"Some people do not believe in ghosts. I do, ghosts of various kinds. I. It is possible to project an image of one's self, which image may be seen by another however distant. II. The phantasmal projections of heated fancy--spectral illusion--the results of cerebral fever, as in drunken delirium, opium and other fantasies. III. The spirits of dead men. IV. Spiritual beings from other planets. V. Beings from original worlds, who have not died, but who, nevertheless, are of so fine texture as to defy the material laws which we are compelled to obey, and who, coming under the operation of those that govern disembodied men, are enabled to do all that they do. VI. I believe that human beings, by the action of desperate, wicked wills, frequently call into being spectral harpies--the horrible embodiment of their evil thoughts. These are demons, subsisting so long as their creators are under the domination of the evil. VII. I believe in a similar creation emanating from good thoughts of good people, lovely out-creations of aspiring souls. Remember these seven. This is a clear statement of the Rosicrucian doctrine of the higher order of their temple. In the lower, these seven pass under the names of Gnomes, Dwarfs, Sylphs, Salamanders, Nereiads, Driads and Fays.
"One day, when I was about five years old, I returned from school, and found the clayey vestment--the fleshly form of the only friend I ever had, my mother, cold and prone in the arms of icy cold, unrelenting Death. Ah! what a shock was that to my poor little childish heart! She had that morning grown weary of earth, had serenely, trustingly closed her darling eyes, and I was left alone to battle single-handed against four mighty and powerful enemies--Prejudice, Poverty and Organization were three of them. The fourth is almost too terrible, too wild and fanciful to be credited, yet I will state it:
"Many, very many centuries ago, there lived on the soil where in subsequent ages stood Babylon and Nineveh the first, a mighty king, whose power was great and undisputed. He was wise, well-learned and eccentric. He had a daughter lovely beyond all description. She was as learned as she was beautiful. Kings and princes sought her hand in vain; for her father had sworn to give her to no man save him who should solve a riddle which the king himself would propound, and solve it at the first trial, under penalty of decapitation on failure. The riddle was this, 'What are the three most desirable things beneath the sun, that are not the sun, yet which dwell within the sun?' Thousands of the gay, the grave, the sage and ambitious who essayed the solution, and failed, left the presence to mount the horse of death.