as though interrupted. As matters grew worse, in disgust he
discontinued his "contemplation." This happened as long as seven years
ago; and, although since then he has not felt worse, yet he could never
regain his original healthy state of mind and body.

Another case came under the writer's observation at Jubbulpore. The
gentleman concerned, after reading Patanjali and such other works, began
to sit for "contemplation." After a short time he commenced seeing
abnormal sights and hearing musical bells, but neither over these
phenomena nor over his own sensations could he exercise any control. He
could not produce these results at will, nor could he stop them when
they were occurring. Numerous such examples may be cited. While
penning these lines, the writer has on his table two letters upon this
subject, one from Moradabad and the other from Trichinopoly. In short,
all this mischief is due to a misunderstanding of the significance of
contemplation as enjoined upon students by all the schools of Occult
Philosophy. With a view to afford a glimpse of the Reality through the
dense veil that enshrouds the mysteries of this Science of Sciences, an
article, the Elixir of Life, was written. Unfortunately, in too many
instances, the seed seems to have fallen upon barren ground. Some of
its readers pin their faith to the following clause in that paper:--
Reasoning from the known to the unknown meditation must be practiced and
encouraged.

But, alas! their preconceptions have prevented them from comprehending
what is meant by meditation. They forget that the meditation spoken of
"is the inexpressible yearning of the inner Man to 'go out towards the
infinite,' which in the olden time was the real meaning of adoration"--
as the next sentence shows. A good deal of light would be thrown upon
this subject if the reader were to turn to an earlier part of the same