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WORLD ORDER

APRIL 1939

THE UNREDEEMED SOCIAL AREA

Editorial

THE MEDIAL MAN

Louise D. Boyle

THE VEHICLES OF GRACE

Doris McKay

ART AND COMMUNITY

Mark Tobey

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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

APRIL 1939 VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1

ECONOMICS—THE UNREDEEMED SOCIAL AREA • Editorial ............. 1

THE MEDIAL MAN • LOUISE D. BOYLE ............................. 3

REVALUATION OF PEACE • BEATRICE IRWIN ....................... 11

THE ONENESS OF RELIGION, III • DORIS McKAY .................. 13

MODES OF LIVING • LEWIS ZERBY ............................... 17

CHILD GUIDANCE CLINICS • H. P. MAITI ........................ 21

THE TWILIGHT OF THE WISE • DALE S. COLE ..................... 24

ISLAM, VII • ALI-KULI KHAN .................................. 27

ART AND COMMUNITY • MARK TOBEY .............................. 33

NEW MANSIONS FOR NEW MEN, Book Review • ALICE SIMMONS COX ... 35

VIEWING THE WORLD AS AN ORGANISM

Change of address should be reported one month in advance.

WORLD ORDER is published monthly in New York, N. Y.. by the Publishing Committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. EDITORS: Stanwood Cobb and Horace Holley. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Alice Simmons Cox, Genevieve L. Coy, G. A. Shook, Dale S. Cole, Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick, Marzieh Carpenter, Hnsen M. Balyusi, Shirin Fozdar, Inez Greeven. BUSINESS MANAGER: C. R. Wood. PUBLICATION OFFICE: 135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y. EDITORIAL OFFICE: 119 Waverly Place, New York, N. Y.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $2.00 per year, $1.75 to Public Libraries. Rate to addresses outside the United States, $2.25, foreign Library rate, $2.00, Single copies, 20 cents. Checks and money orders should be made payable to World Order Magazine, 135 East 50th Street, New York, N. Y. Entered as second class matter, May 1, 1935, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Contents copyrighted 1939 by BAHA’I PUBLISHING COMMITTEE. Title Registered at U.S. Patent Office.

April 1939, Volume 5, Number 1

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WORLD ORDER

April 1939 Volume 5 No. 1

ECONOMICS — THE UNREDEEMED SOCIAL AREA

ONE of my memories from childhood is that of a map, drawn by a missionary, which divided the world into two areas, a white area of the “saved” and a black area of the yet-unredeemed, the pagan hosts. Needless to say, Europe and America constituted the largest part of the area of assured salvation, with the Orient and Africa cast out into the night of unbelief.

One might design a spiritual map of the world today, dealing not with nations and peoples, but with orders of human relationships, showing which relationships were based upon spiritual principles and which reflected the subhuman law of struggle. In such a map, the darkest area would be that of economics, and this darkness would run through the entire world, sparing no ancient religion, no people, no nation, no class and no race.

Economics is, indeed, the unredeemed area of human society. Its godless jungle, ever since the industrial revolution, has defied every effort to substitute spiritual principle for righteousness; and its influence, like a baneful blight, has steadily permeated those other areas of human relationship which seemed most firmly based upon religious motive or religious ideal. Economics more and more insistently conditions the relations of nation, race and class, dragging them down into the realm of struggle where man ceases to be man.

The utterly pagan nature of industry —that anti-religious force affecting the buyer no less than the seller, the manager as much as the worker— represents that element in human nature which has never been truly converted or transformed by the spirit of divine truth. It stands for the portion of society, the aspect of human life, which repudiated the Gospel brought by all the Prophets of old. Therefore the problem of society eludes, and will continue to elude, every effort at redemption exerted by the institutions of those ancient Faiths. For that which remained unredeemed in the pristine days of an inspiring spiritual experience can never be transmuted into purity of motive at a later time, when the religious institutions themselves have [Page 2] become affected by the same all-pervading materialism.

A religious society, or a spiritual civilization, is not one in which some one creed has supplanted or suppressed all other creeds, one in which everybody goes to the same church or takes part in the same ceremony. A truly religious society is one in which the principle of righteousness constitutes the foundation for each and every type of human relationship. In such a society, the God-given sanctity and dignity of every human being is safeguarded not merely by formal law but by the custom and instinct of the overwhelming mass of the people. A religious society would sanction neither racial nor economic outcast. It would establish a status for human beings making impossible social orphanage and slavery on the one hand, and charity on the other. It would create an all-pervading, unified order in which pitiless struggle would have no occasion to arise; save only that inner struggle of the individual to overcome the imperfections existing within himself.

The time has surely come when the thoughtful can realize for themselves why it is impossible for the modern world to redeem itself, create a general unity and break the spear of struggle thrust into its side so deeply that the victims power ebbs away with the flowing blood. For the influences through which civilization can exert its collective energy are themselves divided, themselves committed to the subhuman struggle. The state can by legislation remove legal iniquity, but not that more compelling iniquity intervening between all the states. The church can tighten the laws of morality for its individual members, but not overcome the more sinister immorality in which the members, by reason of their economic and social activities, are engulfed.

In the same way, the institutions of education have a certain power to affect character and create a new outlook, but that power is limited to the improvement of details and has no commission nor charter to reorganize the social world. Education, moreover, is in some areas the creature of the state, in others the instrument of a static creed.

The apparently overwhelming complexity of the situation is resolved if we bear in mind the method by which new civilizations have arisen from decadent societies in times past. The new is first a group of consecrated individuals, then a community, and eventually a society in process of becoming a civilization. Its growth both reveals and makes possible all organic changes in human relationships. For these changes are, in essence, the effect of living out new and higher spiritual principles. History has no record of any decadent society which has been able to establish righteousness by legal statute nor by military force. Such efforts, in reality, are but the means by which a society punishes itself for having broken or ignored the divine law.

H. H.

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THE MEDIAL MAN

LOUISE D. BOYLE

DURING the years marking the early manhood of Bahá’u’lláh, while illumined minds in Persia awaited the promised Advent, a philosopher and scientist of Europe evolved an arresting concept—the theory of the Medial Man, or type of human perfection, as the touchstone in a new approach to the study of man.

Seeking to trace the laws governing human development, the distinguished Belgian statistician, M. A. Quetelet, proposed a vast plan of research combining philosophy and science: the analysis of man in the social order under the triple relations of his physical, intellectual and moral qualities. He conceived of the medial man as the very basis of such studies, his determination necessarily preceding every other inquiry into the science of man.

Quetelet was a Member of the French Academy and Perpetual Secretary of the Royal Academy at Brussels, having gained a high reputation for the accurate and comprehensive character of his researches and for his skill in applying the science of numbers to every subject he investigated. His work was regarded by many as the first attempt to apply statistics to the social movements of human beings. Havelock Ellis declares him “the first great pioneer” in the manipulation of such figures “in a scientific manner and with a large and philosophical outlook on their real significance.”

In the year 1835 Quetelet set forth his theory in a remarkable book, “Sur L’Homme, et le Développement de ses Facultés,” which impressed the whole of continental Europe through translations, republications and criticisms. He claimed to have reached through his statistical studies some very accurate conclusions as to the morphology of the medial man, and upon this analogy conceived of the medial intellectual and the medial moral man, expounding his idea of genius as the inborn gift of the medial man to a superlative degree.

Quetelet declared the medial man in relation to his epoch “as the center of gravity in bodies,” the one thing to be considered in order to understand the phenomena of equilibrium and movement. He held that an estimation of the physical qualities, which admit of direct bodily measurement, should be granted in an effort to determine the medial man. And as to the intellectual and moral qualities, he felt it proper to consider if such determination were possible— not in the actual state of science, but in such a state as science would someday [Page 4] arrive at. He held that more could not be demanded of students in social physics than had been required of astronomers and other investigators who foresaw the possibility of forming advanced theories at a period when they were still handicapped by defective knowledge and instruments.

UNLIMITED PROGRESS

While physical evolution may be said to come to an end in the perfection of the human body, said Quetelet, as to intelligence human progress cannot be limited. Following history through the centuries man is seen at first as king of nature, ascribing to the world of matter limitless power, yet as his reason develops a new kingdom unrolls before him, contracting the limits of the former one. Gradually the intellectual man supplants the physical, and it is this constantly increasing triumph of the higher forces in man which history records at every page. The vast conquests of science have provided our reason with the means of continually rising to greater and greater heights, the idea of which could not have been before conceived.

Moral phenomena, examined on a grand scale, are found to resemble physical phenomena in that the greater the number of individuals observed the more do individual peculiarities become effaced and leave in a prominent point of view the general facts, by virtue of which society is preserved and developed. It belongs to but a few men, said Quetelet, those gifted with the superlative quality of genius to alter sensibly the social state, and this alteration requires time for the transmission of its full effects.

MEN OF GENIUS

The necessity for men of genius and the error committed in supposing them to spring up accidentally is demonstrated when we consider the immense time required for a great truth, after it has been shadowed forth, to diffuse itself and descend to the mass of people, producing its result. Not until centuries later do we see the man come forward who develops or personifies this truth and secures its triumph. Quetelet quotes one of his contemporaries of the French Academy who had been led in the field of philosophy to conclusions similar to his own: M. Victor Cousin, referring to the character peculiar to great men, had found this character to consist in comprising people, periods, human nature and the universal order. Said Cousin:

“All the individuals of which a people is composed represent the whole mind of this people. . . . The great man is not an arbitrary creature; . . . he is not simply one individual, but he has reference to a general idea, which communicates a superior power to him, at the same time that it gives the determinate and real form of individuality. . . . The great man is the harmonious union of particularity and generality. . . . Entire history, not that of one people or one epoch only, but that of all epochs and all human nature, is represented by the great men. Thus give me the series of all the known great men and I will give you the known history of the human race.”

[Page 5] The medial man of any one period would therefore represent, Quetelet continues, the type of the development of human nature for that period. As human nature is modified by necessities of time and place the development of the different faculties of the medial man would be closely proportionate to these necessities, so that in the circumstances in which he is found he would be considered as the type of all that is beautiful, all that is good.

Quetelet emphasizes the fact that the laws of the development of the medial man should not be confounded with the laws of the development of human nature (humanité). The laws of the development of the medial man “continue almost the same through successive centuries and vary only in the magnitude of maxima,” these maxima giving the measure of the development of human nature in each century or epoch. The natural consequence of these ideas, he concludes, is that an individual comprising in himself at a given period all the qualities of the medial man would represent all that is grand, beautiful and excellent.

