CHAPTER V.

The World of Chance.
Evidences of design in the structure of the uni- verse abound on every hand. The reign of law is everywhere apparent, and equally apparent are the exceptions, giving birth to the axiom, " Exceptions prove the rule.*' All riiles have exceptions, which we term accidents. We do not know what perfec- tion is ; we have only an idea of it. In nature everything shows some degree of wisdom in its adaptation to ends, its working and mechanism ; but the distortions of form, the aberrations of mind, the abortive efforts that meet us on every side, plainly teach that wisdom is not universal. The most perfect plan may be spoiled by some petty accident. What of the child perfect in every particular from the eyes to the extremities, but above the eyes having the head and ears of a calf ? Evidently the wise design was the produc- tion of a perfect human being, but the plan is thwarted by the opposing force which we call ac- cident and, with or without design, a monster is produced, something before unknown which we name "a freak.*' Freaks are the exceptions to
50
The World of Chance, 5 1
Nature's order. May we not suppose them to be beginnings of another variety of the human, or human-animal kingdom, encroaching upon the legitimate domain of human nature, the outcome of another form of nature where the manifestations are not orderly and the human is not yet dis- tinctly separate from animal life ?
We speak of nature as a unit ; but there are realms of nature other than this which we know, with its endless variety of forms, objects, and spe- cies, in all of which life, consciousness, sensation are one and the same. Life passes from one form to another, but it is always the same life, although no consciousness remains of any previous condi- tion, for memory is weak at its best. So life may pass from one order to another, from one nature to another, growing greater here and less there without losing an atom of its essential quality.
That one form of life evolves from another is so far speculation, inasmuch as the connecting link is undiscovered, and it is logical to deny the merging of this life into another beyond the grave since the connecting link is not open to the vision of all. What we are to be no one actually knows. Prob- ably the grub does not dream that it is to be a butterfly, and there is no evidence that the but- terfly remembers its previous form of life. And such memory, if it existed, would hardly enhance the pleasure of his gorgeous majesty. Perhaps we
52 Regeneration,
should shrink with horror if we knew what we had been a century ago. Even in one brief span of life very little pleasure is derived from memory. The future is man's sweetheart, and he who loves her best is the happiest. Doubt of her disturbs one's rest and robs the present of its value. All the religions that have blessed or cursed man- kind have their roots in the future. The Happy Hunting Grounds of the Indian, the Kingdom of Heaven of the Christian, the Nirvana of the Buddhist, the Spheres of the Spiritualist, all attest the fact that the undiscovered, the unknown, feeds the soul, even as the known feeds body and mind. The plodding farmer ploughs in the cold and the rain of the present, but he lives in the future. He sees the glittering harvest cover his fields, and his soul is fed by hope and imagination.
It is well that the future, all unknown, takes form through the agency of the imagination. It is well also that the past is hidden from view by heavy curtains of ignorance and darkness. That past of the chance nature where men with animal heads, or animals with heads of men stalk abroad ; where order and system are in embryo; where wisdom is unknown ; where freaks are the dawning of order, the outgrowth of experiment, or if you like, the result of evolution — all this does not invite the mind to turn backward, nor allure the soul as do the promises of the future. Albeit out
The World of Chance, 53
of this chaos, this form of nature, which we fondly imagine to be complete, has evolved, growing as everything grows toward completeness. We need no longer puzzle over our want of wisdom, our in- completeness, and the lack in most men of the truly human spirit. The good, the beautiful, the useful, are the result of culture, as the finest fruits of the earth are the result of thought, attention, and intelligent labor. Spiritual growth and per- fection arfe attained in no other way.
The spiritual nature in man is the Divine Triad of Love, Will, and Wisdom ; and these elements of conscious individuality are not made to order, created in perfection, but are evolved by culture, through thought and action.
