{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_26893/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_26893","id":"gutenberg_26893","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26893","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Psychology and religion","Soul"],"text":"Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW AVATAR\nand\nThe Destiny of the Soul\n\nTHE FINDINGS OF NATURAL SCIENCE\nREDUCED TO PRACTICAL STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY\n\nBy\nJIRAH D. BUCK, M.D.\n\nAuthor of\n\"Mystic Masonry,\" \"A Study of Man,\" \"Christos,\"\n\"The Genius of Freemasonry,\" \"Constructive Psychology,\"\n\"The Lost Word Found,\" \"Browning's Paracelsus,\" and other MSS.\n\nSECOND EDITION\n1916\n\nINDO-AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY\n(Not Inc.)\n\n5705 SOUTH BOULEVARD\nCHICAGO\nILL.\n\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT\nSTEWART & KIDD CO.\n1911\nEntered at Stationers' Hall, London, England\n\nAll Rights Reserved\n\n\n\n\nTO THE\n\nGREAT FRIENDS\n\nTHE HELPERS--VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE--WHOSE\nDEEPEST MOTIVE AND HIGHEST AIM\nARE TO ENCOURAGE, UPLIFT, AND INSPIRE\n\nTHOSE WHO NEED;\n\nTHAT ALL, AT LAST, MAY STAND\n\nTOGETHER\n\nIN THE MIDST OF\nTHE\nRADIANT SPLENDOR\nOF\n\nETERNAL\nTRUTH\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n         FOREWORD                                               xi\n\n         INTRODUCTION                                         xvii\n\nSECTION ONE\n\nSTUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY\n\n     I.  CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS     3\n\n    II.  EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE                       9\n\n   III.  MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS                     18\n\n    IV.  THE MEASURE OF VALUES                                  29\n\n     V.  SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS                                50\n\n    VI.  THE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX IN SCIENCE\n         WITH THE GREAT WORK IN AMERICA                         68\n\n   VII.  THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM OF PSYCHOLOGY    93\n\nSECTION TWO\n\nTHE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE\n\n  VIII.  OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA                     111\n\n    IX.  HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE                             136\n\n     X.  CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE                                146\n\n    XI.  CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR                 151\n\n   XII.  PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME                          164\n\n  XIII.  THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE                        171\n\n   XIV.  FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION                        191\n\n    XV.  THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWLEDGE OF\n         THE HUMAN SOUL                                        208\n\n   XVI.  THE NEW AVATAR                                        218\n\n         NOTES                                                 223\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nThe reader who is willing to give the following pages a careful reading,\nand a courteous hearing, is entitled to know the basis of study,\nobservation or experience from which the suggestions, inferences and\nconclusions proceed, in order that he may fairly estimate their value.\n\nAt the age of seventy-two, my egotism is at least softened by the\ndiscovery of the many things I do not know; and my dogmatism, so far as it\never existed, is equally relaxed by the realization that it is a bar to\nlight and knowledge, which rest so largely on demonstration.\n\nFor more than forty-five years I have been engaged in the active practice\nof medicine with consultations extending over three States.\n\nFor an equal length of time I have lectured in Medical Colleges, fifteen\nyears on the subject of Physiology, an equal number on Therapeutics\n(including Pathology and Histology), and for the last fifteen years on\nPsychology, Mental and Nervous Diseases, and all this time with a large\nCollege Clinic from the poorer classes.\n\nFrom first to last, my \"Study of Medicine\" has been generically and\nspecifically a \"Study of Man,\" physical, mental, ethical, and psychical.\n\nOutside of Medicine as a \"Calling\" or a \"Profession\" my real interest has\nbeen to unravel the nature of man, grasp the problem of human life, and to\napprehend the nature, laws, and destiny of the human soul. My library\ncovers a rather continuous thread from 1543, and the time of Paracelsus,\nto Profs. James, Ladd, Lombroso, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Muensterberg.\n\nMy reading dips into the Sacred Books of the East, the records of the\nPast, and particularly the psychic phenomena of different ages, finding at\nlast the Constructive Theorem clearer than anywhere else in the \"School of\nNatural Science,\" from the fact that it is demonstrably cognizant of all\npreceding work, and definitely conforms to the strict demands of\nScience--Physical, Mental, Ethical, Psychical and Spiritual, and proves to\nbe the very thing for which I have searched for nearly half a century.\n\nThe foregoing statements are not made to force credulity nor to assume\nauthority. They simply mean--This is how, and where, and how long, I have\nbeen searching, largely, also at the bedside of the sick, the deranged and\nthe dying; from the first breath of the little one that comes--\n\n                \"Out from the shore of the Great Unknown\n                Weeping and wailing and all alone,\"\n\nto the death-damp and the last sigh of the aged; in one case at nearly one\nhundred and four years.\n\nOnce I found an old lady of eighty, dying. The \"death-damp\" on her brow;\nthe \"death-rattle\" in her throat; the chin dropped, and no pulse at the\nwrist. She had a wayward son who had been promised due notice of any\nchange, and he had been sent for. Speaking distinctly in her ear _I called\nher back_; the motive being the grief of her son at not bidding each other\ngood-bye. The response was immediate. The \"rattle\" in her throat ceased.\nThe pulse promptly returned. The mouth closed. Then I said--\"open your\neyes,\" which she promptly did with a gentle smile. \"You are not going to\ndo it,\" I said. \"No,\" she replied. The son soon came in and received his\nmother's caress and blessing. At the same hour on the following day, she\npassed peacefully to the beyond, dying of old age. Had it been a \"crisis\"\nin disease, she might have recovered.\n\nAs a psychic phenomenon I never saw anything just like it. Had I before\ndoubted the existence of a \"separable soul,\" it would have ended all\ndoubt. From the magnetic border of the \"Great Divide\" _with a sufficient\nmotive_, I literally \"called her back.\"\n\nThe evidence of the concreteness, and wholeness and self-awareness of the\nIndividual Intelligence, functioning in and through, and separable from\nthe physical body, was complete. No other explanation or conclusion would\nfit or cover the case at all. Had I been clairvoyant and able to _see_ the\nentity, it would have been another link in a chain whose sequence pointed\nall one way. But even here I was not without a witness.\n\nIn another case, an old lady was dying. A \"Platform Lecturer\"\n(Mediumistic) was present and described, incidentally, what she saw. She\nwas a good, clean, ignorant woman and only \"controlled\" on the Platform.\n\nShe described a vapor emanating from the body, as the \"death-damp\"\nincreased, and outer \"awareness\" failed. This vapor seemed to adhere\ntogether until it stood near the head, rounded and nearly reaching the\nceiling. Then the \"spirit form\" passed out from the top of the head, was\ninclosed in the ball of \"vapor,\" and together they \"floated away.\"\n\nI found that she had never heard of the \"Auric-egg\" nor read a page of the\nold Eastern philosophy, and yet she had accurately described, step by\nstep, what the Masters for ages declare occurs at death.\n\nScience is the careful observation, demonstration and record of Facts,\ntheir orderly grouping or classification, and the logical and sequential\nconclusions resulting therefrom.\n\nIt is not a matter of opinion and belief, nor dogma and denial, no matter\nhow large, respectable, and sincere may be the army of the dogmatists.\n\nTake these suggestions and conclusions--my friend--for what you think them\nworth, since now you know how far they have grown from experience and the\nlove and search for the simple Truth.\n\nThe temptation to quote and annotate from many authors is very great, but\nthe material is so abundant that one scarcely knows where to begin, where\nto end; and as the address is solely to the reader of \"average\nintelligence,\" and argument is eliminated as far as possible, many\nquotations could do little more than confirm opinions, and would extend\nbeyond the limits designed by the author, or the brief space and popular\nform more desirable for the average reader.\n\nRepetitions in the text seemed unavoidable for the reason, that at every\nphase of the subject I have continually to regard the Individual, and that\naggregate called Society; the inner conscious life of _one_, and the\nassociate elements and conditions regarding the many, and from different\nviewpoints.\n\nMan, the Individual, is like a \"wheel within a wheel,\" the larger circle\nbeing Humanity as a whole.\n\nNor does the thought or concept stop here. There is the relation of the\nIndividual Intelligence we call MAN to the Universal Intelligence we call\nGOD, which as related to Nature is \"In All, Through All, Over All, and\nAbove All.\"\n\nNot an \"Absentee God,\" but Illuminant within and without revealing itself\nin what we call Love and Law.\n\nHere \"in brief\" I rest the case and proceed to the evidence.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nIn \"A Study of Man, and the Way of Health,\" first published twenty-one\nyears ago, as a general outline for my classes of Medical Students, to\nenable them to grasp the real problem of life, and to emphasize the Study\nof Man, as basic in the Study of Medicine, the following epitome was\nplaced in the Preface.\n\n  \"The cosmic form in which all things are created and in which all\n  things exist is a Universal Duality.\n\n  Involution and Evolution express the two-fold process of the One Law\n  of Development, corresponding to the two planes of being, the\n  Subjective and the Objective.\n\n  Consciousness is the central Fact of Being.\n\n  Experience is the only method of knowing.\n\n  Therefore, to Know, is to Become.\n\n  The Modulus of Nature, that is, the Pattern, after which she\n  everywhere builds, and the _Method_ to which she continually conforms\n  is an Ideal, or Archetypical Man.\n\n  The Perfect Man is the anthropomorphic God. A living, potential\n  Christ in every human soul.\n\n  Two natures meet on the human plane, and focalize in man.\n\n  These are the Animal Ego and the Higher Self. The one, an inheritance\n  from lower life. The other, an overshadowing from the next higher\n  plane.\n\n  The Animal Principle is Selfishness. The Divine Principle is\n  Altruism.\n\n  However defective in other respects human nature may be, all human\n  endeavor must finally be measured by the principle of Altruism and\n  must stand or fall by the measure in which it inspires and uplifts\n  Humanity.\n\n  The highest tribunal is the criterion of Truth, and the test of truth\n  is by its use and beneficence. 'BY THEIR WORK YE MAY KNOW THEM.'\n\n  Superstition is not Religion; Speculation is not Philosophy;\n  Materialism is not Science; but true religion, true philosophy and\n  true science are ever the handmaids of Truth, and will at last be\n  found in perfect harmony.\"\n\nAfter more than twenty years of continuous and careful study since the\nforegoing was written, I must still confirm and emphasize these basic\npropositions to-day.\n\nThe attempt is herein made to apply them more particularly to the study of\nPsychology. To add to what was then discerned and designated as \"the\nModulus of Nature,\" an exact and comprehensive Theorem of Psychology.\n\nI am well aware how presumptuous this would in certain quarters be\nconsidered, if there were the least probability that \"those in authority\"\nwould read these pages at all. The motive is involved in the modulus, and\nI am quite content to leave it there, while the \"common people,\" it is\nhoped, may find herein, as I have found in the search for more light,\nencouragement, inspiration, and hope. And these may lead to\nUnderstanding.\n\nIt is the farthest possible from my thought or wish to ignore or belittle\nthe labors of earnest students and writers on Psychology.\n\nBut there is a habit of conservatism in Physical Science to-day, that in\nspirit and effect differs very little from Dogma and Orthodoxy in\nReligion. It concerns methods rather than results. It is generally\nincredulous through fear of being over-credulous. It is bound by\ntradition, or the records of the past, and its dogmas are deductions from\nthe consensus of _opinions_, rather than \"decrees in councils\" or\n\"Infallible Popes.\"\n\nOccasionally a Scientist, like Sir Oliver Lodge, seems to be utterly rid\nof both credulity and incredulity, and for these, Science really means--\n\"the Facts of Nature, demonstrated, classified, and systematized.\"\n\nBut for the \"Common People,\" the average intelligent student, for whom\nScience and the pursuit of Knowledge is not a Profession, but a desire to\nknow, and to understand, in order to be able to use wisely and well, it is\nof far less importance to know what others think or believe, deny or\naffirm, on the subject of Psychology, than to _realize_ what are the\nfaculties, capacities, and powers of their own souls.\n\nKnowledge for the sake of knowledge, like \"Art for Art's sake,\" is one\nthing, Knowledge for _use_ in daily life, and for illuminating its pathway\nand revealing the purpose and destiny of man, is something different\nindeed.\n\nThis hunger of the individual soul for real knowledge is perhaps the most\npatent \"Sign of the Times.\"\n\nThe average intelligent individual has broken away from the traditions of\nthe past, and yet found nothing to take their place. One result is empty\nchurches, and the race for wealth, display, position, and power. Increased\nidleness begets dissipation, Paresis and Insanity increase, while wasted\nopportunity both shortens and embitters life.\n\nA very large number of intelligent men and women realizing all this, and\nrepelled by the almost contemptuous conservatism of so-called Science,\nswing to the side of credulity, and are robbed and exploited by\ncharlatans. They believe the Truth _ought_ to be forthcoming, and their\nintuitions and demands, though oft leading to sore disappointment, deserve\na better fate.\n\nIt is for these, and for these reasons, that these pages are written, and\nwith no other hope of fame or reward.\n\nThe demand is everywhere for Knowledge of the soul. Facts there are in\nabundance, but how far these facts are _demonstrated_, so as to constitute\na basis of exact science, and how to classify and systematize them, the\naverage intelligence does not know.\n\nThe Psychical Scientist claims to know, and undoubtedly does know, but he\nbusies himself almost exclusively in gathering and verifying _more facts_.\nWhen asked by the average intelligence, \"What does it all mean?\"--the\nanswer is, \"Ah! there's the rub. _Wait!_ Some day we _may_ know.\"\n\nThe simple fact is that the Scientist is bewildered, while the theologian\nand the dogmatist appeal to Faith without Knowledge, and invoke miracle as\nin all past times.\n\nSpiritualism has had its day and left an immense body of facts, while\nMediumship and the dark circle are more often repudiated by intelligent\nprofessed Spiritualists. Satisfied as to conscious existence after death\nas a _fact_, they have learned how generally unreliable are many messages\nfrom departed friends, owing to conditions beyond their control; while the\neffect of surrender to so-called \"spirit-control\" contributes to neither\nhealth nor a well-balanced mind or character.\n\nHypnotism maintains a precarious hold, simply through juggling with the\nwords, \"Suggestion\" and \"Hypnosis.\" The professional hypnotist, yielding\nas he must to the public fear and condemnation of Hypnotism, advocates\n_Just a little of it!_ under the false title \"Suggestion,\" for the good it\nis claimed to do in such cases as the drink and drug habit. As though a\nlittle further _weakening of the will_, would ultimately tend to restore\nand strengthen it!\n\nOne is reminded of the baby in \"Pendennis.\" The Mother \"hoped the Lord\nwould forgive her, because it was such a little one!\"\n\nEven the leaders in the \"Emmanuel Movement\" have deceived themselves by\nthis sophistry, and while they applaud the temporary results, they seem\nunaware that they are still further weakening self-control and real\ncharacter, by dominating the Will.\n\nIt is thus that ignorance, confusion and unrest, like waves of ocean, ebb\nand flow in the great human tides.\n\nThrough impatience and discouragement alone, many give up the quest for\nknowledge as hopeless, and while too well-balanced to drift into\ndissipation, they suffer from _ennui_ and become pessimistic.\n\nReal knowledge will not come all at once, like a vision, or a complete\nrevelation.\n\nThe first real Light that comes will be that of Faith, a term generally\nmisunderstood and misused.\n\nFaith is the complete antithesis of blind dogma and superstition. It is\nborn within the soul, and never imposed by outward authority enforced by\nfear.\n\n\"Faith is the soul's _intuitive conviction_ of that which both reason and\nconscience approve.\"\n\nTo give intellectual assent to belief in God is one thing; to be able to\ndeclare with light and warmth that uplifts and inspires, \"_I know_ that my\nRedeemer liveth\" is another thing entirely.\n\nThe impatience above referred to would see the end from the beginning, and\nknow all about the development and destiny of the soul before it has\nlearned the first lesson that guides and determines both.\n\nWhen, however, Science and Religion clasp hands, and the facts of nature\nguided by the light of Faith, build character and guide progress, there is\nrevealed a Philosophy of Life that needs little revision. It is like the\ncompass that points continually to the pole, and gives unqualified\nassurance as to the _direction_ we are going.\n\nSo also every step in the past enables us to get our bearings and verify\nour course by checking backward.\n\nFaith is no longer a blind dogma, but a compass in the box of experience,\nthe wise mariner's guide in the voyage of life.\n\nIf neither Science, Religion nor Philosophy, nor all together can thus\ncome to the service of man, can not do it _now_, after all the weary\ncenturies since Plato and Aristotle, we may as well write _qui bono_ on\nour banners and trail them in the dust!\n\nEven the theologies of the day, recognizing the dilemma and the\ndifficulties, still cling to the miraculous, and to make the best of a bad\nbargain, offer dogma in the place of demonstration, and contradictory and\nblind belief in place of the light of Faith.\n\nWhile they count thousands as nominally in their communion, the\nintelligent among all these have many \"mental reservations.\"\n\nThe intelligent thought of the world flows past and beyond them.\n\nThe \"Soul's intuitive conviction\" agreeing with \"both reason and\nconscience\" holds and guides them, in spite of the verbal \"confession of\nfaith.\"\n\nThe Divinity of Jesus, the Christ, can be fully explained under natural\nand divine law, without invoking miracle.\n\nThe result of such explanation is to dethrone him from the altars of dogma\nand superstition, and enthrone him on the altar of Love in the heart of\nHumanity.\n\nThis is long delayed, but cannot be defeated.\n\n\n\n\nSTUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nCLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS\n\n\nStarting with the _Modulus of Nature_--an Ideal or _Archetypal Man_, and\ncoming down to practical things in daily life--\n\n1. Man _is_ an _Individual Intelligence_. This is taken as an empirical\n_fact_, patent to every intelligent individual.\n\nThe source and nature of intelligence itself need not here concern us. We\nmay call it an _ultimate_ that all the philosophies of the world have\nsignally failed to explain. It is something that grows, increases or\ndecreases, expands, becomes confused, according to the conditions of\nbodily organ and function, heredity, environment, personal effort and the\nlike; but so far as we know, it is the same thing, large or small, wise or\nfoolish. It is still, measure for measure, Individual Intelligence.\n\n2. The term _Individual_ means distinct, concrete, relatively separate.\nMan being an Individual Intelligence; God is the Universal Intelligence.\nJust as the organism of man is involved in, and evolved from Universal\nNature; so the Intelligence of man is involved in, and evolved from\nUniversal Intelligence.\n\nThe empirical fact of the intelligence of man presupposes a \"sufficient\nreason\" or source. Still we do not know what God and Nature and\nIntelligence are. We only know _how they manifest_. Our intelligence\nenables us to observe, reflect, reason, and in some measure apprehend the\n_method_ and _manifestation_.\n\nI am not seeking to build nor unfold a \"Philosophy.\" \"Yes,\" someone\nreplies, \"but a philosophy is implied or involved.\"\n\nVery well, let _it_ unfold _itself_.\n\n3. The next empirical fact of prime importance is, The Individual\nIntelligence, not of man, but which _is_ man, is _aware of itself_, i.e.,\n\"self-conscious.\" It is able to distinguish between the self and the\nnon-self.\n\n4. Again, as to _consciousness_, as with intelligence: We know that man\nhas it and uses it, and what it _does_ to some extent; but we do not know\nwhat it _is_, intrinsically, nor do we need to know any of these\n_ultimates_. The effort to explain them has never ended in anything but\nconfusion. We shall herein name them, and then pass them.\n\n5. We have now postulated a self-conscious, Individual Intelligence, as\nthe real man. Next we find this Man can _do_ things, or _refrain_ from\ndoing; act, or refrain from action. This is called Initiative, Volition,\nWill.\n\n6. This power of action and of choice, inspired by intelligence, aware of\nthe self, adapts actions to ends. This involves reason and judgment.\n\n7. In the course of experience along the lines of action or restraint, and\nobserving results in either case, the individual desiring or preferring\ncertain results to others, acquires more or less self-control. He controls\nhimself to secure desired results.\n\nHere then, in brief outline, are the basis and the elements of our\nPsychology. They are drawn from common observation and experience, and are\nverified by the facts of daily life--generally complicated, confused, or\nlost sight of in treatises on psychology.\n\nTwo of these factors, viz.: Consciousness and Will, enter into all\npsychological phenomena such as Hypnotism and Mediumship, and into every\nform of mental alienation, insanity, obsession and the like.\n\nMoreover, by building out of mental phenomena a distinct entity--largely\nindependent of the self-conscious Intelligence, and almost equally so with\nconsciousness--our \"philosophies,\" \"metaphysics,\" and explanations have\nbecome as confused and unreliable as the psychical phenomenon itself.\n\nHudson's so-called \"Law of Psychic Phenomena,\" \"Subliminal\" and\n\"Supraliminal Consciousness,\" and the juggling with the terms \"suggestion\"\nand \"hypnosis\" may serve as sufficient illustrations. In each instance\nphenomena are made to take the place of principles and the core of the\nproblem is ignored, confused, or lost sight of.\n\nIn the meantime these empiricists are hunting in the \"rubbish of the\ntemple\" (which temple they have _metaphysically_ destroyed), for the Human\nSoul--i.e. the concrete, intrinsic Individual Intelligence, which is ONE,\nand which the Master Builder (Universal Intelligence) placed on the\nTrestle-board of Creation and Time, for the building of character, and the\nevolution of the Human Soul.\n\nIf the Ideal, Archetypal, or Divine Man, is recognized as the _Modulus_ of\nboth Nature and Divinity, our Theorem must consist in adhering to the\nModulus and working out the problem.\n\nQ. E. D., if applied to man's completion of his own individual Temple,\nmight stand for the last words of Jesus, \"It is finished,\" The problem is\nsolved; \"I have finished the Work Thou gavest me to do.\" Science, Religion\nand Philosophy have clasped hands. Divinity revealed in Humanity is\ntriumphant over Death. \"There is a Natural (physical) body and there is a\nSpiritual body,\" and the Individual Intelligence is ONE in each, or in\nboth; viz.: The Human-Divine Soul.\n\nTo recognize the _Modulus_ and intelligently to apprehend the _Theorem_ is\nthe foundation and the first step in the scientific solution of the\nproblem of life, and the progressive and continuous evolution of the human\nsoul. To use the term \"Science\" (as applied to the study of psychology) in\nany other way, is pure empiricism, is wholly unscientific, and has never\nyet resulted in anything but confusion and in laying a foundation for\nbelief, conjecture, theory, dogma, superstition, and fear.\n\nThe step of next importance, both in the scientific study of psychology\nand in individual progress and evolution, is the mental attitude of the\nindividual; his point of view; his open-mindedness and utter refusal to\n_pre_judge anything. He will often say, \"I do not know.\" He will sometimes\nsay, \"I do not care.\" That phase or presentation does not appeal to, nor\ninterest him.\n\nThis is what the Vedic philosophers called, \"making the mind _one\npointed_\" and like a search-light, with the ability to concentrate it on a\ngiven point or subject.\n\nBias, prejudice, preconceived opinion, credulity and incredulity, are all\nlike a crooked lens to the eye of the mind, or to the perception of the\nsimple truth.\n\nNot only are these principles basic in the scientific study of psychology\nand the evolution of the individual intelligence, but their neglect and\noversight are solely responsible for the confusion everywhere manifest on\nthe subject, as well as for _every form of subjective control_,\nmediumship, psychical epidemics, and obsession, and they enter into every\nform and phase of insanity.\n\nIf this be true, and it is readily demonstrable, what subject is of equal\nimportance; and what facts and considerations are so transcendent as\nthese?\n\nThe difference is that between a mad-house with its frenzied and\nfrightened mob of helpless victims, and a palace of the gods in which\ndwelleth Righteousness, Love, Peace, and Eternal Joy.\n\nIs it not _worth while_?\n\nThis Modulus and Theorem of the School of Natural Science involve\nReligion, Regeneration, Redemption, and the well-being of Souls here and\nhereafter.\n\nThey separate Religion from Superstition, Duty from Dogma, cast out Fear,\nrelease the wings of aspiration and faith; and where \"the mourners went\nabout the streets\" is heard a new song of rejoicing that binds up the\nwounds and sorrows of the brokenhearted.\n\nAgain I ask, \"Is it not worth while?\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nEMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE\n\n\nLet us bear in mind that man _is_ an Individual Intelligence; that this\ninvolves self-consciousness, or awareness of Self, the innate ability to\ndistinguish between the Self and the non-Self. Hence arises the power of\nchoice, discernment, or discrimination.\n\nThere also arises the impulse to _act_, or the Initiative, called the\nWill. This also involves the power of restraint, the act or the refraining\nfrom action.\n\nThis action, under the basic endowment--intelligence--is called _Rational\nVolition_.\n\nThere is thus, Intelligence; the Power to choose; the power to act and the\nadaptation of acts or restraints to ends, or to desired objects or\nresults.\n\nExperience teaches the individual, thus endowed, that he is responsible\nfor all he thinks, feels, acts and does; and this, under his endowment of\nIntelligence, is what we call _Conscience_.\n\nWe are not building up a theory, but simply analyzing psychological facts,\ndemonstrated as true in the experience of every intelligent individual.\nJust as the chemist analyzes a compound he finds in his laboratory.\n\nOur _Modulus_ is the Perfect Man. Our _Theorem_ is the method of use that,\nby experience and observation everywhere, has been demonstrated as\nConstructive, enabling the Individual to build toward, and to realize the\nModulus.\n\nThe power to discriminate, choose and act, when normally exercised,\nimplies judgment and understanding.\n\nHence, we have perception, rational choice, intelligent action and desired\nresults, for which we recognize our personal responsibility. Hence arise\nour ability and necessity to _review_ our actions, motives, aims and their\nresults, and to pass judgment upon them in the Light of Conscience\n(Con-Science, to know the Self) to pass judgment upon ourselves as to\nmotives, aims, results, and consequences.\n\nThe Brain is a center of consciousness with avenues of perception and\nimpulse and departments that by aggregation, separation or association,\nenable the Individual Intelligence to determine the relation in time, or\nduration, force and orderly relation of perceptions, desires, motives,\nactions (or thoughts and feelings) as to sequence or results.\n\nThis whole conscious realm is the Mind. It is the _inner chamber_ of the\n_Soul_. It is in no sense an entity. The actor, the real entity, is the\nIndividual Intelligence.\n\nTo say, therefore, that \"Man is all mind,\" or that the mind does this, or\nthat, is simply nonsense. It is like saying that the little room in which\nI am now writing, with its books and pictures, with my thoughts, feelings,\nemotions, and magnetism, is _I_! Perhaps it is _like_ me, or _full_ of me,\nbut _I_ am something _else_ and something _more_.\n\nLet us get rid of this \"confusion of tongues\"; this \"babel of Psychology\";\n\"New Thought\" (as old as man); \"Metaphysics\"; \"Christian Science\" _et hoc\ngenus omne_, and come down to common sense and the facts of nature. The\naim and the results along these lines are often good and helpful; then why\nclothe them in the garb of absurdities?\n\nRecognize the facts, and express them intelligently, and they may do ten\ntimes more good, for then we could understand them. They are, one and all,\na weak dilution of the old Hindoo Yoga, thrashed over there for thousands\nof years; straining after _results_, while ignorant of, or ignoring _basic\nprinciples_.\n\nAside from the \"Eight Systems of Philosophy\" now recognized in India,\nthere are hundreds of varieties and classes of _Yogis_.\n\n\"To acquire powers\" is one thing; self-mastery and self-knowledge are\nquite another. Thus the one is often distorted and always transient; the\nother constructive, regenerative, and enduring.\n\nTo illustrate by contrast what Constructive Psychology, or the building of\ncharacter, _is not_, we may now take some of the forms of diseased action\nknown to all time, occurring in individuals and in epidemics, and which\nto-day fill our Insane Asylums with \"Incurables.\"\n\nThe point of first importance in all these cases, is the _lack_ of\nself-control. Weakness, aberration or disease of the Will. The Individual\nIntelligence fails to exercise its divine prerogative and be _Master_ in\nand of its _own house_.\n\nIn the place of this control, sensations, feelings, emotions, desires,\nappetites, passions, and ambitions run riot. The _Servants_ of the Master\nwar among themselves, quarrel with each other, bind the Master hand and\nfoot, wreck the furniture, and at last destroy the house. The Master has\nbecome the victim and at last the slave of his own servants. His Will is\nin abeyance; his perceptions distorted; his feelings and emotions\naggravated; his \"Reason Dethroned\"; his judgment impaired; he has an\n\"Unbalanced Mind.\"\n\nWhat is here needed but _Christos_ in the Temple, \"turning over the tables\nof the money-changers and the seats of them that sold doves,\" and\nrestoring the High-Priest in the Holy Temple--the Human Soul, viz.: the\nintelligent Will of Man, determined to govern his own house, and\nresponsible for results?\n\nIn place of Rational Volition, clear, just and true perceptions, sound\njudgment and clear understanding, we have \"Illusions,\" \"Hallucinations\"\nand \"Delusions.\" In other words, the Individual is _Insane_!\n\nIt all goes deeper than the _Mind_; the Soul, the Individual Intelligence\nis dethroned in his own Kingdom; Body, Mind, and Soul are out of joint.\n\nNot only does this condition exist without being recognized; not only just\nhere lies the whole secret and field of _Education_ in child, woman and\nman, but so ignorant are thousands as to these patent facts and basic\nprinciples, that they covet and strive after this confusion, this\ndevolution, in the vain search for knowledge, light, and truth.\n\nThese are the office, the function and the result to the subject (or\nvictim) of Mediumship and Hypnotism. They yield the Will, the mastery of\ntheir own house, to another.\n\nThe servants may be tractable for a while, but an _alien_ is seated upon\nthe throne, and the Master is no longer King in his own realm.\n\nOthers may indeed learn something from his undoing, from the crimes\ncommitted upon him, just as we learn from criminals how we _ought not_ to\nlive.\n\nWhether ignorantly, voluntarily, by persuasion, or by force of a stronger\nwill, the medium and the hypnotic subject are victims either of ignorance\nor of design, to their own undoing.\n\nThese psychical experiences have been found in all ages and among every\npeople of whom we have any valid history, from the red Indians of the\nNorth to the Voodoos of Africa, and from the Hill Tribes of India to the\nearliest Scandinavian Tribes and the islands of the sea.\n\nAs civilizations advanced, the more intelligent and unscrupulous\nindividuals, ambitious of knowledge or power, regardless of the rights or\nwell-being of others, and discovering these powers, exercised them for\ntheir own aggrandizement. This has been known through the ages as _Black\nMagic_, and is laughed at to-day by so-called \"Scientists\" as \"nothing but\nthe fears, credulity, and superstitions of the ignorant multitude.\" This\nwas the core of Egyptian Paganism, and is the very genius of Clericalism\nto-day--the domination of the Individual Will, through superstition and\nfear.\n\nOwing to seismic and cataclysmic shocks, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves,\nand great epidemics of disease, whole peoples have been dominated by fear\nor frenzied by superstitious dread, so that whole villages and cities\nbecame literally \"mad-houses,\" and were often depopulated.\n\nRead the story of \"Peter, the Hermit,\" and \"The Crusades,\" the \"Black\nDeath,\" the \"Great Plague\" that swept over Europe in the Thirteenth\ncentury; or that of the \"Flagellants,\" and the \"Dancing Mania,\" where\nwhole villages became \"Dancing Dervishes,\" samples of which may\noccasionally be found to-day in the cities of America, the \"Yogis\" that\nare \"Buddhas\" or \"Christs\" in New York, and the Dowies that were \"Elijahs\"\nin Chicago, the Genius of Point Loma, Obispo, Santa Rosa, \"Oahspe,\"\n\"Solar-Biology,\" and again, _et hoc genus omne_! Verily! \"there is nothing\nnew under the sun.\"\n\nContrast these individuals with an individual of sound mind, good\njudgment, and a well-ordered life, and see how and where and why the wreck\ninevitably follows.\n\nThe pressure outside changes continually, and these things spread and grow\nlike all contagions. Nature at times seems wrathful and destructive, and\nthere are, no doubt, deep-seated conditions and changes in the magnetism\nof the earth and air, not yet comprehended by modern science.\n\nIn stamping out contagious and epidemic disease, simple cleanliness has\nbeen like a revelation from the gods, and modern surgery has only stopped\nshort of the miraculous.\n\nSociety is but the aggregation of individuals, and on the one principle of\n_Self-Control_ every individual is related to the negative or the positive\nside of psychical and physical epidemics.\n\nThere is scarcely an avenue along these lines that has not been more or\nless explored by modern science.\n\nThat knowledge is still incomplete; that mistakes have been made; that\nmatters have been contemptuously set aside, belittled, or declared to be\nnot worth investigation, was to have been expected. But the progress has\nbeen immense, and the light shines on many obscure and difficult problems,\nwhere before was the utter darkness of superstition and fear, dirt,\ndegradation, and death.\n\nThese phenomena manifest on the physical plane, disturb the social state,\nand the relations of individuals to each other. They concern the\nenvironment of man in a world of matter, sense, and time.\n\nBut the Individual Intelligence, which is Man, lives also in another\nworld, related to, but within, around, and beyond the physical.\n\nMan senses or feels it as anterior to birth and extending beyond death. He\ncalls it the subjective or Spiritual World.\n\nThe realm of his consciousness is related to it, as the body is related to\nthe physical plane and the things of sense and time. His consciousness\nseems _aware_ of both planes or both worlds, though ignorant of the real\nnature and meaning of both, and capable of interpreting neither\ncorrectly.\n\nMan feels his way through the life on the outer plane guided by his\nexperience of weight, measure, distance, resistance, and the like.\n\nThe other world--the inner, or subjective--seems distant, evasive, and\nunreal, and in contemplating it he is filled with uncertainty, dread,\nfear, and superstition.\n\nOur friends die and disappear; we miss them, and mourn for them. Where are\nthey? What will become of us when we die? Shall we ever meet them again?\n\nPassing by religion and revelation, as we are dealing with facts and\nphenomena in the natural life of man, rather than with creeds and dogmas\nthat undertake to cut the \"Gordian Knot,\" these questions stare everyone\nin the face, and in every age man has tried to solve them by actual\nknowledge.\n\nBelief in ghosts, angels and demons is practically universal; and just\nhere comes in the whole range of psychical phenomena, facts and fantasies,\nillusions, hallucinations and delusions, rational volition, reason\ndethroned, and the Will in Subjection, already referred to.\n\nAs individual experiences, subjective or objective, all are real. The fear\nincited by illusions and hallucination, or by \"seeing a ghost,\" regardless\nof the fact of its actual existence, is as real to the individual as that\nof meeting a serpent in the grass, or a tiger in the jungle.\n\nSoothsayers, diviners, prophets, mediums, conjurers, and seers\nconsequently have been found in every age and among every people.\nIgnorance, fear, dread of death, desire to know, have always provided them\nwith patrons, followers, or disciples.\n\nThey have often reaped a rich harvest, and not unfrequently dominated a\nrace or a people, as the Papacy does to-day.\n\nWhere they have failed to create belief, they have often triumphed through\nfear and anathema, and often supplemented these weapons by persecution,\nimprisonment, torture, and death, and so held sway.\n\nRevelation begs the question; dogma forces the conclusion; and both\ndominate the soul without convincing and without _knowledge_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nMEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS\n\n\nInto this arena of the inquiring soul of man, came Modern Spiritualism.\n\nIt contained little or nothing new, as to methods, aims, or results.\n\nThe Church, Protestant and Catholic alike, uttered their warnings, called\nit \"dealings with the devil,\" but divested of political authority and\nwithout power to arrest or persecute, as in the past, were unable to stay\nthe tide. It swept the country like a whirlwind. The average individual,\ndesiring to know and to get tidings from departed friends, was\nunrestrained and unterrified.\n\nHe could not see why, if the gates were really ajar, angels might not\ncommunicate, no less than devils.\n\nThen came the cry of \"fraud,\" often amply justified, and a cloud of\nuncertainty and unreliability settled over the phenomena generally.\nUnscrupulous men and women seeing their opportunity, sophisticated and\nexploited it, and \"exposures\" of these became common.\n\nBut in spite of all this, there remained facts, and groups of phenomena\nimpossible to explain away.\n\nFinally, men like Crookes and Wallace took up the subject and investigated\nthe phenomena, not from the emotional, expectant, or fraternal aspect, but\nfrom the purely scientific, and rendered their verdict, which, though\nfrequently ignored or treated with contempt, remains practically\nunaltered.