mean his personality. It meant the true "ego." It is within each one of us. It is as potent with us to-day as it was with the great teacher, did we only know. To learn, to know, will come to him who first perceives the truths of the philosophy; and then devotes himself to the patient and indefatigable study of its laws which relate to the calling forth of the powers of the soul. These laws are pregnant with truth, and step by step is taken with full demonstration. Great freedom is allowed, as unfoldment cannot run on absolutely parallel lines; still, there is a harmonious blending of experiences as each advances in knowledge of Being.

He who seriously desires any worthy attainment can gain it, if he unites that desire with perfect faith that the good he wishes will come to him. Once he grasps the full power of the ego within him, he will know that desire implies in itself the power to reach and satiate it. The genius must, therefore, first have desired what afterward became his. With desire followed expectation, which, enlarged into belief, opened the way for vibrations to pass to consciousness from the soul-center dynamo; and then knowledge asserted itself, and the genius was born.

SHAKESPEARE: THE GENIUS.

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HOW HE TOLD HIS SECRET IN THE DREAM AND THE TEMPEST."

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GENIUS has been for ages the shrine before which intelligence has bowed. To that shrine, it came with adoration and with questionings. The genealogical records were searched, but heredity offered no solution for the irregular and seemingly spasmodic appearances among men of these mighty leaders. Environment and education presented no theories to account for the advent of the marvels. A flash from the Infinite found lodgment in human brain, was the best modern religion could say in way of explanation. The over-zealous demander of demonstrable proofs-he who is usually called an agnostic-found, upon investigating, nothing beyond the ordinary in the man, and tried to account for the works done by arguing that a combination of intellects centered to produce them; and then he busied himself to find the other ones who told the genius how and what to do. The mystery surrounding the advent and

growth of genius gave the subject a wonderful fascination to the multitude, as well as to the scholar. Gradually, it was observed that the greatest of geniuses were best understood and appreciated by geniuses possessing, in a lesser degree, the powers of their superiors. Scott left the field of poetry to Byron, and Goethe bowed before Shakespeare.

To discover truth, one must break from generalizations. Startling as may seem the facts of history, there must be a cause for every effect. Secrets are being pierced in every decade which, for ages previously, had been declared by the wise as permanently sealed from human comprehension. These philosophers assumed to know the limits of thought. Their own intelligences fixed the boundary lines, but these lines were extended in turn again and again in the unfoldment of man. To-day the study of the limits of human possibilities has lost its former charm. To help one's own selfhood to its highest good is now the purpose of living, the holiest of religions. We have done with the study of limitations. If all power is within the soul of man, let us find the way to that reservoir. If it is fixed somewhere in the skies, let us climb there by instruments man may invent and build. We have computed the orbits of the planets;

measured the heights of mountains on the moon, and we have weighed the stars. The source of power cannot be lodged higher than the star containing the dwelling-place of the personal Deity, so fully and so magnificently described by the ecclesiastic. That wonderful home, filled with gold and silver and jewels and pearls and diamonds; material treasures which the immaterial soul freed from the body could never use, was to be its eternal dwelling-place. Strange consistency, strange logic! We have found the ecclesiastic so often in error as to his conclusions on scientific lines, that we are not restrained from our investigations when he declares: "God has placed His seal there-man (or human thought) can go no further." How does he know? Who taught him the limits of thought, of human possibilities? If there are secrets man has not penetrated (and I admit there are myriads of them) it is simply because his unfoldment has not permitted it yet. I deny any philosophy that limits the powers of man. I see in such a philosophy only the excuse of ignorance when asked for a cause not fathomed. Because one does not know, does not mean that the limits of the attainable have been reached. Man is better understood to-day than at any previous period of history. His unfoldment was

restrained for centuries by the "cannots" and "dare-nots" of the "know-nots" who claimed to be the "know-alls" of humanity. In seeking the cause to-day in any field of investigation, we do not permit ourselves to be hampered by any conclusions drawn from theories held but never proven. We care nothing about them. If true, we will find the proof. Mysteries of centuries are being revealed, because man now reads the open book without prejudice. Much of the learning of the past has ceased to be learning. The investigator has no love, or even respect, for thousands of volumes quoted as authority for years and years. Too often conclusions were reached through traditions, and superstition made those traditions sacred. This age asks for truth, and he who claims to assert it must bring his proofs.

The secrets of a genius lie, I claim, in his power to appropriate the riches contained within his own soul. Though he must consciously do this, it is possible he may not comprehend the law to the attainment of the end. With the light thrown upon us during the last few years of the century just closed, we find a thousand barriers to understanding broken down; and now, from the printed page, we see reflected more than author or reader ever saw before.