conclusions follow as a matter of necessity. Hence you and I will learn at once, that the first lesson for us to learn in commencing the study of the universe, is to learn ourselves. The very first volume that is opened before us, is that which God has given us in giving us a conscious being. Here we must commence our first lesson, because every thing must be recorded in the pages of this volume. God can never manifest any part of the universe or himself to us beyond the capacity of the pages of this volume to receive that manifestation. It follows then, as a matter of course, that truth can never be communicated by authority; and when a man tells me that a certain thing is true upon his authority, I can not receive it simply upon his statement. You will understand that I distinguish between stating a truth and narrating a fact. I may receive a statement of fact upon authority. A man may tell me that there is such a place as London, and I believe it; and I may form an idea respecting it; but the ideal London I have in my mind is very far from being the real London—is very far from being a representation of the real London. That is, the ideal London which I have exists only in my mind, has no representative corresponding in the outward matter-of-fact London. But when the real London is brought into my consciousness, I have _the_ London. Before, I had a sort of _a_ London. Now you will understand what is meant by a difference between forming a conception of a fact and a truth. Suppose I should say to you that the sum of the squares of the two sides of a right-angled triangle is equal to the square of its hypotenuse, you having faith in my capacity to determine truth will say, “I will believe it as a fact; but I have no perception of its truth—I have only your word for it.” Now your faith is not in the truth of the proposition, but in my word. There is a truth there, but you can not receive it upon my authority. The reception of it as a truth depends upon your mind being unfolded to the plane of that truth. The question then for us to settle is, whether the conception in our minds corresponds to the actuality. If we have the means of determining that it does correspond, then we have the means of determining that our perception is true. The truth is the perception by the mind of that which is. You may apply this rule to any sphere of investigation that you please. Then let us begin with man as a microcosm of the universe, and who is destined in his spiritual unfolding to be a microcosm of all that is in the universe; in other words, whose mind here is to begin to translate the universe into its consciousness. The universe is a great book, which it is man’s business to read and translate into his consciousness, so that the image within shall correspond to the actuality without—so that he shall be a universe of himself—so that the individual in his affection by that which is transferred also becomes a divine, a god.