,note3 ,images of the original pages are available through ,internet ,archive_/,american ,libraries4 ,see https3_/_/archive4org_/details_/hivewill #jj;comfiala ,,the ,,hive 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,,by ,,will ,,levington ,,comfort ,,the ,,hive ,,the ,,last ,,ditch ,,child ,,and ,,country ,,lot ,,company ,,red ,,fleece ,,midstream ,,down ,,among ,,men ,,fatherland ,,new ,,york ,,george ,h4 ,,doran ,,company 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,hive by ,,will ,,levington ,,comfort ,author of ,midstream1 ,child and ,country1 ,the ,last ,ditch1 ,down ,among ,men1 etc4 ,illustration ,new ,york ,george ,h4 ,doran ,company ,copyright1 #aiah1 ,by ,george ,h4 ,doran ,company ,printed in the ,united ,states of ,america ,,to ,,mary 444 soft gold and deep fragrance and pomegranate red4 ,,foreword ,there is much to say4 ,many have a part in this story of our days4 ,their work is on the table4 ,yet no manuscript1 no chapter1 is a real beginning4 ,one must start a book this way--with a fresh sheet in the machine and tell what he is going to tell about4444 ,first of all1 it has to do with the unfolding of the child mind2 all the ,stonestudy work has been for that1 but the brimming wonder of it all is that we have chiefly been employed unfolding ourselves4 ,no one can begin upon the sweet and sacred story of life to a child without taking a stride nearer into the centre of things1 and living it4 ,that's what all telling is about--presently to stop talking and to catch up on conduct4 ,the fairest culture of all is to become artists in life4444 ,thinking of this1 thinking much upon this one thing1 we have been lured out of the heaviness of work into the dimension of ,play4 ,we tell here about this particular passage4 ,also something about the story of ,man and ,woman1 hinting at what is contained in pages of the ,book of ,life not opened heretofore for the eyes of the many1 but preparing now for the eyes of the children of the ,new ,race--a beautiful story1 be sure of that1 but one that requires art in the telling4 ,no one could bring this story to the lovers and the children of the ,new ,race who had not found out that ,beauty belongs to the divine trinity with ,goodness and ,truth4 ,many seers have not held that well in mind1 many sages have forgotten it1 many saints have not learned it adequately at all4 ,we have to build our own heavens here before we can have them anywhere else4 ,the more of an artist a man is1 the more reverent he becomes about perfecting his thought-forms4 ,just a mention now--that we rejoice to make much of the ,beauty side of things in this book2 that a thing cannot be beautiful and bad2 that ,beauty is the next quest of the many1 as they escape one by one from the bondage of ,gold4 ,we try to express the ,soul of things rather than to delineate boundaries of matter1 but a very strong point is made upon the fact that one cannot deal in the spirit until he has mastered to a good degree the coarser stuff that bodies and worlds are made of4 ,we do not care how the young minds aspire mystically1 so long as their abutments hold fast in the bottom-lands4 ,a man must not drag his anchor as he climbs the hill2 he must unfold line all the way--a line made of strands of himself1 woven of his own wisdom1 love and power4 ,much is made in this book of the fact that we are given pounds for a purpose--that all here below is symbol and intimation of a globe and perfection elsewhere--that we cannot look upon the archetype of gold until we have mastered the imitation in clay4444 ,we come even closer to this precious subject3 ,for instance1 we know that it is only from the soul of things that one can see materials--that no one can get a glimpse of the meaning of materials so long as he is lost in the ruck of them4 ,at the same time we do not believe that we have access1 even to the lesser grades of mysticism1 until we have all the power and force of the material-minded4 ,we believe we must do well that which the world is doing1 even the tasks of the average man1 that nothing can be missed4 ,we do not encourage that mystic or poet who requires endowment4 ,if we are to be artists1 we believe in supporting our own groups2 we have a suspicion that we are not through with conditions1 any conditions no matter how hateful1 so long as they have us whipped4 ,we aspire to be writers and politicians and painters and heroes2 we aspire to be masters in all the superb productions of life1 but we are content to begin with the ground4 ,we are content with poverty1 yet we believe that very early as workmen1 we are entitled to a fastidious poverty1 which is expensive4 ,no possessions--but all possessions4 ,as writers we are convinced that it is necessary to do--and inimitably well--the things that the public wants and pays ten cents the word for1 quite as well as to reveal the deeper folds of our growth for which we have to finance publication4 ,we are not sure yet which is the worthier achievement4 ,perhaps we speak much of ,soul in this book1 but we mean nothing more formidable than the better part of every man4 ,this is the ,big ,fellow who takes us over when we do that which is worth while--in billiards or diplomacy1 in art or love or trade4 ,i think it is the ,big ,comrade which we are really unfolding--the ,workman and ,player4 ,much of ,soul1 we write1 because it is the point of our educational drive--to set ,it free in the child or the young workman1 to make ,it speak or write or play1 and not mere brain and hand4 ,we speak much of love--not as an emotion1 not as a sentiment1 but as a cosmic force4 ,you will see much more what we mean by this as you turn the pages4 ,it is the most challenging thing in the world4 ,it is the inner white-hot core of the ,fatherland that is to be--the great white ,democracy of the future4444 ,democracy--that's the point of inception of it all2 that word is the seed4 ,the more you dwell upon it--you know what the ,seamless ,robe of the ,christ means--the more you realise that the ,master ,jesus was the first ,big ,democrat4444 ,we have them speak the word softly and thoughtfully here each day--we like to hear the young ones say it4 ,they are apt to know as much about it as you do--for the word doesn't mean exactly what they mean1 who have used it most heretofore4 ,it isn't the name of a political party--yet4444 ,it is government of the people by the people1 but only to those who see the sons of ,god in the eyes of passing men4 ,we only ask its magic1 not its presence upon these pages4444 ,they're fighting for it gloriously--every hour4 ,the boys here thrill with the boys there4 ,we hold our hands high to them4 ,some of our boys are there4 ,they are all our boys6 ,some are waiting the call to go--but there or here1 we are pulling together for the real ,fatherland1 for the adequite fraternity1 under the endless and thrilling magic of the word ,equality4 444 ,i can say no more splendid word to you than ,my ,equal3 ,i know of no greater adventure than to become one of the ,many4 ,it is true that you and ,i--the best of us1 the ,immortal within us each1 are of one house--that this is but a far outpost of the journey1 ,egypt if you like1 the husks if you like--but that we have arisen and are on our way home to the ,father's ,house4 ,canyon1 ,santa ,monica1 ,california4 ,,contents ,,page ,,north ,,americans #ag ,,quickenings #bd ,,conquest ,,of ,,fears #cf ,,the ,,stuff ,,of ,,comrades #de ,,john',s ,,things #ef ,,values ,,of ,,letter ,,writing #gj ,,the ,,new ,,dancing #gi ,,old ,,pictures ,,in ,,red #ia ,,steve #aja ,,hejira #aaa ,,the ,,spectator #aah ,,tom ,,and ,,the ,,little ,,girl #abi ,,the ,,abbot #aci ,,the ,,artist ,,unleashed #aee ,,work ,,in ,,short ,,stories #afd ,,valley ,,road ,,girl #agb ,,beauty #ahc ,,shuk #aib ,,imagination #bje ,,boys ,,and ,,dogs #baa ,,the ,,man ,,who ,,found ,,peace #bai ,,the ,,mating ,,mystery #bda ,,chapter ,,of ,,letters #beb ,,romance #bfg ,,the ,,cosmic ,,peasant #bgg ,r,,sum #cae ,,the ,,hive #a ,,north ,,americans ,the thing called the ,new ,race--the passion of poets1 the phantom running ahead and forever calling the dreamer and revolutionist and occultist1 is far from a reality as yet among the commonplaces of the world4 ,it is the spirit of everything worth while1 but that means nothing to one who has not a breath of it in his own body4444 ,a story went forth from this shop recently in which certain ideals and presences of the new social order were carried through to a cheerful ending4 ,the publisher wrote1 ,yes1 but what is the ,new ,race8 ,it's a fair question1 but remember one cannot adequately describe a spiritual thing in terms of matter4 ,it is only possible of portrayal where it has broken through into terms of three-space4 ,first you are apt to get the nearest and most striking picture of the ,new ,race at your own supper-table--the presence of one of your own children1 especially if the young one is hard to understand4 ,parents and children of all times have found confusion and alarm in each other's ways4 ,but there are rare periods of human history when the difference between two generations has been not a normal and superficial crack1 but an abyss4 ,it is so now4 ,the ,old has reached its climacteric point of destructivity4 ,all self-passions destroy themselves in time4 ,fear1 greed1 sensuality--all are self-destructive4 ,great human numbers and decadent principles have been recently broken down in the world with a swiftness and abandonment heretofore unrecorded1 except in the traditions of planetary flood and flame4444 ,you may watch closely the child under seven who plays in the ,unseen1 whose companions are not in the room for older eyes2 watch the one of fancies and fairies and fragrances which others cannot quite discern4 ,many a child has been driven with a soul-wound into corroding silence by parents who thought they were punishing falsehood1 when they were in reality repressing the imagination--the faculty which master-artists denote as the first and loveliest possession of the creative mind4 ,too coarse and unlit to see what the child saw1 the parents again and again have looked gravely at each other1 saying3 ,this is a crisis4 ,our child has begun to lie4 ,we must forget her own feelings and punish her---- ,so often it is her--but not always4 ,the boys who are to do the great tasks of song and prophecy and architecture--they1 too1 dream dreams and see visions and have the rapt eyes of ,joan in the forests of ,domremy2 they1 too1 are severely questioned by the pharisees2 none escape this scourging2 they1 too1 in many cases shall be put to death4 ,the new ideals of the parenthood1 education1 romance1 are now being introduced and promulgated by pioneers long since emerged from the old litter and humus4 ,education will mean first of all a turning for power to the ,unseen4 ,the quest of the ,swan and the ,star and the ,beloved1 are never carried along on the levels and inequalities of the earth--always the uplifted face for the saint and the sage and the seer4 ,great parents kneel beside their children and beg to be delivered from the heaviness which holds them to the dim shadows1 where the child sees face to face4 ,education will mean finding his intrinsic task for the child--the intensive cultivation of the human spirit from the ,soul outward1 not alone from the brain inward4 ,the quest of the passing age was for ,gold4 ,the real meaning and symbol and glory of gold1 as the highest1 smoothest and most finished of minerals1 has been lost in the bulkier products and possessions it meant to measure and signify4 ,more and more has gold itself hid away from vulgar hands and been represented by objects intrinsically inferior4 ,we now behold a civilisation destroying itself for commodities and destroying the commodities for which the destruction began4 ,gold itself will serve ,beauty in the coming age2 commerce will serve sthetics4 ,the lovers of ,beauty begin with the sand1 with the clay4 ,they love nature from the ground up2 they are fervent for light and air1 for sun and sky and water1 for fruits and grains and bees1 for stars and rains and romances4 ,they say such things are holy4 ,words are inadequate for their loves and appreciations4 ,they find the ways to love ,god infinite4 ,they see ,him in stone and stream2 they see ,him in the eyes of the deep down men2 they see ,him risen and inevitable in the eyes of their lovers4444 ,straight goodness will not do for the ,new ,race1 nor straight intellectuality4 ,artists1 singers1 painters and idealists will be the heroes of the generations to come1 for they will add the quest of ,beauty to the unwashed goodness of the saints and pilgrims4 ,these are but flaring points2 one is embarrassed in short space because of a myriad things to say4 ,free verse is a sign of the ,new1 also the dream of a free world and the planetary patriotism4 ,the immanence of the spirit of all things1 is a sign2 the sense of the underlying oneness of humanity2 not alone the ,fatherland1 but the ,kinterland1 where new ,fountains are established and sages and masters come for inspiration--all these1 like a passing train of wonder1 a glimpse of many cars4444 ,i think ,i can bring the picture in closer by using a few pages of work from one of the young men with me4 ,his name is ,steve4 ,i called him ,the ,dakotan1#a in the book1 ,child and ,country4 ,we've romped and ridden together for three years1 and ,i've known ,steve better every day--still far from the end4 ,the rest of the chapter is ,steve's writing3 #a ,h4,a4 ,sturtzel4 ,,north ,,americans ,out of the centuries of moil and mix and fuse of ,europe1 the orient and the north countries1 a gleaming archetype has emerged here which may be called the real ,north ,americans4 ,they are scattered here and there among the younger generation--young people new in name only2 in soul they are as old as ,zeus4 ,often they are strangers in their father's house4 ,they blend the mind of the occidental with the soul of the east2 splendid firstlings of an untried future4 ,they betray themselves by their genius4 ,heredity is the first fetich overthrown by them4 ,from the first they are a law unto themselves4 ,they cast off churches1 codes1 creeds1 schools and parents as preliminary steps in their teens4 ,in the twenties they are prodigies1 leaders in the arts or the revolutions4 ,it is their aim to over-reach themselves1 not to further a type4 ,very early they conjourn together in secret and obscure places1 revolting against life as it is lived1 like a handful of white dwellers in a foreign city4 ,there is always an alien1 intangible something about these people4 ,one senses the double life they lead1 their own1 and others4 ,conditions are not yet adjusted for them4 ,they are super-nationalists1 the first mark of the new4 ,they are dreamers who make their dreams come true in matter1 and first among their dreams is of the planet in one piece4 ,they are naturally intolerant of barriers and partitions4 ,they see ahead a new social order vast and shining as a devachanic vision--the real democracy of the future4 ,they see that the new has come in not to kill1 but to build4 ,theirs will be the spiritual heroics4 ,yet all this1 of the greater patriotism1 must not yet be spoken4 ,it only alienates them the more from those they must live with4 ,their arch enemy is ,ignorance1 personified so often in their elders4 ,it is noticeable that these young people are healthier1 stronger1 swifter1 sharper1 tougher1 bolder and at the same time lighter and finer than the passing generation4 ,they have the new healthiness4 ,they belong to the open and are practically immune to disease4 ,theirs is the health of sun and wind and spirit--vitality instead of constitution1 something the old can never understand4 ,constitution is weight1 solid1 ungiving4 ,vitality is volatile1 springy1 electric1 constantly being given1 constantly being acquired1 self-refining4 ,constitution does not change2 it accumulates all it can1 then begins to die4444 ,the young women of this new ,race are open1 strong1 eye-to-eye1 free spoken4 ,they are capable of friendships2 they are not adverse to being wholly understood by males4 ,they are not popular with ordinary women1 who surmise their superiority but comprehend it not4 ,deceit1 jealousy and such common disturbances evident in the sex are unknown to them4 ,they have character and are lovely rather than beautiful4 ,they are apt to go half way in their love-making1 for who should know better when the chosen father of their children arrives4 ,all of these people are bringers of true love4 ,love is their philosophy and religion4 ,they listen to the heart as well as the brain4 ,others think them cruel in their discrimination in mating4 ,they take all or nothing--prodigious riskers1 great sufferers1 throwing even love's dream on the board to be played for1 and laughing as they play4 ,the slightest blight on the loved one is deepest agony4 ,perhaps the surest way of discovering these young giants is to search about for the most sorely harassed children4 ,invariably they are put to it1 to break into this day and generation4 ,they fight their way up through all the banked-up ignorance and antagonism of unlit humanity4 ,often they are solitaires1 coming and going with the secrecy of kings and eagles4 99 99 99 99 99 #b ,,quickenings ,a few pages of drift first of all with the younger boys4444 ,there is a lane of ,lombardy poplars from the ,lake to the interurban car-line--a half mile4 ,it is a lifting walk at any time1 but summer evenings are wonderful with all the sounds and scents of a true pastorale--lake-breath and meadow-lands1 the whole sky to look at1 and the murmuring dissonance of the poplars4 ,often we walk to the car with passing guests4 ,one evening a guest went away whom we loved very much4 ,a lad of seven1 named ,john1 and ,i walked back from the car alone4 ,he was ignited4 ,i felt this at last through his hand4 ,i had been thinking about my own things all too long1 missing the beginnings of his talk4444 ,he hurried forward in the dusk1 speaking in a hushed rapt voice4 ,because ,i had missed the first part1 ,i said3 ,john1 ,i want you to write that--either to-night or to-morrow4 ,and this is what came in3 ,,the ,,magic ,,lane3 ,it was at dusk4 ,two people left their tracks in ,nature's dust road4 ,love is found on that road4 ,it is the road of the mystics4 ,they leave their love in it2 ,nature kisses their feet4 ,many horses' feet have been kissed on that mystic road4 ,that mystic road will last forever4 ,i long to walk upon that road of love4 ,love on that road will last forever4 ,it is all true love4 ,our friends have been met on that road of love4 ,it leads to the ,hills of ,god4 ,certain spelling matters have been corrected4 ,we pay little attention to spelling in the work here4 ,the young ones learn by reading and get the proper look of a word altogether too soon in many cases4 ,there was another high moment from ,john at the same time4 ,the following three lines have stood out from the period with memorable magic3 ,,wonder ,the soft breath of the ,mother came in through the window of vines4 ,the stars were shining like the face of the ,new ,generation4 ,my spirit was away in the ,hills4 ,a noise at the door brought me back---- ,john then fell into a psychological tangle which we found little profit in following4 ,by the ,mother he referred to ,nature4444 ,the verse period has passed for the time4 ,around the age of seven1 boys change4 ,often1 as in this case1 they are not so interesting for a while afterward4 ,john is coming nine now and is writing action stories with all the worn and regulation props and settings4 ,the early tendency will return with a dimension added4 ,all transitions are times of disorder1 but they are followed by larger areas and truer fulfilments of order4 ,a cloud falls upon the sanctuary1 but when it is dispelled1 one perceives a lifted dome1 bright with its new cloth of gold4 ,i am struck every day in dealing with young boys how wisdom and beauty and truth can be inculcated in their lives1 without pain and strain to them1 and with great profit to the teacher4 ,the young mind is quick to change4 ,it has not grown its pharisaical ivory4444 ,the sanction of a boy must be won on a physical basis4 ,a man must know what the boy knows and go him one better4 ,the man must understand boy points of view1 but never expect the boy to be puerile4 ,parents of the past generations have had the steady effrontery to expect very little from children4 ,why1 they are only children6 has done more to make for vacuousness and drivel than any other visionless point of view1 none of which has been missed4 ,there is a difference in ages1 to be sure4 ,the child's mind has not massed for use the external impacts of twenty or thirty years of life in the world1 but there is also an ,immortal within--a singer1 hero1 builder1 or a teacher possibly1 eager to manifest through the child's fresh mind1 fervid to bring the mind of the child to its subjection1 for the expression of its own revelations4 ,indeed1 the parents themselves are enjoined to become as little children4 ,in arriving at this wisdom and humility1 they may suddenly find masters in their own children4 ,there is also a lad here of seven named ,tom4 ,yesterday ,i found him beside me on the sand1 down by the water's edge4 ,i began to tell him about the ,inner ,light that we all carry4 ,you can talk over a child's head1 if your words are choked with mental complications 7which is apt to be second-rate talk1 anyway71 but you seldom are out of reach of a fine child's grasp when you speak of spiritual things4 ,he was sitting cross-legged1 folded hands between his knees--a little six pointed star--head and shoulders the three upper points1 knees with folded hands between1 the three lower4 ,he was bare from the waist up and thighs down1 and brown as the honey of buckwheat4444 ,i told him that the seventh and perfect point of his star was within2 that if he shut his eyes and kept very still1 putting away for the present all his thoughts about himself1 his feelings1 his wants and his rights--looking into himself as one would look ahead for a lamp in the night1 listening deep within1 as one would listen for the voice of a loved friend1--,i promised that at last he would see what the three wise men saw--the ,star in the ,east4 ,he need only follow that ,star and be true to its guidance to come at last to the ,cave and the ,solar ,babe4444 ,after that ,i hinted that ,i would come to his feet and listen4 ,tom felt that it was worth trying for at once--shut his eyes1 turning all thoughts and gaze within4 ,he held the posture long4444 ,i have marvelled again and again at the quickness with which the child-mind attains to concentration so essential for all original production4 ,the little ones have no mad emotional lists to sort out and subdue2 their wants are simple yes and no in so many cases4 ,indeed1 they are spared the struggle of becoming as little children4444 ,tom held the posture1 until ,i was actually tense from the strain of waiting and keeping my thoughts from calling his4 ,it was a picture--sun-whitened hair1 long yellow lashes1 brown body with a bit of babe's softness left to it1 and glorious sunlight4 ,he opened his eyes at last saying that he had the door1 where the light was1 almost opened1 when a fly bit him4 ,i thought of the perfection of the instance of the mind's waywardness--the coming of the ,master spoiled by a fly bite4444 ,tom will search for his ,star every day4 ,it is strange that he is closer to the hill-pastures around ,bethlehem1 under seven1 than for years afterward4 ,to learn concentration in mid-life after the world has been put through a man1 is an ordeal at best2 and yet we are by no means masters of ourselves1 nor capable of significant achievement until the brain can be stilled at will of its petty affairs 7the first aim of concentration7 and becomes the glad servant of the giant within4 ,a little later ,i saw ,tom on the back of a huge black walk-trot saddle-horse of show quality--passing up the ,lane at a fast clip1 his feet half way to the stirrups1 holding on to the saddle with one hand1 the bridle-rein in the other4 ,a year or two ago ,i should have been afraid to permit that1 but we manage now to relieve the young ones of a large part of our fears for their welfare4 ,children have enough to overcome from their parents4 ,frequently the ,new ,age young people have to master their heredity before they begin upon themselves4 ,life is a big horse to ride1 so often a black horse4 ,it is well to start children free and unafraid4 ,we do not let them dwell in thought of pain4 ,we do not permit tears4 ,we inform them early that to be sick is a confession of uncleanness1 that lying is for the use of cowards only1 and that to be cruel marks the idiot4 ,we are occasionally serious over repeated failures1 but we laugh over things done well4 ,tennis has unfolded marvellous possibilities in the training of will force4 ,children are shown that there is a mystic quality to all the perfect games--that the great billiardists and tennis and baseball players perform feats in higher space1 whether they know it or not4 ,there is the essential ideal first in the making of the athlete as in the making of the poet4 ,the great moments of play require faculties swifter and more unerring than the human eye or hand or mind4 ,ask the master of any game if he had time to think in pulling off the stroke that won4 ,it is inspiration that he uses quite the same as the poet in his high moments4 ,education is the preparation of the mind to receive and answer to inspiration from a plane above4 ,the more you develop merely the brain of a child1 the more he is detached from the great principles of being1 the more also is he closed to the real1 and subjected to the danger of actual lesion and sickness4 ,the more you develop the spirit of a child1 or rather give the significant ,one within an opportunity to come forth and be the child1 the more you make for beauty1 health1 goodness and glory of bodily life4444 ,a lucky day when you start really to associate with your children1 luckier still when you undertake the work of teaching them incidental to your own work4 ,then and there1 you begin to realise that children are close to a source of things that you cannot touch4 ,presently you realise that they are teaching you4444 ,day after day ,i have studied and practised the development of the child from within outward4 ,i have seen the capacity to synthesise and assimilate mere mental matters developed in a year1 by training the mind from the centre of origins outward1 that mental training alone could never accomplish4 ,the mind itself becomes vigorous and avid and capacious and majestically swift4 ,it is trained to express its true self4 ,that is power--that is king-play4 ,this sentence covers the whole matter3 ,the perfect way to develop the mind of the child is to teach him to sit and listen at the feet of his own master1 the ,soul4 ,the right to live and to bring the laughter of power to the days must be won afresh each morning4 ,no two days alike4 ,we make ourselves impossible to children of the ,new ,age by trying to confine them in the laws and rules of yesterday4 ,the young people whom ,i serve live in a different intensity4 ,their interest flags if ,i repeat1 if ,i fall into familiar rhythms4 ,continually they spur me on4 ,i think1 after all1 great teaching is the capacity to feel what the younger minds are thinking4 ,if we are too coarse to catch the first warning of their resistance1 they slip farther and farther from our grasp4 ,it would not seem possible to hold ,american young people with spiritual affairs2 yet this is done daily4 ,we call the ,unseen--the great gamble4 ,i have shown how all else betrays--how all matter is a mockery at the last--that even love and friendship fail for those who are called to weep and worship wholly at the tomb of the body4444 ,the truth is out3 ,the beginnings of real teaching is in making the ,unseen interesting and dramatic4 ,we dwell upon the mystic white lines which connect all things--the sources of daring and beauty and creativeness4 ,i ask my young people where they were--when they did any rare and improved bit of work1 when they felt like great comrades1 met some magnanimous impulse1 arose to superb instants of play1 or when in ,chapel the big animation touched us all and set us free4 ,they always answer that they were out of themselves4 ,that's a secret of the new teaching again--to lift the students out of themselves4 ,men take to drink or drugs for this same reason3 men and women set out on the great adventures1 pleasures and quests for this4 ,we hunger and toil for this freedom2 we suffer and adore--to get out of ourselves4 ,mental teachings tie us in more firmly4 ,the teaching here--and no two days alike--is to startle and encourage the young minds to arise and live and breathe in that lovelier and more spacious dimension which at least borders upon the ,unseen4 ,the doors open and shut so softly4 ,one does not know he has been out--until he is back with strange light in his eyes and in his hands a gift from the gods4 ,the essential spirituality of the new teaching must not be confused with religious affairs as they are known and exploited in the world4 ,you cannot teach the ,new ,age religion of the world's kind4 ,it has its own4 ,no dry as dust sage will do4 ,a snort will answer your sanctimoniousness2 flexible science will reply to the abysses of your logic4444 ,you must be the consummate artist if never before in your life1 to teach the beauty of the soul to youth4 ,the young workers of the new social order will never bring forth their great harvests from your reflected light4 ,you must be spontaneous--you must flood them with pure solar gold2 you must show them by your life and your work1 how you come and go into the ,unseen4 ,there is no rest4444 ,one commands his disciples to go forth at last4 ,the teacher strides forward faster when they cling4 ,he tells them one day they must race the gamut to follow him2 and the next day he puts another in his place and begs to be allowed a cushion in the midst of the children4444 ,we hold them by setting them free--the first law of love4 ,all unions of the future--in trade and friendship and matrimony--will be founded upon the principle of freedom2 and this is the essence of the new teaching--to liberate the children into their larger and ,god-quickened selves4 ,no rest and no two days alike4 ,a ,bob ,white called me this morning across the uncut hayfields at the edge of the lake-bluff4444 ,his two smooth and patient notes seemed to contain the secret of putting off all fret and fear and unrest4 ,he seemed to ask if ,i had not done this already--had not yet put all boyish and merely temporal things away8 ,not yet8444 ,not yet8 he called the question4 ,i answered that ,i would try again1 and ,i set out straightway to be honest once more with the world1 with the soil and with myself4 ,i would begin with the clay again to be clean--to rise and think and dwell in cleanliness1 to think no thought1 to perform no action second-rate--to begin with the ,laugh again--the warm laugh of conquest that always opens some inner door to fresh powers--to arise afresh in the glory and gamble of the ,unseen4444 ,i returned and saw the young ones one by one--from ,tom and ,john up to the men and women--doing their work4 ,i set about mine with a laugh and called the day good4 ,the teacher knows best who is taught4 #c ,,conquest ,,of ,,fears ,an interesting boy of ten and ,i have been much together in the open weather4 ,we have learned many things1 but nothing more important than what a sham ,fear is4 ,i do not mean that we take chances or that it is wise to risk life or limb4 ,fine discrimination is back of all training in the arts of life2 still we certainly have found that ,fear is a waster and diminisher of beauty and power--and that it can be mastered4 ,about the most fascinating thing that life has shown me is the way in which fine examples of the younger generation learn the deeper matters of life--matters of self-mastery which make the very presence of a lad significant to a stranger1 and which formerly were supposed to be secrets for the sons of kings alone4 ,do you fear anything8 ,i ask4 ,look deep4 ,listen deep--do you fear anything8444 ,it's like the pain that tells you of a weakness or disease4 ,fear is an unerring reminder of a task of conquest ahead for you4 ,that which you fear most is the thing to conquer first4 ,there had been much of this talk of ,fear before a laughable personal experience showed me how much ,i asked4 ,i crossed a mesa and came to an abrupt drop-off--two hundred feet sheer4 ,it astonished me4 ,i hadn't experienced anything like this quiver of horror for years4 ,all members and muscles bolted at the thought of advancing closer to the edge4 ,i sat down to think it out4 ,it never had occurred before that ,i wasn't my nervous system1 and must not let it get me down4 ,the more ,i thought1 the more ,i perceived that ,i must do the thing ,i dreaded so4 ,in fact1 ,i had told trusting young people that they were not their bodies1 not their emotions1 not even their minds--that these must be made to obey4 ,here ,i had a chance to prove if ,i were less in action than talk4 ,i forced my fluttering young self to the edge4444 ,dizziness--wobbly limbs1 fancied shoves from behind1 the call of the huge shadowed space below1 a queer sense of parting in mid-air1 the body thumping down1 another and liberated self gladly spurning the ground--all these symptoms of panic followed swiftly4 ,i held until calm came1 and ,i then could study this little coil of forgotten fears--a civilised mess4444 ,the weakness was absurdly easy to overcome after the will was once aroused4 ,there's no end or limitation to will force when awakened4 ,the greater the man1 the more awe he has for this subject4 ,there's a glow that follows conquest of any kind2 the mere call of the will to action brings a sense of power in the heart4 ,there is no way more speedily to dispel pain1 anger1 passion1 fear1 or any of these tentacles of personality--than to summon the power of will to instant action4 ,the particular matter of this precipice showed me a trick about calling up the force--priceless to me afterward in bigger tests1 and for opening the way of self-conquest to boys4 ,one must decide what one wants to do--then carry it out to the death4 ,discrimination1 art1 all culture and knowledge may be brought to bear in making the decision--but after that1 it must be carried out--just that4 ,fears belong to the abdomen4 ,you can feel them there4 ,they are quicker than thought4 ,perhaps you had a twinge of nerves over some sight or sound or odour1 before your mind could tell you what you were afraid of4444 ,i have often told the young ones here--listening a bit to my own voice--that there isn't anything living or dead1 phantom1 shell1 or living soul1 that has got the authority to make the spirit of man quail4 ,courage is spirit4 ,most people don't care to try to deal with it2 they let it have its way4444 ,do you recall the fears of the dark room as a child--fear always stealing behind--upstairs alone1 the rush to the light1 almost screaming tension8444 ,i heard a patter of steps the other evening and knew the whole story--a boy of seven4 ,he had been sent upstairs without a light4 ,i sent him back1 told him to stay there until he got himself in hand--to stay in the dark and think the bogie down4 ,he was well afterward4 ,i have known some under-fire work4 ,a man soon gets himself in hand to look straight at a white-fringed trench4 ,fear of sharks furnished another test4 ,from a child the deep-sea devourers had an exquisite fascination for me--to be cut in two under brine1 white belly1 backward mouth1 black-rimmed1 hairy pig eyes1 the double-rows of teeth4444 ,pacific ,islanders swim in the same harbour with fourteen-foot scavengers1 careless of whole schools of monsters1 yet scurry to their boats at the sight of one solitary1 different fin4 ,i had seen the so-called1 man-eating brutes1 grey nurses1 dim grey horrors with dull black spots4 ,a well-fed imagination also came into play4 ,i went swimming in the surf with a splendid ,australian chap--a doctor home from the trenches4444 ,he left me back in the surf lines and started out to sea4 ,i finished my swim decently in toward ,north ,america1 and lay on the strand4 ,from time to time off in the sunset ,i saw my friend's head4444 ,i was glad to grab the beach-comber when he came in4 ,it's all perfectly sane and splendid1 ,i said1 and ,i'm glad to have you back for supper with us1 and the billows out yonder are doubtless all that you say1 for an afternoon's lie-up1 only ,i venture to ask--what if a grey nurse should happen in from the lower islands8 ,you don't think about them1 he said4 ,that's about all there is to the fear subject4 ,you don't let it get you4 ,there is nothing worth fearing in or above or under the plane of manifestation4444 ,so ,i tried that out in deep water4 ,the old horrors succumbed like the fear of the precipice1 but not so readily1 quite4 ,one can imagine keenly in the dim deep2 the touch of sea-weed quickens all the monsters of the mind4444 ,there's nothing fit to be afraid of1 unless it is the self4 ,when we get the ape and the tiger1 the peacock and the porpoise1 the lizard and the shark and the carcajou of our own natures mastered1 there isn't anything left to do but to tally them off outside1 a friendly finish with them all4 ,no menagerie is complete as man's1 and each of us favours some species from time to time4 ,i have thought much about fear4 ,in another place ,i told how we have overcome inertia2 how we developed senses through the hard administry of fear and hunger1 anger and the rest4 ,now1 however1 these must be overcome4444 ,one of the last physical fears to let go in my case is that for the hangman's rope4 ,i think ,roger ,casement really wanted the axe in preference to the hemp4 ,steadily facing a repulsion1 it surely vanishes4 ,the point of it all is that you can teach self-command to the children4444 ,i took a girl of fourteen to my precipice--left her there standing on the very edge4 ,after a few minutes ,i called4 ,her face was calm as if she had gazed from a porch4444 ,did you feel any fear8 ,i asked4 ,only yours for me1 she answered4 ,it was very true4 ,i had the thing whipped for myself1 but it had been hard to leave her there4 ,finally ,i took the smaller boys out for a test4 ,they didn't know ,i was testing them4 ,children haven't the fear of height such as we put on4 ,i recalled a score of episodes of my own boy-days1 in which ,i startled the elders by ,sam ,patch imitations4 ,also ,i have put the young ones through some deep water affairs4444 ,you may not be able to get it quite--but all fear is illusion4 ,every inner beast mastered makes us stronger4 ,these animals within are our cosmos to rule4 ,we do not know how beautiful they are until we lose our fear for them4 ,boys and girls here are learning these things and putting them in action4 ,the kingdom of heaven is also within4 ,fear1 passion1 anger1 poverty1 and the like--all represent areas of our own kingdom not yet brought under perfect cultivation4444 ,after the emotional and physical conquests come the psychic ones--hard matters of mastery pertaining to the heart and mind--to know1 to do1 to dare1 to keep silent--then the finding of the hidden treasures of the subconscious1 mystic fleets that sail those dim seas1 as yet uncharted for most of us4444 ,after that1 the ,soul4 ,at last we must be potent enough to stand eye to eye in the presence of the ,king ,himself4 ,from looking steadily over an escarpment of two or three hundred feet drop1 to gazing at the world from the forward cockpit of an airplane at two or three thousand feet1 isn't such a long step as you would imagine4 ,the fact is1 ,i was in no way terrified in my first flight1 and fear certainly crawled me full length as ,i stood that time at the edge of the mesa4 ,our young people have the call to test the new dimension of wings4 ,this zeal corresponds in a unique way with the new education4 ,intellect stays upon the ground4 ,intuition is the lifting of the wings of the mind4 ,i had already begun to make friendly visits to an aerodrome at the edge of the ,pacific when the following letter came from the ,abbot1#b who is now seventeen and in ,new ,york3 444 ,perhaps ,steve told you that ,i had a ride in an airplane about three weeks ago4 ,man6 ',tis the place for me6 ,next summer1 soon as school dissipates1 ,i attach my name to the ,royal ,flying ,corps4 ,the psychic effect of a flight is wonderful--like travelling over a very tall bridge4 ,the ,atlantic coast for many miles lay in profile as a map1 the roads stretched as thin mathematical lines2 forests as darker shadows of the earth2 ,new ,york as a blotch of smoke and curious patchwork4 ,for twenty minutes we sailed around and around1 just as you've seen a gull pinion1 then we came to earth2 waited until it got dark1 then up again4444 ,lights of the aerodrome lay like jewels upon the earth1 but up1 up we went1 faster and higher1 the roar of the propeller providing a steady nervous outlet4 ,i could shout my lungs out--,i had to relieve myself of the excess thrill4 ,then what should happen8 ,red1 a tiny rim1 like the disc of a golden dollar1 the sun began to lift up from the horizon again4 ,the higher we went1 the higher it lifted1 until there it hung1 as a golden bulb1 a swollen orange off in the mighty stretches1--pure1 golden1--while below twinkled the town's lights4 ',twas the fullest1 richest1 most brimming moment ,i've ever had4 ,the awe of the cosmos overtakes the heart and lays down its stupendous laws4 ,the distance between sun and 'plane seemed a golden pathway that ever could absorb your flight4 ,i was aware only of worshipping ,god1 and that roar of the machine made one think of the roar of the planets1 comets1 meteors1 all the suns1 roa-oa-ring4 ,what a romance6 ,finding the sun6 444 ,no discussion of the fear element whatsoever in the letter4444 #b ,fred ,jasperson4 ,the old thrills won't do for the new race4 ,i took a pair of screen-trained young ones to a circus recently and became absorbed at their mild boredom4 ,alcohol is too slow and coarse for the wastrel tendencies of the modern hour4 ,the sad ones of the new generation use high potency drugs to forget the drag of time and space4 ,a new dimension is required in all things4 ,the young men of the new race make light of our old dreads and are learning winged ways to heaven and to hell4 #d ,,the ,,stuff ,,of ,,comrades ,i wonder if ,i can make clearer1 by turning a few different facets in this chapter1 what we mean by friends1 comrades1 the spirit of things1 and love not as an emotion but as a cosmic force4 ,many days ,i have faced a ,chapel1 as ,i face this day's work1 longing to bring in closer the dream of the new social order1 yet dismayed by the limitations of words and my own mind1 trained so long in the life of the old4444 ,i would begin to talk1 drawing the young minds to mine through an intimate revelation of the heart1 then presently lose the sense of effort1 even the sense of thought--and an hour would pass in the joy of communal blessedness1 because we were one4 ,man is not getting larger1 though he is continually holding more4 ,the human brain1 after it reaches a certain age and size1 may gain thereafter a conception of the universe without altering the size of the hat-band4 ,there is a continual condensation at work within us mentally and physically4 ,we take the cream of the thing1 and throw the rest away4 ,the wiser and the more inclusive we become1 the more we take just the spirit of a thing1 and leave the bulk and weight behind4 ,this is true in our every refinement1 in the clothes we wear1 the food we eat1 the books we read and the friends we gather together4 ,we become harder and harder to suit1 because bulk and weight are common1 but the spiritual extract of anything is slow to appear for us4 ,the wiser the man1 the more fastidious he is1 and this does not mean that he is a crank4 ,the excellence of fastidiousness is not in eccentricity but in inclusiveness4 ,in the spirit of the thing1 he sees all4 ,from the spirit of the thing1 he expresses in his own way any part4 ,he can array whole hierarchies of facts from the spirit of the whole1 but mainly he leaves the facts in reference-libraries1 where they belong and are quickly available1 and stores away in his working faculties just a drop of the oil of a subject or a breath from its essence4 ,there are those who believe that the soul of man is made up of essences of experiences of thousands of lives--yet the refinement of the soul is so spiritualised that the best surgeon cannot find the little organ4 ,he knows the brain1 which is made up of the stored experiences of but one life1 but because the soul is so small or so diffused1 the surgeon is very apt to say that there is no such organ4 ,and yet1 we all know there is knowledge and power behind us1 which drives us1 in our greater moments1 to utterances and action entirely without the scope of the brain4 ,we may call this the soul1 or the nth power1 or the fourth dimension--the name doesn't matter4444 ,listen1 if ,i write well to-day--,i mean well for me--if ,i rise to the opportunity at all1 it will be because ,i am writing things which my brain doesn't know4 ,i yearn to make this still clearer4444 ,the rose1 which is the highest evolved of flowers1 includes all the evolution of plant-life of its line beneath2 the same with gold among the minerals4 ,the fact that each is the highest necessitates that4 ,in the same way1 man includes ,nature and the lower creatures1 in that he is the highest4 ,this is easily proven to you when you recall that a child in the womb passes through all states of creature evolution4 ,that period is1 in a wonderful way1 a review of the evolution of the world4 ,the mere fact that the higher one climbs1 the farther one can see1 proves it again4 ,this is a law4 ,the scent of a rose is the sublimate of all plant odours2 and the spirit of man is the refinement of all knowledge and experience beneath4 ,the higher man ascends1 the more inclusive4 ,to heal another1 the physician must be able to include the other4 ,evolution is continual refinement--the drawing unto ourselves of the spirit of bulks of matter4 ,i stood upon a bluff overlooking the ocean recently1 and a breath of the south wind awakened in my mind the story of one whole summer2 others have listened to forest trees or the humming roar of a distant city1 or the rush of a great river1 and found in them the aggregate of all ,nature's sounds in one tone4 ,this is the magic of the spirit of things4 ,in all philosophy1 there is no difference of opinion as to one fact1 that man is unfolding a microcosm within himself1 including in his consciousness more and more the ,idea of the ,universe4 ,the cosmic consciousness1 which a few have attained1 is the actual perception of the externals of the ,plan4 ,the cream of anything includes all the parts4 ,the cosmic mind must include the essence of all arts and experiences and facts4 ,just as the rose and the man and the grain of dust are potential with all beneath1 the highest man1 the cosmic intelligence1 is potentially the cosmos in containing the ,idea of it4 ,this idea may be contained in and expressed outwardly by some great single1 all-including1 all-mastering emotion--such as love4 ,and now we are in a region where there can be no difference of opinion2 at least ,i have never heard disputed what is the greatest thing in the world4 ,there are all kinds of love4 ,the simple man loves simply--himself1 his woman1 his children and his animals4 ,the love of the cosmic consciousness breaks forth in a deluge upon the race1 because it comprehends and includes all beneath4 ,this great outpouring is formed of earth1 air1 water1 fire1 sunlight and all winds1 all facts1 all experiences1 all arts1 light of the moon and stars and all glowing things under the sun1 all sounds and scents and pictures1 all ardours1 and sympathies and tolerances4 ,its outpouring is action1 and is of itself creative4 ,this is the ,,om4 ,such a love leavens and impregnates all things1 because it understands and includes all things4 ,it unifies all separateness2 it enfolds all intelligence with intuition2 it unites all parts4 ,this brings us to that ancient and unassailable premise of all religions--that ,god includes every part of the universe in being the spirit of it2 that ,his idea of creativeness is expressed in one great single1 all-mastering and including emotion1--which is love4 ,we hear the little children saying it1 ,god is love4 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,we awaken the ,ideal in ourselves first by imitating the virtues of others4 ,in the earlier days when to me courage meant physical action1 men passed in different fields1 leaving an imperishable remembrance4 ,i have often seen the expressions of those ,i loved and idealised as a boy1 live again in the faces of my own children4 ,john ,t4 ,mc,cutcheon in ,luzon1 filling a reel of films1 under a volley of fire at ,binan1 on his knees1 working the camera with a whole brigade sprawled behind--gave me one of the finest early building blocks for the courage among men4 ,he also