Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/90

82 emperors and the angels. In history nothing is too late and the great tangled fabric of the past is ever open to reconstruction.'

"With all this knowledge gained," said Professor Gridley, "the work of these adepts should not lapse for want of initiates bold enough to act." He proposed that the Astral Club add to its purposes that of serious effort in the direction formerly occupied by space and time. His thought was nothing less than the perfection of the human race through the correction of history. This could be best accomplished by collective personal influence on the lives of great men. The value of such influence all teachers must admit. That it is not too late is now a certain fact, and to work in unison is to do the best work.

Mr. Dean had already devoted many esoteric and soulful hours to this labor, but he had used only the method of telepathy, subtle enough in its action, but not powerful enough for large results. Because it is dependent on etheric vibrations and electric inductions, it is practically ineffective except in settled weather. The turbulent atmosphere of the Middle Ages renders settled communication difficult if one tries to go back far enough for his influence to be worth while. It is also much better to use personal presence than any form of esoteric induction, if the former is possible.

If you wish a thing to be well done, the great Franklin assures us, you must do it yourself, and few of us moderns could speak with higher authority on electrics and etherics than he. The mere extension of a personal aura backward through history, Mr. Dean has privately admitted, fails of the highest results, and nothing short of the best can be satisfactory to the initiates of Alcalde. Still less can we count on projecting such an aura into the future. The forms of men and nations of future centuries are now in Devachan, in the subastral or plasto-nebulose state. A human aura can have little definite influence upon them, especially because, not knowing what influence should be exerted, the sensator would work in utter astral darkness which could yield no tangible result. It is evident that this great work needs the personal presence. How to produce this Dr. Hensoldt's discovery clearly indicates.

If we go around the earth from west to east, as the sun seems to go, we have added one whole day for each revolution. If we go to the high north, the circles grow shorter, and barring certain difficulties in transportation, it is easier to go around. If we ascend to the very pole, which by the aid of the non-friable astral body is not so very difficult to adepts, we find a circle of revolution only a few feet in circumference. "Let us suppose," continued Professor Gridley, "that we have arrived at the north pole on the first day of August. A single circuit around it to the eastward and we reach the second of August. A dozen circuits and we have August the fourteenth. With the aid of the