                              LETTER XLVI

                          THE ENTERING WEDGE


AFTER our writing of last night, in which I told you of the tortured
soul who asked my judgment on a course of teaching which had corrupted
a nation, I went back to the battle line in France. (The Germans cannot
sink me with their torpedoes.)

Passing slowly along on the German side, I saw again the tall majestic
form, dark-veiled about the head, which I described to you in a
previous letter.

This time I hailed him, without waiting for him to hail me.

“How goes your work?” I asked.

He threw back the veil which covered him, and I saw the dark and
splendid face, marked deep by thought and evil.

“My work goes as it goes,” he answered. “And what have you been doing?”

“Writing to the world this evening,” I replied.

He laughed.

“Have you been writing about peace?”

“Not this time. I have been writing about a conversation I had with a
great and troubled soul.”

“Yes, I know.”

“You know, do you? Were you listening?”

“Through my long-distance telephone.”

“Brilliant invention, the telephone,” I observed. “Did you inspire the
invention?”

“I? Oh, no! I worked against it.”

“And why?”

“It is not well that man should know too much.”

“But when man makes discoveries, notwithstanding your efforts to hinder
him, you attempt to use those discoveries against him, do you not?”

“Of course.”

“You interest me,” I said. “And were you interested by my conversation
with the soul of Friedrich Nietzsche?”

“More interested than you can imagine, until I tell you why.”

“And you will tell me why?”

“There is no reason for my not telling you. I am frank with those who
see through me.”

“Why don’t you teach that to the Germans?”

“Because it would spoil my game. I want to destroy them after I have
used them, and if they should turn frank, they would be so thorough in
their frankness that they would disarm the indignant world.”

“They are frank enough in their brutality,” I said.

“Oh, yes! But that is another matter. Should they be frank in their
repentance, the world would forgive them.”

“But what of Nietzsche?” I questioned.

“Only this, that it was I who inspired him.”

“You did your work thoroughly.”

“I do my work as thoroughly as it can be done.”

“Tell me more,” I urged.

“What a worker was lost in you,” he exclaimed, “when you chose good for
your standard!”

“But I am an excellent worker,” I insisted. “I have even balked some of
your work.”

He laughed, a quick, sharp laugh.

“Don’t think that I care too much for that,” he said. “There is more
than one road for me. If you block the door, I can go in by the window.”

“And how did you go in to Nietzsche?”

“Sometimes by one way, sometimes by another. He only locked his door
against man, and you see I also am Beyond Man.”

“I perceived that at our first meeting. He who goes beyond man must
make the choice between good and evil.”

“There is no fooling you,” he said, “and so I no longer try. Yes, it
was I who inspired Nietzsche to preach Beyond Man to the Germans, who
could only choose evil when they believed themselves strong.”

“And what do you get out of it?”

For answer, he asked a question:

“Did you ever play chess?”

“Often, in many lives,” I answered.

“Did you have an interest in the game?”

“A great interest.”

“Did you play for stakes?”

“No.”

“Then what interested you?”

“Why, the game.”

“Of course,” he said. “That is how I enjoy my game. I play to win, if I
can. When I do not win, I have had the pleasure of the game.”

“And you played with that great man’s soul?”

“As a cat plays with a mouse. I found in him an earnest spirit, with a
sore spot in his head and in his heart. He was an easy one.”

“How did you go about it?”

“By the usual method.”

“And that is?”

“Flattery.”

“And he did not smell a rat?”

“The rats were perfumed. He is an aesthete.”

“Do you always perfume the rats?”

“It isn’t always necessary. I perfumed yours.”

“Yes,” I said, “with the patchouli of peace. But I have a keen scent.”

“Yes, the Others have taught you too well.”

“Did Nietzsche ever see you as I see you?”

“He saw my distinguished face, and he felt the thrill of my power, and
he envied and desired to be like me. It is great sport when these
earnest mortals are ambitious to emulate me!”

“And so you taught him Beyond Man?”

