Voices of hope, and other messages from the hills; a series of essays on the problem of life, optimism, and the Christ

Front matter

VOICES OF HOPE

OUrwrT TirtHTiWTri

HB v^mm

Preface

One of the most beautiful scenes in Nature is the reawakening of the mountain summits after the darksome days of a summer storm. Slowly and hesitatingly at first, great masses of clouds roll along the lower slopes and rise from the deep ravines. Then a long gleam of sunlight falls across great reaches of forest and rock in earnest of what is to follow. Here and there a snowy peak looks out, but immediately withdraws, as if in doubt as to its right to reveal its wintry purity. But, after a time, the lingering clouds disperse with surprising rapidity ; and the towering heights stand out in all their glory. What words can picture the beauty of the scene now spread before the eager vision of one who has for days awaited its coming ? The time is too sacred to spend in ordinary occupations. One must ascend some neighboring hill, and yield the senses to receptive enjoyment. There is an inspiration in the atmosphere which gives wings even to the feet ; and one is drawn irresistibly higher and higher, until an entire horizon of ice-clad peaks is defined against the cloudless blue of heaven. No record of facts could reveal the charm of such a day. Then only can every feature of the landscape be accurately observed, and the mind delights for a time in mere contemplation of details. But, when the soft light of evening falls upon the mountain heights, and the brighter glare of day gives place in blending succession to gold and pink and the marble-like whiteness of twilight, all details are lost in the harmony of the whole, — the oneness of mood of Nature and the beholder. The soul has absorbed somewhat which it shall never lose. Neither prose nor poetry could tell what. It was Nature's exhibition day, her smiling mood, her optimism. It was the stern dignity of resistless law, touched by the soft beauty of the ideal whose servant it is. It was life attaining its proper level, pausing for a moment, then plunging into the uncertainties and triumphs of another day.

The mind detects a close analogy between this climax of Nature's attainments and the successive aspirations of human life. Of such transformations all experience is compounded. The world loves mystery, if not darkness, with all that its obscurity conceals. But there is an instinct which seeks the clear visions of cloudless thought. One cannot tear the clouds away. These displays of Nature's supreme beauty never come when one most urgently seeks them, but in her own secret way ; and you must quickly observe while the vision lasts. Yet even a cloudless day will not admit us to the full perception of the meaning of life. In these days of scientific daring we have learned much about the mere configuration of existence. Life is as mathematical as the sternest could demand. Pay its price, and you shall have what you seek. The prudent will sometime learn to live here in perfect health by obeying Nature's mental and physical laws. For action and reaction are equal. Action em'anates from within, depends on the state of development, and may be improved indefinitely by sharpening the wisdom of choice. Yet exactness is only the prose of beauty. " Life is real, life is earnest." But the way to live it successfully is to be alive also to its poetry. Agnosticism has peered at the sharp summits of life, until it is blind to the transfigured light which alone reveals their true worth. Life is to be contemplated, enjoyed, as well as analyzed and rendered exact. At times it is simply to be observed appreciatively, as one gazes in rapture at the mountains.

Without assuming to know life's secret, I shall address myself to the sceptic, the lonely soul, and the troubled heart, and try, as an observer of our human world and a lover of Nature, to share some of the facts and beauties gathered along the way as I have watched the glorious awakening of the mountain summits of life. The following essays and papers, written at different times, seem to throw light upon one another, and to voice the optimistic mood. The volume contains the substance of courses of lectures delivered in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia ; and some of the chapters have been in part published in the Journal of Practical Metaphysics, but the revision has been such as to make the book practically new, as well as the expression of a greater hope. The sceptic may object that the mind easily conceives false hopes, and that it were wiser to describe life at its worst. But the author sincerely believes the optimistic mood to be the only one which reveals the fulness of life. Pessimism is ignorance, cloudland, and sleep. We are awake when we are hopeful, when we stand upon the mountain top and enjoy a commanding view. Pessimism is a sign of disease : it withers and blights. Optimism beholds all that pessimism saw in the gloomy vales, and more, — even the source of the dark rivulets which wear away their wooded slopes. But the author does not insist on just his optimism. Nor does he wish to preach, — only to return to the universe some measure of the beauty it has bestowed upon him, to express the joy of living in this well ordered world. In other volumes he has worded this faith before. It is a delight to express it again, almost a necessity to share it. He believes, too, that the " wicked world " will sometime respond. It is neither incurably pessimistic nor pernicious. It still has much to learn from the enjoyment and study of nature ; and these lessons shall sometime teach man how to be not only happy, but good.

