Pt. 1.[1]
Preface.
My Dear Little Boys and Girls:
ONCE upon a time there was a pretty little schoolhouse, full of mountains, trees, rivers and lakes, animals and beautiful flowers. There were a great many little children in it and they were taught by a clever little teacher. Now, whenever the clever teacher came to the schoolroom, he became very angry and scolded the little boys and girls because they were not as big as he wanted them to be. Although he was himself not very big, he stretched himself and pulled the children by the ears, so as to lift them almost clear up from the floor.
But all of his pulling and scolding did not serve his purpose, and in spite of his impatience the children did not grow faster than their own nature permitted. When the clever teacher discovered this, he was awfully sorry, and ceased to scold; but in due course of time the children gained experience and some of them grew even bigger than the teacher himself.
Now, I do not propose to scold you or pull your ears, for I know that all things are exactly what they were made by previous conditions, but I am going to tell you some pretty stories which are all true to the letter and which will amuse you. If you study them carefully you will find out what they mean, and they will then show you a great many things which I am not able to tell you. Those who will follow my advice will get a great big slice of sugared cake when they come to see me during the holidays.
Yours very faithfully and sincerely,
THE AUTHOR.
1. THE ELEPHANT AND THE FLY.
There was once a little bit of a fly that used to enjoy herself going about humming and buzzing through the air, and she especially enjoyed the fun of buzzing around people’s heads and ears and making them very angry. This little fly owned a great big elephant, who had to do just what the little fly wanted.
Now, I am afraid that you will say that I am exaggerating, if not something worse; because you may think that a fly could not own an elephant, as he is much larger and stronger than she, but if you will have a little patience and wait until my story is finished, you will then see that I am right.
I said that the fly could make the elephant do what she pleased, whether or not it was pleasing to him, and this I can prove by the fact that whenever the fly wanted to make the elephant dance and squirm, all she had to do was to sit on his nose, for the elephant’s nose was very tender in spite of his thick skin, and it made him fearfully angry to have a fly sitting on it and tickling him.
Thus it appears that power is not always dependent on size, and that one who is very clever may be the master of one who is very big.
2. THE STUDENT OF ALCHEMY.
A young and inexperienced man wanted to become an Alchemist. He read a great many books, showing how spiritual gold, the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher’s Stone and similar Spiritual things could be made. He then went to a drugstore and bought some sulphur and salt and mercury, crucibles and retorts, and other things such as he thought would be needed. He then went to work to carry out the prescriptions, but as the materials which he had bought were all of them of a material nature and not spiritual, all that he obtained was of a material kind and not spiritual at all and, therefore, as a matter of course, he did not succeed in obtaining that which he wanted.
3. A STORY ABOUT A SIMPLETON.
Among the ancient Egyptians there was once a great simpleton. One day a man came to the town where he lived, bringing with him a Stereopticon, by means of which he exhibited at the schoolhouse some dissolving views upon a screen, with the aid of electric light. Now, this simpleton had never seen a magic lantern and he imagined that the men and women seen upon the screen were actually living, and he spoke to them, whereupon all the people in the audience who knew better, laughed very much and wondered greatly as to how there could be such a fool.
4. THE FARMER AND THE OX.
A countryman who was so poor that he could not afford to buy a horse, but had himself to pull his cart every morning to the city to sell his vegetables, was seen by the king, who had so much compassion for the poor man’s condition, that he made him a present of an ox of great power. The man was very much pleased; he tied the legs of the ox and lifted him upon the cart and was going to take him home, but the ox became very restless; he groaned and kicked, and several times he broke loose, so that the farmer had much trouble in catching him again. This grieved the man very much, for the ox was heavy, and he sometimes wished that the king had not made him a present of such a troublesome animal.
At last, however, incredible as it may appear from a strictly scientific point of view, an idea entered into the mind of that man, and he accordingly put the ox into a harness and hitched him to the cart. He fastened a rope around the nose of the ox and made him obey his will. Then the farmer sat upon the cart and was pulled by the ox, instead of having to pull the cart and the ox, and from that day forth the ox was useful to the man instead of being a burden to him.
5. THE CAPITALIST.
A man who wanted to learn the art of making gold by alchemical means, spent all his money and goods in making chemical experiments which did not succeed. He read all the books of Theophrastus Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Basilius Valentinus and many others, hoping to find therein the secret of making gold; but whether these books did not contain the secrets he wanted, or that he did not understand their true meaning, the truth is that he did not succeed, and after a while he became a poor old man. All his strength and his money were gone; he became paralyzed and had to beg for alms in the streets; and many a day he did not get enough to eat to keep hunger away.
