In all ages geniuses are the culminations of a given line.

We would name Mozart as a genius because, untaught, in childhood he knew the principles of harmony. He did not know because he had never had experience, but he knew because he had had experience in previous lives, he had taken all the steps until that life was the culmination. This enabled Mozart to know music at three years of age; not because bis Soul, or spirit, was any more tuneful than any other, but because he bad taken the preceding steps in preceding lives to that culmination; while another might be culminating in poetry, another in painting, or other art, he was culminating in music. This is encouragement for all those who do not know musical harmony now, encouragement to such of you as may be tortured by your neighbors, or friends, who imagine they are attaining some state of musical perfection; they will attain it When genius appears the world recognizes its light. All steps toward genius are steps of aspiration. The man who wishes to play, the one who wishes to sing, certainly shall play and sing because it is something yet to be attained. What a pitiful sight it was, in the minds of many of Mb friends, to see the giant genius of Goethe endeavoring to paint a picture I He could write a poem, he knew much of philosophy and science, he had spiritual intuitions that were deeper than those of other men around him, but he wanted to do that which he could not do, he most needs study painting!

If the art or gift is something that has been attained; if one has been a musical genius, that is evident from this fact: that one is not seeking for it, and yet is familiar with music. Here in a man who can play well, his friends say: why do yon not follow music? He has no desire to do it because he can do it, because it is a part of Ms past experiences. People are most anxious to undertake that which they can not do. Yon will hear people say: oh, that is beautiful music but I have no desire to perform myself; but you will hear them criticise some particular portion with accuracy and taste; it is because they have been cultivated in that direction. Many art critics do not paint.

but they certainly have a priori knowledge of art. We me all these illustrations because the; come into your daily lives, and they show you the lines of experience in yourselves and others around you, and prove to you what is the meaning of these different degrees of unfold-ment Otherwise between the man who has no talent and a genius, like Mozart or Beethoven, there would be a wide space impossible to span in eternity, but when you know that the man who has no gift or talent, will have, that he is on the road to genius, and will culminate in that direction, it will clearly illustrate that genius travels in lines of nnfaldment toward perfect expression, that there is achievement in one degree after another, that the one who can paint pictures is only at one end of the line and the one who cannot, but wishes to, is at the other end.

Genius is the culmination of many steps toward perfection in one direction. Then wherever there is genius distinctly manifested it is the final expression of the individual Soul in that one direction.

Each may know by the geniuses of the world what the culminations of all will be, or have been, for each Soul must express itself as perfectly as any other in those directions.

It is not best to speculate what the individual state is, or where one is on the earthly pilgrimage, what the stage of development one has just passed, or what one is entering into; just now each one must experience the line of the individual embodiment for what it presents itself to be, knowing that what one desires to attain is a prophecy.

In these lessons it is well to separate personalities from principles as far as possible, and yet know that every principle stated here applies to every individual Soul; and knowing this, there is an explanation for all the fragmentary existences seen in the world, and the experiences within one's self.

States of mental and intellectual unfoldment are sometimes mistaken for something higher; it is well to draw the line distinctly at once, and see that no amount of human achievement, such as victory through the methods of mechanical and intellectual labor, can be called victory in the end excepting as an illustration of what life is not for: just as the physical culmination is nothing in itself, but is an expression of what life will not finally express; so the intellect is an expression of that which the mind will not finally express, viz., intellect without spirit; as in the preceding illustration the expressions were of the body without intellect, but both are states of expression which every Soul, having entered this race, must surely run, must have passed through or must pass through, whichever the degree of the present expression may be, in the usual course.

We would again reiterate: the world is beyond the culminating period of mere physical strength, and we ma; call this the approach to the culmination of intellect The power of the intellect is worshiped to-day as physical power was worshiped in past ages. The giant has simply advanced another degree; the giant of intellect has taken the place of the giant of physical strength. Now the whole civilized and enlightened world tends toward the worship of the god of the intellect, which is, of course, as fallacious a worship, as blind a worship, excepting as a stage of growth in expression, as the worship of the god of the senses.

Two lines, and indeed two degrees of culmination are often expressed at once, as in the Pharaohs, Caesars, Alexanders, and Napoleons of history, whose pride and ambition for conquest and earthly dominion were accompanied by equal ability to win the desired goal.

If one has passed the desire for earthly kingdoms, how barren seem the victories and achievements in that direction 1 Who would wish to be the Czar of all the Russias? Who would possess the throne, crown, and scepter of any kingdom of earth, having borne that burden and having had knowledge of the bauble of empire? But if one aspires to rule a kingdom, have pity, for he is in the line toward that expression, and he does not know what he seeks until he shall find it and know it is dust and ashes. So you understand why there still must be wars, why there still must be heroes in battle, why there still must be kings and kingdoms.