"Once upon a time my friends carried me off for a day in the open air - a day to be spent in a tract of country which though not far from a great city, is left in its wild and primitive condition as a National Reserve for the enjoyment of the people. On Saturday and Sunday it is often quite crowded, but during the rest of the week it is a delightful umbrageous solitude. In the centre of it is a wooded valley through which runs a river; and as soon as we entered that |valley the sensitive members of our party at once became conscious of a brooding influence, by no means unpleasant, but distinctly unusual. Tracing this to its source, we found the whole valley to be under the care of an Angel who has decided views as to what he intends to make of it, and is showing laudable determination and unwearied patience in achieving his ends. He regards the place as a sacred charge, and aims at so magnetizing it that it shall produce an effect upon every sensitive person who passes through it. He has stretched a web of etheric matter from crest to crest, to isolate his valley from the outer world; and inside it he endeavours to keep up something like a higher moral temperature in the palm-house at Kew.

    "His theory is that people visit the great Park at a time of relaxation, when their minds are free from the strain of business, and that they are therefore less imprisoned within the shell of selfishness, and more open to the higher influences. He argues that if he thus catches men at the favourable moment, the gentle yet steady upward pressure, which his atmosphere is applying all the while as they saunter along his valley or row on his river, must produce some effect - an effect which will of course increase in direct ratio to the impressibility of those who are subjected to it, but can hardly be entirely absent except, in the most hardened cases. This aura of his is already instantly perceptible to a psychic, but he considers his work yet scarcely begun, and is enthusiastic as to the condition he hopes to be able to induce by fifty or a hundred years of strenuous labour and concentration.

    "It was of intense interest to us to observe the methods which he had been employing in his preparation, and the success which he has so far achieved; it may not however prove easy to explain a line of activity so remote from ordinary human conception. It is comprehensible that every living creature, every fox, rabbit or weasel is a fragment of the divine life in manifestation, and (though not yet individualized and capable of reincarnation) is during its physical existence just as much a soul, a separate consciousness, as any one of us. We must extend this idea to include the smaller forms of animal life, and the trees and bushes of our wood. But each of these lives is naturally independent and self-centred, moving in its own way, so that such force as they radiate flows indifferently in all directions, and its various streams probably cancel one another. By his steady pressure the Angel of the Valley has changed all this; without in any way coercing or interfering with his trees and his animals he has brought them gradually to be capable of a certain co-operation, or amenable to a common influence. Normally each creature thinks and acts for itself just as before; but at any moment, when the Angel wishes it, he can send out a stream to which all the lives instantly adapt themselves; they lie parallel like reeds combed out by a current, and all the force of the valley is at his disposal, acting as a unit. He spoke sadly, almost impatiently, of the type of human being who visited his valley in crowds on Sundays, declaring that although they professed to belong to a higher kingdom, they were of less actual use to him in the generation of energy than the very rabbits under their feet.

    "It happened that one of our party was a bishop, wearing a pectoral cross, which is a highly-magnetized jewel containing gems specially linked with the Heads of the Seven Rays - an object of immense value as a centre for the distribution of force for the helping of men. In this the Angel was keenly interested, asking to be allowed to examine it closely. He fully understood its object and its power; and when, later in the day, another member of the party encountered him alone, he enquired whether it would be possible that a similar arrangement of magnetized and linked gems could be procured for him, explaining in how many ways it would be of assistance to him in his work. Of course we very gladly agreed to provide what he wished; there was no difficulty in doing so, for the merest speck of the appropriate jewel is sufficient to make the necessary radiating centre, so that the total cost of such a talisman is only a few shillings. As soon as it was prepared, a deputation visited his valley once more to present it to him; he was greatly pleased and requested us to bury it in the ground for him in a central spot which he selected with great care, being especially particular as to what trees grew in the immediate neighbourhood. When this was done, he called together a large number of the higher types of nature-spirits (probably superintendents under him) and held a beautiful little dedication ceremony, in which they were put en rapport with the amulet, and its use was fully explained to them. The jewels were caused to glow until they were surrounded by a great globe of living light; and each spirit in turn came and bathed himself in that splendour until he was thoroughly permeated with it, charged with it as though he were a battery.

    The Angel was quite disproportionately grateful for this small service which we rendered him, and for our strong interest in his work. We were naturally anxious to find other ways of helping him, but it was not easy to see what else we could do. Presently, however, we discovered a method by which we could be of great use to him, and give him really valuable assistance in his work—assistance which, if continued by our successors, will very materially shorten the time required to get his valley into the condition which he desires. That method is to allot to him a portion of the outpouring of divine force which is evoked at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. We found that when this was done he was immensely strengthened and encouraged, and the influx of this entirely different type of energy seemed actually to inspire him with new ideas in connection with his work. Where the mighty magic of the eucharistic service is understood, a list is kept of the people most in need of help, and of the objects to which this spiritual force can most usefully be devoted. The most efficient aid which we can give to our friend, the Angel of the Valley, is to include him in our list; that is now done, so he is receiving a daily dole of divine grace which redoubles his power for good, and incidentally has the effect of drawing us into closer relation with him.

    "Here surely is an instance of the giving of mutual help, of co-operation between two evolutions, which is interesting not only in itself but as a forecasting of the future; a suggestion of the wider possibilities which may dawn upon the world when we understand God’s plan a little better."