All music, whether it be vocal or instrumental, that comes to us from without is only a means to an end. In the first place, it may serve to awaken music that has been dormant in the subconscious mind and, in so far as it has been joyous, uplifting or beautiful, it will be of present benefit. It may also be made to appeal to man's higher nature, causing an awakening of a spiritual consciousness, and with such an awakening will come a fuller and a deeper appreciation of music. So no one should ever allow himself to be content with anything that is mediocre in music; for in doing so, he will never be able to reach the highest goal of his desires. He should seek in every way possible for that which is highest and best, whether it be in music or anything else, and he will find that he will get far greater satisfaction through taking such a course than he could possibly do in any lesser way.

We can make the subconscious mind a repository for the many thoughts that we shall like to recall to cheer and uplift us when in need. If the living of life is all written into the subconscious, why not learn to write it in the most beautiful way? Why should its pages be blotted by discordant, angry, or disagreeable thinking? Why not record everything in terms of beauty? No one writes our book of life for us; we write it for ourselves, and we put into it that which in a future time we have to read over and over again. Why not write into it our fondest hopes and desires, our most beautiful thoughts and feelings? Why not fill it with the music of true living? We can do it if we will. If we fill the subconscious mind with a longing desire for the things we wish to be and the things we wish to do, then such thoughts and feelings will come up over and over again into the conscious mind to inspire us to renewed action, until all we have hoped for and desired becomes fully realised. And with such realisation there will come still grander hopes and desires, and because of what we have been able to do, we shall be able to accomplish still greater and more wonderful things.

How much better it is to work in harmony with the divine law and order of life than to put ourselves in opposition to it. And not only better, but more delightful, giving more peace of mind and greater happiness. When we think that all this can be accomplished through our own efforts, and that it brings untold good, it should inspire us to a daily and hourly effort to live life in the one and only way that makes life worth living.

"Blank misgivings of a creature Moving about in worlds not realised, High instincts, before which our mortal nature Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:

But for those first affections,

Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may, Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, Are yet a master-light of all our seeing;

Uphold us - cherish - and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal silence: truths that wake,

To perish never; Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour,

Nor man nor boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy!

Hence, in a season of calm weather

Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea."

We brought no material riches into this world and we shall take no worldly possessions out of it; but we did bring with us, at birth, the whole history of the past. The body recapitulated the many stages and conditions that in by-gone ages were being wrought out in form after form, until at last, the body became a fit habitation for the living soul; and the mind, beginning in early childhood, recapitulates all that man has lived, and been, and done from elemental savagery up to our present stage of human civilisation, and at the present moment life is being lived in order ,to still further enrich the mind. Each experience through which we pass brings some new knowledge to bear upon how life is to be lived. If we use this knowledge in a wise way, we are storing up, we are garnering the only riches - those that we can take with us when • we leave this world. The truer and the stronger our thoughts are, the more we shall have of the needed riches to bring about new adjustments to life, no matter on what plane of being we may be. We can make, through the conscious action of the mind, our book of life a real guide-book that will help to show us always the best way to take. We are in the world for the purpose of expanding to the real love and wisdom of life, and through such development to fit ourselves for new and higher planes of life and being.