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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30a2db8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #52245 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52245) diff --git a/old/52245-0.txt b/old/52245-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b74cd04..0000000 --- a/old/52245-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4613 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Where Science and Religion Meet, by William Scott Palmer - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Where Science and Religion Meet - -Author: William Scott Palmer - -Release Date: June 6, 2016 [EBook #52245] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE SCIENCE AND RELIGION MEET *** - - - - -Produced by readbueno, Donald Cummings, Bryan Ness and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - WHERE SCIENCE AND - RELIGION MEET - - - - - WHERE SCIENCE - AND RELIGION - MEET - - - BY - WILLIAM SCOTT PALMER - - "Il paraît juste de voir dans la vie le trait d'union - de la science et de la religion." - - _Émile Boutroux._ - - HODDER AND STOUGHTON - LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -'We are still, as in Plato's age, groping about for a new method more -comprehensive than any of those that now prevail; and also more -permanent. And we seem to see at a distance the promise of such a -method, which can hardly be any other than the method of idealized -experience, having roots which strike far down into the history of -philosophy. It is a method which does not divorce the present from the -past, or the part from the whole, or the abstract from the concrete, or -theory from fact, or the divine from the human, or one science from -another, but labours to connect them. Along such a road we have -proceeded a few steps, sufficient, perhaps, to make us reflect on the -want of method which prevails in our own day. In another age, all the -branches of knowledge, whether relating to God or man or nature, will -become the knowledge of "the revelation of a single science," and all -things, like the stars in heaven, will shed their light upon one -another.' - - JOWETT: _Plato_, Introduction to _Meno_. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - NOTE - - -I have not named my authorities or given references to any passages in -their books. My critics, friendly or unfriendly, may complain of this -omission. But I hope they will not. I hope they will see that I have -gathered my materials together for a clearly shown purpose with which -particular references and frequent defined quotations would have -interfered. I wanted to build a wayside cottage for travellers who are -in haste and will soon pass on, not a museum for the leisurely student. -I hope, then, that my critics will criticize the cottage to their -hearts' content—I shall do my best to learn from them,—but I beg them -not to treat it as a museum whose curator has either not had the sense -or not taken the trouble to ticket its contents. - -In place of references I have given in an appendix two short lists of -easily accessible books which will give technical support to the -substance of this little work. I have learnt much from them and -taken—all but quoted—much. I make no apology for including, among books -from which I have learnt, two of my own. Nothing teaches as solidly as -trying to teach. And the record of a learner sometimes helps learners, -when the oracles of the learned fail. But I must acknowledge here my own -great indebtedness to two of those learned, my old instructors, Sir -Edward Schäfer and Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, whose admirable lessons in -the biological sciences of which they are distinguished professors laid -a scientific foundation in me for all my subsequent study. - - W. SCOTT PALMER. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PART I - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it: - The moon is within me, and so is the sun. - The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; - but my deaf ears cannot hear it. - _Kabir._ - - -Deep in every one of us there is a passion of desire to understand, just -as there is of desire to enjoy and of desire to be somehow or other 'in -the right.' I say deep in us, because we are in the habit either of -burying these desires beneath a pretence of satisfying them or else of -diverting our attention from them and thus letting them sink out of -sight. So we live our life in the pursuit of other ends than those -likely to be reached through understanding and rapture and -righteousness. We falsify ourselves and our desires; yet unless we ruin -the life within us they persist, waiting their hour. - -There are moments when it becomes almost impossible for any man who has -seen something of the marvel of every-day affairs to believe that he -might spend time in vain if he were to try to convince his next-door -neighbour that there was anything hard to understand about the crooking -of a finger. Yet that is his experience when he tries. Just because -every man who has a healthy finger in a healthy body and a healthy mind -can and does crook it, there is nothing to wonder at. The whole affair -is plain; it is familiar, happens every day. Familiarity lulls to sleep -both the desire for understanding, and the sense of not understanding. - -Consequently there is little that should provoke surprise on our part in -the fact that not one man in (say) ten thousand is consciously puzzled -by any of the deeper problems of life, not one in (say) a hundred -thousand has his imagination either stirred or stunned by the green -blades of the corn, the leaves of the tree, the grass in his fields or -the sheep and cows that are eating it. There is nothing new about all -this, nothing strange; it is familiar—therefore it is understood or -there is nothing that calls for understanding. Yet in these green blades -and leaves is the junction-point between the living and the not-living, -between the plant and animal on the one hand and what we call 'inert -matter' on the other, between the radiant energy of the sun and -ourselves. And we do not understand, nobody understands, how that -junction-point works. It is called chlorophyll; it is found in little -living bodies called chloroplasts; and it is wonderful 'beyond all -whooping'. Yet we do not even whoop. We do not get even thus far. We are -not surprised, we are not enraptured. The thing is at once both too -familiar and too obscure for us. - -We cannot do away with the familiarity; but at least, as reasonable -beings possessed of that passion of desire which is a cry of the spirit -within us and which we so often do our utmost to suppress, it will be -well for us to make an attempt to find out how and even why this green -stuff of the plant is so highly distinguished among the wonders of the -world. - -But first let us ask ourselves a searching and pertinent question—let us -ask ourselves what it means to be alive. A man is alive, but so are the -cells of his own blood, so is the grass in the fields, so are the small -jellies we call amoebae and the still smaller rods and specks we call -bacteria and 'germs.' Can we say anything about life that will at once -fit these and distinguish them from all else that does not live, -accepting for the moment the distinction between living and not-living -that we ordinarily make? - -There are several things that we may say about them. For example, they -grow. But a crystal grows and so does a heap of sand. There are, then, -different ways of growing. The sand heap grows when the wind scatters -particles of sand over it or the sea drives them; or the river, or a -small boy with a barrow, deposits them. It grows by mere addition. The -crystal grows without any such aid and in a different way. If you want -to see an alum-crystal grow you must offer it more alum, dissolved; you -must offer it its own material and it will then grow without other help. -It will grow by what we may call formative accretion. On the other hand -the grass and the corn and the trees grow neither by mere addition nor -by formative accretion, but by converting, assimilating and -incorporating nitrogen, carbon, and so on, compounded either by their -own effort or by the micro-organisms of the soil. They are magicians, -these live creatures. And of all their magic the magic of their green -leaves is chief in our eyes. For it takes the carbonic acid of the air, -a stable compound of one atom of carbon with two of oxygen, and tears it -to pieces, using for that enormous work the radiant energy of the sun. -This carbon, now potent with the potency of the sun, is then united with -other elements to make sugars that nourish the tissues of the plant. In -these sugars power is stored as it is stored in an explosive like -dynamite or trinitrotoluol. But in the plant, power is under strict -control; it is liberated by degrees as it is wanted and is replaced as -it is used; it is controlled, used, replaced in a discriminating, -selective and determining way. The ability to make use of physical -power, within a body, in this discriminating, selective and determining -way and thus to grow is (among other things) what is meant by being -alive. - -The chemist in his laboratory can make explosives, chemical compounds -that will easily break down and in breaking down will liberate, for good -or ill, great power. He makes nitroglycerin and trinitrotoluol. He can -also make very elaborate and more stable compounds than a plant makes, -for instance, indigo or madder-red, though for such as these he does not -usually begin like the plant with chemical elements; he begins half -way—with lesser compounds, ready made—and thus, or even sometimes by -building up from the bottom, from elements, like the plant, he makes -what are known as 'organic' substances of many sorts and uses. Is it -possible that he will ever make that organic substance protoplasm, the -life-jelly of living things? He has not done so yet. Suppose he did, -suppose he went on from making indigo to make the indigo-maker itself. -There is nothing of a chemical kind in the indigo-plant which his -laboratory does not contain; there are just the carbon, nitrogen, -oxygen, salts and the rest, with which he deals so successfully -elsewhere. He has all the materials to hand. Why should he not make its -living stuff? Again, suppose he did, for perhaps he will. What then? -Will he have made life, as well as built up the material substance of a -living thing? That is a question of questions. - -We know life here only in association with its jelly. What is the -character of that association? Granted that life depends on the jelly, -in what way does it depend? If we can answer these questions we may know -how to answer the one about the chemist's making or not making life, if -and when he makes the jelly. - -There are different ways of being dependent, as there are different ways -of growing. The steam depends on the boiler and the boiler-fire. In this -case the dependence is one of being _produced_. The boiler and its fire -produce the steam. So we say, in the ordinary way of speaking of such -things. Again—when I press the trigger of a rifle the bullet is shot -out. I have only pressed the trigger; you can hardly say I have produced -the bullet. What I have done is to release an explosive power that -drives the bullet. That is another kind of dependence, dependence on the -_release_ of power. There may be still, there certainly have been, men -who would tell you that life is produced by protoplasm as steam is -produced by the boiler, or that it is released from a chemical compound -by some chemical or physical trigger action. They might, once they did -in large numbers, say that consciousness is produced by or released from -the brain, and that this must be so because it depends upon the brain. - -These two assertions, one about life and the other about consciousness, -stand or fall together; and we can begin to see that they may be made to -fall, as soon as we see that there is a third kind of dependence to be -considered besides the dependence of the bullet and the steam. There is -the dependence of light in a room on the existence of a window. Without -window no light in that room; with window as much light as window -permits to pass. There is a dependence of _transmission_, and -transmission may occur in many wide and fundamentally differing ways. At -a stroke you see the whole question and series of questions take on a -new aspect. If the chemist makes life-jelly he may have made not -something to produce or to release but something to transmit life. He -may doubtless have imitated what there is good reason to think must have -taken place on the earth's surface long ago and may indeed be taking -place now; but in doing this he may only have made a material substance -capable of allowing spiritually potent life to be manifest in it and to -endow it with a share in promoting the purposes of life. He may have -made for the peculiar potency of life a door of entrance to a house, or -rather, since this house is not passive, to a body in which it and the -body will be distinguishable as a living being, an example of life and -matter living and at work together. Why not? The supposition of some -such dependence of the superior power of life upon a body seems quite as -reasonable, even at no more than a first glance, as the other -suppositions made by men who do not acknowledge the specific character -of life. And it accords far better with both knowledge and experience, -when these are taken at their widest and their most profound. The other -suppositions accord only with chosen parts of knowledge and chosen bits -cut out of experience—the parts and bits cut out and chosen by the man -who restricts himself to the specialism and the very right and proper -superficiality of certain sciences. Even there they accord but ill, -because in their inception they trespass beyond the borders of all -science. - -Living creatures are the subject of the mere biologist's merely -scientific inquiry—not life. When a biologist, speaking as biologist, -tries to tell us both _that_ life is and _what_ it is, he is -philosophizing. Life is in fact an ultra-scientific problem. We have to -call in philosophy before we can even state the problem. And when either -the biologist or the physicist or the chemist talks of life as a mode of -physical or chemical energy, or as a product of things, he is playing at -philosophy, not soberly working at his science. The biologist shall -teach us about living creatures, the physicist and the chemist about -physical and chemical things and powers; but the philosopher must help -us in our enquiry about life. And this, not because a man shall not be -permitted to transgress boundaries we lay down, but because his chosen -methods preclude his walking safely except within boundaries they -themselves build up. Of every specialist this is true. We must transcend -specialism if we would have 'all things, like the stars in heaven,' shed -'their light upon one another.' - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - Time hath endless rarities, and shows of all varieties; - which reveals old things in heaven, makes new - discoveries in earth, and even earth itself a discovery. - _Sir Thomas Browne_. - - -The green leaf of the tree, the blade of the wheat that gives me bread—I -look at them and tell myself, as many a man has told himself before, -that if I could read their secrets I should know, as from the 'flower in -the crannied wall,' 'what God and man is.' So I might, but only as far -as their secrets go. If I could read my own I should go farther and know -more. I am man and hold far greater secrets in being man. And I have the -inestimable advantage of being inside myself, of being alive, besides -looking on at living, of both growing and watching growth. There is no -other live creature on earth who can possibly tell me as much as I can -tell myself about what it means to be alive. And if the blade of wheat -is wonderful beyond words, what am I? - -Think of it: I have a history; indeed I am a history, I am time alive, -time that accumulates and lasts. I have a past that is not past, because -it is at work in my present and is writing its indelible signature on my -future. There is no least action in my past that has not left its -impress on me, made me different from what I should have been without -it, and therefore will make my future different too. My whole history is -alive, active and changing in my actions and my change. The history of -my forefathers, too, is alive in me and in my character and powers. I -have an inheritance from their living; I am as and what I am, in part -because they were as and what they were. But I have power and I use it -to create myself and recreate my inheritance through an impetus -transmitted to me in the transmission to me of my life. Therefore every -moment of my life is a unique and original moment of a unique and -original history, mine and mine alone, never to be repeated, never to be -wholly predicted, even by me. The evolutionist philosophy tells me that -I endure, I _last_, and that all my changes and experiences endure, -last, in and with me, changing in themselves and among themselves as -though they were alive to influence and interpenetrate each other. -Indeed they are alive in me and in my life or they could not endure. -They would pass like the stages in the height of a sand heap as it -grows, as the little heap it was is merged and lost in the larger heap -it is. They would be lost as the flowing tide is lost when the ebb -succeeds it. Such changes are mere successions, displacements and -replacements; they are not history. They enter history only in sharing -that of the universe which itself endures, lasts, and within which they -are parts. - -I, on the other hand, have a life of my own; I am a maker, shaper, -creator. I am a master-worker and freeman in a world of relative -necessity. Yet my wonderful living body, through which I do my work, -depends for its support on the green blades of grass and corn and the -green leaves of the trees. Further—every cell of the millions and -millions in my body is like the amoeba and the cells of the plant in -consisting of protoplasm. Further still—I began my own life as a speck -of protoplasm, and if I could trace all the steps of my pedigree to the -first display of life on earth, from which I am sure I am descended, I -should (I dare to say) find another protoplasmic speck with which every -one of the cells of the vast cellular republic whereby and wherein I -live is in historical continuity. Bodily I am immensely complicated; I -am a congeries and a commonwealth of cells. But the first cell was also -complicated although it was but one. Nothing that lives is simple, no, -not even if we carry the idea of life far beyond the arbitrary -boundaries commonly set to it now. There is unplumbed mystery in the -conjunction of two atoms of hydrogen with one of oxygen to make a third -and different substance, water; there is unplumbed mystery in every -element and every happening of the world. But some mysterious things are -scientifically more complex than others, and among the most complex is -this thing, protoplasm. Yet it seems that before life could be manifest -in the world the molecular complexity of protoplasm must have been -attained. By storing power in building up the atoms of the chemical -elements from electrons, and making that power useful by the union of -atoms in molecules; then, by a further delicate union between molecules -(much after the fashion of widely branching, but only slightly -tenacious, magnets) forming larger and ever larger groups, a condition -of such plasticity of matter and ready discharge and restoring of power -has been attained as makes it fit for the rank of a recognized life. The -grouped and complicated molecules, each charged with power, are set as -with a double-acting hair-trigger, so ready are they to let go energy in -heat and work as these are wanted; so ready also for their rebuilding in -the peculiar power of the life with which they are imbued. - -There are examples of highly complex union to be seen in the chemist's -laboratory and elsewhere which are never called living matter. The -chemist speaks of some of them as colloids (we should naturally call -many of these jellies, or gums) and he calls protoplasm a colloid too. -They have remarkable properties, and the new bio-chemist thinks he may -some day make that elaborate colloid with more remarkable properties, -which we know as protoplasm. He thinks also that we do ill to confine -the first production of life-jellies to the age of steaming seas and -cloud-shadowed lagoons, before the Pre-Cambrian geologic times. He tells -us that in his opinion it may always be going on and always have gone on -since the earth was cool enough to permit of it. He thinks that if all -the living creatures we are aware of were swept out of the world to-day -there would still be living stuff remaining on it of which we are -ignorant now; and that in the course of millenniums this would people it -once more. The beginnings of the life-jelly must be so small as to be -far out of the reach of our microscopes and every other tool we can -bring to bear, as yet, he says. And there, doubtless, he is right. - -Let us suppose that he is right, too, in his main contention. Let us -look at inorganic matter with a new eye, seeing in its evolutionary -change the forerunner of greater change and greater evolution, the -preparer of the narrow pathway by which life approaches to its display, -and at last enters on possession of a body that in union with it shall -be the germ of lives to come—enters the realm of physical forces and the -relative necessity of material things, where and by use of those forces -it will subdue necessity to the purposes of freedom. This indeed seems -to be the manner and purposing of life as it extends from the single -cell to the assemblage of cells that constitutes my body. There is -continuity from first to last; and yet the differences between me and -the primitive jelly-speck are even more striking than the resemblances. -Students of the cell itself and students of my body as merely composed -of cells are, naturally, cytologists, histologists, physiologists, -embryologists, and the like. But unless there are others, unless -students of psychology, ethics, aesthetics, social science, history, and -many more, bring their minds to bear on me, I am studied to little sense -and in small part. I am obliged to regard myself as not only physical -but psychical; I seek after, and sometimes find, goodness and truth and -beauty. I admire, I hate or love. I am a hero or a criminal, or both. I -sin. In the advance of life from the minute and primitive colloid lump -to me amazing things have happened. When I see life making its humble -appearance by that speck of jelly, I must in my mind's eye connect it -with what I am, and see there in its almost inchoate wonders the promise -of myself. And still I must look behind even that first living thing and -consider matter as well as life; for the physical potency of that thing -was long of building up; and this physical potency has its place in me. -The material pathway of life is the pathway of my powers, and it -stretches far back into cosmic happenings smaller or (it depends how you -look at these high matters and what you see in them) greater still. - -We have no need to stretch imagination unaided; we may watch changes -going on which indicate or, maybe, reproduce, stages in the creation -of our own world and of its very elements. There are stars in which -material elements are being either made or destroyed; it is hard for -us to say which. In the constellation Argo there are two suns—furnaces -of immeasurable heat—in which hydrogen, the lightest and simplest of -our elements, is either being born or disintegrated before our eyes. -There are other stars where hydrogen is in the same state as that in -which we know it here, and more complex elements (for the elements of -the chemist are in reality complex; they are only elements for him, -because he cannot disintegrate them) are being born or, again, are -being destroyed. There are stars in all stages up to the stage of our -own sun and beyond, in age and powers; and there are elements of many -degrees of complexity. In the series of those stars there is a series -of changes which, taken together, mark for us either an ascent of -matter from the immaterial, or a descent towards it. There is iron in -its very infancy to be seen in some—proto-iron we call it—which we are -able to produce ourselves by exposing ordinary iron to the intense -heat of the electric vacuum spark and there disrupting it into a -simpler mode which the spectroscope detects as it detects it in a -star. We are entitled to say that in these changes material elements -declare themselves to be things that somewhere and somehow are born -and grow, whether in any one stage that we watch they are moving in -one direction or another, from birth or down towards death. Indeed the -most probable thing is that in the solar furnace-fires both movements -are going on together; elements are being born and elements annulled. -They have an origin, these elements. Some scientific men suggest to us -that they issue from the universal ether that fills the interstellar -spaces and the spaces of the stars themselves, of our own bodies, of -all things in all worlds. Here the first stones of the pathway on -which life travels may have (in their belief) been shaped. And neither -chemist nor physicist can even guess at anything beyond. We stop here, -as men of science only. It is at a place full of marvels that we are -arrested. This ether is so marvellous that some rash men have deemed -it competent to replace God. They have asked what need we have of any -other God. And, truly, if the creations of worlds that are no more -than physical were all a God was needed for, this amazing source of -worlds would seem, not so unreasonably, to be enough. Whether the -ether is immaterial or not, we might say the same. There are those who -hold that it is the first and finest of the elements of matter. For -men who know most about it, it is no kind of matter. But its power and -fertility remain, however this may be; it is held to be the medium of -communication everywhere, between small and great, distant and near; -and the womb of the worlds. Undoubtedly it may serve the -pseudo-physicist-philosopher in place of God, while he is no more than -that. - -The pathway for life has been traced back and back to the utmost of the -regressive journey of science. We have seen (perhaps) the first stones -being fashioned in the fires of the suns; at least we may believe that -in some such place and way they have been and are being fashioned. We -know—radium has shown us and the proto-iron—how chemical elements can be -disintegrated and brought down to lower states of material complexity. -In radio-active matter there is more than a hint that they may be -brought lower still, returned to the fecund mother from which they came, -restored, let us say, to the ether. - -We may have learnt—that depends on our prepossessions—we may have learnt -in studying this regress to see in what the chemist calls the 'affinity' -of one element for another, and in its 'valency' (that is, its ability -to grip one or another and even several to itself and take part in -building up compounds), a likeness or a congruity with living stuff. And -we have seen a living thing as compounded physically of the compounds of -the chemist, though not, as yet, compounded by him. Unless our -prepossessions form in us irrational prejudice we may gladly follow the -clue science puts in our hands, and confess a continuous advance in -order upon order of nature from the womb of the ether to ourselves. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - There the Eternal Fountain is playing its endless - life-streams of birth and death. - _Kabir._ - - -We have followed the physicist and the chemist to the farthest point -they have reached in their research. They cannot show us anything -beyond, and we, unsatisfied, must look elsewhere. The problems of life -remain. We ourselves stand on the great pathway, its continuous road of -rising orders, and from our place of vantage we contemplate the first -living thing. A profound discrepancy, or what seems like one, stares us -in the face, the discrepancy between our mastery over things and our -self-conscious, self-creative abilities on the one hand, and, on the -other, that first humble yet awe-inspiring revelation by elements -generated, perhaps, within a white-hot star. Science has nothing to do -with meanings and purposes and values in our lives or with our concern -for them. Indeed it has nothing to do, in strictness, with meanings and -purposes and values anywhere. This is the business of philosophy and of -all ordinary men. - -We have learnt a lesson as we followed the men of science from step to -step, and heard nature respond to their questions with intelligible -answers. We have learnt that, so far as it has been examined, the -universe, like ourselves, is rational and has a history. It moves, -changes, grows; it is real and its history is real too. And though -science is not concerned with its meaning, we are. We hold fast to our -science, but we care for more than science. We cannot help it, for we -are aware of meaning in ourselves; as the man of science is when he is -not being only scientific. We are aware too of purpose and of values; we -are aware of making and shaping and creating; we know what it is to -choose and direct, to arrange and rearrange, to produce novelty. Both -sides of our knowledge and our caring, the scientific side and the -personal side, make a difficulty for us in regard to the philosophers -with whom we shall put ourselves to school. Our chosen teachers must -reckon with life as we know and possess it in ourselves; but they must -reckon too with every word of the scientific man. Nothing less will -content us now. The philosophers we shall follow must not be playing a -game among themselves, using thoughts like pieces on a board, to be -moved according to rules they have laid down. Neither must they resolve -the great drama of real things and real history into a phantasmagoria of -mind; nor try to educe mind, consciousness, the spiritual activities of -man, from the interplay of parts of a material machine. In our view both -the material and the spiritual are real. It is for the philosopher, so -we think, to show us the real relation between them. To do him justice, -the philosopher has been thoroughly aroused of late years to the -importance of reckoning with science. Consequently he draws to his side -thinking ordinary men as they have perhaps never been drawn before, -except when Socrates at Athenian banquets and in Athenian streets 'made -himself a fool that others by his folly might be made wise.' We have no -difficulty now in finding a philosopher, indeed many philosophers, to -our mind. Philosophy is alive, sitting at our banquets, walking in our -streets, even writing books that ordinary men, living each his own -extraordinary life, can read. We are able to call in our philosopher, -then, as we have called in the bio-chemist, knowing him to be one who -reckons to the full with science, that he may tell us what he can and -will concerning life and living. - -A philosopher of that mind and reckoning has presented us with a picture -in which we see life coming (may be from very far, coming, we may think, -although concealed, by the material pathway from the ether that science -has revealed to us) as an enormous impetus which finds the first of its -advantages that are discernible by us, in that colloid assembly of -compounded, complicated, delicately-strung, hair-trigger-hung elements, -the protoplasmic stuff. We plainly see a new beginning which, in -philosophic truth, is a continuance in new manners upon this earth of -that which has no beginning; we see a living thing which lives because -an impulsive and propulsive life, not material but spiritual, has raised -material elements from the rank of dust, and has found a means of using -material powers to purposes and ends. And this philosopher tells us that -from its marvellous but humble first appearing in matter life advances, -not like the trickle of a single stream, but like the bursting forth of -a potent, spreading fountain whose waters part in a thousand directions -to make a thousand streams, each purposive, each at first seeking, but -many of them unsuccessfully, to fulfil some part of the purpose of the -whole. And in regard to this frequent unsuccess, we find the philosopher -borne out by the palaeontologist, whose 'general picture ... of the -evolution of the animal kingdom is accordingly that of an immense number -of ... lives which evolve parallel to one another, and without -coalescing, throughout longer or shorter geological times,' each of -which 'culminates sooner or later in mutations of great size and highly -specialized characters, which become extinct and leave no descendants.' -At the heart of life, as in the philosophic mirror we watch its advance, -there seems one guiding and supreme purpose, which is manifest in the -continuous effort 'to engraft on the necessity of physical forces the -largest possible amount of indetermination,' that is, of freedom in -choice. But this purpose is evidently very hard to fulfil, and as we -see, often fails of being fulfilled. - -We may in mind and imagination walk in company with these teachers of -ours; we may see the stages of the past of living creatures marked out -in the geological strata, learning thus how life has grown from less to -more, how its divergent streams have turned this way or that, and how -some have been frustrate, as in the giant saurians and labyrinthodonts. -We may learn too from the biologist that in our own day others (for -instance perhaps those in the elephant and the ostrich and the whale) -are in like manner drawing near to frustration by that impressive -wearing out and perishing of a race, which is so clearly illustrated in -the geological record. We discover that when impulsive life, seeking a -free way, finds advance only through an excessive increase in the size -of some creature, that creature's fate is sealed, and that manner of -advance is barred. Size extending much beyond a certain range normal in -the particular kind of animal is (perhaps in consequence of purely -mechanical influences) to all the main intents and purposes of life no -better than a blind alley. A like impulse, finding its outlet in the -elaboration of nervous apparatus ranging from an all but indiscoverable -structure to that definite and complex yet indefinitely mobile organ of -an indefinitely extending choice—that living instrument for overcoming -mechanism, that 'veritable reservoir of indetermination'—the human -brain, finds there and there alone a road to great and full success. Yet -it finds a road to minor and circumscribed successes in the lives of -plants and animals which, interacting together, become of immeasurable -value for the whole realm of life and the well-being of its citizens—for -that realm of interlacing purposes and ends, where partial failure is so -often converted to a new and a remoter triumph. - -It seems as though in many, indeed in most instances, a life current, -instead of driving on towards either greater freedom or complete arrest, -met with a resistance able to constrain it, as it were, into eddies, -wherein it circles as creatures living out either in a relative -independence or in a parasitic state (sometimes of primary development, -at others of degradation from a higher mode) their restricted lives. -They are being fulfilled according to their restricted wants; they are -needing no more of life than they have, and therefore seek no further -than they are. And they have their co-operative value in the whole. -These are the minor, yet many of them—and that in spite of dangers and -pain and death—the delightful, successes of life. Everywhere upon this -earth now, it seems, except in man, we may justly picture the -life-currents as either coming to an end or circling round and round in -some such eddy, at most curving out a little way to change a little in -shape, to form new varieties within a species or, rarely, new species -within a genus. There is in lower animals than ourselves, and in the -plants, a certain contentment, on which tired men have sometimes been -known to look with envy. The realm of nature is well served by servants -such as these, and natural delights, in spite of natural pains, are won. -But not all that life can do and be is represented in those finished -forms. In the plants it seems to be asleep. There the protoplasmic stuff -has built a wall about its soft body, the casing of cellulose behind -which it sleeps, working in sleep, in great measure cut off from the -varied stimulus and many-tongued summons, the resistances and -opportunities, of an outer world. And some of the animals that are now -extinct owe their extinction, not to their gigantic size, but to their -having sought safety rather than adventure, and imprisoned themselves in -their mechanical armour of defence. They too were in their measure cut -off from the stir and help and moving oppositions of associated lives. -In truth and in regard to the supreme purpose manifested in life, all -the non-human creatures of the earth have, within themselves and for -themselves, in one fashion or another barred its advance; although very -many of them are furthering its purposes, indeed giving them -indispensable support, elsewhere. Those which have not been extinguished -and still maintain their place in the world are too complete, too -well-adapted to a satisfying but narrow sphere, for progress to a wider. -Life is not bearing them on; their nervous organ, that structure of -inter-related cells by which they use their world, selecting and -determining this or that, has not like ours capacity for indefinite -change. Theirs is exactly fitted for their narrow use of it, and they -and it are constrained together. - -When we look at man through the eyes of the philosopher we see life -clearly as a _spiritual_ impulse, an impulse of a higher order than the -animal, at least as much higher as that is than the material, and ever -driving on. Man is not content; he is not fulfilled. He is fully awake; -and he is not only conserving his long past but peering into the -distances of his future. His brain is flexible, and able to provide a -multitude of new structural arrangements; it is therefore an instrument -of such choice as gives him leave to shape his future. And it is an -active instrument; it brings to him through extending perception a field -for his own spiritual activities that stretches out to match them, and -enables him to become a ruler among circumstances. It allows him to -worship beauty and even to create it; and to seek and worship truth; to -adore goodness and be good. It permits desire to grow and the spirit -within him to reach limit after limit, using each limit as an -opportunity for further growth. All this the brain of man allows and -promotes; and on this earth his brain alone. There is nowhere so -magnificent and marvellous a bodily organ; for in it and by means of it -physical things and physical laws are subdued to the purposes and ends -of a free enduring creation. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - Listen to the moaning of the pine, at whose roots - thy hut is fastened. - _Kabir._ - - -The divergent streams of that primaeval fountain of life as they spread -out upon the earth, in the earth, in the air, in, under and upon the -waters, have given to it the endless variety of its creatures. In this -variety, and of those streams, there are three and no more than three -main currents; there are three directions and grouped characters and -qualities of life. Each of these in its turn branches into minor streams -and differences of creatures. The main currents are those of the plants, -the insects, and the vertebrate animals. - -We have seen that one function of the life of plants gives to the whole -world of living creatures access to the energy of the sun. Yet as -regards intelligence and conscious relation with other creatures the -plant may be said to be asleep; it carries on its vital functions and -builds up its manifold and admirable structures, working as though in -sleep. Its whole activity, varied though it be, is like that of a -dreamer. Confined within a wall of cellulose, the plant-cell works out -its life as though, for its awareness, no other creature lived. - -With the insect-world we enter on a widely differing scene. There, in -the highest insects, we discover what may well rouse a salutary -discontent with ourselves. The life-current which finds its eddying -termination in the wasps and bees and ants has one, and that its chief, -character pointing to grave but happily not irremediable deficiency in -most of us, if not to some extent in all. The wasp seems to know other -creatures' life, to understand it sympathetically, to touch and feel it -from within, in a manner that to us is marvellous. Life manifests -through this little winged thing a power we call instinct, perfected for -certain uses to a degree not attained outside the insect-world. There -are wasps which sting caterpillars with admirable though not invariable -precision in their nerve-centres, so that they go on living but cannot -move, and thus are made to serve as living larders for the wasp-grubs. -Observers have found that different wasps, seeking different kinds of -prey, sting three times, nine times, in three or nine centres, according -to the number in the body of their selected victim, and that the Scolia -stings the larvae of the rose-beetle in one point only, just where the -motor-ganglia are concentrated. Other observers have noticed some -failures and occasional irregularities. But listen (it may be once more -and after many times) to this well-known story, the story of the -Sitaris, if you want to see what life can do in a fashion for which the -intellectual work of man offers in his experience no parallel. This tiny -beetle lays its eggs in the doorway of the underground passages dug by a -certain bee, the Anthophora. When an egg is hatched the grub awaits an -opportunity to spring upon the male bee as it comes out. You may deceive -it with a substitute, and no doubt it often is deceived without your -help. Nevertheless, if not thus deceived it clings to the bee until the -nuptial flight occurs, when it seizes some chance of shifting from the -male to the female. Now clinging to the female, it waits until the -bee-eggs are as usual laid upon honey. Then it leaps again, this time -upon an egg which serves it at first as a raft on the honey. By degrees -it eats up the egg; then uses as its raft the empty shell. It changes, -undergoes a metamorphosis, and becomes able both to float and feed on -honey, where it remains until it changes for the last time into the -perfect insect, a Sitaris ready in its turn to set going this amazing -cycle of life. It is a life that seems to involve knowledge of things -which, by any knowing such as our intellectual experience provides, -could not be known. Untaught, unaided, without previous experiment, the -creature displays what looks like, but cannot be, true forethought, as -well as ingenuity and adaptive skill; what looks like, but cannot be, a -continued adjustment of reflectively chosen means to reflectively -recognized ends. There can be no question but that all this, under such -conditions, would be beyond the reach of our intellectual powers, and -beyond our reflective thought. We may justly say that it is beyond the -reach of any powers that are merely of reflective thought. Not thus does -intellect carry on its conceptual work. It analyses and reflects, it -separates, compares, and puts together. That is not the way of the grub -of Sitaris, neither is it the way of the solitary wasp. There appears to -be for these and for others of their tribe, in 'perceptual -consciousness,' some mysterious sympathy between the life of the -creature using and the life of the creature used, akin to that sympathy -of digestive secretions with digestible food by means of which our -bodies are nourished, or the process by which the cell becomes the -organized and completed creature. There seem to be also motor-habits -stored up by repetition in forbears, which facilitate the active -expression of this sympathy. When the wasp stings the nerve-centres of -the caterpillar as accurately, as on the whole he does, it seems to us -as though in the mere presence together of wasp and caterpillar two -congruous activities, not two beings, met—the wasp-activity perceiving -rather than thinking about the caterpillar-activity, perceiving it and -attacking it through certain established instrumental means as though -entering into a familiar relation to it. You might be inclined to say -that the sting of the wasp picks out the nervous ganglia of the -caterpillar as a magnet picks out fragments of steel from the dust. -Instinct no doubt means perceiving in sympathetic relation, and has more -than a mere likeness to reflex actions in the body. Like these it may -find its bodily support in a motor tradition, borne from reproductive -germ to reproductive germ, as a structural record of bodily movements -ingrained by the incessant repetition of certain actions through many -continuous generations. But unlike these it may work with and for the -intellect in all its grades. - -We may well desire a sympathetic relation with other life, a perceptive -understanding keener, quicker, more direct, more inclusive and more -penetrating. And let us hasten to assure ourselves that we may attain -what we seek, though in ways very different from the insect's, and for -ends very different too. No life-current in any creature is of one -character alone; none but has in it, in some proportion or another and -with this or that degree of emphasis, all characters. The intuitive -character and power of life in perceptive experience and perceptive -consciousness, which though highly emphasized in some creatures becomes -narrowed to their instinct, is not the exclusive prerogative of any one -kind, even of the insects, though within their narrow bounds they have -carried it almost to inerrancy of use; any more than reflective thought -is the exclusive prerogative of man, though he has carried it farther -and wider and deeper than any other creature of the earth. The problem -for us is in great part one of emphasis and proportion. We have -cultivated our reflective thinking more than our perceptive awareness, -our conceptual more than our intuitive power. Because thought exercised -upon external things has given us what we most wanted in the external -world, and is giving us more and more, we have over-emphasized it. We -have strained unceasingly to understand and to manage not life but those -external material things. We are great geometers and artificers; we are -great in our understanding of material things; but there is another -greatness, a perceptual greatness, to which most of us have not -attained, although it lies open to us, in fulness matching the fulness -of our intellectual endowment. - -We are not without plain indications of the existence in ourselves of -that intuitive power, which as instinct is amazing to us in the accurate -yet constrained lives of the beetles and the wasps. It is amazing -chiefly because it is not that which we desire and are aware of desiring -or needing to use. There is in every one of us, latent or declared, a -true intuition of life, a truly intuitive awareness, a touch within, a -perceptual knowledge sympathetic in the pure sense of the word, reaching -far beyond the insect's. We may know it for what it is because in us -giving rather than gaining is its secret spring, although gain, -assuredly, comes by giving. Such, for example, is the knowledge of the -artist, won only in his giving of himself to the object of his worship, -in his placing himself by an artistic sympathy within it. Thus he -obtains by sympathetic intuition an understanding that is like a -spiritual touch, that is perceiving not thinking about, that, by -immediate contact with the individual thing, is a knowledge of it in its -own reality. Such again is the intuition of the true lover, who gives -himself to the beloved and in that giving wins a knowledge like the -artist's. They are akin, these two, artist and lover. Their kinship is -grounded in their use of that intuitive character of life which for -humanity as a whole has been cast into the shade by the more practically -useful manners of intellect, and which in the insect-tribe is confined -to the immediate needs of a fixed and narrow mode of existence. - -Yet there is in truth a real difference, in these respects, between man -and the insect or any other creature. In the perceptive consciousness of -the insect, restricted by the fixed character of its nervous system, the -intuitive potency of life has shrunk and hardened, as it were, into a -restrained power which deals, and can deal, only with a very small part -of life and the world. This power is forced to work in the windowless -prison of a completed life. Man's life is not completed; in him -consciousness, stretching out ever farther and farther, has passed one -temporary limit after another, function impelling structure to match -itself, mind seeking to go beyond itself. The consciousness of man has -been always opening up for him new fields, adapting itself to new -objects, moving among them, making a way through them, and in all its -growth and change advancing in freedom. To attain this freed human -consciousness seems, we may say, the motive principle of the evolution -of life through man's forerunners. Its driving impulse is both carried -indefinitely further in that consciousness and revealed as what it -really is. Herein lies the difference in order between every animal, -every plant, the most skilful of the beetles or the wasps, and man. -Their way is closed. His lies before him wide open. He _is_ the open -way, the one open way on earth for life in its harmony of intuitive and -intellectual power both fulfilled. And if hitherto we and our -forefathers have in practice over-emphasized conceptual thinking and the -intellect, our over-emphasis and its practical results have set us in a -place where sympathetic intuition in perceptive experience has a new -advantage. In us it will not, or rather it need not, be narrowed down. -It may stretch out into every field that discursive and reflective -thought has opened up, and it may pass beyond them to lead them on. The -attainment by man of his high calling and of the destiny of which he is -capable depends in truth on this expansion of his life. So the -philosopher assures us. So, also—and this is noteworthy—does the -psychologist: 'with the development of "psychical integration" both -sides develop, and their relation, that is experience, therefore expands -into a meaning inclusive of more and more, till, in the human being, it -may be inclusive of all things actual and possible, the universe in -space, and history in time from the remotest past, and, in imagination, -to the most distant future.' The psychologist too, is not without his -vision. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - If any one should care to say that unless I have - bones and muscles and the other parts of the body I - could not do what I would, that is well enough: - but to say that I act as I do because of them, and - that this is the way in which my mind acts, and not - from choice of the best, why, that is a very careless - and idle way of speaking. - _Plato._ - - -There are signs that the life of the body is even in the lower animals -to some extent imbued with the free creative spirit. There are creative -efforts of determination, changes of direction, triumphs over -circumstance, that find their enlightening context in the more -emancipated life of man. - -A sea-urchin's egg, for instance, begins its development by dividing -into two cells. Normally these cells, by a like division, share between -them the making of the respective halves of the creature's body. If you -remove one cell after the first division of the egg you may expect (you -certainly should and will if you take your stand with the mechanistic -theorists) to find that you have mutilated the creature. You may or will -expect to see the remaining half of the egg grow to a half-embryo. Under -some circumstances you will see what you expect; but if you are very -skilful and are acquainted with the new methods you will have the -disturbing joy of seeing the half-egg—you may even see a -quarter-egg—take on the work of the whole, and grow to a complete though -small embryo; and not only to an embryo but to a larva. You may do the -same with a newt's egg or a frog's. With your mind's eye, then, you may -if you like, and if you thus interpret things, watch the sea-urchin's, -the frog's, or the newt's life, overcoming, according to a 'primary -purposiveness' of its own, your effort to thwart its intention. You may -watch it determining new contrivances from within to meet an unexpected -emergency that threatens to mar the complete whole it means to be, -changing a normal to an abnormal course of activity, that it may still -attain its end—in short 'working out its own salvation,' as a -morphologist remarks, 'upon original and individual lines.' - -It would seem difficult not to recognize in these changes a likeness -to what you know in yourself as intelligent action. Studying them it -is hard for any but a confirmed mechanist to resist the contention -of men who tell us that the vital _is_ the intelligent. Whereas -purely material changes, if they are left to themselves, follow the -way of least material resistance, life, whether in the cell or in -the organism, moves in an opposite direction. The living vegetable -cell raises carbon and other elements from relative inertness to a -condition charged with newly available power. And in these -developmental changes the organism seems to manifest itself as in -very truth 'a living, active, responsive thing, quite capable of -relinquishing at need the beaten track of normal development,' like -ourselves as we make our bodily, intellectual, moral and spiritual -decisions. The mechanist is ready with his retort when we say this, -but it is a poor retort. He tells us of mysterious 'specific -organ-forming substances' which are not ordinary chemical substances -of any kind; and which no research is able to detect, except it be -as pictured behind the very processes of growth that are telling -_us_ of the organ-forming determination of a specific mode of life. -For both us and the mechanist there is the same process and result. -He sees, but only with his mind's eye, these utterly mysterious -'substances' he has himself invoked; we see, with our mind's eye, -the sea-urchin's, or the newt's, life issuing in that purposeful -endeavour which always and everywhere, we say, is a mark of the life -we know. We may even admit the possibility of the existence of his -organ-forming substances, but only as conditions of life's -organ-forming, not as effective causes—a distinction of fundamental -importance for the careful thinker not content to be arrested by the -look of things, however scientific. We cannot rest in a mechanical -interpretation which at best only thrusts the problem one stage -farther away, as does the pseudo-physicist-philosopher's ether-God. -Life to us seems effective, and under all conditions determining, -within the limits of those conditions. Organ-forming substances -there may be; but they are either the co-operative servants of life -(if they exist at all) like other substances, or they are no better -than names for the modes in which life is at work. To us life seems, -from its first entrance into possession of a body, when it gave to -material substances a higher status, to have worked always towards -dominance over the established laws and customs (that is the habits) -of matter, as no substances have ever worked. At first it did little -more with matter than lift physical or chemical elements upward in -heightening states of energy, within a body, against physical or -chemical tendencies that would take them downward to their physical -or chemical equilibrium; later it went on, through the organizing of -an ever more and more complex and variable nervous system, to a -man's brain, where the control of intelligence over the living -instrument that is its very active servant became strong enough to -guide into ever-widening relations and possibilities an activity -seeking spiritual advance. An activity, straining for liberation -against some resistance by which nevertheless it was itself made -effectual, could—we are driven to think—do no other than find its -way imperfectly and by slow degrees; yet on its way it has shown -even in very lowly creatures signs of what it really is. That any -'substance' the mechanist can acknowledge has done this of its own -motion and power, we take leave to doubt. And we have learnt to -understand the mechanist. - - * * * * * - -If the train of reflexion thus suggested is followed up, some of us will -find ourselves compelled to readjust certain beliefs in regard to -spiritual life as related to the life of the body, and in regard also to -bodily life as related to the life of the spirit. We shall perhaps learn -that in looking upon spirit as altogether separate from matter or as -connected with matter only by some fortuitous or indeed unhappy link, we -may indeed have kept it safe from the attacks of the materialist, but -only at the cost of emptying it of value for ourselves, except in so far -as it is, perhaps, an all but invisible _point de repère_ round about -which our vague religious sentiments are grouped. Just as in the -evolution of elements and compounds afterwards united in the marvel of -life-jelly, we traced the preparation of a pathway for life moving -towards its first manifestation, so we should trace in the successive -phases of that manifestation a development of co-operative relations -between spirit and matter, a development rendering matter more and more -plastic to spirit, and spirit more and more responsive to the character -of the far from inert instrument through which its purpose is effected. - -The evolutionist philosopher has told us that we may picture life as a -rising wave opposed by the contrary movement of matter towards -stability. The greater part of the whole volume of the wave, after -reaching one height or another, is arrested; and going no further it -is at each several height converted into the whirling eddies, the -contented plants and animals of which we have already spoken. At one -point only, where it rises highest, does the wave find a free passage -(and of this too we have spoken) along which it carries with it, -converted to its further purpose, the material obstacle, condition, -and means that will, in a sense and for a time, still in some degree -encumber, but cannot now arrest, its advance. The life-current -continues to flow, a gathering wave of conscious life grown to -self-consciousness and world-consciousness. It flows on from this -point of conquest through generation after generation of men in and to -whom its spiritual character is now plainly revealed. For each man it -is a rill from the great human river of life—life natural and -spiritual, spiritual because so fully natural—which has become his own -and is indeed himself. For each the material but living brain is the -chief instrument and helper by means of which he himself stretches -forth towards wider and wider relations, not only with material -objects but with other spiritual beings. And as the spirit of a man -thus expands, amassing life and becoming, by the sympathetic spiritual -inclusion of other lives, greater in its reach and in itself, it is -confirmed and consolidated in its self-ownership. You may say that as -a self-knowing, self-governing, creative being, an owner of means and -a seeker after ends, man's life has at last taken possession of the -kingdom of itself, and that it has reached this all-important status -through the medium and condition of a body and by the experience of an -earthly world. - -We will let the philosopher tell us the gist of this in his own words:— - -'While we watch the birth of consciousness we are confronted, at the -same time, by the apparition of living bodies, capable, even in their -simplest forms, of movements spontaneous and unforeseen. The progress of -living matter consists in a differentiation of function which leads -first to the production and then to the increasing complication of a -nervous system capable of canalizing excitations and of organizing -actions: the more the higher centres develop, the more numerous become -the motor paths among which the same excitation allows the living being -to choose in order that it may act. An ever greater latitude left to -movement in space—this indeed is what is seen. What is not seen is the -growing and accompanying tension of consciousness in time. Not only, by -its memory of former experiences, does this consciousness retain the -past better and better, so as to organize it with the present in a newer -and richer decision; but, living with an intenser life, contracting, by -its memory of the immediate experience, a growing number of external -moments in its present duration, it becomes more capable of creating -acts of which the inner indetermination, spread over as large a -multiplicity of the moments of matter as you please, will pass the more -easily through the meshes of necessity. Thus, whether we consider it in -time or in space, freedom always seems to have its roots deep in -necessity and to be intimately organized with it. Spirit borrows from -matter the perceptions on which it feeds, and restores them to matter in -the form of movements which it has stamped with its own freedom.' - -Any philosopher, after writing or speaking some such words as these, may -well ask us to consider—when we have watched the hard-won triumph of -life over so great difficulties and so many obstacles, when we have -discovered what seems to us clear evidence that it has for age upon age -pursued with immeasurable power and resource a purpose which the -spiritual consciousness of man is alone competent to fulfil, and that it -has thus attained in man a position of supreme advantage for this -fulfilment—whether we ought not to regard ourselves as paltering with -reason if we expect that pursuit and that attainment both to be in vain. -Is life, just where it seems in sight of final triumph, to be overcome -at the last by death? Why should it be overcome by this when it has -vanquished so much else? Why, if the world is rational, should we expect -all the ages of preparation to be brought to naught, and the splendour -of man's promise to be laid low in the grave? - -We have to confess, I think, that reason is against this, and that when -we allow ourselves to expect or to fear such an anti-climax we are -influenced rather by prejudice, conscious or unconscious. Prejudice is -born of our every-day dealing with things and our every-day notions -about causes and about bodies. We think spirit is dependent upon matter, -not as upon a living and responsive instrument of transmission and -self-development to a certain necessary point of self-consolidation; but -as most things we deal with depend upon other things, which, as we say, -cause them, produce them, or make them do and be and happen. We suppose -all too easily that just as steam ceases when the boiler-fires are -drawn, so when the body dies life, its product, ceases too. We see the -leaves fall from the trees to perish. _Tout passe, tout casse, tout -lasse,_—it is the common lot of things and men. It is familiar—what more -need be said? The burden of proof lies on the man who would tell us of -exceptions to the rule. - -Yet, if and when we come to examine things and men, do we discover any -such rule applicable to men? Are we not all but compelled, reading the -astounding story of evolution in the light cast upon it by its -culmination in man, to question every uncriticized and easily formed -opinion on a subject so complex and profound? If indeed there is -evidence to show that life is neither produced by nor released from -matter, but is in some sort conjoined with matter, lifting it from its -own level, and using its powers in a way altogether different from their -normal material course; if there is evidence that these powers are made -to fulfil a purpose that can be no other than a purpose for life; then, -obviously, matter, in the order of power and of