Notwithstanding the prestige of Quetelet, “the great, the supreme synthesis” which he expounded was regarded as an abstraction by the analytical thought of his period, and was apparently forgotten. Yet after seventy years it was revived and reestablished through the new researches in the realm of man arising in Southern Europe at the beginning of the present century, researches bringing the developments in evolution and heredity to the biological field and initiating modern trends in the study of man.

MEDIAL MEASUREMENTS

The new principle having been established that the human form is altered in the case of pathological individuals, to determine the normal human form became more and more important. Upon the basis of Quetelet’s classical synthesis the brilliant Italian pathologist Giacinto Viola built up a method for determining normality mathematically, by the seriation of measurements actually obtained from living individuals, the number of whom should be sufficiently large to construct a symmetrical and regular binomial curve. Such medial measurements are not unreal since they were obtained through measurements belonging to living individuals. Individual variations grouping themselves into types around the medial measurements are considered from a pathological point of view in relation to their predisposition to disease, the central type alone having such harmony of parts as to embody the perfection of strength and physical health.

Obviously individuals having one medial measurement do not necessarily have the others. While there was not found a man possessing all the medial measurements Viola observed that rarely was a man discovered quite lacking in them. Men having a large number of medial measurements are singularly handsome, and when they are discovered in large numbers in one person they render him the center of a mysterious [Page 6] fascination—the admiration of other men. Viola cited the scholar-poet Giosué Carducci as the idol of his countrymen, his poems forming a lyric record of the Italian struggle for independence.

Furthermore, a figure of the medial man, constructed from medial measurements gathered from living persons, was found to possess the identical proportions of famous statues of Greek art. Obviously great artists recognized intuitively the beautiful parts of a great number of beautiful individuals and united them in a single work, thus accomplishing the same result achieved by science through wearisome measurement and detail. Such researches were felt to throw new light upon the aesthetic sense, suggesting a basic unity between the positive and the ideal.

Thus the coincidence of the beautiful with the mean average measurements is equivalent to the coincidence of the beautiful with the normal. If a man evolves according to normal laws his proportions arouse in us an aesthetic enjoyment; the medial measurements notify us that they exist. The results of this important work were embodied in a course of scientific lectures delivered by Professor Viola and published in Italy during the first decade of the present century.

In a course of scientific lectures delivered at the University of Rome and published in English in 1913 under the title “Pedagogical Anthropology” Dr. Maria Montessori interprets the Concept of Quetelet, illuminating for us its elaboration by Viola and making her own characteristic contribution to the subject:

“The medial intellectual man is closely bound to the thoughts of his century; he incarnates the prevailing ideas of his time; he vibrates in response to the majority. . . . Considered from the ideal side, the medial man ought to centralize in himself and keep in equilibrium the movement of thought of his period, giving it harmonic form in works of art or science. And it is the capacity of accomplishing this work of synthesis that constitutes the inborn quality in the man of genius.”

A HARMONIOUS WHOLE

The medial intellectual man “reassembles in one organism the scattered members, the medial vibrations of the crowd; he feels and expresses all that is new and beautiful and great that is in process of formation in the men who surround him, who are frequently unconscious of the beauty which is in them, just as they are unconscious of having those normal predetermined measurements of their bodies. But whenever they discover in a creation of thought something of themselves, they are stirred to enthusiasm at recognizing this something belonging to them as forming part of a harmonious whole.” The medial intellectual man who has produced this result is a beneficent genius to humanity because he aids its upward progress by appealing to the better part in each individual.

When an orator thrills a group, Montessori continues, he repeats what is already in the consciousness of each member of the group. Every individual present had potentially the [Page 7] same thought expressed by the orator, which was taking form within him, but had not yet matured and which he would not have had the knowledge or ability to express. The orator, as it were, encourages and matures this, his better part, which after light is shed upon it has the power to elevate him. But no orator could ever move a group with ideas which do not already exist in that group and are not consequently part of the truth of their age. The orator is like the center of gravity, giving form and equilibrium to the scattered and timid thought.

While there has never existed a medial intellectual man who sums up all the thought of his time just as there does not exist a living man so beautiful as to incarnate all the medial measurements, the man of genius, is he who does embody some part of such ideas, and he produces a masterpiece when he succeeds in shedding his own personality in order to receive what is given him from without. The autobiographies of many great men affirm that at times they did not inscribe the truth as they saw or felt it consciously but transmitted pure and unforeseen inspiration, such portions of their work being judged by the public as containing the highest degree of beauty and truth. Goethe, for example, said it was not he who wrote Faust but a spirit that invaded him.

Montessori continues: “And while the medial intellectual man or the artistic genius combines wholly or in part the thought of his time, the medial moral or religious genius sums up the guiding principles of life which every one feels profoundly in his own heart. . . . If the intellectual genius is almost a reader of contemporaneous thought as it vibrates around him, the religious genius interprets the universal and eternal spirit of life in humanity. When he speaks to other men he seems to instil new life into the very roots of their existence and he is believed when he speaks of a happier future toward which humanity is advancing.”

THE QUESTION OF RACE

One of the early objections to the theory of Quetelet was the presumption that there could not be any one perfect human model because of the diverse races of mankind, each with its own biological characteristics. Upon this phase of our subject the lectures of Dr. Montessori provide much illuminating thought. “In order to speak of types of races,” she reminds us, “it is necessary to go among barbaric tribes; and even this is a relative matter, because all the races on earth are more or less the result of intermixture.” In civilized countries an occasional group of pure racial stock may be discovered in isolated localities “as though they had found refuge from the vortex of civilization which is engulfing the races. Throughout the history of humanity we may watch this absorption of racial and morphological characteristics, and the formation of more and more intimate intermixtures leading to the final disappearance of the original types of race.

“When a primitive race emigrated [Page 8] . . . they were on their way to conquer territory and to subjugate peoples, but they were also on their way to lose their own type, the characteristics of their race. Yet even this sacrifice of race was not without compensation: indeed, it seems as though the race loses through hybridism a large part of its ugly characteristics, but retains and transmits for the most part the characteristics that are pleasing. Unquestionably, the more civilized peoples are better looking than the barbarians, although the history of emigration would seem to indicate an almost common racial origin. . . .

“But there is still another phenomenon that should be noted: civilized men, who are the most hybrid of all the hybrids upon earth, have formed a new type which is almost unique, the civilized race, in which one and all resemble one another. It is only logical to believe that, in proportion as facilities of travel become easier and intermarriages between foreign countries more widespread, it will become less and less easy to distinguish the Englishman from the Frenchman, or the Russian or the Italian . . . we are spectators of this tendency: a fusion or intermixture of characteristics that is tending to establish one single human type, which is no longer an original racial type but the type of civilization. It is the unique race, the resultant human race, the product of the fusion of races and the triumph of all the elements of beauty over the disappearance of those ugly forms which were characteristic of primitive races.

“Are the dominant forces in the human germinative cells those which bring a contribution of beauty? One would say ‘Yes’ on the strength of the morphological history of humanity.

“There is no intention of implying,” continues Montessori, “that humanity is tending toward the incarnation of perfectly beautiful human beings, all identical in their beauty; but they will be harmonious in those skeletal proportions that will insure perfect functional action of their organism. Harmony is fundamental; the soft tissues, the color of hair and eyes, may upon this foundation give an infinite variety of beauty. . . . The soft and plastic tissues are like a garment which may be infinitely varied: because life is richer in normal forms than in abnormal; richer in triumphs than in failures. . . .

“When we think of the brilliant concept of the medial man, we behold a fundamental and profound principle: the necessity of hybridism and consequently of a profound intermixture of races; all of which goes side by side with the spread of civilization. . . . While the physical formation of the races are becoming merged, the racial customs are also blending and disappearing in a single civilization, in one sole form of thought. If, at one time, the powerful race was the one united to its territory, faithful to its customs adhering to its moral code and its religion, all this melts away in the presence of universal hybridism which actually means the birth of a new generation of men and a new outlook on life.

“Such philosophical concepts of the medial man are exceedingly fertile in moral significance,” concludes Montessori. “The ugly and imperfect [Page 9] races have gone on through wars, conquests, intellectual and civil advancement unconsciously preparing new intermarriages and higher forms of love, which eliminated all that is harsh and inharmonic, in order to achieve the triumph of human beauty. In fact, quite aside from the heroic deeds of man, the constructor of civilization, we are witnessing the coming of the unique man, the man of perfect beauty, such as Phidias visioned in a paroxysm of aesthetic emotion. A living man who incarnates supreme beauty, supreme health, supreme strength; almost as though it were Christ himself whom humanity was striving to emulate, through a most intimate brotherhood of all the peoples on earth. . . .”

A NEW AGE

Clearly the Light of a dawning Age was reflected in Quetelet’s conception. His illumined mind envisioned the synthetic structure of Reality now unfolding in the consciousness of man.

Through the rise of Bahá’u’lláh, fulfilling the Divine Law at the core of life and progress for a Universal Age, man enters his maturity; and science approaches a super-kingdom in its search for truth. The study of man in his triune nature as foreseen by Quetelet in the light of his conception awaited the consummation of an epoch.

With the dawn of the present century, against a background of discovery reversing our materialistic thought, the human synthesis arose on the horizon of research—the study of mind and soul expanding an outgrown anthropology. Today the study of the living individual engages the scientific mind. And again the advanced researcher appeals for “a new social science” broad enough in its scope to synthesize knowledge of man in his physical, mental and spiritual nature.

The Science of Man now rises— from its Foundation—the Creative Utterances of Bahá’u’lláh uniting the realms of human thought in universal and eternal values. May not the scientific mind discover the source of man’s new light and power—the Divine Magnet of our modern Age —the Blessed Beauty?

The first advance by modern science in the realm of man established the real aspect of an inspired Idea and the medial man exists as a profound reality in scientific thought. Significant is the fact that a thesis recognized by science rests wholly on the “inborn gift of genius,” the gift of God to the Medial Man, and thus sets forth the fundamental principle of progressive revelation revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for the future Age of Ages.

In the writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá we read:

“Universal beings resemble and can be compared to particular beings, for both are subjected to one universal system, one universal law and divine organization. . . . they come into existence from one laboratory of might. . . .

“The splendors of the perfections, bounties, and attributes of God shine forth and radiate from the reality of the Perfect Man, that is to say the [Page 10] Unique One, the universal Manifestation of God. Other beings receive only one ray, but the universal Manifestation is the mirror for this Sun. . . .

THE ARCHETYPES OF VIRTUE

“The Divinity of God, which is the sum of all perfections, reflects itself in the reality of man . . . the Essence of Oneness is the gathering of all perfections and from this unity He casts a reflection upon the human reality. Man then is the perfect mirror facing the Sun of Truth, and is the center of radiation. . . . This man of whom we speak is not every man; we mean the type man.

