Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Stanwood Cobb, Character: A Sequence in Spiritual Psychology, Washington: The Avalon Press, 1938, bahai-library.com.
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CHARACTER
A SEQUENCE IN SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY
BOOKS BY
STANWOOD COBB

CHARACTER
PATTERNS IN JADE OF WU MING FU
SECURITY FOR A FAILING WORLD
NEW HORIZONS FOR THE CHILD
DISCOVERING THE GENIUS WITHIN YOU
THE WISDOM OF W U MING FU
THE NEW LEAVEN
SIMLA A TALE IN VERSE
THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICISM
AYESHA OF THE BOSPHORUS
THE REAL TURK

PAMPHLET:

THE MEANING OF LIFE
CHARACTER
A Sequence in Spiritual Psychology

By STANWOOD COBB

THE AVALON PRESS
WASHINGTON
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter I. A Spiritual Autobiography 9

PART I—FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER

Chapter II. Character is Destiny 31
Chapter III. Scientific Foundations for Character 35
Chapter IV. Religious Foundations for Character 45

PART I I — T H E GOALS OF CHARACTER

Chapter V. Self'Development 63
Chapter VI. The Law of Duty 84
Chapter VII. Altruism 103
Chapter VIII. The Stage of Selflessness iaa

CONCLUSION

Chapter IX. Progress Onward and Upward Forever.... 147
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INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I

A Spiritual Autobiography
£J&IiE present age is so distinctly one of change
y^J and transition that few individuals who think
about life and destiny remain satisfied with
ancestral and traditional dogmas.
It is an age of change. It is also an age of search,
and that is its greatest virtue. For out of the grow'
ing welter of confusion, search may and ultimately
will find better ways of living, higher and more unh
versal truths.
Today—as in the rich Mediterranean culture of
the Golden Age of Rome—new sources of inspira'
tion, multitudinous new claimants of world truth
impinge upon the consciousness of the progressive
liberal thinker.
What the modern man, therefore, thinks about
life and the universe is a composite of inherited forms
and ideology; of personal observation, thought, and
conviction regarding the nature of existence; and of
new inspirational material flowing in from every
side, wherefrom each individual chooses in accorď
ance with his temperamental susceptibilities, his
predelictions, and his experiential past.
io CHARACTER

My own search for truth has been like that of
countless others. Born and brought up in an ear'
nestly religious (though liberal) New England home,
my thoughts turned early in the direction of spirit'
ual and metaphysical thinking.
At the age of seven I read the Bible through, with
what profit I know not. At the age of twelve I read
it through again under the following circumstances:
Sunday School in an orthodox church became an inv
possible absurdity for me, because my teachers could
not explain contradictions and incredibilities in the
Bible. Yet church and Sunday School were the in'
flexible parental order of the day. So I proposed a
bargain. I offered to spend the equivalent time
reading the Bible at home Sunday mornings if I
could be excused from Sunday School. The bargain
was parentally accepted and I profited much from
this second reading of the Bible.
Later on, in conducting devotions in my school, I
have read the important dramatic and spiritual sec'
tions of the Old Testament through many times.
Instead of tiring of them, with every reading I mar'
vel the more at their literary perfection and their
spiritual power.
At the age of fourteen I accidentally stumbled
across Hindu mysticism into which I delved with
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY - n

great sest; and at fifteen naturally gravitated toward
Theosophy and Unitarianism. These schools of
spiritual thought, with the subsequent addition of
Buddhism and New Thought, remained my spirit'
ual food through college days.
Upon my graduation from high school I had pre'
sented as my salutatory "Beacon Lights of History"
—which included Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Con'
fucius, Christ, and Mahomet. The principal of the
school would not permit me to associate Christ with
these other founders of religions, so the address was
given with Christ omitted.
It had been during this senior year at high school
that I arrived at a great truth—the fundamental
validity of all the world religions. It happened in
this way. One day I came across the fact that
Christianity was composed of some two hundred
sects. I knew that many of these claimed not only
to be truth, but to be the sole vehicle of truth and
salvation. It was absurd to think, however, that
one of these two hundred sects had stumbled upon
the only key to salvation, and the other one hundred
and ninetynine were in error. On the contrary, I
opined that all of them had some truth and none of
them a monopoly on truth. Continuing this train
of thought I arrived at a similar conclusion regard'
ing the world's great religions—that all had truth
and validity and that none had uniqueness.
i2 CHARACTER

This was the spiritual philosophy which I had
presented in my salutatory. It proved too liberal
for the kultur of the '90's (1899 to be exact) in even
as liberal a human environment as Newton, Bos*
ton's most cultured suburb.

In my senior year at Dartmouth I met with a similar evidence of traditionalism in high places. To a
famous visiting preacher, who on the day subsequent
to his sermon was available for religious conferences
with the students, I propounded a question which
had been bothering me. Undoubtedly, I said, varh
ous other suns throughout the universe had planets,
and those planets had every likelihood of being in*
habited by some living species which would have
developed as far as man has on the planet earth. If
Christ was the unique Son of God, sent down from
God to guide us to salvation, what about the peoples
on those other planets? Did they also have their
Saviors? But how could they, if Christ was the
unique One?
The preacher sidestepped this difficult question
with the lazy answer: "Well, I wouldn't bother
about that. There is no reason to think there are
any other inhabited worlds." Thus he persisted in
the geocentric Ptolemaic conception of the universe
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY 13

as presented in the Bible, which represents the stars
as existing only to light the earth by night and the
sun as kindly traversing a circle around the earth to
light and heat it by day.
One other experience in similar vein put an end
once and for all to my attempts to find satisfactory
explanation of the universe through the wisdom of
any theologians. I forget what the problem was
which I took to Dr. Tucker, President of Dartmouth,
whom I then esteemed and still do in memory as one
of the noblest men this country has produced in the
last generation. Dr. Tucker, who had been a clergy
man before taking the presidency of Dartmouth, I
found to my immense disappointment was unable
satisfactorily to clear away my religious problem. I
can see now that that was not so much his fault;
probably no other person could have solved my
problems then. There are certain things that one
must thrash out for oneself.

After graduation from Dartmouth I continued, in
a period of ill health, to give more serious considera'
tion than ever before to the problem of Hfe and of
the universe. During this period I had the privilege
of reviewing books for the Boston Transcript. The
books assigned to me were of a serious nature on
14 CHARACTER

subjects such as philosophy, social sciences, religion,
New Thought. I found much material in these
books to meditate over and digest. Their scope was
broad as human thought itself. A marvelous expe'
rience for youth, after the formal regime of college
education, to dip untrammeled into the thought of
so many minds. The very reading of these books
was a mental discipline as well as spiritual inspira'
tion, for they were to be analyzed and criticized as
well as enjoyed.
During this same period, while I was teaching
Latin in the Brockton (Mass.) High School, I had an
amazjing spiritual adventure. I was out for a walk
one evening and happened to pass a little chapel on a
side street, from which light was streaming and the
sound of congregational singing. I went up to the
door to look in and see what kind of service it was.
There was a small group of about twenty in the
congregation. The young clergyman officiating irm
mediately came to the door at my approach and so
cordially urged me to come in and join them that I
allowed myself to be persuaded. It was, as I found,
a church of the Disciples of Christ or Campbellites,
an offshoot from the Baptist denomination strong in
the Middle West but not widespread in the East.
This little group of simple working people, with a
young clergyman who was still a theological student
supplying their needs, I found to be the most
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY I5

spiritual and vital Christians I had ever encountered.
Their religion was real. It not only inspired their
worship with a deep sense of reverence and nearness
to God, but inspired—as I found on conversation
with them later—their whole lives. They called
each other brother and sister. They were simple
people. One was a night watchman of the railroad;
one drove a baker's team; one, a girl, worked in a
candy factory—and so it went. When these people
prayed they really talked with God. The power of
the Holy Spirit shone through them and affected me
deeply. I had never seen any such expression of
religion. Undoubtedly the early Christian com'
munities were of such nature. I should call this a
true line of descent in the Apostolic Succession.
Every Thursday night I attended their service,
feeling more and more drawn into their mystic and
celestial brotherhood. Finally the time came when
they urged me to join their church. This would re'
quire baptism by total immersion, a ritual quite
antipathetic to my religious philosophy up to date.
But I thought, why should I let a simple matter
like this stand in the way of fellowship with this
wonderful group? Their theology was not narrow,
only this requirement of total immersion. So I accepted the ritual and joined their brotherhood. As
one would expect, the baptism itself did not trans'
late me into a celestial condition of life; but my
ió CHARACTER

fellowship with these simple and earnest Christians
was then, and remains in memory still, one of the
sweetest and loftiest spiritual experiences of my life.
Several reasons at this time impelled me to study
for the Christian ministry and I naturally turned
to the Harvard Divinity School for this purpose.
What denomination did I select? The young clergy
man in charge of the church I had joined naturally
urged me to go into that sect—Disciples of Christ.
But as I investigated its churches in Greater Boston
I found nowhere such a spiritual expression as I had
seen in the little Brockton chapel. On the contrary,
these larger urban churches were in no way superior
to churches of the other orthodox denominations.
So much to my friend's disappointment I selected
the Unitarian church for which to prepare my
ministry.

My two years at Harvard Divinity School were
extremely fruitful from a spiritual as well as an
intellectual standpoint. There was then presiding
over the department of the History of Religions one
of the greatest scholars of the world, George Foote
Moore. I took every course in the History of Re'
ligions and Comparative Religion which the Divinity
School had to offer. I also profited greatly by a
course in Mysticism under W. W. Fenn, later Dean
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY 17

of the Divinity School. This course was outstanď
ing. For in a period when religious mysticism was
treated in most of the theological schools of the
country as pathological, Professor Fenn treated the
subject with the deepest sympathy and consider
tion. I suspect he was a mystic himself. Under the
stimulus and inspiration of his course I did an im­
mense amount of unrequired reading in the mystics
of all the great religions of the world—Judaism,
Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, and Mo'
hammedanism. The Harvard Divinity School had
at that time one of the finest libraries in the world
on comparative religion and I found here a wealth of
material that I had never been able to discover pre'
viously and saturated myself in the mystic thought
of those great spiritual souls, the mystics.
In the course of this reading I arrived at an inter'
esting discovery, one that might have been expected:
namely, that the mystics of every religion have the
same theme and sing the same song—Goďconscious'
ness, the Divine love and the joy therein derived,
and the losing of oneself in the greater Whole. So
transcendent is the similarity of experience and ex'
pression on the part of these world mystics that one
could hardly tell, if one did not know beforehand,
to which religion any particular mystic belonged.
It is but natural that this should be so. For after
all, there is but one God and one Universe; and the
i8 CHARACTER

search for Reality and the experience of Reality
must therefore on the highest plane be one. These
mystics—so free from trammels of theology, so dedicated to truth in thought and in experience—seemed
then and still seem to me to be the beautiful flowering of reHgion; "a life hid with Christ in God" as
Paul expresses it.
During this period, also, I delved deeply into
Swedenborg whose voluminous works were available to divinity students at the amazing sum of ten
cents per volume. I liked then and still like Swedenborg's teachings regarding the other world—that
individuals sort themselves out there by the natural
law of gravitation. People are not cast into hell.
They choose that coterie of souls because their
natures fit it. As Swedenborg points out, evil souls
hate the light just as bats do. They would be in
pain and unhappiness in the midst of a spiritual
coterie, just as spiritual people would be in pain and
unhappiness in the midst of a hellish coterie.
I felt the reasonableness of this explanation, since
we can readily see the same law working out upon
this earth. A man of evil thoughts, purpose, and desire nature introduced into a group of highly spiritual people would at first be bored to death by their
conversation; then become uneasy; and finally acquire such a painful psychology as to wish to burst
out from their midst and seek the companionship of
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY .19

fellow-souls in evil. The same thing would be true,
vice versa, of a spiritual person.
I liked also Swedenborg's clear-cut statement that
the only rewards that accrue to us in the future life
from our good deeds here are where the deeds result
from absolute sincerity of purpose. If deeds of
benefaction and philanthropy are for self-interest
and self-glorification, they do not accrue as advantage to us in the other world. How similar this
is to the Hindu doctrine of non-regard for the fruits
of action, and to Christ's teaching that it is what
flows out from the inner man that is important, not
the outside appearance.

After two years at the Harvard Divinity School,
I renounced my intention of entering the ministry.
It seemed to me that the Christian Church had in
general become a mere lecture platform among intelligent college-trained congregations, and among
simple folk it remained too much intrammeled in
traditional theology. More and more, it seemed to
me, the position of the clergyman was anomalous in
an age when people read and think for themselves.
In past ages, when congregations were illiterate, they
needed to have their scriptures read and expounded
to them. But in these days of universal literacy and
ao CHARACTER

independence of thought the clergyman is no longer
the specialist in religion as he was in past times and
as to this day the doctor is still a specialist in medi'
cine, the lawyer a specialist in law, and the teacher
a specialist in whatever subject he is teaching. The
clergyman unfortunately is not a specialist in any'
thing, not even in saintliness; for it is quite apparent
that theological training does not produce saintli'
ness. And it seemed to me then, and still seems to
me, a very artificial stiuation into which clergymen
are forced. If they are exhorting their congrega'
tions to righteous living, they must perforce be of
greater saintliness than any in their congregation.
But this is an abnormal and unnatural thing to ex'
pect of the clergy. Some are more spiritual than
any in their congregation, but it just happens so.
After all, is not the day of the layman's religion here?
The Quaker church perhaps has the right idea, in
that no one is designated as the ofEcial clerical head
or expounder of truth to the others.
At any rate, I knew that my own character had
not arrived at a degree of perfection which placed it
above characters in the congregations I was preach'
ing to as I supplied in various pulpits of Greater
Boston. I did not like the assumption of the cleric
that he is of a different cloth from the laity and must
be more spiritual than they. If I felt more spiritual
than my congregation, well and good. But one does
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY . 21

not feel spiritual at all hours of the day or on all days
of the week. Moreover, spirituality is a slow and
painful growth covering all of one's lifetime. It can'
not be commanded, like scholarship, on a year's
notice.
Hence it was with relief that I renounced the
Divinity School and headed for Constantinople,
Turkey, to accept a position in Robert College as
teacher of English and Latin. My three years—
1907 to 1910—in the Orient were among the most
romantic and fruitful of my life. For youth to be
placed in the midst of an alien culture and religion is
a wholesome and fructifying experience. One is
forced to analyse customs, moralities, characters of
various races and modes of religious thought; and to
compare them for efficacy and fruitfulness of living.
One discovers that much of the vaunted superiority
of Western civilization is illusionary. One discovers
a deep and tranquil happiness in the Oriental Hfe of
which the Occident is in sad need.
What, after all, are the goals of living? HappL
ness seems to me certainly one of the major goals.
Growth and development is another. The Orient
excels in the art of happiness. The Occident excels
in the art of growth and development. Somewhere
between these two worlds of thought and living lies
the middle way, which it has constantly throughout
my Hfe been my aim to seek and to express.
22 CHARACTER

My study of Islam in thought and in practice
during this period was exceedingly interesting and
fruitful. I came to esteem highly the mode of living
which Islam produces in pious Moslems—their un'
swerving loyalty to their religious faith, their serene
and tranquil patience, their joy of living in the
midst even of difficult circumstances.
When the Turkish Revolution of 1908 put the
Young Turks in power, the mosque service was
thrown open to non'Moslem visitors for the first
time in the history of the world. No Christian
hitherto had ever been able to witness the Islamic
mosque service unless in disguise and with great
difficulty, hence little study had been actually made
of their ritual. The bare forms were known but an
actual analysis of the spirit and psychology of their
service had not been sufficiently known. I found
upon attending the services in various mosques on
what is their Sabbath—the Friday of our week—
that there was evidenced a wholehearted sincerity
and devotion in worship such as exists nowhere in
Christendom. The nearest approach to it is in a
cathedral service among illiterate and simple peoples
of Italy or of Ireland. But even that does not com'
pare with the vivid faith and zeal of Islam.
Emboldened by these visits to mosque services I
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY 23

undertook a dangerous thing, which was to descend
upon thefloorof St. Sophia during the annual service
of the Night of Power. I wore a fez, the characteristic accoutrement of the Turk, and so was able to
pass from group to group after the ritual was finished. The ritual itself I had observed from the
balcony, to which I had been admitted by diplomatic
card.
After a half hour among these pious Moslems, I
felt apprehensive of being followed and I hastened
out as quickly as I could. Had I been discovered in
their midst, even the tolerance of the Young Turk
regime could not have saved me from being torn to
pieces by these jealous old-time Turks.
The results of my study of Islam and of the Turk
were published in book form in 1914 by the Pilgrim
Press under the title "The Real Turk"—a book
which almost lost the liberal-minded manager of
the Pilgrim Press his job. For it was the first book
that had appeared in America sympathetic to the
Turk and to Islam.
At this time also I made a deep study of Islamic
mysticism and of the great Sufi poets of Persia—
Nizami, Jallal u'Din Rumi, Jami and others.
In 1908 I had the unique privilege of visiting in
his prison home in Acca the then head of the Bahi'i
24 CHARACTER