nature, is life's -subordinate. We must, indeed, as reasonable beings, correct those easy -opinions—these things being thus. The similes and illustrations of every -day do not fit the case. Intimate as is the relation between spirit and -matter, there is no more reason to think life is produced by a material -substance than to think the boiler-fire is produced by the steam. Both -thoughts are equally absurd, and perhaps the chief cause of our thinking -so easily the one and of our being quite unable to think the other is -that we can see and touch boilers and the like, and cannot see and touch -'spirit and life.' - - 'Lamps burn in every house, O blind one! and you - cannot see them. - - One day your eyes shall suddenly be opened, and - you shall see: and the fetters of death shall - fall from you.' - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves, - and within it is the Creator: - Within this vessel are the seven oceans and the - unnumbered seas. - _Kabir._ - - -When the brain dies it is resolved in the ordinary way gradually, or may -be resolved in a laboratory quickly, into its constituents, which the -chemist may collect as water, carbonic acid and so forth, together with, -roughly, a few pinches of ash. Nothing is lost of what, as we say, it -was made of. After death it is left to fall from its temporary high -estate of power, and travel along the line of least physical and -chemical resistance to the low estate from which life had raised its -matter-stuff. Material necessity, such as we picture it, then resumes -its sway; physical laws, that is, let us say, established physical -habits, dominate once more. - -But this brain, while human life employed and profited by it, was in -vital and structural continuity with the first life-jelly that appeared -upon the earth. You may trace, in the pictorial scientific way, all its -many cells to the germ-cell or egg from which the whole body sprang. -Again, and in the same manner, you may trace this germ-cell, this egg, -to another from which it was derived. Some scientific men will tell you -that in every developing egg, during the very first stages of its -division, cells are set apart as germ-cells to continue the race in the -next generation. There runs, they will say, through the generations of -men a continuous underground river-system of protoplasm, a continuous -streaming of cells from which are thrown up at intervals jets, as it -were, of living material which become individual lives. Or we may put it -that as in certain plants there is a creeping root-stock hidden -underground and giving origin here and there to new specimens of the -plant, so there is (according to this opinion) a root-stock of -germinative material passing on and giving rise to body after body, -through all mankind. The source of this branching, interlacing -germ-structure is in the beginnings of the world, and the beginnings of -the world are—where? In the ether, the physicist may say. In the place -and state from whence my elements have come, the chemist says. At -present we, studying in these pages, are content to say that whatever -the scientific details may be, the pathway of life that we see is one, -from wherever the chemist and the physicist allow of a beginning to the -place where both must own themselves confounded, the brain of man. - -It is well to study that brain more carefully and try to relate it with -the germ-cells of the protoplasmic streams from which it arose. We have -to consider how it is that the brain of a son comes to resemble the -brains of his parents, when the carrier of his parents' lives to him was -only that fertilized germ-cell, a jelly with a nucleus, to all -appearances no more. Here we must confine our study to one problem, that -of memory, partly because we have no space for more, but chiefly because -memory is an 'Open Sesame' to many wonders. We may if we please link it -with heredity, with that passing on of characters and habits from -parents to child through the comparative, but only comparative and very -misleading, simplicity of the germ-cell. - -'The man who could penetrate into a brain,' it is said, 'and watch what -happens there would very likely see it full of sketched-out movements, -there is no evidence that he would see anything else. He would have no -more knowledge of what was going on in the corresponding consciousness -than we should have of a play were we watching the comings and goings of -the actors on the stage without hearing a word of it. If the play were -no more than a pantomime the movements of the players would tell us -nearly everything about it; if it were a comedy of life and manners they -would give us next to nothing.' It has been said, too—and the simile is -illuminating—that the brain is like a sort of central telephone -exchange, permitting, delaying, or arresting communication. It is an -instrument of analysis, of hesitation and of choice; but its office is -said to be limited to the transmission and division of movement, -movement started by things outside the body and movement started from -within the body. The body is the conductor of these movements to and fro -between objects acting upon it and objects upon which it acts. - -Only in the form of motor contrivances do brain and body, we are told, -store up the action of the past. This is a point of great importance in -regard to both our own lives and our inheritance from our forerunners. -We may distinguish two kinds of memory; one graven as it were in the -living stuff of our body; another enshrined and active in the fluent -personal history we ourselves most really are. Let us see what the -evolutionist philosopher has to tell us about this. Let us illustrate -our subject after his fashion. - -In the matter of learning by heart, for example, there are two facts to -be noted and two memories to be distinguished. When I know a poem by -heart and can repeat it I say that I remember it. But I say also, -perhaps, that I remember the stages by which I came to learn it. I -remember, or may remember, occasion after occasion of my more or less -successful repetition of the poem while I was learning it. I can recall, -or may recall, step after step of my advance towards perfectly -'remembering' it. When it is learnt I say that it is imprinted on my -memory; but I may also say that the steps of my progress towards knowing -the poem are in like manner imprinted on my memory. Yet a very little -thought shows that these are two kinds of memory, not one; and that -there are two kinds of imprinting, not one. The memory of the poem -itself has every mark of an acquired habit, even that of the disastrous -effect of an interruption. When I have repeated a poem for the twentieth -time without mistake I may be thrown out of my declamatory stride by the -banging of a door, and become unable either to tell myself how far I had -gone in the poem or to pick up its broken thread. About a memory like -this there is the mechanical look of an ingrained and almost unconscious -habit. It is bodily, like the memory of a sonata for the pianist as he -is playing, a memory which seems to him rather in his fingers than in -his mind. But the memory of the steps and process by which I gradually -learnt my poem is quite different. That is a history, not a habit. Each -stage occurred only once; no one was graven into permanence by -repetition, indeed no one was, or could be, ever repeated. Each was -unique and had its own date in the history of the process and of my -enduring life. - -Here is a difference indeed to be reckoned with. There is a kind of -memory that _represents_ our past to us; and there is another kind (if -it is memory at all) that _acts_ it. I say, emphatically, if it is -memory at all, this latter; for it does not really preserve the past, it -only continues into the present an effect or a result of happenings of -the past. In true memory history is preserved; the history of our whole -lives is preserved in our true memory. But only the effects or results, -only indeed certain effects and results, of the living real happenings -in our living and real duration are graven in the body stuff as habits, -as, if we like to call them so, habit-memories. The establishing of -these memories is an affair of training and practice. The brain and body -have to be forced into them; structure has to be shaped and taught, that -it may carry on automatically, or all but automatically, some particular -mode of action. And we note that the more nearly automatic these -habit-memories are the better they work. When the nerve-paths in the -structure of the brain and body are beaten smooth by treading and -retreading the work goes easily and well. - -There is nothing whatever of this kind about the true and unlearnt -memory of events in our history, the memory which represents them. But -just because the habit-memory is more immediately and constantly useful -to us we notice it more. Indeed we frame on it our familiar conception -of what memory really is, and come to regard the true memory of -spontaneously arising recollections as only a bad example of the other. -'We ignore the fundamental difference,' so we are told, 'between that -which has to be built up by repetition and that which is essentially -incapable of being repeated.' - -No doubt the two intermingle in every-day life and are therefore the -more easily confused, not only by our every-day and usually careless -selves but even by some careful thinkers. The confusion is dangerous for -the thinker and the thinker in consequence becomes dangerous for us. Out -of it has come in great part the unreasonable belief that a material -brain is the storehouse of immaterial recollections, and that these -after becoming either material or, in the physical sense, 'energetic' -(as they must be to be stored in a material or 'energetic' way), in some -altogether miraculous fashion at times take on consciousness and, as -once more immaterial recollections, carry us into our own past. To say -that motor-habits, with which when they are established consciousness -may have little to do, can be registered in a flexible motor instrument -and _acted_ over and over again, is reasonable enough; but that -conscious recollections can thus be registered is not only a gratuitous -assumption unsupported by the facts of matter or energy or life, but is -strictly incredible by any man who really knows and faces those facts. -It is better to know and face them with the philosopher, and confess the -reality of a spiritual life in which history endures, as well as the -reality of a living instrument in which habits are established. No doubt -an effort is required if we are to distinguish between the spontaneous -and the habitual memories, between the memory of spirit and the -habit-memory of its living instrument, the brain and body which together -with the spirit are the man; but the effort is well worth making. It -gives us a key to unlock many close-shut doors. When we try to learn -something (as we are now about to do) concerning the problem of the -transmission, through the succession of germ-cells, of the characters -that mark out men—the problem of heredity—we find a conspicuous and very -interesting use for it. But it has many uses besides that. We can use it -with advantage in dealing with all the problems concerning the relations -of spirit with matter. - -Before we go on to deal with heredity we should note the value for our -own lives of our ability to establish habits at all, to inscribe records -of action in our instruments of body and brain which shall be capable of -an almost automatic repetition. That is the way in which intellectual -and bodily skill makes progress. We build a stairway too for our minds -and spirits as well as for our bodies, when we lay down step after step -of habitual action, handing over to it the carrying-on of what at first -we had to think out, and then by degrees learnt to do skilfully and well -almost without thought at all. That is the stairway by which the pianist -advances towards a perfect execution of his music and the skater mounts -towards perfect execution of a figure which at first was beyond his -power. Throughout our lives we are handing actions over to be conducted -by our bodies and brains as effects of work done consciously before, to -be acted over and over again and pass beyond the need of conscious -intervention, and in the end to be carried on the better without that -aid. A man skates, or plays his violin, or writes a poem, or rides a -horse, or walks, or dances, all the better when and if he does not have -to think about the appropriate movements of his hands or feet or legs, -or the necessary letters of his words, to all of which he once had to -give minute attention. Perceptive and creative consciousness is thus set -free. His mind, in its originality of creation and perceiving, is -enabled to pour itself into the instrumental habit it has laid down and -infuse it with his spirit, his poetic, musical, or athletic spirit. He -may endow his motor instrument with his graces now that it works without -his conscious aid. - - * * * * * - -We approach the problem of heredity from a new direction and with new -eyes. Let us picture to ourselves (as has been suggested), instead of a -succession of lives, a single life which goes on like the continuous -germ-plasm of some biologists, and never grows old or dies. This one -continuous life would pass through every stage of the succession of -lives from the jelly-speck onwards. One immortal developing creature -would accomplish (in our picture) the whole evolution from the original -protoplasm to man. And this development would be effected by forming -habits and rising step by step in and through and upon them. Is this in -fact what actually has been done along the path of the ascent of -species? That is the question which at once springs to our lips. Is -heredity akin to the habit-memory which is preserved in our brains and -bodies? There are men who tell us that the best conception of heredity -they can form is something of this kind. They tell us that they think of -individual lives as inscribing on germ-cells, by constant repetition, -effects of what they have done. They tell us that the habit-memory of -ancestral and thus communicated experience enables the baby to pump food -into its mouth with that accurate adjustment of muscular means to -exterior conditions and the principles of hydrostatics which it always -shows. They go even farther and tell us that the development of any -embryo from any egg is on the same lines of unfolding the habit-memories -essential to its living as it does. Life in progressing from the single -cell learnt, they think, by degrees, and consolidated its lessons into -motor-habits graven in living stuff. Sometimes they point to the nucleus -of the germ-cell as possibly the instrument for preserving these habits -for other members of the race as the brain preserves less established -habits for the man; sometimes they say that the cytoplasm acts in the -same way. And whether we accept these suggestions or reject them we may -recognize with some satisfaction that throughout the whole plan there -runs the belief (or assumption—what you will) that function is primary, -not structure, though structure once organized is the instrument and -condition that contributes to the shaping of specific character. - -Again we find ourselves both ready and called upon to emphasize the -reality and the conservative office of matter, yet to regard it as -subordinate to the reality and the initiative of life. We acknowledge -once more the immeasurable import for life of its relations with matter. -When structure is organized for function, when habit-memories become -instrumental for life, function and life are in turn shaped by their -instrument. Hence, probably, we have that condensed and fragmentary -representation by the developing embryo of stages through which life -passed slowly in epochs long ago, and during which (according to this -hypothesis) it registered the fruits of its effort, by repetition after -repetition, in the cell. The embryo chicken, the embryo child, both show -in the course of their development signs (for instance the gill-clefts -of the fish) of stages through which life had to pass before it became -chicken or child life. But they pass very quickly from sign to sign. 'It -took thousands of years to produce the first chicken, but the hen's egg -reaches the same level in three weeks.' Each is obliged to pass these -stages, it seems; the 'organ-forming substances' (as some say) of the -germ-cell compel it, or (shall we carry our thought farther and say) the -habit-memories recorded in it must be worked out lest the creature be -brought to confusion; as the habit-memories of a pianist are and must be -when he gives aright his rendering of the music he had learnt. - -The memory-hypothesis concerning heredity does not involve the idea of -compulsion or doom, it leaves room for the creature to work out its 'own -salvation' on a basis inheritance supplies. It does not of itself regard -the creature as doomed; whether the child or the chick is or is not -doomed depends on what it is, that is to say, upon the character not -upon the mode of its inheritance. Chick-character is one of doom; not so -child-character. The child, starting from the point his race has reached -as a race, may go on in virtue of an endowment of impulsive and creative -power and a flexible brain and body absent in the chick. He may build -his house of life, adorning or disfiguring his inheritance with a -new-made character that is his own. This fruitful and interesting -hypothesis of memory-inheritance may or may not stand tests that are to -come. But we may accept it provisionally as what it is, sure that if it -is displaced its successor will be more welcome still. That is the way -of science; we pass always from good to better, from a guess that holds -for one range of facts to another that holds for more. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - And is this life but the child of death? Then - blessed also be the word Death, the mother of life; - I will no more call thee Marah, but Naomi; for thou - art not bitter, but sweet; more pleasant, though - swifter in thy gait, than roe or hind. - _Henry Montague._ - - -In a world of creatures where the interests of each kind are focused on -the preservation of the species, and each individual's attention and -powers are in the main concentrated on the pressing need for -reproduction, and for food and shelter to maintain life in itself and -its young progeny, conflict must ensue, a conflict of both ends and -means. Because, too, in these creatures the way of life is not open, as -in man, habit-memories may be taken as being the chief agents for -ensuring both species-life and individual life, and as dominating both -their history and their character. Indeed the contracted world and the -completed character of such creatures with rare exceptions shuts out the -interests of other species. Hence the struggle for existence. Hence a -nature 'red in tooth and claw,' despite the general signs of a love that -of itself is ample prophecy of an enlargement beyond the bounds of such -restricted interests; despite also a general and very obvious enjoyment -of life for life's own sake. We must not exaggerate either pain or its -significance in creatures who have neither our sensitive nervous system, -nor our ability not only to look forward and see consequences and -imagine our pain prolonged and growing, but to increase that very pain -by dwelling on it and exercising in regard to it, more than it deserves, -the magical power of attention. Yet if we do not exaggerate, neither -must we ignore. Suffering, conflict, death are there and must be -reckoned with. - -That the biologists of the latter part of the last century should -magnify beyond due measure the place of natural selection in one regard, -that of the origin of species, was to be expected. It was a great -discovery; it filled men's minds. That they minimized, where they did -not deny, the importance of the selective, determining and creative -power of life itself was also to be expected. All this last was for the -time obscured for want of evidence. Few men indeed, and those not -biologists, then kept a level head. It is for this century to bring -about a much needed balance in reckoning and in esteem. - -Natural selection means for the most part a struggle ensuring the death -of the weak and the 'unfit.' The survival of the fittest means that -those creatures survive who are best adapted to all their circumstances, -whether these are favourable or unfavourable to the maintenance of a -high standard of living. That 'nature' may carry out selection it is -necessary that there shall be no outside interference, say of man, able -to stave off death, whether of the individual or of the race. Death, you -see, is the protagonist in this biological play, or rather the -mainspring of the machine. And, undoubtedly, death is not only -conspicuous in nature but is of profound significance for life. Is it or -is it not also of value in a sense surpassing that which the biologist -acknowledges? Ought we to look upon it as the enemy or as the friend of -life? - -One thing is plain. Those men of science who saw it as protagonist were -right in thinking that by the death, that is, by the natural selection, -of the unfit from among the fit, the survival of useful variations may -be assisted. Death, of course, cannot have anything to do directly with -the originating of better lives (that is of better accommodated lives), -but once they have come into being it can help to keep them in the -ascendant as begetters of their kind. Natural selection has its -use—shall we say its value?—for the advance of life. - -Need we be surprised at this, we who have a more than scientific sense -of values and have discovered purpose? Need we be surprised to find -death a friend to life, seeing it everywhere? Matter is life's friend as -well as means and hindrance. So too is death. - -Let us consider the beginning of death on the earth; that is, of -natural, not of merely accidental death. For it had a beginning, not -coeval with the coming of life. There are living creatures now who -normally escape it, who die only by accident, are, in fact, if they die, -always killed. There are creatures alive now whose years are to be -numbered by thousands upon thousands upon thousands, yet who have never -grown old. The Pyramids of Egypt are of yesterday compared with the -amoeba in the nearest pond. - -The manner of life of a one-celled creature is this: it grows, and when -it has grown to a size presumably inconvenient it divides into two -creatures, both of which, obviously, are the same age. The creature -itself becomes two instead of remaining one. The two creatures who were -one repeat the process and become four. The four become eight and so on -to the end of the earth. None die naturally, and when or if the end of -the earth and of themselves is reached they will all be killed and every -one of them will be of the same age; but none will be aged. They will be -cut off, these naturally immortal creatures, in unimpaired maturity and -the perfection of their structure and functions. But, you observe, if -life on earth had not passed beyond the one-celled condition it would -never, to our minds (if our minds could have been arrived at in some -other sphere), have been worth living. All the potency and promise of -life which have slowly been revealed through the improvement of its -creaturely medium would have remained hidden behind the screen of those -immortal jellies. Life began to create a new engine of advance when cell -and cell were built up together, and the many-celled creatures started -on their mortal and masterful career. For, note, the aggregation of -cells in an organized body precludes their individual immortality. They -become differentiated and associated for special purposes and they lose -the opportunity of preserving life by continuous division. They are -mutually imprisoning, they grow old, in time they die—they must die. -Life, in beginning this advance, embraced inevitable death. Death, if -you like, is the price—if indeed it should be counted a price and not a -boon—that we pay for freedom to live as what we are and to become what -we shall be. The immortal amoeba is after all a slave. It is this -creature that manifestly pays a price, one at which no man of us would -buy immunity from death. - -There are many values and orders to be considered; and for the highest -values and order of living, for the magnificent possibilities open to -spiritual attainment, who would not barter an earthly immortality which -should erect a barrier that spirit could not pass? But then we come to -another consideration. Is death itself a barrier spirit cannot pass? All -that I have written hitherto in these pages is directed towards an -answer to that question. What should make us change the cumulative 'No' -which our study of the processes and character of life forces to our -lips? Already we human creatures, incomplete though we are, reveal life -as an impulsive, enriching and creative power given in us and become -ourselves—a power by which we may continue the line of a direct advance -and pass on in a creative evolution which reasonably should have no end. -What wonders may we not reveal, what wonders may we not discover thus, -in that advance? But only if for the true life that is ourselves, the -life which as ours is manifest in its use of body and brain and of the -inheritance they bring, there is a triumph over the last of the many -obstacles it encounters upon earth. For, let there be no mistake, the -immortality of the race upon earth, even if it be possible, is not -enough to satisfy reason and accord with the promise of every individual -man as what he is for himself, and in his own special relation and -contribution to the well-being of the whole. Each man becoming as he -should become has his own peculiar value, each his own spontaneity and -continuous creative power. If he is lost all this comes to an end, and -the world of men is the poorer for want of what he might have given. -There is no shifting of our reasonable demand for the conquest of death -from the individual man to his race, even if (as is not so much as -probable) his race does not die in the cooling or drying or heating of -his earth. - -After all, what is 'this body of death' from which every man must part? -It is, we declare, his medium of transmission and the motor and sensory -instrument and condition by means of which he had both inherited a -foundation upon which to build his own life, and entered into relations -with an outside world of things and persons. Chemically and physically -it is a stream of particles always passing away, always being renewed, -at one rate or another. The few particles unchanged during his life are -not actively sharing his life; they are only its physical supports. -Whatever shares his life changes. This stream that his food and the air -and the water make, he takes up, transforms, uses and dismisses. All his -life long he is dying bodily, and is growing, or should be growing, -spiritually. Death is for him the finishing of a process in his body -that has always gone on, the final casting away of material elements he -has always cast away when he had done with them. And meanwhile, in the -spiritual duration of his life, its minister the body has consolidated -his self-conscious unity, so that he dies, or should die, a true owner -of his real and true and valuable self. For this end earthly life seems -to the eye of reason ever to have been striving. Is its striving to be -finally in vain? Everything that we have considered in these pages -declares the unlikeliness of that. - -Is a man then to pass from this world bodiless, as some of the ancients -thought? To be able to offer a tentative answer to this question we must -go back to one of our earlier chapters and remind ourselves of the ether -which, the physicist says, interpenetrates all the molecules of our body -now, and is the medium of communication everywhere through the systems -of the worlds. May I think of the ether, then, as being in my body the -medium of communication between me, as spiritual life and consciousness, -and the material elements and structures of my body? If the -comparatively coarse granular matter of the chemist's colloids and the -protoplasmic speck shows such a congruity with my life as makes it fit -to live in me and be the bearer to me of ancestral habits, may I not -think that a still closer congruity exists between this ether and my -life? And, again, is it not possible, or even likely, that it is through -the ether of my body that I influence its matter and its matter -influences me? If these things are so, then my ether-body is more fully -mine and more closely bound to me than is my matter-body. I think of -myself passing at death into, or discovering myself in, an ethereal -country where my ethereal body shall serve me even better than my -matter-body serves me in this matter-country. And if this thought seems -the plain man's plain thought about the physicist's hypothesis and is -condemned for that, I retort that the plain man through his rejection of -constraint by specialism, and by ideal or abstract schemes which flout -the wholeness of experience, is coming now into his own in science, in -philosophy and in religion. He has his rights and is taking possession -of them in a new fashion and with new significance. - -One thing more I think of. The physicist says that what he calls 'bound -ether,' that is ether within the spaces of a material thing, differs in -its character from the free ether of the interstellar spaces. He has -been able to prove this, he says, by experiments on the transmission of -light through ether 'bound' in water. - -What more do I want? The ether changes in character from association -with matter in a body. I see it in my mind's eye changed by constant -association with my brain and limbs and with my active consciousness as -it could never be changed in water. Am I right, I wonder? Shall I see -some day how it has been changed? Shall I see my more intimate body -revealed and know it and myself raised to high estate? - -However this may be, the life that made for itself body after body on -earth, conquering the habits and reluctances of matter that it might use -it for a spiritual purpose, is possessed of a creative and organizing -power to which no man should dare to set bounds, and which by me at -least shall be trusted to the end. That which builds from the egg the -chicken, and from the first jelly-specks all the races of the globe, -must still be capable of looking after me—if I am worth it.... I am bold -enough and plain man enough to say with the poet,— - - 'Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss - where swells up the music of toneless strings I shall - take this harp of my life.' - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - The soul needs only to open the door. - _Boehme._ - - -By the establishing of habit-memories in the nervous structures of man -consciousness is liberated for another and, if the man will, a nobler -use. The instrument may be forgotten, the work goes on. This liberation -of the spirit from attention to modes of activity and actions that can -be automatically or almost automatically carried on is among life's -greatest triumphs. And the triumph is indefinitely extended in man's -peculiar relation to his tools, and through the peculiar character of -both his tools and his tool-making. - -An animal's tools are parts of its body; they are stings, claws, fangs -and so on. Some of the tools of man are also parts of his body; but -there are others, not his natural organs, by which its instrumentality -is extended—and that, you may say, without signs of coming to an end. It -seems as though life had a sort of prophetic instinct in this business; -for primitive man was driven to search for these new tools by his lack -of organic armament of either the offensive or the defensive kind. He -had no protective shield like the armadillo or the crab; and even the -scanty covering of hair, which contrasted so ill with the close fur of -his cousins, grew scantier still, until it became altogether useless -against rain or cold or storm. He had no claws, no tusks, worth -considering as weapons of offence; but he had a desirous and adventurous -mind, and both by his necessities and his mind he was driven to the -making of tools. He owned also one very remarkable natural tool. He had -an archaic five-fingered hand inherited from his amphibian ancestors, -which had not been specialized into a wing or a shaft ending in a hoof -or a paw—a hand plastic, mobile, delicate and sensitive, a very -'instrument of instruments' for a creature opening wide the gate for -life. - -We are apt to think of this beautiful tool of ours as highly -specialized. It is not; it was preserved unspecialized from the -amphibian stage throughout a long pre-human history, as though life had -indeed foreseen just what was coming and knew that its versatility would -make it the worthy partner of man's versatile brain. Let us put it that -way. (Or let us say that it was a happy accident. As you please; anyhow -the fact remains.) The result was that man possessed a natural tool -beautifully adaptable for making and using many and various artificial -tools. And there was not another creature upon earth that had not either -spoilt its hand for those various uses by specializing it for some -narrow use, or like the monkeys and the apes, had no brain to match. Man -specialized his feet, as the monkeys and the apes did not; he left his -multifarious hand alone. - -By means of this hand he projected into space the powers of his body and -his mind. He began, no doubt, with sticks and stones; he went on to -strings; and from sticks and stones and strings he passed to telescopes -with which he reached new stars, spectroscopes with which he saw what -they were made of, telegraphs and telephones through which his speech -and hearing stretched out from land to land, and destructive machines by -which his delicate fingers shattered and blasted with the power of a -thousand storms. These things and more he has done; and all the tools he -has used are extensions of both his body and his mind. So too are the -industrial machines by which he manufactures (note the word) what his -newly-complicated needs demand of clothes and food and furniture and the -like. So too are the astounding machines which make for him other and -different machines. And everywhere we see that in the advance of his -tool-devising he draws nearer to making those which will work either -without his aid or with very little of it. His tools grow more and more -automatic, more and more saving of the labour of mind. He makes, you may -say, artificial habit-bearers, motor-structures by which the devices of -his mind are carried into action independent of his mind, as other -devices are through his nervous system and his muscular limbs. Thus he -follows the example set him by life in its organizing of living tools. -And we ought to tell ourselves (parenthetically) at this point that the -one reasonable and worthy use of all our machinery is just this—to -follow the example of life not only in the actual organizing but in the -purpose and meaning of organization. We ought to acknowledge to -ourselves that unless our machinery liberates the mind and spirit of man -to serve better and more freely his spiritual needs it will of a -certainty enslave him. At present, because most of us are in the dark as -to the direction in which life strives to conduct us, machinery is used -to emancipate the few and to enslave the many. We do not know what we -are doing, we do not understand what the primacy of spirit means or -should mean for us all. We do not know how we ought to grow, every one -of us, in the natural, that is, in the spiritual way. - -Why do I venture to say that in the spiritual way we _ought_ to grow? -And what in fact is that spiritual way? Do life and experience point out -the way and emphasize the 'ought'? Here we come to the gist of our whole -inquiry. - -If in looking back along the road on which, in these chapters, we have -been trying to pick out stage after stage, we discern a governing -purpose and the foreshadowing of an end; and if we also discern not only -the possibility but also the means, through intellect and intuition, -through action and feeling and thought, of identifying ourselves with -that purpose and throwing the energy of our own lives into furthering -it, we shall see both the ought and the way. We shall dimly discern, -too, the promise of the end, although we do not and cannot yet know what -we shall be. From the moment when the life-current driving onward and -overcoming one by one the reluctances of matter along the genealogical -ascent to man, reached him—_homo faber_, the skilful tool-maker, _homo -sapiens_, the able thinker—from that moment the sublime purpose of all -that had gone before began to be revealed. - -The advance of life's main stream in all its variety of operation shows, -from the beginning until now, one character and motive-principle. It -begins, as we have said, by subduing to its purpose the inveterate -habits of material elements, those habits we speak of as physical -necessity and law, raising their status that they may be servants in new -power to a freedom foreign to themselves. From subduing and assembling -elements within cells it passes to the assembling of cells and lifts up -these in their turn to higher place. They play their part in a -commonwealth; they are servants whose habits, like those of matter, -further the cause of a freedom they cannot reach. Their own relative -necessity is subdued and used through their coöperating. They promote -what they neither see nor know. Finally they reach their highest -function in a man's brain, where they coöperate to carry power to an -incalculably various use. There it is that life, by a very splendour of -new emancipation, passes, as the philosopher says, 'through the meshes -of necessity,' passes through that net the cords of which it has itself -both spun and knotted from the refractory substance of material things. - -Man comes into his heritage. He inherits, we may allow ourselves to say, -from the habits of elements and from the habit-memories of cells, single -and corporate. He inherits from the habit-memories of every living -creature in his ancestry. And each habit-memory of them all has -contributed to his setting free. Now he is so far master that life has -put into his hands the choice between a greater freedom still towards -which its impulsive purpose has been directed from the first, and a new -slavery that the man himself is able to make for himself. For—and surely -we need to note this for our warning—the conduct and determination of -life, which is in some small measure in the power of every creature -within its manner of life, is given over to man; and the next step in -emancipation is for him to take or leave as he will. He may dominate the -whole chain of habits and go forward; or he may wind it about him and -entangle his spirit in its fetters. - -Matter, his body, the habits or habit-memories he inherits or makes for -himself, all these may either be instruments of his growing liberation -or machines that turn him to the likeness of themselves. The pianist who -has wrought his music into the living instrumentality of his fingers may -leave his fingers to work as mechanism, or he may pour into their -established habit the riches and beauty of an artistic soul. Thus it is -with all the heritage and possessions of a man. He may submit to them as -to a constraining mechanism and grow mechanical himself, or he may -infuse them with his spirit and raise them and himself to that further -altitude which spirit seeks. We may well say of some men that they are -the slaves of habit; we may well think more than we do of the many kinds -of habit to which men may be slaves. - -To look on heredity as an affair of transmitted habit-memories is to -discover our true relation with it, once we have come to see what the -spiritual memory of an enduring and accumulating spiritual life, lived -according to its proper meaning, may be for man. In the chick the -inherited habit-memory of its race is as the boundary wall of cellulose -is for the plant-cell; in the child it is a standing ground from which, -while his creative spirit stirs within him, he surveys the kingdoms of a -world. In the man, like the habits he himself builds up, it may come to -be a hill-top from which he looks down upon all those kingdoms and their -glory. Life incurred death when first the cells were summoned out of -solitude to work together in a body. And here, too, it is as though it -foresaw what was coming, saw in a vision a creature come to being who -should have life in himself and be divinely discontent, seeking to go -on. It is hard to think that a creative impulse beginning so low down, -so humbly, and yet purposive enough and skilful and potent enough to -reach the immeasurable wonder and promises of man, should ever have been -blind, or in the last resort should be no more and no greater than -himself. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - The human animal desires to escape from its - animal prison by means of all kinds of love, by - freedom of emotion no less than of action and thought. - And it attains to the freedom of emotion when it is - aware of beauty. It cannot be aware of beauty - except in self-forgetfulness, and it cannot produce - beauty except in self-forgetfulness. - _Arthur Clutton-Brock._ - - -No doubt the great question for any man in regard to himself—if he is -able and willing to put one so searching—is whether he is or is not on -the way to aid in the fulfilment of the promise of life. It is a -question hard to answer, for the promise of life grows ever greater in -our eyes once we have begun to see it at all. There was a time when for -our ancestors of the caves it must have called for little more than -strength and skill, courage and perseverance, in attack or in defence -and in the procuring of shelter, food and wives. The bitter struggle in -which they were engaged was a real struggle for existence in which every -man must fight for his own hand, or at best for his little group of near -kindred. There were not many differences then between the practical -demands of the daily life of men and those of the daily life of the -hyenas or the wolves. But there were other differences, and they were -great and significant. One in particular has left a wealth of evidence -behind it, evidence graven and painted in certain caverns. There are -bisons, for example, painted by some of the men whom we call primitive, -or savage, which are of the truest art. There is no such difference and -no such likeness between those bisons and the artistic work of to-day as -there is between the flint-headed arrow and the machine-gun. The arrow -and the gun are products of an intellectual ingenuity, practising and -becoming expert through practice and concentrated on the external -relations of thing with thing; the painting comes of a direct intuition -of the reality and the essential beauty in a bison's life. They are -alive for us, those bisons, and they are beautiful. Their creator was a -true artist, able to throw himself into the object he wished to -discover, to feel and to depict; and he was able to endow his picture -with the bison's life and his own. If you are in aesthetic sympathy with -him you can feel the creature he paints as you feel the man painting. -The intellect that devised the arrow has always to travel onward by an -accumulating process, from step to step; the intuition that felt the -bison arrived at once. No doubt there is not only intellect but -intuition in the arrow; and there is not only intuition but intellect in -the painting; but the emphasis and the proportion are contrasted in the -two. - -Why did this primitive artist paint at all? There are those who suggest -that he had some practical end in view to be reached by the magic of -representation—an idea perhaps of thus ensuring luck for his hunting. -But at least that can hardly be true of the graceful form and the -conventional adornment he gave to some of his tools. It is far more -likely that even if he began with magic and a practical end he went on -to paint for the pure joy of it, the pure spiritual joy of inspired -admiration glowing to a creative act, and winning admiration in its -display. That is the manner of art—even to the delight in its being -admired by those to whom it is made known—and this man's work is the -work of an artist. I should say these men's work is the work of artists, -for there were many of them in many generations. There was not merely a -single eccentric genius—though even one would have sufficed us for a -revelation. Here then, in these caverns, we have a kind of work done by -many men, who, however much they looked for admiration from their -fellows, worked in something of the self-forgetfulness of an artist; so -we may presume. The man who pursued it did not in any lesser way profit -by it (unless his fellows were self-forgetful enough to pay him for the -joy he gave, and that only extends and strengthens the case); but he -assuredly profited in his spirit, which there found its outlet as -creative, there showed its self-forgetting love of something beyond -self, there in consequence found its joy. The true artist paints or -sings for the love of it, and because he must; and wins his joy, even -though in and with the artist's pain, and the man's self-seeking. The -spirit within him drives him on; no outward necessity, no carnal -attraction, no mere self-seeking, is adequate to force or draw him. Art, -however skilled and taught, however marred by human weakness, is -spontaneous as love. We are in presence here of that of which only faint -adumbrations can be discerned in any other creature than man. There are -adumbrations; and there is at least a plain foreshadowing of love. But -full and lasting self-forgetfulness is to be attained only in man, and -true art and true love, like true joy, depend upon it. - - * * * * * - -The declared promise for the further advance of life in us demands and -displays growth in self-forgetfulness. The man who strikes us as being -above other men is one who shows us powers other men either have not or -do not use, and uses them as other men very often do not use them. He is -always stamped with the stamp of spirit. He is creative and he is -self-forgetful. We do not really, or at least readily and spontaneously, -admire any man who does things from self-interested motives. We may -admire the things he does, but we do not admire the man. If, for -example, we are religious ourselves, and however much we wish other -people to be so too, we do not admire the man who, we know, is religious -because he sees his profit in religion either for this world or the -next. We do not admire the kind of artist who clutches at beauty because -it feeds that deadly appetite which is no other than aesthetic greed. We -want him to admire a beautiful thing for its own sake, because it is -what it is and is altogether admirable. And no lover holds our respect -if for him his beloved is merely a curio to be proud of or a -satisfaction of the flesh. We say justly that he is only a lover of -himself. To command our admiration a man must stretch out his desire and -enlarge his interests beyond the boundary of self; he must give himself, -not necessarily without reward—for the joy set before him often -comes—but without making the attainment of it a motive spring. - -That simple fact proves the spirits that we are. And it is shown in -strange places. Even the leader of the gang of thieves wins admiration -by his carelessness of personal gain. Robin Hood is always both -honourable and honoured, though he steals. - -Think then how much life had gained in power of expression when the -painters of the caves were reached. Yet the philosopher reminds us that -indeed this gain began with the beginning of love. Self-forgetfulness -began before man came to show himself called by spirit and life to die -daily. Yet in and by him they call with an emphasis and solemnity new in -the tale of creation. He is to die to the struggle and the desire to -live; he is to give himself and grow by self-giving. That is his proper -way. - -Not without reason does the philosopher tell us that the supreme secret -of life begins to be revealed in the plant which surrenders its own life -for its seed. But if we ignore the far plainer voice of man, how can we -hear what has been whispered by the plant? If we are made mechanical by -slavery to our own tools how can we discern either? And unless we listen -with the ears of our intuitive soul we shall never hear what it is that -they are saying. Unless we immerse ourselves in the current of the -spirit, unless we confide ourselves to the life that would bear us on, -we shall miss the fulfilment of our promise. The whole long weary road -of life has been travelled on our behalf in vain, unless through the -adventure of self-giving we become unceasing spiritual creators of -greater selves than those we are now. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - If thou hast union now, thou shalt have it hereafter. - _Kabir._ - - -Without social life no one of the peculiarly human powers of a man comes -to fruition. He may chatter, for example; he cannot speak. He has all -the necessary organs and all the necessary power, but man-language is -part of an inheritance stored up for him in community life. It is stored -up there, just as clinging with his hands and sucking with his lips are -stored up ready for him at birth, in his body. Society is for him an -immense extension of his body, and therefore a further means of -extension for his spirit. It is also an immense extension of the bodies -and spirits of other men with whom he may enter upon relations. You may -look on it as supplying a brain common to all men which all may use -together, and in which their activities should find not only a recording -medium but an unfailing stimulus and contributory aid. But the social -brain is in a peculiar sense men's own making, as free and capable -creators. They have come to be owners of life and directors of its -course in a degree they certainly had not attained when their bodily -brains were slowly growing to be what they are. This brain of theirs, -used in community, is as truly built by their own efforts as are the -houses in which they live. The evolution of man has to all intents of -spirit ceased to advance by changes in his body, but it goes on by -incessant change and enormous amplification in his community life. - -Here, too, in this many-bodied and many-souled community, as well as in -the individual man's life, function determines structure. But function -has there become self-conscious and world-conscious, aware of the many -bodies and the many souls, aware of their needs and dangers, aware of -their giving and their gaining. Men have societies within the community -such as on the whole their conscious desires and purposes, their -attitude towards their fellows, their sense of responsibility and -obligations, their aims and ideals, demand. We have indeed the societies -we deserve. We may well ask ourselves why we deserve to have them as -they are; we may well say to ourselves—'"Prisoner, tell me, who was it -that wrought this unbreakable chain?"' And the answer is clear, -convicting not only of error but of what some of us have learnt to know -as actual sin, sin against the call and promise of life. '"It was I," -said the prisoner ... "when at last the work was done and the links were -complete and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip."' - - * * * * * - -There are other societies besides those of men. Some are far more -completely organized. The bees and the ants have carried social -organization to a state of harmony and of adjustment to ends which is as -strongly marked in its contrast with any that human societies present, -as is the triumphant surgery of the solitary wasp by contrast with the -blunders of an untrained man. In 'the civility of these little citizens' -society is carried to a completeness corresponding with that of the life -of the creatures who are its parts. In an ant-hill or a hive we have -before us, some may say, a model of what a society should be. Perfect -co-operation, complete subordination of individual to social ends, the -highest possible working efficiency of each and all—it sounds well, and -no one can deny that for bees and ants it works well. Would it work -equally well for men? - -The answer we give to this question will depend on two things. It will -depend first on whether we think that men are or are not competent to -advance, and are aided to advance, as beings not only spiritual in -essential character and purpose, but self-creative and so able to reach -both an efficiency beyond all constraint by institutions and machines, -and an enlargement of community-life which shall embrace society upon -society in all their diverse modes. Secondly, it will depend on whether -we are or are not willing to organize any society by what used to be -called biological methods, that is by the methods of the arena—of the -'gladiators' show.' If we decide on the gladiators' show and a social -efficiency with no further outlook than a highly superior human -ant-hill's, we pronounce ourselves believers that in principle the -ant-hill manner of life with its isolation of society from society will -work for men. We may be wrong even in a short view or a narrow view of -man's capacities and existence; we are certainly wrong if spiritual -progress lies before him as a glorious prospect not only for this man or -society of men here, or another there, but for all men as members of an -all-containing community made one only by an all-containing principle. -In face of the promise and adventure of life we are as certainly wrong -in giving consent to the ant-hill principle for society as we should be -if we consented to exchange our own pregnant incompleteness for the -perfection of the ant. Yet we of the modern civilized nations of Europe -and America have been far too much influenced of late years, not only by -our animal inheritance and the passions that we share with 'ape and -tiger,' but by what is now a powerful tradition and in the last century -was a new force—the mechanistic conception of social life. Our reasoning -about society, our social science, even our social practices, have by -this tradition been made not only more materialistic—many of us know -that—but more plausibly mechanistic. It has seemed to us that we have -science and nature both on our side, in trusting less to the initiative -of life and more to its organization of circumscribed institutions and -ordered means. We have taken a biological hypothesis far too seriously. -And no doubt we have done this in great part because it has enabled us -to leave uncriticized, or even to justify, habitual ways of acting and -thinking which have about them still the taint of the pit from which we -have been digged. These ways of ours were laid down for us in the long -effort of each man to keep his footing on earth for himself and for the -few he recognized as his own; but we have made them both more difficult -and more dangerous by loading ourselves with a burden of perverted or -artificial needs which not only call for perverted or artificial means -to satisfy them, but set us in opposition to other men from whom we -wrest their satisfaction. Those ways and this burden are proper to a -creature who in very truth is seeking so to encumber life as to prevent -its carrying him on, so to contract his own life as to prevent its -intermingling with the lives of others. In short they are proper to one -who is arresting life in himself as it has been arrested in the tiger or -the ant. It will be arrested at a higher point—that is all; and it will -be consciously arrested by the conscious building up of an obstacle far -more serious than death. Therefore it is no mere failure; it is sin—sin -against the true nature of human life. - -The mechanistic theories of biology, which have helped to confirm men in -an evil course, are fast being discredited. With them will go a false -philosophy which has been widely current of late and has had an -influence reaching far beyond an acquaintance with its authors' names. -Critical and careful biologists are now undoubtedly doing much to effect -this salutary change. Yet, may be, we shall be driven to call some of -their opponents (as has been prophesied) by the bad name of -necrologists, that we may perhaps shock them into self-knowledge. It is -a name only too grievously appropriate now, since the picture of natural -evolution they have, all innocently, drawn has not only foreshadowed, -but contributed to fill, the grave-yard of the peoples dug in the great -war. - -We are changing this baleful picture; we are learning too, partly in -consequence, that the self-interest of utilitarian economists and the -ruthless search for individual advantage which social mechanists have -commended are not the mainsprings of evolution. Of far greater, more -lasting, and more profound significance and effect than the -self-interested struggle for existence among animals and plants has been -the species-interest to which self-interest has been subordinated. A -creature must first eat and only afterwards reproduce; but this in no -way justifies us in thinking that competition for food is charged with -more meaning in the long story of life than the protective care of -parents for their offspring and the eminently natural self-sacrifice it -involves. Progress among both animals and vegetables has been secured -more by 'species maintaining' efforts than by a mere self-seeking -struggle for self-restricted ends. It is a recognition of this fact that -makes a distinguished biologist say, 'The ideal of evolution is thus no -gladiator's show, but an Eden; and although competition can never be -wholly eliminated ... it is much for our pure natural history to see no -longer struggle, but love as "creation's final law."' - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - PART II - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER I - - If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything - would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has - closed himself up, till he sees all things through - narrow chinks of his cavern. - _Blake._ - - -As we looked at chlorophyll, at colloids and the sea-urchin's egg, so -let us look at Christian habits and beliefs. And in the first place we -will fix our attention on the central 'mystery' of worship in the -Christian Church. All the world over and from the first days of -Christian apostles and brethren, a man going into one of their places of -assembly would at some hour or another find their devotion apparently -gathered about common, familiar, bread and wine, or, sometimes, bread -alone. They would tell him that this bread 'is no longer common bread.' -Nevertheless, in the ordinary or the scientific sense, it is, just as -much 'common bread' as chlorophyll is the common colouring matter of the -green wheat. They will tell him, too, that it is a 'sacramental' means -of communion between God and themselves and between them and Christ, the -Anointed Son of God. Just as we insist scientifically upon the fact that -chlorophyll is the meeting-point between the power of the sun and our -living selves, so Christians insist that the sacramental bread, whatever -else it is or does, constitutes a meeting-point between them and God and -his Christ. No doubt (they may say, if they understand such matters), -for the mathematical physicist, bread, like everything else, may be -finally reduced to a series of dynamical equations. Or it may be taken -as ether and electrons; or as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and so forth; or, -roughly, as what it comes to be at last, gases, water, and dust, like -the bodies of us all. But each of these ways of looking at bread -manifestly, even to the mind of that scientific man, leaves out -something of its richness and fails to reckon with its use and purpose -for life. By ordinary persons it is known as the 'staff' of life; and -these ordinary persons, when they say it is this, are speaking poetry. -In fact if you are to do justice to bread you must be something of an -artist; you do it gross injustice—that is, you leave out of your account -the most valuable thing about it—when you do not go beyond the -scientific man's idealistic or abstract summing up. The poet's vision -does better when he mates in the corn and the grape the glories of the -sun and the expectancy of earth, and sees the bringing forth and -revealing and communicating, through the grain and the wine, of a -concealed and straining life. But the philosopher also has his -contribution to a fulness of justice. He insists, after his manner, on -'spirit and life'; he disdains mechanism; he opens gates that science -cannot pass, and shows that all real things have depth it cannot reach—a -third dimension where it has discovered only two. He solidifies the -schematic diagrams of the scientific man and gives reasons for the faith -of the religious man, who goes further still. - -Here in the Christian Sacrament, where the Christian says that the -fullest justice is done to bread and wine in lifting them up to be a -means of communion between God and man, science and philosophy, religion -and art, may meet together. - -For nearly two thousand years Christians have seen in 'this bread' of -theirs matter impenetrated by spirit, and raised by it into another and -a higher order. They have held to a doctrine of both in which neither -was despised, or thought of as deceiving or unreal. Materialistic -thought and theory, abstract spiritualism, all theories or doctrines -that cut the world of experience in two with a rationalizing hatchet, -have been powerless to loosen their hold. Matter informed and -transformed by spirit; spirit pre-eminent over and including -matter—these have been cardinal and inevitable implications in the -sacramental worship of Christians. Cardinal and inevitable, too, is, in -consequence, their view of the world as an affair of order superposed on -order in a nature capable of being raised to the height of that which -they call the supernatural, an earth that may become a new earth, a city -of men that should rise to the noble state of a City of God. - - * * * * * - -We look back on the chemist's colloid that becomes, as protoplasm, no -longer common colloid but one from which a world of living creatures has -arisen. We see again a wonderful life informing and transforming matter, -pre-eminent over it yet dependent on and manifesting through it. We see -the chlorophyll of the plant raising chemical elements to a new order of -being, and life in its onward march from order to order of manifesting -consciousness, attaining at last man, creative in his spiritual freedom -and dominance. We see that a Christian might point to man himself as the -summing up of outward and visible signs and an inward and spiritual -grace which science has made known, as reasonably as he may take bread -as the central symbol of his worship. And he may tell us, or we may tell -him, that these things are one—that there is everywhere 'continuity of -process with the emergence of real differences' in a world that is -'sacramental' from its lowest to its highest order, from the speck of -jelly to man. He and we both may see it as a world of outward and -visible signs, each manifesting what the Christian names 'an inward and -spiritual grace,' and we name—how do we name it? So far, only _life_, -mysterious and mysteriously potent, communicating and communicated life. - -We are encouraged to consider, further, this name and its meaning for us -and above all in us. In us, we justly say, life is really different from -what it is in the plant. We are 'persons'; plants are not. Life in us is -personal, in the plant it is less than personal. But it is life, all the -same and all through, from the impersonal to us, different though we -assuredly are from the impersonal. And we can hardly escape asking -ourselves whether, as they are now, men are of the highest order of real -difference among the different orders embraced in the potency of life. -Can life do no more and better, seeing that it has done so much? Is it, -in itself, no more and better? The Christian answers these questions -without one moment of hesitation. He says that 'the Holy Ghost,' the -divine Spirit and Lord, is the 'Giver of Life'; and that there is an -order of life in which this Lord and Giver is brought into personal -relations with us, communicating with and communicated to us; so that by -this communication we are raised beyond the state of children of earth -and of the merely earthly life, to the high place of Sons of God, who -know their Father and are at one with each other and with him. - -If there is a thorough-going evolutionist anywhere it is the Christian. -And it is his sacramental doctrine that gives consistency and -persistence to his evolutionary convictions, if and when they are -consistent and persistent. At times they are neither. At times the -Christian, like the rest of us, fails to see the grandeur and -universality of his own deepest principles. And then he belies them in -word and deed; and his picture of the world of men and things is false -to them and to himself. - -It is these deepest principles that the enquirer should search out. When -he has caught one glimpse of them he should thereby be strengthened -against the falsifications that are offered him either by Christians or -their contemners. Great principles are there, for his vision and -enlightening. And in them he will find his own raised to a higher power. -His evolution is then carried beyond the point where it so abruptly and -unsatisfactorily breaks off. His potent life is there borne upward to -the meeting-place with a Lord and a Giver of life. His personal, -self-conscious and world-conscious, loving and self-sacrificing man, the -crown of his evolutionary process, comes face to face with the source -and fulfilment of all that he is and all that he so brokenly promises to -be. Man himself crowns the sacramental world and is its greatest -sacrament, revealing as in a glass darkly and by foretelling, the -fulness of beauty and glory in all its grace. And the Christian points -to one man as above all other men in the revealing office of mankind. He -says that this man in no way distorts the beauty and glory given him; -that in him very God is made known in and as very man. Here, plainly, -the sacramental principle reaches its supreme height, and is taken -beyond detail after detail to a wholeness covering every detail. If any -one man is thus the unclouded revelation of God in terms of man, then it -is true—as the Christian says it is—that the whole world of men and -things is best, most faithfully and fully, stated, reasoned about, -interpreted, through this man. Every particle of the bread we eat -becomes for us no longer 'common bread.' It is bread shown for what it -really is in the plan and process of God as these are made present to -us, alive, pregnant of glory and beauty and power, in the living -revelation of Jesus Christ. - - * * * * * - -The Christian sets his consecrated bread apart from all the rest of -bread and things, and, we must own, he does well. For men see all things -as in a glass darkly, and we are, most of us, the slaves of habit and -victims of familiarity. What is everywhere and always soon comes to be -nowhere and never for our interest and our attention. If the Christian -had not kept as a rare thing, a thing enthroned, the bread that is for -him no longer common bread, he would of a certainty often, if not for -ever, have lost hold on the sublime principle it enshrines for him and -for the world. The conflicting currents of speculative thought, as well -as the weaknesses of his mental grasp, would have made him loose his -hold upon it. Just because it stands there as the central symbol -gathering up and establishing his worship and its sanctifying -associations, it has lasted through the centuries, preserving its own -great principle, a witness, a token and a sign not empty but -'effective'—_signum efficax_ not only for thought but for all human life -in its amplitude. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER II - - Can you think at all and not pronounce heartily - that to labour in knowledge is to build up Jerusalem, - and to despise knowledge is to despise Jerusalem - and her builders? - _Blake._ - - -For the Christian a man is a being capable of receiving and assimilating -life as no other creature can, and as the biologist has no biological -reason to believe. The Christian declares that he has reason, good and -ample. He _knows_ whom he believes. This is a matter of living religious -experience to which generations after generations have borne witness. -There is a ladder of spiritual reality, he says, up which men are -climbing and upon which some have reached great heights. The biologist's -ladder, despite its many steps and its length along the ages, is too -short for him. Or rather (so he will tell you when he understands what -the biologist means) his own ladder is a legitimate and even a natural -extension of that, as of all others of the sort that men have anywhere -set up. - -Is this advance of man, then, an affair of a single departmental -business—the religious business? Or, let us ask, can there be kinds of -knowledge that are not really knowledge of God? Is it reasonable to -regard biological knowledge, or chemical or physical, as knowledge of -some alien reality not embraced in God? The supposition is monstrous. If -God is, then all truth attained by man is truth of him. If I learn that -the world advances from the ether to my brain I shall have learnt -something about God. So the Christian should maintain, if he is true to -his Christian principles. The advance of man towards communion with God -in knowledge is not a mere affair of some one department of knowledge -called religious, although it is now for the most part carried on -departmentally. Although men separate off for their practical -convenience the study of plants from the study of animals, and a -specialist may separate off the egg of the newt and study nothing else, -and even think, at least seriously, of nothing else; although we may not -only speak of religion, or knowledge, or philosophy as separate one from -another but act as though they were, yet if the Christian and the -philosopher and the scientific man are right in holding that there is a -unity in the multiplicity of things, a 'uniformity of nature,' an -'Absolute,' or 'One God,' then religion and science and philosophy are -only separated, if separate at all, by an artifice or a convention. You -cannot really _separate_ knowing, in a man's activity, from his feeling -and acting, nor his feeling from acting and knowing, nor his acting from -knowing and feeling, nor his activity from himself; although you can -_distinguish_ each from the others. They are different, but their -difference is embraced within a oneness. So it is with religion and -science and philosophy. They are all results of man's activity in -relation to a reality of innumerable aspects and unfathomable depth; and -they may all be means by which he ascends the ladder of his experience -of God. - -Therefore the Christian does his own sacramental and incarnational -principles a grave injustice if and when he tries to turn away from -science and philosophy. Not only this—he cannot really do it. When he -succeeds in turning away from that which he believes to be all there is -of science and philosophy, he does not cut out from his creed and his -theology the science and philosophy incorporated in them—a science and a -philosophy which undoubtedly need correction that they may move and grow -with the movement and the growth of experience. It is only the science -and philosophy grown to new ripeness and new truth since the day when -the great bulk of his Christian tradition was laid down in written words -to be transmitted to him, that as a matter of fact he is rejecting. And -he is able to reject these just and only because he has already in this -tradition such science and philosophy as serves to make for him some -sort of a _Weltanschauung_, a world-picture, you may say. It is useless -to protest that a man can be religious without having a world-picture; -he cannot even be a man without one. And the only question for him is -whether it shall or shall not be as wide in its extent and as good as he -can make it, whether he shall or shall not include within it all the -knowledge and vision of God he might include. - -Plainly—that is, plainly to the Christian—if the scientific man or the -philosopher does not include in his view of the world what the Christian -knows and sees, he is the loser. His picture is not all it might be. But -the same, _mutatis mutandis_, is true of the Christian. For all is God's -and of God. And if we never before discovered this, we see it when we -discover the point where science and religion meet, where the scientific -knowledge of the world passes into the sacramental, and the scientific -knowledge of man, as part of the world, passes into the incarnational; -each to be crowned there, each to be interpreted and fulfilled. - -To this discovery there is only one theoretic obstacle which is -insuperable. It is the acceptance of mechanism as a root-principle in -either science or religion. I say nothing of philosophy, because there -is now-a-days no mechanistic philosophy (that is, no materialistic -philosophy) that need be feared. But in science and in religion -mechanism is still a danger, and the acceptance of it as the fundamental -principle of working and construction in a world-picture is an obstacle -that cannot be passed. There is nothing to be done except to overturn -it. - -In regard to science much (as we have seen) has already been done; more -is being done. How is it in regard to religion? What about mechanism -there? - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER III - - The religions of all nations are derived from each - nation's different reception of the poetic genius, - which is everywhere called the spirit of prophecy. - _Blake._ - - -The Christian has not escaped the dangers of the common lot. He too, -despite his own contrary principles, has, from the beginning of the -Christian Church, been tempted as we all are to trust to mechanism and -even to sacrifice in its favour the powers of life. We ought not to be -surprised; what else can reasonably be expected? A good machine, whether -it be made of steel and brass, or of language, or of settled formulae -and plans, or of any other product of life, is an admirable servant. It -is convenient; it brings satisfaction to widespread and deeply-rooted -needs of life itself. Moreover there is nothing mysterious (so it -seems), or even problematic, about it. The plain man is not called upon -to question or wonder or speculate in regard to anything behind it, any -powers or vague connexions with powers, not understood. The good machine -does what it has to do and there's an end of it. A man knows where he is -when he has such a thing—or when it has him. There is even a sense of -comfort and security in being ruled and cared for by it, as, for -example, in the case of the machinery of a State. - -In this difficult world there seems, indeed there is, need for something -of the kind to supply a considerable part of our religious demand. We -are social beings; we are, as we are beginning to see more plainly, -brothers in a community; we must organize our religion as we organize -everything else in which the community of persons has its common -interest. And God, the Christian may say, and has said, would not leave -us, has not left us, to uncertainty and to our questioning and wondering -and speculative adventure. He has provided answers to our questions, -facts in response to our wondering, an open view for our speculation. -Or, to put it in another way, he has given us a 'plan' or 'scheme,' or -an ecclesiastical apparatus, of salvation; he has revealed religious -truth to us and marked out an established method of approaching him and -securing our own safety in respect of his judgement and our destiny at -his hands. Nothing of so great importance has been left, could have been -left, in the hands of men, to find out or not find out—poor creatures -that we are. - -Now, there is truth behind this, both as to the part of God and as to -the part of man in the matter. We are social, we are brethren, we must -organize. God, so all Christians say and many philosophers, no more -leaves us to ourselves than he leaves to itself any part of his worlds. -But Christians formally declare in their Creed that he is no -machine-maker; he is Lord and Giver of Life. They complain, too, against -science on the ground that (as they have come to believe) it must of its -constant character set material mechanism above life in the order of the -world. They are pledged to oppose this; and when they complain against -science for a fault and failure which is soon—so many biologists and -philosophers declare—to be a fault and a failure of the past, they are -faithful to their pledge. But they are men, with the faults and failures -of men. Habit has its snares for them; the complication of needs that -meets them in their effort to maintain themselves, body, mind and -spirit, in the world, entangles them. The short cut, the provided means, -everything and anything that seems to make matters easy or safe—in -short, the logical or legalistic or institutional machine—is attractive. -And for most men this machine in any of its protean forms, is perhaps -only the more attractive the more valued is the treasure it seems to -ensure or to protect. The faith once for all delivered—how precious that -is! Salvation in this world and the next—can anything be of greater -import for man? Let us make these things secure, whatever else we risk. -Only fools or the reckless would embrace chances of adventure where so -much is at stake. - -So, in spite of the Christian avowal of the superiority and the -supremacy of life over its instruments, Christianity has everywhere -given disastrous place to the letter and the tool. - -Against this the first prophet and the last, in every religion, must -always protest. It is the enemy of enemies for all prophets. You can see -war waged against it in the Old Testament; you can see that war carried -to the utmost in the Gospel of the New. Now the challenge rings among us -more clearly than it has rung for this long time. And, as ever, it has -new notes and a new phrasing of its music.... That, perhaps, is why so -many of us fail to recognize it for what it is. That, certainly, is why -the due honour paid to prophets of the past does not prevent men from -stoning or neglecting those of the present. The voice is always -different, because it is the voice of life. - -The use and need for the prophet is a fact not only in religion but in -all the arts and in philosophy. He alone keeps any one of these in touch -with life, or rather recalls it to life when it has been encumbered or -perhaps even arrested by that which life has made. He is, in very deed, -the voice of the encumbered spirit making itself heard, proclaiming in -one fashion or another that the pursuit of beauty and truth as well as -of holiness is of the spirit, and must have the spirit's liberty or it -will altogether fail. In the arts and in philosophy we do not call him a -prophet, but often, in the arts, we speak of him (when we have recovered -from the shock he gives) as 'inspired,' and in philosophy we call him -'great.' Great he is and inspired—we could hardly choose better and more -deeply significant words. He is the enlarger of life and the bearer of -the spirit, whether he uses the language of philosophy, of poetry, -painting or music, or of religion. But always he comes waging war upon -our superstitious devotion to the things that have once been made, -proclaiming either divine truth or divine beauty or divine holiness -(according to his mission), as that for the sake of which they must ever -be remade. - - * * * * * - -We who have learnt our lesson from science as well as from philosophy -should be sure friends to the prophet. We have learnt enough of the -story of life to see that from its beginning on the earth it strove -towards liberty, towards the indetermination by circumstance and the -freedom of choice that man has reached. We have seen life lost in mere -material size and crushed by the weight of material protective armour; -and we know what these things mean. We know, too, what entanglement in -habit means for our own selves. We are good and sure friends of the -prophet. Or we may be, if we will. - -It is high time that he should find such friends—men ready to meet him -with that in their minds which prepares his way before him. He has too -long been the voice driven to cry in the wilderness. Too long and too -often he has found men opposing him with a settled prejudice in favour -of the vested interests—the sanctified, it may be, and glorified vested -interests—of law and order and creed, of institution and crystallized -opinion. It is time that a new atmosphere should be made about him and -that these things should be visibly set in their right place and held at -their right value. When this is done the secret materialism of his -opponents will be brought to light. For, however it may be disguised, -all overvaluing of the instrumental product of life's activity comes of -the undue depreciation of living spirit and the undue appreciation of -its means. Science and philosophy, in teaching us now to seek for the -true relation of matter and spirit, are also teaching us to lend a -willing ear to the prophet. When we have learnt to see in man the -beginning of a synthesis of order and freedom in a vital harmony not -manifest in those starry heavens to which men point as the standing -witness of God against prophets of new freedom, we are ready to confess, -if we have found our God, that in him that perfect synthesis is declared -and in man it is foreshadowed and to be pursued. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - Hearken to me, ye children of the Immortal, - dwellers of the heavenly worlds, I have known the - Supreme Person who comes as light from the dark - beyond. - _Isha Upanishat._ - - -Studying at its best the Christian view of the world of life—and it is -not worth any man's while to study it at less—we find that Jesus Christ -stands there always as greatest among prophets, though 'more than a -prophet.' He is in the line of the prophets but at their head; he is -their culmination and their fulfilment. He knew himself to be a prophet, -and to have the lot of one who 'is not without honour save in his own -country.' He lived and taught, and he and his teaching were received, -after the manner of the prophets that had gone before. Like Isaiah and -Jeremiah he spoke the language of drama and poetry, and gave body in -parable and pictorial visions to his message. Like them he spoke and -preached always with passion and as being conscious of a very wall of -opposing forces. For him as for them the exaltation of religious -machinery above religious life, and all self-satisfaction through mere -forms and ceremonies, meant an onset of spiritual death. To use these -things as a shelter within which a man might follow his self-seeking -bent, whether of greed or of fear, was the worst (but one) of sins. -'Hypocrites,' that is, 'play-actors', 'generation of vipers,' he said of -the professionally religious of his time. That there was for him one sin -greater than such play-acting is of his own supreme greatness. No other -prophet recognized and denounced as he did the sin that cannot be -forgiven; for no other prophet had as he had the full personally -realized revelation of an indwelling God whom man, consciously, might -cast out. This, with his marvellous balance of judgement in regard to -the letter or the machine and the spirit—the organ and the life that -shapes and uses it—is a marked element in his _differentia_ among -prophets. And we, who are friends to them all in so far as they protest -against depreciation of spirit and life, and against men who make of the -products of life from which life has departed obstacles to the urgency -of the present, have to consider whether we can go with him as far as he -goes, or whether this element of difference between him and the rest is -in any way to weaken our alliance with him. He is not only one among his -fellows; he is also unquestionably different from them. Is there -anything about this difference that should make us who are friends of -the prophets quarrel with the Christian who accepts and welcomes it? - -First, let us look at his attitude towards the instruments of religion -as compared and contrasted with that of other prophets of his race. -'_Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth_,'—that is the -note of the elder prophets. '_The Sabbath was made for man, not man for -the Sabbath_'—that is his. The prophet of old was contemptuous of -institutional and ceremonial religion; he suffered, as we say, from -reaction and went to extremes, reprobating the instrument as well as the -spirit that misinterpreted and misused it. Jesus taught in the -synagogue, cleansed the temple from those who had made the historic -house of prayer to be a den of thieves, sent the leper to show himself -to the priest, and in general accepted the institutions of religion, and -the hierarchical organization, of the place and people that were his -own. Yet no man can say he overvalued these. His insistence on the -spiritual freedom of man and the pre-eminence of spirit and life was -both constant and passionate. The institution he accepted, as he -accepted the tools of his carpenter's trade, the food and furniture of -life as he found it, the language and the manners of his people. Freedom -and unity, love, truth, beauty and holiness, as realities in the life of -God and man, for these he pleaded, preached, worked, suffered and died. -Yet those other things were not to be despised or left undone. He came -and he lived not to destroy but to fulfil. In this he is pre-eminent -among, apart from, the religious prophets who went before him. His -piercing and balanced judgement was the primary source of Christian -sacramentalism. He despised nothing of the earth and the body; he found -a place for all in the life of the spirit. He was the first preacher to -point to loveliness in the flowers of the field; and for twelve hundred -years no other, in any nation or kind of religion, did the like. Then -Francis of Assisi, his true follower, sang the Song of the Sun. The long -history of Christian sacramentalism spreads out far and deep and gathers -up in itself from all quarters the pursuit of beauty is well as the -hunger and thirst after righteousness and truth; but its pure source is -plain to see in the Gospels. There the fine adjustment of the relation -between matter and spirit, life and its organs, is maintained. There the -value and the meaning and pertinence of life's own instruments to its -user, of the body to the soul, is as clearly insisted on as is the -supremacy in both meaning and value of life itself. There is none of the -abstract spiritualism that is one of the prophet's most dangerous -snares. There is none of the contempt and the blinding reaction which so -often disfigure and discredit his utterances. And for this, we who have -come fresh from learning our new lesson about the movement of organic -life and its difficult striving upon the earth may dare to praise him. -It is a beginning for us. Not in this respect, at least, shall we stand -aloof from him or complain that science or philosophy has built a -barrier against him. That Christians the world over have lost touch with -him in this regard as in others is for the moment nothing to us. We know -that they are feeble and fallible like ourselves and that his way of -judgement is hard. To keep the balance even, never to allow a secret -materialism to be brought into the scale, or a protest to sink into -repudiation—this is hard indeed. And we know that a thousand other -temptations have beset the Christian during the centuries that have gone -by and that, being as he is and just as we are ourselves, he has -succumbed to not a few of them. We know all that; but we are seeking to -find out what greatness it is that lies behind all the faults and -follies, the absurdities, the crimes even, of Christians, and keeps -Christianity alive and potent. We begin to see, perhaps, that this -greatness is Christ—that it is 'Jesus the prophet of Nazareth in -Galilee.' - -Of this greatness and its character he himself had an unique -consciousness which was a most important and most marked element in his -difference from the Hebrew prophets before him. He 'spoke with authority -and not as the Scribes,' not as those theologians and jurists whose -strength rested on tradition and the letter of the past; he spoke, in -short, as a prophet. So the people discovered. The voice of the prophets -was characteristically authoritative and neither showed respect for -tradition nor claimed its support. But the note of the prophets of old -was '_Thus saith the Lord_'; and the note of the prophet of Nazareth was -'_I say unto you_.' Both came among men with an authority lacking to the -followers of tradition; but by the first it was thought of as delegated, -in the second it was recognized as inherent. Not, '_the Lord said unto -me_,' but '_I say unto you_.' The difference is enormous; it is also -profound in significance and implications. It means, to begin with, a -different knowledge of God. No longer is God only speaking to his -messengers across a dividing space, speaking as a king upon his throne -might to a subject at his feet, charging that subject with a mission. -The message is no longer carried and reported by a man; it is originated -in him and given by him. Jesus is conscious that the life and spirit of -God are become his own life and spirit. He knows the indwelling God -given to be made man in co-operative union with man, knows him in and -through and as himself, the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee. He does not -need to refer either to a God, or to a tradition, that is extraneous to -himself. Therefore his prophetic authority exceeds not only that of the -Scribes but that of all the prophets. It gave this impression to those -of his contemporaries who had eyes to see and ears to hear. To such men -it gives the same impression now. And if there are Christians who -explain the impression and reason from it, erroneously, have we any -right to be surprised? Consider the height to which we have been carried -and the problems that open up before us as we survey this man. Consider -the habits of interpretation most usual among us. Consider the -tangibility and conspicuousness of _things_, the intangibility and, to -the senses and the mind itself, the elusive mysteries of personality, of -nature, of consciousness, even of knowledge and every other manifest -activity. We cannot fairly blame Christians for what has been done among -them in an attempt to explain and reason about Jesus Christ. The attempt -has been honest enough and successful enough to hold the allegiance of -thinking men for generations. - -The truth is that we are learning, as we never learnt before, to -question the manner of our own thinking about these high matters. We -have become aware, as we were not, of the insidious materialism of our -instruments of thought. We have learnt that to apply a logic of things -and their qualities to problems of the nature of God and man is to -ensure misunderstanding. So when Christians tell us that the person of -Jesus Christ is divine and that he had, or was, or is, a human nature -and a divine nature, and a human will and a divine will conjoined in the -divine person, we see plainly that they are applying to the truth of him -that logic of things and their qualities which they have acquired -through dealing easily and habitually with things. They are trying to -explain him by taking human nature as one thing or set of qualities, and -divine nature as another, and they are joining them by a third. You see -two vertical stones and one across the top. And if the stones are alive -and the top one 'hypostatically' effects the union between the other -two, stones they still are; or sets of qualities conceived as things, -which is all the same. - -The mighty consciousness of Jesus escaped entanglement by these logical, -spatial, materialistic nets. He knew by experience the activity of a -will in which the will of God and the will of man were united and -engaged at once in one purpose. He knew, felt, lived, God and man as one -in himself. And in the fulness of this he differed from all other -prophets, for whom it was at best, and that but rarely, an unrealized -ideal. - -Shall we say, then, that for us and for Christians it is well not to -reason about the problems he presents to thought? Even if we do, we -shall reason and so will they. Neither we nor they can help it. But we -may put our reasoning together, and learn each from the other. There is -a meeting-place here, inviting us to join hands. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER V - - Where Love is the Lover, Love streaming from - the Lover is the Lover; the Lover streaming from - himself, and existing in another Person. - _Traherne._ - - -_Aut Deus aut homo non bonus_—so Christians have said and believed. The -dilemma, though comfortable for not a few among them, and having about -it a certain truth, often involves a false conception of both man and -God. The truth it holds is not their comfort; they do not know that. -What most people mean when they use the dilemma is that the prophet of -Nazareth was either as a person God and not as a person man, or he was -as a person man and a bad one. It seems conclusive, this either-or. But -there is no logical weapon more fatal to our discovery of the truth of -spirit and life. 'Either-or' comes from a field of interest where things -stand out conspicuous and apart, and cannot be thought of as -communicating virtue and riches and themselves one to another. It brings -with it an insinuating suggestion, if not assertion, that the affairs of -spirit and life are in the same case. Personality, which is an affair of -spirit and life, seems no more to admit of such intercommunication than -does materiality. Two persons can no more communicate themselves to each -other than two stones. Which, on the crude exposed face of it, is -nonsense. They can, they do; and we know it. - -Unquestionably the great prophet spoke with the authority which lesser -prophets attributed to God. He made claims, very high claims. Was he -only an arrogant and blasphemous man? (He might, perhaps, have been -deluded, though the dilemma ignores that possibility—as well it may.) Or -was he God? There is no half-way house of vital identity between man as -person and God as person, any more than there is a half-way house of -material identity between a diamond and a pebble off the beach. -_Either-or._ So this dilemma goes. It is very simple, all too simple. It -applies beautifully to pebbles and diamonds; why not to living persons? -Particularly and excellently, why not to man and God? - -Now, as a matter of fact, I am trying to communicate to you at this very -moment something that is mine. My knowledge (or my ignorant opinion) is -written down on the paper before you, and you will or may receive it—to -do with it what you choose. Henceforth it is, or may be, yours as well -as mine. Again, I try to communicate to you the content of my will for -you. You know and feel that I want your will to be brought to coincide -with mine, so that my will and yours shall be vitally identical in -regard to what I am writing about. In some degree or another you and I -may become one in this regard. I shall then have communicated my -knowledge (or my ignorant opinion) and my will to you and they will to -some extent or another be both yours and mine. This communication and -co-operation is a matter of our choosing to enter into it and be and -work together. We have it in our own hands. It is quite different from -the relation we have to each other as being parts in the universe, or -elements in God looked upon as the pantheist looks upon him, which makes -him no more than the universe. We can't help that relation. We share it -with the stones as well as with each other and with God. It is a purely -abstract business and belongs to 'the night in which all cows are -black.' Our cows, on the other hand, are of every sort of colour; and we -find, we actually do find, that we can pass on our colours to each -other, dye the different cow to our tinge and in turn be dyed. We are -concrete, not abstract; and our vital identity one with another is -concrete too. It may be and might not be. We choose whether it shall be -or not. And, happily, we choose that it shall be, up to a point, far -more often and more steadily than we choose that it shall not. Hence the -existence of a human community in common knowledge and reason and common -will—up to a point. - -I give you here in these pages, or at least proffer you, as I have said, -'something of mine.' That is what it looks like. But, enquiring further, -I ask whether as a matter of fact 'I' am separate from 'something of -mine,' as, let us say an engine is separate from the power it produces -and the work it does. Do I produce thought and knowledge as an engine -produces so much horse-power? Is my will or my reason a sort of thing -that produces activity as a flower produces its scent? The scent is not -the flower; the horse-power is not the engine. There is always a -producing _thing_ behind such products. Is there a producing thing -behind my knowledge and activity? And the only reasonable answer we can -give to this question is that there is not. In my spirit and life there -is nothing in the least like a thing or a machine; and when we reason -about spirit and life as though there were we plunge into a very sea of -confusion. My reason and my will _are_ myself. I am not a thing and I do -not produce like a thing. I give and I communicate my very self in -giving and communicating my knowledge, my purpose, my will. And in so -far as you receive these and take them into yourself you receive -me—spirit and life—as person. By harmony between us our wills and -reason, our selves, coalesce; they become identical in the concrete, -vital identity peculiar to persons, impossible to things, and dependent -for its maintenance on the maintenance of harmony by their own free -activity. Very partial it is, no doubt, seen by all of us 'as in a -mirror darkly'; but it points, with a finger that should draw all eyes, -to a great fulfilment. That fulfilment is 'the goal, not the -starting-point of human endeavour.' The blank identity of co-existence -in a universe is, you may say, a starting-point for reflexion; but real -concrete mental coalescence between each and all of us is a real -concrete starting-point of life in a personal world. The goal lies far -ahead, where that union of persons foreshadowed in our fragmentary -intercourse and the low beginnings of our community of life shall be won -through that which alone can give it, our union and communion with God. -This is more or less a philosopher's way of putting the matter; but it -means the same as the Christian's. - -Now there is a question that forces itself upon us here. Can there be a -coalescence of mind and will, an identity, between God and man, of this -living, spiritual—that is, real, concrete—kind? Or is God so different -from man as to be incommunicable to him? Is he remote from man in his -own nature or, indeed, not only remote but alien? The answer to this is -that if he is even remote, not to say alien, he is nothing to us and we -may ignore him. - -The Christian's God certainly is not remote; he is all men's lover and -father and they are all his beloved and his sons. The philosopher's God -is sometimes made blankly, abstractly, identical with us, and then we -may ignore him; because a blank identity simply is, as conceived in -thought, and like the alien God it means nothing for us. But more often -nowadays the philosopher's God is like the Christian's in that he both -transcends his universe and indwells it; for the philosopher has begun -in good earnest to reckon with life and with science and human -experience at large. God indwelt Jesus Christ, and he knew God as lover -and father both. He spoke as though God had communicated himself to him -in a fulness we do not know among ourselves. There was an identity of -will, it seems, recognized by him, between himself and God, and an -identity of reason and knowledge. And if God is Spirit and Lord and -Giver of life, then, if the prophet was right, in this identity by -fulness of communication, this personal coalescence of reason and will, -God, very God, gave himself to very man, and very man entered into -personal union with very God. The transcendent God indwelt the man, was -immanent within him as the man's own self; and the man's own self was -lifted up into the self of God. The intercommunication of person with -person, which we see as the prerogative of persons, was complete. - -We have confessed this to be the goal of human endeavour; let us allow -ourselves to think that in regard to us it may be the goal, also, of -divine endeavour, and that in the man who offered no opposition to God -it was attained. As long as we do not indulge in the secret materialism -of regarding a person as a thing _producing_ knowledge or activity, -instead of as _being_ that knowledge and activity, we shall have no -difficulty in recognizing the fact that where knowledge and will in two -persons coincide, there also the persons coincide. We shall be able to -see that a man is identical with God, in the only sense identity can -have for personal beings, when he fully knows the mind of God and his -will is bent on the same ends as the will of God. Then this man is both -man and God in one, for God indwells him by that activity which he truly -is. - -If we object, as we frequently do, that no man can fully know the mind -of God, we must tell ourselves that if a man knows the essential, -permanently valuable truth of life which wise men have ever sought as -wisdom, then all that is worth while in knowledge, all that upon which -parts and kinds of 'knowledges' must be built up, is his, included -within his _Weltanschauung_, his living view of the world. The -principle, the ground, of all truth, and therefore of all knowledge, he -knows and has. - - * * * * * - -We think of the writer of the Fourth Gospel giving us, as a prayer of -Jesus, the aspiration that 'they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in -me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.' He has the goal of -our endeavour in plain sight; he must have felt that impulse of the -spirit towards it which is not exhausted, never can be exhausted, by any -one man. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - Thy judgment is in the mute pain of sleepless love; - In the blush of pure hearts; - In the tears of the night of desolation; - In the pale morning-light of forgiveness. - _Rabindranath Tagore._ - - -We are going far with the Christian. Life is indeed a bond; it is -materialism that divides the seekers after truth. The secret materialism -of the Christian and his trust in religious machinery must bring him -into conflict with those who put their trust in other kinds of machines. -We who are trusting life, and are trying not to interpret it in terms of -the logic of things, find ourselves side by side with those Christians -faithful enough to their supreme leader and their own principles to do -the same. So we may walk willingly with them and hear what they have to -say in more intimate talk than there can be when the spirit of community -is wanting. - -In this matter of personality and its self-communicating power they have -been beforehand with us, as in so many other matters. Jesus has been for -them a fountain of wisdom and insight, and while they have kept close to -him his wisdom and his insight have been-imparted to them. He has been -in them a well-spring wanting to the negligent world. 'Whosoever -drinketh of the water that I shall give him,' the disciple hears him -say, 'shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be -in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' That is what -it means to be indwelt by God, 'the fountain of living waters,' as the -older prophet calls him. And we think of what we have learnt about -personality and the inseparability of the spirit from its own content of -knowledge and volition, of love, too, and righteousness, and joy in -beauty and truth. We think of the intercommunication of man with man and -of men with God and his 'Christ'—that is, the man 'whose individuality,' -as a Christian philosopher says, 'is identified with God in the unity of -all his thought and action with the divine knowledge and the divine -purpose.' All these come to mind when we hear of a fountain of living -waters becoming a well-spring for those who drink of it. - -But it may be that we turn away with a sigh from such intimate talk, -knowing how far we are ourselves from the union with God which the -Christian depicts. And it may be, too, that there dawns upon us the -thought that when this Christian speaks of 'atonement' he means, most -likely, some process of God by which that union is accomplished, and the -neglect or opposition of men is overcome. What difference is there, we -may be inclined to ask, between divine incarnation, as the Christian -sees it,—God's communication of himself, the fountain of living waters, -to men—and an atonement between him and them? Is not the union of -incarnation the very act and process of atonement? Is not the redemption -of man effected in and through the self-expression of God in him? When -he is one with God he is 'redeemed' from the neglect and opposition of -sin, and of the rejection of God; and then God is manifest and expressed -in him. Is this a question of words? Perhaps, rather, it is a question -of emphasis on one or other side, man's side or God's. - -But if, for the moment, we lay emphasis on the side of man and speak of -atonement and redemption instead of speaking of incarnation and our -communion and union with God, there are certainly elements of special -difficulty to be encountered. The explanations of Christians are by no -means as trustworthy as their insight and the knowledge they derive from -their great 'Redeemer.' They explain in legalistic terms, or -materialistic, or in terms of a despotic rule, a process and an act of -life given and received. They are prone to ignore the prophet in favour -of the Scribe or the Pharisee. And once again the prophet may justly put -into the mouth of God the old reproach—'My people have committed two -evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed -them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.' They build -up their inventions and hide beneath them the sublimity of living fact; -and we who ask them concerning the fact are shown the ruins of those -inventions. We ask them for bread and they give us the stones they have -put together. There is hardly a religious problem or question, or fact -and process, more encumbered than this with that tradition which makes -the word of God of none effect. No doubt there are Christians who are -both able and willing to help such men and women as are likely to ask -their help; the difficulty is to find such Christians. Let us see, now, -how we can work out for ourselves an understanding of what is really -meant by atonement between men and God, what Christians really mean when -they express themselves so ill about it, what it really is that really -happens. - -Atonement between God and men undoubtedly implies the forgiveness of -sinful men by God. They cannot possibly enter into union with him unless -they are forgiven. When they sin against their fellow-men they cannot be -united or re-united with them on any other condition than that their -fellows forgive them. But, we must insist, it is immoral to forgive them -unless they at least _will_ to cast away their sinfulness. It is always -immoral, too, not to punish, that is, not to condemn, sin and -sinfulness; and therefore (since a man and his activity are one) the -sinner. How then can God at once condemn (or punish) and forgive the -sin, sinfulness and the sinner? Are not condemnation (or punishment) and -forgiveness mutually exclusive? If we condemn or punish do we not fail -to forgive? If we forgive, must we not remit punishment and cease to -condemn? - -Now here is a difficulty that reflexion should remove. For it comes of -what happens in the lower stages of man's social relations and spiritual -growth. We think of punishment as somehow the expression of -vindictiveness, while forgiveness alone is the expression of love. So it -is in us beginners. So it begins to cease to be, even in us, as we grow -into new life and a new spirit. Let us think how we should behave to an -evil-doer if we loved him to the utmost of our power of love. Should we -condone his evil-doing by withholding that condemnation which is -expressed in punishment, whether of look or word or deed (as -circumstance demands), and extend to him an artifice of forgiveness in -which the moral disunion between him and ourselves shall be concealed? -Would that truly represent our faithful love for him, that love which -must seek not an appearance but a reality of harmony, and for his sake -tolerate no encouragement, not even the slightest possibility of -deriving encouragement, for his evil doing? Obviously it would not. For -his sake we should unmistakably condemn, making known to him in look or -word or deed our condemnation. It would be the expression of our love -and, with forgiveness, is of the nature and property of love. We should -feel no shadow of vindictiveness. In our relation with him the -forgiveness and the condemnation of love would be one. - -We encounter here a false antithesis in a matter of spirit and life. -Forgiveness and punishment in God or in the man of God can neither be -antithetical nor need to be reconciled. In the life of love they are not -divided. God, who is love as he is spirit and life, forgives and -condemns by one consistent act of love. There is no immoral condonation -in his forgiveness, no vindictiveness about his punishment. And this the -Christian knows both by his own experience and by the life and lessons -of his redeeming Lord. 'Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and -scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' No true Christian would have it -otherwise. - -'If forgiveness means—as it properly does—the wise and patient care for -the criminal's welfare, for his regeneration and recovery into the life -of a good society, then there is no distinction whatever between -forgiveness and punishment.' That, precisely, is what forgiveness ought -to be made to mean, and punishment likewise. But again we see in a -mirror darkly and are confused by our history and our own shortcomings. -Therefore even Christians misjudge God, or make for themselves 'broken -cisterns'—a false God who is no fountain of living waters, pouring forth -a never-failing, self-consistent, self-giving love; but a judge, a king, -a despot, after the pattern of the world, a God aloof administering -punishment or forgiveness, both alike unworthy and misplaced. There is -no difficulty at all in this question of punishment and forgiveness if -we remember perfect love and its aim, as Jesus shows them. - -Moreover, we must bear in mind, nothing about God who 'is spirit' is -either an artifice or a machine. So his punishments, his expressed -condemnations, are never artificial, never mechanical. They arise -'naturally,' as we say; and in large part we provide them, we men, -ourselves. There are certain 'natural' consequences, miscalled -punishments, which are entailed upon the body as, for instance, when a -child puts his hand into the fire or a man disregards what we call the -'laws' of health. The due and true moral punishment of persons by -persons is just as natural. The nature of persons is spiritual in the -order of their uplifted life, and is one with that life. Their nature -is, in fact, no other than that life and those persons. We cannot -separate, though we may sometimes in word distinguish, between the man -and his nature. Consequently all due and right punishment by persons -(punishment by love, which is the same as forgiveness by love) is wholly -natural. It is a natural consequence of sin, the reaction against sin -with which good persons or a good society must encounter it. There is no -arbitrary infliction of punishment, and no arbitrary forgiveness, by the -good man, the good society, or the good God. Nor should there be in -regard to his own sins or sinfulness by the man who newly rejects them, -the newly penitent man. He, the new man, reacts according to his new -nature, and in one and the same activity should condemn and forgive -himself. He must be penitent but he should not be remorseful. If he does -not forgive himself as well as condemn himself, it may be because he is -not humble enough and penitent enough to bear with the fact that he has -deserved his condemnation. - -We must remind ourselves, however, that it is of spiritual nature in -ourselves to _choose_. The activity of love is chosen and determined by -the good man, with its forgiveness and its punishment. And although the -perfection of God must preclude choice between alternatives, although -for perfect wisdom there can never be more than one course open, yet -there is no automatism, there cannot be automatism of the mechanical -kind, in God who, as the Christian maintains, _is_ love. His love is -willed though not chosen. It is of the vital, intelligent, voluntary -activity of a spiritual being. And so both punishment and forgiveness -are willed, in God or in man; and as the man approaches full union with -God so does his choice approach that inevitable wisdom for which there -is no longer consciousness of choice. This is the manner of spirit and -life; that which is personally real in any man, all that is in God, is -not merely consented to or assented to but is always actively willed, -never compulsorily or mechanically apportioned. So it is right and -reasonable to say that God or the man of God punishes and forgives. It -is not right to say that the punishment and forgiveness of either, -though it is wholly natural, is in any kind of way automatic with the -automatism of a machine, or even with that relative automatism of -material things which we speak of as natural law. Without the activity -of love there can be no true punishment and no true forgiveness; there -is only vindictiveness or condonation. - -The treatment we have given our wrong-doers in the past is not fitted to -throw clear light on Christian atonement and the ways of God with man. -On the contrary, it has obscured both. But we are learning. Truth, -experience, and the _Gesta Christi_ work for our learning. Or, as the -Christian says, the divine spirit works for it and 'strives' with us, -that is, works with us that we may work out our own salvation. - -We have begun to say to the children we are training—'Come now, this is -_wrong_; let's see how we' [_we_, mark you] 'can set it right.' We have -discovered that unless the child works with us our punishment fails, and -our forgiveness fails, of any real effect for goodness. But Christians -knew this from their beginning, though many of them forget they did. In -the last resort it is why Christ died. - -When, carrying with us our new method, we have passed from the child to -the criminal, and extend to him that 'wise and patient care' for his -welfare, which is forgiveness and punishment in one, we shall be in a -better position for seeing what Christian atonement really means and -is—how real it is and how it depends on co-operation between the Saviour -and the offender; how, always, the Saviour must win the offender first -if he is to save him. Then we shall read the Gospels of the Christian -with new eyes and a new understanding. - -If you want to see punishment and forgiveness both in one, turn to the -parable of the prodigal son. Could any punishment be more salutary or -more piercing to the man whose penitence had shown him his utter -unworthiness? Could forgiveness be more complete, more gracious, than -that which he received? Consider how his penitence must have been -deepened, and his sense of unworthiness increased, when he found himself -in his father's arms, and his father's house, honoured, rejoiced over, -feasted? In proportion to the depth and fulness of penitence do these -two, punishment and forgiveness, given in love, become distinguishable -only by the reaction to them of the penitent. He alone knows how love -hurts and heals in one and the same act and moment. - -Then, if you want to learn the many forms punishment may take, seek -further. Look at the story of the woman taken in adultery. 'Hath no man -condemned thee?' ... 'Neither do I condemn thee: go, and _sin no more_.' -Punishment and forgiveness imparted in one profound paradox of love's -judgement. What do you think was its effect on the woman who had looked -into the prophet's eyes as he lifted them from the dust? 'Hath no man -condemned thee?' 'No man, Lord,' she said; and they were the words -humility and shame would choose. - -A degree further—consider the picture of a final judgement, with the -'Son of man in his glory' and the nations gathered before him to be -shown their union with him, or their disunion, in a clearness none could -mistake. 'Come, ye blessed,' he says, 'inherit the kingdom prepared for -you from the foundation of the world'—the kingdom in which all men are -one with the Holiest, with the living Truth himself and Beauty 'in his -glory'—come with me. For I was an hungred, thirsty, a stranger.... Naked -and ye clothed me, sick, in prison, and ye came unto me.... And yet -these blessed had never known what they did. It was not he, so far as -they knew, that they had succoured. Not for his sake but for love's they -had done it; not even, indeed, at the heart of it, for love's sake, but -because they loved, because in them the well-spring of love streamed -forth and they gave their very selves to those others who had only need -of them. They were of love and were love's own. Love as shown to these -who needed it was not distinguishable, even by their reaction to it, -into punishment and forgiveness. It was but love. - -Then those others—'Depart from me,' he says—and there was a vision -painted of the unutterable horrors of a state of separation and -loneliness and self-embittered remorse—'I was an hungred and ye gave me -no meat.' They also, had not known—'Lord, when saw we thee an hungred?' -If they had known they would assuredly have hastened to him with their -meat, asked him to their feasts, lavished all upon him. But for what -sake? For no other than their own. Love had no place in their hearts, -nor had the Lord. Only self-seeking. They were their own Lords and Gods. -And thenceforth they had to know it. In their impenitent, disappointed, -cheated (they would say) and remorseful hearts there was no room for -anything but the sense of punishment. Their inevitable reaction to the -voice of love, as it reproached their lack of love, shut out both -forgiveness and all possibility of the sense of it. - -So we come to the extreme of distinction between the ways of the showing -of love. Here is all punishment, it seems, to the sinner. But it is he -who makes love so. It is very love that punishes, a consistent, -unwavering love which, in the sinner's last extremity, shows itself to -the utmost he can receive and in the only way he can receive. What, I -ask you, would a man like this make of a love that should express itself -(if in the nature of love it could thus express itself) as condoning the -want of love and professing oneness in so complete an alienation? Not -only does the nature of love forbid such an expression, but the nature -of the self-worshipper, who cannot receive it. - -There is a very marvellous knowledge of the hidden heart shown in these -prophetic teachings. As we converse with the Supreme Person of the -Gospels we feel him searching out our bones and marrow. To him there -lies open the secret of disunion among us personal beings and the secret -of the utmost furtherance, and the means towards furtherance, of the -conversion of our will from self-seeking to love-finding. This utmost -furtherance necessarily falls short of the compulsion love can never -even contemplate or man endure. A man compelled to love is unthinkable. -Words, mere empty words these are that so speak of him. He cannot be. If -he could be compelled he could not be man; if the semblance of love were -forced upon him it would not be love. But the atonement in which the -Christian believes shows the love of God working to further love in man -to an utmost God alone can reach. Punishment and forgiveness work -together as that love, and the life of Jesus and the Cross on which he -died are at once their final showing-forth, their clearest call to man, -and the tremendous acceptance by man of all that they entail and are. - -Here, indeed, is the fountain of love in its fulness. We need not wonder -that the disciple, having in mind his living and triumphant Lord, hears -him say to us who desire to drink of the waters of love—'Whosoever -drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the -water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up -into everlasting life.' - -Christian atonement means restoration to the only real and full union -and communion of persons, that of divine love. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - Nature, in a fashion whose details are still only - faintly hinted to us men, constitutes a vast society. - _Royce._ - - -The Christian shows in his root principles, we are bound to confess, a -profound sense of personality and of the relations of persons. That this -comes of his relation to the Supreme Person from whom he has derived -them can hardly be denied. It is in a person, Jesus Christ, that he has -seen God and learnt about him; and the judgements and love of God that -he discerns he discerns in Christ. As the spirit of Christ becomes one -with his spirit so do his own judgements and his own love become those -of God in him, and his principles are embodied in his life. All wisdom -is divine, and all love, the Christian says. And, undoubtedly, men who -are earnestly and disinterestedly seeking these, and discovering how in -that search they penetrate into the truth and reality of moral and -practical affairs of life, must find that the Christian is worth -listening to, perhaps even worth watching. That is, when he has 'the -mind of Christ.' Otherwise he confuses judgement and blurs, if he does -not efface, his principles. In 'the mind of Christ' he is for us 'a -well-spring of water'; without that, if he only calls himself by the -name and is either the Scribe, the Pharisee, or the false prophet, he is -far more helpless, far more misleading and misled, than they are who -honestly seek truth and know they have not found it. - -In the last chapter we heard what the man with the mind of Christ had to -say about punishment and forgiveness as between persons. And one -difficulty that disturbs others, many others, besides those who approach -the Christian religion from the direction of science, has surely been -lessened by him. But besides this, in that chapter we referred, in -passing, to the calamities of what we narrowly call 'nature,' the burnt -child, the man of ruined health; and we said that these were not -strictly affairs of punishment. But, undoubtedly, they are often -regarded as punishment by religious men, by Christian men. We may turn -to our Christian, whose best has been so good, and ask him what the mind -of Christ is on this matter. Does the Lover and Father of Jesus inflict -plague and pestilence, earthquake and fire, on evil-doers, as a human -judge inflicts prison or the hangman's cord, and once inflicted -mutilation and torture? The God of the Old Testament, so his prophets -said, was not unlike our judges. What is the God of the New, as Jesus -showed him? The answer is not far to seek. - -'Ye have heard that it hath been said'—'But I say unto you.' He maketh -his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the -just and on the unjust.' ... 'those eighteen, upon whom the tower in -Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all -men that dwelt in Jerusalem?' And then the warning words—'I tell you, -Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' Warning, -these last words are, and, it may be, puzzling. They seem to imply -punishment, doom, in this falling of a tower, though no sinners were -specially selected from others for the death it brought. What is there -behind this? Let us think, and bring to bear on the problem what we have -learnt about the world (and therefore about God) elsewhere. And let us -consult with the Christian. He is our authority now on his own affairs, -as the philosopher and the scientific man are on theirs. Well, in the -first place it is plain that no one of our authorities countenances -arbitrary enactment. Thus much is plain about the events of nature -(usually so-called), that they are no more arbitrary than the -judgements, or the punishment and forgiveness, of a just man or a just -God. What we want to know is the way in which their order is related to -the order of justice between persons. That a tower falls on eighteen -sinners who are not worse sinners than those upon whom it does not fall -looks bad for justice and consequently for love. But is it bad? - -We are opening up one of the most formidable of problems. Let us bear in -mind, however, that we have seen one thing precluded by the mind of -Christ—a belief on our part that the man who suffers or dies from an -'accident' or catastrophe of nature is thereby pointed out as punished -by God. The selective, though equally natural, punishments of God are of -quite another order; they single out unerringly, with the utmost -subtlety and fineness, man from man. They are determined for himself by -each man; he works out his own damnation as he works out his own -salvation, God working with him for both. And that is why the adjustment -is so accurate between the man who will not be saved and the doom that -falls upon him. The calamities of earth are far too rough and ready to -be God's instruments of selection. When (or if) one Grand Duke is the -sole survivor of a wrecked ship and a Te Deum is sung in thankfulness to -God, the mind of Christ is ignored, his plain words are ignored. 