Not all at once does the mind assert its presence and begin to be a dominant force. It begins with the beginning of the embodiments, and commences to manifest its power before the physical is fully expressed, and there are glimmerings all the time, through individual lines of life and through all history,' that even when a man insists upon the greatest physical strength of the nation or the individual, there is something unfolding besides that, that you have two lines revealed in expression at the same time and in the same lives.

We will point to Greece as a culmination of intellectual and physical without the moral strength. The Spartans especially were among the races of which you have any knowledge in which this typical physical life was somewhat subordinated to the mental, or intellectual;, but even the Spartans refused to allow those who were imperfect at birth to live, thus producing a race of heroes, from a physical standpoint. And in fact even Grecian art did not in reality, excepting through Grecian philosophy, rise above purely a physical standpoint. You will perceive that, while the physical may be dominant in the individual expression, and in the nation, (as the aggregation of individuals,) there also enters what is termed the mental power. This is a certain reflex from the spiritual, is a shadowy suggestion of the spiritual, and compared to it is like the light of the moon compared to the sun. This mental power constitutes the first thirst for knowledge; the first idea of traffic; the advantage over fellow-beings in trade; the selfish wish to accumulate wealth; the inventions and discoveries that promote selfish enjoyment through mental devices; handicraft, all skillful labor of the hands, indeed the whole domain of the empire over the earth by mental achievements, the mind governing the labor of the hands. And you here perceive the distinct line of demarcation between man and that which is not man in the visible creation of earth, in this: that man is the only creature as a physical being who destroys hie kind: other generic existences in the animal kingdom only destroy other animals (not those of their own species usually) for food; but man destroys his kind, in the lowest states for food, and in the next states in order that he may satisfy the demands of the idea of conquest, of victory over his fellow-man. The first dominant idea of man is the idea of conquest, even when the mental state intervenes and takes possession, when the physical state is on the decline.

As intellectual power is the next step, its conquests constitute the next victory; for the most part the average human life pauses there for a time, imagining this to be the real height. Greece in her pride of intellectual strength was as unscrupulous as she was in her physical conquests.

There is no greater deformed monster in the universe than the intellectual giant devoid of moral strength, as there is no greater monstrosity than the physical giant devoid of intellectual and spiritual strength. But as one illustrates one step of progress, so the other illustrates another. The learning, skill, and conquests of the Hermetic philosophers will serve to show what man's intellectual endowments may become. But each step must be taken by each Soul.

The Pharaohs, Caesars, and Napoleons of history illustrate the culmination of intellect in the line of ambition. Certain learned Egyptians, Grecians, and even more modern philosophers, illustrate the culmination of a line of scientific achievement. To-day the whole world may be said to be tending toward this culmination of intellectual strength; while in the past there have been individuals and nations who have illustrated this culmination, the whole world now, as an average, worships at this shrine of intellect. May not the story of Oedipus be intended as an example of the blindness of mere intellectual power?

The mental states (i. e., states of intellectual achievement) seem to be somewhat enwound with the spiritual; but the latter is not dominant, seems only secondary, or exists as an aid to the intellectual achievements: as in the observations of natural laws; discoveries in astronomy or geology; various inventions and devices for carrying forward the scientific pursuits of the world, and for the overcoming of the material disabilities under which mankind labor. In this direction must be included all inventions, all discoveries of territory, all voyages upon sea and jouraeys upon land, everything that enables man to build and pile up great monuments of power, and works of physical appliance for the purpose of fortifying his physical strength.

Thus the pursuit even of abstract science, separate from any moral impulse, is, in itself, a mental, and not a spiritual expression, and the greatest advancement, as it is termed, in the glory of art, science, and civilization, may occur without the slightest approach to any spiritual expression.

The mental steps are not only much more various, but they combine many, and more intricate, problems. We will use a few simple illustrations, by which you will be able to follow out the analyses by applying these illustrations, in modified forms, to the entire realm of mental pursuits. As there must be culminations in all lines of physical life by each Soul, bo these intellectual culminations will be many. In certain stages of expression there are several arts, and sciences, or phases, of intellectual pursuit at the same time. But take, for instance, the individual life, the typical expression of the Soul that has only passed all the stages of physical culminations, and physical weakness, and believes that, after all, physical strength is the greatest, but must be accompanied by mental power. Then the individual begins to know the mental, or rather commences the lines upon lines of mental approach to conquest.

The steps in the direction of art, for instance, are various and slow at first In music, the one who struggles to that which can not be attained in one embodiment, for which there is little ability, and yet for which there is such desire, the struggle with persistence is continued through many embodiments. Among the average children, you will find, perhaps, nine of every ten who can learn music; seven of the ten learn indifferently, three out of the ten learn horribly; and all learners are as bo many embodiments of torture. Your neighbor's child, over there, is on the road to a culmination in music, but through the various sounds you are made aware that the child is very far, as yet, from culminating. Is not this true of poetry? One genius writes a poem and Bets a whole brood of janglers to making rhymes as near to poetry as the crowing of the cock is to the song of the nightingale. Some one sings a song and the echo is caught up by every bluejay and catbird. Yet these who only croak now will one day sing.