|BF 1999 I.M65 Copy 1 SIIj? Sautter nf Imittrsal ijantumg h Ifamk £ HUl?r, iH S. THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY BY FRANK E. MILLER, M.D. "HIS BANNER OVER ME WAS LOVE." Song of Songs. •WW COPYRIGHT FRANK E. MILLER, M.D. 1919 PRESENTED BY THE KINESTHETIC ARTS, Inc. VOCAL ART-SCIENCE, DRAMA AND THE DANCE OCT SO i9i9 J)C1A533639 I I c CI CHAPTER I. THE SYMBOLISM. Nearly every age in the history of man has had its spiritual awakening. The call has been sounded by some prophet or seer, who from the innermost centre of his being, where he has been in conscious union with Universal Spirit, returns with a Sinai radiance on his face and tidings of the glory he has wit- nessed on his lips. Men have flocked to hear his teachings, which have become crystalized in religious literature — mark- ing the heights to which the spiritual flood has risen. We who to-day read the Vedas or the Hebrew Scriptures have an uplift of spirit which bears testimony to the fact that those who wrote these mighty works had been in the presence of God Himself. The Spirit of God moves upon the consciousness of man in our own age. Not through any man's vision, but rather through a universal awakening that comes from an over- whelming tide of the Spirit Itself. The last half-century has seen a gradual breaking of the paralyzing bonds which have Page Five THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY held men enchained in outworn religious beliefs. Higher criticism struck an effective blow at dogma, based on a belief in the verbal inspiration of the Bible; its work has taken away a "Sacred Book" and left instead a literature of the Spirit, a literature recounting all types of human experience when man meets God in the Secret Place of the Most High. Unless the church as a formal institution rises to the occa- sion it will lose its power and prestige. Men are beginning to see that the supreme revelation of God is not given to a few favored prophets. God reveals Himself to every soul who in the silence of his innermost being meets the spirit in conscious union, which is prayer. The realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is within makes religion a manner of living and not a form of belief. The world war with its work of upheaval has shifted values to the utter destruction of many which were highly prized be- fore men began generally to distinguish between the transient and the eternal. The lines that separate humanity into tribes and nations are beginning to fade before the Light which seems to herald the coming of a universal brotherhood of man. None can say how the consciousness of races will crystalize after this baptism of blood; but he who scans the future can see a spiritual kingdom that is without frontiers. It will be composed of the nations who have risen to the supreme heights Page Six THE SYMBOLISM of the virtues which are eternal in value — courage, patriotism, love of humanity, and the faithfulness that will fight to the death in the battle for the Right — a battle which must end, not in peace, with or without honor, but in Universal Harmony. What shall we have as a fitting symbol of this new-born spirit of the Universal Brotherhood of Man? As a living sign of the spirit an International Banner should flame across the vision of the nations. I have constructed such a banner, basing it upon the spirit- ual laws that function on the material plane as science and as art. It represents an absolute analogy of the spectrum of Light, its counterpart, the scale of Sound, and the scale of Energy in its seven-fold development. So, as the background of our banner we have the scale in color and in tone — God's concept of the Octave governs both. Light begins in the majestic silence of black, and runs the joyous gamut which ends in the blending of all colors — radiant white! Echoing above, we have an octave of overtone colors. The soul of every color in the prismatic band is a note, detonated in the actual musical scale, which abides by the Law of the Octave also. Light and Sound! Mathematics goes hand in hand with Philosophy. The fundamental concepts of Mass, Space and Time are indefinable and wholly mental ; we work with the laws of their relations Page Seven THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY to each other, which are tangible and known. But when all is stated from the physical standpoint, there remains a problem in philosophy to be satisfied — these laws are all related to Life! So, the emblems in this spiritual Banner are drawn from geometry as applied by the Divine Architect in building the body of man. The central figure has the form of the true conductor of sound, the eccentric cusp, the spiral color rays upon it ending each in the star of its intensity (or radiant light), representing the color that can never be separated from sound. The four figures that flank the left of our Banner are the cone, based on the angle of co-ordination of the human voice ; the spiral of the vitalized air-current as it goes on its appointed journey through the chambers of sound; the angles and curves which mark the spiritual entrance of counterpoint, and last the mechanism of resonance. What is it that we have then to represent the spiritual kingdom of Brotherhood of Man? It is the symbol of a VOICE. A flag is ever the sign of the voice of a people; its colors symbolize the virtues they would attain, the emblems on its face the aspirations of the national soul. It stands for race con- sciousness, for the spirit of a people's ideals. Page Eight THE SYMBOLISM And so, in a Banner that is universal, what more rightly ex- presses the ideals than the images based on spiritual laws that govern Light, Sound, and Energy as manifested in voice — voice potential, voice in speech and voice in song? By the genius of a people, which is the consciousness of the Race, there is a link between the symbolic figure of the cone and the peoples of Spain and Italy — the element of co- ordination; between the helical spiral of correlation in the second and the peoples of England, France and Germany; be- tween the curves and angles — the balance of counterpoint — and Greece, Turkey, Russia and Bulgaria; and last, in reso- nance, a representation of the ancient peoples and lands of Asia and Africa — China, Persia, India, Egypt. The spiral cusp with its forty-eight glittering stars stands for the vigorous young Republic of our own beloved land ! The Universal Banner has as its basis, then, the Harmony that holds the stars in their appointed places; the Rhythm which we know is the Essence of Life itself, and the elements God wove into His supreme gift to man — a voice of utterance for the immortal soul that is within him. Page Nine CHAPTER II. THE BASIS IN GEOMETRY. Truth is within ourselves ; it takes no rise From outward things, whate'er you may believe. There is an inmost centre in us all Where truth abides in fulness; and around, Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems us in, This perfect, clear perception — which is truth. A baffling and perverting carnal mesh Binds it, and makes all error: and to KNOW Rather consists in opening out a way Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, Than in effecting entry for a light Supposed to be without. Paracelsus. Voice functions upon the laws of geometry, and is there- fore based upon pure Truth. In dealing with this phase of our subject it will be necessary to employ terms drawn from the science of mathematics, and that all may be clearly Under- pay Ten THE BASIS IN GEOMETRY stood, several of these expressions are elucidated at this point of our discussion. FIG. 1. HYPOTHENUSE. 