The temple of truth

Front matter

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Chapter I

introduction.

Friend Header : —

You and myself are two. Each one of us, and that third one, — . our collective neighbor, — yclept Everybody, — can do one or more things, — does and has to do, — a great many things. But of all things, — that you, myself and he, are able, and have to do, — there can (no matter however infinite their number, after comparing them all with and among one another), be but one single, solitary thing, among the whole heap, which, in common for us all, is the lest, most important, and most necessary for every one of us possibly to do.

2. Now, if it so happens that you can do that best thing for us all, — better than myself and our aforenamed neighbor, — it is my, and his interest, to come to you and ask you to kindly show us the mode and manner how to do it ; as likewise it is yours to teach us the same. For, on the one hand, my neighbor and self shall thereby gain a great deal of time, and save much labor, toil and material, uselessly spent in fruitless experiments ; and you, on the other hand, by teaching us to do the thing correctly, will at once gain a help, to multiply the doing of that best thing, surpassing your own individual capacity of execution, beyond all hope and manner of calculation.

3. If, however, it so happens that not you, or our neighbor, but myself understand the doing of that best thing, better than you and he, it is your, and his interest to come to me, so as to learn that best mode in the doing thereof correctly ; which, successfully applied, means infallibly; and in the lapse of the least possible time. Is it neither you nor me, but our individualized neighbor, who is in possession of the precious secret in question : — we have to apply to him, and beg him to put us in possession thereof.

4. If either of us is actually in possession of that greatest of all secrets, which concerns us all alike, it will require but little coaxing for inducing us to impart its mysteries to any one desirous of knowing them ; since, as above asserted, it is the interest of all of us, that its knowledge should be disclosed, and spread far and near, as speedily and extensively as ever possible. For, the sooner and quicker we multiply the doers of the best thing, by furnishing them in the correct knowledge of the sure method, — the infallible tool to effect it, — the sooner and quicker that best thing will be created and produced in increasing quantities, and finally in abundance ; so that the respective share thereof, constituting to each of us our individual dividend, will continue to increase, in proportion as our apprentices multiply and become journeymen and master loorkmen.

5. Whatever work a man may do, — be it bodily or mental, — the abstract nature of the performance is, in the main, and essentially, alike in all cases, and constitutes an act of production, creation or architecture, subject to certain conditions, rules or laws of action, of which the intellect absolutely must possess the clear insight, to insure success.

6. For when a man designs erecting a building, he knows beforehand that, first of all, he must possess the means for doing so. These means, upon examination, he will find to be four in number. a.) In the first instance, he must have a place upon which to build ; erecting thereupon what we term the foundation, b.) Next he must have formed a clear conception of the form, size and construction of the building itself, termed a definite plan, draft or design. c.) He must possess the various materials needed for its execution ; and, d,) lastly, have command of the knowledge, skill and force requisite for accomplishing the work. If either of these four requirements be absent, the remaining three will do no good, and leave the designed work unaccomplished.

7. The reflection upon this matter, discloses to man the law governing all human action, according to which a definite number of agencies are indispensably required to co-operate in the production of any thing whatever. Hence, by this law, to do a work of any sort, there must be a worker that understands how to do it ; he must have a place where, and the tools wherewith to do it, and must have the materials, by, out of, from, or upon which, he is to do it.

8. In the next place, every work to be so done prescribes also, by inherent law, the mode of proceeding in its execution ; namely, it can, and must be done only part by part (analytically), and not in one simultaneous act, producing at once (synthetically) the whole. Hence, the various parts of a work are produced seriatim, in a regular line of succession ; or, at any rate, can only thus be practically combined, in their due order, time and place, to and into the contemplated whole, of which they form the constituent parts.

9. In conformity with this law, man, whenever and whatever he undertakes to build, be it a house of wood, stone or any other material ; be it a machine combined from the various solid and fluid substances and forces of nature, or an intellectual system of science constructed altogether of abstract fact and pure thought : he is compelled in all cases alike, first to provide that place, locality or condition which he designs using as its base or foundation. For upon such base or foundation alone a superstructure that is real, and not fictitious, can firmly stand and repose. A structure that has no such foundation of its own, corresponding to its nature, is, in truth, a non-reality or non-entity. Where such exist, that existence is only appearance or transitory existence, having for a foundation something that does not at all belong to them but to the neighbors alongside. No sooner does one of these neighbors conclude to build his own house anew, and commence tearing down and remove the old materials, digging deep into the solid ground, for a firm foundation for his new building ; when, all at once, the baseless structure, deprived of its foreign support, that until then held it securely in its place, with a terrible crash, tumbles down, a shapeless heap of useless rubbish.