“Yes, and I taught him to despise the One who was really Beyond Man.”

“Then you are not really Beyond Man yourself?”

“My head is. My other members are nearer the earth.”

“Notwithstanding the dignity of your presence?”

“Oh, there is a dignity in the earth and in what belongs to the earth!”

“Did the German philosopher ever know you for what you are?”

“Yes, toward the end, but then it was too late to undo my work.”

“Then also at the end,” I exclaimed, “he saw the two forms of Beyond
Man, you and the Christ!”

“Yes, he saw. The seeing drove him mad.”

“And you have no remorse for your work?”

“Remorse? What is that?”

“Remorse is an emotion which men feel when they are conscious of having
done evil.”

“An emotion that _men_ feel,” he repeated. “But I only feel those
emotions of men which give me pleasure in the feeling.”

“Such as----”

“You are really too curious and inquisitive!”

“Granted, my curiosity and my inquisitiveness,” I said. “But it
interests me, this labor of a lifetime, a man’s lifetime, to make him
an instrument through which _all this_ could be produced,” and I
indicated by a gesture the battle line beneath us.

His eyes were brilliant with fire as he answered:

“What is the lifetime of a man in comparison to the glory of all this?
One might labor a thousand years and produce nothing in comparison with
this!”

“It pleases you then, this slaughter?”

“What a trifling question! It gratifies me, glorifies me, exalts
me--all this carnage of battle brought forth by me and my kind.”

“And did you have all this in mind while you were preparing one man to
corrupt a nation by his writings?”

“Yes. He was the one perfect instrument. None other could have served
our purpose so well--ambitious, dissatisfied, aristocratic, arrogant,
unloving in the broader sense, capable of infatuation and hence of
disenchantment, and last but not least, with eyes open to the vision.”

“The vision of you?”

“Yes. He saw me first in dreams, and admired me, and desired to emulate
me.”

“And then you spoke to him of Beyond Man?”

“Yes, and I used the old arguments that women were of small account;
that the love of woman stood in man’s way; that woman enslaved man
unless he enslaved her; that Nature was the devil, not the Great
Mother, and so was to be combatted as far as possible; that man rose to
Beyond Man by denying all that could influence him, including Nature,
and by asserting whatever gave him freedom, such as his own superiority
to all other beings, his mastery of them, his mastery of his own
thought, his mastery of good and evil, of fact and falsehood.”

“A fine _combination_ of fact and falsehood, that teaching of
yours,” I said.

“Of course,” he answered; “but what would you? Truth alone could never
have produced this.” And he swept with his long arm the line of battle
beneath us.

“And what else did you teach your chosen disciple?” I asked.

“I taught him all that he taught the world. Whenever he drove a woman’s
face from his heart, I scored a point and he thought himself nearer
Beyond Man. Whenever he swelled with pride and superiority, I scored
a point and he felt himself nearer Beyond Man. Whenever he read the
Gospels and sneered to himself at the humility of the so-called Son of
Man, I scored two points--one against him and one against your Christ.”

“Thank you,” I said, “for enrolling me with the followers of the
Crucified One. I am such a follower.”

He ignored my last remark, and proceeded:

“I encouraged his wish to produce a new ideal of a leader, a new
Christ, an Antichrist, a hard-faced German Christ, who should not win
men by love and compassion, but by cruelty and hardening. Oh, I have
done that work well! Many a German has exalted my ideal to the place of
the Son of Mary. Many a German has put me in place of the Sun-God, and
hailed me as Beyond Man, though he was too cowardly to hail me frankly
_as_ Antichrist. Instead, he added my attributes to Christ and
called us by one name, and by that name he sought to destroy all pity
and compassion, both in himself and in others, sought to destroy all
love that stood in the way of his becoming like me. It was I who taught
him to exalt the cross as a symbol of cruelty, of sacrifice _to_
himself, and not _of_ himself for the love of man.”

He paused, and gazed out toward the stars that shone serenely above us.

