et, is being fulfilled. Life here is
just one link in the endless, unbreakable chain of individual existence.

* * * * * *

Most fortunate is the soul that is started out to make the journey of
life without being handicapped by some narrowing religious superstition
or an intellectual bias that limits the mind, preventing all unfoldment
of originality.

TEST OF CHARACTER.

Sooner or later everyone who has character enough to make any sort of a
test worth while, has to have a regular bout with his "evil genius."
Christ said: "The devil hath desired thee that he may sift thee as
wheat." The form which the test takes depends entirely upon the
organization of the individual. But it is in every case the same
thing. The thorough arousal of the latent powers of the nature, and
the suffering which ensues from the results of its unbalanced actions,
constitute the discipline of this life. We can no more escape it, or
subvert the action of this law of evolution than we can put a stop to
any of the upheavals of nature. The volcano and the earthquake are but
the expressions of power in the globe which we inhabit to throw off her
old, and ascend through violent agitation to higher conditions. There
is a natural correspondence in the experience of her inhabitants and
that of our old, old mother!

* * * * * *

Back of protoplasm, back of organic human form is the soul--a thought
of God, a spark of divine, eternal life; imperishable, immutable as God
himself.

CHARACTER FORMING.

All animals, the human creature included, are born blind and this
physical condition of man absolutely typifies his life-long state,
owing either to his environment, his heredity, or his false education.
The great mass of humanity come into the world unmarked by any
specially-developed individuality. These are the legitimate prey of
priests and teachers who have their place, or use in the evolution of
the lower grades of life on this planet.

The smaller number of advanced souls that are "cast upon the shoals of
time," the evolved thinkers, the philosophers have by far the more
trying, and difficult life; for the highly individualized man or woman
cannot belong to any set school of ethics; there are no fixed
landmarks, religious or otherwise. Blinded by inherited prejudices, if
not by destructive tendencies, with ideals for which there is no
seeming avenue in this comm