Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/creativepersonal01hadd I Sfre ^otucr-Hook ffithrartt Mb Atm NOT Training in the well-known Arts, Sciences or Businesses, but Cultivation of the Real Personality for Successful Living in any Art, Science or Business. Mb JJtfUnaoptjy The Highest Human Science is the Science of Practical Indi¬ vidual Culture. The Highest Human Art is the Art of Making the Most of the Self and its Career. One Science-Art stands Supreme: The Science-Art of Success¬ ful Being, Successful Living, Successful Doing. Mb tEigtljt t^ighuiaya of Pmoer The Highway of Bodily and Mental Health. The Highway of Dauntless Courage-Confidence. The Highway of the Controlled Whirlwind. The Highway of Symmetrically Great Will-Power. The Highway of Variously Growing Mind-Power. The Highway of Physical and Psychic Magnetism. The Highway of Expanding Practical Ability. The Highway of the Arthurian White Life. Mb Smthle (Inal Supreme Personal Well-Being and Actual Financial Betterment. Mb fHetfjoti Exactly What to Do and How to Do Exactly That. SItfp TJolumpfi “Power of Will,” (Travels Seven Highways). “Power for Success,” (Travels Elight Highways). “The Personal Atmosphere,” (Suggests all Highways). “Business Power,” (Travels Seven Highways). “The Culture of Courage,” (Travels Four Highways). “Practical Psychology,” (Travels Six Highways). “Creative Personality,” (Indicates all Highways). $nn are intriteb to enter one nr mare of tlje lEtgljt ^igtjmaga anil to afyare in tlje labnr anil reumrita nf many nmn nn tlje patlj nf prrannal betterment 34? 3Pnmrr-8nuk ffiUirarg. Unlmttp dlmituu' Jlmumalitij By Frank Channing Haddock, M.S., Ph.D. Author of "Power of Will," “Business Power,” "The Culture of Courage," "Power for Success,” “Practical Psychology,” Etc.. Etc. A (fompanum-ffiook JFor tlj? anb (Srouitlj of tlje ‘ ‘ Constructive Individuality has no limits of development , therefor I demand the unfold- ment of my unknown and unused capacities. Second Edition 1917 ffrltou Jlubltshitui (Hontpatty, ilrrtJirn, Qlnmt. (L. N. Fowi.f.r & Co., 7 Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus, London,) Copyright, iQib, by MRS. A. J BARNES and MRS. HELEN BENTON, Administrators of Estate of FRANK C. HADDOCK, Alhambra, California. Copyright, rqrb. Registered at Stationers Hall, London, England. All rights reserved, PRESS OP J, F. TAPLEY CO., NEW YORK. “ You are invited to remember that if you are to lead, you must make the most of yourself, that is, develop all your power, expand person in you to its greatest, and unfold your own completest individuality.” PREFACE The author originally intended that the pages of this book should be a part of the work entitled, “ Prac¬ tical Psychology.” It was seen, however, that this would make a volume altogether too long, and the plan of a two-volume book was for a time entertained. Finally it was decided to give each work a separate title, since they so greatly differ in style and subject matter, and since purchasers would then be enabled to order them singly. Nevertheless, “ Creative Personality ” is a practical study in psychology. While it deals with the mental elements, it takes a broader scope than that which usually obtains in works on mental science. Its con¬ ceptions are not found in the schools, and it is be¬ lieved that they are fresh and more or less unique, and that their practical applications are new and very far reaching. The reader is invited to keep in mind all the way through the study the climacteric goal, the preparation in any phase or stage of life for any suc¬ ceeding phase or stage, and the growth of the self in this world for success in any other world. We offer this conception as a purely business proposition. Person changes, but true person can never die, that is, cease to exist as person. CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I. Preliminary Definitions and Statements . 1 Chapter II. A Study in Reality . 7 Chapter III. Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds. 63 Chapter IV. Person . 105 Chapter V. Experience. 157 Chapter VI. Laws of Growth . 219 Chapter VII. The Instruments of Person¬ ality . 281 Chapter VIII. Goal of the Self. 340 Chapter IX. Completed Self for all Stages of Existence. 380 Thought is the one supreme power by which the self is to attain its proper goal. LAW: Every Action Demands an Actor. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS AND STATEMENTS. O UR discussion demands certain Preliminary Considerations that are fundamental, and which, let us hope, will lead to a better under¬ standing of the subject before us. These considera¬ tions suggest, first of all, specific definitions of some of the greater words employed in unfolding our thought, as follows: We define Psychology as the Science of the Facts, Principles and Laws of the Knowing Human Self. This definition itself requires further definitions of its chief ideas. Science is Systematized Knowledge of Facts, Prin¬ ciples and Laws. A Fact is any sort of Existence — anything that ac¬ tually is. A Principle is That which determines an Existence to be What it is. A Law is a Way that an Existence has of Being or of Doing. The act of Knowing involves various things, such as: “ to apprehend,” ad and prehendo, “ to draw to; ” “ to comprehend,” “ to draw or pass around; ” and to “ intensively understand,” “ to apprehend the inner de- l 2 Creative Personality tails of an object of thought." We apprehend a thing, a movement, etc.,— any object of thought,— when we just make it out, sense it, perceive it as a general whole, and this whether it be a material thing, a move¬ ment or an idea or a mental picture. We comprehend when we apprehend all around an object of thought. And we have intensive understanding when we ap¬ prehend the whole object, within as well as without. An ape may apprehend your actions, a child may com¬ prehend them, but only a philosopher can intensively understand them — know them “ through and through." These various processes of knowing resolve, on analysis, into exactly one thing. They all consist of getting meaning out of and about existences. Getting meanings is just that: knowing. Knowing is just that: getting meanings. The essence of meaning is this: We think an ex¬ istence into place in relation to our thoughts concern¬ ing other existences. Meaning, then, is relation of one thought to other thoughts in our mental life. In get¬ ting the meaning of a strange word, for example, we are compelled properly to place or relate every word employed in the definition to our thoughts of other things or words, and until we do this, the meaning is not clear to us. Meanings may be incorrect as re¬ gards the thoughts of authorities, but they are our own if the thought involved is properly placed in our minds; and meanings may be incoherent because not consistently or logically related to the balance of our mental life; yet they are meanings to us for the reason Preliminary Definitions and Statements 3 that the ideas concerned are related together in some way that seems right to the mind entertaining them. Meanings, thus, are the relations that our thoughts sustain to one another. Until this relating process goes on a mind could have no meanings. Nothing has meaning to a mind which comes into no relation to its thoughts. A self that could have but one sensa¬ tion or idea could never get that sensation or idea. We see, therefore, that to apprehend, to compre¬ hend, to intensively understand is to think various meanings of existences. Hence, to know is to get meanings consistently or logically related to our thought. These preliminary definitions bring us on to a dis¬ cussion of the foundation of this book, to-wit, Reality. General Analysis of Reality. Now, a thought is an active process of the self that constitutes meaning. But all thought involves an Activity and an Object of that activity. This general fact reveals to us a line of cleavage between the Knowing Self and the known Not-Self. Analysis thus establishes various General and Particular kinds of thought-objects which our mental constitution insists upon as actualities. And from this simple considera¬ tion we determine a convenient division of Reality, as follows: 1. Reality of the Knowing Self. 2. Reality of the Knowable Universe. These general observations further analyze Reality into — 4 Creative Personality 3. Reality of Facts — which includes Principles and Laws regarded as Facts. 4. Reality of Things, which in part constitute Facts, and are determined by Principles and expressed in Laws. 5. Reality, therefore, of Doing, since all exist¬ ences incessantly do, in one way and another; thus, of activities, whether of material or of non-material ex¬ istences ; and of movements of things purely material. The Reality of Doings obviously includes that of Forces. 6. Reality, for the reasons above indicated, of Energy and Power. 7. Reality, not only of a Self, but of the essence of a Self. The Self is here understood to mean any finite Self and the Infinite Self. To summarize: We have Reality of a Knower and a Known. From the human point of view this means the Self, its activities and the Universe in which it lives. From the point of view of an Infinite Intelli¬ gence this means the Self and its activities and the expressions thereof in the Universe and its finite in¬ telligences. We have, then, Fundamental Reality, which under¬ lies all forms of actual existences as their Ground and Source, and is eternal and qualitatively infinite. Evidently this Fundamental Reality manifests in, and constitutes, all the existences that we know. The resulting manifestations may be indicated as fol¬ lows: Preliminary Definitions and Statements 5 In the universal ether; In certain conditions of the ether, such as “ stresses,” “ strains,” undulations, vibrations, waves, rays, which exhibit in electricity, magnetism, light, etc.,— all forms of non-material force; In matter, or certain so-called chemical elements, their electrons, atoms, and inorganic compounds, to¬ gether with all forms of material force; In all forms of plant organizations and their life phenomena; In all forms of animal organization and their life phenomena; In psychic factor, which may appear in plant or¬ ganisms, but seems to distinguish animal organisms as of a “ higher ” order, and is the essential element in the development of animal life toward the human self and the human person; In the human self, which is the first “ budding forth ” of psychic factor in its unfoldment toward human per¬ son, and, as such result, creates human body and hu¬ man mind; In the human mind, which is an organized system of activities of the self in knowing; In human person, which is an organized system of the activities of Reality manifesting through the human psychic factor, the human self and the human body to the ends of knowing and development. These manifestations of Reality tend toward two finales: The complete unfoldment of all the possibilities of person making toward success. 6 Creative Personality The complete unfoldment of Reality in a Universe making toward universal harmony and happiness. The discussions that follow this chapter will carry this idea of a Fundamental Reality through the chap¬ ters, and will seek to indicate lines of thought and methods appropriate to the development of person in their own interest and the great finale, universal har¬ mony and happiness. LAW: No Less Than Infinite System of Activities Can Support Itself. CHAPTER II. A STUDY IN REALITY. W E come, now, to discuss the kinds of Reality referred to in the preceding chapter, and do so by discriminating between that Reality which means simply Activity and that which means all actuality possible and factual, which constitutes the Cause and Sustaining Ground of such actuality. The former phase of Reality may be sufficiently described as Phenomena; the latter Essential Being which reveals in phenomena. It is evident that all the forms of existence which we know or to which we give meaning (whether we comprehend or exhaustively understand or not) must have some Ground, Cause or Source apart from them as phenomena. Now, at this point it is necessary to avoid slipping unconsciously into a very easy error. We might say that, if there are forms of matter, there must be some universal Matter which assumes these forms. We might go on to affirm that, if there are various forms of force, there must be some universal Force appearing in such forms. Then we might continue by declaring that, if there are innumerable examples of life, there must be some universal Life springing forth in those examples. Finally, we might conclude that, if there 7 8 Creative Personality are countless finite intelligences, there must be some universal Intelligence revealing itself in these finite intelligences. This reasoning would force us to say that every material object is universal Matter, when we know that each kind of matter is itself alone and not the whole of matter; that every phase of force is the universal Force, when we are sure that elec¬ tricity is not heat, not light, etc., and is not the whole Force known by us; that every individual man and woman is the whole Humanity or the Infinite in its essential sameness, when we know that no individual can be the Infinite Intelligence. Hence, the statements at the beginning of this paragraph are not here offered as the truth in the matter. What we do affirm in the present connection is this — and it is fundamental both to the facts and to our thought. If there are various forms of matter, or force, and of intelligence, there must be some universal Ground and Source which sustains such forms and which reveals in and through them. It is here distinctly declared that every individual object of existence is solely itself and no other and by no means metaphysically identical with the universal Ground and Source that expresses in and through it and so sustains it. Your thought, for example, is itself and not you, although you sustain and create it. Ma¬ terial things, such as the chemical elements and com¬ pounds, are always distinct from one another and are never some universal existence. Other material ob¬ jects, like a tree, a crystal of quartz, an animal, etc., are exactly what they are and exclusively what they A Study in Reality 9 are, never some universal stuff unlike them or apart from them. The matter that is in a tree is that tree’s matter, none other. Matter exists as definite kinds of matter, not some mysterious universal material sub¬ stance which takes the form of such kinds. The pos¬ sibility of all the kinds of matter does obtain, but matter itself exists only in the kinds themselves. The universal matter is merely a general thought employed for mental convenience. It has no other reality. The same considerations hold good with reference to force. The scientific words, “ conservation ” and “ correlation,” as applied to force mean that conditions in which heat or light, etc., appear may be changed so that one phenomenon may appear and another result. Each force-manifestation is itself alone, and never can become a different force. No exhibition of force con¬ tains within itself all the elements of all the forces known. There is never any Universal Force in evi¬ dence; there are only individual forces in evidence when they appear, and these have no existence until they do appear. The Universal Force is an idea in¬ vented for mental convenience; it has no other ex¬ istence. Precisely so is it with animal and vegetable life. An “ entity ” which we call “ life ” undoubtedly exists, but in specific forms only. Life is probably some sort of chemical reaction, or the result of chemical reaction. But chemical reaction is the action of material ele¬ ments upon one another under certain conditions, or, phenomenally speaking, the result of such action. There is certainly no universal action here, except in 10 Creative Personality the sense that such action is everywhere and always going on. We will look in vain for any Universal Chemism. We will look in vain for the Universal Life. All chemical reactions are individual and spe¬ cific. So, all examples of life are specific and indi¬ vidual, and none other. We know and we can conceive of no life apart from particular cases of life. Logically speaking, we might go on here and affirm that there is no Universal Humanity making itself evi¬ dent in individual human beings. Each man is himself alone, not some larger human substance expressing in him. The word, “ Humanity,” is a general term em¬ ployed as a symbol in our thought for an idea repre¬ senting all sorts of human beings. The phrase, “ Uni¬ versal Intelligence,” may signify an Existence universal and infinite, but in the logical formula of the immedi¬ ately preceding paragraphs, is not some mysterious Universal Stuff out of which men and women are formed. We say, then, that the Ground and Source of all known existences of the nature of matter, force, life and human nature is never to be conceived as Uni¬ versal Matter, or Universal Life, or Universal Hu¬ manity. Nevertheless, it is impossible to think of matter, force, life and the human intelligence as having no other Ground and Source than themselves. Matter, force, chemism, life and that chemical action which gives us bodies and brains do seem to have a certain recognized Ground and Source in the Universal Ether of science. And here are some very significant facts A Study in Reality 11 concerning this universal Medium. It appears to per¬ vade all space; it seems to contain the possibility of all things; it discloses no differences in its nature any¬ where — is the same throughout and identical with itself, however manifested. If the ether is material, we do not know the fact. If the ether is non-material, we do not know that fact as well. Nevertheless, it explains, and is probably a true existence. If the ether is a true existence, the necessity that we should assume some Ground and Source for the material Universe is established in fact. But if there are existences in the Universe that are not material in the ordinary sense of the word, this establishment is only an aid, a suggestion in its very logical nature that we should continue our search for the Universal Ground and Source, even beyond the medium, the ether. For, what is true of matter, force, chemism, life, must be also true of the ether. There is no ether ex¬ cept in an universal-individual sense. The ether is everywhere itself, and none other. We know no uni¬ versal Ether-Stuff which manifests in the ether. Wherever the ether exists, it is, and nowhere else. The medium is individual, specific ether. We look in vain for some universal Sub-Ether out of which our medium has sprung. Nevertheless, again, this conclusion does not relieve the mental situation in the least. The ether itself calls for some Ground and Source, as does every other existence save an infinite one. 12 Creative Personality This demand springs from our unchangeable mental conviction that wherever there is an action there is an actor. Our scientific knowledge of the ether forces us to hold that it can not be the Ground and Source of all things, material and non-material, unless we dis¬ miss that scientific knowledge and make the medium something entirely different from the scientific con¬ ception of it that now prevails; in other words make it infinite, eternal and the sole reason of its own existence. But the ether known to us has the qualities of a product, not a cause, an instrument, not a finality in itself. The axiom that Every Action implies an Actor, and the inadequacy both of matter (since there is no uni¬ versal Matter-Stuff) and the ether to constitute Ground and Source of the Universe, drive us to assume as a complete logical resort for all existences some Reality capable of satisfying both the mind we use in thinking and the total facts made known to us in the Universe about us. We are confronted by the innumerable Many and the unlimited Varying. Yet we all believe in the solidarity of the Universe. One abiding Reality there must be in which the Universe lives and moves and has its being. These considerations deduce three conclusions which we may call The Fundamental Laws of Reality. First Law. The Ground-Reality basing all ex¬ istences is Infinite, Abiding and Indivisible: Infinite, since it must be capable of unlimited independent ac- A Study in Reality 13 tion from within, and no other existence conceivable can accomplish such achievement; Abiding, because this only could make possible unlimited expression of the Infinite Nature; Indivisible, for the reason that division would be a contradiction both of thought and of fact, yielding two or more Infinites. Second Law. This Infinite, Abiding and Indivis¬ ible Reality phases or manifests to us in matter and its forms, force and its actions, non-matter and power and activities thereof. The Reality grounds every kind of matter, every kind of force, every kind of intelligence and the power and action thereof. The Infinite and Eternal Reality is, in every legiti¬ mate way of thinking about it, always and throughout the same and identical with itself. On no other basis could it manifest the diverse phenomena which con¬ stitute the Universe. To say this in another way: Infinite and Eternal Reality can not in any sense differ in its essence throughout, since difference in any sense throughout would destroy universal essential oneness or basic unity in the Universe. It does not seem nec¬ essary to argue for the solidarity of the Universe, once the preceding considerations are thoroughly under¬ stood. Third Law. The Infinite and Eternal Reality con¬ tains within itself the Sole Reason for its own Ex¬ istence. To ask for the Reason for the Infinite is either to ask for another Infinite or to deny that it is Infinite. When we grasp the notion of an Infinite — not to comprehend it, but to sense it in some adequate way for thought — we place the idea first and funda- 14 Creative Personality mental to every other thought of any conceivable ex¬ istence as actual. The idea covers, adequately and comprehensively. We need no other explanation of an Infinite. The Sole Reason for the Infinite must be Itself — self-originating and self-sustaining simply be¬ cause it is Infinite. Thus, we may now define the Reality which con¬ stitutes the Ground and Source of all existences as: That Which is Eternally and Qualitatively Infinite, always the same throughout and identical until itself, and contains within itself the Sole Reason for its own Being. Since we now have an idea of Reality in its funda¬ mental sense, and also innumerable existences grounded therein, the only apparent explanation for the latter is the supposition or conclusion that they are differ¬ ing phenomenal manifestations of the former. This difference of manifestation must not be confounded with identity of being and its expression. The Reality manifests in various ways, but no manifestation can as such be identical with the manifestor. The differ¬ ence of manifestation must also not be confounded with division of the Reality. Infinite Reality knows no division. Division separates into parts, but vary¬ ing differences of manifestation or phenomena simply mean varying activities of the one Reality. Substan¬ tial Being (the Infinite Reality) is one; its expressions in existences are many. If we ask how the one Uni¬ versal Reality can give the innumerable many of the Universe, we are really asking how the human self can be one and yet act in countless ways. Each person A Study in Reality 15 holds himself to be an unity; yet knows very well that his activities — all phenomenal manifestations of him¬ self — are innumerable. These suggestions bring us on in our discussion as follows: Reality and Its Ways of Being and Doing. We are unable to conceive of any existence which is totally devoid of certain ways of being and doing. Every existence is a system of activities, and some of these activities constitute its ways of being, while others constitute its phenomena — its ways of doing in the sense of phenomenal expression of its nature. Concerning such ways of being and doing we suggest certain considerations, as follows: First Consideration. These ways define themselves to our thought as Activities and analyze into Activities constituting Pure Being and Activities constituting Phenomena. The ways of doing that solely concern Infinite Reality’s Being are in the nature of the case unknow¬ able by us in any direct sense, except as they may be involved in its phenomenal doing. The scientist ob¬ serves the manifestations of electricity and thus knows electricity in a manner; yet he is even now bent on the study of what really is electricity. Thus with the Infinite Reality: we know some of its activities, but of its inner nature we are ignorant. And ever shall re¬ main in ignorance. This unknowability of Reality’s activities in Pure Being is due to the fact that we can only know substance through its action upon our know- 16 Creative Personality ing selves. The process of knowing is a return action of the self to some other action, either of the self or of the Not-Self. The return action, or the* reaction, signifies that the self gives meaning to the action by which reaction is induced. This action upon us is indispensable to the knowing reaction. If an exist¬ ence— whether of matter, force or thought — does not act upon us in some way, thus causing the mental reaction of knowing (perceiving, apprehending, com¬ prehending or intensively understanding), it is evident that we can never know it at all. If we in any way know an activity of an existence, we know by so much just that much about the existence itself. If we know, apprehend, understand all the activities of an existence which are capable of exciting our mental reaction of knowing, we by so much know all about it — all that we have any power to know. This knowledge, how¬ ever, sets our limit. We can not know more than all the activities which an existence is capable of bringing to bear upon us. We can not further understand or even apprehend the ground, source or cause of these activities upon us, because we can only know through activities inducing our knowing — and all such have by the supposition been exhausted. In other words, the “ thing in itself,” and so, the activities that consti¬ tute that “ thing,” is necessarily unknowable, except that we are driven to affirm that the activities inducing our knowing demand an actor for their manifestation ; we gather what the existence does phenomenally, and thus know all about the actor as an acting something, the latter remaining unknown because it has exhausted A Study in Reality 17 its activities upon us and so our power to know it. Pure Being, therefore, forever hides or recedes from our mental vision. We recall our definition of knowing as “ giving meaning to an object of thought.” Knowing an ac¬ tivity of Pure Being upon us consists in giving some meaning to that activity — relating it to the balance of our mental life. When we know all such activities, we have related the ideas raised by them, severally and altogether, to one another and to the contents of our mental experience. Our knowing here is meanings given to the activities. One thing remains, however, that appears in the process, even though we are un¬ aware, even though we deny — to-wit: there has been action upon us, and we must give meaning to that action as well as meaning to the activities themselves. We must properly place in our thought the fact of this action. Such placing does not occur until we affirm an actor; that affirmation is one meaning of the action upon us. The meanings of the activities are various — as the case may be; the meaning of the action, or of the activities as a total fact, is always and inevitably one — No action without an actor. We never imagine the contrary until we fall into some passion of psycho¬ logical dogmatism and declare, perhaps, that the activi¬ ties as a “ bunch ” or “ system ” constitute the actor. Whether or no a system can support itself will come before us a little later in this chapter. These considerations bring us to the question: Is this Pure Being, for the reason that we can not directly know it, a mere abstraction, an idle quest for thought ? 18 Creative Personality Second Consideration. The answer to the above question seems evident. The idea of a Fundamental Reality supporting the phe¬ nomena of the Universe is an absolute necessity of good thinking. It is not affirmed that we need an Universal Matter, or an Universal Life as Ground and Source of the Universe in which we live. It is con¬ cluded from the laws of mind that good thinking de¬ mands as such Ground and Source — That Which is Infinite, Eternal, Indivisible, which is always through¬ out the same and identical with itself, which contains within itself the Sole Reason for its own existence. Our thought may not always demand that the Being- Activities of Fundamental Reality shall be taken into definite consideration by us in all our thought in physi¬ cal science. In physical science only the phenomena of Reality need be discussed or thought about. This indifference of physical science to the essence of Real¬ ity springs from the fact that the province of physical science does not include the essence of things, but covers phenomena and their relations alone. The knowledge of physical science, however, can not ex¬ haust the Universe. Philosophy is as important to the human mind as is science in its physical fields. The systematized knowledge of facts, principles and laws, which is science in its broadest sense, includes both the phenomena of matter and the phenomena of that which transcends matter. However extensive the field and knowledge of physical science may be, there are other fields of investigation and other knowledges A Study in Reality 19 with which physical science, as such, can not deal, for the reason, in part, that the human mind furnishes the fundamental facts, principles and laws which physical science assumes, and must assume, at the outset of its work, and which it employs all through that work, but which it does not investigate or demonstrate, since this is not the work it has in hand at all. When science investigates the latter work, it ceases to be physical and becomes metaphysical and functions as, say, Psychology. When it seeks to cover the principles of Reality underlying, so to speak, the physical Uni¬ verse, it becomes Philosophy. Over against material phenomena stands the human intellect in person. The human mind deals not alone with the subject of the physical scientist, it deals with the entire mentality employed by the scientist. The human self in mental action holds tenaciously, because it must do so or lose its integrity, to certain ineradicable, and never in the least degree negligible, fundamental principles which thought is compelled to use, whatever the desire or the goal of the thinker. These great principles are practically known to us all because not a day passes during which some of them are not em¬ ployed by every man and woman in the world. One of these principles is this — simple, obvious, incon¬ trovertible: Every activity proceeds from an actor. It is the great law of Cause and Effect — Causality. However speciously we may juggle with this law, affirming that cause and effect merely represent se¬ quence, or that an effect is only the cause in a new form, it still remains a law of thought because mere 20 Creative Personality sequence is the matter always to be explained, because sequence does nothing but involve a doing behind it, because the effect is called effect for the reason that it always lacks the true element of cause. A cause in this chain of sequence can only bring about the effect by acting forth into a something not itself; otherwise it remains an inert and idle notion, not a real fact. We give meaning to the words “ cause ” and “ effect,” not by relating them merely as sequence, as antecedent and consequent, but by placing the antecedent as active power making the consequent inevitable. Third Consideration. Perfectly true as the statement is that every activity necessitates an actor, it is exactly at this point that our discussion must draw finer and tighter lines of thought. The axiom referred to seems wholly obvious, and any prolonged treatment of it seems altogether needless. There are those, nevertheless, who aver that we need no “ thing in itself,” Fundamental Reality, Pure Being, in our effort to know and understand the Universe in which we live. Just as, it is said, in Psychology the thinker requires to know merely a “ plurality of psy¬ chical experiences,” so, it is insisted that in our study of worlds we rest content with phenomena or activi¬ ties that mean phenomena to us, and ignore the Ground and Source of such activities as mere useless abstrac¬ tion. To this curious notion our good thinking now invites careful attention. Every physical science thus far built up incessantly A Study in Reality 21 contradicts the proposition that the Reality behind or in phenomena is merely fictional. Science refers light, electricity, magnetism and certain “ rays ” emitted by radium to an universal ether, and speaks of “ stresses ” therein and seeks to explain the same — searches for the causes. No one supposes that the ether can put itself into strain. So, also, we have reference to that which exerts force, since initiation of itself is foreign to the idea of force. Science never looks for energy in a void, but endeavors to run it down to its last hiding place. Science disputes whether or no a vital entity exists, but asserts surely that life appears in the action of chemical elements, and now struggles to make out “ the very thing in itself ” which a chemical element represents. The question, What is matter? is an effort to get at the Reality which manifests matter. Always in science any movement raises assumption of a mover, and any activity the conclusion that here is a something thus revealing initiating power. No one believes that the phenomena of the Universe are based on a Noth¬ ing. The Universe can not inhere in pure Nonentity. If there is an Universe, it expresses the ways of being and doing of some sort of adequate Actuality. And it is incompetent to affirm that we call for this Actuality merely because we want a fictional stopping- place— a ground of pure mental convenience. The reverse is true: our mental convenience springs from the fact that we must make our language fit the facts that appeal to us. We do not invent the idea of cause and effect; the idea is forced upon us by the action of an Universe compelling thought. 22 Creative Personality Fourth Consideration. Since phenomena represent activities, and since every activity means an actor, no system of activities can be self-explanatory. The activities behind what we call phenomena are never the same as the activities by which we apprehend the phenomena. Light, for ex¬ ample is physically speaking a complex ray in the uni¬ versal ether; the light that the self apprehends in mind is a pure activity of intelligence. Thus the objective facts become known by us as phenomena. The phe¬ nomena are supported by external physical activities. The psychical activities give meaning to the physical — and the phenomena are such meanings. We can not suppose that we give meanings to nonentities. The physical activities actually occur. There are those who contend that the psychical activities constitute the knowing self and that the physical activities constitute the Universe. The self and the Universe are simply systems of activities; nothing else exists for knowledge. Is knowing just a “ contact ” of activities among them¬ selves ? This question will seem to the ordinary mind alto¬ gether unnecessary. How can we conceive of an action without an actor? How can an activity or a system of activities originate itself? Nevertheless, there are writers who seemingly deny this fundamental law, that an action can only be gotten into being by an actor, and apparently declare that a system of activities needs no other actor than itself. The notion is a pure A Study in Reality 23 fiction of mental confusion. The confusion appears in the following. “ We shall, therefore (says one writer) stop at what we know.” And he proceeds to refuse to stop at what we know. “ The soul is a plurality of psy¬ chical experiences comprehended into the unity of con¬ sciousness in a manner not further known. We know nothing whatever of a substance outside of, behind or under the ideas and feelings.” An experience is constituted by mental activities. “ A plurality of psychic experiences ” is a plurality of mental activities. That is, a number of activities is a number of activities. To “comprehend” a “plu¬ rality into a unity ” is, not merely to think of the proc¬ ess, but to accomplish the comprehending act. The nature of the activities may constitute the unity — in the observer’s thought, but this is not the only compre¬ hending that goes on. It is the comprehending unity that requires explanation, not merely a description. A “ plurality of psychic experiences ” is comprehended into a unity by reason of their characteristics, as we observe them, and, in addition to that fact, by some factor which determines those characteristics. A sys¬ tem of activities is a group of activities acting as a whole, having a function (or goal or work), or a group of functions as the explanation of its existence. No system of activities except an infinite one can cause itself as a system, since every single activity in the system must be produced by an actor other than the system, and what is true of the individuals in the group 24 Creative Personality is true of the whole taken as a unit. No system less than infinite can be the initiator of any of its own members. To affirm the contrary is to affirm that a cause can cause itself. The product of a cause is an effect, and cause and effect may not legitimately be confused. A cause is involved in its effect, just as an effect expresses its cause, but never are cause and effect the same or capable of being identified. The language indicates the fact that thought can not employ either word for one and the same thing. Cause, considered as cause, is cause only, and effect, when truly itself, is effect alone. While the effects involved in a system are products of a cause or of causes, they are not, and never can be, effects caused by the system as a whole. We are here speaking of systems and causes less than infinite — of which more will appear later in this dis¬ cussion. There is no mysterious power in a system of activities, of any nature less than infinite, to support itself or any of its constituent elements. When writers speak of a system of things or forces as being solely constituted by the activities that make the things or are the forces (even exhaustively considered), with no underlying or manifesting reality supporting or causing the activities which are the system, they merely juggle with words and their own mental powers. These facts impose upon thinkers and writers the obligation, when they speak of any acting object, to definitely state that, if they are dealing only with the activities, the latter solely constitute the matter in hand, and that the reality of the acting somewhat is not before them. A Study in Reality 25 These facts impose upon us the obligation, when speaking of metaphysical or psychological matters, to state definitely that, although the nature or essence of an actor may be unknowable and while the activities alone constitute our subject, the acting somewhat is set aside as not under discussion, but is frankly ad¬ mitted as an existence and as a necessary supposition of good thinking. Otherwise confusion must obtain and the contradiction must appear to be our conclusion that a cause and an effect, an actor and its activities, can be identified. If we suppose a system of activities to be called A-B-C-D-E-F-G, the system is composed of activities A and B and C and D and E and F and G. Can the system cause any of the activities contained within it? Can itself cause all the activities? If it can do the latter, it can exist before it becomes a system. If it can do the former, it can exist before that particular activity comes into being; that is to say, a total cause- system can precede some of the elements that make it a whole. If such a system can cause itself it can sup¬ port itself, for any cause, taken solely as cause, stands on its own feet; otherwise it is in part an effect. The only support of a cause is its own nature. If a cause less than infinite can not cause itself it can not main¬ tain itself as cause, but immediately becomes something else. And if a cause can not cause or support itself, it can not cause or support any one of its elements. A system of activities, therefore, can not legitimately be regarded as the cause or support of itself or any of the activities included. 26 Creative Personality We will assume that the system A-B-C-D-E-F-G can cause, and so, support itself. It needs no other ground or support than itself. The supposition here is a sys¬ tem less than infinite. The system, as such, causes itself and hence its constituent elements, the activities. It is obvious that in this case each of the activities has a share in causing every other associated activity, be¬ cause each is a part of the system as cause and also an integral element in the cause of all the others. Each activity in part causes itself as well. The activity G, then, shares in causing A and B and C and D and E and F. Then the activity G in part causes itself and in part causes the remaining activities. So, an activity can at one and the same time serve as cause and effect — in the one identical process. The conclusion, stated, is as follows — as applied to system A-B-C-D-E-F-G: Activity G in part causes and supports itself plus x — the x being its share in the existence of A and B and C and D and E and F. Activity F holds the same function. E shares also this curious power. D also comes in for double power. Each of the activities C and B and A causes in part itself as a member of the system and the other activities as members. The system thus causes itself plus 7x. The work of the system is greater than the system. The system has more power than the sum of the powers of its elements. We are juggling with words and thought when we say that we need no other reality as explanation of a system of activities than the system itself. The truth, of course, is thus: Every person less than infinite is incompetent to support itself, since no A Study in Reality 27 cause less than infinite is competent to produce itself. Therefore, any reality less than infinite in its nature is incapable of supporting itself, and can exhibit no reason for its existence throughout its constitution. We conclude that such a system as the Universe can not be disposed of for thought by simply taking it as a system of activities. If the laws of mind are true and truly regulative of our investigation of the activi¬ ties constituting the Universe, they must represent truly the constitution of that Universe. We may err in our conclusions about the facts of the Universe, but we must assume that the laws of mind and the laws of the Universe are in no sense contradictory. Fifth Consideration. No mere plurality of activities can explain a true system. Both for our thought and for the fact, a plurality of activities becomes a system only when the existence of some unifying reality makes it a system. This unifying somewhat may be the character or nature of the activities, the principle that determines that nature, and the end or object for which they are adapted. If we have, for example, a hub, some spokes, the parts of the felloe and the tire, the unifying things here are — material of the objects, form when put to¬ gether, and the wheel-principle. Representing these objects as abstract activities, we see that the latter are no system until they have an actor, a determining prin¬ ciple and a fitting end or goal or work. So, we say that the Universe is not a mere heterogeneous jumble of activities; it is more than a plurality; it is a true 28 Creative Personality system. But its system-character springs from the fact that it is based in Reality which manifests in its activities, that the activities are evidently determined by some definite principle, and that the on-going out¬ come stands for work or ends made possible by and limited to that principle. Of course it is the Reality which contains the principle and acts for the ends in evidence. In other words, the Universe, as a mere plurality, contains within itself no reason for the exist¬ ence either of the plurality or for the system as such. And the ends of which it is capable do not represent such reason, because they require a reason. Only the Fundamental Reality contains within itself the reason for the existence of the Universe, because the principle which determines the Universe to be an Universe can be found nowhere else. That we need look no further for unifying ground of the Universe than to Infinite Reality will appear in our discussion on a later page. Sixth Consideration. The Universe demands a background (for thought) in Infinite Reality which is always throughout the same and identical with itself and which contains within itself the sole reason for itself. This proposition may first be worked out in a very concise and funda¬ mental way. The great existences of the Universe appear to be Matter and Person. We have said that there is no Universal Matter adequate as cause and sup¬ port of objects. The matter that constitutes objects is compounded of chemical elements. The chemical elements, as such, differ from one another in various A Study in Reality 29 degrees, and so do the chemical compounds. The ele¬ ments can combine only in certain limited ways, and no element which enters into any compound can at the same time enter into any other compound. So, also, no compound which enters into any material object can at the same time enter into any other object. There are about eighty kinds of elements and, it may be, several hundred thousand kinds of compounds. The total quantity of elements no one knows, just as the total number of compounds and material objects no one can determine. Yet the quantity of elemental and compounded matter is a total of some size, what¬ ever that may be. Matter so far as reason can go is limited. There is nothing in the nature of matter to indicate that it is infinite in the true sense of the word. We can always conceive of more matter, but we can also always conceive of some limit to matter. This means that because we can conceive of more matter, there is always the possibility of more and more and more — which gives matter a finite existence in our thought. But the Fundamental Reality, which evi¬ dently expresses in the Universe, can not have the quality of limitability, but must pervade all things, act as cause and support of all things, and at once consti¬ tute any object and every other object. If it manifests itself in an atom or an ion of the ether, or the Universe, or countless Universes, it just as truly and simultane¬ ously manifests in every conceivable existence of every conceivable kind. If every activity requires an actor, and if no system of activities can cause or support itself, but demands some unifying Ground and Source 30 Creative Personality other than itself, it seems infallibly correct to affirm that the vast diversity of our Universe must be based by our thought in the perfect unity of that Infinite Reality which the definition of these pages has sought to enforce. The proposition suggested at the head of the present consideration may now be worked out in a somewhat different manner. The Universe in which we live ap¬ pears to be a vast, yet limited, system of activities, which exhibit phenomenally as, in part material, in part non-material. We may grant that some of the activities involved in the existence of an Universe may be non-material, yet not personal; we simply do not know. But it appears to be the fact that all the activi¬ ties that we do recognize except, perhaps, of the Uni¬ versal ether and of force, are of a nature which we call personal. The Universe, then, so far as concerns its known qualities, consists of matter, force, and person. Always, then, we have to deal with actions of things and actions of persons. Now, we never, in common speech, think of the actions as either the things or the persons. We refer actions by objects to the objects themselves, and action of or within things to the mat¬ ter which takes the form of things. In a similar man¬ ner we speak of activities by persons, referring the former to the latter, and of activities within person, referring the activities to a self which manifests as person. Nobody supposes that activities by objects or persons constitute the objects and persons. No one, then, should suppose that the activities taking place within objects or persons cause the objects and the A Study in Reality 31 selves. Objects and persons are indeed constituted by activities of various sorts, so far as mere observation goes, because critical thought alone is adequate to dis¬ cover that the activities constituting objects and per¬ sons can not cause and support themselves, and demand an actor revealing in such activities. Common speech refers activities within objects, and constituting them, to matter, but, since matter is itself activities requiring an actor for explanation in our clearer thought, we are compelled to refer these activities to some existence that is in itself perfectly adequate to constitute the ground and source of all objects, whether material or non-material. The reference of common speech indi¬ cates the logical necessity which the better critical thought carries out, and the outcome is the reference suggested. In the Infinite and Eternal Reality already defined, this necessity is fulfilled. Similarly with ac¬ tivities constituting the self revealing in activities con¬ stituting the person. The person is a system of activi¬ ties given definite “ shape ” by the activities of the self,— for the person-system can not cause and sup¬ port itself, and as this is equally true of the self-system, ■—the activities constituting the self,— the logical de¬ mand appears here also, and it is satisfied by reference to the Fundamental Reality that grounds and supports every other existence. Similarly with the Universal ether. This is an hypothetical existence demanded by critical scientific thought, which investigation appears to be demonstrating as an actual existence. The ether is anything other than an inert something; it is itself evidently a vast system of activities,— a double system, 32 Creative Personality — since we have those activities which it manifests, and we conclude that it is constituted by activities that determine it to be what it is. Outside the field of science no one supposes that the ether is merely the activities that are manifest to us. Electricity is one such activity, but it can not be claimed that electricity is the ether itself; it is said to be a “ movement ” or a condition of the ether. (In the same manner, mag¬ netism, light, some forms of radio-action are explained as “ stresses ” or “ strains ” or conditions of the ether.) All such conditions are really activities of ether within itself. These kinds of activity do not explain the medium in which they occur. Our effort to get at the nature of the ether is actually an effort to know its constitutive activities. That is to say, the effort is an admission that the ether can not cause and support itself. We are coming to think that matter is an es¬ tablished system of activities of the ether within itself; some assert that matter is electricity and nothing but electricity. Even if so, electricity can not cause and support itself. Our effort to find out what electricity is, as well as our effort to know the nature of the ether which manifests as electricity and then in matter, drives us further back to the old axiom: Every activity de¬ mands an actor. Some of the etheric activities ex¬ hibited in electricity, magnetism, light, matter, we know in part, but the activities that make the ether what it is must be referred in good thinking to some actuality which is adequate to manifest in this universal medium. No juggling with words about activities can obviate A Study in Reality 33 the conviction that activities and actor may never be identified, that no system of activities can cause and support itself, even though a system may have more power as a system than the sum-total powers of its members, since our axiom demands that the individual activities must have some support other than the sys¬ tem, exactly as this must have some support other than itself, that the Universe obeys this general law of mentality, and that our thought finds an end in some Infinite and Eternal Reality which is adequate as cause and support of all things. The ether appears to be universal in the sense that it is coincident with the material universe so far as we know. This fact, however, does not make it infinite or eternal. Possibly it is an effect or a system of effects of a cause or a system of causes evolving toward matter and material forces. Conceivably, the ether may be infinite in a quantitative sense and eternal in the sense of duration. We can conceive of its exist¬ ence in this way, regarding it as a medium and its activities as a method of evolution in fundamental aspects — that is, aspects just preceding or underlying what we call matter and force. It may be that always matter and force have been becoming, disintegrating, becoming again, and it may also be that the ether,— and its activities,— the medium and method,— have al¬ ways been becoming. Nevertheless, the becoming here must mean that forever the ether as medium and method have been the effects of a Something forever acting as Infinite and Eternal Cause and support 34 Creative Personality thereof. Even granting these suppositions, our thought finds no resting place save in the Fundamental Reality here suggested. Seventh Consideration. Our conclusion (that every action demands an actor) does not, now, apply to a system of activities which is infinite and eternal in itself. On the contrary, the conclusion demands precisely such a system as cause and support for every other system, on the ground that the latter is less than infinite and the former is infinite in all legitimate senses. No system less than infinite gives the mind the> necessary reason for the existence of such system. A system that is in itself infinite and eternal must be its own cause, must support itself, must contain within itself the sole rea¬ son of and for its existence. It may be hastily concluded that we stop in some Infinite because the mind can not entertain the idea of an endless chain of causes and effects, and assumes a First Cause for that reason. We do not arrive at our conclusion arbitrarily,— and in order to get rid of the infinite regress,— as some thinkers express themselves in the matter, that is, by arbitrarily ending the quest somewhere, What causes the cause of the cause? To do this is to do as some scientists who affirm that it is enough to investigate phenomena and stop at that point. The meaning of this is to cease thinking when we arrive at questions requiring the whole mind rather than a part only. If science in its physical sense must pause with physics, the whole mind of the scientist A Study in Reality 35 craves — unless it has in part atrophied — the meta¬ physics which alone gives science its basis and its in¬ struments of work. As a matter of fact there is no particular reason, after all, why in the regress, we can hope to get rid of the regress by pausing anywhere until we reach Pure Cause. If we go on forever thinking of cause of cause, we are always assured of a plenty of receding causes with which to satisfy the law that every effect must have a cause, since there is forever one cause more. This position is entirely as legitimate as that which supinely settles down in mat¬ ter or force as sufficient support for the phenomena of the Universe. Nevertheless, the position is contemptible, for the reason that it deliberately puts the mind to sleep and refuses to think the matter out to an adequate finish. There remains a more excellent way. We arrive at the conclusion that an Infinite System of Reality causes and supports the Universe, and only such can achieve the task, because the nature of Infinite and Eternal Reality compels mental rest. This means that such Fundamental Reality is the only Pure Cause that we can conceive. When we speak of a cause of a cause, however long we continue to say the words, we do not once speak of a real actor in any final or perfect sense of the phrase. We merely put into any cause in the chain the idea of cause which we feel is needed, but which at no time is really there. Even were any cause in the chain a real cause in part, it is so in part only, since, just because it is a member of a chain, it is also an effect. Secondary causes are merely 36 Creative Personality mental conveniences by which we locate any member of a series. A real cause can not be an effect. As every cause in the chain is really an effect, it is evident that the real cause never appears in a sequence — except the first cause. First or Pure Cause alone re¬ veals the actor. The endless regress fails to intro¬ duce the required actor. Any activity that may serve as a cause, yet also demands an actor to get itself into existence, is no true cause. This getting into existence of an activity is an effect, however much we may de¬ ceive ourselves with the notion that it is a cause. No so-called cause in an endless chain can satisfy the rational mind, because no such cause can be wholly a true cause and nothing other than a cause. Only Fun¬ damental Reality can define Cause in its absolute sense. Here alone is our mental diamond, “ of purest ray serene,” shaping every other existence, itself shaped by none, and shining forever in the depths of honest critical thought — an eternal guiding star for human reason. We conclude that Infinite and Eternal Reality does not demand cause and support, but is self-causing and self-supporting, because the words Infinite and Eternal Reality preclude any additional or underlying cause and support. This is no assumption out of hand. It is an absolutely necessary conclusion. Our Reality is by nature infinite and eternal, and thus embraces all ex¬ istences and exhausts both our mental resources and the whole matter under discussion. There can be only one Infinite Reality. In that thought, whenever we seek for a further cause or a further support, we A Study in Reality 37 seek what we already have. The conception carries the things sought. The Reality carries in its nature — in our very idea of its nature — its own cause and its own support. If, coming to the Fundamental Reality, we ask: What causes or maintains this? we are in effect, by the question, denying that it is Infinite and Eternal. We thus ask for the infinite and eternal cause of the infinite and eternal effect. The request is contradictory of one or the other member of the ques¬ tion. By its infinity, the cause can be no effect. An infinite effect denies itself, since a cause is greater than an effect, and nothing can be greater than the infinite. Moreover, we are now juggling with two infinites, which is a contradiction of terms. Fundamental Real¬ ity must stand alone. Eighth Consideration. The Fundamental Reality manifests in every ma¬ terial object and in the self of every human person. This means that the Reality constitutes the object and the self. Our analysis would seem to separate the Reality from existence, but such separation is merely due to the fact that we distinguish object and Reality for convenience of thought. In true actuality the object and the self could no more exist apart from the Reality than a tree could exist apart from matter. This necessity of thought, that we separate for thought what we know to be inseparable in fact should be held in mind as a safeguard against that confusion which we have been trying to avoid, to-wit: that an activity and an actor may coexist in actual conditions and 38 Creative Personality therefore may be logically identified. Objects are con¬ stituted by the Fundamental Reality, but the fact of the constituting assumes that the Reality acts as cause to manifest itself in the objects. The universal ether would not exist were Reality not to constitute it; always, therefore, the Reality appears in the ether. There is no ether where the Reality does not act as ether. Nevertheless, we may not say that there is no Reality where the ether does not exist. There is no matter apart from the ether, although we may not say that there is no Reality where the ether is non-existent. The ether is universal so far as we know, but we have no reason for assuming that it is infinite. No chemical elements exist that are not matter and probably ether, and so, that are not exhibits of Reality, but to affirm that Reality can have no being apart from the elements is to contradict the law that every system of activities must have cause and support for thought in some kind of being, logically distinguishable therefrom. Our analysis, however, must not separate the Fundamental Reality from the Universe so far as to lose the Reality out of the Universe. We do not identify our thoughts with ourselves — say that our thoughts are our selves; the selves have or think the thoughts. There are no thoughts apart from a self, although we may not sup¬ pose the self non-existent simply because not active in thought. The self constitutes the thoughts, and is in them as their cause and support. The activities called thoughts demand an active self to make them possible. Thus with all objects and all human selves: the Reality is distinguishable from them as cause and support, but A Study in Reality 39 inseparable from them in the sense that they only exist as the Reality is in and manifests itself through them. In actuality, every material object, every physical force, and every human self might affirm truly: “I am of the essence or nature of the Infinite Reality.” There is indicated in such a possible claim identity of nature which is not to be confused with identity of totality. No individual object of existence is the whole of exist¬ ence, since individuality and not universality is the fact. The Infinite Reality has a wholeness, even if infinite: the wholeness is infinite. The wholeness of any indi¬ vidual object is finite. No object, then, is the whole Reality. Material objects are altogether matter, but none is the whole of matter. The nature of Reality appears in every form of matter and human self, but the latter do not exhaust the former. In actuality, the Reality and its manifestations are identical; for thought they are separable as cause and effect. Ninth Consideration. All manifestations of the Fundamental Reality are independent separate existences so far as concerns their relation to that Reality. Material objects and human selves sustain mutual relations of greater or less de¬ pendence upon one another in maintaining their exist¬ ence, because that is one of the complex ways Reality has of being and doing. Chemical elements combine into compounds, and compounds cooperate together in living and other forms of matter, and vegetables and animals utilize the products of living matter; yet Real¬ ity gives to every existence its individuality, which is 40 Creative Personality absolutely independent of the actuality of every other existence. As our thoughts sustain mutual relations, one suggesting another and combining with others', yet become solely through the action of the self, so material objects and human selves, however dependent upon one another, are constituted alone by the Fundamental Reality, and made individual and non-identical. The Reality manifests itself in innumerable forms, each of which, in relation to the Cause and Support, is itself only and none other. The apparent commonplaceness of this proposition disappears when we work out some of its implications. Every individual object of existence has now absolute standing, apart from all the interdependence and “ obli¬ gation ” of mutuality. The right of each to unfold Reality to the limit now becomes unimpeachable. Evi¬ dently this right is an “ obligation.” At least, this be¬ comes the sole end of any existence. The real nature of each existence, then, is to attract to itself whatever is favorable to the goal suggested, and to repel what¬ ever is unfavorable. Each individual object and human self is now driven to maintain and develop its individuality,— to work out Fundamental Reality,— whatever the cost to any other object, because only so can Reality come to full expression of itself, or to “ best estate,” and because the Infinite Reality, in coming to full expression of itself, will assuredly, if perfectly free (as it is in the material world) bring all individual objects to “ best estate ” as it will bring one. It is as if Infinite Reality were constantly saying to all things; “Come to your ‘best estate v by fully insist- A Study in Reality 41 ing that I, as expressed in you, shall have absolute right of way to perfectly individualize you, whatever the apparent consequences to others, because I will and am able to take due care of such consequences and to individualize every other existence.” The standing of each individual object and self in the Fundamental Reality puts the whole of the latter’s freedom into each object and self. Each may now freely exhibit or evolve all that is possible to it as an individual ex¬ pression of free Reality. And this freedom originates the highest tendency of things and the highest duty of the human self. In the vast drama of the Universe all “ stains ” and “ flaws ” become now relative, and not absolute, and so remediable and eliminative as the wonderful Play shall go on. Tenth Consideration. If the individual object, human or otherwise, is obliged as well as privileged to insist upon fullest ex¬ pression of itself regardless of consequences because the Infinite Reality will take care of the consequences in its own unfoldment through individuals, it is evi¬ dent that “ stains ” and “ flaws ” are temporary only and will all disappear in the final outcome. Some ap¬ parently imperfect objects may cease to be, but the Uni¬ verse will at last realize the absolute perfection of the Fundamental Reality thus evolving itself. Eleventh Consideration. The expression of the Fundamental Reality in ma¬ terial objects and forces and the human selves is con- 42 Creative Personality tinuous, and not an event once for all. All things are forever in the act of becoming. This is true because the Reality is the Ground and Source of existence, and therefore its perennial support. Were the support or the cause of existence to cease for an instant, the exist¬ ence would necessarily fail. Both the animal and the plant are ever in the process of becoming what they are. Matter, also, has no power to maintain itself, but gets its being through action, going on without cessa¬ tion, of its Fundamental Cause. Thus as well with the ether: this is not an existence brought into being at “ the beginning,” but becomes incessantly by the same action. There can be no true evolution otherwise. Objects have no power to evolve themselves; if they had such power, the question must be answerfed: Evolution of what? If this evolution is merely of mat¬ ter, the same question occurs in regard to matter. Were we to assume that the evolution is simply of the ether, we have exactly the same problem. Evolution means the unfolding expression in varying forms of an Infinite and Eternal Reality, the nature of which is to do precisely this. All things therefore are in a state of unceasing becoming. Twelfth Consideration. The Fundamental Reality can unfold nothing foreign to its nature. It may express itself in infinitely vary¬ ing forms, but these forms are all of itself, pertaining to its own nature. In other words, not even Infinite and Eternal Reality can transcend itself. Nothing exists “outside” the Reality. Nothing exists which A Study in Reality 43 does not express the Reality. Nothing is of a nature essentially different from the Reality. Every exist¬ ence, and all states and activities of existence, express the Reality. No object and no person can act “out¬ side ” that which forever gives it being. The “ stains ” and “flaws” of the Universe — as so-called “evil” may be described — are within the Infinite Reality and have possibility only through its expression. We deem these activities or states “ evil ” because we are unable to measure or perceive the final outcome of the uni¬ versal process, but once we see that the Fundamental Reality is eternally engaged in unfolding itself through objects and human selves, we discover that these “ evil ” states are our imperfect interpretations of some of the details of evolution. They are relatively “ evil ” because free intelligence in human beings gets into relations with objects and forces and other human beings that bring consequences which we do not ad¬ mire, but which consequences are as truly an expres¬ sion of the Reality as any so-called admirable existence, since in them the Reality is going on to its own perfect unfoldment in existence. Thirteenth Consideration. Freedom is of the essence of the Fundamental Real¬ ity. The Infinite can not be other than free. Since our Reality is infinite in nature, and is the Ground and Source of all existence, there can be no other existence infinite in nature, and hence no power adequate to coerce its activities. Its activities can not be self- coerced, since a self-coerced infinite is a contradiction 44 Creative Personality of terms and thought. The possibilities of a true Infinite are also infinite. The unfoldment of such pos¬ sibilities is either selective or mechanical, we may say. But the idea of the mechanical does not imply accident and does not imply coercion. An infinity of reaction set against an infinity of reaction constitutes an infinite balk or estoppel. An infinity of accident can only signify a quantitative infinite, which is not exhaustive of a true Infinite, as this is qualitative no less than quantitative — a Reality which is Infinite in its Nature. The meaning of “ mechanical ” is cooperation of “ means ” to an “ end.” Mechanism is a realization in instrumentation for work. Every human machine ex¬ presses an unvarying tendency which we call adapta¬ tion, and the adaptation is the principle of mechanism. Such principle determines the machine and its working. The machine is free to act within the limits of its con¬ struction, and an Infinite Reality derives freedom from its own nature to act within itself with infinite free self-cooperation. And this means infinite cooperative power. This further appears in our discussion imme¬ diately to follow the present consideration. The Freedom of Fundamental Reality manifests in its expressions according to their form and sphere. We may say that the ether is free to act in “ stresses ” and “ strains ” and undulations, vibrations, waves, etc., because this is the nature of the Reality in such ex¬ pression as the ether. We may say that matter is free to act in chemical constitutions and reactions, in various compounds and in purely vegetable and animal forms, because also here we have the nature of Reality thus A Study in Reality 45 expressing. We may say that both the evolution and the disintegration of chemical elements are expressions of free Reality to act in the ways indicated. We may say that each individual plant and animal has the free¬ dom of its own nature, that is, the nature of the Ground and Source and Cause of each object. And we may say that each individual human self is free within the sphere of its own nature to be a human and to act with all the selective possibilities of the human. All this seems, perhaps, entirely inconsequential — seems to be merely an adjustment of language and thought to a pre¬ conceived notion in order to make the notion good. But the seeming is superficial. We come back to our axiom, that every activity implies an actor, and then insist that the Universe calls for an Infinite Reality the actions of which express that Universe, finding freedom within it because the very nature of a true Infinite carries freedom as of its essence. The details of freedom in existences revealing that Reality are simply necessary deductions that “ put things together ” in one consistent Whole. Fourteenth Consideration. The Infinite Reality contains the possibilities of in¬ telligence. That which contains within itself, or is, the sole reason for its own existence, must, therefore, con¬ tain all intelligence — possibilities. If, moreover, we remember that a true Infinite is qualitative as well as quantitative,— means infinite in essence or nature, not merely an unlimited quantity of Reality,— we see that 46 Creative Personality provisions of intelligence are carried with the very idea of this Infinite. The Infinite Reality must be conceived of as the background of all existence. We can not, therefore, posit in this Infinite anything other than the possibili¬ ties of all existences, except the pure essence of its own nature and the freedom of that nature to unfold such possibilities. We can not say that the Infinite Reality is actualized intelligence, because actualized intelligence is an expression of the Reality, and the expression can not be itself and its own background, or ground and source. We affirm that the Fundamental Reality, as Ground and Source of all existences, contains within itself simply the possibilities of such existences. In our thought, then, of Reality as Ground and Source, we say that it contains within itself infinite possibilities of infinite actualized manifestation. This means, for example, that itself provides in its nature for expres¬ sion in what we call freedom and intelligence. Fifteenth Consideration. The manifestation of the Fundamental Reality in the human self does not signify that the self is helpless in the exercise of its nature. It is, of course, helpless as regards being other than a human self. However long continued its evolution may be, it will never be¬ come an existence not human. But the evolution of the human self is an outcome of its action as such. This action has the freedom of its nature. The Funda¬ mental Reality expresses in that nature; gives to the human nature the same quality of freedom which itself A Study in Reality 47 possesses. The Infinite freedom, qualitatively speak¬ ing, passes into the finite self. Within the sphere of the self, within the possibilities of the self, it is free ac¬ tivity that unfolds the self. If the self continues for¬ ever, the freedom will forever go with it. Evolution here becomes endless. In the plant or animal, the nature of the Fundamental Reality expresses in limita¬ tions on development of form and individual exhibits of the form. The plant can never pass out of its form into another form except as that process be a method of evolution of the Infinite Reality. So with the ani¬ mal. The processes of taking forms in the plant and animal realms arrives at finality at various points, so that the freedom of the objects is here merely the free¬ dom of the Reality to make toward its ends and stop there. In the human self this selective stopping point appears in the form of the self, but passes on therefrom to the idea of an endless development, always within the form, but always unfolding of the possibilities of that form. We may say the thing in this way: in an oak tree free unfoldment of Fundamental Reality stops, but in the human self such unfoldment never does stop, because never to stop is of the nature which Reality expresses in the individual. It is this power of unlimited free development that places man at the head of existence in the world. The more of his intelligence does not so place him, for that more is merely quantita¬ tive. The qualitative difference between man and all other existences in the world is a difference of essence and expression of the Fundamental Reality — as though man existed for unlimited development, while 48 Creative Personality plants and lower animals existed for development limited at some point therein. The more or less of intelligence classes human individuals as higher or lower, so to speak, but the unlimited possibilities of all humans in the way of development gives them supe¬ riority over plants and animals, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, that theoretical equality with one another on which we all insist. Instinctively the Real¬ ity which we represent asserts its freedom in the human self. Sixteenth Consideration. The Fundamental Reality embraces all existences. Its own Nature determines both the substance — the manifested content — of existences, and the mode of their self-expressioning activity. It provides their ways of being and their ways of doing. Nothing can exist apart from this Ground; nothing can express itself independently of this Source. In the sense sug¬ gested, Reality “ contains ” all forms of being. This conclusion means that the Fundamental Reality constitutes the possibility of the ether, of matter and force, and of personality. We may say that the ether provides the possibility of matter. It does not follow that matter must neces¬ sarily appear. Expression of the nature of ether might conceivably stop at proto-matter — something evolving toward matter. We may also say that matter provides the possibility of physical life — a product of chemical action, perhaps. Here, as well, such life is no logical necessity. Matter and physical life do not, as matter, A Study in Reality 49 as life, exist in the ether, are not identical with the ether as such. For example, one of the products of radio-activity is Helium. Helium does not exist in Radium; the two elements are chemically different. Helium appears as a result of the action of Radium under certain conditions. So, matter is “ contained ” in the ether, in the sense that it results from certain activities of ether. So, also, ether and matter do not exist as such in our Fundamental Reality, but are pos¬ sibilities which the action of Reality realizes in fact. The very essence and nature of Reality goes into ether, matter and personality, but the latter, as actualities, are not identical with the Reality, since cause and effect can not be one. They are real (are realities), but are not the Reality. Metaphysical form is not metaphysi¬ cal substance — as our personal life is not the psychic self. Always, substance contains the possibility of form-expression. We may now say that the Fundamental Reality pro¬ vides in its nature for ether, matter and personality. Reality, therefore, “ contains ” as follows: The ether, and so, every variety of etheric force, such as light, electricity, magnetism — all “ stresses,” “ strains,” vibrations, undulations, waves, rays, vor¬ tices, etc., supposed by science; Matter, and so, the chemical elements and com¬ pounds and their properties and reactions, together with every material force and life, including the prin¬ ciples of evolution; (Reality provides all the details of the inorganic and organic worlds.) Personality, in the sense of involving the elements 50 Creative Personality which, on organization, constitute person. Funda¬ mental Reality is the Ground, one phase of the nature of which is personal. It thus provides the possibility of infinite and finite personalities. It organizes itself into incessant expression of its nature, into an Infinite Personality, eternally coexistent with itself, but not, as personality, metaphysically identical with itself. The Reality provides in its nature all other personalities, which are partakers of its nature, yet not of metaphys¬ ically identical existence, and so, as concerns the Real¬ ity, not directly derived from the Infinite Personality, but equally actual and separate in origin. As the human self is the ground and source of finite personal activities, and as the Infinite Self is the Ground and Source of the infinite Activities, so is Fundamental Reality the Ground and Source of the Infinite Per¬ sonality. The Reality eternally organizes the Deific Person by free expression of its own nature, but therein realizes its personal possibilities in toto. In every other existence its nature is freely but limitedly real¬ ized. As, therefore, the Infinite Person is infinitely free, so each inferior manifestation is free within the limits of its expression of the Fundamental Reality. We believe that the Reality, from all eternity, by free expression of its Nature, organizes finite per¬ sonalities. The Reality is the Ground of all exist¬ ences. Metaphysically speaking, we may say that it is Ground and Source of Deity, and Man, and every type of personal being. It is to be emphasized that, metaphysically speak¬ ing, our conception