One day a rich merchant happened to see that beggar in the street and taking pity on him, he sat down by his side and said to him: “My friend, I see that you are in a very pitiable condition and I will show you the way to become rich. I have just started a new Company of stockholders for the fabrication of an article which will be very much in demand. Our shares are already selling at a premium of twenty-five per cent., and before this year is over they will go up to at least seventy- five per cent., if not more. I therefore advise you to invest all your funds in shares of our Company and you cannot fail to become rich in a short time.
Then the beggar, having no funds to invest, began to realize that for the purpose of making gold one must be in possession of gold, and that it is of little practical use to know how a thing is done if one has not the power to see it carried out.
6. THE SCIENTIFIC EXPERT.
Among the ancient Polynesians there was a man who made it the object of his life to study the composition and the value of all the coins and banknotes in the world. He knew the exact value of gold and silver Dollars, of Rupees, Napoleons d’or, Marks and Guineas. He knew what greenbacks were worth and how much premium there was on the bonds issued by the Turkish government, and the market-value of all the shares of stock companies in the world was well known to him. But with all his learning, this scientist never had any gold or silver or any banknotes of his own, neither did he possess any bonds or company shares of any kind; in fact, he had nothing and lived entirely on credit, and thus all his knowledge availed him nothing, but he died poor and left a great many debts.
7. A STORY ABOUT A POOR BUT LEARNED PERSON.
Among the ancient Egyptians there was a man who was very learned and knew all about the looks of silver and gold, greenbacks and coins, and could immediately tell the difference between a genuine and a counterfeit banknote. Moreover, this man knew exactly how much money each of his neighbors had in the bank, how much they owed, and how much was coming to them, and whenever any of his friends received an inheritance, he had no peace until he found out how much it was. This man, in spite of his learning, however, never had any gold or silver, greenbacks or coins, nor any banknotes of his own. He inherited nothing and had no account in the bank, and therefore all his learning availed him nothing, and he died poor, leaving a great many debts.
Notes:
[i] Hermetic Stories for Children. Pt. 1. Franz Hartmann, M.D. The Word 3, no. 5 (August 1906), 297-301. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hütwohl, ©2021}
Pt. 2[2]
THE LAZY BEGGAR.
There was once a very lazy and lying beggar. Everything about him was false; even his ailment, an apparent infirmity. He had become poor, because he had always been lying and making false pretenses; so that nobody would trust him anymore. He pretended to be blind and did not open his eyes; he wanted to make the people believe that he could not walk and kept continually crouched in a comer, and even if you would have shouted into his ear you would have received no answer from him; because he would not listen and wanted to make believe that he was deaf. His clothes consisted of old worn out rags, all torn to pieces; and his house looked just as dilapidated as he himself. It was more like a stable or a shed than like a human residence; patched and dirty all over, and everybody who saw it became disgusted with it.
Now, incredible as it may appear, there was a beautiful maiden who fell in love with that lying beggar. Moreover, she was exceedingly rich and owned the greatest possible treasures, the like of which cannot be found upon the earth. The name of that beautiful lady was “Truth,” and she wanted to marry that lying beggar; but she wished that he should love her, not on account of her great fortune, but on account of her own beauty and virtue. She, therefore, went to the beggar’s hut and stood before him; but the beggar was in the habit of pretending to be blind; he would not even open his eyes to look at her; and when she spoke to him, he did not hear what she said; because his ears, having been closed so long could not hear the sweet silvery sound of her voice; they could only distinguish harsh and vulgar noises.
So the rich and beautiful lady, after waiting a long time for the beggar to take notice of her presence, at last went away, but the beggar remained what he was, a dirty and lying beggar unto the very end of his days.
THE KEEPSAKES.
A little boy had a great many friends and received a great many keepsakes from them. Some made him presents of embroidered slippers, others of pictures and photographs; some gave him locks of their hair or pretty nosegays and many other things. At last he had so many of such pretty things that his house was crammed full of them, and they were very dear to him.