“The holy, divine Manifestations are unique and peerless. They are the archetypes of celestial and spiritual virtues in their own age and cycle. They stand upon the summit of the Mount of Vision and they foreshadow the perfections of evolving humanity.

“To man, the Essence of God is incomprehensible, so also are the worlds beyond this, and their condition. It is given to man to obtain knowledge, to attain to great spiritual perfection, to discover hidden truths and to manifest even the attributes of God; but still man cannot comprehend the Essence of God. Where the ever-widening circle of man’s knowledge meets the spiritual world a Manifestation of God is sent to mirror forth His splendor.”

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THE CHANNELS OF GRACE

And since there can be no tie of direct intercourse to bind the one true God with His creation, and no resemblance whatever can exist between the transient and the eternal, the contingent and the Absolute, He hath ordained that in every age and dispensation a pure and stainless Soul be made manifest in the kingdoms of earth and heaven. Unto this subtle, this mysterious and ethereal Being He hath assigned a twofold nature; the physical, pertaining to the world of matter, and the spiritual, which is born of the substance of God Himself.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

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REVALUATION OF PEACE

BEATRICE IRWIN

WORDS mean so much more than their dictionary definitions, for they are symbols that present to our minds either the picture of some object or the suggestion of some soul state. A few valued words have a complex symbology, and peace is one of these.

The concrete vision that it evokes is one of ordered stability in which the relation of the parts to each other and to the whole is visible, not in a mere crudity of statement, but in something that we call a plan or pattern. This gives evidence not only of having been designed with a purpose, but of having been able to fulfill it.

This demonstration of order satisfies the eye, and in doing so leads us on from observation to perception of the underlying and subjective values of peace.

By means of this dual process we arrive at a fuller understanding of this word, which brings us to a third stage of comprehension, which might be classified as soul content.

By integrating peace into our consciousness in this manner, it ceases to be a mere utterance or theory, and becomes a state of being, thereby acquiring wide and varied implications for us.

We are familiar with such phrases as, peace and happiness, peace and quiet, the peace of death, the peace that passeth understanding, etc., which all indicate the positive, exalted, intense and creative symbology of this word.

Prophets, poets and philosophers of every age and land have honored peace as an ultimate vision of the most abundant and desirable state of life possible.

In our chaotic moment, the word peace is growing into a mass murmur of incredible volume and power, whose cumulative insistence is rising and advancing like a high tide toward the shore of wreckage on which humanity stands staring at thousands of shattered hopes!

The need of the hour, therefore, is to evaluate this word as universally as possible.

The desire for peace is a basic hunger of life, and it is a sublimated expression of love, that demands satisfaction in terms of individual as well as of collective experience.

Upon this deep issue humanity is now being obliged to concentrate its attention because the fate of our planet and our civilization weighs in the balance.

The faceting of a diamond reveals all the rays of its spectrum, and so, now, every effort and interpretation are essential to the release of life that [Page 12] lies in this word—Peace.

New visions are dawning in our minds! We no longer desire the peace of a sequestered inertia, nor of a material security. It is not even a religious aloofness, nor the absence of war that we crave, but the deeper and more dynamic peace of a human unity, whose necessity has been created by the dearth, disorder, and spiritual starvation from which we are suffering.

We clamor for a peace of order, of spiritual self-expression, and of cooperative love in human relations.

Reality of peace in the individual is a state of active content, in which the heart, mind and soul are working harmoniously toward the same end.

Peace in the nation is a condition in which resources function and circulate fully and freely for general welfare, because certain conclusions and methods have been collectively accepted, and certain aims outlined as desirable of achievement.

Peace in the world, results from the maintenance of just perspectives, and their interaction unfolds latent possibilities in both individual and nation, enabling them to work in unison for mutual benefit.

In short, peace in our day, signifies the altruistic versus the egoistic engineering of all energies, rather than their repression, aggression, or futile dispersion.

The act, or establishment of peace depends upon this positive response of harmony to a negative condition of discord, and is effected by an effort of vision and choice. The result of this act means the rebirth of lands, and higher standards of human expression; and a new civilization.

Are these not good reasons for desiring and achieving world peace?

Peace societies multiply, yet how many of us analyze peace in relation to its social and planetary issues, or are willing by personal sacrifices to further the consummation of this golden state to which we aspire.

Leaden individuals will certainly never create the new world citizenship of human understanding upon which alone peace can be established.

The present world panorama reveals an earthquake of mentality, in which aims, ideals and values are so disrupted and distorted, that the clearest thinkers are liable to confusion, and in face of such a situation are even apt to excuse themselves from any attempt to solve the growing complexity of the situation.

Such a negative attitude however, can only deepen the gloom and delay the hour of liberation, therefore let us formulate our definitions of peace clearly and marshal our efforts to their fullest expressions in personal consciousness and in social action and relations. Let our vision rest upon an horizon of reality created by inner certainty.

Life will not become more worth while, intelligent, and peaceful until we arise to make it so—“For mind is the action of the soul’s powers. Let us give our lives, our fortunes, our achievements in order that a new state of existence may be diffused throughout the earth. Had the principles of unity taught by Christ remained in the hearts, men would have refrained from war. Universalism must be retaught.”

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THE ONENESS OF RELIGION

DORIS McKAY

III.

THE VEHICLES OF GRACE

THE study of Comparative Religion impresses us with the fact of mystery. There are mysteries in every religion, and usually they are the same mysteries. One comes to admit that the Prophets, separated from each other by hundreds of years and speaking often from a relative isolation, have expounded the same doctrines as if they had been read from one Book. The conclusion is that there is an ancient Truth in the world that is beyond the intellectual comprehension of man. To the Founders of the world’s religious systems alone was given an understanding, not acquired, because that would have been impossible, but innate. This knowledge was a state of consciousness which set them above the rest of creation. Degrees of intellectual and spiritual perception are noticeable among the grades of mankind: the prophetic consciousness was in the highest degree, the absolute. Therefore They knew and understood truths so profound that man’s relatively limited comprehension gives up before them. These then are the mysteries.

Chief among the mysterious allusions of the sacred books is that to the emanation of a spirit or state of super-being from the Supreme Power. This is known to us as the Holy Spirit. Associating this consciousness with religious experience William James says: “it adds to life an enchantment which is not . . . logically deducible from anything else. It is,” he says, “an added dimension of emotion.” Religious teachings pivot around the distribution of this divine uplifting grace.

In the Gathas of Zoroaster a Being emerges: Sraosha, or Srosh. Ahura Mazda, the Supreme Being, has other helpers, “the immortal Benefactors,” who are the personification of His own attributes and bestowals (the “good principle,” omnipresence, prosperity, the earth, health, immortality,) but Srosh was “the righteous,” “the beautiful,” “the Sword-bearer,” “the embodiment of the sacred Word.” He was referred to also as “he who walks teaching the religion around the world.” His presence was so tangible that he was referred to as a celestial person by Zoroaster. He is the angel who stands between God and man, the “great teacher of the good religion, who instructed the prophet in it.”

In the later Books, Christian, Muhammadan, Bahá’í, Srosh was Gabriel —and the “angel of the Lord” was named Gabriel also in the Old Testament. [Page 14] He it was who appeared to Daniel, to Zacharius, to Mary, to St. John. It was to Gabriel that Muhammad bore witness in testifying to the divine source of His revelation:

“One mighty in power, endued with understanding, taught it him: and he appeared in the highest part of the horizon. Afterwards he approached the prophet and near unto him until he was at the distance of two bows’-length from him or yet nearer; and he revealed unto his servant that which he revealed. . . . He also saw him in the lote-tree beyond which there is no passing; near it is the garden of the eternal abode.”

Bahá’u’lláh mentioned the heavenly visitant in this wise: “Whenever I chose to hold my peace and be still, lo, the voice of the Holy Ghost, standing on my right hand aroused me, and the Supreme Spirit appeared before my face, and Gabriel over-shadowed me, and the Spirit of Glory stirred within my bosom, bidding me to arise and break my silence.”

The names for the spirit of Revelation used thus in the same connection leads to the supposition that Gabriel (Srosh) was a personification of the Holy Spirit, the sacred and hidden Word, the primal and supreme intermediary between God and man. “As the pure mirror receives light from the sun and transmits this bounty to others” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “so the Holy Spirit is the mediator of the Holy Light from the Sun of Reality, which it gives to sanctified realities. . . . Every time it appears the world is renewed and a new cycle is founded.”

Because the Prophet, or Manifestation of God, was the focus of this periodic flashing of a divine Ray, He too became a mediator, a Vehicle of Grace. Through Him the vitality and sweetness of a spiritual springtime is poured forth upon the world. Of the Christ Spirit (and it is an eternal Spirit) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “The Christ is the central point of the Holy Spirit: He is born of the Holy Spirit; he is raised up by the Holy Spirit; he is the descendant of the Holy Spirit.” The pure and brilliant mirrors—the susceptibilities of the divinely endowed Messengers—blazed forth in the full glory of the heavenly effulgence and reflected it to the world of humanity. It was never a light from a personality, no matter how exalted, that shone upon the world, but the Light from the Supreme Apex.

Srosh, and Gabriel, manifestations of Spirit from a plane of unearthly splendor, have been captured for man’s imagination by the poetic imagery of Those Who knew their presence. We see the flashing of their swords, and the Glory of God shining around them, and the swift passage of their wings. So, also, do we visualize the personality of the Manifestation. Our love for His attributes is an emotion that makes Him a rallying point for the diverse humanity who are His followers. He is the Magnet around which the fragments of blue steel which are the hearts of His disciples group themselves in concentric circles: near or far. But that majesty that we worship, that divine patience amid the cruelest persecution, that tender and melting love, the ocean-like surge of His utterance, the power blended with sweetness, is of [Page 15] God. It is God’s Self. Compared with the stupendous glory of the Manifestation, the person is as another “Gabriel”—personification, another Sign of a hidden Mystery. Bahá’u’lláh provides us with an explanation in His “Tablet of Manifestation:”

“In every world He appears according to the capacity of that world . . . So . . . in (the world of) bodies, in the world of names and attributes, . . . He appears unto them in His form, so that He, their Lord, may direct them, and draw them nearer to the seat of His Command, and cause them to attain to that which was ordained to them. . . .

“Consider a goldsmith: verily he makes a ring, and although he is its maker, yet he adorns his finger with it. Likewise God, the Exalted, appears in the clothing of His creatures. This is through His favor so that His servants may not flee from Him, but that they may approach Him and rest in His Presence, hear His wonderful melodies and be benefited by that which proceeds from His mouth, and by that which He reveals unto them from the heaven of His Will. . . .