'Think -ye that this Grand Duke was a man of God above all men that were on that -ship?' we hear him ask. And we do not hear him say that if we all repent -we shall all likewise be rescued. The kingdom of heaven is neither -bought nor sold, and no repentance will purchase safety upon earth. - -All this lies on the face of these illuminating words spoken from the -mind of Christ. But there is more to be learnt about them and from them. -We are thrown back upon the mystery of the fundamental relation between -matter and spirit. And if we cannot do more, we can at least consider -what experience shows us every day concerning that relation and what we -find when we reflect upon it. There is that tower now. Towers may be -built to stand for centuries, perhaps thousands of years. There is no -indication that the fall of this particular tower was due to an -earthquake, against which its strength would have been useless. We may -reasonably suppose that it was not strong, that there were faults in its -design, or building or material, or all three or any two. A tower well -designed, well built and of good materials may, perhaps, outlast mankind -upon this earth. And at least it will not fall; it will only wear away -and crumble. This tower fell through the fault of sinners. Was the fault -moral, or was it, as we say, merely intellectual? Was there anything of -the spirit about it? And we must answer that as it was fault in a human -being, a spiritual and moral person, there certainly must have been -moral fault. The intellectual element is not separate from the moral. - -Think—if all the men concerned in building that tower had been -disinterested seekers after goodness and truth and beauty, would it have -fallen as it did? What, you may say (but I am assured that you will not, -if you have read thus far), what is the connexion between a love of -goodness, truth and beauty, and the building of a tower? What, in fact -(and this you may well ask), is the true relation between spirit and -life on the one hand, and the successful use of material things on the -other? Does a man use them better, that is, more successfully, because -he is as God would have him be, morally and spiritually? - -The narrow outlook of some religious men, and their abstraction of -religion from the wide range of its concerns into the narrowness of -theirs, blinds them to the wide range of goodness, of beauty, and of -truth. The man who is as God would have him be (according to the mind of -Christ), if he had to build a tower, would seek as he seeks salvation to -find out the truth of towers, of their materials, of their design and of -their building. He would not only know that this was his duty, but he -would know or feel that it was his heart's desire. He would throw -himself into the pursuit of this truth because he was a lover of truth. -And in loving truth he would show his love of God. Therefore he would -use good materials, not bad, good stone, good mortar, and he would put -these together with due regard to their characters, their truth. And his -love of beauty would conspire with his love of truth to bring about the -strength and stability of his tower. Beauty in these things is a -guarantee of truth, or rather its evidence. So closely are the three -linked in the love of them and the realization of them, that we may know -them to be one. They are to be distinguished, but they cannot be -separated, one from another. And so those builders of our tower who -should be disinterested in their worship of the three in one, would (we -may well say) have set up at Siloam a tower very different from that -which fell. It might have endured, like the Tower of David, to this day. - -Sin, then, that is, the refusal to follow after truth, beauty and -goodness, and thus after God made known to the soul, had a very real -connexion with the fall of that tower. But in this respect of sin its -builders were no worse than other men 'who dwelt at Jerusalem.' All -these men had come short of full devotion to God as they saw God, to the -light they perceived, the truth they might attain, the beauty that -summoned them and the goodness that should have been theirs. Not in this -regard is the fall of the tower selective. Indeed there is nothing to -show that it fell upon a single one of its builders, any more than that -it selected the worst of the sinners. It may have caused to 'perish' a -party of mere sight-seers. - -Only through that solidarity of man which links 'the crimes of each to -the sorrows of all' is the fault of the builders linked with the -perishing of those eighteen. And again we have testimony against any -selection of the bad from the good by the calamities of earth. Not even -the retribution of the kind of badness which bad building is falls, by -God's determination, upon the evil-doer, through instruments of the -earth. They are far too rough, these things, too indiscriminating. They -do not pierce to the joints and the marrow; they hit like a blind man's -bludgeon. - -Yet this they assuredly are not. As the personal punishment and -forgiveness of God seek and find the sinner himself in the depths of his -being and to the utmost of his activity, so these things, Towers of -Siloam, Armageddons, plague and pestilence, search out our corporate sin -and sinfulness, reach the community of sinners in their interaction. By -pain and sorrow for all, they bring to light both the sins and the -shortcomings of each. Our responsibility for Armageddon extends over the -devastation it has wrought, as the responsibility of those builders of -the tower made the deaths of the eighteen it killed their own work. In -the community of life is community of crime and suffering and all their -consequences. There is an identity one with another among men, which -they cannot escape. They are one body even when they are not one spirit, -and every member of the body may entail disaster on the rest, as he may -bring redemption. If we could not hinder life we could not help it. And -therefore that word of Christ which was no doubt primarily addressed to -those men of Jerusalem whose sins were inviting doom, has other points -of significance we need to note. 'Unless ye repent, ye shall all -likewise perish.' All—the community; likewise—through aid from the -calamities and catastrophes of that outer world of things and persons -with which we are so closely bound, as well as from the snares and the -beguiling, the temptations and betrayal, we make for ourselves in our -misuse of it. - -We are one with the earth—let us remember that. And even those -catastrophes of earth for which we seem to have no responsibility, storm -and flood and earthquake, are not cut off from a relation with ourselves -that may some day be more clear. We are but beginners in the task of -entering upon our heritage of earth. And when we try to look deep into -the mystery of matter and spirit what we see makes us think that they -are not unlike the red and violet ends of a spectrum, which between them -passes from colour to colour, but which, when our analytical stretching -out is over, returns to the multiplicity in unity of white light. The -Christian, by his sacramentalism and his emphasis on incarnation, -confesses their kinship, as does the artist when out of three sounds he -frames 'not a fourth sound, but a star,' and out of mud or marble, a -vision. - -We cannot penetrate this mystery; but when we recognize the solidarity -of man with man, we may try to remember that it must reach beyond man, -not only above him but below. - - * * * * * - -When the Christian sends us to the tower of Siloam he does us good -service. If all Christians had learnt their lesson from that instead of -from an older tradition and many superstitions, there would have been no -need to send us. We should have known long ago what it tells of the -judgements of God and the heavy responsibilities of men. And if the -objection is made that the immediate application of the words of the -prophet was far narrower than this to which we have carried it, our -answer is that the mark of prophetic teaching is its inexhaustible -richness of meaning and its proof that wisdom, of its essence, applies -to life in every aspect and mode that life may display. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - Notre liberté, dans les mouvements mêmes par - où elle s'affirme, crée les habitudes naissantes qui - l'étoufferont si elle ne se renouvelle par un effort - constant. - _Bergson._ - - -It is quite true that to be popular a religion must be corrupt. The fact -is noted both by its critics and enemies and by its friends and -devotees. They express their minds in different terms but they agree. -There is, however, a difference running through their agreement, at -least in many cases. The critics who are also enemies regard the -corruption not strictly as corruption but as the clearer manifestation -of the true character religion has from the beginning. The religious man -means precisely what he says when he calls it corrupt. There is a -reality, true, beautiful, good, which men in the multitude do not find -attractive, but which may be adapted, one way or another, overlaid, -delicately or barbarously perverted, to suit them. - -Jesus Christ was not popular, nor were his principles. For a time, no -doubt, people heard him gladly. He went about among them doing good, -healing, compassionate. But when they realized how discordant with -themselves his prophetic message really was they hounded him to death. -'Not this man but Barabbas,' they cried. Barabbas was far more popular -than this prophet without honour in the country that should have known -him best, and did know enough of him to be sure that he and his -interests were alien from them and theirs. - -It is this that stands in the gate of popularity over against an -uncorrupted Christian religion, this separation from the people and -their interests as they commonly are. The kingdom for which Jesus lived -and died, the community of wisdom and love and self-giving, is not -desired by the societies in which narrower self-interests reign. 'Change -your minds,' the prophet must always say to his people, 'repent, change -your minds about everything in the world, about yourselves, and about -God.' - -Can we wonder that bit by bit compromise creeps in? Anything so -subversive must be accommodated here and there to things as they are, -for things as they are have to remain—somehow. The popular conception of -right government and right morals, the popular craving for magic and for -royal roads and easy-going machines, for an assured salvation or an -infallible guide, permeates insensibly the religion which a poetic -religious genius has revealed. The divine voice is drowned in the -shouting of men who will be heard and listened to. So, whether great -Rome or the little Bethel be established in popularity, the Christian -religion must have been corrupted in it to meet the desires and condone -the sins and errors of the people who have so disastrously been won -without being transformed. - -Christianity became popular. Shall we, then, look for its truth in -popular presentations of it? If science were popular, should we seek its -truth that way? Or do we take popular philosophy, or the view of the -world or of the British Constitution presented in newspapers, as our -guide to the truth of these things? Yet it seems that when a man studies -the Christian religion he does just what he would regard himself as a -fool for doing in regard to any other serious matter. He takes it in its -established and popular or once popular guise, and then says—'this, -this, is what the Christian religion is.' And if another presentation is -offered him, say that of the Gospels or the great mystics, prophets, -saints, who have been nurtured in the true faith, and fed by the divine -wisdom of Christ, he says it is not Christianity at all, because -Christianity is and must be taken as the religion of Christians in the -multitude, not as the private discoveries or inventions of certain -gifted or peculiar men—those saints, prophets, mystics—or even as Jesus -Christ himself, living, dying, living for ever, whom Nietzsche took to -be the only Christian. - -If a man is more careful, he seems to himself to have been as careful as -he need be when he goes to the official presentation of religion by -theologians and doctors, and in the organized procedure of religious -government and institutions. That, he says, must show me what -Christianity really is. That is Christian orthodoxy. And, undoubtedly, -if he carries his investigations far he will find there much that is -more valuable and more difficult to dispose of easily, than what he -finds current in the multitude. Yet here he needs more caution than he -usually shows, however careful he is to distinguish between the official -orthodoxy and the unofficial representation of it. He needs to learn or -to recall continually the manner of life and thought everywhere in -regard to life's effects and tools and products. He needs to tell -himself that just as in the monsters of bygone epochs on the earth life -was overwhelmed in monstrosity, and in the armoured beasts it was -checked by the very instruments that seemed its best protection, so in -all human organizations (and every Church, whatever else it may be, is a -human organization) there is an ever-present danger to the spirit and -the life they have been designed, well or ill, to serve. 'Automatism -dogs our steps; the formula crystallizes the living thought that gave it -birth, the idea is oppressed by the word, the spirit overwhelmed by the -letter.' And if to this ever-present danger to religion there is added, -as there very frequently is, the insidious influence of the -worldly-world, of ambition, political intrigue, the pressure of popular -demands and of a narrow but immensely powerful self-interest, the -religious institution, if it persists unchanged, easily—one may dare to -say inevitably—ceases to bear faithful witness to the religious life. - -Again, the procedure of theologians, and above all the procedure of -'theologizers,' is open and always has been open to serious question. -They are aware that their work is one of science; but as it began in a -time when science had not learnt its best methods, nor the necessity of -ever relating itself anew to living experience, theirs is a science very -far from being what we have come to know and trust as scientific. -Moreover, although it does change and move and grow, far more than most -of us or of its professors see or acknowledge, it has never formally -adopted change and movement and growth as in principle and fact -necessary for its well-being. The theologians who claim to represent the -orthodoxy of by far the great majority of Christians, those of the -Church, Eastern or Western, are in the main determined to make every -effort to abide in the old paths, and with more or less ingenuity accord -themselves with a past supposed unchanging. That the present changes, -they too often deplore, that in and by their own work the past has been -changed, they seem not to know. And their own reluctance to change both -disguises the fact that despite themselves they have done so, and -militates against the value for other people of their change. The man -who looks to them as representing the Christian religion takes them at -their own estimate as in the main unchanging, and judges what they give -him as being 'that which was from the beginning.' Along the Christian -ages Christian theologians have changed into their own likeness the -'faith once delivered to the saints' and they have but rarely been -saints. - -It is to the saints and the prophets that we must look for the Christian -religion, rather than to its doctors. But more than to any of these it -is to the Supreme Person, Christ himself, saint and prophet above and in -all others. - -We have already found our advantage in this for the discussions of these -pages. We have caught glimpses of the depth and range of some of the -principles embodied both in the teaching and in the life of Jesus. The -Gospels have brought us riches, although we have only taken grains of -gold from their mine here or there. The Christian whom we are using as -our authority for the time being is one who has sat at the feet of -Christ and has the mind of Christ. He is one, happily, among many of all -ages. And if for us he has no name, no concrete existence, nevertheless, -as he is he is a witness whose testimony we can put to proof. He brings -his documents, and better, he appeals to the witness in ourselves as -truthseekers. He makes an appeal to which some of us at least find -response within us. There are moments when what he says appears to be -self-evident, so firmly rooted in us is a belief in those living facts -of freedom and dependence, holiness and sin, love and its rejection, of -which he speaks; so little is there, if there is anything, in what we -have learnt from science and philosophy, that disputes them. - -As to his documents—they too both carry and call forth their witness. We -have those Gospels from different men; they speak in different voices -and each with its own predilection, even prejudice, and its own -colouring of thought, of knowledge or ignorance, of desire. Yet which -among these writers could invent his subject? Which has succeeded in -seriously defacing it? Behind them all he stands, the prophet of -Nazareth, Jesus—God and man, the Christian says—and draws men to -himself. - -No doubt the Christian has much more to tell us than we can ask him for -just now, or admit to our discussion. He has a great deal to say in -defence of his institutions and his theologians, which may well be said -and listened to. But it remains true that for us who are now asking, not -for justification of these though ample justification there may be, but -for the deepest principles of the Christian religion, it is to the mind -of Christ and to him who has that mind that we must turn. Jesus built up -no institution, gave no laws, announced no established plans, erected no -infallible authority. He gave principles, living and spiritual -principles. 'The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they -are life.' So his great mystical interpreter hears him say. And men have -indeed found response to his words in the opening out of their own life -and spirit. - -We seek the truth and reality of spirit and life, we who are seeking -here. And in this search we find ourselves more and more at one with the -Christian. The view that he and his fellows take of the Christian -Church, that organization which is at least meant to foreshadow the -kingdom Jesus preached, lies beyond the scope of this enquiry. All that -needs to be said here is that we must not and do not foreclose an -enquiry that shall include it. We stand now upon the very threshold of -the kingdom; and, may be, we look with longing eyes. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - There is nothing said of man throughout all scripture - but what supposes him to stand, in nature, - under a necessity of choosing something that is - natural, either life or death, fire or water. - _William Law._ - - -So far-reaching a confession of the spiritual freedom and the spiritual -dependence of man as is shown in the principles of Christian incarnation -and atonement has never been popular. As they passed through the popular -mind incarnation was often and widely made to seem a thunderclap from on -high and atonement a transaction of the heavenly courts. All generations -have clamoured for signs; and because none, such as they desired, has -been given they have invented signs for themselves. The spiritual union -of person with person in a coincidence of knowledge, will, aims, and -mutual love, is at once too natural to be remarked in ordinary life and -too remote from what is remarked to focus attention. It is much easier -to think of a God disguised in manhood than of one who has taken manhood -into himself and is 'made man' by a communication of himself to the -man's own self. A king can masquerade as a beggar—that is a simple -affair; but for the king to become a beggar and the beggar a king, the -one remaining, nevertheless, beggar and the other king, is beyond belief -by men whose belief is bounded by the behaviour of things that can be -seen and handled, and by the logic of space. And it is much easier to -think of salvation as bargained for, or bought, or handed over, than as -attained only in the union of love and the co-operation of persons. In -this corruption of religion human freedom has too often either been lost -sight of or made a fixed character of man as man, a mark distinguishing -him from other creatures and things. He is supposed to be free, but not -to have the capacity to grow in freedom. 'Freedom of the will,' -according to this, is like the right to a vote. It is a thing-character, -ready-made, in a man, as the right to a vote is a thing-character -assured to a man of a certain age and standing. A man does not advance -towards spiritual freedom and grow in it; he has it as a diamond has a -degree of hardness that enables it to cut glass. It is, in fact, a -natural quality, not a growing achievement of growth that still goes on. -Therefore it does not need to be fostered either by the man himself or -by God. And it cannot be lost. So men too often have said. - -On the other hand we have seen, in our enquiry, that life in its -progress from its first entrance upon earth seems to have had as its aim -growth towards and in spiritual freedom. The force of life, in the -channel that led to man, seems to have been directed towards securing -the maximum of choice and of field of choice for him, the minimum of -determination and of hindrance from without. We said that the brain is -an organ of indetermination; we might have said that it is the organ of -a spirit seeking its fulfilment through freedom in growth, and growth in -freedom. No religion which does not show congruity with what we have -learnt about life can seem to us in truth of touch with it. The popular -forms of Christianity do not show this congruity. Even the officially -instituted forms have, according to the manner of institutions, overlaid -that truth and encumbered spiritual and moral life with tradition, -habit, heritage that are become its burdens instead of its instruments -of expression. Therefore we have to go to the prophet and learn of him, -drink from his clear fountain of living waters. There, unquestionably, -we find what we seek, religion in touch, in more than touch, with life. -It is one with life, this religion given and shown us in the prophet of -Nazareth. - -Then and there we see that the Christian doctrines of incarnation and -atonement should properly have an unmistakable connexion both with our -own lives, their needs and aspirations, and with truth we have come to -know through men of science. Those doctrines are, to begin with, an -explicit recognition of a promise of freedom which the force of emergent -life has striven for and secured, and which men are called upon to -realize for themselves. That men shall fulfil their destiny more and -ever more of life, it seems, must become theirs. That is, more and more -of the spirit and life of God must become in very fact, not merely their -own, but themselves. This the Christian speaks of as the incarnation or -the extension of the incarnation of God in man. And, plainly, there is -nothing in the teaching of Jesus, or in his work and person, which -implies that this process is mechanical or that, being spiritual, it can -be inevitable. God in the nature of things, of himself, cannot—will not, -if you like, it is the same—compel union with him. Therefore men can -escape their destiny of union with God by rejecting his proffer of more -and greater life. They have their fate in their own hands; they may -choose amiss. - -Then, the Christian says, that other aspect of the love of God, which in -fact is only other because we speak of it as though it were and look at -it in a special point of view, his atonement or reconciliation of man -with himself, comes into play. Here, too, love seeks to win love, will -invites the co-operation of will, and wisdom pleads. No mechanism, no -compulsion, nothing arbitrary or even commanding. 'Come unto me,' he -says. And every effort love can make that man may be won is made, even -to that of the agony and death of the lover that the loved one may be -rescued from slavery to self, and brought into the life of love and the -liberty wherewith Christ would make him free. - -A deepening enslavement by sin, or a growing liberty in vital union with -the Christ of God—these are the alternatives put before us in the -Christian religion. And again we see life—or shall we say God?—striving -to give freedom, yet with no preordained success. As in the plants and -beasts life found no open way for that advance, so, although in man the -way was found, men can bring it to an end merely by desiring and seeking -no more than gratification of the narrow interests of a self that is -bounded by self-seeking. It seems that life can be as effectually -checked by this as, in a lower order, it was checked by the coating of -cellulose on the vegetable cell. It is possible for a man so to imprison -himself in self as to shut out God, so to build a wall about himself as -to cut off from his life that fountain of living waters on which its -advance and true continuance depend. He contracts into an eddy, a -circling stream narrowed within set boundaries of himself. He becomes as -the lower beasts, but worse than they because he is no beast. - -The Christian says that when this process of cutting off and shutting -out reaches completion, the man is in hell. And the language of symbol -and pictorial imagination has spent itself in trying to express what -that really means. Naturally, the symbolism and the painting have varied -with the character of imagination at different times and in different -nations. What we must tell ourselves is that they are no more than this, -and that they may well both falter and fail before a horror so extreme. - -The shutting-down, the extinction, of a man—for this is what it amounts -to—who is capable of an indefinite advance in freedom and life, in love -and wisdom and knowledge—that is, in God and fellowship—is a catastrophe -with which the blotting-out of all the mighty beasts of the past is -incomparable. Consider, if he were the only man? Yet is he the less what -he is because he is one of millions? For one man, the Christian says, -Christ would die, though it is for all men that he died. 'The very hairs -of your head are numbered.' - -One man in hell—think of it. One man who might have been united with God -in an influx of inexhaustible new life lifting him from order to order -of glory—that is what the Christian sees and what leads him, or has led -him often, to describe such a loss in terms from which we shrink to-day. -But if we learn to see what it is the Christian means, can we say that -he goes too far? Or shall we not say that if we had at our command words -fit to depict his meaning they would go even farther? No doubt we see -plainly the absurdity of material fires and the religious and -psychological falsity of the picture of human beings vainly desiring -God, when we know that, as has been said by a great Christian, 'the sun -meets not the springing bud that stretches toward him, with half that -certainty, as God, the Source of all good, communicates himself to the -soul that longs to partake of him.' But the fact remains that to lose -life in 'the second death,' to pass out of all fellowship whether with -man or God, to shrink into an ever-shrivelling creature who cares for -nothing outside its ever-narrowing and concentrating self-love, is for -any live, loving, healthy-minded man or woman as terrible and repulsive -a fate as ever a painter or poet or theologian of old times attempted to -describe. - -Yet it seems reasonable enough. If we will not live we shall not live. -If God, the Christian says, is permitted by us to reconcile us with -himself, he will reconcile us. If we do not bar out his fountains of -life they will live in us as well-springs. We are wholly dependent upon -receiving more of his life, but we cannot be compelled to receive it. We -may even decline freedom and lose what we had of it, employing it amiss; -it is not an inalienable character stamped upon us. We have grown into -enough of it to be able to refuse to have more. 'Whosoever hath, to him -shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away -even that which he seemeth to have.' - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER X - - A religion that is not founded in nature is all fiction - and falsity, and as mere a nothing as an idol. - _William Law._ - - -The gain or the loss of life—this is what the Christian religion calls -us to face. Will you be a slave to the life you have and in the end lose -it, or at least all that makes it worth living? Or will you, in the -liberty wherewith Christ makes you free, take up your heritage of more -life in union with him? - -There is a good deal in our experience that may be read with advantage -as commentary on this challenge of religion. There are men (we have -known them) who grow smaller before our eyes. We say that they are -wrapped up in themselves. There are others who as plainly grow larger. -Their interests expand; they take in more of the concerns of other men -and, as we put it, make them their own. These, obviously, far from being -wrapped up in themselves, are for ever breaking down barriers and -passing beyond them. If we do not see them for some time we find them -happily different. They are caring about ideas and aims and persons they -were not interested in before; they have been learning; they have, in -one word, grown. And those others will have shrunk. A man grows by the -spiritual food on which he feeds. And if such a statement sounds remote -from ordinary experience (which it is not), let us say that the more he -really has the more he really is. - -Now religion acknowledges this and interprets it. In the eyes of a -religious man such growth means a growth in God. And he points out that -it happens only where a man has sought for its own sake, not for his, -what he has won. He says that the way of life is a way of -disinterestedness in regard to self and interestedness in all else. And, -as usual, he sends us to the Gospel for the fundamental principle -underlying what experience shows. 'Whosoever will save his life shall -lose it.' That is the kernel of the matter. Because love is the secret -of growth in spiritual life, whether intellectual, moral or aesthetic, -greed shall not procure its fruits. In the nature of things it cannot. -That is why growth in 'spirit and life' seems so paradoxical. When I -want food to eat I may be as greedy as I please. This will not prevent -me from having it. When I want food of the spirit greed will only take -me out of my true path and I shall find husks that the swine eat and -Dead Sea fruit. - -I cannot even discover truth or beauty or holiness, much less win them -to myself, if I do not seek them for their own sake. I cannot see what -another man is, and I cannot make him at one with me in a real -fellowship, unless I care about him (as we say) because he is what he -is, and so make his interests mine. If I use any human being as a mere -instrument to serve my purpose I lose that human being, though I may -keep the instrument. Men and women, like goodness and truth and -beauty—and God—cannot be made mine unless I give myself to them. - -'It is very hard to be a Christian.' It certainly is. The man who -husbands life forfeits it, and yet life is dear. 'Die to live, the -philosopher advises, as his counsel of prudence. But how is a man to lay -down life from nothing more than prudence? How can a man be a prudent -and careful adventurer of life? He may prudently and carefully be a -merchant, but never an adventurer. And true religion has no truck with -merchandise or merchants of the spirit. Its watchword is love—the love -that gives, the love God is, the love royal that seeks no gain, the love -of Christ. - -So according to religion the way of giving is, in truth and experience, -the way of gain; but if we try to follow it for gain we find ourselves -altogether outside the way, not giving and therefore without gain. It is -hard to be a Christian. It is exceedingly hard to love as God loves. In -fact we cannot, unless God shall become man in us. He is the supreme -giver and our supreme gain. Inasmuch as we love the things and persons -God loves, for their own sake (which, naturally, we shall do when he -dwells in our hearts and our desires), we shall win them to ourselves; -whether they are, for instance, goodness, truth and beauty, or our -fellow-men. And in thus and to that extent winning the objects of our -love we shall unveil that reality we either call by those abstract -names, or find revealed in our fellows—the reality which is God. Under -those mere names God himself lies concealed. 'I am the way, the truth -and the life'—I myself, he says to the men who are discovering beauty or -holiness or truth, am that which you ignorantly worship. 'When saw we -thee?' they still may ask. Yet they knew him when through self-giving -they knew these. And names are nothing, where reality is tasted, touched -and handled. - -As God communicates himself or gives himself to us men, in sheer love of -us, so must we communicate or give ourselves to all we seek. This is the -way of that life the Christian calls eternal. No man follows it unless -God be with him; but every man may follow it, and will, unless he -refuses God. - -What, then, is it to refuse God? The answer is always the same. It is to -enclose the life of self within a prison of self-seeking, to shut -outside anything that seems likely to disturb this concentrated worship, -to try to drag inside anything likely to profit its narrow interests, to -use things and persons as its instruments of self-guarding and -self-seeking. And if self-guarding and self-seeking extend to the use of -the instruments of religion, as well they may in men and women of due -prudence and ambition, we have the type of Pharisee whom Jesus -denounced, or the type of priest who judged him and condemned him as the -enemy of God. All these are in some degree refusers of God. And a -religion that panders to self-guarding and self-seeking and encourages -greed or makes play with fear may be popular, but however -well-established, must be corrupt. So far as this goes, life is not in -it, and it does but help men to disguise from themselves their loss of -life. - -The incarnation of God and the atonement of man with man and with God in -Christ are wrought by self-giving, that is by love. The whole process of -nature is a sacrament of God's self-giving, rising to the full -revelation of love. These things are one. It is profoundly true that 'a -religion that is not founded in nature is all fiction and falsity, and -as mere a nothing as an idol.' Yet the Christian religion, pre-eminently -founded in nature though it assuredly is, has been perverted, over and -over again, to be an organized means by which men falsify a nature that -is capable of an utmost self-giving to man and to God. The greedy and -the fearful have too often captured its organization, and the adventurer -of love has been driven out. But both beyond and within those built-up -walls the true religion of Christ has always lived and is lasting now. -Like the ferment in the meal it is everywhere alive in those who, -despite all the religious self-seeking around them, share the -self-sharing of God. These have always had the alchemist's touch; they -have turned dross to gold and have used it to ends of God. Like the -divine powers they overrule the errors of men. But the pity is that this -very fact not rarely hinders both the detection and the setting right of -those errors. 'See,' men say, 'this is the nursery of saints.' And -confusion of judgement goes on. It is a pragmatic test that shows the -danger of pragmatic tests. Let us get back to principles, for who shall -dare to say whether this or that is the nurture of saints. All things -work together for their good, as all things work together for the -truth-seeker's truth and for beauty in its discerner's eyes. For these, -nothing is common or unclean. - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - Now whence was it that a religion, so serious in - its restraints, so beautiful in its outward form and - practices, and commanding such reverence from all - that beheld it, was yet charged by Truth itself with - having inwardly such an abominable nature? It - was only for this one reason, because it was a religion - of self. - _William Law._ - - -As heaven or hell depends on the choice between self-giving and -self-seeking, so does the worship of the true God or the false. Names -may be mockeries here. The self-seeking Christian, worshipping, as he -may tell us, the God and Father of his Lord Jesus Christ, is doing -nothing of the kind. He is worshipping that which he serves. If he could -really use the true God as a means towards the end he has at heart, that -is, make God serve him, he would do so. This, in fact, is what he tries -to do. Naturally he cannot succeed. And the God whom he thinks he -worships is fiction and an idol; it is one who is his instrument in -self-seeking, and that is a fictitious God. 'God is a Spirit; and they -that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' 'Thou shalt -love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and -with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.' Here is the first clue to -Christian worship. And the second is 'like unto it':—'Thou shalt love -thy neighbour as thyself.' The Christian comment on this is -characteristic:—'He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how -can he love God whom he hath not seen?' And the test is crucial. There -is no true worship without love, and no love of God without love of the -brother-man. So the argument works itself out and finally excludes the -consistent and impenitent self-seeker from the worship of God. - -Indeed, in the nature of life in man, this exclusion is inevitable. -Unless a man makes his neighbour and that neighbour's interests his own, -he necessarily excludes him from himself. In the nature of living -personal beings this must be, for only in harmony do persons coincide, -only by the stretching out of my interests and myself to embrace do I -include. I must grow if my neighbour is to become for me 'as myself' and -be loved as myself. So that love of myself which is evil when confined -to interests solely mine, becomes good as it expands. So the contracting -of life within my narrow boundaries is escaped, and although I still -love myself I love a self that grows out and forth to the inclusion of -all, even to the inclusion of God, whom then I shall love with the -ardour which in the contracted self is the very torment of its hell. -Only the directing of that ardour beyond the self can prevent it from -being a consuming fire within the self. Therefore unless I learn to -worship God (and here again words, names may mock at realities), I shall -'perish' in my own flame. - -Worship is no pious luxury: it is a necessity of the spiritual life. -Every man who is growing in the spirit is a worshipper of God. He may -never use the name, he may be one of those who would say 'Lord, when saw -we thee?' but his love is showing him the true God in his own spirit and -his own truth, and, in showing him too the divine way of Love with men, -commands his worship. He has discovered the marvel of self-giving, and -in that discovery the marvel of the divine way he cannot but adore; his -life, in fact, is adoration. - -From other men this way is hidden; and a God that may command their -worship must be a different God and take another way. He must declare -himself in a power they can recognize, that kind of power which has -kinship with the forces of men's machines and has uses like the uses of -machines. This God, who may perhaps, through what seems to them worship, -be made a means towards their own ends, is above all a God of an all but -material power. So, may be, they cringe before him, pour out praises, -make sacrifices, pay a dutiful service such as a supreme power of that -kind may well call forth in the men they are. And then, if there comes -among them a prophet, he pleads with them in God's name, 'I will have -mercy and not sacrifice.' 'To what purpose cometh there to me incense -from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings -are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.' - -Just such men as these self-seekers came to Jesus, asking for a miracle, -a sign. 'An evil and adulterous generation,' he said, 'seeketh after a -sign.' Why 'evil and adulterous'? Surely because in seeking a sign such -as would please them they were blind to the divine truth in the presence -of which they stood, and, open-eyed for their own interests, were in -their hearts trafficking with a false God. - -That the craving for such signs, such miracle, is always evil and -adulterous can hardly be said. Yet truly it partakes, in large measure, -of the nature of sin. And at best it is blindness, blindness to the true -marvels of God in his manifestation through 'the things that are made' -and are being made. We who have learnt of the history of earth have our -souls filled with marvel, and with mystery too. It is not easy for us to -see how any generation that looks for more, while it has that, can be -other than evil and adulterous. But the fact is that familiarity does -blind men to both marvel and mystery. If it did not, the very stones we -tread under foot would proclaim their witness to God, and every moment -of our own life would call forth adoration of him. - -In regard to this matter there is a pressing need for the meeting of -science and philosophy with religion. Science and philosophy tear away -the veil with which familiarity hides from us the mysteriousness and -marvel of all things and of our own personal and common life. They show -us unfathomed depths for wonder where we had seen nothing but a smooth -accustomed surface. But it is religion that shows us God in all those -depths, God made known even by the very surface, and turns our wonder -into worship. It is science and philosophy that shall purge religion of -the taint it has derived from both the ignorant, and the evil and -adulterous, generations after generations who have made it seem what it -seems. I say 'seem what it seems,' for this is not what it is. That is -no true religion, certainly no religion after the mind of Christ, which -passes over the marvels of the lily of the field and of the man indwelt -by God and one with God, taking them as things that are of course; while -making much of signs interpreted as 'intervention' and therefore taken -as the only signs of a God who is nowhere and nothing to us unless he -intervenes. - -We stand amazed, we who have learnt now to see God everywhere. Can any -religious man open his eyes, we ask, and not see signs of God? Can he -search in any human life without finding signs in abundance there, signs -of the life-giving presence or of the dreadful death-dealing absence of -God? What more can he ask or desire? 'Lord God of hosts,' we exclaim, -'heaven and earth are full of thy glory!' - -Then we turn to history, the long history of man, and the long history -of the Christian religion which goes back, beyond the sublime figure who -proclaimed it in Palestine, to the beginnings of the worship of God. We -discover those beginnings in the first men who turned their eyes from -self to the brother. We look along the ages and cease to be surprised. -In his long-drawn education man has but slowly learnt to find God in -more and more of his own life and the world. Step by step he has felt -his way, led by the spirit given him, to the knowledge of the God and -Father of Jesus Christ, the incarnate and redeeming God of all men, the -God who comes to indwell all things. Only now, in a new fulness of time, -are the teaching of Jesus and the revelation of his life and death -finding a new context in new knowledge and reflective thought. Only now -are we beginning to see why, if knowledge and reflective thought have so -far done their work, it may well be an evil and adulterous generation -that seeks for any other signs than those which they and Christ reveal. -Just what the earthly presence of the God-revealing Jesus was to that -generation—a test of their single-mindedness and will to receive and -welcome divine truth—so, when his life and witness meet with a new -emphasis in the less but concurrent witness of new knowledge, this -generation of religious men is put to the same test. Will they receive -new witness to his truth and to God? or will they reject it because it -has no likeness to those signs that to their minds are alone fitted to -show God? Will they or will they not have humility enough to learn of -scientific and philosophic 'builders of Jerusalem' concerning the true -methods of God? - -We cannot tell; that is, of this generation. But we may trust in the -prevailing strength of truth. Generations pass, but that endures. And -the prophet's word goes on:—'the hour cometh, and now is, when the true -worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.' - - ------- - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - Nel suo profondo vidi che s'interna, - legato con amore in un volume, - cio che per l'universo si squaderna. - _Dante._ - - -For the Christian the barrier that finally checks the advance of life is -not death but a self-concentrated self. It is freedom misused and lost, -freedom turning against the life that has striven to bring it to birth. -Perversity builds that barrier and human life cannot pass it or—shall we -not say with the Christian?—God cannot pass it. This alone thwarts the -divine purpose for man and brings about the 'second' and only true -death. - -We have nothing to urge against this teaching of religion; we see the -second death beginning in every man who is perverting freedom from its -life-furthering office. We see in him that which he seems to have being -taken away. Moreover, we are prepared to believe that the first death, -willingly accepted (as we have also seen) as an element in purposive and -potent life, is but the gate through which men pass to more of life. We -may have our moments of doubt, because we cannot see with our eyes the -other side of that gate, and the sense-habit is strong within us; but -reason demands, as the Christian religion declares, that life that is -growing here and is big with promise unfulfilled shall go on there. - -The Christian seems to know much of the other side of that gate that -other people do not know. He talks of heaven, of paradise, of hell. We -understand him when he talks of hell; there is so much evidence of that -here and now. But we are less clear about his paradise, less clear still -about his heaven. What does he really mean when he speaks, all too -positively and definitely (we think), about these two? - -Undoubtedly most Christians have meant a good many things at which not a -few of them will smile now. They have meant things that were certainly -not of the mind of Christ, but of the unilluminated and uncriticizing -and biased minds of other men. Sometimes they have pictured a man who -is, even to our eyes, a mere beginner in the divine art of life, -plunged, as it were, into a very sea of God, sent with all his mere -beginnings to live as he may amid God's unveiled glories. That is not a -picture which instructed and enlightened Christians favour now. Our -friend to whom we so constantly appeal will tell us of Paradise, where -Jesus and the thief were to meet together. He will speak of -'intermediate' purifying and enriching states through which the beginner -passes, learning his art of life. He will assure us that he knows of -very few who even to his poor vision seem fit to 'go to heaven,' fit, -that is, to endure the full glory of beauty and holiness and truth -resplendent and realized in the 'beatific vision' of God. And in this he -commends himself. He is an evolutionist of the coming worlds, this -believer in an advance through them towards the splendours of the City -of God. And after all he has the collective voice of Christendom -speaking with him. Only a minority of Christians from the beginning -until now have not been evolutionists of the worlds to come. - -No doubt the Christian arranges his pictorial conceptions of those -worlds too systematically, and marks off grades as life never does. But -in the main life has kept its hold upon him and he has been unable not -to see that it must go on, move, change, grow, on the far side of death. -We have no quarrel with his principle in this regard, though we may -contest the mechanical fashion in which, not rarely, he applies it. And -when he speaks of the 'beatific vision' of the City of God, our hearts -are stirred in response. We too seek a 'continuing city' of life in its -grandeur. We, too, see the promise of that city here, even in the very -failures of our own. And when the Christian tells us of his Lord's -Prayer—Thy kingdom come, as it is in heaven, we feel that heaven is not -alien from us or from our desires and our hopes. If heaven is indeed the -crown and consummation of personal and social life on earth, then it is -to heaven we ourselves are looking forward, looking, fearing, longing. -We, too, have our vision of a kingdom where love shall be the king, and -self-seeking, with all its dreadful consequences, be done away. We can -see it is this that ruins our cities of earth, this alone. And where -this is not, there indeed will be our kingdom come, as well as God's. - -An Eastern's imagination may depict the 'holy city, the new Jerusalem,' -in her 'light,' as 'pure gold, like unto clear glass'; he may exhaust -that imagination in details of chalcedony and emerald and pearl; that is -his way. But when he says that 'the nations of them which are saved -shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their -glory and honour into it,' he gives speech to our mind through his. For -this, this, is the 'goal of human endeavour' for us. We have watched the -advance of life towards our own cities and in turn watching them have -discovered what they lack and what, in their poverty of attainment and -abundant promise, they foretell if life goes on beyond the gates of -death. So, sharing the Christian's faith that indeed it does, we share -his vision. - -Only as a social being is any man a man at all. Only when the promise of -other men is fulfilled, is his promise fulfilled. No man (we see that -plainly) can be 'saved' alone; he must be saved in his nations, by true -community in a life grown to be harmonious with life everywhere, in and -with the source of all life. Only in God can any man fulfil his destiny -as a man among men who must be one with them if he is not to 'perish -everlastingly.' We and the Christian agree—once we see what he means and -he sees what we mean. And it is through Jesus Christ that we discover -the meaning of the Christian. We may, perhaps, not unsuitably, urge him -to try to discover ours in the same way. For it is only when he has -wandered from the side of Christ and forgotten or misinterpreted the -mind of Christ that there is trouble between us. - -It is easy to forget and misinterpret, very easy to substitute for -divine spirit and life and the divine 'word,' a machinery of logic or -tradition or institutional arrangement. But it is destructive of the -possibility of mutual understanding between us. Again, we must urge, it -is machine-like scheming that divides, not real religion or knowledge of -life. 'Ye have made the word of God of none effect through your -tradition' is a prophet's saying of the widest application in the -affairs of men. But when we recognize this, even on one side only of a -dividing line, the process of correction has begun. And as a matter of -fact there is recognition now on both sides, and day by day it extends -itself and its influence. Science and philosophy and religion are met -together as they have never in the history of the world been met before, -open-eyed, conscious of the common heritage of training in the battle of -the world and in the struggles of practical life, which has biased every -one of us and been the chief agent in turning the common search after -truth by men of good will into a war of opinions. - -To confess that we are all, in so far as we are honest seekers, -'builders of Jerusalem' after our own manner and degree, is the first -and perhaps the hardest step to take towards full co-operation between -us. What children we are, that we do not know it! Yet, in truth, we -cannot know it until on both sides we give up the fond belief, the -delusion, that we are not seekers but have either attained or received, -either attained the full truth of the world and ourselves by knowledge, -or received it through an external and externally given revelation. Once -we know that we are all pilgrims and that the divine city lies ahead for -every one of us, both in knowledge and in life, we may travel together. - -With the Christian we may work for the divine kingdom. We share his -belief and his trust in the omnipotence of redeeming love. Nothing, we -see, can redeem this earth but love. There is love to be seen faintly, -amid dark and conflicting shadows, in the biologist's picture of a -world-Eden, where it is after all and in spite of all 'creation's final -law.' But the fulness of its glory is unveiled only in the love of -Christ, passing our knowledge. - - - - - 'Conceiving our life in this manner, the material evolution of the -world becomes the incarnation and the expression of a spiritual meaning, -of a divine event which is actually in process of coming to pass. No -longer, for example, do we think of the earth's movement round the sun -as a meaningless rotation: we think of it as preparing the conditions -which enable life to rise to its sublimest height, we see the whole -creation saturated in sunlight. Not in vain are the heavens starred with -innumerable fires. They speak to us of worlds to which they give life -and being, warming them with their heat, brightening them with their -beams. And the end to which all these lives are moving, of every flower -that blooms, of every bird that sings, is also the central principle of -the entire evolution of the universe—the embodied Word of God. For the -purpose of the whole is nothing other than the incarnation of the -divine, the participation of the created in the eternal life of the -uncreated, of which the God-man is the perfect revelation.... If God be -indeed the end of all existence, he must needs fill all things with his -being. If God is love, his arms are round the entire universe, and there -is no creature anywhere unloved by him.' - - PRINCE EUGENE TROUBETZKOY. - - - - - APPENDIX - - - BOOKS ON THE SUBJECTS OF PART I. - - B. MOORE. _The Origin and Nature of Life._ (Home University Library). - - J. A. THOMSON and P. GEDDES. _Evolution._ (Home University Library). - - A. R. HINKS. _Astronomy._ (Home University Library). - - R. MELDOLA. _Chemistry._ (Home University Library). - - J. WARD. _Heredity and Memory._ - - OLIVER LODGE. _The Ether of Space._ - - A. RUHE and N. M. PAUL. _Henri Bergson; An Account of his Life and - Philosophy._ - - SAMUEL BUTLER. _Life and Habit._ - - H. BERGSON. _Time and Freewill._ - - H. BERGSON. _Matter and Memory._ - - H. BERGSON. _Creative Evolution._ - - J. WARD. _The Realm of Ends._ - - H. DRIESCH. _The Science and Philosophy of the Organism._ - - W. JAMES. _Principles of Psychology._ - - E. S. RUSSELL. _Form and Function._ - - A. D. DARBISHIRE. _An Introduction to a Biology._ - - J. S. HALDANE. _Organism and Environment._ - - BOOKS ON THE SUBJECTS OF PART II. - - T. R. GLOVER. _The Jesus of History._ - - A. CLUTTON-BROCK. _The Ultimate Belief._ - - A. CLUTTON-BROCK. _What is the Kingdom of Heaven?_ - - W. S. PALMER. _Providence and Faith._ - - W. S. PALMER. _The Ladder of Reality._ - - WILLIAM LAW. _The Spirit of Love._ - - WILLIAM LAW. _The Spirit of Prayer._ - - G. TYRRELL. _Lex Orandi._ - - G. TYRRELL. _Lex Credendi._ _Faith and Freedom_—(edited by C. H. S. - Matthews). - - R. G. COLLINGWOOD. _Religion and Philosophy._ - - ALEXANDER NAIRNE. _The Epistle of Priesthood._ - - A. S. PRINGLE-PATTISON. _The Idea of God in the Light of Recent - Philosophy._ - - FRIEDRICH VON HÜGEL. _Eternal Life._ - - FRIEDRICH VON HÜGEL. _The Mystical Element of Religion._ - - A. C. TURNER. _Faith, Prayer and the World's Order_ (Essay in - _Concerning Prayer_—edited by B. H. Streeter). - - _Printed in Great Britain by_ Butler & Tanner, _Frome and London_. - - - - - Transcriber's Notes. - -The cover was produced by the transcriber and is placed in the public -domain. - -The original spelling and punctuation has been retained. - -Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved. - -Italicized words and phrases in the text version are presented by -surrounding the text with underscores. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Where Science and Religion Meet, by -William Scott Palmer - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE SCIENCE AND RELIGION MEET *** - -***** This file should be named 52245-0.txt or 52245-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/2/4/52245/ - -Produced by readbueno, Donald Cummings, Bryan Ness and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Where Science and Religion Meet - -Author: William Scott Palmer - -Release Date: June 6, 2016 [EBook #52245] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE SCIENCE AND RELIGION MEET *** - - - - -Produced by readbueno, Donald Cummings, Bryan Ness and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/cover.jpg' alt='cover image' class='ig001' /> -<div class='ic001'> -<p>The cover was produced by the transcriber and is placed in<br />the public domain.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>WHERE SCIENCE AND</div> - <div>RELIGION MEET</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div> - <h1 class='c002'>WHERE SCIENCE<br />AND RELIGION<br />MEET<br /></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c000'> - <div>BY</div> - <div>WILLIAM SCOTT PALMER</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>"Il paraît juste de voir dans la vie le trait d'union</div> - <div>de la science et de la religion."</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='c003'><i>Émile Boutroux.</i></div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>HODDER AND STOUGHTON</div> - <div>LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<p class='c004'>'We are still, as in Plato's age, groping about for -a new method more comprehensive than any of those -that now prevail; and also more permanent. And -we seem to see at a distance the promise of such a -method, which can hardly be any other than the -method of idealized experience, having roots which -strike far down into the history of philosophy. It -is a method which does not divorce the present -from the past, or the part from the whole, or the abstract -from the concrete, or theory from fact, or the -divine from the human, or one science from another, -but labours to connect them. Along such a road -we have proceeded a few steps, sufficient, perhaps, -to make us reflect on the want of method which -prevails in our own day. In another age, all the -branches of knowledge, whether relating to God or -man or nature, will become the knowledge of "the -revelation of a single science," and all things, like -the stars in heaven, will shed their light upon one -another.'</p> -<div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Jowett</span>: <i>Plato</i>, Introduction to <i>Meno</i>.</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>NOTE</h2> -</div> -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_8 c006'>I have not named my authorities or -given references to any passages in -their books. My critics, friendly or unfriendly, -may complain of this omission. -But I hope they will not. I hope they will -see that I have gathered my materials -together for a clearly shown purpose with -which particular references and frequent -defined quotations would have interfered. -I wanted to build a wayside cottage for -travellers who are in haste and will soon -pass on, not a museum for the leisurely -student. I hope, then, that my critics -will criticize the cottage to their hearts' -content—I shall do my best to learn from -them,—but I beg them not to treat it as a -museum whose curator has either not had -the sense or not taken the trouble to ticket -its contents.</p> - -<p class='c007'>In place of references I have given in an -appendix two short lists of easily accessible -books which will give technical support -to the substance of this little work. -I have learnt much from them and -taken—all but quoted—much. I make no -apology for including, among books from -which I have learnt, two of my own. -Nothing teaches as solidly as trying to -teach. And the record of a learner -sometimes helps learners, when the oracles -of the learned fail. But I must acknowledge -here my own great indebtedness -to two of those learned, my old instructors, -Sir Edward Schäfer and Sir Edwin -Ray Lankester, whose admirable lessons -in the biological sciences of which they are -distinguished professors laid a scientific -foundation in me for all my subsequent -study.</p> -<div class='c003'>W. SCOTT PALMER.</div> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'><span class='xxlarge'>PART I</span></h2> -</div> - -<hr class='c008' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER I</h2> -</div> -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it:</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>The moon is within me, and so is the sun.</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me;</span></div> - <div class='line in4'><span class='small'>but my deaf ears cannot hear it.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Kabir.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_8 c010'>Deep in every one of us there is a -passion of desire to understand, -just as there is of desire to enjoy and of -desire to be somehow or other 'in the right.' -I say deep in us, because we are in the habit -either of burying these desires beneath a -pretence of satisfying them or else of diverting -our attention from them and thus -letting them sink out of sight. So we live -our life in the pursuit of other ends than -those likely to be reached through understanding -and rapture and righteousness. -We falsify ourselves and our desires; yet -unless we ruin the life within us they persist, -waiting their hour.</p> - -<p class='c011'>There are moments when it becomes -almost impossible for any man who has -seen something of the marvel of every-day -affairs to believe that he might spend time -in vain if he were to try to convince his -next-door neighbour that there was anything -hard to understand about the crooking -of a finger. Yet that is his experience -when he tries. Just because every man -who has a healthy finger in a healthy -body and a healthy mind can and does -crook it, there is nothing to wonder at. -The whole affair is plain; it is familiar, -happens every day. Familiarity lulls to -sleep both the desire for understanding, -and the sense of not understanding.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Consequently there is little that should -provoke surprise on our part in the fact -that not one man in (say) ten thousand is -consciously puzzled by any of the deeper -problems of life, not one in (say) a hundred -thousand has his imagination either stirred -or stunned by the green blades of the corn, -the leaves of the tree, the grass in his fields -or the sheep and cows that are eating it. -There is nothing new about all this, nothing -strange; it is familiar—therefore it is -understood or there is nothing that calls -for understanding. Yet in these green -blades and leaves is the junction-point -between the living and the not-living, -between the plant and animal on the one -hand and what we call 'inert matter' -on the other, between the radiant energy -of the sun and ourselves. And we do not -understand, nobody understands, how that -junction-point works. It is called chlorophyll; -it is found in little living bodies -called chloroplasts; and it is wonderful -'beyond all whooping'. Yet we do not -even whoop. We do not get even thus far. -We are not surprised, we are not enraptured. -The thing is at once both too familiar and -too obscure for us.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We cannot do away with the familiarity; -but at least, as reasonable beings possessed -of that passion of desire which is a cry of -the spirit within us and which we so often -do our utmost to suppress, it will be well -for us to make an attempt to find out how -and even why this green stuff of the plant -is so highly distinguished among the wonders -of the world.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But first let us ask ourselves a searching -and pertinent question—let us ask ourselves -what it means to be alive. A man -is alive, but so are the cells of his own blood, -so is the grass in the fields, so are the small -jellies we call amoebae and the still smaller -rods and specks we call bacteria and -'germs.' Can we say anything about life -that will at once fit these and distinguish -them from all else that does not live, -accepting for the moment the distinction -between living and not-living that we -ordinarily make?</p> - -<p class='c011'>There are several things that we may say -about them. For example, they grow. -But a crystal grows and so does a heap of -sand. There are, then, different ways of -growing. The sand heap grows when the -wind scatters particles of sand over it or -the sea drives them; or the river, or a -small boy with a barrow, deposits them. -It grows by mere addition. The crystal -grows without any such aid and in a different -way. If you want to see an alum-crystal -grow you must offer it more alum, -dissolved; you must offer it its own material -and it will then grow without other help. -It will grow by what we may call formative -accretion. On the other hand the grass -and the corn and the trees grow neither -by mere addition nor by formative accretion, -but by converting, assimilating and -incorporating nitrogen, carbon, and so on, -compounded either by their own effort or -by the micro-organisms of the soil. They -are magicians, these live creatures. And -of all their magic the magic of their green -leaves is chief in our eyes. For it takes -the carbonic acid of the air, a stable compound -of one atom of carbon with two of -oxygen, and tears it to pieces, using for -that enormous work the radiant energy -of the sun. This carbon, now potent with -the potency of the sun, is then united with -other elements to make sugars that nourish -the tissues of the plant. In these sugars -power is stored as it is stored in an explosive -like dynamite or trinitrotoluol. But in -the plant, power is under strict control; -it is liberated by degrees as it is wanted -and is replaced as it is used; it is controlled, -used, replaced in a discriminating, selective -and determining way. The ability to make -use of physical power, within a body, in -this discriminating, selective and determining -way and thus to grow is (among -other things) what is meant by being -alive.