When he grew bigger, his father wanted to send him on a voyage, so that he could see the world, and the little boy was very anxious to go and see the world; but, of course, he could not take all of these keepsakes with him. To tell the truth they were of no use to him, because he had outgrown the little slippers and could not wear them; the pictures and photographs did no longer resemble the persons whom they were intended to represent, for these persons had grown much older, while some of them had actually died; the locks of hair had lost their color and the nosegays had become faded and dry. He, therefore, made up his mind to review his treasures and to see which he could spare. He found that he had ten bushels of letters from friends, two bushels of locks of hair from sweethearts, thirty-five bushels of photographs, six: baskets of nosegays and ribbons and gloves; sixty-five pairs of slippers, ten night gowns, ten tons of pots and cups and plates and lots of other things. He knew that this would be entirely too much baggage to travel with, and he wanted to reduce it; but whenever he was about to throw away one of these articles, he felt sorry for it, and the end of it was, that he kept all, and would not part from them under any consideration.
So the little boy could not go on his voyage to see the world, but had to remain at home, where he dawdled away his time in playing with his treasures, and when it was time for him to die and to go to heaven, he could do neither the one nor the other; because the devil of his desire for his keepsakes kept him alive and tormented him, until at last his house fell to pieces and he was buried under its ruins, together with the treasures for which he had cared so much.
FAITH AND IMAGINATION.
A little boy, who was so ignorant that he did not even know the difference between Faith and Imagination, but believed them to be both one and the same thing, once imagined that he was a king. He said that he felt just as if he were actually a king; he put a paper-crown upon his head and took a walking stick in his hand, imagining it to be a scepter, and he sat on a chair which belonged to his grandfather, and said that it was his throne. But when the other little boys and girls heard about it, they all came and looked at him and laughed very much and did not obey his orders at all.
At first the little boy became very angry, because the other boys made sport of him, but when he found out that he had no power to make them stop laughing, he began to understand, that to imagine one’s self a king, makes one a king merely in one’s imagination, and that one cannot understand how an actual king feels, unless he is a king in reality and not merely one in his imagination.
THE TRAVELER.
A little boy wanted to make a voyage to Rome to see the Pope and all the other curiosities of that city, but there were so many ways leading to that place, that he did not know which one to select. First, he went on board of a ship, for the purpose of going there by sea, but when the ship began to move he became frightened and begged the Captain to put him back on the shore. He then tried railway traveling and, in fact, he went a considerable distance by rail, but somebody told him about an accident that once happened to a train and on which occasion some passengers had been killed. He, therefore, concluded that this was not a safe method of traveling and went back again to select some other way. For awhile he walked on foot, but he soon became tired of that, and thus he first tried one way and then another. Thus, it happened, that all the other passengers, that had first started with him, arrived in Rome, and could see the Pope, while the foolish little boy had a great deal of trouble and never came to Rome and saw nothing after all.
THE HOBBY-HORSE.
There were a great many small boys in a certain little village and each of them owned a hobby-horse. Some of these hobbyhorses were made of wood and some of paper, and the most precious ones had a whistle behind. Each of the boys thought that his hobby-horse was the best and consequently there arose a great dispute about them, and the doctors were applied to say what kind of qualities a very good hobby-horse should have. Some said this and others that; but most agreed that those with the whistles were the best. There was also a certain class of philosophers who said that hobby-horses were unnecessary and should be discarded; but, of course, nobody believed them; for what should a little boy do without a hobby-horse?
Consequently, hobby-horses remained in fashion; but one day a cavalryman on leave of absence came to the village and they offered him a hobby-horse. Then the cavalryman said: “What the d should I do with a hobby-horse, as I already own a real horse?”
Then the little boys were very much astonished and thought the cavalryman was a fool.
THE PICTURE-SELLER.
A man went about the country selling and distributing pictures of saints, and the things which he sold were very pretty, but the man who sold them was neither pretty, nor was he a saint, and there was no demand for himself.
THE SCIENCE OF SWIMMING.
A certain professor was an expert in the science of swimming, that is to say, he had read all the books that were ever written about swimming, and he knew the names of all the muscles that are brought into exercise when one swims, he knew the chemical composition of water and he had studied the way in which fishes, live in the water. There was no fish whose name was a secret to him. At last, he resolved to put his theories into practice. He ordered his tailor to make him a great coat, covered all over with fish-scales and he sewed a fish-tail to his back. He then jumped into the water, but as he was never seen to rise again, it is not certain whether or not he knew how to swim after all.
Notes:
[i] Hermetic Stories for Children. Pt. 2. Franz Hartmann, M.D. The Word 4, no. 1 (October 1906), 20-23. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}
Pt. 3.[3]
AN UNFORTUNATE MARRIAGE.
