Among the Forces | Page 5

not one
faileth to come.
Number the stars of a clear Eastern sky, if you are able. So
multitudinous and enduring shall the influence of one good man be.

HELP FROM INSENSIBLE SEAS
Suppose one has been at sea a month. He has tacked to every point of
the compass, been driven by gales, becalmed in doldrums. At length
Euroclydon leaps on him, and he lets her drive. And when for many
days and nights neither sun nor stars appear, how can he tell where he
is, which way he drives, where the land lies?
There is an insensible ocean. No sense detects its presence. It has gulf
streams that flow through us, storms whose waves engulf us, but we
feel them not. There are various intensities of its power, the north end
of the world not having half as much as the south. There are two places
in the north half of the world that have greater intensity than the rest,
and only one in the south. It looks as if there were unsoundable depths
in some places and shoals in others.
The currents do not flow in exactly the same direction all the time, but
their variations are within definite limits.
How shall we detect these steady currents when wind and waves are in
tumultuous confusion? They are always present. No winds blow them
aside, no waves drench their subtle fire, no mountains make them
swerve. But how shall we find them?
Float a bit of magnetic ore in a pail of water, or suspend a bit of
magnetized steel by a thread, and these currents make the ore or needle

point north and south. Now let waves buffet either side, typhoons roar,
and maelstroms whirl; we have, out of the invisible, insensible sea of
magnetic influence, a sure and steady guide. Now we can sail out of
sight of headlands. We have in the darkness and light, in calm and
storm, an unswerving guide. Now Columbus can steer for any new
world.
Does not this seem like a spiritual force? Lodestone can impart its
qualities to hard steel without the impairment of its own power. There
is a giving that does not impoverish, and a withholding that does not
enrich.
Wherever there is need there is supply. The proper search with
appropriate faculties will find it. There are yet more things in heaven
and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.

THE FAIRY GRAVITATION
The Germans imagine that they have fairy kobolds, sprites, and gnomes
which play under ground and haunt mines. I know a real one. I will
give you his name. It is called "Gravitation." The name does not sound
any more fairylike than a sledge hammer, but its nature and work are as
fairylike as a spider's web. I will give samples of his helpful work for
man.
In the mountains about Saltzburg, south of Munich, are great thick beds
of solid salt. How can they get it down to the cities where it is needed?
Instead of digging it out, and packing it on the backs of mules for forty
miles, they turn in a stream of water and make a little lake which
absorbs very much salt--all it can carry. Then they lay a pipe, like a
fairy railroad, and gravitation carries the salt water gently and swiftly
forty miles, to where the railroads can take it everywhere. It goes so
easily! There is no railroad to build, no car to haul back, only to stand
still and see gravitation do the work.
How do they get the salt and water apart? O, just as easily. They ask the

wind to help them. They cut brush about four feet long, and pile it up
twenty feet high and as long as they please. Then a pipe with holes in it
is laid along the top, the water trickles down all over the loose brush,
and the thirsty wind blows through and drinks out most of the water.
They might let on the water so slowly that all of it would be drunk out
by the wind, leaving the solid salt on the bushes. But they do not want
it there. So they turn on so much water that the thirsty wind can drink
only the most of it, and the rest drops down into great pans, needing
only a little evaporation by boiling to become beautiful salt again,
white as the snows of December.
There are other minerals besides salt in the beds in the mountains, and,
being soluble in water, they also come down the tiny railroad with
musical laughter. How can we separate them, so that the salt shall be
pure for our tables?
The other minerals are less avaricious of water than salt, so they are
precipitated, or