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THE GIFT OF 
 MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 BY 
 JOHN KULAMER 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 
 
 1916 
 
MjJ-i3l 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 Copyright, 1916 
 Sherman, French &" Company 
 
 M 16 1916 
 
 S>C1,A433374 
 
 n^a ( . 
 
Flower in the crannied wall, 
 
 I pluck you out of the crannies; 
 
 I hold you here, root and all in my hand, 
 
 Little flower — but if I could understand 
 
 What you are, root and all, 
 
 All in all, I should know 
 
 What God and Man is. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE READER 
 
 "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as 
 a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, 
 I put away childish things." 
 
 I Corinthians 13: 11. 
 
 This little volume contains my views upon the 
 vital questions of life which, though I often tried, 
 I could not down. They persisted in presenting 
 themselves for solution. The small size of the 
 book does not at all indicate the amount of reflec- 
 tion and thought spent on it. These extended 
 over a period of about sixteen years, although 
 they did not assume a definite shape until about a 
 year and a half ago. The idea of publishing them 
 did not occur to me until about six months ago. 
 Till then, whenever I reached a certain conclusion 
 I would make a note of it, more with the view of 
 its serving as a guide-post to me than of its pub- 
 lication. Upon reviewing them I noticed how far 
 I have traveled and, remembering the mental strug- 
 gle through which I passed and how grateful I 
 felt to the Rev. Charles E. Snyder, of Pittsburgh, 
 Pennsylvania, for giving me a helping hand over 
 the last obstruction in my path, I resolved upon 
 publishing these memoranda in a book form, per- 
 haps to perform a similar office for some one still 
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE READER 
 
 in the shadow of doubt. In fact, I concluded that 
 it was my duty to do so. This is my only excuse 
 for obtruding myself upon the public. 
 
 I have traveled the whole way: from the most 
 hide-bound orthodoxy to a reverential, rational re- 
 ligion. Personal experiences have a value to 
 others only when they can be of help to them, to 
 keep them company. And what a dreary expe- 
 rience it is to be obliged to do battle with doubt 
 single handed ! During such a struggle the placid 
 security of unquestioning faith looks very attrac- 
 tive indeed, and the temptation of returning to it 
 is very strong. The knowledge that others have 
 passed through similar experiences is a positive 
 comfort. Biographical facts are unimportant, 
 and in giving a short sketch of my experiences, I 
 mention only such as are absolutely necessary to 
 describe the mental struggle through which I 
 passed. 
 
 I was born and raised in the Roman Catholic 
 faith. My father was ambitious to see me a 
 priest, and fate pushed me along the road as far 
 as the study of philosophy. Then I revolted. 
 The limitations placed upon the mind by dogmas 
 were beyond my endurance and I could not face 
 a life of mental restrictions or the disgrace of a 
 possible future rupture after the brand of the 
 cloth had been placed upon me. Besides I felt 
 that I could not lead the life I would have to pre- 
 tend to be living. I faced the hard world unpre- 
 pared and on that account passed through a se- 
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE READER 
 
 vere ordeal. At times I was tempted to return, 
 but my newly acquired freedom of mind and ac- 
 tion was dearer to me than a life of leisure but of 
 dissembling. For three or four years I still clung 
 to the raft of the Roman faith, but my hold upon 
 it was fast loosening and grew weaker and weaker 
 every day. What I saw of the life of some priests, 
 and a personal experience which at that time ap- 
 peared to me as a real disaster, finally persuaded 
 me to let go my hold altogether and to put my 
 trust in the open sea of doubt and sink or swim 
 alone rather than to depend upon a contrivance 
 which seemed to be disintegrating. I argued to 
 myself that a religion which could have so little 
 influence upon the characters of its avowed ex- 
 ponents and leaders could not be of much value 
 to such as did not have the same knowledge of its 
 tenets as they had. 
 
 Then came a few years of almost complete irre- 
 sponsibility. The moral restraints which derived 
 their force from m}' discarded faith were wiped 
 out, but there still remained enough self-control to 
 keep me within the law and enough self-respect to 
 buoy me up and keep me from sinking. I frankly 
 admit that for religion I then had nothing but 
 sneers and ridicule, and for those who practiced it, 
 contempt. The impetuousness of youth blinded 
 my vision and persuaded me into partial security. 
 But even then, at times the vital questions of life 
 obtruded themselves on me. I put them aside 
 lightly. I suppose that nearly every one who 
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE READER 
 
 thinks seriously at all passes through a similar 
 experience. Some return to the fold, some drift 
 away permanently. 
 
 Advancing years and the hard blows of fate, 
 however, soon brought me back to my senses, and 
 then the real mental struggle began. Slowly I 
 began to assemble the facts which I learned during 
 my school days and tried to build around them 
 a theory that would satisfy my mind. I never 
 missed an opportunity to inform myself of the 
 latest scientific discoveries and theories which had 
 any bearing upon these questions and would throw 
 some light upon them. At first I was a pure ma- 
 terialist, but later there dawned upon me the ne- 
 cessity of some controlling influence and I became 
 a sort of scientific pantheist. But this very con- 
 flict and the ever present doubts pointed con- 
 clusively to the insufficiency of my convictions. I 
 saw that life's necessities did not consist only of 
 feeding and sheltering the body, that science of- 
 fered no satisfactory explanation of the moral con- 
 flict. Society is a voluntary association entered 
 into by free and equal individuals, but all its needs 
 and problems cannot be solved on the contract 
 basis. Some differences arising between men can, 
 and some cannot, be coldly arbitrated. Reason 
 alone plays a very unimportant role in the forma- 
 tion of character and in controlling human con- 
 duct. Reason may prove conclusively to a desper- 
 ate woman the folly of shooting the man upon 
 whom she pinned her faith, and of herself taking 
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE READER 
 
 poison, but it will not stop her from committing 
 these follies. But since all this forms but one 
 scheme, a satisfactory solution there must be of 
 all its phases. 
 
 Then there was in Pittsburgh a hectic spasm of 
 religious emotionalism, and the activities of the 
 Rev. Charles E. Snyder were brought to my at- 
 tention. It was he who piloted me safely over the 
 bar into the quiet harbor of certitude. For this 
 I owe him undying gratitude. In the state of my 
 mind at that time, I needed little to push me over, 
 yet I could not muster enough strength to re- 
 nounce my fast growing belief in barren ma- 
 terialism, which, though evidently unsatisfactory, 
 looked to me like the lesser of two evils. My new 
 position became so clear to me that within a short 
 time after I joined his church I could easily see 
 the fallacies in a lecture delivered by an exponent 
 of materialism. My vision had cleared, and it 
 only remained to arrange my conclusions into a 
 connected system. I do not claim to have found 
 out the absolute truth, and some ideas are still in- 
 definite, but I am satisfied that for the present I 
 have found what is the truth to me. Knowledge 
 is a variable quantity, ever growing, and it is im- 
 possible to foretell what scientific discoveries may 
 be made at any moment which will upset my pres- 
 ent convictions, but I am positive of one thing, 
 that I will never return to my former beliefs. 
 Theories are always subject to reversal, but tradi- 
 tions alone cannot do it with me. Truth is sub- 
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE READER 
 
 jective: only so much liquid can be poured into a 
 vessel as it will hold; an overcharge of electricity 
 will burn the wire carrying it. To expect one 
 man to accommodate his mind to the capacity of 
 another's is folly. Facts are facts, but not every 
 one can comprehend them in the same way. On 
 the other hand, any attempt to force a man to be 
 satisfied with less than what nature fitted him to 
 receive, is a crime. 
 
 Even when I studied scholastic philosophy, its 
 dry method of definitions, propositions, syllogisms 
 and classifications, though at all times intensely 
 interesting, did not appeal to me as practical and 
 attractive. In this volume I have adopted a nar- 
 rative system which has at times necessitated the 
 repetition of some statement of fact or a con- 
 clusion ; but there is this advantage, that every ar- 
 gument is complete in itself. The other method 
 may be more condensed, but it is adapted only for 
 the use of a student who can spend the time to 
 commit to memory every step in the evolution of 
 a thesis. It often happened to me that, when 
 reading about some serious subject, the force of 
 an argument was lost on me just because I failed 
 to remember some previous statement of fact or a 
 conclusion then appearing to be unimportant, and 
 was either unable to find it or lacked the inclina- 
 tion to look for it. Some statements are pur- 
 posely reiterated because of their importance. 
 The method used has also this advantage, that any 
 one heading can be read intelligently even if the 
 
CONFIDENTIAL TO THE READER 
 
 reader is not interested in the others ; or the book 
 may be laid aside for an indefinite time should his 
 interest lag or should inclination be lacking. 
 
 As I said before, the volume contains my per- 
 sonal views, during the formation of which I pur- 
 posely refrained from reading books treating on 
 the same subjects. I claim originality for them 
 only to the extent that I arrived at my definite 
 conclusions unassisted. Criticism, if any be 
 vouchsafed, I shall receive gratefully, for I do not 
 claim infallibility. I shall look for the greatest 
 reward for my efforts in the assistance that this 
 volume may lend to some one going through the 
 same mental struggle through which I passed. I 
 am now within the folds of a church whose posi- 
 tion is to allow the mind a free rein to investigate 
 the mysteries of nature and the vital questions of 
 life without binding it down with dogmas or ar- 
 ticles of faith, and whose main purpose is to har- 
 monize man's everyday actions and experiences 
 with the great truths as his mind perceives them. 
 This I find perfectly satisfactory to me, and such 
 a fold every man should try to find for himself. 
 I claim that it is better to err honestly through 
 one's own efforts than to permit oneself unresist- 
 ingly to be led into and kept in error. No man 
 has inherent authority to sit in judgment over 
 his fellowman. And who can say that he has 
 found the absolute truth.? 
 
 John Kulamer. 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE CONFLICT: MYSTICISM VS. 
 
 REALISM 1 
 
 I. THE TWO FACTIONS — The 
 
 Great Puzzles and their Solution 
 by the Spiritists 
 II. THE CONFLICT — Persistence of 
 Dogmatism; The Religious Posi- 
 tion; The Scientific Position; Mate- 
 rialism; The Materialist's So- 
 ciety 
 
 III. RECONCILIATION 
 
 II CYCLES AND ANALOGIES .... 25 
 I. THE THREE PRIMARY NO- 
 TIONS — Classification of Natural 
 Phenomena 
 IL LIFE A FORM OF FORCE — 
 Universal Life; The Properties of 
 Universal Life; The Death of a 
 Cell 
 IIL DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFER- 
 ENT KINDS OF LIFE — Animal 
 Life; Cell Cooperation; The Or- 
 igin of Life; Death of Complex 
 Life 
 
 IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MAN 
 V. PROTOPLASMIC PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 VL THE UNIVERSE 
 VII. GOD 
 
CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 III DREAMLAND AND THE SPIRIT 
 
 WORLD 79 
 
 I. BELIEF IN HEAVEN AND 
 HELL AN OBSTACLE TO 
 PROGRESS —« God " our "Fa- 
 ther " ; Heaven and Hell ; Obstacle 
 to Intellectual Progress; Drag on 
 Moral Progress 
 II. ORIGIN OF BELIEF IN THE 
 SPIRITS 
 
 III. INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY — 
 
 Self-consciousness 
 
 IV. GENERAL IMMORTALITY 
 V. THE LIFE PRINCIPLE 
 
 VL INDIVIDUALITY — The Matter 
 and Form Theory; Scientific The- 
 ory 
 VII. ACTION OR INACTION 
 
 IV EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS . . . .116 
 L THE HUMAN BODY A PER- 
 FECT DEMOCRACY — Moral 
 Responsibility; Natural Crimes and 
 Virtues 
 IL SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY — 
 The Moral Conflict 
 
 III. RIGHTS OF PRIVATE PROP- 
 
 ERTY— The Marriage Relation 
 
 IV. CONSCIENCE 
 V. JUSTICE 
 
 VL THE " HEART "— Passions and 
 
 Sentiments 
 VII. THE TRUE MOTIVE 
 VIIL MORAL GROWTH 
 
V OUR METRIC SYSTEM 156 
 
 I. THE PRINCIPLES OF DEMOC- 
 RACY 
 II. DOLLAR-IZED SUCCESS 
 
 III. DOLLAR-IZED COMMERCE AND 
 
 INDUSTRY 
 
 IV. DOLLAR-IZED LABOR — The 
 
 Practical Remedy; A Vicious Cir- 
 cle; The Life Insurance Evil; Re- 
 ciprocal Contracts 
 V. DOLLAR-IZED PARENTHOOD 
 
 AND HOME 
 VI. DOLLAR-IZED HAPPINESS 
 
 VI DEMOCRACY'S NEED 211 
 
 I. THE THEORY OF OUR GOV- 
 ERNMENT— Social Life; Neces- 
 sity for Self-restraint; The Office 
 of Religion; National Religion 
 
THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE CONFLICT: MYSTICISM VS. 
 REALISM 
 
 When, in the process of his evolution, man's 
 consciousness, memory and intellect developed 
 sufficiently to enable him to comprehend, to a 
 certain extent, his own nature and the position 
 which he occupied in the universe, he found him- 
 self a great puzzle. The same is true of every 
 individual : he goes through a similar experience 
 when his mind arrives at a similar stage in its 
 growth. He has to cope with the everyday prob- 
 lems of life and to exert all his efforts in his strug- 
 gle for existence. He feels that he ought to be 
 happy and yet he meets with difficulties and dis- 
 appointments, with persecutions and injustice; 
 perhaps he suffers hunger and pains, endures sor- 
 rows ; or his body is racked with illness until he is 
 ready to exclaim with Hamlet : 
 
 " Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
 Thaw, and resolve itself into dew; 
 Or that the Everlasting had not fixed 
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God ! O God ! 
 How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable 
 Seem to me all the uses of this world. 
 
 1 
 
2 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 Fie on't ; oh, fie ! 'Tis an unweeded garden 
 
 That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature 
 
 Possess it merely." 
 
 He sees millions of other beings with the same 
 capacity for happiness (for which they seem to 
 have been created) in similar plight without any 
 apparent reason for it, while there are others, the 
 minority, who are supplied with everything and 
 who to all appearances are fulfilling their destiny. 
 He sees about him a beautiful world, full of mys- 
 tery, of which he seems to be a part and 3'et 
 separated from. He sees the unworthy prosper 
 while the deserving are suffering want ; he sees 
 men belonging to the same race oppressing each 
 other. Injustice seems to triumph and honesty 
 suffer defeat. He sees the mad scramble for 
 wealth only to end in a grave, whither it cannot be 
 taken and beyond which his gaze cannot penetrate. 
 He sees new life coming into the world in travail, 
 and he stands at the bedside of the dying, passing 
 out in agony. He sees pomp and wealth, and 
 degradation and poverty. He sees noble men and 
 women, and abject wretches wallowing in the mire 
 of viciousness. In his own soul there is a contin- 
 ual struggle between a desire for ease and leisure 
 at any price, and the prospect of hard but hon- 
 est toil ; between an overpowering ambition to ride 
 to self-exaltation over the bodies and souls of oth- 
 ers, and the faithful performance of the tasks that 
 each day brings in obscurity ; between doing what 
 
THE CONFLICT 3 
 
 is right in expectation of a reward only, and fol- 
 lowing ideals because they constitute the nat- 
 ural revelations of the perfection of the Infinite. 
 These problems present themselves to every one : 
 What am I? Whence am I? Why am I? 
 Whither am I tending? To some these questions 
 present themselves clearly and are defined sharply ; 
 to others, but vaguely and indefinitely. With 
 some they are insistent for an answer; others put 
 them aside carelessly, allowing the little affairs of 
 life to drown their voices. Whether a man ap- 
 plies himself seriously to their solution or passes 
 them up unanswered depends upon many circum- 
 stances, — the surroundings amid which he lives, 
 his condition in life, his everyday needs and his 
 natural capacity. And yet, notwithstanding all 
 this, it is the duty of every one to solve these 
 problems as best he can. Ordinarily, those feel- 
 ing the pinch of want, the pangs of bodily pain 
 or the hard facts of life, unless their minds have 
 been completely dulled, give more attention to 
 them than those differently situated. A satisfied 
 animal is not given to speculation, and a full 
 stomach is an enemy to serious thought. And the 
 solution of these problems is important and not 
 merely an idle speculation, because it is necessary 
 for the proper regulation of man's daily conduct. 
 Upon their answer depends not only the quieting 
 of his mind, but also the proper harmonizing of 
 his every act to the requirements of the world of 
 which he is a part. Upon the proper understand- 
 
4 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ing of his own position and nature depends his 
 comprehension of his relations to others with 
 whom he comes into daily contact. 
 
 I. THE TWO FACTIONS 
 
 There were always men who devoted themselves 
 almost exclusively to the solution of these prob- 
 lems, and at present there are two groups of se- 
 rious thinkers, and a horde of charlatans, who are 
 exerting themselves to arrive at some satisfactory 
 conclusion. On the one side we have the religion- 
 ists, believers or spiritists, — that is, all those who 
 believe in the existence of a spiritual world ; and 
 on the other side we have the scientists, rational- 
 ists, materialists, who do not go beyond what can 
 be deduced from knowledge acquired through the 
 senses. The former take the everyday experiences 
 of man and the problems of life, — his acts and 
 their qualifications, his desires, aspirations, ideals 
 and evil inclinations, — and give them a substance. 
 They personify these and even extend them into 
 the Infinite. These personifications they call 
 spirits ; the supreme and infinite personification of 
 all the good experiences is their God. Of old 
 there were many gods ; now they are united into 
 one. 
 
 THE GREAT PUZZLES AND THEIR SOLUTION BY 
 THE SPIRITISTS 
 
 There are three great puzzling facts in man's 
 life: his birth in pain, his bodily sufferings and 
 
THE CONFLICT 5 
 
 his death. For these he has been trying to find 
 reasons. His mind has been groping in darkness 
 ever since he began to think. Even to-day, with 
 our advanced knowledge of life, we cannot explain 
 why birth should be the source of anguish to the 
 mother, why it is fraught with danger, why some 
 other method could not have been devised by the 
 Omnipotent to usher a new life into this world. 
 It is the highest function of a living being, the end 
 for which it exists. We can only guess at the 
 reason for the existence of pain and illness, — why 
 man, the most efficient form of life, for the produc- 
 tion of which untold ages of selection have been 
 spent, should still be subject to attacks from very 
 inferior forms of life. It would seem like a fail- 
 ure. Why should an individual man die.^^ In the 
 long past, man grasped at the simplest explana- 
 tion he could find, drawn from his everyday ex- 
 periences and the relations among which he then 
 lived, which was that all these evils were the pun- 
 ishment for some transgression. The transgres- 
 sion, disobedience of an arbitrary command, was 
 represented in a concrete form in the tales of all 
 the nations of the past. The natural struggle for 
 existence was represented as a conflict between 
 the opposing spirits of good and evil, and even this 
 conflict was an actual fight. A similar simple ex- 
 planation sufficed for the coming into being of the 
 universe itself: man's theories about these things 
 never rise higher than his general knowledge. 
 
6 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 Man knew that he was able to fashion useful ar- 
 ticles out of crude materials ; the world was such 
 a handicraft of an all powerful Being, or spirit, 
 who did not need any crude materials out of which 
 to fashion this world ; he made it out of nothing. 
 This omnipotent mechanic ultimately became the 
 personification and the acme of all the good at- 
 tributes of human acts, the component of all the 
 older gods. Essentially there is no difference be- 
 tween the evil gods of the pagans and the Chris- 
 tian devils, of the demigods and the angels, whose 
 very names stand but for some good or bad that 
 is in man. The fall of Lucifer and the fall of 
 Adam do but represent a step in man's evolution. 
 The pagans wove their mythology around differ- 
 ent persons. Christianity unites all the different 
 problems in one personality. The pagans dis- 
 tributed the work of the creation of the universe 
 among their several gods ; each human passion, de- 
 sire and virtue had its godly counterpart. The 
 Christians say that God created the world and that 
 he is a spirit with the attributes of infinite love, 
 mercy, justice and all the other good human acts; 
 he became the objective realization of these man's 
 ideals. The spiritists rest their inquiry here with- 
 out even attempting to define the term spirit. 
 They assert the existence of these spirit substances 
 upon the authority of persons who, by virtue of 
 their greater capacities, have sounded the very 
 depths of these human experiences, who saw clearer 
 into their own natures, but who could not express 
 
THE CONFLICT 7 
 
 in words their own comprehension of them, and for 
 that reason resorted to symbols. The powerful 
 instinct of self-preservation, the very essence of 
 life, gave rise in their breasts, more strongly than 
 in the breasts of others, to the hope of immortal- 
 ity, of an individual life after this. They, more 
 than others, felt that life is perpetual, and with 
 their limited knowledge of it they gave this feel- 
 ing a concrete representation. They knew man as 
 one simple individual, and not as a composite of 
 millions of ordinarily invisible individuals, and to 
 that one being, the individual as they knew it, they 
 attributed immortality. But there was the one in- 
 controvertible fact staring them in the face, the 
 destruction of that individual which they knew; 
 hence they attributed immortality to the soul, or 
 spirit, or the life-giving principle which animated 
 the destructible body. The grave ended the ma- 
 terial existence, but there remained an immaterial 
 existence, which was but a representation of the 
 persistence of universal life. Of its nature they 
 knew nothing, so that it was left to the imagina- 
 tion to form such a picture as man's knowledge of 
 life, its purposes and values, could induce. 
 
 Unable to explain all the misery, disappoint- 
 ments, troubles, pain and sufferings of this life, 
 and yet feeling that man was destined for happi- 
 ness, they postponed the realization of all his de- 
 sires and aspirations, the fulfillment of his ideals, 
 to after life, when this one great desire of life 
 immortal would be realized also. It is the instinct 
 
8 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 of self-preservation that lends courage to a living 
 being to struggle against unfavorable outside con- 
 ditions, and its concrete expression, the hope of a 
 life after death, has the same influence on man. 
 Upon these real experiences of life and upon their 
 hoped for realization, upon the symbolism with 
 which these experiences and hopes were clothed, 
 these great dreamers built up a system of rules 
 of human conduct, evoked the sought for con- 
 solations, supplied motives to life otherwise appar- 
 ently empty, in a way which satisfied their minds 
 and the minds and hearts of their disciples. Be- 
 cause of the use of symbols, some radical ration- 
 alists are inclined to question the sincerity of 
 these men, and even to call them deceivers. But 
 they are wrong ; for the rules of our conduct, our 
 social and moral laws, ought to be based upon our 
 knowledge of our natures and the relations under 
 which we live ; and it is immaterial whether this 
 knowledge is presented in simple words or in sym- 
 bols, so long as these approximate the truth. Im- 
 perfect knowledge was, in a measure, supplied by 
 these symbols, and upon them it was proper to 
 build the moral and civil codes. As long as they 
 believed in these symbols, why could they not apply 
 them to the solution of their everyday problems.'' 
 And after all, man's moral responsibility never 
 rises above his knowledge of himself and of his re- 
 lations to others. If this knowledge must be rep- 
 resented in symbols, if sincere, no harm is done. 
 There is little doubt that the absolute mo- 
 
THE CONFLICT 9 
 
 narchial system of government developed out of 
 the ancient patriarchal form, under which first the 
 father ruled absolutely, and natural filial obedi- 
 ence was the bond, and later, the tribal chief by 
 brute force, and blood relationship was the bond 
 of union. This form was extended to the rule of 
 the world and the Supreme Mechanic became also 
 the Supreme Lawgiver. This, too, was but an ap- 
 plication of human attributes to God. He became 
 the heavenly king and the arbiter of human acts : 
 the father and the judge. As such He was in- 
 finite love, mercy and justice. 
 
 II. THE CONFLICT 
 
 Dogmatism is the main fault of symbolism. It 
 asserts its theories to be absolute truths and there- 
 by suppresses the activities of the human mind 
 and prevents investigation. In this lies both its 
 strength and its weakness. It could dominate the 
 human mind only for a time, until willingly or un- 
 willingly it discovered the many discrepancies 
 which existed between dogmatic assertions and the 
 gradually acquired irrefutable facts about nature 
 and its laws. The anathemas and excommunica- 
 tions of dogmatism lost their terrors in the ever 
 growing light of scientific discoveries. Dogmas 
 sufficed the untutored mind, but the force of scien- 
 tific discoveries finally broke through the fetters 
 which bound it for many centuries. The knowl- 
 edge which mankind acquired by means of the tele- 
 scope, microscope and spectroscope gave it a bet- 
 
10 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ter insight into the laws which govern material 
 things and into the nature of living beings. And 
 herein were found the greatest inconsistencies in 
 the spiritists' theories. The personifications of 
 the qualities of human acts, of the immaterial or 
 mental experiences, did not involve the spiritists 
 in many inconsistencies, even after modern science 
 has made its discoveries ; but the making of the life 
 principle, or the soul of man, a spirit also opened 
 up a breach through which scientifically inspired 
 doubt entered and is now threatening the whole 
 system. While men knew living beings only as 
 large, visible individuals they could safely assume 
 that, because of man's superior intellectual abili- 
 ties, he was a different being ; but now that we know 
 that the large individuals consist but of a great 
 number of cell individuals whose attributes, 
 whether in man or in other inferior forms of life, 
 are the same, there is not the same reason for sup- 
 posing that the life giving principle of man, or the 
 soul, is a spiritual substance which can exist in- 
 dependent of the body and forever. This is the 
 great conflict between symbolism and reality, be- 
 tween spiritism and science. We can take a por- 
 tion of the skin of an animal and graft it on man 
 and it will continue to live: and this is only the 
 beginning. This is the great stumbling block of 
 spiritism ; the scientific discoveries about the na- 
 ture of life, imperfect though they be. These dis- 
 coveries must, they finally shall, overcome the 
 
THE CONFLICT 11 
 
 thousands of years old mysticism. It is inevita- 
 ble. Dogma, no matter how old, no matter what 
 powerful organization is backing it, if false, must 
 give way to truth ; powerful organization may pro- 
 long the struggle, but it cannot avert its ultimate 
 downfall. 
 
 PERSISTENCE OF DOGM\TISM 
 
 We are wont to call the Eastern nations dream- 
 ers and mystics, and attribute it to a peculiar trait 
 or cast of their minds. We forget that the East 
 is the cradle of human knowledge and not of the 
 human race. They were the first to attempt the 
 solution of these vital everyday problems. All 
 nature is full of mysteries, and, therefore, their 
 undeveloped minds reveled in mysticism and 
 dreams and shadowy forms. They are mystics to- 
 day more on account of their conservatism than 
 any peculiar mental trait ; on account of their 
 strong faith and the tenacity with which they hold 
 to their old solutions. They have acquired this 
 tendency to mystic interpretations because of the 
 dogmatism of faith. All faith is essentially re- 
 actionary if its object is some dogma, because it 
 ties the mind to its absolute assertion of truth. If 
 the dogmas which faith teaches are absolute truths, 
 as it is claimed, then the mind has reached its lim- 
 its. A man must halt when he has reached his 
 goal. But the intellect is not built that way ; 
 it does not want rest ; it wants to delve and to in- 
 
12 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 quire. It did inquire and did find out many things 
 which were irreconcilable with the assertions of 
 faith. Social institutions bound the Eastern na- 
 tions to their faiths and they remained stationary 
 for thousands of years. Plato's separation of re- 
 ligion from politics, possible because of the liberal 
 political institutions prevailing in Greece, was the 
 first entering wedge into this solid faith, which 
 made possible the scientific researches of Western 
 Europe. Were it not for the seed of discontent 
 with established forms sowed by him and the other 
 Greek philosophers, we would be mystics and 
 dreamers as the Easterners are. Of course, this 
 ancient protestantism had to come, as the mind 
 cannot be chained down forever any more than a 
 stream can be dammed up completely and per- 
 manently. But at that, if we study carefully the 
 Eastern symbolism by the light of our present 
 knowledge, we must acknowledge that they were 
 not very far from the position which we ought to 
 take on these matters if we want to be consistent. 
 Their theories clothed in symbolic garments were 
 but attempts by their undeveloped intellects and 
 their crude knowledge to explain the universality 
 of life. The doctrine of the transmigration of 
 souls, for example, is but such a symbolic repre- 
 sentation of the universality of life adapted to the 
 existing social needs in order to formulate rules 
 of human conduct for the restraint of men in their 
 daily intercourse with others. Take the Hebrew 
 theory of immortality, elaborated by Christianity ; 
 
THE CONFLICT 13 
 
 it is nothing but a symbolical representation of 
 the same truth adapted to their habit of thought 
 and social necessities. After death man's soul 
 becomes united with God in the kingdom of heaven. 
 This was but their unattainable ideal of re-estab- 
 lishing their earthly kingdom, and another form 
 of expressing the Brahmanistic theory of the re- 
 turn of the spark of life to the eternal flame. Re- 
 ligious beliefs always represent the ideal of exist- 
 ing social conditions ; the after life, the materiali- 
 zation of prevalent earthly desires. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS POSITION 
 
 To the spiritists society is a more or less di- 
 vinely ordered institution to work out man's su- 
 pernatural destiny rather than to promote his wel- 
 fare on this earth. Man's desires have always out- 
 run the possibility of being satisfied; religion un- 
 dertakes to satisfy them. But as every one's ex- 
 perience demonstrates that this is not done in this 
 life, religion holds out the hope of this satisfaction 
 in after life. The tie of the society of the reli- 
 gionists is brotherly love, and the laws are divine 
 revelations whose wisdom cannot be questioned. 
 The trials and worries of life are divine visitations 
 to try men's souls and thus to prepare them for 
 their future state. The life on this earth is but 
 a preparation for after life. They avoid the 
 question why such a probationary period should 
 be necessary especially in view of the apparent fact 
 that a great many seem to miss this supernatural 
 
14^ THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 destiny altogether. Everything is clothed in 
 mystic garments : life's realities and verities are 
 presented in symbols ; and this is persisted in even 
 though scientific discoveries present the most po- 
 tent arguments against them. Thus it can be as- 
 serted with every reason for assurance that the 
 story of the fall of Adam and Eve is but a myth, 
 an allegorical representation of the development 
 of the intellect in the course of evolution ; at any 
 rate it cannot be supported by any argument that 
 can stand the searchlight of logic ; and yet upon 
 this fable rests the entire structure of Christian 
 dogmas. If it were not for the fall in the garden 
 of Eden, there would be no curses on mankind and 
 there would be no need of atonement, no necessity 
 for redemption, no Christ. Our scientific theory 
 of the evolution of man takes us back to the time 
 when he did not know good from evil ; that is, when 
 he did not know his own nature, when he lived in 
 herds from instinct and did not comprehend the 
 relations which he thus established. Adam and 
 Eve ate of the tree of knowledge and they knew 
 good and evil ; that is, there was a period when 
 this knowledge dawned upon man. The truth of 
 the matter is that we are falling yet, because we 
 are still learning concerning these things. 
 
 It may be that simple and unquestioning faith 
 was necessary to work out man's destiny in days 
 when his mind was not capable of comprehending 
 the reasons for the necessity of restraints upon his 
 acts. It may be that it was necessary to smooth 
 
THE CONFLICT 15 
 
 over the hard facts of life with glittering prom- 
 ises of future rewards, and to set up the visions of 
 dreamers and prophets as the guiding stars. But 
 to what extent are these things necessary to-day? 
 Are we bound to accept the same views and con- 
 tent ourselves with the same promises? Must we 
 look upon our existence on this earth as only a 
 transitory period of preparation for a life of 
 which we know nothing, or as a reality, whose ob- 
 ject here is the promotion of the plans of the In- 
 finite? What is an individual man in the immen- 
 sity of the universe? No doubt he is necessary, 
 yet it is the height of vanity for him to imagine 
 that the preservation of his individuality ever en- 
 tered into the plans of the Almighty. It is the 
 height of presumption to expect the Infinite to 
 exert himself particularly in the interest of some 
 Croesus in order to protect his unjustly gotten 
 property. Social living being one of the ways of 
 promoting the purpose of life, its preservation, its 
 proper and just rules and laws are of divine origin, 
 in so far as man's intellect, which is a faculty de- 
 veloped in man to devise or find out what is neces- 
 sary and proper to attain this end, discovers them. 
 In order to impress this truth upon the Israelites 
 Moses, according to the Bible story, claimed to 
 have received his code of laws while a thunder 
 storm, a rare natural phenomenon in that region, 
 raged around Mount Sinai. His exceptional ca- 
 pacity perceived what was needed and necessary. 
 Because his capacity was a natural gift, he can be 
 
16 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 truly called a man inspired. But in the march of 
 evolution such individuals are but incidents ; they 
 appear because they are necessary to guide the 
 rest. If it had not been Moses, it would have been 
 some one else (always supposing that Moses is a 
 historical personality) ; if it had not been Jesus of 
 Nazareth, it would have been some one else ; if it 
 had not been Confucius, it would have been some 
 one else. When the time is ripe to make a new 
 step, there is always a man to take it. Every 
 great movement was necessary and proper and a 
 step forward. Men of destiny always appear 
 when needed. Why, even Bismarck with his mili- 
 taristic policy and Nietzsche with his philosophy 
 of brutality can be considered as such men, to 
 show to mankind most strikingly the folly of rule 
 by force. Each sickness requires its own treat- 
 ment. 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC POSITION 
 
 Ever since the times of the Greek philosophers, 
 science and religion, knowledge and faith, pursued 
 their divergent ways, the distance between them 
 ever widening, although the goal was the same, un- 
 til to-day there seems to be no possibility of ever 
 bringing them together. Science takes the dem- 
 onstrated, reasonably certain facts about the uni- 
 verse and out of them tries to formulate answers 
 to those important questions, and to find solu- 
 tions for everyday problems. 
 
 Biology and chemistry have discovered certain 
 
THE CONFLICT 17 
 
 facts about life; and, while they do not positively 
 answer the question, they give us a clearer insight 
 into it, and go farther to disproving the accepted 
 theories of the spiritists. In fact, the latter can- 
 not consistently maintain their position in view 
 of these discoveries. The ultimate life individual 
 is the cell, and the cell is the same essentially 
 whether living alone or in conjunction with others, 
 forming the large complex individuals. Why 
 should the cells composing a man be enlivened with 
 a principle which is immortal and not those of a 
 horse, for example.'' Chemically and biologically 
 they show the same attributes. Symbolism is 
 powerless in the presence of this fact. The whole 
 cannot be greater than any or all of its parts : if 
 the cells are not immortal how can the complex 
 individual consisting of these cells be? And if the 
 cells composing man are immortal why not those 
 composing animals .?* Furthermore, how can the 
 soul of a man be one individual indivisible in after 
 life, when in this life he is composed of millions 
 of cells, each one a separate individual ? We could 
 say with just as much reason that the spirit of the 
 American nation as one whole can go to heaven or 
 hell after it ceases to be a nation on this earth, and 
 that there it will meet the souls of ancient Baby- 
 lon, Assyria, Greece, Rome, etc. It is on this ques- 
 tion of the nature of life that the two camps differ : 
 religion, although with great reluctance, gave way 
 to science in questions relating to the outside 
 world, but, so far as man himself is concerned, it 
 
18 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 has not yielded up its primitive conceptions con- 
 cerning the spiritual world. It still clings to its 
 traditional ideas, although it has modified them 
 considerably. This primitiveness of its theories 
 constitutes its weakness, which will bring on its 
 ultimate downfall, for many open minded men 
 would, if these primitive ideas were discarded, sup- 
 port religion wholeheartedly and enthusiastically. 
 This uncompromising attitude on the part of re- 
 ligious leaders will be ever in the way of recon- 
 ciling science with religion. 
 
 MATERIALISM 
 
 On the other hand, a certain school of scientists 
 have swung to the other extreme, to materialism. 
 But these, too, have to face certain facts which 
 are indisputable and which weaken their position. 
 We all know that man is not matter and material 
 force alone. Every man has experiences which 
 cannot be explained by the physicist, the chemist 
 or the biologist. Man is not merely a machine, 
 or a chemical compound or a sack of protoplasm. 
 All his acts are not reducible to mathematical 
 formulas, as are the laws of the lever or of a 
 chemical reaction. He is not all heat, light, elec- 
 tricity or chemical affinity. He is first of all a 
 complex being whose individuals develop under the 
 apparent guidance of some controlling principle 
 from one parent cell, during which process of 
 evolution or growth selections are made, functions 
 are assigned and organs are developed out of that 
 
THE CONFLICT 19 
 
 simple parent cell. That cannot be attributed to 
 light or electricity or chemical affinity. Then, 
 each cell and the entire complex individual is 
 capable of self-reproduction, something none of 
 the other chemical and physical forces can do. 
 Furthermore, men, and for that matter other ani- 
 mals too, feel certain passions, desires : they can 
 perceive, they are conscious, they have memory 
 and reason. These cannot be explained with ma- 
 terial forces. You can say that the optic nerve 
 but conveys the vibrations of the light waves from 
 the retina to the brain cells, but that itself is not 
 the perception of light; you may say that diges- 
 tion is but a species of decomposition through the 
 action of the gastric juices but that does not ex- 
 plain how the stomach came to be built so as to be 
 able to secrete these juices; you may say that as- 
 similation is but the absorption of food conveyed 
 to the cell by the blood, but that does not explain 
 why one cell will absorb only certain kinds of food 
 and build up a compound of a certain chemical 
 composition. Anger may show itself only as an 
 unusual state of nervous excitation due to certain 
 outside impressions, but that does not explain why 
 this unusual excitation is produced, and why the 
 same outside impressions will not produce the 
 same unusual excitation in every individual. And 
 there are all those other mental acts and expe- 
 riences for which material science has not even 
 attempted to find an explanation. True and sin- 
 cere science is in doubt to-day, and materialism is 
 
20 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 untenable and narrow. Religion says " God " is 
 everything ; materialism says there is no " God " ; 
 science questions both. The truth, no doubt, lies 
 somewhere between the two extremes. Religion 
 says matter is corruption ; materialism answers 
 matter is eternal; science says both of you seem 
 to be right to some extent ; I do not know. Re- 
 ligion says the soul is immortal; materialism says 
 death ends all; science here interposes a positive 
 assertion and says all life is persistent. 
 
