De L'Ester—Indeed we did not at any time leave you unattended. We never do. You have such a genius for falling and other mishaps, that ever we are on guard to if possible avert them. No, we will not go to Ento to-day, but with your permission we will talk with you.
Gentola—I shall be only too happy to have you do so. May I ask for your opinion of our World's Fair? Did it at all interest you?
De L'Ester—Truly, we all feel a degree of pleasure and pride in such an exposition of the achievements of Earth's peoples. It was a grand result of ages of evolution, and a fine illustration of the history of their progress. Should we say that largely the marvellous exhibit was the reflex of activities of the spirit side of life, you scarcely would credit the assertion, nevertheless it is true. All spirits submerged in mortals, subconsciously are en rapport with the spirit spheres, and when the subjective and objective consciousness are fully en rapport, they establish a medium, through which very advanced spirits of exalted spheres can convey into visible expression the results of their wisdom and attainments. But this is a topic we cannot now consider.
We observed that you were greatly interested in the parliament of religions, and the various ethical and other congresses. Could the audiences have seen the multitudes of spirits who listened, applauding or disapproving, they would have been astounded. Myriads of Earthbound spirits were there, and spirits too from the higher spheres, not only of our own planet, but of others, and all were deeply interested in the proceedings. If it be true that in a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom, at the parliament that somewhat rare jewel should have shone resplendent. The numerous representatives of Earth's leading faiths, each vieing with the others in presentations of their claims, as possessors of truth, afforded a stirring spectacle. We also observed your lively interest in the Orientals and their expositions of their various faiths, which are more truly spiritual than are some of more modern times. You have come to understand that a people may believe an erroneous doctrine, yet be a spiritualized people. What they may accept as truth is not so momentous as is their manner of living it. The spirit of the Golden Rule is found not only in all the great religions of Earth's peoples, but in all the religions of all peoples everywhere, and if those who profess a belief in it practice it they are not far from the kingdom of Heaven. Yes, positive beliefs in this or that do, to a degree, influence conduct, and it is quite as true that beliefs are the results of heredity and environment, which are most forceful mediums for the perpetuation of good and evil, characteristics of human good and evil being terms expressive of states of development. Truth is God, perfectly expressed, and truth may be likened to light which, falling through color, takes on the hue of the medium through which it falls, but is light still. So truth though discolored by its passage through the medium of Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Christian, and other imperfect faiths, is truth still, and ever its radiance steadfastly shines for the guidance of humanity.
Gentola—You have mentioned my interest in the Orientals. I assure you that when I first saw Swami Vivekananda and other Orientals enter the great hall, I was quite startled. It seemed to me that at some time somewhere I had known them, or people like them, and I found myself trembling from a sort of shock or surprise. To this day I cannot account for the peculiar sensation.
De L'Ester—Do not try to account for it; later on you may be able to do so.
Gentola—Doubtless you are aware that among scientists of our planet there is much speculation as to a possible missing link between the earliest humans and the most highly evolved animal forms preceding them. While observing at the parliament the representatives of various races it occurred to me that between them and their animal progenitors there may have been a variety of missing links.
Humboldt—Gentola̤, I fear that you have not well remembered some lessons we have endeavored to convey to you. In the so termed chain of human evolution, no link is missing. The expression is misleading, and altogether unscientific. In a chain no one link is an outgrowth of another link. It is an individual, special, observable creation of the artisan, but from the earliest physical expression of the human to the period when the Earth man became a Spiritualized Being, the degrees or stages of his unfoldment were so indistinct, so slightly emphasized as to have been imperceptible, save by the Infinite One.
Gentola—Do you know at what stage of his evolvement, and how the Earth man became spiritualized?
Humboldt—You have been informed that apart from the physical plane the term time has no significance. When we freed spirits think of eternity we think of that which had no beginning and can have no ending. When we think of the universe, we think of that which is dimensionless, and when I say that always throughout the dimensionless universe, new worlds have been, and are coming into existence, and that dead worlds have been, and are undergoing disintegration, I but state accepted facts. Always, when new worlds become fitted for it, they receive that which Earth's scientists have not yet discerned—the quickening potentiality, the life impulse, which is the Divine Energy pervading the universe. In their tepid waters the first life expressions of the vegetable, of the animal, and of the human animal are manifested. On our planet, as on other planets, quickened protoplasmic, human germs passed through all the gradations incident to their onward, upward, ceaseless progress toward a period when as hairy creatures with low retreating foreheads, protruding jaws, repulsive features, and unshapely limbs, upon which they scarcely stood erect, they instinctively drew themselves apart from all other life forms. No, in no sense were they related to anthropoids; animals they were, but human animals, with faculties so specialized as to place them above all other creatures. Ages elapsed, and when sufficiently evolved, they became spiritualized. How? As you cannot yet accept a belief in re-embodiment, you may not accept my statement and the added testimony of these friends, that in the spirit spheres of inhabited planets of our Solar System and of other systems of worlds, there are myriads of Spirits, of low planes of development, who, through the ministrations of those known in the Spirit Worlds as Angels of the Visitation, are conveyed to such human creatures as I have spoken of, and through their organisms they are re-embodied, and become reborn as their spiritualized children. And that was how the first spiritualized humans appeared on Earth, and how they appeared on other planets prepared to receive them. Could I not read your thoughts, your perplexed expression would assure me that another question is on your lips.