Secret,--that it is too vast and deep for our limited capacities,--
and that even if we did know it, it would be of no use to us, as we
are bound hard and fast by certain natural and elemental laws over
which we have no control. Old truisms are re-stated and violently
asserted--namely, that our business is merely to be born, to live,
breed and arrange things as well as we can for those who come after
us, and then to die, and there an end,--a stupid round of existence
not one whit higher than that of the silkworm. Is it for such a
monotonous, commonplace way of life and purpose as this, that
humanity has been endowed with 'infinite faculty'? Is it for such
poor aims and ends as these that we are told in the legended account
of the beginning of things, to 'Replenish the earth and subdue it'?
There is great meaning in that command--'Subdue it!' The business of
each one of us who has come into the knowledge and possession of his
or her own Soul, is to 'subdue' the earth,--that is, to hold it and
all it contains under subjection,--not to allow Its forces, whether
interior or exterior, to subdue the Soul. But it may perhaps be
said:--"We do not yet understand all the forces with which we have
to contend, and in this way they master us." That may be so,--but if
it is so with any of you, it is quite your own fault. Your own
fault, I say,--for there is no power, human or divine, that compels
you to remain in ignorance. Each one of you has a master--talisman
and key to all locked doors. No State education can do for you what
you might do for yourselves, if you only had the WILL. It is your
own choice entirely if you elect to live in subjection to the earth,
instead of placing the earth under subjection to your dominance.

Then, again, you have been told to 'Replenish the earth'--as well as
to subdue it. In these latter days, through a cupidity as amazing as
criminal, you are not 'replenishing' so much as impoverishing the