THE DIVINE SOUL
The liberation of buds and germs, as in the biological processes alluded
to in the last chapter, is in general connected with sex, and brought
about by its operation. And, similarly, I think we may say that the
liberation of human souls and their disengagement from the race-matrix
is brought about by love. I have already pointed out (ch. ix.) the
intensely personal and individualizing character of human love. If one
can imagine a love-relation going on between two members of a race—two
portions, as it were, of the race-soul—at present only slightly
individualized, one can see how the attraction to each other, the
drawing away from their surroundings, the excitement, the agitation, all
tend to further their growth as individuals—to give them form, apart
from the matrix in which they are embedded, and definition and
character. Of course all experience does this, but most of all and most
deeply does love. It breeds souls out of the Race-self, and finally
brings them away to an independent life. “It is for this that the body
exercises its tremendous attraction—that mortal love torments and tears
asunder the successive generations of mankind—That underneath and after
all the true men and women may appear, by long experience emancipated.”
As said in an early chapter, in love, though we do not know exactly what
is happening, we are persuaded that something very profound and
far-reaching is working itself out. And one such thing, I am sure, is
the liberation of the soul of the lover—and, in less degree, the soul
of the loved one. The tremendous experiences and convulsions, the
profound stirrings, and the wrenchings from old ties and associations,
do at last not only build the soul up into a distinct individuality, but
they dig it up from its roots in the race and plant it out in the great
Eden garden of emancipated humanity—the beginning of a new career.[133]
Another thing that I think is happening is that when love is strongly
reciprocated the elements (as we have seen several times already),
whether physical or psychical, pass over from one to the other and are
interchanged—regenerating and immensely enlarging the life and capacity
of each individual. This happens, I believe, in all grades of the
universal life, from the Protozoa upwards. Two individuals drawn
together interchange some elements of their being, and grow thereby into
a larger and grander life; or may even in cases fuse completely into one
individual person. As Swedenborg says somewhere:—“Those who are truly
married on earth are in heaven one Angel.”
Thirdly, I think that the reciprocated love of two sometimes creates a
_new soul_. We are familiar with the idea that the love (sexual) of two
bodies commonly creates a new body; and there is an age-long tradition
that the same is true in the world of souls. There is in that world
also, not only regeneration but generation. “Love is the desire of
generation in the beautiful, both _with relation to the soul and the
body_,” says Plato;[134] and Ellen Key, in a passage already quoted
above (ch. iv., p. 61), says that “two beings _through_ one another may
become a new being, and a greater than either could be of itself alone.”
By love a new soul is sometimes generated which takes possession of both
persons, and which suggests—as in the Swedenborg phrase above—that in
some other sphere they really become one. And by love, we may also
think, between man and wife, a new soul or soul-bud is sometimes
created, which may descend into and vivify the physical germ of their
future child.
To consider this last point a moment. The connection between heredity
and the individual self is very mysterious. We acknowledge our descent,
and what we owe, both mentally and bodily, to our parentage; but we are
fain to think of our _ego_ as something apart, something not to be
confused with parents, and by no means merely derivative from them.
Sometimes indeed there is great harmony between this _ego_ and the
parental inheritance, sometimes much the reverse; sometimes the line
between the two is doubtful and uncertain. What is the explanation of
all this? and what are the true facts of the relationship?
Does it not seem likely that, in the intense organic excitement which
attends sexual union, this excitement—especially if strong love be also
present—reaches right down into the soul-depths of each person,
stirring these also, and the race oversoul at that point, most
profoundly? So that, at the same moment that the germ of a bodily child
is being fertilized, there is formed in the race-soul a soul-bud
corresponding, which consequently descends into the physical germ and
becomes its organizing life—the soul-bud thus being related to the
souls of the parents, somewhat as the physical germ is related to their
bodies? It springs, in fact, from a related portion of the
race-oversoul.
Or again, does it not seem likely that in some cases, instead of a quite
new bud being formed, the profound stirring of the race-life in that
vicinity causes some older and more developed soul-bud—which has
perhaps already had some earth-experiences—to wake into activity and
take possession of the germ? In the first case mentioned the child born
will be singularly like the parents, and in nature harmonious with them,
with very little extraneous in its character, and with the fair prospect
before it of a smooth and even career. But in this latter case, though
the child will be harmonious with the parents it will have great depths
beside, of authentic character of its own which will show out as time
goes on.
And again, if deep love be absent, and consequently there is no special
birth or awakening of souls in that region where they should be related
to the body which is being born—what is likely to happen? Is it not
likely that some other soul-bud, or soul which chance or other
indication of destiny may bring that way, may enter in and possess the
developing organism? And is it not likely, then, that strife and
conflict and doubt may also enter in, causing a character of mixed
elements, possibly leading to heroic developments, but also probably to
a broken or tragic life-story?
