"Or suppose the men over in the shops were the joint possessors of the secret; why, the first thing you would know they would all be at work on some co-operative plan for themselves. Not that any of us have anything against the employers we work for, for there are no better in the land; but it is the blamed stupidity of the system that makes men work hard for small wages to feed the flames of ruinous rivalry. Look Lawyer's Brains Prostitutedat the brains locked up in the pates of lawyers which have nothing better to do than to mix things up so that they will get the job of unmixing them. Think what would happen if all that education and all that ingenuity were turned towards invention! Most of the tangles they are employed to unravel should never have existed, and would not have existed in a community where the secret of Emancipation had been told. In all of the clumsiness of competition, and the expense of pullback methods, labor, the source of all we have, pays the whole freight in one way or another; and the reason it does so is because of the little parasite devils that are sawing wood and hatching eggs in the minds of each individual worker and producer. With these little devils at work in him he is suspicious, selfish, jealous, and what not else, because he thinks his neighbor and fellow workman are similarly possessed, and he must be so too to get along. Under this condition cohesion is impossible, and schemers prey upon the separateness of the producing Emancipation Prevents Robberycommunity to rob it of as much of the product of its labor as possible. Suppose that the secret of possible Emancipation should become general (and for the life of me I cannot see how it can fail to do so), there would be confidence, trustfulness, cohesion, ambition to be useful, and the energy of the healthy child for play-work would return to the rejuvenated man, and he would play work under those conditions and not feel that it was a mark of servitude and necessity, and the land would sing with the sound of willing industry."
Emancipation Breeds Eloquence My friend had become eloquent under the inspiration of the possible establishment of a Heaven on earth to which he could invite his friends. Do not think that this is not a true report of a conversation in real life. My friend is a real character; is well read and educated by observation and experience, and could succeed in almost any position in life except in such as did not give "value received" for the service rendered. He is one of those "Noblemen by Nature" to whom the world owes so much, but pays so little; but he is happy in doing good, and the field he works in is one of the richest for that harvest, and the compensation he prizes most highly, is the happiness he is able to give others. He had the secret of True Living forced on him, in spite of the example of the world, without knowing the true cause or value of his good fortune; but his happiness was increased many fold when he learned that it was his birthright; was a possession of which no one could rob him; and would remain his as long as he lived. And as he has faith in the Eternal Evolution of everything, he feels that, freed from the depressing passions, there will be no end to his growth; that, at the so-called middle age of human tenure, he is but in the beginning of life; or, if not that, that each day is a wealth of joy unto itself in spite of any external conditions; for he has found that "the kingdom of Heaven is at hand" and that a branch of it has been established in his own heart.
Heaven is at Hand All men are not constituted alike. In the economy of Nature it is her purpose that no two things are made alike. In a million years a million men could not count the spears of grass in the fields, or the hairs of the heads of men; yet no patient investigator has been able to find any two of them that did not differ from every other one when put under the lens of the microscope. One thousand millions of humans inhabit this earth. Each has essentially the same form, the same two eyes, the same mouth, the same ears and hands and arms; and yet even in the case of twins, where the nearest approach to similarity comes, the mother never can mistake the one for the other. If you are unlike others, it is because nature chose to cast you in a different mould to serve some wise purpose; and with that form, comes the God-given essence of the Divine, whose presence and growth are evidenced by an innate yearning for spirituality. Much spirituality lifts a man above his less spiritual fellows and makes of him a cornerstone, or a keystone, or some other important segment of the social structure; and lack of it Key-stones and Cornerstonescondemns him to be a bit of rubble, or an atom of filling. The cornerstones and the keystones help and support each other in the stately arch, while the rubble and the atoms fall apart and become dirt, when allowed to find their level. Which shall we choose to become: the keystone of the arch, or some of the dirt of the earth beneath it? Which shall we choose: happiness, health, growth, usefulness, rest, and a fitting relationship to the Divine, or the reverse? Each is what God made him plus what he can attain by growth. Cripple can be greater than a kingThrough eradication of the cankerous passions; through the extirpation of the mental weeds; the dwarf may grow to be greater than the king; and all can freely and fully enjoy life and growth, when they have learned the A-B-C of True Living. The grammar, and the rhetoric, and the poetry, and perhaps a higher intelligence than we know of now may follow, and are sure to follow; but they will be but brighter phases of happiness already attained.