“Verily, were God, the Exalted, to appear in His (proper) grade and form no one could ever approach Him, or endure to be near Him. . .”

Not that the Man does not exist. He has a two-fold nature, the physical and the spiritual; a double station. Bahá’u’lláh, discoursing on this distinction, quotes the words of Muhammad to exemplify the dual functioning. In regard to the first station, that representing the Manifestation of God, Muhammad said, “Manifold and mysterious is My relationship with God. I am He, Himself, and He is I, Myself, except that I am that I am, and He is that He is.” But from His second and human station Muhammad declared, “I am but a man like you.” This is reminiscent of the paradox of Christ’s statements: “The Father and I are one;” “My teaching is not mine but His Who sent me.” So the Man, suffering, adoring, poignantly awake, racked between earth and heaven, prayed,—sometimes in ecstasy, sometimes in agony of spirit to that Unseen but Evident Power to Which we also pray.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá further elucidating the mystery of the Manifestation informs us that the Holy Realities of the Manifestations of God have two spiritual positions: “One is the place of manifestation, which can be compared to the position of the globe of the sun, and the other is the resplendency of the manifestation which is like its light and radiance.” In the first of these positions He is the “light-holder.” For example, Moses is described in the Pentateuch as “a Man with whom the Eternal had intercourse face to face, unequalled for all the signal acts which the Eternal sent him to perform in the land of Egypt. . . . as well as for all the mighty deeds and awful power which Moses displayed in the sight of all Israel.”

In the Gathas the individuality of Zoroaster (Zarathushtra) stands forth as the light holder:

“The Holy Zarathushtra—who first thought what was good; who was the first priest of the sacred fire; the first warrior, the first plougher of the ground; who first knew and first [Page 16] taught the Word of holiness, and obedience to the Word; who had a revelation of the Lord; in whose birth and growth the waters and the plants, rejoiced, cried out, “Hail!”

“Now hath God been gracious unto believers,” declared Muhammad, “when He raised up among them an apostle of their own nation, who would recite his signs unto them and purify them.”

Jesus emphasized the truth that the Prophet is an intermediary between God and man, an actual conveyer of the divine light. Especially is to be noted His teaching in John where He exhorts His followers to “Remain in Me . . . I am the vine, you are the branches. He who remains in Me as I in him bears rich fruit (because apart from Me you can do nothing).” He was the central figure in a succession, or chain, of mediators of grace from the Supreme Being, that is to say, the Holy Spirit has descended on Him (“like a dove”), and He, in turn, had transmitted the divine meanings; now He advanced the doctrine which will eventually liberate the souls of men: that the power of the Holy Spirit can be passed on for the exaltation of those disciples who are on fire with His love. They will be enabled then, in their turn, to reflect the adorable attributes of the Christ Spirit, and become tributaries and channels of that same Spirit.

Bahá’u’lláh, the latest Manifestation of the Divine Spirit, teaches us that God has “focused the radiance of all His names and attributes” upon the reality of man, and “made it a mirror of His own Self.” These energies, He asserts, lie latent within man, “even as the flame is hidden within the candle.” The candle cannot light itself. It must be ignited from the Divine Fire. For the accomplishment of this supreme attainment (to summarize our argument) Bahá’u’lláh teaches, “there must be manifested a Being, an Essence, who will act as a Manifestation and a Vehicle for the transmission of the grace of the Divinity Itself, the Sovereign Lord of all. Through the teachings of this Day Star of Truth every man will advance and develop until he attaineth the station at which he can manifest all the potential forces with which his inmost self hath been endowed. It is for this very purpose that in every age and dispensation the Prophets of God and His chosen Ones have appeared amongst men, and have evinced such a power as is born of God and such might as only the Eternal can reveal.”

[Page 17]

MODES OF LIVING SPIRITUAL AND MODERN

LEWIS ZERBY

AT various periods of history and by various writers of the same period, the spiritual life has been identified with the aesthetic life, the moral life, the scholarly life, the religious life, the good life; and it is not an easy task to find a common denominator for all of these conceptions. In my own thinking the spiritual life is that quality of living which is colored chiefly by quiet contemplation and sympathetic understanding, a quality of living which no person can realize during every moment of his life but which every person experiences in moments of tranquillity and vision. Spiritual living is hardly compatible with the life of restless activity and aimless practicality which characterizes so much of contemporary living. Modern man is most of the time bent upon going places and doing things. It does not greatly matter where he is going or what he will do when he gets there: the matter of primary importance is that he is going places and not remaining still and he is doing things and not remaining inactive. The jazzed nerves of modern man abhor silence and make concentration impossible; his movie brains cannot enjoy creative thought but must sit passively before a screen where shadows scream or laugh and echos dramatize morbid passions or frivolous nonsense. The noise of his large cities causes chronic tension and is responsible for the ever-increasing number of people who suffer from mental diseases. The thrills of modern life dull the mind and when the thrill is passed, melancholy follows. Activity, noise, and speed shrivel the world of modern man and rot his heart, killing any love which is more than lust.

From this it is apparent that modern man is not very spiritual. It is even more true now than when Amiel wrote it half a century ago that “life is devouring and incessant activity” —“Men do not live by the soul; they ignore the unchangeable and the eternal.” Modern man is excited, ardent, and positive because he is superficial and cannot penetrate beyond the surface of life. These lives which are made tense and shallow by excitement and ferocious and cruel by over activity can never know the meaning of spiritual living. Spiritual life is impossible as long as people’s interests are primarily material, bodily, frivolous and selfish. It demands a renunciation of these interests and a passionate devotion to interests which are spiritual, aesthetic, purposive and unselfish. Without this [Page 18] renunciation of worldly interests and devotion to spiritual interests no amount of prayer, meditation, and worship can create the spiritual quality of life. If our hearts remain unabashed and if the distraction and necessary cares of daily life occupy our attention, not only while we do our shopping and dressing but even while we are silent and meditative, then we can never know the meaning or beauty of spiritual living.

‘Abdul-Bahá has said: “The human spirit is the discoverer of things, the seer of things, and the comprehender of things.” The life of the spirit, then, will be characterized by understanding, vision, and appreciation. The following paragraphs are a discussion of these three characteristics considered as essential elements of the spiritual life. In the Bahá’í writings we are commanded to be guided by wisdom in all our doings and to “Cleave tenaciously unto it.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá makes understanding “God’s greatest gift to man” and he asks us to “study the sciences” to “acquire more and more knowledge.” It is self-consciousness and understanding which make man superior to the animals, for physically man is merely an animal. As a physical being his life is short, miserable, and tragic. He awakes from a dreamless sleep to experience for a very short time a precarious and unhappy existence. His life depends upon millions of forces which he cannot control or sympathize with. Some alien and powerful nature creates him, moves him, and destroys him. Man’s most ardent prayers, or his most earnest endeavors cannot preserve his life longer than nature has planned. And why should nature who has created Beauty and super-galaxies listen to man’s prayers or concern herself with his strivings? Both will stop shortly and man with his violent passion and noble sentiments will have been forgotten.

But man can experience more than bodily existence. It is true that his life is a conscious spark between two eternities of darkness, yet how glorious can be that spark. In becoming conscious man has transcended his body; spirit has entered him, and his life, insofar as it is conscious and not merely instinctive or habitual, is spiritual life. Man can not only move and breathe but he can reflect nature’s greatness and beauty in his art; he can understand in a fragmentary manner the ways and habits of nature and this understanding enables him to share her glory, splendor, and indifference. Man can forget for a moment that the universe is not his home, and can, like a well-trained child, sit quietly and listen to the dull stories of his hostess. Then, they are not all dull, for while life tells many homely tales of commerce and gossips about facts, she also tells tales of cosmic struggles between light and darkness, between good and evil. To these man lends a willing ear. Perhaps when we understand better the character of our hostess we will see that she is as good and as interesting as she can be and if at times she is boring it is only because she does not know how to be otherwise. And if nature is a pleasant hostess and we would like to visit her longer, understanding will make us realize that [Page 19] our visit could not be longer. Although life is short, it can be rich and sometimes happy, and beyond death may be the only peace we can know. At least the spiritual way of living is to try to understand life and when we understand it to accept it as a free gift and to be thankful for the privilege of dreaming. By ourselves life would not have been possible. Our birth, our life, and our death are shrouded in mystery, but by trying to understand them man realizes that the world is great and that his proper attitude towards it is one of reverence and sometimes love.

AFTER understanding and because of it there comes vision, which is the second element of the spiritual life. Bahá’u’lláh has written: “No thing have I perceived, except that I perceived God within it, God before it and God after it,” and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has said: “Men should hold in their souls the vision of celestial perfection.” This vision consists primarily in transcending the common human perspective of life. The spiritual person has transcended as much as is possible the limited and troubled human perspective with its myriad cares, passions, and sighs. He sees life under the form of eternity and worships all things as being significant food for the spirit’s contemplation. He sees the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower; he knows that in a flower’s simple softness is the secret of the world and of man. The spiritual man is not concerned with food, wondering what he will eat, or clothes, wondering what he will wear. He considers the lilies of the field and the birds of the sky, their beauty and trust is his joy and his teacher. The spiritual life is lived under the eternal stars of heaven; it is worship of the changeless and the realization that life’s fulfilment is the loss of life. Only by losing the animal-human perspective with its anxiety, care, and sadness, and by attaining a vision of celestial perfection can an individual become spiritual. Spiritual life is life lived in the light of this ideal vision, a vision which like the sun may be eclipsed but is extinguished not.

In The Gleanings we are told to “behold the radiance which His glory hath spread through the world,” and to behold the radiance of the world is to appreciate its meaning and beauty in a way that the worldly man can never understand. The worldly man is concerned with changing things; nature must be harnessed to serve man, the lightning must be brought down from the sky, the wind must be utilized to turn wind-mills and to move sail boats, the ground must be cultivated, disease must be conquered, and natural elements must be mixed together to make gunpowder. The practical man is dissatisfied with things as they are, and his life is dedicated to changing them. Modern man at least in the West, has been predominantly practical and his civilization with its radios, bridges, hospitals, wars, and electric chairs is a monument to his activity and practicality. This sort of living is not at all conducive to appreciation. It makes us see clearly only the things which are immediately around us and makes us see these things only in [Page 20] terms of their use. For the worldly man a chair is only something to sit upon, water is something to drink, and clowns are something to laugh at. This sort of perception kills appreciation and drains quality from things until they are hollow and bare.