The first manifestation of wisdom is order, " Heaven's first law," clearly pointing to that un- derlying nature which knows no law, the realm of chance, accident, and disorder. The realm in which we exist is a realm of law, but chaos smoul- ders underneath, a quenchless fire which occasion- ally breaks through the walls which Wisdom has built to imprison it. Disorder then runs riot and monsters appear, just as from some superior world strange natures intermingle with ours, producing a gentle Jesus, a wise Socrates, a devoted Buddha, or some musical, mathematical, or artistic prodigy. The genius that astonishes reveals a superior order of nature ; monstrosities a lower form, deficient
54 Regeneration,
in method in its productions, the sport of blind force working without knowledge of the end to be achieved. Thus we see there may be many forms of nature besides those of the world we live in. The nature in which we find ourselves is subdi- vided into many, as organic and inorganic, brute and human ; but there is a certain resemblance, certain points of contact between them, while there is no relation or affinity between order and disorder, or between certainty and chance. If a realm of chance does not exist, whence comes the influence that wrecks the harmony of this realm, bringing to naught the best laid plans. Surely a form of nature under rule may have its opposite, or may be intermingled with millions of forms related to this only as being, in the lower forms, animated by universal force and, in the higher ranges, by the expansion of that force into automatic Will, Love, and Wisdom; a nature that is orderly without law, systematic without friction, and harmonious without discord. Evidence that a chance nature exists is found in the uncertain action of the ele- ments, the wind for instance, that " bloweth where it listeth " apparently without method and to no definite end. The seasons appear regularly obe- dient to law, but as to the wind and the rains, are they intelligently controlled, or is there a power- ful force of disorder with which Intelligence wages an unceasing and persistent war 1
The World of Oiance. 55
It appears that mankind is controlled more by chance than by intelligence, else war and crime would cease ; there is too little mind among men, and consequently too little in the elements, to pro- duce harmony of action ; there is too much mat- ter and too little wisdom.
Is there a nature where Wisdom exceeds the grossness ? We are taught that there is and that various methods of getting into it — notably the Buddhist and the Christian — are practised. Ac- cording to Buddhism, there are many heavens and many hells in the after life ; a going out from and a return to the earth ; changes from brute to human, from human to brute nature ; the soul al- ternately in heaven and in hell, with incarnations in matter between. This existence may go on eter- nally, there being but one way out of the entangle- ment of reincarnation : the entire being must be so trained as to be void of desire, free from influ- ence from the external world, which is Maya, illu- sion, the cause of the entanglement of the Soul in the meshes of Matter, the prolific source of all evil.
The persistent discipline necessary to freedom from all sense impressions unbalances the nature, turning the forces inward and thwarting the devel- opment of the soul, which should use matter to express or manifest itself. Hence the inertia of India, priest-ridden, ignorant and retrogressive ;
56 Regeneration,
vital only when the masterful spirit of the mate- rial Anglo-Saxon races have touched her.
Monasticism, with its primal tenet of celibacy, is the outcome of contempt for the external world and its uses, together with a frantic effort to di- vide that which is one^ the male and the female, into two, God laughs at such folly, and the great primal forces play throughout the worlds while a slow decay, the curse of outraged nature, blights the virility of the race or nation dominated by the hoary fraud.
Virility in proper use makes for expansion in individuals and races. It creates the family, which is the natural and healthy growth of the nation ; it recreates the individual by expanding the limits of love and benevolent feeling. It frees the soul from that hideous nightmare of selfishness which toils for Nirvana ; for placid, undisturbed serenity for self.
It is a fact that through celibacy clairvoyance is sometimes developed, but to what end.^ The celibate clairvoyant may experience trances and ecstasies, may see the heavens opened like Saint John, and behold the trampling horses, the char- iots and hosts, the beasts from the chance world, and all the gorgeous, fearful, mysterious wonders of another condition of being, a meaningless phan- tasmagoria over which the ages may puzzle, wran- gle, or blindly adore. How few such visions
The World of Chance. 57
stretch forth helpful hands to humanity ! Forced growth cannot bear the natural sunshine and rains, the free, changeable rush of all the winds that blow, and the hothouse plant must be kept under glass for the pleasure and use of a chosen few.
