LOVE AND LIFE AND PEACE i ,: : : ■/:;!; |^- BOLTON HALL Introduction by Bishop Huntington Class Book_ Copyright 1^^. CQPyRIGHT DEPOSm ^ LIFE, AND LOVE AND PEACE LIFE, AND LOVE AND PEACE BY BOLTON HALL Author of "Three Acres and Liberty,'* *'A Little Land and a Living," etc. with introduction by the late BISHOP HUNTINGTON ^ NEW YORK THE ARCADIA PRESS 1909 Be 43/ Copyright, 1909, By the ARCADIA PRESS LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two Cor-i^.« •^ •" -^ iUN 1^ liiiiii wk Copyrurnt LMfz-^ ^ Dedicated by permission to Ealph Waldo Trine Sower of Seed and Cultivator of the Earth, materially and mentally, by his friend Bolton Hall CONTENTS Part I^Life CHAPTEB PAGE I. Primitive Life 19 II. Development . . .... 27 III. Mental Attainment . . . . .34 IV. Liberty 40 V. False Ideas ©p Life 48 VI. Desires 54 Part II — Love VII. The Law of Life . . . . .71 VIII. The Higher Life . . . . . .88 IX. Unity 95 X. Freedom through Unity . . . .109 XL Duty 114 XII. The Beauty of Man 119 Part III— Peace XIII. How to Attain Love 129 XIV. The Door of Happiness .... 141 CONTENTS 6 CHAPTER PAGE XV. Interior and Economic Peace . . .152 XVI. The Voice of Truth l6l XVII. The Triumph of Life 180 XVIII. Conclusion 190 Appendixes I. Tolstoy on Life 195 II. Control of Children 205 III. An Attempt at Practice 226 IV. A New Movement 243 V. At-one-ment 279 INTRODUCTION Diocese op Central New York, 210 Walnut Place, Syracuse, N. Y. My Dear Sir: Personally, I believe, the reading of your book has done me good. Certainly I ought to be bet- ter now for it. But I want to say — what may surprise you — ^that, with the exception of perhaps half a dozen sentences, I am confident that the whole of it might be deUvered from the pulpit of nearly every or any one of the Churches in the Communion to which I belong, without objection, or even any suggestion of incongruity. In vigor, beauty, or originality, many passages might be noticeable, but very few indeed could be consid- ered erroneous, heretical, or strange. Some ques- tion would perhaps arise as to the real meaning of certain expressions relating to ante-natal hu- man existence. It may be that you hold a psycho- logical or ontological theory more in harmony INTRODUCTION 10 with theosophy than with Christianity. I see no sign of favor to re-incarnation. But, aside from such speculation, your work seems to me full of nourishment and inspiration, — for which I thank you. The two sentences I refer to pertain not to doc- trine but to critical judgment. I think they are unfair. (Note.*) One is where you say, "So- called Christians teach," etc. I know of no " Christian pessimists " who " say that there is no good in this life." To be sure, it is not clear who the "Christian pessimists" are; but I am very sure that there are many more pessimists (in the philosophical sense) outside of the Church than within it. The other sweeping statement is later; where what is asserted of *' Ecclesiastical Teachers " is far, too far, beyond the warrant of known facts to be safe or just. It makes me feel, as Matthew Arnold's " Literature and Dogma " did, that even in Christian lands and families the oppo- nents of the Church are not aware what the * Editor's Note — These two statements are taken di- rectly from Tolstoy's book on " Life." 11 INTRODUCTION^ Church now teaches. Most of my long hfe I have been trying, poorly enough, to persuade men of what is on these pages of spiritual and ethical truths. Sincerely yours, F. D. Huntington. THE PURPOSE OF THE AUTHOR So many persons have written me saying how much happier a view of life they have gotten from a former httle book on these lines, that I have expanded it, and, in doing that, have re- written it entirely. So much of the work as is taken from Tolstoy is mostly from his difficult book " Of Life." I have attempted to outUne the inspired teach- ings of the unorthodox, which are essentially one, eternal and unchangeable. The message of these latter-day prophets is the message of Jesus: that the Kingdom of Heaven is within ourselves, and is consequently as attainable for everyone here and now. I hope that these teachings may not now be thought of as my opinions or my philosophy: that which is of any one person is partial and misleading ; that which comes of the Divine prin- ciple alone is the universal Truth. The ideas put forth may seem hke folly to 13 THE PURPOSE 14, OF THE AUTHOR some readers, but who is there that will not get good by stopping to think what the true object of life may be, and how we can "overcome the world," here upon earth? It is proper to say that Bishop Huntington's introduction was written before the revision was complete, so that he pronounced only on its gen- eral tenor. If the reader opposes his mind to its message, this book may interest him, but it cannot help him. Those who find here anything that really helps them or that they cannot help objecting to, are invited to write to me. Bolton Hall 56 PiNB Street, New York. Con0olation The blood was trickling from my heart, and I said that God had needlessly torn It with his hands. Friends came to bring me comfort, — comfort for me! They said, "Think n1)t of your grief"; but grief gnawed In my brain. The World said, " Here are pleasures— lay these to your heart." But my heart quivered at their touch. A Wise Man said, " Nought happens needlessly," and I answered, " Nought but this." Science cried to me, " Evil does not exist," and yet I writhed In agony. Hope said, "There Is another World"; I answered, " it is long to wait and far to seek, and nothing can be known of It." The Church said, "1_ook thou to God"; I said " Should I seek the brutal God who tortures me? " Satan whispered me, " Curse God and die/^ and I said, " I have cursed God, but death comes not to me." The World toiled past and took no note of me, and time flowed in Its course. Then said a still small voice: " The ways of God are one. You have tasted of the bitterness of life; will you not also taste the sweet? " ! said, " Who will show me how? " And Reason answered, " I," and Sympathy answered, " I," and Nature answered, " I," and Peace and I was comforted, finding the Joy of Life. PAUT I— LIFE 'Tis a strange world we came to, you and I, Whence no man knows, and surely none knows why. Why we remain — a harder question still, And still another — whither when we die? Into this life of cruel wonder sent. Without a word to tell us what it meant. Sent back again without a reason^why — Birth, life and death — 'twas all astonishment. — Le Gallienne's Rubaiyat. CHAPTER I PRIMITIVE LIFE LIFE cannot yet be defined in words that the mind can understand, neither can the soul, nor immortality, nor God, nor birth, which we call the beginning of Life; nor can we define death, which in equally incomprehensible lan- guage, we call the end of life. Each individual comes to some understanding of what life is, through himself; knows another's joys through his own; knows another's sufferings through what he has himself suffered, but he knows what the soul is only through nameless emotions that seem to be connected with his body and with the universe about him; and each conceives of God in his own ways and makes his mental picture of God from his own wants and fears. From the moment of the miraculous birth of the body of man to the moment of strange and mysterious death, man lives physically, mentally, 19 LIFE, AND 20 LOVE, AND PEACE and spiritually; he suffers and enjoys, and from his experiences gains powers of intellect and vision of soul, or he submerges both and post- pones his arrival upon the plane of knowing or complete Life. Physically at birth man is the most helpless of creatures, crying in startled tones as the strange cold atmosphere chills the tender, warm body, so suddenly severed from the flesh of his flesh and the blood of his blood; impressionable, capable, supremely selfish, eligi- ble, he comes. The measurer — ^man, is endowed with power to perceive, recollect, reason, imagine, invent, filled with inherited tendencies, receiving and carrying with him, to help or hinder, the en- vironment of his ancestors and of theirs and of all that preceded them. So " he goes forth a child " to battle or submit, to serve or master, not knowing, to know; his body, hungering and naked, must be fed and clothed ; his mind, blank and uncultured, must be strengthened and trained; his soul, yearning and passionate, ever reaching for stars and a life beyond, must grope in darkness, schooled by the body and the brain; or be flooded with the knowledge that passeth 21 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE understanding, as were Paul and Balzac and Whitman and maAy others. Incomplete and conscious only of his phy- sical surroundings, if he lives only upon the physical plane of hunger and thirst and passion- ate appetites of the body; incomplete and con- scious only of his power, if he lives yet higher upon the physical and the intellectual plane com- bined; but supreme when, complete, man under- stands his physical needs, supplies and masters them; feels the power of his mental resources, thinks, discovers, and controls the forces about him, and, in time, becomes conscious that, above and beyond the logic of philosophy, Life is per- petual and ever expanding, beautiful if complete and in harmony with the creative will and ruling force of the universe, and that death is not to the soul of him. He becomes conscious that the body and the mind have only carried him, the only real and developed and imperishable one, to lofty table-lands of vision and of hap- piness. Whatever we may say of man in his times of physical, mental, and spiritual experience, may LIFE, AND 22 LOVE, AND PEACE truly be said of all men in any period of time; truly of the earliest and most helpless of human races of whatever color or kind; truly of those who lived when there were no weapons with which to destroy the hungry beasts that, obeying the law of their natures, sought food to sustain their lives; truly of those who lived before tools had been made, with which to make the earth yield foods and fruits, instead of weeds and thorns. It may be truly said of those who were born when kings claimed to have been divinely appointed and anointed to demand service on conditions of their own making ; truly of those who lived when feudal lords in castles in the high places levied tribute from every passer-by and sounded sum- mons to every servile ear to come to fealty or to death; truly to-day in our own country, regard- less of its form of government, where money and power is the ideal of society and where govern- ment itself exists, founded in force and sustained by economic or business forces, for maintaining individual ambitions and possessions; truly now when the hoot of the whistle hurries the wage- worker to toil that his master may secure and en- 23 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE joy the larger part of the things he produces and surrenders. • On the physical plane man is a simple animal, instinctively self-seeking, and, as was divinely purposed, supplying the needs and desires of the body, loving as the lion or the wild deer loves, thirsting and hungering, pursuing and pursued; propagating and feeding in obedience to the laws of his natural being. On this plane he is natural, without sense of "sin," unconscious of relationship, divinely selfish, splendidly destined, for he could not live and advance if he did not take to himself the things he requires for his needs and life. His early and natural inquiries were as to his origin, just as they always are with children, and as he looked upon the earth and upon all its manifold life, he ascribed his own life and all life to fire and the sun, and worshipped them, and as naturally peopled the darkness with the terrible creatures of his imagination. Rec- ognizing subordinate forces for good or ill as they benefited or injured him, he made gods of the objects of the earth, the air, the ocean, and of the organs of the body, worshipping beetles and LIFE, AND 24, LOVE, AND PEACE men and women, sacrificing and suffering and carrying gifts to the ones who stood as mediators between him and his gods to receive and profit from the willing gifts of his heart and hands. As he has passed from one worship to another, he has destroyed his early gods and avoids men- tion of many early symbols of his primitive wor- ship, and in general does not know the origin of the symbols that at one time had a deep signifi- cance, but gazes worshipfuUy upon the church spire, the cross and the mitre-cap and sings the story of the Quest for the Holy Grail, without understanding how his spiritual worship goes back to the deepest and most wonderful experi- ences of his life and longings upon the physical plane of existence. Ever going forward from materialism and selfishness to consciousness of an always widening relationship, and coming again to a prof ounder reverence for the physical bodies and needs of women and men. And so we find primitive man separated into family groups and coming into tribal and na- tional relationships only as he slowly learned that by so associating with others he could best protect 25 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE himself and supply his needs. His early battles were waged only to supply the things needed to satisfy his hunger or his thirst or to shelter or to clothe his body, and as he saw no difference in animals, except in form and appetite, and as the stranger was an enemy, he ate his human enemies slain in batfle; having no use for prisoners, he ate his captives without malice but with an ap- preciative appetite. As soon as weapons and tools made it possible to supply his wants in a larger way, he naturally found that a live cap- tive at work could do more for him than a dead one, so he instituted slavery, and all through the later ages the institution of slavery was justified by intellectual men in pulpit and press. In like manner the divine right of kings found a natural beginning and is still adhered to by many of those who want the higher things of life and seem honest in believing that the masses were made to serve, and that in some way we are always to have the poor among us.* So, too, the feudal system came in its order, natural and not * Note. — ^Jesus did not say that we are always to have the poor with us, only that we now have them always. See Mark 14:7. LIFE, AND 26 LOVE, AND PEACE wholly bad, and these and other systems of living only passed away as they were outgrown and became oppressive enough to rouse a sufficient number of excluded ones who called aloud for Revolution until the old was overthrown, and a new form of exploitation instituted. CHAPTER II DEVELOPMENT THE invention of the early weapons and tools marvelously revolutionized the physical lives of the, early people, changed all their thought and philosophy and spiritual concepts. The invention of the steam engine and all the wonderful machinery that so rapidly followed in the nineteenth century, has changed the occupa- tions of millions, destroyed their superstitions, compelled co-operative industry, and lifted them higher in intellectual life. In unnumhered ways, it has clarified the visions of our prophets and poets, so that the longing for a complete life passionately surges as never before in the hearts of men and women. The fact that man on the physical plane is a child, always lov- able and lawless, having no consciousness of relationship, doing the things we call evil be- cause of the good that is within him, rather than because of total depravity which is not in him; and that on the intellectual plane, selfish nature 27 LIFE, AND 28 LOVE, AND PEACE becomes or tends to become greedy because the incentive is to forge ahead with success as an ideal and the " law of the survival of the fittest " as an excuse, (being yet unconscious of relationship), makes man instead of a helpful brother of men, a conscienceless exploiter. For in his intellectual pantheon the modern man inscribes the names of patriots who have won battles, heroes who have seen flowing rivers of the blood of their child- like brothers who, equally ignorant, are easily led and misled. Honor and fame, not love and service, are what he strives for, as if glory could come to one at the cost of the many. The mod- ern man teaches those things : he writes for those things: he fights for those things. He builds navies for those things and maintains armies to preserve those things: he studies and enters politics for those things: he preaches and pays the preacher for preaching those things: he for- mulates laws and governments for the protection of his self -asserted right to widen his markets, strengthen his powers and guard the property he takes, by government or by intellect, from the natural owners. 29 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE The physical man, deprived of access to the sources of life, shift out from his natural right to work and be independent, is driven to greater and greater suifering, and the less successful ones, striving also for power through the intellect, and failing, are driven back to the natural intuitions; then these unsuccessful ones always begin to deny the divine right of kings and laugh at and overthrow them, or they refuse to contribute to feudal lords or to answer their call to fealty, and learn to defy and destroy them. Thousands, also, who fail, fall back into the ranks of wage earners, and bring with them an intelligent explanation of conditions and find a soil ready for the seeds of an uplifting discon- tent. So now men are everywhere questioning the right of private ownership of land and of the things we need to make and use collectively ; just as the first machine first disheartened then en- slaved, the machines finally may emancipate the worker from degrading and excessive toil and enlarge his desire for life in the intellectual and spiritual planes of experience. The intellect which rules without soul develop- LIFE, AND 30 LOVE, AND PEACE ment is but little higher than the animal or physical life; indeed, men often become more cruel and more insatiate without the animal's natural motive. For long after every nat- ural desire is supplied, the merely mental man greedily pursues and takes what he can have no use for or enjoyment in owning. The man of intellect with undeveloped soul makes laws to protect himself in keeping the unenlight- ened workers in servitude, establishes codes of morals to restrain those whose natural needs might make them troublesome to his unenlight- ened plans of gain, centralizes the wealth of the many in the hands of the few, monopolizes the natural highways, stores up and in an extortion- ate way distributes to the masses the very things they produce in such wonderful abundance. He controls the fuel that lights the home and starts the wheels of industry; trades in the foods the people eat; turns a locked faucet on to quench the people's thirst, and in a thousand ways legal enough, drives men and women to failure, to want, starvation, crime, suicide, physical and mental prostitution, even to murder, and in gen- 31 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE eral proudly and honestly, though ignorantly, applauds himself as a successful business man, teaches his children the same ideals, and looks upon those who fall in the unequal struggle as weak or inefficient; and accordingly sanctions the doctrine of the survival of the fittest and sub- scribes freely to charitable institutions, libraries, colleges and churches. In thus living upon others, men destroy in themselves that sweet sense of love and fellow- ship which alone can make them happy. To these the masterpieces of art are little more than objects of ownership. The voices of the prophets only annoy, they do not warn them, and the words of eloquence pleading for love and brotherhood are only weak, sentimental " sounds that come to them," and only momentarily, if at all, disturb their plans for dominion of all that the earth contains, or that her children produce by the aid of the intricately wonderful machin- ery. Yet this machinery was developed through ages of want by the tireless energy of millions who toil for food, shelter and raiment, patient, unawakened for the most part intellectually, LIFE, AND 32 LOVE, AND PEACE their souls dormant within, but finding expres- sion in real helpfulness and fraternity whenever the sufferings of others match their own. Sub- mitting, even if poorly fed and clothed and sheltered, to the fallacious doctrines of content- ment formulated for them by their elder brothers, who thrive because of their submission. Dangerous if driven to hunger or if made naked or shelterless, for man, on the physical plane, justly looks for weapons, and obeys the first law of self-preservation. Enslaved as he is by his bodily needs and appetites, he has risen tremend- ously in recent years, for the machine age has increased his wants wonderfully, has stimulated his mental activities and made him understand in an ever larger way his real interest. The futility of brute force is made clear to the workers by their failure to win proper con- ditions for themselves and their families on the industrial field, through the weapons of boycots and strikes; enjoined by the courts they partici- pate in creating through partizan ballots, they are every hour driven to analyze causes and condi- tions that shut them out from the enjoyment of 33 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE life. They compact themselves into closer unions as wealth centralizes, consider the abandonment of the old plan of trades autonomy, debate eco- nomic questions, study political weapons, develop their brains and reasoning faculties, and rapidly approach the intelligent liberation of industry and a government for the sake of men, instead of things, and a time when men industrially free will need little if any restraint from laws, fines, prisons and insane asylums. When man has gained access to the sources of life, he can supply his physical needs easily and superabundantly and without degrading drudg- ery, and have leisure and opportunity to develop the powers of his intellect and so to investigate and know something of the great spiritual truths that are ever, sphinx-like, questioning and not answering, forever retreating as we approach them, but always receding into higher realms of understanding and happiness. CHAPTER III MENTAL ATTAINMENT FROM the study of man as he lives on the physical plane, the intellectual plane and the spiritual plane, we find that his life is wholly incomplete if the man is deprived of the essen- tials of life upon either plane; that his life is limited by the ideals he seeks. If his life nar- rows to the earth, then the earth is what he struggles to possess. If it widens to embrace the universe of life, then his real Ufe rises to limitless heights, is perpetual and ever expand- ing and radiates as a sun to illumine the pathway towards the destiny of humanity. We find that the life of the individual is cir- cumscribed by the lives of all, that the individual cannot escape, that he must take part, that he must in a measure suffer and enjoy as others suf- fer and enjoy, that he can only pass from one plane to another, that if he does not live fully physically he dies physically; that if he does not 34 35 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE live mentally he remains upon the animal plane ; if he does not livfe spiritually he never rises to consciousness of immortality, and so must grope in fear and doubt, since immortality is incom- prehensible to the bcdy or to the mind. The growing soul of man enlarges as he hves, widens bis vision and reveals to him the relationship of all the physical, mental and spir- itual needs of his brothers, impels him to reach his strong hands back and help bring forward those who loiter or do not understand. Condemnation no longer falls from his Hps. He understands. He knows why justice can never come from a law of vengeance. He knows why his brothers falter and fall. He knows that the physical appetites are good, each one; that the right of fatherhood and the right of motherhood are equally great and divine; does not call one woman a fallen woman and another a holy woman, but sees mul- titudes behind each of them, as part causes and sharers. He casts no stones, and knowingly forgives those who do ; sees the one convicted of crime rendering perhaps a greater service to the world than his accuser or his judge or the jury LIFE, AND 36 LOVE, AND PEACE that condemns ; feels that in the presence of the creative will he alone is guilty that hates an- other, and that it is not sinful to breathe the au% nor to drink the water, nor to use the bounties of the earth made for all, nor sin to protest even by physically taking that which was made in such superabundance for the needs of the children of the earth, because he believes that it should belong and does morally belong to them, as was intended by the Creator. Education, Truth, Love, these are the words of those who know the scheme of the universe, and for these words they do not make excuses. They are poets and prophets. They keep up the warning cry. They have lived all lives, experienced all experi- ences. Literature is everywhere filled with the cry for better things for human needs. Art, music and the drama are voicing the spirit of our day, and more fearlessly for the people are being prepared. We go forward to revolution, which is not an overthrow of government, but a restoration of rights. It may be peaceful revolution, if we use our minds and act intelligently; beautiful, if we I 37 * LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE study and understand and guide the forces that flow steadily fronl the three planes of life and compel a new adjustment in the order of prog- ress ; frightful, if conditions proceed far enough to enrage an excluded multitude, robbed by their own public ojfficials, crushed by exploiters. Horrible revolution, if from political supremacy among the nations of the earth, we descend and become greedy and heartless market-grabbers; miserable, if we attempt much longer to fool the working man with questions of money or with revised tariffs or taxes on the rich or control of Trusts. How the day shall proceed depends upon what pressure may be put upon man through his physical necessities before he has become sufficiently educated to handle the prob- lem patiently. It depends upon what the men of great mental and financial power may do, when in the near future they have, as they must have, in their complete control, every means of life. Even now everyone knows that monopolies may make and unmake Presidents as well as Senators, and that we have in fact an oligarchic plutocracy. It depends even more perhaps upon what the LIFE, AND ' 88 LOVE, AND PEACE great multitude of teachers, journalists, authors and preachers may say or do, or not say, or not do, for men left to supply their physical wants will supply them in a physical way, and if in- tellectual weapons are not offered they will find physical ones. Intellectually, man will, if he knows how, or is taught how to, choose an intelligent weapon, the ballot; governmental exercise of rightly used power. But are there men and women enough, physically, mentally and spiritually brave and free enough to see and teach the truth about life in all its completeness to the hungering millions? Or shuffling about in their shackles, will they, too, await the shock which great economic changes al- ways bring? The spirit of our day asks the question. Men and women everywhere know now that there is but one question, and that is Life. All the mul- titudinous problems society wrestles over to-day are but the accusing manifestations of a badly organized society; unjust and unreasonable; and these problems can never be solved; they are as they should be — unsolvable. 39 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE What shall we do? We cannot go thought- lessly on. Evoli^tion arrested produces death, corruption, disaster; aided, it leads to better Ufe. Each one cannot answer for himself; he is him- self a social being. He can only persuade others to answer for all. Until all are saved, no one is saved. The ones worthy of salvation do not seek it for themselves; they wisely seek it for others, to secure it for themselves. In losing life they find it.* " No one could tdl me where my soul might be ; I sought for God, but God eluded me, I sought my Brother out, and found all three." — Ernest Crosby. * Note. — I am indebted for much of these three chapters to Stephen Marion Reynolds. CHAPTER IV LIBERTY " Dilige, et quod vis, fac." — St, Augustine. (If you but love, you may do as you incline.) PHILOSOPHERS have disputed as to what ideal Liberty really is. The great Herbert Spencer says finally that the greatest possible liberty is, for each so to use his own powers as not to interfere with the similar use of the powers of others. But any who love with a whole heart have greater liberty than that: their liberty is to do what they please. Complete liberty for the ani- mal is to do whatever it wishes within its powers ; so of the mind and the soul. If I seek to deprive my neighbor of his goods and he seek to deprive me, we enslave each other. My baby does not so enslave me, for I want noth- ing of hers ; and whatever she wants of mine, she is welcome to, because I love her: perfect love ceases to be selfish and receives all into the same 40 41 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE family relationship. In that degree that I cease to be selfish, I am freed from my plundering neighbor and he even ceases to desire to plunder me. If he does still desire to plunder, he de- sires it because it is needful that both of us should learn in just that way. We recognize in our judgments of the acts of others that it is stupid to be unkind or unjust. To try to oppose ourselves to justice is to fight against the God of Nature; like thieves, we so lay up troubles and not treasures for ourselves. Anyone who irritates us or who can make us angry, has power over us to exactly to that ex- tent. Why then should one will to be unloving? Emerson says : ** If you love and serve men, you cannot by any hiding or stratagem escape remuneration. Secret retributions are always restoring the level, when disturbed, of the divine justice. It is impossible to tilt the beam. All the tyrants and proprietors and monopolists of the world in vain set their shoulders to heave the bar. Settles forevermore the ponderous equator to its line, and man and mote, and star and sun, must range to it, or be pulverized by the recoil." Even mere intellectual reason would teach us, LIFE, AND 42 LOVE, AND PEACE if we would separate reason from our antago- nisms, that only in love is happiness. If then, there is but one principle in the Universe, to come into accord with it is to ally ourselves with the forces of gravitation, to "hitch our wagon to a star." To get out of harmony with its high- est expression is to oppose ourselves to the Na- ture of Things. The wicked man is in truth the fool, for the way of transgressors is hard and they who know not the Law of Love are ac- cursed. If I love perfectly, then I can do as an indi- vidual what I please, for I do not please volun- tarily to hurt anyone. As a member of a com- munity working in unloving ways, however, I must still in some ways by my competition hurt some men. When all are loving no one will need to hurt another at all, and all will be able to do what they please. Life is happiness only in so far as we are able to do what we like ; as Crosby puts it : " * Then you do as you like in your land of Love, Where you hold no lord in awe ? * * Why, we do as we Love,* replied the lad, * And to Love is our only law.' " 43 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE How simple that makes what we call ethics. We may be perplfexed about what is " right," — the only one who is always ready to decide what is right, is the policeman. But there can be no question as to what is loving. Not " loving " for someone else; we do not have to decide for him; nor loving in some other circumstances, but lov- ing for us here and now. Even that we do not need to decide, for being loving ourselves, we need only to do what we feel impelled to do, knowing that the loving heart cannot prompt an unloving act. If we do what truly seems to us loving, seems at the time loving, we may think afterwards that the results were disastrous : but we cannot regret our own action. No one ever says " I am sorry I did not do what I thought unkind." That would be to wish that we had been bad, that we had followed the lower road though we saw the higher. Yet if our action was in the least tainted with self-seeking, we may come to regret it, in the light of later experience. For results we are not responsible : our concern is to follow the light that we see, to do the best LIFE, AND 41 LOVE, AND PEACE that we know; the results we can not control. No most perfect vision, in anticipation of the future, can guard against the combinations of circumstances that may thwart us: nor can we discern the changes of motive and character in others and in ourselves that may make the thwart- ing good. Love, and please yourself : love, and you shall please others. It will be objected that if we advise everyone to do as he pleases, some will invade the rights of others and injure them. So they will: and the others meeting them on their own plane, will resent it and meet it with counter injury. Per- haps you have heard of the Hindu who broke his Master's vase and said in excuse that "it was fated that he should break it." " Yes," said his Master, "and it was fated that I should kick you." The undeveloped, who are also the instru- ments of God for education, will inflict enough violence, like blows, imprisonments and judi- cial death, without our doing what we feel to be unkind. Only understanding is needed to show that we 45 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE should not be angry or revenge ourselves when we are injured. Says Epictetus: " The philosophers say that there is one kind of motive in all men, as when I agree with some- thing, the feeling that it is so; and when I dis- agree, the feeling that it is not so ; yea, and when I withhold my judgment, the feeling that it is uncertain; and likewise, when I am inclined to- wards something, the feeling that it is for my profit; moreover that it is impossible to judge one thing to be best for me and to seek a different one, to judge one thing right and be inclined towards another — why then have we indignation with the multitude? ' They are robbers,' one saith, ' and thieves.' And what is it to be robbers and thieves? Is it not to be mistaken about the things that are good and evil? Shall we then have indignation with them, or shall we only pity them? Nay, but show them the error, and you shall see how they will cease from it. But if they do not see the error, they have naught bet- ter than the deceptive appearance of the thing to them. " Should not then, this robber or this thief, be LIFE, AND 45 LOVE, AND PEACE destroyed? By no means, but take it rather this way: This man who errs, and is deceived con- cerning things of greatest moment, who is bhnded, not in the vision which distinguisheth black and white, but in the judgment which dis- tinguisheth Good and Evil — should we not de- stroy him? And thus speaking, you shall recog- nize how inhuman that is which you say, and how it is as if you said, ' Shall we not destroy this blind man, this deaf man? ' For if it is the great- est misfortune to be deprived of the greatest things, and the greatest thing in every man is a Will such as he ought to have, and one be de- prived of this, why are you still indignant with him? Man, you should not be moved contrary to Nature by the evil deeds of other men. Pity them rather, be not inclined to offence and hatred; abandon the phrases of the multitude, hke * these cursed wretches.' How have you sud- denly become so wise and hard to please? "When someone may do you an injury or speak ill of you, remember that he does it or speaks it, believing that it is meet and right for him to do so. It is not possible, then, that he can 47 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE do the thing that appears best to you, but the thing that appears best to him. Wherefore, if good appears evil to him, it is he that is injured, being deceived. For, if anyone takes a true con- sequence to be false, it is not the consequence that is injured, but he who is deceived. Setting out, then, with these opinions, you will bear a gentle mind toward any man who may injure you. For, say on each occasion, so it appeared to him." CHAPTER V FALSE IDEAS OF LIFE " It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness, such as goes along with being a great man, by having wide thoughts and much feel- ing for the rest of the world as well as ourselves." — George Eliot. YOU and I live for our own good, says Tol- stoy; we all seek for the conditions which will satisfy us; we cannot imagine life without this desire for happiness.