"Let your own hearts deeply feel The sweet songs of older lovers, So shall song and sense appeal To all that true emotion covers."
I never saw these lines anywhere, and I doubt whether anyone has seen them before, while I am confident that I did not compose them. I had not then read Browning's "One Word More," but two days later in a magazine article I came across a quotation from that poem in which occurs the phrase "older lovers," the magazine having been brought to the house that day, and two days after the verse was written. A day or two later at the close of a communication from an entirely different source, and one in no way suggestive of Browning, the words, "One Word More" were rapidly written, followed by this verse:--
"Round goes the world as song-birds go, There comes an age of overthrow-- Strange dreams come true, yet still we dream Of deeper depths in Life's swift stream."
This I did not compose, nor had I ever heard or seen it before.
One evening it was promised that "Brain workers of philosophical bent" would answer our questions. The first question asked was, "From your standpoint do you consider death the end of conscious existence?"
_Ans._--"Death we know only as a phrase used to indicate change of environment."
_Ques._--"Is death expected on your plane as on ours, or do all understand that the next change is progressive?"
_Ans._--"Slow are even those on our plane to understand the law of unending evolution."
_Ques._--"But we may apprehend what we do not fully understand or comprehend?"
_Ans._--"Comprehension sees farther than understanding. Comprehend means complete understanding."
_Ques._--"Do you mean that comprehension is a word of wider significance than understanding?"
I had never given any thought to the difference between the words "understanding" and "comprehending," and when this was written was not satisfied in my own mind that comprehend did mean more than understand. On the following day I consulted Worcester's Unabridged Dictionary and to my surprise, under the word "comprehend" found this note: "Comprehend has a more extensive meaning than understand or apprehend." So in this case, as in several others I have not time to cite here, the intelligence which moved my hand to write gave me knowledge which I did not myself possess. Very often in place of writing, all I could get from them would be spiral lines. Sometimes a page would be crossed and recrossed with these lines as if with some definite purpose. This suggested to me the possibility that such lines held some meaning unknown to me, and I put the question. The answer was given, "We have different modes of thought from yours--and the spiral signs are most in use with us: Some of our less advanced scientists forget that on your plane our mode of control is not understood by you. Lines are made of such esoteric meaning that, while we understand at a glance, it is impossible for those on your plane to perceive any words." Mr. Underwood here remarked: "There are numerous spirals--all modifications of the primary straight line."