 THE MATERIALIST'S SOCIETY 
 
 The materialists, or the rationalists, look upon 
 society as an aggregation of men formed into an 
 organization by a tacit agreement for the pur- 
 pose of advancing their individual welfare by co- 
 operation. In order to accomplish this a gov- 
 ernment is established with powers to pass laws 
 for the regulation of the conduct of the indi- 
 viduals and to transact the necessary business. 
 Theoretically that is true, but there are several 
 factors which enter into the social intercourse 
 which this theory leaves out of consideration. 
 Whatever the form of government, whether it be 
 absolutism or democracy, it is both impractical and 
 impossible to pass laws regulating man's every act 
 whose consequences may affect others. The civil 
 law must confine itself to mere prohibitions ; it 
 cannot prescribe rules of conduct imposing posi- 
 tive duties upon all the individuals in their private 
 intercourse with others. Any such attempts in the 
 
THE CONFLICT 21 
 
 past proved futile. Then, the law cannot judge 
 motives and intentions ; it can only pass upon the 
 overt acts. There are innumerable acts harmful 
 to others which, on that account, the law can 
 neither prevent nor punish; on the other hand, it 
 is powerless to force people to do acts beneficial 
 to others, and yet the prevention of injurious acts 
 alone cannot bring about the full fruition of the 
 objects of co-operation. The enforcement of the 
 law can produce only armed peace. But the main 
 difficulty with which this theory has to contend is 
 the impossibility of controlling and restraining 
 the primordial passions by cold reasoning. In- 
 nate in every man is the primal instinct of pres- 
 ervation ; and this is the source of all the pas- 
 sions which cause social troubles. There is greed, 
 which is an overpowering desire to acquire and 
 hoard up things necessary for the maintenance of 
 life. We see its manifestation in the single cell 
 when storing up fats, oils and starches within its 
 sack, to be used when food cannot be obtained 
 from the outside. The instinct of preservation is 
 most selfish, and when allowed full sway the greed 
 which it breeds has no consideration for others and 
 is the source of nearly all the injustice per- 
 petrated by men against their fellows. Society 
 claims that, because of co-operation, it is not nec- 
 essary for every man to strain all his efforts to 
 store up necessaries for future use, to provide 
 against barren times ; it tries to assure this supply, 
 but the voice of reason is drowned in the presence 
 
22 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 of this overwhelming elemental passion. The 
 sight of poverty and miserj'^ makes no impression 
 on it. Anger, a powerful protective passion, has 
 been greatly softened, not by reasoning, but by 
 disuse, because society has nearly accomplished its 
 objects of assuring personal security. Ambition, 
 when its object is not to satisfy greed, but for per- 
 sonal preferment, can also be very ruthless and 
 destructive. Its limitation within the bounds of 
 propriety cannot be well accomplished by reason- 
 ing. It can also be traced to the instinct of self- 
 preservation. Then there are the passions which 
 are the means of promoting reproduction. They 
 have been the source of a great deal of social dis- 
 turbance. The male's and the female's desire for 
 personal adornment is a natural one, an outgrowth 
 of the reproductive instinct, and a great deal of 
 injustice has been perpetrated and oppression 
 practiced in order to satisfy it. 
 
 III. RECONCILIATION 
 
 All these instincts, passions and desires are 
 great factors in the maintenance of proper social 
 conditions, but are disregarded by the materialists 
 and the rationalists. In this they are narrow and 
 wrong. The religionists, whose main purpose is 
 the regulation of these passions and their restric- 
 tion within the bounds of necessity, would stand 
 upon an immovable foundation, if they did not 
 introduce into their system extraneous matters 
 which weaken the whole structure. It is more im- 
 
THE CONFLICT 23 
 
 portant to humanity to regulate man's conduct so 
 as to promote its welfare in this state than to pre- 
 pare him for a state concerning which he knows 
 nothing. Man's destiny is here on earth, and if 
 he reaches it he need not worry about what is 
 going to happen after death. There being so 
 much diversity of honest opinion about man's 
 destiny, or rather about the means whereby it can 
 be worked out, an infinitely just God can be 
 trusted not to punish those who sincerely follow 
 their own lights, even if they differ from others as 
 to immaterial details. If religion confined itself 
 to the cultivation of the sentiments which counter- 
 act the passions, which in the past it has deified, 
 it would do greater and more acceptable service 
 for humanity than by occupying itself with specu- 
 lations concerning the mysteries of nature, for 
 which work it is not fitted and which it cannot 
 solve. The regulation of conduct is more essen- 
 tial than the preaching of dogmas, the curbing of 
 human desires more beneficial than the practice of 
 any particular ritual. George Washington had 
 a true comprehension of the social necessities when 
 he advised his countrymen not to neglect religion 
 and morality, but he did not refer to any particu- 
 lar religion nor advocate any set of dogmas. True 
 science can be safely trusted to supply the neces- 
 sary knowledge of human nature, of the universe 
 and of the human relations upon which a rational 
 system of ethics and a moral code can be built. 
 True science is more reverent than dogmatism. 
 
M THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 Its very doubting attitude is beneficial because it 
 leaves room for better comprehension of nature's 
 laws and mysteries, while dogmatism by arrogat- 
 ing to itself the knowledge of absolute truth stops 
 further progress. If science were allowed to do the 
 investigating of nature and religion confined itself 
 to cultivating the necessary human sentiments, 
 they, too, could work harmoniously side by side 
 for the uplifting of the human race and the attain- 
 ment of those ends for which man was put on this 
 earth. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 
 
 The purpose of a title is to serve as an index 
 to the subject matter to be discussed. While the 
 above title does not contain even a hint of the sub- 
 ject matter, it, nevertheless, complies with the 
 rule for the reason that the purpose of this discus- 
 sion is simply to point certain analogies. The 
 subjects of these analogies will be some of the 
 cycles that we see about us. Analogies are similar 
 to parallel lines : there must be a certain amount 
 of difference between the subjects compared, just 
 as there must be a distance between parallel lines. 
 While not demonstrations, analogies can be of 
 great assistance in the formation of conceptions 
 of elusive subjects and may be very convincing 
 arguments. 
 
 The nature of man, of the universe and of God 
 are riddles which man will never solve ; we will have 
 theories, but that is all. To claim more is rank 
 presumption, muzzling the intellect and preventing 
 its further development. The speculation of these 
 abstruse subjects is not all idle, for their compre- 
 hension, as far as possible, has an important bear- 
 
 25 
 
26 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ing on our everyday life, on our relations to each 
 other and on the regulation of our conduct. 
 Moral responsibility is measured by our knowledge 
 of these subjects. Neither religion nor science 
 has yet advanced a theory that could stand the 
 test of logic, taking into consideration our present 
 knowledge. Take, for example, the argument of 
 the chain of causes: the major, that everything is 
 an effect of a pre-existing cause and a cause of a 
 succeeding effect, is correct ; but the minor, that 
 such a chain of causes cannot be continued indefi- 
 nitely, is a pure assumption for which no valid ar- 
 gument outside of revealed religion can be ad- 
 vanced; hence, the conclusion that there must be 
 a cause which is not at the same time an effect 
 will not stand. And this argument is relied on to 
 prove the theory of an extraneous personal God. 
 It rests on a dogmatic assertion. Empirically we 
 have acquired a certain amount of knowledge con- 
 cerning the universe; through our consciousness 
 and from everyday experiences we know a little 
 more of ourselves ; but the nature of God will al- 
 ways remain a matter of conjecture. No particu- 
 lar theory is meant here by the term " God." Re- 
 ligion draws upon the experiences of the human 
 soul for facts upon which it builds its theory; 
 science, upon the sensible universe. If the con- 
 clusions of the two, when sincerely and earnestly 
 sought, do not harmonize, neither has the right 
 to condemn the other. Religion should not accuse 
 science of atheism nor should science charge re- 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 27 
 
 ligion with deception. They are both moving 
 towards the same goal, although by different 
 routes, and each should respect the honest opinions 
 of the other. Science is debauched by charlatans 
 and religion degraded by hypocrites, but because, 
 of this neither can be indicted. To say " There is 
 no God " is rank folly ; but it all depends what is 
 meant by the term " God," what conception a man 
 has formed of it. Study yourself and the outside 
 world with a mind open to conviction, and you will 
 find out the truth, you will find your God, the true 
 one for you; for truth is subjective if thus found. 
 We are in the world and of it, very intimately con- 
 nected with everything in it, and yet we know only 
 certain manifestations of the forces that sustain 
 it and the effects of the laws that govern it ; of its 
 ultimate composition, of its essence and underlying 
 principles we know very little ; we know nothing 
 of its beginning, or whether it had any, and can 
 only guess vaguely at its end or whether it will 
 have one in its present form. We only note con- 
 tinual change. Why is it.'' Whence is it, ? What 
 is it? These are vital questions, yet we can only 
 conjecture the answers to them. It would be pre- 
 sumption for any one to say that he has found 
 their answers. " I think, therefore I am," says 
 Des Cartes. That is the only fact that we are 
 sure about and it is the beginning of our knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 The anthropomorphic idea of God and of his 
 relations to the universe and to man satisfied the 
 
28 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 human mind when it conceived the earth as a flat, 
 immovable surface over which the stars hung Hke 
 so many lamps from the dome of the firmament 
 and when monarchies were prevalent, but since we 
 learned more about these things and since democ- 
 racy is spreading, we think that such a conception 
 is rather small and we feel that we have outgrown 
 the necessity for symbolical representation. We 
 do not want to think of God as a mechanic build- 
 ing the world out of nothing and occasionally wind- 
 ing it up to make it go, or as a tyrant ruling man- 
 kind by his absolute decrees ; it does not quite 
 square up with our standards of the attributes of 
 the Infinite, of our ideal of what God should be. 
 And this is no blasphemy ; it is due rather to a 
 more exalted idea of God. Besides, there is such 
 a diversity of opinion among the religious advo- 
 cates. Because we know ourselves through our 
 consciousness and introspection and through the 
 investigations into the nature of man externally, 
 we know more about man than any other thing or 
 being. All our speculations and investigations 
 resolve themselves and stop at one concrete ques- 
 tion: what is hfe.'* If we could find a satisfactory 
 answer to this one question we would gain a clearer 
 insight into the natures of the other subjects of 
 our inquiry. 
 
 1. THE THREE PRIMARY NOTIONS 
 
 All our knowledge of the external world is re- 
 ducible to three primary conceptions: motion. 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 29 
 
 inertia and action. Objectively they stand for 
 the general and most apparent attributes of force, 
 the active, and matter, the passive, principles of 
 the universe. They may be but one substance, but 
 if it were not for the action of one upon the other 
 we could know nothing about them. The correla- 
 tive of action is reaction, and they go together; 
 force manifests itself as motion, action, and mat- 
 ter as inertia, reaction. We can safely conclude 
 that, so far as our present knowledge goes, neither 
 force nor matter can exist independently. The 
 action of force upon matter and the reaction of 
 matter produce changes which make them per- 
 ceptible to us. Neither could be perceived by us 
 alone, because neither alone could make an impres- 
 sion on our perceptive organs, which are composed 
 of matter and force. To make an impression, the 
 external forces, acting through matter, must make 
 impressions on the matter composing our percep- 
 tive organs ; the action and reaction induced in 
 them produce changes which are perceived by the. 
 sensitive faculty. These impressions, assisted by 
 memory, are the sources of our knowledge. The 
 perceptions of one moment are retained by the 
 memory and compared with the perceptions of an- 
 other moment, and the differences are noted. 
 Those perceptions and the differences in them we 
 analyze and then form our ideas, deduce our prin- 
 ciples and laws. But they all rest solely upon our 
 observations of the action of force upon matter, 
 of motion and inertia. 
 
30 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 Take, for example, a stone lying on the surface 
 of the earth ; that gives us no indication of the 
 presence of the force of gravity. If everything 
 lay flat on the surface of the earth we could never 
 know that there is such a force. If we place this 
 stone upon our hands, we feel pressure, and if we 
 withdraw our hands from under it the stone will 
 move towards the earth. If the hand is unsup- 
 ported, the weight will be felt by the exertion of 
 our muscles to arrest the motion towards the earth. 
 Thus we gain our ideas of gravity. But this mo- 
 tion is but the result, the manifestation of the 
 force of gravity, and it gives us no inkling of its 
 essence. All the rest of our knowledge concern- 
 ing gravitation, no matter how advanced, no mat- 
 ter into what intricate mathematical formulas it 
 is put, is traceable to these simple experiments. 
 Place a piece of wood opposite the poles of a mag- 
 net, and it could rest there for centuries without 
 giving any indication of the presence of the force 
 of magnetism. But if we place a piece of iron 
 there, we shall note the movement and from further 
 investigations shall gain our knowledge of mag- 
 netism. It is always motion overcoming inertia, 
 the action of force upon matter. No amount of 
 abstraction, experimenting and generalizing will 
 reveal to us the essence of the force of magnetism 
 or what it really is. We can only theorize, and 
 theories are valuable only so long as they can 
 serve as explanations for the greatest number of 
 phenomena. And it will not do to say that we 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 31 
 
 cannot acquire any other kind of knowledge, for, 
 taking the general for granted, we can form ac- 
 curate ideas of the particular. Thus we can form 
 an exact idea of the nature of a table, for instance, 
 if we take matter and force for granted. Then 
 there is the science of mathematics, which does not 
 consist only of observing results ; we know the es- 
 sence of numbers. A proposition in geometry 
 does not depend upon the observations of the ac- 
 tion of force upon matter; we may represent a 
 proposition visually, but that is not absolutely 
 necessary for its comprehension. Then there are 
 the rules of logic ; they do not depend upon any 
 material objects. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF NATURAL PHENOMENA 
 
 Chemistry classified the different forms of mat- 
 ter into elements and compounds ; that is nothing 
 more than the classification of the observations of 
 the changes produced by force upon matter. It 
 knows nothing of the essence of matter; nor do 
 its observations disclose its essence, for the simple 
 reason that it studies merely manifestations 
 through action and reaction, and the impressions 
 these make upon the sensitive organs. The de- 
 ductions formed from these observations are mere 
 suppositions. Physics has classified force into 
 different kinds : gravitation, electricity, mag- 
 netism, light and heat ; but these, too, are but 
 classifications of the different actions of force upon 
 matter, the grouping under proper headings of 
 
32 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 these various observations. Whether essentially 
 these forces are but one, just as whether all the 
 different chemical elements are but one, we know 
 not. From the knowledge we gain from experience 
 we pre-arrange conditions, and if we get expected 
 results they serve to confirm our theories ; if not, 
 a new field for speculation is opened. The classifi- 
 cation of force and matter by both these sciences 
 rests upon the persistence of expected results un- 
 der given conditions. If the results never vary, 
 we say that we know a certain " law " ; if something 
 happens differently, this " law " is thereby re- 
 pealed. For example, if a stone, after undergo- 
 ing a certain process, is resolved into iron and 
 other compounds and we know of no process by 
 which we can reduce the iron into simpler forms, 
 we say that iron is an element; should somebody 
 find out such a process, and we cannot tell but that 
 somebody will, iron as we know it now will become 
 a compound. There is the black and vile smelling 
 coal tar; from it the most brilliant colors and 
 sweetest smelling substances without number have 
 been produced; it can hardly be claimed that it is 
 a mixture of all these things ; all depends upon the 
 process, and we cannot tell what other substances 
 will yet be made out of it. If matter, after being 
 subjected to certain manipulations, shows certain 
 results, we call it one kind of force, if to a different 
 manipulation and it shows different results, we 
 call it a different force. Thus iron will become 
 magnetic if brought into contact with electricity 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 33 
 
 and luminous if subjected to heat. And all this is 
 always reducible to the three primary notions: 
 motion, inertia and action. From experiments and 
 our general knowledge we form deductions, we 
 generalize them, we group these persistent results 
 and constant manifestations, and we call them the 
 principles and laws of force and matter: on these 
 we build our theories of force and matter, of the 
 universe, of ourselves and of God. That is the 
 extent of our scientific knowledge. 
 
 Our perceptive organs are the meeting places 
 between the actions of the external forces and the 
 actions of the cells of perception. Sensitiveness 
 is a protoplasmic attribute. It, too, is but a 
 manifestation of the action of force upon matter, 
 of inertia and motion. Studying it in others, we 
 can know it only as a change induced by the action 
 of force upon matter; in ourselves, we know it 
 through consciousness. Here again we are against 
 an insurmountable obstacle: what is conscious- 
 ness? When we study it in others we perceive 
 it only through its results ; we cannot tell how the 
 conscious individual feels about it. We presume 
 it is the same as we do ; but we know nothing, nor 
 can we conceive the kind of consciousness animals 
 experience, — and, no doubt, they are conscious 
 too. In contemplating our own consciousness we 
 have nothing to compare it with. When uncon- 
 scious, we know nothing; it is rest, it is nothing. 
 Consciousness is one of the three facts which we 
 must take for granted, together with matter and 
 
34 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 force. They are the x, y and z of our knowl- 
 edge concerning the world. We can use them in 
 the same way as the mathematician uses his un- 
 known quantities. 
 
 II. LIFE A FORM OF FORCE 
 
 Externally we know life as we do any other 
 force, by its action upon matter and the changes 
 it produces in it. It is motion overcoming inertia. 
 It is action. After we discard all its peculiarities, 
 that is all we have left. We have given specific 
 names to all the other groups of such manifesta- 
 tions, why should we call this group anything else 
 but a force? One group of manifestations we 
 call electricity, another heat, another light, — why 
 cannot we do the same with the life group .^^ It 
 would avoid a good deal of confusion. Say that 
 life is a force that manifests itself thus and so ; it 
 overcomes inertia in such and such a way. We 
 can then follow it through all the different stages 
 of evolution and growth, just as we can trace the 
 history of the manner in which man made use of 
 electricity, magnetism or heat. We can study its 
 different manifestations, its attributes, as we do 
 those of any other force. Essentially there is but 
 one form of life ; its growth and development con- 
 sisted only in forming complex and more efficient 
 individuals. Its principal attribute is spon- 
 taneity, that is, an inherent ability to keep active. 
 This attribute is at the root of evolution, which 
 was not along the lines of the universal form but 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 35 
 
 only in creating ever more and more efficient in- 
 dividuals. It is the most efficient form of force. 
 It appeared last on the earth, because during the 
 formative period the inertia to be overcome was 
 less. And it grew into knowledge itself: knowl- 
 edge of the laws of motion and of inertia, so as to 
 be better able to overcome it. 
 
 Why try to make something supernatural out 
 of the life force .? If it acted independently of the 
 other forms of force, or if it manifested itself only 
 in thinking man, there would be no objection to 
 this. But we see the same identical manifesta- 
 tions in all manner of beings to whom we deny su- 
 pernatural qualities. We see the same force in the 
 plants and in animals possessing the same or sim- 
 ilar faculties, differing only in the degree of their 
 efficiency and powers. In its simple form it is 
 universal. It perpetuates itself not only in man 
 but in all the other forms also : in plants even more 
 rapidly than in animals. The process of repro- 
 duction is similar ; new individuals come into being 
 from old ones without any apparent loss in the 
 faculties of the parents. The animals possess the 
 same sensitive faculties, and it is but fair to pre- 
 sume that they, too, are conscious of their ex- 
 istence ; they have memory. Some of them dis- 
 play marked signs of intelligence and even rea- 
 son. Again the difference is only in degree. It 
 is no aspersion on the omnipotence of the Almighty 
 to say that all the beauty and magnificence that 
 we see around us is but the same principle dis- 
 
36 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 played in an infinite number of varieties. On the 
 other hand, it is not so humiliating to think that 
 we are the highest form of the manifestations of 
 that same force. Matter is not so corrupt as 
 some would have it. It is just as essential to the 
 existence of man as the soul is. Its supposed cor- 
 ruption is but another form of the same force that 
 produces all the beauty, and what is to-day an 
 offensive decomposing carcass may be the integral 
 part of a saint to-morrow. The universe is all 
 pure, all holy ; it is the emanation of but one God. 
 It is God in action. There is but one logical con- 
 clusion : either all life is immortal or none. 
 
 On the other hand, the scientists are also nar- 
 row and inconsistent in trying to explain life 
 merely as the combination of the other forces. 
 To the different effects of force upon matter they 
 give specific names ; they classify the different 
 groups of manifestations and call them different 
 forces. And there are reasons for such classifica- 
 tions. These forces have well defined attributes 
 and peculiarities. Gravity and, under the atomic 
 theory, chemical affinity produce circular motion ; 
 they are both centrifugal and centripetal and may 
 be called the rigid forces. Electricity and its 
 companion, magnetism, produce lineal motion; 
 they are bi-polar; because of the manner in which 
 they communicate along lines of least resistance 
 from one unit to another they may be called fluent 
 forces. Heat and its companion, light, act only 
 in straight lines but in all directions and are ra- 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 37 
 
 diant forces. The principal characteristic of life 
 is spontaneity, which enables it to form units or 
 individuals, and it may be called spontaneous, self- 
 preserving force. Neither the physical nor the 
 chemical forces have this attribute of spontaneity, 
 of automatically forming new centers or units or 
 individuals, and they, therefore, cannot of them- 
 selves preserve their activity. The chemist can- 
 not produce a single atom, nor the physicist a sin- 
 gle center of force ; they can only induce changes 
 or arrange conditions through which their forces 
 will then manifest themselves. The fundamental 
 principle of chemistry is that nothing is anni- 
 hilated, and in physics we have the principle of 
 the conservation of energy; life shows a similar 
 attribute of persistence. Why, then, not call life 
 a specific force.? We know it in the same way as 
 the other forces and its special attributes are suf- 
 ficient to distinguish it from them. Is it just be- 
 cause there is an intimate connection between it 
 and the other forces .f* There is an interdepend- 
 ence between all. Because a tree conveys its sap 
 from the roots by means of capillary attraction, 
 that does not explain how these capillaries were 
 formed. Because digestion is but a chemical re- 
 action, that does not explain how the stomach can 
 produce the necessary reagents to make such a 
 reaction possible. Because the heart acts like a 
 pump, that does not explain how it was made a 
 pump. 
 
 The advocates of both these views seem for some 
 
38 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 reason or other to be unwilling to make conces- 
 sions. The spiritists want to make man some- 
 thing altogether different from the rest of the visi- 
 ble universe, and the scientists do not want to con- 
 cede that he is different from the other manifesta- 
 tions. To that extent they both seem to be 
 wrong. But it would do no violence to the views 
 of either if it be conceded that life is a material 
 force, because it must have matter to subsist, hav- 
 ing its own peculiar qualities. Call it a spirit if 
 you wish, and no violence will be done to the sci- 
 entists' views. Why should it, if they call one 
 form by one name and another by another name? 
 As the scientists must concede that the life mani- 
 festations differ in some respects from those of 
 the other forces, the spiritists could accept the 
 view that life is a material force. The spiritist 
 cannot get away from the important fact that life 
 shows itself not only in man but in other beings, 
 and that it acts through matter, and the scientist 
 cannot get away from the fact that none of his pet 
 forces have the power of automatic reproduction 
 and sensitiveness. Why should they be at log- 
 gerheads ? 
 
 UNIVERSAL LIFE 
 
 The cell is the universal, the simplest form of 
 life. In its study we must look for the solution 
 of the question what life is. Of course, here again 
 we can study only action and reaction, its attri- 
 butes, properties, peculiarities and manifestations ; 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 39 
 
 its action as a force upon matter, as motion and 
 inertia. Chemists and biologists tell us that a cell 
 is a microscopic quantity of viscid, translucent 
 compound having a membranous wall, or sack, 
 which keeps it separate from the surrounding sub- 
 stances and from other cells, showing certain well 
 defined characteristics. These characteristics we 
 know from their actions and reactions, which are 
 the same as with other forces, motion overcoming 
 inertia. These actions are either physical, as au- 
 tomatic movement, or chemical, as assimilation of 
 food, excretion of by-products and secretion of 
 certain compounds. Besides these, the cell exhib- 
 its two other peculiarities : sensitiveness and spon- 
 taneous multiplication of individuals. Chemists 
 tell us that all these properties are due to a certain 
 chemical compound called proteid, and they fur- 
 ther say that if they could make it synthetically 
 they would produce life in the laboratory. Their 
 success along other lines makes them ambitious, 
 but they overlook the one important fact that 
 none of their forces possess the attribute of spon- 
 taneity. Even when experimenting with their own 
 pets they only evoke dormant pre-existing forces. 
 If life showed itself only in this simple form, there 
 might, at that, be some hope for their contention ; 
 but how can they instill into their forces the ca- 
 pacity for coordinating functions which we see in 
 the complex individuals? Of course, there is 
 much interdependence between life and the other 
 forces, and it would not be straining the point to 
 
40 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 say that when conditions are unfavorable for the 
 manifestations of force in the specific way which 
 we call life, it shows itself in some other form. 
 After life ceases, a very active chemical reaction 
 sets in and some heat and even light in the free 
 form are given out, just as electricity may be re- 
 duced into light and heat by resistance; but that 
 is not sufficient ground for believing that the proc- 
 ess can be reversed, and that by synthesis a qual- 
 ity which is possessed by no other force can be 
 instilled into a chemical compound: it would be 
 creating, and the chemists themselves say that 
 they cannot do that. 
 
 THE PROPERTIES OF UNIVERSAL LIFE 
 
 A life individual, or cell, is a microscopic quan- 
 tity of matter maintaining a separate existence 
 by virtue of the force subsisting in it, capable of 
 transforming extraneous substances into its own 
 by chemical processes and having the powers of 
 automatic movement, sensitiveness and spontane- 
 ous reproduction of individuals similar to itself. 
 Assimilation is a chemical reaction peculiar to life ; 
 it is neither combination, nor decomposition nor 
 substitution. The cell selects the necessary ele- 
 ments out of the surrounding substances and forms 
 them into its compounds. Some cells can do this 
 out of inorganic compounds, others need previous 
 life compounds. It resembles substitution, except 
 that in the latter two new compounds are formed 
 while the cell retains its original composition. 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 41 
 
 Respiration and excretion, sometimes classed sepa- 
 rately, are but the companion reactions of as- 
 similation ; the former consists of taking up free 
 oxygen, the latter is but the discarding of the 
 unnecessary ingredients. While secretion is also 
 but a chemical reaction, it differs from such 
 ordinary processes and even from the other chem- 
 ical reactions of the life force in that it is done 
 also for the specific purpose of perpetuating life. 
 It is the first attribute which in the higher forms 
 grew into those qualities which we call immaterial. 
 It is the first sign of spontaneity. What the cell 
 does not need for its immediate necessities it stores 
 away for future use in the shape of assimilable 
 compounds, as oils, starches, and so on. The 
 power of automatic movement is a protective fac- 
 ulty. Its purpose is to protect the cell against 
 the loss of its activity by enabling it to seek loca- 
 tions favorable for its existence and to avoid dan- 
 gers. It developed into the faculty of volition 
 and the wonderful mechanism of locomotion in 
 the complex individuals. Sensitiveness is another 
 very important protective faculty of protoplasm. 
 Its purpose is to guard life against external in- 
 juries which might cause its destruction. Its col- 
 lective result in complex beings is the senses, 
 memory, consciousness, and even the intellect of 
 man. In the single cell it manifests itself in ar- 
 rest of motion and the other normal activities. 
 These faculties are the means whereby life as it 
 manifests itself in the cell keeps active. They en- 
 
42 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 able it to accommodate itself to external condi- 
 tions, which no other form of force can do. Be- 
 cause of them we see life evolving out of the simple, 
 inefficient forms into the complex, efficient forms, 
 ever devising ways and means of eliminating, 
 chance ; and even these faculties developed to the 
 full measure of their efficiency only gradually and 
 singly. In the simple bacterial forms the faculty 
 of reproduction is relied on mainly and reaches its 
 height of development in the large plants ; in the 
 animals automatic movement and sensitiveness 
 were developed, reaching their fullest growth in 
 reasoning man. Because of these attributes, life 
 can adapt itself to varying external conditions. 
 We see this attribute of adaptability well illus- 
 trated in the ways that are devised to repair in- 
 juries, or the power of healing. In plants, for 
 example, we see new growing points or roots grow 
 when the old ones have been destroyed or removed ; 
 injuries to the bark are healed by exuding liquids 
 which protect the exposed parts of the delicate 
 tissues ; and the ways devised in animals are be- 
 yond number. In the lower types, even new or- 
 gans are grown. And the cells which are instru- 
 mental in performing these healing processes 
 would never have done such work if no injury had 
 been inflicted, and may never do it again ; and all 
 this is done by these cells without really under- 
 standing the work, just as naturally as when a 
 magnetic unit attracts a piece of iron to itself. 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 43 
 
 The protoplasmic faculty of reproduction more 
 than any other single faculty accomplishes the 
 grand purpose of life, its preservation in active 
 form, to the extent even that we can say that the 
 life in the cell is immortal; for every cell now in 
 existence has a part of the life of cells that existed 
 eons ago. It is a mathematical axiom that by 
 halving the half the end can never be reached, and 
 cells multiply by dividing into two. The more 
 individuals there are, the more subjects there are 
 for the life force to manifest itself and the greater 
 the chances for finding favorable surroundings. 
 Multiplication of individuals increases the chances 
 of preservation. How important this is we can 
 see in the case of magnetism : before man knew 
 about it and began to create favorable conditions, 
 it hardly ever manifested itself on the earth ; now 
 it is everywhere. It took another magnet to dis- 
 cover its existence in the earth itself. It might 
 not have existed at all. Taking all these faculties 
 into consideration, life is certainly the most effi- 
 cient force, although it is not the most intense, as 
 heat, for example, will destroy it, just as it will 
 magnetism. Life effectuates best the essential 
 attributes of force, activity, or overcoming iner- 
 tia. It also enables force to manifest itself more 
 plentifully. Life, then, essentially is self-perpetu- 
 ating and immortality is its chief quality ; that is, 
 general life is such, for individuals are but inci- 
 dents. 
 
44 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 THE DEATH OF A CELL 
 
 When conditions become unfavorable the cell 
 dies. What is death? In a simple cell it is the 
 cessation of the individual manifestation of the 
 life force and of the phenomena by which we know 
 of its existence. In that respect life is no differ- 
 ent from any other force. We do not know what 
 happens to it, just as we do not know what hap- 
 pens with the magnetism in a bar of steel after it 
 is heated or oxidized, when it ceases to be percepti- 
 ble. We do not know what becomes of the elec- 
 tricity after it is discharged or why there is such 
 a thing as a discharge. We say that it becomes 
 neutralized, but that is only juggling with terms. 
 Favorable conditions are necessary for all the 
 forms of force to manifest themselves. Life can 
 be active only in certain chemical compounds un- 
 der certain conditions of heat, just as magnetism 
 shows itself only in certain elements. We do not 
 know the reason for either. Certain chemical 
 compounds are good conductors of heat or elec- 
 tricity. Why? We do not know. Shall we? 
 Perhaps. Why not? Possibly it is due to the 
 peculiar manner in which force acts upon matter 
 to form that particular element or compound. 
 Lacking the necessary matter in a certain condi- 
 tion, no force can be perceptibly active. It is the 
 same with life. Take the Protococcus, for exam- 
 ple, the simplest form of life ; give it matter in a 
 certain state of solution, heat and light, that is. 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 45 
 
 force in a certain form, and it will thrive ; deprive 
 it of these and it will cease to show any of the at- 
 tributes of life ; it will die. But even after death 
 we still perceive a certain force very actively en- 
 gaged in forming new compounds of the matter 
 which was the subject of the life force. Can we 
 say that the life force, conditions becoming unfa- 
 vorable, shows itself as chemical action? While 
 alive, the group of phenomena we perceived we 
 called life ; after death there is another group of 
 phenomena, which we call decomposition, a chem- 
 ical reaction. A certain amount of the heat 
 which was absorbed during the life is given out 
 in a free state until inertia so far overcomes force 
 that what are called stable compounds are formed. 
 We see similar happenings in the case of other 
 forces. By resistance electricity is reduced into 
 light and heat, which, under the wave theory, are 
 but waves of lesser frequency. According to the 
 principle of conservation of energy, force is not 
 created or annihilated ; unless we apply the same 
 principle to the death of Protococcus, we should 
 have an instance of the annihilation of something 
 that exhibited the same qualities as other forms of 
 force, motion overcoming inertia. The other 
 forces, we say, become only inactive, to be again 
 called into activity by favorable conditions ; they 
 are supposed to change form only. Why cannot 
 we say the same of the life force.'' In neither case 
 is there an annihilation of force, only the destruc- 
 tion of an individual, which is but a condition. So 
 
46 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 that we can say that death is but the destruction 
 of a single favorable condition for the manifesta- 
 tion of life, a change from favorable to unfavor- 
 able. 
 
 III. DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENT KINDS 
 OF LIFE 
 
 But the multiplication of cell individuals, even 
 when protected by these faculties, did not fully 
 assure the continuous activity of the life force. 
 The existence of the cell was till precarious, 
 depending on chance for favorable surround- 
 ings. To eliminate chance as much as pos- 
 sible, utilizing the innate ability of accommodat- 
 ing itself to conditions, life evolved the complex 
 individual. The varieties we see in the simple 
 forms were developed by external surroundings, 
 and that was left to chance. The cells, then, 
 pooled their abilities by forming multicellular or- 
 ganisms ; each constituent cell, however, continued 
 to live the same as it did before such a union. 
 And the cells continued to assimilate and repro- 
 duce ; they surrendered mutually to each other 
 only the other protective faculties and developed 
 them into specialized functions. All the other 
 forces depend altogether on chance for an oppor- 
 tunity to be active ; so do the bacterial forms of 
 life to some extent. Millions of cells are whipped 
 about the streets quiescent until, by accident, they 
 settle in some pool of water where they find the 
 necessary nourishment and they then begin to as- 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 47 
 
 similate and to multiply. The simplest multi- 
 cellular being is better off in this respect. The 
 Spirogyra, for example, consisting only of sim- 
 ple cells joined to each other end to end, is better 
 assured of its existence because it attaches itself 
 to some object and thus remains in the water alive, 
 at least as long as there is water, under conditions 
 which were favorable enough to start it growing. 
 In the higher forms of organized life all the or- 
 gans have but this one end in view: the preserva- 
 tion of the individual and, through it, universal 
 life. They are the collective result of the primal 
 faculties of the protoplasm composing the cells. 
 They procure, prepare and distribute the neces- 
 sary food for all the cells and do all such other 
 things for the protection of the entire individual 
 as the cells would have done for themselves to the 
 extent of their capacities, were they living singly. 
 Naturally they are more efficient because of their 
 united efforts and concentrated abilities. The 
 evolution of the organized beings had only this 
 aim in view : to develop a form of life which would 
 be efficient enough to maintain itself under all con- 
 ditions. 
 
 The universal form of life, the cell, is the same 
 to-day as it was eons ago ; evolution was along 
 lines of greater efficiency, ever providing for new 
 contingencies and leaving less to chance. The 
 higher we go in the scale of life the clearer this 
 becomes. Passing over the simpler forms, we can 
 readily see that a tree, for example, can better 
 
48 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 maintain itself than the yeast plant, which de- 
 pends upon the caprice of the housewife whether 
 she feels like baking bread. As soon as the seed 
 of a tree finds a suitable place, — and what in- 
 genious devices were used to do this ! — it germi- 
 nates and sends its roots into the moist strata of 
 the earth, thereby assuring to itself a more per- 
 manent supply of water. Because it is rooted to 
 a place which was suitable for germination, it also 
 assured itself a plentiful supply of food. A cell 
 floating aimlessly in a pool of water is not so for- 
 tunate. And we do not want to concede even in- 
 stinct to the plants. 
 
 ANIMAL LIFE 
 
 The chemical reaction in plants is synthetical, 
 that is, they form their compounds out of min- 
 erals, and their rapid multiplication, which in 
 plants seem to be the principal means of preserva- 
 tion, by reason of tying up the necessary elements 
 would soon have exhausted the supply and ex- 
 posed them to extinction. Decomposition was a 
 slow process. Neither the explosive yeast plants 
 nor the carrion-feeding fungi were sufficient to 
 decompose the dead matter rapidly enough, so 
 that another form, plant-destroying in its proc- 
 esses, had to be evolved. The animals fill this 
 want. The chemical processes in animals are an- 
 alytical; the organic compounds are decomposed 
 during the digestive and assimilative processes 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 49 
 
 into compounds that can again be used by the 
 plants. Thus matter is kept whirling around a 
 cycle: from a free-state into plants, from the 
 plants to animals, and from them back again into 
 the plants, — and thereby force has assured itself 
 of favorable conditions to keep active. During 
 this cycle a certain amount of matter goes into 
 stable, unassimilable compounds, but the intellect 
 of man is ever devising means of releasing them 
 again. In the plant life plentiful secretion and 
 rapid multiplication were relied upon to keep life 
 active, to the neglect of the other protective facul- 
 ties, sensitiveness and automatic motion ; in the 
 animal life these are relied upon more than the 
 former, and are developed to their limits. The 
 protoplasmic faculty of automatic locomotion de- 
 veloped into volition and all the complicated ma- 
 chinery which enable the animal to go in search 
 of food ; sensitiveness developed into the organs 
 of perception and into the intellect itself. The 
 primal attributes of secretion, excretion and as- 
 similation produced the mechanism by which food 
 is prepared and distributed to all the cells. Even 
 the social instinct, where it exists, can be attrib- 
 uted to this pooling of the individual powers of 
 the cells, as it, too, aims to accomplish the grand 
 purpose of life, its preservation, and is but the 
 extension to the complex individuals of the co- 
 operation of the cells. 
 
