hich has been called the "subjective mind" is
probably more accurately defined as the real person, the man himself,
the immortal being who inhabits for a time the physical body. The
development of this immortal self by an intellectual and moral and
religious progress is the real business of life,--the _raison d'etre_ of
man's sojourn on earth. There is no more important truth to be grasped
at the present time than that this culture and development of the
spiritual self, or this spiritualization of life, is in no sense a
matter of incantations and mysterious rites, but is only to be achieved
through faith in God, through prayer and the constant uplifting of the
spirit to the Divine. The inspiration of life lies in the unceasing
effort to unite all the conscious inner life with the Divine will and
guidance. The problem that presents itself to the instructors of the
deaf, dumb, and blind is in this development and liberation of the
spiritual self, that the psychic powers may, to some extent, take the
place of the outer senses that are closed. The physical mechanism of
communication with the visible world is defective, and that perception,
which is spiritual sight, must overcome blindness; that swift
recognition which is spiritual hearing must overcome deafness; and the
wonderful delicacy and intense keenness that these perceptions develop
in those with defective senses is itself an incontrovertible proof of
the reality of the inner spiritual being that for a time inhabits the
physical body. The observation of the deaf and blind leads one to see
that sight and hearing in all people vary in degree, and that a vast
number of people are partially defective in these senses, and that all
mankind are defective beyond a given point. There are vibrations too
fine to be detected by the human ear; and the sight of the eye is, as is
well known, entirely limited to a certain degree of distance even in
those whose eyesight is the keenest. Clairvoyance and clairaudience are
considered as abnormal and phenomenal gifts, and as in no way
conceivable, nor even desirable, as general and usual powers for every
one. Yet what are they but the sight and hearing of the spiritual man,
the development of the powers of the subtle body transcending those of
the physical body? This ethereal or psychic body is in correspondence
with the ethereal world. It is formed to be an inhabitant of that world
in which it finds itself the moment it is released by dea