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The chemist in his laboratory can make -explosives, chemical compounds that will -easily break down and in breaking down -will liberate, for good or ill, great power. -He makes nitroglycerin and trinitrotoluol. -He can also make very elaborate and more -stable compounds than a plant makes, -for instance, indigo or madder-red, though -for such as these he does not usually begin -like the plant with chemical elements; he -begins half way—with lesser compounds, -ready made—and thus, or even sometimes -by building up from the bottom, from -elements, like the plant, he makes what -are known as 'organic' substances of many -sorts and uses. Is it possible that he will -ever make that organic substance protoplasm, -the life-jelly of living things? He -has not done so yet. Suppose he did, -suppose he went on from making indigo -to make the indigo-maker itself. There -is nothing of a chemical kind in the indigo-plant -which his laboratory does not contain; -there are just the carbon, nitrogen, -oxygen, salts and the rest, with which he -deals so successfully elsewhere. He has -all the materials to hand. Why should he -not make its living stuff? Again, suppose -he did, for perhaps he will. What then? -Will he have made life, as well as built -up the material substance of a living -thing? That is a question of questions.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We know life here only in association -with its jelly. What is the character -of that association? Granted that life -depends on the jelly, in what way does it -depend? If we can answer these questions -we may know how to answer the one about -the chemist's making or not making life, -if and when he makes the jelly.</p> - -<p class='c011'>There are different ways of being dependent, -as there are different ways of growing. -The steam depends on the boiler -and the boiler-fire. In this case the dependence -is one of being <i>produced</i>. The -boiler and its fire produce the steam. -So we say, in the ordinary way of speaking -of such things. Again—when I press the -trigger of a rifle the bullet is shot out. I -have only pressed the trigger; you can -hardly say I have produced the bullet. -What I have done is to release an explosive -power that drives the bullet. That is -another kind of dependence, dependence on -the <i>release</i> of power. There may be still, -there certainly have been, men who would -tell you that life is produced by protoplasm -as steam is produced by the boiler, or that -it is released from a chemical compound -by some chemical or physical trigger action. -They might, once they did in large numbers, -say that consciousness is produced by or -released from the brain, and that this -must be so because it depends upon the -brain.</p> - -<p class='c011'>These two assertions, one about life and -the other about consciousness, stand or fall -together; and we can begin to see that -they may be made to fall, as soon as we -see that there is a third kind of dependence -to be considered besides the dependence of -the bullet and the steam. There is the -dependence of light in a room on the -existence of a window. Without window -no light in that room; with window as -much light as window permits to pass. -There is a dependence of <i>transmission</i>, and -transmission may occur in many wide and -fundamentally differing ways. At a stroke -you see the whole question and series of -questions take on a new aspect. If the -chemist makes life-jelly he may have made -not something to produce or to release but -something to transmit life. He may doubtless -have imitated what there is good reason -to think must have taken place on the -earth's surface long ago and may indeed -be taking place now; but in doing this he -may only have made a material substance -capable of allowing spiritually potent life -to be manifest in it and to endow it with -a share in promoting the purposes of -life. He may have made for the peculiar -potency of life a door of entrance to a -house, or rather, since this house is not -passive, to a body in which it and the body -will be distinguishable as a living being, an -example of life and matter living and at -work together. Why not? The supposition -of some such dependence of the -superior power of life upon a body seems -quite as reasonable, even at no more than -a first glance, as the other suppositions -made by men who do not acknowledge -the specific character of life. And it -accords far better with both knowledge -and experience, when these are taken at -their widest and their most profound. -The other suppositions accord only with -chosen parts of knowledge and chosen bits -cut out of experience—the parts and bits -cut out and chosen by the man who -restricts himself to the specialism and -the very right and proper superficiality of -certain sciences. Even there they accord -but ill, because in their inception they -trespass beyond the borders of all science.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Living creatures are the subject of the -mere biologist's merely scientific inquiry—not -life. When a biologist, speaking as -biologist, tries to tell us both <i>that</i> life is -and <i>what</i> it is, he is philosophizing. Life -is in fact an ultra-scientific problem. We -have to call in philosophy before we can -even state the problem. And when either -the biologist or the physicist or the chemist -talks of life as a mode of physical or chemical -energy, or as a product of things, he is -playing at philosophy, not soberly working -at his science. The biologist shall teach us -about living creatures, the physicist and -the chemist about physical and chemical -things and powers; but the philosopher -must help us in our enquiry about life. -And this, not because a man shall not be -permitted to transgress boundaries we lay -down, but because his chosen methods -preclude his walking safely except within -boundaries they themselves build up. Of -every specialist this is true. We must -transcend specialism if we would have 'all -things, like the stars in heaven,' shed 'their -light upon one another.'</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER II</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Time hath endless rarities, and shows of all varieties;</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>which reveals old things in heaven, makes new</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>discoveries in earth, and even earth itself a discovery.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Sir Thomas Browne</i>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>The green leaf of the tree, the blade of -the wheat that gives me bread—I -look at them and tell myself, as many a -man has told himself before, that if I could -read their secrets I should know, as from -the 'flower in the crannied wall,' 'what -God and man is.' So I might, but only as -far as their secrets go. If I could read -my own I should go farther and know more. -I am man and hold far greater secrets in -being man. And I have the inestimable -advantage of being inside myself, of being -alive, besides looking on at living, of both -growing and watching growth. There is -no other live creature on earth who can -possibly tell me as much as I can tell -myself about what it means to be alive. -And if the blade of wheat is wonderful -beyond words, what am I?</p> - -<p class='c011'>Think of it: I have a history; indeed -I am a history, I am time alive, time that -accumulates and lasts. I have a past -that is not past, because it is at work in -my present and is writing its indelible -signature on my future. There is no least -action in my past that has not left its -impress on me, made me different from -what I should have been without it, and -therefore will make my future different too. -My whole history is alive, active and -changing in my actions and my change. -The history of my forefathers, too, is alive -in me and in my character and powers. I -have an inheritance from their living; I -am as and what I am, in part because they -were as and what they were. But I have -power and I use it to create myself and -recreate my inheritance through an impetus -transmitted to me in the transmission to -me of my life. Therefore every moment of -my life is a unique and original moment -of a unique and original history, mine and -mine alone, never to be repeated, never to -be wholly predicted, even by me. The -evolutionist philosophy tells me that I -endure, I <i>last</i>, and that all my changes -and experiences endure, last, in and with -me, changing in themselves and among -themselves as though they were alive to -influence and interpenetrate each other. -Indeed they are alive in me and in my life -or they could not endure. They would -pass like the stages in the height of a -sand heap as it grows, as the little heap it -was is merged and lost in the larger heap -it is. They would be lost as the flowing -tide is lost when the ebb succeeds it. -Such changes are mere successions, displacements -and replacements; they are -not history. They enter history only in -sharing that of the universe which itself -endures, lasts, and within which they are -parts.</p> - -<p class='c011'>I, on the other hand, have a life of my -own; I am a maker, shaper, creator. I am -a master-worker and freeman in a world -of relative necessity. Yet my wonderful -living body, through which I do my work, -depends for its support on the green blades -of grass and corn and the green leaves of the -trees. Further—every cell of the millions -and millions in my body is like the amoeba -and the cells of the plant in consisting -of protoplasm. Further still—I began my -own life as a speck of protoplasm, and if I -could trace all the steps of my pedigree to -the first display of life on earth, from which -I am sure I am descended, I should (I dare -to say) find another protoplasmic speck -with which every one of the cells of the -vast cellular republic whereby and wherein -I live is in historical continuity. Bodily -I am immensely complicated; I am a -congeries and a commonwealth of cells. -But the first cell was also complicated -although it was but one. Nothing that -lives is simple, no, not even if we carry -the idea of life far beyond the arbitrary -boundaries commonly set to it now. There -is unplumbed mystery in the conjunction -of two atoms of hydrogen with one of -oxygen to make a third and different substance, -water; there is unplumbed mystery -in every element and every happening of the -world. But some mysterious things are -scientifically more complex than others, -and among the most complex is this thing, -protoplasm. Yet it seems that before life -could be manifest in the world the molecular -complexity of protoplasm must have been -attained. By storing power in building up -the atoms of the chemical elements from -electrons, and making that power useful -by the union of atoms in molecules; then, -by a further delicate union between molecules -(much after the fashion of widely -branching, but only slightly tenacious, -magnets) forming larger and ever larger -groups, a condition of such plasticity of -matter and ready discharge and restoring -of power has been attained as makes it -fit for the rank of a recognized life. -The grouped and complicated molecules, -each charged with power, are set as with -a double-acting hair-trigger, so ready are -they to let go energy in heat and work as -these are wanted; so ready also for their -rebuilding in the peculiar power of the life -with which they are imbued.</p> - -<p class='c011'>There are examples of highly complex -union to be seen in the chemist's laboratory -and elsewhere which are never called living -matter. The chemist speaks of some of -them as colloids (we should naturally call -many of these jellies, or gums) and he -calls protoplasm a colloid too. They have -remarkable properties, and the new bio-chemist -thinks he may some day make that -elaborate colloid with more remarkable -properties, which we know as protoplasm. -He thinks also that we do ill to confine the -first production of life-jellies to the age of -steaming seas and cloud-shadowed lagoons, -before the Pre-Cambrian geologic times. -He tells us that in his opinion it may always -be going on and always have gone on since -the earth was cool enough to permit of it. -He thinks that if all the living creatures -we are aware of were swept out of the world -to-day there would still be living stuff -remaining on it of which we are ignorant -now; and that in the course of millenniums -this would people it once more. The -beginnings of the life-jelly must be so -small as to be far out of the reach of our -microscopes and every other tool we can -bring to bear, as yet, he says. And there, -doubtless, he is right.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Let us suppose that he is right, too, in -his main contention. Let us look at inorganic -matter with a new eye, seeing in -its evolutionary change the forerunner of -greater change and greater evolution, the -preparer of the narrow pathway by which -life approaches to its display, and at last -enters on possession of a body that in -union with it shall be the germ of lives to -come—enters the realm of physical forces -and the relative necessity of material -things, where and by use of those forces -it will subdue necessity to the purposes -of freedom. This indeed seems to be the -manner and purposing of life as it extends -from the single cell to the assemblage of -cells that constitutes my body. There -is continuity from first to last; and yet -the differences between me and the primitive -jelly-speck are even more striking -than the resemblances. Students of the -cell itself and students of my body as -merely composed of cells are, naturally, -cytologists, histologists, physiologists, -embryologists, and the like. But unless -there are others, unless students of psychology, -ethics, aesthetics, social science, history, -and many more, bring their minds -to bear on me, I am studied to little sense -and in small part. I am obliged to regard -myself as not only physical but psychical; -I seek after, and sometimes find, goodness -and truth and beauty. I admire, I hate -or love. I am a hero or a criminal, or -both. I sin. In the advance of life from -the minute and primitive colloid lump -to me amazing things have happened. -When I see life making its humble appearance -by that speck of jelly, I must in my -mind's eye connect it with what I am, and -see there in its almost inchoate wonders -the promise of myself. And still I must -look behind even that first living thing and -consider matter as well as life; for the -physical potency of that thing was long -of building up; and this physical potency -has its place in me. The material pathway -of life is the pathway of my powers, and -it stretches far back into cosmic happenings -smaller or (it depends how you look at -these high matters and what you see in -them) greater still.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have no need to stretch imagination -unaided; we may watch changes going on -which indicate or, maybe, reproduce, stages -in the creation of our own world and of its -very elements. There are stars in which -material elements are being either made -or destroyed; it is hard for us to say -which. In the constellation Argo there -are two suns—furnaces of immeasurable -heat—in which hydrogen, the lightest and -simplest of our elements, is either being -born or disintegrated before our eyes. -There are other stars where hydrogen is in -the same state as that in which we know -it here, and more complex elements (for -the elements of the chemist are in reality -complex; they are only elements for him, -because he cannot disintegrate them) are -being born or, again, are being destroyed. -There are stars in all stages up to the -stage of our own sun and beyond, in age -and powers; and there are elements of -many degrees of complexity. In the series -of those stars there is a series of changes -which, taken together, mark for us either -an ascent of matter from the immaterial, or -a descent towards it. There is iron in its -very infancy to be seen in some—proto-iron -we call it—which we are able to produce -ourselves by exposing ordinary iron to the -intense heat of the electric vacuum spark -and there disrupting it into a simpler mode -which the spectroscope detects as it detects -it in a star. We are entitled to say that -in these changes material elements declare -themselves to be things that somewhere -and somehow are born and grow, whether -in any one stage that we watch they are -moving in one direction or another, from -birth or down towards death. Indeed -the most probable thing is that in the solar -furnace-fires both movements are going on -together; elements are being born and -elements annulled. They have an origin, -these elements. Some scientific men suggest -to us that they issue from the universal -ether that fills the interstellar spaces and -the spaces of the stars themselves, of our -own bodies, of all things in all worlds. -Here the first stones of the pathway on -which life travels may have (in their belief) -been shaped. And neither chemist nor physicist -can even guess at anything beyond. -We stop here, as men of science only. -It is at a place full of marvels that we are -arrested. This ether is so marvellous that -some rash men have deemed it competent to -replace God. They have asked what need -we have of any other God. And, truly, if -the creations of worlds that are no more -than physical were all a God was needed -for, this amazing source of worlds would -seem, not so unreasonably, to be enough. -Whether the ether is immaterial or not, -we might say the same. There are those -who hold that it is the first and finest -of the elements of matter. For men who -know most about it, it is no kind of matter. -But its power and fertility remain, however -this may be; it is held to be the medium -of communication everywhere, between -small and great, distant and near; and -the womb of the worlds. Undoubtedly it -may serve the pseudo-physicist-philosopher -in place of God, while he is no more than -that.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The pathway for life has been traced back -and back to the utmost of the regressive -journey of science. We have seen (perhaps) -the first stones being fashioned in the fires -of the suns; at least we may believe that -in some such place and way they have been -and are being fashioned. We know—radium -has shown us and the proto-iron—how -chemical elements can be disintegrated -and brought down to lower states of -material complexity. In radio-active matter -there is more than a hint that they -may be brought lower still, returned to -the fecund mother from which they came, -restored, let us say, to the ether.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We may have learnt—that depends on -our prepossessions—we may have learnt -in studying this regress to see in what the -chemist calls the 'affinity' of one element -for another, and in its 'valency' (that -is, its ability to grip one or another and -even several to itself and take part in -building up compounds), a likeness or a -congruity with living stuff. And we have -seen a living thing as compounded physically -of the compounds of the chemist, though -not, as yet, compounded by him. Unless -our prepossessions form in us irrational -prejudice we may gladly follow the clue -science puts in our hands, and confess a -continuous advance in order upon order -of nature from the womb of the ether to -ourselves.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER III</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>There the Eternal Fountain is playing its endless</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>life-streams of birth and death.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Kabir.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>We have followed the physicist and -the chemist to the farthest point -they have reached in their research. They -cannot show us anything beyond, and we, -unsatisfied, must look elsewhere. The problems -of life remain. We ourselves stand -on the great pathway, its continuous road -of rising orders, and from our place of -vantage we contemplate the first living -thing. A profound discrepancy, or what -seems like one, stares us in the face, the -discrepancy between our mastery over -things and our self-conscious, self-creative -abilities on the one hand, and, on the other, -that first humble yet awe-inspiring revelation -by elements generated, perhaps, within -a white-hot star. Science has nothing -to do with meanings and purposes and -values in our lives or with our concern for -them. Indeed it has nothing to do, in -strictness, with meanings and purposes and -values anywhere. This is the business of -philosophy and of all ordinary men.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have learnt a lesson as we followed -the men of science from step to step, and -heard nature respond to their questions with -intelligible answers. We have learnt that, -so far as it has been examined, the universe, -like ourselves, is rational and has a history. -It moves, changes, grows; it is real and its -history is real too. And though science is -not concerned with its meaning, we are. -We hold fast to our science, but we care -for more than science. We cannot help it, -for we are aware of meaning in ourselves; -as the man of science is when he is not being -only scientific. We are aware too of -purpose and of values; we are aware of -making and shaping and creating; we -know what it is to choose and direct, to -arrange and rearrange, to produce novelty. -Both sides of our knowledge and our caring, -the scientific side and the personal side, -make a difficulty for us in regard to the -philosophers with whom we shall put ourselves -to school. Our chosen teachers -must reckon with life as we know and -possess it in ourselves; but they must -reckon too with every word of the scientific -man. Nothing less will content us now. -The philosophers we shall follow must not -be playing a game among themselves, -using thoughts like pieces on a board, -to be moved according to rules they have -laid down. Neither must they resolve the -great drama of real things and real history -into a phantasmagoria of mind; nor try -to educe mind, consciousness, the spiritual -activities of man, from the interplay of -parts of a material machine. In our view -both the material and the spiritual are -real. It is for the philosopher, so we -think, to show us the real relation between -them. To do him justice, the philosopher -has been thoroughly aroused of late years -to the importance of reckoning with science. -Consequently he draws to his side thinking -ordinary men as they have perhaps never -been drawn before, except when Socrates -at Athenian banquets and in Athenian -streets 'made himself a fool that others by -his folly might be made wise.' We have -no difficulty now in finding a philosopher, -indeed many philosophers, to our mind. -Philosophy is alive, sitting at our banquets, -walking in our streets, even writing books -that ordinary men, living each his own -extraordinary life, can read. We are able -to call in our philosopher, then, as we -have called in the bio-chemist, knowing -him to be one who reckons to the -full with science, that he may tell us -what he can and will concerning life and -living.</p> - -<p class='c011'>A philosopher of that mind and reckoning -has presented us with a picture in which we -see life coming (may be from very far, coming, -we may think, although concealed, -by the material pathway from the ether -that science has revealed to us) as -an enormous impetus which finds the -first of its advantages that are discernible -by us, in that colloid assembly of compounded, -complicated, delicately-strung, -hair-trigger-hung elements, the protoplasmic -stuff. We plainly see a new beginning -which, in philosophic truth, is a continuance -in new manners upon this earth of that -which has no beginning; we see a living -thing which lives because an impulsive -and propulsive life, not material but -spiritual, has raised material elements from -the rank of dust, and has found a means of -using material powers to purposes and ends. -And this philosopher tells us that from its -marvellous but humble first appearing in -matter life advances, not like the trickle -of a single stream, but like the bursting -forth of a potent, spreading fountain whose -waters part in a thousand directions to make -a thousand streams, each purposive, each at -first seeking, but many of them unsuccessfully, -to fulfil some part of the purpose of -the whole. And in regard to this frequent -unsuccess, we find the philosopher borne -out by the palaeontologist, whose 'general -picture ... of the evolution of the animal -kingdom is accordingly that of an immense -number of ... lives which evolve parallel -to one another, and without coalescing, -throughout longer or shorter geological -times,' each of which 'culminates sooner -or later in mutations of great size and -highly specialized characters, which become -extinct and leave no descendants.' At the -heart of life, as in the philosophic mirror -we watch its advance, there seems one -guiding and supreme purpose, which is -manifest in the continuous effort 'to engraft -on the necessity of physical forces the largest -possible amount of indetermination,' that -is, of freedom in choice. But this purpose -is evidently very hard to fulfil, and as we -see, often fails of being fulfilled.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We may in mind and imagination walk -in company with these teachers of ours; -we may see the stages of the past of living -creatures marked out in the geological -strata, learning thus how life has grown -from less to more, how its divergent streams -have turned this way or that, and how some -have been frustrate, as in the giant saurians -and labyrinthodonts. We may learn too -from the biologist that in our own day others -(for instance perhaps those in the elephant -and the ostrich and the whale) are in like -manner drawing near to frustration by -that impressive wearing out and perishing -of a race, which is so clearly illustrated -in the geological record. We discover -that when impulsive life, seeking a free -way, finds advance only through an excessive -increase in the size of some creature, -that creature's fate is sealed, and that -manner of advance is barred. Size extending -much beyond a certain range normal -in the particular kind of animal is (perhaps -in consequence of purely mechanical influences) -to all the main intents and purposes -of life no better than a blind alley. A like -impulse, finding its outlet in the elaboration -of nervous apparatus ranging from an all -but indiscoverable structure to that definite -and complex yet indefinitely mobile organ -of an indefinitely extending choice—that -living instrument for overcoming mechanism, -that 'veritable reservoir of indetermination'—the -human brain, finds there -and there alone a road to great and full -success. Yet it finds a road to minor and -circumscribed successes in the lives of -plants and animals which, interacting together, -become of immeasurable value for -the whole realm of life and the well-being -of its citizens—for that realm of interlacing -purposes and ends, where partial failure -is so often converted to a new and a remoter -triumph.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It seems as though in many, indeed in -most instances, a life current, instead of -driving on towards either greater freedom -or complete arrest, met with a resistance -able to constrain it, as it were, into eddies, -wherein it circles as creatures living out -either in a relative independence or in -a parasitic state (sometimes of primary -development, at others of degradation from -a higher mode) their restricted lives. They -are being fulfilled according to their -restricted wants; they are needing no -more of life than they have, and therefore -seek no further than they are. And they -have their co-operative value in the whole. -These are the minor, yet many of them—and -that in spite of dangers and pain and -death—the delightful, successes of life. -Everywhere upon this earth now, it seems, -except in man, we may justly picture the -life-currents as either coming to an end or -circling round and round in some such eddy, -at most curving out a little way to change -a little in shape, to form new varieties -within a species or, rarely, new species -within a genus. There is in lower animals -than ourselves, and in the plants, a certain -contentment, on which tired men have -sometimes been known to look with envy. -The realm of nature is well served by -servants such as these, and natural delights, -in spite of natural pains, are won. But -not all that life can do and be is represented -in those finished forms. In the plants it -seems to be asleep. There the protoplasmic -stuff has built a wall about its soft body, -the casing of cellulose behind which it -sleeps, working in sleep, in great measure -cut off from the varied stimulus and many-tongued -summons, the resistances and opportunities, -of an outer world. And some of -the animals that are now extinct owe their -extinction, not to their gigantic size, but -to their having sought safety rather than -adventure, and imprisoned themselves in -their mechanical armour of defence. They -too were in their measure cut off from the -stir and help and moving oppositions of -associated lives. In truth and in regard to -the supreme purpose manifested in life, -all the non-human creatures of the earth -have, within themselves and for themselves, -in one fashion or another barred -its advance; although very many of them -are furthering its purposes, indeed giving -them indispensable support, elsewhere. -Those which have not been extinguished -and still maintain their place in the world -are too complete, too well-adapted to a -satisfying but narrow sphere, for progress -to a wider. Life is not bearing them on; -their nervous organ, that structure of -inter-related cells by which they use their -world, selecting and determining this or -that, has not like ours capacity for -indefinite change. Theirs is exactly fitted -for their narrow use of it, and they and it -are constrained together.</p> - -<p class='c011'>When we look at man through the eyes -of the philosopher we see life clearly as a -<i>spiritual</i> impulse, an impulse of a higher -order than the animal, at least as much -higher as that is than the material, and ever -driving on. Man is not content; he is -not fulfilled. He is fully awake; and he is -not only conserving his long past but peering -into the distances of his future. His brain -is flexible, and able to provide a multitude -of new structural arrangements; it is -therefore an instrument of such choice as -gives him leave to shape his future. And -it is an active instrument; it brings to -him through extending perception a field -for his own spiritual activities that stretches -out to match them, and enables him to -become a ruler among circumstances. It -allows him to worship beauty and even to -create it; and to seek and worship truth; -to adore goodness and be good. It permits -desire to grow and the spirit within him to -reach limit after limit, using each limit as -an opportunity for further growth. All this -the brain of man allows and promotes; -and on this earth his brain alone. There -is nowhere so magnificent and marvellous -a bodily organ; for in it and by means -of it physical things and physical laws are -subdued to the purposes and ends of a free -enduring creation.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IV</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Listen to the moaning of the pine, at whose roots</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>thy hut is fastened.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Kabir.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>The divergent streams of that primaeval -fountain of life as they spread out -upon the earth, in the earth, in the air, in, -under and upon the waters, have given to -it the endless variety of its creatures. In -this variety, and of those streams, there -are three and no more than three main -currents; there are three directions and -grouped characters and qualities of life. -Each of these in its turn branches into -minor streams and differences of creatures. -The main currents are those of the plants, -the insects, and the vertebrate animals.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have seen that one function of the -life of plants gives to the whole world of -living creatures access to the energy of -the sun. Yet as regards intelligence and -conscious relation with other creatures -the plant may be said to be asleep; it -carries on its vital functions and builds up -its manifold and admirable structures, -working as though in sleep. Its whole -activity, varied though it be, is like that -of a dreamer. Confined within a wall of -cellulose, the plant-cell works out its life -as though, for its awareness, no other -creature lived.</p> - -<p class='c011'>With the insect-world we enter on a -widely differing scene. There, in the highest -insects, we discover what may well rouse -a salutary discontent with ourselves. The -life-current which finds its eddying termination -in the wasps and bees and ants has -one, and that its chief, character pointing -to grave but happily not irremediable -deficiency in most of us, if not to some -extent in all. The wasp seems to know -other creatures' life, to understand it -sympathetically, to touch and feel it from -within, in a manner that to us is marvellous. -Life manifests through this little winged -thing a power we call instinct, perfected for -certain uses to a degree not attained outside -the insect-world. There are wasps -which sting caterpillars with admirable -though not invariable precision in their -nerve-centres, so that they go on living -but cannot move, and thus are made to -serve as living larders for the wasp-grubs. -Observers have found that different wasps, -seeking different kinds of prey, sting three -times, nine times, in three or nine centres, -according to the number in the body of -their selected victim, and that the Scolia -stings the larvae of the rose-beetle in one -point only, just where the motor-ganglia -are concentrated. Other observers have -noticed some failures and occasional irregularities. -But listen (it may be once more -and after many times) to this well-known -story, the story of the Sitaris, if you want -to see what life can do in a fashion for -which the intellectual work of man offers -in his experience no parallel. This tiny -beetle lays its eggs in the doorway of the -underground passages dug by a certain bee, -the Anthophora. When an egg is hatched -the grub awaits an opportunity to spring -upon the male bee as it comes out. You -may deceive it with a substitute, and no -doubt it often is deceived without your help. -Nevertheless, if not thus deceived it clings -to the bee until the nuptial flight occurs, -when it seizes some chance of shifting from -the male to the female. Now clinging to -the female, it waits until the bee-eggs are -as usual laid upon honey. Then it leaps -again, this time upon an egg which serves -it at first as a raft on the honey. By degrees -it eats up the egg; then uses as its raft -the empty shell. It changes, undergoes a -metamorphosis, and becomes able both to -float and feed on honey, where it remains -until it changes for the last time into the -perfect insect, a Sitaris ready in its turn to -set going this amazing cycle of life. It is -a life that seems to involve knowledge of -things which, by any knowing such as our -intellectual experience provides, could not -be known. Untaught, unaided, without -previous experiment, the creature displays -what looks like, but cannot be, true forethought, -as well as ingenuity and adaptive -skill; what looks like, but cannot be, a -continued adjustment of reflectively chosen -means to reflectively recognized ends. -There can be no question but that all this, -under such conditions, would be beyond the -reach of our intellectual powers, and beyond -our reflective thought. We may justly say -that it is beyond the reach of any powers -that are merely of reflective thought. -Not thus does intellect carry on its conceptual -work. It analyses and reflects, -it separates, compares, and puts together. -That is not the way of the grub of Sitaris, -neither is it the way of the solitary wasp. -There appears to be for these and for others -of their tribe, in 'perceptual consciousness,' -some mysterious sympathy between the -life of the creature using and the life of the -creature used, akin to that sympathy of -digestive secretions with digestible food by -means of which our bodies are nourished, -or the process by which the cell becomes the -organized and completed creature. There -seem to be also motor-habits stored up -by repetition in forbears, which facilitate -the active expression of this sympathy. -When the wasp stings the nerve-centres -of the caterpillar as accurately, as on the -whole he does, it seems to us as though in -the mere presence together of wasp and -caterpillar two congruous activities, not -two beings, met—the wasp-activity perceiving -rather than thinking about the -caterpillar-activity, perceiving it and -attacking it through certain established -instrumental means as though entering -into a familiar relation to it. You might -be inclined to say that the sting of the -wasp picks out the nervous ganglia of the -caterpillar as a magnet picks out fragments -of steel from the dust. Instinct no doubt -means perceiving in sympathetic relation, -and has more than a mere likeness to -reflex actions in the body. Like these -it may find its bodily support in a motor -tradition, borne from reproductive germ to -reproductive germ, as a structural record -of bodily movements ingrained by the -incessant repetition of certain actions -through many continuous generations. -But unlike these it may work with and -for the intellect in all its grades.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We may well desire a sympathetic relation -with other life, a perceptive understanding -keener, quicker, more direct, more inclusive -and more penetrating. And let us hasten -to assure ourselves that we may attain -what we seek, though in ways very different -from the insect's, and for ends very different -too. No life-current in any creature is of -one character alone; none but has in it, -in some proportion or another and with -this or that degree of emphasis, all characters. -The intuitive character and power -of life in perceptive experience and perceptive -consciousness, which though highly -emphasized in some creatures becomes -narrowed to their instinct, is not the -exclusive prerogative of any one kind, even -of the insects, though within their narrow -bounds they have carried it almost to -inerrancy of use; any more than reflective -thought is the exclusive prerogative of -man, though he has carried it farther and -wider and deeper than any other creature -of the earth. The problem for us is in -great part one of emphasis and proportion. -We have cultivated our reflective thinking -more than our perceptive awareness, our -conceptual more than our intuitive power. -Because thought exercised upon external -things has given us what we most wanted -in the external world, and is giving us more -and more, we have over-emphasized it. -We have strained unceasingly to understand -and to manage not life but those -external material things. We are great -geometers and artificers; we are great in -our understanding of material things; but -there is another greatness, a perceptual -greatness, to which most of us have not -attained, although it lies open to us, in -fulness matching the fulness of our intellectual -endowment.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We are not without plain indications of -the existence in ourselves of that intuitive -power, which as instinct is amazing to us -in the accurate yet constrained lives of the -beetles and the wasps. It is amazing -chiefly because it is not that which we -desire and are aware of desiring or needing -to use. There is in every one of us, -latent or declared, a true intuition of life, -a truly intuitive awareness, a touch within, -a perceptual knowledge sympathetic in the -pure sense of the word, reaching far beyond -the insect's. We may know it for what -it is because in us giving rather than -gaining is its secret spring, although gain, -assuredly, comes by giving. Such, for -example, is the knowledge of the artist, -won only in his giving of himself to the -object of his worship, in his placing himself -by an artistic sympathy within it. Thus -he obtains by sympathetic intuition an -understanding that is like a spiritual touch, -that is perceiving not thinking about, -that, by immediate contact with the individual -thing, is a knowledge of it in its -own reality. Such again is the intuition of -the true lover, who gives himself to the -beloved and in that giving wins a knowledge -like the artist's. They are akin, these -two, artist and lover. Their kinship is -grounded in their use of that intuitive -character of life which for humanity as a -whole has been cast into the shade by the -more practically useful manners of intellect, -and which in the insect-tribe is confined -to the immediate needs of a fixed and -narrow mode of existence.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Yet there is in truth a real difference, in -these respects, between man and the insect -or any other creature. In the perceptive -consciousness of the insect, restricted by -the fixed character of its nervous system, -the intuitive potency of life has shrunk -and hardened, as it were, into a restrained -power which deals, and can deal, only with -a very small part of life and the world. -This power is forced to work in the windowless -prison of a completed life. Man's life -is not completed; in him consciousness, -stretching out ever farther and farther, has -passed one temporary limit after another, -function impelling structure to match itself, -mind seeking to go beyond itself. The -consciousness of man has been always -opening up for him new fields, adapting -itself to new objects, moving among them, -making a way through them, and in all its -growth and change advancing in freedom. -To attain this freed human consciousness -seems, we may say, the motive principle -of the evolution of life through man's forerunners. -Its driving impulse is both carried -indefinitely further in that consciousness -and revealed as what it really is. Herein -lies the difference in order between every -animal, every plant, the most skilful of -the beetles or the wasps, and man. Their -way is closed. His lies before him wide -open. He <i>is</i> the open way, the one open -way on earth for life in its harmony of -intuitive and intellectual power both fulfilled. -And if hitherto we and our forefathers -have in practice over-emphasized -conceptual thinking and the intellect, our -over-emphasis and its practical results have -set us in a place where sympathetic intuition -in perceptive experience has a new advantage. -In us it will not, or rather it need -not, be narrowed down. It may stretch out -into every field that discursive and reflective -thought has opened up, and it may pass -beyond them to lead them on. The attainment -by man of his high calling and of the -destiny of which he is capable depends in -truth on this expansion of his life. So -the philosopher assures us. So, also—and -this is noteworthy—does the psychologist: -'with the development of "psychical integration" -both sides develop, and their relation, -that is experience, therefore expands -into a meaning inclusive of more and more, -till, in the human being, it may be inclusive -of all things actual and possible, the universe -in space, and history in time from the -remotest past, and, in imagination, to the -most distant future.' The psychologist -too, is not without his vision.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER V</h2> -</div> -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>If any one should care to say that unless I have</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>bones and muscles and the other parts of the body I</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>could not do what I would, that is well enough:</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>but to say that I act as I do because of them, and</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>that this is the way in which my mind acts, and not</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>from choice of the best, why, that is a very careless</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>and idle way of speaking.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Plato.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>There are signs that the life of the -body is even in the lower animals to -some extent imbued with the free creative -spirit. There are creative efforts of determination, -changes of direction, triumphs -over circumstance, that find their enlightening -context in the more emancipated life -of man.</p> - -<p class='c011'>A sea-urchin's egg, for instance, begins -its development by dividing into two cells. -Normally these cells, by a like division, -share between them the making of the -respective halves of the creature's body. If -you remove one cell after the first division -of the egg you may expect (you certainly -should and will if you take your stand with -the mechanistic theorists) to find that you -have mutilated the creature. You may or -will expect to see the remaining half of the -egg grow to a half-embryo. Under some -circumstances you will see what you expect; -but if you are very skilful and are acquainted -with the new methods you will -have the disturbing joy of seeing the half-egg—you -may even see a quarter-egg—take -on the work of the whole, and grow -to a complete though small embryo; and -not only to an embryo but to a larva. You -may do the same with a newt's egg or a -frog's. With your mind's eye, then, you -may if you like, and if you thus interpret -things, watch the sea-urchin's, the frog's, -or the newt's life, overcoming, according to -a 'primary purposiveness' of its own, -your effort to thwart its intention. You -may watch it determining new contrivances -from within to meet an unexpected emergency -that threatens to mar the complete -whole it means to be, changing a normal -to an abnormal course of activity, that it -may still attain its end—in short 'working -out its own salvation,' as a morphologist -remarks, 'upon original and individual -lines.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>It would seem difficult not to recognize -in these changes a likeness to what you -know in yourself as intelligent action. -Studying them it is hard for any but a -confirmed mechanist to resist the contention -of men who tell us that the vital <i>is</i> -the intelligent. Whereas purely material -changes, if they are left to themselves, -follow the way of least material resistance, -life, whether in the cell or in the organism, -moves in an opposite direction. The living -vegetable cell raises carbon and other -elements from relative inertness to a condition -charged with newly available power. -And in these developmental changes the -organism seems to manifest itself as in very -truth 'a living, active, responsive thing, -quite capable of relinquishing at need the -beaten track of normal development,' like -ourselves as we make our bodily, intellectual, -moral and spiritual decisions. The -mechanist is ready with his retort when we -say this, but it is a poor retort. He tells -us of mysterious 'specific organ-forming -substances' which are not ordinary chemical -substances of any kind; and which no -research is able to detect, except it be as -pictured behind the very processes of growth -that are telling <i>us</i> of the organ-forming -determination of a specific mode of life. -For both us and the mechanist there is the -same process and result. He sees, but only -with his mind's eye, these utterly mysterious -'substances' he has himself invoked; -we see, with our mind's eye, the sea-urchin's, -or the newt's, life issuing in that -purposeful endeavour which always and -everywhere, we say, is a mark of the life -we know. We may even admit the possibility -of the existence of his organ-forming -substances, but only as conditions of life's -organ-forming, not as effective causes—a -distinction of fundamental importance for -the careful thinker not content to be -arrested by the look of things, however -scientific. We cannot rest in a mechanical -interpretation which at best only thrusts -the problem one stage farther away, as does -the pseudo-physicist-philosopher's ether-God. -Life to us seems effective, and under -all conditions determining, within the limits -of those conditions. Organ-forming substances -there may be; but they are either -the co-operative servants of life (if they -exist at all) like other substances, or they -are no better than names for the modes in -which life is at work. To us life seems, -from its first entrance into possession of a -body, when it gave to material substances -a higher status, to have worked always -towards dominance over the established -laws and customs (that is the habits) of -matter, as no substances have ever worked. -At first it did little more with matter than -lift physical or chemical elements upward -in heightening states of energy, within a -body, against physical or chemical tendencies -that would take them downward to -their physical or chemical equilibrium; -later it went on, through the organizing -of an ever more and more complex and -variable nervous system, to a man's brain, -where the control of intelligence over the -living instrument that is its very active -servant became strong enough to guide -into ever-widening relations and possibilities -an activity seeking spiritual advance. -An activity, straining for liberation against -some resistance by which nevertheless it -was itself made effectual, could—we are -driven to think—do no other than find its -way imperfectly and by slow degrees; -yet on its way it has shown even in very -lowly creatures signs of what it really is. -That any 'substance' the mechanist can -acknowledge has done this of its own -motion and power, we take leave to doubt. -And we have learnt to understand the -mechanist.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>If the train of reflexion thus suggested is -followed up, some of us will find ourselves -compelled to readjust certain beliefs in -regard to spiritual life as related to the -life of the body, and in regard also to -bodily life as related to the life of the spirit. -We shall perhaps learn that in looking upon -spirit as altogether separate from matter or -as connected with matter only by some -fortuitous or indeed unhappy link, we may -indeed have kept it safe from the attacks -of the materialist, but only at the cost of -emptying it of value for ourselves, except -in so far as it is, perhaps, an all but invisible -<i>point de repère</i> round about which our vague -religious sentiments are grouped. Just as -in the evolution of elements and compounds -afterwards united in the marvel of life-jelly, -we traced the preparation of a pathway -for life moving towards its first -manifestation, so we should trace in the -successive phases of that manifestation a -development of co-operative relations between -spirit and matter, a development -rendering matter more and more plastic to -spirit, and spirit more and more responsive -to the character of the far from inert -instrument through which its purpose is -effected.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The evolutionist philosopher has told us -that we may picture life as a rising wave opposed -by the contrary movement of matter -towards stability. The greater part of the -whole volume of the wave, after reaching -one height or another, is arrested; and going -no further it is at each several height -converted into the whirling eddies, the -contented plants and animals of which we -have already spoken. At one point only, -where it rises highest, does the wave find -a free passage (and of this too we have -spoken) along which it carries with it, converted -to its further purpose, the material -obstacle, condition, and means that will, in -a sense and for a time, still in some degree -encumber, but cannot now arrest, its -advance. The life-current continues to -flow, a gathering wave of conscious life -grown to self-consciousness and world-consciousness. -It flows on from this point -of conquest through generation after generation -of men in and to whom its spiritual -character is now plainly revealed. For -each man it is a rill from the great human -river of life—life natural and spiritual, -spiritual because so fully natural—which -has become his own and is indeed himself. -For each the material but living brain is -the chief instrument and helper by means -of which he himself stretches forth towards -wider and wider relations, not only with -material objects but with other spiritual -beings. And as the spirit of a man thus -expands, amassing life and becoming, by -the sympathetic spiritual inclusion of other -lives, greater in its reach and in itself, it -is confirmed and consolidated in its self-ownership. -You may say that as a self-knowing, -self-governing, creative being, an -owner of means and a seeker after ends, -man's life has at last taken possession of the -kingdom of itself, and that it has reached -this all-important status through the -medium and condition of a body and by -the experience of an earthly world.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We will let the philosopher tell us the -gist of this in his own words:—</p> - -<p class='c011'>'While we watch the birth of consciousness -we are confronted, at the same time, -by the apparition of living bodies, capable, -even in their simplest forms, of movements -spontaneous and unforeseen. The progress -of living matter consists in a differentiation -of function which leads first to the production -and then to the increasing complication -of a nervous system capable of canalizing -excitations and of organizing actions: -the more the higher centres develop, the -more numerous become the motor paths -among which the same excitation allows the -living being to choose in order that it may -act. An ever greater latitude left to -movement in space—this indeed is what is -seen. What is not seen is the growing -and accompanying tension of consciousness -in time. Not only, by its memory of former -experiences, does this consciousness retain -the past better and better, so as to organize -it with the present in a newer and richer -decision; but, living with an intenser life, -contracting, by its memory of the immediate -experience, a growing number of external -moments in its present duration, it becomes -more capable of creating acts of which the -inner indetermination, spread over as large -a multiplicity of the moments of matter as -you please, will pass the more easily through -the meshes of necessity. Thus, whether we -consider it in time or in space, freedom -always seems to have its roots deep in -necessity and to be intimately organized -with it. Spirit borrows from matter the -perceptions on which it feeds, and restores -them to matter in the form of movements -which it has stamped with its own freedom.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>Any philosopher, after writing or speaking -some such words as these, may well ask -us to consider—when we have watched the -hard-won triumph of life over so great -difficulties and so many obstacles, when we -have discovered what seems to us clear -evidence that it has for age upon age -pursued with immeasurable power and -resource a purpose which the spiritual -consciousness of man is alone competent to -fulfil, and that it has thus attained in man -a position of supreme advantage for this -fulfilment—whether we ought not to regard -ourselves as paltering with reason if we -expect that pursuit and that attainment -both to be in vain. Is life, just where it -seems in sight of final triumph, to be overcome -at the last by death? Why should -it be overcome by this when it has vanquished -so much else? Why, if the world -is rational, should we expect all the ages -of preparation to be brought to naught, -and the splendour of man's promise to be -laid low in the grave?</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have to confess, I think, that reason -is against this, and that when we allow -ourselves to expect or to fear such an anti-climax -we are influenced rather by prejudice, -conscious or unconscious. Prejudice is born -of our every-day dealing with things and -our every-day notions about causes and -about bodies. We think spirit is dependent -upon matter, not as upon a living and -responsive instrument of transmission and -self-development to a certain necessary -point of self-consolidation; but as most -things we deal with depend upon other -things, which, as we say, cause them, produce -them, or make them do and be and -happen. We suppose all too easily that -just as steam ceases when the boiler-fires -are drawn, so when the body dies life, its -product, ceases too. We see the leaves fall -from the trees to perish. <i>Tout passe, tout -casse, tout lasse,</i>—it is the common lot of -things and men. It is familiar—what more -need be said? The burden of proof lies -on the man who would tell us of exceptions -to the rule.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Yet, if and when we come to examine -things and men, do we discover any such -rule applicable to men? Are we not all -but compelled, reading the astounding story -of evolution in the light cast upon it by -its culmination in man, to question every -uncriticized and easily formed opinion on -a subject so complex and profound? If -indeed there is evidence to show that life -is neither produced by nor released from -matter, but is in some sort conjoined with -matter, lifting it from its own level, and -using its powers in a way altogether different -from their normal material course; if there -is evidence that these powers are made to -fulfil a purpose that can be no other than -a purpose for life; then, obviously, matter, -in the order of power and of nature, is -life's subordinate. We must, indeed, as -reasonable beings, correct those easy -opinions—these things being thus. The -similes and illustrations of every day do -not fit the case. Intimate as is the relation -between spirit and matter, there is no more -reason to think life is produced by a material -substance than to think the boiler-fire is produced -by the steam. Both thoughts are -equally absurd, and perhaps the chief cause -of our thinking so easily the one and of our -being quite unable to think the other is that -we can see and touch boilers and the like, -and cannot see and touch 'spirit and life.'</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>'Lamps burn in every house, O blind one! and you</span></div> - <div class='line in4'><span class='small'>cannot see them.</span></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>One day your eyes shall suddenly be opened, and</span></div> - <div class='line in4'><span class='small'>you shall see: and the fetters of death shall</span></div> - <div class='line in4'><span class='small'>fall from you.'</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VI</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves,</span></div> - <div class='line in3'><span class='small'>and within it is the Creator:</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Within this vessel are the seven oceans and the</span></div> - <div class='line in3'><span class='small'>unnumbered seas.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Kabir.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>When the brain dies it is resolved in -the ordinary way gradually, or may -be resolved in a laboratory quickly, into -its constituents, which the chemist may -collect as water, carbonic acid and so forth, -together with, roughly, a few pinches of ash. -Nothing is lost of what, as we say, it was -made of. After death it is left to fall from -its temporary high estate of power, and -travel along the line of least physical and -chemical resistance to the low estate from -which life had raised its matter-stuff. -Material necessity, such as we picture it, -then resumes its sway; physical laws, that -is, let us say, established physical habits, -dominate once more.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But this brain, while human life employed -and profited by it, was in vital and structural -continuity with the first life-jelly -that appeared upon the earth. You may -trace, in the pictorial scientific way, all its -many cells to the germ-cell or egg from -which the whole body sprang. Again, and -in the same manner, you may trace this -germ-cell, this egg, to another from which -it was derived. Some scientific men will -tell you that in every developing egg, during -the very first stages of its division, cells -are set apart as germ-cells to continue the -race in the next generation. There runs, -they will say, through the generations of -men a continuous underground river-system -of protoplasm, a continuous streaming of -cells from which are thrown up at intervals -jets, as it were, of living material which -become individual lives. Or we may put -it that as in certain plants there is a creeping -root-stock hidden underground and -giving origin here and there to new specimens -of the plant, so there is (according to -this opinion) a root-stock of germinative -material passing on and giving rise to body -after body, through all mankind. The -source of this branching, interlacing germ-structure -is in the beginnings of the world, -and the beginnings of the world are—where? -In the ether, the physicist may say. -In the place and state from whence my -elements have come, the chemist says. At -present we, studying in these pages, are -content to say that whatever the scientific -details may be, the pathway of life that we -see is one, from wherever the chemist and -the physicist allow of a beginning to the -place where both must own themselves -confounded, the brain of man.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is well to study that brain more carefully -and try to relate it with the germ-cells -of the protoplasmic streams from which -it arose. We have to consider how it is -that the brain of a son comes to resemble -the brains of his parents, when the carrier -of his parents' lives to him was only that -fertilized germ-cell, a jelly with a nucleus, -to all appearances no more. Here we must -confine our study to one problem, that of -memory, partly because we have no space -for more, but chiefly because memory is an -'Open Sesame' to many wonders. We -may if we please link it with heredity, -with that passing on of characters and -habits from parents to child through the -comparative, but only comparative and -very misleading, simplicity of the germ-cell.</p> - -<p class='c011'>'The man who could penetrate into a -brain,' it is said, 'and watch what happens -there would very likely see it full of sketched-out -movements, there is no evidence that -he would see anything else. He would -have no more knowledge of what was going -on in the corresponding consciousness than -we should have of a play were we watching -the comings and goings of the actors on -the stage without hearing a word of it. If -the play were no more than a pantomime -the movements of the players would tell us -nearly everything about it; if it were a -comedy of life and manners they would -give us next to nothing.' It has been -said, too—and the simile is illuminating—that -the brain is like a sort of central -telephone exchange, permitting, delaying, -or arresting communication. It is an instrument -of analysis, of hesitation and of -choice; but its office is said to be limited -to the transmission and division of movement, -movement started by things outside -the body and movement started from within -the body. The body is the conductor of -these movements to and fro between objects -acting upon it and objects upon which it -acts.