1. HYPOTHENUSE is the term indicating the side of a right triangle which is opposite the right angle. Pythagoras, many centuries ago, proved that the sum of the squares of the arms of a right triangle equals the square of the hypothenuse. The perpendicular arm (b) represents the line drawn at right angles from the base or horizontal cathetus (or arm) (a), which gives the direction; or, in other words, the arm (b) will represent the height of a wave or its point of greatest intensity; (a) represents its amplifica- tion, and the line (c) the quality or hypothenuse line. In this lies the secret of correctly equilibrated and balanced line in the wave. Page Eleven THE BAXXER OF UXIVERSAL HARM OX Y FIG. 2. ELLIPSE. An ELLIPSE is a plane curve such that the sums of the distance of every point in its periphery from the two fixed points, called the foci, is a constant. The laws of this figure give us the secret of the relation of tone and over- tone. The general contour of the units of the vocal organs is that of the pyramid. A study of the sphincteric apertures reveals the fact that the general contour of these parts is that of the ellipse. Under function it is the oval that has the creative form. ( Lips. Movable. < Palate and tongue. ( Glottis. Fixed. \ Choanae. The sphincteric apertures of the vocal tract are ellipses. Irregularities from this form are simply due to reinforce- ments of the individual. This should lead to the egg or oval in the ratio 3, 4, 5. Page Twelve THE BASIS IN GEOMETRY The importance of apertures will be appreciated when it is known that the glottis controls the volume of air sup- plied to the vocal mechanism; that the palatoglossal sphincter, and the palato-pharyngeal divide the air-cur- rent into resonantic (nasal), and vocalic (buccal), and that the labial sphincter not only regulates the air current but also aids in diction and style of beautiful expression. FIG. 3. HELIX. A HELIX is a curve generated by a point which moves along the surface of a cylinder in such a way that a con- stant ratio is maintained between the measure of its rotation and ascent; that is to say, for example, that for every complete turn about the cylinder the point travels an equal distance along the cylinder parallel to its axis, and for every fractional turn, it moves a corresponding fraction parallel to the axis. The screw-thread and the spiral staircase are examples of the application of this curve, and it is in this manner that air passes upward Page Thirteen THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY in the trachea through the ringed aperture at the base of the cricoid cartilage. The angular walls of the cricoid compel the air-current to assume a motion, regulated by the crico-thyroid mus- cles, which gives the combined effect of the circle and the angle. It can, therefore, only be spiral in form. From the supply reservoir of the lungs, air is forced up from the large containers through a spirally constructed supply- pipe, the trachea, to a circularly apertured final container, the cricoid. Constantly lessening diameters of the orifice from the upper lungs to the cricoid in combination with the ring-structure of the organs, give the upward forced air a cyclonic movement. Perfect voice is produced in the human being by this cyclonic rotation of air, impelled by spiral rays or thrusts of energy muscularly put in motion and controlled in amplitude and intensity by the organs of the throat. The pure tone is produced by the dexter spiral or the cyclonic movement, the overtone by the sinister or anticyclonic movement of the air. Pure tone is entirely cyclonic, that is, composed of all dexter or right spiral rays; the human voice (tone and over- tones combined) is composed of both dexter and sinister rays, or centrifugal and centripetal, which in turn corres- pond to vowel and consonant sound. Page Fourteen THE BASIS IN GEOMETRY FIG. 4. CONICAL HELIX. A CONICAL HELIX is generated when a point moves along the surface of a cone in the manner illustrated {See cut). In nature we have manifestations which are very closely related to this type of helix in the shell of the gas- tropods or snails, and the helix of the human ear. We see it also in the whirl of an air-current deflected by the sur- face of a building or other obstruction and in the water- spout. Surfaces or volumes coiled in this manner might be described as of conico-helicoidal form. Page Fifteen THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY FIG. 5. THE ANGLE OF THE PROGRESSION OF MUSIC. 5. The ANGLE of the PROGRESSION of MUSIC con- sists of a sector in a sphere, of 10 degrees, whose diame- ters, meeting at one point, extend to the two points 10 degrees above ABC, thus : The fundamental physical concepts are mass, space and time, and the laws of their relations to each other are known. For instance, each is one-third of a co-ordinate element, that is, one side of the equilateral triangle of co-ordination. It can further be shown that such relations exist in the philosophy of life. By far the most important of these is that of Pythagoras, as stated in the First of the Books of Euclid, namely, the 3, 4, 5 relation. This relation does not constitute the entire foundation of voice production because the phenom- enon known as polarization or "polanization" is not included Page Sixteen THE BASIS IN GEOMETRY RED / \ WHITE i / \ VIOLET Vi / \ INDIGO % f~ ~~\ BLUE Vs / \ GREEN X / \ YELLOW 'A I \ ORANGE 'A FIG. 6.— THE COLOR SCALE. Page Seventeen THE BANKER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY therein. POLARIZATION is the act of determining the direction of sound and is necessary for tone making, because it defines the pathway of voice. I have discovered that the air-cyclones in voice are cen- tralized or "focussed," as it were, at a point before they are emitted at the mouth. This new phenomenon is best described by the word "polarization." It must be understood that voice, not sound, is polarized. Neither must this be confused with polarity, though the voice possesses polarity, inasmuch as the mechanism producing it is bi-polar. The inherent forces of the geometrical figures upon which the organs of the vocal mechanism are based, are the forces of LIFE. The human body is geometry objectified. The form of the beginning in a sequence (of segmenta- tions) for a new voice structure is a cuspoid. It is on the same lines of kinetic construction as has been used in making the sound tone form from which it arose. This occurs at the point at which two curves terminate tangentially. It is the curve made by the two planes on the inner side of the ear-drum, one of which is the plane governed by the malleus and the other the plane governed by the incus (bone) in their toggle joint arrangement; they create a seemingly flat surface or slightly oblique cone. From the apex of this eccentric cup-shaped mem- brane the auditory body is created. This cuspoid leads to a Page Eighteen THE BASIS IN GEOMETRY sound tone form that causes voice to progress en train, not en masse, without pitch period, with perfect balance, equilibrium and polarization. The kinesis proceeds from amplitude (the flat disc) to intensity (the cuspoid) by