Faith, 'AbduTBahá. I had come across this move'
ment in America during my study at Harvard
Divinity School and I eagerly seised the opportunity
opened to me by an American friend of visiting
'AbduTBahá. It was necessary for me to disguise
myself as a Turk for the purpose of this visit, since
'AbduTBahi was at that time in grave danger from
the Turkish government on account of a suspicion
that he was fomenting revolt with his American
pilgrims. This was just before the Turkish revolu'
tion, the darkest and most dangerous period of
'AbduTBaha's life, a period of tyrannic and unjust
oppression, fortunately terminating in complete
freedom that very summer.
It was in February, 1908, that I visited "Abdul'
Bahá and spent two days as his guest, having the
privilege of several interviews with him as well as
his presence and conversation at meal times. Later
on, in 1910, I spent a week as his guest. At this
time he was living in Haifa in a residence built for
him on Mt. Carmel by an American follower, a Mrs.
Jackson.
"AbduTBahá seemed to me then, and he seems to
me still, to be the supreme elucidator of spiritual
truth. I admired greatly the lucidity and reason'
ableness of his exposition of the deeper meanings of
life, of the spirit and of the Cosmos. The teaching
of his father, the world figure Bahá u iláh, founder
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY . 25

of this movement, made an immediate and natural
appeal to me. For my own thought had prepared
me for the spiritual philosophy of the Bahi'i teach'
ing: that all the world's religions have validity and
are the expression of spiritual inspiration, and that
Religion is indeed one and should be one in practice
the world over.
I liked the Bahi'i explanation (to use an Irish bull)
of the nature of God: that is, that the nature of God
cannot be explained or understood in finite terms.
For the finite mind of man cannot in any way com'
prehend the Infinite, nor can that which is contained
in the Whole comprehend that Whole. If we r e
fleet, it becomes immediately apparent that man, the
creature of the Infinite, can in no way surround and
comprehend his Creator. God in His Essence, then,
is unknowable to man. This doctrine, elucidated to
me by 'Abdu'l'Bahi, is quite consonant with the
convictions of our modern scientists who do not
deny a Planner of the Universe but who reject
anthropomorphic conceptions of Deity.
Science and Religion must agree, said 'Abdu'l'
Bahá. There can only be one truth about the Uni'
verse. Religion, shorn of its superstitions and
theology, and Science shorn of its bumptious dog'
matism must and will approach each other in com'
plete unity of idea and of purpose. 'Abdu'l'Bahi
goes even so far as to say that if Religion denies the
26 CHARACTER

plain truths of Science, it is not Religion but super'
stition.
I liked 'Abdu'l'Bahi's teaching on eternal life:
that it is something that must be earned, not some'
thing into which death initiates us; and that unless
the spiritual senses are developed in this life, one
will enter the future life immensely crippled and
unable to function. This continuity of spiritual
development and progress was in consonance with
my whole philosophy of life and my spiritual con'
victions.
Highly pregnant with implications for successful
and noble living upon this planet were 'Abdul'
Baha's teachings regarding the Holy Spirit, which
he explained as the great cosmic force through which
Deity creates and manipulates phenomenal existence.
The Infinite does not descend to the plane of the
finite. At no point do these two worlds of being
contact each other. The Holy Spirit is that function
and attribute of Deity through which the Infinite
creates, controls and operates. This great Creative
Force of the Cosmos is directly available to man,
through spiritual aspiration, as a vital spiritual and
creative force in his own life. Amazing was 'Abdu'h
Baha's assertion that this spiritual force is as regnant
in man's intellectual maturing and creative develop'
ment as it is in his spiritual growth and fruition.
The World Order proclaimed by Baha'u'llah (who
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY .27

died in 1892) and now expounded by "Abdu i-Babi
— w i t h its program of world peace and brotherhood;
of a Parliament of Nations; of abolition of all preju'
dice, national, racial and religious; of a universal
auxiliary language and an ultimate world curriculum
for universal education—all this appealed to me
then as the most stupendous vision for world im'
provement I had ever encountered. Today, in the
midst of world chaos and confusion, its noble and
colossal outlines stand out still more strikingly from
the multiplicity of thought and the confusion of
ideology of a decadent civilisation.
If in the course of this book I quote widely from
'Abdul-Baha's utterances, it is because they bear so
strikingly upon the problem of character develop'
ment. These utterances were published subsequent
to 'AbduTBaha's visit to the United States in
i 9 i i ' i 2 , during the course of which he gave a ď
dresses from platform and pulpit all the way from
the eastern to the western coast of this country. It
is from these published addresses that I quote in the
course of my book.

The moral and spiritual ideas set forth in this
book will be seen, then, to be the result of wide con'
tacts with the spiritual thought of the ages. These
ideas are what appear to me as Truth today. But
28 CHARACTER

as the nature of Truth is derived fully as much from
experience as from ratiocination, I do not claim any
finality in the doctrines here presented. I should
indeed hope that my philosophy of life ten years
from now would have wider and more illimitable
horizons. Nevertheless, I present these ideas today
for what they are worth to the reader. If they
stimulate him to thought, they will have fulfilled
their purpose. If they inspire further search and
study into the spiritual literature of the ages and
into the spiritual experience which Life itself offers,
they will have amply rewarded the effort put into
their publication.
PART I

FOUNDATIONS FOR
CHARACTER
CHAPTER II

Character is Destiny

C HARACTER is destiny. For deeds flow from
character, and our deeds create our destiny.
As mountain ranges form the backbone of
continents, so character forms the structure of life.
It is incorrect to say that there is good character and
bad character. There is simply character, or the
lack of it. There is more than goodness in character.
There is also wisdom and beauty. A life without
character is a life deformed and crippled.
Every individual should develop character. Not
because it is good to be good; but because righteous'
ness is the only way to continuous success, happi'
ness and power in a Universe founded upon moral
law.
The perfectioning of human behavior is both a
science and an art. Character development, there'
fore, may be viewed as a scientific process, exercis'
ing our utmost intelligence and judgment. It is
possible to arrive at ideal standards for conduct
through the use of this scientific judgment, as
Socrates did.
But the practice of right conduct is not a science
so much as it is an art. Here emotion enters in, and
32 CHARACTER

imagination. Intelligence may chart the way; but
the will must be persuaded to undertake, and persist
in, the arduous daily task of selLperfectioning.
It is in this aspect of character development that
religion is functional. Why and how religion is es'
sential to character'building will be shown in detail
in subsequent chapters.

There is a timeTactor in the development of
character which is important. Lack of recognition
of this pregnant fact may cause confusion.
In other words, there is a definite progress and
sequence in the growth of character—a sequence
which follows natural laws. This growth, like that
of a seed, begins from within and expands outward.
As the seed first absorbs and expands, so the life
of the individual, in its early stages, is. chiefly an
absorptive and expansive process. Self'expression
is the keynote of character at this stage.
But life must bear fruit. And so the law of duty
lays its inevitable claim upon the expanding life of
youth, and he becomes, in obedience to it, a man
fulfilling the obligations imposed upon him by a life
set in the midst of human society.
From the law of duty to the rule of love is a step
higher. Altruism should be the dominant note of
CHARACTER IS DESTINY 33

maturing life. To continue a slave to centripetal
forces at this stage of life is to fail of correct living.
The soul of man is in its essence a centrifugal o u ť
going force. Its ultimate values lie not in acquisb
tion but in outpouring; not in self-containment but
in self-escape. What are the goals of life in this, its
highest stage? A concluding chapter will try to
make this clear.

A thousand and one things could be said about
character. As life is never finished (not even by
death), so character-building is never finished. Its
details are as infinite as the details of existence itself.
In this brief book one can only show a pattern,
so to speak. If that pattern be clear and convincing,
the reader can fill in details for himself. Experience,
after all, is the best teacher. In fact, it is the only
teacher whose counsel we are apt to heed.

This book, then, is not so much a book of advice
and exhortation as it is an attempt to chart out the
life of righteousness—its ways and its values—in as
simple an outline as possible. It does not attempt to
urge the reader to be good (a rather useless process,
that of moral exhortation!). It only seeks, to the
34 CHARACTER

best of its ability, to open the reader's eyes to the
consequences of righteous action and of unrighteous
action, of character and of the lack of character.
Perchance some slight influence may thus emanate
from its pages to help the reader face life and its
issues scientifically, undeceived by those illusions
which the desiremature creates—gilding the picture
of evil with fool's gold.
CHAPTER III

Scientific Foundations for
Character
£ 7 ° HE l a w s of moral conduct, the habitual ob-
^ J y servance of which becomes character, are to a
certain degree scientifically derivable from the
nature of the Universe we live in. Just as the
physical sciences discover and apply the laws of the
material universe, so social science can discover and
apply moral and spiritual laws relating to man's
behavior as between himself and his fellow men and
between himself and the Universe.
The rules of human behavior discernible in the
human relationships fall into the province of sociology and ethics. The rules of behavior as between
man and the Universe fall within the province of
religion, which might be defined as man's attempt
to harmonice himself with the Universe.
The social sciences are not so successful in the
discovery of laws within their field and the application of those laws as are the physical sciences. This
is due to several unsurmountable obstacles: first because human behavior is partly unpredictable; secondly because in the social sciences only a part of
the scientific process of discovery and verification
can be employed.
36 CHARACTER

The physical sciences, creating by the processes
of induction or deduction their postulates from the
observation and classification of data, can in many
cases verify these postulates by experimentation.
The scientists can even create artificial situations
for the purpose of verification, thus arriving more
swiftly at absolute proof. The magic exactness of
the physical sciences is demonstrated by their power
of accurate prediction and of successful application
of the laws they have discovered. Thus applied
science abundantly demonstrates the marvelous
power of theoretical science in discovering the
hidden laws of nature.
In the social sciences, observation and classifica'
tion of data can be employed to substantiate the
processes of induction and deduction. But the
verification of the postulates thus arrived at has to
await considerable passage of time. For the social
sciences can rarely employ laboratory methods for
creating human situations and conditions. Verifica'
tion of theories, therefore, is extremely difficult and
slow. It is for this reason that the social sciences
are so inferior to the physical sciences in accuracy
and in agreement as to truths and laws. They have
to depend for their progress almost wholly upon
case study, and this takes time. The observance of
individual behavior and of group behavior requires
years, even generations, of careful study in order to
SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION FOR CHARACTER 37

arrive at accuracy of judgment. This is because the
social scientist cannot artificially create laboratory
conditions for experimentation. We cannot make
guinea pigs of human beings.
The Greeks, initiators of the scientific approach
to the Universe, knew only the methods of observa'
tion and classification of data as foundational for the
processes of induction and deduction. It was not
until the posťRenaissance scientists began to use
experimentation that the marvelous accuracy of
modern science and technology became possible.
The social sciences are young—hardly for one hun'
dred years have they received the attention of world
thinkers. Is it not possible, then, that the time may
come when the social scientists will invent, as have
the physical scientists, more accurate methods for
the discovery of truths and laws within their
particular field?

The laws of ethics, as a social science, are there'
fore discoverable by observation from history and
from the contemporary life around us. Upon the
data thus collected and observed the ethicist, by the
processes of induction and deduction, can create
general postulates; and these postulates can then
be roughly checked up by further observation.
The spiritual laws which relate man to the Unh
38 CHARACTER

verse he lives in are likewise deducible from observa'
tion and theoriziation. Certainly whatever scientific
processes are available for this end can be applied to
the study of the Universe as it relates itself to s u e
cessful and harmonious living upon this planet. In
fact, every individual is bound to analyse the Unb
verse, sooner or later, from such a point of view.
Even savages try to analyse life to decide whether
nature is friendly or hostile to them and if so, for
what reasons. Upon these observations they base
their primitive religious concepts and their moral
laws of conduct. Their powers of observation are
limited, their reasoning crude. Nevertheless they
succeed in working out definite rules of procedure
which among some primitive peoples, notably the
North American Indians, arrive at idealistic and
noble heights.
In fact, the most important question man can ask
of the Universe is just this: are You friendly, neutral,
or hostile to me as an individual? Upon the answer
to this question, an answer which man derives in
part from experience and ratiocination, will depend
the type of his philosophy of life. The Stoics, for
instance, elaborated noble spiritual concepts from
such a study—finding their highest expression in the
writings of Marcus Aurelius who apostrophizes the
Universe in such terms as these: "Nothing is too
early or too late for me, O Universe, which is in due
time for Thee."
SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 39

The earliest Greek scientific thinkers—Thales,
Anaximander, Anaximenes—succeeded in marvel'
ously analyzing the Cosmos with the scanty means
at their disposal. They noted first the infinite com'
plexity of phenomenal life. Existence consists of a
plurality of objects, animate and inanimate—there
can be no question of that. This must be the starť
ing point of all thought about the Universe, as it
became the conclusion even of such great modern
thinkers as William James and to a degree John
Dewey.
But the Greek thinkers went beyond this appear'
ance of plurality and arrived at the noble concept of
Unity in Multiplicity. They discovered an infinite
order ruling over an infinite number of separate
entities within the Universe. The Universe is
orderly—that is the supreme concept at which hu'
man thought may arrive concerning it. If orderly,
it is then an essential and organic unity. This is the
point reached by modern scientists such as Edding'
ton, Jeans and Millikan—namely, that the Universe
represents a Plan.

If the Universe is orderly, it follows that definite
laws are discoverable in accordance with which this
orderliness is inviolately maintained. These laws,
as functioning in human life, where consciousness
operates, may be called moral laws.
40 CHARACTER

There are certain moral laws, then, which ensue
from the very nature of man and of the Cosmos
which man inhabits. The great central laws of the
Universe are Unity in Multiplicity and Harmony
in Diversity. From these great cosmic laws as they
apply to the life of man individually and collectively,
and to man's relation with the Universe in its total'
ity, may be derived many minor laws by which hu'
man behavior, if it is to be wise and successful, must
be regulated.
These two cosmic laws of Unity and Harmony
are the scientific foundations, then, of the moral
character of man. They are essential to social life
upon this planet. They are essential to the indi'
vidual's relation to the Whole. Their due observance
guarantees harmony, happiness and health; and in
proportionate degree, success.
If we could adequately conceive the colossal and
infinite scope of these laws and their cosmic in'
violability, we should fear to break them.

These moral laws may be called scientific in the
sense that they are derived from the rational study
of existence itself; they are arrived at by deduction
based upon observation and classification of data;
and they can be scientifically checked by further
SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 41

observation. The careful study of history, which
has up to the present, during a period of some six
thousand years, collected an enormous amount of
human data; the study of biography; and the study
of the contemporaneous life about us—will yield
an immense amount of data leading to the under'
standing of these moral laws and furnishing ample
scope for their verification.
Thus the moral laws are scientific, just as the
physical laws are scientific. They are not legalistic,
not rules created by man. They are simply the pro'
cedure of the Universe, the methods which the
Universe employs for successful functioning. Only
by following these methods of the Universe and
obeying the laws which the Universe itself lays
down, can man hope to thrive on the planet which
he inhabits and which he will eventually learn to
operate.
A lifedong study along these lines has convinced
the author that the moral truths, where really dis'
coverable, can be stated almost in mathematical
terms. That is, like the physical laws, they have
a certainty, an inviolability, and a proportion or
raticadjustment. We must recognise, of course,
the difference between the moral laws of the Uni'
verse, and the ethical custom and usage as actually
current among races and peoples. The latter varies
greatly with peoples and epochs. The moral laws
42 CHARACTER

of the Universe never vary. They are part of the
substructure of existence.

Why, then, cannot ethics be a science, and the
building of character proceed without the need of
religion? Unfortunately it is not the intellect which
rules in most individuals, but the emotions and
desire-nature. Only philosophers control their be'
havior by their intelligence. Other human beings—
and this means more than ninety-nine out of a hundred—use their intelligence only to attain the objects of their desires. It is their emotional nature
which motivates and rules them.
Religious foundations for character are needed
for two reasons. First, religion is essential to give
motivation and spiritual aid for the reinforcement
of reason as grounds for character development;
religion can control man's emotional nature, as the
intellect cannot, for the reason that religion is in
itself a master emotion and as such has the power to
regulate and harness man's other emotions to lofty
ends. Secondly, religion brings to humanity definite
spiritual concepts not easily derived from the scientific examination of the Universe. The Prophets—
such as Moses, Buddha, Christ, Mahomet, Baha'u'lláh—reveal us to ourselves from a plane of knowl-
SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 43

edge which we may call inspirational or revelatory.
Once They give Their majestic message, we realise
its cosmic truth.
These Revelators speak from the plane of imme'
diate or intuitive knowledge. They are able to ex'
plain to us the occult or hidden spiritual nature of
man and of the Universe.
As a modern scientist might go among backward
peoples and teach them the great physical laws of
nature and their application, so the Revelators come
to man upon this planet from a plane of higher
experience and knowledge and teach humanity moral
and spiritual laws essential to its spiritual develop'
ment, and equally applicable to material progress
in so far as such progress is implicated in man's
obedience to certain necessary cosmic laws.
The moral development of humanity would be
infinitely slow but for the message of the Revelator,
and man's spiritual progress would stop far short
of its distant lofty goals but for the higher truths
which the Revelator brings.