A MAN whose name we are not permitted to tell, was; married to an ugly old woman whose name was “Discontent” and who was the daughter of a mischievous old wretch, whose name was “Doubt.” He hated and. disliked his wife and mother-in-law very much, but nevertheless, being accustomed to their society, he did not wish to separate· himself from them and so remained with them during the best: part of his life. Whenever his wife touched him with her bony skeleton-hand, her touch made him shiver and caused him intense agonies, nevertheless he clung to her and hugged her all the time and would not give her up in spite of her ugliness· and ill temper. At last things grew so bad that he could stand it no longer, and he then discovered that his wife’s evil conduct, was caused by his mother-in-law. He therefore made up his mind to kill her. He took a magic stone, hewn square on all of its six sides, and upon which was inscribed the word “Faith,” and hit her with it on the head. As soon as he had killed his mother-in-law, his wife disappeared with her and in her place he beheld a very sweet and beautiful maiden, who loved him very much and with whom he lived happily to the end of his days.
A HORSE STORY.
A little boy had two horses, a very strong and heavy black: one, and a very light, but feeble white one. He loved them both very much, and wanted to ride them both at one and the same- time, but this he could not do, for whenever he sat on the black horse the white one would not go, and whenever he mounted the- white horse, the black one did not move a bit.
At last he found a remedy. He put the white horse on top of the black one and then he succeeded, for the black horse imparted a great deal of its strength to the white horse, and the white one, being so very light, lifted the black one clear up from the ground, so that the little boy, by means of the two horses, could ride far higher up than other people can do who have only one horse to ride.
Now, I am afraid that there will be many little boys and girls who will not believe that this story is true, but if they succeed in finding out its true meaning they will see that nothing can be truer than that. Its truth has been asserted by many credible witnesses, and those who will not believe in them can make the experiment themselves.
A STORY ABOUT A DRAGON.
A certain island was inhabited by a certain pestiferous dragon who not infrequently attacked and killed some of the people of that place. The king of the island then gave orders that the dragon should be propitiated and that every year a certain number of youths and beautiful maidens should be sacrificed to him. This was accordingly done, but the more they sacrificed to the dragon the more did he want to eat, and at last it could easily be seen that his appetite would not be appeased even if the whole population of the island were given to him for food. The king therefore ordered that the dragon should be killed, and the people captured him and put him to death.
Very soon after the death of the dragon a new kind of disease broke out in the island. The people became affected with great weakness and lost all strength, and the new disease killed more people than the dragon had ever done. The doctors of the island put their heads together and tried to find out a remedy against that disease, which they called the “Morbus Morborum,” and which, in spite of that name, they could not cure. At last a wise man came and told them that the only remedy for it was the breath of the dragon which they had killed. Then the people saw that the dragon had been of some use after all and they imported a similar dragon from another country and inhaled his breath, but instead of letting him run at liberty to devastate the country they fastened him with a chain.
FAITH.
A little boy who had heard a great deal about the power of Faith, and that one grain of it as big as a mustard seed could move a mountain, but who did not believe in such things, imagined one morning while he was still in his little bed that he could not rise to his feet. Instead of getting up he remained in bed all day and the doctor who was called in did not know what to do with him. His mother told him that he had been able to walk the day before and that there was no reason why he should not be able to walk again, but to all this the little boy merely replied that he knew that he could not walk. At last his mother bethought herself of a remedy and on the next day, as he was about to repeat the same game, she gave him no breakfast, and when he became very hungry he arose and got breakfast himself.
When the little boy saw that he could now walk, he was very glad and exclaimed: “Verily I see now that all things can be accomplished by the power of faith. I will now have faith that I can fly, and will jump out of the window.” So saying he jumped out of the window, fell down two stories, and broke his leg, and it caused the doctor a heap of trouble to cure him. But after all the little boy was now clever enough to see that the Faith which does not rest on Knowledge, but which is merely imaginary, is not faith at all, but only fancy.
THE TWO TRAVELLERS.
Two travellers were on the same road going on the same journey. And it happened that they both stumbled over the same rock and both fell down, but while one of the travellers rose again to his feet and went on his way as if nothing had happened, the other one remained upon the ground, and instead of getting up he kept quiet and bewailed his misfortune. Thus it happened that the first traveller arrived at his destination, while the other one, for all we know, may still be upon the spot where he fell.
THE FOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE.