“You seem to me,” I said, “to be yourself conscious of the superiority
of Christ to Antichrist.”

Again he ignored my remark, and continued the line of his own thought.

“What intellectual pleasure it has given me, this transforming of a
Christian nation into monsters of egotism and cruelty to all things
_not their own_! The foreigner was to be hated, despised, used,
ridiculed, and whenever possible insulted. I taught them that such were
the ways of Beyond Man, that so was man surpassed.”

“But why do you tell all this to me?” I asked. “Why do you thus lay
your cards upon the table, when you know that I hold a better hand?”

The eyes he turned to me were smouldering lakes of flame.

“Because I envy you,” he said.

“Is that some new and more subtle attack upon me and the principles I
stand for?”

The dark one laughed again, his sharp and mirthless laughter.

“Frankly, no,” he said. “You no longer amuse me as an opponent.”

“Which means----”

“That I throw up the game in weariness--this is, for the present.
Already the souls I deluded are weary of me and my teaching. They have
seen a new light--some of them.”

“Perhaps,” I said, “they have seen the light of the Christ, the true
Beyond Man.”

“Perhaps,” he repeated.

“And have you seen it, too?”

“Faugh!” he said. “Are you ambitious to convert the devil?”

“Ah, no!”

Suddenly he turned to me:

“Will you take me for a pupil?”

“Again, no,” I answered. “You will make that request of some good
woman, with a better chance of deceiving her.”

“So you know all the tricks?”

“My Teacher has taught me much regarding the ways of your kind.”

“Then I bid you good evening,” he said, and disappeared in the darkness.


World for which I write, I am telling you these things that you may
be armored with knowledge. When Satan asks you to convert him, beware
lest he convert you. When Satan points to Beyond Man, even to Christ,
be sure that his Christ is not Antichrist; be sure He is full of
compassion, that His heart bleeds for the woes and _weakness_ of
the world, that His crown of thorns is the mark of His sacrifice for
man, and not merely a becoming ornament. For, as He said:

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love
one to another.”

And also:

“Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name,
saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many, * * * for there shall
arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and
wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the
very elect.”

 _June 2._




                             LETTER XLVII

                          THE NEW BROTHERHOOD


I WANT to speak of the new race, the coming race. The world is big with
child, and the present generation will look with wonder into the clear
eyes of the infant that shall redeem its parent.

Pin your faith to the standard of the new race, work for it, make the
garments that it shall wear, and be ready for its coming.

Already you are in touch with those who will help in its training, who
will be its teachers and guides. Give yourself also to the Great Work
that is planned for America in the coming days. No, you need not spend
all your time there; but do not remain away too long. Come and go, that
going away you may receive new impressions, and that coming back you
may bring the romance of older lands to entertain and inspire the new
land.

But be ever loyal to the new.

In the untrodden wilderness of America there is strength that shall
renew you from time to time. The cities of America will be redeemed by
the wilderness. The cities are too worldly. They have forgotten God. In
the open air, under the open sky, the message may be received by the
awakened soul.

Send the children out to the wilderness to drink from the
uncontaminated springs. The water that flows through lead pipes may
refresh the body; but the water of mountain springs refreshes the soul.

Behind the veil of Nature is the face of the Great Mother, and
though she does not always smile, yet her eyes are full of dreams
and mysteries. Nature is _not_ the devil. The devil is ever at
war with Nature. Nature is Isis, the Mother. Do not listen to the
blasphemers. They have confused the offices of Isis and of Typhon. It
is Isis, Nature, which shall bring forth Horus. Go back to Nature and
ask her for her message. She waits in the silence of the woods, and the
voice of the brook is her whisper; when the wind stirs in the trees it
is the rustling of her garments. The Mother is coming, O children of
the new race! In her arms you shall know refreshing rest, and in her
eyes shall you read the love that knows no selfishness, the bliss of
self-giving.