* The egoist and the altruist both believe in yielding many desires to others; for instance, in courtesy and kindness, or for aifection or love for others. So parents deny themselves many things for their children ; but this is a denial that brings them satisfaction and cannot be called self-sacrifice. A sister foregoes the development of her tal- * Tolstoy's own doctrine is well summarized in the sketch, Ap- pendix I. 48 49 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE ents to allow more money to go to develop a brother's talents. » A husband perhaps for his wife's sake remains in a Church after he has ceased to believe in its doctrines. The one is preferring the higher nature to the lower; the other may be choosing the lower, but each is seek- ing that which he thinks is good. We find, however, that all other persons also live for their own particular good, which they, too, think will bring them satisfaction; and they believe that their good often requires the sacri- fice of your desires and mine. For their petty happiness, living beings are willing to deprive other beings of greater happiness and even of hfe itself, so that every one of us is always con- tending against hosts of others. At the end of the struggle we see death, which we believe to be the loss of consciousness, or at best, a change to a spirit life, which seems to us a strange and ter- rible transformation. We feel all the time that if we gain the good which we seek it will be incomplete, even if it could last ; and we feel that it will not last, that it will be but for a moment in our hands. LIFE, AND 50 LOVE, AND PEACE Feeling only our own desires, we imagine that the good for which we strive and true happiness are the same. We shall find, as we go on, that this must be a mistake. No one's true happiness can conflict with another's. True happiness cannot consist in seeking our own good, or in even unconsciously trading off our work intended by us to do good to others, for their work designed by them to do good to us. Nor is such selfishness as that really natural at all. In truth, to seek the happiness of all and to give up our individual animal or intellectual gratifi- cations for the good of others, is as natural to men as it is for an animal to give its life in de- fending its young. Such is the gospel of all great religious teach- ers. Herbert Spencer and other scientific men deny this doctrine, saying that the object of life is simply the satisfaction of our desires. Chris- tian pessimists also deny this gospel, saying that, futile as is the plan of life, it can be amended by faith in a future life — ^to be carried out more per- fectly, but on the same principles. What is fife and what is the good in life which 51 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE will give us happiness ? Each one thinks someone else must know, and so he follows the observances which he sees some other follow. Science answers that life is the struggle of per- sons, races, and species for existence; and that the good of life is success in that struggle, " the highest exercise of faculty." This is the answer of those whom we may call the Scribes. Eccle- siastical teachers, who are like the Pharisees, gen- erally answer that happiness consists only in the hope of a future life, for, say they, there is not, and never can be, good in this life. The time has already come when it is clear to all who will consider it, that the idea of renounc- ing or misusing this life for the sake of preparing for a life for one's self beyond, is a delusion. It is no improvement on this to say that it is good to live for myself in the present, for expe- rience teaches us that our separate life, if so used, is evil and senseless. Nor is it better to live for the separate lives of the family, of society, of one's country, or even of mankind. If the hfe of each person is miserable and senseless, then the life of any collection of persons is also mis- LIFE, AND 52 LOVE, AND PEACE erable and senseless, for the mass is no better and no more worthy of sacrifice than are the in- dividuals that make up the mass. Men believe that life consists of a desire for happiness for themselves and for those about them, but they feel that to all, evil and death will come. We all know that we must live, yet we find circumstances that make a perfect animal life impossible, and so, appreciating no other life than that of the animal, there begins a strife with ourselves which results in misery. We have an uneasy feeling that what we think and desire about life is not right. But birds and beasts and simple minded persons that have the one simple law of the animal, and submit to that law, have no such struggle, and live a joyous and tranquil life. So with us also, to follow the instincts which are really natural to man is to attain hap- piness without struggle. As Nietzsche says: " To have to combat the instincts, is the formula for decadence: as long as life ascends^ happiness is following our normal instincts." Yet the birth of the higher desires is painful: 5S LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE it is the " sword " that Jesus came to bring. It is accompanied by struggle and violence ; it often excites even physical violence which is typified by the scourge of small cords by which the money changers were driven out of the Temple. CHAPTER VI DESIRES " I think I could turn and live with the animals. They are so placid and self-contained I stand and look at them long and long/' etc. — Whitman. WHY does man worry? Why does he fear the outcome of his plans? He invests money and at once fears that he will lose it. He engages in business and is anxious lest it should not prove successful. He frets over a thousand and one things. The animals do not worry or fret. They are calm and content. The winds of heaven blow, the sun shines, the stars move across the placid spheres without hurry or stress. There is har- mony in the action and reaction of things — ^but man seems an exception. We are drawn by many forces, we have desires, emotions, passions: we come into relation with others who also have de- sires, emotions, passions, not harmonious, but 54 55 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE discordant and antagonistic. There is conflict not only between individuals, but within the heart of each; history is a bloody page of conflicts. Biography is a story of struggles; man against man— man against himself, man against Nature. Society continually splits into factions, race against race, the war of creeds, those who take against those who make, and the poor against the rich. Animals do not fight thus: they follow their desires, satisfy them and are content : they kill to eat — they never kill to reform, nor for the glory of God. They violate no moral code, because they have none. Their life is spontaneous, free, natural; they are a law unto themselves, neither good nor bad. Life, the great universal, all-en- folding, all-pervading life, flows through them, manifests in them harmoniously, beautifully. But man! What is the matter with man? Is he under a difl'erent law from that which obtains in the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms? Man is under a different law (or attitude towards the universal) insofar as he regards himself as separate from and superior or inferior to the LIFE, AND 56 LOVE, AND PEACE Great Life. The great majority of human beings appear to themselves as separated exist- ences ; moral or immoral as the case may be, but separate and distinct from the Great Life, with destinies for good or bad, or wills which are quite independent of the Great Life. In the popular theology God and the devil are supposed to amuse themselves in a contest as to which shall get the most of us. We express the emotions of our souls in creeds and then fall down and worship the forms as of divine origin. And they are of divine origin: they do represent a necessary stage in the evolu- tion of the soul ; but the mischief begins when we have outgrown the creeds but still cling to them as fixed revelations. Creeds and institutions be- come fixed forms, but the soul forever progresses. What is true of our religious creeds is equally true of our economic system. The economic sys- tem of to-day is based upon the needs of a past age. It arose in response to the cry of selfish- ness; to-day it no longer represents the highest needs of humanity. It has become a fetter, a handicap upon the social spirit: it is the powerful 57 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE selfishness, and is Jhe immediate cause of worry and fret, because it is not in harmony with the inner life. Why does man fret and worry, especially about his business affairs? The business man worries much more, man for man, and dollar for dollar, than does the farmer over his crop risks. The farmer sows: dry weather, winter, frosts, an unfavorable Spring, blight and insects, floods and hail, threaten the harvest from the sowing of the seed until the grain is garnered — and yet the farmer worries but little — ^much less than the business man over his investments. Why? Is it not because the business man feels, consciously or subconsciously, that he is engaged in a venture which is opposed to brotherhood — ^that he gains at someone's expense ; that in short he is playing an arbitrary and cruel game, invented by men fighting for personal aggrandizement against their fellow-men? The farmer trusts God or Nature: he works in harmony with Nature and having done his part, rests in the assurance that Nature will do her part. The business man distrusts his own LIFE, AND 58 LOVE, AND PEACE scheme : he distrusts himself and his fellow-man, he distrusts his own system. He feels that while life should be a glorious adventure, his own per- sonal schemes are of a marauding character. Business at present is a fight of man against man. It is not a question of how to serve, how to create beauty and joy; but of hojv to make profits, how to sell for the highest price, cheap goods, cheaply made by cheap men and cheap methods. It is the dollar and not the man, that is paramount in business : his plans may fail, and even if they succeed, they will lead but to more entanglements. But God, or Nature, or Life, or the Over Soul, cares supremely for man, not for the dollar, hence the conflict and distrust between the real inner self, and business. When the self-conscious, sep- arate-seeming self realizes that humanity is a unity, that there is one Universal Life in which there is joyous activity and harmonious develop- ment, we will abandon the egoistic strife for per- sonal advancement and this conflict will cease. As soon as we have had enough of the struggle man will return to his Father's field, the great 59 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE Jocund Earth, and there find an unlimited scope for endless activity in harmony with Universal Life. The desires that enslave us are the material de- sires. A desire for truth cannot enslave : a desire to express the Spirit of Love cannot enslave. Such desires cannot conflict with themselves no matter by whom they may be expressed.* The exercise of desire is growth; evolution is through the increase and unf oldment of desires. First satisfaction of the desires, for food per- haps, then for music, art, and mental food : then for harmony and union, spiritual food. Through these exercises of faculty in turn, we gain the highest unfoldment. To sacrifice these unwil- lingly is useless, if not wrong — ^to give the greater for what seems to us the less, is foolish- ness. We are surrounded by conditions and circum- stances which make a perfect life an impossibility — ^that is, of the kind which unreasoning feeling *Note. — No originality is claimed for any part of this book. I believe the foregoing paragraphs are largely taken from some- thing I have read — I have forgotten where. As with the follow- ing from Tolstoy on " Life," I have freely modified. LIFE, AND 60 LOVE, AND PEACE demands. Striving for two objects, when it is possible to attain only one, produces an inevitable struggle which is the cause of most of our unhap- piness, and which creates in thinking minds rest- lessness in regard to the purposes of life. These can be removed only by willingly subjecting our- selves to the law of our higher being. Our difficulty arises from mistaking our phys- ical life for our whole life — that is, for the phys- ical, mental and spiritual life. We^are aware of all these existences; the physical life we know by sensations of the body, the mental life by the de- sire for knowledge, the spiritual life by the feel- ing that we love. We feel that there are in us two contradictory natures; but we know that there is only one true and natural life. This seeming contradiction in ourselves recalls the sensation of one who, crooking two fingers, one over the other, rolls a little ball between them, and feels as if there were two balls, but knows that there is only one. It is because men have not found true satis- faction that they always desire what they have 61 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE not got or cannot get. Not having happiness, they think that it must be obtained through some- thing that is unfortunately out of their reach. But when they have attained that, they are Uke a man who cHmbs a range of hills which forms the horizon, only to see a new horizon as far away as ever. They think that they are not happy at home, need change, new interests, or different surround- ings. So they try these and feel better : but after a time the dissatisfaction returns, often expressed in ill health. The fact is that they could not be happy any- where: excitement and novelties take their at- tention off themselves for a time and so they spend their money and themselves in some fresh plan, seeking pleasure or fun. Fun is expensive but happiness costs nothing. The subordination of personal aims to life in accordance with the higher nature, is as nat- ural to man as is flying to a bird.* If the *" Whenever one understands that his personal will, desires and plans are what block his path — ^that to give these up abso- lutely is the price of going on — this is his 'renunciation.' It LIFE, AND 52 LOVE, AND PEACE bird wills only to run, that does not prove that it is not the bird's nature to fly. So, if we see about us men with unawakened minds, men who think that their lives consist in securing their own hap- piness alone, it is not thereby proved that there is no higher life. We can never go through the golden gates alone; to search for our good in self -gratifications is to make ourselves like an animal which might think that its life consisted in submitting to the laws of gravity by not mov- ing, but which is fretted, nevertheless, by appe- tite and the desire for exercise. means no forced and unnatural withdrawing from human life and interests, from human joys and relations — ^which indeed constitute the very means by which the soul may grow: the only means at its command now; it means literally a letting go, a giving up of the idea that we want certain things, which may be perfectly good and desirable in themselves. If we want these things and seek them because we want them, with the idea that happiness depends upon getting them, we have planted and are hourly nourishing the seed of misery and unrest that will allow us no hour of peace while life lasts. "The peace that comes from consciousness of freedom and a power that is one with the power of God, comes only when all desire has ceased. It is a complete realization of the truth which Carpenter voices in these words: *Deep as the universe is my life — and I know it; nothing can dislodge the knowledge of it; nothing can destroy, nothing can harm me.' It is an absolute trust in, and dependence upon that vital power, resistless, calm, eternal, of which Whitman sings so truly. When these statements appeal to one's consciousness, not as mere poetical symbols, but as actual, present, scientific statements of governing law, then it 631 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE This state of dissatisfaction must come to everyone who thinks; so we say that " thought is pain " ; and everyone thinks to himself, " I am a strange mixture." It can be escaped only by a merely material existence, like that of a sheep , or by seeking the new and better life. Some never look up from their muck rakes; but if one does and sees for a moment that there is a better life, he can never again satisfy himself with the worse. He has gone "out into space to behold the birth of stars — ^to learn one of their •meanings and never be quiet again." The source of this dissatisfaction, in everyone will be impossible to have a "plan" for personal happiness, or even for the happiness of others, to work for a definite result, to be unhappy or have a sense of failure if said result is not at- tained; then the soul will take to growing as the flower grows; it will grow because the sun shines and it cannot help growing. The whole life will be opened to spiritual light and be guided by the unerring One who stands behind the personal self, 'compla- cent, indifferent, both in and out of the game.' It will be as impossible to be worried, or disturbed, for fear things may not come out right, as it would be for the chemist to worry for fear a certain combination of materials would not produce the usual result. He knows that definite laws obtain, and he proceeds with the certainty that nature will inevitably act according to these laws. The laws of human life are just as definite and certain; and when we once get rid of our doubts, and depend upon these, we shall be safe." — A. G. Hekrixg, " The Conserva- tor," Feb., 1903. LIFE, AND 64s LOVE, AND PEACE who has had a glimpse of the light, lies mainly in this, that what we should strive for consciously is either unknown to us or disregarded by us. But we strive consciously for the things that should be attained as unconsciously as breath- ing. The higher reason which the Bible calls Wis- dom (logos) , is the only guide we have to a com- plete life. The fact that the ineffectual teachings of Aris- totle, Bacon, Comte and others remain, and al- ways will remain, the property of a few, can never control the masses, and are therefore never corrupted by superstitions, is considered by learned men to be proof of their truth. But the teachings of the Brahmins, of Zoroaster, Lao- tse, Confucius and Jesus, which in their essence are really one, are accounted superstitions, merely because they have changed the lives of millions. Their real teaching, though in varying degrees of perfection, is that the true life is more than the life of the mere body and mind ; which is the sum of all human wisdom. 55 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE Reason has been directed toward the discovery of truth by the stlidy of the origin and history of mankind, and to the circumstances with which mankind is surrounded. Later, we have taken to studying the mind by the laws of matter, in the hope that thereby we may learn the nature of man's activity. These studies are instructive; but from them we cannot find the true meaning of life; any more than a tree, if it could study the physical and chemical changes which take place in it, could learn from them to collect and distribute sap for the growth of the leaves and fruit. So the study of these laws will not afford us the slightest guid- ance as to what to do with a bit of bread in our hands; whether to give it to our child, to a stranger, to the dog, or to eat it ourselves; whether to defend this bit of bread or to give it to the first who demands it. But really, living is entirely made up of decisions of just such questions. On such decisions happiness de- pends. A moonlit landscape or the outline of a moun- LIFE, AND QQ LOVE, AND PEACE tain appeals to us more strongly because we see only its essentials. Things at a distance seem simple because we cannot see the complexity of their details. Such things, therefore, attract our attention, while that which is close at hand ap- pears complex. Accordingly, men think that they understand what happiness is, and what time and matter are, but that they do not under- stand themselves. In the case of a mere animal, sound reason con- sists only in care for its physical well-being. So we can understand the life of an animal, because we see in it, as in ourselves, a striving for happi- ness, and the necessity for it also to submit to reason. For we really know things not in pro- portion to how simple they are, or seem to be, but in proportion to their nearness of association with ourselves. But everyone wants to find the true and satis- fying life. Charles Wagner expresses the common need: " Oh, for the Philosopher of the future who will teach us Joy." Now the true life of man, the better part, 67 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE which all may choose, is found in that which is nearest to us, and therefore seems complicated, although it is really simple. It consists in con- trol of the animal hfe by true reason and har- mony of both with soul. PART II— LOVE Not to identify ourselves with the shadow, but to attain the knowledge of our celestial self is the object of this terrestrial life. If men realized their true nature as vehicles of the Di- vine Spirit, they would see the utter folly of their craving for that which without benefiting the spiritual, is agreeable only for their material selves. — Jacob BoehMj 1600. CHAPTER VII THE LAW OF LIFE TO be willing to give up our own satisfaction as animals is the true law of life; although on account of the complexity of our animal life (which we perceive because that life is near to us) it seems to us that the true object of all our life must be to satisfy our bodily and intellectual demands. But true reason shows that this is not so. In the case of a mere animal, an activity which is opposed to its individual welfare is re- nunciation of its life; in the case of a man, he who loses his life, finds it. If we do not willingly cease to strive for ani- mal happiness in our lives, we must unwillingly cease to strive for it at our deaths. We should grow out of subjection to animal desires as naturally as a child forsakes its doll. Any violent renunciation of normal, animal de- sires before the individual is ready, is asceticism, and causes all the evils of repression. 71 LIFE, AND 72 LOVE, AND PEACE Think of the slavery to which most persons are self-condemned by their desires which grow into habits. A man must be wakened at such a time, re- quires his breakfast, needs to have his coffee just so, is obliged to catch that car, wants his morning paper, has to have a seat next the window, and so on all day. If one of these circumstances goes wrong, he is all upset: but not one of them has anything to do with real happiness. Most of us will admit that some of these things are unneces- sary, but if anyone thinks it pays to give his at- tention to them, he ought to do so; but we may take thought for to-day, though surely not pains. For the body, with its occupation and func- tions, is merely one of the instruments of life. The animal exists through force and matter in harmony with their laws, and to the animal that is all there is of life. A man exists in the same way, but to him that is only an incident of life. To pass beyond the pursuit of animal happi- ness is the law of man's highest and complete life. If it be not accomplished freely, by sub- 73 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE mission to the higher reason, then it is accom- plished violently in every man at the death of the flesh, when, in consequence of the outgrown con- dition or of the burden of suffering, he has to es- cape from the consciousness of a perishing per- sonality, and to pass into another form of exist- ence. Regeneration, or spiritual birth, consists in learning that animal happiness is not the object of our lives. Those who have not had this birth can no more understand what it is than the dry seed can anticipate its bursting into a plant. Although feeling that happiness for himself is impossible, each man spends his life in pursuit of it. Though conscious that our effort is in vain, we strive to make others prefer our happi- ness to their own. But happiness can be obtained only by everyone's recognizing the good of others as his own ; that is oneness : only so can be ended the useless contest, in which we are all involved. To admit the truth of this doctrine, even if we cannot now put it in practice, is to abandon the false and material object of life, which gets fur- ther away, the more we pursue it. LIFE, AND 74 LOVE, AND PEACE When we admit this doctrine, the fear of death vanishes, for that is but the fear of losing the happiness of hf e by the death of the flesh. If we can unite our happiness with the happiness of others, then this death will not seem to be the dis- continuance of happiness. " But," replies the troubled and erring heart of man, " that is not life. To cease to struggle in life is suicide." Then the spiritual nature re- joins: "I know nothing about that. I know that such is the essence of the life of man, and that there is no other, and that there can be no other. I know that such a life is true life and happiness both for one person and for all the world. "I know that what you call enjoyment will become happiness for you only when you shall not take for yourself, but when others shall share theirs with you, and that you will then recognize enjoyments which you seize only for yourself to be superfluous and irksome, as they really are. You will free yourself from actual sufl*erings only when others and not yourself alone shall release you from them. You cannot by yourself 75 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE avoid sufferings in life. Men know this even now, for, through fear of anticipated sufferings, some would deprive themselves of life itself by suicide. " The more T cherish myself and strive with others," continues the spiritual nature, ** the more will others oppose me and the more viciously will they struggle with me; the more I hedge myself in from suffering, the more torturing will it be- come, and the more I guard myself against death, the more terrible will it appear. I know that whatever a man may do he can attain to no hap- piness until he shall live in harmony with the law of his life." A reasoning man cannot fail to see that if we admit the possibility of replacing the striving for our own satisfaction with a striving for the well- being of all, including ourselves, life will become rational and happy.* But " to love the neighbor more than self," as ultra-altruists urge, produces inward pain, abase- * " If thine eye be single thine whole body shall be full of light," that is to say, when we have one simple object. Our confusion arises because we are looking for several things at once. LIFE, AND 76 LOVE, AND PEACE ment, protest ; to love self most cuts off all those currents of life which would flow from him to you and feed you. — (J. Wm. Lloyd.) A recent writer says that one of the most rigid and yet stupid of stage conventions is a blind self-sacrifice. "You have a vicious brother? Then take his guilt upon you, break the hearts of those who be- lieve in you (the wicked brother has no friends who will be shocked) and go to State's Prison. You have perhaps a vain and wayward sister or a fro ward girl chum? Then take her fault upon yourself. Prevent her premeditated folly by an- ticipating her arrival at the rooms of the man in the case. Be discovered there yourself, and in the ruin of your own good name let the little fool escape the world's accusing finger. " Herbert Spencer criticises this goose-brained altruism. It is as mischievous as the altruism of the foolish mother who screens a tricky and im- pudent child and saves him from correction, only to see her perfect work thereafter in the evolu- tion of a young scamp who is a discredit to his parents. 