Persons are frequently disappointing, the mountains never. But the world is awakening to the beauties of the perfect mountain day. We can prepare ourselves for its coming by giving ourselves over to the contemplation of beauty, by making its realization an end in life, by cultivating beautiful thoughts, and by being true to hope. The world was built in beauty. Every day, every hour, is full of revelation of truth and beauty — for him who has eyes to see it. The entire responsibility is therefore placed upon the individual. A man might stand unawed before a glacier-covered mountain, if absorbed in the pessimism of self. Pessimism is but another name for egoism : it has a truth to teach ; but it is barely the beginning of the fullest beauty and truth of life. There is a way out of misery to the heights of happiness and peace. But they are the heights of virtue and the Christ. We need not complain of the universe. We need not charge evil to some god of our own creation. The trouble lies within, and every atom must be purified. There is no half-way solution. There is no easy road to the Alps of thought. But the goal is worth all efforts to attain it. Down the steep slopes, from the beautiful pasture lands, the voices of hope are carried to the toiling traveller. The joyous babbling of the brook, the gentle beauty of the flowers, and the happy jodel of the peasant, all seem to express this hope, this merry optimism of Nature, and to be in keeping with the dignity of the mountains. All the universe rejoices in glad recognition of its Maker. All the music of the spheres is attuned to the key-note of hope. Out of the heart of humanity arises the response of love.

Murren, Switzerland, July, 1898.

Contents

CHAPTKR PAGE

I. The Problem of Life 13

II. The Basis of Optimism . 40

II. The Basis Of Optimism.*

Whose faith hath centre everywhere, Nor cares to fix itself to form.

Tennyson.

The most hopeful reformation that can take place in the human mind is the escape from bondage to dogma or authority, and the discovery of the rich possibilities of a broad and unhampered philosophy of evolution. The philosophies of the past have been chiefly doctrines of absolutism or fatalism. The Church has been the receptacle of well-established creeds, conservative, retrospective, and formalistic. The world has been deemed either the work of a Creator who foreordained its ways, or the expression of some philosophic Absolute, in whom its harmony was forever pre-established. Man, too, has been looked upon as the victim of this same deadly pessimism, where life is simply the unfolding of that which is latent within, or the dreary working-out of ages of bygone Karma. The philosophies and religions of the Old World, especially, are of this authoritative, conservative

* This chapter was suggested by Professor James' profound dogma-freeing book, " The Will to Believe."

type. In recent years their exponents have sought more and more to bring the New World under their sway. Custom, convention, authority, dogma, whatever it may be called, is in fact the most dangerous enemy, which threatens not only the growing generation, but the life of a nation as well. It is easy to move with the tide of established society. It is deemed almost heretical, and demands great courage, to break from it.

But, beginning with the Reformation of Martin Luther's time, the people of the West have gradually won their freedom, one department of learning after another has advanced beyond the confines of the Church ; and modern science stands to-day the proud monument of the glad escape of intellect from the thraldom of priest and dogma. In the New World, especially, the banner of freedom has been raised ; and man has claimed not only the right to govern and worship as he pleases, but even think as he wills. It is essentially the land of liberty, the land of belief in individuality, of self-reliant enterprise and daring progress. Long ago it broke loose from the bonds of conservatism in material things, and became the home of modern mechanical invention. The time will come when it will have a distinctive art and literature. Last of all, as the crowning intellectual achievement of life, it will have a philosophy which will include the doctrines of freedom, individuality and optimism. As a stepping-stone to this wider and maturer national philosophy which is being developed by our progressive thinkers, I propose in this chapter to consider some of the practical doctrines by which each individual may work out and contribute his share to the general mental evolution of our time.

First, the philosophy of evolution is a doctrine of unbounded hope and unlimited possibilities. It does not assume to know the ultimate nature of the God, or Power, of the universe. It states nothing definite in regard to the outcome of human development. The universe is accepted as found, — a live organism, the field of varied forces, the general tendency of which is toward progress. Nothing is decreed, nothing established, save that the sum of energy is held to be the same ; and law is deemed universal. Certain definite stages of growth are discovered, certain types are deemed relatively fixed. But, in general, the outlook of evolution is toward the limitless future. Chance is one of the gods of evolution as truly as is the survival of the fittest or the power of unalterable law. There is no factor in the problem of life, even selfishness, so serious as to cast a pessimistic light upon the future ; for the remedy lies in understanding it, and there is abundant reason to believe this great wisdom may come to all. There is, in fact, no limit placed upon speculative hope.