50 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 CELL COOPERATION 
 
 Thus we see associated together innumerable 
 cells to assure themselves of their existence. They 
 have distributed this work of preservation among 
 themselves ; some specialized in one kind and oth- 
 ers in another kind of work. Some furnish the 
 necessary framework on which the mechanism of lo- 
 comotion is built ; some supply the power to this 
 mechanism to enable it to move after and to seize 
 the food, and for defense; some secrete juices the 
 action of which converts the raw food into assimi- 
 lable form ; some distribute the nourishment to the 
 cells ; some eliminate the by-products and the ref- 
 use ; some store up the surplus to be used in times 
 of scarcity ; some stand guard and destroy outside 
 intruders, even by sacrificing their own lives ; some 
 produce the required elements of reproduction ; 
 and some receive impressions of the outside world, 
 convey them to others whose function it is to per- 
 ceive them, to store them up and to use them for 
 the protection of the entire organization. And 
 yet the cell in the brain of man, whose duty it is to 
 form ideas, selects from the food supplied the nec- 
 essary ingredients in the same manner as one lo- 
 cated in the sole of the foot whose work is merely 
 to protect the vital parts of the skin from injury; 
 and this is done in the same manner as by the Pro- 
 tococcus wriggling about in a stagnant pool of 
 water. They all reproduce in the same manner. 
 But there is this difference between the cell in the 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 51 
 
 organized being and the Protococcus, that the 
 former exercises only one of the primal protective 
 faculties of its protoplasm for the benefit of all 
 and receives in return the benefit of their labors, 
 while a single cell exercises all of its faculties and 
 depends entirely upon its own exertions. By co- 
 operation the existence of all is more assured. As 
 these compound individuals evolved, this certainty 
 became greater and greater. The physical and 
 the chemical forces depend entirely on chance be- 
 cause they lack this ability of accommodating 
 themselves to circumstances and they cannot re- 
 produce active units ; because the life force pos- 
 sesses these protective faculties it is able to adapt 
 itself to varying conditions and can keep active. 
 Because the cell can reproduce it is more certain 
 of preserving its activity than an electric unit. 
 The cell in a tree is more certain than a single cell, 
 because it is part of an organization whose roots 
 search out the soil for food and whose wide 
 spreading branches reach out into the air and by 
 means of leaves procure the necessary oxygen and 
 carbon ; the cell in the stomach of a horse is still 
 more certain, because it is a part of a community 
 whose faculty of locomotion is well developed, en- 
 abling it to seek out its food, and whose sensitive- 
 ness developed into the senses and memory and a 
 certain amount of intelligence, which enable it to 
 remember good pastures, to recognize harmful 
 substances and to defend itself against outside 
 enemies ; the cell in the brain of man is the most 
 
52 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 certain, because man has not only the other pro- 
 tective faculties of the animals well developed, but 
 because of his high intelligence he is best able to 
 procure food and to defend himself, and because 
 he has the social instinct and its concomitant sen- 
 sibilities and sentiments which prompt him to live 
 in a well governed community whose laws he is able 
 to understand. The cells unconsciously submit to 
 this necessity of cooperation and seldom do any- 
 thing contrary to the well-being of all. Men, be- 
 cause of their intelligence, need rules of conduct, 
 for they do many things which they know to be de- 
 structive of life and contrary to the principles of 
 cooperation. Thus we can say that the majestic 
 orbs in the heaven revolve around their centers, 
 that the earth swings in its yearly orbit around 
 the sun and replenishes its stores with all its fruits, 
 that empires rise and fall, that millions of men ex- 
 pend all their energies in the pursuits of com- 
 merce, that man's mighty intellect scrutinizes the 
 mysteries of nature in order that a cell in man's 
 toe may be assured of its existence. And no won- 
 der that there is so much anxiety for its existence, 
 as the life that animates it animates all the other 
 living things that we know of, and if they all died, 
 the most efficient form of the active principle of 
 the universe would cease to manifest itself on 
 earth. That is why life is self-preserving. That 
 is why there is variety and beauty. If it were not 
 for its powers of accommodating itself to chang- 
 ing conditions, because of its protective faculties, 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 53 
 
 the earth would be barren and would have turned 
 into a waste so long ago that we have no adequate 
 term in our language for such a period. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 
 
 Where does this life come from? Where does, 
 the heat, electricity or magnetism come from? I 
 pass a piece of iron across a magnetic or electric 
 field: it becomes magnetized too. Where did that 
 magnetism come from? I withdraw it from these 
 fields and the magnetism vanishes. Where did it 
 go? If it had been a piece of steel it would have 
 preserved the magnetism even when out of the field. 
 I charge a Leyden jar: it shows certain phenom- 
 ena which I call electricity ; I discharge the jar and 
 the electricity is gone. Where did the sun get 
 its heat and light? What becomes of it in in- 
 finite space? We see a rose sprout, bloom and 
 produce seed: what made it do so? I throw it 
 into the fire: what becomes of it? Scientists tell 
 us that their forces exist universally and that they 
 become active when conditions are favorable : why 
 not say the same of life force, concerning which 
 we know just as much, or just as little, if you 
 want to put it that way, as we know about the 
 other forces, and which we come to know in the 
 same way? We know them all because they pro- 
 duce motion which overcomes inertia. Electricity 
 shows one set of phenomena, magnetism another, 
 heat still another, and life again another set. 
 There is a certain interdependence among them 
 
54 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 all, from which we may fairly conclude that es- 
 sentially they are one. Is, then, life an orphan? 
 Why should the scientists, who study matter and 
 force, cast it away? And why should we make 
 something supernatural of it, when it is the same 
 as the others and just as natural? It differs from 
 them only in its efficiency. Life is in the world 
 and of it ; why try to make anything else out of it? 
 Why go outside of the universe? The universe, 
 although it is constituted of matter also, is noble 
 enough for any man to be a part of. And we 
 certainly ought to be glad that we are. 
 
 DEATH OF COMPLEX LIFE 
 
 When the cell organization works perfectly, all 
 the cells performing their allotted functions and 
 duties, the animal is healthy and happy in the joy 
 of living. The force that is in it is active, which 
 is according to its nature. But in time foreign 
 substances are introduced into the system ; sand is 
 thrown into the machinery ; unnoticed by the sen- 
 tinels that stand guard, the senses, or by decep- 
 tion, strange cells enter into the body and take 
 advantage of the plentiful supply of rich food that 
 is ready for them in such a favorable form, and 
 sickness and distress follow. The body is re- 
 sourceful ; the primal protective attributes of pro- 
 toplasm assert themselves ; new and special means 
 of defense are provided according to the necessity ; 
 the intruders are destroyed and eliminated and the 
 damage done by them repaired. Sometimes the 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 55 
 
 attack is so sudden and persistent that death, or 
 the cessation of the manifestations of the life 
 force, follows. Because of his freedom of action, 
 man sometimes introduces very harmful substances 
 into his body either through ignorance or wilfully, 
 because of the greater degree of temporary activ- 
 ity they induce, which constitutes their pleasure. 
 This throws a greater burden upon the eliminating 
 organs or the whole body is harmfully affected by 
 them, to the detriment of the entire organization. 
 Wilfully or through ignorance man will deprive 
 the cells of the rest necessary for rebuilding their 
 structures, wasted through great exertion ; this 
 weakens the entire organism. Thus man shortens 
 his own life and finally kills himself. This is the 
 great unpardonable sin, which will surely revenge 
 itself, and which cannot be forgiven because its 
 effect is the dissolution of the individual, who can 
 never be reassembled again. If we could main- 
 tain ideal conditions, with our knowledge of the 
 working of the human body, — and that is why we 
 have the intellect, — our individual bodies would 
 live forever. Statistics prove that the rate of 
 human mortality has materially decreased and the 
 average life has been lengthened within the last 
 hundred years because of our knowledge of the 
 needs of our bodies. Life is as eternal as is the 
 universe ; death is an accident which we have not 
 as yet learned to avoid. In the scheme of the 
 universe it is immaterial whether life manifests 
 itself through Smith or Jones or any other person 
 
56 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 or living being. The life that is in us to-day is 
 the same that enlivened our ancestors eons ago, in 
 whatever form they existed, and will enliven our 
 descendants countless years hence, whatever the 
 shape they will assume. Why, then, say that our 
 lives began with our conceptions and will end with 
 our deaths? Why say that the force that enlivens 
 our bodies will be stored away in some blissful 
 mansions in total inactivity, which is contrary to 
 its nature, just because the conditions in the in- 
 dividual mass of matter which supported it be- 
 came unfavorable.'' Is the electricity which we 
 saw active in a certain Leyden jar thus stored 
 away somewhere without the possibility of ever 
 becoming active again .'^ Why prattle of time.'' 
 We are links in an endless chain, points in the 
 circle of infinity. 
 
 IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MAN 
 
 The reproduction and development of man is 
 the highest form of the protoplasmic faculty of 
 producing new individuals. Generally they differ 
 only in detail from the millions of other forms of 
 complex life. Passing over the simpler modes in 
 the plant and animal life, which may be called 
 transitional, all complex individuals are repro- 
 duced by the fusion of the male and the female ele- 
 ments, which were produced by distinct organs. 
 In some animals, both of these organs are in one 
 individual, but in most cases they are produced 
 by separate individuals. Why two elements are 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 57 
 
 necessary we know not. Even in the simplest 
 mode, conjugation, one cell seems to be the active 
 and the other the passive one. In the Spirogyra, 
 for example, the protoplasm in one of the repro- 
 ducing cells in a thread contracts away from the 
 cell wall through which the passage of the pro- 
 toplasm of the other cell is afterwards affected, 
 and the protoplasm of that other cell then passes 
 through the opening formed in the cell walls which 
 had previously united. The original threads seem 
 to be alike, and yet there would appear to be some 
 power of selection when the two threads come to 
 lay side by side for the process to start. It may 
 be that the life force is bi-polar, like electricity 
 or magnetism ; in fact, because of this, we may call 
 it bi-polar. If it were not so, a good deal of the 
 beauty which we see in the world would be lacking, 
 for this attribute of life is the cause of the ex- 
 istence of those passions and the beauty which 
 promote reproduction. In the lower types, the 
 junction of the two elements is exposed to chance, 
 which is reduced to a minimum in the higher types 
 by manifold tricks and devices, by strong passions 
 and desires, by attractiveness and beauty, which 
 we see everywhere. This question is somewhat 
 similar to the question as to why gravitation and 
 molecular attraction are centripetal as well as cen- 
 trifugal, making for points of concentration and 
 attraction and consequently for the division and 
 the manifestations of force in distinct individuals, 
 when force could have kept active universally in 
 
58 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 the gaseous state or the nebulas. Why are the 
 heavenly bodies? It is the centripetal nature of 
 force that individualizes matter and consequently 
 force also, which must have matter to subsist in. 
 To say that matter itself, because of its inertia, 
 tends towards a common center is a contradiction 
 of terms ; for that is giving it an attribute of force, 
 motion, and in our present state of knowledge we 
 must have motion and inertia. If there were no 
 individuals, there would be no variety, no beauty, 
 no growth, but only homogeneity and monotony. 
 The universe would then be as if it were not. This 
 condition is rather aptly described in the first 
 three verses of the first chapter of Genesis, disre- 
 garding the many incongruities and contradictions 
 they contain : 
 
 " In the beginning God created the heaven and 
 the earth. 
 
 " And the earth was without form, void, and 
 darkness was upon the deep. And the spirit of 
 God moved upon the face of the waters. 
 
 " And God said, Let there be light. And there 
 was light." 
 
 " God divided the light from the darkness," as 
 otherwise there would have been only a blaze of 
 light. Perhaps that is the answer. It is possible 
 that if we had the correct translation of some of 
 these words, or knew the ideas which the author 
 wished to express, we might possibly see how near 
 he was to what appears to us to be the truth with 
 our much boasted advanced knowledge. We are 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 59 
 
 compelled to bow in reverence before his genius. 
 He certainly had a mighty vision, a revelation of 
 the mysteries of nature, for he was far ahead of 
 his days. If his words were correctly translated, 
 he certainly saw for what his language did not 
 even have sufficiently expressive words. By 
 " day " and " night " he hardly meant the division 
 of the period of Earth's revolution around its 
 axis, although what follows would seem to indicate 
 that. 
 
 In the higher types of life, reproduction must 
 of necessity be complicated and growth gradual ; 
 and yet it must be from a simple beginning, be- 
 cause of the intricacy of the structure, which must 
 first be reduced to a single cell or unit and then 
 expand again. It would be impossible for every 
 cell in the human body, for example, to reproduce 
 its kind, and for the new individual thus dupli- 
 cated to separate from its parent. This simple 
 cell, or rather the fused cell after the union of the 
 two elements (for before the fusion the elements 
 do not possess the protoplasmic attributes of as- 
 similation and reproduction) contains potentially 
 the whole future individual: its power and facul- 
 ties, whatever they be. This fused cell then di- 
 vides into two similar cells in the same way as 
 any other simple cell, and this process of division 
 into similar cells continues for a while, there be- 
 ing no apparent difference between them. The 
 distinction between this segmentation and the 
 division of single cells is that the former co-here 
 
60 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 while the latter mostly separate. They assimilate 
 food in the same way as a single cell. The life in 
 the first cell and the subsequent cells is but the 
 continuation of the life in the parent complex in- 
 dividuals, without any loss of force on their part, 
 similarly as it is in single cells, or in magnetism 
 or electricity or any other form of individual mani- 
 festation of force ; the units are but incidents, the 
 vehicles. Then differentiation of functions begins. 
 Some cells develop into the bones, some into the 
 alimentary canal, some into nerves, some into the 
 organs of respiration and excretion, some into the 
 brain, some into the organs of the senses, some into 
 the outside coverings. Now, then, what causes 
 this differentiation? To say that in man it is 
 due to the soul will not do, for the same thing 
 happens in the animals ; in fact, in the first stages 
 of development, where the origin of the embyro 
 is unknown, we can hardly tell what will become of 
 it, whether a philosopher or a pig. There is only 
 one rational explanation, namely, that the differ- 
 ent faculties of man and other inferior animals de- 
 velop out of the primordial faculties of pro- 
 toplasm, perpetuating life in a single stream. 
 The protoplasm, or rather the life force, in its 
 struggle for existence as any particular individ- 
 ual, having acquired certain qualities through its 
 ability to accommodate itself to surrounding cir- 
 cumstances, transmits them either by the simple 
 process of division or through the reproductive 
 elements, which are but a transitional stage, to the 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 61 
 
 offspring. If there is a partial reversion to a for- 
 mer form it is because these qualities have not as 
 yet become firmly established. It acquired a cer- 
 tain way of manifesting itself, or a certain effi- 
 ciency, which it transmits to the offspring sim- 
 ilarly to electricity, which will induce a stronger 
 charge or produce a stronger magnet according to 
 its own strength. A good deal depends, of course, 
 on the state of the matter through which this is 
 done, just as certain substances will retain their 
 qualities or acquire new ones, or acquire certain 
 colors or shapes by retaining or forming certain 
 chemical compounds. If iron takes up oxygen, 
 it will invariably reflect the red rays ; it forms one 
 kind of crystals when an element, and another after 
 it is oxidized, and still another when it combines 
 with sulphur. Certain chemicals are better con- 
 ductors of heat or electricity than others. This 
 is the cause of heredity, the development of 
 various species, both in lifeless and in life forms. 
 Heredity is the persistence of qualities acquired 
 through changes. But we must always remember 
 that life has the inherent ability to form its own 
 individuals and chemical compounds. 
 
 V. PROTOPLASMIC PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 The primal protoplasmic attributes can be 
 divided into three faculties : the power of assimila- 
 tion, respiration, secretion, excretion may be 
 called the nutritive faculty ; the powers of auto- 
 matic motion and irritability or sensitiveness, the 
 
62 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 protective faculty ; and the power of reproduction 
 and growth the reproductive faculty. In the mul- 
 ticellular beings the nutritive faculty developed 
 the complicated mechanism of digestion and dis- 
 tribution of food into the organs of respiration 
 and excretion. These different processes are but 
 the collective powers of the cells pooled for a com- 
 mon end. The protective faculty developed the 
 mechanism through which volition controls the 
 movements of the animal into the sensitive organs, 
 the organs of memory and of reason. The repro- 
 ductive faculty supervises the growth of the in- 
 dividual through the different organs which it de- 
 veloped. The emotions, passions, desires and af- 
 fections are but the expressions of all these facul- 
 ties and may be traced to them. 
 
 That the system of acquisition, digestion and 
 distribution of food grew out of the primal pro- 
 toplasmic power cannot be very strenuously con- 
 troverted, for it can be almost demonstrated; but 
 it may be questioned that memory and reason are 
 the outgrowth of the simple power of sensitiveness. 
 It may appear a little far-fetched. But it is not 
 so. It would not even be difficult to concede that 
 the senses are but the collective expression of this 
 simple attribute, but many might be inclined to 
 stop there. The association of the cells was for a 
 purpose, and the powers of the individuals had to 
 be transferred to certain groups which specialized 
 in these functions. This was done for the purpose 
 of producing greater efficiency. If the cells had 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 63 
 
 retained all their original powers, they might just 
 as well have stayed in single blessedness, for they 
 would have gained nothing by the association. 
 Even in the larger unicellular animals we see cer- 
 tain faculties located in those portions of the cell 
 where they can be of most use. We can see this 
 better in the way in which the nutritive organs 
 evolved. The assimilation in the lowest types is 
 done by absorption from the surrounding fluids ; 
 where food is obtained in the solid state or as other 
 animals, it is done by simply surrounding them 
 and withdrawing the food out of them ; when thus 
 done only the inner portion of the cell does the 
 absorbing and becomes more efficient in this work 
 while the exterior hardens for the purpose of bet- 
 ter protection. The excretion is done by simply 
 turning inside out, but even this is an adaptation 
 of the original power to special circumstances, and 
 is, in fact, a new process. Then we see that in the 
 portion surrounding the intake, sensitiveness be- 
 comes intensified to the detriment of the other 
 parts. Higher up we see the animal forming two 
 openings, one for the purpose of intake and the 
 other for expulsion of refuse. Around the intake 
 the sensibilities centered and developed into all 
 the organs. All the organs of sensation, except- 
 ing touch, are near the mouth ; that is four-fifths 
 of the sensitive faculty. This can be followed step 
 by step until we reach the highly developed system 
 of the animals. That is a far cry from simple 
 absorption of food only when in an assimilable 
 
64 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 form ; yet the difference is not greater than in the 
 supposition that the simple sensitiveness of the 
 single cell developed into the reason of man. The 
 object of our having reason is the same as that 
 for having our digestive apparatus. Our high- 
 est flights of reasoning have but this one single 
 end in view, — the protection of the individual. 
 We learn the laws of nature in order that we may 
 be better able to protect our lives. Why should 
 not this sensitiveness have developed the organs 
 of reasoning.'^ We can readily accept the state- 
 ment that the volition of man is but the aggregate 
 expression of the simple power of locomotion of 
 the single cells. The cell can move where it 
 pleases and so can man. But volition is not less 
 a spiritual act than is reasoning. But we still 
 hesitate to account in this way for consciousness, 
 memory and the intellect. Consciousness cannot 
 be reduced to the terms of motion and inertia. 
 
 Unless the cell can perceive the impression made 
 upon it by external contact, sensitiveness would be 
 of no value ; in fact, there would be no such thing. 
 The perception of the impressions is the very es- 
 sence of sensitiveness, and consciousness is only 
 a descriptive term of the state of perceptiveness. 
 This state, together with the memory, constitute 
 the ego, that is, man's identity. It is a question 
 whether man would be conscious of his existence 
 if all his organs of perception were either destroyed 
 or did not develop. We do not know to what ex- 
 tent other animals, no matter how developed or 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 65 
 
 how simple, have consciousness. We know that 
 other men have it only through their information 
 to us. We do not know and cannot know to what 
 extent the single cell is conscious. We can safely 
 say, however, that our consciousness is but the 
 aggregate consciousness of all the cells composing 
 our bodies. We know of the sensitiveness of pro- 
 toplasm from observing its actions and movements 
 from the effects that contact will produce in those 
 movements. Thus, for example, a cell-being under 
 the microscope will move in a certain direction un- 
 til it comes in contact with some hard object in the 
 field, when it will either reverse itself or move 
 around it, plainly showing that the cell perceived 
 or became conscious of the obstruction. From ob- 
 serving such movements we cannot tell how the cell 
 feels about it, how it knows of this contact, but 
 we conclude that it must be somewhat the same 
 way as we do when touching something. No mat- 
 ter how many cells we are observing in the field of 
 a microscope, they all seem to have this power of 
 perception, but being small, their single capacity 
 as compared with the united capacities of a great 
 many cells would naturally be small, although suffi- 
 cient for the needs of the single cells. Now, in 
 ourselves this capacity of perception, possessed 
 by all the cells that compose our bodies, operates 
 through specific organs and as one act, and that 
 is our consciousness. Thus, instead of every cell 
 along the whole length of the arm feeling, or per- 
 ceiving, or being conscious of, the contact of the 
 
66 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 shirt sleeve separately, this external impression 
 is perceived by the man as one perception. The 
 other senses are but variations of the faculty of 
 perception adapted to the various needs. From 
 the use that we make of this consciousness, and 
 from the use that the single cells apparently make 
 of it, we conclude that it is a protective attribute 
 of the protoplasm, or the life form of force mani- 
 festation ; that is, the force, manifesting itself as 
 life, to keep active, has the power of perceiving or 
 knowing other force activities in order to avoid 
 such as would counteract or neutralize it. By 
 way of comparison we might say that it is some- 
 what similar to the resiliency of lifeless matter, 
 that the molecular force in the external object in- 
 duces a change in the molecular force in the cell, 
 which change the cell perceives.^ 
 
 1 There are, however, some sensations which the individual 
 cells still seem to perceive, or become conscious of, sepa- 
 rately. Extreme fatigue and weariness is a general sen- 
 sation and apparently every cell is individually conscious 
 of it. Drowsiness is another such feeling. Every one can 
 notice that when very sleepy a peculiar feeling is experi- 
 enced throughout the entire body, and if suddenly aroused, 
 a shock is felt in every part of the body, which must be 
 considered different from the perception of outside pres- 
 sure or of light. When thus suddenly awakened to full 
 consciousness, it would seem that the individual cells act 
 singly at first, and that only upon full awakening is their 
 individual consciousness merged in that of the complex 
 individual, and surrendered by them to the common or- 
 gans. The feeling of hunger in the region of the stomach 
 is but the localized sensation of all the cells of their want 
 of food. These might be called the consciousness of the 
 nutritive faculty. The reproductive faculty would seem to 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 67 
 
 After the cells pooled their sensitiveness and de- 
 veloped specific organs through which this sensi- 
 tiveness acts, and in order that they be better 
 able to protect themselves, memory became only a 
 new expedient which the innate power of life to 
 accommodate itself to circumstances developed. 
 What would be the use of perceiving outside im- 
 pressions for the purpose of acquiring protective 
 experiences unless they could be retained for future 
 use? And here again we are against the same dif- 
 ficulty ; if men were the only beings possessing 
 memory we could call it a supernatural attribute 
 of the human soul. But we know that all animals 
 have memory. Where do they get it.? The in- 
 tellect developed in a similar manner. Its acts" 
 are more complicated, consisting of perception, of 
 retention of impression and of the comparison of 
 different impressions received either simultaneously 
 or at different intervals and retained by the mem- 
 or}^, and the drawing conclusions for the purpose 
 of acquiring protective experience for the preser- 
 vation of life. What these faculties really are, 
 or how they operate, we do not know, nor can 
 know any better than we know why or how heat 
 expands substances, or how electricity affects the 
 substances which conduct it. The power of re- 
 have a similar sense of individual cell perception; amorous 
 contact, for example, and reproductive functioning are 
 felt throughout the entire body. These are factors which 
 must also be considered when treating of consciousness in 
 general, for even if all the senses ceased functioning, these 
 might nevertheless keep alive the consciousness of the ego. 
 
68 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 membering impressions is an attribute of the life 
 force, in the same way as the power of expanding 
 matter is an attribute of heat. The scientists tell 
 us that the expansion by heat consists in the wi- 
 dening of the atomic interspaces, but that is only a 
 guess, because they only guess that there is such 
 a thing as an atom ; and already there are others 
 who are advancing the new electron theory, which 
 is another guess. And so we will keep on guess- 
 ing and supposing about these things. Are we 
 progressing .P Maybe; but look at the fun we are 
 having. 
 
 The animal instincts, passions and desires are 
 also but the collective expressions of the primordial 
 attributes of protoplasm ; they are necessary for 
 the carrying out of the grand purpose of life, its 
 preservation in an active form. Fear, anger and 
 hatred are emotions which, we can conclude, the 
 single cell feels when it perceives some danger in 
 the contact with some foreign substance. These 
 passions cause it to arrest its movement, or to 
 change its direction, or to draw away from it, or, 
 apparently, to attack it. These passions or in- 
 stincts teach the higher animals their cunning, 
 they are the causes of their ferocity in defending 
 themselves or when procuring their prey, and they 
 keep the animal always on the alert for possible 
 danger, making them cautious and suspicious. 
 We can see that all animals acquire a certain 
 amount of knowledge with age ; they are more ex- 
 perienced ; if that be so, then they surely reason 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 69 
 
 to a certain extent. The desire to hoard food and 
 the greed for the possession of necessary things is 
 traceable to the protoplasmic attribute of secre- 
 tion. The single cells store up within their bodies 
 the food which they do not need for their imme- 
 diate nutrition in the form of starches, oils and 
 sugars, and thus provide for their future necessi- 
 ties. We see this in the squirrel, for example, 
 hoarding up nuts for the winter; in the bee, work- 
 ing all summer to have a plentiful supply of honey 
 when it cannot be procured in the fields ; and in 
 thousands of other animals. Some animals store 
 their winter supply the same way as the cell, in 
 the form of fat, on which they live during the pe- 
 riod of their hibernation. All these acts have the 
 same purpose in view. The reproductive faculty 
 is the source of many sentiments and emotions 
 which make for the beauty of the world. The at- 
 traction of the sexes for each other, the pugnacity 
 and bravery of the males, the coquettishness and 
 the self-denial of the females, the bright plumage 
 of the birds and the dazzling beauty of the flow- 
 ers, are all but the outgrowth of the power of the 
 single cell to multiply, the different means of pro- 
 moting reproduction. But the passions are not 
 only useful in the preservation of life, they are 
 also destructive in their tendencies, especially in 
 regard to universal life; they help to preserve the 
 individual active, but in that they often destroy 
 others. To minimize their destructive tendencies 
 the social instinct was evolved, not only in man 
 
70 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 but in some of the lower animals also. Its purpose 
 is to collect individuals into groups so that by co- 
 operation they may lessen the necessity for exer- 
 cising these destructive passions. In fear of its 
 own destruction an animal, especially when living 
 alone, will destroy other life even unnecessarily : 
 when living in a community this fear is lessened, 
 dependence being placed upon united effort. Be- 
 sides, a single animal is more exposed to attack 
 than a large group. By united efforts many ani- 
 mals are better able to provide against future want 
 than when living alone, and thus greed is subdued. 
 And by the way, in the manner in which labor 
 is specialized in animal communities we see an 
 illustration of the concentration and specialization 
 of the faculties by the cells in a complex indi- 
 vidual. And some of us are inclined to deny them 
 the blessings of intelligence in any form ! 
 
 So that if we take volition, consciousness, in- 
 tellect and the various emotions, we have a soul 
 of the highest order, and all developed out of the 
 simple primordial powers of the single cell. And 
 we see similar results from the accumulation of 
 other forces. A single dry cell produces a tiny 
 spark, but several millions of them on one circuit 
 would produce quite a flash. One ray of heat 
 would hardly be perceivable, but when a few mil- 
 lions of them are reflected or refracted upon a 
 single point, the heat will be high. The same can 
 be done with light. One single cell shows its 
 irritability or sensitiveness by the arrest of its 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 71 
 
 original movement; is it unreasonable to suppose 
 that when several millions of them are working to- 
 gether in man they show it in reasoning? If it is 
 the disposition of one cell to exert all its powers 
 to preserve its existence, in fact that is the reason 
 why it has them, why can we not say that the 
 various emotions, passions, instincts and desires 
 which we notice in the highly organized animals, 
 man included, are but the aggregate expression of 
 the same disposition of the millions of cells com- 
 posing them. But it may be objected that in 
 plants, which are composed of very many cells, 
 we do not see the senses developed, that is, if the 
 senses are but the aggregate cell sensitiveness. 
 The individuals in a plant are really the growing 
 points, each one forming a different individual, so 
 that the number of them that are really united is 
 comparatively small. Besides, in plants the nutri- 
 tive faculties alone are pooled ; the reproductive 
 faculty acts separately through the growing points 
 and buds. And it is no refutation of this supposi- 
 tion to say that if this were true, then the larger 
 the number of cells the greater should be their 
 sensitive efficiency, for the reason that this expres- 
 sion depends upon the efficiency of the organs 
 through which it must act. We know this from the 
 study of the brains of different animals ; the cells 
 do not feel individually but collectively through 
 their organs, and even with the material forces 
 efficiency depends upon the surrounding conditions 
 and the state of the matter. 
 
72 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 VI. THE UNIVERSE 
 
 The development of life was, and for that mat- 
 ter is, from the universal form to a variety of par- 
 ticulars, from the simple to the complex. The uni- 
 versal form, however, remained the same ; it is still 
 represented by the cell. From what we know of 
 the universe, its present form seems to have been 
 acquired by the same process. There is every rea- 
 son to believe that the nebular hypothesis is near 
 to the truth. According to this theory, the mat- 
 ter and the force which now compose the heavenly 
 bodies at one time existed in a formless, homo- 
 geneous, luminous mass: that is, matter and force 
 existed in the universal form. Astronomers tell 
 us that even to-day there seem to be vast spaces 
 filled with such form of force and matter. Why 
 there still are such nebulae they cannot tell. The 
 spectroscope has demonstrated that matter and 
 force manifest themselves in the same way every- 
 where ; this manifestation everywhere is motion 
 overcoming inertia in manner and form as we know 
 it on earth. In the formation of the heavenly 
 spheres we see the same tendency to individuation, 
 to concentrating or particular form of manifesta- 
 tion, as we see in the smallest bacteria. The forces 
 that shape them into individuals are similar to 
 those that shape the small individuals with which 
 we come into contact and are convertible into the 
 same terms. We can safely compare the solar sys- 
 tem to a molecule. This process of individuation 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 73 
 
 which formed the heavenly bodies was continued 
 in the smaller individual manifestations that ex- 
 isted on them. So that the process seems to be 
 the same from the largest star to the smallest mole- 
 cule composing a cell. Concentration naturally 
 brought on diffusion and loss of energy, and finally 
 life appeared on the earth as the most efficient 
 form to preserve force active on the earth. The 
 greater the loss by radiation the greater was the 
 necessity for a highly efficient form. As one form 
 became inefficient for the time, another form ap- 
 peared, or rather another, a more efficient form, 
 was evolved by the innate attribute of force to ac- 
 commodate itself to circumstances, just as we see 
 in living beings whose efficiency is growing every 
 day. If there were no life on the earth, and there 
 is no reason to deny that there is something sim- 
 ilar to the life force on the other heavenly bodies, 
 its surface would consist to-day of chemical com- 
 pounds of the inactive kind, by reason of the loss 
 of active force by radiation in the form of heat. 
 This attribute of life, of being able to accommodate 
 itself to the surrounding circumstances, — and 
 when dealing with the entire universe we can say 
 that it is the attribute of force in general, — can 
 be safely assigned as the cause of the formation 
 of species. Originally individual life was in the 
 universal form ; if in the development of the in- 
 dividual it distributes the functions to cells having 
 the same original attributes, is it unreasonable 
 to suppose that it acted similarly in the develop- 
 
74< THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ment of life in general? We see every day the 
 same attribute devising new means of repairing 
 damages which endanger the life of an individual, 
 although it is not supposed to have any intelli- 
 gence. Would it, then, be unreasonable to sup- 
 pose that the heavenly bodies possessing all the 
 latent varieties of forms are less efficient than a 
 blade of grass? When we study the growth of an 
 animal from its embryo to a fully developed adult 
 we see the same process. Cells begin to assume 
 shapes and perform functions which their parents, 
 from whom they separated by division, did not pos- 
 sess, and they all originally sprang from one cell. 
 We can safely say that the world, so far as we 
 know it to-day, has grown and developed like any 
 other complex individual, from the simple and uni- 
 versal to the varied and complex, from the nebu- 
 lar stage to reasoning human beings. At first it 
 was a formless, luminous mass of gas ; then came 
 the incandescent, fluent state in the different plan- 
 ets ; then came water on the earth, — we do not 
 know the history of the other heavenly bodies after 
 that, — and in the water there appeared life in the 
 universal form ; then came complex life, and this 
 ever grew in efficiency until finally reasoning man 
 appeared, who is most efficient because he can 
 know the laws that govern his life. With the evo- 
 lution of man growth did not stop ; it still con- 
 tinued by developing the social instinct and its 
 necessary consequence, the moral sense, which 
 from crude conceptions of the submission to a su- 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 75 
 
 perior authority grew into the sense of personal 
 responsibility and coordination of the individual 
 activities to the common welfare. The end is not 
 yet in sight. What then? Dissolution of the in- 
 dividual and a new cycle .f* Man as an individual 
 starts his life's course as one cell, which grows and 
 developes into an adult in the fullest enjoyment 
 of the original protoplasmic faculties ; then he de- 
 clines and dissolves again into the general. 
 Everything is in infinity both as to time and space. 
 We see force as light and heat radiating into space 
 from centers, but this force is not lost in infinity. 
 The centers are but individual manifestations of 
 the universal force ; their existence or dissolution 
 neither brings into being nor annihilates either 
 force or matter. Individuals in whatever form, 
 who are but incidents, are coming into being and 
 dying. Since none of the force thus concentrated 
 or released is lost in infinity, the time will come 
 when there will be uniformity again, with which the 
 known portion of the world started, according to 
 the nebular hypothesis. Scientists, to be consist- 
 ent, must admit that under their theory the uni- 
 verse is tending towards the uniform distribution 
 of energy by radiation ; but uniformity and in- 
 dividuality are inconsistent terms, so that it will 
 not be possible to have the force distributed uni- 
 formly through infinity and also have heavenly 
 bodies, for they would be concentrating at least a 
 portion of force. If all the force becomes uni- 
 form, matter will of necessity be also uniformly 
 
76 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 distributed and both will, therefore, reach the 
 same state from which the evolution of the heavenly 
 bodies started. The question then arises : will it 
 remain in a state similar to the one which it has 
 once discarded? Or will it start on a new cycle of 
 evolution? During the present cycle neither 
 force nor matter is losing any of its qualities ; con- 
 sequently it would not be unreasonable to assume 
 that the same force and the same matter will re- 
 peat the same process. We see a close analogy 
 between the birth and development of man and 
 those of the universe ; would it be unreasonable to 
 assume that the universe will follow a similar course 
 in the future? Furthermore, would it be unrea- 
 sonable to say that the evolution of life on the 
 earth is but a continuation of the evolution of the 
 heavenly bodies and that these are but one process ? 
 
 VII. GOD 
 
 If the world is self-developed, where does " God " 
 come in? The spiritist or dogmatist says: He 
 is outside of this world and has laid down a code 
 of laws for its government, just as absolute mon- 
 archs prescribe laws for their subjects. The 
 scientist says : This is all the work of nature. 
 Neither goes any further: the former does not at- 
 tempt to say what " God " is, except that He is a 
 spirit, which is no answer; the latter does not care 
 to bother himself about trying to form a theory 
 as to what " nature " might be. Let us go back 
 to the human body, which we know about the best. 
 
CYCLES AND ANALOGIES 77 
 
 It is composed of millions of cells, each one hav- 
 ing its individual existence and its properties 
 working together in harmony towards one com- 
 mon aim. There is no outside power controlling 
 their association ; they all grew out of one cell and 
 developed into a complicated organism through 
 their innate faculty of being able to accommodate 
 themselves to external conditions, for that is the 
 reason they pooled their forces. Individually 
 they are not conscious of their separate existences, 
 nor do they individually know of the existence of 
 their fellow cells. Every man is conscious only 
 of one existence. The entire united individual, 
 however, exhibits certain attributes which can be 
 safely termed single attributes and not the sepa- 
 rate attributes of individual cells. Man has an in- 
 tellect which performs only single acts ; his voli- 
 tion manifests itself only through single acts. 
 Man is not conscious of any outside regulation of 
 his acts, whether corporal or mental. Man is self- 
 existent, at least for the term of his individual life. 
 He began with the fecundated ovum, and this ovum 
 was developed by evolution lasting countless ages 
 from the universal form of life, the cell, to which 
 we can almost demonstrably trace it. There life 
 seems to stop. But that first cell was but a neces- 
 sary form of force manifestation in order to main- 
 tain force activity. This force during the millions 
 of years through which we can follow its activities 
 developed millions of forms of life, and yet it al- 
 ways remained the same. It does similar work in 
 
78 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 man when developing the various organs of the 
 human body, and does it through its innate pow- 
 ers. This even the most zealous religionist at all 
 acquainted with the demonstrated facts of science 
 must admit. Taking into consideration, then, this 
 one scheme working in the entire known universe, 
 working similarly everywhere, in the formation of 
 the heavenly spheres as well as in the evolution of 
 a humble insect, would it be unreasonable to say 
 that the term " God " stands for all the collective 
 attributes of the universe, just as the term " man " 
 stands for the collective attributes of all the cells 
 which compose him? 
 
 If we must have a picture, let us say that the 
 solar system is a molecule (if we want an important 
 location) in the brain cell of God. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 DREAMLAND AND THE SPIRIT WORLD 
 
 I. BELIEF IN HEAVEN AND HELL AN 
 OBSTACLE TO PROGRESS 
 
 The belief in individual immortality is one of the 
 greatest stumbling blocks in the path of man's in- 
 tellectual and moral progress. It is an obstacle 
 which man has not been able to pass for centuries, 
 although it is obviously not a satisfactory or a 
 rational solution of the all-important question of 
 what is his destiny. There are several reasons, 
 both inherent and external, for its persistence. It 
 is naturally very attractive and appeals very 
 strongly to man's fancy. He is fascinated with 
 the idea that after this life there is another, a 
 perfect one, according to his present standards, in 
 which all the desires of this life will be satisfied. 
 His imagination has dwelt on it for centuries, ever 
 adding to and refining upon it, and this notwith- 
 standing the fact that he has no proof for it, — 
 that scientific investigations, if followed out to 
 their logical conclusions, tend to disprove it. Its 
 hold on man was strengthened by its intimate con- 
 nection with two other beliefs which, for reasons 
 
 of their own, have equally endeared themselves to 
 
 79 
 
80 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 him and have taken just as deep a root in his mind : 
 these are the belief in an extraneous God and the 
 belief in future rewards and punishments. Around 
 these three beliefs revolves the entire system of our 
 ethics : they are the groundwork of our morality, 
 the wellsprings of our hopes and aspirations, the 
 incentives to our ambitions and the guides of our 
 pilgrimage on earth. This is sufficient to crush 
 any one who attempts to argue against them, and 
 he will receive but scant attention, being considered 
 as the enemy of everything that is good in life and 
 the social order and the destroyer of all earthly 
 consolations. 
 