The science of human behavior and the art of
right living are more important today by far than
are any of the physical sciences. Our discoveries in
physics, chemistry, biology have put us far ahead
44 CHARACTER

materially and have built up a marvelous technolog'
ical civilization.
Meanwhile, man's moral and spiritual progress
have sadly lagged—resulting in the immense moral
confusion of humanity today; the breakdown of all
the sanctions of the past; the rapid social, political,
and economic deterioration of humanity; and the
threatening trend of planetary disintegration.
Humanity could live happily and successfully for
centuries without making a single further discovery
in the fields of the physical sciences. But humanity
will suicidally perish if there does not speedily ensue
moral and spiritual regeneration.
We must then for the present concentrate, the
world over, on those great spiritual laws which
make for harmony and happiness in human existence.
Here lies humanity's necessary path for the next few
generations.
CHAPTER IV

Religious Foundations for
Character
(7^ HE rules of ethics or code of morals which
^ J y individuals are supposed to live up to differ
from age to age, according to the development
and exigencies of human society. They are the expression of the racial or group consciousness.
The best tiger, as William James used to point
out, is the one that kills the most rabbits. The best
Indian in the days of savagery was the one who
could gather the most scalps of his enemies. A
recent article in Liberty Magazine points out the
obligation upon the young braves among the headhunters of Borneo of bringing home the heads of
their enemies to dry upon the rafters before they
were deemed worthy of a mate.
To kill a man with premeditated purpose is here
murder, punishable by legalised death. Yet among
certain peoples even today who practise the law of
the vendetta—Arabs and mountain whites of the
Appalachians—not to so kill, under certain circumstances, would be a gross violation of tribal morals
and would condemn the individual to obloquy and
disgrace.
46 CHARACTER

The heroes of the Old Testament whom we con'
sider paragons of past virtue and spirituality had
many wives. But today in this country a man who has
more than one wife is punishable by imprisonment.
Honesty in savage tribes is a virtue seldom failing.
Nothing is ever stolen from one's fellow tribesmen.
But to successfully take part in expeditions of mili'
tary and wholesale robbery from neighboring tribes
is the badge of the highest virtue.
Thus certain moral codes are established by the
human environment in response to exigencies of
climate, geography and kultur, and upheld by power'
ful social and legal sanctions.

In striking contrast to the relativity of humanly
evolved morals are the codes of ethics revealed by
founders of the world's great religious systems.
These codes claim absoluteness. And the adherents of such religions acknowledge individually and
collectively this absoluteness and try to achieve in
the practice of daily living the norms or ideals thus
presented to them from the plane of divine truth.
"Prophecy claims moral and religious absolute'
ness," says Dean Willard L. Sperry in his book of
Yale Lectures, "We Prophesy in Part." "All men
and all societies are judged by a divine standard.
RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 47

There is nothing relative or comparative about it.
What is conceived as God's perfection is the norm.
The two major themes of prophecy are these: Man's
sins as they stand discovered by the righteousness of
God, and the nature of the ideal society in which
righteousness will be realised."

The prophets reveal eternal principles of conduct,
principles which are cosmic in their extent, laws to
which all existence must render allegiance. They
are not laws in a legalistic sense, but laws in the
natural sense—laws of behavior upon which the
very structure of order and harmony of the Universe
depend. These laws represent ethical and cosmic
necessity. From them there is no possible healthful
deviation.
These spiritual laws, these eternal truths never
vary. They are absolute. Their applications, how'
ever, may and do vary from age to age. Even the
successive Revelators themselves change these ap'
plications, abrogating specific rules of conduct estab'
lished by their predecessors and establishing new
rules to fit a new age.
Thus the law or principle of love was applied at
first only within the family, then the clan, then the
tribe and nation.
48 CHARACTER

The Hebrews, under the stern leadership of
Moses and his successors, proceeded not only to
fight but to exterminate surrounding tribes. Christ
deepened and broadened the application of love to
life, estabHshing new standards for the expression
of spiritual love on the part of mankind. Yet up to
today this spiritual love inculcated by Christ has
never, even in the ideaHsm of Christendom, over'
stepped the boundaries of nationalism. Today, the
law of love for the creation of a new world order,
so declares BaháVlláh, is to apply in a worlďwide
scope, ehminating war and estabHshing universal
peace and brotherhood.

The Prophets not only set forth to man cosmic
laws of behavior. They also reveal man to himself—
his lofty station, his spiritual reality. They teach
man how to Hve a moral and spiritual life that will
strengthen and develop the transcendental side of
his nature and restrain and sublimate his animal
side.
"God sent his Prophets into the world to teach
and enHghten man, to explain to him the mystery of
the power of the Holy Spirit, to enable him to reflect
the Hght. . . .
"Let us listen to a symphony which will confer
Hfe on man. Then we shall receive a new spirit,
RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 49.

then we shall become illuminated, . . . unfolding
the inner potentialities of life. Whenever the sun of
reality dawns, the lower sphere expresses the virtues
of the higher world. . . ."*
Revealed truth flowing into the channels of social
custom greatly modifies it, establishing new norms
and ideals toward which society gradually evolves.
Thus every Revelation has founded a new civili^ation built upon its moral teachings.
The Revelators are not only revealers of moral
truth but also perfect Exemplars of the truth they
teach. Thus they stand out through human history
as divinely appointed Models or Patterns for human
behavior.

From the welter and conflict and relativity of
shifting tribal and racial morals a certain confusion
as to conduct is inevitable. This confusion is pronounced and exaggerated when tribal or racial kulturs mingle as in conquest, commercial intercourse,
intermarriage. Such chaos in ethical codes is one of
the chief reasons for the moral and social obliquy of
half'breeds; they have no definite standards or
sanctions of conduct.
Thus the Occidental cultural invasions of Asia
have tended to break down the age-long ethics
*'Abdu'l-Bahi: "Divine Philosophy." Babi'i Publishing Society, N. Y. G.
50 CHARACTER

traditionally operative. China has been especially
disturbed since its revolution of 1911 by this inflow
of Occidentalism, until Confucianism as a pattern
of ethics is practically gone.
Too sudden and too crude an intermingling of
ethical codes brings unexpectedly peculiar and dis'
advantageous results. It is said that Christianity,
when too naively introduced into African villages,
destroys the honesty and integrity built up by tribal
customs and taboos without sufficiently establishing
the new ethics of Christianity, so that the net result
is a lowering of morality. Thus we see the paradox
of a religion lofty in its ethical code actually operať
ing, by confusion of kulturs, to lower the moral code
of a people it converts. This is of course not due to
the nature of the Christian religion itself but to the
unwisdom and crudity of its application.
In past history one can trace epochs decidedly
marked by such confusion of morals due to ? niing'
ling of miscellaneous cults and the weakening of
ancestral and traditional codes. Thus the morality
of the Greeks rapidly degenerated under contact
with the kulturs and religions of Asia Minor. In
turn the Roman character degenerated as the cults
of Greece, of Asia Minor, of Mesopotamia and of
Egypt invaded it, breaking up entirely the old
Nature'State religion of Rome with its severe
codes of integrity and simplicity of life.
It is in an age of irreligion that moral principles
RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 51

become the most weakened and confused. Then
expediency tends to ta\e the place of righteousness and
definite standards of conduct disappear.
Such is the age we are living in today. The au'
thority of religion is waning the whole world over
and the moral sanctions of religion are rapidly disap'
pearing. Within the great world of Christendom
only a few communicants still guide their conduct
by any principles of religion. Exceptions to this
lapse in the efficaciousness of Christian motivation
are to be found among certain groups—notably the
Quakers, the Christian Scientists, and the Oxford
Group. Of these Christian sects it may be said that
the majority of their adherents still consciously
make religion a guidepost to fife. With these except
tions religion in Christendom is more a matter of
ritual than it is of ethics. Tet outside of Christendom
the condition is even worse.
Public thinkers, as well as the clergy, are alarmed
by this moral chaos in which the selfish and gross
instincts of human nature easily rise to the top. But
all their inveighing and moralising and preaching
will do little good. Just as in the age of the Roman
emperors the moralising of the philosophers and
poets availed nothing to stem the moral decline.
What is needed in such a period of moral decline
is a spiritual rebirth of humanity. Christianity
brought such rebirth to Rome. Today we need a
spiritual rebirth on a planetary scale.
52 CHARACTER

In a vitally religious age society vigorously enforces the moral sanctions. In an irreligious age the
question of right and wrong becomes scumbled over
with self-interest and passion, and a moral confusion
and chaos ensue. Also society loses its power of
enforcement, because once standards of revealed
truth are overthrown there remains no unity of
ideology or of compulsion. As among the Sophists
of Greece each man becomes a law unto himself, and
man's intelligence is too often used to rationalise unrighteous conduct.
A deeply religious age, on the contrary, furnishes
powerful sanctions and also powerful motives for
righteous conduct.

The laws that religion lays down are not arbitrary.
They are essential and necessary principles for the
attainment of social unity, harmony, peace and prosperity—insuring a perfect organisation of society.
These laws of conduct, as regards the individual,
correspond with his own inner nature and its development toward the emergence of spiritual man.
An important motivation for right action is the
realisation that righteousness is self-advantageous—
that it is a process of self-development into con-
RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 53

stantly higher and higher states of being. Violation
of this law of righteousness and spiritual growth is
realised to be folly as well as sin. For to retrogress
or fail to progress is in reality the greatest tragedy
of existence.
A firm conviction of future existence is the greať
est motivation for righteousness that a person can
have. For from such a conviction comes the realisa'
tion that progress is the law of life, that it does not
end here, that its scope is infinite, and that failures
to progress here will produce fatal consequences ia
the life to come.
The greatest reward of doing good is to grow
better. The greatest and most tragic punishment
for doing wrong is that one is thereby growing
worse. So simple is this moral law that it can be
expressed in almost mathematical terms. Yet how
many people are living in definite accordance with
it? Probably not even onedialf of one per cent are
conscious of this law and are guiding their fives
by it.
God does not enter in, to judge and punish. We
judge and sentence ourselves, and administer the
punishment! We cannot escape the consequences of
our actions! In this respect the Universe is sternly
automatic.
This majestic law of spiritual cause and effect the
Theosophists have made the keynote of their ethical
54 CHARACTER

system. It is a most potent motivation for indb
vidual growth and development.
The occultist sees this earth as a stage of existence
where the imperfections of human nature are to be
changed toward perfection. Life here is a school in
character-training.
It is not meant that earthly existence should be
too happy. This is not the plane of perfection,
earth is a crucible for the refining and moulding of
character, says 'AbduďBahá.

The troubles of life are in reality lessons in char'
acter'training. If they are taken advantage of, they
are more valuable to us than gold or diamonds.
Events reveal us to ourselves and teach us how to
overcome those flaws which they disclose in us.
Thus the events of life force us to grow in character.
The advantage we take of these events measures the
degree of our attainment.
The wise man searches every event, every hap'
pening in his life, every misfortune for some deep
lesson of self-improvement.
If we do not grow in character throughout life
we are missing the sole purpose of existence on this
earthly plane!
The purpose of life is growth through struggle.
We cannot avoid struggle. But we can meet strug'
RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 55

gle as an opportunity for growth. We can suffer
obstacles and frustrations to be merely a misfortune
to us, or we can utilise them as aids to development.
We must see to it that our trials and sufferings
become a means for growth. We can forge out of
our misfortunes a golden coin to pay our way on'
ward and upward. We can make stepping'Stones of
our dead selves and rise to higher things.
As we become progressively purified in character,
obstacles are more and more easily met through the
aid of Divine Grace and Guidance.

Collective humanity, like the individual, learns
from disaster. The cruel sufferings of the world to'
day—the universal moral disorder, the economic and
political uncertainties, the physical deprivations and
the prevailing psychological and spiritual chaos—
are in reality a sort of planetary test revealing human
society to itself in all its weakness and baseness of
character. Events are proving more than words the
weakness and inadequacy of its present institutions.
Thus humanity is collectively being forced to rise
to new altitudes of social and spiritual character.
Out of all this chaos and suffering will arise a purged
and purer humanity. Man's calamity is God's op'
portunity.
56 CHARACTER

Because of the world's extraordinary physical and
psychic interrelation today and the inevitable break'
ing up of local moralities and customs due to the
coalescing of national and racial kulturs there is de'
manded, if we are to have any improvement in the
present situation of confusion, a new unity of moral
concept and practice which will be worlďwide.
"As mind directs in human affairs, it is evident
that order cannot be obtained unless there is first
produced a oneness of intellectual and moral per'
ception."*
How is this oneness of intellectual and moral per'
ception to be established?
H. G. Wells has the happy plan of creating a vast
international university which shall bring together
the leaders of thought in every department of
knowledge, with the aim of forging out world unity
of concept and practice. To this project he is
earnestly devoting the last years of his life in his
lectures and writings. As critics point out, h o w
ever, there is no possibility of thus unifying world
concepts through the meeting of various academic
scientists and philosophers. The tendency of the
intellect is analytical and dispersive, not synthetic
* Rev. R. P. Wilson, "Discourses from The Spirit World." New York,
Partridge and Brittan, 1855.
RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 57

and unifying. "Tot homines, tot sententiae.'1'' As
many men, so many opinions. The greater nunv
ber of scholars that gather together for this
Wellsian project, the greater the confusion and
chaos that would result; the fewer scholars, the less
confusion. And of course if one world thinker
could be selected, preferably Wells, absolute unity
of concept could be attained! Yes, unity of concept
could be attained by one thinker, but who is going
to put the concept across? Thus we have the in'
surmountable paradox that the more leaders there
are undertaking this Wellsian project the more chaos
will ensue; whereas, the fewer the leaders of thought
that might engage in such a project the greater
would be the futility of it.
No! Human ratiocination and philosophic effort
can never create this unity of moral perception and
of moral practice which the world sadly needs today.
There is only one thing that can create and estab'
lish unity of moral concept and practice, and that is
religion. The reason why religion can be effective
in this domain is because, as we have already shown,
it claims divine sanctions and thus achieves one
hundred per cent loyalty amongst its followers.
Thus as a religion spreads, no matter how small and
insignificant it may be at its inception, it exerts a
spearhead thrust upon the disunity and chaos of
world affairs. And as a religion continues to grow
58 CHARACTER

it draws more and more of current thought and
practice into its majestic orbit, until finally chaos
yields to order and righteousness and harmony again
prevail.
The Revelator reveals a body of truth and sets an
example in his own life. More important still, he
releases a dynamic power—the power of the Holy
Spirit—which touches people's hearts and helps
them to struggle toward perfection.
It is very difficult to live these divine teachings.
Yet it is not the word only, but the living it that
counts. The Revelator charges the world with a
Power, just as electricity may charge a battery.
When the spiritual battery of humanity runs down,
another Revelator appears to revivify it.
"Mere knowledge is not sufficient for complete
human attainment. The teachings of the holy books
need a heavenly power and a divine potency to
carry them out. A house is not built by mere acquaintance with the plans. . . . The teachings
of the holy books need a divine potency to complete
their accomplishments in human hearts. It is evident that the confirmation of the Holy Spirit and
the impelling influence of a heavenly power are
needed to accomplish the divine purpose in human
hearts and conditions.11*
* 'Abdu'1'Bahá in "Divine Art of Living."
RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS FOR CHARACTER 59

Individual improvement is necessary before gen'
eral social and world improvement can be achieved.
A government cannot rise much higher than the
average intellectuality and righteousness of its peo'
pie. A world civilization based on peace, good will,
universal love and brotherhood cannot be imposed as
a mere pattern upon a world population full of
hatreds, prejudices, greed, sensuality and selfishness.
A change in human hearts is necessary in order to
establish the Kingdom of God upon earth.

A grave responsibility rests upon all those who
preach a new world order. Unless their own lives
and characters are distinguished in ethical quality,
how can they expect the ideal civilization which
they urge upon others ever to be established? First
they must purify and ennoble their own hearts and
then persuade the hearts of others by the purity of
their character as well as by the zeal of their religious
devotion.
"Rather, what is well pleasing is that the cities
of men's hearts, which are under the dominion of
the hosts of selfishness and lust, should be subdued
by the sword of the word of wisdom and exhorta'
tion. Everyone then who desires victory must first
subdue the city of his own heart with the sword of
6o CHARACTER

spiritual truth and of the word, and must protect it
from remembering aught beside God. Afterward,
let him turn his efforts toward the citadel of the
hearts of others."*
A double moral responsibility rests upon human
beings in the day of a Revelator. Not only do they
owe it to themselves to achieve perfection. But if
they become adherents of a New Religion, they owe
it to their Prophet to live the truths He preaches, so
as to be able by their deeds and lives to persuade
others to their newfound truth. And as they de'
velop a new cosmic character superb in its purity
of motive and its integrity, they will be called upon
for leadership in world affairs.
Great souls shall and must arise to reconstruct the
affairs of the world in the new spirit of understand'
ing, says "AbduďBahá. The World War, he says,
has taught humanity the need for personal, social,
national and international adjustments, if the world
is to become safe for humanity. We must change
our standards of living. Our activities must be
regulated not according to policy, but according to
principle. This is the aim of the new humanity in
a world where ambitions are still the expression of
greed and lust for power to be wielded only for self, f
* BaháVlláh: Victory Tablet.
f 'Abdu'1'Bahá: "Unpublished Notes of Marie Watson."
PART II

THE GOALS OF
CHARACTER
CHAPTER V

Self'Development
/T 6 "*HE individual is born into this world helpless
y^J and harmless. He is incapable of committing
evil. But he cannot on that account be said
to have a perfect character. That is attained only
by wrestling with life itself in a stage of maturity
where man has the strength and intelligence to
choose good or evil.
The first stage in the building of character is
necessarily one of self'development. The early
years of every human being, as of the animals, are
years of expansion, of development, of maturation.
The infant, the child, the youth develop by ex'
perimenting with the world around them. Char'
acter is being formed in these adjustments of the
individual to society, even from the earliest years;
but this character development is largely in the
hands of those who train the infant. It is not until
adolescence is approached that the child is mature
enough to analyse himself and deliberately build for
character.
Parents and educators have a great responsibility,
therefore, as regards the kind of character that
emerges in the 'teens. This character, as condi'
64 CHARACTER

tioned by home and school, is not easily modified in
later years. The child with a good home and with
intelligent parents who carry out conscientiously
and effectively their responsibilities in the way of
child-training—such a child, especially if morally
stimulated by family example as well as by precept,
has a fortunate advantage over all other children.

