CHAPTER IIIMEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS
Into this arena of the inquiring soul of man, came Modern Spiritualism.
It contained little or nothing new, as to methods, aims, or results.
The Church, Protestant and Catholic alike, uttered their warnings, called it “dealings with the devil,” but divested of political authority and without power to arrest or persecute, as in the past, were unable to stay the tide. It swept the country like a whirlwind. The average individual, desiring to know and to get tidings from departed friends, was unrestrained and unterrified.
He could not see why, if the gates were really ajar, angels might not communicate, no less than devils.
Then came the cry of “fraud,” often amply justified, and a cloud of uncertainty and unreliability settled over the phenomena generally. Unscrupulous men and women seeing their opportunity, sophisticated and exploited it, and “exposures” of these became common.
But in spite of all this, there remained facts, and groups of phenomena impossible to explain away.
Finally, men like Crookes and Wallace took up the subject and investigated the phenomena, not from the emotional, expectant, or fraternal aspect, but from the purely scientific, and rendered their verdict, which, though frequently ignored or treated with contempt, remains practically unaltered.
Thousands became convinced of thefactof life beyond the grave, and at the same time of the unreliability of many so-called “communications.” Finally the “Society for Psychical Research” was formed; phenomena were searchingly examined, verified, and recorded as a basis for further research.
The posthumous work of F. W. H. Myers, “Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death,” added to the Society’s records and many other publications a record of verified facts in psychic phenomena such as never before existed, and which nothing short of a cataclysm can destroy.
In the meantime, the “dark circle” went into desuetude, and Spiritualism, as a cult, declined. Accepting the broad conclusion of a life after death, and with no very clear demonstration as to exactly where, or how, the case rested largely.
The reason for this obscurity was to be found in the absence of clear conceptions as to the nature of the human soul, and what life on the spiritual plane really signifies.
In other words, the foundation was laid empirically to await classification and conclusions in a comprehensive Philosophy of Psychology, consistent with a science of the soul; and there it remainsto-day with the average individual, and the average man of physical or psychical science.
Returning now from this brief excursion into the social status, to the problem as related to the mental, moral, and physical health of individuals, and bearing in mind our Modulus of Man, and Theorem of Constructive Psychology, we find the annals of Spiritualism, Mediumship, or subjective control, of exceeding importance.
Another plane of life exists. Individuals on either plane communicate with the controlling entity on the supra-physical plane.
The Medium is invariably subjective and controlled. He has no choice of controls, and often no knowledge (never reliable knowledge) as to who or what controls him. He is sometimes informed by his “guide” as to the control’s identity, and learns, often, that he and his circle have been deceived by ignorant or “lying spirits.”
The whole process reverses our Modulus and Theorem of Constructive Psychology, the building of character and normal evolution.
The most important consideration at this point is its relation to the sanity of individuals.
There are thousands of individuals to-day, who, failing in rational volition, or self-control, are controlled by entities on the subjective plane. They areobsessed.
This subjective control without the knowledge or consent of the victim, and unrecognized and generally called “absurd” by “Alienists” and “experts,”constitutes a very large per cent, of the insane to-day, and because ignored or unrecognized, these cases are classed as “Incurable.”
It should be remembered that the annals of Spiritualism, and the records of scientific Psychical Research, havedemonstratedthe possibility and thefactof such control. It should also be remembered that the average “expert alienist” is guided solely by results of such obsession, where it occurs; that he is blind to causes, liable to exclude or taboo obsession, and therefore largely liable to err.
In other words, he is prejudiced; and his bias and incredulity blind him to the facts and to the real causes.
He could hardly be expected to make the obsessionlet go, while denying that it exists. But hemighthelp the victim gainSelf-controlif he but recognized the facts and knew how.
Realizing the fact of the connection of the two worlds, the physical and the spiritual, and communication between them in the subjective or irresponsible way, the question naturally arises, “Is there not another way of communication? May not the Individual Intelligence on the physical plane communicate with the denizens of the spiritual planeat his own volition, independently? May he not learn to see and hear them without attempting, or desiring tocontrolthem, more than he does his associates, his friends and neighbors on the physical plane, or allowing them to control him?”
Is it not purely a question offact, and of scientificdemonstration, to be determined by experiment?
This question leads us to another phase of psychology and the records of the past. There have been Seers, Clairvoyants, and Clairaudiants in all ages.
