attitude of the newspapers is noticeable. In July Mrs. Cooper-Oakley was entertained at a conversazione held to welcome her back from New Zealand.

Next evening a general meeting of the League was held. At this Mrs. Cooper-Oakley was asked to represent the League at the Congress in Chicago, and later she was asked similarly by other Branches in Australia. The Melbourne Psychical Research Society was offered use of the League rooms. Bro. Hunt lectured on Karma, after which Mrs. Cooper-Oakley replied to questions, and on the roth July she left for Sydney to go from that place after a four weeks stay to Chicago.—(Communicated.)

THEOSOPHY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR.

The arrangements for speakers at the Congress to be held on the 15th and 16th September at Chicago have been completed as far as possible. The time allowed to us being only from ten to twelve hours, we cannot make as much use of speakers as in other cases, and as our foreign delegates have much of interest to say they will occupy most of the time. Mrs. Annie Besant and Miss F. Henrietta Muller come from London. Mrs. Besant is too well known to need any introduction. Miss Muller has been well known in London, where she has conducted a woman's paper for some years. She visited the Indian Section last year; at the July Convention in London she was appointed a delegate from that Section. Bro. Dharmapala, a Buddhist member, who is secretary of the Buddha Gya Society, has been brought over to the Parliament by the officials of the Fair, and while in Chicago will be asked to take part in our Congress although he is not a delegate. His earnestness in his own religion and his known character assure us that he will have much of interest to say.

Great interest centres round Bro. Gyanendra Nath Chakravarti from Allahabad. He is a Brahmin and a man of good education, well versed in his own religion and said to be an excellent speaker. He was asked to come to the Congress so as to represent our Indian Section and thus make the meeting more comprehensive. At first we had difficulty in deciding on this expense, as funds have been low. But Bro. B. Keightley came forward with an advance of the expense of bringing Bro. Chakravarti to London, and the call then issued met with such a response that enough has been raised to repay the loan and leave a surplus probably sufficient to print a full report of the Congress. If our Society had any funds we should of course have seized this occasion to show that we can bring on one platform under the banner of one organization representatives of every religion in the world by having natives of all countries present for us. But that was not possible.

Mrs. Besant and Bro. Chakravarti will deal with important subjects on the program. He will define Theosophy, treat the history and ethics of the subject and also its philosophy and psychology, and dwell on the mission of the movement. Mrs. Besant will take up the definition of Theosophy and also its connection with ethics, treating as well the subject of Theosophy and modern social problems.

Dr. Buck will speak on Greek and Gnostic philosophy, European Mediæval Philosophy, and Esotericism in Religions. Dr. Anderson will consider Reincarnation. Miss Muller speaks on Theosophy as found in the Bible, and Mrs. Thirds has the subject of Links between Religion and Science, and Revela

tion not the special property of any one Religion. Mrs. Cooper Oakley is expected from Australia, but no definite arrangement has been made for her. If Mr. William Q. Judge's voice wlll permit he will speak on the Society in General, otherwise that will be taken by Bro. C. F. Wright.

THE SUPPORT OF THE T. S.

I am much pleased to be able to report quite a number of new subscribers to our Fund since last report. I am particularly pleased to note that we seem finally to have succeeded in getting Fellows to thoroughly understand that the amount pledged cuts no figure whatever. The spirit in which contributions are made is everything. As previously stated, I shall be better pleased to have one thousand subscribers at ten cents each per month than to have a like amount contributed by one.

I have been exceedingly pressed for time during the past month, and my personal acknowledgments have been somewhat delayed in consequence. I think, however, that all have now been made. If not, will pledgers kindly advise me, so that I can get the matter straight?

My thanks are specially due this month to the Secretary and five other members of the Salt Lake Branch, whose subscriptions reached me simultaneously. Will all Secretaries kindly remember that I want to know the amounts pledged by each subscriber, and include that information in their reports? My report for the month is as follows:

New subscribers in the 10c-per-month Class:-L. H.A., J.A.S., Mr. R., S. P.S., E. F. R., C.L.R., R.L.S., A.V.T., G.A. W., A.J.J., J.S.Y. Total, $1.10. Per year, $13.20.

New subscribers in the 25c-per-mo. Class:-F.A.B., L.M. K., E. P. B., Mrs. W., Mr. H. Total, $1.25. Per year, $15.00

New subscribers in the 50c-per-mo. Class:-A.G., B.L., E.L. Total, $1.50. Per year, $18.00.

New subscriber in the $2-per-mo. Class:-H. W.G. Per year, $24.00. Total subscribers previously reported, 40. Total new subscribers since, 20. New total, 60. Grand total per year previously reported, $646.00. Total pledged by new subscribers, $70.20. Grand total per year, to date, $716.20. G. E. HARTER, 247 Green st., Dayton, Ohio, August 19th.

Received from the above: July 16, $66.70; Aug. 21, $54.30.

WILLIAM Q. JUDGE, General Secretary.

NOTICE.

BRANCH PAPER No. 35, A Dream and an Interpretation, read before the Brooklyn T. S. by a member thereof, was mailed to the Secretaries the last week in August.

Act not rashly; like a candle sheltered from air, not flickering, let thy judgment be calm.-Shaman's Remembrancer.

OM.

