!!! This text was extracted from an image and needs proofreading !!!
(January 1891)
Publications:
- The Path, vol. V, no. 10, January 1891, pp. 307-310
Read:
DATA
Title for references: Kingsbury EA - Swinging Round the Circle
Short description: Contrasts, generation by generation over roughly seventy years, the shift from Puritanical and Spiri...
307
This world is all a fleeting show,
For Man's illusion given.
Fifty, seventy years ago, people sang this with full faith in its verity. They were taught, and believed, that this world is a howling wilderness, full of snares and pitfalls placed by the enemy of souls for their destruction; that they must walk in a very straight and circumspect manner, ever on the alert to avoid these dangers; that they must deny themselves the pleasures of the world, because they were like so many fascinating308fiends, luring them on to destruction; that the more hard, austere, and self-denying were their lives, the more likely they would be to win the favor of God and escape everlasting torments. To assume a grave and solemn countenance, to close their eyes to the beauties of Nature, to crucify every innocent inclination, every natural affection, was eminently edifying and would greatly conduce to their spiritual elevation.
Therefore, at least in Puritanical New England, little girls were not allowed to curl their hair, wear red shoes or gay dresses, while the plays of all children must be quiet and infrequent. Parents considered themselves in duty bound to subject children to a strict discipline, carefully abstaining from praise or a display of affection for them. A solemn and impressive kiss might be bestowed upon some rare occasion, but a frequent act of the kind was deemed vain, frivolous, and fraught with danger. Upon one occasion an old lady who had a wicked love of flowers thoughtlessly invited her minister into the garden to admire them. She received a well-merited rebuke; was told that instead of spending precious time cultivating useless weeds, she had better be reading her Bible and trying to save souls from hell!
Thirty years ago, we were told this is all a great mistake; that God made the world bright and beautiful, filling it with flowers and birds and other attractive objects, and then gave us the faculties to enjoy them; that, in the words of Lessing, "God loves to look into a joyful heart, rather than into one crushed with sorrow;" that in our love for music and painting and sculpture and every other art, in our pursuit of science and philosophy, in our affection for family and kindred, in short, in every innocent pleasure of this life, we are honoring and glorifying the Giver of all these blessings, and that with gratitude and thanksgiving we should appropriate them and feel that we are spiritually benefited by so doing.
Now we are coming round to the former position. Now we are taught that, while it is right to live in the world, performing its duties, enjoying its innocent delights, and learning all that its wisdom can impart, yet if we have an ardent desire to become spiritually unfolded, if we are willing, aye glad, to sacrifice every worldly good for this object, we must seclude ourselves from mankind, lead solitary and austere lives, with nothing to distract our minds from the arduous labor of eradicating every earthly desire and elevating and illuminating our spiritual natures; that we shall thus avoid many tedious and painful reincarnations, having taken long and rapid strides towards that desired goal, Nirvana-Moksha!
Fifty, seventy years ago, when a woman, with her soul filled with the sweetest, holiest affection of which a human being is capable, held in her arms her new-born infant, she was told it was not really hers; that it had been sent from God, and, while she and her husband were the authors of309its physical body, its soul was lent to them from on high; that they were to carefully nurture the body and train the soul, so that it would eventually return, pure and holy, to the God who gave it.
Thirty years ago, by studying Physiology, Phrenology, and the law of Heredity, people learned that the soul as well as the body was the joint product of father and mother; that the peculiar mental traits of parents were often strikingly manifest in their children; that it is easy to perceive how they inherit not only the complexion, hair, and eyes of these parents, but also their benevolence, causality, and self esteem, and many instances were cited to prove the truth of this assertion.
Now Darwin having demonstrated the evolution of our physical bodies from the lower kingdoms, Theosophy steps in and declares that from the Absolute come forth Almighty Powers; from these issue subordinate ones, yet mighty, for the formation of the Universe. From these proceed the seven Logoi, who are the Elohim of the Jews; the ones who said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Theosophy teaches that man was at first semi-transparent, immense, boneless. Afterwards, separating into male and female, he, the true soul, gradually assumed the present condensed physical form we now inhabit; that when a man dies, his soul dwells for a time in the world of effects, reaping the reward of its good deeds in this life.
At length becoming restless and seeking for another embodiment in flesh, it is attracted by the law of affinity to a couple who are best fitted to receive and reclothe this soul with a mortal body, and its likeness to these parents is the effect of this affinity. Thus it traverses a wide field of experience. In one life it may be a beggar; in another a king; in one an African negro, in another an American citizen; in one a Baron of the feudal ages, in another an oriental adept. Thus we have come round to the former idea, that the soul descends from God and is not the offspring of earthly parents.
Fifty, seventy years ago, people entertained the idea that every man and woman had a mate somewhere, in this life or the other; that this companion would be found sooner or later, and they would dwell together in the closest and sweetest of ties, forever and ever.
Thirty years ago, we were told this idea was altogether fanciful and absurd: that among the countless myriads of human beings there are no two alike, but the difference between many will be so very slight that there will be a general fellowship, an association with one person for a time for a certain purpose, and then with another person for a different one; that there can be no such thing as an equal number of men and women, here or in a higher life.310Now we are informed, by those who profess to know of what they speak, that the soul of man is originally dual: that descending from God it separates into male and female, leading on this life and for untold ages in the future two distinct existences; that these existences occasionally meet and recognise each other in the immense cycle in which they are destined to revolve, but they part again, to be finally and firmly reunited when they have attained to a certain height in the scale of being.
In heaven above where all is love, |
Fifty, seventy years ago, if people did not actually sing this song—for it was not written then, yet it expresses the substance of their opinion respecting the future state of existence. They believed that on leaving the body the righteous would enter into a place or condition where there would be no sorrow, no sighing, no tears, but bliss ineffable, unchanging, and complete, forever and ever.
Thirty years ago, people began to consider that as it was only the body that died, the soul must enter that other life unchanged; that the peculiarities that constitute a man's individual character, the envy, jealousy, or indolence, or parsimony, or inordinate ambition that reigned in his soul here, would continue to hold its possession there; that he would therefore have to labor and struggle there, very much as he has to do here, to subdue those evil propensities in himself and assist others to overcome theirs; that as he has entered into a higher and wider life so his work will be greater and more absorbing; and many shrank from this prospect and felt that they would prefer annihilation; they so longed for rest!
Now this rest is promised them. Now Theosophy teaches that on leaving the body we enter a state where quietness, peace, and happiness prevail in different degrees according to the moral and spiritual condition of our lives here; that it is a period of repose, of delightful and leisurely recuperation, after the toils and struggles and agonies incident to this life; that for sins committed in the flesh we must suffer in the flesh.
The evil passions and desires we have not subdued in one earth life, we must work out in others. Consequently, we must return again and again, till we—that is, our higher egos—have conquered the lower ones. This will be a tedious and painful labor, but we are permitted long and blissful intervals of rest, while the result will be a glorious union with the Infinite.
Thus the primitive idea of a rest after this life has returned to us.
Did our grandparents have a clearer perception of truth than those who came after them?
Elizabeth A. Kingsbury.
Footnotes