The Ministry of the Spirit-Man

to avoid undergoing some revolutions before long; they have already come to recognize in organized bodies what they call an elective attraction original: "une attraction élective." This term refers to the chemical theory of "elective affinity," where certain substances "prefer" to combine with others. The author suggests this scientific concept is a gateway to acknowledging a deeper, living spiritual force in nature.; an expression that will lead them far, no matter how much care they take to avoid calling the truth by its name.

The literary riches of Asia will also come to their aid. When they see the numerous treasures that Indian literature is beginning to offer us; when they browse through all that is promised to us by the Asiatic researches of the Society of Calcutta The Asiatic Society, founded in 1784 by Sir William Jones, which introduced many Sanskrit texts to European scholars for the first time.; the Mahabharat The Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India., a collection of sixteen epic poems containing 100,000 stanzas on the mythology, religion, and morality of the Indians, and on their history; the Oupnek'hat The Upanishads. The author refers to the 1801-1802 translation by Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, which was translated from a Persian version into Latin., translated by Mr. Anquetil, and which contains extracts from the Vedas The oldest scriptures of Hinduism., etc., they may be struck by the relationships they will perceive between Eastern opinions and those of the West on the most important points.

Some may search in this mine for the correspondences of languages through alphabets, inscriptions, and monuments.

Others may perceive therein the bases of all the fabulous theogony A "theogony" is an account of the origins and genealogy of a group of gods. of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans.

Finally, others will find above all striking similarities with all the dogmas published for several centuries by the various spiritualists In this context, "spiritualists" refers to Christian mystics and "theosophers" (like Jacob Böhme) who argued for the primacy of the spirit over matter, rather than the 19th-century movement of communicating with the dead. of Europe, whom they will not suspect of having gone to learn them in India.

My writings then will probably appear to them less obscure and less repulsive, since they will discover therein—