 This trinity of beliefs, as now developed, is in- 
 separable. It marks an epoch in man's mental 
 and moral growth and a step in his evolution ; so 
 that it is vain to think that it will never be sup- 
 planted by others. To hold differently would be 
 to claim that we have reached perfection, an ab- 
 surd proposition. 
 
 "GOD" OUR "FATHER" 
 
 Not knowing better, we like to think of God as 
 a sublimated human being; we like to look upon 
 Him as a Father and transfer to Him the affection, 
 reverence and obedience we naturally experience to 
 our earthly parents. The idea of an omnipotent 
 personal God as our Father presents to our minds 
 something palpable and concrete, something that 
 overawes us, compels our admiration, inspires in 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 81 
 
 us the feelings of affection and veneration, but 
 which we understand just as much or as little as 
 our earthly parentage. We are deluding our- 
 selves that by making a father out of God we 
 thereby solve the problem of our origin. But do 
 we? If we did understand our descent from our 
 natural parents, the fatherhood of a personal God 
 would be a solution of this question ; but how much 
 do we know of the beginning of our lives.? Next 
 to nothing. Biology shows us certain manifesta- 
 tions of the life principle, but its essence is still 
 a profound mystery. This belief in a one per- 
 sonal God as a Father is but substituting one mys- 
 tery for another, or, rather, making two mysteries 
 out of one. Such solutions of vexing questions 
 are dangerous to human progress, because they lull 
 the mind into security, paralyze its activities, with- 
 out even satisfying its longing and thirst for 
 knowledge. And after all, it is not even a concep- 
 tion of the intellect: it is merely a fiction of the 
 imagination. You can abstract all you wish, you 
 can split hairs indefinitely, — the impressions re- 
 ceived in your childhood will remain: the one per- 
 sonal God will always remain an old man. You 
 can give Him attributes inconsistent with such a 
 picture : they will never erase it from your im- 
 agination and memory. When you talk of 
 omnipotence, you will always conceive Him as a 
 master magician who by a movement of His hands 
 can produce the universe; of omnipresence you 
 
83 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 have no conception, or at most you think that He 
 is always behind your back ; but at all times He is 
 but a most perfect old man. 
 
 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 The reasons for the obstinate persistence of the 
 belief in future rewards and punishments are so 
 obvious that they hardly need proofs. It is based 
 on human selfishness and the expectation of grati- 
 fying all earthly desires. Every one hopes to go 
 to heaven and to see his enemies frying in hell. 
 And strange to say, the belief in hell, which one 
 would expect to be the most firm, was the first one 
 to be shaken. No doubt it is because it is so re- 
 pugnant to the others, and it has been worn 
 threadbare. Immortal souls to be eternally 
 damned, infinite love and mercy condemning these 
 souls to eternal tortures are incompatible terms. 
 To create a soul to be eternally damned seems rank 
 injustice: it is an aspersion on the omnipotence 
 and perfection of God; for why should He not 
 create perfect beings.? There seems to be no rea- 
 son for it. 
 
 OBSTACLE TO INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 
 
 Being so dear to the human heart, this trinity 
 of beliefs has been a serious obstacle to man's in- 
 tellectual progress. Why has the theory of evolu- 
 tion so many and bitter enemies.'' Is it because it 
 is unreasonable or groundless.'' No; the reason 
 is that it tends to overthrow this trinity. Why 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 83 
 
 do biologists stop at the very threshold of solving, 
 at least partially, the mystery of life? Is it be- 
 cause the portals are locked to them? No; be- 
 cause by entering them they would not find an im- 
 mortal individual soul there, which, in turn, would 
 shake the other members of this trinity and over- 
 throw the entire structure built upon it. Why 
 do they stop there and say : we study only the ma- 
 terial phenomena of life, we have nothing to do 
 with the soul ; that is for the psychologists ? Why 
 do they separate the soul from the living body, 
 when every discovery points to their intimate 
 unity ; when they admit, in the same breath, that it 
 is the soul, or some principle, if you are not satis- 
 fied with the former term, that gives to matter its 
 attributes of life? Because they are afraid to an- 
 tagonize this universal and deep-rooted belief in 
 individual immortality. They seek refuge behind 
 the excuse that it is an unsolvable mystery, yet at 
 the same time they talk glibly of electricity or 
 chemical affinity as if they knew more about them. 
 They are all but terms standing for collections of 
 manifestations. 
 
 DRAG ON MORAL PROGRESS 
 
 These beliefs have been a great drag upon 
 man's moral progress as well, because they pre- 
 vented him from rising above the gross utilitarian 
 motives. The hope of a heavenly reward, even 
 though idealized, is nevertheless utilitarian, self- 
 ishness being its underlying motive. Avoid do- 
 
84 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ing evil because it will surely revenge itself upon 
 you, ye shall not lose your reward, are the cur- 
 rent accepted maxims. The principle that vir- 
 tue is its own reward has taken but a weak hold on 
 man under this system of ethics. Belief in the 
 eternal punishment of our enemies has somewhat 
 subdued our thirst for vengeance and our hatred ; 
 it has decreased violence, but it is only persuasive 
 and tends only to postpone the gratification of 
 these desires to after-life. But at that we highly 
 admire unselfish self-sacrifice and consider it the 
 height of perfection, which is proof positive that 
 it is our real ideal. The life of Jesus stands out 
 of the pages of history and grips our very souls 
 not so much on account of his exalted ideals, his 
 wise teachings, as on account of his steadfastness 
 to his principles, his sincerity and courage, but 
 mainly on account of his readiness to give up life 
 for others. He has millions of followers because 
 they believe him to be the " Lamb of God, who 
 taketh away the sins of the world " by sacrificing 
 his life for others. 
 
 We are wont to boast of our great progress ; and 
 no doubt we did make rapid strides along some 
 lines, mostly material and intellectual, but morally 
 we have been at a standstill for many centuries, 
 and we shall remain so until we change our stand- 
 point, until we change our motives. We may have 
 refined upon the application of our underlying 
 principles of ethics by substituting spiritual for 
 material rewards ; but what is the difference 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 85 
 
 whether we do good in hopes of temporal gain, be- 
 cause honesty is the best policy, or to win a crown 
 in heaven? The motive in both cases is a selfish 
 one. We hear it frequently asked whether Chris- 
 tianity is a failure. That is a sign that we feel 
 things are not as they ought to be, — which is a, 
 good sign. Why is it unsatisfactory? Because 
 its actuating motive is selfishness, its standard self- 
 love, and therefore it failed in its ultimate pur- 
 pose. It resolves itself into a conflict between 
 the hope of an indefinite, spiritual, future gain 
 and the prospects of present material and sub- 
 stantial profit. Shall a bad tree bring forth good 
 fruit? Self-love will remain self-love, and the 
 prospect of a future reward is easily drowned by 
 the prospect of present advantages. And this 
 the more surely as this heavenly reward is repre- 
 sented as hard to gain and easily lost. Thus self- 
 ishness is prescribed as a cure for selfishness. 
 We are asked to forego present tangible advan- 
 tages for future, ideal advantages. Vain appeal ! 
 
 II. ORIGIN OF BELIEF IN THE SPIRITS 
 
 These three beliefs really are a part of one 
 system, and can be termed as but one belief, 
 namely, the belief in the spirit world. 
 
 Now, the spirits, like the poor, we always have 
 had with us. They run the gamut from the 
 fairies and gnomes of the nursery tales through 
 the spirits of the woods, the rivers and the stars 
 of the ancient and of the present day savages, 
 
86 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 through the gods and demigods of Greek and 
 Roman mythologies, through the devils and the 
 evil spirits of hell, through the saints, angels, 
 archangels, powers, thrones, and so on, of heaven 
 to the very throne of the one personal " God." 
 They are good, bad and indifferent. They are 
 the delight of the child, the terror of the savage, 
 the object of veneration of the ascetic and the 
 subject of the speculation of the philosopher. 
 Barbarians have offered bloody sacrifices to them, 
 poets have sung their sweetest songs about them, 
 painters have lavished upon them all the wealth of 
 their fertile imaginations, sculptors have expended 
 on them the cunning of their dexterous hands, and 
 thinkers have exhausted upon them the ingenuity 
 of their minds. Man has believed in them since 
 the first days his reason dawned upon him and 
 even to-day some of the greatest intellects believe 
 in their existence in some form. They have been 
 represented as crude idols, as beautiful human be- 
 ings, and as intangible substances that can be con- 
 ceived only after a great deal of metaphysical 
 abstraction. Even material and exact science 
 and mathematics have not been altogether free 
 from their influence, and an explanation of their 
 existence is sought in the fourth dimension. They 
 had a tremendous influence on shaping human de- 
 velopment and played an important part in human 
 history. 
 
 What is the foundation of this persistent be- 
 lief for which absolutely no proof exists .f* What 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 87 
 
 is the probable origin of this rather fantastic be- 
 lief? This entire structure of the spirit world 
 seems to rest upon nothing more substantial than 
 dreams. As orthodox thinkers and theologians 
 use the universality and the persistence of this be- 
 lief to prove its verity and, as it is intimately con- 
 nected with the belief in the one personal God, 
 the solution of the question is more important 
 than it would at first appear. They argue that 
 it is impossible that all mankind could err and 
 that there must be some objective reason for this 
 belief. The trouble with this argument is that it 
 starts with the wrong premise, namely, that many 
 errors may make one truth, that a whole lot of 
 nothing may make one something. If you guess 
 often enough, you will necessarily guess the truth. 
 That man always had dreams we can safely as- 
 sume. From what little we know of animal 
 psychology, we can assume that even animals have 
 dreams. From history we know that in the past 
 dreams were taken very seriously and were given 
 a supernatural trend. It is stated that some of 
 the most awful mysteries of revealed religion were 
 explained in dreams and that the destinies of na- 
 tions were guided through them. Joseph had the 
 mystery of the incarnation of Christ explained in 
 a dream, and Jacob's ladder was the mainspring 
 of his ambition. And some of these dreams sat- 
 isfy our present thinkers too ! If that be so, what 
 explanation could an ignorant savage find for his 
 experiences, good and bad, in dreamland .f* 
 
88 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 Take an American Indian, for example, roving 
 over the plains some five hundred years ago. At 
 the close of the day he retires to his tepee and lies 
 down to sleep. Without knowing how it hap- 
 pens, he meets his dead father, whose body, he 
 knows, he placed long ago among the other dead 
 of his tribe along a river bank far away ; and they 
 go hunting. He comes upon a beautiful deer and 
 gives chase, which leads him over unknown lands ; 
 he converses with his father; he performs almost 
 impossible feats of strength and speed and finally 
 brings down the deer. Suddenly the entire scene 
 vanishes and he again finds himself in his tepee, 
 where he lay down, but no signs of his hunting 
 trophy, and he finds that it is another day. He 
 relates his experience to his squaw, but she tells 
 him that because their child had been ill nearly all 
 night she did not sleep much, and that she saw 
 him lying all the time in the same place as one 
 dead, and that his father was not near him, of 
 course. Here, then, is a mystery which his crude 
 mind cannot solve in any other way than by sup- 
 posing that there is another world, similar to this 
 one, in which reside the persons of those who died. 
 Did he not converse with his dead father.'' Did 
 they not hunt the deer together .? What other 
 explanation could be found by this untutored 
 savage? It requires a strong and developed in- 
 tellect to comprehend that the dream existences 
 have no objective realities, and especially because 
 one finds himself among them. It is difficult to 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 89 
 
 draw the line between waking and dreaming con- 
 sciousness. Can we wonder that an ignorant 
 savage cannot distinguish between them? And 
 then, when wandering through the forests at night, 
 he heard mysterious sounds and saw queer forms 
 and shapes ; can we, therefore, wonder that he as- 
 sociated them with the spirits of his dreams? 
 
 The belief, once it took root, could not be 
 eradicated completely to this day. In his savage 
 state, man was not given to investigation and to 
 analysis ; the simplest and the most plausible ex- 
 planation suited him, and the existence of spirits 
 was the simplest and most natural explanation of 
 his dreams and of his own destination after death. 
 With advancing knowledge, man dissociated his 
 dreams from his belief in the spirits and began to 
 refine on them. This process of refining upon the 
 spirits of the dreamland is plainly written on the 
 pages of history. To the question, what orig- 
 inated the belief in the existence of the spirits, we 
 can find no other plausible explanation except 
 this, that it had its beginning in dreams. Curios- 
 ity and the desire to find an explanation for every 
 experience is the main attribute of the human 
 mind. When contemplating the remains of a man, 
 the question, what became of that portion of the 
 man that gave it life, naturally presents itself, 
 even to the savage. His experiences in dream- 
 land suggested to him a concrete answer. They 
 suggested to him the existence of another world, 
 in which the spirits of the dead could be found. 
 
90 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 Death was but a transition from this world into 
 that other world ; there went out of the body some- 
 thing that assumed in that other world a similar 
 shape. The further back in history we go the 
 more grossly material man was, and his spirits 
 were more like material beings. His imagination 
 formed pictures of only material beings, and when 
 it performed its functions in semi-conscious stages, 
 in dreams, independent of the senses, it repro- 
 duced to his savage imagination beings which in 
 his fully conscious stages he knew to be non- 
 existent. But his crude mind was not given to 
 analyzing itself, and the result was the mixture 
 of the two stages and a belief in the existence of 
 the dreamland beings. It was easy to construct 
 another world in which the spirits of his departed 
 friends had their being, who could not be perT 
 ceived in the ordinary way, who made no impres- 
 sion upon his senses, who had different attributes 
 and who could do things which he himself could 
 not perform. To the savage, then, man existed 
 in the body in this world, and after death only 
 in the spirit in the other world, but that spirit 
 possessed a similar shape because he has so mani- 
 fested himself in dreams. 
 
 III. INDIVIDUAL IMMORTALITY 
 
 From the behef in the spirits to the belief in 
 individual immortality is but a short step ; in fact, 
 the latter is but a corollary of the former. If the 
 spirit of one man lives, there is no reason why the 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 91 
 
 spirits of all do not live. That there is a strong 
 desire in man for individual immortality there is 
 no doubt ; we resist the thought that death ends 
 all : but the existence of the desire is no proof of 
 the existence of the object desired. If we turn 
 the searchlight of our present knowledge on this 
 belief and disregard our deep-rooted belief in the 
 existence of the spirits, what is there left of in- 
 dividual immortality? If the soul is a substance 
 that can exist with its faculty of remembering 
 intact, without the body, how does it do so after 
 death? What becomes of it after death? The 
 orthodox, hoping for the eternal joys of heaven, — 
 what does he really want? To remember his pres- 
 ent life, his sorrows and tribulations ; otherwise 
 the consolations of his religion would be but scant 
 compensation for his present sufferings. Heaven 
 would not serve as an incentive to right living; 
 nor would the terrors of hell be a restraint upon 
 his evil tendencies. 
 
 SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS 
 
 To individual immortality the persistence of 
 memory after death is indispensable ; it is neces- 
 sary that man remember in after-life who he was 
 in this world. The scholastic philosophers hold 
 that the body is the principle of individuation; 
 and they are against a stone wall when asked to 
 explain how it is possible, if that be so, that man's 
 soul retains its individuality after death. But in 
 reality there is another means whereby man knows 
 
92 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 that he is a separate individual, or his identity, 
 which makes him conscious of his separate ex- 
 istence, namely, his memory. Bury the body and 
 destroy the memory, and what is left of the in- 
 dividual? What would there be to keep separate 
 the life-giving principle or force which vitalized 
 the body and made it perform its function ac- 
 cording to a well defined plan? Science has dem- 
 onstrated beyond a doubt that man's memory de- 
 pends absolutely upon the proper working of cer- 
 tain material organs, certain portions of the 
 brain. The knowledge of the ego is but the ac- 
 cumulated experiences of the man stored up in his 
 memory. Man is conscious of his existence be- 
 cause of the perception of the impressions received 
 by the sensitive organs, but if he lacked memory 
 he would not know his identity, for there would 
 be nothing to connect the perceptive experiences 
 of one moment with those of another moment. 
 Furthermore, we know that loss of memory is fol- 
 lowed by loss of identity, and that injury to a cer- 
 tain portion of the brain will produce loss of mem- 
 ory. Our identity begins with the time we can 
 remember. 
 
 Sleep is induced when the activities of the sensi- 
 tive organs are suspended, and consciousness of 
 existence is also thereby suspended. During the 
 dreamless portion of sleep, because of this suspen- 
 sion, man is the same as if he were dead. Con- 
 sciousness returns when these organs resume their 
 functions, and partial consciousness, when mem- 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 93 
 
 ory alone begins to functionate and produces 
 dreams. What would happen to a man if he died 
 in his sleep? How would he regain the conscious- 
 ness of his existence, which depends upon the op- 
 eration of his material organs of perception, and 
 how would he regain his identity, which depends 
 upon his memory, which cannot act without the 
 material organs? And he would necessarily have 
 to regain his memory, for how would he know who 
 he was in this life? A violent blow on the head 
 will produce unconsciousness because it disturbs' 
 the organs of perception and memory, and con- 
 sciousness returns when the effects of the blow 
 wear off and the organs regain their normal con- 
 dition. Anaesthetics produce unconsciousness be- 
 cause of their action upon the nerve centers, and 
 consciousness returns when their effects wear off. 
 How could a man regain his identity if, while un- 
 conscious whether from a blow or from an anaes- 
 thetic, his organs of memory were surgically re- 
 moved? You say he would die: granted, but that 
 does not answer the question, for the spirit does 
 not take the brain along with it into the next 
 world. On the other hand, life is possible without 
 consciousness and memory, all depending upon 
 what portion of the brain is injured or removed. 
 
 IV. GENERAL IMMORTALITY 
 
 We have every reason to believe that nothing 
 existing can be annihilated, and that, therefore, 
 when a man dies his component parts but change 
 
94 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 form, — that both the body and the life-giving 
 principle continue to exist in some other form, 
 and to that extent we can claim immortality for 
 our spirit, whatever that be. But there is a grave 
 doubt whether the collection of recollections which 
 constitute man's individuality and identity per- 
 sist after the destruction of the material organs 
 which supported them. There certainly is no way 
 of proving it, and the reasoning against such per- 
 sistence is very strong. The believers in it flatly 
 assert that there is individual immortality, but 
 after boiling down all their theories and specula- 
 tions to hard facts there remains nothing more 
 substantial than dreams and simple, unquestion- 
 ing faith in the words of persons who believed in 
 spirits and dreams. 
 
 If there is not individual immortality, what be- 
 comes of man after his death? This question 
 has been asked by man ever since he began to 
 think, — although very vital, so far it has not been 
 answered satisfactorily. 
 
 There is no doubt that man consists of two 
 principles : his atomic body and a vivifying prin- 
 ciple which coordinates these atoms to one com- 
 mon end, even to the knowledge of the existence 
 of the entire organism. Science has proven that 
 these component parts separate when the condi- 
 tions are unfavorable for their joint existence; 
 the atomic body then behaves as any other lifeless 
 substance, governed solely by the chemical laws 
 as if it never had sustained the life principle. Of 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 95 
 
 course, the composing atoms or molecules, what- 
 ever they be, are as enduring as the universe itself, 
 whatever that is. Death is not annihilation for 
 them, only a change of form, although the organ- 
 ized being of which they were the component parts 
 has ceased to exist as a whole. What becomes of 
 the life principle .f* Is that destroyed or annihi- 
 lated.'' But first, what is this life principle .^^ 
 
 V. THE LIFE PRINCIPLE 
 
 If we noticed its manifestation only in human 
 beings there would not be so much objection to 
 the assumption of orthodox theologians that it 
 persists in existing after death as an individual, 
 although in another form. But we see its mani- 
 festations in a multitude of forms and in beings 
 to whom the blessings of immortality are denied, 
 so that to be consistent we must admit that either 
 all live beings are immortal or none. Does man 
 grow and vegetate? So do the plants. Does man 
 feel, see, hear, taste and smell .f* So do the ani- 
 mals, some even to a greater degree than man. 
 Does man experience certain feelings and senti- 
 ments of love, hatred, joy, anger, gratitude.'' So 
 do the animals. Is man conscious of his ex- 
 istence .? We have no reason to suppose that the 
 animals are not ; in fact, everything points to the 
 supposition that they are. Has man memory .f* 
 So have the animals. Does man reason? The 
 animals seem to do the same, the difference being 
 mainly in degree. What, then, does man possess 
 
96 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 that other living beings do not? He possesses the 
 same faculties as the aninnals, some more intense, 
 others weaker. His greater powers of reasoning 
 make him a responsible and, therefore, a moral 
 being ; but that alone will not preserve his identity 
 after his death, because reason is not the faculty 
 which maintains man's identity in this life. To 
 attribute all these similar functions or acts of the 
 animals to instinct does not solve the difficulty 
 or answer the argument, for it but raises another 
 question, namely, what is instinct .f* It is neither 
 physical nor chemical force nor anything material. 
 It is but solving one mystery by proposing an- 
 other. 
 
 That the life principle is a specific and distinct 
 form of force, different from the ordinary physical 
 and chemical forces, there is no doubt. Biology 
 proves this most emphatically. Its essence lies in 
 its power to coordinate physical and chemical 
 forces to one common aim. As long as it can ac- 
 complish this, life exists ; when it becomes weak- 
 ened, the other forces overcome it and the organ- 
 ized being ceases to exist. We see life in its 
 simplest form in the unicellular organisms, which 
 essentially is not different in the most complex 
 multi-cellular being, man, only in the manner of 
 reproduction. Besides coordinating the physical 
 and chemical functions, the life principle of com- 
 plex beings also supervises the growth of the cells 
 and directs their activities towards one common 
 goal. While unicellular organisms maintain 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 97 
 
 themselves by their individual exertions, the cells 
 of an organized being unite their efforts to main- 
 tain themselves by preserving the entire being. 
 Synthetical chemistry and biology are straining all 
 their powers to produce living organism in the 
 laboratory by chemical processes, going on the 
 theory that life is but a chemical reaction. There 
 is every reason to believe that they are proceeding 
 on a wrong assumption and that they will never 
 succeed. Life and the chemical forces seem to be 
 two opposing forces, and are constantly at war 
 with each other. The chemical forces are trying 
 to destroy the life force, while it is exerting itself 
 to overcome them. The chemical forces do not 
 possess the attributes of coordination, they act al- 
 ways in the same way ; how, then, can they be made 
 to restrain their activities without placing over 
 them another force .^ Yet it would not be incon- 
 sistent to admit that, starting with life in its most 
 simple form, the cell, up to where it manifestly 
 possesses the faculty of perception, it could be 
 possibly explained by chemists ; but chemistry will 
 not explain perception, still less, consciousness, 
 reason and volition. How can chemistry explain, 
 the faculty of coordinating cells in a complex or- 
 ganism to work towards a common aim.'^ And in 
 what way can it account for the power of differ- 
 entiating the cells and for assigning to them cer- 
 tain functions during the process of development .f* 
 How will chemistry account for heredity, the in- 
 herent attribute of the two elements to produce 
 
98 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 the same kind of a being as its parents ? How will 
 chemistry account for heredity of character? 
 
 VI. INDIVIDUALITY 
 THE MATTER AND FORM THEORY 
 
 To form a correct idea of the life principle, that 
 is, the force or whatever it is which maintains the 
 uniform chemical composition of the cells, pre- 
 serves their characteristics through countless gen- 
 erations and supervises the nutrition and repro- 
 duction of individual cell organisms and which, 
 besides these, coordinates the activities of the cells 
 to a common purpose, it is most important to form 
 first a definite conception of what constitutes an 
 individual. In fact, that is the main question in 
 the present inquiry, for there is no doubt of our 
 immortality in some form, as nothing that is can 
 be annihilated; but we do question seriously that 
 we persist as individuals. According to the scho- 
 lastic theory of matter and form — a highly ab- 
 stract set of metaphysical terms — the soul is the 
 form which is universal and general in all beings 
 of the same species, and the body is the matter", 
 as they call it, and is the individuating principle. 
 We could well agree with this theory if it did not 
 lead to absurdities when the belief in individual im- 
 mortality of the soul is sought to be explained by 
 it. It is the fundamental axiom of this theory 
 that both matter and form must exist together ; 
 one cannot exist without the other. Thus, if we 
 talk of a wooden chair, we must have the wood. 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 99 
 
 which is the matter, and it must be fashioned into 
 a chair, that is, possess all the essentials of a 
 chair, which constitute its form. It is easy to 
 see that while the wood is in the shape of boards 
 it is not a chair, and that the plans of a chair in 
 the mind of a joiner do not make a chair either. 
 When the joiner fashions the boards according to 
 his plans, a chair is brought into being: break it 
 up and it ceases to be a chair, although the wood 
 is there. From this illustration two other prin- 
 ciples can be deduced: that the form is universal 
 and that it exists or subsists in all the essential 
 parts of the matter. It makes no difference which 
 particular chair we mean: all have the same at- 
 tributes, all are made for the same purpose, all 
 must have the same essential qualifications ; it is 
 the wood, or the matter, which makes the indi- 
 viduals. Every essential part of a chair is neces- 
 sary to its makeup, whether it is the legs, the seat 
 or back, if that kind of chair is meant. A piece 
 of wood fashioned like the leg or the seat of a 
 chair may be a chair leg or seat only when it is a 
 part of a chair; it is not that either before it is 
 put into one or after it is torn away from one. 
 
 Now let us apply these principles to the human 
 soul, bearing in mind that we must not disturb 
 its individual immortality, which, resting on the 
 authority of the miraculously revealed word of 
 God, is presumed to be absolutely true. Accord- 
 ing to this theory, the body is the matter and the 
 principle of individuation, and the soul, which is 
 
100 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 universal, is the form. If that be so, how can the 
 soul exist at all after death, and further, how can 
 it exist as an individual? Orthodox theology an- 
 swers : " After death, God supplies in some 
 miraculous way — and everytliing is possible to 
 God — the lack of the body, which is, of course, 
 necessary under our theory to the individual ex- 
 istence of a human soul, until the great day of 
 resurrection, when the two will become united 
 again." Simple and easy ! And that is supposed 
 to be a rational method of looking at it, and a solu- 
 tion of a vexed question. When your theories 
 lead you to absurdities, hide behind miracles and 
 revealed faith. Now let us take the other deduc- 
 tion, namely, that the form is indivisible and sub- 
 sists in its entirety in all parts of the individual, 
 that is, that the entire human soul resides in every 
 part of the human body, and see where it will lead 
 us to in view of our present knowledge and scien- 
 tifically conducted experiments. What becomes 
 of the soul that subsisted in an amputated leg or 
 siYm? No' plausible answer. Another mystery! 
 But let us carry that a little further and consider 
 a case of successful skin grafting. It is not neces- 
 sary to analyze some of the more recent but not 
 thorouglily successful experiments of transplant- 
 ing whole organs. A loses a portion of skin on 
 his face by scalding: B offers the necessary skin 
 from his back. Now that skin, to be living, must 
 have a soul, and is permeated with the entire soul 
 of B. It is transferred to A's face, matter and 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 101 
 
 form, body and soul. It takes root and keeps on 
 growing as if it were on B's back. After this skin 
 continues to live on A's face, whose soul has it? 
 Mind you, even during the transplanting opera- 
 tion it had to have one, for if the soul had left it, 
 it would have died, and how could it have been re- 
 vived ? If it becomes A's soul, then A has two — 
 his former soul and B's, if it is B's ; then what was 
 left to B ? We must not forget that both of them 
 have individual existences, under this theory ; both 
 are indivisible and both have hopes of future in- 
 dividual immortality. Poor A has two souls to 
 save, a doubly hard task, while B has none, and 
 can live an absolutely free and irresponsible life; 
 for why should he worry? He has no soul left. 
 But what if A should lose both of them? There 
 would likely be a lively fight between the two on 
 the day of resurrection. If the soul is indivisible, 
 where does the child get its soul? The parents do 
 not lose theirs, for they continue to live. The 
 orthodox theologians answer that it gets it by a 
 special act of God. If that be so, then God is 
 creating souls every day, and the Bible is wrong 
 when it says that He is through with the creation 
 and that He is now resting from His labors. Fur- 
 thermore, He depends very much upon the will of 
 man, who must first create favorable material con- 
 ditions, that is, supply Him with bodies to find 
 suitable subjects for His souls. Under these con- 
 ditions God cannot be called omnipotent. But, 
 although it may be premature just at this stage 
 
102 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 of the discussion, — following out this reasoning 
 to its logical conclusions, — does it not appear that 
 man is collaborating with God in the work of the 
 universe, and is not his part of the work of great 
 importance? 
 
 But we have a still stronger refutation of the 
 matter and form theory, and, for that matter, of 
 the entire belief in individual immortality, in Dr. 
 Carrell's successful preservation in life of animal 
 organs after their separation from the rest of the 
 body. At this early stage of these experiments 
 even partial success is a strong argument, and 
 there is no reason why these experiments will not 
 be successful ; for do we not see it in plant life 
 every day? We see tree grafting and the plant- 
 ing of sprigs which assume a new individuality. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC THEORY 
 
 Now then, let us take the facts that biology has 
 demonstrated and see whether we cannot construct 
 a reasonable theory which, at least, will avoid 
 these absurdities. We have the live cell to which 
 all living things are reducible. We say that it is 
 alive because it shows certain universal activities : 
 it assimilates and it multiplies. But even assimi- 
 lation is different from accretion in lifeless sub- 
 stances. The growth of the cell is limited, while 
 lifeless substances, conditions being favorable, 
 grow indefinitely. Of course this limitation is 
 really attributable to the power of multiplication. 
 The peculiarity of cell multiplication is the per- 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 10[3 
 
 petuation of characteristics, or heredity, of the 
 parent cell. Crystallization is somewhat similar 
 to cell multiplication, yet it is clearly distinguish- 
 able, and the two processes cannot, under any cir- 
 cumstances, be considered as similar or identical. 
 Crystals will not separate of themselves into simi- 
 lar crystals after a certain amount of amorphous 
 matter has been added to them, although some will 
 by the application of external force, by fissure, 
 separate into smaller crystals of the same shape, 
 but they will not do so invariably of themselves 
 after the}' grow to a certain size. In other words, 
 it is not an automatic process of multiplication 
 of individuals. This principle determining the 
 growth of the cell and forcing it, as it were, to 
 separate must be considered as distinctive of the 
 life force. On the other hand, it shows how little 
 difference there is between the different forms of 
 beings and how graduated the transition from 
 amorphous matter to reasoning human beings. 
 Besides, this difficulty vanishes when we come to 
 the consideration of complex beings. Cells also 
 show other peculiarities, such as the power of defi- 
 nite locomotion, the production of secretions at 
 indeterminate times, which indicates volition. 
 These general attributes of cell life are universal, 
 and show themselves in all forms of life, from 
 the lowest to the highest. In that respect the brain 
 cells of a philosopher differ in nothing from the 
 amoeba. To this extent we can safely endorse the 
 matter and form theory of the scholastics, but 
 
104 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 when they seek to explain by it the behef in indi- 
 vidual immortality we must part company with 
 them. We must right here also part company with 
 the materialists, who seek to explain all life phe- 
 nomena by attributing them to what are ordinarily 
 called physical forces, as electricity, heat, magnet- 
 ism, chemical affinity, and so forth. Whether we 
 call it a spirit or soul or by any other name, we 
 must concede that the life principle is a specific 
 force. And it will not help the materialists any 
 to say that so far we have been unable to answer 
 the question of what life is. They have no defi- 
 nite ideas of the other forms of force, either. The 
 wave theory, for example, is not a satisfactory 
 solution. They all stand for groups of manifes- 
 tations. We know as little of what electricity 
 really is as we know what life is. We do not have 
 of these the same conception as we have, for ex- 
 ample, of numbers. All we know is that under 
 certain conditions electricity will do certain 
 things, just as we know that life will act in a cer- 
 tain way under given conditions. Nowadays the 
 biologists experiment with the life force as physi- 
 cists do with heat or electricity, or the chemists 
 with chemical affinity. And, by the way, this term 
 " chemical affinity," in spite of constant attacks 
 upon it, has retained its position as a specific 
 force. Life comes from preexisting life, heat from 
 preexisting heat, electricity from preexisting elec- 
 tricity. But life has this one peculiarity, and it 
 may truly be called specific, that it of itself strives 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 105 
 
 to keep active, while the others may be so neu- 
 tralized that nothing but some external force will 
 make them active again or make them manifest 
 themselves again. Take, for example, heat. By 
 the life force it was imprisoned in certain chemical 
 compositions as part of a cell of a tree ; there it 
 remained in the wood and in the coal into which 
 it formed for thousands of years, until by the ap- 
 plication of heat it is again released. Everything 
 seems to be electric, as appears from the process 
 of induction, yet this electricity will not show it- 
 self until brought into proximity with active elec- 
 tricity. But neither the chemist nor the physicist 
 can by the widest stretch of imagination attrib- 
 ute the coordination of cell activities in complex 
 individuals to their pet forces, which are really the 
 servants of the life force. 
 
 Mounting higher in the scale of life, we come 
 to the other group of living beings, the complex 
 or multi-cellular individuals. These consist of 
 groups of cells united into one individual, coop- 
 erating for their common welfare, themselves func- 
 tioning as if they were independent cells ; that is, 
 they assimilate and reproduce the same, and the 
 whole individual reproduces also. Only the man- 
 ner of reproducing the complex individual differs 
 from the simple process of segmentation. This is 
 true of the simple plant as well as of man, the 
 highest form of complex life. In all of them life 
 begins the same, by the fusion of the two elements, 
 and up to a certain stage in the development all 
 
106 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 look and behave alike. Then comes differentia- 
 tion of cell functions. Cells derived from the same 
 parent cells assume different shapes, develop dif- 
 ferent chemical composition, — all this having a 
 well defined aim in view. Groups of cells form 
 themselves into distinct organs, all different in 
 construction and designed to do different work in 
 the economy of the complex individual, — the pur- 
 pose of all this being the preservation of all the 
 cells by preserving the entire group and the repro- 
 duction of the group individual. What super- 
 vises this development and what preserves the or- 
 ganization after it is completed ; what induces this 
 coordination of functions .^^ Can it be attributed 
 to physical or chemical forces .-^ Why do they not 
 act the same way when not connected with living 
 things.'' What is the purpose of this complex 
 being? The elimination of chance and the pres- 
 ervation of active life. The higher we rise in the 
 scale of life, the more manifest becomes this 
 maxim. Unicellular living beings depend for their 
 existence upon favorable conditions and surround- 
 ings. If the element in which they subsist con- 
 tains necessary ingredients, they can thrive and 
 multiply ; if it does not, life ceases to manifest it- 
 self. In complex beings, the entire individual pro- 
 vides favorable conditions for the cells of which it 
 consists : that is the reason for its existence. It 
 has different organs which procure, prepare and 
 supply the entire cellular community with the 
 necessary elements of successful life, eliminate 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 107 
 
 harmful by-products and combat all other cell life 
 not germane to them. True that these organs use 
 the ordinary physical and chemical forces to ac- 
 complish their purpose, that they are built and 
 constructed and operate along mechanical lines ; 
 but there still remains clear and distinct the sepa- 
 rate something which directs these activities. 
 This the materialist overlooks. He makes the 
 fatal error of taking the means for the end. He 
 thinks that because the energy in the body is gen- 
 erated by the known process of combustion just 
 as it is in the boiler, the body or its organs are no 
 better than a boiler and that he has found the 
 life principle. 
 
 But essentially there is no difference between 
 the life force which manifests itself in an oak, in 
 a horse or in a man : the life cell is the same every- 
 where ; but some groups are cooperating better 
 and more efficiently than others ; the higher we go 
 the more and more is provided against contin- 
 gencies and less is left to chance. All the activi- 
 ties of complex organisms, the center around 
 which the whole scheme revolves, is the preserva- 
 tion and perpetuation of cell life. The existence 
 of any particular individual, whether simple or 
 complex, is immaterial. If one complex group of 
 cells, or a simple cell, has the power to destroy 
 another group or individual cell, it is but to pre- 
 serve its own cells or itself. Thus the destruction 
 of individuals is but a means of the preservation 
 of life. A cat kills a mouse and thereby supplies 
 
108 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 food to its own cells ; its being able to do so shows 
 its greater efRciency to perpetuate life. Conse- 
 quently we must not attach too much importance 
 to the individual or group of individuals ; their 
 perpetuation is not the end, but only the means. 
 
 Here we have a coil of wire charged with elec- 
 tricity in a perceivable way ; we insert into it an- 
 other coil which was not electrified. As soon as 
 the smaller coil is placed within the larger one, by 
 a mysterious process which we call induction it also 
 becomes appreciably electrified. While to a cer- 
 tain extent we can trace the source of the electric- 
 ity in the larger coil, we do not really know whence 
 it came, but we know still less of the source of the 
 electricity in the smaller coil. The larger one did 
 not apparently lose any of its force ; whence, then, 
 came the electricity in the smaller coil.'' But we 
 have two electrified individuals. In one hand I 
 have a piece of hot iron ; near it I hold another 
 piece of cold iron. After a while the hot iron be- 
 comes colder and the cold iron becomes warmer. 
 To a certain extent I can trace the source of heat 
 in the hot piece of iron, but I do not know what 
 heat really is or whence it ultimately came. Here 
 we have two heat individuals. I plant the seed of 
 a violet in the ground ; a plant grows out of it and 
 produces more seeds, which if planted will pro- 
 duce more violet plants. To a certain extent I 
 can trace the force which makes the violets grow, 
 but I do not know what the life force is. Here we 
 have two life individuals. We say, and we con- 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 109 
 
 sider it as an absolute truth, that heat, electricity, 
 and other what are called material forces, do not 
 become annihilated just because they cease to 
 manifest themselves in some particular objects. 
 Our present theory is that they do exist uni- 
 versally and that they are indestructible, but that 
 they can be made to manifest themselves under 
 favorable conditions. Such conditions are the in- 
 dividuals. Why cannot we say the same thing 
 of the life force .? 
 