10. Assuming our building to be designed for human habitation, its entire safety, durability and comfort will, in the first instance, depend upon the firmness and immobility of the basis underlying the foundation itself; for, as soon as that gives way, the whole superstructure, no matter how solid, firm, and perfect in appearance, may, in a moment, tumble to the ground and bury its inmates beneath, its ruins. Next, the security and comfortability of the intended structure will depend upon the degree of perfection inherent in the plan or draft, according to which it is built. For, if that is defective, the best workman, using the best materials for and in its construction, can not remove, but rather indurate, the defects attaching to its immature conception within the mind originating the plan ; and such defects are not mended by any basis, no matter how firm. Thirdly, if the base is firm and solid, and the plan judicious and correct, but the material used in the construction be defective and insufficient in quality and amount, although put together by the best workman in the best manner, the building may have the semblance of comfort, beauty and safety, but its inmates have no conviction thereof, and every storm shakes them with terror for their lives.

Lastly, if foundation, plan and material are all good, it yet requires that the work should be done by a competent workman, in a masterly style ; for only when these four conditions are all present and combined, the completed edifice can alone be expected to exhibit that degree of perfection wherein security, usefulness, comfort, beauty and durability constitute the leading, conjoint traits, making it a safe, commodious and pleasant home for its indwellers, and an attractive and complacent spectacle for the eye of the beholder to rest upon.

11. We selected the simile of a man purporting building himself a house, because we all know that every man needs a house for the preservation and comfort of physical life, and for storing away all the various articles indispensable to himself and family. Now, any man of reflection, at an early day, discovers that, in the same way as his outward man needs a house to dwell in, provided with places and shelves to preserve his goods and chattels in proper order, so as to find them when needed for use, in like manner his inner man, the invisible intellect, needs a mental building, where it feels that it may dwell in security, comfort and peace, and where, into proper places and shelves, it may store away, for proper use and application, all the manifold and various thoughts, consisting in facts and truths, that constitute the whole of its knowledge of every sort.

12. For it needs but little meditation to convince ourselves, beyond the possible shadow of a doubt, that knowledge of a certain kind, and to a certain amount, is as indispensable to life, its preservation and comfort, as the things themselves, absolutely needed for man's wants. For give man all the things in creation, and deprive him of all knowledge of what they are and how to use them, and he will be as helpless and destitute as the new born babe, and must in the midst of affluence, inevitably perish, if not assisted by others that possess the knowledge he lacks. That this is an absolute truth, requires for your enduring conviction, — but a single one of your looks upon one of those unfortunate idiots, who, with the bodily size and physical strength of a grown-up adult, have hardly more knowledge than the crawling infant, and therefore with, and like it, are as utterly incapable of taking care of themselves.

13. Like a material house is built up of an indefinite number of various parts and substances, differing in inner nature and size, so an intellectual building is constructed of a countless number of facts and thoughts, representing truths of the most variegated kinds, degrees and magnitudes. The knowledge and skill of constructing a physical dwelling, we call architecture ; that of erecting a homestead for the mind, the art and process of true Seasoning. In both cases, the minds of the builders are governed by the same laws ; for the laws of thought are laws of nature, as well, and the conditions for erecting a solid structure, as above already elucidated, apply to each case with equal rigor.

14. There is, however, one great and notable difference in regard to the nature of the two buildings. The earthly house needs not to be very large ; for the number of its inhabitants, even when increased by transiently visiting guests, is but limited, so that the space needed for any emergency is nearly known beforehand, or may be supplied by some trifling addition when such case arises. At any rate, the building, after once completed, is a stationary structure, neither designed, nor of a nature, to grow and expand. It is likewise only a temporary abode, intended for a shelter to its inmates, during their limited lifetime on earth ; and what may become of it after their departure, will but little concern them when that momentous hour shall arrive.

