laws governing the physical world and the natural functions of the soul of man. The first lesson to be taught includes those few fundamental principles which govern the evolution of man. By such exposition the individual man is enabled to more intelligently, rationally and more directly move toward his own best good.
The student, coming in touch with both planes of life, is at first overwhelmed. He is absorbed by his own sensations grow- ing out of visible and tangible spiritual phenomena. Later on his soul demands higher satisfaction than the aesthetic pleasures of sense. He must unravel the mysteries. He must know the elements, principles and forces which go to make up the spiritual plane. He must unfold the plan. He must seek the causes of things. He determines to know the meaning and the purpose of it all.
Gradually he formulates certain definite questions. He ap- peals to Nature for reply. It is true, however, that the ques- tions which finite intelligence formulates depend for reply upon the endeavors of the finite questioner.
He is confronted by an Infinite Intelligence expressing itself through this evolutionary process in two worlds of matter and life. In his attempt at solution he nowhere finds higher authority than the individual intelligence of man himself.
The student questions Nature. Nature leaves him to analyze and demonstrate for himself.
What is the principle which governs these correlated worlds of matter? What is the exact relation of these correlated lives? How far does physical life condition the after spiritual life? What is sex? What is the meaning of "masculine" and "femi- nine"? Why are man and woman immutably bound in flesh and spirit? What is love? What are the final meaning and purpose of an individual existence that ranges over two planes of matter, life, intelligence and love?
These are a few of the questions asked by the student who
74 HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION.
penetrates the spiritual plane. Ages of research, experiment and demonstration have furnished some satisfactory answers. That knowledge, 'however, has involved centuries of secret study. It has involved either silence and sacrifice or persecution and* humiliation on the part of those who outstripped the popular intelligence. All religious and mystical so-called revelations have a basis in natural law. Our own Scriptures, together with other sacred literature, represent the honest efforts of honest men to impart to an unprepared world some portion of their own knowledge.
With this the reader is prepared to judge as between the theory of scientific skepticism and a philosophy of life deduced from exact knowledge of spiritual Nature. He is left to decide which of these schools is the more likely to be right, the one which illogically explains a small part of the physical facts of Nature, or the one that consistently explains a very wide range of physical facts and metaphysical or spiritual phe- nomena also. The reader must determine as between two con- clusions which are diametrically opposite. He must accept or reject the fact of a life to come. He must perceive or fail to perceive an intelligent plan in Nature. He must find or fail to find life's purpose. He must recognize or fail to recognize the duty he owes to himself in working out that purpose.
This work undertakes to do no more than outline that uni- versal principle in Nature which conserves Nature's plan and Nature's purpose.
The knowledge and the demonstration of this principle enable science and philosophy to declare that LIFE HERE AND HEREAF- TER HAS A COMMON DEVELOPMENT AND A COMMON PURPOSE.
Briefly summarizing the foregoing pages, we find:
1. There are two correlated worlds of matter, life, intelli- gence, morality and love.
2. The difference between these two worlds, as to their ma-
LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER. 75
terial substance, is a difference mainly in the degrees of their re- finement and the rate of their vibratory action.
3. Man has but one life and one course of development ranging successively over both planes of existence.
4. Nature provides but one evolutionary plan.
5. Nature develops that plan under one universal spiritual principle.
6. Nature's plan involves a definite purpose.
7. Man, as Nature's highest product, may accelerate his own development and hasten the fulfillment of Nature's purpose in the individual life.
8. He does this by and through exact knowledge of and rational conformity to Nature's plan of progress.
9. Such knowledge is obtained by and through investiga- tions and experiments which cover spiritual as well as physical life.
10. The study and analysis of one world without reference to the other yield only partial results and a partial science.
1 1 . The individual who best conserves his own development is he who seeks knowledge as to both states of being. He it is who will soonest fulfill and enjoy Nature's higher purpose.