\n\nThousands became convinced of the _fact_ of life beyond the grave, and at\nthe same time of the unreliability of many so-called \"communications.\"\nFinally the \"Society for Psychical Research\" was formed; phenomena were\nsearchingly examined, verified, and recorded as a basis for further\nresearch.\n\nThe posthumous work of F. W. H. Myers, \"Human Personality and its Survival\nof Bodily Death,\" added to the Society's records and many other\npublications a record of verified facts in psychic phenomena such as never\nbefore existed, and which nothing short of a cataclysm can destroy.\n\nIn the meantime, the \"dark circle\" went into desuetude, and Spiritualism,\nas a cult, declined. Accepting the broad conclusion of a life after death,\nand with no very clear demonstration as to exactly where, or how, the case\nrested largely.\n\nThe reason for this obscurity was to be found in the absence of clear\nconceptions as to the nature of the human soul, and what life on the\nspiritual plane really signifies.\n\nIn other words, the foundation was laid empirically to await\nclassification and conclusions in a comprehensive Philosophy of\nPsychology, consistent with a science of the soul; and there it remains\nto-day with the average individual, and the average man of physical or\npsychical science.\n\nReturning now from this brief excursion into the social status, to the\nproblem as related to the mental, moral, and physical health of\nindividuals, and bearing in mind our Modulus of Man, and Theorem of\nConstructive Psychology, we find the annals of Spiritualism, Mediumship,\nor subjective control, of exceeding importance.\n\nAnother plane of life exists. Individuals on either plane communicate with\nthe controlling entity on the supra-physical plane.\n\nThe Medium is invariably subjective and controlled. He has no choice of\ncontrols, and often no knowledge (never reliable knowledge) as to who or\nwhat controls him. He is sometimes informed by his \"guide\" as to the\ncontrol's identity, and learns, often, that he and his circle have been\ndeceived by ignorant or \"lying spirits.\"\n\nThe whole process reverses our Modulus and Theorem of Constructive\nPsychology, the building of character and normal evolution.\n\nThe most important consideration at this point is its relation to the\nsanity of individuals.\n\nThere are thousands of individuals to-day, who, failing in rational\nvolition, or self-control, are controlled by entities on the subjective\nplane. They are _obsessed_.\n\nThis subjective control without the knowledge or consent of the victim,\nand unrecognized and generally called \"absurd\" by \"Alienists\" and\n\"experts,\" constitutes a very large per cent, of the insane to-day, and\nbecause ignored or unrecognized, these cases are classed as \"Incurable.\"\n\nIt should be remembered that the annals of Spiritualism, and the records\nof scientific Psychical Research, have _demonstrated_ the possibility and\nthe _fact_ of such control. It should also be remembered that the average\n\"expert alienist\" is guided solely by results of such obsession, where it\noccurs; that he is blind to causes, liable to exclude or taboo obsession,\nand therefore largely liable to err.\n\nIn other words, he is prejudiced; and his bias and incredulity blind him\nto the facts and to the real causes.\n\nHe could hardly be expected to make the obsession _let go_, while denying\nthat it exists. But he _might_ help the victim gain _Self-control_ if he\nbut recognized the facts and knew how.\n\nRealizing the fact of the connection of the two worlds, the physical and\nthe spiritual, and communication between them in the subjective or\nirresponsible way, the question naturally arises, \"Is there not another\nway of communication? May not the Individual Intelligence on the physical\nplane communicate with the denizens of the spiritual plane _at his own\nvolition, independently_? May he not learn to see and hear them without\nattempting, or desiring to _control_ them, more than he does his\nassociates, his friends and neighbors on the physical plane, or allowing\nthem to control him?\"\n\nIs it not purely a question of _fact_, and of scientific demonstration, to\nbe determined by experiment?\n\nThis question leads us to another phase of psychology and the records of\nthe past. There have been Seers, Clairvoyants, and Clairaudiants in all\nages.\n\nUnlike the psychical phenomena already referred to,--and belonging to the\npositive and initiative, rather than the negative and subjective side of\nthe psychical equation,--these seers have been fewer in number, and are\nalways individuals showing a high degree of self-control, and of\nintellectual and moral evolution.\n\nAdmitting the general propositions involved, it can readily be seen that\nthis must be so from the very nature of the case. The Masters of mankind,\nin any and all directions have been few. The slaves, through ignorance,\nsuperstition and fear, have been legions. Those who have gained habitual\nself-control, and finally self-mastery, knowledge and power, have been\nfew; while the majority have been controlled by their own appetites and\npassions, and by other individuals.\n\nThis self-mastery and higher evolution also includes another element\nbeside strength of character, and that is, Refinement.\n\nIn other words; it is, from first to last, a journey from the gross and\nsensuous physical plane, toward the refined and spiritual plane, involving\nall the faculties, capacities, and powers, feelings, sensations, emotions,\nintuitions, and aspirations of man. It is, in short, a normal, higher\nevolution.\n\nAll the elements of this higher evolution are basic and innate in the\noriginal endowment of man. By exercise, the latent faculties, capacities\nand powers grow, expand, and develop. Self-control, rational volition, and\nthe sense of personal responsibility, (conscience) make the evolution\nconformatory to the Modulus--the Perfect Man.\n\nAs this human being, dwelling on the physical plane, _e_volves, the\nspiritual faculties of the Divine Man are _in_volved from the spiritual\nplane. When this simultaneous and co-ordinate development is complete, the\nHuman and the Divine are _at-one_ in the Individual.\n\nThis at-one-ment is the exact opposite of \"vicarious.\" It is the result of\npersonal effort and self-mastery.\n\nThe dogma of the church has so completely sophisticated it as to turn\nnormal evolution into _devolution_; and, so far as it has any effect, or\nis operative at all, to turn man backward toward the animal, instead of\nupward toward the Divine.\n\nSeership and Spiritual powers, therefore, as the result of \"Living the\nLife,\" are _Evolutionary_. Mediumship, subjective control, and obsession\nin any form, or in whatsoever degree, are _Devolutionary_.\n\nProgress along either line may be very slow, but the trend is as opposite\nas is the East from the West, as Light from Darkness, as Good from Evil.\n\nBy classifying these powers of man and psychical phenomena to which they\ngive rise, whether in the conscious, inner realm, in functions of the\nbodily organism, or observable to others, we are able to assign each to\nits proper class with considerable accuracy.\n\nBoth evolutionary and devolutionary progress, with the ordinary\nindividual, are slow processes. Seldom is either process a designed and\nstraightforward climbing, or a quick descent \"into the dark abyss.\"\n\nConsequently, as the human race evolves as a whole, relatively more and\nmore individuals are found who \"get flashes\" of sight or sound, more or\nless from the subjective or spiritual plane of being. There are\nintuitions, \"warnings,\" and premonitions of coming events. Some seek and\ncultivate, others fear and avoid them.\n\nThey are mostly on the \"border-land,\" if not on the \"ragged-edge\" of\ninsanity. It is only necessary to further weaken the will, or to indulge\nthe passions and emotions, in order to decide the matter, derange the\nmind, and send the individual to an asylum.\n\nOn the other hand, with individuals who lead a clean, cheerful,\nwell-ordered life, these experiences may mean encouragement, confirmation,\nand progress toward the spiritual realm of being. They should be observed\ncarefully, but not _cultivated_. They may serve as guide-posts and as mere\nincidents of a day's journey.\n\nThe average popular cult to-day, as often in the past, where psychical\nphenomena are involved, results in converting the normal mental realm, the\nrealm of normal self-consciousness, into a vaudeville performance; a mere\n\"Variety Show,\" where all due sense of proportion and relation is lost.\n\nIn place of the normal Individual Intelligence, sitting serenely on the\nthrone of life and ruling his Kingdom with justice, wisdom and paternal\nlove, the king joins the melee of acrobats and dancing girls, encourages\nthe orchestra till, in a pandemonium of revelry, he puts out the lights,\nor in wild frenzy fires the building.\n\nSometimes it claims to \"command success\" by _demanding_ it; or wealth\nwithout earning it; or health without regard to hygienic law; or by\n\"taking a Mantram\" to open the gates of heaven. Or again, by servile\nobedience to the freaks or dogmas of a \"Leader\" or \"Official Head\" and\nadulation _ad nauseam_, to gain admission to the \"Elect.\"\n\nOne and all of these, from first to last, tend toward Devolution. They are\ndestructive, not constructive, in building character and true manhood and\nwomanhood.\n\nAgain, the Monk or the devotee abandons society, becomes a recluse, flees\ninto the desert or the mountain, subsists upon roots or herbs, sits in one\nposture till the joints of the body become fixed, holds the arms above the\nhead till they become immovable, and the finger nails _turn and grow\nthrough the palms of the hands_; or sits gazing at the navel and repeating\nthe word _Om_.\n\nIndeed, it would seem that the ways and means to stop normal growth,\nconstructive evolution and healthy living, had been well-nigh exhausted.\n\nThe enthusiast, the fanatic and the \"easy mark\" of to-day are seldom aware\nof any of these things, and so they are bled, fleeced, and exploited\naccordingly. \"All is Mind!\" \"Great is Elijah!\" or \"Mrs.\" Elijah, and\nOahspe is his Prophet! while Babel reigns in the place of Natural\nScience.\n\nThe Theosophical Movement inaugurated in this country by H. P. Blavatsky\nin 1875, differed essentially and radically from all others; first, in\nplacing ethics as the first stone in the foundation of a real knowledge of\nthe nature of man. Its objects as concisely stated at the time were--\n\nFirst: To establish a _nucleus_ for a Universal Brotherhood of Man.\n\nSecond: To study ancient religions, philosophies and sciences, and\ndetermine their relations and values.\n\nThird: To investigate the Psychical Powers latent in Man.\n\nHospitality to Truth from any source and under any name, was\ncharacteristic of the movement during the entire lifetime of the\nFounders.\n\nDogma was eliminated, Authority beyond facts and demonstrated truth\ndenied, and Superstition regarded as only another name for ignorance.\n\nWhile the facts and the demonstrations of Science were recognized, and\ngiven the largest hospitality, nevertheless, the \"Secret Doctrine\" and, in\na broad sense, the whole movement was an effort to present to modern\ntimes, and particularly to the Western world, the most ancient and pure\nphilosophy of old India, the _Vedanta_ or \"Wisdom-Religion.\"\n\nAn immense work of rejuvenation has gone on in India, particularly in the\nestablishment and maintenance of Schools for Girls, and in the relief of\npoverty and discouragement of the teeming millions.\n\nAn immense literature was created, not yet appreciated, except by students\nhere and there, who found light, explanation, and encouragement in their\nstudies of the mysteries of Nature and of life.\n\nSince the death of the founders of the Society, in this country at least,\nonly a few branches and fragments of the original organization now\nremain.\n\n\"Leaders\" and \"Official Heads\" often wholly ignorant of the Philosophy,\nwhich colossal egotism and exploitation could hardly supply, have brought\nthe very names \"Theosophy\" and \"Brotherhood\" into contempt and ridicule in\nmany sections.\n\nAs some of these \"official heads\" are still in evidence, final results\ncannot now be formulated, and need not be here considered or forecast. The\nevidence is not all in.\n\nPersonally, I desire to record my great indebtedness and highest\nappreciation of a noble life and a magnificent work accomplished by one of\nthe most remarkable and unselfish women known to history, and for the\nlight and knowledge which she made accessible, and which I still hold,\npractically unchanged, but with the theorems of Natural Science, in place\nof the postulates of Philosophy as better fitting \"the progressive\nintelligence\" of the present time.\n\nThe two lines of presentation when clearly apprehended are not\nantagonistic, but supplementary. Their aims and purpose are the same.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE MEASURE OF VALUES\n\n\nThis is a very utilitarian age. Start almost any subject, propose almost\nany scheme, adventure, or investment, and the question is asked, \"Will it\npay?\" The multitude are cautious; the lower stratum, the unsuccessful--the\npoor and the oppressed--are envious and often bitter and resentful; the\nsuccessful are often reckless, dissipated, and proud.\n\nI am not writing an essay on Economics, but on Ethics and Psychology; on\nthe character, value, and use of the resources _within_ ourselves; our\n_real possessions_. Here only may be found _actual values_.\n\nI am not considering the \"hereafter,\" as to \"rewards and punishments\";\nwhat gods, devils, angels, or men may do _to us_, here or hereafter; but\nwhat we may (if we choose) do _for ourselves_.\n\nThis question is practical to the last degree. Put the question, \"does it\npay?\" and I answer: It pays like nothing else on earth; it is the only\nthing that is independent of time, place, or circumstance.\n\nIt concerns man's _actual possessions_, of which nothing in \"the three\nworlds\" can ever dispossess him. I know of nothing so beneficent, in any\nconcept of God or Nature, Providence or Destiny, as this birthright and\nopportunity of man, to build character, and _be_ what he chooses to be.\n\nHe who knows his power, realizes his opportunity and utilizes his\nresources, may build a Palace of the Soul, in which he may dwell,\nliterally, in a \"kingdom of heaven.\" And because God is the Architect, and\nMan the Contractor and Builder, working strictly to the \"plans\" and the\ndesigns, \"that house shall stand.\" It is founded on the \"Rock of Ages.\"\n\nDid anyone ever know or see a noble character that was not built by the\nIndividual himself, by personal effort, by self-control, by self-denial,\nby justice and kindness to others; often in the face of Poverty; often in\nspite of wealth; often in the face of sickness, pain and deformity;\nperhaps deaf and dumb and blind; and yet, like Helen Keller, the soul\ntriumphant and glorified?\n\nTo-day, as I write, I went to the Crematory to see the dissolution of a\npoor, twisted, deformed, and tortured body of a woman past fifty, in which\nhad dwelt a soul so serene, cheerful, and patient, that the beatitudes\nclustered around her, like doves in a garden of roses. It required no\nstretch of the imagination to determine what society she had entered.\n\"Like seeks like,\" and each \"goes to his own place.\" Her motive, the\nday-star of her life, was the Mother-Love for an only son. In spite of\npoverty and pain, she must reward him for love and loyalty, by being\nbright and cheerful and by belittling her own discomfort to save him\nsorrow.\n\nHer reward was the growth of the soul that has now risen to its great\nreward, and dearer and sweeter than all this to the Mother-heart, was to\nsee and realize the growth, the tenderness, and the beautifying of the\nsoul of the Son.\n\nDid it pay? I can almost hear her shouting for joy as she joins the anthem\nof the Invisible Choir of Helpers that welcome her just over the border.\nShe prayed many times, even the last time I saw her, before the great\nchange, \"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.\" I could only say,\n\"Wait just a little longer,\" with the assurance that every shadow of\ndarkness shall be transformed into dazzling light, and every drop of\nbitterness into the nectar of the Gods. She was almost deaf and blind, but\nyou should have heard the sweetness in her voice and seen the radiance in\nher face. I did not know that the end was so near.\n\nTo the son, the sweetest sound on earth was that mother's voice, but,\nthough silent for a thousand years, he would not recall her to one moment\nof the old torture. His sorrow for _himself_ is swallowed up and glorified\nin his joy for her release.\n\nAnd what is all this but a lesson in practical psychology, the growth of\nthe soul?\n\nDoes it pay? Ask that Mother; ask that Son now. \"How do you know?\" How do\nyou know anything, except as you see, or experience it?\n\nCharacter reveals itself. It cannot long hide itself. When the check goes\nto the bank the resources are there. The Bank of God, and of Nature, and\nof Compensation, and Eternal Justice, cannot fail. Its resources are\ninfinite.\n\nIndependent of time, place, or circumstance, I said: Intrinsic,\nInalienable.\n\nTake another illustration almost at random. A cultured soul, winning its\nway alone, and at great disadvantage.\n\nIn the middle of the tenth century lived Farabi, or Alfarabi. He did not\nconfine himself to the Koran, but fathomed the most useful and interesting\nsciences. He visited Sifah Doulet, the Sultan of Syria. The Sultan was\nsurrounded by the learned who were conversing with him on the sciences.\n\nFarabi entered the salon where they were assembled and remained standing\ntill the Emperor desired that he should be seated; at which the\nphilosopher, by a freedom rather astonishing, went and sat on the end of\nthe Sultan's sofa. The Prince, surprised at his boldness, called one of\nhis officers and commanded him, in a tongue not generally known, to put\nout the intruder. The philosopher heard him, and replied in the same\ntongue, \"O Signor! he who acts so hastily is subject to repent.\" The\nPrince was no less astonished by his reply than by his manner and\nassurance.\n\nWishing to know more of him, he began a conference among his philosophers,\nin which Farabi disputed with so much eloquence and energy that he reduced\nall the doctors to silence. Then the Sultan ordered music, and when the\nmusicians entered, Farabi accompanied them upon the lute with so much\ndelicacy as to win the admiration of all present. He then drew out, at the\nSultan's request, a piece of his own composition, and sang it with his own\naccompaniment, and had the audience first in laughter, and then in\ntears--and to complete his Magic, changed to another piece and put them\nall asleep.\n\nThe Sultan in vain urged Farabi to remain near his person, and offered him\na high position in his household.\n\nVoluminous writings of Farabi are preserved in the library at Leyden.\n\n\"A tale of the Arabian Nights,\" you may say, and yet it is historic. It\nreveals the fact that resources, character, and wisdom, in the end triumph\nand surmount all obstacles. They are intrinsic and permanent values.\n\nThey may remain unknown or unappreciated by others, but they are none the\nless riches to him who possesses them.\n\nIt was during this same tenth century in which Alfarabi lived, that there\nexisted at Baghdad a Society composed of Mohammedans, Jews, Christians,\nand Atheists, for the purpose of Philosophical discussions and scientific\ninvestigation; and it was doubtless under this influence that Alfarabi was\neducated and enabled to cope with the philosophers of the world. Here in\nArabia was the highest culture known at the time, in Medicine and all the\nArts and Sciences, while the Ecclesiastics were inaugurating the dark ages\nelsewhere, to eventually spread over the whole of Europe.\n\nHere and there have always appeared individuals superior to their age and\ntime; men who dug to the foundations of knowledge, built character,\naccumulated resources, and left their impress upon all subsequent time.\n\nNor has this accumulation of real knowledge been derived from books and\nschools, though these resources have not been neglected.\n\nReal culture of the Individual has always consisted in the realization of\nthe latent powers of man, in bringing these to light, in learning by\nexperience how to use them. Hence arise self-knowledge, self-control, and\na higher evolution.\n\nIt is not a mere technical, intellectual acquirement, the ability to\ndefine principles and formulate propositions. It rather consists in\ntesting them out in actual experience; first by self-analysis to become\nfamiliar with the real self, its capacities and powers, its motives and\naims in life; and having grasped and adjusted all these, then to start\nconsciously, deliberately, determinedly, and intelligently, on \"the road\nto the South,\" on the upward climb toward the Light.\n\n\"Possessions,\" with the great majority of individuals, mean something\noutward, in space and time; what we have, and, for the time hold, rather\nthan what we are. The average idea of enjoyment is something altogether\nsuperficial and transient. It is found, or supposed to be found, in\nvariety of sensations, emotions and feelings; in ringing the changes on\nthese, till vitality fails, disillusion or satiety supervenes, and old age\nor death closes the play. Often the appetite remains, when vitality fails,\nand Faust rejuvenated, would run the same gauntlet again. The pity of it\nis that thousands of these victims of either satiety or Tantalus seem\nnever to dream that there are other values, or anything else, or better,\nin life.\n\nAnd yet there is not one of these faculties, capacities and powers that is\nuseless, or, in itself, evil or degrading. They are, one and all,\nresources of the Individual Intelligence; tools for the day's work;\nmaterials for the building of the Temple; whereas, they most frequently\nare made the motive and the aim of life. They are means to a higher end,\nand not the end itself.\n\nWithout the latent passions, emotions, and feelings, man would be a mere\nmechanism. If all were mind, or mere intellect, there could be neither the\ncreation nor the appreciation of beauty. Every work of art would be\nsoulless; music might amuse the intellect by intricate chords and\nvariations, like a colorless kaleidoscope, but it could never touch the\nheart nor elevate the soul.\n\nMusic and art, in the highest sense, through consonant vibrations in us,\nopen the doors and windows of the soul, put us in touch and tune with the\nInfinite, and _then_, the real harmony begins. We live for the time in\nanother world and return with a sigh and recover the bated breath, as\nthough we had seen a vision beyond words. Music is an agent, a talisman, a\nmeans to an end. It strikes in us chords that lie at the foundation, the\ncombinations that unlock the doors, and the \"Imprisoned Splendor\" wings in\nand out like the doves of Hesperides.\n\nBlunt the passions, the feelings and the emotions by over-indulgence, by\nvice and dissipation, and the royal guests desert the banquet hall, the\ndoors of the soul creak on their hinges; and in place of the \"music of the\nspheres\" you have a devil's dance, and the orgies of despair!\n\n_Does it pay?_ It all depends on _use_. Here lie the resources, the real\npossessions of man. Here lies the \"Parable of the Talents.\"\n\nLook at the profusion, the prodigality, the beneficence of Nature, Flowers\nand Fruit, Beauty and Bloom and Fragrance everywhere. Where there is no\neye to see, no hand to pluck, Mother Nature delights in profusion,\nseemingly because she is made that way and cannot help it. And yet, in\nthis little Rose-garden of ours--the Human Soul -we tramp down the\nflowers, plant loathsome weeds and poisons that kill and degrade and besot\nus, set up the tables of the money-changers, drive out the doves of\nHesperides, and turn the temple into a shambles for wild beasts. \"Nothing\npays.\" \"Let us curse God and--die!\"\n\nIs there not something after all in the _Measure of Values_, and in the\ninexorable _Law of Use_?\n\nAnd who _constrains_ us but _ourselves_?\n\nCan God and Nature be so prodigal, noting even the sparrows fall, and yet\ndisregard the children of men?\n\nWhat our resources are we can never imagine till we draw upon and begin to\nutilize them as others have done throughout the ages.\n\nThe \"average sinner,\" seemingly to justify or excuse his own failure, will\nnot believe that any have ever achieved. _But there they stand_ all down\nthe ages! Ecclesiastics help the deception and keep up the illusion by\ncalling it _Miracle_ or \"Special Providence,\" and so prevent man from\nentering his birthright, _to possess it_; and so we sell our birthright\nfor a mess of pottage. It is like the dissipated, poverty-stricken\nspendthrift, who shuts his eyes and refuses to believe that any, by\nindustry, economy, integrity and hard work have secured a competency. And\nso he cries, \"Come on, boys! let's have another drink, and then rob this\nbond-holder, who has more than his share.\"\n\nThe Measure of Values, and the Law of Use _hold everywhere_, in every\ndepartment of human life; and the question, \"Does it pay?\" is practical\nand scientific to the last degree, and no one can answer but ourselves. As\nwe answer will be the results, and nothing but ourselves can change them.\n\nWe must realize that the human body, the organism of man, with all its\nfaculties, capacities and powers, is but an _instrument_ of the Individual\nIntelligence; and that every experience in life, every episode in our\ncareer, is like a day's work; perfecting the instrument for more and\nbetter work, if used rightly; till we advance from height to height of\nbeing; to larger and still larger and more glorious fields of work and\nexperience.\n\nThere would seem to be no limit to this evolution, this upward and onward\njourney of the human soul. The more good work done, the larger the\ncapacity and the broader the field opening before us. \"From height to\nheight the spirit walks.\"\n\nThe primary endowment of man is Life and conscious Intelligence, with the\npower to use both.\n\nThis would seem to be the only gratuity, and whether we regard it as a\nblessing or a curse, depends on how we regard and use them.\n\nThe great majority in all time, through ignorance or recklessness, seem to\nhave misused them.\n\nHence sickness, disease, deformity, and degradation.\n\nIt is a wonderful thing--this Law of Normal Use--from which health,\nharmony, comfort, joy, growth, and development result, while misuse and\nabuse degrade and destroy.\n\nDivinity seems to have put within the grasp of man's Intelligence (if he\n_chooses and wills_) an almost infinite range in power, variety and\napplication, of that subtle and basic Principle of affinity, balance and\nequilibrium, that unites the atoms in a molecule, or a chemical substance;\nthat law of attraction and repulsion--the Parallelogram of Force--that\nholds the planets in their orbits. Divinity seems to have taken man into\ncouncil and offered him, not only the Kingdom of Nature, but the royal\ndomain of his own soul, as a reward for co-operation and loyal service, on\ncondition that he shall use wisely, intelligently, loyally, and kindly,\nand not misuse or abuse.\n\nIs it _worth while_? Will it _pay_?\n\nNor is this all, beneficent as it seems. The whole journey of life on the\nphysical plane here below is so designed and planned as to make the\nnatural aging and decay of the physical body supplement, unfold and\ndevelop the Spiritual Body, through the right use of the faculties,\ncapacities, and powers of the Human Soul--the Individual Intelligence.\n\nThese are aspects, uses and powers of that subtle _something_ we call\n_Life_; that _Principle_ that\n\n          \"Runs through all time, extends through all extent,\n          Lives undivided, operates unspent.\"\n\nNormal use that insures growth and development, range and power of action,\nis also, from first to last, a _refining_ process; while misuse and abuse\nof these powers degrade and brutalize _inevitably_.\n\nIt follows, therefore, as the bodily structure and functions fail _under\nnormal use_ those of the spiritual body open, develop and unfold. First\nthe seed, then the plant, then the flower and finally the fruit \"of a\nwell-spent life.\"\n\nThere is no \"theory\" or \"guess-work\" about it. It becomes, step by step, a\nmatter of conscious, intelligent, individual experience. We know it just\nas we know that fire will burn or that we are here now, living, breathing,\nand acting.\n\nIf I thrust my finger into a flame, all the philosophers and\nmetaphysicians of the world could not \"argue\" me out of the experience of\nthe fact of \"burn\" and \"pain\"; nor could theologians succeed any better by\nquotations from Scripture! Man is so constituted that the _facts_ of\n_experience_ are stubborn things; and the more open to reason the\nindividual the more convincing the facts of experience. Ignorance,\nsuperstition, and fear recede in the presence of these Lights of man's\nintelligence, as do dogma and despotism, that seek to enslave the human\nsoul.\n\nTheologians tell us that it is exceeding dangerous to take all this\nresponsibility upon ourselves, thus appealing to ignorance, superstition,\nand fear.\n\nI would answer: I refuse to take the responsibility of _disregarding_ or\n_disobeying_ the Law which the Divine and Universal Intelligence has\nplaced at the _very foundation_ of man's being; and I am so _un_orthodox\nas to imagine and believe that God knew what he was about, even better\nthan the theologians, or the \"Infallible\" Italian who misinterprets God,\nNature, and Man.\n\nTo-day, as I write, \"God's Vicegerent\" is instigating and promoting a\n\"Holy War\" in Priest-ridden Spain, over the temporal power of the Vatican,\nangered to the point of murder over the \"posting of notices of places of\npublic worship,\" other than Catholic.\n\nThey would rather turn the world into one \"City of the Dead,\" than yield\n_one point_ of Freedom, Enlightenment, or Self-government to man.\n\nAnd men still call this _Religion_, and cast aside the crucifix for the\nsword, the gun and the firebrand. The _Inferno_ has never yet been\nportrayed or even outlined. Its name is Priestcraft and Intolerance under\nthe name of \"Religion.\"\n\nAnd is this a \"Study in Psychology\"? Yea, verily! Scientific Psychology is\nthe only thing that goes to the very bottom of it, and defines and\nclassifies every element, every fact in human experience. Man cannot build\na _home_ on a piece of ground where a slaughter-house disputes every\nsquare yard of ground with the tombstones of a graveyard. Clericalism is\never the one or the other, and frequently both; denying to man the right\nto build a _home_ for himself anywhere, except by its permission and\naccording to its plans and specifications, fixing the rent and the\nrevenues for all future time.\n\nThe Premier of Spain to-day is disputing this prerogative of Rome, and the\ngraveyard has been thrown open. The pity, the marvel of it all is, that\nthe people generally do not seem to care, and call any statement of facts\n\"sensational\" or \"panicky.\"\n\nI am told by some very good people that these references to Popery seem\nirrelevant, and by others, that they mar the symmetry of my essay.\n\nThey are reminded that we are dealing with real and permanent values, and\nwith what man may do and ought to do for himself.\n\nLying squarely across this upward pathway of man, to be pursued by free\nchoice and personal effort, is the dogma of the Vicarious Atonement and\nthe forgiveness of sin, of which \"His Holiness\" claims to hold the\n_exclusive agency_.\n\nThrough appeal to superstition and fear this preposterous and sacrilegious\nclaim to-day, as in all the past, paralyzes the will and discourages the\npersonal efforts of millions of men and women. Between that blind\ncredulity which makes personal effort unnecessary, and the miracle and\ndogma which make it seem useless, the upward and onward march of man is\nhindered or annulled, notwithstanding the fact that many men and women\nlead noble lives who are yet communicants of the Church, both Catholic and\nProtestant. True, they may, with little thinking, reason and reflection\nfrom early education and \"lip-service,\" give intellectual assent to these\ndogmas. But the lives they lead and the personal effort put forth prove\nthem \"better than their creeds.\" They say with the lips, \"Christ has\nforgiven us,\" or \"Jesus will save us,\" and while they are _saying_ these\nthings they _go to work saving themselves_ by \"leading the life\" through\npersonal effort and experience.\n\nIn other words, they \"save themselves\" in spite of their creeds and\nsuperstitions.\n\nIt is, therefore, with this exact \"measure of values,\" that we are\ndealing; and the necessity and value of these considerations are nowhere\nso plain to-day, or so imperative, as just here, in the face of these\ndemoralizing dogmas and pretensions of men, who contradict all natural law\nand steal unblushingly the prerogatives of God, as his \"Vicegerent.\" The\nmarvel of it is that it excites neither surprise nor protest, but is\ntreated with a smile of good-natured complacency outside its circle of\ndupes.\n\nHe who treats it seriously, as a thing that, more than any other,\ndemoralizes, discourages and paralyzes _millions_, is regarded as\n\"sensational,\" \"emotional,\" or an \"alarmist.\"\n\nIn the face of all the facts, of which the daily papers are full, and the\nrecord of the Vatican crowded, I prefer that my own arraignment _shall\nstand_. No one who knows half these facts can dispute or gainsay them. We\nare making history here to-day, as mankind has had to make it in all the\npast, in the face of these \"Lions in the path\" of civilization and\nprogress.\n\nIf I must choose between being superficial, ignorant and insincere, or\nbeing an \"alarmist,\" I certainly and unhesitatingly choose to be an\n_alarmist_! The strongest ally of Superstition to-day is credulity, or\nindifference. The average man says, \"I do not _believe_ there is any\ndanger\"; and if he \"spoke his heart\" would add, \"if there is, I do not\n_care_.\"\n\nI would only reply, \"If you mean to be honest, read, observe, and see.\"\nYou may wait too long. Spain and Portugal are just awakening from the\npriest-ridden lethargy of centuries, and are making history anew. May a\njust God and all the angels help and protect them.\n\nThe great daily newspapers of the country are very conservative wherever\nRome is concerned. She is too powerful and her resources too well\norganized and available to be disregarded.\n\nIt is therefore very significant that an editorial in one of the largest\nand most influential of these papers to-day gives a clear, concise, and\nimpartial epitome of the \"_Row in Spain_,\" clearly locating its cause and\nanimus in the Vatican, and showing how unbearable this tyranny and\nexploitation had become to a large portion of the people of Spain.\n\nI refer to this here for a special purpose, which involves and lies at the\nfoundation of all other issues and considerations. And that is the\nstatement in this editorial, that while the Church of Rome has held\npractically _undisputed sway_ in Spain _for centuries_, with immense\ntracts of land, houses and revenues, independent of civil authority, with\n20,000 priests, 5,000 communities with 60,000 inmates in a population of\nonly 20,000,000 of people--_Seventy per cent. of the people are entirely\nuneducated._ With every opportunity, plenty of time and almost boundless\nresources, _Rome has kept the people in ignorance, the easier to rob\nthem_; determined to _own_ the land, the resources, and the people--body\nand soul--as the _Autocrat_ of heaven and earth! A slavery in the name of\n\"Religion\" found nowhere else on earth to-day.\n\nSo much for Spain and the Vatican to-day. For the sequel, watch the daily\npapers.\n\nAnd what has this to do with America? With Psychology? With the Measure of\nValues?\n\nSimply this: Is anyone so dense as to suppose that the _Seventy per cent._\nof dense ignorance in Spain is an accident, or an oversight of the Vatican\nand its servants? There lie the \"policy\" and the secret of the power of\nRome.\n\nIn America our foundations, our bulwarks, and our hope and security of\nFreedom, Enlightenment, and Progress lie in our Free Public Schools. These\nRome hates, condemns as \"Godless,\" and would destroy if she could, as\ncontinually proved by the letters and edicts of the Popes.\n\nSeeing, however, that she cannot do this, and fearful of losing her hold\non her thirteen or fourteen million of communicants in America, she rushes\nthe building of Parochial Schools, and threatens her people with dire\npenalties who patronize any other. Since she cannot _prevent_ education\nhere, as in Spain, she must \"educate\" _in her own way_, in order to retain\nher power over the rising generation. The basis of this education are\nignorance, superstition, and fear; its crown, the slavery of conscience\nand the \"Dogma of Obedience.\" The brutality of Ignorance in Spain is the\nsophistry of Priestcraft under the name of \"Religion,\" in America.\n\nThe Genius of the Vatican is \"Infallibility.\" It not only never errs, but\nit never changes. It dons another mask, adopts another slogan, and is now\nengaged in a great crusade to _educate_!\n\nConstructive Psychology, the building of Individual Character, means the\n_precise opposite_ of every principle, proposition, and practice of\nPopery. I desire to make this plain and unmistakable.\n\nNothing on earth transcends in importance this basic, universal, and\n_eternal antithesis_. It marks and monuments, in all time, the _Parting of\nthe Ways_ between Good and Evil; between Liberty and Despotism; between\nLight and Darkness; between Evolution and Devolution; between \"Modernism\"\nand Paganism; between Civilization and the Dark Ages; between the \"Sermon\non the Mount\"--the Beatitudes, and the _Spanish Roman Vatican\nInquisition_!\n\nAnd this \"antithesis,\" this issue, is as imminent, as active, as burning\nin America to-day, as it is in Spain. It only faces different ways.\n\nSpain is _compelled_ to redeem her _past_; America to guard and protect\nher _future_.\n\nIt is, from first to last, a Psychological Problem.\n\nIt is an analysis by fire, in the crucible of fate and destiny, to\ndetermine _accurately_ the measure of values to the Individual, to\nSociety, and to Civilization.\n\nNo man, woman or child, no society, no civilization ever has, or ever can,\nescape this issue.\n\nIt is the design on the trestle-board of Time.\n\nIt is the Modulus of both God and Nature regarding Man.\n\nIt is the Theorem of Psychology.\n\nIt involves the Evolution and Destiny of the Human Soul.\n\nAs civilization in many places showed an advancing tendency from the\ndarkness, despotism and brutality of the Dark Ages, the \"Robber Barons\"\nbegan to disappear. Their slogan was, \"He may seize who hath the power and\nhe may hold who can.\" Serfdom also began slowly to recede. Popery and\nPriestcraft assumed the role of these Barons, changed the slogan from\nbrute force (reserving that for emergencies) to \"Divine Prerogative,\"\n\"Infallibility\" (later), and pagan mummeries in the name of \"Religion.\"\n\n_The result, to the common people, remained unchanged_ to the present\nday--poverty, ignorance, and oppression.\n\nPopery boasts that it never changes, never relents, nor forgives an enemy,\nnor forgets an injury, nor fails to \"get even,\" like any brute, whenever\nshe can. And this _Power_ is not only the assumed custodian of the\nreligion of Jesus, but stands in the place of it, as a substitute, and the\nworld tolerates it in the name of _Religion_!\n\nAs a problem in Psychology, we have been considering the nature, use, and\nmeasure of values of the resources, faculties, capacities, and powers of\nman as an Individual Intelligence.\n\nFacing opportunities, we have seen that there is a Law of Use and\nResponsibility which cannot be evaded.\n\nInstitutions and societies of men are, one and all, from first to last,\nunder the same law. It is simply an aggregate, into which not a new\nprinciple enters, nor one principle is changed. The recognized and\nscientifically determined value of man to himself, is the measure of his\nvalue to the State.\n\nThe reverse proposition is equally true.\n\nThe value of any Institution to the individual, or to the State, must be\nmeasured and determined in the same way and under the same law.\n\nIt may thus be seen that Institutions, like Popery, are deeply involved in\nthis Law of Use and Measure of Values. This is simply making use of, and\nputting in practice, these basic principles.\n\n_Of what use to man_, measured by these scientific standards of value, are\nPopery and Priestcraft?\n\nI answer unhesitatingly and unqualifiedly _An unmitigated Curse!