two and one-half turns of the helical spiral. In other words, through the cuspoid form of the ear-drum, sound waves are transmuted into that which is a mental concept. In the construction of a cuspoid disc from a plane disc, one- sixth of the 3, 4, 5 angle of co-ordination is lost, and from this sacrifice the transmutation from a lower to a higher medium is made possible. This principle obtains on spiritual ground. There the two tangents to the circle mean the search of the soul for positive and negative control. This effort of our faith is grasped by the Author and Finisher of our faith, while we through tension, torsion and recoil lose 1/21 of the cuspoidal relation (as opposed to the one-sixth lost in the material me- dium) in going from the amplitude of material sense to the intensity of the spiritual. This represents the attainment of the octave of perfection through the coalesced form of ampli- tude and intensity by the helical spiral (Archemidian Screw), which is the body, soul and spirit, true relationship inter- mingling in their respective vibratory kinetics toward the Divine Source. Page Nineteen CHAPTER III. THE BASIS IN PHYSICS. (a) Color In the description of this Banner, we have more than a mere proposition in physics — the explanation of the spectrum of light and its counterpart, the scale of sound. We have the ab- solute analogies and syntheses of both and also the scale for energy in its seven-fold development. As light is subject to dispersion through a prism, so sound is detonated by currents of the air upon pyramids. Color and light are obtained upon a black background. From the black they develop by a three- fold pathway into three positive colors and these three have their complementaries. When the three positive colors are revolved rapidly upon each other, white results. We know also that as the seventh color becomes white we have a line of intensity at the end of the seventh note of the scale which gives us the octave color. Now, each one of these colors has its frequencies. Overtones are developed by a double spiral curve of two and a half turns. In order to arrive at the color of overtones, we obtain one-quarter of the color of the corresponding comple- Page Twenty THE BASIS IN PHYSICS mentary, and add to the color of white which represents the overtone in the abstract, and this will give us the correct color. In other words : To obtain the color of the first overtone C-256, we subtract one-quarter, or an octave of the red of the corres- ponding fundamental C-128, and add to the white of C-256, which gives us old rose; then to obtain the color of the next overtone, C-5 1 2, we use twice the amount of white to the same quantity of red of C-128, and that gives us a paler tint of old rose, and so on. (See table.) There are two so-called colors — black and white. Black may be termed the absence, or amplitude of color, and is nega- tive; it is that upon which all colors that are turned to white are grounded. Now, if we proceed toward black, we begin to lose all semblance of color. It absorbs it all. If we proceed toward white, we get more intensity, and we know that white means the presence of all color. White transmits all visible rays without absorption, reflect- ing to the eye all the rays of the spectrum, combined in the same proportion, conveying the same impression to the eye as sunlight of moderate intensity. It is the opposite of black — so white is positive and black is negative. In like manner black is the absence of color, while white is the presence of all color. The colors for the bars in the Banner are computed mathe- matically from the known relations existing between the scale Page Twenty One THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY COMPUTATION OF INTENSITY Base 2b Altitude a Note Corresponds Area of Entire triangle Area of color Ratio of color Color AB 3 ab 8 = 37.5$ RED C — Normal AB 7ab 72 = 9.7$ ORANGE D AB 17 ab 288 = 5.8<£ YELLOW E AB 31 ab 800 = 3.9% GREEN F AB 49 ab 1800 = 2.7% BLUE G AB 71 ab 3528 = 2.0$ INDIGO A AB 97 ab 6272 = 1.5<£ VIOLET B Page Twenty Two THE BASIS IN PHYSICS of music and the colors of the spectrum. The relation is shown in accompanying table. SCALE C D E F G A B c COLOR R O Y G B I V R Hence, starting at the base, with the union of all colors — black — the colors proceed in the order : R O Y G B I and violet, to be followed by the overtone colors, which in the ex- treme merge into an ultra-violet. Every color of the spectrum as well as every complementary color is represented by a stripe. The harmony of the colors must be symbolic of the harmony of the nations. What the appearance of light itself is, we do not know. White is simply the color of the light of the sun. To illustrate the intensity of its whiteness, it may be said that Ruskin called attention to the fact that the whitest paper held against a full- lighted sky is black by comparison. In light lie the life and dynamic power of the universe. The table on page twenty-one and accompanying figure show how the color intensity has been obtained. The overtone colors have been computed in a similar manner. Page Twenty Three THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY The Spiral series of colors {see frontispiece) is a repre- sentation of kinesis with the white star at the centre point, the apex of the cusp, and terminating in the forty-eight stars at its periphery like our own living flag, whose stars number our states. I have added to these one star for each curve of the unit to make our sympathy complete Freedom's number —52. The number 52 has a special significance in the architecture of the human body. For example, the hand, an organ of ex- pression, has twenty-six bones — the number of the letters of the alphabet. The coils of the intestines (which have interde- pendence with the gyri of the brain) have twenty-six coils; the brain coils number twenty-six on each side — fifty-two in the organ as a whole. Progress in motion, according to the order of the colors of God, determines the dawn of light from darkness, representing in its ascent every color ending in a star — the whiteness of its intensity. The white cross is supposedly invisible under ordi- nary conditions and visible only when the sun's rays pass through it. This condition is realized in the Banner itself (owing to the transparency of its texture), but cannot be obtained in the picture. It represents the Divine Power penetrating to the boundless periphery of spiritual infinity. The colors in the Page Twenty Four THE BASIS IN PHYSICS spiral curves are identical with those in the bars starting at black, going through the series and eventuating in the most in- tense ultra-violet white flash, invisible to the naked eye, but shown in the flag as a pale, etheric violet, so diluted as to ap- pear a sparkling white. .