Nor rest, nor rule. He daily walked with God.
His willing feet with service swift were shod--
An eager soul to serve the human race,
Illume the mind, and fill the heart with grace--
Hope blooms afresh where'er those feet have trod.
PAUL DERRICK.
SOME FACTS IN NATURE
If I were asked what, in my opinion, distinguishes the thought of the
present day from that of a previous generation, I should feel inclined
to say, it is the fact that people are beginning to realize that Thought
is a power in itself, one of the great forces of the Universe, and
ultimately the greatest of forces, directing all the others. This idea
seems to be, as the French say, "in the air," and this very well
expresses the state of the case--the idea is rapidly spreading through
many countries and through all classes, but it is still very much "in
the air." It is to a great extent as yet only in a gaseous condition,
vague and nebulous, and so not leading to the practical results, both
individual and collective, which might be expected of it, if it were
consolidated into a more workable form. We are like some amateurs who
want to paint finished pictures before they have studied the elements of
Art, and when they see an artist do without difficulty what they vainly
attempt, they look upon him as a being specially favoured by Providence,
instead of putting it down to their own want of knowledge. The idea is
true. Thought _is_ the great power of the Universe. But to make it
practically available we must know something of the principles by which
it works--that it is not a mere vaporous indefinable influence floating
around and subject to no known laws, but that on the contrary, it
follows laws as uncompromising as those of mathematics, while at the
same time allowing unlimited freedom to the individual.
Now the purpose of the following pages, is to suggest to the reader the
lines on which to find his way out of this nebulous sort of thought into
something more solid and reliable. I do not profess, like a certain
Negro preacher, to "unscrew the inscrutable," for we can never reach a
point where we shall not find the inscrutable still ahead of us; but if
I can indicate the use of a screw-driver instead of a hatchet, and that
the screws should be turned from left to right, instead of from right to
left, it may enable us to unscrew some things which would otherwise
remain screwed down tight. We are all beginners, and indeed the
hopefulness of life is in realizing that there are such vistas of
unending possibilities before us, that however far we may advance, we
shall always be on the threshold of something greater. We must be like
Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up--heaven defend me from ever feeling
quite grown up, for then I should come to a standstill; so the reader
must take what I have to say simply as the talk of one boy to another in
the Great School, and not expect too much.
The first question then is, where to begin. Descartes commenced his book
with the words "Cogito, ergo sum." "I think, therefore I am," and we
cannot do better than follow his example. There are two things about
which we cannot have any doubt--our own existence, and that of the world
around us. But what is it in us that is aware of these two things, that
hopes and fears and plans regarding them? Certainly not our flesh and
bones. A man whose leg has been amputated is able to think just the
same. Therefore it is obvious that there is something in us which
receives impressions and forms ideas, that reasons upon facts and
determines upon courses of action and carries them out, which is not the
physical body. This is the real "I Myself." This is the Person we are
really concerned with; and it is the betterment of this "I Myself" that
makes it worth while to enquire what our Thought has to do in the
matter.
Equally true it is on the other hand that the forces of Nature around us
do not think. Steam, electricity, gravitation, and chemical affinity do
not think. They follow certain fixed laws which we have no power to
alter. Therefore we are confronted at the outset by a broad distinction
between two modes of Motion--the Movement of Thought and the Movement of
Cosmic Energy--the one based upon the exercise of Consciousness and
Will, and the other based upon Mathematical Sequence. This is why that
system of instruction known as Free Masonry starts by erecting the two
symbolic pillars Jachin and Boaz--Jachin so called from the root "Yak"
meaning "One," indicating the Mathematical element of Law; and Boaz,
from the root "Awáz" meaning "Voice" indicating Personal element of Free
Will. These names are taken from the description in I Kings vii, 21 and
II Chron. iii, 17 of the building of Solomon's Temple, where these two
pillars stood before the entrance, the meaning being that the Temple of
Truth can only be entered by passing between them, that is, by giving
each of these factors their due relation to the other, and by realizing
that they are the two Pillars of the Universe, and that no real progress
can be made except by finding the true balance between them. Law and
Personality--these are the two great principles with which we have to
deal, and the problem is to square the one with the other.
Let me start, then, by considering some well established facts in the
physical world which show how the known Law acts under certain known
conditions, and this will lead us on in an intelligible manner to see
how the same Law is likely to work under as yet unknown conditions. If
we had to deal with unknown laws as well as unknown conditions we
should, indeed, be up a gum tree. Fancy a mathematician having to solve
an equation, both sides of which were entirely made up of unknown
quantities--where would he be? Happily