_\n\nThis answer is justified by all history, and is as true and as exact\nto-day, up to the latest act and message from Rome, as it was during the\nhorrors of the Inquisition; and there are evidence and specific statements\nto show that Rome would re-establish the \"Holy Inquisition\" to-day, _if\nshe dared and had the power_.\n\nIt is this power, exercised through fear, on the basis of ignorance and\nsuperstition so instilled by what Popery calls \"Religious Education,\" that\nprevents the majority of fourteen millions in America to-day, as\neverywhere and in all time, from exercising their prerogative and doing\ntheir duty as _Individuals_.\n\nIs it not plain, therefore, how impossible it is to separate the\nIndividual and the Social status?\n\nPsychology and Sociology are departments of one Science, viz.: the Science\nof Man, Anthropology. Individuals and Institutions are under one law, one\nlaw of use, one measure of values.\n\nHe who ignores, evades, or belittles these plain issues and scientific\nprinciples, can settle with the law in his own time, though he cannot\nevade them always.\n\nNote.--During the last week of the year 1910, the daily papers announced\nthat before the beginning of 1911 _every Priest in the Diocese_ was\nrequired to take an oath to oppose and resist _Modernism_ and to _obey_ in\nall things the dictum and dogmas of His Holiness. As everyone knows that\nunder the term _Modernism_ is included all progress, investigation, and\ncivilization condemned by the Vatican, everything that even questions the\ndogmas and despotism of Rome, the meaning of this required _oath_ is\nplain.\n\nIt is doubtless renewed by reason of (among others) a book,--\"Letters to\nHis Holiness by a Modernist,\" which, written seemingly by a Priest, makes\nexceeding plain the meaning of Modernism and the relation of the Vatican\nthereto. The book marks an epoch in the close of the old year and the\nbeginning of the new, and Rome has acted accordingly. She can delay the\nstream of progress as she has always done, but she cannot turn it\nbackward. It will eventually overwhelm her.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nSUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS\n\n\nThe problem of the continued conscious life of man after the death of the\nphysical body, concerns the _where_ and the _how_, and does not, and need\nnot, concern us at all now. It is, literally, an \"after consideration.\"\n\nWho and what man is, here and now, is the real problem. Only when, or in\nthe degree in which, we master this problem, can we really know anything\ndefinitely of the other.\n\nThe complete separation of these two problems, and the exact definition\nand formulation of each, is the first step on the road to knowledge of the\nScience of the Soul.\n\nFor the time being, in the study of Psychology, \"other worldliness\" should\nbe absolutely abandoned.\n\nAlmost everyone finds it difficult to do this. Many find it impossible.\n\nThe fear and uncertainty with which almost everyone faces the inevitable,\nthe loss of friends, the broken lute, the empty chair, the lonely\nlife--all these make us cry out in anguish--_where_ and _how_ and _when_,\nand overlook the \"_what are we_?\"\n\nSo-called Religion in all time has almost hopelessly mixed and confused\nthese problems.\n\nThe various concepts and doctrines of rewards and punishments hereafter,\nhave put ulterior motives in the place of actual values, weakened the will\nand hindered man from doing his best.\n\nA still further confusion follows, in the measure of assets, that leads to\ntime-serving and false values.\n\nSatisfy the average individual that \"death ends all\" and he will cry, \"Let\nus eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die,\" notwithstanding the\nfact that he sees others who have \"gone the pace,\" realized only \"dust and\nashes,\" declared it \"all a mistake,\" and that if they had the chance they\nwould \"do it all the other way.\"\n\nRemember, we are dealing with _actual values_ here and now, divested of\nboth fear and anticipation of the hereafter.\n\nOn the other hand, who ever saw an individual die, who had led a clean,\nupright, kindly life, indulge in regret or remorse, or declare life a\ndisappointment or a failure?\n\nThe first is anchored to the physical plane by insatiate appetite and\npassion, or desire to reform, which might soon be forgotten.\n\nThe other has found sweetness and joy in life, in conscious growth, in\ndoing good; and his soul is illumined and transfigured as the body fails\nand he approaches another plane, and this often independent of any\nformulated religious belief.\n\nIt all depends on what the man is _within_ himself, his intrinsic\ncharacter, his _real self_; and no matter where he goes, that character,\nthat self, goes with him. It _is_ Himself.\n\nThe \"change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,\" is not in the _man_\nand cannot be. It is in the plane, or sphere, or world he inhabits, or to\nwhich he goes. It is a change of garments, of habitat, of houses in which\nwe live--if we live at all.\n\nThis much we _know_, and should not forget or confuse it. We know it, as\nwe know that \"twice two are four\"; that fire will burn, or that bodies,\nunsupported, fall to the ground. We know it from the fact of our own\nself-conscious identity. Radically or suddenly to change that essentially\nis to annihilate _us_.\n\nThe preacher says, \"Study the Bible.\" He might say, \"Study yourself!\" The\npreacher says, \"Look to Jesus.\" He might say, \"Look within!\" The preacher\nsays, \"Repent and pray.\" I would say, \"After an inventory of your inner\npossessions, clean up the house and _go to work_ to improve it in every\nway.\"\n\nWhen \"cleaning day\" is well under way, if the \"sure-enough\" preacher drops\nin, and you show him the house and what you are trying your best to do, he\nwill just start \"Old Hundred,\" and will be too happy for anything else.\n\nI am not criticising the preacher, nor opposing religion, but getting\nready for it, laying the foundation of Morals and the building of\ncharacter. \"Religion\" cannot do this. _You_ and _I_ have to do it, or it\nis never done.\n\nWithout this work of _ours_, religion is little more, or else, than\npassing emotion or lasting superstition, \"lip service,\" cant, hypocrisy,\nand then cold heartless dogmatism, a measure and jingling of words that\nnever touch the heart, but leave the individual ready to throw stones and\nlight brands of torture: a case-hardening of the affections and the\naspirations, that wraps the soul like the bandages of the mummied\nPharaohs, a mere petrifaction.\n\nWe know, or may know, as much actually and scientifically of the growth of\nthe soul as of the growth of the body. The average individual knows more\nof the soul than of the body, but his knowledge is in confusion. It is a\nmatter of hourly, daily, life-long, and changing _experience_. He knows\nlittle of physiology, except feelings, sensations, desires, and results.\nHow and why the mechanism of the body works he knows not.\n\nBody and soul are organically identified, intimately associated and\ninterwoven, and act and react on each other. They are functionally\nsynchronous in all movements. The analogies between them are numberless\nand easily traced.\n\nThe physician and physiologist does not stop to inquire, \"What _is_ Life\"\nand refuse to move till someone gives a satisfactory answer; yet he is\ndealing with Life in its numberless manifestations in the human, organism\ncontinually.\n\nBut this same physician is likely to debate and deny the existence of the\nSoul, demanding that you define and demonstrate it.\n\nThe term \"Individual Intelligence\" is as definite, specific, and\ndemonstrable in Psychology as the term \"Life\" in Physiology.\n\nWe are alive and we possess a certain degree or measure of intelligence.\nThese are facts in our conscious experience.\n\nWe may shape or mold our lives. We may do this according to our ideals, or\nwe may drift with the tides of circumstance, or of passion and caprice,\nand this is what most persons do.\n\nSo also with that intelligence which is the guiding light in our lives. It\nmay illumine our pathway, or it may flash and fitfully glare, with the\nshadows, rendering our pathway obscure and uncertain, illusory and\ndeceitful, or dangerous and fearful.\n\nThe soul is in the body; and this light of intelligence is in the soul,\nits center, its very essence.\n\nAll else in us, and round about us, is diversity and multiplicity. This\nlight of intelligence in us is _One_ and unchanging.\n\nOur experience in life, however varied and diversified, is co-ordinated\nand unified by this Intelligence in us. It is that which puts all our\nexperiences together and views them through a single lens. It stands by\nitself alone, and all else pays tribute to it.\n\nIt is the pronoun \"I\" and it stands for, speaks and acts for, all else in\nus.\n\nIt is not alone the only _unity_ in us, but it is that which unifies all\nthe rest, uses the \"possessive case,\" and may subordinate all else in us\nto its Will.\n\nDoes it, then, do violence to common sense and hourly experience, or is it\nany stretch of the imagination to speak of this unity as an entity, and\ncall it the human soul?\n\nIf we live after the change called death, in a spiritual world, in place\nof the physical we now inhabit, and with a spiritual or refined body to\ncorrespond with that plane of refined or etherialized substance, the\nIndividual Intelligence must function in that body and on that plane as it\ndoes now in the physical body on the physical plane.\n\nEither something very like this takes place, or we cease to exist as a\nself-conscious individual intelligence. There must remain and continue\nman's self-conscious identity.\n\nFurthermore, if this be true, the _real nature_ of this individual\nintelligence we call the _Self_, in the last analysis, is likely to be as\nmuch a mystery as ever. We may know _who we are_ without knowing _what it\nis_.\n\nNow the composite nature of man, as we know it, not only justifies all\nthese analogies, but seems to show that the modulus, the germ at least, of\nthe spiritual body exists now within the physical; that it does not\ndisintegrate when the physical body dies, but separates and coheres more\nclosely than ever; and is still inhabited or possessed by the individual\nintelligence.\n\nMoreover, it has often been seen by clairvoyants at the time of death,\nthus verifying the Biblical declaration, \"there is a natural (physical)\nbody, and there is a spiritual body.\"\n\nThe composite structures of man's organism above referred to are well\nknown. They are called \"systems.\" The bony or Osseous system, the muscular\nsystem, the circulatory system, the lymphatic system, and the two nervous\nsystems, serve as illustrations of the composite nature of man.\n\nAll of these \"systems\" more or less inter-penetrate and diffuse each\nother.\n\nThere is also a chemico-vital, kinetic, or magnetic body, diffused through\nand inter-penetrating all the rest. This gives the contrast between the\nliving organism (with the flush of health upon the cheek and the light of\nintelligence in the eyes), and a corpse.\n\nDeath is often instantaneous, while decomposition often waits for days.\n\nThere is a still further analogy regarding a single function, like a\nsensory or motor impulse, passing to or from the central brain, the organ\nof consciousness. The journey is one of relays and orderly sequences.\n\nThis is proven in a great variety of forms of paresis. I cannot, as an\nindividual intelligence, _directly_ move my hand any more than I can move\na mountain. I conceive the object or act and set the will in motion. The\nimpulse traverses the nerves, is transferred to the muscle, and then, when\nthe circuit is complete, _I_ move my hand.\n\nThe gap between my conscious intelligent wish and will, and my physical\nhand, is very great. One is metaphysical, the other physical. There is,\ntherefore, a point of correlation where the one is converted into the\nother.\n\nThe knowledge of these facts, and of this orderly sequence and\ncorrelation, constitutes the Science of pathology and enables us to locate\nthe lesion or disease. I cannot move my hand, and the pathologist locates\nthe \"short-circuit\" in brain, or nerve, or \"terminal plate,\" or muscle, as\nthe case may be.\n\nNow it is this _system_ of _composite systems_ that deserves special\nattention. We know that it exists as a series of relays and refining\nprocesses. In disease it is interrupted, or out of joint, or broken down.\n\nHealth means harmony, concord, rhythm between every part, and the power of\nthe one individual intelligence to use it all, to act or refrain from\naction, and to hold and maintain through all, repose, equilibrium, and\nself-mastery.\n\nThe physical body we know to be a thing of sense and time. We know its\nbeginning, its gestation, its entrance and exit on this material plane.\nIts secrets are all involved in the subtle relations it bears to the soul\nthat inhabits, unifies, and utilizes it.\n\nThe Individual Intelligence, Ego, Soul, or Entity, is as patent to us in\nour _awareness of self_ as is the body it inhabits. It is our _very self_.\nOur knowledge of it is a _direct personal experience_, so direct,\nimmediate, and constant that we overlook its significance.\n\nI can see no reason to imagine that a human being, passing from the\nearthly plane and consciously living on the spiritual plane and\nrecognizing itself as the same individual, would be any wiser as to the\nexact nature and origin of the Individual Intelligence than he is now;\nthough his field of vision and range of conscious experience had so\nimmeasurably increased and expanded.\n\nIf he had solved this problem of _ultimates_, he would be at the end of\nhis thread of life and would compass the Infinite. He would be no longer\nMan, but God.\n\nSo, from all these considerations, and from all directions, we come back\nto human evolution, the upward and onward journey of the human soul.\n\nAs man's health, usefulness, and happiness here depend on the perfection\nand utility of the physical body he inhabits, and its maintenance in\nhealth and harmony, have we the least reason to imagine that the same\nindividual, dwelling on the spiritual plane, will not be under the same of\nanalogous laws and relations there, since we have assumed the persistence\nand conscious identity of the soul there as here?\n\nI hold, therefore, that man possesses, now and here, the structure of a\n_Spiritual_ Body; and that the \"growth of the soul\" and our status and\nrelation to the soul, and our status and relation to the life after death\non the spiritual plane, depend _very largely_ on the character and\nintegrity of this spiritual body, the \"house we have builded.\"\n\nThe whole of life, therefore, here, is what gestation of the infant body\nis before birth. When the child is born it is a separate personality, a\ndistinct individuality.\n\nThere has been woven into its organism a distinct and synchronous\ncorrespondence with that of the mother.\n\nDuring gestation it has passed through every plane of organic life, from\n_amoeba_, or mollusk, to man.\n\nIt is thus in touch with every phase and quality of life. It epitomizes\nthem all, transcends them all, and _may co-ordinate_ them all.\n\nOn the other hand, the individual intelligence of the child, a distinct\nand separate _unity_, is in vital, spiritual, and synchronous relation to\nthat of the mother that enfolds it.\n\nIt is either building or rejuvenating a new spiritual body, as the\n\"essential form\" of the physical, organic, chemical, and kinetic or\nmagnetic body.\n\nWhat we call \"Life,\" or \"Vitality,\" runs like a \"dominant chord\" in the\nharmonic scale of the whole. Each part, organ, and function is related to\nevery other and to the whole by definite vibrations and the laws of\nharmony.\n\nIf, from the beginning, it is an \"unwelcome child,\" the higher and subtler\nelements of the mother's nature, and all her emotions are turned against\nit, are discordant and not constructive and harmonic.\n\nDiscord is thus ingrained at the foundations and woven into the \"subtle\nbody\" of the child.\n\nNature is so persistent in its determination to preserve and perpetuate\nthe human race, that the building of the organic body of the child goes\non; and the Individual Intelligence is so potent that it often triumphs\nover these prenatal obstructions, but by no means always. If \"there _is_ a\nspiritual body\" in the mother organism during the present life, as I am\n_entirely satisfied_ there is; and if the child is laying the foundation\nand weaving the pattern and fabric of a spiritual body of its own for the\npresent life and that immediately beyond; then these psychological\ninfluences and conditions are of _transcendent importance_ and _may_ be\nlargely determined by our intelligent choice.\n\nA higher race of beings will never inhabit this earth till these\nfundamental laws are recognized and regarded.\n\nWe may illustrate and symbolize this spiritual habitation we are building\nby the over-tones and the harmonics in music.\n\nIts nature and function and the whole process of building and development\nare a refining and purifying process.\n\nIt may be conceived in the vito-magnetic field of man, as that which is in\nnearest relation and closest touch with the soul, the Individual\nIntelligence, and through, and by which the soul acts.\n\nBeing in synchronous relation with the physical organs and functions, like\na chord in music, a high with a lower tone (but still harmonic), the\n_direct_ vehicle and agent of the soul would be this spiritual body; and\nwhen the physical body or vehicle dies, or is cast off, the spiritual body\n_with the soul_ escapes.\n\nEmpirical evidence along just these lines is so abundant in the annals of\nevery people, and in all ages, that it is unnecessary to quote it here.\nWhole volumes are filled with it, outside the annals of Spiritualism and\nthe Psychical Society, and antedating them by centuries and millenniums.\n\nThe most important consideration is that the building of character by\nvoluntary choice and personal effort, the \"growth of the soul,\" and the\nevolution of this spiritual body are _inseparable_. This trinity which is\nman, is _potentially_ (and may be _actually_) a _unity_.\n\nThe evolutionary and devolutionary lines run in precisely opposite\ndirections, are easily differentiated and defined, are usually recognized\nby observation and by the individual himself. It is very difficult and\ntakes a long time to deceive ourselves with regard to the upward or\ndownward trend of our own life, till we have blunted by misuse and\ndegraded all the finer faculties, capacities, and powers of our being.\n\nA quickened conscience, a moral uplift, a desire to do right, a noble\nideal, mark the beginning; but self-study, a rigid and persistent\nself-analysis, taking account of stock of all our resources and\ncapacities, all our real possessions and opportunities, is the scientific\nprocess by which man may become master of his own life and evolve to\nhigher and still higher planes of being, even here in the present life.\n\nThe question of rewards and punishments hereafter, and what we may expect,\nor hope, or fear, that we will _get_, will sink into utter nothingness\nbefore the great and ever-growing question of what we _are_, and what we\nare determined to _become_.\n\nIncidentally with this dominating impulse and determination will be the\ngrowth and development of the spiritual body, and the intuition and\nguiding light of the Individual Intelligence. We shall become consciously\n_aware_ of this as a constant personal experience demanding no further\nproof. It is _knowledge_ of the soul _direct_.\n\nEvery faculty, capacity, and power of the soul will be our willing\nservant.\n\nThis is Constructive Psychology, and is a normal evolution under both\nNatural and Divine Law: \"Living the Life that we may know the doctrine.\"\n\nIt is practical, scientific Psychology worked out and demonstrated in the\nLaboratory of Life. Religions and Revelations will no longer be mysteries,\nbut open books; for we shall be in touch with their source and at-one with\ntheir inspiration.\n\nThis is what is meant by \"The School of Natural Science.\"\n\nNor is it an idle speculation, nor merely a thing \"devoutly to be\nwished.\"\n\nIf the whole nature of man is built and operated under law; if he is, as\nhe seems to be, an aggregate of all substances, an epitome of all\nprinciples and processes; then it follows that to understand these laws,\nprocesses and correspondences, is to become _master_ of them and of life.\n\nWonderful as have been the discoveries in nature's finer forces and in\napplied science, all that science has discovered or invented, or art has\ndevised, is like children's toys, when compared with the subtle and\nmarvelous mechanism of man's organism.\n\nThe rhythmic beating of the heart, synchronous with respiration and the\ncirculation of the blood, are sufficient illustrations. But even this\nconcerns the vehicle, not the driver; the instrument, not the player upon\nthis \"harp of a thousand strings.\"\n\nWhen it comes to the mental and psychical realm, cognition is direct and\nimmediate. We become \"aware\" of relations and processes, of sequences and\npowers, by intuition, as we are _aware_ of the Self.\n\nThis is _apperception_ in its highest sense. Not through the mind, which\nis a _process_ and a function, but through that which uses, controls and\ndominates the mind, viz.: the Individual Intelligence, the Soul.\n\nIn the mind, in daily life, _we_ weigh and measure, reason, choose,\ncompare, and adjust. In intuition or apperception it is borne in, or comes\nlike a flash of light, and seems as if \"we always knew it.\"\n\nWe may somewhat haltingly describe the process, but we can never impart\nthe knowledge to another, because it is an _individual experience_. As\neasily could another feel, sense, and _realize_ the pain of thrusting our\nfinger into the fire, as to receive vicariously, from us, a _real_\nphysical experience.\n\nHere lies the difficulty, often the impossibility, of the teacher or the\nMaster, in imparting his knowledge.\n\nI am _entirety satisfied_ that by personal effort and experience along\nthese lines of normal higher evolution, there comes a time and a degree of\nunfoldment and power when, from knowledge and self-mastery, the\nMaster--the Individual Intelligence--having evolved and learned to\n_control_ the spiritual body, can consciously and deliberately pass out of\nthe physical body and return to it at will. He can do this as consciously\nand completely as it occurs at death; can go where he pleases, within the\nrange of his unfoldment or spiritual experience, and retain conscious\nmemory of it all after his return to the physical body.\n\nAnd suppose this all to be true, how can he demonstrate the fact, or\ntransmit the experience to another; and particularly if that other\ndeclared to begin with that, \"the whole process is absurd and\nimpossible\"?\n\nNor is mere credulity here a highway to knowledge. It is merely the\nopposite pole of incredulity, and both are begotten by ignorance.\n\nAnalogy and the basic principles and laws of scientific psychology are\nvery different matters indeed. They point in this direction like a theorem\nin mathematics. The principles and laws being grasped and apprehended, the\nsolution becomes only a question of _work_; and at every step the law is\nverified, \"Backward and forward it still spells the same.\"\n\nWhat is this but the _methods_ of Natural Science applied to Psychical\nScience upon the basis of the Unity of Natural Phenomena and Universal\nLaw?\n\nThere is nothing to prevent any of us from starting on this upward journey\nof the soul, if we choose; and never till we do, shall we really begin to\n_know_, to realize our birthright, and progress toward the realm of\neternal day.\n\nThe science of ethics, the basis of morals, is the starting point, the\nfirst step; and _leading the life_, the way. And there is no climbing up\nsome other way. So said the Master of Galilee, and so say the real Masters\nin all times.\n\nWhen Jesus said, \"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,\" he doubtless\nmeant that these were all _in him_, and he at-one with them.\n\nWhen Jesus said, \"I and the Father are _one_. No one cometh to the Father\nbut by me,\" he doubtless referred to this at-one-ment as the only way by\nwhich the natural man--Adam--could become the Spiritual man--_Christos_.\n\nWhen he said, \"The kingdom of heaven is within you,\" he undoubtedly meant\nthat \"heaven\" is a condition, a harmonic state, and not a place.\n\nWe undoubtedly create our own \"hell\" and our own \"heaven,\" and people them\nwith \"devils\" or with \"angels.\"\n\nTrue Science and true Religion clasp hands, and are like the two hands of\nthe one body of Truth. They check each other, supplement each other,\nharmonize each other.\n\nSuperstition and blind dogma are the enemies of true Science;\nReligion--never.\n\nScience and Religion are the handmaids of Truth; because both are the\nchildren of Divinity, the agents of Light and of Eternal Progress for\nMan.\n\nThis building of character, this growth of the soul, this Harmonic of\nEvolution, is a matter of _work_; of personal endeavor, of valid, real,\npersonal experience.\n\nIts results are our _real_ possessions, our \"treasure in heaven\" that\nnothing can ever destroy. Life and Death may ebb and flow, and come and\ngo; but _we_ may, if we will, go on forever; or we may turn the other way\nand go down to death. _Some day_ every human soul will elect, choose, and\ndecide and then start on the journey, North or South.\n\nThis is the meaning of Soul, of Individual Intelligence, of Rational\nVolition, of Personal Responsibility.\n\nIt is the Science of Nature aligned with Divinity, and compassing\nHumanity.\n\nThe purpose of these outlines, suggestions, analogies, and inferences, is\nto show that this life is a period of gestation, in close analogy and\ncomparable with that of the child _in utero_; that with the web and woof\nof character, organ and function, impulse and use, opportunity and\ndestiny, we are building a spiritual body, the _immediate vehicle_ of the\nsoul, as literally as is the physical body on the outer material plane;\nthat the laws of Spiritual health and vitality are as concrete,\napprehensible, and demonstrable as those of physiology.\n\nNormal use under law develops health, harmony, and strength, in the one\ncase as in the other, demonstrably; and these laws, accurately formulated\nand demonstrated, constitute the School of Natural Science, accessible to\nall prepared to receive and wisely use them; advancement depending on\nprogress, thoroughness, and loyalty, in all preceding degrees.\n\nIs it worth while?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX IN SCIENCE\nWITH THE GREAT WORK IN AMERICA\n\n\nWith the progress of civilization and the general growth and diffusion of\nintelligence everywhere, there is one problem upon which all else\nfocalizes, though the fact seems to be seldom clearly apprehended or\nrealized.\n\nNot only do science and religion face each other at one point, but the\nlife of each is at that one point involved. It is not only the often\nrecognized \"conflict between Religion and Science,\" which was long ago\nworn threadbare. It is the fact that both Science and Religion are out of\njoint with themselves.\n\nThe battle-ground may, in a broad way, be named Psychology. All problems\nand all discussions of the real issues arise from, involve, or center\naround, the nature, laws that govern, and destiny of the Human Soul.\n\nFrom the very nature of these problems, their intricacy and diversity,\nthey remained the latest in the categories of Science to be seriously\ninvestigated.\n\nFor the same reasons they have been the subject of dogma and revelation in\nreligion, with doors slammed in the face of all investigation as not only\nuseless, but wicked, and often made dangerous.\n\nBetween the agnosticism of Science, and the dogmatism of Religion,\nknowledge has been crucified, and there it hangs to-day, a crux to the\none, and the Cross to the other: The same problem, only facing different\nways.\n\nAnd yet the Reconciliation is not far to seek. It is difficult for the\naverage churchman, or theologian, to apprehend and remember, that a\n_fact_, in nature or in life, is one thing; and that the _interpretation_,\nor _explanation_ put upon that fact, by any man, or body of men, is\nanother thing entirely. Here is where Belief, Dogma, and Heresy come in.\nAs soon as one denies the interpretation, he is accused of denying the\nfact, no matter how illogical or absurd the interpretation may be, on the\none hand, or how openly he admits the fact as the basis of his own\nconclusions, on the other.\n\nFew individuals will be found nowadays who deny the _fact_ of the birth,\nlife, mission, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. But the interpretations\nread into the fact differ so widely as to result in almost numberless\nsects, and an endless war of words. All this theological wrangling may be\nfocalized at one point, almost on a single word. Did Jesus of Nazareth\ndiffer in kind or in _Degree_, from the rest of Humanity?\n\nIf he had \"a like nature with ours,\" as he and his disciples took the\nutmost pains to declare, and to demonstrate, then he differed in _degree_\nof unfoldment, and was indeed, our Elder Brother; He differed as the holy\ndiffers from the unholy; as the pure differs from the impure; as the kind\nand charitable differ from the unkind and the uncharitable. It is just at\nthis point that all the theological juggling comes in, in the effort to\nreconcile contradictions and irreconcilable paradoxes, under the\ndesignation--Mystery, Miracle, and Faith. Few theologians would admit that\nit is desirable, even if possible, that the mystery and miracle should\ndisappear, and that wisdom and understanding should take their place. In\nother words, that Jesus should be proved an evolution under both natural\nand divine law, as the result of \"Living the Life.\"\n\nBear in mind that we are dealing with _Interpretations_ only, and with the\nopinions of men; and that there is nothing \"sacred\" or \"holy\" about these\nopinions, no matter how they may be hedged about by dogma, or ecclesiastic\nauthority. The Immaculate Conception; the Virgin Birth; the Resurrection\nof the physical body, and the Vicarious Atonement, are each and all\nDogmas; the opinions of men, in _interpreting_ the mystery, and miracle,\nthey have assigned to the nature of Jesus, in what they call the \"plan,\"\nor the \"Scheme of Salvation.\"\n\nIf the nature of Jesus were radically and essentially different from ours;\nif he differed from us in _kind_, instead of in _degree_; if he were \"very\nGod,\" instead of a perfected man, as the result of \"Living the Life\"; then\nhe can have little in common with us; and, so far as \"like natures,\"\n\"common temptations,\" and human sympathies, and destinies, are concerned,\nhe might as well have been born on the planet Mars.\n\nBut suppose that psychic and spiritual science could so define the\nfaculties, capacities, and powers of man, and the nature and laws of the\nhuman soul, as to demonstrate the fact that Jesus became _Christos_\nthrough \"living the life,\" and \"doing the will of the Father,\" in strict\nconformity to both Natural and Divine Law, thus revealing the fact that\nthese _potencies_ are _latent_ in every human soul: that it does not\ndepend so much upon what we _believe_, as upon what we _do_; not so much\nupon what we _profess_, as upon what we _are_; not so much upon what Jesus\ndid for us, as upon what we do for ourselves and for others, in strict\nanalogy with the life and the teachings of Jesus. Would not Jesus become,\nindeed and in truth, a _Living Example_, in place of a \"Blood Offering\"?\n\nTheology ignores and sophisticates _Personal Responsibility_, which\neverything else, and every experience in life, justifies and enforces as\nthe basis of Morals.\n\nOn the other hand, so-called Psychic Science misapprehends, belittles, and\nsophisticates the Human Will, the prime Motor Power of Man. It then\nconfuses Rational Volition and Domination by juggling with the words\n_Suggestion_ and _Hypnosis_.\n\nThis reveals the fact that they have no rational concept whatever of the\npsychical nature of man, not even a \"working hypothesis\" of the Human\nSoul. Theologians affirm, \"Science\" denies, and so they still face each\nother in this Twentieth Century with \"A war of words,\" though, to a\nconsiderable extent, they have ceased making faces and calling each other\nnames, because there is a deeper struggle going on.\n\nThe Theological Hierarchy, worldly-wise in every generation, has dropped\nthe cry of _Heresy_ and gone to the very foundations of our civilization.\nThey are sapping and mining the foundations of civil Liberty, the\n\"self-evident truths,\" and the \"Inalienable Rights,\" upon which this\ngovernment was founded.\n\nHere is a thoroughly-organized, relentless determination, openly declared,\nand well under way to destroy our \"Free Public Schools,\" and substitute\nthat \"Organized Ignorance,\" the Parochial Schools, as the first step in\nreuniting Church and State, through dogmatic authority instilled into the\nyouths of this country. Not one citizen in a thousand seems to realize\nwhat is here being attempted, how thoroughly organized it is, or what\nimmense progress in this direction has already been made; or, if they\nknow, they do not seem to care.\n\nIt may thus be seen what practical and vital issues we are facing and how\nmuch is involved in the \"Cross of Religion,\" and the \"Crux of Science.\"\n\nIntelligence, Education, the Light of Science, and the Illumination of\ntrue Religion, are pitted in a conflict with Ignorance, Superstition, and\nFear; dogmatism, degeneration, and devolution.\n\nScience and Religion represent different departments in human interests\nand the life of man. So far as they are each true, they must eventually,\nand inevitably clasp hands, instead of working at cross-purposes.\n\nActual knowledge of the human soul, as a Science of psychology, on the one\nhand; and the duty of man to himself, to his fellows, and to God, and the\ndestiny of the human soul as essential religion, on the other; must\nconstitute the basis of union, and the point of agreement.\n\nThe accredited psychology of to-day has hitherto failed to demonstrate any\nactual knowledge of the human soul, or even to postulate its existence, as\na fact in nature.\n\nThe theologies and religions of to-day appeal largely to superstition and\nfear, and support their dogmas by \"revelations,\" the diverse\ninterpretations of which have segregated religions into a large number of\nsects with no bond of union or basis of agreement.\n\nCompetition here, in securing proselytes, differs little, except in name,\nfrom that everywhere in evidence between commercial organizations. It is\nhardly \"the survival of the fittest,\" but rather, as everywhere, and in\nall ages, the triumph of the most powerful, aggressive, and unscrupulous.\nThe Roman Hierarchy is still in the lead, with its Pope \"infallible,\" and\nanathematizing all progress and enlightenment, under the designation of\n\"Modernism,\" and all its energy exerted to perpetuate the \"Dark Ages.\"\n\nIt is thus that priestcraft masquerades in the name of religion to enslave\nthe human soul. Still outside this Babel of religion and science, lie\nnumberless cults and organizations professing both liberty and\nenlightenment along the lines of man's spiritual nature, not one of which\nputs forth any _clear and definite theorem_ of the human soul. With mere\nassertions, instead of demonstrated facts, and appealing often to the\ndesire for wealth, health, and comfort in their followers, they often\ndeclare that one has only to \"_demand_\" these things, in order to have\nthem. Justice and the law of compensation are often entirely ignored, and\nthe methods employed are _un_moral, to say the least, almost without\nexception, unscientific, and wholly empirical.\n\nOccasionally we find \"Leaders,\" or \"Official Heads,\" whose colossal\nignorance of either moral or spiritual Law, is only equaled by their\nmonumental egotism, and this does not prevent them from gaining\nproselytes, and amassing fortunes in their own name.\n\nIt would be difficult to see how many of these cults differ, either in\nprinciple or practice, or in the results wrought out in their disciples,\nfrom the Priestcraft already referred to.\n\nThey advertise an open thoroughfare, and seem to promise something for\nnothing, but from the vicarious atonement, up or down the scale, the\nvotaries pay in \"mint, anise, and cummin,\" while ignorantly blind to the\nweightier matters of the law.\n\nTo one who for half a century has studied these personal and social\nproblems, and witnessed the rise and fall of many of these cults, from the\nFox Sisters and Spiritualism, to Braid and Hypnotism, while Priestcraft\nand Popery, like Tennyson's brook, \"go on forever,\" it all seems pitiful\nthat mankind must pay so dearly for freedom, enlightenment, and\nknowledge.\n\nAnd yet, when the real teacher comes, the rabble so long exploited cry,\n\"Away with him,\" \"Crucify him.\" When the rabble at last repent,\nPriestcraft shifts its tactics and deifies the sacrifice, which it\ninstigated, and so perpetuates the eternal tragedy.\n\nThose familiar with the \"Seeking after God,\" and for real knowledge of the\nessential nature of man, in all ages, are aware that there have always\nbeen, in every age, those who have achieved it. It has been known, or\nrather concealed, under many names. Its possessors and teachers have been\nreviled, persecuted, crucified, and thus their work has been hindered and\noften defeated.\n\nThe ignorant and superstitious feared it. The vicious, ambitious, and\ntime-serving hated it, because it prevented the few from dominating and\nexploiting the many; liberating, as it does, the earnest seeker after\ntruth and enlightenment from the bondage of ignorance, dogma,\nsuperstition, and fear, in every form.\n\nHence Institutional Religions, Schools of Philosophy, Coteries,\nSyndicates, and many other organizations of men, constituted to dominate\nand rule the masses, have been the sworn foes of individual liberty and\nenlightenment, and of the \"Illuminati,\" or real teachers in every age, and\na perpetual menace to their work.\n\nReal knowledge of the nature and destiny of man, has first to be\ndiscovered, then recovered, and possessed. To become available, it must be\nsimplified, formulated, and finally promulgated in some form, so as to\nreach those ready and capable of receiving it.\n\nIt must be sought earnestly and deservedly. The candidate must demonstrate\nthat he is duly and truly prepared, worthy, and well qualified. Every step\nin advance is determined by his understanding and use of what he has\nhitherto received.\n\nThe real possession of this sublime wisdom is an evolution from within and\nnot something communicated from without.\n\nIt is, literally, the building of character and the growth of the soul, as\nthe highway of knowledge.\n\nTo discover, possess, exemplify, and promulgate this knowledge, this\nhigher evolution of the Individual Intelligence, in the face of all\nobstacles and difficulties, has been known and designated for ages as the\n_Magnum Opus_, the \"Great Work.\" It is, indeed, the greatest work either\nknown, permitted or possible to man. It solves the riddle of the Sphinx of\nLife and makes Man Master of his own destiny.\n\nSuch a Master lives in a new world, untrammeled by the things of sense and\ntime. He has indeed, \"lived the life to know the doctrine,\" and can say\nwith Jesus, in sincerity and truth, \"I, and the Father, are One,\" because\nwe are _at-one_.\n\nThere is not a particle of evidence in history, in philosophy, or in\nscience, to show that anyone has ever reached such knowledge, liberation,\nand enlightenment, in any other way than that in which Jesus attained it;\nviz.: by renouncing the ordinary ambitions of life, wealth, fame, and\npower, and by overcoming selfishness and the lusts of the flesh; devoting\ntheir lives to the good of mankind, \"without the hope of fee or reward.\"\nAs the whole work is a spiritual unfoldment, and from beginning to end a\nrefining process, it is easy to see how and why the conditions are what\nthey are, and have always been the same.\n\nThis is why those who have no apprehension or conception of the process,\ncan see only mystery and miracle in the result.\n\nIf anyone cites the so-called \"black magicians\" of Egypt, and of\nantiquity, to refute the moral code as the essential condition of\nattainment, they will find that these priests and \"magi climbing up some\nother way,\" and whom Jesus designated as \"thieves and robbers,\" could\nnever function or pass beyond the so-called \"astral plane.\" Here is where\nthe Sibyl and the \"virgin seer\" came in.\n\nThis is clearly shown in that little book \"The Idyll of the White Lotus,\"\nas in several of Bulwer's novels. Hypnotism and Ceremonial Magic, as\nrevealed in the writings of Abbe Constant, represent ambition for\nknowledge and power without \"living the life,\" and at any cost to mankind.\nThese _Margraves_ have often existed, sealed their own fate, and \"gone to\ntheir own place.