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Only in the form of motor contrivances -do brain and body, we are told, store up -the action of the past. This is a point of -great importance in regard to both our own -lives and our inheritance from our forerunners. -We may distinguish two kinds -of memory; one graven as it were in the -living stuff of our body; another enshrined -and active in the fluent personal history we -ourselves most really are. Let us see what -the evolutionist philosopher has to tell us -about this. Let us illustrate our subject -after his fashion.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In the matter of learning by heart, for -example, there are two facts to be noted and -two memories to be distinguished. When -I know a poem by heart and can repeat -it I say that I remember it. But I say -also, perhaps, that I remember the stages -by which I came to learn it. I remember, -or may remember, occasion after occasion -of my more or less successful repetition of -the poem while I was learning it. I can -recall, or may recall, step after step of my -advance towards perfectly 'remembering' it. -When it is learnt I say that it is imprinted -on my memory; but I may also say that the -steps of my progress towards knowing the -poem are in like manner imprinted on my -memory. Yet a very little thought shows -that these are two kinds of memory, not -one; and that there are two kinds of -imprinting, not one. The memory of the -poem itself has every mark of an acquired -habit, even that of the disastrous effect of -an interruption. When I have repeated a -poem for the twentieth time without mistake -I may be thrown out of my declamatory -stride by the banging of a door, and -become unable either to tell myself how -far I had gone in the poem or to pick up its -broken thread. About a memory like this -there is the mechanical look of an ingrained -and almost unconscious habit. It is bodily, -like the memory of a sonata for the pianist -as he is playing, a memory which seems to -him rather in his fingers than in his mind. -But the memory of the steps and process -by which I gradually learnt my poem is -quite different. That is a history, not a -habit. Each stage occurred only once; no -one was graven into permanence by repetition, -indeed no one was, or could be, ever -repeated. Each was unique and had its -own date in the history of the process and -of my enduring life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Here is a difference indeed to be reckoned -with. There is a kind of memory that -<i>represents</i> our past to us; and there is -another kind (if it is memory at all) that -<i>acts</i> it. I say, emphatically, if it is memory -at all, this latter; for it does not really -preserve the past, it only continues into -the present an effect or a result of happenings -of the past. In true memory history -is preserved; the history of our whole lives -is preserved in our true memory. But only -the effects or results, only indeed certain -effects and results, of the living real happenings -in our living and real duration are -graven in the body stuff as habits, as, if -we like to call them so, habit-memories. -The establishing of these memories is an -affair of training and practice. The brain -and body have to be forced into them; -structure has to be shaped and taught, -that it may carry on automatically, or all -but automatically, some particular mode of -action. And we note that the more nearly -automatic these habit-memories are the -better they work. When the nerve-paths -in the structure of the brain and body -are beaten smooth by treading and retreading -the work goes easily and well.</p> - -<p class='c011'>There is nothing whatever of this kind -about the true and unlearnt memory of -events in our history, the memory which -represents them. But just because the -habit-memory is more immediately and -constantly useful to us we notice it more. -Indeed we frame on it our familiar conception -of what memory really is, and -come to regard the true memory of spontaneously -arising recollections as only a bad -example of the other. 'We ignore the -fundamental difference,' so we are told, -'between that which has to be built up by -repetition and that which is essentially -incapable of being repeated.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>No doubt the two intermingle in every-day -life and are therefore the more easily -confused, not only by our every-day and -usually careless selves but even by some -careful thinkers. The confusion is dangerous -for the thinker and the thinker in -consequence becomes dangerous for us. -Out of it has come in great part the -unreasonable belief that a material brain -is the storehouse of immaterial recollections, -and that these after becoming -either material or, in the physical sense, -'energetic' (as they must be to be stored -in a material or 'energetic' way), in some -altogether miraculous fashion at times take -on consciousness and, as once more immaterial -recollections, carry us into our -own past. To say that motor-habits, with -which when they are established consciousness -may have little to do, can be registered -in a flexible motor instrument and <i>acted</i> -over and over again, is reasonable enough; -but that conscious recollections can thus be -registered is not only a gratuitous assumption -unsupported by the facts of matter or -energy or life, but is strictly incredible by -any man who really knows and faces those -facts. It is better to know and face them -with the philosopher, and confess the reality -of a spiritual life in which history endures, -as well as the reality of a living instrument -in which habits are established. No doubt -an effort is required if we are to distinguish -between the spontaneous and the habitual -memories, between the memory of spirit -and the habit-memory of its living instrument, -the brain and body which together -with the spirit are the man; but the effort -is well worth making. It gives us a key -to unlock many close-shut doors. When -we try to learn something (as we are now -about to do) concerning the problem of -the transmission, through the succession of -germ-cells, of the characters that mark out -men—the problem of heredity—we find a -conspicuous and very interesting use for it. -But it has many uses besides that. We can -use it with advantage in dealing with all -the problems concerning the relations of -spirit with matter.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Before we go on to deal with heredity -we should note the value for our own lives -of our ability to establish habits at all, to -inscribe records of action in our instruments -of body and brain which shall be capable of -an almost automatic repetition. That is -the way in which intellectual and bodily -skill makes progress. We build a stairway -too for our minds and spirits as well as -for our bodies, when we lay down step after -step of habitual action, handing over to it -the carrying-on of what at first we had to -think out, and then by degrees learnt to do -skilfully and well almost without thought -at all. That is the stairway by which the -pianist advances towards a perfect execution -of his music and the skater mounts -towards perfect execution of a figure which -at first was beyond his power. Throughout -our lives we are handing actions over -to be conducted by our bodies and brains -as effects of work done consciously before, -to be acted over and over again and pass -beyond the need of conscious intervention, -and in the end to be carried on the better -without that aid. A man skates, or plays -his violin, or writes a poem, or rides a -horse, or walks, or dances, all the better -when and if he does not have to think about -the appropriate movements of his hands or -feet or legs, or the necessary letters of his -words, to all of which he once had to give -minute attention. Perceptive and creative -consciousness is thus set free. His mind, -in its originality of creation and perceiving, -is enabled to pour itself into the instrumental -habit it has laid down and infuse it with -his spirit, his poetic, musical, or athletic -spirit. He may endow his motor instrument -with his graces now that it works -without his conscious aid.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>We approach the problem of heredity -from a new direction and with new eyes. -Let us picture to ourselves (as has been -suggested), instead of a succession of lives, -a single life which goes on like the continuous -germ-plasm of some biologists, and -never grows old or dies. This one continuous -life would pass through every stage of -the succession of lives from the jelly-speck -onwards. One immortal developing creature -would accomplish (in our picture) the -whole evolution from the original protoplasm -to man. And this development -would be effected by forming habits and -rising step by step in and through and -upon them. Is this in fact what actually -has been done along the path of the ascent -of species? That is the question which at -once springs to our lips. Is heredity akin -to the habit-memory which is preserved in -our brains and bodies? There are men -who tell us that the best conception of -heredity they can form is something of this -kind. They tell us that they think of -individual lives as inscribing on germ-cells, -by constant repetition, effects of what they -have done. They tell us that the habit-memory -of ancestral and thus communicated -experience enables the baby to pump food -into its mouth with that accurate adjustment -of muscular means to exterior conditions -and the principles of hydrostatics -which it always shows. They go even -farther and tell us that the development of -any embryo from any egg is on the same -lines of unfolding the habit-memories essential -to its living as it does. Life in progressing -from the single cell learnt, they think, -by degrees, and consolidated its lessons into -motor-habits graven in living stuff. Sometimes -they point to the nucleus of the germ-cell -as possibly the instrument for preserving -these habits for other members of the race -as the brain preserves less established -habits for the man; sometimes they say -that the cytoplasm acts in the same way. -And whether we accept these suggestions -or reject them we may recognize with some -satisfaction that throughout the whole -plan there runs the belief (or assumption—what -you will) that function is primary, -not structure, though structure once organized -is the instrument and condition that -contributes to the shaping of specific character.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Again we find ourselves both ready and -called upon to emphasize the reality and -the conservative office of matter, yet to -regard it as subordinate to the reality and -the initiative of life. We acknowledge -once more the immeasurable import for -life of its relations with matter. When -structure is organized for function, when -habit-memories become instrumental for -life, function and life are in turn shaped by -their instrument. Hence, probably, we -have that condensed and fragmentary representation -by the developing embryo of -stages through which life passed slowly in -epochs long ago, and during which (according -to this hypothesis) it registered the -fruits of its effort, by repetition after -repetition, in the cell. The embryo chicken, -the embryo child, both show in the course -of their development signs (for instance the -gill-clefts of the fish) of stages through -which life had to pass before it became -chicken or child life. But they pass very -quickly from sign to sign. 'It took thousands -of years to produce the first chicken, -but the hen's egg reaches the same level -in three weeks.' Each is obliged to pass -these stages, it seems; the 'organ-forming -substances' (as some say) of the germ-cell -compel it, or (shall we carry our thought -farther and say) the habit-memories recorded -in it must be worked out lest the -creature be brought to confusion; as the -habit-memories of a pianist are and must -be when he gives aright his rendering of -the music he had learnt.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The memory-hypothesis concerning heredity -does not involve the idea of compulsion -or doom, it leaves room for the creature to -work out its 'own salvation' on a basis -inheritance supplies. It does not of itself -regard the creature as doomed; whether -the child or the chick is or is not doomed -depends on what it is, that is to say, upon -the character not upon the mode of its -inheritance. Chick-character is one of -doom; not so child-character. The -child, starting from the point his race has -reached as a race, may go on in virtue of -an endowment of impulsive and creative -power and a flexible brain and body -absent in the chick. He may build his -house of life, adorning or disfiguring his -inheritance with a new-made character -that is his own. This fruitful and interesting -hypothesis of memory-inheritance may -or may not stand tests that are to come. -But we may accept it provisionally as what -it is, sure that if it is displaced its successor -will be more welcome still. That is the -way of science; we pass always from good -to better, from a guess that holds for one -range of facts to another that holds for -more.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VII</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>And is this life but the child of death? Then</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>blessed also be the word Death, the mother of life;</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>I will no more call thee Marah, but Naomi; for thou</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>art not bitter, but sweet; more pleasant, though</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>swifter in thy gait, than roe or hind.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Henry Montague.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_8 c010'>In a world of creatures where the interests -of each kind are focused on the -preservation of the species, and each individual's -attention and powers are in the -main concentrated on the pressing need -for reproduction, and for food and shelter -to maintain life in itself and its young -progeny, conflict must ensue, a conflict -of both ends and means. Because, too, -in these creatures the way of life is not -open, as in man, habit-memories may be -taken as being the chief agents for ensuring -both species-life and individual life, and -as dominating both their history and their -character. Indeed the contracted world -and the completed character of such creatures -with rare exceptions shuts out the -interests of other species. Hence the -struggle for existence. Hence a nature 'red -in tooth and claw,' despite the general -signs of a love that of itself is ample prophecy -of an enlargement beyond the bounds -of such restricted interests; despite also a -general and very obvious enjoyment of -life for life's own sake. We must not -exaggerate either pain or its significance -in creatures who have neither our sensitive -nervous system, nor our ability not only -to look forward and see consequences and -imagine our pain prolonged and growing, -but to increase that very pain by dwelling -on it and exercising in regard to it, more -than it deserves, the magical power of -attention. Yet if we do not exaggerate, -neither must we ignore. Suffering, conflict, -death are there and must be reckoned -with.</p> - -<p class='c011'>That the biologists of the latter part of -the last century should magnify beyond -due measure the place of natural selection -in one regard, that of the origin of species, -was to be expected. It was a great -discovery; it filled men's minds. That -they minimized, where they did not deny, -the importance of the selective, determining -and creative power of life itself was also -to be expected. All this last was for the -time obscured for want of evidence. Few -men indeed, and those not biologists, then -kept a level head. It is for this century -to bring about a much needed balance in -reckoning and in esteem.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Natural selection means for the most -part a struggle ensuring the death of the -weak and the 'unfit.' The survival of -the fittest means that those creatures -survive who are best adapted to all their -circumstances, whether these are favourable -or unfavourable to the maintenance of a -high standard of living. That 'nature' -may carry out selection it is necessary that -there shall be no outside interference, say -of man, able to stave off death, whether -of the individual or of the race. Death, -you see, is the protagonist in this biological -play, or rather the mainspring of the -machine. And, undoubtedly, death is not -only conspicuous in nature but is of profound -significance for life. Is it or is it -not also of value in a sense surpassing that -which the biologist acknowledges? Ought -we to look upon it as the enemy or as the -friend of life?</p> - -<p class='c011'>One thing is plain. Those men of science -who saw it as protagonist were right in -thinking that by the death, that is, by the -natural selection, of the unfit from among -the fit, the survival of useful variations -may be assisted. Death, of course, cannot -have anything to do directly with the -originating of better lives (that is of better -accommodated lives), but once they have -come into being it can help to keep them -in the ascendant as begetters of their -kind. Natural selection has its use—shall -we say its value?—for the advance of -life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Need we be surprised at this, we who -have a more than scientific sense of values -and have discovered purpose? Need we -be surprised to find death a friend to life, -seeing it everywhere? Matter is life's -friend as well as means and hindrance. -So too is death.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Let us consider the beginning of death -on the earth; that is, of natural, not of -merely accidental death. For it had a -beginning, not coeval with the coming of -life. There are living creatures now who -normally escape it, who die only by accident, -are, in fact, if they die, always killed. -There are creatures alive now whose years -are to be numbered by thousands upon -thousands upon thousands, yet who have -never grown old. The Pyramids of Egypt -are of yesterday compared with the amoeba -in the nearest pond.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The manner of life of a one-celled creature -is this: it grows, and when it has grown to -a size presumably inconvenient it divides -into two creatures, both of which, obviously, -are the same age. The creature itself becomes -two instead of remaining one. The -two creatures who were one repeat the -process and become four. The four become -eight and so on to the end of the -earth. None die naturally, and when or -if the end of the earth and of themselves -is reached they will all be killed and every -one of them will be of the same age; but -none will be aged. They will be cut off, -these naturally immortal creatures, in unimpaired -maturity and the perfection of -their structure and functions. But, you -observe, if life on earth had not passed -beyond the one-celled condition it would -never, to our minds (if our minds could -have been arrived at in some other sphere), -have been worth living. All the potency -and promise of life which have slowly -been revealed through the improvement of -its creaturely medium would have remained -hidden behind the screen of those immortal -jellies. Life began to create a new engine -of advance when cell and cell were built -up together, and the many-celled creatures -started on their mortal and masterful -career. For, note, the aggregation of cells -in an organized body precludes their individual -immortality. They become differentiated -and associated for special purposes -and they lose the opportunity of preserving -life by continuous division. They are -mutually imprisoning, they grow old, in -time they die—they must die. Life, in -beginning this advance, embraced inevitable -death. Death, if you like, is the price—if -indeed it should be counted a price -and not a boon—that we pay for freedom -to live as what we are and to become what -we shall be. The immortal amoeba is -after all a slave. It is this creature that -manifestly pays a price, one at which no -man of us would buy immunity from -death.</p> - -<p class='c011'>There are many values and orders to -be considered; and for the highest values -and order of living, for the magnificent -possibilities open to spiritual attainment, -who would not barter an earthly immortality -which should erect a barrier that spirit -could not pass? But then we come to -another consideration. Is death itself a -barrier spirit cannot pass? All that I -have written hitherto in these pages is -directed towards an answer to that question. -What should make us change the cumulative -'No' which our study of the processes -and character of life forces to our lips? -Already we human creatures, incomplete -though we are, reveal life as an impulsive, -enriching and creative power given in us -and become ourselves—a power by which -we may continue the line of a direct advance -and pass on in a creative evolution which -reasonably should have no end. What -wonders may we not reveal, what wonders -may we not discover thus, in that advance? -But only if for the true life that is ourselves, -the life which as ours is manifest in its use -of body and brain and of the inheritance -they bring, there is a triumph over the -last of the many obstacles it encounters -upon earth. For, let there be no mistake, -the immortality of the race upon earth, -even if it be possible, is not enough to -satisfy reason and accord with the promise -of every individual man as what he is for -himself, and in his own special relation -and contribution to the well-being of the -whole. Each man becoming as he should -become has his own peculiar value, each -his own spontaneity and continuous creative -power. If he is lost all this comes to an -end, and the world of men is the poorer for -want of what he might have given. There -is no shifting of our reasonable demand -for the conquest of death from the individual -man to his race, even if (as is not -so much as probable) his race does not die -in the cooling or drying or heating of his -earth.</p> - -<p class='c011'>After all, what is 'this body of death' -from which every man must part? It is, -we declare, his medium of transmission -and the motor and sensory instrument -and condition by means of which he had -both inherited a foundation upon which -to build his own life, and entered into -relations with an outside world of things -and persons. Chemically and physically -it is a stream of particles always passing -away, always being renewed, at one rate -or another. The few particles unchanged -during his life are not actively sharing his -life; they are only its physical supports. -Whatever shares his life changes. This -stream that his food and the air and the -water make, he takes up, transforms, uses -and dismisses. All his life long he is dying -bodily, and is growing, or should be growing, -spiritually. Death is for him the finishing -of a process in his body that has always -gone on, the final casting away of material -elements he has always cast away when -he had done with them. And meanwhile, -in the spiritual duration of his life, its -minister the body has consolidated his -self-conscious unity, so that he dies, or -should die, a true owner of his real and -true and valuable self. For this end -earthly life seems to the eye of reason ever -to have been striving. Is its striving to be -finally in vain? Everything that we have -considered in these pages declares the -unlikeliness of that.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Is a man then to pass from this world -bodiless, as some of the ancients thought? -To be able to offer a tentative answer to -this question we must go back to one of -our earlier chapters and remind ourselves -of the ether which, the physicist says, -interpenetrates all the molecules of our -body now, and is the medium of communication -everywhere through the systems -of the worlds. May I think of the ether, -then, as being in my body the medium of -communication between me, as spiritual -life and consciousness, and the material -elements and structures of my body? If -the comparatively coarse granular matter -of the chemist's colloids and the protoplasmic -speck shows such a congruity with -my life as makes it fit to live in me and -be the bearer to me of ancestral habits, -may I not think that a still closer congruity -exists between this ether and my life? -And, again, is it not possible, or even -likely, that it is through the ether of my -body that I influence its matter and its -matter influences me? If these things -are so, then my ether-body is more fully -mine and more closely bound to me than -is my matter-body. I think of myself -passing at death into, or discovering myself -in, an ethereal country where my ethereal -body shall serve me even better than -my matter-body serves me in this matter-country. -And if this thought seems the -plain man's plain thought about the physicist's -hypothesis and is condemned for -that, I retort that the plain man through -his rejection of constraint by specialism, -and by ideal or abstract schemes which flout -the wholeness of experience, is coming now -into his own in science, in philosophy and -in religion. He has his rights and is -taking possession of them in a new fashion -and with new significance.</p> - -<p class='c011'>One thing more I think of. The physicist -says that what he calls 'bound -ether,' that is ether within the spaces of -a material thing, differs in its character -from the free ether of the interstellar -spaces. He has been able to prove this, -he says, by experiments on the transmission -of light through ether 'bound' in -water.</p> - -<p class='c011'>What more do I want? The ether -changes in character from association with -matter in a body. I see it in my mind's -eye changed by constant association with -my brain and limbs and with my active -consciousness as it could never be changed -in water. Am I right, I wonder? Shall -I see some day how it has been changed? -Shall I see my more intimate body revealed -and know it and myself raised to high -estate?</p> - -<p class='c011'>However this may be, the life that made -for itself body after body on earth, conquering -the habits and reluctances of -matter that it might use it for a spiritual -purpose, is possessed of a creative and -organizing power to which no man should -dare to set bounds, and which by me at -least shall be trusted to the end. That -which builds from the egg the chicken, -and from the first jelly-specks all the -races of the globe, must still be capable -of looking after me—if I am worth it.... -I am bold enough and plain man enough -to say with the poet,—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>'Into the audience hall by the fathomless abyss</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>where swells up the music of toneless strings I shall</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>take this harp of my life.'</span></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VIII</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>The soul needs only to open the door.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Boehme.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_3_0_8 c010'>By the establishing of habit-memories -in the nervous structures of man -consciousness is liberated for another and, -if the man will, a nobler use. The instrument -may be forgotten, the work goes -on. This liberation of the spirit from -attention to modes of activity and actions -that can be automatically or almost automatically -carried on is among life's greatest -triumphs. And the triumph is indefinitely -extended in man's peculiar relation to his -tools, and through the peculiar character -of both his tools and his tool-making.</p> - -<p class='c011'>An animal's tools are parts of its body; -they are stings, claws, fangs and so on. -Some of the tools of man are also parts -of his body; but there are others, not -his natural organs, by which its instrumentality -is extended—and that, you may -say, without signs of coming to an end. -It seems as though life had a sort of prophetic -instinct in this business; for primitive -man was driven to search for these -new tools by his lack of organic armament -of either the offensive or the defensive -kind. He had no protective shield like -the armadillo or the crab; and even the -scanty covering of hair, which contrasted -so ill with the close fur of his cousins, -grew scantier still, until it became altogether -useless against rain or cold or storm. -He had no claws, no tusks, worth considering -as weapons of offence; but he had a -desirous and adventurous mind, and both -by his necessities and his mind he was -driven to the making of tools. He owned -also one very remarkable natural tool. -He had an archaic five-fingered hand -inherited from his amphibian ancestors, -which had not been specialized into a -wing or a shaft ending in a hoof or a paw—a -hand plastic, mobile, delicate and -sensitive, a very 'instrument of instruments' -for a creature opening wide the -gate for life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We are apt to think of this beautiful -tool of ours as highly specialized. It is -not; it was preserved unspecialized from -the amphibian stage throughout a long -pre-human history, as though life had -indeed foreseen just what was coming -and knew that its versatility would make -it the worthy partner of man's versatile -brain. Let us put it that way. (Or let -us say that it was a happy accident. As -you please; anyhow the fact remains.) -The result was that man possessed a -natural tool beautifully adaptable for making -and using many and various artificial -tools. And there was not another creature -upon earth that had not either spoilt its -hand for those various uses by specializing -it for some narrow use, or like the monkeys -and the apes, had no brain to match. -Man specialized his feet, as the monkeys -and the apes did not; he left his multifarious -hand alone.</p> - -<p class='c011'>By means of this hand he projected -into space the powers of his body and his -mind. He began, no doubt, with sticks -and stones; he went on to strings; and -from sticks and stones and strings he -passed to telescopes with which he reached -new stars, spectroscopes with which he -saw what they were made of, telegraphs -and telephones through which his speech -and hearing stretched out from land to -land, and destructive machines by which -his delicate fingers shattered and blasted -with the power of a thousand storms. -These things and more he has done; and -all the tools he has used are extensions -of both his body and his mind. So too -are the industrial machines by which he -manufactures (note the word) what his -newly-complicated needs demand of clothes -and food and furniture and the like. So -too are the astounding machines which -make for him other and different machines. -And everywhere we see that in the advance -of his tool-devising he draws nearer to -making those which will work either without -his aid or with very little of it. His -tools grow more and more automatic, -more and more saving of the labour of -mind. He makes, you may say, artificial -habit-bearers, motor-structures by which -the devices of his mind are carried into -action independent of his mind, as other -devices are through his nervous system -and his muscular limbs. Thus he follows -the example set him by life in its organizing -of living tools. And we ought to tell -ourselves (parenthetically) at this point -that the one reasonable and worthy use -of all our machinery is just this—to follow -the example of life not only in the actual -organizing but in the purpose and meaning -of organization. We ought to acknowledge -to ourselves that unless our machinery -liberates the mind and spirit of man to -serve better and more freely his spiritual -needs it will of a certainty enslave him. -At present, because most of us are in the -dark as to the direction in which life strives -to conduct us, machinery is used to emancipate -the few and to enslave the many. -We do not know what we are doing, we -do not understand what the primacy of -spirit means or should mean for us all. -We do not know how we ought to grow, -every one of us, in the natural, that is, -in the spiritual way.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Why do I venture to say that in the -spiritual way we <i>ought</i> to grow? And -what in fact is that spiritual way? Do -life and experience point out the way and -emphasize the 'ought'? Here we come -to the gist of our whole inquiry.</p> - -<p class='c011'>If in looking back along the road on -which, in these chapters, we have been -trying to pick out stage after stage, we -discern a governing purpose and the foreshadowing -of an end; and if we also -discern not only the possibility but also -the means, through intellect and intuition, -through action and feeling and thought, -of identifying ourselves with that purpose -and throwing the energy of our own lives -into furthering it, we shall see both the -ought and the way. We shall dimly -discern, too, the promise of the end, -although we do not and cannot yet know -what we shall be. From the moment -when the life-current driving onward and -overcoming one by one the reluctances of -matter along the genealogical ascent to -man, reached him—<i>homo faber</i>, the skilful -tool-maker, <i>homo sapiens</i>, the able thinker—from -that moment the sublime purpose -of all that had gone before began to be -revealed.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The advance of life's main stream in all -its variety of operation shows, from the -beginning until now, one character and -motive-principle. It begins, as we have -said, by subduing to its purpose the inveterate -habits of material elements, those -habits we speak of as physical necessity -and law, raising their status that they -may be servants in new power to a freedom -foreign to themselves. From subduing -and assembling elements within cells it -passes to the assembling of cells and lifts -up these in their turn to higher place. -They play their part in a commonwealth; -they are servants whose habits, like those -of matter, further the cause of a freedom -they cannot reach. Their own relative -necessity is subdued and used through -their coöperating. They promote what -they neither see nor know. Finally they -reach their highest function in a man's -brain, where they coöperate to carry power -to an incalculably various use. There it -is that life, by a very splendour of new -emancipation, passes, as the philosopher -says, 'through the meshes of necessity,' -passes through that net the cords of which -it has itself both spun and knotted from -the refractory substance of material things.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Man comes into his heritage. He inherits, -we may allow ourselves to say, -from the habits of elements and from the -habit-memories of cells, single and corporate. -He inherits from the habit-memories -of every living creature in his ancestry. -And each habit-memory of them all has -contributed to his setting free. Now he -is so far master that life has put into his -hands the choice between a greater freedom -still towards which its impulsive purpose -has been directed from the first, and a -new slavery that the man himself is able -to make for himself. For—and surely -we need to note this for our warning—the -conduct and determination of life, which -is in some small measure in the power of -every creature within its manner of life, -is given over to man; and the next step -in emancipation is for him to take or leave -as he will. He may dominate the whole -chain of habits and go forward; or he -may wind it about him and entangle his -spirit in its fetters.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Matter, his body, the habits or habit-memories -he inherits or makes for himself, -all these may either be instruments of -his growing liberation or machines that -turn him to the likeness of themselves. -The pianist who has wrought his music -into the living instrumentality of his fingers -may leave his fingers to work as mechanism, -or he may pour into their established habit -the riches and beauty of an artistic soul. -Thus it is with all the heritage and possessions -of a man. He may submit to them -as to a constraining mechanism and grow -mechanical himself, or he may infuse them -with his spirit and raise them and himself -to that further altitude which spirit seeks. -We may well say of some men that they -are the slaves of habit; we may well -think more than we do of the many kinds -of habit to which men may be slaves.</p> - -<p class='c011'>To look on heredity as an affair of transmitted -habit-memories is to discover our -true relation with it, once we have come -to see what the spiritual memory of an -enduring and accumulating spiritual life, -lived according to its proper meaning, may -be for man. In the chick the inherited -habit-memory of its race is as the boundary -wall of cellulose is for the plant-cell; in -the child it is a standing ground from -which, while his creative spirit stirs within -him, he surveys the kingdoms of a world. -In the man, like the habits he himself -builds up, it may come to be a hill-top -from which he looks down upon all those -kingdoms and their glory. Life incurred -death when first the cells were summoned -out of solitude to work together in a body. -And here, too, it is as though it foresaw -what was coming, saw in a vision a creature -come to being who should have life in -himself and be divinely discontent, seeking -to go on. It is hard to think that a creative -impulse beginning so low down, so -humbly, and yet purposive enough and -skilful and potent enough to reach the -immeasurable wonder and promises of -man, should ever have been blind, or in -the last resort should be no more and no -greater than himself.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IX</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>The human animal desires to escape from its</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>animal prison by means of all kinds of love, by</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>freedom of emotion no less than of action and thought.</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>And it attains to the freedom of emotion when it is</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>aware of beauty. It cannot be aware of beauty</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>except in self-forgetfulness, and it cannot produce</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>beauty except in self-forgetfulness.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Arthur Clutton-Brock.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_8 c010'>No doubt the great question for any -man in regard to himself—if he -is able and willing to put one so searching—is -whether he is or is not on the way -to aid in the fulfilment of the promise of -life. It is a question hard to answer, -for the promise of life grows ever greater -in our eyes once we have begun to see it -at all. There was a time when for our -ancestors of the caves it must have called -for little more than strength and skill, -courage and perseverance, in attack or -in defence and in the procuring of shelter, -food and wives. The bitter struggle in -which they were engaged was a real -struggle for existence in which every man -must fight for his own hand, or at best -for his little group of near kindred. There -were not many differences then between -the practical demands of the daily life of -men and those of the daily life of the -hyenas or the wolves. But there were -other differences, and they were great -and significant. One in particular has left -a wealth of evidence behind it, evidence -graven and painted in certain caverns. -There are bisons, for example, painted -by some of the men whom we call primitive, -or savage, which are of the truest -art. There is no such difference and no -such likeness between those bisons and -the artistic work of to-day as there is -between the flint-headed arrow and the -machine-gun. The arrow and the gun -are products of an intellectual ingenuity, -practising and becoming expert through -practice and concentrated on the external -relations of thing with thing; the painting -comes of a direct intuition of the reality -and the essential beauty in a bison's life. -They are alive for us, those bisons, and -they are beautiful. Their creator was a -true artist, able to throw himself into the -object he wished to discover, to feel and -to depict; and he was able to endow his -picture with the bison's life and his own. -If you are in aesthetic sympathy with him -you can feel the creature he paints as you -feel the man painting. The intellect that -devised the arrow has always to travel -onward by an accumulating process, from -step to step; the intuition that felt the -bison arrived at once. No doubt there is -not only intellect but intuition in the -arrow; and there is not only intuition -but intellect in the painting; but the -emphasis and the proportion are contrasted -in the two.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Why did this primitive artist paint at -all? There are those who suggest that -he had some practical end in view to be -reached by the magic of representation—an -idea perhaps of thus ensuring luck for -his hunting. But at least that can hardly -be true of the graceful form and the conventional -adornment he gave to some of -his tools. It is far more likely that even -if he began with magic and a practical -end he went on to paint for the pure joy -of it, the pure spiritual joy of inspired -admiration glowing to a creative act, and -winning admiration in its display. That -is the manner of art—even to the delight -in its being admired by those to whom it -is made known—and this man's work is -the work of an artist. I should say these -men's work is the work of artists, for there -were many of them in many generations. -There was not merely a single eccentric -genius—though even one would have sufficed -us for a revelation. Here then, in -these caverns, we have a kind of work -done by many men, who, however much -they looked for admiration from their -fellows, worked in something of the self-forgetfulness -of an artist; so we may -presume. The man who pursued it did -not in any lesser way profit by it (unless -his fellows were self-forgetful enough to -pay him for the joy he gave, and that -only extends and strengthens the case); -but he assuredly profited in his spirit, -which there found its outlet as creative, -there showed its self-forgetting love of -something beyond self, there in consequence -found its joy. The true artist paints or -sings for the love of it, and because he -must; and wins his joy, even though in -and with the artist's pain, and the man's -self-seeking. The spirit within him drives -him on; no outward necessity, no carnal -attraction, no mere self-seeking, is adequate -to force or draw him. Art, however skilled -and taught, however marred by human -weakness, is spontaneous as love. We are -in presence here of that of which only -faint adumbrations can be discerned in -any other creature than man. There are -adumbrations; and there is at least a -plain foreshadowing of love. But full -and lasting self-forgetfulness is to be attained -only in man, and true art and -true love, like true joy, depend upon it.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>The declared promise for the further -advance of life in us demands and displays -growth in self-forgetfulness. The man who -strikes us as being above other men is -one who shows us powers other men either -have not or do not use, and uses them -as other men very often do not use them. -He is always stamped with the stamp of -spirit. He is creative and he is self-forgetful. -We do not really, or at least readily -and spontaneously, admire any man who -does things from self-interested motives. -We may admire the things he does, but -we do not admire the man. If, for example, -we are religious ourselves, and -however much we wish other people to -be so too, we do not admire the man who, -we know, is religious because he sees his -profit in religion either for this world or -the next. We do not admire the kind of -artist who clutches at beauty because it -feeds that deadly appetite which is no -other than aesthetic greed. We want him -to admire a beautiful thing for its own -sake, because it is what it is and is altogether -admirable. And no lover holds -our respect if for him his beloved is merely -a curio to be proud of or a satisfaction of -the flesh. We say justly that he is only -a lover of himself. To command our -admiration a man must stretch out his -desire and enlarge his interests beyond -the boundary of self; he must give himself, -not necessarily without reward—for -the joy set before him often comes—but -without making the attainment of it a -motive spring.</p> - -<p class='c011'>That simple fact proves the spirits that -we are. And it is shown in strange places. -Even the leader of the gang of thieves -wins admiration by his carelessness of -personal gain. Robin Hood is always both -honourable and honoured, though he steals.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Think then how much life had gained -in power of expression when the painters -of the caves were reached. Yet the philosopher -reminds us that indeed this gain -began with the beginning of love. Self-forgetfulness -began before man came to -show himself called by spirit and life to -die daily. Yet in and by him they call -with an emphasis and solemnity new in -the tale of creation. He is to die to the -struggle and the desire to live; he is to -give himself and grow by self-giving. That -is his proper way.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Not without reason does the philosopher -tell us that the supreme secret of life -begins to be revealed in the plant which -surrenders its own life for its seed. But -if we ignore the far plainer voice of man, -how can we hear what has been whispered -by the plant? If we are made mechanical -by slavery to our own tools how can we -discern either? And unless we listen with -the ears of our intuitive soul we shall -never hear what it is that they are saying. -Unless we immerse ourselves in the current -of the spirit, unless we confide ourselves -to the life that would bear us on, we shall -miss the fulfilment of our promise. The -whole long weary road of life has been -travelled on our behalf in vain, unless -through the adventure of self-giving we -become unceasing spiritual creators of -greater selves than those we are now.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER X</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>If thou hast union now, thou shalt have it hereafter.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Kabir.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>Without social life no one of the -peculiarly human powers of a man -comes to fruition. He may chatter, for -example; he cannot speak. He has all -the necessary organs and all the necessary -power, but man-language is part of an -inheritance stored up for him in community -life. It is stored up there, just -as clinging with his hands and sucking -with his lips are stored up ready for him -at birth, in his body. Society is for him -an immense extension of his body, and -therefore a further means of extension -for his spirit. It is also an immense extension -of the bodies and spirits of other men -with whom he may enter upon relations. -You may look on it as supplying a brain -common to all men which all may use -together, and in which their activities -should find not only a recording medium -but an unfailing stimulus and contributory -aid. But the social brain is in a peculiar -sense men's own making, as free and -capable creators. They have come to be -owners of life and directors of its course -in a degree they certainly had not attained -when their bodily brains were slowly -growing to be what they are. This brain -of theirs, used in community, is as truly -built by their own efforts as are the houses -in which they live. The evolution of man -has to all intents of spirit ceased to advance -by changes in his body, but it goes on by -incessant change and enormous amplification -in his community life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Here, too, in this many-bodied and -many-souled community, as well as in -the individual man's life, function determines -structure. But function has there -become self-conscious and world-conscious, -aware of the many bodies and the many -souls, aware of their needs and dangers, -aware of their giving and their gaining. -Men have societies within the community -such as on the whole their conscious desires -and purposes, their attitude towards their -fellows, their sense of responsibility and -obligations, their aims and ideals, demand. -We have indeed the societies we deserve. -We may well ask ourselves why we deserve -to have them as they are; we may well -say to ourselves—'"Prisoner, tell me, -who was it that wrought this unbreakable -chain?"' And the answer is clear, convicting -not only of error but of what some -of us have learnt to know as actual sin, -sin against the call and promise of life. -'"It was I," said the prisoner ... -"when at last the work was done and -the links were complete and unbreakable, -I found that it held me in its grip."'</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>There are other societies besides those -of men. Some are far more completely -organized. The bees and the ants have -carried social organization to a state of -harmony and of adjustment to ends which -is as strongly marked in its contrast with -any that human societies present, as is -the triumphant surgery of the solitary -wasp by contrast with the blunders of an -untrained man. In 'the civility of these -little citizens' society is carried to a completeness -corresponding with that of the -life of the creatures who are its parts. -In an ant-hill or a hive we have before us, -some may say, a model of what a society -should be. Perfect co-operation, complete -subordination of individual to social ends, -the highest possible working efficiency of -each and all—it sounds well, and no one can -deny that for bees and ants it works well. -Would it work equally well for men?</p> - -<p class='c011'>The answer we give to this question will -depend on two things. It will depend -first on whether we think that men are -or are not competent to advance, and are -aided to advance, as beings not only -spiritual in essential character and purpose, -but self-creative and so able to reach both -an efficiency beyond all constraint by -institutions and machines, and an enlargement -of community-life which shall embrace -society upon society in all their diverse -modes. Secondly, it will depend on whether -we are or are not willing to organize any -society by what used to be called biological -methods, that is by the methods of the -arena—of the 'gladiators' show.' If we -decide on the gladiators' show and a social -efficiency with no further outlook than a -highly superior human ant-hill's, we pronounce -ourselves believers that in principle -the ant-hill manner of life with its isolation -of society from society will work for men. -We may be wrong even in a short view -or a narrow view of man's capacities and -existence; we are certainly wrong if -spiritual progress lies before him as a -glorious prospect not only for this man -or society of men here, or another there, -but for all men as members of an all-containing -community made one only by -an all-containing principle. In face of -the promise and adventure of life we are -as certainly wrong in giving consent to -the ant-hill principle for society as we -should be if we consented to exchange -our own pregnant incompleteness for the -perfection of the ant. Yet we of the -modern civilized nations of Europe and -America have been far too much influenced -of late years, not only by our animal inheritance -and the passions that we share -with 'ape and tiger,' but by what is now -a powerful tradition and in the last century -was a new force—the mechanistic conception -of social life. Our reasoning about -society, our social science, even our social -practices, have by this tradition been -made not only more materialistic—many -of us know that—but more plausibly -mechanistic. It has seemed to us that -we have science and nature both on our -side, in trusting less to the initiative of -life and more to its organization of circumscribed -institutions and ordered means. -We have taken a biological hypothesis -far too seriously. And no doubt we have -done this in great part because it has -enabled us to leave uncriticized, or even -to justify, habitual ways of acting and -thinking which have about them still the -taint of the pit from which we have been -digged. These ways of ours were laid -down for us in the long effort of each man -to keep his footing on earth for himself -and for the few he recognized as his own; -but we have made them both more difficult -and more dangerous by loading ourselves -with a burden of perverted or artificial -needs which not only call for perverted -or artificial means to satisfy them, but -set us in opposition to other men from -whom we wrest their satisfaction. Those -ways and this burden are proper to a -creature who in very truth is seeking so -to encumber life as to prevent its carrying -him on, so to contract his own life as to -prevent its intermingling with the lives -of others. In short they are proper to -one who is arresting life in himself as it -has been arrested in the tiger or the ant. -It will be arrested at a higher point—that -is all; and it will be consciously arrested -by the conscious building up of an obstacle -far more serious than death. Therefore -it is no mere failure; it is sin—sin against -the true nature of human life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The mechanistic theories of biology, -which have helped to confirm men in an -evil course, are fast being discredited. -With them will go a false philosophy which -has been widely current of late and has had -an influence reaching far beyond an acquaintance -with its authors' names. Critical -and careful biologists are now undoubtedly -doing much to effect this salutary -change. Yet, may be, we shall be driven to -call some of their opponents (as has been -prophesied) by the bad name of necrologists, -that we may perhaps shock them into -self-knowledge. It is a name only too -grievously appropriate now, since the picture -of natural evolution they have, all innocently, -drawn has not only foreshadowed, -but contributed to fill, the grave-yard of -the peoples dug in the great war.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We are changing this baleful picture; -we are learning too, partly in consequence, -that the self-interest of utilitarian economists -and the ruthless search for individual -advantage which social mechanists have -commended are not the mainsprings of -evolution. Of far greater, more lasting, -and more profound significance and effect -than the self-interested struggle for existence -among animals and plants has been -the species-interest to which self-interest has -been subordinated. A creature must first -eat and only afterwards reproduce; but -this in no way justifies us in thinking that -competition for food is charged with more -meaning in the long story of life than the -protective care of parents for their offspring -and the eminently natural self-sacrifice it -involves. Progress among both animals -and vegetables has been secured more by -'species maintaining' efforts than by a -mere self-seeking struggle for self-restricted -ends. It is a recognition of this fact that -makes a distinguished biologist say, 'The -ideal of evolution is thus no gladiator's -show, but an Eden; and although competition -can never be wholly eliminated -... it is much for our pure natural -history to see no longer struggle, but love -as "creation's final law."'</p> -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c000' /> -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'><span class='xxlarge'>PART II</span></h2> -</div> -<hr class='c008' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER I</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>closed himself up, till he sees all things through</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>narrow chinks of his cavern.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Blake.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_8 c010'>As we looked at chlorophyll, at colloids -and the sea-urchin's egg, so let us -look at Christian habits and beliefs. And -in the first place we will fix our attention -on the central 'mystery' of worship in -the Christian Church. All the world over -and from the first days of Christian apostles -and brethren, a man going into one of -their places of assembly would at some -hour or another find their devotion apparently -gathered about common, familiar, -bread and wine, or, sometimes, bread alone. -They would tell him that this bread 'is -no longer common bread.' Nevertheless, -in the ordinary or the scientific sense, it is, -just as much 'common bread' as chlorophyll -is the common colouring matter of -the green wheat. They will tell him, too, -that it is a 'sacramental' means of communion -between God and themselves and -between them and Christ, the Anointed -Son of God. Just as we insist scientifically -upon the fact that chlorophyll is the -meeting-point between the power of the -sun and our living selves, so Christians -insist that the sacramental bread, whatever -else it is or does, constitutes a meeting-point -between them and God and his -Christ. No doubt (they may say, if they -understand such matters), for the mathematical -physicist, bread, like everything -else, may be finally reduced to a series of -dynamical equations. Or it may be taken -as ether and electrons; or as hydrogen, -carbon, oxygen and so forth; or, roughly, -as what it comes to be at last, gases, water, -and dust, like the bodies of us all. But -each of these ways of looking at bread -manifestly, even to the mind of that scientific -man, leaves out something of its richness -and fails to reckon with its use and purpose -for life. By ordinary persons it is known -as the 'staff' of life; and these ordinary -persons, when they say it is this, are -speaking poetry. In fact if you are to -do justice to bread you must be something -of an artist; you do it gross injustice—that -is, you leave out of your account -the most valuable thing about it—when -you do not go beyond the scientific man's -idealistic or abstract summing up. The -poet's vision does better when he mates -in the corn and the grape the glories of -the sun and the expectancy of earth, and -sees the bringing forth and revealing and -communicating, through the grain and -the wine, of a concealed and straining life. -But the philosopher also has his contribution -to a fulness of justice. He insists, -after his manner, on 'spirit and life'; -he disdains mechanism; he opens gates -that science cannot pass, and shows that -all real things have depth it cannot reach—a -third dimension where it has discovered -only two. He solidifies the schematic -diagrams of the scientific man and gives -reasons for the faith of the religious man, -who goes further still.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Here in the Christian Sacrament, where -the Christian says that the fullest justice -is done to bread and wine in lifting them -up to be a means of communion between -God and man, science and philosophy, -religion and art, may meet together.</p> - -<p class='c011'>For nearly two thousand years Christians -have seen in 'this bread' of theirs matter -impenetrated by spirit, and raised by it -into another and a higher order. They -have held to a doctrine of both in which -neither was despised, or thought of as -deceiving or unreal. Materialistic thought -and theory, abstract spiritualism, all -theories or doctrines that cut the world -of experience in two with a rationalizing -hatchet, have been powerless to loosen -their hold. Matter informed and transformed -by spirit; spirit pre-eminent over -and including matter—these have been -cardinal and inevitable implications in the -sacramental worship of Christians. Cardinal -and inevitable, too, is, in consequence, -their view of the world as an affair of order -superposed on order in a nature capable -of being raised to the height of that which -they call the supernatural, an earth that -may become a new earth, a city of men -that should rise to the noble state of a -City of God.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>We look back on the chemist's colloid -that becomes, as protoplasm, no longer -common colloid but one from which a -world of living creatures has arisen. We -see again a wonderful life informing and -transforming matter, pre-eminent over it -yet dependent on and manifesting through -it. We see the chlorophyll of the plant -raising chemical elements to a new order -of being, and life in its onward march from -order to order of manifesting consciousness, -attaining at last man, creative in his -spiritual freedom and dominance. We see -that a Christian might point to man himself -as the summing up of outward and visible -signs and an inward and spiritual grace -which science has made known, as reasonably -as he may take bread as the central -symbol of his worship. And he may tell -us, or we may tell him, that these things -are one—that there is everywhere 'continuity -of process with the emergence of -real differences' in a world that is 'sacramental' -from its lowest to its highest -order, from the speck of jelly to man. He -and we both may see it as a world of outward -and visible signs, each manifesting -what the Christian names 'an inward and -spiritual grace,' and we name—how do -we name it? So far, only <i>life</i>, mysterious -and mysteriously potent, communicating -and communicated life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We are encouraged to consider, further, -this name and its meaning for us and above -all in us. In us, we justly say, life is -really different from what it is in the -plant. We are 'persons'; plants are not. -Life in us is personal, in the plant it is -less than personal. But it is life, all the -same and all through, from the impersonal -to us, different though we assuredly are -from the impersonal. And we can hardly -escape asking ourselves whether, as they -are now, men are of the highest order of -real difference among the different orders -embraced in the potency of life. Can life -do no more and better, seeing that it has -done so much? Is it, in itself, no more -and better? The Christian answers these -questions without one moment of hesitation. -He says that 'the Holy Ghost,' -the divine Spirit and Lord, is the 'Giver -of Life'; and that there is an order of life -in which this Lord and Giver is brought -into personal relations with us, communicating -with and communicated to us; so -that by this communication we are raised beyond -the state of children of earth and of the -merely earthly life, to the high place of -Sons of God, who know their Father and -are at one with each other and with him.</p> - -<p class='c011'>If there is a thorough-going evolutionist -anywhere it is the Christian. And it is -his sacramental doctrine that gives consistency -and persistence to his evolutionary -convictions, if and when they are consistent -and persistent. At times they are neither. -At times the Christian, like the rest of us, -fails to see the grandeur and universality -of his own deepest principles. And then -he belies them in word and deed; and his -picture of the world of men and things is -false to them and to himself.