the same, provided that there is no concurrence of spirits, and that the appearance only is changed. It is only by the concurrence of spirits that the weight varies more or less.* If the change is only apparent, the amount of the matter of the body is neither increased nor diminished. Increase or diminution of the natural weight can only take place by the addition of the perisprit of the spirit or spirits who communicate, or of the fluids which surround the subject, and effect his transfiguration. But the fluids by which we act, though ponderable to us, are imponderable to you at present; they are as imponderable to you as the air was to your ancestors before they had invented the needful instruments to weigh it. The air was always of the same density; but your ancestors could not weigh it, and supposed it to be an essence without weight or bulk. It is the same with you at present, as regards the fluids by which we effect transfiguration.

The universal fluid is a compound of various fluids forming but one in the mass; but we draw from it such portions as we require. It takes the desired direction, or connects itself with the whole, according to circumstances. The various fluids are ponderable to us in the universal fluid, and in those which result from subtractions or combinations effected by spirit-agency. Everything is ponderable in nature, which is a general term for all the organic and inorganic creations, both from a fluidic and material point of view.

The various fluids, of which the universal fluid is composed, will only be recognised as ponderable (like the air, which you can now weigh), by means of instruments and methods which will long remain unknown. But you will finally succeed in this, and what you now regard as great mysteries will become plain when you understand the nature and properties of the fluids around you. But, for this purpose, man must learn to raise himself into aerial

* I believe this passage was published before any experiments in weighing mediums in cases of so-called "materialization" had been attempted.-TRANSL.

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regions, which are still as unknown to him as are distant seas to the peasant who has never left his hut.

Moral purification and intellectual progress will both assist you to ascend, for the former will attract more powerful aid; and you will be better able to understand, without abusing your knowledge, which will then become easy to you, and you will learn more, and raise yourselves more speedily.

It is only by the agency of spirits that the natural weight of the subject can be increased or diminished. This phenomenon is the result of the united spiritual and fluidic action of several spirits, for it cannot be effected by one alone. To increase or diminish the weight of a transfigured subject, the spirits around employ the same means by which they can fix a light table to the ground, or lift a considerable weight like a feather. When they give the subject the appearance of a larger and heavier person, they increase the density of the fluids, when necessary, to the point required to produce the difference between the weight of the person represented, and that of the subject. But when they give a tall and stout person the appearance of a little child, they diminish his weight by upholding the transfigured subject, until his weight is proportioned to his size. In this case, the moment that there is any spiritual action, the weight varies in conformity with the appearance, provided that it is necessary; for you can understand that, if necessary, the spirits could increase the weight, when a tall robust man took the appearance of a young child, or could diminish it when a young child took the appearance of a tall, strong man.

To effect such transfigurations, the operating spirit cannot act alone, if he is but little elevated; if, for instance, he is of your own level, or not much above you. Spirits avail themselves of the elements of medianimity which they meet with, just as the combination of analogous perisprits is necessary to produce noises, and other physical effects; and the subject must likewise possess the physical aptitudes necessary for transfiguration, and for the effects which are to be produced. It is impossible for you to understand

these subjects at present, for they relate to the combinations of perispritic fluids, and belong to a class of ideas still far above you. The time has not yet come for you to enter upon this study. Except as regards the concurrence of the perisprit, the spirit is the sole agent, as you may perceive.

When more elevated spirits desire to transfigure a human being, they can dispense with his physical susceptibility, although they prefer suitable conditions. When the incarnate spirit does not possess the necessary physical susceptibility, we envelop him with fluids which form, as it were, a covering which we throw over him to give him the appearance which we desire. We can thus, by means of luminous fluids rendered visible to men, present the subject under a luminous form. We can change his appearance, and present him to their eyes in such a form as may be required to impress their imaginations. Thus, incarnate spirits may be raised, as transfigured subjects, not to so elevated a point as that which Jesus assumed before the eyes of the disciples, but to a state resembling it, if their moral and physical dispositions are suitable. If it is necessary to produce a striking effect upon the imagination, we can even employ an unworthy subject who possesses the physical susceptibility required; just as you use an imperfect tool till you find a good one, in which case you prefer to employ that which is most useful. Even so, we abandon the instrument which only possesses material qualities (that is, physical susceptibilities) when we meet with a good instrument possessing both the necessary physical and moral dispositions. We are always ready to endeavour to remedy what is physically wanting in an incarnate spirit who fulfils the desired moral conditions; but how few are there among you who possess faith, elevation of mind, self-renunciation, and charity, to a sufficient extent to attract us to you thus ! Such cases of transfiguration are still more uncommon than those produced by spirits of your own level, or a little above you; and even these latter are themselves very rare indeed.