\" H. P. Blavatsky referred to them as \"lost souls,\" or\n\"soulless individuals.\" They are also graphically described in \"The\nStrange Story of Arinzeman.\"\n\nThere was always the \"Right-hand Path,\" and the \"Left-hand Path.\"\n\nEven a slight familiarity with ancient literatures and philosophies\nreveals the fact, that all these things have been known for ages. The\nsubtlety of the Hindoo mind has been such as to leave no phase of mental\nor psychic phenomena uninvestigated.\n\nTo the casual and uninstructed reader, it often seems like an endless and\nhopeless jungle, and he is unable to bring order out of the seemingly\nendless confusion.\n\nThere is not a single percept or concept in what is now called \"New\nThought,\" that may not be found repeated with almost endless variations\nthousands of years ago.\n\nReference has already been made to the conditions imposed upon the student\nwho aspires to know, and to become.\n\nThe obligations upon the teacher are no less stringent, for both are, from\nfirst to last, working under both natural and spiritual law to which they\nare bound to conform.\n\nTo be possessed of such knowledge the teacher must have abandoned worldly\nambition, the love of wealth, and the applause of men. All motives of\ntime-serving and self-seeking must assail him in vain. He becomes the\nalmoner of the treasure-house of Light and Knowledge. He must exemplify\nwhat he teaches. If he can impart his knowledge, or assist an aspiring and\nworthy brother, it must be in the way he has himself received it, \"without\nmoney and without price,\" or any \"hope of reward or fee,\" and the brother\nso receiving, in his own degree, must be ready to pass it on under\nprecisely the same terms and conditions.\n\nThe teacher, therefore, must be in a position to give or to withhold;\npromulgate or conceal; teach or refuse to teach; governed solely by Truth\nand Law, and the solemn obligation under which he has himself received\nit.\n\nThe meaning of the saying, \"strait is the gate and narrow is the way, and\nfew there be who find it,\" may thus be made apparent.\n\nFragments of this wisdom are found scattered through the ages, with here\nand there one who has achieved it.\n\nFor two or three centuries the early Christian Church undertook to work on\nthese lines, and instituted three degrees, as abundantly shown in the\nwritings of many of the so-called \"Christian, or Church Fathers.\"\n\nJesus said to his disciples, \"I have many things to say unto you, but ye\ncannot bear them now.\" And again, \"The works that I do, ye shall do also,\nand greater things than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father.\"\nAnd again, \"Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of\nheaven, but to them who are without, it is not given.\"\n\nMysteries, indeed, to the ignorant monks who were already wrangling over\ncreed, and dogmas, and who, in 325 at the First Council at Nice, fought it\nout surrounded by the soldiers of the Pagan Emperor, Constantine; and thus\nsettled the \"orthodox _interpretation_,\" of what they were wholly\nincompetent to understand. Their successors are still engaged in the same\nwrangle of interpretation, so far as the \"Infallible Pope,\" and dogma of\nobedience, at Rome has been unable to suppress it.\n\nSomewhere between the middle of the first and second centuries, an effort\nat union and reconciliation arose from another quarter. Ammonius Saccas, a\nNeo-Platonist, endeavored to unite men of different cults and beliefs on\nthe lines of the Great Work, precisely as the Philalethean Society is\ndoing in New York to-day; but his movement was soon engulfed and lost\nsight of by the tide of Ecclesiasticism, or suppressed by the soldiers of\nConstantine.\n\nI am not attempting a history, for that would fill volumes. I am only\ngiving a few sidelights of the Great Work.\n\nIn the Tenth Century, at Baghdad, a society was formed admitting Jews,\nChristians, Mohammedans, and atheists, with a similar purpose.\n\nDuring the time of Martin Luther, John Reuchlin made a similar attempt.\nBoth Reuchlin and Luther were pupils of Trithemius, the Abbot of St.\nJacob's at Wuerzburg, one of whose books I possess, printed in the year\n1600, and also another book, \"The Theosophical Transactions of the\nPhiladelphian Society,\" printed in London in 1697. Browning's \"Paracelsus\"\ngives a splendid outline of the philosophy and teachings of Trithemius,\nand rescues Paracelsus with all who can understand, from the vile slanders\nof his monkish enemies; and Robert Browning wrote his \"Paracelsus\" at the\nage of twenty-three! Can you wonder why so few \"understand Browning\"?\n\nFor more than fifteen hundred years mankind has been involved between the\nspeculations of Philosophy, on the one hand, and the creeds and dogmas of\nTheology, on the other.\n\nThere was also the deliberate destruction of ancient monuments, scrolls,\nand records, by religious fanatics. Diocletian, in A.D. 296, burned the\nbooks of the Egyptians. Caesar burned 700,000 Rolls at Alexandria, and Leo\nIsaurus 300,000 at Constantinople in the eighth century. Then came the\nMohammedans, who destroyed the remainder of the accessible scrolls at\nAlexandria. Gangs of fanatical Monks, Christian and Pagan, roamed over\nEurope destroying and defacing everything upon which they could lay their\nhands, as witnesses against their dogmas and superstitions. Even to-day,\nin India, it is difficult for Europeans to gain access to genuine ancient\nrecords. The records of these barbarities are still fresh in the minds of\nthe guardians of sacred lore.\n\nEven with such a record for thousands of years, Ecclesiasticism is as\narrogant and rampant as ever to-day. The wonder is, that there is anything\nleft but barbarism.\n\nTwo writers declare that the most ancient and valuable of the records of\nthe Alexandrian Library were kept in secret crypts known only to the\nhighest officials, and preserved still in secret crypts known only to the\nIlluminati. In Baalbec and all through the East to-day these underground\ntemples are being explored, and even the fragments found excite wonder and\nadmiration. Ignorant Barbarians may be destructive on general principles,\nbut fanatical Ecclesiasticism has ever been destructive of all light,\nknowledge and civilization, through insane hatred or pure \"cussedness\"! We\nneed only to regard intelligently what it has done, and is doing for\nSouthern Europe to-day.\n\nCan you wonder that the real science of the Human Soul found little\nrecognition, or that it was denied as possible to man?\n\nAs already shown, the Science of to-day has neither recognized nor worked\nup to it; and the Theology of to-day covers it with fable, mystery, and\nmiracle as of old.\n\nIn spite of both these the \"Philalethean Society\" exists, the \"Seekers\nafter God\" were never more numerous than now, and the _Magnum Opus_, the\nGreat Work, was never, in the whole history of man, more in evidence than\nit is to-day.\n\n               \"Truth crushed to Earth shall rise again,\n               The Eternal years of God are hers.\"\n\nCan it be that there is no great truth back of all these struggles and\naspirations of the human soul? That there is no possible realization back\nof these soulful endeavors?\n\nIs Tantalus, after all, the creator and Father of Man? inspired only by\nlove of disappointment, defeat, and despair, in his children?\n\n_For one, I do not believe it._\n\nTo plant these aspirations in the soul of man, and doom them to\neverlasting disappointment and defeat, would brand the creator of man as\nan Infinite Liar, instead of a Loving Father.\n\nThe earnest student must first learn to recognize, and to discriminate;\nfor the \"blind leaders of the blind\" are always legions.\n\nThis power of discrimination, to which I have referred, goes deeper, and\nmeans far more, than most persons ever realize, and this is why so many\nare continually deceived.\n\nIt is the light of understanding, of spiritual intelligence, within the\nsoul of man.\n\nIt may be likened to a traveler in a foreign country, and a strange land,\nsuddenly hearing one speaking fluently his own language, his native\ntongue. It is impossible to deceive him. In this case, however, it is not\nthe mere words, the inflection or pronunciation, but the ideas,\nsentiments, and principles expressed.\n\n\"Liberty, Fraternity, Equality,\" for example; or sympathy, Charity, and\nloving kindness.\n\nThe \"sign of the Master\" is at once recognized by one already prepared to\nreceive and to understand it. The soul that really desires truth and\nwisdom above all things, has thereby developed the power to recognize it.\n\nThis is the discrimination referred to. It is not what someone else tells\nyou, or what another claims. It is what _you_ discern and recognize, and\nthe teaching and the life are in perfect harmony, like chords in music;\nand they strike a harmonic chord in you, that may be first a surprise, and\nsoon a great joy and a bright light.\n\nIt is not a question of authority, and of credentials, but of intrinsic\nreality. You must know how to assay and test the gold yourself. This is\nwhere the \"Alchemy of the Great Work\" comes in, and here lies the\nbeginning of Adeptship, the preparation for the \"Great Work.\" I can\ndemonstrate this from a score of old books, some of them going back many\ncenturies.\n\nIt has also been symbolized and picturegraphed 'til the imagination ran\nriot, and ingenuity and fancy became lost, like ideas in a fantasy of\nwords.\n\nI know of but one place, one Institution, in modern times, where these\nessential truths of the Great Work have been preserved as a consistent\nwhole, and that is in the symbolism of Free Masonry, but the craft long\nago lost the real interpretation, though many to-day are on the lines that\nlead to it.\n\nThe whole symbolism and ritual of the Blue Lodge in Masonry is, from\nbeginning to end, _a symbol of the journey of the human soul on this\nearth_, from darkness to light; from sin to righteousness; from ignorance\nto wisdom and understanding.\n\nIn other words, it is an exact _theorem_ and solution of the _Magnum\nOpus_; a symbol of the philosophy and accomplishment of the GREAT WORK.\n\nThe science and the theology of the present day have been briefly\ncontrasted. Neither of them pretends to give us any real science of the\nhuman soul.\n\nScience says frankly she \"does not know.\" Theology bids us believe and\nobey; trust and hope. Philosophy speculates and reasons, while amusing\nitself with the kaleidoscope of \"postulates\" and \"categories.\"\n\nScience must deal with facts, demonstrate their actuality, and classify\nthem; that is, find their natural order and sequence.\n\nIn psychology, the facts are _within_ the realm of consciousness, and\ntherefore their demonstration is a matter of individual experience. This\nis why psychology differs from all other sciences.\n\nNo one can transfer his individual experiences directly to another. He can\ndescribe how he gained them, and give the result and conclusions, and here\nis where those who know nothing of the real problem, are often both\nincredulous and contemptuous. The only answer to these is, \"they are\njoined to their idols, let them alone.\" \"They would not believe though one\narose from the dead,\" and yet we are told again and again that the \"School\nof Natural Science\" is the \"school of personal experience.\"\n\nIt may be well to reflect a moment, and ask ourselves, how it is that we\nreally know anything? Is it not through personal experience? Real\nknowledge comes, and can come, in no other way.\n\nNo teacher of the real science of psychology can ever transmit or transfer\nhis knowledge to another. All he can do is to describe the methods, and\nsteps, by which he acquired it, and assist the student in acquiring it for\nhimself in the same way, or under the same processes and laws.\n\nWe have only to reflect on the ordinary experiences of life, to realize\nthat this is a universal principle and rule. In the deeper science of the\nsoul, and the higher life, instead of this law being relaxed, it becomes\nall the more binding.\n\nDo not the principles that adhere in atom, molecule and mass, still hold\nin worlds and solar systems? Is not this precisely what is meant by \"The\nReign of Law\"? If man were built upon some other scheme or plan than the\nrest of nature, how could he apprehend or adjust himself to Nature? The\nvery _concept_ of miracle is _lawlessness_, and mystery is but another\nname for _ignorance_.\n\nKnowledge means experience and apprehension of Law.\n\nNeither can the laws of Nature and the laws of God be at cross-purposes,\nfor that would make harmony impossible and inconceivable.\n\nThe confusion and discord are all in us, and the Great Work means\nadjustment, harmony, and then Knowledge.\n\nIt is the journey of the human soul on the Royal Highway to Light,\nLiberation, and Eternal Day.\n\nFor many centuries those who have achieved this Wisdom, this \"Great Work,\"\nhave been trying to make it accessible to mankind, and to place it in such\nform that the ethical, scientific, and philosophical principles involved,\nand upon which it is based, should not again be lost. Every such effort\nhas hitherto failed.\n\nThe scientific spirit of the present age, in a very broad way, seemed to\noffer a new and a more advantageous opportunity; for the whole process is\none of strict science.\n\nThe Psychology of the present day has become involved in phenomena and\nautomatism, and is in no sense _constructive_. It is one thing to build\ntheories, and quite a different thing to systematize demonstrated facts,\nthrough the recognition of co-ordinate relations, and underlying law.\n\nThe work is open and accessible to all who manifest real interest, an open\nmind, and who have the intelligence and discrimination to recognize the\ncharacter of the work. It has never, in the history of man, been open in\nany other way, on any other terms, or to any other individuals.\n\nThose who can fill these requirements constitute to-day a larger number\nthan have before existed at any one time, for perhaps many centuries.\n\nThe \"School of Natural Science\" is in evidence. The \"Great Work\" is\ncarefully outlined.\n\nThere is no bar to one's making a beginning on the path, except\nindifference, incredulity, preoccupation, or prejudice; and these need not\nbe in the least disturbed, for they will be kindly and courteously passed\nby.\n\nArguments, controversy, and proselyting, have no part in the Great Work,\nas there is no organization, and no personal ambitions to serve.\n\nThose who speak a common language, are inspired by a common purpose, and\naspire to a common and universal good, will, soon or late, find themselves\nassociated together and co-operating.\n\nIt is like a chorus of voices when an old song is started that we loved in\nchildhood. Each takes up the strain, falls into his own part, and helps to\nswell the harmony, from the joy of his own heart.\n\nThose who \"never did like the song,\" will \"quietly steal away.\" Both\nSwedenborg and Emerson have sufficiently illustrated the \"Law of\nCorrespondencies,\" and \"compensation,\" to reveal the basis of all\nharmonious human associations, whether on the earth, or on other planes of\nbeing. Hence the \"Harmonics of Evolution,\" was the forerunner of the\n\"Great Work.\"\n\nThe pitiable byplay and claptrap of \"Affinities\" so often seen and heard\nnowadays, where all previous obligations are ignored, and personal\nresponsibilities set at naught, only serve to emphasize the real law of\nharmony and constructive evolution, by showing what it is not.\n\nThe Great Work digs to the very foundations of life, and all human\nassociations, and reveals the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, in the\nbuilding of character, and the adornment of the Temple of the Human Soul.\n\nThis is indeed----\n\n                 \"Eternal Progress moving on,\n                 From state to state the spirit walks.\"\n\nDeath is neither the end nor the beginning. It is only a change in pitch,\na shifting of keys, and the same old Song of Life goes on, if we have but\nlearned the score, and caught the harmony.\n\nSalvation is not a thing accomplished once for all. We have only to\nconsider the monotony, the poverty of invention, and imagination, of those\nwho have tried to portray the joy of the Redeemed in heaven, in order to\nrealize what a bore it would soon become, if that were all.\n\nInspiration, achievement, and eternal progress, with more and more\nhelpfulness to others, with plane after plane achieved, revealing plane\nafter plane beyond--does not this appeal far more strongly to the highest\nand best in us all?\n\nAnd pray, what is this, but the _Great Work_, that I have tried herein to\noutline, and as taught and lived by Jesus, and every great Master the\nworld has ever known? Each has achieved in his own degree, worded it in\nhis own way, and \"stepped out of sunlight into shade, to make more room\nfor others.\"\n\nLong before the birth of Jesus, it was said, \"The wise and peaceful ones\nlive, renewing the earth like the coming of Spring.\" And having themselves\ncrossed the ocean of embodied existence, help all those who try to do the\nsame thing, without personal motive.\n\nI have endeavored to give a general outline of the Great Work, drawn from\nhistory, tradition, philosophy, and symbolism, down to the present year of\ngrace. I find many corroborations, many things pointing in the same\ngeneral direction. But I find but one concise and definite _formulation_\nof the _scientific theorem_, in which the outline is clear, and the\nanalogy complete, and thereby made accessible and apprehensible to the\nopen-minded and intelligent student.\n\nSuch students need experience no real difficulty in finding a clew to the\nlabyrinth of life, or, as our ancient brothers put it in regard to the\n_Magnum Opus_--\"a key to the closed palace of the king.\"\n\nThis is the purpose of the \"Harmonic Series\" of books. They need rest upon\nno authority beyond the intrinsic evidence of truth, on every page. If\nthey are not consistent in themselves, then they must fall in pieces. The\nonly appeal to the reader is: read them carefully, analyze your own mind\nand soul, and come to your own conclusions. If they find no response, no\nanswering chord in you, then they were written for someone else, or in\nvain.\n\nOne further consideration remains to be noted at this time, as the\nquestion is sure to arise: \"How about woman in the Great Work?\" Seldom in\nthe past has she received recognition, since the earliest days in Old\nIndia, though here and there have been the most noble women.\n\nI heard Anna Dickinson, many years ago, open one of her famous lectures\nwith these words, \"I claim for man and woman alike, the right to attempt\nand win. I claim for man and woman alike, the right to attempt and fail.\"\n\nIt seems to me to-day, as it did more than thirty years ago, that this is\nthe whole problem in a nutshell, and that any number of words could add\nnothing to the statement.\n\nThe Great Work is as open to woman as to man, and on the same terms. They\nhave perhaps more to overcome in some directions, and men more in others.\nThis is like saying, \"man and woman are different,\" that is all.\n\nOne thing is certain; there will never be an ideal social state on earth,\nor a heaven anywhere, except as men and women _co-operate_ together for\nthe happiness of each, and the highest, noblest, cleanest good of all, and\nthis is only another phase or department of the Great Work.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM OF PSYCHOLOGY\n\n\nThe Science of Psychology, like any other science, must deal with\ndemonstrated facts, classify them, and systematize the resulting\ncategories.\n\nStrictly logical conclusions drawn from categories of facts so derived,\ndeserve the name of Science.\n\nScience is, therefore, a definite method of arriving at exact conclusions.\nNo other method can legitimately bear the name of science.\n\nNo one pretends to dispute the conclusions logically involved in the\nBinomial Theorem; or in the Parallelogram of forces; or in correlative\nmechanical equivalents; or in many of the known laws of chemistry and\nphysiology.\n\nWhen, however, we come to mental processes and psychical phenomena, the\nfacts are so redundant, and so differently reported and apprehended, that\nargument, belief and prejudice, credulity and incredulity, overshadow and\ndrown with a war of words all clear, scientific methods or conclusions.\n\nBut if man, as a whole, is a fact in nature; or if \"God made Man a Living\nSoul,\" then the whole nature of man exists under law, and is apprehensible\nto science.\n\nMan's function as a scientist is to read, to reflect, to weigh, to\nmeasure, and to understand.\n\nThere are those who object to Natural Science as applied to \"Divine\"\nthings. They would preserve the mystery, and seem to prefer miracle and\ndogma to knowledge and law.\n\nTheir preference is to be respected, even though ignorance and\nsuperstition result. Since the domain of science, in America at least, is\nno longer restricted by ecclesiastic law, the conflict between Religion\nand Science has gradually disappeared, and the conflict is rather that\nbetween knowledge and ignorance, with ignorance on the wane.\n\n\"Things settled by long use, if not absolutely good, at least fit well\ntogether.\"\n\nThis transition period seems confusing to many earnest souls with its \"New\nThought,\" its \"occultisms\" and its \"Lo here's\" and \"Lo there's.\" But\nthrough and beneath it all, may be heard a note of harmony, the promise\nand the potency of the triumph of light and knowledge.\n\nWe may not know the final results, but every sincere and earnest seeker\nmay have the peaceful assurance that he is on the open highway that leads\nto the noblest and the best.\n\nThe assurance of knowledge but makes clearer the revelations of faith.\n\nThat \"absentee God\"--of which Carlyle wrote, has been discerned as the\nUniversal Intelligence, and equally Love and Law.\n\nAmong recent writers and books on the subject of psychology, Professor\nHugo Muensterberg's \"Psychotherapy\" occupies a very high place. It appeals\nespecially to the physician, more familiar than others with morbid\npsychical states. Here I can look back on almost half a century of\nexperience, the most active, in dealing with these cases.\n\nBut I am at present less concerned with mental pathology and therapy, than\nwith the general psychological basis; the _causative_ categories upon\nwhich they are based, and which occupy the first half of Muensterberg's\nbook.\n\nDividing the whole subject--the content of consciousness, all the\nfaculties, capacities and powers, all processes and sequences--into two\ngeneral groups or classes, the _purposive_ and the _causal_, Muensterberg\ndeclares that \"the _causal_ view only is the view of psychology\"; \"the\n_purposive_ view lies outside of psychology.\" (P. 14.)\n\nI hold, that without the _purposive_ view equally included and\nco-ordinated, there can be no such thing as Scientific Psychology. Half\nviews will hardly admit of synthetic generalizations.\n\nThe complete separation here instituted, between the purposive and\ncausal factors, in itself, for purposes of definition and study, need not\nbe objected to, if it were consistently carried out, which it is not. He\nso nearly pre-empts the whole ground for the _causal_, giving scant\ncourtesy to the _purposive_, merely a few crumbs of comfort, so that\nit cannot be said to be ignored altogether, and drops the scientific\nmethod entirely in dealing with it; assenting to moral precepts and\nprinciples, without a clew to any scientific basis, that one must object\nto the _name_--Psychology--as being applied to it at all. It contains\nno hint of a \"knowledge of the Soul.\"\n\nIt is the Vito-Motor mechanism of the Mind. The Automatism of the\nelements, incidents, changes, and sequences of our states of\nconsciousness; based upon, and including all that we know of physiology.\nAlong these lines, Muensterberg's work has probably never been equaled. It\nis concise, comprehensive, and exhaustive.\n\nHis physical, physiological, and mental syntheses are well-nigh complete.\n\nWhenever, in the future, what he calls \"the _purposive_ view\" shall be\nresurrected from the obscurity and nescience to which he has assigned it,\nand really habilitated in the garb of Science, and recognized as the\nlawful spouse of the _causal_, we shall indeed have a true Psychology, a\nScience of the Human Soul.\n\nMuensterberg neither scouts nor denies the possibility of such a future\ndiscovery. In the meantime, his viewpoint, and necessarily some of his\nconclusions and generalizations, are one-sided, and out of focus.\n\nEmphasizing the _causal_ as he does, this could hardly be otherwise; and\nfrom this point of view, and for this reason, his practical Psychotherapy\nis purely empirical.\n\nWe need not deny his facts, or his results, even when mixed with hypnosis,\nmore than he does the \"cures\" in \"Christian Science,\" \"Faith Cures,\" at\nLourdes, or by the \"laying on of hands.\" All these things are too well\nknown, and not one of them deserves the name of Science. They are solely\nempirical methods. Muensterberg's broader view and deeper analysis give to\nhis methods great prominence, and he can point to no results that\ntranscend the others. These facts and these results are as old as the\nhistory of man. They have, even as he points out, constituted epidemics of\n\"cure.\"\n\nThere is, moreover, a scientific view and method regarding what he calls\nthe purposive view which he overlooks entirely, and which by emphasis of\nthe causal, makes seemingly impossible. It is our purpose to try and make\nthis clear.\n\nHis analysis of Suggestion, though largely automatic, is well-nigh\nexhaustive. Awareness, and Attention, are illustrated copiously; but not\nclearly differentiated as they may be, and actually are in the experience\nof individual life.\n\nFortunately, and wisely, he eliminates the \"Subconscious\" as having no\nreal meaning or scientific value as now used.\n\nBut it might be applied to the Mental awareness of physiological\nautomatism (bodily habits, often beginning in an act of will, or\nattention; writing, speaking, music, dancing, and the like, and in less\ndegree, all life impulses and movements below the line of attention or\nawareness).\n\nIf, by courtesy, these might be called sub-conscious, then there is\nanother group above the habitual plane of awareness, that, by equal\ncourtesy, might be called Supra-conscious. But, unless it is remembered,\nas Muensterberg points out, that, regardless of phenomena, _Consciousness\nis one_, these terms can only lead to confusion.\n\nCertain cases designated \"multiple\" or \"dissociated personalities\" have\nonly served to increase this confusion still further; and more especially,\nwhen the effort has been made to patch them together, or to control them\nfrom without, by hypnosis. The well-known case of \"Sally,\" reported by Dr.\nMorton Prince, stands at last, as a \"personally conducted\" psychological\nexcursion, with Sally still preserving her incognito, and as much a\nmystery as ever.\n\nThat automatism incident to all progressive organization and perfection of\nfunction, and through which physical, physiological, mental, and psychic\nsynthesis becomes possible, has been allowed to usurp the place of the\n\"Builder of the Temple,\" the \"Driver of the Chariot,\" and the \"Player\"\nupon the \"Harp of a thousand strings.\" Harmony and equilibrium are\nincidents resulting from _causative_ processes! We need only to know the\nconstruction, relations of parts, and principles involved in the\nvibrations of the Harp, in order to understand and appreciate the music.\nThe player, the musician--drunk, or sober, tone-blind or genius--is a mere\nincident, and however _purposive_ or competent, is admitted by courtesy\nonly, and warned not to interfere too much with the Harp!\n\nTo build, and keep in order, and tune the Harp, constitutes the science of\nmusic. Some day, when we have leisure and inclination, we may turn our\nattention to the Musician, but that day seems far off. We admit that his\nfunction is _purposive_. He, no doubt, has designs on the Harp, and upon\nus, but we are handling musical instruments at present, and if he objects\nto our calling ourselves \"Musicians\" (psychologists) he is impertinent,\nand should study the science of music, or keep silent.\n\nI am not \"begging the question\" in regard to the human soul. I am simply\nemphasizing the fact of the Individual Intelligence, which, at the point\nof equilibrium, sweeps the strings with that harmony which is the soul of\nmusic.\n\nThis Harp of a thousand strings, is indeed, \"fearfully and wonderfully\nmade.\" Its physics and kinetics; its consonants and dissonants; its\nshifting keyboards; its changes in pitch, rhythm, and harmony from atom\nand molecule, to neurons, cells and mass; with the tides of life--blood,\nplasma, water, air, magnetism--sweeping the whole at every breath or pulse\nbeat, to the cry of the builder--Life--\"out with the old! in with the\nnew!\" and yet the _conscious identity_ in health, typically unchanged and\nunchanging--_causative_, _designed_, _scientific_--yea verily! and\n_purposive_, _human_, _intelligent_, _spiritual_, _divine_, but a dead\ncorpse, given over to decomposition the moment it is bereft of that\nsomething we feel, and know, and name--the _Individual Intelligence_--the\nMaster Musician; or the staggering, drunk, crazy fiddler, with this Harp\nof a thousand strings, twanging perhaps in a mad-house!\n\nPut the house in order; analyze, and classify; adjust the furniture with\nthe handmaids of science, art, and beauty in evidence and at call; but for\ngoodness' sake! stop hypnotizing the musician--\"Just a little\"--under the\nfallacy or the pretense of _strengthening_ the Will by _weakening_ it just\na little more! This is \"giving your patients fits, because you are death\non fits\"! Rescue Science from this atheromatous degeneration, and then\nsuppress the dabblers in \"black magic\" who pose as Hypnotists, as\nMuensterberg advises.\n\nFor clear intelligence and exhaustive analysis, Muensterberg's\n\"Psychotherapy\" is a masterpiece, but his psychic equation of _causative_\nand _purposive_, with all his mathesis, not only remains unsolved, but\nleads to confusion, from the false light shed on the unknown quantity, and\nhis failure to indicate the gnosis; the demarcation between automatism and\npurposive Intelligence.\n\nThat this confusion exists in the daily life of the average individual\nwhose evolution is still incomplete; that it constitutes a large per cent.\nof all cases of \"dominant ideas,\" obsessions, riotous emotions and\npassions; that it is nowhere recognized and defined in modern psychology,\nor made synthetically clear in modern philosophy, all these lapses make it\nall the more necessary that it should be clearly defined and made plain as\nthe basis of Scientific Psychology.\n\nIn addition to all this, if Muensterberg's conclusions and applications are\nunsound because psychologically unscientific at the point; for example,\nwhere he almost hesitatingly indorses hypnosis, however qualified or\nsafeguarded, he is certain to be quoted as authority on the subject by\nthose who will ignore all his qualifications to justify the practice.\n\nIn order to meet these imperative conditions, the attempt to formulate any\nphilosophy of psychology will not be made.\n\nEven were such an attempt made successfully, that would remove the\ndiscussion from the field of science, where it should by all means remain.\nWhat we need is a real science of life, and this should involve the whole\nmental and psychical realm, and lead ultimately to a knowledge of the\nhuman soul.\n\nRecognized facts in common experience only need be appealed to, though\ndifferent values will have to be placed upon some of these facts as their\nimportance is made plain.\n\nWe begin with the fact of consciousness. What it is, we do not know. What\nit means and does, we know very largely and broadly. In itself, it is\npurely passive. It never acts. Like space, it is the \"all container.\" It\nis the background, the theatre of our intelligence.\n\nWith the individual intelligence, plus, or with consciousness, we have\nawareness. This is perception, or cognition, still negative.\n\nThese basic conditions, faculties and capacities, are like a company of\nsoldiers on parade. Now comes the \"word of command\"--_Attention_!\n\nLatent consciousness--awareness--now becomes concentrated, focalized on\none point, one feeling, or emotion, or act. The soldiers \"dress up,\"\nglance down the line, and are ready to act. Then comes the action, the\nmovement, the drill, or the fight.\n\nThe drill master is also a soldier, but he is in command. He is called the\nWill. Without him and his recognized authority, the soldiers may be a mob,\nor a rabble. With him, they \"fall in line,\" give \"attention,\" \"dress up,\"\nand are ready to act.\n\nThese are facts, and are basic and primary in our conscious _awareness_\nand _attention_ in consciousness; the one negative, though inclusive; the\nother positive, and motor, or active.\n\nIn his \"Psychotherapy\" under the heading \"The Subconscious,\" Muensterberg\nhas much to say upon the meaning and differentiation of awareness,\nattention, and recognition, but he fails to point out in direct relation,\nat this point, the primary power--the Will, moved by the Individual\nIntelligence.\n\nLater in his work the will is recognized and frequently referred to, but\nfrom beginning to end he makes it incidental, rather than basic. When he\ncomes to broad groups of psychic phenomena, or pathological symptoms, the\nsounding board of Rational Volition is cracked and there is where hypnosis\nslips in.\n\nBroad as he has laid his foundations in physical and physiological\nsynthesis, he loses sight of its importance in the psychological;\nregarding as an incident that which is a basic principle of prime\nimportance. Schopenhauer went, perhaps, as far to the opposite extreme.\nPerhaps \"the truth will be found in the middle of the road.\"\n\nThe heir apparent, the prince regent, the lawful Sovereign, by heredity,\nby the laws of Nature, and \"by the Will of God,\" in this Tabernacle of\nMan, is the Individual Intelligence; no matter whether we recognize or\ndispute his rightful authority. His Prime Minister is the Human Will;\nwhether conspiring against, or co-operating with, the King. We may analyze\nthe foundation of the kingdom, and the affairs of state, and designate\nthem as _causative_, or _purposive_. We may see monarchy, or anarchy;\ndemocracy or republicanism; we may dethrone the king, and turn the state,\nliterally, into a mad-house; but all the facts of nature, conscious\nawareness, and Scientific Psychology, cry, with one voice, Hail to the\nKing! Long Live the King! I! Me! Mine! Myself! A fact so basic, that it is\nas patent to the child as to the man.\n\nNow comes the Juggler, the little Joker. Muensterberg has sufficiently\nrevealed the variety-stage, \"the Subconscious,\" and his biography of the\nvarious individual players and troupes is very elaborate. They are, one\nand all, _Suggestions_. And suggestion is the \"Juggler,\" and the \"little\nJoker.\"\n\nAfter the Intelligence and the Will, our awareness finds subjects and\nobjects, ideas, images, pictures, percepts and concepts.\n\nThat all these, both within and without, are Suggestive; that one idea, or\nimage, or object, suggests another, or others, no one will deny, who has\never _thought_ about his own thinking. It is like saying, all mental\npictures are composite; the elements of many kinds coming from many\nsources.\n\nSo far, _Suggestion_ is all right. It is awareness of an idea, percept,\nconcept, or act awakened, called to attention by another, with the\nquestion, how does it strike you? what do you think of it? what, if\nanything, do you wish, or propose to do about it?\n\nIt is purely negative, and suggests action or inhibition, without the\nslightest domination.\n\nRemember that the Will--rational Volition--is that power, which, from the\npoint of attention enables the individual to act, or refuse to consider,\nas he pleases.\n\nIf I suggest to my friend here in my library, that it is near train time;\nthat he can go if he chooses or remain with me all night, he is free to\nact on the suggestion and go or stay as he chooses. I have called to his\nattention certain facts of time, place, or circumstance, but left his will\nuntrammeled. If I am tired of him and wish him to go, or really wish him\nto stay, in either case it is still a suggestion, because I have left him\nfree to act or not. But in this case certain tones of my voice, not direct\nby touching the will, but coloring the feelings or emotions, color both\nhis preferences and my own. Even persuasion, the power of another example,\nthe placing of certain views or considerations before another, all these\nbut make the more clear and specific the suggestion. They reach the will\nthrough the inside, in the realm of ideation, and not from the outside, in\nthe way of domination. All these things are essential elements in social\nintercourse.\n\nIf, however, I have a motive in wishing my friend to go, or to stay, and\nhave determined in my own mind which it shall be; ignoring or overriding\nhis own choice; and if I use my will, or passes, or touch his eyes, or\nforehead, with the purpose of concentrating _his_ attention or will, on\n_my_ wish, or idea, or command, it is no longer free choice with him, but\ndomination; no longer suggestion, but hypnosis, pure and simple.\n\nThe confusion and juggling at this point has been made the sole excuse for\nhypnotism, through belittling or ignoring the importance, normal action,\nand supremacy of the human will.\n\nNo one denies that the exchange or forcible expression of ideas, percepts,\nmental pictures, or concepts, is suggestive. But the normal individual is\nfree to accept or reject them.\n\nEducation, bias, prejudice, and the like, have also much to do in\ndetermining results.\n\nBut the moment you interfere with the free choice of the individual and\ndominate toward your choice, regardless of his own, you enter the realm of\nhypnosis; deprive him, just to that degree, of free choice, and might as\nwell call it \"fiddlesticks\" as \"suggestion.\" It is domination, the\nmastery, so far as it goes or exists at all, of the will, voluntary\npowers, and sensory organs of one individual, by the will of another; thus\nreversing completely the process of nature.\n\nTo dominate the will of another is to weaken it. Timidity, apprehension,\nfear, are in inverse ratio to confidence, self-assurance, courage, and\nself-control.\n\nHealth, happiness, and self-development lie along the lines of man's\nhigher evolution, and the basic principle, the primary power, the minister\nof state, is the rational and intelligent Will.\n\nThe scientific theorem of Psychology can be nothing else than Nature's\nModulus of Man, with its root in Universal Intelligence. Man\nindividualizes and involves this Intelligence as he evolves form,\nfunction, adaptation, and adjustment, and at least secures and maintains\nperfect equilibrium.\n\nThis is Nature's Modulus, else the whole of human life is purposeless and\nmeaningless.\n\nGiven, then, an Individual Intelligence, endowed with self-consciousness;\nwith Rational Volition, the power to choose and to act or refuse to act;\nhow shall it master its environment; adapt itself to any conditions;\nsecure adjustment and become _Master_?\n\nThe starting point and the keynote from first to last is Self-Control.\n\nThen come high Ideals, intelligent choice, and the will backed by\ndiscrimination and judgment. These lead to understanding and wisdom.\n\nThe \"courage of one's convictions,\" can be neither conceited nor blatant\negotism, but a readiness to assume full responsibility of motives, acts,\nand results.\n\nThis recognition of Personal Responsibility is what we call _Conscience_.\nIt is the Judgment-seat of the Individual Intelligence in the Kingdom of\nits own Soul, or realm of consciousness. The moment this throne totters,\nor is obscured, devolution begins, and degeneration, insanity, and Inferno\nlie that way.\n\nIt does not change one principle involved, or weaken either Modulus or\nTheorem when we reflect that most equations are ended by death, long\nbefore being brought to successful solution. For the time they are\ncertainly interrupted.\n\nNeither do the babel of tongues, the theories, theologies, or philosophies\nchange either Modulus or Theorem, because they are grounded in\ndemonstrated facts, recognized, either vaguely or clearly, in the\nconscious experience of every intelligent thinking man and woman.\n\nConstructive Psychology, based upon Science, for the building of character\nby persistent effort, increasing continually all personal resources, means\nthe normal higher evolution of man.\n\nSo-called religions and the life after death have been purposely left\nunconsidered.