gave me an ideal of cleanliness3 ,one evening1 after a vicious day's march1 and we were all ravenous1 ,john ,t4 left camp to find a river4 ,there he bathed with government bouquet1--made himself right with himself1 even to shaving1 before meat and drink4 ,his constraint looked like mastery to me then4 ,grant ,wallace was a big star of that service--ideal in performance of friendship4444 ,young men at hand now are different4 ,not one of them lack in grip and grit4 ,they reveal the new thing in courage1 the courage that begins where the courage of the soldier ends4 ,these have gone far into the mystery of their own kingdoms--rapidly becoming kings of themselves4 ,the world doesn't understand them4 ,the ,abbot#c is a sensation in literary matters at ,columbia1 but unplaced4 ,the ,dakotan#c was said to be unfit for a soldier because he was twenty pounds under weight for his height4 ,he can leap five feet six1 run or hike indefinitely1 exhaust a cement-mixer1 say stick in all tongues and quit in none4 ,he has the will and wisdom to make himself a new man over night--and yet his ,government wants him served up just so1 in pounds4 ,there isn't any one loves ,america more than the ,dakotan1 whom we now call ,steve4 ,even the young military surgeons will know before long that endurance is a matter of spiritual culture1 that courage is spirit--that a man is well because of cleanliness of body and thought and organised will2 that he doesn't fail in a pinch because he is evolved2 that all the higher forms of life call for speed rather than strength1 the levitating force of spirit rather than the gravitating force of flesh1 for brain rather than brute4444 ,comrade stuff is the stuff of souls4444 ,i've studied them long and devotedly4 ,i build my days upon the things these boys show me4 ,less and less are we different from those who call to our hearts4 #c ,these appear in ,child and ,country4 ,these young men do not think themselves out2 they are not troubled by misses or personal discrepancies4 ,they simply are themselves4 ,i have perceived that men of dreams and genius and action are in the larger sense free from themselves4 ,the main part of their day's performance is a lifting out of the tangle of emotion and desire1 into a large1 unrestricted area full of calm daylight1 where events and movements are seen in their relation to one another1 not in separateness and one at a time1 an area also where inspiration is momentarily expected to strike4 ,they do not analyse themselves4 ,they do not hear their own voices4 ,they are not dismayed if they falter or drop from the key4 ,the things that most men do with care1 and that occupy so much of the days these young men perform automatically4 ,my own path was upward through an intense self-consciousness--the ,american1 not the oriental way4 ,i lived with myself all the route4 ,i observed outward conditions and events1 domestic1 civic and cosmic2 but at the same time observed their effects upon myself4 ,i did not know until ,i was adult that there is a big receptivity of consciousness above this--where intuitions play and weave causes and effects together--where the mind is more like a child's than a man's1 or more like a giant's1 perhaps--where the big faith comes1 and the warm laugh comes1 and man surpasses himself1 but does not know until afterward1 if at all4 ,warmth flooded into me as ,i touched this larger consciousness4 ,it became clear as daylight--that a man is at his best only when out of himself4 ,i saw much of my misery and depression was the result of self-analysis4 ,i was a better man when ,i let myself go utterly4 ,and this was exactly the thing that happened in moments of danger1 moments of romance and friendship1 moments of the self hurling itself outward4 ,capacity for these moments makes the ,comrade1 and indicates that love which is not a sentiment1 but a cosmic force4 ,again1 you cannot describe a spiritual thing with these little tools and materials in black and white--just intimations4444 ,if we are sweet enough inside1 something of the song will come to us4444 ,two words suggest it best4 ,the first is ,comrade1 which has become a silliness in a military sense1 yet has a high and holy meaning to all reconstructionists4444 ,i remember when the word first came to me with a thrill1 as a young lad going off to ,cuban wars4 ,it was burned out of me a few days afterward in a ,sibley tent full of regular army soldiers4444 ,i remember the scorn with which ,i used the word all the years--or avoided using it--until slowly1 smilingly1 its new dimension opened1 hard as a diamond1 and as clear--its meaning in work and world and women1 its new meaning to ,russia and ,india and ,china and ,america4 ,it seems to say ,equality4 ,it's a kind of deep drink of spirit together1 a word spoken at the last moment between men--an inner-shrine word1 spoken with a smile1 and a glimpse into the eternal indestructibility of the human heart4 ,it expresses the love of the world1 not as it is felt in the brain1 but in the breast of the soul4 ,the ,new ,race has already washed it clean4 ,it goes with a ,cause fit to die for4 ,it belongs to men and women who can look at each other with a kind of prayer in their eyes and face death alone and laugh at it4 ,there's a fury1 too1 in the word--fury against the world1 against things as they are4 ,it stands against the world-darkness now1 and for the day that is to be4 ,it means love for the poor1 a love for the peasants1 a passion to serve and be tender to them1 not to drive them into the pits of death--a readiness to die for them without cant1 a readiness also to dare to live for them4 ,comrade--there's vision in it to strip off the masks of decadent nations1 to open wide the sepulchres where the priests are still plotting to crucify the ,king2 its strong magic will uncover the monotonous crimes of commerce4444 ,it signifies the spirit of the young men and women who have already begun with gladness and fire to clear the dbris for the building of the ,new ,age4 ,they will begin with the soil2 they will know and love their own hard part4 ,they will begin with the grass1 with the rice1 with the millet and the wheat1 the clean things1 the simple and holy things that the peasants love1 with the songs that the peasants sing1 the songs of the soil and the rivers and snows--to build upon them the new heaven and the new earth4444 ,above all1 there's a laugh in the word--the laugh of youth and power4 ,the other word is ,democracy4 99 99 99 99 99 #e ,,john',s ,,things ,here are some of ,john's things1 mainly letters to the ,old ,man4 ,california called hard for the recent winter1 and ,i went out a few weeks ahead of the ,stonestudy outfit4 ,john intended to follow within three weeks1 but overturned a kettle of boiling water in his lap1 and was unable to leave his quarters for three times that period4 ,we all learned better the hard lesson--to wait4 ,the quoted word ,play in his first letter refers to a little slip of paper which ,i had pasted upon my typewriter4 ,there has been a big tendency in recent months1 in my case1 to let down all tension in relation to literary production--the idea being that when one has learned all the laws he is capable of1 the time is at hand when it is well to forget them4 ,i have written several times throughout this book of an ideal emergence of ,workman into ,player4 ,we learn many laws1 to learn at last that there are none4 ,we come up through many slaveries to freedom4444 ,i have not corrected all the spelling in ,john's documents4 ,the point most interesting is how the real voice breaks through the mind of a child of nine from time to time4 ,,dear ,,younervers#d ,,pal3 ,we got your letter but it was not like you for it was not type-written4 ,your old machine here is going grand4 ,i am using it now4 ,it seems that ,i am with you all the time4 ,comrad has meant a lot the last four days to me4 ,comrad is everything in the ,new ,race4 ,masters will be comrads with every one4 ,that ,play has it all1 on your machine4 ,play is in all somewhere4 ,it is all like a big page and everything is woven on it4 ,there is a time when ,comrads hafto go apart for a little while1 but not long4 ,their thoughts never go apart4 ,they are always pulling together1 always weaving in thoughts and things that are the same4 ,it is wounderful--a parting4 ,no sadness over it4 ,it is the best that could come1 or it would not4 ,we are held together4 ,the pull of the world is nothing to us4 ,it is hard to keep high1 but we will4 ,fred#e and ,i take a swim every day4 ,i go a hundred and fifty feet4 ,then we come up and rub each other4 ,true ,comrads have it all4 ,love from ,comrad to ,comrad4 #d ,universe4 #e ,the ,abbot4 ,,pal3 ,i woke up this morning kind of blurred1 and got ,irving and ,steve to come out and clean up the barn4 ,they came and we worked there all morning1 and then went in for a swim4 ,it was wounderful1 the feel ,i had when ,i got some clean clothes on and had the old dog#f feeling good4 ,he is meditating over what a wounderful world it is now4 ,the stall smells sweet as a hay-stack4 ,fred just got here and is working at your desk4 ,how was your morning8 ,i never had a better one1 and its the weary old ,sabbath1 too4 ,send for me soon now4 ,it seems that it was a year since we have been together4 ,we can not do without each other4 ,send for me ,soon4 ,i hold my hand high to you4 #f ,the saddle horse4 ,,dear ,,old ,,magic ,,fath3 ,i am at ,steve's desk in the guest room4 ,it is the first time that ,i have touched the keys of a type writer since the night ,i was berned4 ,it sure does feel good4 ,it has been much more wonderful to hafto have ,patience for the ,meeting4 ,it will be twice as great for both4 ,i have needed you so since ,i have been in bed4 ,in pane and sicknes there is nothing that you need so much as your ,comrad4 ,i felt palms up to everything4 ,it is all good4 ,we love it all4 ,it all was something for us to get4 ,it puts us higher after something comes to us like that4 ,i have all the pores poring out love to you4 ,we are always together4 ,,your ,,side ,,kiker4 ,,dear ,,old ,,pal3 ,fred and ,i slept again in the ,study4 ,it looked like a storm last night1 but it did not come4 ,fred is a real ,comrad4 ,i got to his heart last night4 ,i do not know how4 ,the roses have been wounderful the last few days4 ,how is wounderful ,mary8 ,we are all sending ,thoughts to you4 ,we have had wounderful full days lately1 all heat4 ,the town is howling for rain now2 they are never satisfied4 ,we are always ready for anything4 ,it is the best4 ,our wounderful old mailtrain just crossed the magic lane4 ,i love trains more and more4 ,they have a pull to my heart4 ,we love everything4 ,i do not feel on erth4 ,i feel in space4 ,out of the draw of the erth--,free4 ,love always in my heart for you4 ,i hold hard for the time that ,comrads pull together again for the road1 us two4 ,jane is at my hump all the time--so ,i will quit4 ,,dear ,,old ,,comrad3 ,we are close this morning4 ,i can feel your warm wounderful hand in mine this morning4 ,we are one4 ,there is the holy breath--such a great pull of thoughts and work to ,california4 ,it seems as if all the ,comrads were calling me there4 ,then ,i hafto think of the one thing--,patience4 ,when you have mastered ,patience1 you are free4 ,all well here4 ,my sores are getting better fast4 ,i have wanted to work lots lately1 since ,i was in bed1 but ,i could not4 ,i lost so many ideas in bed4 ,beds are a curse4 ,i love you1 ,comrad4 ,we need to be together4 ,,your ,,old ,,pal4 ,,sunlight ,,pal3 ,a wounderful sun4 ,a little late in getting up4 ,the sun was out full--a wounderful breakfast and a wounderful bowl of roses4 ,every morning gets greater4 ,the coming together again gets closer4 ,separation is a great thing6 ,you find that when it comes4 ,it will be so big and wounderful to come together on the shores of the sea4 ,the trains on the ,pere ,marquette line have a draw to my heart2 the whistle is so wounderful4444 ,to have a bath in the salt water and not in old ,lake ,erie4444 ,it was another wounderful night with ,fred4 ,he has done so much for me this time that we have been away from each other4 ,he is so wounderful if you can get to him4 ,i think ,i have got right to him to the heart4 ,i am awful lonesome for you and the sea4 ,i walked to the train track with ,fred this morning4 ,it was like the day you were going away4 ,i felt it was nearing the last walk up the old ,lane4 ,fred has the same feel4 ,it swept over us--a free feel2 it was almost too much4 ,how is your ,sisity-list coming8 ,mine is great4 ,it is hard to get along without you here4 ,old ,abe was drafted1 and we don't know when we will see him4 ,the sea and sunlight sweeping in the open door of your work room6 ,we will sure have some grand times4 ,we will get horses and have some more of them ,moonlight rides4 ,it will be great to hit the old ,tie path ,itself--with the#g ,welcome ,mulligan and the#h ,onerbel ,chas4 ,lipton under our arms4 ,the smell of the burning bark and a caben in the ,rockies6 ,oh1 the open road4 ,life is ,life on the old ,road4 ,that canyon must be a wounder1 and the sea and the misty mountains and the brown hills4 ,you have it all4 ,oh man1 that is the country for everything4 ,i keep high for our meeting1 ,comrad of the ,road4 #g ,frying ,pan4 #h ,teapot4 ,,prose ,,settings ,i ,,the ,,red ,,sunset4 ,the red sunset ,died away like the close of a forest fire4 ,the ,dusk ran through the mountains like a scarf of blue4 ,the ,moon and old ,jupiter took the ,open ,road together4 ,the others came out of the everlasting ,blue ,deeps4 ,,ii ,,the ,,desert ,,night4 ,the man at the camel corral was fixing the camels for the desert4 ,other men were waiting at the front of the ,temple4 ,another came forward with four camels1 a pack-beast and two riders4 ,then all were off over the ,sun ,betin ,sand4 ,nothing but ,sand and ,harizen4 ,only the ,arab who was ahead on the ,old ,camel knew the way4 ,they went on and on over the ,everlasting ,sand1 the ,sun ,betin ,sand4 ,,iii ,,pines4 ,the great wood is the ,pines4 ,the very whiff of them gives you the breath of ,nature1 the great ,mother of the planet1 the mother of ,love4 ,her breath is the breath of life and love1 and the ,mouziek of the world4 ,,treas 7,california7 ,treas are grate4 ,they are so wild and wounderful4 ,there is so many kinds here4 ,the trea ,i love best of them all1 is the ,u4,k4 ,liptes4 ,it is fragran2 it has the sun and the erth all flowers and the swaying beauty of its great youth4 ,i loved it from the first4 ,it is beauty that stays4 ,i went up to a grove the other day and along a little lone path--the mist and odor of them lingering in deep shadows4 ,my feet broke the deep silences and a ,voice came and spoke soft to me3 ,if you listen long enough you can hear---- ,i think it was my ,master speaking1 for a glow came around me1 after ,he had spoke4 ,,the ,,song ,,of ,,the ,,sperit ,life is not any good until you forget your boddy2 then you get all the power of living1 but you can't do anything that you feel like doing4 ,,lether3 ,all lether has a mystery in it4 ,it is the animal's mystery4 ,the misteks of the other world know it1 and try to tell us4 ,i have been told but my mind has not received it4 ,i will hafto wait until it does4 ,i think ,i will know it all in a fue years4 ,i will tell the rest of the world1 if ,i hear it first4 ,i would like to be the first to hear it4 ,,stones3 ,the whole erth was of stone4 ,god thought that he would make it something good4 ,he sent the ,old ,mother ,nature down and she spent years and years1 but she did not know what to put on it4 ,she went up to ,god and ,he took her to a room1 and showed her the things that ,he had to put on the ,erth4 ,they were sperits1 so she got them one at a time and brought them down4 ,in the mean time she was making other things4 ,they were seeds and she planted these and they came up4 ,it was wheat and barley and other things like that4 ,the sperits became people and took them for food1 and the old ,mother is still putting things and bringing her sperits on the ,erth4 ,this world is just about filled4 ,,the ,,sperit ,at night the ,sperit goes to see ,god4 ,it gets fresh to make the boddy fresh every morning4 ,this is what keeps you clean4 ,if you were all clean1 you would not die4 ,you go thru a hard life and what is not clean is burned off1 and then you are pure to go to heaven4 ,you rest then until you are ready to come and be a saint4 ,,alone ,the sun beat hard upon the rocks4 ,i was alone in the ,power of the rocks4 ,nothing was moving4 ,i was ,alone4 ,my ,sperit was alone4 ,it was the loneliest place in the world4 ,no animal of any kind1 not a bird or a snake--alone4 ,nature did not even have cells of thought4 ,the power of the rocks was holden me there4 ,a thought came over me that ,i had never known ,home4 ,all of a sudden ,nature spoke1 and ,i was free from everything4 ,i came back to the ,father4 ,,equals ,there is a greatness in a man that treats his horse like his brother4 ,a man is a beast when he beats his horse4 ,he is of a lower ,brivahen#i than the horse4 ,the man who says to his horse that he is his equal1 is a great man1 a master of animals4 #i ,vibration4 ,,beauty ,when the ,new ,race comes1 there will be beauty--real beauty4 ,down thru the ages people have talked of beauty1 but they have not seen it really1 yet4 ,it will come with the ,new ,race--beauty in everything--in the body1 in writing1 in talk1 in love4 ,not love one1 but all4 ,the younerverse ,lovers will not only love each other1 but they will love all4 ,this war is the great clean up of the world4 ,after it is all over1 and the troops come all home together1 there will be the great ,new ,race waiting for them with open arms--then all will be real beauty4 ,,the ,,hold ,,up ,,and ,,the ,,get ,,away 444 ,it was the first time ,denver ,bill had come in without a cigarette in his mouth4 ,they wanted to know why he wasn't smoking1 but they didn't ask4 ,he ordered the same drink and took it fast4444 ,he chucked the chair over1 grabbed the tellfon off the table and gave ,hlo4 ,he said1 ,horse up here in five minutes4 ,it was there4 ,he was out of town in a minute more4 ,denver ,bill stopped at a cabin where he had made ponmets#aj to rob a train at #g3de1 and it was now #f3aj4 ,his friend was there4 ,they jumped on their horses and rode a quarter of a mile4 ,the train whistled around the curve4 #aj ,appointment4 ,there was a shout4 ,denver called3 ,stop that engine6 ,it stopped slow4444 ,bill murdered the engineer1 and then flew thru the train of cars4 ,he grabbed the fifty pound gold box and jumped thru the window4 ,a shot rang out4 ,bill was pincked4 ,the man that he had come with played dirt on him because he went off with the gold4 ,bill crawled across the field and laid in the hay stack4 ,he rolled the first cigarette of the day4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,letter ,,to ,,the ,,abbot 7from ,california7 ,,dear ,,old ,,wife3 ,how are you coming8 ,i was just up over the hill behind us1 getting two wounderful qwortz of golden honey4 ,how is your type mill pumping these days8 ,i got a new story in my bean3--,have an old fisherman that takes those forks and goes after crabs--have him find a pot of pearls instead of crabs4--,think if it is done right it would make a wounder4 ,when will you be out here8 ,we will lead a pack trane over the mountains6 ,oh1 that is the old open road6 ,pack mules1 they mean it to me--a line of mules in the mountains and a couple of saddel horses6 ,that's the life4 ,i hope you have changed your mind about them airaplanes4 ,i do not like the ,idea4 ,but1 old man1 it is for the best1 and nothing is a mistake4 ,take it as it comes4 ,write soon1 and make the pages fly like dust to me4 ,i need all that ,i can get4 ,last night was our first bit of rain4 ,slept in an open window where my face was sprayed all night with the wounderful cold drops of spring4 ,when ,i got up1 ,i was feeling better than ,i ever did before4 ,i was all relaxed4 ,i lay a long time just in the wounder of the wounderful free air and rain4 ,i got up and went down and washed in more of the soft rain1 and ate and went outside to come down to my work shop4 ,i stood in the wind4 ,everything around me was so wounderful4 ,all the trees and flowers were brighter4 ,the hills were a little damp4 ,the birds were playing and drinking in the rain4 ,the ray of sun was just coming over the hill4 ,i could almost hear the breathing of the grass and erth4 ,it was like a song1 the great song of spring and breathing of the world4 ,that is the way that the new generation will come in after the world is washed and all countries are one4 ,a ,boy1 young and clean1 will come in1 whistling and breathing a ,song of the ,new ,race4 ,,your ,,comrad4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,another ,,well1 ,,wife3 ,here ,i am pumping a little more of my vocabulary at you4 ,i think that ,i will go into the ocean and have a swim4 ,it's dulce on my wounds4 ,what ,i want to tell you is about an old sea loafer here--a big1 black dog4 ,he isn't any kind of a dog--nothing but a world-man-dog1 he is4 ,he is a lover of the sea and sand4 ,he goes down with us every day4 ,he is a pal for the road4 ,he can't follow the saddel like ,jack1 but he can shore be a frend4 ,i have lerned him and he has lerned me4 ,we stick close4 ,well1 pal of the sea and saddel1 ,i am getting awful lonesome1 but ,i am with you all the time4 ,i need your old paw4 ,i shore keep high for the ,spring ,coming4 ,we will have a shack back in the hills all alone1 and drink tea and talk4 ,don't it sound good8 ,i won't forget it either1 not until we have it4 ,we have planned it for many ages1 and we will hafto have it--old pal of the moonlight rides4 ,i am close and always your ,comrad4 #f ,,values ,,of ,,letter ,,writing ,stonestudy particularly is a shop for writers4 ,a man is at his best in writing to the one who pulls the most from him4 ,the thing is to pour out4 ,the pursuit of happiness is a learning how to radiate4 ,happiness itself is radiation--incandescence4 ,you say you write to the world4 ,a composite8 ,an abstraction8 ,these will not draw forth your best and greatest4444 ,you pass a thousand faces in the town1 and are suddenly torn by one8 ,do you think that the unmanifested1 upon which the thousand faces sleep so far as you are concerned1 is capable of bringing out your wisest or tenderest expression1 as is this one face pressed against the very window of your habitation8 ,as a workman1 as an artist1 as a player1 one must give his best1 one by one1 to individuals first1 before he arouses the force to set the table for the world4444 ,it is important for the young writer to answer exactly certain listening attitudes4 ,i think1 in a story mood1 of the shepherd fires--the endless droning tales of ,persia and ,palestine--camel bells1 bearded men in white hoods1 occasional weary movements of women in the tent openings as the evening passes to dead of night4 ,the tale-teller is making his listeners see more or less dimly something he sees--something he has heard and visualised1 better yet1 something he has lived4 ,the finer his telling the more completely he has lived it4 ,the more listeners pull from him1 the more excellent his animation1 his art4 ,a speaker1 accustomed to give himself spontaneously to an audience1 said3 ,if ,i don't give you what you want--if ,i am not at my best to-day--remember it's apt not to be all my fault4 ,soil and seed in all things4 ,we prepare ourselves with much misery and massed experience to tell our story of life4 ,how strange that we should not have reckoned with the fact that all this preparation is only half4444 ,really1 it is as important to think to whom one is writing as what to write about4 ,i've been afield with many young men1 soldiers and the like4 ,their best and highest moments afield were spent in writing home1 or possibly to the girl they left under the beeches or sycamores4 ,we should write a myriad or two love letters1 before we are ready to write for the world4444 ,by writing and dreaming and travelling and living toward the one1 we learn how to focalise our forces4 ,having done that1 we are ready to diffuse1 to radiate4 ,sooner or later the one point will be taken away4 ,don't be distressed2 it is only for the time4 ,but the love we have learned with one must be turned upon the many4 ,it's all a love story4 ,the whole universe is that4 ,the stillness of the sun in relation to the planets tells the first story of radiation--love a cosmic force1 not a sentiment--all one big1 brave tale4444 ,the real priest is trained to draw out1 to furnish understanding1--inclusion4 ,one can talk well to one who includes him4 ,as professional essayists and story-tellers1 we are only beginning to learn that we must talk or write to some one greater than ourselves1 to set ourselves free4 ,the wonderful power of letters begins and ends just here4444 ,write your story or your essay to one who contains you--to one who draws your best1 to one who sets you free4 ,you can ascertain your relation to another by your mood as you prepare to write4 ,the more you practise the art1 the more sensitive you are1 the more you realise that no two moods of yours are the same1 as you write to different people4 ,one draws humour1 one irony1 one a tendency to exaggerate1 another deeply to be serious and reformative4 ,this should reveal the whole secret4 ,choose your complement for the portrayal of a mood4 ,the thing we call our style is merely the evidence of that which we have chosen to work toward1 plus our particular personality4 ,we should work to that which sets us free4 ,certainly one cannot be free in another's form4 ,there are fixed vehicles for expression--novel1 essay1 poem1 infinite departments of each1 but the fact remains that no workman or artist or player can be utterly himself1 who remains in the forms laid down by those who went before1 or in forms prescribed by the generation he undertakes to express himself through4 ,no good workman ever accepts things as they are4 ,to be the workman unashamed1 he must be considerably beyond his generation in culture and acumen4 ,he therefore finds the beaten paths--which are the easy paths for the many--the most irksome paths for himself4 ,he grinds long and hideously against the things that are1 and thus becomes formidable1 since grinding makes the edge4 ,the dullest part of the axe is held the longest against the wheel4 ,bit by bit1 as the consciousness of the chosen workman expands under years and ordeals1 he casts off all the shackles1 forms and prescribed nonsense of the trivial and material-minded4 ,he breathes deeper with each unbinding1 until he reaches the fair eminence upon which lies the priceless secret of all expression3 ,that there is no law for the pure in heart4 ,he reaches this point through many slaveries1 and yet a child can be taught the secret4 ,the child must also be taught1 at the same time however1 that the world is wrong and inferior in all its views2 otherwise the child will not have stamina enough to stand against the opinions of all elders of all times1 much less those who sit at the same breakfast table4 ,verily1 the thing that ,rodin and ,balzac and ,carpenter and ,hugo and ,chavannes and ,nietzsche and ,whitman gave their prodigious vitalities to learn1 before their real work began1--can be taught to the child1 but the child must find his faith in his own spirit and some true teacher to set him free4 ,in the later aspirations beyond professional workmanship for the world1 the ,players achieve that master freedom which detaches itself entirely from causes and effects in materials4 ,they work as do those who are ambitious1 yet refuse to tie themselves in the least way to results4 ,they work to their ,masters1 to the ,unseen4444 ,all of which is pure and perfect liberation1 but requires one trained in building with spiritual causes and effects4 ,we seek to furnish this training for a few who are ready4 ,it is the way to the inmost and the uppermost in all art and mysticism4 ,we are set free here as expressionists of various kinds by writing or painting or playing to those we hold dearer than ourselves4 ,we wouldn't be writing if we could be with them in the flesh--how clear that is6 ,the fundamental processes of our picture-making are quickened by our yearning4 ,here we touch an old and curious law1 that you must have separation for the true romance4 ,we learn to mass life into pictures or tones or tales4444 ,all that we do well shortens the grade for those who receive4 ,if they are quite ready1 they won't have to make the mistakes we did--mistakes painful at the time1 but out of which we make humour now4 ,a man brings a gift when he brings forth a good tale4 ,he has done something with the worn-out tools of incident and experience which hasn't been done before4 ,to do it well his telling is dependent upon his audience4 ,his telling will be different for each listening group4 ,the greater the artist1 the less alike will be his methods of approaching different friends or comrades4 ,each will bring from him a different tone1 a different look to his eyes1 a different grip of hand1 and different order of unfolding his genius4444 ,the most perfect bits of writing we have from the group of our greatest novelists--is either in the form of letters or parts of work inspired by the influence of a woman's heart--some romantic and one-pointed outbreathing of their souls to one4444 ,the great creative producers rarely found steady human companionship in one woman4 ,no flesh was starry enough to endure their idealisation2 the break of their picture was often the shattering of life itself4 ,experience forces us all at last to take our idolatry from that which changes--to continue our lessons of love toward the ,unseen4 ,lovers of the ,new ,race seem to have learned the agony of trying to find all in each other1 of trying to find the universe eye to eye4 ,they realise at once that man and woman are but the two earth points of a triangle2 that they safely may rear their passions and their transfigurations only to the pure point of union above4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,a man has found something when he cries ,eureka6 ,he loves something1 when he pours out his heart to it4 ,the first great struggle of the real workman is to find a form that contains him--a form of expression that will not maim his dream4 ,it is never the form that has held another1 that has sufficed for another artist4 ,a letter is one way to freedom4 ,a writer's style should set him free4 ,the enduring aphorisms and tablets and discourses of the ,masters have been spoken to their beloved few4 ,a man's sealed orders in the world1 his occult transcriptions from above the world1 come in the form of personal messages4 ,great documents of the future shall be written this way4 ,we write many personal letters4 ,one of my young comrades has the idea to gather together names of a score of mill-girls in ,new ,york or somewhere1 and write her heart to them--less to try to help them1 than to ease her own heart1 to tell her love for them4 ,radiation--that is happiness4 ,mill-girls have been a dream of hers4 ,she is full of force to pour out4 ,incandescence is happiness4 ,all expression is happiness4 ,happiness is creative4 ,to work1 to express1 that is to radiate4 ,the object is as important as the thing that aches to go forth4 ,choose the form that sets you free4 ,to each his form4 ,a tireless woman asked how she might serve4 ,her lover was lost in ,flanders4 ,we told her to write to the soldiers--to write her heart out in letters to soldiers--that she would save lives and start great dreams and bring the gold back to many grey mists--to be ,mary the ,mother1 the saint1 the dream of the film-eyed fighting men--to love them through the heart of her beloved4 ,that is what focalisation leads to--to draw forth the great energies from our souls1 to set us free1 first to one1 then to the world4 ,we learn to love the one--in order to give this love to the world4 ,we learn to love in matter for the moment1 in order to become consummate artists and players in the soul stuff that cannot die4 ,again and again1 through possessions and personalities--missing1 destroyed or moved away--we learn to take the force of our outpouring from the mutative to the changeless--making a divine bestowal at last of a clinging human need--lifting from the idolatry of the flesh1 which encloses all pain1 to the love of souls which sets us free4 #g ,,the ,,new ,,dancing ,i have found true ,north ,americans4 ,a woman of twenty-seven1 a mother 7with a mysterious man somewhere7 and a girl-child with the calm and power of ,joan come again4444 ,i needed a change1 was tired of my house and my voice--close to the end of all human interest that morning as ,i set out for a walk up the edge of the ,lake4 ,on and on walking1 until ,i came to the little girl on the shore4 ,she was making a frowning man in clay4 ,she asked me if ,i were the ,crusader1 but answered herself while ,i was hoping to fit the dimension of that fascinating title4 ,she had decided that ,i wasn't4 ,north ,americans--,i think of them so again and again--something great and calm and deep and beautiful1 something arrived1 at last1 from all the fusion--en rapport with nature1 children of the light1 living and abiding constantly in the essences of sunlight--with the humour and certainty of ,mother ,earth about their ways--the cleanliness of earth and the sweetness of golden light in their house and mind4444 ,mind you1 ,i had walked forth as one would wade out to sea in the path of the moon--actually yearning for a better land than this4444 ,there on the shore1 after hours1 was the child--her eyes turned to mine1 putting me into the enchantment of the wise--stilling hate and ennui4 ,we had words together1 the great awe of life stealing over me again after many days4 ,her hand stretched forth to take me to her mother 7this day called the ,lonely ,queen1 for they live in an enchanted story-book74 ,a climb to the top of the bluff and into the most fragrant and godly lane1 a low house in the distance in the shelter of beeches--solitary and isolate beeches sheltering a human house1 built for sunshine long ago4 ,many pages would not tell of the lane and the house1 the lawn and the hives4444 ,i want to touch the core of this inimitable pair that took me in--poor but dining upon the perfect foods1 so poor that they make and dye the lovely things they wear--a kind of holy handiwork everywhere--perfume of summer in the house and in the heart of it a deepdelved peace where broods a sort of lustrous dream4 ,the child is but seven--that is1 her body and brain are but seven4 ,her talk with her mother is the talk of a pair of immortals4444 ,wheat bread and butter for supper1 peaches of the mother's canning--a last jar1 she said1 with comb-honey for sweetening and golden cream on top4 ,it was a repast for the mountain-top where demi-gods stray--all miracles about us1 ,apollo just putting his steeds away1 ,vulcan smoking sombre and wrathful in the distance4 ,can you see me sitting down to supper in a true handmade house1 at the head of a ,god-made portal to the lake 7the lane is nothing less7 in a grove of white beeches--lingering gold on the vines at the window1 the murmur of hives in the air1 and these two mystic presences subduing their radiance to sit with me8444 ,there's a little can of tea that is opened the last thing after the table is spread2 the brass kettle begins to sing1 and the mother hovers over--a kind of sacred rite1 all this--then the dancing water is poured over the leaves and the room softly fills with the air of far archipelagoes4 ,roses of ,ireland and ,france are in the room4 ,tearoses--some daughter of poetry must have named them4 444 ,still ,i am telling you about things--not about them4 ,i thought ,i should write you what they are1 yet the longer ,i sit here1 the more testaments of their adorable lives appear1 but their spirits draw farther apart4444 ,there is never a drone of talk where they are 444 sentences and silences1 the myriad voices of evening stealing into the hushes between4444 ,i must get down to earth again4 ,i must begin with the grass and the shore and the magic which began when the child turned up to me from the frowning clay4444 ,i should like to report them moment by moment--to make you see1 but there is a fixed purpose in this chapter4 ,sitting apart from them that first night1 ,i contemplated the ,north ,america of the future--a kind of dream that nestles within a dream--the ,great ,companions1 superb men and women1 the vastness of leisure1 the structural verity of joy1 a new dimension in the human mind1 a new colour and redolence in the light that plays upon the teeming world4 ,not for years had ,i been so near to the dithyrambic4444 ,i went out into the dusk and smoked a machine-made cigarette--not for worlds would ,i desecrate that room4 ,i returned drowsy--opened the casement windows wide to the stars4 ,as ,i put out the lights1 the sense came to me that the little room was as fragrant and sweet as a new-woven basket4 444 ,i awoke to low singing4 ,the room was grey and seemed to lift with me1 and the walls to widen4 ,it was as if ,i had caught the old house just waking from a sleep of its own4 ,the phenomenon of the singing lived in my mind4 ,i don't know the song--a rapid bird-like improvisation possibly--two voices hushed1 but a vibration of clear liquid joy4 ,i went to the window4 ,the earth was still asleep--a pearl-grey world of dripping trees in a kind of listening ecstasy--two beings below on the lawn--a lawn that was grey with dew4 ,it was like looking down upon a cloud from the ,matterhorn4 ,these two beings--one in a veil of rose1 one in a veil of gold--were dancing upon the cloud1 dancing bare-armed and limbed1 their voices interpreting some soft harmony that seemed to come from the break of day upon the sphere4 ,it was not for me--yet ,i could not draw back from the vines4 ,i brought only thankfulness to it--sharing the joy in the dim of a room1 in the dim of a mere man's heart4 ,yet all ,i could contain came to me from the mother and child4 ,they knelt in the grass1 the song more hushed1 bringing up to their faces and shoulders hands that dripped with the holy distillations of the night--a wash in dew and day1 their song a prayer1 their dance a sacred rite4444 ,i should have thought it the gift of dreams1 but there was a starry track of deep green across the lawn1 where their bare feet had broken the sheen of dew4 444 ,i dwelt with souls--that was the truth4 ,i sat at breakfast with souls1 dew-washed1 speaking to each other and to me from that long road of life which we lose for a squalid by-way when we put on the garments of the world4444 ,they talked again about what the birds hear in the morning4 ,they said that what the birds sing is their interpretation of the great song of daybreak--that the earth does not meet her ,lord ,sun in silence4444 ,and then ,i knew that the song ,i heard was their interpretation--think of it--a child of seven eating buttered toast4 ,and ,i knew that power is a song--that the singing of the kettle is the song of steam1 that the inimitable t'sing of an electric burner when the current first charges through1 is the awakening song of steel and carbon to their native capacity and direction4 ,the same is in the heart of a boy when he finds his task--the same is in the order of a master and in the making of his poem4444 ,these two hear it--the song of ,mother ,earth as the floods of light pour out and over her from the ,east4 ,here was a mother who knew how to play4 ,she had launched somehow into a sphere of her own making--doubtless having found life of the world insupportable4 ,i had thought much about bringing up children1 about unfolding the child1 and here it was being worked out with brimming joy4444 ,it was all too natural to be called education4 ,it was nature--it was liberation1 rather--a new and higher meaning of naturalness4 ,i was almost afraid to speak4 ,the life here seemed so delicate and delightful that comments would bruise the fine form of it4444 ,they played together--that was the point4 ,play is a liberation of force--great play is ecstasy4 ,in it one rises to the stillness of production1 wherein one bathes in mystery and potency and all commonness is cleansed away4 ,those who reach this stillness are the great beings of the world4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when we finally open ourselves to any subject1 we find intimations of it everywhere4 ,i found presently that all the voices of the ,new ,age had designated the magic of the dance4 ,it seems almost dull to declare that ,i do not refer now to the dance as it is taught and used and exploited as a social accomplishment1 but that in which the personality is subdued and quiescent1 quite as absolutely as it is in all great moments of production4 ,one must give oneself4 ,music carries the sensitive soul into its own mystic region4 ,a rhythm within answers to the external rhythm--the two meet and mate--the fusion is bewildering beauty4 ,as in all creativeness1 the first law is spontaneity4 ,the great dancers of the future will hear their own music--possibly give voice to it as they give their body to the rhythm4 ,there shall be no exact interpretation of song or sonata--at least1 not until absolute genius interprets the exact figure of each tone-set4 ,this is impossible in a world of mutation4 ,accordingly1 one who establishes a series of movements to accompany a certain harmony1 misses the meaning of the divine improvisations which is the essential beauty of the ,new ,age dances4 ,one should dance as freely as one called upon to speak4 ,and one will neither speak nor dance greatly by prearrangement or following any arbitrary form4 ,the very tone of the voice is different and deeper when one is caught in the spirit of spontaneity4 ,the prime object of the new education1 which includes dancing1 is to set the soul free4 ,music is one of the master-lures to call forth the sleeping giant4 99 99 99 99 99 ,one night a stranger#aa came to ,stonestudy4 ,she said she was called by the way we were doing things1 and that she hoped she had something to bring to us4444 ,the next morning at daybreak1 down on the shore1 ,i saw stars and circles of young women and girls folding and bending together in exquisite tones of colour and song4 ,her gift was the new dancing4 ,over night she had captured the young people1 bringing them a new joy in the world4 ,for two or three months she remained with us and has since established classes east and west--life given to the message of beauty4 ,with us her expression and magic has endured4 #aa ,helen ,cramp4 ,there is no way more swift to merge in the universal1 than by the response to music through movement4 ,not dancing1 which is a response to time in music more than to rhythm1 but the actual blotting out of self1 a spiritual exaltation which many religionists have sought and few attained4 ,the means is very simple2 nothing strange or peculiar4 ,it is the dropping of the human will so that the music may flow through4 ,one does not move to the music then2 one is moved by it4 ,the objective mind ceases to operate and through the larger consciousness absolute ,beauty streams4 ,the response to the music may be totally different with several pupils1 but where the dancer is really lost to the objective world1 the movement is always true and satisfying to those who watch4 ,this is easy for those who are close to ,nature and ,god1 but it is fraught with difficulties for those who are over-mental or who have been terribly repressed4 ,in many ways the will is man's highest asset and it requires a supreme effort of the will itself to drop the objective consciousness4 ,there is a technique of the dance to be sure1 but it is designed only to free the body so that it may be a purer channel for the music1 and to facilitate the effacement of self4 ,physical strength1 agility1 beauty as mere beauty1 are never sought1 but only the revelation of eternal harmony4 ,there is rhythm throughout ,nature4 ,man often moves less gracefully than the higher mammals4 ,he has opposed his will to the law of the universe1 for centuries abusing his ancient right1 but through music he may realise again the harmony of all4 ,the dancer is radiant with the splendour of the infinite and there comes an ecstasy into the spirit1 of those who witness the transfiguration--the hush that one feels only before the highest art and purest religion4 ,it is reasonable to suppose that those who dance must bring back with them into every-day living something of the beauty of those exalted moments when they touch the white radiance of eternity4 ,here is natural education1 natural religion--a practical mysticism1 the merging of self in the ,infinite with a consequent fitness for daily living4 ,so the dancing of the ,new ,age is but a different form of contemplation and production1 by which the ,soul becomes the creature--for the period achieving that blessedness which is above time and space1 and dwelling in that dimension1 where goodness1 beauty and truth are one4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the new dancing is in the air4 ,like vers libre and all ,new ,age realisations and creations1 its first essential is freedom4 ,this is the meaning of the word ,democracy--equality1 liberation4 ,the very spirit of all that is new demands freedom4 ,the deeper one penetrates1 the lovelier the folds of this marvellous conception4 ,there is no title for friend or comrade1 for child or lover--comparable to the assumption of equality4 ,equality--its power sings4 ,it dances4 ,when the last is said and done1 we all want the same thing1 if we really knew1--goodness1 beauty and truth1 one at the top4 ,there is joy in the fine new conception appearing now in all the arts--freedom first and last1 even to lawlessness at first1 but that will right itself more swiftly than smugness1 which has had its age-long and hideous trial4444 ,to me1 the house in the beeches slowly unfolds it all--the mystery of the cosmic peasantry of the future--that fastidious poverty1 that delicate plenty which is perfection4 ,these two1 mother and child1 mean the new dancing to me1 and the ,new ,race beside4 ,i have not dared to go again1 because ,i build incorrigible dreams1 and this one especially is dear4444 ,yet ,i often recall their loveliness together4 ,the mother's beauty had turned to loveliness4 ,it had more than the mystic chiselling of sorrow--it had passion1 it had humour4444 ,i feel the need of telling you from time to time that ,i am not rhapsodising1 the need of reminding you1 how weathered and drab my mind was1 when ,i went up the shore that day4 ,she made me think of grapes and olives and laurel-boughs2 she seemed the sister to the child4 ,all about the two were subtle1 pervasive1 ever-changing tests of the power of the soul4 ,the country people around did not think her extraordinary1 much less beautiful4 ,how much is revealed in that8 ,loveliness requires certain vision1 an interpretative spirit1 and thus it is protected from the vulgar gaze4 ,these good country people carry upon their faces and hands and persons picture-writing of secret sins and dreamless stolidity1 and yet they are scandalised by this woman4 ,you cannot imagine how sweetly it came to me that she had utterly lost the sense that she was outcast4 ,a lamp burns at her door every evening4 ,i don't suppose it is seen three times a month--yet the lamp burns4444 ,there's a big wooden ,cross in the room where they sleep--the child led me to it--a mat of grass before it1 kusa grass1 who knows8444 ,a great ,cross1 a much-worshipped ,cross1 with spike-holes1 the broken edges worn smooth4444 ,the child whispered to me that she had been brought 7when she was too small to know7 and placed on the mat at the foot of the ,cross for her mother to find2 also that she came when the white clover bloomed4 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,it is only this way1 bit by bit1 that ,i can make the picture4 ,i have never before been so disturbed by the sense of inadequacy4 ,the light about their heads is all diffused like morning upon a cloud4 99 99 99 99 99 #h ,,old ,,pictures ,,in ,,red ,there was a period between the second and third year of the war1 when it seemed that the guiding1 shielding spirits of the planet were slowly being withdrawn--leaving only the mockery of goods1 the chaos of multiplied things4 ,but at the blackest1 in the very hush of desolation1 the new breath stole in upon us1 a breath of lilacs on the chill1 dank1 wintry air4 ,many now stand arisen1 waiting the flash that changes the world4444 ,five men were gathered in ,stonestudy one evening2 we talked of our parts1 the best we could do in the clean-up4 ,it was hard to look over the barriers at first2 hard for an ,american to accept the fact that he dare not say what he thought1 nor write what he thought4 ,it was hard to realise that we were prevented from expressing what we thought1 by the very forces that had drawn us into this deep trouble4 ,we who are the distant generation of a party of pilgrims and voyagers who came to ,america to find a free country1 were strange and intolerant at first1 when we felt the yoke of ,europe settle upon ancient scar-tissue4 ,we discussed4 ,a country