Wagner once wrote: "I compose for myself; it is just a question between me and my Maker. I grow as I exercise my faculties, and expression is a necessary form of spiritual exercise. How shall I live? Express what I think or feel, or what you feel? No, I must be honest and sincere. I must, for the need of myself, live my own life, for work is for the worker, at the last. Each man must please himself, and Nature has placed her approbation on this by supplying the greatest pleasure man ever knew as a reward for doing good work." Following this thought, Wagner tells us in unmistakable language that he had brought his conscious self into communica tion with his own soul - that soul, the real self which receives the whispered breathings through the ethers or messengers from infinite Energy, and then longs to give its wisdom to intelligence, had become dominant in his consciousness; and criticism, censure, abuse, even exile, could not change his purpose. It is true that he did not hesitate in his operas to sacrifice every precedent of musical construction "in order to make music tell the tale." The musical world had to be educated to a new school of music, and Wagner created it. The pathway of the children of the gods to the paradise they seek is often beset with hardships and dangers - sometimes the paradise is never reached, and praises are only sung by coming generations. Wagner worked and waited long to find his; and age and burdens had furrowed his face with lines of care before it opened to him. Then he entered its portals, and there was crowned with wealth and fame and love.

Liszt felt harmonies and wrote them, knowing they must be expressed from the keyboard of a piano. The Infinite had sent them to his soul, his soul to consciousness. As he stretched his small hands to strike the chords, and pained those muscles to do the bidding of Art, he must have risen, in his effort to express the melody within himself, beyond the physical sense of feel ing or the tortures he might inflict later on others ambitious to play his compositions. Beside the joy those harmonies give the world, a lesson is taught to the pupil of the supremacy will may gain over the muscles and ligaments of the human hand. When Art seeks expression, it will find it. Again, one is told of the error of assuming any limitations in our demands, even upon the physical.

A little reflection upon these lives and the history of achievement generally will serve to convince one that mental mastership in any field of thought is sought by him who wins. He learns his particular place or field of work by patient self-examination in moments of stillness. In these silent sittings the soul longings are told to consciousness. One must repeat these sittings again and again, until clear visions of the future float before him, and until he will mentally see himself in full possession of all that is comprised in the longing. Then he may know that that ideal can be made real. He may then rank himself with those who were called children of the gods in the past, and who are called to-day men of destiny; but let him remember that the gods or spirit guides, though beckoning him forward with positive assurances of success, leave much for him to do. If only he keep his eye single, fearing no devils, and holding before his mental vision the purpose sought as one certain to be gained, success must follow. The time it may take will depend on both the nature of the longing and upon the unwavering faith he has fused in his consciousness by suggestion. When victory is certain, it is puerile to demand that the exact date be fixed.

There were geniuses in the past that vivid Eastern imagination named offspring of the gods, and there are those who might with equal justice be called children of the gods to-day; and these are they who have gained through discipline psychic consciousness. Let me be clear on this. He is psychically conscious who has learned to commune with his own soul - learned to receive the messages, directions and suggestions from the infinite force that may be communicated to, objective consciousness. He has bridged the chasm between the conscious and subconscious self, and even caught glimpses of the subliminal beyond. Within the human heart there is an inexpressible longing to attain its good. This longing is up reaching to wider fields of usefulness. Following its lead and direction, creative genius is awakened.

When and where was the possibility of telepathy first dreamed of? I do not hesitate to ven ture a reply to this question, though I know that reply cannot be verified absolutely as the true one. Distant from all known methods of communication men have been, when, to save their lives or to bring good to another, immediate communication was imperatively demanded. The soul then opened itself to receive anything, everything the infinite force of the universe might reveal, and consciousness first blindly grasped the message sent. Again and again by others was this longing to project thought repeated. Then the story was told - at first, half doubtfully, till science took up the problem and is now trying to solve it. Telepathy is to-day accepted as a method of communication between people distant from each other, though the laws governing it may not yet be clearly defined. Here we see human longing telling of what may be; and I hold a true human longing is best defined as a telepathic message from the Universal, telling one what is within his grasp.

The student in his self-examination must learn to distinguish the difference between his fancies and his longings. A fancy may be a wish of sense for the moment. It is a fleeting vision at best, and quickly lost sight of. A longing of the soul is an inspiration - trusted and followed, it leads to realization. Your longing points to paths you may tread. Recognize its meaning and accept the guidance offered. No matter whether your work seems circumscribed or boundless to those around you - it is everything to you - learn what it is - know it is yours, and honor it as it honors you. If you feel, in this age, that the being called a child of the gods or a man of destiny feebly expresses the growth you perceive as your consciousness recognizes and uses its power to draw from the Universal, then pierce deeper into the future and see the glory and majesty of ultimate man - man so unfolded that he blends himself with infinite Energy and stands alone, himself a god.

"These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Art melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

- Shakespeare.

When the star of genius first rises above the horizon and he catches glimpses of it, he recognizes within himself the spirit of daring. In those moments of upliftment, the new-born power is reflected in affirmations declaring the discoveries of selves within the self. In diverse ways this upliftment comes to genius, but always bringing to him confidence of the power of mastery within himself.