The ethics of spiritualism : a system of moral philosophy, founded on evolution and the continuity of man's existence beyond the grave

Front matter

A SYSfSM OF

MORAL PHILOSOPHY,

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Introduction

Receiving the doctrine of a future life as a demonstrated fact, and that the future state is a direct continuance of the present, changed only by environing conditions, what is the morality necessarily flowing from such acceptance, and wbat are its effects on the conduct of life? We are forced to examine this subject because we are told that Spiritualism is immoral in its teachings, and leads to a depraved life. Such an opinion may be honestly entertained by those who believe in and revere the old, and regard the new with jealous eye. They who have been taught from infancy that their hope of future happiness depends on the reception of certain dogmas, even if their reason rebel, cannot throw aside the shackles of superstition, of education and old time customs. What they have regarded as necessary incentives for right doing, they cannot be convinced are useless, and that man can walk the road of righteousness single handed and alone. They cannot believe such an one can be trusted with himself, and are certain evil and corruption will flow from unfettered human nature. They believe immortality is a gift bestowed by God, as a reward for the acceptance of certain doctrines, and not inherent in the constitution of man.

In the beginning, we make the broad statement that every belief, however ancient, which is not true, is baleful in its influence, and the time for the presentation of a new truth to the world, is the moment it receives birth in the mind of a thinker. If man is immortal, he is such by virtue of his being human, and no fiat of any external power can annul his birthright. The caterpillar is a prophesy of the butterfly. As well might we say that the butterfly state is a gift bestowed on favored caterpillers for believing the theories of ancient caterpillars, as that immortality is bestowed on certain men because they accept certain ancient doctrines. The butterfly arises from the worm by

VI INTRODUCTION.

laws of growth, and the change of the latter to the former is inevitable. So the spirit of man must be an outgrowth of laws, and predetermined by his physical constitution. We are immortal, and cannot blot out our immortality — whether in a heaven of happiness or a hell of misery, we cannot escape the fiat of .endless living. The suicide vainly attempts escape on the earth side of life, to be met on the other side of the narrow grave by Eternity. Escape, there is none. We live, and the spark of life which is ours is more enduring than the adamantine mountain— than the stars of space — and shall blocm in youthful verdure when their fires expire and the sun-ashes are drawn like mist to be rekindled at the central forges of the system.

Every human being, as an immortal spirit, stands *orever in the center of the universe. From the abysmal beginning up to the present moment all the laws and forces of nature have labored to give him birth. Through all the ages of the future will they labor to sustain and develop his possibilities. The one auxiliary is his own efforts; eventually all gain must come through the exertion of the individual.

A correct system of morals must be founded, not on any supposed revelation or ancient form of faith, but on the constitution of man. It must be the result of the careful study of his physical, mental and spiritual nature. No theory, however long received as infallible ; no revelation, however sacred, has the least weight against the demonstrated conclusions of impartial thought. By the simple enunciation of science that man is a creature of evolution, that he has come up out of the night of the past, step by step, until he has acquired his present stature, by denying primitive perfection and fall therefrom, revolutionizes all our methods of thought in regard to his position, duties and obligations. Instead of a distinct creation, amenable to superior powers, he is an integral factor of the world, and has no escape from its laws. As the hand, so exquisitely perfect in man, so soft and beautiful, so nicely adapted for executing the plans of intelligence, is shadowed in the rod-like limb of the proteus, the flipper of the whale, and the forefoot of the quadruped, so is his intellect prophesied in the dim and unarticulated thoughts of the same beings. His mental superiority is no greater than his physical. The hand that makes the engine is equal to the mind that

INTRODUCTION. VII

conceives and plans the engine. Mentally and physically man is a creature of growth, and hence he is allied to the world of matter and the world of thought Through him the animal leaps the abyss between the physical and the spiritual. Human history is a bridge spanning interminable marshlands, its further end reaching towards the brutal, its unfinished arches illumined by the sun flooding down from the spiritual firmament.