The stage of life from adolescence to physical
maturity is still one of self-development and selfexpression. During this period of youth the individual has little responsibility to society but much
responsibility to himself. It is his duty to discover
and develop all his powers and train them for efficient achievement in later years. Most important
during this period is the exploration and discovery
of oneself, the development of practical wisdom and
the careful choice of a profession.
One should build for success. There is nothing
unspiritual in a process of self-development that will
make for efficient functioning in one's chosen career
and lead to material success.
Vocational or professional skills, efficiency in one's
work, industry, ambition to excel and to rise to the
top: these qualities are perfectly compatible with
spiritual law, though they are expressions of the
SELF'DEVELOPMENT 65

material side of man. Since we live in a world of
matter, we must adapt ourselves to it successfully.
Such an adaptation is our first spiritual obligation
toward existence.
Work, and through work material success, are a
cosmic and universal obligation. Men can find no
alibi in their religion for neglect of external responsi'
bilities and of the factors of success. Education
itself must fulfill the obligation of preparing youth
for a successful career. It is the duty of the educator
to equip youth not only with general knowledge
but also with vocational or professional skills. Work
is a cosmic duty to which all men, without excep'
tion, are obligated. And man's work should be
efficient and fruitful.
The first duty that youth faces in the develop'
ment of character, then, is the duty of self'develop'
ment. Youth has a sacred obligation to awaken and
train all his powers to their fullest potentiality.
This is not selfish, though it may appear egocentric.
Ambition is a virtue in youth. Later in life it may
become a fault and a danger.

There are certain virtues essential to success and
happiness in life which must be acquired early: in'
dustry, honesty, self-restraint, control of the physf
66 CHARACTER

cal desires, harmony with one's social environment,
the spirit of cooperation, patience, sincerity. It is
such qualities as these which great men early in their
'teens set themselves consciously to achieve. If
these qualities are gained by the individual, success
and happiness in proportionate degree are assured
him.
Religion, with its definite ethical precepts and its
strong motivations and sanctions, is a powerful fac'
tor in the building up of a character which may have
its practical as well as its spiritual aspects. It saves
youth from excesses and from self'indulgence. It
makes for self'restraint, probity, integrity, coopera'
tion and loyalty. It stimulates moral progress and
inspires constant effort toward self'improvement.
The fact that an earnest religious'founded con'
science is a factor of material success is definitely
shown in the economic history of the Puritans, the
Scotch Presbyterians, the Huguenots and the Quak'
ers—all of whom have been as notable for their ecc
nomic success as for their moral and religious
conscience. There may be other factors for the ouť
standing economic success of these sects, but the
sober character of solid integrity inspired by religious
conscience is of all factors by far the most notable
and effective.
It may not be dignified of religion to base its ap'
peal to youth on grounds of practicality. But youth
SELF-DEVELOPMENT 67

should not be unaware that the only completely sound,
wholesome and effective life is one which travels on the
highway charted by religion.

The study of one's own self—the realization of
one's tendencies toward good and evil and of one's
potentialities for achievement—is the most fascinating and valuable of all studies. It was the slogan of
the ancient Greeks: "Know thyself."
The physical sciences teach us the nature of the
world around us and how to rule it. "The Occidental," says Edward Carpenter, "knows how to
rule everything in the world except the square foot
under his own hat."
Psychology teaches us our own nature and how
to rule that. Psychology today is materialistic in
its tendencies. The psychology of the new age will
be spiritual in its foundations and this spiritualized
science of psychology will be profoundly effective
in aiding youth to acquire a perfect character.
Spiritual psychology teaches man the dual nature
of his being: that on the one hand he inherits from
his physical evolution all the qualities of the animal—aggressiveness, cruelty, greed, envy, cunning,
temper, self-seeking; on the other hand, man has
that within him that gives him the capacity of de-
68 CHARACTER

veloping the spiritual qualities of kindliness, patience,
honesty, self'sacrifice, universal love, and purity of
mind and body.
The tragic limitation of presenťday psychology
and education is the failure to discover and present
the spiritual side of man, which is just as potent and
far more important a side of his nature than his
animal trend. Every man, every woman has the
capacity and the power to progress along the path
of spiritual perfectioning. One of the most impor'
tant missions of the Founders of religions is to assert
this duality and call upon man to rise from the lower,
earthly side of his nature toward the celestial,
angelic side.

Paul, two thousand years ago, expounded this
psychology efficaciously. These two beings in man
Paul calls the carnal and the spiritual man respec'
tively; and his preachment consists chiefly in the
exhortation to avail oneself of the aid of the Christos
for the all'important task of putting ofF the garment
of carnality and putting on the garment of spiritu'
ality.
"Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural; and afterward that which
is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy;
the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the
SELF'DEVELOPMENT 69

earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is
the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we
shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this
I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption.
"This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;
and these are contrary the one to the other; so that
ye cannot do the things that ye would. . . .
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious'
ness. Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emula'
tions, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of
the which I tell you before, as I have also told you
in time past, that they which do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentle
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
Thus does Paul train his flock, directing them,
exhorting them, encouraging them in ways of nobler
living—always the true psychologist, the man of
insight into human as well as divine truths.

"In man there are two natures, his spiritual or
70 CHARACTER

higher nature and his material or lower nature. In
one he approaches God, in the other he lives for the
world alone. Signs of both these natures are to be
found in men. In his material aspect he expresses
untruth, cruelty and injustice; all these are the outcome of his lower nature. The attributes of his
divine nature are shown forth in love, mercy, kindness, truth and justice, one and all being expressions
of his higher nature. Every good habit, every noble
quality belongs to man's spiritual nature, whereas
all his imperfections and sinful actions are born of
his material nature. If a man's divine nature dominates his human nature, we have a saint.
"If the soul identifies itself with the material
world it remains dark, for in the natural world there
is corruption, aggression, struggles for existence,
greed, darkness, transgression and vice. If the soul
remains in this station and moves along these paths
it will be the recipient of this darkness; but if it
becomes the recipient of the graces of the world of
mind, its darkness will be transformed into light, its
tyranny into justice, its ignorance into wisdom, its
aggression into loving kindness, until it reach the
apex. Then there will not remain any struggle for
existence. Man will become free from egotism; he
will be released from the material world; he will
become the personification of justice and virtue, for
a sanctified soul illumines humanity and is an honor
SELF'DEVELOPMENT 71

to mankind, conferring life upon the children of
men."*

The physical qualities of man are not in them'
selves evil. It is the use we put them to that may
make them harmful. In themselves they are part
of the biological foundation for existence. In ani'
mals they are necessary and quite innocent. In man
they are also necessary—but not innocent unless
sublimated by the power of the spirit.
It is those fundamental urges in a human being
which he shares with the animal world that give
him energy and power of achievement. This physi'
cal side of man is as important to his existence on
this earthly plane as is the spiritual side.
The first application of intelligence to our self'
training in character should be the awareness of our
duality and the effort to transubstantiate our ani'
malistic qualities into spiritualized correspondences
on a higher plane.
Thus one's tendency to anger can be modified
into a power for controlling other human beings for
noble ends. George Washington knew how to
change his fierce and at one time ungovernable
temper into a powerful factor for governing men.
The instinct for self-preservation which is ex'
* 'Abdul-Bahi: "The Reality of Man." Babi' i Publishing Society, N.Y.C.
72 CHARACTER

pressed in the animal as greed and cruelty can be
modified in man to an expression of energy and
efficiency for career'success. In a spiritualised hu'
manity, such expression of the will'tcexist need not
be cruelly competitive nor egoistic. On such a
spiritualised plane of humanity there will not re'
main any distressing struggle for existence.

Every individual starts life with a certain heredb
tary or destined endowment. This is his working
capital. It is important for him to realise as early as
possible in life those tendencies toward good and
evil, toward failure and success with which he
started existence on this earthly plane. To be
wisely aware of one's faults and ignoble tendencies
is to make constant effort toward overcoming them.
To be aware of one's proficiencies and gifts is essen'
tial to a wise and successful choice of career.
One should make a daily practice of self-examina'
tion, not in any morbid way, but from a spiritual
standpoint—daily reaffirming one's resolution to
overcome one's faults and strengthen one's virtues.
What would I be tomorrow that I am not today?
Thus we should examine our accounts each night,
and each morning start forth to increase our treas'
ures of perfection. The only wealth we intrinsically
SELF-DEVELOPMENT 73

possess is the richness of personality we have gained
through self-unfoldment. By means of this wealth, all
things we would gain are directed unto us. This is
the universal law of growth.
In the analysis of self or of others, this truth is
very helpful: that our faults are the shadows of our
virtues. In other words, faults are but the excess
of some quality in us which is valuable when exercised under proper restraint.
We have already spoken of how capacity for
anger may be a danger or a value to man. So every
quality in excess becomes a fault and danger to one's
success and happiness. For instance, thrift may
become penury and stinginess; efficiency may become overbearing; amiability tends toward irresponsibility.
In fact, there is not a single virtue but which
tends toward a vice when in excess. On the other
hand, there is no fault of temperament which may
not be modified into a valuable trait.

The first claim which life makes upon us is the
claim of perfecting our bodies. The proper care and
use of the body is in reality a spiritual obligation.
Christianity emphasized our sacred duty to our
bodies, that they are temples of the living God. We
74 CHARACTER

may not abuse them. To do so is a sin, even though
it brings no harm to other people.
This responsibility to our bodies as vehicles of
our mind and of our soul is strongly emphasised by
every religion. Control of the appetites and passions is the beginning of spiritual development.
Lack of control of them injures body, mind and soul.
Even in the simplest things we should practice
self-restraint and wisdom. Our diet should be
wholesome and not overdndulgent as to amount.
We should keep to regular and adequate hours of
sleep. We should take what recreation is needed,
avoiding however that which tends to deplete one's
vitality or which is merely a waste of time.
Youth owes a sacred duty, then, to his body
during the important formative period of posť
adolescence leading into manhood and womanhood.
Parents should instill in their children this sense of
responsibility and should train them in wholesome
methods of eating and of bodily care and send them
out into life intelligent managers of their own
physical system.
There is no demand that spirituality can make
upon us which would betray the body and its needs.
Spirit does and can control and guide through mať
ter, Marie Watson reports 'Abdu'1'Bahá to have
said; but matter has its own laws upon its own plane
SELF'DEVELOPMENT 75

and will exact its own toil; he who fails to acknowb
edge and recognize this truth will lead to a wrong
psychology and the result is difficult to remedy.
The thing to note here is that this responsibility
to our bodies is in reahty a spiritual responsibility
and cannot be abdicated in the name of religion.
Spiritual enthusiasts can find no alibi in their rein
gious teachings for neglecting their bodies or for
thinking that strong souls can be built upon sickly
constitutions, enfeebled by too much unwise zeal.
"Balance in all things" was the motto of the ancient
Greeks, and it is the guiding spirit in the trans'
cendent teaching of all the Revelators.

Mens sana in corpore sano—"a sound mind in a
sound body" was the Roman maxim. Youth is a
period not only for bodybuilding but also for mental
development through education. An ignorant per'
son may have a kindly and noble character, but he
cannot be said to have attained that lofty station
which God has designed for human beings. If
religion is one of the wings upon which humanity
flies, science is the other. The acquisition of knowb
edge is therefore a spiritual responsibility.
This advice should be given to every college stU'
76 CHARACTER

dent: "Let the corps of professors and the students be
impressed with the purity and holiness of your lives
so that they may take you as paragons of worthiness,
examples of nobility of nature, observers of the
moral laws, holding in subordination the lower ele'
ment by the higher spirit, the conquerors of self and
the masters of wholesome, vital forces in all the
avenues of life. Strive always to be at the head of
your classes through hard study and true merit.
Be always in a prayerful state and appreciate the
value of everything. Entertain high ideals and stim'
ulate your intellectual and constructive forces.11*
There is no end to study. It does not cease upon
graduation from college. At every age we should
be expanding our mental horizons and acquiring an
evergrowing and more solid body of knowledge for
the better understanding of the world and Universe
we live in.
Knowledge is power. It lifts man from the con'
dition of dumb driven cattle in the fields of life into
enlightened human beings capable of managing their
own destiny. As Albert Mansbridge once said to
me in discussing workers1 adult education: "The
acquisition of knowledge ennobles man. It raises him
from an animal to a thinking being. It is one of the
* Excerpt from a letter by 'Abdu'1-Bahá to Persian students at Beirut
University, who were under his educational charge.
SELF-DEVELOPMENT 77

greatest gifts of life, and no one should be deprived
of it."*
It is the vision and aim of America to afford educational opportunities to all. Theoretically, these
opportunities are without limit. Practically, distinct limits to institutional education arise from
economic or other causes. But such limitations can
afford no alibis to those who sincerely yearn for
knowledge and for culture. The avenues to these
great life-values lie open on every hand. Self-education, once literacy is acquired, is a feasible and
unlimited possibility, and even has certain advantages over standardised institutional education on
the higher levels.
The most thoroughly cultured man I have ever
known was not a college graduate, and I doubt very
much whether the rich flavor of his culture could
have developed in the frigid atmosphere of intellectual bureaucracy which reigns in most institutions for higher learning.
The moral is, no one need remain supine in conditions of ignorance or low culture. Aspiration,
* Albert Mansbridge, founder of the adult education movement amidst the
labor class of England, author of "An Adventure in Working Class Educacation," self-risen from the ranks of the illiterate, has a great vision for
education. The workers' adult education movement in England owes its
world'preeminence chiefly to his inspired efforts and devotion. He is now
president of The World Association for Adult Education.
78 CHARACTER

application and discrimination cannot fail to enrich
educationally and culturally any individual who
desires such enrichment. The means of culture are
abundantly at hand. It is the degree of desire which
will measure the degree of effort and accomplishment.
To any who would say: "I never had the opportunity to get an education," I would reply: "You
never truly wanted one!"
As the first step in character is self-development,
so the first proof of capacity for a strong rich char'
acter is resolution and achievement in world fields
of knowledge. We have no one but ourselves to
blame for failure.

Toward what types of knowledge should we
aspire? We cannot afford to give our valuable time
to the acquisition of miscellaneous and desultory
knowledge. Nor should our primary aim in the
development of intelligence and acquisition of
knowledge be simply self-advancement or the glorf
fication of self, but the ability to contribute to
human progress.
The youth of today should therefore master both
the physical and social sciences. Especially should
they become proficient in history, sociology, economics, psychology, and political science. They
must be prepared to assume leadership in world
SELF-DEVELOPMENT 79

affairs and these studies are very important foundations.
Throughout the process of education as the chief
factor of self-development, we must beware of selfishness or too great self-centeredness. Youth must
develop the altruistic and spiritual qualities at the
same time that they are developing their intellectual powers.
I like the following ideal of education set forth by
'Abdu'l-Baha in a talk to the students of Beirut
University: "The Universities and colleges of the
world must hold fast to three cardinal principles.
"1. Whole-hearted service to the cause of education, the extension of the boundaries of pure science,
the elimination of the causes of ignorance and social
evil, a standard universal system of instruction, and
the diffusion of the lights of knowledge and reality.
"2. Service to the cause of the students, inspiring
them with the sublimest ideals of ethical refinement,
teaching them altruism, inculcating in their lives the
beauty of holiness, and the excellency of virtues and
animating them with the excellences and perfections
of the religion of God.
"3. Service to the oneness of the world of humanity; so that each student may consciously realize
that he is a brother to all mankind, irrespective of
religion or race. The thoughts of universal peace
must be installed in the hearts of all scholars."
8o CHARACTER

In all this great and important process of self'
development, of character formation, of intellectual
advancement throughout the period of youth, we
must learn how to call upon powers greater than
ourselves if we are to make adequate achievement.
Man cannot through his own will power and intelli'
gence create a perfect character for himself. The
pull of the animal is too strong in us. We cannot,
as it were, lift ourselves by our own bootstraps.
The human will is not a completely adequate instru'
ment for perfecting the self. For the will is divided
in its allegiance, torn and pulled in two diverse di'
rections: toward the spiritual plane by the spiritual
side of our nature, toward mundane goals by the
natural and desire side of our nature.
Thus the will is not a completely free and inde'
pendent instrument for self-perfection. Instead of
being able to dominate and rule our desire'nature by
the will and intelligence, we tend to be controlled
and governed by our emotions and to make use of
our intelligence as an instrument to gain the objects
of our desires.
It is vastly important, then, that we train our
desire'nature heavenward, so to speak; in other
words, come more and more earnestly to desire
spiritual progress and spiritual powers and attain'
SELF'DEVELOPMENT 8I

ments. This desire is greatly strengthened by asph
ration, prayer and meditation; and by association
with others who are spiritually minded.
Prayer is the food of spirit. We can no more
expect to develop spiritually without it than we
could expect to develop physically without food.
Man cannot rise spiritually by his own unaided
efforts. He needs the power of the Holy Spirit for
self'perfectioning. This is attained through prayer,
through turning to God and beseeching aid and
grace for such a spiritual development.