77 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE " It is doing no person a kindness to make him think that he is exempt from the law of cause and effect, and it is putting the ethical system of the universe out of joint. The deception practiced in his behalf is not justified of its fruits. It makes it worse for you, worse for your friend, worse for the man or woman you seek to shield. No one worth his salt would permit another thus to assume his own guilty burden — or rather its public consequences; the guilt remains, and it is rendered blacker because it is unexpiated and another is suffering vainly for it. " In the spurious stage version of the vicarious atonement, the sinner does not even have the grace to be grateful to his scapegoat. He takes an impossible situation lightly. He is used to having the party of the second part step in be- tween his guilt and its punishment. He is hke the able-bodied man who * loves to see his poor old mother work.' His callous ingratitude is the final touch. It turns the wrong-headed sac- rifice into folly. Love others because you love yourself. There is a thing that is loftier still than to love our neighbor as we love ourselves ; it LIFE, AND 78 LOVE, AND PEACE is to love ourselves in our neighbor." — {Maeter- linck.) " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," so reads the Law of Love. Trying to love him bet- ter than you love yourself is injurious to all concerned. Besides it is really ignoring the fact that All are One. It is making two of you, yourself and him, to treat him as though it were possible for you to suffer instead of him. You can only suffer with him. If your right hand foolishly gets into the fire, your left hand, as well as the whole body, suffers with it ; but your left hand does not self -sacrific- ingly thrust itself into the fire, with the idea that by getting burned itself it can take upon itself the pain and scar which are the inevitable result to its companion hand of too great intimacy with the fire. If we really feel the Oneness, we will not im- agine for one moment that we can take the direct consequences of another's mistakes upon our- selves, or escape the indirect consequences. True, we can get ourselves into very hot water 79 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE by trying to, but that is merely the consequences, to us, of our own* folly in tampering with the Law of Cause and Effect. Until we do see the all-including love our lives are poverty-stricken and valueless. Himianity is making some progress in practi- cal loving, for those who have been in the habit of kilHng other creatures are beginning to "ex- ploit " them, or to tame them, and to kill fewer of them, and to subsist on the eggs and milk, rather than on the flesh. We are learning to re- strain our destructiveness. Because we revolt from the narrow selfishness we condemn the search for mere gratification, and we approve abstinence, and worship self-sacrifice for the good of others, and we apologize for war. We recognize, in short, that there is no good but Love. Simple men, who labor with their hands, more generally acknowledge that the better life is to give themselves to others. It is the " cultivated " intellects which defend selfishness on economic or philosophic or moral grounds. They gave their time to gratifying the appetites for knowledge. LIFE, AND 80 LOVE, AND PEACE or power, or beauty ; trying to satisfy wants and desires which grow stronger the more they are recognized. It is not by cultivating and stimu- lating these desires and then trying to satisfy them, that happiness is to be obtained ; but rather by submitting to true reason. " Desires " are as numerous as the radii of a circle, and can never be satisfied; one who looks in the shops, or in the libraries, may realize that all the things that a man does, show the existence of desires ; but even one of them, if dwelt upon, may take possession of a man's whole being. Once a very clever but self-absorbed man was showing his fine collection of copper enamels. A woman, who is interested in schools and friendly societies, turned to me, saying, " How interested he is in his little bric-a-brac." It was not un- kindly meant, but it seemed to me as contemptu- ous a thing as could have been said. Yet it was infinitely better to be interested in his petty bric- a-brac than, like many rich men, in nothing. Even the collection of postage stamps or the possession of fans becomes a sufficient object for the lives, such as they are, of many persons. 81 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE That is the sense in which the rich man shall never enter into tiie Kingdom of Heaven. As long as we have that load of riches which we are determined not to drop, we shall find the narrow gate too small. A man may be one of Jesus' rich men who has nothing but a custom-house place, or, as Sinton says, " He who has a reputation which he is anxious to retain is still one of the rich men who shall hardly enter in." We have to leave all to follow the Spirit: though the Spirit may send it after us, if it be his good pleasure to give us the Kingdom now. To " cultivate " one's body or mind or soul are only other plans of cultivating " self." The thing is to love and then one wants to work and learn and teach with muscle and thought and soul, so as to express the love — ^then all these gain permanent natural strength. Spiritual and mental gymnastics are as miserable substitutes for work as " calisthenics." How can we have higher ideals when our ac- knowledged teachers admit that the highest per- fection of man consists in the number and devel- opment of all sides of his refined desires. Such LIFE, AND 82 LOVE, AND PEACE teaching makes men think that they feel only such desires, and that as these are natural, it is impossible to rise above them. Says Henry Drummond: " Seekest thou great things for thyself? " Said the prophet, " Seek them not." Why? Be- cause there is no greatness in things. Things cannot be great. The only greatness is unselfish love. Even self-denial in itself is nothing, is al- most a mistake. Only a great purpose or a mightier love can justify the waste. We know the saying of the Greek philosopher, "I like to go to the market-place and see how many things there are which I do not need." The desires have their proper place. Evolu- tion is through desires. These desires may be mainly physical, as a desire for warmth; or mainly intellectual, as a desire for learning; or emotional, as the desire for experience. It is not the renunciation of our individual desires that is required, but their subjection to the higher rea- son or " Wisdom." Herein is the true law of life. Belief in this law is not merely an intellectual 83 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE perception arrived at by study. If it were, it might be found by examining matter. It is a spiritual understanding, and is perceived by a spiritual illumination, which can be had by any one who opens his soul to it by willingness to re- ceive and act in accordance with the law of life. Entrance into life, and the course of life, is like the experience of a horse which the master leads from the stable for harnessing; on coming out of the stable into the light and scenting liberty, it seems to the horse that in that liberty is life, yet he is harnessed and driven off. He feels a weight behind him, and, if he thinks that his life consists in running wild, he begins to kick, falls down, and indeed may kill himself. But if he does not fall, he has two alternatives left to him ; either he will go his way and draw his load, find- ing that the burden is light to him, and that trot- ting is not a torment but a joy; or else he will kick himself free, and then his master will lead him to the treadmill, and will fasten him by a hal- ter ; the platform will begin to slide beneath him, and he will walk in the dark, confined to one place, suifering; but his strength will not be wasted; LIFE, AND 84, LOVE, AND PEACE he will perform his unwilling labor, and the law will be fulfilled in him. The difference will lie in this, that the first work would be joyful, but the second forced and painful. The satisfaction of all simple, normal wants, is guaranteed to man, as it is to the bird and the flower; provided that in man's sphere, which in- cludes the economic and social life, man shall hve a simple, reasonable life, as animals do in their spheres. (See Matthew vi. 20, to end.*) The larger part of mankind believes this truth, under the name of Buddhism ; but the vast spread of that religion renders it subject to corruptions, * No one can yet see how far reaching freedom will be. Krapotkin has shown that if only the wastes of production and distribution were saved, a few hours' labor per day would produce all that we produce now. ("The Conquest of Bread.") If, in addition to this saving, the land, including all the re- sources of Nature, were opened to labor, so that all workers would use the best parts of the earth to the best advantage, wealth would be so abundant that interest would disappear. Even now, with increased production, and notwithstanding the restrictions in the issue of money, interest is decreasing so that we often find it hard to get four per cent. Suppose that to-day mortgages and railroad bonds, which are forms of ownership of land, were taken out of the market, what interest would we get? Certainly not one per cent. Were the restrictions on production through the various forms of taxation and monopoly, above all, private appropriation of rent. 85 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE and these corruptions are regarded by cultured persons as disproving the truth of the reUgion itself. The fact that the larger part of mankind does so understand the law of life, and gets, from its observance, quiet of mind; and that it is impos- sible to reach an understanding of life in any other way, does not in the least trouble the Phari- sees and Scribes: they think that progress and abolished, wealth would be so abundant and so easy to obtain, that it would not be worth anyone's while to keep account of what he " lent " to another. With the disappearance at once of interest and of the fear of poverty, the motive for accumulation of more than would be suflficient to provide against disability or old age will disappear; while such small but universal accumulations, made available by a system of mutual banking, will provide ample capital for all needed enterprises. Co-operation will spring up, as a labor-saving device, and the great abilities of the Trust managers will be turned to public service instead of public plunder. Henry George thinks that the increased demand for capital due to free opportunities for labor will increase interest. If it did, it would perpetuate a form of slavery; but the very use of the capital will re-produce wealth and capital so much more abun- dantly, that it will destroy the motive for accumulation. The time will come, it is even now at hand, when dollars and meals and goods will be given to those who ask them, as freely as candies or water or cigars are offered among us. If Socialism or Anarchism or anything else is needed to insure voluntary communism of goods, then it is for that Sociahsm or Anarchism, or whatever it may be, that we should work. LIFE, AND 86 LOVE, AND PEACE invention have superseded such old-time "theo- ries." The Hindoo sees that there is a conflict be- tween the life for the flesh and the higher life, and he is solving the difficulty according to his light. So far he truly lives. But the modern materialist is like a beast which does not yet per- ceive that there is any higher life. Yet the perception of the universal life is the most valuable product of the experience of the ages. There is this distinction, however, between the states of beasts and of men. The higher the ani- mal is, the more complex are its parts and the more dependent are the parts upon one another. If a worm is cut in two, we have two worms; if the higher animal is cut in two, it is all dead. So with the state of mankind. The bird and the fish live, from their nature, each to itself; each is but slightly dependent upon any other; each suff*ers for its errors mainly in itself. With the higher organism of Man the parts are more dependent upon one another. Interior happiness, therefore, we can get each for himself, by opening our eyes 87 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE to perceive and follow our real nature. " Peace I give unto you," said Jesus. That is the in- terior peace : exterior well-being we can get only by inducing our fellows also to come out into the light. We are an army marching together, in which " No one of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself." CHAPTER VIII THE HIGHER LIFE " If in the one hand I were offered wisdom and goodness, and in the other hand the power of striving for it, I should prefer to strive." — Lessing. THE argument of pessimistic philosophy, and of the commonplace suicides, is that there is one " I," in which " I " there is an incli- nation for full animal and intellectual life; and that this " I " and its inclination cannot possibly be gratified. They think there is a second " I " which has no inclination for life, seeing the use- lessness of it all. If, say they, I yield to the being which in- clines to animal life, I live senselessly ; there is no good in it: if I yield to the being which sees the futility of life, there remains to me no desire for life (for the second "I " does not believe that it is good to live for love or to express the universal spirit) ; therefore, say such persons, when life 88 89 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE becomes tiresome I leave it. This is " the dark- ness which comprehendeth not the light." This is the contradictory idea of life which men had reached before Solomon's time, before Buddha's, and to which teachers like Schopenhauer and Hartmann would lead us back. The teaching of the Truth has ever been that mankind does possess, here and now, an inalien- able and actual happiness which is within the reach of everyone. This is the happiness which is fa- miliar to everyone, and to which every unper- verted human soul is drawn. Children and the unsophisticated know the feeling which solves all the contradictions of life, and gives the greatest possible happiness: this is Love. (See Appen- dix I.) Love IS one form of the animal nature brought under the rule of the higher law. Its develop- ment is the only reasonable activity of mankind. The foundation of all happiness is faith in the goodness, the righteousness and the Love-power of the individual, which is also the universal spirit. The personality of man demands happiness; LIFE, AND 90 LOVE, AND PEACE true reason from the heart shows us the misery of strife; shows us that there can be no happi- ness in selfishness, and that the only real happi- ness possible for us is one for which there shall be no rivalry, no satiety, and no end. And lo, like a key made for this one lock, each man finds in his own soul a feeling which gives him the very happiness which his reasonable heart tells him is the only possible one. This Love not only solves the contradictions of life, but uses the contradictions of life to show itself clearly; for the animal individual suffers, and to remedy this suffering constitutes the chief activ- ity of Love. So doing, it gives sight to the eyes, and Hear- ing to the ears to perceive that life is not a cry but a song. The individual strives to use others, but Love gives itself joyously to others, and inclines us to the extremest sacrifice of our fleshly existence for others, and so, by developing that which is immortal, takes away the fear of death. " But," say those who see nothing in this life but the animal existence, " love involves pain 91 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE while it lasts, and it will end." Therefore, to them love seems as lamentable and as deceptive as all other states of mind, though they recognize in it something peculiar and more important than the others ; often it seems to them something irregular and torturing. Something like this feeling must be the effect of a lighthouse upon the night birds. This misconception is because such persons think of Love as only one among the numberless desires of life, and not as the object of life. They think that a man should sometimes make money, sometimes study, sometimes love. They think only of that love which is a form of selfish- ness ; the sacrificing of others for " my child," or " my friend " ; that feeling which makes the father, to his own torture, wring the last bit of bread from hungry men in order to provide lav- ishly for his own children. It is the feeling be- cause of which, he who loves a woman suffers through this love, and causes her to suffer, se- ducing her, or killing both her and himself be- cause of jealousy. It is the feeling that impels men belonging to one association, for the sake of LIFE, AND 92 LOVE, AND PEACE upholding their own fellows, to injure those of other associations. It is the feeling that makes a man render himself, and others, also, miserable over his favorite occupation. It is the feeling that renders a man unable to endure an insult to his " beloved " fatherland, strewing therefore the plain with the dead and wounded of his own country and of others. But to love truly means to desire the well- being of all. For those whom we love we desire good, but we find that to get that good for them alone means the injury, or at least the neglect, of others. How far, then, am I to give myself for the service of others, and whom shall I serve? How much care shall I now take of myself in order to be able later, since I love others, to serve them? This was the difiicult question that the law- yer put to Christ, " Who is my neighbor? " For we must know that in the world as we have made it, every happiness in the flesh is received by one person only at the expense of the possible hap- piness which might be obtained by another, or which, at least, might be given to another. gS LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE How, then, are we to decide at whose expense, and in which degree, we shall help those whom it is necessary to serve? All people, or our father- land? Fatherland, or our friends? Our friends, or our own wives? Our wives, or our children? Our children, or (in order that we may be able still further to serve others later) ourselves? All these persons make demands of love, and all the demands are so interwoven that there is no possibility of serving some without depriving others. For these difficulties, that which the world calls love, offers no solution. Most of the evils among men spring from this feeling, falsely called love, and which is no more like real love than the life of the animal is like the life of man. What people generally call love is only the fa- miliar preference of some elements of our per- sonal happiness to other elements. When a man says that he loves his wife or child or friend, he usually means merely that the presence of those persons heightens the happiness of his in- dividual life. Just so, he says he loves to shoot or to see a good fight. LIFE, AND 94, LOVE, AND PEACE But these feelings, preference for certain beings, or things, or occupations, cannot be called love ; for they have not the chief mark of love — activity, which has for its aim and end the hap- piness of the loved one. This violence of preference for some people over others is merely the stock upon which true love and its offshoots may be grafted. It is through this love that we attain to Unity, to be one with the Father, and the Son — as Jesus says so often in the fourteenth to the eighteenth of John. CHAPTER IX UNITY The kingdoms of living matter and of not-living matter are under one system of laws, and there is a perfect free- dom of exchange and transit from one to the other. — T. H. Huxley, " Collected Essays," Vol. I., page 117. WE must agree upon the meaning of Unity. There are three stages in the life of man — the physical, the mental and the spiritual, each a law unto itself. And we should recognize the limita- tions of anyone who is a physical man, and " judge not." He may be more moral in his im- morality than we are moral in our morality, for he may be truer to his light than we are to ours. We cannot ask him to give up what to him are truths, because they are false to us. As long as he thinks they are gods, we should offend in in- fluencing him to sacrifice his gods to our god. He would offend in doing it. He must live on and through his physical plane ; he must grow as 95 LIFE, AND QQ LOVE, AND PEACE the flowers grow; live in everything pertaining to that plane till he of his own free will grows, as the race grows, into another plane. We must not force our brother's growth before his time.* We can see that there is no moral law as a fixed rule of life. Moral law is true only to that plane of life to which it is akin, and false to the next higher plane. The savage man must fight, if he is to survive and preserve his family; to refuse would be wrong for him. So, to the physical plane, even the morality of the mental plane may be sin. If one on the spiritual plane tried to wake his brother who is only as yet on the physical plane, he but opens the rose with a penknife and causes violent retrogression. It is natm^al for the snake to sting according to snake nature, and for the drunkard to drink. There is no use in con- demning either of them. The purpose of Nature is not primarily to do good. That is only an incident. The purpose of Nature is self-expression, that is to say, the ex- * " Gott mit uns " the partisan cries. — *' The Lord is on our side." "God and one are a majority," says Emerson — God is on both sides and we do not need the majority. 97 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE pression of God. ^ The bird expresses itself in the song and in the life of the bird. Expression — "being one's self" — is first: good flows from it : so the physical man must live and express the physical desires till, through liv- ing all that the physical man expresses, he grows into the mental plane, and hves in the expression and morality of the mental plane. From the mental plane he grows into the spiritual plane, and there, as from a mountain, he sees all that which is underneath his feet — all that he has sur- mounted. He is above moraUty, and love be- comes to him the fulfilling of the law of his being. On that plane he realizes his Unity. The Unity of the physical man, the mental man, the spiritual man, is not denying the mental man ; it is affirm- ing and partaking of all three stages. Personal harmony comes first — a Unity of body, mind and spirit in one's self. This harmony is joying in one's food; it is joy- ing in one's body — living so that all food is as milk and honey, the ambrosia of the gods, — that all pleasures of the body satisfy ; it is an exceed- ing fineness of the senses, an exceeding sensitive- LIFE, AND 98 LOVE, AND PEACE ness of the nerves that thrill to all the joy of the senses, beyond the faintest comprehension of the physical man. It intensifies the joy of bodily exercise — the exhilaration of a swim or a climb, — the pleasure of seeing beautiful persons and things — of hearing the music in nature, the thrill of human touch — ^in short, the all around alive- ness of the animal. Mental activity is good; and spiritual life is good, but not better, only differ- ent : all three are ours. That is, we are not sub- ject to the senses, but have greater power and delicacy in their expression — we being master. We hear more harmonies in Nature; sweeter to us become the tones of our brother's voice. So the spiritual man will express the joy of Kfe. The morality of evolution is not like any other morality. It is essentially the Joy of Life, into which the spiritual man is born. Joy of Life comes because of the universal life ; the soul sings the song of joy because of the joyousness that is the inheritance of the spiritual man. Jesus showed this clearly. Understanding the long journey through which the physical and 99 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE mental man travelled, He was sore afraid; still from His vision of this spiritual man He said, " These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." He had Joy! the great word — full of sunlight and dancing waters, of summer clouds and sing- ing birds. Full of the sweetness of life, the de- hght of being. Joy demands more life, and it takes it. Its test of what is good, aye, of what is loving, is more life, sweeter life, an ascending life. To deny life is asceticism. Asceticism is death — is decadence. It is rejecting of the Father's bounty. It is to refuse to eat at the Father's table. It is to turn away from Nature's gifts, thinking we may please the Spirit thereby. Asceticism is degrading and weakening; it is the denial of the joy of life. The joy of life is in harmony with God's law — His life. Can we imagine His denying Himself of all His Crea- tion? No, He lives and joys in it; He works in it every moment of eternity. Can we imagine God working without joying in His work? LIFE, AND 100 LOVE, AND PEACE Jesus said: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." The Father needs each one of us in the work. The birds and the fishes, and the least as well as the greatest of His children He has need of, to fulfill and to fill full His work. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground but the Father knoweth, and not one atom can He afford to lose. " That v/hich made me therefore meant me." All is in the Father's plan of Oneness. Do you think the Father loves one child more than another? Can the Father enter Home until all the children are in, even to the least of them? The Father needs hands held out, just as the motherhood needs and longs for the little hands held up — yes, even the dirty, naughty little hands. We are not carried in the arms of God, we are the arms of God. And so the Father worketh even unto now, worketh through us to will and to do whatever we ought to do. Work! How? Not on a treadmill, but with the power of life, to express it as it is expressed in a bird, in its fullness in you and me ; to express the great, sweet joy of life, the joy of a Creator 101 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE through all our desires in myriads of ways; not denying our desires but fulfilling them. In the Joy of Life is the happiness we desire : we cannot find happiness by seeking; happiness is an effect and not a cause. Only as we love and work with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind does happiness flow from the doing of that w^ork. You love your boy, not because of the happiness that loving may bring you, but be- cause of what he expresses: then that loving brings happiness. You do not say " I love him because it will make me happy." But you are happy because you love. If he were sick and in many ways caused you anxiety, still the loving him would, with all the anxiety, be your happi- ness. It is the samp with the Nihilists. They so love the thought of freedom that their only happiness is in working for that freedom, even when they know it means for them the horrors of Siberia. And out of the torture and suffering they return to preach again. It is love of the work, joy in the work, and happiness arises as an incident, not as a cause. LIFE, AND 102 LOVE, AND PEACE God could not seek happiness, the joyousness of life, to be made happy Himself; but happi- ness, joyousness, comes of the loving, because loving is the fulfilling of the law of life. The thing sought is loving. Because of Unity perfect harmony is hap- piness. Because of Unity, perfect satisfaction is the Joy of Life. Because of Unity in the physical, mental and spiritual man; because of Oneness in all things, do we evolve the keynote, the heart and life and soul of the whole system, namely, loving. Therefore, strange as it may seem, there is to the understanding heart no ethical system; no room for an ethical system. Love transcends all ethics. In the same sense Jesus had no ethical system. Christianity teaches to-day what the apostles taught. Jesus' doctrines were coarsened by the Jewish understanding: Jesus taught one thing: the disciples said another. Nowhere did Jesus teach an ethical system, as the Jews taught. All he said was " Love one another. — Love is the fulfiUing of the Law." 108 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE He drank and ate with men; He entered into their life; and because of His realization of fel- lowship He saw that Love was the only ethics possible, the only life possible; that out of the heart of Love flowed all possibilities beyond the rules of ethics. He worked as the Father worked. The mind of the Universe brooded over things. " And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.^' All existing in the Mind — till Thought came to manifestation. " And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good." Says Kant, " God is the unitary principle that fashions things, but is not merged in things." (Paulsen's Kant.) All thoughts are of the nature of the mind that creates them. Therefore, the thought that brought the birds into being is akin and at one with the thought that evolved an Emerson, a Shakespeare. It is a difference only in degree, not in kind. We are One. One with every living thing, for all things are Thought brought to manifestation. It is not that the Fellowship does not already LIFE, AND 104 LOVE, AND PEACE exist — ^but that we have not come to a realization of it. A feeling of separateness is misery. When we feel Unity, harmony — ^then we are in the univer- sal, and '* Love speaks to our minds and souls, and we know." Then we know our little brothers of the fields — in the air and in the sea — as well as the human brother at our side. It is this brotherliness with every living thing that prevents so many from eating meat, or kill- ing for ornament, or for " sport," that grows until our hearts reach out to every living thing to become a sharer in our joy. It is this brotherliness that makes men and women devote their lives to economic freedom. They suffer in the suffering of others; they see and feel with their brother in slavery more than he sees and feels for himself; because from the higher nature they see what might be — a vision the lower 'natures cannot see. We feel with our brother and suffer with him in his ignorance. So far as we do feel with him, we become one with him — one in his suffering — one in his crime — one in his purity — in badness as truly as goodness — 105 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE equally guilty in tjie lowest vices — equally inno- cent as the babe. As we partake of all the good of the past, we inherit the evil. " I, Buddha, that wept with all men's tears, Whose heart was broken in the whole world's woe." Such is our Oneness that none of us can enter heaven while even the least of humanity is on the road of experience. Not that an arch- angel prevents us entering the Gate — ^but we pre- vent ourselves; we would not if we could. Vol- untarily and with joy we refuse to enter heaven until all men enter in. It is like our social experience; however high our ideal, however we may desire to experience it, to love it, we are limited, hampered in the living actual expression of that ideal, so long as our brother does not see it. We must, because of our identity with him, partake of and share in his ignorance — ^be guilty with him.* If it were possible to separate ourselves from our brother by our death, while he is living in * We see a policeman or some kind of ruffian beating a man or a child ; our blood boils — ^it is we that are doing it. " I would not do such a thing," we say. No — did we never beat our children or. LIFE, AND 106 LOVE, AND PEACE falseness and all manner of sin, heaven would become hell. It would be hell until we were freed to return to earth, and to live in those false con- ditions, partaking of his evil, his guilt, going with the brother through the mire of crime. It was this magnetic power which Jesus preached when he said, " And I, if I be lifted up (with Love) , will draw all men unto me. That they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in One. We will come unto him and make our abode with him — 'till all have entered the door.' " Do not fret over the troubles of others — there worse yet, did we never get someone else to beat them, as indi- rectly we got that policeman to beat the woman? Who paid that policeman to do it? We did — out of the taxes. What spirit does he represent? The spirit of authority, the desire to make someone, to force someone, to do or to be something. If we make laws, we must have force behind them, and as the laws are not intelligent, we must have intelligent force behind them. Because that spirit of man, good and bad, loving and hating, is what it is to-day, you and I are what we are to-day. For any- one to have felt as most of us feel now, would have been impossi- ble even two hundred years ago — when no one was shocked by drawings and quarterings and burnings at the stake, and only inquired, if they inquired at all, whether the person "deserved" it. 107 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE are no "others";* do not worry over your own — if you did not need them you would not have them. For there are only three possible ways that the Universe runs: either it is a series of accidents — if so, then we need only catch the fleeting pleas- ure as it comes ; or, there is a ruling Principle that takes satisfaction in torturing us — in that case to steel ourselves to pain and to cultivate every pleasure, is still the wisest course; or, there is a Spirit in Things (whether all powerful or not, does not matter) , that works together for good, that moves ever towards development and a wider circle of joy. It is not " in the end " that " it will all come out right," it is all right now. Then it is om's only to find, and joyfully to walk in, the path of the Spirit. There is nothing but God — ^nothing. God is all in all, " we are of one flesh." " I in him, and ye in me, that we all may be one." God is Love and God is Good. Therefore, there is no good but Love (and no evil but Self- love, i,e,j narrow or undeveloped Love), and we need nothing for ourselves. LIFE, AND 108 LOVE, AND PEACE We are expressions of God. Therefore, there is no Law but Love. " Love is the fulfilling of the law " (hence we are not to be afraid of any expressions of Love). T CHAPTER X FREEDOM THROUGH UNITY HE Mahomedan cries, 'La Allah ilia Allah,"—" There is no God but God," or better, " there is nothing but God." He does not believe in any other force in the universe but the Universal Mind, and, whatever happens, he saj^Sv " Kismet," "it is so determined." The God-Mind is in our actions, too, " working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." That was the message of Jesus, — that we all "may be one." One in love (John xvii. 21). Jesus is the typical spirit man. Everyone is brother to Him : he quotes from Psalm Ixxxii. 6, " I said ye are gods, and all of you are the chil- dren of the Most High." So we may read those five chapters, John xiii.