For the spiritual man, however, a chair is a mode of substance, or a portion of an infinite world. Bahá’u’lláh has said “there is a sign of God in all phenomena” and the spiritual man will see even in this chair a symbol representing God. Also the chair may have beauty and may become an object for disinterested contemplation as it does for the artist who paints a portrait of it. And water for the spiritual man is not merely something to drink, but it is an element of reality. Imagination gives to water a being which sensation must be blind to. For Thales water was the world stuff out of which all the universe, from tiny insects to super-galaxies, was formed. The spirit of man cannot live by bread alone. It must live by imagination which supplies to life the fullness and breath, the depth of vision which sensation may sometimes suggest but can never realize completely. The clown is more than something to be laughed at. He is a man with passions and loves; he is a clown only by accident but primarily he is a breathing, feeling, sensitive being who, like those who laugh at him, has trembled before beauty and smiled at little children with a smile that is made sad by the thought of life’s cruelty and misery which these children have not yet dreamed of. The practical man responds to his immediate environment only; the spiritual man looks before, and after, and beyond his present environment; he responds to and appreciates what things represent and symbolize. His creative imagination supplies the meaning behind this dream of life, a meaning which sensation may point to or may destroy. It may be that life is a dream, thin and unsubstantial, yet the spiritual man is an interpreter of dreams. The seven lean cattle stand for seven years of famine; may it not be that human life represents the universe’s playful attempt at self-consciousness? For without man’s suffering and understanding would nature ever have known what it means to suffer and to understand?

PERHAPS I have seemed to pour coals of fire upon the head of the practical man. If I have, my own head has not escaped, for practicality, which is concern for things immediately around one, and activity which is concern for changing things to more adequately fulfil our needs, are the necessary foundation for the spiritual life, even as the body is the necessary foundation for dreams. The spiritual life cannot detach itself from the physical life any more than music can detach itself from sound. Music is more than mere physical sound for in it the music-lover sees all of life with its glory, pettiness, and humor suggested and criticized. But nevertheless music must be heard before it can be real. And the spiritual life must understand, envisage, and appreciate ideals which have their roots in common, everyday, unperfumed reality.

[Page 21]

CHILD GUIDANCE CLINICS

H. P. MAITI

THE 20th century has been described as “the Century of the Child.” Never before has man appreciated the importance of proper training of the child for his future welfare so keenly as in the present century. We have come to realize that what we become in our later years are essentially determined by the way in which we are brought up during the first few years of our life. The child’s habits of reactions, specially to the social environment of his early years, mainly determine his future emotional dispositions, character traits, tastes and even intellectual abilities. A defect of development in these years is very difficult to be compensated by later educational measures, however ingenious these may be. If one has not been able to enjoy security within family relations in his early days, he will never be able, when grown up, to move in outer society with feelings of confidence and ease which are necessary not only for the individual’s own happiness but also for his useful service to the society. If one has the good fortune of unrepressed and free development in childhood under the loving care and help of his elders and in the joyful company of other children like him, if no foolish obstacle is placed on the smooth course of his natural development and on the budding of his individuality, he would grow, in all probability, into a self-reliant being, who is equal to all circumstances of life, and who is happy to live for himself as well as for others in society. In a word, if we want less of unhappy and inefficient, and more of balanced, happy and capable men and women in society, we should apply ourselves more earnestly and intelligently to child rearing on the principle of mental hygiene than we have done hitherto.

As a matter of fact, children are at present very much neglected and mismanaged. Our dealings with them generally fall into two types: overstrictness or over-indulgence. But in either types of relation we fail to understand the individual peculiarities and needs of the growing child. A plan of upbringing that would make the child happy and would at the same time prepare for his future good should be adapted to such needs; and this can never be done without a proper and sympathetic understanding of his behavior. Such a plan should specially take into consideration the conflicts in his emotional and instinctive life. It should also be guided mainly by the idea that the dominant natural trend of the child’s emotional life should not be rudely smothered, but helped on to progressively stable [Page 22] and happy adjustment to the conditions of social life.

Acute conflict in child life in which one emotional tendency is violently pitted against another, as for example, love or hate against the desire for social approval, is mainly responsible for the peculiarities of the “Problem” children. These are children in whom upbringing has been miscarried, and whom we fail to understand and deal with successfully, in spite of our efforts to do so. Failure in upbringing is manifested in various ways in their lives. Some of the children present open defiance to society and the social code of behavior. This defiance may range from noncooperation or disobedience, to grossly anti-social behavior like stealing and arson. Disinclination to learn may express this tendency. Perverse or sexual habits in childhood may also in many instances be traced to the spirit of defiance. There is another group of Problem children who can be described as budding neurotics. Neither fully defiant nor fully docile, they are both at the same time. They are always trying to overcome their strong feelings of anger with those of submissive obedience. They develop in course of time certain neurotic peculiarities of behavior. Their capacity for normal development becomes greatly jeopardized by an inner conflict and a heavy unconscious sense of guilt. Nervousness, complete or partial inhibition of intellectual power, absence of self-confidence proportionate to the age, physical illness of the functional type like asthma, diarrhoea etc., may be due to the working of the unconscious sense of guilt.

Parents ordinarily feel helpless in their dealings with children. In a sense, however, it is they who may be regarded as responsible for the behavior troubles. For, from the psychological point of view, refractory behavior in children is mostly a reaction to the kind of treatment which they have had already received from the social environment provided by the parents themselves. Not knowing the psychology of the “Problem” behavior, the parents usually accuse their children of an inborn mischievousness, or thoughtlessly ascribe it wholly to outside influences, like the playmates or the defective school organization.

Though parents cannot escape the criticism in many cases that they have not done, and even perhaps have not understood, their duty to their children during their early years, it must be said in their defense that the task of child-rearing on healthy lines is not an easy one. Recent advances in psychological knowledge indicate how difficult it is to adjust the environmental factors, specially those in the social sphere, to the susceptibilities of the child during the formative years of his growth. Many parents cannot understand the exact requirements of the situation on account of their own intellectual limitations or lack of opportunity of learning. Many have not the leisure for this delicate work. Many are temperamentally unfit for the patient handling of young children. Many suffer themselves, from inner emotional conflicts so that it becomes difficult for them to look at the problems of child’s development in a detached way. The fact is, that [Page 23] all of us tend to react unconsciously to our children generally in the same way as our parents did with reference to us in our childhood.

There are three ways in which we can attempt to solve the difficulty of child-rearing: (1) Seeing that the ordinary parents are so ill-fitted for giving the basic education in the period of childhood, we may arrange for this education under the guidance of properly qualified teachers who are to act as foster parents. There has been considerable progress in nursery education in western countries in recent years and I hope we shall very soon see a number of nursery schools flourishing in our country. But we cannot expect to provide the advantage of nursery education to all children. Neither is it a complete remedy for evils of defective child-rearing. “Problem” behavior does not exist when the child is sent to school. The method of education may be defective in the school as well as in the home. Then again, even in the case of a child attending a nursery school, it is difficult to keep him altogether away from the “harmful” influence of his parents with whom he has to spend a considerable part of his time. For these reasons, it is necessary for the society to arrange for some education of the parents through which scientific knowledge bearing on the upbringing of children may be imparted to them.

(2) A plan of Parent-education is, therefore, the second way in which we can attempt to meet our difficulty of child-rearing. This education can be given through popular lectures, pamphlets, magazine articles and radio talks. In order to be effective such talks and lectures should naturally lead to discussions of actual cases and, whenever possible, demonstrations about the proper method of dealing with children’s “problems” by properly qualified persons should be arranged.

This takes us to the third way of meeting our difficulty, namely, (3) Child Guidance Clinics. The primary function of such a Clinic is to help the home and the school with expert advice on the subject of child-rearing and child education. It is not necessarily confined to “problem” children, but tries to direct the mental development of normal children as well. It aims at the complete understanding of the child. We try to understand the child—physically, intellectually and emotionally; in the weak, as well as the strong points of his personality. No advice is offered at the Clinic without a thorough scientific study of the child as far as possible. The predominant impulse of his individuality is specially taken into consideration at the time of giving advice. . . .

It has been proved beyond doubt by the researches of modern psychology that the future happiness of the child is essentially determined by the way in which he is brought up in his early years. Child-rearing in the past has considerably suffered from ignorance and bias. Expert advice may help happy and successful adjustment, if it is sought for before the trouble in child’s behaviour is very far advanced. Child Guidance is a technical service of great practical importance to the society and its future welfare.

Reprinted from the Modern Review, Calcutta.

[Page 24]

THE TWILIGHT OF THE WISE

DALE S. COLE

JAMES HILTON, in a recent short story, “The Twilight of the Wise,” causes one of his characters to utter the provocative line that there is not as much difference between peoples of two nationalities as there is between those who are tired and hungry and those who are not.

That is striking very close to the heart of things. It recognizes differences that are more “real” than those of citizenship, color, race, religious belief or any other condition imposed upon human beings by the codes of conduct under which we live.

One is reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan, where a human need was instantly realized, despite whatsoever barriers intervened.

In this departmentalized day, emphasis is placed on those things which differentiate one group from another, one individual from his neighbor. This is a natural sequence of competitive living. It is the contrasts rather than the comparisons which seem to motivate policies and transactions.

Life is, at present, very largely a matter of striving to possess certain things, essential and non-essential. It is a story of sustained rivalry. We compete with each other and with our environment. That there is certain value in having to overcome obstacles is not to be denied, but is it not generally agreed that life has become almost unbearably difficult and complex, due largely to the play and interplay of the motif of acquisition—acquisition of tangibles and intangibles which, after careful analysis, are not adequate?

Lines of rigid demarkation emerge from competitively acquisitive action and inter-action. These boundaries naturally follow geographic, racial, religious and class counterparts sanctioned by time and experience.

And yet rigid as these lines may be in the business, political and social hours of human intercourse, they dissolve like mist before the rising sun when the participants in a day’s struggle assemble in the evening to listen to a masterfully played symphony.

All become as one in appreciation of the sweet language of music. Differences are, for the moment, and under the spell of the music, pressed into the limbo of the forgotten and unimportant. So, perhaps, these lines of segregation are not as hard and fixed as we are wont to suppose. Perhaps they only parade themselves in the garments of reality because we ourselves have so invested them.

That these lines are subject to such apparently easy and effortless dissolution, under some universal appeal such as good music—suggests that [Page 25] they are, under certain conditions, impotent to differentiate human beings, to separate them into armed camps. In fact it proves that the very opposite, a unification of susceptibility, appreciation and response is the natural result of some benign influence.

If, then, these markings-off, these delineators, whether they be of nationality, color, or school of thought, dissolve into nothingness without voluntary effort on our part, under specific circumstances, then is there not challenging material for thought and meditation in the idea expressed by Hilton’s character?

