AUTHOR'S FOREWORD.

In presenting the following pages to the world I desire to offer a few explanatory words concerning the form in which this book appears.

During my 6 months’ residence in the city of Washington, U. S. A., which comprised the winter of 1909-10, I was earnestly entreated by many friends to compile a volume which should embody the gist of a very large number of lectures delivered during that period, especially those which dealt particularly with the Sacred Books of the world.

Owing to the very large amount of space required for even the barest outline of treatment of the Scriptures venerated by Jews and Christians alone, to say nothing of the Sacred Books of other faiths, I have attempted to present in this volume only discourses on those themes which have been specially brought to my attention by friends and students in many different places which I have visited and where my earlier books have widely circulated. To take up this entire subject at any length, or even to treat any portion of it with anything like fullness, would necessitate the publication of quite a long series of volumes, to which the present fragmentary work may possibly constitute an introduction. This particular book aims only at presenting, in meagre outline, a view of revelation and inspiration which renders it easily possible for us to admire and venerate the Bibles of all peoples, without in any sense making a claim for their infallibility or finality. One of the chief objects of all these discourses or essays is to increase interest in universal aspects of religion and philosophy, and wherever possible to throw some light on doctrines which are still occasioning much perplexity in many quarters. So much general interest is now evinced regarding all that pertains to the psychic side of every subject, and so many curious and conflicting views are still expressed concerning matters designated “occult” and “psychical,” that it seems a highly important duty to do all we can to clear up mysteries and present our ripest and most helpful thought to the enquiring multitude, whatever may be our special viewpoint. One cannot keep in any degree abreast with current literature without encountering the most extraordinary ideas concerning the unseen universe, the mysteries of which the modern world is making desperate endeavors to unravel. It is all in vain, in these days, for religious teachers to tell the masses that “secret things belong to God” and we have, therefore, no right to enquire into them, for were such a text to be pushed to its logical extremity, in the hands of many theologians it would mean putting an end to all investigation and blindly accepting the dictum of some pretentious hierarchy. It was this very attitude insisted upon by Dr. Pusey, but repudiated by Dean Stanley, which drove Mrs. Annie Besant to Atheism, from which Theosophy eventually rescued her. If we cannot believe in the reality of a Spiritual Universe and at the same time use our reason, then thinkers must of necessity take refuge in some form of Agnosticism which can never satisfy the affection and never permanently content the intellect. If Bibles will not bear examination then the sooner they are consigned to the limbo of desuetude the better,—but if, as is maintained in the following pages, we can find much that is excellent in all of them, but the whole of truth in none, we do well to broaden our human sympathy by comparing Book with Book and System with System, to the end that we may at length discover a common religious and philosophical denominator. Magic as well as Mystery is dealt with in these lectures, chiefly on account of the great interest now prevalent in mysterious phenomena and the very misleading views in circulation concerning a topic which always lends itself readily to the exploitation of doctrines calculated to terrify the timid and support theories of the Universe utterly incompatible with any sane and wholesome views of life here and hereafter. Ancient and modern authors have been freely drawn upon to illustrate the many subjects briefly treated, and many valuable works are named, with the hope that those who read this treatise will derive benefit from studying the various questions herein outlined at much greater detail if time and opportunity permit and interest incite.