The bright prospect is open before us of a world whose future life may become largely what we collectively make it. Human nature, as we know it to-day, may be not only selfish, but cruel. Life may seem scarcely worth living, but the splendid opportunity is ours to make it worth living. " Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact," says Professor James. Human society may at present be immoral and unethical. Yet ours is the privilege to help make it ethical. There is absolutely no ground for pessimism from this point of view.

The most material evolutionist must include these glorious possibilities in his philosophy. He who believes also in the existence of a higher or spiritual nature has a still wider basis of hope. Moreover, the philosophy of evolution is a wonderful appeal to life. It adds a zest to living, is a source of happiness such as could never be found in the time-worn philosophies which it is rapidly displacing. This philosophy says to man : " Never mind yesterday. To-day may be made better by the way you live it. However many times you have failed, you know of no decree whereby you are doomed to eternal failure. Salvation is for all who earn it."

There is no ground for believing in an unjust God, who saves only his chosen people. The field of evolution is an arena on which each may prove his worth, and, so far as Nature is concerned, believe, worship, and disport himself as he chooses ; for Nature is ever tolerant, broad, and fair. Over the door of her temple one great word is written, — Opportunity. Time is at her command, for she does not hesitate to take ten thousand years for a geological age. Space she owns without limit. The fact that nations have come and gone, and still man is not perfected, means nothing to her. It required millions of years to prepare the earth for his habitation. Why should it not take thousands upon thousands of years to make him fit to enjoy it ? Surely, there is no reason to despair at this early day. We have barely begun to exhaust the material products of our marvellous world. The age of intellect bids fair to be many times as long as that of mechanics ; far ahead lies the time when a higher epoch shall begin, and altruism reign where now egoism holds unquestioned sway.

"Patience!" Nature seems to say. "Learn of me, and you shall have all you desire." Nay, more, life is not the mere realization of desires already latent. It doth not yet appear what we may wish to become. The more we know, the more fields of investigation open before us. Every desire leads to another ; and, fortunately for his welfare, man is never satisfied. " Every action admits of being outdone." What appears to be our work in life may sometime lead to a far nobler occupation.

Ideas which we expect to hold for a lifetime may seem puerile to us in due season, if we maintain an open mind.

The fact that I tell you with all the emphasis of my soul that I believe a certain doctrine to-day is no reason for assuming that I may not sometime inculcate its reverse. If I am a true evolutionist, "I am an experimenter with no past at my back." I owe allegiance to no system, I bow to no convention, I am not a slave to the hobgoblin consistency. I swear by no philosophical Absolute, I refuse to believe I am to become one with an " ocean of infinite bliss." I am ever on the alert for new ideas, ever ready to exchange a good method for a better, I am pliable, hopeful, happy, and thoughtful. In short, I am a citizen of the universe, and not only heir to all the ages, but in part the maker and owner of the destiny of men. Mine is the opportunity to rise where man has never before dreamed of ascending, to reverse the fate of nations and bring to naught the prophecies of the wise. Imagination was not given me in vain ; but I may give freest play to fancy, with the possibility that even what I deem almost too good to be true will sometime be mine. Mine is the chance to awaken men to the same great wealth of possibilities, and thus to play my humble part in hastening the disappearance of suffering, disease, and degradation.

4 6

Truly, the hope of the world lies in this broad philosophy of evolution, with its possibilities of altruism and the Christ. Here is the doctrine, which, if it be not yet as lofty and spiritual as we would have it, at least possesses the merit of being unhampered. Here is the real fountain of youth ; namely, the opportunity of ever renewing life by the thought of fresh possibility. Here, too, is the method whereby ambition is to be realized.

For the inexorableness of natural law, the apparently stern fate which couples cause and effect, is at the same time the solid basis of the great hope which the philosophy of evolution inspires. While we are still ignorant and thoughtless, it seems harsh and cruel that one must reap as one has sown. But, when truly apprehended, law is found to be the basis of all our trust in the world. It gives us strong reason to believe in the integrity of Nature. It shows us what to depend on ; namely, that under similar conditions the same effects follow similar causes. Law, therefore, instead of being a hard taskmaster, becomes our willing servant. It brings us close to the heart of the universe ; for law is the regular mode of activity of the one Power, or Life. It puts the mind in sympathetic relations with the creative force itself, since creation, according to the philosophy of evolution, is a process continuously going on around and within us. Moreover, it is a process which uses every slightest occurrence, whether intentional or accidental.

