Wednesday, January 2, 1929
The book I was reading last night, The Valley of Voices by John Marsh, turned out very interesting so I just finished it, getting to bed shortly after five this morning. Came to at noon and after lunch took a walk in the sun for a while. The wind is still strong and it is pretty cool. N.g. on the mail again. Later I studied a bit and then got a book of a series of lectures on Mesmerism and Electrical Psychology. These are extremely interesting and so far seem consistent with one exception. He calls the mind “that substance which has innate or living motion; and the result of that motion is thought, reason, and understanding and, therefore, power.”
He proves the world was not made of nothing, but something, and states that the Creator is a real substance or being, possessing personal identity, and is infinite in every perfection of his character. But then he says electricity, which he regards as the primal form of matter, is an emanation from Spirit, Gods. God, then, must be of a more primal form; or is he the motion, function, property of this primal matter? If so, he is not mind—a cause—but an effect; otherwise, spirit is wholly distinct from matter of every form.
Not much doing here. Wouldn’t care if it warmed up a bit. Guess I’ll try turning in at 10 instead of 3 and 5. Good start for 1929.