| Show LITERATURE A notable feature of tho April Magazine of American History is its timely frontispiece frontis-piece a picture of unusual interest at the present hour It is a copy of the famous A l 1I1 1 41 11 f tI tuUulUS UI JULUW UUUIU U vuu u U dinand and Isabella and illustrates with much force the beautiful Ballad Columbus Colum-bus by S H M Byers written expressly for this spirited periodical which always keeps in touch with present affairs The leading article The Chesapeake and Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Ludlowj by Robert Ludlow Fowler Fow-ler brings to light some exceedingly interesting inter-esting unpublished letters about the naval engagements of the war of 1812 and presents pre-sents numerous valuable and unique illustrations illus-trations A short sketch of tho First Meeting of Admiral Porter and General Sherman as described by the admiralwill attract thousands of sympathetic eyes The critical essay of Hon William Wilt Henry A Defense of Captain John Smith taKes the reader into tho beginnings of Virginia Vir-ginia life and shows who was manifestly the soul and energy of tho initial plantation on the James river This magazine is deservedly de-servedly popular and its handsome printing print-Ing is attracting ttention from all parts of the world Published at 743 Broadway New York city The Forum In his article on The Fate of the Election Elec-tion Bill in the April Forum Senator Hoar declares that the Republican party if it should permanently abandon that measure meas-ure would turn its back on the essential principle that has made Republicanism what it is and he vigorously scores those northern business men who he says by refusing re-fusing adherence to the party have played into the hands of the opponents of honest money Dr W S Rainsford in a noteworthy note-worthy study of tho causes of increasing poverty in our great cities places foremost among these the unwillingness of the poor to help themselves and asserts that the inside force that shall compel them to do so mustbe furnished by Christian church Ropfir O Mills thinks that tho recent cen sus is as untrustworthy as if it had an nouced that a certain proportion ot our people peo-ple had red eyes and blue hair and gives figures in support of his view Prof Gold win Smith makes tho Birchall murder a text for a discussion on the relation be txVeen religion and morality Dr Gatchell of the university of Michigan exposes the methods of socalled mind readers and shows that tho only honest feats of the kind are performed by musclereading which he explains at length Other articles arti-cles In the number are on Railway Passenger Pas-senger Rates by Prof A T HadleyThe Flood Plains of Rivers by W J McGee and Madame de Stael by W E H Lecky the distinguished English historian The Forum How York city Theosophy It has often been said that Theosophy is simply a maze of theories what we really want being some simple but practical assurance as-surance of the existence of God and the immortality of the soul Skepticism on this point is perhaps one of tho chief difficulties which modern thought has to overcome in those days nor is this the only one for we worship a God of progross whose very life depends on competition and whoas the apotheosis of blind unreasoning force might be appropriately labelled the survival sur-vival of the fittest Yet nature does in truth work through unintelligent energy which is inherent in all matter and lies at the centre of all things as the inner reality of existence but then we say that man has tho proud prerogative of guiding and regulating regu-lating this resistless power it is not for him to play second to nature but to correct her it is not for him to bow before tho wave which overwhelms the weak and bears forward only the strong but to subdue sub-due its energy by intellect And how is lite to be rendered coherent if while progress pro-gress requires competition the dignity of man commands us to love our neighbor as ourself I Thoosophy says that a true appreciation oflife in its manysided phases isonly to be found by studying the inner man a study which it professes to have elevated into a science In each of us is to bo found the true explanation of tho Why and the How of the world around us and introspection intro-spection guided by theosophio methods will gradually disclose a world undreamt of awaiting only the light of self consciousness conscious-ness to arouse it to real existence Theosophy Theos-ophy therefore would change the direction direc-tion of the human mind from the study of externals ex-ternals alone to that of the inner self First teaching men to know themselves It would only permit the introduction of collateral knowledge drawn from experience in the outer world as corroborative evidence of our progress in the divine knowledge of the powers which lie within us At present it cannot TJQ denlpd 1 > that modern education consists entirely in acquiring knowledge concerning the things which we appreciate through our senses and that the inner man is moulded by the hard and fierce pressure pres-sure of circumstance over which he has generally no control because ho has never learnt to know himself and the godlike powers which he might use The true science of man is based on the teaching that ne is septenary or composed or seven oasio principles a theory which a contemporary wishing to be wittydescribed as new but not true Yet the system of thought thus abruptly discredited is not new but is of immense antiquity Man is therein shown as being the subject and object of all manifested nature and as having knowledge knowl-edge about himself which has been handed down from the early dawn of sentient life accumulated from age to age until now with us the representatives of evolution evolu-tion it has reached a complexity of form which rivals in its intricacy the material body which heredity has given usThos Williams Fellow Theosophical society |
