in this word --- infinite periods, perhaps, of withdrawal and renewal of our whole planetary system --- we may well stand aghast at such prodigious ruin.

But if such dangers are in it, may we not say that we will have nothing to do with the psychic realm? No, for by our nature we are always immersed in it; it is within us, and we are, and always must be, inhabitants of it, and we are always unconsciously using its forces and being reacted upon by them. What we need, therefore, is not to escape from what is an essential part of our nature, but to learn to vivify this otherwise dark realm with the warmth of Divine Love and the illumination of Divine Light.

Violence

But the Bible tells how very far the antediluvian world was from recognising these Divine principles, for "the earth was filled with violence" and, except in the family of Noah, the true worship of God had ceased among men. And remark this word "violence" as the summing-up of human iniquity. Violence is the clashing of individual wills not harmonised by the recognition of any unifying principle. The ONE-ness of the Spirit from which all individualisation proceeds is entirely lost sight of, and "each for himself" becomes the ruling principle --- a principle which cannot but result in violence under whatever disguise it may be masked for a time.

The earth filled with violence was the outward