A study of man and the way to health

Dedication

To the pure Light of Love That beams on the altar of my home And to the inspiring Soul of Unselfishness That radiates from the life of my sister These pages are affectionately inscribed.

PBEFACE.

" Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great ; With too much knowledge for the skeptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between ; in doubt to act, or rest ; In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast ; In doubt his mind or body to prefer ; Born but to die, and reasoning but to err ; Alike in ignorance, his reasoning such, Whether he thinks too little or too much ; Chaos of thought and passion, all confused ; Still by himself abused or disabused ; Created half to rise^ or half to fall ; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all ; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd The glory, jest and riddle of the world ! "

Table Of Contents

Preface, v

General introduction, thesis : the cosmic form a universal duality : involution and evolution the two-fold process of one, law of development, corresponding to the two planes of being, the objective and the subjective : consciousness tht central fact of being : experience the only method of knowing : the modulus of nature : the anthropomorphic God, . xiv

Chapter I

Personality : self-interest : the misuse of words : traditional authority : individual bias, hereditary and educational : the questioning of authority : jurisdiction of religion attd science : religious truth : scientific truth : philosophic truth : the unity and sacredness of all truth : the meaning of orthodoxy : the opinions of men and the truth of revelation : the dicta of science : truth in one department as sacred as in any other : the responsibility of the investigator : Christian science : the testimony of science : absolute truth : the evidence of the senses : consciousness ignored : the unity of nature and of man : outline of the problem involved : the relation of consciousness J.o the objective and subjective worlds, and to experience : man's intellectual kingdom : conditions of man's progress, ...... 22

Chapter II

Primordial atoms : hypothetical atoms : the vortices of Descartes : the monads of Leibnitz : the test of theory : the discovery of law : the eternity of matter and force and the persistence* of motion : correlation and conservation of force : Mr. Keely's vibratory energy : Mr. Crookes' radiant

(xv)

xvi Table of Contents.

Matter and Force — Continued.

t matter : laws against hypnotism : the force of scientific dicta : Plato and the Hindoo philosophies : experiments on sound waves : consonant ryhthm : the form of crystals : every atom of matter set to music : polarization : magnetism the substratum of both matter and force : compounds : the idea of space : unparticled matter and the universal ether : the evidence of analogy : the natural and the spiritual, so-called, 39

Chapter III

Man's relations to physics : universal motion implies ceaseless change : nothing is what it seems : the relation of experience to consciousness : creation divides into halves : matter external body, spirit internal essence : the loves of the atoms: positive and negative poles : attraction and repulsion : the phenomenal character of the senses : ideas of space and time: Sensorium Dei: the consciousness of nature: invisible worlds the counterpart of the visible : involution and evolution : the human equation : every subject may be viewed from two sides : self-preservation the alpha and omega of egotism : altruism the highest law of nature : the key : the phenomenal and the noumenal made one, . . 47

Chapter IV

The basis of all knowledge : learning and knowing : the relation of thought to consciousness : thought builds and perfects the brain : precipitated results of thought in consciousness: analysis and synthesis: experience, reason, intuition, and consciousness : the experience of others, the dicta of science, and the dogmas of religion: universal methods: materialist, theorist, and philosopher : knowledge of self and knowledge of God, ....... 53

CHAPTER V. Life, . .54

The all-pervading life : concrete degrees and innumerable forms of life : knowledge of relations only : the transmission

Table of Contents. xvii

Life — Contimied.

of life: the cycle of life: spontaneous generation: the germ theory : living matter and germs : Proteus : definition of an organism : comparison of protoplasm and organism : amoebae : nutrition the basic function of organisms : the cycle of life : effect of chloroform on living matter : irritability, sensibility, and consciousness : the unity of consciousness : the law of development : all lower nature climbs toward man ; and man climbs toward divinity : natural selection and divine selection, 64

