Regina di —— and her aunt, had been commended to his good offices by
the Count Saluce de ——, a Breton nobleman belonging to an emigrant
family, then living at Rome. He had come temporarily to France and took
service in the Royal Guard, there forming an intimate friendship with
Lamartine. The princess was a maiden wife of sixteen who had been forced
against her will into a marriage ceremony with an elderly kinsman, and
had fled with her aunt to France. The count was her lover, and had been
arrested as he was about to accompany her. Lamartine had been apprised
of all this before by letters from his friend, and now complied
faithfully with his wishes by finding the two fugitives a residence at
Noyon near Geneva. Meanwhile a suit was in progress for an annulment of
the marriage.
Some days afterward a letter came from the count apprising Lamartine
that this would not take place. The princess was liable, therefore, to
forfeit her property, and upon her return to Italy, to be imprisoned in
a convent. The prince, her husband, who was old and infirm, had desired
the marriage only for the purpose of assuring her estate to his heirs.
He now offered, if Count Saluce would not press the suit, that he would
cast a veil over what had passed, and let her live with her grandmother
in future. This would spare her reputation and social position. But
Saluce must go far away.
He decided to comply with the conditions, and had already left Italy for
Spain to join his uncle's regiment and embark for the Philippine Islands.
Lamartine deplored the fatal necessity but felt himself obliged to
approve the course taken by his friend. Yet Regina had not been
consulted, and perhaps she would have chosen exile with him before
freedom and fortune elsewhere. Certainly, the count had constituted
himself judge and sacrificing priest without consulting the victim, but
the sacrifice was commended by delicacy of sentiment, by honor, virtue,
even by love itself.
When Lamartine met Regina she read all in his face. As she perused the
letter she was seized with fury. She denounced her lover as savage and
cowardly, not worthy of the least token of regard. Hurrying to her room,
she threw his letters and keepsakes out of the window and commanded her
nurse to go and sink them in the lake; that thus six months of love and
delirium might be swallowed up. The nurse fully reciprocated the
sentiments of her mistress. She saw no merit in such generosity as
Saluce had exhibited. A Roman would have gone to every extreme, knowing
love and nothing else.
Three days passed before the young princess made her appearance. She had
become more calm. She told Lamartine that she was now undeceived; what
she had thought she loved was a phantom that had vanished.
She was turning her regard upon him. His unflagging kindness and
assiduity had affected her. But susceptible as he might be, the memory
of his own lost one, and his friendship for Saluce, were intervening.
Finally, however, upon learning that Lamartine would be in Paris the
coming winter, she declared her purpose to be there likewise.
Her uncles had come for her, and she returned with them to Rome. One of
them afterward accompanied her and her grandmother to Paris, and
Lamartine met them there the coming winter.
He had now resolved to try his fortune once more. It was declared by
Charles Fourier, that when God implanted a desire in a human soul it was
his promise of its fruition. Lamartine was now to realize its verity.
[1] In the _Meditations_, Lamartine names an _Elvire_ who has
been conjectured to have been the same person.
"If you examine a man that has been well-disciplined and purified by
philosophy, you will find nothing that is unsound, false, or foul in
him."
"The noble delight in the noble; the base do not; the bee goes to the
lotus from the wood; not so the frog, though living in the same lake."
—_Gems from the East._
POINT LOMA AND ITS LEGEND.
BY FRANK M. PIERCE.
How describe its indescribable beauties: the broad expanse of ocean;
land-locked bay, with craft of war and commerce riding on its peaceful
bosom; nestling city; sunlit, fruitful valleys, cut by sparkling,
snow-fed streams; majestic mountain range with snow-capped peaks, like
giant fingers heavenward pointing—all touched by soft and vitalizing
breezes—one vast Titanic picture, overwhelming self, while "Soul," in
fitting raiment stands visible, a God.