Along this causeway have been waged the mighty battles of the ages, fought over again in the life of every individual. It is the war between the animal side of man's nature and the spiritual. As the race has unfolded, gathering higher and clearer perceptions of right, truth and justice, age after age, the gain has been on the side of the spiiitual. As in the individual, the brute forces of the desires have been co-ordinated with the moral and spiritual perceptions.

Because of this evolution, is there conflict between the two sides of man's nature. Because he is an animal physically, is there war between his physical and his spiritual tendencies. To harmonize this apparent anomaly, by which the aspirations of an angel are linked with the passions of a devil, has been the primary object of all systems of theology. The existence of these spiritual aspirations indicated the innate purity of the spirit and its primal perfection. That it was, in fact, so prone to fly to the ungoverned selfishness and lust of brutes, indicated a fallen and depraved state.

The dogmas growing out of this erroneous view were also dependent on equally false ideas of God. A perfect, infinite and good God, would not create an imperfect man. His creation would be in his own image. Man was far from perfect. His imperfection was the result of sin and wicked ness. As his Creator does not wish him to sin, he sins from choice. His free agency shifts the burden of responsibility from God to himself. Created perfect, he has sinned by choice, and became depraved through and by means of his own wickedness. He has corrupted himself. To escape the infinite consequences, he must have faith in a verbal revelation and a certain scheme of redemption. Immortality is not the result of immutable laws, and has no relation to the constitution of things. Men reared in this belief, when they cast it aside are often unbalanced.

VIII INTRODUCTION.

The passions held by such faith in obeyance, are ungoverned when it is withdrawn, as the higher faculties which should control are untried or inactive. It is said they are examples of the bad influence of the new and want of faith in the old doctrines. Rather are they examples of the blighting effects of the old. Instead of cultivating the spiritual side, that it might control the animal instincts, it has foisted a blind faith in its place. It has made beiief of more consequence than harmonious development. This has been the theological solution of the problem of man's redemption. It has been made by honest men, who have thought profoundly and reasoned logically from their data. But granting the theory of evolution, of man's development from the world of brute forces, this solution is entirely false. Man having never fallen, needs no redemption. The problem assumes a new form. How shall the animal aid spiritual be harmonized ? In the outset, we must regard matter and spirit as equally sacred. We cannot vent our spleen, as the ascetics of old, against the inherent sinfulness of matter, and think to gain heaven by crueifying the flesh. As long as we are inhabitants of this sphere, our physical being is essential, and the laws and conditions of its development are as pure and holy as those of the spirit. It is not by crushing the instincts under the iron heel of faith, but in their proper and legitimate direction by dominant intellectual and moral faculties, that perfection is to be sought. The accomplishment of this object is the real purpose of life; it has not only a relation for time but for eternity.

The golden messengers from that land beyond the grave, in ideal lives, teach us how to order the conduct of our own. We are not creatures of a day, living for the gratification of our physical being ; we have an exalted nature, capable of infinite possibilities, which we ideally represent. When the physical side shall melt, and even the world on which it depends pass away, that nature will only have began its unfolding.

In the tangled web of mortal life, beset on one hand by clamorous instincts, and eoaded on the other by the reprovings of angelic aspirations, we still inquire, as did the sages of old, what is truth? what is right? what wrong? how shall we escape ?

If we answer, By a just co-ordination of all the faculties

INTRODUCTION. IX

of the mind, and a harmony maintained by dominant moral and intellectual power, then is required the methods through and by which this end is attainable.

Most perfectly does Spiritualism answer. Her robes of spotless purity are flung as a mantle of all-comprehending charity over all. She has no word of condemnation and contumely for the wrong-doer, but for the wrong. She points not the finger of scorn at the writhing sinner, but at the sin. She utters no words of partial praise for those who never stumble. As the infinite forces of nature pour out blessings alike on all, so she makes no distinction in the breadth of her benevolence. Her voice is melodious with loye while it speaks of eternal and unswerving justice.