CHAPTER VI. Polarity, 65

Polarity characteristic of magnetism : its sign-manual : the voltaic battery : magnetism elongates a bar of iron : the law of magnetic attraction : the theories of Descartes and Ampere : pure force separate from matter is unthinkable : th$ matrix of matter and the potency of force : special modes of motion as related to magnetism : diamagnetism : the positing of a center of life : concentric and eccentric waves of motion : the cosmic duality: sex: polarity as related to the human body : disturbed polarity : a corpse is a de-polarized mass: the phenomena of fear: no unity without duality : the Fathernood of God and the Motherhood of Nature, ^ 75

CHAPTER VII. Living Forms, 76

The cosmic form a universal duality : male and female : Adam Cadman : involution and evolution : every form in nature is a duality : every perfect unity a harmonious duality : cosmos evolved out of chaos : ideal forms evolved from earthly shapes : spirit broods over matter : nature builds by law through pure mathematics : man is taught by suffering, and suffers that he may teach : creeds and fossils : man the epitome of all : the human embryo and the law of development : community of function in lower forms : differentiation in higher forms : the principle of development : the cerebral lobes : how they are to be regarded : evolution alone insufficient : life tendency diffused throughout all matter: all lower forms of life are fragments of the human:

xviii Table of Contents.

Living Forms — Continued.

the higher animals rudimentary human beings : inheritance and environment : the ideal form an overshadowing presence : selfishness and charity : egotism and altruism : tissue, cell, germ, ovum, fertilization : the process of reproduction : aggregation and segregation : the origin of form : fertilization a double process : the positing of a center of life and the unfolding of a still interior center of consciousness, 95

Chapter VIII

Magnetism and life : the life principle pervades all matter : differentiation and the ebb and flow of life : no fast lines between living and non-living matter : successive planes of life from lowest to highest: vain efforts to. discover the missing links in the chain of human forms : one plane of life overlaps or overshadows another : every human personality is a composite body : man's relation to all surrounding life: the meaning of man's birthright: the predominance of one plane: physical, vital, sensuous, intellectual, and spiritual personalities : the animal in rags and the animal in broadcloth: human tigers and hyenas: every individual possesses a definite amount of energy : gymnastic exercise and ideal development : the ideal is not reached without a struggle : the way to reach the highest plane, . . . 107

CHAPTER IX. Human Life, .... 108

Universality of the principles of development : difficult problems become easy of solution when once we have the key : from the physico-vital plane man appears as a highly-developed animal : viewed from the higher plane man appears as an undeveloped god : the lower nature can not comprehend the higher : the soul recognizes its kindred by sympathy, which means equality: how to view subjective experiences: the principle of equations : man's life now exists in two worlds, the natural and the spiritual : the work of modern biology : hysterical epidemics of the middle ages : the influence of sex : the case of Angelique Cottin : the chamber of birth often a chamber of torture : the sorrows of child-

Table of Contents. xix

Human Life — Continued.

hood: unwelcome children: the uncertain tenure of life: the testimony of anatomy : the manifestation of life phenomenal : evolution of the germ and embryo ; the elixir of life : the miracle of birth : the tragedy of inheritance : antenatal conditions : the nutritive changes in development from germ to birth : senso-genesis, conscio-genesis, and biogenesis : the body of man a magnet : disturbed equilibrium : evil passions promote physical disease : the common multiple and the keynote of life : respiratory motion : every vital problem is an equation to be solved : age is youth reversed : the phenomena of function : the intimate relations of all parts of the body : the phenomena of disease : consciousness an alembic of the life experience, . . . -155