(b) Kinesis. "We have thus reduced the universe to three terms: matter — ether — energy, and we now ought to consider whether this triune conception may not be capable of a deeper synthesis. We have all, I imagine, a deep-seated conviction of the essen- tial 'oneness' of the universe, and to justify it, we must as- sume, either that these three things are after all but 'forms' or phases of an underlying and unknowable reality, or that, separate and distinct as they appear, they are themselves One, in some mysterious way altogether beyond the power of human reason to grasp." * Energy manifesting itself as motion, is known as kinesis. No discussion of its nature can fail to take account of the electrO-magnetic theory of the nature of matter, and we will now briefly summarize the knowledge that we have on the subject. Let us suppose a substance to be analyzed by chemistry into its component parts. In this case we will use the com- *The New Knowledge: R. K. Duncan. (A. S. Barnes & Co., N. Y.) Page Twenty Five THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY pound water, as an illustration. By the process known as elec- trolysis, in which an electric current is passed through a column of water in a specially arranged appliance, the water gradually disappears, and we have instead, in two tubes prepared for in the experiment, two gases wholly unlike — namely, hydrogen and oxygen. Further experiment has shown that neither of these gases will decompose into anything unlike itself. In other words, they are elements. By mathematics and logic we find that there is a minimum quantity or mass in which an element can exist without destroying its chemical character or identity. This mass is known as the molecule, whose weight and combining power we can establish, and we can further deal precisely with a still smaller body, and that is the atom. We turn now to physics, since at this point chemistry leaves off. Startling discoveries have been made in the last twenty years that stagger the mind when one tries to grasp their import. For they tell us, these patient investigators, the physicists, that the molecules are composed of electrically charged "corpuscles" — in other words, matter in its last analysis consists of electrons or points of energy. When we inquire of them what power directs this mighty force, they answer that it can only be Mind or Will. Here philosophy must take the question. Ages ago the philosophers of Greece taught that the Power which made and holds the universe is Love. And the greatest of Teachers Page Twenty Six A/O/J. t/AZ/CVOOQ ) •8 i? *2 IXVOLUTIOX FROM UNITY TO PERFECTION THE BASIS IN PHYSICS has told us that God is Love ! So Science sets a seal of author- ity upon the prophet and seer's unheeded cry, "God is in the midst of thee," and Faith, at last, is justified of her children ! Every atom, then, is in vibration, every substance having the rate and mode of motion that separates it in kind from every other substance and making it the entity which it is. In the scale of sound and color the vibrations can be accurately measured. And we now declare that Life is the standard of Love and Light as its act, function and form. (See plate.) Kinesis is responsible for both color and sound. In the light medium, it is the rainbow spectrum; in sound it is the musical scale. The artistic sound which we call "voice" is due to vibrations originating within the body itself. The kinesis is supplied by breath aided by the subtlest kind of reflections and refractions within the prismatic and pyramidal autonomies of the voice-tract. Voice is force, or the action of this kinetic energy on pyramids solid, hollow, and flexible. It is on these laws of Science, based, as I have shown, upon the spiritual plane, that we weave the symbology of the Banner of the Spirit! Applying now the foregoing summary of scientific facts to the construction of the. Banner of Harmony: — The horizontal bands of color represent the voice as it travels from black to ultra-violet, passing first through the Page Twenty Seven THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY seven tones of the scale, then undergoing a segmentation and proceeding to a higher harmonic division of tone. The Law of the Octave governs both color and sound. The Cone, with the conical helix, has an apex angle of thirty degrees. This, it will be remembered, is the entrance angle of music; it is just one-half the angle of the co-ordinate triangle — the Pythagorean triangle whose sides are in the 3, 4, 5 relationship. The sides of this triangle are in the same relationship as the volumes of the cavities of the throat, nose and mouth. The conical helix of two and a half turns repre- sents the sound in its gyration through the Pythagorean related pyramid. The colors in the cone are to the sound- waves directly as the rates of vibration. Both start at the apex and progress from this point to the periphery, where after two and a half turns they complete the journey. Sound-waves, after leaving the larynx (where the voice is first moulded into sound) make two and a half turns before their emission at the lips as speech or song. The symbol below the Cone is a diagrammatic outline of the three cavities of the throat, nose and mouth in their 3, 4, 5 ratio. Voice is made up of a raw product, air, converted or energized in the larynx. The new sound, moulded in the larynx, makes two and a half complete turns before it is emitted. This spiral curve is shown in the diagram, traversing, as it were, the three cavities, and always changing in timbre, until it is emitted a Page Twenty Eight THE BASIS IN PHYSICS pure tone, free from any interference, at the periphery. The timbre change is noted on the Banner by color division of the spiral. As the final quality is added in the turbinated region, the last part of the spiral, the point at which the spiral is nearly complete, is shown penetrating the turbinated bone region. It must be understood that the turbinated bones are also in the ratio of 3, 4 and 5. The activity of the palate, tongue and epiglottis is shown by the smaller pyramids, all of which meet in the common origin. But these regions of activity designate, not the volume or size of the parts involved, but show the angular displacement which the particular body, palate, tongue, or epiglottis, undergoes during an octave of song. The third figure on the left-hand side of the Banner is a representation of an equal division of an area by four lines and is therefore typical of a co-ordination. The star and cres- cent are symbolic of enlightenment rather than mysticism, for voice is no longer a mystery, having, in Vocal Art-Science, been defined, not as a matter of opinion, but as an exact phys- ical and mathematical quantity. The lower figure represents a universal resonator composed of seven separate resonators, each sensitive to a different note of the scale, and each one corresponding to a certain color in the spectrum. Each resonator is painted in the color to which it corresponds. Page Twenty Nine THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY The large star represents the starting point in the universe from which emanates all forms of energy, with its many rays penetrating the universe represented by the 52 smaller stars. The energy stream comes from the large, sevenfold direct- ing star, located at the intersections of the cross. Here is the kinesis of the blood-corpuscle in its evolution from spirit to matter; its life-giving journey through the arteries, its death-removing journey through the veins. The Banner is sym- bolic of the kinesis of all the manifestations of Life throughout the universe. And it is more. For if in our reverent hearts we image the dying Christ upon the cross in the Banner, His wounded Head will lie in the centre of the seven-pointed star. On the spiritual side the seven points are the seven pathways of the virtues that lead to Life Eternal; on the material side they are the seven pathways that end in the kinesis of