"Get Thee Behind me Satan"
A SOUTHRON
"Superior to Niggers"
I was traveling with a friend from the South who is one of the best fellows that I know. He is kind, considerate, chivalrous, and all that characterizes a Southern gentleman; but he has a false idea of dignity in some respects, and precipitates controversy sometimes without cause, and when he himself is to blame in the matter. We were discussing the theory of Emancipation, and he agreed with me on almost all of the points at issue, in fact to such an extent that I felt that he absorbed the idea fully, when he said: "Yes, it is true, and I believe in it, and I think I have practiced it somewhat; but I can't stand impertinence from niggers; they rub up against me all the time, and annoy me terribly, especially these Pullman porters." "Yes," said I in reply, "you have attained pretty good self-control and have reason to be proud of it; you are pretty nearly a perfect man; the only thing you are not superior to is a nigger." The rebuke impressed him as a truism that had never occurred to him in that light before.
The truth of the matter is, and I have had both experiences to prove it to my own satisfaction, antagonism invites antagonism. A fostered dislike or an anticipated friction sends out a shaft in advance which rebounds and rebounds with quickening vibrations. If one is looking for impertinence from any source he will be pretty sure to find it; but if he carries a mind and heart free from prejudice, which is the condition of Emancipation, the shaft will not be unloosed, and the disturbing vibrations will not occur. I do not believe that Pullman porters were ever discourteous to Phillips Brooks, or Edward Everett Hale, or Professor Swing or men of their caliber of mind; or if they were, I do not believe that the impertinence made any impression on them except to excite pity.
FEAR DISPELLED
Fear Dispelled
The most remarkable evidence in support of my theory that fear is dispelled with worry, and which corroborates my own experience, comes from an old friend who once had a shock from a stroke of lightning, and who, on account of it, has for years suffered wretchedly from a depression akin to involuntary fear whenever the weather has indicated an approaching storm. He has accepted the possibility of Emancipation and enjoyed deliverance from the passions, but strangely enough has also now immunity from any uncomfortable feeling during electric storms.
TIMIDITY DISAPPEARS
Another convert states that he has lost all timidity, in the presence of an audience, which formerly he could not overcome.
THOMSON J. HUDSON
Psychic Evidence
Mr. Thomson J. Hudson, in his Law of Psychic Phenomena, has marshalled a great array of authentic evidence, gathered from the researches of many Psychological Societies, which all prove the power of the mind over itself and over the body, and its amenability to suggestion, under the receptive condition of faith. One can not read this able work without becoming convinced that Emancipation is entirely possible. Any one who wishes to learn something of the power stored within him, will do well to read the Law of Psychic Phenomena.
The success of the Keeley Cure in conquering the habits of drinking, opium, and tobacco, is proof of the efficacy of germ treatment where the germs are sensual, or mental. If bichloride of gold can cure such dread passions of the appetite, may not bichloride of common sense cure the bad habits of the mind that cause them?
A MASTER WORKMAN
Source of All Wealth
And now, comes a scrap of evidence that is valuable because it is furnished by a man whose experience is wide among the people who make the wealth which we all enjoy; to whom we are directly indebted for the comforts and luxuries of life; and whose endorsement of an idea or reform is necessary to make it become a feature of our system or government. He went west many years ago from New York, a mechanic by trade, and found employment in the shops of one of the great railroads. In time he was advanced to the position of foreman. In private life he is now a Baron Bountiful in the service of everybody within his reach. As Masterworkman of Labor Organizations, he has urged the just cause of his confreres with the success that follows earnest conviction. In the intimate confidence of his employers, he has presented their side of a controversy to the men without any of the misrepresentation of a demagogue.
Brings Sunniest Comfort
He is the President of a sound Building and Loan Association, without salary, not to make money for himself, but for the purpose of helping his men to build and own homes; and those who have felt his assistance in that direction, and owe him debts of gratitude for various benefactions, are numbered by the hundreds. Whenever there is sickness, he brings solid help and the sunniest of comfort; and when there is death, he knows just how best to serve the afflicted family with those delicate attentions which relieve them from repulsively material details, his presence always bringing comfort even under circumstances in which people want most to be alone. His sympathy is universal, and reflects itself into the hearts of all with whom he comes in contact.
Emancipation Appreciated
To such a man, one would naturally think the depressing passions were strangers, and that he must have been born without them; but he assures me that he was a slave to them for many years, and that he was frightened out of harboring them by a physician, and that whatever good he has accomplished in his humble sphere (as he calls it) he attributes to the partial Emancipation which his doctor's warning led him to enforce upon himself. The story that follows was elicited on hearing an outline of the theory of possible Emancipation as presented in these pages.