CHAPTER X. The Nervous System, 156

The development of nerve tissue : reserved areas : the effect of repeated transmission in perfecting tissue and function : the physical basis of education : sensibility, sensation, and consciousness: the nerve arc : transmission and registration of impressions : the physical basis of memory : centers of life and centers of consciousness : development of the sense of feeling : the world epitomized in the consciousness of man : the motive of action : good and evil as related to heredity : no builder like Dame Nature : the common multiple of nature : the reasoning faculty : knowledge and experience : real knowledge an exact equation : self-conquest : true magic : will and imagination : the place where two ways meet : the race for riches : the discovery of printing, and inductive philosophy: society at war with itself: capital and labor : the masses and the classes : communism : no permanent endowment of life in matter : rejuvenescence : the colloidal body and the psychic sense : clairvoyance and clair-audience: little Helen Keller and other psychics : zest in life : senile imbecility : the laws of habit : automatism : imagination and will : lust and love : the enfranchisement of woman, • 196 xx Table of Contents.

Chapter XI

Consciousness the prime factor in all individual experience : subjective consciousness : complete self-consciousness impossible unless the lower faculties are controlled by the higher: complete self-consciousness implies complete self-control: Sleep-walking, double consciousness : disturbed consciousness in the insane : delirium produced by alcohol and opium: subjective prototypes: imagination and the ideal world : the supreme folly of trying to deduce consciousness from matter : thimble-rigging psychology : dealing with the dead : mediumship and unconscious cerebration : the undiscovered country: the subjective world is the counterpart of the objective: consciousness remains even in senile imbecility long after memory has departed : the rounding up of experience in the two worlds : re-incarnation and the doctrine of rewards and punishments : the wicked obey the law through fear, the wise keep the law through knowledge : he that is dead to the world is alive to God : education can not repair the defects of birth : three states of consciousness known to every one: spiritualism a psychological babel: the unholy trinity: the subjective plane of being must be subjectively discerned : man here and now is a materialized spirit if there is one anywhere, . . . .219

CHAPTER XII. Health and Disease, 220

Magnetism and life : the creator and destroyer are one : magnetism the source of vitality : life is something beyond all matter and force : life every-where diffused and one in kind : health as harmony: the relation and the dependence of structure and function: the relation of mind and body: prevailing methods of regarding health and disease are faulty: hysteria and hypochondria : all evil passions vitiate the bodily secretions and destroy health: mind is the immediate agent of the conscious ego : mind and body the servants of the real man : the order and the design of nature : the real meaning of health and harmony: the ego sits a king upon his throne: there is no tyrant like disease: crime but another name for disease: the rule of nature the greatest

Table of Contents. xxi

Health and Disease — Continued.

good to all : the laws of health are few and simple : inherited disease how cured : incurable cases : quacks and patent medicines : training-schools for nurses : mental states both the cause and the cure of disease : mental exaltation : imperfect man is no magician: cheerfulness promotes health: ante-natal conditions : too little attention paid to the promotion and preservation of health: reforms in medicine: knowledge of man's nature will banish the fear of death : all disease arises as disturbed function : acute and chronic diseases : all cures claimed by the doctor, all deaths charged to Providence: the result of the diffusion of a knowledge of man: mind-cure and other crazes: self-limiting and functional diseases often arise and are cured through the imagination: the outcome of the new craze: the ideal life: no royal road to health or to learning among the devices of man : nature's ideals : mental, moral and spiritual diseases : the perfection of man, 251

CHAPTER XIII. Sanity and Insanity, 252

Health of body and health of mind inseparably connected: whole nations as well as individuals revert to barbarism: the rage of the insane like that of wild beasts : increase of insanity: perversion of religious ideals: the ideal life, how attained : how body and mind are deformed : the influence of greed in promoting insanity: influence of false ideas on the masses: the identity of the ideals of health and religion: health must finally echo the harmony of nature, and sanity reflect the Divine Intelligence, . . . . .. 262

Chapter XIV

The theater of evolution: evolution alone insufficient: all processes in nature are equations of which evolution constitutes one member: duality and manifestation are synonymous: evolution promotes progress but does not account for ideal forms : involution supplements evolution : nature not soul-less nor God-less : the lower forms of life prophesy of man while man is a prophecy of still higher forms : mine and thine: the selfish and the devout are often equally xxii Table of Contents.