gives man and every individual A Study in Reality 51 human free and independent origin in Reality — al¬ though, since the Reality, Infinite and Eternal, or¬ ganizes itself into the Infinite and Eternal Personality, the latter is forever the Existence through which fi¬ nite personalities appear. To illustrate: Reality ex¬ presses itself in material objects through the ether, but the origin of the ether and the origin of material objects are not identical. Finite personalities originate in Reality expressing itself through the Infinite Per¬ sonality, so that here also origins are separate and, as such, independent. It is the action of the Nature of the Fundamental Reality that originates the two types of personality, and this fact it is that rescues the finite personality from bondage to any Will other than its own. Your life is determined solely by the Nature of Fundamental Reality as expressed in your will, never by some Infinite Personal Will, conceived as superior to such Reality, or even as in essence of a superior-different nature to your own nature and will. The Fundamental Reality, therefore, “ contains ” every Element of Personal Existence. It provides for the organized body-form of the human person, that marvelous fact called physical life, and all the possi¬ bilities of the mental self, and the very being of the self. We partially uncover the nature of the Reality when we say that it “ contains ” Will, Feeling, Thought — the latter involving Sensation, Perception, Conception, Judgment. Here, then, in the very Nature of Reality, we find the First Principles of Mind— those Primary Ideas and Laws of the Mental Life without which no thought is possible,— to-wit: 52 Creative Personality Being (an Idea which gets its origin from the men¬ tal law that every activity must have an actor — a Meaning placed by a law of mind as ground and source of all the meanings of all existences) ; Action (an Idea which springs from the law of mind that Power always associates with Being — the idea of Action being here the idea of the putting forth of such power) ; Movement (an Idea which springs from the mental law that the exercise of power on any material object always associates with change of space-relation of that object to other objects — the change being that Idea, the idea of such change being that Idea of Movement) ; Relation (an Idea which springs from the mental law that all existences are associated in some way, and that all associations have some meaning — the meaning of any such association being the Idea of Relation) ; Quality (an Idea which gets origin from the mental law that mind always gives fixed nature-meaning to any manifestation of being — our interpretation of such manifestation being our idea of its nature, and so, of the nature of the being — the nature-meaning, or Idea, being Quality) ; Sequence (an Idea of relation derived from the law that associated existences or events having no other intermediaries must be interpreted as following — the following-order Idea being Sequence) ; Disjunction (an Idea of Association having no de¬ termining order or principle of order) ; A Study in Reality 53 Quantity, including Number (an Idea springing from the mental law that all existence less than in¬ finite have some total limit, and so, that any finite ex¬ istence may be given any total limit by separation from the absolute total) ; Number, including Unity and Plurality (an Idea de¬ rived from the mental law that any total of quantity may be separated into a sequence of parts each of which is regarded as undivided) ; Unity (an Idea of any total or any indivisible ex¬ istence, in the absolute sense and applied in any rela¬ tive sense) ; Plurality (an Idea having the meaning of more than one associated object, these being conceived as uni¬ ties) ; Identity (an Idea of absolute excluding sameness of existence) ; Diversity (Difference) (an Idea involving any de¬ gree of the absence of identity or of sameness) ; Cause (an Idea which springs from the mental law that every change in existences and events must have origin in a something that is greater or more potent than the change itself — Pure Cause being an Idea in¬ volving no idea of resulting changes in itself) ; Effect (an Idea of change not self-produced) ; Space (an Idea which springs from the mental law that any two or more existences must be separated by one or more separated and intermediary existences, for, if we could perceive only an absolutely unitary and identical existence, the Idea of Space could not 54 Creative Personality arise in mind — this Idea does not seem to depend on the existence of matter but appears to result from an inveterate and a necessary habit of mental view) ; Time (an Idea derived from the mental law that any two or more events must be associated either with the fact or the possibility of other events intermediary — the possible or actual association being a sequence, and the idea of such sequence having for one of its meanings the Idea of Time). Such Ideas are necessary to mind. The conditions that give them possibility obtain in the Fundamental Reality. They are basic to personality, and have their ground in the Ground and Source of the Universe. The Universe, therefore, is so constituted that ideal finite mind interprets the presentations of the Universe to it in terms corresponding to the presentation. The Ideas are called “ innate,” but are really products of reflective experience, which infallibly derives them from the universal facts. Hence, we say, the Funda¬ mental Reality contains or provides them, and we in¬ troduce them here because they are necessary to any intelligent understanding of the world of matter, force and personality. The conditions involved might exist were no in¬ telligence existent, were all existences matter and force only, but the Ideas, which are the meanings of the con¬ ditions, are purely products of mental action under law. Any invalidation of the law and the Ideas would destroy thought. Attempts have been made to over¬ throw these Primary Principles of thought, but al¬ ways the universal conditions which we interpret in A Study in Reality 55 the Ideas remain and confront us. These facts con¬ stitute a demand imperative that we surrender to the Necessary Laws and Fundamental Ideas of all ra¬ tional mentality. Seventeenth Consideration. The Universe is manifested intelligence. Repeat¬ ing somewhat, we observe that Ideas above indicated are inherent or conditioned in the very Nature of Fundamental Reality. The Reality organizes Exist¬ ences in ways of doing which constitute the laws in¬ volved in the Ideas. We note the facts, formulate the laws, and so, think the Ideas. Thus, we speak of the Law and Idea of Cause, of Being, of Effect, of Space, of Time, of Relation, of Quality, of Action, of Quantity, of Number, of Identity, of Diversity, of Unity, of Plurality, etc., of force, matter, life, and personality. We derive the Ideas from experience and reflection pertaining to facts, and state the results of this mental action as laws which necessitate conditions of existence to which we give the meaning of the Ideas. No system of worlds organized otherwise than on lines expressive of these Ideas is by us conceivable. And to us a mind not dependent on these Ideas for its very working in any rational way is impossible. Hence, as we read the Universe, we employ the Ideas, and feel that they correctly represent the conditions involved, and come at last to hold that the Ideas ex¬ haust the Universe for thought, so far as we know. The conditions and Ideas thus exhaust the Nature of Fundamental Reality so far as manifested in the Uni- 56 Creative Personality verse which we know. We therefore affirm that the Ideas and conditions and laws are of the very essence and nature of Reality. Since we conceive of finite minds as intelligent, we refer these Ideas to a Ground and Source, the Nature of which must provide for manifestation giving rise to such Ideas in finite minds, and we thus conclude that the manifestations (the total Universe) are in¬ telligent. Since we find intelligence in the manifested Universe, we can not locate the intelligence in the Ground, or the Fundamental Reality, because this would be to make an expression of Reality in its own Ground, and, therefore, we merely conceive of the Reality as providing in its Nature for expressions of what we are compelled to call intelligence. This conclusion does not contradict the common no¬ tions of science. The Universe is ether, it is matter, it is force, it is personality, it is whatever rational thinking determines it to be, but these all express our Primary Ideas or First Principles of mind-action, and are apparently products of the activity of a Funda¬ mental Reality which forever acts in accordance with such principles and forever contains all the elements of mind. In the sense thus indicated it is legitimate to affirm: Human thought is as purely substantial as is anything material, or, All existences express the same Fundamental Reality. In this unquestionable Base, the Universe of matter and the Universe of mind are one. We can conceive that mind in matter may originate the Ideas of matter and mind as two phases of the one Reality. We can not conceive that exist- A Study in Re edity 57 ence taken as matter only and absolutely could origi¬ nate the Idea of Mind. The Nature of our Funda¬ mental Reality is purely metaphysical. The Universe is phenomenally material in part, but essentially it is of the order of manifested intelligence. We briefly summarize the process by which we reach the Fundamental Reality in this way. We ourselves find within certain thoughts or mental activities. The law that every activity demands an actor impels us to assert an inner self as the actor behind these mental activities. But, since we only know the self through the activities, that is, by necessary inference, it seems as though the self also consists of activities, and our law requires that we find the actor putting forth the activities constituting the self. This drives us out into a search for the ultimate actor behind the self, behind the matter, behind the ether, behind the manifested Universe. Thus we land in a conception of the Funda¬ mental Reality. The further discussion of the latter will be found in the ensuing chapter. From the preceding studies issue several practical suggestions, which will here be given in the form of regimes. Practical Regimes. The present chapter has value, above that of the thought set forth, in the preparation of a mental mood for these regimes. You are, therefore, invited to ab¬ sorb into your life the regulative principles: First — Regime of Oneness with the Infinite. The 58 Creative Personality Fundamental Reality manifests in your self and body, precisely as truly as in Deity and the Universe. You share its nature as the Christian Bible declares in the words, “ Partakers of the Divine Nature.” You are, therefore, a phase of that Reality. You express the great basic Fact of all existence. You may cultivate a consciousness of this oneness with Reality which shall be to you a Cosmic Consciousness. In order thereto, you are urged to affirm daily for long as fol¬ lows: “I am the Fundamental Reality. I myself share in the Consciousness of worlds.” As you pro¬ ceed to so affirm from day to day, you should find yourself growing finer and greater in all your mental life. Second — Regime of Expanding Power. Your basic nature contains the conditions of all the power you will ever develop. You are, for that reason, in¬ vited to realize more and more your personal possi¬ bilities in this respect. The goal here will always re¬ cede, but the recession will show that the realization is always going on. You can consciously assist the process by the daily assertion: “ My power of mani¬ festation is infinite. I realize more and more in actual growth the limitless possibilities of my nature. I am the infinitely Real. I express in my life the Funda¬ mental Reality.” Third — Regime of Conscious Superiority. While all humans manifest Reality, they are not all equally developed. As phases of Reality we are all equals, but as developments of the same Source, we differ. The practical truth is this: that, if each man has his A Study in Reality 59 superiors, each has as well his inferiors. It is law that the sense of inferiority never unfolds the Funda¬ mental Reality within the human. Reality loves a large consciousness of itself. Growth does not follow the lead of small ideas. Expansion can not ensue self¬ depreciation. You are, therefore, urged to eliminate the small from your thought, and to cease comparing yourself with superiors so-called, and you are invited to remember, no matter who you are, that you are surely superior to many other people in respect to per¬ sonal development of the Fundamental Reality. This result may be accomplished by affirming daily, with emphasis and assurance: “ I am now conscious — splendidly conscious — of my own Reality, powers and superiority. I invite the large. I assert the greatness that is mine.” Fourth — Regime of Life-Freedom. Each one of us exhibits the process of Reality’s unfoldment into human personality — as and for an individual human. No objection can be urged to this process of unfold¬ ment. The process which constitutes the human per¬ son carries with it the freedom to individuate itself — to realize in each particular person. This means that each human has a right to express his own nature — to be himself. Truly to be one’s self is to realize one’s best estate — Reality individuating in harmony with all other selves. We find in our freedom that certain activities do not seem to realize such best estate. The right to object to any person’s freedom of being him¬ self, therefore, depends on the question of interference or non-interference with the true freedom of others. 60 Creative Personality Within the limits thus indicated, every human has the right to live his own life precisely as he will. Our regime concerns this right. You are invited to be yourself, and in order to do this, to affirm the right somewhat as follows: “ I live my own life, freely and fearlessly. My desires and tendencies, so far as they do not, or ought not to, interfere with the best interests of others, are to me laws of the Infinite Reality. I throw off all shackles. I express my own nature to the utmost.” Fifth — Regime of Courage for Happiness. The Fundamental Reality manifesting in your self provides all the elements of happiness. Freedom to realize one’s greatest happiness involves some dangers, since a degree of danger goes with all freedom. The dan¬ ger attending freedom in living your own life is limited, however, by your capacity for experience. Beyond your capacity to experience results of freedom its dangers have to you no meaning. If you are satis¬ fied, then, that living your own life, in any respect, will bring to you more unhappiness than happiness — more undesirable experiences than desirable — courage is called upon to limit your activities accordingly. If you are satisfied of the reverse, courage may be demanded to realize your desires and tendencies in the face of all opposition. Your individual freedom may involve the desires and tendencies of others, but your sole question, then, is this: “ Will living my own life bring to me greatest happiness and welfare?” If you believe that such will be the result, Reality calls for the courage to go on following your desires, working out your A Study in Reality 61 tendencies, regardless of apparent consequences to others, on the ground that the final outcome of the free expression of Reality will take its own care of such others. To believe and act on this latter truth is to have the courage of your own freedom. And it is even so. You are, therefore, invited to now deter¬ mine that your life is yours alone, in the sense in¬ dicated, and that you will henceforth live that life freely, independently and happily. Assert daily: “I have the courage to find happiness in realizing my own nature to the utmost, wherever satisfied that doing so will bring more happiness than unhappiness. I put unlimited confidence in the final outworking of the Fundamental Reality.” The above regimes are practical because their prin¬ ciple is self-suggestion. The suggestions to self, how¬ ever, go more deeply than to the ordinary workings of the mind. They must penetrate into what we may here call the “ subconscious ” mental conditions. The quoted affirmations of the regimes should be made for long, each for a separate continuous period, say ten minutes, one set for a day, perhaps, then another for another day, and so on. The reason for this work is seen in the fact that such repetitions come in due time to inspire subconscious mental activities tending to con¬ tinue and to regulate all the workings of the ordinary mental states. The result will be enlargement and enrichment of the entire personal thought and life. The rather long and metaphysical discussion of this chapter is now, it is hoped, justified. In no other way could a foundation for the regimes be laid. If 62 Creative Personality the chapter has seemed difficult, you are invited to re¬ member that the foundation for the regimes is guaran¬ teed to be worth a good deal of mental labor. Finis coronat opus. Our conception of a Fundamental Reality, it may now be noted, constitutes also a foundation on which the present book will be built. The idea that every human is a phase of such Reality runs all through the following pages, and determines both their char¬ acter and the end sought in the total work before us. In maintaining this idea, we give this study of human person an adequate Ground, and do not leave it hung in air like a mirage in a desert of fruitless thought. LAW: Fundamental Reality Unites All Existences in One Nature. CHAPTER III. REALITY OF THE HUMAN SELF AND OF WORLDS. P SYCHOLOGY, regarded as the science of the facts, principles and laws of the knowing hu¬ man self, must rest on a fundamental truth — the reality of its subject and of the world in which that subject comes into being and is developed. If the science were made to embrace the human mind only, our discussion would concern merely our mental ac¬ tivities. The larger definition is here preferred be¬ cause we are thus engaged with the Ground, Cause and Support of those activities, together with the Ground, Support and Cause of the world in and by which they are induced. We shall expand our study for these reasons. An additional motive appears in the fact that the study will thus become something more than a discussion of mental operations, become as well practical and inspirational. This treatment overlaps considerably the usual field occupied by the science, and is especially taboo by those writers who appear to hold that the soul, or the self, is foreign to their investigations. Since the self is the root of the whole matter, we indicate the scope of the science in order to a clear understanding of the work before US. 63 64 Creative Personality Scope of Psychology. We hold that the true subject of Psychology is given us in the human self that knows — in the knower — not merely the knowing activities. Animal Psy¬ chology is a systematized interpretation of animal men¬ tality in terms of human Psychology, and is here dis¬ regarded. Experimental Psychology and the Psy¬ chology of Childhood are also eliminated from the work in hand, since each would demand a volume in itself — many volumes, indeed. Our present study concerns the chief factors for inspirational and prac¬ tical purposes, and is, even at that, so vast that limita¬ tions must mark the results all the way. The sub¬ ject concerns the human body from two points of view: as a product of the self in certain activities of appropriation and organization, and as an instrument for certain other activities in knowing. The subject also covers all the mental operations — those which employ the physical instrument in relation to the external world — the sense-organs — and in re¬ lation to the sense-organs, the brain, together with the relation of the operation among themselves. The subject involves certain other obscure opera¬ tions of the self which are commonly called subcon¬ scious, but which we prefer to define as Pre-mental, since they are prior to the familiar activities of mind. The subject also embraces an external world so far as the latter’s activities induce reaction in the self, and so far as it is determined to be real. The subject concerns that which puts forth the pre- Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 65 mental and the mental activities. This is here called the self for the reason that it appears as a basic en¬ tity in our analysis of person, is the entity referred to in our common speech when we think of the “ core ” of the idea or the fact of person. The self is the organizer of both body and mind, and is the knower in all the interpretations of itself and worlds. The self it is that feels, thinks, wills. The subject also includes the psychic factor, which may be called the quoted root of the self just referred to, and is the first manifestation of Reality on its way toward person. Asserting, then, that Psychology embraces the self and the mind and the world as a subject of knowing, we proceed with the work in hand. Knowing implies a knower and an object known. We take up the lat¬ ter implication in a discussion of six propositions or canons, as follows: Certain Canons of Knowing. 1. The reality of the self implies the reality of the world or not-self and vice versa. 2. Only the real in some sense is knowable in any sense. 3. That which is knowable in any sense is real in some sense. 4. We are compelled to describe reality in terms of the knowing process. 5. The kind of reality known is determined for our thought by the knowing process involved. 6. When, between two existences, the world and 66 Creative Personality the self, the latter taken as object of knowing, there stands a third, the self taken as knower, and the two former are given to the third in different ways, so that the knowledge of each demands a knowing process and a language which are different from the process and language of the other, both so-called existences are to be accepted as real in some definite sense. 7. In the study of reality we can pause only with that which appears to be ultimate, and in our judg¬ ment on two or more apparently ultimate realities we are compelled to exclude as ultimate that which is less than infinite. 8. In our determination of that kind of reality which is for our thought ultimate and infinite, we are compelled to conceive it in terms of the ultimate ele¬ ments of our own nature. These canons will now be taken up in the order named. The First Canon of Knowing. Stated: The reality of the self implies the reality of the not-self, or world, and the reality of the not- self, or world, implies the reality of the self. Discussed: The reality of the self implies the reality of the not-self. If the self is not real, knowing is not real, and there is no not-self ; and if the knowing is merely by the not-self, knowing is false for us, and there is to that knowing no not-self. If the not-self is not real, the knowing is a fiction of the self — the self is all. There is, then, no not-self acting upon the Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 67 self and inducing self-reaction in knowing. In this case the self acts upon the self and induces the re¬ actions of knowing, with the fiction supposed that the knowing has an external object. Thus, knowing loses its value, some degree of certainty, and the actual Uni¬ verse reduces to individual thought totally induced by the individual inner activities of the self. The fact which obviates this absurdity is our common experience in which we all approximately gain the same world called the not-self, and conduct the affairs of life on that universal similarity. That experience climaxes the considerations here suggested. In some way real¬ ity insists on being abroad. Our mental constitution drives us to this conclusion: The basic fact about the self and worlds is their actual reality. Objects are not shadows, nor are we our¬ selves phantoms. Some sort of reality surrounds us and pervades us. When we seek to run this reality down to its lair and to grasp it, it seems to elude us, yet all the time we know it is there, and we are certain that if only we had “ eyes to see,” and “ ears to hear,” and “ reason to think,” we should make it out. We are endowed with precisely these furnishings, the “ eyes to see,” and the “ ears to hear,” and the “ reason to think.” This means that we have the power to apprehend, and we have the power to draw necessary conclusions — the power to know. We ap¬ prehend through physical organs fitted to the purpose, that is, in sense-perception. We draw the conclusions by mental operations necessitated by the facts and the nature of mind. 68 Creative Personality The Second Canon of Knowing. Stated: Only the real is know able. Discussed: Whatever is knowable in any sense is real in some sense. The non-existent can not be an object of knowing. We may conceive the idea of non¬ existence, but the object of the knowing in this case is the negation of existence. When we deny some specific existence, we have an idea of limited non-ex¬ istence, and know that idea, but we can not know the non-existent, and know that idea, but we can not know the non-existent itself, because we have denied it. The denied existence, “ some,” may be any specified ex¬ istence, and we then know the specified negation. When we verbally deny all existence, we have the idea of all embracing non-existence, and the idea only is known. Were there no other existence than the inner self, capable in theory of knowing, the activity of knowing would necessarily involve some other inner activity for object of knowing. If the self could put forth only a single activity, the knowing process would then be impossible, since the knowing process would have no other object than the self, and the single activity would be one with a reacting activity in know¬ ing at the same time. Reality only can be known, and it must obtain aside from any activity in which it is be¬ come known. Only that which is real in some sense is knowable in any sense. The reality may be that of some ultimate and infinite existence. It may be that of some ulti¬ mate and infinite Person. It may be that of varying Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 69 phases of the manifestation to us of some ultimate Cause or Support. It may be varying phases of the manifestation to us of these, the latter manifestations. It may be the Fundamental Reality of the preceding chapter, or it may be Deity, or it may be matter, life, or spirit human, or it may be mere activities, facts, events, movements, sequences, etc., etc., etc. But, this is true: only as we have reality can we have knowl¬ edge. For this is knowledge: the certainty, more or less definite, that our mental reactions — our appre¬ hensions and conceptions and conclusions — corre¬ spond with reality of some kind and order. In the very act of saying that we know, we put down the fact — some sort of reality. The Third Canon of Knowing. Stated: That which is knowable in any sense is real in some sense. Discussed: The sense in which we know has been analyzed as apprehending, as comprehending, and as intensively understanding. We can only know the Fundamental Reality by comprehending and inten¬ sively understanding — that is, by reasoning — and that only in part, as a necessary inference from all the facts before us and induced by the mental constitution. This is also true as concerns Deity and the meta¬ physical relation of Deity to the Fundamental Reality. We know all other realities in one or the other of all the three processes of knowing indicated above. In whatever sense the knowing occurs, it affirms ex¬ istence of some order. By so much as we are assured 70 Creative Personality that we actually know, by so much do we certify real¬ ity, whatever its nature. The knowing process affirms, in the long run, the actuality of its object. In a gen¬ eral way mere apprehension, when continued and in¬ tensified, accomplishes this result, but apprehension multiplied into comprehension and intensive under¬ standing brings us to the utmost possible certainty that reality is actually before us. Our individual best critical thought is especially reliable as it more and more approximates the best critical thought of the race. The nature of our mental life demands that we seek to make sure in our knowing, and that we finally accept our conclusions as, for the time being at least, correct. We know reality in various ways, and are sure that, therefore, the knowing has some actual ob¬ ject. The nature of the object is still before us for determination. The Fourth Canon of Knowing. Stated: We are compelled to describe reality in terms of the knowing process. Discussed: We know reality in apprehension, com¬ prehension and intensive understanding. We appre¬ hend various objects about us by employing the or¬ gans of sense. We apprehend various inner activities without the use of such organs. We comprehend and intensively understand in both cases when reason mul¬ tiplies apprehension into comprehension, and multiplies comprehension into intensive understanding. In these latter ways we obtain our knowledge about surround¬ ing objects in all nameable ways except the one way Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 71 of apprehension through the sense-organs. The ex¬ ception constitutes the reason for the fact that we describe reality in at least two general varieties of ways. Thus, we describe external objects (including the physical body) as material, as occupying space, as hav¬ ing three dimensions, length, breadth and thickness, as having various qualities, such as color, form, size, weight, hardness, softness, elasticity, impenetrability, fragrance, tastes, etc., etc., as moving, as having in¬ ertia, as appearing and disappearing — always as act¬ ing upon us in ten thousand ways that involve the sense-organs. We see objects. We hear sounds. We taste objects. We smell objects. We touch ob¬ jects. Thus we apprehend reality as material, and describe it in what are called material terms. If we seem ever to apprehend material things in subconscious ways,— without the intervention of the organs of sense,— we still employ the same language in our de¬ scriptions of them. This fact has appeared in every language in our descriptions of them. This fact has appeared in every language man has developed. In describing all other kinds of reality, we employ another language. If “ material ” words are now used, this fact is shown to be correct in that such words are understood to be figurative. We never describe the self as material, as occupying space, as having length, breadth and thickness, as having weight, color, shape, density, elasticity, etc. We do not say that the self moves; we say it acts. We never affirm that we see it, touch it, hear it, taste it, smell it, except in 72 Creative Personality figurative language. So, also, with reference to the inner activities of the self. The language of con¬ sciousness and self-consciousness, of sensation, sense- perception, emotions, memory, imagination, reasoning, will, is the language of the non-material so far as con¬ cerns their descriptions. All the meanings which the self constitutes for itself and its inner actions — all ideas and thought-processes — demand descriptive words indicative of non-material existence. The sci¬ ence of Farraday had no material shape. We do not attempt to weigh Shakespeare’s “ Hamlet.” Kant’s philosophy did not occupy space. The material crea¬ tions of Art were all preceded by the immaterial. The mental elements of civilization have no invoice in the arena of the senses. When these languages are crossed and are not figuratively employed, confusion ensues. And the thinker or writer who disregards the differences indi¬ cated, whether in science or in philosophy, makes un¬ derstanding impossible, and if he reduces the self and its activities to reality describable in material terms, he obviates both the need and the value of his think¬ ing. The fact that we have two kinds of language for description of reality implies that the next canon is true. The Fifth Canon of Knowing. Stated: The kind of reality known is determined for our thought by the knowing process involved. Discussed: This follows necessarily from the pre- Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 73 ceding canon. The act of knowing constitutes mean¬ ing for any action upon the self, whether from the world external or from the world inner. The self may be acted upon by its own body, or by any existence beyond body. Such action upon the self may also originate within the self. When we know such action, we constitute our reaction thereto its meaning; that is, we interpret the action upon us. This interpreta¬ tive meaning — this reaction-meaning — embraces the following: (A) Externality. There is action upon us from without. The meaning is within, but it would never arise save for some inducement, and that inducement is not immediately of the self, but is immediately of a not-self. (B) The meaning asserts some sort of reality, on the principle that every action demands an actor. The activities are not a mere system, having no support; they are actual in themselves, and they proceed from a substantial something that has the power to manifest them. We apprehend this something real through the senses, and the general meaning is given the name, mat¬ ter — including the bodies of other persons. (C) This eternal reality induces the general mean¬ ing in our thought of Action, since it is an agent af¬ fecting us by means of the sense-organs. All being seems to be active. Just this universal fact gives rise to the notion: an actuality acting upon us in ten thou¬ sand ways. (D) In time, we come to sort out, so to speak, the various kinds of action upon us, and to form other 74 Creative Personality more limited, yet still general, meanings which we call the qualities of things. The qualities pertain to the things, but the things are phases of the active be¬ ing external to us, and are thus the qualities of that being — in this case, matter. A similar process obtains with reference to the self and other non-material existences. The action upon us of the latter necessitates the meanings (A), Ex¬ ternality; (B), Being; (C), Action; (D), Qualities. Similarly, again, in regard to the inner self. All be¬ ing is active, and the self acts upon itself in ways that give the meanings of Consciousness and Self-Con¬ sciousness. In this case, all activities occur within, and the general meaning is, Intemality. The activi¬ ties demand a support in some kind of being, which is the self. The self acts upon the self in the reaction and gen¬ eral “ current ” of its thoughts, feelings and will. In the sense that the actor can not be identified with the activities, the latter are external to the former. We have here, again, the general notion of Action, and when we assort the activities, we classify them under subordinate, yet still limited general meanings — the Qualities of the self. Possessed ourselves of bodies like the bodies of other apparent persons, apprehending other bodies through the senses, and interpreting what the senses give us concerning the evident possessors of such bodies, we interpret the total results as other selves, like us, but external to us. When we reflect on the Qualities of the self and the Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 75 other selves, we immediately enter a set of meanings altogether different from those given us by the action of matter. The language of what we call spiritual or psychic existence and that of material existence re¬ veal this difference, as already noted. But the differ¬ ence in language expresses a compulsion of our mental nature. We say, for example, matter and spirit, and physical and psychic qualities, because we think them. The self constitutes the meanings in both cases in pre¬ cisely the same way — by reaction to action upon it — but the meanings themselves instantly fly apart and re¬ fuse to be identified in any acceptation. The reason for this stubborn fact is found in the dif¬ ference of the knowing processes. The one process is reaction to the activities of external being which can give us no other than the meanings of matter and its qualities. The other process is reaction of a kind of being, external or internal, which can give us no other meanings than spirit and its qualities. This difference in meaning is inherent in the nature of the self. When it knows in one way, it thinks in terms deter¬ mined by that way. When it knows in a different manner, it thinks correspondingly. We thus appear to have made out two varieties of reality in the meanings of our thought, one of which we call matter and the other of which we call spirit. This gives us a footing with our study, but the con¬ clusions leave several considerations altogether un¬ cleared. The idea of two kinds of reality may turn out to be inconsistent. The possible inconsistency is a trouble now demanding attention. 76 Creative Personality The Sixth Canon of Knowing. Stated: When, between two existences, the world and the self, the latter taken as an object of knozmig, there stands a third, the self taken as knower, and the two former are given to the third in different ways, so that the knowledge of each demands a knowing proc¬ ess and a language which are different from the proc¬ ess and language of the other, both so-called existences are to be accepted as real in some definite sense. Discussed: The mutual relations of matter and spirit may be indicated in several definite statements, as follows: Statement One. In our common experience the two actualities are neither contradictory nor exclusive. The self comes to self-consciousness in a physical body, which body it has organized out of matter and which it employs both for thought and for life. So, also, the self finds itself in contact, through the sense- organs, with external matter, and by means of its in¬ teraction with the Universe, builds up its inner world of feelings, thinking, willing. So, also, does the self, use that outer world of matter for innumerable pur¬ poses. Factual experience proves the two kinds of reality to be the most intimate associates and friends. We see, then, that the idea of a self never contra¬ dicts, denies or excludes the idea of a material world external to the self. Both ideas are absolutely con¬ sistent with each other. The notion of a self within a material world is entirely legitimate. The notion of a self interacting with a material world and the no- Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 77 tion of a world acting upon a self raise no mental con¬ fusion in our mental atmosphere, although the two notions may suggest many difficult problems. The idea of a self acting as a knower of the external world and of itself acting as an intelligence (“a chooser- between”)—these ideas do violence to nothing in our mental nature. And the notion of a self as an organized living reality which is active in certain ways called feeling, willing, thinking, and so is capable of the states called consciousness and self-consciousness (a complex of the ways of knowing), demands that it have objects for knowing: such as, on the one hand, itself, and on the other hand a non-self; and further¬ more, demands that these objects be actual, without doubt or quibble. It is only when critical reflection begins to construct a theory of harmony between the two existences, matter and spirit, that our trouble arises. Statement Two. In critical thought the two ap¬ parent facts, a spiritual self and a physical world, seem contradictory because they are precisely two and not one. They certainly seem to be different in toto. Matter and spirit, in themselves, refuse to be identified. Each is exactly itself, and not the other. Moreover, the two facts appear to exhibit toward each other a kind of hostility. Matter appears to be an enemy to the self if not controlled, and absolute control is perhaps never achieved. Spirit also assails matter in innumerable ways and with innumerable weapons. Matter strives to swamp the self, to beat it down, to complicate troubles, to annihilate it. The self resists., 78 Creative Personality gives battle, rises from every defeat and gains added control, until a last overwhelming event — death. Even here, spirit sings a death-song of triumph, since it invents — out of its inexhaustible resources — re¬ ligion and religion’s immortality. Religion is the final expression of the hostility of matter and spirit. Statement Three. The conflict of thought based on the apparent extreme difference between matter and spirit is age-long, and it finds no armistice so long as thought goes no farther than the ideas of matter and spirit as final realities. When reflection begins to ask concerning the ultimate meaning of matter and the ultimate meaning of spirit, it discovers that its proc¬ esses of knowing must be analyzed and the results of knowing must be more definitely decided. In the end, thought discovers that it has taken several important steps and reached a final conclusion, which leaves mat¬ ter and spirit as actual as they seemed to be before, but leaves them again in entire harmony both for life and for science. The process of knowing, so far as concerns the pres¬ ent purpose, analyzes into the following factors. We deal, first, with some sort of action upon the mental self. Every process of knowing involves, as its in¬ ducement, action affecting the self, exciting its re¬ action in knowing. The reaction constitutes the know¬ ing, and is always a meaning. No reaction can other¬ wise occur in the self. The reaction-meaning may be induced by self-action or by action external to the self. It is evident, then, that the knowing is an action of the self getting meaning out of some action upon it. Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 79 The case may be put thus: no knowing except in re¬ action constituting meaning; hence, no reaction-mean¬ ing induced by any actor — self or world — save through the action of the actor. Direct knowing of the actor, therefore, is precluded by the very process of knowing. When any actor affects us, it is the ac¬ tion that we know, never the “ thing in itself.” This signifies that the self as a knower must or¬ ganize itself into some abiding system of knowings. This organized system of activities in knowing we call the mind. The mind is a phase of the self conceived as a knower. The mind, therefore, is the nexus, the bridge, through which the external world of matter and person acts upon the self, and the self reacts upon the world. The world occasions reactions of the self in mind. The self knows the world by the activities of itself in the knowing mind. The validity and integ¬ rity of mind demand the entire actuality of the self using mind and of a world occasioning mental activi¬ ties in knowing. But- the knowing, as we have seen, is only of the activities affecting the self, and we must conclude that the realities called matter and spirit — so far as we know them — are in fact the actual oc¬ casions of the various actions upon us. In the broad¬ est sense, this means the actuality of whatever we dis¬ cover to exist — the activities themselves: the phe¬ nomena. We know the phenomena of matter and we know the phenomena of spirit. Statement Four. Having the phenomena as objects of knowing, we are driven by the nature of the self to assert that they actually represent either one actor 80 Creative Personality or two actors. The activities constituting the physi¬ cal world, and those constituting the psychic world, can not cause and support themselves; they signify to thought each an actor-agent. The agent may be one or it may be two, but the necessary conclusion of self in mind gives the self this definite meaning: Reality manifesting the phenomena. Always, then, is the self confronted by the phe¬ nomena of what we call matter and the phenomena of what we call spirit. In so far as this discussion has now gone, the realities in the phenomena may be equally fundamental. If this should turn out to be true, our quest would be at an end. It is necessary to determine, therefore, whether or not such a result is by any possibility a true finale of the whole matter. The Seventh Canon of Knowing. Stated: In the study of reality, we can pause only with that which appears to be Ultimate, and, in our judgment on two or more apparently Ultimate Real¬ ities, we are compelled to exclude as Ultimate that which is less than Infinite. Discussed: It would now seem to be axiomatic that every effect must have a cause, every action or activity is an effect, no activity or group or system of activities (less than infinite) can cause or support itself. The cause and support of activities are one and the same in any case, since a cause must continue in the effect, and thus support the effect. A group of ac¬ tivities, helpless to become or continue by any inherent Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 81 power, can attain to a system only through some prin¬ ciple — some factor determining the group to be a system. The principle might serve as the support of the activities as a system were it not for the fact that the principle — the determining factor — is also an ef¬ fect, demands some origin. Having, then, the phe¬ nomena of any kind, the nature of mind seeks to refer them to some existence containing within itself the principle which organizes them into systems. The principle is not a phase of the phenomena, for it is their determination. This factor must be sought beyond the system in the cause of the activities making the system. For reasons of this character we instinctively speak of the phenomena of matter and the phenomena of spirit, including the self. So far as our common observation goes, matter and spirit seem equally actual and equally abiding. Sci¬ ence, however, extends its researches backward to a time when our present world contained apparently no spirit; there was no human self on the earth. Matter alone now puts forth activities. Matter is the primal actuality ; spirit — the human self — is a secondary de¬ velopment. And, so far as the sense-organs give us any information on the subject, matter is inde¬ structible, so that it is reasoned that what is indestructi¬ ble can have no beginning, matter seems to be eternal, and therefore the cause and support of all existences known to man. Passing the fact that mind finds no necessary contradiction in the idea of an indestructible existence having a beginning, we proceed to apply our seventh canon of knowing to the consideration of the 82 Creative Personality main subject — the ultimate analysis of matter and of spirit, in certain definite propositions, as follows: Proposition One. Matter, as we now know it, is not indestructible. A suggestion of this fact appears in the gradual disintegration of all inorganic substances and decay of all living structures. A further suggestion of the fact appears in the knowledge that any solid of matter may be reduced to a liquid, and that any liquid may be raised to a gas. A further suggestion of the fact appears in the knowledge that were any gas so diffused throughout space that its particles would have the free range of the planets and nebulae of the present Universe, the particles would then retain only mass and gravity. All other so-called qualities of matter would then have disappeared. Nearly all the qualities of matter are products of conditions rather than of its essential na¬ ture. A further suggestion of the fact is the knowledge that matter is composed of compounds which may be reduced to elements. The elements are atoms. But the elements themselves, such as gold, silver, lead, sodium, etc., etc., are not ultimates, as formerly sup¬ posed. Every atom of matter is a system of electrons. The electrons appear to be the workers, carriers and builders of the entire sidereal Universe, and all it con¬ tains. Electrons are positive and negative. Nega¬ tive electrons repel each other with great force when near together, and they can not be forced into con¬ tact. If they could, then a row of them one inch long would contain twelve trillion, seven hundred Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 83 billion, and one cubic inch, this number cubed. Quiescent electrons can not be called matter, nor can matter appear in space until electrons revolve around each other with immense velocity. What phase of matter commonly called element shall be formed, de¬ pends upon the number of electrons, their set specific speed of revolution around a centre, their distances from this centre, and, last, but not least, their direc¬ tion of revolution. These four factors, it is claimed, decide what atom shall be formed. At this precise point we pause to say, with em¬ phasis: If The Electrons Repel Each Other with Great Force And Can Not Be Brought Into Contact, Yet Are Brought Into The Systems Called The Ele¬ ments, The Systems Are The Result Of Some Force External To The Electrons. The systems demand some cause and support other than the nature of the electrons themselves. The electrons are negative and positive, and are phases of electricity, which is an action of the ether within itself. The electrons that mutually repel one another are negative, and the positive electrons seem to have the function of holding the negative electrons together in the systems, that is, in the elements — within limits depending upon the number of the nega¬ tive electrons as compared to the number of the posi¬ tive electrons. Science affirms the statement that the negative elec¬ trons, repelling each other with great force and yet bound in the systems called the atoms of the elements, are brought into such systems by some actuality other 84 Creative Personality than themselves. Matter differs as its atoms differ, and the atoms differ according to their atomic weight and the number of electrons contained in excess of negative over positive electrons. The more active ele¬ ments or atoms contain such an excess of negative electrons, the more stable are in a state of equilibrium, greater or less, of the negative and positive. The posi¬ tive electrons constitute the controlling factor — that which makes an atom possible. If the negative should gain control over the positive, the atoms would go to pieces. Thus, Radium continues to disintegrate until the negative excess reaches a point at which the posi¬ tive resume control. The Radium atom disintegrates, with one result, for example, the appearance of Helium — totally unlike Radium. In this way the degradation of the chemical elements seems to be going on. We thus make out an etheric system of activities, composed of what are called negative and positive electrons — electricity — that is, activities that are phenomenally negative and mutually repellent, and ac¬ tivities that are phenomenally positive, acting as con¬ trols of the negative, the result of the control being the atom. The etheric system of activities demands some cause and support, as in every other instance, un¬ less the ether should turn out to be qualitatively in¬ finite. It is impossible to get matter or the atoms out of the ether by the action of the negative electrons, since these repel each other “ with great force.” It is im¬ possible to get the atoms out of the ether by the action of the positive electrons alone, since, without the Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 85 negative, there is nothing to bind into the systems of the atoms. If the ether is eternal and qualitatively infinite, it is then not the same throughout and identi¬ cal with itself, for the negative electrons are not the positive, and vice versa. Moreover, as a consequence, the ether is thus a double eternal and a double infinite. But there can be one Infinite only in any true sense. The positive ether can not claim infinity with the nega¬ tive ether. One or the other must, in our thought, be eliminated as an infinite. The moment either disap¬ pears as an Infinite and Eternal existence, that mo¬ ment the atom — matter — disappears. The infinite negative ether is repellent of itself. The infinite posi¬ tive ether has nothing to systematize. The two con¬ ditions of the ether demand some unifying ground and source other than itself, so far as we now know. And the fact that the positive electrons control the negative, so that the two constitute the atoms, should not be regarded as final until we know what it is that gets the two etheric conditions or actions together. Once any system is constituted, we can analyze its elements and explain the fact of its being a system. But no system less than qualitatively infinite can ex¬ plain its own origin. Taking the atomic systems for granted, we do not know what makes the positive elec¬ tron the controlling factor; we do not know the origin of the positive electron; we do not know the origin of either kind of electron. If, now, we say that the factors sought are all simply of the nature of the ether, and so, affirm that the ether is eternal and qualitatively infinite,— adequate to all 86 Creative Personality things, comprehensive of all things,— we are then compelled to put into it every actuality in the Universe. This includes the psychic factor, and the psychic factor is intelligence, evolving the vast results of the Uni¬ verse in personal aspects. This is quite a different con¬ ception from the notion that matter, as it now exists, is an ultimate. Proposition Tzvo. Matter is not the primary ex¬ istence. If we in our thought reduce matter to ether, and if we assume that the total ether acts in vast cycles from itself to matter and from matter back to itself,— winding and running down forever,— it still remains a mighty actuality of two-fold activities — those con¬ stituting itself and those manifest in the coming and going of the Universe. The nature of the ether and the nature of the activities constituting it a system also demand a cause and support. Every action, and hence, every system of actions, demands an actor — unless the system be infinite. Because of this neces¬ sity of mind, from which we can not escape with the most desperate efforts, we are driven to assume, either some Infinite Reality for explanation of existences, or to assume that the ether itself is that Infinite. When we do this latter, we insert in the ether every quality and attribute demanded by the mind, and call the result of such insertion, Ether — or, Matter. The conclusion is merely verbal, and ostensibly gets rid of all save ether, while in fact making ether mean an adequate and comprehensive infinite cause and sup¬ port. This is more than the facts warrant. There is no evidence that the ether is ultimate, since there Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 87 is no evidence that the ether is infinite in any true sense. The cause and support of all systems of existence must not only be eternal, it must also be infinite, and not only infinite in a quantitative sense, but in a qualita¬ tive sense. A mere quantitative infinite is an inert thing. The ether may be so truly infinite in quantity that any point in its existence is a centre, but this con¬ ception puts nothing into the ether save inertia. Such an infinite can be qualitatively nothing. If this is the sole existence, nothing can be done to or with the ether. When we make the ether capable of doing any¬ thing, we begin to give it qualitative existence. If we assume the ether to have infinite qualitative being, we employ elements of thought that signify something more than mere ether. Just as the word, chemism, means nothing more than certain observed facts of science, and needs itself an explanation, so the words Infinite Ether denote merely the facts ascertained by science plus assumptions of additional factors not re¬ vealed by science. They do not belong in the ether until put there by our thought, and our thought in that case is not legitimate unless we can find a logical way of getting them in. There is nothing in science, the discoverer of the ether, which indicates that the ether or that matter is eternal and qualitatively infinite. Neither are ultimates. They are not Primary Exist¬ ences. Proposition Three. Matter is not a superior ex¬ istence. To science the material Universe is a closed system. It contains a sum-total of matter and a sum- 88 Creative Personality total of energy. Every kind of force is convertible into any other kind. The system is a machine. Its ac¬ tivities are all mechanical. The machine is a vast complex of mere interactions. There is here not a sign of initiative. A mind sufficiently great could place every electron and foretell every event. A reign of law now confronts us which is unyielding, un¬ changeable, invincible, blind. Here is an “ eyeless Samson grinding forever at his iron mill of cause and effect.” There is no initiative, no variation. The Universe material is free to be precisely what it is at any moment of its history — absolutely no more, no less. Matter, as we know it, has disappeared into a mode of motion of a non-material existence within itself. A further suggestion of the destructibility of matter is the theory, now becoming knowledge, that the ele¬ ments themselves are now undergoing a process of dis¬ integration. They are no longer regarded as neces¬ sarily permanent. Uranium disintegrates by a long series into Radium, and this in turn reduces to Helium. Possibly Lead may be the final result of such a proc¬ ess. In planetary space the elements are now forming, and on the earth they seem to be passing on toward an opposite state. If the ether is cause and support of the elements, and if the latter are both forming and disintegrating before the eyes of science, we infer that from the ether they come and to the ether must they go- The actuality called matter, then, is a system of phenomena having origin and support in the universal Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 89 ether. But the activities of the ether also constitute a system which demands some determining principle, cause and support in actuality other than itself. Every system of activities demands this reference, and the ether is no exception. This reference will intro¬ duce us to the endless chain of cause and effect which we can only obviate by assuming some ultimate that is to our thought adequate and comprehensive, thus satisfying the nature of mind. This Ultimate Cause must be all cause and no effect. Seeking that Ultimate, we go on to our next proposition. Proposition Four. Psychic factor dominates both matter and ether, and is therefore the superior exist¬ ence. Comparing these systems of activities, we ob¬ serve : Each system, so far as we know it, is a complex of phenomena. In neither case do we know the “ thing in itself,” except by the necessary inference that every activity or phenomenon, and so, every system of phe¬ nomenal activities, demands for thought, an actor- agent that is adequate to and comprehensive of, the system. Psychic factor, taken in its broadest sense, involves intelligence and the power of initiative. Psychic factor appears in its universal evidences, such as evolution and in its individualization in the animal world. The evidences of psychic factor in evolution would prove the Universe to be a closed and bound machine, incapable of demonstrating origin or true initiative, were it not for the fact that evolution climaxes in 90 Creative Personality the human self. The human self is individual and capable of initiative. The human self, as individualized, presents phe¬ nomena of a totally different character from those of the material and etheric world. These phenomena it classes as psychic, and holds itself to be their cause and support. The psychic factor, taken in both an universal sense and the individual human sense, asserts its superiority in the following way: The human self asserts its superiority in its con¬ sciousness of being psychic as well as physically per¬ sonified. Whenever theorists assert the contrary in argument, they employ the whole category of psychic elements in doing so, and assert by the fact of thus contending the superior nature of the self. To seek to explain away this superiority is to admit it at the start. The human self asserts its superiority in its domina¬ tion over matter, ether and life. It dominates matter by the innumerable ways in which it utilizes, shapes, combines and consumes mat¬ ter. It dominates matter by harnessing its forces in spite of matter’s obstinately mechanical operations. It dominates matter by unlocking its secrets, explor¬ ing its nature, investigating its living forms and re¬ ducing it to chemical compounds, elements, molecules, atoms, electrons. It dominates the ether itself by isolating the elec¬ trons, utilizing electricity in the most astounding in- Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 91 ventions and compelling magnetism to cooperate with electricity for its own purposes. If it is yet unable to control the titanic forces of nature, so that occasionally the human seems like an autumn leaf in some rioting wind, it asserts its su¬ periority even in the moment of disaster by the grim steadfastness of courage and the lofty serenity of heroism. It is cold fact that the persistent invinci¬ bility of man has made him master through all the dreadfulness of the ages. And not the least element in this power has been his faith — the belief against all odds — that the human self is capable of meeting all demands made upon it. If death appears to be inevitable, the self, by its spirit, by its science and by its utilities, prolongs life, decreases mortality, advances longevity, and prophesies even to-day the final evacuation by death of its strong¬ hold, the earth. The human self demonstrates its superiority by pre¬ cisely the fact that it constitutes the climax of evolu¬ tion. A climax is at least a relative completion of forces and tendencies. The human is such a relative completion, so far as concerns physical evolution. But this physical evolution ceased, in its main outlines, long ago. The present and future evolution of man proceeds along purely psychic lines. This also evinces the superiority of the self, since it passes the goal of matter (the human body and brain) and makes further advance a result of psychic action. Proposition Five. The human self is an evolution through matter of some actuality inherent in matter. 92 Creative Personality Matter is an actuality out of which the self has evolved. The human psychic factor, therefore, was originally provided in the nature of matter. In what sense this statement is true may be indicated by the following bit of science. Helium is one product of the disintegration of Ra¬ dium. Helium and Radium are not alike as chemical elements, the one having an atomic weight of four, while the atomic weight of the other is 257.8 — the atomic weight of elements indicating differences in their functions. Nevertheless, Helium “ comes out of ” Radium. Of course, Radium does not contain Helium as such. The nature of Radium provides for Helium under given conditions. It is evident that the nature of the ether provides for positive and negative electrons under certain con¬ ditions. It is evident that the nature of the negative and positive electrons provides for the eighty or more elemental atoms, that the nature of the atoms provides for chemical compounds, and that the nature of the latter provides for living organisms. In this sense, every form of life is “ contained in the ether.” Our knowledge to-day admits no other origin for life. Life is not an outside entity injected somewhere into the system of matter. As matter is primarily provided in the ether, so is life primarily provided in matter. When the right conditions obtain, matter and life obtain. But, it is to be observed, this does not identify the nature of life with the nature of matter, precisely as the derivation of Helium does not identify it with Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 93 Radium. Physical life is a product of material evolu¬ tion, but physical life is not matter. Physical life is a product of chemical activities, but chemical activities do not constitute physical life. Life has simply evolved out of material conditions. When these ob¬ tained, it appeared, because the nature of matter thus provided. Similarly with reference to psychic factor. We ob¬ serve here: Psychic factor is never individualized ex¬ cept in association with life as life is never individual¬ ized except in association with matter, so far as we know. When right conditions occur in matter, life appears, and invariably. When right conditions occur in living matter, individualized psychic factor emerges, and invariably. Similarly with reference to the human psychic factor. When right conditions obtain in animal life, the psychic factor individualizes as the self of man, and invariably. Life, psychic factor in animal life, and the human self never appear in any other manner nor from any other antecedents. The human self, therefore, is a provision of the very nature of matter. To say, however, that the two ac¬ tualities are one thing, is to say that Radium and Helium are one kind of matter. The progressive outline of these facts is this: First, so far as science knows, appears the universal ether. Then, out of ether emerges matter. Thirdly, out of matter appears physical life. Fourthly, out of physical life emerges the animal life and psychic factor. Finally, out of animal life appears the human self. 94 Creative Personality Proposition Six. The human is not, as such, an ultimate in our analysis of existence. The human self is a system of activities demanding cause and support as truly as mind demands a supporting self on the one hand, and as truly as matter must be referred to ether and the ether to some further ultimate. We can not refer the self to the ether as its cause and support for the reason that this also requires a similar reference, and for the additional reason affirmed in our final Canon. The Eighth Canon of Knowing. Stated: In our determination of the kind of ac¬ tuality which, for our thought, is ultimate and infinite, rue are compelled to conceive it in terms of the ultimate elements of our own nature. Discussed: These elements are not physical — they are psychic. Physically speaking, man is a chemical compound, consisting of masses of elemen¬ tal atoms, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, calcium, fluorine, silica, iron, mag¬ nesium, potassium, phosphorus. The superiority of man does not consist in the fact that his body is thus of a peculiar chemical constitution. The ultimate elements in the human self are not or¬ ganic — they are intelligent. The physical human body is superior to that of the lower animals in the complexity of its sense-organs and the size and struc¬ ture of its brain and nervous systems, but these fac¬ tors are the result of a superior evolution of psychic factor, and demand an actuating and employing in- Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 95 dividuality exceeding anything and everything below man. The ultimate elements of the human self are not the attributes of intelligence alone — they are the com¬ posite of initiative intelligence actuated by ethical mo¬ tives. In whatever respect man climaxes the evo¬ lution of every other animal, in such we discover his noblest being. Consciousness, self-consciousness, mental powers, especially an initiative will, and capacity for unlimited development within his class, mark his nature and indicate the direction of his growth. He is an evolution of matter, but his experience gives mat¬ ter a significance that is greater than matter in its purely physical aspects can afford. Now, there is nothing in the human self which is not provided for somewhere in the various stages of evolutionary process from which it has emerged: The human self must be provided for in animal life and its psychic elements. These must be provided for in the nature of matter, and the latter in the nature of the ether. But the human self, animal life, matter, ether, are each and all systems of activities demanding for thought some unifying ground other than itself. None of these systems is eternal and qualitatively in¬ finite, save, perhaps the ether — and can not be taken as ultimate. If the ether meets the necessities of the case, then it “ contains ” or provides for every system in our series from matter to the human self. It “ contains ” and provides for psychic factor and the whole content of the human self. This conception 96 Creative Personality makes it the Fundamental Reality. But the ether acts like a system of differing elements — as in the posi¬ tive and negative electrons. It is therefore not the same throughout and identical with itself. The ether also acts like an intermediary, since its electrons make for matter and are effects of some unknown cause. When we ask: What initiates the electrons? no one replies, of course, but the question suggests a possible prior or outside force, and nothing requiring initiation from without can be infinite in any sense. The ques¬ tion : What initiates the positive electrons and gives them power to coerce the negative into atomic sys¬ tems? has the same significance. The ether does not end our quest. We therefore posit in all existence less than in¬ finite a Reality which is eternal, qualitatively infinite, always the same throughout and identical with itself, and containing within itself the Sole Reason for its own being. This Reality fulfils our seventh and eighth canons: becomes our Ultimate because it is infinite, and must be interpreted or conceived in terms of the highest elements of the human self. This Reality manifests eternally and infinitely in what man calls Deity. Deity is the Fundamental Reality individualized by its own nature. Deity is the organized Psychic Factor of Infinite Reality. The Fundamental Reality manifests its nature in the two extreme phases,— matter and the human psychic individual,— employing, as its intermediaries, animal life and intelligence. The system of matter and the system of the human Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 97 self are therefore equally real, each in its own way and right and for its own way and right and for its own ends. The Fundamental Reality appears intimately and immediately in the nature of matter. The Reality ap¬ pears intimately and immediately, therefore, in the human body and the human self. In basic nature, the human self is not dual: it is one. The Fundamental Reality is the unifying ground and constitutes the Na¬ ture of all being of any description whatever. It does not constitute the nature of so-called “ evil,” for evil is relative and temporary, and is an act, which act is a perversion of freedom necessarily possible in any free development. Since, however, we trace the highest in the self to the Infinite Reality, and since this highest is non¬ material, is spiritual (as we say), is known to us through mental activities, we define the Reality in terms of the non-material. Whatever constitutes the best of the human must have issued from the Funda¬ mental Reality. We give the latter character by this, fact. We individualize it as Deity. But Deity is an organization of the Psychic Elements of Fundamental Reality. The latter is not all personal, we may say, in the sense that the ether and matter are not all per¬ sonal. Person is organization of certain elements into a system of activities. In the human person the psychic factor is the unifying ground and cause, and Reality is the unifying ground and source of this. In the Deity, the Fundamental Reality is that unify¬ ing Ground and Source. The real cause of the hu- 98 Creative Personality man self, is not Deity; it is the Fundamental Reality. In Deity, the real cause is the same Reality. The Reality requires no cause or ground other than itself, because it is eternal and qualitatively infinite. The Ground of the Universe is Reality; its moral con¬ troller is an Infinite Personal System, necessitated by the nature of Reality. The ground of the human self is this same Reality; the controller is the organized human person. Matter is a medium through which Reality exhibits in the human person. Deity is the Medium through which moral control of the Universe realizes the Na¬ ture of Reality. In the human career, the self mani¬ fests the Reality, and the self is the controller of the person, the medium consisting of body and mind, through which the self effects such control. We conclude, then, for the total actuality of the physical body, the psychic self and the mental system of activities. Matter and Spirit Extremes of One Reality. Matter and spirit are the extreme opposite phases of one Fundamental Reality. The human self, mak¬ ing its own nature and matter objects of thought, con¬ fronts these extremes, and defines the Universe ac¬ cording to the nature of either the one or the other of these extremes. If we are facing the “grosser” manifest, all is matter, and the self disappears in chemical activities. If we are facing the opposite ex¬ treme, all is spirit, and matter disappears in a system of pure Reality or Being. If we grasp the conception Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 99 of the present chapter, we embrace each extreme, with the various intermediaries, ether, matter, life psychic factor, as phases of one Fundamental Reality, mani¬ festing in each phase as a medium for the succeeding until the human self appears, making the body and mind the further mediums by which it acquires knowl¬ edge of the Universe in which we live. A series of words will indicate the fact of our knowing: Self- Mind-Life-Matter-Ether-Reality. Reverse the series, and we indicate our derivation: Reality-Ether-Mat¬ ter-Life-Psychic Factor-Self-Mind. Practical Regimes. The discussions of this chapter suggest certain practical regimes which will give our thought actual application to everyday life. These regimes will prove of value to you, whatever may be your education or lack of education. You are invited not to regard them as valueless on the ground that your education makes them needless, because they will infallibly develop within you a larger and finer consciousness, and make your life by so much the more efficient. The regimes may appear to involve commonplace ideas, but this appearance, as in many other cases, will vanish as you carry out the work suggested. We miss much of the meaning of common words because we fail to use them in their fullest application. Take almost any ordinary word and investigate its dictionary meanings and origins: you will find that the word covers many meanings of which you are ignorant, and that its larger use would add to the fullness and rich- 100 Creative Personality ness of your personal consciousness. Thus with the subjects of the regimes that follow. First Regime.— Of Individual Realness. You are invited to assert for long, “ I am an actual manifest of Infinite Reality.” This fact gives you a standing and an importance which can not be overestimated. You are not only what you suppose yourself to be, an actual existence, but are also a phase of that which adorns the lily, exhibits in Plato, and swings into their orbits Orion and the Pleiades. Always you have known that you were yourself; now it is time that that self is an integral life in the vastness of worlds. Second Regime.— Of Oneness With the Universal Psychic Factor. The Universal Psychic Factor is, of course, merely the sum-total of individual psychic factors which Reality manifests through the whole history of the Universe, but each individual psychic factor is of precisely the same essence as nature with every other. You are now invited to think of psychic factor in the long general line of its exhibitions, from amoeba to man and beyond to archangels and beyond to Deity, and then to fill your consciousness with the truth, as the pictured wine glass of the Tyrolese is filled with wine,—“ No intelligence among worlds transcends in nature that psychic factor which makes me a living Will.” Third Regime.— Of Organized Person. You are person. You are as truly person as Adam, the angel Gabriel, or the Almighty. In the next chapter we shall see that person is an organization of Reality out of itself by means of which Reality comes to con- Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 101 sciousness, contemplates itself and unfolds its possi¬ bilities of intelligence and will. You see, then, that you are an organization of Reality in psychic factor developed in mind and body, and that you thus repre¬ sent one of the highest possible stages in the on-going of Reality toward a perfect Universe. So you are a goal, a triumph, and an instrument, and, as person, you are indispensable to all life, if only you continue to hold yourself up to the standard, an Integral Person- Fact of the whole Universe. Fourth Regime.— Of Superiority Over Material Worlds. You are invited to cultivate a sense of lord- ship over material things. Do not permit things to master you. Master things. You are the superior existence. Do not permit Nature to overwhelm you, whether by its forces, its storms, its stubbornness, its vastness, or that great Fool Death. The world is as actual as are you, but its reality is, always has been, and ever shall be, Arena for You, and nothing but Arena for you. Were it not for you (all persons), the Universe would not exist at all. Hold high the spirit of Invincibility as Superior Manifest of Reality, and, through all disease and even in the articles of death insist upon your lordship. Fifth Regime.— Of the Actuality of Worlds. The actuality of the self implies the actuality of a Universe, since only through reaction with some kind of environ¬ ment can psychic factor express in the self. We now know that our environment is composed of what we call material and what we call spiritual existences which are alike actual manifestations of the Funda- 102 Creative Personality mental Reality. It is the belief of common sense that each of these manifestations is a fact, and to common sense it would seem that any discussion of the matter is “ much ado about nothing.” But there are those who hold that matter is an “ error of mortal mind,” and this fantastic notion we wish to avoid in these studies. You are therefore invited to emphasize in your consciousness the reality of the Universe in which you live, because the consciousness of such reality maintains your common sense, and is necessary to the largest, fullest, and richest reaction of all your powers, and thus to the largest, fullest, and richest personal life. You are also invited to cultivate the feeling that the vastness of external Reality only assures to you the corresponding greatness of your self as Reality. The idea here suggested may be expressed as follows, “ I live in the midst of Environment absolutely real and adequate to the completest unfoldment of all the possibilities of my nature — and adequate forever.” Sixth Regime.— Of the Relation of the Self to Worlds. The Fundamental Reality is here conceived as the Universal Ground which binds you, so to speak, to the Universe and all its contents. You have come to personality as a manifestation of Reality and through reaction with its manifestations in worlds. The Universe is, therefore, your Arena. You belong here. You are not an alien. You are invited to culti¬ vate this inspiring consciousness: “ I am at home in this Universe. I shall always be at home therein, whether here or elsewhere, whether with men or with gods, whether in time or in ‘ eternity.’ ” Reality of the Human Self and of Worlds 103 Your total life-history is and always will be One Whole. Remember, that matter has no power to divide that life-history. Stop and think that proposition out and get its meaning. As a matter of fact, you are always trying to compel matter to divide your visible life from an invisible world of hopes, dreams and ideals, placing that invisible world outside of you, somewhere and somehow in a spiritual realm, and any¬ where and anyhow save here and now in your body and in a present Universe. You are invited to avoid all this. Do not detach in your thought any part of your life-history from any other part, and especially do not build up a world of thought, hopes and aspira¬ tions conceived of as apart from yourself or your life. Death has no power to divide your life-history. The only death we know is that of material organisms, save that apparent human selves may fail to become true persons. Death in this sense would end life-history, and not divide it. Physical death affects bodies only, and your life-history is not interrupted by that event. Do not, therefore, live in what may be called a “ future¬ consciousness.” Most people do so live, and thus try to fence off a future from the present stage of exist¬ ence by erecting Death as a barrier which they must overpass in order to get from the now to the here¬ after. You are invited to put away all notions of there being any advantage in getting from a now to a hereafter, or in passing out of matter and time into eternity. There is no future, save as an idea. All manifestations of Reality march abreast in one stu- 104 Creative Personality pendous present life-history. You and Deity are con¬ temporaries. The Universe is One Whole, and it can not be split, either by matter, or by spirit, or by Death. Take your share in that Life-history, hold to the in¬ divisible oneness of your own life-history, and live it to-day for all it is worth, regardless of the invisible, of Death, and of any future. LAW — The Measure of Person is Itself, Not Its Activities. CHAPTER IV. PERSON. T HERE are some words that are familiar to all, but not easily defined. We are conscious, for example, of life, but we still await a definite statement of its nature. Such a word is the heading of this chapter. We ourselves are persons, and we are incessantly dealing with other persons. Never¬ theless, the writer has asked many minds to tell him what a person is, and has received about this answer, “ A person is — oh, any body.” Let us venture to analyze the word in the following way. A Definition of Person. Person is a System of Activities, or groups of Activities, organized by Reality out of its self into Individualized Consciousness and Self-directive In¬ telligence. This definition would seem to cover and to include all the essential factors of any type of person, finite and Infinite. Person can not be more, cannot be less. There may be other persons, finite, and yet not human, as, the hypothetical devils and so-called angels, but if so, they must fall under the definition here given. 105 106 Creative Personality Analysis of the Definition. Person is a System of Activities, or Groups of Activities. A system of activities is any number of activities having some central or supreme work to which the activities are all related. For example, gov¬ ernment is carried on by individuals whose activities all make toward one end — a lawful conduct of public affairs. Or, a system of Logic is a treatise having for its one object, correct thinking. And a person-system, in the human sense, is one which tends to ultimate in individual development. Systems may be regarded as closed and open. The Infinite Reality may be regarded as a closed System, since there is no other existence, and it is, therefore, infinitely and eternally independent. The Universe may also be a closed system, if it is the total manifesta¬ tion of Reality. Our solar system might conceivably exist were there no other worlds, in which case it would be a closed system, a total expression of Reality so far forth. There is no reason to suppose that Reality may not manifest itself in any number of systems independent of each other for their existence. If our solar system is independent of other worlds, it also is a closed system. A closed system is one which does not depend for its existence and maintenance upon other than the Infinite Reality. An open system is one through which Reality inter¬ changes itself for its own completer manifestation. The earth is an open system depending upon its posi- Person 107 tion and relation among other planets. A plant or an animal is also dependent for existence and growth upon other objects in Nature, and, indeed, upon a whole world, since every object in Nature in some way af¬ fects other objects. A human person, therefore, is an open system of activities, and depends for existence, maintenance and development upon other manifesta¬ tions of Reality external to itself. The person-system is organized by Reality out of Reality. The organizing process, so to speak, does not separate person from Reality; it merely arranges the possibilities of Reality into a personal existence. Observe, that you and the Reality are not two different things; you are the Reality manifested; just as, the rose and matter are not two different things, since the rose is matter in a given form. The person is an organization of the activities of Reality into a system, which activities are not merely the original possibilities of Reality but are now the activities of person. This fact that the activities of Reality become those of person constitutes the system as individual. An individual is one sole existence. It is itself, and none other. Other existences may contribute to its main¬ tenance, but cannot share its identity. Thus, an elec¬ tron, atom, molecule, crystal, plant, an animal, a human being, are all individuals. You are a person, and you are an individual person. The human system of activities organized into indi¬ viduality cannot be person until it has the attribute of consciousness. That the individual is conscious means 108 Creative Personality that it has the marvelous power to know, that is, to give meaning to itself as a self, to its own activities as of its self and to other activities not of itself which it interprets as a Not-Self. When the individual system of Reality’s own activities becomes a conscious sys¬ tem, the Reality attains consciousness in itself. Every human, therefore, makes the nature of things con¬ scious, and contributes by so much to the universal unfoldment. This indicates in some small degree your marvelous importance to the sum-total of the Uni¬ versal Life. When the organizing processes above indicated are completed, the system becomes an individualised in¬ telligence. The Universal Reality “ contains ” the provision of intelligence. That is to say, it is the na¬ ture of Reality to attain to intelligence in living things and persons. The individual living objects of Nature realize intelligence for Reality. This gives us a hint of the reason or tendency of Reality’s unfoldment. In the world below man every living object mani¬ fests Reality’s provision for intelligence. This in¬ telligence is a phase of the universal realization of Reality’s power to attain intelligence. But this in¬ telligence has no perfectly individualized freedom. Before individualized freedom can be realized, Reality must pass from its lower forms into its personal forms — must transmute itself through lower forms into the higher. Thus, for example, we transmute food into body, and the elements of personal growth into grow¬ ing persons. So the Universal Reality, tending to express in intelligence, forever and ever tends to Person 109 transmute itself through its physical and spiritual manifestations into conscious self directive person. The difference between the intelligence of individual living objects below man and the intelligence embodied in man may be thus indicated: as a locomotive exhibits intelligence, but is not self-directive, so an atom, or a plant, reveals intelligence, but may not control their own activities. The locomotive and engineer are both machines acting intelligently, but the man has the power to direct his intelligence, while the locomotive must carry out his decisions. In Nature, without man Reality manifests what may be called instrumental, non-self-directive intelligence. In man, Reality’s pro¬ vision for intelligence attains to individualized self- direction. Our brief analysis thus unfolds our definition. In person Reality realizes the beginning of its highest ex¬ pression. But the very fact that freedom is here at¬ tained, and that it is individual freedom, necessarily makes person a variable existence. Reality does not exhaust all its possible kinds of activities in any one individual object, otherwise all objects might be one object, and would be one kind of object. The truth here suggested forms the basis of, and constitutes, dif¬ ferences among individual persons. Differences in Person. We know that human beings differ. No two per¬ sons are alike. While the main outlines of human nature are the same the world over, inconceivable variations occur in these outlines, so that there are 110 Creative Personality exactly as many kinds of person in the world as there are individual men and women. With about fourteen chemical elements and a definite number of chemical compounds in the human body, there are absolutely innumerable variations in the internal and external physical structure of man. With less than a dozen general kinds of mental activities or “ faculties,” the variations in human mentality are inconceivably great. In order to indicate some sort of broad explanation of this fact, we may refer to three prime causes. Reality’s Activities are the Prime Cause of Differ¬ ences in Person. As above intimated, not all the kinds of activities of Reality go into any one of its manifes¬ tations. Of course the Ground and Source of things “ contains ” within itself infinite possibilities, since itself is qualitatively infinite. When we reflect upon the possible combination of a small number of differ¬ ent kinds of things, we discover that the combinations of infinite kinds of activities will be nothing short of infinite also. This little bit of metaphysics is simply a deduction from the actual facts observed in Nature. With something like eighty chemical elements, we have hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds, and myriads of individual objects, each of which is dis¬ tinct and differs from all others. It would be impos¬ sible to analyze a single human being into the different kinds of elements that compose him. And this is true notwithstanding the fact that every human being is, in an essential sense, totally different from every other human being. The prime cause of such marvelous differences among persons is the infinite possibilities Person 111 of differences in the activities of Reality which go into any kind of person. A Secondary Cause of Differences in Person. Per¬ son is necessarily self-directive. It is acted upon by innumerable forces of Nature and man, and ordinarily responds thereto more or less automatically, that is to say, according to the nature of person, but is also capable of arresting the automatic tendency of that nature, and substituting therefor the higher expres¬ sion of the nature of the person, to-wit, resistance to and control of such forces and initiation of its own activities for its own end. These elements of essen¬ tial freedom cause in man a possibility of variations in person which are inconceivable. The possible varia¬ tions are inconceivable for the very reason that the individual is incessantly acted upon by innumerable external forces, automatically reacts thereto, and so brings in an element of “ chance,” since an automatic reaction to innumerable differing forces must insure differences having the look of “ chance,” and for the reason that the individual does possess finally, or some¬ where, the power of initiation. By the power of initia¬ tion, or of the initiative, for example, person varies food, work, thought, etc., and produces changes both in body and in mind. A Third Cause of Differences in Person. Every person changes incessantly. This fact of change fol¬ lows continued variation in the activities that assail the individual from without, and the variation of its automatic or unthinking response to such activities. It also follows incessant variations in person’s volun- 112 Creative Personality tary responses to external activities. Imagine a cloud of insects swarming on a summer evening. The cloud is one, but its form and total arrangement change from moment to moment, because the individuals respond to outside influences automatically, as it were, and the outside activities never remain the same for an instant. If, now, we suppose each insect endowed with intelli¬ gence controlling itself by will, we see a further cause of change in each insect and in the cloud as a whole. The cloud may represent the activities that constitute any person, and it is evident that no person can fail to change more or less every day of his life. This factor of change is always introducing new elements of differences among persons. No one can stand still, but each one is forever changing in nature and charac¬ ter, and forever growing, “ or the right way or the wrong way.” Through the body, the mind, the entire person, Reality transmutes itself and manifests in dif¬ fering ways during every instant of life, and will con¬ tinue to do so eternally. For person changes, but im¬ mortal person can never lose its identity. Why Reality Unfolds in Person. When we enter considerations like the preceding, we begin to wonder why, since Reality is all things and all things are Reality, the latter should “ take the trouble,” so to speak, to manifest itself in individual objects and conscious persons. Since, as we have seen in our second chapter, Reality is always the same throughout and everywhere identical with itself, is eternal and qualitatively infinite, and “ contains ” Person 113 within itself the sole reason for its own existence, the question arises, Why should not Reality maintain its own undifferentiated being? This question may seem too great for answer, and may appear to have no prac¬ tical value. Nevertheless, we may venture to suggest one or two answers, as follows: We know that things and persons exist, and we necessarily infer that they must have some common Ground and Source. If we call the Ground and Source Reality, we know that the latter has, as a matter of fact, manifested in the things and persons. We conclude, then, that it is the nature of Reality to bring things and persons into existence. Our first answer, therefore, is that the organization of objects and con¬ scious individuals is of the nature of Reality itself. Since manifestation of its possibilities is a tendency of Reality, we are forced by our conscious intelligence to believe that the tendency must continue always to work out in the highest possible forms. For this earth these highest forms, we are driven to conclude, are human persons. Other still higher forms may appear under other conditions throughout the Universe. When we call to mind the phases of human develop¬ ment in nature and character, in knowledge and arts, in all the elements of civilization, we begin to see what this tendency or Reality to unfold itself means. Take the infant Shakespeare, and consider what this raw material of body and spirit may finally become. Thus, in a measure, with every other human being. The so largely undifferentiated stuff composing individual human nature, is brought up through the years into 114 Creative Personality more and more specialized and marvelous forms of development. Let us suppose one individual in this world to have exhausted in his development all the possibilities of an even century of life. Consider, now, the inconceivable difference between the infancy of this person and the maturity of the one hundredth year. Thus is suggested the ideal for all humans — to become all that they can become during life. Now, with our conception of Reality as “ contain¬ ing ” within itself a possibility of a limitless and end¬ less Universe of existence, we see that without un- foldments in specific and differing forms, Reality would forever remain idle and meaningless. Hence, we say that as the goal for an individual is development of limitless possibilities, so the goal of Reality is the infinite and eternal expression of its Nature in and through individualized things and persons. Stating the matter in another way, the ideal of the Universe must be to develop all, so to speak, its musical powers, all its powers of art in form and color and beauty, all its powers of self-knowledge, all its powers of mastery and ideal character as seen, for example, in a Christ — all its powers of absolute perfection as seen in an imagined God. It is evident, therefore, that Reality unfolds its pos¬ sibilities by making up into individuality, and by the development of individuality into higher, more special¬ ized, and fuller and richer forms. Thus, what may be called a Universal Consciousness arrives, and Reality comes to itself in and through myriads of personal individualities. This insures continuous existence of Person 115 every true personal individuality because, after per¬ sonality is attained, all further manifestations of Reality must consist in personal development. There can be for true man, then, no final sinking into Nirvana, no submergence of personality in Universal Conscious¬ ness, because the so-called “ Universal Consciousness ” can exist only in the consciousness of individual persons. Person changes, but true person can never die, that is, cease to exist as person. This means that whatever may occur in the career of the externals of person, as, in body, which may go to pieces, in mind, which may forget, pass into disharmony, reduce to faint and few activities, and so in consciousness, which may lose all memories of previous experiences, nevertheless, the “ core ” of person, the fundamental self, can never fail of maintaining an unbroken identity, because the nature of Reality has here found the beginning of its highest expression, and the tendency of Reality to realize that self in individuality must forever continue to work out' the higher forms and completer and richer contents. Every true human person, therefore, is a contributor to the universal process of Reality’s unfoldment. Every human person should continue to be a contribu¬ tor to that process. If he seeks to live at his highest and best, his contribution will bring to him happiness, and will add to Reality’s sum-total realization of itself. If he lives “ wrongly,” he will bring to himself un¬ happiness, will rob himself of his own possibilities, and will retard the universal development. But he cannot prevent that development, and sooner or later 116 Creative Personality will be compelled to rue his own failures and unhappi¬ ness, to come into line with that process of unfoldment through which Reality ever seeks the harmonious ex¬ pression of itself. Thus we see that two main prod¬ ucts appear in the long history of universal life: Person and Individuality of Person. We briefly dis¬ cuss these matters through the Principles of Person and the Laws of Individuality. Principles of Person. These principles we deduce from previous considera¬ tion. Reviewing the latter, we make out the principles as follows: First Principle of Person. Person is a composite of manifested Reality. One said of the Christ that he was “ God manifest in the flesh.” Jesus was thus a self and a body, and was declared to be a God so manifested. So we may say, any human person is a self and a body, and is Reality manifested in both. Let us analyze this suggestion. Person is some kind of body, whether of matter, or ether, or whatnot. Body is a complex of activities. The material body is a complex of activities of certain forms of matter. The matter is a complex of activi¬ ties of molecules, atoms, electrons, the ether. And reason analyzes the ether into activities of a something which we here call the Fundamental Reality. Person is some kind of mind. Mind is a complex of activities in knowing. These activities, having dif¬ fering names, are all really one thing, a knowing proc¬ ess. The knowing process relates the inner self to Person 117 external things, which include the body and the world. The knowing process also expresses and unfolds Real¬ ity as within the self. Mind, therefore, analyzes into a system of activities of reality in a self. Person is some kind of subconscious or pre-mental self. The self exists primarily in a subconscious state. This subconscious state consists of creative and know¬ ing activities through which Reality makes toward person. Person includes some kind of self. You are one kind of self, all other human beings are differing kinds of selves. Since every existence, except an infinite one, is a system of activities of a something other than the system, the human self is also a composite of activi¬ ties of such a something. This makes what we call the self, strictly speaking, the manifest of the Fundamental Reality. Our first principle of person, then, is that person is a system of groups of activities through which Reality manifests in differing ways, all of which are related to one end, the individualization of Reality. Second Principle of Person. Person exhibits Real¬ ity in such a way that, when once a primary self comes into being, the physical and the mental activities, sub¬ conscious and conscious, are expression of that self. We should remember that Reality and the self are one in fact, and that they are separable only as a matter of convenience in thought. In thought, then, we see that the self through all the mental and physical activities exhibits Reality. It draws Reality up into itself, as it were, and uses Reality in developing the elements of person. This idea, which is the practical fact, that 118 Creative Personality we use Reality in creating our own person, is our second principle,— Reality is the servant of Person. Third Principle of Person. Our third principle makes the self the master of Reality. This also is the nature of things. A self is necessarily the controller of Reality in building and directing its own person. It can not escape this sovereignty. This inescapable fact is the basis of your control of your own growth and life. Always Reality is at your disposal. Al¬ ways may you draw on Reality for your inner life, for your external reactions to the world about you, and for your personal development. In truth, your wealth, growth and power as a person are exactly measured by the degree of your mastership over the Universal Reality. Fourth Principle of Person. The mastery of Real¬ ity gives person individuality. This proposition is everywhere evident. We ourselves determine our physical character. Our minds are what they are, as minds and as individual minds, according to our own thought-life. In other words, our physical and mental person is not a matter of chance, but is what we make it. Thus each one controls Reality in developing his own individuality. But this general control merely yields the commonplace differences observed among all people. Individuality has a more definite and a more valuable meaning. It means allround develop¬ ment, full and rich development, greatly specialized development, and development on the highest levels of which person is capable. This, as already indicated, points out the goal of person in Reality and of Reality Person 119 in person: Completest consciousness of individual life-being. This brings us to our second great prod¬ uct in the history of life, as below. Individuality and its Laws. First Law of Individuality. Individuality may be defined as the sum-total of dififerences between one person and another, or one person and all other persons. The individuality is the person possessed of these dif¬ ferences. Individuality is ordinary and extraordinary. In the ordinary type we have merely the dififerences common among all people. In the fact that no two persons are alike we have that which constitutes a common indi¬ viduality of any person. By so much as dififerences among persons increase and become pronounced, by so much does individuality begin to exhibit in the extraor¬ dinary type. Thus, Shakespeare possessed a common individuality which, apart from his genius, distin¬ guished him from every human being. But in his genius he rose to the level of individuality unequalled in its kind. It is the first law of individuality, then, that its type rises as dififerences in person increase and become pronounced. Such dififerences may have the quality, good or bad, as we say. A dwarf, a giant, a Hercules, an Apollo, a Venus, exhibits a distinct type of physical individuality. Physical individuality may also consist of unique fineness of “ texture,” or per¬ fection of function. Mental individuality is seen in a Mephistopheles, Nero, Napoleon, Marcus Aurelius, or Blind Tom. In such cases the nature of things special- 120 Creative Personality izes in unique ways to a high degree. Reality obeys the suggestion of the personal self which it has organ¬ ized, and follows the law of cause and effect relent¬ lessly. This relentlessness produces the great “ evil ” mentalities of history, but it also produces the world’s benefactors. If universal harmony and happiness are alone preservative and constructive in the Universe, the normal tendency of the nature of things is toward the highest possible type of individuality which con¬ tributes, not to the destruction of a Universe, but to its preservation and unceasing construction. The law, as applied to you, means that you are to seek that individuality which assists in that great tendency. Second Law of Individuality. The Individuality of each person involves some central “ idea,” and this means a definite place and work in universal life. No human being is an accident, none is too common to be of specific value to the Universe. Persons differ, and possess at least ordinary individuality, in order that they may assist Reality to express its infinite possibili¬ ties. The second law states that individuality of that type which contributes toward the goal of universal harmony and happiness, whether the type be ordinary or extraordinary, is absolutely indispensable to this Universe. This gives you place, standing, and in¬ alienable rights. Third Law of Individuality. Individuality of a kind which merely shows negative differences in person may result simply from the mechanical working of the nature of things. Since man is more or less the con¬ troller of his own activities, such mechanically pro- Person 121 duced individuality may be here disregarded. Indi¬ viduality thus involves a measure of freedom. Our third law states that individuality becomes pronounced as person insists upon its power of self-direction. The law appears especially effective in the mental life when we consciously determine what our mind-world shall be. We by so much enhance our individuality. We now refuse to submit to a blind manifestation of Reality in and through us, but we compel it to serve us and thus transmute its mastership into our own. We carry this freedom into the choice of our food, the ways we live, the matters of enjoyment, the work we do, the mental “ faculties ” we especially employ, the fields of thought we investigate, the ideas we entertain, the principles and beliefs that we accept. By so much as we insist upon and use our powers of freedom, by so much do we leave the “ common herd ” and become individualized. Fourth Lazo of Individuality. Since individuality increases as person becomes conscious of freedom and insists upon its use, our fourth law states that freedom of the higher type develops with the growth of the spirit of independence. Independence involves self- reliance, courage and initiative. In self-reliance indi¬ viduality depends upon itself, “ stands upon its own feet.” Independent thought and action are free, and possess that feeling of confidence in their correctness, fulness and value which conscious freedom always de¬ velops. Self-reliant individuality has the courage of its own decisions and convictions. This type of per¬ son looks to itself for authority and approval. Since 122 Creative Personality it gives Reality full opportunity to unfold itself, it holds ideas that originate in the self to be true and valuable, approves its own opinions as they take shape in mind and feels that its decisions and judgments are laws for its own action. A high type of individuality leads public opinion, does not follow. Nothing so makes person common as the fear of what other people may say or think concerning one’s own life and con¬ duct. Thus, that individuality which is worth while is always a free thinker and an initiator of new thought and new courses of human endeavor. It was the indi¬ viduality of Moses that made him the founder of the Jewish religion. In Socrates this spirit routed the Sophists of Greece and initiated a thought-movement which Plato and Aristotle, by virtue of their individu¬ ality, carried on to the domination of the world for centuries. You see the independence and initiative of individuality in every community, since everywhere there are men who do their own thinking, do not de¬ pend upon others for their own opinions, and give to life new ideas and things, and start new movements in all phases of action. In all this our Fundamental Reality asserts its own nature, insists upon itself, indi¬ vidualizes and makes actual its own possibilities more and more, and thus unfolds in universal progress. Thus we see that Reality, in its tendency to realize itself in person, seems ever to struggle toward a type of individuality which accentuates differences among human beings, develops in each some central controlling idea. Controlling trait, tendency or work, exhibits freedom of thought and action, and insists upon an Person 123 independence which initiates new forms of life and progress. Observe with emphasis this proposition: Whatever opposes this tendency of Reality is an enemy to man. Whether such opposition appears in common, every¬ day life, in invention, industry, art, science, politics and government, or religion, matters not one whit. Individuality which experience proves to be construc¬ tive of the common good expresses the normal tendency of Reality. The only test is the long-run outcome. The remedy for destructive individuality is not the destruction of the individuality itself, but the change of the directon of its manifestation. Whatever in human action or thought would reduce all varieties of person to a dead level, is a foe to man. Whatever, on the other hand, gives each person freedom to develop new thought, on new lines of activity, which tend to make human consciousness deeper, broader, richer and completer, is of priceless value, because it means the furtherance of Reality’s tendency toward the infinite unfoldment of universal individualized consciousness. Observe, again, and with emphasis, that within the limits of long-run welfare, every person must be con¬ ceded the right to experiment with his own life. If you read that sentence again, you will note that it confines the right of experiment to one’s own life. This does not involve the right to experiment with the lives of others. Individuality becomes destructive, or “ evil,” the instant it begins to experiment with other lives than its own. There is scarcely a human rela¬ tion in which this right to try out one’s own life is not 124 Creative Personality interfered with by the desires, or opinions, or conduct of some other mind. Everywhere we see this neces¬ sary tendency of person to get into individuality of some definite sort. By interference with this right we prevent the very Reality of our being from coming to its own in our selves, and through us, to its universal consciousness. Now we begin to see something of the meaning, the sacred importance, and the possibilities in that perfectly common existence, the human person. Our study ought to “ bring you up standing,” and inspire within you a sense of deepest respect for the most ordinary human being, and give you an uplifting consciousness of your own value to yourself and the world. This brings us on to our practical suggestions. Regimes of Person. It should be remembered that the theme of this book is a study in Human Person, not ethics, and above all not religion. Our suggestions do not concern ques¬ tions of right and wrong, but relate solely to the self as it reveals in person and life, and to satisfactory growth and successful conduct. We are seeking the greatest utility in knowledge, thought and action, for you. Neither school, church, nor philosophy is of the least importance in comparison with your self and your career. The regimes that follow are for you as a human being. 1. The Regime of Conscious Uplift. You are in¬ vited to make this thought a living thing in your con¬ sciousness : “ I myself am Infinite Reality.” You Person 125 are not a fiction, a bubble, a dream. You are not a something separated from the common Reality. The actuality of all other men and women, “ kings, priests or gospellors,” is no truer and no greater than the Reality of you. When you stand looking out over seas, or mountains, or great cities, or the starry heavens, say to your self, “ I also am That.” This gives you the feeling of the Cosmic Consciousness. 2. Regime of Self-Valuation. Your Reality is that of body, and mind, and self. You are invited to con¬ sider the high significance of this fact. Do not think of your body as “ this vile body,” as corruptible mat¬ ter. Think of it as a marvelous manifestation of the Infinite and Eternal, which is not at all separated from it, but is in it and is it. Do not use it as a mere thing, a house or an instrument; use it as your very self. Use it as though you were using the Almighty. Think also of your mind as the Infinite Reality coming to indi¬ vidual life-consciousness. That mind is yours, but it is a mind of Reality. It is a mind of Reality as your mind. In that mind the nature of things seeks to un¬ fold its possibilities. Do not retard that unfoldment by sluggishness, the closed door of prejudice, any form of fetishism or settled skepticism. Give your mind freedom of action; let it go out freely under your own direction; accept the ideas, conclusions and intuitions that come to it, as worth while and worthy of con¬ sideration, and, above all, never think of that mind as inferior, but be elated because you have a mind, and rejoice in the thought that the Infinite Reality has ex¬ pressed itself therein. 126 Creative Personality 3. Regime of Assistance. You are a necessary part of the Universe, because of the fact that you are a phase of the Fundamental Reality. You are invited to put forever away from you the thought that the Universal Life could get on without you. The swing of the heavens and the march of man involve every existence. This includes your self. You are invited to hold steadily to this idea: “ I assist the ultimate progress of life. I also am essential to that process. Every day I do my part.” Do not think of this truth as an exaggeration. Believe it, and live up to it. 4. Regime of Person-Conscionsness. This chapter analyzes person in order that you may know in out¬ line what you are. A “ core ” of you is the psychic factor, in which you begin the control of the Reality manifest in body and the pre-mental and conscious mind. Reality in your psychic factor makes the latter your own, and this fact makes you the builder of your person. The psychic factor builds amoeba, and evolves up into a Christ. Therefore, that which makes a Christ a person makes you a person. This places you as person on a level with the greatest man and highest angel. It gives you the privilege of building your per¬ son, puts that matter under your control, and imposes upon you the obligation of “ making good.” It is suggested that you cultivate gladness because of your high standing in life. The idea is this: “ I am not a stock or a stone. I have arrived on the great plateau of personality. The psychic factor of me has put me together and made me that marvelous thing, a person. Person 127 I belong to the high-class existences of this universe. In this aristocracy of person I will fulfil my destiny.” 5. Regime of Individualization. The whole signifi¬ cance and value of person is seen in its individuality. There is only one way in which men and women can be commonplace, that is, by failing to lift their indi¬ viduality from the ordinary to extraordinary type. The latter type, as we have seen, may be “ good ” or “ bad.” So far as concerns individuality, it is better to be a genius in crime than a fool in sin. But destruc¬ tive individuality has its limits, because it is an in¬ harmonious expression of Reality, and at some point Reality refuses to go further. Constructive Individu¬ ality has no limits of development, because here the Infinite Reality cannot exhaust itself. You are in¬ vited to belong to the ranks of those who assist in the ultimate progress of life, and to make every day count in the climax of your person as a distinctive individual. Do not imagine that your individuality is of no par¬ ticular importance, it is of the vastest importance to you. Only as you become individualized in the sense that you physically are better, or more potent, or more useful than others, or in the sense that you create a better mind, can do greater things mentally, and live on a higher thought level does your importance to your¬ self become really manifest. A Patagonian savage possesses infinite possibilities, but his possibilities are very nearly all there is of him. Of what value is this man to himself? Remember, that all your power and all your meaning and value to yourself depend upon 128 Creative Personality your development of your own individuality. Our in¬ spirational thought is now: “ I take joy in individual¬ izing the person of me. As I have come to the level of person among the very greatest, I now reach toward the greater ranks of individuality. So do I find my own individuality. So do I assist Reality in unfold¬ ing its infinite possibilities.” 6. Regime of Identity. When you became a true person, you acquired an identity which you cannot lose. Since Reality attains consciousness in Person, and begins to realize in person its own necessary tend¬ encies of unfoldment, it will never, having gone thus far, turn on itself and go back, but will forever hold steadfastly to person, and forever advance toward com- pletest individuality in person. You are invited to emphasize this truth in your life: “ I am my self, and none other. I cannot share my identity with that of any human being. No human can rob me of my per¬ sonal identity. I will permit no man or woman to obscure, decrease, or determine my individuality. I am for my self and all that self means and is, or can mean and be.” 7. Regime of the Central Idea. In every person the infinite possibilities tend to specialize in certain capacities, or kinds of work, or lines of development. Every man can be or do some one thing better than others. This means that the individuality of every person centers in some one “ idea ” of Reality, so to speak, or group of “ ideas.” Let us say that the word “ idea ” means a specific possibility, or a definite func¬ tion. The ideas or functions are really the factors Person 129 that determine individuality. All this is true of you. Hence you are invited to discover the idea or func¬ tion in your self which distinguishes you from other people. There is some one thing that you can do or be better than other things that you can be or do. You may discover several such possibilities in your self, and you should cultivate the traits and capacities involved to their utmost. If, now, you seek to try yourself out in additional ways, you may discover that your real person centers in some greater idea or ideas, which, if worked out in your life would not only un¬ fold your person more completely, but also develop your Individuality to an astonishing degree. Occu¬ pied as you already are in body and mind, it is pos¬ sible, nevertheless, for you to make a discovery as in¬ dicated by giving a little time now and then to the thought: “ I demand to know my greatest power or powers. I demand the unfoldment of my unknown and unused capacities.” This thought will stimulate by suggestion your pre-mental self into new activity. The results will surprise you. 8. Regime of Freedom. Freedom is your very life. You can not rise above the level of common human sameness without it. Unless you insist upon your freedom, you as a person will be “ flat, stale and unprofitable.” Only in the use of your freedom can you realize Reality in an individuality. These proposi¬ tions have greater meaning than most people con¬ sider. Multitudes of men and women believe that they employ their freedom daily, when the fact is that they merely respond to outside influences or to the last idea 130 Creative Personality which enters their minds. They are thinking and acting as almost wholly determined by the last thing that has come up. If there were not times in their careers when they were compelled deliberately to de¬ cide for or against influences and ideas, they would not be true persons at all. The act of decision makes their animal nature human nature, makes their human nature personal, and makes their person individual. For freedom is the power of self-determination. It is the capacity of control over self and life. When you control your thought and actions, you are ready to use the laws of growth, and when you do this you advance, enrich, and more and more complete your individuality. But this means that you consciously or unconsciously assert your freedom and your own free powers. Our regime, then, calls for such asser¬ tion. This book urges you to control your own life: to experiment with your life in so far as you do not experiment with the lives of others; to make every adjustment needed in your life for your own satis¬ faction, growth, and success; to think your own thoughts, to stand for your own desires and to find your own place and work in the world. If you cul¬ tivate this consciousness, “ I am surely and splendidly free,” you will more and more render your individual¬ ity strong and symmetrical. 9. Regime of Independence. Freedom exercised is independence realized. There is no mutuality apart from free individuals. The relation between slave and master is not mutual; it is one-sided. This truth in part answers the question, How can such sugges- Person 131 tions as are given on these pages be carried out by people who live in a perfect net-work of human rela¬ tions? When a human being insists on standing em¬ phatically for himself, he seems to be balked on every hand by this terror, mutualism. But you see that there would be no mutualism if there were no real freedom. Freedom is the right and the power to unfold person into individuality of the highest type. This goal can only be attained as each person controls his own life. That control freedom gives to all persons alike. That control also involves the doctrine, “ live and let live,” the application of the Golden Rule, in other words, harmonious reactions with all other persons bent on the same goal and employing such freedom. In all development we use other people through their free¬ dom, and are ourselves used by them through our own freedom. This assertion of freedom means an in¬ dependence which, in thought and action, insists upon personal individuality in self, while respecting the same in others. If I control my own life for its best possibilities, do I not leave your life free? If I am independent in my thought, ways, and ambitions, do I ask you to be less independent? The mutualism of freedom gives each one the rights, privileges, and re¬ sponsibilities which are involved in the full develop¬ ment of personal individuality. A little reflection will show us that maxim, “ Be true to thyself,” means, “ Expect as much from the other person as he expects from you.” When this idea is carried out each of us will live independently in the sense of mutual inde¬ pendence. You are urged, therefore, to insist upon 132 Creative Personality your own will, your own mind, your own beliefs and opinions based in considerations satisfactory to you, and the freedom of living your own life so far as this does not restrict the equal rights of others. Our in¬ spirational sentence will be, “ I allow nothing to in¬ fluence or control my life except the ideal of Reality’s highest development in others.” If you wish to sub¬ stitute the word, “ God,” for “ Reality’s highest de¬ velopment in others,” you can, of course, do so, and possibly this will more clearly express the idea to you. 10. Regime of Human Appreciation. You are in¬ vited to observe that these regimes are applicable to the other man no less than to your self. When we begin to get our freedom, we are apt to forget that this priceless possession belongs to all. If we are to ex¬ pect as much from any other person as the latter may rightly expect from us, it is evident that the other person may expect as much from us as we expect from him. Remember, then, that the individualization of Reality in human beings gives to all persons the same supreme dignity. It is suggested here that you cul¬ tivate a sense or recognition of the dignity of person and the possibilities of high individuality in all men and women. Let us say, as we outlook upon human life, “ I love all kinds of person as capable of giving Reality opportunity to individualize its best.” When you actually do this, you will be doing yourself the greatest possible benefit. You will think the more of yourself, and will assist the common Reality of us all to reach its highest manifestation. Person 133 11. Regime of Leadership. Those who lead in the world are in some respects superior to others; the leader may be the best man in the ditch, the most in¬ fluential woman in the town, or the greatest person in the nation. Leadership obtains on every level of life, but wherever it appears it means some kind of individuality. Individuality is influenced. By so much as you assert a true freedom, the independence of a true mutualism, and seek your own highest growth, that is, your own completest individuality, by so much do you necessarily influence others and in some degree lead them. The reason for this fact is this: Reality always seeks its own completest mani¬ festation, and when this tendency begins to realize in any one person, reality then attracts other manifesta¬ tions of itself in other persons and tends to control itself in them for the sake of a higher development in the former person. This is law, and there is no es¬ cape from it. You are therefore invited to remember that if you are to lead, you must make the most of yourself, that is, develop all your power, expand per¬ son in you to its greatest, and unfold your own com¬ pletest individuality. The inspiring thought is now, “ I love to be all my best.” 12. Regime of Personal Application. The work¬ ing out of these regimes in detail, and their illustration by reference to life and literature, would fill a volume. It is suggested that the student be not content merely to read them, but that he persist in getting the central ideas, which are of universal application, and then apply them practically to himself and his life. 134 Creative Personality Multiple Personality. Personality is that which constitutes person. In every human being there seem to be elements, or groups of elements, which constitute more than one particular manifestation of person. We look back upon our youth, and say, “ I have maintained my identity, but do not seem to be that person.” At times this seems to be true of the present self and that of yesterday, or even of an hour ago. Under various in¬ fluences and conditions our personality undergoes very evident changes. You act like one person in a fit of anger, and like another in a state of complacency. The intoxication of drink brings out, as it appears, several different persons. This is true of nobler forms of intoxication, as, that of music, or the drama, or re¬ ligion. We have in these familiar facts what the author be¬ lieves to be at least a partial explanation of “ multiple personality.” Heredity puts into every human the in¬ cipient traits, characteristics and possibilities of many pre-existing persons. These persons have stamped, as it were, your psychic factor, your nerves and your brain-cells with their tendencies. Moreover, your tendencies and your activities seem often to group themselves in different ways from time to time, accord¬ ing to some dominating idea. When this grouping of activities follows some unusual idea, you appear to be a more or less different person. The general familiar control of your self and life, moreover, is sometimes sidetracked, so to speak, and an unusual grouping of Person 135 your activities gives certain ancestral tendencies in mind or brain cells opportunity to come out, and your control of self appears to have made a mere sidetrack of will the main line of will. So long as these expres¬ sions of person are temporary, or infrequent, or not very greatly pronounced, they belong to normal life. The normal person maintains the identity of his con¬ sciousness through all such manifestations, and is the one master of himself. When such variations appear frequently and are pronounced, so that the life-con¬ sciousness and life-control are broken, they belong to abnormal human nature. But in the latter cases, no more than in the former, have we more than one identical person. There is no value in any multiplica¬ tion of personality which involved the loss of any phase of continuing conscious control of self. That is to say, there is no value in such experiences to the self, whatever their value may be to an outside student of that self. If the one self passes into a state in which it can not at any instant pull itself back to its usual state, it loses the value of continuing self-con¬ trol, and gains nothing equal to that loss. To the medium his trance-personality can have no possible value for unfoldment of his person or development of his individuality. To the person in which one, two, or three personalities appear, in addition to his normal personality, neither one nor all of them can be of the slightest real benefit. The valuelessness of such ex¬ periences to the one having them springs from the fact that there is somewhere a breaking of conscious¬ ness and the continuity of self-control, and, therefore, 136 Creative Personality the differing experiences can not be recalled and used in life. This fact suggests regimes which should be of real utility in this age of psychology, the “ New Thought ” and religious eccentricities. Certain Practical Regimes. Regime of Psychic Sanity. You are urged abso¬ lutely to refuse to surrender conscious control of your¬ self (use of anaesthetics not included) to any idea, or influence or power in heaven or on earth. Do not ex¬ pect to gain wisdom or any other value through such experiences. Maintain, first and last, your own con¬ scious control. If it is objected that great revelations have come to man through trance conditions, you are invited to deny the statement, and, if a single case is adduced, to deny the value of the revelation. The value of normal multiple personality springs from the fact that our everyday activities, and the usual groupings of our activities, are thus varied, and we thus more and more discover to ourselves our own possibilities. In such ways we are enabled to live in many different worlds. We leave the everyday world of toil, or business, or profession, for the world of amusement, or recreation. So we pass out of the world of our common thinking, or our common feeling, for some other world of unusual thought and emotion. All this means that in exhibiting such normal varia¬ tions in our personality, we are really creating all the many worlds in which we live. For each person ab¬ solutely creates his own inner life of sensation, per¬ ception, conception, thought, volition and emotion. Person 137 When Reality began your existence, it gave you the power of master over itself, and thus the ability to draw more and more of itself into your person, that is, to create its manifestations through the only crea¬ tive personal power in this universe, Thought. Your normal multiple personalities are, therefore, multiple inner worlds in which you live, and move, and have your being. The more you increase and vary your creative thought, the more do you increase and vary the grouping of your activities, and the number of worlds which you create. All this is true whether your multiple personalities be good or bad. You thus actually enlarge the Universe. If, now, you live in such a way as to assist Reality in the unfoldment of itself toward the ideal suggested in this chapter, your normal multiple personalities are of the greatest value. This suggests a Regime for practical inspiration. Regime of Varying Activities. Fixed habits, “ ruts,” fads, habits, indicate more or less of same¬ ness in one’s life, and thus prevent the psychic fac¬ tor from “ spreading ” out in all its possible directions. The habits, etc., may be legitimate and useful, but they act as limitations since they confine the self to their own activities. So, also, when one is always engaged in about the same unvarying work, or amusement, or thought, other possible activities are shut out, so to speak. Every normal human being possesses the most varied possibilities. Not to introduce variety into life, then, is to miss discoveries, interest, values and ex¬ periences which Reality provides for all, and, there¬ fore, to fail in the greatest and richest life and growth. 138 Creative Personality As we begin to look into this wonderful thing, person, we see how truly it represents and is the Infinite Reality. It possesses all possibilities. It is a universe in itself, and like the external Universe, presents no limits outward and onward. Moreover, the activities of person sustain mutual relations, and gain value from the very fact of such relationship. Take, for ex¬ ample, any living thing in nature. It is, say, a tree. Activities and development have pushed outward and onward to the point of maturity, and every kind of activity has related itself to every other kind of ac¬ tivity, and has received and given values in such re¬ lationship. The tree as a whole stands related to other objects, and the tree is not, and the other objects are not, precisely the same, had this mutual relation not obtained, or had it been different. Thus with the activities of human life. None of them is isolated, each of them is what it is by reason of its influence upon all other activities, and of the influence of other activities upon the one. When we push personal growth in various directions, any one kind of growth is assisted by other kinds of growth. Herein lies the value of variety, of changing interest, of new ideals, and work and thought. You are invited, then, to vary your activities and the lines of your development as greatly and as continuously as may be consistent with practical living. Get into “ ruts,” if you will, but get out of them, for why should you be in bondage to this thing? Form habits, as you must in order that your initiative may not be loaded down, but from time to time break these habits, in order that you may use Person 139 habit, and not be used by it. Bring into your life every day something new, frequently start up new kinds of activities, resolve on new forms of growth, push yourself out in new or undeveloped directions. Thus you give your psychic factor its greatest pos¬ sible opportunity. Thus you enable Reality more and more to realize itself. Sanity of Person. It is understood, of course, that in all these con¬ siderations variation of activities and development along new lines is to be governed with reference to the goal of Reality, the long-run happiness of all per¬ sons. This is the test by which the legitimacy of thought and conduct should be determined. As we have normal and abnormal personality, so we have normal and abnormal life. This fact raises the ques¬ tion, What is the normal or physical and mental action and development? We make our fundamental reality the Ground and Source of all things. Everything that is, issues from and is, that Reality. This is as true of a two-headed calf as it is of a Shakespeare. The abnormal in ex¬ istence is as surely an expression of reality as the nor¬ mal. Remembering this truth, and returning to our sub¬ jects of multiple personality, the following possibility is open to us: In those cases where the consciousness of person is broken, and other Personalities appear, we may have Reality expressing itself in an organism through alien person not belonging to that organism. 140 Creative Personality Such personalities are here abnormal because the or¬ ganisms are not their own, that is, they are ab¬ normal as appearing in that organism. The test of normality here, then, is the question whether or not a psychic factor has constructed a body or mind through which it manifests and can always maintain conscious control of the body and mind and work out a continuous life history. In other words normal person is always that in which one individual¬ ized psychic factor has created its physical and mental organs and can consciously control and develop them so that the life history is a unit. In the body cavity of some women are found de¬ tached forms of growth, such as a bit of hair or a tooth. Protoplasm has here “ gone mad.” The de¬ velopment is out of place, and fragmentary, and could never by any possibility become a human organism. So far as concerns, say, the tooth, growth is perfectly normal, but it is abnormal as an end or a contribution, because it is out of place, out of relation, and can in no way signify a human body. Similarly with reference to multiple personalities. Certain types may appear in an organism, but are out of place so far as the life history of the individual is concerned, and can not develop a unified history of conscious action and development. They are normal enough within themselves, but are abnormal in rela¬ tion to the body in which they appear, or the person which they disturb. They are manifests of Reality, but of Reality gone mad, as it were. The only con¬ ceivable end or goal for Reality in its unfoldment of Person 141 itself is seen in a consistently developed and con¬ tinuously conscious person. Abnormal personalities violate this law. Now, the previous discussion indicates the normal for differing phases of person and life which do not break up consciousness into unrelated sections. In idiocy personal consciousness may maintain its identity through life. Yet idiocy is abnormal. So also with some forms of insanity. Yet insanity is abnormal. If consciousness holds over in such cases, and we vote them abnormal, what is the test of normality? We find the answer to such questions in the relation which any phase of person bears to a development of person which makes for happiness and harmony throughout the Universe. Happiness and harmony express per¬ fection of physical and mental being. Personality be¬ comes abnormal, even if consciousness continues a unit, when, if it were to become universal, this would mean universal unhappiness and disharmony. Per¬ sonality, or any phase of personal life, which bears this meaning can not possibly make for completeness of person or greatness of individuality. It stands for incompleteness, is out of place, and has no justifica¬ tion, or ideal, or goal in itself. These considerations seek, of course, merely to present general principles. The principles have their place in our common thought about the normal and the abnormal, but when we try to apply them to all cases we find that our opinions differ greatly. We all know what the normal is, but can with difficulty only decide specific questions. We have, therefore, to turn 142 Creative Personality such questions over to the general consensus of opin¬ ion. This consensus varies from age to age and in different lands, but the great principles above indi¬ cated are always the main criteria by which men dis¬ criminate the abnormal person from the normal, un¬ desirable personality from desirable, and experience and life which are approved from those which are con¬ demned. Thus do we sit in judgment on Reality itself. Rather, does Reality thus pass judgment upon itself, and in seeking its own completest unfoldment in per¬ son, seek to correct its own vagaries and “ insanity.” Now our definition of person as a system of activi¬ ties, or of groups of activities, organized by Reality out of itself into individualized, conscious and self-con¬ trolling intelligence, indicates that person is separated from Reality in every other manifestation. But all is Reality, and, since this is so, and since persons seem to affect one another in ways not altogether explained by ordinary methods of communication, it will be well to ask, What are the limits of personal being? This question we discuss under two headings, as below. Boundaries of Person. The core, so to speak, of person is the psychic fac¬ tor of Reality individualized. That core is the pri¬ mary self. Now, since the self is a manifest of Real¬ ity, and the reality of the self constitutes its power to put forth what are called subconscious activities, to create mind, and to build the body, that is to say, to construct person, we see that the latter marks itself Person 143 off as the I-Reality from the Not-I-Reality. Where do the lines of demarkation fall? The physical boundaries of person seem perfectly evident. But when we begin to examine into this mat¬ ter, it is not so clear. The boundaries which we recog¬ nize turn out to be merely those which are apparent to sight and touch. All physical bodies give off emana¬ tions perceptible to smell. Moreover, as Radium ex¬ cites etheric waves that radiate beyond itself, so, it would seem, that the human body, since it is matter in a state of intense activity, and is, therefore, the ether in a state of intense activity, must induce etheric activity beyond its visible boundaries. But all this means that the Universal Reality constituting body is also active in that universal medium which surrounds body. We shall have to say, then, that the boundary of the physical phase of person extends beyond its visible lines. This invisible extension of person is sometimes called the aura. It is here called The Per¬ sonal Atmosphere. This extension of body is not merely an influence of body: it is an integral part of body, for every body possesses an atmosphere that is distinctive to itself. The earth’s atmosphere is a part of this planet, and is distinctive to it. The universal ether is a part of our known Universe, and it may be distinctive to that Universe. Some scientists hold that only on our earth do the conditions prevail which make physical life possible. But this means merely the life that we call physical. Other planets may possess atmospheres that are perfect for other kinds of life. The universal 144 Creative Personality ether seems essential to those forms of Reality which we call light, magnetism and so on. We may sup¬ pose, therefore, that the ether of our Universe is dis¬ tinctive to it, and that it makes life in its human variety possible. But it may very well be conceived that, as other planets may possess atmospheres befitting other than physical life, so there may be even in our Universe as we know it an Unseen Universe possessed of a me¬ dium corresponding, in a sense, to our ether and ca¬ pable of maintaining other varieties of life. These varieties we should think of as spiritual, that is, as non-material, yet actual existences. Our physical etheric personal atmosphere would then have a corre¬ sponding spiritual personal atmosphere. So, also, will our physical bodies contain, as it were, the spiritual body. And, as our personal atmosphere gets its char¬ acter from the character of our physical bodies be¬ cause really an extension of the same, so must the spiritual body derive its character from the physical, and so must the spiritual personal atmosphere take character from the spiritual body. We thus begin to see the immense importance of growing person in all possible directions and to the fullest extent, and of developing individuality to its utmost in that ideal sense which means universal wel¬ fare. A completer discussion may be found in the author’s book, “ The Personal Atmosphere.” A similar line of thought is indicated for the mental boundaries of person. The mind, as we shall see in later chapters, is a system of established activities of Person 145 the self in knowing. Our mental boundaries are ap¬ parently set by the extent and kind of such activities. We may illustrate by referring to a great electric sign consisting of thousands of parti-colored light-bulbs. The light is never on in all these bulbs at any one time. The light is never on in any one color of the bulbs at one time. The light is never off at any one time. Always the light is flashing somewhere in the sign. Always one or more colors are visible. The configurations made by the colors and the lights in¬ cessantly change. Nevertheless, there is always some kind of coloration and illumination. Thus with the human mind. There is a sum-total of activities at any instant. This is consciousness. These activities are all varieties of knowing activities. Each activity has a meaning peculiar to itself. This is true of any given activity and of any given kind of activity. For ex¬ ample, you now remember something, and the remem¬ bering is a given activity of a memory-kind of ac¬ tivity. There are here two meanings: an Activity which has the meaning, “ this memory,” and the gen¬ eral faculty-meaning, Memory. Thus with every other mental “ faculty ” and its activity. Now we do not know that the familiar meaning of our mental activities exhaust their possible meaning. For ex¬ ample, we can conceive of a consciousness which should embrace so-called memories as of the present. We can conceive of what is now labored reasoning as being an all-embracing intuition. It is evident that every mental activity indicates capabilities beyond any¬ thing we know, and not only in the extent of its doing, 146 Creative Personality but also in the kind and meaning. As related to the senses, we have clairvoyance, which is mental seeing without physical eyes, and clairaudience, which is mental hearing without physical ears. We have also a kind of sixth sense, which seems to be a feeling with reference to present conditions, or with reference even to future events. All such experiences suggest that our mental boundaries are surely more extensive than we commonly suppose. We neighbor diviner ac¬ tivities. It is as if the ordinary mind possessed, or is possessed by, a vaster Mind. As a matter of fact, all the intelligence in mind of the Infinite Reality goes into every human mind. Our familiar mental activi¬ ties seem all to have a meaning which we can not fathom, a mysterious significance which, it appears, if we could only make it out, must make our familiar mind seem in comparison utterly infantile. Every thought that we have seems second-handed; it is already made when we get it. This first making of our mental ac¬ tivities, together with the fact that they seem always to mean more than we can fathom, indicate that there is for each person a mental as well as a physical at¬ mosphere. That atmosphere is more or less vague and extensive, but it is a part of the mind and gives us our mental boundaries. The above conception may be further indicated by reference to certain correspondence between some ma¬ terial forces and psychic powers. We speak, for ex¬ ample, of attraction by gravitation, and we exercise psychic attraction upon others. So, also, physical magnetism gives us a phrasing for personal magnetism. Person 14 7 So, also, a speaker is said to electrify his hearers. So, also, we have the idea, the heat of anger. For such illustration it may be suggested that our ordinary men¬ tal activities may all “ cover,” as it were activities which, on a higher plane of existences than the pres¬ ent, would compare with the ordinary mind as, say, personal magnetism compares with physical magnet¬ ism. In other words, the mind as we know it may operate within what may be called a spiritual mind, more refined and more extended in its outreach into Reality. In any event, our mental activities are the activities of Reality within us, and have their boundary within the Infinite Reality. This makes the human mind to embrace Infinite Reality as a part of itself. We see this tremendous truth when we consider the subconscious activity of the self. These activities seem to express greater and finer powers than those of which we are commonly aware. In their opera¬ tions they approach or resemble the mechanical work¬ ing of the nature of things. We hold that the Funda¬ mental Reality in Nature operates mechanically, that is, unvaryingly and uniformally according to the law of cause and effect. When we, in the exercise of will, constitute causes, the Fundamental Reality brings forth the effect. We can change our causes, but we can not vary the consequences, except by introducing new causes. The subconscious activities appear to operate in precisely such a mechanical manner. We can fur¬ nish the psychic factor with suggestions, which oper¬ ate as causes, but we can not otherwise control it in 148 Creative Personality its subconscious workings. This is because the sub¬ conscious activities are those of the Fundamental Reality in the psychic factor void of what we call the personal will. The boundary of the subconscious ac¬ tivities would thus seem to disappear in the Infinite Reality. Evidently, then, the psychic factor, the self, has only a boundary in the sense that it is an individualized phase of the Infinite Reality. The thought may be illustrated by reference to a smoke-ring in the midst of smoke, or a little whirlwind in the air, or an electron in the universal ether. We here conceive of the self, or the psychic factor, as being simply the center and initial of person. Thus is it suggested that every hu¬ man person in reality extends infinitely out, as we may say, in all directions. This indicates a regime of the greatest importance. Regime: Oneness With the Infinite. It is urged that you never, for a moment, practically forget that you are one in nature with Infinite Life, or the Funda¬ mental Reality. The boundaries of the different phases of your person never separate you from that Life or Reality. They are conveniences only of the development of person in individuality. When this thought becomes a part of your every day conscious¬ ness, you may look up into the stars with eyes or tele¬ scope, or mentally confront the Universe and say, “ All this is mine, I myself am That.” He who maintains this thought has come at least to the beginning of per¬ son-greatness. The thought tends to put away the Person 149 ideas of bonds, bondage, and boundaries, which are always enemies to progress. Limitations of Person. We now seek to get at the same truth in a slightly different way. The idea of boundaries express limita¬ tion in the sense of parting off body, mind or self. The present thought concerns limitation in the sense of nature and power. Let us imagine two lines joining and forming an infinitesimal angle, but extending out from the angle indefinitely. The space between the lines at the angle is very small, yet is in no way different from the space between the lines anywhere along their extension. The more the lines extend outward, the more they di¬ verge, and the greater becomes the space between them. The only limitations of the included space are the diverging side-lines. There are never any limitations in front, as it were, of the angle. When the Infinite Reality begins to individualize its psychic factor in the human self, it puts the whole of its essence into that self in the sense of the latter’s humanness. However perfectly the psychic factor in the self develops into person and in individuality, it is always bounded, and essentially limited by what may be called the side¬ lines of its human nature. Otherwise it may in its history embrace more and more of Infinite Reality. We have the conception in larger form in the evolu¬ tion of life. The first form of life on this planet cor¬ responded to the infinitesimal angle of our illustration. 