50
The giant’s face clouded. “Parsons will vote for it,” he said suggestively. “What will you do?”
The congressman hesitated. “I––the party, Mr. Ames, is committed to the high tariff principle. We can not let in a flood of foreign cotton––”
“Then you want the fight between the farmers and spinners to continue, eh?” interposed Ames cynically. “You don’t seem to realize that in the end both will get more money than they are getting now, and that it will come from the consumer, who will pay vastly higher for his finished products, in addition to the tariff. Do you get me?”
“It is a party principle, Mr. Ames,” returned the congressman tenaciously.
“Look here, Wales,” said Ames, turning savagely upon his companion. “The cotton farmers are organizing. They have got to be stopped. Their coöperative associations must be smashed. The tariff schedule which you have before your Committee will do it. And you are going to pass it.”
“Mr. Ames,” replied the congressman, “I––I am opposed to the constant manipulation of cotton by you rich men. I––”
“There,” interrupted Ames, “never mind explaining your conscientious scruples. What I want to know is, do you intend to cast your vote for the unaltered schedule?”
“N––no, Mr. Ames, I can’t––”
“H’m,” murmured Ames. Then, with easy nonchalance, turning to an apparently irrelevant topic as he gazed over the railing, “I heard just before coming from my office this evening that the doors of the Mercantile Trust would not open to-morrow. Too bad! A lot of my personal friends are heavily involved. Bank’s been shaky for some time. Ames and Company will take over their tangible assets; I believe you were interested, were you not?” He glanced at the trembling man out of the corners of his eyes.
Wales turned ashen. His hands shook as he grasped the railing before him and tried to steady himself.
“Hits you pretty hard, eh?” coolly queried Ames.
“It––it––yes––very hard,” murmured the dazed man. “Are you––positive?”
“Quite. But step into the waiting room and ’phone the newspapers. They will corroborate my statements.”
Representative Wales was serving his first term in Congress. His election had been a matter of surprise to everybody, himself included, excepting Ames. Wales knew not that his detailed personal history had been for many months carefully filed in the vaults of the Ames tower. Nor did he ever suspect that his candidacy and election had been matters of most careful51thought on the part of the great financier and his political associates. But when he, a stranger to congressional halls, was made a member of the Ways and Means Committee, his astonishment overleaped all bounds. Then Ames had smiled his own gratification, and arranged that the new member should attend the formal opening of the great Ames palace later in the year. Meantime, the financier and the new congressman had met on several occasions, and the latter had felt no little pride in the attention which the great man had shown him.
And so the path to fame had unrolled steadily before the guileless Wales until this night, when the first suspicions of his thraldom had penetrated and darkened his thought. Then, like a crash from a clear sky, had come the announcement of the Mercantile Trust failure. And as he stood there now, clutching the marble railing, his thought busy with the woman and the two fair children who would be rendered penniless by this blow, the fell presence of the monster Ames seemed to bend over him as the epitome of ruthless, brutal, inhuman cunning.
“How much are you likely to lose by this failure?” the giant asked.
Wales collected his scattered senses. “Not less than fifty thousand dollars,” he replied in a husky voice.
“H’m!” commented Ames. “Too bad! too bad! Well, let’s go below. Ha! what’s this?” stooping and apparently taking up an object that had been lying on the floor back of the congressman. “Well! well! your bank book, Wales. Must have slipped from your pocket.”
Wales took the book in a dazed, mechanical way. “Why––I have no––this is not mine,” he murmured, gazing alternately at the pass book and at Ames.
“Your name’s on it, at least,” commented Ames laconically. “And the book’s been issued by our bank, Ames and Company. Guess you’ve forgotten opening an account there, let me see, yes, a week ago.” He took the book and opened it. “Ah, yes, I recall the incident now. There’s your deposit, made last Friday.”
Wales choked. What did it mean? The book, made out in his name on Ames and Company, showed a deposit to his credit of fifty thousand dollars!
Ames slipped his arm through the confused congressman’s, and started with him down the balcony. “You see,” he said, as they moved away, “the Mercantile failure will not hit you as hard as you thought. Now, about that cotton schedule, when you cast your vote for it, be sure that––” The voice died away52as the men disappeared in the distance, leaving Carmen and Haynerd staring blankly at each other.
“Well!” ejaculated Haynerd at length. “What now?”
“We must save them both,” said Carmen quietly.
“I could make my everlasting fortune out of this!” exclaimed Haynerd excitedly.