-xviii., substituting " I " and " we " for the name of Christ. " We in them and Thou in us, that they may be made perfect in one " (John xvii. 23) ; the spirit made perfect but hated of " the world," the merely mental man, 109 LIFE, AND 110 LOVE, AND PEACE and at war with " the flesh," the purely animal. Yet the spirit embraces all of these — is one. Now how is that oneness to be obtained? The way is plain. " If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love " (xv. 10) ; and " this is my commandment, that ye love one another" (xv. 12). "God is Love"; so loving, we abide in God, are God, and abide in life ; for " this is life eternal, that we should know the only true God " (xvii. 3) ; and " he that loveth knoweth God"; so we are delivered from the power of death, and eternally we " shall know that I am (we are) in the Father and ye in me (us) and I in you" (xiv. 20). That unity is the sum of the whole matter. See the effects of it. " All things that the Father hath are Mine " (xvi. 15), " and we are in Him and He in them, that all (creation) may be one." If we are one with God, and one with the Mind of the Universe, then " whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do " (xiv. 14). "Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you " (xv. 7) , for we are one." " All mine are thine, — thine are mine." 1111 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE But then we shall know that we need nothing for ourselves; and "in that day (when we see Him, the Universal Spirit, the Spirit as it is) ye shall ask me nothing " (xvi. 23) . Why should we ask, when we are one with the Word of God and are possessing everything? Nirvana has been corrupted, at least in modern and occidental understanding, to mean the ex- tinction of desire. It means in truth, the union with the All, the extinction of separateness, which we call cosmic consciousness. In that state desire is extinguished only because it is fully realized in the possession of all, that is because we are united with All in the One. So we can understand the verse, every need being satisfied. "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full" (xv. 11) — "that in Me (in you and me, all one) ye might have peace " (xv. 33) . And so said Jesus, " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," whose face was " more marred than any man's," who " came unto his own and his own received him not," and who had so failed to make even his disciples LIFE, AND 112 LOVE, AND PEACE understand his word that they said, " Show us the Father and it suffice th us" (xiv. 8), not knowing that they themselves were one with the Father. So he said, and we say, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (xiv. 27), " that we may have this joy fulfilled in ourselves " (xvii. 13). Think of that, and of the circumstances under which it was said. On that last night, with His few poor followers, of whom one was betraying Him, all were to forsake Him, and not one un- derstood Him; but He said, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." They did not understand that any more than they had under- stood Him: one said, " Show us the Father (who is the God of Love)," and He said (we can hear the despair in his voice), **Have I been so long time with you and how sayest thou, " Show us the Father." " He that hath seen (love in) me hath seen the Father." He had failed to make even those few chosen ones understand what was so clear to Him, that if men would only love one another all the evil of life would be at an end ; and now, facing that 113 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE failure He spoke, He, a beaten man, a felon al- ready condemned, and said, *' I speak that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." For He alone understood in what joy consists and how love could give eternal life. Isn't that simple and clear? Hate is separa- tion, but unity is love, and the " love is the ful- filling of the law." It is beautiful to understand that we are one, all of us, and that " nothing can happen to us, for we have nothing to do with hap- penings "; to live in a love that is the substance of everything without regard to any reward or return. " Self is cut out from the horizon of thought and purpose — we do not value our per- sonal existence, — we have no interests, — we live in a universal communion of love." We do not come into this state ; we are in it if we only see. CHAPTER XI DUTY Against the one who laughs and the one who loves, there is no defense. DUTY, stern daughter of the Voice of God," was the earlier idea of the religious motive force. It was an advance on the motive of mere fear, and as long as we are slavish enough to need such motives, they are most useful. We always forge for ourselves, and for our fellows too, the chains that we need : but there is a higher conception than that. " Every man is the prophet of Gk)d, joyfully if willingly, otherwise with pain." We must do the Universal will and fit into the general plan; the only difference we can make in it is that we may do it either happily or reluctantly. We have one definition of God — one on which every living religion agrees, that God is love — not has love, or is loving, but is Love. Men say, 115 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE Yes, God is Lov^; but He is more than Love — He is Justice and Truth and Power. Justice! — is not that involved in Love? Could the universal, unselfish love be untrue to anyone? Love is the Infinite Harmony, the Perfect Truth. Power — there is no force like Love. "Love comprehendeth all." " Love overcometh all." Then if God is Love, to love is to worship Him : it is to express our admiration of His char- acter: to walk in His way: the ritual of His house is the service of His children. That is our "duty." Of course if there were a God who had wishes or desires that are opposed to our good, that is, to our eventual happiness, it might be necessary to do things for Him that were not loving for the sake of duty. It might be that certain things that injure us would be pleasing to such a deity. Here is an invalid woman who thinks that she " ought " to get up early and go fasting to church: of course as long as she believes that it is right for her to do that, she had better do it, even if it leave her irritable or otherwise useless LIFE, AND 116 LOVE, AND PEACE all day. Or she may feel that she needs discom- fort and that this way of getting it does her the most good. If so, there can be no objection to her getting it ; even to the irritation we can object only if it be expressed. Or again she may think that if she allows any other thing or person to prevent the act of wor- ship to her God, He will take away that thing or hurt that person. If she so believes, she is en- titled to make her bargain or to protect herself by going to church. Or, still further, she might feel that, without perhaps knowing very clearly why, somehow she was better for doing it and that God would sup- ply the strength. If she sincerely believes that in her heart, probably the strength would be sup- plied. But she might look at it thus : " My Father loves me and wishes me to do what is for the good of His world and for my happiness : it cannot be pleasing to one who loves me and whom I love, that I should hurt myself or make myself incap- able of helping others whom I love. Instead of going to that service I will keep my strength for 117 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE the service of Goeople which is the root of love. How can we love those upon whom we will- ingly trample, whom we keep in wretched- ness that we may have pleasure? That kind of pleasure is always directly opposed to love, and the more intense it is, the more it is opposed to love. So that the more intense the activity for the attainment of pleasure, the more impossible becomes the only happiness accessible to men, which is love. It seems as though the increase of happiness 147 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE proceeded from the best external arrangement of one's existence, such as the luxury that money brings. But the best external arrangement de- pends upon greater violence to other men, which is directly opposed to love. It seems as though the existence of a poor la- borer or of a sickly man were evil, unhappy; and the existence of a rich and healthy man good and happy; and men bend all the strength of their minds to escaping a poor and sickly existence, and to obtaining for themselves a fine, rich, healthy one. They think that the advancement of mankind consists in devising and handing down better means to gain such a life; therefore men vie with one another in endeavoring to delay death, by maintaining, as well as possible, that pleasing life which they have inherited from their parents, or by organizing for themselves a new and still more pleasurable life. All of which is erroneous and futile. Whatever crust of prejudice, then, we have to break, however painful it may be, we must, each one of us, stamp into our own hearts this truth, that there is no good but love and no evil but self- LIFE, AND 148 LOVE, AND PEACE ish love. To these words alone opens the door of Happiness. Few have found that door. Most of us are in the state of the young seeker for truth who when she was asked, "Are you happy?" repUed, "Why, no, I don't suppose anybody can be happy in this world. Think of the little children dying and worse than dying, and of all the misery and sorrow about us ! How could one be happy here?" " Do you think men cannot be happy? " " I don't know. If they can, it must be after they have passed through this life." " Then you think this world is a place of pro- bation?" " Well, yes — or at least a school." " But does not a wise, good teacher make the school pleasant, and learning a delight? It is only when we transgress the laws of life and are unwilling to learn that we find the way hard." " How can we avoid transgressing laws, when we have no way of knowing what they are? " " Why, we may easily know. The laws of life are revealed to us through the senses, by personal 149 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE experience, by partly inherited race-experience, by reason, and most of all, by our desires and tastes." " Are desires and tastes to serve as guides? " " Certainly. You have heard of Professor Fisher's experiments in dieting Yale boys:* he has shown that a healthy appetite selects the proper food for the body. We must trust our appetites, bodily, mental and spiritual, allowing each part of our nature naturally to modify or check the rest." " But we have to struggle to do what is right or at least what is best, don't we? " " I think not. The strenuous life does very well for those on whom it is not a strain, but as our teachers of athletics are learning now, strain has to be paid for. The " second wind " is na- ture's silence when her protest of weariness is dis- regarded, and it is followed by exhaustion. And this is as true of the mental and spiritual life as of the physical. If we exhaust ourselves in striv- ing to gratify all our desires and to have a good time, we cannot be happy. If, seeing the miseries of life, we disregard them or do nothing about LIFE, AND 150 LOVE, AND PEACE them, we shall not be happy. This is recognized in the grim proverb of the Talmud: " The door that will not open to the needy, shall open to the physician." That is not a matter of vengeance or even of punishment : it is a simple natural law. When' we see distress, our impulse is to relieve it, and if we allow calculation or selfish desires to check that impulse we shall suffer for it. That is one way to quench the Spirit, which is the mov- ing soul of ourselves." "Do you think there are many happy per- sons? " Dr. C. Brodie Patterson was once asked if he thought most persons were happy. * No,' he said, * if they were happy they would be well.' Most of us think that it is. the other way, that if they were well they would be happy, although our ob- servation shows that those who are physically well are not always the happiest, and that even the most abundant animal spirits have their cor- responding periods of depression." " Well, have we any right to look for happi- ness? Should we not rather endure our experi- ences doing the best we can? " 151 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE " If there is Iqve and order in the world we are certainly entitled to happiness. There is a better way of meeting the hardships of life than endur- ance, a word which comes from durus, — ^hard, hardening ourselves against them. What cannot be helped must be accepted, — ^not endured, — joy- fully accepted as a necessary part of life, not re- sisted and resented. " Obedience to the divine leadings of such na- ture as we have, will give us the experience that we need, whether it be sweet or bitter : that expe- rience will recur just as often as we need it in order to learn the lesson. We shall make mis- takes and shall suffer for them, but suffering is grievous only when it is unwillingly borne. By willingly taking it we find the way to that peace of God on Earth that passeth understanding. That is life's real happiness and it is within the reach of all. We have but to take it." CHAPTER XV INTERIOR AND ECONOMIC PEACE The best repentance is to up and act for righteous- ness, and forget that you ever had relations with sin. — William James, " The Varieties of Religious Experience^" page 127. WHAT is the common history of those who give up Metaphysical Science? They feel the new thought, are lifted up by it and ap- propriate all they can of it to themselves. They fail to share it with those about them and — they lose it. The faculty which they neglect fades out. Some scientists have acquired psychic power in a greater or less degree. For what? Merely to relieve themselves of anxieties and pains? If so, that is pure selfishness. If that be the only ob- ject, they will surely lose the power. Yes; be- cause they have enlarged their perceptions, they suffer more than they could have suffered before. For what is this power given? To teach it to others? It will take long to instruct the immeasurable masses of mankind. The poverty and ignorance 152 153 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE of the millions make it almost hopeless to teach even a tithe of them. Charles Booth writes of the " Submerged Tenth " ; — it should be the sub- merged nine-tenths, overwhelmed with the com- mon anxiety of how to get a living; subject to the degrading terror of losing their positions, they are unable to conceive of unity — to them all is separateness. When the conception of inter- dependence first comes to them, when the thought that no one can live to himself becomes real, they are bowed down with the knowledge that if they keep their positions, it is only at the cost of keep- ing someone else out of a position. And although even this degree of enlightenment is better than no recognition of oneness, yet when it goes no further, it creates an atmosphere of fear coming from the masses, against which metaphysicians strive in vain. There is nothing in the purely mental stage, any more than in the purely animal stage, that can bring true happiness or peace. It is still " a striving and a striving, and an ending in nothing." For what is the power — ^to educate the leaders? That is only to fix them still more firmly upon LIFE, AND 154 LOVE, AND PEACE the backs of the people; and however they may desire it, they cannot change the conditions of in- justice till the people desire the change. Desire is the mother of action, and until it quickens either the individual or the mass, no change can take place. For after all people have in this world just about what they need, whether it be in economic conditions or in spiritual development. If it were possible to impose perfect social condi- tions upon the masses before they had seen the beauty of righteousness, the effect would be most disastrous. As Stephen Maybell says : "A political Utopia would be a physical Heaven concealing a spiritual hell — a monstros- ity. Society cannot be made to show forth the fruits of justice, which are righteousness and peace, while the desire of justice is not in the people." For what is the power? To do good in the world, to make men more successful in their un- dertakings? Suppose that I am in the dry goods business and attain a thorough poise, adopt the best meth- ods and make no mistakes. I shall sell more 155 LIFE, AND LO\rE, AND PEACE goods and get more money, but no more goods will be sold on account of that. I shall merely sell some goods which somebody else would other- wise have sold. Even if I sell them at less ex- pense and therefore cheaper, I do it to the injury of others, who will lose that trade, that is to say, will lose their living : for competition has reduced the profits of business for the ordinary run of merchants to mere wages of superintendence. And this is the natural result of the separate idea of life. So long as men believe that their existence is separate from that of others, just so long will they strive one against another, and thus reduce even those profits of any business (unless it be a monopoly) from which they de- rive the means to gratify their physical desires. If I farm successfully, no more produce will be eaten than if I had failed, and just as many hundreds of thousands will still go hungry; for the people have only a certain amount to spend on vegetables and fruit, and I cannot increase that amount, I can only sell the amount that the market can take, which someone else would have grown, had it not been for me. LIFE, AND 156 LOVE, AND PEACE Without spiritual development, men cannot see that the silver and gold, the cattle on a thou- sand hills, and all the fruits of the earth are for all men. The Universal Mind has provided for the wants of man's animal nature, but man, in his lack of love, has sealed his own senses and neither sees nor understands. Is the power in order to heal diseases? But that will save lives and thereby increase the efficiency of the workers, and we have such overpopulation already that we cry for laws re- stricting immigration; and we have such "over- production " now that we have to consolidate and to form trusts to stop it. The blindness of separate life is nowhere more fully shown than in this idea that men want more than they should have, and that the way to deal with that condition is to give them still less than they are now getting. So contrary is this to man's inner nature that, after establishing condi- tions which prevent his fellows from obtaining what they need by their own efforts, he takes from his own gains to give to them a dole of charity. This state of affairs could not be, if 157 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE men realized that the animal life is not all of life, nor is it even a separate part of life. Is the power to be used to enlighten men? Why ? That they may attain happiness ? But the more men see, the more they will un- derstand that economic conditions force them to live more or less at the expense of their fellows. Existence is tolerable now, only because we do not know all the misery of which we are part cause. The wisest of men mourned that he saw; he said, "So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun : and be- hold the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no comforter; and on the side of their op- pressors there was power; but they had no com- forter. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit." Besides, nothing enlightens the ordinary man so much as the pain he suffers from his own folly, and nothing shows him so well that all men are his brothers as to find that he suffers for their errors as well as his own. If a man came to me with the gout do you think I would heal him? Not at alll I would LIFE, AND 158 LOVE, AND PEACE show him that he ate too much and worked too little, and that as long as he lived that way, he ought to have the gout! Why should we help him to break into the kingdom of heaven physi- cally, when he is unwilling to enter in by the gate? So also of society. While we live upon our fel- lows, we ought to suffer. Not only the rich who are on top, but the poor also, because to quote again, " the poor are guilty of the sins of the rich; the poor are the many and the rich are the few, and the many make the conditions of which the rich are a part." Even the discontented among the masses do not see this ; they resent the imposition of others. If men once saw that there were no " others," but all was unity, they would throw off the yoke they have fashioned for themselves, and thus set themselves and their brothers free. We may humanize men, we may heal them; but they will, not the less, live upon the bodies of one another; for they cannot help it any more than you and I can help it now. In the best of times there are large numbers of men and women unemployed or only partly 159 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE employed, for there is not enough employment for everj^one, and* those who are employed do not get the full product of their toil. Such are the conditions we have created and which we main- tain by injustice and separateness. So that if we work, we work at the cost of keeping someone else idle, or of taking part of the reward of his labor from someone. If every- one did get the full reward of his labor, where would rent of land eome from? For land rent is a part of the product that is taken away for per- mission to work at all; and everyone of us must either pay rent to another or collect it for our- selves. This is not the divine intention, and we must find out what the divine intention is, seeking out the eternal law, by which we have moral and eco- nomic hfe: for we cannot help men by trying merely to nourish our own growth. There are three stages of moral growth, to which and by which we can help mankind econom- ically; first, to understand that the kingdom of heaven can be attained upon earth ; then to desire to get there; after that comes the knowledge of LIFE, AND 160 LOVE, AND PEACE the way to the kingdom, in which we will find our peace. For peace can never be perfect or per- manent until it is merged and broadened into the peace of God, that is the peace of the kingdom upon earth. If then we are to realize peace in ourselves, we must study the economic side of the universe as well as the spiritual ; we must exhibit a system of society which will make peace about us possible, and, accordingly, we must destroy by the divinely appointed means the monopolies with which all men, wilHngly or unwillingly, throttle one another. And the fruitful mother of monopolies is mo- nopoly of land, because it withholds from all the one thing absolutely necessary for* the life of all. When man is divorced from the source of suste- nance for his physical life, he becomes just so far the slave of him who controls this source, leaving him powerless to protect himself. It strengthens the feeling of separaten^ss both in the slave and in his owner, and makes impossible the recogni- tion of kinship. CHAPTER XVI THE VOICE OF TRUTH THERE is no death," says the voice of Truth. " I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that beheveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And everyone that liveth and believeth in me shall never die." " There is no death," say all the great teachers of the world; and millions of men who understand life say the same, and bear witness to it with their lives. And every living man whenever his soul sees clearly, feels the same truth in his heart. But men who do not understand life, cannot do otherwise than fear death. They see it and be- lieve in it. " How is there no death? " cry these people in wrath and indignation. "This is sophistry! Death is before us ; it has mowed down millions, and it will mow us down as well. And you may say, as much as you please, that it does not exist, it will remain all the same. Yonder it is." 161 LIFE, AND 162 LOVE, AND PEACE I shall die. What is there terrible about that? How many changes have taken place, and are now in progress, in my fleshly existence, and I have not feared them? Why should I fear this change which has not yet come, and in which there is nothing repulsive to my reason and expe- rience? It is so comprehensible, so familiar, and so natural for me, that during the whole of my life I formed fancies in which the death, both of lower animals and of persons, has been accepted by me, as a necessary and often an agreeable condition of life. What is there terrible about it? For there are but two strictly logical ways of looking at life : one the false view— that by which life is understood as these seeming changes which take place in my body from my birth to my death ; the other the true view — ^that by which life is un- derstood as the Unseen Consciousness which is within myself. Both views are logical, and men may hold either one or the other : but in neither, held by itself, is the fear of death consistent. The view which understands life as the visible changes in the body from birth to death, is as old as the world itself. 1631 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE Although we think we have just discovered this view by our materialistic philosophy, we have only carried it so far that it seems absurd. It finds expression among the Chinese and among the Greeks. And among the Hebrews, the thought appears in the Book of Job, the oldest of all their books: "Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return." This view as held at present, may be thus expressed : " Life is a chance play of forces in matter, showing itself in space and time. Consciousness is the spark that flashes up from matter under certain conditions. All this is the product of matter, infinitely varied; and what is called life is only a certain condition of dead matter." This view is utterly false. It confuses fife with its direct opposite, dead matter. From such a conclusion death should not be terrible, but Ufa ought to be terrible, as something unnatural and senseless, as indeed it appears to the Buddhist religionaries, and to the new pessimists, like Schopenhauer and Hartmann. The other view of life is as follows: Life is only that which I recognize in myself, when I LIFE, AND 164, LOVE, AND PEACE meditate upon it. I always feel my life, not as I have been, or as I shall be, but I feel my life thus — that I am, that I never began anywhere, that I shall never end anywhere. And according to this view, death does not exist. Neither as an animal only, nor as a rational being only, can a man fear death ; the animal has no consciousness of life and does not see death; and the rational being, having a consciousness of life, cannot see in death anything except a nat- ural and never-ending change of matter. But if man fears, what he fears is not death which he does not know, but the severing of that part of hf e which he does know — that is, his animal ex- istence with its chances. That feeling which is expressed in men by the fear of death, is only the consciousness of the inward contradiction of life; just as the fear of ghosts is merely the feel- ing of a deluded mind. There is a merely physical shrinking from death, due to the inheritance of a desire to avoid it. Like the impulse to reproduction, this has strengthened itself out of proportion to other de- sires, because those men or beasts in which this 165 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE desire was strongest were incited to the greatest exertions to avoid death. Succeeding in a meas- ure, they left offspring endowed with the same race-feelings. Those on the other hand, which had little repul- sion to death, earlier surrendered to attack, and so earlier ceased to multiply offspring. Even the offspring which they did leave, more readily sur- rendered in the struggle for existence, thereby cutting off that branch of the family. We needed that fear to keep the undeveloped race alive under hardships; some of us need it still. But, such a momentary, physical shrinking is not what tortures men, making them think of " a grim spectre," " a destroyer," and so on. Superstitious fear of death is not fear of death at all, but fear of a life after the throes of death, which life is imagined to be unreasonable and in- consistent with the nature of Man and of the Universe, as we have made this present life to be. " I shall cease to be, I shall die, all that in which I set my life will die," says one voice to a man. " I am," says another voice, " and I cannot die. LIFE, AND 166 LOVE, AND PEACE and I ought not to die. I ought not to die, and I am dying." Like horses and other animals we fear that which we do not clearly see. Not in death, but in this contradiction, lies the cause of the terror that seizes upon a man at the thought of death of the flesh : such fear of death lies not in the fact that man dreads the loss of his animal existence, but in the fact that it seems to him that he will die who should not and must not die. Men are not terrified by the thought of the death of the flesh because they are afraid that the life will end with it, but because the death of the flesh plainly shows them the necessity of a true life, which they do not possess. In such persons the fear of death always proceeds from their fear of losing their special self, which, they feel, constitutes their life. They think, " I shall die, my body will molder, and destroy my self." Men prize this self of theirs ; and, assuming that this self is the same as their fleshly life, they conclude that they must be annihilated with their fleshly life. But my self is only that which has lived in my 167 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE body for a number of years. Neither my body, nor the length of its existence, in any way deter- mines the life of my self. If I, every moment of my life, ask myself (in my own mind), "What am I?" I reply: " Something thinking and feeling," that is, bearing itself to the world in its own peculiar fashion. But this self which thinks and feels, had its origin, and began to take its character, thousands of years ago in my ancestors, and in that from which they sprung. It is continuous; it began before my body was formed, and cannot then be a mere part of the body, which will end with it or change with it. " I never was not, nor shall 1 hereafter cease to be." (Bhagavad Gita.) Our body is not one, and the mind which sup- poses this changing body to be ours, and to be always the same, is not itself continuous, but is merely a series of states of consciousness. We have already, many times, lost both body and con- sciousness. We lose our body constantly ; at least once in every seven years every particle of it changes entirely, and we lose our consciousness every time that we fall asleep. Every day and LIFE, AND 168 LOVE, AND PEACE hour we feel in ourselves the alteration of this consciousness and the re-estabhshment of it — which is one of our sources of joy — and we do not fear the changes in the least.* Hence, if there is any such thing as our self which we are afraid of losing at death, then that self cannot reside in the body which we call ours. What is this something which binds in one all the states of consciousness which proceed in it, and which succeed each other hour by hour, but that fundamental Self? What is this on which, as on a sentient cord, are strung one after the other, the various consciousnesses which follow each other, day by day? This is our real self. It is that which says, " I love this and I don't love that." Every being is different. If I know a dog, a horse, and a cow, and have any intelligent rela- tions with them, my friendly attitude to them is not based on their external marks, but on that peculiar relation to the world in which each one *A theosophist once said that she fell asleep every night thinking what a good time she was going to have, and awoke every morning feeling how much she had enjoyed the night. l6g LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE of them stands, or^ the fact that each one of them, in his degree, hkes and dishkes, loves and does not love. This peculiar property of men, of loving one thing in a greater or less degree, and not loving another, is usually called character. For char- acter is the sum of our abilities, and the chief of these is the ability to love and to express that love. The idea that life consists neither of the per- ceptions of body only, nor of those of mind only, nor of the perception of body and mind com- bined, is becoming familiar to us, through the teaching of " Mental Scientists " as well as through the new interest in the doctrines of Bud- dha and in theosophy. Neither mental nor Chris- tian Science, nor theosophy claims to be new, but only to be the distinct enunciation of great and world-old truths. Consequently, their teachers refer to the oldest sacred books for statements of the transcendent nature of man. We fix our eyes upon a small, insignificant bit of this life, do not wish to see all of it, and trem- ble lest this tiny fragment which is dear to us LIFE, AND tl70 LOVE, AND PEACE should be lost. The imaginary danger to an ex- istence, we totally misunderstand, becomes a real terror. This recalls the story of the madman who imagined that he was made of glass, and who, when he was thrown down, said, " Smash! " and immediately died. One who has entered into the knowledge of the nature of the Spirit knows that this love of his to some, and dislike to others, which has been brought into his existence by himself, is the very essence of himself; that this is not an accident, but that this alone has the essential of life, and he recognizes his life only in this essential growth of love. He remembers that his relation to the world has changed, that his submission to the law of reason has increased. He remembers that his love has grown constantly stronger and broader, giv- ing him more and more happiness, quite inde- pendent of his attitude as a separate person, and, sometimes, directly contrary to it, and even in- creasing in proportion to the decrease of the sense of separate personal existence. Such a man, having received his life from a 171 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE past that is invisiye to him, perceives its constant and unbroken growth, and transfers it not only eahnly but joyfully to the unseen future. My friend, my brother, has lived precisely like myself, and he has now ceased to live as I live. His life has been his consciousness, and it has been passed in a bodily existence. My brother has been, I have had relations with him, but now " he is not," and I do not know the place, if there is any place, where he is. " Nothing has been left behind "—thus would speak a chrysalis, a cocoon, which had not yet re- leased the butterfly, on seeing that a cocoon lying beside it had been left empty. But the cocoon might reasonably say this, if it could speak and think, because, on losing its neighbor it would, in reality, no longer feel it in any way. It is not thus with man. My brother has died ; his cocoon, it is true, has been left empty. I do not see him in the form in which I used to see him, but the fact that he has disappeared from my sight has not destroyed my relations with him. I retain, as the expression goes, " a remembrance " of him. Not only a remembrance of his hands, his face, LIFE, AND 172 LOVE, AND PEACE his eyes, but also a remembrance of his spiritual form.