Unlike the psychical phenomena already referred to,—and belonging to the positive and initiative, rather than the negative and subjective side of the psychical equation,—these seers have been fewer in number, and are always individuals showing a high degree of self-control, and of intellectual and moral evolution.
Admitting the general propositions involved, it can readily be seen that this must be so from the very nature of the case. The Masters of mankind, in any and all directions have been few. The slaves, through ignorance, superstition and fear, have been legions. Those who have gained habitual self-control, and finally self-mastery, knowledge and power, have been few; while the majority have been controlled by their own appetites and passions, and by other individuals.
This self-mastery and higher evolution also includes another element beside strength of character, and that is, Refinement.
In other words; it is, from first to last, a journey from the gross and sensuous physical plane, toward the refined and spiritual plane, involving all the faculties, capacities, and powers, feelings, sensations, emotions, intuitions, and aspirations of man. It is, in short, a normal, higher evolution.
All the elements of this higher evolution are basic and innate in the original endowment of man. By exercise, the latent faculties, capacities and powers grow, expand, and develop. Self-control, rational volition, and the sense of personal responsibility, (conscience) make the evolution conformatory to the Modulus—the Perfect Man.
As this human being, dwelling on the physical plane,evolves, the spiritual faculties of the Divine Man areinvolved from the spiritual plane. When this simultaneous and co-ordinate development is complete, the Human and the Divine areat-onein the Individual.
This at-one-ment is the exact opposite of “vicarious.” It is the result of personal effort and self-mastery.
The dogma of the church has so completely sophisticated it as to turn normal evolution intodevolution; and, so far as it has any effect, or is operative at all, to turn man backward toward the animal, instead of upward toward the Divine.
Seership and Spiritual powers, therefore, as the result of “Living the Life,” areEvolutionary. Mediumship, subjective control, and obsession in any form, or in whatsoever degree, areDevolutionary.
Progress along either line may be very slow, but the trend is as opposite as is the East from the West, as Light from Darkness, as Good from Evil.
By classifying these powers of man and psychical phenomena to which they give rise, whether in theconscious, inner realm, in functions of the bodily organism, or observable to others, we are able to assign each to its proper class with considerable accuracy.
Both evolutionary and devolutionary progress, with the ordinary individual, are slow processes. Seldom is either process a designed and straightforward climbing, or a quick descent “into the dark abyss.”
Consequently, as the human race evolves as a whole, relatively more and more individuals are found who “get flashes” of sight or sound, more or less from the subjective or spiritual plane of being. There are intuitions, “warnings,” and premonitions of coming events. Some seek and cultivate, others fear and avoid them.
They are mostly on the “border-land,” if not on the “ragged-edge” of insanity. It is only necessary to further weaken the will, or to indulge the passions and emotions, in order to decide the matter, derange the mind, and send the individual to an asylum.
On the other hand, with individuals who lead a clean, cheerful, well-ordered life, these experiences may mean encouragement, confirmation, and progress toward the spiritual realm of being. They should be observed carefully, but notcultivated. They may serve as guide-posts and as mere incidents of a day’s journey.
The average popular cult to-day, as often in the past, where psychical phenomena are involved, resultsin converting the normal mental realm, the realm of normal self-consciousness, into a vaudeville performance; a mere “Variety Show,” where all due sense of proportion and relation is lost.
In place of the normal Individual Intelligence, sitting serenely on the throne of life and ruling his Kingdom with justice, wisdom and paternal love, the king joins the melee of acrobats and dancing girls, encourages the orchestra till, in a pandemonium of revelry, he puts out the lights, or in wild frenzy fires the building.
Sometimes it claims to “command success” bydemandingit; or wealth without earning it; or health without regard to hygienic law; or by “taking a Mantram” to open the gates of heaven. Or again, by servile obedience to the freaks or dogmas of a “Leader” or “Official Head” and adulationad nauseam, to gain admission to the “Elect.”
One and all of these, from first to last, tend toward Devolution. They are destructive, not constructive, in building character and true manhood and womanhood.
Again, the Monk or the devotee abandons society, becomes a recluse, flees into the desert or the mountain, subsists upon roots or herbs, sits in one posture till the joints of the body become fixed, holds the arms above the head till they become immovable, and the finger nailsturn and grow through the palms of the hands; or sits gazing at the navel and repeating the wordOm.
Indeed, it would seem that the ways and meansto stop normal growth, constructive evolution and healthy living, had been well-nigh exhausted.
