respective aspects—­some of the said theories and claims being very far-fetched and incapable of standing the test of experiment and demonstration.  We point to the phases of agreement merely for the purpose of helping the student to assimilate his previously acquired knowledge with the teachings of the Hermetic Philosophy.  Students of Hudson will notice the statement at the beginning of his second chapter of “The Law of Psychic Phenomena,” that:  “The mystic jargon of the Hermetic philosophers discloses the same general idea” i.e., the duality of mind.  If Dr. Hudson had taken the time and trouble to decipher a little of “the mystic jargon of the Hermetic Philosophy,” he might have received much light upon the subject of “the dual mind”—­but then, perhaps, his most interesting work might not have been written.  Let us now consider the Hermetic Teachings regarding Mental Gender.

The Hermetic Teachers impart their instruction regarding this subject by bidding their students examine the report of their consciousness regarding their Self.  The students are bidden to turn their attention inward upon the Self dwelling within each.  Each student is led to see that his consciousness gives him first a report of the existence of his Self-the report is “I Am.”  This at first seems to be the final words from the consciousness, but a little further examination discloses the fact that this “I Am” may be separated or split into two distinct parts, or aspects, which while working in unison and in conjunction, yet, nevertheless, may be separated in consciousness.

While at first there seems to be only an “I” existing, a more careful and closer examination reveals the fact that there exists an “I” and a “Me.”  These mental twins differ in their characteristics and nature, and an examination of their nature and the phenomena arising from the same will throw much light upon many of the problems of mental influence.

Let us begin with a consideration of the Me, which is usually mistaken for the I by the student, until he presses the inquiry a little further back into the recesses of consciousness.  A man thinks of his Self (in its aspect of Me) as being composed of certain feelings, tastes likes, dislikes, habits, peculiar ties, characteristics, etc., all of which go to make up his personality, or the “Self” known to himself and others.  He knows that these emotions and feelings change; are born and die away; are subject to the Principle of Rhythm, and the Principle of Polarity, which take him from one extreme of feeling to another.  He also thinks of the “Me” as being certain knowledge gathered together in his mind, and thus forming a part of himself.  This is the “Me” of a man.