150 Creative Personality The Infinite Reality went all into it as a type of life. As evolution advanced, the side-lines of “ primal type of life ” also advanced and diverged as the possibilities of infinite life were more and more individualized. Thus came type after type of differentiated organisms, type after type of individualized psychic factor, type after type of conscious intelligence. Finally appeared man. Here physical evolution began to find its limita¬ tions in the perfected human body and in the highest type of human person. From this point on the psychic and mental side-lines extend and diverge indefinitely. Always into the human goes all of the Infinite Life as defined in humanness, but always may the human life give the Infinite Life more and more favorable opportunities for unfolding itself. The poorest Hot¬ tentot represents the human allness of the Infinite Life, but a Goethe, a Farrady, or a Lincoln, represents de¬ velopment within the human limitations which ap¬ proximates more and more an infinitude of possibility. This conception of unlimited human development is illustrated in every phase of human person. Take, for example, the body. Consider the differences be¬ tween an unclothed hairy First-Man and a Greek Apollo. In the differences we see how reality may individualize, differentiate and refine itself. Con¬ sider the clumsiness of an African savage in his use of mind and hands, on the one hand, and a skilled Japanese artisan, an American mechanic, and a mod¬ ern sculptor of the first order. Again has that reality of the savage improved its expression up into higher ideals. Consider the weakness of the human organ- Person 151 ism in former ages as it grappled with disease and death, and the advancing ability now evident to proph¬ esy a time when these enemies shall be forever ban¬ ished from the face of earth. More and more does man climb higher, does he embrace within himself the powers and the mastership of Infinite Reality even in that which the Christian Bible calls “ this vile body.” Let us assist in substituting for this atrocious idea the real truth, “ Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” Take the mind. In the lowest form of animal life actions which appear to express the animal’s intelli¬ gence are perhaps mere mechanical responses to ex¬ ternal influences. We have here the provisions for in¬ telligence in the Fundamental Reality beginning to actualize in the animal body. In higher forms this intelligence manifests in instinct. In the highest forms below man the intelligence of instinct seems to reach the beginnings of reason. Thus far the side¬ lines of the mental angle have to include so much of reality’s possibilities that further progress becomes a new order of mind. This means that the space in¬ cluded between the side-lines of the angle is really bounded by what may be called the limiting line of the animal nature. As in the body of man Reality reaches the limit of its physical expression, so it arrives in the animal mind at a point beyond which it cannot go and still remain animal. In order to represent the human mind we must conceive of a new angle. This angle can never become an inclosed space, as it were. The infinite possibilities of mind in person may be indicated 152 Creative Personality in two ways. We may compare the finest modern civilization with the mental life of primitive man. Progress has advanced so far that we instinctively feel that it might go on forever. We have, also, sug¬ gested above that every mental activity may come more and more to new and higher meanings, and that the ordinary mental operations will also represent what may be called, for want of a better term, the spiritual mind. Thus may we conceive of every hu¬ man person as confronting the Infinite and claiming it as his own. This brings us to a proposition which becomes startling in proportion as it is made definite, as follows: The laws of life are quantitively and qualitatively infinite, and man possesses an unlimited power to know and use those laws. The Infinite Reality contains all possibilities, and must, therefore, provide for all numbers and kinds of manifestations. So far as we know, its highest manifestation appears in person. Since person is Reality so far as manifested, and mind in person is the same Reality so far as manifested, and all Reality manifested beyond person is forever a subject for man’s knowing, we see that the only limitations to hu¬ man progress are those which may be laid by human¬ ness. Now, this statement is for you to accept as true of yourself. We all freely imagine great things for man’s general progress, yet instinctively set up for ourselves all sorts of limitations. Thus do we con¬ fuse words. We think of man as an entity, forgetting that in fact the only entities are men and women. So Person 153 we think of progress as a mysterious something apart from individual progress. The only limitations of man are his human nature. Your only limitations are your nature as an individual human person. This suggests an interesting regime. Regime: Putting Aside All Limiting Ideas. There are several ideas which dominate us with a feeling of limitation. The idea of body is an example. It seems to bind us, and we are obsessed by the belief that the body must die. If, however, it could always perfectly adjust itself internally to every change in its environ¬ ment, we have no reason whatever to suppose that the organism would not be immortal. And we have rea¬ son to believe that by so much as man learns to live, physically and mentally, in harmony with universal law, he will more and more acquire the power to make such adjustment. If it is suggested that life seems to run down, expend its force, the answer is, that life is not a mysterious something in addition to results of chemical activity, but is a phase of such chemical activity. So long as the continuous adjust¬ ment of the organisms to changes in environment is maintained, the integrity of the chemical activities must go on. You are invited resolutely to set about the test of putting away the thought that you are doomed to disease and death, and to substitute for such thought the ideas of health and indefinite life. Physical immortality is, it is true, a far-off event but it is your privilege to assist man’s struggle for that goal. The sense of being bound by the body gives us the 154 Creative Personality idea of special limitations. This idea begets in us the further idea of temporal limitations. Always these ideas dominate us, and impose obstacles to our free¬ dom. Now let us observe: The limitations of space are merely temporal. Space would not seem to bound us were time annihi¬ lated, for we should then be able to go anywhere on the instant. You feel physical limitations because it takes time for you to put your body where you wish. You load yourself down unnecessarily with such ideas. It is not the body that thinks and wills, it is the per¬ son, and at some time in the career of person it will slough off that body and cease to be dominated by the spacial notion. The limitations of time are merely spacial. In our thought the movement of the body through space in¬ volves duration. Dividing the distance between two points in space into infinitesimal sections, we think of the man as enduring or continuing through the sections from one to another. The fact is that we have here a number of consecutive movements. If we have no idea of space, the idea of consecutiveness of move¬ ment would disappear. Our mental activities do not occupy space, but follow one another in some sort of consecutive order. There is here non-spacial dura¬ tion. The fact that two mental activities can not oc¬ cur at the same instant does not present a limitation. If we lived in non-spacial conditions, what we call the limitations of time would merely involve the ceasing of one mental activity and the occurrence of another. Let us remember that throughout the Universe the Person 155 only activities that actually exist are taking place now. The whole Universe exists contemporaneously. Past activities have ceased, and future activities have not begun. The limitations of space and time are, therefore, the limitations that we impose upon our¬ selves by our ideas. These ideas may be more or less necessitated by our present conditions, but we have the power of refusing to permit them to overweigh us and develop within us a sense of weakness and finite¬ ness. The method of release from this limiting sense consists of filling consciousness, as we may say, with the thought, “ I am Infinite Life, and I put away from myself all limiting ideas that would tend to make me less.” Practical Outcome. Every human being is more or less metaphysical in his thought. It is only when we try to investigate our¬ selves in some thoroughgoing manner, and begin to discover what a marvelous thing human nature is and how complex that very familiar existence, person, that metaphysics seems to get out of all relation with practical living. Because this is so the reader is urged not to abandon to study the suggestions pre¬ sented in this chapter, not to forego the inspiration which those suggestions will surely bring to him if he accepts them and makes them a part of his daily life. You can not avoid being Infinite Reality and possess¬ ing unlimited possibilities as a man or a woman. You are invited to live more and more in the consciousness that you are really great, and high, and fine, and that 156 Creative Personality you as person may, if you will, unfold into individual¬ ity beyond all your dreams. These suggestions are as applicable to the ditch-digger as to a Buddha. Let us sing, with Lanier: “ As the marsh-hen builds her a nest on the watery sod, Behold, I will lay me a-hold on the greatness of God.” LAW: Reaction of the Self with the Not-Self Gives Consciousness Power in Growth. CHAPTER V. EXPERIENCE. W E have seen that the Fundamental Reality is qualitatively infinite, always the same and identical throughout with itself, and contains within itself the sole reason for its own ex¬ istence. Accepting this definition, we see that Reality provides in itself for all possible existences. It is, of course, not such existences until they become. Never¬ theless, when they become, it goes into them, and each one of them is, by reason of that becoming, a phase of the one identical Reality. Each existence as a manifest is itself, and none other. But no existence is in essence separable from that which constitutes all things. Prefatory. We may say of every existence that it is of its own kind. For convenience this statement may read: Every existence embodies an idea or a group of ideas determined by some one central idea. We say so be¬ cause, on investigation of any object of existence, our minds interpret it in terms of ideas. Thus we feel that the Universe is Reality manifested in a vast com¬ plex of ideas, and that, therefore, every single thing within it is to us as if it were a thought. So does our 157 15S Creative Personality intelligence read the Universal Intelligence and put into it a thought-element. This thought-element is really our own and does not exist prior to the mani¬ festation of Reality in the Universe and its object. If we could think of the Fundamental Reality prior to its expression in anything whatever, we should con¬ ceive of it as possessing all possibilities but as not realizing in any possibility. Now, these so-called ideas which we discover in all things indicate to us the limitations of Reality’s mani¬ festation in any existence or in any direction. So we feel that our Universe could not be any other kind of Universe, or grow into any other essentially different kind of Universe. And for this reason, we hold that a rose bush, for example, could not be an oak tree, that a butterfly could not be an eagle, that a horse could not be a man, and that a man can only continue to be human however much he may unfold Reality in per¬ son and individuality. We have seen that human per¬ son has always before it unlimited possibilities of growth, but that evolution in lower orders of life climaxes Reality’s manifestations at man. At this point a new order must begin. From these considerations we draw a conclusion: every human person is a kind of universal center. Person a Universal Center. The whole essence of Reality goes into the human psychic factor “ for the sake of ” unfoldment in per¬ son in the sense of human psychic factor as actual, and in the sense of unlimited possibilities of develop- Experience 159 ment in person. This statement is not true of any other order of existence below man. The whole es¬ sence of Reality goes into every object lower than man in the sense only that such object is actual. But the actuality of such objects exhausts in themselves; they can not in themselves unfold into higher planes. We see here an illustration of the meaning of our former proposition that all objects seem to represent an idea, and that that idea limits them. The idea, Human, limits person only in the sense that man may never become anything other than man; he may always embrace as a human more and more of the Infinite. When we ap¬ prehend this thought, we perceive that in whatever di¬ rection he may grow into the Infinite, he can never find any limitations to his growth, because, the more he grows, the more must Infinite Reality open up be¬ fore him. We may say — “ Veil upon veil shall lift, Still there must be veil upon veil behind.” Let us then, at this point, pause a moment with a helpful suggestion: Regime cf the Luminious Center. There are depths in ocean where scarcely a movement occurs; the activities and confusion above are here un¬ manifest. There are voids in space where etheric waves pass undisturbed on their illimitable way. For every human self there are the inner recesses of its own being where, if one could be still enough, one might become conscious of the All-Reality of this Universe. “ From my earliest childhood, I have al¬ ways had a sort of belief that if one were to stoop 1 _ 160 Creative Personality very low, held one’s breath, and made a bold spring, one would break through and under the barriers, and be there. Or, one might go very suddenly around a corner, and be there. Always there was the sensation that it was lying just beyond, just outside of oneself, and that only a certain heaviness of the flesh, a cer¬ tain lack of concentration of attention, prevented one’s participation in it. I can not define what the other life is. It is all around you. I feel it in the water. If I could only look close enough into the shifting depths, I should see — a hand clasped quickly enough would grasp — what always just evades. I feel it around me breathing and watching in the woods. It is what I can not quite catch in the talk of the birds. It is what the animals say with their eyes. It is so subtle —.” Thus do we sometimes feel as present in all things the Infinite Reality, which, because we are phases of it, seems to elude us and vanish behind the visible and tangible. And we feel that this is so wherever we are, wherever we might go, into whatever state, physical or non-physical, we might pass. In such manner may the idea be expressed, that each person seems to center all things. When we realize this thought, we begin to know that “ all things are yours.” This realization should carry with it a sense of peace and poise and power. You are invited, then, to arrest your activities from time to time, and, in a listening and expecting mental attitude, to think, “ I am a universal center; I am inviting to myself all the values of life.” Only an existence which is less than infinite, and which yet centers the infinite in the sense that it may Experience 161 always immediately unfold within itself more and more of the Infinite, can we have experience. The reason for this curious proposition will be made to appear when we analyze the nature of experience. The Nature of Experience. The word “ experience ” is derived from a Sanskrit word, Par, “ to fare,” “ advance,” “ travel,” “ go through.” From thence came a Greek word, Perao, “ I pass through,” and a further word, Peirao, “ I try.” We have also the Latin words, Perere, “ to try,” and Ex, “ to make a thorough trial.” We may say, then, that to experience is to fare through and test out. Let us examine this idea of “ faring through.” We speak of “ going through life,” “ traveling through time.” In these pages we have come to think of ourselves as being phases of Reality, as being sur¬ rounded by Reality and as making our way through and growing into Reality. Now, this is true of every individual object in the Universe. It is also true of the Universe itself. The meaning is, that Reality is forever and universally becoming manifest. This be¬ coming is a complex of illimitable activities in the pres¬ ent tense. It is not a became; it is not a to-become. The became has been a becoming; the to-become will be a becoming. Neither the became nor the to-become has any existence except as ideas, and always the ideas occur in the now. We see, then, that the only mani¬ fests of Reality that have any existence are those that now exist. Reality manifests all that it does manifest 162 Creative Personality at once and in the present. This makes all objects, persons, and events throughout the Universe con¬ temporary. We should not, however, think of this con¬ temporaneousness as a line separating a past from a future. Rather, we illustrate ouf thought by referring to the Galactic Circle, the Milky Way. There is here a vast number of planets, stars, nebulae, and so on, all engaged in the present in a state of intense and com¬ plex activity. Every one of the bodies is acted upon in the present by all other bodies, and is now reacting in various ways upon all other bodies. In other words, all manifests of Reality exist in and constitute what we may call a total Environment. We pause to examine this fact. Environment. The mutual interaction of things and persons consti¬ tutes environment. If we can discover the influence which one existence exerts upon another, we say that the former is a part of the environment of the latter. When we can not discover that influence, we say that the former existence is a part of the surrounding of the latter. Our conception of the Universe as a vast system of innumerable groups of existences, that is, of activities, makes every object to be what it is by reason of the action upon it of all other objects of the Uni¬ verse, and of its reaction thereto. This fact gives us the beginning of our analysis of experience. The law of universal action and reaction operates upon objects and persons alike. But it is the quality of the reaction of person to the universal environment that raises ex- Experience 163 perience on the person-plane, and makes it impossible on any other plane. In its nature, then, experience is a reaction and a product of reaction of person to the universal environment. This will appear as we pro¬ ceed to analyze experience into its factors, and note those without which it cannot occur. Analysis of Experience. Experience is not alone a reaction, or a product of reaction, of person; it involves activities possible only in person. Supposing any object to have a limited period of existence, we might say that the sum-total of its activities during that period would constitute its his¬ tory. Then we would say that its history consists of a series of experiences. Thus we might speak of the history and experiences of an atom of Uranium, from the time of the element’s beginning through all the course of disintegration through radium and beyond. Or we might speak of the history and experiences of a plant from seed to death. We should feel, however, that such speech would be incorrect. It would be a figure, and not a fact, on closer examination. You might speak of the history and experiences of an earth¬ worm, especially, perhaps, if it dies on an angler’s hook. Nevertheless, the lack of some certain element makes this speech also figurative. We might go on, now, to speak of the history and experiences of a world or a Universe. At first thought, this use of words will seem to be correct. But if we ask the question, In what sense universal history can consist of expe¬ riences? we are compelled to answer, In the sense only 164 Creative Personality that the intelligence provided in the Infinite Reality comes to intelligent individuality in Reality’s expres¬ sions of its nature. History occurs as intelligent indi¬ viduals make it, and not otherwise. Experiences occur only in true histories. When we speak of the expe¬ riences of an atom, a plant, or animal, we merely in¬ terpret the activities of these objects in terms of our own natures. This is a kind of personification. It appears, therefore, that if we are to analyze ex¬ perience, we must analyze person. We have seen that person is an organized system of activities necessarily involving conscious, self-directive intelligence. Since it is organized out of Reality, Reality as manifested is its environment. Since it is intelligent, it is conscious. Since it is conscious intelligence, it is a “ chooser-be- tween,” that is, self-directive. Thus emerge the ele¬ ments of experience, as follows: First Element. There is action of person, both physical and mental. This action is always a present one. Other actions have occurred in or by person, but they have ceased, and now are not. Other actions will occur, but these are not yet, and when they take place will be now-actions. These now-actions are occa¬ sioned by other actions external to them, but are caused by person itself. The first element of experience, then, is some kind of action, not only of person, but by person. Second Element. There is consciousness in person that such actions are its own. They are not merely actions, they are my actions. They are not the actions of other objects, or persons, or of a Universe oper- Experience 165 ating through me; apart from me they could not exist at all. Our second element of experience is a sense of activities as personal to me. Third Element. There is consciousness of the I as originating and claiming such activities. The first element is simply actions, the second element is actions possessed, the third element is the possessor aware of himself as the cause of actions, that is as a self. Fourth Element. There are actions that are not of the self. Such are the actions of all objects as they affect us, and of all persons which influence us in any way. The thought here is that the Universe consists of two sets of existences, those which constitute you, and those which constitute everything else. The latter incessantly act upon you, affect you, influence you. Such actions are the fouth element. Fifth Element. There is consciousness of actions of the Not-I as of the Not-I. This means that the I is aware not only of the self and its actions, but also of another existence, or of other existences outside of self. Sixth Element. There is a sense of the continuing identity of the self or person and of a world of things and persons beyond. Along with all these previous elements goes the idea, “ I maintain, and have main¬ tained, my personal identity through all my personal activities.” This idea necessitates a sense of the identity of a Not-I as maintained through all its own activities. This sense of the maintained identity of the self and the Not-self is the essence of memory. We shall see in a later chapter that memory is a mental ac- 166 Creative Personality tion repeating an action that has occurred and ceased, but associated with the idea that both activities belong to the identical self. Seventh Element. There is a sense that the self or person will hold its identity over from one present to another, and that the actions of self will go over from one present to another. This is the idea of the future, as the sixth element involves the idea of the past and its memory. Eighth Element. There is ability to make use of all these elements, of all these actions and ideas, with reference to a future condition of person. This is the heart and essence of experience. Without this ability no experience obtains. It is not here meant that experience necessitates the wisdom to make a profitable use of such factors. We say, “ he never can learn from experience.” Even when this is true, the person possesses the human ability as a mental possibility, to recall his actions that have occurred and, because of them, to self-direct his present actions in a way to determine his actions in the future. We are now ready to define experience. Experience is a recallable and usable recognition of actions of the I and the Not-I, having as an outcome development of person. This recognition signifies the “ faring-through,” or “ testing-out,” referred to in a preceding paragraph. The idea of faring-through suggests physical mo¬ tion. We have the power of moving the body from one place to another, that is, we are able to travel through space. It is the wonderfulness of this fact Experience 167 that brings us to the consideration of our power to fare through on the level, as it were, of a higher mean¬ ing. We walk by a series of falls lifting one foot, ad¬ vancing it, and falling upon it. We do this by an act of will setting the required muscles into action in which the body is balanced by habits of adjustment which also exhibit the act of will. All this illus¬ trates the marvelous control of matter by mind. Just how this is done, that is, how mind controls the muscles, we do not know, in the last analysis. Never¬ theless, the fact remains as stated, and means that we move the body through space by thought. We thus see that we fare through space by using thought as a motive power. In truth, thought is our only motive power on any level of action. Whether walking, or rolling on wheels, or pushing through waters, or flying through the air, the sole motive power is thought. But it is thought that has analyzed this process of faring-through, and it is thought that has invented all means of locomotion, and it is thought that has started a necessary cause of action and movement, and has foreseen all the results that have followed. In all these operations of thought we have been engaged in faring through the realm of ideas, that of facts, prin¬ ciples, laws, truths, and so on, and also in testing out the actuality and validity and value of ideas, methods, means and ends. We thus see that every moment of our waking existence we are faring through the world of Reality, both in its seen and its unseen aspects, and testing out how matters are, how they seem to be, how they will turn out to be as we “ travel through ” 168 Creative Personality the material and non-material Universe. The outcome of this experience is progress, in the history of the Individual, and in that of man. This brings us to the consideration of a proposition, already advanced, which at first thought seems entirely evident, but which, on closer examination, suggests a question: Is real progress possible on any plane of existence below that of person? The answer is negative. We now pro¬ ceed to work out this conclusion. Experience Possible Only to Person. Recalling our definition of experience, The recallable and usable recognition of actions of the self and the not-self, we see that the analysis of it makes its factors impossible to any existence other than that of person. Let us apply this statement as follows. Plants have no experience, so far as we know, in any true sense of the word, because they have no in¬ dividual consciousness and lack the ideas of con¬ tinuing identity, memory and the future. If we speak of the experience of a plant, we transfer to it more or less of the meaning of our own personality. This is true also in regard to animals, except in very low degrees. The animal has a vague sense of self, but does not think of itself as I, knows itself in a way, but does not know that it knows. There is just enough memory to maintain the organism, more or less, since the animal possesses the power of locomo¬ tion. It moves about, and hence it must get to what it needs, and adjust itself to changing conditions. It acts as though it had the idea of a future, but does not Experience 169 know that it has that idea, and is driven so to act by what we may call the organic memory. When we speak of the animal’s experience, we again transfer to it more or less of the items of our analysis, that is, we interpret its acts in language appropriate to our own. Matter has no power of experience. It appears to act with intelligence, because it operates under the law of cause and effect, but when we say this we are in¬ terpreting both the intelligence and the law in per¬ sonal terms. The intelligence is our idea of the fact that under certain conditions certain results obtain. The causes operate mechanically, that is to say, in¬ variably and uniformly. In other words, matter ex¬ hibits a vast number of habits of activity, and these habits look intelligent because they always wind up in certain results. All these facts we are prone to con¬ ceive in a personal way, and we should summarize the total outcome as the history and experience of the Universe. When we do this, we simply personify the Universe and its matter. The ether has no power of experience. We do not personify this universal ground of matter and medium of force, except in the interest of some theory of philosophy or theology. Science comes more and more to conceive of all the operations of nature below man as mechanical. To science the ether is a hypo¬ thetical or actual medium through which various kinds of force are manifest and matter is constituted. The activities of the chemical elements are invariably me¬ chanical, as are also the activities of the electrons com- 170 Creative Personality posing the elements, and the forces, electricity, mag¬ netism, and the like. If we could not discover here uniformity and invariability of action, we should be unable to attribute to the ether any intelligence what¬ ever. The Fundamental Reality has no power of experi¬ ence, except as it manifests in person. We are as prone to personify the Fundamental Reality as we are to personify ether, matter, plants, and animals. That is to say, when we conceive of it we try to interpret it as independent of ourselves or as existing aside from personal existences, and yet in language suitable to person. We note the following objections to this pro¬ cedure. We have defined Reality as “ That which is always the same throughout and identical with itself.” To this abstract conception the idea of experience as analyzed above can not apply, since there is here merely infinite oneness, no individualization, no dif¬ ferentiation into parts and actions. Until Reality manifests itself, there can be no interaction with itself, and there can be no intelligence capable of the ideas of continuing identity, a past and a future. The Funda¬ mental Reality is not mind, but is that which contains within itself provisions for mind, and which may mani¬ fest in mind. It is not consciousness, but is the in¬ finite provision for consciousness which may manifest in consciouness. It is not intelligence, but contains the provisions of intelligence which may come to intelli¬ gence. It can not react with anything other than it¬ self because itself is all. It can not recall past actions Experience 171 of itself, because it can only act in the present, and past action being the all and having ceased, there is nothing which may be recalled or nothing left with power to recall. Hence, the Fundamental Reality, conceived as an abstract conception, or as manifest in matter, ether, plants or animals, can have no experi¬ ence whatever, until that appears which makes it pos¬ sible that there shall be reaction between a manifest self and a not-self manifest, a recallable and usable recognition of the interactions of the same. As we confront this conclusion, we are met by the assault of most of our ideas of progress. Let us ex¬ amine this matter with some care. We now announce a somewhat startling proposition. Progress Possible only to Person. By progress we mean advancement in organism, life and mentality, having the quality of inherent utility. When we ask, What is the meaning of utility? we must answer the question by reference to somq universal standard. It is impossible to find such a standard in Reality and in its manifests, in ether, mat¬ ter, chemical compound, or physical organisms. For if such existences only obtained, wherein would their utility consist? We make toward the conception of utility in any object only through some other object. Starting from the universal ether in our search for a final intermediary, or “ object-through-which,” we shall come to an endless series in the world of Nature. Neither the first nor the last member of the series can satisfy our judgment in regard to inherent utility, or 172 Creative Personality seem to justify anything in the series, or justify the Universe itself. A few illustrations will make clear this truth. The only assignable justification for the ether must be found in matter; the only assignable justification of matter is seen in plants and animals. The only assignable, justification for plants and animals is seen in — let the reader answer. The “ history ” of the planet, Earth, discloses utility, or justifies itself, in — let the reader answer. Take any apparently con¬ nected series of existences, and find the utility of any member of the series, or the final utility of the whole and — let the reader say what it is. Take any line of antecedents and consequences occurring from the be¬ ginning of things, and — let the reader determine the final utility. Begin the search with any so-called First Cause, and — let the reader discover an adequate Final Cause or ultimate justifiable Effect. When the reader becomes conscious of the full import of these illustrations, he will have projected himself, not in an egoistic sense, but in the sense that he is a universal type, into the answer in every instance. We are so constituted that we can not help coming to the con¬ clusion indicated the moment we really discover the meaning of any search for utility. Let us state our conclusion in a definite proposition. All utility is relative to person in some type. Nothing seems to have meaning, usefulness, or jus¬ tification with reference to any object of existence other than person. When we ask, What is the utility of a universal medium, the ether? we run on from electrons to atoms or chemical elements, compounds, Experience 173 organisms, great forces, mentality — person. If there were no person on earth, nothing in it would have any value or meaning. If we could banish from our thought of the Universe all personal existence, in¬ cluding our own, it would become an infinite interroga¬ tion point. If we could banish from our thought of the Universe all personal experiences save our own,— your individual own,— it would then have meaning and utility. The one individual would then set about doing his best to use that Universe. If he were a philosopher, and if he permitted his mind to act wholly and truly, he would affirm, “ Utility of every existence in this Universe, and of the Universe as a whole, makes toward and has reference to myself.” The only way in which he could get the idea of prog¬ ress or advancement in the history of earth and the Universe would be by setting himself up as person for a standard. If we now in our thought recall into the Universe all persons that exist therein, we see that, since every individual would necessarily arrive at the same conclusion, our universal standard of utility is — Person, human and other than human. Now, these considerations appear to bring out utility in every existence below that of person, and making toward person. This seems to demonstrate progress in the world below man, or to indicate advancement having the quality of utility. At first thought it would surely seem that the world made progress from chaos to humanity. But the conclusion is apparent only. It projects into the world before man the idea, in¬ telligent direction toward a goal. That is to say, it 174 Creative Personality personifies Reality and its manifestations. We believe that all this is error. Let us examine this assertion. The operations of Reality prior to its manifestation in person are absolutely mechanical in the sense that they are uniform, invariable and immutable. They merely show forth what we call the nature of things. We therefore affirm — The nature of things, apart from person, is a uni¬ versal blunderer and exhibits no utility and no moral quality whatever. We take up the two phases of this statement. The Nature of Things a Blunderer. The evidence that the nature of things below person is a blunderer is the cause of innumerable mental prob¬ lems concerning the world. All things are expressions of the nature of things, and are therefore of its pro¬ visions. In bringing the nature of things to judgment, we must coordinate all the facts, and not select there¬ from according to our theories, and form our con¬ clusions without fear or favor. In looking the world over, and in running through its “ history,” we find all sorts of apparently commendable objects and activities, and we are apt, therefore, to believe that some sort of wisdom has all along been at work. Here again, we have projected our personal quality into the nature of things. If we are to do this with regard to com¬ mendable objects and activities, we must do the same as regards objects and activities that do not appear commendable, in which case we should correspondingly assume that a lack of wisdom has appeared. We may Experience 175 list all known objects and activities which seem to have utility for the career of person, and it will then seem that we are proving advancement in Nature’s past and present, and, if our theories permit, we will then at¬ tribute such so-called advancement to some superior order of intelligence. When, however, we list all con¬ trary objects and activities, we must either deny the intelligence, or throw the facts into the waste-basket notion, our inability to understand. But this latter conclusion is only a make-shift convenience. If we have ability to dispose of some facts in orie way, we have also ability to dispose of the other facts in a way consistent therewith. That is to say, it is our mental obligation to dispose of all the facts regard¬ less of any theory. If we do this, we shall say that some of the facts appear to indicate intelligence at work, and that other facts appear to indicate a lack of intelligence. In our final mental attitude, we shall re¬ fuse to project personality into the nature of things, and affirm that the world before man has blundered on its way toward man. The words “ to blunder,” mean “ to proceed in a blind, awkward or stupid way.” This phrase is em¬ ployed by intelligent thought to cover a lack of in¬ telligence. It may refer to outcomes which we call satisfactory as well as to those which we regard as un¬ satisfactory. Whether an outcome is satisfactory or unsatisfactory always depends upon its relations to our personal life. We say that a man blundered into suc¬ cess, blundered to victory, and so on. We say also that a man does not succeed because of his blunders, 176 Creative Personality that he has met defeat by reason of blundering. We mean that in such cases there has been a lack of in¬ telligence. Always here we standardize everything by reference to human welfare. If, now, we find ob¬ jects and activities in the world’s past and present which uncoerced reason does not necessarily conclude make for welfare of person, we must refer then to a lack of intelligence. And if we find objects and ac¬ tivities in the world’s past and present which appear to make for welfare of person, we must conclude that they are the results of a blindly working nature of things. This conclusion reasons out as follows: The working of the nature of things is absolutely mechani¬ cal. If we make this mechanical working-out the re¬ sult of intelligence, we place behind Nature a blun¬ derer. Observe the facts. We may go back to the beginning of things, and note the process of world¬ forming. The whole process is mechanical, and we may conclude that in the planet prior to life Reality has merely expressed its own nature. The process is so vast and so mechanical, that is, so uniform, in¬ variable and immutable that, if this were all we could know about it, we should find it absolutely impossible to affirm that any intelligence has been at work. We might, and probably would, infer that what we call intelligence may, perhaps, be on its way. But we could go no further than this with unbiased reason. There is no utility in this process except as it after¬ wards appears in person and therefore no advance¬ ment until person comes onto the stage. If utility and advancement do finally emerge, they are not as Experience 177 yet in evidence, and are as likely to be the outcome of blundering accidents as they are of intelligence, which outcome only discloses itself in a mechanism that will work as well without an intelligence, so far as we can discover. When we say that all this process is an unfolding of Fundamental Reality by reason of its own nature, we reach a basic proposition beyond which we can not go, and when we hold that the Fundamental Reality “contains” within itself provisions for all this including intelligence, as they emerge, we have covered the whole situation, and may await further conclusions. We may go back in our thoughts to the beginning of life on this planet. In what way life appeared we do not, of course, know. We do know that from the first unicellular organism to the completion of physical evo¬ lution in the organism of man, every type of life and every individual organism has been the outcome of conditions which could do no other than produce it. The conditions have been special and general. By general conditions we mean the whole state of the Universe at any one time, or, the whole state of the world at any one time. By special conditions we mean those in which the individual life emerges. The special conditions are always the outcomes of the gen¬ eral. At no one time could the general conditions be other than they are, since they were the outcomes of preceding uniform, invariable and immutable opera¬ tions of the whole system. The special conditions are, therefore, the outcomes of uniform, invariable and immutable general conditions operating along particu- 178 Creative Personality lar lines. We see, then, that every individual living organism has been determined by what has preceded it. We may refer all the processes and outcomes involved to the mechanically unfolding Fundamental Reality, containing within itself provisions for intelligence when this shall emerge. We can only get intelligence into the process by projecting our personal quality backward, but we have no reason, and no right, to do this until person has appeared. Thus far not a scrap of person has emerged. If we knew only the whole process, general and specific conditions, and the outcomes, up to this point, and were to refuse to project our personal qualities into them, we should find at work nothing whatever save mechanism. Let us now broadly review these two vast processes. Remembering that person has not yet appeared, we see that there is nothing whatever in star-mist and fire-dust having any utility in itself. We are prone to find utility in these things and the conditions obtaining because, now that we know results, we see here certain tendencies toward a planet and toward a life making man possible. But man has not yet emerged, and from anything yet discoverable, may never emerge. If we could conceive that man did not emerge, not a scintilla of evidence would there be of utility in nebular mat¬ ter or in its solidification into a globe. What utility has a molten mass of matter in itself alone? Or in the Plutonic rocks? Or in weltering seas and mois¬ ture-laden atmospheres? Or in masses of metal dis¬ tributed through the earth? Or in huge cataclysms, world-wide settlements of weather, eruptions and Experience 179 subsidences, and all the confused events of the purely physical process of planet-making? All these items indicate, so far as themselves alone are concerned, the operation of a machine. And since they had at the time no utility in themselves, we may not thrust utility into them by mere personifying thought. If we con¬ ceive that man has never appeared, the facts demon¬ strate no advancement toward no nameable useful goal, and, therefore, reveal no progress, except in the sense that the workings of a machine might indicate progress if we only knew what it was capable of do¬ ing. In any stage of the machine’s working prior to the revelation of what it is capable of doing, we should only see on-goings, but should be totally unable to affirm any real progress. So far as concerns the items of the purely physical process of planet-making, any one of them seems as truly referable to blundering as to wisdom. Moreover, the whole process thus far is chemical. The chemical elements are the results of the preceding operation of nebular stuff. The nebular stuff evolved into the chemical element in uni¬ form, invariable and immutable ways. The evolution gives no evidence of other than mechanism. The chemical elements formed the hundreds of thousands of compounds in the non-living world in ways that were also uniform, invariable and immutable. When specific conditions obtained, specific results occurred. The specific conditions reveal fixed chemical laws. It is not conceivable that any electron, atom, molecule or compound, or mass of compounds, or position and relation of these in reference to any others or the 180 Creative Personality whole sum-total of matter could at any time have been in the slightest degree other than it has been. These conditions may indicate what may be called a preparation for man, but man has not yet appeared, and thus far there is nothing whatever to indicate that he will appear. If he does appear, the whole process is so mechanical and so indeterminate, that such a re¬ sult may turn out to be a blunder, an accidental con¬ sequence. When, again, we refer the whole physical process covered by the science of Geology to the me¬ chanical unfolding of the nature of Fundamental Real¬ ity, we go as far as the facts furnished by the physical process will allow. The facts involved in the life-process prior to man lead to the same conclusion. There is all along a change from simpler organisms to complex, and more and more this change involves a multiplication of function, but there is nothing in the process or in the results to indicate advancement, since there is nothing to show that a complex organism is better than a simple one, or that an organism that performs its work among many functions is better than one that per¬ forms any work anywhere within itself. Our reason for assuming advancement here is because we know the events, project our personality into them, and then assume that the latter forms are improvements upon the earlier. If we could not know the final out¬ come, we should have no reason whatever for this as¬ sumption. If we compare living structures with one another, we get the same negative conclusion. From anything that appears prior to man and independently Experience 181 of man, we are unable to affirm that, for example, Dinosaur, a huge geological animal, is in any way superior to Amoeba, a simple mass of protoplasm which we can observe moving about in a drop of water un¬ der a microscope. Aside from the personal point of view, there is no reason to suppose that a bird having the power of flight is superior to a reptile which must crawl about in the mud, that a butterfly existing in tropical conditions is more beautiful than a turtle, or that a trout is more useful and lovely than an eel. Similarly, we should be at a loss as to the relative “ merits ” of a palm and a date tree, of a poison ivy and a rose bush, of a cane field and a marsh of wild rice. In all such an impersonal out-look we see that things are merely what they are, and we can only con¬ clude that the nature of things has simply expressed itself in various ways, any one of which, were it not for the fact that all things are mechanical products of preceding conditions, might take any other blunder¬ ing direction. The mechanical production of results in the vast complex process of life is no ground for the assumption of progress without the standard of the personal life, and so far as we can discover, might mean anything other than the personal life. The un¬ folding of the nature of things in its various expres¬ sions in living organisms, which is simply the mani¬ festation of Fundamental Reality, may no more be called progressive, if person is not to emerge, than might the convolutions of a billowing mass of smoke, or the changing forms and colors of oil on the surface of water when the latter is stirred. In later science 182 Creative Personality we have the theory of the disintegration of matter to illustrate further. It is said, that Uranium goes to pieces in a long series of events, yielding Radium as one member in the series and Lead as a final result. Possibly all forms of matter, or chemical elements, are phases of a general process of disintegration. If we disregard the question of utility to man, we do not know whether matter is in a state of progress or of retrogression. Referring to events preceding the ap¬ pearance of person on the planet, we are compelled to conclude that progress and retrogression are meaning¬ less words. The whole situation is exhausted in this conclusion, we have here a meaningless manifestation of Fundamental Reality, or simply an exhibition of the nature of things. But man has actually appeared. Reality finally ex¬ presses itself in person. Its outcome means that the provision in Reality for intelligence has finally realized in intelligence — become a fact. We must be careful not to put higher interpretation upon the matter than bare conditions warrant. The beginning of person is the emergence of psychic factor. Psychic factor is a result of the mechanical working of the nature of things, but before it creates person there is not a scin¬ tilla of evidence that it is not itself mechanical and that it ever will create person. So far as we can de¬ termine, if we could take the personal element out of the view, psychic factor has no more utility than pot¬ ash, and the idea of advancement from a compound of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, consti¬ tuting a mass of protoplasm, to psychic factor, is ab- Experience 183 solutely out of sight. The process is thus far a mean¬ ingless manifestation of Fundamental Reality. Psychic factor has, however, creative person. It has served as a primal mechanical expression of the na¬ ture of things. In that process by which it builds per¬ son, that is, exhibits a mechanical, reasonless subcon¬ scious self, builds a body, constructs a nervous system, concentrates itself in a brain and brain-centers, con¬ structs a mind, gets hold of itself in will, and begins consciously the direction of a career,— every stage of the process is rigidly determined by preceding con¬ ditions, is purely mechanical and yields not the slight¬ est evidence of progress, if we refuse to project our own personal notions into it. Consider a hu¬ man body devoid of the human person: no supe¬ riority over the body of a whale. Consider a hu¬ man brain devoid of a will-controlled mind: no su¬ periority. In mere psychic factor prior to man, we have the equivalents of sensation, perception, memory, instinctive reasoning, and so on, the elements of mind. Consider any one of these equivalents, or the sum- total, aside from completed person: no superiority. It is the whole combination that constitutes person. Until the total personality appears, there are no dem¬ onstrations whatever that Fundamental Reality is making any progress in the expression of its nature. All results are products of the uniform, invariable and immutable workings of the nature of things, and if we decline to project into them our views as of completed personality, they might as well be, and possibly may be anything other than what they are. 184 Creative Personality Person Standardizes the Universe. But person has arrived. In this event Reality be¬ gins, so far forth, to achieve consciousness. The pro¬ vision in Reality for consciousness has realized. That is to say, Reality has begun to realize the provision within itself for manifest intelligence. The process leading up to this result has been purely mechanical, the fixed workings of uniform, invariable, and im¬ mutable laws, or the working of the nature of things, which could not have been otherwise. But at the in¬ stant of the appearance of person,— the emergency of true intelligence,— the element of contingency en¬ ters the whole situation. This means that heretofore nothing has been contingent save in the sense that everything has been dependent upon preceding con¬ ditions. When person comes, preceding conditions more or less affect the action of intelligence, but are also more or less controlled by what we call will. Prior to person there has been no will, but only the provision in Reality for will involved in the provision for intelligence. The realization of this provision in the coming of person introduces free self-direction into the manifestation of Reality. Reality now becomes, as expressed in person, self-directed. Its mechanical workings now come under a degree of conscious con¬ trol. This conscious person-control of itself is the first final end toward which Reality has tended in its unfoldment of its nature. The end is indicated in any individual person, but, of course, consists of the Experience 185 sum-total personal consciousness throughout the Uni¬ verse. Let us observe here that this sum-total includes all types of person existent. Such types may be indi¬ cated as follows: First type, Deity; second type, man; third type, all other persons. We know human person, which fact will here suffice. We do not know other types, but may remark concerning Deity, that Deity is the infinite and eternal realization of the pro¬ vision in Reality for person. This means that Deity is the infinitely and eternally self-controlled Intelli¬ gence. Deity is therefore the infinitely and eternally moral expression of the provisions in Reality for uni¬ versal harmony. All other types of person are also expressions of provisions in Reality for person, are, therefore, mechanically achieved results of the work¬ ing of the nature of things, are in origin independent of Deity, and have had a beginning, but are open to the influence of other persons and of any other higher In¬ telligence consciously working for the final goal of universal harmony. Returning, now, to person in its finite type, we see that real progress in the unfolding of Reality in worlds begins with the arrival of such types of per¬ son. Without such types nothing has utility. Since Deity is the perfect expression of Reality along lines of person, there can be no conceivable utility in a so- called material Universe until other types of person appear. The utility of such types to Deity is seen solely in the fact that they afford Deity opportunity for 186 Creative Personality the exercise of its moral functions. If, in our thought, we divest Deity of this opportunity, we are unable to conceive of any relation or of any utility between them and a so-called Creator. We see, then, that from all points of view, person standardizes the Universe. Nothing has utility aside from person. Nothing can make progress possible. All utility and progress have some relation to person. In person Reality becomes individualized and self-controlled in¬ telligence. This establishes the foundation for ex¬ perience. The appearance of person is the beginning of experience. Only in experience can the factors of experience already indicated come into being, only through experience can Reality get its opportunity to unfold person toward perfection, or harmonious ex¬ istence. An object is in a state of harmony when it is, at any stage of its existence, so related to the whole sys¬ tem of objects that if every other object were so re¬ lated, the system would infallibly achieve happiness in person. Universal harmony, then, is the sine qua non of universal personal happiness. The individual person can achieve happiness only through harmony with the whole Universe, and can achieve this only through experience. This brings us to a large conclusion. Goal of the Universe. The only assignable goal of a system of actizhties is the expression of the best possibilities of the system. The only conceivable meaning of “ best possibilities ” Experience 187 is a state of harmony, or perfect equilibrium among such activities. The Universe is a system of activities, personal and otherwise, the goal of which is a state of universal equilibrium, or harmony. We know that this goal can not be achieved apart from two things: Person and Experience. Person must be involved in the goal because person is a part of a system; ex¬ perience must be involved in reaching the goal because only through experience may person be brought to a condition of universal harmony. Thus again does it appear that person standardizes all things. Without the idea of person we should not have the slightest reason for affirming any state of matter or any condition of worlds to be that of harmony. So far as matter goes, a shapeless piece of clay, a raging conflagration or an indian simoon, is as truly in a state of harmony as a diamond crystal, an orchid’s bloom, or the planet Uranus. Har¬ mony appears only in a relation of utility to person. Prior to person therefore there is no progress, and progress is secured only through experience. When reality mechanically organizes out of itself conscious, self-directive individual intelligence, real progress begins, since now a standard for utility is raised in the appearance of person. This would be true even were the individual the only person in exist¬ ence. An infinite personal existence can not make progress because it is always qualitatively infinite, is always all that person can be. Were the finite per¬ son supposed above the only person in existence the only progress possible would exhibit within the limits 188 Creative Personality of that person’s career, because the working of the material Universe would be now as purely mechanical as they had been prior to person, and would be as equally devoid of utility save as person established that utility. The progress which would infallibly ap¬ pear with the appearance of the one person would consist of the unfoldment of that person through self- direction. Thus would Reality have one line of ad¬ vancement in the manifestation of itself in conscious development. If, now, we assume, which is the fact, an increasing number of appearances of person, we see that the opportunities for real progress in the unfolding of Reality through such persons must be continually multiplied. The consciousness and self-direction of all the persons in existence, including the infinite, be¬ come the consciousness and self-direction of manifest Reality. This does not mean that Reality has now become a compound of persons; nor does it mean a mysterious universal consciousness — save that of the Infinite; it means that Reality has achieved conscious¬ ness in each consciousness of the total number of persons existent. Reality now turns on itself, as it were, and having found consciousness and self-direc¬ tion in the persons, gives utility to its material mani¬ festations throughout the Universe, which is used by self-directive experience for advancement in personal unfoldment. We are not to suppose, however, that this use of utility by Reality makes person a puppet of Reality, because Reality can only make such use as a person discovers utility and takes advantage Experience 189 thereof. The progress is achieved by Reality only because Reality is now person and person is Reality. The goal of the Universe is the unfoldment of Reality in the development of the sum-total of its finite per¬ son continually making on toward a universal condi¬ tion in which all persons achieve happiness. In our analysis of experience, we have seen that experience involves awareness of self as person, of a not-self, of actions of the not-self upon the self, of reactions of the self thereto, of continuing self-identity, and of ideas of past and present. Remembering that Reality achieves consciousness and self-direction in the sum-total of its persons, we may now say that the goal of the Universe involves the working of all these elements of experience. Thus, and in this sense, Reality unfolds in the way of progress through a kind of universal experience which is conscious and self¬ directive. This also expresses the nature of things. It is the nature of Reality to mechanically become a material Universe. It is the nature of things mechanic¬ ally to produce person. It is the nature of Reality to consciously and self-directively unfold its possibilities through the experiences of person. It is the nature of person to unfold its possibilities and have experi¬ ence. By experience person unfolds and learns its lesson. In the sum-total experiences of all persons Reality ceases to be purely mechanical in its mani¬ festations, and learn as those lessons require for the attainment of the final goal, harmony and happiness. In the sense that reality achieves consciousness in the sum-total of its persons, we may speak of the experi- 190 Creative Personality ence of the Universe. Through such experience the Universe self-directively unfolds toward a state of harmony and makes true history. Person unfolds only by reacting to the action of external existences, and learns by experience to control and direct such reactions in its own interest. Thus universal prog¬ ress is made by the sum-total reactions of person ac¬ cording to the lessons of the universal experience. Two outcomes follow: There is an universal per¬ sonal development, which involves an increasingly greater and greater unfoldment of the provisions of Reality, and there is an increasingly greater and greater bringing of matter by person under its own control. From this latter outcome a startling result may be conceived, to wit: through the reaction of per¬ son to external influences and through the increasing control or use of matter by person, matter becomes more and more docile and refined, until, ultimately, it becomes, so far as its present apparently gross form is concerned, etherealized and is absorbed into the sum- total of persons throughout the Universe, and is “ spiritualized.” This means, taken up into the per¬ sonal manifestation of Reality. Thus would matter disappear in person. Human history illustrates the first outcome and seems to foreshadow the second. More and more as man brought matter under his control through the progress of experience, so that to-day material and scientific civilization is a wonder in our eyes. When we consider the difference between geological matter or unused matter to-day, and matter after it is Experience 191 brought under cultivation; between what we would call crude matter and the refinements of modern his¬ tory ; between matter in the body of an aboriginal man and matter in the body of a perfectly healthy and highly cultivated and ideally perfected woman, or, of a Christ “ after the resurrection; ” some indication of the ultimate “ spiritualization ” of matter through use and control of person is indicated. And this is no dream. The facts and the known influence of “ mind over matter ” make what would apparently be a dream a legitimate conclusion. The goal of the Universe will thus include the final disappearance of matter, as we now conceive it, in the sum-total of personal his¬ tory. Thus does Reality pass through various stages of its manifestations and finally emerge in a form of manifestation in which eternally unfolding person is “ all and in all.” The place and work of certain phases of Reality in achieving this goal would now seem to be evident. Observing that Deity, matter and finite person are all, in origin and maintenance, independent manifestations of Reality, we indicate briefly the functions of such phases with reference to each other. The function of Deity is purely moral, seeking to influence all persons so to live as to assist toward the universal goal. The function of finite person, with reference to Deity, is to minister to the latter’s satisfaction in the realization of such growth, and also to unfold itself toward the goal. The function of matter is that it becomes a staging for the above stupendous drama, and that it may be transformed into varied utilities as the drama 192 Creative Personality goes on. Certain conditions of matter appear to oper¬ ate otherwise, as, for example, may be seen in poisons and other deleterious substances, matter’s stubborn reluctance to do man’s bidding, the disastrous violence of its forces at times and the persistent habit of its living forms of disintegrating in what we call death. It is the function of experience to obviate, set aside, or control these opposing conditions. And we believe that ultimately human experience will achieve such function. Man will learn the right use of poisons, and come so to live that no substance will prove harm¬ ful to him. He will acquire the wisdom necessary to a satisfactory adjustment of himself to Nature’s forces and their control for his best use. He will arrive at a mental intuition and power which will en¬ able him to avoid accident and to coerce the operations of Nature to his own will, and finally, he will conquer death. All these conditions and activities which ap¬ parently oppose progress may be and are utilized by experience for human progress. Only by experience can they be so utilized. Experience makes even death a teacher, since, confronting it, person may learn how to avoid it or to “ prepare ” for the succeeding exist¬ ence. However much in this last respect experience falls somewhat short, it is error to suppose, as always has been supposed, and, indeed, is now, that it is neces¬ sary for person to pass through the incident called death in order to gain anything. It remains for man to learn through experience that whatever he might gain through the incident of death, or in some other Experience 193 state of existence, he may gain by continuing to live in his present state of existence. He may learn this lesson through the highest exercise of his reason, which should teach that if the individual can keep right on living, living physically, living mentally, liv¬ ing in all the marvelous ways possible to him, he may go continually on unfolding all the possibilities of his nature toward a condition which shall realize the uni¬ versal goal of harmony and happiness. There is ab¬ solutely no utility in a dead body, and the more human person comes to right adjustment, physically, mentally and otherwise to environment, the earth and the Uni¬ verse, the more shall he refine the living organism and impart to it the power to conquer death. We believe the time will come when death will be conquered, not only in sentimental theory, but in the actual fact. This means that we believe in an immortality on this earth in which the human body will cease to be ma¬ terial in its present gross form, and in which the hu¬ man mind will achieve all the powers that could sup¬ posedly belong to it at that period of its existence. Then may we truly sing, “ O Death, where is thy vic¬ tory?” It is a singular fact that the Christian church should miss the point and oppose it, in this con¬ nection. All Christian theology clings around the idea death. In common phases of the Christian re¬ ligion death is the main thing. Thought, imagery, ceremony, belief and expectation emphasize death in all possible ways. The Christian religion declares that death shall be conquered, yet insist, and will give 194 Creative Personality battle on the insistence, that the only way in which any human can conquer death is by dying. This is a marvelous conclusion. It is the only known case in human thought of conquering a specific thing by being defeated by that specific thing. It is significant, we may also say, that Deity has not conquered death by dying, and that, so far as we know, no other higher in¬ telligence has yielded to death in order to conquer it. The significance of the statement is this: Deity is deathless, not because it is Deity, but because it is such an unfoldment of Reality that it can not in any respect cease to be what it is. If human person after death becomes deathless, which is the Christian sup¬ position, this is because it also can not in any respect cease to be what it is. This is a condition of personal unfoldment, not a material one at all. The Christian would say that the condition is spiritual, in both the non-material and the religious sense. The main fact, however, would be the spiritual, the moral and reli¬ gious condition. We hold that such a condition is possible prior to death, and that as the condition is more and more attained on earth, it will more and more give to the body power to maintain itself indefi¬ nitely or will more and more refine the body into what the Bible writer called “ a spiritual body.” In all this we do not intend to question the truth of the Christian religion; our purpose is merely to indicate a phase of the outworkings of experience. We are now ready to draw out of the preceding mass of general discussion certain more specific con¬ siderations leading up to our practical regimes. Experience 195 Value of Experience. When Reality becomes manifest in person, the me¬ chanical working of the nature of things is more or less modified in self-directive consciousness. That is to say, the nature of things realizes in what we are compelled to call “ higher ” forms. In the mechanical field every object is acted upon more or less by every other object, and reacts thereto, and is what it is at any moment by reason of such action and reaction. In the personal field, also, every person is acted upon more or less by his environment of matter and men, and unceasingly reacts thereto, and is precisely what he is by reason of such action and reaction. But, while in the former case, the reaction is mechanical in the sense of being pre-determined, or in the sense that it could not conceivably be otherwise than it is, in the latter case the reaction is not rigidly pre-determined, or that it always might conceivably be different. This fact, our inveterate feeling that any of our actions might conceivably be different if we so decided, puts the elements of experience together and gives it value. Since each person is continually acted upon by exter¬ nal influences, which now include those of his own body, each is incessantly in a state of acting-back or reaction thereto. In a general way this reaction is more or less mechanical in its nature. Nevertheless, the mechanical reaction may at any time be arrested, diverted, or controlled. As a matter of fact, there is always, along with the mechanical reaction, a “ line ” of control running through the former. The 196 Creative Personality person, forever assailed by the outside world, forever acted upon by external existences, is continually feel¬ ing around and seeking to discover the best thing to do, the best way to go. There is also an incessant curiosity to know the meaning of the various actions upon it of which person is conscious. This condition of feeling around and of curiosity (or craving to know) constitutes that familiar state which we call restlessness. Personal restlessness seems to be the first and basic value involved in experience, since it drives person into activities which compel it to have and to resort to experience. The power to be restless is at least one of the pri¬ mary expressions of psychic factor. Restlessly psy¬ chic factor puts forth one activity after another in its tendency toward person until at last person is achieved. This restless action of tendency is in psy¬ chic factor what may be called trial initiative. Such trial initiative appears when psychic factor builds per¬ son. In building person psychic factor tries out one after another line of activity in its use of matter until finally it settles into a system of habituated activities in matter which we call the human body. Similarly, it puts forth one activity after another in its tendency to realize its highest provisions for intelligence, that is, to interpret all actions upon it by external exist¬ ences, until at last it settles into a system of habituated activities which we call the human mind. Similarly, person puts forth one activity after another in re¬ sponse to external action upon it, and manifest rest¬ lessness and habit in a complex system of activities Experience 197 which we call human life. In the two former proc¬ esses we have an exhibit of the nature of things in psychic factor. In the last instance we have an ex¬ hibit of the nature of things in person. Restlessness and trial initiative are in person precisely what they are in psychic factor prior to the completion of per¬ son. But in person, now, there emerges from the trial-initiative activities an initiative which is a prod¬ uct of conscious self-control and self-direction. This is initiation determined by will as a result of experi¬ ence. Deliberative initiative is a further value in¬ volved in experience. It is one of the factors that enable man to control his life and to make progress in his personal unfoldment. We have said that psychic factor and person put forth one activity after another until they settle into systems of habituated activity. This settlement in¬ dicates a further value involved in experience, to-wit, habit. Habit is a result of repetition of activity more or less at first “ accidental ” or mechanical, and obey¬ ing the law that an object tends to act as it has acted. But habit may also be a result of person’s determina¬ tion that certain lines of activity shall be continuous. An example of habit in the one case is seen in our physical structure, in our general mentality, and in any unconsciously formed manner of acting. An ex¬ ample of the latter case is seen when we determine, say, to master a musical instrument, to discipline and train the mind, or to pursue any definite line of action. This higher order of habit is a further value involved in experience. Person has learned through experience 198 Creative Personality what is likely to result from being and doing thus and so, and to initiate activities to continue in the future in the interest of its own plans and welfare. The restlessness of psychic factor is due to its na¬ ture, to the tendency of Reality to express its possibili¬ ties, but the action in which this restlessness shall ex¬ press itself depends upon the action upon any individ¬ ual psychic factor of objects external thereto. So, all individual psychic factors try out their possibilities and finally form given bodies. So, also, and prior to man, psychic factor puts forth activities due to its nature and to actions upon it of external existences, that have the appearance of intelligence, but which are merely manifestations of the nature of things in its mechanical workings. Simultaneously with the creation by psychic factor of the human body there are trial activities, due to the same causes, which finally settle into those habits which we call the men¬ tal “ faculties,” or the human mind. All of these activities, particular and general as habits, are to be classified as thought. Every mental action is a thought of some sort. We divide the different kinds of thought into sensation, sense-perception, memory, and so on. Every specific mental action and “ fac¬ ulty ” is a meaning. Meaning, as we have seen, is a relation which psychic factor in person gives to its own activities. True intelligence, the “ chooser-be- tween,” has now emerged. Reality has now not only manifested itself in psychic factor, but has begun to know. Knowing is an establishing of relations among mental activities. Let us illustrate. It is as if psy- Experience 199 chic factor, expressing its restlessness and continually reacting to actions upon it, were trying to discover how to place any of its responses in relation to all its other responses, or, how to place any action upon it by itself or by external existences in relation to all other such actions upon it. The fact which makes know¬ ing, meaning, thought, possible is diversity of activi¬ ties. Were there but a single activity, or were there but one kind of activity, there could be no thought, since there could be no relation. If there could be but one sensation, for example, as of color, sound, contact, order, taste, there could be nothing for com¬ parison, and psychic factor in person would not be conscious of the sensation as such, and could give the sensation no relation, that is, meaning, there would be no thought. Knowing, meaning, thought, always sig¬ nifies a system of activities which are mutually re¬ lated. When we become conscious of any new ac¬ tion upon us, we are unable intelligently to respond thereto until we can find a place for response among other responses to other actions upon us that are al¬ ready familiar. Prior to the closing of this struggle for placement we can not even think this new thing, except in the sense, what is it? Thus, let us observe our use of the sense-organs. There are all sorts of external actions upon the or¬ gans of sense. Because of these actions, and because of the restlessness of psychic factor in person, there are all sorts of responses or reactions by the latter. Psychic factor,— like a man in a vacant room to whom a great variety of unknown objects is brought, 200 Creative Personality and who now proceeds to sort out these objects ac¬ cording to some principle of selection and to arrange them in some definite order,— sorts out and arranges the innumerable actions upon it of external existences and arranges them in the order of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and particular kinds of sensation and sense-perception. This process of sorting and arranging is response or reaction of person to external activities, and is knowing, meaning, thought. Simi¬ larly, it is enough to say here, with reference to mem¬ ory, imagination, reasoning, etc., and with reference to all specific mental activities and kinds thereof that we develop out of the material furnished by the sense- organs. Thus do we have thought, a further value involved in experience. All the thought that we have once had may be repeated on occasion, and may be placed in relation to the idea of the past and of other thoughts with reference to the idea of a future for our own guidance in the present. All thought has a tendency to express itself in action, a further value. This is a great mystery. Action, in the sense here discussed, is activity of per¬ son, either physical or mental. Whatever may be the occasion of personal action, its cause is psychic rest¬ lessness and what we call will. In what way, or how, restlessness and will cause action, we do not know, except in the sense that this is an expression of the nature of things in person. We know that when oc¬ casion arises, mental action follows. We know, also, that when occasion arises physical action ensues. Some sort of excitation occurs within person, and Experience 201 mental or physical action begins and goes on. Every action which we have put forth may be repeated and related to every other action with reference to a past and for our guidance in a future. Thus we have and profit by experience. The development of the classified activities of per¬ son is an expression of the nature of things. So, also, is the use of experience. Now the essential thing requisite to the use of experience is this: we know, and we know that we knoiv; but unless we can reflect upon this two-fold knowing, and know that we know that we know, we can make no directive use of experi¬ ence, that is, can not direct our present activities with reference to a past and for our interests in a future. This knowing that we know that we know is thought, but in experience is related to will, and has that re¬ lation-meaning. Will is idea — any idea that, exert¬ ing an influence upon our knowing that we know that we know with reference to a past and for a future, insures some kind of action. These are the values involved in experience — rest¬ lessness, initiative, habit, thought, action, will. Values that appear because of experience are, speak¬ ing generally, of two orders, the individual personal, and the universal. In the individual case they emerge in the development of person toward best estate. What shall it profit a man if he puts forth every activity possible to human nature and make no prog¬ ress in this direction? This is the whole significance and value of experience. In the universal case, the value that comes out of experience is the progress 202 Creative Personality which the Universe through the experience of its sum- total person makes toward an ultimate goal in which matter shall have served its purpose and universal harmony and happiness shall be obtained. What does it profit Reality in its vast manifestation in worlds if it shall not ultimately unfold its possibilities into per¬ fect harmony? The goal of worlds must be reached through, first, a mechanical manifestation of Reality, or the nature of things, until person is achieved, and, secondly, the seizure and control by person of such manifestations for such personal development as shall call for and prophesy external harmonious progress. Since the universal consciousness, the universal ex¬ perience, the universal progress, are merely sum- totals of consciousness, experience and progress, the outcome depends upon what every individual person shall be and do. This does not mean that any in¬ dividual can prevent the outcome, since the outcome is an inevitable and infallible expression of the nature of things, of Infinite and Eternal Reality. Individual person seems slow to realize this majestic truth, and many would be disposed to conclude that this teaching is a kind of preaching, and is specifically moral or religious. The conclusion is incorrect. Morals and religions are absolutely incidental to the majestic truth that Reality must infinitely and eternally unfold itself into universal harmony and happiness. With reference to this fact, religion is no more supreme than is art, or science, or philosophy, or government. It is a certainty that the goal shall be attained, that it Experience 20 3 can only be attained through the intelligent use of experience, and that every seeming individual person, human or otherwise, must and shall contribute to that end, or be destroyed and cast aside in the everlasting march of the Universe. This brings us to our prac¬ tical regimes. The Regimes. The regimes of the preceding chapter are all in¬ troductory to the following, since all our work makes up to the use of experience. The regimes that come now overlap the preceding and also refer to experience as a value in life. Regime of the Free Life. Only the individual per¬ son can have his own experience. He is an identical manifestation of Reality, and can be no other. The life of each person is exclusive, and should be free in conduct so long as it does not interfere with the free¬ dom of others. You are, therefore, invited to culti¬ vate a sense of your own identity, and to place con¬ fident reliance upon your own experience and your conclusions therefrom. Do not look to the experience of others for guidance, except in the way of a reason¬ able regard for their opinions. This is very impor¬ tant, since it develops confidence in yourself and your life. Our talismanic sentence will be: “I make and depend upon my own experience.” 204 Creative Personality Regime of the Luminous Center. (See beginning of chapter.) Regime of the Traveler. Since experience means “ traveling through ” and “ testing out,” and since both mentally and physically we are “ traveling through ” and “ testing out ” Reality in things and thoughts, the suggestion now is that you maintain this fact in consciousness. The value of this regime will not at first appear; the idea will seem vague and unimportant. The more we consider the thought, however, the more will it take shape and become an inspiration. It is by experience that you demonstrate and unfold Real¬ ity, and this regime will prove a constant suggestion to demonstrate and unfold in your own highest in¬ terests. Take this thought, then: “ Always do I fare through and absorb Reality for personal develop¬ ment.” Regime of the Reacting Self. Each person is in¬ cessantly acted upon by external existences, and con¬ tinuously reacts thereto. The action upon and the re¬ action produce many changes in the person, but the latter holds over, and does not lose his identity. This fact makes experience possible. The abiding person remembers his past action and forecasts his future. The fact that you abide gives you the power of self¬ guidance in the midst of external actions upon you by controlling your reactions thereto. In moving about physically you attend to what you wish among ob¬ jects presented to you by sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Thus, in life, we may select from the sensations Experience 205 objects perceived, and thoughts that arise in minds, as we will, and attend to them as experience may sug¬ gest. It will be well, then, to make this thought vivid in consciousness: “ I abide through all the changes of worlds, and I react to existences, not helplessly, but as the master of my own conditions.” Regime of the Impersonal Outlook. We make progress by controlling Reality manifest in ourselves and in other objects. For ages man has felt that Na¬ ture has been hostile and that the gods must be pla¬ cated. Both ideas are totally erroneous. The true Deity seeks only to influence man morally and through the universal laws of manifest Reality. Manifest Reality is neither for nor against man, save as man makes it so, and to the limit of the power which he has developed within himself, man may control Real¬ ity or the nature of things as perfectly as he might control a piece of machinery. This power and con¬ trol he more and more acquires through experience. You are urged, therefore, to forever put aside the com¬ mon habit of thought that Deity is ever in the slight¬ est degree against you or “ down on you.” You are also urged to cease personalizing Nature, to cease im¬ agining that Nature or Reality has any intentions whatever concerning you. And you are urged that all things, laws, principles, and forces are your in¬ struments for progress, which you may utilize, avoid or control through experience for your own best de¬ velopment and success. Our inspirational sentence will be, “ I fearlessly use the nature of things in my behalf.” 