“And lose your soul,” replied the girl. “But I will see Mr. Ames, and tell him that we overheard his conversation. He will save us all.”
Haynerd then smiled, but it was a hard smile, coming from one who knew the world. “Listen, my dear girl,” he said, “we will keep quiet, you and I. To mention this would be only to court disaster at the hands of one who would strangle us at the slightest intimation of our knowledge. Can you not see the consequences to us?”
“I can see but the right,” returned Carmen determinedly. “And the right shall prevail!”
“But, my dear girl,” cried Haynerd, now thoroughly alarmed both for himself and her, “he would ruin us! This is no affair of ours. We had no intention of hearing; and so let it be as if we had not heard.”
“And let the lie of evil prevail? No, Mr. Haynerd, I could not, if I would. Mr. Ames is being used by evil; and it is making him a channel to ruin Mr. Wales. Shall I stand idly by and permit it? No!”
She rose, with a look of fixed resolution on her face. Haynerd sprang to his feet and laid a detaining hand upon her arm. As he did so, the screen was quickly drawn aside, and Kathleen Ames and two of her young companions bent their curious gaze in upon them. Absorbed in their earnest conversation, Carmen and Haynerd had not heard the approach of the young ladies, who were on a tour of inspection of the house before supper.
“Reporters for the Social Era, Miss Ames,” explained Haynerd, hastily answering the unspoken question, while he made a courteous bow.
But Kathleen had not heard him. “What––you!” she cried, instantly recognizing Carmen, and drawing back. “How dared you! Oh!”
“What is it, dear?” asked one of the young ladies, as her eyes roved over Carmen’s tense, motionless figure.
“You––creature!” cried Kathleen, spurting her venom at Carmen, while her eyes snapped angrily and her hands twitched. “When the front door is closed against you, you sneak in through the back door! Leave this house, instantly, or I shall have you thrown into the street!”
“Why, Kathleen dear!” exclaimed one of her companions. “She is only a reporter!”
53
“She is a low, negro wench!” cried Kathleen maliciously. “She comes from a brothel! She foisted herself upon society, and was discovered and kicked out! Her father is a dirty negro priest, and her mother a low––”
Haynerd rushed to the maddened girl and clapped his hand over her mouth. “Hush, for God’s sake, Miss Ames!” Then, to her companions, “Take her away!” he pleaded. “And we will leave at once!”
But a house detective, attracted by the loud conversation, had come up and interposed. At his signal another one approached. “Bring Mr. Ames,” he quietly commanded. “I can not put them out if they have his permission to remain,” he explained to the angry Kathleen.
In a few moments, during which the little group stood tense and quiet, Ames himself appeared.
“Well?” he demanded. “Ah!” as his eyes lighted upon Carmen. “My little girl! And––so this is your assistant?” turning inquiringly to Haynerd. “By George! Her article in last week’s Social Era was a corker. But,” staring from Kathleen to the others, “what’s the row?”
“I want that creature put out of the house!” demanded Kathleen, trembling with rage and pointing to Carmen.
“Tut, tut,” returned Ames easily. “She’s on business, and has my permission to remain. But, by George! that’s a good joke,” winking at Haynerd and breaking into a loud laugh. “You put one over on us there, old man!” he said.
“Father!” Scalding tears of anger and humiliation were streaming down Kathleen’s face. “If she remains, I shall go––I shall leave the house––I will not stay under the same roof with the lewd creature!”
“Very well, then, run along,” said Ames, taking the humiliated Kathleen by the shoulders and turning her about. “I will settle this without your assistance.” Then he motioned to the house detectives to depart, and turned to Haynerd and Carmen. “Come in here,” he said, leading the way to the little waiting room, and opening the door.
“Lord! but you belong down stairs with the rest,” he ejaculated as he faced Carmen, standing before him pale but unafraid. “There isn’t one down there who is in your class!” he exclaimed, placing his hands upon her shoulders and looking down into her beautiful face. “And,” he continued with sudden determination, “I am going to take you down, and you will sit at the table with me, as my special guest!”
A sudden fear gripped Haynerd, and he started to interpose. But Carmen spoke first.
“Very well, Mr. Ames,” she said quietly. “Take me down. I have a question to ask Mr. Wales when we are at the table.”
54
An expression of surprise and inquiry came into Ames’s face. “Mr. Wales?” he said wonderingly. “You mean Congressman––”
Then he stopped abruptly, and looked searchingly at Carmen and her companion. Haynerd paled. Carmen stood unflinching. Ames’s expression of surprise gave place to one dark and menacing.
