'Practical Application of These Laws 361 



fires of death burn." The enthusiasts who thus at- 

 tempt to develop psychic powers by a tour de force, 

 to break into heaven, as they perhaps suppose, by 

 scaling its walls, are hopelessly defeating any spirit- 

 ual aspirations they may have. You cannot burst 

 through the sheaths without shattering them; each 

 must be refined in turn. 



Again I say: Evolution is the reverse process 

 of involution. We must begin with the body and 

 its directing mind. Soul-consciousness is gained in 

 no other way; and psychic powers are but a source 

 of danger and tribulation, of weakness to the body 

 and mind, until both mental sheaths are developed, 

 the higher, sufficiently to recognize its power. 



Here, again, Anna Kingsford indicates the Per- 

 fect Way: " It is vain to seek the inner chamber 

 without first passing through the outer." 



Concentration is not a practice to be restricted to 

 the special periods devoted to it ; but as facility and 

 power are gained to hold the mind under control, 

 the law of effective thinking and doing should be 

 applied in all the affairs of life. It should become 

 the fixed habit to concentrate the mind upon the 

 affair of the moment no matter how trivial it may 

 be. Only thus can the pernicious trick of mind- 

 wandering be overcome; only thus can the mind 

 be trained to efficient service at all times. And as 

 it the mind is making you, hour by hour, 

 what you are, is it not really the most important 



