Part 2 I simply say, Gentlemen, you know better; anyone of common sense can see the absurdity of such ideas. Do we not suffer for the violence we do to ourselves ? Most assuredly. Then why does nature, or God, necessity, or fate make us suffer for doing that which we cannot help doing ? Man is of necessity a law maker, and, in his ignorance, cannot conform to natures laws. To conform to nature would be to revolve in an eternal circle; but man, in striving for the new, breaks through the circle of ignorance and indifference, and gets hurt in so doing. Thus he becomes diseased by his own act. I freely admit that he cannot help — 33 — violating the law on account of ignorance, but each act or violation is a creation, and is more pleasing to man because it is his own. And furthermore, the ignorance we complain of is in ourselves, ar,d not in surroundings. Thus we compel ourselves to act \ each act creates light, and light is the object of our existence. Evil is our teacher. It is wisely ordered that we should suffer; for that increases action or light, to which we are responsible, and by which all are judged. We are nature, necessity, or fate. Whatever is, is right! No, indeed: the reverse is nearer the truth. There is nothing true to its condition; if things were true and right, there would be no need of improvement, and no possible room for it. There would be no foreshadowing of a better state of things : no aspirations, no longings,no heartaches, nor weariness of soul. There is little of right and truth in all things; just enough to give us a taste of the good, and make us dissatisfied with our present condition, and spur us on to effort to better it. No man can climb who is at the top of the ladder. Truth and right are far, very far, above us, but we get flashes and gleams of the glory occasionally, which shows us where we stand on the ladder. Hideous, weird, fantastic shapes glare out of the darkness beneath, but above us is light, truth, knowledge, love, glory, harmony. Nature is harmony, but the unnatural is discord. Man is unnatural because he is less than nature. He pretends to love nature, but in reality he despises it. We are creatures of art. We are made up mainly of hereditary and acquired habits. These have become a second nature, which we admire. This second nature I call the unnatural. True, nature keeps along with us in our downward course, and fights manfully against disease; restoring us in sleep, and adapting itself to our vices and crimes. It is our voluntary powers which ruin us, but it is the involuntary which gives us what little health we have. When we forget ourselves in sweet sleep, nature asserts itself; and even then the abnormal habits of our daily lives prevents her work. There is very little indifferent sleep. We are too intense; the intensity of the day disturbs the night. We cannot forget that which we love : our daily avocations, our graspings, our hoarding up, our over reaching of each other : these haunt us in our sleep. Nature must play second. Our natural habits we are ashamed of, and hide them away as we cover our nakedness. We take no lesson even from innocent childhood glimpses of the kingdom of glory. but our earliest recollections are pointing the finger of shame. Dowd, F. B. (Freeman Benjamin). The temple of the rosy cross. The soul: its powers, migration, and transmigrations (Kindle Locations 338-350). Philadelphia, J. R. Rue, jr., printer.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 22:15:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015