use
of the prior occurrence of la European war in which his country was
engaged. The outbreak of war is similarly the result of other causes,
none of which happened by chance, but were founded by still remoter
occurrences. It is the same with the Future. That which a person does
today as a result of something that happened in the past, will in its
turn prove the cause of something that will happen at some future date.
The mere act of doing something today sets in motion forces that in
process of time will inevitably bring about some entirely unforeseen
event.

This event is not decreed by Fate or Providence, but by the person who
by the committal of some act unconsciously compels the occurrence of
some future event which he does not foresee. In other words, a man
decrees his own destiny and shapes his own ends by his actions, whether
Providence rough-hew them or not. Now this being so, it follows that
he carries his destiny with him, and the more powerful his mind and
intellect the more clearly is this seen to be the case. Therefore it is
possible for a person's mind, formed as the result of past events over
which he had no control, to foresee by an effort what will occur in the
future as the result of acts deliberately done. Since it is given to but
few, and that not often of intention, to see actually what is about to
happen in a vision or by means of what is called the 'second sight,'
some machinery must be provided in the form of symbols from which an
interpretation of the future can be made. It matters little what the
method or nature of the symbols chosen is--dice or dominoes, cards or
tea-leaves. What matters is that the person shaking the dice, shuffling
the dominoes, cutting the cards or turning the tea-cup, is by these very
acts transferring from his mind where they lie hidden even from himself
the shadows of coming events which by his own actions in the past he
has already predetermined shall occur in the future. It only remains
for someone to read and interpret these symbols correctly in order to
ascertain something of what is likely to happen; and it is here that
singleness of purpose and freedom from ulterior motives are necessary in
order to avoid error and to form a true and clear judgment.

This is the serious and scientific explanation of the little-understood
and less-comprehended action of various forms of divination having for
their object the throwing of a little light upon the occult. Of all
the