CORROBORATIVE READINGS 



" Communion the union of one person with the uni- 

 fying will of many is an experience of a new order. 

 While it does not supersede, it supplements in an essen- 

 tial manner both devotion in the isolated soul and co- 

 operation of soul with soul. Only in communion of the 

 individual with the universal mind of a concrete group is 

 the craving of the spirit fully satisfied. 



" What is more, to communion, as distinct from other 

 means of spiritual satisfaction, is attached the happy cir- 

 cumstance that human life on earth is more favourable 

 to it than to reciprocal communication or to the seclusion 

 and retirement of solitary worship. Scarcely once in a 

 lifetime may chance favour the meeting of spirit with 

 spirit in the perfect understanding for which spirit 

 yearns; and even then the meeting is likely to last only 

 for one mystic moment. Nor do the duties, cares and 

 interests of life allow frequent retirement and with- 

 drawing of consciousness to the soul's own centre of 

 gravity, where it realises its inward self-sufficiency. The 

 general will, however, of a group to which we belong, 

 and which is working for the establishment of a perfect 

 society on earth, will accompany us through the thick of 

 the fight and fuse itself with a thousand interests. Nor 

 does it require that the many persons shall individually 

 experience the perfection, each with each, of spirit com- 

 munication; the soul of the group tends to induce, but 

 does not wait for, perfected friendships. 



159 



