This work is an exposition of a NEW PHILOSOPHY, and although it has been taught to a number of highly educated men,—in a technical way, we have had many suggestions made to us to publish a work which the "work-a-day" people can understand,—some have said: "It is too far above me," and "why don't you explain it so everybody may understand it."
In this section we have especially planned to overcome all such incongruities.
First of all we want to say that nature is a strict economist of time, material and energy—her acts and laws are the simplest possible.
When you see any philosophy that is complicated, it is wrong, but if it teaches simplicity it is right—the orthodox creeds have maintained that the universe contained two distinct and eternal elements—MATERIAL AND SPIRIT—but this is complication—can be reduced,—WE ARE MONISTS AND "PANTHEISTS" and we are right,—there is ONLY ONE ELEMENT IN THE UNIVERSE, AND THAT IS THE PRISTINE SPIRIT.
This is all that is needed to form the universe, and we will show that matter is simply an enclosure of SPACE or nothing, having an outline of spirit which is in such swift motion that it holds the outline—water can be sent through the air so swiftly that it will turn aside a steel bar.
To better illustrate the fact we will take a blackboard and paint it all over with whitewash, then we take a wet sponge and wipe out round figures—these will show as black spaces outlined by the white—these black spaces represent SPACE or nothing, while the white represent SPIRIT—the black spots then represent MATTER. They are really nothing, only a form outlined and held by motion of spirit or "ETHER."
The statement in catechisms that "GOD MADE THE WORLD OUT OF NOTHING" is then correct, although the statement has been called impossible by many scientists.
Our philosophy was the first to enunciate the true nature of matter, atoms, molecules and electrons. Previous to this atoms were considered as solid indivisible particles. Later the scientists said matter was condensed spirit or ether. I imagined so myself once, but upon reflection I said, "THE ETHER CAN PASS THROUGH EVERYTHING, SO WHAT COULD HOLD IT OR COMPRESS IT?" And spirit or ether could not compress ether, as ether is all alike.
To show our part in teaching the world the truth we will go into a little history.
As the readers of this work have probably never read THE LATCH KEY, I will reprint two paragraphs verbatim, numbers 6 and 17.
Paragraph 6 will require some explanation. Count Rumford claimed that heat was nothing but a motion, and in some cases this is so, a motion of the atoms in a body, but a line of spirit from the sun will cause atoms on the earth to move, and thus is the real cause of heat, and so radiation of force or spirit from burning wood will create heat. Perhaps we have in this paragraph used the nature of spirit rather vaguely in saying heat is the "prime mover," but heat in one way is spirit, or analogous to spirit.
6.
Matter Is Only Space or Nothing, With a Wall of Spirit.
Fire was held in sublime awe by the Egyptians and the sun was worshipped as the source of Divine Power. The wonderful Pyramids are supposed to have been erected for the glorification of these subtile forces in Nature.
Modern thought reverts to ancient ideas.
Fire is simply spirit in motion.
Heat is a circular or circumscribed motion or direction in which spirit is moving—it is the "Prime Mover" of organization, the creator of matter and the parent of the universe!
A centrifugal act occurring from the intellectual fiat of spirit—leaving a center, a whirling away of spirit to a certain circumference or distance from a center leaving space in the center—this is materialization, a creating of matter, the formation of an atom, from nothing!
17.
The Point of a Pin Illustrates the Annihilation of Matter.
A point continued to an absolute end must end in spirit! Matter is cut down to something beyond our senses; the absolute end of a point may contain an atom, but matter ends here—here where one single whirl of spirit surrounds the smallest amount of space possible. Beyond there is no whirl or motion of spirit, consequently no matter, yet there is now unparticled spirit.