"Stop right there: don't go any farther till I have talked with you about that part of it. It is as true as gospel, but I never knew what it was. I have had an experience which makes me know that it is true, but I didn't know the reason for it. When the doctors told me that I must quit worrying and take it easy, or medicine would do me no good, and I would die, why didn't they tell me that anger and worry were not necessary, and that it was they that I was suffering from? I would have understood it better, and I wouldn't have had so much trouble about fearing I would have them back some time in spite of myself. Why didn't the preachers tell me this when I was a boy, and let me begin to live then, instead of waiting till I got to be an old man or pretty near to it? You can bet that my boys will know this thing right away, and live it too, and I want my men to know it.
"The Old Gentleman Needs it"
It is the only thing they need to complete their happiness. The old gentleman needs it, and Mr. – , and Mr – (mentioning a number of well known men who are their own worst enemies, who harm no one but themselves, but whose abuse of self, through worry, is as merciless as the tortures of the Inquisition); and what a blessing it would be for the women! See here, I want a hundred of those books as soon as they are published, and I know where they will do a heap of good. They will be better than the medicine of all the doctors, and do a lot of good besides. I'm going to commit what you have told me to memory, so as to tell people about it if I haven't got a book by me. You see that I know all about this, for I have had an experience. When I was a youngster, I was naturally ambitious, and pretty smart with the tools, and 'took' with my employers, and finally got to be superintendent. Then I got to be more ambitious, especially after I was married and the children came. I wanted them to have a good education and be fitted to be gentlemen, which I knew their mother's, and I might remark incidentally, my own blood entitled them to be. I was pretty sensitive, and was always standing up for my rights. I was too apt to worry. I had not heard what you have told me and thought worry necessary. If I had not worried I would not have got angry.
"Got to be Superintendent"
"When I got to be superintendent I thought that one of the things that I had to do was to be sure and maintain my dignity, and show it by occasionally making believe mad at something. At first I did not feel it half as much as I showed it; but I thought it was part of the business of a boss to get mad, until finally it got to be a habit, and grew on me till I was in a state of anger most of the time.
It Became a Habit
I also thought that I had to worry about things, or I would not show the proper respect for my responsibilities. It was the way I had of letting myself feel that I was carrying a terrible burden and earning my salary. The trouble was that, while it was partly play-acting at first, it came to be habit, and worked on my health in the end. The doctors dosed me with all sorts of medicine. I was a regular pigeon, and gave up many a hard-earned dollar to them for no good at all. One day Dr. L – , to whom I went as a last resort, for I was beginning to have dizzy spells and twitching in the face that was serious, asked me a lot of questions about myself and my habits and duties. I told him frankly,
"Frightened out of my Wits"Anger and Worry Caused Sickness
and when I had done so he said: 'There is no use giving you any medicine, you have got to quit worrying and take it easy; that is the only trouble with you. If you keep on with your worry I will have to give your family a certificate of death; so, if you don't want me to do that, you just quit your worrying and take life easy. Whatever you do, don't get into fits of anger, for that is more wearing to a man in your condition than anything else.' Well, to 'fess up and tell you the truth, I got frightened out of my wits. I hadn't got near enough to eighty (my limit) to think about dying, and I didn't want to do it right then, especially as I hadn't got Mary and the boys well enough fixed to leave. The other doctors had made a monkey of me, and took my money, and told me that I would be all right in a few days; but this honest German told me the truth and set me to thinking. I didn't say a word to anyone, but made up my mind I would take his advice. At first I thought that I was shirking some of the duties of a superintendent, when I quit getting mad and worrying; but I squared it with myself by saying to myself, 'Better be a tame donkey for the company than a dead one.' Well, I didn't know it at the time; that is, I didn't know the cause of it, but from that time I have just had luck under my wing all the time. I have pleased my employers, and I have pleased the men, and things have been coming my way in great shape, and they are still a-coming. Why, I see it all as plain as the nose on your face.
Emancipation Makes Good Neighbors
Those little devils that keep a man back, and keep him from being happy, have no business there by rights; and all you have got to know is that they are poachers, and all you have got to do is to tell them to 'git.' And just see how it would work if everybody knew this as I see it. If you knew that your neighbor knew that Emancipation was possible, you would know at the same time that he was no fool, and that, knowing it, he had become Emancipated, of course, and there would be a trustful sympathy established at once, and you would pull together and never apart after that. If his fence accidentally encroached an inch on your land, you would be glad of it; or, if your fence had been set on his side of the legal line, he would not object; and so it would go on between you, and you would be happy and good neighbors to each other. Why, I would rather my men would have that secret and day's wages, than a million of dollars without it; and my boys, if I don't leave them a cent, I will leave them full of this secret, and won't worry about their future happiness. I was much interested in that book you gave me several years ago called 'Looking Backward.' What the author said about co-operation, and all that, was all right and very beautiful; but I didn't take much stock in it because I had such a poor opinion of human nature, that I didn't think people could quit grabbing and get down to brass tacks in a co-operative way. But if you can spread the idea of Mental Emancipation as you have told it to me (and I don't see what can help its spreading like wildfire as soon as it gets out), the social paradise pictured in 'Looking Backward' will come as a matter of course; and I see it a-coming. If you take off a brake I can see how a car can run down a hill, but with the brake on I couldn't see how you could push it down.