There is a mysterious power which is called the
grace of God. It is something that few understand,
perhaps none except the Revelator. It is that attri'
bute of Deity which is available upon earnest request
and beseechment for help in trouble; and more
valuably still, for aid in spiritual development. Its
contribution to our spiritual progress may be com'
pared to the contribution of sunshine and richness
of soil to the growth of plants. By attracting the
grace of God to us through prayer and meditation,
we can make amazing progress in spiritual growth
transcending the slow and tedious average.
It is the grace of God, this special outpouring of
the Holy Spirit toward man's needs, that causes
8a CHARACTER

those miracles of transmutation of human character
which characterise the highest experiences of relf
gious history. Through this power released by a
Revelator we see men and women turn from evil or
from selfish idle lives to become veritable saints.
This power is especially potent in the early period
of a great world religion. It is released in great
waves upon the planet and becomes available for
every earnest seeker.
The noblest fruits of human character have been
achieved under the stimulus of devotion to religion.
This relationship of man to God through the channel
of a Revelator, with the eternal stimulus and in'
spiration of that perfect and noble Pattern held
before him, has produced the most glorious and
noble characters in history.
We are today, I believe, at the dawn of another
great religious epoch. We must learn to avail our'
selves of this tremendous power of the Holy Spirit
and of the grace of God for attaining the utmost
possible self-development and character growth.
We need this aid not only for character but also for
an intellectual development that shall be universal
in its scope. We are not fulfilling our function as
spiritual beings until we shine with a new potency
in the midst of a materialistic and evil world. J^pt
until humanity awa\ens to this new plane and stand'
ard of self'development and self'perfection will an ideal
social pattern for the world he achieved.
SELF-DEVELOPMENT 83

"When a divine spiritual illumination becomes
manifest in the world of humanity, when divine
instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenment
follows, a spirit is realised within, a new power
descends and a new life is given. It is like the birth
from the animal kingdom into the kingdom of man.
When man acquires these virtues, the oneness of
the world of humanity will be revealed, the banner
of international peace will be upraised, equality between all mankind will be realised and the Orient
and Occident will become one. Then will the justice
of God become manifest, all humanity will appear
as the members of one family and every member of
that family will be consecrated to cooperation and
mutual assistance. The lights of the love of God will
shine; eternal happiness will be unveiled; everlasting
joy and spiritual delight will be attained." *
Self-development is a lifelong process, not limited
to youth. We grow eternally throughout this life
and through future lives toward distant shining
goals of power and glory of service which by no
stretch of the imagination could we possibly conceive at this stage of our existence. Self-development, in its highest aspect, is divine development
and has no end short of Infinity.
* 'Abdui-Bahá—"The Reality of Man." Baha'i Publishing Committee,
New York.
CHAPTER VI

The Law of Duty
NFANCY and childhood have no responsibili-
I ties. Youth has little responsibility beyond
that of self-development and self-unfoldment
through education. This is in itself a serious responsibility and should be so considered and acted
upon by youth. They owe something to that provision on the part of the adult world which makes
education possible for them. They owe still more
to themselves in the way of developing to the
utmost their intellectual capacity. But apart from
this duty of intellectual training and the acquisition
of knowledge and of skills for the future career,
youth is practically free from responsibilities.
Thus youth should be and usually is a delightful
period of growth, expansion, discovery of capacities
and dawning use of personal powers. In this period
of life, physical and mental recreation plays a larger
part than in any other period; and deservedly so, for
the budding powers of youth should not be strained
by overwork or overstudy. The physical frame has
not yet reached its peak of development and hardihood; the nervous system is still less developed than
the physical and suffers perhaps permanent injuries
THE LAW OF DUTY 85

from overstrain during the 'teens. The present sys'
tern of education tends to overstrain young people
and may cause permanent injury to the nervous
system. Five hours a day given to intellectual
work is all that should be required of youth.
Youth should be a period of joyous self-expression,
self-exploration and discovery. The youth's contact with the world about him should also be made
harmonious and joyous. This is a duty which the
world owes to childhood and youth. A happy
childhood and youth builds into a wholesome mental
hygiene in later life. Whereas an overstrained, unhappy childhood and youth builds up complexes
which make for neurotic qualities in later life. Therefore the adult world is obligated to see that the early
.years of life on the part of the growing generation
are made joyous and wholesome.*

There comes a time in life, however, when responsibilities creep in upon the individual. As
graduation from college approaches, youth begins
to feel the weight of the future years upon it. Now
is the time when life must be faced seriously. It is
necessary to go forth from the cloistered halls of
* Progressive Education, by putting this psychological principle into practice, is making an important contribution to the development of wholesome
childhood and youth.
86 CHARACTER

learning prepared to earn one's livelihood. Under
normal economic situations, not to be able to earn a
living at maturity is a sign of imperfection, weakness,
irresponsibility.
The first responsibility which the individual is
apt to incur, then, is that of earning a livelihood.
Soon there ensues the choice of a mate and the
responsibilities of married life. Now the individual
has to buckle down to real work and duty. Mar'
riage is a great discipline and training of character.
It induces the individual cheerfully to accept respon'
sibilities which he would have been apt to throw
aside in the more free and untrammeled condition
of bachelorhood.
Now that maturity is reached and married life
engaged in, with children to support and bring up,
the individual passes through the cycle through
which his parents have formerly passed—the cycle
of duty, of work, of responsibility; responsibility to
the family, responsibility to the neighborhood and
city, responsibility to one's country, and in the
coming years responsibility to a World State.
Those adults who chronically avoid responsibility
remain to that extent immature and imperfect souls.
They may make alibis for themselves, and their
family and friends may accept these alibis. But
God does not. The order and equilibrium of the
universe must be maintained. That mysterious
T H E LAW OF DUTY 87

equilibrating Force—the attribute of God called
Justice—causes pain and suffering to attend as con'
sequence of every chronic neglect of cosmic law and
order. Those souls who fail to mature here will
have to mature in other existences, at an even greater
price than they should have paid here.

All religions inculcate the fundamental virtue
of duty and powerfully motivate the performance of
duty. When individuals accept and adequately
perform their responsibilities to family and mart
and country, society prospers and government has
equilibrium and security. When, on the contrary,
religion wanes and with it disappear the sanctions
of authoritative truth and the compunctions of con'
science, then duties fail and disorder and insecurity
spread throughout society.
The great central law of the universe is responsibility. Everything in the cosmos, animate and inan'
imate, must obey this law. It is the foundation of
order and equilibrium and harmony. Man cannot
escape this law. Here is a form of character deveh
opment which existence thrusts upon us. Every
human being has to acquire and practice responsi'
bility or pay the price in a chaotic and unhappy if
not eventually tragic existence.
88 CHARACTER

The Universe is an expression of immutable law
which applies on every plane of being—physical,
mental, moral, and spiritual. We cannot fool this
law. We cannot cajole it. We cannot plead ex'
ceptions to it or escape its punishment if violated.
In this respect the Universe is a stern reality—
impersonal, unforgiving. God as Law is a stern
judge. It is this attribute of Deity and this under'
standing of phenomenal existence which gave rise
to the saying, "The fear of God is the beginning of
wisdom.'"'
"Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put
forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high
places, by the way in the places of the paths. She
crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the
coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call;
and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple,
understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an
understanding heart.
"Receive my instruction, and not silver; and
knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may be
desired are not to be compared to it. I, Wisdom,
dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of
witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil: pride, and arrogancy and the evil way, and the
T H E LAW OF DUTY 89

froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and
sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By
me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of
the earth.
"I love them that love me: and those that seek me
early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me;
yea, durable riches and righteousness. M y fruit is
better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue
than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteous'
ness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That
I may cause those that love me to inherit substance;
and I will fill their treasures.
"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way,
before his wor\s of old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When
there were no depths, I was brought forth; when
there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills
was I brought forth: while as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the
dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens,
I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of
the depth: when he established the clouds above:
when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters
should not pass his commandment: when he ap'
pointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by
90 CHARACTER

him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily
his delight, rejoicing always before him.
"Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children:
for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear
instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed
is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my
gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso
fmdeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the
Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his
own soul: all they that hate me love death.'''' *
Thus spake the wisest man who ever lived upon
this planet, Solomon, who chose wisdom from the
Lord above riches and honor and because of this
choice was given in addition great riches and great
honor.
Solomon apostrophizes Wisdom, almost persons
fies it, sees it as a principle of occult value. By it
he means not the wisdom of the market place, but
the perfect understanding of those immutable laws
of the cosmos violation of which spells disaster.

Apparently life is free, elastic, mutable; the universe is at our beck and call as the instrument of our
self-expression. In reality, our freedom lies between
very narrow walls. If self-expression becomes self-
* Proverbs, Chapter 8.
T H E LAW OF DUTY 91

ishness and egoism, the universe begins very soon to
shut down upon us and to imprison us. Like crimi'
nals against society, we eventually find ourselves
living within those prison walls which immutable
law creates for the wrongdoer.
Christ made this plain in describing the spiritual
law of cause and effect. "What ye sow, that shall ye
also reap." There is a certain harvest for every kind
of sowing.
When we understand this great law of spiritual
cause and effect, then right action and morality
become simply an expression of the higher intelli'
gence and wisdom. Unrighteous action, on the other
hand, is a symptom of gross ignorance of the essential
moral and spiritual structure of the universe. Those
who conceive that by wrongdoing they are going to
advantage themselves are simply blind to the essen'
tial truths of existence and are laying up for them'
selves black tragedy.
Wrongdoing does not depend only upon a legal sys*
tem to bring it to tas\ and punishment. The Unv
verse is automatic in this respect. Unli\e human
justice, Divine Justice cannot be evaded.
It is this moral aspect of existence which Theoso'
phists describe as karma, a concept upon which their
whole structure of ethics is built. It is, in fact, the
teaching of all the Prophets who come to warn
human beings of the dangers and consequences of
92 CHARACTER

evil doing and of the beneficent rewards of right
doing.
The words of the Prophets are not all milk and
honey. Many of them sting like scorpions. They
wish to bring before humanity all the harshness of
punishment which sin entails, thus warning in
language so vehement as to stimulate reform.
The dire aspect of cosmic punishment is apt to
fade away from the human consciousness in epochs
of irreligion. The very concept of sin fades away
in such an age, as it has faded away today.
That men may be unaware of God as Ruler and
Judge and blind themselves to the consequences of
sin does not in any way change, however, the nature
of the universe nor enable humans to escape the
individual or collective disaster which unrighteousness entails.
On the other hand, a knowledge of these laws and
a full understanding of the beneficence which righteousness brings to life is one of the most powerful
incentives for moral living and for the perfectioning
of character. It is, in fact, the most powerful incentive commonly current and available to human
beings.
I wish that all people could realise the mathematical severity and simplicity of this Cosmic Moral
System. It stands inviolate above the self-seeking
THE LAW OF DUTY 93

will of man, crushing that will inevitably into
submission through agony and abasement.
The knowledge of this Law is the most important
step in the growing mental and moral development
of a human being. It is far more important a law
to understand than any law of physics, of chemistry,
of mathematics or of the social sciences; a law so
simple that even in one's early 'teens one can realize
it effectively as a guide to conduct.
The ethical system of Socrates and Plato was
based upon this principle of Law. Wisdom, under'
standing, intelligence would, according to Socrates,
be sufficient to inspire goodness. To practice
evil is simply to be unintelligent. Therefore, said
Socrates, teach youth to understand the cosmic laws
and they will modify their behavior towards goals
of righteousness.
Plato developed this idea into one of the most
glorious intellections which humanity has evolved:
that Goodness, Truth and Beauty are but three
aspects of one central Essence; that to live the
Truth is to express Righteousness and enjoy Beauty.

One could give many examples of the peculiar
exactness and detail with which this law of spiritual
94 CHARACTER

cause and effect operates. "As ye measure out, so
shall it he measured out to you.' ''
This does not mean that a generous man will
necessarily become rich, or a mean man remain poor.
The ancient Hebrews interpreted the spiritual law
of cause and effect a little too literally. Worldly
events do not fit such an interpretation, so the
author of the Book of Job discovered-—and the thesis
of his drama is that good men may suffer misfortune
through no fault of their own. Such misfortunes,
perhaps, are in the nature of a spiritual test or
purification.
Yet it remains mathematically certain that hap'
hazard, irresponsible, unrestrained lives cannot long
thrive in a Universe the center and core of which
is order.
If the reader will begin to note the lives of those
about him, and the lives of men and women of the
past available to us in the form of biographical ma'
terial, he will find significant dramatic and philc
sophical values in the moral correlations discoverable
therein. And these values are not merely theoreť
ical. They should be a vivid and concrete aid in our
own character development.
Many such examples might be given. But I will
cite only one—the life of Jack London as graphically
delineated by Irving Stone in "Sailor on Horse'
THE LAW OF DUTY 95

back." * Here is a man of volcanic temperament
and power irrupting at the age of twenty-five into
a literary success that for ten years held the world
at his feet. Wealth, fame, and women flowed to
him. Like many geniuses he was careless about
these things, and his life was a chronic disorder.
In separating from his first wife he lost one of
the best friends he ever had, and the love of his two
children. In the later years of his life this result was
felt by him as a great loneliness.
In financial afFairs he blundered along with complete lack of self-restraint, so that large as his income
was he always outran it and was constantly and
desperately in debt. His grandiose schemes for becoming a patriarchal agriculturalist and ranchman
met with tragic disappointments at every hand.
In the last years of his life disaster piled upon
disaster—each disaster traceable not so much to any
definite material cause as to the inner spiritual cause
of his moral disorderliness. His ambitious castle,
Wolf House, on the day following its completion
but before occupancy was discovered at midnight
in flames. Jack was awakened. When he reached
the spot Wolf House was a roaring inferno. There
was no water "He could do nothing but stand
* "Sailor on Horseback," Irving Stone, Houghton Mifflin Co., originally
published in the Saturday Evening Post. Both the author and the magazine
deserve great credit for this superb literary production.
o6 CHARACTER

with tears running down his cheeks and watch one
of his greatest life dreams be destroyed." It was
never ascertained what caused the conflagration.
Other disasters overtook him with a Nemesian
inevitability worthy of the pen of a Euripedes. His
prize registered pigs all caught pneumonia on newly
built stone floors and died. His prize shorťhorn
bull broke its neck in a peculiar and unpreventable
accident. His herd of Angora goats all died from
disease. His Shire blue-ribbon stallion was found
dead in the fields one day. Other expensive agricultural investments proved a complete failure.
Worse still, his health began to fail, his writings
deteriorated, his friends proved worthless, he fell a
prey to dipsomania; and to cap the climax his life
came to a sudden end at the age of forty from a
suicidal overdose of morphine and atropine.
Here was a man of great intellect, superb genius
and noble impulses. He was not a selfish man. He
was not even a self-seeking man. He had high ideals
for the good of humanity to which he unselfishly
devoted much of his time and energy at the risk of
his career. He was a generous friend and patron of
rising or would-be genius—a Maecenas "par ex­
cellence."
Why did Destiny so persecute him? Because he
was too supremely the egotist. Like Napoleon he
had to be crushed. He blazed through the firma-
T H E LAW OF DUTY . 97

ment of fame in a path more spectacular and ec'
centric than that which comets show. Disorder was
the \eynote of his life. No permanent happiness, no
stability, no ordered prosperity could have been
prognosticated for such a personality. His career
at every turn illustrates and vindicates the great
spiritual law of cause and effect. Read "Sailor on
Horseback." It will do you more good than a
sermon.

In a small city where I once taught, strife and
hostility arose through the jealousy of two women
who struggled for control of an Arts Club founded
by one of them. Both women were of the domh
nating, alhconquering type. They made acrimc
nious attacks upon each other, not hesitating even at
slander spread over the telephone and on all possible
social occasions.
What was the result? One of these women came
down with a severe case of grippe, which kept her
ill a month. In the other family, the woman and
her two children were ill for weeks. Such were
the results of disharmony and psychic cruelty in a
Universe devoted to the great Law of Order and
Harmony. Anyone knowing this Law could have
foreseen such results and predicted them, as surely
as an astronomer can predict an eclipse.
98 CHARACTER

How important it is, then, to realize the great
spiritual laws. How infinitely more important for
us in the present stage of civilization to be able to
predict the results of moral or immoral actions than
to be able to analyze or synthesize the chemical
elements of nature or to discover new constellations
and new universes.

