A PLEA FOR THE OCCULT, 421 



we see that all other being is acted on in like manner, or exhibits like phenomena. 

 And we see that the phenomena are in power, extent and character, just in degree 

 with organic structure and intelligence. Our reason then says, as these are 

 all of like quality, only differing in degree of manifestation, that the force pro- 

 perty or intelligence that we know to be in us, is the same in all else — or is one. 

 And as we know that we are of both matter and intelligence, we are daal in con- 

 stitution. The one we call matter and the other spirit — not that the names sig- 

 nify, but they are the tools we handle to express the conception. 



Now, as we see matter without manifestation of spirit, we must accept the 

 conclusion that the one is at least equal to the other, and as matter is known to be 

 indestructible spirit must be also, and we call this quality immortal. If spirit 

 does take on matter, as we see from our birth and growth, it must have had be- 

 ing before it did so. And if it had being before it manifested through matter, 

 it cannot cease to be when the matter is worn out or destroyed as to that use. 

 You may say this is not proved, but so we have said about a great many 

 things that have been proved. To deny is not to prove the reverse. It may be 

 the very best we can do with our faculties at this stage of our progressive de- 

 velopment. We know a great many things that men three centuries ago said. 

 were impossible to be known, and our experience ought at least to teach us to be 

 modest about setting limits to the knowable. There can be no doubt if we had 

 not set up our own little standards of truth as infallible, and refused to look be- 

 yond, the world might have been far in advance of what it is to day. It is fair 

 to assume that there is nothing necessary to our full happiness, our moral or in- 

 tellectual needs in this life or for the life hereafter, but what we have the capacity 

 to know, or that is not within our ability to obtain. To deny this is to assert the 

 incompleteness of our creation — that we have the quality of want without the 

 equivalent of satisfying — an absurdity on its face, and an impeachment of the 

 infinite power and adaptation we see in all else in the universe. The one con- 

 dition is that we seek the knowledge aright. As all we see and sense has its 

 method of coming to our observation, we can find how it comes if we only seek 

 in harmony with the law of that coming. 



Now, if life, or spirit — the presence of which gives life — has the power of 

 coming in connection with matter for the uses we recognize, is there any princi- 

 ple of logic that can make its coming impossible for other uses and by other 

 methods ? Surely the claim that it can has as reasonable ground to stand on as 

 the most vital of our scientific assumptions, as has been shown. If it comes to 

 stay through the modes of conception and growth, it ought to be capable of the 

 lesser function of coming on a visit to the imprisoned spirit. If it has command 

 of the forces of nature, or the elements of organization to direct, control, mould 

 and express itself through the physical body for four-score years, there is no 

 known obstacle to its coming into relation with the conditions in which it existed 

 so long, after leaving them. To claim that it cannot is to exalt the conditions 

 and powers of matter above those that gave it the power to first come. Or it 



