The influence of emancipated individuals in a community could be made so great that if there were only one in ten, and they should organize in clubs for the purpose, they would attract or rule the rest for good, and something better than the social Utopia pictured by Edward Bellamy in "Looking Backward" would follow as a natural sequence, and save us from the threatened battle between capital and labor, which otherwise seems inevitable. The horrors of such a conflict cannot be imagined; and, unless the germ cure is sought to avert it, it is sure to come.
Emancipation Cures All Ills The germ cure of the evil passions in the individual, followed by the germ cure of social clumsiness in the body politic, form the only hope of Emancipation from the evils which beset the social structure. For these there is no real necessity. There is already such a surplus of mechanical energy, such a surplus of creature comforts, and such a surplus of luxuries on our planet, that a moderately sensible distribution of them, would render every inhabitant comfortable and happy. Among the Emancipated the desire to make a generous distribution of these surplus stores would be as natural as is the habit of recognizing "the rule of the road" among us all to-day. So also, the vast amount of surplus energy born of Emancipation would find a natural outlet in the arts.
In suggesting the possibility of a Social Paradise or Community Heaven, it is presupposed that education along the lines of both intellectual and manual training will have become universal, and that every one shall render service to his fellows according to his strength; also that idleness, when one should work, and deception in trade, will have come to be classed as crimes, and not as evidences of "shrewdness."
Thirty years of Travel It has been my good fortune to travel to and fro over the earth's surface for thirty years, years of experience passed among the people of many different nations. I have made quick comparisons of the habits and customs of them all; and I have observed how easily some do things that others perform clumsily. The standard measure of my comparison has always been Japan. I could not help observing there less crime, better appreciation of art and nature, more physical dexterity and skill, fewer notes out of harmony, and more general happiness, gentleness, and consideration for fellows and animals; less (almost no) religious or sectional prejudice; a universal patriotism and respect for authority (as good children are respectful of the authority of beloved parents); a love of life, but no fear of death; and many other qualities that have commanded the respect of the world under the bright light of recent events.
Brave Little Japan Brave, gentle, artistic, lovable little Japan, which, thirty odd years ago, was nursing in quiet seclusion a beautiful flower of artistic civilization, has been rudely but providentially forced into the community of nations to teach the rest of the world a great lesson in the art of true living. By the exercise of judicious but resistless courage she has laid the Oriental Colossus who attacked her at her feet; and if the bulldog and buzzard nations of the West, do not unite their forces to obstruct her inclination, she will lift her fallen foe from a condition of slavery to barbarous aliens to a condition of tranquillity and happiness. She will do this through the introduction of reforms in government and administration which she has gathered from the best experience of all the world. What a missionary Japan is! A missionary of the art of true living. A missionary of harmony. The World's Congress of Religionscontact of Japan with the other nations made the World's Congress of Religions possible; and what this means to the advancement of man on the road to harmony and happiness, was recently stated by Prof. Max Muller, when he prophesied that this event would come to be appreciated as the greatest civilizing influence of the Nineteenth century.
Extremes Brought Together May the example of Japan set the boors of the world to thinking, cause them to take their fore feet out of the trough, look up to the sun and the light of dawning civilization, accept the simple teachings of Christ and Buddha and common sense, and start a Heaven here on earth. Steam and electricity have brought the extremes of our earth together; the telescope has let us into the secrets of the neighboring worlds, and logic and common sense may find in the possibility of Emancipation a means of bringing Heaven to us in this life.
A DISCUSSION
WHICH FOLLOWED THE READING OF THE FOREGOING PAPER
"Can anger and worry be entirely eliminated from the human mind?"
"Yes; they are simply bad habits of the mind, parasites, unnatural, and therefore uncivilized conditions, nursed by false ideas of pride or necessity; and their elimination is a purely mental process within the control of every intelligent person who has sufficient self-respect to recognize within himself the reflection of the Divine Image."
"In what does the germ cure of mental ills differ from the Christian method of repression through answer to prayer?"