In fact, it makes little difference to Nature whether an event be accidental or within the established order. So rigid is she in the insistence that effect shall be like cause that you must always describe her phenomena thus : Certain results follow from certain causes, unless something intervenes, in which case you should expect something different. When, therefore, you apply this law, try to realize its full significance in daily life. Every thought, every emotion, registers its effect as truly as the greatest cataclysm in the external world. For are we not, each and every one, parts of the same great system ? Is not activity of thought governed by the same law that regulates the whispering of the wind in the tree-tops or the beating of angry waves upon a desolate shore ?

If this is so, our destiny is not fixed, but is in our own hands to shape, thought by thought and deed by deed. " Permanence is but a word of degrees."

" For all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades Forever and forever when I move."

Why should one regard inheritance, environment, or even temperament as fixed factors in evolution ? Is there any decree whereby we are

4 8

doomed to suffer from disease and poverty all our lives ? Is the span of life unalterably limited to threescore years and ten ? Must man always grow old, lose his faculties, and die ? Perhaps even death may be overcome, despite the fact that it has ever been the unconquered enemy of humanity's youth. It may be that the expectation of these ills and the servile sway of convention have had much to do with their continuance.

If we are ultimately to triumph, we must first dream, then hope, expect, believe, and finally affirm that these ideals of ours shall be realized. It is important also to note that we are not to triumph because we are fated to succeed. No one knows this to be decreed beyond all question. We are rather to triumph because we will to triumph, perhaps even to be immortal because we choose immortality, and, having chosen it, endeavor to make ourselves ethically worthy of it. Has any one been able to set bounds to human choice ? Have the limits of freedom ever been discovered ?

Freedom of will is a myth, say the fatalists and pessimists of old. There is no rational basis for belief in freedom, say the logicians. Yet we go on serenely believing. We are at least free to believe, even if we fail to find it as a fact. Belief is often creative. We are not to be put down by argument. While there is the faintest loophole, we will look out upon the fair world of idealism.

Call us children, if you will, illogical and credulous. Your scepticism has failed to touch our belief, while enthusiasm is all the more lively because of this joyous triumph.

" I am named and known by that moment's feat."

The human spirit is the great unquenchable spring of the ever new life of the universe. Deep in its heart it cherishes the belief that in due course it will be the ruler of all living things. Deep in its heart it says : " These are but the days of my youth, the age of apparent slavery and defeat. But I am quietly observing and learning. Some day the universe may discover what I am made of. Then let all the gods beware. The fact that I haltingly sit here amid the folds of physical sensation is no reason for believing me impotent, though I choose to repose a thousand years."

Before one can conquer, one must know well the enemy, and discover the lines of least resistance. That the spirit is sent to school in the theatre of storm and pain is no sign that it is to be cowed by the villain of the play. The higher and stronger the product of evolution, the longer must be its apprenticeship, its period of infancy. The fittest that is to survive must be made fit through contest. Power comes only through use : nothing is made perfect upon the first trial. Sometimes, when we see a perfected invention, we wonder that it was not made so at once, the finished machine seems so much simpler than the cumbersome one it superseded. But it is ever so. Evolution through trial, failure, and mistake, to betterment and victory, is the law of the universe ; nor can the intermediate steps be omitted. Try to leap over them, and you must return and proceed, step by step, in orderly succession.

Besides teaching the lessons of hope and patience, of the reign of law and the utility of chance, Nature, as interpreted by evolution, also emphasizes this principle of orderly succession. If we are ever to bring human beings into the world without pain and misery, so that health and sanity shall be the rule of life, we can attain this end only by passing through, understanding, and mastering all the stages of the suffering from which we would be free. Peace can come only as the reward of victory ; beauty, only from the reconstruction of chaos ; and poise, as the triumph over immoderate extremes. The longing for peace, beauty, and poise may be considered as an earnest that these fruits of toil are to be ours. We may therefore take courage from the fact that we have such desires. Yet these possessions are ever fruits, not gifts. No gifts are bestowed upon us through partiality or at random, but always that which comes to us comes because our own activity rendered us worthy of it.

Here, once more, we discover ground for hope, — yea, for confidence ; for we know, with everdeepened assurance, that what we work for must come. Are not these aspiring thoughts diminutive stepping-stones toward the goal of our desire ? On the other hand, is it not true that every doubt, every fear, all anxiety, worriment, depression, counteracts these happier thoughts, since every state of mind registers its impression ? If so, we move toward the goal in proportion as the sum total of optimistic thoughts exceeds the sum total of the pessimistic.