The enthusiast, the fanatic and the “easy mark” of to-day are seldom aware of any of these things, and so they are bled, fleeced, and exploited accordingly. “All is Mind!” “Great is Elijah!” or “Mrs.” Elijah, and Oahspe is his Prophet! while Babel reigns in the place of Natural Science.
The Theosophical Movement inaugurated in this country by H. P. Blavatsky in 1875, differed essentially and radically from all others; first, in placing ethics as the first stone in the foundation of a real knowledge of the nature of man. Its objects as concisely stated at the time were—
First: To establish anucleusfor a Universal Brotherhood of Man.
Second: To study ancient religions, philosophies and sciences, and determine their relations and values.
Third: To investigate the Psychical Powers latent in Man.
Hospitality to Truth from any source and under any name, was characteristic of the movement during the entire lifetime of the Founders.
Dogma was eliminated, Authority beyond facts and demonstrated truth denied, and Superstition regarded as only another name for ignorance.
While the facts and the demonstrations of Science were recognized, and given the largest hospitality, nevertheless, the “Secret Doctrine” and, in a broad sense, the whole movement was an effortto present to modern times, and particularly to the Western world, the most ancient and pure philosophy of old India, theVedantaor “Wisdom-Religion.”
An immense work of rejuvenation has gone on in India, particularly in the establishment and maintenance of Schools for Girls, and in the relief of poverty and discouragement of the teeming millions.
An immense literature was created, not yet appreciated, except by students here and there, who found light, explanation, and encouragement in their studies of the mysteries of Nature and of life.
Since the death of the founders of the Society, in this country at least, only a few branches and fragments of the original organization now remain.
“Leaders” and “Official Heads” often wholly ignorant of the Philosophy, which colossal egotism and exploitation could hardly supply, have brought the very names “Theosophy” and “Brotherhood” into contempt and ridicule in many sections.
As some of these “official heads” are still in evidence, final results cannot now be formulated, and need not be here considered or forecast. The evidence is not all in.
Personally, I desire to record my great indebtedness and highest appreciation of a noble life and a magnificent work accomplished by one of the most remarkable and unselfish women known to history, and for the light and knowledge which she made accessible, and which I still hold, practically unchanged,but with the theorems of Natural Science, in place of the postulates of Philosophy as better fitting “the progressive intelligence” of the present time.
The two lines of presentation when clearly apprehended are not antagonistic, but supplementary. Their aims and purpose are the same.
CHAPTER IVTHE MEASURE OF VALUES
This is a very utilitarian age. Start almost any subject, propose almost any scheme, adventure, or investment, and the question is asked, “Will it pay?” The multitude are cautious; the lower stratum, the unsuccessful—the poor and the oppressed—are envious and often bitter and resentful; the successful are often reckless, dissipated, and proud.
I am not writing an essay on Economics, but on Ethics and Psychology; on the character, value, and use of the resourceswithinourselves; ourreal possessions. Here only may be foundactual values.
I am not considering the “hereafter,” as to “rewards and punishments”; what gods, devils, angels, or men may doto us, here or hereafter; but what we may (if we choose) dofor ourselves.
This question is practical to the last degree. Put the question, “does it pay?” and I answer: It pays like nothing else on earth; it is the only thing that is independent of time, place, or circumstance.
It concerns man’sactual possessions, of which nothing in “the three worlds” can ever dispossess him. I know of nothing so beneficent, in anyconcept of God or Nature, Providence or Destiny, as this birthright and opportunity of man, to build character, andbewhat he chooses to be.
He who knows his power, realizes his opportunity and utilizes his resources, may build a Palace of the Soul, in which he may dwell, literally, in a “kingdom of heaven.” And because God is the Architect, and Man the Contractor and Builder, working strictly to the “plans” and the designs, “that house shall stand.” It is founded on the “Rock of Ages.”
Did anyone ever know or see a noble character that was not built by the Individual himself, by personal effort, by self-control, by self-denial, by justice and kindness to others; often in the face of Poverty; often in spite of wealth; often in the face of sickness, pain and deformity; perhaps deaf and dumb and blind; and yet, like Helen Keller, the soul triumphant and glorified?
To-day, as I write, I went to the Crematory to see the dissolution of a poor, twisted, deformed, and tortured body of a woman past fifty, in which had dwelt a soul so serene, cheerful, and patient, that the beatitudes clustered around her, like doves in a garden of roses. It required no stretch of the imagination to determine what society she had entered. “Like seeks like,” and each “goes to his own place.” Her motive, the day-star of her life, was the Mother-Love for an only son. In spite of poverty and pain, she must reward him for love and loyalty, by being bright and cheerful and bybelittling her own discomfort to save him sorrow.
