σeauTóv-know thyself-is, therefore, full of emphasis; it involves all that we can learn. There is within the compass of our being a faculty of understanding which is capable of maturing thoughts into perceptible truths. This faculty does not wholly pertain to the Ovpos the epithumetic or emotive nature which is immersed in the body, but is allied to the world of sensible phenomena. Animals have passions and sensations like mankind, and so far are on a common plane of existencc. In that respect by which we differ from the animals we are intellectual, spiritual, and divine. Thus may we distinguish our higher from our lower nature. The latter is indicated by its vivid sense of pleasure and suffering, the former by the intuition of right and wrong. The higher nature is outraged, bruised as it were and benumbed when it is dragged down and placed under the dominion of the psychical and sensual. With the back turned toward the light, there are only shadows to be seen, and the degraded intellect imagines these to be tangible, and, therefore, the sole realities. From these propositions it will be perceived that the human soul is two-fold, the passional quota knowing and choosing whatever pertains to the natural world, and the noëtic or spiritual part, often called the mind or reason, which is a denizen of the world of spirits. The one is denominated by Plato "corruptible," the other is regarded by him as immortal and incorruptible, having its origin in eternity. It is of this that Menander speaks: "The mind is our demon or spirit—a divinity placed with every man to initiate him into the mysteries of life, and requiring all things to be good." Is this the solution of our problem? We will consider. This soul or mind is the entity capable of determining right and wrong. It has within itself the standard, the criterion. It may be undeveloped and unformed, but even then the germ is there. There are in it ideas or principles, embryonic it may be and requiring to be brought to perfection, which govern unconsciously all the processes of thought. By reflection, therefore, man can apprehend and recognize the truth. That there is spirit is as certain a fact as that there is light; and as the latter is apprehended by an organism conveying its phenomena to the mind, so also the former has the mind for an organ to receive and assimilate its knowledge. If it is objected that two minds do not regard the same thing alike, it is evident enough that this is a condition arising from the blending and immersion of the spiritual nature with the emotive, by which the mental faculties are more or less obscured. Every soul, remarks Plutarch, hath some portion of reason, and an individual cannot be man without it; but as much of each soul as is mixed with flesh and appetite is changed, and through excessive pain and pleasure becomes irrational, some souls are wholly mingled and eclipsed in this manner; others only partially so. "The purer part still remains outside of the body; it is not drawn down into it, but floats above and touches the extremest part of the person's head; thus it is like a cord to hold up and direct the subsiding part so long as the soul proves obedient, and is not overcome by the fleshly appetites. The mind in a sense is that part which is thus immersed and mingled with the body; but the incorruptible life which retains its continuity is denominated soul and spirit. People commonly suppose that this higher faculty is within themselves, as they imagine the image reflected from a mirror to be in the mirror. "But," says Plutarch, "the more intelligent know that the mind is outside and distinct, and they call it the demon or spirit." By this element of our being we are rendered capable of perceiving truth. An open eye, a single purpose, an honest mind, prepares us to receive light when it comes. There is but one perfect, infallible truth; there can be no variant, discordant, rival truths. When there seem to be such, the mind sees them from a lower altitude, in which it is obscured from the passions of the soul and corporeal nature. All who really apprehend the truth, apprehend it alike. That principle within us that perceives it is capable of such perception, because may be of like nature with that which is perceived. Truth is divine, and we know and love it because of the divine principle in us by which it is perceived and appreciated. it Held our eyes no sunny sheen, How could God's divineness win us?-Goethe. We are thus brought, so to speak, face to face with God, to discourse with Him as a man talks with his friend. In the most interior part of our mind is the foundation of all real knowledge, of all truth, of all certitude, because there we and the Divine Being are one. The Supreme Mind, we apprehend, must have have been always self-conscious, knowing right and all that is good. Nature, as proceeding thence, must be good, excellent, and beautiful, like the Divine model. The mind which this Supreme Mind shall produce will, in a peculiar sense, apprehend that which is exterior to it by a light from within itself, and know all things by their likeness or unlikeness to itself. Thus is given from the Divine Source the intuition of that which is good, the instinct to perceive what is true. "There is a Being," said Socrates to Aristodemus, "whose eye passes through all nature, and whose ear is open to every sound; extended to all places, extending through all time; and whose bounty and care can know no other bounds than those fixed by His own creation." It is, therefore, apparent that the demon or divinity of Socrates was not a spectral manifestation, but rather a sensible perception of a voice, or an apprehension of certain words, which affected him in a peculiar manner. His mental perception being pure, and not clouded by passion and external matters, was apt and ready for impression. It was not a voice which he heard with his ears, but the operation of his interior mind, by which the thing which is declared was immediately and without audible voice represented to his mind. But why did not this divine something inspire him to action as perceptibly as it restrained him? It is recorded of the Hebrew prophets that God directed them to do this and that. The busy activity of Elijah in public affairs and the mandate to Jonah, that he should prophesy against Nineveh, seem to vary widely from the negative moving which characterized the demon of Socrates. It is suggested by Goethe in Wilhelm Meister that in the cases of perplexity as to what undertaking he should begin, that he should do first that work which was nearest to him. This is a short method to solve many a painful doubt. Something of the same nature must also have existed in the case of the prophets. It is also