life, which manifests itself in a series of rhythmic vibrations. On the spiritual side it is typified by the blood of Christ; on the material by the energy of the blood-stream. And the universe is held together and bound to the cross by the harmonious blending spirals, each corresponding to a note of the true musical scale. The Banner is therefore justly called a symbol of the harmony of the entire universe, or a Banner of Uni- versal Harmony. Page Thirty CHAPTER IV. THE BASIS IN SPIRIT. I've been the round of creation, I spoke as I saw, I report as a man of God's work — all's Love — yet all's LAW. Saul. The Flag of Universal Harmony, then, is based on geome- try, and so on pure Truth ; it is based upon physics, and so upon an existing order in nature. The laws of each of these sciences have carried man far into the unseen realm of the mind in his effort to understand and formulate them. There are certain factors which have been constantly ob- served, but for some reason their significance has escaped immediate investigation. One of these factors is periodicity, and its most remarkable development is found in the Law of the Octave. It is very well known, of course, that the octave governs the musical scale and the spectrum of light. But it was pointed out by Mr. John Newlands, as early as 1863, that if the chemical elements are arranged in the order of their atomic weights, that at intervals of the octave, elements having similar chemical and physical properties will be found. That is, as the periodic law is now stated; the properties of the elements are periodic functions of their atomic zveight. Page Thirty One THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY Another factor as yet unexplained is rhythm, or pulsation. In that notable little volume, The Flight of the Dragon, in which Mr. Laurence Binyon delightfully discusses the princi- ples of Chinese art, he says: "Whatever else rhythm may be, it is closely connected with life; perhaps the secret of life and its most perfect expression." Harmony, the vital element of art, has a place in the world of mind and spirit also. It is the element of balance without which the functioning of life, in any phase, loses its character- istics of life and approaches death. The Almighty in creating the Universe unleashed power many times sufficient to destroy what He had wrought. Some conception of it may be gained from the calculations of Sir J. J. Thomson, who concludes "that a gram of hydrogen has within it energy sufficient to lift a million tons through a height exceeding one hundred yards. This is insignificant compared to the limitless energy locked in the atoms them- selves." What prevents the forces of creation from becoming the forces of destruction ? What holds them in silent, rhythmic, harmonious — nay! in joyous activity? I think I may call it a Unity of Purpose. The forces inter- lace — the action of rain and wind upon the springing of plant-life; the interdependence of plant and animal; the fall and rise of tide. Running through it all we realize an abstract Page Thirty Two THE BASIS IN SPIRIT beauty. Beauty is the expression of Love. And Love is the one force that can harmonize the elements of discordance in the relations of humanity. Love with its attendants, Justice, Truth, Courage, Charity, Faith, Forbearance. The attain- ment of these comes through the spirit of sacrifice. In the history of man's highest relation with his brother man, Love has come into its own only with sacrifice. And it is charac- teristic of its coming that the sacrifice has been made with pleasure. May we not each in our hearts recall a time, perhaps unknown to any except the Indwelling God and our own souls, may we not recall a sacrifice made for Love? May we not re- call the fire of holy passion which swept our beings as we made renunciation with only God for witness? Is it not possible to conceive the passionate joy of Christ to whom it was given to be the Lamb of sacrifice for all the children of God? We have not learned our privileges until we have learned that sacrifice is vitalizing, truly life-giving, while selfishness is death to the soul. What is true of the relations of the individual is equally true of community, it is equally true of nations. We see the spirit of self forcing its presence in the counsels of the League of Nations. There will be no League of Nations truly unless the spirit of sacrifice is recognized as the demand upon each people. In the history of the nations, conflicting claims have Page Thirty Three THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY necessarily arisen. The Greeks, for instance, are claiming" Con- stantinople as an integral part of the sovereignty of Greece. That is because of the boundaries of Byzantium — "a Greek city built on the Eastern part of the site of Constantinople, in which it was merged in 330 A. D." It is just to add, that Greece advances the claim on the ground that the majority of the inhabitants of Constantinople are Greeks. Now, in the ad- justment of a case like this sacrifice is an absolute necessity. The act of sacrifice would serve to bind the power making the sacrifice to the one for whom it is made as no bonds of govern- ment could hold. For such a sacrifice means love. Love is the true basis of Unity. Now, as that balance of harmony obtains in the life of man as an individual, so it governs the efficiency of the body politic. Each people has its God-given note; that is, each people has the consciousness of its race which is its genius. It is, as I have said, the gift of God, and the instinctive guide by which every nation, tribe or race strives to arrive at its highest func- tion, its highest expression of life. Woe unto another race who tries to suppress this divinely driven stream of energy. For Spirit is deathless and was breathed into every man as his right to life by Divine decree. But oppression has its most powerful effects in its reflex movement — that is, the greatest Page Thirty Four THE BASIS IN SPIRIT sufferer is the oppressor. For the stings of greed, of self-seek- ing, of cruelty, of hate have thrust their venom into his soul. This banner brings a new message to the self-seeking Nihilist as well as to the man who has ignored his birthright of dominion over his own body, soul and spirit in the sensing of their rate, mode and variety of motion of the movement to- ward the Divine Right given by God to live and do His bidding. As man stands erect in the image of his Maker, the cross represents his four sectors and angles from which he receives his life's support when he makes his grand sacrifice through life to death. Then upon that cross the transmuted body hangs and the head takes the place of the heart at the centre of the cross-barred influences of life. And as the right arm is shorter and stronger than the left, so the head takes the eccentric posi- tion of the heart and the life-blood is changed at this crux into the spiritual current of air and wafts itself to the divine heights begun by the same kinesthesia that made it possible to grasp all of life by one common purpose;* so that the weakest link is the strongest because it is the perpetual and constant arc that binds God to man by Divine Right. That is his to have and hold — not until death sunders all bonds of life, but forever, * This is developed in material measurement in an arc of 13 degrees. It begins at 41^ degrees and ends at 