Her reward was the growth of the soul that has now risen to its great reward, and dearer and sweeter than all this to the Mother-heart, was to see and realize the growth, the tenderness, and the beautifying of the soul of the Son.
Did it pay? I can almost hear her shouting for joy as she joins the anthem of the Invisible Choir of Helpers that welcome her just over the border. She prayed many times, even the last time I saw her, before the great change, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” I could only say, “Wait just a little longer,” with the assurance that every shadow of darkness shall be transformed into dazzling light, and every drop of bitterness into the nectar of the Gods. She was almost deaf and blind, but you should have heard the sweetness in her voice and seen the radiance in her face. I did not know that the end was so near.
To the son, the sweetest sound on earth was that mother’s voice, but, though silent for a thousand years, he would not recall her to one moment of the old torture. His sorrow forhimselfis swallowed up and glorified in his joy for her release.
And what is all this but a lesson in practical psychology, the growth of the soul?
Does it pay? Ask that Mother; ask that Son now. “How do you know?” How do you know anything, except as you see, or experience it?
Character reveals itself. It cannot long hide itself.When the check goes to the bank the resources are there. The Bank of God, and of Nature, and of Compensation, and Eternal Justice, cannot fail. Its resources are infinite.
Independent of time, place, or circumstance, I said: Intrinsic, Inalienable.
Take another illustration almost at random. A cultured soul, winning its way alone, and at great disadvantage.
In the middle of the tenth century lived Farabi, or Alfarabi. He did not confine himself to the Koran, but fathomed the most useful and interesting sciences. He visited Sifah Doulet, the Sultan of Syria. The Sultan was surrounded by the learned who were conversing with him on the sciences.
Farabi entered the salon where they were assembled and remained standing till the Emperor desired that he should be seated; at which the philosopher, by a freedom rather astonishing, went and sat on the end of the Sultan’s sofa. The Prince, surprised at his boldness, called one of his officers and commanded him, in a tongue not generally known, to put out the intruder. The philosopher heard him, and replied in the same tongue, “O Signor! he who acts so hastily is subject to repent.” The Prince was no less astonished by his reply than by his manner and assurance.
Wishing to know more of him, he began a conference among his philosophers, in which Farabi disputed with so much eloquence and energy that he reduced all the doctors to silence. Then theSultan ordered music, and when the musicians entered, Farabi accompanied them upon the lute with so much delicacy as to win the admiration of all present. He then drew out, at the Sultan’s request, a piece of his own composition, and sang it with his own accompaniment, and had the audience first in laughter, and then in tears—and to complete his Magic, changed to another piece and put them all asleep.
The Sultan in vain urged Farabi to remain near his person, and offered him a high position in his household.
Voluminous writings of Farabi are preserved in the library at Leyden.
“A tale of the Arabian Nights,” you may say, and yet it is historic. It reveals the fact that resources, character, and wisdom, in the end triumph and surmount all obstacles. They are intrinsic and permanent values.
They may remain unknown or unappreciated by others, but they are none the less riches to him who possesses them.
It was during this same tenth century in which Alfarabi lived, that there existed at Baghdad a Society composed of Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, and Atheists, for the purpose of Philosophical discussions and scientific investigation; and it was doubtless under this influence that Alfarabi was educated and enabled to cope with the philosophers of the world. Here in Arabia was the highest culture known at the time, in Medicine and all theArts and Sciences, while the Ecclesiastics were inaugurating the dark ages elsewhere, to eventually spread over the whole of Europe.
Here and there have always appeared individuals superior to their age and time; men who dug to the foundations of knowledge, built character, accumulated resources, and left their impress upon all subsequent time.
Nor has this accumulation of real knowledge been derived from books and schools, though these resources have not been neglected.
Real culture of the Individual has always consisted in the realization of the latent powers of man, in bringing these to light, in learning by experience how to use them. Hence arise self-knowledge, self-control, and a higher evolution.
It is not a mere technical, intellectual acquirement, the ability to define principles and formulate propositions. It rather consists in testing them out in actual experience; first by self-analysis to become familiar with the real self, its capacities and powers, its motives and aims in life; and having grasped and adjusted all these, then to start consciously, deliberately, determinedly, and intelligently, on “the road to the South,” on the upward climb toward the Light.