Too long have you dwelt in cities, forgetting the Mother who bore you.
Too long have you lived without the magnetism of the kind earth in
contact with your naked feet. Too long have you trodden the dead, stony
and unmagnetic streets, that take from you but give nothing. Go back to
the woods and the streams. Read your destiny in the eyes of the stars
themselves--not merely on a printed chart. Jupiter has a message for
you which he will give only face to face, and so has the gentle Venus
and the eager Mars. Go to them for your lessons, in the quiet of the
hill-top alone with the Mother.

Do not set up your temple in the market-place. Let your cathedral be
the aisles of the forest.

Go to the city when you must, for it is always well to know the
opposite. The cathedral is stiller after the voice of the mart.

Give honor where honor is due, to those who have led the children
forth to learn the mysteries of the primeval life. You grown-ups are
only taller children. Dance in a ring round the mulberry bush or round
the camp-fire. In the smell of burning wood the visions may come, as
I wrote you once before of your wood-fires in Paris. But what is a
wood-fire in a Paris grate compared with a camp-fire in the woods? Yes,
I was there the other night, on the outskirts of the gathering, and I
enjoyed it, too.

My greetings to the Chief!

The salvation of America lies in this wild-wood movement. Movement!
Well may you call it that. It is stirred by the very forces of the
earth herself; it is inspired by the race-spirit; it will go on and on,
in ever-widening circles.

Whoever puts a stone in the way of this work will stumble over it
himself. Whoever brings Satanism into this movement will be devoured by
the demonic forces. There will not be enough left of him to grease two
sticks for the camp-fire.

Rest you in peace. _We_ watch, and with us the souls of all the
thousands and tens of thousands and millions of native Americans, who
cannot go on to their rest until they have passed on the torch of the
Nature mysteries that were their heritage from their remote ancestors.

They may be despised by those who despoiled them; but their forgiveness
shall redeem you, O America of the new race!

Do you not know that many of those who made their escape into the rest
of the “happy hunting ground” are already coming back to incarnation in
the land they loved before? Look at the high cheek-bones of many of the
children, look at the eagle eyes and the straight taut forms.

O America, you did a great wrong once in the pursuit of your destiny!
Yes, you did. Now strive to atone. Let the reincarnated red children
play in the wild woods, teach them the old code of honor and courage,
and they will work hand in hand with the reincarnated souls that
came by way of Europe, hand in hand shall they stand together in the
_Woodcraft Brotherhood_.

My salutations to the Chief!

 _July 9._




                             LETTER XLVIII

                            IN THE CRUCIBLE


I AM still profoundly interested in the land that gave me birth. There
are dark days ahead for her, and the great soul of Abraham Lincoln is
very near to the helm of State at this moment, when peace and war hang
in the balance and the action of a day may decide the question.

No irreparable injury must overtake this land. It is the great pioneer
of race freedom. As I told you months ago, one of America’s hands
threatens the other, and both threaten the whole body.

May she keep peace so long as she can have peace with honor! But if the
dark day comes, may she face it with squared shoulders; and if her foes
be also those of her own household, it will not be the first time. A
man once prayed to be saved from his friends, declaring that he could
deal with his enemies himself.

The stillness of the Germans in America at this moment is potent with
danger. If the hour comes when drastic action is necessary, they should
be invited to return into the fold of their naturalization, and those
who refuse should be dealt with severely, even to deportation. There
yet remains one country which might receive them for transportation to
that Fatherland they left--in quest of the freedom which they have now
abused and betrayed.

The world is in the crucible, and Satan is in the laboratory with all
his cohorts. Our labor is to stand. It is not always easy to stand
steady.

Be calm, and trust in the Motherland that shall yet give birth to the
new race, the synthesis of races.




                              LETTER XLIX

                        BLACK MAGIC IN AMERICA


YOU have seen pretty clearly the methods employed by the evil forces to
balk progress, to destroy the work of centuries, to destroy the workers
for the future, and to frighten away those who seek to interfere with
this maliciousness.

