OF THE This is so wide a subject, that what I can say upon it will be hardly more than suggestive. Let us go back to those times of which faint traditions are preserved in so many nations. They are the traditions of the Eden Age, the Golden Age.. Genesis shows us man living on fruits amid the gardenized earth. Woman, free and happy, is by his side. In their perfect love there was no fear. Fear and subjection came afterwards. Eve is nude and smiling, without sin and without shame. Adam, joyous as a child, tends and prunes the trees that are good for food, which in alternate seasons offer a rich repast. Fragrance and bloom encircle their days and nights, there is no chill and no frost. The exquisite harmony of the human frame vibrated in sweet accord to all stellar and terrestrial influences. No disease or discomfort had entered the physical system, the pure blood flushed the cheeks, the rosy limb was perfect in grace and suppleness of motion. The gentle animals responded to man's gentleness; the dark pleading eye of the deer had never been startled by savage pursuit; the birds did not fly away, but welcomed the Eden race with songs and even caresses to their inmost coverts. The souls of this race were as exquisitely attuned to spiritual laws as their bodies were to the sweet harmonies and natural joyous life of earth. They were obedient children of the Father,souls which perchance before their appearance in mortality had known and kept the Father's laws. Some of the wise men of the west say that man is the culmination of and latest development of an ape. There may be races, or even individuals of all races, of whom this may be said, or at least suspected. The Eden race does not answer to this type. In whatever way plastic matter was molded, it fitted the needs of pure spirits. The Elohim said: Let us make man in our own image (plural), male and female created he them. Eve is said to emerge from her husband's side, symbolic of their deep interior union,-bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, twain in form as made visible in mortality, but one in spirit. It was the union of the Infinite with flesh, for a specific and determined purpose. They were one in divine essence, even as those who are sanctified are one with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; heaven was around them, they came fresh from immortality. Woman then walked side by side with man, without subjection and without fear. They had simple love and confidence in the powers above, whose they were. There was no need of rite or ritual. Angelic beings walked and talked with man, and there has remained in the hearts of all peoples a longing for and dim remembrance of that far-off time. I find no cause for my infinite desires and prophetic aspirations, within the breast of particled matter. I am belittled and confounded and indignant, when I hear ape-hood claimed as my origin. Can the fountain rise higher than the source? Let those who claim an apish origin content themselves with their ancestry, and make the best of it. I do not admit it for myself. As a child of Seth, I am a descendant of the Eden race, and preserve their traditions. My little fountain does not rise so high as its source, but it aspires towards it. I am of noble birth, and of the highest ancestry. I claim my title, and will wear it, because the cry has been put into my soul, Abba, Father. After the terrible destruction of Jerusalem, under Titus, a Jew, named Simeon ben Jochai, compiled a book of the most ancient sacred traditions of his people. It was called the Kabbala, from this is derived our English word Cabalistic, which signifies occult or hidden. He lived a very recluse life, and had many devoted disciples. His sepulchre is in Meiron, in Palestine, even to this day. Not more than two years ago a curious traveler visited it, and found two Jews living in the adjoining chambers. They had lived there for many years, and it was thought that a peculiar sanctity was attached to the place. By means of this compilation many things were preserved that would otherwise have been lost in the dispersion. This work has been greatly prized by many in all ages, and has had thousands of devoted students. The Kabbala says that the world was formed from the union of the crowned king and queen, emanations from En Soph, "The Boundless One." Another ancient Jewish book, the Sohar, says: "The agitation and upheaving which is life and motion, is the manifestation of God. Many worlds perished before they came into existence. They were only like sparks, because the sacred aged, or the ancient of days, had not yet assumed his form of opposite sexes, and the master was not at his work; but since then nothing can be annihilated." It is also stated that souls are pre-existent, and exist in what is called the World of Emanations, before being clothed in flesh. Our Lord, in one place, speaks of the glory which He had with the Father before the worlds were made; and I humbly acknowledge that on this point also I strive to cleave to him, albeit dazzled by excess of light. It is stated, also, that in this world of emanations, souls are androgenous,—that is, male and female in one,―implying the closeness of the union. They are almost always separated in mortality, and going through the vicissitudes, trials and experiences attendant upon mortal life, are sometimes unmated, sometimes wrongly mated. Our Lord says in the 17th of John, "Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to me, and they have kept Thy word." These souls, however, disjoined on earth, tremble to the infinite source of life, the treasure house of the Father, where they are wrapped in the luminous garment, find all that belongs to them, and rise to the perfection of perfect manhood and womanhood, -neither male nor female,-but a new creature. The idea of the blending of two souls in one being is illustrated by Balzac, in his strange romance of Seraphita. I prefer, however, to think of them as separate beings with a perfect oneness. The idea of the restoration of the fitting elements to each other is the dominant note of all romance and poetry. Everywhere, in novels and in song, it is the wail of kindred souls being separated from each other, the incidents of their experiences or the joy of their re-union. The ancient tradition only records a prophecy of the heart, which must somewhere have its fulfilment. The Kabbala says: Adam and Eve were wrapped in that ethereal substance which is not subject to want, nor to sensual desires. It also says: He (that is man and woman) is the presence of God upon the earth. Transgression has shorn us of our splendor, but infinite love can still radiate through us, if we open our doors to its rays. It makes even our ruins beautiful, and we become the presence of God on earth in a living temple. This radiance is not from us, but through us. This, in its complete state, will ultimate in the restoration of all things, even of our ruins. This will be Paradise regained. It is very important in these last days to consider the manifestation of the feminine in Deity, and in Humanity, for as a man's God is, or as his idea of God is, so is he, and as a woman's God is so is she. The feminine is being more and more revealed. Isis is raising her veil. As women, we ought to feel deeply penetrated with the importance, beauty, wonder and mystery of womanhood. I do not believe, as the poor Chinese woman has been taught to believe, that if she is good in the state to which she has been called, she will after a succession of lives |