NEW BOOKS. ' meditated' upon to the accompaniment of deep breathings, the cause of spiritual regeneration, and, an a necessary oonsequence, of physical health ; to smile at the direction " to picture the breath aa circulating endlessly in an ellipse about the spinal cord, carrying the word with it down the front of the vertebral column, up the back, over the brain and face, and down and round again " (p. 162); or to laugh heartily over the advice, seriously given, to get to an ' elemental

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... ence' by the aid of a barrel-organ ; but in spite of the odd mixture of highly dubi table philosophy, religion and science, seasoned with occasional nonsense, one is not altogether out of sympathy with this effort to formulate a strange and significant set of experiences which has arrested the attention of so eminent a psychologist a» Prof. Tames. The intention of the ' New Mystic' is evidently to withdraw into the actual experience of a sort of Bradleian Feeling-Absolute, whence he returns invigorated, refreshed, 'illumined,' and, somehow or other, enabled to remould the world to his heart's desire. He effects this by deep meditations on words of infinite significance, such as Spirit, Life, Holiness, Health, Love, "connecting these by deep breathings with his body" which the 'New Mystic' does not regard as a hindrance to perfection, but as an indispensable means to Illumination. Just as he does not wish to withdraw permanently from the world, but "to make it the fu' 1 reflexion of the Truth within himj until he has realised that God, the Soul and the World are one ". We are assured that a " wholly new order of consciousness is being evolved," the 'appearances ' of sin and pain and error are being banished from the world : " No suggestion of evil can affect the soul when she is subconsciously controlled by the Spirit of Infinite Gdness which is her true, perfect and eternal Self". These are highly desirable results and one wishes it were lawful to initiates, 'masters of silence,' to speak more intelligibly regarding the causes by which they are produced. There seems .something sound in the insistence upon our power and our obligation to exercise our will on the course of our thoughts ; and there is much force in the statement that " the world will never be perfect to man until he wakes up to the Truth that he is the maker of it" and ought to mould it according to the pattern of Perfection within his own mind, using for that purpose the ' Power' which is God working in us (pp. 175-176). This is all very well, but the poor philosopher whose business it is to understand things would like a somewhat clearer systematic doctrine, and could, for the sake of that, put up with less edification. In the meantime we trust that whatever grains of truth for practice are contained in such teaching may not be lost sight of under the lieaps of big talk and bigger nonsense with which they are so often associated. D. M.