“Possessions,” with the great majority of individuals, mean something outward, in space and time; what we have, and, for the time hold, rather than what we are. The average idea of enjoyment is something altogether superficial and transient. Itis found, or supposed to be found, in variety of sensations, emotions and feelings; in ringing the changes on these, till vitality fails, disillusion or satiety supervenes, and old age or death closes the play. Often the appetite remains, when vitality fails, and Faust rejuvenated, would run the same gauntlet again. The pity of it is that thousands of these victims of either satiety or Tantalus seem never to dream that there are other values, or anything else, or better, in life.
And yet there is not one of these faculties, capacities and powers that is useless, or, in itself, evil or degrading. They are, one and all, resources of the Individual Intelligence; tools for the day’s work; materials for the building of the Temple; whereas, they most frequently are made the motive and the aim of life. They are means to a higher end, and not the end itself.
Without the latent passions, emotions, and feelings, man would be a mere mechanism. If all were mind, or mere intellect, there could be neither the creation nor the appreciation of beauty. Every work of art would be soulless; music might amuse the intellect by intricate chords and variations, like a colorless kaleidoscope, but it could never touch the heart nor elevate the soul.
Music and art, in the highest sense, through consonant vibrations in us, open the doors and windows of the soul, put us in touch and tune with the Infinite, andthen, the real harmony begins. We live for the time in another world and returnwith a sigh and recover the bated breath, as though we had seen a vision beyond words. Music is an agent, a talisman, a means to an end. It strikes in us chords that lie at the foundation, the combinations that unlock the doors, and the “Imprisoned Splendor” wings in and out like the doves of Hesperides.
Blunt the passions, the feelings and the emotions by over-indulgence, by vice and dissipation, and the royal guests desert the banquet hall, the doors of the soul creak on their hinges; and in place of the “music of the spheres” you have a devil’s dance, and the orgies of despair!
Does it pay?It all depends onuse. Here lie the resources, the real possessions of man. Here lies the “Parable of the Talents.”
Look at the profusion, the prodigality, the beneficence of Nature, Flowers and Fruit, Beauty and Bloom and Fragrance everywhere. Where there is no eye to see, no hand to pluck, Mother Nature delights in profusion, seemingly because she is made that way and cannot help it. And yet, in this little Rose-garden of ours—the Human Soul -we tramp down the flowers, plant loathsome weeds and poisons that kill and degrade and besot us, set up the tables of the money-changers, drive out the doves of Hesperides, and turn the temple into a shambles for wild beasts. “Nothing pays.” “Let us curse God and—die!”
Is there not something after all in theMeasure of Values, and in the inexorableLaw of Use?
And whoconstrainsus butourselves?
Can God and Nature be so prodigal, noting even the sparrows fall, and yet disregard the children of men?
What our resources are we can never imagine till we draw upon and begin to utilize them as others have done throughout the ages.
The “average sinner,” seemingly to justify or excuse his own failure, will not believe that any have ever achieved.But there they standall down the ages! Ecclesiastics help the deception and keep up the illusion by calling itMiracleor “Special Providence,” and so prevent man from entering his birthright,to possess it; and so we sell our birthright for a mess of pottage. It is like the dissipated, poverty-stricken spendthrift, who shuts his eyes and refuses to believe that any, by industry, economy, integrity and hard work have secured a competency. And so he cries, “Come on, boys! let’s have another drink, and then rob this bond-holder, who has more than his share.”
The Measure of Values, and the Law of Usehold everywhere, in every department of human life; and the question, “Does it pay?” is practical and scientific to the last degree, and no one can answer but ourselves. As we answer will be the results, and nothing but ourselves can change them.
We must realize that the human body, the organism of man, with all its faculties, capacities and powers, is but aninstrumentof the Individual Intelligence; and that every experience in life, everyepisode in our career, is like a day’s work; perfecting the instrument for more and better work, if used rightly; till we advance from height to height of being; to larger and still larger and more glorious fields of work and experience.
There would seem to be no limit to this evolution, this upward and onward journey of the human soul. The more good work done, the larger the capacity and the broader the field opening before us. “From height to height the spirit walks.”
The primary endowment of man is Life and conscious Intelligence, with the power to use both.
This would seem to be the only gratuity, and whether we regard it as a blessing or a curse, depends on how we regard and use them.
The great majority in all time, through ignorance or recklessness, seem to have misused them.
Hence sickness, disease, deformity, and degradation.