MATTHEW, CHAP. XVII.-VERSES 10-13. MARK, CHAP. IX.-VERSES 11-13.

The Spirit of Elijah reincarnated as John the Baptist.

Matth. xvii. (10) And the disciples asked him, saying, Wherefore say the Scribes that Elijah must first come? (11) And Jesus answered and said to them, Elijah indeed cometh first, and shall restore all things; (12) But I say unto you that Elijah has come already, and they have not recognized him, but have done unto him whatsoever they desired; and thus must the Son of Man suffer at their hands. (13) Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist.

Mark ix. (11) And they asked him, saying, Why say the Scribes that Elijah must first come? (12) And he answered and said to them, Elijah indeed cometh first, and shall restore all things; and how it is written of the Son of Man that he shall suffer many things, and be set at nought. (13) But I say unto you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they desired, as it was written of him.

§ 193. You should understand the object of these words of Jesus. By directing the attention of his disciples to the return of Elijah in the person of John the Baptist, Jesus laid the foundation of the spiritual revelation of the law of reincarnation which he was about to make, under a veil, in his interview with Nicodemus ; and which was to be fully unfolded to men at the appointed time. This was the corner-stone which Jesus carved to support the building of the future.

Although the Master's words were of but little importance to the Apostles, and to succeeding generations until your own age, under the dominion of the letter, they will exert a great influence in future under the dominion of the Spirit. For the present, they only served to confirm the prophecies in the ancient books. The Apostles had no need to lay stress upon reincarnation. Although not part of the Hebrew Law, it was nevertheless believed by the majority. It is true that sceptics had already called it in question by ridiculing it, and treating it as a superstition, as they have always done, both before and after the time of Jesus. They have hidden the light under a bushel, lest its brightness should reveal to all what some would desire to conceal. Jesus revived this old belief by asserting that Elijah had risen again in the person of John the Baptist, and thus

proclaimed to all the natural and immutable law of rebirth, of which the reincarnation of Elijah was only an example and application among you of the general order of nature in the human kingdom.

Do not wonder that the disciples asked Jesus, "Wherefore say the Pharisees that Elijah must first come?" You must remember that all who were then disciples of Jesus, belonged to the lowest grades of society. Should you be surprised if one of your artisans who could not read, and knew nothing of the sacred writings but a few unmeaning words quoted in the Catechism, were to ask you such a question? Theological science was in those days what it is now; a light hidden under a bushel, lest the multitude should become sufficiently enlightened to perceive how fearfully the Scriptures have been perverted and disfigured by human interpretations. Jesus said that the Scribes and Pharisees. had not recognized John. They did not understand that he who preached repentance and the advent of the Reformer was the Elijah promised in the Old Testament. The disciples understood that Jesus spoke to them of John, because his words fixed their attention upon the only man who appeared to them to fulfil the conditions of the promised Forerunner.

The tradition* appears, according to the letter, to contradict the words of Jesus, both as regards the return of Elijah to the earth, in the person of John the Baptist, as well as the incarnation of the spirit (or soul) of Elijah in the body of John. But when this tradition is explained in spirit and in truth, it confirms the words of the Master in every point.

Your reason and knowledge conflict with the letter, and know not how to seek for the spirit, and therefore reject what they cannot understand or explain. But the spirits of the Lord have come, in the name of the Spirit of Truth, to shed light on everything which remains obscure. According to the literal interpretation of the tradition, the bodily eyes of Elisha beheld Elijah carried away to heaven, incarnate and

* 2 Kings ii. 1-18.