Notice that none of this is constructive work. It is all destructive,
all tearing down. Wars of construction have been engineered by angels;
but this is not a war of construction.

Now let me tell you a few of the things against which the new race
in America will have to guard itself. As always where the forces of
progress are strong, the opposition is strong. I have written enough
about the good influences of this new birth; but I want to give a
few warnings, to analyze a few influences which are of a destructive
character.

There is developing in America a great group of people who seek to gain
control of the desire-nature and the will of others, that they may use
them for their own purposes. These people are not all in one place,
they are not organized into one body but into many bodies, and some of
them are working quite independently. But in the astral world, and in
the language of us who work in that world, they are known as a “group.”

They teach to those who will pay them, either in money or in service,
certain rules for controlling the mind of self and of others. They
teach the rudiments of astral knowledge to the many, and they teach
more advanced principles to the few. Some of their teachings are true,
some of their teachings are false; but there are few among them who
undertake any real discipline of character with their students. As one
profound teacher has said, for every step in psychic development, three
steps should be taken in the development of character.

I need not name those who are most criminally active in teaching the
formulas of black magic to men and women who are utterly unfit to be
trusted with that knowledge.

The question will naturally arise in the mind of the reader, What
_is_ black magic? I think I have given a similar definition
before, but you may restate it thus:

Black magic is an attempt to gain control over the will or the astral
or the mind of one’s fellows, through means other than the normal
physical or the legitimate mental influence by word or pen; be it
through the use of the elementals of nature, artificial elementals, or
one’s own mental or elemental nature.

Black magic may be deliberately used to influence, or black magic
may be deliberately used to injure; and its votaries often employ
_the substances of the body of the victim_, through which to gain
sympathetic control of his astral and etheric nature.

I want to say to those who think it smart or amusing to fool with
these things: Beware of any man or of any woman who by _normal or
abnormal means_ seeks to get possession of the fluids of your body,
especially the blood and the other vital fluids.

I shall not go into detail here. Those who accept my warning owe me no
thanks; those who disregard my warning do so at their own peril.

It gives me no amusement thus to thrust myself between the evil forces
and their victims. By so doing I draw down upon myself the rage of
those forces that I thwart so far as I can.

Be it so! I am competent to deal with them. And I want here to notify
anyone who thinks to destroy my work, or to destroy those who with
self-abnegation and selfless courage are helping me in the work of
trying to save my country from the forces of hell which are now
ravaging Europe--I want to notify any evil magician who is interested
in this matter, that if he gets in the way of my resolve it will be he
who will suffer and not I.

The ring which I and the Masters behind me draw round our workers can
be passed with evil intent only at the peril of the one who passes.

This is no threat to use evil magic. We do not use evil magic. But we
know how to deflect a malicious current from its chosen victim, so that
it returns with overwhelming force upon its own source.

And I also want to say to those who in their ignorance or wantonness
allow themselves to be used as catspaws to draw the devil’s chestnuts
from the fire, that fire will burn, and that the devil’s hot chestnuts
stick to the fingers.

This is an unpleasant subject. I will now leave it.


Let me talk to those who are ignorant of these matters, and most people
are ignorant--even those who have “studied psychism.”

Many an innocent (or half-innocent) soul has been driven nearly insane
by the pressure of the evil thoughts of others, by the will-driven
thoughts of others.

Let me advise such not further to weaken themselves by fear, but to
strengthen themselves by prayer.

I have said that there is a god and a devil in every one of you. Turn
to the god for protection from the devil. If there were no devil in
you, the devils of others could not harm you. Remember that.

Set your own devil to serve your own god.

If you want to use signs and symbols, meditate on the cross of Christ.
The cross of Christ is profound enough for a lifetime’s meditation.

Do not use evil magic to protect yourself against evil magic. Call on
the god within to send evil back to its source.