noteworthy that one charged another with speaking a vision of his own heart and not of the Lord. The Pentateuch abounds with laws and directions for sacrifices, and a ritual of sacerdotal usages; yet Jeremiah affirms explicitly: "Thus saith the Lord, I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices.'" All that these men taught and did is, therefore, to be weighed and measured, with no preconceived idea of their infallibility in the matter. They brought forth to the day the things which they had; and while we believe the inspiration of Isaiah and his fellow-labourers, we do not suppose that Dante and Milton wrote unaided by a similar endowment. The clearness of perception, the instinctive conception of the true idea, the intuition, were common to the prophet, poet, and philosopher; and they doubtless all were restrained by the something divine which Socrates described. Certainly the Hebrew prophets are represented as commanded to make predictions, the accomplishment of which was postponed; the direction to Elijah to anoint Jehu and Hazael was reserved for his successor to accomplish. Having attested our belief in the existence of the divine principle in the human mind, and the power of the mind to apprehend the truth in an immediate, direct, and intuitive manner, it is time to treat of this faculty of intuition. It is a power which the rational soul, or spiritual ens, has, by virtue of the nature which it possesses, kindred and even homogeneous with the Deity. Its ideas, the conception of what is good, true, and beautiful, are to the world of unseen realities what the sun is to the external world. They reveal to the consciousness the facts of the world of real being. The idea of the good is that which sheds the light of truth and gives to the soul the power of knowing. Insomuch as that idea is obscured, the truth cannot be perceived. "Blessed are the pure in heart," said Jesus; "for they shall see God." They live a life not amenable, like a common earth-life, to the conditions of time. and space, but in a peculiar sense dwell in eternity; and therefore, they are capable of beholding eternal realities, and coming into communion with spiritual beauty, goodness, and truth-in other words, with God Himself. แ But here interposes the curious question whether such a person has the power of prophesying. Unhappy word, that of prophesying. We are obliged to use it, and yet are compelled to explain it, that we may be correctly understood. It came illegitimately into our language, and stays there I fear to mislead the unwary. It is not from the Bible itself, where the better word nebia is used-to mean seer or clairvoyant, but from the Greek, where it meant the interpreter of an oracle. The Hebrew term signified one who saw interior truth as with an enoptic vision, who brought forth knowledge from within. It related to the perception of the future only incidentally. Coming events cast their shadows before," we freely admit. In the eternal page the mind of God, which the pure spirit may read, there is no past or future as the external sense takes account, all is present time, a constant now, and it potentially includes the future. WHOEVER KNOWS THE PRESENT WELL, KNOWS ALSO WHAT WILL COME. He feels what is to be when brought into close contact with what now exists, for the present is transitory and is the future-" becoming"-rather than the stable fact. Hence, when the Syrian, Hazael, came into the presence of the prophet Elisha, the latter gazed on him till his countenance fell, weeping in the meanwhile, "because," as he explained, "of the evil that thou wilt do." Hazael protested: "But what is thy servant-a dog, that he should do this great enormity?" He was of subordinate rank in the kingdom, like a dog, that must follow and not lead. The prophet then stated his own errand to Damascus as the answer: "The Lord hath shown me that thou shalt be king over Syria" (1 Kings, xix. 15; 2 Kings, viii. 7--15). But vaticination, we repeat, is a secondary matter. Men do not, I think, enter into the counsels of the Omniscient to learn something which may be divulged to further the selfish purposes of others. If the alchemist has learned to transmute baser metal into gold, he is not, therefore, permitted to fill the coffers of others with the wealth, nor to make such gain for himself. Though the Son of Man be Lord of the globe, he may not have where to lay his head. "The gift of God may not be purchased with money," and if any one could fall so low as to sell it, he would speedily find that he had not in possession what he had proposed to impart. Hence, in all ages and climates the vendors of prediction and interpretations have often sunk down into mere cheats, and, from the perfect and entire men who minister in the presence of Jehovah, become the filthy itinerant emasculate slaves who perform the rites of the Syrian godess. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon," is an axiom always pregnant with truth-worthy of its Divine source. If all may be gifted with prophetic intuition, it seems somewhat marvellous that so many are not. "An exceedingly small number is left," said Socrates, "of those who engage worthily in philosophy, and as to what concerns myself, the sign or interior signal of my dæmon, it is not worth while to mention that, for I think it has heretofore been met with only by one other, if any at all." It is, indeed, as Christ declared," a straight gate at which many who seek to enter are not able." But with this matter perhaps we have nothing to do; every man has his own capability, one in this way and one in that, and we are not appointed to judge them. If they and we harmonise mutually, there will be an elective affinity to unite us; but if otherwise, the world is wide enough to give room to all. Strife, dissension, and quarrelling, all belong to the external and sensual nature. Some souls are especially prophetic, and even clairvoyant. Those which are not are in untractable conditions, headstrong with their passions, and feel the restraint of the higher nature as a galling chain. Sometimes they get the better of this and follow the right; sometimes, however, to be again drawn away and sunk into the mire of external sensuality. If, by its discipline, the soul is bridled and becomes gentle and manageable, it will perceive and understand the minutest direction of the inward monitor. "The soul is singularly prophetic," because it contains the spirit or mind that perceives the essence and soul of all things. This condition is "entheasm," an automatic activity of the mind, as distinguished from the effort of the will-the ideas coming by inspiration. It is remote from the ordinary working-day habits of thought, but nevertheless, not abnormal |