Some boys who were traveling through a desert country were told that in the midst of that wilderness there was a beautiful spring with clear and sweet water. It was a very hot day, and they became very thirsty, but for a long time they could not find any water to drink. At last, however, they came to a pool, but it was full of filth, and the hogs wallowed therein, rendering it still more unclean. The boys doubted very much that this was the beautiful fountain of which they had been told, but they could see no other, and moreover there were a number of scientists, philosophers, and theologians sitting around the pool who informed them that this was the only water that could be found in that desert. Therefore some of the boys, who believed that statement, overcame their disgust and rather than die for want of water they drank from the pool and filled themselves with that filth ; but others of the boys said that they would sooner die than swallow such nastiness and they went on. After having progressed just a little further, they found the beautiful spring, full of clear and sweet water, of which they had been told before they started on their journey. The boys who went first had already quenched their thirst, but the other boys, having filled themselves with the nastiness of the pool, had to wait until they got rid of the impurities which they had absorbed before they could drink and retain the water from the fountain of knowledge.
A STORY ABOUT A MAN WHO DID NOT POSSESS HIMSELF.
In a certain place not very far from here, there was once a great big man over forty years of age, who was very proud of his strength, and imagined that nobody could conquer him. He thought he could rule everybody, and did what he pleased, but in reality anybody could make him do what they wished because they made him think that he himself pleased to do it. For instance, if it pleased anyone to make him very angry, all that person had to do was to spit upon his polished boots, or to hit him upon his nose with the palm of the hand. Even a child could make him laugh, by doing something funny or telling him a joke, and more than once some good looking girl made him fall in love with her, according to her pleasure and against his own will, merely by smiling at him in a sweet manner. Thus, while this big and foolish fellow imagined that he was ruling over everybody, everybody ruled him; many persons much smaller than he would make him dance or weep, laugh or become melancholy, as they pleased; just as though he was a wooden monkey that could be made to climb a stick or to jump, if you merely pull the string.
Almost anybody who reads this story will see that before a man can actually be master over other people, he must first become the master of himself.
THE BOY WHO FOUND GOD.
A little boy was told a great deal about God, and what a hind and benevolent person He was, and he therefore became very anxious to see Him and make His acquaintance, because he thought that if he could induce God to become his friend, he would get from him a great many nice presents.
He therefore went to church on Sunday with the rest of the folks and listened to the sermon and the singing. He watched the whole performance very closely, but he could not see God.
Now this little boy went to an Episcopalian church, but there were many other churches in the same city; there were Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and many others too numerous to mention, and they each and all of them invited the little boy to come to their church and told him that they would conduct him to God. He went to all of their churches, to one after another, and whenever he went, the door was immediately opened before him, and the pew-opener showed him to a good seat, where he could see the whole of the performance. He enjoyed the fun very much, but he could not see God.
Thereupon the little boy became very sad, and he wandered into a forest and was wishing to die; when he found a little •chapel in the woods, which, however, seemed to be neglected by •everybody, for it was entirely deserted and quiet ; the door was shut and no one was seen to enter it. He knocked at the door and rang the bell for admittance, and then he called out in a loud voice, asking for somebody to open the door; but nobody •opened it for him. He waited a long, long time, it may perhaps have been for forty years, but at last he resolved to try the •door himself and see whether he could open it. He pushed a little and, lo and behold! He then saw that the door was not locked at all, and that he could easily enter. He therefore overcame his fear and went right in, and he found the chapel to be illuminated with some kind of light, such as he had never seen before, and in the midst of that light he saw God.
Of course he felt perfectly at home in that chapel and he made up his mind to remain there. He now saw how foolish he had been to wait so long for somebody to open the door for him when the door was not locked at all.
A CURIOUS WOMAN.
There was a woman in Arkansas who spent all her life in looking out of the window to see what was going on in the street, and so it happened that one day thieves entered her house and carried away everything. But she did not notice it, for her attention was all outside of the house and she could not know what was taking place inside. But when the time came for her to move to another place she saw that everything was gone and that she had nothing to take with her. She then wept and was very sorry, but that did not help the matter at all.
THE HORSEMAN.
A man rode on a horse that became frightened about something, and then the man became frightened, because the horse was frightened. The consequence was that the frightened man could not manage himself and he therefore could not manage the horse.
Thereupon the horse began to do just what it pleased. It kicked and reared and ran away, and the end of it was that the temper of the man and the horse having become incompatible with each other, they had to part company and the man fell down, while the horse ran and roamed at liberty, until it was caught again.
