The Pre-eminence of the Philosopher over his fellow men consists in his larger measure of Wisdom and Love (fraternity), and the poise that comes of knowing the principles underlying any class of phenomena; or, in a broader sense, underlying the Universe - its order and harmony.

Pure philosophy is the perfect mental Understanding of the fundamental Truths of the Universe, or such portion of them as may be the possession of the persons as the subject of consideration at the time.

Many have denominated "Reason" as the one faculty by which philosophy is attained; but Intuition is the foundation of all knowledge - Reason is the process of utilizing that knowledge for mental purposes into a system of thought - or efficiency.

The Groups of philosophers have from remotest ages clustered around some wonderful leader - calm-browed, wide of vision and clear in teaching. In many instances the Philosopher is also the Poet, the Artist, combining in the one person who is the center of a Group, the perfect forms of two and three-fold expression.

How have we longed to join the group that listened to the voice of Socrates I And, better still, the teachings of his pupil (?) Plato! O, the voice of the Grove! O, the sound of many silences of wisdom and Love!

The rivalry between different "schools" of philosophy was not in the Founders - the Teachers - but among their followers.

Every thinker really established a "school" of philosophy.

Aristotle held sway, perhaps, over a larger number than Plato; but the pure Idealism and absolute exaltation of the teachings of the hitter commanded an ever increasing following among the 157

Idealists of his time, and during the intervening centuries of eclipse the Angels were preparing the way for the more complete acceptance of the "Divine" teachings of Plato. Today we are nearer Plato than ever before.

Other philosophers, like Seneca (Seneca's Morals), who lived before the Christian Era, might have written for the expression of the highest Christian Ethics, so do the sentiments of perfect philosophy and perfect Religion meet in the precepts and examples of lofty moral purpose.

Of the modern philosophers undoubtedly John Locke has exercised more influence than any one mind (especially in England), culminating in Agnosticism and Materialism. While a more refined and spiritual ideal has been handed down from the school of German Transcendentalists.

Through Greece and Rome, down, down to the German Schools - how far to Kant and Fichte!

Or if linked to poetry, let us pause with the little Group at Weimar. Wonderful lives centered there.

Many centuries of Thought and Teaching culminated in the comprehensive works of Confucius. This was not a Religion nor a Philosophy, but a Compendium of Eastern Thought carefully, under-standingly arranged and partaking, certainly, more of Philosophy than Religion (as the latter word is usually understood), yet conveying the highest ethics.

Down through the ages sweep these mighty tides of pure philosophy, emphasized and reiterated at need by such lives as are born to bear forward the Comprehensive Truths thus given to the world.

Most of the great scholars of antiquity were also philosophers - than whom no more shining example can be found than Pythagoras, who, perfect in mathematics, gave several new mathematical statements, and whose school of philosophy was bom of the pure idealism, the true transcendentalism of the Orient.

The Oriental mind, however, clothes its philosophy with the poetic imagery of the East, and its systems of Philosophy and Religion combine in a vast expanse of Transcendentalism, compared to which the Transcendentalism of the German and French Schools seem altogether literal, almost material.

This also is true of the philosophies of the Greek, German, French, and English (modem) schools. From Plato to Bacon is a "far cry." The pure Idealism of the former - the absolute literalism of the latter.

Plato would bring humanity up to his Ideals. Bacon would bring the ideals down to humanity. Let us have both, by all means; but for us, if one system must be rejected, we would cling to Plato, the Idealist, whose world of thought and endeavor is the Universe instead of this lump of clay. Aye, the world of mind is nearer to Plato than ever before, and ages hence the world will have forgotten that the "Baconian System" ever existed, while still drinking at the pure Fountain of Plato's "Cosmos." The Ideal Republic is The Republic of Souls; - bodies will be cared for, and perfectly, when each human being is known to be Mind, Spirit, Soul.

We would fain linger amid these transcendent Groups that, like clustering stars around their suns of splendor, show the steps of the shining, ascending way that human lives have come - each soul seeking ever to reach a height, ever to arrive at an attainment, and at last in turn to become the center of groups like these.

So akin is the highest Philosophy to Religion that they meet on one common ethical ground. We climb to these ethical heights with the Greeks, the German schools of philosophy, as we do with the Chinese, through the Confucian system (a compilation of the wisdom of ages), similar to the compilation of the "Wisdom of Solomon."

As the greatest patriotism and love of one's countrymen often accompanies - nay, goes hand in hand with philosophy, we have many shining examples in comparatively modern times of those who have led their countrymen by the impulsion of their wonderful force of thought. In Germany, within a century, Fichte seemed to be the master mind, his epitomization of thought and truth being: "God is the Moral Order of the Universe, the Eternal Law of Right, which is the foundation of our being." No one ever did so much for a "United Germany" as he, even though that nation today falls far short of his Ideal.

The "schools" of philosophy matter little, when beneath the names we find the same fundamental principles of the "Moral Order of the Universe."

There are shining examples of the inclusiveness of Great Minds: Men of Science who were also profound philosophers and true worshipers at the shrine of the Eternal Mind. In fact, no man can perceive the principles upon which the Universe is fashioned without acknowledging with wonder and awe the Infinite Order of the arrangement by the Divine Mind.

Humboldt, who never ceased, even at four score years, to study the vast works of God as manifested in nature, acknowledged that his awe and reverence for the Infinite increased with every new exploration in the field of science. His "Cosmos" intcrpulsates with that of Plato, proving a kinship of Soul.

These towering heights of Philosophy reach at last to the outer courts of the realm of Religion, and prove that similar Truths must proceed from the same source: within. Intuition declares them and "Reason" condescendingly arranges them and claims them as her own. A Truth is no more a truth because philosophers have declared it. Whether "The Golden Rule" was first declared in Pagan lands or in Galilee matters little; its ethical value remains the same.

There is a depth and a height where the Waters of Truth are found by the earnest searcher. If one seek through "Science" and "Philosophy" he will find that Religion (Intuition) has already been there.

One cannot but trace the influence of Spinoza on the German (and European) thought that led to the subtle transcendentalism of Goethe - and one is at a loss whether to claim the latter as being most poet or most philosopher. The German Schools of thought were saved from materialism by such wonderful minds as Spinoza, and later by Klopstock, and such as gathered around the group from which Goethe was rising to a higher life as Schiller entered.

Emanuel Kant said: "The argument for philosophy is that a man can live by it."

The king of thinkers, Hegel, by sublime philosophy arrived at the truth of God, Soul, Immortality. Without her royal train of philosophical spirits, the period of "storm and stress" would have left Germany, and perhaps all Europe, stranded on the shoals of materialism.

Hegel, Kant, the Schlegels, Lessing, Fichte, Schopenhauer, Klopstock.

Aflame with the light of these master minds, their influence has never ceased to be felt, entirely eclipsing the later more materialistic schools of so-called philosophers. France, Great Britain, and the United States have later developed a "school" that well-nigh leaves the Spirit hopeless, stranded on the sands of "Agnosticism," but for the counter claim of such minds as Dr. A. R. Wallace, Sir Oliver Lodge and a score of others who have by searching found the true light of Immortality of the Soul.

True philosophy, therefore, consists in the knowledge that the Universe is governed by Divine Order, and in adjusting oneself to that Divine Order. As Beacon Lights, are the Angels that guide others over the shoals and quicksands of shallow and superficial materialism into the calm, clear waters of Sublime Philosophy.