15. The building for the thinking mind is of quite a different character. The mind knows its power and nature to be different from, and superior to, all things exteriorly around it. While everything it perceives out of itself is subject to a perpetual change and fluctuation, while its body changes by growth, increase and decrease, by health or disease, while even its own power accumulates incessantly by accretion of knowledge from experience and reflection ; it knows its consciousness of identity to be unchanged and immutable, having brought it up, from infancy, to the very latest moment of -its present now, ever and always, during each individual moment, constituting a life-line, never so long, knowing itself to be and remain itself. This innermost perception of an immutable stability, of and within its deepest essence, unaffected and unaffectable, by fact without or thought within, constitutes for man that most tremendous fact, of which all other facts in the universe are but parts, proving to man, beyond reach of doubt or cavil, that, existing on earth, he is not of earth ; surrounded by nature, he is not of nature ; ushered into and through life by time, he is not of time, but is of a substance that has everlasting duration and boundless eternity as an inherent attribute of its being, incapable of being destroyed by itself or any thing else.

16. Knowing thus its real character to be, an endless life or immortality, the mind knows also that all its actions, of every sort, must possess enduring consequences. These consequences, as the fruits of its accumulating labors and works, whether valuable or worthless, it carries along with itself, in its consciousness, from moment to moment forever. For its errors, mistakes and misdeeds, as well as its truths, fortunate hits and correct actions, contribute to make up that experience, disclosing to itself its own nature, its laws and those of the universe and its beings ; the conjoint knowledge of which constitutes that science of all sciences, called wisdom.

17. Hence the intellectual building which the mind of man needs is a temple of truth. As truth has no limits, but forever expands by accretion of knowledge, its temple must, of necessity, have a basis so solid and vast, rendering the foundation so immovable and firm that the superstructure erected thereon may forever be extended, without at any period, or by any event, becoming subjected to the danger of tumbling into a mass of ruins. For, as a real temple of the living truth, it must become the Centre and

Reservoir of all truths of any sort, which the whole human race upon earth did, does, and shall possess, in the past, present and future days of their existence on this planet. A temple of this description, as soon as successfully constructed upon the smallest scale, will be the common property of mankind ; and all intellects that seek, and yearn after, absolute truth, the absence of which they have so painfully felt and deplored, will flock around and into it, and hail its arrival with unbounded joy. For in it they will discover and recognize that great and universal medium for supplying, first, the intellectual, next, the psychical, and, finally, when practically applied, all other wants of man and humanity, for the arrival of which the noblest men of all ages and races have labored, sighed and prayed, and do so up to this very day.

18. If, therefore, this Temple of Teuth is to be in reality what its name implies and indicates, it must be a daguerreian imprint of the inmost longing of every true man, such as every one would depict for, and out of himself, were he in possession of the materials and ability requisite for doing so. For every clear-sighted mind knows that acting without knowledge constitutes the fool ; acting against it, the madman, villain or Jcnave ; but abstinence from all action, until possessed of the truth or indubitable knowledge how to act, is the criterion of the truly loise man. The wise is, therefore, he, who desires knowing the truth, in all cases, that concern him ; for only by knowing he can obey, practice, and apply it.

19. As, from the preceding premises, you, friend reader, are fully warranted in drawing the inference that they themselves are designed as materials, and that the writer, penning them down, intends using them in his present endeavor at constructing so sublime and important an edifice as intimated ; it becomes his duty to, first, as it were, take you by the hand, leading you around, from one place to another, showing you the various materials already collected for the purpose ; explaining, next, under what rules and regulations these materials are to be obtained and applied ; and finally, hereby, most civilly inviting you to honor with your mental, most attentive presence, the whole process of construction, from beginning to end, whereby you will be enabled to decide for yourself, by visible inspection of all the materials used, the mode and labor bestowed upon their preparation, and the modus operandi of their final combination, to the long- wished for whole ; in how far we have succeeded in complying with those laws of construction, as elucidated in the aforegoing introduction, and especially with its paragraphs No.'s 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 17.

20. If, after you shall thus watch us and our laborious exercises, until we have placed the cap-stone into the rounded arch of our temple's heaven-touching dome, and then, placing your trembling hand upon a heart palpitating with godlike joy, exclaim : "Great God, I thank Thee, from the bottom of my soul, that Thou hast given a laboring, struggling brother, at last, Thy grace and success in a work that comes up to all my prayers, hopes, and expectations !" we shall visibly see the commencement of that glorious time, predicted by the prophet, when saying : " And they shall teach no more, every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord ! for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more." Jer. xxxi, 34.

