will was, or was not, in this moment of spiritual exercise truly offered to God; it is essential to progress in development that we should live in active Goodwill. From the invocation of the Spirit the soul may pass on to resting in the thought of the humanity of Jesus. The mind, in order to possess itself of the right angle of vision, repeats silently a chain of words. Now words have become more than sound through the ages they have been in Man's service. They have become psychometrised. That is to say, they have acquired a force just as stones acquire through the years, moss upon them, and the growth of lichens. In this sort of spiritual moss lies the power of words, and it is from this truth a superstition arose of there being certain words to conjure with, words of magical potency. This is a good instance of the coarse distortion that superstition imposes on a truth; for a frame of mind, or condition of being, is only resultant from a word being uttered, because, through the Ages certain words have been used to express certain qualities or because certain frames of mind have prevailed and induced them. So, to return to the invocation of the Spirit, given the mind of the student is in a quiescent state of receptivity, it is a profitable proceeding to pronounce slowly, and to savour inwardly, a chain of good words; because it puts his mind in touch with good conditions. Each word in this chain is the name of a spiritual quality, one of the Fruits of the Spirit, and as each word is repeated, let it be seen as a hewn stone that is definitely laid among its fellows to uprear and defend. This is to build the spiritual walls, and each word is spoken in praise and recognition. This is done in contemplation of the Humanity in the Divine. Courage, Fortitude and Faith, Love, Gentleness and Security; Patience, Kindness, Joy, Willingness and Service. Hope and Health, and Devotion, Thankfulness, Light and Peace. Strength, and Clearness, and Constancy, Truth and Life." Let these words be said slowly and separately, with a sense of quiet leisure, and let the mind rest in each one as it is spoken and be conscious of the rhythm of the whole. Let there be an accompanying acknowledgment that all these divine qualities are ours, for this is allowing the mind to rest in the thought of the Humanity of Jesus, and with it goes a great outrush of love towards a Master who perfected in himself while on Earth our imperfect nature, and who, if we open our ears and set our hearts in the right direction, can make us whole. The response to this outgoing of the cabined spirit is very comforting. The consciousness of union with the Divine is immediate and without hindrance, because it is our home. You may describe this sending forth of the will by saying that it is a state in which the soul is not concerned about its own welfare nor what it may receive, but only desires that Good or God should manifest within it. The soul in such meditation does not intercede for others or petition. for itself, but only in desiring God, it includes these lesser activities within the greater, and causes itself to be a stronger vehicle for divine immanence. It constitutes itself a point of contact with the Over-Soul. In this realisation of Unity it will confidently exclaim, O God within my breast Almighty, ever-present Deity, As I undying life-have power in thee. It is this "power "that the practice of meditation can make ours. It is worth striving after, for it is the only defence. It is from within ourselves that teaching must come. Compared with meditation, prayer is noisy. For one soul that exclaims, " Speak Lord! for Thy servant heareth," there are ten that say, "Hear Lord! for Thy servant speaketh," and there is no rest for these. We are living in a time when people must become more and more acquainted with the super-sensible world, if the life of their soul is to become equal to the demands of ordinary life upon it. The first step towards power is to rid us of ourselves; to sweep wide places in our being, and-however active a great part of our life may be-to dwell inwardly. Then we shall be whole. Now may Jesus Christ, who on Earth loved converse with those who sought Him, draw our souls to practice spiritual development and may we persevere in it until we carry the Light. May we be brought to such union with the celestial that we may perceive through the heaviness of the earthly senses the joy and finer life of Spirit, to our liberation and the welfare of our fellow-men. THE SINGING OF BIRDS the small fowls jargoning -Chaucer. THERE are two reasons to account for the difficulty we find in describing the songs of birds: one is that those who listen intelligently to the birds' songs hear them so differently, and the second is that the birds themselves, individual birds of one species, in a certain degree, vary. This is true as to the actual notation. The design, or what may be called the plan of the song of each species is more constant; and it is to this one should bend one's attention if one wants to learn the song of a bird. You must get to know the shape of its song, the plan of it, if you are to disentangle it from the chorus. In Doctor Garstang's Introductory Essay to his book called The Interpretation of Bird Music, there is much original remark and good observation. He suggests that a clearer appreciation of the significance of the songs of birds would be arrived at if the bird nature were more closely considered and compared with that of man. He points out there is much in common between birds and men. They are warm-blooded little creatures, warmer even than ourselves, and accordingly independent to a greater extent even than we are, of purely climatic restrictions. They conquered the air for locomotion long before us, and far more effectively, facts which give them an independence of place and time far superior to our own and ensuring for them considerable spells of leisure, which they devote to elevating forms of recreation. They are bipeds, and hold their heads up in the world. They have an educational system of a simple but effective kind based, as ours is rapidly ceasing to be, on family life and parental responsibility. Lastly they have an æsthetic sense and express their emotions in song and dance and displays of finery." The same writer thinks that birds, æsthetically, are probably somewhere near the level of primitive man, and that by birds' songs we may be enabled to retrace some of the steps by which primitive emotional cries were transformed into the beginning of artistic music. The unity or pattern of a bird's song is characteristic of the species, and this characteristic type again dominates the songs of variants of one species, so that however greatly the songs of birds of different nature vary, yet if they belong to the same species, the type song is clearly recognisable. As for instance with the Tree-Pipit; you hear its song full of individuality, yet you can taste skylark" in it, so to speak; they belong. Just as you may recognise some Robin in the song of the Dunnock. Birds have acquired to themselves names and sentences, little bits of human speech from the sounds of " their sweet jargoning." The Whip-poor-Will of America, and the "Why did he do it?" bird, the small Indian heron who gives that plaintive cry, these names explain themselves, and find instant acceptance, and are far more descriptive than phonetic renderings. A verse, the metre of which gives the arabesque of a bird's song, and the words its assonances, is well suited to convey a true idea. Take" the Lark's Song" by Charles d'Orleans for instance: La gentille alouette Avec son tire-lire-à-lire |