CHAPTER XIII.

TOLERANCE
The cultivation of a broad tolerance is necessary for one who would make any intellectual and moral progress. Intolerance fetters the soul. It erects barriers between us and others and clouds the vision instead of illuminat- ing the understanding. It limits our opportunities and narrows our field of experience. Now, experience is the great teacher — the master instructor in the evolutionary school. It is through experience that we evolve, that we reach the higher stages of development. The difference between the ignorant, uncouth and depraved, and the enlight- ened, refined and noble, is the result of thought and emotion working on the experiences that arouse them,
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Thought and experience, acting and re- acting on each other, are the great char- acter builders. At a lower stage of evo- lution the experience arouses thought and we get a lesson we did not seek by making mental deductions from the experience, as for example, when one has thoughtlessly gone out on a cold day without adequate clothing and suf- fered in consequence, and, reflecting upon it afterward, learns at least a little in the development of caution. At a higher stage of evolution thought takes precedence and we deliberately search out that within us which needs strengthening and as deliberately seeK the experience required to develop the desired virtue, as when, after deciding that we are deficient in compassion we set about cultivating it by visiting the sick and the bereaved. But whether experience comes first or last it is an indispensable factor in human progress and soul development, and whatever re-
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stricts our experience delays our evo- lution.
While religious intolerance is a very pronounced form of this vice — a term none too strong for a thing so detri- mental to human welfare — we should not forget that, in one form or another, there is more intolerance in the average person and, indeed, even in the fairly liberal and progressive man, than most of us would be willing to admit. In many directions this deadly moral nightshade extends its branches. There is race intolerance, national intolerance, class intolerance and, insidious and far- reaching in its evil effects, the more common form of intolerance which we know as self -righteousness, that leads a person to place false emphasis on the weaknesses of others and remain blind to his own. Many people have passed the point where they have any preju- dice against a person because he is of another race and color: have reached
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the degree of enlightenment that en- ables them to look upon a man of an- other nationality as they regard a fel- low countryman; have learned to feel no prejudice against another because he is of a different class or of a higher or lower walk of life, as the case may be; have reached the degree of under- standing that enables them, no matter what their own station is, to see all peo- ple as one; to look with an impartial eye upon the richest and the poorest, the learned and the ignorant, as differ- ent members of the universal family, each entitled to the most courteous con- sideration;— many people are able to do all this, and yet when it comes to dealing with various grades of moral weaknesses they exhibit a self-right- eous intolerance that is a bar to spir- itual progress. There are certain forms, or classes, of moral weaknesses with which they will have nothing to 'do and toward their unfortunate broth-
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ers and sisters afflicted with these moral flaws they assume an attitude of lofty disdain. Many a man who is broad- minded and progressive regards a thief or a degenerate as being beyond the pale of consideration, while many a liberal and sympathetic woman regards her fallen sister with equal intolerance and draws her skirts aside, as she passes, with frank contempt. And so it is that thousands of us who are swift to condemn the intolerance of religious bigotry are still blind to the fact that we are, ourselves, equally intolerant when it comes to matters of a differ- ent sort.
Now, it is when we have conquered intolerance in its commoner forms and are ready for the higher work of over- coming the subtler variety, that great spiritual lessons can come to us through the very people against whom, through our intolerance, we are closing the gates of our sympathy. If we do not erect
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the barrier of intolerance and thus com- pletely separate ourselves from them — if we do not thus limit our field of experience by our foolish prejudice — we shall find that from the sympathetic consideration we give them will spring a wider wisdom than we now possess. The great work that lies before every evolving soul is nothing less than the comprehension of life in all its forms and varieties, the understanding of the universe and the acquirement of com- passion; and every barrier that stands in the way of that must be broken down. To permit any lingering in- tolerance to narrow and blind us in our spiritual unfoldment would be some- thing like the blunder of a man who desires to be a great painter harboring such a prejudice against a certain col- or that he would have nothing to do with it. He would thus be shutting out a factor in his artistic development that would be absolutely fatal to his
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ultimate success and all his work would be marred and his progress in art would be barred by that foolish preju- dice until he got rid of it. Red may not be as pleasing a color as blue, but both are equally the result of the divi- sion of a pure white ray of light by a prism and each is essential to the har- mony of colors. Even so is every hu- man personality the result of trying to manifest inherent divinity through the medium of matter and its differing expressions must be studied and under- stood before we can comprehend the harmony of the whole.