* This recollection of my brother is something that acts on me, and acts precisely as my brother acted during his earthly existence. This remem- brance demands of me now, after his death, what it demanded of me during his lifetime. I cannot deny his life, because I am conscious of its power upon me. I may no longer see how he holds me, but I feel in all my being that he still holds me as before, and hence that he exists. As Henry George said at the funeral of his co-worker Croasdale: "But that which we in- stinctively feel as more than matter, and more than energy ; that which in thinking of our friend to-day we cherish as best and highest — that can- not be lost. If there be in the world order and purpose, that still lives." Jesus died a very long time ago. His exist- ence in the flesh was short. We have no clear idea of his person ; but the power of his wise and * The forms of crystals and of animals disappear; no remem- brance of them as far as we know, remains among crystals and little if any among the lower animals. But this is not true of man. 173 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE loving life, his attitude toward the world, and nothing else, acts to the present day upon mil- lions, who take his mind to themselves, and Uve according to it. What is it that acts? What is it that was formerly bound up with the existence of Jesus in the flesh, and which continues and increases this same life of his? We say that it is not the life of Jesus but the results. And, having uttered these words, utterly without mean- ing, it seems to us that we said something clearer and more definite, than that this power is the living Jesus himself. Surely, this is exactly the way in which ants might talk, while clustered about an acorn which has grown up, and become an oak. The oak tears up the soil with its roots, drops branches, leaves, and fresh acorns ; it screens from the light and the rain, changes everything that formerly grew around it. " This is not the life of the acorn," say the ants, " but the results of its life, which came to an end when we dragged off the acorn, and buried it in the ground." Every man who fulfils the law of life, sub- mitting his animal being to reason, and to the LIFE, AND 174, LOVE, AND PEACE power of love, has lived, and after the disappear- ance of his bodily existence, will live through others with whom he is one. However contracted may have been the sphere of man's activity, whether he be Jesus or Socrates, a woman, a youth, an obscure old man, — ^if he lives by expressing in his personality Love for others and the desire for the happiness of others, he has already entered here, in this life, upon that new relation to the world which is the real business of mankind. Where this devotion is complete, it brings to him who gives himself, the peace which passeth understanding. In order to save themselves from fear of death, some men try to convince themselves that the animal existence is their rational existence, and that the continuance of the animal race of men satisfies the demand for immortality which all bear within them. But we can realize immor- tality only by comprehending that life is the eternal movement which seems but as a wave. " As the swallow darting in and out of thy halls," said the heathen philosopher, " such, O King, is the life of man." 175 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE The great change in our position at the death of our body is terrible to us; but the same great change took place with us at our birth, and noth- ing bad came of it for us, but, on the contrary, so good a thing came of it that we do not wish to part with it at all. The visible life is a part of the endless move- ment of life. Our true life exists; we know it only; through it we know the animal life, and we know that this semblance of the true life is sub- ject to unchangeable laws; is not what happens in the invisible life itself also subject to laws, and to the results of these laws? But to complain because we cannot now under- stand much that happened before our present visible life, and that which will take place after our death, is the same as complaining because we cannot see what is beyond the limit of our eye- sight. Is not all the " mystery of life " like the mystery of the forest, ominous and dark, both in front of us and behind, but light enough for each one where he is? In truth, the "mystery of life " seems to consist in trying to see behind things up to which we have not yet come. LIFE, AND 175 LOVE, AND PEACE "But," persists the troubled consciousness, " though I cease to fear death for myself, it takes my wife, my child, my friends; this loss I cannot but feel and I miss them sorely. That is a grief. How is it possible that I should not fear that? " The disaster of death, the nightmare feeling of helplessness, the empty, dull earth that is left, the changed world that we look at as we awake each day, or lie awake at night, the pity for our own loss, and the uselessness of what remains of our existence, may crush the strongest with the shock. Philosophy is like an impertinence, and re- ligious consolation seems a mockery, when we lay our dead away. For the moment there is no com- fort but our sorrow and the love of others. What wonder that we turn to those who promise us continued companionship with the spirits here. What can one do for this poverty-pinched girl? The one good and the one hope of her starved life was that when her lover and she could together save enough to make it seem right, they would be married. So she would escape the dreariness and misery of her surroundings. And now he 177 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE IS dead ; one more, untimely killed by " the strain of modern life." To offer to comfort her is mockery : she will only tell you that you know no agony like this: but at least you can show her that though she has lost the nearer and closer love, the world is full of love like yours. Even for grief like that there is relief: not merely Buddha's bitter balm when he sent the mother to get black mustard seed from a house where death had never been. The mother car- ried her dead babe about the village and each one offered mustard seed, but each one said " death has been here." At last she realized that her grief was a part of the common sorrow. That is a help, but it must not stop at that. John Bright said: "I was in the depths of grief, I might almost say of despair, for the light and sunshine of my house had been ex- tinguished. All that was left on earth of my young wife, except the memory of a sainted life and of a brief happiness, was lying still and cold in the chamber above us. Mr. Cobden called upon me as a friend, and addressed me, as you might suppose, with words of condolence. After LIFE, AND 178 LOVE, AND PEACE a time he looked up and said: 'There are thou- sands of houses in England at this moment where wives, mothers and children are dying of hunger, hunger made by the laws. Now,' he said, ' when the first paroxysm of your grief is past, come with me, and we will never rest till those laws are repealed/ I accepted his invitation." In such unselfish devotion to a great cause is the sovereign specific for a bleeding heart. " Goodness," says Olive Schreiner, " is to take the common things of life and walk truly among them. Happiness is a great love and much serving. Hohness is an infinite compassion for others." Our grief is but a refined form of selfishness. The remembrance, the influence, in short, the " spirit " of our dear ones is still with us, and still moves our thoughts and desires. It is but our individual gratification that we miss and lament. " That may be so," replies the erring conscious- ness again, "but it is the gratification of our noblest part, the affection; such gratification feeds the very love of which you talk." 179 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE "True," answeijs the higher reason, '*but in love for all and in devotion to them instead o£ in gratification from them, those affections will find a larger field. In that larger love is hap- piness instead of regret." The narrower our love the more pain we suffer from it; the largest love embraces, understands and forgives everything, and knows no disap- pointments and no end. CHAPTER XVII THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE IF we admit that there is any plan or coherence in the Universe, the inexplicability of the suf- ferings of the earthly existence proves to man, more clearly than anything else could prove it, that his life is not a mere personality, which began at his birth and which ends at his death. Wolves rend a man who is alone in the forest ; or a man is drowned, frozen, or burned to death, or simply falls ill alone, and dies, and no one ever knows how he suffered. There are thousands of such cases. Of what use can this suffering be to any one? For the man who understands his life as an animal existence, there is not, and cannot be, any answer to this question, because, for such a man, the connection between suffering and error lies only in what is visible to him, and this connection is utterly lost to his mental sight in the sufferings which precede death. 180 181 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE To such a man, suffering is torture ; but, in the natural order, suffering is only a sensation which calls forth activity ; the activity in turn banishes this painful sensation and calls forth a state of pleasure. As long as we think only of material well- being, suffering seems to us mysterious; but its use may be either to teach us necessary prudence or to point out to us our neglect of nature's laws, or else to keep alive sympathy with others who are still in the primary class. But we rebel at it, and think we are entitled to peace. What is the desire for mere peace? A diseased nerve pains us because we have violated nature. The pain annoys us, so we press hard on the nerve and dull the pain. Then we have peace. Or, we deaden it by opiates : again peace. Pressure and opiates become our mode of life to get away from pain, the result of our own ac- tion. We deaden Nature's voice that would fain show us the cause. So with self-sacrifice. We have become de- generates spiritually, through living an unnatural life, through not following our natural instincts LIFE, AND 182 LOVE, AND PEACE and desires. There arises a conflict between our natural instincts and our unnatural instincts. Result — spiritual restlessness and unhappiness. To get away from this awful, restless self, we sacrifice self. Self-sacrifice is the pressure on the spiritual nerve that aches. The denial of self is the opiate, the hypnotic that deadens the vital nerves of self ; and then — ^peace. But at what a price ! In the depths of our own souls, we know that suff*ering is indispensable to the happiness of our lives, and we go on living, foreseeing it, or submitting to it. Nevertheless, we rebel against suffering, because with the false view of life, which demands happiness for our personality only, interference with this happiness appears as something unnatural, and therefore disturbing. Pain in the brute and in the child is very well defined, and slight in intensity, never attaining to that anguish which it reaches in beings who have attained to rational consciousness. In the case of the child, we see that it sometimes cries as piteously from the sting of a wasp as from an injury which destroys the vital organs. 1S3 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE And the pain of a being which does not reason, leaves no trace in the memory. Let anyone en- deavor to recall his childish sufferings, and he will see that he is really incapable of reconstruct- ing them in his imagination. So with natural- minded persons, and with a woman who does not refuse the suffering of child-bearing. " She re- membereth no more her travail, for joy that a man child is born into the world." Sensation, therefore, is that which moves life, and hence it is what should be. Nor could we have pleasure without its corresponding pain, any more than we could have light without shadow, or feel heat without having felt cold. As we be- come more highly developed, we are more sensi- tive to pleasure and pain. The discord which is unperceived by one man is unpleasant to another, and is agony to a third. The last man is the one who appreciates harmony. As Browning says: " The capacity for suffering is the mark of rank in the order of life " — ^rather the capacity for sensation — physical, mental and spiritual. Then for what does man enquire, when he asks: " why and to what end is suffering? " LIFE, AND 134 LOVE, AND PEACE The beasts do not ask this. When the perch, in consequence of hunger, torments the minnow, when the spider tortures the fly, or the wolf de- vours the sheep, each is doing what must be, and accomphshing the thing that must be fulfilled. Therefore, when the perch, the spider, and the wolf fall into like torments from those stronger than they, they resist, and wrench themselves away and flee, but they accept what they are do- ing as part of that which must be done. In them there cannot be the slightest question that what is happening to them is precisely that which must happen in the course of Nature. The depression and horror of death, which seems to affect animals at the shambles, may be due to their unnatural subjection to the power of pitiless intelligence. Such fear Caliban might reasonably have of Setebos. This must be so until the higher law of love is established. It may be, that as man reflects this higher law, animals and all nature will fall under it, and peace will be established, not the peace of the desert, but the peace of full, harmonious life. I perceive in my errors in the past, and in the 185 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE errors of other people, the cause of my suffering, and if my efforts are not directed to the cause of the suffering — to the errors — and if I do not try to free myself from them, I neglect that which should be done. Therefore, suffering presents itself to me in a way in which it should not, and in fact, as well as in imagination, it grows to frightful proportions, which exclude all possibility of normal Hf e. Says Sir Oliver Lodge in the Scientist's Cat- echism: " How comes it that evil exists? " "Answer. Acts and thoughts are evil when they are below the normal standard attained by humanity. The possibility of evil is a necessary consequence of a rise in the scale of moral exist- ence; just as a creature whose normal tempera- ture is far above zero is liable to damaging or deadly cold." But cold is not in itself a positive or created thing. As we become used to cold and learn to take precautions in regard to it, it ceases to be an evil or even a cause of suffering. The cause of suffering to the animal is the violation of the laws of animal life; to the mind. LIFE, AND 186 LOVE, AND PEACE it is the violation of the laws of intellectual life. This violation makes itself known by pain, and the disturbance consequent on the violation of the law is directed to the removal of the cause of the pain. The cause of suffering to the spiritual consciousness is also found in a violation of law, and makes itself known by " sin," and the dis- turbance consequent on the violation of the law is directed to the removal of the cause of the error — the ** sin." As the suffering of the ani- mal calls forth activity directed towards remov- ing its pain, and as this activity deprives the pain of its torture, so the sufferings of a rational being call forth activity directed to remove error, and this activity, itself frees suffering from its horrors. The impression made on us by the sight of the suffering of children, of women in travail, and of animals, is our suffering more than theirs. Before the rational consciousness has been awakened, pain serves as protection to the per- son, and is not acute. Not to mention the martyrs, not to mention the troops who sang in the fire at the stake, like Huss, simple men, Ig7 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE merely out of a desire to exhibit courage, endure without a cry or a quiver, what are considered the most torturing of operations. There are limits to pain, for the extreme of pain ends in a dead- ening of it, in fainting, and even in an ecstasy. The anguish of pain is really frightful for those who think their life Ues in the existence of the flesh. Yet, if we had been born without the feeling of pain, we would very soon have begun to beg for it. Were women who violate the laws of health, living unnatural lives, without work, freed from pains of childbirth, they would bring forth children carelessly, often under conditions where hardly any would survive, and they would not have known love, because they would have had Kttle opportunity for its exercise. Were we free from the pains that follow want of cau- tion or excesses, children and young people would spoil their bodies, and grown people would know neither the errors of those who had lived before them, nor, what is most important of all, their own errors. In this life they would have had no rational object of existence, for they would not know what they must do: were there no LIFE, AND 188 LOVE, AND PEACE growing old they could never be reconciled to the idea of impending death in the flesh. Were there no pain, man would have no indi- cation when he transgressed the laws of nature. If rational consciousness suffered no pain, man would not know the law, that is to say, would not know the Truth. " But," some retort, *^ you are talking about your personal sufferings, how can you reject the sufferings of others ? The sight of these suffer- ings constitute the most acute suffering." This they say, not in full sincerity. For sympathy is really a healthful emotion. If, in consequence of it, we do nothing, we create a morbid state of our minds, such as is common among women who read many novels. If how- ever, we bend every energy and exert every power to relieve the suffering which appeals to us, sym- pathy with it ceases to be a pain. We feel even a pleasure in our activity, and in its partial suc- cess in relieving the suffering, and yet more in remedying the evil which causes it. Above all, we find that it calls forth in ourselves, even if not in others, the feeling of Love. 189 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE Activity directed to the immediate, loving serv- ice of the suffering, and to the diminution of error, which is the general cause of suffering, is the only joyful labor that lies before man, and gives him that happiness in which life con- sists." No claim of novelty is made for this teaching. It is that of Christianity — the Christianity of the Sermon on the Mount, especially as set forth by Tolstoy, as distinguished from that of the Coun- cil of Nicea. It virtually says to us : " Renounce your self-seeking ends; love all men, all crea- tures, and devote your life to them. You will then be conscious of possessing the joy of the Spirit, and true life, which is eternal, and to you there will be no death." CHAPTER XVIII CONCLUSION THE life of man is a striving after happiness, and that for which he strives, is given to enUghtened man. When we recognize that there is nothing worth having or worth giving but love, we be- come loving — all love, and being so, can fear- lessly follow our own desires, knowing that they are prompted by love. So love becomes the sole law to us. We do what we choose, and so enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God. We are no longer under the law of the animal life ; we have learned the Truth and the Truth has brought us freedom. The more we express love, the more satisfaction we find, and the more love we draw toward us, and the more service others bring toward u$. This is "at- tracting happiness." We have been taught and have painfully learned that we must struggle for all the good we attain. It is not true. The best and highest 190 191 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE comes to us like the growth of a tree, because it is natural and easy, when once we have learned the Law of Love. Evil, in the form of death and suffering, is visible to man only when he takes the laws of his corporeal, animal existence for the law of his three-sided life. Only when he, being a man, re-descends to the level of the beast, does he even see death and suffering. Happiness is to be found in the service of our fellow-creatures, through which we come to be one with the mind of the Universe. It does not depend upon our seeing any success in this serv-^ ice. The effort to remove the cause of the suf- ferings of others and especially to enable them to think rightly, so that they may themselves avoid evil, is, in itself, a joy. Death and suffering are only crimes committed by man against the law of life in himself or in others. For a man who lives according to this law, there is no death and no suffering. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory ? APPENDIX I [APPENDIX I TOLSTOY ON "LIFE" T\yT OST men, Tolstoy says, lead only an ani- -^^ ^ mal life, and among these are always some who try to teach the meaning of life, with- out understanding it themselves. These teachers are of two classes. The first, composed of scien- tific men, he calls " Scribes." These declare that man's life is nothing but his existence be- tween birth and death, and that life proceeds from mechanical forces — ^that is, from forces which we style mechanical for the express pur- pose of distinguishing them from life. It is only in the infancy of a science, when it is as yet vague and indefinite, that it thus pretends to ac- count for all phenomena of life. Astronomy made the attempt when it was known as astrol- ogy; chemistry made it under the name of alchemy; and to-day biology, while occupied with one aspect of life, or with several, claims to em- 195 LIFE, AND 196 LOVE, AND PEACE brace the whole. The other class of false doc- tors Tolstoy calls the " Pharisees." They pro- fess verbally the tenets of the founders of the religions in which they have been educated, but do not comprehend their real meaning and con- sequently content themselves with insisting on creeds and ceremonies. The wars of the Scribes and Pharisees, of false science and false religion, have so obscured the definitions of life laid down ages ago by the great thinkers of mankind, that the Scribes are quite ignorant that the dogmas of the Pharisees have any reasonable foundation at all; and, strange to say, the fact that the doctrines of the great masters of old have so impressed men by their sublimity that they have usually attributed to them a supernatural origin, is enough to make the Scribes reject them. The speculations of Aristotle, Bacon and Comte have appealed to only a small number of students ; they have never been able to gain a hold on the masses, and have thus avoided the exaggerations produced by superstition: and this clear mark of their insig- nificance is admitted as evidence of their truth. As for the teachings of the Brahmins, of Bud- 197 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE dha, of Zoroaster, of Lao-Tse, of Confucius, of Isaiah, and also of Christ, they are taxed with superstition and error, simply because they have completely transformed the lives of millions of men. Turning from the futile strife of Scribes and Pharisees, we should begin our researches with that which alone we know with certainty, and that is the " I " within us. Man's body changes; his states of conscious- ness change; what then is the " I? " Any child can answer when he says, " I like this ; I don't like that." The " I " is that which likes— which loves. It is the relationship of a man's being with the world, that relation which he brings with him from beyond time and space. Life is what I feel in myself, and this life science cannot define. Nay, it is my idea of life which determines what I am to consider as science; and I learn all outside of myself solely through knowledge of my own mind and body. We know, from within, that man lives only for happiness, and his aspiration toward happiness, and the pursuit of it constitute his life. At first he knows the life in himself alone, and hence he LIFE, AND 198 LOVE, AND PEACE imagines that the good which he seeks must be his own individual good. His own life seems the real life, while he regards the life of others as a mere phantom. He soon finds that other men take the same view of the world, and that the life in which he shares is composed of a vast num- ber of individuals, each bent on securing its own welfare, and consequently thwarting and de- stroying others. He sees that for him to contend in such a struggle is almost hopeless, for all man- kind is against him. If he does by chance suc- ceed in carrying out his plans for happiness, he does not even then enjoy the prize he anticipated. The older he grows, the rarer become the pleas- ures; satiety, trouble, and suffering increase; and before him lie old age, infirmity, and death. He wUl go down to the grave, but the world will continue to live. The good of the individual is an imposture, and if it could be obtained it would cease at death. The life of man as an individual seeking his own good, in the midst of an infinite host of like individuals engaged in bringing one another to naught, and being themselves annihilated in 199 L,IFB, AND LOVE, AND PEACE the end, is an evil and an absurdity. It cannot be the true life. Our quandary arises from looking upon this animal life as the real life. The real life is the life outside ourselves; and our own life, which originally appeared to us the one thing of im- portance, is after all a deception. Our real life begins with the waking of our consciousness to perceive that life, lived for self, cannot produce happiness. We feel that there must be some other good. We make an effort to find it, but, failing, we fall back into our old ways. These are the first throes of the birth of the veritable human life. This new life appears only when man re- nounces the welfare of his animal person as his aim. By so doing he fulfills the law of reason, the law which we all feel within, the same univer- sal law which governs the nutrition and reproduc- tion of beast and plant. Our real life is our willing submission to this law, and not, as false science would have us hold, the involuntary sub- jection of our bodies to the laws of physical ex- istence. Self-renunciation is as natural to man LIFE, AND 200 LOVE, AND PEACE as it is natural for birds to use wings instead of feet; it is not a meritorious or heroic act; it is simply necessary to genuine human life. This new human life exhibits itself in our animal ex- istence, just as animal life does in matter. Mat- ter is the instrument of animal life, not an obstacle to it ; and so our animal life is the instru- ment of our higher human life and should con- form to its requirements. Life, then, is the activity of the animal man in submission to the law of reason. Reason shows man that happiness cannot be obtained by a selfish life, and leaves open for him only one outlet, which is love. Love is the only legitimate manifestation of life. It has an activity which has for its object the good of others. When it makes its appearance, the meaningless strife of the animal life ceases. Real love is not the preference of certain per- sons whose presence gives one pleasure. This, which is ordinarily called love, is only a wild stalk on which true love may be grafted, and true love does not become possible until man has given up the pursuit of his own welfare. Then at last all the juices of life come to nourish the 201 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE noble graft, while the trunk of the old tree, the animal man, pours into it its entire vigor. Love is the preference which we accord to other beings over ourselves. It is not a burst of passion, ob- scuring the reason; on the contrary, no other state of the soul is so rational and luminous, so calm and joyous; it is the natural condition of children and of the wise. Active love is attainable only for him who does not seek his happiness in his individual life and who also gives free play to his feeling of good-will toward others. His well-being de- pends upon love as that of a plant depends on light. He does not ask what he should do, but he gives himself up to that love which is within his reach. He, who in this way loves, alone possesses life. Such self-renunciation lifts him from animal existence above the limitations of time and space, which are incompatible with the idea of real hfe. To attain to real life, man must trust himself to his wings. It is said that in his extreme old age, St. John the apostle had the habit of repeating continu- ally the words, ** Brethren, love one another." LIFE, AND 202 LOVE, AND PEACE His animal life was nearly gone, absorbed in a new being, for which the flesh was already too narrow. For the man who measures his life by the growth of his universal love, the disappear- ance of the limitations of time and space at death is only the mark of a higher degree of Ught. My brother, who is dead, acts upon me now more strongly than he did in life; he penetrates my being, and lifts me up toward him. How can I say that he is dead? Men who have re- nounced their individual happiness never doubt their immortality. Christ knew that he would continue to live after his death, because he had already entered into the true life which cannot cease. He lived even then in the rays of that other center of life toward which he was advancing, and he saw them reflected on those who stood around him. And this every man beholds who renounces his own good; he passes in this Hfe into a new relation with the world, for which relation there is no death; on one side he sees the new light, on the other he sees refracted through himself its action 20S LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE on his fellows; and this experience gives him an immovable faith m the immortality and eternal growth of life. Faith in immortality cannot be received from another; you cannot convince yourself of it by argument. To have this faith you must feel im- mortality; you must establish with the world in the present Ufe the new relation of love, which the world is no longer wide enough to contain. The foregoing sketch gives a glimpse of Count Tolstoy's philosophy of life, sufficient to show his idea of the failure of ordinary life, of the necessity, in the course of nature, of a loving- self-renunciation, and of the resulting growth in love and the realization of immortahty on earth. Count Tolstoy's door to the mysteries is simply active love for mankind. According to him, pre-occupation in working for the happiness of others has a reflex action in the depth of our being, which makes us feel eternal Ufe. It is this intensely practical side of his mysticism which preserves its equilibrium. Other mystics have made much of love, but it has almost al- LIFE, AND 204 LOVE, AND PEACE ways been an internal love of the Deity discour- aging action and giving free scope to a diseased imagination. We are asked to test the theory in our own ex- perience, and this it is possible for each of us to do, for love is to a certain extent at every one's command. Ruysbroeck, the German mystic, says: "Everything depends on will. A man must will right, strongly. Will