THE MARKSMAN.
A little boy was very fond of shooting at the target, but he could never hit the centre, because whenever he was about to fire off his wooden gun, something besides the target attracted his attention. Sometimes it was the sun that blinded him ; sometimes he looked at a toy, and more than once he was attracted by some pretty girl that happened to pass across the street. Such things used to make him look in other directions than that of the target, and he missed his aim. Only after he had grown very old lie found out that nobody can serve two masters at one and the same time.
THE SAINT AND HIS MONKEY.
There was once a very holy man, who had a pet monkey which he loved above all other things in the world. The monkey was permitted to eat at the same table with the saint and slept with him in the same bed, and whenever the saint went through his religious exercises the monkey imitated all his gestures and genuflections and made even more grimaces than the saint.
The saint had a bottle of the genuine Elixir of Life, a dram of which he was in the habit of taking every morning, and another before going to bed, for the purpose of rendering himself immortal. He kept it in a cupboard, and one day the monkey got hold of the bottle and drank it all up. Now although that Elixir had been very beneficial to the saint, it did not agree with the stomach of the monkey, for it made him so sick that he died. Then the saint, whose Elixir was now gone, could preserve himself from death in no other way than by eating the body of the monkey, which he did, and after that he gained great strength.
VANITY.
A man was married to a woman whose name was “Vanity,” and I tell you, she was a very expensive woman to keep. She made him spend a great deal of the money he earned for many useless things to satisfy her whims. She was not at all pretty and had no good qualities, but she tried to put on a great many airs, and nearly ruined him by her extravagance. She made him bribe the people to say she was very beautiful, and that he was in possession of many things which he did not possess. For instance, he had only a little money, but his wife persuaded him to squander what little he had so that the neighbors should believe that he was very rich. He could not earn all the money that his wife needed to satisfy her greed, and he would have surely come to a bad end if his eyes had not been opened in time. His wife then died, which was very fortunate for him.
THE LITTLE REFORMER.
A boy had a very fat pet sow, a big dog, a tom cat, and a little white mouse. The sow loved to wallow in the dirt, the dog used to eat many nasty things, the cat was very fond of catching mice, and the mouse was in the habit of stealing cheese. Now the boy knew that cleanliness is next to godliness, that intemperance is not good, that killing is prohibited by the law, and that the thief will come to an evil end. He therefore called together the sow and the dog, the cat and the mouse, and he preached a great sermon to them; showing how wicked it is to be unclean or intemperate, to murder or steal; and he admonished these animals to give up these bad habits. They all were very much touched by his eloquence and admitted the force of his arguments. They began to repent; the sow asked to be washed; the dog left the carcass which he had been eating; the tom cat shed tears and sat in the comer, and the little mouse was so much ashamed, that she hid herself in a hole. The little boy was very proud of having accomplished such a good work and went to get his dinner, but he had hardly turned his back when the mouse went again for the cheese, the cat caught and killed the mouse, the dog returned to the carcass, and the sow again wallowed in the dirt. Then the boy found out that animals act according to their natures, and that preaching cannot change the nature of animals.
THE FOOLISH SAGE.
A very learned man, who knew about all the wisdom of the world, had the curious habit of going into a graveyard every day and preaching to the corpses that were buried there. He told them lots of nice things and said that he was a conscious and living being, and that they should just make up their minds to wake up and see the beautiful world, full of light, in which he was living. He admonished them to look at the stars, the mountains, and the trees, and to behold all the beauties of nature, which they could not see while lying in their graves. He framed his words in the most eloquent language; sometimes he spoke in Latin or Greek and at other times in plain English, but the corpses heard nothing, because they were corpses and could not hear, neither could they heed his admonition to look and see, because they had no eyes to see.
After a while the foolish behavior of the sage attracted the attention of the people, and they took him and put him into & lunatic asylum, which was perfectly just and proper, for it is certainly very stupid to talk about such things to those who have no capacity to understand.
Note:
[i] Hermetic Stories for Children. Pt. 3. Franz Hartmann, M.D. The Word 4, no. 2 (November 1906), 105-112. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hütwohl, ©2021}
Pt. 4.
The Savage Little Boy[i]
A SAVAGE little boy, who could neither read nor write, and whose father had been a heathen, was captured and brought to a civilized country, where he saw many curious things, such as he had never before seen in his life. What amused him most was that he saw many people making scratches and strange marks on paper by means of a stick, which they said was a “pen,” and which they dipped in some black fluid, which they called “ink.” He inquired why the people made such strange marks, and was told that they were writing magical characters, called “letters,” which expressed their thoughts so that other persons who saw these signs and could read them would know the thoughts of the one who had written them.