“You were behind that screen when Congressman Wales and I––”
“Yes,” returned Carmen calmly. “I overheard all you said. I saw you bribe him.”
Ames stood like a huge, black cloud, glowering down upon the slender girl. She looked up at him and smiled.
“You are going to tell him that the fifty thousand dollars are just a loan, and that he may vote as he chooses, aren’t you?” she said. “You will not ruin his life, and the lives of his wife and babies, will you? You would never be happy, you know, if you did.” Her voice was as quiet as the morning breeze.
“So!” the giant sneered. “You come into my house to play spy, eh? And if I had not caught you when I did you would have written another interesting article for the Social Era, wouldn’t you? By God! I’ll break you, Haynerd, and your infernal sheet into a million pieces if you dare print any such rot as this! And as for you, young lady––”
“You can do nothing to me, Mr. Ames; and you don’t really want to,” said Carmen quickly. “My reputation, you know––that is, the one which you people have given me––is just as black as it could be, isn’t it? So that is safe.” She laughed lightly.
Then she became very serious again. “It doesn’t really make any difference to you, Mr. Ames,” she said, “whether the cotton schedule is passed or not. You still have your millions––oh, so much more than you will ever know what to do with! But Mr. Wales, he has his wife and his babies and his good reputation––would you rob him of those priceless treasures, just to make a few dollars more for yourself?––dollars that you can’t spend, and that you won’t let others have?”
During the girl’s quiet talk Ames was regaining his self-control. When she concluded he turned to Haynerd. “Miss Carmen can step out into the balcony. You and I will arrange this matter together,” he said.
Carmen moved toward the door.
“Now,” said Ames significantly, and in a low voice, “what’s your price?”
Instantly the girl turned back and threw herself between55the two men. “He is not for sale!” she cried, her eyes flashing as she confronted Ames.
“Then, by God!” shouted Ames, who had lost himself completely, “I will crush him like a dirty spider! And you, I’ll drag you through the gutters and make your name a synonym of all that is vile in womanhood!”
Carmen stepped quietly to the elevator and pressed the signal button.
“You shall not leave this house!” cried the enraged Ames, starting toward her. “Or you’ll go under arrest!”
The girl drew herself up with splendid dignity, and faced him fearlessly. “Weshallleave your house, and now, Mr. Ames!” she said. “You and that for which you stand can not touch us! The carnal mind is back of you! Omnipotent God is with us!”
She moved away from him, then turned and stood for a moment, flashing, sparkling, radiant with a power which he could not comprehend. “You know not what you do. You are blinded and deceived by human lust and greed. But the god you so ignorantly worship now will some day totter and fall upon you. Then you will awake, and you will see your present life as a horrid dream.”
The elevator appeared. Carmen and the dazed Haynerd stepped quickly into it and descended without opposition to the lower floor. A few moments later they were again in the street and hurrying to the nearest car line.
“Girlie,” said Haynerd, mopping the perspiration from his brow, “we’re in for it now––and I shall be crushed! But you––I think your God will save you.”
Carmen took his hand. “His arm is not shortened,” she murmured, “that He can not save us both.”
CHAPTER 5
ON the Monday morning following the Ames reception the society columns of the daily papers still teemed with extravagant depictions of the magnificent affair. On that same morning, while Haynerd sat gloomily in the office of the Social Era, meditating on his giant adversary’s probable first move, Carmen, leaving her studies and classes, sought out an unpretentious home in one of the suburbs of the city, and for an hour or more talked earnestly with the timid, frightened little wife of Congressman Wales. Then, her work done, she dismissed the whole affair from her mind, and hastened joyously56back to the University. She would have gone to see Ames himself. “But,” she reflected, as she dwelt on his conduct and words of the previous Saturday evening, “he is not ready for it yet. And when he is, I will go to him. And Kathleen––well, I will help her by seeing only the real child of God, which was hidden that night by the veil of hatred and jealousy. And that veil, after all, is but a shadow.”
That evening the little group of searchers after God assembled again in the peaceful precincts of the Beaubien cottage. It was their third meeting, and they had come together reverently to pursue the most momentous inquiry that has ever stimulated human thought.
Haynerd and Carmen had said little relative to the Ames reception; but the former, still brooding over the certain consequences of his brush with Ames, was dejected and distraught. Carmen, leaning upon her sustaining thought, and conceding no mite of power or intelligence to evil, glowed like a radiant star.
“What are you listening to?” she asked of Haynerd, drawing him to one side. “Are you giving ear to the voices of evil, or good? Which are you making real to yourself? For those thoughts which are real to you will become outwardly manifested, you know.”