is superb when one is unconscious of it1 we said4 ,one's country should be like one's health1 part of the song of life4 ,suddenly to find the freedom of the past unremembered1 the freedom of the future unglimpsed1 to hear the loathly low beat of talk from groups of frock-coated ,appetites1 with heavy half-dead legs and heads like pitching-quoits1 settling our sacred future on the basis of steel and coal and margin and murder market2 to feel ourselves clutched and borne forward with stub-nailed fingers in the stench of big business2 black-garbed shopmen pointing the way to the ports1 urging and shouldering other people's children to the ports of the gunboats1 advising the efficacy of ,nearer ,my ,god to ,thee1 as a song for sinking ships1--we forgot at first in our own pain that this was merely the body of the ,old strained to a cracking point by the resistless growth of the ,new4 ,presently we grew kinder4444 ,in a way1 the ,old was the grim stepmother in whose house we learned how not to do most things2 in whose kitchen we learned cleanliness1 because of the vile example of her organic sloth2 in whose walled garden we learned the peril and the passion of ,quest1 because we loathed her long snoring of afternoons2 from the death of whose sects and schism-shops we set forth to find the unity of life2 from the obscenity of whose loves we came into the first great cleansing hatred of ourselves4444 ,no hatred now4 ,hatred is part of the ,old4 ,it has no part to unsteady the hands of the reconstructionists4 ,this ,new ,race has come up in strong soil4 ,the ,old nourished and fertilised all its vitalities4 ,the new green beneath the litter of dead leaves cries out under the decay1 ,you are stifling me6 but the plan of it all is wiser1 for there is warmth still in the humus of the old to protect the new and the frosts may not be finished4 ,more and more as the sense of big cleansing and chastening came home to us1 the everlasting principles of reason and order and beauty also appeared out of the chaos and the pain4444 ,they were saying in ,europe that this war was a war without morale4 ,we believed it would be a war with morale before the destruction was finished4 ,one of the cleanest dreams we had was that ,america would bring1 with its guns and knives and instruments of flagellation1 something of the almighty spirit of the human heart to light the blackness where the ,pale ,horse has passed4 ,that's all morale is1 and war without morale hasn't any cause or effect on the constructive side1 and will continue to destroy itself against itself as all such forces do in their madness4 ,if any one concludes that we were a group of religionists gathered in ,stonestudy that night it will be well to point out that this planet will be a whole lot more religious before war ends1 and no one will be louder about it than the trade-mind everywhere4 ,war brings death1 and death enforces the faith of the human heart1 and faith is one of a trinity 7as we learned in ,sabbath ,school and variously since7 that inclines the heart of man to ,god4 ,you take a loved object from the ,seen and place it in the ,unseen 7thousands each day the soldiers pass7 and faith is born of the agony of separation4 ,the human heart forces a bridge across the abyss from the ,seen to the ,unseen4 ,it's the old story of the bereaved turning to ,god4 ,saints are thus made--thus tenderness and purity come to be4 ,within the next ten years there will be heroisms before our eyes--heroisms such as seers and saints and sages have dreamed of as the consummation of the human heart4 ,and those who have lost most and mourned most will read the eternal joy of the ,plan from the ,book of ,god's ,remembrance4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when you see the remnant of a race of people crying out that there is no ,god--then you begin to know what war means4 ,when a country has given its tithe of human blood1 or one in five is gone--then you begin to know what an ,austrian woman meant1 when she spoke of the horrible grinding of war and the answer of the women to man's cries of pain afield4 444 ,when peace brings a worship of materials and a dulness that cannot look beyond existing institutions--the end is war1 and after that a sitting in black upon the ground4 ,we didn't know what death meant before this war--but many have learned4 ,the very word death has the sweetest sound of all uttered names to many a lonely heart to-day4 ,we didn't know enough about death4 ,we had the habit of thinking this was all4 ,the end of such thinking is war1 and after that1 a sitting in black upon the ground4 ,when your heart is cleft in twain and one part stays on this side1 and the other over the dim borderland--there's a straining of eyes into the ,unseen1 a picture making out of the creative materials of human spirit4 ,life of the soul begins again--out of pain--always out of pain4 ,we have not yet learned to accept life from the higher masters1 ,joy and ,beauty4 ,we still learn through ,pain4 ,we forget the meaning of death1 even as we gather our things of death about us1 and war comes along to remind us again4 ,always those who answer to ,master ,pain must look to death to find their relation to ,god4 ,the faith that comes with peace at last to the human heart1 is energised by a love that crosses the abyss of life and death4444 ,a grand old teacher1 ,master ,pain4 ,when we know all his lessons1 and take his hand from our shoulder1 and touch it to our lips 7for we shall know well his wonderful work when the time comes for us to part with him71 then we shall find that he is not a black man at all--but a ,sunburnt ,god4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,four at a supper table--a little child1 its young mother1 and the old father and mother of a grown son1 who has just died for ,france4 ,the old man's eyes roved from the child to its mother1 back to the old woman1 and lingered there1 something rough and deep and wise in his look4 ,the child suffered vaguely4 ,there was much suffering in the house4444 ,the young mother asked coldly if they could feel him in the room4 ,then just as coldly she asked if there were a ,god4 ,then she ran from the room with a cry like a night animal4 ,the silent child began to weep4 ,the old man and the old woman stared at each other and wondered what their daughter-in-law meant about him being in the room4 ,a picture of the chastened world4 ,the child turned from the strange1 sad human beings to the fairies that played upon the peasant hearth4 ,the child's mother had rushed forth into the twilight to find a vision or a memory or a breath of ,god4 ,the old man and the old woman looked so long at each other in the darkness--that the soul of the son of their flesh stood for one healing instant between them4 ,thus the enduring figures of the ,unseen reveal themselves to those who have suffered to the end4 ,the nations are but names to fight for4 ,these battle-lines are for humanity's soul4 ,if ,america is fighting for humanity1 let it be with surgical calm and healing in her hands4 ,hate spoils everything4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the babe knows a room2 the child knows a house and looks out into a street2 the youth learns the street and then the city2 the young man learns his country1 but the man should learn the world4 ,you can never be the great lover of ,america by hating the rest of the world2 no human mind can see what is best1 what is even good for ,america1 when the interests of other countries are forgotten4 ,no man's country ever suffered because he turned his love and service to the feet of humanity4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the few who brought the real ,american impartiality to the ,european war in the first months1 found themselves in the midst of the most challenging chaos that ever reared its head to the light4 ,profound and tragic impressions followed each other4 ,it became icy clear that the greater nations1 as well as the pawns of the ,balkans and the ,levant1 were puppets alike1 churned together in a great planetary cleansing4 ,every partisan path was found to be increasingly crooked the farther one advanced--and a sheer descent at the last4 ,any national point of view used to dupe the people into greater destructive energy1 proved in itself1 no matter how sincerely offered1 as short-sighted and ill-founded as the hatred of two soldiers who meet between trenches and discover1 as they gore each other to death1 that their only basis for hostility is a different colour of coat4 ,studying ,europe in those dark days1 the unprejudiced eye was in danger of having some truths torn down with the host of illusions4 ,it was hard to hold fast to the fact that there was anything magic or holy about nations at war4 ,indeed1 they seemed entities formed of groups of greedy men who wanted their way--in the main1 groups of leaders devoid of vision and the spirit of fraternity1 and careless of the welfare of the people1 quite the same as many great commercial organisations4444 ,the real enemies of any people are groups of men who want things for themselves4 ,the real issue of the war has nothing to do with entities of this kind1 nor with alliances of such entities1 but with the painful groping consciousness of the peasant mind--its slow and torturous awakening to the fact that royalty in its utmost pomp and glow does not enfold ,god4 ,the people must learn before they can be free4 ,hitherto they have been duped by the nations2 and the nations are now being duped by each other2 but there is a greater plan at work--using men and nations alike1--a plan to do away with boundaries and hatred and preying1 to strike the spear from the hand of man and leave it free to help his neighbour1 to establish democracy in the place of imperialism1 and fraternity upon the solid footings of the earth in the place of separateness and strife4444 ,the new volume of human spirit already has been opened4 ,we felt it that night in ,stonestudy before lights out1--the first beauty as of a song across still waters4 99 99 99 99 99 ,an ,american correspondent going home from the field in ,europe the long way around1 met an old ,persian ,master on the road to ,damascus4 ,with the sage was his nearest disciple1 also a ,persian2 in fact1 the young man was so loved that he had been changed from discipleship into sonship4 ,this young ,persian became very devoted to the ,american4 ,they stood together for a moment in silence1 when the time for parting came4 ,the old ,master drew near and said3 ,it is good to see you place your hands together4 ,to me it is a symbol of the marriage of the ,east and ,west1 for the ,east and ,west must mate4 ,long ago the ,east went up to ,god and the ,west went down to men4 ,the ,east has learned ,vision and the ,west has learned ,action4 ,these two must meet and mate again for the glory of ,god and the splendour of earth4 ,the ,east has lifted its soul to the hills and held fast to its memory of the ,father's house4 ,the ,west has descended into the folds of the valley1 and won from agony and isolation its efficacy in material things4 ,and now the mystic is looking down and the materialist is looking up4 ,soon their hands shall join--like your two hands in mine--and there shall be great joy in the ,father's ,house4 99 99 99 99 99 #i ,,steve ,steve and ,i were camping together for a few weeks on the ,southern ,california strand4 ,one morning he looked up from the pages of a book in his hands and remarked3 ,this fellow is one of us4 ,the book was ,youth1 by ,joseph ,conrad4 ,i haven't read a book for a long time1 ,steve added4 ,there are three stories in this4 ,i've read only one--,heart of ,darkness--in fact1 ,i haven't finished that4444 ,you have to fall into this ,conrad and be his--to get him4 ,you let your mind open into a cup1 and presently after six or seven pages1 you find it brimming4 ,if you fall into him deep enough1 you get almost what he sees--not quite though4 ,no reader ever does4 ,but you get something intense1 fascinating1 a restlessness1 a terror4 ,you find that all your somnolence and inertia has caught fire4 ,there had been a ten minutes' rain at dawn4 ,the smell of the tropics moved over the sterile sand4 ,it was cool1 but there was no wind4 ,the day promised heat4 ,we had been up in ,canada for the winter1 and it was hard to believe that hot sunlight was free4 ,a broad quilt of gulls and plover sat together on the shore waiting for the drying light or for the mist to rise1 or the tide to ebb4444 ,steve resumed3 ,he tells about a boy who loved maps--who used to look for hours at the continents--thrillingly attracted to the darkest places1 the patches still unprotected4 ,there was one heart of darkness with a river winding through4 ,he doesn't tell you the continent or the river1 but there were elephants there4 ,he should have called the story ,ivory4444 ,years afterward1 the man1 worn to the bone from the world's lies1 sets out to penetrate this deepest black of the planet4 ,he reaches the river and follows it for endless days1 but the world has arrived4 ,some nation is there colonising for ,ivory--you don't know which4 ,the story is told like that--unplaced in time and space4 ,really it doesn't matter what particular imperialistic tendency is at work4 ,the fact is1 he climbed the river into the ghastliest chaos4444 ,you get the deep green of the heart of the continent1 the mournful brooding leafiness--the natives herded and distracted1 more afraid of the blast of a river-steamer's whistle than of any kind of violent death4 ,death was familiar to them4 ,they were chained to labour1 cast loose to die4 ,vultures swept the sky waiting for their limbs to fall still4 ,there was the salty pester of fever in the air--men foolish with fever and heat--a haze of flies--white men burning out inside--oxidisation of human souls--a steady and hideous beat of death--devils of hate and violence and acquisitiveness--clerks making entries of ,ivory--a nation's young men running through the jungles for ,ivory--carloads of bright glass beads and painted calico for ,ivory--all standards of life and career-building set upon ,ivory--murder for that--lives lost1 tribes shattered--the leafy heart of a fresh continent seared with the civil flame of greed--commodities dumped in river beds--mails that men would die for torn open by vandal hands--waste1 perversity1 nothing clean-cut even of crime1 the horrible non-initiative of the middlemen4444 ,all this told with patient exactitude1 but with indescribable intensity2 told by a master-hand that trembles2 with the control that one can only know who is sensitive enough to tremble4 ,you feel a big man bending forward to make you see something that all but killed him to find out4 ,you feel him scarred and sick1 his heart leaking1 because he found it all so hideously and stupidly rotten4 ,it's a little picture of a trade war--that's the point--the war of middlemen--middlemen turning to rend each other4444 ,heart of darkness--after that the light comes4 ,steve opened and shut his fingers in the sunlight4 ,the warmth was sweeter every minute4 ,this fellow sees it all1 he went on4 ,he's done a big job for me--for anybody who gives himself to the book4 ,there's something immortal about being a workman like that--about any workman4 ,that's why one wants to cast a weep after the passing hordes of middlemen4 ,they can't do work4 ,they don't even see the fog of human agony they've painted the world with4 ,they are it4 ,it is the old against the old4 ,it's all about ,ivory4 ,they crucify for fossil4 ,steve was lighting up4 ,this ,conrad brought back to me to-day a bigger love for the workman4 ,the starved and scorned inventor gets the best of it1 after all--not in ,ivory--but he builds something in himself4 ,he quickens something in himself that goes on in freed consciousness when the body falls4 ,no1 ,i don't insist that anything goes on in any particular way1 but the deep moments of work somehow show a man that the best of him here is but a nexus between a savage past and a splendid future4444 ,it's wonderful to be alive to-day4 ,i believe there are secret agencies at work behind all the governments--that they are one at the top4 ,i don't mean detectives1 not intelligence or espionage bureaus4 ,potent1 mystic1 infallible forces4 ,it doesn't matter4 ,some person or some group is holding the plan of the ,new ,age4 ,we're learning life as never before--plucking the deeper fruits and mysteries of pain4 ,but one must go apart from the crowd to see4 ,one must cease to be a partisan4 ,the real seer sees the whole1 not the part4 ,all the war-lands are in pain4 ,one sees only the part1 when one is in pain4 ,not one man out of a million sees it all4 ,a few ,russians see it all--a few in ,china--a few in ,india4 ,romain ,rolland sees it all4 ,this fellow1 ,conrad1 sees it all4444 ,it's a pity if ,america doesn't soon get the full picture4 ,it's worth seeing---- ,ocean and sunlight and mountains4 ,the world was a brimming cup4 ,if a man could take all the beauty there was for him1 he could never die4444 ,we went over to the post-office of the little town4 ,the business men of the place were coming in4 ,the first mail had just been distributed4444 ,grocers1 butchers1 the hardware man1 the real estate men1 the man who ran the newspaper1 fishermen1 barbers1 lawyers--mainly fat and pleasant--children on the way to school4 ,they were short-breathed and short-armed4 ,they dressed in wool and wore heavy dark hats4 ,i had never noticed before how short-armed the race of tradespeople are4 ,labourers and peasants are not so2 painters and musicians have a tendency to be long-armed4 ,i mentioned this to ,steve4 ,the middlemen1 said he4 ,they are tightened throughout--ligaments contracted--contraction taking place in the deeper weaves of mind1 a drying up of the deeper sources of life4 ,contraction1 self-centering--that's what madness is4 ,a man must sing1 or weave1 or build or make bricks4 ,the ways of competitive life are paltry ways4 ,they hide their ways from one another1 and afterward from themselves4 ,they pluck no fruits2 they contrive no short cuts2 they do not become intimate even with the commodities of the earth--the very things they worship and pare margins from4 ,they eat infamously1 filch from each other4444 ,it's all here--all that ,conrad pictured in the heart of darkness4 ,these are the sick1 the maimed1 the blind of the earth4 ,they live in the realm of fear1 pain1 anger1 desire4 ,these are the war-makers4444 ,their arms are twisting and shortening in to their navels---- ,sunlight streamed in through the open doors of the post-office4 ,motors going by drowned the soft rustling from the sea4 ,the hell of the outer world trickled in through bits of conversation4 ,everybody had read the morning paper at the same time4 ,no one thought of telling anything that his neighbour did not know4444 ,europe was starving--the ,president was ill--railroads in strike1 coal famine1 prohibitive cost of staples--,france cracking with the dry-rot of exhaustion--,england 444 a voice--,germany choking in her own blood4 ,the tradespeople of the little town by the sea gathered in their bills and orders and advertisements and hurried back to their shops4 ,nothing astonished any more4 ,there were no words for the world's woe--no ears for lamentations--no mind but to buy cheap at the right time and sell dear all the time4 ,we walked back to the shore4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i once saw a little town on a hill-side1 ,steve said4 ,a grand boot-maker was there1 and a man who made clocks with such tools as he had--big noble clocks that ran unvaryingly eight full days4 ,another man made furniture--perfect woods from the forest drying in his kilns and sheds4 ,there was a sweet smell about his shop4 ,there was a weaver and a potter there4 ,the days were long and singing1 full of labour and peace4 ,no one multiplied by mechanical means4 ,every artisan had his apprentices4 ,the age of the apprentices will come back--with a new dimension added---- ,switzerland or dream8 said ,i4 ,steve smiled4 ,they are starting communities all along this coast1 he said4 ,many are on the quest of the town ,i saw4 ,we sat down upon the sand again4 ,the sun was higher4 ,white clouds brooded in heaven's own daylight2 white wings moved upon the sea1 ,i was thinking about ,steve and all he had said4 ,what ,conrad pictured in the dark continent existed here in one of the cleanest small towns of ,america--an earlier stage of the same malignant disease4 ,from the broad and beautiful vantage points of democracy and fraternity--every shop here was a lair1 the products1 exposed and secreted1 a spectacle of moral decay and insensate devouring2 every schoolhouse a place of dismal enchantment where competition was not only taught but enforced4 ,steve knew deeply well when he spoke1 that the creative artist1 the producer of every real and true and beautiful thing1 comes into the power to express himself1 in spite of such education1 not because of them4 ,one can laugh at all mediocre men occupying seats of the mighty and calling their dead gods to witness that they are right--but one who knows that the intrinsic gift of each child is the one thing in sunlight to be promoted1 turns away a bit dismally from the spectacle of the standardisation of the child mind--from the wholesale manufacture of middlemen by school system4 ,steve loves ,america4 ,i know of no one who loves ,america more4 ,he doesn't rise and cheer when the orchestra plays a questionable bit of verse and tune in a movie-hall where imagination is being put to death--but he believes in the vision of the ,founders of ,america4 ,he believes in the spaciousness and splendour of the ,american spirit2 that the dream of a few mystics will triumph at the last1 and that the many will follow the dream of the few4 ,he does not believe that the voice of the middlemen is the voice of ,god4 ,it's hard to credit1 but this young man does not hate one country to love another4 ,he loves ,america because the dream of a new heaven and a new earth has a quicker chance for breaking through into matter here than elsewhere4 ,he perceives the tissues of the senile and the obscene breaking down in ,america1 under intense civil and martial and moral processes4 ,he believes that this breaking down is essential before the building begins4 ,he believes that the future will be built upon the thoughts of men who are great enough to stand apart from the dumas1 from the cabinets and the senates1 just now4 ,as ,steve sees it1 all partisans have to do with the parts1 and the parts of the partisans have to do with the ,old1 which is destroying itself--sense against substance1 limb against limb1 organ against organ4 ,the young men of the ,new ,race are born of a mating of the ,east and ,west4 ,they are naturally intolerant of partitions4 ,steve is one of these4 ,he isn't a spirit alone4 ,he is a body and brain4 ,he has stayed awake through the full night and day4 ,he sees the planet in one piece4 ,he has crossed all the rivers4 ,he knows the young men of ,america4 ,he is one of them4 ,he loves ,america because he knows the rest of the world4 ,he has friends among the ,chinese young men--among the young men of ,russia and ,india4 ,he says that all three have greater obstacles to overcome in getting the dream through1 than we of ,america--that everybody will be singing it after the wreckage is cleared away4 ,america1 ,russia1 ,india1 ,china--they are lands1 not pavements1 ,steve declared4 ,he was looking across and to the south4 ,the sun was a glory about us--all the background a tentative1 swiftly passing thing1 all but forgotten now1 stilled by the rustle of the long1 low white lines of the sea4 ,the ,new ,age will redeem all the broad lands1 he said1 with a trace of a smile--lands for meadows and fields and gardens--meadows for milk1 fields for wheat1 gardens for honey--the ,new ,race is particular for the perfect foods--foods for the giant and the child--broad lands for the toilers--the great sea coasts for the dreamers4444 ,it's all a matter of taste1 he added4 99 99 99 99 99 #aj ,,hejira ,we found we were a bit tied in the ,middle ,west1 caught somewhat whether we liked it or not1 in the meshes of possession4 ,steve and ,i had liked it much out on the ,southern ,california strand4444 ,when one reads in the earlier book1#ab the stress that we put on building that big stone house on ,lake ,erie2 this felicitous hejira may disconcert4 #ab ,child and ,country4 ,the fact is1 we wearied of possession4 ,we found ourselves yearning for that beauty which is unconfined4 ,we were athirst for new things1 a different break of seasons and taxes4444 ,the world was so full of people who could build and buy and own and insure1 that we decided we should be doing the things that the others could not4 ,we were glad to have built the house for the other fellow4 ,we had to do it4 ,we learned how to run it well1 in and out--but it was a stone house4 ,when a man builds a stone house with walls eighteen inches thick1 he must leave a hole to get out2 also he must be sure that he isn't building on his own chest4444 ,in true ,hive spirit1 we renounced at the highest moment of possession4 ,the crowd cannot be seen by one who stands in the crowd4 ,on the same basis a man cannot see the relation of his house to the road or garden from the inside of the house4 ,the world must be regarded from outside to be seen as a whole4 ,the ,new ,race is determined to see it so4 ,this outside is none other than the mystical viewpoint of all world artists and builders4 ,one does not know what friends are1 until one discovers that the secret of friendship is not in getting but in giving4 ,no one knows what love is until he reverses all the laws that the many follow now4 ,i do not mean lawlessness4 ,i mean the higher law that is found at last by the quester after goodness1 beauty and truth4 ,we have to finish with the world as it is before we set out in quest of a better country4444 ,we found that we had to become active servants of a finer ideal than householding at its highest4 ,we determined to do more than to dream this ideal2 we set about to make a better country4 ,at worst1 we work for our children4 ,it came to us many times before we moved that we were forever done with things as they are2 that we had come to the end of show and property-measure and hoarding2 to the end of the love of self which destroys the vision for friendship2 to the end of domesticity which holds one's neighbour as prey or rival2 to the end of civic identification1 or relation with any federated commonwealth1 which fancies its existence threatened by the prosperity of other political bodies4 ,no heat about it4 ,we came to the edge of the ,lake in vanloads2 we went away with bags4444 ,i turned from the eastern distance on the bluff1 on one of the last days1 and looked at the vined study and the big stone house1 the elms so strong and green about it4 ,i remembered the early picture of all this4 ,it began from ,stevenson's ,treasure of ,franchard1 many years ago1--how old ,dr4 ,duprez went out in the morning and tried grapes and plums with the dew on them1 sniffing the perfumes of his own yard1 dwelling in his own orchards4 ,i remember one day before building that the man came to us about the young trees4 ,he had pictures of them in books--blooms and fruits of such colours that nature would never be guilty of--all the fruits ,i heard of as a boy--white grapes that never grow in this country1 purple ones that grow whether you care or not4444 ,the trees were coming on now1 many with ripening fruit4 ,the grove of elms was a matter of collateral1 as the bank would say4 ,the break-water had caught up thousands of yards of sand4 ,it worked--the old struggle of wasting banks forgotten until a greater storm4 ,the honeysuckles that were planned to climb the bars of the study windows1 had to be trimmed now for any light at all4 ,the wistaria trailed admirably and imposed upon the front the sense of years4 444 ,we had planned to have all the fruits2 some of the finest were now in flower4 ,we came with many clothes1 underwear and outerwear1 wool and dark things4 ,we left with a few light effects in our hands--to find a place where white garments might be worn in peace4 ,we came with a great idea of food--game and fishes1 meats1 poultry1 many cans and vegetables and desserts4 ,we went away with a taste for graham bread and butter--a spread of honey1 a glass of milk4 ,we came with a fear of disease for the children1 fear of colds1 fear of losing something1 or having something taken away1 doubtless having the fear of death and accident4 ,we went away with a clear idea of what death is and the advantage of it1 children and adults alike4 ,young children rode the horse that had a reputation for being wild-spirited and very much a man's mount4 ,we had seen the deep places of the ,lake fill with sunshine4 ,we came with parasols and awnings and protections against the sun4 ,most of us would like to have worn nothing but a breech-clout had the town permitted2 and the only time we had found the world hard to bear1 was the long grey ,spring days of rain4 ,sunlight--it is closer to ,god and happiness and manhood and every delight than words can suggest4 ,the more you know of it1 the more you need2 the more you love it1 the more its mysterious excellence unfolds4 ,i know what sunstroke is1 and what the sickness from heat is4 ,it's a vile state of the body1 or vile clothing that stifles the body4 ,when one is well and has learned to come back to the ,father of ,lights--there is no fear in his heart4 ,i used to wear a helmet and dark glasses1 but no more--eyes stronger than ever4 ,i look for the sun in the morning and stare up from the sand into his face at high noon4 ,there is nothing the matter with sunlight4 ,the sadness and the sickness is with those who bring their quilts and cloaks to hide it from their flesh4444 ,it's all in synthesis4 ,the end of bulk possession is pain4444 ,we started in with many flowers4 ,we ended with roses4 ,it's all in the tea-rose4444 ,by careful selection of thoughts over a little period1 we can come into the joy of flowers in other people's gardens4 ,there are brave men who allow you to walk in their orchards2 and there are many who work hard to raise fruits for a price4 ,there is much joy1 if you really look at it1 in building a house for another fellow4 ,we start with the brute materials--beginning with the clay itself4 ,our cultivations become more intensive through the years4 ,all life is so4 ,we take the extract of a thing at last--a shelf of books where formerly we wanted a roomful--somebody's else little rented bungalow1 where formerly we wanted an estate4 ,we realise1 at last1 that there is an essence to be obtained from the extract1 an oil from the essence--a spirit at last from the oil4 ,the whole story is in that--synthesis4 ,slowly1 at last1 we begin to set ourselves free4 ,we descend into matter2 learn its lessons and laws1 rise like a plant through the darkness to the light1 integrating force to meet and cope with the new and lighter element4 ,i held up seven little books in one hand--weighing no more than a new novel4 ,it's all in these1 ,i said to the ,chapel4 ,one could put these in his bag and have it all4 444 ,and then at last1 ,i went down alone and empty-handed to the shore1 meditated on ,god with sun and sand and flowing airs4444 ,all matter is scaffolding which falls away4 ,a man thinks he builds a house for himself1 but no sooner has he put on the last tile than death or the open road calls4 ,he chooses his climate and grows out of it4 ,he thinks he must possess1 that he must hoard against a rainy day1 and he gathers the stuff of death about him4 ,if he cannot rise1 death covers him for the time4 ,dr4 ,duprez didn't speak of the care of his orchard1 or his garden4 ,it was all story to me4 ,dear ,r4,l4,s4 ,he didn't dream of the work of the hand necessary to keep up an orchard1 and have a connoisseur's joy for a few summer days of the year4 ,he didn't tell of the parasites1 the sprinklings1 the arsenates and pumps1 nor of the little winged migrators that sit on the hills1 waiting for the potatoes to come up4 ,the call comes to possess nothing4 ,it had better be answered4 #aa ,,the ,,spectator ,some of us here have swiftly reviewed certain old slaveries1 that we may set free the children of to-day4444 ,they do not have to make the same mistakes we did4 ,i1 at thirty-nine1 say to those ten and twenty and thirty years younger3 ,start where ,i leave off4 ,i do not relieve you of pain or error or shortsightedness1 of passion or pleasure1 or anything that arouses or wears down body and soul4 ,only this ,i ask you--don't make the same mistakes ,i did4 ,let me give you the answer to a few petty and pestiferous lures4 ,i can put you right on them4 ,begin now to learn your lessons by doing things wrong at first1 a holy way to get somewhere1 but be a pioneer in your evils2 be daring and fastidious and full-powered and discriminating in your faults6 ,above all1 be impersonal in them as soon as possible4 ,let the winds of the world breeze through4 ,it's all a ,laugh4 ,every process of the world to-day is designed to take away that adorable love and listening of the child to its own soul4 ,streets1 schools1 trade1 neighbours1 houses in rows1 priests1 pastors1 charlatans1 all standardise4 ,a thousand teachers in technic for one in the spirit of things2 ten thousand teachers of the health of the body 7and every one wrong7 for one who shows the way to the single and sacred fountain of youth2 innumerable voices lifted in fly-dronings of instruction1 how to fill the bin and the brain1 the bank and the bourse--how to have and to hold and to die holding1 and to bury oneself in the midst of--for one who laughs and plays and dares to watch the world go by4444 ,at last to be the ,spectator6 ,i tell you now from much living that there is nothing here in the world that is worth fighting for1 but the glad tolerance of events1 sheer1 laughing joy in the ,plan4444 ,every time you adjust your life to the standard of the world1 you are doing something that is beneath your soul1 and you will suffer for it1 and be forced to retrace4 ,dress for the world1 and the world will find its flaws in you4 ,work for the world according to its specification1 and it will defile you4 ,enter into any of the competitions of the world and your face and your hands and task will be constricted by visible and invisible impediments and barriers1 less than the real of you in every detail4 ,search for health according to the laws of flesh alone1 and it will elude you at every point1 showing you all vanities and pits and pains4 ,search for beauty of face and body1 and it will be the first thing taken4 ,there is nothing in the world but to make the human divine--that is the job we are here for4 ,to cease to hold is the beginning of invincible attraction2 want nothing and the treasures of the world are yours4 ,you cannot have health until you are ready to give up life here4 ,cease to cling1 and that which was a body held apart from you1 is suddenly a winged creature returning4444 ,there is nothing here but the love story1 and the power of that must be spiritual4 ,the madonna of the future will look up1 not down at the head upon her breast4 ,man must overcome mammon2 ,woman must overcome the mammal4 ,the lovers of the future will look a little time in each other's eyes and much above to a ,third who will come nearer and nearer for their adoration4444 ,the friends of the future will sing in their ,partings2 they shall know the spirit and the breath of camaraderie which knows no death4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there is a tendency on the part of our young associates to be extravagant in their speech4 ,much that they see is beyond their capacity decently to express4 ,a group of us was looking down from a high balustrade4 ,flowery vines were woven intricately against the face of the stucco below4 ,we became conscious of an incredible whirring1 so low that it was difficult to hear1 and yet so intense as to give the thought of a distant seismic disorder4 ,it was the invisible wings of a humming-bird1 flashing from cup to cup in the vines below4 ,the child standing next to me said3 ,the sound has texture4 ,it expressed something very real to me2 yet there is not power in words to portray the exact feeling4 ,all the objects of nature have their spiritual dimensions also for those who dwell much in the ,unseen4 ,these unusual children see the material object merely as an outpost for a challenging mystery2 while1 to the material mind1 the outpost is all1 and the lavish adjectives and expressions of the former are deplored as gush or affectation4 ,as a matter of splendid truth1 the most marked and potent of all adjectives and expressions are pitifully inadequate to express the lustre and radiance which begins at the point where three dimensions end4 ,the ,valley ,road ,girl came into the ,study one day1 saying that this chapel book should be called ,the ,hive4 ,we all thought it a wonderful name to work toward1 yet the unfolding of possibilities has been steadily interesting since that day4 ,the inner sanctuaries of occult literature commend the students to look to the bees4 ,the pattern of much that man has still to unfold from his own soul1 for his personal and communal uplift1 is already expressed in the hive4 ,there is a period of larva1 and a period of wings to each cycle4 ,such matters call to those of spiritual discernment4 ,one feels on the verge of great revelations for humanity1 beyond the thing called death1 as he studies this miniature model of a great democracy4 ,the most fascinating love episode ,i ever read was the ,nuptial ,flight in ,maeterlinck's ,life of the ,bee4 ,the majesty of winging to the sun1 the falling back of the weaker-winged suitors1 the commanding isolation of sun and sky1 fusion under the mighty beat of the wings of the queen1 the broken body of the male1 the mother's return to the shadow and the labour of the generative wheel--magically1 it all opened a vista to the great renunciations1 the great passions and aspirations ahead for the human soul1 great fusions of the future1 marriages truly made in heaven1 the inevitable trinity of all matings--the drama of love and death4 ,for her one high noon flight in ,june1 the queen toils through years4 ,she brings back from that superb instant the swarming cities of the future4 ,on and on1 she unfolds her fecundity in the dark1 a prodigious and ,herculean labour2 from the human standpoint a task of intolerable pain and monotony4 ,the queen's labour is scarcely more difficult than the tasks assigned to the hosts of workers1 which appear to be denied any separate episode of emancipation4 ,yet1 equally with the queen1 they share the communal spirit2 and no one who has stood among the hives at the end of a long summer day1 and heard the song of bounty and deep-hearted content1 can deny the peace that dwells among the myriad of skilled artisans1 each with his perfectly appointed task4 ,bees appear to remember the light1 while working at the opposite side of the wheel4 ,men1 as yet1 are detached1 lost in the heresies of self and strife4 ,only a few visionaries have peered beyond the petty reach of the optic nerve1 to perceive that this1 which we make so much of1 is but the hell-portion2 that this appearance of ours in pounds is a mere dressing up in materials of earth to endure the dark and low vibration of the wheel's most downward sweep4 ,these few visionaries1 always singing the joy of the other arcs of the cycle1 somehow keep the dream alive1--the dream that appears already to be the essential blessedness and magic of life in the hive4 ,all mysticism seeks to teach us this single point which the bees seem to have learned so well--to transcend time and space in labour2 to put off the sense of separation and strife1 to hearken to the soul's own song of equality and sufficing days4 ,we must be pushed to the last reaches of pain before we learn this secret4 ,we have to penetrate the darkness before we earn this flash which swings wide the portals of joy4 ,joy is the most potent thing in the universe4 ,the bee-queen mother weaves race after race of progeny out of the incredible dynamics of an instant's joy4 ,each cell that she fills with life is a living fragment of her nuptial feast4 ,fusion is ecstasy1 parturition is pain4 ,the many become one2 that is heaven4 ,the one becomes many again2 that is earth and hell4 ,integration and diffusion--the same story told in the hives and ant-hills1 in the strolling winds and swinging seas1 in the hearts and marts of men1 in matings everywhere4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the original idea was to use the title1 ,the ,hive1 in relation to the happy intensity of ,stonestudy days1 but our ideal grew to adapt to the name1 because of its revelations in regard to the new social order2 the pure and instant abnegation of the self to the community2 the active acceptance of the precept3 ,that which is good for the one is good for the many1 and that which is good for the many is good for the one4 ,we cannot lose ourselves long in our own misery when we realise the glory of yesterday1 and the more spacious solar adventure of to-morrow4 ,we cannot continue to feel our own isolation when we perceive a brother in the eye of a stranger1 when we perceive the sons of ,god in the eyes of passing men4 ,at length appears the task ahead--the great ,fatherland1 the ,planetary ,hive4 ,i have taken the hint from the new race children1 that to transcend pain we must make joy of it4 ,given the hint1 one realises that the masters of all ages have told the same story--how to make light of human shadow1 how to make lustrous our own darkness4 ,no matter what science says to the contrary1 the quest for the ,absolute means the same thing2 this is the marriage at ,cana1 the turning of water into wine2 this is the passion of the ancient alchemists1 to transmute base metals into gold2 this is healing2 this is regeneration4 ,to make joy out of pain is still more3 it is power for world's work2 it is the light that one carries among men2 it is the fire that makes man remembered by his fellows1 that makes man significant in any task4 ,it is loss of the sense of self2 the death of the lower for the birth of the higher life2 the subjugation of three-score-and-ten for immortality2 an adios to the hands that cling1 for the stride and rhythm of the ,great ,companions on the long road4 ,it is not for the saint any more than for the soldier1 not for the sage any more than for the politician1 not for the poet any more than for the parent4 ,it is not piety1 it is power4 ,one learns it best from the children4 ,one becomes as a little child in learning it well4 ,we are learning rapidly these days4 ,these are the days of humanity's passion and pilgrimage4 ,the soul of humanity is passing along the dusty roads of ,palestine1 for the healing of its own weaknesses1 the casting out of its own demons4 ,one who is not carrying a part of the world burdens now1 as well as his personal pack1 seems forgotten of the gods4 ,it has come to many of us that we dare not take more than a glimpse of our own allotted happiness--that we may not have more than a touch of the beloved's hand in these days of parturition everywhere4 ,but personally and nationally we shall come to that significant crossing where nothing else can be taken from us1 where death seems the highest boon1 and ,master ,pain has driven home his most pointed shaft4 ,that is the moment of laughter4 ,driven to the last ditch we turn and laugh4 ,that is the moment of our expansion for a new kind of heroism4 ,one builds from that deep hour4 ,the ultimate secret is not to identify oneself with that which changes4 ,when these objects shift or break down1 or some one takes them away1 we suffer the old savage rent4 ,the day comes when we disentangle from the final mesh of possession--cease the idolatry of things2 then1 and only then1 are we rich--possessing the spirit and essence of all things1 tallying the universe within according to its objective arrangements with the universe without4 ,finally1 to master the world1 one must learn actually to enjoy the mutation of material things1 as one of an audience watches the movements on the stage4 ,no longer torn here and there in the small fury of detached affairs1 one laughs richly at the progress of the ,play4 ,possessing the spirit of all things within1 he realises that nothing he has can really be taken away4 ,no longer identifying himself with material objects1 he is at last in touch with the perfect and changeless archetypes4 ,this dispassion1 so difficult to reach1 at last extends over all world-forms4 ,one ceases to love bodies2 one loves souls4 ,the son at the front1 the daughter taken to a different house1 the empty seat at the table1 crash of finance or romance--all but a passing of symbols--,godspeed and a smile4 ,bit by bit the valiant reaches that profound and almost divine indifference to the external1 having bound himself to the real1 the enduring1 the inner cosmos4 ,first passion1 then dispassion1 then compassion--conquest of pairs of opposites until night and day are seen as separate sides of the same globe4 ,so with pain and pleasure and all fluctuations4 ,day by day1 while learning this great secret1 the aspirant is forced to die to the thing he loves most4 ,day by day the thing that he hates and fears most--for that he must live4 ,at last1 loves and hates merge together4 ,one is no longer focalised upon a point1 but upon a universe4 ,he arrives at the great silence in himself1 the static momentum4 ,he no longer moves with the world--the passing show goes by4 ,he transmutes pain into joy--not lying to the self1 but because pain of the body is joy of the soul--joy of union1 joy of birth that comes from pain4 ,at last to be the ,spectator6 ,to possess the world1 to realise the divinity of others1 the ineffable equality of ,souls4 ,to have all1--the mothering winds of the hills and the holy breath of the sea2 to move and laugh and die with all the world4 #ab ,,tom ,,and ,,the ,,little ,,girl ,the younger boy with us--,tom1 now seven1 does not find it easy to express himself through writing4 ,he draws well1 but that is a talent which ,i would not recognise so quickly as the expression through words4 ,i mean to send him away to an artist for a time4 ,tom's imagination is fertile and expansive4 ,he dictates well--wonderful play of colours through his mind4 ,he talked the following to an amanuensis1 a year or more ago as he conned over a handful of coloured stones3 ,there's a wonderful mystery about stones4444 ,one like a mountain that the fire comes up out of--with white on top 444 another like a cap of honey4444 ,another3 this is like a great big mountain1 and this is a dog full of food1 and he's standing on a dragon1 one of those devilish dragons2 his tail is curved under him1 and a spot on him near his neck4 ,he looks down and he sees the sky1 floating4 ,he wonders if he should leap down and get some4 ,there's a great big lake under him4 ,he thinks he has more power than anything in the world--he's looking for more power4 ,he's wondering where it is4 ,see him thinking4 444 ,here's a volcano at night--see the force1 and then the rain beating down behind it--even see fairies dashing by there4 ,here's a man with his jaw knocked in4 ,mystery here--a forest at night4 ,this is like a coloured man that's been in a prize-fight1 and he's gritting his teeth because he didn't win2 he's got a mug-nose too4 ,there's a fried-cake4 ,another3 ,here's ',agra ,falls and fairies dashing1 and sparkling stones at night4 ,that's in ,japan--that's true1 look at all the lanterns up there4 ,there's some ,india--water dashing over a cliff1 another like a smooth cliff1 nothing to hurt it1 just fairies to fly around it--and a door-knob1 and there's a hole where owls live4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,many interesting things appear in these dictations provided ,tom's helper effaces himself sufficiently to permit the boy to forget externals4 ,the remaining pages of this chapter is a sketch of ,tom's case written by the ,little ,girl#ac who furnishes an interesting surface of understanding for the complications of this lad4 ,incidentally her own development is one of the big winnings of ,stonestudy work4 ,the ,little ,girl is now fourteen and this essay will show something of her awakening3 #ac ,jane ,levington ,comfort4 ,,tom ,he is seven1 restless as the sea1 and just as full of mysteries4 ,many times ,i have felt a strong spirit in the body1 a healer1 a great lover1 a dear and compassionate comrade4 ,for a time ,tom meant ,india to me4 ,i could see the blue hills and the wide dusty roads1 the cows coming home through the dusk1 and the little ,indian mothers bringing food and their babies to the feet of a withered1 white old man in a big ,sannysin robe4 ,always ,i seemed one of the mothers1 and ,tom the master4 ,i used to sit at his feet when he was very small1 and listen carefully to his wandering1 yet deep and wise words4 ,he seemed to unfold many things to me about myself1 and in that way helped me as a teacher would1 though he did not know4 ,for a while ,tom's quest was in healing--his small hands were always laid upon our hurts1 