The demarkations, the compartmentalizing, to which we are accustomed and render homage in everyday life are time-honored sanctions, permissions and prohibitions which have emerged from human experience, traceable probably to the time when man was pitted against nature in the struggle for existence and are as ill-suited to the social proximities and communities of interest today as fins would be on a dog.

They have been conceded a large degree of reality, when in fact “there’s not as much difference between” citizens of different nations “as between tired and hungry people and those who are not.”

Instead of dividing the human family into groups with varying interests and aims, such as nations, parties, religions and innumerable partisanships —perhaps we would come to a more scientific, effective and humane consideration if we thought of people in such groups as these—those who are hungry and those who are not; those who are getting along and those who are not; those who have sufficient for their needs and those who have not; those who are reasonably happy and those who are not, those who have faith, hope and confidence and those who are confused, hopeless and in despair.

THERE are circumstances, other than musical appreciation, in which peoples become one almost instantaneously. For example when some great catastrophe threatens, or after it has happened a great humanitarian need arises. Peoples become united in war—in either victory or defeat.

But the greatest and most powerful influence attested by history is the unifying force of some great religious faith, faith in its pristine purity before it has become weakened and devitalized with creed, dogma and institutionalism.

In re-classifying humanity according to our new demarkations we certainly are not adhering to any traditional, physical or materialistic rules. We must then be using a differentiator which has to do with the spiritual nuances of the matter, or with religion when defined simply as an attitude toward the Creator which is lived.

For it is only by using a test which recognizes the real differences, such as that existing between those who have a working faith and those who have not, that we approach the tensions confronting man in a manner sufficiently sound to offer hope of solution.

Hunger is an economic and social concern. Personal and group progress is a matter of education and opportunity. [Page 26] Happiness is a matter more of what is happening within us than of what is happening around us. Faith, hope and confidence have to do with recognizing and knowing that history depicts a continuous working out of a Divine Plan of progress for mankind as a whole.

And so in sweeping aside the time honored boundaries which have only served to set man against man there remain the relatively real demarkations, between the hungry and the satisfied, the happy and unhappy, the spiritually effective people and those who are not. This serves to direct our efforts to the fundamentals of the problem rather than to the non-essentials.

As the essential of the situation have to do with the realms of mind, heart and soul, and as these are “spiritual” factors, it is only by applying spiritual remedies that conditions can be fully and permanently bettered.

Bahá’u’lláh reveals a New World Order which recognizes the real differences existing and which seeks to lighten or do away with the handicaps imposed without casting individuals or groups into a common mold.

In recognizing the real differences through actual understanding, we enter the arena of practical cooperation, wherein humanity can and will progress into that condition which was once referred to so beautifully as “the life more abundant.”

“Should a man wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the benefits it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him. Eat ye, O people, of the good things which God hath allowed you, and deprive not yourselves from his wondrous bounties. Render thanks and praise unto Him, and be of them that are truly thankful.”

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SPIRITUAL FACULTIES

There can be no doubt whatever that, in consequence of the efforts which every man may consciously exert and as a result of the exertion of his own spiritual faculties, this mirror can be so cleansed from the dross of earthly defilements and purged from satanic fancies as to be able to draw nigh unto the meads of eternal holiness and attain the courts of everlasting fellowship. —BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

[Page 27]

ISLAM

ALI-KULI KHAN

VII.

AT this time the incident occurred which at first brought A’isha’s virtue into question. Since Khadija’s death, A’isha, young daughter of Abu Bekr, was the Prophet’s favorite wife. As the Prophet and the army were returning from one of the expeditions, A’isha was left behind. The misadventure was due to the fact that the man in charge of A’isha’s litter had started with the camel thinking that A’isha had already entered the litter. A while later the mistake was discovered. Meanwhile, A’isha found that the camels and men had departed, and being left alone, she wrapped her garments around her, laid herself on the ground awaiting others and fell fast asleep. Towards morning, Saf’wan, who had been also accidentally detained, passed by, and recognizing her expressed surprise and brought his camel near, and while turning away his face to avoid seeing her face, he thus led A’isha on the camel to Medina.

While the incident caused gossip among the Moslems, it at last ended by the Prophet punishing the calumniators according to the Law, and chiding others for undue meddling. The testimony of Ali and her maid also removed all doubt as to the innocence of A’isha.

In this connection, Muhammad cautioned His wives and in the Sura XXXIII He enjoined strict continence upon them. See Verse 25: “O Prophet, say unto thy wives,—if ye seek after this present life . . . come, I will make provision for you and dismiss you with a fair dismission. But if ye seek after God and his Apostle and the life to come, then, verily, God has prepared for the excellent amongst you a great reward. O ye wives of the Prophet! If any amongst you should be guilty of incontinence, the punishment shall be doubled unto her. . . . O ye wives of the Prophet! Be not bland in your speech lest he indulge desire in whose heart is unease. Then speak the speech that is suitable . . . and array not yourselves as ye used to do in the bygone days of ignorance.”

A.H. 5 FEBRUARY—MARCH, 626 A.D.

Stirring scenes were to follow the foregoing incidents. Koreish was again preparing to march on Medina, Bedawin tribes giving them assistance. For winter had again set in and the annual raid contemplated. Huyer and other exiled Jewish chiefs drew the tribes to the Koreish cause. Koreish brought 4,000 fighters, including 300 horses and 1,500 riders upon [Page 28] camels. The whole force was about 10,000 men who marched in three separate camps, all under the command of Abu Sufyan.

Having heard of the danger which spread alarm over Medina, Muhammad hurriedly prepared to defend the city. Rouz-beh, “The Persian,” a captive from Irak, who was converted to Islam and named Salman, advised the new trench warfare used in his country. This was unknown to the Arabs to that day. They defended Medina with trenches, dug by Moslems who joined in their song, as when building the Mosque:—“Oh Lord! There is no happiness but that of Futurity. Oh Lord! Have mercy on the Citizens and the Refugees.”

Then the trench was dug in six days, and the Medina army posted within it. This was on March 2, 626 A.D., A.H. 5. They were 3,000 strong. Opposite them Koreish encamped. The only Jewish tribe, Beni Koreiza, that remained an ally of the Prophet, were detached by Abu Sufyan. This defection alarmed and disturbed the Moslems.

The Moslem pickets were vigilant. The enemy, who pronounced the trench an unworthy subterfuge, were held at bay. The Confederate host (Koreish and their allies) resolved to try to storm the trench, and some of them cleared the ditch. But Ali, with a guard, advanced against them. Meanwhile Amr challenged Ali to single combat. Ali accepted. Amr dismounted, maiming his horse to show his resolve to conquer or die. The struggle began, but soon the loud Takbir, “Great is the Lord!” from Ali’s lips, made known that he was the victor.

A new attack made by famous leaders, Khalid and Amr, imperiled the very tent of Muhammad Himself, but showers of arrows from brave Moslems repulsed the assailants. The battle lasted all day, and even at night Koreish’s men continued the alarm,—but to no effect, as the trench was never crossed in force. Only five men were lost by Muhammad, and Sa’d ibn Mo’adh, chief of the Aus, was severely wounded.

That day prayers could not be said, so at night, when most of the enemy had withdrawn, a separate service for the day’s omitted prayers was held. The Prophet cursed the enemy thus: “They have kept us from our daily prayers; God fill their bellies and their graves with fire!”

For ten or twelve days the siege had lasted and the army of Medina was harassed and worn with constant duty. They were also dispirited, being hemmed in and with no seeming prospect of the siege being raised. Some even questioned the Prophet’s hopes for heavenly aid. They were rebuked in Sura XXXIII. Muhammad thought of separating the tribe Beni Ghatafan from Koreish through secret negotiations, offering them one-third of the produce of the city’s date trees. But consultation with his tribal allies resulted in refusing “to give anything unto them but the sword,” which was the chiefs’ advice.

Other attempts were made to break the Koreish confederacy which succeeded in part as they led to Koreish distrusting Beni Koreiza, their Jewish allies, as traitors. This made conditions difficult for Koreish, whose [Page 29] camp suffered at night from a tempest of wind and rain. In his dismay, Abu Sufyan suddenly resolved on an immediate march and ordered breaking camp. Koreish took the road by Ohod to Mecca and their tribal allies retired to their desert haunts.

In the morning none of them remained. Muhammad, who received the intelligence, attributed the relief to an answer to the prayer He had offered for some days: “O Lord! Turn to flight the Confederate Host. Turn them to flight, O Lord, and make them to quake!”

The Moslem army thus miraculously relieved, broke camp. But Muhammad, while cleansing himself from the dust of the battlefield, received the divine command through Gabriel to march against the Jews. For, Gabriel said: “What! Hast thou laid aside thine armor, while as yet the angels have not laid theirs aside? Arise! Go up against the Beni Koreiza. Behold, I go before thee to shake the foundations of their stronghold.” (Tradition)

Wherefore Belal proclaimed throughout the town; immediate march was ordered so as to pitch camp before the fortress of Beni Koreiza, a few miles south-east of the city. Muhammad mounted His ass. The army, three thousand strong, with thirty-six horses, followed. The Beni Koreiza were reduced and begged to capitulate on condition of leaving the neighborhood, even empty-handed, but the Moslems would not accept, remembering the repeated treacheries of the tribe on previous occasions. In the end, the Jews were compelled to surrender, leaving their fate to be decided by their allies, the Aus. Muhammad agreed. The tribe left their location. The spoils, consisting of goods and armor, were brought forth to be divided later, but the store of wine and fermented liquors was poured forth, as these were now forbidden to Moslems.

The disposition of this last Jewish tribe, followed by the failure of the Koreish before Medina, greatly improved the position of Muhammad and increased His strength and influence. The powerful enemy had been successfully repelled with hardly any loss to the Moslems.

After pronouncing the decree which liquidated the Beni Koreiza, Sa’d ibn Mo’adh was conducted back upon his ass to his tent. The excitement proved fatal to him; for it caused the bursting of his old wound. He was placed on his bed, awaiting death. Muhammad, hearing the news, hastened and offered a prayer seeking God’s blessing upon him. In her grief, the mother of Sa’d, while weeping loudly, pronounced a plaintive Arab verse giving high praise to her son, for she was a poetess. As men chided her for reciting poetry on such an occasion, the Prophet interposed, saying: “Leave her thus alone; all other poets lie but she.”

THE QUR’AN

Muhammad helped to carry the bier for the first thirty or forty yards. Although Sa’d was so large and corpulent, the bier was reported to be marvelously light. Tradition attributed this to the invisible angels who were carrying the bier which, therefore, was light to the men.