“Bah! He’s got us––tight!” muttered Haynerd, with a gesture signifying defeat. “And the insults of that arrogant daughter of his––”
“She did not insult me,” said Carmen quickly. “She could not, for she doesn’t know me. She merely denounced her concept of me, and not my real self. She vilified what she thought was Carmen Ariza; but it was only her own thought of me that she insulted. Can’t you see? And such a concept of me as she holds deserves denouncing, doesn’t it?”
“Well, what are we going to do?” he pursued testily.
“We are going to know,” she whispered, “that we two with God constitute an overwhelming majority.” She said nothing about her visit to the Wales home that morning, but pressed his hand, and then went to take her place at the table, where Father Waite was already rapping for order.
“My friends,” began that earnest young man, looking lovingly about at the little group, “as we are gathered here we symbolize that analytical, critical endeavor of the unbiased human mind to discover the essence of religion. Religion is that which binds us to absolute truth, and so is truth itself. If there is a God, we believe from our former investigations that He must be universal mind. This belief carries with it as necessary corollaries the beliefs that He must be perfect, eternal,57and self-existent. The question, Who made God? must then receive its sufficient answer in the staggering statement that He has always existed, unchanged and unchangeable.”
A sigh from Haynerd announced that quizzical soul’s struggle to grasp a statement at once so radical and stupendous.
“True,” continued Father Waite, addressing himself to his doubting friend, “the acceptance as fact of what we have deduced in our previous meetings must render the God of orthodox theology quite obsolete. But, as a compensation, it gives to us the most enlarged and beautiful concept of Him that we have ever had. It ennobles, broadens, purifies, and elevates our idea of Him. It destroys forever our belittling view of Him as but a magnified human character, full of wrath and caprice and angry threats, and delighting in human ceremonial and religious thaumaturgy. And, most practical of all for us, it renders the age-long problem of evil amenable to solution.”
Just then came a ring at the front door; and a moment later the Beaubien ushered Doctor Morton into the room. All rose and hastened to welcome him.
“I––I am sure,” began the visitor, looking at Carmen, “that I am not intruding, for I really come on invitation, you know. Miss Carmen, first; and then, our good friend Hitt, who told me this afternoon that you would probably meet this evening. I––I pondered the matter some little time––ah, but––well, to make it short, I couldn’t keep away from a gathering so absolutely unique as this––I really couldn’t.”
Carmen seized both his hands. “My!” she exclaimed, her eyes dancing, “I am glad you came.”
“And I, too,” interposed Haynerd dryly, “for now we have two theological Philistines. I was feeling a bit lonely.”
“Ah, my friend,” replied the doctor, “I am simply an advocate of religious freedom, not a––”
“And religious freedom, as our wise Bill Nye once said, is but the art of giving intolerance a little more room, eh?” returned Haynerd with a laugh.
The doctor shrugged his shoulders. “You are a Philistine,” he said. “I am a human interrogation.”
Carmen took the doctor by the arm and led him to a place beside her at the table. “You––you didn’t bring poor Yorick?” she whispered, with a glint of mischief in her bright eyes.
“No,” laughed the genial visitor, “he’s a dead one, you told me.”
“Yes,” replied the girl, “awfully dead! He is an outward manifestation of dead human beliefs, isn’t he? But now listen, Father Waite is going to speak.”
After a brief explanation to the doctor of the purpose of58the meeting, and a short résumé of their previous deductions, Father Waite continued the exposition of his subject.
“The physical universe,” he said, “is to human beings a reality. And yet, according to Spencer’s definition of reality, we must admit that the universe as we see it is quite unreal. For the real is that which endures.”
“And you mean to say that the universe will not endure?” queried Haynerd abruptly.
“I do,” replied Father Waite. “The phenomena of the universe, even as we see it, are in a state of ceaseless change. Birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death seems to be the law for all things material. There is perpetual genesis, and perpetual exodus.”
“But,” again urged Haynerd, “matter itself remains, is indestructible.”
“Not so,” said Father Waite. “Our friend, Doctor Morton, will corroborate my statement, I am sure.”
The doctor nodded. “It is quite true,” he said in reply. “And as revolutionary as true. The discovery, in the past few years, of the tremendously important fact that matter disintegrates and actually disappears, has revolutionized all physical science and rendered the world’s text books obsolete.”
“And matter actually disappears?” echoed Miss Wall incredulously.