If electricity had been studied correctly no scientist would ever have imagined that matter was condensed ether. In Maxwell's Elementary Treatise on Electricity on page 49 he says: "WE KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITH RESPECT TO THE DISTANCE THROUGH WHICH ANY PARTICULAR PORTION OF ELECTRICITY IS DISPLACED FROM ITS ORIGINAL POSITION." * * * "THE ACTUAL VELOCITY OF ELECTRICITY IN A TELEGRAPH WIRE MAY BE VERY SMALL, LESS, SAY, THAN THE HUNDREDTHS OF AN INCH IN AN HOUR, THOUGH THE SIGNALS WHICH IT TRANSMITS MAY BE PROPAGATED WITH GREAT VELOCITY."
It is the very fact that the ether is not compressible that allows a wireless signal to be given a thousand miles away instantly. It is just the same as if you had a long stick and punched a bell 20 feet away.
I sent my work, "The Latch Key," to Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir William Crookes in 1904. Its philosophy was buried for three years before the ideas were presented to the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Sir William Crookes wrote to me in 1904 stating that he had received my pamphlet, but he was just leaving home for a vacation of two weeks and when he returned he would give it his attention.
In Sir Oliver's great work, called "Life and Matter," he wrote: "But it appears now that an atom may break up into electric charges, and these again may some day be found capable of resolving themselves into pristine ether. In that case the ether alone persists. It is the most fundamental entity."
In another book called "Modern Views of Electricity" he said: "Ether is somehow affected by the immediate neighborhood of gross matter, and it appears to be concentrated inside it to an extent depending on the density of the matter."
So it is seen that Sir Oliver at this time believed that matter was compressed or condensed ether.
In my pamphlets I explained that the ether could not be compressed, as it was capable of passing through all substance, and that matter was not more of the ether, but instead was less, and that atoms were simply spots of pure space or "nothing," and that the ether or its moving lines or sheets simply whirled around on empty space while what was called a vacuum was really the habitat of real material, or the ether.
In 1907 Sir Oliver accepted this new version of the nature of matter, and it was the cause of much excitement in the British Association, so much so that the report reached America and Prof. Serviss wrote an article about it in the Boston Sunday American in October, 1907, in which he says: "The answer as recently given by Sir Oliver Lodge is amazing beyond belief. The solidest thing in existence, he avers, is the very thing which for generations has been universally regarded as the lightest, the most imperceptible, the most utterly tenuous and evanescent beyond all definition or computation—the ether!" And in the same article he says: "Matter, Prof. Osborne Reynolds has asserted, instead of being, as we innocently believe on the evidence of our senses, the only real and solid thing in nature is, in fact, the absence or deficiency of mass."
The following is an article by Sir Oliver Lodge in regard to spirits:
"Though for many years, ever since the eighties, I have tried all sorts of other methods of explaining these things, they have gradually been eliminated one after the other, and now no explanations remain except the simple one that the people who communicate are really the individuals they claim to be. Not always, of course. One has to prove them in every case. But still the conclusion is that survival of existence can be scientifically proved by actual psychical investigation.
"That all leads to a perception of the unity running through all states of existence. That is why I say that man is not alone; that is why I say that I know he is surrounded by other intelligences. If you once step over the boundary beyond man, there is no limit to higher and higher intelligences up to the Infinite Intelligence himself. There is no stopping; you go on and must go on until you come to God.
"It is no strange land to which I am leading you. The Cosmos is one. We here on this planet are limited in certain ways and are blind to much that is going on; but I tell you we are surrounded by beings working with us, cooperating, helping such as people in visions have had some perception of. And that which religion tells us, that saints and angels are with us, that the Master Himself is helping us, is, I believe, literally true."
In presenting this work to the public we claim no right to inject any fallacies into the mind of the reader, and as far as we can discover there is no cause for any misapprehension in regard to our statements. THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUTH to any question, and all we base our claims upon is our ability to present facts pertaining to our enunciations.
Fallacies are very short lived among persons who use their brains, and the only credit which any philosophy earns is from the good precepts which it inculcates, the value which it proves to the world and the TRUTH WHICH IT HOLDS.
It is usually the case that a careless person resents any philosophy which conflicts with their habits, no matter how many facts you present to them or how much history you cite to them in proof of your statements.
