But, on the other hand, we
must also remember that every event is the result of certain preceding
events, without which it could not have happened, and which existing it
must happen unless some new element intervenes. There is such a thing as
cause and effect, we must remember--and if we can reason clearly from one
to the other with sufficient clearness, then we may actually prophesy
certain things in advance, always making allowance for the intervention of
the unexpected.
An authority says on this phase of the question: "There is no doubt
whatever that, just as what is happening now is the result of causes set
in motion in the past, so what will happen in the future will be the
result of causes already in operation. Even on this plane of life we can
calculate that if certain actions are performed, certain results will
follow; but our reckoning is constantly liable to be disturbed by the
interference of factors which we have not been able to take into account.
But if we raise our consciousness to the higher planes we can see much
further into the results of our actions. We can trace, for example, the
effect of a casual word, not only upon the person to whom it was
addressed, but through him on many others as it is passed on in widening
circles, until it seems to have affected the whole country; and one
glimpse of such a vision is more efficient than any number of moral
precepts in impressing upon us the necessity of extreme circumspection in
thought, word, and deed.
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