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XXI

THE SPIRIT AND ITS CIRCUMSTANCES¹

Man alone is capable of knowing the difference between himself and his circumstances. When his spirit realises itself as a centre around which all circumstances revolve like satellites there is born within him the first assurance of his implanted prerogatives and kingship. This sense of supremacy may come in one of those memorable moments when a man is driven to his highest mental point. There descends a flash of celestial lightning from the spirits' heaven and then is born in an instant a strong divinity within the soul; but it is rarely that an appeal so sublime comes to human nature. Something of it is known, however, in nearly all private lives—it may be in a moment of decision which compels the climacteric determination of all our powers. The strength is declared from the inward fountain, and we realise that there is an infinite difference between ourselves and all that is moving about us—that we are spiritually masters and that every circumstance which proposes to govern us is designed to be subservient.

The world is filled with substances with which spirit is constantly in contact, because spirit is itself substance and is connected through the finer substances with those which are coarser in the visible world.² Man's spirit is

¹ See Morning Lectures, pp. 145 et seq.
² The human spirit is regarded elsewhere as identical (a) with consciousness and (b) with vitality. As we have seen in the case of the Divine Mind or Spirit, it is an organised substance because it moves organised substance.—See The Principles of Nature, Vol. I, p. 55. The

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like a sun, revolving on its own axis and throwing off by its centrifugal power (1) its most delicate substance, that is, the body of the spirit; (2) a coarser substance, that is, the physical organisation; and (3) those still coarser, which are the circumstances round about it in the world.¹ Everyone is either a king in his central kingdom or else a subject. It depends entirely on our constitution, education and state of mind whether we be master or servant. Our position and progress will be determined by our power, not by our force. Force is animal, and its manifestation is followed by exhaustion, but power belongs to the deep ocean of omnipotent life and therefore never subsides. Linked with the Eternal Spirit, it flows through all physical and mechanical laws, through all the organic phenomena of the visible world. The spirit's battles are to be fought through power, not through force, though this is necessary to motion, life and sensation. That power which is at the centre of life, which is destined to gain the mastery, which takes hold upon infinitude, which is twin-born with justice, truth, virtue—all that is pure and noble—is the coming lord of all circumstance. The time arrives when it is born and revealed from within. Life in its early stages has the impulsive ambitions of force, but there is a power within and above, shaping our destiny. Whoso feels this power experiences also a principle, and whoso feels a principle experiences good and truth—that is to say, God. But whoso feels God in the form of

logical position of such a dogma is of course odd, but there was probably implied in the mind of Davis the idea that there must be a bond of relation between things which communicate with each other—e.g. the mover and the moved. The relation between the organic and inorganic, between elements and compounds is sufficient evidence that such bond is not organism.
¹ These remarks may be serviceably compared with previous speculations on the physical body as the manufactory of the spiritual body and on the latter as the vessel of individuality.

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The Harmonial Philosophy

Truth and Justice living within his soul is never conquered.¹

The shortest method to conquer circumstances is to ally ourselves with principles. Circumstances are like concentric circles encompassing the spirit at their centre: (1) physiological circumstances, derived from our parents and conditioned in each of us by methods and habits of life, by all that we do, as indeed by all that we neglect; (2) phrenological circumstances, being those organs which exert upon personal disposition and character a distinct and positive influence; (3) social circumstances, being those of immediate surroundings, which control our actions more than all other influences, but are transitory in their nature, while at the same time acting directly upon character; (4) physical or geographical circumstances, the conditions of the outside world in which we are born and reared: these are most external of all. To conquer that which is disadvantageous in this fourfold sequence we must secure our spirit by an indomitable adherence to some divine principle. In proportion as we are loyal thereto we shall receive inspiration, and thus power is added to that life which is integral and eternal.

¹ It will be seen that indubitably the implicit of these things is freedom, so that we are enabled again, and even more convincingly, to restrict the sense in which Davis has proposed on other occasions, especially in The Principles of Nature, to restrict human freedom. The truth is that he did not measure correctly the full value of his language and said therefore more than he meant. That which he intended was to establish a circle of necessity surrounding man which no one can overstep and which nothing intervenes to suspend. It is this also which he is saying virtually in the text above, and it will be seen that he even mentions liberty as a divine principle, like brotherhood, though the terminology is loose enough as usual, and should not be interpreted as postulating a principle of brotherhood in God. It is obvious that if man can become master of his circumstances at the price of war with these, and can enjoy the fruits of victory, he is free within the measures of his nature, though he is still within the circle of law. The notion of freedom abides in that of law, in the concurrence of the individual with the mode of universal being.

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The divine in ultimates always gains a victory over the earthly and unworthy. Whenever consciousness of a principle is born in the human spirit, from that moment it ceases to be a thing and becomes a power.

Take any divine principle—such as liberty or brotherhood. Learn the beautiful lesson of strict loyalty to your deepest convictions respecting them, become harmonious with them and you will become to the same extent a power. Instead of feeling weary in battling with hostile circumstances you will receive accessions of celestial strength from invisible sources. If you are absolutely loyal to a principle, God and Nature—or immutable Justice and Truth—breathe into your nostrils "the breath of life." Have a truth, and stand by it. Be faithful to your best experiences and highest convictions. Then you can surely and noiselessly overcome evil with good, and thus reach the inmost heart of the Eternal Mind.