“Absolutely!” interposed Hitt. “The radium atom, we find, lasts some seventeen hundred years, or a trifle longer. What becomes of it when it is destroyed? We can only say that it disappears from human consciousness.”
“And so you reason that the whole material universe will ultimately disappear from the human consciousness?”
“Yes,” returned Hitt, “I feel certain of it. Let us consider of what the universe consists. For many months I have been pondering this topic incessantly. I find that I can agree, in a measure, with those scientists who regard the physical universe as composed of only a few elementary constituents, namely, matter, energy, space, and time––”
“Each one of these elements is mental,” interrupted Carmen.
“Exactly!” replied Hitt. “And the physical universe, even from the human standpoint, is, therefore, wholly mental.”
“Well, but we see it!” ejaculated Haynerd. “And we feel and hear it! And I’m sure we smell it!”
Hitt laughed. “Do we?” he asked.
“No,” interposed Father Waite; “we see only our mental concept of a universe, for seeing is wholly a mental process. Our comprehension of anything is entirely mental.”
59
“But now,” resumed Hitt, “to get back to the supposed reality of the physical universe, let us examine its constituents. First, let us consider its unity established by the harmonious interplay of the forces permeating it. This great fact is what led Herbert Spencer to conclude that the universe could have but one creator, one ruler, and that polytheism was untenable.”
“We are quite agreed regarding that,” said Father Waite. “If the Creator is mind, He is of very necessity infinite and omnipotent; hence there can be but one Creator.”
“Very well,” continued Hitt. “Now as to time. Is it material or tangible? Would it exist, but as a convenience for the human mind? Is it not really a creation of that mind? And, lastly, is it not merely a mental concept?”
“Our consciousness of time,” replied Carmen, “is only our awareness of a continuous series of mental states.”
“That classifies it exactly,” said Hitt, “and renders it wholly mental. And now as to space,” he resumed. “We are accustomed to say, loosely, that space is that in which we see things about us. But in what does the process of seeing consist? I say, I see a chair. What I really mean is that I am conscious of a chair. The process of seeing, we are told, is this: light, coming from the chair, enters the eye and casts an image of the chair upon the retina, much as a picture is thrown upon the ground glass of a camera. Then, in some way, the little rods and cones––the branching tips of the optic nerve which project from the retina––are set in motion by the light-waves. This vibration is in some mysterious manner carried along the optic nerve to a center in the brain, and––well, then the mind becomes cognizant of the chair out there, that’s all.”
They sat silent for some moments. Then Miss Wall spoke. “Do you mean to say,” she queried, “that, after thousands of years of thought and investigation, mankind now know nothing more than that about the process of seeing?”
“I do,” returned Hitt. “I confess it in all humility.”
“Then all I’ve got to say,” put in Haynerd, “is that the most remarkable thing about you learned men is your ignorance!”
The doctor smiled. “I find it is only the fool who is cocksure,” he replied.
“Now,” said Hitt, resuming the conversation, “let us go a step further and inquire, first, What is light? since the process of seeing is absolutely dependent upon it.”
“Light,” offered the doctor, “is vibrations, or wave-motion, so physicists tell us.”
“Just so,” resumed Hitt. “Light, we say, consists of vibrations. Not vibrations of anything tangible or definitely material,60but––well, just vibrations in the abstract. It is vibratory or wave motion. Now let us concede that these vibrations in some way get to the brain center; and then let us ask, Is the mind there, in the brain, awaiting the arrival of these vibrations to inform it that there is a chair outside?”
Haynerd indulged in a cynical laugh.
“It is too serious for laughter, my friend,” said Hitt. “For to such crude beliefs as this we may attribute all the miseries of mankind.”
“How is that?” queried Miss Wall in surprise.
“Simply because these beliefs constitute the general belief in a universe of matter without and about us. As a plain statement of fact,there is no such thing. But, I ask again, Is the mind within the brain, waiting for vibrations that will give it information concerning the external world? Or does the mind, from some focal point without the brain, look first at these vibrations, and then translate them into terms of things without? Do these vibrations in some way suggest form and color and substance to the waiting mind? Does the mind first look at vibrating nerve-points, and then form its own opinions regarding material objects? Does anything material enter the eye?”
“No,” admitted the doctor; “unless we believe that vibrationsper seare material.”
“Now I ask, Is the mind reduced to such slavery that it must depend upon vibrations for its knowledge of an outside world?” continued Hitt. “And vibrations of minute pieces of flesh, at that! Flesh that will some day decay and leave the mind helpless!”
