and our world as separate from the divine or from nature, were produced
by the refusal of the personal will to carry out the will of the
Supreme; for when this opposition ceases and the personal will becomes
the direct agent of the spiritual will, order reigns and the world of
disorder disappears. This amounts to saying that the illuminated man
is no longer in darkness, when the inner light is allowed to shine
through his lower mind. But as such men are no longer subject to the
darkness, or the illusion of the world, they are lost to those who are
still blind and in the dark unless they hold themselves down to that
condition in order to help others to get free from the darkness which
obscures the true life.
So in the old mythologies we find the Gods, doing on a higher plane
what man does in his world, interposing their personal will in
interference with the will of the Supreme, and thereby throwing a
veil of illusion over the lower worlds which is the cause of a cycle
of strife and discord; for the personal will has shut out the light
and suspended the action of the higher Law through the failure of
its agent, and produced the illusion of that series of states of
consciousness we call Time. The Eternal, being beyond time, is not
affected; but that is a mystery to man in his lower consciousness,
in which he cannot get away from the reality of time. The lower
consciousness is bound up in time, and to it time is reality; but man
is not bound up in his lower consciousness, nor is he limited to its
field of operation. The eternal is in him and at any moment he may get
a ray of that light which we call inspiration or intuition, and by
that illumination he may see the solution of the problem and feel his
divinity, while utterly unable to put that knowledge so obtained into
any satisfactory form of words; he may even be unable to put it into a
form of thought, and may find himself with a knowledge that must remain
secret.
As natural Law is Universal, so it must operate in an appropriate
manner on all planes; "as above so below" (Hermetic maxim); "Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven" (a Christian prayer); but as the
action of a law is conditioned by the mind and matter on which and
through which it acts, it may not be easy to recognize the One Law in
its various manifestations. So we find the application of the highest
philosophy in the most ordinary circumstances of daily life, for the
law is universal; and when we have reached up to some high thought
and got some new light, we must find means to see its application to
some practical detail of life, or we have again blocked the course of
the higher Law, which is seeking to penetrate to the lowest depths of
matter through us.
We are thus agents of the higher Law of Nature and it is our duty to
get into line as quickly as may be, and to let the light shine through.
* * * * *
COURAGE consists not in hazarding without fear but being resolutely
minded in a just cause.... The Deity is the brave man's hope and not
the coward's excuse.--_Plutarch_
THE WILL AS A CHEMICAL PRODUCT: by Investigator
In a current review appears an article entitled "The Will as a Chemical
Product," accompanied by the portrait of a professor, beneath which
is written, "Who holds that what we call 'will' in the lower animals
is a mere chemical or physical phenomenon, like the sunflower's
turning toward the light." This statement might just as well be turned
around so as to run, "What we call chemical action is nothing but a
manifestation of the mere will." However, this professor appears to be
haunted with the desire to represent the whole universe as a mechanism;
for, by a daring use of the "scientific imagination," which vaults
scornfully over all gaps in the chain of reasoning, he applies his
theory to man--including presumably himself, the author of the theory,
since he does not make any mention of himself as an exception.
To begin with the sunflower, which is where the professor begins--the
idea is that the solar rays cause chemical actions in the plant, the
chemical actions in their turn causing movements which switch the
flower around into a position where the balance of forces results
in stability. Next we go to the small fresh-water crustacean. This
animal, when experimented upon, did not show any heliotropism; but
the professor was nothing daunted. He just poured some acid into the
water, and the result was that the pollywogs all flocked to the light
and stayed there. It was the same when carbonic acid gas or alcohol was
put into the water. Our explanation is that the pollywogs were upset by
the poisoned water and crowded into that part where the light rendered
the water less poisonous or gave them greater strength to resist the
ill effects. But the professor has a theory to prop; so his conclusion
is that the chemical poured into the water "sensitized" the creature,
rendering them heliotropic. It is wonderful what a great theory a
little fact can be made to prove!