Thereupon the savage little boy laughed very much, and said that he did not believe in such magic, and that the people were doing that merely to play a practical joke upon him. He said he knew that nobody, by looking at a sheet of paper, could know what another person was thinking, and that he could not see how so many otherwise reasonable, grown-up and well-behaved people could be so foolish as to enter into collusion and waste their time in making such foolish scratches on paper merely for the purpose of humbugging a savage little boy.
After a while, however, this little boy obtained a teacher and he himself learned how to read and to write, and then he began to understand the nature of those “magical signs” and could make them himself and could tell what the people who made them had been thinking. He then saw that he had not been half as clever as he had imagined himself to be, and he became very modest, even more so than many of our modem scientists, who imagine that they are capable of passing judgment on things of which they have no experience and that the possibilities in nature are limited to their own narrow conception thereof.
Notes:
[i] Hermetic Stories for Children. Pt. 4. The Savage Little Boy. Franz Hartmann, M.D. The Word 4, no. 6 (March 1907), 378. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}
Pt. 5.[i]
AN ALMOST INCREDIBLE, BUT NEVERTHELESS A TRUE SNAKE STORY.
A certain or uncertain number of people, consisting of philosophers, theologians, and would-be mystics, who were desirous of finding out all about the divine mysteries of nature, went into the desert in search of divine wisdom. The day was very hot, and they soon became hungry and thirsty; but, as is usual in such deserts, there was nothing to eat. At last they espied a serpent of a beautiful green color, with a golden crown upon its head; and, although snakes are considered to be a disgusting article of diet, nevertheless their appetite was strong. So they caught the snake and concluded to eat it.
They cut the snake into little pieces, which they divided among themselves, and each one went to cook and prepare his piece in a manner which best suited his taste. One boiled, one man baked his, and still another made a stew of his piece.
However, wonderful as it may appear to you, as each piece was nearly cooked it disappeared from the pot and nothing remained but a few indigestible bones. Then the philosophers, theologians, and would-be mystics, wept and grieved very much for having killed the beautiful snake, because they now saw that it was the symbol of wisdom, and that he who wants to come into possession of living truth must not kill or dismember it.
THE LITTLE SPENDTHRIFT.
A good little boy received from his father seven dollars as a birthday present, with permission to do with that money whatever he pleased. He had never before seen so much money, and he thought that he could buy the whole world with it and still have some of it left. He immediately went about the town, looking at all the nice things that were for sale, and he bought a brand-new rattle, which pleased him very much, and for which he paid a dollar and a half. With that rattle he made a great deal of noise, but after a while he saw another still more expensive rattle which pleased him better; so he bought the new one and gave the old one away. In this way he bought one rattle after another, and never thought of buying anything to eat. After a while he became very hungry, and as he passed a baker- shop he saw an awfully nice jelly-cake, which he wanted to buy, but when he entered the shop he found that he had spent all his money for rattles and had none left with which to buy bread. He was now sixty-five years of age, and felt very sorry for having been such a spendthrift, but his sorrow did him no good.
THE IMPRISONED PARROT.
I must tell you a story about a very foolish parrot that was imprisoned in a cage and could have gained his liberty if he had only had sense enough to go out of his prison, for the door of the cage was always left open. This parrot was captured when he was very young and when he had only just begun to fly. He was put into that cage for a number of years, and at last entirely forgot his previous state of liberty and that he was able to fly. He foolishly imagined that he had crawled out of his egg in that cage and that he would have to remain there all his life. In fact, he became so much accustomed to his prison that whenever his owner took him out of the cage he did not like it at all, but after walking around in the room and picking up a few crumbs that were upon the floor he would go back into his prison voluntarily and remain there, although the door was always left open.
One day, however, as the cage with the parrot was put outside in the garden it happened that he saw another bird flying high up in the air, and then it came to pass that the parrot, without thinking what he was doing, walked out of his cage and began to fly likewise; and then he was very much astonished to see that he was in possession of powers of which he had known nothing, and henceforth he led a life of liberty and had no desire to go back to his prison.
A STORY ABOUT AN ANGEL.