In retrospective thought, seated on its rock-ribbed, element-defying
battlements, I muse upon the Legend:
That here the wise ones of Lemuria—now ocean-covered—reared a stately
edifice, a temple dedicated to the Gods of Light, wherein they taught
her worthy youth the simple laws of life eternal:
That here the gods touched hands with men and gave to them rich stores
of knowledge and of wisdom in such measure as they could use unselfishly:
That here men living for the soul of things made earth a heaven,
themselves gods, conscious of their oneness with the Father (like their
modern prototype, the fearless Nazarene):
That from the temple-dome-crowned Point, standing like mystic virgin,
old yet ever young—never yielding to the dark waters' fond embrace when
all to Westward sank in one vast cataclysm—shone to all the world a
quenchless, pure, white flame to light the way for mariners on ocean's
waters, and on the sea of thought, that all might see and live:
That once, when darkness filled the earth and men went blindly searching
for the light and found it not, then the great Teacher from the
temple—filled with pity and compassion—went forth to save the
lost,—leaving the temple and its sacred light in care of trusted ones,
charged on their lives to keep and hold its precincts inviolate till her
return; their inspiration gone—careless and faithless to their sacred
trust—the light went out and they in darkness perished; the
temple—refuge for the good and wise—was sacked and leveled to the
earth from sight of men:
But caverned underneath (the Legend runs) stand guarding genii, giants
grim, fairies, gnomes and sprites, to hold the portals closed by
pitfalls, ocean tides, dire calamities and death, 'gainst venturous ones
and the faithless guardians lingering near the whispering, moaning
caverns by the sea—till their Queen returns to their release:
That in some coming age when men, grown weary, heartsick, hopeless,
wandering in the trackless waste, shall face again the rising Sun in
search of ancient Wisdom and the Truth, then the great Teacher will
again appear in human guise, among her own—welcomed by the wise-grown,
faithful watchers, rejected and reviled by those who faithless in the
past have been—to rear upon the ruins of the old, a new and grander
Temple, dedicated to all that lives; and in its pure white marble dome
to fix a light—symbolic of regenerate man—whose penetrating rays shall
reach to lowest depths to light the ceaseless upward march of evolution
to the Heaven on Earth—the Universal Brotherhood of Peace and
Good-Will, made perfect through the travail, agony and blood of man,
redeemed from SELF.
EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION.
BY H. A. FREEMAN.
Metaphysically considered, evolution is Nature's process of unfolding
and bringing about her changes and developments. It goes on its way
irresistibly and taken as a whole moves in orderly routine. This is not
always obvious, but the exceptions are only apparently such. The fault
lies in our lack of ability to observe all the facts and conditions. If
we could investigate fully we should find that all apparent hitches are
balanced or offset by an advance in some other direction and that there
has been and can be no check or disorder in the process of evolution.
Whatever deflects the course or changes the character of an evolution
does not necessarily hinder it, and if it seems to stop still that is
only a question of the point of view.
The people of a race, or nation, or a community may deteriorate
physically, intellectually, or in their commercial activity, but that
does not prove that their development has come to an end. It only marks
a cessation of progress along certain special lines. The American
Indians are practically extinct, and it may appear that their race
evolution has stopped. But that would be taking note of only one aspect
of their condition. If we observe that they have decreased in ferocity,
diminished in numbers and sunk to the commonplace grade of hard working
farmers we must agree that their evolution does not proceed along
romantic lines as it did in the days of Fenimore Cooper. But the few
that remain may be more useful for the world's upbuilding than were all
the savage hordes that ever started out on the war path to exterminate
each other.
Numbers are not essential to a healthy evolution. China with its
starving myriads is not a high example of progress.
The variations and fluctuations that make themselves visible in
evolution are like ripples. We should never notice them if we took a
broader view.
Evolution does not go stiffly and solidly forward like a self-propelled
wall of masonry. It is more like the resistless ebb and flow of the
incoming tide.
