Page:The mystic test book.djvu/24

20 and gives it the same interpretation as does the English or Spanish maiden.

Thus the heart is an emblem of love the world over. The diamond an emblem of wealth.

The Ancient Magi understood this principle and they also understood the deeper hidden principle that underlies all symbolism, that is that there is a spirit force back of every-thing that exists; that the spirit force or astral light of a symbolic thing becomes fixed principle through the mind and spirit force of man acting upon it for ages and ages.

A materialist cannot understand this, for his mind cannot grasp the meaning of spirit or mind.

When the writer was young, the coffin was stained and varnished usually only a few hours before being used, so that the peculiar smell came to be closely associated with death and funeral sermons.

I have conversed with many people regarding the sensations experienced by myself whenever I smell fresh varnish, and I find that nearly all whom I have compared notes with have recognized the same thing. A shudder and peculiar sinking of vibration connected with death. Thus, by the mere association for a few generations we have erected a symbol of death appealing to only one sense, smelling.

Emblems appealing to the eye have more power because they appeal by a higher vibration. The vibrations coming to the retina of the eye to produce the sensation of sight, run into hundreds of trillions per second, many times higher than those producing smell or taste. The symbols of taste are quite powerful in some directions, however, as most people have observed.