Listen, oh, mortal, to her voice, and learn how it is possible to climb the golden stairway of immortal life, becoming day by day, year by year, and century by century, perfected in the infinite capabilities of the spirit — learn how to triumph over the accidents of mortal life, meeting all its duties and bearing all its burdens with cheerful heart, laying the deep foundation of that temple immortal, beyond the shadow of death.

THE ETHICS OF SPIRITUALISM.

Chapter I. The Individual

The individual has fought the battle of history. The determination of the sphere of mine and thine, where the I terminates in society, has been the bloody battle-field of the past; nor has the ever fresh problem yet been solved. In a just and natural order, the individual should surrender no rights to society. Whatever is right for the mass, is right for the individual. As all rights of society are founded on individual rights, the study of the individual is the key whereby the social order must be resolved.

The individual, then, first claims our attention. We are not to regard him as a being degraded from a higher estate, with distorted faculties and abnormal desires, outside of animal life and supernatural. He is a direct outgrowth from the life beneath him, still retaining clearly defined traces of his origin, in his instinctive nature, to which are added superior qualities more or less defined.

Man is distinguished from animals by these superior or moral faculties. In the brute there is a prophesy of qualities allied to morality, but in none of them is there anything like a clear perception between right and wrong. Of their actions, we cannot say they are immoral, for they have no such guidance. They act by impulse or desire, and not from a sense of duty. It may be said of savage man, and of the savage of civilized life, that they are as destitute of morals as the brute, and hence not blamable. This fact is the cause of inextricable confusion in the old systems, wherein the distinction between the animal and man have been attempted to be set forth. If an animal kills a man it is not held responsible as morally guilty, while a man who kills his fellow is guilty of the highest crime against morals. It is said the man knew better; he had a free choice, and chose the part of guilt.

While this might apply to cultured minds, such as the philosophers who study the theme of ethics, it does not to the class who usually commit such actions. The savage is almost as much a creature of blind impulse as the brute, and has as little choice. The feelings excited by contemplation of similar acts in the brute and man, are results of the distinction in motives. The brute is pitied, man is blamed, often mercy being lost in hot indignation.

If this be an error, it is relieved by the fact that while the brute is incapable of moral culture, and must be ruled by fear, or hope of reward,

THE LOWEST MAN IS SUSCEPTIBLE OP INFINITE IMPROVE- MENT.

The moral faculties ever are present and may be awakened by proper stimulants.

It is the possession of moral faculties, that makes a science of morals possible, and the possibility of their culture gives such science its great and beneficent influence. While moral perceptions were early in appearance, the development of anything like a system of ethics was reserved for recent time. The broad relations of individuals and society were seized and expressed in proverbs and laws, but the subtle questions lying at the foundation were too complex for such general statement. Of all the departments of thought, this lies nearest the central existence of the spirit. The physical sciences are objective, and interest the senses. This is the study of the mind by the mind itself. It enters the secret chambers and studies the methods of its own activities and the causes which incite them.

DUTY.

An animal rushes at, lacerates and crushes a man. We utter no word of censure. The animal has been true to its brute instincts ; we commiserate the result, and do not hold it responsible. We may even censure its victim, if he has provoked the attack.

A man sheds the blood of his fellow. At once we censure the act. We say he ought not to have done the deed. Why? Because he knew better. Here is introduced a word which conveys a meaning unequivocal and distinct. We do not say of the animal, it ought not, for it has no faculty comprehending ought We say it of man because he has such faculty. He has a sense of duty, of obligation, for doing or not doing, to which the animal is a stranger. He is the thrall of a higher sphere of motives, and if he is not obedient, he sinks at once to the animal plane. In fact, he sinks far lower, for the blind instincts of the animal in him are intensified by the intellect, directing and directed.