“Absurd!” exclaimed Haynerd. “Why doesn’t the mind look directly at the chair, instead of getting its knowledge of the chair through vibrations of bits of meat? Or isn’t there any chair out there to look at?”
“There!” exclaimed Hitt. “Now you’ve put your mental finger upon it. And now we are ready to nail to the cross of ignominy one of the crudest, most insensate beliefs of the human race.The human mind gets nothing whatsoever from vibrations, from the human, fleshly eye, nor from any one of the five so-called physical senses!The physical sense-testimony which mankind believe they receive from the eyes, the ears, and the other sense organs, can, even at best, consist only of a lot of disconnected, unintelligible vibrations; and anything that the mind may infer from such vibrations is inferredwithout any outside authority whatsoever!”
“Well!” ejaculated Miss Wall and Haynerd in a breath.
“And, further,” continued Hitt, “we are forced to admit61that all that the mind knows is the contents of itself, of its own consciousness, and nothing more. Then, instead of seeing, hearing, and feeling real material objects outside of ourselves, we are in reality seeing, hearing, and feeling our own mental concepts of things––in other words,our own thoughts of things!”
A deep silence lay for some moments over the little group at the conclusion of Hitt’s words. Then Doctor Morton nodded his acquiescence in the deduction. “And that,” he said, “effectually disposes of the question of space.”
“There is no space, Doctor,” replied Hitt. “Space is likewise a mental concept. The human mind sees, hears, and feels nothing but its own thoughts. These it posits within itself with reference to one another, and calls the process ‘seeing material objects in space.’ The mind as little needs a space in which to see things as in which to dream them. I repeat, we do not see external things, or things outside of ourselves. We see always and only the thoughts that are within our own mentalities. Everything is within.”
“That’s why,” murmured Carmen, “Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is within you.’”
“Exactly!” said Hitt. “Did he not call evil, and all that originates in matter, the lie about God? And a lie is wholly mental. I tell you, the existence of a world outside of ourselves, an objective world composed of matter, is wholly inferred––it is mental visualizing––and it is unreal, for it is not based upon fact, upon truth!”
“Then,” queried Haynerd, “our supposed ‘outer world’ is but our collection of thought-concepts which we hold within us, within our own consciousness, eh?”
“Yes.”
“But––the question of God?”
“We are ready for that again,” replied Hitt. “We have said that in the physical universe all is in a state of incessant change. Since the physical universe is but a mental concept to each one of us, we must admit that, were the concept based upon truth, it would not change. Our concept of the universe must be without the real causative and sustaining principle of all reality, else would it not pass away. And yet, beneath and behind all these changes,somethingendures. What is it? Matter? No. There is an enduring substance, invisible to human sight, but felt and known through its own influence. Is it law? Yes. Mind? Yes. Ideas? Yes. But none of these things is in any sense material. The material is the fleeting, human concept, composed of thought that isnotbased upon reality. These other things, wholly mental, or spiritual, if you62prefer, are based upon that ‘something’ which does endure, and which I will call the Causative Principle. It is the Universal Mind. It is what you loosely call God.”
“Then did God make matter?” persisted Haynerd.
“I think,” interposed Doctor Morton at this juncture, “that I can throw some light upon the immaterial character of matter, if I may so put it; for even our physical reasoning throws it entirely into the realm of the mental.”
“Good!” exclaimed Hitt. “Let us hear from you, Doctor.”
The doctor sat for some moments in a deep study. Then he began:
“The constitution of matter, speaking now from an admittedly materialistic standpoint, that of the physical sciences, is a subject of vastest interest and importance to mankind, for human existenceismaterial.
“The ultimate constituent of matter has been called the atom. But we have said little when we have said that. The atom was once defined as a particle of matter so minute as to admit of no further division. That definition has gone to the rubbish heap, for the atom can now be torn to pieces. But––and here is the revolutionary fact in modern physical science––it is no longer held necessary that matter should consist of material particles!In fact, the great potential discovery of our day is that matter is electrical in composition, that it is composed of what are called ‘electrons,’ and that these electrons are themselves composed of electric charges. But what is an electric charge? Is it matter? No, not as we know matter. Is it even material? We can not say that it is. It is without weight, bulk, dimensions, or tangibility. Well, then, it comes dangerously near being a mental thing, known to the human mind solely by its manifestations, does it not? And of course our comprehension of it is entirely mental, as is our comprehension of everything.”