Passing to ethics--rather a large jump--the professor suggests that
persons who exhibit the highest manifestation of ethics--that is,
persons who are willing to sacrifice their lives for an idea--are
victims of a "tropism." In other words, these unfortunate people have
become slaves to the chemical reactions produced in them by the stimuli
of ideas.
Well, it may suit this professor to define self-sacrifice as an
obsession, but we could give other instances of the obsession of
ideas which would fit the definition better. Ethics may be a chemical
phenomenon, but in that case it does not much matter after all, since
every other thing in the universe is also a chemical process. The
professor himself is a chemical process--so, a fig for his theory! say
we; who cares for a theory made by a chemical process? Frankly, we do
not believe this theory. But, if the theory is false, it follows that
it was not made by a chemical process after all; hence it is perhaps
_not_ false. And so the logic goes round and round.
People who weave theories of this fantastic kind are people whose
ideas have no relation to life; they live in a world of imagination.
People who can define their own mind as a chemical process--the very
mind which they are using all the time--must surely have something the
matter with their thinking machinery. And we recognize in the sneer
at ethics the shadow of a certain destructive "stimulus" which is
certainly not of the sun but which acts on people's brains a good deal
in these days.
Under the influence of a stimulus which has acted on our chemical
cells, and which we feel powerless to resist, we state without
apology that all chemical, physical, and electrical processes are
manifestations of will. The action of the sunflower in turning to the
sun is a manifestation of will. Without will, no atom could approach
or recede from its neighbor. Physical notation cannot get any further
than corpuscles separated by empty space; and what short of a will
can bridge such a gap? Shall we define the whole universe as chemical
processes, or shall we define it as mind and will? Take your choice. In
the one case you have a chemical process defining itself as a chemical
process; for your mind, which defines, is a chemical process; in the
other case you have mind recognizing mind in other beings. Analysis
of the universe must begin with consciousness; we must define matter
in terms of mind; to attempt to define mind in terms of matter, while
at the same time using a mind to do it with, is to make a fundamental
mistake in logic that can only lead to a piling up of absurdities.
In speculating as to the cause of motion, try to imagine any other
cause for it than volition. You have, let us say, two atoms; they
approach one another; here is motion; what causes it? You can only
answer "Attraction," which is only defining it by an equivalent word;
for attraction is nothing more than a name for the very thing we are
seeking to explain. If we study our own organism we find that volition
is the cause of motion, and we infer that it is the same in other
people. We are not conscious of any volition that moves our own vital
organs, or the muscles of other people or animals, or the sunflower,
or the chemical mixture. But if we do not put these actions under
the same category as the ones of which we are conscious, we have to
find a new and special explanation for them. It is better to accept,
provisionally at least, volition as being one of the fundamental facts
of the universe, and to use it as a basis of inference; for volition is
a thing of which we have actual experience, while the atoms and blind
forces of materialistic speculation are mere suppositions.
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE NOBLE VIKINGS
Presentations in the Open Air in Sweden, 1911]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ANOTHER VIEW]
But delusions, however erroneous, do actually exist as such in the
minds of those obsessed by them; and are capable of giving rise to
mischievous actions. We have at present a regular epidemic of awful
sociological theories, threatening to develop into action, and based
on these mechanical and chemical ideas of the universe. Such proposals
as that criminals shall be vivisected, that private or co-operative
self-abuse shall be officially taught as a means of keeping down the
population, and many other such notions, are the fruit of a perverted
and materialistic philosophy. They give a faint idea of the reign of
terror that might supervene if the destructive forces now at work
should gain the upper hand. A section of the world of thought seems to
be going mad and the sooner the people find it out the better.