A CHURCHWOMAN
A Devout Churchwoman In searching for corroborative evidence of the possibility of Emancipation, I was fortunate in meeting a lady whose acquaintance with the several religions and metaphysics is exceptional; and whose clear intelligence regarding the value of menticulture, makes her a rare critic in questions of this kind. From her I received the most valued encouragement. She is a devout church-woman, but has studied along the several lines of psychology in search of additional light and strength. She had read my simple presentation of the theory of germ cure, and found in it a ray of hope, the effect of which she described as follows: "The sensation that was produced in me by the suggestion, I cannot describe. It was as if a great flood of light had burst upon me, and I saw the possibility of an immediate realization of my spiritual ideal; and I have prayed to God constantly, that it may not leave me. There have been unusual occasions for worry and annoyance since then. I have just moved to a new city; into a new house; and my husband and I are beginning life anew in an untried field. All of my past associations are broken up, and new sympathies among strangers are to be formed. My husband's health has been poor, and mine has been wretched, so that we have been compelled to seek climates more favorable, at the expense of financial considerations; yet, the cloud that hung over our prospects has been miraculously dispelled, and my days and nights are soothed with a calm contentment and happiness which I have never known before. My religion seems more precious to me than ever. It seems as if one simple little ingredient that it lacked has been found; and that now it is perfect. I have always been possessed of a desire to accomplish one act in life which should be conspicuous for its usefulness to some one; and if I can ever succeed in giving to one person the light and comfort that this revelation has given to me, I shall feel that my ambition has been attained."
Simple Little Ingredient Her discovery of a simple little ingredient, in the theory of germ cure, led to a new appreciation of the idea of simplicity in connection with it, which has been amplified in the succeeding chapter.
FIRST PRINCIPLES OVERLOOKED
Simplicity and Harmony are Ultimate Simplicity and harmony are the ultimate conditions to be attained in all things. In literature, and in music, and in oratory, and in painting, and in mechanics, and in life, simplicity is at once the greatest charm, and the best evidence of merit. In mechanics, a simple little device usually perfects the great labor-saving machine. In chemistry, a simple little ingredient may give culminating power to a world-building or a world-destroying compound. In oratory, a simple and impassioned appeal is most potent to move the multitude to action; and in menticulture, the simple and direct application of the germ cure, may be able to effect a millennium in social evolution within a generation. Stranger things have happened! Because it has not happened, is no reason why it should not happen. In fact, there are logical reasons why the habit of repression should have smothered any idea of germ cure, till Science placed an analogy in physics before our eyes; especially because the false hypothesis of original (or natural) sin, has been persistently advanced as a law of our being.
Germ Cure not Understood Christ taught the germ cure, and hinted at no other as an alternative. In the sermon on the mount; in his talks by the Sea of Galilee; and in his rebuke of the devil in the desert, there was no note of indecision suggested. Do and be and get were unmistakable commands. But these commands were given in a gentle manner, to half-doubting disciples, and faintly echoed by them to an incredulous world, that had not learned the power of mind over matter, or over itself; and hence the world waited for Science to prove even greater possibilities, before giving heed to the simple commands of the Great Teacher in the manner he commanded.
Order of Responsibility One of the great weaknesses of the age in which we live is the ignoring of first principles, and a reaching out for the remote or unattainable. In the matter of home responsibilities, and in menticulture, this is most apparent. The order of responsibility is—the mind,—the body—the mind of the child—the body or health of the child—and so on in the sequence of relationship in the family, in the community, in the nation, and in the world; not with selfish discrimination against the more remote, but with zealous care of the nearer relationships. This order, however, is rarely observed. We weed the garden, but do not weed the mind. We pass laws to punish any who strike, or rob, or corrupt a citizen, but there is no law to protect the abused or neglected children of drunken or incompetent parents, except in extreme cases. Breeders of fine animals take the greatest pains to guard all the conditions surrounding their stock, and at the same time encourage family alliance with consumptive plutocrats.