“As I wrote you the other day, not everybody has been prepared for the knowledge. It is known only to the few—those first over the top I spoke of. But it will be the next great revelation. As well say it was cruel not to have known chloroform in the Middle Ages, when it was sorely needed, or wireless telegraphy in the Napoleonic wars. There is an evolution of soul, as well as of biology and chemistry. Many fine souls have still lacked this peculiar preparation.”
This started a little discussion between us. One said that many persons had lost faith in the orthodox religions, thus making the need of a new revelation great. Another spoke disparagingly of the modern theory of a pervasive and impersonal energy, from which we come and to which we return, losing individuality. At this point Frederick took the lead again.
“Don’t you let them fool you! There is no such thing as Bergson’s stream of energy, unless every individual of us is a well-defined drop in the stream. That is all a philosopher’s dream, coated with poetry and tinctured with science.”
Mrs. Gaylord said she had never heard of Frederick’s reading Bergson, and I mentioned that I had read nothing of his, except one article in a review.
“I never read Bergson, either, but you could not live in the world, or pick up a Sunday supplement, some years ago, without encountering that stream of energy.”
“There speaks the newspaper man!” his mother said, laughing.
During all these talks with Frederick he had frequently made the little retraced circle, which we had been told meant joy. He made it again now, with vigor, and some one suggested that he seemed excited.
“Wouldn’t it excite you to get into actual touch with your family, after long doubt and pain? I am no angel, you know, and thank God I am not above being excited. When I am I will be dead!” Again he underscored a word.
Mrs. Gaylord spoke of her feeling of his presence, of his characteristic personality, saying that he seemed “just the same.”
“Plus, Mother dear. You’d like me better now. I don’t mean that I am perfect, you know. I’ve got more to learn than I ever knew existed, but I can see ahead now. And you would like me better.... I didn’t say love me better,” he added.