The use of tobacco and liquor deadens the users' alertness to safeguarding their own welfare, and in many cases with poisons and also diet the only thing we can do is to try to have you learn the truth, and if the end of the rope has been reached and you are at the ebb of life and hope, you will have more willingness to conform to the laws of life. If you don't need our philosophy as a "missionary," some time, you may want it as a doctor. Learn it, anyway.
The greatest field for fruitful efforts is with the children. If we can prevent their using improper articles of food and drink and teach them the nature of their effects, then we may find better soil for the seeds of rectitude. Of course a little dissipation may not always cause great trouble.
There is but ONE GOD and we may tell about SAVIOURS, "SONS OF GOD" and the TRINITY, but there is only one SAVIOUR and that is A TEACHER—either a SPIRIT or a HUMAN BEING—and the only salvation is in the following of Natural Laws which are GOD'S BIBLE. There are Natural laws which are OCCULT LAWS, and these sometimes contravene what we may call "LAWS OF MATTER."
A TEACHER OF THE TRUTHS OF NATURAL SCIENCE IS GOD'S NOBLEMAN, and KNOWLEDGE IS OUR ONLY SALVATION.
The use of stimulants is just the same as if you should use a 104 volt electric lamp on a current with 250 volts. It would be burnt out; and so your nerves which are the wires of the body are wasted away by stimulants. They are all alike practically. Alcohol and essential oils act as a kindler to the natural combustives in the tissues and the alkaloids or organic bases, as nicotine, morphine, etc., act like radium.
Quinine is an alkaloid also, and I will here reprint a selection from the original LATCH KEY which explains the manner in which the organic bases become dangerous. They all contain nitrogen, which may account for their affinity for the nerve substance.
32.
Light and Heat From Radium Are From the Absorption of Ether.
The emission of light from a substance spontaneously, as in the case of "Radium," is not a new phenomenon. Nearly forty years ago Prof. Stokes enunciated the fact.
He filled a glass tube with a solution of sulphate of quinine and then moved it through the spectrum, entering at the red ray. When it had passed through all the colors and entered the region of the ultra violet, or where the invisible magnetic rays were, the tube lighted up.
A solution of horse chestnut acted in the same way, so also did glass stained with oxide of uranium.
Paragraph 45 was sort of a mysterious alchemical article explaining a secret of life. Life comes from the formation of WHITE SPARKS or vacuo in matter, and therefore bioplasmic elements MUST BE LIQUID, SOLUBLE OR MOBILE. They must be capable of conforming into ROUND GLOBULES. Then the second feature must come in—heat and cold to expand the molecule and cool the outside and allow the inside to later contract and form a vacuum in the center, the home of SPIRIT.
"Decay" generates life as it makes solid substances soluble. Of course, excessive decay creates a gas and then this evaporates.
45.
Secrets of Silicon.
Moses was a great alchemist, skilled in all the arts and sciences of the Egyptians. The works or writings of Moses are called Books of the Old Testament and not works on alchemy, but tradition tells us that his sister Miriam wrote an extensive work on alchemy—(the Catholic Bible has the name Miriam translated as Mary).
In Genesis Chap. 3, verse 19, we read, "Till thou return unto the ground, for out of it thou was taken; for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return."
Some scientists scoff at the idea of Moses and some scoff at the idea of "Spontaneous Generation," but we can prove that both are true.
Life can be produced from MINERAL ELEMENTS ALONE.
Silicon has always been a source of dispute among chemists in regard to its classification. Some consider it a regular metal, but it is usually called a "hyalogen" or glass former like Boron.
Silicon is never found in its pure metallic state in nature, but is in combination with oxygen, as is then called by various names as Silica, Silex, Silicic Acid and SAND, which is the most abundant of mineral substances.
The most important and useful elements as air, water and sand God gives FREE TO ALL, they are found everywhere.
Sand is at one time a crystallized substance and at another time it may be A COLLOID substance and thus become the same nature as an "organized substance," as albumen.
