would have said. I have gone back over our talks, and have reviewed, in mind, his QUARTERLY articles. He never gave too strong meat to babes, so perhaps he never used the exact words I am going to suggest; but it seems to me that the attempt to use his fearlessness, in a search to find, at all hazards, the truth about oneself, might give us warrant to say that his answer to this question might well have been-"Because you choose to be a failure".

Let us, in love of his Master, and as a belated tribute to his loving efforts for us, make a new, a right, an irrevocable, choice today! Let us "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage", remembering that "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God", whose plenary delegate is our Master.

If we do this, shall we not get some inkling of the powers that lie within Mr. Griscom's oft-repeated: "We can do nothing without the Master's aid. I do not believe we could even make a bare living",which has often been so meaningless to some of us?

Shall we not prove, with saint and mystic, "that there is power in humility and its consciousness of self-helplessness; indeed, that from humility alone does power spring"?

G. W.

God makes known his will to those who ask him in simplicity. Let him who has a state of life to choose, or who would desire to know what he should do for the sanctification of his soul, renounce, first, all natural inclinations, and place himself generously in the hand of God, firmly resolved to obey him. Let him then weigh the pro and con, meditating on some truth of Scripture, drawing the consequences which are the result, and applying them to the end for which God has created us. If he still doubt what part he should take, let him suppose himself on his death-bed, or at the last judgment, and then determine to do what he would wish then to have done.—IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

I

FROM A JOURNAL

WAS thinking of Eldridge today, and of his disappointment at being removed still longer from the centre of things theosophic.

At any rate, he is fortunate in being where he is, close to Nature, listening to the whisperings of the pines and hemlocks, drinking in the clear, crisp air, and breathing the serenity of those wooded slopes. So he would seem to have compensations for being removed so far from the rest of us, in being able to fortify himself inwardly against the day when he will return to this heavy, murky atmosphere, and the sensuous, psychic whirl and pressure of city life. In some respects he is rather to be envied than pitied in his temporary isolation, but he knows as well as I do that I would not change places with him. He would give a great deal to be here too, I know, where the fight is hotter, but where at the same time we have the encouragement and inspiration of so many fellow members to aid us in our efforts to "live the life".

A number of us met for lunch to-day,-it was missing him there which brought him to my mind-and as we sat and smoked over our coffee, a discussion took place regarding the significance of some of the events happening in the world. It was agreed that the Germans have succeeded in having the attention of practically every nation but France. drawn off from enforcement of the terms of the Treaty. The activities of the Bolsheviki, which we have every reason to believe Germany instigated and has continuously aided and abetted, have resulted in a crushing defeat of the anti-Bolshevist forces in the South; but it was agreed that a far more serious and far-reaching development is the growing tendency to compromise with the Bolsheviki, and apparently to abandon all intention of outlawing them from any relations with civilized nations. It was pointed out that the present Ministry in Great Britain is reported to be about to conclude a trade agreement with Soviet Russia; also, that while it is true that our own Administration sometime ago announced to the world that it would not recognize Soviet Russia and would have nothing to do with the Bolsheviki,-should other countries follow the lead of Great Britain, it is decidedly a question how steadfastly the powers that be would adhere to that admirable profession, to say nothing of carrying it out by positive action, instead of maintaining a negative attitude of aloofness, and disinclination to do anything to put out the fire that we, by precept, example and encouragement, helped to start. So many of our bankers and business men are anxious to establish trade relations, not only with the Bolsheviki, but with the Germans, that there is every reason to fear that the Administration will be unable much longer to withstand the pressure being put upon it to follow Great Britain's example. We also discussed the disgraceful manner in which politicians are hedging and compromising, not only with this menace

from without, but with the fearfully ominous murmurings from within,— from a people weary of war, whose labouring class, as a unit, has come out in open defiance of any attempt on the part of their Government to drag them into war-not even war in defence of righteousness and for the life of civilization itself—and have threatened completely to tie up all industry if their demands are not heeded. One of our number remarked that these things are causing cold chills to run up and down the spines of many people, but that he feared that this was due to apprehension as to what might happen to their pocket-books, rather than to any anxiety lest the forces of evil should run amuck once more. Before we parted, we all agreed that the root of the trouble lay in a lack of knowledge of the fundamental principles of right living, and of the inspiration and help to make a sincere effort to carry them out, which Theosophy supplies; that it was a pity that the rulers of the nations did not possess some of the wisdom and insight of the QUARTERLY, which from the day of its signing declared that the Armistice was a hideous mistake-worse, a great wrong, because it was a compromise with evil;-and that if the evil with which Germany had identified herself had been crushed as it should have been, this latest monster would not have dared to raise its head.

Thinking about this luncheon conversation afterward led me to re-read the resolution passed by the Convention in 1919:

"And whereas in the conduct of that war when victory was within reach, a truce was declared by an armistice whose conditions were designed to preclude the possibility of further aggression of evil, but not designed to crush that evil;

"And whereas the armistice has been followed by the growth of anarchy and Bolshevism, the spread beneath the surface throughout the allied nations of the very evil that Germany personified,

"Be it resolved that compromise with evil is as wrong as is neutrality; and that Bolshevism is the very opposite of Brotherhood and of all for which The Theosophical Society stands."