Chapter II. Preliminary Survey Of Materials And Methods

1. Our friend reader has seen, when, and where, houses were built, the excavation and hauling away of the ground, in digging the cellar and providing a solid basis for the foundation ; the carting of stone, sand, lime, and water for mortar ; the heavy teams bringing the ponderous timber, hewed stone, brick, columns of stone or iron, and whatever else of material was needed. He has seen the laying of the foundation, stone by stone, until reaching the level ground. He then beheld the workmen, standing upon that ground, progressing a given number of feet perpendicularly upward ; when no longer able to reach higher, they had to stop working, until completing the now indispensable scaffolding, they were thereby again enabled to recommence and prosecute a regular progress.

2. We call these various proceedings into view, in order thereby

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to remind our reader that processes mentally analogous to all these, are performed in the construction of an intellectual edifice, beside various others, not often required in the limited operations of the largest material structures. And like the materials used in the case of the earthly mansion, are of a heterogeneous appearance and nature, brought from various directions, upon divers and different vehicles, are worked by tools and processes of their own, to finally fit them for occupying their proper place in the grand completed whole ; so the materials needed for constructing a living temple for the mind of man, are vast in amount, and diversified in kind beyond the ordinary conception of his understanding ; they have, therefore, to be procured from all parts of creation, wherever found, and transported to the use and presence of the intellect by all modes and processes of which it has control. Not until we shall have practically, in outward procession, exposed them all to his wondering gaze, will the beholder fully comprehend their import, variegation and infinite diversity.

3. a.) For, remember, our Temple of Truth, in the processes of its construction, has features in common with the rules that govern the erection of the rude log-cabin, the neat fairy cottage, or the gorgeous palatial castle ; nay, our temple, immeasurable as it is, when completed, may even enter cabin, cottage, or castle, when carried thereinto within the heart and mind of a truth-loving man or woman. As long as he or she remains there, it will stay and with them remain within, but not a moment longer ; for, whenever he or she departs, it has no home either in the one or the other.

b.) The features it has in common, in construction and use, with these finite structures, are these : — Like them, its erection needs materials. But their amount borders upon the infinite. To procure them, the whole human race, existing from the beginning of time, up to the present moment, have all, consciously or unconsciously, by their experience and labor, willingly or not, each contributed their share, in some way or other. Like cabin, cottage, or castle, our temple requires space, rooms, and shelving, but infinitely more than they, c.) For though its regular inhabitant may be but one solitary individual man, woman, or family, yet its visitors and guests are hosts without limits and number, coming from all parts of time and space, embracing the whole family of mankind, and not excluding any part of the boundless domain of creation.

All of these, with the goods, chattels, implements, and utensils needed for their accommodation and entertainment, have a right to solicit and demand a resting-place in the great Temple of Truth. They all are needed, at one time or other, for one of the guests, for one purpose or another ; and, in the shape of a definite thought, representing a fact, an attribute or being, of this wonderful, mysterious universe, have an inalienable claim to a regular place on a shelf in the great storehouse of being, as, also, a fixed name on its vast catalogue of existences.

4. Now, friend reader, you, our neighbor and myself, all desire, and need, the truth, need it fully as much as we need our daily bread ; nay, in fact, need it more. For, " knowledge is power " only in so far as it is a knowledge of truth. Now the acquisition of this knowledge depends upon certain laws and conditions, under the operation of which we can alone obtain it. These laws are innate in our intellect and engrafted and interwoven into the constitution of the universe, and can not be evaded, a.) First ; as we, from the moment of our birth, grow older, moment by moment only, one single moment following uninterruptedly upon the heel of another ; so we can, and do, acquire all our knowledge only piecemeal, part- wise, one part or thought after another, that is, in succession or time. For the mind of man can only behold and contemplate one thought or subject, in one and the same moment of duration, no matter however quick its transition may be upon another, b.) The law compelling the mind thus to behold all things piecemeal and one after another, produces and constitutes that process of minute, separate examination, which is called " analysis," whereby the intellect is forced to decompose and distribute all things, wherever it can, into their rudimental classes of pristine parts, which it terms "elements."