Protect yourself before sleep by prayer to your god for protection. The
evil workers can sometimes reach your soul in sleep when they cannot
reach you while awake. The child’s prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,” is more potent than a magician’s
spells.

Childish, you say? Yes, but I am writing now for those who are children
in these things, be they seven or seventy.

Of all countries on earth, America is the most abysmally ignorant of
the dangers of evil magic. Be willing to be children until you acquire
adult knowledge of these subjects.

“I am in no danger, for I understand these things,” is often said with
self-gratulation by these who are in the very grip of the evil forces.
Truly, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.


If you want an added protection, my children, guard your own evil
passions and resentful thoughts, your jealous emotions and unkind
criticism of others. The devils ride on waves of anger and resentment.

Beware also of temptations, remembering that young souls are tempted
through their faults, greater souls through their virtues.

Be not deceived into saying there is no evil. Evil is--so long as good
is.

“Beyond good and evil” is a state to which few of you can aspire, and
you have no conception of it. But “beyond good and evil” is a mighty
slogan for the temptation and bewilderment of vain souls.

When you are really beyond good and evil you will not gossip about your
neighbors, nor envy them their charm or their possessions, nor try to
use them for your own ends, nor worry lest some evil person shall do
you harm, nor twist your faults till they seem virtues, nor deceive
yourself as to your motives.

Examine yourselves, my children. Look for your faults. If you can find
no fault in yourself, hang your harp on the nearest willow, for your
progress is at an end.

Man progresses through recognizing his faults, through transmuting them
and transcending them. If you are perfect, this world is no place for
you.

“Beyond good and evil,” indeed!

Judge not, that ye be not judged. But do not flirt with the devil to
prove that you judge him not.

Yes, all men are your brothers, even bad men. Attend to your own
affairs, and leave the issue with God.

This much to you, dear children of the world, from my vantage place
above your passions.

 _July 25._




                               LETTER L

                          THINGS TO REMEMBER


THAT the contents of this book may become the possession of those who
want it, I will now bring it to a close.

One might go on writing forever about the astral incidents of this war,
and not exhaust the subject. What I have been able to give is a mere
sketch, a few incidents, a few suggestions.

These things, however, bear in mind:

That there are angels as well as devils in the neighborhood of the
battlefields.

That those who see the war from above see causes as well as effects,
and from those causes can draw sane conclusions based on a richer fund
of data than that available to the men of earth.

That war, like everything else, has its rhythms. Do not be discouraged
when the pressure of battle bears heavily on the side that you call
yours. If your side went forward too quickly, you would need to look
for a violent reaction, as in the retreat from the outskirts of Paris.

That though evil is a necessity so long as good exists, though evil is
the other pole of the magnet, yet it is the duty of those who desire
to walk the White Road ever to do battle for the right. And this is no
repudiation of the saying of the Christ, “Resist not evil.” A paradox,
you say? Great wisdom is locked in paradoxes, for those who have the
key. The existence of evil gives greater strength to good. This is the
Kali Yuga, as the Hindoos say.

That this war is an attempt of the personal evil forces to destroy
mankind. A former attempt was made in Europe before the so-called Dark
Ages, but the Renaissance followed and restored the balance.

That man has in himself both the Christ principle and the demonic
principle; that will is free, and that man can make his choice between
them.

That new races are born of revolutions and wars. He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear.

That though I may have a wider sight than you, I do not know
everything. I draw conclusions from premises, the same as you do.
I predict the probable effects of causes known to me; but a sudden
irruption of free and erratic will sets up a new cause, and my
calculation has to be made afresh. My predictions are not the result of
divine omniscience. I see further than you, that is all. My logic may
be no better than yours. For instance, when we drove back the forces
of evil during the early months of the war, I forgot the Law of Rhythm
that would enable them to roll forward again when they had generated
another supply of strength. Even devils generate their own strength.
Yes, they too are Units of Force, and must be figured on as such. I
shall not make that mistake again.