* * * * *
As in the earliest and most primitive developments of life, so in the
latest and most exalted, the soul is born through love, and through love
it grows and expands. It may indeed be asked whether any other way is
possible. Oppositions and conflicts may give form to the growing thing,
and help to carve its outlines; but this gives it expansion. Every
profound attachment necessarily modifies and enlarges the man. It pulls
him out of his little orbit into a wider path—even if for the moment
with some amount of eccentricity. Something is incorporated in his life
which was not part of it before—something possibly which he did not
before appreciate or understand. What we now are—whether mentally or
physically—is an epitome of multitudinous loves in the past. The very
cell-alliances which constitute our bodies are the records of endless
heart-yearnings and romances (dating from far-back ages, and even now
enduring) among a tiny people to us well-nigh invisible. And we may ask
ourselves whether in the regions above and beyond our present life there
may not be soul-alliances and even soul-fusions, by which we humans in
our turn build up the very life of the gods? Plato in his _Symposium_,
speaking of the strange desire of lovers for each other, makes
Aristophanes say:[135]—“But the soul of each manifestly thirsts for,
from the other, something which there are no words to describe, and
divines that which it seeks, and traces obscurely the footsteps of its
obscure desire. If Vulcan should say to persons thus affected, ‘My good
people, what is it that you want with one another?’ And if, while they
were hesitating what to answer, he should proceed to ask—‘Do you not
desire the closest union and singleness to exist between you, so that
you may never be divided night or day? If so, I will melt you together,
and make you grow into one, so that both in life and death ye may be
undivided. Consider, is this what you desire? Will it content you if you
become that which I propose?’—We all know that no one would refuse such
an offer, but would at once feel that this was what he had ever sought;
and intimately to mix and melt and to be melted together with his
beloved, so that one should be made out of two.” And we may
think—though this strange and intimate longing is never fulfilled, as
we know, in the actual earth-life—that it still may possibly be an
indication (as happens in other cases) of something which really is
working itself out in the unseen world.
It was suggested, in the end of chapter xi. above, that limitation and
hindrance are a part of the cosmic scheme of the creation of souls, and
that there is a purpose in these things in regard to this mortal life.
It was also suggested that the profound soul-stuff of which we are made
is capable of infinitely swifter and more extended perceptions than
those of which we are usually aware; and that there is a good deal of
evidence to show that perceptive powers of this kind—quite independent
of the usual end-organs of sight, hearing, taste, and so forth, still
linger buried deep down within us. The question then naturally arises,
If this limitation of faculty really exists as a fundamental fact of our
mortal life, what purpose does it subserve?—And the answer to this is,
I think, very clear.
It subserves the evolution of Self-consciousness and of the sense of
Identity. It is obvious that diffused faculties and perceptions, however
swift and powerful, could never have brought these gifts with them. It
was only by pinning sensitiveness down to a point in space and time, by
means of a body, and _limiting_ its perceptions by means of bodily
end-organs, that these new values could be added to creation—the local
self and the sense of Identity. All the variety of human and animal
nature, all the endless differences of points of view, all diversity and
charm of form and character and temperament must be credited to this
principle; and whatever vagaries and delusions the consequent growth of
self-consciousness and selfness may have caused, it is incontestable
that through the development of Identity mankind and all creation must
ultimately rise to a height of glory and splendor otherwise
unimaginable.
And not only limitation but also hindrance. These things give an
intensity and passion to life, and a power and decisiveness to
individuality, the absence of which would indeed be sad. As a
water-conduit by limiting the spread of the stream and confining it in a
close channel gives it velocity and force to drive the mill, so
limitation and hindrance in human life give the individualized energy
from which, for good or evil, all our world-activities spring. As the
Lord says in Goethe’s Prologue to _Faust_:—
“Of all the spirits of denial
The mischief-maker I most tolerate,
For man’s activity doth all too soon unravel;
Of slumber he seems never satiate;
Therefore I gladly hand him to a mate
Who’ll plague and prick, and play in fact the Devil.”
Over a long period in this cosmic process this action, we may think,
goes on. The vast and pervasive soul-stuff of the universe, in its
hidden way omniscient and omnipresent, suffers an obscuration and a
limitation, and is condensed into a bodily prison in a point of space
and time; but with a consequent explosive energy incalculable. The
Devil—_diabolos_ the slanderer and the sunderer, the principle of
division—reigns. To him, the ‘milk and water’ heaven of universal but
vague benevolence is detestable. He builds up the actual, fascinating,
tragic, indispensable world that we know. Selfishness and ignorance, the
two great Powers of discord and separation, are his ministers; the earth
is his theatre of convulsive hatreds and soul-racking passion; and our
mortal life, instead of being the fair channel of cosmic activities,
becomes a “stricture knot,” as Whitman calls it, and a symbol of
disease.
But this diabolonian process is only one segment of the whole. After the
long descent and condensation and imprisonment of the spirit in its most
limited and inert and self-regarding forms, after its saturation in
matter, and its banishment in the world of death and suffering, the
rising curve of liberation sets in, and the long process of its return.
It is through love mainly, as we have seen, that this second process
works itself out. From point to point through unison with others, by
absorbing something from their experience, by sharing a wider life, the
spirit’s manifestation grows. By this the great tree of organic life
spreads upon the earth; by this each race-stem multiplies its tissues
and expands; by this the buds of human souls are formed; and by this the
souls themselves are freed to independent life, and ultimately to circle
again “dancing and sporting” as Plutarch says, “like joyous satellites
round about their sun in heaven.” There is continual Transformation; but
there is also continuity from end to end. For every being there is
continuance, but continuance only by change. Each soul is a gradual
rising to consciousness of the All-soul; a gradual liberation and
self-discovery of the divine germ within it. First the race-soul rising
toward this consciousness, and then the individual souls thrown off,
rising each independently toward the same. It is when the latter are
moving over from their (instinctive and so to speak organic) community
with the race-soul to a distinct and separate knowledge of and
allegiance to the divine germ now declaring within themselves, that all
this period of confusion and dismay, naturally enough, occurs—this that
we have called the period of Civilization and the Fall of man—the
period in which indeed we are now so fatefully involved. But it is in
this period too that ‘divine souls’ are formed, and their feet first set
upon the path of splendor.
Love indicates immortality. No sooner does the human being perceive
this divine nucleus within himself than he knows his eternal destiny.
Plunged in matter and the gross body he has learned the lesson of
identity and separateness. All that the devil can teach him he has
faithfully absorbed. Now he has to expand that identity, for ever
unique, into ever vaster spheres of activity—to become finally a
complete and finished aspect of the One.