serious eyes staring upwards4 ,it seemed to awaken the past in his soul4 ,gradually his bent turned to other things4 ,when we went to the country to live1 he saw ,nature for the first time4 ,tom was very much at home with the old ,mother4 ,he loved the living things that most children fear2 the bees and beetles1 the blind little beings that live in the earth and the small1 red-tongued garter-snakes4 ,he often spoke of a life he had lived with the snakes--of the big ones that used to love him and curl around his neck4 ,i never could help shuddering a little at the thought1 but ,tom would explain1 ,they won't hurt you if you love them4 ,then they will love you too4 ,snakes feel just what you feel--if you're afraid of them1 they get mad4 ,again ,i would think of ,india--the great cobras that sit before a pure master1 opening their hoods to listen to his chanting4 ,tom knew what purity meant1 a deep-down purity like the earth itself4 ,why should anything hurt him8444 ,he used to hold the bees in his hands and walk through a cloud of double-winged beetles with utmost carelessness4 ,many times he has led me through a cloud of them1 murmuring1 ,they won't hurt you4 ,once he disturbed a honeybee in the late afternoon1 drunken and senseless on the fragrant flowers4 ,it stung him4 ,he shook it off his hand and said in a disgusted voice1 ,that wasn't my bee6 ,a little later ,tom discovered the ,unseen of ,nature4 ,i mean that it ceased to be the unseen to him4 ,the fairies opened their mysterious arms1 and we saw little of him for a time1 so lost was he in their wonder4 ,there was a small rock in the front yard that he used to sit on when he was looking for them4 ,the busy brown gnomes appeared to him first--often rolling pebbles down the cliff1 or gathering leaves in their little aprons4 ,then the tree-nymphs would come to him2 so green and fresh and sweet--with bright eyes and coaxing hands4 ,he would follow laughingly what they said and did1 always explaining to us later what they meant4 ,and he saw the spirits of the water1 far out over the lake1 mingled with the sunlight4 ,they gave him much1 he said1 but he would like to have gone out to them4 ,he said that burning wood unlocked the fire fairies--let them out into freedom and light4 ,he loved to build fires on the beach1 watching carefully the leaping and spreading of the flames4 ,the salamanders were responsible for the spreading1 he thought1 and used to watch their little red hands at work4 ,his eyes seemed to melt as they stared so far and deeply into things--way past the seen into that which is nothingness to most of us4 ,and he would come back slowly as though it were hard to detach himself from the enchantment4 ,always we kept very still at such a time1 for fear we hurry him4 ,out of the magic and mystery of that summer1 out of the warm nights full of stars and peace1 and the days of sunlight spent with the beckoning fairies1 ,tom's soul unfolded another big quest4 ,the fairies were only the start of the ,unseen1 though we thought at the time that he saw all that a human being could4 ,at last the ,master's voice reached his open ears4 ,he answered immediately4 ,it began with old ,indian philosophy4 ,he heard certain reading in the ,study one day1 and later asked for the book4 ,it was a little book1 written in words of one syllable by a ,hindu boy1 telling how to reach the ,feet of the ,master4 ,the next morning ,i found him on his knees before it in the sunlight4 ,at that time ,tom was just learning to read4 ,it was hard for him1 but he wanted to be alone with the spirit of it4 ,he handed me the book saying1 ,please read this page aloud to me4 ,the young ,master was speaking of ,discrimination and ,onepointedness4 ,tom's face filled with the wonder of one who has found the thing he has been wanting for a very long time--for ages perhaps4 ,he said1 ,if you asked me to go and get you a book1 and ,i went1 but instead of bringing the book back to you1 ,i took it to the shore and commenced to read1 forgetting that you wanted it1 that would be the opposite of onepointedness1 wouldn't it8 ,a little later1 he said3 ,the ,master watches you from the hills1 all the way up4 ,he knows all that you do4 ,when you do small things1 you are taking ,him away from yourself2 you are not being the ,soul4 ,each time you do something great and brave1 the ,master comes a step nearer4 ,when you become your soul1 the ,master comes all the way down the hill and tells your brain which way to go--tells you the path1 the way home4 ,then you have earned it4 ,you have got to earn everything1 everything that comes to you4444 ,i think that the ,master comes and takes you away at night1 shows you many things--tries to help you4 ,but pain has to teach the brain1 and pain is the lack of soul4 ,it hurts your soul to have you suffer4 ,it hurts the ,master too1 but they both know that you are learning to be their comrade through your pain4 ,tom paused4 ,in his eyes there was that wonderful melting again1 and a joy so deep and pure that it made my heart sing4 ,it is all meant1 he added4 ,all is meant1 but men do not know that the ,master is watching4 ,for ages and ages the ,master waits so patiently for his friend to come4 ,his friend8 ,i asked4 ,yes4 ,souls are always comrades4 ,the ,master is greater than you are only because he has been longer on the path4 ,he started before you did4 ,he has come up through all that we have4 ,just think how long my ,master has been waiting for me1 and ,i have not even found ,him yet4 ,i looked at the little body of him1 at the innocence of the eyes and mouth1 all untouched by the world--so pure and yet crying out in pain because he had taken so long on the quest4444 ,his eighth year brought ,tom into regular boyhood4 ,the young brain1 always before silently giving way to intuition1 began to speak for itself4 ,this stage is as important perhaps1 but not so beautiful as when the hushedness and glowing of the ,unseen touches a child4 ,here we turned from ,tom1 and the things that creep into the heart of almost every boy of the same age1 crept into ,tom's heart4 ,he forgot the fairies--they ceased to call4 ,he forgot the wide roads of peace and purity4 ,he seemed to forget that the ,master was still waiting so patiently on the hill for him to open and receive4 ,but we knew better than that4 ,the development of the brain always robs a child of the inner glowing for a time1 but it all comes back again with a great dimension added2 the instrument is then keen and direct--a power in itself4 ,we turned from ,tom--a young brain standing alone1 very conscious of itself1 is anything but interesting4 ,at the time we were in the turmoil of departure1 each of us thinking in different ways about the long journey just ahead1 and the wonder of being at last in ,california4 ,tom was more or less his own director those days4 ,he fell into crime1 looted the house of a friend1 denied everything4 ,he was sent to his quarters to stay until he found himself again4 ,it took a week exactly1 but he found a deep happiness in being alone in the little room before he left it4 ,it did him as much good as the long days in the sunlight ever could2 he came out pale and wide eyed1 and the breath of a soul was in the room when he entered4 ,one day out of his long week1 ,i went to him4 ,the sun had gone down behind a nest of grey clouds4 ,dusk had almost deepened into darkness1 but there was no light in his room4 ,he sat there1 his eyes staring ahead of him1 his hands folded tightly in his lap4 ,i walked in quietly and sat down beside him4 ,i was not even noticed2 he was lost in his thought4 ,at last ,i asked1 ,tom1 what did you find so interesting in that cheap business8 ,i haven't found out yet1 he said grimly4 ,have you been thinking about it8 ,sure have4 ,been thinking all day4 ,has nothing come8 ,no1 but it's coming soon4 ,it can't take long if ,i stay here like this1 wishing and pulling every minute4 ,of course it can't4 ,he continued to stare into the darkness ahead4 ,what does it feel like1 ,tom8 ,i asked4 ,your soul leaves you4444 ,your soul won't stay if you are going back4 ,going back8 ,yes4 ,i mean if you have been big and listened to its voice1 and then stop4 ,if you are less than yourself after you've been more1 your soul won't stay4 ,what do you do when your soul leaves you8 ,you walk the ,black ,path4 ,he looked a child seraph4 ,that path is not interesting1 is it8 ,no4 ,you have got to know what it is1 got to walk up it a little ways1 so that you are not afraid of it any more4 ,when you know a thing1 you are not afraid of it any longer4 ,before you know1 it looks all dark to you4 ,nothing can hurt you when you are not afraid4444 ,it's just the same as with the animals4 ,all the black things that come into you are animals4 ,if they find nothing but love and whiteness inside1 they will go away and not even look at you again2 but if fear and darkness are there1 they get mad and bite4 ,leaning forward with a laugh1 he added1 ,you can't cut across from the black path to the white4 ,you've got to go all the way back and start over4 99 99 99 99 99 #ac ,,the ,,abbot ,the ,abbot is now seventeen4 ,he is doing well at ,columbia4 ,classes and routine there are mere externals4 ,the ,abbot is living a life far more real than appears--a life that few men in ,america have learned how to live4 ,he has actually arrived at the conviction of the unfathomable riches that lie within4 ,many occultists and a few great artists have a working knowledge of this kind4 ,we hoped the ,abbot could remain at ,stonestudy1 but his parents wanted some letters after his family name as well as before4 ,our young man was enjoined to make the best of it4 ,as a matter of fact1 he is putting on a lot of brain things that work admirably with the inner activity which we made much of in our work together4 ,in another book1#ad ,i told of the ,abbot's awakening--how we called him from mysterious regions of silence and mystification1 to a more or less adequate expression of material facts4 ,here was a boy almost overshadowed by his own soul at times1 inclined to be half out of the body and not altogether present in the mind1 when moving among the sordid affairs of the world--a lad who knew the arrangement of planets and the flow of meteoric matter better than the geography of our own continent2 who swung very readily back into memories of other lives1 mainly monastic1 rather than into the episodes of his own kid-days4 #ad ,child and ,country4 ,i forget just how it was that we first sensed the giant in this boy4 ,in any case1 we struck one4 ,the ordinary training that ,i would give an ,american youth to breathe the soul of him1 was not at all necessary with the ,abbot4 ,rather1 pressure was exerted from the first to make him come down into our world1 to make him be one of us1 to make him see streets and alleys1 doorsteps and servant-stairs4 ,they have succeeded better at ,columbia in this regard than we were able to do1 but the wonder and satisfaction of it all is1 that the aroused mystic1 the aroused artist1 has not receded--but dominates his days and work4 ,i understand that he is considered a sensation in a literary way4 ,he is not different from his fellows4 ,it is part of our ethics to belong where we happen to be2 to do the things that others do1 better1 if possible1 than the customary performance2 to begin after that to be our inimitable selves4 ,it is our ideal to move about the world1 not to attract attention1 to be quiet and calm and efficacious1 to be helpful and humorous and wise1 to furnish the swift1 unerring word or hand or lift in the midst of affairs2 to deny ourselves to no one2 to hold ourselves superior to no one2 to strive laughingly toward the big workmanship1 to become ,players after the essential apprenticeship1 to win the ,laugh at last1 and that perfect consummation which only comes with utter and instant detachment when the task is accomplished4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,abbot was sprawled in a ,study shadow one summer afternoon1 when ,i suddenly saw him in relation to big sea-tales4 ,usually we tale-tellers carry our packs4 ,i saw the ,abbot with a sea-chest that day4 ,his was not the way of the ,arabian fires and the ,assyrian camel paths--the word-spinner's usual evolutionary line4 ,he came overseas with his narratives4444 ,i saw him in the next few years making a circle around all the capes1 touching all the ports of ,asiatic and insular water fronts--a bit of ,conrad1 a bit of ,melville1 a bit of ,stevenson 444 a most sumptuous sea-chest full of shells1 corals1 coins and trinkets from all the ,islands2 feather of a woman's fan perhaps1 here and there1 silks hazy from sea water1 crooked knives from ,malay ,isles1 whale-bone and shark's teeth1 pearl of the mollusk1 a bit of ambergris--just a top tray of the ,chest6 ,deep mystic parchments farther within1 a corner for the sacred writings of all the world1 a small type mill1 a great wad of white paper1 the rest mainly traces of a long glide across the ocean floors4 ,i have learned to go very slow in building a matrix of my own thought about any young man's mind1 yet ,i told the ,abbot that day what ,i saw for him--how he was bound to do the big sea-tales1 how we were sick of steam1 sick already of the big hydroplanes1 sick of all that hurries1 all that explodes1 all that has the taint of gas2 that the world presently would be so sick of noise and explosions and show and speed1 that professional soothers would be in great demand1 like the ,japanese masseurs who wait upon the sleepless2 that the sick world would want to read of long1 loose1 lazy days under canvas1 of the few ports left where they haven't set up recruiting offices2--that the world would be in desperate need of sunlight and surf and wide swinging seas--that he must be one of those to usher in the old romance of the sailing craft again4 ,i told about his sea-chest better than ,i have told it here1 but the ,abbot's eyes didn't bulge4 ,presently1 however1 he began to grow that way4444 ,his ,saturdays and ,sabbaths now are spent1 not in ,morningside ,heights1 but down among the shipping and across the harbour1 where the big world tramps hang out4 ,you will see these things in his letters4 ,i have several of his yarns here1 but ,i am not going to run any of them in this book4 ,they are good yarns1 but too intrinsically big yet for the handling of a boy of seventeen4 ,he has too much calibre for his brain so far to carry ten thousand words to superb consummation4 ,i want to spring a big tale presently4 ,i have a lapful of his random letters from days spent down on the water front1 and nights under the study lamp3 ,,dear ,,old ,,wasp3 ,morning mists over the lake1 the ,pelee coming up out of them4 ,just had a night with ,john and a corking good run of work4 ,we've been watching the sun go down from ,lynster's#ae back lately1 and breathing the planetary heave under the stars1 with the milky way dipping to the lake before us4 ,this inland place is heavy to take4 ,the weight of agriculture is like a blanket over all4 ,it takes three or four pages to bore up through the cuticle4 ,me for a get-away to the world soon--to feed up on the hum of feet and voices and cars4444 ,blackbirds are beginning to blacken the mornings and nights again2 touch of ,fall and ,pine-smoke this morning4 ,real itchings in the ankles--to you6 ,a wonderful synthesis for us all when we meet up again4444 ,i'd like to roam the world with ,john4 ,he is a grand pal4 ,could joke over an oven made out of a tomato-can1 as well as eat from a banquet table4444 #ae ,the saddle horse4 ,a day or two later3 444 ,black forces strong around ,stonestudy last night4444 ,about eight-thirty ,i rode over on ,lynt1 to sleep with ,john4 ,decided to have a debauch with tea4 ,while ,i worked on1 he gathered the cups and tea and electric tea-kettle together and got things going4 ,he called for me to come and make the tea4 ,he was seated in the big chair with a tableleaf in front of him1 and on that was the tea-kettle1 boiling4444 ,one leg slipped1 and the whole boiling collection went in his lap4444 ,a prince1 the way he stood it4 ,the bunch was just coming back from town4 ,penel' rushed over1 and the next was a turmoil right1 cries1 olive oil1 lint1 rags1 confusion of voices and footsteps--too many people and the little guy sort o' lost his control--but it all came back again4 ,almost any minute ,i am looking for the laugh from him4 ,all night ,i was with him4 ,penelope1 the finished heroine as always4 ,one could see the shades of pain pass over ,john's face time and again4 ,his nerves jump--but his mouth and eyes are certainly getting a grand hue of steel4444 ,yours right along4 ,another3 ,hazy summer about4 ,blue over the lake with shadows deepening in the distance4 ,crops drying beneath the sun4 ,leave it at its height--am headed back for ,columbia--where ,i'll let time shape the winds for farther going4 ,school is not harmful to one who is himself4 ,i'll take philosophy1 and then be over to tell you who stole your washboard4444 ,it is no struggle1 no test1 for one to be lit among his own as we are4 ,one's depth of listening is best tested in crowds4 ,we've got to separate--go out and change the continents into tablelands of democracy4 ,war seems settling on the world for years longer1 but there is a bigger order coming out of the incredible chaos4 ,each must see ,god and worship through his work to shape the master beauty4 ,every one's art breaks new roads which lead to one place4 ,stories are coming freer every day--,i've gotten across4 ,don't know whether it's the best thing for me4 ,but ,i've done it1 and that's what ,i wanted to know4 ,it is all preparation4 ,results are beginnings4 ,i look back now on the summer of '#ad4 ,it was heaven4 ,it was peace4 ,to look at the cottage lights and hear the voices of rowers through the dusk was a breath from ,god4 ,it was peace1 it was relaxation1 a deep resting of tissue for turmoil4 ,depth and mastery to you4 ,,this ,,to ,,john3 ,the thought of your scarred legs has been with me on the borderland of sleep for many nights1 also our hours together on the pine needles4 ,to-night1 with the sun falling sadly over the iron mills1 ,i walked along the ,heights and cast an eye down into brilliant ,harlem4 ,the voices of the bargemen1 the wheeze of tugs1 the low growl of outpassing vessels1 an occasional curse from a freighted barge1 came up with the hum of the city4 ,there seemed to be some goddess entwined with sea-weed standing over the ocean of structures4 ,she held a finger to her lips for silence1 and pointed to the ,lord knows where--well1 where ,i felt a tumult to go1 to satisfy some hot quest4444 ,i was lost to the multitude of faces that sent up a passionate and incomprehensible hum 444 savour of youth singing in the veins4 ,presently a drizzle drove me back to the room4444 ,i reached up and flicked out the lights4444 ,in an apartment across the street lives an old man who always comes to his window at dark and gazes up and down the streets4 ,his head is grey--his eyes are deep and old4 ,the light from his shaded reading lamp falls in a pool of dim yellow about his carpet4 ,sometimes he turns out the lamp1 and leaves the fire-place alone4 ,sometimes his head falls forward on his chest1 and he dreams--,i suppose1 of boundless seas1 for he was once a sea-captain4 ,his wandering days are over--no more quest4 ,the houses rise to his eyes like one long1 bleak1 uncrested wave from the ,arctic ,sea4444 ,he means old days1 but we--we must never grow old2 we must live and ever be full of creation as the cloud is full of lightning4 ,we must1 old pal1 ride the deserts1 drift over seas2 we must spill our work as we go1 as night spills its stars from a casket4 ,fill me up with the ,pacific in your letters--the big sunlight--the colour of the mountains where they dip and rise to clouds4 ,i have a dry palate for it all4 ,fill me--eye and ear and soul4 ,yours deep in those scars---- 99 99 99 99 99 ,,dear ,,old ,,man3 ,the ,hudson is very still this morning2 a few battleships have swung out with the tide2 gulls seem to be forever passing up and down the river in white eddies2 smoke from the factories rises straight and white4 ,the morning sun strikes like a sledge upon the ,palisades4 ,how grand that old river is1 and how untiring in its endless ebb and flood--almost like a solar system in the serene way it deals with human traffic4 ,a great new sense of words has come over me lately4 ,at the very birth of language lies a chest of rich obsolete words--quite like a ,spanish treasure chest1 with its doubloons1 bezoar stones and pots of ,arica bronze4 ,the artists go treasure hunting in language1 and a few do startle the world with their wealth4 ,the live-long day seems to me now like a shuttle driving back and forth1 weaving from soul to matter1 a golden fabric4 ,this word-chest means much to me because it deals with the sea4 ,lift up the lid1 and tucked away in those little drawers lies the seaman's religion in bits of turquoise1 in coils of fish line and hooks1 in pink sea-shells1 perhaps in an old violin1 or in a few stray books of ,carlyle1 ,goethe1 ,dante and ,melville's ,moby ,dick4 ,the point is we all bungle along through our world-term somehow2 we have our work and religion and pleasures and tales in a camphor-wood chest with a brass band around it4 ,sometimes we bring out the violin and make ,god-awful discords1 calling it music of the sea2 we brighten people's eyes with our bits of turquoise2 terrorise them with the philosophy that ,carlyle and ,goethe and ,moby ,dick have given us2 we make them feel that endless wroom1 wroom1 wroom of the ocean that is washing in our souls4 ,yes1 we must first learn the futility of life before we can live4 ,the war teaches this lesson well1 but won't it be great when everybody is singing over his golden shuttle and laughing8 ,won't it be great when the chastened ,new ,race springs up1 like green shoots at the passing of winter8 ,won't it be great when the world has grown serene and wise enough to sit down beside a blazing bark fire1 with the shadows of pine trees about1 or near the dim breakers1 and consider it profitable to talk about the stars8 444 ,there are times when one feels he must be alone--when he wants to be connected with nothing--when he wants to go to a distant and high altitude1 and there boil his pot of alchemy--there1 where the air is dust free1 and the incense of one's devotion goes straight up4 ,he must listen and listen1 until he believes that he hears the stars humming in their courses2 then the sun drawing like a magnet1 then a crescendo of song up to a deafening roar1--that all things1 all stars1 are headed towards one point of balance among that whole mass of sapphires we see above4 ,man1 but the joy of telling tales1 of recording the warmth of human hearts1 of loving men and their ways--to fill out a morning with that golden shuttle6 ,one has but to sit and the sun on the walls and the shadows in the corners1 or if at night1 the flame on the stones of the hearth turn to words6444 ,the old sea is full of that4 ,the heart within her breast sounds the footfalls of quest2 the ecstasy of life tears in her storm and in still hours she sits in her glitter4444 ,some day we shall be together on the blessed ,pacific coast4 ,we shall have bookshelves and packages of dates1 bottles of cream and combs of honey4 ,we shall work with that rugged lunge of mountains in our products2 and that endless and insistent wroom1 wroom1 wroom of the ocean in all4 ,listen1 here is a day as we shall have it3 ,the sun lifting up the depth of ,canyon shall awake us4 ,after we have cooked and eaten of crisp toast and honey and coffee1 we shall go to our desks and bring out a most rigid problem in mathematics1#af and dwell perhaps for an hour in drawing all forces of thinking into play--awaking the mind--shaking off that inertia of body4 ,after that we shall penetrate the thing which we wish to work upon that particular morning4 ,we shall see its functions and logical action1 then begin the shuttle and weave back and forth with that pliancy that sees the deepest of metaphysics in an old man lighting a pipe or loitering over a pork-pie4 ,to top the morning1 we'll have a meal of milk and dates4 ,the afternoon shall mean an isolation with the books--perhaps on the sand with the sun tanning our backs4 ,both healthfully and mentally an efflux of soul4 ,at about five in the afternoon comes the humming calm--the poise of mind and soul and body4 ,another meal of the simple foods and once more1 production1 as the sun goes into the sea--giving one's soul the might and expanse that the planets use in weaving their ways4 ,perhaps1 at ten or eleven we shall reach up1 switch out the electric bulb and open the door4 ,that shall be a day mastered4 ,side by side1 we'll walk over to the cliff at whose base mumbles the mighty ,pacific4 ,we shall pass no words--the earth'll be good to feel and smell4 ,we'll honour the still night of stars4 #af ,help6 ,that day is a privilege to earn--our bodies must suffer and become scarred and jostled by the currents of people1 and cursed upon by foul mouths4 ,all pleasant presently4 ,we must know the heart of a bartender as we would want to know the heart of the ,christ4 ,do you know that ,masefield was a bartender8 ,the secret of the real artist is sanity4 ,one must grow hair the medium length--keep a well muscled and full lunged body--and if chronic fishermen should happen in on us for a meal we must be able to argue that a hickory pole is better for a pound-net than pine2 or if a devout pastor--that we would much rather praise ,god's work outside on the beach4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,,to ,,jane3 ,your letter this morning after a long1 wonderful run of work4 ,this is really the highest day ,i've had--real rugged work--bronze moving pictures before me--faces--open shirts on sunburnt breasts--and1 of course1 the eternal sea4 ,your letter came like a sudden bag of sunlight emptied into a mist4 ,the water became blue and the promontories sharp like ink lines4 ,and about ,steve4 ,i understand all4 ,the draft explains his not writing4 ,and this war--it's like a maelstrom rising higher and higher4 ,next summer for certain1 possibly this ,christmas1 it means ,i go4 ,but rather than go as a private ,i'm going to enlist voluntarily in the aviation corps4 ,flying only would have as much thrill as doing the climax of a story4 ,that's like the sea4 ,and ,i'm not panicky or worried about it4 ,i feel in some unconscious way that the balance of the cosmos demands it4 ,god1 nobody should drag now6 ,it's just like a marshfire that grows and grows to let the new green shoots come under in spring4 ,it's like a big song4 ,i would not go to fight ,germany1 or ,france or ,england or ,america4 ,i'd go because it's a cleanser4 ,one must play with the song of many feet and express with the original song4 ,one must flash pictures to the many eyes of their own being4 ,oh--it's a song1 the whole thing6 ,and ,i'm looking forward to it4 ,only the ones such as ,john and ,tom shall escape4 ,don't you see the joy1 the peace1 the grandeur in owning a scar1 in being bled white8 ,the first year of the war1 ,england was black with mourning4 ,now1 she is white4444 ,the work is on me with talons4 ,i am looking only at the impossible heights--of a portrayal of life--the rugged life in endless volumes4 ,i have made an oath silently with myself that in three years ,i shall do a book4444 ,the work comes now just as if ,i were to sit down before a fire-place with shadows and light around stones1 and were to grow interested1 with stars low on the horizon like live sparks4 ,and friends8 ,a foolish question6 ,i mean that ,i must be alone in the formative thrall of work4 ,i did want your letter4 ,but forget pity4 ,that is a thing that stifles soul4 ,i do not ask1 by all the stars1 ,i do not ask for anything4 ,the highest of all things to you all4 ,and ,steve8 ,he has too much of the ,song to be trodden or be lost or be ground in mud4 ,you are all friends--but ,i must be alone now4 ,the work is rising4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,,to ,,john3 ,there ain't no sun beatin' in my doorway1 and there ain't none of your sacred seas and canyons around2 but there is a socialist's riot in the street below--kerosene torches a-going--one shaggy haired enthusiast is standing on a soap box and is wagging his jaw in an athletic way4444 ,how's the fire burning under your type-mill8 ,what's the brand of smoke it gives up--poetry1 action1 lumps of granite or ladles of ocean8 ,i'm all lit up in this place here--because things are moving--real issues are gathering--and the pulse of living is so close that ,i can almost feel it occasionally4 ,last ,saturday1 went to a place called ,rockaway--and oh man--rocks--rugged grey and eroded--surf bitten--gnarled1 twisted--and they tossed the sea's white jaws about like bits of cotton4 ,real sea coast it was--with a little smack in the purple way1 her sails bellied1 her mouth lapping the brine--an old fisherman browsing around the shores for clams while his wife hauled up the nets1 basketed the cod and upturned their boat4 ,put an extra stick under the machine and line a few of your aphorisms4 99 99 99 99 99 #ad ,,the ,,artist ,,unleashed ,the young workmen here do essays well1 earlier than short stories4 ,longer training is required for fiction4 ,the reason is obvious4 ,fiction work takes brain4 ,the ,stonestudy idea is to set free the greater ,artist within4 ,essays and ethical works are the natural fruits of the inner life of the ages2 story-production requires facility and development of the every-day working consciousness4 ,straight brain is needed to arrange settings1 keen development of actual tissue to note and arrange and remember4 ,also a big working surface of self-criticism must be prepared4 ,there is a quality of fiction that seems to set free a larger consciousness and to bring with it settings and atmospheres of another age4 ,this sort of phenomenon encourages the idea of the continuity of consciousness--before and after the three-score-and-ten4 ,it may be that the greater the ,artist1 the more of these veins of syntheticated experience are open to his every-day working mind4 ,that may really be what sumptuous artistic equipment is--the capacity to open up the old loves and scenes and adventures of the long road4 ,intuition is explained as the use of the result of massed experiences1 intellect the coping with one at a time2 intuition1 a light that flashes from peak to peak1 intellect as a running fire up and down from height and vale4 ,certainly intellect alone will never make a great drama of life and love1 yet action and romance of the present hour draw hard upon one's present life training and the faculties and tastes of his immediate culture--actual brain possession and the ordering thereof4 ,a child can portray superbly well some ancient imprint upon the ,soul1 even the passages of his own initiations through earth1 water1 air and fire1 his brain not conscious of the real nature of what is coming forth2 yet1 the same child cannot put the cohering line through a series of episodes occurring under his own notice4 ,something of this mental grasp is necessary to make the artful effect required in a short tale4 ,the child's mind1 in the first place1 is trained to listen and interpret the experiences of the larger consciousness2 in the second set of conditions1 he is forced to rely upon actual brain tissue which requires the training and culture of the years4 ,art is composition4 ,the farther you go1 the finer the tools4 ,it is difficult to train the fingers to intricate tricks of weaving1 or the brain to sort and place the facts and colours and surprises of a present-day narrative or tale1 but the soul may be called upon to express through the narrow temples of an awakened child its cosmic understanding1 its ordered firmament4 ,decades of observation and reporting2 firm and verified actuality of knowledge and opinion2 to these1 added experience and the excellence of order--such is the training of the intellectual artist who times his production to his own generations4 ,he pays the price in pain and subjection to the things that are2 he knows well the meaning of labour2 often1 though he may still laugh as an artist1 he has forgotten how to laugh as a man4 ,my desk here is covered with papers and poems of a beauty this intellectual artist cannot reach1 of a freedom he can never know1 until he lifts the torch of his consciousness out of and above the brain1 making that serve quite as his knees bend and serve4 ,thinking of these things to-day1 the door of the ,study opened and the ,little ,girl gave me her work4 ,she writes things of the larger consciousness without effort1 but finds it hard and wearing to narrate the immediate matters of life4 ,to her1 the fine short story of the present hour is the great accomplishment1 the ideal she is working toward4 ,with another she goes often to the cities--rambling among the rooming-houses1 cheaper restaurants and mills4 ,she means to work in the mills soon--to forget herself and forget us for a time1 to be with the harder-lucked girls whom she loves with thrilling passion4 ,she has brought home from these little adventures wonderful stories of the patience and the laughter and the heroism crowding like hidden sacred presences about the duller lives4 ,she brings a humour to the telling of the divine secrets of the poor--the clutching pang for food1 the soldier going1 his baby coming1 the tortured spine1 the stunted1 the darkened1 the wasted--an irresistible divinity about it all--pain impermanent1 joy enduring4 ,back of the lacking eyes and leaking lives1 she sees wonders that ,zola never saw1 that none can see with mere intelligence1 that none can dream1 who sees only the here and now1 who has not learned to laugh at the so-called injustices of men1 who cannot see the greater order to come because the present chaos is so devastating4 ,one may report minuti of torments1 mass the items of degradation and bring forth a great document of the underworld--but these are mere foundations4 ,the ,builders bring the dream1 they live the hope1 they open the long-road consciousness1 they substantiate their visions of better days1 bring order and coherence to all the splendid toil of the intellectualist2 they raise their edifice upon all that is done4444 ,here is the ,little ,girl's work of to-day's writing3 ,,meditation ,in the night the ,master came down to a woman who lay sad and sleepless in a dark house4 ,he came so near that she felt his holy radiance4 ,her soul breathed2 her body ceased to tremble2 she felt within his sacred circle4 ,the ,master smiled and said3 ,why do you not sleep8 ,the woman answered1 ,i am carried away by thoughts that will not hush4 ,night after night ,i lie here so bitterly close to old dreams4 ,i realise that they are not worthy1 but my brain is full of them4 ,the ,master smiled again4 ,there is a way to compel the silence of the brain4 ,i have not found it1 said the woman4 ,learn to be the soul1 the ,master said4 ,he suggested a way to begin--then was gone4 ,the rest of that night the woman thought of his words4 ,deeper and deeper his words sank into her heart4 ,when morning came1 a happiness brooded within2 she dressed quickly and went out4444 ,back of her little house rose the golden brown hills4 ,she climbed1 and at the top of the nearest1 sat down4 ,the peace and purity and fragrance of the sun-steeped hills filled her soul4 ,for a long time she thought in silence1 then slipping off her loose white sandals1 said3 ,i begin with the grass4 ,yes1 ,i begin with my feet4444 ,how wonderful you are--so ready to obey1 to give your service at any time6 ,what would happen if you carried me other than my will8 ,supposing some day ,i should be walking fast to the house of my beloved1 when you suddenly took me the other way6 ,she laughed1 and added3 ,you stay with me all my life1 and little by little are carrying me up the shining path to the ,father's house4 ,and yet--how strange6 ,i am not you4444 ,and my knees1 how wonderful and willing--all limber and full of life--helping me in all ways to do all things--bending gently when ,i bow in holy communion1 expressing joy through free1 easy movements1 mute1 yet strong before pain6 ,there is nothing more wonderful in the world than you4 ,yet--,i am not my knees4 ,and you1 old heart1 she added4 ,you have endured the keenest pain2 you have loved and given yourself1 have hated and become black only through pain to whiten again--old heart of many rendings--until all life was tragedy1 and you almost ceased to beat4 ,little heart1 sanctuary of the soul--room for his rest4444 ,yet ,i am not the heart6 ,and the white throat in which the lotus unfolds its mystic petals of light--,i am not the throat6444 ,and the mind1 stream for the soul's fulfilment--listener1 runner1 interpreter of light--mate of the soul in all things1 ever ready1 sparkling with the inner fire1--,i am not the mind4 ,you can hurt me no longer4 ,i am free6 ,the woman sitting alone upon the hilltop1 paused again4 ,what am ,i8 she almost cried4 ,it was as though the hills1 the air and the rising sun joined her in the answer--,i ,am1 444 ,longer than the living flame leaps within1 ,i ,am4 ,longer than sun and planets radiate light1 ,i ,am4 ,longer than worlds give birth to form1 ,i ,am4 ,i am one with the rocks and the sea1 one with the warmth and light1 one with the earth1 one with ,humanity4 ,i am ,humanity4 ,i ,am4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is only when the ,little ,girl brings in a bit of fiction that we remember her years4 ,the brain that even now can polish a detached incident1 or clip into firing-form a bit of humour of the street1 cannot as yet order the narrative to a culminating effect4 ,she is in her brain1 which is only fourteen1 struggling with the matters of time and space1 wherein only lie pain and bewilderment4 ,art is long4 ,the training of the hand and intellect requires the years--but not the labour1 not the agony1 not the mad strain supposed to prepare one for an artistic career by those who believe mental equipment to be all4444 ,the key to this whole discussion is the fact that the brain can be developed more in a year through inner awakening than in a decade by the usual methods of external impacts alone4444 ,the ideal education is the balancing of the without with the within--the tallying of the world without with the world within--the same old story of the kingdom without clearing its correspondences with the kingdom within4 ,the ,little ,girl's ideal is to do great stories4 ,they challenge her by their very difficulty4 ,when ,i see where she stands now1 and think of the far ways we elders went to learn the game2 when ,i see what the twenty-year-olds are doing now1 how they command their mysticism--a harder task for me than the accomplishment of physical results2 when ,i see the inner bloom and co-ordination and the inimitable surfaces which come to all the arts by the development of the soul life first1 the listening for the ,master within--,i want to get my hands on them all1 upon all the young builders of the ,new ,race4 ,i want at once to awaken within them the ,spectator--the ,one who cannot be swung back and forth in the pairs of opposites1 who cannot give himself to the partisans1 who has glimpsed the ,plan and offers it full adoration1 who says accordingly that the best possible thing that can happen is the thing that happens next4 ,these are the young ,players who will reveal life by living it--portray life as naturally as breathing1 whose equipment is not possessions1 not even brain possessions1 but spiritual en rapport with all1 oneness with all life4 ,i remember struggling for effects4 ,these young people breathe effects4 ,i remember style as a studied attainment4 ,these young people acknowledge but one style--that is being one's self4444 ,i want to set many of them free from within outward4 ,in their gladness at the finding of themselves1 they will go forth to include the world2 they will bring to it the compassion which enfolds all1 reveals all4444 ,love the world well and you will understand it4 ,love the world well1 and you will write well to it4 ,give it yourself1 and the world is yours4 99 99 99 99 99 #ae ,,work ,,in ,,short ,,stories ,the ,little ,girl sketched this impression of an ,indian ,summer ,dusk3 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,just now the great blue dusk1 after an ,indian summer day4 ,it deepens and seems to laugh1 then all is night4 ,huge black clouds roll up1 promising a storm4 ,against them1 tall1 selfish1 unafraid1 stand the poplar trees4 ,the great ,mother of the dusk is singing1 the ,god in ,nature is singing1 and ,nature's belongings1 all of them1 sing in this magical moment4 ,one feels it all in one's self1 feels the glory1 the romance1 the very core-life of the ,universe4 ,the matings too1 taking place in the grass and air2 the matings of the two streams1 the two grains of sand2 the matings of butterflies1 birds and bees4 ,it all flows through one's body like music and honey and sunshine4444 ,nothing but space is around me4 ,i feel all hollow inside4 ,power and beauty and all things else flow through 444 and out1 like a sieve4 ,my body is far below me1 yet it will be taken care of4 ,it does not stumble1 nor make any clumsy1 unnecessary movement4 ,finding it alone and forgotten1 ,rhythm catches it in her gentle arms4 ,slowly1 softly1 gently1 ,rhythm carries it along1 the same that carries the deer so swiftly in the forest1 the mountain sheep from ledge to ledge and over valleys1 and that which waves the trees' long arms so gracefully4444 ,the night moves on its way1 the threat of storm is passed4 ,i am back again--an untellable freshness has sweetened hair and clothing4 ,i am all glowing inside4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this was done two years ago4 ,there was a kind of dream story which she recently finished1 gratifying the artistic sense entirely1 but in a way that ruined it for the general reader4 ,it was all new to her that there could possibly be two ways to regard a bit of workmanship4 ,five or six story-writers were present for the reading1 and out of the fruits of that evening1 we surely saw the lesser beauty give way before a greater4 ,we forecasted the readers of the future1 who would prefer the more spiritual1 more challenging story texture and dnouement4 ,there has always been ,the ,few--glad to discover the real1 answering to interior order and clarity1 straight grain1--but the fact for enthusiasm now is that the world is being peopled with the awakened4 ,these young moderns are recognising each other from day to day1 pulling together for better social order1 utilising the wisdom of the ,east1 and the drive of the ,west--labouring in new paths1 daring new leaps1 working out philosophies as fresh and ancient as the dawn and1 what is straighter to the point1 demanding modern books1 written out of an integrity to match their own4444 ,short story writing in ,america is less a trade and more of an art since ,edward ,j4 ,o',brien1 the poet1 took his chair in the flow of the output and began to say which was which4 ,there are a number of people in ,america who know a good short story when they see one2 this is true among those who buy short stories1 but editors cannot always buy what they want4 ,a deal of mechanism in a magazine has to be oiled and energised by different kinds of minds from those who paint the pictures and write the tales4 ,o',brien knew both ends--also he knew that big1 unobtrusive part of the market that looks long and pointedly for the real tale4 ,he is a queer boy--from the bleak fishing grounds north of ,boston4 ,he is in no hurry4 ,you couldn't tell if he really wants anything4 ,he doesn't seem to want much--for ,o',brien4444 ,after he had his main line and most of the ramifications of his idea laid1 he told the editors to send on the stories4 ,most of them did4 ,o',brien did a lot of work in a few weeks1 did it startlingly well4 ,he started something4444 ,now1 if a writer sits down1 suddenly struck with a fine idea for a tale1 and this fine idea precludes the possibility of selling it for a high price--the writer dares go ahead and finish the task1 because he knows ,o',brien will get to the thing in due time1 and that if it is really what it seems and the performance of the idea adequate1 then the work will not be utterly lost4 ,as a matter of fact1 this is a bit of self-placation1 since no work is lost2 no one gets the value of a big thing to anything like the degree of the man who does it2 no big thing is lost from the world1 not even if dropped in a sewer1 if it is really important for the world to have it4 ,we are all a bit too heavily handicapped with our own idea of what the world should have from our own shops--at the same time1 when we are young1 we pant for the quicker return1 the answering hail within reason--at least1 within time and space4 ,now ,o',brien has come1 strangely arrived1 his proper phylacteries in place1 the touch of tinted haze about his head1 the right man4 ,back of all1 however1 is the workman's own spine4 ,that's the best thing to lean on2 and when the going is heavy1 to learn to do without4 ,we often remind each other in ,chapel of the modern artist ,cezanne1 who moved about his painting for many years1 painting the thing1 satisfying his soul1 and leaving his canvasses around in the fields for the peasants to laugh at or mull over4444 ,they have long since been brought in out of the rain--those canvasses4 ,i forget the incredible thousands his littlest sketch brings now4444 ,but ,cezanne got the films out of himself--tallied them off--the landscapes within and without1 when it did him most good4 ,it never fails4 ,what was good for the artist is good for the rest of us afterward4 ,meanwhile much is still to do in the story world4 ,the big smash of the moving pictures hasn't cleared from our game yet4 ,it will be the cause of greater tales before the end is seen1 for you can't portray the realities of romance upon a flat screen4 ,for a time the many thought it was no longer necessary to learn to read1 because there was such a torrent of pictures everywhere1 but it was only through the pictures that the few has finally managed to realize how marvelously pictorial mere words are1 and how few words are required when they are imaginatively driven4 ,one day in ,stonestudy we discussed these story and screen affairs1 looking ahead somewhat to better times than these4 ,one of our young men1 whose story is told in a later chapter1 put down the things we talked about4 ,this is ,shuk's writing3 99 99 99 99 99 ,a fresh and different vitality is manifest to-day in ,american literature4 ,at various points around us1 dealing with words1 colours and the subtler tools1 are active young workmen who for the first time1 in the fullest sense1 may be termed ,north ,american4 ,the first characteristic of this new element1 these young flexible and vigorous minds1 is that they are workmen--not labourers1 not professionals1 not primarily artists in anything unless it be life--but workers first1 and after that novelists1 poets1 musicians1 painters or politicians4 ,they are not competitors4 ,they have not forgotten the warm side of justice1 but they know well the stern face of compassion--they know that it takes ,christ and anti-,christ to make a world4 ,they are neither modest nor egotistical1 being for the most part busy and intensely alive4 ,this implies their joy4 ,the great love story has not been written4 ,the few great love stories of the world have to be pieced out by the imagination4 ,we find that we have been told that certain are great love stories1 but they do not stand examination4 ,the classic form will not do for the ,new ,age4 ,there is to be a new language--for literary handling4 ,it may be called ,american1 to distinguish it from ,english in the accepted form4 ,it is to be brisk1 brief1 brave and ebullient--to meet the modification all must reckon with--the screen-trained mind4 ,american-mindedness of itself1 cannot yet accept a great love-story4 ,it would be called sentimental if not lascivious4 ,the average ,american is an impossible lover1 making it incident to business4 ,the real and the sham are equally above him4 ,he would not know when to be exalted or when to be ashamed4 ,he thinks his own passion is evil1 and thus makes it so4 ,the great love-story can only be written with creative dynamics1 and can only be accepted as yet by the few of corresponding receptivity4 ,there is nothing soft about true romance4 ,some passionate singer of the ,new ,age will likely appear right soon1 his story to have the full redolence and lustre of the heart1 his emotions thoroughbred1 his literary quality at the same time crystalline with reality4 ,the big adventure-story has not been done so far4 ,the day of guns1 horses and redskins is over4 ,photoplays have developed these fiction resources to the limit1 proving to those writers born to be modern that their full tales can never be shown on a flat surface4 ,there will be undercurrents1 overtones1 invisible movements1 tensions upon the reader1 not only from between the lines1 but between words4 ,the story-teller of the ,new ,age may handle his theme in words of one syllable1 