When we consider man as a product of evolution, and not as a fallen being, we eliminate from the discussion the intricate dogmas of his fall, and redemption through vicarious atonement. Moral philosophy becomes a science to be advanced by research and observation, in the same manner as other sciences. We are no longer confused by metaphysical argumentation based on the twisted meaning of words, and dogmatic theology yields its place as blind autocrat.

In this study we regard the mind as a unity composed of diversity. It is the bane of metaphysical systems that they analyze the mind into several groups of faculties more or less arbitrary, and then reason from such classifications as though they were finalities. By this means the mental powers have come to be regarded as distinct, clearly defined, and independent in their action. The same error enters into what may be termed anatomical psychology. The brain is mapped into divisions more or less minute, and from these the mind is formed, as a gov. ernment of many individual states. However accurately the brain may be divided, or sharply defined its several functions, the mind must be regarded as a whole, arising from the blending of them all. A greater error, because leading to ruinous consequences, is the doctrine that all the faculties being natural and necessary, should be regarded as equals, and the action of one as right as another. Casting aside revelation as a standard of authority, as will be discussed in a future chapter, man has nothing outside of himself to which to appeal. If he appeals to his own faculties, he must know how to interpret their voice. In a conflict between them, he must have some criterion by which he can decide.

For this understanding we must know man's position in the universe, and the purposes and functions for which his mental faculties are adapted. We shall thereby learn if they are equal in authority in the determination of conduct, or if they are co-ordinated in an ascending series, the lower subject to the higher. We shall ascertain which are the higher, which the lower, and the distinct provinces of each.

POSITION OP MAN.

Man is the superlative being, the last, greatest, and yet incomplete effort of creative energy. I shall consider him in the two-fold aspect of a physical and spiritual being, related on the one side to the material world, and on the other to the spiritual. Since the motto "Know thyself" was carved on the portal of a Grecien temple, the study of man has been the most absorbing pursuit of the thinker; for all departments of science cluster around him as a centre, and a perfect knowledge of him is a comprehension of the universe. Early was the momentous question asked by the soul blindly calling for an understanding of itself : What is man f The solution was felt to be fraught with infinite consequences, not only in this life but the interminable future, which was vaguely shadowed on the understanding of savage man. The answer early given, in the very childhood of the race, became the foundation of the great religious systems of the world. The conjecture of untutored minds became the received system of causation, and growing hoary with age arrogated to itself infallible authority, and required implicit faith, and the exercise of reason only in making palatable the requirements of that faith. Conceived in an age when nature was an unknown realm, and law and order not imagined to control or direct causes to effects, when science opened her mysteries to the understanding, and one by one dogmas claiming infallibility were shown to be false, there of necessity was antagonism and conflict. I do not propose to enlarge on the theological aspect of this subject more than incidentally. That treatment has grown threadbare, "stale, flat and unprofitable." for every drop of vital juice it contained has been extracted long ago. The interminable sects, wrangling over the dogmatic solution of the vital question of man's origin and destiny, arriving at nothing determinate, wrangling with each other and themselves, do not furnish incentives to follow their paths. If metaphysical theology contained the germ of truthful solution, satisfaction would have resulted ages ago, and the mind, reposing contented with the answer, would have employed its energy in other directions. Instead there is restlessness, turmoil, conflict and indecision, and never has been an answer 90 broad and deep in catholicity of truth as to meet the demand. If science fail also, it is not the irretrievable failure of assumed infallibility. Its teachings are ever tentative, and prophecies of final triumph. As the most ennobling study of mankind is man, the crowning work of science is the solution of this vexed question. By science I mean accurate knowledge, close and careful observation of phenomena, and the conclusions drawn therefrom.

MAN A DUAL STRUCTURE.

