CHAPTER XXI.
FAITH BY SCIENCE: THE DAWN OF A NEW ORDER OF THINGS.
“All for each and each for all.”
God will take account of the selfishness of wealth, and His quarrel has yet to be fought out.—Rev. F. Robertson.
All the great things of time have been done by single men, from Judas Maccabeus down to Cromwell. We hear the age spoken of as degenerative because of the vast accumulations of wealth. But wealth may be a power for beneficence, as great brains may be, and we have no more reason for regretting large fortunes than large heads. No doubt to secure a perfect equality of all people we need small heads, and small heads or empty heads go with empty purses. By no other means can you level us. So also by wealth the world has been moved, and will continue to be moved. Can we consecrate money power to humanity, as we do mind power? We do not see why not. And in our judgment anyone who does not feel the change that is going on must be blind. It is not legislation that will produce a moral revolution, but a new enthusiasm. The future holds for us a grand enthusiasm of this sort—a moralization of property and possession.—Social Science in Science Siftings.
A wave of unrest seems to be passing over the world. Uneasiness prevails on every side. We walk gingerly as though on the edge of a precipice. Discontent is spreading everywhere. The struggle between capital and labour threatens to reach unheard-of proportions …. What is the meaning of the general restlessness? What are its causes? Is the world growing old and effete? Is the human race worn out? Is this generation incapable of the great achievements of the past? Does its materialism clog its powers and prevent its progress? Is the world going wrong for want of an ideal? A people which does not believe in its lofty mission will never accomplish it. Science has made gigantic strides in our days; but have its discoveries added much to the sum of human happiness? It has contributed to our material comfort in various ways, but it has not done much for the federation of the world. The great growth of luxury is not a good, but an evil, if it rob us of our belief in our great destiny and if it weaken our endeavour. If “the time is out of joint,” is it not possible that worship of wealth is responsible for it? “He who makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent.” Ours is emphatically the age in which men “make haste to be rich,” without much regard to the means. Capital has profited unduly at the expense of labour; employers have attained to fortune too quickly for the welfare of the employed. Commerce has forsaken the path of safety to indulge in rash and reckless speculation. Businesses have been converted into companies more for the benefit of vendors and financial houses than for the public. Company promotion has been carried to reckless lengths, and schemes for getting rich rapidly—schemes of the South Sea bubble order—have multiplied in every part of the civilized world. The Nemesis has come in the shape of restlessness, discontent, paralysis of trade, strikes, disorganization of finance, demoralization of Bourses, and general insecurity. It is a fact proved countless times in history that whenever a national need is felt, a man is raised up to supply the want.—Galignani’s Messenger.
The first seal is being broken in the book of vibratory philosophy; the first stepping-stone is placed toward reaching the solution of that infinite problem, the origin of life.—John Ernst Worrell Keely, 1890.
The seals are opened, as it were, under the sign Leo—as believing that such an age is coming on in which prophecy may be fulfilled that the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, which shall cover it with wisdom and understanding in the deep mysteries of God.—Jane Lead, 1699.
Evils bear in themselves the causes of their own extirpation. Providence is bringing the old order of things to a close in order to provide place for something better and higher.—Julian Hawthorne.