EVERY person who
enters the Theosophical Society is bound to accept its
first principle, the assertion of the Universal Brotherhood
of Man; but it is to be feared that with large numbers
of the Fellows the profession remains an empty phrase,
too like the "dearly beloved brethren" of the Churches,
without bearing on life or effect on conduct. No antithesis
can be discovered which is sharper than that between the
principle of Brotherhood and the Class-and-Mammon-worship
of modern society; no links of true fraternity bind together
the dwellers in palaces and the dwellers in slums; no golden
bands of sympathy unite the wealthy and the poor. Yet Altruism
remains only a name so long as it is severed from personal
service of Humanity, and Theosophy is merely a new form of
glorified selfishness for those who " take it up " from
curiosity, or from the desire to know, merely that the knowledge
may be a personal possession and powers be attained for the
sake of wielding them. At the great gate of the Temple of
Knowledge stands the Guardian, and if to his question: " Why
dost thou desire to know and to achieve ?” there comes
any answer but : "That I may the better serve Humanity",
the candidate for admission should be sent back to his spelling
book, until he has learned the alphabet of Altruism.
Let us suppose that all the latent powers of the Human Intellect
and Will could suddenly be developed in the men and the women
around us as by the touch of a magician's wand, and that
they could step forth into the world clothed with supersensual
knowledge and power; what would [Page 22] it
avail, save to make this world a worse hell of contending
passions than it is today, in which would rage Titanic contests
of selfishness and greed, rendered the more horrible by the
mightier powers of those engaged in the fratricidal struggle?
Not until the brute in us is starved out of life; not until
the lower self is slain and only the voice of the Higher
Self is heard; not until personal desire has been lost in
the desire for humanity; not until all ambition is dead,
save the ambition to serve; not until this point is reached
can power be safely trusted in human hands. Those who lightly
enter the Theosophical Society, imagining that thereby they
will at once spring into the exercise of the higher
human capabilities, have to learn that the capacity to lead
the Higher Life must precede the capacity to wield the higher
powers. Hence the long probation insisted on for every candidate;
the deep study which ensures that knowledge shall precede
Power; the tests which bar the way towards the higher planes
of being. And since character grows out of habits, and habits
out of acts often repeated, there is no better school for
forming habits of unselfishness, no surer way of moulding
the selfless character, than by doing personal acts of service
to our brothers and sisters struggling in the sad environment
made for them by our modern civilization.
First must come the real honest feeling of equality, not
the verbal profession, but the inner conviction. Unless this
exists, all work among the poor tends to become demoralising
both to helper and to helped, breeding self-complacency in
the one and subserviency in the other. Every act must spring
spontaneously from the brotherly relationship; so that aid,
comfort, counsel, whenever given, shall be the free and loving
gift of brother to brother, so that respect of the highest
in the lowest shall breed self-respect, and charity, in re-becoming
Love, shall purify and raise and not degrade. But, I repeat,
the feeling of equality must be real, all social castes merging
into the human brotherhood, so that there is no consciousness
of difference whether speaking to prince or pauper, the man
and the woman becoming everything and the rank nothing.
Then
comes the cleansing of one's own life in its relations to
those by
whose labour we are fed and clothed and housed. Every article
that we use embodies so much human labour, and if we use
it, we are bound to render back for it due equivalent of
our own labour. If this be not done, we are robbing instead
of exchanging, soiling our lives by theft. And here I speak
to Theosophists belonging to the “middle" and “upper" classes,
for the poor, already crushed by labour, are forced to buy
what they need for subsistence at the lowest rate at which
they can obtain it.
This is not so among the richer, and they are bound to see
that they do not vicariously sweat the workers by their purchases
of “cheap goods". [Page 23] In this matter
women are the worst sinners, buying gowns and other articles
of clothing at prices which they know cannot cover the cost
of material and a fair wage to the needlewoman. If they would
personally employ the needlewoman instead of buying her work
from the shop, they would not dare to pay her the starvation
wage which they pay her through the hands of the middlemen;
and they would not then be wearing garments soiled perhaps
by the harlotry which has been fled to for a piece of bread.
If they cannot manage this personal employment, they can
easily ascertain who are fair and who are unfair employers
by writing for information to Miss Clementina Black, 198,
High Holborn, London, W .C., who has exerted herself to form
a Consumers' League of persons ashamed to live by sweating
their neighbours. It is hardly necessary to add that the
personal life of the Theosophist should be frugal, simple,
and free from luxury, both for the sake of his own inner
development, and in order that he may live honestly, not
taking more than he gives.
The personal life thus purified,
there remains the active service due to our fellows. Each
must here judge his own capacities and opportunities, but
there are two or three lines of work in which painstaking
and cultured men and women are much wanted at the present
time.
For instance, some might serve as managers of our Board Schools,
attending to the remission of fees, supervising the tone
and method of instruction, noting if the children are properly
fed, organizing free meals for those in need, and giving
to the teachers the sympathy and friendliness which they
so sorely lack in their arduous and responsible labour. There
are openings for useful and far-reaching service in this
line of work second, perhaps, to none, bearing as it does
on the training of the citizens of the future as well as
on lightening the burdens that press so heavily today.
Women,
with leisure on their hands, can find away of using that
leisure in the service of others by writing to Allen D. Graham,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand. Mr. Graham, some time ago,
finding that invalided children were constantly being sent
from the hospitals to poor, overcrowded, and often dirty
homes, suggested that kind-hearted folk might each take charge
of two or three of such children, visiting them, playing
with them, taking them out, and, in fact, generally "mothering” them.
These little ones, ailing and feeble, suffer terribly in
this rough hurrying world, and much pain might be saved,
much pleasure given, by a little sacrifice of time and trouble.
Another form of service, open to the wealthier, is buying
shares in companies whose servants are notoriously overworked,
and then attending the shareholders' meetings and insisting
on shorter hours, higher [Page 24] wages, and better
treatment all round. The dividends from the shares can be
paid into the Union fund of the employees where a Trade Union
exists; where there is no Trade Union, no more useful work
can be done than urging the men or women to unite and aiding
them in the first uphill steps of organization.
These suggestions
ma y serve as examples of the kind of service which is crying
aloud to be done, of practical profession of the Brotherhood
of Man. I am not putting them forward as remedies for the
evils inseparable from the present order of Society. As a
Socialist, I know but too well that all such work as this
can only act as palliative, not as cure; none the less will
it lighten some of the darkness around us, and, in the absence
of the sun, farthing dips are better than unbroken Cimmerian
gloom.
It is obvious that, in addition to such duteous Service
of Man as I have been glancing at, there are other duties
incumbent on every member of the T. S..
Those who can use their pens should answer objections or
expose slanders made in the columns of our ordinary press;
most editors will put in a tersely-written clear reply to
attacks made in their papers. And all should study Theosophical
teachings, both for their own culture and for the assistance
of others. It is not enough to set our own feet on the Path;
as soon as we are able we should guide thitherward the feet
of others; and in order that we may be competent for the
task, we must study, study, study. The subtle metaphysics
of Theosophy will attract but the few; few, again, are likely
to feel the call to climb the rugged path to those heights
on which the Masters sit serene. Neither its philosophy nor
its possibilities of growth will avail much to recommend
it to the superficial thinkers or to the luxurious livers
of our day. But the sight of noble lives, strenuously and
selflessly working for human good, battling against poverty
and sorrow, the twin-daughters of Ignorance, these will justify
Theosophy in the eyes of the world, proving that self-devotion
can exist apart from superstition, that clear-eyed Intellect
can walk hand-in-hand with the Love that saves.
ΔΔ
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