My Teacher, who stands beside me at this moment, directs me to say
that even the Masters do not know everything. As my vision is wider
than yours, so their vision is wider than mine; but they cannot always
see what goes on in the farthest stars. They invite you to become like
them; but they know that you are held by rhythmic law, and that for
every two steps you take toward them, you will fall back at least
one step. That you do not fall back two steps is because of your free
will, and because of that greater rhythm which urges mankind to the
flood-tide. Each achievement is a ripple in a larger wave which you
cannot always see.

I have been requested to write further of my Teacher, but my Teacher
wishes to remain in the background. I may tell you this, however, O
world! my Teacher still has a physical body and walks the earth as a
man. He works in both the material and the astral worlds, and in higher
worlds beyond them, and the purposes of his life are outside your
comprehension. He is a servant of the Law, and his joy is in working
_with_ the Law. The Black Masters, for there are Black Masters,
work against the Law. I have told you of my conversations with one of
them, and have given you a hint as to his methods.

When you are strong, you need not fear the Black Masters. You may pass
the time of day with them, as I do. They are far more afraid of me than
I am of them. I do not go out of my way if I see one coming. I find
them rather diverting, though I recognize the tragedy of their lot.
They fill a terrible office, which must be filled, and their sufferings
are great. They are the erring brothers of the White Masters. In the
beginning they were trained in the same school; but the great “moment
of choice” came, and the evil ones _separated themselves_ from
their source. The White Masters do not seek to destroy them, knowing
that in the end they will destroy themselves. Why waste effort in
striving to hurry the sunset?

Do not let the black Masters and their servants mislead you, and avoid
them if you can until you are stronger than they. But when you are
stronger than they, you have nothing to fear from them.

When they cannot affect you directly, they strive to affect you through
those you love. Be at peace. You are not your brother’s keeper. If
your brother delights in the devil, let him have the pleasure of his
preference. Will is free.

Give testimony of the truth that is in you; but do not attempt to
muzzle the hounds that bay the summons to the witches’ sabbath.

Enter the Holy Temple and shut the door; then invoke the angels. The
baying of the hounds cannot drown the music of the angel voices.

Be still, and know that God is God.


A great day is dawning for America--after a time of trial. The sun
will rise from behind a bank of clouds; but in the freshness of the
dawn much labor will be done for the new race, and for the Brotherhood
of races. All over America movements will be started for the training
and perfecting of mankind. Give them your help, for thus you will be
working with the Law. Thus you will be learning the first lessons in
the school of the White Masters, whose watchword is Service.


Though I am not going far away this time, yet I leave you my blessing,
O world that I have labored and suffered for--far more than you know
during the last hard year.

And I want to thank the world for its great interest in my former book,
“Letters from a Living Dead Man.” Yes, I am living still, and am far
more alive than when I wrote for you before. Little by little I am
growing into an intensity of life which I could not have imagined when
I walked the earth as a man among men.

In these War Letters from the other world I have tried to give you
glimpses of that intenser life which I lead now, after my return from
the journey among the stars. I had thought to tell you of that journey
when I should return again; but the story would not have been so
instructive at the present time as this story of the war in the astral
world. For you are nearer the astral world than you are to the stars,
and until you learn the a-b-c you cannot read and understand romances.

I am only a humble servant of the Law, a learner in the school of those
who are wiser than I. To get, I must give. To learn, I must teach. To
go forward, I must try to bring you forward with me.

It has seemed to me that what the world needed most at the present time
was a knowledge of the mysteries behind this war. I have been an unseen
soldier in this war, in which I have received many a wound. I have
had my nights of vigil and my days of labor; but they have given me a
strength that I could not otherwise have gained. I am strong because I
have served.

Serve you, and the reward will come in due season!

I am going to rest now for a little while, because I have another
service to perform in the near future.

I shall not go far away.

“X.”

 _July 28, 1915._


                               THE END.




                         =TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES=

Simple typographical errors have been silently corrected; unbalanced
quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and
otherwise left unbalanced.

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.





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