"[The] one God, the first and only [Deity], both Creator and Lord of all, had nothing coeval [with Himself], not infinite chaos, nor measureless water, nor solid earth, nor dense air, nor warm fire, nor refined spirit, nor the azure canopy of the stupendous firmament. But He was One, alone in Himself. Therefore this solitary and supreme Deity, by an exercise of reflection, brought forth the Logos first, [that is,] not the word in the sense [of being articulated by] voice, but as a ratiocination of the universe, conceived and residing [in the divine mind], Him alone He produced from existing things; for the Father Himself constituted existence, and the being born from Him was the cause of all things that are produced. The Logos was in [the Father] Himself, bearing the will of His Progenitor, and not being unacquainted with the mind of the Father. For simultaneously with His procession from His Progenitor, inasmuch as He is this [Progenitor's] first-born, He has, as a voice in Himself, the ideas conceived in the Father. And so it was, that when the Father ordered the world to come into existence, the Logos one by one completed [each object of creation, thus] pleasing God."

The Christian doctrine as thus presented is a highly metaphysical and mystical teaching, and not a mere mass of superficial dogma to be swallowed without discrimination, as an inspired production that is too far beyond human speculation to be reasoned upon. It must not be supposed, however, that the passages quoted, or those to be found in any published writings, contain the doctrine of the Logos spoken of by Origen. It is clear from other passages in his works that he refers to specific teachings regarding the action of the Logos or spiritual power in the human being, and not to mere metaphysical speculation.

The Logos or Word is the Christ universal, regarded not as the Saviour, which is a later phase of his manifestation, but as the first emanation from the Father or supreme God. These are the two main conceptions of the Son, one, that of the Logos or creative power of God, the force which goes outward, so to speak, and builds the world, and the other, that of the same power in its returning phase, descending in order that it may draw the souls previously created to their real and lasting abode. We thus find in the Christian dogma the remnants of the archaic ideas of the emana

tion of the universe from one great and eternal cause, acting not directly but through an intermediary, the Logos or creative Word. There is much confusion on this point in Christian literature, God the Father being taken as synonymous with the Creator in the sense of the direct maker of the world, but in the New Testament and in the early writings the more metaphysical conception is clearly shown. Take for example the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, in which in most poetic language the idea is set forth.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him nɔt. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

An exposition of the nature of the Logos which has some interest is given by Tatian in his Address to the Greeks. Tatian, as mentioned in an earlier paper, became in later life tinged with Gnostic ideas, but his works are included in the writings of the Christian Fathers.

"God was in the beginning; but the beginning, we have been taught, is the power of the Logos. For the Lord of the universe, who is Himself the necessary ground of all being, inasmuch as no creature was yet in existence, was alone; but inasmuch as He was all power, Himself the necessary ground of things visible and invisible, with Him were all things; with Him, by Logos-power, the Logos Himself also, who was in Him, subsists. And by His simple will the Logos springs forth; and the Logos, not coming forth in vain, becomes the first begotten work of the Father. For just as from one torch many fires are lighted, but the light of the first torch is not lessened by the kindling of many torches, so the Logos, coming forth from the Logos-power of the Father, has

not divested of the Logos-power Him who begat Him. . The Logos, begotten in the beginning, begat in turn our world, having first created for Himself the necessary matter."

Having given some of the ideas of the early Christians on the nature of Christ regarded as God or the Logos, it remains to discover their views on Jesus Christ the man, and his relation to the divine Power or Word. These have much more bearing on the ordinary Christian faith than the metaphysical and generally incomprehensible conceptions embodied in the passages quoted above. We shall find views that to some extent explain the common dogma of the Churches, and lessen its crudeness by introducing more spiritual meanings.

A. M. GLASS.

(To be concluded.)

FOLK-LORE.

FOLK-LORE is a general term embracing the customs, beliefs, habits and traditions of the people, in so far as they have not been civilized out of all originality. Consequently, the term has a very wide significance, and trenches on a great variety of subjects, and in the present paper I propose to glance at it in some of its relations to Theosophy, with which most folk-lorists are quite unacquainted.

Folk-tales and traditions are perhaps the most important branches of folk-lore to Theosophists. Though they are necessarily modified in accordance with the present state of the world, many of them are of immemorial antiquity, and are found with comparatively little variation in all parts of the world. Dating, as they do, from ages of the world when men may have possessed other powers than at present, and having been transmitted orally among the classes least affected by the materialism of the Kali Yug, they can hardly fail to contain symbolical references to lost knowledge, hints of much significance, and information relative to elementals, shells, and other entities not belonging to the physical earth-plane.

That usually

There are two modes of studying folk-tales. adopted is to regard them from the outside, as an interesting account of the ideas of the people, and as throwing light on their habits, language, history, migrations, etc. Nothing is at present inore keenly debated than how far tales resembling each other in different countries may have had an independent origin, and how far they may have been transmitted from one nation to another. The latter theory I believe to be true of many tales of wide distribution; but I must confess that it is a matter in which I feel but little interest.

But the other point of view, which I have already briefly indicated, is that from which Theosophists will be more inclined to regard folk-tales. They will treat them with respect and reverence, and will endeavour to search out their inner meanings. We want more

books written by sympathetic folk-lorists, like our friend Mr. W. B. Yeats. In his little book, The Celtic Twilight, he has faithfully and reverently recorded the stories which he has heard from the people in Ireland. Theosophists well know that ordinarily sceptical and even scientific men will often relate stories of strange things which have happened either to themselves or to near relatives and friends, which they cannot explain (and which they sometimes pretend not to believe in), provided they are certain that their hearers will take them seriously, and not treat them as fools or impostors. Such considerations doubtless operate much more strongly among primitive peoples, who sincerely believe in occult or astral phenomena. Thus, the ordinary literary folk-lorist or archæologist cannot always expect to meet with great results when questioning the people on such matters as an outsider, whereas a sympathetic Theosophist might reap in the same district a rich harvest of information which might be of great interest even to literary inquirers.

A West Indian gentleman, a graduate of London University, told me the following story. His father had once arranged to accompany a party from one West Indian island to another. But he had befriended an old negro Obi man, who did his utmost to persuade him not to go. At last, just as the boat was about to start, the old man sent a most pressing message to the gentleman that he must see him at once on a matter of the greatest importance. He went reluctantly, and the old man delayed him as long as he could on one pretext or another, and when he returned to the shore he found to his great annoyance that the boat had left without him. That boat was cast away, and everyone on board was drowned. Yet my friend protests, of course, that he does not believe in Obi witchcraft.

Witch-persecutions, involving the destruction of all supersensitive persons, and the materialism of modern scientific civilization, combined with the habit of living in new houses, which prevents astral influences from accumulating, have almost wholly blunted our perceptions of the elementals, and even of the grossest creatures of the astral planes. Therefore it is of all the more importance for us to obtain as much information as we can from those whose

spiritual perceptions are less blunted than our own. Yet we must, of course, make every allowance for hallucinations, errors of obser