Sand is insoluble in pure water, but it is dissolved by alkaline solutions. Natural waters which contain alkaline carbonates always have some sand in solution.
Sand from its two fold nature seems to be the bond between death and life or the solution to the theory of "from dust to life."
Sand when in solution is a colloid.
If 8 or 10 parts of carbonate of soda or potash are mixed with 12 or 15 parts of sand and 1 part of charcoal on being heated they melt and form a mass resembling ordinary glass, but it entirely dissolves in hot water.
If now chlorohydric acid be added to the solution it neutralizes the alkali and the silica or sand separates as A TRANSPARENT JELLY. A colloid! It is "hydrate of silica," but it is now fixed like albumen or an organized substance and is insoluble in water or acid.
If it is kept moist it remains a colloid, but by drying it and separating it from its partner, water, the colloid making alchemical mysterious WATER, the sand turns to dust again—a gritty powder!
At common temperatures carbonic acid is stronger than silica, and upon many of the combinations of silica the air acts as a destructive agent, its carbonic acid slowly uniting with bases or alkali and liberating the silica, and at the moment of its liberation the sand is soluble in water.
Sand, it will be seen, acts both as an acid and combines with an alkali and as a base and combines with acids.
Sand in solution enters the roots of plants and from its transforming nature or transmutation, it performs great wonders in nature, it performs miracles in the animal body and in water itself.
It is the ideal agent for the generation of vacuo spaces or life cells, from its being in one state when warm and in another when cold, from its being capable of forming soft cell walls and then concreting around a quantity of ether or spirit upon cooling. It proves itself the "Philosopher's Stone."
Hot and cold and silicon! What a wonderful combination! It explains the mysteries of the universe, radio-activity and life.
It may be well to here state that there is no chemical difference between a dead man's brain and nerves and a live man's brain and nerves. This in itself shows that the cause of life and intelligence is simply from some conformation of matter which allows the presence of Spirit. This is the invisible process of the formation of WHITE SPARKS or the making of a hollow center to molecules.
LIFE is not a principle per se of organic matter, but organic matter is arranged into round molecules with cell center of silicon phosphorus, sulphur or iron.
The hard and fast nature of the elements is an imagination and it is only a short step of nature from quartz or silicon to carbon and I may also say to nitrogen the gas of the atmosphere.
THE FARMER CAN BECOME A MAGICIAN by intellect. We once proved that by the use of lime or an alkali vegetables can be made to grow IN SAND. A tomato plant was planted in a mixture of sand and plasterer's mortar (a mixture of quick lime and sand) and a bushel of tomatoes were gathered from this one plant. The lime makes the sand soluble and acts the same as manure which produces carbonic acid which at the moment of its formation acts as a solvent of sand and this gives growth. Water is the great element of life and growth—with the heating effect of the sun and the alternations of temperature or cooling after heating we augment the life and growth.
I will reprint some more of the articles which were in THE LATCH KEY, as they seemed to strike the readers more impressibly than anything which I ever wrote, and in fact THE LATCH KEY seemed to have hypnotic influence. First of all IT WAS ANONYMOUS and no author's name appeared and further it was given away.
One lady in later years found out the author and wrote to me for a few copies, saying she could not help crying when she read paragraph 37. Perhaps the paragraph took on the "poetical" and thus reached her sentiments.
37.
The Secret of Life!
The little chapel peacefully resting under the overhanging trees, with the solemn graveyard beside it, tells the story of life's longings and miseries. Yet within the little chapel, however humble, can be learned the secret of life's joy and success and the eternal happiness of the soul!
Life's sentiments are fragrant, space only is fraught with pain!
Spirit fledges space, unlocks the caverns of misery and sheds the light in the gloom.
Man grovels in the dark mid the skulls of despair till he lists to the whisper of spirit. The lisping pines, the rustling oaks, the sunshine in the meadow and the moonlight on the hill speak in accents calm and clear. Our motto:
"SPIRITUS EXCELLO."