OPEN-AIR DRAMA: by Per Fernholm, M. E., Royal Institute of Technology
(Stockholm)
All know that to act with knowledge at the critical moment is like
throwing out a kindling spark that sets minds aflame and makes possible
things which long have loomed in unattainable horizons. But the
spreading of this fire proceeds on inner planes and can not be followed
by those ignorant of the source. Seldom does it leave obvious traces in
so short a time as is the case in the recent development of the drama.
Not more than twelve years have passed since the hills of Lomaland
resounded with the soul-stirring stanzas of the _Eumenides_, the
open-air drama being directed and supervised in all its detail by
Katherine Tingley, and played by her students. She then declared that
a new awakening in this art was at hand and that the drama would be
restored once more to its true dignity as a most potent means of
expressing the life of the Soul. The seed at that moment planted
knowingly by her fell into a rich soil--today there is hardly a
country where an attempt has not been made to present ancient life by
representations in the open air.
This year, in Lomaland, another note has been struck, a new impulse
given by the presentation of _The Aroma of Athens_ in the open-air
Greek Theater. More plays are to follow, of different lands and times,
opening up limitless opportunities for all who are in earnest and have
the welfare of the nations at heart. Ancient life is here given in
unstained purity, suffused with the inspiring splendor of soul-life.
Here all the rays come from within, from above; the false glamor from
below has no place.
Elsewhere efforts have not always been successful, and we need not
wonder at that. Where do we find knowledge of ancient times except in
regard to scattered details of superficial life? Modern plays are few
which can withstand the silent environment of nature, for there the
conflict of human passions are out of place, as also much of the modern
way of acting, dissecting emotions and sensations. Nature demands
sincerity, and requires that a rôle should not only be _acted_, but
actually _lived_, supported by a worthy life. Then only will nature
help in many a hidden way; then only shall we have before our eyes the
drama of all ages: Man learning to use his own powers wisely and to
work in harmony with Nature.
One of the happier attempts outside Lomaland seems to have been that
made in Sweden this summer by a band of young and enthusiastic actors.
Their success may be due to the fact that they started out with the
sincere wish to give the people out in the country who never had
seen a play, and especially the young, an opportunity to obtain a
glimpse of their ancient life. Refreshing simplicity and heart-feeling
characterized their whole work, going around, as they did, from place
to place where the young usually meet in summertime, selecting a fit
place on a mountain, at a lake, in a grove, or whatever they could
find, the audience having to resort to the flower-sprinkled grassy
slope of a hill. Over one hundred representations were given in this
way, most of them far away from cities.
Even as a string vibrates when its note is sounded from a distance,
so the deeper heart-strings vibrate when their note is struck; and it
seems as if a new means of reaching the people has been found in such
representations.
If only the highest and purest notes be sounded, as was the case in
Lomaland, new and helpful forces are called into play in human life.
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY: by H. Coryn, M. D., M. R. C. S.
Will the turn of Keeley (of motor fame) come for vindication? The turn
of the Keeley _principle_, the disintegration of atoms by sound, and
the consequent liberation of their stored energy, undoubtedly will.
In his recent address to the British Association for the Advancement
of Science Sir William Ramsay dealt with the _self_-disintegration of
atoms, especially radium atoms, and then went on:
This leads to the speculation whether, if elements are capable of
disintegration, the world may not have at its disposal a hitherto
unsuspected source of energy. If radium were to evolve its stored-up
energy at the same rate that gun-cotton does, we should have an
undreamed of explosive; could we control the rate we should have a
useful and potent source of energy.... If some form of catalyser
[promotor of atomic change] could be discovered which would usefully
increase their [such elements as radium] almost inconceivably slow
rate of change, then it is not too much to say that the whole future
of our race would be altered.