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The portions of the Qur’án revealed during the early years of the Hegira well illustrate the life of the Prophet and His principles. In the early Suras, verses are revealed which bear upon the subject matter of the Old Testament and Jewish tradition. In these the Prophet calls on the Jews to bear witness to His mission foretold in the Old Testament. (Sura II—verses 44, 116, 38). As they refused to do so, the Prophet’s revelations were changed into addresses of rebuke and reproach. They were thought to be following in the footsteps of their “stiff-necked forefathers who slew the Prophets, departed from the true God, and sought out inventions of their own creation.” (Sura II—verses 81, 83).

Being denounced as perverters of the truth, and as people of malice and unbelief, the Jews’ hatred was aroused against Muhammad. (Sura IV—verse 48. Also Sura V—verses 62, 67).

In Sura IV—verse 47, the Jews are accused of encouraging Koreish to continue in idolatry rather than follow the Prophet’s doctrine.

Eventually, with the increase of Muhammad’s influence and the wider fields which Islam conquered, the Jews were removed from the scene. Still throughout his career, Muhammad never ceased to refer to the Old Testament and the Christian Gospels except with due reverence, as is witnessed in the Suras of the Qur’án following this period.

All matters appertaining to what is called “general order,” the making of treaties, the conduct of the “Disaffected,” acceptance of terms, treatment of allies, find their original sanction and authority in the Qur’án. This includes the laws governing the care of orphans, marriage, divorce, sales, bargains, wills, evidence, usury and other similar matters which have been revealed in the Holy Book. Even His own private and family life and His relations with His followers are based upon its texts. Muhammad’s added influence compelled reverence due one who combined kingly authority with prophetic status—this in spite of the extreme simplicity which characterized the Prophet’s life and habits. What a contrast this offered to the state and luxury of his successors, barring the Alids and the Imams of the Shi’ite school. A row of modest houses made of sun-dried brick and covered with rough palm branches, the inner walls hung about with water-bags of leather for domestic use, formed the habitation for the Prophet and his household. A mattress of date fiber was His bed and He mended His own sandals.

But in what makes real dignity and power, Muhammad was not behind the most powerful sovereign. He was the arbiter of every quarrel and His word was law. When He appeared, the Assembly arose. All approached Him reverently and spoke softly in His presence. He was very fond of perfumes, and tradition, quoting His servant, says that they all knew when He issued forth from his chamber by the fragrance which filled the air. To salute the Prophet was enjoined in Sura XXXIII—verse 56. Withal, He was humble, and called himself mortal as other men, and (equally with them) needed to pray to God for [Page 31] pardon.

Drunkenness was common amongst the Arabs, as was also gambling by casting lots. But the Sura II—verse 216, forbade both. In Sura V—verse 93, the command against the use of wine was issued, in the fourth year of Hegira. So was usury forbidden, as it was the curse of Arabia. There were detailed instructions regarding marriage and divorce. Four wives were allowed, but provision was made regarding justice to be shown equally towards all. Many interpret this to mean that monogamy is preferable. Such restrictions will appear of great importance if one realizes the savage customs of the Arabs before the rise of Muhammad, at which time possession of as many women as a property was within reach of those who could afford it.

Special commands were issued relative to kindness towards slaves. Muhammad enjoined that slaves should be fed and clothed as their masters; and if they misbehaved they were to be sold and not tormented. If a slave girl became her master’s wife and bore a child, she could not be sold, and at his death obtained her freedom. The child of the slave was also as legitimate as that of her married sister.

STATUS OF WOMEN

Authorities agree that Islam elevated and improved the state of woman. No free woman can be forced to marry against her will; and, so long as single, she is mistress of her actions. The notion that the female sex is not promised the rewards of the future life has no justification in the Qur’án, nay, it is at variance with the whole tenor of the Holy Book and is contradicted by express passages. In case of divorce being granted with a view to marrying another, the Qur’án requires that the dower stipulated at marriage be given in full to her that is divorced. A man can divorce and remarry the same wife for three times, but after that the divorce is absolute.

Amongst the most eloquent passages revealed during the first five years of the Hegira is the Throne Verse, which appears in Sura II— verse 256. It begins thus: “God! There is no God but He: the Living, the Eternal. Slumber doth not overtake Him, neither Sleep. To Him belongeth all that is in the Heavens and in the Earth. . . . He knoweth that which is before them and that which is behind them, and they shall not comprehend anything of His knowledge, saving insofar as He pleaseth. His Throne stretcheth over Heaven and Earth and the protection of them both is no burden unto Him. He is the Lofty and the Great.”

Other lofty verses compare infidelity to a tempestuous Sea, of which the crested waves below mingle with the lowering clouds above,—a scene of impenetrable darkness and despair. This verse is believed to be amongst the grandest and most powerful in the whole Qur’án. The Sura containing it, which is also called the Chapter of Light, is the 24th, which belongs to the 5th year of the Hegira.

In the 6th year of the Hegira (627-628) when Muhammad was 59 years of age, numerous minor expeditions were undertaken. They were as many [Page 32] as seventeen and effected the dispersion of various hostile tribes and stimulated the Moslems’ zeal for active service. Two of these were led by the Prophet Himself.

FIRST CONTACT WITH ROME

About this time Muhammad made His first communication with the Roman Empire. A Muslim named Dihya was sent to one of the Roman governors of Syria. He was received with kindness and given a dress of honor.

A second expedition to Dumat was led by Abd ar-Rahman with 700 men. He was ordered to gain over, if possible, the people of Dumat, and fight only in the last resort. “But in no case,” says the Prophet, “shalt thou use deceit or perfidy or kill any child.”

Zeid set out upon a mercantile expedition to Syria. On the way he was maltreated and plundered by the Beni-Fezara. This caused exasperation at Medina. When Zeid recovered from his injuries, he was deputed with a strong force to seek revenge. The Beni-Fezara were chastised and he reported the success of his expedition to the Prophet, who embraced and kissed him.

Muhammad’s old enemies, the Jews, were still causing annoyance by arousing hostile tribes against the Moslems. Ali undertook an expedition against the Jews of Keibar, but the only result was their dispersion. It was followed by other expeditions in one of which Abu Rafi, a Jewish chief, was slain.

During that year Muhammad gained added prestige by making alliances with the Bedawi tribes lying between Medina and Mecca. While they did not as yet become Moslems, they entered into friendly relations; and thus the assistance, or at least neutrality of all the tribes upon the road, was now assured.

(To be continued)

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WHO WILL RENOUNCE

Blessed are they that have soared on the wings of detachment and attained the station, which, as ordained by God, overshadoweth the entire creation, whom neither the vain imaginations of the learned, nor the multitude of the hosts of the earth have succeeded in deflecting from His Cause. Who is there among you, O people, who will renounce the world, and draw nigh unto God, the Lord of all Names?—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

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ART AND COMMUNITY

MARK TOBEY

IN talking of Art to the man in the street, he says—“It’s beyond me. I can’t even draw a straight line!” Expressions similar to these may be heard in communities of any size, whether small or large. Most people who work all day are under the impression that they haven’t got time to consider such matters or even if they wanted to it’s too late to begin.

In countries like America where the paths to culture are more consciously organized through lectures and reading, we find great activity about art, but few artists! In their mad rush to obtain culture in the same way they might buy a coat, they startle the artist and frighten him into the woods from their overemphasis on the mental side. The “pigeon hole” process will give people many facts but unless the person is willing to go through some of the actual experiences of the living artist and of those whose paintings are left behind in the art museums all over the world as living symbols of their own experience, they remain as persons uninitiated. A great many people I am sure are earnest in their desire to contact art at first hand, but due to existing educational methods they are more often checked than liberated along the line of their own impulse. Art clubs, art societies and art schools mostly form a barrier to the native contact. An extensive course in the history of painting may give one a magnificent scholastic approach, but more often leaves him with his eyes unopened, while his mouth parrots names, dates and what art critics and art authorities have had to say about the composition, color, form and other elements of great paintings.

From my own experience, I have found far too many who have attended art schools and often a four year course, have gone into the world and found themselves forced in any occupation except the one relating to their extensive training. Something must be sadly lacking when such an approach is so defeating. I would say it is mostly due to what might be called—“progressive classes”—starting drawing from casts, then from life—painting from the nude with special classes in composition.

Secondly, and probably more important, it is the faraway goal of what one has to become before one’s own elements can be accepted.

I am not trying to say that art is simple or that the process of becoming an artist, a matter of hit or miss. But I do feel that the psychological factor in art education has been sadly neglected. That any one is considered to be devoid of the creative faculty until [Page 34] a long prescribed course of study has been gone through, is like saying a tree is only a tree when it has reached maturity. The potentialities of art appreciation and creation are present in some degree in almost every child and when the right approach is made to liberate the adult from the mass hung on him or her by using educational methods, we still find that element alive and greatly appreciating any moments of release to be found in a direct approach.

Most of us in life, are held back from doing the things we want to do by the structure of taboos generated by public opinion—approbation of friends or the fear of displeasing in more ways than one. The adult, in beginning to satisfy a long delayed desire in any field, should seek to become conscious as quickly as possible the price to be paid for independence. For all things which separate us in consciousness from mass ideas, are more or less painful and the price of spiritual exertion over habits of long standing, equally so. If one could pick the state of self-consciousness and shyness to pieces, one would find that we live in quite as dark a world of taboos as the civilized man considers the savage to be in.

As it is easier as we grow older to throw aside curiosity and bury our own reactions in mass opinions, so it is to discard the creative impulse into the realms of dreams and what might have been.

All human beings are responsible to each other and the lack of this consciousness creates within communities restrictions and differences, for which the community as a whole pays the price of less expansion. Society as a whole has shut the door to the artist and creative person because they have individually and collectively shut the door to their own creative sides. Feeling people are too difficult and demand too much individual thought and time for the routine of their factual existence. When people of any community learn that art may become a functional part of their life they will find more life and not only that but a new eye and a new ear—and the artist will step down from his ivory tower only too glad to become a part of the whole again and both will come to see these and similar activities as the manifestations of a higher state of human consciousness —the vision of the whole.

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From the exalted source, and out of the essences of His favor and bounty He hath entrusted every created thing with a sign of His knowledge, so that none of His creatures may be deprived of its share in expressing, each according to its capacity and rank, this knowledge. This sign is the mirror of His beauty in the world of creation.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

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NEW MANSIONS FOR NEW MEN

Book Review

ALICE SIMMONS COX

“THE world is being made anew in this mysterious, awe-inspiring twentieth century,” writes Dane Rudhyar. “A new consciousness of the wholeness that is man is being developed, a consciousness almost hierarchical in its scope, inasmuch as it accepts the existence of several levels of being and re-interprets all things in terms of these levels and of the effort which mankind as a Whole and in its individuals is constantly making to shift its focus of being from one level to the next higher.”

