The blame is confined to no one class, rich or poor. The equitable distribution of wealth, resources, and opportunity that have developed beyond all precedent during the last half century, requires time. Justice and equity are not dead, but everywhere in evidence, dominating mankind at large. Public sentiment was never more keen and never nearer right than to-day. There is general confusion, however, as to methods and ways and means. The cunning shark and the selfish brute resort to concealment, cunning and subterfuge, to deceive the people and often succeed for a time, only to meet with condemnation and execration later. Injustice is often in evidence, but it is neither rampant nor dominant. It stands in fear of public sentiment. These, in brief and in outline, are the conditions, the portents, to-day, everywhere in evidence: 1. The decay of creeds and dogmas. 2. Great progress in Science, Art, and the Crafts. 3. Immense discoveries regarding Nature's finer forces and the psychical powers latent in man. 4. Great expectancy as to new revelations. 5. Unprecedented increase in wealth and the development of natural resources. 6. Enfranchisement of woman, and immense progress as to her rights and opportunities. 7. Economic Justice recognized and aimed at, and fortified by public sentiment, with strong efforts to secure and maintain it. The present age or epoch is not one of darkness, but of light; not of discouragement, but of hope. It is neither retrograde nor stagnant, but progressive to a degree never before witnessed in the history of man on so large a scale and involving all classes and so many people at one time. Organized or institutional religion alone is on the wane. Evidence and utility are everywhere demanded. Nothing is sacred simply because it is old; nor true merely because it is dogmatically asserted so to be. Holy books, holy men, and holy days are matters of evidence, and not of blind credence. What will the new religion--the new revelation--be? and whence will it come? CHAPTER XIII THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE Belief in a separable soul in man is virtually universal. Such belief is found amongst the lowest races, and in the few instances where it has not been clearly discovered it is admitted that it may still exist and be disguised by the native meaning of words or signs that escape the explorer. The universality of this belief has often been urged as an evidence of its validity and proof of the soul's existence.