206 Creative Personality Regime of Practical Reasoning. We have seen that person standardizes utility, that nothing is useful in this world save as it can be related to human prog¬ ress. It will prove beneficial for your experience, then, to make a general study of things about you with the question in view, What would be the utility of such and such objects, laws, forces, principles, were there no human being on the earth? Also this, What is the value of this or that when it has no relation to person whatever? Such a study will enhance the valuation which you place upon yourself, and will tend to eliminate from your thought the personifying of Nature and very much of imaginary and poetical utility supposed to exist in the Nature apart from man. It will also enable you to see that the utility of things, laws and forces in your life depends ab¬ solutely upon the relation which you give them to your personal progress. Regime of the Personal Climax. Since the mechan¬ ism of the nature of things finally manifests Reality in psychic factor, and then goes on to create person, which, as a whole, possesses self-control, we see that person climaxes all events leading up to it. This gives person the double significance of superiority and of development. Two suggestions follow: Cultivate to the utmost the thought that you are superior and su¬ preme in the world of material things and forces; Resolve to justify your existence by making the most of its possibilities. You are a phase of Reality and a part of the Universe, but you are a self-directing and self-controlling power. As person, you are not Experience 207 a by-product, but are a main thing, no matter who or what you may be. Do not belittle yourself, but affirm until you are thoroughly saturated with the thought, “ I climax the process of world-coming, and I make good that fact.” Regime of Moral Attitudes. In the thought of this book each human person is, as concerns its origin, a manifest of Reality which is independent of Deity. We are, however, subject to Deific moral influences. Aside from all religion, and purely as a matter of self- interest, each person is called upon to reverence Deity as the infinitely Perfect, and to give due heed to its influences so far as they are unquestionably evident to unbiased personal reason. You are invited to make thesfe obligations a life-long regime, since thus only can you realize that harmony of being which signifies happiness. This is untellably important to you, and should constitute a perfect religion requiring abso¬ lutely no other item. Regime of the Harmonious Life. Experience teaches that personal welfare is impossible save as harmony is sought within person and with external existences. You are, therefore, invited to undertake and carry on this task of internal and external har¬ mony. Nothing could be more difficult. Nothing could have greater utility. Seek this harmony among all the physical functions of your body: that will try your will to the utmost, but is indepensable to wel¬ fare. Seek harmony among all your mental functions according to the standard of a mind that is growing and coming to mastery: that also is difficult and in- 208 Creative Personality dispensable. Seek harmony between yourself and all other persons: remember that love, which declares welfare for every human being, is as essential to you as breathing, and that the difficulty of such love is com¬ pensated by the immense power which it signifies. The potency of love does not spring from religion; it expresses the nature of things, and is absolutely su¬ preme in our Universe. Love is a force which con¬ trols all existences for harmony, and has what we may call a mechanical action greater than that of gravity, magnetism or electricity. Use this force in your own interests. If you stand for harmony through love, you stand for your supreme right — Happiness. Observe, that happiness is not a privilege, not a thing to be begged: it is an inalienable right, and is a state which every human may imperiously demand. But the demand can be realized only according to the degree of your internal and external harmony. Do not think your¬ self “ lucky ” when happy; think of yourself then as having lawfully achieved a measure of your right. Distinguish between mere pleasure, upon which you can not feed forever, and happiness, which can never become stale, and then insist upon your own happi¬ ness regardless of all other existences. If your happi¬ ness is true, you will rob no one, but will assist others. Regime of the Insistent Person. The notion that there is some universal Being or State of Conscious¬ ness, in which we are to lose ourselves at some future stage of our existence, thus attaining some mysteri¬ ous universal happiness, is wholly unphilosophicai. A Experience 209 cycle of manifestations, beginning with indeterminate Reality, passing into worlds of matter and person, and finally returning to indeterminate Reality, can have no meaning and justification. Why should Brahma, Deity or Reality give birth to person, only to swallow up personal consciousness in unconscious¬ ness, or in a state of some mysterious universal con¬ sciousness? We have seen that person manifests Reality, and that personal unfoldment to the utmost is the only possible justification of such manifestation. Once person is achieved, the preservation of its identity, so long as it unfolds toward harmony, is in¬ fallibly insured. Seek no comfort in and dream no dreams of, annihilation. Neither fear the loss of your personality in any bog of philosophy or religion, but manfully and heroically stand for yourself as a person, and anticipate a marvelous future of full, rich and powerful self-consciousness which shall be yours for¬ ever. Regime of History-Making. The majority of peo¬ ple assume that they have little if any part in the making of history. They have experiences, but they imagine that such experiences are done for as soon as had, and are like water poured upon sand. All this is negative thinking and is untrue. No matter who or what you may be, you are contributing to the his¬ tory of the Universe. Every activity within your body and of its members, every activity of your sense- organs, every mental activity, affects in some way the sum-total matter of the Universe, its sum-total of thought and every other existing person. This is 210 Creative Personality making history. It is, therefore, suggested that you remember this fact and observe its practical relation to your own welfare. You impress yourself upon matter about you, upon the unseen world of thought around you, and upon all other persons: so live that the inevitable reaction of matter, thought and all per¬ sons shall run in the direction of your own welfare. What we call general history is composed of particular histories and has a direct bearing and influence upon the latter. You are invited to handle the mutuality of life with reference to your own unfoldment, suc¬ cess and happiness. And you are urged to assume the importance of yourself and the history you are mak¬ ing. Regime of Mental Conquest. We believe that the existence of person is continuous, whatever event may occur in the latter’s history, and that, therefore, ex¬ perience goes on in the individual career after death. Since there are no limits to the power of person as person, we believe that it is a possibility to conquer death, and so, disease, on the earth, and that a time will come when “ there shall be no more death, neither sickness,” in this world. The conditions of our planet may become such in the far future that this possi¬ bility may be off-set. Meanwhile, the supremacy of thought in person may anticipate such a universal catastrophe by actually overcoming physical death long before the catastrophe shall have occurred. The significance of our belief is this. The fact that man is so supreme in his thought, in the sense of his pos¬ sibilities, that he may ultimately conquer disease and Experience 211 death, raises the conclusion that person can gain noth¬ ing vital and important by passing through the experi¬ ences of disease and death. In the philosophy that is broader than Christian Science is this conclusion suggested. It is a singular fact that many people come to the habituated idea not only that they must die, but also that certain welfare and happiness can only be attained through the experience of death. This we believe to be an error, and you are, for that reason, invited as follows: Always to maintain the thought, “ I am the master of my physical conditions.” You may not succeed in attaining the ideal of this assertion, but it will prove to be immensely beneficial to you, and will also be your contribution to universal disease-conquering thought. Always maintain the spirit of opposition to human death. Affirm, “ I am totally an enemy to hu¬ man death; I fight this enemy with every power of my being.” Here, again, the ideal is remote, but the thought is potent for your good and a contribution to the universal death-conquering thought. Always seek to detach your mind, imagination, an¬ ticipation from any heavenly world or stage of exist¬ ence hereafter. Do not live with the expectation of gaining values or welfare through the experience of death. This attitude divides our thought between this world and another, and by so much weakens the thought which we give to the present life. By such attitude we create a mental other-world which tends to draw up into itself, as it were, our physical and 212 Creative Personality mental strength. You are invited wholly to disregard that other-world, and to concentrate your energies upon the present world in all known ways that make for universal harmony. And you are especially urged to remember that you possess the power to gain all things desirable as well independently of death as through that experience. Regimes of Experience. We divide the regimes that follow into two sets: Regimes of the Elements, and Regimes of the Outcome Values. 1. Regimes of the Elements. Since you are in¬ cessantly acted upon by external objects and forces, you are invited to give these actions greater and more intelligent attention. This means the cultivation of a habit of observation. It is astonishing that we know so little of objects, activities and persons surrounding us. The consequence is that we frequently find our¬ selves lacking in a knowledge essential to correct experience and to correct conclusions therefrom. Oftentimes, when it is necessary to make use of ex¬ perience, we are compelled to say, “ I did not observe.” There is no kind of work or life in which it is not in¬ dispensable that we take due notice of the action upon us of things, forces and people. Thus does an abstract element of human study prove to be of down¬ right practical value. Since you are incessantly reacting to external ac¬ tions, that is, seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, thinking, and putting forth physical activities, you are Experience 213 invited to bring all these actions under the control of intelligence and will and to observe what you are doing in the interest of memory and your future con¬ duct. These reactions are elements of the experience which you are now having, and will be important to your experience in the future. You are invited to cultivate a consciousness of ex¬ ternal actions upon you as proceeding from a That which is not ourself. This will intensify our sense of personal identity in relation to the world about you, and will develop a feeling that you are reacting to that world intelligently for your own unfoldment. You are invited to cultivate a consciousness that your reactions are your own responses to external ac¬ tions, and that, therefore, they are subject to your own control. This will develop a sense of independence and will, and give you the feeling that the world is cooperating with you for your personal unfoldment. You are invited to remember that your past is sim¬ ply your thought of your previous actions and ex¬ ternal actions upon you, and that such previous ac¬ tions upon you and your reactions thereto have been more or less what you have made them to be. Pre¬ ceding regimes here will tend to develop memory, and the present will give you a sense of responsibility for right control of actions and reactions in the in¬ terest of any future. You are invited to examine your memory of your past for discovery of mistakes and successes, and to make the results controlling factors in your present. Your past has no meaning or value except with refer- 214 Creative Personality ence to the present and a future. This abstract ele¬ ment in human study means, then, that we prove our¬ selves intelligent enough to “ learn by experience.” You are invited to remember that you are “ faring through ” Reality and worlds, the latter acting upon you and inducing your reactions. The practical ques¬ tion is, How are you to come out? You are like a man in a canoe making his way up stream. The cur¬ rent acts upon him, and his reacting effort guides him here and there, thus making progress toward a goal. You always live in the present, but your power con¬ sciously to repeat your previous actions, and the sug¬ gestions of your experience, enable you, like the man in the canoe, to steer your way toward a definite goal day by day. All this means that you hold the idea of a specific end to be attained in a future, an hour, a day, a month, or years. Do not drift, since this is imbecile, insures no progress, and is destructive of mental wholeness and ability. Always remember the end you are seeking, and never sacrifice the end to any immediate impulse or desire. 2. Regimes of the Outcome-Values. The outcome values of experience are yours only, in an intelligent sense, as you make them so. The suggestions that follow are intended to insure action in that direction. You are invited to remember that your restlessness is not merely a matter of temperament, but is a natural expression of psychic factor. This restlessness should never be suppressed ; it should always be controlled and guided. The control and guidance of restlessness are secured by will, under the teachings of experience. Experience 215 Let your nature run free in its activities, since sup¬ pression tends to destroy your power, but apply ex¬ perience to its management. The wooden-shoe life achieves nothing. Nevertheless, we do not allow loco¬ motives to run wild. Make the natural trial-initiative of your human nature count by utilizing it for intelligent living. Your mind is always rrioving around in curiosity and in order to discover the best thing to do. You are in¬ vited to develop, train and control this tendency in the interest of knowledge, skill, power and welfare. Do not allow life and external existences to beat you down, but initiate your way through them with definite purposes. Do not take the way that is easiest or most comfortable; take the way which you believe to be best for you, and trust your own convictions. You are also invited to test your power of initiative in various manners. Invent something. Do something new and different. Get out of beaten roads. Be a pioneer in some direction, for some undeveloped value. By following this method you will form new habits, and continue to employ your initiative power for fur¬ ther advancement. Habit is a settled way of acting, physically or men¬ tally. Its great value is this, we carry on certain ac¬ tivities automatically, so to speak, free from the labor of directly conscious control. It is by habit and initia¬ tive that we make progress. Initiative develops new actions, and habit settles them. But some habits are not admirable. In such cases the nature of things set¬ tles into ways of being and doing which do not con- 216 Creative Personality tribute to personal welfare. Moreover, many habits are formed unconsciously. It is, therefore, suggested that you bring your habits under control in the in¬ terest of physical and mental power and facility. The skilled artisan and the educated man illustrate habits of the latter order. They have a wide range of ability and great facility in handling themselves. Thus their experience counts for the best. You are invited to be the master of your habits in the sense that you form and use them in your own interest and make them servants, and give yourself freedom for your initiative ability. Thus you utilize the nature of things in person, guide its expressions in your self and life, and compel it to forge ahead for your un- foldment and success. You are invited so to act in the present that, when this shall become a past, that past shall surely serve experience for a satisfactory future. Observe that in all these regimes we are dealing strictly with the prac¬ tical life. Your actions to-day constitute the ele¬ ments which will be your past to-morrow. When they become those elements they simply raise the idea, Past. They may be repeated or omitted, but the repetition and the omission will be associated with that idea, Past. You are invited to investigate the meaning of the idea, My Past, and to note how it involves identity, ac¬ tions upon you and reactions thereto,— innumerable activities,— a present which always seems to become and to cease, and the idea, My Future, and also to note the mental pictures and recalls that occur as you pro¬ ceed with the investigation. Your discoveries will sur- Experience 217 prise you. Always it has been your identical self making presents, having experiences. How have you come through, how have you arrived where you are? It seems as though you were unwinding a very long roll of paper bearing reading matter and pictures, as you think backward, but you see that if you place yourself in thought at the beginning and live in a series of presents, it will now seem as if the roll were wind¬ ing up and coming from some unseen source and con¬ taining only a very little of visible printed matter. This printed matter is your present. Your past is the printed matter upon the wound roll. Your future is the invisible paper upon which no writing has been made. The present is always coming into view and always disappearing. Now, your present conscious¬ ness is a set of ideas, and your past and your future are ideas associated with that set. As you study all these ideas you find the factors of experience. You are invited, therefore, to live with this thought as a mentor, teacher, wamer, inspirer, “ I associate my Present with my Past for my Future, and my Experi¬ ence is the greatest Friend I possess.” The method by which the above regimes of experi¬ ence are made practical consist in putting into their study and use intense and persistent thought. Do not content yourself merely with reading them. They may at times seem commonplace; they may also appear to be abstruse and difficult. By so much as you think yourself into them, by so much will their meaning and scope become more and more apparent. They will then prove suggestive of further thought and of action 218 Creative Personality in conformity with them. Only by intelligence and persistent thinking can we ever hope to make intelli¬ gent and valuable experience and utilize it for the best results to person. LAW: Growth Is the Formation of New Habits for Perfection of Life. CHAPTER VI. LAWS OF GROWTH. T HE human self grows in one or the other of two general directions; either toward best estate or toward the worst estate; either to¬ ward fulness of harmoniously individualized personal being, or toward fulness of disharmoniously individ¬ ualized personal being. These words are deliberately selected. Best hu¬ man estate is fulness of harmoniously individualized personal being. The worst possible human condition is disharmoniously individualized personal being. Both estates express the nature of things according to universal laws. That is to say, the Fundamental Reality works through the individual in certain ways which we interpret as laws, and it is this Reality that expresses in one or the other of the two estates named. The criterion by which we may know whether we are growing “ or the right way or the wrong way ” is found in happiness. Observe: the criterion is not pleasure, which is superficial and ephemeral. The criterion is happiness, which is deep and abiding. Any degree of growth toward fulness of harmoniously individualized personal being involves a correspond¬ ing degree of happiness. Any degree of growth in 219 220 Creative Personality the opposite direction involves a degree of unhappi¬ ness. Some forms of pleasure make for happiness, and some forms make for unhappiness. The criterion here, then, is again happiness. The Fundamental Reality unfolds in individual growth whatever the latter’s direction. Reality ex¬ presses in all human conditions. But happiness repre¬ sents the highest possible individual development, hence the most conservative unfoldment of Reality. The reasons for the fact that Reality unfolds to¬ ward the worst estate in the individual are two: First, Reality “ creates ” the individual according to universal laws, and proceeds in individual growth in universal ways (laws), but proceeds in harmony with the individual will and thought — within the limits of its own nature as expressed in the individual. A hu¬ man must always remain a human, but thought and will are immeasurably potent within this field. Thought and will, therefore, may induce undesirable expres¬ sions in human growth. Second, individuals follow ideas of pleasure rather than ideas of happiness, or ideas of pleasure regardless of happiness, and thus compel Reality to express in growth toward dishar¬ monious personal being. There is one final test by which we may determine whether growth tends toward happiness or unhappi¬ ness, that is, toward best or worst estate. This test is experience. Individual conduct, sacred books and human history, are all subjected to this one test. Tested by experience, whatever kind or degree of growth makes for happiness is desirable, and all Laws of Growth 221 growth in the opposite direction is undesirable. Thus does the Fundamental Reality declare for fulness of harmoniously individualized personal being. Growth Defined. Individual human growth may be defined with re¬ gard to two points of view: The Conscious Personal Life, and the Fundamental Reality. 1. Growth Defined from the Viewpoint of the Conscious Personal Life. Growth is the formation of new habits for perfection of being. Perfection of being insures fulness of harmonious life. By “ be¬ ing ” is meant individualized Reality in any human — yourself. By “perfection” is intended that human state which expresses itself in happiness or unhappi¬ ness. By “ habit ” is meant established ways of act¬ ing. By “ new habits ” is meant establishment of new activities, or new establishments of old activities. By so much as we form new habits in the personal life, by so much do we grow, either toward best estate or away therefrom. 2. Growth Defined from the Viezvpoint of the Fundamental Reality. Individual human growth is the unfoldment of the Fundamental Reality in the human self, body, mind, by compulsion of thought and will according to universal laws. The Reality goes into every phase of the growth, that is, more and more individualizes itself in all phases of human growth. Such growth is not apart from it, but is of it. In each particular phase of growth the Reality takes form, so to speak. This “ form,” however, is deter- 222 Creative Personality mined by the thought and will of its human controller — within the limits set for or by his individual humanness. We now proceed to indicate some of the laws of human growth, that is, ways that growth seems to have of coming on and manifesting itself. First Law of Growth. Our definition of growth as the formation of new habits for perfection of being indicates a law. The formation of new habits acts as suggestion to the self and to the Fundamental Reality in the self, which suggestion brings into operation the universal laws of growth. The new habits, when formed, con¬ stitute the elements of growth. The suggestion acts, within the limits of the self and the Fundamental Reality expressed therein, and so, the simple fact that the individual is a human tends to suggest habits which induce the action of universal laws in general body¬ building and mind-building. Within such operations the formation of new habits suggests modifications and particular constructive work. The formation of new habits may be indicated as follows: First, in Body-Building. The two human germ- cells combine, and this fact signifies “ a human self ” to be unfolded, and “ a human body ” and “ a mind ” to be built up. The Fundamental Reality in the germ- cells intelligently obeys the suggestion and proceeds to unfold in the child — to individualize in the child. The physical and psychic character of the germ-cells also acts as suggestion, and the self and body of the Laws of Grozvth 223 child are modified accordingly. The two-fold process involves continuously the formation of new habits. Thus the individual grows to the time of birth. At this point the sense of “ humanness ” and “ individ¬ uality ” rapidly intensifies and becomes personally conscious, so that new habits, under the general sug¬ gestion of “ humanness ” and “ individuality,” are in process of perpetual formation, thus inducing sugges¬ tions to the self and Reality which determine develop¬ ment and modifications of growth. Thus comes growth of bodies, and particularities of bodies, human minds and individual minds. To be more specific: the intelligence of Reality in the germ-cells obeys the suggestion of their union that a human individual be developed. Immediately mat¬ ter begins a long series of new habits of its chemical elements. The elements involved in the natural body- history are Hydrogen, Sodium, Potassium, Mag¬ nesium, Calcium, Carbon, Silicon, Nitrogen, Phos¬ phorus, Oxygen, Sulphur, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iron. In the animal body these elements form combinations which do not occur elsewhere, in the sense of exhibit¬ ing life and of building physical organs. We have, then, matter assuming several new habits. The old habits of the chemical elements are now the new habits of life. Whether life is a distinct force-entity or merely a chemical activity, we do not know. From the viewpoint of this book the question is immaterial, since we hold that matter and chemical activities are all functions of the Fundamental Reality. We ob¬ serve, however, on this subject as follows* 224 Creative Personality Only the elements named, in just the right propor¬ tions, under just the right conditions, exhibit the phe¬ nomena of life. It does not follow that, because life involves certain chemical elements, the activity of the latter constitutes life. The chemical activity may pro¬ duce a new entity — life. Life is a phenomenon re¬ sulting from chemical activity. That the phenome¬ non is nothing other than a manifestation, having no actuality save that of the chemical activity, is abso¬ lutely unproven. The “ production of life ” in the chemical laboratory merely demonstrates that life has its own way and its own conditions of appearing. The conclusion still holds good: life in itself, as an entity, may logically be distinguished from the chem¬ ical activity which produces it. The chemical elements involved in the human body exhibit the new habit of life. This habit associates with itself various other new habit-formations. We see such in the chemical compounds that make up the substance of the animal body: muscle, nerve, bone, blood, other fluids, etc. We see the formation of new habits in the construction of all the internal or¬ gans and external members of the body. We see mat¬ ter taking new establishments in the processes of di¬ gestion of food and the distribution of nutriment throughout the system. We see a complex series of adjustments — continuously new for the chemical ele¬ ments and their compounds — in the maintenance and development of the physical structure. Finally, vari¬ ous changes, which occur more or less constantly in the body, due to all sorts of causes, together with mod- Laws of Growth 225 ifkations in environment and adjustments thereto, exhibit the same proposition, formation of new habits, both in matter’s activities and in those of the body and its organs. These habits constitute growth, in the many senses and particulars indicated. The human body is also a personal affair, and its growth into individuality and various conditions thereof reveals the same process of habit-formation. The continuous acts which constitute the habits of the individual in his physical life suggest to the self and Reality responses which appear in individuality of body, body-differences and specific uses of its mem¬ bers. The continuation of these acts intensifies the suggestions, and the habits grow more and more con¬ firmed. The outcome is growth of physiological and physical peculiarities and the general physical life in the directions indicated by the habits. Second, in Mind-Building. The intelligence of the Fundamental Reality carries in the two germ-cells the suggestion, “ a human mind.” This suggestion oper¬ ates in the cell which results from their union, so that the self, in its earliest existence, begins the general habit of responding to its environment. The first response is simple sensation, and, at some point in the history, a more specific reaction takes place in sense- perception. In these responses to environment the self is simply forming habits of acting in the given ways, and the habits measure the growth of mind. Thence on, we see the self reacting through the senses to the outer world, that is, interpreting, in established ways, the action of that world upon it through the 226 Creative Personality senses. Such ways, including sensation and sense- perception, are seen in memory, imagination, atten¬ tion, consciousness, will, etc. In this manner the mind comes to be a mind, and to develop as such. Sim¬ ilarly constitutional mental characteristics come about, through peculiar uses, or lack of use, of the abilities of the self in the field of mind. Traits that are ac¬ quired rather than constitutional appear as the result of mind-habits forming in the individual life. Finally, the mind grows in the sense of enlarging and varying its body of thought, in its capacity and power, in its activities and sensibility to the great world within and without. In all this outcome we see the continuous new formation of old habits into new operations or the continuous formation of new habits by fresh mental developments. The outcome is growth in a two-fold sense: the mind as human, and the mind as individual. These considerations suggest a general life-regime. General Life-Regime. Since life is growth of some sort, you are invited to resolve on growth always toward best estate, and daily to carry the thought, “ I demand a conscious awakening of all my highest pow¬ ers.” The idea here is suggestion to the self continu¬ ously to form new habits for personal development. You thus stimulate the self to automatic unfoldment. The Second Law of Growth. Our definition of growth as the unfoldment of the Fundamental Reality in the human self, body, mind, by compulsion of thought and will, according to uni- Laws of Grozvth 227 versal laws, indicates a second law of the processes, which may be outlined as follows: The Fundamental Reality is the Ground and Source of all existences. It is the infinite and eternal Orig¬ inator in itself of worlds, Deity and finite personali¬ ties. It manifests in every kind of being. Deity, each object in Nature, and each human individual is manifestation of the Fundamental Reality. These existences are individualizations of its essence or Nature. As such, they are distinct and separate from each other. The Reality expresses itself — manifests its Nature — in universal, unchanging ways which we would call laws. The laws are not imposed upon it; they are simply its ways of being and doing. Growth, therefore, is determined by the kind of existence in which it occurs. In Nature this growth is according to law and mechanical in the sense that its conditions are always set for it. Things can not be other than what they are under given conditions, and things never determine or control their own conditions. In human life growth is according to law and mechanical in the sense that it always obtains when conditions are set for it, but is subject to the individual’s control of the Reality through a more or less free choice of ends and means. Human beings can not be other than what they are under their given conditions, but they may always modify and sometimes may wholly change con¬ ditions within the limits of their humanness. In the world without man Reality simply and invariably man¬ ifests its own Nature — obeys nothing but itself. In the world with man, Reality follows its own Nature, 228 Creative Personality but modifies its manifestations more or less in obedi¬ ence to the human will. In man, because he is an individualization of the Reality, the latter puts its uni¬ versal ways of being and doing at the individual’s “ disposal,” so to speak. That is to say, Reality indi¬ vidualizes in the human, and this fact carries a lim- itedly free will into the individual, which it is the very nature of Reality to obey through its universal activ¬ ities. Formations of habit, which are always accom¬ panied or preceded by some degree and kind of thought, or, establishments of activities, constitute sug¬ gestions to the intelligence, which it is its Nature to obey. The ancestral suggestion, “ a human individ¬ ual,” precedes the union of the germ-cells, and carries into the one cell resulting. Reality brings to bear upon that cell the whole of its universal ways of being and doing as required. This process constitutes an unfolding of the Reality in the individual. Always thereafter, the entire essence of Reality called for by the suggestions of the individual life “ wells up ” into self, body, mind. This is true in whatever direction the individual grows. Reality expresses in us accord¬ ing to the formation of our habits because it is its Nature to follow the suggestions of our lives. It is the Nature of Reality to follow the suggestions of our lives because we are as individuals its manifesta¬ tions endowed by the fact with the power thus to con¬ trol its unfoldment in us. The Reality is always the same, and does not grow, since it is the Infinite and Eternal, but the individual does grow as the Reality Laws of Growth 229 more and more expresses in the self and its mind and body. The Third Law of Growth. Our third law of growth may thus be stated: All individual human growth proceeds from within. This proposition would seem to follow from the discussion just closed, but the processes constituting the law should be indicated in detail. Reality expresses in the self, and unfolds through the growth of the self. The self expresses in body and mind and unfolds through physical and mental growth. The Reality is in the self, in the mind, in the body — and in the Not-self, which is the Universe. The Not-self constitutes the environment of the self. The environment — the Universe which is a manifest of Reality — furnishes the material upon which the individual grows. This material consists of various manifestations of Reality external to the self but absorbed by the self by reason of the unfolding of the Reality in the self. The mother’s body and self and mind comprise the environ¬ ment of the child prior to birth, from which the child absorbs the elements of its growth because Reality has this manner of unfolding in the child at this pre-natal period. Thereafter the world must take the place of the mother’s body, mind and self. When the action of maternal environment upon the germ-cells and the forming child has reached its cli¬ max, the external world begins raining upon the human a vast host of activities assailing the body, and through the sense-organs, the self. As, prior to birth, 230 Creative Personality Reality in the child responded or reacted to the action of the mother-environment, thus insuring growth, so now, after birth, the same Reality reacts to the action upon the individual of world-environment, and thus carries on the process of growth. The material of growth comes from without, but the assimilation of that material is an inner process. This fact is sig¬ nificant. Reality in the Not-self must act upon the self in order that the latter may draw Reality into the process of growth. Reality may express itself in non-living forms directly; otherwise no such form could have first appeared. But it is law that, in the living world, growth is the outcome of action of environment upon the living individual. Reality here expresses itself only on stimulation from some external manifestation of itself. The human individual begins to be by reason of the action of Reality upon the given mani¬ fest of Reality. And the human grows according to his reaction to the Reality by which he is environed. Some action of the world upon the self always ob¬ tains. Similarly, some reaction of the self to the Not- self always follows. But the self, as already indi¬ cated, may more or less determine what its own reac¬ tions may be — within the limits of its individual humanness. Further details of the- reaction will now appear. Physical reactions appear in the formation of chem¬ ical, physiological and physical habits. Such habits constitute growth. The habits are not imposed from without; they spring up within. The growth is an Laws of Grozuth 231 issue of the reactions of the self to the Not-self draw¬ ing up into the self the Fundamental Reality. Reality exists in the self, and the self exists im¬ mersed in Reality. In its being, the self always con¬ fronts and is backgrounded by the Reality. The self in its entire personality individualizes the Reality. The Reality first emerges, probably in the psychic self in what is now called the subconscious. This is the pre-mental self. The Reality issues “ up,” so to speak, into the activities designated as mind, manifest¬ ing the subconscious and then the conscious phases of the individual. True consciousness can only occur through mental activities — activities of the self in knowing as the self. For this reason, self-conscious¬ ness is consciousness in self-knowing. All of the ac¬ tivities involved are reactions to the action of Reality- environment upon the self. The self knows itself and an external world through its own activities, but the latter obtain only as they are stimulated by action from without. Similarly with every other mental ac¬ tivity. The growing process takes place wholly within the self. There is no growth of mind without reac¬ tion to external Reality. Apparently obvious as this proposition appears, its importance now emerges. Physical growth is not ex¬ pected to come from sources external to the body. The body reacts to the food elements introduced. The individual must take his food and must digest and assimilate it. So, also, must the self react upon the external world of the senses and the mind, by taking in that which is ready to hand, selecting and assirrb 232 Creative Personality ilating the elements provided. The world which we see, hear, smell, touch, taste, is an inner world, entirely and absolutely. That is, we apprehend external manifestations of Reality by reacting to its action upon and through the sense-organs, and the appre¬ hending is an act of the self in mind. The objects apprehended do not enter the self, nor does the self go out to the objects, but the self, remaining where it is, is acted upon through the stimulation of the sense-organs and reacts to that action in the various interpretations of its sensations and sense-perceptions and inner thoughts. As in the sphere of body-life, so in the sphere of mind-life: nothing becomes our own until we have made it our own by reacting to it. In the simple matters of hearing, seeing, smelling, tast¬ ing, touching, when we apparently apprehend what is forced upon us, our reactions are always more or less peculiarly individual, differing from the reactions of others to the same thing, so that the fact that our senses are stimulated whether or no is modified by the fact that the results of such stimulations are de¬ termined by the character of our minds and mental life. This determination is both a result of growth and a contributor to growth, under the law of habit. What the self shall do with the materials furnished by the sense-actions is altogether an interior matter. Whether it shall sense-live in the external world, or thought-live in the unseen world, whether it shall attend, select, assimilate, reconstruct, fashion into new forms, work into its existing “ body of thought,” and whether it shall strengthen itself Laws of Growth 233 by better and more varied activities, truer inter¬ pretations, and greater aspirations — whether it shall control and direct the action upon it of the Fundamental Reality as the Not-self and the unfold¬ ing of that Reality in its own individuality — all these matters are for the self to decide. As it de¬ cides, so comes growth, be that desirable or undesir¬ able. And in every particular, growth is always from within. Reality unfolds in the self only as the self is acted upon by the Not-Self-Reality, and reacts thereto, weakly and involuntarily, or voluntarily and masterfully. The proposition becomes now a guaranty. Since growth proceeds from within the self, which is an in¬ dividualization of Reality, and therefore contains the freedom of Reality thus individualized, the self has the whole of the Infinite and Eternal at its command within the necessary limits of individual humanness. The Not-self can not crush the self, for all Reality is in essence and nature one and is in the self no less than the Not-self, and so is subject to the self. For the same reasons, the kind or direction of growth falls within the individual’s control. Ail these facts give each human a standing in the Universe and guarantee to him the rights and privileges of every existence throughout the realms of being. The withinness of growth is especially significant for the mental life. The individual life is grounded in an Infinite and Eternal Reality which “ contains ” within itself all the elements of perfectly developed human personality. The subconscious self, the pri- 234 Creative Personality mary manifestation in us of the Reality, is therefore backed by infinity and eternity. “ He hath put eter¬ nity in their hearts.” Thus is given the human limitless power and metaphysical superiority over time and space. Not only does consciousness here come to enormous dignity, but the human gets a meaning, a value and a complex of abilities as marvelous as they are actual, and as actual as they are marvelous. This fact will be seen in the next great law. Regime. The high ground we have now reached indicates best thought and control for the self. You are invited to make these thoughts permanent in the subconscious mind: “ I react to the external world only in ways that make for my best interest; the Uni¬ verse, not this home or town in which I live, is my field of development; all things are mine for personal growth; the Infinite Life is my servant; since I am Infinite Life, my growth cannot be limited by space and time.” The Fourth Law of Growth. This law climaxes from three wonderful facts. The first Fact is that the Universe and all it contains is grounded in Infinite and Eternal Reality — One, identical throughout with itself and constituting the sole reason for its own existence. The second Fact is that the Universe and every object and individual within it are manifests, each for itself, of this Infinite and Eternal Reality. The third — the climaxing — Fact is the fourth law of growth: The sole dynamic power that causes Laws of Growth 235 and controls all human growth is the thought of the individual in and for himself. We make up to and into this last fact through cer¬ tain definite propositions. The Fundamental Reality contains the provision for intelligence and is the energy of infinite and eternal manifestations of thought-activity. In the manifestations of the Real¬ ity thought is an activity having meaning, or consti¬ tuting meaning, and is, therefore, an intelligent “ chooser-between,” since meaning is the relation which one activity in manifestations of Reality is given with reference to other activities. In man, thought is relation among meaning-activities in mind. As the human mind is not the human self, but is a creation of the human self, so the Reality is not a Universal Mind, but is the organizer of its own activities into that Mind. Reality is not a Person, although it manifests in all persons. Deity is coeval with Reality, but is not Reality; is, rather, a manifest of Reality. The Funda¬ mental Reality grounds everything. Its provision for intelligence expresses in everything, and so, in Deity, the Universe, each human individual. As absolute, therefore, Reality is not itself conscious, except through its activities in manifestation of itself, and in human life only in the activities of the self in mani¬ festation of itself. So, also, the Reality “ contains ” within itself the conditions of activity in thought and meaning, but as absolute does not think meanings as meanings. Here we have the infinite, eternal, uni¬ versal Subconscious or Pre-mental. Reality becomes conscious in its manifestations — 236 Creative Personality that is, in the whole seen and unseen Universe of mat¬ ter, Deity and all finite intelligence. Every such exist¬ ence, then, is intelligent conscious thought, each of its own plane of being. This means that the Universal ether of science is, throughout, conscious thought becoming in its origin intelligent conscious thought-manifest of Fundamen¬ tal Reality. That is, Reality obtains consciousness throughout the ether. Similarly, every electron, ion, wave, undulation, vibration, vortex, atom, molecule, chemical element, compound, object throughout the Universe is Reality becoming conscious in thought- activity. We mean here, not that such existences are merely products of Reality’s activities, but that each of them is an activity or complex of activities which constitutes thought-action. Since Reality can not be separated from its manifestations, each existence is a conscious thought — has the power of thought-action and consciousness — on its own plane of being. But the planes of being are many, and are related. That the planes of being are many is evident from the manifestations of Reality in the Universe. They are related through their common Ground and the activi¬ ties of that Ground up through them, from plane to plane. With certain given existences Reality does not pause, but passes into higher planes in their develop¬ ment. The thought-action here is not merely an ob¬ ject; it is also a developing object. So, the ether be¬ comes matter. So, the electrons become chemical ele¬ ments, compounds, crystals, objects, plant-bodies, ani¬ mal bodies, humans. Thus Reality manifests in the Laws of Growth 237 thought-action of each existence, each plane of being, and in development from lower to higher planes. This power of thought-action is the secret of growth. Amid all the mysteries of thought nothing is more mysterious than its attracting and repelling action. Every object of existence (a conscious thought) seems to act as though it involved something more than itself: the attraction of some other exist¬ ence or the repulsion of some other existence. In human life every thought seems to act as though it involved something more than itself: that is, in¬ volves this attraction or this repulsion, because of an extra thought of development, or growth, or evo¬ lution. Such is the nature of things in matter and person. Reality forever unfolds in existences, and, never apparently at rest, tends to unfold through existences into other existences. No sooner do the conditions in Reality which make possible its mani¬ festations in thought-action begin to work, than the thought begins some kind of growth, development, evolution. It is as if no existence could quite “ sat¬ isfy ” Reality, so that it must always intensify and increase and reach beyond its present expressions. Wherever this occurs, an advanced thought seems active in that which produces any given manifestation. We see this process of upcoming through different stages of being exhibited along the whole gamut of life. The universal ether is not only itself, but “ con¬ tains ” the conditions of matter: the ether-thought is also the matter-thought. Reality’s conscious thought in the chemical elements is also capable of the thought 238 Creative Personality expressed in the chemical compounds. The atom in¬ volves the molecule, and the molecule involves the compound. Some compounds involve life, and life involves the plant and animal. Moreover, from the viewpoint of evolution, the primal form of life must have involved the age-long process through which plant life and animal life have come from simpler to more complex, from lower to higher forms. The process exhibits the working of attraction and repulsion. Reality manifests in lower thought-forms; the form is now Reality’s conscious thought; the form is or possesses thought, and, therefore, a degree of consciousness. The form involves something more because it is conscious thought in Reality: union with other forms for further expression of Reality. This union can only come about through attraction and re¬ pulsion — attraction for the union, and repulsion for a given kind of union. Were every form of life to attract every other form, there could be no differentia¬ tion, and hence no variety, of manifestation. Attrac¬ tion builds, repulsion guides. One of the secrets of attraction seems to be some degree of similarity of action and harmony with what is involved in that action — as suggested in a preced¬ ing paragraph. Thus, the chemical elements, Sodium and Chlorine involve attraction by reason of some kind of similarity of action in harmony with the com¬ pound, Sodium Chloride, or salt. Salt, as salt, is neither Sodium nor Chlorine, but is a different thing. We have to disintegrate salt to get back the elements. So the human germ-cells unite because of some degree Laws of Growth 239 of attraction due to some similarity of action in har¬ mony with the resulting single cell and the human indi¬ vidual. The single cell is neither of the former cells, but is an unique existence. So, also, the child is neither one nor the other parent; it is itself absolutely. And one of the secrets of repulsion is some degree of dissimilarity of action among existences not in har¬ mony with the thought of any such existence. Some chemical elements indifferently refuse to combine, some violently refuse: nothing could come of such union. The union-thought is here not involved in the element-thought. So, also, we can not graft or bud the blackberry on the orange tree, because there is dissimilarity of molecular activity. When we have that which is involved in any existence, then we know that similarity and dissimilarity control attraction and repulsion. It thus appears that the conscious thought in every individual object of existence — and involved therein — is immutable and resistless. It is the uni¬ versal thought-consciousness of Reality, and is there¬ fore subject to the universal laws of Reality’s mani¬ festation. For these reasons the operations of the Universe apart from man are mechanical, as we should say. They go on according to the universal ways Reality has of being and doing. Given certain conditions, the results are infallible. The reign of law is the reign of Reality coming to consciousness in the Cosmos. Cause and effect are simply thought and what thought involves in any instance. This is simply the nature of things. 240 Creative Personality But in human life Reality comes to a new variety of consciousness — individualized as centering in will. Reality is not individual; it becomes individual in each of its manifestations. And Reality is not will; it becomes will in each of its manifestations as finite intelligence. Attraction and repulsion operate in hu¬ man life as they do elsewhere — always according to similarity and dissimilarity in harmony or disharmony with all that is involved in existences. The operation follows law, invariably and immutably and infallibly. But in human life there is one supreme expression of Reality in law, to-wit, that it is the nature of Reality in man to individualize as will and to obey the behests of will. The response of Reality to the human will is just as inevitable and just as mechanical as it is so in any other plane of its manifestation. The will is not mechanical, because Reality expresses its freedom to be what its nature calls for in that will, or in the indi¬ vidual having the will, and so gives a measure of its freedom of that will. If we could enumerate all the ways Reality has of being and doing in Nature, we should have one way more, to-wit: its way of respond¬ ing to the action of the human will. This also is the nature of things. If, therefore, the reign of law is immutable, the law of Reality’s response to the human will is just as im¬ mutable, since the response is one of Reality’s uni¬ versal ways of acting. Whatever is “ set,” then, in Reality, for man, is possible to man. Two great facts now emerge for emphasis: Human growth, in all those processes which build the body and Laws of Growth 241 mind is the results of the mechanical operation of thought as above indicated; all human growth aside from such results is the product of the individual thought and will, free in the sense that that individual may choose his thought as an individual, but mechan¬ ical, and infallible in the sense that Reality will obey the thought which is chosen. Under such choice, at¬ traction and repulsion go on with absolute precision and immutability. The prevailing thoughts may change, but so long as they continue they operate as cause, and Reality unvaryingly brings the effects. If the thoughts become habitual, they engage Reality’s universal ways of being and doing as certainly as does the farmer when he plants his seed. This means, not only that direct results must appear, but also that thoughts attract similar thoughts and repuise dissim¬ ilar thoughts, which fact induces additional conse¬ quences. This means also that the individual life at¬ tracts or repulses according to its thought-nature as a life — not merely as a body or a mind, but in the larger sense. Thus the human grows a character, with all its peculiarities, and a life. Nothing conceivable has such marvelous power. Thought is the arbiter of human destiny. The so-called laws of association exhibit the princi¬ ple of attraction — some degree or kind of similarity of action in thought. Mental activities suggest asso- ciational ideas as follows: Contiguity, as horse and rider; Contrast, as light and dark; Resemblance, as Grant and Sheridan; Succession, as thought and words; Cause and Effect, as vice and misery; Whole 242 Creative Personality and Parts, as United States and California; Sign and Thing Signified, as Cross and Christian religion. In all such cases there is, in the thoughts themselves, or in what they involve, or in some underlying thought a degree or kind of similarity of mental action. Any thought we have suggests some other thought repre¬ senting some mental similarity. The thoughts which we habitually entertain act according to the laws of association, and induce other thoughts of a like nature. If the thoughts which we make “ a part of ourselves ” are of the character that means best estate as tested by happiness, they infallibly act upon other humans and upon the Fundamental Reality in such a way as to bring to us the elements of growth in the way indi¬ cated. If the thoughts are of a contrary nature, their operation is in the opposite direction. The “ fields ” through which Reality responds to the individual’s thought-action are as follows: The first “ field ” is the mind of the individual himself. The mental activities tend to run in similar trains, and also tend to form habits, under the laws of association and repetition. The second “ field ” is seen in the minds of other people. Thoughts are contagious. Active expression of thought suggests similar thought, and he who first entertains and manifests a thought is likely to induce in others similar thoughts which they express so that they react upon the mind of the former person. Thoughts are contagious also in the sense that ideas act upon the universal ether which transmits its own activities to other brains and stimulates cell- action which is interpreted by the receiving self in Laws of Growth 243 terms of the former thought. But the mind which receives, in turn acts upon the mind which sends, and the outcome is intensification of the original thought- action. And, since our minds are always more or less open to such “ impressions ” from others, the char¬ acter of our habitual thoughts largely determines the kind of thoughts that come to us in this manner. More and more, then, the mental life becomes “ set ” by the processes indicated. The third “ field ” is the Fundamental Reality itself. The conscious thoughts of Reality are exhibited in the seen Universe, but there is no reason whatever for concluding that the Uni¬ verse is not crowded and charged with thought-actions which only manifest in and through the mental life in finite intelligences. Just as Reality manifests in a seen plant-thought, so it may manifest in an unseen thought-existence of unfamiliar order. In some such sense as this we may think of the unseen Universe as “ alive ” with Reality’s manifested thoughts. Thus may we conceive of the inspiration of the mighty minds of the race. And, since every human holds within himself the possibilities of all human beings, even the greatest, any individual has the power of drawing upon this universal source, of attracting to himself the things that he desires or needs, and of repulsing whatever he does not need or desire. It is important to note at this point that the third “ field ” in which thought acts, the Fundamental Reality, is universal, embracing or immersing and saturating every conceivable actual existence, and so, interacting in and through such existences with itself. 244 Creative Personality Its manifestations, therefore, are inter-related in in¬ conceivable complexity. The interaction of Reality and the inter-relation of its manifestations bring about this universal condition: Every object tends to act in some way upon every other object throughout the whole system. The tendency “ makes good ” unless arrested by some action having the power to arrest it. Thus, light tends to fall upon all things in its course, but may be arrested by an opaque object. The play of the inter-action of Reality, which is the play of its thought-action, may be diverted from a direct course by some particular action, as seen in the illustration of light. So, the relation of objects — of all thoughts — may be changed by some particular thought having the necessary power. But always Reality acts in these cases in its universal ways — according to its laws. Nature exhibits these propositions everywhere. They hold equally good in human life. Our thoughts uti¬ lize the Reality, which plays up into our consciousness. Reality interacts in our thoughts. Our thoughts are related for that reason. But thought is thought, wherever it appears, and the nature of thought insures the inter-relation or inter-action of Reality in and through all the thoughts of the Universe, seen and un¬ seen— the object-thoughts and the human thoughts. It is the tendency of the object-thought to influence us, which tendency can only be arrested or varied by some particular thought having potency enough. Similarly, the human thoughts effect the objects sur¬ rounding the individual, and do so, not only in the sense that we mould matter and persons in the ways fa- Laws of Growth 245 miliar to us all, but also in the sense that our thoughts affect Reality in objects, and thus leave an “ impress ” upon them. We speak into a dictagraph, and leave there a record of our words. This illustrates, it does not describe or explain, the action of our thoughts upon the material manifestations of the common Reality which surround us. The outcomes of the general truth here set forth are various. Human thoughts induce response of Reality accord¬ ing to its laws. We create what may be called “ move¬ ments ” in the Reality, as we do in water, air, the ether. For the lack of better words such “ movements ” may be described as vibrations, undulations, waves, rays, vortices. The “ movements ” may be steady, smooth, strong, far-reaching. They may be inconstant, weak, “ short-lived.” They may constitute “ storms ” in any degree of intensity and scope. Such “ movement ” responses of Reality, leave some impress upon all things about us, since these also are thoughts, and, for that reason,— because Reality “floods” every object and every human brain,— the “ movements,” the re¬ sponses, tend to react back upon us — affect us by a return thought-action. It is our human fate to get back what we impress upon Reality in any way. This “ backset ” directly affects growth, just as thought di¬ rectly affects growth, because the “ backset ” is a thought-action. If the individual habituated thought is of a nature to bring happiness, it correspondingly affects every object surrounding the person, and Real¬ ity responds by return action accordingly. If the indi¬ vidual habituated thoughts are of an opposite charac- 246 Creative Personality ter, the result is an inevitable injurious reaction of Reality upon him. The objects of a slaughter-house have a different unseen character from the objects of a peaceful home. It is human fate that man can not escape some kind of reaction upon himself of his thought-action on the material world in the sense indi¬ cated. The fate, hpwever, is not beyond our specific control so far as concerns the particular character of the response. If our thoughts habitually make for happiness, we impress Reality in our world in such a manner as to induce reactions corresponding, and thus actually intensify the power of the thoughts them¬ selves. Since, then, Reality “ saturates ” us and all objects and individuals, and thus reacts to our thought, every man, woman, and child possesses the power of utilizing the Infinite and Eternal according to desire — within the limits only of individual humanness. This brings us to a basic and vastly important consid¬ eration, the validity of human desire. Validity of Desire. Desire is thought — thought concerning an object, condition, person, goal, etc., as¬ sociated with the thought of possession and the thought of satisfaction. A desire may be accompanied by an emotion — which is thought — or by bodily feeling, which is also thought, since thought is any action of the self having meaning. Desires, then, have all the power and the conse¬ quences of thought. Desires, considered as a general fact in human life, are expressions of the Fundamental Reality in us. They are as inseparable from the indi- Laws of Growth 24 7 vidual as are his heart, his brain and his mind. They contribute to growth precisely as does thought. When Reality individualizes in the human being it establishes therein the power of desire, a tendency of the individual to express his nature. Instinctly the human individual desires to unfold his individuality, and around that desire cluster and develop innumer¬ able associational desires contributing to its action. This also is the nature of things. Reality tends to self-expression; in the human individual we call such tendency desire in the general sense. No one tends to be or do what he does not desire to be or do. Desire-thoughts are always associated with satisfac¬ tion-thoughts. The highest meaning of these latter is happiness, for happiness is the only conceivable climax of any intelligent existence. Happiness is conserva¬ tive : it always makes for more and more of harmo¬ niously individualized expression of itself. The sig¬ nificance of satisfaction-thought, however, varies in every human, but the criterion of its correctness is the question whether or no the satisfaction will forever unfold more of itself in purity and fulness. Any kind of satisfaction that fails in this tendency while its cause is at work is not happiness. Given the con¬ ditions and causes of any kind of happiness, happiness continues steadfastly and unfolds itself unceasingly. Satisfaction-thoughts, then, get character from these considerations. Desires, in other words, are what we call “ good ” or “ bad.” Their moral nature is deter¬ mined by the criterion of happiness — satisfaction- 248 Creative Personality thought which deathlessly unfolds itself under given continuing causes and conditions. There is no other ultimate test. Given causes and conditions of happiness may change or cease: two consequences follow. The memory of happiness, or of the causes and conditions, holds a degree of happiness over. The individual has yet the capacity for happiness and the power to insti¬ tute other causes and conditions making still for hap¬ piness. Some satisfaction-thoughts have the character above suggested, and act as happiness acts, more or less. Some satisfaction-thoughts fail in these respects. We see here desires which express the individual in an im¬ perfect state, but which do not express the goal of Reality’s unfoldment. Reality here obeys the desires under its laws of response; it does not express its own uncoerced tendencies. As we have already seen, the test of the practical outcome of satisfaction-thoughts — desires — is ex¬ perience. The conclusions of experience must, in a general theoretical way, be left to the individual. So¬ ciety protects itself by laws, punishments and prisons and public opinion, but it can never enter the human mind and compel the human self to accept its verdicts on this question of satisfaction and happiness. That self alone can settle such a question, and only the ex¬ perience of the self is available and final in the settle¬ ment. From these considerations we deduce the tests of the validity or “ legitimacy ” of human desires. Every Laws of Growth 249 desire which is in itself a pleasure and the satisfaction of which is a pleasure that makes for happiness as de¬ termined by experience, either of the individual or of others whose opinion is valued, may be regarded as “ legitimate,” and may be realized until a contrary result is made certain. Hence, every desire which is in itself a happiness, and the satisfaction of which makes for happiness, may also be regarded as “ legiti¬ mate,” and may be realized to the full. On the contrary, every desire which is in itself and its gratifi¬ cation conducive to a pleasure that experience shows does not make for happiness, is “ illegitimate,” and must be denied by the individual who seeks to unfold Reality to best estate. The power of habituated desire is the power of thought, and the most potent thought-power in the world. Its objects are innumerable, and its opera¬ tions bring about the two great results — confusion, with unhappiness and defeat, and order, with happi¬ ness and success. The supreme object which desire may seek is individual freedom with full satisfaction of the individual life. Real freedom must involve happiness. Real happiness involves freedom. This reversal of the terms means that freedom is a balanced condition providing for happiness in a mutual sense. Every human individual is entitled to freedom, and the universality of the right calls for balance of the freedom and happiness of each human with other humans. The free and full satisfaction of one’s life can only be secured through recognition of the rights of each and all to freedom and happiness. Desire is 250 Creative Personality a mighty power, so that the right of every man and woman to live his and her own life, freely and fully, is always to be tested by the criterion of mutual wel¬ fare and happiness. If the gratification of desires would evidently make for the happiness and welfare of others as well as of the self, they are “ legitimate.” The word, “ evidently,” is deliberate here, since de¬ sires arise occasionally which have not been tested out in life, and in such case right of freedom to take its chances must be recognized. If experience is back of the “ evidently,” the conclusion above follows. If de¬ sires actually make for unhappiness and lack of wel¬ fare in the individual and others, they are “ illegit¬ imate.” Desire-thoughts exercise an enormous influence in our life. This fact is shown by universal experience. They may, therefore, be deliberately and intelligently employed as a power for growth and fulness and free¬ dom of life, by concentrating the mind or the self upon them steadily, intensely and persistently. Such concentration engages the Fundamental Reality ac¬ cording to its universal laws, and absolutely assures corresponding results. It is the nature of Reality to react to concentrated desire phrased in the words of definite thought. The subject now suggested may be analyzed in the following way. The Great Wonder of Concentration. Concentra¬ tion is a wonder because it means a steady “ holding of the restless human self at attention,” and because it entails the upcoming and reorganization of thought. “ Holding at attention ” may result from the fact Laws of Growth 251 that some thought or some external actuality has ar¬ rested the mind’s actions so far forth and engaged the interest of the self. Such would be an example of. involuntary attention. The “ holding ” may also result from a voluntary conscious effort. In this case, the object of attention is kept in “ view.” The “ hold¬ ing ” is now due to the idea, “ hold fast.” The self takes the attitude of attention to the matter in hand. Regimes for the Fourth Law of Growth. From this discussion may be drawn out the following Regimes. The Regimes will be general only, as in preceding cases, since the subject is so vast, and the student should become familiar enough with them to make particular regimes for himself according to his own needs. 1. It is suggested that you cultivate a strong con¬ sciousness of this fact: “I am myself a living em¬ bodiment and creator of thought. By and through my consciously directed thought I utilize all things as needed and determine my own personal growth. I demand the conscious unfoldment of all my highest powers.” 2. It is suggested that from henceforth you live only on your highest plane of thought and life. Do not descend to any lower plane with or for any other human being. In the meantime seek that unfoldment of yourself on your own plane which tends to lift your personality and life up to a higher plane. The idea may be thus expressed: “ I live solely in the high plane on which I feel that I belong. I do not descend. 252 Creative Personality I am steadily growing toward some higher plane for which my nature provides.” 3. It is suggested that you make this thought po¬ tent in your life: “ I have power to attract to myself everything that I desire or need; and I have power to put from me that which I do not want.” 4. It is suggested that you test all your desires by the test of long-run happiness. An inspirational sen¬ tence may be this: “ My desires are all legitimated by the Fundamental Reality, but I am for my own happiness. I desire, and I attract and repel accord¬ ing to that test only. The Universe is mine. I at¬ tract to myself what I want. I repel whatever prom¬ ises for me long-run on happiness.” 5. It is suggested that you keep this goal of happi¬ ness steadily in view and trust the Infinite reality to serve you, and to obey you, according to the strength of your thought. But you should remember that Reality will wreck you as truly as it will build you, and you should, therefore, never forget the test or criterion of permanent happiness. Assured of these considerations, let us say, “ I have absolute confidence in the Fundamental Reality ultimately to bring to me whatever I desire, whatever I demand.” The matter in hand may be some thought “ held in view ” in or¬ der that other thoughts related thereto may appear. The matter in hand may be a desire, as “ I wish or de¬ mand a new piano,” or, it may be an affirmation, as, “ I am a phase of Infinite Reality.” If the concen¬ tration is good, irrelative thoughts are refused so soon as they appear, and the one thought is “ held ” dis- Laws of Growth 253 tinctly, in words, intensely and persistently. Concen¬ tration on a given thought induces other thoughts re¬ lated, together with the organization of the results into some desirable form, as, a theory, a plan, and so on and so on. Concentration of thought as a demand or an affirmation induces action of the Fundamental Reality in the direction indicated by the desire. The self acquires facility and power in these re¬ spects by continuing the concentration, intensely made, for a long period, or until the results desired appear. Moreover, such concentration is demanded in order that Reality may be “ moved ” to its appropriate re¬ sponse. We are employing a mighty mechanism in this work, and should not expect to accomplish great things without adequate effort. If you concentrate rightly, deeply, intensely, persistently, for long, the desired results are bound to come about. This is true whether your desires are “ legitimate ” or “ illegiti¬ mate.” It is the nature of Reality to do your bidding when your thoughts acquire the needed power. And power comes of practice. Particular instructions will be given later under an appropriate heading, but the above considerations suffice for the subject of growth. We come, now, to a law which is necessarily involved in the action of thought and attraction and repulsion. The Fifth Law of Growth. All growth involves intelligent selection of required material for the growing structure. In all growth, whether of objects or of persons, Reality “ feeds ” its individualized manifestations according to sugges- 254 Creative Personality tion which the latter give it. The manifestations must decide on the material required. Intelligence here shows itself a true “ chooser-between: ” in the Reality, by appropriate response to the selective power of growing objects and persons, and in the latter by the very act of selection. The mineral, Tourmaline, is found in quarries of Feldspar. In varieties of the first we find Silicon, Aluminum, Iron, Oxygen, Calcium, Manganese, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Lithia, Fluorine, Hydrogen, while in the Feldspar the ele¬ ments are Potassium, Aluminum, Lithia, Silicon, Oxy¬ gen, Calcium, Sodium. The minerals have resulted from selective action (attraction, affinity — the process may be called) by which each mineral has crystallized into its own mass and form. The Tourmaline some¬ times meets obstructions in the way of its crystalliza¬ tion and, passing around such, continues its process. Occasionally crystals are found which have been broken by some disturbance in the Feldspar matrix and have mended themselves. We should expect such results if we conceive of every object in Nature as being thought as an expression of Fundamental Reality. In a solution of salt or in one of sugar crystallization takes place, the elements attracting each other until the crystal is begun and the latter selecting out of the solution the atoms of like nature. The plant world exhibits a process of selection in every living thing, each intelligently “ deciding ” upon what it requires and appropriating the same. When mat¬ ters “ go wrong ” here, because of an accident, or be¬ cause of the presence of some foreign substance, the Laws of Growth 255 undesirable growth follows the same process: Reality takes its cue, and proceeds in accordance with the se¬ lection made. The animal world has a similar uni¬ versal exhibit: Reality, true to its laws, selects and responds to selection, in every molecule, compound, tis¬ sue, organ and member of the body. Out of eighty- odd chemical elements about fifteen are normally se¬ lected for the animal structure. Out of hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds, comparatively a very few are selected for animal tissue. Out of all sorts of organs and members, only certain kinds are employed in a given type of life. “ Natural Selec¬ tion ” exhibits the thought-power of the manifold ex¬ pressions into which Reality passes and becomes con¬ scious. Growth is a test of intelligent selection. This, indeed, is the very significance of growth — so far forth. Mental life exemplifies the conception here set up, not more truly but perhaps more familiarly. Thought is thought, no less in a plant than in a mind. Since the word, “ thought,” is usually taken in the sense of connection with a mind as ordinarily understood, we shall readily assent to the proposition that the self exercises a power of selection in mind-building. The human mind is a complex of every one of the ac¬ tivities of the self in knowing. Not every activity of the self could constitute what we call Mind. The knowing activities in mind are habituated activities of various “ set ” forms or kinds, to which specifying names are given. In its earliest stages the self reacts to the world’s action upon it in one general and vague 256 Creative Personality activity in knowing—“pure” sensation. The self is capable of other ways of acting in knowing — such as perception, memory, imagination, ideation, etc. At some stage the self began to select out of its possible ways of acting these given ways; that is, the self came to habituate itself in and to these ways of acting in knowing. Origin, habituation, using for ends, have built up the human mind. Reality manifested in the self’s tendency to form a mind, and Reality in the Not- self assailed the self and stimulated such tendency, and Reality responded to the suggestion of the self¬ activity. Thus comes a mind. The complex process exhibits selection from start to finish. The self se¬ lects the objects of its attention; has the power to do so. The self may also more or less determine what its own reaction to the external and internal world shall be. The self may select — decide on — the ma¬ terial for its growth which is continuously offered it by the vast realm of existence about it. When the mind becomes a fact as mind, the self dis¬ covers that it is surrounded by a marvelous Universe of objects and activities. In some definite manner it knows that it must choose food and drink for the body, and similarly it vaguely comes to know, and should clearly know, that it must choose material for the mental life. The selecting process determines mind as mind and the kind or character into which mind shall grow; that is, the human mind is the re¬ sult of the selection by the self of its established ac¬ tivities, such as attention, perception, memory, etc.; and the character which any mind assumes in time is Laws of Growth 25 7 the result of a similar selection by the self of the facts, principles, laws, truths, fancies, desires, etc., etc., in its mental life. The importance of this far-reaching law is im¬ mense. Selection of mental material for or in growth goes on, whether or no. As a human the individual can not prevent this fact. But the direction which growth shall take, together with the materials selected and the fulness, richness, variety, and power, are all matters within the individual control. We can not stop the action of the senses, but we can determine the objects of their attention. We are not able to totally arrest the action of the mind, but it is within our power to decide on what the action shall engage, and the qual¬ ity of that action. We have to grow, for better or for worse, but we are always able to select the elements of mental life which shall enter into that growth. If the selection is the outcome merely of the sheer nature of the self to do something,— any old thing in any old way,— a corresponding weak and chaotic growth will result. If, on the contrary, the selection is made in the interests of the highest unfoldment of the self making for happiness, this will insure a growth un¬ failingly satisfactory. It is absolute law that Reality will respond with exactness to the suggestion of our selection in this respect. In such selection of mental material the self em¬ ploys the law of attraction and the law of repulsion. It attracts what it wants, and it repulses what it does not want. The attraction is that of thought upon thought, and the repulsion is that of thought against 258 Creative Personality thought. Each individual is surrounded by a world of thought, and the selection is, in some way, direct or indirect, a thought-action working in the mind of the self. Remembering that every existence, however elemental, is a conscious thought of Infinite Reality, we see that the Universe about us is a vast complex of individual thought-objects and thought-processes from which the human self may select and attract whatever it desires and needs for growth of mind. In the world of sense, the thought-objects — existences to be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched — are wholly innumerable. In the realm of the intellect and that of the emotions, the elements which are spread be¬ fore us are as the stars in the heavens. If we take the field of art, there are elements sufficient for all time. Every artist is the result of a selection, not merely of subjects, but perhaps more, of the materials that enter artistic growth. If we take science, we see, for ex¬ ample, in the study of matter, how the human intellect may attract facts, laws, truths, principles to itself out of the infinite resources of the Reality, in the recent discoveries made in electricity, the electrons, and Radium-activities. Thus it is in every direction. Not only do the different departments of human life, such as art, science, industry, government, etc., grow by reason of the selection of mental material, but individ¬ ual minds follow the law that thought in man attracts and repels thoughts in the great Reality external to them. This law is of absolute importance to you. A vital question confronts the reader. “ What am I do with Laws of Growth 259 this attracting and repelling power of thought acting upon the mighty realm of thought-material presented for my selection in the Universe about me? As I select, so will Reality respond; as I select, so shall I grow in the mental powers with which I am endowed. Reality in the Not-self places itself at my disposal, and Reality within my own self will infallibly respond to my selective choice of the elements I desire for my growth.” The principle on which selection should be made is two-fold. One phase of the principle is desire; the other phase is harmony with happiness. Desire may dictate selection of material making for unhappy growth, but Reality will obey the suggestion and in¬ sure that kind of growth. Desire may go all toward happiness, and Reality will respond accordingly. Thought attracts its own kind as selection is decided. Desire is legitimated by the tendency of its gratifica¬ tion to realize happiness. Each individual must de¬ cide for himself. Fundamentally the great desire- principle of selection should be considered carefully and put into operation whenever it is an expression of the individual nature and will contribute to personal welfare. It is a waste of time and energy to select material for growth without regard to natural tend¬ encies, deep-seated desires, inherent tendencies and capabilities. If the individual is assured that such and such a desire is a part of him and will bring happi¬ ness through its gratification, selection of mental “ food ” should be made freely, fully and without fear. In such desires Reality is tending to express itself in 260 Creative Personality some great way through the individual who becomes conscious of the desire. Assured of this fact, we know that Reality is the Not-self contains all the ele¬ ments necessary to a satisfactory growth in the direc¬ tion indicated and will infallibly respond to the suggestion by so much as the thought involved is in¬ tense and persistent. Such thought proves that the selection in the mental life is the highest type of se¬ lection. The mind, by reason of what it happens to be at any time, insures selection in the sense of a sort of automatic working, as seen in an individual who is always bent on pleasure, in which case every passing appeal is sufficient to insure some kind of selection, under the law of natural attraction. But when we decide on what we imperatively want, this is the se¬ lection that holds steadfast and compels Reality to do our bidding. This brings us to our regimes. Regimes of the Fifth Law of Growth. 