Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-09-23
NEWPORT'S LATEST FAD
Soul Development Effected by
 the Four Hundred.
TAUGHT BY NIECE OF GLADSTONE

TAUGHT BY NIECE OF GLADSTONE She Says, s1The Radiat1ons of the
 smart Set Are Vivid Redo-spir-
 itual Teaching For Divorcees and
 Other High Society Danes and
 DamseIs.
 Soul development is Newport's latest fad, says the New York Herald. To the unregenerate city by the sea that called forth Colonel Watterson's ia nous anathema has come a distin- guished Scotch woman, Margaret Glad stone Stuart, with the altruistic pur- pose, frankly proclaimed, of teaching the smart set not only how to find it's soul, but when once found how to de- termine its color and general material characteristics.
 Color of the soul? Material charac- teristics?
 Yes, it does sound paradoxicaI, but according to the propaganda of this new high prtestess it is literally true that one's soul does have color and form as well as numerous other pe- culiarities undreamed of in the theolo- BY of that sturdy old New Englander Jonathan Edwards. One's soul may be green, gold, gray, brown, yellow, violet, blue or red, declares Mrs. Stuart, and in series of lectures and drawing room talks she has been conducting in Newport the fashionable summer colo ny have learned the discouraging and awful fact that their souls are for the most part vermilion red.
 The promulgator of this startling cult, it is interesting~to know, is no less parsonage than the grandniece of the great Gladstone. She is also granddaughter of the Countess of Gal loway and was born in the famous castle of Galloway, one of the show places of the Scottish highlands, and last, but not least, to approach her more immediate ancestry, she is a daughter Of the late Balfour Alexander Stuart, prominent member of the British Society For Psychical Research and author of score of well known works on metaphysical subjects.
 "My religion is based on theories as old as civilization itself,' said Mrs. Stuart in answer to a question regard ing the chief features of her theolog- ical system. 'sThe system of auras is originally an oriental one and had It's manifestation in later ages in the aure- oles or halos about the heads of the Christian saints. Every soul radiates a certain material substance. You may define this substance as electricity, light, aura or whatever you will, but the fact remains that whatever term you use the substance is the same "A few choice spirits in all ages of the world have always been able to see this aura or reflection of soul with the visual eye, though 1t has remained obscure to the grosser and more ordi- nary vision. The literature of all ages. both sacred and profane, attests the l fact that this halo or illumination has l been seen by men about the heads of I other men.
 Paul saw it, and St. John saw 1t, l and Mohammed saw 1t, and so has al- most every other highly spiritualized man seen it. But they of the older time were content to see the phenome- non, while we of the curious present want to know something more def- mite about 1t. It is to this end that have come to Newport to form classes for the study of the aura.
 "Everybody radiates an aura, and were we highly enough developed spir- itually and physically we should each of us be able to see our neighbours aura and tell what color 1t is, just as we can see his hair and tell what color l 1t is.
 "The soul radiates as many colors as l does the rainbow. When see pre- I ponderance of blue light radiating from person I know instantly that that person is large in spirituality, for 1 blue is the color of highly spiritualized souls. A preponderance of golden ra- l diation betokens high mindedness and I ambition-for instance man like Ma < poleon would radiate no other color. I Lavender is the emanatdon of those in l whom the maternal instinct is abnor- mally developed, just as green is the l radiation of those who are intensely sympathetic. Around people who are I about to die one versed in the study of I auras may easily see a black, murky l substance lowering like cloud, and ] about those who are addicted only to the world and the pleasures of the flesh there is to be seen nimbus of l glowing red.
 Here in Newport find that about nine people out of ten radiate red aurns.
 I "An ability to see and understand the meaning of each others aura would be the greatest incentive to right living and right thinking that ] the mind of man can conceive of. It would do away with all excuse for lies and deception, for what is the use of a .ie when all the world can read the truth of our hearts by glance at our aura?
 ITO be sure, not all my pupils are studying the subject for the highest gosd it can bring them. Many of the women and girls in my classes are at tracted to them for the benefit they l hone to derive in tho way of halninr