5. a.) These elements, then, are the primary units out of which things are composed. Thus, for instance, we have the ten signs or figures in arithmetic, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, out of which all possible numbers imaginable are combined. Next, we have the signs of a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, 1, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x,

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y, z, constituting the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet, from which all the words in the language are formed, b.) Men, to secure existence, need things, the possession of which they call property. Such property has for him, who needs it this very moment, an absolute value, but for him who needs it at another or a later time, or only contingently, merely a relative one. To represent and express that thus unfixed value of property, and facilitate its acquisition and exchange, men, by custom, gradually have introduced, and, by tacit consent, generally accepted, the use of a medium, which they term money, and to which, in all countries, they affix different modes of subdivision, estimates, and denominations of parts, c.) In one thing they are, however, all forced to pursue the same course, namely : they must all start from an elementary unit, expressing the smallest or rudimentary part of their monetary valuation, give it a definite name of its own, and make it the fixed and permanent metre of all values, arising from its accumulative combination. The monetary units thus proposed and adopted, by the nations, peoples, and states on earth, differ in name as well as the value thereto attached, from one another, as do likewise the names of the various compound values, introduced by all to promote convenience, d.) The primary money element adopted in our United States, is represented by the well-known coin, termed a cent. From it have been combined the compound values of : 2,) the 3 cent piece ; 3,) the half dime of 5 cts.; 4,) the dime of 10 cts.; 5,) the quarter dollar of 25 cts.; 6,) the half dollar of 50 cts.; 7,) the dollar of 100 cts.; 8,) the quarter eagle of 250 cts.; 9,) the half eagle of 500 cts.; 10,) the eagle of 1000 cts.; and, 11,) the double eagle of 2000 cts. We might adduce, what are termed elements, from other quarters, but the above will amply suffice clearly to illustrate another law of the intellect, controlling the operation of man's thought and action.

6. a.) When you go to a printing office^ you may see standing before a set of cases, a man flinging the types of ciphers, letters, and signs that composed the last form of a book or newspaper, as rapidly as your eye can follow, each single piece into a small, separate compartment, belonging exclusively to its own kind or class. That operation constitutes analysis or decomposition into elementary parts. But, note it well, while it decomposes a whole no 2 longer useful itself, and so long as thus remaining rendering all its parts equally useless, it does not throw matter into pi, disorder, or chaos, but places all the elements into that natural position and order originally inherent in their design and classification, which alone renders them again available for immediate beneficial use. For, J,) no sooner do you see the man's last handful of matter distributed, when, also, you see him forthwith take hold of his composing stick, placing the manuscript you want him to instantly print for you, before him, and then, with rapid dexterity, take those very types, one by one, precisely in the very order you wrote them in letters upon your paper, and in a very brief time, the whole matter is composed, and shortly thereafter ready for the press, to multiply your manuscript into as many copies as you may desire or order, c.) Your manuscript is a whole, combined from a definite number of parts, constituting its elements. The printers' completed form, composed from single types as its elements, is another whole. Before you sat down to write your manuscript, you had one main object before your mind, which you desired to accomplish, all concentrated in the one main thought or whole. To accomplish your object as a unit or whole, all at once, you knew was impossible ; so you dissected the various parts of which your main thought was composed, by mental analysis, and sitting down, pen in hand, you recorded and depicted that very process of the intellect visibly upon the paper before you. And when you had done so, all the words on your paper, each one representing a part, but their whole number combinedly alone as a whole, represented the whole of the thought, that urged you to write. When you came to the printer, and stated to him what you wanted, you had again to do so part by part. He had hardly learnt all the parts when, instantly, he fully understood your wlwle thought, his mind combining its parts into one whole. That whole he could no more realize at once or as a unit, than yourself had been able ; hence he, like you, had to produce it part by part, d.) This unbending law, thus compelling the mind to construct a whole only in the way of combining its parts, to dissect even the units of original ideas born within the mind, into their component constituents, before they can be clearly understood and externally realized ; this law, and the intellectual operations under it, are termed synthesis, combination, joining together

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7. It must, however, not be imagined as if analysis and synthesis were processes that are, and can be, carried on, entirely apart and separate one from another. Quite the reverse ; there is not a single action of the intellect in which they are not jointly concerned, with the only difference of changing positions. For when that printer analytically decomposes the single types of the old form, the last part of the act, placing them each in that place of the system of classification, into company with their like, into the little pigeon-hole box to which they respectively belong, it is clearly an act of synthesis, establishing a well-ordered whole, and that whole being a regularly classified system of primary elements. On the other hand, that finished handbill, so quickly got up by the printer upon the call of our friend, is surely in its present form one whole, and thus an act of synthesis. But, at the same time, it not only still consists of single parts, but its type-setting and the rest of the performances by which it was produced, were clearly done, one part after another, or by the method of analysis.