It is a wonderful thing—this Law of Normal Use—from which health, harmony, comfort, joy, growth, and development result, while misuse and abuse degrade and destroy.
Divinity seems to have put within the grasp of man’s Intelligence (if hechooses and wills) an almost infinite range in power, variety and application, of that subtle and basic Principle of affinity, balance and equilibrium, that unites the atoms in a molecule, or a chemical substance; that law of attraction and repulsion—the Parallelogram of Force—that holds the planets in their orbits. Divinityseems to have taken man into council and offered him, not only the Kingdom of Nature, but the royal domain of his own soul, as a reward for co-operation and loyal service, on condition that he shall use wisely, intelligently, loyally, and kindly, and not misuse or abuse.
Is itworth while? Will itpay?
Nor is this all, beneficent as it seems. The whole journey of life on the physical plane here below is so designed and planned as to make the natural aging and decay of the physical body supplement, unfold and develop the Spiritual Body, through the right use of the faculties, capacities, and powers of the Human Soul—the Individual Intelligence.
These are aspects, uses and powers of that subtlesomethingwe callLife; thatPrinciplethat
“Runs through all time, extends through all extent,
Lives undivided, operates unspent.”
Normal use that insures growth and development, range and power of action, is also, from first to last, arefiningprocess; while misuse and abuse of these powers degrade and brutalizeinevitably.
It follows, therefore, as the bodily structure and functions failunder normal usethose of the spiritual body open, develop and unfold. First the seed, then the plant, then the flower and finally the fruit “of a well-spent life.”
There is no “theory” or “guess-work” aboutit. It becomes, step by step, a matter of conscious, intelligent, individual experience. We know it just as we know that fire will burn or that we are here now, living, breathing, and acting.
If I thrust my finger into a flame, all the philosophers and metaphysicians of the world could not “argue” me out of the experience of the fact of “burn” and “pain”; nor could theologians succeed any better by quotations from Scripture! Man is so constituted that thefactsofexperienceare stubborn things; and the more open to reason the individual the more convincing the facts of experience. Ignorance, superstition, and fear recede in the presence of these Lights of man’s intelligence, as do dogma and despotism, that seek to enslave the human soul.
Theologians tell us that it is exceeding dangerous to take all this responsibility upon ourselves, thus appealing to ignorance, superstition, and fear.
I would answer: I refuse to take the responsibility ofdisregardingordisobeyingthe Law which the Divine and Universal Intelligence has placed at thevery foundationof man’s being; and I am sounorthodox as to imagine and believe that God knew what he was about, even better than the theologians, or the “Infallible” Italian who misinterprets God, Nature, and Man.
To-day, as I write, “God’s Vicegerent” is instigating and promoting a “Holy War” in Priest-ridden Spain, over the temporal power of the Vatican, angered to the point of murder over the“posting of notices of places of public worship,” other than Catholic.
They would rather turn the world into one “City of the Dead,” than yieldone pointof Freedom, Enlightenment, or Self-government to man.
And men still call thisReligion, and cast aside the crucifix for the sword, the gun and the firebrand. TheInfernohas never yet been portrayed or even outlined. Its name is Priestcraft and Intolerance under the name of “Religion.”
And is this a “Study in Psychology”? Yea, verily! Scientific Psychology is the only thing that goes to the very bottom of it, and defines and classifies every element, every fact in human experience. Man cannot build ahomeon a piece of ground where a slaughter-house disputes every square yard of ground with the tombstones of a graveyard. Clericalism is ever the one or the other, and frequently both; denying to man the right to build ahomefor himself anywhere, except by its permission and according to its plans and specifications, fixing the rent and the revenues for all future time.
The Premier of Spain to-day is disputing this prerogative of Rome, and the graveyard has been thrown open. The pity, the marvel of it all is, that the people generally do not seem to care, and call any statement of facts “sensational” or “panicky.”
I am told by some very good people that thesereferences to Popery seem irrelevant, and by others, that they mar the symmetry of my essay.
They are reminded that we are dealing with real and permanent values, and with what man may do and ought to do for himself.
Lying squarely across this upward pathway of man, to be pursued by free choice and personal effort, is the dogma of the Vicarious Atonement and the forgiveness of sin, of which “His Holiness” claims to hold theexclusive agency.
