“And where does my work lie?” I asked. “In many fields,” he answered. “But first you must fight your way through the astral world above Europe and save your friends who are in danger.” Swimming the Hellespont was a minor feat compared to swimming that sea of devils, but I got through. A year before I could not have done it, perhaps, for the forces of good were overpowered. There is a tide in good and evil, as well as a tide in the sea. Evil was at the flood. I saved one friend in danger, and saw that another was safe. Back in the sea of hate, when I was nearly exhausted, the Beautiful Being, that angel who had been my guide so long, came and whispered something in my ear. It was a spur to ambition. “You may be the historian of this great struggle,” it said, “if you do not fail in your tasks.” Do not be startled by the word “ambition.” There are many kinds of ambition, and a sincere wish to be personally of service may as well be called by that name as by any other, if there is love behind it. _March 6._ LETTER III AN ASSURANCE TAKE it from me at this early stage of our writing: The forces of good overpowered the forces of evil a month ago, and the issue is settled here. The power set in motion will spend itself, and peace will return to the world. _March 10._ LETTER IV THE WAY OF UNDERSTANDING BEFORE I tell you any more horrors, I want to assure you now that out of those horrors will come a beauty such as the world has not known during this cycle of existence. It will not come at once, for many adjustments will have to be made; but the way is open already for those who choose to walk in it. It is a curious commentary on unregenerate humanity, this war in which each side declares loudly its own righteousness and execrates its opponent. As in all quarrels, there is more wrong on one side than on the other; but the side which triumphs--and it will be the side that has least wrong--will have to understand and to forgive its enemy before it can go forward to its own great future. Though international organizations have failed for the time being, I am not discouraged about international organizations. They were merely shocked into failure, the peace people, the socialists, and others who make far higher claims to the ideal of universal brotherhood. Even now, during the stress of the conflict, go out yourself in thought and in love to that nation which you feel to be your enemy. Try to understand it. And do not try to understand it by telling yourself that it is evil. That is not understanding. There is evil in all men. Try to understand it by becoming it, for the time. Put yourself in its place; feel as you would feel if you stood alone--even though by your own fault--with the whole world against you.