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is these deepest principles that the -enquirer should search out. When he has -caught one glimpse of them he should -thereby be strengthened against the falsifications -that are offered him either by -Christians or their contemners. Great principles -are there, for his vision and enlightening. -And in them he will find his own -raised to a higher power. His evolution -is then carried beyond the point where it -so abruptly and unsatisfactorily breaks off. -His potent life is there borne upward to the -meeting-place with a Lord and a Giver -of life. His personal, self-conscious and -world-conscious, loving and self-sacrificing -man, the crown of his evolutionary process, -comes face to face with the source and -fulfilment of all that he is and all that he -so brokenly promises to be. Man himself -crowns the sacramental world and is its -greatest sacrament, revealing as in a glass -darkly and by foretelling, the fulness of -beauty and glory in all its grace. And the -Christian points to one man as above all -other men in the revealing office of mankind. -He says that this man in no way -distorts the beauty and glory given him; -that in him very God is made known in -and as very man. Here, plainly, the -sacramental principle reaches its supreme -height, and is taken beyond detail after -detail to a wholeness covering every detail. -If any one man is thus the unclouded -revelation of God in terms of man, then -it is true—as the Christian says it is—that -the whole world of men and things is -best, most faithfully and fully, stated, -reasoned about, interpreted, through this -man. Every particle of the bread we -eat becomes for us no longer 'common -bread.' It is bread shown for what it -really is in the plan and process of God -as these are made present to us, alive, -pregnant of glory and beauty and power, -in the living revelation of Jesus Christ.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>The Christian sets his consecrated bread -apart from all the rest of bread and things, -and, we must own, he does well. For men -see all things as in a glass darkly, and we -are, most of us, the slaves of habit and -victims of familiarity. What is everywhere -and always soon comes to be nowhere -and never for our interest and our attention. -If the Christian had not kept as a -rare thing, a thing enthroned, the bread -that is for him no longer common bread, -he would of a certainty often, if not for -ever, have lost hold on the sublime principle -it enshrines for him and for the world. -The conflicting currents of speculative -thought, as well as the weaknesses of his -mental grasp, would have made him loose -his hold upon it. Just because it stands -there as the central symbol gathering up -and establishing his worship and its sanctifying -associations, it has lasted through -the centuries, preserving its own great -principle, a witness, a token and a sign -not empty but 'effective'—<i>signum efficax</i> -not only for thought but for all human life -in its amplitude.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER II</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Can you think at all and not pronounce heartily</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>that to labour in knowledge is to build up Jerusalem,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>and to despise knowledge is to despise Jerusalem</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>and her builders?</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Blake.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_8 c010'>For the Christian a man is a being -capable of receiving and assimilating -life as no other creature can, and as the -biologist has no biological reason to believe. -The Christian declares that he has reason, -good and ample. He <i>knows</i> whom he believes. -This is a matter of living religious -experience to which generations after generations -have borne witness. There is a -ladder of spiritual reality, he says, up which -men are climbing and upon which some -have reached great heights. The biologist's -ladder, despite its many steps and -its length along the ages, is too short for -him. Or rather (so he will tell you when -he understands what the biologist means) -his own ladder is a legitimate and even a -natural extension of that, as of all others -of the sort that men have anywhere set -up.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Is this advance of man, then, an affair -of a single departmental business—the -religious business? Or, let us ask, can -there be kinds of knowledge that are not -really knowledge of God? Is it reasonable -to regard biological knowledge, or chemical -or physical, as knowledge of some alien -reality not embraced in God? The supposition -is monstrous. If God is, then all -truth attained by man is truth of him. -If I learn that the world advances from -the ether to my brain I shall have learnt -something about God. So the Christian -should maintain, if he is true to his Christian -principles. The advance of man towards -communion with God in knowledge is -not a mere affair of some one department -of knowledge called religious, although it -is now for the most part carried on departmentally. -Although men separate off for -their practical convenience the study of -plants from the study of animals, and a -specialist may separate off the egg of the -newt and study nothing else, and even -think, at least seriously, of nothing else; -although we may not only speak of religion, -or knowledge, or philosophy as separate -one from another but act as though they -were, yet if the Christian and the philosopher -and the scientific man are right in -holding that there is a unity in the multiplicity -of things, a 'uniformity of nature,' an -'Absolute,' or 'One God,' then religion and -science and philosophy are only separated, -if separate at all, by an artifice or a convention. -You cannot really <i>separate</i> knowing, -in a man's activity, from his feeling -and acting, nor his feeling from acting -and knowing, nor his acting from knowing -and feeling, nor his activity from himself; -although you can <i>distinguish</i> each from -the others. They are different, but their -difference is embraced within a oneness. -So it is with religion and science and -philosophy. They are all results of man's -activity in relation to a reality of innumerable -aspects and unfathomable depth; -and they may all be means by which he -ascends the ladder of his experience of -God.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Therefore the Christian does his own -sacramental and incarnational principles a -grave injustice if and when he tries to turn -away from science and philosophy. Not -only this—he cannot really do it. When -he succeeds in turning away from that -which he believes to be all there is of -science and philosophy, he does not cut -out from his creed and his theology the -science and philosophy incorporated in -them—a science and a philosophy which -undoubtedly need correction that they -may move and grow with the movement -and the growth of experience. It is only -the science and philosophy grown to new -ripeness and new truth since the day when -the great bulk of his Christian tradition -was laid down in written words to be -transmitted to him, that as a matter of -fact he is rejecting. And he is able to -reject these just and only because he has -already in this tradition such science and -philosophy as serves to make for him some -sort of a <i>Weltanschauung</i>, a world-picture, -you may say. It is useless to protest -that a man can be religious without having -a world-picture; he cannot even be a man -without one. And the only question for -him is whether it shall or shall not be as -wide in its extent and as good as he can -make it, whether he shall or shall not -include within it all the knowledge and -vision of God he might include.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Plainly—that is, plainly to the Christian—if -the scientific man or the philosopher -does not include in his view of the world -what the Christian knows and sees, he -is the loser. His picture is not all it might -be. But the same, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, is -true of the Christian. For all is God's -and of God. And if we never before discovered -this, we see it when we discover -the point where science and religion meet, -where the scientific knowledge of the world -passes into the sacramental, and the scientific -knowledge of man, as part of the world, -passes into the incarnational; each to be -crowned there, each to be interpreted and -fulfilled.</p> - -<p class='c011'>To this discovery there is only one -theoretic obstacle which is insuperable. It -is the acceptance of mechanism as a root-principle -in either science or religion. I -say nothing of philosophy, because there -is now-a-days no mechanistic philosophy -(that is, no materialistic philosophy) that -need be feared. But in science and in -religion mechanism is still a danger, and -the acceptance of it as the fundamental -principle of working and construction in a -world-picture is an obstacle that cannot -be passed. There is nothing to be done -except to overturn it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In regard to science much (as we have -seen) has already been done; more is -being done. How is it in regard to religion? -What about mechanism there?</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER III</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>The religions of all nations are derived from each</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>nation's different reception of the poetic genius,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>which is everywhere called the spirit of prophecy.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Blake.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>The Christian has not escaped the -dangers of the common lot. He too, -despite his own contrary principles, has, -from the beginning of the Christian Church, -been tempted as we all are to trust to -mechanism and even to sacrifice in its -favour the powers of life. We ought not -to be surprised; what else can reasonably -be expected? A good machine, whether it -be made of steel and brass, or of language, -or of settled formulae and plans, or of -any other product of life, is an admirable -servant. It is convenient; it brings satisfaction -to widespread and deeply-rooted -needs of life itself. Moreover there is -nothing mysterious (so it seems), or even -problematic, about it. The plain man is -not called upon to question or wonder or -speculate in regard to anything behind it, -any powers or vague connexions with -powers, not understood. The good machine -does what it has to do and there's an end -of it. A man knows where he is when he -has such a thing—or when it has him. -There is even a sense of comfort and security -in being ruled and cared for by it, as, for -example, in the case of the machinery of -a State.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In this difficult world there seems, indeed -there is, need for something of the kind -to supply a considerable part of our religious -demand. We are social beings; we -are, as we are beginning to see more plainly, -brothers in a community; we must organize -our religion as we organize everything else -in which the community of persons has -its common interest. And God, the Christian -may say, and has said, would not -leave us, has not left us, to uncertainty and -to our questioning and wondering and -speculative adventure. He has provided -answers to our questions, facts in response -to our wondering, an open view for our -speculation. Or, to put it in another -way, he has given us a 'plan' or 'scheme,' -or an ecclesiastical apparatus, of salvation; -he has revealed religious truth to us and -marked out an established method of -approaching him and securing our own -safety in respect of his judgement and our -destiny at his hands. Nothing of so great -importance has been left, could have been -left, in the hands of men, to find out or -not find out—poor creatures that we are.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Now, there is truth behind this, both -as to the part of God and as to the part -of man in the matter. We are social, we -are brethren, we must organize. God, so -all Christians say and many philosophers, -no more leaves us to ourselves than he -leaves to itself any part of his worlds. But -Christians formally declare in their Creed -that he is no machine-maker; he is Lord -and Giver of Life. They complain, too, -against science on the ground that (as -they have come to believe) it must of its -constant character set material mechanism -above life in the order of the world. They -are pledged to oppose this; and when they -complain against science for a fault and -failure which is soon—so many biologists -and philosophers declare—to be a fault -and a failure of the past, they are faithful -to their pledge. But they are men, with -the faults and failures of men. Habit has -its snares for them; the complication of -needs that meets them in their effort to -maintain themselves, body, mind and spirit, -in the world, entangles them. The short -cut, the provided means, everything and -anything that seems to make matters -easy or safe—in short, the logical or -legalistic or institutional machine—is attractive. -And for most men this machine -in any of its protean forms, is perhaps only -the more attractive the more valued is -the treasure it seems to ensure or to -protect. The faith once for all delivered—how -precious that is! Salvation in this -world and the next—can anything be of -greater import for man? Let us make -these things secure, whatever else we risk. -Only fools or the reckless would embrace -chances of adventure where so much is at -stake.</p> - -<p class='c011'>So, in spite of the Christian avowal of -the superiority and the supremacy of life -over its instruments, Christianity has everywhere -given disastrous place to the letter -and the tool.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Against this the first prophet and the -last, in every religion, must always protest. -It is the enemy of enemies for all prophets. -You can see war waged against it in the -Old Testament; you can see that war -carried to the utmost in the Gospel of the -New. Now the challenge rings among us -more clearly than it has rung for this long -time. And, as ever, it has new notes and a -new phrasing of its music.... That, perhaps, -is why so many of us fail to recognize -it for what it is. That, certainly, is why -the due honour paid to prophets of the -past does not prevent men from stoning -or neglecting those of the present. The -voice is always different, because it is the -voice of life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The use and need for the prophet is a -fact not only in religion but in all the arts -and in philosophy. He alone keeps any -one of these in touch with life, or rather -recalls it to life when it has been encumbered -or perhaps even arrested by that -which life has made. He is, in very deed, -the voice of the encumbered spirit making -itself heard, proclaiming in one fashion or -another that the pursuit of beauty and -truth as well as of holiness is of the spirit, -and must have the spirit's liberty or it -will altogether fail. In the arts and in -philosophy we do not call him a prophet, -but often, in the arts, we speak of him -(when we have recovered from the shock -he gives) as 'inspired,' and in philosophy -we call him 'great.' Great he is and -inspired—we could hardly choose better -and more deeply significant words. He is -the enlarger of life and the bearer of the -spirit, whether he uses the language of -philosophy, of poetry, painting or music, -or of religion. But always he comes waging -war upon our superstitious devotion to the -things that have once been made, proclaiming -either divine truth or divine -beauty or divine holiness (according to -his mission), as that for the sake of which -they must ever be remade.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>We who have learnt our lesson from -science as well as from philosophy should -be sure friends to the prophet. We have -learnt enough of the story of life to see -that from its beginning on the earth it -strove towards liberty, towards the indetermination -by circumstance and the freedom -of choice that man has reached. We have -seen life lost in mere material size and -crushed by the weight of material protective -armour; and we know what these -things mean. We know, too, what entanglement -in habit means for our own -selves. We are good and sure friends of -the prophet. Or we may be, if we will.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is high time that he should find such -friends—men ready to meet him with that -in their minds which prepares his way -before him. He has too long been the -voice driven to cry in the wilderness. Too -long and too often he has found men opposing -him with a settled prejudice in favour of -the vested interests—the sanctified, it may -be, and glorified vested interests—of law -and order and creed, of institution and -crystallized opinion. It is time that a new -atmosphere should be made about him -and that these things should be visibly -set in their right place and held at their -right value. When this is done the secret -materialism of his opponents will be brought -to light. For, however it may be disguised, -all overvaluing of the instrumental product -of life's activity comes of the undue depreciation -of living spirit and the undue -appreciation of its means. Science and -philosophy, in teaching us now to seek for -the true relation of matter and spirit, -are also teaching us to lend a willing ear -to the prophet. When we have learnt to -see in man the beginning of a synthesis of -order and freedom in a vital harmony not -manifest in those starry heavens to which -men point as the standing witness of God -against prophets of new freedom, we are -ready to confess, if we have found our -God, that in him that perfect synthesis -is declared and in man it is foreshadowed -and to be pursued.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IV</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Hearken to me, ye children of the Immortal,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>dwellers of the heavenly worlds, I have known the</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Supreme Person who comes as light from the dark</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>beyond.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Isha Upanishat.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_3_0_6 c010'>Studying at its best the Christian -view of the world of life—and it is -not worth any man's while to study it at -less—we find that Jesus Christ stands -there always as greatest among prophets, -though 'more than a prophet.' He is in -the line of the prophets but at their head; -he is their culmination and their fulfilment. -He knew himself to be a prophet, and to -have the lot of one who 'is not without -honour save in his own country.' He -lived and taught, and he and his teaching -were received, after the manner of the -prophets that had gone before. Like Isaiah -and Jeremiah he spoke the language of -drama and poetry, and gave body in parable -and pictorial visions to his message. Like -them he spoke and preached always with -passion and as being conscious of a very -wall of opposing forces. For him as for -them the exaltation of religious machinery -above religious life, and all self-satisfaction -through mere forms and ceremonies, -meant an onset of spiritual death. To use -these things as a shelter within which a -man might follow his self-seeking bent, -whether of greed or of fear, was the worst -(but one) of sins. 'Hypocrites,' that is, -'play-actors', 'generation of vipers,' he -said of the professionally religious of his -time. That there was for him one sin -greater than such play-acting is of his own -supreme greatness. No other prophet -recognized and denounced as he did the -sin that cannot be forgiven; for no other -prophet had as he had the full personally -realized revelation of an indwelling God -whom man, consciously, might cast out. -This, with his marvellous balance of judgement -in regard to the letter or the machine -and the spirit—the organ and the life that -shapes and uses it—is a marked element in -his <i>differentia</i> among prophets. And we, -who are friends to them all in so far as -they protest against depreciation of spirit -and life, and against men who make of -the products of life from which life has -departed obstacles to the urgency of the -present, have to consider whether we can go -with him as far as he goes, or whether this -element of difference between him and the -rest is in any way to weaken our alliance -with him. He is not only one among his -fellows; he is also unquestionably different -from them. Is there anything about this -difference that should make us who are -friends of the prophets quarrel with the -Christian who accepts and welcomes it?</p> - -<p class='c011'>First, let us look at his attitude towards -the instruments of religion as compared -and contrasted with that of other prophets -of his race. '<i>Your new moons and your -appointed feasts my soul hateth</i>,'—that is the -note of the elder prophets. '<i>The Sabbath -was made for man, not man for the Sabbath</i>'—that -is his. The prophet of old was -contemptuous of institutional and ceremonial -religion; he suffered, as we say, -from reaction and went to extremes, reprobating -the instrument as well as the -spirit that misinterpreted and misused it. -Jesus taught in the synagogue, cleansed -the temple from those who had made the -historic house of prayer to be a den of -thieves, sent the leper to show himself to -the priest, and in general accepted the -institutions of religion, and the hierarchical -organization, of the place and people that -were his own. Yet no man can say he -overvalued these. His insistence on the -spiritual freedom of man and the pre-eminence -of spirit and life was both constant and -passionate. The institution he accepted, -as he accepted the tools of his carpenter's -trade, the food and furniture of life as he -found it, the language and the manners of -his people. Freedom and unity, love, truth, -beauty and holiness, as realities in the life -of God and man, for these he pleaded, -preached, worked, suffered and died. Yet -those other things were not to be despised -or left undone. He came and he lived -not to destroy but to fulfil. In this he is -pre-eminent among, apart from, the religious -prophets who went before him. His piercing -and balanced judgement was the primary -source of Christian sacramentalism. He -despised nothing of the earth and the body; -he found a place for all in the life of the -spirit. He was the first preacher to point -to loveliness in the flowers of the field; -and for twelve hundred years no other, -in any nation or kind of religion, did the -like. Then Francis of Assisi, his true -follower, sang the Song of the Sun. The -long history of Christian sacramentalism -spreads out far and deep and gathers up in -itself from all quarters the pursuit of beauty -is well as the hunger and thirst after -righteousness and truth; but its pure -source is plain to see in the Gospels. There -the fine adjustment of the relation between -matter and spirit, life and its organs, is -maintained. There the value and the -meaning and pertinence of life's own instruments -to its user, of the body to the soul, -is as clearly insisted on as is the supremacy -in both meaning and value of life itself. -There is none of the abstract spiritualism -that is one of the prophet's most dangerous -snares. There is none of the contempt and -the blinding reaction which so often disfigure -and discredit his utterances. And -for this, we who have come fresh from -learning our new lesson about the movement -of organic life and its difficult striving -upon the earth may dare to praise him. -It is a beginning for us. Not in this -respect, at least, shall we stand aloof from -him or complain that science or philosophy -has built a barrier against him. That -Christians the world over have lost touch -with him in this regard as in others is for -the moment nothing to us. We know that -they are feeble and fallible like ourselves -and that his way of judgement is hard. To -keep the balance even, never to allow a -secret materialism to be brought into the -scale, or a protest to sink into repudiation—this -is hard indeed. And we know that -a thousand other temptations have beset -the Christian during the centuries that -have gone by and that, being as he is and -just as we are ourselves, he has succumbed -to not a few of them. We know all that; -but we are seeking to find out what greatness -it is that lies behind all the faults and -follies, the absurdities, the crimes even, of -Christians, and keeps Christianity alive -and potent. We begin to see, perhaps, -that this greatness is Christ—that it is -'Jesus the prophet of Nazareth in Galilee.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>Of this greatness and its character he -himself had an unique consciousness which -was a most important and most marked -element in his difference from the Hebrew -prophets before him. He 'spoke with -authority and not as the Scribes,' not as -those theologians and jurists whose strength -rested on tradition and the letter of the -past; he spoke, in short, as a prophet. -So the people discovered. The voice of the -prophets was characteristically authoritative -and neither showed respect for -tradition nor claimed its support. But -the note of the prophets of old was '<i>Thus -saith the Lord</i>'; and the note of the -prophet of Nazareth was '<i>I say unto you</i>.' -Both came among men with an authority -lacking to the followers of tradition; but -by the first it was thought of as delegated, -in the second it was recognized as inherent. -Not, '<i>the Lord said unto me</i>,' but '<i>I say -unto you</i>.' The difference is enormous; -it is also profound in significance and -implications. It means, to begin with, a -different knowledge of God. No longer is -God only speaking to his messengers across -a dividing space, speaking as a king upon -his throne might to a subject at his feet, -charging that subject with a mission. The -message is no longer carried and reported -by a man; it is originated in him and given -by him. Jesus is conscious that the life -and spirit of God are become his own life -and spirit. He knows the indwelling God -given to be made man in co-operative union -with man, knows him in and through and -as himself, the prophet of Nazareth in -Galilee. He does not need to refer either -to a God, or to a tradition, that is extraneous -to himself. Therefore his prophetic authority -exceeds not only that of the Scribes -but that of all the prophets. It gave this -impression to those of his contemporaries -who had eyes to see and ears to hear. To -such men it gives the same impression -now. And if there are Christians who -explain the impression and reason from it, -erroneously, have we any right to be -surprised? Consider the height to which -we have been carried and the problems that -open up before us as we survey this man. -Consider the habits of interpretation most -usual among us. Consider the tangibility -and conspicuousness of <i>things</i>, the intangibility -and, to the senses and the mind -itself, the elusive mysteries of personality, -of nature, of consciousness, even of knowledge -and every other manifest activity. -We cannot fairly blame Christians for what -has been done among them in an attempt -to explain and reason about Jesus Christ. -The attempt has been honest enough and -successful enough to hold the allegiance of -thinking men for generations.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The truth is that we are learning, as -we never learnt before, to question the -manner of our own thinking about these -high matters. We have become aware, as -we were not, of the insidious materialism -of our instruments of thought. We have -learnt that to apply a logic of things and -their qualities to problems of the nature -of God and man is to ensure misunderstanding. -So when Christians tell us that -the person of Jesus Christ is divine and -that he had, or was, or is, a human nature -and a divine nature, and a human will and -a divine will conjoined in the divine person, -we see plainly that they are applying to -the truth of him that logic of things and -their qualities which they have acquired -through dealing easily and habitually with -things. They are trying to explain him -by taking human nature as one thing or -set of qualities, and divine nature as -another, and they are joining them by a -third. You see two vertical stones and -one across the top. And if the stones are -alive and the top one 'hypostatically' -effects the union between the other two, -stones they still are; or sets of qualities -conceived as things, which is all the same.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The mighty consciousness of Jesus escaped -entanglement by these logical, spatial, -materialistic nets. He knew by experience -the activity of a will in which the will of -God and the will of man were united and -engaged at once in one purpose. He knew, -felt, lived, God and man as one in himself. -And in the fulness of this he differed from -all other prophets, for whom it was at -best, and that but rarely, an unrealized -ideal.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Shall we say, then, that for us and for -Christians it is well not to reason about the -problems he presents to thought? Even -if we do, we shall reason and so will -they. Neither we nor they can help it. -But we may put our reasoning together, -and learn each from the other. There is -a meeting-place here, inviting us to join -hands.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER V</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Where Love is the Lover, Love streaming from</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>the Lover is the Lover; the Lover streaming from</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>himself, and existing in another Person.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Traherne.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_4_0_8 c010'><i>Aut Deus aut homo non bonus</i>—so -Christians have said and believed. -The dilemma, though comfortable for not -a few among them, and having about it a -certain truth, often involves a false conception -of both man and God. The truth -it holds is not their comfort; they do not -know that. What most people mean when -they use the dilemma is that the prophet of -Nazareth was either as a person God and -not as a person man, or he was as a person -man and a bad one. It seems conclusive, -this either-or. But there is no logical -weapon more fatal to our discovery of the -truth of spirit and life. 'Either-or' comes -from a field of interest where things stand -out conspicuous and apart, and cannot -be thought of as communicating virtue -and riches and themselves one to another. -It brings with it an insinuating suggestion, -if not assertion, that the affairs of spirit -and life are in the same case. Personality, -which is an affair of spirit and life, seems -no more to admit of such intercommunication -than does materiality. Two persons -can no more communicate themselves to -each other than two stones. Which, on -the crude exposed face of it, is nonsense. -They can, they do; and we know it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Unquestionably the great prophet spoke -with the authority which lesser prophets -attributed to God. He made claims, very -high claims. Was he only an arrogant -and blasphemous man? (He might, perhaps, -have been deluded, though the -dilemma ignores that possibility—as well -it may.) Or was he God? There is no -half-way house of vital identity between -man as person and God as person, any -more than there is a half-way house of -material identity between a diamond and -a pebble off the beach. <i>Either-or.</i> So this -dilemma goes. It is very simple, all too -simple. It applies beautifully to pebbles -and diamonds; why not to living persons? -Particularly and excellently, why not to -man and God?</p> - -<p class='c011'>Now, as a matter of fact, I am trying to -communicate to you at this very moment -something that is mine. My knowledge -(or my ignorant opinion) is written down -on the paper before you, and you will -or may receive it—to do with it what you -choose. Henceforth it is, or may be, -yours as well as mine. Again, I try to -communicate to you the content of my -will for you. You know and feel that I -want your will to be brought to coincide -with mine, so that my will and yours shall -be vitally identical in regard to what I -am writing about. In some degree or -another you and I may become one in -this regard. I shall then have communicated -my knowledge (or my ignorant -opinion) and my will to you and they will -to some extent or another be both yours -and mine. This communication and co-operation -is a matter of our choosing to -enter into it and be and work together. -We have it in our own hands. It is quite -different from the relation we have to -each other as being parts in the universe, -or elements in God looked upon as the -pantheist looks upon him, which makes -him no more than the universe. We -can't help that relation. We share it with -the stones as well as with each other and -with God. It is a purely abstract business -and belongs to 'the night in which all -cows are black.' Our cows, on the other -hand, are of every sort of colour; and we -find, we actually do find, that we can pass -on our colours to each other, dye the different -cow to our tinge and in turn be dyed. -We are concrete, not abstract; and our -vital identity one with another is concrete -too. It may be and might not be. We -choose whether it shall be or not. And, -happily, we choose that it shall be, up to -a point, far more often and more steadily -than we choose that it shall not. Hence -the existence of a human community in -common knowledge and reason and common -will—up to a point.</p> - -<p class='c011'>I give you here in these pages, or at -least proffer you, as I have said, 'something -of mine.' That is what it looks like. -But, enquiring further, I ask whether as -a matter of fact 'I' am separate from -'something of mine,' as, let us say an -engine is separate from the power it produces -and the work it does. Do I produce -thought and knowledge as an engine -produces so much horse-power? Is my -will or my reason a sort of thing that produces -activity as a flower produces its -scent? The scent is not the flower; the -horse-power is not the engine. There is -always a producing <i>thing</i> behind such -products. Is there a producing thing behind -my knowledge and activity? And -the only reasonable answer we can give -to this question is that there is not. In -my spirit and life there is nothing in the -least like a thing or a machine; and when -we reason about spirit and life as though -there were we plunge into a very sea of -confusion. My reason and my will <i>are</i> -myself. I am not a thing and I do not -produce like a thing. I give and I communicate -my very self in giving and communicating -my knowledge, my purpose, -my will. And in so far as you receive -these and take them into yourself you -receive me—spirit and life—as person. By -harmony between us our wills and reason, -our selves, coalesce; they become identical -in the concrete, vital identity peculiar to -persons, impossible to things, and dependent -for its maintenance on the maintenance of -harmony by their own free activity. Very -partial it is, no doubt, seen by all of us -'as in a mirror darkly'; but it points, -with a finger that should draw all eyes, -to a great fulfilment. That fulfilment is -'the goal, not the starting-point of human -endeavour.' The blank identity of co-existence -in a universe is, you may say, a -starting-point for reflexion; but real concrete -mental coalescence between each and -all of us is a real concrete starting-point -of life in a personal world. The goal lies -far ahead, where that union of persons foreshadowed -in our fragmentary intercourse -and the low beginnings of our community -of life shall be won through that which -alone can give it, our union and communion -with God. This is more or less a philosopher's -way of putting the matter; but -it means the same as the Christian's.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Now there is a question that forces itself -upon us here. Can there be a coalescence -of mind and will, an identity, between -God and man, of this living, spiritual—that -is, real, concrete—kind? Or is God -so different from man as to be incommunicable -to him? Is he remote from man in -his own nature or, indeed, not only remote -but alien? The answer to this is that if -he is even remote, not to say alien, he is -nothing to us and we may ignore him.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The Christian's God certainly is not -remote; he is all men's lover and father -and they are all his beloved and his sons. -The philosopher's God is sometimes made -blankly, abstractly, identical with us, and -then we may ignore him; because a blank -identity simply is, as conceived in thought, -and like the alien God it means nothing -for us. But more often nowadays the -philosopher's God is like the Christian's -in that he both transcends his universe and -indwells it; for the philosopher has begun -in good earnest to reckon with life and -with science and human experience at -large. God indwelt Jesus Christ, and he -knew God as lover and father both. He -spoke as though God had communicated -himself to him in a fulness we do not know -among ourselves. There was an identity -of will, it seems, recognized by him, between -himself and God, and an identity of reason -and knowledge. And if God is Spirit and -Lord and Giver of life, then, if the prophet -was right, in this identity by fulness of -communication, this personal coalescence -of reason and will, God, very God, gave -himself to very man, and very man entered -into personal union with very God. The -transcendent God indwelt the man, was -immanent within him as the man's own -self; and the man's own self was lifted up -into the self of God. The intercommunication -of person with person, which we see -as the prerogative of persons, was complete.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have confessed this to be the goal -of human endeavour; let us allow ourselves -to think that in regard to us it may be the -goal, also, of divine endeavour, and that -in the man who offered no opposition to -God it was attained. As long as we do not -indulge in the secret materialism of regarding -a person as a thing <i>producing</i> knowledge -or activity, instead of as <i>being</i> that knowledge -and activity, we shall have no difficulty -in recognizing the fact that where -knowledge and will in two persons coincide, -there also the persons coincide. We shall -be able to see that a man is identical with -God, in the only sense identity can have for -personal beings, when he fully knows the -mind of God and his will is bent on the same -ends as the will of God. Then this man -is both man and God in one, for God -indwells him by that activity which he -truly is.</p> - -<p class='c011'>If we object, as we frequently do, that -no man can fully know the mind of God, -we must tell ourselves that if a man knows -the essential, permanently valuable truth -of life which wise men have ever sought as -wisdom, then all that is worth while in -knowledge, all that upon which parts and -kinds of 'knowledges' must be built up, -is his, included within his <i>Weltanschauung</i>, -his living view of the world. The principle, -the ground, of all truth, and therefore of -all knowledge, he knows and has.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>We think of the writer of the Fourth -Gospel giving us, as a prayer of Jesus, the -aspiration that 'they all may be one, as -thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that -they also may be one in us.' He has the -goal of our endeavour in plain sight; he -must have felt that impulse of the spirit -towards it which is not exhausted, never -can be exhausted, by any one man.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VI</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Thy judgment is in the mute pain of sleepless love;</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>In the blush of pure hearts;</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>In the tears of the night of desolation;</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>In the pale morning-light of forgiveness.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Rabindranath Tagore.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>We are going far with the Christian. -Life is indeed a bond; it is materialism -that divides the seekers after truth. -The secret materialism of the Christian and -his trust in religious machinery must bring -him into conflict with those who put their -trust in other kinds of machines. We who -are trusting life, and are trying not to -interpret it in terms of the logic of things, -find ourselves side by side with those -Christians faithful enough to their supreme -leader and their own principles to do the -same. So we may walk willingly with -them and hear what they have to say in -more intimate talk than there can be -when the spirit of community is wanting.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In this matter of personality and its -self-communicating power they have been -beforehand with us, as in so many other -matters. Jesus has been for them a fountain -of wisdom and insight, and while they -have kept close to him his wisdom and -his insight have been-imparted to them. -He has been in them a well-spring wanting -to the negligent world. 'Whosoever drinketh -of the water that I shall give him,' the -disciple hears him say, 'shall never thirst; -but the water that I shall give him shall be -in him a well of water springing up into -everlasting life.' That is what it means -to be indwelt by God, 'the fountain of -living waters,' as the older prophet calls -him. And we think of what we have -learnt about personality and the inseparability -of the spirit from its own content -of knowledge and volition, of love, too, and -righteousness, and joy in beauty and truth. -We think of the intercommunication of -man with man and of men with God and -his 'Christ'—that is, the man 'whose -individuality,' as a Christian philosopher -says, 'is identified with God in the unity -of all his thought and action with the -divine knowledge and the divine purpose.' -All these come to mind when we hear of a -fountain of living waters becoming a well-spring -for those who drink of it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But it may be that we turn away with -a sigh from such intimate talk, knowing -how far we are ourselves from the union -with God which the Christian depicts. -And it may be, too, that there dawns upon -us the thought that when this Christian -speaks of 'atonement' he means, most -likely, some process of God by which that -union is accomplished, and the neglect or -opposition of men is overcome. What -difference is there, we may be inclined to -ask, between divine incarnation, as the -Christian sees it,—God's communication of -himself, the fountain of living waters, to -men—and an atonement between him and -them? Is not the union of incarnation -the very act and process of atonement? -Is not the redemption of man effected in -and through the self-expression of God -in him? When he is one with God he -is 'redeemed' from the neglect and opposition -of sin, and of the rejection of God; -and then God is manifest and expressed in -him. Is this a question of words? Perhaps, -rather, it is a question of emphasis on -one or other side, man's side or God's.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But if, for the moment, we lay emphasis -on the side of man and speak of atonement -and redemption instead of speaking of incarnation -and our communion and union -with God, there are certainly elements of -special difficulty to be encountered. The -explanations of Christians are by no means -as trustworthy as their insight and the -knowledge they derive from their great -'Redeemer.' They explain in legalistic -terms, or materialistic, or in terms of a -despotic rule, a process and an act of life -given and received. They are prone to -ignore the prophet in favour of the Scribe -or the Pharisee. And once again the -prophet may justly put into the mouth of -God the old reproach—'My people have -committed two evils; they have forsaken -me, the fountain of living waters, and -hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, -that can hold no water.' They build up -their inventions and hide beneath them -the sublimity of living fact; and we who -ask them concerning the fact are shown -the ruins of those inventions. We ask -them for bread and they give us the stones -they have put together. There is hardly -a religious problem or question, or fact -and process, more encumbered than this -with that tradition which makes the word -of God of none effect. No doubt there are -Christians who are both able and willing -to help such men and women as are likely -to ask their help; the difficulty is to find -such Christians. Let us see, now, how we -can work out for ourselves an understanding -of what is really meant by atonement -between men and God, what Christians -really mean when they express themselves -so ill about it, what it really is that really -happens.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Atonement between God and men undoubtedly -implies the forgiveness of sinful -men by God. They cannot possibly enter -into union with him unless they are forgiven. -When they sin against their fellow-men -they cannot be united or re-united -with them on any other condition than that -their fellows forgive them. But, we must -insist, it is immoral to forgive them unless -they at least <i>will</i> to cast away their sinfulness. -It is always immoral, too, not to -punish, that is, not to condemn, sin and -sinfulness; and therefore (since a man -and his activity are one) the sinner. How -then can God at once condemn (or punish) -and forgive the sin, sinfulness and the -sinner? Are not condemnation (or punishment) -and forgiveness mutually exclusive? -If we condemn or punish do we not fail -to forgive? If we forgive, must we not -remit punishment and cease to condemn?</p> - -<p class='c011'>Now here is a difficulty that reflexion -should remove. For it comes of what -happens in the lower stages of man's social -relations and spiritual growth. We think -of punishment as somehow the expression -of vindictiveness, while forgiveness alone -is the expression of love. So it is in us -beginners. So it begins to cease to be, -even in us, as we grow into new life and a -new spirit. Let us think how we should -behave to an evil-doer if we loved him -to the utmost of our power of love. Should -we condone his evil-doing by withholding -that condemnation which is expressed in -punishment, whether of look or word or -deed (as circumstance demands), and extend -to him an artifice of forgiveness in -which the moral disunion between him -and ourselves shall be concealed? Would -that truly represent our faithful love for -him, that love which must seek not an -appearance but a reality of harmony, and -for his sake tolerate no encouragement, -not even the slightest possibility of deriving -encouragement, for his evil doing? Obviously -it would not. For his sake we should -unmistakably condemn, making known to -him in look or word or deed our condemnation. -It would be the expression of our -love and, with forgiveness, is of the nature -and property of love. We should feel no -shadow of vindictiveness. In our relation -with him the forgiveness and the condemnation -of love would be one.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We encounter here a false antithesis in -a matter of spirit and life. Forgiveness -and punishment in God or in the man of -God can neither be antithetical nor need -to be reconciled. In the life of love they -are not divided. God, who is love as he is -spirit and life, forgives and condemns by -one consistent act of love. There is no -immoral condonation in his forgiveness, no -vindictiveness about his punishment. And -this the Christian knows both by his own -experience and by the life and lessons of his -redeeming Lord. 'Whom the Lord loveth -he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son -whom he receiveth.' No true Christian -would have it otherwise.</p> - -<p class='c011'>'If forgiveness means—as it properly -does—the wise and patient care for the -criminal's welfare, for his regeneration -and recovery into the life of a good society, -then there is no distinction whatever between -forgiveness and punishment.' That, -precisely, is what forgiveness ought to be -made to mean, and punishment likewise. -But again we see in a mirror darkly and -are confused by our history and our own -shortcomings. Therefore even Christians -misjudge God, or make for themselves -'broken cisterns'—a false God who is -no fountain of living waters, pouring forth -a never-failing, self-consistent, self-giving -love; but a judge, a king, a despot, after the -pattern of the world, a God aloof administering -punishment or forgiveness, both alike -unworthy and misplaced. There is no -difficulty at all in this question of punishment -and forgiveness if we remember -perfect love and its aim, as Jesus shows -them.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Moreover, we must bear in mind, nothing -about God who 'is spirit' is either an -artifice or a machine. So his punishments, -his expressed condemnations, are never -artificial, never mechanical. They arise -'naturally,' as we say; and in large part -we provide them, we men, ourselves. There -are certain 'natural' consequences, miscalled -punishments, which are entailed -upon the body as, for instance, when a -child puts his hand into the fire or a man -disregards what we call the 'laws' of -health. The due and true moral punishment -of persons by persons is just as -natural. The nature of persons is spiritual -in the order of their uplifted life, and is -one with that life. Their nature is, in -fact, no other than that life and those -persons. We cannot separate, though we -may sometimes in word distinguish, between -the man and his nature. Consequently -all due and right punishment by -persons (punishment by love, which is the -same as forgiveness by love) is wholly -natural. It is a natural consequence of -sin, the reaction against sin with which -good persons or a good society must -encounter it. There is no arbitrary infliction -of punishment, and no arbitrary -forgiveness, by the good man, the good -society, or the good God. Nor should there -be in regard to his own sins or sinfulness by -the man who newly rejects them, the newly -penitent man. He, the new man, reacts -according to his new nature, and in one -and the same activity should condemn -and forgive himself. He must be penitent -but he should not be remorseful. If he -does not forgive himself as well as condemn -himself, it may be because he is not humble -enough and penitent enough to bear with -the fact that he has deserved his condemnation.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We must remind ourselves, however, -that it is of spiritual nature in ourselves -to <i>choose</i>. The activity of love is chosen -and determined by the good man, with -its forgiveness and its punishment. And -although the perfection of God must preclude -choice between alternatives, although -for perfect wisdom there can never be more -than one course open, yet there is no -automatism, there cannot be automatism -of the mechanical kind, in God who, as the -Christian maintains, <i>is</i> love. His love is -willed though not chosen. It is of the vital, -intelligent, voluntary activity of a spiritual -being. And so both punishment and forgiveness -are willed, in God or in man; -and as the man approaches full union with -God so does his choice approach that -inevitable wisdom for which there is no -longer consciousness of choice. This is -the manner of spirit and life; that which -is personally real in any man, all that is -in God, is not merely consented to or -assented to but is always actively willed, -never compulsorily or mechanically apportioned. -So it is right and reasonable -to say that God or the man of -God punishes and forgives. It is not -right to say that the punishment and -forgiveness of either, though it is wholly -natural, is in any kind of way automatic -with the automatism of a machine, or -even with that relative automatism of -material things which we speak of as -natural law. Without the activity of love -there can be no true punishment and no -true forgiveness; there is only vindictiveness -or condonation.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The treatment we have given our wrong-doers -in the past is not fitted to throw -clear light on Christian atonement and the -ways of God with man. On the contrary, -it has obscured both. But we are learning. -Truth, experience, and the <i>Gesta Christi</i> -work for our learning. Or, as the Christian -says, the divine spirit works for it and -'strives' with us, that is, works with us -that we may work out our own salvation.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have begun to say to the children we -are training—'Come now, this is <i>wrong</i>; -let's see how we' [<i>we</i>, mark you] 'can set -it right.' We have discovered that unless -the child works with us our punishment -fails, and our forgiveness fails, of any real -effect for goodness. But Christians knew -this from their beginning, though many of -them forget they did. In the last resort -it is why Christ died.</p> - -<p class='c011'>When, carrying with us our new method, -we have passed from the child to the -criminal, and extend to him that 'wise -and patient care' for his welfare, which -is forgiveness and punishment in one, we -shall be in a better position for seeing what -Christian atonement really means and is—how -real it is and how it depends on co-operation -between the Saviour and the -offender; how, always, the Saviour must -win the offender first if he is to save him. -Then we shall read the Gospels of the -Christian with new eyes and a new understanding.</p> - -<p class='c011'>If you want to see punishment and forgiveness -both in one, turn to the parable -of the prodigal son. Could any punishment -be more salutary or more piercing to the -man whose penitence had shown him his -utter unworthiness? Could forgiveness be -more complete, more gracious, than that -which he received? Consider how his -penitence must have been deepened, and -his sense of unworthiness increased, when -he found himself in his father's arms, and -his father's house, honoured, rejoiced over, -feasted? In proportion to the depth and -fulness of penitence do these two, punishment -and forgiveness, given in love, become -distinguishable only by the reaction to them -of the penitent. He alone knows how love -hurts and heals in one and the same act -and moment.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Then, if you want to learn the many forms -punishment may take, seek further. Look -at the story of the woman taken in adultery. -'Hath no man condemned thee?' ... -'Neither do I condemn thee: go, and <i>sin -no more</i>.' Punishment and forgiveness imparted -in one profound paradox of love's -judgement. What do you think was its -effect on the woman who had looked into -the prophet's eyes as he lifted them from -the dust? 'Hath no man condemned -thee?' 'No man, Lord,' she said; and -they were the words humility and shame -would choose.</p> - -<p class='c011'>A degree further—consider the picture of -a final judgement, with the 'Son of man -in his glory' and the nations gathered -before him to be shown their union with -him, or their disunion, in a clearness none -could mistake. 'Come, ye blessed,' he -says, 'inherit the kingdom prepared for -you from the foundation of the world'—the -kingdom in which all men are one with -the Holiest, with the living Truth himself -and Beauty 'in his glory'—come with me. -For I was an hungred, thirsty, a stranger.... -Naked and ye clothed me, sick, in -prison, and ye came unto me.... And -yet these blessed had never known what -they did. It was not he, so far as they -knew, that they had succoured. Not for -his sake but for love's they had done it; -not even, indeed, at the heart of it, for -love's sake, but because they loved, because -in them the well-spring of love streamed -forth and they gave their very selves to -those others who had only need of them. -They were of love and were love's own. -Love as shown to these who needed it was -not distinguishable, even by their reaction -to it, into punishment and forgiveness. It -was but love.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Then those others—'Depart from me,' he -says—and there was a vision painted of -the unutterable horrors of a state of separation -and loneliness and self-embittered -remorse—'I was an hungred and ye gave -me no meat.' They also, had not known—'Lord, -when saw we thee an hungred?' -If they had known they would assuredly -have hastened to him with their meat, -asked him to their feasts, lavished all -upon him. But for what sake? For no -other than their own. Love had no place -in their hearts, nor had the Lord. Only -self-seeking. They were their own Lords -and Gods. And thenceforth they had to -know it. In their impenitent, disappointed, -cheated (they would say) and remorseful -hearts there was no room for anything but -the sense of punishment. Their inevitable -reaction to the voice of love, as it reproached -their lack of love, shut out both forgiveness -and all possibility of the sense of it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>So we come to the extreme of distinction -between the ways of the showing of love. -Here is all punishment, it seems, to the -sinner. But it is he who makes love so. -It is very love that punishes, a consistent, -unwavering love which, in the sinner's -last extremity, shows itself to the utmost -he can receive and in the only way he can -receive. What, I ask you, would a man -like this make of a love that should express -itself (if in the nature of love it could thus -express itself) as condoning the want of -love and professing oneness in so complete -an alienation? Not only does the nature -of love forbid such an expression, but the -nature of the self-worshipper, who cannot -receive it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>There is a very marvellous knowledge -of the hidden heart shown in these prophetic -teachings. As we converse with -the Supreme Person of the Gospels we feel -him searching out our bones and marrow. -To him there lies open the secret of disunion -among us personal beings and the secret -of the utmost furtherance, and the means -towards furtherance, of the conversion of -our will from self-seeking to love-finding. -This utmost furtherance necessarily falls -short of the compulsion love can never -even contemplate or man endure. A man -compelled to love is unthinkable. Words, -mere empty words these are that so speak -of him. He cannot be. If he could be -compelled he could not be man; if the -semblance of love were forced upon him it -would not be love. But the atonement in -which the Christian believes shows the love -of God working to further love in man to -an utmost God alone can reach. Punishment -and forgiveness work together as -that love, and the life of Jesus and the -Cross on which he died are at once their -final showing-forth, their clearest call to -man, and the tremendous acceptance by -man of all that they entail and are.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Here, indeed, is the fountain of love in -its fulness. We need not wonder that the -disciple, having in mind his living and -triumphant Lord, hears him say to us who -desire to drink of the waters of love—'Whosoever -drinketh of the water that I -shall give him shall never thirst; but the -water that I shall give him shall be in him -a well of water springing up into everlasting -life.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>Christian atonement means restoration -to the only real and full union and communion -of persons, that of divine love.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VII</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Nature, in a fashion whose details are still only</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>faintly hinted to us men, constitutes a vast society.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Royce.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>The Christian shows in his root principles, -we are bound to confess, a -profound sense of personality and of the -relations of persons. That this comes of -his relation to the Supreme Person from -whom he has derived them can hardly be -denied. It is in a person, Jesus Christ, -that he has seen God and learnt about -him; and the judgements and love of God -that he discerns he discerns in Christ. As -the spirit of Christ becomes one with his -spirit so do his own judgements and his -own love become those of God in him, and -his principles are embodied in his life. All -wisdom is divine, and all love, the Christian -says. And, undoubtedly, men who are -earnestly and disinterestedly seeking these, -and discovering how in that search they -penetrate into the truth and reality of -moral and practical affairs of life, must -find that the Christian is worth listening -to, perhaps even worth watching. That is, -when he has 'the mind of Christ.' Otherwise -he confuses judgement and blurs, if -he does not efface, his principles. In 'the -mind of Christ' he is for us 'a well-spring -of water'; without that, if he only calls -himself by the name and is either the Scribe, -the Pharisee, or the false prophet, he is -far more helpless, far more misleading and -misled, than they are who honestly seek -truth and know they have not found it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In the last chapter we heard what the -man with the mind of Christ had to say -about punishment and forgiveness as between -persons. And one difficulty that -disturbs others, many others, besides those -who approach the Christian religion from -the direction of science, has surely been -lessened by him. But besides this, in that -chapter we referred, in passing, to the calamities -of what we narrowly call 'nature,' -the burnt child, the man of ruined health; -and we said that these were not strictly -affairs of punishment. But, undoubtedly, -they are often regarded as punishment by -religious men, by Christian men. We may -turn to our Christian, whose best has been -so good, and ask him what the mind of -Christ is on this matter. Does the Lover -and Father of Jesus inflict plague and pestilence, -earthquake and fire, on evil-doers, -as a human judge inflicts prison or the hangman's -cord, and once inflicted mutilation -and torture? The God of the Old Testament, -so his prophets said, was not unlike our -judges. What is the God of the New, as -Jesus showed him? The answer is not -far to seek.</p> - -<p class='c011'>'Ye have heard that it hath been said'—'But -I say unto you.' He maketh his -sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and -sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.' ... -'those eighteen, upon whom -the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, -think ye that they were sinners above all -men that dwelt in Jerusalem?' And then -the warning words—'I tell you, Nay: but, -except ye repent, ye shall all likewise -perish.' Warning, these last words are, -and, it may be, puzzling. They seem to -imply punishment, doom, in this falling of -a tower, though no sinners were specially -selected from others for the death it -brought. What is there behind this? Let -us think, and bring to bear on the problem -what we have learnt about the world -(and therefore about God) elsewhere. And -let us consult with the Christian. He is -our authority now on his own affairs, as -the philosopher and the scientific man -are on theirs. Well, in the first place it -is plain that no one of our authorities -countenances arbitrary enactment. Thus -much is plain about the events of nature -(usually so-called), that they are no more -arbitrary than the judgements, or the punishment -and forgiveness, of a just man or a -just God. What we want to know is the -way in which their order is related to the -order of justice between persons. That a -tower falls on eighteen sinners who are -not worse sinners than those upon whom -it does not fall looks bad for justice and -consequently for love. But is it bad?