764 



SCIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 281. 



tion of fragrant incense rise the astral veri- 

 ties of Sciosophy ! 



It was indeed a fortunate inspiration, 

 (though I say it who should not) which 

 catae to the Secretary of the Astral club. 

 The fifth anniversary of its foundation 

 should be laid deep and broad and on it 

 should be emblazoned its deathless princi- 

 ples. And these great truths at once astral 

 and abysmal, deeper than the ocean and 

 higher than the stars, who so fitting to set 

 them forth as this great prophet of the west- 

 ern pines in whom the Orient has found at 

 last its Occidental reincarnation ? 



This memorial address of Mr. Abner 

 Dean, will be printed in extenso in the due full- 

 ness of the seasons. But in advance of the 

 proceedings of the Astral Club, it is proper 

 that this brief summary — however inade- 

 quate, should reach the waiting public — 



" In boyhood's rosy dawn " began Mr. 

 Dean, " I lived in Kennebunkport, Maine, 

 and as I wandered over hill and dale, by 

 forest and sea, my mind was occupied by 

 questions of what may be and what might 

 be in the universe, what its limitations re- 

 ally are, and whether indeed these limita- 

 tions exist. 



" My parents, practical Yankee folk that 

 they were, said that I was dreaming, and 

 doubtless they were right, for through my 

 dreams I learned that the dream is the sole 

 reality. It is one of the great world-prin- 

 ciples that whatever I think becomes real 

 with my thought. Thought is reality and 

 the material stuff the vulgar call ' the real 

 thing' is to the enlightened mind less than 

 the ' baseless fabric of a dream.' 



" For example," continued the sage of 

 Angels, " I used to ask myself what I would 

 do were there no law of gravitation ? What 

 if it worked in some way unknown to New- 

 ton's concept? What if I could myself 

 alter it that it might serve my will ? Then 

 things would be very different, from what 

 they now are, or appear to be. So in my 



thought I made them different. How high 

 I leaped in those days? How I gathered 

 apples from the tallest trees ? How I played 

 shuttlecock with the stars, and carved my 

 name on the silver-sided moon ? For I un- 

 derstood as a child and contented myself 

 with childish things. 



" Then I turned to other supposed mate- 

 rial facts or laws. What if friction were 

 suspended, how I could slide over the curved 

 surface of the horizon? What joy to hold 

 the laws of combustion in mj' hand ! What 

 wealth could I turn one metal into another, 

 or both into the primitive mind-earth-stuff 

 or protyl from which all men and all met- 

 als and all dreams are made. O for the 

 touch of gold, the bottomless mine of silver, 

 the genius at whose astral enchantment all 

 dreams come true ! What if the stars could 

 tell me their secrets, all that thej^ have 

 looked upon and all that has looked on 

 them ? 



" As my mind grew more subtle I asked : 

 What if the straight line be not the shortest 

 distance between two points? What if 

 ' the longest way around' be really ' the 

 shortest way home' ? What if space have 

 other dimensions than length, breadth and 

 thickness? As these three enclose matter, 

 may they not need other three to enclose 

 mind? Here I stumbled on the truth of 

 the Astral body and the Shadow Phantom, 

 as in other speculations I had touched on 

 Alchemy and Astrology. And with all 

 these I had wandered into the field of the 

 celestial geometry, the mathematics that 

 has no limit and as yet no name, the meas- 

 urement not of land and lumber but of the 

 astral spheres. 



" Since those days I have wandered far 

 from the shores of Maine, through scenes 

 shifting and stirring, till in- my old age I 

 have come to rest under the singing pines. 

 But thi'ough all these days my real life has 

 lain in these problems and these question- 

 ings. When I laid down my pick and 