to have humility and love, and they are thine " ( Vaughan, vol. I., p. 32). This is entirely consistent with the teaching of Christ, for he says, "A new com- mandment give I unto you, that ye love one another." Ernest Howaed Ceosby. APPENDIX II THE CONTROL OF CHILDREN WE have always with us that larger part of the race ready to accept the teachings of love, and to carry them out in their own lives — the children, who are always beholding the face of our Father which is in Heaven. Of such as these is the Kingdom of Heaven, not because they are better than we, except in so far as they have not yet learned to restrain their love nor to suppress the expression of it. They are ready to pour out their natural undeveloped love upon anyone who will receive it: in a most beautiful sense they are the free lovers. In teaching, and especially in controlling them, we may see for ourselves and show to them the Law of Love in action. This has not been our way in the past. It is only lately that we have learned that the best way of governing our wives is not " with a stick not thicker than our thumbs," and we have not yet learned that similar methods are not the best for children. We think that when 205 LIFE, AND 206 LOVE, AND PEACE a man strikes his wife, he is probably drunk, but that when he strikes his child he is probably doing his " duty." We have such an ugly concept of that word that we naturally employ ugly methods of performing it. We think that we have abolished slavery in these United States, and it is true that we have abolished the chattel slavery of the black man; but with a large part of our population we still have a very grievous form of slavery. What is the essence of slavery? Is it not first that the slave is not allowed to own and to keep property of his own ; that his earnings are confis- cated by the master who has authority over him ; and second, that instant and unreasoning obedi- ence is required? Now is not that exactly the con- dition of almost all of our children? Do not we assume that whatever belongs to them, or what- ever they earn, belongs to us? — and must be ad- ministered by us in the way we think wise ? Even the five dollars that Grandpa gives the children at Christmas time is put in the bank for them, which they do not want done, to spend in the fu- ture for something they do not want. When 20r LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE they talk, they are told to keep quiet; when they play, to stop that noise ; and they are expected to obey at once. Sometimes they are reproved, and often punished, if they even ask why they are to stop. And if they do not obey they are pun- ished with stripes or confinement. Are not these the essentials of slavery? And how many of us are there that do not punish our children? The little ones who can neither resist nor understand are beaten; because you and I seem to have an idea that they are full of sin and that we must purify them. We presume that we can make the innocent children good by beating them. Most of the oppression that is done under the sun comes from the idea that it is our duty or our privilege to make somebody else good. Children are usually governed mainly for the good of their elders and not for their own. " There is no instance in history," says Buckle, " where a class possessing power has not used it for its own benefit," and the attitude of adults toward children is daily a fresh confirmation of the statement. This selfish plan of education evolved the iniquitous maxim that "Children LIFE, AND 208 LOVE, AND PEACE should be seen and not heard." Children have as good a right to be heard as we have. It is natural that they should make a noise, and much more necessary than that we should make music. If we do not want to hear them, we might go elsewhere ; but it is easier to check them, and thus fault-find- ing becomes a habit. "Mary," said a mother, " go see what Johnny is doing, and tell him to stop." Who gave us the right to tell the child to stop? If he is doing right, he is entitled to go on doing it ; if he is doing wrong, he is equally entitled to suffer the consequences, or at least to know what the consequences are, not to have his little experi- ment nipped in the bud with " stop." Of course, we may ask him to stop, as I may ask a kindness of you: and if his activities result in an attack upon others, then we may stop him, in order to preserve equal freedom, the only proper function of any governor. Who gives us the right to say to a child, " Thou shalt not," or " Don't do that? " When we pro- hibit children, even by force of mind, from doing various acts, we teach them a bad lesson. We are 209 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE prone to make mistakes and children are prone to do likewise, but prohibitions and penalties cannot make us different. If anybody finds an abuse, even if it is clear that it sprang from a prohibi- tion, the first thing proposed is, "Be it enacted, etc." The citizen of New York himself, in his ordinary daily walk and conversation is regulated by about 21,600 laws, not to speak of number- less local ordinances, yet he does not become perfect. We sometimes say that our children are in- debted to us for bringing them into the world, and for the care and affection we lavish upon them, and that they should therefore obey ! But a debt cannot be contracted without some consent on the part of the debtor, and we cannot claim credit for what we do at our own desire without the request or consent of another. As to the affection, we keep cats and dogs and care for them for our own pleasure, without ex- pecting any return ; surely a child is a much better pet than a cat. We may wisely advise children, not command them: but at the same time we must use defer- LIFE, AND 210 LOVE, AND PEACE ence in giving the advice, and when we remember what kind of advice we got from our parents, we shall be a little careful how we do it. We should not impose either our stronger arms or our stronger wills on our children: we must allow them to grow up in the free air and sunlight. It is surprising even to those who follow this plan, how early the child begins to assert its liberty and to reap the benefits of experience. We may point out where they seem to us wise or foolish ; the child early finds out for itself and learns by experience. "No consecrated absurdity," says Michelet, "could have stood its ground if the man had not silenced the objections of the child." The child is always trying to find out, and therefore asks endless and sometimes difficult questions, which are too often met with, " You will know when you are older," or even " Don't bother me." We use half of the child life to teach it not to ask questions, and the other half to teach it to ask questions. The question that the child could properly an- swer for itself should be left to it to answer: the 211 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE question that puzzles us should be looked up, in company with the child if possible. But to try to cover our own ignorance by evasive answers is a fatal mistake and seldom deceives the child; it generally undermines that respect upon which we must depend for our influence with the child. Education may begin before the baby is able to talk or even understand words : in its little hab- its of cleanliness, in going to sleep without being rocked or carried up and down, and so on. We say, "Of course we must make the chil- dren mind. Of course we must control the chil- dren " ; and consequently, although it may not be right, although we may not be able to defend it on moral grounds, that we may force them to obey. Whenever a man is doing anything that he feels is wrong, he defends it either on the ground that it is his duty, or that it is commanded in the Bible. Now that is a wonderful book, the accumulated wisdom of the ages, but it is a book into which one can read almost anything one wants to read out of it. The part we rely upon as our authority for beating the children, just as our forefathers relied on the text about Ham as LIFE, AND 212 LOVE, AND PEACE an excuse for slavery, is not, as is generally sup- posed, " Spare the rod and spoil the child," which is not in the Bible, but '' He that spareth the rod hateth his son." Solomon had an ample oppor- tunity for experience; 600 wives and 300 mis- tresses, and probably a family in proportion, and perhaps in educating them in a wholesale way he had not time to sit with each little one on his knee and explain to him the wisest thing to do; but shouted out rather, " I will thrash you all if you do that," and " You will be whipped if you do not do this." But the injunction of Paul is, " Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath." In the old " schools " where children were " got " up, the real ruler was an ebony one. If anyone left undone what he ought to have done, the ruler rapped his knuckles to teach him that the ways of transgressors are harder than their knuckles. There can be only* two reasons for whipping, one is that we are angry or nervous, and the other is that our fathers whipped us and their fathers whipped them, and so on back. Probably, if we are going to continue to lay commands upon 213 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE others, these co^mmands will still have to be backed up by a strong right arm. Startling as it may seem to say it, we have no right to punish children at all. They may be doing wrong. If they do the wrong to us, we are entitled to resist it and prevent it, if we wish to do so, but not to take revenge for it by violence. If children do need violence, they will get plenty of it from their playfellows, where it does not make them feel that they are helpless victims, " Send your son to college," said Emerson, " the boys will educate him." The other boys are on the same plane as he is, and he will not resent the vio- lence which necessarily comes, and to which he can offer resistance. Those who are still mere animals can teach their children in the animal way. A cat or a bear cuffs its young when they make mistakes. A philosopher was teaching tricks to his dog, and when the little animal refused to do what was required he said, '' Stupid beast; bad dog." Then it occurred to him that he should have said, " Stupid man; bad teacher." For the dog had a certain amount of intelligence and certain LIFE, AND 214, LOVE, AND PEACE motives. If he could not make the animal under- stand what was wanted and so appeal to its mo- tives (fear, appetite, love of approbation, etc.), it was his own stupidity and his own incompe- tence. So it is with children. We have practically abolished the old-time horse-breaking. I have helped at horse-breaking in the West. You throw a rope around a horse's neck and tie it around a post and snub him up tight to it, and put into his mouth a cruel " Mexi- can bit " and then fasten the end of a rope to a fence post and give the animal a blow with a quirt whip to start him off; then jump on an- other horse and chase him until, wild with the pain of the bit and terrified by the thing trailing be- hind him, he is almost ready to fall; then you throw the rope around his neck again, and tie him to the post once more ; force a saddle on his back, cinch it up by main strength, and, armed with spurs, jump on his back and ride him until he actually does fall with exhaustion. Then the horse is broken ; broken in that you have made him understand that you are the stronger animal, and that if you can get on his back you can ride. 215 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE Instead of that, we now do what is called horse training. The little colt is taught to follow you around the yard. After a time he allows you to lean upon him; he becomes accustomed to the weight of an arm and after a while to a leg. It is not a long step to put a saddle on him, and after that, even in a month, the first thing you know the colt is permitting and even enjoying your rid- ing him. That is the difference between training and breaking ; and yet some people say it is necessary to break a child's will. You might as well break its back; the injury to the child would be less. But I suppose that if I were given sixty horses to break in a week, or sixty children, as in a school class, I would be reduced to the rough and ready methods of horse- and child-breaking. The great kindergartner is the mother. Froe- bel in fact, observed and formulated the methods of the mother and applied these in the class-room. The most ignorant and uneducated mother who plays with her children and loves them, is a more efficient teacher than the veiy best kindergart- ner. We shall learn eventually that we should LIFE, AND 216 LOVE, AND PEACE not make our children obey; that our children should do what we wish only because they love us, or because what we wish is right; otherwise not. This plan of making the children obey by beat- ing is brutal at the best; we are a little ashamed of it ourselves. The mother doesn't do it; she says, " If you don't stop, I will tell your father and he will whip you." Father does the whip- ping because mother says so. That is the way we deputize our sins. You foreclose the mort- gage on the widow for me, and I will rob the orphan for you, and when the widow comes in distress to me I say, " I have put it entirely in the hands of my attorney," and when she goes to the attorney he says, " I carry out the instruc- tions of my client," and between us we let her fall to the ground. We can no more make the child good by force of our own or of our deputies than we can by force make the man prudent or moral. For thousands of years, the censors, like Comstock, Gerry, Bergh & Co., have been guarding, not their own morals (about which they are never 217 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE uneasy), but somebody's else, from contagion. Suppression is not education nor can it develop strength of character. A woman who has been a bitter sufferer from her husband's drunkenness, says, " Shall I not prohibit the use of liquor to my boy? " Better to explain fully the evil consequences of the wrong use of spirits, and then when you have made it clear, if he insists, he must learn for him- self, with one besides to help him. This is all we have any right to do. The poor mother de- clares she never could run the risk — Shaving more faith in the power of her poor little prohibition than she has in Nature's help for the boy. Listen to us in church; how beautifully we prate about 'Not a sparrow falleth," yet in the case of our children it has come to be looked upon as almost criminal carelessness to trust that great protect- ing love in even an unimportant detail. We shadow our children every minute with a more or less ignorant and uninterested servant. These we may depend upon to do always the right thing— Divine principle we may not — Oh, we of little faith I Or else we make for ourselves a LIFE, AND 218 LOVE, AND PEACE dreadful burden of governing our children in- stead of the joy it should be; bringing them up " by hand " like poor little Pip. It is quite natural that our children should do very little thinking. How few of us ever really think ! Certain rules and conventions, some good and some bad, govern our conduct. They have been handed down from past generations, and although they have mostly lost their usefulness, and even their reason for existence, we still re- tain them. It is as if a full-grown man should try to make his swaddling clothes do in place of man's garments. " But are we not to save children from the consequences of their folly? " We have no more rights with them than we have with grown people. If we see a friend going out without his overcoat we may not put it on by force, even though the consequences of his imprudence might be pneu- monia ; but if we see him blindly walk in front of the express train we pull him violently out of danger, trusting to his sense to justify us in the assault. So we guard our children from irre- mediable harm. 219 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE It may be that,necessity is supreme anywhere; if we see a grown person ignorantly or hastily running into serious danger, we do not stop to think of rights — we pull him out. But many of the fatal risks that we seek to avoid by forbidding, are created by that same forbidding. The children must not play with razors! But two children at least grew up with razors always on the bureau. As soon as they were old enough to reach them they were shown how razors would cut even a sheet of paper held edgewise and it was explained that to handle them was dangerous — those children, with the saving timidity of the young, did not even wish to touch them. You cannot always be there to protect the child. If you save it by force from its small pains, it will not know enough later to avoid the greater ones. If a child is taught that firearms are dan- gerous, it will not want to play with them, nor climb up to get the pistol that you prudently and stupidly put upon a shelf. You cannot forever be nurse or guardian to your child. You cannot forever work beside it, LIFE, AND 220 LOVE, AND PEACE and make it do this thing and that thing or the other. Before long it will be away from you a good deal of the time; before long it will have to make its own decisions, and it has to put into effect that which it has learned from its experience. We must therefore let it get the ex- perience. For, after all, the nature of things is a school and the most of what we call education to-day seems to be a well-meant but mistaken attempt to take the child away from this natural school, and prevent it from getting experience — substituting our set of rules or others' rules for that independent education by the ordinary things of life that make up the real education of the child. To guide is one thing and to control is another. One teaches — the other deprives of the lesson. Perhaps there must be laws in the home as long as there must be laws in the state. We do not yet know how well we would get along without those laws, as we have never tried. Clarence Darrow's " Resist not Evil " tries to show how this would work out. The strongest law is pub- lic sentiment, without which other laws are futile. I 221 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE We must use our minds, to decide what are the natural consequences of anything that is done, and then lovingly to leave the child to that inex- orable logic of events. Is it, child-like, unwilling to wash its hands? That is not wicked; but as Moses knew, it is a sanitary thing to wash the hands before eating, and the customs of civilized society require scrupulously clean hands at meals, so though the child does not have to wash them, it must not expect to be received at table with the others unless it does. People who live simply, like the farmers, un- derstand that when children are unwilling to assist in the family duties, they forfeit the right to the support and advantages of the family: so the country boy who does not want to do his chores, leaves home. Any child can understand that, and can see the reasonableness of it, when an errand is to be done. To be a member of a family or of a community involves responsibilities, the proper results of which are a part of the transaction, and the child, like the man, must be left to take the whole of his part. If he buys something and is then un- LIFE, AND 222 LOVE, AND PEACE willing to pay for it, it is poor education for us to step in and pay the debt. Rather allow the consequence, in the form of the loss of the article or the stoppage of the allowance, or saving the cost of some indulgence, to fall where it ought to fall. Put the suffering where it belongs be- cause you love the sufferer. We must not be misled by the precepts of non- resistance. To submit to the whims or the pas- sions of a peevish child may often do it an injury. If we turn the other cheek to the smiter it is only as an expression of love: the kindest thing to him may be to hit him: it is easy to make a fetich of what was intended only as a sign of feeling. Resistance to the Roman autocracy in Jesus' day was even less hopeful than resistance to Rus- sian autocracy in our day and the only hope lay in passivity. The same enthusiasm, energy and devotion that is spent in terrorism, might possibly have been better spent in some other way without arousing the fears and consequent antagonism of the indifferent but influential Russian middle class. 223 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE But the moving principle is the love. As the fable says : " My dog tried to bite me. I liked the dog, so I kicked him lovingly in the jaw. He under- stood that argument. " My grocer tried to cheat me. I liked the grocer. I did not kick him in the jaw, but I told him lovingly that I would not deal with him again. He understood that argument. " My baby tried to slap me. I liked the baby, but I did not kick her in the jaw or even cease to play with her. I kissed her lovingly on her cheek. She understood that argument." So we are not entitled to check the child at our whim, nor to assume that he will naturally do wrong "because his nature is depraved," that is, because what he does is not what we would do. To tell a child the truth — ^to love it unfailingly — to be willing that it should learn by its own ex- perience, are cures adapted to every case, — which is not true of the slipper cure. Of course if we are going to spank our children we can only cor- rect the most glaring faults, for if we whipped LIFE, AND 224 LOVE, AND PEACE them for every little thing we would probably wear ourselves out or kill the child. It is not true that the child's nature is prone to evil. It is prone to good, just as the plant is prone to healthy growth. It is only the evil surroundings and the restraint that warps na- ture in the child and in the tree. Under the in- numerable restraints that we have imposed, we have nothing like peace and never have had: we might now try the other plan. Jesus did not think that unless compelled to do what the parent believes is right and best, the child would do the wrong thing. He said, "except ye become as little children ye can in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven." The child loves — until we impart to it our standard, viz., that it must prey upon its fellows and that it cannot afford to love. Says someone: "Children are generally un- truthful, greedy and passionate: it is very easy to see the evil in them." Yes, very easy; especially after we have put it there. A child is passionate and greedy because it has not yet learned self-restraint; and it is untruth- 225 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE ful because it has not yet learned the difference in kind, or in effect, between truth and untruth. It needs experience to distinguish between the impression of the mind and the impression of the senses, and we often judge our little brethren to be liars when they are only poets. Every imaginative child relates in sober faith lots of things that could not possibly be true. The late Rev, Dr. John Hall used to tell how when he was a little boy he came running in to his mother full of excitement. " Oh, Mamma," he cried, " the cow has got into the potato field and has grubbed up bushels and bushels of potatoes and they are lying all over the ground." He was a good little boy and his mother simply said, " Johnny, take that basket over there and bring it in full of those potatoes." After a long and careful search the child re- turned shamefaced to his mother, with just one little potato — and she, wise woman, said never a word. The boy and the man never forgot that lesson. APPENDIX III AN ATTEMPT AT PRACTICE THERE is a remarkable Association of Com- munists living at Ingleside, Illinois, known as the " Spirit Fruit Conmaunity," the " Fruit of the Spirit " being Love. They pubUsh a paper which takes no advertisements and for which they will accept no pay. Their views on marriage, like their practice, has been absurdly misstated by a sensational press. They have prospered since 1896 without any help except from their own associates, and have just completed with their own hands, a large concrete house on their farm, both men and women working alike: they never lock their doors and do not demand debts. The statement of their leader shows a new and extreme phase of non-resistance put into success- ful practice ; though it would seem that even par- tial withdrawal from the turmoil of the world is not the best way to help the world. Their doc- trine is substantially as follows: 227 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE NON-RESISTANCE ALONE UNITES MANKIND * In the constitution of man there is a desire that some time he shall be at one with his fellow man. I do not say that this hope is in every man at present, but it is universal with those who are most highly developed. The cause of it is the instinct of self -protection. Man passes through all stages of unf oldment. Evolution is from one stage or plane to another. These stages are linked together; but they are only stages, because man does not come into pos- session of all his faculties at once. Man begins at the lowest stage of his nature. The elemental man knows but little of his own nature for he is not alive in it, but he gradually becomes con- scious of complete manhood and expresses it. Before a man reasons and arrives at con- clusions he knows nothing of thought: in the same way, as long as he senses no desire for united interests with another, he knows nothing of what we call love. After the man has become conscious of his reason, he sees that he can get more good by working in harmony with his fellows than by op- LIFE, AND 228 LOVE, AND PEACE posing them. Therefore, he hopes the hatred which he sees between men will somehow be removed. There is, however, another, deeper cause of the longing for harmony, which cannot be demon- strated on a material basis. Yet it is the primary cause of all desire to be at peace with humanity. The nature of man is ONE as water is ONE. The tendency is always to unite. Men think from external appearance that only some persons and things belong to them, and that many are separate from them, but in his inner nature man is not divided and never was divided. It is this nature which longs for unity with itself wherever it may be: this is the real cause for the hope of perfection that we feel; it is also the assurance that it will be realized ; for if man's desire for the solidarity of the race were founded only on the selfish desire to better his o^n condition, it would defeat its own object, as all selfish desires of man defeat their own objects. Since there is a cause in the nature of man for the desire for unity with his fellows, there must be a cause for his opposi- tion to his fellowsr QQQ LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE In order to imvestigate man, take that part of man to which we are nearest. To examine the nature of the water of the Atlantic Ocean, a single drop will be sufficient. So let us study this great Man who covers the entire earth, by- looking at his nature as it acts in ourselves. Our desire is to find what there is in us that makes us quarrel or oppose one another. My thought is, that it is all caused by an ele- ment in our constitution called Self -Will, This will makes us seek to follow our desires regard- less of the result to others: it cannot dwell with another Will without division or dissension. From that stage where his physical appetite desired the flesh of his fellow-man there has been but one cause for one man's killing another. This cause is the Self -Will — the desire to have our own way. There are two wills and these two wills clash and since both cannot have their own way, one kills the other or forces the will of the other into subjection. Nations only fight and kill because they cannot agi-ee as to what they want. Did the one nation ask the will of the other and LIFE, AND 230 LOVE, AND PEACE obey it, there would be no killing. Animals are killed for their carcasses, but man is killed be- cause he has a will which is supposed to be a menace to other wills that differ from him. All persecutions, all the torture inflicted during the dark ages, all the blood that was ever shed, was because of a will to do or to believe or to get others to believe that which other wills do not think right or best for their own interests. It was a will on both sides ; the one whose blood was shed set his will against the will of the ruling order. Had either been willing to allow others to have their will carried out, had they not each put forth a will, there had been no bloodshed or torture. Is it not right to have a will? Where would we have been if our ancestors had not asserted their wills? Should we sit down in resignation and be ^uled in a way which seems unjust to us and not resent it and try to overthrow the injustice? I am not saying that things as they have been, have not been right : I do not say what you even now shall do when you are opposed and your 231 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE so-called "rights''' are interfered with. It is my opinion that you will resent it. I do not con- demn you for it: I am able simply to tell you this: you will never Uve in unity with one another until you cease to have a will as to what others do, or what you shall do when they will you to do a certain thing. I do not say that the race has been unified, nor do I say that it is ready even now to be unified and be at peace. But I say that when it finaUy is unified it will be NON-RESIST- ANCE or willessness that will do it. A PERSONAL SOLUTION For my part the problem is solved. I can have just as much peace with anyone as I enjoy having. Will, which in other persons opposes other wills, does not disturb me. I let every other person do as he pleases. If he desire any action on my part, it shall be done at his request. I have confidence in the unity of the human Life which dwells in all, that It knows Its own busi- ness and will carry out Its own law. The majority of people are in bondage to that LIFE, AND 232 LOVE, AND PEACE which they think is right or just. To be loyal to this they do contrary to what others will, con- cerning them. This is a form of slavery which the free human being will be dehvered from. I shall seem egotistical to some by referring to my own experience so much, but I only know that which I experience, therefore I must refer to it. I can do what seems to me to be erroneous in action, and I will do it, rather than oppose the will of another. The Life which now dominates me is inclined to be non-resistant toward other human wills. If they have a will concerning a thing, I do not protest against it. " Yes," you say, "this is all right insofar as it does not in- trude on your right or the right of others." Your definition of individualism is that each one has a right to do what he desires so long as it does not impose on the rights of others. Who ever lived that did not believe and practice this? The most distinguished Police Commissioner we have had in the United States said once in conversation, " Liberty is in doing whatever the law permits." ^1 233 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE "Ah," said his Jewish interlocutor, "the people of Russia have that kind of liberty." The king says his rights are to direct his sub- jects and receive their obedience and service. You infringe on his " rights " when you do as you desire. The church says you can do as you choose so long as you do not infringe on the rights of others: you must not swear, for it sets a bad example; you must not work on Sunday for the same reason. You must not talk against its teachings or hold views contrary thereto, be- cause you have a bad influence over others. The State guards your morals by protecting others from your encroachment on their rights. You must not better your condition at the dis- advantage of your neighbor ; you must not carry out your desire to make love to young girls al- though they are willing, nor are you allowed to marry all the older ones who are willing to marry you. This the State says is not right: the State says so because people say so. If you are only to do that which intrudes on no " rights " that any other person claims, you will be without any great actions. LIFE, AND 234 LOVE, AND PEACE So long as there are " Rights," which anyone claims — •" Rights of belief," " Rights of posses- sion," " Rights of action," just so long will there be contention among men : the will of man is the author of all supposed rights. Your Anarchism and Socialism, if they undertake to interpret where one man's rights end and the other man's begin, will bring the same results as any govern- ment, whether despotic or liberal. Has a big stone the right to outweigh a little stone which is placed on the other side of the balance? Has the magnet a right to attract and hold the piece of steel? It does it, and that is all there is to it: there is no need of laws or legisla- tion about it. You cannot add ta it or take any- thing away by making laws which you say shall rule the conduct of the stone or magnet. I need no will or claim no rights: only that which I can draw to me is mine. If I draw the anger of another man, then that is my right: if I can, by being what I am, make him desire to work with me, and go the way I am pleased to go, that is my right. It is the right of any man to be the monarch of the