1. Since we grow by reacting to the action upon us of the worlds of Nature and man, and since we have the power sufficiently to determine what our own reac¬ tions shall be, our use of materials furnished for growth should not be haphazard, but should be intel¬ ligently chosen. It is, therefore, suggested that you resolve to select out of the whole mass of actions upon you by man and Nature those only which you need for your best de¬ velopment. Refuse to attend to those objects of sense and which you dislike, and which will not serve your own best interests. Do not fill your mind with dis¬ agreeable and useless thoughts. Such matters will Laws of Growth 261 claim your attention, but put them away. Train your¬ self to attend to sense-objects and to thoughts which will insure your highest growth. Our sentence for auto-suggestion may be, “ I alone select the materials of my growth.” 2. Growth occurs in many directions. Any hu¬ man may grow in all directions, given time enough. Your practical question is, what kind of development, or, what direction of growth, do I now desire? Hence, it is now suggested that you definitely decide this matter, and refuse longer to permit your own growth to be the support of chance. Remember, you are absolutely the arbiter of your own development. You are invited to affirm daily until you are strong and positive on this subject, “ I have the power to deter¬ mine, and I do determine, the natu-re and extent of my own growth.” 3. In managing our own personal growth, we may make many mistakes, but there is no help for this in the development of free intelligence. Mistakes are a part of the price of freedom, and it is better to err while king than to be faultless and a fool. Habituate your mind to the thought, therefore, “ I think my own way, I select the materials, and I determine the di¬ rection of my own growth, with perfect confidence in myself.” The Sixth Law of Growth. All grozvth is the result of appropriation of materials selected. There can be no growth without appropria¬ tion of “ food-elements.” Apparently obvious as this 262 Creative Personality law may seem to be, it has, nevertheless, an important bearing on the subject before us and is especially sig¬ nificant. In the whole realm of Nature, apart from the hu¬ man mind, selection is really appropriation. Appro¬ priation and selection may be distinguished for discus¬ sion, but the process is practically one. An atom selects by appropriation, according to the thought-at¬ traction of its nature. Two germ-cells appropriate by selection each the other. Thereafter, the resulting one cell appropriates as it selects the elements nec¬ essary to growth. If this process is interfered with in any way, appropriation-selection continues, never¬ theless, but in some “ abnormal ” way. Reality mani¬ fests now in a more or less different direction, but re¬ mains meanwhile absolutely true to its laws. The crystal, the plant, the animal, in the very act of se¬ lection, appropriates. We see the working of the law also in the human body. Studying the process as it goes on within that structure, we see that growth (including mainte¬ nance), in every particle, tissue, organ and member, appropriates precisely as it selects. All this work is “ mechanical,” not under the conscious supervision of the individual. The individual selects and appro¬ priates his food; thereafter, Reality does its own work according to universal laws. The food is digested, distributed throughout the body as needs demand, and selection-appropriation completes its mission for all the building processes of growth. If the physical structure is normal, the appropriation is normal: Laws of Growth 263 Reality obeys the corresponding suggestion. If the physical condition is abnormal, appropriation will be of a like nature. The normal physical condition fol¬ lows the normal thought-condition, and the abnormal physical condition follows the abnormal thought-con¬ dition. The former may be disturbed by thought; and so, also, the latter may be corrected by thought. In the field of conscious human mind, however, se¬ lection often precedes appropriation, and, in many cases, must do so. Selection may here be practically appropriation, but it may as well not be so. The rea¬ son for this fact is to be found in the self-controlling nature of the human self. After exercise of will, mat¬ ters of growth go on as mechanically in human life as in the outside world of Nature. Thus we swing the mechanism of the Universe into obedience to our be¬ hests. Take the sixth law in relation to matters of physical food, for example. The individual selects his food, but he does not always appropriate it in that act. One may purchase meat without eating it. Even when se¬ lected on the table, food must be taken into the sys¬ tem if it is to be appropriated. This last act is the final element in real appropriation. And this final act is always within the province of the individual will. Thus, out of all the vast variety of food-elements fur¬ nished by the material world, the individual must se¬ lect and appropriate what he wants. Growth follows appropriation, and only appropriation. That growth is determined by the conscious self in the sense that the self must appropriate as well as select desired 264 Creative Personality food. If the individual appropriates properly for him¬ self, Reality takes care of the growth in a perfectly satisfactory manner. If the appropriation is “ wrong,” Reality obeys in bringing about “ wrong ” growth. There is no help for the fact set forth. But there is nothing on earth or in the heavens to prevent the growth when appropriation has once occurred — so long as no other cause intervenes. And, since thought is so potent in all our world of life, the nature and intensity of our thoughts in connection with the appro¬ priation of foods tremendously enhances the workings of Reality within us — whether for “ good ” or for “ ill.” When we appropriate foods, Nature begins the marvelous song of growth, for which our thoughts are inspiring accompanists. Take the sixth law in matters of mental food for a second example. Just as in the case of the body, so in the case of the mind, the results of selection and appropriation of food come about mechanically, in accordance with universal laws in Reality. What you select and appropriate goes into your mental growth, good or bad, whether you desire the results or not. Reality puts itself at our disposal, as it were, but Reality places no law under our power to change it or to modify its workings, once the causes are set in oper¬ ation. Selection here starts “ the mills of the gods ” grinding, and the only way in which we can change the “ grinding ” is to change the selection and appropria¬ tion. It is for each individual, then, to make selection of mental food exactly for the kind of growth he may de- Laws of Growth 265 sire. When, in the mental field we select material for development, we select the same for the sake of ap¬ propriation. If appropriation actually takes place, the materials actually go into the mind. It is evident that often times appropriation does not follow selection. In such case, results desired fail. The process in the mental life corresponds with the process in the body- life. To appropriate is to take into the structure. This taking in requires attention to the object or thought, the effort of really getting it. Appropria¬ tion from the great world of harmony demands the concentration of years, together with developing skill and wisdom in conducting the process. Similarly, in business, or that of science, and so on, and so on. Within any field of mental food-elements a like ap¬ propriation following selection must be entered upon and continued. 'Reality surrounds and saturates us as individuals, and provides everything necessary to growth, or one way or another way, and Reality is al¬ ways ready to respond to our efforts at appropriation, but it is for each of us to select that which we desire or need and then to put forth the labor adequate to compulsion of Reality within us. The necessity of actual appropriation is seen in the growth of any given “ faculty ” of the mind. If one wishes a strong and correct and symmetrical memory, one may select the kind of memory, the quality of memory, and the things desired for the “ storing ” of memory. But all this is mere ideation — perhaps a mere fancy — until actual appropriation of memory- matters, whether of business, poetry, facts, principles, 266 Creative Personality in art, science or what-not, is actually made. Simi¬ larly with imagination, or reasoning, or will, etc., etc. The entire matter is under control of the individual. According to his appropriations, so will be his growth. The Universe awaits his strong seizure, and there is no one and there is no thing at fault but himself if he lives in a Universe of Reality which he does not use, or if he uses it for his own unhappiness. Not only may the self appropriate elements of growth from the visible world of Nature and humans, but also from the unseen realm within himself. The deeper self opens out, so to speak, into the Funda¬ mental Ground or Source of all things. That Exist¬ ence is forever offering to us its truth and wisdom. If we turn our attention to the “ vasty deep ” within us, and “ look ” and “ listen,” keeping out of conscious¬ ness the visible world of things and people, we shall find arising in mind thoughts that are worth our while. Especially will such be the case if we mentally demand, “ I demand to know the best truths and the highest wisdom which my life needs.” Under concentration of this sort, the self sometimes is “ inspired.” The scientist has his hypotheses and explanations coming to him as a result of this effort, the business man finds plans and solutions of problems, the writer discovers ideas. Thus we may call on Reality to impart its wealth to us. The thoughts that arise now become subjects for selection and appropriation at our will. It is for the self to select; and it is for the self to ap¬ propriate. Some effort is here evident. Innumer¬ able thoughts issue into mind under such conditions, Laws of Growth 267 but the self must thereupon decide what it wants, and then grasp the thoughts for its own uses. The course here outlined is not day-dreaming. The latter may take place in any indolent mental state. Real ap¬ propriation of the results of this concentration in¬ volves work that is adequate to the values received. If the work is genuine, the values will prove the great¬ est in any life. Regimes of the Sixth Law of Growth. Following the idea of merely general regimes which the student is supposed to analyze and apply according to his own needs, our present suggestions may be thus outlined. 1. Some earnest students read hundreds of books, but fail to do their own thinking. This is mental Gourmandizing, and yields the results of an over loaded and untrained mind. It is suggested, now, that whatever the amount of your reading may be, you in¬ dependently think your way through the subject in hand. In this way you select and appropriate mate¬ rials of growth, and build them into your growing self by the only possible building process, that of thought. You are invited to make this a life-long regime, “ I subject all things to the test of my own thought.” 2. It is suggested that you make selection of mate¬ rials for growth effective by actually working them into your personal life. If you determine upon, say, muscular development, or development of any par¬ ticular sense, or any mental “ faculty,” or the master¬ ing of any subject, or the acquisition of any art, you must, in order to secure growth in the direction de¬ sired, resolutely perform the work involved. Such 268 Creative Personality persistent work insures appropriation of the materials of growth. We discover at this point that the appro¬ priation is mechanical when you persist in the labor decided upon. You eat food, and Reality or Nature does the appropriate. You study a subject, or work out a train of thought, and Reality in your mental self mechanically builds into you the materials of growth needed. But all such processes are instituted and di¬ rected by your will and your persistence. You are invited to inspire will and persistence by holding the thought, “ I assist the Fundamental Reality in me to appropriate materials for my highest growth by all necessary thought and action.” 3. There are millions of cells in any human brain which are never used in thought. So each individual has capacities that are never realized, powers that are never unfolded. We grow in certain directions, more or less accidentally, and fail to discover our own abili¬ ties in other directions. It is well, therefore, to test out our marvelous nature by efforts to grow in new ways, not merely for direct results, but also for the indirect effects upon the whole personality. It is sug¬ gested that you resolve to mine out some of your un¬ used powers, for example, in music, or invention, or mechanical work, or writing, etc., etc. In order to get yourself into such work, you are invited to carry this thought for a few days, “ I demand the conscious awakening of all my powers.” You will find that this thought will suggest new possibilities of growth, and actually start into action powers of which you are un¬ conscious. In time you will also become aware of the Laws of Growth 269 fact that thoughts and truths, new and valuable, are being appropriated in your mind and life. 4. Do not for a moment forget that you are a manifest of Infinite Life, or the Fundamental Reality, and are of the same nature with it. Make this truth vital to your consciousness. Put away your old fears and ideas of limitation. Affirm this every day of your life, “ I, myself, am Infinite Life; I hold within my¬ self all possibilities.” In this way you make yourself a magnet, attracting to yourself and life the materials and forces which you need for personal growth. Do not dismiss these propositions before trying them out. You will then discover their truth and marvelous power. The Seventh Law of Growth. All growth is the result of the processes of dis¬ tribution and assimilation of required elements. Dis¬ tribution precedes appropriation and assimilation, in strict analysis, but takes a connected place in the pres¬ ent section of our discussion, and is therefore now considered. The process of distribution carries the elements of growth into place where they are appro¬ priated and assimilated. In the molecule the atoms arrange themselves according to their laws. In liv¬ ing plants the elements are distributed to different parts of the organism and into the tissue. The verte¬ brate animal has a circulatory system for this purpose. The blood vessels carry the food-elements into the neighborhood of all tissues, and, throughout the sys¬ tem, the blood passes through the walls of the vessels 270 Creative Personality and surrounds and bathes every part and organ of the body. The food-elements are now taken out of the blood thus flowing, and distributed throughout the tis¬ sues and organs in a process making for growth. We thus see that, after food enters the structure of living things it is disintegrated and the elements are further transformed into the constituents of growth. Digestion and other processes transform food into growth elements, and the final process transforms these elements into structure. Food-elements are distrib¬ uted as blood, and the elements of the blood are then transformed into tissue and fluids. The latter proc¬ ess constitutes assimilation. In the world below mind all these operations are mechanical, Reality doing its work perfectly under its own laws, according to the suggestion of the life or the career or the condition of the organism. When the organism is normal, the processes co-work together to a normal issue. When the organism is abnormal, the inevitable results are abnormal distribution, selection, appropriation and assimilation. “ To him that hath shall be given, and to him that hath not shall be taken even that he hath.” The law asks no questions as to the ends made certain by the plant’s or the animal’s workings; it acts out its own nature to a finish. The mechanism of growth is resistless, relentless and in¬ fallible, so long as given conditions continue. In the mental field of life the same mechanical op¬ erations go on so long as conditions do not change. Here also we have selection of the growth-elements, distribution, appropriation and assimilation. But, as Laws of Growth 27 1 in preceding laws, the human individual may choose his elements of growth upon which the mechanical op¬ erations of Reality shall act. According to what the self permits itself to be it selects “ food ” for the mind, appropriates the same — and thereafter the nature of Reality works itself out with unerring precision. The distribution of the mental elements of growth is as actual as is that of the physical life. We dis¬ tribute throughout the mind — throughout the know¬ ing self — facts, as they come, or as we will, prin¬ ciples, laws, truths, simple or complex ideas, pictures, desire-notions, etc., etc. We see this process exem¬ plified in any given mind. To some minds natural ob¬ jects have no meaning other than the most superficial: only the barest surface-significance of things gets dis¬ tributed— finds any sort of use. We see distribution at work in the mere pleasure-loving mind: ideas of pleasure alone ever find any part of such minds, and all things come into this circulation, headlong and chaotic. The business man draws into his mental life every conceivable matter capable of assisting him, and the vortex compels everything to come its way. To the artist all objects in Nature are working material: the meanings thus derived are forever distributed throughout his mind with reference to their artistic values. Whether we are dealing with a type of in¬ dividual mind—'your mind — or with a type of life- work, the process of distribution goes on, in the na¬ ture of the case, and the mind grows, or this way or that way, as a result. The very activities of mind as human grow in a 272 Creative Personality similar manner. The self is a knower, and it knows through its activities. These activities are reactions to the action of the external world upon the self. In addition to selecting its own activities and their ob¬ jects, in addition to appropriation of growth-elements as furnished, the self comes in time to compel the out¬ side world to yield it what it wants, and so, to dis¬ tribute facts, principles, etc., now to memory, now to imagination, now to reasoning, now to emotion, and so on. Mind does not take things just as they come and establish its activities in any haphazard manner. The self builds mind intelligently and in an orderly way. All the elements of mental growth are in the Universe before the self arrives as an individual mani¬ festation of Reality, and the self has imposed upon it, by the fact that it is capable of knowing, the power in many ways to select, appropriate and distribute into what we may call its several departments all the ele¬ ments which it needs for all its different capacities in knowing. Thus is exhibited a law of mental develop¬ ment — primarily of the mind as such, and secondarily as any peculiar type of mind known or desired. The mental growth of the individual, therefore, is a matter for decision, control, discipline and training. The laws operate in all minds, because in all cases the individuals do carry out the processes set forth, un¬ consciously, perhaps, yet none the less truly. It re¬ mains, then, for the intelligent student, to deliberately bring these laws under his own supervision. By so much as one does this, by so much do the laws mechan¬ ically carry out the work set for them. Laws of Growth 273 Thus, one may distribute the world of actuality, as one wills, now to observation-growth, now to the growth of memory, or reasoning, or to any other men¬ tal faculty. So, also, one may distribute all things, more or less, into the capacity for poetry, or painting, or music or business, or science, and the like. And the guiding principles here are, again, native bent and desire making for happiness. Above all, in the mental life, does the process of assimilation call for intelligent direction. As in the realm of the physical life food is transformed into its elements and then the elements into tissue, so in the mental life does the process of transformation take place. We “ take down ” the raw material of the senses and of thought as matters are presented to us — always prior to actual growth by assimilation. Things seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, are de¬ composed, more or less, into their constituents. Meanings are almost without exception complex, and we really get them by a process of disintegration and transformation. The sense-ideas — and all meanings — are individual; with no two persons are they alike absolutely. Each mind takes its objects to pieces and gets a result not precisely correspondent with the object. When the field of thought is entered more fully, we see that no thought is perfect, every thought seems somewhat fragmentary, all thoughts are the re¬ sults of decomposition of something and transforma¬ tion of the products into different forms. If two per¬ sons, for example, observe a house, the result is two mental “ houses,” neither of which is precisely like the 274 Creative Personality other. Each person has selected certain elements, ap¬ propriated them, and transformed the external house into an unique mental house. If two persons think, “ law of gravitation,” each makes a particular mean¬ ing — which is a transformation of all that he has heard and read, more or less, into a new individualized conception. Thus with every case of sense-percep¬ tion, and with every case of ideation or thought-proc¬ ess. The world you sense and the world you think about is your own creation. The creating work is that of transformation of elements selected and ap¬ propriated and distributed into your mental field. The final process in growth may be called “ build- ing-in.” The body decomposes its food into elements, distributes the results to place, and transforms them into proper material for building up of tissue and or¬ gans. Similarly, the self proceeds with all elements of thought presented to it, closing the process by build¬ ing into mind what we may now call a “ body of thought.” By the “ body of thought ” we mean the sum-total of thoughts that are familiar, and more or less habitual. The “ body of thought ” of the human self consists of all the thoughts known to the race. The “ body of thought ” in your life is the sum-total of the thoughts with which you are familiar, and which you to a de¬ gree habitually entertain. We may easily conceive of the “ body of thought ” of the merchant, or the scien¬ tist, or the farmer, or the historian, the poet, the novel-writer, the minister, and so on. One may have a general “ body of thought ” and specific departments, Laws of Growth 275 each of which constitutes a whole regarded as an in¬ tegral part of the larger whole. The “ body of thought ” is a result of mental growth, and the result comes out of the processes already indicated. In any case the “ thought-body ” is a product of a lifetime, whether the life be of ten years, or less, or of seventy, or more. Since each individual is in a world that al¬ ways acts upon the self, and since the self is for¬ ever engaged in reacting thereto, a “ thought-body ” is as inevitable in a life-history as is a physical body. Here we have Reality “ flowing up ” into the self as the self reacts to Reality in the external world, and so, Reality individualizing in a mind and the thoughts which that mind knows and more or less makes habit¬ ual with it. Hence, the process of “ thought-body ” building is mechanical, under the universal laws of Reality. As, however, in preceding cases, the individ¬ ual may control the mechanical operation as mechan¬ ical, by suggesting and directing it so also in the men¬ tal realm. Some kind of “ body of thought ” each one of us is bound to build up; what kind, how full and complete and rich and varied — these are matters which the individual must himself decide. This de¬ cision may be made by the uncertain caprices of the day, or it may be deliberated and settled by intelligent will. It does not matter to Reality what the decision shall be. Universal laws move on relentlessly as we engage them. So the Genius of the Cosmos builds our “ body of thought ” regardless of our choice, but builds when we decide for it with all the power and precision of its nature. 276 Creative Personality We build thought into our mental “ body ” by mak¬ ing it our own. Making thoughts our own means that we definitely and intelligently think them and give them a place among the thoughts already familiar or habituated. Common thinking seems to be indefinite, haphazard, superficial and related to the mind’s ac¬ tivities as chance may lead. Real thinking gets at things, knows them, is clear and distinct, relates them according to mental principles and the laws that act in objects, persons, events. Not all the sense-perceptions we may have enter our “body of thought,” but only those which we to a degree think with energy and in¬ tentness. Not all the notions we have during a day or a year become a “ part of ourselves,” but those only which we think to a purpose and relate more or less definitely to our other mental activities. When we think through a subject, we make it our own by build¬ ing it into our mental life. When what we actually know gets the right place in our mind-world, we have brought it into place in our mental structure. A builder builds into a house wood, iron, stone, brick, mortar, etc., never assuming that these materials are a part of the house merely because they are strewn around on the ground. The mind is a palace for the self; all necessary materials are offered in the Uni¬ verse of existence; and no materials become a part of the palace until actually built in by the master builder — the marvelous self. As, also, the house¬ building requires that materials be shaped and placed by intelligent effort, so does the “ body of thought,” if it is to be a result of decision rather than of caprice, Laws of Growth 277 demand that the materials furnished by the Universe in which we live be selected, appropriated, distributed and placed — made into — the mind. This is the meaning of self-directed education. This is the proc¬ ess by which the self creates a full mind, the posses¬ sions of which are rich, varied and subject to com¬ mand. And this is the process by which the self be¬ comes facile, strong and highly trained. Here, also, Reality puts itself at our disposal, rushing to us from without, springing up into the self and its individuality from within. Regimes of the Seventh Law. Your body is a form of matter, and matter, on analysis, resolves into ether. Your total person, including your personal self, is an expression of Reality. You are, therefore, sur¬ rounded and saturated by the ether and, so, the Fun¬ damental Reality. You have the power physically to push your way through the ether, and mentally to pene¬ trate Reality in a way comparable to moving through it. Our Regimes carry out this idea of traveling through a medium. 1. Remember that we are now dealing with a final result of the operations of growth. We are building, as we go, the elements of growth into our personal be¬ ing. You are invited to think of yourself as pushing your way through the Universe of Realty, just as you actually push your body through the ether. Our Regime means, then, that you be alert on the way, and seize upon everything needed for your growth: facts, principles, laws, truths, etc., etc. A suggestive sen¬ tence may here be given, to wit: “ I journey on, with 278 Creative Personality a perfectly open mind, and make every day count with some new element of growth.” 2. Everything in Nature has Infinite depth, be¬ cause each object manifests the Infinite Reality. Nothing exists on the surface of Nature, but all things are immersed in that inexhaustible Reality which con¬ stitutes Nature. This fact makes you a kind of uni¬ versal centre, capable of penetrating and appropriat¬ ing all reality in all directions. Only as you do this can you grow at all, since your growth depends upon the degree with which you draw into yourself the Reality which is ever tending to express itself through you. You should, therefore, endeavor always to pene¬ trate into the meanings, reasons, and causes, of the ex¬ istences with which you come into contact. Cultivate the habit of assailing everything with the interroga¬ tive pronouns, “Why?” “What?” “How?” “When?” etc. An inspirational sentence here would be, “ I demand to know, and thoroughly to under¬ stand, the things I meet as I make my way through life.” This means that you study objects, persons, principles and laws, seek to investigate them, and make their Reality a part of your conscious thought-life. As a matter of fact, there are multitudes of things all about us with which we are familiar, but of which we are marvelously ignorant. Life is too short and busy, for exhaustive knowledge of everything we meet, but if you acquire the habit of mental alertness and in¬ quiry, you will find yourself unconsciously absorbing a vast amount of otherwise unknown material, and es¬ pecially will you develop your mental powers and give Laws of Growth 279 Reality a larger opportunity to build into you its mar¬ velous wealth. 3. Growth means a systematic arrangement of ap¬ propriate materials in the personal character and life. Not by gathering a mere collection of materials do we grow, but by an orderly distribution of the same. You are now invited to think of yourself as standing within the structure of your life, while Reality passes into you for your use whatever you want. If a builder merely receives the materials of the house he is erect¬ ing, and does not place them properly and relate them to each other and to the edifice, he never gets on. The builder’s work in putting the material where it belongs is your work of investigating and thinking things out in some orderly way. In other words, it is yours to control and direct your thought. Thought is the one only creative or building power you possess. It is suggested, then, that you assume the mental at¬ titude of a builder, not a collector. When you do this and perform the work of investigating and thinking, Reality automatically builds itself into your person and life. Always carry the idea, “ I am a builder; I fashion Reality into the structure of myself.” 4. The world in which you live is a world which you create by your thought. Some actual Universe there is which is external to you, but you copy that Universe through the senses and mental operation. Your world, therefore, is the world that you thought- create. Your whole mental life thus constitutes a crea¬ tion of objects, ideas, experiences, knowledges, mem¬ ories, etc. You cannot possibly avoid being con- 280 Creative Personality structed, and your inner mind-world is absolutely what you make it. If you could see the mind-world of many people, you would be humiliated by the foolish or the frightful spectacle. Make your world fine. Build for your own ultimate satisfaction, build it ac¬ cording to the test of happiness suggested in this chapter. Take satisfaction in the building process. Take joy in your creative power. Cultivate a high consciousness of the power to build a world at all, and especially to make it fine and great. Such are some of the laws of growth. It is suf¬ ficient that a thousand writers on this subject would write our chapter in a thousand different ways. Es¬ pecially true it is that the regimes deduced from the study might be greatly varied. The theme seems in¬ exhaustible, and the regimes, therefore, are intention¬ ally general only, and are capable of many additions and applications, according to individual needs. And so it is suggested that the student think his way through the laws here given until he can formulate them and discuss them and work out his own practical sugges¬ tions independently for himself. LAW—Thought Is Intelligent Life's Self-initiated Action for Fulness of Being. CHAPTER VII. THE INSTRUMENTS OF PERSONALITY. W E have made some progress in our concep¬ tion of the Universe as a manifest of Reality. Reality expresses itself in things and forces, persons and thoughts. The Reality does not cease to be itself in its expressions, but continues in them. As we investigate these expressions, we discover various intermediaries which seem to serve as instru¬ ments through the action of which Reality passes over into later stages of its expressions. It is not said that such intermediaries are strictly essential to the mani¬ festations in any stage, since this idea would take our thought backwards through an endless series of stages, an idea which the mind will not tolerate. The fact, however, appears that certain manifestations of Reality are preceded by others, and that these serve as instru¬ ments by means of which Reality finds expression in the former. The Passing Over of Reality. The general idea above suggested may be designated as instrumentation. Indeterminate Reality makes into individualized or specific things and forces, persons 281 282 Creative Personality and thoughts. All these are still Reality, but they are Reality manifested. When certain forms of the mani¬ festations arrive, the nature of things mechanically operates through them into other forms. It is com¬ mon to speak of such other forms as higher or supe¬ rior, but until person appears, we have no reason to assume superiority in any form. Illustrations of this passing over of Reality will open up our conception in a general way. We begin with illustrations which simply indicate our thought, and then take up certain illustrations which serve us in our progress toward person and beyond. In the geological world there are evidences of liv¬ ing forms that appear in the development of species and kingdoms. There are huge animals with lillipu- tian brains, monstrous structures which finally pass away. This is an example of what appears every¬ where in earlier times. Reality here blunderingly ex¬ presses in various forms, and then passes over into different forms through which it finally emerges in the settled forms of the animal kingdom. Thus innumer¬ able living forms come and go. And thus at last Reality passes into a type of animal life through which it manifests in the Simian type and the human type. Taking up illustrations in the line of the progress of our thought toward person and beyond, we have the following: The Universe seems to have begun in a nebulous condition of a Something which has finally become matter. There are evidences that this Some¬ thing, which we may call proto-matter, now exists in space and is becoming matter. Matter is not a mass The Instruments of Personality 283 of indefinite stuff; it is a sum-total of definite elec¬ trons, in systems which we call atoms. Proto-matter is a sum-total of definite manifestations of Reality passing over into matter. When we seek to go be¬ yond matter and proto-matter, we seem to arrive at a universal medium which is a manifestation of Real¬ ity mechanically making toward worlds. We call this medium the universal ether. Scientifically speaking, we do not know any existence prior to the ether, al¬ though, in our thought, the law that every action de¬ mands an actor, we supplement the supposition by science of the ether with the philosophical notion of the Fundamental Reality. The ether illustrates the passing-over of Reality into proto-matter. The latter gives us the idea of instrumentation into matter. Again, since physical life is always associated, when it appears, with matter, we have in matter, that is cer¬ tain chemical elements in certain relations with each other and under certain conditions, an instrument through which our Reality makes over into life. Again, since psychic factor appears in the world only in association with living matter, the latter becomes a stage or instrument by means of which Reality mani¬ fests in the former. Finally, so far as we have now gone, it is through phychic factor that person is de¬ veloped. We now fix our attention upon person as a complex manifestation of Fundamental Reality. Our illustra¬ tions of the passing-over of Reality bring before us the ideal, person and person’s life. Psychic factor creates persons by attracting to itself certain elements and 284 Creative Personality compounds of matter which constitute the human body. Acting in certain ways by means of certain nerve-centers, psychic factor meanwhile develops the human mind. All these processes may be given the general meaning of instrumentation. With person completed in the sense that it includes all the possibil¬ ities that it will ever possess, a further series of pass- ings-over and instrumentation begins. We proceed, now, to analyze this proposition. The Instruments of Person. Remembering that person is a manifest of Reality, or is Reality manifested, we see that all that person does and becomes must also be Reality manifested, and that in the doing and becoming from any form of in¬ telligent life and personal unfoldment, Reality here also is engaged in passing over and in instrumenta¬ tion through an indefinite series. But, since person is Reality manifested, it is now person that is conceived of as employing various instruments for its own pass¬ ing on into higher forms. (The use of the words, “ higher forms,” is now admissible because we are dealing with the personal realm.) Let us examine the instruments which person employs in life and unfold¬ ment. Person employs matter in the form of food for the maintenance of body, and physic factor creates body out of the chemical elements. As physic factor is the “ core ” of person, that is, a part of person, we may now say that the Reality of person passes into the material and structure of the body. If matter is The Instruments of Personality 285 a complex exhibit of the ether, we may also say that person in its use of food materials passes into a com¬ plex system of activities of the ether within the ether. But the above processes do not limit the instrumenta¬ tion by person of matter and ether through which per¬ son unfolds. Let us observe: In general human development man makes use of the universal ether in certain familiar and intensely interesting ways. The heat of the sun reaches the earth through this universal medium, makes life pos¬ sible, and serves person with infinite diversity and docility. Etheric waves assail person and world inces¬ santly and in inconceivable numbers, and flood the heavens with light. More and more person masters and utilizes light for development and welfare. In this use, and in all artificial light, we see a form of instrumentation through which Reality moves in its unfolding manifestations in person, and we also see person passing over by means of that etheric activity which we call light. Similarly with reference to other forms of etheric activity, such as various rays, and “ stresses ” and “ strains ” exhibiting in magnetism and electricity and gravitation. If we take electricity alone, we are amazed at man’s knowledge, inventions and utilizations involved in his use of this power, and at the physical and mental development resulting there¬ from. If we take a bird’s-eye view of civilization, with its complexities and innumerable objects and ac¬ tivities, we see that it is an actual creation by person out of the raw materials of the world. We may con¬ ceive of a world devoid of civilization, and then place 286 Creative Personality man therein and observe the result in the civilization which he has developed. He began with the raw ma¬ terial of matter and force barren of art, industry, com¬ merce, science, government, and so on, and proceeded to create beauty, utility, law and truth. He creates the objects used in civilization,— buildings, cities, furniture, tools and implements, machinery and means of transportation. He puts himself into mat¬ ter, and creates the results. Reality makes over from raw matter into person and through person into mate¬ rial creations. Thus, person is ever engaged in a process of instrumentation which transforms the earth and its contents. We observe a similar process in the development of human knowledge. Knowledge is a thing of the mind, does not exist apart from mind. There is no knowl¬ edge in an uninhabited wilderness or world. In the sum-total of matter and its activities there are only raw things and forces mechanically operating in cer¬ tain ways. So soon as man begins to study these ways and his own ways of being and doing, knowledge be¬ gins to come into existence. Knowledge is not a something external to mind and projected into it; it is a creation of mind within itself. Mind does not go out of itself into a raw world and gather knowl¬ edge existing there; it remains within person and in¬ terprets the action of a raw world upon it in ways that constitute knowledge. Man creates what we call the laws of Nature. Nature acts in various ways, and we form opinions or conclusions in regard to them, and call these conclusions the laws. Thus, men observe The Instruments of Personality 287 an object falling to the ground, begin to study this fact from all points of view, and state the results of such study in definite propositions, and then refer to the propositions as, say, the law of gravitation or the laws involved in the action of gravity. In primitive man’s life there was no science of Astronomy; man simply was, and the facts simply were; science had yet to be created. In the raw world of Nature there is no Mathematics; there are only facts which mind may interpret into Arithmetic or Differential Calculus. There is no beauty in land or sea or sky until mind interprets the facts and thinks beauty into existence. There is no utility in material atoms and compounds and forces and activities until person creates utility by bringing these existences into its own unfolding life. In such a planet as the moon or the sun, no goodness is discoverable; goodness is a product of creative thought interpreting the fact of intelligent life in terms of harmony and happiness. Thus does man create, not only the material phases of his civilization, but also its higher realities. The whole process exhibits the instrumentation of Reality through person into a con¬ tinuously transforming world. But the marvelous re¬ sult reveals person also engaged in an instrumentation of raw matter and its own raw possibilities into greater and greater human development. For the sake of a comprehensive outlook, let us con¬ ceive of the Fundamental Reality as expressing itself in a Universe utterly devoid of person. There is here merely a complexity of atoms and activities, and no law, no truth, no art, no science,— no knowledge of 288 Creative Personality any kind whatever. Reality has manifested itself in a physical Universe, and that is all. Compare such a universe with the one actually existing. From the one into the other Reality has passed in such a vast and brilliant process that, in order to account for it, we think we must needs invent an infinite creative God. We observe that the difference between the two uni¬ verses above supposed is due to the action of the sum- total of persons upon the facts presented to them, their interpretation thereof and their creation of the non¬ material Universe. The sum-total persons have gone into a process of instrumentation by which they have given raw and meaningless matter untellable meaning and value. The Universe that is really worth while is a product and an actual creation of person. Thus, we see Reality passing over into ether, matter, worlds, person, and through person into a Universe which is knowledge and spritual life. These very general considerations involve one specific kind of activity in person. We have seen that physic factor builds body and creates mind. In the use of mind we have a process of instrumentation by means of which person creates the higher universe. Person puts forth certain kinds of activities during life, and we call the sum-total of these activities the mind. Mind is not an entity save in the sense that it is a system of activities. It only exists as its activities continue. These activities are occasioned by action external to each one of them, but are caused by the nature of physic factor under control of what we call will. They are of person, and are peculiar to person. The Instruments of Personality 289 They are person’s activities, and, since they are always reactions, they are instruments by means of which per¬ son interprets the world and unfolds its powers. These activities are commonly classified as sensation, sense-perception, memory, imagination, emotion, reasoning and will. Every specific activity, its mean¬ ing and its use, exhibit person in a creative act. If you have a sensation, this is your activity, created by your¬ self, whatever the occasion may be. Thus also with every other mental activity. You create the activity by putting it forth. You create its meaning by giving it relation to other activities. You create its use by the act of using it for some purpose. The conclusion is that you have created, or continually are now cre¬ ating, your own mind. It is not a gift to you; it is your own by creative right. You have also created all its meanings, and it is for you to determine its uses. All this means that person employs mind as the instrument by means of which it unfolds itself and creates the higher Universe. There is no other instrument through which these marvelous results can be achieved. Whatever man knows, he knows through some mental activity. Whatever man feels or desires or wills, the act in¬ volved is always a mental one. There is no mysteri¬ ous something in the make-up of person through which it may come into mysterious relations with other mys¬ terious existences — aside from mental operations. Mental operations give person all its interpretations of the Universe and all its possessions of beauty, truth, goodness. The mental operations of person are the 290 Creative Personality only nexus between itself and the Universe of every conceivable constitution. We may classify all the mental instruments of per¬ son in one word — Thought. Thought is the one mo¬ tive power of the universe of person. And thought is always a knowing, a complexity of knowing, a series or system of knowings. This brings us to a definite proposition for which this book stands. Every act of person in mind is a knowing act. To this proposition there are no exceptions. Whenever we mentally act, we in some way know. We here mean that every mental act involves a knowing; we mean that such act is a knowing, and it is absolutely nothing else. This marvelous thing, the knowing act, is the sole instrumentation by means of which we come into relation with externality and master a world, create a higher Universe and unfold the possibilities of Person. The Marvel of Knowing. The mechanism of the Fundamental Reality, hav¬ ing achieved person in a Universe, proceeds further with its unfoldment by the instrumentation of individ¬ ual personal development. Person stands, as it were, in the midst of the Universe and finds itself reacting thereto. This reacting is both physical and mental, but the latter is the cause of the former. The mental reacting of person to its worlds constitutes the nexus, or bridge, by means of which person unfolds its pos¬ sibilities. We call this nexus the knowing act of in - The Instruments of Personality 291 dividualized intelligence. Concerning this act of knowing the following remarks may be made: Some sort of actions are always assailing mental person. These actions may proceed from without the body, or within the body, or within the mind. To such actions always occur some sort of reactions: re¬ action to an interior single activity or group of activi¬ ties in mind, or to any action within the body, or to any action from without the body. The reaction is a response, an acting-back, to that which has occa¬ sioned it. The reaction is itself an act of knowing. The act of knowing involves a meaning. Indeed, until mean¬ ing arises the reaction is not a knowing. We have seen that a meaning is a relation given by person to a mental action with reference to other mental action. Until we can place the activities of our mental rest¬ lessness in relation to each other, the mind is void of meanings and does not know. Every mental reaction, and every meaning in mind, is a thought. Thought is the motive-power nexus by which person fares through Reality, tests out, has ex¬ perience, masters worlds and unfolds. The preceding consideration may now be stated in a different manner. The general subject of knowing analyzes as follows: Apprehension, Comprehension, and Intensive Understanding. These acts are all acts of knowing, but in different phases. Let us observe — The word, “ Apprehension,” springs from two Latin words, ad —“ to ”— and prehendo —“ draw ” : “ to draw to.” By apprehension we “ draw to ” the mass of 292 Creative Personality our mental activities any external action upon us, and, in our reacting to it, place that reaction in such a way as to have a meaning. Thus, we apprehend a word, an idea, a bodily state, an object, a color, a force, and so on. The apprehension may be vague and confused, or clear and distinct, so far as concerns the whole of its object, but always at the core of it distinctness and clearness, so far as it goes, must obtain if it is to be real apprehension. Without this center of dis¬ tinctness and clearness, there is no apprehension, be¬ cause there is no meaning. One walking in a fog may observe a certain deepening of the grayness, and will then merely apprehend that deepening grayness, without making out form or object. If the observer now approaches the vague gray outline, there will follow apprehension after apprehension of various items of fact until the mind gets the meanings of all its reactions and finally comprehends the cause of the outline in the fog as a tree, or an animal, or a build¬ ing, for example. Knowing is also comprehending. This means a greater or lesser collection of apprehensions finally combined into a particular thought or meaning. The collection is now a system of meanings centering in some dominating meaning. Thus, we apprehend the innumerable facts of a house, and the mind gives to all these meanings the combining or dominating mean¬ ing, house. Somewhat arbitrarily we use the phrase, intensive understanding. The phrase here denotes that we pass beyond a superficial or general comprehension, The Instruments of Personality -93 and apprehend more and more of the ideas and facts involved in an object or a thought, or a system of ob¬ jects or thoughts, until it may be said that we have gotten all the meanings now possible on the subject. We now carry these considerations further on into certain great propositions. We now see that the one fundamental act of knowing is a mental reaction or thought having meaning. Our next question is this, What is the meaning of knowing? Or, What rela¬ tion shall we give to the act of knowing among all our other mental acts? The result of a knowing is some kind of knowledge. We have knowledge of ex¬ istences as facts, laws, principles, truths, and Reality. Let us define these words. A Fact is anything that is. A Law is a way things have of being and doing. A Principle is that which determines a thing to be what it is. In order to get our definition of Truth and Knowledge, we must now proceed in a somewhat roundabout way. All our mental activities occur, of course, within the mind. Mental activities do not go away from person, neither do external existences pass into per¬ son. When we apprehend, comprehend, and inten¬ sively understand, we interpret the actions of things and thought by inner processes. The actions of ex¬ ternal things and thoughts are signs, like a written page, to which we give meanings. A general name for these meanings is idea or conception. All classes of facts, laws, principles, truths, represent Reality. Now, we have this general idea, Reality, and we also have all sorts of other ideas concerning thoughts and 294 Creative Personality things. The question at this point arises, Are both these sets of ideas or conceptions, the general and the particular, correct or true? When we are satis¬ fied that this is the case, we say that we know, or that we have knowledge. We are now ready for our defini¬ tions of knowledge and truth. Knowledge is the certainty that our conceptions or ideas of thoughts, persons, things, facts, principles, laws, correspond with Reality. A truth is the cor¬ respondence between our conceptions and Reality so far as it appears to us to be certain. These propo¬ sitions require further consideration, as follows: Since we cannot get outside of ourselves and go a-hunting after Reality and its manifestations in any region beyond the mind, we are compelled to set up for ourselves a standard idea of Reality, and then to compare our ideas of things, thoughts and persons with this standard idea. When our idea of any partic¬ ular thing or existence seems to correspond with the standard idea of Reality, we say that we have a truth, and our certainty that the correspondence is correct is our knowledge on the subject. But the whole process is mentally interior. It is always also relative and a matter of degrees. In what way shall we be¬ come contented in the matter of our certainty of knowledge ? We must simply do the best that we can do in get¬ ting a conception of Reality that is satisfactory to our¬ selves. We must then make as sure as possible that any particular idea or thought of an object, or a law, etc., harmonizes with this idea of Reality. When we The Instruments of Personality 295 have proceeded thus far, we are entitled to say, I know, I have knowledge. The one thing in our life which enables us to come to such a satisfactory state of men¬ tal certainty is experience. We know nothing, we have no knowledge, save as we have experience. We have said that all truth is relative, and that our certainty of knowledge is a matter of degree. It is not to be understood that there are no absolute truths, or that we can come to no positive certainty in know¬ ing. Truth is relative in the sense that it does not exist outside of mind. In a universe barren of mind there would be existences, conditions and operations, but no truths. Truth is also a mental correspondence of ideas. External to mind there is Reality, but mind must form a conception of it, and this conception dif¬ fers in different minds, and also differs in different stages in the development of any one mind. These facts make truth relative to personal history. The state¬ ment that truth is a mental correspondence is itself a truth, which is relative to your mental condition and power and to your conception of Reality and your con¬ ception of any object or activity or principle, and so on. An African dwarf has some conceptions concern¬ ing Reality and things, but they are not even similar to the conceptions of an Oxford professor, and the ideas and mental correspondences of the latter may conceivably change from time to time. Nevertheless, the human mind is so constitutionally adjusted to the universe that it must be able to arrive at some ideas and correspondences which yield a sense of absolute truth. Since the human mind and the Universe are 296 Creative Personality manifestations of one Reality, we must assume a fundamental harmony between the nature of mind and the nature of the Universe, and hold that it is ulti¬ mately possible for mind to form correct conceptions of Reality in all its various expressions in material and non-material existences. For example, it is a fact-truth that America has been discovered, and it is a law-truth that every action demands an actor. From a truth that is merely relative to an individual person to a truth which all capable persons must feel is absolute, there is a long series of mental correspond¬ ences which are relative because experience has not developed universal certainty. The certainty that our conceptions correspond to Reality is also relative in the sense that it is a matter of degree. We say of some things, or facts, or propo¬ sitions, that they may be so, that we are inclined to think they are so, that the probabilities are that they are so, that we believe them to be so, or that we are perfectly sure of them. Our mental attitude thus ranges from one of admitted possibility on through probability to indubitable certitude. It is a possibility, for example, that physical life exists on other planets than the earth, but we have no certain knowledge on this subject; it is a probability that the scientific notion of the universal ether is true, but the fact is not devoid of some uncertainty. Nevertheless, the laws of mathe¬ matics seem to be absolutely unquestionable. The certainty of our knowledge, therefore, is largely rela¬ tive to the individual mind and to human develop¬ ment. Nevertheless, both as regards truth and knowl- The Instruments of Personality 297 edge, we are entitled to stand squarely for such truth and knowledge as we definitely believe in, provided we are reasonably sure that we have done the best pos¬ sible in our search for truth and our quest for knowl¬ edge. And always the goal of experience must be to get at absolute truths and certainty of knowledges. The Instruments of Knowing. It is by the process of knowing that Reality sets over against itself in person itself as not person. Reality has now individualized its possibilities of conscious¬ ness. It may now contemplate itself, discover itself and more and more unfold its intelligence. Prior to the appearance of person, it is simply the all-and-in-all, and cannot accomplish these results. But in person it manifests mind and consciousness, and so is able to set up externally and to develop person by reaction thereto. At the core of the matter, this reaction is knowing. The instruments by which person, that is, you, may react in knowing to the actions of the ex¬ ternal world, are the physical sense-organs and the mental “ faculties.” We consider these instruments in their order, treating them generally, however, and not going into particulars unnecessary to the present dis¬ cussion. I. The Physical Instruments. These instru¬ ments are the sense-organs of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Roughly speaking, the organs of sight consist of the eye-balls, the retina, the optic nerve-tracts connecting therewith and extending backward to a system of 298 Creative Personality nerve-cells located in the posterior portion of the brain. The sole function of a nerve is irritability, that is, the power of excitation under external stimulus and of transmitting this excitation throughout its substance. It is the action of light upon the retina which induces vision. Waves or undulations in the universal ether, within a limited range of lengths and numbers per sec¬ ond and traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per sec¬ ond, impinge upon the retina and excite its rods and cones and the optic nerve, thus inducing a transmis¬ sion of stimulation back into the visual nerve-area. This excitation of the visual area induces a mental reaction to which we give the meaning, sight. Thus we see light. The etheric waves fall upon various ob¬ jects and are in part absorbed by such objects, and in part reflected from such objects. It is by means of reflected light that we perceive objects, forms, colors, motions, and so on. Thus we have the raw material furnished, so to speak, by light acting upon the visual organs of sight, which raw material we know, appre¬ hend, and to which, in the complexity of knowing, we give all the meanings involved in vision. By sight¬ knowing and experience person attains truth and knowledge made possible through the action of light, and embraces more and more of the Reality of the uni¬ verse within its own possessions, so that Reality thus passes over more and more into personal life the ulti¬ mate goal of all things. And this whole process is a knowing, and nothing other than a knowing. Similarly with the organ of hearing. We have the external and internal ears, the auditory nerve-tract, The Instruments of Personality 299 and the brain-area involved in hearing. Atmospheric waves, within a limited range of length, numbers and speed, are gathered by the external ear and finally excite the tympanum and the auditory nerve-tract, which in turn, excited throughout its length, stimulates nerve-cells in the appropriate brain area into an activ¬ ity which we interpret as hearing. Sound is mental reaction in the raw to action upon us of atmospheric waves. This general reaction raises in mind meanings worked over by experience into sensations and ideas such as sound, differing kinds of sound, all noises, dis¬ cords, harmonies, music, speech, “ Voices of Nature.” This process is also a knowing, and nothing other than a knowing. By the knowings of hearing, again, Reality makes over into personal life and person makes over into Reality in its higher manifestations. The know¬ ing is a reaction of person to externality by means of which the Fundamental Reality more and more realizes its possibilities for individualized intelligence. Similarly with reference to smell, taste, touch. We have here the appropriate sense organs, nerve-tracts and brain-areas. In smell and taste we have an action of matter in minute forms upon the nerves of smell and of dissolving forms upon the taste-buds and nerves of taste, and mental reactions thereto that are mean¬ ings which experience works over into kinds of sensa¬ tion and innumerable sense-perceptions. In the case of touch we have the action of matter in various states in nerve-ends distributed throughout the bodily sur¬ face, and reactions of mind thereto that constitute all the meanings involved, which, in turn, are worked over 300 Creative Personality by experience into knowledge, such as hardness, resist¬ ance, form, temperature, and so on. The reactions and the worked-over meanings are nothing other than knowings. Reality has again passed over into person and by the instrumentation indicated has passed over into the higher manifestations of itself, as person in the same process has passed over into greater develop¬ ments of its powers. All the knowings resulting from the reaction of mental person induced by the action upon it of externality through the sense organs are thus seen to be a system of instrumentations by which person mentally lives, uses the world, and makes its way onward through Reality which it more and more absorbs into itself. II. The Mental “Faculties.” It is said that the senses give us the “ raw material ” of our knowl¬ edge. This means that through the sense-organs we have the beginnings of knowing, or knowing in a pri¬ mary and general form which the mind through ex¬ perience develops, refines, and classifies. Even in its primary general form the knowing is at its core clear and distinct so far as it goes, and is thus complete. You either have a sensation or you do not; there is no raw sensation, no incomplete sensation, when you have a sensation at all, because your mental reaction is just That — a sensation. There is no raw or in¬ complete perception of an external object, except in the sense that the perception may not include the whole of the object, or the object as separated from other objects, or all the details of the object; but under any of these exceptions the perception as such is itself, The Instruments of Personality 301 and completely precisely That — a perception. All this means that when you know through the sense- organs, you actually and completely do know so far as you go. We cannot think of a half-knowing, or a tenth-part knowing. Knowing is a mental reaction to some other action, and it either definitely is or it definitely is not. But no act of knowing ever em¬ braces at once all that it may embrace. Moreover, there is always the possibility that every act of know¬ ing may become associated with other acts of knowing, and that all our knowings may become more and more inter-related into greater and greater complexities of knowledge. The process by which we attain the latter results may be called the working-over of raw ma¬ terial, and it is conducted by mental experience. This mental experience involves the use of the various established ways of acting and knowing which we call the mental “ faculties.” Let us investigate these “ fac¬ ulties ” as instruments by means of which person uses and absorbs the worlds about him, observing, however, that it is our purpose here merely to suggest that our mental activities are invariably acts of knowing, and not to elaborate upon them. (1.) Sensation. Sensations are induced by vari¬ ous physical states or activities, but consist of mental awareness of such states. One has not sensation with¬ out knowing it, and the knowing is the sensation. It is almost if not quite impossible to recognize a pure sensation,— a mere Thatness of the body,— and we have to form an abstract notion of it by imagining the mental state of a very young infant. Here, as nearly 302 Creative Personality as we can suppose, the infant’s sensations are element¬ ary mental states induced by elementary physical states. If all your mental activities could be reduced to a mere' awareness of luminousness, this would be an example of pure sensation. It is commonly said that sensation is elementary, that it cannot be analyzed, as though this were an exceptional fact. But, if we remember that all mental acts are primarily acts of knowing in the sense of apprehension, we see that in the last analysis all the “ mental faculties ” involved elementary activities of mind. In elementary sensa¬ tion there is a knowing of a physical state without a knowledge of that knowing, without a name for it, without a reference to the state or the cause thereof. In simple sensation we know, but we do not know that we know. This mere knowing is the beginning of the nexus over which person passes in coming to self- consciousness and the conscious possession of world; it is the first element of the instrumentation by means of which Reality passes through psychic factor into individualized intelligence and thence into person and beyond. (2.) Sense-Perception. Sense-perception is usu¬ ally associated with a number of other mental activi¬ ties. There is sensation, which may be only dimly or may be vividly known, there is a reference of the sense-state to some occasion of it, and there is a mean¬ ing or a set of meanings which give place and name — at least idea — to that occasion. The occasion may be an object, a quality, a movement, etc., in some way affecting one or more of the sense-organs, and the oc- The Instruments of Personality 303 casion is perceived because there is in mind a knowing of the sensation, a reference thereof to the occasion and a meaning given to the reference in terms of ob¬ ject, quality, movement, and so on. If we remember that the meaning is really the reference and that the sensation is the occasion of the meaning, we see that the perception is in itself a single act, knowing. Thus, we perceive a tree or a motion or a color, and only perceive tree, motion, color in the single act of appre¬ hending. Everything associated with this one act is essential to the perception. Our perceptions may be complete in the sense that there is an almost instan¬ taneous embracing by apprehension of any Realities affecting sense-organ, but it would be possible to an¬ alyze the complex into its constituent element, each one of which would then turn out to be a knowing. What has been said of sense-perception is true of any mental act of perceiving, say, an idea, a picture, and a mo¬ tion, or a feeling of volition. Perception is thus a further phase of instrumentation by means of which we make Reality a part of personal development. (3.) Consciousness. Consciousness is not a basis or background or field of mental activities, but is, rather, the sum-total of our mental activities in any present instant. For example, sensation does not ap¬ pear in consciousness; it so far forth constitutes con¬ sciousness — a sensation-consciousness. So, the act of perceiving is a perception-consciousness. Thus with every other mental activity; each constitutes a con¬ sciousness. We are conscious by means of, and in the act of, sensation, perception, attention, memory, and 304 Creative Personality so on. This discloses the fact that consciousness re¬ duces to a knowing, or a complex of knowings. When every act of knowing disappears, consciousness ceases. Self-activities that are pre-mental constitute each a consciousness which cannot immediately be brought under the control of self-consciousness and made objects of direct observation. They are a type of consciousness in the general sense. In these we know, but do not know that we know. In ordinary consciousness we know, and are always capable of knowing that we know. In self-consciousness there is a mental act which has the meaning, or is the meaning, “ the I senses, perceives, remembers,” and so on. This also in its last analysis is a knowing of the self by the self. Thus our instrumentation goes on. (4.) Attention and Concentration. Concentration is intensified and narrowed attention. In attention, whether through sense-organs or mental activities, there is usually what is called a “ field,” in which vari¬ ous objects are embraced, but having a center on which attention is focused. Thus, we may hear many sounds or harmonies within a certain limited range of con¬ scious-recognition, but we give conscious heed to a few of them only, or perhaps to one of them alone. So, also, we may observe, with differing degrees of direct¬ ness and intentness, one or more objects in a “ field ” of vision, meanwhile being more or less aware of many other objects within that “field.” We attend when we more or less focalize our mental activities. The more we thus focalize our mental activities and per¬ sist therein, the more we pass from mere attention to The Instruments of Personality 305 concentration. Observe, that the so-called concentra¬ tion of certain new-thought teachings which seeks to put our thought away and to reduce the mind to a vacuum, is not concentration at all. It is the opposite, and has no value whatever. Attention and concentra¬ tion are merely uses to which we put our mental pow¬ ers. In fact, every directed mental activity is an act of attention, or of concentration if intense and per¬ sistent, and the attention is the activity itself. And always, when we attend, we know, since there is no other meaning to be given a mental activity than a knowing. (5.) Memory. The act of remembering is a com¬ bination of knowings, but each knowing is itself, and nothing other. There is a mental activity which is more or less a perfect repetition of some previous ac¬ tivity in the mind’s history. This repetition-activity person knows or apprehends. There is a knowing that the activity is a repetition. There is therefore a knowing of the idea, a past. There is a knowing that the self has previously existed and that it now con¬ tinues. The repetition, of course, may include one or a number of the previous activities. When these ele¬ ments of knowing are all embraced in one mental state, we say that we remember, or recall, so and so. The recall may be spontaneous or the result of effort. The act of recall is the act of recognition, and this word, re-cognition, means, to re-know. The recall or re¬ cognition is a knowing that the mental activities in¬ volved are repetitions, more or less correct, of previous mental action. Thus, the whole of memory resolves 306 Creative Personality into elements each of which is a knowing. Here we have instrumentation which carries, as it were, a past over into the present, and makes it possible for person to profit by experience and carry the present into a future. In the sum-total of such personal instru¬ mentation by means of memory, Reality carries a uni¬ versal past over into a universal future of all-embrac¬ ing unfoldment. (6.) Imagination. We do not employ this word as falling under the scope of memory at all. Remem¬ bered ideas, acts, states, pictures, etc., are, indeed, em¬ ployed by imagination, but they do not constitute the mental process, imagination. A carpenter must needs use material in the building of a house, yet no one could say that the materials apart from the building- process are either the house or the construction of it. Imagination constructs new combinations out of re¬ peated previous mental activities. It is impossible for the human mind to imagine any combination of ideas or states or movements where the elements of the com¬ bination have previously not been known. The act of recognizing the previously known elements is an act of memory, but the construction of the combination is an act of imagination. This combination the person who creates it knows as a total, and he also knows the mental processes involved in the creation, in the sense of apprehending the creative activities. Whether imagination combines previous ideas or pic¬ tures, or, by such creations carried on as trial-initia¬ tives, acts in the interest of a purpose, every activity involved is a knowing, and in the last analysis, nothing The Instruments of Personality 307 other than a knowing. Our analysis of imagination shows that since it is a creative process and combines repetitions of previous activities and into new wholes, it acts as a nexus of instrumentation by means of which Reality passes over in person to new and higher expressions of itself, and also by means of which per¬ son achieves development. (7.) Reasoning. In the process of reasoning we draw conclusions, inferences, judgments. These we state in mental propositions of fact, or law, or princi¬ ple, or truth, or belief, and the like. The process con¬ sists of a mental consideration of certain specific things which we now know, or of conclusions which we already know or believe, until we arrive at some general conclusion covering all the matters in hand, which conclusion gives us a degree of mental satis¬ faction. In the consideration of specific facts, etc., for a final conclusion, the reasoning process is induc¬ tive. In the consideration of previously stated propo¬ sitions, or premises, for a final conclusion, the process is deductive. In our conclusions, inferences and judg¬ ments we reach one definite statement which is made possible by “ the real interdependence of things con¬ formably to law.” The idea of law is itself a conclu¬ sion from our knowledge that all existences have cer¬ tain uniform ways of being and doing, and that this is true of our mental constitution. The mind constitu¬ tionally harmonizes itself, or tends to harmonize itself, with the constitution of manifested Reality. If we could imagine ourselves to be a mere mass of lawless activities existing in a lawless Universe, we see that 308 Creative Personality it would be utterly impossible to form any conclusion whatever. This would be true because the mind could then have no definite established knowledge, and could therefore come to no state of mental balance and satisfaction. For the reason that we know that the Universe, including ourselves, is a system of law, we say that the mind is so constituted that when it is pre¬ sented with sufficient evidence it necessarily concludes so and so. The necessity indicated springs also from the fact that we already know through experience cer¬ tain things, principles, laws, and so on. In this knowl¬ edge we have precepts, single ideas of individual exist¬ ences derived through the action of a single sense; concepts, general or class ideas derived from the oper¬ ation of all the senses, of thought and experience, and covering all the existences of a given kind; judgments, or conclusions as above stated. The reasoning process, therefore, is an act of knowing both the ele¬ ments involved and the induced or the deduced con¬ clusions. The knowing is of the degrees of corre¬ spondence with Reality previously suggested, possibly correct, probably correct, surely correct. The sliding scale of the degrees of uncertainty to certainty is a measure of our mental balance or satisfaction con¬ cerning the matters in hand, according to the mind’s native abilities, training and development. But in any event, the knowing is satisfactory for the individual and is legitimate so far as his reasoning goes, although later it may be rejected for a different or apparently more certain act of knowing. From these considera¬ tions we conclude that in reasoning we have a process The Instruments of Personality 309 of instrumentation by means of which, in connection with other mental activities, person passes over or makes over out of the realm of mere sensation into that of the highest mentality and the wide embrace of the great departments of human knowledge and devel¬ opment. (8.) Emotions. We employ the word emotion to include such mental states as feelings, passions and emotions. These states should be distinguished from those induced by the sense-organs and physical con¬ ditions, which are, properly speaking, sensations, although they may give rise to emotions. A mental state is a mental activity or a series or system of ac¬ tivities. In emotions we have mental activities that are in a degree satisfactory or in a degree unsatisfac¬ tory, and are usually associated with corresponding physical states or activities affecting the self — sensa¬ tions. The emotions proper consist of mental activi¬ ties in interaction and dominated by some supreme activity. The mental activities are thoughts or ideas, which are satisfactory or unsatisfactory, as compared with a standard of welfare or otherwise set up by the individual. The dominating activity in an emo¬ tion is an idea which is more or less suggestive of, and creates around itself, so to speak, other ideas of a more or less similar character. Illustrations: a man has the idea that his betrothed is ill, and this idea raises other ideas of fear and worrying imaginations, and the cluster of ideas, which are all unsatisfactory, in¬ duces a set of physical sensations that enhance his dissatisfaction, until, if not controlled, all these activi- 310 Creative Personality ties increase to a state of mental turmoil. Thus al¬ ways with our emotions: they are no merely passive states, but are systems of mental activities or ideas dominated and induced by some central idea without which they could not occur. The emotions may raise the sensations, or the sensations may raise the emo¬ tions, but always the emotions are mental activities that analyze into thought, agreeable or otherwise ac¬ cording to some standard of welfare held by the in¬ dividual. In emotion, therefore, we know; — the emo¬ tion is knowing. Person now goes into a process of instrumentation by means of which it develops the experiences of pleasure and happiness, or of discom¬ fort, displeasure or pain or distress, and thus learns to standardize more and more its ideas of welfare in harmony with the one necessarily true universal stand¬ ard, universal harmony. The significance of emotions is the fact that in them person enlarges the scope of its activities, embraces more of Reality, comes to greater comprehension of existence, and may learn how to live at its best. We may measure personal development and the standard of personal welfare by one’s pleasures and joys, and by the intensity of his emotions and their relation to the universal harmonies of life. If the pleasures are coarse and temporary, if the happiness is vague and little more than com¬ fort, and if the standard of welfare is inferior, person and personal life correspond. Such an existence transcends the animal life in but scanty degree. If the pleasures are refined and have a capacity for per¬ manence, if the happiness is clear and distinct and The Instruments of Personality 311 intense, and of a nature which can feed upon itself and only grow by the process, and if the standard of welfare has the meaning of universal harmony and happiness, person has come to deep and broad and rich consciousness, and life is marvelous in value and power. In other words, we measure person, for one thing, by its emotions, that is to say, by its standard of welfare, and the satisfaction or dissatisfaction at¬ tending or given by its emotional ideas. In the emo¬ tions, then, Reality, having achieved person, tends through personal life to manifest itself in its highest form. (9.) Will. Will is any idea so dominant as to induce and control