MAN IS A SOUL CLAD IN AIR 87 



sessed the human body, and that there was as 

 many devils as there were evil propensities. Mary 

 Magdalene was possessed of seven devils, and the 

 man who had more evil propensities than they 

 could enumerate was said to possess a "legion of 

 devils." 



But the world is fast outgrowing the ignorance 

 and superstition of the past and this is a fortu- 

 nate and happy age in which to live. This is pre- 

 eminently the age of electricity of mind and invisi- 

 ble forces as the past century was an age of mat- 

 ter. The whole world is feeling the electric thrill 

 of a new life. New voices call us, new inspirations 

 are in the air, new thoughts crowd upon the think- 

 ing mind. The reasoning soul catches whispers 

 from the stars and celestial benedictions from the 

 radiance of the sun. Man is a heaven-bound spirit 

 in an electric body woven of dust and air, of in- 

 finite ether and eternal atoms, sifted through bound- 

 less space, and tossed from suns to worlds; and he 

 is climbing to loftier spiritual heights and a diviner 

 atmosphere. 



The great men of the past had false ideals. They 

 were the ambitious conquerors, who despoiled their 

 own race and deluged the world in blood. Their 

 thrones were built on pyramids of human skulls 

 swimming in a sea of human blood and tears. Their 

 triumphal march was heralded by the clanking 

 chains of miserable captives, and the wailing cries 

 of widows and orphans. For many ages human 

 slavery, grinding poverty and abject misery were 

 the common heritage of the despoiled masses who 

 lived in hovels, were made food for cannon, or were 

 sold into bondage for debt, while a few fortunate 