\n\nIf we really have a Science of the Soul--the Individual\nIntelligence--based upon psychological facts, demonstrated in the\ndaily experience of every healthy individual, it touches religion at\nits most vital point, viz.: ethics or morals. If these ethical\nprinciples are true and demonstrable, they must constitute the foundation\nof religion as of ethics. If morals are strengthened and made clear,\nand Personal Responsibility as Conscience, is recognized and accepted,\nthe Vicarious Atonement will have to go, and Theologians will have to\nchange their mystical and miraculous interpretations from Vicarious\nAtonement to personal at-one-ment with _Christos_.\n\nThe \"miraculous conception,\" and \"virgin birth,\" held equally in regard to\nChristna centuries before, and also the literal resurrection of the\nphysical body will have to be otherwise explained.\n\nThe purposive view as one full term of the psychological equation, will\nfind uniform law and order in place of the credulous legends of ignorant\nand superstitious monks, while the Divine Man will be taken down from the\ncross and restored to the heart of humanity, as the Modulus of Nature,\n_realized_ as a normal evolution, under natural and spiritual law.\n\nSalvation from sin, ignorance, superstition, and fear, will be recognized\nas the result of \"Leading the Life,\" and Vicarious only through a divine\nexample; or, if you please, _legitimate Suggestion_; with personal effort,\nrational volition, and personal responsibility working in harmony toward\nthe desired result.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION TWO THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nOUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA\n\n\nIt is more than thirty years since in Southern Europe, England, and\nAmerica, a genuine Renaissance of Vedic literature, philosophy, and\nreligion began to assume a popular form and to become accessible to the\ngeneral reading public.\n\nScholars, like Sir William Jones, had for the past century been familiar\nwith the ancient civilization and the Vedic literature and the study of\nSanscrit had made some progress in the Universities.\n\nThe idea, however, that these antiquities had any vital interest to us,\nbeyond curious myths and obsolete superstitions, had not been perceived,\nmuch less admitted.\n\nThe antiquity of man, and the Philosophy of Evolution, had opened new\nfields for thought, and necessitated a revision of all previous concepts\nof man and nature.\n\nOld records and interpretations were everywhere revised, and the\ninterpretations of the Mosaic records were challenged at every point.\n\nPopular religions were up in arms and were compelled to adjust themselves\nto the new regime.\n\nBut even after this century of progress and enlightenment, it has scarcely\nyet dawned on the mind of theologians that the challenge of science was,\nafter all, insignificant, compared with that which was to come, and for\nwhich modern science had paved the way.\n\nThe whole realm of theology, and the foundations of religion, were to\nundergo revision.\n\nFacts incontestable were being gathered and proofs established beyond all\npossible denial, or controversy, that all modern theologies and religions\nwere copied and adapted from Vedic and ante-Vedic sources, antedating our\npresent era by more than two thousand years.\n\nThe superficial and devout churchman, whose faith is fortified on the one\nhand by superstition, and on the other at least borders on fanaticism, is\napt to be resentful in the presence of these facts, and, falling back on\nthe infallibility and plenary inspiration of the Bible, to declare that if\nhis own superficial interpretations are questioned or denied, Religion\nwill be done for and mankind left in utter darkness.\n\nHe does not perceive that the facts of nature and the essentials of\nreligion are one thing, and man's _interpretation_ of them another thing\nentirely.\n\nHe does not perceive how these ignorant and superstitious interpretations\nof men have set at naught the real life of Jesus and the teachings of the\nChrist.\n\nHe does not realize how doctrine has usurped the place of duty, and\ndogmatism has hardened the soul of man.\n\nOne thing, however, is inevitable. Facts and evidence as to origin,\nanalogies, and adaptation of the Christian Mysteries from ancient India,\nare widely known, and the time has come when these mysteries are being\nexamined as to their intrinsic meaning and their bearing on the daily life\nof man and the progress of the human race.\n\nThe author of this little book has only attempted a bare outline of these\ngreat facts, and to put them in such shape that the reader may perceive\ntheir general bearing, and the sources whence they are derived.\n\nThe following extracts made almost at random, the quantity of evidence\nbeing so redundant, from Jacolliot's \"Bible in India,\" a translation of\nwhich was made in this country as early as 1873, and Prof. Max Mueller's\nLectures, \"India, What Can It Teach Us?\" printed here more than a quarter\nof a century ago, will give the reader the evidence and the assurance that\nthese ancient sources of wisdom are scarcely yet known in outline to the\nWestern World.\n\nJacolliot spent many years in India, studying its present civilization and\nits ancient lore, while Prof. Max Mueller derived his knowledge largely\nfrom study of Sanscrit and the Vedanta.\n\n\"Soil of Ancient India, cradle of humanity, hail! Hail, venerable and\nefficient nurse, whom centuries of brutal invasion have not yet buried\nunder the dust of oblivion! Hail, fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry,\nand of science. May we hail a revival of thy past in our Western future.\n\n\"I have dwelt 'midst the depths of your mysterious forests, seeking to\ncomprehend the language of your lofty nature, and the evening airs that\nmurmured 'midst the foliage of banyans and tamarinds whispered to my\nspirit these three magic words: Zeus, Jehovah, Brahma.\n\n\"I have inquired of Brahmins and priests under the porches of temples and\nancient pagodas, and they have replied:\n\n\"'To live is to think, and to think is to study God, who is all, and in\nall....\n\n\"'To live is to learn, to learn is to examine and to fathom in all their\nperceptible forms the innumerable manifestations of celestial power.\n\n\"'To live is to be useful; to live is to be just; and we learn to be\nuseful and just in studying this book of the Vedas, which is the word of\neternal wisdom, the principle of principles as revealed to our fathers.'\"\n(\"The Bible in India,\" p. 15.)\n\nPlotinus, the Neoplatonist, said: \"God is not the principal of beings, but\nthe principle of principles.\"\n\nThis was the Hindoo concept of _Para Brahm_ two thousand years before.\n\n\"In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as\nthat of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life--it will be the\nsolace of my death. [Schopenhauer, quoted by Max Mueller.] ... If I were to\nlook over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with\nall the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow--in some parts a\nvery paradise on earth--I should point to India. If I were asked under\nwhat sky the human mind had most fully developed some of its choicest\ngifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has\nfound solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of\nthose who have studied Plato and Kant--I should point to India. And if I\nwere to ask myself from what literature we, here in Europe, we who have\nbeen nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and\nof one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most\nwanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive,\nmore universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only,\nbut a transfigured and eternal life--again I should point to India.\"\n\nThe reader should remember that this is not the _opinion_ of an ignorant\nenthusiast, but the mature judgment of one of the most profound scholars\nand Sanscritists in Europe in his day--Prof. Max Mueller.\n\n\"The study of Mythology has assumed an entirely new character, chiefly\nowing to the light that has been thrown on it by the ancient Vedic\nMythology of India.\n\n\"Buddhism is now known to have been the principal source of our legends\nand parables.\"\n\nThe story of the two women who claimed each to be the mother of the same\nchild is found literally in the Kanjur, translated from the Buddhist\nTripitake, and the \"Judgment of Solomon\" is only a copy of the older\nstory.\n\n\"The history of all histories, and yet the mystery of all mysteries--take\nreligion, and where can you study its true origin, its natural growth and\nits inevitable decay better than in India, the home of Brahmanism, the\nbirthplace of Buddhism, and the refuge of Zoroastrianism.\n\n\"Take any of the burning questions of the day--popular education, higher\neducation, parliamentary representation, codification of laws, finance,\nemigration, poor-law, and whether you have anything to teach and to try,\nor anything to observe and to learn, India will supply you with a\nlaboratory such as exists nowhere else.\n\n\"And in the study of the history of the human mind, and the study of\nourselves, of our true selves, India occupies a place second to no other\ncountry. Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for your special\nstudy, whether it be language, or religion, or mythology, or philosophy,\nwhether it be laws or customs, primitive art or primitive science,\neverywhere, you have to go to India, whether you like it or not, because\nsome of the most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of\nman are treasured up in India, and in India only.\n\n\"Sleeman tells us men (in India) adhere habitually and religiously to the\ntruth, and 'I have had before me hundreds of cases,' he says, 'in which a\nman's property, liberty, and life have depended upon his telling a lie,\nand he has refused to tell it.' Could many an English judge say the same?\"\n(Remarks by Prof. Mueller.)\n\nProf. Mueller quotes from an Arabian writer of the thirteenth century, \"The\nIndians are innumerable, like grains of sand, free from all deceit and\nviolence. They fear neither death nor life.\"\n\nAnd again, from Marco Polo, in the thirteenth century, \"You must know,\nMarco Polo says, that these Abralaman (Hindoos) are the best merchants in\nthe world, and the most truthful, for they would not tell a lie for\nanything on earth.\"\n\n\"In the sixteenth century Abu Fazl, the minister of the Emperor Akbar,\nsays in his 'Ayin Akbari,' 'The Hindus are religious, affable, cheerful,\nlovers of justice, given to retirement, able in business, admirers of\ntruth, grateful and of unbounded fidelity, and their soldiers know not\nwhat it is to fly from the field of battle.'\"\n\n(How badly these \"poor heathen\" were in need of the Jesuit missionary, and\nthe British government and civilization!)\n\nProf. Mueller quotes Warren Hastings regarding the Hindus in general, as\nfollows, \"They are gentle and benevolent, more susceptible of gratitude\nfor kindness shown them, and less prompted to vengeance for wrongs\ninflicted, than any people on the face of the earth--faithful,\naffectionate, submissive to legal authority.\"\n\nBishop Heber said, \"The Hindus are brave, courteous, intelligent, most\neager for knowledge and improvement, sober, industrious, dutiful to\nparents, affectionate to their children, uniformly gentle and patient, and\nmore easily affected by kindness and attention to their wants and feelings\nthan any people I ever met with.\"\n\nElphinstone said, \"No set of people among the Hindus are so depraved as\nthe dregs of our own great towns.\" (It might have been wiser to have\nemployed English missionaries at home.)\n\nSir Thomas Munro bears even stronger testimony. He writes, \"If a good\nsystem of agriculture, unrivaled manufacturing-skill, a capacity to\nproduce whatever can contribute to either convenience or luxury, schools\nestablished in every village for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic,\nthe general practice of hospitality, and charity among each other, and\nabove all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect, and\ndelicacy, are among the signs which denote a civilized people--then the\nHindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe--and if civilization is\nto become an article of trade between England and India, _I am convinced\nthat England will gain by the import cargo_.\n\n\"Even at the present moment, after a century of English rule and English\nteaching, I believe that Sanskrit is more widely understood in India, than\nLatin was in Europe at the time of Dante.\n\n\"There are thousands of Brahmans, even now, when so little inducement\nexists for Vedic studies, who know the whole of the Rig-Veda by heart, and\ncan repeat it, and what applies to the Rig-Veda, applies to many other\nbooks.\" (Ten thousand and seventeen hymns.)\n\nSpeaking of other and later literature, Prof. Mueller says, \"It is\ndifferent with the ancient literature of India, the literature dominated\nby the Vedic and Buddhistic religions. That literature opens to us a\nchapter in what has been called the Education OF THE HUMAN RACE, TO WHICH\nWE CAN FIND NO PARALLEL anywhere else. Whoever cares for the historical\ngrowth of our language, that is, of our thoughts; whoever cares for the\nintelligible development of religion and mythology, whoever cares for the\nfirst foundation of what in later times we call the sciences of astronomy,\nmetronomy, grammar and etymology; whoever cares for the first intimations\nof philosophical thought; for the first attempts at regulating family\nlife, village life, and state life, as founded on religion, ceremonial,\ntradition and contact (Samaya), must in future pay the same attention to\nthe literature of the Vedic period as to the literature of Greece and Rome\nand Germany.\n\n\"I maintain then that for a study of man, or, if you like, for a study of\nAryan humanity, there is nothing in the world equal in importance with the\nVeda.\n\n\"The aristocracy of those who know--_di color che sanno_--or try to know,\nis open to all who are willing to enter, to all who have a feeling for the\npast; an interest in the genealogy of our thoughts, and a reverence for\nthe ancestry of our intellect, who are, in fact, historians in the true\nsense of the word, i.e. inquirers into that which is past, but not lost.\n\n\"But if we mean by primitive the people who have been the first of the\nAryan race to leave behind literary relics of their existence on earth,\nthen I say the Vedic poets are primitive; the Vedic language is primitive;\nthe Vedic religion is primitive, and, taken as a whole, _more primitive\nthan anything else that we are ever likely to recover in the whole history\nof our race_....\n\n\"For this reason, because the religion of the Veda was so completely\nguarded from all strange infection, it is full of lessons which the\nstudent of religion could learn nowhere else.\"\n\nThe foregoing quotations have been made from a little volume, \"India: What\nCan It Teach Us?\" published by Funk and Wagnalls in 1883, and sold at 25\ncents, so that these statements of Prof. Max Mueller have been accessible\nfor more than a quarter of a century.\n\nSince 1883, however, we have heard more and more of the \"Wisdom of Old\nIndia.\"\n\nThe whole Theosophical movement, degenerate as it may have become in some\ndirections, and much as it has been misinterpreted, and ridiculed and\nexploited in others, was primarily a sincere and earnest attempt \"to bring\nthe Secret Doctrine of ancient India within reach of Western students,\" to\npromote the brotherhood of man; the study of ancient philosophy and the\npsychical powers latent in man. There are thousands of intelligent and\nearnest students all over the world who have been uplifted, illuminated,\nand encouraged by these studies. When the true history of the present\nepoch comes to be written, there can be no shadow of doubt as to the\nrecognition that will be accorded to H. P. Blavatsky and her aims, her\nlife, and her work.\n\nBut such movements as are going on in the world, continually change their\nbase, their methods, and their prospective. While the new awakening\nunmistakably goes back to old India, and compels a review and a\nreadjustment of all our knowledge, and all our hopes and aims, another\nspirit has entered our intellectual realm, and compelled attention and\nrecognition.\n\nIt has made for itself a habitation and a name, and nothing less than a\ncataclysm can altogether overthrow it.\n\nIt is the Genius of Scientific Criticism, Research, and Demonstration.\n\nThe \"Mistakes of Moses\" may indeed be paralleled by those of modern\nphysical science, and these are being revealed side by side with those of\ntheology and dogmatic assertion.\n\nIt has hardly yet dawned upon the mind of the physical scientist that the\nconcept of the psychical and spiritual life and nature of man comprises,\nwith the world of matter and form, a complete theorem of human life. He is\noften as incredulous, resentful, and contemptuous as the creed-bound\nreligionist at the approach of more light, and the suggestion that all\nthese essential problems were included and solved ages ago in ancient\nAryavarta; and that \"the few who know,\" the ancient order of the\n_Illuminati_, now designated the \"School of Natural Science,\" has\ntreasured this knowledge for ages.\n\nThe Vedas are not only ancient, but complicated and diffuse, and the busy\nlife of the modern student will hardly suffice for the mastery of their\nwisdom, or the understanding of their secrets.\n\nWhen, however, this ancient wisdom is condensed and epitomized, in perfect\nharmony with the concepts, the methods, and the demonstrations of Natural\nScience, the \"Jewel in the Lotus,\"--to use a Vedic synonym,--will appear\nin all its beauty and glory, to all who have eyes to see, and ears to\nhear, with determination to \"honor every truth by use,\" and loyal\nservice.\n\nIn the foregoing quotations it may be seen what this real knowledge did\nfor the people of ancient India in building character on constructive\nlines, promoting justice, equity, charity, and kindness among the common\npeople, and the teeming millions of India, when our Saxon and Norman\nancestors were still barbarians, and before the Jew or the Christian were\neven dreamed of.\n\nIn the following quotations from Jacolliot's \"Bible in India,\" an outline\nwill be given as to the source of some of our myths, pantheons, and\nreligions.\n\nThese brief and imperfect outlines from two small and generally forgotten\nbooks, ought to satisfy any intelligent and unbiased student how\ncompletely the general thesis may be demonstrated from the ancient records\nthemselves.\n\nThe books from which these quotations are made are like kindergarten\nprimers for the use of beginners.\n\nThe present writer's interest in and study of Theosophy and the Secret\nDoctrine were instigated by Schopenhauer's \"World as Will and Idea.\" He\nfound how largely Schopenhauer had drawn from the Upanishads (see previous\nquotation), and how little, after all, his \"Philosophy\" had utilized the\nancient Wisdom. Hence he resolved to seek the ancient sources of\nknowledge, and has been trying his best to apprehend and utilize them, the\nhoarded wisdom of the ages.\n\nHe is not in the least anxious to gain recognition for, or to seek to\nrehabilitate old India, for its own sake. She speaks for herself, through\nthe centuries of the past, and will continue to speak and to influence all\ncoming time.\n\nJacolliot shows, however, a little irritation at this point over the\nsuppression of facts, the brutality of marauding invaders, and the\nwholesale and brazen appropriation without the least credit to India's\nstore of wisdom.\n\nThe present writer is, however, exceedingly desirous that his\nfellow-students in the West should discover, recognize, and utilize this\nancient mine of wisdom for themselves.\n\nIts day of recognition is just now at the dawn, and the most pressing\nproblems concerning the real nature, the spiritual possibilities, and the\neternal destiny of the soul of man, are pressing and burning questions\nto-day.\n\nThat these problems do not wait solution by modern physical science and\nphysio-psychology, but await only the understanding and acceptance of\nevery earnest and intelligent student, is easily demonstrated. It\nchallenges the world to-day, as it has not done before for many\nmillenniums, and the issues are to be tried out to a scientific\ndemonstration.\n\nThe preferences and prejudices of partisans will not be consulted, nor\nwill they in the least interrupt the progress, nor interfere with the\nsolution.\n\nThe question is no longer, \"What think ye of Jesus?\" but \"What _know_ ye\nof your own soul?\" A new faith will supersede the old superstitions.\n\nFaith, from the viewpoint of Natural Science, is \"the soul's intuitive\n_conviction_ of that which both reason and conscience approve.\" Blind\nfaith, or belief, is ever the handmaid of superstition. The new faith is\nthe harbinger, the promise, and the potency of knowledge, the anchor of\nthe soul, and the armor of righteousness.\n\nThis is indeed the language of confidence, and it should be put to the\ntest of science and experience.\n\nThe scornful and the contemptuous are not even _invited_! They are left\nalone with their Idols.\n\nComing now more directly to the splendid work of Jacolliot, one thing I\nthink ought to be apparent to every honest and intelligent reader of \"The\nBible in India,\" and that is, that its author is in no sense a partisan of\nHinduism, but a searcher and witness for the simple Truth as he finds and\napprehends it.\n\nHe puts aside mystery, miracle, and Divine Revelation, as dispassionately\nin the Vedic, Brahmanical, and Buddhistic cults, as in the Mosaic and\nChristian. Belief in God, and reverence for Truth in the light of reason\nand conscience, shine from every page of his work.\n\nTo flippantly call him an \"atheist,\" or a \"destroyer of holy things,\" as\nthough that were in any sense an answer to his thesis, and which formerly\nwas the rule, and may even now be attempted in certain quarters, will\nsimply brand the bigot as by no means intelligent--if indeed honest--who\nattempts it. The majority of such sectarians have grown wise or prudent\nenough to ignore all such issues.\n\nThere has been a great change in public sentiment since Jacolliot went to\nIndia as an earnest student of these subjects, and in the nearly forty\nyears since he wrote this book.\n\nThe saying that \"Truth passes through three phases before being accepted,\"\nspecially applies here. First, people say, \"It is not true.\" Second, \"It\ncontradicts Scripture,\" and when it at last is triumphant, that\n\"_Everybody knew it before_.\"\n\nThe truths of which Jacolliot writes have already reached at least the\nbeginning of the third stage. Of course, \"Everybody\" here means those who\nread, and think, and dare to use conscience and reason.\n\nIn referring to a religious debate between a missionary and a Brahman, and\nthe universal interest manifested among all classes as to the outcome of\nthe encounter, \"hooting the vanquished in either case with strict\nimpartiality,\" Jacolliot adds, \"We shall be less surprised at this when it\nis known that there is not a Hindoo, whatever his rank or caste, who does\nnot know the principles of the Holy Scripture, that is, the Vedas, and who\ndoes not _perfectly know how to read and write_.\"\n\nThree hundred and forty millions of people, thousands of them pariahs and\noutcasts, sharing refuse with the dogs, with no rights that any one else\nis bound to respect, bowing their faces in the dust when a Brahman passes\nten paces away--and yet everyone can read and write!\n\nMax Mueller said he had had in his study at Oxford a young Hindoo who could\nrepeat the whole of the Mahabharata _without missing a word or an\ninflection_ from beginning to end.\n\nThese are some of the _remnants_ in the decline of old India after\nthousands of years of Brahman rule and slavish domination of the people to\npreserve their own exclusive caste and exploitation. Western people have\nyet to learn the inevitable tendency, and the invariable rule of\nexploitation of the people, by a dominant priesthood, and the poverty and\ndegradation of the masses that always results. It has never once failed in\nthis result in three thousand years.\n\nThe whole of Southern Europe is already awakening to a realization of this\nresult to-day. It is accomplished in the name of \"Religion\" by those who\ncall themselves \"Viceregents of God,\" and who arrogantly trample on the\nrights of conscience, and the freedom of man.\n\nBrahmanism first set the example as originators of this slavish\nabomination.\n\nThe studies and investigations of Jacolliot in India, go back to the Vedic\nor pre-Brahmanic age; then to the rise, development, and slow decline of\nBrahmanism; then the epoch of Christna; the influence of Buddha, and his\nbeing driven out of India by the powerful Brahmans; and finally, to the\npresent poverty and degradation of the millions through foreign invasion\nand domination.\n\nThe ruling Brahmans had neither thought nor desire for _Constructive\nNationality_. In their pride and lust for power and gold, even in their\njust pride over their inheritance from Vedic ancestors, and wisdom,\nPatriotism was unknown to them. Invaders contended with them in robbing\nand enslaving the people.\n\nThe people who despised and hated the foreign invader dare not, even yet,\nto rise against their real despoilers--the Brahmans--or defy or break\ntheir power.\n\nIt is the Vedic literature, and the earliest, or pre-Brahmanic time that\nJacolliot lauds so highly, and in which he finds and demonstrates, the\nexistence of the sources of all human knowledge.\n\nIt will be ignorant folly, therefore, for the bigot and the sectarian to\nattempt to answer or oppose him, by referring to the condition of the\npeople of India as it is to-day.\n\nJacolliot simply shows the causes that have led to the present\ndegradation.\n\nIt is _priestcraft_, despite the Vedic wisdom, and the missions and\nteaching of Christna and Buddha.\n\nAll this Jacolliot demonstrates beyond all controversy.\n\nThe bulk of his work consists in demonstrating the source of Greek and\nRoman Mythology, Language, Law, Philosophy, etc., and equally of every\nJewish and Christian doctrine and tradition.\n\nJacolliot shows that as the French code is copied or adapted from the\nJustinian, so equally the Justinian was derived from that of Manu, many\ncenturies previously. And what is true of Law is equally true of\nphilosophy, theology, morals, and the principles of science, art,\narchitecture, and all the rest.\n\nThe Hindoos were demoralized by the priests, but the moral degradation\nextended even to them, and the arms they employed were turned against\nthemselves.\n\n\"The first result of the baneful domination of priests in India was the\nabasement and moral degradation of woman, so respected and honored during\nthe Vedic period.\n\n\"If you would reign over the persons of slaves, over brutalized\nintelligence, the history of these infamous epochs presents a means of\nunequaled simplicity. _Degrade and demoralize the woman_, and you will\nsoon have made of man a debased creature, without energy to struggle\nagainst the darkest despotisms; for, according to the fine expression of\nthe Vedas, 'the woman is the soul of humanity.'\"\n\nAs did the Brahman priesthood, when through greed and ambition they\nforsook the ancient wisdom, so do the priesthood of Rome, with their\ncelibacy added to the abominations and opportunities of the confessional.\n\nSearch the records of all time, and the traditions and customs of every\npeople, and you will find nowhere else such recognition and reverence paid\nto woman as in the early Vedic days.\n\n\"Let it be well understood,\" says Jacolliot, \"that it was but sacerdotal\ninfluence and Brahminical decay that, in changing the primitive condition\nof the East, reduced woman to a state of subordination which has not yet\ndisappeared from our social system.\n\n\"Let us read these maxims taken at hazard from the sacred books of India.\"\n(I quote only a few.) \"Man is strength--woman is beauty; he is the reason\nthat governs, but she is the wisdom that moderates; the one cannot exist\nwithout the other, and hence the Lord created them two, for the one\npurpose.\n\n\"He who despises woman, despises his mother.\n\n\"Who is cursed by a woman, is cursed by God.\n\n\"The tears of woman call down the fire of heaven on those who make them\nflow.\n\n\"The songs of women are sweet in the ears of the Lord; men should not, if\nthey wish to be heard, sing the praise of God without women.\n\n\"Women should be protected with tenderness, and gratified with gifts, by\nall who wish for length of days.\n\n\"It was at the prayer of a woman that the Creator pardoned man; cursed be\nhe who forgets it.\" (See the Vedic \"Garden of Eden.\")\n\nMoses, trained only in the decay of the old religion by the degenerate\npriests of Egypt, while drawing his legend of creation from the ancient\nVedic source, reverses all this and places the blame of the \"Fall\" on\nwoman, and the women of the Bible are more often concubines and\nprostitutes than Love's pure evangels as in the ancient days. Jacolliot\nproves this from many citations, as witness also the following: (Numbers,\nChapter XXI.)\n\n\"And Moses was enraged against the chief officers of the army, against the\ntribunes, and the centurions who returned from battle.\n\n\"And he said unto them, Why have you saved the women and the children?\n\n\"Slay therefore all the males amongst the children, and the women who have\nbeen married.\n\n\"But reserve for yourselves all the young girls who are still virgins.\"\n\nMoses spoke \"in the name of God,\" as does his Holiness at Rome to-day.\nComment is hardly necessary. A few more quotations from the Vedas:\n\n\"A virtuous woman needs no purification, for she is never defiled, even by\ncontact with impurity.\n\n\"Women should be shielded by fostering solicitude by their fathers, their\nbrothers, their husbands, and the brothers of their husbands, if they hope\nfor great prosperity.\n\n\"When women are honored, the divinities are content, but where they are\nnot honored, all undertakings fail.\"\n\nThe sacerdotal caste in Egypt followed the inspiration of the Brahmans,\nand took care to make no change in that situation.\n\nAnd Moses followed the example of the priests of Egypt, where woman was a\nslave or a prostitute in the temples as out.\n\nThe degeneracy of a people, the decay of religion, and the degradation of\nwoman are inseparable, and it is so-called \"religion\" that institutes the\nchange, and sets the pace, \"down the steep descent.\"\n\nThe Brahmans \"forgot God\" and instituted the worship of saints and holy\nmen, and mythological characters, just as Rome does to-day. The women of\nAmerica to-day by a consensus of public opinion should make auricular\nconfession _disreputable_.\n\nExcommunication, which is such a power in the hands of Rome, is merely a\nsubterfuge and substitute for the degradation of \"outcasts,\" and pariahs,\ninstituted by the Brahman priests to terrify the disobedient and retain\ntheir power.\n\nIf the reader cares to know the danger and the degradation to woman\nfostered and protected through the Confessional by the Celibate Roman\npriesthood, he should read \"The History of Auricular Confession,\" by De\nLasteyrie, translated into English and printed in London in 1848. Now and\nthen a Pope or a council undertook to institute reform, but found, as in\nSpain, prostitution of women by priests through the confessional so\nwidespread and universal that they more often gave up the attempt through\nfear of scandal and contempt for the Church itself.\n\nLecky, in his \"History of European Morals,\" records the case of \"the\nabbot-elect of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, who in 1171 was found on\ninvestigation to have _seventeen illegitimate children in a single\nvillage_; or, an abbot of St. Pelayo, in Spain, who in 1130 was proved to\nhave kept no less than seventy concubines; or Henry III, Bishop of Liege,\nwho was deposed in 1274 for having sixty-five illegitimate children.\"\n(History of European Morals. P. 350.)\n\nIf the reader remarks that \"this is ancient history,\" he should remember\nthat a celibate priesthood to-day have the same opportunity, through the\nsecrecy and power of the Confessional, as ever.\n\nI have barely touched on this disgusting but all-important question on the\ngeneral thesis of Jacolliot, viz.: \"The first result of the baneful\ndomination of priests in India was the abasement and moral degradation of\nwoman.\"\n\nRome, who derived her religious code from paganized Egypt, added celibacy\nto the opportunities and inducements for the degradation of woman. Rome\nnever attained the heights from which the Brahman priesthood plunged into\ndebauchery. Even to-day in the festivals in the Brahman temples wholesale\norgies of prostitution are sometimes found, as witnessed and recorded by\nJacolliot. From the first, Brahman priests have married and reared\nfamilies. Their degradation and debauchery, therefore, cannot be charged\nto their original \"Divine Revelation,\" but to their corruption of it.\n\nI have given a few brief quotations among hundreds recorded by Jacolliot\nas to the respect and veneration accorded to woman in early Vedic times,\nand in the Laws of Manu.\n\n\"The Brahman may not approach the altar of sacrifice _but with a soul\npure, in a body undefiled_.\n\n\"Spirituous liquors beget drunkenness, neglect of duty, and they profane\nprayer.\n\n\"The antiquity of India stands forth to establish its priority of\nreligious legislation in prohibiting to priests the use of spirituous\nliquors, and especially in forbidding the pleasures of love when they are\nabout to offer sacrifice.\n\n\"The woman whose words and thoughts and person are pure is a celestial\nbalm.\n\n\"Happy shall he be whose choice is approved by all the good.\n\n\"It is ordained that a devotee shall choose a wife from his own class.\n\n\"The Brahman who marries a woman who is not a virgin, who is a widow, or\ndivorced by her husband, or who is not known as a virtuous woman, cannot\nbe permitted to offer sacrifice, for he is impure, and nothing can cleanse\nhim from his impurities.\"\n\nAnd Jacolliot adds, \"It is not recorded, says the divine Manu, that a\nBrahman has ever, even by compulsion, married a girl of low class.\n\n\"Let the Brahman espouse a Brahmine, says the Veda.\n\n\"Let him take a well-formed virgin, of an agreeable name, of the graceful\ncarriage of the swan, or of the young elephant, whose body is covered with\nlight down, her hair fine, her teeth small, and her limbs charmingly\ngraceful.\"\n\nJacolliot compares these early Vedic injunctions with Leviticus, Chapter\nXXI, and the absurdities introduced by Moses as to a \"crooked nose or a\nsquint eye.\"\n\nWoman here in the West is just emerging from the slavery and degradation\nof ages, and she _ought_ to know that that degradation was not the\nhandicap of barbaric and undeveloped races, so far as the Aryan race is\nconcerned, but a demoralization and degradation instituted by priests, in\nthe name of religion, through which they have sought to rule the world,\nand so far as institutional religions are concerned, woman has had to\nprogress _in spite of them_.\n\nWithout the aid and influence of woman to-day, neither Protestant nor\nRoman Church could exist at all, as witness almost any Sabbath service\nwhere women outnumber men often ten to one.\n\nOne day woman will be wise enough and brave enough to dictate terms, as\nshe did ages ago in old Aryavarta. When that day comes, and the really\nDivine Motherhood planted in every true woman's soul is recognized by man\nand woman alike, God grant that she may thenceforth hold the fort till the\nKali-Yuga is at full tide, and the Spiritual Evolution of our present\nHumanity is fully accomplished.\n\nIn the meantime the world will have learned to _know_ Jesus, who and what\nhe was, and how he became the Christ, and will have joined in his Divine\nMission to man, as the teeming millions joined in old India under Christna\nages ago.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nHERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE\n\n\nThe history of every people, of all time, and of every religion of which\nwe have any record, reveals a similar origin, course, and destiny.\n\nWe of the present day have the advantage of these records upon which to\ninstitute comparisons, ascertain relations, and draw conclusions.\n\nTrue, the partisans and postulants of all these religions at the present\nday will claim exception in favor of their own cult, and regard as\nsacrilegious and profane any attempt to institute comparisons and draw\ngeneral conclusions.\n\nAny attempt to persuade them of their error would be useless.\n\nThe essentials of their religion will not be called in question, but on\nthe other hand, they will find that it is impossible to escape from the\nhabitual and universal tendencies in which they are involved.\n\nHowever veritable may have been the original revelations, the tendencies\nand habits of weaving around them the traditions and superstitions of\nfolklore seem to have been inevitable and universal.\n\nIt is the province of Science to ascertain the facts in any given case, to\ninstitute comparisons, and to draw deductions and generalizations\ndispassionately and relentlessly.\n\nIt is thus that every tradition, superstition, creed, dogma, and\nrevelation comes under review, and is placed on trial.\n\nTrue science has no preconceived notion, no foregone conclusion. Each\nsubject examined must tell its own story and in its own way, and stand or\nfall measured by intrinsic evidence and revealed fact.\n\nTo this tribunal every episode in the life of man and the history of the\nhuman race must at last come.\n\nWhat are the _facts_? What do they reveal and signify?\n\nTo most religionists this method and aim of science seem as relentless and\ndogmatic as their own creed or dogmas.\n\nIt is a sifting and discriminative process, that, while relentless, is in\nthe end eminently Just, and in the end will be found to be the revealer of\nall that is essential and true in religion itself.\n\nIn itself, science is not and never can be a religion.\n\nIt is a _method_ only, which, like a search-light, reveals all religions\nin all their essentials, and places them in their true light.\n\nReligion _per se_ is an essential element in the nature and life of man\nand of the human race.\n\nScience is a method, a way of procedure in the intelligent mind of man in\nits search for truth.\n\nReligion is vital, essential, basic. It is born of the relation which\ninheres in the kinship of the individual intelligence to the Universal\nSpirit of Nature and of all life.\n\nScience is the intelligent and rational use of the mental powers of man.\n\nReligion is intuitional, spiritual perception, involving the heart, the\naffections. Man aspires, worships, adores, and by the light of Faith or\nintuitive conviction, recognizes that which he cannot explain and cannot\nget rid of if he tries.\n\nScience is the just weight and measure of things seen, and of the natural\ncauses of phenomena.\n\nReligion--the evidence of things unseen. Religion, as a _fact_, can never\nbe explained away by Science.\n\nThe so-called science that assumes or undertakes to do that, is\nmaterialism and nescience.\n\nSuperstition is the false interpretation of religion, and folklore and\ntradition are the accretions that gather around the foundations and\noriginal revelations of religion, and lead at last to obscuration and the\nneed of a new revelation.\n\nEach genuine new \"revelation\" is but the rehabilitation of the primeval\nreligion in which accretions, false interpretations, and dogmatic\nassertions are cast aside.\n\nReligion represents man's endeavor to apprehend and interpret the unseen;\nthat \"something more\" and \"something beyond\" the visible, the sensuous,\nand the tangible.\n\nIt is this conscious _awareness_ of something more and something beyond\nthe visible and the tangible, that furnishes man with a conception of God\nand of the human soul. This is a natural intuition, inseparable from the\n_awareness_ of self. It lies at the foundation like man's self-conscious\nidentity, and can neither be explained nor explained away.\n\nHere lies the root of all religions. The imagery of man's imagination, in\nhis effort to apprehend the unseen, and to formulate the unknown, gives\nrise to myths, allegory, tradition, folklore, and in the end, to\nsuperstition, creed, and dogma.\n\nThen come priestcraft, oppression, persecution. The death of religion, the\ndeification of the revealer or _Avatar_, and the substitution of the\npriesthood as of divine authority, in place of the _revealer_ or the\nrevelation.\n\nJove, Orpheus, Jehovah, and at last Jesus, are enthroned beyond the\nclouds, and priest or church assume the earthly prerogative, speak in\ntheir place, assume dogmatic authority, promise heaven and happiness for\nobedience, and dire penalties for disobedience, and resort to persecution\nto maintain their authority.\n\nThe traditions, mythologies, and folklore of all the past have thus\narisen. The creeds and dogmas of the present constitute the effort of man\nto assume exclusive dominion, and to exercise divine authority over the\nmasses of mankind. It is only another form of the ambition of individuals\nfor wealth, fame or power, lifting them to a \"class\" above the toiling,\nsuffering, and sorrowing masses.