In my judgment, the chief benefit to be derived from travel (and I have traveled considerably) is the evidence it furnishes of the oneness of our humanity; and if literal material travels contribute to that important end, much more do mental excursions into many fields of diverse schools of Thought bring us mentally and sympathetically closer together; and it is this intimate sense of togetherness which must ultimately banish warfare and bring to pass the fulfilment of the glorious prophecies common to all illumined prophets, that a day will dawn when all humanity will be so united that tho’ nations may remain as distinct communities, they will be in spirit completely unified. It is impossible to predicate any ultimate unification of humanity on any less exalted basis than that of the essential goodness of human nature. Nothing keeps us apart so completely as false theology, on the one side, and gross materialism on the other. Could we once for all realize our common humanity vitally, as an indisputable spiritual reality, we could not continue to indulge either race or class hatred. Race and class consciousness there may be, within reasonable limits, but race and class antagonisms are inconceivable if we realize our oneness. Speculative theology and philosophy which results in no widening realization of human unity, may be a scholastic exercise agreeable to certain active intellects, but it may well be dismissed as a superfluity by practical philanthropists who aim directly at benefiting human beings here and now. One by one the strongholds of partialism and exclusivism are being broken down and human unity is standing radiantly disclosed. All the pitiable makeshifts of partialist theology are losing their hold on the thinking, loving, masses who are becoming more and more imbued with the beauty and dignity of Abraham Lincoln's majestic saying, “All or None.” This was that noble emancipator’s answer to the question put to him by narrow-minded theologues concerning his views of human ultimate salvation. The stupid arrogance which imagines that some human beings will be finally blotted out, while others will enjoy everlasting conscious blessedness is intolerable in the light of all our deepest insight into the unity of our humanity. “Pilgrims of various probations,” as Eliza Pitzinger calls us in her magnificent poem, “The Song of the Soul Victorious,” we may be, and as such it is the privilege of the maturer to guide the less mature, and in the words of Lucy Larcom in her exquisite song, “Hand in Hand with Angels,” we can well go thro’ life “clinging to the strong ones; drawing up the slow.” Nothing could be more ridiculous than to claim that we know all about the processes whereby the ultimate glorification of the entire human family will be accomplished, but, to quote once more from Eliza Pitzinger, “Side by side we are marching onward, and in time we will all agree.” In dealing with ancient Oriental Scriptures, or even with the most recent works couched in Oriental phraseology, we find an abundant use of metaphor; it seems therefore incredible that any even slightly educated person to-day can experience any very great difficulty in translating the imagery with which all Bibles abound. “Fire” is no more to be taken literally when referred to as a means for purifying souls, than “sheep,” “goats,” “pieces of money,” and a multitude of other symbolical expressions are to be taken literally; but they convey definite ideas allegorically, and are quite readily understood by all who have even a very small acquaintance with the significance of similitudes. There is much obscurity in much that is put forward as modern revelation, a fact which by no means proves that there is no truth in it, tho’ it cannot fairly be foisted upon us as absolutely and irrevocably the final word on the subject of which it treats. Deeply grateful as we ought to be for every gleam of light that shines upon our mental and moral pathway, we miss the purpose of our educational experience directly we cease to investigate claims for ourselves and blindly endorse the dictum of another. My own researches in the Psychical field, which have been continuous from my childhood, have convinced me that however useful external phenomena may be in some cases, the only satisfactory assurance of immortality which can come to an individual—I mean an assurance that nothing can possibly overturn—must come thro’ a development of one’s inherent ability to discern spiritual realities spiritually. The scientific world owes it to itself and to the larger unscientific world outside to fearlessly investigate all varieties of phenomena, and we have good reason to predict that present investigations will soon have led to radical changes in the popular belief concerning the constitution of our universe. Life continuous beyond physical dissolution is being proved on every side despite the incredulity of some investigators and the trickery of many mountebanks. Clairvoyance cannot be ruled out of court because tricks are played by greatly overlauded “mediums,” nor can any mental phenomenon be affected should it be proved that alleged physical phenomena are often spurious. We need not be dismayed at anything external if our inner faculties are well developed, and one of the most hopeful signs of the times is that more and more attention is being given to cultivating faculties within us which we have allowed to lie fallow, but which are now asserting themselves with rapidly increasing vigor and distinctness. Our horizon is not properly limited by the outermost physical senses which are all that many people imagine they possess; there are interior faculties bursting thro’ and when these shall have made themselves more generally known and honored we shall have entered upon an age of spiritual unfoldment to which the period of doubt and conflict now passing has surely led the way. With boundless confidence in the Power that makes for righteousness, and without a doubt as to the finally blessed outcome of all life’s manifold and strange experiences, I throw this book upon the world trusting it will help in some slight measure to increase confidence in the “Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may.”

W. J. COLVILLE.

May, 1910.