One of your great mystics has said: “The chemical constituents of human bodies is the same. The ashes of a saint and the ashes of a sinner give the same chemical results. As human bodies they are the same, but their functions separate them and make them totally different, so that the difference cannot by any hocus-pocus of metaphysics or magic be bridged or spanned.”
Two things of the same material are really different if their functions are different. The real substance of a thing is in its function. We have to judge people by the things they do, not by their appearance; for there is no clear understanding between two persons whose aims are different. This is why there are so many divorces. This is why so many intellectual women live separate lives from their husbands in the same house.
People seem to be similar and equal but they differ according to their functions. If we take a philosopher, a hangman and a sailor who appear to be equal as human beings we shall see that in their functions there is nothing in common. The souls of these men are different in the very nature, origin and purpose of their existence.
Thousands of people move in a world of material shadows while their souls, the substance of which is intellectual and spiritual, inhabit a sphere absolutely apart. Especially is this the case with many of the cultured women of our time who are compelled to live a double life. Their intellects are far removed from the ordinary pursuits of the commercial world.
A woman of spiritual culture who marries a commercial man has married a shadow. A woman of high ideals who marries a professional politician has hitched her motor car to a meteor. A romantic woman married to a multi-millionaire whose world is bound in liberty bonds loses her liberty. A metaphysical woman who marries a financier is handicapped by the physical.
A union of spiritual functions with material formulas is impossible, for there is no way in which mere sensation can be made to harmonize with the higher emotions.
The new era of woman, which is just beginning to dawn, will direct education; and through education, politics; through politics, the progress of nations. Heretofore, the commercial and political world had a free hand. The progressive element was confined to a limited number of men in the colleges and the ministry, together with a remnant of law-makers. But their influence was negative owing to lack of material support.
Women will now present a formidable force in numbers, backed by a spiritual power, aided by men who understand the difference between functions and appearance, sensuous desires and ideal emotions.
For years I maintained that women do not realize the power they possess. They live so much in a world of their own that they do not regard the man-made commercial world as worth elevating.
Thousands of men are living in a sphere some degrees below the normal. They have been surrounded from the beginning with influences that obliterate all the higher faculties of the mind.