\n\nThere are exceptional individuals all along the way, who conceive, hold,\nand exercise the spirit of the Master, and sink self in the service of\nman, and but for these the organized priesthood would be execrated by\nmankind long before.\n\nThe organized church deifies, where the true disciple humanizes and helps\nmankind in the name and in the spirit of the Master.\n\nThis is the spirit, the origin, the genius and the history of every\nAvatar, of Christna, and all the Buddhas, the Saviors and Redeemers of\nhistory.\n\nThe orthodox Christian of to-day, whether Catholic or Protestant, will be\nlikely to admit the foregoing outline except as it applies to his own\nreligion. Whereas it is abundantly proven to-day regarding his own\nreligion as nowhere else in history.\n\nThe histories of former religions are vague, distant, and so covered over\nby tradition, myth, and folklore, as to be difficult to trace.\n\nThe beginnings, history, and progress of the Christian religion are\ncomparatively nearer at hand, and the process above outlined readily\ndemonstrable.\n\nNot only so, but the recognition of the facts and processes is everywhere\nin evidence.\n\nThis fact, however, by no means ends the controversy.\n\nTraditions, creeds, and dogmas die hard, and fight to the last extremity.\nNothing else known to man fights so desperately and dies so hard as an\norganized priesthood, and beyond this, they are upheld by the ignorance,\nsuperstition, the fear, and the faith of the masses.\n\nTheir adherents often believe and assume that they have discovered final\ntruths, essential and unalterable verities. They undertake to support and\nto maintain these by dogmatic authority, a holy book, a \"thus sayeth the\nLord.\"\n\n\"There it is, down in black and white.\" No further evidence is required.\n\nTo question such authority is to be damned. To believe, accept, and to\nconform, is to be _saved_.\n\nDifference of opinion and of interpretation inevitably arise, even among\nthose who dare not question the ultimate authority and genuineness of the\noriginal revelation. Hence arise sects, schisms, and theological warfare.\n\nNotwithstanding all this, the original revelation becomes a matter of\nthorough investigation and of criticism.\n\nThe so-called \"higher criticism\" had already discovered errors in\ntranslation, and contradictions in interpretation, resulting in a \"revised\nedition\" of the sacred books, while under the name \"_Pragmatism_,\" certain\nmetaphysical writers and accredited teachers have undertaken to determine\nessential meanings and interpretations, and to submit religious\nrevelations, creeds, dogmas, and theologies to critical analysis.\n\nHow far this analysis has gone, and how little of the original\ninterpretation actually remains, only they are aware who keep abreast of\ncurrent thought, and who with open mind care more for the simple truth\nthan for custom, tradition, theologies, and the folklore of the past.\n\nDogmatic theological authority is completely undermined, and its days are\nnumbered.[1]\n\nWith the masses there is the habitual unrest, the feeling of uncertainty,\nthe social upheaval, with the inevitable tendency to confusion and\nanarchy. A new religion is already in the formative stage, a new Avatar\ninevitable.\n\nIt is to be less a repudiation than a revision and rehabilitation of the\nold religion.\n\nPeople everywhere are looking for the new revelation, for the coming of\n_Christos_, for the new Avatar, and few are aware that he is already\nhere.\n\nIt should be borne strictly in mind that in every instance in the past,\nthe advent of the Avatar has been unattended by signs and wonders, has\ncome upon the stage of human action in the most commonplace way, and that\nmyth, miracle, and folklore have followed as time went on.\n\nTo the people of his time Jesus was the \"son of the carpenter,\" whose\nfamily was obscure. He came \"eating with publicans and sinners.\"\n\nJesus, the demigod of to-day, was unknown and undreamed of in Galilee.\nPhilo Judaeus seems never to have heard of him.\n\nWhat and who Jesus was, and what he did, is separated from what the church\nand theologians have made of him by a gulf that seems almost impassable,\nand yet this gulf has already been bridged and passed.\n\nThe new Avatar has for its mission the rehabilitation of Jesus as he\nactually existed, divested of all myth and miracle, while the mission for\nwhich he came, and the doctrines for which he lived and died are to be\ncompletely restored to mankind in their purity.\n\nThe old Hindoos would call this transformation a \"reincarnation of\nVishnu,\" a \"new Avatar.\"\n\nIt will mean Jesus the divine Man, the master, _Christos_, restored to the\nheart of Humanity from the mysticism and miracle of monks and theologies,\nfrom the superstitions and folklore of the multitude.\n\nThis means a reconstruction and a restatement of the religion of Jesus.\n\nJesus remaining what he actually was and is, it will be the province of\nNatural Science to explain and to demonstrate by natural and spiritual\nlaw, how, without mystery or miracle, Jesus became the Master _Christos_\nand so remains to-day.\n\nNatural Science is not the invention of man, more than is the law of\ngravitation, the law of equilibrium, or the binomial theorem. Man may\ndiscover these laws from the phenomena of Nature, and demonstrate their\nexistence and mode of operation like any others.\n\nIt is a question of dispassionate and intelligent apprehension and\ndemonstration.\n\nAll actual progress of man up to the present time lies along these lines.\nBeyond this all is conjecture and guess-work. Natural Science, however, is\nfar more than modern physical science so-called. It includes physical,\nmental, moral, and spiritual science.\n\nIts _methods_ everywhere and at all times are the same.\n\nIt may theorize, but never dogmatize, and it must _demonstrate_ at every\nstep. Facts must not only support the theorem, but demonstrate the\nconclusions as inevitable, and the basis of all such actual demonstration\nmust be a verifiable individual experience, with formulated laws and\nprocesses for its repetition, just as in physical science, in chemistry,\nand mathematics. Nothing less than this on any plane or in any department\nof investigation can enable the individual to declare \"_I Know_.\"\n\nDemonstration is the sign manual of knowledge; Dogmatism the arrogance of\nignorance.\n\nIt is impossible to make these radical distinctions too clear and\nspecific.\n\nWhen this method of Natural Science is applied to the investigation of\nreligions, tradition is separated from fact, dogma from demonstration,\nmiracle from natural law, mythology and folklore are found to be the\nfabric woven by the imagination of mankind around the receding\nrevelations, deifying their authors, and mingling fact with fable, till\nthe originals become unrecognizable.\n\nRomance and superstition become substitutes for simple Faith, moral law,\nand social Justice.\n\nTo question or to repudiate the dogmas of superstition becomes a \"mortal\nsin,\" even when the most plain and specific moral or ethical obligations\nare entirely subverted or reversed by dogmatic authority.\n\nIt is thus that the original revelation is subverted and at last\noverthrown.\n\nFrom first to last, the whole fabric is claimed to be \"sacred and divine,\"\nand to question it, \"sacrilege\" and \"profanation of holy things.\" Thus,\nthat which seemed originally as wings to the toiling, sorrowing children\nof men, becomes at last a \"millstone about the neck,\" a \"burden grievous\nto be borne.\"\n\nThen comes protest, repudiation, reform, and usually a new revelation,\nembodying the primitive faith, and adapting it to modern times and\nconditions.\n\nThis is, in brief, the history of the Avatars of Ancient India, the\nBuddhas and the Zoroasters of later centuries; of the Greek Orpheus; of\nthe legends and folklore clustering around many of the sages of Israel,\nand though in a less miraculous fashion, of Confucius and Laotse. But most\npatent of all does this principle apply to the founder of the Christian\nreligion, because less ancient and more readily verifiable.\n\nThough no new Avatar is yet recognized, the _spirit_ of _modern science_\ndoes not hesitate to repudiate myth, miracle, and superstition, and to\ninsist on fact and natural law.\n\n-----\n\n  [1] See President Eliot's latest utterances.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nCORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE\n\n\nThe devout and conscientious believers in the Christian Religion of to-day\noften view with sorrow and alarm the encroachments of modern science.\n\nUnable to prevent these encroachments, they stubbornly resent them. Once\nadmitted, it seems to them that nothing sacred or worthy the name of\nReligion would remain. To shift to other and more ancient faiths can never\nbe considered at all, for the \"higher criticism\" and \"pragmatism\" have\nleft them all in even a worse plight.\n\nIt seems to these devout souls like the death of religion itself, and its\nelimination from the life of man.\n\nThe intuitive basis and the intrinsic necessity of religion in some form\nhave already been considered.\n\nThis point is often overlooked or ignored by the Iconoclasts.\n\nTheir position would seem to be, \"Unravel the superstition, disprove the\npossibility of miracle, and let the deluge come if it must.\"\n\nNeither pragmatism nor higher criticism has been in any large sense\nconstructive, but more largely destructive. The really spiritual element\nin all religions, already referred to, is generally lost sight of.\n\nModern psychology is no nearer a science of the soul, than are folklore\nand superstition to true religion. It should be recognized and granted\nonce for all that psychology, as a department of modern physical science,\nhas no substitute whatever to offer in the place of Religion.\n\nIt is gathering facts, classifying, and labeling psychic phenomena.\n\nHere and there an advanced scientist, like Sir Oliver Lodge, ignores\ntradition, repudiates orthodox scientific restraints, and steps over the\nborder of actual or implied nihilism.\n\nThis smug nihilism with its superior air of scientific wisdom, is often\nonly the opposite pole of the dogmatic certitude of the churchman. Actual\nknowledge of the human soul is quite as far removed from the one as from\nthe other. Credulity and Incredulity simply annul each other; often make\nfaces at each other; while Progress stalks alone in the middle of the\nroad, a \"tramp\" or a \"vagabond,\" like Paracelsus, \"reading the leaves of\nthe book of Nature,\" laughing at poverty, fleeing from persecution, yet\n_knowing_, and \"becoming a light to man forever.\"\n\nThe consensus of opinion among the presidents and professors in the\nleading colleges and universities of this country, their unhesitating and\nunqualified denial or repudiation of the claims set up by the church\nregarding revelation and the basic dogmas of the Christian Religion, and\nwhich his \"Holiness\" of the Vatican designates as \"Modernism,\" reveal, not\nonly the \"signs of the times,\" but show indisputably that modern education\nhas shaken itself free from the superstitions of the past, and repudiated\nthe old restraints to free thought and modern progress.\n\nOrthodoxy in religious matters has often nothing to do in determining\ncollege curriculums, in the selection of presidents, or in filling the\nchairs.\n\nBright young men and women, the advanced students of the schools of\nto-day, who are to become the leaders of thought and the teachers of\nto-morrow, find little restraint and no formative element in the creeds\nand dogmas that in the past have been so much in evidence, and so\nconstraining. Intensity of feeling has given place to breadth and\ninclusiveness, and under the name of \"Comparative Religions,\" ancient\nfaiths and modern, are classified, and studied like fossils in the\ndifferent ages of the past.\n\nThe \"crusader impulse\" has rather settled down in each individual breast,\nas the master passion, to do, to dare, and to become something more and\nbetter than the individual, or than the past has hitherto known. Such a\ngeneral period of intellectual activity, with so few restraints, history\nnowhere else records, and the world has never before known.\n\nHere lie the elements, the impulses, and the formative stage of the new\nAvatar.\n\nAt this stage of our discussion it is of exceeding interest and importance\nto bear in mind one great fact. The average intelligent student of to-day\nmay take this fact tentatively, reserving final judgment till accumulative\nevidence becomes satisfactory and conclusive.\n\nNo one who is dominated by shallow incredulity, and who attempts to close\nthis door contemptuously, will ever arrive at the real truth. The judgment\nof such individuals is simply worthless, notwithstanding the smug conceit\nof their own opinions.\n\nThe important fact referred to, is the demonstrated existence, all through\nthe ages, of the so-called _Mysteries_.\n\nTheir existence is beyond all question. What they concealed and taught is\nsometimes difficult to determine.\n\nThere were also the genuine and the spurious Mysteries, and a fair\nappreciation of their origin, purpose, methods, and genius, as illustrated\nby Plato, Pythagoras, Zoroaster, and nearly every great sage of antiquity,\nleaves no possible doubt that in these \"Secret Orders\" were preserved the\nloftiest and the most profound mental and spiritual achievements of all\nprevious human history.\n\nIf there were no other evidence in existence at the present day except the\ntraditions, landmarks, ritual, and Genius of Freemasonry, a careful and\nintelligent study of that Ancient Order would be sufficient.\n\nWhether one Mason in a thousand to-day apprehends and realizes this fact,\nhas nothing whatever to do with the real question. The evidence is there,\nand the indifference or superficial intelligence of numbers cannot alter\nit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nCONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR\n\n\nThe conflict between Science and Religion has been thoroughly thrashed out\nduring the last half century, and the \"reign of law,\" and orderly, and\nprogressive evolution, have made for themselves a habitation and a name\nthat nothing is likely to overthrow.\n\nIt is recognized that every effect has a sufficient and a commensurate\ncause, not _en bloc_, but in matter, energy, mind, and spirit. Action and\nreaction are definite mathematical processes. The parallelogram of force\ntends everywhere to equilibrium and secures further action and new\nprocesses under universal law.\n\nThe \"special creation\" theory--everything made out of nothing by a\npersonal God--is no longer regarded as tenable by intelligent individuals,\nthough miracle and special providence are often included in accounting for\nthe vicissitudes of life, just as the so-called scientist superficially\nand flippantly uses the word \"coincidence,\" as though it really explained\nanything.\n\n\"The rational order that pervades the universe,\" as Prof. Huxley defined\nthe concept and aim of scientific discovery, has steadily gained\nascendancy, until it dominates and measures individual intelligence.\n\nThe criticism is still occasionally made that this means Pantheism,\noverlooking the fact that in all mythologies and cosmologies, an ideal and\npure theism was recognized as lying back of and beyond the pantheons of\nthe gods and the deification of the powers of Nature.\n\nThis was true in the Greek, Persian, Egyptian, and Hindoo mythologies.\nBack of the many, and beyond the transient and contending divinities, was\nthe _One_, postulated, but unknown and changeless.\n\nEvery religion known to man, with the advancing civilization of a people,\ncopied, modified, adopted, and adapted the mythology and folklore of some\npre-existing religion and people. This is readily demonstrable with the\nHebrew, Greek, and later Christian dispensations, notwithstanding the most\nstrenuous and persistent determination to deny, disprove, and destroy the\nancient records.\n\nIt is embodied in the etymology of the very names of heroes, gods, and\ndemigods. A new language arising with any people _de novo_ can nowhere be\nfound.\n\nPhonetics and picturegraphs, the various alphabets and glyphs, are mixed\nand modified, but never invented nor altogether changed.\n\nComplicated as they may be, it is thus that philology, ethnology,\ntheology, and anthropology constitute a consistent whole, the mythology\nand folklore of mankind. This reveals the practical unity and solidarity\nof the human race.\n\nThe tradition and prophecy among the ancient Hebrews of the coming of the\nMessiah, the portents that heralded, and the signs and wonders that\npreceded or accompanied his appearance, are merely translations or\nadaptations from previous eras, Buddhas, or Avatars.\n\nWhether Christian or non-Christian, the object of the advent is always\nidentical.\n\nThe light of the spirit having become enfeebled or obscured, the people\nare left in darkness and given over to sin and wickedness. Moral ruin\nseems inevitable unless there is a divine influx, a new Avatar, or Buddha,\nor Advent of the God-man.\n\nGod incarnates himself as the son of Mary, and Jesus says, \"I am come a\nlight into the world that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in\ndarkness.\"\n\nChristna says, \"Though I am unborn, and my nature is eternal, and I am the\nLord also of all creatures, yet taking control of my nature-form, I am\nborn by my illusive power. For whenever piety decays, O son of Bharata,\nand impiety is in the ascendant, then I produce myself. For the protection\nof good men, for the destruction of evildoers, for the re-establishment of\npiety, I am born from age to age.\" (Bhagavadgita.)\n\nThe historical Buddha taught that he was only one of a long series of\nBuddhas, who appear at intervals in the world, and who all teach the same\nsystem. After the death of each Buddha his religion flourishes for a time\nand then decays, till at last it is completely forgotten and wickedness\nand violence rule the earth. The names of twenty-four of these Buddhas who\nappeared previous to Gautama have been handed down to us, just as the\n\"second coming of Christ\" is believed in and referred to among the\nChristians.\n\nEven the Mohammedan Koran refers to this succession of prophets and\nmessengers of Allah. The same is true of the Parsis.\n\n\"I have said that I first of all chose Abad, and after him I sent thirteen\nprophets in succession, all called Abad. By these fourteen prophets the\nworld enjoyed prosperity.\"\n\n\"Tradition informs us that when these auspicious prophets and their\nsuccessors behold evil to prevail among mankind, they invariably withdraw\nfrom among them--as they could not endure to behold or hear wickedness.\"\n\nThis is precisely what happened to Egypt after the ambitious priesthood\nhad gained the ascendency. The Master Builders retired.\n\nBonwick says (\"Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought\"): \"What is commonly\ncalled the _Christ idea_ of humanity, thus appears to have been the hope\nand consolation of the ancient Egyptians so many thousand years ago.\"\n\nThat which thus appears and disappears, dies out and is born again, is the\nspiritual light in the soul of man.\n\nThe diversity of man's intellectual activities exercise, elaborate, and\ndeepen his mental perceptions, and these largely concern the things of\nsense and time, his appetites, passions, desires, and ambitions.\n\nBack of and beyond all these lie the things of the spirit. On the physical\nplane of life the former obscure and crowd out the latter, which are thus\ncontinually in need of renewal.\n\nIn adapting the new revelation to the conditions of life on the physical\nplane, it is intellectualized and theologized. Pundits and theologians\nundertake to _explain_ what it all means and how it happened to be. Hence\narise wrangles, disputes, and finally creeds, dogmas, and persecution.\n\n\"Men fight like devils for the love of God.\" This is the ultimate history\nof every religion known to man.\n\nMeantime, the soul of man, a spiritual being dwelling in a material body\non the physical plane, is seeking real knowledge of spiritual things.\n\nThis real knowledge is an experience of the soul. It concerns, and is\ncomprised in, the _living of a life_. It is more than mind or intellect.\nIt is _knowledge_ gained by experience. \"This only I know, that whereas I\nwas blind, now I see.\"\n\n\"Whether in the body or out of the body, I know not, but I saw things\nimpossible to utter.\"\n\nGradually man's _idea_ of God and his conception of Nature have changed\nand enlarged.\n\nMan, as a spiritual being, is part of a spiritual universe. He has been\nable to harmonize his concept of God and Nature progressively as he has\ngained larger views and deeper insight of both. He is no longer a puppet\nof infinite caprice, nor a somewhat \"improved animal.\"\n\nThe idea of man as a \"fallen god\" with the capacity to regain his heavenly\nestate, is far nearer the truth.\n\nAs man advances in knowledge through the combined experiences of his\nspiritual nature and his physical embodiment, his beliefs change, his\nhorizon enlarges, and his concepts become elevated and purified. The past\nis apprehended and utilized and the future intelligently anticipated. He\nbegins to understand.\n\nThis means the recognition of law and order, permanency, _Foundation_, and\nstability.\n\nThe birth stories, the portents, signs and wonders that announce,\naccompany, or follow the birth of a Messiah or Avatar, are almost\nidentical. A common instinct seems to have led all scripture-compilers to\ninfer a simultaneous stimulus of nature and man upon the appearance of\nwhat the Hindoo calls an Avatar.\n\nMen, too, seem prepared to expect such an advent as its necessary time\napproaches. It is an instinct which tells them that \"the darkest hour\nprecedes the dawn.\"\n\nIn the Christian scriptures the premonitions and birth stories are found\nlargely in the Apocryphal books. Doubtless the copying and substitution\nfrom the lives of Christna and Buddha were too plain.\n\nAt the death of Jesus the seismic, astral, and cosmic disturbances are\ngraphically described, as befitting the death of a god. \"The veil of the\ntemple was rent in twain,\" etc.\n\nThe simple fact is that mankind feels instinctively in the soul the\nfar-reaching influences at work. The spiritual nature is stirred to its\ndepths, and when he tries to describe what he sees and feels, his\nemotions, fears, or aspirations being at white heat, his imagination draws\nfrom the folklore of other times, races, and religions, to express what he\nso powerfully, but vaguely senses.\n\nBut beyond all this, the time of great religious revivals and social\nupheavals is likely to coincide with seismic disturbance, tidal waves and\nthe like, owing to the conjunction of planets under the general law of\ncycles. Man is completely involved with and evolved from the bosom of\nNature. His freedom is determined by knowledge and obedience to Law.\n\nFrom the mystic Hymns of Orpheus, with the legends of Gods, demigods, and\nheroes, and the personification of the varied powers of man and nature,\narose the Greek Pantheon, which, in poetic concept, romantic and dramatic\nembodiment and expression, as a concise and complete whole, has probably\nnever been equaled by man.\n\nTrue, every essential element, under a different name and detail, may be\nfound elsewhere, but never equaled in concise and constructive folklore\nand mythology.\n\nBut running underneath all this, like a vein of gold under the mountain,\nwas the philosophy of Plato. Grasping the _One_ from the many, Unity from\nthe fantastic diversity, he came to the individual experience of the human\nsoul and its conscious mastership over the body and the things of sense\nand time.\n\nCivic pride, patriotism, and heroism, walked side by side with dialectics,\nand the pantheon of the gods and the achievements of warriors rivaled each\nother on the stage, as themes for the poetic philosopher and dramatist.\n\nMythology and folklore here furnished a background from which the\nphilosophy of the mysteries and the real science of life gained a\nhearing.\n\nPlato and Pythagoras generalized, and with many reservations represented\nthat which they had been taught in the mysteries of Egypt.\n\nGreece, with its triumphs in literature, in the drama and in art, and all\nits magnificent civilization, knew no Avatar.\n\nJacolliot, in his \"Bible in India,\" has shown conclusively that not only\nthe whole Greek pantheon, its folklore and mythology, and even its civil\ncode were adopted from the Laws of Manu and the far older Aryan\ncivilization, including even the names of heroes.\n\nThe fame of Greece rests upon its _Genius fo Construction_ in Art and\nArchitecture and the Drama, and upon the open door it gave to Philosophy.\nThere was no dominant priesthood to close the door of progress.\n\nIt utilized all the past and built and beautified the present.\n\nIt bequeathed no creed nor dogma to the future, and yet its civilization\nwas transcendent and is immortal.\n\nIt had its canons of Art and of Architecture. These it demonstrated by\nconstructive work. It illustrated, explained and exemplified, but it did\nnot argue nor dogmatize.\n\nThe world for two thousand years has been \"going back to Greece\" and\ntrying to explain how it all happened, just as we have been trying to\nexplain Goethe's \"Faust.\"\n\nGenius is transcendent and immortal.\n\nWith the decline of Greece there arose the Genius of the Tiber, Imperial\nRome, and the Caesars.\n\nRome created an _Avatar_ out of the \"Babe of Bethlehem.\" Having enthroned\nJehovah, it proceeded to deify Jesus, and then by substitution to take the\nplace of both.\n\nImperial Rome, the \"Scarlet Mother of the Tiber,\" assumed the government\nand dictatorship of the world. Imperial, dogmatic, relentless, the arbiter\nof the fate of humanity on earth and beyond.\n\nHere was arbitrary, relentless _power_ at any cost, to be maintained on\nany terms. \"The end always justified the means.\"\n\nIn the civilization of Greece, the Individual, the citizen was first, and\nassociation and co-operation built the State.\n\nWith Rome the Individual is nothing but a pawn, an accessory to the\nChurch. It was and is the Church first, last, and all the time. The\nIndividual can claim no right nor prerogative except as a concession from\nthe Church.\n\nThe contrast is extreme and absolute between the Genius of Greece and that\nof Rome.\n\nAs the Genius of Greece was adapted from the older Aryan, so also was that\nof Rome, from the Brahmans, through Egypt.\n\nAmong the various Avatars of old India designated as \"Incarnations of\nVishnu,\" Siva \"_the destroyer_,\" was often in evidence.\n\nRome proceeded to adopt the Hindoo Trinity--Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva--(the\nCreator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer), and to so shape its creed and\ndogmas as to secure and maintain the power of Mother Church, simply with a\nchange of names--\"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.\"\n\nIt has enslaved nations and slaughtered millions in order to maintain its\npower. For more than fifteen hundred years it has maintained its\nrelentless warfare against the inalienable rights of the Individual, and\nthe inevitable progress of humanity.\n\nIt has escaped the execration of the world only by its priestly trick of\ndeifying Jesus and sophisticating every doctrine that he taught.\nSupporting its pretensions by Mariolatry, the Auricular Confession, and\nits army of spies and inquisitors, it has dominated mankind, impoverished\nwhole nations, devastated provinces and murdered all who opposed its\nprogress wherever and whenever it has gained civil power.\n\nRome is to-day the literal and visible reincarnation of _Siva_, the\n_Avatar of Destruction_. She has originated nothing. Her mass and all her\nritualistic mummeries are adopted from paganism at its worst stage and in\nits most degenerate form, and she awaits the fate that befell Egypt and\nall her predecessors, \"Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities of the plain.\"\n\nProtestantism has hitherto \"protested\" only in part. Refusing Mariolatry\nand auricular confession, Protestantism, by accepting the miraculous\nconception, the deification of Jesus and the vicarious atonement, has kept\nRome in countenance.\n\nWhen these are swept away, and their doom is already declared by the\nleaders of thought in nearly all our institutions of higher learning, the\nRoman _Avatar_ will stand revealed in all its nakedness and villainy to\nthe execration of mankind. It is this \"_Modernism_\" that \"His Holiness\" so\nmuch fears and is trying to arrest. It is too late, unless civilization\nand the march of time move backward.\n\nThe most amazing thing about it all is, how the world, with its present\nintelligence and culture, can be so indifferent to this most aggressive,\ncruel, and relentless Avatar of all the ages, instead of repelling it with\ncontempt and execration.\n\nThirty-seven Italian Cardinals,[2] proud and arrogant, rule the Church,\nelect the Pope, and assume dictatorship of the earth, as also arbiters of\nhuman destiny, here and hereafter. America, the corn-bin of this modern\nEgypt, by courtesy has _one cardinal_, just to keep her in countenance.\n\nThe effrontery is cyclopean, but our supineness and indifference are\ndeplorable and inexcusable.\n\nShipping her impoverished, degraded, criminal, and priest-ridden hordes to\nAmerica by the million every year, Rome is massing her army for the\noverthrow of our government and all our present civilization. With her\ndogma of obedience, her army now _votes_ and will, by and by, _fight_\nunder the dictatorship of the Cardinals at Rome. Already undermining our\nPublic Free Schools, boycotting the public press, with their army of\nJesuit spies and secret assassins of every liberty prized by man, the\n\"merry war\" goes on right under our eyes, and we sleep and dream and\nblindly assume that \"there is no danger.\"\n\nRead the history of the Crusaders, of the Protestant Reformation and of\nthe \"Holy Inquisition,\" and if further enlightenment is needed, study the\norigin, history, and denouement of all the Avatars of the past, the fate\nof Egypt, the cities of the plain, where paganism and a degenerate\npriesthood usurped the place of pure and undefiled religion, and literally\nwiped from the map of the world the civilizations of the past. _Nemesis_\nis written in letters of flame across the starry heavens, as an atonement\nfor the blood of nations and the degeneracy and diabolism of an ambitious,\ncruel, relentless, and unrestrained priesthood. And it is all being\nliterally repeated to-day without the novelty of a new idea, or method, or\ndevice, or motive. It is _The Reincarnation of the Avatar of Siva, the\nDestroyer_.\n\n-----\n\n  [2] At the death of Pope Leo there were 65 Cardinals, 39 of\n      whom were Italians.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nPORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME\n\n\nThere is no disguising nor denying the fact that during the past half\ncentury institutional religion in the West has steadily lost its hold upon\nthe great mass of the people. Creeds and dogmas are denied and\nrepudiated.\n\nThe \"higher criticism\" represents the reluctant yielding of theologians to\nthe existing conditions. In order to maintain any hold whatever upon the\npeople and retain a semblance of the old faith, they have revised and\nmodified beliefs and interpretations, and relaxed completely the former\ndemand for the confession of faith and acceptance of the old creeds. Mere\ngeneral verbal assent admitting of many mental reservations is now often\ndeemed sufficient.\n\nIn the meantime, the living of the life and the doing of the work demanded\nby Jesus have come more and more into demand and general recognition.\n\nThe \"Emmanuel Movement,\" now gaining such recognition and making such\nrapid progress, is sufficient evidence at this point.\n\nWith the Church of Rome no such change is manifest. By keeping its people\nin ignorance, by condemning all change or any improvement under the name\nof \"Modernism,\" and by insisting upon the dogma of infallibility and blind\nobedience, Rome thus far has resisted all change and refused all\ncompromise.\n\nThe change in Protestantism represents the growth of intelligence, the\nrecognition of the rights of conscience, and individual and intellectual\nfreedom.\n\nThe stability so apparent in Romanism relies solely on Ignorance,\nSuperstition, and Fear, enforced by the dogma of \"_Infallibility_,\" and\nreinforced by the power of \"Excommunication\" and the penalty of\n\"Anathema.\"\n\nThe unity and stability of the Roman Church, thus secured by force, will\npresently be found to be apparent only. It could only work and hold in the\ndark ages. Internal division and dissension, now known to exist, await\nonly some fresh act of oppression, or some new abomination, or abuse of\npolitical power, to disrupt its solidarity.\n\nIn the meantime physical science has steadily advanced, opening new\navenues of wealth, industry, and opportunity, and so developing the\nresources of this Western world.\n\nBut more important and far-reaching still have been the discoveries\nregarding the finer forces of nature.\n\nThe wonderful development and application of discoveries in Electricity\nhave not only opened a new world previously unknown and unsuspected, but\nhave seemed to endow these subtle forces almost with an intelligence of\ntheir own. Crass materialism is dead and space practically annihilated.\n\nIf a single wire or a vibrating disc cannot originate intelligent speech,\nit can retain, repeat, and transmit the qualities, tones and inflections\nof the human voice in a way that seems miraculous and uncanny. It is thus\nthat our concepts of nature have been enlarged, refined, and actually\nspiritualized. \"Brutal\" and \"dead\" matter are no longer in evidence nor\neven mentioned.\n\nWith the advent of modern spiritualism came another group of phenomena.\nMaking the largest allowance for fraud, self-deception, and all the\nvagaries of the imagination, no intelligent individual, familiar with the\nphenomena, will attempt to deny the extension of man's psychic world of\nconsciousness and the manifestation of intelligence in ways and under\nconditions previously unknown. The identification of these intelligences,\nalways difficult, and generally problematical, need not here be discussed\nat all. The facts and the phenomena are all that we are here concerned\nwith.\n\nThe most important consideration regarding all these phenomena is that\nthey do not _develop_, but on the contrary _dominate_ the individual. They\nare, in fact, altogether subjective. The medium may put himself in the\nnegative or passive condition to be controlled, but he cannot _command_\nnor _control_ the influence nor the \"entity\" that influences him, and\neventually he loses the power to resist it, and likewise the power of\nself-control.\n\nScience demands _facts_, and here are facts in abundance. These facts\nsupplement the discoveries in electricity and nature's finer forces, and\npass from physics to metaphysics, from physiology to psychology, and push\nback the veil of the unseen, and hitherto unknown, many degrees.\n\nThe trend of all this progress, and of these discoveries, is exceedingly\nplain.\n\nOur concepts of Nature, of Life, and of Man have been almost immeasurably\nenlarged, refined, and elevated.\n\nExpectancy is in the air. \"What next is going to happen?\" is the question\neverywhere asked. The conditions and portents, in a general way, are those\nthat herald a new Avatar; an Avatar now, of science rather than of\nreligion; of knowledge rather than of faith, and this knowledge is to be\nof spiritual things, the foundations of which are already in evidence.\n\nThis science is not to be time-serving, but man-serving; not so much a\nrenewal of faith as a revelation of knowledge; less anxious for the glory\nof God than for the elevation of man, which is the more direct and certain\nway of honoring Divinity.\n\nThis does not mean the decay nor the repudiation of religion, but a\n_realization_ of _true_ religion, such as heretofore prophets have\nforetold, revelation has forecast, and toward which humanity has toiled\nand journeyed in sorrow and pain; the very religion that Jesus lived and\ntaught. \"A clean life, an open mind, an unveiled spiritual perception, a\nbrotherliness for all, and human life a journeying upward toward the\nrealms of eternal day, 'with no night there, and no sorrow.'\"\n\n_And why not?_ If man can conceive it, why may he not _realize_ it? The\n\"Old Adam\" as an excuse is exploded. The \"New Adam\" is indeed \"a\nquickening spirit.\"\n\nNothing is plainer nor more demonstrable at the present day than the fact\nthat mankind is slowly but surely shaking off the traditions and the\nsuperstitions that have bound it in the past, rising above the myths and\nthe folklore of every age and clime, and awaking as if from slumber, to\nbehold a new day and a new world.\n\nThis awakening is even more in evidence and remarkable in the case of\nwoman than of man. Progress here during the last decade has been such as\nthe world has never before seen on any such scale, and it means more to\nthe elevation of humanity than anyone has hitherto been able to forecast\nor to measure.\n\nIn the meantime social and economic conditions with the great masses of\nthe people are very far from what they should be.\n\nUnrest and confusion are strongly in evidence. On the whole, there is far\nless suffering and destitution than ever before. Oppression and\nabominations meet with quick and powerful protest from all classes, when\nexposed, and at least temporary relief is quick to follow.\n\nThe blame is confined to no one class, rich or poor. The equitable\ndistribution of wealth, resources, and opportunity that have developed\nbeyond all precedent during the last half century, requires time. Justice\nand equity are not dead, but everywhere in evidence, dominating mankind at\nlarge. Public sentiment was never more keen and never nearer right than\nto-day. There is general confusion, however, as to methods and ways and\nmeans. The cunning shark and the selfish brute resort to concealment,\ncunning and subterfuge, to deceive the people and often succeed for a\ntime, only to meet with condemnation and execration later. Injustice is\noften in evidence, but it is neither rampant nor dominant. It stands in\nfear of public sentiment.\n\nThese, in brief and in outline, are the conditions, the portents, to-day,\neverywhere in evidence:\n\n1. The decay of creeds and dogmas.\n\n2. Great progress in Science, Art, and the Crafts.\n\n3. Immense discoveries regarding Nature's finer forces and the psychical\npowers latent in man.\n\n4. Great expectancy as to new revelations.\n\n5. Unprecedented increase in wealth and the development of natural\nresources.\n\n6. Enfranchisement of woman, and immense progress as to her rights and\nopportunities.\n\n7. Economic Justice recognized and aimed at, and fortified by public\nsentiment, with strong efforts to secure and maintain it.\n\nThe present age or epoch is not one of darkness, but of light; not of\ndiscouragement, but of hope. It is neither retrograde nor stagnant, but\nprogressive to a degree never before witnessed in the history of man on so\nlarge a scale and involving all classes and so many people at one time.\n\nOrganized or institutional religion alone is on the wane. Evidence and\nutility are everywhere demanded. Nothing is sacred simply because it is\nold; nor true merely because it is dogmatically asserted so to be.\n\nHoly books, holy men, and holy days are matters of evidence, and not of\nblind credence.\n\nWhat will the new religion--the new revelation--be? and whence will it\ncome?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE\n\n\nBelief in a separable soul in man is virtually universal. Such belief is\nfound amongst the lowest races, and in the few instances where it has not\nbeen clearly discovered it is admitted that it may still exist and be\ndisguised by the native meaning of words or signs that escape the\nexplorer.\n\nThe universality of this belief has often been urged as an evidence of its\nvalidity and proof of the soul's existence.\n\nModern physical science deduces this belief from the phenomena of daily\nlife and the analogies of individual experience, thus giving precedence to\nmaterial causes for mental concepts, or universal ideas. This view is, I\nthink, entitled to the most careful consideration, but it cannot once for\nall be admitted, nor is it consistent with the general theory and progress\nof evolution that the phenomenal stands to the noumenal, the actual to the\nideal, as cause to effect. These two groups of experiences are alternate\nand coincident; and, as to priority, it is only the old question in a new\nform, as to which was first, the bird that laid the egg, or the egg that\nhatched the bird.