but his tale will have an intensity scarcely to be explained--only responded to by minds which cannot be satisfied by two-plane production--minds which demand more of life than the camera sees4 ,the real war-story of to-day1 even for to-morrow1 ought to arrive soon4 ,this is an age for an epic4 ,some keen and comprehensive mind will arise--a literary genius who will include the patriot1 the anarchist1 the poet1 dramatist1 humanitarian1 theosophist1 dreamer1 judge and statesman1 even the iciest aces of the air--and tell the story of ,war1 a tale of trenches1 kings and arms2 blood1 heroism and monstrous greed2 vast far-reaching causes and the slow1 inevitable hell of effects--told from a viewpoint so inclusive that thrones are merely pawns in a ,planetary ,game4 ,inclusion is the first business of the writer who is truly allied with the modern element4 ,propagandists do not fill the picture4 ,yesterday the wreckers and agnostics--to-day the specialists and onesided enthusiasts--to-morrow1 the embodiers1 the includers4 99 99 99 99 99 #af ,,valley ,,road ,,girl ,the ,valley ,road ,girl1 who gave us the title1 and helped us to see how the ,new ,race will become in due time the planetary hive1 asked not to appear in this book4 ,a letter this morning asks it again4 ,she is in the stress and heat of a series of ordeals1 learning what it means suddenly to be parted from friends and the centre of her work4 ,a wise and sensitive young woman--,i rather thrill over her sufferings4 ,we don't commiserate2 we congratulate1 when one is called to a stretch of particularly stiff and solitary going4 ,we know that one must be passionately worthy to take the big-calibred ordeals4 ,there is pain to all births--pain1 the precursor of greater joys4 ,pain is not the expansion of the flower to the sun2 that is joy1 that comes afterward4 ,pain is the necessary rupturing of the bud-sheaths before the final unfolding into the new dimension4 ,pain is within1 inarticulate--merely finds a correspondence in some outer cause4 ,part of the ,valley ,road ,girl's letter follows3 444 ,it hurt to let that last ,lamentation go to you4 ,i thought of the times when ,i had put up a braver fight1 bolstered only with pride4 ,but pride is low now1 and still dwindling in the glass4 ,even the gods withdraw from the pathetic4 ,they love us more when we challenge with doubt than when we implore4 ,the many are ,god-fearing4 ,they must have some divine power to shift their responsibility upon4 ,they can ask the ,flame to cleanse them1 but quail at working out their own salvation4 ,i have done some crying out to ,god1 but ,i am finished4 ,the one good path ,i have is ,work--self-expression every day4 ,i made another mistake--in looking back4 ,regret identifies us with the past and impedes progress4 ,youth is smileless1 inclined to regard to-day's struggles as ultimate evil1 but gradually we learn that all things pass4 ,to consider everything as in transition1 we place ourselves in the very current of growth4444 ,for rapid journeying1 we must travel light4 ,we can only carry along the spirit of things--the essence of our joys and lessons4 ,that's what ,i have from ,chapel days4 ,i blush for many hours since4 ,sometimes ,i have felt as if ,i were on a vast plain and there was no ,god nor earth nor the quality of love anywhere1 but only ,i--deathless--in long1 hideous travail1 all life to be tested against this ,me6444 99 99 99 99 99 ,how ,i want to write6 ,every day more awe enfolds the dream4 ,days bring me closer to the ,town4 ,the war has deepened the hearts of all the young people here1 especially the women4 ,young women are very wonderful to me4 ,they have a certain loveliness of body that comes of girl-whiteness within--thoughtful tenderness about them1 and something else1 a lightness that may be just youth4 ,it attracts me because ,i have never felt it4 ,i do not care if the gods laugh at my ambitions to write4 ,by the very sign that we are victims of matter now1 we shall become victors4 ,i want the bottom--down among the deeps of pain1 where all the sorrow of the world is my sorrow2 all tears1 my tears4444 ,i am not ready for the ,hive4 ,no compromise4 ,to accept less in one's work than the dream--that is failure4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,valley ,road ,girl is eighteen4 ,she has hardly been away from the little town by the lake shore4 ,she is held to it queerly still4 ,i expect her to make the place long-lived in the memory of many novel readers4 ,i see the big book of the country-side about her--a gallery of quaint and curious faces--done with her stern1 sweet power4 ,i have seen this big book building about her1 as ,i see the top trays of ,the ,abbot's ,sea ,chest4 ,these are the days of her sketching and tearing down4 ,deep draughts of life call to her1 deeps of religion1 deeps of cosmic memory--and all about is the little town4 ,the meaning has come to her at last4 ,already she has turned to love the nearest2 loving the nearest will unfold the big book and set her free4 ,six hundred pages ,i call for--the leisurely vibration1 terrible intensity of romantic moments1 passion of the fields1 the hideous mockery of narrow1 brittle lives1 the country-wife worn glassy with routine and insane monotony1 and the young of the country-side--quick bloom1 pure youth falling into coarseness before its form is finished1 the real and immortal behind it all4 ,these are her properties4 ,hundreds of pages have been written and prayerfully destroyed4 ,thus is she setting herself free4 ,i have a paper of hers on the spiritual adventures of a smileless child--which ,i liked much when it came in1 more than two years ago4 ,the ,valley ,road ,girl is close to us in all our preparing and building2 so that these chapters would be strange without her voice3 444 ,fire was always terrible1 so my first aspirations were caused by fear of hell below4 ,before that1 ,i had wanted to laugh when told to pray4 ,as ,i grew1 ,i thought much of the heavenly state1 but could find only vague pictures4 ,recently ,i asked a country minister his idea of heaven1 and he seemed uncertain4 ,he could only assure me that it was a desirable place4 ,yet children always wonder about their destination1 questioning as they journey4 ,i started early to pray--a grim affair2 at first crying out through fear or hurt4 ,god was too awful for such intimacies so ,i took the ,christ figure of the ,trinity into my confidence4 ,just here came a strange transition4 ,it didn't seem sufficient for me to think those prayers3 ,i felt ,i must state them clearly or my wish might be ambiguous4 ,even to-day1 ,i find that only expressing a thing simplifies it for me4 ,if there were acquaintances whose lives were touched with beauty or romance1 ,i prayed for them1 but mostly named my wants4 ,i made the discovery that the intensity put forth in holding the image of a desire brings it into the world4 ,man may call the answer ,god1 but that seems his own power4 ,i have sometimes thought of ,will with its divine kindred1 ,wisdom and ,love1 as the ,three ,who stood first before ,his ,face4 ,to-day we dream1 and to-morrow our hands are filled4 ,i remember the early ,chapel days when the ,old ,man would say1 ,be careful what you want--you are apt to get it1--with a great laugh and mystery playing about his words4 ,how truly one comes to realise that4 ,when ,i started at ,stonestudy1 the town-people used to ask how we were taught1--if our ,english and story-structure were principally considered as in the schools4 ,i could only tell them1 ,oh1 no1 not like school6 ,then ,i tried to explain ,chapel and they wondered how that manner of education could make us writers4 ,yet our writing improved with the days4 ,work1 a few weeks old1 embarrassed us with its defects4 ,then ,i actually tried to discover just how we were being helped4 ,to a young aspirant1 there is awe about an artist2 we had come to listen4 ,the same thoughts expressed in homely words wouldn't have quickened us4 ,the ,old ,man's sentences were rich with figures that clarified everything4 ,we began to see ,stonestudy4 ,about this time at home ,i used to start anything that interested me1 ,i've got a picture---- ,chapel had helped me1 as only one can help another1 by quickening the imagination4 ,that was what drew me to the ,little ,girl--her vivid impression of things4 ,she could make her listener see also4 ,speaking of children whom school had overwhelmed1 she used to tell us of their lacking eyes and the world that had crushed them1 as the solid world4 444 ,i think that was the secret of her faith in fairies and ,nature's most elusive agencies4 ,i listened doubtfully at first1 for school had tampered with my once-ready belief4 ,one had first to trust her words1 ,if you believe1 you will see4 ,and ,i recalled my early religious experiences1 based on ,according to your faith1 be it unto you4 ,this is the really religion--faith in the hidden world4 ,we conceive its light gradually as the seed pushes its way upward through the soil4 ,all religion that does not make the workshop a ,chapel--the place for picturing heaven1 is less than we know4 ,i seem to confuse religion with the stimulating of the imagination4 ,it is because they are one to me4 ,the ,valley ,road ,girl has a beautiful sister who was rather reluctant to come to ,stonestudy4 ,she did not think she could ever belong2 had no thought ever of writing or taking part in our things1 yet none of the young people ever brought us more than ,esther4 ,i found the following pages about these two sisters together among the writings of the ,little ,girl3 444 ,on the floor below lived two girls who came often to visit their beloved friends in the attic4 ,one was a year or so older than the other1 and most serious and sober1 constantly hunting for her own philosophy and making her own religion1 praying for power and vision1 fearing lest she fail at the appointed task1 suffering over conditions1 revolting at times1 loving her work and her sister with an everlasting passion4 ,that was the one whom we call the ,valley ,road ,girl4 ,the other was a perfect giver1 born with the thought of her own smallness1 unwilling to accept a different point of view on the subject from another4 ,a spirit--wide eyes1 frail body1 living her life calmly1 objecting to nothing1 obeying others1 loving all1 frightening her parents with her absolute goodness4 ,and that was ,esther4 ,when she came at last to ,stonestudy1 her cushion with the others round the fire had been waiting for many months4 ,for we all knew her2 through the ,valley ,road ,girl we knew ,esther belonged to us4 ,one ,chapel day later1 when she remained at home1 we wondered how we'd ever manage without her4444 ,occasionally ,esther brought a paper with her and laid it under the black stone--a bit of verse1 perhaps a dream1 or something deep and mysterious from her soul4 ,one day it was a picture of the ,desert1 ,i remember4444 ,noonday1 the white heat of the sun reflected by the sand1 the brown of a camel's eyes1 the long road to travel--caravans--then night--the sound of low music1 women dancing1 the red of fires on black oily bodies of slaves4444 ,esther made us see it all4 ,there were long days in the woods--spring quickening life in all things4 ,we'd gather moss and violets and talk endlessly1 ,esther always so free these memorable days1 and happy4 ,it was the dance that set her free--her expression through the dance--a dancer's body and soul1 her wonderful quality of forgetfulness of self1 made her perfect4 ,literally she could surrender herself to the music1 trust it1 and be carried in perfect grace and rhythm4 ,we watched her unfold1 the beauty of her deepening in every way4 ,her joy in life grew4 ,she became like a nymph in the pure light of summer4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,as was set down in the other book1#ag it was the ,little ,girl who started these educational proceedings4 ,less than four years ago ,i suggested that she remain home from school1 and take a stroll with me down the ,shore4 ,i was a bit bored at the time1 doubtless heavy with the sense of parental care4 ,to my best knowledge1 the ,little ,girl was in no way extraordinary4 ,she does not seem so now4 ,it seemed natural for her to turn in the chapter on ,tom in this book4 ,i did not think of it as a brimming thing for a child to perform4 ,incidentally ,steve brought in an essay last night on the young lovers and beauty lovers of the ,new ,race1 covering matters which ,i planned as necessary for me to do in this book4 ,weaving1 that's really what a book from the group amounts to--weaving1 more and more4 ,from time to time in years to come1 ,i hope to take a few weeks and spin a book4 #ag ,child and ,country4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is only in matters having to do with actual world-facts that the ,little ,girl ever reminds us that she is only finishing her second period of sevens4 ,there is no one to whom ,i go more often for wisdom or consolation4 ,her comradeship is complete4 ,others forget the matter of age in relation to her4 ,her big friendship with the ,valley ,road ,girl overrides four years of growth most formidable in the usual attachment4 ,the soul is out of time and space4 ,the same thing is more emphatically shown in the case of ,john and ,the ,abbot--nine and seventeen4 ,the ,little ,girl reads very little--not nearly so much as ,i do4 ,she carries no weights4 ,the slightest tendency toward precocity would sicken me of the whole business4 ,this growth and development which ,i speak of is not intellectual in the acquisitive sense4 ,i take the young minds away from long division examples4 ,one of those a day is plenty4 ,excessive use of the young brain is dangerous4 ,one should handle brain-tissue with delicacy4 ,one should learn well how to think1 so as to escape lesion and avoid rupture of those most delicate fibres4 ,any strain sounds a warning4 ,the use and development of the brain from outside is only safe so long as the process is joyous4 ,the development of the brain from within is natural and continually felicitous4 ,no two processes are alike--for the ,soul perfects the instrument to serve ,itself4 ,in due time the brain1 thus trained1 will bring forth the one perfect and inimitable product4 ,trained by the world solely from without1 its product is a mere standard at best4 ,i have met absolutely no ill results1 not even from the gentle encouragement of the practice of concentration among children4 ,this is stiff brainwork for a time--stiff because the brain must be mastered4 ,but the brain that has learned to listen for the voice of the ,master within1 is already using the fruits of concentration1 and as ,i have written before1 the children master the distractions more easily than developed personalities4 ,one must learn how to think obediently before one can silence the thoughts4 ,one must silence the brain to hear the ,soul1 but one must be the ,soul to silence the brain4 ,intellectual children have been brought to me several times4 ,they lack the essential reverence4 ,they wish to show me what they know2 their parents goad them into this showing4 ,these are not the new race type that thrills us4444 ,i cannot help you out of a predicament if my hands are full of bundles4 ,i cannot bring to you the one spontaneous utterance that you long for1 if my brain is crowded with the things of to-day and yesterday4 ,i place upon the ground my bundles1 and give you a hand4 ,i clear my mind of all its recent and immediate acquisitions1 and by the very force and matrix of your need 7if ,i am the valuable teacher7 ,i supply1 from the infinite reservoir of massed experiences1 an intuitional answer that will not leave you as you were4 444 ,god pity the good little brain-pans so heavily piled in public schools1 and the brave little memories so cruelly taxed4 ,i want to brush all junk away from them1 let their souls breathe1 let them become as little children1 show them how the greatest workmen and the master-thinkers are great and masterful1 simply because they have learned how to become as little children4 99 99 99 99 99 #ag ,,beauty ,we develop through expression4 ,i find these paragraphs among many of the ,little ,girl's for which there is no place here3 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,everything in pouring out one's dreams and thoughts1 one's very soul into words6 ,it is relief1 fulfilment2 it completes all thoughts and dreams2 it gives them strength4 ,they are only half-powers if left unexpressed4 ,in the moments of great outpouring1 order forms--the inner order that is lasting and divine1 the order that every man must have running rhythmically through him1 before his great task can be given him by the ,master4 ,if man lives in truth1 he lives in order4 ,there is no truth without order--no order without truth4 ,they are one at the top4 ,there are no mistakes in all the ,holy ,universe4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we speak much of the ,master4 ,as every artist becomes significant1 ,i think he is more and more conscious1 deep within1 of the presence of one whose word is absolute4 ,the great artist isolates himself from criticism--that is1 he may listen to the observations of a child or the youngest critic and find values1 yet his life is passed in doing things others cannot do1 and for which there are no criteria4 ,he loses the sense of all laws at the last1 in the great ebullition of his soul--to get its records down4 ,he is not ignited with expression as formerly1 because he is expression4 ,his establishment in flesh is for that1 and no other reason4 ,his ,master nears4 ,i think of ,tolstoi so intimately and ,carlyle in these things4444 ,we are close1 in our best moments1 to the ,shop ,itself4 ,kipling touched this mystic arrangement in his inimitable ,l'envoi1 ,when earth's last picture is painted---- ,more and more life teaches us the treachery of matter1 as it teaches us how to love4 ,one by one the things we turn to1 vanish1 leaving us rent and crying out4 ,thus we learn to turn to the ,unseen4 ,we long at last for our particular archetype who embodies potentially the ideal of parent and teacher and beloved4 ,the last tearing torrential love of the flesh is for the mate1 the first of our more purely spiritual aspirations for the ,master4444 ,the good days of apprenticeship give us the basic ideal of him--the pure workmanship1 the love of truth1 need for utter comprehension with few words--the love of one another1 yet the absolute essential so hard to learn1 to cling to nothing in the realm of change--all these are incentives to the quest of the ,master4 ,more and more we succeed in turning our love to what we still call the ,unseen from old habit4 ,the very love that you turn to the ,master builds the path by which he comes to you4 ,he can only appear in your own thought-form4444 ,it comes to us so often that we make our own heavens4 ,so many forget that we require beauty as well as goodness and truth4 ,not sages alone1 not saints alone--but artists1 workmen and players in beauty1 as well as in love and wisdom4 ,the ,master will come to you in your own thought-form2 your heaven will fill your own conception4 ,saints of the elder bigotries will have angels with feathers and peasant feet4 ,those who have clung so hard to their bodies1 must galvanise them again with rheumatism and senility and mortgage-ridden minds4 ,i tell them here to be careful what they dream--to take all the loves1 the safe things1 love of child and mother and mate1 love of comrades1 the passion for dying for another 444 to take ,nature's perfect things1--the grains1 the fruits1 bees1 stars1 devas1 poems--majesty of mountain1 strength of the field1 holy breath of sea--the highest moments of song and thought and meetings 444 to take all that is consummate for the thought-form--to build the coming of the ,master in that--light from the ,unseen--to build for eternity4444 ,the ,master can only show you that much of ,himself as your own highest picture contains4444 ,this is the practice of his presence1 so liberating to the minds of dreamers and workmen and mothers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,steve has done some thinking on the quest of beauty in relation to the young lovers of the ,new ,race4 ,the rest of the chapter is his writing3 ,beauty is the lustre shining from within1 because of the sheer intensity of being4 ,it is proof of spiritual battles won1 a gift earned by ages of renunciation1 martyrdom1 and self-sacrifice4 ,it is manifest balance1 order and serenity gained from isolation and self-conquest4 ,the glow seen about the heads of saints is really there4 ,it is a splendour not of earth1 the same ray from which beauty is drawn4 ,a certain tragic joy and a terrible serenity1 that is mistaken for melancholy1 often goes with beauty4 ,it is the result of turning back voluntarily for work in the world1 renouncing possible bliss for the service of humanity4 ,chief among the spiritual victories mentioned1 is this turning back1 facing the stream of evolution again1 and all its cold metal1 for new work4 ,so its light is a light from behind--a reflection to the world of the wonders ahead4 ,beauty is an indication of the weave of one's higher life1 of developed discrimination1 material proof of the perfecting ordination of the life1 will and emotions4 ,all that is beautiful is good1 all that is good must be beautiful4 ,ugliness is false and fleeting1 a confession of sickness and turmoil within4 ,there can absolutely be no great love without a sheer worship of beauty1 not for itself1 not from the sthetic standpoint--no temperamental moth-man ethics--but the calm mastery of its inner meaning1 which is mastery of life itself4 ,this does not mean that we must love things merely because they are beautiful1 but because of the truth we know to be in them1 manifest in their beauty4 ,also it means that we must never accept a thing merely because it is demonstrated1 or seek truth for truth's sake4 ,beauty is the one lasting criterion4 ,as soon as we truly see these things1 we know the secret of real love1 which is beauty's expression4 ,the lover is no longer lover only1 but love-master--all domination of the sexes then becomes a slavery of the past4 ,the lover is parent1 mate and child in one4 ,each is also the other's teacher4 ,at the beginning these lovers give each other complete freedom1 knowing that nothing can be maintained that is held2 that joyous freedom is its own wise bondage4 ,the finding of the lover is never the end of the quest as in the world4 ,rather1 it is the beginning4 ,never is there a lying back in satisfaction or inconsequence4 ,that would be failure for themselves as well as their children4 ,growth is the goal4 ,growth goes on after the mating at a rate never before approached1 for each has been opened1 liberated4 ,every relation is evident alternately in this growth1 parent and child1 teacher and pupil1 master and disciple1 madonna and messiah4 ,at certain high moments1 the other appears as the ,master himself2 through his eyes the mysteries of the universe are seen4 ,the three-ply love yearns to give1 knowing that by giving all one gains all4 ,it yearns to protect1 to mother1 to love failings and make them virtues4 ,it loves the failings as well as the gifts1 treasuring all the little humanesses of the loved one1 searching them out zealously4 ,never are they foolish enough to expect perfection at first4 ,every fault is told point-blank1 at any cost of pain or injury to the other4 ,for it is the god-given privilege of each to bring suffering to the other1 because he loves that other more than life1 more than self1 more than happiness1 and it is understood that their mutual goal is the priceless heritage1 perfection4 ,nothing short of perfection remains4 ,for this all else1 even life1 is a paltry price4 ,there is no hiding the truth4 ,this is the supreme test for great loves1 great friendships4 ,both mates are equal4 ,equality--the word comes to mean more than worship4 ,this philosophy is justified by the law of sacrifice4 ,that which we love more than life is ours more wholly than ourselves1 by the great law4 ,in fact1 we cannot belong to ourselves2 we must work upon ourselves until we are big enough to cast body mind and soul in the heart of another1 without fear4 ,separateness--the pitiful sense of self1 has long been the prime illusion of the world1 the cause of all lust1 wars and torments4 ,those who are not great enough lovers to surrender all to their love find pain and disparity throughout4 ,they have yet to learn that all that belongs to the self-willed1 only half belongs1 for it has not been given its freedom4 ,in loves such as the ,new ,age is bringing in1 true creativeness is touched4 ,in worshipping both the soul of her child and that of her mate more than her own1 the mother is given for the moment a beam from the divine shaft from the ,creator4 ,for that moment she has over-reached herself4 ,just so is the new love constantly over-reaching itself in the cause of the loved one1 a divine madness the world has not begun to dream of--to belong and to have1 to be in and through and around the loved one4 ,thus to over-reach is to create4 ,the ordinary one must become extraordinary when loved in this god-like manner4 ,to over-reach oneself--that is the cry of the ,new6444 ,to think or act in any way that will hurt the self becomes impossible then1 for the self is truly become the other lover4 ,blindness of passion is far from the nature of things in the new loves4 ,or rather such passions have been washed and redeemed until they are self-governing4 ,there is all the difference between them and the world idea of passion1 as between adoration and infatuation4 ,deep waters and deep characters hold to their channels4 ,only shallow and frothy currents are loud and turbulent4444 ,again it is the three in one4 ,how could one hold a mad destroying passion for one in whom the parent child and master are equally dominant8 ,always the spirit of tenderness is there like an unseen third4 ,thus passion has become compassion1 and the earth love is seen truly for the first time partaking of the nature of the infinite love which holds the universe together4 ,this is the source of calm1 of will-lessness4 ,the elder generation1 judging all things from the standpoint of the self will1 is dumbfounded4 ,such iron repression among children is beyond its imagination4 ,the elder generation goes on living sharkish and predatory lives1 experimenting with repression after too much getting and taking and licentiousness4 ,it concentrates terribly on repression1 throwing up about itself temporary breastworks1 developing cruel red rays of personal will which at best is but a defiant pugnacity4 ,its eyes grow red and voice savage4 ,for the time the gargoyles of the ancient self are locked in the lower room1 but they are not mastered4 ,all personal will is but a confession of inordination within4 ,where there is inner order and beauty1 it is not needed1 becomes indeed an affront to the most high4 ,the beautiful will-lessness which marks the relation of the sexes of the ,new ,order is the key to the freedom of the future4 ,tiger and ape are transformed into white presences--the mutinous slaves of the earth-self become cosmic servants4 99 99 99 99 99 #ah ,,shuk ,i was talking to a group of young artists in ,chicago4 ,there was a boy there who seemed disturbed because the others dared to be natural in my presence1 and talk about themselves4 ,i was quite at ease1 enjoying myself1 and getting altogether as much respect as ,i deserved4444 ,this lad walked with me to the train4 ,i wanted to take him home4 ,i liked his voice and his hand and his mind4 ,i thought at first that he could not mean all he said1 but ,i was wrong about that4 ,reverence is sometimes very hard to take1 but the one who brings it has the pure surface of receptivity4 ,the boy said1 as my train pulled out3 ,no1 ,i can't come now4 ,there's a month to be spent at home in ,michigan1 and a season's playing with an orchestra up in the lake resorts1 but after that--say ,october1 ,i'll come to ,stonestudy4 ,that was exactly what he did4 ,he had it all planned months ahead4 ,it's ,shuk's#ah way--a mathematical mind1 a crystal mind4 ,the theosophists would say that he belonged to the intellectual ray4444 ,we are always better with ,shuk in the room4 ,he comes half way to meet our process of lighting up1 which is the devotional process2 in fact1 ,shuk incorporated himself in our ideals in exchange for a year or two of living the life at ,stonestudy4444 ,these things never die4 #ah ,herman ,s4 ,schuchert4 ,a raincoat1 a black bag--these are ,shuk's possessions1 all weight and measure minimised1 even to the kind of white paper which wears best and packs best4 ,shuk means order4 ,a page of his copy is a rest to the eye4 ,there is a finished quality to his sentences4 ,my tendency is to rush into a mental clean-up when he enters the room4 ,i'm not impressing these details as his virtues4 ,shuk's virtues are cosmic4 ,he will presently be telling the big tales1 and telling them fast4 ,as a group1 we are learning to come and go from each other4 ,we have learned well not to lean--rather to anticipate the ,law and leave the beloved when the tendency to cling becomes too keen4444 ,there is a time to come and a time to go4 ,i always think of the ,master ,jesus1 leaving ,his disciples--saying that they would not find the ,comforter within1 if ,he remained with them always4 ,shuk had much to do in bringing home to us this valuable concept4 ,we had a way of thinking the world would come to us on the ,lake ,erie bluff4 ,it would4 ,it did4 ,but we were getting fat and baronial2 a bit fat of brain1 perhaps4444 ,better than that1 the gaunt1 lean face forever at the window-panes of civilisation4444 ,comrades are always together4 ,big meetings1 easy partings4 ,one does not know how close he is to another1 until their thoughts spark warm over a lot of mileage--the immortality of it all stealing in through the soft airs of night1 perhaps4 ,i teach the young ones to stand alone at every chance4 ,the idea is to make them penetrate for themselves1 as swiftly as possible1 the main tricks and illusions of matter2 to make them see past any doubt that to be worldly-minded is to be inferior4 ,still they must see this for themselves4 ,i formally renounced parentage in the case of the ,little ,girl4 ,i take all my authority from the younger boys at frequent intervals--especially when they have been real mates3 ,don't advise with me1 ,i tell them4 ,show what you know about living4444 ,do it your way4 ,if you begin to botch it1 ,i'll come in and be a regular parent again1 but the idea is to set you loose4 ,these matters come out naturally in relation to ,shuk4 ,he'll be surprised to read this4 ,none of the young ones ever adequately credit the fact that ,i do a lot of sitting at their feet4444 ,we could see the world as one piece better with ,shuk in the room4 ,his intense listening pulled my eyes constantly4 ,he wanted to know about stories--about writing stories4 ,his presence made us all better workmen because he was so zealous to become one4 ,i had long been absorbed in the romantic side of world-politics1 but ,shuk decorated the subject with a new romance4444 ,the farther away a country is1 the more we know about it from a fiction standpoint4 ,his mental forms are very strong4 ,shuk and ,i have practically covered the same run of thoughts in a morning's work--our machines a mile apart--no prearrangement4 ,but this has worked out so often as to cease to be a novelty4 ,the ,little ,girl's letters have often crossed with mine1 carrying the same spiritual unfoldment--a four days' journey distant4444 ,another realisation related with ,shuk's coming1 is that ,i do not belong as the master of a school in the economic sense4 ,there was much detail at ,stonestudy1 much householder's management required4 ,i wouldn't have given it up1 if ,i had been unable to do that part1 but it was a waste of force--wretched economy for me to take charge of such affairs4 ,we plan to support ourselves1 but ,i cannot run a school1 apportion tasks1 or puzzle devotedly among the meshes of finance4 ,this part of the work in ,california will doubtless be taken care of by those who do it well and profitably4 ,there have been moments when ,i wanted to go among all the schools--happen in1 stay an hour or a week--until the children and teachers forgot me1 so ,i could find my own among the many4444 ,but again it occurs to me that wiser plans than mine are behind it all4 ,those who are ready1 come2 numbers will take care of themselves2 all we need to do is to make the most of the nearest1 and keep up our song in such accord as we can in the midst of the world's sacrificial madness--many girls' voices now1 for the war has plucked the boys4444 ,some of the things of ,shuk's which ,i chose for this book were about the big war and are not profitable discussions now1 but with his paper included in an earlier chapter1 and one or two small things here1 his quality can be seen4 ,this is a letter to the ,old ,man3 444 ,i haven't ceased to follow the ,wars4 ,big one inside4 ,tremendous flights1 dizzy careenings1 impossible falls4 ,am tramping noisily through the forbidden garden of ,books4 ,am becoming more and more vividly aware of ,life1 above actuality1 beyond sorrow1 interior to joy4 ,vital and thrilling peace to all your endeavours4444 ,enclosed a paragraph or two on tallying off the world-war within1 with the world-war without3 ,evil is stupid mixing of good things into in-harmony4 ,evil is simply ignorance4 ,ignorance does not fade away1 but must be worked out1 worn down4 ,war is evil in this process4 ,man's higher nature is naturally at war with ignorance1 manifesting in his lower nature4 ,if man had always kept at this war against the domination of the lower self1 he would never have needed another war to jar and jog him along4 ,but man decided1 in ignorance1 that he had no cause for war with the lower self4 ,this was his first illusion4 ,the next mistake was natural4 ,man thought he would get rid of evil by killing off the lower selves of other men4 ,all due to his first error in looking outside instead of in4 ,it's all wrong to think we must leave our own houses in order to fight the greatest battles conceivable4 ,if we do not accept the fight within ourselves1 we shall certainly have the same fight1 once or twice removed1 forced upon us4444 ,whatever portion of humankind is chastened and quickened by this big field-war and sea-war1 is the first fruits of a nobler race4 ,man has had countless and continuous opportunities of doing this purifying process to himself in privacy and peace2 instead1 he has consistently1 with rarest exceptions1 used his will to serve the lesser self1 or deal with the lesser selves of other men4 ,now1 in these years1 every man who failed1 will learn the lesson1 because it will be forced upon him4 ,if our wisdom is not so great and old as we hope1 if we have in the long past thrown away our chances1 then we shall surely go out and fare as the others fare now--in exactly the right proportion4 ,killing another doesn't work as a means of self-correction4 ,hereafter1 ,i'm interested in correcting myself4 ,there is very little outside work left to do4 ,this is a commonplace1 of course1 yet it reminds me that the highest wisdom is something grandly simple and easy4 ,murder is an aggravated waste of both time and opportunity4 ,yet ,i am at peace with nobody1 not even myself4 ,peace ought to be more intense than war1 and until it is1 we shall have to go through many wars to arrive at any kind of peace4 ,many slaveries is the price of freedom4 ,one who fears will be brought up facing monster fears1 until he learns next time that his personal fears were too petty to mention4 ,one who has greed and envy will surely be made a pawn in a game of greed so colossal that perhaps1 in a future time1 he will have no interest in neighbourhood greeds1 but will have learned to see and to desire the whole world4 ,his greed has been stretched into a passion for dominion2 and the most fascinating field for empire he will discover within himself4 ,so wherever we stand1 we can't lose out4 ,we can choose to do good1 better1 best--but without choosing1 nothing less than all right can happen4 ,the brighter facts are that all these warring energies1 whether of men or ordnance1 are the force of one ,god1 energies working out of the muddles men made4 ,man has disturbed the balance4 ,man now makes a sacrifice in order to restore equilibrium1 to release the powers he misused4 ,the greatest conceivable struggle must sooner or later come between the higher and lower nature of every living thing4 ,man is now preparing himself1 collectively and individually1 for this final conquest4 ,his prime illusion seized him when he turned away from his own faults1 to correct the faults of his brother4 ,the secondary illusion is that the brother will not be able to care for his own faults4 ,the third is that we must help our brother correct himself4 ,the fourth is that if he won't do it himself1 in the way we say1 we will do it for him4 ,the world 7and this means me7 is just learning the rudiments of war1 just finding out how much vitality man has1 how much courage1 the stupidity of all fear1 the size of the globe1 the depth and possibilities of the elements1 including the human soul2 is perceiving more of life and accepting intenser vibrations than ever before on this terra4 ,all this knowledge will go into the ,true ,peace some day4 ,but in these nearby years1 men are prayerfully eager to get back home1 where all these godly lessons may be forgotten4 ,real ,war will positively show man that he must remember what he is taught4 ,when he comes home1 he will enlist immediately in the interior struggle with his lower self4 ,his war with other men will train him to fight with the greatest enemy on earth1 his own ignorance4 ,i have already enlisted in this big war4 ,my first victory was in seizing the fact that the world is me and ,i am the world and nothing to the contrary4 ,the universe rises and falls with me1 subjectively4 ,the goal is to make it--objectively4 ,i am locked with impatience these days4 ,after that1 comes fear4 ,i may go to the red fields to learn the nonsense about fear4 ,of course ,i can theorise it now perfectly1 and practise it at periods4 ,but ,i want it steadily1 the non-wobbling wisdom4 ,already ,i have conquered some fatuousness in myself4 ,out of my jubilation ,i write to you4444 ,of course1 the ,many is not a model to follow4 ,the ,many is a picture in every man's mind1 composed of the inferior things that all other men do4444 ,inclusion--intensity--love--creativenes s--these ,stonestudy precepts contain all the story4 ,they are certainly the way out and up and over into ,life4 99 99 99 99 99 ,shuk has done a little sketch or two on the big ,romance of the new social order3 ,humour1 universality1 the highest good will1 he writes1 are the symbols that flame from the temple of the ,new ,race4444 ,everywhere appear children of the renovating1 re-vitalising1 more cosmic tribe4 ,they are easily recognised4 ,the hope of a full and decent future is with them4 ,they will do little according to their immediate predecessors1 and much by an inner light of their own4 ,being wise and simple and not destructive1 they will gratefully accept all that has proven true for earlier peoples4 ,but they will instinctively have nothing at all to do with the traditions based on three-score-and-ten1 or any other of the unfortunately solid viewpoints that frost the world to-day4 ,they love the world1 have come to claim it whole1 to reclaim it from deluded ancestors who were solemnly1 from birth1 bent upon deeding and selling and stealing and fencing in bits of the planet's surface4 ,forerunners of this happier race have shown themselves to be masters of materials1 true workmen in the solid stuffs2 but by their sense of humour they are saved from any impulse to seize and sit upon fragments of earth4 ,these new ones are born with an urge towards unity4 ,their task1 to set the world in order4 ,their means1 not so much a rearrangement of objects as a very intense activity along the roads of ,beauty and ,truth1 in a co-operation unstudied and normal with the rest of mankind and with the ,igniting ,principle4 ,it may be observed that ,beauty and ,truth are too vague to produce effective action in a solid world4 ,this is invariably a saying of the material-minded1 however virtuous they may be4 ,it is they who loudly demand a dull utility over and above ,beauty1 and apart from it4 ,it is they who have agglomerated the chaos that is in this hour threshing about in dust and blood4 ,their sober iniquities are the fertiliser to force the seed of the ,new ,race4 ,it is not a cosmic blunder that the great minds of the world are found in art1 including the supreme art of mystic religion--and seldom in the arena of statecraft4 ,the world was never managed from a senate chamber2 the cosmos is not guided by a king4 ,when rulers of the past have become great figures1 that greatness usually rested upon their gift of poetry1 their love of art or wisdom1 or some religious quality4 ,poems of twenty words have outlived the might of forty wars4 ,a great book is a higher achievement than a sweeping political move4 ,the dullest changeling with an obsession may set his seal upon a war to the death of ten million men1 but in the few lines of a true poem are stored the honey of millenniums of human life4 ,a genuine work of art is more potent and practical than any blood-bought wall of tribal separation1 more vital and immediate than the doings of armies4 ,to judge of this properly1 one need only know both kings and poets4 ,of the early kings of ,rome1 it is ,numa who is remembered--and he was in harmony with ,celestial ,order4 ,of countless other ,roman figures1 the average mind turns first to ,csar1 who was a literary man1 and whose passion to write outlasted every march of his legions4 ,greece had kings and statesmen and great generals1 yet it is her wise men who stand foremost4 ,the conquering ,alexander is famed chiefly because he was the unwitting distributor of ,grecian beauty4 ,in fact1 ,greek history began with ,homer1 the poet1 and ,american history with ,columbus1 the dreamer who is still our creditor4 ,the mystics of old ,china reached for the ,torch of ,light1 and they might have attained a true dominion over the planet1 had not their fear-inspired kings built a ,wall and gelded the ,empire once for all4 ,gautama ,buddha gave up kingcraft in order to gain a higher mastery4 ,mohammed lived on the ,road4 ,jesus the ,christ set free an energy in the world that is only gaining its real momentum after two thousand years--and he firmly refused a material crown4 444 ,a hopeful dream1 the poem of an autumn afternoon1 the building of a sphinx or a pyramid--these are not subject to time or conditions4 ,they remain4 ,so the ,children who are the hope of the world are not dismayed at the medley of illusions emanating from the so-called ruling class4 ,emperors and premiers do not get very much done either way2 they themselves abandon their own works over night4 ,they are deserving of profound sympathy4 ,they only spread out more manful chaos to be set straight by the master craftsmen--the artists1 humorists1 vitalists1 mystics4444 ,beauty is the sun-bright flash of the ,infinite4 ,with duty raised to a joy1 and pain forgot1 the ,singers come1 the ,builders1 the ,quickeners of man4 ,the ,unforgettables of the so-called past were of this stock4 ,their leisure is deep--of a sort that sustains the finitudes4 ,all the good goals of yesterday are to be counted as mile-posts4 ,direction is more important than any imaginable goal2 unvarying tendency is more direct and splendid than any creed2 the white path of the quester is more precious than a stationary heaven4 ,the modern children cannot stop on this side of the horizon because they are creators4 ,life is their religion4 ,their rites are broad and deep as man1 as ancient and reverent as time1 as new as dawn4 ,they do not reject the ,vedas4 ,they re-fashion the ,upanishads in their own hearts4 ,they study the travels and hopes of ,jesus1 listen for the divine songs of ,orpheus1 penetrate the glitter of numbers with ,pythagoras1 find satisfaction in the ,mohammedan thinkers who connected ,aristotle with ,moses4 ,these names do not belong to the past4 ,the many ,buddhas are perpetually modern4 ,kabir lives to-day in ,tagore4 ,heracleitus and ,plato are still living springs4 ,in just the same sense1 the children of the ,new ,race are old as the ,pelasgian ,zeus1 though in point of time they are here for work and play in #aibj4 ,but their vitality1 reality1 beauty1 power and achievement--these are affairs of all time4 99 99 99 99 99 #ai ,,imagination ,many mystics have lost touch entirely with the deep sunken abutments of the spiritual edifice--the footings in matter4 ,they are deeply wise in the mysteries and unfoldments of contemplation1 but lose their way like mindless lambs in the world4 ,we idealise a practical mysticism which dares to walk the earth in the heat of the day1 dares to contemplate the stars as outposts of the heavenly kingdom1 launching the vision at last1 not only to the ,holy ,city1 but to the ,throne of ,itself4444 ,talks with ,shuk at ,stonestudy had a tendency to make us see the big ,unseen politics and diplomacies and rulerships of the planet4 ,here are a few paragraphs from one of his letters which show the quality3 444 ,kings and presidents are the most hampered of men4 ,great generals are silly without their armies4 ,to remove externals from us1 to rid our minds of the illusive and the inessential1 is simply to clear us for action4 ,even a gunner1 in taking aim1 regards the object or enemy as an abstraction1 and focuses his whole attention upon his own instrument1 his sights4 ,if he actually looks at the enemy1 he will not hit him4 ,the billiardist first glances over the entire table1 then1 to make a true shot1 concentrates his full attention upon the tip of his own cue4 ,perhaps the great leader of armies does not regard individuals or see them as men1 but as extensions of his own body1 and in time of stress1 he has forgotten them completely save as abstract power for his use1 and that use he determines interiorly4 ,even the most material-minded of men1 in the crux of worldly and four-square events1 sinks into deep and effective cerebration4 ,can we1 who realise this as a conscious and direct principle1 do any less8 ,i think the ,guardians are sitting together a little way off1 watching with grand interest1 to see just how much of a mess mankind can make4 ,man is always given lavish supplies with which to create works of art that may prove equal in beauty and wonder to the universe itself4 ,man does not yet see art in these materials4 ,he must open his eyes before the ,powers are able to help him4 ,the ,guardians cannot operate against man's will1 because their will and his will1 including yours and mine right now1 are of one piece4 ,the will of the ,guardians is better trained and cleaner1 because more experienced4444 ,when men cease to shout for different things from the same ,father1 they stand a chance of getting the ,father's attention4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we have had many astonishing hours in ,chapel talking about these ,guardians1 the arrangements above1 as below1 one ,plan governing all4 ,we do not care to bandy about the name of ,god a great deal1 for we realise that ,he is most unseen when embodied in matter2 that ,he is apt to be far from the mind that makes familiar with ,him in words4 ,yet all stands for ,him1 all reveals ,him4 ,the farther we can see beyond mere eyesight1 the more we realise that ,he is not standing exactly in person1 just outside of the boundaries of matter4 ,there are hierarchies1 so to speak4 ,there are messengers and couriers and charioteers1 saints1 pilgrims1 angels1 courtiers1 priests and politicians1 grades and authorities represented there1 such as we find in ,matter and ,romance here4444 ,shuk and ,steve and ,i used to hypothecate the existence of a ,white ,council back of all the religious movements of the world4 ,by humour and analogy and romantic speculation1 we arrived at the point of view that the world religions are one at the top1 and that initiates1 illuminati1 masters are stationed at intervals to help humanity up the slopes4 ,we conceived the ,white ,council as a centre of wisdom love and power1 holding up the cup continually for revelation1 guiding and guarding humanity's soul4 ,we glimpsed the fact that the leaders of the ,white ,council might be beyond embodiment--at least in avoirdupois--the holy of all holy men4 ,only a most pure and potent messenger1 we thought1 would be permitted to reach this ,inner ,temple1 this ,shamballah1 compared to which the ,vatican is a salon open to the public and the monasteries of ,thibet a concourse for pilgrims4 ,after religion1 we realised that there must be an upper centre for all that is represented here below so diversely in politics and nationalism4 ,it couldn't be ,god ,himself back of the dumas and senates1 reichstags1 diets and parliaments4 ,one does not pass from elevator-boy to editor in chief in a great commercial office4 ,if there