One ripple overwhelms or effaces another and a curling breaker leaps up
from behind them and sprays the shore far in advance of the main body of
invading waters.
Evolution reaches out similarly, now advancing, now retreating in
unconsidered wavelets, always gaining, always effacing the old with the
new, and inevitably dominating the entire situation at last.
The ebb tide affords a symbol of _Involution_ which lays bare the way
for another era of flood, so that every drop in the ocean taking its
turn may ultimately rise to its highest mark of attainment.
Involution is usually described as a sort of compensatory process,
coördinate with evolution, though not co-incident with it. It is
regarded as a return swing of the pendulum of evolution and is sometimes
crudely illustrated by comparing the two to the corresponding halves of
a circle matched together so as to form a completed ring or hoop. But
this symbol though impressive is misleading, for involution matched with
evolution can not bring about any condition of finality.
If that were possible evolution would end in extinction—and extinction
is unthinkable.
The pairing of the two processes does not complete a circle. One does
not match the other and neither can undo the other's work. If there
_could_ be a counter-action between them, each would efface the results
of the other, as soon as its hour of activity began.
For illustration one may consider the progress of a bud which in due
course of evolution unfolds into a rose fully expanded. That rose does
not refold and become again a bud.
And if it did, that would not be involution. It would be only
retrogression. Involution does not follow upon the heels of evolution to
match its movements with opposing influences. It doesn't interfere at
all. If it did there would be no unfolding of Nature's plans, for all
her efforts would cancel each other.
Doubtless the two processes work towards the same result in obedience to
a systematic divine idea and purpose, and, not leading up to any
finality, they form a cycle rather than a circle and may be best
pictured as a continuous spiral and not as a completed hoop.
It would then be seen that involution and evolution succeed each other
in rotation as the night follows day and the day gives place to night.
Each period of one followed by the other forms a coil in the spiral. And
the spiral is continuous, being itself only one coil in a greater cycle
which, in its turn, forms part of a still more extensive series of
coils. And thus they go on to infinity, for they can never reach a
limit. And the processes of our involution and evolution are only coils
of a cycle that has gone on forever and they will continue to form new
coils to all eternity.
But the contemplation of the present coil in which we find ourselves
involved is quite confusing enough for it extends back farther than our
comprehension can grasp and is still very far from finished. It will
never be complete until we have all reached our limit of attainment, and
that is yet a long way ahead of us.
It is obvious that these mighty processes lead to some ultimate object,
and that they could never have been started into operation without a
reason.
The ultimate object is easily found. It is quite evidently progress. And
the reason seems by analogy to be similar to that which dominates every
living thing in the Universe—the desire to expand, to create, to
perpetuate. This desire seems to have impelled that incomprehensible
Power which is back of all life and expression to make itself manifest.
A Breath of itself took the form of matter and in obedience to the
immutable law of compensation sought at once to return to its original
exalted condition.
That descent into matter was Involution. The regeneration, the re-ascent
to the original purity is Evolution.
The creative Consciousness awoke to a desire for manifestation and
produced from its thought, substance. Then were set in motion the forces
through whose operations substance took on form and living organisms
appeared.
The degradation of that Spiritual Essence into a condition of matter was
Involution. It was a degradation or descent because it was a change. No
change could have exalted it, so the altered condition was a descent.
The process of regeneration, the work of purification from the stain of
material existence began at once and still goes on. And that is
evolution.
When man began to assume domination over the other products of evolution
and became a reasoning, responsible creature, that was evidence that he
is the medium through which matter is to be uplifted to its former
spiritual condition. In other words, it is a certainty that matter
reaches its highest development in man and that the next step beyond the
physical man is the divine man—the man of pure spirituality practically
unsullied by matter. All the processes of evolution lead to the
supremacy of the physical man over all other material development, and
as he continues to advance he will inevitably reach a condition so
exalted as to be virtually divine while still living in the flesh. Such
men exist even to-day and have been known in all ages.