We have certain definite responsibilities as indi'
vidual units of the family and of social and political
groups. No individual is an isolated unit of exisť
ence, just as no sun or planet or atom even is
isolated in the Universe. Everything in phenomenal
existence is integrated; connected by invisible links,
one with the other. It is these necessary ties link'
ing us one with another that create our responsi'
bilities. To come to appreciate and satisfy these
social and spiritual obligations is but the part of
wisdom.
Responsibility is not equivalent, on the spiritual
scale, to altruism. It is but a debt we owe to the
existence we are staged in, a debt that must be paid
if we would live a free and wholesome life. It is a
law of nature and a law of fulfillment. A law which
we are destined fully to realize, if not in this life
then in the next.
THE LAW OF DUTY 99

Perfect freedom on the part of the individual, in
the sense of untrammeled expression of his egocen'
trie will, is an impossibility in a universe dedicated
to harmonious order. True freedom is attained by
submitting one's selfiwill to the Cosmic Will, so
that one's life flows in universal channels. Only
thus does one find that life becomes untrammeled
and unimprisoned. Those iron doors which shut
upon the evil doer exist not for the righteous.
The greatest mistake a spiritually aspiring person
can make is to conceive that any exercise of spiritual
zeal can absolve him from the material and secular
responsibilities of life. Even seal in working for
God cannot condone the violation of life's necessary
obligations.

The doctrine of karma as expounded by the
Theosophists has one most important omission—
the "grace of God."
Prayer and repentance for wrong action, leading
to actual reform, can attract the Divine forgiveness.
There is a certain amount of cosmic grace available
to an individual or a people who have done wrong.
As in the world of nature there is usually a lag
between abuse of the body and the natural suffering
which follows it, so on the moral plane there may be
considerable leeway between a series of wrong acts
ioo CHARACTER

and their moral and spiritual consequences. This
is illustrated in the maxim, "The mills of the gods
grind slowly."
But this cosmic elasticity, grace, or forgiveness
cannot go beyond a certain point. When that point
is reached, the universal law becomes a grim reality
to us. There is no avoiding the penalty. When
we have used up our last bit of credit we become
spiritually insolvent. Nothing but suffering and
catastrophe can ensue at this point. Therefore it
is wise to avoid the ultimate point of wrong'doing,
as in fact it is wise to avoid any wrong'doing.

That attribute of Deity which we call Justice is
the equilibrating force of the Universe. When an
individual or a people depart too far from the natural
orbit of law and order, they are pulled back with a
terrific corrective force. The suffering which ensues
from such a cataclysm may be looked upon not so
much in the light of punishment as in the light of a
stern guidance. "Calamity is my Providence to
thee. In appearance it is fire and vengeance, in
reality it is light and mercy."*
"Wisdom is manifested in the operation of the
principle of Justice. This principle, as exhibited in
* Baha u'Uih, "Hidden Words."
T H E LAW OF DUTY IOI

the lower departments of nature, acts as a regulator
among the essences, elements, and forces that opeť
ate in all substances. In other words, it seeks to
equalize all the agencies of activity, and aids in com'
bining the different elements into harmonious forms
and beautiful proportions. Justice is the great bah
ancing'power of the Universe; it seeks to balance all
accounts, to settle all difficulties, to harmonize all in'
terests. It is God's peacemaker, fulfilling its mission
in the various departments of nature, by properly
adjusting all elements, and combining all forms
according to their material qualities or spiritual
essences. It seeks to harmonize man with his
fellow'man, as the legitimate means of producing
harmony with the great laws of his natural and
spiritual being. Thus, by harmonizing man with
himself, justice rejoices in having harmonized man
with his Divine Author.
"If in any department of nature a law is violated,
Justice sees that the violation is followed by a corre­
sponding effect, in order that the violator may he
induced to desist from his course, and that the
wonted harmony may thus he restored. Thus,
'chastisement' is inflicted for the purpose of causing
the transgressor to return to right relations and
their accompanying enjoyment."*
* R. P. Wilson, "Discourses from the Spirit-World." New York, Part­
ridge and Brittan, 1855.
102 CHARACTER

Everything in existence obeys two forces. One
is the centrifugal force of self'expression; the other
is the centripetal force of law or duty.
Self-expression is always joyous, for Destiny has
generously associated pleasure with wholesome
functioning. Duty seems to be made of sterner
stuff. But this forbidding appearance of duty is
not its real aspect. For duty is the natural corollary
of selfexpression, and when willingly performed
becomes also a source of joy. Selfexpression with'
out duty would be aimless and in time vapid.
Responsibility is the fruit of the tree of life, of
which selfexpression is the blossom. For a tree to
blossom without culminating in fruitage is to fail
of its destined mission. So also for man to be
seeking always his satisfaction in egocentric forms
of selfexpression is to negate his spiritual and
creative station.
Duty is the track upon which the creative will of
man makes effective progress. Its purpose is benefi'
cent. Its proper functioning is spiritually joyous.
CHAPTER VII

Altruism

H E WHO performs his necessary duties in this
world, who works industriously and efficiently, supports his family, and carries out all
of his responsibilities—he is a man we call a model
citizen. Yet he has reached but one stage of the
upward climb toward the Perfect Man. Above
that stage is the stage of Altruism.
It is to raise man's actions to a plane where they
are motivated by love for others that the Prophets
incarnate and reveal their great message to humanity.
Religion calls upon all men and women to rise to the
plane of altruism in their daily living.
Without the inspiration and the support which
religion and the spiritual life give, it would be
difficult for man to turn his egocentric self-developmental urges into altrocentric or altruistic motivation. If this transition were not difficult, it would
not be so necessary for the Revelator to appear
upon this planetary plane. History has proved that
without revealed religion altruism does not appear
in any large extent.

It is true, Nature provides certain urges toward
IO4 CHARACTER

altruism. Biologists point out that altruism first
developed in the course of normal evolution with
the mammal bearing its young within its body,
suckling it and caring for it tenderly after birth.
Even in the animal world, the mother will protect
its young at the risk or cost of its death. In the
human world, marital life and parenthood produce
in the average individual a certain inevitable degree
of altruism. This altruism gradually extends to the
complete extent of the family life, including the clan
as the unit of society as has been the case in China
up to date.
This family fealty and altruism, which was charac'
teristic of all patriarchal peoples, has come down
from the Mosaic Dispensation into the life of modern
Jewry and is one of the important factors in the
commercial success of Jews to this day. All within
the family must be helped. One for all and all for
one is the ideal which generally prevails.
In feudalism the loyalty to clan enlarges into
loyalty to the feudal group. And in modern times
we have seen the rise of nationalism, in which
loyalty and altruism have grown to include all of
the national group.
Outside of these natural or political groups, how
ever, altruism has not prevailed. For instance, in
China the stranger outside the clan is allowed to
drown when simple aid would save him. The sense
ALTRUISM 105

of general altruism in that country is so feeble that
supplies contributed from the Red Cross of this
country to China some years ago for the starving
famine'Struck populations were seized by the war
lords through whose provinces they had to pass and
diverted to their own selfish uses. Finally our Red
Cross, in disgust at this futility, ceased to render
such aid to China.
Even within the Christian commonwealth of na'
tions, altruism ceases upon national borders and
hatred and cruelty begin.

BaháVlláh proclaimed man's duty to the world
at large. His world message implies an altruism as
wide as the planet itself. "Pride not yourself in
this that you love your country, but rather this,
that you love mankind.'''' Every child is to be
brought up to realize his spiritual obligation to love
all humanity and to work for the benefit of all races
and peoples.
"All the divine messengers have come to this
earth as specialists of the law of love. They came
to teach a divine love to the children of men; they
came to minister a divine healing between the
nations; they came to cement in one the hearts of
men and to bring humanity into a state of unity
and concord.
io6 CHARACTER

"The object of the dawn of the Morn of Guidance
and the effulgence of the Sun of Reality have been
no other than the inculcation of the utmost love
among the children of men and perfect gooďfellow'
ship between the individuals of mankind. There'
fore, in the beginning the foundation of this love and
unity must be laid among the believers of God, and
then permeate through the nations of the world.
Therefore as much as you can be ye kind towards
one another, and likewise to others.
"There is the family bond which is the cause of
love. There is the patriotic bond which is a basis
for love. There is the racial cause which is a source
of love. There is the political one which is the
cause of love and unity. Partnership in business is
one sort of connection.
"But there is no bond like the love of God, for the
love of God is the bond eternal, and outside of it
there are only temporary ones." *

Where and how shall we express this altruism in
daily life? Opportunities for good deeds do not
occur at every moment, but the attitude of good will
and of universal love can go out from us in all the
events and encounters of life bringing happiness to
* 'Abdu'1-Bahá, "The Divine Art of Living."
ALTRUISM 107

other human beings about us, shedding a ray of that
celestial light which a Savior concentrates upon
humanity.
This general, pervasive spirit of altruism or uni'
versal love when permeating the whole social group
establishes a marvelous atmosphere of harmony and
happiness. The absence of it, on the other hand,
creates an atmosphere of submerged complexes, bick'
erings, inharmonies and consequent unhappiness.
We can make our own heaven or hell upon earth
by the kind of social atmosphere we radiate and
attract.
We are not asked to love everyone equally—that
is impossible. "There are two kinds of love, one
universal and one individual. You must love hu'
manity in order to uplift and help humanity. Even
if they kill you, you must love them. Individual
love cannot he forced and you are not called upon
to love everybody personally, hut if they are in your
lives see to it that they are means of your development
and that you are means of their development through
your universal love for them.
"How can one love another whose personality is
unpleasant?" 'AbduTBaha was asked, and he
answered: "We are creatures of the same God. We
must therefore love all as children of God even
though they are doing us harm. Christ loved his
persecutors, it is possible, for us to attain to that
io8 CHARACTER

love. God manifested his love by creating man in
his own image. Man must manifest his love by
developing himself and others more and more in the
image of God. The true fruit of man is, therefore,
love. The purpose of a tree is to produce fruit.
Man is like a tree; his fruit should be love." *
This preachment of love and harmony sounds very
delightful. It is easier to say, however, than to do.
As a matter of fact, it is extremely difficult for the
average individual to transform his egocentric urges
into altruistic urges. Here we are wrestling with
primitive instincts and impulses of human nature,
and the task is not easy. We should not be dis'
couraged if the process is slow. And as pointed out
in the previous chapter, we greatly need for this
transformation of our motives the aid of prayer and
of the Holy Spirit.
Undoubtedly the greatest force for achieving this
universal love on the part of the individual is first
the achieving of attachment of the heart to God.
Through that attachment, the Cosmic Love is caused
to stream into the human heart spontaneously, ex'
pressing itself toward other individuals in a manner
that is not forced or artificial. In fact, it is doubtful
if the spiritual love which is enjoined upon us by the
Prophets can be attained by us in any other way.
* 'Abdu'1'Bahá, "The Divine Art of Living."
ALTRUISM 109

Can we carry altruism into our business affairs?
Yes, we not only can, but must. All our work
should be done in the spirit of service. Then it is
equivalent to prayer. We should do our work with
love, praying that it may be a means of benefaction
and happiness to others.
The commercial world in its secular pattern of
today, so dominated by materialism and greed, is a
difficult place in which to express this attitude of
service in one's work. Yet we must somehow make
a beginning, even now and today. In a later and
more ideal civilisation this spiritualised motivation
will invade all business, and it will be easy for the
individual to fall into the then prevailing altruistic
current of thought and practice.
Even today in the secular world it is apparent that
all business transactions are an exchange of services
and are built upon a foundation of mutuality. Both
parties to a transaction must derive mutual benefits
and advantages from it.
It is only a matter of spiritual psychology, therefore, to transfer our motivation in business transactions from one of profit to one of service. The
transaction remains the same, the profit remains the
same, our living still accrues to us. But the psycho*
i io CHARACTER

logical basis is far different when the spirit of service
dominates than when the spirit of profit dominates.

When the spirit of service or altruism motivates
our business or professional life we shall find a new
mysterious tide of prosperity and success. For we
shall be operating on the plane of the Kingdom, of
which Christ said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God
and all these things shall be added unto you." On
this plane, we rise above the jungle life of brutal
economic competition into a cooperative world
where prosperous living is assured for all.
Even now in the midst of a greeďmotivated world
the assertion of altruism in all one's acts can be
counted upon to assure material success, provided
other factors of success are also present such as
energy, persistence and efficiency.
There is a mysterious tide which can be counted
upon to bring to us that which we send forth.
"Cast your bread upon the waters and it shall return
after many days." He who sows generous measures
of good will upon the fields of life will never fail to
reap abundant harvests. One is thus building up
a body of friendship and good will which is actually a
working capital for success in life.
In another and better world where society is
ALTRUISM II I

operated upon a more cooperative basis and where
service is the prevailing motive, prosperity will flow
in greater abundance to all humanity. This will be
a different planet then. Want or poverty will be
unknown either to the individual or to groups
of society.
Altruism, therefore, or the centering of one's
motivation upon our fellows rather than upon our'
selves, is in reality a feasible working basis even on
the material and practical plane. Altruism is not
synonymous with self-effacement. It does not call
for undue sacrifice. It is a practical law—the great
law of mutuality which hinds all existence together.
"Love your neighbor as yourself," said Christ.
And this, you notice, is a fifty'fifty proposition. It
does not call for neglect of self-needs. This is altru'
ism: a kindly consideration of others jointly with
ourselves. "Do unto others as you would like them
to do unto you." There is a still loftier plane of
human character'attainment, the plane of sacrifice,
which will be described in the ensuing chapter.

What a wonderful world it would be if the golden
rule applied throughout the business life as well as
through the social and family life of man upon this
planet. "The law to love one another is the law of
ii2' CHARACTER

service," says Henry Demarest Lloyd in "Man, the
Social Creator." "And service calls for service.
The Golden Rule cannot be applied to human life in
any other way than to call upon everyone who
receives the results of labour to labour in his turn.
Mamini said, 'Let labour be the basis of civil society.'
It must also be the basis of religion. It is such;
what remains is that we so recognise it. The
labourer is the creator; the labourer is the lover. He
is the reunaker of man, nature and society; he is the
one who comes to serve, who does the things that
he would have done to him, who makes possible life
which is love incarnated, who is the Prince of
Peace. . . .
"As labour is creation, by labour men do unto
each other as they ought and enter heaven. Love
for the people has one of its roots, though not the
greatest root, in the fact that the body of the
common people is the reservoir in which is gathered
up the creative energy of society, and that out of it
flow the streams of power and progress. . . .
"It is only by labouring that man can fulfill his
function as creator. When man works creation is
under way. Labour as the exercise of faculty is the
greatest happiness, and as the fabricator of nature,
man and society is the highest prerogative of human'
ity. All faculty demands expression, and the work
of creation is infinite. Labour with love is the divine
ALTRIUSM 113

in action at its highest power. This divine service is
the true worship, and was prefigured by the sacrifice
by primitive man of fruits and yearling kids, the
doves and firsťborn of every flock. . . .
"The task set for love for today is as clear and
concrete as that of any previous moment of social
creation. It is determined by the new circunv
stances of our time, which are incontestably the new
wealth and the new multitudes it has brought
together. The history of love is the clue to follow
if we would understand the earthquaking power
with which men are moving toward each other to
establish peace, happiness and prosperity in the now
desolated fields of the new Industry. Poverty is to
be abolished, and with it the crime and disease
caused by poverty. Every man is to be made a
master—the master of all because he and all serve all.
More wealth than has ever been known is to be
created out of the manhood and earth now waste.
The rewards of the leaders as well as the people are
to be made indefinitely greater than now. The
dependence of individuals or communities on the
will or greed of others is to be brought to an end.
"The present hatreds, anarchies, waste of good
will and waste of wealth are but passing phenomena
of the transition into a new social order. In its
previous creations of organised love to rule men in
the territories of contact mankind has been doing
ii4 CHARACTER

laboratory work. The family, the nation, have been
experiments on a small scale with the forces which
are now to be applied universally. The family, the
nation, are true facts and will be eternal; but they
are members of a series which will express its highest
term in a still greater fact.
"The mission of the individual and the race is to
create. Individuality and association are means;
each of equal dignity, each indispensable. Once
man and men see the grandeur of the destiny before
them, life will never again seem cold or narrow, dis'
couraging or uninspired. This is an aim which
makes life divine. Infinite are the allurements, the
joys, the problems, the solutions, the prices of life
thus lived. Ours is the era of the new Newton who
will work out the attraction of men for each other
as the gravitating force which explains the position,
motion and relations of the social atoms and the
social masses." *

There is a paradoxical claim which life makes upon
* Henry Demarest Lloyd, "Man, the Social Creator." Doubleday Page
6ř Co., New York, 1906.
This posthumous book, the result of Lloyd's researches in this country
and Europe, especially regarding human relations in industrial and govern,
mentalfields,is deserving of republication. The spiritual fervor of his ideals
of economic cooperation and brotherhood has an inspiration as fresh and
necessary today as in the epoch for which he wrote.
ALTRUISM 115

us. On the one hand it demands of us a struggle for
self'existence. Destiny plants deeply in us the
egocentric urges for this necessary end. On the
other hand, Destiny demands of us as spiritual
beings, made in the image of God, a development
toward altruism.
How, then, can the transition be attained? It
cannot adequately be attained except through the
mission of the Revelator, through His teachings,
His exhortations, the example of His own life; and
most important of all, through the streams of love
which He lets loose upon humanity and in particular
upon every individual who turns to Him and to the
Holy Spirit for aid in this process.
Character for adequate and successful seLf-expres'
sion, character adequate to meet the responsi'
bilities of life, may be attained without revealed
religion. But the character of altruism needs the
light and heat of the Spirit for its development and
fruition. The seeds of altruism lie within us. But
their potentiality can become actual only through
the action of that great Sun of Truth whose rays can
nurse these seeds to life.
One of the great struggles one faces in life is this
constant chronic struggle to sublimate egoism into
altruism. Youth starts life with egoistic urges and
ambitions. This is but natural. The more power'
ful these urges, the better is the prognostication for
no CHARACTER

ultimate success. Somewhere in the process, h o w
ever, these urges must be restrained, modified, trans'
ferred into altruistic urges. And that is not easy.
The process is all the harder for those who have
strong creative gifts demanding expression. The
genius, the creator, is prone to self-centeredness, to
egoism, to selfishness. Yet these are the salt of the
earth, these are the great achievers, the ones who
move the race forward and cause it to progress. Is
it possible for them also to transfer their center of
motivation from egoism to altruism?
Certainly it is possible. And the history of
religion proves that it can be done. But because
the capacity and degree of power is greater here than
in the ordinary individual, the efforts toward sublh
mation and spiritualization must also be greater.
The possession of genius can win no exemption
from the spiritual law of altruism. One of the main
weafmesses of past human society has been the fact
that its leaders in achievement have been too much
motivated by egocentric aims. T^pt until the worlds
leadership becomes altruistic can human society hope
to attain to ideal patterns.