were a ,white ,council back of all the religious movements of the world1 there must be a ,big ,mill back of all world-politics--a gathering of directors1 venturing to judge the problems of men because they had risen above them4444 ,these men could want nothing material4 ,we perceived them behind armies and thrones1 manipulating kings and diplomats and secret centres1 in ways that even the closest agents did not understand4 ,we concluded there must be another centre made up of the master-artists1 bringing through into matter 7as the world can stand it and as the little human instruments reach up for them71 the great delivering beauties of song and story1 paint and verse and tale4 ,and this we called the ,shop ,itself4 ,sometimes we fancied that it was all too much1 even to dream of going there sometime to see the forms1 the marbles1 the canvases1 the manuscripts--the ,artists themselves4444 ,and then we realised that1 just as all the arts and all the religions and all the political movements were one at the top1 that ,politics and ,art and ,religion were one at the next eminence2 that the ,inner ,council and the ,big ,mill and the ,shop ,itself were one at the top1 just as ,wisdom1 ,love and ,power are2 as ,goodness1 ,beauty and ,truth are2 as ,father1 ,son and ,holy ,spirit are--three in one at the ,top1 and that was ,himself4444 ,and then we would rise from ,chapel and go out and look at the lake--,steve and ,shuk and ,i4 ,finally one day we were told that we had done some right good dreaming--that it was all true4 ,we were advised that it was no affair of ours if other people didn't get it right away2 that they would get it4444 ,so we began to put these things in stories4 ,they mean ,romance to us4 ,queerly enough the stories are coming through--one long one especially1 called ,archer1 that shows the downhere activities of the ,big ,mill and the ,white ,council and the ,shop ,itself4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i have said it often in this book--that our culture consists of the quantity of properties that we have tallied off--the within with the without4 ,the ,kingdom is within1 also the ,king2 the ,sky and the ,nest are one2 one are the heavens and the homing heart that finds its peace in the deep vales where the adorable humanities come to be4 ,the inmost and the uppermost are one4 ,we are where the torch of consciousness is4 ,we are in the body1 or in the mind1 or in the soul2 we are in time or eternity1 or we pass back and forth4444 ,first we tally off the far outposts of the kingdoms without and within2 first we are mere sentries learning to become clear-eyed and brave to stand alone--almost outsiders1 having scarcely heard of the ,kingdom1 dimly conscious1 but learning to become steady-eyed4 ,then we are called in a little--called in to become couriers on foot1 running to and from among the outer provinces of the kingdom2 then messengers to the ,middle ,countries2 then ,charioteers to the gates of the ,city2 then ministers to the court of the ,king4444 ,the day comes at last when we have audience with ,him--when we rule with ,him1 when we become united with ,him4 ,from the throne ,itself1 then we perceive the outsiders1 the sentries1 the couriers1 messengers1 charioteers1 the winged riders and the deep-down men of the dungeons4444 ,with the fine tranquillity of power1 we measure forth to all1 reverence1 justice and grace4 99 99 99 99 99 #bj ,,boys ,,and ,,dogs ,children of the new social order love strange creatures2 they are passionate about the care and protection of animals1 but until they are made to suffer1 they are apt to be sceptical about the infallibility of their elders4 ,they are usually forced into silence early4 ,i have noted that their ideas are intrinsically at variance with parental ideas--about purity1 sunlight1 dancing1 foods1 religion1 odours4444 ,it takes a good man to break a horse or a dog4 ,in a sense break is the word1 although ,i would accomplish it with enchantment rather than a gad4444 ,this is invariable3 ,when the pupil is ready--the ,master appears---- an old occult saying1 and another3 ,the first thing the ,master does1 is to break the back of his disciple---- ,stiffness of opinion1 rigidity of holding to that which one has1 preconception1 deep-rutted habits of mind--all these are fatal to that swift and splendid growth of the disciple when he first finds his teacher4 ,for days the child is in a bewildering series of changes--made over new each fortnight--reviewing lives of experience--razing the old structures to the very footings for new temples of mind and soul4 ,the child must be ready to give himself--must give himself utterly4 ,the essential reverence is first required2 the self is broken for all births2 one gives one's self to gain all4 ,i would not try to quicken a child who doubted what ,i was saying2 and yet ,i have never sought to make myself unerring or infallible4 ,i like to have the young ones make humour of my frailties1 and at the same time believe there is something priceless in our better moments together4 ,there is no possibility of front or acting4 ,i seek to make them practise the presence of the ,divine in themselves4 ,i tell them never to do anything alone that they would not do before me4 ,i take away all sense of sin from them4 ,i sometimes congratulate them on being especially close to us1 because of mistakes4 ,i seek to set them free in all their ways1 stripping the last attraction from evil1 jockeying them higher from a humorous and artistic point of view4 ,i show them the banality of many popular and obvious evils1 the dulness of paying the price for something off form and of questionable taste4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there is a lot of humour and nobility about a good dog and a good boy together4 ,john has been sleeping for a few nights in a bit of a cabin with an open door4 ,he picked up a friend down on the beach somewhere1 the same that he described as ,world ,man ,dog in one of his letters4 ,i liked the tone of his voice as he talked with this old loafer named ,seaweed4444 ,one evening ,i was sitting on the hill above the cabin1 so still that even a bird would have mistaken me for a part of the landscape4 ,world ,man ,dog came up the cabin grade4 ,his head was down--thinking4 ,his tail was straight out behind him1 as a dog's tail is when very much engaged with his own thoughts4 ,you could see that he was going to keep an appointment2 it was evident that he was afraid he might be late4 ,he did not see me1 so completely was he engrossed in his own affairs4 ,he went right on up to ,john's door1 entered1 gave a look round the shack1 first eagerly1 then to make sure4 ,his face fell1 his body sagged--down he slumped in the middle of the floor--utterly dejected4 ,as plain as day3 ,hell1--he ain't here6 99 99 99 99 99 ,a real dog trainer is a wise man4 ,i used to raise collies and was around the benches some--watching the champions come and go4 ,one old trainer talked to me3 ,styles change in dogs1 he said1 but a good dog doesn't change4 ,he goes on and on4 ,you don't get the good collies here on the benches any more4 ,this year they want the collie so fine that we have to pinch the brain out of his head and break his lung-room in two4 ,last year we bred for hair1 not for body and brain4 ,look at that one---- ,he pointed to an old sire that had three seasons of the bench and blue1 a sweeper of prizes4 ,i remember the time when such a head would have started a stealer anywhere4 ,the old collie had not lost form1 but styles had changed4 ,a most stupid dog with a straight1 narrow head had won--not the shepherd type at all1 but the head of a ,russian wolf-hound--a bit of the monster left in it1 a drugged look in the small black eyes2 hysteria there1 and not fealty--madness and not soul4 ,we breed them for the cities now--for porches and parlours1 the trainer added4 ,yes1 those great collie strains that we have been nurturing for centuries to all that is brave and hard and useful--we are putting the hair of the lap-dog on them now--long silky stuff1 not for snow and sleet4 ,the collie walks by himself these days4 ,no1 we won't altogether ruin the strain4 ,many individuals are spoiled1 but the race had come too far and too long to be broken down by a few years of fancyfying4 ,of course1 ,i was thinking of the children at every stage of the talk--of city people and children4 ,as a race1 the city-bred have become too fine4 ,life has worn them thin--given them the drugged look about the eyes4 ,the race will never get far in the art of living until it comes home to the land and the restful distances and free flowing airs4 ,this is so true that it seems to risk wearing the eye and the mind--to say it again4444 ,it's good to see them--a boy and a dog together in the hills or down by the edges of the land4 ,there was a piece of decent collie in a dog named ,jack back on the lake shore4 ,he was long in strength and courage1 but a bit shy in obedience4 ,as a work-dog1 he was ruined by a man who knew less than he did1 frequently the case in bringing up dogs and men--whipped at the wrong time1 every forming endeavour in the pup-brain broken by that4 ,he is seven or eight years old now 444 a clean dog1 a very wise and kind dog1 with a sly and quiet humour that seldom is cruel and never falls into horse play--a lover of many children and confident of an open door in many homes4 ,i remember the dignity and beauty of his first appearance over the bank from the shore1 almost timed to our arrival4 ,we were tender to the collie in general1 having passed years with them4 ,jack moved from one to another accepting embraces with a kindliness that mellowed that cloudy day4 ,there was joy about it all4 ,i stood back waiting my turn with much self-control4 ,he submitted to the welcome--to the last detail1 and a little later refused refreshments with perfect courtesy4 ,when we came back the second summer1 we found that a bullet had broken ,jack's right front leg4 ,he had wintered out at times1 had known much pain4 ,it was not that he did not have good friends who would have taken him in1 but ,i think ,jack lost faith a bit in the pain and stress4 ,there was grey about his muzzle4 ,one day he sat in the centre of the little ,chapel class4 ,i'd like to be as good a man as ,jack is a dog1 one of the boys said4 ,you'd be one more man1 said another4 ,the fact is ,jack has filled his circle rather well4 ,this thought came to me presently with fuller meaning4 ,i regarded him with knowledge of three seasons4 ,a clean dog1 a gentleman1 a master of himself1 very courageous and slow to anger1 impossible for small children to anger--a dog among dogs1 but more than dog among men4 ,he has filled his circle1 ,i said aloud4 ,what makes a man look less in these very virtues that ,jack has mastered1 is that a man's circle is larger1 and he has not reached the time of fulfilment as ,jack has4 ,if the dog's accomplishments were suddenly lifted from his circle and placed in a larger one1 we would not be conscious of the fine integration of virtues that keep us interested now4 ,men1 lost in the complications of cities1 yearn for the simplicity of their early days on the farms2 and yet they could not go back4 ,the simplicity they yearn for is ahead4 ,that of the old country days is but a symbol of the cosmic simplicity in store for us4 ,tolstoi turned back to the peasants1 yet the simplicity he craved was not there4 ,the peasants are merely potential of what the ,new ,race will be2 the peasants themselves must suffer the transition--must have their circle widened and feel their little laws and their little sense of order suddenly diffused over broad1 strange surfaces4 ,their cosmic simplicity will appear when the larger dimension is put in order4 ,that which is lovely in any plane of being1 is that which is in flower--when it has about filled its present circle4 ,we are not less1 intrinsically1 because our values are placed in a larger vessel1 though we have a renovating sense of our own insignificance4 ,there is an order of small men1 so obviously a part of their very narrowness1 that it becomes instantly repulsive to larger souls4 ,many of the latter have flashed off to the end of their tether for the time1 preferring chaos1 to the two by two neatness of small-templed men4 ,a secret of growth lies in these observations4 ,we fill a certain circle1 restoring a kind of order in the chaos2 and then the circle is suddenly widened and that which was our order and mastery is loose and diffused within the larger orbit4 ,herein are the pangs of transition4 ,we lose our way for the time in the vaster area1 like a man who is unfamiliar with an estate just purchased4 ,there is but one thing to do--to begin to work upon the new dimension4 ,as we work1 courage and patience steal in4 ,presently comes the vision of the completed circle4 ,when this comes1 our labour is pinned to a fresh ideal1 and we are safe4 ,in a hundred ways ,i have found it true that the vision comes in the labouring hours4 ,one may move for weeks about his new estate 7or manuscript71 planning this and that1 but the glimpse of the cohering whole is denied him1 until he has actually begun upon the nearest or most pressing task4 ,this is the miraculous benefit of action again4 ,in giving ourselves forth in action1 the replenishment comes4 ,the sense of self ceases to clutter the faculties as we bend and toil4 ,the days that are added to our experience each bring this story in a different way3 that the sense of self impedes reality on every hand2 that the loss of the sense of self in labour and service renders us instantly quick to the animations of the spirit1 without which at least from time to time1 a man belongs to the herd1 and is lost1 like all gregarious creatures1 in the will of his superiors4 99 99 99 99 99 #ba ,,the ,,man ,,who ,,found ,,peace ,there is a man here who has found peace4 ,i made a pilgrimage to his house4 ,a boy from the village went with me part of the way up the mountain4 ,the ,pacific was presently visible upon the right hand1 and a spacious verdant valley on the left4 ,i lingered a moment on the trail1 rejoicing in the quiet splendour1 and then noticed a vine-clad hut still farther up the slope4 ,that's ,mr4 ,dreve's cabin1 the boy said4 ,i learned from him that this man ,dreve was well-loved in the village and in the big city beyond2 that he was a very different man now from the one who had come here a few years ago2 that he was torn and maddened then1 cursing ,god1 but too stubborn to kill himself4 ,what helped him8 said ,i1 because the boy had paused4 ,well1 it wasn't the climate1 he answered4 ,i saw he was wondering if ,i were worth risking the truth upon4 ,did he fight it out with himself8 ,i asked carelessly4 ,yes1 said the boy1 and ,i now met a fine straight pair of eyes4444 ,there was an old sharp wedge to the story4 ,dreve's sweetheart had died--the loss twisting him to the point almost of insanity4 ,he had climbed this mountain1 it was said1 and remained for three days1 until the town began to search4 ,the marshal had found him sitting up there1 where the shack is now4 ,dreve was quiet and normal1 but confessed himself hungry4 ,he had returned to the mountain soon afterward1 and built his cabin4 ,in six months1 ,dreve was all changed over4 ,he seemed to have a new body and new mind4 ,you said he's here four days a week1 ,i suggested4 ,yes1 he goes to the city4 ,he has a good business1 but has mastered it to the point that several younger men can run it4 ,dreve only gives two or three days a week to business affairs1 though he has been a great worker---- ,he's up there now8 ,i asked4 ,yes4 ,does he mind strangers8 ,not your kind4 ,i thanked him1 and added1 ,tell me--he means a lot to you1 doesn't he8 ,all a man could1 said the boy4 ,i'm going back now4 99 99 99 99 99 ,dreve was middle-aged1 clean-shaven1 deep-eyed4 ,time had been driven to truce in his case4 ,his face showed many battles1 but when he spoke1 a kind of new day dawned and you looked into the face of a boy4 ,i remained with him three days4 ,we talked of the new magic in the training of children4 ,we talked of the ,new ,age and the great song of joy and peace that would break across the world when troops turned home4 ,dreve had something4 ,he seemed to breathe something out of the air that other men's lungs aren't trained for4 ,he seemed to have within everything necessary for a human being1 including vision and humour and a firm grasp of the world4 ,he was at peace about ,god and the world2 at peace also about death4 ,slowly it dawned upon me that this man had walked arm in arm with life to the last abyss1 and that life had been forced to confess that she had nothing worse to offer1 whereupon the two had become fast friends4 ,when a man can sit tight and lose everything he formerly wanted in the sense of world possessions2 when he has winnowed the last shams out of the things called fame and convention and society2 when he has lost the woman who means all the world to him1 and still loves her memory and her soul better than the living presence of any other woman2 when he has come to realise that death contains everything he wants1 yet is content to wait for it--the idea of hell becomes a boyish thing to be put away1 and ,lucifer returns to his old place as a ,son of the ,morning4 ,we stood together in the noon sun4 ,dreve did not even wear a hat4 ,i came here in great shadow and could not bear the light1 he said4 ,but one day ,i found my heart lifting a little as the sun came out4 ,then ,i found that it was really true--that sunlight helped me4 ,the more ,i thought about it1 the more ,i needed it2 the more ,i loved it1 the more its particular excellence for me unfolded4 ,take anything to the light1 and it ceases to be formidable4 ,sickness is a confession4 ,the time is at hand when schools will teach that4 ,sickness is a confession of ignorance which is a lack of light4 ,if one is weak he cannot stand the light4 ,transplanted things must be protected from the light4 ,st4 ,paul on the road to ,damascus did not have enough inner light to endure the great flash from without4 ,light works upon evil like quicklime--that's why sunlight hurts the sick ones4 ,it is also hostile to the utterly stupid idea of what clothing is for--clothing that thwarts and strangles every circulatory process of the flesh4 ,there's nothing the matter with sunlight---- ,the sun had not only redeemed the physical shadows of ,dreve's life1 but symbolised the spiritual light which had come to him with the calm and power of the greater noon-day4 ,he did not speak in exact statements of the one who was gone1 but that romance1 too1 was like light about his head4 ,i thought of the wonderful thing that ,beatrice said which helped to heal the forlorn heart of her great lover3 ,i will make you forever1 with me1 a citizen of that ,rome whereof ,christ is a ,roman---- ,and ,i thought of the ,blessed ,damosel leaning over the barrier of heaven with sweet and immortal messages for him who waited below in the very core of earth's agony4 ,in passing1 the great lovewomen bridge the ,unseen for their lovers1 who in their turn give to the world the mighty documents of the human heart4 ,in passing1 this woman had become everything to ,dreve1 so that ,i1 a stranger1 felt that he was not alone but twice-powered4 ,all his life was a prayer to her4 ,he brought to her spirit now the greatest gift that man can bring to his mate--the love of the world through her heart4 ,we had walked down to the ocean4 ,many young people were bathing in the surf or playing on the strand4 ,it was the presence of ,dreve perhaps1 but ,i confess that human beings never before looked so wonderful to me--a fearlessness and candour and beauty about the moving groups that was like a vision of the future4 ,all smallness of self was smoothed away in the grand harmony of sun and sand and sea4 ,it's a kind of challenge to a war-stricken world1 isn't it8 he asked quietly4 ,aren't they splendid together--the big boys and girls of ,california8444 ,don't misunderstand me4 ,i know the world4 ,i'm not lost in dreams4 ,i know well the darkness of the world4 ,but there are great ones among the boys and girls playing together here4 ,all are on the road1 but the great ones of the ,reconstruction are already here in the world--playing4 ,great ones play1 he repeated4 ,first we are labourers1 then artisans1 then artists1 then workers--at last we learn to play4 ,that means that we dare to be ourselves1 wherein lies our real value to others--when we dare to become as little children4444 ,hear them laugh4444 ,you wouldn't think this was the saddest little planet in the universe4444 ,look at that tall young pair of sunburnt giants6 ,she's a ,diana1 conquesting again4 ,look at the wonder in his eyes6 ,perhaps it is just dawning upon him that the man who walks with this girl must walk to ,god4 444 ,oh1 yes1 ,i know1 he added laughingly1 there is flippancy and a touch of the uncouth here and there--but we have all played clumsily at first4 ,i continually marvelled at ,dreve's remarkable health4 ,his stride up the mountain-side was actually buoyant4 ,did you ever feel that you could live as long as you pleased8 he asked4 ,no4 ,i think one does not learn this until after one has wanted to die4 ,one must live above the body and not in it--in order to make it serve indefinitely--quite the same as you would climb above a street to watch a parade go by4 ,i put that thought away for contemplation1 knowing that it belonged to a certain mystery of ,dreve's regeneration4 ,you know1 he added1 one has to get very tired to want to die4 ,those young people down on the shore--they want to live4 ,they are not tired4 ,they want to cross all the rivers4 ,they mean to miss nothing down here4 ,they can't see through it all4 ,it challenges them4 ,but the time comes when everything on earth seems to betray4 ,then you have to turn to the ,unseen for the big gamble4 ,the world is learning it rapidly to-day4 ,look---- ,we had reached his hill-cabin4 ,he turned from the sea to the valley4 ,night was falling4 ,there was a big moss-rose plant that smelled like a harvest apple1 and filled all the slope with sweet dry fragrance4 ,there was a constancy about it1 and the great sun-shot hill was blessed with the light and creativeness of the long day4 ,it was like the song of finished labour from a peasant's heart4444 ,one forgot the world1 the war1 forgot that the holy heart of humanity was in intolerable travail4444 ,the valley that ,dreve now pointed to was like an ,english pastorale4 ,it had the look of age and long sweet establishment in the dusk4 ,my friend was quick to catch the thought in my mind4 444 ,it is like ,england1 he said4 ,there was a development of detail in ,english country-life as nowhere else4 ,i think of cherries and cattle1 of strawberries with clotted cream1 of sheep-dogs and sheep-tended downs and lawns1 of authoritative cookery1 natural service and ,elizabethan inns4444 ,everything was regular and comfortable4 ,one forgot to-morrow and yesterday in ,england before the war4 ,i heard a dog-trainer1 speaking of a pup1 say1 ',he's a fine indiwidual1 but his breeding isn't exactly reglar4' 444 ,with a rush it came to me that nothing in the world is regular now4 ,england isn't a soothing pastorale any more--everything changed1 demoralised--but only for the present4 ,the dusk was stealing down from the far ridges4 ,our eyes were lost in the ,california valley which seemed to be growing deeper in the thickness of night4 ,almost as ,dreve spoke1 ,i expected to hear vesper bells from some ,kentish village4 ,his low voice finished the picture3 ,country roads and sheep upon the lawns1 vine-finished stone-work1 doves in the towers and under the eaves1 evening bells and honest goods4444 ,i think of the ships going forth from ,england1 boys from the inland countries answering the call of the sea and finding their fore-and-afters and men-of-war in ,plymouth or ,bristol4444 ,you know it is the things that make the romance of a country that endure8 ,all these will come again4 ,all the good and perfect things of the spirit of old ,england will come again4444 ,our hearts burn within to think of the yearning in the world for a peaceful valley like this4444 ,think1 if ,i could take your hand now and watch the sun go down upon a peaceful world 444 hear the cattle coming home and sheep in the perfumed mist of evening 444 doves under the eaves and the sleepy voices of children4444 ,i think ,europe would fall to screaming and tears1 and then lose its madness for strife--if the big picture of our valley at evening were placed before the battle-lines as we see it now4 ,dreve stared a moment longer4 ,i fancied ,i saw a bone-white line under the tan1 running from chin to jaw4 ,a woman was leaving her lover1 he added4 ,it had to be so4 ,each knew that4 ,just as she was going1 the woman said1 ',i forget--,i forget why ,i have to go away4' 444 ,it would be that way with the soldiers1 if they could look down upon their own valleys and farms4 ,they would forget war and hurry down1 saying1 ',i'm coming6' 99 99 99 99 99 ,i wanted to get closer to ,dreve's secret of peace and power4 ,i wanted to tell it4 ,apparently ,dreve wanted me to4 ,now1 there's a price to pay for these big things1 but many are willing to pay the price if the way is clear4 ,dreve had suffered all he could2 then something had turned within him1 and he found himself in ,day again instead of ,death4 ,it must be told differently1 he began4 ,for instance1 if ,i should tell you that the way is to love your neighbour as yourself1 you wouldn't have anything4 ,whitman said1 ',happiness is the efflux of soul1' which is exactly true1 but it didn't help me until ,i had experience4 ,happiness is the loss of the sense of self4 ,you can see that clearly4 ,all pleasure-seeking is to forget self4 ,we loosen something inside that sets us free for a moment1 and we say we've had a good time4 ,there are great powers within4 ,the greater the man1 the more he uses this fact4 ,we thought of steam as a finished power until the big straight-line force of electricity was released4 ,we can't explain it1 but we have touched certain of the laws which it obeys4 ,the materialist is inclined1 as ever1 to say that electricity is the last force to be uncorked on the planet1 just as he said that the kerosene lamp was the last word in illumination4 ,the occultist declares that there are still higher and hotter forces1 touching ,light itself1 and indulging in the laughter of curves and decoration where the cold monster electricity moves only in straight lines4 ,men have died to tell the story that happiness is radiation1 not reflection--that we have it all inside1 if we could only turn it loose--that all pain and fear and anger and self-illusion disappear the instant we enter the larger dimension of life1 exactly as the moon goes out of sight in the presence of the incandescent sun4 ,i was emptied of all that life meant in the world--but something new flooded in4 ,i saw that all was not lost1 but that all was greater than ,i could dream2 that all was waiting for fuller and finer expression4 ,i saw that what ,i could do for you1 or for any man or woman or child1 brought me a living force of the love ,i was dying for4 ,it became clear that ,i needed only to clear away the choking evil of self1 in order to feel that ,i was a part of the tender and mighty ,plan1--to touch the rhythm of the ,source1 from which all songs and heroisms and martyrdoms come4 ,it has all been said again and again4 ,there comes a moment usually after much pain when the human mind realises that it is invincible when working with the ,plan2 that it may even merge with a kind of ,divine ,potency yet retain itself2 that it can actually perform its actions with the help of that mighty fluid energy in which the stars are swung and the avatars are born4 ,a cold monster indeed is this electricity compared to the odic force1 the dynamo of which is the human will4 ,but the magic of it all lies in the reverse of the whole system of use4 ,this force destroys when used for self1 but constructs when it is turned outward4 ,here we touch the law again that happiness is in radiation--in the loss of the sense of self--in incandescence-- ,dreve smiled at me with sudden revealing charm4 ,i would say that it was all in loving one's neighbour1 he added1 except that it has been said so much4444 ,it is true4 ,you seemed to know it to-day on the shore4 ,you seemed to see the great ones passing there4 ,if the world could only know the joy of seeing the sons of ,god in the eyes of passing men6 99 99 99 99 99 ,night had come4 ,we sat at the doorway of his cabin1 a waver of firelight within1 stars clearing above the misty sea4 ,it's all play when one gets into the ,plan--all pain while one resists the ,plan1 ,dreve added slowly4 ,i used to think that ,i had a strong will2 that ,i had good will-force1 as men go4 ,it was the will of an invalid child4 ,if men could only know the force that is theirs to use when they enter the ,stream6 ,one is asked to give up old habits and ways and propensities--but only because they are harmful and impeding4 ,all which really belongs is merely obscured for the time4 ,it returns to you with fresh loveliness and power4 ,one does not give up three-space to understand four-space4 ,the truth is he must rise above the former to see it all4 ,it isn't you and ,i who matter1 he said abruptly1 after a pause4 ,these things are for all4 ,i know what comes afterward--to a man or to a nation--when driven to the last ditch of pain4 ,a new dimension of power comes4 ,that's what happens4 ,that's what the ,new ,age is all about4 ,that's what the war means4 ,we shall learn our new chastity4 ,we shall emerge as a race into a more serene and splendid consciousness4444 ,the price--the dead4444 ,i could tell you something about that4 ,one must have prayed for death to know about that4 ,don't think of that now--only take it from me1 or from your own soul1 that the big ,plan is all right--that ,they haven't made any mistakes yet--that the loved one is only away for a time--busy--quite right--about the ,father's business4 ,another time for that4 ,i can't forget them down on the ,shore1 ,dreve finished4 ,that was play4 ,it was all a laugh down there4 ,the big forces and the big people are always a part of laughter4 ,the laugh will take you to the throne4 ,the ,gods laugh4444 ,there's a laugh that ends pain4 ,there's a laugh that challenges power4 ,there is the laugh of the aroused lover in the world4 ,we shall hear the laugh of the world itself1 when the big revelation breaks upon us all that the ,plan is good--that the ,plan is for joy4 #bb ,a ,,dithyramb ,,and ,a ,,letter ,i think we come through at birth with certain sealed orders to be opened at distant points of the journey4444 ,ten years ago1 as ,i lay one night1 ready for sleep1 hand lifted to put out the light--my eyes found these lines3 ,listen1 ,i will be honest with you3 ,i do not offer the old smooth prizes1 but offer rough new prizes4 ,these are the days that must happen to you3 ,you shall not heap up what is called riches2 ,you shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve2 ,you but arrive at the city to which you were destin'd--you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction1 before you are called by an irresistible call to depart2 ,you shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you2 ,what beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting2 ,you shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach'd hands toward you4444 ',allons6 ,after the ,great ,companions1 and to belong to them6' ,the thing had come around by ,india--a quotation from ,walt1 in a little ,hindu book of love and death by ,nivedeta4 ,it spoiled my night4 ,i resisted4 ,some entity connected with the lines seemed to smile patiently4 ,deep within1 ,i knew they belonged to me2 that ,i should have to realise them1 line by line1 then live them2 that here was a page from the envelope of my sealed orders to be opened after clearance--opened far out on the white water4 ,they used to strike me as hard lines until the warm laugh came up out of them4444 ,romance means ,not to stay4444 ,bit by bit1 the story unfolds that the ,plan is good--that the ,plan is unutterably good1 that one needs only to rise into the spiritual drift to find that all are ,god's countries4 ,first the big physical drift1 the drift around the world1 along the waterfronts1 missing none until the laugh comes1 until the petty things of life1 in no arrangements or combinations1 can hold your faculties or even long attract the eye4 ,you know them all4 ,one must learn the world first2 one must not miss the world tricks4 ,the men who have lived most have laughed most4 ,but don't stay too long in the labyrinths4 ,they are passages of pain so long as you give yourself to them4 ,still you must solve the maze4 ,after that1 don't stay--don't stay to pick up threads4 ,there are other mazes1 other drifts4 ,i assure you life is rich and brave1 but there is nothing so healthy as a laughing discussion of death in one's own mind--the next step of the cosmic adventure 444 and to travel light there--not to take our mortgages1 our material ambitions1 our stone houses full of effects--by no means to take our card-indexes and letter files--to travel light1 to pick up the brighter shells by the way--every glimpse ahead showing higher light--a more spacious and splendid prospect4444 ,why carry our furs and frost-proof igloos for this adventure in the deeper tropics8444 ,to become as little children--to be open hearted and free handed--to listen1 to believe1 to make pictures1 to see across apparent separateness1 to forget one's self in the daisy fields1 to love the light and the land1 to fall into ecstatic speculations6 ,you can't do that if you carry the plumbing of your house in mind1 and stop suddenly to recall if you turned off the water in the laundry-tubs4 ,weigh up your external possessions--weigh them carefully--for their amount is the exact measure of your infidelity to ,god4444 ,to become as a little child--to know that the forests are filled with other than things to eat--to love the mysteries awake1 to love the fairies and the hidden flowers into strange unfoldings--to be fearless and free forever6444 ,the ,little ,girl writes of her love for it all as it comes3 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,i have a half a minute to send my love and strong pull for ,high ,flight4 ,we wanted this to be the magic week of the ,home ,coming1 but it must be best to wait a little longer4 ,wait1 wait--that is the old song of ,earth--young waiting--big waiting--holy waiting4 ,i love it4 ,i love the suffering of it4 ,one is great according to how well one can wait4 ,i am loving ,earth terribly4 ,it is close to me1 with its strange music4 ,last night1 the ,valley ,road one and ,esther and ,i were together--touched great white things--talked and laughed and loved until long after three4 ,each in her way is a power wherever she touches4 ,each has everything within4 ,each is pure and wonderfully sweet4 ,we wait1 openarmed1 for you4 ,there are wonders in ,muriel--and in others4 ,i dream constantly of the beauty to come4 ,nature's ecstasy will be bursting forth in fulfilment when our ,lovers come home4 ,i'm so glad this morning6 99 99 99 99 99 ,the children learn it so easily4 ,i like to stop in this book and let them say it--the big story of the ,seamless ,robe1 the story of ,democracy4 ,the young men say it strongly2 and tenderly the young women1--the dream of the mate in their hearts becoming the dream of the ,master4 ,they all say it so thrillingly for me in their words and lives--the little boys coming in with their tales of prairie and the deeps2 literally it is here out of the mouths of babes4444 ,dreve found it in a woman1 another in science1 another in music1 another in the open road4 ,every man is his own way1 his own truth and life4 ,it waits for all4444 ,we keep fanning day and night1 many of us who work at home--the fanners of the ,hive6 ,we cool and harden the great spiritual concept into matter1 as the cathedral spires of wax appear and harden in flaky white under the masses of the bees4444 ,i laugh at my own intensity4444 ,it is our one tale1 told in essay and story1 in different terms for cults and schools1 for soldiers and clergy1 in verse and prose1 with dignity and in slang1 but here it runs best out of the mouths of babes 444 helping the ,big ,democrat get his story through4444 ,the rest of the chapter is the ,little ,girl's3 ,,the ,,soul ,,speaks4 ,i walked through a field4 ,the brown soil was upturned and all the richness of man's labour was in it4444 ,the morning sun was lifting a grey veil of dew up to its heart2 the earth was fresh and cool where it had rested4 ,my feet were bare and sank into the soft richness4 ,the field was wide and pure and fragrant and alive4 ,it seemed to sing as the sun grew warm upon it4 ,ecstatic birds flew close and balanced themselves magically in the sparkling air4 ,i happened to be just ready to receive the golden loveliness that the old ,mother is always eager to give1 that morning4 ,she helped me to feel the goodness of all things--the power and beauty of all1 and the great1 giving spirit4444 ,inside ,i felt keenly the presence of ,soul--that was the secret4 ,soul awakened and breathing1 ,soul waiting and eager1 ,soul1 the holy quickener4444 ,the heart beat peacefully1 the brain hushed all unnecessary thought and listened4 ,i lay down upon the sweet ground there--the body relaxed and forgotten4 ,then1 from the depths within1 ,i heard the sound of the ,soul's voice speaking these words3 ,this is the appointed time4 ,long enough have ,i sat mute and silent in the darkness4 ,we have learned the lesson4 ,the circle of separateness is complete4 ,we are ready to enter a new globe now1 a globe much larger than the one we have known1 much more wonderful4 ,in it there are greater tests than we ever had before4 ,but the new tests1 instead of being painful1 are joyous2 not separateness is ahead1 but union1 oneness in all things4444 ,long have you gone your way alone1 down the road of deafness and blind eyes and pain2 and not the way ,i would have led you1 though perfectly right1 for it was an education4 ,the blindness and darkness of it has taught us what not to do1 therefore we know the path4444 ,ours were not object lessons2 always we have learned through opposites4444 ,to learn the great lesson of listening1 we talked much4 ,we told others of the paths they should take long before we thought of following our own4 ,we hated all things1 to learn how to love2 we took all to ourselves1 to learn how to give4 ,we did the things of death1 to learn life truly4444 ,we have suffered great pain to know the secret source of the everlasting joy4 ,we feared1 in order that we may become fearless1 and know the mystery of the dark4 ,we chose the road of separateness to feel the ecstasy of oneness and completion at last4 ,we entered the terrible sphere of time and space to transcend both and be free4 ,we took upon ourselves pounds of tiresome flesh1 to make of it a golden symbol of the great spiritual beauty and freedom4 ,we asked for everything at first1 but through our desiring and brooding1 we learned the most wonderful lesson of all--wanting nothing but to give4 ,all is for us4 ,the ,path gleams before our eyes--the long1 sunlit path leading to the ,father's house4 ,i go home with my love by my side4 ,by crying out in agony1 and by weeping bitterly we have learned how to laugh4 ,the world is needing us2 we contain all things4 ,from now on1 we live as one in ,wisdom1 ,love and ,power4 99 99 99 99 99 #bc ,,the ,,mating ,,mystery ,i thought a great deal about ,dreve's love-story in relation to the young people1 in relation to the love of humanity1 and in relation to the mystical growth of a man denied the mate on earth4 ,in the first place1 there must be many great love stories in the coming decades of reconstruction1 if for no other reason than that great children are coming in4 ,such friends and brothers and comrades-of-all-the-earth can only be born through the excellent and adequate love of man and woman4 ,in a recent novel1 an old priest of the ,gobi tells something of the love story of the future to a young ,american who is greatly troubled in his romance4 ,i quote three or four paragraphs because this expression in fiction is clearer than ,i could write it again4 ,rajananda says3 ,i have watched your devotion for the woman and it has been a holy thing1 my son4 ,you love well4 ,she has become more than earth-woman to you4 ,she has become the way to ,god4 ,this leads to true yoga4 ,where there is love like yours1 there is no lust4 ,without these trials you could not have known so soon the love that will bring you in good time to her breast4 ,the ways of easily-wedded pairs sink into commonness soon--the dull and dreamless death4 ,it is those who are kept apart1 who overcome great obstacles1 who learn the greatest thing of all--to wait--who touch the upper reaches of splendour in the love of man and woman1 and thus prepare themselves for the greater union and the higher questing which is the love of ,god together4 ,the seer must know the hearts of men4 ,knowledge of love is the knowledge of ,god4 ,love is the ,wheel of ,life2 love is the ,holy ,breath that turns the ,wheel4 ,the seer is far from ready for his work in the world1 who has forgotten from his breast the love of man and woman4 ,and then1 my son1 we are almost at the end of the night of the world4 ,the ,builders are coming in to take the places of those who have torn down with war and every other madness of self4 ,these ,builders must be born of men and women--the ,new ,race--but of men and women who have learned what great love means4 444 ,listen1 my son3 in the elder days men put away their women to worship ,god4 ,the prophets1 the seers1 the holy men walked alone1 and left the younger-souls of the world to bring forth sons4 ,the time was not ripe for the race of heroes1 therefore the mere children of men brought forth children4 ,and all the masters spoke of the love of ,god for man1 and the love of man for man1 and the love of woman for her child1 but no one spoke of the love of man and woman4 ,all the sacred writings passed lightly over that1 even the lips of the avatars were sealed4 ,but now the ,old is destroying itself in the outer world2 the last great night of matter and of self is close to breaking into light2 the time for heroes has come1 my son1 and heroes still must be born of this sacred mystery--the love of man and woman4 ,so all the priests have this message now1 all the teachers and leaders of men1 even ,i1 old ,rajananda who speaks to you1 and who has never known the kiss of woman--all are opening to the world the great story1 unsealing the greatness of the love of man and woman4444 ,for the ,builders are coming1 coming to lift the earth--the ,saints are coming1 my son--old ,rajananda hears them singing2 the ,heroes are coming with light about their heads and their voices beautiful with the ,story of ,god4444 ,and now ,i must sleep4 ,i go to my daughter1 who waits for you4444 ,once1 before you came1 she rested my head and filled my bowl in the stone square at ,nadiram4 ,even now she waits for you in the hills of my country--not far from this place1 my son---- 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the big expansions of life1 in moments of great happiness1 or hard-driven by pain--most of us have realised that the higher we rise in human consciousness1 the nearer we get to the ,all4 ,thousands of people now living have risen1 for short periods at least1 above the sense of separateness1 in which they realised that the finest and most exalted love a man may have is for the great orphan1 ,humanity4 ,the human heart is awakened through the love of one1 to the more spacious expression for the world4 ,all life is a learning how to love4 ,the last love of the flesh and the rolling years1 before man turns his love from flesh to spirit1 is the grand passion of man and woman1 yet man does not abandon the woman in turning to ,humanity or to the ,unseen4 ,rather1 hand in hand1 the eyes of the man and woman are uplifted to one star--the ,apex of a ,triangle perfected4444 ,yet one must not turn to the ,unseen until he has learned the full agony and ecstasy of the seen4 ,love humanity by all means1 ,i tell younger ones1 but learn what love means first4 ,do not undertake to destroy passion until you have learned its glory and madness4 ,rather lift passion to adoration1 and use it1 full-powered1 upon that which unfolds forever for your worship4 ,it is not well to kill out a personality until you get one4 99 99 99 99 99 ,our youthful reconstructionists are apt to stir the community with opinions or actions1 which have to do with their own heart stories and the world's romance4 ,they have a way of confounding the seasoned authorities of pastorate and parish1 with embarrassing questions in regard to method and magic in the making of two souls into one4 ,these young people may not be modest according to ,elizabethan ideals2 in fact1 the young women are apt to go half-way in the choice of the man who is to be the father of her children1 but this is an essential of innate beauty and fastidiousness4 ,more and more the higher types of the new social order are questers for that single and holy mating which brings nearer the dream of the beautiful and heroic in children1 and which gives us a glimpse of a future to die for4 ,the story of ,romance cannot be written nor interpreted in life without its hill-rock1 named ,liberty4 ,there is no man-made law for love4 ,the first business of human beings is to find their own on earth4 ,all makeshifts part away2 all short-range systems scurry past2 all comets and asteroids cease to be considered1 when a pair of suns whip into each other's attraction4 ,and so it is with a true-mated pair4 ,those who have dreamed long and kept themselves pure1 realise here below for a time the raptures of the elect4 ,the new generation has a sense of this2 and while its eyes look hard and daringly for its own1 its finer examples preserve an integrity for the one until he is found4 ,the ,new ,race realises that promiscuity is only a lack of taste4 ,to draw the fulness and redolence from a book or a friend or a lover1 from any episode or fabric of life1 one must search for the true1 as well as the beautiful1 and the beautiful as well as the good4444 ,perhaps that tells it best--it dares to love ,beauty1 this ,new ,race4 ,it means to bring back the beauty of the body as well as to breathe forth the ,soul4 ,its devil and its danger is ,paganism4 ,it loves ,nature so well that it is in danger of forgetting that the old ,mother is not complete in herself1 but a manifest of her ,lord ,sun4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,as to the liberty of its loves--the ,new ,race realises that one cannot be held1 except by vulgar hands1 where that one does not want to stay4 ,a mated man and woman turn each other absolutely free1 and the first cry of their liberty is toward one immortal nest4 ,those firmly caught in the pure dream are content to wait for each other4 ,they do not experiment4 ,they realise the long road of romance--a road so long that the three-score and ten is but a caravansary of the night4 ,they build above the flesh if for no other reason than to come into the greater beauty of the flesh4 ,renouncing nothing1 devoted to austerity only for mystical union1 carried away in no abandonment1 they seek to achieve that command of the body by the mind1 and that command of the body and mind by the ,soul1 which reveals the ultimate truth--that the plan is for ,joy2 that the best of all things is for men who have mastered themselves2 that chastity is the breath and inevitable answer to self-conquest4 ,the growth of ,romance through an ideal mating becomes a fusion at last of all the loves of earth4 ,connubial blessedness is therefore more reverently to be promoted than procreation1 for upon it depends the loveliness of issue4 ,the ,new ,race acts upon the conviction that the love between man and woman is the holiest of earth expressions1 rather than the love of mother and child4 ,the first contains the second4 ,still no earth love is the end4444 ,built through austerity and idolatry1 through denial and abandon1 through madness and martyrdom1 through pettiness and chivalry1 through pain turning less and less slowly through the years to power1 through a little zone of peace at last 7the calm before the greater storm7 the fervour of man and woman becomes1 in the fullness of time1 too strong for earth1 and in the final and keenest pain1 the administry of a higher force begins4444 ,i mean to tell this in a queer way through the next three or four chapters4 ,straight statements will not contain it quite--for it is still with dream1 as yet4 ,rather ,i mean to weave the concept for you--fold on fold--so that at the end you will have it1 as they do who have listened in ,chapel many days4 ,flesh is not integrated finely enough to carry the higher ardours of devotion4 ,if the great saints who have learned to pour out their souls in adoration to the ,father should turn back to a mere physical expression1 they would blast themselves as well as the object of their