A _Scientific American_ writer follows on naturally:
Iodide of nitrogen, a black powder, is one of the most dangerous of
all explosives. When dry, the slightest touch will often cause it to
explode with great violence. There appears to be a certain rate of
vibration which this compound cannot resist. Some of it in the damp
state was rubbed on the strings of a bass viol. It is known that the
strings of such an instrument will vibrate when those of a similar
instrument, having an equal tension, are played upon. In the present
case, after the explosive had become thoroughly dry upon the strings,
another bass viol was brought near and its strings sounded. At a
certain note the iodide exploded. It was found that the explosion
occurred only when a rate of vibration of sixty per second was
communicated to the prepared strings. The note G caused an explosion
while E had no effect.
The writer goes on to state that damage to stone and brick walls has
been traced to long continued violin playing.
It follows, of course, that there must have been continuous playing
for years to cause the loosening of masonry or to make iron brittle,
but it will do so in time.
The point of interest is _the special rate of vibration_ required
to set free the energy locked up in the iodide of nitrogen. It was
intra-_molecular_ energy. Sir William Ramsay was referring to the far
greater stores of intra-_atomic_ energy, energy _within_ the atoms,
holding each one together. The other ties them one to another within
the molecule, i. e., holds the molecule together.
But may not the atom too respond to some special rate of vibration
producible by sound, lying far among the upper harmonics of any audible
tone? This at any rate was Keeley's statement and claim. The causes of
his equally unquestionable successes and failure may be worth looking
into once more now that a certain high temperature surrounding the
subject has died down. _Sound_ may be Sir William Ramsay's "catalyser."
A JAPANESE WRITER'S VIEWS ON MODERN CIVILIZATION: Contributed by E. S.
(Tokyo, Japan)
In an essay on the future of civilization in Japan, quoted in the
_Japan Chronicle_, Dr. Otsuki says:
There can be little doubt that Western civilization and Japanese
civilization will eventually be united.... The harmonizing of the two
can be brought about only by mutual concessions; but it seems to me it
would be a calamity if we were to concede too much. There are times
when one feels as Dr. Nitobe felt when he wrote his _Soul of Japan_,
and as Lafcadio Hearn felt when he described the moral beauty of old
Japan; one fears that in their conflict with European civilization our
Japanese ideals will be gradually wiped out, that the good and the
beautiful as we have known it and loved it, will be sacrificed to the
coarser forms of modern utilitarianism....
The blending of the two civilizations
leads us to inquire what is likely to be the future of Western
civilization. On this subject there is a great variety of opinion in
the West; but of one thing deep thinkers seem sure: the present system
of material civilization can only escape from ending in a terrible
cataclysm by the addition to it of spiritual and moral elements that
will guide, control, and conserve its energy.... Is it not possible
that Japan may be able to take a prominent part in this work? Can she
not save Europe and America from the dangers that now beset them? If
by blending her civilization with theirs she can supply the elements
of strength and permanence which are now lacking, then her future as
well as that of Western nations will be one of increasing prosperity.
But if, while receiving from Europe and America much that is good,
she takes also much that is distinctly bad, and in addition to this,
she allows her own fine old system of civilization to be blotted out
of existence--then her future destiny cannot be contemplated by any
patriotic Japanese with anything but grave misgiving and profound
grief.
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. FACE OF STELA B:
COPAN From Maudslay's _Archaeologia_]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. FACE OF STELA P:
COPAN From Maudslay's _Archaeologia_]
COPAN, AND ITS POSITION IN AMERICAN HISTORY: by William E. Gates
No place among all the sites of ancient ruins on the continent of
America, arouses a livelier interest in both the observer and the
student, than does Copan. Other remains, in Peru, and even in Mexico,
are of vaster bulk; but the ensemble of Copan produces upon the mind an
effect comparable in Egypt only by that of Thebes. And this evidence
grows and is supported at every step by the evidence of such researches
and excavations as it has been so far possible to carry on.
All would seem to indicate a gradual addition of new features
accompanied by abandonment of older parts. It can readily be seen how
a process of this kind carried on for centuries, without any well
designed plan to adhere to or any definite idea to carry out, would
result in a great complex mass of structures like that of Copan to
puzzle and perplex the explorer.
