The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vital Message, by Arthur Conan Doyle

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Vital Message

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Posting Date: July 21, 2008 [EBook #439]
Release Date: February, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VITAL MESSAGE ***

THE VITAL MESSAGE

BY

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

PREFACE

In "The New Revelation" the first dawn of the coming change has been
described. In "The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and one
sees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseen
may be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of
how once, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an
Alpine pass, I looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy,
shimmering in the sunshine and extending in one splendid panorama of
blue lakes and green rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze
which draped the far horizon. Such a promised land is at our very feet
which, when we attain it, will make our present civilisation seem
barren and uncouth. Already our vanguard is well over the pass.
Nothing can now prevent us from reaching that wonderful land which
stretches so clearly before those eyes which are opened to see it.

That stimulating writer, V. C. Desertis, has remarked that the Second
Coming, which has always been timed to follow Armageddon, may be
fulfilled not by a descent of the spiritual to us, but by the ascent of
our material plane to the spiritual, and the blending of the two phases
of existence. It is, at least, a fascinating speculation. But without
so complete an overthrow of the partition walls as this would imply we
know enough already to assure ourselves of such a close approximation
as will surely deeply modify all our views of science, of religion and
of life. What form these changes may take and what the evidence is
upon which they will be founded are briefly set forth in this volume.

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

CROWBOROUGH,

July, 1919.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS
II THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT
III THE GREAT ARGUMENT
IV THE COMING WORLD