There was once an angel in heaven who, like most angels, was engaged in making celestial music. He was not in a very prominent position, for he merely played the nine hundred and ninety-ninth fiddle in the hindmost rank of the orchestra, which is not very far from the earth. They had just been playing the same piece for the two billion, thirty-six million, twenty-five thousand, three hundred and forty-sixth time, when a pause for the fiddles occurred, during which only the trumpets, great drums, and gongs were engaged. This gave the angel a chance to look down from his note-book and get a peep at the earth.
Taking his fiddle-bow under his arm, he turned toward the earth and saw it dancing a waltz to the tune of the celestial music, and this sight amused him so much that he forgot all about heaven and became attracted to the earth, where he entered the body of a child that happened to be born at that moment.
So he grew up, and as the brain of a child is not strong enough to think the thoughts of an angel, he lost all recollection of having been an angel and knew nothing but that he was a child. In due time he suffered much from the cutting of teeth, and after that he got the measles, and when he grew bigger he married a woman who was very jealous, and with her he got a very bad mother-in-law.
One fine day it happened that an organ-grinder, with a barrel organ, made an awful music in front of his window, and as the angel could not bear that kind of a noise he became very angry and opened the door to throw a bootjack at the organ- grinder; but when he beheld the man he saw that he was very poor and crippled and could do nothing else to make a living than grind organs. He therefore took pity on the man, and instead of throwing the bootjack he threw him a penny. It then seemed to him that he had already heard the piece which the man played, and as he looked closer he recognized in the organ-grinder an angel who used to be his neighbor in the heavenly orchestra, and who had by some mistake also become a man. He then remembered all about his own former state as an angel, and found his way back to his former place as soon as he became freed from the bonds which his curiosity had caused him to accept.
A DOG STORY.
There was a dog-kennel, surrounded by a high fence, and that kennel contained a great many hungry and ferocious dogs. A man whose relatives are still alive lived for many years in that dog-kennel, and the dogs used to snarl and bite him, and they often tore big pieces of flesh out of his body, never leaving him alone except when he was asleep. For a long time that man fought with the dogs, driving them away with a stick and trying to prevent them from fatally injuring him. But while he was beating off one of the dogs he was being bitten by another, so that he never had any peace and could not enjoy a moment of rest.
This state of affairs lasted for a long time, and he became actually weary of life; but at last he bethought himself of a means of escape. With some little effort he climbed on the top of the fence, where he was out of reach of the dogs. There he enjoyed a good rest and much happiness, and he was heard to say that if we want to get rid of our evils we should rise above them. But what has this saying to do with our story about the man and the dogs?
A TRUE STORY ABOUT A MAN WHO DID NOT KNOW THAT HE WAS RICH.
A young man who had a very rich father, but who did not know that his father was rich, went into a foreign country where he remained for many years. He had learned no particular trade, but occupied himself with the things which happened to come his way. The consequence was that he became very poor and had to beg for alms. In the meantime his father deposited a million pounds sterling in the Bank of England for him, but, having ceased to communicate with his people at home, the son did not receive any information about that legacy. Thus it happened that the son, although he was very rich, lived and died among strangers in extreme poverty; and the same thing happens every day, for there are ever so many people who die poor because they are ignorant of their true value.
WHAT HAPPENED TO SOME CURIOUS LITTLE BOYS.
Some time ago a committee of scientifically-inclined small boys was appointed to examine the phenomena of light and to find out its true nature. It was a bright day and the sun shone, and they could all see that the light came from the sun and that it illuminated all objects everywhere. After they had looked at the sun long enough without becoming any wiser, they began to examine the colors of the objects they saw, and they soon became so much interested in their investigations that they forgot the existence of the sun altogether and imagined that each object was producing its own particular light. Moreover, during that time the sky had become overcast with clouds, and they could not see the sun, which confirmed them in their conclusion that each body was the creator of its own color and light. Each boy had selected a certain object for investigation. One examined a blade of grass and made a report proving that all light was green; another examined a rose and said all light was red; and still another, who had carefully studied the color of a little violet, insisted that the color of the light was blue. As their decisions differed one from another, they began to quarrel, and then they took colored spectacles and put them on their noses, which, however, only increased the confusion; for what now appeared to one little boy green seemed yellow to another and black to the third. They are still quarreling, because the day is still cloudy. But when the sun appears again we hope that they will find out the nature of light.
Note:
[1] Hermetic Stories for Children. Pt. 5. Franz Hartmann, M.D. The Word 5, no. 3 (June 1907), 178-182. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}