There are other evidences that point to several successive periods of
occupation. The river front presents what looks like _at least three
great strata_, divided by floors or pavements of mortar cement. If
these floors mark the various levels corresponding to different epochs
in the history of the city, the question of the age of the ruins
becomes still more complicated; for between each successive period of
occupancy _there is the period of silence_, the length of which can
only be inferred from the thickness of the superimposed stratum.--Dr.
Geo. B. Gordon, _Exploration of Copan_, (in Peabody Museum _Memoirs_).
The ruins of Copan lie on the level plain of a beautiful valley, a
mile and a half wide by seven or eight miles long, in Honduras, some
twelve miles east of the Guatemala boundary. The site thus marks
the eastern limit of the region covered by the ancient Maya remains
and inscriptions, as Palenque about marks its western edge, a short
distance beyond the Guatemala line, in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
The valley of Copan is watered by a swift river which enters and
leaves by a gorge, washing the eastern side of the ruins. The force of
the annual freshets each year carries away more of this river wall,
and by its washings has shown that the entire elevation of 120 feet
is of historical or artificial growth, showing the stratification of
occupancy mentioned by Dr. Gordon, and yielding fragments of pottery
and obsidian down to the water level.
As can be seen by the plan, the ruins form a composite whole, some 2300
by 1400 feet, and the historical development of the site is shown by
three independent pieces of evidence. Of these the most striking at
first sight is the very apparent growth of the ground plan, pointing
to successive additions and enlargements of an original nucleus,
just as we see at Thebes. The second evidence is that of excavation,
which proves beyond all question, even by the little so far done, that
new structures and temples were built upon or into the old. And this
evidence is corroborated by the dates on some of the monuments.
The striking unity of the whole group of structures at Copan is
therefore a composite unity, the result of long-continued occupation.
Structures and temples were built and used; life flowed on around
them, and after lapses of time whose length we have no means whatever
(save in one case) of even estimating, other buildings were added, and
the earlier ones built over, or even covered up by the new. People do
not build temples and tear them down to build new ones the next year;
nor on the other hand do alien peoples and civilizations expand by a
harmonious enlargement the works of those they supersede, but rather
change, destroy, or build their own.
The first thing then to be realized about the entire group of
structures at Copan is their composite unity; then that this is not
the result of a single construction, but of growth and successive
additions; then that these periods of enlargement are separated by
other, more or less long, periods of continued use and occupation,
during which the civilization of the people maintained itself, somewhat
modified by time, but not broken or interrupted. And finally, this
evidence, together with that of the monumental dates, to which we will
come, has so far only to do with the ground plan and the structures
we can discover by a few feet of digging on the surface of the plain
of Copan; for we have not the slightest means as yet of relating
anything we can see at Copan to the various strata of occupation, with
intervening silence, marked on the 120 feet of the disintegrating river
wall. Those periods of silence may indeed, for everything we can yet
tell, be the silence of non-occupation, of civilizations destroyed and
forgotten, only to be followed by others. One Copan after another may
have been built upon the obliterated site of its predecessor. Whatever
evidence there is, read in comparison with similar evidence elsewhere,
points to that; a few years ago we disbelieved in a historical Troy,
only to find successive Troys, and many like places elsewhere, built
one above the other. To _deny_ the like or its probability at Copan,
would be foolish.
But to return to the Copan whose remains we can see, one great question
is forced upon us at the very outset. That is this: what must have
been the state of the _American continent_, as regards civilization,
during the ages into which we are trying to look? And that they were
long ages, even for the Copan we have before us, we shall presently
see. While all this was going on there, what was the rest of the
continent like? Our preconceived notions of savagery or nomadic tribal
communities must be thrown entirely to the winds, together with the
statement of the historian Robertson, made in 1777, that in all New
Spain there is not "any monument or vestige of any building more
ancient than the Conquest."