While theology, Brahminical,Buddhistical or Christian, teaches that man is an incarnate spirit, independent of the physical body, created by miracle, supported by a succession of miracles, and saved by miracle from eternal death, material science, as at present taught by its leading exponents, wholly ignores his spiritual life, and declares him to be a physical being only. It is not my purpose to reconcile these conflicting views. Truths never require reconciliation. They never conflict, and if the results of two different methods of investigation are at variance, one or the other is in error, and the only reconciliation is the elimination of that error. The egotisms of theology and the pride of science array their votaries in oposition, while the truth remains unquestioned in the unexplored middle ground. Man is neither a spirit nor a body ; he is the intimate union of both. In and through his physical being; the spiritual nature is evolved from the forces of the elements, and is expressed. There is somewhat more enduring than the resultants of chemical unions, actions and reactions in his physical body. Beneath this organic construction is that which remains, to which it is the scaffolding which assists, while it conceals the development ol the real edifice.

PHYSICAL MAN.

First, as most tangible and obvious in this investigation, is the physical man, the body, the temple of the soul. The student, even when imbued with the doctrine of materialism, arises from the study of the physical machine with wonder and surprise akin to awe, declaring man to be fearfully and wonderfully made.

It is not surprising that we die, but that we live. The rupture of a nerve fibre, the obstruction of a valve, the momentary cessation of breath, the introduction of a mote at some vital point, brings this most complex structure to eternal rest. By what constant oversight, by what persis. tency of reparation is it preserved from ruin!

This physical man is an animal, amenable to the laws of animal growth. His body is the type of which theirs are but imperfect copies. From two or three mineral substances his bones are crystalized, and articulated as the bones of all vertebrate animals, and over them the muscles are extended. From the amphioxus, too low in the scale of being to be called a fish, a being without organs, without a brain, little more than an elongated sack of gelatinous substance, through which a white line marks the position of the spinal cord and the future spinal axis, there is a slow and steady evolution to the perfected skeleton of man. His osseous structure is the type of all. The fin of the fish, the huge paddle of the whale, the cruel paw of the tiger, the hoof of the horse, the wing of the bird, and the wonderfully flexible hand of man, so exquisite in adaptations as to be taken as an unqualified evidence of Design, are all fashioned out of the same elementary bones, after one model. The change of form to meet the wants of their possessors, results from the relative enlargement or atrophy of one or more of these elements. When the fleshy envelope is stripped away from them, it is astonishing how like these apparently divergent forms really are. In the whale the flesh unites the huge bones of the fingers, and produces a broad, oar-like fin ; in the tiger the nails become retractile talons ; in the bird some of the fingers are atrophied, while others are elongated to support the feathers which are to offer resistance to the air in flight; in the horse the bones of the fingers are consolidated, and the united nails appear in the hoof.

If there exists such perfect similarity in the bony structure of man to the animal world, the muscular system for which it furnishes support offers the same likeness. Trace any muscle in the human body from its origin to its termination, mark the points where it seizes the bones, the function it performs, and then dissect the most obscure or disreputable member of the vertebrate kingdom, and you will find the same muscle performing the same function. The talons of the tiger are extended and flexed by muscles similar to those which give flexibility to the human hand, and the same elements are traceable in the ponderous paddle of the whale.

More vital than the bony framework, or the muscles to which it gives support, is the nervous system, seemingly not only the central source of vital power, but the means of union and sympathetic relation of every cell and fibre of the entire body.

The brain has been aptly compared to a central telegraphic office, and the nerves to the extended wires, which hold in communication and direct relation all ihe organs, and from which the functions of each are directed.