 Dip a wooden cask into the ocean : as long as 
 the wood will last it will keep separate and dis- 
 tinguishable the quantity of water which it con- 
 tained; but as soon as the staves rot, the water 
 will mix with the rest of the ocean and become 
 indistinguishable; it will lose its identity, its in- 
 dividuality. Should it acquire while in the cask 
 additional salts, these will become diffused and 
 add to the total salinity of the ocean. The ex- 
 periences which one individual acquires in his life- 
 time become the experiences of the whole, and will 
 make the elimination of chance, the grand pur- 
 pose of all life, the more certain. That is the 
 work of God ; it is a step in evolution. 
 
 VII. ACTION OR INACTION 
 
 Biology, then, has demonstrated that all the 
 organized living beings have a similar beginning 
 up to a certain stage of their embryonic develop- 
 ment and are indistinguishable ; and it can bc- 
 safely said that in the subsequent manifestations 
 
110 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 of the life force man possesses essentially no fac- 
 ulties which are not possessed by other animals, 
 the difference being only in the degree of their ef- 
 ficiency. If that be so, why should man alone 
 be individually immortal? We come to this di- 
 lemma : either all life is immortal or none ; and 
 further, either all animals are individually im- 
 mortal or none. Plants have the same vegetative 
 faculty as man ; if it is persistent in man, why not 
 in plants? Animals have a memory to make them 
 individuals the same as man ; if man is individu- 
 ally immortal, why not the animals? The trouble 
 is that ancient prejudices have raised man to a 
 very high plane in his own estimation, and have 
 created in him a very exalted idea of his own im- 
 portance and clouded his reason, so that he con- 
 siders himself humiliated to be classed with other 
 animals, which prevents him from taking an un- 
 biased view of the world. Either there is heaven 
 and hell for all animals, as for man, or for none, 
 with difference only in degree. The dog would be 
 satisfied with a plentiful supply of good bones, 
 with a shady and warm nook to sleep in and no 
 fleas to bother him ; while man craves a golden 
 crown, a pair of wings, and a harp, and the satis- 
 faction of knowing that his earthly enemy is eter- 
 nally frying in hell. In the grand scheme of the 
 universe all life is equally important and precious, 
 subject, of course, to the law of the survival of 
 the fittest individual. There are no special ex- 
 ceptions in favor of man. If we believe in an in- 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 111 
 
 dividual God sitting on the throne of heaven and 
 ruling the world like any other ruler by divine 
 power, the human mind cannot solve the question 
 of immortality on a rational basis ; it must for- 
 ever remain a matter of faith in revealed religion. 
 Our knowledge of life even to-day and faith in in- 
 dividual immortality cannot stand side by side. 
 If, however, we take the pantheistic view of God 
 and combine it with the evolution theory of the 
 origin of the universe, we shall have a rational 
 basis to work upon. If the world is but the mani- 
 festation of the activities of the Infinite, and if 
 the different beings are but the different forms of 
 this manifestation, then it is plain that man is 
 immortal, — but not as an individual, but as a 
 part of the entire indestructible universe. The 
 force that enlivens his body is but a spark of the 
 force that maintains the universe. In him it mani- 
 fests itself one way, in the plant in another way, 
 and in the inanimate matter but in other ways 
 again. This conclusion is not at all as humiliat- 
 ing to man's pride as it would first appear: is it 
 better to be a part of the all-pervading Infinite 
 than to be an insignificant individual subject to 
 that Infinite .P What matters it whether, after 
 " we have shuffled off this mortal coil," we can re- 
 member who we were in this life, can recall our 
 experiences on this earth, recollect our trials, trib- 
 ulations, joys and happiness? Is not the knowl- 
 edge that we shall be merged in the Infinite and 
 continue to take part in its activities more nobling 
 
112 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 than the belief that after this life we shall wear a 
 golden crown, sprout wings and sing hosannas for 
 all eternity? Is not the participation in the ac- 
 tivities of the universe for all eternity more in- 
 spiring than an existence of utter leisure and 
 inactivity? Is it not better to forget the self- 
 created worries of this life, its artificial unpleas- 
 antness and man-made injustice, than to hope 
 that in after-life we shall remember them all but 
 be comforted by the knowledge that those who 
 caused them are eternally damned? If we are to 
 be transformed into perfect beings, would that not 
 be a fly in the ointment? And would not our 
 perfect beings, their feelings of mercy being inten- 
 sified, feel miserable to think that so many other 
 beings have to endure the eternal tortures of hell's 
 fire? What a monotonous existence that would 
 be ! Of course there is entertained a more spir- 
 itual and intellectual idea of heaven, — namely, 
 that man's thirst for knowledge will be satisfied 
 and all the bothersome questions of this life will 
 be answered, — that all the noble ideals of man will 
 be attained; but there is no doubt that the com- 
 plete satisfaction of all these intellectual desires 
 would soon pale upon us ; in fact, such a view con- 
 tains an absurdity. It is the very inability to 
 satisfy these spiritual and intellectual desires that 
 constitutes their charm. A satisfied mind would 
 be like discharged electricity : — it would be exist- 
 ent, but not perceivable. If man were to know 
 everything about this world, with what then would 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 113 
 
 his mind occupy itself? How could a man whose 
 principal desire in this life was to do active works 
 of charity and mercy satisfy his desire in heaven? 
 He would like to help the damned, and not being 
 able to do so would make him miserable. In other 
 words, what would be the use of having a mind if 
 it did not have an opportunity to delve and to 
 inquire ; what would be the use of having desires if 
 they should be satisfied fully at the very beginning 
 of this existence? 
 
 It is not God's plan: if it were, He would have 
 created all beings perfect instead of developing 
 them through the slow process of evolution. He 
 could have done it and then rested ; but the ideas 
 of rest and of an Infinite God are incompatible, 
 and we therefore see the universe unfolding itself 
 like a beautiful flower, the contemplation and in- 
 vestigation of which, though only fragmentary, 
 are worth more than an eternity of peaceful bliss. 
 
 But it may be objected that, since the doctrine 
 of individual immortality has played such an im- 
 portant part in civilizing mankind in that, with 
 the accompanying doctrine of future rewards and 
 punishments, it was a restraint upon evil doing 
 and an inducement to doing good, it ought not to 
 be stricken down. There is no doubt that it 
 helped in some respects to do all this, but it does 
 not follow that it is indispensably necessary to 
 future progress and that it will always be suitable. 
 Heaven and hell have lost their influence to a great 
 measure with millions of people. Advanced 
 
114 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 knowledge has shaken man's faith in them ; the 
 whole structure is tottering. Neither does it fol- 
 low that man's ethical principles should never ad- 
 vance. There is an inherent weakness in this doc- 
 trine of future rewards and punishments. It rep- 
 resents something intangible and indefinite ; some- 
 thing far in the future and at best uncertain. 
 Human passions, selfishness and personal inter- 
 ests, the primordial passions, are present realities 
 with which man has to cope in his every-day life. 
 He needs something real to help him in his strug- 
 gle with them. Hell loses its terror in the pres- 
 ence of overwhelming passion, of prospect of great 
 personal gain and the possibility of satisfying 
 strong desires. It is a question which, though im- 
 possible of answer, may still be raised, whether 
 humanity would not have made greater progress 
 had it proceeded along the lines of personal re- 
 sponsibility and honor for the same length of time 
 as it has by basing its ethics on the hopes of future 
 rewards and punishments. Pagan Rome and 
 Greece were sufficiently advanced intellectually to 
 receive these principles into their moral codes. 
 Reason can deduce sufficient principles of ethics 
 from human nature and social necessities. 
 
 Taking this view of the human soul, the sym- 
 bolism of resurrection assumes a new and more 
 exalted meaning. It does not mean the union of 
 the body with the soul to continue an inter- 
 rupted existence in a state similar to this at some 
 indefinite future time, but an awakening now to 
 
DREAMLAND AND SPIRIT WORLD 115 
 
 the knowledge and consciousness of our impor- 
 tance in the scheme of the eternal universe. It 
 represents our conscious union with the life as we 
 see it in the lily, the rose, as we hear it in the song 
 of the birds ; it represents a union with the spheres 
 of the heavens and the penetration of the spaces 
 of infinity. The glory of the sun becomes our 
 glory, the beauty and the sweet odor of the flowers 
 become our beauty and our odors. It means the 
 doing of the word of God, the passage through the 
 gates of heaven now. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 
 
 Political theorists of the Middle Ages have ex- 
 pended a good deal of ingenuity and versatility in 
 their attempts to explain the necessity for rules 
 of human conduct by comparing society to the 
 human body. They went to great lengths in try- 
 ing to find analogies between the bodily organs 
 and the social hierarchy and civil classifications, 
 and the necessity for them. Their knowledge of 
 the human body being limited, and their purpose 
 being to justify the then existing order of things, 
 some of their efforts look to us truly ridiculous. 
 Thus a certain ecclesiastic, John of Salisbury, 
 who lived in the twelfth century, said that the 
 prince was the head, the senate the heart, the court 
 the sides, the officers and judges the eyes, ears and 
 tongue, the executive officials the unarmed and the 
 army the armed hands, the financial department 
 the belly and the intestines, the landfolk, crafts- 
 men and the like the feet of the social organisms ; 
 that the protection of the common folk was the 
 shoeing and their troubles the social gout. Nicho- 
 laus of Cues, another worthy ecclesiastic, a truly 
 
 brilliant man, who lived in the fifteenth century, 
 116 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 117 
 
 went into great details along these lines, making 
 use of all the medical knowledge of his age; and 
 he found a counterpart in the social order for 
 every bodily organ, every pleasure and every ill- 
 ness. As is always the case, every such speculator 
 had a jealous opponent who in turn tried to be- 
 little him by reducing his pet theories to absurdi- 
 ties. Thus it was pointed out that if the head be 
 the king, then, since the popes also claimed sov- 
 ereignty, society was a double-headed monster; 
 that if the common folk be the feet, then society 
 was blessed with a great multitude of them and 
 excelled the centipede. And so on. Such replies 
 necessitated a defense and some refined distinctions 
 and nice hairsplittings, which was the fashion of 
 those days, and the war of wits went on merrily. 
 We all know the fable of the strike declared by 
 the organs of the human body against the stomach, 
 the prototype of modern labor strikes. 
 
 I. THE HUMAN BODY A PERFECT 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 Although carrying out analogies to absurd mi- 
 nutiae may become ridiculous, their judicious use 
 may be very helpful to the formation of concep- 
 tions, especially of abstruse subjects. The hu- 
 man body, as we know it to-day, is a good type of 
 perfect democracy. The trouble with those sages 
 of old was that they knew little of the body and 
 tried to justify their unjust social order of privi- 
 leged classes. But if we consider the human body 
 
118 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 a perfectly coordinated group of cells, all working 
 in harmony for the general welfare, we have a 
 picture of society during the hoped-for millennium. 
 The ancients tried to demonstrate subordination 
 and to justify it, while the controlling principle of 
 the body is coordination. In the workings of the 
 human cells we see absolute justice: every cell 
 gets all its needs, no more, no less, and every cell 
 performs its functions to the limit of its abil- 
 ity. There are no favorites. While it would 
 seem that the gustatory cell in the tongue when 
 performing its functions of tasting is favored over 
 the epithelial cell in the colon, it is not so; it gets 
 only as much as the latter from its labors. It 
 gets only the necessary food and no more; the 
 pleasant sensation is not favoritism, because it is 
 unconscious of it. The nerve cell in the brain, 
 performing a wonderful feat of reasoning, is not 
 more important than the apparently less noble cell 
 on the sole of the foot. Every cell must perform 
 its assigned duty or it will be cast away. Cells 
 working harder get more food, and it is taken 
 away from those which do not need it. 
 
 If men of themselves could so regulate their 
 conduct as to act in such perfect harmony the 
 " kingdom of God " would be materialized on earth 
 and we should not need external rules of conduct. 
 But the Old Nick comes in. Men are not like the 
 cells, they have free wills ; they have eaten of the 
 tree of knowledge of good and evil. The cells 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 119 
 
 have no such knowledge. And with this, sad to 
 say, our beautiful analogy ends. 
 
 MORAL RESPONSIBILITY 
 
 Man's intellectual faculties are so highly devel- 
 oped that we have made them the distinctive mark 
 of the species. Because man has intellect he is 
 responsible and is, therefore, a moral thing. His 
 so-called free will is not a distinctive faculty. It 
 was developed from the limited ability of the pri- 
 mordial cell to be able to move and to control its 
 movements, and animals, to whom we do not con- 
 cede this free will, have the power of controlling 
 their actions ; they can do things which may be in- 
 jurious to them or to others. The moral quality 
 attaches to man's actions because he can under- 
 stand them and their consequences. Insane men, 
 although they evidently have the same faculty of 
 free will, are not held responsible, because they 
 know not what they do. Man is morally responsi- 
 ble only to the extent of his knowledge. 
 
 NATURAL CRIMES AND VIRTUES 
 
 Man knows himself to a certain extent. This 
 knowledge ought to be so utilized in regulating his 
 conduct as not to do anything that is detrimental 
 to his own nature and contrary to its law. Any 
 willful act which is contrary to these laws is the 
 highest crime of which he is capable. His body is 
 a perfectly regulated society of cells which, if not 
 
120 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 interfered with, will attain the aim for which it 
 exists, the perpetuation of life. Any discord in- 
 troduced into this harmonious working is detri- 
 mental to it and is in opposition to the divine 
 manifestation through him. The perversion of 
 the different bodily organs from their natural pur- 
 poses, the introduction into the system of sub- 
 stances known to be injurious, the prevention of 
 the body from taking the necessary rest, — in a 
 word, anything that is harmful to it is a violation 
 of the eternal laws of nature. Any willful act 
 which shortens life is akin to murder. Similarly, 
 every act which arbitrarily deprives another man 
 of the means of providing sustenance to his own 
 body or which supplies him with substances that 
 are injurious to it is partial murder. Causing 
 and maintaining unsanitary conditions is another 
 crime of this category. On the other hand, help- 
 fulness is a natural virtue, the promotion of the 
 work of the Infinite. We are all brothers, not 
 only because we have banded together in a society, 
 not only because we have descended from some 
 remote common ancestor, but also because the 
 component elements, the cells, of wliich our bodies 
 consist are enlivened with the same universal life, 
 the same manifestations of the Infinite. The in- 
 dividual is but an incident, a grouping of these 
 cells, the better to carry out the chief end, the 
 preservation of universal life. The question, " Am 
 I my brother's keeper .? " was condemned as soon 
 as it was uttered. And it will not do to say that 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 121 
 
 everyone has his own free will and can take care 
 of himself; that will not remove the responsibility 
 from the act of any other man. Every act must 
 stand on its own merits, and the test is : will your 
 act have harmful consequences to you or to an- 
 other? It is immaterial whether you do injury to 
 yourself or to another, whether you damage your 
 own life elements or another's ; in either case you 
 are trying to destroy universal life. 
 
 II. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 
 
 Man knows the social relations in which he lives 
 and their necessary consequences. It would be 
 useless to speculate whether man is naturally gre- 
 garious or whether he developed that instinct : so- 
 ciety is a fact. It is a means of carrying out the 
 plans of the Infinite. For is not man able to 
 maintain himself better and more securely because 
 he lives a social life.'' Do not animals congregate 
 for the same purpose.'' 
 
 Social relations demand individual coopera- 
 tion. The realization of this maxim by everyone 
 is the aim of ethical teachings. Its observance 
 creates the feeling of responsibility, which should 
 be the guiding star of all. Cooperation is social 
 justice. In the human body every cell performs 
 its allotted functions ; so every man should per- 
 form his duties, because the ultimate success of 
 the society in which he lives demands it. The cells 
 in the human body are ruled by an inexorable law, 
 and they cannot do wrong because they do not un- 
 
122 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 derstand their positions in the body. They act 
 blindly, automatically. With the individual man 
 it is different. He has intellect and volition, and, 
 therefore, a free will ; he is a free agent. Know- 
 ing this and knowing the relations he sustains to 
 others and the whole society, he ought to regulate 
 his conduct so that it be conducive to the attain- 
 ment of the ends which the social organism has in 
 view. This rule is a positive one. Its observance 
 is not merely restrictive. It not only requires 
 man to forbear from doing anything injurious to 
 others, but it also demands of him to do every- 
 thing that is beneficial to others and to the entire 
 social organism. In that the purpose of the rules 
 of ethics differs from the purpose of the rules of 
 law. The law is mostly prohibitive insofar as it 
 regulates private human conduct. Outside of the 
 few positive duties towards the state as a whole, 
 the rules of law consist merely of prohibitions. 
 They are in the negative: thou shalt not. Their 
 aim is the preservation of peace and order, abso- 
 lute necessities. For that reason they are not 
 fully competent to bring about such coordination 
 and cooperation as are necessary for the attain- 
 ment of social aims. They must be supplemented 
 by positive ethical rules which prescribe what man 
 shall do. The position of the law in limiting it- 
 self only to prohibitions can be justified on the 
 grounds of lack of means of enforcing positive pri- 
 vate rules, if it had any. 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 123 
 
 THE MORAL CONFLICT 
 
 The task of regulating and coordinating human 
 conduct is an enormous one. There are man's 
 primal instincts of self-preservation and propaga- 
 tion. These instincts are primordial, and are the 
 natural attributes of every life cell. Their ac- 
 cumulated effect is those strong desires, passions 
 and other mental conditions which control our 
 every act. The senses, the intellect, the senti- 
 ments and emotions, and even our moral sense and 
 social instinct are but the means of carrying out 
 these primal instincts. Here, then, is the source 
 of conflict between good and evil. These primor- 
 dial instincts are blind forces, — the cell is not con- 
 scious of them ; their aim is the preservation of 
 the individual; they are selfish. The mind of the 
 complex individual has found out that the destiny 
 of man, the preservation of the universal life force, 
 can be better attained through social organiza- 
 tion and in ways which may have to run counter 
 to these cell instincts ; through the cooperation of 
 the complex individuals, and, therefore, rules are 
 necessary to coordinate the acts of the complex 
 individual to that aim, even if some of these rules 
 should in some particular detail place restraints 
 upon the selfish instincts of the cells. The moral 
 conflict is a struggle between the individual and 
 the universal, between the elemental passions of the 
 cells to preserve their lives even if it be necessary 
 
IM THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 thereby to destroy other cells possessing similar 
 life. 
 
 III. RIGHTS OF PRIVATE PROPERTY 
 
 It is not, or should not be, the province of eth- 
 ics to occupy itself with the particular theories 
 for putting into practice this cardinal principle : 
 it should confine itself to the cultivation of the 
 conviction of the necessity of coordination, no 
 matter how it is applied to the multifarious social 
 activities and functions. Thus, for example, it is 
 not within the province of ethics to preach any 
 particular property rights. If all men were thor- 
 oughly imbued with the necessity for cooperation 
 and the coordination of all their acts to the com- 
 mon aim, it would be immaterial whether we recog- 
 nized individual property rights, as we do now, or 
 whether the dreamed-of communal ownership were 
 practiced. The theory of personal property 
 rights is but the present-day means of carrying 
 out the end. It is a debatable question whether 
 it is the best and the wisest means. It certainly 
 is the source of a great percentage of the social 
 evils. On the other hand, neither could commu- 
 nism be successfully practiced unless men did fully 
 realize the necessity of perfect coordination of 
 their individual acts and desires. And by the 
 way, in our system of corporate ownership we are 
 certainly drifting to communism, and it will pos- 
 sibly be the means of ultimately establishing it, 
 even if not in the form in which some theorists are 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 125 
 
 dreaming of. These, however, are questions of 
 economics and not of ethics, which is essentially 
 educational. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE RELATION 
 
 Private ownership of property necessitated the 
 establishment of the marriage relation, with its 
 concomitant rules of morality, strictly so called. 
 Licentiousness is a natural crime, a perversion of 
 natural functions ; the destruction of its conse- 
 quences, plain murder; nor does marriage justify 
 this most unnatural practice. Marriage is a so- 
 cial necessity because of the property restrictions. 
 The nurturing and the bringing up of the off- 
 spring has been made complicated by our social 
 order, because of personal property rights. 
 
 Promiscuous procreation under our present so- 
 cial system and in our present frame of mind and 
 habits of thinking is out of question ; it is cer- 
 tainly inadvisable, but it cannot be said that it 
 would be absolutely wrong. Mating for life is not 
 universal in nature, but society has made it neces- 
 sary. The marriage institution and especially 
 monogamy is not an unadulterated blessing. To- 
 gether with its parent, the private ownership of 
 property, it has been the disturber of peace and 
 social order. The reason for this is that these 
 two institutions aim to place restrictions on the 
 tAvo primal instincts, preservation and reproduc- 
 tion. Should we return to the earth in, say, a 
 thousand years hence, we should find astonishing 
 
126 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 changes along these lines, and they will be due to 
 the radical changes in the views mankind will have 
 of these two institutions. It may be objected 
 that marriage is founded on a natural sentiment, 
 the attraction a couple conceive for one another. 
 True, but in itself that is not an argument for life- 
 long mating and for monogamy, and we cannot 
 positively say that the uncompromising view we 
 take is not the result of sentiments cultivated by 
 environment and training. The millions of love- 
 less homes and the very prevalent vice of marital 
 infidelity are strong arguments against the for- 
 mer, and the fact that the greater portion of 
 mankind, both in numbers and in time, practices 
 and practiced polygamy, which is a compara- 
 tively modern institution, argues against the lat- 
 ter. It is a question whether the pangs of jeal- 
 ousy do not outweigh the bliss of single love. Be- 
 sides, there are more women than men. But as 
 long as our social order remains what it is and 
 our mental state and habit of thought will be what 
 they are now, these two institutions will have to 
 remain. Our feelings even now are undergoing a 
 radical change in the view we take of parental 
 rights and duties. It is a far cry from the abso- 
 lute rights of life and death which a father had 
 over his children not so very long ago to our Ju- 
 venile Court system. The rights of the parents 
 are correlatives of their duties, — a sort of com- 
 pensation. Now we are changing all this. The 
 theory of our Juvenile Court laws is that the in- 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 127 
 
 terest of the state in the children is paramount 
 and supreme; that if the parents do not fulfill 
 their duties according to the standards prescribed 
 by law, the courts are given jurisdiction to step 
 in and assume the responsibility of educating the 
 children according to these standards. Compul- 
 sory education was the first step in this direction, 
 and we are ever pushing this principle further. 
 The home is beginning to lose its importance. 
 Whether it is a wise departure or not is another 
 question. Here is another indication of our drift 
 towards communism. 
 
 IV. CONSCIENCE 
 
 Above all our acts there sit in judgment our 
 conscience or moral sense and the sense of jus- 
 tice. But these are variable quantities as to the 
 details, depending upon the knowledge which we 
 have of our nature and the social relations. It is 
 difficult to say whether the moral sense is a sepa- 
 rate faculty or whether it is but a cultivated, fixed 
 habit of thought. If it were a separate faculty 
 it might be fair to presume that it would show it- 
 self in everybody, yet we know that there are men, 
 even groups of men, in whom it does not show it- 
 self; that it is the result of environment and of 
 education seems to be more probable. Even in 
 the crudest savages, nay, even in the animals liv- 
 ing in communities, there seems to be the sense of 
 the necessity of some regulation ; but we cannot go 
 safely beyond this. It may be argued that since 
 
128 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 the cells are dominated by the life principle, con- 
 trolling and coordinating their functions, it mani- 
 fests itself in the moral sense of the complex or- 
 ganism, which could be called their collective ex- 
 pression. Conscience is said to be elastic ; and so 
 it is. We see variations in its sensitiveness both 
 in the past and among the different races, all de- 
 pending upon the degree of mental development. 
 When people knew the body as consisting of a 
 number of organs, they thought that in society 
 classes were necessary and that their different 
 rights and privileges had a natural foundation. 
 Some had to be noble and some had to be but 
 drudges and slaves. It was supposed to have 
 been so ordered by God. The Roman ladies, by a 
 turn of their thumbs, gleefully sent to their deaths 
 thousands of valiant gladiators ; to-day we pro- 
 hibit prize fighting with padded gloves. The 
 burning of the Christians and their massacre by 
 savage beasts furnished a holiday for the Roman 
 populace ; the execution of a criminal was a public 
 spectacle not more than one hundred years ago ; 
 to-day we are abolishing the death penalty even 
 for the most brutal crimes. In the good old days 
 of chivalry, men slew each other for sport ; to-day 
 we want the countries engaged in supposedly legal 
 war to show a just cause. The Polynesian even 
 to-day does not scruple to make a meal out of a 
 pious missionary ; on the other hand, we have so- 
 cieties for the prevention of cruelty to animals, 
 and people who are vegetarians because they do 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 129 
 
 not believe that animals should be killed even to 
 furnish them with food. It is not so far back in 
 history that in good old England, in the full view 
 of vast throngs, they cut down from the gallows 
 some criminal before he was dead, revived him, 
 ripped open his body, pulled out and seared his 
 entrails with fire before his eyes, and after he died 
 quartered his body and hung the parts up on the 
 city walls for the edification of the people ; while 
 we have written into our Federal Constitution a 
 prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment 
 and decry the public whipping of a wife-beater. 
 In view of such violent and radical changes in the 
 sensitiveness of the human conscience, and the 
 public conscience is but the collective conscience 
 of the individuals, we cannot say positively that 
 it is a standard of fixed value and that it is a sepa- 
 rate faculty of the human soul, but rather that it 
 is but a habit of thought. At any rate, it cer- 
 tainly depends wholly upon our intellectual devel- 
 opment. 
 
 V. JUSTICE 
 
 " Justice " is a still less definite term. 
 
 The fundamental principle of orthodox Chris- 
 tianity, and a standard of justice, is that because 
 God is infinite justice. He rewards virtue and pun- 
 ishes sin, but that because He is infinite mercy, He 
 has evolved the scheme of atonement by sacrificing 
 His only begotten son to satisfy this justice. 
 First of all, this principle contains an irreconcila- 
 
130 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ble contradiction of terms: either His justice is 
 not infinite, because it is limited by His mercy and 
 love, or His mercy and love are not infinite, be- 
 cause they are circumscribed by His justice. 
 These attributes cannot possibly be all infinite. 
 We question that the infinite love of the Father 
 should allow the sacrifice of His only begotten son 
 for the benefit of insignificant creatures of His 
 whom he could have created perfect, and concern- 
 ing whom, if He has not done so. His omniscience 
 must have informed Him that they would be sin- 
 ful and merit punishment. All these incongrui- 
 ties and inconsistencies are assignable to the wrong 
 conception of the term justice; it is the penalty 
 for giving God human attributes, and making 
 them infinite. The infinite is essentially unchange- 
 able, and our idea of justice has undergone vari- 
 ous and radical changes. Like everything else 
 human, it has gone through a process of evolution. 
 Our standards of justice have changed and are 
 continually changing. We have, for example, 
 long ago discarded the Mosaic standard of " eye 
 for eye, tooth for tooth." 
 
 What is justice.'' It is an elusive term, and if 
 we analyze the different acts to which it is applied 
 we are almost tempted to say that it has no mean- 
 ing. Webster defines justice as " the principle of 
 rectitude and just dealing of men with each other; 
 also conformity to it; integrity, rectitude." This 
 definition cannot, of course, be applied to the in- 
 finite justice of God. 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 131 
 
 I hire a man to do a certain work for me and 
 we agree that for its performance I will pay him 
 a certain amount; to do so is an act of justice. 
 My neighbor does ten dollars' worth of damage to 
 my property ; upon my request he pays me the ten 
 dollars: that is justice too. There is no doubt 
 about that. A strikes B in the face; B sues him 
 in the courts of justice and A is made to pay a fine 
 and is imprisoned for thirty days. Is that jus- 
 tice.^ The central idea of the conception of jus- 
 tice seems to be equalization or the rendering of 
 equivalents : it may be advantage for advantage, 
 advantage for disadvantage, and disadvantage for 
 disadvantage. In the first two alternatives we 
 are on fairly safe grounds, but the third alterna- 
 tive is rather troublesome. Equal exchange of 
 advantages is certainly just; to put a person in 
 statu quo, when we have caused him damage is also 
 just ; but it is difficult to see why one man should 
 be allowed to cause a disadvantage to another who 
 has done him some injury. It is called retributive 
 justice, but the short word for it is vengeance. 
 Now then, whether legalized or not, is vengeance 
 justice.'' The first two cases may be called abso- 
 lute and the standards have never varied, but our 
 ideas of retributive justice have undergone radical 
 changes. We do not consider it necessary that 
 men be drawn and quartered in order to satisfy 
 what Blackstone calls " the outraged majesty of 
 the law." It took humanity many centuries to 
 understand that vengeance, whether legalized or 
 
13a THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 not, is neither beneficial, nor inspiring, nor just. 
 Of course, society for its protection and the pres- 
 ervation of order needs some means of restraining 
 men from violating its laws and rules, but we limit 
 them now to that purpose. We are paroling oc- 
 casional criminals and giving them opportunity to 
 reform instead of taking their lives or administer- 
 ing corporal punishments. Habitual criminals 
 are put under restraint to prevent them from caus- 
 ing more harm. Otherwise imprisonment is rather 
 in the nature of a persuasive argument than a 
 punishment for the crime. This is a far cry from 
 legalized private vengeance. In the olden days, 
 courts were sitting for the purpose of supervising 
 the wreaking of private vengeance by the injured 
 individuals and to enforce the rules which entitled 
 them to revenge themselves upon those who had 
 caused them injury. It took centuries to persuade 
 men to give up what they considered their rights of 
 revenge. It was considered the duty of the kins- 
 men of a murdered person to hunt down and kill the 
 murderer, and that was justice. Every crime had 
 its measure of private punishment, not by the way 
 of restraint, but as retribution and punishment. 
 This was gradually changed into fines for the bene- 
 fit of the state and to imprisonment, the state tak- 
 ing upon itself to do the punishing; and that is 
 called justice too. The question naturally sug- 
 gests itself, what justice is there in making a man 
 suffer just because he caused suffering to others? 
 If John Smith strikes James Brown in the face, 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 133 
 
 how is justice served if Brown returns the blow and 
 causes Smith as much pain as Brown suffered? 
 And how is justice served if Smith is made to pay 
 a fine to the state or is imprisoned for a certain 
 period of time as a punishment for the offense? 
 Societj^ found it convenient and necessary to pro- 
 tect private property, no matter how unjustly it 
 was acquired. As long as society enforces this 
 rule of convenience in its own way, we can find no 
 fault with it ; but how is infinite justice served, and 
 why should it be invoked to punish the criminal? 
 Why should we expect God to interfere and en- 
 force our rules of convenience? It is not conso- 
 nant with perfect justice to expect God to con- 
 demn a poor wretch to the eternal tortures of hell, 
 because to save liis life he stole a loaf of bread 
 from a Croesus who amassed his immense wealth by 
 oppressing masses of people or extorted it from 
 the sweat of thousands of helpless children? 
 Would God punish an offender just to protect the 
 property of a harpy who piled up a fortune by 
 supplying poison to others, playing upon their 
 weakness and then trying to avoid responsibility 
 by saying that they have a free will and need not 
 have bought it from him? And can we expect 
 that Infinite Justice will punish the weak wretch 
 who succumbed to his wiles and blandishments? 
 Can we call the Infinitely Just God the Lord of 
 Hosts assisting organized butchery to satisfy the 
 ambition of one man or of a group of men? 
 
 Our ideas of justice have changed and are con- 
 
134 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 tinually changing, the tendency being towards 
 what we may assume to be the absolute standard 
 as typified in the coordination of the cell activities 
 in the human body. " Equality is equity " is the 
 maxim of Equity Jurisprudence ; but vengeance, 
 retribution, punishment and preferment are 
 neither equality nor justice. Our ideals are high 
 and they are difficult of attainment, but we are 
 making rapid progress ; for centuries are but as 
 seconds in the plans of the universe. 
 
 VI. THE "HEART" 
 PASSIONS AND SENTIMENTS 
 
 But our ethical principles do not depend wholly 
 upon our knowledge and mental development. In 
 our conduct we are not wholly guided by what we 
 know of our nature and our social relations, by 
 what our reason tells us is wise and necessary. 
 Our sentiments, our emotions, our feelings, which 
 represent a distinct faculty, play a great part 
 in controlling our actions and regulating our con- 
 duct. And these are but the manifestations or 
 workings of the same life force, having the same 
 end in view, its perpetuation. They must be 
 taken as supplementing the intellect. Their con- 
 sideration, therefore, properly belongs to ethics. 
 They are not intellectual faculties ; they are sep- 
 arate and distinct in their operation, in many in- 
 stances acting contrary to the dictates of reason. 
 The mind certainly cannot control them at all 
 times. I conceive an aversion for some one: no 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 135 
 
 amount of reasoning will eradicate it. We aU 
 know that affection for a person can neither be 
 prevented nor destroyed by any amount of rea- 
 soning; love will always find a way to circumvent 
 it. In fact, efforts to do so are liable to produce 
 the contrary result. The feeling of pity and 
 compassion springs up uncalled for and persists 
 in spite of any knowledge subsequently acquired 
 which would show it to be groundless. 
 
 Such a sentiment, first of all, is the rugged sense 
 of honor. It is akin to the sense of responsibility, 
 but is indistinguishable from it, as the latter is 
 purely a habit of thought based on reason, on the 
 complete comprehension and realization of natural 
 and social necessities. The sense of honor is 
 clearly a feeling, a sentiment, at times running con- 
 trary to reason or common sense. It is a very 
 powerful restraining influence. Its basis is self- 
 respect. Its essence is a consuming desire to be 
 true to one's self, to one's ideals. When fully 
 developed its influence for good is incalculable. It 
 is able to repress all selfish desires, to overcome the 
 most powerful temptations. We hear, for exam- 
 ple, of men refusing to accept bribes for no other 
 reason but simply because they feel that it would 
 outrage their sense of honor, that they cannot be 
 bought, that their ideals are above material gain. 
 They would consider themselves humiliated in their 
 own eyes to do so. You say that it is due to pride. 
 But what is pride? Can we define or describe it 
 in any other term but one of feeling or sentiment, 
 
136 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 a high valuation of one's self? You cannot re- 
 solve it into a physical or chemical force. It rep- 
 resents a high conception of one's destiny and a 
 fidelity to it. We know it, we feel it ; it is a 
 specific expression of the life force subsisting in us 
 and operating through us. It may be attributed 
 to the primordial instinct of preserving one's life 
 in its purity as it came from the hands of the In- 
 finite. 
 
 Then we have the feelings of love and pity for 
 others. They are the sentiments that prompt us 
 to self-denial and self-sacrifice. These are the 
 gentle virtues whose beauty is the grace of the 
 soul. They surely run contrary to reason. It is 
 not the animal attraction of sexes that is meant 
 here, nor the feelings inspired by hopes of reward, 
 temporal or eternal; these are selfish. We all at 
 some time or other were prompted to do things 
 for others to our own disadvantage, not counting 
 the cost, not expecting any reward, nor hoping for 
 it. The sight of misery opens our wellsprings of 
 pity and induces us to do everything in our power 
 to relieve it. Such experiences are real, yet 
 neither describable, definable nor analyzable. 
 They are just feelings in whose presence reason 
 stands mute. Yet what heroism and self-sacrifice 
 have sprung from them ! Can we say that reason 
 is capable of inducing a man to give to another 
 the means of saving his own life and perish him- 
 self? These sentiments may be called the expres- 
 sion of the aggregate instinct of the cells, founded 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 137 
 
 on their mutual attraction for each other, which 
 binds them into a complex individual for the pur- 
 pose of preservation ; the extension of this instinct 
 to cells outside of the individual for the preserva- 
 tion of universal life. It is the concrete expres- 
 sion of the unity of life, the broadening of the 
 principle of coordination and cooperation. 
 
 Then we have our aspirations, the desire for 
 growth and development, the inward pressure for 
 perfection, the conscious ambition to grow, the 
 dissatisfaction with the present and a longing for 
 something better. This is one of the most dan- 
 gerous sentiments, because of misconception of the 
 standards which may be really debasing. Its 
 foundation is the combination of both the primal 
 instincts of propagation and self-preservation, 
 and is, therefore, a great power both for good 
 and evil. It served as the guiding star to man- 
 kind's progress, and was also the cause of its tem- 
 porary retrogression. Man never fell ; at times 
 he slid backwards, Tantalus like, but the general 
 tendency has ever been upward. He could not 
 really help himself, he had to grow. Because of 
 misconceived standards, a fault of the mind, he 
 had temporary setbacks, which might have been 
 caused by physical exhaustion, but he never com- 
 pletely lost his ambition to develop. In its sim- 
 plest form this desire manifests itself in the strug- 
 gle for existence which we see in all living things. 
 In this connection it may be remarked that the 
 awakening of the Eastern nations from their long 
 
138 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 period of inactivity may be due to the shaking off 
 of the effects of inherited exhaustions produced 
 by their former intellectual activities. It is a 
 well-known fact that mental development is at the 
 expense of physical growth, which in its turn will 
 react on the mind of the offspring, bringing about 
 a general mental exhaustion. We see in history 
 that periods of great intellectual and moral 
 growths of nations were followed by mental tor- 
 pidity. In the Eastern races we see this being 
 shaken off and a new start made with fresh vigor. 
 But this is a diversion which, though it opens a 
 very interesting field of speculation, is beyond the 
 scope of this discussion. This ambition to grow 
 and develop finds its highest expression in the high 
 ideals which have been set before mankind by its 
 seers, prophets, redeemers, philosophers and poets, 
 who are as darting tongues of flame leaping into 
 the surrounding profundity of the Infinite. 
 