</p> - -<p class='c011'>We are opening up one of the most -formidable of problems. Let us bear in -mind, however, that we have seen one -thing precluded by the mind of Christ—a -belief on our part that the man who suffers -or dies from an 'accident' or catastrophe -of nature is thereby pointed out as punished -by God. The selective, though equally -natural, punishments of God are of quite -another order; they single out unerringly, -with the utmost subtlety and fineness, man -from man. They are determined for himself -by each man; he works out his own -damnation as he works out his own salvation, -God working with him for both. And -that is why the adjustment is so accurate -between the man who will not be saved -and the doom that falls upon him. The -calamities of earth are far too rough and -ready to be God's instruments of selection. -When (or if) one Grand Duke is the sole -survivor of a wrecked ship and a Te Deum -is sung in thankfulness to God, the mind -of Christ is ignored, his plain words are -ignored. 'Think ye that this Grand Duke -was a man of God above all men that were -on that ship?' we hear him ask. And we -do not hear him say that if we all repent -we shall all likewise be rescued. The -kingdom of heaven is neither bought nor -sold, and no repentance will purchase safety -upon earth.</p> - -<p class='c011'>All this lies on the face of these illuminating -words spoken from the mind of -Christ. But there is more to be learnt -about them and from them. We are -thrown back upon the mystery of the -fundamental relation between matter and -spirit. And if we cannot do more, we can -at least consider what experience shows us -every day concerning that relation and what -we find when we reflect upon it. There is -that tower now. Towers may be built to -stand for centuries, perhaps thousands of -years. There is no indication that the fall -of this particular tower was due to an -earthquake, against which its strength -would have been useless. We may reasonably -suppose that it was not strong, that -there were faults in its design, or building -or material, or all three or any two. A -tower well designed, well built and of good -materials may, perhaps, outlast mankind -upon this earth. And at least it will not -fall; it will only wear away and crumble. -This tower fell through the fault of sinners. -Was the fault moral, or was it, as we say, -merely intellectual? Was there anything -of the spirit about it? And we must -answer that as it was fault in a human -being, a spiritual and moral person, there -certainly must have been moral fault. -The intellectual element is not separate -from the moral.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Think—if all the men concerned in -building that tower had been disinterested -seekers after goodness and truth and beauty, -would it have fallen as it did? What, -you may say (but I am assured that you -will not, if you have read thus far), what is -the connexion between a love of goodness, -truth and beauty, and the building of a -tower? What, in fact (and this you may -well ask), is the true relation between -spirit and life on the one hand, and the -successful use of material things on the -other? Does a man use them better, that -is, more successfully, because he is as God -would have him be, morally and spiritually?</p> - -<p class='c011'>The narrow outlook of some religious -men, and their abstraction of religion -from the wide range of its concerns into -the narrowness of theirs, blinds them to the -wide range of goodness, of beauty, and of -truth. The man who is as God would -have him be (according to the mind of -Christ), if he had to build a tower, would -seek as he seeks salvation to find out the -truth of towers, of their materials, of their -design and of their building. He would -not only know that this was his duty, but -he would know or feel that it was his -heart's desire. He would throw himself -into the pursuit of this truth because he -was a lover of truth. And in loving truth -he would show his love of God. Therefore -he would use good materials, not bad, good -stone, good mortar, and he would put these -together with due regard to their characters, -their truth. And his love of beauty would -conspire with his love of truth to bring -about the strength and stability of his -tower. Beauty in these things is a -guarantee of truth, or rather its evidence. -So closely are the three linked in the love -of them and the realization of them, that -we may know them to be one. They are -to be distinguished, but they cannot be -separated, one from another. And so those -builders of our tower who should be disinterested -in their worship of the three in -one, would (we may well say) have set up -at Siloam a tower very different from that -which fell. It might have endured, like -the Tower of David, to this day.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Sin, then, that is, the refusal to follow -after truth, beauty and goodness, and thus -after God made known to the soul, had a -very real connexion with the fall of that -tower. But in this respect of sin its -builders were no worse than other men -'who dwelt at Jerusalem.' All these men -had come short of full devotion to God as -they saw God, to the light they perceived, -the truth they might attain, the beauty -that summoned them and the goodness that -should have been theirs. Not in this -regard is the fall of the tower selective. -Indeed there is nothing to show that it -fell upon a single one of its builders, any -more than that it selected the worst of the -sinners. It may have caused to 'perish' -a party of mere sight-seers.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Only through that solidarity of man -which links 'the crimes of each to the -sorrows of all' is the fault of the builders -linked with the perishing of those eighteen. -And again we have testimony against any -selection of the bad from the good by the -calamities of earth. Not even the retribution -of the kind of badness which bad -building is falls, by God's determination, -upon the evil-doer, through instruments of -the earth. They are far too rough, these -things, too indiscriminating. They do not -pierce to the joints and the marrow; they -hit like a blind man's bludgeon.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Yet this they assuredly are not. As the -personal punishment and forgiveness of -God seek and find the sinner himself in -the depths of his being and to the utmost -of his activity, so these things, Towers of -Siloam, Armageddons, plague and pestilence, -search out our corporate sin and sinfulness, -reach the community of sinners in their -interaction. By pain and sorrow for all, -they bring to light both the sins and the -shortcomings of each. Our responsibility -for Armageddon extends over the devastation -it has wrought, as the responsibility -of those builders of the tower made the -deaths of the eighteen it killed their own -work. In the community of life is community -of crime and suffering and all their -consequences. There is an identity one -with another among men, which they cannot -escape. They are one body even when -they are not one spirit, and every member -of the body may entail disaster on the -rest, as he may bring redemption. If we -could not hinder life we could not help it. -And therefore that word of Christ which -was no doubt primarily addressed to those -men of Jerusalem whose sins were inviting -doom, has other points of significance we -need to note. 'Unless ye repent, ye shall -all likewise perish.' All—the community; -likewise—through aid from the calamities -and catastrophes of that outer world of -things and persons with which we are so -closely bound, as well as from the snares -and the beguiling, the temptations and -betrayal, we make for ourselves in our -misuse of it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We are one with the earth—let us -remember that. And even those catastrophes -of earth for which we seem to have -no responsibility, storm and flood and -earthquake, are not cut off from a relation -with ourselves that may some day be more -clear. We are but beginners in the task -of entering upon our heritage of earth. -And when we try to look deep into the -mystery of matter and spirit what we see -makes us think that they are not unlike -the red and violet ends of a spectrum, -which between them passes from colour -to colour, but which, when our analytical -stretching out is over, returns to the multiplicity -in unity of white light. The Christian, -by his sacramentalism and his emphasis -on incarnation, confesses their kinship, as -does the artist when out of three sounds he -frames 'not a fourth sound, but a star,' -and out of mud or marble, a vision.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We cannot penetrate this mystery; but -when we recognize the solidarity of man -with man, we may try to remember that -it must reach beyond man, not only above -him but below.</p> - -<hr class='c013' /> - -<p class='c011'>When the Christian sends us to the -tower of Siloam he does us good service. -If all Christians had learnt their lesson -from that instead of from an older tradition -and many superstitions, there would have -been no need to send us. We should have -known long ago what it tells of the judgements -of God and the heavy responsibilities -of men. And if the objection is made that -the immediate application of the words -of the prophet was far narrower than this -to which we have carried it, our answer -is that the mark of prophetic teaching is -its inexhaustible richness of meaning and -its proof that wisdom, of its essence, -applies to life in every aspect and mode -that life may display.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VIII</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Notre liberté, dans les mouvements mêmes par</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>où elle s'affirme, crée les habitudes naissantes qui</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>l'étoufferont si elle ne se renouvelle par un effort</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>constant.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Bergson.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_8 c010'>It is quite true that to be popular a -religion must be corrupt. The fact -is noted both by its critics and enemies -and by its friends and devotees. They -express their minds in different terms but -they agree. There is, however, a difference -running through their agreement, at least -in many cases. The critics who are also -enemies regard the corruption not strictly -as corruption but as the clearer manifestation -of the true character religion has from -the beginning. The religious man means -precisely what he says when he calls it -corrupt. There is a reality, true, beautiful, -good, which men in the multitude do not -find attractive, but which may be adapted, -one way or another, overlaid, delicately -or barbarously perverted, to suit them.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Jesus Christ was not popular, nor were -his principles. For a time, no doubt, -people heard him gladly. He went about -among them doing good, healing, compassionate. -But when they realized how discordant -with themselves his prophetic message -really was they hounded him to -death. 'Not this man but Barabbas,' -they cried. Barabbas was far more popular -than this prophet without honour in the -country that should have known him best, -and did know enough of him to be sure -that he and his interests were alien from -them and theirs.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is this that stands in the gate of -popularity over against an uncorrupted -Christian religion, this separation from the -people and their interests as they commonly -are. The kingdom for which Jesus lived -and died, the community of wisdom -and love and self-giving, is not desired by -the societies in which narrower self-interests -reign. 'Change your minds,' the -prophet must always say to his people, -'repent, change your minds about everything -in the world, about yourselves, and -about God.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>Can we wonder that bit by bit compromise -creeps in? Anything so subversive -must be accommodated here and there -to things as they are, for things as they -are have to remain—somehow. The popular -conception of right government and -right morals, the popular craving for magic -and for royal roads and easy-going machines, -for an assured salvation or an infallible -guide, permeates insensibly the religion -which a poetic religious genius has revealed. -The divine voice is drowned in the shouting -of men who will be heard and listened to. -So, whether great Rome or the little -Bethel be established in popularity, the -Christian religion must have been corrupted -in it to meet the desires and condone the -sins and errors of the people who have so -disastrously been won without being transformed.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Christianity became popular. Shall we, -then, look for its truth in popular presentations -of it? If science were popular, -should we seek its truth that way? Or do -we take popular philosophy, or the view -of the world or of the British Constitution -presented in newspapers, as our guide to -the truth of these things? Yet it seems -that when a man studies the Christian -religion he does just what he would regard -himself as a fool for doing in regard to -any other serious matter. He takes it -in its established and popular or once -popular guise, and then says—'this, this, -is what the Christian religion is.' And if -another presentation is offered him, say -that of the Gospels or the great mystics, -prophets, saints, who have been nurtured -in the true faith, and fed by the divine -wisdom of Christ, he says it is not Christianity -at all, because Christianity is and -must be taken as the religion of Christians -in the multitude, not as the private discoveries -or inventions of certain gifted -or peculiar men—those saints, prophets, -mystics—or even as Jesus Christ himself, -living, dying, living for ever, whom Nietzsche -took to be the only Christian.</p> - -<p class='c011'>If a man is more careful, he seems to -himself to have been as careful as he need -be when he goes to the official presentation -of religion by theologians and doctors, -and in the organized procedure of religious -government and institutions. That, he -says, must show me what Christianity -really is. That is Christian orthodoxy. -And, undoubtedly, if he carries his investigations -far he will find there much that is -more valuable and more difficult to dispose -of easily, than what he finds current in -the multitude. Yet here he needs more -caution than he usually shows, however -careful he is to distinguish between the -official orthodoxy and the unofficial representation -of it. He needs to learn or to -recall continually the manner of life and -thought everywhere in regard to life's -effects and tools and products. He needs -to tell himself that just as in the monsters -of bygone epochs on the earth life was -overwhelmed in monstrosity, and in the -armoured beasts it was checked by the -very instruments that seemed its best -protection, so in all human organizations -(and every Church, whatever else it may -be, is a human organization) there is an -ever-present danger to the spirit and the -life they have been designed, well or ill, -to serve. 'Automatism dogs our steps; -the formula crystallizes the living thought -that gave it birth, the idea is oppressed by -the word, the spirit overwhelmed by the -letter.' And if to this ever-present danger -to religion there is added, as there very -frequently is, the insidious influence of the -worldly-world, of ambition, political intrigue, -the pressure of popular demands -and of a narrow but immensely powerful -self-interest, the religious institution, if it -persists unchanged, easily—one may dare -to say inevitably—ceases to bear faithful -witness to the religious life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Again, the procedure of theologians, -and above all the procedure of 'theologizers,' -is open and always has been open -to serious question. They are aware that -their work is one of science; but as it -began in a time when science had not learnt -its best methods, nor the necessity of ever -relating itself anew to living experience, -theirs is a science very far from being what -we have come to know and trust as scientific. -Moreover, although it does change -and move and grow, far more than most of -us or of its professors see or acknowledge, -it has never formally adopted change and -movement and growth as in principle and -fact necessary for its well-being. The -theologians who claim to represent the -orthodoxy of by far the great majority -of Christians, those of the Church, Eastern -or Western, are in the main determined -to make every effort to abide in the old -paths, and with more or less ingenuity -accord themselves with a past supposed -unchanging. That the present changes, -they too often deplore, that in and by their -own work the past has been changed, -they seem not to know. And their own -reluctance to change both disguises the -fact that despite themselves they have -done so, and militates against the value -for other people of their change. The -man who looks to them as representing -the Christian religion takes them at their -own estimate as in the main unchanging, -and judges what they give him as being -'that which was from the beginning.' -Along the Christian ages Christian theologians -have changed into their own likeness -the 'faith once delivered to the saints' -and they have but rarely been saints.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is to the saints and the prophets that -we must look for the Christian religion, -rather than to its doctors. But more than -to any of these it is to the Supreme Person, -Christ himself, saint and prophet above -and in all others.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have already found our advantage -in this for the discussions of these pages. -We have caught glimpses of the depth and -range of some of the principles embodied -both in the teaching and in the life of -Jesus. The Gospels have brought us riches, -although we have only taken grains of -gold from their mine here or there. The -Christian whom we are using as our authority -for the time being is one who has sat -at the feet of Christ and has the mind of -Christ. He is one, happily, among many -of all ages. And if for us he has no name, -no concrete existence, nevertheless, as he -is he is a witness whose testimony we can -put to proof. He brings his documents, -and better, he appeals to the witness in -ourselves as truthseekers. He makes an -appeal to which some of us at least find -response within us. There are moments -when what he says appears to be self-evident, -so firmly rooted in us is a belief -in those living facts of freedom and dependence, -holiness and sin, love and its rejection, -of which he speaks; so little is there, -if there is anything, in what we have learnt -from science and philosophy, that disputes -them.</p> - -<p class='c011'>As to his documents—they too both -carry and call forth their witness. We -have those Gospels from different men; -they speak in different voices and each -with its own predilection, even prejudice, -and its own colouring of thought, of -knowledge or ignorance, of desire. Yet -which among these writers could invent -his subject? Which has succeeded in -seriously defacing it? Behind them all -he stands, the prophet of Nazareth, Jesus—God -and man, the Christian says—and -draws men to himself.</p> - -<p class='c011'>No doubt the Christian has much more -to tell us than we can ask him for just -now, or admit to our discussion. He has -a great deal to say in defence of his institutions -and his theologians, which may well -be said and listened to. But it remains -true that for us who are now asking, not -for justification of these though ample -justification there may be, but for the -deepest principles of the Christian religion, -it is to the mind of Christ and to him who -has that mind that we must turn. Jesus -built up no institution, gave no laws, -announced no established plans, erected -no infallible authority. He gave principles, -living and spiritual principles. 'The -words that I speak unto you, they are -spirit and they are life.' So his great -mystical interpreter hears him say. And -men have indeed found response to his -words in the opening out of their own life -and spirit.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We seek the truth and reality of spirit -and life, we who are seeking here. And -in this search we find ourselves more and -more at one with the Christian. The view -that he and his fellows take of the Christian -Church, that organization which is at -least meant to foreshadow the kingdom -Jesus preached, lies beyond the scope of -this enquiry. All that needs to be said -here is that we must not and do not foreclose -an enquiry that shall include it. -We stand now upon the very threshold -of the kingdom; and, may be, we look -with longing eyes.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IX</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>There is nothing said of man throughout all scripture</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>but what supposes him to stand, in nature,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>under a necessity of choosing something that is</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>natural, either life or death, fire or water.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>William Law.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_3_0_7 c010'>So far-reaching a confession of the spiritual -freedom and the spiritual dependence -of man as is shown in the principles -of Christian incarnation and atonement -has never been popular. As they passed -through the popular mind incarnation was -often and widely made to seem a thunderclap -from on high and atonement a transaction -of the heavenly courts. All generations -have clamoured for signs; and because -none, such as they desired, has been given -they have invented signs for themselves. -The spiritual union of person with person -in a coincidence of knowledge, will, aims, -and mutual love, is at once too natural -to be remarked in ordinary life and too -remote from what is remarked to focus -attention. It is much easier to think of -a God disguised in manhood than of one -who has taken manhood into himself and -is 'made man' by a communication of -himself to the man's own self. A king -can masquerade as a beggar—that is a -simple affair; but for the king to become -a beggar and the beggar a king, the one -remaining, nevertheless, beggar and the -other king, is beyond belief by men whose -belief is bounded by the behaviour of things -that can be seen and handled, and by the -logic of space. And it is much easier to -think of salvation as bargained for, or -bought, or handed over, than as attained -only in the union of love and the co-operation -of persons. In this corruption -of religion human freedom has too often -either been lost sight of or made a fixed -character of man as man, a mark distinguishing -him from other creatures and -things. He is supposed to be free, but not -to have the capacity to grow in freedom. -'Freedom of the will,' according to this, -is like the right to a vote. It is a thing-character, -ready-made, in a man, as the -right to a vote is a thing-character assured -to a man of a certain age and standing. A -man does not advance towards spiritual -freedom and grow in it; he has it as a -diamond has a degree of hardness that -enables it to cut glass. It is, in fact, a -natural quality, not a growing achievement -of growth that still goes on. Therefore it -does not need to be fostered either by -the man himself or by God. And it cannot -be lost. So men too often have said.</p> - -<p class='c011'>On the other hand we have seen, in -our enquiry, that life in its progress from -its first entrance upon earth seems to have -had as its aim growth towards and in -spiritual freedom. The force of life, in the -channel that led to man, seems to have been -directed towards securing the maximum of -choice and of field of choice for him, the -minimum of determination and of hindrance -from without. We said that the brain is -an organ of indetermination; we might -have said that it is the organ of a spirit -seeking its fulfilment through freedom in -growth, and growth in freedom. No religion -which does not show congruity with what -we have learnt about life can seem to us in -truth of touch with it. The popular forms -of Christianity do not show this congruity. -Even the officially instituted forms have, -according to the manner of institutions, -overlaid that truth and encumbered spiritual -and moral life with tradition, habit, -heritage that are become its burdens instead -of its instruments of expression. -Therefore we have to go to the prophet -and learn of him, drink from his clear -fountain of living waters. There, unquestionably, -we find what we seek, religion -in touch, in more than touch, with life. -It is one with life, this religion given and -shown us in the prophet of Nazareth.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Then and there we see that the Christian -doctrines of incarnation and atonement -should properly have an unmistakable -connexion both with our own lives, their -needs and aspirations, and with truth we -have come to know through men of science. -Those doctrines are, to begin with, an explicit -recognition of a promise of freedom -which the force of emergent life has striven -for and secured, and which men are called -upon to realize for themselves. That men -shall fulfil their destiny more and ever -more of life, it seems, must become theirs. -That is, more and more of the spirit and -life of God must become in very fact, -not merely their own, but themselves. This -the Christian speaks of as the incarnation -or the extension of the incarnation of God -in man. And, plainly, there is nothing -in the teaching of Jesus, or in his work and -person, which implies that this process is -mechanical or that, being spiritual, it can -be inevitable. God in the nature of -things, of himself, cannot—will not, if -you like, it is the same—compel union -with him. Therefore men can escape their -destiny of union with God by rejecting -his proffer of more and greater life. -They have their fate in their own hands; -they may choose amiss.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Then, the Christian says, that other -aspect of the love of God, which in fact -is only other because we speak of it as -though it were and look at it in a special -point of view, his atonement or reconciliation -of man with himself, comes into play. -Here, too, love seeks to win love, will -invites the co-operation of will, and wisdom -pleads. No mechanism, no compulsion, -nothing arbitrary or even commanding. -'Come unto me,' he says. And every -effort love can make that man may be won -is made, even to that of the agony and -death of the lover that the loved one may -be rescued from slavery to self, and brought -into the life of love and the liberty wherewith -Christ would make him free.</p> - -<p class='c011'>A deepening enslavement by sin, or a -growing liberty in vital union with the -Christ of God—these are the alternatives -put before us in the Christian religion. -And again we see life—or shall we say -God?—striving to give freedom, yet with -no preordained success. As in the plants -and beasts life found no open way for that -advance, so, although in man the way was -found, men can bring it to an end merely -by desiring and seeking no more than -gratification of the narrow interests of a -self that is bounded by self-seeking. It -seems that life can be as effectually checked -by this as, in a lower order, it was checked -by the coating of cellulose on the vegetable -cell. It is possible for a man so to imprison -himself in self as to shut out God, so to -build a wall about himself as to cut off -from his life that fountain of living waters -on which its advance and true continuance -depend. He contracts into an eddy, a -circling stream narrowed within set boundaries -of himself. He becomes as the -lower beasts, but worse than they because -he is no beast.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The Christian says that when this process -of cutting off and shutting out reaches -completion, the man is in hell. And the -language of symbol and pictorial imagination -has spent itself in trying to express -what that really means. Naturally, the -symbolism and the painting have varied -with the character of imagination at different -times and in different nations. What -we must tell ourselves is that they are no -more than this, and that they may well -both falter and fail before a horror so -extreme.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The shutting-down, the extinction, of a -man—for this is what it amounts to—who -is capable of an indefinite advance in -freedom and life, in love and wisdom and -knowledge—that is, in God and fellowship—is -a catastrophe with which the blotting-out -of all the mighty beasts of the past is -incomparable. Consider, if he were the -only man? Yet is he the less what he is -because he is one of millions? For one -man, the Christian says, Christ would die, -though it is for all men that he died. 'The -very hairs of your head are numbered.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>One man in hell—think of it. One man -who might have been united with God in -an influx of inexhaustible new life lifting -him from order to order of glory—that is -what the Christian sees and what leads -him, or has led him often, to describe such -a loss in terms from which we shrink to-day. -But if we learn to see what it is the Christian -means, can we say that he goes too far? -Or shall we not say that if we had at our -command words fit to depict his meaning -they would go even farther? No doubt -we see plainly the absurdity of material -fires and the religious and psychological -falsity of the picture of human beings -vainly desiring God, when we know that, -as has been said by a great Christian, 'the -sun meets not the springing bud that -stretches toward him, with half that certainty, -as God, the Source of all good, -communicates himself to the soul that longs -to partake of him.' But the fact remains -that to lose life in 'the second death,' to -pass out of all fellowship whether with -man or God, to shrink into an ever-shrivelling -creature who cares for nothing outside -its ever-narrowing and concentrating self-love, -is for any live, loving, healthy-minded -man or woman as terrible and -repulsive a fate as ever a painter or poet -or theologian of old times attempted to -describe.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Yet it seems reasonable enough. If we -will not live we shall not live. If God, -the Christian says, is permitted by us to -reconcile us with himself, he will reconcile -us. If we do not bar out his fountains of -life they will live in us as well-springs. -We are wholly dependent upon receiving -more of his life, but we cannot be compelled -to receive it. We may even decline freedom -and lose what we had of it, employing it -amiss; it is not an inalienable character -stamped upon us. We have grown into -enough of it to be able to refuse to have -more. 'Whosoever hath, to him shall be -given; and whosoever hath not, from him -shall be taken away even that which he -seemeth to have.'</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER X</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>A religion that is not founded in nature is all fiction</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>and falsity, and as mere a nothing as an idol.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>William Law.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_6 c010'>The gain or the loss of life—this is -what the Christian religion calls us -to face. Will you be a slave to the life -you have and in the end lose it, or at -least all that makes it worth living? Or -will you, in the liberty wherewith Christ -makes you free, take up your heritage of -more life in union with him?</p> - -<p class='c011'>There is a good deal in our experience -that may be read with advantage as -commentary on this challenge of religion. -There are men (we have known them) who -grow smaller before our eyes. We say that -they are wrapped up in themselves. There -are others who as plainly grow larger. Their -interests expand; they take in more of -the concerns of other men and, as we -put it, make them their own. These, -obviously, far from being wrapped up in -themselves, are for ever breaking down -barriers and passing beyond them. If we -do not see them for some time we find -them happily different. They are caring -about ideas and aims and persons they -were not interested in before; they have -been learning; they have, in one word, -grown. And those others will have shrunk. -A man grows by the spiritual food on -which he feeds. And if such a statement -sounds remote from ordinary experience -(which it is not), let us say that the more -he really has the more he really is.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Now religion acknowledges this and interprets -it. In the eyes of a religious man -such growth means a growth in God. And -he points out that it happens only where a -man has sought for its own sake, not for -his, what he has won. He says that the -way of life is a way of disinterestedness in -regard to self and interestedness in all else. -And, as usual, he sends us to the Gospel -for the fundamental principle underlying -what experience shows. 'Whosoever will -save his life shall lose it.' That is the -kernel of the matter. Because love is the -secret of growth in spiritual life, whether -intellectual, moral or aesthetic, greed shall -not procure its fruits. In the nature of -things it cannot. That is why growth in -'spirit and life' seems so paradoxical. -When I want food to eat I may be as greedy -as I please. This will not prevent me from -having it. When I want food of the spirit -greed will only take me out of my true -path and I shall find husks that the swine -eat and Dead Sea fruit.</p> - -<p class='c011'>I cannot even discover truth or beauty -or holiness, much less win them to myself, -if I do not seek them for their own sake. -I cannot see what another man is, and I -cannot make him at one with me in a real -fellowship, unless I care about him (as we -say) because he is what he is, and so make -his interests mine. If I use any human -being as a mere instrument to serve my -purpose I lose that human being, though -I may keep the instrument. Men and -women, like goodness and truth and beauty—and -God—cannot be made mine unless -I give myself to them.</p> - -<p class='c011'>'It is very hard to be a Christian.' It -certainly is. The man who husbands life -forfeits it, and yet life is dear. 'Die to live, -the philosopher advises, as his counsel of -prudence. But how is a man to lay down -life from nothing more than prudence? -How can a man be a prudent and careful -adventurer of life? He may prudently -and carefully be a merchant, but never -an adventurer. And true religion has no -truck with merchandise or merchants of -the spirit. Its watchword is love—the -love that gives, the love God is, the love -royal that seeks no gain, the love of Christ.</p> - -<p class='c011'>So according to religion the way of -giving is, in truth and experience, the way -of gain; but if we try to follow it for -gain we find ourselves altogether outside -the way, not giving and therefore without -gain. It is hard to be a Christian. It is -exceedingly hard to love as God loves. In -fact we cannot, unless God shall become -man in us. He is the supreme giver and -our supreme gain. Inasmuch as we love -the things and persons God loves, for their -own sake (which, naturally, we shall do -when he dwells in our hearts and our -desires), we shall win them to ourselves; -whether they are, for instance, goodness, -truth and beauty, or our fellow-men. And -in thus and to that extent winning the -objects of our love we shall unveil that -reality we either call by those abstract -names, or find revealed in our fellows—the -reality which is God. Under those -mere names God himself lies concealed. -'I am the way, the truth and the life'—I -myself, he says to the men who are -discovering beauty or holiness or truth, -am that which you ignorantly worship. -'When saw we thee?' they still may ask. -Yet they knew him when through self-giving -they knew these. And names are -nothing, where reality is tasted, touched -and handled.</p> - -<p class='c011'>As God communicates himself or gives -himself to us men, in sheer love of us, so -must we communicate or give ourselves to -all we seek. This is the way of that life -the Christian calls eternal. No man -follows it unless God be with him; but -every man may follow it, and will, unless -he refuses God.</p> - -<p class='c011'>What, then, is it to refuse God? The -answer is always the same. It is to enclose -the life of self within a prison of self-seeking, -to shut outside anything that -seems likely to disturb this concentrated -worship, to try to drag inside anything -likely to profit its narrow interests, to use -things and persons as its instruments of -self-guarding and self-seeking. And if self-guarding -and self-seeking extend to the use -of the instruments of religion, as well they -may in men and women of due prudence -and ambition, we have the type of Pharisee -whom Jesus denounced, or the type of -priest who judged him and condemned him -as the enemy of God. All these are in some -degree refusers of God. And a religion -that panders to self-guarding and self-seeking -and encourages greed or makes -play with fear may be popular, but however -well-established, must be corrupt. -So far as this goes, life is not in it, and it -does but help men to disguise from themselves -their loss of life.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The incarnation of God and the atonement -of man with man and with God in -Christ are wrought by self-giving, that is -by love. The whole process of nature is -a sacrament of God's self-giving, rising to -the full revelation of love. These things -are one. It is profoundly true that 'a -religion that is not founded in nature is -all fiction and falsity, and as mere a nothing -as an idol.' Yet the Christian religion, -pre-eminently founded in nature though -it assuredly is, has been perverted, over -and over again, to be an organized means -by which men falsify a nature that is -capable of an utmost self-giving to man -and to God. The greedy and the fearful -have too often captured its organization, -and the adventurer of love has been driven -out. But both beyond and within those -built-up walls the true religion of Christ -has always lived and is lasting now. Like -the ferment in the meal it is everywhere -alive in those who, despite all the religious -self-seeking around them, share the self-sharing -of God. These have always had -the alchemist's touch; they have turned -dross to gold and have used it to ends of -God. Like the divine powers they overrule -the errors of men. But the pity is that -this very fact not rarely hinders both the -detection and the setting right of those -errors. 'See,' men say, 'this is the nursery -of saints.' And confusion of judgement -goes on. It is a pragmatic test that shows -the danger of pragmatic tests. Let us get -back to principles, for who shall dare to -say whether this or that is the nurture of -saints. All things work together for their -good, as all things work together for the -truth-seeker's truth and for beauty in its -discerner's eyes. For these, nothing is -common or unclean.</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XI</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Now whence was it that a religion, so serious in</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>its restraints, so beautiful in its outward form and</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>practices, and commanding such reverence from all</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>that beheld it, was yet charged by Truth itself with</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>having inwardly such an abominable nature? It</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>was only for this one reason, because it was a religion</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>of self.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>William Law.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_5_0_8 c010'>As heaven or hell depends on the choice -between self-giving and self-seeking, -so does the worship of the true God or the -false. Names may be mockeries here. The -self-seeking Christian, worshipping, as he -may tell us, the God and Father of his -Lord Jesus Christ, is doing nothing of the -kind. He is worshipping that which he -serves. If he could really use the true -God as a means towards the end he has -at heart, that is, make God serve him, -he would do so. This, in fact, is what he -tries to do. Naturally he cannot succeed. -And the God whom he thinks he worships -is fiction and an idol; it is one who is his -instrument in self-seeking, and that is a -fictitious God. 'God is a Spirit; and they -that worship him must worship him in -spirit and in truth.' 'Thou shalt love the -Lord thy God with all thy heart, and -with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, -and with all thy strength.' Here is the -first clue to Christian worship. And the -second is 'like unto it':—'Thou shalt -love thy neighbour as thyself.' The Christian -comment on this is characteristic:—'He -that loveth not his brother whom he -hath seen how can he love God whom he -hath not seen?' And the test is crucial. -There is no true worship without love, and -no love of God without love of the brother-man. -So the argument works itself out -and finally excludes the consistent and -impenitent self-seeker from the worship -of God.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Indeed, in the nature of life in man, -this exclusion is inevitable. Unless a man -makes his neighbour and that neighbour's -interests his own, he necessarily excludes -him from himself. In the nature of living -personal beings this must be, for only in -harmony do persons coincide, only by the -stretching out of my interests and myself -to embrace do I include. I must grow if -my neighbour is to become for me 'as -myself' and be loved as myself. So that -love of myself which is evil when confined -to interests solely mine, becomes good as -it expands. So the contracting of life -within my narrow boundaries is escaped, -and although I still love myself I love a -self that grows out and forth to the inclusion -of all, even to the inclusion of God, whom -then I shall love with the ardour which in -the contracted self is the very torment of -its hell. Only the directing of that ardour -beyond the self can prevent it from being -a consuming fire within the self. Therefore -unless I learn to worship God (and -here again words, names may mock at -realities), I shall 'perish' in my own -flame.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Worship is no pious luxury: it is a -necessity of the spiritual life. Every man -who is growing in the spirit is a worshipper -of God. He may never use the name, he -may be one of those who would say 'Lord, -when saw we thee?' but his love is showing -him the true God in his own spirit and his -own truth, and, in showing him too the -divine way of Love with men, commands -his worship. He has discovered the marvel -of self-giving, and in that discovery the -marvel of the divine way he cannot but -adore; his life, in fact, is adoration.</p> - -<p class='c011'>From other men this way is hidden; and -a God that may command their worship -must be a different God and take another -way. He must declare himself in a power -they can recognize, that kind of power -which has kinship with the forces of men's -machines and has uses like the uses of -machines. This God, who may perhaps, -through what seems to them worship, be -made a means towards their own ends, is -above all a God of an all but material -power. So, may be, they cringe before -him, pour out praises, make sacrifices, -pay a dutiful service such as a supreme -power of that kind may well call forth in -the men they are. And then, if there -comes among them a prophet, he pleads -with them in God's name, 'I will have -mercy and not sacrifice.' 'To what purpose -cometh there to me incense from -Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far -country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, -nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.'</p> - -<p class='c011'>Just such men as these self-seekers came -to Jesus, asking for a miracle, a sign. 'An -evil and adulterous generation,' he said, -'seeketh after a sign.' Why 'evil and -adulterous'? Surely because in seeking a -sign such as would please them they were -blind to the divine truth in the presence -of which they stood, and, open-eyed for -their own interests, were in their hearts -trafficking with a false God.</p> - -<p class='c011'>That the craving for such signs, such -miracle, is always evil and adulterous can -hardly be said. Yet truly it partakes, in -large measure, of the nature of sin. And -at best it is blindness, blindness to the true -marvels of God in his manifestation through -'the things that are made' and are being -made. We who have learnt of the history -of earth have our souls filled with marvel, -and with mystery too. It is not easy for -us to see how any generation that looks -for more, while it has that, can be other -than evil and adulterous. But the fact -is that familiarity does blind men to both -marvel and mystery. If it did not, the -very stones we tread under foot would -proclaim their witness to God, and every -moment of our own life would call forth -adoration of him.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In regard to this matter there is a -pressing need for the meeting of science -and philosophy with religion. Science and -philosophy tear away the veil with which -familiarity hides from us the mysteriousness -and marvel of all things and of our own -personal and common life. They show us -unfathomed depths for wonder where we -had seen nothing but a smooth accustomed -surface. But it is religion that shows us -God in all those depths, God made known -even by the very surface, and turns our -wonder into worship. It is science and -philosophy that shall purge religion of the -taint it has derived from both the ignorant, -and the evil and adulterous, generations -after generations who have made it seem -what it seems. I say 'seem what it -seems,' for this is not what it is. That is -no true religion, certainly no religion after -the mind of Christ, which passes over the -marvels of the lily of the field and of the -man indwelt by God and one with God, -taking them as things that are of course; -while making much of signs interpreted as -'intervention' and therefore taken as the -only signs of a God who is nowhere and -nothing to us unless he intervenes.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We stand amazed, we who have learnt -now to see God everywhere. Can any -religious man open his eyes, we ask, and -not see signs of God? Can he search in -any human life without finding signs in -abundance there, signs of the life-giving -presence or of the dreadful death-dealing -absence of God? What more can he ask -or desire? 'Lord God of hosts,' we exclaim, -'heaven and earth are full of thy -glory!'</p> - -<p class='c011'>Then we turn to history, the long history -of man, and the long history of the Christian -religion which goes back, beyond the -sublime figure who proclaimed it in Palestine, -to the beginnings of the worship of -God. We discover those beginnings in the -first men who turned their eyes from self -to the brother. We look along the ages -and cease to be surprised. In his long-drawn -education man has but slowly learnt -to find God in more and more of his own -life and the world. Step by step he has -felt his way, led by the spirit given him, -to the knowledge of the God and Father -of Jesus Christ, the incarnate and redeeming -God of all men, the God who comes to -indwell all things. Only now, in a new -fulness of time, are the teaching of Jesus -and the revelation of his life and death -finding a new context in new knowledge -and reflective thought. Only now are we -beginning to see why, if knowledge and -reflective thought have so far done their -work, it may well be an evil and adulterous -generation that seeks for any other signs -than those which they and Christ reveal. -Just what the earthly presence of the God-revealing -Jesus was to that generation—a -test of their single-mindedness and will -to receive and welcome divine truth—so, -when his life and witness meet with a new -emphasis in the less but concurrent witness -of new knowledge, this generation of religious -men is put to the same test. Will they -receive new witness to his truth and to -God? or will they reject it because it has -no likeness to those signs that to their -minds are alone fitted to show God? Will -they or will they not have humility enough -to learn of scientific and philosophic -'builders of Jerusalem' concerning the true -methods of God?</p> - -<p class='c011'>We cannot tell; that is, of this generation. -But we may trust in the prevailing -strength of truth. Generations pass, but -that endures. And the prophet's word -goes on:—'the hour cometh, and now is, -when the true worshippers shall worship -the Father in spirit and in truth.'</p> -<hr class='c012' /> -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XII</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c009'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>Nel suo profondo vidi che s'interna,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>legato con amore in un volume,</span></div> - <div class='line'><span class='small'>cio che per l'universo si squaderna.</span></div> - <div class='c003'><i>Dante.</i></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='drop-capa0_2_0_8 c010'>For the Christian the barrier that -finally checks the advance of life is -not death but a self-concentrated self. -It is freedom misused and lost, freedom -turning against the life that has striven to -bring it to birth. Perversity builds that -barrier and human life cannot pass it or—shall -we not say with the Christian?—God -cannot pass it. This alone thwarts the -divine purpose for man and brings about -the 'second' and only true death.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We have nothing to urge against this -teaching of religion; we see the second -death beginning in every man who is -perverting freedom from its life-furthering -office. We see in him that which he seems -to have being taken away. Moreover, we -are prepared to believe that the first -death, willingly accepted (as we have -also seen) as an element in purposive and -potent life, is but the gate through which -men pass to more of life. We may have -our moments of doubt, because we cannot -see with our eyes the other side of that gate, -and the sense-habit is strong within us; -but reason demands, as the Christian -religion declares, that life that is growing -here and is big with promise unfulfilled -shall go on there.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The Christian seems to know much of -the other side of that gate that other people -do not know. He talks of heaven, of -paradise, of hell. We understand him -when he talks of hell; there is so much -evidence of that here and now. But we -are less clear about his paradise, less clear -still about his heaven. What does he really -mean when he speaks, all too positively -and definitely (we think), about these two?</p> - -<p class='c011'>Undoubtedly most Christians have meant -a good many things at which not a few of -them will smile now. They have meant -things that were certainly not of the mind -of Christ, but of the unilluminated and -uncriticizing and biased minds of other -men. Sometimes they have pictured a -man who is, even to our eyes, a mere -beginner in the divine art of life, plunged, -as it were, into a very sea of God, sent -with all his mere beginnings to live as he -may amid God's unveiled glories. That is -not a picture which instructed and enlightened -Christians favour now. Our friend to -whom we so constantly appeal will tell us -of Paradise, where Jesus and the thief -were to meet together. He will speak of -'intermediate' purifying and enriching -states through which the beginner passes, -learning his art of life. He will assure us -that he knows of very few who even to his -poor vision seem fit to 'go to heaven,' fit, -that is, to endure the full glory of beauty -and holiness and truth resplendent and -realized in the 'beatific vision' of God. -And in this he commends himself. He is -an evolutionist of the coming worlds, this -believer in an advance through them towards -the splendours of the City of God. And -after all he has the collective voice of -Christendom speaking with him. Only a -minority of Christians from the beginning -until now have not been evolutionists of -the worlds to come.</p> - -<p class='c011'>No doubt the Christian arranges his -pictorial conceptions of those worlds too -systematically, and marks off grades as -life never does. But in the main life has -kept its hold upon him and he has been -unable not to see that it must go on, move, -change, grow, on the far side of death. We -have no quarrel with his principle in this -regard, though we may contest the mechanical -fashion in which, not rarely, he applies -it. And when he speaks of the 'beatific -vision' of the City of God, our hearts are -stirred in response. We too seek a 'continuing -city' of life in its grandeur. We, -too, see the promise of that city here, even -in the very failures of our own. And when -the Christian tells us of his Lord's Prayer—Thy -kingdom come, as it is in heaven, -we feel that heaven is not alien from us or -from our desires and our hopes. If heaven -is indeed the crown and consummation of -personal and social life on earth, then it is -to heaven we ourselves are looking forward, -looking, fearing, longing. We, too, have -our vision of a kingdom where love shall -be the king, and self-seeking, with all its -dreadful consequences, be done away. We -can see it is this that ruins our cities of -earth, this alone. And where this is not, -there indeed will be our kingdom come, as -well as God's.</p> - -<p class='c011'>An Eastern's imagination may depict the -'holy city, the new Jerusalem,' in her -'light,' as 'pure gold, like unto clear -glass'; he may exhaust that imagination -in details of chalcedony and emerald and -pearl; that is his way. But when he says -that 'the nations of them which are saved -shall walk in the light of it: and the kings -of the earth do bring their glory and honour -into it,' he gives speech to our mind through -his. For this, this, is the 'goal of human -endeavour' for us. We have watched the -advance of life towards our own cities -and in turn watching them have discovered -what they lack and what, in their -poverty of attainment and abundant promise, -they foretell if life goes on beyond -the gates of death. So, sharing the Christian's -faith that indeed it does, we share -his vision.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Only as a social being is any man a man -at all. Only when the promise of other -men is fulfilled, is his promise fulfilled. No -man (we see that plainly) can be 'saved' -alone; he must be saved in his nations, -by true community in a life grown to be -harmonious with life everywhere, in and -with the source of all life. Only in God -can any man fulfil his destiny as a man -among men who must be one with them -if he is not to 'perish everlastingly.' We -and the Christian agree—once we see what -he means and he sees what we mean. And -it is through Jesus Christ that we discover -the meaning of the Christian. We may, -perhaps, not unsuitably, urge him to try -to discover ours in the same way. For it -is only when he has wandered from the -side of Christ and forgotten or misinterpreted -the mind of Christ that there is -trouble between us.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is easy to forget and misinterpret, -very easy to substitute for divine spirit -and life and the divine 'word,' a machinery -of logic or tradition or institutional arrangement. -But it is destructive of the possibility -of mutual understanding between us. -Again, we must urge, it is machine-like -scheming that divides, not real religion or -knowledge of life. 'Ye have made the -word of God of none effect through your -tradition' is a prophet's saying of the -widest application in the affairs of men. -But when we recognize this, even on one -side only of a dividing line, the process of -correction has begun. And as a matter -of fact there is recognition now on both -sides, and day by day it extends itself and -its influence. Science and philosophy and -religion are met together as they have -never in the history of the world been met -before, open-eyed, conscious of the common -heritage of training in the battle of the -world and in the struggles of practical life, -which has biased every one of us and been -the chief agent in turning the common -search after truth by men of good will -into a war of opinions.</p> - -<p class='c011'>To confess that we are all, in so far -as we are honest seekers, 'builders of -Jerusalem' after our own manner and -degree, is the first and perhaps the hardest -step to take towards full co-operation -between us. What children we are, that -we do not know it! Yet, in truth, we -cannot know it until on both sides we give -up the fond belief, the delusion, that we -are not seekers but have either attained or -received, either attained the full truth of the -world and ourselves by knowledge, or received -it through an external and externally -given revelation. Once we know that we -are all pilgrims and that the divine city -lies ahead for every one of us, both in -knowledge and in life, we may travel -together.</p> - -<p class='c011'>With the Christian we may work for the -divine kingdom. We share his belief and -his trust in the omnipotence of redeeming -love. Nothing, we see, can redeem this -earth but love. There is love to be seen -faintly, amid dark and conflicting shadows, -in the biologist's picture of a world-Eden, -where it is after all and in spite of -all 'creation's final law.' But the fulness -of its glory is unveiled only in the -love of Christ, passing our knowledge.</p> -<p class='c014'>'Conceiving our life in this manner, the material -evolution of the world becomes the incarnation and -the expression of a spiritual meaning, of a divine -event which is actually in process of coming to pass. -No longer, for example, do we think of the earth's -movement round the sun as a meaningless rotation: -we think of it as preparing the conditions which -enable life to rise to its sublimest height, we see the -whole creation saturated in sunlight. Not in vain -are the heavens starred with innumerable fires. They -speak to us of worlds to which they give life and -being, warming them with their heat, brightening -them with their beams. And the end to which all -these lives are moving, of every flower that blooms, -of every bird that sings, is also the central principle -of the entire evolution of the universe—the embodied -Word of God. For the purpose of the whole is -nothing other than the incarnation of the divine, -the participation of the created in the eternal life of -the uncreated, of which the God-man is the perfect -revelation.... If God be indeed the end of all -existence, he must needs fill all things with his being. -If God is love, his arms are round the entire universe, -and there is no creature anywhere unloved by him.'</p> -<div class='c015'><span class='sc'>Prince Eugene Troubetzkoy.</span></div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>APPENDIX</h2> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c016'> - <div>BOOKS ON THE SUBJECTS OF PART I.</div> - </div> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1'> - <li><span class='sc'>B. Moore.</span> <i>The Origin and Nature of Life.</i> (Home - University Library). - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>J. A. Thomson</span> and <span class='sc'>P. Geddes</span>. - <i>Evolution.</i> (Home University Library). - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>A. R. Hinks.</span> <i>Astronomy.</i> (Home University - Library). - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>R. Meldola.</span> <i>Chemistry.</i> (Home University - Library). - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>J. Ward.</span> <i>Heredity and Memory.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>Oliver Lodge.</span> <i>The Ether of Space.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>A. Ruhe</span> and <span class='sc'>N. M. Paul</span>. - <i>Henri Bergson; An Account of his Life and Philosophy.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>Samuel Butler.</span> <i>Life and Habit.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>H. Bergson.</span> <i>Time and Freewill.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>H. Bergson.</span> <i>Matter and Memory.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>H. Bergson.</span> <i>Creative Evolution.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>J. Ward.</span> <i>The Realm of Ends.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>H. Driesch.</span> <i>The Science and Philosophy of the - Organism.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>W. James.</span> <i>Principles of Psychology.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>E. S. Russell.</span> <i>Form and Function.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>A. D. Darbishire.</span> <i>An Introduction to a - Biology.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>J. S. Haldane.</span> <i>Organism and Environment.</i> - </li> - </ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c018'> - <div>BOOKS ON THE SUBJECTS OF PART II.</div> - </div> -</div> - - <ul class='ul_1'> - <li><span class='sc'>T. R. Glover.</span> <i>The Jesus of History.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>A. Clutton-Brock.</span> <i>The Ultimate Belief.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>A. Clutton-Brock.</span> <i>What is the Kingdom of - Heaven?</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>W. S. Palmer.</span> <i>Providence and Faith.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>W. S. Palmer.</span> <i>The Ladder of Reality.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>William Law.</span> <i>The Spirit of Love.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>William Law.</span> <i>The Spirit of Prayer.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>G. Tyrrell.</span> <i>Lex Orandi.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>G. Tyrrell.</span> <i>Lex Credendi.</i> <i>Faith and - Freedom</i>—(edited by C. H. S. Matthews). - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>R. G. Collingwood.</span> <i>Religion and Philosophy.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>Alexander Nairne.</span> <i>The Epistle of Priesthood.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>A. S. Pringle-Pattison.</span> <i>The Idea of God in the - Light of Recent Philosophy.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>Friedrich von Hügel.</span> <i>Eternal Life.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>Friedrich von Hügel.</span> <i>The Mystical Element of - Religion.</i> - - </li> - <li class='c017'><span class='sc'>A. C. Turner.</span> <i>Faith, Prayer and the World's - Order</i> (Essay in <i>Concerning Prayer</i>—edited by B. H. Streeter). - </li> - </ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c018'> - <div><span class='small'><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> Butler & Tanner, <i>Frome and London</i>.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c019'> - <div>Transcriber's Notes.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c020'>The cover was produced by the transcriber and is placed in -the public domain.</p> - -<p class='c020'>The original spelling and punctuation has been retained.</p> - -<p class='c020'>Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been -preserved.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Where Science and Religion Meet, by -William Scott Palmer - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHERE SCIENCE AND RELIGION MEET *** - -***** This file should be named 52245-h.htm or 52245-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/2/4/52245/ - -Produced by readbueno, Donald Cummings, Bryan Ness and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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