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VII

THE SOUL IN MAN¹

It is necessary to classify the parts of the soul in order to conceive the relation which they sustain to each other and their correspondence with end, cause and effect. The end or ultimate design is always the cause, which cause institutes an effect, and both these are engaged in accomplishing the end. The soul is composed of three distinct parts, being love, will and wisdom.² Love is the first or rudimental element of the soul. It is that liquid, mingling, delicate, inexpressible element felt in the depth of every human spirit, because it is the germinal essence. Will is a living force which serves as the connecting medium between love and wisdom, and is subject to the influence and suggestions of each. It is an innate consciousness of energy. Wisdom is the perfection of love, the sealing element of the human soul and the establishment of the soul's perfect consti-

¹ See The Principles of Nature, pp. 622 et seq. We shall see in the next section that what is here called the soul in man was subsequently termed spirit by Davis, the soul part being identified with the psychical body.
² It is obvious that these are faculties or qualities rather than parts or elements. Davis mentions elsewhere that the faculties thought to compose the various portions of the soul—but, more correctly, the moral make up—have been minutely classified under general divisions of propensities, sentiments and intellectual faculties. The first of these are represented as relating to self and to things in the outer world; the second as giving rise to moral conceptions and the sense of justice; and the third as comprising the powers of reason, analysis and investigation.—Principles of Nature, p. 629.

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tution. Wisdom flows from love, is directed by experience, modified by will and rendered perfect by knowledge. Wisdom is the thinking principle, the faculty which explores the fields of terrestrial and celestial existence. It analyses, calculates and commands obedience from all subordinate possessions of will and love.

Love being the first element or essence of the soul is imperfect and unguided.¹ On the one hand, it is parent of impulse, fantasy, eccentricity and inflated conceptions; on the other, of tenderness, kindness, affection, attachment, all pure and unsophisticated sentiments springing from inward deeps and expressed in language, in music, in painting. It conceives all loveliness, gentleness, sweetness in their various modes of manifestation. It is exhibited especially in conjugal attachments, out of which there arises that love for mankind generally which begets families and associations. It has yearnings for the invisible and sublime, finding outward expression in ideal conceptions clothed in words, infusing chastity, refinement and amiability into all other affections. Love has also an attraction for self, sometimes expressed by unrighteous plans for self-emolument, by deception and destruction of life, by all those unsanctified and corrupt inventions which—through misdirection of such love—prevail throughout the human brotherhood. But love involves also unbounded benevolence, finding expression in mighty movements for the amelioration of mankind and the ultimate establishment of distributive justice and universal righteousness. It has furthermore an affection for what is just, expressed by conscientious relations between man and man, and by reciprocity.

¹ Compare innumerable counter-statements throughout the collected writings, and e.g.—Love is the germ-principle and essence of life. . . . Wherever you behold life, there is love. . . . Life issues from a Deific fountain—meaning, in all its simplicity, that God is love.—See The Great Harmonia, Vol. IV, pp. 31-33. It follows from this hypothesis that the essence of the soul is a Divine essence.

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This is the love of the moral, righteous and holy. It conceives all Divine Perfection, aspires toward the Divine Mind and those exalted sentiments which are the highest attributes of man. Love also gives birth to hope, clothed in contemplation and expectancy of things desired by the other affections of its nature.

From the faculty of love—as basis of the soul—flows that of will, which becomes the mediatorial instrument of the human mind, employed to encompass those ends that love desires. Herein are made plain the three moving principles engaged in the attainment of ends. Love conceives that which is congenial to its affections; it prompts the will to act, in order to accomplish the end; and the will is therefore love's means. Will is a living force which evolves thoughts suggested by the workings of love and expresses them in manifest forms, in movements of the body and in all external actions.¹ As it does not institute any movement of itself but works only as excited and prompted, love is the primary course of external action and will is the effect produced.

The third faculty of the soul is evolved from will and love. It is highest and most perfect, joining and pervading the others, so that the three form a perfect whole. This faculty is wisdom. The office of wisdom is to hear the suggestions of love and will, and to modify them according to reason, form, order and harmony. Love without will would be eccentric, impulsive, disorderly, and when so modified it is held within a definite sphere. But love and will would both be eccentric and ungoverned among material things were it not for the

¹ It is testified otherwhere that pure will exercised for a pure purpose can overcome all forms of diabolism, diseases, vices and every manner of bad thought. On the other hand, an evil will is the highest expression of that which is called the devil—it being understood that the last term is, for Davis, merely a figure of speech. Those who would know the plenary bliss of angels should allow their will to do that only which is prompted by their highest affections and approved by their highest reason.—Views of our Heavenly Home, p. 28.

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presence of wisdom, which presides over and directs both.¹ Wisdom is contained in love, as germ of the soul, is developed in its body, which is will, and perfected in its own flower. It is the crowning faculty of the soul, the most perfect of all its attributes. It gives order and form to all things in the outer world, and the further its sphere of action is extended, the more will the world display beauty and harmony. The more it is restricted in its actions and the less its dictates are heeded, the more will Nature and man's artificial creations become disorganised and useless, instead of displaying peace, beauty and reciprocity.

The Great Divine Mind is love in its essence—light and life of the universe. The universe is the body of love and its perfect form. But wisdom is the highest attribute and the great ultimate of eternal design. Here then are the three parts of the universal system: The Divine Mind or Love, and this is the Soul; the universe, which is form, means, mediator and body; the Spirit, which is the order, wisdom and grand design of the entire system.² The end primarily designed was individualisation of the human spirit, for the attainment of which cause and effect were brought into requisition. This truth is demonstrated in every department of the terrestrial sphere, but is particularly exemplified in the

¹ Wisdom is an effect of the full and harmonious development of all the affinities, affections and attractions which constitute the soul and adorn its fair proportions. Knowledge is acquired and superficial, but wisdom is unfolded and intuitional.—The Great Harmonia, Vol. I, p. 216.
² It is difficult to understand how this classification presented itself to the author's mind or how it can be put into logical sequence by the reader. It is ridiculous to distinguish the plan contained within the Divine Mind as a spirit calling for consideration separately from the Mind itself. It is obvious that there are and can be only (a) the intelligence which designs, and (b) the design produced, which in the case at issue is the universe. This is not a means or a mediator, for it is the sum total of manifestation, and there is no third thing to which it can mediate.

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nature and developments of the human soul, which are in exact correspondence with the great system of the universe. Everything is perpetually displaying—in its inward and outward movements—end, cause and effect. Light and life are love; order and form are wisdom. Hence it is highly necessary that mind should comprehend the great truth that nothing exists in the outer world except as produced and developed by an interior essence, of which the exterior is the perfect representative. Among the various arts and sciences may be found demonstrations of this truth and its importance. Every form invented by man represents that inward thought which is cause of its creation. So also every form corresponds to the inward suggestion of love, is created by the living effort of will, modified and perfected by the direction of wisdom.¹

¹ Wisdom, intuition and reason are said, in another work, to be words of the same import, and the statement is an instance of a tendency on the part of Davis to make synonyms by force.—The Great Harmonia, Vol. IV, p. 37. Note also that wisdom is called the spiritual sanctuary, the mountain of the Lord, the true saviour of man.—Ibid. It is above clairvoyance, because it is self-illuminated.—Ibid., p. 46.