Nature uses the same atoms to perform many services of widely differing purpose. Where she is inanimate the blind and dumb law of the "survival of the fittest" rules supreme. In her lowest forms of life this law begins to be modified by selection, and protection from without. In the higher forms of animal life memory, and selection, and division of labor, and provision, and gratitude, show a degree of development that is beautiful indeed; but it is left to man to perfect this development within himself. To him is given the power, through cultivation, to promote, without limit, growth towards Perfection, which is the evidence of Divinity in him.
Soft mist, down-falling, from its cloud domain,
Bathes all the thirsty land with gentle rain;
Again, to Heaven ascends, by sunbeams wooed,
Then plunges back to earth in torrent mood.
As gentle rain it swells the softening seed;
In torrent force, it wrecks with demon greed;
Now, like the radiance of a loving heart;
Now, like the scorching of a lightning dart.
The self-same atom, hidden in a tear.
May shine with love, or note a potent fear;
When bound to others form the flintiest stone;
Or, floating freely, bear the subtlest tone.
Thoughts are like atoms, fashioned by the will;
Each has a mission, charged with good or ill;
Sometimes to bless; anon to desolate;
Love's messenger; or harbinger of hate.
In Nature's hands, one atom plays two parts,
As may be needed in her several arts;
In man alone, should love forever shine;
Displacing hate; proclaiming man Divine.
Love, and Appreciation, and Gratitude, – the ever-present and ever-faithful handmaids of Emancipation, – are the natural and only conditions favorable to growth; they are the less assertive but stronger attributes which are always waiting to occupy the places left vacant by anger and worry, and to fill the "void which Nature abhors." Born of them is that other Divine attribute called Help or Charity, and together they stimulate to good action and good thought, and lift into life that plant of the soul, the Divine Responsibility of each member of the human family.
Anger and worry are the rankest forms of Egotism.
Emancipation is the reverse of Phariseeism. Phariseeism is self-sufficiency; while Emancipation shows its desire for growth, through the preparation of its mental and spiritual entity for unimpaired growth, by clearing it of the weeds of egotism.
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Fenollosa It was my privilege one evening to be with Prof. Fenollosa in his Japanesque apartment in Boston. Almost every article in view was the product of some Japanese artist who had been the friend of Prof. Fenollosa in Japan. The odor of incense added perceptibly to the calming influence of the environment.
Many years ago we had met in far-off Japan amid similar surroundings, and had discussed theories of true living that had been a source of great pleasure to me, and whose influence had been with me to many countries and climes, helping me to enjoy more fully than I otherwise could, the beauties of nature, and of art, and of life.
We were exchanging the experiences of the intervening years, and I became acutely interested in his account of the wonderful degree of culture and self-control attained by some of his Japanese friends through the practice of the Buddhist discipline.
It was all so interesting and beautiful, that under the spell of the recital and the surroundings, I longed to taste some of the sweets of the calm he pictured, and begged him to tell me the process of the discipline, so that perchance I might follow it and reap some of the benefits.
The philosopher saw that I was serious in my desire, and his face lit up with approval as he said, "It is not easy to communicate at a sitting what took me years of study to learn, but I can at least put you in the way of a start. I can tell you where to begin to grow. You must first get rid of anger and worry." "But," said I, "is that possible?" "Yes," replied he, "it is possible to the Japanese, and ought to be possible to us."
I was startled at the suggestion of the possibility of the entire repression of anger and worry. I knew that their repression was counselled by Christianity and Buddhism, and presumably by all codes of religion and ethics; but I had never considered getting rid of them as a human possibility, except under conditions of health and wealth and ease, to which few, if any, ever attain.
On my walk back to the Parker House, a distance of fully two miles, I could not think of anything else but the words, "get rid," "get rid;" and the idea must have continued to possess me during my sleeping hours, for the first consciousness in the morning brought back the same thought, with the revelation of a discovery, which framed itself into the reasoning, "If it is possible to get rid of anger and worry, why is it necessary to have them at all?" I felt the strength of the argument and at once accepted the reasoning. The baby had discovered that it could walk. It would scorn to creep any longer.
From the instant I realized that these cancer spots of worry and anger were removable, they left me. With the discovery of their weakness they were exorcised. From that time life has had an entirely changed aspect.
Although from that moment the possibility and desirability of freedom from the depressing passions has been a reality to me, it took me some months to feel absolute security in my new position; but, as the usual occasions for worry and anger have presented themselves over and over again, and I have been unable to feel them in the slightest degree, I no longer dread or guard against them, and I am amazed at my increased energy and vigor of mind; – at my strength to meet situations of all kinds, and at my disposition to love and appreciate everything.
I have had occasion to travel more than ten thousand miles by rail since that morning; North, South, East and West, with the varying comforts and discomforts, as they used to be. The same Pullman porter, conductor, hotel waiter, peddler, book-agent, cabman, and others, who were formerly a source of annoyance and irritation have been met, but I am not conscious of a single incivility. All at once the whole world has turned good to me. I am sure the change is not so much in the world as in me. I have become, as it were, sensitive only to the rays of good, as some photographic films of recent invention are sensitive only to certain single colored rays of light.
If we are wise we never leave school. When the academy and the college have put us through their curriculum, we have still before us the example of Nature, and the walks of Science, and Art, and Brotherhood, in which to search for suggestions to be applied in menticulture. May we not learn a lesson from the newly discovered film?
Should not the chemical condition of selection be more difficult than a similar voluntary mental accomplishment? In comparison with a similar process in physics the more pliable material of the mind ought to be fashioned with greater ease.
I could recount