Involution and Evolution of Man — Continued.

time-serving: the sequence of evolution and the sequence of inspiration arrive at the same result, namely, the perfect man, 279

Chapter XV

iThe Higher Self, 280

The Archetypal Man : the lost and the saved hereafter : modern life and ancient creeds: materialists, agnostics and enthusiasts: soul and spirit: the change called death: man's idea of God, of Nature, and of himself: immaculate conception: Christ the ideal man: the accomplishment of the Divine Will : the selfish ego and the altruistic self: the mystery of self-consciousness: double consciousness and double life: Margrave compelled to speak the truth: the name of the Lord : self-consciousness and divine-consciousness : the necessary conditions of a final philosophy: the era and the mission of woman, 302

A STUDY OF MAN.

Chapter I. The Criterion Of Truth

Personality is the most patent fact, and the most potent factor in the life of man ; it tinges all he touches, and is the colored glass through which he views the world. The average individual finds it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to avoid an inherent tendency to convert all problems that present themselves in thought or life into terms of self-interest. So true is this principle, and. so general its operation, that it is exceedingly doubtful if any word in any language conveys precisely the same meaning to any two persons ; hence arise the misuse and misinterpretation of words as the most prolific source of the disagreements of men. Both candor and charity compel the affirmation, that truth in its larger sense, has suffered more from those who have misconceived and misinterpreted it, than from those who have knowingly or willfully opposed it.

For the great majority of mankind the sole criterion of truth is traditional authority. Not only does this hold in matters of religion, codes of ethics, and civil rights, but the whole tenor of individual life is determined by birth and geographical location. So also in matters of science, the authority of a great name is considered sufficient evidence for most persons who cultivate this department of knowledge ; while only a small minority undertake to examine the evidence on which a verdict in any case is supposed to have been based. It thus transpires that in most departments of human thought and human endeavor, a few individuals virtually do the thinking for the masses, and by appealing to the prejudices and self-interests of the many, they are enabled to hold in check another minority over whom traditional authority has but slight control; and even where the traditional dictum is taken with some grains of allowance, it is still considered as accepted unless openly repudiated. The great majority of people adhere to the religious forms into which they happened to be born, and upon the truth or falsity of which they have not been called upon to pronounce. By education these matters have been so thoroughly ingrained, and so much pains has been taken to render their hold binding and lasting, that it is really strange that any are able to throw off the yoke of authority. Either fortunately or unfortunately, the number of those who are able to break away from traditional authority has very largely increased within the past few decades, while within traditional lines there is every- where a questioning of authorities, a murmur of discontent presaging a warring of elements in the atmosphere of religious belief.

So-called religious truth a century or two ago assumed jurisdiction even over secular matters, and finally relinquished to science, though with great reluctance, the domain of physics and cosmogony, "but only on condition of receiving absolute authority in its own realm. In this age religious truth and scientific truth are one, and that, the highest and most important of human knowledge and human interest. In short, the element of progress of to-day, pushed on by the spirit of investigation, has entered every realm of knowledge, and subjected it to searching investigation. One of the inevitable results of all this questioning has been to suggest to the less thoughtful that nothing sacred in any realm remains. A little deeper thought will show that nothing in the way of real knowledge can be regarded as unclean or secular; it will show that all truth is given by inspiration, and that every true revelation of nature is a divine revelation to man. The reason for all these changes is not far to seek. The element of man's personality already mentioned, and which colors all he touches, lies at the root of these changes in individual belief and public sentiment. The battle at this point has been a severe one ; and the issues are not even yet decided, though they are in no way uncertain. In the ebb and flow of generation after generation, ancient records and sacred traditions have been so modified by special pleading, and so incorporated with human interest, that thousands of honest seekers after truth have been sacrificed under the cloak of authority because they dared to question the prevailing interpretation of these writings.

