472 



The Review of Reviews. 



PSYCHICAL REVIEWS. 



The Theosophist for September docs not con- 

 tain much new matter. Mrs. Besant's lecture 

 on " Investigations into the Super-Physical " 

 is concluded, as also are the articles on " The 

 Coming Christ," by a group of American 

 students. Alba concludes his paper on " Edu- 

 cation and Spiritual Culture," and explains how 

 the religious consciousness should be awakened. 

 He maintains that the first step towards this 

 is by developing a perception of the beautiful 

 and the faculty to conceive beauty under all 

 its forms. Esthetic, ethical, and " religious 

 problems must be linked together that they may 

 by common effort evolve the religious conscious- 

 ness. Educational work should not be carried 

 on in the midst of cities and in the foul atmo- 

 sphere of dusty streets. " The school ought to 

 stand in the wood, amid flowers, having the 

 blue sky over it .... By turning our backs on 

 Nature, we deaden the receptive faculties an our- 

 selves and in our children. " Most interesting 

 is the writer's account of the colour-sound 

 method employed by Mrs. Ownkowsky, the 

 Russian violinist, in teaching children. A. 

 Rangasvami Aiyar tells of the work, progress, 

 and expansion of the Theosophical Society 

 under the title of " The Old Order Changeth." 

 Marguerite Pollard writes on the Bahai move- 

 ment and theosophy. 



The Theosophical Chronicle for September 

 contains many very good articles. "J. N." 

 shows by copious quotations from the writings 

 of the ancient bards and Druids how the teach- 

 ings of Druidism and theosophy have much in 

 common. In " Thoughts on the Law of 

 Cycles " E. A. Cory explains how in our lives. 

 we are constantly influenced by cycles of feeling 

 and thinking— it is thus our so-called habits 

 are formed. The writer says " that the 

 knowledge of the working of cyclic law, and 

 the law of the formation of habits, as we may 

 call it, would be of infinite help to us in the 

 curing of habits, in the checking of bad habits, 

 and in the making of new habits." Captain 

 Samuel Turner gives some interesting extracts 

 from a semi-official report of an oiiRcial visit 

 to the Leshoo Lama in the year 1775. The 

 Leshoo Lama was at the time eighteen months 

 old, but, although iinnble to speak a word, 

 conducted himself with " astonishing dignity 

 and decorum." Herbert Coryn, M.D. , 

 M.R.C.S. , writes on " Cerebral localisation," 

 which theory-, he says, is finding greater and 

 greater difficulty in maintaining life, and is 

 rapidly giving way to the new conception " lh.it 

 much or all the brain is involved in every func- 

 tion, but that some particular parts arc the 

 connecting places with the outer world." 



Two articles are of special interest in the 

 Theosophical Path this month, and both deal 

 with the same subject, " Man," and his de- 

 velopment, which must come from within, from 

 himself, from his higher self. " The phe- 

 nomenal universe comes and goes, yet man, the 

 eternal, remains. Stripped of all his accessories 

 .... he stands just what he has made himself, 

 no more and no less. . . . One thing alone, of 

 all those which he fancies he ever has or ever 

 can possess, is his — that indefinable yet com- 

 prehensive thing, his character." " Man feels 

 dimly, at present, that the race is approaching 

 a crisis, that his only hope of safety is to ally 

 himself to the Higher Self — the God within, to 

 boldly re-assume his creative functions, bring 

 order out of chaos, or be swept to destruction." 

 These two quotations are from Gertrude van 

 Pelt's article, " The Upbuilding of Real Life," 

 and " The World Problem," by H. Alexander 

 Fussell. Among other articles are " Wesleyan 

 Minister and the Higher Self," by H. T. Edge;. 

 " Mysteries of Sound," by a Student; and an 

 article on the " Late Emperor of Japan," by 

 Kenneth Morris. 



The Occult Review contains an account of 

 a curious medical superstition of the Middle 

 A^es, relating to the Powder of Sympathy, 

 which was used as a cure for wounds. The 

 powder was not applied to the wound, but to 

 • any article that might have the blood from the 

 wound upon it. Miss Mabel Collins contributes 

 another chapter of her book, " The Transparent 

 Jewel." Irene E. Toye \Varner writes a most 

 interesting paper on " The Religion of Ancient 

 India." 



THE FORUM. 



One or two papers have been separately 

 noticed. Mr. Allen Kline indulges in a historic 

 survey to prove that the rise of a new Party is 

 inevitable. To succeed, it must be based on two 

 conceptions : the Government shall be the ser- 

 vants of the people and be vested with sufficient 

 power to discharge this service. Mr. E. E. 

 Miller describes certain factors in the re-making 

 of country life. Thanks to improved farming, 

 the farmer is going to get more out of his deal- 

 ings with the soil. He will get more out of his 

 dealings with men. He will not rest content 

 with a basis of business that gives less thai 

 50 per cent, of the consumer's money to the 

 producer. A third factor is the farmer's in- 

 creasing desire for a better standard of living. 

 Mr. Albert Hardy reviews the progress of the 

 moveiTient for cremation. Benjamin de Casseres 

 says of Pierre Loli, as of Lafcadio Hearn, that 

 he pliantomises the universe. He is the 

 Prospero of impressionism. His books are an 

 aromatic hashish. 