54^ degrees. At 41 J^ degrees the critical angle begins, and dispersing, ends at 54J4 degrees; as with light, so with mind. Page Thirty Five THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY for all eternity, for the life of the spirit that never had a be- ginning, therefore has no end. The might of God is felt in the world conflict of to- day. The forces given man for his uplift have been turned to selfish ends and so have become engines of destruction. In all history the forces of good have never been so clearly set against the forces of evil. The elemental virtues have never been so freed from traces of selfishness as they exist in the hearts of men to-day. The elements of inharmony have been brought to a state of reduction which has perhaps been only surpassed once before in the world's history — for the hearts of the world seem ready for some new coming of Light, Life and Love. The newly-born science of Sociology has learned that he is the best citizen who has found and does his work. It has further learned that bad citizens become good ones when their energies are directed to the work for which they are gifted. The laws of the country, which have long tended to increase the defects of criminals and degenerates, are being cast anew to redeem them by turning their powers in the lines of their most wholesome bent. In many cases a regeneration of body, mind and spirit has followed this method of procedure. The whole tendency of modern social economy is to put each individual in the place his special gifts seem to demand. Page Thirty Six THE BASIS IN SPIRIT Efficiency experts are no longer unusual in the business or- ganizations of the country, and where the efficiency system has been intelligently directed marvellous changes occur, not the least of which is the new spirit with which work is done and the dignity which each employee attaches to what he does. For each of us is equipped by God to do one thing best, and harmony in the life of the individual and community follows where each is employed as his gifts indicate. Race consciousness, the genius of a people, is a like gift. Each race has its work to do as a race. No other can fulfil its mission. When oppressed by alien rulers, as in the case of that highly spiritual people, the Cechoslovaks, the plan of God for the world is failing of its fulfilment. The expression of every race according to its genius is imperative. For the per- version of such power means injury to all. Each has a note to sound in the harmony which is the ideal of the world. The attempt of an arrogant people, claiming to rule by Divine Right, to force their materialism and their mastery upon the world has resulted in a tumult as mighty as this project is hideous. The forces of eternal truth are drawn in battle line against the powers of evil. Not until Germany turns from her wickedness will she live. Not until she purifies the heart of her can she sound her note Page Thirty Seven THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY in the mighty chord that will be the signal for men to beat the sword into a pruning hook. Not until she turns her powers to righting, as far as she may, the world of crime she has done, may she ask for a seat in the council of nations. The nations of the earth have been drawn together in a virtual Brotherhood and Germany is the outcast at their door. It lies with her to rehabilitate herself in the eyes of an outraged humanity, or to perish utterly from the face of the earth. As I write, we have reached the Summer of 1919. Peace is the word of the hour, and terms upon which it has been con- cluded are subjects of discussion. Who has taken thought of the basis of true peace? Who among those who had the power of deciding its terms realizes that peace is never a fundamental condition — but always an outcome, a result of that which lies deeper — in the very spirit of those who are seeking the joys of peace ? The basic element of peace, the true cause from which this prayed-for result must follow, is Harmony — the elimination of those factors which made the discord and destruction, and the lifting into power and use the God-given principles which sustain the universe. The nations have been brought together. The values of eternal worth are set again in their places. It will be an age of renaissance of spirit. It is time when men can see a Page Thirty Eight THE BASIS IN SPIRIT patriotism that includes in its fulness all the peoples of the earth with lines of separation fading before the coming of Love and the Divine Right bestowed equally upon all humanity ! I have presented here {see frontispiece) a symbol of the Spirit of Unity harmonizing the Universe. Against a pyramid of flags which stands each for the integrity of a nation there rests the Banner whose symbolism is of spiritual unity. The forces from which it is drawn are those that "declare the glory of God" not in the heavens alone, but in all the world without us. Its significance is the response from the world within. Its harmonizing power lies in the union of all the virtues symbol- ized by the flags of the individual nations — courage in their bands of red, purity in their bands of white, truth and loyalty in their bands of blue. It lies in the Unity of Purpose that has taken count of values and chosen those which are eternal. Out of my dreams of this new era of Love and the Brother- hood of men has come this banner. It is fashioned, as I have told, upon the everlasting principles the mighty Architect took into His hands when he built for Himself a temple — the body of man. In my search for Truth upon which to weave a Banner of the Spirit I have found the world law-governed, though Love- driven. A banner that is universal in its spirit must signal the death of self even as it heralds the birth of Love ! Page Thirty Nine CHAPTER V. UNITY OF PURPOSE. The principles upon which the League of Nations is based have stimulated thought as to what will prove adequate and lasting. Shall it be Power, enforced by international arms? Shall it be Sanction, bestowed by an international court?* Or shall it be through a Unity of Purpose which directs the energies of men into the channels of thought and action which remove the ultimate cause of war ? There is but one answer to these questions : Civilization has not conquered until the conquest is spiritual. The value of any movement to prevent war and interna- tional discord can be determined immediately by this test. It is a platitude to assert that physical power has never vanquished spirit in all the history of man ; it is nevertheless true that the schemes for the preservation of world peace are based upon the ultimate appeal to material power. Power may well be employed to this great end; but it must be power flowing in the channels of righteous accomplishment, of helpful influence, of honor binding through mutual respect. * This solution of the problem was ably presented by Selden Bacon, Esq., in a series of articles published in the New York Sun. Page Forty UNITY OF PURPOSE Sanction has its place as the confirmation of what is right- eous, just and honorable. But the nations will never be bound to peace except through a Unity of Purpose. Humanity cannot be united except on spiritual ground, through some spiritual element which lifts them above petty and personal ends, above race, above creed, above national boundary lines. Now, we know that in our social