It is a matter of history that Michael Servetus, the earlier discoverer of the circulation of the blood, and one of the brightest minds of the age in which he lived, was burned to death in a slow fire of green wood, not because he denied or disbelieved the Bible, nor was in any way lacking in religious devotion, but because he dared to take issue with an ignorant, arrogant and vindictive priest in power, who intimidated his fellow-priests to help execute his revenge on a brother who had the better of him in an argument. If so-called Divine revelation were every-where explicit, thus requiring no interpreters, and appealing directly to the conscience and understanding of man, it would be at once shorn of the element of human weakness and error. That which in any age is meant by the word orthodox has little reference to any book, or any tradition claimed to be divine, but to certain interpretations which men, weak and ignorant like ourselves, have from time to time put upon such records and traditions. It is high time that this fact should be clearly apprehended by ev^ery one who assumes the prerogative of thinking for himself, because the knowledge of this fact will enable him to discriminate, and while questioning, as he has the right to do, the opinions of others, he will not be so ready to deny and repudiate the sacred "Word. No department of human endeavor reveals more of the weakness, the ignorance and the arrogance of man, and his propensity to disagree and denounce, than his efforts to interpret the Scriptures. These records have reached us through the infirmities of speech, through the imperfections of human language, and further filtered through the weaknesses of human nature. Through these avenues only has any truth been transmitted from Deity to man.

The parables and symbols of the great religions contain more intrinsic truth, and more co-ordinate harmony than any verbal explanation of man has yet given to the world ; and that which, more than all other causes combined, has hitherto prevented these grand truths from reaching the masses, is the conceit and arrogance with which ignorance has clung to her false interpretations, thus making it in former times well-nigh impossible, and in later times exceedingly difficult for the earnest seeker to find the real truth.

Whenever man has attempted to explain the symbols which so largely constitute the sacred records of all religions, without a full comprehension of the truth so symbolized, he has invariably made confusion more confounded. In these later days, when a larger and deeper apprehension of truth in every direction is dawning on the human race, and when freedom to pursue truth, into every hiding-place, has brought the conviction that such a pursuit is not only man's highest prerogative, but also his binding duty, there is reason to believe that the truth underlying the outer form of the sacred text is slowly being apprehended. As Carlisle puts it : "All visible things are emblems. What thou seest is not there on its own account ; strictly speaking is not there at all. Matter exists only spiritually, and to represent some idea and body it forth."

"What we call the authority of science is largely determined by the latest utterances of its most intelligent cultivators. These utterances are generally guarded and usually just, setting forth the weak as well as the strong points of any hypothesis with equal care and conscientiousness. A large majority, however, of so-called scientists overlook these qualifications, and set forth the new theory as a fact, and then quote the masters in science as authority for their statements. Thus we find this burden of authority in one form or another, pre-empting the fertile domains of human knowledge, so that it is often more difficult to get rid of the old squatter with his false title, than it is to locate and record the newcomer with his fee-simple.

It may thus be seen that the approaches to knowledge are seriously obstructed by zeal and self-interest; and that great fortitude is necessary to scale the foot-hills, before beginning to ascend the delectable mountains of truth.

So far as the evidence of truth is based on human authority, that evidence is, therefore, always open to criticism; and the truth itself, no matter where it may be found and by whatsoever name it may be designated, is a legitimate subject for study and re-investigation. Truth in one department of knowledge is as divine as in any other, when it is once seen that it is the truth alone that is sacred, and not the departments man has erected, nor the barriers he has laid across her pathway. Every sincere seeker for the simple truth, therefore, carries with him his patent to investigate for himself; this patent being a part of his direct inheritance from his Creator. He must not forget, however, that this unalienable right has coupled with it the duty of honest service, and that this service is to follow every sincere conviction. It is an old doctrine of the church that the repudiation of authority incurs grave responsibility. He who would shirk the responsibility is in no wise worthy of the freedom to think and act for himself, nor will he long enjoy such freedom, for the bondage of fear is always the hand-maid of superstition, and the service of truth can alone make man free.

