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Page 18
V
_THE AUSTERE_
The soul has discovered that it is in a moral order, that it is a free
agent, and that it has mysterious affinities with truth and right. It
has taken a few steps, and with them has learned that its upward
movement will not be easy.
It next discovers that it has no isolated existence, but that it is
surrounded by countless other similar beings all indissolubly bound
together and having mutual relations. With the dawn of intelligence
comes the realization of relations. This realization is dim at the
first, but it is very real. Soon the soul learns that the relations
between it and other souls are so intimate that the interest of one is
the interest of all. Appreciation of relations is a long advance in the
movement upward, and it necessitates other knowledge. The realization of
relations leads, necessarily and swiftly, to the consciousness of
responsibility. The process of this growth cannot be described in
detail, but the path is clearly marked and its milestones may be
numbered. Each soul is always in a society of souls. Each one,
therefore, affects others, and is affected by them. It is free and,
therefore, responsible for the influence which it exerts. Moreover, it
is bound to other souls by love, and love always carries with it the
possibility of sorrow; for sorrow is usually only love thwarted. It is
not far from the truth to say that when there is no love there is no
sorrow, and that the possibilities of sorrow are always increased in
proportion to the perfection of being.
In time the soul finds itself not only one among myriads of souls, but
it realizes that its relations to some are more intimate than to
others. It needs not to seek the causes of this fact, since it cannot
escape from the reality. Thus it finds itself in families, in tribes, in
nations, in social groups where the bonds are strong and enduring.
Some souls, more capacious than others, have a richer and more varied
experience, and thus inevitably become teachers. The process goes on,
and, with both teachers and scholars, the horizon expands and the
strength increases with each new day. The soul has found that it is not
a solitary being dazed and saddened by the consciousness of its powers,
but that it is in a society in which all are similarly endowed, and that
all are pressing toward the same goal. It has discovered that its growth
is hastened, or hindered, by its environment; and that the spiritual
environment is ever the nearest and most potent.
Each new step in this pilgrim's progress reveals something more
wonderful than the opening of a continent. It is an entrance into a
larger and more complex world. A strange fact now emerges. Every
enlargement of being, either of faculty or capacity, is attended by pain
either physical or mental. "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth," seems
to be a universal law rather than an isolated text. All life is
strenuous because it is always attended by growth. The soul moves not
only onward but upward, and climbing is always a difficult process.
Before a second step is taken the soul begins to experience suffering
and sorrow; and as its growth advances it never afterward, so far as
human sight has penetrated, escapes from them. Why are they allowed? and
what purpose do they serve?
The soul exists in a body, and the body is the seat of sensations. Those
sensations, whether pleasing or painful, belong to the physical organs,
but they affect the spirit, and escape from them is impossible. Pain has
a perceptible effect on the soul, even though the latter has no other
relation to the body than that of tenant to a house. It suffers because
of the intimate relations which it sustains to the organs through which
it works.
The individual soul is related to other souls. Therefore it has plans
and purposes concerning them, and it has affinities which are
inseparable from existence in society. Those purposes and affinities may
be gratified or thwarted. The soul sometimes finds a response from the
one whom it seeks and sometimes it does not. Pain belongs to the body,
and sorrow is an experience of the soul.
The body is in constant limitations, subject to diseases and accidents,
and the soul is affected by all that the body feels. Because of these
intimate relationships the soul is limited by ignorance, and defeated in
its purposes. It becomes attached to other souls, and those attachments
are either rudely shattered or roughly repulsed, and, consequently, the
life of the soul is as full of sorrow as is a summer day of clouds.
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