impressions it
receives. The man who cannot laugh at anything, has just as little control
over his laughter as one who is perpetually giving way to uncontrolled
laughter.

Thought and feeling may be cultivated by yet another means, namely, by the
acquirement of the characteristic known as positiveness. There is a
beautiful legend in which it is related of Christ Jesus, that He, with
others, passed the dead body of a dog. The others turned aside from the
hideous sight, but Christ Jesus spoke admiringly of the creature's
beautiful teeth. One can, through practice, attain to the condition of
mind in regard to the world, which is indicated in this legend. Error,
vice, and ugliness should not deter the soul from seeing truth, goodness,
and beauty, wherever they are to be found. Nor is this positiveness to be
mistaken for want of judgment, or for deliberately closing the eyes to
what is bad, false, and inferior. He who can admire the beautiful teeth of
a decaying animal can also see that decaying corpse--yet the corpse does
not hinder his observing the beauty of the teeth. Thus, though what is bad
cannot be deemed good, nor error acclaimed as truth, we can yet train
ourselves so that what is bad need not prevent us from recognizing what is
good, nor need errors render us insensible to that which is true.

Thought, combined with will, attains to a certain maturity if we strive
never to allow what we have already experienced or learned to rob us of
our unbiased receptiveness for new experiences. Such a thought as: "I have
never heard that before; I don't believe it!" should lose all significance
where the occult student is concerned; indeed, he should endeavour, for a
fixed period of time, to allow every thing and every creature to convey
something new to his mind. Every breath of air, every leaf on the tree,
the prattling of a child,--each and all will teach him something, provided
he be willing to bring a different point of view to bear upon it from the
one he has hitherto held.

It may, of course, be possible to go too far in this particular, and we
must not at any time lose sight of the experiences we have previously had.
Indeed, what we experience in the present should be judged in accordance
with the sum of our past experiences. These must be laid on one side of
the scale, while on the other the occult student should place an
inclination for ever gathering new knowledge. Above all, a belief in the
possibility that new e