madness4 ,the awakening of the higher forces of love lifts the eye of the adorer from the breast to the brow of the beloved--from the brow to the ,initiatory ,star risen at last to meridian4 ,a new dimension of love is entered upon4 ,all life tells the story4 ,watch the big birds lift from the sand to the cushion of wings2 watch the airplane quicken its speed until it lifts from the monorail4444 ,machinery of racking power in a falling house1 is that great love which has not yet learned to look above the body of the chosen one4 ,this change is the last and highest pain of romance--the breaking apart of the temporal1 for the story of the long road4 ,man and woman must go apart for the mastery of self1 before they are ready for the higher mating4 ,the great love story invariably crosses the mountains of separation4 ,if we cling too long to the less1 nature is outraged1 beauty is drained4 ,brief separations are dangerous1 because the lovers build recklessly with ideals and the rarest spiritual materials4 ,meeting again too soon1 they encounter an unmiraculous creature face to face4 ,if they had really completed the journey1 finished the task apart1 they would have come into that tenderness which loves the human frailties of each other1 and which sees the manifest of three-score-ten merely as a garment particularly made for a particular journey4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there is always wrecking work1 before a new and wider circle is entered upon4 ,the time will come when men and women shall learn that the magic of going apart is equal to the magic of coming together4 ,in all birth-times1 in all transitions1 the consciousness of the bearer is changed--often queerly4444 ,one can endure the primitive and the child in the other's mind2 one might adore the great play of passion1 and all the art of it2 one might never weary of fragrance of throat1 or magnetism of hand1 the inimitable plays and child things--but the mind is forever the slayer of the real4444 ,remember1 there is not a full union possible on the physical plane4 ,the body is the barrier that separates souls4 ,those who believe they have all of each other in that which they see and hear and touch--have far to come in the real love story4 ,have you ever asked yourself what physical passion is8 ,it is a frenzy to overcome separation4 ,this separation was necessary for the diffusion of life4 ,it is the outbreath1 the going forth1 the great generative plan4444 ,physical passion does not satisfy the agony of the soul2 often it only makes the agony more keen4 ,in the early phenomena of all great love stories1 there is encountered that blinding1 bewildering need to become the other--to lose identity1 to fly somehow into the breast of the other and be no more4 ,this is keen pain of love but also an intimation of greater union4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there was a man who had found much of beauty and power1 much of the ,burning ,desert and certain wonderful touches of the peace of the ,hill ,country--in his story with a certain woman4 ,she loved him in a way more real than he dreamed4 ,life had shown him much to scoff at4 ,he had been glad to make the most1 merely1 of an exquisite playwoman4 ,one day she was down town to meet him1 but he left her for a business appointment4 ,that afternoon1 about everything he had in a material way was swept from him--much to which his ambition had tied itself for several years4 ,the man was badly rocked4 ,he walked the streets--shocked almost to laughter1 to find all that he had held for1 and held to1 plucked from under4444 ,at length he thought of the woman who waited4 ,the laugh of mockery quickened1 because he thought of losing her1 too--a worldly-heart who would go with the rest--goods that perish4 ,he knocked at the door where she waited4 ,it was opened swiftly4 ,he did not need to speak4444 ,she seemed above and around him4 ,there was a great still sweetness he had never dreamed of as a man 7and could only remember dimly as a child to his mother71 arms of tenderness and healing4444 ,he saw that instant in her eyes that nothing of the world ever did nor ever could really separate them4 ,the queerest thing about it all was1 that he used a word he never could use before--a word1 as he said1 that had been so badly worked by the world that it needed a lot of washing before it was fit for him4 ,yet it came to his lips--wife--in a way that showed him also a new meaning to the word forever4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this subject of love and mating is only opened4 ,there is much to say in pages that follow1 but now1 apropos of nothing1 if not this theme1 there is a chapter of letters4 ,they somehow contain the spirit of many things ,i have longed to express4 ,those to whom they appeal will find the last pages of the book richer because of the insert4 99 99 99 99 99 #bd ,,chapter ,,of ,,letters ,i ,we come up through many slaveries into freedom4 ,it is the end of a considerable road to be able to stand against the morning sun1 saying3 ,i want nothing but to give---- 444 ,to be able to say this without an answering laugh of mockery in the heart1 where old ,king ,desire sits with his dogs4 ,to be free--that is to be irresistible4 ,do you want love8 ,you only spoil it when you stipulate what the return shall be--how the proffering of the return shall be ordered and arranged4 ,the great love is giving2 great love is incandescence4 ,one must be radiant to be happy4 ,it is so literally4 ,it is so1 fold within fold4444 ,one sees gold1 looking up from below1 and its attraction becomes eminent among all desires for the time4 ,we pass it by and look down1 as the spirit of man should look down upon gold1 and it becomes a mineral merely4 ,you can enjoy it as you enjoy other people's roses4 ,it bestows itself4 ,others seek to bestow it upon you4 ,hold to nothing in matter4 ,it is slavery4 ,give yourself laughingly to your work for daily bread without thought of result4 ,then1 and not until then1 are you inimitable in your task4 ,order the performance of your task with mere brain and attach it to your ambitions--you but do what the many accomplish4 ,your product is multiple1 not a perfect cube4 ,it cannot unfold into the ,cross4 ,it misses ,resurrection4 ,you must be free1 even to perform your work in the world4 ,you must be free to be irresistible4444 ,genius is approach to freedom4 ,it finds its own paths2 it cuts itself free from the forms and vehicles of others4 ,we have known the dark slavery of the opinions of others4 ,many of us have cast off such bonds1 who are still slaves to our own opinions4 ,we learn to stop lying to others before we learn to stop lying to ourselves4 ,until we are free1 we have no opinion that is fit to endure2 until we are free1 our opinions are coloured and formed in the matrices of personal self1 which is subject to death4 ,it's all so simple4 ,we have to put down what is in our hands to help others4 ,we have to still our own thought to listen to another's saying4 ,we have to silence the self to hear the ,master4 ,this silencing goes on and on in all our work4 ,pain shows the way4444 ,we must traverse the deserts4 ,we must cross all the rivers4 ,we must see one by one every material thing betray us4 ,this is the ,path--money1 opinions1 ambitions1 health1 friends1 desires1 all betray so long as we obstruct their approaches with our own conceptions and our own greeds4 ,we rise one by one above these illusions4 ,the last and greatest is that desire which is born in generation4444 ,all the old reaches its highest perfection in the human love story4 ,all ,nature binds one to the loveliness of this tale4 ,it is the way to the ,way4 ,because it is not the ,way itself1 it appears to end4 ,the great intensities of agony now begin4 ,the soul realises that only the foothills of pain are passed2 that here are the mountains1 here are the deep valleys that contain the ,gethsemanes and timbers for the ,cross1 and the plan by which the ,cross must be morticed and tenoned4444 ,the sea1 the mountain1 gold1 the rose1 the child1 the peasant's simplicity1 the coming of the coolness of evening1 the glory of the clay and waterfall1 mist and cloud and star1 the deep healing winds that come slowly with their heavy fruitage of power from the mountains1 the swift winds with the holy breath of the ,sea--all these in the breast of the mate4444 ,when this dream is taken1 one bleeds1 laterally and full-length4 ,one wants to die2 thus he overcomes death4 ,he feels the great burden in which all other burdens lose themselves4 ,when he passes this highest series of inland peaks1 the distances stretch clear and shining ahead4 ,this the test of faith because you deal with love itself4 ,your soul1 in its earliest advices1 tells you that your love of earth is pure4 ,it is4 ,it is good4 ,it is the highest here4 ,it is still to be perfected by the races1 even by the new races1 who must be born bright with its untried magic4444 ,but so long as it is idolatry to that which is subject to change1 it is hourly impregnating the life itself with the seeds of pain4444 ,you are called to the love of ,souls4 ,sooner or later you must go4 ,it is the ,path4 ,it is the steep path to the ,master4 ,you give up all to go this way--and then you laugh to find it all returned in lovelier dimensions4 ,you take your idolatry from the plane of mutation--lift it into the glorious and changeless plateaus of the spirit4444 ,you turn from the ,seen to the ,unseen4 ,this is the passage4 ,you are called to go alone a little way--to be worthy of the great ,meeting4 ,you carry your gifts of the passage woven into the ,seamless ,robe of your being4 ,all that impedes day by day you cast aside1 as an army making a perilous retreat casts off day by day its impedimenta--until at last you stand naked upon the eminence1 and the ,voice says1 ,be not ,ashamed--,i am the ,beloved4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,out of slaveries4444 ,we think at first that ,god is without--at last we look for ,him within4 ,we come from the happiness of the ,father's ,house making our great journey1 but our ,soul's quest continually is for the happiness again4 ,yet we must not look back4 ,it is failure to go back4 ,that which we have left unfinished1 is not behind1 but awaiting ahead4 ,we are slaves to our bodily health until we learn that the body is superbly fitted for obedience to the ,soul2 that it comes into its rhythm and beauty only when mastered4 ,indeed the very process of mastery is to lead it to the ,fountain of ,youth4 ,we learn that truly to be rich1 we must give continually4 ,we learn by the quickenings of our spirit that white lines run from the brows of all creatures to an apex which is ,god--that ,god is all4 ,all is ,god4444 ,all is one4 ,we are one4 ,we are brothers4 ,one house for all at the end of the ,road4444 ,we find the ,king in our own ,souls4 ,we learn from that that all men are ,kings4 ,we bow to all ,souls4 ,all souls are rays of ,god4 ,we come at last to see the sons of ,god in the eyes of passing men4 ,our passion now is outpoured4 ,that is joy4 ,we ask nothing but to give1 to heal1--to permit the spirit of the ,healing ,masters to flow through us1 but first we clear away the obstructions of the self4 ,achieving our own chastity1 we perceive the potential chastity in every face4 ,we are deluded no longer4 ,the imbecile cannot hide our eyes from the ,flame4 ,all purity must be found within4 ,we have no fault with others when we are cleansed4 ,we see the heroes then1 the giants1 the runners1 the singers1 the charioteers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we learn that we can give nothing real away--that all we do for others is service for ourselves4 ,we give pain for joy1 time for eternity1 the human for the divine--give to receive1 give to be radiant4 ,we must be ,flame to be fed by the ,flame ,itself4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we are prepared by every suffering1 every humiliation1 until the personality bows at last4444 ,personality is good4 ,it has brought us where we are4 ,do not kill it out before its work is finished4 ,we do not realise its beauty until we see it mastered--until we see it with the eyes of the ,soul4 ,all one story4 ,we learn to love step by step4 ,we love ourselves1 our possessions1 our children1 our friends1 our mates1 our ,masters1 our ,god4444 ,the higher we go1 the more perfectly we contain all the gradations4 ,the last sufferings1 the last tests1 are so often through the human love story1 because all weaknesses are easily shown through that--all our pains so quickly received4444 ,the bright sandals of the ,master at last are heard across the ,hills4 ,one laughs then1 for ,he brings with ,him the beloved we have cried for so long4444 ,not in the love of desire after that1 but the love of giving1 the love that casts out fear1 that passes understanding1 that fulfils the law1 the irresistible love of the ,christ4 ,,ii 444 ,a wonderful morning--a rare ,monday--the highest hold yet--all is ascending4 ,all beings are so wonderful4 ,i sit on a certain bench to work one morning--the next morning cushions are there for me4444 ,i speak a sentence from a book with a word how much it means and how worthy to love--and the sentence is brought to me illuminated on vellum4444 ,they bring the finest fruits--honey for tea1 cream for peeled figs1 black bread perfectly toasted1 the perfection of unsalted butter4444 ,i walk up the mountain to work--and the voice of the gardener is a benediction from the ,most ,high--and ,i stand for a moment looking toward your sea over the city1 and the birds say1 ,it is time4 ,there is a pool of lilies at the top1 an ,alhambran villa1 great rose gardens4444 ,i come to the pool--dip my feet in the still waters and ,i know from that how chill the night has been4 ,i look at the lilies--how far they have opened--and know the time of day4 ,i pray for a moment under a priestly ,pine 444 and my heart goes out in the new joy we have found--the joy of knowing that one may be the king of the world and the confirmed ,son of ,god--if he but learn the one lesson--to want nothing4 ,pool of lilies in the morning sun4 7,a little lizard is walking along the arm of the bench4 ,my bare feet are quiet1 and he wonders what kind of barkless trees they are4 ,he is here and there4 ,one sees his body move1 not the members4 ,the sun puts him to sleep47 444 ,the pool is still as the waters of sleep4 ,the ,sea--,i think of her always as the emotional body of the world--the old ,sea ,mother with diamond-tipped emotions4 ,and then ,i think of the ,master ,jesus walking upon the ,sea and saying ,peace be still to the stormy waters4444 ,each ,soul must say that to his emotions4 ,we learn to walk upright upon the earth1 then to still the waters1 then to have dominion over the birds of the air--and last to be seven times refined in the ,fire4444 ,earth1 water1 air1 fire--the first quaternary4444 ,yes1 we are learning to say ,peace be still to the stormy waters4 ,we do not know how beautiful they are until they obey4 444 ,out of the still waters in the pure blue starlight1 the lily blooms--the lotus on the still lagoons of the ,soul4444 ,naked as a serpent's head1 the sealed bud rises from the water in the night4444 ,out of the power that follows the peace upon the waters--for the blooms of the spirit lift greatly in the tranquillity of the heart that follows the storm--out of the power of peace upon the waters1 the lotus rises and waits like a bride in the dawn-dusk for her ,lord ,sun to brush back the veils and find her heart4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is only the beginning of heaven we find here4 ,we weary of the world and turn back to the ,father's ,house4 ,we have plucked the fruits of pain--we have thirsted and hungered again and again4444 ,out of the darkness we have formed the thought1 at last1 that there must be quenching waters1 and somewhere bread to eat that does not perish4444 ,you can say it in a thousand ways4 ,the ,prodigal tells the story4 ,he arises and turns back4 ,evolution has ceased1 involution begins again4 ,he is being folded back to the ,father with all the treasures of ,egypt4 ,he has ceased to diffuse himself in generation1 through which he has become an integral part of every fibre of the world1 and begins now to call in and synthesise all his spiritual possessions4 ,the processes of diffusion were in pain--the integration is joy again4 ,each day of the up-slope his step quickens4 ,the more he knows1 the more he believes4 ,the more he sees1 the larger his faith--the more his treasures1 the more sumptuous his order4 ,unto him who hath it shall be given4 ,again1 it is merely lifting the consciousness from time to eternity1 from the cramp of space to the flow of the universe--from pain to play--from desire to radiation4444 ,one ascends and at each steps sees farther4 ,day by day1 the work of the installation of the higher powers goes on4 ,we give up nothing but that which impedes the inflow of godly forces4 ,that which we think we want to-day will look as absurd to-morrow as the hopelessness of a child over a plaything broken4 ,it's a way of loving every step4 ,thus we heal from the infinite tears of the changes of matter and dissolution1 and lift our love to the ,masters and the ,immortal ,gods4 ,we dare love utterly only that which can contain us4 ,if the ,masters loved us with all their power1 we would fall in the madness of too much light4444 ,always1 they give us all the love that we can endure4444 ,we give our all to them and expand daily1 until we know the passion to break ourselves open in ecstasy1 like the king bee under the whirring wings of the queen4 ,in the human body1 the diaphragm is the surface of the waters4 ,if our consciousness is below that1 we are in generation4 ,to become regenerated is to lift the balance of consciousness above--to rise like the lotus from the face of stilled waters4444 ,it is a quickened vibration4 ,simultaneously1 one lifts from cerebration to intuition--from the time of matter to the spaciousness of ,soul--from the light of the camp-fire in the night1 to the full day upon the plain--from the son of man to the ,son of ,god--from the pain of loving with desire to the irresistible creativeness of wanting nothing but to give4 ,,iii 444 ,i was watching the pool this morning--fish and frogs and eels under the lily-pads--a slow cold life4 ,they have colour and grace--but eyes of glass4 ,they move so softly down in the dim coppery light4444 ,i thought of the lakes and the seas1 the simple cold of all life--the coldest and most rudimentary in the great deeps4444 ,birds were playing about in the rose gardens1 darting in and out of the bamboo clumps and yucca stalks4 ,humming-birds were continually fanning the trumpet and honeysuckle vines4444 ,i thought of the skylarks--throats that open only as wings beat upward1 and the infinite blue harbours where the white gulls flash--the lonely lakes and tarns where the heron cross in the evening and the loon cries at night--the cypress deeps where the flamingoes commune in shaded glory1 and the eagles that cross from peak to peak1 along the spine of the continents4 444 ,and then1 of course1 it came to me--the old conquest--how we must lift our consciousness above the face of the waters and put on our wings4444 ,many have almost finished with the waters of generation--the emotional body of man1 the same as the planet4444 ,in the beginning1 it was necessary to go down into the water--the terms of the baptismal rite4 ,regeneration is coming up out of the water4 ,the struggle between the two dimensions is dramatically expressed by the faith1 and the lapse of faith1 of ,peter when he obeyed the ,lord1 and arose to walk upon his storm-tossed lower self4 ,his supplication as he sank saved him from perishing4 ,regenerated1 he walked with the ,lord upon the waters4 ,i remember1 too1 the saying1 ,you must be born again of water and of spirit----1 the story of regeneration told once more4444 ,it's a lifting from the cold1 bloodless vibrations of the creatures of the deep1 to the winged passages of air and sun and starlight4444 ,we think that we give up joys of life--we plunge back again and again to the dim cold waters--our eyes blinded at first by the light1 our senses frightened by the fragrance and the space4444 ,as if the reflected light of the lower cosmos could compare with the pure radiance above2 as if the love of desire could compare to the glory of the outpouring heart--the heart filled with light--the fulness of spirit1 the ecstasy of wings4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,iv 444 ,the time comes in the progress of spiritual aspiration when the generative impulse begins to manifest within rather than without4 ,firmly and gently the thoughts are turned to the ,image within or above2 the tendencies for outward manifestation slowly but surely give way4444 ,this work sometimes goes on rapidly4 ,a hundred times a day the thoughts of earthy attraction are finished with a soul conception1 where formerly the mere physical presence sufficed4 ,nothing answers thought more swiftly1 but in this passage of mastery1 if a single desire eludes from the aspirant1 he must meet it later in a tearing and cumulative call4 ,surely at length the mind rises to rule4 ,one's conception changes from the fear1 the torment and the red haze1 to gentleness and calm1 a readiness to know all the mysteries of life--to care for and respect all functions as one only can who has mastered himself4 ,to cast them out in hatred is failure4 ,that means the hardening4 ,it blights the beauty of the vales and all magic4 ,when one begins to unfold the wonders of the kingdom within1 as one is called to do in the higher and contemplative spheres of the artistic life1 there is an increasing joy that makes it easy1 more and more1 to lift the power of life from the torment and unrest of the generative seas4 ,one finds his dream of the beloved changed and infinitively endeared to him4 ,patience1 reverence1 tenderness comes to the love that once knew only the single passion of a male for the mammal4 ,even that1 in memory1 becomes beautiful to eyes of wisdom and calm--all ,god's plan4 ,one is sensitive all through his breast for the unfathomable sweetness of life and love4 ,he sees the child and the immortal in the mate4 ,he finds that the body is truly sacred because he sees it with love and not with desire4 ,these are good tidings4 ,they make one happy to write them4 ,there are seven centres of ecstasy in the body4 ,through the mastery of will and love and action1 the life-force is lifted to dwell with and awaken these centres4 ,with each awakening1 a new power comes--a new joy--a new hill-range crossed toward the ,father's ,house2 with each awakening1 the beloved within is quickened in consciousness1 and the beloved without is held more dear4 ,the wondrous story of regeneration goes on and on1 to the love that seeks to give itself utterly4 ,to love--that is all the ,soul asks4 ,momentary passion swiftly passes in the increase of spiritual aspiration4 ,its force is not killed1 but used for awakening the higher and immortal principles where real love abides4 ,the hand of the loved one becomes sacred unto tears1 and the joy of life is to serve4 ,the whole body is presently repolarised--the fire sparking upward--the apex of the triangle turned upward--desire of soul instead of desire of the body4444 ,the mating of the mind and the soul is the larger1 the cosmic consciousness1 awaited so long4 ,this means that the ,lord has come into ,his ,temple--the body made ready4 ,it means that the mind and soul are one1 the house no longer divided against itself4 ,the lover is ready for the approach of his mate4 ,each has been cleansed at the fountains apart4444 ,one must be utterly weary of the old4 ,this repolarisation of the generative force cannot come until one has heard with furious passion1 in the depths of pain1 the call to the higher life1 the new quest4 ,not repression then1 but transmutation4 ,one changes gently1 often under a mystic administry1 but always with growing love for the body and for the world1 using the life forces for healing and concentration and the power to listen to the ,lord within--the ,voice of the ,silence4444 ,upon the illumination of the seven centres by the life force1 another mystery takes place4 ,the levitation of the spiritual life overpowers to a considerable extent the natural gravitation of the flesh--the down-pull of years4 ,the result1 of course1 is the restoration of health to all tissues of the body--the ,fountain of ,youth starts singing again4444 ,to you4 99 99 99 99 99 #be ,,romance ,affairs like these can only colour and illumine the upper side of the clouds1 so far as ,american fiction is concerned4 ,one might write a real novel of ,regeneration1 but the field of the story is not now for this2 the arteries through which the public is reached by the publisher are not yet friendly to such a novel4 ,we learn at ,stonestudy to write what we please1 but we are content with still small answers1 at least for a time4 ,we have ceased trying to force people to see the thing as we see it4 ,for money to live by1 to take our places comfortably in travel or sequestration1 we retain the handicraft to write for markets that pay4 ,we keep in touch with the world--that is practical mysticism4 ,we rejoice in the dense pressures and tortures of world traffic4 ,this is very calmly told1 as it should be4 ,my young associates learn it easily1 performing the actions thereof1 but for me1 many years were required4 ,long ago ,i wrote a novel about a man and woman coming to a fervent agreement to remain apart for a year before their mating1 in order that they array themselves in fuller glory for each other1 so that each day each would find the other more wonderful than yesterday4 ,the novel furnished much adventure in the intervening year1 otherwise it would have been still-born4 ,what was the real theme to me apparently wasn't noted at all4 ,yet separation is as essential as companionship for the real ,romance4 ,a man who does life in a book must know this much1 even if he use his knowledge sparingly4 ,it's all a laugh in the higher workmanship4 ,romance--each has his idea of that4 ,each does his best by that4 ,here's a document of the day from ,john which gives his idea very well3 ,since ,i was first with ,steve and ,fred and ,irving and ,shuk1 ,i have had the great sense of wanting to be out and away from the world--to be with them one at a time4 ,in the ,rockies or in the misty isles of the sea6 ,all of them have a different meaning and sense4 ,one will mean the ,rockies or the misty mountain1 saddels1 foamy bits and lathering horses4 ,another will mean the tarry smell of the hold of a ship1 the flapping of sails in the moonlight1 and the smell of black coffee coming up from the galleys4 ,another will mean the sun betin desert--camels1 and men stooping over a fire4 ,they are all my comrads4 ,fred is a young sea-writer4 ,we are great pals4 ,we yousto go down and lie in the sand1 read1 talk and meditate2 then a little later we would take exercise and a long swim1 then rub each other down4 ,they were wounderful days--those4 ,i got right to the heart of ,fred1 and he did to me4 ,he yousto come over at night and sleep with me4 ,those were the nights6 ,i got so attached to him1 but we had to go apart4 ,he is in ,new ,york now1 going to college1 and ,i am here in ,california4 ,it does not seem right for me to be in this ,god blest place in the ,youneverse1 and he in the slums of the world1 going to college4 ,but it is the ,plan1 or it would not be this way4 ,the new race will stay high all through partings2 then they cannot last long--for there is nothing to stay away for4 ,when pain leaves1 then all will be ready for the road and the great comrads1 horses and the road of greatness4 ,it is all ahead4 ,in the great future--all ahead--my comrads--all comrads--the world will be all comrads6 99 99 99 99 99 ,all our days1 as tellers of tales1 we try to tell1 not stories1 so much1 as what ,romance means to us4 ,the very glory of life is that there are no two pictures the same4444 ,to me1 ,romance means not to stay6 ,it was hard to learn4 ,not to tarry in the senses1 if for no other reason than to know the full beauty of the senses4 ,one must not miss his train2 one must not linger after curfew has sounded4 ,there is no grey confronting of misery--like that of meeting one's own commonness catching up4 ,it's stiff grade work all the way1 but there are heroic moments4 ,we learn to take a supernal1 rather than a sensuous joy4 ,the most rending of lovers is the most passionate saint4444 ,when ,mohammed finally got his morals in working order1 the desert was said to be full of slain4444 ,there is something to do with martyrdom in my dream of ,romance in later years4 ,all pain and fear has gone out of that word--a singing about it4 ,the name ,kuru t'ul ,ayn comes to my mind in thoughts of ,romance--,consolation of the ,eyes1 martyred soon after the ,forerunner ,bab had been shot in ,tabriz4 ,i cannot tell why exactly1 save that she had beauty that had turned to loveliness1 and many men had looked through the door of heaven in her eyes--some haunting mystery there of beauty and bestowal--the blending perhaps of the love of man and ,god in the same woman-heart1 passion lifted remotely above the common rules of life1 transcending every man-made institution4 ,one of the ,little ,girl's ideas of ,romance is a hill cabin1 an open door to the dusk1--baby heads weaving under her hands--warm air coming up from the valleys1 but his step not coming that night4444 ,here is a suggestion from one of her letters3 ,have just been out in the garden planting little seeds that will grow big and strong so that they can be put into shining pots and cooked for the ,stranger's dinner--tiny carrot seeds4 ,they had to be rolled over and over between the fingers before they could decide one by one to fall into the rich warm earth4 ,planting little seeds at sunset6 ,does it not awaken in you something of the old days we spent so close to the soil8 ,radiant dusk8 ,but you have to look back to see how sweet the purity and simplicity of the peasant's life4 ,the peasants themselves do not know4 ,to-day holy hot sunlight and lilac bloom--could there be a more wonderful day than that8 ,and ,chapel so full of power1 then a planting of little seeds at sunset4 ,ah1 ,mary6 ,i am happy as ,i dare to be in a world that is choking in its own blood4 ,at least we are open and ready for any work if it is ours4 ,we hold up our arms asking for hard and painful tasks that will fill us with that singing conquest that cries aloud3 ,none have more pain to hold than we6 444 ,we are all working toward you1 toward that height4 ,you will be waiting for us with open arms out there4 ,we all send white love to you--our waiting ,mary6 99 99 99 99 99 ,peasants and mill-girls1 or the dim lacking faces of the passers-by--always these join to the ,little ,girl's quests and dreams of the spirit4 ,two brief additional cuttings suggestive of her idea of ,romance follow1 from the twelve-year period3 ,the first great vision of the quest must come to a soul over the plough1 in the peasant's body--dissatisfaction with self and surroundings4 ,this is the beginning of everything4 ,the person who is content with small things1 small thoughts1 does not move4 ,his soul stays asleep4 ,with awakening comes hate and anger and much simple blackness4 ,it is just that1 which gives him the power to stand up against the ways he has known so long--to stand up for himself--to push the new vague dreams through to life and light4 ,it is all blind at first1 but great and brave1 too4 ,the call that would come to the peasant would be to the ,town--to many men and things1 for that is just the opposite from his life4 ,in a simple way he would go to the depths of the worst he could find--to the extreme4 ,the thing that is holding so many from their own1 is contentedness1 satisfaction4 ,the longer one holds to this1 the lower he sinks1 until he is buried in himself4444 ,the questers who have come up into the light1 are brilliant1 flashing1 beautiful4 ,but the souls of the white torrent are rushing on through the dark night1 a night that grows darker and darker as it approaches the day4 ,their faces are tragic1 drawn1 expectant2 there is a sort of red-dark cloud that they are tearing themselves through4444 ,only the poor fat ones6 they fill you with sadness because you can not help them and they are not trying to help themselves4 ,they seem to sink almost visibly1 farther and farther down1 as they laugh and smile1 and nod their heads to each other 7only to each other74 ,the light around them is really not a light at all--just a colour1 a cold1 grey-black colour that looks almost dead4 ,you could laugh if they had anything to do with you1 any power over you--you could laugh at them and tell them that you were laughing1 but their helplessness hurts you4 ,they can only hurt themselves4 ,there is absolutely no humour in their faces nor in any of their movements4 ,they are all sober2 they can not laugh inside4 ,always it is the sign of flight from ,god to lose the sense of humour4 ,for humour is a great inner glowing--the power to overlook1 to forget the meaner things in people and in life4 ,it is a power to forget one's self also1 to laugh at oneself4444 ,i see the ,new ,race as a line of ,classic ,ruffians--a ,troop of ,mystic ,warriors 444 singing their glorious song of stern compassion and deep love1 filling all with their questing for power and beauty4444 ,i hear their laughter4 99 99 99 99 99 ,she paints the ,city ,street a bit darker in this3 99 99 99 99 99 ,dim faces1 full of blank suffering and of living death4 ,dark and noisy streets1 crowded stores of trade4444 ,men--little men1 following their women1 carrying the babies4 ,the mother part of me goes out to those little men4 ,down the ages1 mothering imprints its pain upon our souls4 ,and their women now--with faces wanting1 always wanting1 everything in them wanting6 ,i have been carried away by these dim hungry faces4 ,i have seen them staring at me with blank surprise4 ,but then they hurry on1 and the forgotten babies cry4 ,hushing them1 the women pass--little men following4 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,the pain of utter isolation--somehow this means ,romance to me1 in a deeper fold of being4 ,isolation--the hate of an undivided people--a man standing alone against his nation1 yet loving it better than any of the natives4444 ,i remember in an early story of having the hero do his big task under the fiery stimulus of the hate of ,london4 ,all this has something to do with the coming of ,saviours4 ,time approaches for many when the little three score and ten fails longer to hold the full story2 one must look out of this sickly warm room of the body2 one longs for the mystic death1 which is martyrdom4444 ,i tell all this from time to time in tales--but only the children seem to understand4444 ,romance--,i have walked up and down streets and open highways for days and found no man's work challenging1 nothing to keep alive my interest4 ,i wanted absolutely nothing that any one else in the world had1 nothing that any one could gain4 ,all worldly activities looked diminished and pathetic to me--but under it all--the endless iteration of the ,soul3 ,here is a man--as much me as myself6 ,a call in that--always a call in that4 ,one longs to die for that1 once and for all4 ,i crossed the ,yellow ,sea with a wound long ago4 ,i had missed a battle and was suffering1 without the satisfaction of suffering with a bullet wound4444 ,i lay three deep in ,chinese coolies in deck passage4 ,i wanted to see some one at home1 or ,i should have dropped overside4 ,in the fag of pain1 on the border of delirium1 ,i lay with the deep down men of the world1 ,chinese coolies in their filth and vomit4 ,i looked into the eyes of the nearest1 and saw a brother1 not a stranger4444 ,it was ten years afterward before ,i caught the big meaning of that moment--and that's why ,i say so often that the time comes when we find the sons of ,god in the eyes of passing men4 ,that is ,romance4 ,there is more of death and less of days in my dream of ,romance now4444 ,i can see a man giving up his woman because she is dearer than his own life to him4 ,i can see a man going to the scaffold for a country that is taking his life and hers4 7,always ,i see him loving his country more dearly than the sober ones of regnancy and war47 444 ,i see him taking his woman in his hands--half laughing1 half crying1 their faces upturned--one creature in that moment of parting1 as they had never been in street or church1 or state4444 ,romance in that4 ,i have a line here from the ,valley ,road ,girl3 444 ,lastly1 it came like a commandment to me--to give all to the ,coming ,generation--to acknowledge the ,new ,race as one's ,god--remembering always that all ,gods are jealous ,gods4 ,it's all in that1 our dream of ,romance--,democracy1 the ,planetary ,hive4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i am using a short story as the next chapter1 because it brings nearer to the centre of the picture certain ideals of romance1 workmanship1 martyrdom1 love and death1 than many essays could do4 ,a tale may be a master-synthesis4 ,perhaps it is just the thing to show you what we mean1 as a group1--what we mean about many things4 ,this is not a marketable tale2 in fact1 it was done with the idea of making a place for itself just here in this book4 99 99 99 99 99 #bf ,,the ,,cosmic ,,peasant ,a ,,short ,,story ,when ,i was a lad ,i remember hearing some one say he had read a story of love and war4 ,i thought of it just now1 as ,i lay panting a bit in a queer nest for the night in the ,galbraudin ,foothills--in the midst of an army that had no country yet--a tragic document unfolding in my heart4444 ,a story of love and war--yes1 ,i had seen one4 ,it was written upon the cells of my brain1 the deeper parts engraved upon the heart--the old red war with a new dream hovering above it1 and the old true love1 white as ever1 yet a touch of the rose and gold of the new race in its folds4 ,it seems almost my story4 ,like ,job's servant1 only ,i am spared to tell it4 ,such a little while ago1 ,i thought the tales of love and war all told4 ,i saw ,varsieff first at school1 and went to him at once4 ,literally1 ,i went to him4 ,it was at recess1 and ,i followed at his heels to his room instead of my own4 ,he was not surprised4 ,i was always at my best beside him4 ,he accepted this gift from me4 ,one who learns to give greatly as ,varsieff did1 learns also to accept the best things with grace4 ,i only left his room long enough to get my bag4 ,gladly would ,i have slept at his door1 but he asked me in4 ,we were to be mates4 ,often he assured me that we were men1 face to face2 that ,i was not his ,boswell1 not his disciple1 but a man-to-man friend4 ,yet ,i knew that my power was not the power of ,varsieff1 also that ,i was most powerful when ,i realised his splendid superiority4 ,i followed him during all the vacations4 ,he loved the ,north ,country--snow on the mountains1 cold night rains1 the filled fields and shrunken rivers of summer1 the sound and natural things4 ,he said he would find his tropical island when his work was done1 but that work meant ,russia to him4 ,he was genius4 ,every one loved him4 ,one vacation time we undertook to walk together over the ,torqueval ,peaks4 ,he borrowed a guitar at a peasant house there in the mountains1 and played for an hour as ,i have never heard any one play4 ,i had been with him for almost three years and had not known he touched the instrument4 ,in one of those days of our walking-tour in the mountains an instance occurred of ,varsieff's immeasurable tenderness of heart4 ,one golden morning as we walked through a little village1 past a vined wicker fence--a huge yellow cat sprang forth from the leaves and caught a bird on the wing4 ,a kind of sob came from my friend at the swift little tragedy enacted in the wonderful morning light4 ,i turned--,varsieff's face was back to its childhood--a depiction of childish horror--all finished manhood erased4 ,many times in our talk his sentences formed a poem1 which ,i would rush away to put down4 ,he learned to do this alone afterward4 ,once ,i went to his room in ,moscow after ,i had been away several months1 and found scattered among clothing1 papers1 books and tea-things1 a set of recent lyrical gems of his4 ,these ,i gathered together in the little book1 now marching around the world4 ,i smile to remember when ,i came to learn that ,varsieff had other friends as devoted as ,i4 ,it hurt at first2 ,i could not understand4 ,his big magic then was that he wanted nothing4 ,he used to say that a man is at his worst when he wants anything for himself4 ,the fact is ,varsieff in wanting the letter of nothing1 really wanted the spirit of all2 in wanting nothing for himself in those days1 he wanted everything for the world1 a new heaven and a new earth1 first and especially a new ,russia4 ,then the day came when he wanted a woman4 ,this was altogether unexpected4 ,i thought that ,varsieff absolutely had given himself to the revolution--that humanity was his bride4 ,i was with him when he first saw ,paula ,mantone--that is but part of her name4 ,it was in ,moscow4 ,his voice1 as he spoke to me1 watching her1 had a different and deeper inflection than ,i ever heard before4 ,she was just a girl--poorly dressed1 who had paused to speak laughingly to an old flower-woman4 ,wait1 ,lange1 he said to me1 and crossed to her4 ,it was in the ,spring of the year4 ,the morning was very bright4 ,she turned from the tray of flowers and looked up at him4 ,his hands went out to her shoulders4 ,he was searching her face with a queer and tense smile--as one who finds a woman after a few months' separation in one whom he has left a child4 ,of course1 my thought was that he had known her before4 ,she1 too1 would have slept at his door4444 ,i heard their voices4 ,he asked her name1 where she lived1 and how he could reach her again4 ,it all seemed trifling to me4 ,varsieff had never been like this before4 ,the rest of the day he was silent4 ,we walked and dined together1 but his thoughts were not for me4 ,for once1 they were not for ,russia4 ,there was a smile in his eyes1 and often he turned back the way we had come4 ,once he said3 ,i had to leave her4 ,it was quite all ,i could stand4 ,i do not think the world is a place for two such people to be happy in4 ,possibly1 we may be allowed to meet from time to time---- ,i was inclined to call this nonsense4 ,a little later he added strangely3 ,yes1 it would be dangerous to let go and become merely human in a case like this4 ,the next three years ,varsieff and ,i were much apart4 ,i do not profess quite to understand the obstacles between him and ,paula ,mantone4 ,they had loved each other instantly and torrentially4 ,they were much together1 yet there was some super-human torture about it4 ,even if ,i have a glimpse of the mystery1 ,i'm afraid few will understand4 ,there is something back of each one of us greater than our actions4 ,we are all greater than we seem4 ,it was as if ,varsieff and ,paula ,mantone were only intended to meet here--to meet and quicken each other for a greater giving to the world4 ,i wonder if it is quite true1 what he said toward the last3 ,that really splendid lovers may consecrate themselves to each other1 but they must also learn to give each other to the world4444 ,in the beginning they tried to lose themselves in each other1 and they encountered untellable pain4 ,at length came the night when ,varsieff returned to my lodgings1 saying that it was only a question of time when they should find peace4 ,he said he knew they would find peace1 for he had already touched it momentarily4 ,i wondered if she were dead1 and he caught my thought4 ,no1 ,lange1 he said4 ,i am still to see her from time to time4 ,before that first meeting with ,paula ,mantone in the street1 ,varsieff had loved ,russia and the world1 a friend and comrade to me and to many others4 ,all his love had suddenly been called in and directed upon the woman4 ,after the three years1 he gave himself to all of us again--but a quickened illuminated man4 ,he had been brilliant to me before that1 but the brilliance of phosphorous compared to sunlight now4 ,varsieff was making some strange spiritual initiation out of his love story4 ,his presence glorified me on the night of his coming--the summer before the war4 ,there are four layers to ,russia1 ,i remember him saying4 ,the royalty on top1 then the dreamers1 then the middlemen1 then the peasants4 ,kings and middlemen go together2 dreamers and peasants go together4444 ,yes1 time will come when the dreamers and the peasants truly shall belong to each other4 ,they have been lovers a long time4 ,i asked him about the other pair4 ,the kings and the middlemen will cancel each other1 he answered4 ,varsieff was the most active man ,i ever knew1 and yet he moved easily as one in a sort of spiritual drift4 ,he was an intellectualist with those who used their heads1 a devotionalist with those who used their hearts1 a mystic among dreamers1 a child among children4 ,though never known much publicly1 he was to my mind the biggest occult force of the new ,russia4 ,i doubt if there was another man1 unless it was ,christonal1 who gave more impulse and direction to the revolutionary movement4 ,the heads of many departments drew inspiration from ,varsieff4 ,i have seen him carry himself lightly through a day of decisions and improvements and conceptions1 which do not come to the ordinary master of democracy in a year4 ,i have seen him encounter1 worked out by others1 suggestions and innovations which he himself had made--,varsieff not realising that the thought was his own4 ,he would innocently praise his own work1 as carried out by another4 ,the last few months preceding the revolution were the busiest ,i ever knew4 ,we became new men4 ,we did not leave ,petrograd1 but prepared secretly for the big unburdening of the soul of a people4 ,the last few days1 before the government changed hands1 were charged with a wrecking silence4 ,christonal's nerve broke4 ,for twelve hours he was in and out of a system of baths and manhandlings1 and ,i was one who stood by4 ,varsieff smiled it through1 his voice calm1 his eyes often looking away as he spoke4 ,the leaders of the younger party saw who was the real chief that day1 though ,christonal is a strong leader4 ,i was always a good desk man1 and was trying to get some order in a bundle of cipher messages in the heat of the night1 when ,varsieff came and lifted me laughingly by the shoulders1 thrusting the messages into one of my deep inner pockets4 ,i thought he was dragging me off to bed1 but when we were alone1 he said3 ,she is near4 ,i can't leave4 ,will you go to her for me8 444 ,he told me many things to say4 ,i found ,paula ,mantone after many hours in one of the ,registmonten hospitals4 ,she was frail and feverish from much labour1 not regularly attached to any nursing staff4 ,the instant ,i saw her1 ,i realised more clearly what ,varsieff had been doing--trying to kill himself with work for the ,cause4 ,clearly1 she had lost interest in all but death and service4 ,i had been too much with ,varsieff to notice his arrival at the same point1 but ,i saw their joint endeavour through her4 ,it seemed to me like a death-pact4 ,a new mystery for me4 ,evidently they had realised they must wait for release in death1 but serve meanwhile4 ,the marvel of ,varsieff's sending me when he might have come himself1 gave me just an inkling of the tremendous power and patience which had come to him4 ,two years1 or even a year ago1 he would have endangered new ,russia for an hour with ,paula ,mantone4 ,i could not breathe this rare atmosphere4 ,so far as ,i knew1 there was no woman for me in earth or heaven1 but certainly ,i would not have been able to look over a living woman's shoulder for her mystic counterpart1 and long for death to consummate the real mating4 ,but war teaches lovers many wonderful things4 ,paula ,mantone was a kind of white silence4 ,you had to listen keenly for her step and give your attention to her voice4 ,she was utterly feminine--malleable like gold4 ,even to me1 she was the meaning of love4 ,i had no thought of her being my woman1 and yet she seemed spiritually to contain some sister who would answer for me4 ,soldiers worshipped her4 ,i think each saw his own in her presence4 ,it was the finished magic of the ,trojan ,helen again--every man's desire1 as gold contains potentially all the metals1 and the rose the essence of all the flowers4444 ,she was the quietest woman ,i ever saw4 ,she seemed formed of white cloud--the sun on the other side4 ,that was it--,varsieff was shining on the other side4 ,she answered him1 light for light--gold for gold4 ,for the rest of us1 she had that white1 saintly lustre4 ,and even in that1 we found much to make us brave and keep us pure4 ,deep within1 there was some wonder about ,varsieff and ,paula ,mantone which my brain could not interpret exactly4 ,but the world had suddenly become to me1 in her presence1 a place of divided hearts--millions of divided lovers around the world4 ,i had only known