\n\nThis distinction is particularly pertinent to the present subject, for the\nreason that by the method of modern physical science, in dealing with the\nbelief in the existence of the soul, the whole of this universal belief is\nswept away. Its origin is found in the ignorance, superstition, and false\nanalogies of barbarous races, and the inference is that the belief can\nonly linger as a remnant of superstition among civilized men. This method\nprejudges the whole question, and (while it must readily be admitted that\nthe opposite method equally prejudges it), my contention is for neither\nthe one nor the other, but for the careful consideration and final\nblending of both. If at first sight these two theories, which form the\nbasis of the working hypothesis of the materialist and the spiritist, seem\nparadoxical and wholly irreconcilable, with careful consideration and\nunbiased investigation of both sides of the problem the paradox will\ndisappear.\n\nWith both the lowest and the highest races not only do we find the\nexistence of belief in the existence of a separable soul in man, but of\nghosts, gods, genii, a spirit of the air, and hierarchies of celestial and\ninfernal beings.\n\nIn this regard, philosophers like Plato and Pythagoras, the intellectual\ngiants of the human race, may be said to have elaborated and specialized\nthe rude conceptions of the Fiji Islander, and to vie with him in peopling\nspace with invisible entities and potencies. In spite of the dictum of\nscience, the world, intelligent and ignorant alike, believes, and will\ncontinue to believe, in the reality of the unseen universe, and the\nPlatonic doctrine of \"emanation\" and the \"world of divine ideas\" not only\nbegin where modern physical science leaves off, but at this very point\nscience either begs the question, or ignores it entirely.\n\nHow things come to be what they are, and to evolve as they do, science\nnowhere declares. It simply takes things as it finds them, and dubs\nthe ultimate and antecedent causation the _Unknowable_. The philosophy\nof Plato, it is true, reaches at last the unknowable and the\nincomprehensible, but only after revealing another universe, the\nmetaphysical and spiritual, entirely unknown to, or ignored or derided by\nthe materialist.\n\nIt is, however, from this invisible realm that all visible things have\ncome forth, the two being not only under absolute and universal law, but\nbearing everywhere definite analogies to each other. Hence Plato says,\n\"God geometrizes.\" Absolute mathematics determines the relations of atoms\nto suns, and the circulation of the blood in man to the revolutions of\nsuns and solar systems.\n\nA further general consideration remains to be noted before taking up the\nevidence of belief in the separable soul, and that is, the evolutionary\nlife-wave of humanity on our earth.\n\nThe progress of man for some millions of years past has by no means been a\nstraightforward climbing from barbarism to civilization. The wave of\nevolution has ebbed and flowed. While at one place man has slowly emerged\nfrom savagery, at another he has as surely sunk to it. Continents and\nislands have risen from and again sunk to the bottom of the sea, bearing\nthe races of men in their upheavals or descent, and cataclysmic and\nseismic or volcanic upheavals have blotted out in a day the accumulated\nprogress of centuries. The poles of the earth have shifted with results to\nthe life of the globe more awful than the imagination can portray. Bodies\nof people like our North American Indians represent the remains of many\npeoples, as in Russia or India to-day, fragments of many nationalities are\nbeing absorbed in one.\n\nBearing in mind, therefore, that owing to many causes a nation may descend\nto barbarism or disappear entirely, we shall find everywhere the fragments\nand decay of the old belief no less than the dawn of the new. A noble\ncreed, or a philosophical concept of a highly advanced race, may exist as\na transformed and degrading superstition with a race, or a fragment of a\npeople, undergoing degeneracy.\n\nEvery religion known to man has gone through just this transformation. The\ntendency is innate and inevitable and no civilization or religion has ever\nyet been able long to resist it. If we bear this in mind we shall be less\nsurprised at anthropogeneses, cosmogeneses or psychologies found sometimes\namong otherwise rude or savage peoples, and be better able to understand\nthe incongruities and lack of symmetry in their evolution. It would be\neasy to cite instances and draw comparisons at this point.\n\nBearing in mind, then, these general considerations underlying all\ninterpretation, and nowhere more applicable than to our present subject,\nthe following illustrations of belief in the separable soul, gleaned\nlargely from Spencer's \"Descriptive Sociology,\" may be of interest. It is\ndrawn largely from the lower civilizations, as all are more or less\nfamiliar with the mythologies of the Greeks, Babylonians, Phoenicians,\netc., all of which are accessible. The material available is embarrassing\non account of its magnitude alone.\n\nOscar Peschel, in his \"Races of Man,\" says that \"perhaps the Brazilian\nBotocudos, of all the inhabitants of the world, are most nearly in the\nprimitive state, and yet,\" he adds, \"possibly we may be altogether\nmistaken in this regard, as their languages are very imperfectly known.\"\n\nHumboldt rescued the Caribs from such an impeachment and declares that\ntheir language \"combines wealth, grace, strength, and gentleness. It has\nexpressions for abstract ideas, for Futurity, Eternity, and Existence, and\nenough numerical terms to express all possible combinations of our\nnumerals.\" It might be noted in passing that it was these same Brazilian\nnatives that the Portuguese settlers sought to decimate by spreading\nsmallpox and scarlet fever amongst them, as the English colonists in\nTasmania shot the natives when they had no better food for their dogs.\n\nHariot says that \"many of the Indian natives of North and South America\nbelieve that the soul, after its separation from the body, enters into a\nwide path crowded with spirits which are journeying toward a region of\neternal repose. They have to cross an impetuous river on a trembling\nwicker bridge which is very dangerous.\"\n\nSome Greenlanders believe that the soul can go astray out of the body for\na considerable time. Some believe that they can leave their souls at home\nwhen going on a journey, and others believe in the migration of souls.\n\nBelief in the soul and a future state is universal among the Indians of\nNorth America. All are familiar with the tradition of the \"Happy Hunting\nGround.\" With them the future life is patterned after the present.\n\nSchoolcraft says that the Chippewas believe that there are duplicate\nsouls, one of which remains with the body, while the other is free to\ndepart on excursions during sleep. After death the soul departs to the\nIndian Elysium and a fire is kept burning on the newly-made grave for four\ndays, the time required for the soul to reach its destination.\n\nThe Dakotas stand in great fear of the spirits of the dead, who they think\nhave power to injure them, and they recite prayers and give offerings to\nappease them.\n\nThe Mandans, according to Schoolcraft, have anticipated Prof. Lloyd's\nEtidorhpa, even to the beautiful maiden. They believe that they were the\nfirst people created on the earth, and that they first lived inside the\nglobe. They raised many vines, one of which having grown up through a hole\nin the earth, one of the young men climbed up until he crawled out on the\nbank of the river where the Mandan village stands. (Jack and the bean\nstalk.) The young man returned to the nether world and piloted several of\nhis companions to the outer world, and among them two very beautiful\nvirgins. Among those who tried to get up was a very large and fat woman,\nwho was ordered by the chiefs to remain behind. Her curiosity prompted her\nsecretly to make the trial. The vine broke under her weight and she was\nbadly hurt by the fall, but did not die, and was ever after in disgrace\nfor having cut off all communication with the upper world. Those who had\nalready ascended built the Mandan village, and when these die they expect\nto return to the nether world from which they came. They also believe the\nearth a great tortoise, and have a tradition of a universal deluge.\n\nThe Indians of Guiana believe in the immortality of the soul, as do also\nthe Arawaks. The Brazilians are said by Spix and Martins to have had no\nreligious belief whatever before mingling with the civilized races. The\nGuaranis believed in a soul which remained in the grave with the body.\n\nThe Patagonians believe in a country of the dead which they call Alhue\nMapu and they kill the horses of the deceased in order that their owner\nmay ride in Alhue Mapu.\n\nFrom the beliefs of the Negritto and Malayo-Polynesian races, I glean the\nfollowing: The Fuegians believe in a superior being, and in good and evil\nspirits, in dreams, omens, signs, etc. Fitzroy says he could not satisfy\nhimself that they had any idea of the immortality of the soul.\n\nThe Veddahs believe in the guardianship of the spirits of the dead, who\nvisit them in dreams and minister to them in sickness, and they have\nceremonies of invocation.\n\nEyra says some at least of the Australians believe in the existence and\nseparability of the soul.\n\nThe Tasmanians believed in a future life as a tradition of a primitive\nreligion, and Bonwick says they conversed with the spirits of the dead.\n\nThe New Caledonians believe that white men are the spirits of the dead,\nand that they bring sickness. They believe that the soul on leaving the\nbody goes to the Bush, and every fifth month they have a \"spirit night\" or\n\"grand concert of spirits.\" The gods of the New Caledonians are their\nancestors, whose relics they keep and idolize.\n\nThe Fijians believe in a separable soul, and dying is by them described by\nthe same terms as sunset.\n\nBelief in a future state among them is said by Siemann to be universal. In\nFiji heaven the inhabitants plant, live in families, fight, and so repeat\nthe incidents of life on earth. They believe that the spirit of men, while\nstill alive, may leave the body and trouble other people when asleep.\n\nThe Sandwich Islanders believe that the spirit of the departed hovers\nabout his former home, appears to his relatives in dreams, and they\nworship an image which they believe to be in some way connected with the\ndeparted. They regard the spirit of one of their ancient kings as a\ntutelar deity, and the king and the priest were believed to be descended\nfrom the gods.\n\nThe Tahitians believe in a separable soul which, on leaving the body, is\nseized by other spirits and conducted to the state of night, where it is\nby degrees eaten by the gods. A few escape this fate, while others, after\nbeing three times eaten, become immortal.\n\nThe Tongons believe that the human soul is the more ethereal part of the\nbody and that it exists in Bolotoo in the form and likeness of the body\nthe moment after death.\n\nThe Samoans believe that the spirits of the dead have power to return and\nto cause disease and death in other members of the family, hence all are\nanxious to part with the dying on good terms.\n\nThe New Zealanders believe that during sleep the mind leaves the body, and\nthat dreams are the objects seen during its wanderings. They believe in\ntwo separate abodes for departed spirits, the sky, and the sea, and that\nthe abodes of souls are to be approached only down the face of a steep\nprecipice--Cape Maria Van Dieman.\n\nThe Dyaks have great difficulty in distinguishing sleep from death. They\nbelieve that the soul during sleep goes on an expedition of its own, and\nsees, hears, and talks. They believe in spirits, omens, and in all that\noccurs in dreams as real and literally true.\n\nThe Sumatrans believe in spirits and superior beings, and are said to have\na vague idea of the immortality of the soul, and the Malays believe in\nspirits, good and bad, and seem to have a vague idea of a separable soul.\n\nThe Mexicans believed in a separable soul, and distinguished three\ndifferent abodes for it after death.\n\nLanda says the people of Yucatan have always believed more firmly in the\nimmortality of the soul than other people, though they were less advanced\nin civilization. They believed that after death there would be a better\nlife, which the soul would enjoy after its separation from the body. They\nworshiped their dead kings as gods. The mythology of the people of\nGuatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua is extensive and complicated and their\nNational Book, the Popol Vuh, possesses intense interest for the student.\nThere can be no doubt that these people believed in a separable soul, as\ndid also the Chibchas.\n\nIt was the belief of the ancient Peruvians that the soul leaves the body\nduring sleep, and that the soul itself cannot sleep, but that dreams are\nwhat the soul sees in the world while the body sleeps. Waitz says they\nbelieved in the transmigration of human souls into the bodies of animals.\n\nIn the case of the Arabians the primitive belief, which was Sabianism, has\nbeen altered far less by Mohammedan invasion than most persons suppose.\nBurton says Mohammed and his followers conquered only the more civilized\nBedouins, and Baker says that the Arabs are unchanged, and that the\ntheological opinions which they now hold are the same as those which\nprevailed in remote ages, and of this belief the soul and its immortality\nformed a part.\n\nIn general the Hill Tribes of India share in the universal belief in the\nsoul, in spirits, gods, and devils, though of many of these tribes little\nis really known in modern times.\n\nNearly all our North American Indians (I can find no exceptions) bury\nobjects with their dead, such as food implements, jewelry, etc., and kill\nthe horses of the deceased that he may ride in the Happy Hunting Ground.\n\nWith the Carib's death his wife and captives were killed, and food\nutensils, etc., were buried with him.\n\nA curious custom prevailed with some Brazilian tribes. After burying food,\nutensils, arms, etc., with the body, a month after death the body was\ndisinterred, put in a pan over a fire, the volatile substances driven off,\nthe black residue reduced to powder and mixed with water and drunk by the\ncompany.\n\nThe Patagonians bury all the possessions of the deceased with the body.\n\nWith the Hottentots, widows lose one joint of a finger as an offering to\nthe deceased husband every time they re-marry.\n\nWith the Kaffirs, the hut and utensils of the deceased are burnt. The East\nAfricans offer prayer to the dead.\n\nThe Congo people bury ornaments, utensils, arms, etc., and embalm the body\nafter one or two years. The body of the chief must be carried in a\nstraight line from the hut to place of burial, and if trees or huts impede\nthe passage, they are cut down.\n\nThe Coast Negroes bury property with the body and have a ceremony like an\nIrish wake, as do also the Abyssinians.\n\nWith the Ashantis, gold dust and utensils are buried and human sacrifices\noccur.\n\nThe wives of the Fijians are strangled that they may attend their lords in\nthe new country.\n\nThe people of Malagasy bury in vaults 10x12, and 7 feet high, and put in a\nlarge quantity of property.\n\nWith the ancient Mexicans, wives, slaves, concubines, and chaplains were\nslaughtered to attend the deceased.\n\nThe Arabs fasten the camels to the grave of their master.\n\nThe Todas cremate the dead and slaughter the whole herd of buffalo\nbelonging to him, in order to secure them to him in the after life.\n\nI have by no means given a complete category of the primitive and\nbarbarous peoples who believe in a separate soul, and who believe in a\nfuture state much like the present and in conformity with that belief bury\narms, ornaments, and utensils with the dead or place them on the grave,\nand who slaughter horses, camels, wives, slaves, etc., in order that the\ndeceased may retain his possessions. How far these customs extend in case\nof the death of woman I do not know, but as with most of these people the\nwomen are regarded as chattels of the males, the case is doubtless very\ndifferent.\n\nNow as to the origin of these beliefs and customs, their causes naturally\nfall into two categories, the physical and the metaphysical. Modern\nbiological science regards the whole question from the physical side\nalmost exclusively, and facts and experiences that belong largely or\nexclusively to the metaphysical realm are warped out of their natural\norder to fit the theory of interpretation.\n\nEvery savage observes not only that he casts a shadow, but that shadows\nattend all inanimate objects that stand so as to intercept the light, and\nas shadows move as do objects that gives rise to the idea of animation.\nHence we have genii, dryads, naiads, ghosts, angels, demons, etc. To\nfortify this belief we have echoes, which give voice to animate and\ninanimate objects. Movement and voice are the universal accompaniment of\nanimation.\n\nThe part played by the breath, and its sudden cessation at death, are\nbelieved to contribute to the belief in invisible existences.\n\nThe beating of the heart, and its cessation at death, adds another link to\nthe chain of phenomena, going to show that _something_ leaves the body at\ndeath. This may be the origin of the sacrifice of the hearts of captives\nto the gods, or to a deceased warrior or chief as with the ancient\nMexicans, with the belief that the heart is the seat of the soul, and the\nsoul of the captive or victim shall attend the departed chief in the other\nworld.\n\nBut the most important place should doubtless be assigned to dreams as\ngiving rise to belief in the world of spirits. Dreams are universal\namongst men, and animals like the dog also dream.\n\nMost if not all primitive people are also aware that fasting promotes\ndreaming, and while many of them practice long fasting, partly, no doubt,\nto increase fortitude and bodily endurance, in very many cases it is known\nto be practiced for the purpose of promoting dreams. Beyond this voluntary\nfasting there is the enforced fast due to famine or the scarcity of food.\n\nIt will be noticed in many of the cases cited how much stress is laid on\nthe phenomena of dreams and how literally they are interpreted.\n\nAmong civilized races and those wise in philosophy dreams play a very\nimportant part, and are classified as monitorial, prophetic, etc., etc.\nThe habit in modern times of regarding dreams as altogether fantastic and\nunreal, is unscientific. In the mingling of the real and the apparently\nunreal, in the dream state, while the experience itself is always real to\nthe dreamer, lies undoubtedly the source of many beliefs that influence\nthe lives of men.\n\nDreaming must be regarded as one of the states of consciousness, and\nhence, of whatsoever stuff dreams are made, they represent an actual\nexperience of the individual. No greater mistake can be made than the\nbelief that no experience is real save that which brings us in contact\nwith gross matter through the agency of the five senses. The world of\nideas and the creations of the imagination are in fact no more evanescent\nthan matter itself. Here impermanency differs only in time. All in time\npass away.\n\nI hold that dreams, in general, show more clearly the nature of the soul,\nand the experiences of the waking state show the office of the bodily\norganism, and that each _on its own plane_ is as valid as the other.\n\nIn other words, \"the soul is such stuff as dreams are made of.\" It does\nnot hold true, nor need it, that the experiences in dreams shall be true\nand valid on the physical plane, though this is often the case, or that\nthe experiences of the physical plane shall be literally repeated in\ndreams, which, nevertheless, frequently happens.\n\nIt is an undeniable fact that the experiences of the conscious ego in man\ncompass the subjective no less than the objective planes of being. That\nthe subjective avenues should be closed when the ego is functioning on the\nphysical plane through the bodily organs by aid of the senses, is quite as\nremarkable as that the physical avenues should be closed when in dreams,\nor trance, or syncope, or under anaesthetics, the ego functions on the\nsubjective planes.\n\nI hold, therefore, that here, more than anywhere else, is the source of\nnot only belief in the existence of the soul, but of the relatively\nuniform conceptions everywhere attained. The common experience of man on\nthe one plane is as easily accounted for as on the other, and individual\nexperience differs no more widely in the one case than in the other. So\nalso is the persistence of the human type, or the _genus_, involved in the\none case no less than in the other.\n\nAll the agencies recognized in modern evolution tend to elevation only\nthrough differentiation, and even the \"eternal cell\" of Weismann fails in\nexplaining permanency of form through any physical transmission. When\natavism and degeneracy are admitted as factors, as they certainly must be,\nthe perpetuity of the human species fails from physical causes alone.\n\nI hold the idea of a separable soul to be innate in the human\nconsciousness, as a necessary deduction from the experience of the\ncontinuity of self-consciousness which compasses both the objective and\nsubjective states. This deduction from experience occurs whenever the\nevolving ego has advanced sufficiently above the animal plane to reason on\nits own experience, and for this reason the belief in the separable soul\nis universal.\n\nIt is no more strange that the experience of the individual should be\nmodified by traditions and the beliefs of others regarding, for example,\nthe dream state, than that the experience of the individual should in like\nmanner be modified or shaped by traditions and the ceremonies and usages\nof others on the physical plane. The bond of unity and that of diversity\nhave one common root in humanity. What we need for larger knowledge is, I\nthink, a recognition of the breadth and sweep of human experience. To stop\neither ignoring or quibbling over one-half of all our actual experience.\n\nThe inner world of thought and being is really the habitat of the soul,\nwhile the physical body, like the diving-bell, enables us to explore and\ngain experience on another plane which otherwise must remain to us forever\nunknown.\n\nThe limitations of space and time are unknown to us in dreams. These are\nthe limitations of the fleshly casket. The consciousness of freedom, the\nabsence of pain and sorrow even under great trial, are often experienced\nin the dream state. The range and character of experience in the\nsubjective state is modified, and held in check by that of the physical\nplane, and the correspondence of an emotion to an idea, or of an act to a\nthought, ought to give us the key to the two sets of experiences and\nreveal the underlying basis of equilibrium.\n\nA universal fact and a common experience argue a universal nature. Like\nconditions everywhere come from like causes. These are neither accidental\nnor incidental, nor are they left to the caprice of savages, nor to that\nof the more advanced civilizations.\n\nIt is not at all strange that a common experience should result in a\nuniversal belief. The range of experience and varying vicissitudes of life\non the outer physical plane differ as widely as do those of the dream\nplane, and the conscious identity of the individual is equally preserved\non both planes.\n\nI hold that here lies the origin of belief in the existence of a soul in\nman, separable from the body, and the confines of matter, space, and time,\nin an actual experience of every individual. The beating of the heart, the\nphenomena of respiration, the cessation of these at death, and the shadows\ncast by man and inanimate bodies serve as connecting links between the\nexperiences of the individual on the subjective and objective planes of\nbeing.\n\nThe dream state and the experiences thence derived are subjects for\npsychological science to investigate. The experiences allotted by du\nMaurier to \"Peter Ibbetson\" are not altogether fantastic and unwarranted,\nas the records of somnambulism and hypnotism abundantly prove. When we\nremember that nothing deserving the name of Psychology or Psychic Science\nexists in the western world to-day, we need not wonder why men eminent for\ninvestigations in other departments prove themselves novices and\ndogmatists here.\n\nThe folklore, the traditions, and the mythology of dreams would form a\nvery interesting subject for discussion. It is true that the literature of\nthe subject is fantastic, mixed with fable and often altogether\nunreliable; but these difficulties offer no more formidable bar to\nscientific investigation than many another problem already classified and\nformulated for systematic study.\n\nI know a lady of very superior ability, the mother of a prominent jurist,\nwho all her life has had distinct premonitions of many calamities and\ncoming events, and there are those who dream true in every community.\nFantasies, nightmare, dreams from indigestion and delirium, form a\nseparate class where the dreamer is entangled in the meshes of the bodily\nfunctions.\n\nHere fasting, either voluntary or enforced, comes in, and drugs known to\nthe remotest times are found to promote and to determine the character of\ndreams. There are furthermore processes of mental gymnastics whereby the\nthinker withdraws himself from the bodily avenues of sense and functions\nat will on the subjective plane of being.\n\n\"When then,\" said Socrates, in the _Phaedo_, \"does the soul light on the\ntruth? for when it attempts to consider anything in conjunction with the\nbody, it is plain that it is led astray by it.\"\n\n\"And surely,\" he continues, \"the soul reasons best when none of these\nthings disturb it, neither hearing, nor sight, nor pain, nor pleasure of\nany kind, but it retires as much as possible _within itself_, _taking\nleave of the body_, and as far as it can, not communicating or being in\ncontact with it, _it aims at the discovery of that which is_.\"\n\nI hold that the most valuable triumphs of science in the future lie in the\nrealm of psychology, and that by no means the least important contribution\nin this direction will come from the study of Folklore, of which belief in\nthe separable soul, and the phenomena and universality of the dream state\nmust form a very important part.\n\nOne final consideration is suggested not without some degree of hesitation\nand diffidence. If there be a soul in man destined to continued existence,\nand if in any case perfection is the goal of evolution as formulated by\nHerbert Spencer for a future residue of the human race, then this soul in\nits essential elements is without beginning in time.\n\nPre-existence and evolution necessitate repeated re-embodiment on the\nphysical plane, and the continuity of self-consciousness in man I hold to\nbe the proof of life without beginning or end.\n\nViewed in this light, dreams and all subjective experiences in man must\nmingle reminiscences of the soul with the experiences of the present life,\nand the theory of innate ideas assumes a purely scientific form. We hence\narrive at the intuition of the soul to account for universal belief. The\nexperience of Socrates and the Fiji Islander agree as to the subjective\nplane as perfectly as in regard to the beating of the heart. They differ\nonly in degree of evolution.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nFROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION\n\n\nA concise and detailed review of the past, in the long journey of man\ntoward civilization and independent self-knowledge, has not been herein\nattempted. Only hints, here and there, and the barest outline have been\nundertaken.\n\nIf, however, the intelligent student will follow these clews, he will find\na mass of material and abundant evidence to corroborate the general\nthesis.\n\nEvery great religion has had its Avatar, its Redeemer, its _Christos_.\n\nEach of these religions has adapted from its predecessors and transformed\nthe old, in whole or in part, to suit the conditions and apparent needs of\nthe time.\n\nEach of these revivals of religion has been instituted on account of the\nabominations of a dominant priesthood and the poverty and degradation of\nthe masses. What was at first claimed and instituted as a Divine\nRevelation for the elevation and happiness of the whole people, has openly\nand shamelessly degenerated into enslavement of the masses and the\ncreation of a despotic and arrogant class who enslaved both body and soul\nin the name of Religion.\n\nPriest, Prince, and Potentate generally, united to terrorize through\nforce, and by superstition and fear, in order to retain their power.\n\nThe reaction has invariably resulted from economic conditions, as in the\ncase of the Protestant Reformation, when the gold sent to Rome through the\nshameless sale of Indulgences, threatened to impoverish the whole of\nNorthern Europe, and Princes broke allegiance to the Priesthood in\ndesperate self-protection.\n\nThen, and then only, came sufficient protest and Reformation.\n\nThe religionist is apt to regard and designate Science as \"profane,\" and\nReligion _per se_, as essentially \"holy.\"\n\nNothing can be really considered \"holy\" that does not elevate, encourage,\nand inspire the whole human race and promote the Brotherhood of Man.\nWhenever any religion fails to do this it becomes indeed a profanation of\nholy things.\n\nThe only religion that ever became the inspiration of a whole people, so\nfar as history records, was that of Christna, with the teeming millions of\nIndia. Buddhism was driven out of India by the powerful and unscrupulous\nBrahmans, and took refuge in Ceylon, Thibet, and adjacent provinces.\n\nThe religion of Jesus met a similar fate from the Jews and the Roman\ngovernors, until Pagan Rome adapted and transformed it on the principle of\ndominance and exploitation inherent in the genius of the Latin Race.\n\nSince which time no one will pretend to claim that the Religion of Jesus\nhas ever dominated the human race or any large part of it.\n\nRome to-day no more represents the religion of Jesus than the Brahmans of\nto-day represent that of Christna, or Buddha, or the religion of the\nVedas.\n\nNothing is so amazing to-day as that the intelligence of the present age\nfails to recognize this fact.\n\nAll of these religions of the past have adapted their teaching to the\nmultitude through parable and allegory. Nothing in literature can be found\nmore beautiful and inspiring, and at the same time comprehensible to the\ncommonest intelligence, than Christna's \"Parable of the Fisherman.\"\n\nChristna and Buddha, like Jesus, taught to their disciples a \"Secret\nDoctrine,\" apprehensible only to the few. \"To you it is given to know the\nmysteries,\" but to others, who are without, it is not given.\n\nIt can readily be proven from at least a half score of the early Church\nFathers (see page 70 _et seq._ of the author's \"Mystic Masonry\"), that the\nearly church practiced \"Initiation,\" patterned after those of the\nGnostics, Therapeutia and the Mysteries of Egypt, and divided their\nneophytes and postulants into three degrees, as in Blue Lodge Masonry\nto-day.\n\nWhile the great mass of mankind to-day are incapable of apprehending these\ngenuine mysteries of life, and of the individual soul of man, it is\ndoubtful if any civilization ever existed where so many were willing and\ncapable of understanding them as are found here in America to-day.\n\nThe reason for this and the growth of intelligence have already been\noutlined.\n\nA new race is slowly forming here, designated by the ancient Wisdom as the\n\"Fifth Race,\" and called the _Manasic_, the growth of Intelligence, or\n\"Mind.\"\n\nIt is above all things important that with this development of _Mind_\nthere should also develop that of _Buddhi_, or Loving Kindness, the\nessential element in the Universal Brotherhood of Man; a thing largely\noverlooked in the modern theory of Evolution, and ignored, or set at\nnaught by Romanism by its dogmas, anathemas, and persecutions. Instead of\nthe brotherhood of man, she has exhibited the cruelty and rapacity of\ndevils. (Establishment of Roman Catholic Caste.)\n\nThis all-around development of the whole man, as essential to human\nevolution, is everywhere insisted upon by all the great Masters of\nantiquity, and is illustrated and exemplified in the genuine Greater\nMysteries.\n\nHence, the saying in Kabala, \"The wicked _obey_ the law through _fear_;\nthe wise _keep_ the law through _knowledge_.\" The Saviors all preached and\npracticed the \"Good Law,\" and obedience to legal mandates.\n\nThe explanation usually given of an Avatar by the ancient Masters, as \"a\ndescent, embodiment, or incarnation of _Vishnu_,\" who is not only the\n\"Preserver,\" but the \"Rejuvenator\" of mankind, is rather a _blind_, and\nwas an interpretation given to the common people, or the \"profane.\"\n\nAll things--even heaven and earth--pass away, and all things are renewed.\n\nThis renewal, or regeneration, through the constructive principle of\nevolution, is \"designed\" to be continually on higher and still higher\nplanes.\n\nIt is not the range of experience, nor the growth of intelligence alone,\nthat elevates man, but the progressive and constructive growth of the\nsoul, from the physical toward the spiritual plane of Being.\n\nThis actual growth means Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge of\nthe Law, Obedience to its Commands, and Realization of its Rewards.\n\nThis Constructive Psychology is the _growth of the Soul_.\n\nMan passes, therefore, from the age of Fable, Superstition, and Fear, to\nthe age of Faith and Obedience, and finally to that of actual Knowledge.\n\nThis _age of Knowledge_--not for all of mankind, but for a larger number\nwho are worthy and well-qualified, duly and truly prepared than was ever\nknown at one time before--has at last dawned.\n\nThe question is continually asked, \"Why do the Masters of Wisdom Conceal\ntheir Knowledge?\"\n\nThe only adequate answer is that so few are ready, willing, and able to\nreceive it in the right way, and to use and not abuse it.\n\nThose who deny that any such knowledge has ever existed, or exists to-day,\nor can exist, had better waste no time over it. They cannot alter it, nor\ndestroy it, as their predecessors have tried to do for ages, often\nmurdering or crucifying all who were even suspected of possessing it. They\nmight as well try to destroy the law of gravitation, or imagine that by\nmurdering the foremost mathematician of the day that they had destroyed\nthe science of mathematics. I am speaking of _Knowledge_ of Spiritual\nthings.\n\nA new Avatar, therefore, is not simply an individual, though many\nindividuals may understand and exemplify it--the Initiated, the\nIlluminati--and one man may lead in representing it.\n\nTo call it \"the descent and embodiment, or Incarnation of Vishnu,\" in a\nmetaphysical sense, the Spirit (generically), that renews, rejuvenates,\ntransforms, and regenerates, is by no means an empty metaphor.\n\nIn the same sense we speak of the \"Genius of Greece,\" or of Rome, or of\nCivilization.\n\nThe _idea_ is composite, and represents an underlying and _universal\nprinciple and potency_.\n\nBut after all metaphor and generalization, each Avataric movement centered\naround an individual _Man_, and this _Man_ embodied the principle and\nundertook the special work of an evangel, or _Christos_, or \"Avatar,\"\namongst men.\n\nNot only have there been many Avatars, and many Buddhas, but when we\nrealize the meaning of these terms and the mysteries they represent, we\ndiscover that while it may be the special mission of one, like Christna,\nor Buddha, or Jesus, to undertake the work of enlightening and redeeming\nany age; there are other Masters, or Illuminati, engaged in other work, on\ndifferent planes, to promote the same general results.\n\nThe result with each of the great Saviors of mankind has been, that the\ncommon people, or the priesthood, have eventually either crucified or\ndeified them.\n\nIn the case of Jesus they have done both. Eight separate and deliberate\nattempts have already been made to assassinate the present representative\nof the School of Natural Science, who was educated in the order of the\nIlluminati, and delegated by that Order to present these great truths to\nthe world to-day.\n\nThis individual is only in the broadest _metaphysical_ sense (as already\ndefined), an Avatar, which, as shown, is a _composite idea_, _focused_ in\nand _represented by_ an individual man or teacher.\n\nThe work of this Master is to instruct, to exemplify, and to demonstrate,\nthe ancient Wisdom on Scientific lines, in keeping with the needs, the\nopportunities, and the scientific spirit of the present age.\n\nHe does not preach to the multitude in parables. He undertakes to instruct\nthe few who are ready and qualified to receive such instruction, and who\nwill properly use and not abuse it, and he does this \"without money and\nwithout price\"; \"without the hope of fee or reward.\" (Herein is the\nAvataric Spirit of Freemasonry.)\n\nWhat his reward will be with the rabble, or with the \"money changers,\" he\nknows too well, but to such as he, fear is unknown.\n\nI am speaking not _for_ him, but _of_ him, after the blessed privilege of\nseven years of the most intimate association, and such co-operation as I\nhave been capable of giving.\n\nHis plan and motive seem to be to get as much as possible of this\nknowledge of the soul, and of spiritual things, to the attention of the\n\"progressive intelligence of the present age,\" in order that it may become\nexemplified and diffused among all classes, and for the benefit of the\nwhole human race.\n\nWe have passed the age of fable, and of blind faith, and have come to the\nage of fact and law. _Kali Yuga_ means the Iron Age.\n\nAs two natures, the physical and spiritual, meet and mingle in the\nconstitution of man, so do his faculties, capacities, and powers mingle\nand function on the two planes, the physical and the spiritual, though\nvery largely on the former, with the great majority in any age or time.\n\nThere is implanted in the very foundation of man's being the idea or the\nconsciousness of a separable soul. It would seem to be an intuition, for\nwith nearly every people of which we have any knowledge, no matter how\nnear the animal plane, the belief or the folklore of a separable soul\nexists, in many cases held to be separable during life, and in most cases\nbelieved to survive the death of the physical body. (See folio editions of\nHerbert Spencer's \"Descriptive Sociology,\" and Chapter XIII, herein.)\n\nIt has generally been held by scientists and commentators, that this\nintuition, or belief, results largely from dreams.\n\nTo say that dreams, in general, are mere fantasies, or the results of\nimagination, and have no real basis in consciousness, is folly; for dreams\nare of many kinds, and present great varieties.\n\nThey are, moreover, both reminiscent and prophetic, sometimes moving like\nany other conscious experience, from fact to fruition, and in others, we\nare unable to relate them to any other conscious experience.[1]\n\nHypnosis and Telepathy are related to the same states, so much so, that\nthe modern scientist has been constrained to coin two new terms to avoid\nendless repetitions, viz.: \"subliminal\" and \"supraliminal\" states of\nconsciousness.\n\nBearing in mind all these subjective states and experiences, including the\nwhole range of so-called mediumship, the _theorem_ of the Masters and\nadepts of all ages may be made exceeding plain.\n\n[Footnote 1: For a very valuable and suggestive treatise on \"Sleep,\" see\nF. W. H. Myers \"Human Personality,\" Chap. IV.]\n\nIt consists in the _dominance of the Will_ over all conscious states.\n\nThis is the _Alpha_ and the _Omega_--the principle, the potency, and the\nact--of Mastership.\n\nThe mind of the Master no longer drifts in a boundless sea of fantasy, but\nwith rudder and compass, he guides his ship whithersoever he would go.\n\nThis does not mean that there are not still degrees and related states and\nconditions of consciousness in his experience.\n\nIt does mean, however, that all these states and conditions, with all his\nfaculties, capacities, and powers, are _co-ordinated_, not only in his\n_awareness_ of them as a whole, but in the exercise of each and its\nrelation to the others, dominated by his own Will.\n\nHe has \"Mastered\" them, and can incite or repress them, while they can no\nlonger dominate him. Can the reader imagine such a degree of\n_Self-Control_?\n\nThis, however, is but the beginning, as the \"Secret of Power,\" and by no\nmeans the end.\n\nControlling the phases and forms of consciousness, there comes next the\ndetermination to extend their boundary and to _refine and elevate the\npowers of the Soul_.\n\nIn the first case, that of co-ordination, the ancient Wisdom admonishes\nthe student or _chela_ to \"_make the mind one pointed, like a light\nburning in a quiet place_.\" Light a candle and put it in a corner where no\ndraught can reach it, and the flame will seem as though cut out of solid\nfire, and \"one pointed.