 Then there is patience: not the dumb animal 
 patience wliich endures bodily sufferings and petty 
 material adversities of life with meekness and hu- 
 mility, but the militant patience which can wait for 
 the accomplishment and realization of ideals in 
 spite of discouragements and setbacks, and in- 
 duces man to hold fast to them and to work for 
 their materialization. This patience discounts 
 worldly gain and self-glorification and is the com- 
 pass which holds man's course true to his ideals. 
 Without it humanity would not have had any of 
 these men who really count ; for there was not one 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 139 
 
 of them who did not have to hew his way through 
 a veritable jungle of discouragements. It an- 
 swers Hamlet's despairing cry: 
 
 " For who would bear the whips and scorns of time^ 
 The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
 . . . and the spurns 
 That patient merit of the unworthy takes." 
 
 " Truth is mighty and will prevail," but it is 
 rather slow in doing so, and it takes patience to 
 bear up with this delay ; it is patience that enlivens 
 this saying : it is its soul. This patience is the one 
 virtue which points unmistakably to the Infinite in 
 us, as it disregards time and has its eyes on eter- 
 nity. What if within the short span of our lives 
 others do not see the truth as we see it? Patience 
 says that the time will surely come when they will, 
 even if we shall not be here to know about it. 
 Patience teaches that seeing and knowing is suc- 
 cess, and not what others think of it. Without 
 patience there could be no growth, no develop- 
 ment. 
 
 VII. THE TRUE MOTIVE 
 
 In nature, in other forms of the manifestation 
 of the Infinite, utility and necessity are not the 
 only aims, motives and guides ; on every hand we 
 see her lavish prodigality of beauty. The loveli- 
 ness and the perfume of the flowers may serve their 
 useful purposes in propagating and preserving 
 the species, but they are not indispensably neces- 
 
140 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 sary, and often repulsiveness and ugliness serve 
 the same end. Is the glory of the rose or the 
 fragrance of the violet absolutely necessary in its 
 economy, when countless other plants get along 
 without them? Is it a failure in the rose that its 
 petals wither, or did the violet work for naught 
 when distilling the sweet essences, because they 
 dry up? Yet they all but produce seeds, which 
 with the coming of the spring will grow other roses 
 or violets only in their turn to wither and dry up. 
 The nightingale pours out his soul-enchanting 
 song to delight his mate, while thousands of other 
 animals are silent or do but grunt. Can we say 
 that it is a waste of energy and useless wear of the 
 vocal cords, just because the sound waves are dis- 
 sipated and lost in space and the brood could have 
 been hatched without it? You say that these are 
 but the promptings of dumb instinct or the work 
 of blind forces. That is no answer. It is the In- 
 finite manifesting itself in the rose or the nightin- 
 gale, and it is neither dumb nor blind. What shall 
 we say of the promptings of the human heart to 
 love, to pity, to help and to sacrifice? Are they 
 not as natural as the beauty of the rose, the scent 
 of the violet, the song of the nightingale? Virtue 
 is the beauty of the soul, high ideals its scent, and 
 noble aspirations its song; and they are the laws 
 of human nature. They are just as much the 
 manifestations of the Infinite through Him as are 
 the other beauties of nature. 
 
 Should then these promptings be given full play 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 141 
 
 for reward only? Are they to be suppressed only 
 from fear of punishment? And if not rewarded, 
 do they go for naught? Must we bargain with 
 God to be good and virtuous? Should we stifle 
 our better nature and deface it unless we are 
 promised a crown in heaven? And if we do not 
 receive such a reward, will our lives have been fail- 
 ures and waste? Is it not enough to be conscious 
 that, nurturing these sentiments and emotions, we 
 are doing the work of our Father who is in heaven, 
 and that in fact we are then in heaven? Are these 
 feelings to be measured only by the standard of 
 necessity or utility ; if not, why were they im- 
 planted in our hearts? 
 
 Careful cultivation of the rose will improve its 
 beauty and that of its seed; should it not be 
 enough for us to know that every good deed of 
 ours will leave its work on countless generations 
 to come? The fruits of the cultivation of our in- 
 tellects and of our hearts will be inherited by mil- 
 lions of human souls in the future. Do we crave 
 any other, perchance a more selfish immortality? 
 Would the hosannas sung by us as puny individuals 
 for all eternity swell the grand chorus of the Infi- 
 nite more than our good deeds, multiplied in count- 
 less individuals, our descendants living on this 
 earth as we do ? The life-purpose of Christ was to 
 establish the kingdom of God on this earth: 
 " Thy Kingdom come." Do we want selfishly to 
 bottle up the fragrance of our souls, like the es- 
 sence of the violet, or would we rather waste it 
 
142 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 liberally while we live and be satisfied to perpetu- 
 ate it in our descendants ? When the flower with- 
 ers and dries up, its present beauty and fragrance 
 are gone insofar as they can be perceived, but it 
 has stored them up imperceptibly in the seed which 
 will bloom forth again : crush the flower, extract 
 its essence, and there will be no seed. We die, we 
 go to heaven as individuals and take along with us 
 our stored up fragrance : what then ? Waste it on 
 the angels and other inhabitants of heaven as self- 
 ish as we are? " Heaven " is but a storage house 
 whose shelves are stacked with countless bottles of 
 dead perfume. 
 
 Do we want to take our souls to heaven, there 
 to be crowned and live in selfish glory, or do we 
 want them to live on this earth to bloom again? 
 If the former, death is actually the end of life, of 
 activity, of development, of growth, of divine as- 
 pirations, of high ideals ; if the latter, it is but the 
 beginning of countless new lives. Have you suf- 
 fered here the " slings and arrows of outrageous 
 fortune " ? You shall have your reward, another 
 jewel in your crown. Have I suffered? It has 
 but tried my patience, made it stronger, thus to 
 be inherited by others. Have you given your 
 neighbor a cup of cold water? You shall have an- 
 other robe in the heavenly mansions. When I did 
 it, I meant to alleviate the suff^ering of my brother 
 and to satiate my thirst to help him. You may 
 receive your crown, but you will live in fear and 
 trembling that you will lose it; I have my con- 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 143 
 
 sclousness of life well spent according to the dic- 
 tates of the laws implanted in me ; of this I shall 
 never be deprived. I have improved myself and 
 the souls of my descendants, while you will take 
 your glory into heaven with you. Of course this 
 is but carrying out the theory of eternal rewards 
 and punishments to its logical conclusions, for ac- 
 tually we are enjoying all the efforts of the 
 past generations, and the souls of the dead sages 
 and prophets and philanthropists live in us. Our 
 minds are better able to see because they had vi- 
 sions ; our hearts are attuned to nobler emotions 
 and higher ideals because they have prepared the 
 way for us. Even the countless millions of un- 
 known saints have left their traces and written 
 their messages on the universal human heart. The 
 violet smells just as sweet where there is none to 
 smell it, and the rose blooms just as beautiful 
 where there is none to see it; but they fulfill their 
 destinies just the same. 
 
 Ethical rules place restrictions upon the free ex- 
 ercise of the will ; if not for a reward or in fear of 
 punishment, why should they be obeyed? Let us 
 return to our analogy of the human body for an 
 answer. The cells, not having volition, perform- 
 their work automatically as long as conditions are 
 favorable. The cells in the lining of the stomach 
 will produce gastric juices when food is intro- 
 duced, the cells in the retina will receive and con- 
 vey impressions of light, the cells of memory will 
 store these impressions, as long as their wants are 
 
144 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 supplied, but they singly cannot supply these 
 wants ; so that if the conditions are unfavorable, 
 they fail to perform their functions, with disas- 
 trous results ; but they cannot be blamed. They 
 cannot be held to account because they do not 
 know their natures, their positions in the body; 
 they do not know themselves. The result of their 
 failure will cause distress to the entire organism 
 and may even cause its death, a failure of the pur- 
 pose for which it exists. But man as a member of 
 an organized community knows himself, knows the 
 relations in which he lives. If he fails to perform 
 his duties as such a member or if he violates the 
 rules which are necessary for the existence of the 
 society, he antagonizes the purpose for which he is 
 living in society ; the results of which will cause 
 distress or may even prove fatal, and he himself 
 will be a failure. 
 
 In order to cooperate properly, man must first 
 of all study his own nature and then acquaint him- 
 self with the social relations. Proper knowledge 
 of these will evoke in him the sense of his own re- 
 sponsibility in the economy of the social organism. 
 This sense will develop in proportion to his knowl- 
 edge. Our progress, then, should be along these 
 lines. When men come to know fully their posi- 
 tion in society and realize the responsibility that it 
 entails, we shall have a perfectly governed society : 
 not until then. It is vain to hope for the millen- 
 nium before then, and it is still vainer to expect it 
 as long as men are taught to do their duties in 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 145 
 
 hope of future rewards, or are driven to them with 
 threats of future punishments. We need a com- 
 plete change in base : the old system is not a de- 
 cided success in spite of the thousands of years 
 of trial it has been given. The beneficiaries of the 
 system will always prefer present advantages, and 
 those who suffer by it will forget the promised 
 rewards under the stress of present needs. The 
 result of this is antagonism, a destroyer of co- 
 operation. To claim that we should let well 
 enough alone and get along as best we can, not to 
 let the people know that there should not be an 
 unjust distribution of the social benefits, would be 
 chaining down the mind, shutting the door of 
 progress, suppressing the primal instinct for 
 growth. And herein also lies the weakness of so- 
 cialism, communism or whatever ism you may call 
 it ; it is political and economic instead of being 
 educational. Unless all men are first willing to 
 cooperate and to coordinate their private interests 
 to the interest of the community, and until this 
 willingness has become a fixed habit of thought, 
 until their feelings and emotions have been trained 
 to it, these theories are impractical. The present 
 need is not an economic or political revolution, 
 but an ethical, an educational revolution. Men 
 must first be taught that only by assuming their 
 full responsibilities can they attain their highest 
 destiny. They must be taught to give as well as 
 to take. They must first change their ideals and 
 standards of success. They must first feel that 
 
146 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 work is not a burden and leisure a blessing; that 
 the gratification of sensual desires is not the acme 
 of happiness ; that happiness and contentment are 
 not to be gained by the acquisition of wealth alone. 
 At the root of all our present social evils is our 
 theory of private property. There is a good deal 
 of agitation at present against the too great con- 
 centration of wealth, but those are false prophets 
 who are trying to create class feelings based on 
 wealth. The modern tendency to corporate own- 
 ership is towards communism, and it would be far 
 wiser to go with the current than against it. In- 
 stead of denouncing so-called capital, these false 
 prophets should preach to the workingmen to ac- 
 quire it. A concerted, patient movement along 
 this line would abolish class differences sooner 
 than active opposition. Workmen would then 
 recognize more easily their responsibility and co- 
 operate for the success of the whole organization. 
 Cooperation and coordination of individual activi- 
 ties should become the watchword. Millions of 
 workingmen are but as slaves driven to their tasks, 
 laboring without any interest in their work, and 
 grumbling that they are not better compensated 
 for doing as little as they can, and reviling at 
 those who by their earnestness, perseverance, fru- 
 gality and diligence have acquired property be- 
 yond their immediate needs. They look simply to 
 the reward and do just enough that they may not 
 be punished with dismissal. They do not realize 
 that only by the cooperation of all can the entire 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 147 
 
 social organism be prosperous ; that everyone must 
 contribute his mite, just as every cell in the body 
 performs its allotted function. This false habit 
 of thought of doing tilings in hope of reward or 
 from fear of punishment pervades our whole sys- 
 tem. And capital, that is, the wideawake man- 
 agers of it have realized this, if we are to judge 
 from their efforts to interest labor in investing its 
 savings in the stock of companies for which they 
 work. Their aim may not be very ideal or exalted 
 or free from selfishness, but if those false prophets 
 of labor promoted this effort instead of foolishly 
 opposing it, the fruits would be apparent very 
 soon. There are many industries in which the la- 
 borers could acquire the controlling interest, and 
 if they pooled their shares would control their pol- 
 icies, or at least exercise such a powerful influence 
 that it could not be disregarded. In fact, in time 
 the different commissions for the control of busi- 
 ness, very dangerous institutions of which the 
 founders of this republic had great dread, would 
 become useless, notwithstanding that the effi- 
 ciency of some is rather doubtful. There is no 
 use preaching exalted theories unless some practi- 
 cal means is found to apply them to existing con- 
 ditions without violent changes or revolutions. 
 The oak does not spring up from the acorn in 
 full foliage and sturdiness ; nor has man sprung, 
 like Minerva, in full war panoply out of the 
 head of Jove. We must begin with the proper 
 understanding of ourselves and our relations and 
 
148 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 their responsibilities, and this to the extent of a 
 fixed habit of thought. This applies to both high 
 and low, if there is such a thing, the rich and the 
 poor. The world owes everyone a living; but we 
 must not apply this only to ourselves but concede 
 it also to others. This will work out our destiny 
 and the destiny of society, which is but another 
 way of saying that it is carrying out the work of 
 God. It means growth ; it means development. 
 
 This applies equally to anarchy, with its high- 
 sounding theory and seemingly exalted ideals. If 
 men could and would coordinate their conduct as 
 perfectly as do the cells of the body for the com- 
 mon welfare, which may be possible, they having 
 an intellect and a will, without there being any 
 authority over them to supervise their conduct, 
 we could live in anarchy. Having no expensive 
 machinery of government over us would be bene- 
 ficial, as its cost could be diverted to more directly 
 profitable uses ; but such a state presupposes per- 
 fect men. The overthrow of existing govern- 
 ments under the present circumstances would, of 
 course, spell disaster. The strange part of it is 
 that the leaders of those deluded theorists are 
 people who cannot conform their actions to the 
 principles of justice even in the face of possible 
 punishment, and whatever they attempt to do is 
 in violation of their own principles ; for they do 
 not concede to others what they demand for them- 
 selves. When in trouble they very loudly demand 
 the protection of those laws whose authority to 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 149 
 
 rule others they deny. Anarchy is a beautiful 
 dream, but its realization is far, far away. Let 
 us hope that the time will come when governments 
 will not be necessary, when men will perform their 
 duties only through their sense of justice: let us 
 have that much faith in humanity. It is possible, 
 for there are millions of men who do their share 
 of the world's work without any regard for the 
 law, to whom the law is not a burden. The objec- 
 tion is not to the principles of anarchy, but to 
 the anarchists, who want to enforce them now and 
 by force, an unanarchistic procedure. 
 
 VIII. MORAL GROWTH 
 
 By cultivation man has improved some species 
 of plants and has also changed the nature of some 
 animals. The ancestor of a big, rosy cheeked, 
 luscious apple could hardly recognize in it his 
 progeny ; nor could prehistoric man recognize in 
 our mental and moral development the fruits of 
 his labors. Living beings possessing little or no 
 intelligence depend upon chance and favorable 
 conditions for their improvement ; because of his 
 intellect, man creates his own conditions. He can 
 find out what is good for him. We are evolving; 
 our physical growth may not be very noticeable 
 or material, but our mental and moral growth has 
 been great within historical times. Certain spe- 
 cies of plants we have been able to improve, others 
 have resisted our efforts because of lack of capac- 
 ity. Man's capacity for improvement is unlim- 
 
150 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ited. His original capacity is the capacity of the 
 Infinite. Heredity, which is the mark of God on 
 our souls, has enabled us to extend this growth 
 over countless ages. And by the way, what is 
 heredity? There is no physical explanation for 
 it. Neither can individualists answer this question. 
 How can spiritual attributes be inherited.'' How 
 can you account for national characteristics? 
 How do the good and bad characteristics of a man 
 impress themselves upon his offspring? If a 
 man's soul is individually immortal and indivisible, 
 how can it communicate its qualities through the 
 organism of propagation? How can a son in- 
 herit his father's tenderness, bravery, honesty, 
 fidelity, cowardice, viciousness, brutality, treach- 
 ery, or a whole line of other well defined character- 
 istics wliich we are certain are inherited? Unless 
 we admit that life is universal, manifesting itself 
 in myriads of forms, we cannot answer these ques- 
 tions. 
 
 Everything we do to improve ourselves will be 
 inherited by our descendants. It should be our 
 aim to hand down to them the life in us as pure as 
 we have received it through our parents from the 
 hands of God ; we should not defile this eternal 
 stream as it passes through our bodies. We 
 should cultivate it and expend upon it at least as 
 much care as we do upon the life showing itself 
 through a flower or an animal. 
 
 Besides the training of the intellectual faculties 
 to the realization of social necessities and the 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 151 
 
 proper appreciation of the values of life in order 
 to induce man to perform his duties to himself 
 and his feilowmen, which may be called its positive 
 function, ethics has also another purpose, namely, 
 to restrain the instincts, passions and desires. 
 These passions and desires are the outgrowth of the 
 primal faculties of the cells composing the human 
 body, and were man to live isolated, they would 
 be of great value in the preservation of life. But 
 they are also destructive, and communal living is 
 to counteract their destructiveness and to limit 
 their exercise. Communal life affords greater 
 protection through cooperation ; the division of 
 work precludes the necessity of individual hoarding 
 up of supplies. Anger and fear become useless, 
 nay, a menace to a community. The society as a 
 whole guarantees to everyone his life and, by its 
 executive organization, protects it. It is the pur- 
 pose of ethics to impress upon everyone this car- 
 dinal principle. It teaches man to restrain his 
 natural impulse to revenge, because such an act 
 would be subversive of the social aims, the realiza- 
 tion of which will produce better security to the 
 individual than private vengeance. It teaches 
 man that wanton destruction of life is a crime 
 against nature. It points out to him that the so- 
 cial organization makes his fears groundless and 
 that it will protect him better than he can do it 
 himself. So far as the protection of life is con- 
 cerned our institutions are almost perfect. Acts 
 of violence due to hatred, anger or fear are the 
 
152 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 exceptions, and from them life is fairly secure. 
 But in our institution of private property we have 
 an incentive to greed rather than a restriction 
 upon it. The great moral struggle is between the 
 natural instinct to hoard in order to provide 
 against future want and its limitation within the 
 proper bounds, because social life should preclude 
 this need. In the miser, in whom this instinct is 
 most strongly developed ; we see to what extent it 
 can be carried. The abolition of poverty has been 
 the great problem of mankind. Of course there 
 could be no poverty if there were no private prop- 
 erty, as there would be no occasion for the in- 
 dividual greed to be sharpened and developed. 
 Everyone would desire only as much as he needed 
 and would concede the same to everyone else. If 
 he knew that he could not get anything within his 
 individual control he would have no desire to do 
 so. And if a man's desire for possession were 
 chastened there would be no injustice, for there 
 would be no motive for it ; there would be no op- 
 pression of others ; there would be no worry about 
 the future ; there would not be the millions of 
 crimes against the property of others ; there would 
 not be that strenuous chase after wealth which is 
 the cause of all the misery and conflict in this 
 world, from the petty thieving on the street to the 
 gigantic and organized slaughter on the battle 
 fields. Because of the existence of this institu- 
 tion ethical teaching has been handicapped instead 
 of assisted by the social living. And it is a handi- 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 153 
 
 cap which it has not been able to overcome for 
 thousands of years. All the denunciations of the 
 prophets, all the thunders of Jove had little ef- 
 fect on man ; private property feeds the flames of 
 primal greed and nullifies all these efforts. This 
 greed is very necessary to the single cell and even 
 to the organized individual, because they both de- 
 pend upon their own exertions. Society was es- 
 tablished to obviate the necessity of giving it free 
 rein, but it is trying to do so in a manner not 
 only not suitable but positively stimulating to it. 
 The act of a cell distilling a few drops of oil and 
 keeping it within its own cell wall for future use 
 is essentially the same as the heartless efforts of a 
 Croesus to amass great wealth; the latter is but 
 the intensification of the former. And in this ef- 
 fort he is assisted by society, which by its protec- 
 tion of property rights restrains everybody from 
 interfering with it, even though he acquired them 
 by unjust means. And private property threw 
 another burden upon society by the restriction it 
 placed upon the reproductive faculty. Society 
 alone does not need the marriage institution, but 
 private property places a limitation on parent- 
 hood with its train of strict rules of morality. 
 As long as the one remains, the other will have to 
 remain. Present social needs requiring the mar- 
 riage institution, it is for ethics to try to curb the 
 parental instinct. 
 
 We should do this in order to develop our beings 
 symmetrically. Religion took upon itself this 
 
154 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 task. While science and philosophy are trying to 
 solve the great riddle of life by studying the out- 
 ward world, religion looks principally to man's 
 heart for its solution, to the everyday experiences 
 and expressions of the emotions and sentiments. 
 This work is represented by the cultivation of the 
 three virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. But 
 to progress we need a change of base. Faith is 
 reactionary, it depends on the work of others, it 
 relies on the past. In effect it claims that man has 
 reached perfection, that he knows all he can know. 
 Its claim for absolute verity is supernatural reve- 
 lation through its Moseses, Jesuses, Mohammeds, 
 Buddhas and others, truly great personalities in 
 their days, who had natural visions far ahead of 
 their days, who saw more clearly, but who were not 
 by any means infallible. Their superior abilities 
 were able to grasp the facts of life better than the 
 masses. They were the pathfinders to groping 
 humanity, the leaders of men, but they were lim- 
 ited by the conditions under which they lived. 
 Their knowledge of the universe was limited by the 
 mental development of their ages and their moral 
 teachings were adapted to the moral capacities of 
 the people among whom they lived. To claim 
 infallibility for them means the chaining of the 
 human mind, the limiting of the human heart. It 
 means rest ; and there is no rest in nature. Faith, 
 then, should be supplanted by increasing knowl- 
 edge of ourselves and our social relations, of our 
 destiny. Instead of having faith in the words of 
 
EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 155 
 
 others we should cultivate faith in our own intel- 
 lects ; we should have faith in the capacity of the 
 human mind to discover truth ; we should have 
 faith in its progress and growth. Hope, which is 
 the expectation of a reward as an inducement to 
 right living, is really useless, and should be re- 
 placed by patience. " The mills of the Gods 
 grind slowly " ; we should have patience to await 
 the realization of our ideals, and do everything in 
 our power to advance their cause. Patient work 
 should be our motto. Charity is all-embracing 
 and eternal, and should be included in every code. 
 Honor, patience and charity should be the three 
 guiding stars of our earthly pilgrimage. Honor 
 undefiled, patience unswerving and charity all- 
 comprehending will firmly establish the " kingdom 
 of God " on this earth, or, in the word of the ra- 
 tionalist, the millennium. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 OUR METRIC SYSTEM 
 
 It is the underlying principle and the advantage 
 of the metric system that all the standards of 
 quantitative measurement are reducible to one, the 
 meter. It is a sad fact, and the evil of our day, 
 that we reduce all the values of life to one stand- 
 ard, the dollar. We measure success, commerce, 
 labor, motherhood, home and happiness by the 
 dollar standard: the number of dollars they bring 
 or the number of dollars that can be spent on 
 them. The reason for it is that we have not 
 learned to curb our desires and that our institu- 
 tion of private property is continually feeding 
 them. Of course, property in itself is not an evil ; 
 it is the way we look at it and our disposition 
 toward it that brings on all the evil attributed to 
 it. 
 
 I. THE PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 There cannot be much doubt that man lived in 
 
 groups or herds even before his intellect developed, 
 
 merely from the instinct of self-preservation, just 
 
 as we see other animals living in herds. Then he 
 
 was guided wholly by his instincts, and laws or 
 156 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 157 
 
 rules of conduct had no place in such a commu- 
 nity, because these presuppose the knowledge of 
 the social relations. Then he was not a responsi- 
 ble and, therefore, not a moral being. His instinct 
 of self-preservation was the sole bond of union, 
 and he did not exercise his full natural liberty only 
 from the sense necessity or submitted only to the 
 brute force of some individual leader. Responsi- 
 bility and moral quality attached to his acts only 
 after he was able to comprehend those relations. 
 It was then that evil entered into the world ; it was 
 then that law was born. When it was in point of 
 time is immaterial. Probably this comprehension 
 dawned upon him gradually in the course of his 
 evolution. Even within historical times the prog- 
 ress was very slow. The rock-bottom principle, 
 social responsibility as the basis of civil govern- 
 ment, was not proclaimed to the world until the 
 time of the Declaration of Independence, when the 
 founders of this Republic declared it to be a self- 
 evident truth that governments derive their just 
 powers from the consent of the governed. The 
 theory of government cannot be reduced to a sim- 
 pler formula as long as man will need restraints to 
 make him conform all his acts to the common wel- 
 fare, which will not be until the necessity for co- 
 operation will have become a fixed habit of 
 thought, not until men will have curbed their de- 
 sires within the limits of necessity, and not until 
 they will be guided solely by the sense of honor 
 and personal responsibility. Till then govern- 
 
158 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 merits and moral codes will be necessary to re- 
 strain men from exercising their natural freedom ; 
 and democracy, founded on the consent of the gov- 
 erned, is the most just and the only natural form 
 of government. It was only after man ate of the 
 tree of knowledge that he could be condemned for 
 acts contrary to the relations under which he lived. 
 Animals, living in communities from instinct, know 
 no personal property rights ; in fact, they know 
 no rights whatever; and we see man emerging out 
 of the darkness of prehistoric times living in vil- 
 lage communities under a patriarchal form of 
 government in which the ownership of property 
 was communal. Obedience to laws was then a 
 mixture of instinct and personal or moral re- 
 sponsibility. These village communities, so far 
 as we know, were in existence almost everywhere. 
 In every community the source of supplies must 
 be regulated to prevent continuous strife, which 
 would be destructive of communal life. In those 
 days men did not control personally and abso- 
 lutely the source of supplies or any portion of it; 
 they did not own anything personally. The land 
 belonged to the entire community and in many 
 cases was divided, after agriculture was developed, 
 either by some individual or by a council of elders, 
 even as it is now done in some parts of Russia. 
 But this state changed gradually until our present 
 institution of sacred property rights grew up. 
 Not understanding fully the social relations and 
 the means whereby the social aims can be best at- 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 159 
 
 tained, men gave way to their natural desires to 
 hoard property for their exclusive use in order 
 to assure to themselves the satisfaction of their 
 future wants. Not realizing the necessity and the 
 great advantages of cooperation and its justice in 
 a social organization, they tried to gain this assur- 
 ance by accumulating property not needed for 
 present enjoyment, and to avoid working for it. 
 Hoarding the things needed is a natural instinct 
 which we see even in other animals ; but this in- 
 stinct should be controlled by the proper compre- 
 hension of the benefits of cooperation. Work is 
 not as agreeable as leisure, and men utilized all 
 kinds of expedients, from brute force to playing 
 upon the noblest human sentiments, to make oth- 
 ers work for them. And this is still going on. 
 Every one of us is a monopolist at heart ; for, 
 after all, the right of private property is nothing 
 but a restraint upon everybody from interfering 
 with the use and control of something one of us 
 claims for himself, enforced by the government of 
 the state. The cupidity of some to see within this 
 charmed circle as much as possible, whether they 
 actually need it or not and irrespective of how it 
 gets there, is at the root of all the injustice, op- 
 pression, poverty and misery that we see. For- 
 merly men even enslaved others, considering them 
 no better than beasts, to amass property without 
 any exertion on their part ; it took a struggle last- 
 ing for many centuries to induce men even par- 
 tially to admit that everybody ought to work, and, 
 
160 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 at that, with most of us it is but a theory which we 
 are not inclined to put into practice. Most of 
 us are ready to make use of any subterfuge to 
 avoid what we still consider a curse imposed by the 
 Almighty. The retention of this foolish myth has 
 a very powerful influence, in most cases uncon- 
 scious, upon the minds of very many. 
 
 II. DOLLAR-IZED SUCCESS 
 
 We strive and struggle, we cheat and we lie, we 
 oppress and murder our fellowmen, we deface the 
 imprint of the Infinite on our souls in order that 
 we may be able to bedeck the few million cells that 
 compose our bodies with crystallized charcoal or 
 clay or the effluvia of an oyster, just because they 
 reflect or refract the light; in order to hang on 
 them fabrics made of the off'al of caterpillars, just 
 because they shine ; in order to steep our bodies in 
 poison that kills, just because they tickle the pal- 
 ate, while countless microscopic cells, the half- 
 brothers of those that constitute our bodies, wrig- 
 gle contentedly and happily in the mud puddle 
 by the wayside. And if we can do all these noble 
 and glorious things, we call it success. But, it 
 will be objected, we surely do not want to live in 
 a mud puddle. Positively not ; man was destined 
 for even better things than what is called success. 
 But is yonder man a better man because of the 
 large diamond glittering in his shirt front, which 
 he purchased with the money made by selling poi- 
 sons to his weak-willed brothers and deprived 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 161 
 
 thereby his little ones of the necessaries of life? 
 Is yonder grand dame a better woman because 
 there hangs from her neck a rope of pearls and 
 her body is covered with costly silks, bought by 
 her husband with the blood money wrung out of 
 the unfortunate keepers of disreputable houses be- 
 longing to him? Are yonder children better chil- 
 dren because they are rolling about in a luxurious 
 limousine, attended by flunkies, which they can en- 
 joy only because their father controls a great sur- 
 plus of the production of thousands of men labor- 
 ing in the bowels of the earth, which could be put 
 to better use in supplying their families with 
 proper living conditions, to which surplus they are 
 better entitled than the fathers of those pampered 
 children ? 
 
 What, then, is success? Every man is by na- 
 ture entitled to all that he needs to preserve the 
 life of the cells which compose his body, under the 
 most favorable conditions, and to develop them 
 into the highest possible state of efficiency. In 
 fact, that is his natural duty ; that is the reason 
 why he is a man, endowed with numerous faculties, 
 even with an intellect. To preserve himself and 
 to have the opportunity of improving himself is 
 his " inalienable right of life." He is entitled to 
 that, but to nothing more. Were he to live iso- 
 lated, he could not enjoy the benefits and advan- 
 tages of cooperation, which means the fruits of 
 the work of others, so that, being left to his own 
 resources, he could not fulfill his natural duty to 
 
162 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 the same extent. He lives in society, whose aim is 
 to assure to him those advantages. It naturally 
 follows that every man must contribute his share 
 to the necessary work; the dullest mind can com- 
 prehend, and common sense dictates, that no one 
 should expect to get the benefits of the work of 
 others unless they in turn get some benefit of his 
 work. Whoever does no work of any kind for the 
 benefit of the community is of no use to it. Here 
 is where our reason is befuddled by the dollar; we 
 fondly imagine that by giving others a few dollars 
 for the work they do, we give them all they are en- 
 titled to in return, and that thereby we satisfy 
 the requirements of common sense justice and con- 
 tribute something to the general stock. Coopera- 
 tion and private wealth, beyond what would be the 
 pro rata share of everyone, are contradictory 
 terms ; and, consequently, the man who lives solely 
 from his money, without ever having worked for it, 
 especially if he inherited it, has, in fact, no right 
 to claim the benefits of social life. He is beyond 
 its pale. Everyone ought to understand and to 
 appreciate the necessity of work for the common 
 good and be ever ready to do it. Whosoever has 
 fitted himself to do his allotted work to the limit 
 of his natural capacities, and does it, has made 
 a success of his life. This is his natural and so- 
 cial destiny. A good street sweeper is a success, 
 while a bad mayor is a failure, irrespective of how 
 many dollars each can control. The one performs 
 the noble work of sanitation while the latter is a 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 163 
 
 dangerous sore on the body politic, whose poten- 
 tiality for evil and corruption is the greater be- 
 cause of the exalted position he occupies. 
 
 To correct this false notion of success it is first 
 of all necessary to realize the necessity of work 
 and its nobility. If we do realize this, we shall 
 not scramble so wildly for the dollars in order to 
 supply our wants without having to work for 
 them. That is the chief reason why men are so 
 much after wealth: to avoid working for a living. 
 But as this is contrary to the natural and eco- 
 nomic laws, it brings evil in its wake. By living in 
 society we have distributed work, but have not 
 abolished it: it must be done, and it should be ap- 
 portioned among all. Work does not include only 
 manual labor, for mental work is just as necessary 
 for the attainment of the social aims. Again, we 
 should turn to the human body for an example of 
 a perfect economic organization. Every cell per- 
 forms its allotted work and receives what it needs 
 in return. All the cells do not do the same work, 
 for then there would be little benefit in cooperation 
 and they might just as well have stayed in single 
 blessedness, depending entirely upon their single 
 exertions. If the cells, say, of the heart accumu- 
 late more fat than they should, — and the fat rep- 
 resents the surplus production over immediate 
 needs in the economy of the body, — a condition is 
 created called fatty degeneration, which is danger- 
 ous to the entire community. The accumulation 
 of wealth under the control of a few individuals 
 
164 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 is a similar social disease, and a dangerous evil. 
 The cells of the heart, not knowing their relations 
 to the other cells, are not accountable, nor can we 
 suppose that they act so greedily of their own 
 perverted desires ; but with man it is different. 
 He has an intellect to understand his relations 
 and to prevent the establishment of such an un- 
 healthy condition ; if he act contrary to what he 
 knows, or should know, is right, he not only per- 
 petrates a crime upon the rest of the society but, 
 indirectly, against his own nature as well ; for he 
 thereby perverts to improper use his natural fac- 
 ulties, defeats the purpose for which he leads a 
 social life, and may, in the end, bring ruin upon 
 himself also. It will be objected, " I am not do- 
 ing this so much for the gratification of my own 
 desires, I am not all selfishness, as to assure my fu- 
 ture, but mainly that of my children." Theoret- 
 ically that is a good answer ; but what kind of a 
 future do you want to assure to your children.'' 
 That is the test. Is it a life of useless leisure or 
 serviceable work? If the former, you are teach- 
 ing them to live, as you do, contrary to their na- 
 tures ; you are not only not training them to curb 
 their desires within the limits of necessity, in order 
 to make them contented and happy, but you are 
 inordinately sharpening these and inspiring in 
 them ambitions to continue the abnormal condi- 
 tions which you have created for yourself. Good 
 character is a better inheritance than dollars. 
 Your children should be taught the values of life 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 165 
 
 and of success as measured' by the standard of 
 service rather than of the dollar, which brings lei- 
 sure and selfish gratification of every whim ; social 
 equality, rather than class distinction according 
 to the dollar standard. Why should your chil- 
 dren be entitled — and they are not — to get the 
 benefits of social life at the expense of the children 
 of others? If they do, somebody else's children 
 will have to surrender to your children their sur- 
 plus production, or even be in want of what is their 
 natural due. To enable your orphans to be at- 
 tended by servants, you drive somebody else's 
 orphans into the streets, or you contribute a little 
 to build an orphan asylum for them. What mag- 
 nanimity ! That your son may have to cudgel his 
 brains to find out how to kill precious time and 
 waste his life, somebody else's son, whose father, 
 perchance, lost his life in enriching you, must 
 toil in your factory, doing work beyond his 
 strength and sapping his vitality. That your 
 pampered daughter may be able to satisfy her 
 whims, somebody else's daughter, in desperation* 
 may be driven to sell her body and soul and end 
 her life in some slimy river. And that you call 
 success ! The common stock is not infinite ; the 
 sources of supply are limited; if you have more 
 than you need, somebody must suffer want. 
 
 From this notion of success there naturally flows 
 a wrong conception of man's social position. The 
 true standard is usefulness to society, but we have 
 made the dollar the standard. Democracy can 
 
166 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 subsist only where work is the index to man's so- 
 cial position. Work is the noblest badge of dis- 
 tinction that a man can carry. We shout for de- 
 mocracy and bow our knees before a heap of dol- 
 lars. 
 
 It will be objected that if this be true, then a full 
 stomach is the measure of success, which would 
 be lowering man to the level of unreasoning ani- 
 mals. That is a very narrow view and an unwar- 
 ranted conclusion, ultimately traceable to the false 
 conception of the motives for doing good, personal 
 reward. Man exists to preserve active the uni- 
 versal life principle. To do this more efficiently 
 he lives in society whose true aim is not the wel- 
 fare of the whole but of every individual. There 
 is a material difference between the two. If mil- 
 lions of individuals in a society suffer want and 
 misery, that community is a failure, no matter how 
 powerful or prosperous as a whole it may appear. 
 Placing the welfare of the state above that of the 
 individuals caused the European war. There the 
 interests of the individual are swallowed up in the 
 interests of the whole: the individual is disre- 
 garded. Everything is for the nation. That is 
 a false conception of patriotism and of the pur- 
 pose of government. What if either side shall 
 win a " glorious victory " at the expense of mil- 
 lions of lives, millions of broken hearts, of untold 
 wealth, which will mortgage the production of fu- 
 ture generations? The winning nations as a 
 whole will then possibly be in a better political 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 167 
 
 position, but what of the living conditions of their 
 future citizens, who will have to toil and labor not 
 only to supply their needs but also to pay for the 
 orgy in which their fathers indulged? They are 
 still paying for past wars ; when will they pay for 
 this one? The true purpose of society is to pro- 
 vide and to assure to everyone the best possible 
 living conditions, to preserve the life of every in- 
 dividual. That is why a man is, — just to be. 
 Annihilation, if it were possible, would be the 
 greatest evil. And to be, we must eat. And what 
 does the Croesus get out of his wealth? In that, 
 being, lies man's destiny ; it means, in a sense, to 
 collaborate with God in the universe for all eter- 
 nity. If we did not preserve our lives, the most 
 efficient form of the manifestation of the universal 
 life force, for the production of which untold ages 
 of patient work have been expended, v/ould become 
 extinct ; and that we could almost call a failure of 
 the Infinite. 
 
 On the other hand, is it more ennobling to ac- 
 cumulate dollars, even if it is accomplished with- 
 out depriving others of their just dues? But, it 
 will be answered, dollars will enable man to enjoy 
 the higher pleasures of life, to cultivate his mind, 
 to foster literature, to promote art, to alleviate 
 the sufferings of others, to spread culture and edu- 
 cation. That this would not constitute a justi- 
 fication for the unjust acquisition of great wealth 
 need not be discussed. But admitting even that a 
 man can amass great wealth without detriment to 
 
168 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 others, although that is an absurdity, when will 
 the pursuit of the dollar allow him any leisure to 
 cultivate his mind, except to learn how to acquire 
 more dollars? Such a man, having developed his 
 mind along wrong lines and having acquired a 
 habit of thinking of everything in terms of dollars, 
 will not be able to divest himself of that habit 
 when he has hoarded up the dollars. As to foster- 
 ing literature and promoting art, great wealth is 
 a detriment, for the measuring of success by the 
 dollar has dollar-ized these also. Nowadays, dol- 
 lar success, or any other cheap notoriety, is the 
 main qualification for a literary career, because it 
 helps to bring dollars to the publishers. A few 
 wealthy men have been promoting literature : they 
 had books written, paid for the work and pub- 
 lished them under their own names. If there 
 would not be great concentration of wealth under 
 the control of a few, there Avould be no poverty 
 or misery, and, therefore, no field for the exercise 
 of the " charitable " instincts of the wealthy. 
 Their affluence is at the expense of others. The 
 amount contributed by the wealthy to spread edu- 
 cation and culture is comparatively small and neg- 
 ligible : the public school system, the real source of 
 education, is supported by the masses of the peo- 
 ple, and if they were better able to contribute, 
 because of a more even distribution of wealth, it 
 would be even better. 
 