activity. We may here say that will is free in the sense that the dominating idea may always be rejected or entertained, and that the su¬ preme Dominating Idea is this, “ Whatever set or deadlock of ideas may occur at any time, I always break up the situation by the arbitrary action of the Idea of Freedom.” It may be true that the breaking up of a mental deadlock by the idea, “ I do as I like,” is in the last analysis determination but this kind and measure of freedom are all that human life re¬ quires for unlimited development. Will is Dynamic Idea. This idea is a knowing. If it were not a know¬ ing it could have no existence and occasion no ac¬ tivity. By the will-knowing and all the knowings in¬ volved in its domination, Reality bridges over from sheer mechanism to intelligent self-direction and un- foldment in person, and person issues out of mere animality and becomes a god. When the Universe 312 Creative Personality achieves this godness in finite person, it gives Deity moral opportunity and justifies the Universe. Having completed our general survey of the instru¬ ments, that is the complex activities in knowing, by means of which person comes more and more into mental embrace and control of worlds, let us now briefly reiterate our proposition that the knowing and development of person are invariably reactions to ex¬ ternal activity. All Knowing a Reactive Product. At this point we wish to emphasize the fact that all our knowing is a product of reaction to external ac¬ tivity. When we understand this, we begin to find our place in the universe, and to see that development and success in life are matters which we may and can take in hand and control. Let us review this general process of reaction, beginning with the earliest living organism. This organism is a mass of protoplasm, formed of certain elements. This mass is a chemical compound, and the compound is the result of the inter-reaction of its chemical elements. The result is the exhibition of the phenomena of what we call life. Life may be an entity, but it is never dissociated from chemical reaction. In chemical reaction there is a release of energy and a rearrangement of the constituents of the elements. The exhibits of life result, then, from re¬ action. Somewhere along the line of life’s continuous manifestation, psychic factor appears. In the view of this book it is of no importance whether life and The Instruments of Personality 313 psychic factor are separable from matter or not, since both are expressions of our Fundamental Reality. Mechanically the Reality makes to life through the interaction of its manifestations, and mechanically the Reality makes to what we call psychic factor through the interaction of the elements of matter exhibiting life. Psychic factor appears when, under certain condi¬ tions, certain chemical elements interact among them¬ selves and react to environment. The organism seems to be at first as identical in substance throughout as a chemical compound, and performs its functions, that is, reacts in similar ways, anywhere throughout its struc¬ ture. In time this type of life develops functional parts or organs, and specializes therein its different kinds of activity. The outcome is always the result of reaction to environment, the reaction becoming special and definite, and so developing the functional parts or organs. The final result in the case of man is the development of a given type of body, many special functional organs, and its various members. The human sense-organs are all the results of a long history of the reaction of psychic factor to specific kinds of activity upon it by environment. Thus, light, or etheric waves, assail the periphery of a primitive organism, and a process of visual development is begun which, after ages of increasingly complex reactions, results in the human eye. Thus, also, it is the action of sound, or atmospheric waves, which induces a long series of reactions becoming more and more complex, that results finally in the human ear. Similarly, the 314 Creative Personality organs of smell, taste and touch issue out of an age¬ long series of reactions with different kinds of external activity. The members of the human body come to increasing perfection, also, through greater and greater differentiation of body-reaction with external exist¬ ences, compelled by the necessity of sustaining the organism and the necessity of maintaining and devel¬ oping mentality as created by psychic factor. The law of this whole process is, No development without Re¬ action, and the truth is, All reactions in the develop¬ ment of and in the use of the human organism are conducted by psychic factor. But always in this general process psychic reactions occur of a mental order, becoming more and more complex, yet more and more specific and functional. The total outcome is the human mind. The native restlessness of psychic factor which is a manifest of Reality at first vagoie and incomplete, but becoming more and more definite and perfect, expresses its na¬ ture all along in a tendency toward individual and self-controlling intelligence, that is, toward a system of reactions in knowing. The capacity for knowing, exhibiting at first in a vague animal sensation and going on to an awareness of animal needs, continues to realize itself through increasingly complex know¬ ing reactions, and finally establishes habits of such re¬ actions in definite ways which constitute mind. In the manifestations of Reality in psychic factor react¬ ing to environment, which is itself manifest Reality, we see, therefore, this outcome: Reality reacting with itself through the instrumentations of psychic The Instruments of Personality 315 factor and developing mind, and thus unfolding its greater possibilities. Thus, again, the law appears: No development save through reaction, and the truth emerges that all such reaction is conducted by unfold¬ ing psychic factor. We may more broadly emphasize the proposition before us by reference to human conduct and life. Whatever you as an individual are, or think, or do, signifies all sorts of reactions of your body, your mind, your total persqn, to men and worlds around you, or, it may be added, to your own innerstates and activi¬ ties. We cannot isolate a single human action which is not a reaction to some other action. The law of inertia holds: no action without reaction, no reaction without action. This is true of all manifestations of Reality. How Reality, as we have defined it, can begin to manifest within itself, we do not, of course, know. If, now, your personal conduct is a product of reactions, human life in the general sense must also be so interpreted. All community life, all tribal life, all national life, all world-life, all barbarism, and all civilization with its great departments of activity and knowledge, are simply complexities of reactions of individuals, tribes and nations with environment and among themselves. Thus is indicated the place and function of human person in the Universe. Each one of us is, as it were, a target of the activities of a universe. In one way and another every existence throughout all worlds as¬ sails us with its activities. Within the narrower range of home or community, or nation, or world, each 316 Creative Personality of us is incessantly assailed by innumerable actions of existences, and person. Conduct and life are all complex systems of our own reactions thereto. At the center of any such system of reactions operates the one climacteric system of reactions which we call knowings. Our intelligence and personal develop¬ ment and life and success are measured by just that central system of reactions. Is this great complex, growing, potent and self-controlled? Our mental sys¬ tem of reactions to environment and the Universe an¬ swers the question. But answers the question in part only. One other phase of reaction in knowing remains for brief consideration. This variety of reactions is usually referred to sentiment and religion, but it is here insisted that the reference should be regarded as purely incidental and as indicating the traditions of imperfect thinking. Let us now observe: The Reaction of Love. Love is an emotion, but, as we have seen, it is really a composite of ideas centering in some one dominating idea. The ideas are of a satisfactory nature, that is, they harmonize with other elements in the individual mental life. They are usually associated with or in¬ duced by various physical sensations, but this is not always the case. One may have love for the human race and exhibit the fact in philanthropy, yet only occasionally be conscious of any sensation resulting therefrom. The dominating idea is here human wel¬ fare, and this idea develops other ideas concerning the The Instruments of Personality 317 welfare of given individuals. All these ideas in this type of person harmonize with his mental make-up, and the harmony constitutes his pleasure, although, at times, such ideas will develop physical reactions with more or less excitement and agreeableness. In the constitution of the Universe this type of the love- thought is as truly a power of the nature of things as gravity is a force. We may analyze patriotism, or the love of country, with similar conclusions, and then discover that love is the force-action of the Funda¬ mental Reality; it is a sentiment, but it is as truly dynamic as anything in the science of Physics. In the individualized love of friendship appear the ideas of approval, attraction, service and welfare, with vari¬ ous associated ideas and physical sensations which harmonize with all the activities of the mind and are therefore agreeable. Similarly, also, with those types of love which we refer to family life or the blood- relationship. In our analysis all these types of love are harmonious thoughts, and as thoughts they definitely and constitutionally affect Reality and its manifestations throughout environment and the whole universe. If we define love as mental activity having the meanings of sympathy or harmony with the wel¬ fare of its object, we see that all love-ideas are in har¬ mony with the goal of the Universe. Universal har¬ mony and happiness must have more or less of the power and drift of the universal nature of things. Let us, then, no longer class love as a sentiment or a phase of religion, which may be discarded if we will, and disregarded in practical affairs from gardening to 318 Creative Personality government, and remember that love is precisely a cluster of mental actions to which the nature of things must react and respond for the welfare of the lover and the whole universe. A further type of love manifests in the sex-life. We believe that sex is confined to physical conditions, and that its main outcome is the perpetuation of the race. We do not accept distinctions of sex as in¬ herent in psychic factor or mentality. It may be said that the basis of sex-life consists of physical differ¬ ences and functions, but these differences and func¬ tions give rise to the most beautiful, wonderful and powerful reactions in mind of which we have knowl¬ edge. It is almost certain that they lie at the heart of all human development, since it is difficult to be¬ lieve that modern civilization could possibly have re¬ sulted from the activities of a single-sex race. It would seem that most sex-unions succeed only in realizing the possibilities of sex-love in the per¬ petuation of the species and in the development of certain ideas, such as fidelity, devotion, duty, etc., which are of great value and exert the power of their type, yet do not exhibit the glory and the dynamics of two human lives brought together by perfect harmony of character and thought. The common results, how¬ ever, reveal the action of a power, which, even in ordinary life is prophetic of the greater things. In all its phases the sex-force is wellnigh irresistible in its action, and when the higher manifestations of the two lives, harmonious in mind and body, give it noblest expression, it becomes a creator of the greatest type. The Instruments of Personality 319 For then it inspires human activities which send the world far on toward its goal. Ideas of the finest order then cluster into wonderful constellations of emotions having as their central dominating thought ideals and purposes which sublime life and make it potent for every good. Let us remark on this sub¬ ject : We repudiate the notion of human inferiority or superiority due in any sense to differences in sex. If woman seems in any way to be inferior, the matter is either a merely individual case, or is due to the fact that woman has had no opportunity for develop¬ ment adequate through the possibilities of her nature. Moreover, she may surpass man in many respects the value of which he does not recognize. And, above all, her mate in marriage may utterly fail to call out the best expression of her highest nature. This in¬ dicates the critical thing in sex-union. The woman may also fail to call out the noblest in the man. We suggest, therefore: When two people attract each other and think of uniting their lives, they may be drawn together by physical attractiveness, or by sex-magnetism, or by deeper personal characteristics, or by all such factors. Unless the last factor is dominant, we shall have an imperfect union. The results will be the ordinary out¬ comes familiar to all. But when, in addition to per¬ sonal attractiveness and sex-magnetism, each individ¬ ual is drawn to the other by those deeper personal characteristics which reveal human life at its best, and when each calls forth in the other a corresponding 320 Creative Personality expression, we have then a union that can never fail in happiness and power so long as each continues to develop and to call forth and exhibit the best of which each is capable. The attracting force will then prove itself the most potent, far-reaching, and marvelous force in all human life. In all associational life there is action and reaction. Marriage especially exhibits this fact. We have here the most complicated physical and mental action by each person upon the other, and a corresponding re¬ action. In the midst of all this action and reaction, there may be repressions and conflicts, or there may be inspiration and harmony. The former results dem¬ onstrate that human life is tangled, confused, ham¬ pered and bound, and we believe that, where other considerations permit, the two lives would better go apart. We so believe because of a conviction that neither life will lose by the separation, but that both lives will gain thereby through the action of Universal Life. For always, when the reactions of two lives upon each other bring discord and unhappiness into expression, the result is inevitably a failure in each of highest development. Where the harmony which we have suggested obtains, there is ideal marriage. The reactions of each to the other now tend to bring out the best in each, and to minister to happiness, and to multiply individual power. In the relationship of marriage we have a very com¬ plex system of knowings. There is the knowing of acquaintance and understanding. There is the know¬ ing of physical contact, and there are all the knowings The Instruments of Personality 321 of mental and personal life which constitute the com¬ mon and hidden meanings of each to the other. In ideal marriage there is a knowing which attaches a meaning, or a complex of meanings, to human exist¬ ence which no other human relation can induce, and the depth and scope of which the mind of man has never encompassed. In the sex-union of two human beings our Funda¬ mental Reality passes on into individual after individ¬ ual through the long history of man, and so maintains its expression in person. By means of the perpetua¬ tion of the race it also passes over, through a long and intricate series of instrumentations in knowing, from higher to higher forms of personal unfoldment. In any marriage of a satisfactory type there is a degree of this instrumentation. As marriage approaches the ideal, the advance toward the goal of universal wel¬ fare and happiness becomes more assured, because now Reality finds freest and fullest expression in the highest forms of human action and knowing, and so brings out its deepest, richest and most potent mean¬ ings. It would seem that our universal ideal must be a type of human life in which every action is in¬ spired by and is inspirational of something greater than itself, in which every action is a perfect joy, in which every action is a struggle of the nature of things to exhibit its best possibilities throughout the whole Universe. Having now completed our general survey of what we call instrumentation, the question of the practical man confronts us with imperious force: What is the 322 Creative Personality value of this discussion to the everyday life? We answer as follows: Practical Outcomes. The present chapter is a phase of our total study, and the work and the knowledge involved in the study will be practical in value so far as applied to the individual life. All knowledge has its practical appli¬ cations, sooner or later, as such. The knowledge of self is important for the reason that it tends to bring about a better understanding of how to use that self in any kind of work. It is a weakness in our life that we are always trying to accomplish things without un¬ derstanding the powers we use and the best methods for using them. The more you know of your person the better can you employ your abilities in whatever you undertake. Moreover, the mental discipline of this study has the value of developing and training your entire personality. Some one has said, “ Es ist besser immer etwas zu wissen,” and our study will demonstrate that “ It is better always to know some¬ thing.” Moreover, Psychology centers all science and all life. Without person the world has no meaning because it has no utility. All sciences have some sort of prefer¬ ence to mental person, since the more we comprehend them the more do we seek to know their relation to man, and our final understanding of them takes into them the explanatory significance which they derive from the relation of their facts to human life. All human science is a demand that man should know The Instruments of Personality 323 himself, since he cannot utilize the facts and laws of Nature to the best save as he increasingly under¬ stands himself. You as an individual may not appre¬ ciate this proposition because you seem so small a part of humanity, but it is only necessary to that appreciation to remember that your life is a part of the whole of human life, and that, if man more suc¬ cessfully understands and utilizes Nature the more he knows himself, this is also true in a proportionate degree of the individual. It is the belief of all the books in The Power-Book Library that success in life depends upon rightly knowing and rightly using our human nature. Moreover, again, human life, like all other life, is always action. Life is an expression of Fundamental Reality, and action is life’s effort always to realize the More of itself. All things needed for the unfold- ment to the limit of any type of life, life draws forth from itself as Reality. This drawing-forth is accom¬ plished by action, and by action alone. The law is, No development without action, and no action without some development in some direction. All human ac¬ tivity, therefore, is an expression of the nature of things in man. To this proposition there are no ex¬ ceptions. Man puts forth no activity which it is not the nature of things in him to put forth, whether that activity be what we call foolish and immoral or wise and righteous. In the whole of human life our ac¬ tivities simply manifest the possibilities of Reality. Putting aside for the moment such activities as seem to “ go wrong,” we now see that every individual’s 324 Creative Personality activities go into the sum-total manifestations of the nature of things, and are so far forth important. The activities of a street sweeper are not less truly im¬ portant than are the activities of a statesman, although they may seem more lowly. Every variety of human endeavor, in any vocation or avocation, in any kind of toil, business, profession, in any kind of pleasure or catering, is an integral phase of the whole human exhibit of Reality. Human action has this dignity, that it is a phase of the nature of things in action, and is a contribution to the sum-total of human action. All individual action, in its mental origins, is a re¬ action and a knowing. All human action has some mental origin, and all human development involves the knowing of experience. No matter how lowly the ac¬ tivities of the individual life may be, they are con¬ tributions to the whole mass of universal action, knowl¬ edge and experience. This legitimatizes your life, no matter what that life may be — so far as we have now gone in this discussion. Moreover, again, when Reality manifests in human person, its mechanical workings are brought more or less under the control of individualized intelligence. The struggle now is toward a control of the nature of things in the interest of universal harmony and hap¬ piness. This struggle draws a line through the sum- total of human activities, and divides the legitimate from the illegitimate, or the useful from the destruc¬ tive. Not all human activities, not all human know¬ ings, are approvable, however truly they express the nature of things. The nature of things simply ex- The Instruments of Personality 325 hibits the mechanically working law of cause and ef¬ fect. Whenever the mechanics of Nature start a cause, an effect is insured. Whenever human life starts a cause, an effect must follow. Our life is a complex of actions and reactions, each of which has the nature of a cause which must produce its effect. It is the function of our intelligence to utilize and con¬ trol this law of cause and effect. We accomplish these things through knowing and experience. Our whole mental life bombards Nature with causes, and is in turn bombarded by the resulting effects. The lesson, therefore, is that we start into action causes which shall bring back to us only those effects that make for individual welfare and happiness. This is the cri¬ terion of legitimate human knowing and action. The further lesson appears that, in the midst of life’s storm of causes and effects, we guide ourselves by legitimate knowing and experience through all the bombardment to which we are incessantly subjected, in the interest of welfare and happiness. The standard that determines whether or no our activities are legitimate is the tend¬ ency of the outcome for or against universal welfare and happiness. It thus appears that we are not to content ourselves with the conclusion that every human activity ex¬ presses the nature of things, and therefore immorality and foolishness are inevitable and legitimate. The dishonest gamester and the reckless thinker, the worth¬ less idler, the criminal, and the man who plays with human thought, each of these is natural, since he con¬ stitutes a system of causes and effects, but none of 326 Creative Personality these is making his way through that wild storm of causes and effects which we call human life, in the direction of universal harmony and happiness. With these discriminations, we now understand that normal human activity, of every description, in every field of life, has this dignity and this value, that it is a phase of universal unfoldment. The writer has found himself entertaining a degree of mild contempt for mere business, mere amusement, and a good deal of religious activity, and much of theoretical thought, such as occultism and so on. But the investigation of the studies of this book emphatically brought out the fact that, since every human activity is at base a mental action, a knowing, and a contribution to universal development, we must assign to the endeavor and life of every man and woman the dignity of being a mani¬ festation of Fundamental Reality, and pass adverse judgment against that only which is contrary to uni¬ versal welfare and happiness. In a word, we discover the practical value of these studies in the fact that they are studies of the various instruments or methods by which human person passes over from lower to higher forms of development. The more we understand these methods, the more are we able to utilize and control them. They are involved in absolutely everything that man is and does, and they make useful all his knowings and all his actions pro¬ vided they have the goal of welfare and happiness in view. You cannot live a minute, you cannot do a day’s work, you cannot think on any subject, without bringing into operation the instrumentations sug- The Instruments of Personality 327 gested in this chapter. That is their practical value, and that value will be enhanced as you understand them and apply them to life. In order to indicate this value more specifically, we proceed to our regimes. Practical Regimes. First Regime of Instrumentation. The student should never for one moment forget that he is a mani¬ fest of, and in essence one with, Infinite Reality. He should dwell on this thought until it becomes an in¬ spiration and a dignifying power in his life. It is law that we cannot get away from Reality, but it is also law that unless we live up to the truth, Reality may pass out of us into other manifestations, because the set of things toward universal welfare and happiness is irresistible, and may conceivably draw out of any individual person who will not live up to the require¬ ments of the goal. Second Regime of Instrumentation. It is important that the student should get hold of the idea of instru¬ mentation. As the author writes these pages, he em¬ ploys the instruments of pen, ink, paper, nerves, mus¬ cles, hands, and his mental powers, and the process, which is an instrumentation, passes him, so to speak, into the composite result. This illustrates all cases. Your whole life is instrumentation by which Reality makes into you, and you make into your share of the Universe. And the one method of getting the idea consists in thinking it until it is a part of your mental life. Third Regime of Instrumentation. In thinking of 328 Creative Personality yourself as person engaged in such instrumentation, do not separate yourself into Reality as body and Reality as mind, and do not suppose that your instru¬ mentation is, now through body, now through mind, but remember that you are one person and that the instrumentation engages your total Reality making over into life. You will then obviate weak ideas about body as of secondary importance, and feel that the whole of you goes into whatever you do. Fourth Regime of Instrumentation. You are in¬ vited to remember that, whether or no you are aware of the fact, you are always passing Reality over into different forms. The question arises, Are these forms merely dif¬ ferent or are they of a higher order — do they con¬ tribute to the general welfare, not as a matter of morals or religion, but as concerns the reaction of all things upon yourself? It is suggested that, for sheer self-interest, you seek to pass yourself over into human life in higher forms which represent the most intelli¬ gent use of human faculty. Do not merely exist; live, and live highly. Thus each of us may help swing a Universe into best estate. Fifth Regime of Instrumentation. Remember that in the instrumentation of your life you are passing the ether, matter, physical life, force, person and thought through yourself, and thus giving them significance and value. This means that you transform manifests of Reality on its way “ toward one far-off, divine event toward which the whole creation moves.” Your instrumentation is an absolutely important phase of The Instruments of Personality 329 this vast development. Do not belittle yourself, your work. Your action expresses the nature of things as truly as did that of Newton, and is as truly useful if it has a similar tendency. Observe this: as you live on from day to day, you actually bring into existence a part of the higher Universe. The total of your life sections that Universe into a department which is solely your own, and which belongs to you. When the carpenter enters a completed dwelling, he may say, perhaps, “ I constructed that sideboard, that stairway,” and so on. In this sense, but also in a completer sense, you may say of the present Universe of personal life and thought, “ I put forth activities and created re¬ sults, which work makes a department absolutely my own.” Remember, and make it fit and fine. It is also true that each person passes himself on into the material world in the sense that he impresses all matter with which he comes in contact, or in the immediate presence of which he daily lives, leaving thereon a record of his feelings, thoughts and actions. Thus, also, do you add to your department in Uni¬ versal Reality. Make it fit and fine. Sixth Regime of Instrumentation. Remember that you are a creator, and that you cannot possibly escape so long as you exist. Your thoughts and activities are actualities which you bring into existence. Moreover, you are an intelligent creator, having the power more or less to determine your creations, and always to direct the creative process. It should give a man a sense of dignity and value to remember that he, no less than the artist or the inventor, actually forces 330 Creative Personality Reality into manifest forms, and it should induce in¬ telligent creative living. You are invited to seek the inspiration of this thought: “I am not a negative quantity on this earth; I am a creator; I help build the better Universe.” Seventh Regime of Instrumentation. In all our physical activities we constitute the organ or member employed, and each activity is a knowing at that point. Your sense-organs, your organs of speech, and the other members of your body know how to act and what to do because you in them know how to act and what to do. But all this knowing is mental. You see, then, that you pass Reality over into life by your actions, by the complexities of your knowing, and that you are a creator because you are a knower, creating only in the act of knowing. If you carry this thought, “ I live, I create, by innumerable acts and many kinds of knowing; my whole life is a process of instrumenta¬ tion through knowing by means of which the Universe of person and thought is unfolded,” you will find your¬ self intelligently seeking to direct your activities in a rational way, and to make your mental knowings clearer, more definite and more useful to yourself and the world. Eighth Regime of Instrumentation. We have said that it is the action of psychic factor that develops body. This means that psychic factor manifesting person creates person’s body. But this really means that the person, you, create the body which external¬ izes you. The process by which you create your own body is continuous; you are always engaged in creating The Instruments of Personality 331 your body. This is also true of your mind. You began this process as an infant, restlessly trying out one variety after another of knowing, and finally es¬ tablishing those different types of activities in know¬ ing into one system which constitutes your mind. This process also is continuous. You are always en¬ gaged in creating your mind. The creation of body and mind consists of the physical building activities and all the specific activities in knowing. The responsibility raised by these facts is evident. Do not seek to place that responsibility upon any one but yourself. The way you have lived, physically and mentally, has molded the powers and tendencies in¬ herited in your body and mind to your present per¬ sonal condition. If your inheritance has not been satisfactory, remember this, that unless our life could improve what it receives from birth, there could have been no progress from primeval man to present man. The conclusion is that to some degree you might have improved on what you have received at your birth. You are invited to cease accusing either the Deity or your ancestors for any present mental or physical con¬ dition, and from now on to think and live, for a sound body and a growing mind, affirming always, “ I am the master of my own conditions.” The responsibility here indicated is, after all, a privilege. Observe, that every human responsibility is a privilege, if we take it in hand with the highest mental attitude. Think, then, on this thought: “ The greatest privilege I have is to build a better body and a greater mind, and this work I now carry on by all 332 Creative Personality physical and mental activities which draw to myself all things needed to that end.” Ninth Regime of Instrumentation. We are always starting causes and getting effects. Not all of these effects result from our own causes, since we are ever in contact with other people. Our actions are also results of innumerable activities assailing us from all quarters, and are therefore reactions. These concep¬ tions make clear the truth that each human person lives in the midst of activities and causes, originated in part from within himself and in part from without. The suggestion comes forth that you bear this in mind, and that by the intelligent control of your life you make your way through the storm of life in your own interest. Remember these things: You have the power to reject any particular activity or cause, you have the power to start causes and to invite or receive activities as you decide, and that it is your high priv¬ ilege to steer your way through the storm, as the mariner steers his way at sea. The center of all this power is your thought. By thought you may oppose undesirable activities, by thought you may start new causes, by thought you may attract to yourself those influences which you believe will make for your wel¬ fare. Be captain in your life. Tenth Regime of Instrumentation. You are now invited to review the preceding pages on the follow¬ ing subjects, and to get a thorough understanding of the ideas and their import. Apprehension. What is its meaning and utility in The Instruments of Personality 333 your mental life? Get the idea, and practise the work of apprehending, deliberately and consciously. Comprehension. What does the word mean? How does it differ from apprehension? Practise the mental effort of comprehending, deliberately and con¬ sciously, analyzing the process as you go on with the work. Do you really comprehend the objects, forces and ideas which you comprehend? Intensive Understanding. Get a distinct notion of this. How does it differ from apprehension and com¬ prehension? Practise the work of understanding in¬ tensively whatever you appear to comprehend. Knowing, Knowledge and Truth. What is the act of knowing? What is knowledge? What is truth? Find some word of which you are totally ignorant, and consult the dictionary for its meaning. You will find in the definition certain words which you under¬ stand and others which you do not understand. Look up the meaning of one of the latter, and if this defini¬ tion contains words which you do not understand, pro¬ ceed as before, until at last you get the meaning of the original unknown word. On examining this proc¬ ess, you discover that you have all along employed mental activities, and that at each step you have placed the activity of that point in some satisfactory relation to the activities of preceding stages. In other words, the unknown becomes known only as it gets relation to what is already known. You see that this relation constitutes meaning, and that the relation is a know¬ ing. 334 Creative Personality Remember, that knowledge, taken in a general sense, is a system of mental relations that are satisfactory to the individual. The satisfactoriness of the rela¬ tions springs from an inner correspondence of ideas. In the specific sense, knowledge is a degree of cer¬ tainty that our idea of any existence corresponds to another idea, already established, of Reality. You are invited to study these propositions until you un¬ derstand them. By as much as you do understand them, you will see that your certainty of the corre¬ spondences is a matter of degrees, and that the cor¬ respondences shift more or less as your mental con¬ ditions change. The outcome will be a decreasing cocksureness of Opinion and an increasing openness of mind. But you are also invited to remember that, since the Universe and mind are both manifest of Reality, they are susceptible of perfect mutual adjust¬ ment, and that therefore it is possible for the human mind to arrive at a correct idea of the standard of Reality, and correctly to compare all its ideas of specific existences with that idea,— in other words, to arrive at mental certainty which holds to the pos¬ session of absolute knowledge. In all your mental life seek to acquire mental certainty, seek the absolute knowledge. You are invited to get hold of the thought that what we call truth is the correspondence which appears to obtain between our conceptions concerning things, forces and activities, and our conception of Reality. You will discover that what you call truth is relative to yourself and the age in which you live. Our mental The Instruments of Personality 335 correspondences vary under different conditions and at different times in each life and also from period to period in man’s history. It is an adage that the truth of one age is the error of the next. No one be¬ lieves at sixty precisely as he believed at twenty — un¬ less he is a fool. Nevertheless, there are certain great truths which hold over, at least in the “ core ” of them, in all our mental life. There is a central corre¬ spondence between mind and Reality which we be¬ lieve to be absolute. This correspondence makes it possible for us to obtain, sooner or later, the perfect correspondence of specific ideas with a correct con¬ ception of Reality. Such perfect correspondence con¬ stitutes absolute truth. Do not suppose, now, that these thoughts are purely metaphysical, and have no practical bearing on life. They are applicable to the farm, store, factory or bank, as surely as within the schoolroom. You are invited to become thoroughly familiar with the propo¬ sitions here set forth, and to take them into the con¬ duct of your practical work. Observe the results. The ideas of knowing, knowledge, mental correspond¬ ences, certainties and truth, will revise your mental life, reveal that supposed certainties have been uncer¬ tainties, that apprehensions have been confused, that you have not comprehended the commonest matters of your daily life, that your knowledge has consisted more or less of odds and ends and has lacked in sys¬ tem and efficiency, and that the so-called truths of your business or profession have been largely alloyed with misconceptions and error. If the outcome ap- 336 Creative Personality pears to be destructive and disturbing, remember that you have the power of reconstruction, and that the new man will prove vastly superior to the old. We invite you to arouse, review your mental life and busi¬ ness, and thoroughly to reorganize yourself and your work. Eleventh Regime of Instrumentations. You are in¬ vited to get a definite conception of the proposition that you are helping to transform the material phase, and to create the unseen phase, of the Universe. The Universe that you know is a Universe within your mind which you have built up by the reaction of your sense organs and your thought-processes, more or less correspondence with the outside Universe. The Uni¬ verse which is your own as thought, you have created. This is true as regards other people. The sum-total of such personal Universes constitutes a part of the unseen Universe. Thus each one of us sections that Universe into a department which belongs to its creator. Moreover, our activities modify the seen material Universe as we all know. Thus you section off the modified material universe and constitute a part of it your department. But it is undoubtedly true that your activities, physical and mental, modify that phase of the Universe which is non-material and is not per¬ sonal. The ether is neither matter nor person. There are probably other manifests of reality which are non¬ material and non-personal. But we are all surrounded by this unseen phase of the Universe, and since all phases must be inter-related, we affect such phases by our activities of body and mind. You have contrib- The Instruments of Personality 337 uted, and are contributing, a proportion of the general modification of this unseen phase of being, and this also you thus section off into your own department. So, it appears, that you own a definite part of the Uni¬ verse composed as follows: material things as you modify them, non-material things as you modify them, and the world of your life-long thought. You are invited to cultivate a sense of pride and dignity because of the truth here suggested, and to make your life tell to the utmost in the interest of a perfect Universe. Remember, this task is not too high and mighty for any person. Whether you will or no, you are actually contributing as here suggested, actu¬ ally making your whole farm life and farm, business life and business, professional life and profession, criminal life and crime, or fool life and fool, con¬ tributory to the whole Universe of manifested Reality. At any stage in the future there will always be a de¬ partment of the Universe which you have contributed and which belongs solely to you. Therefore, make it right — for your own sake. This chapter brings out the idea of the passing over of the Fundamental Reality from material mechanism into self-controlled personal life, and a process of in¬ strumentation by means of which person manipulates matter, force and thought into innumerable forms of Reality and thus changes the material Universe and creates one that is unseen. The central instruments of this instrumentation are mental activities. The chapter thus constitutes a nexus between our previous studies, which have indulged in metaphysical no less 338 Creative Personality than psychological, and the discussions of Part II., in which we shall more closely confine our thought to the usual lines of mental science. The procedure indi¬ cated has not been without method. We believe that there is no conclusive reason for confining our investi¬ gations to mental facts without applying those meta¬ physical principles which the scientist must employ if he would give his whole mind freedom on the subject of psychology, and, indeed, to any department of even physical science. The original elements of the word signified A Word and Soul. Psychology is, broadly speaking, a discussion on the human soul, and we have sought to consider the great oilining of facts related thereto for the purpose of giving the student a larger conception of himself that might ensue from a mere study of mental facts without basis in and connection with that which constitutes our universe. We have also sought to inspire a higher and more intelligent life, and always to indicate that our study,— that the tremendous facts and truths suggested,— may be brought directly to bear upon every phase of practical human conduct. The study will be new to most of our readers. Always do men say of the new in thought that it is abstruse and difficult. But the unfamiliar loses its difficulties when it becomes known. We trust that the reader will remember this, and persist in his effort until the conceptions of Part I. are understood and become inspirational. It is probable that the work of reading this Part will repay, many times will repay, the student more than he can estimate on a first read- The Instruments of Personality 339 ing. You are invited to make this book a lifelong companion. In the succeeding Part you will find analyses of the mind and directions for its developments, training and use which may strike you as being more practical than the present one, but we believe that the value of all the following discussions will largely depend upon your familiarity with those which we now close. Re¬ member, that your mind is an instrument by means of which you, a person, assist in transforming the world and in giving reality, the nature of things, op¬ portunity for expressing itself in the Greater Universe. LAW: Action Is Life's Effort Always to Realize the More of Itself. CHAPTER VIII. GOAL OF THE SELF. H UMAN life has evidently some ideal goal. Definitions of this goal will differ according to habits of thought, but a fundamental con¬ ception of it may be reached through a discussion of the question: What is the necessary end or goal of any kind of existence? The Universe, and all things therein contained, appear to be going on toward some definite consummation — to exhibit activities in the direction of appropriate ends. If we deny this ap¬ pearance, the drama of being is chaos. If we accept the appearance, the question suggested may become a key with which the problem of our relation to the Uni¬ verse can in part be solved. Ends in General. The word “ end,” as here employed, signifies not merely a finality, but a completion, more or less per¬ fect, of tendencies which exhibit a law. We use the word goal as meaning an end that is inherently em¬ bodied in the nature of an object or a life. Thus, a crystal expresses the end or goal inherent in the na¬ ture of its chemical elements, and an orange indicates the goal or end of the tree which bears that fruit. 340 Goal of the Self 341 This conception is basic. It is at least one of the criteria by which we distinguish between adaptation and so-called design. Adaptation may exhibit an ap¬ parent end, yet fail to express tendencies inherent in its means. Such adaptation would be seen if the broken handle of a bicycle were temporarily repaired by means of a convenient strap. The means has here its adaptation, but the adaptation is not the end. An end may also appear when the adaptation seems espe¬ cially designed, as in the case of any part of a ma¬ chine, or of the machine itself considered with refer¬ ence to its work. The end of the part is cooperation with other parts; the end of the machine is some kind of work to be accomplished. The latter end, though designed, is an adaptation that originates externally to the objects. The tendencies are induced, not in¬ herent. Conceivably, objects might be put to other than the designed uses. In Nature many adaptations appear which are not ends embodied in the nature of the things adapted. In the true sense, such ends are fortuitous. However they occur, they might occur in any other way. An end in the world of Nature may even appear to be designed, yet turn out to be merely a case of fortuitous adaptation. We shall avoid con¬ fusion if we remember that a true end or goal ex¬ presses the inherent tendencies of the objects to which they relate. The idea of design combines adaptation with previ¬ ous thought and will. This is our common conception of a goal. If we do not limit the idea by purely per¬ sonal elements,— if we think of ends or goals as ex- 342 Creative Personality pressing the nature of objects, life, existence,— the conception will be correct. That is to say: we infer something which we commonly interpret as thought and will as director of the adaptation, but refer the elements of so-called thought and will to inherent tendencies which bring expression of the object’s pos¬ sibilities into greatest completeness. We think of a true end or goal, then, as that state of an object or life which the Fundamental Reality provides in its nature for the ultimate result of its development. Such result is inherent in the nature of the thing, and proved by the Fundamental Reality which gives it existence. The answer to our question: What is the neces¬ sary end or goal of any object or any life? is now ap¬ parent. The highest conceivable goal of an existence is the fullest expression of its inherent possibilities — complete development. And the only true method by which the true end or goal of an existence may be realized is that of com¬ plete self-expression according to its nature. Objects, life, being, Fundamental Reality, achieve their neces¬ sary ends through unfoldment of their essential na¬ ture. The nature of a thing is indicated by those of its activities through which it manifests itself. The ac¬ tivities of any existence are of two varieties: those which manifest it, and those which constitute it. Constitutive activities embody the principle of their cooperation in an existence-system. The principle is not an entity residing in the midst of the activities; Goal of the Self 343 it is, rather, a complex fact, a fact which “ hyphen¬ ates ” itself as kind-relation-association. This deter¬ mines the activities to be what they are, both constitu¬ tive and manifesting. The nature of a thing is thus the activities that constitute being. The manifest activities of an existence indicate its nature. We infer the constitutive activities through observing the manifesting. Every action demands for thought an actor. Our reasoning has led us to as¬ sume one Fundamental Reality as the cause and sup¬ port of all things, which Reality requires no agent other than itself because it is infinite. The manifest activities of this Reality are the constitutive activities of the nature of things. The manifest activities of things indicate to our thought their nature. Their goal is complete expression of their constitutive na¬ ture. Now: we have said that law is a way things have of being and doing. There are, therefore, laws of constitution and laws of manifestation. The laws governing the constitution of Reality’s activities into an existence are merely inferences which we derive from observation of manifest activities and from the logical working of mind. Thus, we may say that the laws of the constitutive activities of an existence are the ways that existence has of doing in its being. The laws of any object of existence are the ways we think it has of being and doing. We observe its manifest activities and infer its constitutive activities, and then we form an opinion in the matter. This opinion — our thought — is what we call law. Each 344 Creative Personality object that we know seems always to manifest itself, or to act, in the same way under the same conditions; we conclude that here is a law. If things manifest themselves according to laws, our thought holds that they are constituted according to laws. The latter laws are, again, our thoughts about the nature of things. Such only are the laws of Nature, as we know Nature. Nature undoubtedly exists and acts accord¬ ing to actual, absolute law, and our law-thoughts may be right or they may be wrong, but the only laws we know are our thoughts as to the ways things have of being and doing. Similarly with reference to the nature of things. When the laws (our thoughts, as above suggested) and the Nature (our thoughts, again) seem to agree or harmonize, we are entitled to say that our conclu¬ sions concerning law and nature are correct. Of course, this correctness is only tentative, but if new facts come into view, our modified conclusion must again rest on the same agreement. We determine the necessary end or goal of an ob¬ ject or a life by observing the ways it has of doing or manifesting, and by inferring the ways it has of being, and by perceiving the tendencies of its activities when undisturbed by interfering influences. Thus, Carbon under certain conditions crystallizes into definite form and has great brilliancy, and we say the diamond is one end or goal of this element, Carbon. Physical life has evolved various forms of animal organism, and we say, Here are some of the ends of living matter. The Goal of the Self 345 goal of physical animal evolution is the body of man. The body expresses the nature of things working in a given direction. Physical evolution can do no more — except that the body may become more and more perfect expression of the possibilities which it indi¬ cates. The same conclusion will be reached when we con¬ sider a system of activities of any kind. A true sys¬ tem embodies some principle — that which must deter¬ mine the system to be the kind of system it is. It is this principle that determines the system as a system and at the same time determines its kind. A body of activities having no principle is no system, and can, therefore, have no necessary end or goal. Such a body exhibits association without the element of kind- relation. Its tendencies, if it has any, are anything, and are induced by external conditions. When we begin to perceive the tendencies of a system, we begin to apprehend its nature and to make out its true goal. The fundamental conception we gain concerning the end of a system is the full expression of the possibili¬ ties of the activities according to that principle which determines them to be a system. The activities are adapted to the end only when the principle makes the end natural and necessary. It is the principle that saves the system from accidentally achieving an end. A system of activities in Nature, then, has its end or goal provided in the inherent determining adaptation of the Fundamental Reality. If it is the nature of Reality to express, more and more, its inherent pro- 346 Creative Personality visions, such must be the tendency, such must be the law, of any true system of activities in the world of Nature. The Universe is a system of systems, and its goal can be no other than the increasing realization of its possibilities. Similarly with every other system included in the Universe. Regarding the Universe as a System of Activities, we should look for its end or goal in the same way. As a System it has some determining principle of all its included systems. This System is a manifest of Reality, and its goal must be the expression of the provisions of its nature. This goal would seem to realize in the present material organization of worlds and their tendencies, together with the evolution of the two kingdoms of life, the plant and the animal, includ¬ ing man. Man, as a system, of physical and psychic activities, would seem to centre and climax that goal. This brings us to the question of failures. It is a fundamental that the Universe is conservative as a System, and constructive in the sense of conserving its own integrity. Reality is not self-destructive, al¬ though its expressions come and go in the process of its unfoldment in worlds. Below man the “ going ” here is as essential to the Universe as is the “ coming ” of such expressions. In man, Reality seems to ex¬ press in what are called “ evils,” but this fact obtains in the interest of man’s freedom of self-determination. Reality involves freedom, and man manifests a phase of that infinite freedom of being. The free Infinite Reality can not possess the freedom of self-destruc¬ tion, since its existence is not derived. But the free Goal of the Self 347 finite manifest of Reality, man, may possess the power to miss the goal of its being by violating the laws of its nature. Man may fail to realize the goal of his nature because he is free to run counter to the laws of his being. When he does this, he expresses Reality as manifest in him as a free system of activities. This failure may involve many things, but it must involve the missing of the fullest personality. Whenever “ evils ” appear they express the possi¬ bilities of free Reality in its manifested forms, but if, in the long run, they stop the full harmonious develop¬ ment of all manifestations, they do not indicate the final end of Reality and do not indicate the final end of its expressions; they are hindrances to those ends, and ultimately must disappear from the Universe. It is evident, then, that the goal of any existence is the unfoldment of completest possibilities inherent in the system and making for final universal harmony. No system of activities can do more. No higher end or goal can be conceived for any system. Thus we indicate the goal of the self. Goal of the Self Stated. The goal of the self is the complete realisation of those possibilities which the Fundamental Reality pro¬ vides within it in the interest of final harmony. This means the perfect realization of all the self-preserva¬ tive elements of its nature, according to the laws of its true being. The goal of the self, then, is not chaotic and destructive expression of freedom; it is the full realization of all the conserving elements of 348 Creative Personality man’s nature as a human being, according to the laws of his nature as expressing the Infinite Reality mani¬ fest in such human nature. The laws of the self, as thus indicated, are: Laws of the constitutive activities of Reality which give him being; laws of his own manifesting activities as pro¬ vided by Reality within him. The method by which we make out these laws is this: We note our own in¬ herent convictions and stand by or follow those which hold on through all changing conditions; we note the lessons of our own experience, and follow those that make for the preservation and development of the self; we note the experiences and convictions of the race, and follow those that make for the general good. There is no other authority on the laws of the self. We are entitled to hold that these criteria give us the true laws of the preservative, constitutive and mani¬ festing activities of the human self. Analyzing the goal of the self,— complete realiza¬ tion of the self-preservative nature, according to the true laws of its being,— we discover the following ele¬ ments : 1. Physical Health and, Body-Capacity for Crea¬ tive Work — including the actual (not the theoretical) Destruction of Death; 2. Fullness and Richness of Consciousness — in¬ cluding the Subconscious phase of the Self; 3. Alert, Facile, and Power fid Activities in Know¬ ing — including Constructive and Creative Thought; 4. Moral Completeness — including Conscious One¬ ness with the Infinite; Goal of the Self 349 5. Personal Completeness for all Stages of Exist¬ ence. The first of these factors is not properly or directly before us, but values relating to it ought to have ap¬ peared as we have proceeded on our way with the study of this book, since unfoldment of the true self will necessarily affect the body in a beneficial manner. The fourth factor belongs to another science, ethics, and must be dismissed with the suggestion that in this respect also the work of psychological thought and practice will necessarily make, more or less, for the best moral condition of the self. The fifth factor will be deferred for a later discussion. The second and third factors now concern us. In the sense of all factors, the goal of the self is its best personal estate. This goal is reached through inter¬ action with the Arena of the individual life. Arena of the Unfolding Self. The Arena in which a human self develops is its environment. Environment may not be indicated by mere surroundings. The idea of surrounding is con¬ tiguity — however extensive. The idea of environ¬ ment is surrounding that influence. A “ vast contiguity of space,” even if filled with globes of life, might fail to influence an object out of other than spatial rela¬ tions with it. When an object or a life is in relation with surroundings provided by that Reality which gives all things existence, the surroundings become en¬ vironment. The self has a nature in common with 350 Creative Personality that of worlds, and worlds, therefore, constitute its true environment. The whole Universe influences in various ways every existence within it, and each ex¬ istence is a centre of universal activities. The self, being thus a centre acted upon, reacts in turn upon environment, and, by such reaction, makes the Uni¬ verse more or less its own. How greatly the universal activities influence the self depends in part at least on the degree and quality of this reaction to them. The true environment of the self, then, is just so much of the Universe as it knows, appropriates, builds into its own life. The last statement is immensely important. The self is, indeed, surrounded by boundless worlds which incessantly rain in upon it their marvelous activities. But these activities can only influence the self as it reacts to them in knowing them, selecting from them according to its will, and assimilating their meanings into its own constitution and so growing stronger and stronger in its own powers. Thus it makes a part of the Universe its true environment. Three principles are thus established: (a) The self is a centre of uni¬ versal activities; (b) the self reacts to a part of these activities; (c) the self defines its Arena by such re¬ action. In this Arena the self attains its goal — that of best personal estate. The Arena may be analyzed as follows: First, the self unfolds with and within its own phys¬ ical body. Secondly, the self unfolds by reacting to the action upon it of the world of matter and force. Goal of the Self 351 Thirdly, the self unfolds by reacting to the action upon it of the world of human and other persons. Fourthly, the self unfolds by reaction of its own activities with each other — by its own subconscious and mental operations. These phases of Arena we now take up in the order named. 1. Arena of the Physical Body. The self builds its own body. We lead up to this statement by ob¬ serving: Reality expresses through matter in psychic factor; individual psychic factor appears in the pro- creative germ-cells of living body; when these cells are united, the two psychic factors merge into one, just as the cells merge into one; the one cell now grows by appropriating nutriment from the mother; the appropriation is made by psychic factor reacting to its environment, the mother; thus the body is built during pre-natal conditions. At birth the self escapes into the larger world, provided in the body with the necessary organs of sense which relate it to that world. Thereafter, selection, appropriation and assimilation of the elements required for physical growth are con¬ tinued in a larger and more complicated manner. The body is a phase of Arena because it is external to the self in the sense of being a manifest of the self, and because the latter builds it for habitation and instru¬ ment. We see that incipient psychic factor constructs the physical organism prior to birth by reaction to the mother. But this reaction also develops psychic factor — that is, unfolds its elements according to the limit¬ ations of its pre-natal environment. At birth, the self 352 Creative Personality emerges into the world with a body fitted thereto, and the psychic factor is now also a true self, fitted to carry on body-building and to employ that body as an instrument in reducing worlds to true Arena. The relations of the self and its physical organism are thus of the most intimate kind. The self occupies the whole structure, and acts in every action and op¬ eration of that structure. The self is directly involved in each activity and function of this Arena. Neces¬ sarily, then, the body incessantly acts upon the self. Here matter and spirit are in the closest possible inter¬ action. If the body is a manifest of the self, its struc¬ ture and activities, both internal and external, must affect the self on the principle, say, that our thoughts, which are our mental manifests, must affect the self. Were free psychic factor in possession, before birth, of the full measure of its freedom provided in it as an expression of Infinite Reality,— were it not already in the pro-creative cells, modified by ancestral conditions, — and were it not during gestation constantly modified by maternal states of body and mind,— it would build a physical structure perfect for its kind and a true self perfect as a human. All these modifications occur prior to birth, so that the self emerges into the world made imperfect by that very freedom which is abso¬ lutely indispensable to psychic unfoldment of the high¬ est order. Freedom is both devil and god in human life. We have, then, psychic determinations of physical character, and we have physical determinations of psychic character. The self may affect the body in Goal of the Self 353 deleterious ways, and the body may affect the self in similar ways. So far as evil results are concerned, the correction of this condition will depend — first, upon the gradual elimination of ancestral tendencies through ages of educational effort; secondly, upon thought-concentration of the self upon physical and psychic ideals. The one task is for the race, the other calls for individual effort of the self. The basic truth here is this: the self, as the superior manifest of Infinite Reality, should be lord and high priest of the body it builds, and may become such by striving for thought-harmony with that Reality and thought-concentration on all psychic and physical ideals. Thought is the one supreme power by zvhich the self is to attain its proper goal. So far as psychic and physical character are con¬ cerned (aside from evils), the evidences are seen in every human body and in every human self. Bodies differ according to differing psychic influences operat¬ ing within, and each self differs from others according to the influence of its body. These statements are true also of the pro-creative cells and their psychic factors. Many signs of character-determination appear in per¬ sons everywhere. They appear in psychic traits, tem¬ peraments, peculiarities, abilities and weaknesses. They appear in physical conditions, stature, carriage, features, habits, lines on the hands, sense-powers, physical aptitudes and weaknesses, etc., etc. Here, also, the supreme force which we are to em¬ ploy for the development of both physical and psychic 354 Creative Personality character, is Thought — habituated concentration of thought upon the ideals of that Infinite Reality of which we are direct expressions, and of which we would be perfect expressions had psychic human free¬ dom always run to such ideals. By these methods may we make the physical organism a royal field for the attainment of the true goal of the self. II. Arena of the World of Matter and Force. This world we conceive to be a phenomenal expres¬ sion of Reality, and it is actual in that sense. It acts upon the self in various ways, thus inducing mental reactions called sensation, perception, feeling and thought of all orders. True to the habits of heredity, the self constructs the instruments by which it may know the world and through which the world may act upon it. These in¬ struments are the sense-organs and the brain — and perhaps other obscure means by which the self occa¬ sionally reacts to this phase of Arena independently of the sense-organs. The organs of vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, are the familiar mediators between the self and ex¬ ternal existence. They are products of the evolution of psychic factor in interaction with environment. Each of them consists of appropriate structures and nerve matter,— also being products of psychic build¬ ing,— which nerve-matter connects in various ways with the brain, this in turn being mainly a complex of nerve-matter and wholly a creation of the same factor. The self occupies the sense-organs in the meaning (at least) that it physically functions therein, Goal of the Self 355 but it occupies the brain in the sense that it physically and psychically functions in that centre. This does not mean that the self functions psychically in the brain only, since it must so function in every part of the body for purely physical ends (at least), and may so function obscurely or secondarily for psychic ends. The statement means that the brain seems to be the chief organ of psychic action in relation to the self and the external world. Roughly speaking, the organs of sense relate the self to the worlds about it by reacting to external activi¬ ties. By reacting is meant acting in consequence of being acted upon. Such reaction is that of the'nerves and of the self using the organs. The external ac¬ tivities may be classed as those of atmospheric waves, those of etheric undulations, and those of matter in various conditions. The sole functions of a nerve is irritability -— continuing throughout its entire tract. External activities of waves, undulations and induce¬ ment of contact excite the nerve-matter of the sense- organs, and the excitation transmits through the nerve-tracts to their corresponding brain-areas. At this point a second reaction occurs. The primary nerve-reaction to external activities differs in identity and character from the external activities that induce them. The waves of air, the undulations of ether, the matter in contact, do not identically pass or con¬ tinue into the nerve-tracts and brain. These activi¬ ties. remain totally in the outside world. Figuratively, we speak of a wave or undulation or vibration as oc¬ curring along a nerve-tract; the fact is that the nerve 356 Creative Personality is excited, brought into an especially active state, and that this state of peculiar action is continuous along the tract. The excitation constitutes the primary re¬ action — reaction of organ to externality. The second reaction in the case is that of the self to the nerve-activities. Both reactions have long his¬ tories in evolution, but only the second named need be dwelt upon. Psychic factor, expressing the nature provided within it by Infinite Reality, has all along struggled to unfold itself and thus to bring itself into relations with externality. This struggle has evolved the sense-organs, the nerve-tracts, and the brain. Such results have given the psychic self merely the in¬ struments by which the appropriate relations might be obtained. The product of the use of these instru¬ ments has been an outcome of intelligence. The re¬ action of the self to disturbances in the nerve-tracts centering in the brain can be nothing to intelligence save Meaning. Every reaction of the inner self to the activities of the external world has and it is — meaning. The word meaning thus covers all results of the correct use of the sense-organs. Vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch — and all that they embrace — are meanings wrought by the self in the very processes of sense-reactions to the external worlds. The reaction here indicated is two-fold. There is, first, that simple, primary reaction which we call Sen¬ sation. Pure sensation is just self-awareness of a given physical state. The state has this meaning, and no other. When the state is referred to an external existence, the meaning is that the state is due to such Goal of the Self 357 existence. In the sense of being aware of the state, the self perceives the sensation. In the sense of being aware of the inducement, the self perceives the exter¬ nal fact. The reaction has now the meaning, “ exter¬ nal reality.” The reaction, taken as two-fold, is sense- perception. Sensation and sense-perception are mean¬ ings which the self establishes for certain actions upon it of the world of matter and force. A meaning is a relation which the self establishes for any one of its own activities among all the others. The meaning of pure sensations is the relations of simplest states to other simplest states and to other activities of the self. The meaning, “ simplest state,” arises on comparison of a given state with other self¬ activities — and is the relation thus established. The meaning, “ kind of sensation,” “ this or that sensa¬ tion,” arises also on comparison with other self-ac¬ tivities and with other “ simplest states.” The proc¬ esses, thus analyzed for our thought, are in each case simultaneous, constituting such sensation, or being that sensation-meaning,— that is, the various kinds of sensation. The meaning of sense-perception, as it is called, is the relation of a “ simplest state ” referred to its external inducement among other similarly re¬ ferred states. In the former case, the “ simplest states ” are the main elements; in the latter case, the references to external inducements are the main ele¬ ments. When the external inducement gets a mean¬ ing,— is related in the self to other self-activities and to other external inducements,— the main element ap¬ pears in perception of an external existence as such. 358 Creative Personality It now seems that when we say we perceive objects, movements, sounds, odors, etc., the truth is that we give meanings, altogether within ourselves, to our nerve-reactions with external activities affecting the sense-organs. The actual perceptions are within the self, right or wrong; the objects that seem to be per¬ ceived are external, and while they may or may not be truly perceived, are never in any sense identical with the perceptions themselves. Our perceptions are meanings given to objects, not objects given to mean¬ ings. We thus suggest an analysis of the world of matter and force so far as having meaning derived through the sense-organs. Our phrasing may be that of per¬ ception of external existences or that of giving mean¬ ings to such existences. The fact is one — reaction to nerve-states induced by external agencies. If we say that all such reactions are meanings, our analysis will be as follows: Matter-meanings and force-meanings; Object-mean¬ ings and Quality-meanings; Movement-meanings and Activity-meanings; Plant-meanings; Animal-mean¬ ings ; Mineral-meanings; Life-meanings and Chemical- element-meanings ; Person-meanings and Mind-mean¬ ings. And so on with greater refinement. Thus does the whole Universe offer itself, through its innumer¬ able activities affecting the self, to the latter’s power of reacting to it in meaning. Thus immensely great is the Arena of the self by as much as it makes that Universe its own. A further though more or less obscure mode of re- Goal of the Self 359 action with the external worlds may be indicated by reference to the subconscious or pre-mental phases of the self. Perfected sense-organs are the outcomes of vast evolutionary experiences through which psychic factor has unfolded into primitive and advanced man. The earliest man has sense-organs somewhat superior to animal sense-organs, but the present organs were far in man’s future. The original organs were prod¬ ucts of the struggle of the human self to come into relations with its worlds. Its reactions thereto may not have been confined to use of the sense-instruments, but may have vaguely proceeded in a semi-independ¬ ence of the same. Times of need and danger would call forth reactions to matters not apprehensible through the sense, making imperative an expression of power inherent in the nature given it by Infinite Reality — apprehension directly, without physical means. Times, also, would seem inevitable in that primitive state, when psychic appreciation, which em¬ braces more than the describable, would constitute a real if intangible reaction with the Infinite Reality itself. The self to-day sometimes sees without eyes, hears without ears, feels without contact, intuits with¬ out reasoning, knows without sense-organs, influences without ordinary methods. Instances of such reac¬ tions are observed in clairvoyance, clair-audience, psy- chometry, telepathy, personal magnetism, and the like phenomena. The self seems to know in hypnotic states matters of which it must be ignorant if depend¬ ent on the senses. If “ materializations ” witnessed at “ seances ” are products of the psychic activities of 360 Creath'e Personality the sitters and the medium — reorganizations of mat¬ ter drawn from the bodies of those present,— the power to achieve this result has no relations to the organs of sense. If the “ materializations ” are non¬ material, they are not perceived through the senses. The pre-mental self seems to exhibit abilities of know¬ ing not referable to sense-action. We may conceive, then, of certain sublimed conditions of the body and self in which the organs habitual to perception may be passed over, so to speak, and the self may know ex¬ ternal existences independently and perhaps know that which to the senses is necessarily hidden. In these general ways the self reacts to the world of matter and force. As the reactions are meanings, and as the meanings are established,— always the same (practically) under the same conditions,— the self comes in time to represent, both in its thought and in its speech, these meanings by the factors of language. Language is a system of signs for a system of mean¬ ings which a race has created and fitted to its own use. Here, also, is a phase of Arena, which the self has made its own, because it has wrought out the lan¬ guage through its meaning-reactions with the world of matter and force. These considerations suggest the true environment or Arena of the self as related to the physical Uni¬ verse. The Arena here consists of the meanings de¬ rived from the action upon the self of external mate¬ rial existences. The Arena also consists of established abilities to derive these meanings. The individual meanings come and go capriciously — as though mere Goal of the Self 361 accidents. After a time they remain, in the sense that they can be repeated, and the reactions involving them become habitual. Then follows the power to use these meanings in all sorts of ways in the interest of the inner life. This rough analysis includes the follow¬ ing factors: (a) External existences act upon the self through the sense-organs (independently in ex¬ ceptional cases), (b) The self reacts in various ways, and the reactions are perceptions — meanings. Each individual reaction comes to be repeated under given conditions, and thus is established as an ability to re¬ peat. (c) The self comes to recognize each repetition as a repeated former reaction, perception, meaning, (d) The self now employs these established abilities in combinations innumerable. The representatives of the reaction-meanings or perceptions remain external: the perceptions are wholly within the self, since they are its own reactions. The external existences consti¬ tute a language, and the inner meanings given its signs by the self are also a language of thought, which is finally given the form of speech and writing. Thus the inner meanings come to be a thought-world, in cor¬ respondence with the external world. The self has created that world, and that world constitutes its Arena, so far forth. The rest of the Universe is terra incognita — Beyond. In this Arena of meaning given to the world of mat¬ ter and force,— its apprehended objects, forces, move¬ ments, qualities, relations, etc.,— the self has all along been engaged in working out a part of its Goal: ful¬ ness and richness of consciousness and mental alert- 362 Creative Personality ness, facility and. power. We see the first element of that Goal in the vast number of actualities that any average person is able to think. We see, also, that every one must have exhibited a degree of alertness and acquired more or less facility and power in gain¬ ing such an immense number and variety of meanings. And all this signifies increased ability to enlarge the Arena of sense-perception, and perhaps subconscious knowings. At this point it should be added that the body, as a part of external material existence, enters into the Arena made possible by the latter. The self owns its body, has the intelligence necessary for its construc¬ tion, and also uses it. These conclusions follow from our consideration of the first phase of Arena of the self. But the self employs its sense-organs in rela¬ tion to the body. The body acts upon the self in the way of touch — coming into “ contact ” with the self in various internal physical sensations, which sensa¬ tions are referred by the self to the body as its own. The self also apprehends the body through the other organs — seeing it, hearing it, smelling and tasting it. In these ways, the self establishes meanings — per¬ ceives body and parts, brings it into Arena. In any ordinary life this field is very great, and when scien¬ tific investigation takes the body in hand, Arena now becomes immeasurably vaster and more wonderful. Here, again, all the elements of the Goal of the self in interaction with material realities are more or less realized. III. Arena of the World of Person. The mean- Goal of the Self 363 ing of the word, Person, has been discussed in a pre¬ ceding chapter. At present we may employ it in its ordinary sense. The Arena of Person embraces hu¬ man beings and other intelligences. We apprehend the first through the organs of sense, in part, and by action of the pre-mental self. Other than human in¬ telligences can act upon our knowing powers either by “ assuming ” some material form or by directly af¬ fecting the self in some pre-mental way. Action upon the self by human persons in ways other than through the sense-organs has already been discussed in the preceding phase of Arena. The bodies of people affect our sense-organs in the same manner as do other material objects. Nerve- tracts centering in the brain are variously disturbed and excitations are transmitted to that