the shock and misery of war before1 and the thrilling roar of comrades1 the crash of the wreckers and the songs of the builders ever nearer4 ,now ,i heard the still voices of lovers everywhere4 ,in the pressures of air--callings1 cryings1 yearnings made audible4 ,it was a new door of the heart that she opened--her particular gift to me4 ,that moment1 though ,i had loved and served ,varsieff for years1 ,i knew more thrillingly than ever his greatness1 because this woman loved him4 ,to me1 to all soldiers1 she gave a reflection of that superb bounty4 ,to him she gave its incandescence4 ,perhaps together they found it too terrible a light for earth1 or perhaps they were unwilling to find their fulness of days in a world so charged with agony as these years4 ,she left me a moment1 answering some voice which ,i had not heard1 and stood for several seconds beside the cot of a bearded soldier1 her fingers upon his grey-white brow4 ,i did not realise until after she moved1 that she was there at the moment of his passing4 ,i thought of it again3 ,she was the white silence4 ,i think the soldier died1 believing that his woman was there4 ,twenty cots in the place--a low1 cold room lit with a handful of candles4 ,the smell of blood and sickness and soiled clothing mingled with the bitterness of iodoform as the chill draught swept through4 ,the peasant soldiers knew only the meagrest care4 ,their wounds were dressed as often as possible1 but there were five times too many cases for the service1 and the whole corps was impoverished4 ,she stood still in the dim distance a moment longer1 her fingers touching the brow already cold4 ,then she seemed to remember that ,i was waiting at the far door4 ,i was not twenty feet away1 and yet in the few seconds required for her to reach me1 a sort of vision filled my mind--a vision of the peace that soon would come to the world--the song of fruitful labour sung again1 peaceful lands1 soft dusks1 lit cabins1 filled barns1 peaceful flocks and up-reaching baby fingers--all with such a queer shock to a male consciousness like mine4 ,and when she stood before me1 ,i felt that the best part of ,varsieff was also there4 ,i even fancied his look in her eyes1 such as you see exchanged in an old pair who have lived long together4 ,i think that a great love always seeks to make one of two--in different ways than we dream4 ,you came from him8 she whispered4 ,yes4 ,how does he look8 she asked4 ,he looks like you1 ,i said1 for the moment inspired4 ,he looks like a sun-god1 too4 ,he looks with your love into the eyes of soldiers and statesmen and revolutionists1 and they find him irresistible4 ,dear ,lange1 she said4 ,he loves you1 too4 ,you are changed4 ,you have come into the big magic of the revolution---- ,i am ,varsieff's friend1 first and last--his comrade4 ,and mine1 she whispered4 ,the magic comes from standing between1 ,mlle4 ,mantone4 ,she smiled and bent toward me4 ,she had been like a tall1 white flower1 but now for a second as she bent closer1 it seemed to me that ,i saw a hint of ,varsieff's gold flame on the other side--because we talked of him4 ,what did he say8 she continued in a low whisper4 ,he said to tell you that he and all your friends were busy1 day and night1 weaving and binding the ,cause into one great fabric4 ,he told me to tell you this--that the work of the ,weavers will be given to the world in a day or two--possibly the day after to-morrow4 ,i wish you could have seen ,varsieff's face as he spoke to me this last4 ,i remember his words exactly3 ',tell ,paula all that ,i do is for her4 ,that ,i read and write and dream and breathe through her heart--that she has taught me well to love and wait--that ,i love the world through her heart4' ,anything more8 she asked in a kind of agony4 ,he told me to say that only you knew his weaknesses1 so far---- ,i love them best1 she answered4 ,a woman always holds a little tighter to the sweet human things of her child4444 ,but he is a teacher1 a leader4 ,he must be clean and flawless4444 ,if it were only for us--,i should have him1 weaknesses and all4444 ,but he is to lead the clean peasants to their promised land---- 99 99 99 99 99 ,varsieff listened as a desert listens for rain4 ,he caught me by the shoulders when ,i ceased to speak--as if to shake something more from my mind and heart4 ,a man must be half-divine to keep step with that woman1 he said4 ,then he changed the subject by remarking that ,christonal was not half-divine--quite4 ,christonal is ambitious1 he added4 ,what has he done now8 ,i asked4 ,he has ordered me to take the field---- ,that turned on a red light in my brain4 ,varsieff was not a soldier4 ,i knew instantly that ,christonal was not pure--that he wanted personal power more than the good of the ,cause4 ,no one knew ,varsieff's place better than he did4 ,my friend could only have been ordered to the field for the same reason that ,david sent the husband of ,bathsheba4 ,after the revolutionary signal went through1 ,varsieff and ,i found ourselves in the ,galbraudin ,foothills with thirty thousand men1 and every man of them wanted to go home4 ,somehow the peasants thought that if they changed leaders1 they would march home at once4 ,they were willing to fight their way home2 they had felt their own power4 ,varsieff loved them with a white passion4 ,they won't miss1 if we are true6 ,they're clean4 ,god love them--they're clean6 ,he saw in the peasants the soil for the new earth and the soul of the new heaven4 ,germans and ,austrians were to the south of our nest in the ,galbraudin ,foothills1 while to the east and north were the big lines of ,russian troops as yet unawakened to the principles that moved our ranks4 ,our weakness was that the peasants thought the war was over4444 ,the cold mountains were in the distance--winter still upon them--a late spring in the ,foothills4444 ,in this dramatic lull1 our men talked of their ploughing1 of their women4 ,some one said1 ,they're enlisting the women and girls---- ,it went through the lines like a taint of gas4 ,the men were difficult then even for ,varsieff to hold4 ,you must get the picture4 ,we revolutionists were cut off from the world4 ,the ,germans and ,austrians sent us messages--some friendly1 some derisive4 ,they thought us fools or gods1 but waited to see what we would do4 ,the old line of ,russian troops all about--just as clean peasantry as our forces--but officered by the straight military class1 impervious so far as a body to any shaft of the propagandist4 ,varsieff whispered to me that those regular forces were honeycombed with our comrades1 but that they were being put to death under the slightest suspicion--that two or three hundred were martyred each day4 ,the strangeness and horror of it all dawned upon me--the sense of the whole world against us1 even ,america from whom we had drawn the spirit of our courage--a kind of holding of our army for slaughter4 ,listen1 ,i have seen tens of thousands of troops go down to the pits of white and red1 seen their opened veins colour the snows1 seen the spots of red on the brown earth turn black4 ,i have seen the boys lean over the trenches and the pools from each throat widen and deepen from one man to another4 ,i have seen a man grab his mate as he fell and say some absurd whimsical thing that the soldier next didn't understand until his moment of death--a little sentence that folded them1 not in extinction1 but in a new life4 ,all the horrors of death--quantity and quality--yellow and red and white--pure white passings that made a man think of the lilies--all manner of death ,i had seen1 and still it had all been impersonal compared to now4 ,this was my own heart business4 ,i shared leadership with ,varsieff4 ,these lives were in my hands4 ,i wanted to go down among the boys--one by one and say that ,i was pure1 that ,i loved them--that if they died they were at least loved and not wasted4 ,i always wondered what those young peasant souls thought about death4 ,once in a lot of pain when ,i was just a boy1 ,i wanted badly to die and was deterred from taking my life1 because of a counter-desire to get home and see my mother4 ,i think it must be like that with the peasants4 ,varsieff saw them in a strange mystic light4 ,no man loved them as he did4 ,they looked like sons of ,god to him4 ,that's what he saw when they went down to death4 ,there are no dreams too fine for them to answer1 he whispered4 ,they are pure--they come from the ,north like all invaders--glacially pure6 ,we'll warm their hearts--lead them home to ,god--teach them how to live6 ,he was silent suddenly4 ,i asked him to go on and then saw the queerest look instead4 ,varsieff was torn by the thought1 that now as a leader of revolutionists he must teach his peasants how to die as well4444 ,a civilian1 ,i repeat1 does not realise this quite the same4 ,in the ,capitol1 we had worked for a ,cause that meant the death of men1 but now we were the officers called upon to charge live troops to the fork and the grill4 ,i knew ,varsieff to be more imaginative and tender than ,i1 yet ,i would not have mentioned my qualms1 had ,i known how terribly he was suffering4 ,he caught my hands1 whispering3 ,you have it1 too8 ,it was the single hour of weakness that ,varsieff had ever revealed to me4 ,i studied his face without speaking4 ,i brought them to this1 he muttered4 ,i have always thought of the spirit of things4 ,i was always pure enough1 following that dream4444 ,but1 ,lange1 we're a little mad--we who dream4444 ,i had to come here4 ,i had to see this fighting end4 ,perhaps ,christonal knew what he was doing4 ,i put my arm around his shoulder4 ,we ,russians are allowed that4 ,i have always thought of the spirit of things1 he added1 until ,i met ,paula ,mantone4 ,i would have forgotten everything for her beauty1 but she remembered our souls4444 ,and now1 because ,i would have forgotten the bodies of these men ,christonal sent me here to learn that4 ,we are spirits and bodies1 too1 ,lange4 ,it takes a crowned head to hold to the two ends at once--,god1 hear 'em sing---- ,the ruffians always hushed and choked us when they sang4 ,something new about it this time1 for ,varsieff was seeing them across a red stream of their own blood4 ,i can't drive 'em into the fire-pits1 he muttered4 ,why1 ,i'd rather wash and dress 'em4 ,they've got the idea that ,i am to lead them home4 ,i can't betray that--not even for the ,cause6444 ,i never saw it before4 ,they are not herds1 not groups--but monads--each a man---- ,we've got to put through the big story1 ,i said quietly4 ,thirty thousand is cheap--our little planting out here is cheap1 if we can give ,russia the new heaven and the new earth--,russia--then ,america--then the world---- ,i was giving him back his own words4 ,thirty thousand lives1 he repeated4 ,yes1 the price is cheap--thirty thousand every day for awhile--your life and mine1 ,lange--a cheap price to pay for the glory we see in the days to come4 ,but ,i can't kill these--,i think ,christonal knew it all the time---- ,you aren't ready for work in the constructive end1 if you falter here among the wreckers---- ,i said4 ,i knew that no ,cause had ever uncovered a more valuable servant than this same ,varsieff1 though badly out of hand just now4 ,i wasn't making any effect upon him4 ,he looked at me strangely4 ,that sounds true--exactly and unerringly true1 he said wearily4 ,there was no quarter possible now4 ,i remember your words in clubs and cabinets and in the ante-rooms of the dumas4444 ,you weren't afraid of blood there1 ,varsieff4 ,he winced4 ,they called you the ',fire-eater1' ,i added1 never knowing when to stop4 ,it's just as straight to-day as it was when you talked there3 ',the old civilisation must be washed clean with the blood of the new----' ,his hand came up piteously4 ,but their hearts are turned homeward1 ,lange1 he said4 ,their eyes are building their homes all over again--eyes turned homeward over the mountains---- ,turned to ,god1 ,i said reverently4 ,yes1 but taking my word--the word of ,varsieff--that ,god is there---- ,he is there4 ,but will ,he come to them at the last1 ,lange8444 ,will ,he show ,his face--so they will believe8444 ,when they feel their death-wounds--the blood sliding out1 warm and silent--the cold coming in--will they hold to what ,i said8 ,will ,he be there for them8 ,you're shot up1 old man1 only a bit bewildered to-day4 ,no one knows better than you how great emotional giving of one's self to ,cause or ,country makes death easy--and quickens the ,soul4 ,varsieff was ashen4 ,i've got to eat all my words6 ,even you1 bring back my words to me4 ,i've talked too much4444 ,suppose ,i am a madman----8 ,then you have no responsibility for what you said1 ,i smiled4 ,he stared at the tent-wall4 ,varsieff1 ,i said at last4 ,his hand came out4 ,you were pure in all you undertook4 ,silence4 ,you wanted nothing for yourself4 ,i wanted nothing for me--nothing but---- ,but what8 ,paula ,man---- ,she's a part of you--now4 ,you look like her6 ,i think ,i'll have to die to see her--,oh1 ,lange--,i'm sick--,i'm impoverished1 cell by cell1 with loneliness---- ,varsieff laughed unsteadily and added3 ,i remember asking you to say to her--that she alone knew my weaknesses4 ,now you know them1 too4 ,she said she loved them4444 ,varsieff1 ,i have known you a long time1 ,i added after a moment4 ,i have shaped my manhood1 such as it is1 after you4 ,i am proud of this--to the end4 ,i1 too1 care more for you1 because of this day--for understanding4 ,to understand--that is everything4 ,i who always listened before1 tell you to-day3 ,the dream does hold4 ,the dream is good4 ,thirty thousand men--even our singing1 growling1 big-footed1 red-hearted thirty thousand--is a cheap price to pay for the new ,russia6 ,do you think ,paula would say that8 he asked4 ,yes1 ,i answered1 from the mother-heart of her4 ,i had spoken1 and now ,i tried to make myself believe that she would have ordered him on4 ,i had to change him1 at any cost4 ,a rather questionable way now appeared--to lift him out of himself4 ,listen1 ,friend1 ,i added4 ,you are lonely--but you have the heart of a woman pulsing with yours--every beat4444 ,you'd have to be me to know what loneliness means4 ,i'd take all the pain to have a woman like that4 ,there are times when you are half a man1 because you are apart from her1 but there are other times1 ,varsieff1 when you are twice a man--double dynamics---- ,he caught me in his arms4 ,i knew he was healed1 but ,i felt the cad and the cur for bringing his sympathy on myself4444 ,he was looking back toward the cold mountains when ,i left him1 and the look of the woman was in his eyes4 ,that night ,i dreamed that ,paula ,mantone came to me with a message for ,varsieff1 and that she told me some beautiful thing about the child of a king--but ,i could not quite get it down to brain4 99 99 99 99 99 ,sedgwick1 a brigadier1 and technically in command of the thirty thousand1 was a straight militarist in training4 ,he looked to ,varsieff1 the political head1 for orders4 ,the day came when ,varsieff had no one to look to1 for we were cut off from ,christonal and ,petrograd4 ,we were not long kept in doubt after that as to who were our immediate enemies--not ,german1 not ,austrian1 but the old line ,russian troops hung up to the east of us1 the same that had recently occupied themselves making martyrs of the revolutionists in their ranks--two or three hundred a day4 ,it was a red morning when two of our fliers blew down with the word that our brothers were closing in--that it looked like extermination for our thirty thousand1 unless we strode out and crippled them with the first shock4 ,ten miles to the west the ,bundalino ,marshes began4 ,we had the secret paths1 but it was a wretched fugitive outlook to seek shelter there4 ,as ,i looked at it1 it would never occur to leaders who had brought ,russia to the moment of parturition1 to break up for a miserable safety in the swamps of ,bundalino4 ,i recall the distant firing of that red morning4 ,my eardrums had not healed from recent months more or less in touch with the artillery4 ,i remember brushing the edge of the lines1 as ,i crossed from ,sedgwick's headquarters back to the hut ,i shared with ,varsieff and a servant or two4 ,the peasants were listening queerly and quietly to the far firing4 ,i passed through the sprawl of pup-shelters1 and certain ideas occurred to me3 first1 that the arrangement of camp was abominable1 a pitiful lack of technique shown in this bit of military handling2 second1 the slow cold conviction that we1 as revolutionists1 must have all the virtues of the old-line troops to begin with1 and to build our real greatness on top of that2 finally ,i drew from the queer attitudes of the men toward me1 an intuitional flash that to them the distant firing meant a signal that they were about to fight their way home4 ,varsieff was sitting dejected upon a camp-chest when ,i rejoined him4 ,sedgwick is ready when you are1 ,i said4 ,he suggests that the men be not kept waiting too long4 ,varsieff looked up4 ,his face was livid4 ,his soul had no chance that morning4 ,i thought of the old story of ,arjuna standing between the battle-lines1 reluctant to join action against his own kindred4 ,it's the same here that it was in ,petrograd1 ,i announced finally4 ,the dream holds---- ,he shook his head4444 ,they are just boys--white-haired boys4 ,they want to go home---- ,that instant ,i seemed to see the world laughing at this great man2 ,i saw the end of ,varsieff politically4444 ,superb genius broken down by an intrinsic weakness--as a man who1 trying to lead the world1 falls for the lure of an actress maid4444 ,i saw all his work of early years--straight1 clean1 unerring1 selfless labour of a man to a ,cause--the inspired labour of the past two years when he gave the whole fruit of his quickened heart to the new ,russia--the magic of a man loved by a woman great enough to be his divine sculptor and priestess4444 ,it was the thought of ,paula ,mantone that helped me that instant4 ,sedgwick was on the path outside4 ,i hurried out and whispered3 ,don't come now4 ,come back in ten minutes---- ,the ,general paused to let me hear the firing4 ,but the troops---- he said4 ,give me ten minutes more with ,varsieff---- ,the attack may be called---- ,i know1 but ,i need that time4 ,the old soldier turned back1 hating me4444 99 99 99 99 99 ,varsieff1 ,i said a moment later4 ,yes---- ,i've got to tell you something---- ,he turned quickly4 ,paula ,mantone is near---- ,no6 ,i saw her last night4 ,will she see me8 ,i laughed at him4 ,do you think she would want to see you now8444 ,you're a sick man1 ,varsieff--morally sick4 ,any decision is better than your present incapacity4444 ,i think she must have sensed your weakness--that she came to bring you strength1 for she is your strength4 ,does she love me8 he asked4 ,that's a slap in her face to ask that--a woman who gives you her soul's strength--the love of her life4 ,that's lack of faith1 my friend---- ,i am whipped4 ,the white-haired boys--they want to go home---- ,you can't wash your hands4 ,you can't say1 ',go home1 boys4' ,they have to fight their way home4 ,first1 they have to fight their way to the east out of this valley--against old ,russia6444 ,it's the first great battle of the ,old and ,new--first time in the history of the world4 ,we hold the ,new for better or worse--this little ,theban band4 ,you would let us fail and dribble away and slink into the ,marshes--you1 her lover1 whom she calls ,boy and ,strongheart---- 99 99 99 99 99 ,what did she say8 he asked fiercely4 ----that ,i need not speak of her coming unless you needed help4 ,she said you would not need help on account of your own lack of courage--rather that it would be your great tenderness that might defeat our ,cause now4 ,she said this was but a last ordeal1 hardest of all for ,builders1 who have ceased to kill4444 ,where did you see her8 ,it was all a lie1 of course1 except ,i had dreamed of her coming4 ,i invented a place of meeting and added to his question that ,sedgwick did not know of her presence4 ,i agreed that we were not killers1 but ,i told her that we dared to be cruel to ourselves1 ,i added4 ,what did she say to that8 ,varsieff asked hoarsely4 ,he had suddenly become like a child--one who dared not go to her1 who scarcely trusted himself to speak4 ,she said that was the key to the whole matter--that we dare to sacrifice ourselves--dare to inflict pain upon each other because one's true love is the self-- ,i was startled and awed at my own words4 ,the idea was unlike anything of mine4 ,it was exactly as if she had told me something of the kind in the dream4 ,varsieff groaned3 ,the glory of her1 he whispered4 ,was there more8 ,only that you must not falter now 444 and that she would be waiting for you at the end of the day---- ',in the cool of the evening1' she would say1 he muttered4 ,perhaps that was it1 ,i said4 ,nothing more8 ,yes--but only if you needed it---- ,i do4 ,that she never loved you so well as now--that you mean new ,russia to her--that she will come running to you in the cool of the evening--either here or on the other side--and something about the child of a king4 ,his back stiffened4 ,he arose4 ,i saw him splendid again4 ,i drew back in the shadow1 afraid that he would see the sweat that had broken out upon me1 though the place was cold4 ,of course the idea1 as ,i saw it1 was to give the old-line troops the fight of their lives--to show the whole of ,russia a martyrdom if necessary1 thus revealing the temper of the revolutionists4 ,varsieff had been tempted to let them slip back into the ,marshes to save their lives4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we were in the saddle side by side an hour later1 and close to the front--the two big lines moving slowly and craftily together4 ,varsieff looked back at his precious boys1 following willingly enough so far4 ,it's their white heads that kill me1 he muttered4 ,they are like children1 and that ,i should---- ,they are all our children1 ,i answered1 sweeping my hand in a circle ahead where the troops of old ,russia had filled in1 waiting to deliver us to death4 ,dear old ,lange1 he muttered1 ,i'm glad you know her---- ,i wondered what that had to do with his peasant children4 ,her spirit seemed a blend of his every thought and emotion4444 ,we galloped along the fronts1 talking to the different commanders4 ,some were students1 in their teens1 faces of boys who loved ,varsieff with a love that yearned to die for him immediately1 without words1 a readiness to leap under his horse's feet4444 ,in a kind of madness1 all the mysteries of life seemed to unfold for me that morning1 the spirit of ,paula ,mantone always near because ,i was so close to her lover4 ,he talked to the different leaders quite careless if the peasant ranks listened4 ,he told them that the outer world was watching--that new ,russia1 ,poland1 ,finland1 the new ,europe1 the new ,world--all depended upon them now4 ,he said they were chosen men--that he would never leave the field except in victory--that he was brother and father and lover to them--that the world would be better for this day4 ,he talked like a man at a bar1 or standing among the river-boats1 or a father to his sons in the fields4 ,we rode along the lines as they marched4 ,our horses lathered and dried and lathered again in the morning sun4 ,i saw my comrade1 ,varsieff1 giving up his soul to the peasants3 444 ,i1 too1 have my farm that waits for me--my woman who waits for me--my country1 my dream6444 ,i build with you4 ,i stand or fall with you6444 ,we shall be better for this day1 my children4 ,this is a day for living men and comrades---- ,he filled me with a kind of white flame4 ,then the crash4 ,after that1 was a moment of silence and gloom like a cloud passing over the sun4 ,then our eyes began to reap4444 ,a blizzard of hot1 stinking metal had broken in front of us--in the midst of our marching and listening battalion4 ,if you have ever felt the mockery and cruelty of raging seas1 you can know something of the shock that twisted the core of me that instant4 ,that which had been the white-haired peasants with open laughing mouths and lifted hands1 their souls answering the leader who loved them1 a song forming on their lips 444 now it was as if a carcass had been moved--one that had lain long in the sun1 the devastation long continued underneath4444 ,these were my boys4 ,next to ,varsieff and ,paula ,mantone1 ,i loved them4 ,now they were down1 dismembered1 shaking--the air a whir of white to my tortured ears1 like a shriek of bewildered ghosts4 ,and here and there1 like ,varsieff and myself--men standing unhurt in the midst of human fragments1 like maggots1 shaking themselves to cover4 ,i wonder if you can understand8 ,it seemed that ,i still could see the welter of our boys in the leader's face4 ,also ,i saw the death of my good friend--the death-stroke of that superb mind--the face of a man1 whose soul had vanished4 ,both our horses were down1 though we were unhurt so far4444 ,a distance of fifteen feet separated us4 ,i called to him4 ,i tried to tell him that he had not failed4 ,i thought ,i should die before ,i moved1 before ,i could get started toward him4 ,the staring failure in his face paralysed me4 ,for the time1 he was cut off even from the spirit of ,paula ,mantone4 ,i had to look down and watch my steps as ,i made my way to him4 ,i knew some hideous fear that he would fall in that blackness--if ,i looked away4444 ,there were voices from the ground4 ,none of the parts of men could be still4 ,lips writhed before my eyes--and words were spoken like little claps of force in thin air4444 ,i caught his opened collar4444 ,it's all right1 ,varsieff1 ,i whispered4 ,you lie6 said he4 ,it was like a blow from a man's mother4 ,i had to look into his face before my brain accepted his words4 ,then ,i remembered my lie4444 ,the evil of it had not come to me until now1 with him breaking down before my eyes4444 ,i saw the look again--that ,i had seen by the peasant's yard long ago as we crossed the ,torqueval ,peaks--the look of a frightened child in that face of finished manhood4 ,i pulled him to me1 and led him back toward ,sedgwick's staff4 ,i heard myself talking and laughing1 jockeying with words4444 ,his head was twisted to the side--his draggled remnant of a mind pulled back to the scene of that havoc4 ,and now1 if you please1 we were catching the real thing4 ,the old-line ,russians were breaking upon us with machines and shrapnel--the old combing and carding that seldom fails4444 ,i saw the cold mountains all about4 ,did you ever see a slaughter of drones8 ,perfect economy it is1 from the standpoint of the hive4 ,the work of providing for the future is accomplished--no mistake in the plan4 ,the workers gather from all sides4 ,one by one the big clumsy drones are put to death--wrestling1 tugging1 stinging1 many workers giving themselves to death to carry out the spirit of the hive4444 ,the officers ahead who ordered our brother ,russians upon us1 thought they were right--those great grey lines ahead1 honeycombed with our own precious comrades1 all of whom were not yet martyred1 as was proved4 ,but they had not found their voice4 ,it looked like straight death they brought to us4 444 ,ages4 ,i would turn from ,varsieff's face to the cold mountains4 ,something of the changelessness of the beyond and above came to me out of the hideous fluctuation of the near and below4 ,i could not keep ,varsieff back4 ,he wouldn't resist so long as ,i held him1 but the moment my hands released1 his body would rise like some automatic thing and blindly stagger forward into the pale smoke-charged sunlight4 ,the men who saw him--many who knew what he had been and had heard him speak but a few moments ago--lost their concentration on the battle4 ,he became everywhere the centre of a rotting line4 ,clearly they had been fighting on his spirit--that1 and the thought of going home4444 ,sedgwick rode up and saw my struggle--beckoned me back1 as one in authority would bully a guard in a madhouse4444 ,i obeyed1 thinking of the lie ,i had told4 ,here were human fragments2 the air filled with the shrieks of the fallen--the face of my friend beside me1 the face of a blasted mind--all because of that lie of mine4 ,then1 as ,i trundled him to the rear1 sometimes swinging him from one elbow to the other1 ,i saw a line1 as one would draw a bloody finger across his cheek4 ,then--it was like a monkey-bite in the bone and hair of his eye-brow4444 ,we were in a hail from the machines and the men were falling back4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i think we are half-mad in such moments1 or else touched with a divine sanity4 ,in the midst of utter loss1 the lines breaking back1 the men beginning to stampede--the plan flashed into my mind that ,i could only save the first lie by a second4 ,if the remnant fell back to starve in the ,marshes--,varsieff forever was put from me4 ,such was my thought4 ,the personal issue was greater than the ,cause4 ,i was beside myself--never so little1 never so formidable4 ,my arm slipped from ,varsieff who sank to his knees and flopped back at the wheels of a four-inch ,sanguinary1 bursting hot4 ,i ran back to ,sedgwick's staff1 leaped into an empty saddle--then rode along the cracking fronts4 ,halt---- ,i yelled to the faces of the slipping lines4444 ,halt--and don't you see you're running from your own ,comrades8444 ,they're taking over the ,imperialists yonder4 ,our men have risen in the ranks of the enemy6444 ,all along the lines1 ,i yelled it--and it came forth like an inspired message--lie that it was from my angle4 ,for to me1 death was better than retreat1 with the eyes of the world on our little nucleus of the new order4444 ,my shouts were checking them4 ,our ,comrades are coming to us--hold for them6444 ,don't run away 444 they are coming6 ,they are coming to join us1 when they clean themselves up over yonder--only a little clean-up first1 my children4 ,hear the noise8 ,i don't know how long ,i rode4 ,i only knew that the fighting death was victory--that there is no propaganda like martyrdom4444 ,they answered at first with a kind of half-hearted halt4 ,i was struck with the silence4 ,a queer thing happened4 ,i saw that ,i had spoken the truth4444 ,there was firing ahead1 but it had no meaning of death to our ranks4 ,they were firing in the air1 and some threw down their guns and were running toward us4 ,presently we saw the tent-cloths hoisted in truce4 ,it was like seeing my mother again--shaking the table-cloth to the birds4 ,then ,i saw their lines and ours running together--yes1 ,varsieff's new heaven and new earth--saw them running together bare-headed1 white-haired peasant boys1 hands outstretched1 mouths open4444 ,freedom was an aureola of different sunlight around their heads4 ,on they came like glorious ruffians1 seizing their brothers in their arms--the lines folding together like good mates before the ,lord4 ,then it was like a blast--that ,varsieff must see this6 ,a cold blast in the heart--that he must not miss this glory--that my eyes must not dwell upon this great consummation alone6 ,deep within1 ,i knew my pain was because his head was not lifted to the picture of his conquest4 ,deep within1 ,i knew that for some inexplicable reason of fate1 he was held back like the old ,master on the other side of the ,jordan--not allowed to enter and witness the beauty of the promised land4 ,in the midst of that radiant tumult1 ,i ran back to the place that ,i had left him4 ,it was trampled2 the mud was deeper1 but ,varsieff was not there4444 ,in the midst of the shouting and the glory1 ,i searched for him4444 ,hours passed1 the fighting ceased 444 we were a hundred thousand strong1 armed1 provisioned1 hearts turned homeward4444 ,scores of us were looking for the ,varsieff now4 ,and then ,i heard my name called1 and two young student-officers caught me1 one to each elbow and carried me forward1 running to where the woman stood 444 ,paula ,mantone4 ,she was standing in the midst of her own people--the sun on her face4 ,and ,i saw1 too1 the white look of one who has conquered fear1 but the weariness of her eyes was like the presence of death4444 ,where is he8 she whispered4 ,oh1 ,god1 ,i do not know---- ,poor dear ,lange--all is well with us4444 ,the boys of two armies rushing together--yes1 ,lange1 this is a good day for us---- ,she spoke rapidly1 like lines committed--the same death-like weariness in her tones4444 ,she had taken my hand3 ,come1 we must find him 444 take me to the place where you left him--come quickly---- ,it was some distance4 ,we walked at first in silence4 ,it seemed as if ,i could not live if ,i did not find out what she would have done this morning in my place4 ,presently she said3 ,i thought he would fail when it came to ordering a charge4 ,he was very brave1 they say4 ,i loved the students who told her that1 but ,i had known too much torture to keep the perfect silence4 444 ,it was hard for him4444 ,he isn't a killer--he saw only the white-haired boys---- ,my beloved---- she whispered4 ,i told him that it was the same in ,petrograd as here--that the dream held here--that you would have told him to be strong at the death part---- ,she was not listening4 ,she did not answer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,it was just here4 ,he was wounded a trifle4 ,i left him to stop the troops4 ,they were breaking a bit1 ,i explained4 ,i had passed the place a dozen times4 ,i remembered by the big ,sanguinary--hot when ,i had let go of ,varsieff's arm4 ,the dead had been covered4 ,the big gun was a wreck now--even the caisson with a broken wheel4 ,then ,i realised it had been moved4 ,there was a queer mound under the wreckage4 ,i reached down2 my hand felt warmth in the mud4 ,the woman was with me4444 ,i think we moved that mammoth caisson together4444 ,there was no white on him--a coating of mud but warm4 ,we lifted him and the woman's breast covered him from my eyes4444 ,i heard him say her name4 ,i heard him speak of the tropical island they would go to together4444 ,i stood apart--,i who had stood at his side so long4444 ,there were seconds when ,i heard her low passionate whispers--when ,i watched the arch of her shoulder1 the beauty of her bended brow4444 ,i did not see his face again4 ,she held it fast to her and talked somehow out of the world4 ,then ,i saw her raise her eyes as she had done that night in the tent4 ,for the first time ,i realised that he had only kept alive for her coming4444 ,but still ,i felt he must know the whole story4 ,i did not go closer1 but called in half a whisper3 ,tell him how the boys came together--arms out and laughing like brothers4 ,don't let him go without knowing that--tell him how they threw their guns away and then sat down on the ground together--singing of home and the rivers and the ploughed lands and the women waiting for us---- ,i told him--,i told him6 she answered4 ,you may come to him 444 but he--he only waited to see me4444 ,ah1 ,lange1 you had him so much---- ,i looked away4 ,dusk was falling1 the white peaks like spirits4444 ,i had not seen his face again1 but it suddenly came to me how it had looked when ,i saw it before--that which was the bravest and most beautiful face that ,i knew in manhood--how it had been beaten and bruised under the boots of running peasants--crushed into the mire by the feet of the men he loved so well4 ,for a moment1 ,i was in the red world of rage that this should be1 but then the mighty drama of it came nearer1 the supreme laughing art of it all--that only the saviours call to them4 ,and ,i smiled1 looking away to the dusk falling on the cold mountains--and ,i knew that my friend's spirit was as close to us as the body she held against her breast4444 ,then back in the bivouacs a song began--the men of two armies roaring out a song of the great white democracy of the future4444 99 99 99 99 99 #bg ,r,,sum ,the end of ,varsieff is satisfying to us1 and yet ,i wonder if ,i can make this sort of romance clear4 ,martyrdom--they call it a short cut4 ,there is a saying that the soul of a man who dies for something1 goes marching on4 ,the ,irish become hopeless of their cause1 if some one dies for the opposition4 ,all revolutionists have reckoned with this subtlety--no propaganda like martyrdom2 all the sacred writings refer to it1 our ,bible several times1 once in the sentence1 ,greater love hath no man---- ,a deluge of phenomena from the other side has come in during the present war1 all the old martyrs of nationalism said to be called to the cause of their empires4444 ,what is the romantic haunt that lifts a man to such a pitch of exaltation that he transcends pain1 and goes singing down to die8 ,these are matters much better known among the young dreamers and workers of ,russia and the ,orient than of ,america4444 ,varsieff reveals the child under the man of action2 the lover above the intellectualist4 ,his love story unfolds certain passages which we are making a point of in these chapters4 ,the woman1 ,paula ,mantone1 represents a loved type in our sort of story-making4 ,she brings1 vaguely1 at least1 into terms the romantic ideal so calling to us in these days4 ,she means more than three-score and ten4 ,her love goes on and on4 ,she becomes a priestess1 in a sense1 and conducts her lover through the critical passage of finding his own ,soul4 ,external battles then take his body1 but she is not altogether bereft4 ,an intuitional woman does not always know what she is doing in her heart story1 even when she does greatly4 ,if the physical action had broken different1 if the body of ,varsieff had not been required in martyrdom1 for instance1 he might have emerged from the final stress of action in a state of spiritual exaltation1 from which1 ,i can imagine ,paula ,mantone calling him back to the gardens of the senses4444 ,martyr1 priestess1 revoltee1 but always a woman4 ,every year of devotion to the feminine in fiction1 compels a more fluid1 yet more mystic handling4 ,we have been very close to the young students and poets and players of ,russia4 ,in the ,fall of #aiad we published the following paragraph3 ,there#ai are men in ,russia who have heard the mighty music of humanity4 ,they will sing their dream and grave their message upon the peasant soul4444 ,not the ,russia of ,nicholas ,romanoff4 ,his passing and all the princes of his tainted blood will prove but an incident of the ,great ,war4 ,very low in the west among the red blinking points of the falling constellation1 is ,nicholas and that ,russia4 ,in the east is the ,russian novi before the dawn1 commanding the dark before the sun4 #ai ,fatherland4 ,george ,h4 ,doran ,company1 ,new ,york4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the young men of ,india1 the young men of ,china1 the young men of ,russia1 the young men of ,america--,i see them working together in the wondrous story of life1 as it reels off in the years to come--mating of the ,east and ,west1 the planet seen in one piece1 the communal spirit of the ,hive around the globe4 99 99 99 99 99 444 ,i find myself getting up a rather serious intensity over what ,romance means1 a signal to tame down4444 ,not to stay--to drain nothing1 to leave all cleaner1 more orderly and richer for one's tarrying1 to glance but lightly1 yet with a deep smile of understanding at the torrent of detached and unmatched things which apparently makes the world--to love it all better than those caught in detachment can possibly love one another--to belong to the many by remaining apart from separate movements--at last to be the ,spectator4444 ,one may deal lightly with crowds1 but never with man or woman4444 ,one may say he has all that civilisation has for any human creature2 he may reasonably be bored by all departments of life1 but there is enough for an eternity of reverent study and adoration in the nearest human face4 ,the lovelier the human face1 the more easily we can discern the divine in it4444 ,you get nowhere without loving something4 ,this is the hardest kind of material gospel4444 ,we are all incognito--the greater we are1 the less perfectly disguised4 99 99 99 99 99 ,first and last our dream of ,romance means ,motherhood--mysterious enactments that the mere male can never know1 no longer the motherhood of the mammal1 but the coming of the ,guest1 the ,shining ,one--the giving of body and mind and soul1 no fear1 no stipulation1 no impeding form of thought--more than that1 it means a giving of the child to the world4444 ,the ,valley ,road ,girl expresses it in this sharp1 short picture3 ,once a woman lived in a dense forest1 and had a man-child alone there4 ,as it grew1 the woman impressed upon it the greatness of ,god and the wonder of all things4 ,then one day1 she led him by the forest-paths to the ,highway1 and left him there4 ,it means the ,madonna who looks up1 rather than down1 at the head upon her breast4 ,the creative force is never wasted4 ,man and woman1 in love or lust1 are never alone--rather startling1 but sooner or later to be accepted4 ,the point of the triangle is either turned downward or upward4 ,the creative force feeds either the abominations of the underworld1 or is used in its designed order and loveliness as a point of inception for soul into form4444 ,the mother-nature of the ,new ,race must be quickened by the ideal of the coming of a ,world-teacher1 of development a cycle ahead of this race4 ,women must partake of this dream in their maternities4 ,it is the light of such an advent1 shining upon the upturned face of the mother1 that touches the brow of the child with light4 ,absolutely the concept of the new ,democracy demands the coming of a great ,unifier--a focal point for all world movements and interests and aspirations4 ,the story of a ,master's coming is the ultimate ,romance--the finest story in the world--for that in itself is the story of ,regeneration4 ,the work of this particular volume seems to be ended4 ,much that is prepared need not be used4 ,right here is the breathing-space that always comes in a life or a book4444 ,not to stay4444 ,some of our boys are off to the trenches2 others may go4 ,part of the original group has been unable yet to follow the centre to the ,west4 ,our good ,gobind#bj who belonged to the pith of things1 arose from one breakfast and went off to join the cavalry4 ,there's a group in ,chicago that we see all too little of--a diffusion time truly1 but only to make more certain the time of integration again4 #bj ,ben ,poteat4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there is one who came1 changing all4 ,we thought we knew much about the world4 ,we thought mainly that things were settled for us4 ,it was not words she brought1 but a subtler quickening4 ,i cannot tell it exactly4 ,there was a day in which ,i was bored1 not satisfied1 and another when ,i was a child again--breathless1 questing1 listening for some one to tell me stories of another and better country4 ,all that ,i had done and been and lived was diminished2 more1 all behind was utterly done1 leaving scarcely any criteria for that which was to be4444 ,no inland lake would do after that2 we wanted a continental headland1 the sweep of the earth and sky--sidereal time1 sidereal space4 ,we could only tolerate the quest of the ,impossible after she came4 444 ,she came and wrote her book through the summer days and then she went away4444 ,somehow after that we knew what rains and sunlight meant--what all nature was saying and doing4 ,at least1 we knew better4444 ,not to stay4 ,we could not follow continually1 but at last out of loneliness1 the big new laughing wonder of life came to us 444 and when we told her1 she seemed to have known all the time4444 ,we teach by making pictures4 ,she brought new pigments and freshened all the oils4 ,we loved the tints and half-tones before she came1 but she restored us to the virgin beauty of the primal rays4 ,we liked the blends before she came--the blend of rose and gold1 but she brought us length of vision and redemption of taste to know the meaning of the ,ultimate ,red1 the red of the ,pomegranate1 the red of the ,inspired ,mary1 to whose knees at the last all artists and little children find their way--the passionate red of the ,quest and the ,cross and the ,son4 ,she was not surprised when we told her what her gifts mean to us4 99 99 99 99 99 ,an artist gives himself full-heartedly to the emotions4 ,keen and poignant afterward1 is the battle to straighten them out1 to comb them down4 ,the mind holds the truth about it all1 the spirit sings all around1 but the heart holds fast to its agonising play of passion settings4 ,desire is like an old ,king1 sitting in the midst of his dogs1 a ,king by the fire in his tower4 ,the ,shining ,heir is born1 but the old ,king is slow to die4 ,he sits thinking of his old hunts1 his rides to kill1 old wars and faces at the window4444 ,he rode well2 he thought he loved very well2 a great name1 he was1 in the hunts1 and in all the games of getting4 ,he meditates now upon his one-time conquests1 and forgets his pain4 ,it is his memories that hold him fast to life a little while4 ,but at last the head of old ,king ,desire sinks to his breast1 the fire fades from his last memory4 ,the door of the tower room opens1 the ,shining ,prince is standing there1 and the criers run through the palace crying aloud1 ,the ,king is dead4 ,long live the ,king6 ,desire has ended2 the ,bestower takes the throne4 ,when we told her of this new breath of life which she had brought1 our ,mary seemed to know all about that1 too4 ,she smiled and looked away when we showed her this book 7and the inscription to her71 so many pages of which she had read before--our dreams for the ,new ,race unfolded in letters to her4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the instant one perceives the inner meaning of ,equality1 glimpsing the great ,seamless ,robe of humanity as one2--he realises that what is best for him is best for all others--what is best for the many is his own highest behest4444 ,one must grasp this to know what ,democracy means1 to know what is behind the word1 a meaning which those who use it most haven't dreamed of4 ,you must grasp the spirit of the hive--that winged myriads of golden atoms never stray so far as to break the spirit-cord that binds them into one--that the one knows all1 contains potentially all goodness and beauty and truth1 that all action1 art and thought1 come from the spirit of the one--that the fruits of these go back4 ,i love to tell it again and again4 ,i saw it all afresh to-day4 ,the sun plays tricks with the earth at high noon4 ,one feels superbly well--a kind of seething in the veins4 ,it pulls him away from the great quest for the ,father's ,house1 in gusts of ,mother ,nature's magic4 ,all the fragrance of fallow fields is in the hot light and blowing hay and deathless azure and high noon4 ,glorious swarms of bees were breaking out from the ,spirit of the hive1 all one in ,spirit at the top--the ,spirit brooding at all times over all the workings of the hive4444 ,it was the same with the millions of men who walk the earth1 one at the top--all one1 coming and going in the ,spirit1 replenished and replenishing always1 learning the fusions here in friends and lovers1 each finding his one1 and then the new quest together for the ,great ,companions4 ,then it came to me that we are only sick and blind and lame and evil--in the sense of detachment4 ,we must kill that out4 ,hate spoils everything4 ,hate binds us to the object4 ,we mustn't despise another's coat4 ,it may have been ours yesterday--may be ours to-morrow4 ,we must kill out the sense of separateness from any creature1 for we are destined to become one spirit with him and all others4 ,something like a cloud--all one1 as a cloud is one4 ,every morning on the grass--on millions of blades of grass--a globe of dew at the tip of each4444 ,the ,lord ,sun arises4 ,the dew warms a little and slips down the track of the blade into the root4 ,there it breaks up into infinite fragments4 ,the sun rising higher weaves his warm magic over the fields2 invisibly1 like prayers ascending1 the drops of dew1 all diffused into a thousand fragments each1 thin as steam1 and carrying the perfumes of roses and lilacs and honeysuckles and meadow lands and fallow lands and lake and ocean shores1--like prayers ascending1 the dewdrops of yesterday return as one to the cloud4 ,broken into the farthest diffusion1 but not an atom lost4 ,all the richness of earth in essence returning to the ,spirit4444 ,the same with bee and dewdrop and man--the same with swarm and cloud and tribe--each fragment and division lifting to a greater1 unto the ,shining ,source at last4444 ,the point of it all is that man is spiritually woven to his brother and to the race2 giving himself and his service to his brother and to the race he glorifies the texture and stature of his own soul4 ,christmas1 #aiag4 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's note3 ,the book contains many words spelt to reflect the accent of the speaker4 ,the spelling has not been changed4 ,there are two instances of unmatched ending quotation marks4 ,the missing opening quotation marks were not added because their locations were uncertain4 ,the following changes to printing errors have been made4 ouselves is now ourselves though is now through unlifted is now uplifted