 It will be contended that were it not for the 
 commercial giants, who by their genius and energy 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 169 
 
 developed the natural resources of the country, 
 our material progress would not have been as 
 rapid and that the acquisition of great wealth by 
 them was but an incident to their labors and suc- 
 cess. Had their motives been single and unself- 
 ish, the advancement of the public good, they 
 might be considered as great benefactors, but had 
 they been actuated by such a noble purpose, they 
 would not have used oppressive means, they would 
 not have been ruthless and unjust, which alone en- 
 abled them to become very wealthy. Their acqui- 
 sition of great fortunes is not a necessary incident, 
 for they could not have amassed them had they 
 distributed justly the profits of their enterprises 
 among those who collaborated with them. Mil- 
 lions have contributed their work to the success of 
 these few and they are so wealthy simply because 
 they were unjust. They, themselves, of their own 
 exertions, could not have accomplished what they 
 did ; they needed the cooperation of others, who 
 ought to have shared proportionally in the prod- 
 uce. They deserve credit and just returns for 
 promoting these enterprises and for their energy 
 in maintaining them, but no more ; and that does 
 not include all the surplus products. Besides, 
 their natural capacities were great factors in their 
 success, and these were not given to them by na- 
 ture to exploit others. These were a sacred trust 
 to advance the welfare of all. For these they do 
 not deserve special compensation, nor is it a merit 
 of theirs. What they have they got through their 
 
170 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 workmen. There is no doubt that a community 
 owes a debt to those who by their exertions 
 brought prosperity to it, but their reward should 
 not be to the detriment of others. Individuality 
 and personal ambition ought to be encouraged 
 and stimulated, for they are of great advantage 
 to the public; and if we have not as yet attained 
 the heights of idealism, unselfish service, and re- 
 ward is still craved, it should not be measured by 
 dollars alone. If there be men who have more 
 than they can possibly use and if there be others 
 who suffer want, and there are institutions that 
 produce such conditions, they are wrong; senti- 
 ments which consider the accumulation of wealth 
 under such conditions as success uphold such insti- 
 tutions. As long as such sentiments persist, the 
 social problems cannot be satisfactorily solved and 
 social evils eradicated. 
 
 III. DOLLAR-IZED COMMERCE AND 
 INDUSTRY 
 
 Commerce is not an evil: it is an efficient means 
 of carrying out the aims of social life, the welfare 
 of all the individuals. There is no reason why we 
 should not utilize for the welfare of humanity the 
 fruits of genius ; why we should not make our 
 servant the chained lightning; why we should not 
 make captive the heat of the sun ; why the inclem- 
 ency of the weather and the rigours of climate 
 should not be moderated ; why the local barren- 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 171 
 
 ness of the soil should not be compensated by the 
 free interchange of its fruits ; why our knowledge 
 of the laws of nature should not be used to abol- 
 ish distance and unite all mankind into one family. 
 Commerce is the means of effectuating coopera- 
 tion ; it is not an evil : only its abuse is. It would 
 be just as reasonable to say that the circulation 
 of the blood is an evil because a jelly-fish can get 
 along without it. But nowadays commerce is 
 prostituted to the perverted conception of suc- 
 cess, the acquisition of dollars by individuals. 
 The means is made the end. The Roman patri- 
 cians amassed wealth by wars, rapine and organ- 
 ized robbery, in which the masses bled and died 
 for a small pittance, or artificially stimulated lust 
 for what they considered glory, and from the la- 
 bors of slaves who could not call their lives their 
 own ; the feudal barons lived in leisure and luxury 
 on the wealth acquired through royal favoritism 
 and the sweat of the brows of their tenants whose 
 bodies and souls they repressed and who could not 
 lay claim to their graves ; nowadays the captains 
 of industry, so-called, roll in wealth produced by 
 laborers who get but an infinitesimal portion of 
 their own products. We have improved upon the 
 old methods of the patricians and the barons. 
 They owned the freedom of their slaves and ten- 
 ants ; our laborers have liberty, the power of lo- 
 comotion and the blessed privilege of discharging 
 themselves whenever they please, and starve. It 
 
172 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 was in the interest of the slave holders to keep 
 their slaves in good bodily condition and to take 
 care of them ; our captains of industry had this 
 responsibility taken off their shoulders : the slaves 
 were freed. Blessed liberty ! Happy conditions ! 
 We have placed the sources of wealth in the hands 
 of a few men who can use them for their exclusive 
 advantage. Our beneficent commercial giants al- 
 low the laborers to keep their wages for a while, 
 only to take them back lest they spoil. Truly, 
 labor should be grateful for being allowed this 
 great consolation. But there is no use pointing 
 out any external object and calling it the root of 
 evil ; the evils lie in our cupidity, in our insatiable 
 ambition to be considered successful men by show- 
 ing that we control a great many dollars. It is 
 our false standards of the values of life that cor- 
 rupt everything. It is the prostitution of com- 
 merce to private greed that stains scarlet every 
 useful thing we touch, that produces poverty and 
 all its accompanying evils. And what do people 
 gain by amassing such great wealth, such a great 
 number of dollars.'' They can thereby only sup- 
 ply the necessary food and favorable surround- 
 ings for a few millions of cells that compose their 
 bodies : that and nothing more. Beyond that the 
 value of wealth is but in man's mental attitude 
 towards it, in his mode of thinking about it. If 
 some control more than that, it is waste. The aim 
 of commerce is not to enrich individuals but to 
 make the living conditions of all favorable. 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 173 
 
 IV. DOLLAR-IZED LABOR 
 
 We have dollar-ized labor. This seems a 
 strange statement, but it is not. All that labor- 
 ers are working for nowadays is to get so many 
 dollars, the more the better. But, it will be ob- 
 jected, if others are after dollars, why should not 
 the laborer ; he is more entitled to them than any- 
 body else. True; but that is no justification, be- 
 cause it is not a justification for the others. 
 
 Modern inventions have made the large and 
 powerful industrial enterprises and commercial or- 
 ganizations a necessity ; they have put the small 
 tradesman, who was both a capitalist and a la- 
 borer, and the small merchant out of business. 
 Quick transportation facilities and machinery 
 have increased productiveness and abolished 
 merely local competition. In the olden days the 
 tradesmen found a market for their limited pro- 
 duction near home and they did not need to meet 
 competition from distant places, where conditions 
 might be more favorable to cheaper production. 
 With modern machinery, production on a large 
 scale is more profitable and it must seek distant 
 markets. All this necessitated the concentration 
 of capital and the building up of cities with large 
 populations of workingmen. But neither rapid 
 transportation nor machinery, nor even such large 
 enterprises, are evils. They made impossible 
 such famines as were endured in the past, and as 
 are endured even to-day by uncivilized nations, 
 
174 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 and allow us to enjoy things which could not be 
 even obtained in the olden days. Machinery has 
 done away with a great deal of the drudgery of 
 work and, if things were properly adjusted, all 
 could enjoy greater comforts and, what is more 
 important, greater assurance of the future. At 
 that, civilized nations live under far better condi- 
 tions than they did in the past and far better 
 than those enjoyed by savages. The necessary 
 capital for carrying on these enterprises is beyond 
 the capacity of any single individual. When 
 these methods began, it was possible for few indi- 
 viduals to amass great fortunes because of the tre- 
 mendous profits, which they did not share with 
 their workingmen who produced them; they were 
 able to extend greatly their enterprises and to 
 drive out of the field the old-fashioned tradesmen. 
 But even these reached their limits and the com- 
 mercial corporation was born. The united capital 
 of more persons became a necessity. The large 
 manufacturing and mercantile establishments 
 drove out the old-fashioned tradesmen and thereby 
 abolished the independent, prosperous middle 
 class, the existence of which, to preserve healthy 
 economic conditions, is deemed indispensable by 
 all authorities on political economy. There re- 
 main now but the large employer and the large, 
 dependent working class. It enables these gigan- 
 tic concerns to control both the sources of supply 
 and the market. In the days of small tradesmen, 
 they, as a class, that is, the producers themselves, 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 175 
 
 controlled their products and competition kept 
 down the prices ; now the producers have no word 
 in the disposition of their products and the prices 
 are regulated by men who did nothing towards 
 their production but who, nevertheless, want the 
 greatest portion of the profits. In the olden days 
 a workman's success depended upon his individual 
 skill, upon his honesty and industry. The im- 
 provement of his product was his ambition, be- 
 cause of the assurance it held for him of the fu- 
 ture. Nowadays the workman is but a cog in the 
 machinery, so that it is not to be wondered that 
 his aim is only to get higher wages. He takes 
 little interest in his work and has no incentives. 
 If he keeps up his ambition and interest he soon 
 rises above his class ; he ceases to be a workman 
 when his wealth makes it unnecessary to work, and 
 he, too, may become but a useless adjunct. But 
 speaking dispassionately, large corporations are 
 not only a necessity but a blessing to humanity, 
 and in them lies the salvation of the future. The 
 days of the large private owner are gone. Be- 
 cause these enterprises are incorporated, with 
 great quantities of stock on the market, the labor- 
 ing classes should wake up to their great oppor- 
 tunity by buying up this stock to regain the con- 
 trol of their production which they had in the 
 olden daj^s. If they did that, there could be no 
 talk of unearned increment and other fanciful the- 
 ories. This is a practical way of meeting altered 
 conditions without violence, utilizing the means 
 
176 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ready at hand. Social institutions are contin- 
 ually evolving by slow processes ; revolutions, 
 whether bloody or not, if violent, bring misery in 
 their wake. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL REMEDY 
 
 That concentrated capital and a large class of 
 dependent workingmen is not a healthy condition 
 is a patent fact. All kinds of remedies are advo- 
 cated: government ownership, communal owner- 
 ship, and so on. All are revolutionary and im- 
 practical, while there is a practical remedy at 
 hand, to be utilized without injury to anyone. 
 Communal ownership has its disadvantages be- 
 cause it kills individuality and ambition, which are 
 the expressions of the natural instinct to develop 
 and to grow ; and, besides, it would require a per- 
 fect adjustment of the desires to necessity, an al- 
 most unattainable ideal. On the other hand, pri- 
 vate ownership of property and democracy arc 
 incompatible terms, because private ownership de- 
 velops class distinction founded on wealth and 
 feeds the natural desires for possession, which are 
 contrary to the principles of democracy, which 
 rest on cooperation. In the corporate ownership 
 of property we have a happy medium ; it preserves 
 individuality and, if controlled by the working- 
 men, it would in time abolish great individual 
 wealth. Inherited wealth has no staying quali- 
 ties : it is easily dissipated. What complicated 
 legal devices had to be invented to keep it intact 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 177 
 
 in countries where nobility is in existence? Cor- 
 porate ownership would reestablish the working- 
 man in his former position of controlling his own 
 products. If the workingmen invested their sav- 
 ings, no matter how small they are, in the stocks 
 of corporations by which they are employed, they 
 would in time acquire a voice in their management 
 and even gain control. It would give them the 
 unearned increment, of which term they are so 
 fond. Is not corporate ownership really limited 
 communal ownership.? 
 
 Such a movement could be best inaugurated by 
 the labor organizations. Take, for example, the 
 different classes of railroad employees: the con- 
 ductors, brakemen, firemen, and so forth. They 
 are all well organized ; their number with any com- 
 pany is great ; and there is plenty of railroad 
 stock on the market, quite a few of them good 
 dividend payers. Why could not each one con- 
 tribute a certain amount each month for buying 
 stock in his company .-^ Or each one could buy it 
 in his own name. The different brotherhoods 
 should control the voting of this stock at the 
 stockholders' meetings, which could be done by 
 passing by-laws requiring every member to sign his 
 proxy to some one chosen by the brotherhood. If 
 each employee bought only one share of stock a 
 year, their pooled strength would be felt in a very 
 short time. Where the law allows cumulative vot- 
 ing for the election of the board of directors, the 
 employees' pool could elect a member to the board 
 
178 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 of directors within a couple of years. Or they 
 could incorporate a holding company, on the plan 
 of a Building and Loan Association, each member 
 buying a certain number of shares, for which he 
 would pay in monthly installments, the accumu- 
 lated money being applied to the purchase of the 
 railroad stock and the dividends distributed among 
 the shareholders in the holding company. Of 
 course this would not be a work of one day or of 
 one year, not even of ten years ; but no lasting 
 good can be accomplished without patient work 
 and perseverance. No institution that grew up 
 gradually can be abolished or changed by revolu- 
 tionary methods without causing more injury than 
 the reform might produce benefits. This might 
 even be attended with some loss at the beginning; 
 but are not the railroad employees spending great 
 sums on such matters as lobbying in legislatures 
 to make transportation more expensive, on strikes 
 to raise wages, which in the end must be paid by 
 other workingmen and themselves, on attempts to 
 lower hours of employment, which also increases 
 the cost of transportation? If the stock is a divi- 
 dend payer it would be but an investment ; if not, 
 it would be a temporary sacrifice for their cause. 
 If all the millions that have been expended by the 
 unions on things which really did not benefit their 
 members but, on the contrary, were injurious both 
 to them and to the industries, many large enter- 
 prises would be now in the hands of the laboring 
 classes. 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 179 
 
 But it will be objected that such a movement 
 could be killed at the very beginning by stock gam- 
 blers ; that all kinds of tricks would be employed 
 by them to ruin the laboring man. First of all, 
 in most cases the stock gamblers have no connec- 
 tion with the management of the industries, and 
 the operators themselves would hardly oppose 
 very seriously such a movement. It would be very 
 surprising if they would not actually encourage 
 it ; for it would be to their own advantage to have 
 the laboring men cooperate with them instead of 
 opposing them. Wide-awake business men to-day 
 are trying to interest their workingmen in their 
 companies. Then, a bona fide holder of stock for 
 investment, and in this case for a specific purpose, 
 cannot be seriously affected or easily scared away 
 by stock market manipulations. Market quota- 
 tions are not the infallible signs of the value of a 
 stock. Furthermore, if the stock of any company 
 were gradually absorbed by the workingmen to 
 gain control, there soon would be little of it on the 
 market for the gamblers to manipulate ; so that it 
 would not be an altogether idle dream to suppose 
 that such a movement might even abolish the stock 
 gambling evil. Finally, to wreck the workingmen 
 the managers would also wreck themselves, for they 
 are vitally interested in their enterprises, more so 
 than the workingmen would be in the beginning. 
 And then, in spite of what is said against them, 
 the courts would help out in cases of great injus- 
 tice. Even as the law stands now, the working- 
 
180 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 men as stockholders would have a far better stand- 
 ing in court than they have as strikers. The cap- 
 ital that is accumulated by the workingmen in the 
 savings banks and handled by a few men is enor- 
 mous ; if, instead, it were invested by them in com- 
 mercial and manufacturing enterprises it would 
 remain within their own control. As against this 
 potential capital the individual investments by the 
 wealthy men are really small. We talk about the 
 money trust ; whose money do the money barons 
 handle? Their own? A good portion of it be- 
 longs to the very men who rail against the capital- 
 ists as a class. Besides, laws passed recently, and 
 which no doubt will be passed in the future, will 
 make such raw deals as have been perpetrated in 
 the past impossible in the future. Over-capital- 
 ization, watering of stocks, overburdening with 
 fixed debts, can and will be prevented in the fu- 
 ture; and, with the laboring classes vitally inter- 
 ested in such regulative legislation, more stringent 
 laws protecting the stockholders could be easily 
 passed. 
 
 Another objection may be heard, — that the 
 labor representatives on the board of directors 
 would be corrupted and betray the men. If labor 
 cannot trust anybody, or is afraid of being able to 
 find somebody reliable enough to be entrusted with 
 its interests, then its cause is hopeless. Of course, 
 this would not bring about the millennium, for that 
 will or can be reached only after all men will have 
 fully realized their positions and will do their 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 181 
 
 duties from a sense of responsibility only. There 
 would, no doubt, be abuses, as there are abuses in 
 all organizations under popular management. 
 We are making a sorry mess of the administration 
 of our political affairs, yet no one, on that ac- 
 count, would dare to advise our return to absolut- 
 ism. This is not an impractical dream: it can be 
 done unless we have lost all faith in human nature. 
 We hope for better things in our political situa- 
 tion and, undoubtedly, our hopes will be realized, 
 — if not fully, at least partially. Man really 
 never goes permanently backward ; he may stop in 
 his course for a short time, but his tendency is al- 
 ways upwards, for growth and development, for 
 improvement. In fact, he cannot go backward 
 permanently if he wanted to. The law or princi- 
 ple which governs his nature is inherently self- 
 preserving and growing. Such a course would be 
 the means of putting the manufacturing and com- 
 mercial enterprise on the democratic basis and 
 would harmonize them without political institu- 
 tions : it would make them cooperative, which is the 
 fundamental principle of democracy. 
 
 Again it will be objected that this would tie 
 down the workingman to one company and make a 
 slave of him. Not any more than a man is tied 
 down by owning his home or by his trade. If done 
 thoroughly and in an organized way it would be 
 the means of his liberation. The continually 
 shifting employee is a thing of the past. If this 
 were done by the labor unions and the stock held 
 
182 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 individually, by-laws could be passed for the ex- 
 change of stock when changing employers ; if 
 through a holding company, it would matter little 
 the stock of which company the corporation owned. 
 Viewed from the standpoint of the whole class, 
 either method would give the workingmen a voice 
 in, or even the control of, the companies for which 
 they worked or, rather, which they owned; they 
 would exercise their influence as a body for the 
 amelioration of their condition. 
 
 Besides giving the workingmen the control of 
 their products, this would have other beneficial 
 results. It would preserve individuality and per- 
 sonal ambition, which the many new-fangled theo- 
 ries of communal ownership would strangle. 
 Every man could enjoy the benefits of his indus- 
 try, ability and thrift. He would reap the full 
 fruits of his work in proportion to his interest in 
 it. Such distribution of capital would prevent its 
 undue concentration in a few hands. It would 
 give the workingman an object in life, — the suc- 
 cess of the enterprises in which he would be inter- 
 ested. It would raise liim above mere machine, 
 working for so much fuel, in his case the dollar. 
 Men would not have to worry so much about the 
 future of their children, for their own work would 
 assure to their descendants the means of a decent 
 living, and it would depend altogether upon their 
 exertions what that future would be. In the olden 
 days, the tradesmen took interest and pride in 
 their work because that meant better product, in- 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 183 
 
 creased efficiency and therefore better returns ; 
 they trained their children along the same lines 
 and counted on their skill rather than on leaving 
 them large heritages to keep them from suffering 
 want. They instilled into their minds the love of 
 work rather than of leisure and uselessness, and 
 they were all independent men. Willingness to 
 work is the only guarantee of independence. They 
 had their guilds and the position of the members 
 depended upon their abilities, their skill in their 
 line of work ; there was a certain esprit de corps, 
 which had the effect of developing their products. 
 And, by the way, the modern business corporations 
 had their beginning in those guilds. Nowadays a 
 laborer is no better than a machine or a tool ; his 
 success is measured by the number of dollars he 
 can earn for his employer and the number of dol- 
 lars he can squeeze out of him for himself. His 
 employer has little interest in him beyond the dol- 
 lars, and he has no further interest in his work : 
 result, antagonism. The employer wants the most 
 work for the smallest wages, and the laborer wants 
 the highest wages for the least work. Both sides 
 tried to gain their points by organized opposition, 
 with indifferent results. Capital has strengthened 
 thereby its hold upon the laborers and at the same 
 time aroused strong resentment in them. The 
 tendency of this situation is dangerous and the 
 strain is fraught with great danger. Sentiment 
 may be a very powerful disruptive force, and the 
 longer it is restrained the stronger it waxes, and 
 
184 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 in this case its potentiality, because of the great 
 number of subjects, is tremendous. The strained 
 internal stress in a Prince Rupert drop is suffi- 
 cient to shatter it into atoms upon the slightest 
 scratch. Of course, the way things are, the work- 
 ingman cannot be blamed for his lack of interest, 
 for his returns are fixed by someone else. So he 
 plods along from day to day, little better than the 
 beasts of burden of his employer, with only this 
 difference, — that the animals are directly sup- 
 plied with food and shelter while he is given a few 
 dollars instead to provide these himself. There is 
 now no incentive for him to make an attempt to 
 effectuate the underlying principle of social co- 
 operation ; he is, in fact, not cooperating. Every- 
 body for himself : this sharpens the primordial self- 
 ish instincts, whose curbing for the better promo- 
 tion of the individual welfare by cooperation is es- 
 sential. Unless this selfish sentiment is combated 
 vigorously, the breach will ever widen ; it is a dis- 
 ruptive force, destructive of social order. 
 
 Having no other interest in their work except 
 the acquisition of the dollars, the workingmen con- 
 sider work a curse, in which view they are 
 strengthened by the Bible story of the fall of man. 
 Work is a necessity ; this every one of us ought to 
 realize. If we depended upon our single exertions, 
 living isolated, we should have to do all kinds of 
 work: work for which we are not fitted physically 
 or lack the inclination, and we certainly could not 
 supply ourselves with all the comforts which we 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 185 
 
 can enjoy now. In spite of all the misery that 
 there is, men are better situated because they lead 
 a social life. We can safely say that, living iso- 
 lated, those who would be best off would live about 
 the same as our poorest laboring classes. Conse- 
 quently, everyone ought to consider it his duty to 
 contribute his share to the common stock, and sim- 
 ply paying dollars in wages is not such a contribu- 
 tion. We ought to take example from the cells 
 in the human body : every one performs its allotted 
 function and receives what it needs in return, 
 equally with the others. Thus a healthy condi- 
 tion is preserved. This is the equality of nature, 
 which we wish to establish by law. But the law is 
 powerless to change our dispositions ; the realiza- 
 tion of the ideals of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence lies in moral development; the highest sanc- 
 tion of the law is the willingness of the people to 
 obey it. Obtaining control of their own products, 
 the workingmen would be of great assistance in 
 realizing those ideals, because it would be putting 
 into practice the principle on which those ideals 
 depend, cooperation. 
 
 A VICIOUS CIRCLE 
 
 Because of the way in which workingmen look 
 upon their work, that is, merely as the means of 
 getting so many dollars for it, they do everything 
 in their power to have their wages raised. In this 
 mad scramble for higher wages they lose sight 
 completely of the cardinal fact that the higher 
 
186 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 wages they succeed in obtaining will have to come 
 mostly from men of their own class, because work- 
 ingmen, as a class, are the greatest consumers 
 also. They are in overwhelming majority; the 
 capitalists, that is, those who live solely from the 
 money which they have invested, are compara- 
 tively few, so that the workingmen consume the 
 greatest portion of their own products. Every 
 rise in the wages of one group increases the cost 
 of their product, the greatest portion of which 
 must ultimately be borne by the workingmen them- 
 selves. Take the shoemakers and the tailors, for 
 example. One thousand shoemakers, with modern 
 appliances, will produce shoes far above their own 
 needs ; some of this surplus will have to be used by 
 the tailors, and the greatest portion by other 
 workingmen. If the wages of the shoemakers are 
 raised, the tailors will have to pay a part of the 
 increase ; if the tailors get higher wages, the shoe- 
 maker will have to pay a part of the increase, and 
 the other workingmen will have to pay nearly all 
 the rest of the increase of both. Where is the ad- 
 vantage to the working class as a whole ? To two 
 thousand tailors and shoemakers there are hardly 
 two capitalists, so that their consumption of these 
 two commodities is very small, and they, there- 
 fore, pay a very small portion of the raise. Labor 
 whirls around in a vicious circle. There is much 
 complaint about the increasing cost of living, but 
 labor loses sight of the fundamental fact that 
 wages is the greatest cost in the production of any 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 187 
 
 commodity, with the possible exception of raw 
 farm products. High cost of living impels the 
 workingmen to ask for another raise in wages, 
 which in its turn will raise still higher the cost of 
 living; and so on ad infinitum, until the camel's 
 back will have to break. As a class they are con- 
 tinually rifling their own pockets and are deluding 
 themselves that they are thereby improving their 
 living conditions. They are talking of the broth- 
 erhood of the working class and at the same time 
 they are gouging each other. They are declaim- 
 ing against the grasping greed of the capitalists 
 and the oppression practiced upon them, and fifty 
 per cent, of it is their own work. The capitalists 
 no doubt are grasping, but the difference between 
 their cupidity and that of the laborers is not in 
 the essence but only in the manner of satisfying it ; 
 the former do it through profits and the latter 
 through wages ; the laborers do it indirectly and 
 the capitalists directly. The capitalists, however, 
 are enriching themselves and thereby increasing 
 their power, while the laborers are either at a 
 standstill or are impoverishing each other. A 
 workingman gets ten cents an hour more, the cap- 
 italist pays a very small fraction of a cent, and 
 the balance is paid by other workingmen, who in 
 turn get it back by obtaining a rise in their wages. 
 Besides, each such rise gives the capitalist an op- 
 portunity to increase the percentage of his profits. 
 A rich man invests his surplus capital in building 
 tenement houses for the workingmen ; the men that 
 
188 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 build them increase their cost by getting higher 
 wages ; and the tenants, possibly some of the very 
 men who built them, will have to pay this in in- 
 creased rental. We value production in dollars, 
 while its real value is its usefulness. Big figures 
 are not necessarily great wealth. If the working- 
 men had their savings invested in the stocks of 
 the companies for which they were working, they 
 would take enough interest in their work and take 
 a broader view of the situation ; they would realize 
 the folly of ever demanding higher wages ; they 
 would realize that it would mean only taking money 
 out of one pocket and putting it into another. 
 Under the present system it is difficult for them to 
 see this, and, besides, they cannot be very seriously 
 blamed for blindly following their selfish instincts 
 in the hope that somehow or other they may be the 
 gainers. When everybody is selfish it is suicidal 
 to be generous. " Everybody for himself and the 
 devil take the hindmost." 
 
 THE LIFE INSURANCE EVIL 
 
 Such an investment of the savings of the work- 
 ing class in the companies for which they are 
 working would mitigate another very grave eco- 
 nomic and political menace, excessive life insur- 
 ance. Seeing little assurance ahead of them, to 
 satisfy the natural instinct of pro\ading for their 
 offspring the laboring men insure their lives to the 
 limit of their resources, sometimes even beyond 
 them. A man's life nowadays is worth the insur- 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 189 
 
 ance he carries. The concentration of money in 
 the treasuries of the life insurance companies is 
 assuming alarming proportions. That money is 
 in the control of a few financiers, who must invest 
 it somehow. In this way the workingmen are truly 
 forging their own chains. By tying up their 
 savings in life insurance they become absolutely 
 dependent upon their employers, for they have 
 nothing to tide them over periods of non-employ- 
 ment. Hard times come and they are either in 
 want or have to borrow on their policies, which de- 
 feats the very purpose for which they were taken 
 out, protection to their families. If the state- 
 ments of the life insurance companies are true, 
 and we have no reason to doubt it, that their sur- 
 plus funds are growing at the rate at which they 
 claim they do, it is easy to foresee that the time 
 must come when they will have within their control 
 all the surplus capital of the country. What 
 then? What will be done with it.? What is done 
 with it? The men in control of these companies, 
 and there are no workingmen among them, use this 
 money to promote diiferent enterprises from which 
 they alone reap the full benefits ; and the working- 
 men, who put a great portion of this capital into 
 their hands, produce those profits and get only 
 small wages in return, the surplus of which they 
 put back into the hands of those very men. " But 
 don't you wish to assure to your children their 
 future? " Certainly, but not by giving those 
 whom you call your oppressors the opportunity 
 
190 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 to oppress them also, or at any rate to make 
 them dependent on them. It is shortsightedness. 
 There is hardly a workingman that can carry 
 enough life insurance to make his children inde- 
 pendent for life, yet he does help to concentrate 
 the money in the hands of the few. If a man lives 
 long enough his premiums almost total or, espe- 
 cially in cases of an old-line policy, may even ex- 
 ceed the amount his family gets ; if he dies within 
 a short time after taking out a policy, he gets 
 something for nothing. In taking out a policy a 
 man expects to beat another or only get his own 
 money back ; he wants somebody else to contribute 
 to the support of his family. That is the protec- 
 tion he gets, for all the money, or at least the 
 greatest part of it, comes out of the policy holders 
 directly. But, you will say, the companies do not 
 keep these funds in their own vaults ; they invest 
 them and thus promote commerce. Just so; but 
 why should the workingmen let the companies in- 
 vest their money in commercial enterprises instead 
 of doing it themselves? Such an investment by 
 the companies means that the workingmen will 
 only get their wages out of it, which at no time is 
 proportionate to their product, and then we are 
 back again at another vicious circle, from which 
 profits fly off at a tangent into the pockets of the 
 financiers. The surplus production of the cap- 
 ital, a portion of which belongs to the workingmen, 
 will go as profits into the pockets of those finan- 
 ciers. It enables the financiers to fatten on the 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 191 
 
 money of the laborers. If there were not so much 
 money in the treasuries of the life insurance com- 
 panies, the extravagance of politicians would have 
 nothing to feed on; public loans would not be as 
 easy to obtain, because the demands of active in- 
 vestments are great. How much of the public in- 
 debtedness is taken up by individuals? It is 
 mostly gobbled up first by powerful syndicates, 
 which afterwards dole it out to the public at a 
 profit. A good deal of this financing is done with 
 life insurance money. 
 
 RECIPROCAL CONTRACTS 
 
 After the acquisition of the stock of some cor- 
 porations by their employees has gone to the 
 length of gaining control, there could be made 
 even reciprocal agreements for the mutual ex- 
 change of products among the workingmen on a 
 cost basis, which would have the effect of lowering 
 the cost of living and would be a strong weapon in 
 the hands of the workingmen to force all the cor- 
 porations engaged in similar production to sell 
 their stock to their employees. This would mean 
 but an extension of the principle of cooperation. 
 The workingmen being also the consumers, getting 
 their supplies from other companies owned by the 
 workingmen would, naturally, lessen the general 
 market demand for those products, and companies 
 not controlled by workingmen would either have to 
 lower the prices of their products or shut up shop. 
 Supposing that one-fourth of the garment makers 
 
192 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 controlled the companies for wliich they worked 
 and the same were true of the shoemakers, and they 
 interchanged their products : that would withdraw 
 these men out of the general market, and this 
 would soon either lower the prices of these two 
 commodities, or the other companies, from self- 
 preservation, would have to allow their employees 
 to acquire interest in them. With these the sell- 
 ing of stock to their emploj^ees would become a sell- 
 ing proposition of their products. The surplus 
 production would be put on the general market 
 and yield the profits. 
 
 Heroic measures are needed to dissipate the 
 wealth concentrated in the hands of a few. It 
 cannot be done by legislation or by commissions 
 or in any other arbitrary or violent way, as long 
 as the masses of the people pour the millions of 
 their savings into the vaults of the banks and the 
 treasuries of insurance companies, to be controlled 
 and invested by their few directors in enterprises 
 out of which the wealth producing classes, the 
 workingmen, get only daily wages, the profits not 
 going to those who produce them and are in reality 
 part owners, but to the few into whose hands the 
 money was entrusted. Part of the money lent to 
 a manufacturing or commercial enterprise belongs 
 in reality to the millions of workingmen ; for this 
 they get but a very small rate of interest, which 
 is paid out of the gross profits of the produce of 
 these very workingmen. Originally the capital- 
 ists of our day arose by not distributing equitably 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 193 
 
 the enormous profits which they made because of 
 modern inventions, and they are maintaining and 
 enlarging these enterprises with money which the 
 laboring classes unwisely entrust to them and 
 which they could not do but for this money. The 
 natural resources, which are limited, came within 
 the control of a few mainly because of their early 
 start, but these could not be developed were it not 
 for the money which they borrow from the differ- 
 ent financial institutions, amassed there by the la- 
 boring classes. Corporate ownership is the only 
 practical means whereby the ownership of these 
 gigantic holdings could be gradually redistributed 
 among the many, if the masses appreciated the 
 value of the means at hand and made a concerted 
 effort to use them. Whether our commercial gi- 
 ants get their capital with which they operate 
 their enterprises through corporate or private 
 loans, it is the money of the millions who deposit 
 it as savings in the banks or pay it as premiums 
 to the life insurance companies ; their wealth lies 
 mainly in the organizations consisting of the work- 
 in gmen which they maintain with this money. 
 What is a million shares of stock, whose par value 
 is, according to the figures on the certificate, 
 $100.00, worth were it not backed by an organiza- 
 tion of workingmen who are the real dividend pro- 
 ducers ? What would large tracts of land covered 
 with manufacturing buildings and expensive ma- 
 chinery be worth were it not for the workingmen 
 who make these machines produce useful articles? 
 
194 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 Waste land and scrap. Thej are valuable be- 
 cause they are kept going by workingmen with the 
 money accumulated by these same workingmen. 
 How many millionaires are there who could make 
 their plants go, if they could not borrow money.'' 
 Their financial power lies not so much in their own 
 individual wealth as in their ability to obtain the 
 capital of others, even their own laborers. With 
 this they speculate and pocket the profits. Com- 
 merce is a wheel the hub of which consists of a few 
 men at rest, while the rim, consisting of the many, 
 is revolving. Yes, and wearing out too. The 
 banks and the insurance companies are the spokes. 
 But it is the tire that stands the grind. The 
 whole country is drained of loose money through 
 various channels into the vaults of a few and doled 
 out by them to whom they please. Were equity 
 and justice to rule, they should be considered only 
 as trustees, and the equitable rule that a trustee 
 is entitled only to a fair compensation for his 
 work and that he cannot make a profit by it should 
 be applied to them. They should not be allowed 
 to speculate with this trust money. But it will 
 be objected that the officers of the banks get only 
 reasonable (.'') salaries for their work and the 
 stockholders only fair dividends from their invest- 
 ment. That is true on the face of it ; but what 
 wrecks the majority of banks.? Bad investments 
 of the money deposited in those banks by a few 
 favored individuals ; and those favored few are sel- 
 dom outsiders. If their enterprises prosper they 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 195 
 
 reap great profits and enrich themselves ; if they 
 prove disastrous, the depositors lose. If the la- 
 boring class invested their savings in stocks di- 
 rectly instead of letting the banks do it, this could 
 not happen. Examine the statements of the 
 banks as they are published quarterly, and there 
 you will see that the bulk of their money is in- 
 vested either in stocks and bonds or loaned on col- 
 lateral. Whose money is this, and what does that 
 mean.'' The money deposited in the banks by 
 small merchants and tradesmen is used mainly by 
 their own class to keep their little affairs going; 
 it is the money that is deposited on time that is 
 being lent to large corporations to make them go. 
 The farmers as a class are just beginning to have 
 surplus money, and they too need all that reaches 
 the banks from their class, and more. It is high 
 time that the laboring man woke up to the gravit}'^ 
 of the situation and made a start to remedy this 
 unhealthy condition of affairs, and do it in a safe 
 and sane way. The cry is " safety first," and it 
 should apply not only to mechanical devices but 
 also to economic conditions. If he did that, he 
 could assure his own future and that of his pos- 
 terity. In the olden days, the journeyman saved 
 from his earnings in order to start for himself; 
 his savings constituted the capital with which he 
 went into business and became an independent 
 man ; the workingmen to-day should do the same 
 thing by putting their savings in the stocks of the 
 companies for which they are working, if at all 
 
196 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 possible. But thej must first of all divest them- 
 selves of the idea that they are working for the 
 few dollars of wages which are doled out to them, 
 and place before themselves the purpose of obtain- 
 ing the control of their products by a peaceful and 
 practical means and not by violent revolutionary 
 and visionary theorizing, which blinds reason, dis- 
 torts the perspectives of life and excites feelings 
 of hatred and discontent. What are a few 
 against a million actuated by a high purpose and 
 fired with determination to win out.? The task is 
 not as hopeless as it would at first appear. There 
 is nothing that patience will not accomplish. But 
 talking will not do it, nor violence. " Hot air " 
 can only raise a balloon which is bound to come 
 down ; fire may become a very destructive element, 
 but " steam " can remove mountains. 
 
 V. DOLLAR-IZED PARENTHOOD AND HOME 
 
 We have dollar-ized parenthood and home. 
 Nowadays a man takes to himself a wife for the 
 purpose of spending so many dollars on her. The 
 question with herself and her parents is : will he be 
 able to spend on his wife as many dollars as her 
 father is doing? Or, to use the conventional 
 phrase, can he support a wife in the style to which 
 she is used.'' If this were applied at all times and 
 all men added a little to the fortune which they 
 had at the time they married, the time would come 
 when a man could not marry at all. The man has 
 to get rid of some of the money which he strives 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 197 
 
 so hard to get, and, as he has been making it for 
 the purpose of showing to the rest of the world 
 how successful a man he is according to the dollar 
 standard, he, of all things, selects his wife as the 
 means of display. He makes her a clothes-tree 
 upon which to hang up his dollars, a figure upon 
 which to display the fashions of the day, just to 
 show that he can afford to do so. This does not 
 mean that he should not supply her with things to 
 the best of his means, but display should not be the 
 main object. And the woman, too, looks first to 
 what pleasures that money can buy will she be able 
 to afford, or how much of her husband's money 
 she will be able to spend. There are a few who 
 still persist in following their natural inclinations 
 and instincts at mating, but a great majority of 
 these also, when the unsophistication of youth has 
 worn off, turn to the dollar standard. It is not 
 the fitness to establish and maintain a home, in its 
 true sense, that constitutes nowadays the neces- 
 sary qualifications for marriage, but the ability 
 to spend a great many dollars upon it. The main 
 purpose is not to raise children of healthy bodies 
 and good characters, but, if this evil does obtrude 
 itself in spite of all efforts to keep it out, they are 
 considered only as a further means of displaying 
 the dollars. The repression of motherhood has 
 not only distorted the souls but also wrecked the 
 bodies of women. The institutions established by 
 men have placed restraints upon motherhood, but 
 little has been done to curb the passions. Mar- 
 
198 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 riage and monogamy are the necessary outgrowth 
 of the right of private property by reason of the 
 difficulties it places in the way of rearing children, 
 making it more and more complicated every day ; 
 but neither the restraints of matrimony nor the 
 comprehension of the difficulties in raising chil- 
 dren is a sufficient check upon the mightiest proto- 
 plasmic instinct of reproduction ; hence licentious- 
 ness, immorality, infidelity, spread of loathsome 
 diseases, and so on, — more than one half of the 
 evils which men have to endure. 
 