Through appeal to superstition and fear this preposterous and sacrilegious claim to-day, as in all the past, paralyzes the will and discourages the personal efforts of millions of men and women. Between that blind credulity which makes personal effort unnecessary, and the miracle and dogma which make it seem useless, the upward and onward march of man is hindered or annulled, notwithstanding the fact that many men and women lead noble lives who are yet communicants of the Church, both Catholic and Protestant. True, they may, with little thinking, reason and reflection from early education and “lip-service,” give intellectual assent to these dogmas. But the lives they lead and the personal effort put forth prove them “better than their creeds.” They say with the lips, “Christ has forgiven us,” or “Jesus will save us,” and while they aresayingthese things theygo to work saving themselvesby “leading the life” through personal effort and experience.
In other words, they “save themselves” in spite of their creeds and superstitions.
It is, therefore, with this exact “measure of values,” that we are dealing; and the necessity and value of these considerations are nowhere so plain to-day, or so imperative, as just here, in the face of these demoralizing dogmas and pretensions of men, who contradict all natural law and steal unblushingly the prerogatives of God, as his “Vicegerent.” The marvel of it is that it excites neither surprise nor protest, but is treated with a smile of good-natured complacency outside its circle of dupes.
He who treats it seriously, as a thing that, more than any other, demoralizes, discourages and paralyzesmillions, is regarded as “sensational,” “emotional,” or an “alarmist.”
In the face of all the facts, of which the daily papers are full, and the record of the Vatican crowded, I prefer that my own arraignmentshall stand. No one who knows half these facts can dispute or gainsay them. We are making history here to-day, as mankind has had to make it in all the past, in the face of these “Lions in the path” of civilization and progress.
If I must choose between being superficial, ignorant and insincere, or being an “alarmist,” I certainly and unhesitatingly choose to be analarmist! The strongest ally of Superstition to-day is credulity, or indifference. The average man says, “I do notbelievethere is any danger”; andif he “spoke his heart” would add, “if there is, I do notcare.”
I would only reply, “If you mean to be honest, read, observe, and see.” You may wait too long. Spain and Portugal are just awakening from the priest-ridden lethargy of centuries, and are making history anew. May a just God and all the angels help and protect them.
The great daily newspapers of the country are very conservative wherever Rome is concerned. She is too powerful and her resources too well organized and available to be disregarded.
It is therefore very significant that an editorial in one of the largest and most influential of these papers to-day gives a clear, concise, and impartial epitome of the “Row in Spain,” clearly locating its cause and animus in the Vatican, and showing how unbearable this tyranny and exploitation had become to a large portion of the people of Spain.
I refer to this here for a special purpose, which involves and lies at the foundation of all other issues and considerations. And that is the statement in this editorial, that while the Church of Rome has held practicallyundisputed swayin Spainfor centuries, with immense tracts of land, houses and revenues, independent of civil authority, with 20,000 priests, 5,000 communities with 60,000 inmates in a population of only 20,000,000 of people—Seventy per cent. of the people are entirely uneducated.With every opportunity, plenty of time and almost boundless resources,Rome haskept the people in ignorance, the easier to rob them; determined toownthe land, the resources, and the people—body and soul—as theAutocratof heaven and earth! A slavery in the name of “Religion” found nowhere else on earth to-day.
So much for Spain and the Vatican to-day. For the sequel, watch the daily papers.
And what has this to do with America? With Psychology? With the Measure of Values?
Simply this: Is anyone so dense as to suppose that theSeventy per cent.of dense ignorance in Spain is an accident, or an oversight of the Vatican and its servants? There lie the “policy” and the secret of the power of Rome.
In America our foundations, our bulwarks, and our hope and security of Freedom, Enlightenment, and Progress lie in our Free Public Schools. These Rome hates, condemns as “Godless,” and would destroy if she could, as continually proved by the letters and edicts of the Popes.
Seeing, however, that she cannot do this, and fearful of losing her hold on her thirteen or fourteen million of communicants in America, she rushes the building of Parochial Schools, and threatens her people with dire penalties who patronize any other. Since she cannotpreventeducation here, as in Spain, she must “educate”in her own way, in order to retain her power over the rising generation. The basis of this education are ignorance, superstition, and fear; its crown, the slavery of conscience and the “Dogma of Obedience.”The brutality of Ignorance in Spain is the sophistry of Priestcraft under the name of “Religion,” in America.
The Genius of the Vatican is “Infallibility.” It not only never errs, but it never changes. It dons another mask, adopts another slogan, and is now engaged in a great crusade toeducate!
Constructive Psychology, the building of Individual Character, means theprecise oppositeof every principle, proposition, and practice of Popery. I desire to make this plain and unmistakable.