One sees on every hand evidences of a disposition to compromise with evil-to do anything and everything to avoid becoming embroiled in another war. The "war to end all wars" has been officially declared ended, but the world is beginning dimly and in dismay to realize something of the truth of the prophetic words of this resolution. Our own country, alas! seems to have learned little from the Great War. We were suddenly awakened from our sleep of complacent self-indulgence to forget our selfish interests and to throw ourselves unreservedly into a great Cause for a few short months; but, as a nation, we seem to have relapsed into a worse condition than before, fatuously believing that we have performed a noble and unselfish service to humanity! Oh, the pity of it, that this beloved country of ours was so blinded by self as not to see the light sooner, resulting in our shamefully tardy entrance into the

War, and then to have lacked the insight and courage to insist upon no compromise with evil when the end was in sight! It occurred to me to ask myself: To what extent is the United States responsible for the present conditions in Russia,-for our example, aid and encouragement given to a "Revolution", which, under the guise of freeing its people from the shackles of autocracy, has rapidly developed into a wild orgy of anarchy and murder? How far has the preaching of "Democracy" as the panacea for all the ills of the nations, fanned to a flame this mad desire to throw off all restraint and discipline? Men say that the good common sense of the American people will prevent Bolshevism from making any headway here, and that the "staunch Americanism" of our people, as a whole, is untainted by the poison introduced, as they think, by a few foreign agitators. But students of Theosophy know better. We know that every one of us is tainted with this thing; that the battle is raging in the hearts of men everywhere, and that far from Americans being "separate" from this malign influence, we are completely enmeshed in it. Men shudder at the horrors perpetrated by the unrestrained Bolshevist; but is not the same evil spirit active in us, resulting in our daily committing offences which on their plane are fully as serious, if not more so than those we abhor in the Bolshevist? "Remember that the sin and shame of the world are your sin and shame; for you are a part of it; your Karma is inextricably interwoven with the great Karma."

Recently I have read a most interesting little book by Mr. Judge, entitled: Echoes from the Orient, which has something to say bearing upon this subject. "The first Echo from the burnished and mysterious East which reverberated from these pages sounded the note of Universal Brotherhood. Among the men of this day such an idea is generally accepted as vague and utopian, but one which it will do no harm to subscribe to; they therefore quickly assent, and as quickly nullify the profession by action in the opposite direction. For the civilization of today, and especially of the United States, is an attempt to accentuate and glorify the individual. The oft-repeated declaration that any born citizen may aspire to occupy the highest office in the gift of the nation is proof of this, and the Mahâtmas who guard the truth through the ages while nations are decaying, assert that the reaction is sure to come in a relapse into the worst forms of anarchy. The only way to prevent such a relapse is for men really to practise the Universal Brotherhood they are willing to accept with the tongue. These exalted beings further say that all men are as a scientific and dynamic fact-united, whether they admit it or not; and that each nation suffers, on the moral as well as the physical plane, from the faults of all other nations, and receives benefit from the others also even against its will." (The italics are mine.) This book was published in 1890, but the prophecy therein stated to have been made by the Mahâtmas of "a relapse into the worst forms of anarchy" is being fulfilled before our eyes today. It does not require much

elaboration of the fundamental principle involved to discover, among other things, that the "attempt to accentuate and glorify the individual" inevitably leads to its logical sequence-the accentuation and glorification of classes of individuals as against other classes, and the desire of one class, not merely to dominate, but to crush all others that do not servilely submit to it. The poison of "envy, hatred, malice and all uncharitableness" has pervaded the thoughts and hearts of large bodies or factions of men, who are seeking control of, or who temporarily hold, the reins of government, so that the thing has assumed a quasi political aspect. We know that it is one of the rules of the Society to have nothing to do with politics as such, but that nevertheless its members are pledged to loyalty to Truth and to principle. What are some of the eternal principles which are being so flagrantly violated today? Does it occur to us that the besetting sin of the age in which we live is separateness? The root of separateness is self-will, self-assertion, selfishness. Surveying the actions of men in the world today we run through the whole gamut of self-will, from the Bolshevist who aims to impose his will upon others at whatever cost-even murder-to the boarding-school girl sighing for "self-expression." Educators are encountering the same problem in their work, and are beginning to realize that the appalling amount of self-will exhibited even in very young children is a menace to all discipline and a barrier to the development of character. Physicians have found that one of the most frequent causes of insanity in children is self-will. In whatever direction we turn we find the tendency to "accentuate and glorify the individual" developed to a truly alarming

extent.

We have seen some of the effects produced by the "glorification of the individual" in the events that are happening in the world today, and some of the results arising from compromise with evil. We, as students of Theosophy, should see more deeply into the spiritual significance of these things, both in our own lives and in the lives of those about us. Mr. Judge has told us that individuals as well as nations suffer from the faults of others; also that they receive benefit from the others even against their will. In times like these, when multitudes of men everywhere are throwing off all restraint, submitting to no authority whether of God or man, and seeking to promote only their own selfish interests as individuals or as a class, it is clearly the duty of those of us who have been permitted to see a little-even if only a very little of the Light, to stand firm, to resist this flood of self-glorification and self-seeking which is all but engulfing the world, and thus to "try to lift a little of the heavy Karma of the world, and to give our aid to the few strong hands. that hold back the powers of darkness from obtaining complete victory." The disciple who is filled with a sincere desire for unselfish service of humanity, knows that before he can help others he must, as Light on the Path puts it, have acquired some certainty of his own,-must have