 And strange to say, women, in spite of the evi- 
 dent evil consequences, are seeking a higher, no- 
 bler destiny than to be old-fashioned mothers. 
 Old fashioned ! Yea, as old as is mankind, as is 
 the universe itself! And what is the substitute.'' 
 The making of dollars. For they, too, crave the 
 same dollar-ized success that men are achieving. 
 High destiny ! God save the mark ! They want 
 to be the equals of men. If men had some sublime 
 ideals before them, they could be excused ; but it 
 would be far nobler for the women to try to divert 
 men from pursuing false gods than to follow in 
 their footsteps. Just now they think that to ob- 
 tain the right of voting would be the means of 
 their attaining this ideal ; that it would do away 
 with the drudgery of keeping house and rearing a 
 family, which they consider below their destiny. 
 If they want the franchise with these false concep- 
 tions of their destiny in mind, they should not get 
 it; if they want it, however, because it would be 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 199 
 
 applying to them only the underlying principles 
 of our government, then let them have it ; they are 
 entitled to it, at least as much as the men are. 
 How could they judge rightly as to what would be 
 good for society when they so grossly misconceive 
 their position in the economy of nature, when they 
 are dragging down motherhood from its elevated 
 pedestal and trying to replace it with the dollar 
 sign ? 
 
 The work of the home is drudgery only to 
 those who choose to look upon it that way and 
 who fail to comprehend the exalted position which 
 a mother holds. We have a powerful government 
 machine, costing us billions of dollars a year; we 
 have had religion of one sort or another for many 
 thousands of years ; we have perfected our educa- 
 tional system, upon which the ablest minds are 
 spending their energies, for the curbing of the nat- 
 ural human passions and desires within the limits 
 of necessity, and the sum total of their work would 
 be imperceptible were it not for the work of the 
 mother in the home: whatever good there is in the 
 world to-day must be attributed to the mother, 
 and it is her noblest and greatest monument. The 
 natural instincts of preservation and propagation 
 can be successfully combated only by persistent 
 training of the mind supplemented by another 
 powerful instinct, child-love. That is the reason 
 why ancestor worship held in the past, and still 
 holds in some countries to-day, such an important 
 place in the work of regulating these human in- 
 
200 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 stincts and keeping them from proving destructive. 
 The habit of thought which we call conscience is 
 the result of the patient work of the mother. And 
 " modern women " choose to call this work drudg- 
 ery and wish to substitute for it the chasing of the 
 dollars ! Was it nobler to have given to the world 
 George Washington or radium? Can the achieve- 
 ment of high honors on the fields of art or litera- 
 ture compare with the glory of a mother who 
 raised sons and daughters of noble character.'' Is 
 the creation of fictitious, and sometimes very in- 
 sipid, heroes and heroines in novels more praise- 
 worthy than bringing into the world and rearing 
 real flesh-and-blood heroes and heroines? Is the 
 clinking of the dollar more musical than the coo- 
 ing, nay, the crying, of a chubby baby? It is 
 pitiful to see a woman lavishing her mother love 
 upon some ugly dog or a fuzzy cat and pretending 
 to be satisfied. She knows that she is making a 
 sorry mess of it and only trying to deceive herself. 
 And look at the wistful glances from the hungry 
 eyes of those wrecks of womanhood who know that 
 they cannot be mothers any more, even though 
 they have amassed many dollars in their younger 
 days. Which is a more beautiful picture of true 
 womanhood : the famous authoress with a big bank- 
 roll and a pug dog, or the grandmother with a 
 noisy troop of grandchildren about her? Which 
 is sweeter to the woman's ears : the cry " grand- 
 ma " or the plaudits of an audience? And all this 
 because they think that the acquisition of dollars. 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 201 
 
 or the following of what they chose to call their 
 " career," is a higher destiny than keeping house, 
 darning socks, frying chops and attending to the 
 necessities of the house in order to make a com- 
 fortable home for the little ones. 
 
 Aside from that, which is more of a drudg- 
 ery: to sell socks over a counter to some fussy 
 women at so much per week, or darning the holes 
 in socks made by the toes of little ones for the love 
 of them? Housecleaning to make the home 
 healthy is monotonous, and pounding the type- 
 writer for eight or nine hours every day is not ! 
 Housework is wearing on the nerves, but sitting 
 cooped up in an office or standing all day behind a 
 counter is not! What healthy specimens of rosy- 
 cheeked girls do we see daily pouring out of the 
 shops and factories! They are all so sprightly 
 and gay; their eyes are sparkling with glee and 
 exuberant health! Their laugh is so whole- 
 hearted and gay, and their steps so springy ! 
 And oh ! how they do cultivate their minds ! Some 
 of them get married and what good mothers they 
 make ! Some. No mating unless for natural rea- 
 sons and from natural instinct can be a success. 
 Money alone has yet to make a happy home. Pla- 
 tonic love is an absurdity, and soul-mating an- 
 other name for plain licentiousness. 
 
 But some creamy (49^, reduced from 50^) 
 complexioned girl rises to ask : " When can we 
 have a good time after we are married, and if we 
 have to attend to our daily duties ; woman's work 
 
202 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 is never done? What pleasures can a girl have at 
 home minding the ' kids ' ? " If by good time and 
 pleasures you mean the spending of some young 
 fool's money on chewing gum and shooting the 
 chutes, you cannot get those at home ; you had 
 better stay where you are. If watching a few chil- 
 dren growing up and seeing their beautiful souls 
 unfolding like so many lilies is not, in your opinion, 
 a pleasure, then you had better keep on pounding 
 the typewriter, copying form letters or making out 
 meaningless requisition papers ; go to dances as 
 long as you are able to get partners for the tango. 
 If you think that what you call pleasure is worth 
 the drudgery to which you must submit, then you 
 had better stay where you are. If you think it is 
 more pleasing to feel a few dollars in your purse 
 on pay-day than the caress of a chubby little arm 
 about your neck, then it is certainly better for 
 you to chase the dollars ; get as many as you can 
 and as long as you can, for that is all you will get 
 out of your life. Besides, it is not so bad as one 
 would imagine with American wives. The Ameri- 
 can husband, as a class, is the most indulgent and 
 generous creature on earth. He is ready even to 
 commit crimes in order to satisfy every whim of his 
 wife. It is doubtful whether American women do 
 appreciate what their husbands are doing for them 
 and it may be that this very liberality has spoiled 
 them. While he is willing to shoulder every bur- 
 den, he does everything in his power to lighten that 
 of his wife. The daily sacrifices that millions of 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 203 
 
 American husbands are making for their wives and 
 children are known only to them, for they are not 
 in the habit of parading them before the world. 
 And that they fully appreciate the hardships and 
 dangers of motherhood can be seen from their re- 
 spect for it. It is a strange paradox that man 
 has exalted motherhood above all things, while 
 woman herself is trying to drag it down. Men 
 love children almost more than the mothers do ; 
 everything for the " kiddies." 
 
 " Well," some will say, " I can follow my career 
 while I am young, enjoy all the pleasures while I 
 may, above all things enjoy freedom while I am 
 young, before I get married and settle down, when 
 I will not be able to get as much keen enjoyment 
 out of life." The fallacy of this is so apparent 
 that it hardly needs disproving. Is it just to the 
 man whom you think you will be able to ensnare to 
 present him with the dregs of your life.? Is it 
 just, above all, to your future offspring, if you 
 should have any, to give them the remnants of 
 your vigor, the best portion of which you wasted 
 on frivolities .P Do you think that the work which 
 you have come to consider as drudgery will become 
 congenial by simply going through the marriage 
 ceremony? Will you be able to give up thereby 
 what you have considered as the highest form of 
 pleasure .-^ It is difficult to teach an old dog new 
 tricks. Will the recollection of the gayeties of 
 your younger days make attractive your home.'' 
 Will your habitation be a home to you.'' Or will 
 
204 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 you not rather prefer to continue your former 
 mode of living, with the exception that it will be at 
 the expense of your husband? You want to fol- 
 low in the footsteps of man ; but are you sure that 
 his way is right? Even with him, what is called 
 success is but incidental to his fatherhood, and if 
 he makes a failure of that, his life is a failure, no 
 matter how many dollars he has amassed or what 
 position he occupies in the eyes of the world. 
 
 Of course, the girl who from necessity earns 
 something to add to the family stock is not to be 
 condemned but rather commended, but she should 
 not get wrong notions into her head. The prepa- 
 ration for home life, her natural state, should not 
 be neglected. Nor should she place before herself 
 the making of money as her ideal and purpose in 
 life. The duties of home are, without doubt, on- 
 erous and exacting, and serious preparation is 
 necessary to prepare the mind to bear its burdens. 
 Frivolous habits are not such a preparation, nor 
 will a wrong conception of her destiny in nature 
 lighten them for her. If she looks upon matri- 
 mony as an unavoidable evil or as the easiest means 
 of making her living, she has a wrong conception 
 cf what a home should be, and she will not be able 
 to make it a home. She ought to prepare to bring 
 her share into the home, her willingness to assume 
 its responsibilities, cheerfully and patiently. The 
 husband's path is not all strewn with roses. On 
 the other hand, the young man also should look 
 upon matrimony as an equal partnership, and 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 205 
 
 should not expect more than his wife will be able 
 to get out of it. The male is the natural pro- 
 vider, but he must go beyond that: he must also 
 make up his mind to make his wife a companion. 
 Some male birds sing for hours to while away the 
 tedium of hatching. It should be give and take 
 for both; unless this is thoroughly appreciated by 
 both, the bonds of matrimony become galling and 
 relief is sought in the divorce court. The increas- 
 ing number of divorces that are asked for and ob- 
 tained is becoming alarming to serious-minded 
 people, and all kinds of reasons for their prev- 
 alence are given and remedies suggested. Mating 
 for life, or matrimony, as already stated, is a nec- 
 essary outgrowth of the institution of private 
 property. It cannot be asserted positively that 
 it is a natural state. It requires a proper mental 
 attitude for two people to submit cheerfully to the 
 feeling of being bound to each other for life, and if 
 such an attitude is lacking they are liable to chafe 
 under the restraint. If they do, matrimony will 
 be a burden to them and they will seek relief from 
 it. Instead of looking for the causes of the in- 
 creasing number of divorces outside, might it not 
 be more practical to seek them in the motives with 
 which couples enter this state, in their dispositions 
 towards it, and in the preparation which they have 
 made for it? If men look upon it merely as a 
 means of displaying their wealth and success, and 
 the women as a means of gratifying their desires 
 for pleasure, will these have a lasting influence on 
 
206 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 them to bear its disappointments and burdens? If 
 the women think that children are unwelcome 
 guests and the duties of the home drudgery, are 
 they fitted mentally and temperamentally to per- 
 form the sacred trusts of motherhood and will they 
 not shirk its duties? Add to that the difference 
 in the temper of the two, and how can a marriage 
 be a success unless entered into with the proper 
 spirit? As long as both the man and the woman 
 worship the dollar, can they be expected to submit 
 cheerfully to the exactions of the home? It is dif- 
 ficuH to give up any habit, and how can a couple 
 expect to give up easily the habit of spending their 
 time in frivolous pastimes, acquired during their 
 single days, by going through the marriage cere- 
 mony? It is stated that hasty marriages are 
 liable to end in the divorce court; it would be very 
 interesting to investigate what percentage of mar- 
 riages entered into in cold blood end that way. It 
 looks more reasonable that such as marry from 
 natural instincts, and what they call hasty mar- 
 riages are contracted that way, are more likely to 
 make a success out of it than those where the par- 
 ties contract them after a calculating reflection, 
 expecting monetary and material gain out of it. 
 Persistent educational work and careful training 
 of the young are the most likely remedies to erad- 
 icate this ever growing evil. They must be im- 
 pressed as early as possible with the sacredness of 
 the trust of bringing up children and with the idea 
 that a happy home is the greatest success. 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 207 
 
 VI. DOLLAR-IZED HAPPINESS 
 
 We have reduced happiness to the dollar stand- 
 ard. Because of our insatiable desire to own and 
 spend dollars, contentment has vanished from our 
 midst, and without contentment happiness is im- 
 possible. We have the mistaken idea that owning 
 and spending dollars constitutes happiness. We 
 envy the man who is in such a position, which 
 makes us dissatisfied with our lot. The amount of 
 dollars being limited, there must be some who have 
 more and others who lack them. Everybody 
 strives to outdo his neighbor in spending dollars ; 
 if he cannot do so he is unhappy. The Declara- 
 tion of Independence says that the pursuit of hap- 
 piness is the natural right of man ; and so it is. 
 But what kind of happiness .^ Surely not own- 
 ing and spending dollars. The satisfaction of 
 this inordinate desire to amass a great many dol- 
 lars and to spend them will not in itself bring hap- 
 piness. Happiness is a very complex feeling, and 
 a great many elements enter into it. It is purely 
 subjective and no absolute standard can be estab- 
 lished for it. We may say that perfect function- 
 ing of the body will induce a certain feeling which 
 is akin to happiness ; but that is not all : we must 
 also take into account the state of the mind. Like 
 every other feeling, it cannot be completely sep- 
 arated from the body, it cannot be all spiritual. 
 With all the normal bodily desires satisfied and its 
 needs supplied, an animal will feel what might be 
 
208 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 called happiness according to its capacity. That 
 is about as close as we can get to the definition of 
 absolute happiness. With man another element 
 enters, — the satisfaction of those desires which he 
 developed because of his intelligence and social rela- 
 tions. He is able to look into the future and fore- 
 see his needs ; naturally his desires include an as- 
 surance to provide against future wants. This 
 stimulates his natural instinct to hoard, and if 
 conditions are against him he is likely to be very 
 unhappy. He worries about his future and that 
 of his offspring, and it requires a very strong 
 mentality to preserve his equanimity under the 
 stress of such worry. Unless his natural desires 
 are curbed within the limits of necessity or the pos- 
 sibility of being gratified, happiness cannot be 
 thought of. With the desires unchastened, am- 
 bition leaps beyond reason and discontent enters. 
 Ambition, properly restrained, is a holy desire for 
 improvement, for growth, the aim of life. It must, 
 however, be coupled with patience, otherwise it is 
 a very destructive force. Dissatisfaction with 
 the present is not necessarily discontent; in fact, 
 progress is almost impossible without it ; but it 
 must be chastened so as not to cloud reason and 
 destroy honor. We must not be too proud to take 
 example from the lower animals, for we differ from 
 them only in the degree of our capacities. Be- 
 cause they do not worry about the future, they are 
 easily satisfied and can be happy. Memories of 
 the past may, for a time, destroy happiness, but 
 
OUR METRIC SYSTEM 209 
 
 not for long; their effects soon wear off, and a 
 proper view of the values of life will greatly min- 
 imize them. With our desires within the proper 
 limits, there will be few regrets to disturb equanim- 
 ity. There is hardly a loss, except that of loved 
 ones, that is worthy of our notice ; and the remem- 
 brances of loved ones lost become hallowed in a 
 short time, and do not interfere with the present. 
 A man who has done all he could and the best he 
 knew how will have nothing to reproach himself 
 with. Lost opportunities are disquieting only to 
 those whose desires have not been kept within the 
 proper bounds, who have placed before themselves 
 unattainable ends. Memories of past wrongdoing 
 and the dread of unpleasant disclosures are pos- 
 sible only with those who were driven to wrong- 
 doing by overreaching ambition or unrestrained 
 desires. These disturbers of happiness are self- 
 inflicted. There is no reason why a man, in good 
 health, his present wants satisfied, his future 
 reasonably assured, his desires curbed, no past to 
 reproach him and willing to work for his living, 
 should not be happy. His future will be a dis- 
 quieting factor only if his desires are beyond the 
 possibility of being gratified. If he aspires for 
 luxuries it will be very disquieting to him, for there 
 is nothing in this world that may not change, and 
 even some very wealthy men have died paupers. 
 
 Before the law everybody is equal, but it would 
 seem that we cannot apply that to making and 
 spending money. Under our present institutions 
 
210 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 we cannot be equal, and if we pin our happiness to 
 our ability to do this, we may never be happy. 
 Not being able to get into such a position, or being 
 convinced that our cupidity will not be satisfied, 
 makes us unhappy. A great many are restless 
 and chafe under the social and legal restraints 
 which are placed in their way. Why is there so 
 much reviling against the wealthy, why so much 
 jealousy? Just because the revilers are not able 
 to do as the rich are doing; they want to own and 
 spend as many dollars as the wealthy do, fondly 
 imagining that this makes them happy. Democ- 
 racy proclaims equality, but that is only political 
 equality ; it cannot guarantee equality in all things, 
 and especially in such matters as depend upon the 
 difference in human capacities. There are cases 
 of actual want; but total failures can be blamed 
 only upon the individuals themselves. The insati- 
 able desire to spend a great deal of money has 
 wrecked many a human life. If we could only 
 learn to pity the " poor rich ! " 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 DEMOCRACY'S NEED 
 
 When the Fathers of our Republic signed the 
 Declaration of Independence, they thereby not 
 only severed their political relations with the 
 mother country but, in that immortal document, 
 they proclaimed to the world the rock-bottom prin- 
 ciple of social intercourse, cooperation. The 
 declaration that " governments derive their just 
 powers from the consent of the governed " not only 
 laid down the fundamental principle of the demo- 
 cratic form of government, but it also established a 
 new ground for moral restraint. Under the theory 
 of our government, " self-government " not only 
 means the right of every citizen to have a voice in 
 the administration of public affairs, but it also 
 includes the placing of the necessary restraints by 
 every individual upon himself. Every man must 
 govern himself in his every-day acts so that they 
 do not conflict with the aims for which his civil 
 government has been established, the protection of 
 life, the securing to every one his full measure of 
 political liberty and the pursuit of happiness. De- 
 mocracy can accomplish these noble aims only 
 
 when every one of its citizens does thus govern 
 211 
 
212 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 himself. Governments are established to place the 
 necessary restraints upon their citizens by passing 
 laws and executing them, but these will be but 
 shams unless every citizen realizes the full measure 
 of his responsibilities and performs his duties will- 
 ingly and of his own accord. 
 
 I. THE THEORY OF OUR GOVERNMENT 
 
 The colonists brought from England the seeds of 
 local popular government. Most of them came to 
 these shores in protest against the conditions pre- 
 vailing in their mother countries ; their minds were 
 full of the ideas of the natural rights of man, which 
 were then so zealously propagated in Europe. 
 They had revolted against the binding chains of 
 traditions. Their isolation and their separation 
 by the wide Atlantic made it easier for them to 
 shake off the habit of submissiveness to traditions. 
 When their political grievances made their connec- 
 tion with the mother country unbearable, they were 
 ready to put into practice these new ideals of a 
 true democratic government. There was little to 
 bind them to the past and most of them readily dis- 
 carded the traditional ideas of government by any 
 other right except their own consent. They 
 started where the theorists of those days claimed 
 all governments had started, in a contract between 
 all the members of a community. With them it 
 was not a reform, it was a new beginning. After 
 they threw off the English rule they practically 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 213 
 
 started the same way as any other group of men 
 go about forming a new association. Several of 
 the original states even passed laws which called 
 upon everyone dissatisfied with the new govern- 
 ment that was in the process of being established 
 to leave the country by a certain time unless he 
 submitted to it. So that we can safely say that 
 our government was established by the voluntary 
 agreement of its citizens. It was a voluntary as- 
 sociation, and all the laws are, therefore, based 
 upon contract. This contract is perpetuated by 
 the tacit assent of every American-bom citizen in 
 accepting its benefits, and by the oath of alle- 
 giance which every naturalized citizen takes. Our 
 Federal and State governments are written con- 
 tracts : " We, the people," and so on, do ordain 
 thus and so. The aim for which this association 
 was formed is clearly set forth in the preamble of 
 the Federal Constitution. 
 
 But the means provided are only general; they 
 set out what is necessary for the promotion of the 
 general welfare, so that the governments which are 
 established by the constitutions can pass only such 
 laws as will promote the general welfare and regu- 
 late the conduct of its citizens and inhabitants only 
 insofar as it affects others, and when it consists of 
 overt acts. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence proclaims 
 that man is endowed by nature with certain in- 
 alienable rights, life, and the pursuit of happi- 
 
214 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 ness. Living isolated, man has the natural right 
 to defend these rights to the limit of his ability. 
 Nature has supplied him with certain instincts and 
 passions which impel him to use all his force in the 
 defense of these rights. These instincts are selfish, 
 they disregard the same rights in others. The 
 government, which in this country was established 
 by voluntary association, undertakes to guarantee 
 these rights to all by placing such restraints upon 
 the natural freedom of its citizens as will assure 
 to every man their full enjoyment. These re- 
 straints are the duties which the law imposes upon 
 all. These restraints are upon natural freedom, a 
 portion of which every citizen surrenders in order 
 to enjoy the other natural rights. Living isolated, 
 man would have the right to possess himself of 
 everything he deemed necessary to the preserva- 
 tion of his life, even if he thereby deprived another 
 of what he needed. Such a state of affairs is im- 
 possible in society, as that would lead to continual 
 strife, because nobody, endowed with the same in- 
 stincts and passions, would willingly surrender 
 what he desired to have for his own needs. A 
 right, then, is a portion of another man's natural 
 liberty resigned by him in order to advance his 
 welfare by cooperation, enforced by a government. 
 Duty is the correlative of right. 
 
 But the preservation of life and the pursuit of 
 happiness have become very complicated by centu- 
 ries of social life. Many factors enter into their 
 attainment. Were man to live alone he could 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 215 
 
 easily satisfy his wants. He would have whatever 
 he produced himself and nothing more. If he 
 raised sufficient food he would feed, if not he would 
 starve. He would know of no luxuries except those 
 he could make himself; he would wear only such 
 clothes as would be needed to protect his body 
 against excessive heat and cold ; and he would have 
 only such a shelter as would moderate the rigours 
 of the climate. He would have no idea of wealth 
 but what he could put away from his own surplus. 
 He would be satisfied to toil daily to provide for 
 himself and his offspring, as leisure and idleness 
 would mean hunger and starvation for them and 
 for himself. He would teach his children the habit 
 of industry and his ambitions for them would not 
 rise above teaching them how best to make the 
 needed articles and how best to till the soil. It 
 would never enter into his head, in fact he could 
 never conceive the idea, that they could live with- 
 out working and without providing their neces- 
 saries by their own exertions. As long as he would 
 be in good health and have enough food for his 
 immediate needs and sufficient surplus to supply 
 him over winter, he would be happy. Against the 
 attack of others, and against wild animals, he 
 would defend himself the best he could. Nature 
 endowed him with the passions of anger and hatred 
 to bring out all his powers when attacked, and he 
 has intelligence to devise suitable methods of de- 
 fense. Thus man would preserve his life and pur- 
 sue happiness when living isolated. 
 
216 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE 
 
 Whether by instinct or from experience, from 
 time immemorial men chose to live in communities, 
 deeming it a better way. With social life entered 
 several institutions which not only made the sup- 
 plying of the daily needs more complicated and 
 even, contrary to its aim, more difficult, but tended 
 to sharpen and to develop those natural desires 
 and passions which, because their exercicse became 
 unnecessary by reason of the benefits of coopera- 
 tion, the assurance of protection and of the supply 
 of daily wants, ought to have been curbed and lim- 
 ited. Peace and good order are prime necessities 
 of communal life, and the undisturbed possession 
 of what man needs is indispensable for the preser- 
 vation of peace : from this arose the institution of 
 private property. The natural instinct to hoard 
 away enough against the unproductive days devel- 
 oped into greed for the possession of as much prop- 
 erty as possible. The invention of barter and 
 trade assisted in the development of greed, because 
 it showed to man that it is possible to acquire 
 enough to sustain himself without the necessity of 
 laboring, which is naturally distasteful. It is 
 pleasanter to play than to labor. This greed and 
 its gratification produced riches and poverty and 
 its companions, want and misery. The natural 
 passion for personal adornment, which man in- 
 herited from his pre-intelligent days and which was 
 given him by nature in order to promote reproduc- 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 217 
 
 tion, degenerated into all those desires for luxuries 
 which have brought so much evil into the world and 
 which intelligent men ought to consider too petty 
 for the serious objects of their desires. When 
 man found that he could gratify his desires with- 
 out working, ambition to control the production 
 of others was born. It is unnecessary to recount 
 the evil which this passion brought in its wake. 
 
 NECESSITY FOR SELF-RESTRAINT 
 
 Now all these so highly developed passions and 
 desires are the great disturbers of the peace and 
 militate against the attainment of the social aims. 
 They must be kept within the proper bounds some- 
 how. Under our theory of government a man is 
 supposed to sit down and reason it out with him- 
 self that, as a member of an association which he 
 entered of his own free will, it is his duty to observe 
 all the laws which are deemed necessary for the 
 attainment of associate aims and to conduct him- 
 self so that his acts will not come into conflict with 
 the rights which this association undertook to as- 
 sure to him as well as to all the other members ; 
 that his duties are the necessary incidents of his 
 membership and that they should not be considered 
 as burdens by him. Whether the form of govern- 
 ment is democracy, or any other form, that is the 
 exact truth regarding the responsibilities of a cit- 
 izen towards the society in which he lives. But 
 what is cold blooded reasoning against the pri- 
 mordial passions, sharpened by centuries of social 
 
218 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 living? The laws can reach man's acts, but they 
 are powerless to curb his desires. Governments 
 can pass rules of conduct to restrain him from 
 doing what is injurious to others, but they cannot 
 go beyond preserving peace. They can prevent 
 open conflicts, but they cannot place limitations 
 upon the desires, for the gratification of which men 
 will resort to all kinds of trickery and subterfuges 
 which the law is powerless to circumvent. Some 
 institution is needed in every community whose 
 purpose is to accomplish this. 
 
 THE OFFICE OF RELIGION 
 
 In all ages and among all the nations religion 
 took upon itself this task. The religion of any 
 people represents the realization of its social ideals. 
 It represents a state in which all the known social 
 evils shall have no existence, and the ideal aim of 
 society, the pursuit of happiness, shall be realized. 
 As to details, it never rose above the social order. 
 Religion always reflected the social ideals. It dei- 
 fied its founders and its national heroes. The 
 means it employed for the curbing of human de- 
 sires were similar to those employed by the govern- 
 ments under which they existed. 
 
 Christianity, born under an imperialistic form 
 of government at the time when the Hebrews 
 dreamt of regaining their earthly kingdom, repre- 
 sents " God " as the ruler of the heavenly kingdom, 
 where the souls of all his faithful subjects will be 
 rewarded and where the kingdom which could not 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 219 
 
 be hoped for on this earth will be again established. 
 As all good subjects of earthly kings hope to be 
 rewarded for their faithfulness, promises of re- 
 wards are held out by Christianity to induce its be- 
 lievers to live according to the laws which, although 
 they spring only from social necessities, are given a 
 heavenly origin. The ideal of Christianity is a 
 perfectly regulated monarchy, with an absolute 
 monarch ruling over his subjects, consisting of 
 various hierarchies and the common people. The 
 desires which cannot be gratified on this earth 
 shall be gratified in that kingdom ; the repression 
 of such as would lead to disturbance here will be 
 rewarded in this ideal life to come. Poverty, 
 which was a prevalent evil in those days, is made a 
 virtue to be crowned in heaven, and the acquisition 
 of wealth a crime, in order to curb the desire for 
 hoarding property. Charity, which is but ideal- 
 ized cooperation, is made the greatest virtue, in 
 order to teach men the necessity of mutually help- 
 ing each other. The simple ideas of the early 
 Christians were elaborated into a complicated sys- 
 tem of philosophy, in order to meet the require- 
 ments of advancing knowledge and to accommodate 
 them to the changing social order. There can be 
 no doubt as to the soundness, the wisdom and the 
 efficacy of the majority of the ethical rules of 
 Christianity, especially of those which have for 
 their objects the repression of the passions and 
 desires wliich cause social disturbance, but the 
 symbolism with which they are clothed we may 
 
220 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 be permitted to question. We can doubt the 
 efficacy of the motive which Christianity instills 
 into its believers, the hope of a reward for perform- 
 ing one's social duties. As the realization of this 
 hope must be postponed to a life concerning which 
 we know nothing and whose existence we can sin- 
 cerely question, it is but a weak restraint upon 
 man's passions, and the greater the doubt due to 
 our knowledge, the less its force. 
 
 The true aim of religion is the promotion of the 
 cause of humanity. " Thy Kingdom come." 
 Christianity committed its greatest error when it 
 diverged from teaching simple moral principles, in- 
 vaded the fields of speculative philosophy and clut- 
 tered up its teachings with dogmas which advanc- 
 ing scientific knowledge was bound to upset. It 
 thereby opened the gates of doubt and weakened 
 the force of its moral influence. Jesus of Naza- 
 reth knew nothing of the philosophy of His day 
 and taught no theological dogmas. It pushed its 
 doctrine of rewards and punishments to the utmost 
 limits and brought down upon itself a storm of 
 protests. We all approve of its essential ethical 
 maxims, but many, even among the faithful, differ 
 on points which ought never to have entered into 
 discussion. We all agree that human conduct 
 needs regulation and that every man ought to do 
 what is just to others ; we all know that a check 
 must be placed upon all human passions and de- 
 sires ; the rest is immaterial. To be most ef- 
 ficacious, religion must be in harmony with the 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 221 
 
 social order and the prevalent ideals, because both 
 law and religion have the same end in view, the 
 promotion of human welfare. If men are capable 
 of thoroughly understanding their social relations, 
 it is not necessary to clothe them in symbols. By 
 divergent ways civil and religious institutions can 
 never reach their common goal. One ought to sup- 
 plement the other. If the civil government is 
 looked upon as an agent of the people who con- 
 sider themselves the rulers, how can religion expect 
 to impress them with its " God," who is a monarch ; 
 if the people consider themselves as their own law- 
 makers, how can religion expect them to obey laws 
 arbitrarily enacted by someone else? If every cit- 
 izen is expected to obey the laws of his country be- 
 cause he agreed to do so, how can religion enforce 
 its laws, in the passage of which he was not con- 
 sulted? A man cannot be both the ruler and the 
 ruled. Submission to laws promulgated by some 
 higher authority is in consonance with the raon- 
 archial system but not with a democratic form of 
 government. And it matters little whether these 
 regulate his public conduct or only his private acts. 
 A man cannot be expected to restrain himself only 
 from the sense of duty in some things and by ex- 
 pectation of a bribe in others. More than likely 
 he will look for a reward for all his restraints and, 
 failing to receive it, he will allow his natural incli- 
 nations full sway. Now, the heavenly rewards are 
 shadowy and, at best, uncertain, and the restraint 
 from sense of duty is not agreeable at all times, so 
 
222 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 that if a man is expected to exercise it from both 
 motives, he is likely not to exercise it at all. If 
 Christianity had not departed from its original aim 
 by chasing after the fleeting lights of speculative 
 philosophy, it would be now in a position to adapt 
 itself to altered conditions, to changed views. It 
 would not have to devise subterfuges in order to 
 " save its face " because of the discovery of facts 
 by science which have disproved its dogmatically 
 proclaimed truths. Essentially social relations 
 are the same to-day as they always were. Man's 
 duty to his fellow-man is the same to-day as it was 
 five thousand years ago, and it is the same in 
 America as in India or Patagonia. And these 
 duties alone should religion undertake to preach 
 and propagate. 
 
 NATIONAL RELIGION 
 
 Now, then, if the theory of civil government re- 
 quires of its citizens to perform their duties from a 
 sense of personal responsibility, religion should 
 take upon itself to preach personal responsibility. 
 That is what American government requires of 
 its citizens. If the powers of our government are 
 derived from our consent, then the laws which are 
 passed by virtue of these powers derive their force 
 from our consent, and we should stand by our 
 word not because we expect to be sometimes re- 
 warded for it, but because we have given our word. 
 With us it is a question of honor. Our obedience 
 of the laws is from the sense of honor, and how 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 223 
 
 can religion cultivate this sense, and that is what 
 it should do, if it teaches the hope of rewards as 
 a motive for doing good? Hope for a reward is 
 just as likely to produce sneaks and hypocrites 
 as honest men, maybe more so. You can bribe 
 slaves, but not men who habitually consider them- 
 selves as rulers. We see the strange anomaly of 
 self-confessed or convicted criminals trusted, while 
 supposedly honest men have to be bribed to be 
 good. The courts take the words of those who 
 have already violated their honor, while religion 
 deems it necessary to oiFer bribes to those who 
 obey the laws. The criminal's word to be good 
 is now worth more than that of a law-abiding citi- 
 zen, for the former has also given his word to obey 
 the laws by consenting to their passage. Our 
 civil government offers no rewards to its citizens 
 for obej'^ing the laws, outside of the advantages 
 accruing from cooperation ; why should it be nec- 
 essary for religion to do so? And because we 
 have not gotten rid of the habit of expecting to 
 be rewarded for well-doing is the reason why the 
 exploitation of the public for private gain is so 
 prevalent. What is there in it for me? If I will 
 be good, will it profit me personally ? And Chris- 
 tianity encourages and fosters this habit of 
 thought. And the habit is so fixed that we are 
 inclined to be suspicious of anyone who claims to 
 do otherwise. The indirect and remote advan- 
 tages of cooperation do not appeal to us or sat- 
 isfy us ; there must be some personal reward in 
 
224 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 addition. My good behavior may come to the 
 attention of my king and he will reward me for it. 
 Why is this.'' Because religion persists in dan- 
 gling future rewards as the price of the obedience 
 of laws. Democracy, then, needs an educational 
 institution whose ethical teachings are in harmony 
 with its fundamental principles. It must teach 
 self-government, the habit of self-restraint from 
 the sense of personal responsibility. It is only 
 such a religion that can be an influence for good. 
 It must be satisfied to solve the everyday problems 
 of this life and let the future take care of itself. 
 
 Democracy needs also an institution which 
 would teach men their positive duties. Under the 
 theory of our government, only so much of man's 
 natural freedom is surrendered by him and cir- 
 cumscribed by the laws as is absolutely necessary ; 
 consequently only such acts are regulated as 
 would tend to disturb the peace. They are nearly 
 all only prohibitions. It is not the policy of our 
 laws to prescribe to men what they shall do. But 
 only refraining from doing injury to others is not 
 cooperation, which also means the doing of things 
 beneficial to others. If men did nothing for oth- 
 ers, social life, because of the restrictions it places 
 on man, would be a disadvantage. Our positive 
 legislation is limited to revenue and administrative 
 laws ; mutual helpfulness is left to the people's 
 own inclinations. But we do not live under gov- 
 ernments merely to maintain expensive machin- 
 ery for the administration of laws, which only in- 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 225 
 
 sure peace and thereby limit our natural freedom 
 and take away from us the means with which na- 
 ture provided us to preserve our lives ; we want to 
 derive some benefits also, to enjoy the fruits of co- 
 operation. 
 
 The law, however, does not direct us as to what 
 we shall do. Democracy, then, needs an institu- 
 tion which would take upon itself the duty of in- 
 terpreting to and impressing upon the people the 
 full meaning of cooperation, that would preach the 
 gospel of work and service, of mutual helpfulness. 
 Furthermore, this institution should be the path- 
 finder, the leader in progress. Life is growth, and 
 social life is the best means of preserving it ; con- 
 sequently, society must also grow. It grows be- 
 cause it must daily provide new means of protec- 
 tion; that is really what growth is, adaptation to 
 varying external conditions. Society to be effica- 
 cious must also be able to grow, to develop, to de- 
 vise new means of protection, to adapt itself to 
 changing conditions. It needs pioneers. Democ- 
 racy needs, therefore, an institution which would 
 cultivate high ideals to inspire men to become pio- 
 neers. High ideals are the expressions of an at- 
 tribute of the universal life to grow and to develop. 
 
 Such work is educational. The school is inade- 
 quate mainly because the children and youths that 
 attend it are not yet capable of comprehending the 
 necessities and exalted purposes of society. The 
 work of restraining the natural passions and de- 
 sires within the limits of necessity was done in the 
 
226 THE GIFT OF MIND TO SPIRIT 
 
 past almost exclusively by the mother in the home, 
 but nowadays women have got it into their heads 
 that this work is drudgery, and below their destiny 
 as they understand it. They mistakenly imagine 
 that chasing dollars is nobler than raising chil- 
 dren. While there were single pioneers of prog- 
 ress, it is the united effort of religious institutions 
 that laid out the path which humanity should 
 travel. Consequently, democracy needs to turn 
 to religion to perform this necessary work. But 
 religion can do this most efficaciously only when it 
 is in thorough accord with the principles of the 
 civil government ; it must be supplemental to it ; 
 it must be grounded in the same fundamental prin- 
 ciples. The civil institutions of the past were at 
 the height of their powers when they had such re- 
 ligions. 
 
 National affairs and problems are of this world ; 
 they are of everyday life and the present state, 
 and not with some future state; if religion wishes 
 to be a guide, it must concern itself with these real 
 problems, and not with some ephemeral speculative 
 conditions. It is our duty to preserve this life 
 which we have here, and not some ideal existence 
 about which we can only guess. Social problems, 
 with changing conditions, suggest suitable remedies, 
 and in devising these religion should be the leader. 
 If religion does not lead, there will arise men out- 
 side of it who will, and then religion will become 
 merely a useless adjunct, following instead of lead- 
 ing. We see this well exemplified in the policy of 
 
DEMOCRACY'S NEED 227 
 
 paroles adopted by law. In other words, democ- 
 racy, too, needs, not a state church, but a national 
 religion. 
 
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