LET the immortal depth of the Soul be predominant; but all the eyes
Extend upward.

Stoop not down to the dark World,

Beneath which continnally lies a faithless depth and Hades;

Dark all over, squalid, delighting in Images unintelligible,

Precipitous, craggy-a Depth always rolling,

Always espousing an opaque, idle, breathless body,

And the light-hating world and the winding currents
By which many things are swallowed up.

-Zoroastrian Oracles.

The Theosophical Society, as such, is not responsible for any opinion or declaration in this Magazine, by whomsoever expressed, unless contained in an Official Document.

Where any article or statement has the author's name attached, he alone is responsible, and for those which are unsigned the Editor will be accountable.

T

OCCULT ARTS.

No. 1.
PRECIPITATION.

HE word "precipitation" means to throw upon or within. This term is used in chemistry to describe the fact of a substance, held or suspended in fluid, being made to disengage itself from the intimate union with the fluid and to fall upon the bottom of the receptacle in which it is held; in the use of applied electricity it may be used to describe the throwing upon a metal or other plate, of particles of another metal held in suspension in the fluid of the electric bath. These two things are done every day in nearly all the cities of the world, and are so common as to be ordinary. In photography the same effect is described by the word "develop", which is the appearing on the surface of the sensitized gelatine plate of the image caught by the camera. In chemical precipitation the atoms fall together and become visible as a separate substance in the fluid; in photography the image made by an alteration of the atoms composing the whole surface appears in the mass of the sensitized plate.

In both cases we have the coming forth into visibility of that which before was invisible. In the case of precipitation of

a substance in the form of a powder at the bottom of the receptacle containing the fluid, there is distinctly, (a) before the operation an invisibility of a mass of powder, (b) upon applying the simple means for precipitation the sudden coming into sight of that which was before unseen.

And precisely as the powder may be precipitated in the fluid, so also from the air there can be drawn and precipitated the various metals and substances suspended therein. This has been so often done by chemists and others that no proofs are needed. The ancients and all the occultists of past and present have always asserted that all metals, substances, pigments, and materials exist in the air held in suspension, and this has been admitted by modern science. Gold, silver, iron and other metals may be volatilized by heat so as to float unseen in the air, and this is also brought about every day in various mines and factories of the world. It may therefore be regarded as established beyond controversy that as a physical fact precipitation of substances, whether as merely carbon or metal, is possible and is done every day. We can then take another step with the subject.

Is it possible to precipitate by will-power and use of occult laws upon a surface of wood, paper, metal, stone, or glass a mass of substance in lines or letters or other combinations so as to produce an intelligible picture or a legible message? For modern science this is not possible yet; for the Adept it is possible, has been done, and will be still performed. It has also been done unintelligently and as mere passive agents or channels, among mediums in the ranks of European and American spiritualists. But in this latter case it has the value, and no more than that, of the operations of nature upon and with natural objects, to be imitated by conscious and intelligently-acting man when he has learned how, by what means, and when. The medium is only a passive controlled agent or channel who is ignorant of the laws and forces employed, as well as not knowing what is the intelligence at work, nor whether that intelligence is outside or a part of the medium.

The Adept, on the other hand, knows how such a precipitation can be done, what materials may be used, where those materials are obtainable, how they can be drawn out of the air, and what general and special laws must be taken into account. That this operation can be performed I know of my own knowledge; I have seen it done, watching the process as it proceeded, and have seen the effect produced without a failure. One of these instances I

will give later on.

Precipitation of words or messages from Adepts has been

much spoken of in the Theosophical Society's work, and the generality of persons have come to some wrong conclusions as to what they must be like, as well as how they are done and what materials may be and are used. Most suppose as follows;

1. That the precipitated messages are on rice paper;

2. That they are invariably in one or two colors of some sort of chalk or carbon;

3. That in every case they are incorporated into the fibre of the paper so as to be ineradicable;

4. That in each case when finished they came from Tibet or some other distant place invisibly through the air.

5. That all of them are done by the hand of the Adept and are in his handwriting as commonly used by him or them.

While it is true in fact that each of the above particulars may have been present in some of the cases and that every one of the above is possible, it is not correct that the above are right as settled facts and conclusions. For the way, means, methods, conditions, and results of precipitation are as varied and numerous as any other operation of nature. The following is laid down by some of the masters of this art as proper to be kept in mind. (a), A precipitated picture or message may be on any sort of paper.

(b), It may be in black or any other pigment.

(c), It may be in carbon, chalk, ink, paint, or other fluid or substance.

(d), It may be on any sort of surface or any kind of material. (e), It may be incorporated in the fibre of the paper and be thus ineffacable, or lie upon the surface and be easily eradicated. (f), It may come through the air as a finished message on paper or otherwise, or it may be precipitated at once at the place of reception on any kind of substance and in any sort of place. (g), It is not necessarily in the handwriting of the Adept, and may be in the hand comprehended by the recipient and a language foreign to the Adept, or it may be in the actual hand of the Adept, or lastly in a cipher known to a few and not decipherable by any one without its key.

(h), As matter of fact the majority of the messages precipitated or sent by the Adepts in the history of the Theosophical Society have been in certain forms of English writing not the usual writing of those Adepts, but adopted for use in the Theosophical movement because of a fore-knowledge that the principal language of that movement would for some time be the English.