Human knowledge naturally divides into departments, as physics and metaphysics, science and art, while the department designated as religion, howsoever mixed it may be with superstition, is not generally supposed to bear any relation to other departments of knowledge. As religion is in the province of man, and as it involves a large part of his activities and largely determines his conduct, the sincere truthseeker will be unable to avoid it if he should so desire, for if his purpose be sincere, his search-warrant is absolute.

The various departments of knowledge are often conceived as being at war with each other. The direct inference is, that each being true, truth is therefore at war with itself. Such an inference, however, is absurd ; for the most patent sign of falsehood is, always and every-where, disagreement. Falsehood invariably contradicts itself; truth, never. Therefore, if discrepancies arise between the different departments of knowledge, it places thereby suspicion on all; but it must be remembered that this suspicion rests solely on the human side of the equation, and in no sense pertains to truth itself. The personal lens of colored glass may make truth appear to one red and to another blue, like the two sides of the shield in the old fable : but this can only be the pure white light of truth separated into its component colors by the personal lens. But if every individual is to use his own lens, as indeed he must, he should also remember that his is but one of many colors, and that the tints and shades due to combinations are practically limitless. If he will also bear in mind that truth itself is both tintless and taintless, lie will never insist that his own is the one true color.

It may easily be seen that many of the expressions in common use not only arise from misapprehension and inadvertency, but that they are necessarily and directly the cause of error. The terms, scientific truth, philosophic truth, religious truth, would seem to imply that truth in one of these departments differs from truth in another. It will presently be shown, that not only is truth itself hereby misapprehended, but that these very departments are by no means comprehended. Our investigations, therefore, might begin with the inquiry, What is philosophy ? "What is science ? What is religion ? before we inquire, What is truth?

One of the most popular errors of the day is the somewhat notorious use of the term " Christian science," in a manner that reveals great ignorance of both terms thus employed. The inference is that Christian science is something entirely different from any other science. If arrogance in statement, if contention and strife for priority in promulgation, and if exorbitant fees and concealment of so-called truth be essentially Christian, then the Sermon on the Mount must be un-Christian. Not only has enough of these costly secrets leaked out to show that not a single new secret is therein contained, but that far more and better can be had elsewhere for the asking. The only new thing is the fencing this old subject in with a new name for purposes of exorbitant revenue, to be derived by imposing on the ignorant and credulous. Many of the principles contained are undeniably true, and many of its cultivators are people of bigb life and unblemished character. Like so many other cases, however, known to all history, they are better than their creed. Arrogance, avarice, and strife, even when found under the sacred name of truth, lead inevitably to but one destiny : confusion and desolation.

All scientific testimony is said by Huxley to depend on " valid evidence, and sound reasoning." While the rules of logic are now so well defined that among educated people there will be little disagreement as to what constitutes " sound reasoning," different scholars will differ necessarily as to what constitutes " valid evidence." Such, however, is one of the latest utterances of physical science, put forth by one of its foremost cultivators, a man as competent to judge of evidence in the domain he specially cultivates as any man living. It must be seen, if his definition of what constitutes scientific evidence is to be universally accepted, that instead of laying the foundation for real evidence and becoming a criterion of truth, it can only stand in the service of authority, or disappear at the first encounter of rival factions in his own beloved field. Huxley's whole life, however, has been one pronounced and dignified protest against this very giant, authority. Let us not forget that falsity always and every- where not only contradicts itself, but contradicts truth as well ; while truth contradicts falsity, but always, and every- where, it agrees with itself. Not only must every fact in physics agree with every other fact ; every theorem of metaphysics be capable of reconciliation with every other theorem; and every truth in religion agree with every other truth ; but every fact, theorem, and truth in all the departments of universal knowledge must agree from beginning to end.