relations nothing so per- fectly protects the property and rights of our neighbors as our innate recognition of those rights. In other words, the greater our sense of honor and justice, the less the need for others to protect themselves against us. Prisoners who are neither to have nor to hold with the use of chains and bars need neither to hold them when their sense of honor is aroused and they are trusted to keep their word. The boundary line between Canada and the United States is nowhere fortified; it is wholly imag- inary and yet it is never a source of temptation for either side to trespass. The rights of each nation are respected by the other. It is this recognition of the rights of others that will make a League of Nations lasting and adequate. It is the golden rule applied among peoples united to see that no human being is robbed of his Divine Right. There is a tide running in the hearts of men, as has lately been said. It is running strongest in the hearts of youth, as Page Forty One THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY the letters and conversation of the soldiers returning from the war clearly show us. It behooves us to take this tide at the flood, for it means spiritual renaissance. That nation is the greatest which develops the spirit of the individuals composing it; what we clearly need is that the social virtues of sincerity and respect for the rights of others be instilled into our youth by the nation itself. If the money and attention formerly given to the establishment of armies and navies be appiled to the education of the youth, emphasizing the ethics of the relation between man and man, the principles governing a League of Nations would be found in every human heart. There is no sub- stitute for this, if a League of Nations is to be a working plan for world peace. No human being has any rights which conflict with the rights of another. The restraint of discipline for the individ- ual is needed to turn all energies to a common good. The world war demonstrated this truth when the Allied Powers combined their resources for the use of finance, for military strength and for the accomplishment of one high end. Unity of Purpose wrought the victory over a predatory people; Unity of Purpose, to teach ourselves the dignity of the human being with Divine Rights as a potential son of God will cut at the roots of causes for war between nation and nation. Page Forty Two UNITY OF PURPOSE This suggestion may sound as though millenial conditions were required to meet its fulfilment. That may be the case. But there will be wars in the world, League of Nations or no League of Nations, until the hearts of men are cleansed from the selfishness and greed that employ blood and iron to satisfy them. Now, there is but one way to accomplish such an end. It is by education in the virtues of righteousness, honor, faith and love ! How much time or attention does the average person give during life to the cultivation of the powers of the soul? I make here the statement which is the foundation of the Banner of Harmony and which makes it a true symbol of a Unity of Purpose. Peace is secondary to conditions lying deeper than the out- ward calm it signifies. Peace is the result of harmonizing in- fluences. Look to the heavens and behold ! The constellations are held to their courses by a Universal Purpose that we can recognize but cannot know. All that we can discern is that the laws of music govern their movements; harmony and rhythm are the bases of their unity. Each star among them has its in- dividuality, one differing from another in glory, but the pur- pose impelling them is one. So, in the world of nations har- mony must be the law that holds them to a unity of purpose. Page Forty Three THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY It is for a League of Nations having this ideal that my Banner of Harmony will represent. Neither in the life of the individual nor in the life of the nation are the virtues simply to take or to leave. They are the spiritual equipment of man and involve his health of mind, body and spirit. I am stating a practical fact which has been recognized and employed by all the great spiritual leaders of the world, whether of the Buddhists or the Christians. Hate, envy, jealousy, anger and lack of faith are actively responsible for disease. Ill health of soul is reflected in the body. And the converse is strictly true. The cases of "twice-born men" reveal a regeneration of the entire being — mental, moral and physical. All this has a deep-rooted relation in the minds of most people with religion, but it is simply because the religious leaders and teachers understood the nature of man, and knew that the virtues are a part of harmonious and perfect life — in body, mind and soul. That is, man has higher powers latent within him which are inhibited by sin and developed by right- eousness of life. Emphasis is laid on the fact that the use of these higher powers belongs to the present life and little is said of the future. Race consciousness is the development of the energy stream in its God-directed course. In the Prehistoric age the Kinesis of Life assumed a special activity of sensation; in the period Page Forty Four UNITY OF PURPOSE of Egyptian supremacy it was a commercial bent driven by the function of Impulsion; in the Mongolians, the function of the perceptive faculties of the mind resulted in their supremacy in art; the Semitic genius was for the accumulation of wealth, through the function of Defension; the Hindu genius was for Letters, through the function of Retention ; the genius of Greece and Rome alike was industry, through the function of co- action; next came a general period of scientific thought ac- tivity;* this was followed by the National Age of Life centering in the United States. These are, as I have said, the directions of the most marked energy of the Kinesis of Life, which has taken mental dominance in the seven ages of man's history. There remains the age already dawning upon us and ushered in by the world war. It is the millenium or period of the kinses- thetic sense, or feeling by which man recognizes life and consciousness in the body as the result of an ever-beginning, never-ending stream of energy. As the Kinesis of Life existed before the birth of the body, so it will continue after bodily death. And on its swinging tide it carries that unknown craft, the human soul, with all its burdens of the elements that are combined to make the human personality. It will take a thousand years, I believe, to perfect a spiritual civilization. But the leaven is working even now and the mind * Social Harmonism : Holmes W. Merton. Page Forty Five THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY of humanity has been gradually developed toward the new lines of activity by the period just closing in. Man is more generally aware of the latent powers of his own nature and where in other times a few men stood out from their fellows because of spiritual development, in this day the means of attaining this higher growth have been formulated into methods of thought. Much charlatanry has crept in, but progress has been made and when science takes the matter into serious consideration a vast step forward will have been made in human development. The light of a new day is breaking and its quickening in- fluence is felt by hearts never before awakened to the divinity