The man’s ego may be seen not as a static, unchangeable reality of a metaphysical character, Rudhyar believes, but as a functional center of being growing through its very functioning in scope, depth and significance; growing progressively through measured and meaningful steps, which may recur in cyclic series if life be fulfilled at every step. Although these steps vary with every individual, for every man lives through phases of experience which are in a sense unique, and never duplicated, much as the exact relationship of the stars and planets in the skies can never be duplicated, the unique individual “must pass on his way to death or immortality through portals which are identical in racial significance.” It is the fine lines which the bare feet make upon the sand which are different; but the steps are the same, if the steps be taken at all.

The new-born babe is Life “particularized,” made an individual and unique entity. Space around him is Life “universalized,” total, mother and womb all-encompassing.

“To live means to assimilate much of the surrounding Life as his (babe’s) individual framework and character will enable him to assimilate. To assimilate; not to absorb. Mere absorption is not living experience. To experience vitally is to assimilate, to make the absorbed contents one’s own individual nature and center of reference: the Self. What is absorbed but not assimilated causes physical, mental or spiritual indigestion. It poisons consciousness. Mere awareness is not enough. Consciousness, that is, awareness referred to the individual center of synthesis, is necessary.”

THE CYCLIC PROCESS

Mr. Rudhyar’s book, “New Mansions for New Men,” from which these quotations have been made is an esoteric analysis of the cyclic process of individual development through the three levels of existence, [Page 36] the physiological, the psycho-mental and the truly spiritual. The book is divided into three parts, the first giving its own title to the volume. It presents in the garment of ancient symbols, chiefly astrological, the process of growth as it is influenced by the relation of the soul to the surrounding “space” of life, the various facets of wholeness on the particular level. These relationships are referred to as the twelve “houses” or mansions of astrology, the twelve signs of the zodiac which have their counterpart in the microcosm that is man.

On whatever of the three levels the consciousness is centered, the same basic symbols apply, transfigured with new meaning in each. With the greater insight of this new era “when the Self is being known in new ways through the challenge of new relationships,” we are taking old symbols, Rudhyar asserts, “and blowing into their faded structures a new breath of life. We are making them more inclusive. We are balancing them on new levels of being in the perilous ascent toward unscaled heights of significance. We hope thereby that men may be refreshed in the experience of new images; that they may be led to experience more deeply, as they meet them, old concepts swinging in tune to new rhythms of thinking and feeling, illumined by a refreshed intuition of the goal that is man’s.”

In consideration of the last or twelfth mansion we find a concise illustration of the cyclic development as Rudhyar describes it. The keynote of this mansion is the word: transcendance. It refers to the ecstatic union of the far and near, of the universal and the particular. “According as man operates at one level of being or at another, the twelfth mansion presents one task or another. In the cycle of the first birth man transcends the race and the soil which conditioned his physio-psychological development. Later, man, become truly an individual, finds that at the close of that cycle of individual selfhood there comes a moment when individualism must be transcended. Then he emerges into the realm of the third birth, which is the realm of Light. But even that Light which man may reach in his highest culminations is but a pale reflection of a Reality more sublime and more transcendent. The greater whole is not a static God whose boundaries are marked by the stars’ orbits or the tides of expanding and contracting space. It is that timeless and spaceless ‘More’ which ever urges on toward more transcendent and more ultimate unions.

“And yet—all these mansions, and all these stages of the eternal journey toward that which ever eludes the quest, are but phantasms of our scattered being. Wholeness is absolute in every moment and every point of space. It dwells in the fullness of every whole. To experience this is to know that there is no ‘lesser’ and no ‘greater’; that in the individual alone can there ever be perfection and truth. . . .”

It is the sixth mansion that closes the cycle of individual selfhood, and begins the search for a greater world in which a fulfilled Self finds its place. On the psycho-mental level the search is comparable to the first Valley described [Page 37] by Bahá’u’lláh,—that struggle that brings the ardent and sincere soul to the portals of the spirit birth, the recognition of God, the Seed-Manu, the true Civilization, or the Prophet of the Dispensation according to the terminology of the worker or the devotee.

The second part of the book, Music of the Spheres, is a prose song, fervid and sublime, bearing the tones of the Song of Life and the Song of Light as an analysis of the relation of all creation to God. Here the names of the planets supply the images through which meaning is distilled.

The third section, Meditations at the Gates of Light, is perhaps in its cosmic and theosophical terms most difficult for the layman to understand, but those who know well the tongue of ancient lores will find the essence of meaning enriched thereby. A correlation with modern science and psychology in this section, as in the earlier pages, gives an added significance. Deliberately to the old symbols the writer has given larger meaning.

WARP AND WOOF OF BEING

It is as difficult to review a book that synchronizes its meaning on every page with a system of symbols, the elements of which would have little importance when considered separately, as it would be to depict the rainbow without showing every color of the radiant hemi-circle. Therefore at this point it seems necessary to explain that a review cannot reveal the deeper meanings of Rudhyar’s work. Only can it choose bits of color from the whole, suggestions of the inspiration and the understanding that permeate the book, specific tones which are but parts of a symphonic unity.

“Through the greater heavens the solar song of light flows,” writes Rudhyar. “It strikes the planetary hosts. Like huge gongs they resound to the impact. Their tones mount to a climax, boom forth through space. These tones are power. For they are words and they are commands. They circle through space. In appointed circuits of power, they revolve. Their revolutions stir—in every atom, every cell, every living whole—activities which, blending with the songs of light and life, of Sun and Moon, constitute the warp and woof of organic living.

“The significance of this celestial orchestra resides in this, that in every living thing of the earth there is also, hidden behind the opaque veils of materiality, a cosmic orchestra. And for those who have retained the vision of poets and seers, these orchestras, the one in the skies and the myriads of those in all living wholes, are synchronous. Each organic unity is a little watch timed to the vast clock of the solar system. Life in the many microcosms can be interpeted in terms of the music of the orchestras they contain and which are their living souls—the breaths of Life. For Life is a moving harmony of functions. Organic activities are rhythmical and periodical. Their pulsations can be measured by the beating of invisible gongs; gongs which are hidden within the body, and cosmic ones which man beholds in the sky. . . .

“To the song of light answers [Page 38] faintly at first, yet ever more strongly —the song of life. . . .

“Light is a song—not because it changes of itself, for the Heart of the Sun is changeless; but because the Earth—symbol of the individual’s consciousness—orients itself differently to it, season after season. . . .

“Out of the dark Waters of Space wells up the song of life; and this song is born of the past. It is born of unfulfillment. This is the true meaning of the ‘original sin.’ That which is fulfilled has no need for life. It is pure being; bliss. But life is suffering; because it is striving; because it is the attempt to overcome the memory and the pull of the past. Light is the compassionate gesture of God providing another opportunity to neutralize or redeem the relative failures of the past. This opportunity is what is meant by ‘living in an organic body of earth-substance.’ Earth is the new field of opportunity. . . . The body is the one field of opportunity provided by God in His great compassion for the unfulfilled and the imperfect—so that it might become fulfilled and perfect at the end of the cycle of living. And by ‘body’ here is meant every living organism—from the atom to the solar system and the vastest galaxies. The whole manifested universe is the ‘pattern of redemption.’ . . .

“Light gives to men the will to be whole and integrated. Life gathers their chaotic energies, churns them up, dissolves and boils them in the alchemical vessel in which may be generated the gold of consciousness and of individual selfhood. . . .

“The processes of gestation and individuation are based on analogical operations; only, the former is an entirely set process at this time of man’s evolution, with a relatively small percentage of failures, whereas the latter is not at all well established at present, and carries a vast majority of at least relative or temporary failures. . . . Man as a species has not yet reached psycho-mental maturity, or let us say, stability. . . . Humanity, as a whole, is attempting to set a process of individuation which would be valid and successful for the race at large, and which would result in the formation of true individuals. In order to do that, mind must have reached a high point of development; for the formative Powers of individual selfhood are mental. . . . Without mind, the soul is a field of conflicting psychic energies which can be controlled only by an autocratic Will, itself the product of a dominant desire. . . . It is only when mind can be made the basis of the whole process of individuation that this process can become valid for the majority of men. Mind as a basis; not of course as the whole structure. . . .

“This development means that the song of life is being sounded at a higher level. It means that the Moon is becoming trans-substantiated. A ‘hidden’ Moon is being revealed, and its vibrations are stirring a new layer of the dark waters of Space. A deeper layer. A past more ancient, more cosmic, is being resurrected, to be redeemed by a will to integration more profound and more absolute. A new Sun-call is arousing a higher song of life. This Sun-call was heard last century by those who had ears to hear. [Page 39] Now the song of life is answering. Pluto opens the gates to the formative powers of a new Order of life. A new Root is conquering the depths of Man—depths as yet never truly conquered and civilized, depths the denizens of which could only be forced back into dark dungeons of the planetary Unconscious by the Will of planetary Rulers. And this conquest is by Love and Understanding. Such is the reality of the ‘Second Coming’.”

It is the universal conscious, the great dream, which must rescue the individuals on the earth. “And the universal does so through those Holy Ones who gladly assume the burden and the sins of the world.” Their coming imparts to the whole planet a spiritual vibration and a new consciousness.

Concerning the evolution of the soul, Bahá’u’lláh has written:

“All the differences which the traveler sees in the world of Being, during the various stages of his journey, are due to the perception of the traveler himself. . . . When the gaze of the traveler is restricted to a limited place, that is, when he looks as through a colored glass, he then sees yellow, red or white. It is due to such a view of things that conflict is stirred up among the servants, and a gloomy dust, rising from men of limitation, hath enveloped the world. . . for some dwell in the plane of oneness and speak in the world of oneness; some stand in the world of limitation, others in the stages of the self, and still others are totally veiled. . . . Peace be on whosoever accomplisheth this supreme journey, and followeth the True One through the lights of guidance.”

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WONDROUS THE UNITY

How wondrous is the unity of the Living, the Ever-Abiding God—a unity which is exalted above all limitations, that transcendeth the comprehension of all created things! He hath, from everlasting, dwelt in His inaccessible habitation of holiness and glory, and will unto everlasting continue to be enthroned upon the heights of His independent sovereignty and grandeur. How lofty hath been His incorruptible Essence, how completely independent of the knowledge of all created things. . .—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

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Volume Four contains 480 pages of reading matter with Index and Title page. It will be invaluable as a permanent source of reference. It makes an excellent gift for presentation to Public and University Libraries.

Volume One, Two and Three containing the issues from April, 1935 to March, 1938, may also be obtained at the same cost as Volume Four. Those who prefer to make their own arrangements for binding, can obtain a copy of Title Page free on request.

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