When expansion ceases in the individual or the race, weakness, decay, and death are at hand, and celibacy paralyzes expansion. From the celibate priesthood of India came caste with its iron bond- age, thwarting nature on every hand. The mo- nasticism of the Roman church let loose on the world the monsters of the Inquisition, which, after fearful struggles, like beaten hounds, slunk back into the darkness of the under-world of ignorance and disorder; that chance world, devoid of wisdom and law, the doors of which were opened by the celibate priesthood, whose power to create was sub- verted into an engine of destruction. No longer free themselves, they strove to contract the limits of thought for all the world.
The dynamic power of all things is in the com- bination of the three primal principles. Love, Will, and Wisdom ; these constitute an infinite reservoir from which we may draw at will by focusing all our power on Love, loving Love wholly and willing only good, and this is Wisdom which, in its ful- ness, will eliminate the world of chance. Spirit, concentrating, forms a soul, or center of power, the beginning of mind. This is the evolvement of
58 Regeneration.
light from darkness, the division of the Infinite One into the finite two, the Builder and the De- stroyer, the former intelligent, the latter void of intelligence. The calf's head on a human body shows an intelligent adjustment of parts ^ but the wisdom to produce harmony and order through the entire being is lacking. It is vain to search for the uses of most of the chance operations of nature. It is claimed that all events are under the reign of law, that there are no accidents in this life and world ; but the very existence of law presupposes something outside of it to be guided, controlled, or guarded against lest chaos come again. Plant a seed in the earth, — it is a law of nature that it shall germinate and multiply itself a thousand fold ; but then come the weeds to choke, insects to devour, with blight, mildew, drought, or deluge, — the result of conflicting laws the out- come of whose action is disorder, something out- side of law, — a condition antagonistic to the orderly march of fertility, which must be guarded against by the wisdom of the husbandman. But toil and plan as wisely as he may, after all he is helpless in the hands of the r'emorseless Chance which sends rain to his ruin, or a destructive frost before its proper time.
It is better to think that this nature in which we live is wise and good and all right, when not interfered with, than to believe that all things are
The World of Chance. 59
ordered by an all wise and all intelligent Being, for in that case we cannot escape the conclusion that the chance operations of life, its " accidents " and catastrophes, are the work of a most malig- nant spirit.
If the farmer knew how he could check the growth of weeds, banish destructive insects and guide the rain clouds at will ; but the lack of mind, its feebleness in mankind, accounts for our inability to control the elements within and with- out. The measure of control we can exercise over the subtile elements of our physical and spiritual forms fixes the ratio of our control over the subtile elements which surround us. If our physical and spiritual conditions are beyond our power to regu- late, how can we control the wind and the rain } We are intimately connected with and related to the external world, and our states of mind and body are as much subject to accident or chance. He who is absolute master of his own organism can speak health into diseased conditions, still the tempest, raise the dead, or make bread out of the impalpable ether. The story of the powers of Jesus is not an idle tale, yet the powers ascribed to him are not those of a God, but are such as be- long to another form of nature, a condition which all men may reach through regeneration.
We have lived, suffered, enjoyed, and died prior to this life, but the memory of that past is in most
6o Regeneration,
cases wholly dissipated. Although we retain no memory of it, we once inhabited a form of nature so dissimilar to this that the imagination refuses to picture it. We shall pass out of this life into another, remembering perhaps for a short time some of its many events, but of what use is such memory } With some, doubtless, memory per- ishes at once. Those who are done with this human nature will pass out of it, some into a higher, others into a lower nature, the chance nature where accidents are the rule, and order the exception. In the higher form of nature in- dividuality exists without law, consciousness is ac- cording to desire, for one feels as he wishes to feel and the will plays with the laws of nature as a child with his toys. The worlds of space are the notes of an infinite anthem sung by the grand per- fected souls who have fulfilled the laws of the hu- man nature by wise and orderly use. This other higher and freer nature was sensed by Gautama as Nirvana. Those who reach Nirvana escape the whirl of motion incident to this nature and attain to a condition of being indescribable and almost inconceivable.