within them. The war has been a liberal education. We have become acquainted with the citizenship of the world as never before. The horizon of life has been widened for all of us. And we have been subtly deprived of much of our narrowness of interests. A brotherhood of nations exists. The Banner of Harmony is the symbol of humanity on its new course of growth and thought. It stands for Unity, for Unison, for Harmony, for Ryhthm, for Melody, for Language, for Speech and Song ! As it represents the evolution of the red and blue blood in you flowing, so it represents the Unity, Unison, Harmony, Rhythm and Melody of your good health. Yea, even the language of your speech and song wherewith to utter the prayer and sing Page Forty Six UNITY OF PURPOSE the praise of your God in a Universal Religion common to all mankind. Also through that same Unity, in its involution, it carries the secret power of God for you alone. And the sacred and holy love of His Son through the love that brought about the union of father and mother, through the radiant love of the Author and Finisher of your faith; the Unit of Love so great that hate acts but as its reinforcement ; so that as it is absorbed it but enhances the overpowering greatness of the inner love and glory of the Almighty toward one's self and establishing one's belief in the inheritance of Divine Right, and what should be the Unity of Purpose of the peoples of the universe — to worship Him in spirit and in truth by every thought, deed and word. The subtle and unseen laws of the spiritual world are here in co-ordination, in correlation, in equilibration, in polarization, in orientation and in the all-beautifying perfec- tion of Love. The beauty of the moral law is portrayed in the twelve symbols of good, right, justice, faith, hope, charity, honor, glory, power, might, majesty and love of God! The world of truth is here in mathematics; the world of science, too. The Banner is the living sign of the never-beginning and never-ending creative activity of its Author, God. Pct"c Forty Seven THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY Its colors are the seal of His ancient Covenant with man; the symbols the work of His fingers when He set a door of com- munication between the world within and the world without. The Banner reveals itself to the eye as God reveals Himself in nature; it reveals itself to the spirit in His perfect Law which restoreth the soul. For man is a potential son of God, the Divine Right born with him ; a spiritual being with powers which have been but once fully revealed. It is the heritage of all men and in a golden age to come the earth will see the glory in which each human being is perfected. High above the advancing hosts I see the Banner of Har- mony fluttering in the breezes of Heaven — the sign of a Coven- ant, the symbol of Divine Energy ! Let us follow its guidance, buckling on the armor of the soul : — our feet shod in the san- dals of righteousness; our hands bearing the cup of charity; our robes of Truth bound with Honor and Justice — the Banner over us is Love ! Page Forty Eight EPILOGUE. As the angle of incidence in the light of the sun reveals the glory of the rainbow through a drop of rain, so the critical angle of judgment in the mind reveals the Glory of TRUTH. The moment of the perceptive flash is accompanied by a feeling of the spiritual justice of the revelation. The mind intuitively recognizes Truth. "The times are out of joint" is more than an image of poetry. Adjustment lies in the realm of Spirit. Now, it is a physiological fact that color bears an intimate relation to our emotional faculties. And emotion is an activity of the spirit. The symbolism of color is instinctive in the human mind. As white expresses our highest ideal of purity and spiritual per- fection, so blue stands for loyalty and red for courage. Or, if we take the significance of the streams of life in the body, the red blood stands for Sacrifice, the blue blood stands for Atone- ment and the white nerves between stand for Reconciliation. Under the influence of color, the mind is stimulated to ac- tivity with no consciousness of the cause. The progress of humanity gives evidence that, as a whole, the race moves under the influence of color. The emotions awakened by the broad and generous vibrations of red, the heat color, have but now swayed the world; for courage ran like an unbroken flood Page Forty Nine THE BANNER OF UNIVERSAL HARMONY through the hearts of men. Indeed, as has been said, courage was seen during the world war to be the commonest trait of humanity. But here and there stand those who have advanced beyond their fellows in spiritual growth, and their vibrations are the higher and quicker rate of orange and yellow. These are the advance-guard of humanity, and from them come mes- sages which tell that there is more in life than body and sense. In every age, as I have said, leaders have arisen to blaze the way to spiritual perfection. In the Hebrew teachers and lead- ers, we may see, as Dr. Moulton points out,* not only spiritual guides, but statesmen, and opposition statesmen at that. In modern times, the statesmen must be prophets, men of vision at heart. It is this far-seeing vision which has guided the Pres- ident of the United States in his program for world harmony, world progress, and world peace. By vision I mean ideals, by means of which men grow. And I mean a practical thing at that. For there are cosmic forces that lend their aid to the progress of man. It is a statement of the science of geology ** that all human advancement and human changes progress occur within a limited belt encircling the earth in the North Temperate Zone. It lies between * The Modern Reader's Bible ; R. G. Moulton : Macmillan Co. ** The Evolution of the Earth and Its Inhabitants : Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. Page Fifty EPILOGUE latitude 41 and 60 degrees. It has been called the Belt of Civilization. The rhythmic impulses of life created by the sun, its source, are met by rhythmic responses in the evolution of man, the changes occurring in the zone I have indicated. Man has re- sponded automatically. My thesis is, that by a recognition of this law of a zone of highest vibration, man may of himself promote his advancement. And I mean by inaugurating move- ments at centres mathematically calculated to seize cosmic forces. There are more reasons than enormous population for making New York or Pekin world centres for art, for medicine, for finance, for law and for education. They are situated at critical angles for the release of universal energy. Now, Woodrow Wilson has thrown about the world the golden cord of Justice, binding governments and governed through one common ideal. If we visualize the cord as Eternal Truth, unwinding for the adjustment of World Evil, we can see that when the idea of Justice has filled the minds of men, another loop would mean a universal awakening to Honor. Each binding loop will add a step to the Octave of Perfection, bringing men together under ever higher and higher principles of life, until the last, in which, by stages of ascent, the world of men together will be united in universal Harmony through universal Love. Beyond this, the thought of man cannot reach. For, "LOVE is our highest word, and the synonym of GOD." Page Fifty One LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 022 169 725 A i i