The nervous system is the bridge which spans the chasm between matter and spirit, and the battle between Materialism and Spiritualism must be ought not only with brain, but in the province of brain. The issue directly stated is this : Does the brain yield mind as the result of organic changes in its cells and fibres, or is mind a manifestation through and by means of the brain of something superior and beyond ? The materialists boldly assert that " mind is a secretion of the brain, as bile is of the l£ver." They claim to be scientists, and rely only on facts, yet the most profound in their ranks admit that the structure of the brain is a mystery, its functions unfathomable, and really nothing is absolutely known of the offices it sustains to the body, or the methods by which these are performed. They are satisfied with the investigation of what may be called secondary relations and effects. The chemist has found phosphorus and sulphur in the nerve substance, and hence it is claimed that they are essential to thought. So much phosphorus, so much thought, and so much waste product of decomposition. These philosophers have gone so far as to prescribe the diet for students. Fish abound in phosphorus, and are hence the best brain food. But you feel sure phosphorus never wrote Homer's Iliad, or solved the problem of gravitation. It is not phosphorus, or carbon, or nitrogen, however vigorously oxydized, that pulsates in the emotions of friendship or love; that feels, and thinks, and knows; that recollects the past, and anticipates the future, and reaches out in infinite aspirations for perfection. Phosphorus will not, nor will any of the elements, nor any of their combinations.

The actions of thought on the brain, the effort compelling the body to serve the bidding of the spirit, may consume this element and many others, as the movement of an engine consumes the coal and wastes the steam, but the coal and the steam are only the means whereby mind impresses itself on matter.

The Materialist studies the brain as a person wholly unacquainted with an engine, and mistaking it for a living being, might be supposed to do. He would observe its motion and weighing the coal consumed and the products of combustion, would say that they appeared in steam, which after propelling the piston was waste. The design in the engine, the effect of these combinations and this waste, this observer would claim to be the guiding intelligence. And he would further argue that so much coal in the grate, so much water in the boiler, and you have so much intelligence, and the waste may be pre-determined by chemical formulae !

Until the threshold of the structure of the nervous system and the functions of the brain have been passed, the primary principles of scientific investigation would at least require modesty in asserting conclusions of such momentous consequences.

If it be claimed that man is a natural being, originated and sustained by natural laws, that he came without miracle, then do we unite the margins of the human and animal kingdoms, and are satisfied with placing man at the head of the animal world. An interminable and unbroken series of beings extends in a gradual gradation downwards, until the organs by which the phenomena of life are manifested are lost one by one, the senses disappear, and we arrive at what has been aptly termed " protoplasm." not an organized form, but simply organizable matter, or matter from which organic forms can be produced.

If in reviewing this chain of beings, slowly arising by constant evolution, we closely examine several of its consecutive links, we shall find that while each is apparently complete, yet it is only the germ out of which the next is evolved in superior forms. Each link is a prophecy of future superiority. We can trace the fulfillment of the prophecy of one age in the next, until man appears as the last term in the physical series.

They who teach us this doctrine of evolution, which is to life what the law of gravitation is to worlds, also teach that united with the doctrtne of " conservation of force," our hope of immortality becomes a dream.

What a sham they make of creation ! What a turmoil for no result! Infinite ages of progress and evolution, during which elemental matter, by force of inherent laws, sought to individualize itself and incarnate its force in living beings ; ages of struggle upwards from low to high, from sensitive to sentient, from sentient to intellectual, from zoophyte to man ! And now, having accomplished this, and given man exquisite susceptibility of thought, of love, of affection, making him the last factor in the series, he is doomed to perish ! What is gained by this travail of the ages ? It would have been as well had the series stopped with the huge saurians of the primeval slime, or the mastodon and mammoth of pre-historic times, as with man. As each factor in the series prophesies future forms, so does man read in the same light, prophecy forms beyond. They cannot be in the line of greater physical perfection for in the days of Greece and Rome man was as perfect physically, as is seen by their sculptures, as to-day. Ages ago this exceeding beauty was attained. It cannot be in the evolution of a being superior to man, for in each lower animal imperfect organs or structures, or partially employed functions, are improvable and perfected by succeeding forms, in man the archetype is complete, and no partially developed organ Indicates the possibility of future change.