Thus we continue intermingling the hopeful and the depressing, the sane and the insane, the good and the bad. A gloomy thought may not be without compensation. At any rate, we are compelled to recognize that we are the resultant of all we have wrought, be it good or bad. The law may be learned as well from one kind of conduct as another. The law is this, — that we are ever making and remaking ourselves according to thought and deed. Each stirring of the thought impulse is a seed sown in the willing soil of our productive mind. Many a seed is choked because we give it no time to grow. But Nature has told us how to make every action effectual ; namely, let the seed have its period of rest and germination, and do not be impatient while it is in the quiescent and darksome stage.

Half our misery, nearly all our fear and worriment, is caused by neglect of this great fact. The period of transition, of unsightly or painful gestation, is ever a necessary stage of evolution. Nature has told us this again and again. But we heed her not. We go on complaining, doubting, and apprehending. We try to understand evil and suffering while buried in their throes. We make repeated mistakes, and reap wisdom therefrom. Thereupon we forget ; and, the next time a trial comes, we act as though the law of compensation were naught. Yet ever, if we heed Nature's mandates, we take the broad view, trying to understand events in the light of their outcome.

Throughout the realms of nature all growth comes from small beginnings. First, the cell, or life sent out in a new direction, then the steady accumulation of substance and force. Everywhere in the mental world the principle is the same. Every great invention sprang from a single idea. Every great discovery was first a thought in some courageous mind. Trace the natural history of any of your moods, — fear, hope, love, — and you will find that it started with a single thought or emotion which grew upon, you because you gave credence or attention to it. If you wish to eradicate a mood, at once end its growth. If you seek to avoid a habit, do not let a state of mind continue ; for you can hope to destroy a habit only by slowly building up a new one, until the life be sapped from the old.

Everything depends upon its beginnings. If a line of development starts rightly, it will end well. If it be wrong, you must continually reap the consequences or start anew. A business undertaking depends for its success upon the motive, the energy put into it. Friendship and marriage depend upon the plane on which they begin. The philosophy which we are considering of course admits the encouraging possibility of reforming that which started wrongly. But the principle is the same. Every reform begins at home, or, in other words, with a change of mind, a new determination, a single idea. If you would save time and energy, seek the line of least resistance and trust the laws of growth.

If I have many ideas, some of them in conflict perhaps, some sensual and some spiritual, I know that the strongest will survive. If I have a strong aspiration for the spiritual life, this desire acts as a continuous creative force to bring all things in correspondence. It is a right beginning, destined to attract its like. " Seek first the kingdom," and all else shall follow. Choose first your ideal, impress it clearly and forcibly upon your mind, and know that, unless you desire something else more than that, what you desire shall come. You may wait many years for the fulfilment of certain ambitions and desires. But such is the beautiful law of their coming. Circumstances must be in keeping. We must be inwardly ready. We must confidently hold to the ideal, knowing that a way of attainment will be found.

Therefore, to discover the basis of evolutionary optimism and live as optimists, we must rouse from the sleep of sensation and conservatism, and breathe the free air of hopeful speculation. We may, it is true, fall into error, and imagine wild fancies never to be realized. But we must make bold strokes, in order to break down the barriers of conventional thinking. Forms of worship and belief quickly become fixed. It is easier to be imitative and fall into habits than be original and progressive. We must sometimes take vigorous measures ; if need be, break from our surroundings, depart for a while from our friends, and go where a new set of sensations shall drive out the old, and an influx of new ideas quicken the mind.

If a man really love truth, if he be a disciple of progress, he will not permit himself to state his belief in the same terms year after year. As every year brings new experiences, so should it offer fresh interpretation of life. The genuine truth-seeker is more eager to keep the mind open than to arrive at some established conclusion. He hopes never to have any permanently settled beliefs, for he contemplates an eternity of intellectual progress. What a glorious prospect, — the everlasting pursuit of truth ! The determination to progress cannot be too strong, for it must meet and master the vast resistance of custom and dogma. As the body needs vigorous exercise to stir the sluggish life into quickened activity, so the mind needs the tonic of ever-renewed ideas. Every day is not too often to send out the thought afresh into the glorious future of evolutionary idealism. Every day is none too often to have some invigorating, recreative experience which shall tend to lift one out of the thraldom of physical sensation.