"Looking Backward" from EmancipationFree-Masonry of Emancipation
"The more I think of this thing the bigger it gets, and it is a sure winner. Now suppose my family, and the B. family on the corner, and the N. family next door had found out the secret, anybody that couldn't grasp it couldn't live in the street, he would feel so uncomfortable. In fact, if there were such an one, we could put him down for a crazy man or an idiot, and treat him with the same consideration we treat such weak people.
"Or suppose the men over in the shops were the joint possessors of the secret; why, the first thing you would know they would all be at work on some co-operative plan for themselves. Not that any of us have anything against the employers we work for, for there are no better in the land; but it is the blamed stupidity of the system that makes men work hard for small wages to feed the flames of ruinous rivalry.
Lawyer's Brains Prostituted
Look at the brains locked up in the pates of lawyers which have nothing better to do than to mix things up so that they will get the job of unmixing them. Think what would happen if all that education and all that ingenuity were turned towards invention! Most of the tangles they are employed to unravel should never have existed, and would not have existed in a community where the secret of Emancipation had been told. In all of the clumsiness of competition, and the expense of pullback methods, labor, the source of all we have, pays the whole freight in one way or another; and the reason it does so is because of the little parasite devils that are sawing wood and hatching eggs in the minds of each individual worker and producer. With these little devils at work in him he is suspicious, selfish, jealous, and what not else, because he thinks his neighbor and fellow workman are similarly possessed, and he must be so too to get along. Under this condition cohesion is impossible, and schemers prey upon the separateness of the producing community to rob it of as much of the product of its labor as possible.
Emancipation Prevents Robbery
Suppose that the secret of possible Emancipation should become general (and for the life of me I cannot see how it can fail to do so), there would be confidence, trustfulness, cohesion, ambition to be useful, and the energy of the healthy child for play-work would return to the rejuvenated man, and he would play work under those conditions and not feel that it was a mark of servitude and necessity, and the land would sing with the sound of willing industry."
Emancipation Breeds Eloquence
My friend had become eloquent under the inspiration of the possible establishment of a Heaven on earth to which he could invite his friends. Do not think that this is not a true report of a conversation in real life. My friend is a real character; is well read and educated by observation and experience, and could succeed in almost any position in life except in such as did not give "value received" for the service rendered. He is one of those "Noblemen by Nature" to whom the world owes so much, but pays so little; but he is happy in doing good, and the field he works in is one of the richest for that harvest, and the compensation he prizes most highly, is the happiness he is able to give others. He had the secret of True Living forced on him, in spite of the example of the world, without knowing the true cause or value of his good fortune; but his happiness was increased many fold when he learned that it was his birthright; was a possession of which no one could rob him; and would remain his as long as he lived. And as he has faith in the Eternal Evolution of everything, he feels that, freed from the depressing passions, there will be no end to his growth; that, at the so-called middle age of human tenure, he is but in the beginning of life; or, if not that, that each day is a wealth of joy unto itself in spite of any external conditions; for he has found that "the kingdom of Heaven is at hand" and that a branch of it has been established in his own heart.
Heaven is at Hand
All men are not constituted alike. In the economy of Nature it is her purpose that no two things are made alike. In a million years a million men could not count the spears of grass in the fields, or the hairs of the heads of men; yet no patient investigator has been able to find any two of them that did not differ from every other one when put under the lens of the microscope. One thousand millions of humans inhabit this earth. Each has essentially the same form, the same two eyes, the same mouth, the same ears and hands and arms; and yet even in the case of twins, where the nearest approach to similarity comes, the mother never can mistake the one for the other. If you are unlike others, it is because nature chose to cast you in a different mould to serve some wise purpose; and with that form, comes the God-given essence of the Divine, whose presence and growth are evidenced by an innate yearning for spirituality. Much spirituality lifts a man above his less spiritual fellows and makes of him a cornerstone, or a keystone, or some other important segment of the social structure; and lack of it condemns him to be a bit of rubble, or an atom of filling.