\"\n\nIt is at the point of refining and elevating the individual consciousness\nthat Ethics or Morals come in. It is just at this point also that the\n_Path_ is determined.\n\nWhat our ancient Brothers called \"the power of Will and\nYoga\"--self-control--_may_ ignore Ethics. Here the paths separate, and\nare called \"the Right-hand Path\" and \"the Left-hand Path,\" determining\nthe \"White\" and the \"Black Magician,\" about whom so much is said in all\nancient scriptures and traditions regarding \"Sorcery\" and \"Black Magic,\"\nof which Egypt and Rome and Modern Mediumship and Hypnotism, are\nillustrations.\n\nThe _supreme importance_ of this natural division or \"parting of the way\"\nreveals the real and final reason why the Masters of the \"right-hand path\"\nconceal their knowledge from the profane and reveal it only after an\nethical formulary has been learned and once for all _ingrained_.\n\nThe \"Thugs\" of India are no more an idle dream nor a bugaboo to frighten\nchildren and old women than are the Mafia and the Roman Jesuit to-day.\n\nIn Egypt the time came when these \"Black Magicians\" dominated the people\nand drove out those of the right-hand path who built the great pyramid and\ngave to Egypt the wisdom and glory of its prime.\n\nThe consciousness and power of these evil men, however, was limited to the\nlower planes. Whenever they wished to transcend these lower planes they\nwere powerless. Hence arose the _Sibyl_; young boys or virgins were\nhypnotized, and being pure, they could thus be inducted into a somewhat\nhigher plane. (See Mabel Collins' \"Idyll of the White Lotus.\")\n\nMargrave, in Bulwer's \"Strange Story,\" is a fine picture of an \"adept of\nthe left-hand path.\" He would sacrifice the whole human race in order to\ngain his personal and selfish ends, just as would \"Mother Church\" to-day.\n\nThe Master of the White Lodge would readily lay down his life for the\nbenefit of his fellowmen. Herein is the vital difference.\n\nHere lies the meaning and the complete antithesis represented by\n_Christos_ and _Satan_. Both names are generic and Avataric, and yet, may\nbe personified.\n\nThis elevating and refining process to which I have referred is not a\nmatter of sentiment or emotion, but a matter of fact, with a definite,\nscientific formula.\n\nIn a previous chapter belief in the existence AND SEPARABILITY OF THE\nHUMAN SOUL HAS BEEN SHOWN to be virtually universal, and in some cases,\neven with people of very low development, the belief is held that the soul\nmay be separated from the body and reunited again during life.\n\nThis is, however, a _belief_, and proves nothing as to _fact_, _science_,\nand _law_, beyond the existence of the belief, with all the appurtenances,\nconcomitants, and subjective experiences of individuals thereunto\nbelonging.\n\nWe thus arrive at the real _theorem_ as a cold psychological problem.\n\nCan the existence and separability of the soul of man, during his physical\nembodiment on earth, and its survival of the death of the physical body,\nbe scientifically demonstrated as a _fact_?\n\nIf so, then the principles involved, the methods employed and the whole\n_modus operandi_ must be capable of exact, scientific formulation, the\nsame as any other theorem of science.\n\nFurthermore, granting that this is true, and that it can be done according\nto exact formulary, the value, the effect of such a demonstration upon the\ncharacter and the normal faculties, capacities, and powers of the\nindividual who undertakes and accomplishes such a demonstration, must be\nrevealed and taken fully into account.\n\nDoes it elevate or degrade him? Is it in line with normal evolution, and\ntherefore, potentially the birthright, and finally, through spiritual\nevolution, the higher destiny of all men?\n\nNor is this all. The effect of the existence of such Knowledge and of its\nteaching, upon communities, as a substitute for blind superstition,\ncredulity, or belief, must also be taken into account.\n\nIt may thus be seen how much even beyond the mere _fact_ of demonstration,\nis included in this transcendent problem; this question of all ages, \"If a\nman die, shall he live again?\" or, \"Does the real man ever die at all?\"\n\nNow it is a demonstrated fact, proven in every case of a genuine Master,\nand held inviolable in the \"Greater Mysteries\" of every age and time, that\nthe ethical question above raised, as to the effect upon individuals and\nsociety, _comes first_, and is made a _test_ of the \"first step\" in the\nway of demonstration.\n\nThis is the meaning of the oft repeated quotation, the candidate for\ninitiation must first be \"worthy and well-qualified, duly and truly\nprepared.\"\n\nThis comprises and constitutes the \"Lesser Mysteries,\" as in the School of\nPythagoras, viz.: the instruction of the neophyte in ethics or morals.\n\nNor is this instruction sufficient in any case. The candidate must himself\ndemonstrate that he has absorbed, apprehended, and utilized such\ninstruction by \"_Living the Life_.\"\n\nIn other words, it must have become so ingrained in his character as to\ngovern absolutely all his acts and impulses to action, i.e., automatic,\nhabitual, and natural.\n\nIn the School of Natural Science this comprises and constitutes the\n\"Ethical Section of the General Formulary.\"\n\nIn the School of Pythagoras we are informed that students sometimes\nremained for years in the \"outer court,\" and sometimes they failed\nentirely and hopelessly, and went back to the outer world. Whereupon a\nwhite stone was erected to their memory as though they were dead. They\nwere indeed, for the time being, dead to the School.\n\nThis fully answers the ethical question as to the effect of this real\nknowledge on the individual and on mankind.\n\nThe real Master sees to it that all that precaution can provide, or human\nwisdom can suggest, is done to insure beneficent _use_ of the knowledge\ngained.\n\nIt is here that \"degrees\" in initiation become a necessity. Every step, or\npassage of the candidate from a lower to a higher degree, is marked and\ndetermined finally and solely by his \"proficiency in the preceding\ndegree.\"\n\nThe question of Morals, or the ethical effect, therefore, is\npre-determined, and as far as possible, solved first.\n\nBut even with all this wise precaution, the unprepared and the unqualified\nhave sometimes entered the outer courts; and when compelled at last to\nreveal their character, have turned to rend their teachers, and have done\ntheir utmost to destroy the School and demoralize mankind.\n\nIf these moral renegades could only realize the _meaning to themselves_ of\nthus entering the \"Left-hand Path\" of devolution and of starting\nvoluntarily \"down the deep descent,\" as portrayed in Dante's \"Inferno,\" or\nin Ahrinzeman, they would, indeed, hesitate long before \"turning to the\nleft,\" for inevitable destruction lies that way.\n\nHere lies the scientific explanation of the \"Fall of Lucifer,\" portrayed\nin some form in the pantheons and mythologies of every philosophy and\nreligion known to man.\n\nThe ordinary \"sinner\" may yet possess an \"average\" of all the virtues, and\nthe ordinary \"saint\" an \"average\" of all the vices. Concerning these it\nwas said, \"I would have you either hot or cold, but because ye are neither\nhot nor cold, I have spewed you out of my mouth.\" No lukewarm soul ever\nentered the Kingdom of Heaven.\n\nBut a time at last comes when the soul of man, enmeshed in the \"lusts of\nthe flesh and the deceitfulness of riches,\" _must make his choice_. He\n_realizes_ that he can no longer \"serve two masters.\" He will make his\nchoice knowingly, deliberately, and voluntarily. Happy and blessed will be\nhe if with his whole soul, and with every impulse of his being, he\ndeclares, \"I know not what others may do, _but as for me and my house, we\nwill serve the Lord_.\"\n\nIf there are real Masters (and there are), they have to work under both\nNatural and Divine Law, and in strict harmony with the higher evolution of\nthe whole human race.\n\nIt is only a low, feeble, and undeveloped intelligence that finds God and\nNature at cross-purposes.\n\nHe who has found \"the place of peace,\" harmonized his own nature, purified\nhis own life, and elevated all his desires and aspirations, has discerned\nthe \"harmony of the morning stars,\" and caught the symphony of the\nheavenly hosts. In other words, he is already functioning on the Spiritual\nPlane.\n\nThis would seem to make clear the ethical problem raised, the stress\nplaced upon it, and how it is met and answered by every genuine Initiate\nthroughout the ages.\n\nIt has to be solved _first_ in each individual case. Only \"he who _lives\nthe life_ shall know the doctrine,\" or advance to power.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nTHE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL\n\n\nThe writer of the present treatise is quite well aware that the great\nmajority of intelligent and educated people at the present day will deny\nthat any real knowledge of the human soul as a spiritual entity, separable\nfrom the physical body during life and demonstrably surviving its death,\nexists now, has heretofore existed, or, if possible for man, is likely to\nexist for some time to come. Some will unhesitatingly declare such a thing\n_unknowable_ for man.\n\nI hold the firm _conviction_ that this knowledge has been for ages the\npossession of certain individuals, few in number in any age or country,\nand that this knowledge has resulted through conformity to certain\ndefinite and specific requirements, formulated under well-known laws of\nman's spiritual being, involving a definite individual experience and\nresulting in a scientific and exact demonstration.\n\nI ask the reader to note two points in the foregoing statement: First,\nthat for myself I use the word \"conviction,\" and not \"knowledge\"; and,\nsecond, that the demonstration of real knowledge referred to, is made by,\nand confined to an individual, in each instance.\n\nWith these individuals the knowledge is a _scientific demonstration\nthrough personal experience_. With me, the \"firm conviction\" is a matter\nof \"circumstantial evidence,\" supported by analogy, and fortified by\nempirical testimony, such as acquaint the world with the facts and\nfindings of science, and which I think admit of no other consistent and\nrational interpretation.\n\nIn the foregoing pages I have endeavored to give outlines, analogies, and\nsuggestions which seem to fortify the conviction referred to.\n\nWhile these are fragmentary and desultory, owing to the fact that the\ncircumstances are so varied, the subject so vast, and the materials so\nabundant, yet, taken as a whole, they seem overwhelming, and, except to\nthe careful, persistent, and intelligent student, confusing.\n\nIt must be clearly apprehended that no one familiar with the subject can\nreasonably suppose, nor has it ever been claimed by a real Master of the\n\"Art,\" that this knowledge ever has been, or can be, communicated to, or\nacquired by groups of individuals at any time, or under any\ncircumstances.\n\nThrough all the past, and at the present time, it is designated as an\n_individual experience_.\n\nTrue, the ethics, and the philosophy, and even the principles of exact\npsychic science that in the past constituted the \"Lesser Mysteries,\" can\nbe, and often have been, taught to groups, or classes.\n\nIn the present \"School of Natural Science,\" this preparatory training\nconstitutes the \"Ethical Section.\"\n\nBut above and beyond all the foregoing general considerations the\n\"empirical facts\" and the \"circumstantial evidence,\" if we know personally\none who claims to have had the specific instruction, the personal\nexperience, and to have made the scientific demonstration referred to and\noutlined in the problem, our opportunity for instruction, and for the\napplication of tests for validity and reasonableness as to the whole\nproblem, is exceedingly valuable.\n\nThis personal acquaintance may become the nearest possible criterion,\nshort of our own personal experience, as to demonstration.\n\nIn previous chapters this phase of the subject has, perhaps, been\nsufficiently dwelt upon.\n\nThe Master may say, \"I know; I have had the personal experience; I have\ndemonstrated.\"\n\nThe student may at last say, \"I believe; I am convinced; I am satisfied.\"\n\nAll through the foregoing pages the effort has continually been made to\npreserve clearly this distinction.\n\nIn tracing analogies through the history of the past, the conditions,\npremonitory, present, and subsequent to great world-movements have often\nbeen referred to.\n\nNothing is more common or more patent than the oft-repeated saying, \"This\nis the age of science.\" Any great movement that undertakes at the present\nday to deal with the deeper problems of individual and social life, must\nfit in and conform to the \"spirit of the present age.\"\n\nTo that platform it must appeal; in that language it must be addressed,\nand by such judgment and criterion must it stand or fall.\n\nAll these tests and criteria have been fully met by the School of Natural\nScience, and they are clearly outlined and set forth in the \"Great Work,\"\naddressed to \"the Progressive Intelligence of the Age.\"\n\nThere need be no misconception or misinterpretation at this point.\n\nIt is true that superficial thinkers and readers, enthusiasts and\nemotionalists, are likely to infer that the science of the soul can now be\nhad \"for a consideration\" and in \"a dozen easy lessons.\"\n\nAll such are doomed to disappointment.\n\nIt is furthermore likely, if the average \"physical scientist\" pays any\nheed at all, that he will devise a series of \"tests\" and \"experiments\" of\nhis own, to fit his preconceived notion of things psychical, with the\nlatent conviction, at least, that he will be able to prove the whole thing\na humbug.\n\nThese, also, are doomed to disappointment. Physical tests of psychical and\nspiritual laws and processes are unscientific. No spiritual problem can be\nsolved in terms of physical matter alone.\n\nSo-called psychological science to-day is in the condition of one\npossessing a fine piece of ground, and gathering materials for a house, a\nsuperstructure.\n\nThe ground is already covered with bricks and stones, and sand and lumber,\npiled in every direction, with the purpose of one day beginning the work\nof construction, and the slogan, \"Wait! Not yet!\" \"Some day we are hoping\nto build.\"\n\nNo architect, \"no designs on the trestle-board,\" and so they go on\naccumulating \"facts\" and \"evidence\" day after day, year after year,\ncentury after century.\n\nThey have a \"working hypothesis,\" but no definite _theorem_, and they may\nwork till doomsday on this line without a glimmer of real scientific\nknowledge of the human soul, yet with mountains of \"facts\" or of\n\"rubbish.\"\n\nThey can never prove the existence of a _spiritual entity_ in terms of\nmatter on the physical plane.\n\nTheir work has been, and still is, of great interest and value, but it is\nin no scientific sense, _Constructive_, backed by the laws of proportion\nand harmony, nor the \"Canon of Architecture.\"\n\nThe apotheosis of Natural Science is like the \"canon of proportion\" in\narchitecture, introduced by Vitruvius (an Initiate) centuries ago. It is\nthe verification of Plato's saying, \"God geometrizes,\" and his concept of\n\"the World of Divine Ideas.\"\n\nPlato further declares, \"He who knows not the common things of life is a\nbrute among men. He who knows the common things of life is a man among\nbrutes. But he who knows all that can be learned by diligent inquiry is a\ngod among men.\"\n\nNatural Science, as shown in the Great Work, includes scientific knowledge\non all planes of being on which the soul of man functions: The physical,\nmoral, psychical, and spiritual; for man is a composite being.\n\nThe apotheosis of Natural Science, therefore, is Fact, Law, Demonstration,\nand Knowledge; before theory, conjecture, creed, dogma, superstition, or\nfear, intuition, inspiration, revelation, and \"holy men\" or \"holy books\"\nthat must be accepted without evidence, or \"believed\" against evidence.\n\nThe _Avatars_ of all the past have originated great reformations which\nhave at last degenerated into dogma and superstition.\n\nThe people, incapable of understanding the Law, have been taught in\nparables, while the few in all religions and in every age have apprehended\nthe law and learned the \"Secret Doctrine.\"\n\nTo-day, for the first time in centuries, for the reasons already assigned,\nand in keeping with the scientific spirit of the age, and because\nsuperstition in power, dogma, and persecution are politically dethroned,\nthese great truths, this Great Work, is openly declared and outlined so\nthat he who wills may apprehend.\n\nLet no one say, \"This is an effort to _deify_ an individual.\" It _is_ an\neffort to enthrone Truth; to remove the barriers to the rights of\nconscience, the shackles of reason, private judgment and Individual\nResponsibility, and to free the soul of man from all the fetters of\nignorance, superstition, and fear, in order that he may be \"first a man,\"\n\"then a Master,\" and at length on a higher plane of being, something more\nthan man has yet realized, or ever dreamed.\n\nSomething \"that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it yet entered\ninto the heart of man to conceive the glory that shall be revealed.\"\n\nThe beginning is here and now, when man shall achieve the Mastery of Self\nand really possess his own soul, and not hold it tremblingly as a _pawn_\nof some pretentious potentate of the soul.\n\nThe right of Light, Knowledge, and further progress by \"_Being a Man_,\"\nand not a chattel, an asset, a pawn, or a slave.\n\nThis is the coming _Avatar_, and the dawn is already here.\n\nWill the day darken, the Light be quenched? Who can tell?\n\nThe redemption of Woman from the slavery of all the past is well under\nway, and it is indeed a glorious sign.\n\nNo lesson in history is plainer nor more readily demonstrated than the\nfact that the degeneracy of a religion and the degradation of woman go\nhand in hand.\n\nDemonstrate to-day in any country on earth the status of woman as a whole,\nand no mistake need be made as to the prevailing religion.\n\nWoman's political disability is another matter entirely; for she is\ndominated by man only because, and only so far as, she is handicapped or\ndegraded by the dominant religion.\n\nTake woman from the churches, Protestant or Romish, to-day, and no church\ncould do business for a twelvemonth.\n\nFor these reasons the immense and rapidly growing movements, Women's Clubs\nand the like, to-day, are of great significance, backed and illuminated as\nthey are by all past history.\n\nIn the new movement, the School of Natural Science, the door is as wide\nopen to woman as to man. I might paraphrase the slogan of the Robber\nBarons of the middle ages. \"_She_ may seize who hath the power, _She_ may\nhold who can.\"\n\nIn the coming Illuminati woman will stand by the side of man in all\nopportunity, endeavor, or achievement.\n\nIn the new age woman will be something few men have even yet dreamed of.\n\nWe might call this new age \"_the Woman's Avatar_,\" without doing violence\nto either religion, tradition, history, or science; while the sacred Hymns\nof the Vedas, with the angel of the household and the inspirer of the soul\nof man, the worship of Divinity, by both men and women, opened a new\nheaven on this old earth.\n\nAnd then--such children as will be born, without pain, not through chance,\ncaprice, nor under protest, but even as they were in Greece, as an\noffering of Love on the altar of divine man-womanhood, with a song of joy\nto heaven.\n\nProf. Fiske somewhere said, \"The evolution of man by Natural Selection\ndraws near its close, to be followed by that of Divine Selection.\"\n\nThe Divinity _in_ man is _Christos_, the \"son of the Father,\" the Divine\nand Eternal _Avatar_.\n\nBelief is rather a superficial process, the intellect (\"mortal mind\")\nmingled with the emotions, changing and evanescent. \"Now you see it, and\nnow you don't.\" It is mingled with hope that alternates with fear and\ndoubt.\n\nFaith, when once analyzed and apprehended, is another thing entirely,\nthough nearly every one, and most writers, confuse \"belief\" and \"faith.\"\n\n\"Faith is the soul's _intuitive conviction_ of that which both _Reason_\nand _Conscience_ approve.\"\n\nGenuine faith rarely wavers or changes, because it is an evolution, a\n\"growth of the soul,\" a spiritual experience, and it becomes the \"dominant\nchord\" in the symphony of life, determining Harmony.\n\nIt is in this deliberate and discriminative sense that I have used the\nterm _conviction_ in relation to the Master and his \"Great Work.\" He never\ndogmatizes, nor undertakes to \"indoctrinate.\"\n\nIn answer to a question on some deep and perplexing problem of the soul or\nof the spiritual plane, he replies, \"So far as we _know_, it is so and\nso.\" \"A new experience, or an added light, may alter our conclusion.\"\n\nThe average individual scarcely realizes what absolute sincerity, with no\nmotive save Love of Truth, and beneficence to man guided by clear\nintelligence, and dominated by the rational Will, means, or can\naccomplish.\n\nThese are the natural powers of the human soul. There is nothing\nmysterious or miraculous about them, more than in the art of music of a\nBeethoven or a Paganini, or in gymnastics and the winner of the Marathon.\n\n                 \"To _shape_ and _use_, arise and fly,\n                 The reeling Faun, the sensual feast,\n                 Move upward, working out the beast,\n                 And let the ape and tiger die.\"\n\nMy _conviction_ is strong, and my Faith unwavering.\n\n\"The great and peaceful ones live, regenerating the world like the coming\nof spring: and having themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence,\nhelp those who try to do the same thing without personal motive.\" (\"Crest\nJewel of Wisdom.\")\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE NEW AVATAR\n\n\nFrom all the foregoing general considerations it may be discerned that the\n\"New Avatar\" is strictly that of _Scientific Demonstration_.\n\nAs we use terms in vogue at the present day, it pertains to the field of\nNatural Science.\n\nThis does not imply that it is irreligious, nor unreligious, nor\nsacrilegious.\n\nWhen it is clearly apprehended it will be found to be the only thing that\nharmonizes--not the Institutions of man--but Science, Philosophy, and\nReligion _per se_, as departments in human intelligence.\n\nMan will thus discern \"the rational order that pervades the universe.\"\n\nThe purpose and result of such knowledge to man are Harmony,\nEnlightenment, Courage, and Hope.\n\nMan _is_ the arbiter of his own destiny. He may _become_ the Master of his\nown Fate. Such are the _Illuminati_, the \"Masters of the Great White\nLodge,\" the Benefactors of the whole human race, the members of the\n\"School of Natural Science.\"\n\nWhat would I have my readers do? I answer, _Investigate_! Study! Think!\nWait! Hope! Anticipate!\n\nCareful, intelligent, and conscientious investigation will determine the\nfact that we possess in America to-day _one_ who can fill all the\nrequirements that I have endeavored to designate and portray--not as a\n\"reincarnation\" of Buddha or Jesus, but as a \"Master\"--one who has been\nduly instructed and prepared, who has had the personal experience, and has\nmade a _practical demonstration_, that determines Mastership.\n\nHe has demonstrated that \"there is no death,\" but transition only (except\nthrough conscious and determined devolution, or _suicide of the soul_).\nMan is, after all, and in the last analysis, a \"free moral agent.\"\n\nAs a Member of the \"Great School\" he was educated and initiated many years\nago, and has consecrated his life to this service. He has demonstrated the\nseparability of the soul by leaving and returning to his body at will.\n\nThe School of Natural Science; the Great Work; the Individual\nRepresentative; the conditions of the present age; the opportunities\noffered; the demand for real knowledge everywhere; the falling in pieces\nof creeds and dogmas; the expectancy so often voiced--all of these\ncorrespond intimately with what the ancient Aryans designated as\n\"_Avataric_.\"\n\nIt is not now the deification of any Individual, but the \"_apotheosis of\nNatural Science_,\" as the foundation and method in the achievement of\nactual knowledge.\n\nFrom this actual knowledge will arise a new Faith, not a new religion, but\nthe old Religion of Humanity, precisely as taught and lived by Jesus,\nChristna, Buddha, and all the other \"Redeemers,\" and real Avatars of the\npast.\n\nThe \"Enemy of all Righteousness,\" as already said, have made many attempts\nto assassinate this Representative of the Great School, but he goes\nsteadily about his own work. These enemies realize the danger to their\nunholy work, but not the _Power_ back of this great movement. This they\ncan never destroy.\n\nThe day of enlightenment has come, and the cry has gone forth, Ho! all ye\nwho are heavy-laden, involved in fear and doubt and uncertainty;\nbewildered, discouraged, despairing, and committing suicide! There is no\ndeath! Man is the Arbiter of his own Fate! Look up and Live, and Hope and\n_Realize_!\n\nAnd there shall dawn for you a new heaven and a new earth in which\ndwelleth Love and Peace and Righteousness; with Jesus--the\n_Christos_--your \"elder Brother,\" leading the way, and the downtrodden,\nthe poor and despised children of men, shouting Hosanna! for the Loving\nKindness that will have taken the place of selfishness, strife, cruelty,\nsuperstition, and Dogma.\n\nReligion will no longer be a matter of mere sentiment, nor of emotion, of\nblind belief, nor of fear, superstition, dogma, nor creed--but a _Great\nWork_. So Mote it be.\n\nThe author of this volume can lay no claim for it as a systematic treatise\non Psychology, either according to the rules of composition or the orderly\nsequence of science.\n\nIt is rather a number of essays, some of which were written without\nreference to publication, or the design, at the time, of putting them\ntogether in a single volume.\n\nThere is, therefore, more or less repetition, the same subject under a\ndifferent title, viewed from a different aspect, yet involving the same\nprinciples, motives, and aims.\n\nBut the subject of Psychology is so vast, so intricate, so interesting and\nimportant, and yet, in the average mind, so confused, and so little known,\nthat considerations from many sides, and even repetitions in the\napplication of a given principle in various ways, are believed more likely\nto make the whole subject apprehensible to the general reader to whom it\nis addressed.\n\nMoreover, the author believes that the time has come when Psychology, as a\n_Constructive Science_ of the nature, laws, and destiny of the Human Soul,\nneed no longer be regarded as unknown or unattainable, but open to all who\nseek it in the right way, giving to it the consideration, time, and\nloyalty it so amply deserves.\n\nTo such as these, it is hoped, the foregoing pages may give many clews and\nsidelights, suggestions, encouragement, and hope.\n\nPsychology, to the Author of this volume, means literally _A Knowledge of\nthe Human Soul_, rather than of treatises upon the subject, or of the\nopinions, beliefs, or dogmas of men.\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\nThe oligarchy of creeds, and the autocrats of Rome no more represent the\n\"Coming of the Son of Man,\" the Divine Logos that was and is \"in the bosom\nof the Father in heaven,\" than do the Rockefellers, the Morgans and the\nHarrimans, constituting the oligarchy of wealth, or than the political\ngrafters and bosses of our municipalities represent the \"New Commandment,\"\n\"that ye love one another.\" The barons of wealth have not yet resorted\ndirectly to murder, as has Rome for ages.\n\nSt. Augustine says, \"What is now called the Christian religion existed\namong the ancients and was not absent from the human race until Christ\ncame, from which time, the true Religion, which existed already, began to\nbe called 'Christian.'\" (See Heckethorne's \"Secret Societies,\" page 12,\nIntroduction.)\n\nAs to the basis of scientific chronology regarding the Wisdom of the\nMasters, and their indestructible records, I quote the following from a\nmodern student of Astrology. His method of reckoning is correct, even\nthough his dates may not be absolutely exact, as he is not a \"Master.\"\n\nCHRONOLOGY AND THE \"RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX.\"\n\nAncient religious symbols bear a striking resemblance to the\nconstellations of the heavens, especially those of the Zodiac, and if this\nbe their true meaning, we have an infallible key to their chronology. At\nthe beginning of the Christian Era, the constellation Aries, or Ram,\noccupied the equinoctial place, being in the first degree of that\nconstellation. About 2150 B.C. the first degree of Taurus, or Bull,\ncontained the Equinox. When the constellation Taurus, or the Bull, was in\nthe first division, or the equinoctial place, the people used a symbol\nrepresenting a bull, described as giving fecundity, a deity of vegetation\nas at Dodona, in their religious ceremonies. One of the statuettes found\nrecently in the excavations of Crete, was a woman figured between bulls\nand lions, with a dove or eagle on her head, and holding serpents in her\nhand. This figure would seem to represent mother earth between the\nconstellations Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. She is figured between\nTaurus (the Bull) on one side, Leo (the Lion) at her feet, Aquila (or\nEagle) in the constellation, Aquarius on her head, and Scorpio (or the\nSerpent) in her hand; all forming the sacred cross or 'Swastika,' with the\nconstellations Taurus in the vernal Equinox; Leo beneath the earth, the\nEagle or Aquarius overhead, and Scorpio held in her hand toward the west.\n\nArchaeologists place the date in which this symbol was in use in Crete at\n1100 to 1500 B.C. These dates are included between 2150 B.C. and the year\n1 A.D. By the same method we are enabled to calculate the age of the\nSphinx.\n\nThis Sphinx apparently represents the constellations Leo (the Lion) and\nVirgo (the Virgin). It has a lion's body, and a woman's head and breast.\nWhen the Sphinx was built, it seems the spring equinox occupied a point\nbetween these two constellations, and as the spring, or Easter, festivals\nof the ancients were held on or about March 21st of our calendar, this\nSphinx was the representation of Leo and Virgo, the point in which the Sun\ncrossed the equator, or equinoctial line.\n\nNow as the equinox retrogrades from east to west in the reverse order of\nthe constellations, as well as the reverse order of the movement of the\nplanets, the Sun will not cross the equator at the same point each year,\nbut at a point a little to the west, amounting to about fifty and a third\nseconds of arc. At this rate the equinox will pass backward through the\nconstellations, making a complete revolution in a little less than\ntwenty-six thousand years, or at the rate of about twenty-one hundred and\nfifty years to a constellation of thirty degrees. Now by taking the\npresent position of the equinox in the constellation Pisces, we find that\nit has nearly reached the constellation Aquarius. About 1909 years ago it\nwas in the first point of Aries. If we begin at its present point in\nPisces, and count back to the Junction of Leo-Virgo, we will have to count\n1909 years to first point of Aries; 2150 years to the first point of\nTaurus; 2150 years to Camini; 2150 years to Cancer; 2150 years to Leo and\n2150 years to the constellation Virgo. This indicates that the Sphinx was\nbuilt 12,659 years ago, or approximately 10,750 B.C. (John Kilduff.)\n\n\n\n\nTHE HARMONIC SERIES\n\nThese are the text books of that Ancient School of Wisdom whose members\nhave ever been \"Masters of the Law\" of Life and of Death, able at will,\nindependently at all times, to travel in the Spiritual World and\ncommunicate with those who live there--your friends and our friends,--who\nhave passed through the gates of death and now live another life beyond\nthe grave.\n\nVol. I. HARMONICS OF EVOLUTION\n\nBy Florence Huntley\n\nThis book is a clear statement of the philosophy of Individual Life, as\ntaught by modern Masters of the Law. Its teachings mean the dawn of a \"New\nDay\" in the intellectual and ethical evolution of the whole world.\n\nMrs. Huntley has sensed the very soul of mankind and understands and\nexplains its yearnings for what Drummond names \"the greatest thing in the\nworld, LOVE.\" 463 pages; illustrated.\n\nVol. II. THE GREAT PSYCHOLOGICAL CRIME\n\nBy TK\n\nThis remarkable book deals with the imminent dangers of the day, and\ncovers the most mysterious and fascinating phenomena and experiences of\nhuman life. The author's analysis of Hypnotism and Mediumship is masterly\nand complete. For fifteen chapters, by the most relentless and\nunanswerable facts, he _proves_ that Hypnotism and subjective Mediumship\nare vitally destructive to the physical body and _the human soul_.\n\nThis volume carries a hope, a message, a suggestion and a warning to all\nwho are honestly, patiently and persistently seeking to prove that Death\ndoes not end all. 464 pages; illustrated.\n\nVol. III. THE GREAT WORK\n\nBy TK\n\nThis is the book which tells _how_ one must live and _what_ he must do to\nbecome able himself to demonstrate the fact of another life.\n\n\"_The Great Work_\" _and_ \"_The Great Psychological Crime_\" were written by\nthe American Representative of that \"Venerable School of Wisdom,\" whose\nrecords are the most ancient at this time known to man, and which for many\nthousands of years, has influenced the civilization and work of every\ngreat nation of earth. 464 pages; illustrated.\n\nThese books are founded upon an exact science. More impressive, more\nfascinating and \"stranger than fiction.\" \"When a man dies, he shall live\nagain,\" is the inspiring message of the Great Work in America,--and this\nmessage is written in clear, concise, simple and easily readable English.\n\nBound in red silk, gold stamped. Price single copy, $2.00. _Per set $6.00,\nexpress prepaid._\n\nIn Persian Morocco, _de luxe_ edition $3.50 each. _The set at one time,\n$10.00._\n\n[Illustration]\nTHREE-IN-ONE\n\n\"As beautiful a volume as the mind can imagine.\"\n\nThe HARMONIC SERIES--Three Volumes--Bound in FULL, PERSIAN MOROCCO (Oxford\nBible style), round corners, silk head-bands and markers, red-under-gold\nedges, _Genuine Gold Stamped_. Printed on Japan French paper; several\nbeautiful full-page half-tones. Durable, practical, artistic. Name stamped\non cover in pure gold, if desired.\n\nPrice _de luxe_ edition, all charges prepaid, $12.00.\n\nAll orders filled the same day they are received.\n\nINDO-AMERICAN BOOK CO. 5705 South Boulevard, Chicago, Ill.\n\n\n\n\nQUESTIONS ON NATURAL SCIENCE\n\n[Illustration]\nThis volume is an aid to the study of the \"Harmonic Series.\" While it\ncommands the attention of the casual reader of the Text Books, it is\nintended more especially for those who contemplate a closer relationship\nwith the philosophy and for those who _have been admitted to\nstudentship_.\n\nTo the aspiring student it opens up the entire Harmonic Philosophy in a\nmanner that invites and facilitates the most intense interest,\nsatisfaction and progress.\n\n355 pages, 20 chapters, and 3,857 carefully formulated questions, all of\nwhich are _authoratatively_ answered in the Text Books. Three-quarter\nleather, price $2.00.\n\nKEY TO QUESTIONS ON NATURAL SCIENCE. Leather, $1.00.\n\n                          --------------------\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF THE WORK\n\n[Illustration]\n_By TK._\n\nThese beautiful and inspiring essays by the Beloved Elder Brother are now\nprinted in book form, for ready reference, and will prove to be quite as\ninteresting and helpful to the beginner in Natural Science, as they are\nuseful to instructors and regularly admitted students.\n\nThey unfold in simple language a wealth of spiritual light that leads at\nonce to a most searching soul--analysis and readjustment of the entire\nintelligence to the Constructive Principle in Nature. Every page breathes\nthe very inmost meaning and spirit of the educational work of the Great\nSchool. If you are in earnest this book will help you. 331 pages, cloth,\nprice $1.00.\n\n                          --------------------\n\nTHE QUESTION BOX SERIES\n\n[Illustration]\n_By TK._\n\nThese two volumes consist of Questions from Students and Friends of the\nWork of the Great School, touching all manner of interesting subjects,\ntogether with answers by the TK. Volume I contains about 40 general\ntopics, 217 pages. Volume II has over 75 topics and 245 pages.\n\nCharming and valuable aids to readers, students and instructors, and\nstrictly authoritative in their teaching.\n\nLarge, clear, beautiful type; carefully indexed, and attractively\narranged.\n\nPrice, $1.00 each.\n\n                          --------------------\n\nHARMONIC BIRTHDAY BOOK\n\n[Illustration]\nA large book--310 pages. There are quotations from the \"Harmonic\nPhilosophy\" for every day in the year (with space for writing) and the\nfollowing valuable and unique features: A section devoted to Birthstones;\nWedding Anniversaries; the Meaning of Flowers; section devoted to the\ndeaths of Relatives and Friends, and a frontispiece and beautiful\nhalf-tone portrait of _Florence Huntley_.\n\nIt is really a family record, that will increase in value with the years\nand become priceless to the fortunate owner. Bound in leather, gold\nstamped and embossed, gold edges and printed on heavy parchment paper.\n\nWithout doubt the most beautiful gift book ever sold. Price, $2.00.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DREAM CHILD (GIFT EDITION)\n\n[Illustration]\n_By Florence Huntley_\n\nThis is doubtless one of the most beautiful, masterful and mystical books\never written. The descriptive incidents in this book could only emanate\nfrom the brilliant and fertile brain of Florence Huntley.\n\nFlorence Huntley was the first instructed student of the TK, dating from\nthe year 1887; and from 1894 the Work commanded her undivided time and\neffort.\n\n\"_The Dream Child_\"--the first result of that interest--was written in\n1889, and stands for that earlier and therefore more poetic and less exact\ntreatment of the Great Law than her later writings.\n\nA book that EVERYBODY reads and re-reads with the keenest appreciation and\nenthusiasm. Price $1.00\n\n                          --------------------\n\nTHE GAY GNANI OF GINGALEE.\n\n[Illustration]\n_By Florence Huntley_\n\nOnly those who knew Mrs. Huntley's earlier humorous writings will be\nprepared for such a book from the serious Author of \"_Harmonics of\nEvolution_.\"\n\nThe publishers feel entirely safe in saying there is nothing like \"The Gay\nGnani\" in the whole range of modern satirical fiction.\n\nThe most extraordinary feature of this indescribable satire lies in\nChapter XII, \"THE WAGES Of SIN IS DEATH,\" contributed by the TK. This\nchapter is a masterpiece of concept, treatment and beauty, setting forth\nthe meaning and purpose of the whole extravaganza.\n\nDon't miss reading this book. Red cloth, gold stamped. Price, $1.00.\n\n                          --------------------\n\nZANONI AND ZICCI\n\n[Illustration]\n_By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton_\n\nAs a work of art this romance is one of great power and original\nconception.\n\nNo other works of this great author have provoked such diversity of\ncriticism as \"_Zanoni_.\" To some, this book represents a temporary\naberration of genius without definite purpose. To others it represents\nsurpassing, bold and original speculation, profound analysis of character\nand thrilling interest; but _to the one who knows_, every character in\nthis book is recognized by a familiar sign and symbol which, though\nhidden, is nevertheless patent to the initiated.\n\nThe TWO books, \"Zanoni\" and \"Zicci\" in one, SPECIAL EDITION, cloth, gold\nstamped. Price, $1.00.\n\n                          --------------------\n\nA STRANGE STORY and THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS\n\n[Illustration]\nThis is another of those marvelous books by _Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton_. \"A\nStrange Story\" is the antithesis of \"Zanoni.\" It is a most absorbingly\ninteresting story depicting the destructive psychic practices and\npossibilities against which \"_The Great Psychological Crime_\" so timely\nwarns the human race.\n\nAs a matter of fact, both \"A Strange Story\" and \"Zanoni\" are carefully\nveiled exposes of the two oldest and most powerful centers of Spiritual\nknowledge extant, and are revelations of the loftiest pursuits and the\nmost malign practices known to human Intelligence.\n\nBe sure to read both of these books.\n\nSpecial edition. Price, $1.00.","title":"The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul: The Findings of Natural Science Reduced to Practical Studies in Psychology","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":53477}