He paused for a moment, that his words might be fully grasped. Then he went on:
“Now these atoms, whatever they are, are supposed to join together to form molecules. What brings them together thus? Affinity, we are told. And what is affinity? Why, it is––well, law, if you please. And law? A mental thing, we must admit. Very good. Then, going a step further, molecules are held together by cohesion to form material objects, chairs, trees, coal, and the like. But what is cohesion? Is it glue? Cement? Ah, no! Again, it is law. And law is mental.”
“But, Doctor––” interrupted Haynerd.
The doctor held up a detaining hand. “Let me finish,” he said. “Now we have the very latest word from our physical63scientists regarding the constitution of matter:it is composed of electric charges, held together by law.Again, you may justly ask: Is matter material––or mental?”
He paused again, and took up a book that lay before him.
“Here,” he continued, “I hold a solid, material, lumpy thing, composed, you will say, of matter. And yet, in essence, and if we can believe our scientists, this book is composed of billions of electric charges––invisible things, without form, without weight, without color, without extension, held together by law, and making up a material object which has mass, color, weight, and extension. From millions of things which are invisible and have no size, we get an object, visible and extended.”
“It’s absurd!” exclaimed Miss Wall.
“Granted,” interposed Hitt. “Yet, the doctor is giving the very latest deductions of the great scientists.”
“But, Doctor,” said Father Waite, “the scientists tell us that they have experimental evidence in support of the theories which you have stated regarding the composition of matter. Electricity has been proven granular, or atomic, in structure. And every electrical charge consists of an exact number of electrical atoms spread out over the surface of the charged body. All this admits of definite calculation.”
“Admitted,” said Hitt, taking up the challenge. “And their very calculations and deductions are rapidly wearing away the ‘materialistic theory’ of matter. You will admit that mathematics is wholly confined to the realm of mind. It is a strictly mental science, in no way material. It loses definiteness when ‘practically’ applied to material objects. Kant saw this, and declared that a science might be regarded as further removed from or nearer to perfection in proportion to the amount of mathematics it contained. Now there has been an astonishing confirmation of this great truth just lately. At a banquet given in honor of the discoverer of wireless telegraphy it was stated that the laws governing the traversing of space by the invisible electric waves were more exact than the general laws of physics, where very complex formulas and coefficients are required for correcting the general laws, due to surrounding material conditions. The greater exactness of laws governing the invisible electric waves was said to be due to the absence of matter. And it was further stated thatwhenever matter had to be taken into consideration there could be no exact law of action!”“Which shows––?”
“That matter admits of no definite laws,” replied Hitt. “That there are no real laws of matter. And that definiteness is attained only as we dematerialize matter itself.”
64
“In other words, get into the realm of the mental?”
“Just so. And now for the application. I have said that we do not receive any testimony whatsoever through the so-called material senses, but that we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell our own thoughts––that is, the thoughts which, from some source, come into our mentalities. Very well, our scientists show us that, as they get farther away from dense material thoughts, and deal more and more with those which have less material structure, less material composition, their laws become more definite, more exact. Following this out to its ultimate conclusion, we may say, then, thatonly those laws which have to do with the non-material are perfect.”
“And those,” said Carmen, “are the laws of mind.”
“Exactly! And now the history of physical science shows that there has been a constant deviation from the old so-called fixed ‘laws of matter.’ The law of impenetrability has had to go. A great physicist tells us that, when dealing with sufficiently high speeds, matter has no such property as impenetrability. Mass is a function of velocity. The law of indestructibility has had to go. Matter deteriorates and goes to pieces. The material elements are not fixed. The decided tendency of belief is toward a single element, of which all matter is composed, and of which the eighty-odd constituent elements of matter accepted to-day are but modifications. That unit element may be the ether, of course. And the great Russian chemist, Mendeleef, so believed. But to us, the ether is a mental thing, a theory. But, granting its existence,its universal penetrability renders matter, as we know it, non-existent. Everything reduces to the ether, in the final analysis. And all energy becomes vibrations in and of the ether.”
“And the ether,” supplemented the doctor, “has to be without mass, invisible, tasteless, intangible, much more rigid than steel, and at the same time some six hundred billion times lighter than air, in order to fulfill all the requirements made of it and to meet all conditions.”
“Yes; and yet the ether is a very necessary theory, if we are going to continue to explain the phenomena of force on a material basis.”
“But if we abandon that basis––?”
“Then,” said Carmen, “matter reduces to what it really is, the human mind’sinterpretationof substance.”