They are those who occasionally appear as Saviours and Messiahs. They
are the pioneer wavelets which spray the shore in advance of the
incoming tide.
When man reaches that point of perfection that will free him from the
material or physical life forever, his evolution is complete and
involution may begin again upon a new world as it has done countless
millions of times before and will continue to do to all eternity.
We cannot of course comprehend why the Divine Consciousness has arranged
all this stupendous machinery for the mere sake of becoming manifest. We
cannot assume that it is for any reason that we could understand even
though it were revealed to us. But we may wonder less perhaps when we
consider that time and space are nothing in actual fact, and the
immensity of our universe and the tremendous stretches of time that
paralyze all thought of reckoning are but trifles not to be considered
in contemplating the Infinite.
Our entire solar system doesn't make a speck in space and the age of the
world cannot be reckoned, for time has no value, no existence in the
super-material world.
It is frequently urged by sceptics that to an all powerful consciousness
it should be easy to assume a personal character without employing the
complicated process of producing mankind and awaiting humanity's slow
growth to a divine perfection. But when it comes to preparing plans and
specifications for a better and simpler method they have never shown
ability superior to the divine thought.
Leaving out the consideration of time and the immensity of the finite
world, which are of no importance to the Supreme Architect, the plan
seems simple enough. There was a divine desire for expression. The
Supreme was alone and unmanifest. There was consciousness but no
knowledge, for there was nothing to know. The impulse to Be, produced
the world, every atom of which is part of the Creator that produced it.
The world is synthesized in man, for man holds in his physical body the
essence of everything that is in the world. There is nothing, mineral,
vegetable, animal, solid, fluid or gaseous that has not its place in
man's organization. Man is pressing forward, evolving to a condition of
purity that shall make him perfect and divine, a God enriched with the
knowledge gained from numberless lives on earth. He becomes again a
spark of the Supreme, but individualized and omniscient. And thus is the
divine purpose accomplished and the divine impersonal self made divinely
manifest.
Whether this be the true theory or not cannot be determined by any
process of reasoning. The Finite mind is unable to comprehend the
Infinite. We cannot analyze the act of the super-mundane power or find a
reason that we can understand and prove by mental progress.
So therefore we can not trace involution even as we can evolution, for
it is not of this plane. Whatever we note that seems to us to be
involution is only some variation of the other. It has to do with our
material progress while involution is a product of the impulse of a
consciousness beyond our comprehension.
We may then consider involution briefly as the descent of spirit into a
material condition and evolution as the refinement of matter into
spirit. We may safely believe that under this stupendous plan the
present is not the first and will not be the last cycle, but that they
stretch their never ending spirals in both directions without limit.
Whether or not there _ever_ was a beginning to this endless coil of
cycles of involution and evolution is beyond our feeble comprehension.
Logic and reason are but the dull weapons of conquest over problems of
the Finite, and are entirely too crude to be used with confidence in
giving battle to the mysteries of the Infinite.
Only the intuitions can help us beyond the boundaries of the
super-material world and they tell us that there never was a beginning
to the things which are and that there will never be an end. This
condition of Being, without ever a time of actual commencing, is
paradoxical and confusing to the mind and we cannot easily realize that
although apparently impossible it is true. But it is only one of many
similar contradictions that attend upon the Contemplation of Infinity.
We cannot even comprehend a beginning to the present cycle of our
existence. The birth of this world is lost in the misty obscurity of the
infinite Past and is as hopelessly beyond us as is the record of the
countless myriads of similar creations which preceded it. It is
therefore of little value to attempt to fix an era from which to begin
tracing the evolution of man from the irresponsible, mindless monster
that archaic teachings describe him to have been before he assumed
conscious domination over the other creatures of this world. And it is
equally vain to seek for information regarding the various changes
through which he arrived at even that primitive condition of being only
a mass of inert semi-conscious matter. Perhaps in this as in the other
aspects of the transmigration of the Divine into the Finite, there never
was any beginning.
