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[[File:SB-03-168.1.jpg|150px|thumb|right|vol. 3, p. 168, leaflet]]
[[File:SB-03-168.1.jpg|150px|thumb|right|vol. 3, p. 168, leaflet]]
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |lessness of Minute Discussion on Abstruse Points|3-167}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Soul and Spirit|3-167}}
...
{{Style P-No indent|reply from the source whence the teaching came. The statements of the Occultists, while in my judgment of great importance, I do not feel competent to defend at length. I know too little as yet, though increasing knowledge shows me much that throws on some problems of Spiritualism a much-needed light. That that light is unwelcome to many is unfortunately true. Exclusive attention to phenomena, and disregard of the philosophy of Spiritualism have produced precisely the effect that might be expected. Men have not learned to “discern spirits.” They see (or think they see) fraud, and they do not hesitate to put it down to the most obvious source—the medium. Doubt and distrust creep in, and the very atmosphere, surcharged with suspicion, invites the presence of suspicious agencies. I believe that we shall never eliminate this source of danger until we learn that much of the fraud comes from the other side, and is directly chargeable on the spirits who communicate. I believe further that one of the most important points to which our attention can be given is to acquire knowledge of the intelligences who do communicate, and of the conditions under which we may secure trustworthy messages from spirits not deceptive and unprogressed. No ''student''''''' '''''of the subject can fail to see that much which now passes under the name of spiritual communication must, if it be indeed spirit message at all, come from a source which is undesirable, or else is distorted in transmission until its value is lost.}}
<center>ELEMENTARY SPIRITS.</center>
“Do all messages come from the ascended spirits of humanity, or are there others who can mock us, play with our vanity, trifle with our curiosity, delude and ‘fool us to the top of our bent?’ Surely this is a question worth asking: and I agree with Mrs. Hardinge-Britten, in the last of her valuable papers on Spiritual Philosophy, quoted from the ''Banner of Light''''''' '''''in the last number of this journal, that it is better to guard against fanaticism and possible delusion than ‘to raise danger signals, and warn off the searching soul from any shore where the results of patient and faithful investigation might enlarge the borders of our spiritual perceptions, and teach us more of what we are, and by whom and what surrounded.’ Those are noble words, worthy of the hand that wrote them.
“The same correspondent whose letter heads this article writes me this:—
Since writing the letter yesterday (on the spur of the moment) reflection has shown me that my little point of difference from you on the soul being given at incarnation, is beside the question now at issue in ''The Spiritualist, ''which is on elementary spirits, so that I do not expect you will think of printing my lucubrations. My sister wishes me to tell you that we have had more than one “communication” alluding to these creatures, who are harmless and pleasant as a pet dog or cat, if kept in their proper place, and as troublesome and domineering as a pet animal, if not kept in order. I am greatly interested in the question, and hope it will be carried on in ''The Spiritualist. ''Don’t you think this atomic principle as recognised in our physical bodies, is applicable to the now growing psychic body? That both bodies are fluctuating aggregations of atoms, the one of material atoms, the other of thought atoms, the latter forming the spiritual world?
Do look at “The Gnostics,” in ''The Spectator, ''for 5th Feb. 1876. . . “The Demiurgus was a merely natural (psychic) being, his creature man was a ''spiritual ''being. . . .The psychical man is his creature entirely, but that in man which is spiritual belongs to a higher being, and lies in that natural creation awaiting the full development which is to fit it for a higher sphere. . . .Thus man is threefold—an earthly body from the realm of blind matter; a psychic or natural soul (the sole produce of the Demiurgus) and the spiritual principle.”
So the Gnostics made the same distinction that you so clearly made in your letter in the last ''Spiritualist. ''To me it seems that in the eternal evolution of “life or spirit,” it progresses through all matter, gaining in its last stage (before it can become human) a certain degree of individuality, so that a personal “Poltergeist,” or individual imp may make itself recognisable to us; it may, and probably does, possess some one human quality—of an inferior type—such as vanity or acquisitiveness. But most of us get on the wrong tack from thinking that we and every other embodiment of life are permanent individualities; whereas we are aggregations of matter and spirit, perpetually fluctuating; soul being the only real individuality, and memory is no proof of individuality, for it is induration on the psychic brain of impressions.
''You ''doubtless have experienced that the soul has no memory; it is knowledge, it is perception. Just as the higher spirits do not talk of feeling happy, they “are a joy.” “l am music now,” said a music enjoying spirit to us after her death.
Recurring to elementary spirits how beautifull it will be if it turn out that they are waiting for incarnation to turn themselves (Undinelike) into immortal beings! How completely in accordance with all principles of perpetual upward development.
“So that the notion, so old yet so new to most, is not confined to those whose names are most associated with it in America. The notion that these elementaries are waiting for incarnation is that which is affirmed by the Occultists. Substantially they say that spirit passes through various stages of progression until it arrives at the condition of ‘rudimental man,’ endowed with all the mental but with none of the moral qualities of humanity. It has no soul, and so no conscience. That comes at incarnation by the inbreathing of the Divine Breath, and not till then is the heritage of immortality given. The elementaries have imperfect wills, and can be easily guided by an immortal man, ''i.e.,''''''' '''''by one born on this or other inhabited earths, and so endued with superior faculties. They assert, further, that they do interfere very materially in the affairs of our world, and are the authors of many of the lower phenomena of Spiritualism. Every careful observer must have noticed in circles constituted without any due regard to conditions, a class of manifestations which may be described as Puck-like freaks, or the gambols of an unembodied entity, destitute of moral consciousness, mischievous rather than distinctly evil. Such can hardly be referred to the action of undeveloped human spirits, for the tricks are not such as a man, however uneducated or foolish, would be likely to do. They leave on the mind a distinct sense of being referable to a source ''not human.''''''' '''''These, say the Occultists, are the pranks of the elementaries. They will plague those who allow themselves to be plagued; but they are the servants, obedient helpers of those who know their power, and will command them. And through it all, they themselves are progressing onwards to that phase of incarnation when they shall become ‘living souls.’
“Is it so? If it be, much light is thrown on vexed questions. If it be, man needs to know it, not to shirk it, and as Mrs. Britten says—scream ‘We know enough. We will stop our ears for fear we should hear too much.’ If it be, then the grand theory of evolution applies to ''all''''''' '''''created things; and God is consistent with Himself in all spheres of His action. Man, by virtue of his immortality, is the lord of these inferior spirits, and when he knows his power, is in possession of the key to the secrets of nature which the Ancients had, and which we have lost.
“If it be only a dream, well; it will pass away, and we shall none of us be any worse for having swept away some of the cobwebs which from earliest days till now have hung about the subject of the intercourse between earth and that which has been thought to lie beyond it. For myself, I only say that the dream has one merit that dreams generally lack; it is very ''vraisemblable''''''' '''''and coherent.”