THE ETHICS OF PLANETARY EVOLUTION.
"In order to plan this work wisely, and to discuss it understandingly,
it will be necessary at the beginning to go back to first principles, to
try to discover the real object and purpose of human life on this
planet. In searching along the pathway of countless ages in our planet's
history, we discover a continuous upward movement in the progression of
the manifestations of life; from the mineral to the vegetable; from the
vegetable to the animal; from the animal to man. Man representing the
apex of progress in the constantly ascending spiral of the evolution of
life from the birth of the planet to the present time. Therefore, both
spirit and mortal, we are all children of the planet, chained to its
destiny, all alike working factors in the achievement of its purpose so
mighty. Through the planet, its solar system, and the system of systems
in a long line of an infinite series, far beyond the power of
computation, we are also the children of the Great Oversoul, the Source
and Center of all life!
"Human life, then, is the flower and fruit of the planet--the highest
combined expression of its life--each life a planetary seed, a
concentrated possibility of all expressions of planet life. Perhaps the
most convincing and beautiful illustration of the truth of this vital
and all important proposition is, that the reproductive cells of man in
his highest state of development, multiply by fission, or self-division
into halves, as did the primal sperm of protoplasm at the very beginning
of vegetable and animal life. This great philogenetic vine with its
myriads of branching arms, reaches in an unbroken line from the lowest
to the highest forms of life; all alike are fruit of this vine. This
offers indisputable evidence of the common brotherhood of humanity! the
motherhood of the planet! the fatherhood of the Great Oversoul!
"From these premises we may safely conclude that the object and purpose
of this planet is the evolution of human beings, their continued growth
and development, until the state of perfection for the entire race is
reached. With this comes the complete achievement of the purpose of the
existence of the planet. Hence, we perceive that human life is the most
precious production of the planet. Henceforth its energies are to flow
towards the perfecting of the human race.
"In the great, white light of a higher understanding of these basic and
vital truths, let us strive to make conditions for the protection of ALL
human life. The task becomes less difficult as we more readily
comprehend and appreciate the magnitude of the thought, that through the
planet, this sacred life is the immortal and enduring expression of the
Eternal Spirit. Viewed in this light, we apprehend clearly that all
acts, by society or individuals, which tend to protect, promote and
purify this life, are good, right and holy, and in their doing, become
the highest and best expression of a sacred religious duty. On the
contrary, all acts of society or individuals, which tend to destroy,
injure, poison or sully this sacred life, or to bar its ordained
progress are, in themselves, unholy, wrong, criminal and cruel, and in
commission, become the greatest and most unpardonable of all sins.
"All this becomes more apparent, when we consider that the sum of the
pleasant sensations of the individual, and the happifying emotions which
flow from them, constitutes the sum of human happiness. All conditions
of life which promote right living, ethical culture and moral growth,
nourish and call forth emotions of truth and honesty, pure pleasure,
adoration, worship, hope, affection, love and all the higher and nobler
characteristics, build up life and increase its capacity for happiness.
Through the action of an equally inexorable and unswerving law, the
misery and crime which poverty breeds, with its bitterness of hate,
grief and despair, and all the train of other evil emotions engendered
thereby, are poisonous in their nature; they tear down and destroy life.
Therefore that social and industrial system which affords most
abundantly, and for all of the people, conditions that are
life-promoting and poverty-banishing, is logically the nearest just and
right, because it is the nearest in harmony with natural law, and the
object and purpose of human life.
"Society as a whole, like a chain with defective links, is no stronger
socially, morally, industrially, or politically, than its weakest unit.
Hence it becomes the self interest of every individual member to
endeavor unselfishly to build up and strengthen the weaker units in
every possible way.
"These propositions furnish the only sound basis for a perfect system of
political economy--a system which shall afford the greatest amount of
good or happiness to all the people. In considering the clearness and
startling significance of these truths, we discover the cruel, criminal
wrong of any system of competition, based on the old barbaric law of the
survival of the fittest, which in its application means the pleasure and
happiness of the few at the expense of the toil, pain and misery of the
many. In this connection we note that man, in his evolutionary progress,
has reached a point where, being mentally and spiritually awakened to a
knowledge of the higher purposes of life, he perceives the true effect
of environmental conditions, with their good and evil tendencies. He
also perceives the cause and the cure. Armed with the talisman of this
knowledge, he boldly enters the field of causation and thenceforward
becomes a self-directing factor in his own evolution. At this important
stage, he clearly comprehends, that the injury of one is the concern of
all; that the perfection of all becomes the highest interest of each;
that the unprogressive law of the survival of the fittest, is nullified
and replaced by the higher law of unselfishness of the individual for
the advancement of the race; that the dual nature of man, physical and
spiritual, must be considered as inseparable, when dealing with the
practical questions of life; that physical life, as the primary school
of existence, is ephemeral, while the spiritual is the permanent and
enduring; that, consequently, the path of progress for the human soul,
lies almost entirely in the realms of the spiritual; that a life on the
physical plane, devoted solely to selfishness, dwarfs and chokes the
spiritual nature, and becomes a serious bar to unfoldment and progress
on the spiritual plane of existence: Finally, that, like the pent up
energies of some mighty volcano, the irresistible upward thrust of
nature's unfoldment, ever producing and disclosing higher expressions of
life, is to find its present outlet through these channels, by the wise
use of methods in harmony with the principles stated."