Water is the great agent of life or conformation as it is mobile.
Molecules which are round when whirled or heated take to orbits, but the metallic substances having molecules of a disc shape whirl on their axes. I herewith give articles 26 and 42 of the LATCH KEY:
42.
Why Ashes or Water Do Not Burn.
Fire is the action of atoms or molecules in separating farther apart. To be sure, ashes have atoms, but for atoms to whirl apart their motion must be so that they can separate. If the heat causes them to whirl on their axis only, the substance may get red hot, but will not burn.
And some substances do not burn because the heat and motion applied whirls the molecules or groups of atoms apart and wastes its motion in that way. Water acts this way (steam).
Crystallization is the result of the formation of vaco cells or white sparks, and I reprint paragraph 26 to explain this fact:
26.
Annealing and Malleability of Metals.
Crystallization has been considered in paragraph 21, but when matter is cooled very slowly through long periods of time, vacuo spaces are not formed.
Ordinary cast iron is crystallized, but when it is heated in a furnace and gradually cooled through several days or weeks, it becomes "malleable iron."
The iron which is used as an electro-magnet for a telegraphic machine will not work unless the iron is annealed very soft by being heated and allowed to cool in the ashes as the fire gradually dies out.
Crystallization is the most wonderful dovetailing process conceivable. When a liquid is cooled the molecules become radio active and radiate lines of force. These lines are nearly straight, unlike heat lines, and therefore they are cold lines. They drive matter in planes and straight lines or surfaces instead of into globules or liquids which move. The discs of ice cannot move or roll about like the globules of water, and ice is hard like quartz or a form of flint or silica.
All objects are formed by the action of TWO forces, either a curling force or a straight force. Plants form leaves in the air, and where there is more obstruction and curving influence they form roots. ALL CELLS ARE ALIKE in their first state, but are changed in the process of growth or from influences.
A slip from a geranium when stuck into the earth will form roots. It seems to me that each cell in an egg contains a counterpart of the whole body of a chicken—that is, it contains electrons or occult matter which, once having passed through all parts of a fowl's body, in the blood photographs these parts.
We can account for the various parts of the egg yolk turning its cells into different forms by the location which the particular cell occupies—as cells in various parts,—at the center,—or at the surface,—would be subject to curling forces or straight forces. At the center forces would be obstructed and curled, and at the surface just the opposite, and a hundred variations, according to the location and surroundings.
How many times I have wished that a social condition could be instituted by which EVERY LIVING BEING in the world or the universe could be happy and free from fear, worriment, hunger, and exposure—where peace, plenty and pleasure existed for all—where all could have a horse, automobile, golf link or any correct thing which their ideas called for to make them enjoy themselves.
FOUR HOURS' labor per day is enough for any one and there is enough in the world to give every one happiness and plenty if THE SOCIAL CONDITION was arranged correctly.
While there are many unfeeling capitalists, yet the poor are not always right. They don't know how to act for their own welfare. They may know what they want, but don't know how to get it. An ignorant poor man will often sell his vote or he is too ignorant to learn that he should obey correct laws.
The London Spectator recently gave a biography of former Secretary of State JOHN HAY and I give an excerpt from the same:
"It was natural that Hay should despise the arts of the demagogue. He speaks with scorn of what he calls 'gutter Ciceros,' and of the practice adopted during a sharp electoral campaign of 'hiring dirty orators by the dozen to blather on street corners.' He very rightly held that it was the special duty of statesmen in democratic countries to have the courage of their opinions. He himself wrote a novel, entitled 'The Bread Winners,' which was widely read, and which was really an elaborate defence of capital against the attacks of labor; and in 1905 he wrote to President Roosevelt: 'It is a comfort to see the most popular man in America telling the truth to our masters, the people. It requires no courage to attack wealth and power, but to remind the masses that they too are subject to the law is something few public men dare to do.'
"America at her best can produce men of a very high type. Such a man was John Hay."