There is much to say. Many have a part in this story of our days.
Their work is on the table. Yet no manuscript, no chapter, is a real
beginning. One must start a book this way--with a fresh sheet in the
machine and tell what he is going to tell about.... First of all, it
has to do with the unfolding of the child mind; all the Stonestudy work
has been for that, but the brimming wonder of it all is that we have
chiefly been employed unfolding ourselves.
No one can begin upon the sweet and sacred story of life to a child
without taking a stride nearer into the centre of things, and living
it. That's what all telling is about--presently to stop talking and to
catch up on conduct. The fairest culture of all is to become artists in
life.... Thinking of this, thinking much upon this one thing, we have
been lured out of the heaviness of work into the dimension of Play. We
tell here about this particular passage.
Also something about the story of Man and Woman, hinting at what is
contained in pages of the Book of Life not opened heretofore for the
eyes of the many, but preparing now for the eyes of the children of
the New Race--a beautiful story, be sure of that, but one that requires
art in the telling. No one could bring this story to the lovers and the
children of the New Race who had not found out that Beauty belongs to
the divine trinity with Goodness and Truth.
Many seers have not held that well in mind, many sages have forgotten
it, many saints have not learned it adequately at all. We have to build
our own heavens here before we can have them anywhere else. The more of
an artist a man is, the more reverent he becomes about perfecting his
thought-forms. Just a mention now--that we rejoice to make much of the
Beauty side of things in this book; that a thing cannot be beautiful
and bad; that Beauty is the next quest of the many, as they escape one
by one from the bondage of Gold.
We try to express the Soul of things rather than to delineate
boundaries of matter, but a very strong point is made upon the fact
that one cannot deal in the spirit until he has mastered to a good
degree the coarser stuff that bodies and worlds are made of. We do not
care how the young minds aspire mystically, so long as their abutments
hold fast in the bottom-lands. A man must not drag his anchor as he
climbs the hill; he must unfold line all the way--a line made of
strands of himself, woven of his own wisdom, love and power.
Much is made in this book of the fact that we are given _pounds_ for a
purpose--that all here below is symbol and intimation of a globe and
perfection elsewhere--that we cannot look upon the archetype of gold
until we have mastered the imitation in clay.... We come even closer
to this precious subject: For instance, we know that it is only from
the soul of things that one can see materials--that no one can get a
glimpse of the meaning of materials so long as he is lost in the ruck
of them. At the same time we do not believe that we have access, even
to the lesser grades of mysticism, until we have all the power and
force of the material-minded. We believe we must do well that which the
world is doing, even the tasks of the average man, that nothing can be
missed.
We do not encourage that mystic or poet who requires endowment. If we
are to be artists, we believe in supporting our own groups; we have a
suspicion that we are not through with conditions, any conditions no
matter how hateful, so long as they have us whipped.
We aspire to be writers and politicians and painters and heroes; we
aspire to be masters in all the superb productions of life, but we are
content to begin with the ground. We are content with poverty, yet we
believe that very early as workmen, we are entitled to a fastidious
poverty, which is expensive. No possessions--but all possessions. As
writers we are convinced that it is necessary to do--and inimitably
well--the things that the public wants and pays ten cents the word for,
quite as well as to reveal the deeper folds of our growth for which we
have to finance publication. We are not sure yet which is the worthier
achievement.
Perhaps we speak much of Soul in this book, but we mean nothing more
formidable than the better part of every man. This is the Big Fellow
who takes us over when we do that which is worth while--in billiards
or diplomacy, in art or love or trade. I think it is the Big Comrade
which we are really unfolding--the Workman and Player. Much of Soul, we
write, because it is the point of our educational drive--to set It free
in the child or the young workman, to make It speak or write or play,
and not mere brain and hand.
We speak much of love--not as an emotion, not as a sentiment, but as a
cosmic force. You will see much more what we mean by this as you turn
the pages. It is the most challenging thing in the world. It is the
inner white-hot core of the Fatherland that is to be--the great white
Democracy of the future....
_Democracy_--that's the point of inception of it all; that word is
the seed. The more you dwell upon it--you know what the Seamless Robe
of the Christ means--the more you realise that the Master Jesus was
the first Big Democrat.... We have them speak the word softly and
thoughtfully here each day--we like to hear the young ones say it. They
are apt to know as much about it as you do--for the word doesn't mean
exactly what they mean, who have used it most heretofore. It isn't
the name of a political party--yet.... It is government of the people
by the people, but only to those who see the sons of God in the eyes
of passing men. We only ask its magic, not its presence upon these
pages.... They're fighting for it gloriously--every hour. The boys here
thrill with the boys there. We hold our hands high to them. Some of our
boys are there. They are all our boys! Some are waiting the call to
go--but there or here, we are pulling together for the real Fatherland,
for the adequite fraternity, under the endless and thrilling magic of
the word _Equality_.
... I can say no more splendid word to you than My Equal: I know of
no greater adventure than to become one of the Many. It is true that
you and I--the best of us, the Immortal within us each, are of one
house--that this is but a far outpost of the journey, Egypt if you
like, the husks if you like--but that we have arisen and are on our way
home to the Father's House.
Canyon, Santa Monica, California.