Nothing on earth transcends in importance this basic, universal, andeternal antithesis. It marks and monuments, in all time, theParting of the Waysbetween Good and Evil; between Liberty and Despotism; between Light and Darkness; between Evolution and Devolution; between “Modernism” and Paganism; between Civilization and the Dark Ages; between the “Sermon on the Mount”—the Beatitudes, and theSpanish Roman Vatican Inquisition!
And this “antithesis,” this issue, is as imminent, as active, as burning in America to-day, as it is in Spain. It only faces different ways.
Spain iscompelledto redeem herpast; America to guard and protect herfuture.
It is, from first to last, a Psychological Problem.
It is an analysis by fire, in the crucible of fate and destiny, to determineaccuratelythe measure of values to the Individual, to Society, and to Civilization.
No man, woman or child, no society, no civilization ever has, or ever can, escape this issue.
It is the design on the trestle-board of Time.
It is the Modulus of both God and Nature regarding Man.
It is the Theorem of Psychology.
It involves the Evolution and Destiny of the Human Soul.
As civilization in many places showed an advancing tendency from the darkness, despotism and brutality of the Dark Ages, the “Robber Barons” began to disappear. Their slogan was, “He may seize who hath the power and he may hold who can.” Serfdom also began slowly to recede. Popery and Priestcraft assumed the rôle of these Barons, changed the slogan from brute force (reserving that for emergencies) to “Divine Prerogative,” “Infallibility” (later), and pagan mummeries in the name of “Religion.”
The result, to the common people, remained unchangedto the present day—poverty, ignorance, and oppression.
Popery boasts that it never changes, never relents, nor forgives an enemy, nor forgets an injury, nor fails to “get even,” like any brute, whenever she can. And thisPoweris not only the assumed custodian of the religion of Jesus, but stands in the place of it, as a substitute, and the world tolerates it in the name ofReligion!
As a problem in Psychology, we have been considering the nature, use, and measure of valuesof the resources, faculties, capacities, and powers of man as an Individual Intelligence.
Facing opportunities, we have seen that there is a Law of Use and Responsibility which cannot be evaded.
Institutions and societies of men are, one and all, from first to last, under the same law. It is simply an aggregate, into which not a new principle enters, nor one principle is changed. The recognized and scientifically determined value of man to himself, is the measure of his value to the State.
The reverse proposition is equally true.
The value of any Institution to the individual, or to the State, must be measured and determined in the same way and under the same law.
It may thus be seen that Institutions, like Popery, are deeply involved in this Law of Use and Measure of Values. This is simply making use of, and putting in practice, these basic principles.
Of what use to man, measured by these scientific standards of value, are Popery and Priestcraft?
I answer unhesitatingly and unqualifiedlyAn unmitigated Curse!
This answer is justified by all history, and is as true and as exact to-day, up to the latest act and message from Rome, as it was during the horrors of the Inquisition; and there are evidence and specific statements to show that Rome would re-establish the “Holy Inquisition” to-day,if she dared and had the power.
It is this power, exercised through fear, on the basis of ignorance and superstition so instilled by what Popery calls “Religious Education,” that prevents the majority of fourteen millions in America to-day, as everywhere and in all time, from exercising their prerogative and doing their duty asIndividuals.
Is it not plain, therefore, how impossible it is to separate the Individual and the Social status?
Psychology and Sociology are departments of one Science, viz.: the Science of Man, Anthropology. Individuals and Institutions are under one law, one law of use, one measure of values.
He who ignores, evades, or belittles these plain issues and scientific principles, can settle with the law in his own time, though he cannot evade them always.
Note.—During the last week of the year 1910, the daily papers announced that before the beginning of 1911every Priest in the Diocesewas required to take an oath to oppose and resistModernismand toobeyin all things the dictum and dogmas of His Holiness. As everyone knows that under the termModernismis included all progress, investigation, and civilization condemned by the Vatican, everything that even questions the dogmas and despotism of Rome, the meaning of this requiredoathis plain.
It is doubtless renewed by reason of (among others) a book,—“Letters to His Holiness by a Modernist,” which, written seemingly by a Priest, makes exceeding plain the meaning of Modernism and the relation of the Vatican thereto. The book marks an epoch in the close of the old year and the beginning of the new, and Rome has acted accordingly. She can delay the stream of progress as she has always done, but she cannot turn it backward. It will eventually overwhelm her.