Every person is capable of expressing kindliness
and love in the daily life. No matter at what stage
ALTRUISM I 17

of spiritual development we happen to be, we can
at least begin to motivate our deeds with the spirit
of helpfulness.
"Try Giving Yourself Away," urges an anonymous writer in "Forbes." * "People have different
things to give. Some have time, energy, skill, ideas.
Others have some special talent. All of us can
give away appreciation, interest, understanding,
encouragement. I get my compensation out of
feeling that I am a part of the life of my times,
doing what I can to make things more interesting
and exciting for other people. And that makes life
more interesting and exciting for me, and keeps my
mind keener. As if this were not enough, I find
that friends multiply and good things come to me
from every direction."
That man has attained to the habitual expression
of altruism who radiates kindliness and good will in
all his human contacts and who does all his work in
the spirit of service. It is just as easy to live this
way, once one forms the habit, as to live a selfcentered money-motivated life.
"Work done in the spirit of service," says \Abdu'l-Baha, "is equivalent to prayer."
One has to work, anyway. Why not adjust one's
necessary actions to this great law of altruism, which
is cosmic in its foundations and scope? Work done
* "Try Giving Yourself Away." Forbes, June i, 1938.
n8 CHARACTER

as duty may be disagreeable. Work done with love
is joyful.

"For those we love, we venture many things,
The thought of them gives spiritflamingwings.
For those we love, we labor hard and long,
To dream of them stirs in the heart a song.
For those we love, no task can be too great,
We forge ahead, defying adverse fate.
For those we love, we seek life's highest goal,
And find contentment deep within the soul." *

Altruism—or in its more ardent aspect, love—is
the creative and sustaining force of the universe.
God created man not by accident but by the Will'tc
Love. It is that same force of love expressed on
the phenomenal plane which causes coherence in
life-forms, the law of attraction, the affinities of
chemistry and the affections of the human world.
To live outside this Law of Love is to be an
outcast from the Kingdom. One who habitually
practices love lives thereby in heaven. One who
knows not how to give or attract love lives in pur-
* "Those We Love," Agnes Carr in the "Boston Traveller."
ALTRUISM 119

gatory. One who gives forth and attracts to him'
self the opposite of love, hatred, lives in hell.
Love is the atmosphere of paradise. When it
reigns amidst earth'bound groups it makes these
groups tiny replicas of heaven. We do not need to
wait until death in order to taste the glories and joys
of celestial life. And we cannot expect, if we have
not learned the taste of heaven here, to gravitate
later to the HeavemoveťThere.
"Love is primarily not a subjective emotion, but
an expansion and a deepening of life, through Life
setting itself in the other, taking the other up into
itself; and in this movement life itself becomes
greater, more comprehensive and noble. Love is
not a mere relation of given individuals, but a deveh
opment and a growing in communion, and elevation
and an animation of the original condition. And
this movement of love has no limits; it has all infinity
for its development; it extends beyond the relation
to persons to the relation to things; for things also
reveal their innermost being only to a disposition of
love: again, the striving after truth in science and
art cannot succeed without love and an animation
that proceeds from it, without inwardly becoming
one with the object. . . .
"This increasing spirituahzation of human life
never becomes a sure possession that calls for no toil;
120 CHARACTER

ever anew it demands our attention and activity; it
has continually to be won anew as a whole. For
the spiritualiž&tion of human life a longing rooted in
the whole being is primarily necessary." *

The stage of altruism, or cosmic love, is a height
that must be eventually achieved by all who would
make spiritual progress. At present, human society
is so constructed as to make the daily practise of
altruism difficult.
But this will not always be the case. Collective
humanity, like individual man, is called upon to
reach these heights of altruism in its destined prog'
ress toward perfection. A cooperative world is in
the making. Those who cling to the husks of selfish'
ness will discover what empty treasures they possess.
For nothing is certain in the way of human posses'
sions or human security. Nothing is more certain
in our planetary fife today than that the predomi'
nantly selfish motives of humanity are hastening it
toward a sure and inescapable destruction.
Just as certain is it that those who today are
expressing ideality in their thoughts and deeds
are building for a better world that is sure to come.
* Rudolf Eucken, "Love in Creation."
ALTRUISM 121

They are architects of the future. 7s[o idealism is
lost or wasted.
Altruism is the world's greatest need today—on
the part of statesmen, industrialists,financialleaders,
educators, professional men of every type, and every
humble citizen.
In spite of the negative and chaotic conditions of
society today, that individual who boldly and cour'
ageously asserts the wilhtodove in the midst of a
world of fear and hate will create for himself and
for those who love him a magic realm of serenity
and peace.
CHAPTER VIII

The Stage of Selflessness
A S LIFE moves on it requires more and more
i S l . °f us - -A m a n w n 0 n a s faithfully and successfully striven in the path of self-development and self-training, who fulfills his responsibilities to family and state, and who practices altruism
in the daily relationships of life—has he reached the
ultimate goal of human character? No, he has not,
for there are still loftier goals to which humanity
must attain.
The path of character-building, of spiritual progress must ultimately lead, through valleys of selfsacrifice and renunciation of personal ambition, to
lofty heights of selfless consecration.
The valley of sacrifice seems indeed, as the
Psalmist puts it, "the valley of the shadow of
death." In reality it is a stage of development freed
from the limitations of personality and under the
guidance and protection of the Universal.
This is a definite and final stage of characterbuilding which relatively few individuals reach in
this life. It is the final and essential maturity of
the human soul, and as such is demanded by Destiny
of everyone.
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 123

If human personality were flawless, one would
not need to abdicate it in order to attain to the
supreme station of human perfection.
But man's personality is not perfect. On the
contrary, it is a most imperfect and kaleidoscopic
miscellany—a composite of man's inner gifts and
desires as responding to and modified by environ'.
ment and experience.
Personality has little consistency and no unity or
coherence within itself. Worse than that, person'
ality as expressed by millions of separate human
entities is antipathetic to that organic unity which
the Universe requires.
It is evident, then, from a merely material and
scientific point of view that personality, at first a
necessary pattern of life, becomes later an obstruc'
tion to spiritual progress and to lofty achievement.
In the beautifully fitting allegory of the "Cham'
bered Nautilus," Oliver Wendell Holmes counsels
us to leave our lowvaulted past, discarding old
forms and crystallisations in order to attain to the
larger self.
The personality is this shell which we must dis'
card. At first an essential function of growth, it
becomesfinallyan obstacle to growth.
It is necessary at some point, then, to drop the
impedimenta of selfi-consciousness and egotism and
free ourselves for the stiff upward climb which the
124 CHARACTER

greater heights require. This is what is meant by
sacrifice. It is the giving up not of something that is
worth while, but of something less valuable for
something more valuable. Seen in this light, self'
sacrifice is but the way to the supreme attainments
of character and of life.
Great achievement is predicated upon the sacri'
fice of little things and requires complete devotion
of one's abilities to the task at hand. This quality
of consecration is common to all great achievers.
They lose themselves in the great goals for which
they strive. Every creator must sacrifice self in the
white heat of his vision. Genius is the quality of
nfinite absorption in the creative work.

However patent be these conclusions as to the
necessity for attainment to the plane of selflessness,
few people will of their own accord go through the
intellectual operations necessary to conceive this
great law of character. And fewer still would
undertake the arduous task of actually putting this
law of sacrifice into practice.
Therefore it is necessary that the great Educators
of humanity awaken men to the lofty requirements
of the law of selflessness. A central part of the
message of Christ lies within this all-important,
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 125

great, and even to this day little understood theme.
This is the station described by Christ as the second
birth, or attainment to the plane of eternal life. It
is the very flower and fruitage of religion, the
highest and ultimate peak of character.
Salvation, as intended in these terms, is not a
sudden process. Moral and religious convictions
may start it, but they do not accomplish it at one
stroke. It is a matter of development. A slow
and steady process of gradual transference of desire
and allegiance, from material things for the satisfaction of self, to universal and spiritual objectives. It
is the sublimation of natural or carnal man, with all
his native faults, into spiritual man characterized by
divine attributes.
This is the attainment of the loftiest station of
which man is capable—the fulfillment of the saying: "Man is made in the image of God." It means
a subordination of the ego to the Whole, the overcoming of self, and complete habitual submission to
the Will of God.
Winning through to eternal life means functioning predominantly on the plane of the spirit. It is
a state of being, not a condition in time. It is a life
independent of all save God—the daily expression
of the consciousness that all things live and move
by His desire. Thus eternal life can be attained
even in this world. And if not attained here, there
126 CHARACTER

is no magic in Death capable of guaranteeing it
hereafter.

This evanescence—this abnegation of self-will
and self-desire—is the necessary path to higher
spiritual planes of existence. In a Universe which
offers immortality to the individual how could it be
possible for countless billions of souls to go forward
and upward, infinitely increasing in intelligence and
power, if these gifts were to be used in the direction
of self-will and egoism? From such a situation
would result an impossible warring chaos of Titans.
No! In order to reach the celestial plane one
must renounce self-will and sacrifice the ego on the
altar of the Universal. The sublime harmony of
the celestial spheres, mirrored forth even on the
lowest material plane in that harmony which Nature
knows, results from the unobstructed expression of
one potent and divinely intelligent Will.
Not even on shipboard can order be maintained
without the subordination of every will to the will
of the captain. How then can one expect the
Universe to be managed with harmony unless all
wills are effectively subordinated to the Great
Executive?
This necessary surrender of self, this attainment to
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 127

evanescence, is not a virtue deserving of any special
praise. It is merely the expression of wisdom and
intelligence on the part of man—the perception that
not elsewise can he attain to immortality.
It is not demanded of man by Deity that he thus
abnegate his will. Man may hug his self-will as
long as he so wishes and desires—hug it to himself
eternally if he pleases. But by this foolish process
he will miss nine'tenths—no, ninetynine-one-hundredths of existence. For in that World which lies
on the other side of death the self-willed individual
cannot function. He is born into that other World
blind and dumb, crippled of limb, helpless. In fact
his existence there is as tragically limited in comparison with the transcendent life of those who have
attained to immortality as is the existence of a stone
in this world in comparison with the existence of a
human being.
Attainment to the plane of sacrifice and evanescence, then, is not a duty thrust upon us by Deity.
It is merely the scientific and necessary step toward
the attainment of man's highest potentiality. This
attainment is of no gain or advantage to Deity, but
only to us.
God can dispense with our perfectioning, but we
cannot. God does not need our love, but we need
His. And His love can never reach us while we are
filled with love of self.
128 CHARACTER

God does not need that we should discard the
self. But we need to if we are to advance. This
is only the part of the higher wisdom—the fulfill'
ment of our lofty destiny as Sons of God. This is
the highest station to which man can attain upon
this planet. On the part of the individual, it may
be called salvation; as expressed collectively by
humanity, it is the achievement of the Kingdom of
God upon earth.

It has not been expected that all humans can
attain this plane of immortality, this perfect sub'
mission of self-will to the Will of God. The attain'
ment to holiness and sanctity has been up to the
present the rare achievement of the few who stand
out as glittering golden peaks of character'perfection.
But BaháVlláh astoundingly calls upon all the
world to strive for and attain the station of celestial
purity and power. No one is to be exempt from
this requirement. Character is not complete if it
falls short of this.
The successive dispensations demand of humanity
higher and higher attainments. The Mosaic dis'
pensation attained to a stern and drastic sense of
responsibility and duty. The Christian dispensa'
tion, in response to the message of Christ, has manf
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 129

rested and expressed many beautiful forms of altni'
ism. The New World Order of BaháVlláh expects
all humanity to strive for and attain to evanescence,
selflessness and sanctity.
This is the final and consummate attainment for
this planet, the attainment of a culture which is the
expression of spirituality. Humanity will never
again be called upon to undertake so gigantic a task
as the present one which confronts it, of sublimating
its instincts into one great emotion of worlď
brotherhood and unity—the expression on the outer
plane of that inner spirituality which constitutes
man a true Son of God.

One of the most important expressions of evanes'
cence is a wise and serene humility. This quality
is hard to understand and even harder to achieve.
At first thought humility suggestsweakness; a giving
in to others; a lamblike submission to the more
obstreperous forces and entities of the Universe.
But humility is something quite different from this.
Í should define humility as the realization on the
part of the individual that he is hut an expression and
beneficiary of the Universal, from which alone all
power is derived.
Humility is merely the result of a scientific evalua'
130 CHARACTER

tion of existence—the realization that God's will is
potent everywhere and that all existence is but an
expression of His power. As we achieve through
life, it is of the highest importance that we realize
ourselves to be a channel only. To ascribe power
and glory to ourselves—this pride is the beginning
of downfall. It was, as the allegory of the Bible
informs us, the cause of Lucifer's destruction—
Archangel Lucifer, Sun of the Morning, cast down
to the station of Satan.
Humility assures us safety in the expression of
large powers and the execution of great enterprises.
Humility is a rare and difficult and a most precious
attribute of man. It is difficult because the more we
become aware of the expression of powers in or
through us, the more difficult it is to practice
absolute humility.
Pride, the opposite of humility, is a constant test
and temptation endangering a rising career. For
growth attracts power, and this is as it should be.
Every individual should be developing greater and
greater powers of achievement. If, however, he is
self-conscious regarding these achievements and b e
comes stuffed up with pride he is to that degree
choking up his channels of inspiration. Little by
little he will degenerate. The greatness delegated
to him for purposes of service will be taken from
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 131

him by Destiny because he is using it for the
glorification of self.
Angels, Swedenborg tells us, are a type of being
who know no other will than the Will of God. They
are incapable of self-will or of self-conceit. Man,
who in reality inherits a potential station even
higher than that of the angels, has always the power
of self-will and the danger of self-conceit. Therefore pride is a fault which ever menaces the upward
spiritual climb. It may bring down the soaring
soul of man as the hunter brings down the bird.
Meister Eckhart, one of the greatest mystics of
the Middle Ages—whose sermons crammed the
great cathedral of Cologne—suddenly failed one day
in the midst of a sermon, grew pale, descended from
the lectern and left his congregation. He did not
preach again for a period of two years. This space
of time he spent in completely overcoming the ego
and that sense of pride which had been gradually
gaining ground upon him. Then he returned to
his pulpit, greater than ever in his spiritual power,
never again failing in the expression of a constant
and true humility.
Humility is so important a spiritual attribute that
the statements and devotional writings of the world
Saviors are full of language designed to stimulate and
develop that quality in worshippers. The only
151 CHARACTER

prayer which Christ gave us begins with attributing
fatherhood to God and closes with the majestic
phrase, "For thine is the kingdom and the power
and the glory." The Koran is full of ringing
phrases asserting the universal power of God and its
effective rule in human lives. The obligatory daily
use of prayer by Moslems—prayer which ascribes
all power to God—is one of the great factors of the
true piety which characterizes their daily life. The
prayers of BaháVlláh and 'Abdu'1-Bahá are strongly
impregnated with this verbal power to arouse reverence and humility.
Humility is the keynote of Lao-tze's spiritual
philosophy. The sage, he says, is characterized by
a humility as sweet and lowly as that of a little child.
(How similar is Christ's injunction: Unless ye become as one of these Httle ones, ye cannot inherit
the Kingdom of Heaven.) The more one knows,
says Lao-tze, the more one realizes the immensity of
one's limitations in comparison with the infinity
of life.
The ruler, Lao-tze states, must be non-assertive.
When the leadership of a people practise harmony,
the people themselves practise harmony and a
nation is at peace. When rulers express humiHty,
the people express loyalty. But when rulers express
pride, a nation's peace and order disintegrate.
Everything flows to the man who knows this
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 133

great and too - little ' understood art of humility.
"The ocean, by lying low, receives all things into
it," says Lact2;e—one of the ten most truth'
pregnant sentences in all the worlcVs literature.
I advise every one to memorise this phrase and
meditate on it daily. Like all Chinese wisdom, it is
both profound and practicable. If rulers practised
it, many a throne would be saved. If executives
practised it, their concerns would run smoothly. If
scholars practised it, their scholarship would remain
always virile and explorative.

