control_ the influence nor the "entity" that influences him, and
eventually he loses the power to resist it, and likewise the power of
self-control.

Science demands _facts_, and here are facts in abundance. These facts
supplement the discoveries in electricity and nature's finer forces, and
pass from physics to metaphysics, from physiology to psychology, and push
back the veil of the unseen, and hitherto unknown, many degrees.

The trend of all this progress, and of these discoveries, is exceedingly
plain.

Our concepts of Nature, of Life, and of Man have been almost immeasurably
enlarged, refined, and elevated.

Expectancy is in the air. "What next is going to happen?" is the question
everywhere asked. The conditions and portents, in a general way, are those
that herald a new Avatar; an Avatar now, of science rather than of
religion; of knowledge rather than of faith, and this knowledge is to be
of spiritual things, the foundations of which are already in evidence.

This science is not to be time-serving, but man-serving; not so much a
renewal of faith as a revelation of knowledge; less anxious for the glory
of God than for the elevation of man, which is the more direct and certain
way of honoring Divinity.

This does not mean the decay nor the repudiation of religion, but a
_realization_ of _true_ religion, such as heretofore prophets have
foretold, revelation has forecast, and toward which humanity has toiled
and journeyed in sorrow and pain; the very religion that Jesus lived and
taught. "A clean life, an open mind, an unveiled spiritual perception, a
brotherliness for all, and human life a journeying upward toward the
realms of eternal day, 'with no night there, and no sorrow.'"

_And why not?_ If man can conceive it, why may he not _realize_ it? The
"Old Adam" as an excuse is exploded. The "New Adam" is indeed "a
quickening spirit."

Nothing is plainer nor more demonstrable at the present day than the fact
that mankind is slowly but surely shaking off the traditions and the
superstitions that have bound it in the past, rising above the myths and
the folklore of every age and clime, and awaking as if from slumber, to
behold a new day and a new world.

This awakening is even more in evidence and remarkable in the case of
woman than of man. Progress here during the last decade has been such as
the world has never before seen on any such scale, and it means more to
the elevation of humanity than anyone has