whole world and have them 235 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE all serve him if he makes them want to serve him. There is no place where one man's right begins and another one's right ceases. You have a right to what you get and no more. Life has in it the power to do right in every action. This power to do right is inherent in Life itself, and not only will Life do the right thing, but it is impossible for it to do the wrong thing. The purpose of a contract is to force Life to do that which it might not care to do. All con- tracts which bind the actions of persons in the future are forms of slavery. We need no con- tract with Life that it make the grain grow that we plant in the ground : no contract is needed to cause water to seek its level. Contracts give evidence that we have no faith in Life and in man who is an expression of Life. The law of demand and supply make the con- tract useless: that which is demanded by Na- ture is supphed by Nature. Contracts are only necessary where Nature is not allowed to act. You have no more right to bind the life which shall be in you to-morrow by making a contract LIFE, AND 236 LOVE, AND PEACE for it, than you have the right to make a contract for the life that shall be in you in ten years or fifty years, or to contract for the same Life which shall be in your children or your chil- dren's children. All Life is spontaneous and must be given the chance to act according to its environments which surround it at the time of action. When peace between man and man is realized contracts will have no place. You need no will to get all that is yours. You can get no action of Life toward you by willing it to come to you — ^what would you care for a love, or any of its many forms of expression, if you got it only because you had a "right" to it or forced it by your will. The Will never sets in motion any Construc- tive life. The Will destroys. The claims of rights snuif out the light and quench all the fires in the human heart which tend to unify two or more persons. You dislike to be in the presence of anyone who asserts these rights of his. This is the cause of the breaking of the mar- riage tie. Self -Will and Rights enter, and the 237 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE Love that united the two is gone. Wife, how do you feel when your husband asserts his right to your love or your service for him, as you used to love and serve him when he claimed no rights? How do you feel when he wills that you shall be his loyal wife and yield to his desires? Hus- band, how do you feel when your wife claims a right to all your smiles and caresses as she once received them when you were free from rights? Do you, both of you, wife and husband, in the presence of this element of human Will feel that there is a unit or that it is likely that there will be one? That which holds good with man and woman holds good with the race. Non-resistance be- tween man and wife will solve the problem and unify them. Each has the unqualified right to just so much of everything the other possesses as they at the time can draw. When man conquers this element called Will in himself and subdues it, he does not lose his will power and become a weak nothing pushed about by other wills — no, just the opposite; he has be- come the Master of Will and when Will comes LIFE, AND 238 LOVE, AND PEACE into action and is set against him, it meets its master and loses its power and desire to dictate to him. Alexander the Great overcame all other men by force, then he sighed for new worlds to con- quer and ended by killing himself by over-in- dulgence. One there was who overcame the world, in that he subdued this personal Will that desires to rule and claim rights, and made it an obedient servant. Which one say you conquered the world and found PEACE? Inventions, laws, business creeds, war, col- leges and modern civilization, whether in the form of despotic, democratic or socialistic gov- ernment or rule of conduct between man and man, — these can never unite the race. You may get them to agree as to what God is or is not, they may all agree on the code of morals. All this will not take the enmity to his neighbor out of the heart of man. All these things over which man quarrels are simply the symptoms of the disease of hate. A high temperature is not the disease of 239 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE typhoid fever; sore on the skin is not the dis- ease called smallpox, they are simply the results. They are symptoms: man's strife over territory, religion, traffic, truth, and even science is not the cause of strife. It is a symptom which shows he has strife in him. You may shift the expression of this internal disease entirely away from ownership of land or property, away from all religious questions, away from all business dealings and even away from any particular kind of government. If you could unite all people on all these things about which they have fought, you would not make peace or any part of it: the trouble does not arise in these external things. Two men engage in business as partners. They believe in the same religion; politically they see things alike ; they are at one in all things which make up the ordinary life. One meets a woman and falls in love, becomes engaged and marries her. The other one meets her after the wedding and he also falls in love and claims the same right to receive all the affection he can draw from her, just as did the first one. Num- LIFE, AND 240 LOVE, AND PEACE ber one hears of it, he gets his gun and is as deadly an enemy to his friend on all other sub- jects that made up their former Ufe, as ever one king was an enemy to another. What is the cause? Right! A Will to have things a cer tain way. Now suppose he had conquered his will and be- come at Peace with the Whole of Life in others as well as in himself. Suppose he knew that Life was a Unit and therefore It would not rob It- self or do wrong to Itself in any way. (None will ever discard their separate wills or claim of " rights " until they know that Life is a Unit, and this they cannot know until they are actuated consciously by this Life which is a Unit.) This man meets the woman and enjoys her affection. He receives it as a gift to him at the time. He sees no need to procure a contract to keep others away or to enforce his future rights. If there is love there to-morrow, well and good ; he knows it will come to him. If on the other hand, she has something for another, he knows he has no right to it, and will feel no resentment. Those who talk Freedom know not the first 4 241 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE principles of Freedom. Freedom does not mean for you to be allowed to do as you please or will to do it. Freedom means for you to be able to let others do as they will do and for you not to be torn by passions and desires which are at vari- ance with things as they are. No man is free until he is his own master in every respect. Man's discord with man does not consist in the things in which he differs as to the external ar- rangement of things, but in the fact that each one is a slave to his own will and claims a right at all to anything. The problem is solved when you conquer your own will and claim no right, except that which your very existence brings to you each moment. To cease to exert the Self-will over others and try to oppose their conduct or claim any right for yourself does not mean weakness, but strength; and when you have conquered your own will you are the Master of Will in others without conflict with them. Non-resistance will do it. Not the kind practiced in Russia which makes them refuse to LIFE, AND 242 LOVE, AND PEACE pay tax or to go to war; that might better be called stubbornness. The Spirit of non-resist- ance is the thing that alone can make peace. This spirit is a part of the nature of man. He comes into it in time just as the girl comes into woman- hood or a boy into manhood. This Spirit brings the consciousness and the conviction that Life is a Unit ; that Life has a purpose ; that this some- thing that has come forth at the culmination of the physical creation has a purpose and is gov- erned by good laws; that it is not against itself. We are then possessed by a faith in it and a per- fect willingness that it should act as it would. We no longer want to force it or guide it right. We have become IT and IT has become us, and thus we feel that we need not plan for it or exe- cute the plans. If we see this life in expression in another one in whom it has not yet placed the non-resistant element or spirit, we see that it is reasonable that we should not contend with this expression. We are glad to let him have his way and learn his lessons, we did the same. Peace is ours. Non-resistance ushered it in for us. AT PEACE WITH ALL THE WORLD B APPENDIX IV A NEW MOVEMENT FAY MILLS, the revivalist of Los An- • geles, is forming a Fellowship Organiza- tion. Whether this becomes a great power or not, the attempt from another source to put Love into practical operation in the widest field is at least significant. Though we may not all agree on the details of the practical program, we can agree on the unifying principles which Mr. Mills states as follows: The Fellowship Revelation does not concern itself with questions of the making of the world nor with speculations as to the unpenetrated future. But it does claim to present a sane, scientific, comprehensive philosophy, a simple, practicable and satisfactory rule of life, an ennerving, in- spiring, all-embracing gospel and a program that would remove a large proportion, if not all, of our apparent social and individual ills and 343 244 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE cause the reign of reason, love and joy to prevail everywhere, for all people. It is a revelation in two senses. First, the rule of life came simultaneously to two waiting souls from that depth or height of the enlarged consciousness where the still, small voice speaks with its clear, unmistakable, im- perative mandate to the willing ear. This simple rule of trust and love has been tested by reason, by the heart and by personal and collective practice, and in no respect has been found wanting, and I now definitely and irenic- ally make the claim that the practice of this rule, together with the comprehension of the unity philosophy, will introduce any soul to a profound, stimulating, joy-bringing gospel and the perfect solution of all practical problems, whether of the individual or of any form of society. Surely this may well be accounted such a reve- lation as the human race most needs, and while the suggestions of this comprehensive rule will be more fully developed later in this essay and in other writings, I mention it now as the very LIFE, AND 245 LOVE, AND PEACE heart of the grea^ revelation of this present hour. One may fail to adopt the entire program, but if he gives himself to live by this rule, he will be possessed by that great Spirit which will lead him into all truth and to a satisfactory life. Here, then, are the seven syllables of this great glad word to the human race: I. The Scientific Basis or Fellowship. For uncounted ages science and religion have been supposed to be at war, and never more strenuously than in the nineteenth century, when modern science was fully born. Because the first serious, unprejudiced, wide- spread investigation of the facts of the universe seemed to indicate the overturning of the He- brew cosmogony and cosmology, many devout people cried out in genuine alarm and feared the destruction of their faith, but when modern science had patiently completed a portion of her work by furnishing the world the first verified and classified set of facts concerning the pro- cesses observed in the making of the universe, then three great generalizations were found to £46 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE grow naturally from the reasonable inferences drawn from the new knowledge. The first generalization was that of The Reign of Law, Order, the Reliability of Na- ture. The world of a hundred years ago was a wonder- world, and Christian scholars regarded it as interesting and significant just in propor- tion as they could prove the violation, abroga- tion and transcendence of natural law. With the destruction of the idea of miracle, in the old sense of disregard for law, the foundations of the old faiths seemed to rock and the structure of religion to be about to fall. The world, in the light of science, has become a so much more wondrous world that enlightened men now see that the inviolability of law is the great corner- stone of a rational faith. What those of old discerned in the wisdom and character of the Spiritual Father, is now perceived to be charac- teristic of the laws of the Nature Mother, and we know the laws of Nature are reliable and fully to be trusted, never to be transcended except as we understand them better and discern the higher laws which are still beyond our com- LIFE, AND 247 LOVE, AND PEACE prehension. This great fact of the reliabil- ity of Nature and the uniformity of law af- fords the basis for a perfect and illimitable trust. The second scientific generalization is Evolu- tion as the unvarying method of the cosmic pro- cess, and inferentially, growth, development, progress. For, while I am well aware that the scientific hypothesis of evolution does not con- cern itself with Purpose, but only with the pro- cesses of the making of the worlds, it is also true that it is packed full of tendency, and even Ha^ckel says that this tendency has uniformly manifested itself as mehoration. The merest tyro in science, as well as the most learned in- vestigator, testifies that the whole trend of the cosmic process has been toward the production of finer and more intelligent and intelligible forces and forms. This great fact of universal melioration af- fords a solid standing ground for a universal confidence. The third and most important of the scientific generaUzations is that of Unity of Substance. 248 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE By this is meant that there exists but one under- lying substance, manifested now as force and now as matter. The ancient atom has been dis- solved by modern science, so that it is no longer regarded as an indivisible particle of matter, but as a form of force, " a vortex of motion," a point for the convergence and divergence of forces. Every form of matter may be translated into every other form of matter, every form of force into every other form of force, and it is at least a rational inference that every form of force and of matter are interchangeable. It is enough to say now that we have a right to draw inferences from this great scientific hypothesis that would make anything except the unselfish life irrational for intelligent and conscientious people. This is almost like an echo of the word of Paul: " And now abideth Faith, Hope and Love, these three, but the greatest of these is Love." II. The Fellowship Philosophy is not new. It is the heart of all the greatest philoso- phy, ancient and modern, oriental and occi- dental. It is the basis of all profound theology, and the theologians have called it The Unity and LIFE, AND 249 LOVE, AND PEACE Omnipresence of God. I prefer the simple Saxon phrase: "There is but One, and that One is Everywhere." What is meant by this is that this is a universe and not a diverse or a maniverse and that what appears to be separate and contradictory is so only in appearance and not in reality. One Purpose underlies and interpenetrates all existence. No man has ever known why God chose to create this universe, but it must have been that He cast Himself out, in a sort of di- vine drama or experiment, to the outermost limits of consciousness, with the inspiring result that in the remotest atom there are intelligence, wisdom and power that produce the expression of life from apparently inanimate matter, and of more and more intelligent forms of life, until " man stands on the heights of his life, in sight of a height that is higher." This process, which we call evolution, is the return of the atom to God, or the extension of consciousness in the growing creation, and this process which unifies all that exists or can exist in our world, is the working out of the One Purpose and Plan, by 250 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE the One Power. This is what we mean by the Spiritual Constitution of the Universe, and in the light of this thought every person, animal, plant and mineral, every atom and all force, all events and circumstances and conditions and objects are more or less intelligent and conscious expressions of the One Purpose and the One Life. Man is thus led to count nothing human or non-human as foreign to him, and his inner eyes open to perceive Truth, Goodness and Beauty everywhere. We may not adequately predict the consum- mation of this cosmic scheme. Man needs a larger vision for this, but he cannot think sanely and practically and doubt this consummation, "beyond all that we can ask or think," " One God, one Law, one Element, And one far-off divine Event, Toward which the whole creation moves." III. The Fellowship Psychology. The Psychology is the natural inference from the Scientific Basis and the Philosophy. It is rooted in the fact of the Spiritual or Intelligent Con- LIFE, AND 251 LOVE, AND PEACE stitution of the Universe and the " Infinitude of the Private Man." The apparent variation in objects is one of consciousness on the part of the object and of the observer. This variation is not accidental, but is a necessary part of the essential order and thoroughly educative. The history of physical, intellectual and moral progress is the story of the development of consciousness. The highest manifestation of consciousness known to man is in man himself. When, in the upward march of the ages, man is born, " organic evolution has made a thing which is now its master." Here is that which begins to know itself and its v/orld, here is that which reasons and discriminates and determines, "choice is born in him; here is he that chooses; here is the Declaration of Inde- pendence, the July Fourth of zoology and as- tronomy. He chooses, as the rest of creation does not." He begins to remould his world, nearer to his heart's desire. He re-creates his physical and material environment. He is learn- ing how to control and develop the functions of his body, by mental processes. He seems to 25^ LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE be dissolving the veil that hides the mysteries of the universe. He is discovering the secret of individual well-being and development. He is mastering and using the accumulated mind of the past and learning how to so connect himself with the Universal Mind, the Over- Soul, as to advance toward the reading of all riddles, the solution of all problems, the removal of all obstacles and the translation of all resistance into higher terms, gradually demonstrating that " victory over things is the office of man." He sees a " Pattern in the Mount," for the organi- zation of a terrestrial society on the noblest spir- itual principles, and he gives himself to make this actual in every form of human endeavor and association. As he absolutely surrenders himself to the spiritual ideal and the universal attitude toward life, he can speak the language of the lesser orders of the cosmos and listen to their prayers with power to grant them, and up- lift the world. Thus the recognition of the Spiritual Constitution of the Universe and the Infinitude of the Private Man, gives us a scien- tific, complete and practical psychology. LIFE, AND 253 LOVE, AND PEACE IV. The Fellowship Rule of Life is Ab- solute Trust as the fixed attitude of the mind and Perfect Love as the unvarying practice of the life. After all and before all, this is the fundamental word, the sine qua non of the Fel- lowship Revelation. We cannot say too fre- quently or emphatically that no adoption of any creed or dogma is essential to membership in The Fellowship. This is an association based on principle and conduct, rather than on some state- ment of belief. I believe that unity of practice of our great principles will lead to unity of thought on the eternal verities, but no formula- tion of any statement of faith or opinion shall ever be required for Fellowship membership. The statement of the purpose to endeavor to lead the trustful and unselfish life and encourage this in other individuals and in all forms of associa- tion, is the one authorized, essential Fellowship statement. But, as I have intimated, in my mind all these seven divisions are naturally united. The practice of this rule of life will naturally lead an intelligent soul to perceive and appro- priate the philosophy and psychology, to appre- 254 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE hend and exult in the gospel and to carry out the social program just so far as he has the power. The converse is also true, and there is no way to apply the Unity Philosophy and the Spiritual Psychology except as they are expressed in trustful and unselfish living. When the question is asked, " What shall we trust?" the answer is sometimes given: "Trust everything ! " This is a true answer, but what is really meant is: Trust that Power by which we live and all that is, exists; learn to look be- neath the surface ; cultivate the art of seeing the Invisible, but above all, act as though Infinite Wisdom existed in every object and in all ex- perience, and this attitude and practice will jus- tify themselves in the satisfaction manifested in your life. Trust Nature! What we have come to call the scientific spirit is that of trustfulness toward nature. All true science must assume the essen- tial unity of natural processes. The spirit of the discoverer and inventor is also one of trust in the great facts and forces as yet imperfectly appre- hended. Beyond this, it is possible for any soul LIFE, AND 255 LOVE, AND PEACE to learn by expepence that of which the poets speak when they refer to the " various language '* in which nature tells her great story to the ap- preciative soul of man. The one who thus gives himself to communicate with the Interior Spirit will not only be uplifted by his appreciation of the sublime and beautiful in objects ordinarily attractive to him, but also by the sublimity and beauty in objects and processes which otherwise would scarcely excite his interest, or might even appear so as to excite repulsion. Nature and man proceed from the same source, and acting as though this were true, initiates man into a new life and experience, the secrets of which cannot be told in ordinary words to inappreciative ears. Teust Men! Our fellow-men are the highest expression of nature, and there is no man living or who has ever lived or who can live upon the earth who may not become a revealer of God to the trustful soul of his companion. In saying that we ought to trust men, I do not mean that we ought to call men honest when they are dis- honest, pure when they are impure, kindly when they are cruel, or reliable when they are unre- 256 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE liable. But I do mean that we ought to treat all men as though the essential man was divine, and regard all the indications of a lack of perfection as incompleteness, owing to the ignorance caused by lack of previous development. Unsuspected beauties of character will be dis- covered in those to whom we are naturally at- tracted; those to whom we are indifferent will become fascinating, and those from whom we might otherwise turn in disgust will show them- selves to be our own, when loved and trusted. " What lack of Paradise, If in angelic wise. Each unto each as to himself were dear. If we in souls descried. Whatever form might hide, Own brother and own sister everywhere ! " Our business world with all its network of suspicion, its practice of chicanery and its incar- nation of selfishness, is yet forced to recognize ,the great law of mutual trustfulness. A finan- cier said to me that it would be impossible to run the business world for a single day without the practical recognition of the great law of human LIFE, AND 257 LOVE, AND PEACE trustfulness. We have yet much to learn in this direction, but with all its shortcomings there is a thread more valuable than that of gold which runs through all the economic and financial sys- tem of the present day. There is no depart- ment of human life that so urgently demands the application of these great principles, as the realm of industry and commerce; and in all the sphere of practical endeavor, no man will render such important service in applying the Fellow- ship principles to our economic life. Meanwhile let every man in association with every other in practical matters endeavor to incarnate more fully the trustful and loving spirit; and this should apply not alone to the great economic system, but to all our personal deaUngs with individuals, of a business sort. Even in relation to our enemies, if we have any, this rule of life will work with ilhmitable power. I heard the other day of an individual who was persecuted for fourteen years with the utmost spite and bitterness by another, to whom he continually ministered with a loving spirit and practical effort in return, until at last the soul 258 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE of the unreasonable man was melted and he became one of the best friends of the other. "When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." The question is frequently asked, How far should we go in trusting men in the practical affairs of life? The answer is : Go as far as you can; practice the Golden Rule, which does not say to do to another as he wishes you to do, but as you would have him do to you, which means with your larger enlightenment, if you have it. There are no conditions or circumstances of human association in which men can live with- out trust and love. When they shall Uve per- fectly according to these principles, the social problems of life will be solved. Trust Experience! By that I mean, trust the events, circumstances and conditions of life. There is some way in which every one of them is divinely appropriate to your present stage of development, and there is no way in which they will trouble you, if you accept them by this atti- tude and practice. The resistful and resentful LIFE, AND 259 LOVE, AND PEACE attitude toward the hard conditions of life in- tensifies the necessity for their existence. It raises a cloud of dust about the disturbed soul and causes a film to grow over his eyes, so that he is prevented from seeing things as they really are. The only possible way for a man to under- stand his world and treat it rightly is to deify it. If he does this and without reservation wel- comes all that comes to him, all that happens or can possibly happen at any time, he will find that some of the conditions are not what they appear to his imperfect vision. He will find that some of them will be immediately removed or altered, and he will find that those v/hich are not changed can be borne in such a fashion as to de- velop his character, which, after all, is the only end and aim of life. No burden can be laid upon human shoulders which the spirit of trust and love will not fit them to bear. Let the man learn to endure, as seeing the invisible. " Belief and Love! A believing love will relieve us from a vast load of care." Trust your own Soul! Above all, this is the innermost secret of life. Discover who you are, 260 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE that there is a deeper deep and a higher height in your consciousness than might be ordinarily suspected, and that you can so accustom your- self to thinking of yourself in the highest char- acter that you can draw upon great wells of inspiration for your daily need. I do not say. Trust your instincts, nor your impulses, but your intuitions, and test your intuitions by the appli- cation which you make of this rule of life in re- lation to all your relationships. This naturally introduces us to V. The Fellowship Gospel. This is a gen- uine gospel that may be tested by anyone who gives himself to the practice of the rule of life. This great glad tidings may be summed up in two words, It Works! The man who perceives the unity of life and who gives himself to live accordingly, by trust and love, will possess by his own right, riches of Knowledge, Wisdom, Char- acter, Serenity, Joy and Power, which will cause him to abide in peace and satisfaction. This is the individual gospel. The trustful soul gains knowledge by intui- tion. He sees the Reality. He discriminates be- LIFE, AND geij LOVE, AND PEACE tween that which is elusive and that which exists in fact. He knows the truth and the truth makes him free. The trustful and loving man will gain wisdom by direct inspiration. Knowledge sees facts and is an apprehension of truth. Wisdom is apphed knowledge. The opposite of knowledge is igno- rance and the opposite of wisdom is folly. Wis- dom is knowing what to do next and how to do it. Some wisdom comes to man by instinct, some he gains by personal experience, some may be developed by the logical faculty ; but the wisdom that is of the most value is that which comes in response to the consecration of a man's will to the highest ideals. The word of the ancient prophet, " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall di- rect thy paths," and the word of the modern prophet, " There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly hstening we shall hear the right word," are true, and may be realized in the experience of any individual who will fulfill the conditions of rational living. 262 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE There will also be naturally developed in one who practices the Fellowship principles a com- plete Character. Character is the Infinite Order expressed through an individual will. It is some- thing more than a struggle to fulfill certain moral precepts. It is the result of the surrender of the individual will to the Universal Purpose. It is innate in man and grows to just the ex- tent that he realizes himself. It is not a struggle. The only struggle is in the attaining of the atti- tude of absolute trust. When this is accom- plished, character grows as naturally as perfect flowers and fruits. " The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control." Out of this Knowledge and Wisdom and Goodness, grows Serenity. This attitude and practice is serenity. But as one lives this divine life in the flesh. Serenity deepens into Peace. Beyond Serenity lies Joy, by which I mean the high bliss of being one with the heart of all that is, and entering in an ecstatic realization, in unity with the objects and processes of creation, and with all the possible experiences of life. LIFE, AND 263 LOVE, AND PEACE Beyond this li^s Power. I mean power to live a satisfactory life. Knowledge, Wisdom, Char- acter, Serenity and Joy are Power. This in- cludes material and physical well-being. I do not mean to say that every individual who lives according to these principles will always be physically perfect or materially rich, but I do mean to say that he will find that if he seeks first this kingdom of love, and the righteousness of the trustful life, he will realize that all things desirable to his present condition are being added unto him, and will so work in harmony with the great forces and objects that touch his existence, as to develop almost illimitable power for his own greater development and influence for the world's upbuilding. This gospel is not alone an individual one, but has also social implications of the widest char- acter. The social gospel is The Dawn of a New Spiritual Era. The gospel of Jesus was, " The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." This is vastly more true to-day than in the age when this great teacher was on earth. Men to-day are doing the works which He did, and " greater works," ac- 264 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE cording to His prophecy. The marvelous ad- vances in the material world are of inestimable spiritual significance. We know all lands and all peoples. We have analyzed our world and other worlds. We are making use of finer and more potent forces in carrying on the world's work by such agencies as steam and electricity and the powers contained in the atmosphere. God at last has seen fit to trust men with wings. The progress and prevalence of pure and genu- ine political democracy, the world-wide move- ment for international peace, the perceiving of the principles of universal religion, all herald the coming of such a human day as has never yet been known. The fact that we can conceive the social program hereinafter outlined and can give ourselves to this realization is itself an indi- cation of this great day which is dawning. VI. The Social Program. 1. The Entire Consecration of the Individual to the general welfare. Nothing can take the place of this. It must be definite and irrevocable. 