Another important aspect of selflessness is the
ability to make oneself a receptacle or channel for
inspiration. Every true artist knows this secret.
It is in these moments or hours of self-effacement, of
self-immolation in the furnace of inspiration that
the artist creates his magic forms of art. Others
who miss this white heat—this utter merging of the
self into the creative vision—remain but imitators
of the Real. Their work may partake of talent—
it lacks that pure gold of genius from which all
dross has been purged away.
The reason why Chinese art, in almost all its
phases, has achieved an inimitable supremacy is
because Chinese artists for millenniums have known
134 CHARACTER

how to put into practice this profound creative
secret.
The nobly spiritual attitude of the Chinese artist,
his reverential approach to the creative task, is
largely the result of the teachings of Buddha and
Lao'tze which have so deeply impregnated Chinese
thought and action. The Chinese know how to
lose themselves in the contemplation of Nature.
And through Nature they see the Universal and the
Infinite. That is why, when they depict a lonely
crooked pine upon the mountain side—or a reed,
butterfly-laden, on the river-bank—we see expressed
not the objectivity of Nature but its subjectivity, its
soul, its infinite essential beauty. It is not an old
man that we see in the bit of Chinese carving but
old age itself. Not a tiger painted on a screen but
the spirit of ferocity.
This is genius. How is it attained? By submerging the self in the Ocean of Life.
Laurence Binyon, writing of the theory and practice of art in China and Japan, says: "Of Wu Taot2;u it is said that it seemed as if a god possessed him
and wielded the brush in his hand; of another master
that his ideas welled up as from a power unseen. It
was felt that the true artist, working when the mood
was on him, was brought into direct relation with
the creative power indwelling in the world; and
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 135

this power, using him as a medium or instrument,
breathed actual life into the strokes of his brush.'1''*
"K ing, the Sculptor, carved a belfry for a peal of
bells. The harmony and beauty of it astonished
everybody. The Marquess of Lar, having come on
purpose to admire it, asked K ing how he went to
work. 'When I had received the commission to
execute this belfry I began to.coil up all my vital
powers, to gather myself unto my own source. After
three days of this exercise I had forgotten the praise
and payment which would accrue to me for my work.
After five days I no longer hoped for success—also I
no longer feared failure. After seven days, having
lost thought of everything, even to the motion of my
body and limbs—having entirely forgotten even
your highness and the Court, every faculty being
swallowed up by my object—I felt the moment for
action had arrived.
" 'I went into the forest and set myself to contenv
plate the natural forms of trees—the bearing of the
most perfect among them. When I felt thoroughly
penetrated with this inspiration, then at last, I set
my hand to work. It was that which directed my
labour. It was by this fusion into one, of my nature
of that with that of trees, that this belfry acquired
the qualities which makes it so much admired. , '
* Laurence Binyon, "The Flight of the Dragon." London, John Murray,
t A fragment from the Chinese. Authorship unknown.
136 CHARACTER

7.

In every creative work be it of art or of engineer'
ing, of business or of government, that man achieves
most nobly who can best empty himself and become
an abundant channel for inspiration.
The inventor or the discoverer of new truth must
lose himself in his great quest. Thus Edison passed
days and years in supreme consecration to his supreme
objective, that of creating more light for the world.
Charles Holmes Herty, recently deceased, devoted
the last ten years of his life to an important goal—
that of converting the various species of Southern
pine into white newsprint. Overcoming one after
another apparently insuperable obstacle, he finally
achieved his goal—a discovery which will ultimately
add billions to the wealth of the South. He sue
ceeded because he was working selflessly for univer'
sal rather than for personal ends.
In one of his recent statements Dr. Herty revealed
what the development of this new industry for the
South meant to him as a human being. "I don't
think of this thing in terms of dollars and cents," he
commented. "The development of this industry is
going to mean the elimination of one'room houses for
families, better food for those who are living on corn
bread, and occasional meat, better clothes for those
who go in rags today. On the great coastal plain,
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 137

a great mass of the population in the midst of the
finest paper material have for generations endured
the bitterest sort of poverty. Use of Southern pine
will change this."
To work avidly for self assures a limited success in
life, but it is a selfish kind of success which imprisons
the soul as in a tomb. To work selflessly for
humanity assures life's supreme success, the results
of which radiate out infinitely into life upon this
planet and at the same time promote the spiritual
progress of the individual who so achieves.
To seek individual salvation may seem a selfish
goal. It is not. For all humanity must strive
hitherward. To achieve eternal life is the supreme
goal of earthly existence. Selflessness is the portal
through which one passes from time into Eternity,
from place to the Placeless.
Eternal life is a state of being which we must
strive to gain in this life. Death does not initiate
us into immortality. We carry over with us from
this planet just that character which we have
attained up to the point of death. This is the keynote
of the message of every Prophet—to attain salvation
here and now. Postponement is disastrous!
The plane of eternal life is a plane of existence
consciously under the directive Force of the Holy
138 CHARACTER

Spirit, which is the governing aspect of Deity. All
existence is in reality under this directive Force.
But man in his unregenerate and carnal state is not
only unaware of this Force but is able to and fre'
quently does assert his own will in opposition to It,
thus incurring conditions of inharmony and disaster.
The kingdom of nature below man, while also
unconscious of this Force, exerts no will of its own,
hence is a passive and wholly harmonious instrument
and expression of Super'Control.
Man, more fortunate than the animals, is capable
of realizing the power of the Holy Spirit. This
realization is due entirely to the teaching of the
Prophets. Without that teaching, man could not
himself, by the power of his native intelligence,
attain to this supreme and cosmic discovery.
When man conceives and lives this truth—that
the Holy Spirit is the creative, sustaining and guiding
force of the Cosmos—he is acting on a plane of unh
versal and cosmic harmony. His own will is not
egotistically and obstreperously assertive but is sub'
missive to the Divine Will as expressed through the
Holy Spirit. Hence all such individuals are existing
and operating on a plane one step above the plane of
phenomenal existence. They are living on the plane
of the Kingdom, the plane of Eternal Life. Such
existence is controlled by forces of invisible har'
mony and is above the plane of the jungle law of
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 139

cruel competition which characterizes ordinary
mundane existence.
While on earth individuals are permitted to live
and act outside the plane of celestial harmony.
They can, if they so desire, create here a hell for
themselves. As a matter of fact most humans do,
both individually and collectively.
But in the life after death no activity can exist
outside the plane of Etemality. Hence those indf
viduals who die without having attained to that
plane here are in a state of suspended or imperfect
animation over there. Such maimed existences have
to be nursed into normal condition, and the process
is long and unpleasant for the individual. Hence
the vital importance of attaining salvation—or the
ability to function on the plane of Eternality—
during one's life upon this planet.

This life of self-abnegation is really not a giving
up and loss of something worth while. We are
simply exchanging lower for immensely higher values.
It is a miraculous process of transubstantiation. The
symbols used by Christ are those of the seed dying
unto self in order to become the ripened ear of wheat.
This is a perfect figure, adequately describing the
process which takes place in the human being in
changing from carnal man into spiritual man.
140 CHARACTER

The seed when placed in the ground has to die
unto itself to become a plant. It apparently goes
through all the processes of death, giving even its
body to feed that marvelous growth which pushes
up through the soil to blossom in a new and sunlit
world. This lovely and fruitful plant, blossoming
in the face of heaven, is the same entity which once
was a tiny hard seed but has now reached its station
of fulfillment. This, Christ would have us under'
stand, is the nature of the transformation intended by
Destiny for all human heings, hut attained in actuality
by very few. I do not know how long the seed can
continue to exist as seed if it forever rejects the
opportunity of growth and proper functioning.
I do not know that Destiny guarantees immor'
tality to every individual. Certainly immortality
is something that has to be attained, it is not a gift
of nature to us. He who would save his life shall
lose it, and he who would lose his life for My sake
shall save it unto life Eternal—this is the immortal
Message of world Saviors.
"The seed that is to grow must lose itself as
seed;
And they that creep may graduate, through
chrysalis, to wings:—
Wilt thou then, O mortal, cling to those husks
which falsely seem to you the Self?" *
* Wu Ming Fu, "Patterns in Jade." Avalon Press, Washington, D. C.
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS I 4-1

"The meaning of Eternal Life is the gift of the
Holy Spirit, as the flower receives the gift of the
season, the air, and the breezes of spring. . . .
"Entrance into the Kingdom is through d c
tachment, through holiness and chastity, through
truthfulness, purity, steadfastness, faithfulness, and
sacrifice of self. . . .
"The Life of the Kingdom is the Life of the Spirit,
the Eternal Life. . . .
"Morality is the governing of oneself. Tmmortality consists in the governing of the human soul by
Divine Spirit. ,, *

It can readily be seen, if one contemplates the sub'
ject with scientific and inspired intelligence, that the
celestial plane of Evanescence is not a plane of weak'
ness but a plane of power. The individual in attain'
ing to that plane becomes a channel for the Universal.
He puts ofF the limitations of personality and becomes
endowed with the quality of Universality.
"Let us yearn for the Kingdom of God, so that
our works may bear eternal fruit. Then from day
to day you will become more enlightened; day by
day your efForts will increase; day by day your work
* 'Abdu'1'Bahá, "Life Eternal." Roycroft.
142 CHARACTER

will become universal, and day by day your horizons
will broaden until in the end they will embrace the
universe. Glory be upon the people of glory."'1 *
When our will is submitted to the Will of God
and we become sensitive to guidance, the problems
of life for the most part disappear from before our
path and we are saved many of the pitfalls into
which blind feet are apt to stray. The life of sane'
tified man knows a harmony and happiness which
are transcendent. Inner doors open to him—giving
access to new avenues of action and achievement, new
possibilities for growth.
In fact, joy is a natural quality and expression of
the truly spiritual life. Joy is so innately connected
with spiritualized existence that it may be said that
all truly spiritual people are joyous; and conversely,
that people who are not joyous are missing some'
thing of spiritual perfection.

In conclusion, let it be realized that the spiritual
climb is not in reality a harsh and painful journey.
It is an ascent, like mountain'dimbing, full of upper
sunshine and of joy.
Nor is it necessary that we wait tofinishone step
* 'Abdu'1-Bahá, "Divine Philosophy." The Tudor Press, Boston.
T H E STAGE OF SELFLESSNESS 143

of progress before we begin the next. Four chief
stages of character growth are in this book isolated
one from the other merely for purposes of elucidation.
In reality, development should go ahead somewhat
on all these lines at one and the same time.
Development of self, the training in responsibility,
the acquisition of altruistic motivation, and the
glorious attainment of evanescence—these four proc'
esses should be carried on throughout our lives.
We shall never finish with them here, but we may
make a good beginning.
The Saviors come to earth in order that human
beings may be imbued with greater power for this
celestial struggle, this striving for perfection. And
all who turn to Them will be aided into a miraculous
growth of spiritual potency.
The inner experience of Discipleship—of the
quest and discovery of the Holy Grail—is exquisitely
expressed in the following poetic rendering of an
episode in the life of Bab:
"Ah, no," answered Abbas, "if men have not glimpsed of the dawning.
A difference lies here: The gods give of mercy and patience;
Our Allah is kind to souls that see not, yet temper
Each nerve of their beings to find some link with Perfection,
Some hidden and loving rapport with all that esisteth.
Suppose on the morrow we find when we meet Husayn-Ali,
A seer, or the Promised of Ages; not frail finite teacher,
But Prophet, whose knowledge transcendeth our leader's,
Whose grace reflects God and whose claims seem truly well-founded—
144 CHARACTER

"What then be our action? Forget our old fealty and follow?
Would I give my life's blood to completely surrender? No, not
To one who now is my teacher, though great is his learning,
And much I admire him. My soul is my own! and I'm loyal
As you to the center of glory, the master within me . . .
But beloved! I'm suddenly shaken! What means this enchantment
That lures now our spirits on tides of volition and power
Beyond our own choosing? With consciousness light and ecstatic
We move, as it were, toward a vortex of Truth and of Beauty!"

"Man's mystery I show," Ab'ul heard in sacred Communion,
When later he knelt at the feet of the Teacher whose chanting
iUumined his reason and woke him,—as harps in high chancels
Might summon the angels to singing—then tuned his whole spirit
To godly emotion. Tears rose to his eyes and swift-flowing,
Revealed bis submission, a well-spring of reverence within him.
"Return to the Mulla, I cannot," he told his companion;
"I stay here to learn, not to question, the Truth that long we were seeking;
The Light that we yearned for together I find here is burning."

"Assurance uplifts me," cried Abbas. "I worship! I praise Him!
To return were a sign of my pride and explicit rejection;
My teacher no longer, the Mulla of Abad, who led me
To seek this bright goal, but refuses to come to the Ridvan . . .
We are true to ourselves and our mission, when true to All Beauty.
We give up the sceptre of will when thus we attaineth
Such ransom as flows to our hearts from this Master of Guidance:
He standeth within us! and we are gold beams with His Sunrise,
Clear drops of the stream that grows sweet when fed from this Fountain."*

* Alice Simmons Cox, "The Prophet of Nur." World Order Magazine,
May, 1938.
CONCLUSION
CHAPTER IX

Progress Onward and Upward
Forever
TT 7E HAVE traced the scientific and religious
Y ^ foundations for character, and seen that
character is the very structure of life. To
be without character is to remain deprived of that
noble ascent which planetary life began when it
left the mollusk stage and which culminates not in
man the thinker but in Man the Son of God..
Lack of character spells failure for all of life's
demands. It is the only real tragedy of life. How
many frustrated careers and bitter lives are traceable
to this cause! Maturity and the experiences of life
bring cognisance of this colossal cosmic truth.
Could this lesson be acquired early in life it would
avert many sorrows and many corroded hearts.

If failure to achieve character leads to suffering,
success in character'development is the open sesame
to success in life'achievement and to that serenity
which all noble souls know.
As soon as the individual becomes conscious of
H7
148 CHARACTER

self, so soon should he begin the conscčLt&Qd; raining
of his character. Fortunate is he whose personal
and cultural environment are such as to inspire and
sustain aspiration toward perfection! Yet even in
the lack of such an environment souls can become
stimulated, by the law of opposites, to struggle out
from chaos into Order.
No one is condemned by Destiny to a character­
less life of failure and futility! Because life is ever
creative and the spirit alone is causal, every indi­
vidual has the potentiality of perfection. No one
can offer alibis to Destiny on the score of native
endowment or of environment. Whether it be ten
talents or one which we possess—whether we live
in the midst of want and degradation or of culture
and plenty—there is no point conceivable in human
experience at which the upward climb cannot begin.
Mary Magdalene began it from a life of prostitu­
tion, and climbed so swiftly that she outpassed even
the glorious devotion of Peter and the sinless purity
of John.

To falter, then, upon this cosmic task of characterbuilding is childish—an evidence of not yet having
come-to-age. To halt when once one has begun the
climb is a sign of weakness, of a decrepitude which
PROGRESS ONWARD AND UPWARD FOREVER 149

has no in Reality. For the spirit of man is
ageless and unaging. It obeys a divine and infinite
law of continuity. Moral effort, then, should be
continuous. To stop progressing means spiritual
death! For there is no stopping still in the Unf
verse. One progresses, or one retrogresses.
From a rich self-development to a noble sense of
responsibility; from functioning on the plane of re'
sponsibility to a loftier and more loving functioning
on the plane of altruism; from altruism that still has
some degree of self'motivation into a spiritual state
of existence that attains to selfless and cosmic greať
ness,—such is the spiritual climb as we may vision it
upon this planet. If other stages of the soul still
loftier there be in the BeyonďWorld, we shall learn
of them in due time.

And finally, let it be said that religion is not only
the chief guide to character but the chief aid in the
upward climb. Would that everyone could say of
God, as David learned to say, "Thou art my rod
and my staff." >
Religion is not a restraint put upon life. It is an
added power offered to man. " I came that ye
might have life, and have it more abundantly." As
foolish to neglect this Cosmic Power for our spiritual
150 CHARACTER

needs as to refuse the power which steam, electricity
and gasoline bring to the material life of man.
Religion means greater speed in character-building,
greater power for soul-growth.
Amidst the various aspects of religion, the aspects
of devotion to a Leader and of aspiration toward the
perfection of the Great Examplar are by far the
most potent for the arduous process of self-perfectioning. Unfortunately few know how to avail
themselves of this potent aid without the obstructions of fanaticism and of personality worship. As
humanity advances, however, to greater maturity
of intellect and of vision it will be able to see the
Light rather than the Lamp, and to experience the
Celestial on the plane of that Horizon where earth
and Heaven meet.

We have endeavored to keep these pages free from
the didactic. We urge no one to be good. We
exhort no one to accept our statements. But we
should rejoice if the thoughts presented upon these
pages—thoughts of Truth as the writer visions it—
could stimulate the reader to himself make search
and effort and gain enhancement for himself in that
great inner field of achievement which must forerun
all achievement on the outer planes of life.
PROGRESS ONWARD AND UPWARD FOREVER 151

Character is destiny. May your destiny, reader,
be blessed with the successful building of that great
edifice housing human life upon this planet—an
edifice eternal, and ever expanding like the Cham'
bered Nautilus—the edifice of CHARACTER.

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