of Christ.  Wireless telegraphy was also an ordinary method of communication between them, and they had their ‘stations’ for it in high towers on certain points of land as we have now.  But if they had made their scientific attainments known to the multitude of their day they would have been judged as impostors or madmen.  In the time of Galileo men would not believe that the earth moved round the sun,—­and if anyone had then declared that messages could be sent from one ship to another in mid-ocean without any visible means of communication, he would probably have been put to torture and death as a sorcerer and deliberate misleader of the public.  In the same way those who write of spiritual truths and the psychic control of our life-forces are as foolishly criticised as Galileo, and as wrongfully condemned.

For hundreds of years man’s vain presumption and belief in his own infallibility caused him to remain in error concerning the simplest elements of astronomy, which would have taught him the true position of the sphere upon which he dwells.  With precisely equal obstinacy man lives to-day in ignorance of his own highest powers because he will not take the trouble to study the elements of that supreme and all-commanding mental science which would enable him to understand his own essential life and being, and the intention of his Creator with regard to his progress and betterment.  Therefore, in the face of his persistent egotism and effrontery, and his continuous denial of the ‘superhuman’ (which denial is absurdly incongruous seeing that all his religions are built up on a ‘superhuman’ basis), it is generally necessary for students of psychic mysteries to guard the treasures of their wisdom from profane and vulgar scorn,—­a scorn which amounts in their eyes to blasphemy.  For centuries it has been their custom to conceal the tenets of their creed from the common knowledge for the sake of conventions; because they would, or might, be shut out from such consolations as human social intercourse can give if their spiritual attainments were found to be, as they often are, beyond the ordinary.  Thus they move through the world with the utmost caution, and instead of making a display of their powers they, if they are true to their faith, studiously deny the idea that they have any extraordinary or separate knowledge.  They live as spectators of the progress or decay of nations, and they have no desire to make disciples, converts or confidants.  They submit to the obligations of life, obey all civil codes, and are blameless and generous citizens, only preserving silence in regard to their own private beliefs, and giving the public the benefit of their acquirements up to a certain point, but shutting out curiosity where they do not wish its impertinent eyes.