“Yes,” said Hitt, turning to her; “I think you are right; matter is the way real substance––let us say, spirit––looks to the human mentality. It is the way the human mind interprets its ideas of spirit. In other words, the human mind looks at the material thoughts and ideas which enter it, and calls65them solid substance, occupying space––calls them matter, with definite laws, and, in certain forms, containing life and intelligence.”
“Aye, that is it!” said Father Waite. “And that has been the terrible mistake of the ages, the one great error, the one lie, that has caused us all to miss the mark and come short, far short, of the glory of the mind that is God.There is the origin of the problem of evil!”
“Undoubtedly,” replied Hitt. “For evil is in essence but evil thought. And evil thought is invariably associated with matter. The origin of all evil is matter itself. And matter, we find, is but a mental concept, a thing of thought. Oh, the irony of it!”
“Well,” put in Haynerd, who had been twitching nervously in his chair, “let’s get to the conclusion of this very learned discussion. I’m a plain man, and I’d like to know just where we’ve landed. What have you said that I can take home with me? The earth still revolves around the sun, even if it is a mean mud ball. And I can’t see that I can get along with less than three square meals a day.”
“We have arrived,” replied Hitt gravely, “at a most momentous conclusion, deduced by the physical scientists themselves, namely, thatthings are not what they seem. In other words, all things material seem to reduce to vibrations in and of the ether; the basis of all materiality is energy, motion, activity––mental things. All the elements of matter seem to be but modifications of one all-pervading element. That element is probably the ether, often called the ‘mother of matter.’ The elements, such as carbon, silicon, and the others, are not elementary at all, but are forms of one universal element, the ether. Hence, atoms are not atoms. The so-called rare elements are rare only because their lives are short. They disintegrate rapidly and change into other forms of the universal element––or disappear. ‘Atoms are but fleeting phases of matter,’ we are told. They are by no means eternal, even though they may endure for millions of years.”
“Y-e-s?” commented Haynerd with a yawn.
“A great scientist of our own day,” Hitt continued, “has said that ‘the ether is so modified as to constitute matter, in some way.’ What does that mean? Simply that ‘visible matter and invisible ether are one and the same thing.’ But to the five so-called physical senses the ether is utterly incomprehensible. So, then, matter is wholly incomprehensible to the five physical senses. What is it, then, that we call matter? It can be nothing more than the human mind’s interpretation of its idea of an all-pervading, omnipresentsomething, a something which represents substance to it.”
66
“Let me add a further quotation from the great physical scientist to whom you have referred,” said the doctor. “He has said that the ether isnotmatter, but that it is material. And further, that we can not deny that the ether may have some mental and spiritual functions to subserve in some other order of existence, as matter has in this. It is wholly unrelated to any of our senses. The sense of sight takes cognizance of it, but only in a very indirect and not easily recognized way. And yet––stupendous conclusion!––without the ether there could be no material universe at all!”
“In other words,” said Hitt, “the whole fabric of the material universe depends upon something utterly unrecognizable by the five physical senses.”
“Exactly!” replied the doctor.
“Then,” concluded Hitt, “the physical senses give us no information whatsoever of a real physical universe about us.”
“And so,” added Father Waite, “we come back to Carmen’s statement, namely, that seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling are mental processes, in no way dependent upon the outer fleshly organs of sense––”
“Nonsense!” interjected Haynerd. “Why is it, then, that if the eyes are destroyed we do not see?”
“Simply, my friend, because of human belief,” replied Hitt. “The human mind has been trained for untold centuries to dependence upon beliefs in the reality of matter, and beliefs in its dependence upon material modes for sight, hearing, touch, and so on. It is because of its erroneous beliefs that the human mind is to-day enslaved by matter, and dependent upon it for its very sense of existence. The human mind has made its sense of sight dependent upon a frail, pulpy bit of flesh, the eye. As long as that fleshly organ remains intact, the human mind sees its sense of sight externalized in the positing of its mental concepts about it as natural objects. But let that fleshly eye be destroyed, and the human mind sees its belief of dependence upon the material eye externalized as blindness. When the fleshly eye is gone the mind declares that it can no longer see. And what it declares as truth, as fact, becomes externalized to it. I repeat, the human mind sees and hears only its thoughts, its beliefs. And holding to these beliefs, and making them real to itself, it eventually sees them externalized in what it calls its outer world, its environment, its universe. And yet, the materialistic scientists themselves show that the human mind can take no cognizance whatever through the five physical senses of the all-pervading basis of its very existence, the ether. And the ether––alas! it is but a theory which we find necessary for any intelligible explanation of the farce of human existence on a material basis.”