that though we may trace matter through successive degrees of refinement
till it becomes what, in comparison with those denser modes that are most
familiar, we might call a spiritual substance, yet at the end of it it is
not the intelligent thinking principle itself. The criterion is in the word
"vibrations." However delicately etheric the substance its movement
commences by the vibration of its particles, and a vibration is a wave
having a certain length, amplitude, and periodicity, that is to say,
something which can exist only in terms of space and time; and as soon as
we are dealing with anything capable of the conception of measurement we
may be quite certain that we are not dealing with Spirit but only with one
of its vehicles. Therefore although we may push our analysis of matter
further and ever further back--and on this line there is a great deal of
knowledge to be gained--we shall find that the point at which spiritual
power or thought-force is translated into etheric or atomic vibration will
always elude us. Therefore we must not attribute the origination of ideas
to molecular displacement in the brain, though, by the reaction of the
physical upon the mental which I have spoken of above, the formation of
thought-channels in the grey matter of the brain may tend to facilitate the
reception of certain ideas. Some people are actually conscious of the
action of the upper portion of the brain during the influx of an intuition,
the sensation being that of a sort of expansion in that brain area, which
might be compared to the opening of a valve or door; but all attempts to
induce the inflow of intuitive ideas by the physiological expedient of
trying to open this valve by the exercise of the will should be discouraged
as likely to prove injurious to the brain. I believe some Oriental systems
advocate this method, but we may well trust the mind to regulate the action
of its physical channels in a manner suitable to its own requirements,
instead of trying to manipulate the mind by the unnatural forcing of its
mechanical instrument. In all our studies on these lines we must remember
that development is always by perfectly natural growth and is not brought