2. The Practice of patient and persistent Trust and Unselfishness in Domestic Life. The LIFE, AND 265 LOVE, AND PEACE world is not yet oid enough so that any man can rationally dogmatize concerning the develop- ment of the family ideal, but it seems to me that if there is one conception that has come to the most intelligent portion of the race by direct illumination, and that has been proven right in the upward progress of mankind, it is the value of the marriage of one man to one woman, and of all the great school of life for husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters and relatives thus brought into existence. The practical recognition of the essential character of marriage and of the home as rooted in eternal principle, would solve a large portion, if not all, of our domestic troubles, and would shed light on all the vexed problems of society. 3. Education as the development of Character by the appeal to the soul. By character I mean living the life herein described. Our children are instructed and trained in almost everything except this. All their teachings should be from the moral standpoint, the development of self- reliance, of trust and unselfishness. There is no study which they ought to pursue and no recrea- 266 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE tion in which they should indulge that should not have this aim. By the appeal to the soul, I mean the true education, or drawing out of the innate powers, rather than cramming the mind with all sorts of alleged facts ; and while I do not disparage all forms of mental discipline that really add to the skill with which one may use his mind, above and beyond this lies the power that comes from the recognition of the vast re- sources of the human soul and a distinct appeal to the innate potentialities. 4. Social Equality. By this I do not mean that people should be associated with one another in the most intimate relationships who are not naturally congenial, but that the essential broth- erhood of every member of the human family should be recognized in the same way that we recognize the ties of relationship between mem- bers of the lesser families. We should shrink from association with no human being in any relationship that may be indicated as desirable for them and for us, by the natural conditions of our lives. 5. Loving Ministry to the Unfortunate. The LIFE, AND 267 LOVE, AND PEACE world needs not sg much palliative charity as the remedial justice of love, and yet while we are still in the condition of making, so far as uni- versal brotherhood is concerned, it is necessary and desirable for those who have an abundance of worldly goods and of wisdom to minister to those who have need, without discrimination as regards character, except as this may indicate the wisest method of ministry, and always bear- ing in mind the abolition of such conditions as produce poverty, disease and other causes of human distress. 6. The Enactment and Administration of civil and criminal Laws on the Fraternal basis. As the world is now constituted, it is not possible for men to live sanely without sometimes using physical force in the attempt to properly adjust social relationships. We have grown a long dis- tance, however, in civilization, when our reliance is no more upon violence for the adjustment of human differences, but upon the appeal to rea- son. The trouble is not so much in the use of force as in the spirit in which we use it. Nine- teen-twentieths of the work of our courts would LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE be done away with if we lived in a brotherly fash- ion as regards the relationships that concern property, and a very large proportion of the ad- ministration of criminal law would be unneces- sary if we did what we could in the recognition of the salvabihty of every man and woman, and of our application to give ourselves for the free- ing of our fellows from moral bondage. When our civil laws are enacted as the expression of an enlightened unselfishness, and we make our crim- inal laws and administer them so as to entirely lose the conception of crime and to recognize every individual as a genuine brother or sister, it will not be long before our courts will be hoUer institutions than our churches now are, and our prisons will be transformed into asylums and schools for the regeneration of morally delin- quent men and women. 7. The Abolition of Institutionalized Immor- ality, such as the saloon and all forms of gam- bling. In our democratic society, all liberty should be given to the individual consistent with the welfare of society itself. To legally commit the state to the tolerance of the open saloon and LIFE, AND 269 LOVE, AND PEACE to any method of obtaining wealth that necessi- tates the pauperization of any element in the community, is to deny the solidarity of mankind and to use the vast educative power of our in- stitutions for demoralization. The saloon must go, and with it all the organized corruption, im- purity and social evil, now tolerated by our civil laws and social customs. 8. The use of land and natural resources for the benefit of all, rather than a few, of the people. There are those who claim that all our social im- perfection arises from the withholding access to the land in his own right from the ordinary man, and the exploitation of the natural riches of the world by the few at the expense of the many. Whether it is true or not, that all injustice would be banished and equal opportunity given to all men by a just distribution of the land, it is cer- tain that a large part of our prevalent poverty, with its consequent miseries and crimes, would be abolished if the land were socially owned and occupied by those who would put it to the best use. No true lover of his kind can refrain from doing all in his power to overcome the vast in- 270 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE iquities essential to our present unbrotherly usage of the abundant natural resources of our mother earth. 9. Economic Co-operation. We have been learning the lessons of the value of co-opera- tion in production, and the time has arrived for the application of the same principles in the distribution of wealth. Our present system of economics is largely planless and hopeless and loveless, and denies every funda- mental principle of fellowship. We know a bet- ter way, and, by individual endeavor, by volun- tary economic co-operation and by the organiza- tion of the larger Co-operative Commonwealth, we should give ourselves, completely and unself- ishly, to the production of this nobler economic society. As Frances Willard well said: "Who- ever speaks of competition, breathes out a curse upon the race, and whoever speaks of co-opera- tion breathes out a blessing." And while we are establishing this nobler form of association, let all economic disputes be adjusted peaceably, by arbitration. 10. Political Democracy. " The history of the LIFE, AND 271 LOVE, AND PEACE world for six thousand years has been the history of the progress of Democracy." In these later days the growing genius and experience of the race has devised almost perfect methods, by which the people's will may be ascertained and registered and administered. The rather forbid- ding words of the Initiative and Referendum and Recall are holy expressions, denoting the cul- mination of the wisdom of the ages and the larger inspiration of the present, in political science. Let all the people familiarize themselves with their far-reaching significance and regard it as truly sacramental a duty to provide their intro- duction and efficiency as any sacred rite was ever esteemed by the most earnest devotee. The prophet-patriot Mazzini's words are largely true : "Whoever makes a religion out of democracy will save the world." The religion of democ- racy is a necessary inference from the fact of the divinity of man. 11. International Arbitration and Mutual Service. The promotion of World-wide Peace by peaceful methods. These statements are their own argument. Nothing now hinders the final 272 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE peace of the world except the selfish blindness of those whose so-called selfish interests prevent their faith in man. But in spite of all the reac- tionary forces, the cause of international peace has made more progress in the past fifteen years than in all the previous ages of human history. Let us now forever definitely abandon the fool- ish and deadly notion that any body of men are or can, in any essential sense, be 'Our enemies, and give ourselves to a war against war, and the de- mand for the application of the same laws of reason and mutual service among nations which we now recognize as essential to the well-being of individuals in a civiUzed society. Let us never be carried away by any terror or anger or child- ish enthusiasm over battleships or national ^prow- ess or violence, but strive to be worthy of the great benediction: "Blessed are the peace- makers, for they shall be called the children of God." 12. Inter-racial Brotherhood. The world has become one city. We begin to see that only a sophomoric and stupendous conceit can justify the claims of any race of people to be wholly LIFE, AND 273 LOVE, AND PEACE superior to any other. No one race can be made perfect without the virtues of every other or without the universal fellowship of all the chil- dren of men. Darkness will cover the earth, until we learn the lesson of universal brotherhood. Away with racial prejudice! By our practice and our testi- mony, let us stand fearlessly and lovingly for the unity of mankind. 13. Universal Sjnnpathy, including the ani- mals. Oun word philanthropy is a relatively smaU word, if taken in the sense of its derivation. It Kterally means the love of man. That is great in its place, but is only the introduction to the greater love which embraces every living creature and aU that exists in the cosmic scheme. The animals need our love and help, and look up to us as though we were their gods. We reply to their prayers by our unspeakable cruelties, for the sake of pandering to our fleshly appe- tites, our convenience, our temporary comfort, our depraving pleasures, our imwholesome ex- citements and our foolish vanity, as well as even in the holy name of science. Neither they with- 274, LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE out US, nor we without them, shall be made per- fect, and the consunmiation for them and for us awaits the expression of universal sympathy, " the Manifestation of the children of God." 14. The Beautifying of the World. God " plants the rose of beauty on the brow of chaos, and discloses that the central intention of Na- ture is harmony and joy." It is for man to be a worker together with God in the adornment of his world. Not that man alone is a great public servant, who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before, but also he who banishes deformity and creates beauty of form and deco- ration. The grimy hand of greed has beslimed our hideously constructed cities, until we have builded many grotesque monstrosities for the workhouses and the dwelling houses of men. Let us learn that work without art is ignoble and give ourselves to build and adorn all our human structures with the strength and majesty of the eternal hills and the grace and glory of the palaces of the clouds. VII. The Dynamic. I have already referred to this under other headings. LIFE, AND 275 LOVE, AND PEACE Man has not universal power, because he does not give himself to the Universal Will. If he could work " miracles " now, he would wreck the universe. But we can conceive of man so devel- oped by the trustful and loving hfe that Power should naturally seek him for its channel and he should " go forth through Universal Love to Universal Power." The Holy Spirit is the Whole Spirit, and the man who gives himself absolutely to the hfe herein portrayed, will be a dynamic man in whom the prophecy will be ful- filled : " Yc shall receive Power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you." As fast as we reahze this ideal and conform our Uves " to the pure idea in our mind," we may expect our world to change accordingly, until "the kingdom of man over nature, — a dominion such as is now beyond his dream of God, — ^he shall enter with- out more wonder than the bhnd man feels, who is gradually restored to perfect sight." All that we do shall be done by the Construc- tive Method. It may be necessary to tear down an old structure in order to erect a better one, or to grub out the desert yuccas in order to plant 276 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE oranges, but in every department our lives may be lived and our work accomplished with such an aim and spirit that all men must bear witness that we are not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Where it is possible, let us criticise only "by creation," and always and under all circum- stances act in the spirit of our great motto, the pregnant question, the answer to which answers all other questions : " What is the loving thing to do?" And, furthermore, let us hold all our opinions and do all our deeds with a " forward look, in the Spirit of progress." " We are with to-day as against yesterday and with to-morrow as against to-day," We do not present this as the final Word of God. There is yet new light to break. But we do present it as the first rational synthesis of re- ligion that touches life and experience at all points, that our world has yet known. In this fact lies the second significance of the use of the word Revelation. It is not some supernatural statement concerning the origin and destiny of man, but it is a clear, comprehensive outline of LIFE, AND 277 LOVE, AND PEACE thought and conduct that needs only to be com- prehended and practiced to inspire every indi- vidual and to actualize the ideal, which would establish the Kingdom of Love on Earth. The great characteristic of noble Hves, Loy- alty, has been freely bestowed on men and books and institutions and dogmas. They have all pos- sessed virtues and have bred them in their dev- otees. But this call is to loyalty, to supreme principles, and to a " Great Cause, God's New Messiah," which could not triumph without bringing peace and prosperity for all the chil- dren of men. When Coleridge was asked if he could prove the truth of Christianity, he said, " Yes; try it! " So with even better warrant, say we of The Fel- lowship. This is a message to head and heart and hand, and this is a call to enlightened men and women of all nations, to such as have outgrown the an- cient dogmas, to those in doubt and darkness, to those in the older churches and religions who are looking for larger light and liberty and love and power, to those who have never been devotees of 278 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE any form of religious faith, and to all the bound and oppressed of the world. " Come with us and we will do thee good! " " Come with us and be eyes for us! " We can coMjeive of nothing greater or better than the name Fellowship^ but we care nothing for names, and under this name or some other these principles will possess the earth. APPENDIX V AT-ONE-MENT T, HE thought of this book is finding clearer and more positive expression every day, showing that it is not the mere dream of an en- thusiast or of a visionary. As this book goes to press there comes in Brotherhood, pubhshed at Letchworth, the " Garden City," of Herts, Eng- land, an article mainly from the pen of W. Winslow Hall, M. D., which reflects much of its message. With some alterations, intended only to make the message plainer, it is reprinted here. REASON FOR JOY, JOY, JOY! The universe, with all its variety, is a Unity. Whatever the shifting appearances may be, which are seen so variously by individuals from their various standpoints, true and thorough monotheists, who believe in one God logically and consistently, recognize one only real Power. 280 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE This One Power is certainly not evil. Else there could be nowhere any good. Nor is this One Power good with the limited kind of goodness we little creatures think of, when we imagine good striving against evil and bounded by evil. For if the real nature of the world consisted of good and evil set over against each other, this would not be the reign of One Power "over all, through all, and in all," but the warfare of two powers. The spectacle of good and evil opposing each other is the appear- ance of things from our point of view in time and space — a point of view which, as the specta- tor ascends, will be left behind for ever. The goodness of the One Power — the eternal, the infinite — goes beyond and excels the best we novices at our stage of time and space can im- agine. The One Power is bringing forth a reconciliation, an at-one-ment, a unity — a fulfil- ment that is more than a triumph of good over evil. It is an unbounded and perpetual good, satisfying for ever. Nothing else than this confidence — ^this expec- tation of beautiful surprises which mil outdo the LIFE, AND 281 LOVE, AND PEACE best ideals of e^^en our most luminous hours — is perfect faith in the One God, Father Almighty. Everything that is created, so far as can be judged from its highest results, is a means of producing, developing, ripening and exercising mind that shall understand it, and shall there- fore co-operate with it in attaining further growth. It is actually creating and clearing our consciousness, what we might call awareness, and calling out the corresponding purposeful activ- ity. It has produced, and is constantly produc- ing, personal self-consciousness, the "I am" consciousness; and already here and there it is expanding and illuminating this to a triumphant and overmastering "cosmic consciousness." From the point of view of disciples of Jesus, the universe may be said to exist for bringing forth the Christ-consciousness; by which we mean the quality of mind that was developed in Jesus as a preparation and equipment for his singular ministry, that quality of mind that grew in him more and more, and spread from him to others. This was the mind whereby he realised more and more the two-fold unity ex- 282 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE pressed in the two grand climaxes of religion in the Fourth Gospel: "I and the Father are one," and " Ye are in me and I in you," The Christ-consciousness is the highest result that has appeared to the human race, and is therefore the best interpretation of the universal purpose. The universe exists for nothing less than reconciling, harmonizing and unifying con- sciousness everywhere; — for the glow and radi- ance of the all-present God realised through all intelligences. Every soul is destined to become, as knowledge and realisation of the truth dis- sipates its illusions, a centre of that joyous con- cordant consciousness ; and thereby shall all souls be organized into a consciously co-operative fel- lowship. It is not merely that we are meant to be sane of mind and sound of body, as people ordinarily count sanity and health; not merely to be properly fed, clothed, and housed; not merely to be comfortable and secure; all which conditions, of course, our Father knoweth that we have need of. It is that we are meant to know ourselves and one another as free children of God, joint-heirs and joint-owners of all LIFE, AND 283 LOVE, AND PEACE things with him who said "All that the Father hath is mine." All mere things must wax and wane ; in finite straits and bays the tides of infinite Being must alternately surge and ebb; bird-like, our em- bodied soul must cover and drowse as well as wing and sing. After each activity must reoc- cur a season of passivity. But the soul, divin- ing how remedial reaction is, does not murmur or despair. It makes the hard-won height a base for higher flights. It rests in God; and patiently, yet confidently, waits. It knows that now is its appointed nurture time ; and therefore, in a huge content, it quietly receives, or as we say, " it acquiesces." Such experience is both usual and natural when souls ascend in prayer. Indeed, this quietude is felt by most men to be a higher mood than thanksgiving. It may not be so no- table, or so attractive; but it gives tint and tone to every hfe it blends with. Not that it is, or ever has been, a uniform feeling, universally felt. The type of acquiescence varies even as in- 284 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE dividual souls vary. Four great forms of it can be defined and observed in every-day life. There is, first, an acquiescence which, to many, seems despair. It recognizes that the world is illusion, that the world is change, that the world is woe; moreover, that desire alone can link the soul to the elusive, woeful fraud. Therefore, says this formative type of acquiescence, must the desire be shattered. Appetites must give way to affections ; affections must give way to aspirations; even aspirations must at last be quenched in the final acquiescence. There must be denial of the lower self, time after time, un- til the slowly highering self has become one with that which includes all things. Now this devel- opment, though seemingly so sad, is not despair. For it teaches that even sorrow is illusion, that even sorrow is subject to change, and that sor- row, therefore, will inevitably pass. From height to height the soul will rise. The coarser pleas- ures must give place to finer joys. No limit can be set to this ascent. And thus the casting-out of what seemed hope has really been the bring- ing-in of a deeper, a fairer, an everlasting hope. LIFE, AND 285 LOVE, AND PEACE Then there is that type of acquiescence which is glorified endurance. The soul feels that all things are more or less evil; and that, for some unknown reason, it must always combat those evils. And it finds its one good in its own strength, in its own ability to bear the worst that evil can inflict, in the joy of battle, in the buoy- ant rallying after every blow. This creed may seem to be pessimistic in its outlook on the vast external world: it is always optimistic in its as- sertion of the pure, unconquerable Me. The soul stands alone against the universe; but it knows that it can always hold its own. It feels that in itself is the Highest; and that, for itself, the triumph of the Highest over the lower is reward enough ! What all this conflict means, what all this effort leads to — these are dark, un- answered questions. Nothing is clear but that one must endure; nothing can satisfy but suc- cessful endurance. Out of the night that covers me. Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. ggg LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbow'd. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade. And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the Master of my fate; I am the Captain of my soul. Henley.* Again there is the type of acquiescence which, while still convinced that the world is evil and that evil must be endured, is content to endure it for a season, trusting to be rewarded by an eternity of joy. In this case the external world *One of these lines — delightfully pagan — seems to have been first penned by Swinburne, who also, in a most memorable short poem, thanks — Whatever gods there be That dead men rise up never, That e'en the longest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. LIFE, AND 287 LOVE, AND PEACE is never held to be altogether evil; for, though that lesser part of it which is known as this world is evil and must inflict suffering on the soul and must be endured, yet that greater part of it which is known as God, is good. For though He inflicts, by means of the world those long, vast, sufferings which a soul must bear, yet He does it all with perfect wisdom and with perfect love. His aim is to mould, to discipline, to ripen, for an after-Hf e of uneventful bliss. Therefore though such a soul's view of the world is pessi- mistic, yet its view of itself and of God is opti- mistic. Though it regards the Now as an evil, it looks forward to the Then as a more than counter-balancing good. It is content to suffer when it understands that only through brave suf- fering can joy be gained. Lastly, there is the type of acquiescence which refuses to acknowledge any evil. For it the Me is good: the whole of what is outside "me" is also good. Indeed, the Me and the Not-me, far from being opposed, are felt to be one. What seems to be separation is illusion. What seems to be suffering is illusion. TJie universe is an 288 LIFE, AND LOVE. AND PEACE eternal Progress. The soul, which is part of the universe, is, and must be for ever, in a state of change. Even God, of whom the universe is part, is evermore evolving. And, for universe, for soul, for God, the Progress is a becoming better and better. Therefore, when realities are understood, the Now is as joyful as any Then can ever be: all the bliss a soul can ever experi- ence is open to it now: just as fast as a soul de- velops larger capacities for blessedness, just so fast will higher blessedness flood into it. There- fore the soul submits to all its earthly conditions, not because it must, but because it wants to. Things may seem bad, but they are really good. The scheme of the universe is joyfully accepted; the soul makes itself one with the Whole; it re- fuses to be spared suffering, or to forgo tri- umph; it is keen to bear all with God and to en- joy all with God. Well, these four modes of acquiescence are variously useful and admirable. Each has its own value for differing types of soul. But here, as elsewhere, we see development; and it seems that the last is the highest of the four. LIFE, AND 289 LOVE, AND PEACE Then the practical question arises : How can this joyous acquiescence, this rapturous prefer- ence, this enthusiastic harmony, be achieved? And the answer is not far to seek. It is two- fold. There must be, first, a mental under- standing of the unity of the universe in God. There must be, secondly, an absolute giving-up of one's separate will to God's will. Now, these two things are easily said, but they are not easily done. The first, indeed, is the less difficult. For, in these days when all our sci- ences and creeds come together and blend and lighten into Monism, the belief in the Unity of all things, an intellectual grasp of the real one- ness of all things in God is not hard to attain. But hard it always has been, and hard it still is, to give up our separate will. However clearly we may see that we ought to do it, however fer- vently we may long to do it, however truly we may try to do it, our experience is that we can not do it. We want our own way in this, or that, or the other affair; and thus, not getting our own way, we are miserable; or again, getting our own way (which is the wrong way) 290 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE we are even more miserable. So the continual struggle between the Prince of Light and the Power of Darkness goes on in us. With such a civil war how can there be peace? One must give way. And, although the lower may ap- pear to triumph for a time, yet that ignoble vic- tory is never lasting. Unremarked the higher gathers strength once more. Warfare breaks out afresh, and more bitterly than ever. Sooner or later the higher must prevail; and then, and not till then, our peace is gained. Some perception of this inevitable ending may shorten the battle: the lower may lay down its arms. Yet the more common and more final victory lies in a perception on the part of our higher nature that it can, and must, enlist the help of the Highest. For our higher nature at its best is too finite, too fleeting, too foolish, of itself to conquer and to rule. But it has the saving fac- ulty, the neglected yet invincible resource, of joining forces with the Highest. It finds 'that it can draw at will, in very need, on infinite eternal and almighty power. And it finds that with God all is possible. Yet more must follow. For such acquiescence LIFE, AND 291 LOVE, AND PEACE grows into a stijl rarer phase of the ascent, into what may be fitly styled At-one-ment. The soul has become so thoroughly convinced of the power, the wisdom and the love of God, that it lives in an unhesitating, unswerving obedience to the Universal Law. So far as it can discern God's will, such a soul gladly substitutes that for the will of the separate self. Its loftiest ambi- tion is to be a tool of God; its noblest art is a concord with the beauty which is God; its keen- est intellectual delight is sharing in the thoughts of God; its deepest and warmest and most abid- ing affection is called forth by friend, or kin, or wife, or child, who reveal the love ever stream- ing towards it from God ; its essence is felt to be not only a part of God who is all things, but also an evidence of God who is the Highest. There lies open to the soul a yet further phase of acquiescence. At-one-ment leads insensibly to that most quiet yet energetic rapture known as receptivity. But happily for us (considering how soon our powers flag), striving is not al- ways necessary. When we rise to receptivity nought is needed but a willing passiveness. It requires but a quiet resting in the Spirit, a hum- 202 LIFE, AND LOVE, AND PEACE ble readiness to be held and guided by the Spirit, a gladsome confidence that every blessing we can utilize will flow into us from the Spirit. To use a common simile: whenever we, the electrodes, make contact with God, the dynamo, straight- way through us flows wondrous, inexhaustible force; and lo! our perfect work gets done; the utmost that we, as special instruments, can achieve, is quietly and finally performed. This mood of receptivity is practicable al- ways. Even during the day, when busied in work, or slackened in the pauses of work, the soul may so expatiate; but absolute receptivity must ever be most attainable during the nightly miracle of sleep. For then, as we lie down, we can cast ourselves into the Everlasting Arms and yield ourselves wholly to the Spirit's influence; praying for and yearning for such an influx of energy and love into our subconscious selves as shall, first, expel all baser qualities, and then, in daily gradual emergence, mould our activities to be indeed an accurate and full expression of God's will. Thus the Spirit will come to be the mainspring of all our lives, the vital air that we LIFE, AND 293 LOVE, AND PEACE habitually breathe — yea, the deepest self in our selves, the very soul of Soul. Such and so varied and so fruitful an ac- quiescence has been experienced by men through- out all the ages, and this they have taught. Brah- min and Hebrew, poet and cobbler, Quaker and Romanist, emperor and mendicant, all agree in this. They have expressed it in many different ways, but the underlying fact is one and com- mon and invariable. Not my separate will hut the Universal will he done — that is the kernel of religion, that is the secret of peace. When once achieved there can be no more doubt, or fear, or failure ; no more gloom, or sin, or death. Life becomes radiant and easy. Confidence, con- tent and joy have brimmed the cup until the cup overflows. Heaven is known to be, not a future possibility, but a present reality, not an aimless idling, but a helpful doing, not a pool of benev- olence, but a mill-race of beneficence, not a sensuous rapture, but a spiritual fervour, not a servitude, but mastery, not pleasure, not even happiness, but Blessedness. FIVE OTHER BOOKS BY ;30LT0N HALL " Mr. Hall has somehow got a reputation as a radical ; perhaps because of his striking way of saying things and his determina- tion to be heard; but his ' radicalism ' is rapidly being adopted by conservatives. He was one of the earliest practical Tax Re- formers and the present Tax Reform Association is his work: he was a ' back to the land ' locomotive before that cry was known. Like his ' Single Tax instead of Socialism,' his radical- ism is tempered by a saving common sense." A LITTLE LAND AND A LIVING Shows what can be done with a little piece of land, and how those who are unfit for the city struggle may make a living from the soil; that agriculture if carried on along intensive lines is profitable. A Message of good cheer to the discouraged. THINGS AS THEY ARE This collection of essays and parables sets forth with a " mer- ciless sweetness of spirit " the intellectual and moral entangle- ments that result from a misunderstanding of the Common Prin- ciples of life. They will not only be read and remembered, but unconsciously incorporated into the life of the reader. MONEY MAKING IN FREE AMERICA The clearest, most incisive analysis of the methods of fortune- building in this country that has ever appeared. It is plain in its reasoning, just in its conclusions and interesting in its style. A book for the man who is rich and the man who hopes to be; for the man who would rather think harder than work harder. THE GAME OF LIFE This is a collection of parables grave and gay which have been published in " Life," " Collier's " and other magazines. The Game as it is played, with all its possibilities, is set out in an inimitable fashion. Everyone who is interested in, or has been puzzled by the muddle of life will find in this volume just what applies to the failings of his friends. THE SEEMS SO STORIES A book that the child will make his own. and from which the adult will get many a silent lesson. The little stories deal with the things a child knows in a way that a child understands. The children ask to have those stories read, over and over again. 300 pages, cloth, 12 mo $1.00 THE ARCADIA PRESS, 150 NASSAU ST.. NEW YORK JUN 15 1909 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Sept. 2004 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724) 779-21 1 1