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A SPIRITUAL CONSIDERATION OF PHYSICAL MAN¹

We have seen that outer forms correspond to interior conditions, and that which obtains throughout the cosmic world is true in a pre-eminent sense of man.² Let it be remembered also that wisdom is the grand faculty of the human soul and should govern all that is below—whether faculties or affections. Wisdom is the lord of creation, and not only is love itself directed thereby but all its emotions are modified. Love has intercourse with the outer world through the medium of sensation and thus receives a continual influx from the elements of all material things. Thereby also love pours forth its springs of affection for external objects. So do the inner and outer communicate one with another,

¹ See The Principles of Nature, Part II, pp. 631-641, extracted and compared.
² This fundamental idea of the Harmonial as indeed of Hermetic Philosophy is illustrated after another manner, as follows: Minds absorb vitality and substances generally from the atmosphere which is generated and exhaled by all the spiritual spheres. Hence there is a spiritual atmosphere within that which is material. The soul feeds upon the one and the body upon the other, until—by a refining process—they blend together, and the spirit thereby is made to increase in substance. Human souls will accumulate spiritual substance in strict harmony with their individual aspirations. Those who are on the quest of love will grow spiritually wealthy therein, and so of knowledge and wisdom. Just in proportion as these departments of mind open to the celestial atmosphere, within the common air, so will love, knowledge and wisdom increase the substance of the soul.—The Great Harmonia, Vol. IV, pp. 54, 55.

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and over this intercourse that which should reign is wisdom. Will is likewise under the same potential direction. Whenever the faculty of will is instigated by love to perform an external act, wisdom perceives the suggestion, divines its use and directs the will to its accomplishment. When the faculty of wisdom is undeveloped and love actuates alone, the manifestations of will are impulsive and often injurious to the well-being of man. We discern in this manner the importance of (a) elevation of mind, (b) instruction concerning its inward nature, and (c) its relation to the world.

The cause of disunity in actions, feelings and affections is not innate depravity but misdirection of faculties. The baser passions of the soul and every species of licentiousness are referable to the ignorance and imbecility of minds unguided by wisdom and apart from spiritual unfoldment. Let us desist therefore from proclaiming metaphysical hypotheses derogatory to the innate divinity of the human soul; let us rise to the plane of interior and natural thought; and let all external activities correspond to the unrestricted sanctions of wisdom. It is through lack of such government that men have adhered so long to the imaginative beliefs of their love-part, instead of the spontaneous teachings of judgment. Hereditary opinions of every kind are simply early impressions made upon the former faculty. But men who discard all hereditary affection 1 for thought are those in whom is developed the highest

¹ It has to be remembered that this statement is not unlikely to convey the very opposite of the author's intention, unless it is read in the light of his other intimations on love, wisdom and will, but especially on wisdom and love. So also the essence of life is likely to escape in the life of thought alone, nor is thought itself of necessity the way of wisdom. There are many images therein from which we may cry to be delivered, and often cry vainly if we are once lost therein. This also is the world of multiplicity and not the world of union. It is right, however, to add that the Harmonial Philosophy of Davis sought no world of union, for this is the world of the mystic and not of the Summer Land.

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faculty of the soul, and this is wisdom. Thence they receive and thereby impart instruction; and whatsoever is prompted within them by the love-nature is made perfect in order and form.

The physical senses of humanity have their correspondences on the inward side. That which we call feeling, in the restricted sense of the term, and which is literally touch, has a close relation to the faculty of love. Hearing—or the sense of external sound—is correlated with the joint action of love and will, but with the latter especially, for thereby this sense is rendered a delicate medium of communication between the inner and outer worlds. The power of seeing is related to the faculty of wisdom, and hence is subject to the will. Seeing is always an act of will, approved or permitted by wisdom—for a person may or may not employ his organ of vision to behold material things. It is otherwise with hearing, for will has no power to prevent the influx of sound-vibrations. Neither will nor love has control over the sense of touch, which is a connecting link between human faculties and the instincts of animal creation. The two other senses, namely, taste and smell, are modes of the sense of touch and are subject neither to the judgment nor the will. Unlike vision, they have no power to resist external invasions.

The connection thus established between outward faculties and ruling qualities within shows that man's external form corresponds to and represents his interior being, or the form and structure of the soul. Be it remembered that forms are created and determined only by their essence—a truth which applies to man and the whole universe. To behold the soul or spirit of man observe, therefore, his material mode of being. Remember also that the real man is internal and only animates the material form,¹ (a) to perfect its constitution, (b) to

¹ It is said that the centre of the soul—meaning its place of physical situation—is near the centre of the brain. There is a small nucleus in

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preserve its identity, and (c) to establish an inseparable connection between the material and spiritual world.¹ All material things created by man are the forms of his thoughts, and these are offspring of the soul. Were he differently insphered and taught, he would not be so far removed as now from the spiritual world. But he becomes individualised in this sphere and preserves his form henceforward. He exists in the other world in a perfect human form, for the Second Sphere is unfolded from the first and is the perfect form of this, its parent and creator.

which is concentrated the vital power of all that constitutes a man. In the lifeless brain this place is not larger than a buck-shot: in the living brain it is as large as a frost-grape.—Penetralia, p. 196. From this centre it radiates over the whole body.
¹ As to the independence of these worlds and especially of soul from body, Davis dwells elsewhere on the fact that electricity is not created by the zinc and copper plates, but is simply developed and accumulated; and he argues that this is the case also with man's spiritual principle. The brain is indispensable to the individualisation of the living elements of life into a healthy and harmonious mind, but not to the prior existence of those elements nor to the continuation of the individual mind after the physical structure has subserved its purpose.—The Great Harmonia, Vol. Ill, p. 69.