The Vedanta, which is that phase of Indian Philosophy that treats
specially on this subject, says that the world proceeded from an
inscrutable principle, darkness, neither existent nor non-existent and
from "one that breathed without afflation, other than which there was
nothing, beyond it nothing."
According to the Vedanta there is but one substance or reality immutable
and eternal, the supreme spirit, _the impersonal Self_, the spiritual
absolute _atman_—and that of course is summed up in the idea of Deity.
Science, which professes to reject all theories that cannot be proven,
suggests tentatively that all of nature's innumerable products have
evolved from the result of a fortuitous combination of unconscious
causes that produced a beginning.
But there should be something beyond mere accident in the movements of
non-intelligent forces. There must always be a first cause even for a
beginning and that first cause cannot be an accident.
That should be an uncomfortable theory for those who are scientific
enough to believe it, for they have no guarantee against other accidents
of Nature. They can never feel secure against some awkward occurrence
that might counteract that initial commingling of forces and restore
this world to its original condition of nothingness.
We read of various vibrations that shiver into the production of light,
color, heat, sound, power, electricity and even the life principle, but
these vibrations are not even said to be self-produced. There has never
been a theory satisfactory to the intuitions—which are the most
accurate of all our truth finders, except that of an universal,
Conscious Self, impersonal but all pervasive, that is the Cause, the
Beginning and the ultimate Attainment of everything.
The only theory that agrees with the intuitions without offending the
reasoning perceptions should offer the safest foundation upon which to
build a philosophy. It is therefore not remarkable that ages ago the
sages of the Orient, men who were fitted by training and inherited
faculties for metaphysical contemplation, elaborated a philosophy based
upon the belief in an impersonal First Cause that seeks personality only
through involving Spirit in matter and evolving back to Spirit. Tinted
with the results of that experience, Spirit, they believe, becomes
self-conscious and individualized by its contact with a life or lives of
manifestation. Evidently it can never be absolutely stainless again. It
has exchanged entire purity for knowledge and self-consciousness.
Therefore, man, who is the highest attainment of this evolution, can
never be infinitely perfect, but can ever more and more approximate to
perfection. He can never again be absorbed and swallowed up and engulfed
in absolute divinity. He will never become entirely Divine in the sense
of being re-absorbed into the unrecognizable All-consciousness, for that
would extinguish all the effects of his earth experiences and his long
pilgrimage would be a profitless waste of time and toil. He has become
an individualized conscious being, less than Deity, but by reason of his
completed evolution he is relatively a God to us.
He may therefore reach up to the Infinite even now, and can also extend
a hand down to Earth to help us on our upward climb. Innumerable divine
men have been reborn and have dwelt among us to teach us how to live.
Even in comparatively modern times we have a line of such whose example
and teachings have helped forward our evolution and made it easier for
us.
From Zoroaster and Buddha and Jesus and others have come revelations
that justify the theory of man's perfectibility through evolution and as
we can trace the growth of all matter up to its culmination in humanity,
the divine plan seems to stand revealed, and our ultimate destiny is
plainly outlined. The method of evolution, like everything else in
Nature, seems entirely a process of compensations. We gain and renounce;
we take on higher qualities and drop the meaner characteristics. We
advance by such methods as we can command as we go along. Higher ideals
being reached, we look upward for still loftier points of attainment.
In the prehistoric stages of our development, while pure physicality
dominated us, we asserted our supremacy by superior strength or speed.
Further along a cunning mentality gave us a wider range of power. Still
later we have grown into wisdom, and as we near the end we shall discard
all the physical desires, the tastes and appetites, the hopes and
ambitions, the affections and passions that tie us to the earth life,
and take on instead the finer spiritual attributes that are inseparable
from the higher planes of existence.