Wisdom is begotten by mind concentrated on Love; or, in other words, by will for the good of those beloved. Intelligence and Love in union bring forth wise action; their products are Har- mony, Order, and Beauty, while Intelligence with-
The World of Chance, 6 1
out Love gives birth to those half human creatures which are physical or moral monsters, void of sense and true understanding; not degemrates^ but beings called up by accident, or by an unrea- soning gust of passion ; for although passion is the germ of love, it may be checked in its evolution and blighted by the unreasoning power of chance.
" In the beginning *' there was no order ; ** the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep,'* when Spirit, con- centrating, forced light, life, form, order, system to appear ; but the great void, the unregulated, un- reasoning force, uncreated Chance^ remains, a sub- stratum of ignorance to ensphere every child born into human nature. The world teems with schools, colleges, academies, churches; it is loaded with literature to scatter the light of knowledge ; gov- ernments with standing armies suppress disorder and sternly forbid chaos from overflowing into human nature ; and yet bloody wars, fiendish cru- elties, cold-blooded rapacity, fraud and wrong tes- tify to a kind of nature inferior to the brute nature, because lawless, chaotic, and semi-intelligent with- out even instinctive love. This form of nature in which we are seems to be a mask thrown over the defects and deformities of that other from which we came not so long ago, although all recollection of it has passed from our transient memory, as this
62 Regeneration,
life too will be forgotten when we shall have passed from it through the processes of Regeneration.
The evidence of a future existence for man is overwhelming; because he is^ he shall be. But such communication as is possible between that other nature and this proves that intellect wanes and disappears on the other side instead of in- creasing in power and brilliancy. From this we conclude that the appearance of human spirits as individual intelligences is limited to the astral belt surrounding the earth, from beyond which there is no return. Those who pass on take with them only the immortal principles of Love, Will, and Wisdom evolved by the experiences of many in- carnations in the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human planes of this nature.
The ladder the soul must climb in "Regeneration is Love, and the first round of the ladder in con- scious life is sexual desire, while the last and high- est is the Love of the Gods — Universal Love. Beyond is Nirvana, the Over-soul, in which through Love, Pity, Tenderness, the fruit of social experi- ence, joined to the Will of the Good, the fruit of moral growth, guided by Wisdom, the harvest of intelligence, man ceases to be a creature of limi- tations and takes his place among the gods, a source of order, harmony, and love. Sexual desire is Love (or God), expressing itself through the generative functions and in its lowest phases is
The World of Chance, 63
without tenderness, respect, or pity ; but in the regenerating soul there is a constantly increasing activity of the creative force welling up in gener- ous emotions and unselfish desires until the whole man groans with the burden of sympathy with weakness and suffering. The suffering and weak are the children, the barbarous, the ignorant, and he who takes advantage of the weak excites in the breast of the good the same pity which is accorded to the helpless. Pity is the chain that unites the highest and the lowest ; it is the ladder whereby the Gods descend to earth for reincarnation. We came out of chaos where is no pity, nor order, nor law ; we emerged into the orderly realm of Law, where Love, Will, and Wisdom have a beginning ; we pass to Nirvana, which is order without law and Love without limitations. Wisdom is the light of the mind, and to add continually to this quench- less fire of the soul is the work of Regeneration acting through will, or desire, and through love. Concentration, which is the focusing of mind by Love and Will, or Desire, is the beginning of re- straint, which is Law ; the Word that went forth in the Beginning "Let there be light !" was the con- centration of magnetism out of the formless chaos into an active center, — a soul.