centre where they are given meanings by the self. In these re¬ spects the bodies observed are no different from any material object. As concerns the great mass of peo¬ ple, the meanings they induce in us are limited to such common results. But our meanings increase as we become familiar with the particulars of body-charac¬ ter through more or less intimate association, for we then observe details otherwise unobserved, and we come to discover physical traits, which are expres¬ sions in bodies of psychic character. These traits or evidences of personal character add to our Arena —■ the world of humans made our own. The general process brings forth the meanings also of friends, strangers, enemies, and all the peculiar meanings per¬ taining to the various relations of life. From such re- 364 Creative Personality lations spring innumerable meanings which are the products of experience with personal contact: sensa¬ tions, mental feelings and emotions, ideas involved in the many departments of community-life, political, ethical, religious and racial ideas; the whole mass of meanings involved in human conduct. We do not gather such results directly from sense-perception, of course; they are outcomes of the working over by the self of the meanings induced by sense-percep¬ tion. The human world embraces also all the physical re¬ sults of thought, and skill applied to the world of mat¬ ter and force. If we have eighty odd chemical ele¬ ments and several hundred thousands of compounds, the objects which man has fashioned must be vast in¬ deed in number. Through the sense-organs we come to know in the way of more or less definite meaning the factors of house-life, those of industry, those of transportation means, those of religion, those of art. The direct meanings of sense-perception are thus in¬ numerable in this Arena. But the indirect meanings may almost inconceivably enlarge the field. Every object that man has moulded to his uses centres a great complex of ideas — suggested meanings. Every complex of such suggested meanings in turn suggests additional meanings, both in itself and in its relations. If we add the factor of scientific investigation to the vast Arena of almost any person within the bounds of civilization, our general human Arena has become in¬ conceivable. No one mind can embrace or compre¬ hend it. We may attempt the task by imagining a Goal of the Self 365 person with all the senses closed — or a person blind, deaf and dumb and uneducated. The Arena is now inconsiderable. In the case of any person of ordinary education and experience, the distance between him¬ self and the former unfortunate is beyond our ability to indicate, because no one of us correctly appraises his sense-organ possessions and their correlated re¬ sults. Reference to specially gifted and educated minds need not be made, for the reason that the reader is himself more or less master of an inner world that transcends his power of measurement. The fact that the world thus acquired has, in the process of its development, unfolded the self toward its goal, seems now evident. The meanings thus indi¬ cated, and the work of getting them, have necessarily given fulness and richness of consciousness and se¬ cured in greater or less degree alertness, facility and power in the organized mind. IV. Arena of the Inner Self. It is now evident that the actual Arena in which the self attains its Goal is always within, the external realms serving as in¬ ducement to its activities given meanings. The Uni¬ verse in which we really live is the Universe we con¬ struct for our own use by various mental processes. It does not follow, however, that the outside Universe has no reality; it simply results that our inner world is a more or less correct representative of that Uni¬ verse. We mentally live in that representation. For you, your inner self is the Center of the only Universe you will ever know. 366 Creative Personality The Arena-Goal of the Self. The Arena of the inner self is coextensive with its Goal. The self cannot get out of itself, and it can find no other Goal than within itself. The general processes involved in development of the self may now be outlined. We shall first analyze the evolution of an hypothetical human self, and we shall then modify our analysis with reference to any individual self. The human self is an expression of the Fundamen¬ tal Reality, and manifests in a finite way the Nature of that Reality. It is the nature of the hypothetical human self to unfold its constitutional elements — that is, the elements of Infinite Reality, so far as may be possible. The self therefore struggles to come into relations with other than itself. This struggle has produced the sense-organs, as we have seen, which are simply established ways of external communication. The struggle has gone on according to tendencies in¬ herent in the nature of the self. In other words, the self has had tendencies to give meanings to its re¬ actions with external existences in certain definite ways under certain definite conditions. Its very na¬ ture has prevented it from doing otherwise. In time the self came to give meanings to these tendencies — became aware of them and thus established their sig¬ nificance to itself. Thus have arisen in mind the so- called “ innate ideas,” “ fundamental principles,” “ in¬ tuitions ” of the human mentality. When such ideas are enumerated, it is evident that Goal of the Self 367 they are not innate as ideas. As ideas they are men¬ tal products of mental experience. The self has tendencies according to which it operates in its reac¬ tions to existence, and the reactions constitute the ideas. The self discovers the tendencies through ex¬ perience, and then gives them meaning for itself. The process of identifying the tendencies and specifying them in ideas, clearly thought out and expressed in language, ran on for ages, say from “ Adam ” to Aristotle. It was the tendencies that were innate, not the ideas. Since these tendencies are expressions of Funda¬ mental Reality in the nature of the self, they are laws of our mental operations, native, original ways the self has of mentally acting in relation to existence. Enumeration of such “ laws of mind ” may include the following — though this listing should not be taken as iron-clad, since the total may perhaps be reduced by including certain items under other items: Being; Action — Movement; Quality; Relation — Sequence —’Disjunction; Quantity; Unity and Plurality — Number; Identity; Diversity (Sameness and Differ¬ ence); Cause; Effect; Time; Space. All such ideas represent certain regulative tendencies of the self in knowing. During the process of evolution, the self came in time to recognize certain other tendencies — certain differing tendencies — in its knowing, and the recog¬ nition constituted reaction giving meaning to the tendencies. Expressing the Nature of Fundamental Reality,— expressing its own nature,— the self tended 368 Creative Personality or was compelled to act in certain differing ways in its one process of knowing. Discovery of these given ways originated corresponding fixed meanings or ideas which found representation in appropriate words. We may enumerate these mental factors as: Sensa¬ tion; Perception; Feeling; Emotion; Passion; Mem¬ ory; Imagination; Reasoning; Will. For the sake of convenience, these ways of knowing may be classified as : The Presentative Faculties — Sensation, Percep¬ tion, Feeling, etc.; Re-presentative Faculties — Mem¬ ory and Imagination ; Volitional — Will. In the last analysis all the so-called “ faculties ” fall under one supreme head — Acts of the Self in Knowing. Employing the word, knowing, in the sense of ap¬ prehension, comprehension and intensive understand¬ ing, we can not know without involving the so-called “ innate ideas,” and employing the word in any of the senses indicated, we can not know without mentally acting in the ways called the several “ faculties.” The nature of the human self as expressing the Fundamental Reality, came in time to exhibit to the self in various additional tendencies of mental activ¬ ity. Recognition of the tendencies constituted reac¬ tion of the self to the tendencies in the way of know¬ ing them — giving them meaning. The meanings are represented by such words as Concept, or General No¬ tion — a symbol standing for a class of given kind of Existence; Proposition — a complete statement of fact or truth; Inference — a conclusion from given propo¬ sitions; Judgment — a proposition concluded from Goal of the Self 369 comparison; Induction —• a process of concluding from examination of particulars; Deduction — a process of concluding from one proposition through another; — in short, the whole essential fact and language of logical reasoning. By a similar process — discovering the tendency of activities to induce activities, and reacting in meaning to such tendencies, and naming the meanings, the self has come to classify the latter as the laws of associ¬ ation. The laws of association are listed variously, but the enumeration will include: Associations of Space and Time; of Cause and Effect; of Being and Action or Movement; of Identity and Difference; of Number; of Quality; of Relation, etc. The inducing process here may be called Suggestion. The associ¬ ation of the two phases of the self, pre-mental and mental, originates in the Tendency of Fundamental Reality to express its nature through the self and the tendency of the nature of the self to express itself through reaction with external activities and to organ¬ ize the tendencies of the total activities into the pri¬ mary creative workshop — the Subconscious System and the Conscious or Mental System. Since the lat¬ ter is the chief instrument for unfolding the former — or, the total self — it is, to our thought, the more obvious and familiar, and seems to have the greater authority in our life. The intimate relation between the two phases makes the law of suggestion a prime factor in their interactions. Each suggests activities to the other. The one suggests because of its very na- 370 Creative Personality ture,— because of incessant tendency to unfold itself, — the other suggests because of its nature and its as¬ sumption of authority. In the operation of these phases of the self, then, have arisen to our thought: The Meanings and Laws of the Pre-mental Self; The Meanings and Laws of the Mental Self; Thus, the Meanings and Laws of Sensation; The Meanings and Laws of Perception through the Sense-organs; Light and the Sciences pertaining to the Ether and to Optics; Sound and the Science of Acoustics; Smell, Taste, Touch and studies in the same, to¬ gether with Psychologies and phases of Metaphysics; The Meanings and Laws of Memory; The Meanings and Laws of Imagination ; The Meanings and Laws of the Emotions; The Meanings and Laws of Reasoning; The Meanings and Laws of Will; The Meanings and Laws of the Great Departments of Human Life in its Mental Output: — Civilization — Meanings and Laws ; Industry, Commerce, Business — their Meanings and Laws; Government — its Meanings and Laws; Science — its Departments and the Meanings and Laws; Art — its Departments and the Meanings and Laws; Ethics — and its Meanings and Laws; Religion — its Meanings and Laws; Goal of the Self 371 Philosophy — the Meanings and Laws; Metaphysics — its Meanings and Laws; History — its Meanings and Laws; General Literature — its Meanings and Laws. The interest of the above elaboration is its sugges¬ tion of the immense breadth and richness of the Arena of the Self. The products of man’s activities in knowing are absolutely marvelous, and the inspiration of this fact is seen in the suggested possibility of every human to enlarge and enrich the Arena of his own inner self. The greatness of that Arena depends upon the de¬ gree with which the individual appropriates the re¬ sults of the experiences of the hypothetical self of evolution. The difference between the latter and the former may be thus indicated: the evolution-self be¬ gan with mere primal tendencies, while the individual begins with these and the tendencies of heredity. The one began with ages of future experience before it, while the other begins with the opportunities of three¬ score years and ten before it — in the present career. The one had its whole mental machinery to achieve out of Fundamental Reality, while the other has the advantage of the evolutionary achievement. The one had to originate language, while the other has merely to learn it. The one had the assistance — and that only in part — of its own more or less undeveloped age, while the other is to-day assisted by the immeas¬ urable thought-world which the race has created. The inspiration suggested should be great indeed. In this rapid sketch we indicate both the Arena of 372 Creative Personality the human self, and its corresponding Goal. The ac¬ tivities, meanings and laws are all related to one an¬ other and to the originating self, and consequently interact, more or less, incessantly, and in the most complicated ways. The subconscious self is always active in some manner, the mental self is always en¬ gaged in action, repetitions, correlations, complexi¬ ties, creatures of habit yet forever restless, forever initiative. Meanings come and go, multiply and de¬ crease, run in single file, run abreast, run in groups; become and are instantly cut off; concentrate and lin¬ ger long; appear in ghostly indistinctness, again in realistic clearness; proceed sluggishly or swiftly; strongly or weakly suggest one another; stick to the commonplace or leap to higher matters; merely keep busy or create and reconstruct — and “ so runs this world away.” Meanwhile, and forever, the Arena of the self is exactly so much of the external worlds of matter and force and person as it has made its own by reacting to those worlds in meanings and their laws. And by so much as this process of appropriation has gone on, by so much has the self developed. And by so much only. The Goal of the self can never tran¬ scend that portion of the Universe of matter and spirit which it constitutes its Arena. The Goal of the self can never transcend the possibilities of itself, as a human, as an individual. The Goal is attained by incessant action under the laws of growth — already considered. Action, under such laws, constitutes con¬ sciousness and gives it fulness and richness, consti¬ tutes the mind, and makes it alert, facile and power- Goal of the Self 373 ful, constitutes the pre-mental system, and draws forth more and more the nature expressed in it by Funda¬ mental Reality. We have, then, the following vital conclusions: The Goal of the self is limitless, both because Fun¬ damental Reality expresses in human nature — thus giving it boundless possibilities of unfolding action — and because the Reality expresses in a Universe in which the self may find unlimited possibilities of re¬ action. The Goal of the self is determined by aspirations. The self is a “ magnet,” so to speak, ever attracting to itself according to its will and desires. Thus, the Goal may achieve in a haphazard way and be wholly commonplace — a sort of accident of surroundings, or it may achieve in an intelligently directed way and be superior and fine. So, also, the Arena and Goal may involve phases only of possibilities, such as financial, political, artistic, etc., etc. The will is the prime de¬ cider in these matters, but the self always acts, by its activities, as a magnet, attracting to itself other ex¬ ternal and internal activities of the seen and unseen worlds and reacting thereto according to its conditions. This law of attraction, determining what the Goal of any individual self may be, is expressed, thus: “ I have pozver to attract to myself everything that I de¬ sire or need, and I have power to put from myself that which I do not want.” The necessary end of a system of activities is the expression of its complete nature as a system. The highest conceivable Goal of a human being is the con- 374 Creative Personality tinuous expression of all the self-preservative possi¬ bilities of its nature as a human. Of such expression the process is Action, the me¬ dium Experience, the directing Factors are the Law of Growth, and the dynamic powers are Thought and Will. The fundamental law of this chapter is: Arena Equals Goal. This brings us to the regimes for prac¬ tical work. The Regimes. First — Regime of the Chapter. You are invited to proceed no further before you have reread the present chapter, again and again, until the conceptions set forth are worked into your own body of thought. While the ordinary significance of such words as Reality, nature, expression, activity, reaction, mean¬ ing, law, subconscious self, conscious mind, Arena, Goal, may be evident enough, their full import and value will scarcely be had by a single reading. It is also necessary to gather the scope and richness of Arena and Goal through thinking rather than mere reading. Our end in view is practical as well as theo¬ retical, and the more we “ take in ” this chapter, the more will that end be achieved. Second — Regime of Self-Correction. You are urged to remember that the self is an expression of the Fundamental Reality and that your Goal is to be attained through incessant self-preservative activity. What is the self-preservative should be determined by your own experience and that of others interpreted Goal of the Self 37 5 through this question: Would this particular activity make, in the long run, for the best interest of human beings as such, and so, of my own life? The answer should govern all inner action — and, no less, external conduct. Third — Regime of Governed Indiznduality. The self shares in the freedom of Fundamental Reality, and may create injurious Arena and achieve a wrong Goal. Self-preservative exercise of freedom involves the free expression of the self according to its own will and ideals. You have the right to the perfect freedom of your own life in self-preservative expres¬ sion. This right is mutual. The use of the right by all will be taken care of by the Fundamental Reality which expresses in our nature and the external worlds. You are invited to put aside all fear in connection with the exercise of your right to express your own nature and live your own life. Mutuality should never mean that one life may dwarf another by de¬ mands upon it, nor that any life should dwarf itself by yielding to demands which interfere with full ex¬ pression of the individual right nature. Be absolutely your best self, and define that word, best, for yourself. Fourth — Regime of the Unlimited Ideal. The Arena of the human self is only bounded by the con¬ fines of the Unseen Universe in which our starry sys¬ tems appear. The Goal of the self is only limited by the nature which Reality has given it. The Goal is limitless— for the race, and hence, for each individual who will aspire and work for “ all he is worth.” You are invited to believe and cherish that thought. If 376 Creative Personality you do not equal others, resolve upon greater approxi¬ mation to equality. If you do not now realize your ideals, resolve upon enlarging and enriching both Arena and Goal. “ All things are yours.” “ Be bold,” said Longfellow; “ begin this day.” Remem¬ ber that the inspiration of such lines as these are for you: Oh, east is east, and west is west, And never the twain shall meet, Till earth and sky come presently Before God’s Judgment Seat. But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor breed, nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, Though they come from the ends of the earth. Fifth — Regime of the Uplifted Ideal. All exist¬ ences which make for development are high or low according as the self makes them so. Even the so- called commonplace has a meaning too lofty for de¬ scription when the self is abroad with appreciation. More true is this consequence if the great high-born realities are taken in and made much of. You are invited to lift your thought to its highest possible plane, and to remember that, as the self is a magnet, it will attract to itself only on the plane it loves to oc¬ cupy. No law is stronger than this. Sixth — Regime of Attraction and Repulsion. The self attracts and repels by what it is and by what it wills. We have power to retain in our thought mean- Goal of the Self 377 ings which please us, and to refuse to retain meanings which displease us. This signifies that we have power to repeat or to decline to repeat mental activities ac¬ cording to our character and will. Effort to create conditions favorable to the coming to us of what we want, together with the laws of association, will take full care of the attractions. As a daily suggester in this regime, the affirmation previously given may be repeated, day after day, until it comes to represent an unconscious attitude of the whole of the whole self: “ I have power to attract to myself every thing that I desire or need, and I have power to put from me that which I do not want. Each individual particle of mat¬ ter and cell of life exhibits normality in proportion as it acts according to this law — and always does so when free to express its own nature. The most criti¬ cal thought on the application of the principle to human life reveals its legitimacy. You are a magnet, whether or not, and will attract the undesirable and needless or the desirable and satisfying, in any event. You are invited to make yourself the sole judge, and to proceed as follows: When you confront matters which you neither need nor desire, it may be well to move beyond the sphere of their influence. Decide for yourself, under the in¬ spiration of the motive of best estate. Having this motive, ignore possible consequences, for the Funda¬ mental Reality will adjust such consequences un¬ erringly. Alternatively, it may be well for you to put such matters from the sphere of your life by removing 378 Creative Personality them. The preceding paragraph applies here with exactness. In regard to undesirable and needless matters, it is always a right course to insist by concentrated thought: “ I put all these things away from mind, completely and forever.” This thought will become in time a suggester of ways and means — but also act in its own manner to influence the conditions through which final success is to be attained. When you desire or seem to need any object or con¬ dition, the regime calls for action on your part making the necessary conditions under which your wish can be realized. Do all in your power to attain your end. Action of some sort is now necessary in order to bring in the wire, so to speak, along which your thought may induce a circuit of return values. In the meantime, assert, insistently and strongly: “I am now attract¬ ing to myself this desired thing; I demand it for my¬ self.” Results will infallibly justify the efforts sug¬ gested. Seventh — Regime of Enlarged and Enriched Arena. Consciousness is the sum-total of present mental activities. It is forever varying and changing, — like a cloud of insects observed in the afternoon light. The general group of activities may be greater or smaller in differing individuals, but the ideal to be sought is a condition in which new meanings,— new activities and reactions,— new mental experiences, are constantly taken up into the prevailing group. At this point applies the affirmation before us — I have power to attract and to repulse. The process here involves Goal of the Self 379 the thought: “ I shall this day come into some new experience, get some new meanings, acquire some new facts or truths.” You are invited to make such an affirmation a daily thought, making it persistently, making it strongly. And the process involves that which will invariably be suggested — action corre¬ sponding to the thought. If one wishes new things and values in mental life, one should make the results possible by “ going after them.” This means all sorts of variations in your present actions and life: chang¬ ing the routine, changing the environment, entering new fields of human conduct, literature, science, art, and so on. This “ going after ” and the thought cen¬ tering it, will in time accomplish great things for any mind, any life. LAW — Each Stage in Individual Life Balances Every Other Stage. CHAPTER IX. COMPLETED SELF FOR ALL STAGES OF EXISTENCE. HE preceding chapter has had somewhat the character of a catalogue. This seemed to be unavoidable in view of the details in¬ volved. The present chapter will be more general in its nature. We have seen that the goal of the self is completest development in person and that the field in which this goal is attained is so much of the Universe as the in¬ dividual makes his own through knowledge and ac¬ tion. By so much as you make the Universe your own through the creative process of knowing and the assistant process of action, by so much do you develop, and thus make your field and your goal always identi¬ cal. You can not unfold beyond your field, and your field can not outreach your goal. Your goal, there¬ fore, has only the limit of the knowable Universe. The process of your development must thus cover all the possible stages of your existence. This points you, each day and year, toward a future which you have no reason to close in thought by the duration of your physical body. The writer unyieldingly holds to the belief that every human individual is immortal in conscious personality if he achieves the level of im- 380 Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 381 mortality. The goal of human existence, then, is al¬ ways completest personal development for all stages of its being. To every thinking mind has come this question: “What is the object of my existence?” The answer to this question must be precisely as true of any far- off stage billions of years hence as it is true of any nearer stage in the practical life of business or what¬ not. Do not conceive any so-called heavenly goal which you can not use in Reno or Wall Street, and do not conceive any goal of personal development in any earthly occupation which you can not use essen¬ tially a million years from now. All true processes of human development are prophetic of future devel¬ opment whether during this life or during some period beyond the accident of death. This does not mean, of course, that you are to take with you a typewriting machine or a locomotive or a pair of forceps through all stages of your career, since you do not necessarily expect to take the externals of any development with you in all your lines of activity here on earth, but it does mean that, just as the young man is bound to take the essentials of his unfoldment into his activi¬ ties wherever he is called, so the living human is bound, whether or no, to take with him whatever he is and wherever he goes. A woman said of a man, “ What does he expect to take with him ? ” Every consecutive ten years of this man’s life he had been taking with him precisely what he had made himself during each preceding decade. This was exactly as true of his character, his mentality, his real self, as it 382 Creative Personality had been true of his career in his work in practical life, where he had achieved, comparatively speaking, —'nothing. Now, when this man dies, he will simply take with himself — that self. You are invited to re¬ member that in essence whatever preparation you think you need for success in any period of your career on earth you should also insist that you need for any period beyond this earth. In a very brief way we shall endeavor to indicate some of the things that would seem to be pertinent in the direction of our chapter-heading. The Great Foundation. In this book we conceive that all things, including Deity, have their origin in, and are phases of, Infinite and Eternal Reality. We may not separate things from Reality, nor Reality from any of its manifesta¬ tions, but for convenience of thought we conceive of Reality as fundamental in every object of existence and therefore to every object of existence. It is of the nature of Reality to manifest itself in individual¬ ized forms, and it is equally its nature to make on through such manifestations toward some ultimate goal of perfection through universal harmony. We are unable to conceive of any individualized existence superior to person as defined in the chapter on that subject. It follows of necessity, then, that no instrument to be engaged toward that end can tran¬ scend the instruments which enter into person in im¬ portance and efficiency. The best thing that Infinite Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 383 and Eternal Reality can conceivably do is to produce a perfect Deity and other types of real person making toward perfection. And the only way in which all types of person can realize or make toward perfection is by seeking always to realize their best possibilities in mutual harmony. The first evidence of human person appears in the evolved human psychic factor. Since this psychic factor has its origin in Reality and is Reality, it is as truly creative as any definite thinking can make Reality creative. The psychic factor builds the human self, and the human self builds the body and the mind constituting the human person. In all these elements of psychic factor, self, body and mind you are, on and in and for your plane of being, Infinite and Eternal Reality. You see, then, that you are Reality, but you must par¬ ticularly see that you cooperate with Reality in and for your own and its unfoldment. You are invited to saturate yourself from day to day that you are inherently, and necessarily, a creator, and you are especially invited to remember that what you shall be in any stage of your existence will depend absolutely on the direction you give to your creative powers. Let us now go back a little and see what we can get out of these considerations. We may thus split up the goal of Reality as mani¬ fested in the Universe. The great final goal is Per¬ fection through Harmony. An intermediate goal is a Universe serving as Arena. An instrumental goal is 3S4 Creative Personality Human Person. Within this are the instrumental goals of Psychic Factor, the Creative Self, and Body and Mind. Reality thus achieves itself in human person. Hu¬ man person achieves itself through body and mind. Now, persons differ as do the leaves in Vollombrosa. They differ natively and by reason of the immense intricacies of heredity. But it is possible for them to differ by reason of individual effort, otherwise no progress could have been made in the world’s history. Individuality, then, is a gift and a quest; a birth-mark and a king’s crown. Charlemagne differed from all other people in his kingdom but he achieved that in¬ dividuality which placed the Iron Crown of Lombardy upon his own head. Reality gives you your birthright of native indi¬ viduality without any effort on your part, because it is its nature to do so, and because of its absolutely re¬ sistless tendency to multiply its manifestations in all possible forms. But this tendency also seeks to drive you toward the achievement of acquired individuality through your own efforts. Nature has done much for us all but if we do not allow Nature to do more through our own improving efforts, we are all stand-stills. Had this always been the case, the race would always have been a race of semi-simians or fools. In the in¬ terest of the goals already indicated Reality has ex¬ pressed itself in sex. This, we have reason to believe, is purely physiological. Reality, or the Nature of Things, tends ultimately to develop completest person¬ ality, and this means most divergent individuality. Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 385 The drive of things in individualized manifestations of Reality would naturally tend toward differences in every individual object of existence. You will never find, for example, two mineral specimens or two living plants precisely alike. The old Bible writer declared that there is nothing new under the sun, and every¬ thing around him absolutely contradicted his state¬ ment. Natural individuality is exactly as true as Dar¬ win’s natural selection. But natural selection is one of the means by which natural individuality is achieved. Now, mating is a phase of natural selection. And mating in human life is a hit-or-miss process by which natural individuality obtains in the race. The impor¬ tance of this mating is absolutely transcendent. And, in a harmony with the new and somewhat vague science of eugenics,— which harmony will not be dis¬ covered at first by the promoters of that science,— the chief ideal results of human mating should appear in those who mate. The majority of writers on the subject of mar¬ riage, if they have eugenics in view, value the chil¬ dren more than they do the parents. This is not stat¬ ing the equation as it ought to be stated. We do not here believe the maxim, right mating for right chil¬ dren, but we insist that the truth is this, right mating for the sake of the people that mate. When this ideal is realized, the offspring infallibly will be right. Of course, this is an ideal and universal statement, and no exceptions that you can produce will disprove it. In this chapter we are always seeking completest personality for all stages of existence. This means 386 Creative Personality human individuality, and, therefore, means the right sort of mating. Without going into detailed phases of eugenics, we hold that two ideals are absolutely indispensable to right mating for the best individualized personality. The first ideal is the great Passion of Love, and the second ideal is Self-interest, which means idealized mutuality. It is evident to a running fool that a large proportion of human marriages do not mean real love and that they do mean selfishness rather than self-in¬ terest. Real love is so deep, and fine, and high, and abiding that selfishness is no more possible in its pres¬ ence than is hatred in the heart of God. Many people protest their love for their mates when they are only regardful of their* selfishness. “ Love sufifereth long and is kind.” In real human mating love idealizes its object and either sees therein no evil or covers it with its gracious mantle. In real mating love does not buy itself hats, shoes, clothing, and take excursions, while challenging its mate’s personal or household expenses. In real human mating there is one person, glad sacrifice each in the interest of the other, and one supreme goal, the completest self-in¬ terest of the one through the completest self-interest of the other. If you do not like this, you would better begin with the most ordinary state legislation on eu¬ genics, for there is where you belong. Selfishness is hell in this world, and the worst form of selfishness is that which masks itself under the guise of a selfish love. When mating is right, love will be right, and when Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 387 love is not right mates would better go apart. But if mating and love are right each life will have its own freedom under the sweet influences of mutuality, and infallibly personality will have the largest opportunity for realizing the full possibilities of Reality in its un¬ restrained individuality. Therefore, in the interest of complete personal indi¬ viduality, see that you mate right and love right. And remember that this injunction is offered you primarily for your own sake. Because, it is absolutely impossible that you should achieve completest person¬ ality unless your love means the highest and best wel¬ fare of your mate. If this is your intention, matters will work out as well as the present stage of human ex¬ istence will permit; if this is not your conscious in¬ tention, matters will work out deadly wrong to you. We thus make out the goal of our existence as some ultimate stage of universal harmony achieved through the continuous development of completest personality, human or otherwise, expressing itself in free and unre¬ strained individuality consistent with that harmony. Let us now indicate in a general way some of the ob¬ vious methods. The Great Process. The Power-Books always try to tell you how to achieve the thing set before you. Necessarily they more or less repeat each the instruction of the other. We shall here treat some of the subjects discussed in preceding chapters. But we do this for the sake of an impression and a general view which will constitute 388 Creative Personality the finale of the present chapter and of this book. The process now to be suggested covers the following items. Human life consists of Action and Thought. Now let us look at these matters. All human action which tends in a general way to¬ ward the betterment of the race is legitimate and is immensely important. Let not the business man think superciliously of the philosopher, nor the scholar of the business man, nor the scientist of the poet, nor the preacher of the heretical blacksmith. This world is like an Atlantic liner making its way from port to port. The captain’s action is no more important than the stoker’s, and the engineer’s brains are just now as valuable to the millionaire passenger’s business as his business is important to his own life. The world has its place in the great Galactic Circle and is making its way — through space and toward the goal of human development. Everywhere on board this mighty ship is action of innumerable varieties, and every activity that tends to help her along has the sanction and the dignity of the Universal Reality on its own way to¬ ward ultimate unfoldment. We want you to get the full sense of this tremendous idea, and, getting that sense to swing yourself into line for the whole and the best that’s in you. A dog lies here at my feet, and he is happy if I love him, but you are a human, and, as a type, the best thing Reality could do on this earth. That puts some distance between you and the dog. You are invited to comport your action with that dis¬ tance. Whatever your action may be, compel it to contribute, not to your scholarship, not to your busi- Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 389 ness, not to your trade, Heavenly Day, no! Make it contribute toward your completest personal develop¬ ment. If you will seek to do this, by so much will you dis¬ cover that your action is ruled by Thought. Every thought you have is a mental activity created by your¬ self. You seem to get your thoughts, but you can not get them until you create them. Your thoughts run in certain regularly established ways which are some¬ times called “ faculties,” and which constitute your mind. All these are the products of your knowing self. And each individual exercise of these “ facul¬ ties ” is a mental activity that you have brought into existence. We cover these propositions by the words, your native creative mentality. You began as an in¬ fant which had capacities for mind, but which had to realize those capacities in the creation of a mind. This is a great thing. If you had the power to create a mind, and if you have the power this instant to create any mental activity, then you must also have the power to employ those mental activities in an additional crea¬ tive sense. This you do when you think out a plan, or make a great resolution, or build a business, or invent a machine, or initiate or carry on a great enterprise. You here exhibit your ability to achieve acquired cre¬ ative power. Every successful life and all human progress exhibit these two phases of creative men¬ tality. Success and progress are not left to the mere chance play of mind’s activities; they are results of directive effort creating out of the products of that play larger and newer advancements. We thus say that the 390 Creative Personality process of realizing completest human personality in¬ volves Action and the Two-fold Creative Thought. Now, acquired creative thought is always in some form a Demand. It always means a desire to reach some goal, immediate or remote. This desire is al¬ ways a specific thought and that thought is a demand that, by means of other assisting thought and action, a goal shall be reached. This means that the demand- thought shall lay hold of the mechanism of this Uni¬ verse and compel the same to do its bidding. Man is a part of the Universe, and he is a force therein, because he is a thinker, and because he may make his thought creative and thus compulsory on the elements of Na¬ ture. If, now, we draw out of these general considera¬ tions the heart of them, we are prepared to affirm that a specifically formulated demand is a force which, rightly formulated, deeply enough desired, and re¬ peated for long without other contradictory thoughts, is a creative and compelling force which the Nature of Things, or Reality, or the Universe, has provided for, so to speak, and which must be obeyed. Our goal here is completest personality, and you are invited to apply your best creative thought and the law or force of demand in the interest of that goal, what¬ ever the general or specific lines of your action may be. If you want a thing, think for it, demand for it, and act for it. If you want completest personality, whether through business, or profession, or trade, or what-not, think out the details within your reach in your line of action, think them into harmony with that goal, for¬ mulate your demand with reference to those details Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 391 in harmony with that goal, and then act, incessantly act. A further element in the process of achieving com- pletest personality may be seen in Reaction of the Self to its Externals. This element, as we shall see later on, is immensely important. In your mental life you have reactions (that is, actions back) to all sorts of activities going on within the mind. In your mental life you have also reactions to actions upon you of the external world. In a general way you can not avoid these reactions to externals, so long as you live, move, and have your being. But you have the power some¬ what to select among these reactions, and, broadly speaking, to direct your reactions according to your goals and ideals. You are not, for example, obliged to attend to all the objects of your senses, and you may to a sufficient degree determine the objects to which you will attend. These two facts, selection and direc¬ tion, give us our cue to the importance of this whole matter of mental reactions to the external world. Always the questions extremely pertinent to our re¬ actions are these. First, do we become habituated to automatic reactions without regard to our selective and directive abilities? When we do this we invariably come to the stand-still. This, as an instance, is what the purely routine man does, always doing the things called for by the objects or work before him, and who never starts up any initiative unless he is pitch-forked into it. The opposite kind of person refuses to act merely because he is smitten by mere actions upon him, day after day, and who tries so far as is consistent with 392 Creative Personality the end in view to determine his reactions to actions of outside things upon him. This person is not at a stand¬ still ; he is progressive, that is, he selects and directs his mental reactions — his mental and his physical life. A million examples of the stand-still man might be ad¬ duced, but one or two must here suffice. The clerk who only does what he is told to do or what some im¬ pulse of any exigent situation may call for stands practically still day after day. The employer whose mind jumps around from one thing to another merely because the jumping is inspired by some external in¬ fluence in his own work is also a stand-still man. The mind which merely follows its observations of natural objects from time to time is a stand-still mind. The individual who simply follows the impulses of mental reactions to pedagogical, or theological, or religious in¬ struction, is at a stand-still. The corpse is at a stand¬ still because it does not select and direct its responses to external actions upon it. In the sense of this para¬ graph there are too many dead people on this earth. We are not automata but are living, sentient beings possessed of intelligence and will. We should not, therefore, permit ourselves to be buffeted about by the innumerable actions of the world upon us, but should take ourselves in hand, and improvingly decide upon those influences which we shall allow to affect us, and should incessantly exercise this ability in the interest of unceasing improvement of our personal possibilities. A further phase of this matter of reactions is seen in what here may be called the Balance of Reactions. We are beings possessed of the power to know and to Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 393 use the external world. Now, the process of knowing is wholly interior, but the process of using is, as we may say, exterior. In other words, we have our in¬ terior mental life, and we are in reaction with the life of the external world, including life of persons. A proper balance between our internal life and that life which consists of our reactions to external existences is absolutely indispensable to completest personality. If you are wholly occupied with your own mental activities, you become a recluse, and it is possible that you may be no more than an ape. If you are wholly occupied with the external world, you may as well be called an ape, for under such conditions your person¬ ality can never unfold. Now, a right balance between the mental life which is just absorbed in its own activi¬ ties and the life which is just run by external things is of supreme importance in the development of com¬ pletest personality for any stage of human existence. This little matter of balance will emphatically appear in the final pages of this book. It should always be remembered that these rather general suggestions have an intensely practical appli¬ cation to life. We can not, of course, go into the de¬ tails of the application, since doing this would exhaust the volume. Perhaps, if you will ask yourself this question: “ What shall I take with me from this day into to-morrow ? ” you will begin to seek some answers to that question, and will thus begin to discover some of the details. Suppose, now, that you, the apprentice to some trade, ask the question: “ What shall I take with me from these days and this year of my work into 394 Creative Personality my mastership ? ” you also will begin to see the chal¬ lenging details of mastership thronging you like the lords of creation. And if, as a human engaged in any line of thought and action, you will ask yourself the question: “ What am I getting out of this thought and action for the future of forty years or the future of forty centuries? ” you will discover some very large practical details which will make their importance felt in some inspiring and compelling way. The author can give you certain suggestions about making the garden of your life, but he can not make that garden, for two reasons: first, he has his own garden to make, and, secondly, you are the only person in the Universe that can make your garden. This is the basis and the secret of harmonious mutuality. You have your own cre¬ ative powers, and the other person has his or her own creative powers, and each alone can use them, and if each uses these powers for completest personality, the result will be achievement mutual, harmonious, and relatively perfect. We will now try to carry the proc¬ ess over into the two great stages of human life, here and hereafter. Completest Personality for any Earthly Stage. We are to be concerned now, not with questions of success as ordinarily conceived, since success will al¬ ways follow the true all-around development of the person. This is true because developing person and external world are, in the nature of things, adapted to each other. Reality tends to do precisely this, to un- Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 395 fold your possibilities to best estate, and if you assist that tendency, Reality must react beneficially in your behalf. The trouble with the failure is himself, and the reward of the growing self is the response of the nature of things. The true success of unfolding per¬ sonality is unfoldment, but true unfoldment means true success. The main thing, therefore, is personal de¬ velopment. Personal development is achieved through a proper balance of reactions of the knowing self to it¬ self and to external environment. We may cover this subject of completest personality in two ways: First, by reference to certain divisions of life, and, secondly, by reference to increasing ef¬ ficiency in any line of effort. We may begin the first reference with the period of youth. Early childhood is a marvel in the unfoldment of the personal powers. The world assails the self in¬ cessantly with innumerable activities, and the self re¬ acts with astonishing facility and accuracy and with very little selective and directive control of its re¬ actions. Nevertheless, the greater world confronts the self, and imperiously demands that the selective and directive powers shall be brought into exercise. Life now asks the young man or the young woman, “ What do you intend to take with you out of this period of your youth into the period of your man¬ hood or womanhood ? ” Here is the grammar school, the high school, the college; or, here is the fac¬ tory, the shop, the store, the office. Here also is the town and the social environment. All these words represent phases of the external world limited by 396 Creative Personality knowledge and experience. That is to say, these words represent departments of life which incessantly assail the self. To the casual observer it would seem that the reactions of the self to the actions upon it sug¬ gested are about as automatic as those of a monkey to an African forest. Nevertheless, there is in childhood and youth the element of selective-directive reaction. If this element can be brought into realization, so that the inner life grows in balance with the external life, infallibly will follow preparedness for any line of effort entered and for the period of the next forty years. One question by means of which this end of prepared¬ ness may be secured is this: “ What do you intend to make of yourself ? ” In ninety cases out of one hun¬ dred that question will be answered in terms of trade, business, or profession. But this is precisely not the point. Completest personality is only incidentally a matter of trade, business, or profession; it could be developed if there were no trades, no businesses, no professions. What you intend to make of yourself concerns the proper development and balance of the activities of your inner life in reaction to the activities of the external world, whatever you do, wherever you chance to be. Absolutely all the physical and mental activities which you have brought into play in your present trade, or business, or profession, may just as well and as efficiently have been brought into play in some other trade, business, or profession — except in the case of very rare special abilities resulting from in¬ heritance. In the latter instances, we should also have various departments of the specialized life any one of Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 397 which would demonstrate the proposition that com- pletest personality need not be the outcome of effort in a particular line of action and reaction, but might re¬ sult from any other related line. Broadly stated, we do not have to follow this, that, or the other highway of endeavor in order to achieve completest personality, and so, we can not measure our success in achievement of completest personality in terms of success in trade, or business or profession. Hence, the question which confronts youth is always, not what it shall do with its body, or its mind, but what it shall do with that self which is capable of completest unfoldment wher¬ ever it is placed and whatever it is called upon to do. But, you see, here is exactly where the most of them fail. Usually it is always a question of trade for the sake of wages, of business for the sake of profits, of profession for the sake of money and fame. Conse¬ quently, when the wage is good, when the profits are large, when the fame and the income are satisfactory, the man comes to a stand-still, because he has occupied himself with lower goals than that of completest per¬ sonality. But by so much as the youth emphasizes the ideals of his own development, achieved somehow, anywhere, by so much has he infallibly perfected him¬ self in his trade, business, or profession, and by so much is it absolutely inevitable that he will take into the next period of his life the habit and the imperious impulse of improvement, so that between the age of twenty and sixty his achievements in his work will ar¬ rest and compel attention, and’will forward him as a growing power into the last stage of his earthly career 398 Creative Personality and launch him forth into the next world ready to take his place there also where he belongs, a master. We now consider the period from the age of twenty to that of forty. If the preceding period has been anywhere near right, the next period will be free from the stand-still, and will exhibit that balance between the inner life and the external life, or that balance of the reaction of self to self and reaction of self to the external world, which must infallibly secure the com- pletest personal development, provided — the indi¬ vidual does not permit himself to become contented with mere financial gains. The wage-earner and the tradesman who, after his twentieth year, contents him¬ self with his earnings, prophesies that his earnings will never pass the average. There is always plenty of common work to do in this world, and there are always plenty of people to do it, but those who learn how to do the uncommon work have had to think of something superior to their earnings. And the man who puts his mind upon the development of himself in that work is absolutely sure of increasing his earnings because the nature of things forever emphasizes the value of the self above any kind of work in which it is engaged. And the nature of things always rewards the struggle of the self in terms not only of personal development but also in terms of material means by which that de¬ velopment is assisted. This is a law which no man can gainsay. The law applies also to business and the pro¬ fessional life. The merchant and the professional man who are satisfied with the income of so-called success are apt to settle down on the level of dollars Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 399 and cents, and finally to lose out in the race with their competitors. The reason is, that personal efficiency is always greater than income and that personal effi¬ ciency can never be at its best when the individual thinks more of financial rewards than he thinks of him¬ self. And if financial rewards are emphasized above the unfoldment of person, there is nothing left but money, and the world is filled with mere money-get¬ ters who amount to nothing otherwise. It is almost a disgrace for a man to die a millionaire, and it is alto¬ gether a disgrace to be nothing better. The trouble here is contentment with gold, and this absolutely de¬ stroys the value of forty years of effort. The Uni¬ verse emphasizes above all things the fact of person and the unfoldment of person. We have special illus¬ trations in the professional world. The writer is ac¬ quainted with an oculist whose office is thronged with patients and whose income is probably ten thousand dollars a year. This man talks frequently about the “ big men ” in his profession who live somewhere else, but he is contented with his income, for, if he were not, he would utilize his income and his abilities to the end of becoming a “ big man ” himself. He will never do anything wonderful for the human eye, and will never become great in his profession, because he has reached the stand-still of the dollar. It is always so, and it is so everywhere. Nothing in the world will prevent the stand-still in human life save the desperate determina¬ tion for personal development and for that right bal¬ ance of mental reactions to the external world of mat¬ ter and men which shall infallibly secure preparation 400 Creative Personality in any stage of existence for that which is to follow. You are invited to give the preceding sentences care¬ ful consideration, and to give vastly more attention to your selfhood than you do to your trade, business or profession. And you are invited to be assured that if you will do this your trade, business and profession will follow as a matter of course. The next period from sixty on will take care of itself if you have insisted upon personal develop¬ ment, because each preceding period has been a prep¬ aration thereto. Two things are now to be avoided: Domination by some fantastic idea of a heavenly fu¬ ture and Disregard for any future. The one is the tyranny of a narrowly conceived religion, and the other is the tyranny of irreligion. We should not, after the age of sixty, live a double life, that of so- called old age dominated by notions of a heavenly reward and divorced from activities in the present world, and neither should we live contentedly dur¬ ing the period from sixty on regardless of the fu¬ ture. The main question here, as during preceding periods, concerns the individual’s developed powers to live in this period at his best, and thus to be mas¬ ter in any succeeding period. If you have made your life tell as best you may have done, reasonably speaking, the future will take care of itself. Now this is not a question of religion at all, in the ordinary sense of the word, since any person who has really lived for personal completeness, as a Hebrew, a Buddhist, a Christian, or an African chief, has always prepared himself for the future either in this world or the next. Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 401 This is what true religion really means — personal de¬ velopment, and it does not mean anything else, Heaven and Hell to the contrary notwithstanding. We say these things because we desire that our readers should definitely understand that the whole subject of human life resolves itself into the one simple question of what a man actually is. If one has made the most of him¬ self, in a reasonable sense, his future is assured. Re¬ ligions may have helped him, but they have only helped him, since this man would have done the same with any religion and even without any religion — taking re¬ ligion in its ordinary sense. Having taken this little survey of self-improvement in the way of periods of years, we now proceed to in¬ dicate the same general thought as concerning personal completeness sought in and through any line of human effort. In view of the fact that all preceding pages have had to do with development of person, we must be con¬ tented with a few great fundamental principles which ought to make toward that end and which will lead us onward toward the final great conception of this book. We have said that the goal of human life is not to be found in mere success in the way of any trade, busi¬ ness or profession. But we do not minimize these fields of labor and the success which may be achieved therein. The fields broadly cover the activities of body and mind, and we now know that action and thought are indispensable means through which success and personal development may be achieved. You there¬ fore understand that your work is important, but you 402 Creative Personality are invited to understand that your work is only im¬ portant as it makes toward personal completeness. If, then, this end is sought, the two results will infallibly follow, according to your capacities, success and the continuous unfoldment of your best powers. The principles will now be given. Will, energy, and alertness in the field of work to which you devote yourself. The growing individual must seek to develop will-power, strong, balanced and directive, because this alone will generate the energy required and drive you forward toward your goal. The individual must cultivate energy of body and mind continuous and adequate, because the demands of his work and of completest personality will make unceasing drafts on all his powers. The individual must have alertness in order to see his opportunities and to make the most of them. These elements will make the ordinary master in trade, business or pro¬ fession, according to capacities, which no man can find out until he is tried for from sixty to a hundred thou¬ sand years. Now let us illustrate. We shall mark off our progress by advancement in any line of work. Here is a young man in the machine-shop who is supposed to be learning his trade. He does whatever task is given him in a decent sort of way, collects his wages, and in due time will become a kind of “ master.” Here is another man in the same shop who takes hold of the tasks given him, but who throws his energy into his work and forever keeps his whole nature alert to kinds of work that other men are doing. His ideal is personal completeness as a ma- Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 403 chinist, not the mere collection of wages. A rush order comes in to the office for a steel shaft turned to cer¬ tain dimensions — and the man who has always done this work is sick, or dead. Who shall control the lathe in which this shaft is to be locked? The man who has put his will, energy, and especially alertness of knowing how to do some other things than those which he has been told to do, and who has thus sought to be a real master mechanic. You see precisely the same thing among the clerks, the business men, and the law¬ yers and the doctors. By so much as they are alert with all energy* and will-power to know how to do something more> thaa the mere thing- immediately in hand, by so much do they improve their personal capacities and advertise that fact by their work. Al¬ ways does any kind of worker find himself confronted by the unusual and. the unexpected, and always is it necessary that some one should overcome the diffi¬ culties. And he who has tried to “ know more than the law allows ” is always the man for the place. Now this is not so much because this individual has pre¬ pared himself for the unusual and the unexpected of some particular kind, but it is because he has prepared himself for all things' unusual and unexpected. In ether words, he has made the most of himself. Determination to accomplish more of customary lines of work. This principle is not suggested in the in¬ terest of any employer or of any financial success. The principle infallibly suggests means by which that more can be accomplished. Now that is precisely the point. If the individual resolves to do more, whether 404 Creative Personality in trade, business or profession, his mind will get to work on the question how to achieve this end with less effort and time. The mental effort will, of course, contribute toward personal development. Determination to know and do something different. The writer may be pardoned if he employs a personal illustration. Years ago he resolved that he would never push the button of any time-registering machine, and that he would not long be dependent on the beck and call of king, priest, or gospellor, because he would produce something that no other man had produced. He is not a millionaire, but the work of making the Power-Books has been of the greatest pos¬ sible value in his own development, and he believes that he has really done something new. The intention of this paragraph is to inspire its readers to seek to dis¬ cover new ways of personal unfoldment through all the opportunities of the work in which they are en¬ gaged and through opportunities outside of that work which the world is forever presenting to all of us. High ideals for completest selfhood. No man should regard himself as a mere instrument for the turning of a steel shaft, or the winning of a law case, or the running of a store or factory, for that is de¬ gradation. How are you superior to the ordinary slave if you permit yourself to live merely for a shop, or a doctor’s gig, or the executive office of a nation? There is one man living to-day who has always been greater than any position or office that he has held. Evidently he has always made his work count not alone for the work, but for Theodore Roosevelt. And in Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 405 this ambition he has served his time because he has sought personal development, and has achieved the latter because he has tried to serve his time. The man who becomes a slave to his work for the sake of his work or of money or fame, infallibly exhibits selfish¬ ness; and the man who seeks to make absolutely the most of himself possible for the sake of that self bal¬ anced in its reactions with other people and the world will infallibly do the best kind of work and prepare himself as he goes on for any stage of existence to which life will call him. But this is no dream. It means the steady and persistent application of the prin¬ ciples here suggested, and, it may perhaps be said, of the instructions of this book. These reflections bring us on to our final discussion. COMPLETEST PERSONALITY FOR UNSEEN WORLDS All through this book there is the conception of Reality as the Ground and Source of every individual object of existence. Of course it is understood that this conception is a theory, but it should be understood that the theory is not without reasons. If every indi¬ vidual object of existence is a manifestation of Reality, then every such existence is Reality, and it follows that Reality is every such existence. It seems to be the nature of every individual object of existence to be itself, and, therefore, to be Reality. When we see this proposition, we know that Reality is not a Somewhat apart from the thing, but that the thing is Reality, and that Reality is the thing. In the mental arena only one reason can be assigned 406 Creative Personality for this nature of things and for this operation of Reality,— to wit, the tendency of things to be what they are, and the tendency of Reality to manifest in the things. If we ask, in the mental arena, the reason for these tendencies, we must answer as follows: Conceiving some eternal and infinite Reality which is always the same and identical throughout with itself, and which constitutes the sole reason for its own existence, as the Essence, Ground and Source of all things, and in¬ vestigating objects as we find them, we must perceive the tendencies indicated, and we can only indicate the end in this way: By means of individualized mani¬ festations of itself the Reality which is in all things and is all things, when it achieves individualized per¬ son, sets itself as person over against itself as not per¬ son. Only in this way can the most fundamental thing in the Universe come into play — Reaction. There can be no conceivable progress save through reaction. Every individual object of existence is a particular manifestation of Reality and is Reality. But every individual object of existence unfolds to its final stage of development because it reacts with other phases of Reality which- are not itself. This is only a fact of ordinary observation put into the terms of the language of this book. When this stage of the existence of person is at¬ tained, the intelligence of the reaction has reached the highest point known. Now, as we have seen, person is the following exhibit of Reality: There is psychic factor, there is the human self, there is the body and Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 407 there is the mind. Through psychic factor self, body, and mind, Reality achieves the climax of its individu¬ alized manifestations in person with its individualized manifestations as person and as not person. You see, then, that the departments of person are its own instru¬ ments by means of which Reality comes into reaction with itself and thus unfolds its highest possibilities. Now, you are invited to assume that every element in your nature is Reality. When you get this idea, and if you follow the instruction of preceding pages, you will see that every phase of your person is an in¬ strument by means of which you yourself may come into reaction with the great Universe about you, and by means of which you may assist the Reality of the Uni¬ verse to unfold itself toward its final goal — perfec¬ tion through harmony. Now let us see about all this. Thus, the psychic factor which has built your self puts yourself by reason of that fact into touch with the external world. Now, this touch with the external world is realized through the body which you have built and through the mind which you have established. Let us look at these matters also a moment. We take the body which is yours. Without that body you could not know anything, and you could not get into relation with anything external to your¬ self. You have your senses and you have your various physical external members. Through the senses, see¬ ing, hearing, feeling, taste, touch, and through hands, feet, etc., you are brought into relation with that which is not yourself in its innumerable forms. The effi¬ ciency of your life depends in part upon the use you 408 Creative Personality make of your senses and your members. Refer to any familiar example. By so much as you compel this body to react properly to the external world about you, by so much, you see, does your physical efficiency im¬ prove. Everybody knows these facts, although they may here be stated in rather unfamiliar terms. Your body is your instrument by means of which you make your way through life. And, so far forth, your per¬ sonal efficiency in this world depends upon the degree in which you really do make that body an adequate in¬ strument for right relations with all things about you. We need not go further into details, because the proposition is perfectly evident. But the great instrument by which you throw your body, its senses and its members, into adequate rela¬ tions with the external world, is the mind. We know that the mind is a system of activities of the self in knowing, which system, taken as a whole, controls the senses and the physical members. The mind, there¬ fore, is our second great instrument of reaction with the Universe. You have to know that Universe, more or less, and you have to know how to use the mind and the body in order to come into growing relations with that which is not yourself. The knowing and the using are purely mental. You can find examples of these propositions in any day of your work and in any line of human effort. We have simply said here what it means to learn a trade, or to build a business or to succeed in a profession. These things are what everybody does and will dis¬ cover if he stops to think. Present observation shows Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 409 that we unfold personal capacities by means of right reactions with externals, and that the two great instru¬ ments of such unfoldment are body and mind. Whether in the period of youth, or in the period from forty to sixty, or from thence on in this world, all growth is the result of right reactions in body and mind to external existences. We see, then, that the present life really sums up in this: Have we made body and mind efficient to main¬ tain themselves and to maintain continuous improving reactions with outside environments? By so much as we have achieved these results have we developed in person and succeeded in life. This all concerns the present stage. The writer be¬ lieves that we have another stage of existence if we manage to attain its level. Everybody assumes that we have to die. Most people suppose that this dying merely concerns the physical structure. If you do not believe this, stop reading. If you do believe this, the question arises: Do you expect to live hereafter in a structure external to your inner self which will answer the great fundamental purposes of your present body and by means of which you should keep in touch with the unseen Universe, and maintain those right rela¬ tions therewith through which you shall grow and se¬ cure happiness. This is our first question about the future. Our next question concerns the mind. That factor involves the use of your mind in any other stage of existence for such relations with the external Uni¬ verse as may enable you to maintain your individuality and to achieve your highest possibilities. 410 Creative Personality We do not wish to become disembodied spirits, we do not wish to remain imbeciles, but we do wish to sus¬ tain such conscious relations with any possible future unseen environment that we may realize therein our highest possibilities and our greatest happiness. The religions of the world set forth these ideals, but they do not tell us much about the ways in which we can realize those ideals, contenting themselves with the affirmations that we must believe what they teach, whether or not we are to carry onward a body worth while or any adequate instrument of mind. We here say that any religion is good if it expects you to carry into the next world some sort of a body adequate to that world and some sort of a mind adequate to con¬ tinuous unfoldment and personal happiness. But what is true here, must be true anywhere else. If we need a body and mind here in order to keep in touch with the external Universe, and to unfold and be happy, we certainly shall need a body and mind in any future stage of existence for the same stupendous purposes. The questions, then, what kind of body do you expect to have in the next world, and what kind of mind do you expect to have in the next world ? look immensely important. The writer now proceeds to the boldest things he has ever written. We want to tell you how to achieve these great results. We begin with the instrument of the body. The external structure of yourself in the next world will follow the creative impulses and principles which you employ in regard to your present physical body. Re¬ member, please, that, generally speaking, and making Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 411 due allowances for inheritance, the body you now in¬ habit, you have created and that it represents you in the world of life. You may have physical ailments, deformities, and all sorts of physical troubles, but if your mental attitude toward that body is fine, and high, and ideally loving, this fact will infallibly determine for you a body adequate to your uses in the next world. And if you continually maintain the thought that you want a body for that world which shall bring you into right relations with future environments, that thought will infallibly produce its influence in creating for you a structure which shall be satisfactory according to your mental development. This is very good busi¬ ness. The youth needs an adequate body for the next period of his earthly career, so that he may handle life and things for his success and his personal unfoldment. Every human individual needs, similarly, some sort of body by means of which he may unfold and secure hap¬ piness through reactions with worlds that are not ma¬ terial. We should have better bodies here if we gave them better attention here and constantly maintained the demanding thought tfi^t they must become more and more adequate. You are invited, then, to make the thought an im¬ perious factor in your life: A body perfect to all de¬ mands upon it in the unseen world. You do not wish to live hereafter in a structure which you can not use in the best possible way under all unseen circumstances and conditions. Y’ou wish exactly the opposite: A body that shall always make it possible for you to use externals for your own best interests — anywhere. 412 Creative Personality We believe that if you will carry this thought inces¬ santly with you, and if you will try to realize the thought in the present life, this effort will result in an instrument forever adequate to your mind. All things here said concerning a body are adequate to the mind. You do not wish to be a disembodied spirit, and you do not wish to be a mind which can not forever know all things presented to it, and can not rightly use that knowledge for development and hap¬ piness. You may not be conscious of the fact, but even here, if you' are a growing and a successful indi¬ vidual, you carry the thought: A better mind, a more efficient mind, a broader mind, a mind more alert for and in touch with facts, truths, principles, beauties, and therefore more capable of making more and more its own all the fields of life into which it may be called. Every growing person exhibits the power of this thought. We are only carrying forward the same gen¬ eral principle into the next world which we employ here. If you maintain the ideal that you want a mind efficient for all stages of existence, the ideal will in¬ evitably bear fruit in that mind which shall survive the shock of dissolution. Summing up these considerations, we say that every intelligent person desires to maintain personality at its best whether “ in the body or out of the body.” This is a matter so important that we can well afford to ac¬ cept any religion which really furthers the end in view, and can also afford to reject any religion which does not. The reader of this book has discovered that the writer holds religions to be secondary and not primary Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 413 as instruments of personal development. Personal de¬ velopment does not follow religions; religions follow the effort toward personal development. Your per¬ sonal development in the next world does not depend upon your religion hut your religion depends upon your ideas of personal development. If you really desire personal development as the result of a continuous process, you will accept all things that are good in all religions and reject all things that are not good in any religion. This book is not a religious book, in the ordi¬ nary sense, yet all along it has sought to suggest to you the ideals of personal completeness and many methods by which that ideal may be realized, with re¬ ligion, in spite of religion, or regardless of anything so-called. Golden Thought: I am immortal, and I demand a body and a mind, built by myself, adequate to all ideal and happy reactions zvith the Universe zvherever I may be found. The solidarity of the race means comradeship. This means the mating of person with persons so high, so free, so mutual, that not even a heaven can add any¬ thing thereto. The reactions of our life are not ex¬ hausted by our relations with material objects. These relations are really merely scaffoldings by means of which a greater edifice is constructed: That of the communion of heart and heart and mind and mind. But such a union is impossible without the external structure and the knowing self. How can I commune with my friend, if that friend can not see yonder star, or yonder flower crannied in the cliff’s far wall, 414 Creative Personality or the glittering white-caps of the sea upon which we voyage? Where is the comradeship of two ears which can not appreciate the wild bird’s song or Beethoven’s Night Sonata? Not much of companionship is there when one does not taste a two-inch beefsteak done to a turn. Comradeship is mutuality in the physical life because it is mutuality in the mental life. When that unseen body and that future mind have been brought into right relation with the external Universe, as they may be brought by proper thought and action idealiz¬ ing each self and each life, then two human beings are one twain, and then lasting friendships are insured and mating is so developed that further development for each individual is prophesied in the nature of things, and the happiness of a true comradeship sinks into in¬ significance the turmoil and sorrows of the ordinary married life. The main thing is personal completeness, and the idea suggested is that personal completeness in its very highest stages must be realized through the right mating of adequate bodies and adequate minds of perfectly adapted persons forever surrendered each to the other in the freedom of an untrammeled life. And the great means to these ends are, Thought di¬ rected intelligently thereto and action corresponding therewith. When the ends are attained each indi¬ vidual is in right relations with self, the other, and the Universe. Then the Universe will more and more pour itself into human person, and human person will more and more absorb the Universe, until, the process becoming universal, all Reality shall be personal in the Completed Self for all Stages of Existence 415 completest sense and all person, human or otherwise, shall be Reality in its highest powers. Trusting that the pages of this book have been worth your while, and wishing for you the attainment of the great ideals suggested, I remain, Yours most sincerely, A Brother Cooperative. /^)