Between intolerance and self -right- eousness there is a most intimate rela- tionship and the highest of spiritual au- thorities has pointed out the subtle evil that lurks therein. Perhaps many good people will never cease wondering about the utterances of the Christ as He rebuked the Pharisees and mingled with the publicans and sinners, declar-
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ing the latter to be much nearer the kingdom of heaven than the self-right- eous. But to the student of occultism this truth must be as clear as the sun- light. A feeling of separateness is the sin of sins and the most difficult to overcome. The sinners from whom the self-righteous drew back in horror doubtless had the heart side of their natures much more highly evolved than their haughty critics had, and although they were at the moment showing forth a moral weakness to be condemned, they would, in the natural course of things, evolve out of that much more quickly than those who looked upon them with intolerant contempt would be able to get rid of that flaw. To put the case differently it was just because this particular class of sinners repre- sented a lower form of iniquity than self -righteousness that the public was able to recognize it as a sin, and it was precisely because self -righteousness was
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a more subtle (and therefore more dangerous) form of iniquity that the people did not recognize it as a sin at all.
Why is intolerance such a dangerous thing? For one reason because by plac- ing undue emphasis on the fault against which the line of exclusion is drawn without mercy or consideration, we be- come blind to the good qualities of which no human being is destitute, and thus ignore the very thing for which we should always be searching and which we should emphasize and en- courage. We permit the one bad qual- ity to hypnotize us, so to speak, by steadily regarding it until our moral judgment is unbalanced, as a man gazes at a black spot on a white wall until certain muscles are fatigued, and hyp- nosis is induced. Even so do the in- tolerant paralyze perception and be- come blind to the good.
The remedy for intolerance is to re-
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member that all life is one; that those about us are literally ourselves in other forms and that at a high point on the inner planes consciousness is a unit. We are individuals and yet we are one, as the fingers are separate and yet one in consciousness, so that one of them cannot suffer without affect- ting the one consciousness that directs all. The body is no more the self than one finger is the hand. The universal Self is being expressed through many forms, each of which expresses but a fragment of the one consciousness, and if one of these apparently separate selves regards another with self-right- eous intolerance a subtle injury is done which is somewhat analogous to the wound one hand might inflict upon the other.
A helpful method in eliminating in- tolerance, in breaking down the sepa- rating walls, is to deliberately search for the good in everything and every-
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body; to remember that there is no- body who does not embody some vir- tue. The good and the bad, or strength and weakness, are mingled in all. The distinction is that the weaknesses dif- fer in the manner of their expression. Some weaknesses are more unpopular than others, that's all ; and that is what determines the moral code. One robs a stranger but would defend his friends with his life. Another breaks no law, but would sneak away at the first sign of danger to himself and leave his friends to perish. One gives way to the lust of drunkenness, but is always the friend of other people. Another is a model of sobriety but will meanly spread the gossip of his friend's shame. One is quick in temper and engages in a street brawl, but a moment later shakes hands with his antagonist. An- other would do nothing so disgraceful, but when offended bullies and insults the timid in a way that satisfies his
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anger and proves his cowardice. And so it goes throughout the whole list of human weaknesses. Some classes of faults are more unpopular than others largely because they are more on the surface ; and, as a rule, those who are most intolerant of the frailties of others are precisely those who, in other directions, are morally lame themselves. But there is good in all; even in the intolerant !
Tolerance is a noble virtue, and a cornerstone in the temple not built with hands. Upon it must rest other virtues to be acquired. Tolerance precedes en- lightenment as the dawn precedes the day. It dispels the darkness of our ignorance about others and illuminates the road that leads to peace. It is the gateway to universal brotherhood. Without tolerance there can be no jus- tice. With tolerance there can be no cruelty. It is the herald of mercy and the prophecy of dawning compassion.